Category: Technology

When is a photograph?

How often have we looked at a photograph, and thought “That is a work of art”?

How often have we looked at photos of prominent people, and thought “It is amazing what can be done with make-up (or airbrushing)”?

How often have we stood looking at an artwork, and thought “That could be a photograph”? In this context, a recent article, shared on Facebook, posed a similar question with “27 Stunning Works Of Art You Won’t Believe Aren’t Photographs”

Recently, a good friend prompted me to trial Adobe® Photoshop®. He likened it to what might have been done in a darkroom in earlier times. He had noticed, as I had, that some of my photos would benefit from ‘tweaking’. In some cases, it appeared that my camera had not been held horizontal (the wine effect, perhaps?). In other cases, the camera lens had played tricks with perspective.

I was always encouraged to think before shooting – very important in the days of film. The subject needs to be framed; you shouldn’t make subjects squint because they are facing the sun; allow for lighting and shadows; hold still when shooting; and so on. However, in the heat of the moment to grab that image, we sometimes forget even the basics.

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Here is a classic example. We were walking around Arezzo, in Tuscany and heading up the hill towards the Duomo. I thought I spotted an interesting view of the cathedral, with a number of motorini in the foreground. Perhaps in haste, the resulting photo was not as I would have hoped (above). Correcting the tilt and perspective gives a much better image (below).

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This enhancement was arrived at with three Photoshop® ‘tools’ (rotate, correct camera distortion and crop) – the first three I have learnt! No doubt, I could have adjusted many more aspects – brightness and contrast perhaps. Never likely to win a prize, this photo  simply serves to illustrate my point.

A couple of years ago, I met a distinguished Professor of Photography from an American University. Naturally, I am always impressed by his photos. He does post straight from the camera. But even he admits to using electronic trickery for some photos. Should we admire work that has been enhanced with electronic assistance? Or should we reserve our praise for work direct from the camera? Can we tell? Does it matter?

So, the question remains. When is a photograph [not a photograph]?

 

This post is dedicated to a number of people whose photographic work I enjoy for a variety of reasons. Debra at Bagni di Lucca, Janine at Destination Umbria, Krista at Rambling Tart, LindyLouMac at News from Italy, and of course, Bruce E and Ken M.   I draw no inference as to whether their work is direct from the camera or enhanced!


Adobe® & Photoshop®are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Software Ireland Ltd.

A Lifetime of Technical Evolution: Part 4 -The Camera

The following is not intended to be an exhaustive or authoritative treatise on the development of the camera. Rather it is my personal trek through cameras I have owned.

Growing up in the 1950s, I recall some friends had a Kodak Box Brownie, perhaps the most popular camera for a generation. However, when I was considered sufficiently responsible, I was handed down a quaint ‘folding’ camera with bellows. I have a vague recollection that the bellows were renewed for me, because light could get in. Unlike the Box Brownie, which used a cartridge 120 film, 60mm wide, my camera used 127 film, 46mm wide.  It took many photos, black and white, of course. The number of photos was restricted by the number of exposures on a film. That camera might have been worth a fair amount today, as a ‘vintage’ camera, but regrettably, it was sold years ago.

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The pictures above, scanned together, show the relative size of prints taken from 127 film (the house where I grew up) and ‘postcard size’ from 35 mm film (a derailed train near Gordon Station c.1961)

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Around the time I left school, I was very excited to acquire my first 35mm camera, a Yashica YL (above, photo courtesy of flickriver.com).  It had a compensating viewfinder, so that mostly the picture finished up framed as I intended!  With this camera I had my first experience of colour, usually in the form of colour slide film, but most often it was used with black and white film.

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Ten years or more later, I bought a Canon Canonet QL (above, photo courtesy of mattsclassiccameras.com), which was the first camera I owned with an auto-exposure facility. With this camera, I happily travelled overseas for the first time, and took many 36 exposure colour slide films. Both the Yashica and this Canon had manual advance and rewind mechanisms.

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So far, there is evidence that I was not always a slave to fashion. However, this is the point in my tale where rapid evolution began.  It wasn’t until about 1997 that I owned a single lens reflex (SLR) camera, a Canon EOS 500N (above). I clearly remember purchasing it, duty free, as I was about to set off on an overseas holiday. For the first time, I could appreciate the benefits of an SLR camera, and it wasn’t long before I had a 75-300mm telephoto lens to use with it.

