This weekend I spent some time on the streets of Edinburgh. On my Nikon D200, I had what I believe is the perfect walk-around lens, the Nikon 18-200mm VR f3.5-5.6. So I was all set, or so I thought.
I don’t do a lot of candid photography. Most of my images are taken at a much slower pace. I’ll setup and compose the image, usually on a tripod and I’ll take time to consider what camera settings I need for depth of field etc.
Well the setup I used this weekend had two wonderful pieces of technology that conspired against me.
Firstly Auto-ISO. This is one of my favourite features on the D200. Basically you fire in a maximum ISO setting that you are comfortable with, and then a minimum shutter speed. The camera will then automatically raise the ISO settings whenever it needs to, based on available light. It’s a great time saver, ensuring you are always using the lowest ISO possible at any given time.
Secondly VR - Vibration Reduction. The VR on my 18-200 is stunning - I’ve got sharp handheld shots at a 1/5th of a second. At 1/30th even on the 200mm telephoto end of the lens, images are nice and sharp. 1/60th is almost guaranteed.
So I was all set - switch on the Auto-ISO to max out at 800 ISO, set the minimum speed to 1/60th and leave the camera on Aperture priority so I could set my depth of field dependent on the situation. I was sorted. Or so I thought.
Candid street photography is fast - or rather the subject is fast - it tends to be moving. However, even the greatest Vibration Reduction system in the world won’t give you a sharp image of someone walking at a brisk pace down the street. Of the 100 or so shots I took, I had to immediately bin at least 30% for that very reason. How stupid was I. I let the technology sucker me in, make me lazy, and I forgot one of the the basic fundamentals of photography and why shutter speed is so important.
Fortunately I did manage to get some keepers that I ended up being happy with. Including the one above which I’ve titled “Eating Out”.
Here is one from the School of Incredibly Stupid Ideas - By now most fans of Flickr will have spotted that the site now supports the upload of 90 second video clips. Woop de effing do.
In my mind Flickr is Digital Photography 2.0 - it has helped revolutionise the whole industry and given the photography market, and particularly the DSLR market, a huge boost. It wasn’t that long ago that (film) SLR had almost been completely removed from high street shelves as the joe public preferred 35mm compacts.
With the birth of digital one might have assumed that the trend for smaller form factors would continue - and it did for a while. However, once affordable digital SLR’s like the Canon Digital Rebel and the Nikon D50 came along, things changed as people started to see the huge difference in quality these DSLR’s offered over their compact cousins. Flickr helped that revolution by showcasing photographers and clearly showing what cameras they were shooting on.
Now I’ve already seen some videos appearing in my Contacts photostreams - I am guessing this might break the link I have on my Apple TV.
On the first 10 of the 500 “photos” on the daily explore page, 2 of them were videos.
If this had happened a couple of month after Microsoft completed their proposed acquisition of Yahoo, I wouldn’t have been surprised. To see that it has happened even before Microsucks got their paws on it just exemplifies the sorry state that Yahoo seem to have got themselves in.
My Gran used to say to “always stick to your knitting” - what she meant by that was stick to what you are good at. Flickr should have stuck to photography and leave video to the likes of YouTube et al.
I predict a huge backlash from the photography community here - I hope I am right and that Flickr has a re-think. Please.
With Photoshop World running in Orlando this week, Adobe have released a free public beta of Lightroom 2.0.
Key things that are new in version 2:-
- New Library layout
- Collections updated and new Smart Collections options
- New filter bar
- Improved keywording
- Multiple monitors (that will please a lot of people)
- Improved Photoshop integration - no need for PSD or TIFF conversion first - plus you can now open as Smart Objects (Scott Kelby’s 7 step workflow can now be fully utilised)
- Improved Export functionality
- Localised Corrections - correct only specific areas of a picture
- Vignetting now works on cropped images as well - Hallelujah
- Improved printing and print sharpening
The beta can be downloaded from Adobe Labs. Full release notes here.
Note that the beta will not convert or interfere with your live setup or your catalog - the beta cannot convert an existing catalog either. Adobe are obviously playing safe this time after the little hooha over the 1.4 release.
After sitting quiet with Aperture for months, Apple have been pushing updates out in quick succession these past few weeks.
Having made the switch from Aperture over to Lightroom just a few weeks ago myself, I can’t help but look at these updates without a slight hint of concern that I may have perhaps jumped too soon.
The latest 2.1 update has certainly pushed Aperture firmly back into the game with the addition of their new plug-in architecture which I tried out for the first time last night.
My initial thoughts when I read Apple’s press release were FAIL. This just creates a new TIFF file and loads up another image editor on top. It’s no different than the existing round-trip “Edit in Photoshop” capability. Any subsequent edits simply create more versions of the file in TIFF format causing the library to bloat big-style.
Well my assumptions (which I think many share) were wrong.
Read more
From the review recently posted on the excellent dpreview.com website (now incidentally owned by Amazon.com):-
“There’s simply no better semi-professional digital SLR on the market.”
You can read the full 32 page review here.