RAW support
Of course, there’s a case for the settings in the jpg file being the cause of the colours, so inherently it’s down to user error in terms of colour, etc. Maybe it’s just an indicator of how I had set myself up to work. Anyway, I’m preferring the lower image, but I’m still not convinced I get the sharpness I’m after. Again, is this user error?
More trial and error to follow...
New toy
Well, here he is:
It’s not one of the latest, I couldn’t justify the committing the funds - we’ve just ordered a new kitchen as well! It should make me work differently though, and much slower as I can’t just point and shoot with it. Things should become more “considered” - not the “free” of my previous post. Ah well.
Just as an exercise appealing to the techy engineer in me, I thought I’d take the same image with the Hassie, the 5Dmk2 and Fuji X10. The latter was just to see what happened, I didn’t really think it would compare, although I did take the above picture of the new arrival with the X10. Rather than setting something up, I just used a section of my bookshelf as the subject and photographed it from the same spot, adjusting the tripod height and focal length to make sure the image covered the same height - the Fuji was set to square format, the 5Dmk2 was cropped afterwards.
This is what I took:
And this is a 100% Loupe from the three cameras - Hasselblad to the left, 5Dmk2 centre and X10 right.
There will be a little shake in the Hasselblad image, I’ve not got a cable release and I wasn’t using any lighting other than natural daylight, so the shutter action will be apparent. The other two made use of the 2s timer. I’ve ordered a release now, so I guess I’ll do it all again when I have it.
Be free...
“It made me think that I wished the students were a bit more free wheeling instead of worried.”
Yes. I’ve been worrying a lot about things.
In the third assignment, I think there were images that I put in there because I thought that’s what people would expect. Not what I want to do, not exactly. Some were just a little to cliched, too realist in their approach for my liking, but I had felt compelled to capture them (the Union Flag on the castle, for example). Jose had honed in on this with his comments, and especially his recommended book, An imaginary Spaniard by Cristóbal Hara. Looking at Hara has moved my mind in other directions, not so dissimilar to the direction I look with various Japanese photographers.
I suppose one thing in the back of my mind has been the “presence” of Martin Parr, and a few other contemporary British photographers for that matter. I have felt something pulling me in their direction, when I suppose I’m more naturally inclined to want to go elsewhere. Perhaps Parr isn’t prominent as an inspiration in my work, but that’s probably because it’s a little counter-intuitive. However, I’ve just gotten hold of One Day, a collection of books by 10 different photographers, and Parr’s entry in that feels very different to what I would normally expect. To be honest, I think I prefer it - here’s a sample of what’s in there… A far cry from New Brighton.
How will all this affect the next few months of the portfolio? I don’t know yet, although the sample book I put together is perhaps the start of things to come. Hopefully it will be positive though.
Ansel does street
http://flavorwire.com/253506/ansel-adams-los-angeles
No particular comment other than to say it’s interesting to see Adams do something other than his famous landscapes.
More Believing is Seeing
Anyway, where am I going with this. Well, I just to recount a little personal experience with the following use of one of my images:
The photograph wasn’t taken on an American beach, it was taken on Blackpool beach, in the sunny NW of England. Does this make a difference? Does an article on beach cleanliness and the closure of American beaches due to contamination actually need to feature a photograph taken on an American beach? Yeah, perhaps it does. Perhaps a generic photograph of beach pollution doesn’t quite cut the mustard, even if it is pretty non-specific with regards to location (the tower at Blackpool isn’t visible… ).
I would like to point out at this stage that I never made any claims to this having been taken in America, and I didn’t pose the beer can either...