Bestirred

3rd March, 2022

Photography Basics

Basic, analogue stuff

Not going to make a lot of notes on this – been doing this for a long time.

Guidance around use of tripod if slow shutter speed. Not sure I agree with a handheld if shutter speed over 1/60s, particularly for long lenses.

My own preference for hand holding: 1 / focal length is a good rule of thumb, e.g. 100mm lens, can hand-hold up to 1/100s. Need to factor in the 1.6x of APS-C, so a 100mm lens on an APS-C camera can be handheld at shutter speeds faster than 1/160s.

Also, depends on the shutter. The uber slick shutter in my X100T doesn’t move the camera, and the release is very smooth, so I can get away with hand-held shots at 1/10s if I’m careful.

Digital stuff

This is the main reason why I’m here…

Digital Noise

Film grain is more like a texture that brings to life the images. Noise is a defect of the sensitivity of the camera to the light. Noise is the result of the interpretation of the light in an image that the camera can’t capture. In digital photographs, “noise” is the commonly-used term to describe visual distortion.

The size of the grains in the film varies depending on the film sensitivity. The more sensitive the film, the larger the grains. Digital noise is always the size of a pixel, regardless of the ISO setting.

Film grain is color neutral, as it consist mostly of luminance differences. Digital noise consists of both luminance and color differences, and is most visible in the blue color channel.

In the more recent digital cameras the digital noise is quite even. In earlier models the noise had more banding and patterns. The film grain doesn’t have any banding or patterns, so it’s seen as pure noise. If the digital noise has any banding or pattern, the brain can easily pick that up, and that is more disturbing than pure noise.

Neither grain nor noise eats detail. It’s noise reduction that eats detail, as it can’t tell the difference between small details and noise. Noise reduction is used on digital noise, but it can also be used to reduce film grain.

Project Concept

Look at Days Bay out of season.

Shoot the bay and the surroundings during quiet times.

Images from recent shoots

Turns out that I do have some existing recent images that would work for this concept.

Note for review: all of the edits to images on these contact sheets were made as part of Lens.

28th February, 2022

Introductions

Getting set up in the Zoom class.

Introduction to Helen, Ginell (and Tom, on Thursdays)

Went over the basics of thee project, how to borrow a camera, etc.

Lots of the students in self-isolation, so hard to get out and shoot. Must suck – sympathies!

How to access Massey Block 6 for Mac use, etc.

Project Brief

Utilising digital photographic capture, editing, and processing software you will be challenged to evaluate, interpret and re/present your position in the world around you. You will develop an understanding of communicating using photographic images through the practice of critical evaluation of your own, and others, images.

You will identify a site in Wellington to photograph. You should consider how you engage with this site in relation to your background, where you have come from, and how you might announce yourself today through this site.

Helpful strategies might be:

1. Choose a site
2. Why are you drawn to this site and how might it relate to your background and your identity?
3. How might you announce/introduce yourself ‘today’ through your chosen site?
4. Consider a photographic strategy/genre; or explore a range of photographic genres that best describe your site in relation to your background and identity.

Following a process of researching and photographing your site, by week six you will produce a series of 3-5 digital images and one 16×12 inch inkjet print, accompanied by a 150-word statement which addresses why you chose that location, and how the visual material you have collected or created with your camera has engaged with the concepts of mihimihi. You will consider the relationship between the digital and printed images, and the possibilities offered by the different outputs.

You will be assessed based on the paper’s learning outcomes. We will assess your final and developmental work, your involvement in the class workshops, exercises, and discussions. These are to be evident in a physical workbook.

My initial thoughts

So, I’m naturally enough going to choose somewhere I can walk to, because I might end up in self-isolation.

Got to be something based on Days Bay. The beach? History?

What do I have in my recent photos that could fit into this, given that I’ve shot a lot in Days Bay in the past couple of months?

Plan: draw on what I have, then add shoots once I get started down a track.

To Do

• Chase the Mac order along.
• Buy an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
• Look for existing images.