Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts

2023-11-05

All Photography is “Photoshopped”

A pretty bold claim but what do I mean by it. Well I do not mean “photoshopped” in the sense of someone going through their photo collection post divorce and removing their ex-spouse from all their family photographs. I mean something more subtle than that.

The appearance of every photograph is the direct result of decisions taken by the photographer starting even before the photo is taken and finishing with film or digital processing.

With film photography it starts with the choice of the film and even the choice of the camera. Different films have distinct differences to the point that some modern digital editing software has options to emulate different types of film.

And then there are the camera settings. My 35 mm film camera allowed me to change the film speed or depth of field for different circumstances or different effects. As well, different coloured (or other) filters can be placed over the lens to change the appearance of the photo. That cool flowing water effect on waterfalls is the direct result of the settings chosen by the photographer.

Modern digital cameras have even more control over setting with different type of exposure zone settings, white balance and specialized settings for close-ups, moving objects, night or indoor photography and on and on.

Of course most people think of post capture editing when referring to “photoshopping” even though a lot of photographer decisions before that stage affect the appearance of the photo.

There are a lot of reasons besides deception to use photo editing software to change or enhance a photograph.

A major reason to use photo editing software is to make photos appear more like what the photographer actually saw. Others include enhancing a photo taken on a dull day to look like a photo taken on a bright day, or to remove distracting elements like power lines that are not the main focus of the photograph.

The filters a film photographer might place over the lens when taking a photo can be applied afterwards in the “digital darkroom”. Doing it after talking the photo allows for a lot more experimentation to see what creates the best result. There are even filters designed to make a photograph look like a painting or drawing. Photo editing extends into the photographer/artist’s own sense of creativity.

When I first started into serious amateur photography I was very much a realist, the photo should be what you saw and not enhanced. Indeed I was even criticized for taking too many “record shots” rather than doing more creative photography. I would have described my philosophy of photography as one that believed that composition was 90% of photography – it is to capture what is there. After getting into digital photography I have gradually changed to seeing it as more of a creative process where the editing process afterwards is almost as important as taking the photo. Now i would say that composition is 75% of photography.

This is all to say that a photograph should not just be what was there but also what the photographer saw with both their eyes and their minds.

For some examples of how photo editing can provide different visions of the same original subject see PhotoVersions Created with Franzis Color Projects and Photo Versions Created with Franzis Black & White Projects.

2023-04-14

More Fun With Photo Editing

I imagine most people have a favourite photo editor that they use for all their photo editing. Sometimes I like to mix it up and use different software for the different abilities each has. I will usually save my photos as lossless PNGs when transferring between different programs to avoid compression degradation.

Original Photo Taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ100 Camera

Cropped to 16X9 with JPEGCrops 

Auto Optimized with Simply Good Pictures

Red Channel Enhanced with Photoshop Elements 2023

 

Kaleidoscope Effect Applied with Franzis Color Projects

 

2010-11-26

The Fifth Columnist is Getting a New Camera for Christmas

My first serious camera was a Konica Autoreflex T3 35 MM SLR that I purchased in the early 1970s and used for over 25 years. It cost around $300, but I spent well over $1000 on it including lenses, the most expensive being a $500 80-200 MM zoom lens. I have always been a big lens guy shooting mainly landscape and wildlife. I also had a 2X converter that gave me a maximum focal length of 400 MM. Of course, with the large aperture required at that zoom and the lack of any form of stabilization, I could really only use the combination with a tripod on a sunny day. My daughter still has the Konica and it was her main camera till she got a digital SLR a year ago, but she still likes to shoot film occasionally. I got my first digital camera in 1999, and again I went for the big zoom. The $1,500 Sony Mavica FD-91 was one impressive looking camera for it's time. The 14X zoom on the Mavica was huge, a 35 MM equivalent of 37-518 MM and with Sony's Steady Shot image stabilization system it could be hand held at the full zoom. The camera was unique in that it used 3.5 inch floppy disks for image storage and though it was under a megapixel it produced decent 8X10 prints, even though the experts claimed that was not possible. It was a large camera but I was used to the size and feel of an SLR and preferred it over smaller digital cameras. The Mavica became my daughter's first digital camera when I upgraded. By 2005 a sub megapixel camera was pretty well considered obsolete and after 5 years I decided it was time to upgrade again. By now digital cameras were becoming serious and digital SLRs were available. However one of the main reasons I went to a digital camera with a long zoom was to avoid the hassle of changing multiple lenses and the weight and bulk of carrying them hiking. So I decided on the Panasonic Lumix FZ20 with a 12X 36-432 MM stabilized zoom lens. The FZ20, at a cost of about $1000 (with a bit more for an extra battery and memory cards), was a big improvement over the Mavica and takes great photos and I am sure it would do me well for many years to come. However with all things electronic and digital the time comes when you have to decide whether it is worthwhile to upgrade to a newer improved model with more features. After 6 years it looks like it is about time to upgrade again. This time I am looking at the Panasonic Lumix FZ100. The Lumix FZ100 is a 14 megapixel camera with a 25-600 MM 24X stabilized zoom with full HD video capability, rather than the crappy tiny Quicktime video of the FZ20. Shooting at 3 megapixels, the top of the zoom range is an effective 1200 MM lens - WOW. The awesome zoom and full HD video capability are the main features that made me decide that now is the time to upgrade, but the camera also has impressive burst shooting capabilities and a whole slew of improvements over the FZ20. The cost has gone down as well to about $550, but an extra battery and SD cards might add an extra $200 or so. So it looks like that will be under the tree for me this Christmas.

2010-11-23

The Fifth Column Is Not Dead

I have just been a bit preoccupied with things lately. I've actually been thinking about things to blog about so once the spirit moves me I should be off and running. More to write about SMH, of course, and cycling stuff and political commentary on all sorts of things. And I've been looking at getting a new camera that I want to talk about. In the meantime I am posting short tweets and links on my twitter feed that you can follow on the right hand column of The Fifth Column.