In 2000, passing through Hong Kong, I bought a digital camera, a simple Kodak model (1 megapixel) that the salesman persuaded me to purchase. I would sooner forget my experiences with that camera, with which I managed to delete most of the photos I took of a friend’s wedding. Sadly (not) I accidentally dropped it, and the battery retaining latch broke in such a way that it was no longer usable. Time to move on!

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After a garden tour of New Zealand where I consumed many rolls of 35mm film in my SLR, I saw the wisdom of converting to a digital SLR (DSLR). My choice at that time was a 10 megapixel Canon 400D (above). Armed with a suitable backpack, many trips ensued with this latest camera and a couple of lenses.

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But, you can’t put a DSLR in a pocket easily.  So it was that a small compact digital 3.2 megapixel camera, Sony DSC P7 (above, courtesy of www.imaging-resource.com) was added to the kit. What a lot of fun we had with this, photographing gourmet food at dinners as well as garden panoramas when the battery in the DSLR ran out before day’s end. Eventually, that camera would see out its life with one of my daughters.

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In 2010 I was to take a trip involving several train trips as well as flights, and I decided to ‘travel light’. That meant the DSLR and associated kit was to stay at home. This was the time to opt for a relatively new entrant to the market, a 10 megapixel Sony DSC HX5V (above, courtesy of www.sony.com).  As well as being a pretty good compact in every other way, this camera has a GPS facility, so every photo has a reference point on the globe. What a great little camera this has been, and still is, with the counter well past 4000.

The only thing lacking is a big zoom lens!  Watch this space………

So, in just this lifetime, in the hands of an enthusiastic amateur, we have progressed from the very simple film camera to a great diversity of options. The range goes from the very basic ‘point and shoot’ digital, to quite sophisticated compacts, to affordable DSLR and beyond. For the latter, there is a bewildering array of lens options: wide angle, telephoto, fish eye and macro to name a few.  One of the major highlights for me, is that with digital cameras, we can see immediately if the shot is successful. If not, take another before the moment passes. That is a great improvement on only finding out our mistakes when the film returned from the developer.

All this, and no mention of the mobile phone. The simple reason is that the mobile phone is another story for another day.

Footnote: Before emigrating to Australia, my paternal grandfather is listed on the 1911 UK census as a “photographic mechanic”. Perhaps there is a genetic strand to my more recent interest in photography.

2012 – My Year of the Manbag

Everywhere we go, we need to carry ‘stuff’ – money, credit cards, keys, phone and so on.

Men are quite well off when it comes to pockets. Trousers usually have at least four (side x 2, hip, fob) while most jackets also have at least four (two outside, two inside). More recently, there is often a mobile phone pocket in a jacket. Many, but not all, shirts have a breast pocket. However, in this day of reduced formality, the jacket is often left at home (ergo, lose four pockets immediately).

When we travel, there can be even more ‘stuff’ to carry everywhere, including passports, camera, foreign currencies and medications even as we get older! Rapidly, we find there is just too much stuff to carry in our pockets as we get around. Further, we are continually warned about the ease with which pockets can be picked, especially at busy tourist locations such as railway stations and cathedral plazas.

Enter the “Manbag”!

I had always been somewhat reluctant to carry a ‘handbag’, but a display in travel goods store attracted my attention. I discovered a range of bags that featured a “slashproof” shoulder strap and bag material.  Seemed like a good idea. Such a bag had plenty of space for wallet, passport and other items deserving protection.

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Among the features of this bag are three compartments (one hidden) with secured zippers. Inside the compartments are ‘pockets’ for mobile phone and wallet. The slash proof material feels as if it has concealed chicken wire lining, adding to the security against invasion. One problem solved.

While researching these bags, I also came across ‘RFID blocking’ wallets. RFID stands for radio-frequency identification, and as this Wikipedia article shows, RFID devices have become part of our everyday lives, in many applications. The E-tag tolling device in our cars, the chip in our credit/debit cards and store security tags are three that leap to mind.

Unfortunately, for every bit of smart technology, there seems to be a downside that can be exploited by the villains among us. The following video clip serves as a warning to us about RFID devices may be a problem, and how to safeguard against it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mx0DpW_1GtI

I have grown to like my Manbag. I also have an RFID blocking wallet. My philosophy is simple. Take reasonable precautions, but get out there and enjoy life to the max.