If you've read my scribblings and blather from the early days you know that I've been poking at this subject for over 30 years.
I tend to put a lot of, dare I say too much, energy into photography, camera equipment, and image processing. In my defense, however, every day seems to bring some new understanding or some spark of insight.
It recently dawned on me that there might be a simple short summary of my "findings." I'm not sure how this would help, but, I think it might be worth the effort to articulate a few things. Years and years of cogitation boiled down to practically nothing. Just a few sentences.
As someone famously said, make things as simple as you can, and no simpler. This is my attempt to be simple and no simpler. In this light (ahem), I feel confident enough to articulate three basic, foundation insights into the tools of photographic image creation.
Here they are -
NOTE: Most lenses, regardless of focal length, aperture, and coverage that I have owned, held, looked at and used, from small through ultra-large format, easily out-resolve whatever is capturing those photons of light.
2) The "interesting" thing about lenses is not how sharp they are (see #1 above), but how they transition into and out of focus.
NOTE: This is where some of the real "magic" in a lens can be found. It will show in the final results, whether we understand and recognize this or not.
3a) When shooting film - expose for the shadows and process for the highlights
3b) When shooting digital - expose for the highlights and process for the shadows
There it is. My "findings" in a 30 year nutshell.
I hope this helps.
5 comments:
Hello Christopher. I have been following you for several years and I enjoy your posts greatly and it has taken me all that time to figure out how to contact you. Anyway, I live in Portland and years ago when you still lived in southeast pdx I came to see you at your home to get some photo equipment advice. That was probably around 2005 so I doubt you will remember the occasion. I am retired and am currently practicing social distancing here in Oregon. Last week was excellent spring weather and we had daily expeditions to Oaks Bottom, Crystal Springs Rhoddie Garden, Sauvie Island, Ridgefield and Stiegerwald for image making. If you would like I will send you images in pdf format from those trips. Just send me an email address. It is sunny at the moment so am heading out now for a walk around Oaks Bottom and the Sellwood Blvd bluff road. Lots of eagle action in the area lately.
Richard Larson
Hello Richard, It's good to hear from you. I think I remember your visit. But the older I get the fuzzier the memory. Like you, I'm retired. In my case we sold and gave away nearly everything and moved to Europe to live out one last dream. The places you mention remain dear to me. I LOVED photographing birds.
If you are on Flickr you can find me under Christophers Odds and Sods or my full name Christopher Mark Perez. You can send an email from there and we can connect up. If you're not there, let me know and we'll work out something where I can securely send you my email address. I'm not trying to make things difficult, I'm just continuing to work to keep the amount of publicly generated junk mail to a minimum (if ever there was such a thing possible).
Hello C: Will figure out if I am on Flickr. So many of the social sharing sites have come and gone in my usage. Many thanks for your reply. Hoping all is well as can be with you folks.
RL
Failing Flickr, I'm also on the Large Format Forum (mostly LF photography).
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