S/he who composes a picture, expresses herself.
S/he who recomposes a picture, reconstitutes herself.

You see, photography, amongst others, is little more than a chisel hewing out an insightful being that lies dormant within a 'photographer', who prior to recomposing for the umpteenth time, mistakes photography for a medium of expression as opposed to a medium of (self) reconstitution.

ed

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S/he who takes time to compose a scene, is not actually taking time to make a good picture, but taking the time to undo the deficiencies within oneself that prevents one from composing a perfect scene in an instant. 

The cross-applicational potential of the traits engendered by this is infinite. 

Let me put it this way, the more acute your awareness and attention to detail in photography, the more acute will your generic trait of awareness and attention to detail be fed.  I suppose doing sociology prior to photography, or doing art before sociology, or doing poetry before art, or being empathetic before all of the above helps significantly in making me better in all of the above.  I want to be a better writer, thus i picked up photography.  I want to be a better photographer, thus i picked up writing.

ed

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Sim was recounting to me a conversation he had with an ‘award-winning’ photographer (here in ‘uniquely singapore’).  His discussing with her centred on the virtues of capturing a good shot so as to minimise the need for ‘post-processing’ via, say, Photoshop.  To this, she retorted defensively, (as is the case with most i've encountered here) “In the Digital World, post-processing is a must!”.

Personally, I found this statement quite interesting since, if it were true, then one could go on to make inferences logically following from it such as,

1.  Digital photography delivers results of less quality than film and thus requires post-processing to enhance it.

2.  Digital photography delivers results of equal quality to film and thus requires post-processing to increase its quality beyond film.

3.  Digital photographers, due to the convenience of shooting-n-viewing, may thus be encouraged to be less thoughtful whilst peering through the backs of their cameras and hence pay less attention to lighting, composition, etc, and make up for it later via ‘post-processing’ in Photoshop, etc.

4.  Digital photographers, who are also artists or, say, photo journalists/candid shot artists, may require ‘post-processing’ to ‘add on’ to or subtract from pictures that which cannot be effected via camera, lens or filters, or due to the unavailability of time to do so.

 
If one was to look at the above possible reasons why ‘post-processing’ is a must in the ‘digital world’, it is only (4) that argues for ‘post-processing’ not being a means via which one makes up for one’s own deficiencies as a photographer. In this sense, photography being 'digital' has nothing to do with it.   Photography is photography, digital or film.  The photographer is the only constant that is pertinent here.

It is only upon a firm foundation that one mightst possibly construct a stairway to heaven.  When we spend less time clearing up our mistakes, we would be able to more easily be inspired to do more with that which aren’t fraught with it.  If not, we might view a ‘post’ experience as one where we clear up mistakes.  To such photographers, 'post-processing' moves from being a boon to being a tool via which one learns to live with ones deficiencies as a photographer.  If leisure is the midwife of imagination, then such photographers will never evolve into artists as the leisure of post-processing becomes little more than a time for refuse-removal.

In sum,

 
There is a world of difference between the final product of a post-complacenist as opposed to a post-perfectionist.  The former uses post-processing to compensate, whilst the latter uses it to post-process beyond perfection.  To the former, ‘post-processing’ becomes a refuge, and to the latter, ‘post-processing’ becomes a springboard.   The former spends much time cleaning lenses, whilst the latter spends time using it. 

Interesting isn’t it.

ed

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Beary-Christmas

And-to-all-a-goodnight

Oh, and a Happy Developmental New Year to All - and a special one to my dear neighbours!

Well, I’m glad to report that my venture and transition into Medium Format photography (Mamiya 7II 6x7) has met with success.  I sent my first roll in – with fingers and toes crossed – for development a few days ago and the results were surprisingly impressive indeed.   Of course this doesn’t make me an ‘expert’ as there is still quite a bit to learn about the various technical aspects of photography, but with the first prints turning out so well – composition, colours, exposure, sharpness, etc – it is indeed quite a motivational resource especially since i was playing with long exposures in the course of night-time shooting...no wasted/bad shots...all nighttime shots turned out well:) (i'll put some of the photos up once i get it scanned.)

