Posts Tagged ‘photography’

Unusual photographic medium

Some use film, some use a digital sensor and one at least uses grass,

The idea is stunning in it’s simplicity:

“When grass gets plenty of sunlight, it produces chlorophyll and therefore turns green – but the less light it receives, the more yellow the colour is,” explains JWT art director Mark Norcutt, the agency behind the campaign. “Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey discovered that by projecting a bright black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows (in an otherwise dark room), they can use the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs

Downside? the images do not last very long and as far as I know no one is working on a process to preserve them.

Professional photography – The lowering bar to entry

Interesting article here entitled ISO Killed the Professional Photographer.

The author is bemoaning the fact that the entry bar to taking decent photographs has been lowered due to the relatively low cost of equipment.
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Photography philosophy – must read

!0 Principles of Beautiful Photography by Trey Ratcliff

This is an absolute must read for anyone who wants to take better photographs. It doesn’t rattle on about shutter speeds and lens quality, it rattles on about seeing, about the eye and the brain. You can get the shutter speed and lens stuff from any one of a hundred celebrity photographers (as opposed to photographers of celebrities) mortgage paying first books or syndicated magazine articles. This is philosophy, not a manual.
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Redux for images Strobist for words

On my Monday morning blog travels (otherwise known as work avoidance) I came across this piece in the Strobist (absolutely essential reading for any photographer) which in turn led me to this site, Redux

This from the Strobist article:

The Redux Blog is 100% photography — like opening the fridge in the summer and scooping out the center of the watermelon and leaving the part with all the seeds for everyone else. In fact, the only way it could be better (for me) is if Myles spent a few paragraphs on each post breaking down the lighting.

I would beg to differ, such an approach would take something away from the work.

The photography has a freshness that is rarely seen. These portfolios are all absolutely first rate and believe me, none of these photographers are going throufg the motions. They all have a great eye but the also seem to share a rarer ability, the one that enables them to focus in on a very small detail to get to the essence of a scene.

I think that I have come across the Redux site before but it must have been en route to somewhere else and I must have been extremely preoccupied at the time. Anywway, read Strobist for technique and great solutions, look at Redux to see the experts at work.

Tip for shooting at lower shutter speeds

Neil Creek’s photography site (Original source)

This is a great tip that I have already tested on the Canon A550 Powershot and will be trying on a DSLR later today. It is very simple and is just a matter of intruducing a slight twist to the grip when shooting. This video explains it much better than I can.

I can get very useable results at a shutter speed of 1/8 sec, Much much better than cranking the ISO up to increase the shutter speed. My best using the normal relax/breath type approach is 1/30 for an equivalent result.