Looking at – and seeing – the world
November 20, 2020 16 Comments
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Autumn on the pavement. Beside the park railings. Caught by the rays of the rising sun.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 250 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; south Bristol; 10 Oct 2018.
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November 13, 2020 18 Comments
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Autumn leaves form a carpet around the Hazel in our back garden; 30 Oct 2009.
Used away from the horizontal, the fisheye lens has given the whole photo the appearance of showing an elevated ridge in the ground. Back beyond the Hazel’s trunks, the patches of green lawn appear to be sloping down to either side. And the nearest leaves seem to be bulging up towards the camera, and to be swirling in a circular fashion – which is an effect I like.
Click on the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D700 with Sigma 15mm full frame fisheye lens; 800 ISO.
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October 3, 2020 6 Comments
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Robin in our front garden. Another image, and the full story of this encounter, are here (opens in a separate window).
The composition here is a little awkward, but I do like those leaves up in the top left corner!
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – certainly recommended.
Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens used in DX (= APS-C) format to give 450mm; 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Landscape v2 profile; south Bristol; 22 Sept 2020.
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September 7, 2020 4 Comments
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Leaf on our Hazel tree; 24 June 2013.
The black elements in this photo have a vague upper left to lower right (or vice versa!) orientation, which produces something of a dynamic maybe. And I like the leaf’s serrated periphery.
But most of all I enjoyed the cool, peaceful stillness of the garden early on this overcast morning – the grove of Cowslips gone to seed, some new Badger holes, and everything generally running riot, certainly heading to something like jungle unless I intervene.
Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: D700 with 105mm Nikkor lens; 12,800 ISO.
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June 27, 2020 6 Comments
(Click onto any of these images to open a larger version in a separate window)
Some years ago, I put out some posts specifically aimed at those just getting interested in photography, just starting out. I tried to think of things that might be useful to them – and not just in terms of technique, but also in ways of thinking about photography, attitudes, questions that might arise, etc. I most certainly do not know all there is to know about photography, but I’d like to try something similar again and – as always – I’m happy to take questions >>> with the caveat that, as already mentioned, my knowledge is not exhaustive.
But always remember, these are only my views and opinions: others may well think differently, and equally validly.
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EARLIER POSTS IN THIS SERIES
POST 1: The Main Mantra: there are no rights or wrongs in photography, only individual photographers’ differing opinions.
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RAW CAPTURE VERSUS JPEG – THE PROS AND CONS
Many cameras can capture both raw and jpeg image files, even simultaneously, and the debate about their relative merits has rumbled on for years, with die hard supporters on both sides. However there is a very simple distinction between the two, which really centres on how the resulting images are going to be processed – or not processed – post-capture.
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Jpegs contain only the information from your camera’s sensor that relates to the actual image at the point of capture. And so they can provide excellent images of the scenes that you have photographed as the camera saw them at the point of capture, but they cannot be used to significantly alter those images after capture – they simply do not contain the necessary data. So you might use the jpeg format if you do not want to subject your photos to significant post-capture processing but are happy with the photos your camera produces – which you can then post straight onto the web, or get printed, etc. And my advice would be to opt for top quality jpegs, to get best quality images.
So jpegs are useful in various situations where:
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In the past, raw files were capable of producing much better quality images than jpegs, but this is no longer the case – many cameras can now produce very good jpeg images, Olympus and Fujifilm in particular being notable for this.
But raw files contain BOTH the information necessary to create a top quality image of the scene being photographed, AND a lot of OTHER information too – everything that the camera has recorded in fact. And the point here is that this OTHER information can be used, if desired, to produce a version of the image that differs substantially from what the camera has recorded, and maybe from reality too. So raw files are really of more use to those who regularly subject their images to post-capture processing, those who are NOT looking for “something nice straight out of the camera” – and the point should be made that raw files, however well captured, can often look dreadful straight out of the camera, they often require some adjustment to make them even look presentable, let alone the work needed to transform their images into “something new”.
I never shoot any format except raw, simply because I always want to have the maximum possible, post-capture processing flexibility, in case I need it. Raw is also useful in various situations where:
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June 26, 2020 10 Comments
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Tree in the grounds of Chew Valley Lake, a reservoir in Somerset; 14 Sept 2009.
I’ve taken this image into SEP2, added lots of contrast and structure, and then re-introduced colour into the leaf. Converting an image to mono and then re-introducing colour to selected elements of it is very easily done in SEP2 and, of course, most easily done where, as in this image, one part of the composition is of a very different colour to the rest.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 210mm; 6400 ISO; converted to mono in Silver Efex Pro 2, with selective restoration of colour.
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June 25, 2020 9 Comments
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Savoy cabbage with backlighting; 29 Mar 2009.
Click onto image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: F6 with 105mm Nikkor lens; tripod; Fuji Velvia 100 colour slide film, rated at 125 ISO to further saturate the colours.
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June 24, 2020 8 Comments
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View between two tree trunks – two trees, ivy and brambles – beside North Chine Drove, on the Somerset Levels southeast of Wedmore; 19 Mar 2012.
I have a thing for stark tree silhouettes, and here my larger telezoom pulled this image right in, to make it frame-filling. Use of the long focal length also has the benefit of small depth of field, so that the landscape seen through this gap registered as sufficiently hazy and low contrast for SEP2 to block it out completely, leaving the ivy and brambles against a plain backdrop.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: D700 with 80-400 Nikkor lens at 400mm; 800 ISO; conversion to mono, and toning, with Silver Efex Pro 2.
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June 11, 2020 21 Comments
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Hazel leaves, in our back garden; 25 June 2013.
This was captured with a definite visual plan – the eye enters the frame from the left, very soon hits the brightest component, and then moves rightwards and upwards along the “tail” of darker objects leading to the upper right corner of the frame. The eye might then exit the frame in the upper right corner: having the final element of the “tail” there might stop it, or it might have been better to have this corner dark.
I never cease to marvel at the beauty of Nature. What am I looking at here, what is my camera recording? Well, light that has travelled 93 million miles from Our Star, to partially shine through a small component of one of Earth’s myriad lifeforms.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.
Technique: D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 250 ISO.
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May 24, 2020 13 Comments
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Shadow of a footbridge in Bristol’s Castle Park; 7 Oct 2014.
The ground here is a dark tarmac path that runs below the bridge. I find my eyes being attracted up to the bright leaf, but then being drawn back down along the various lines towards lower right – only to be attracted back up to the leaf once more.
Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.
Technique: Canon G11 PowerShot at 28mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Color Efex Pro 4.
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