High ISO Numbers and Compact Cameras
With advances in post production noise reduction technology it may be time to revisit the idea that high ISO settings and small sensors are completely incompatible.
I possess three point and shoot cameras, a newish Lumix ZS8, a Canon Powershot A3100 IS, and a much older Powershot, the A550. Up until yesterday I hadn’t used the A550 for several years. The main reason for this is that the camera doesn’t possess any form of image stabilization. Anyway, I got to wondering if there was any way to compensate for this fact now that certain things have changed.
 1:1 crop from an Image taken with Canon A550 Powershot ISO 800 and post processed using Lightroom 3 to reduce the noise. |
This exercise is more than just something dreamt up by a born tinkerer to while away a few hours. There are aspects of the A550 that make it a more comfortable camera than the two more recent point and shoots. It is a really easy camera to operate one handed, It has a normal viewfinder in addition to the LCD viewfinder and the gentle noise it produces at high ISOs is a lot more pleasant than the harsh jagged variety that seems to be a byproduct of image stabilization technology.
Antenna and Ball
A bit of an explanation is probably required with this one. It is a ball stuck on a car radio antenna against a road that has been repaired with that rubber (asphalt?) substance.
The processing is split toning using LR 3 but leaving the original coloring in rather than reducing to Monochrome first. This allowed for the color seperation between ball and road.
The original pic was very low resolution as you can see.
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Minimalist Photography Flickr Group
I set this group up on Flickr awhile back and then proceeded to completely neglect it. The exact definition of minimalist or minimalism is left entirely up to the individual – there is no editorial control exercised whatsoever. Part of my rationale for setting the group up was to see what others classed as minimal and to try to push a few boundaries and get work included that went beyond the designer minimalism of very small subject(s) on a very big plain background.
There are currently around a hundred people who have posted to the group and around 800 images. This is really tiny by Flickr standards but the work is good.
I intend to invest a bit more time in promoting the group over the coming months so any new members would be more than welcome and even if you do not have a Flickr account it may be worth dropping in just to see what others are doing with the theme.
Go on have a look – You know that it would be rude not to 
Flickr: Minimalist Photography 101
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Rain
Cooler and more overcast day here in NW Indiana. Current temp is around 60F as opposed to the 80F degree days of the past week. Current average high for this time of year is 47F.
To really put things in perspective this region gets, on average, one 80F March day every 14 years. This year we had 7 in a row.
It doesn't take a probability expert to work out that this is something very, very unusual. I suspect that the only reason the media are not making more of this is because they are too mathematically challenged to understand the significance.
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Leaf in the Sun
More playing around with tiltshift software, to be specific this browser based app - http://tiltshiftmaker.com/ No sign up, log in or pet’s maiden name required.
Control of size of in focus strip, amount of blur, gradation of blur and bokeh are possible. I think that I prefer the results of this app than of Photoshop CS4′s lens blur filter.
The photo itself was shot with my Lumix ZS8 16X zoom. Everything was in focus in the original shot. To be honest this was a bit of photographic opportunism. The early morning light on our sitting room floor was really nice and there was a plant container with some dead leaves in it nearby. From initial idea to photograph took around 15 seconds.
All of the blur and bokeh was added using the software app described above.
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Knobs Series
Bathroom cabinet, cupboard and closet type doorknobs.
All of these are roughly an inch in diameter at their widest and were shot with a 50mm (75mm efl) @ f3.5. I used a 10X closeup diopter screwed onto the lens. The contrast was bumped up and color stripped (technical terms) in Lightroom.
Town Textures
My old painting teacher was texture obsessed. I would attempt to simplify my paintings and she would then berate me for producing boring work and insist that I use loads of different colors and tones to make the surface more interesting. I was 15 at the time. I know that at this point I am meant to be magnanimous and state that she was right all along but, to be perfectly honest, I still think that I was right. Saying that, she was an excellent teacher and after 36 years I still remember her views on just about everything to do with composition.
Old red brick wall and bench
Manhole Cover Series
One thing that I haven’t done for a long time is to post a series of photographs. I am getting back into shooting sets of photographs of a single object or scene but with slight differences so expect a few more over the coming weeks.
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Mobile Version Glitches
I am currently trying to iron out one or two problems with the mobile version of this site. The main problem is with images not showing up, especially in the case of older posts.
One thing that can be done with this site is that the user, i.e. you, can decide which version of the site they want to view. Right at the bottom of every page on the left hand side is a link that says either switch to mobile or switch to desktop. If the site isn’t functioning right, or even if you just want to see the other version click on the link. In theory you should then only get that version of the site until you click on it again.
Traffic Cones
Shot with the Lumix ZS8 using the burst scene setting. Photos are only 3mb in size but the quality is certainly serviceable.
This setting is also excellent for low light photography, ironically better than any of the ones specifically for low light.
This is the best truly point and shoot setting on the camera as it sets very high shutter speeds.
I think that it achieves all of this by using a relatively small number of megabytes over the entire sensor area. This allows for much greater integrity of each individual pixel – no cramming. That is a best guess though.
For some reason the camera had a problem with anti aliasing on this shot. There are definite jagged edges where the light catches the sides of the cones. The angle of the lines probably contributes to the problem. In all fairness to Lumix I have not noticed this issue with any other shots and this camera setting uses the rougher of two quality options available.
Resting Traffic Cones
The MP101 Kindle Ebook
Feed
Flickr
The Minimalist Woman
My wife's excellent blog.
