A few thoughts…

Opening Thoughts… “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke Digital photography is quite advanced! Only the high priests truly understand…

Not every photo should be attempted… Great images are created by the photographer, not the camera. BUT, you have to know the limitations of the camera and take appropriate photos! Photography is all about LIGHT! Understand and control light to get good photos. Dynamic Range is controlled by sensitivity [ISO]…adversely. As you increase ISO, DR drops. THUS, if you are taking a picture of a scene with a wide brightness range, don’t use high ISO! Noise is controlled by sensitivity [ISO]…adversely. As you increase ISO, noise increases. THUS, if you are taking a picture of a scene w/ little illumination, don’t use high ISO! Both these may require a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, skip the picture!

Be inquisitive and ask questions… What does the inside of your camera look like? Have you ever looked inside? Why not? Have you ever listened to your camera? What is making the noises you hear? Do all cameras have the same parts? How are they different? Do they make the same noises? Google is your friend!

What are you? Do you want to be a photographer or an artist? What is the difference? There are two extremes of photography: o Take a few well planned and perfect images out-of-the-camera o Take a few well timed images and then edit them to make them perfect In-between these extremes are all kinds of approaches. All these approaches are OK. The PROBLEM is that not all approaches are appropriate for every photograph. Art is not necessarily realistic! Exaggerated and distorted images are OK if you are an “artist”.

Change is good! If you don’t change something, the results will stay the same. Find something to change! However, there are “rules” for photography and art. Perhaps your first change should be to follow the rules? However, rules are made to be violated, but only after you learn to apply the rules!

Learn from the masters… Visit art museums. We have wonderful ones in the D/FW area. Look at paintings, drawings, & photos. What “rules” did they follow? Observe composition:  Where are objects located?  Where do you look first? What is the progression as you scan each element?  Observe shapes formed by elements in the pictures. Connect the dots.  What is the perspective? [the relationship of artist to the scene]

It’s all about light… Bright sunlight increases contrast and the dynamic range of a scene. Clouds decrease contrast and the dynamic range of a scene. Bright sunlight is “hard” light [heavy, distinct shadows]. Cloudy light is “soft” light [gentle transitions from dark to light]. Electronic flash is “fast” light [stops action as does a short exposure time]. Electronic flash is intrinsically “hard” but it can be modified to be “soft”.

Human Vision… What is the Focal Length of the human eye? Is there an equivalent camera lens? How does human vision work? o It has a high resolution color sensor in the center. o Surrounded by a low resolution B&W sensor. o The brain scans “interesting” areas and stores pieces to make a BIG composite image. o It looks like a higher resolution image than it is! o There is no camera that works this way! o Thus, a human eye analogy doesn’t help us understand cameras. o There is no equivalent FL lens!

Digital color is interesting… Who was Dr. Bryce Bayer? What did he do in 1974? Why is he “The maestro without whom photography as we know it wouldn't be the same”? The vast majority of digital sensors use a Bayer patent [3,971,065]. It describes a 3-color mosaic of photosites which produce separate R-G-B images. To produce an RGB pixel, the raw data from the sensor must be “demosaiced”. This is done by using neighboring photosites to calculate values for the “missing” 2 colors.

Digital color is complex… There are “color spaces” which define a color gamut. There are 3 popular choices: o sRGB o AdobeRGB o ProPhotoRGB o But there are dozens of others! Most cameras use the sRGB color space; high-end cameras also offer Adobe RGB. Adobe RGB is a “larger” color space than sRGB. But since almost all monitors only use sRGB, AdobeRGB images do not display well. ProPhotoRGB is an even larger color space, but only a few applications use it. These multiple color spaces cause an inordinate amount of trouble!