Enticing the Light

by Peter Zack

  

The release of the new Canon EOS 550D (T2i Digital Rebel in the US) got me thinking. Is a Sub $800.00 18MP camera really required? What’s the upside to the shooter? Is this an advancement of the “more is better” megapixel race? I’m sure I’ll stand in the minority on this but I feel there are a few valid points to consider. I welcome your thoughts in the comment section. Before you consider these the ramblings of an old-school shooter, let me make it clear that I do welcome necessary advancements in camera features and quality, but I’m just not sure how this is a benefit to advancing the APS-C format. It sure will grab some headlines, though.

So let me start out with a few disclaimers. I’m no engineer or physicist, I have just enough of a basic understanding to get me in a little trouble discussing CMOS and CCD designs. This is not a brand-bashing article either, it’s just that Canon has offered the first 18MP camera with a street price of $799.00¹. Finally, I haven’t handled this camera. It’s introduction really made me wonder why we need an 18MP camera that seems to be tailored to the first time DSLR buyer. Following are some of the points I want you to consider when thinking about high pixel count APS-C DSLRs.

Computer Requirements

To start with, if you are moving into DSLRs for the first time, do you need 18MP, or for that matter 15MP? If you shoot RAW (and I would think most should) to get the most out of a DSLR, you’re probably looking at a computer upgrade. The file size of a RAW file with a sensor this size is about 24.5MB (5184 x 3456 pixels)². So load that file size into a program like Adobe Photoshop and if you’re at 2GB of RAM, it’s going to be really slow to load or edit anything, maybe even at 4GB. If you can upgrade the computer memory, then you have a relatively cheap fix. But if not, you’re going to want a new system very quickly. Laptop owners may be very limited with upgrade options.

  

Hard Drive Space

I never delete files totally; I’ll sort the poor shots from the good and store the poor ones as unused. Why? Well, my post processing skills improve on a regular basis. What I could do with a poor shot 2 years ago is very different than what I can do today. Who knows what software improvements will bring in the future? So unless it’s complete junk, I save it somewhere. 24.5MB files will fill a hard drive very fast, so you’ll need external hard drives or a new internal upgrade fairly quickly.

  

Memory Cards

If you have a bunch of 1 and 2GB SD cards from your P&S, well they will be tossed fairly quickly. Consider that a 1GB card will probably hold 38-40 images at full RAW size. That takes us back to the 36 negative film days. You’re going to fill that card up in 11.1 seconds at 3.6 fps chasing that bird in the backyard. One of the benefits of a digital camera is meant to be the ability to blast away if you choose to because there are no film costs. So add a bit more to the budget for some 32GB cards for that vacation trip. Of course, you can always lower the image size (by shooting JPEG), use your 1GB cards and….in the end, maybe the P&S would be have been better for the vacation.

Any or all of these issues may cost you more than just getting a new camera body.

  

Display Sizes

What does the buyer of this camera use it for to show off their photos? Sites like Flickr? On the computer? 4″×6″ or 5″x7″ prints with the occasional 8″×10″? Do you need 5184 x 3456 pixels for that? Nope, sites like Flickr will restrict image sizes and most monitors have between 1024 x768 to 1280×1024 pixel displays³. Web sites you might create will be less than this. You can make 18″x27″ prints with 6MP images from a DSLR without a problem.

  

Image Quality

That’s the huge appeal for the buyer. 18MP must be better than 15MP, or 12MP right? So why did the new full-frame Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III come out at only 21.1MP? Wouldn’t 40.5MP (keeping the same pixel density as the T2i) be the right pixel size? My basic understanding of pixel density is that the smaller the pixels on the sensor, the noise will increase.

The output read noise power is directly proportional to the vertical resolution of the imager and inversely proportional to the pixel area, resulting in a strong dependence between noise and pixel density.⁴

The 1Ds Mk III uses a full-frame sensor which is 864mm² vs the APS-C sensor at 413mm², and as a result the pixels are going to be roughly twice the area. Why so few pixels? Because this camera is aimed at the Pro market where good low light control and fine detail is demanded. More pixels aren’t necessarily better. To get clean images from a high megapixel APS-C camera a lot more noise processing is going to have to happen before the RAW image is written to the card. So you’re not going to have the fine detail nearly as much as the RAW image that is a less processed native image from a full-frame sensor. Pro shooters don’t want the image processed by the camera, they want that control for post processing work.

  

So What Are the Advantages?

1. You can crop the heck out of your shots, but you need to be using top quality lenses to achieve maximum resolution.
2. You can print images to sizes that we just normally don’t do (24″x36″, for example).
3. Marketing for the camera companies. Not really to our benefit but to sell more cameras.

So the T2i is a stripped down 7D that retains the 18MP sensor to sell this entry-level model. For me, that just doesn’t make sense and I certainly hope the camera companies don’t go down this road together.

Cheers and Good Shooting –Peter Zack

  

¹ Price: Adorama and B&H
² Canon USA web site specs: Canon
³ W3Schools
⁴ MIT paper Pixel density

  

  

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

by Peter Zack

  

A cautionary tale in case you get one of these emails.

From: What the Duck

Scams, if you have an email address (if you’re here you do, of course), you get the emails all the time. If you are like me, with a dedicated web site and a visible email address, you get dozens daily. Spam filters do a good job but just to make sure that something legit isn’t missed, I still check the spam daily for a real client who might be filtered.

I don’t need anything enlarged, I like my job and am not looking for a new one.  I’m happy that my wife arranges all my dates. I have enough credit cards and suspect there’s no free money anywhere. I hate survey’s and loved Seinfeld’s solution to that.