I know I was being ambitious as I had spent only a couple of weeks on digital photography with my Ricoh GX100, before moving on to a 35mm Nikon F4 for another couple of weeks, and finally taking the plunge into medium format for the past couple of weeks.  The most important lesson here, which I reiterated to Vanessa and Sim, is that, ‘if wo/man can make it, we can learn it’.  As lecturers were inclined to saying in my uni (university of central Lancashire, uk), ‘Genius is 10% talent, and 90% hard work’, and I’m inclined to think that it is the latter that produces the former.  But this doesn’t render my 35mm film camera redundant as the lens range for medium format 6x7 is not wide enough – literally and figuratively speaking.  Hence, my Nikon F4 (picked up for $480sgd/160stirling) comes in handy when I want to shoot ‘fisheye’, when I want to do immediate shots of the guy who’s just about to stop picking his nose in a second, fast moving action, or when I don’t want to print as big as the MF allows. (shooting MF is about 3 times more expensive as one can only take about 10 shots per roll that costs the same as a 35mm roll of film.   

Hence, the moral of this episode of the story is that YOU can do it too, even though you’re a novice at it all like myself.  And the quality is much better as well.  Some have stated that an MF would be equivalent to a 100megapixel camera.  However, they did not say if the larger frame size of the MF camera compared to 35mm digital makes this figure much higher.  The detail, dynamic range, sharpness, etc, is visibly much greater as well.  Of course, I must add, that the purpose of going into MF is not because ‘it is there’, because you want to show up the chans-next-door, or because you are a gadget-kid with too much money, but because it enables one to print really large without compromising the quality as is the case, comparatively speaking, with 35mm digital/film cameras, and it is a very much cheaper than the former of the two as well.  I would recommend it to those who want to make photography their paid or artistic profession and who need or want to print large.

ed

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I was at John 3:16 (camera shop in Funan Centre, Singapore) yesterday evening picking up a couple lenses that I sent for cleaning when I overheard a couple of guys(one was working there and one wasn’t...though the one who was working there was an 'irregular' staff as i had not seen him working there before) advising an aspiring entrant into the DSLR-user world.  Some of the advice was quite helpful, whereas much of it was quite unconsidered.  I tried to get into the discussion to attempt to simplify the decision making process for the poor befuddled girl, but for some reason, both advisors and advisee did not welcome it. (maybe it’s a ‘race’ thing(my not being Chinese), or, maybe it’s the local penchant for relying on that which they’re used to relying on, i.e. the 2 guys who have been giving her information from the start, or, maybe it’s the local perception that if you(meaning me) don’t look conventional, you probably don’t know anything, or a variable combo of all of the above ;) )  Anyway, for those wanting to move from compacts to DSLRs, here are some pointers which would be quite pertinent to yourself and which I learnt only after I went into photography and spent more than I otherwise would - thanks to the local shop assistants whose first priority tends to be relieving you of the burden of carrying around your money instead of putting themselves into your shoes and applying their knowledge to your needs and potentials.

If you don’t want to read the following, just remember this,

1. If you don’t want to print beyond, say, 8R, then get a pro compact camera like the Ricoh GX 100, Ricoh GRD II, or Canon G9.

2. If you don’t want to zoom far ahead of yourself, or if you don’t do action shots that requires that you be able to fire away many shots per second(‘high fps’ or ‘frames per second’), you can go for the aforementioned cameras.

If you need help, just let me know as I’m often down in the Funan or Peninsula area to buy film, send them in for processing, or out to do shoots.  You can join me for the latter if you like.  No charge, though i wouldn't mind a cup of tea or two ('teh siew tai' (tea with less sugar) at the coffeshop at the rear of Funan Centre will do:) )

********************************************************************************

1.  What is your intended Broadcast media?

2. Do you have a specific field in which you want to explore photography, i.e. sports, events, birdies, cityscapes, etc.?

What is your intended Broadcast media?

