Thinking Photography
Derek Smith • 10 January 2024
Washing Up
Photo by Derek Smith
Singing The Blues
Photo by Derek Smith
Night Scene
Photo by Derek Smith
Coffee Girl
Photo by Derek Smith
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve had a good week, been out with my camera, and taken some interesting photos.
As is usual for me I’ve been watching YouTube videos to learn more about photography. One of these videos by James Popsys discusses “The Exposure Myth in Photography”, looking at the postproduction of his images. Basically, his premise is that photography is an art form, and the purpose of a photograph is to draw the viewers eye into the subject of an image. Now, how many times have we heard a competition judge say, “it’s a great photo, but what am I looking at?”, James takes the view that in postproduction either the shadows can be deepened, or the highlights blown to direct the viewers eye to the subject. The video can be watched here: https://youtu.be/hH9VBrx3rnY?si=W9RV9ww9fl9ec9gC
The second video that made me think discussed the “Exposure Triangle” regarding ISO, what I didn’t appreciate was that the “Base ISO” of a camera is derived from the sensor, your camera will have a base ISO typically in the range of 80-200 ISO. When the ISO is raised the digital image amplification takes place in the processor after the image is captured. Now, many of you may have heard an audio hiss from an audio system, and with no audio input the hiss will increase as the amplifier volume is increased, this can be likened to ISO in photography, only instead of hearing the noise it can be visualised in our images, mainly in the shadows and out of focus parts of the image.
Modern cameras now are mostly ISO invariant, in that any ISO value can be used with very little degradation of our images. To underscore this point, it was interesting to read Paul Malley’s post, where he was adding noise in the editing software to create the atmosphere in the image.
To test the ISO limit of your camera I would suggest a simple test, take a photo of a high contrast subject, a label on a bottle or a tinned product, use a bright aperture such that the background is blurred, start at ISO 1600, then ISO 3200, and ISO 6400 see how much noise is generated in the shadows / background blur, this will give you assurance that higher ISO levels can be used without degrading an image. This image of a washing up liquid bottle was taken at ISO 10000.
I know that my camera can be used comfortably at ISO 6400, without degrading the image quality, this is helpful in that I can choose an ideal aperture / shutter speed combination, finally selecting the ISO to provide the correct exposure. This is different to the previously held wisdom of choosing the lowest ISO first. In variable light I find it useful to use Auto ISO, with a range of 160 – 6400 ISO, and minimum shutter speed of 1/125, when using Aperture Priority I can comfortably set my required aperture, and just ignore the ISO, it makes shooting worry free. Knowledge is power!!
Images featured here, the singer, and night shot both taken at ISO 6400, the washing up liquid at ISO 10000, and “Coffee Girl” more conventionally at ISO 400.
Louth Photographic Society
Good Morning, All, Last week at the club member Chris Birchmore gave a presentation on MPP cameras which included some of Chris's collection of cameras and prints taken. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. Thank you Chris for an interesting evening. This week, Wednesday 1st April, we are holding a local and open PDI competition the local subject being nature, please if you haven't already, send your entries to Harry before midnight tonight. Members Steve Chapman and Dave Turner have volunteered to judge. Also on the Wednesday 1st April our Louth Photographic Society 70th anniversary exhibition will be open to view at the Louth Museum. Regards Graham
Chris Birchmore gave an informative, and interesting talk and demonstration of his medium format film cameras. at the beginning of the evening Chris gave a potted history of the origins of the MPP cameras he was showing us. The cameras take a 5 x 4" film stock, and looking at the cameras it seems incredible that photographers in the recent past could take excellent photographs with these. The MPP cameras were often used by the British Armed Forcies during the Second World War, and throughout the 1950s, and 60s, and some of these medium format were still being manufactured in the 1970s. The prints that Chris showed taken with these cameras were of excellent quality, with an amazing depth of field. Many thanks Chris for a fascinating evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a committee meeting, which was very productive, we made the final arrangements for the exhibition, charity night, and studio evening as well as other items on the agenda. We are holding an Exhibition opening night at Louth Museum on Friday 17th April celebrating 70 years of Louth Photographic Society. There will be a small buffet and cold drinks available, if any member would like to donate a bottle of wine to the occasion please hand it to Harry at one of our club nights. This week, Wednesday 25th March, member Chris Birchmore will be giving us a presentation. The following week is a local competition, with the categoriess of "Local Nature" (up to 25 miles radius from St James church) and "Open" (unlimited mileage) please send your entries to Harry before midnight, Sunday 29th March. Members Steve Chapman will judge the Nature category, and Dave Turner the Open category. Regards Graham
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition judged by Martyn Wrigg, the standard of entries was very high and well done to Tony Gaskins for a first in the Architectural Detail and Derek Smith for his first place in the Open. All the results are on our website under competitions. This week, Wednesday 18th March we will be holding a Committee meeting, just committee members for this one. The following week Chris Birchmore is the speaker for the night. Harry is now accepting entries for the PDI local competition, with the categories of "Local Nature" and "Open". We judge this competition in house so if you would like to judge one of the subjects please let me know. Regards Graham
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A PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition was held last night with the categories of "Architectural Detail", and "Open". Martyn Wrigg was our judge for the evening, and he competently judged the submitted images, although he diid surprise with some of his choices of placing, but that's a judges perogative. Martyn complemented members on the quality of the images presented, which had made some of his decisions difficult. First placed was "It's a Fixer Upper" in the Architectural Detail section, and "Dervish Musician" in the Open section. Congratulations to Robin Begley, who as one of our newest members submitted some impressive images, achieving a 3rd place in "Architectural Details", and 2nd in the "Open" category. All the results are now posted to our website Competition page.
Good Morning All Last week at the club member Steve Chapman gave us an insight into his life and especially his time at Ilam Park in Derbyshire photographing for the National Trust. Steve showed us many photographs he had taken of the people involved with the trust and the Peak District. The second half was dedicated to Steve's own work, some superb aircraft photography as well as many other subjects. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. This week, Wednesday 11th March we are holding a PDI competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail " and "Open" to be judged by Martyn Wrigg of Barton. The following week is a committee meeting for the committee members only on that evening. For newer members we have two committee meetings a year. Regards Graham
Last night Steve Chapman presented a selection of images from his archives. Steve had previously been a volunteer photographer for the National Trust, and he showed many photos from the Ilam Park Estate, Dovedale, it was interesting to see some of the "behind the scenes" photos. The Jacobite reenactment battle scenes were amazing, the uniforms showed great attention to detail, and there were some real characters among the reenactors. After the break Steve showed some of his general photography, he has a great photographic eye, as some of his photos showed with different colours, shapes, and leading lines. Steve has taken many photos of agricultural machinery, and risked life and limb to create some close up aircraft photos. For atmosphere, just look at these horseriders at the top of the hill on a cool early morning. For heartstopping imagery look at these children on the side of a building, the children are photos on the side of the building, however, Steve wasted no time in capturing this stunning image. Many thanks to Steve for a fascinating evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club I gave you a PDI (Projected Digital Image) presentation showing photographs I had taken on my travels last year, following up with some past and present photographs of Binbrook. I hope you all enjoyed the evening and maybe saw parts of England you hadn't seen before. This week, Wednesday 4th March, our member Steve Chapman will be showing us photographs he has taken. This is Steve's first time showing the club his work so will be a very good night. Harry is now accepting your PDI's for the next competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail" and "Open". The closing date is Friday 6th March. Regards Graham
The N&EMPF Exhibition will be on display in Cleethorpes from 3rd March.
