Several things this week reminded me how much (at the risk of sounding cliched) we take technology for granted. I mean we do don't we?! The first was a clip on the Oceanic blog which I will repost here- here's the premise- what if the series 24 was filmed in 1994? Have a look. I love the comment "but that's three floppy discs!!!" and "page him"...
But where we really take it for granted of course is photography. For all that we know film is great we have really taken to heart the flexibility of a decent digital SLR. Take memory cards- no one says "oh remember when we used 24-36 shot films then changed them?" No you are more likely to hear "this 2GB card is just too small..." (folks even allowing for different file formats etc we're talking 100+ photos here). Then there is ISO. Remember when it was stamped on the side of the film, and you couldn't change it? And 400 or higher got really grainy? Now the expectation is no noise at high iso's that you can switch on the fly according to the conditions and effect you want. My camera is reasonably noisy at higher iso's- but then I think well compare that to film! There are some amazing products too- I have Imagenomic's noiseware, portraiture and realgrain, and the noiseware is amazing. So clever! I do not know how they do it, but it can systematically remove noise from your image without ruining it, which obviously is the aim.
So what is real grain? for that matter what is noise (I can hear my friends and family asking)? Well the above photo is a noisy kid. No she hasn't even got her mouth open I know, but notice the grainy look. I used postprocessing that emphasised the noise rather than damping it down and producing a shiney faced smooth perfect kid. I think it looks good! Herein lies the irony. As technology smoothes out the artifacts fashion brings them back. Real grain is a product that adds grain to your perfect photo! As Paul Gero said on Better Photo recently "old film guys don't die...they just add grain in photoshop...". Then of course there is the beautiful texture as used by/ pioneered by Jesh de Rox (sidebar for link), which is a technique used in all the trendiest wedding photos at the moment. I like it. For an alternative here's how we added texture to some photos a few weeks ago...
yep that was tongue in cheek ;) -Tom is off to the right hand side of the photo and has lifted the flaps on the side up of the boat so the girls get splashed. Luckily there was only one guest on board, and he was in a pretty mellow mood, rather than a "look at those waves aaarrrrgh!" sort of mood (its ok Mum the Tui Eluvuka is a very stable catamaran style boat)!
The other tool in photoshop we discuss too often is the liquify. Kate and Liz asked if it really was all that? and if it was could I use it on their photos? Ladies you don't need it- but for a demo look at the embed below. Watch out! Bare bottom...
so yes it really is all that... Shall I start post-processing your photos now? Then I'd better go, promise -as always -more news and images soon...
oh PS I know I love my camera noise, 1.5X crop and all; but if anyone in the family wins lotto and WANTS to give me the D300 or D3 (as seen in Cliff Mautner's post here) for christmas then...well... ok!
post post script- not for the faint of heart- and may disturb some viewers so discretion is advised...
Technology eh! They can create a camera that takes sharp photos at iso 3200 (as seen on Cliff Mautner's blog above), cameras that work in the rain, underwater, and as seen on this blog even take photos with parts underwater and above. As demonstrated here (look! it rains sometimes!!)(pentax optio w30)
But! and here's the really scary image.....
there's still no solution for the look of your legs the week before you wax!!!!
So much for technology.... Check out the magnification from the water and the pale washed out colouring!!!
LOVE that first shot, Meg, and the grain just enhances it. Beautiful.
Posted by: Marla | November 20, 2007 at 03:22 PM