Simple.  Where, or in what form, do you want to broadcast or exhibit the photos you take?  Do you want to just print 4 or 5R pics; do you want to marvel at your creations solely on the net; or do you want to blow up gallery size prints?  Whatever you want, just multiply it by 2, and let that influence your decision.  In other words, if you want to simply do 5R pics, give yourself the leeway to possibly print 10R pics.  Don’t forget, as you go into a field, the field has a tendency to develop you as well.  That means you are going to want to do more as you go into it.  You aren’t going to like it if you later look at all the equipment you bought in your earlier and relatively ignorant days and wish you had invested in something else.

The two guys who were advising the girl seemed more interested in playing big brother rather than actually putting themselves into the place of the girl.  I suppose they forgot that they were once as ignorant as her and would have progressed quicker if they’d encountered truly helpful others as opposed to those who simply use such advisory opportunities as an opportunity to fan their egos or make money.  Anyway, both guys were trying to convince the girl to go for lenses that are reputed to produce relatively sharp images.  One guy was convincing the girl to go for a single-focus lens(one that you cannot zoom to and away from that you want to take a photo of), whilst the other kept advising the girl to go for a sharp and quite costly lens.

None asked, ‘What is your intended broadcast media?’  If you’re most content with 4 or 5R prints, then going for a real ‘sharp lens’ with ‘ED’ and ‘Aspherical’ elements and glasses is not going to make much of a difference for such print sizes.  Few are going to look at your pics and say, ‘hey, that’s a real crap picture, what lens did you use….’   One guy was also trying to bullshit the girl by saying that the only thing you could do with Photoshop was adjust the contrast and brightness, but not sharpness.  This was when I, as an interested and empathetic observer and listener, interrupted and stated that you could do sharpening with Photoshop – I’ve been using Photoshop for about 8 years for image-editing and artwork.  That’s when both guys looked at me and admitted that it could be done, but ‘not much’, and that the sharpening ‘looked fake’ in Photoshop – they probably didn’t know how to use it properly.  After that, they ignored me and continued to ‘advise’ the girl who also didn’t seem interested in what I said or how this compromised the credibility of her ‘advisors’.  Anyway, the point is, one can apply sharpening in Photoshop and that this ‘fake sharpening’ look would only be obvious if one overdid it, applied it indiscriminately, and blew up the picture large enough to observe one’s overuse of the sharpening features in Photoshop – perhaps the guys were referring to Photoshop versions that were produced before Adobe existed;).  However, as I’ve said, if you’re only sticking to 4 or 5R pictures, or even double that, the difference in sharpness is not going to be significantly compromised by the use of, say, ‘third party’ lenses like Tokina, Sigma or Tamron. (I used to use them but have moved on to Nikon film cameras and medium format as I want to be able to print really large sizes with greater dynamic ranges, etc.)

Singapore is a land of people who do what they do because other’s are queuing to do it after overexposure to a glitzy ad campaign.  We often joke that to make a food store popular, all one has to do is to employ a few people to form a queue during lunctime;).  The main benefit of using DSLRs is having interchangeable lenses, being able to fire off many shots per second, and printing larger sizes with greater tonality, gradients, etc, because of the bigger sensor sizes (APS-C or full frame sensor sizes) compared to compacts.  That means that you can stand where you are and shoot as far or as wide as you want, print even larger sizes without compromising quality, and do, for instance, ‘sports shots’.  However, if this is not really important to you, and you only want to stick to, say, A3 or A2 size prints, there are quite a few good pro compacts out there which will give you much control to enable you to produce artistic shots that rival any 35mm film cameras when printed at smaller sizes.  My personal recommendation would be the wide-angle Ricoh GX 100 or the relatively telephoto (for longer distances) Ricoh GRD II.  You could also consider the Canon G9.  All the photos at this site were done with the former and slightly ‘post-processed’ in Photoshop thereafter.

Do you have a specific field in which you want to explore photography?

‘What do you want to shoot’, was the question both advisors put to the girl.   Once being a novice in photography, I recall how I tended to bite my lips and start wondering in the face of that question.  To spare novices this lip-blistering question, I would instead ask,  ‘what kind of things do you like to shoot, or do you want to keep your options open and have the freedom to shoot anything that catches your eye?’.  We must remember that the aspiring photographer has probably only viewed the world through overpriced ‘designer’ spectacles or prescription ones to date and may thus have not observed the crack on the wall or that birdie perched on a far-off tree and thus would not really be in a good position to make a decision. 

I would also remind the aspiring photographer that what they think they like is dependent on what they’ve done to date, and that possessing a camera with a series of lenses might suggest more ideas to a one that a single-focus lens or just one extremely expensive zoom lens.  We ought not to allow our past to constrain our development in the future.  In other words, if I’ve always loved sceneries, I would get a wide-angle zoom lens and a mid-range zoom lens.    The former caters to what I like, and the latter caters to what I can learn to notice and like.  Hence, with the photography experience, I become more than I’m used to being.

For those who want to keep their options open, I would recommend both a wide-angle zoom and a mid-range zoom.  These can be picked up relatively cheap at 2^nd hand stores at Peninsula, or some first-hand 3rd party lenses that are rival higher end lenses when printed at smaller sizes.  If you need help, just let me know as I’m often down that way to buy film, send them in for processing, or out to do shoots.  You can join me for the latter if you like.

ed

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In my decision to get a wide angle lens, it seems that a ‘corrected’ or ‘straightened’ image from Nikon’s 16mm full frame fisheye gives a horizontal 140 degrees field of view – source.(scroll down two-thirds of the page to see Ken Rockwell's 'corrected' fisheye images.)  Interesting isn’t it.  In other words, with a fisheye, I get both a fisheye view of the world along with an ultra-ultra wide angle of 140 degrees that just about beats the dedicated 14mm Nikkor wide-angle lens.  The only question is how this compromises the image quality and to what degree.  This is an important factor in my consideration of wide-angle lenses for my Nikon F4 to complement my Mamiya 7II whose widest is 21mm when converted to 35mm standard.  If the quality difference isn’t significant – visible to the naked eye deprived of a microscope or peeping at close quarters, then going 16mm is going to save me a bundle and a half – the 16mm is about $1000sgd and the 14mm is $2700sgd. 

Hmmm….

ed

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Vase

The above is a public container for the Chinese to burn offerings to their ancestors - which must increase the incidence of asthma attacks in this country I suppose.  I had met my good friend and old pal since my army days back in the late 80s, Yeo Hong Ho, for coffee a couple of days ago, and passing by this container, and being the ever inquisitive spirit that I am, I looked in.  I always make it a point to carry my small digital camera(ricoh gx100) whenever i go down to the coffeeshop or anywhere in the neighbourhood.  You just never know when you might see something worth the capture.  More worthwhile than carrying a 'prada' or other identity-compensating accessory I think.

In considering a fisheye lens, I realised the significance of making comparisons between lenses in terms of ‘field of view’, amongst others.  In other words, ‘how much of what I see do I get on the film’, I wondered.

Here’s what I found that might be of aid to novices, like myself, who might be wondering about this prior to investing in a Nikkor lens.  The ‘degrees’ are in ‘horizontal terms – i.e. left to right.  .  If any reader knows better, please add the information in the comments section.  Additionally, dSLR users ought to take note that the following is not true for your cameras due to the ‘cropping factor’ - a good reason to film for some like myself.  Please click on the lens links for information relevant to yourselves.  Lenses cited are ordered from the highest 'fov' to lowest for the following lenses.

ed

Nikkor 16mm full-frame fisheye

(Nikon states that this lens has a 180 degrees FOV, but it is in ‘diagonal terms.  From perusing various sources, the following might be true in ‘horizontal’ terms.)

Fov (horizontal - left to right): approx. 140 degrees

Nikkor 14mm

Fov: 114 degrees

Nikkor 14-24mm

Fov: 114 degrees – 84 degrees    

Nikkor 17-35mm (Contains 2 ED elements and 3 aspherical lenses)

Fov: 104 degrees – 62 degrees

Nikkor 18-35mm (1/3 of the price of the 17-35.  Contains 1 ED element and 1 aspherical lenses)

Fov: 100 degrees – 62 degrees

Nikkor 20mm

Fov: 94 degrees

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