So recently I got one I knew was a scam. It sounded similar to many of the rest.  I decided I wanted to see how this was going to ‘play out’ and how much they might want to take me for.  Really it was a waste of time but possibly worth sharing with others in case you think you are going to land the “big deal”. Plus I kind of liked the idea of getting them all excited, wasting some of their time, that they might have a sucker on the hook to rob from.

In total, there were 12 emails back and forth . First I’m not a full time wedding planner, even if I do help brides with many of the arrangements. So there’s his first mistake, not knowing what I do.

So here’s how it works:

The wording changes from email to email but the common theme is a “logistics manager” or “agent” the scammer will mention in most at some point.

The very first email:
From: Williams Egobia <williamsegobia@live.com>
To: xxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Sent: Sat, January 30, 2010 1:37:09 AM
Subject: I need an experienced wedding planner

However,because of security reasons and confidentiality reposed on you and because they do not have credit card facility,we have decided that only you will have to handle the credit card information.

He couldn’t trust the “Logistics Agent” with the credit card info, only me! I feel so privileged!

Now when you think about this, the logistics agent is arranging travel visas and transportation for all the guests. So you trust him to get you safely into a country, get everyone to the same place on time etc. But you can’t trust him to see your Visa card? He has all your personal info for a travel visa but not the credit info.

Yeah sure. I’m some internet stranger that you don’t know, that you trust with thousands of dollars. Foolishness.

So at the end, I told him the deal was off and that I would no longer waste any more time with this. He threatens the FBI on me. Humm, since I don’t live in the USA, I guess I don’t have to worry about them much.

Finally I get these 2 emails, the last of which showed up in my spam folder, how ironic.

by Miserere

  

The subject of overly retouched models in fashion and lifestyle magazines has been a hot topic in recent months. For his latest exhibition, photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders decided to make straight-up portraits of supermodels from the 70’s and 80’s, without any help from the retouch brush in Photoshop. That doesn’t mean the models didn’t use make-up in trying to look their best, but I don’t believe anybody is complaining about that. Yet.

Straight-up portraiture is nothing new, but I do find it sad that it needs to be hyped as something special when promoting an exhibition, or that it needs to be mentioned at all. Timothy photographed 10 models: Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs, Beverly Johnson, Carol Alt, Dayle Haddon, Esme, Karen Bjornson, Kim Alexis, Lisa Taylor and Nancy Donahue. In my opinion, they all look beautiful; but don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.

You can read what Timothy himself has to say about these photos here.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is an award-winning photographer, film maker and writer, whose photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum, The Whitney Museum and The National Portrait Gallery among others. He also won a Grammy in 1998 for his documentary Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart.

by Miserere

  

Friday morning, January 29^th 2010, I was having breakfast while perusing the usual suspects of Photography blogs, when I hit Photo Induced, curated by the tireless Damon (he’s been writing his blog since November 2005!). I was a bit behind on his latest news, because the first article that came up was talking about OnceMany.com, a 365 site with a twist.

Shane Rich sat down one day on a large rock in the Colorado Rockies and thought, I should start a 365…with a twist. That’s how I imagine it, anyway. The twist? He’s creating each daily photo for a different client, because he’s selling each one of them. And the price? Depends on the date you choose. On January 1^st it’s $1, on the 2^nd it’s $2, on the 3^rd it’s $3… I think you get the idea. And yes, on December 31^st the price will be $365. Not only will Shane come up with an idea for a photograph and shoot it, he’ll also send you a print.

Back to Friday morning. I thought I’d buy my wife’s birthday but it was taken. Not to be deterred, because I always like supporting good ideas, I decided to get a date for EtL. Seeing January 31^st was free, and wanting to help Shane with empty days, I booked it. Shane e-mailed me quickly to ask about any ideas I might have and I unloaded my request: Shane, you have 48 hours to come up with a single photo describing EtL. And believe me, Shane delivered.

If you want to see what he came up with, check out January 31^st on OnceMany.com. Make sure you see his other days too; and while you’re at it, consider buying a day for your business, your spouse, or even yourself! C’mon, don’t make him eat that camera…

by Miserere

  

Starring Bob Krist and Joe McNally.

Enjoy!

by Miserere

  

Thanks to all of you that voted for EtL, we won a Golden Retrevo award in the Photo & Video category. Woohoo!

What we win is fame, glory…and World Wide Web exposure. Let’s hope the server can handle it.

To all our readers who voted every day: A big fat thank you. To all of our readers who voted every other day: A standard size thank you.

    –Miserere and Peter

by Miserere

  

Featured Blog of the Month: Street Vision

  

For some, Photography is a way of expressing artistic urges, for others it is a way of making pretty pictures, but for my friend Javier, Photography is an end in and of itself.

He wanders the streets in and around Los Angeles photographing the people, the buildings…a slice of Life.

He also uses Photography as a way to break down barriers between classes. Where other street photographers stay on the other side of the wall that is their camera, Javier climbs this wall and becomes a part of his subjects. It couldn’t be any other way for him, his generosity and big heart wouldn’t allow it.

But Javier also has a softer side, which he’s not afraid to show when the chance presents itself.

All photos: ©Javier Gutierre.

by Miserere

  

My friend Doug alerted me to this amusing graph describing the evolution of a photographer’s “life”. As with all good humour, it’s funny because there is some truth in there. Click for full size view.

Found on DataViz.

Do you know what stage you are at? I’m definitely near Death…ha ha ha

PS: If anyone knows who it was that came up with this graph, please let me know.

by Miserere

  

Haje Jan Kamps from PhotoCritic was July 2009’s F-BoM. We put on our clogs, buy a dozen tulips, and head off to enjoy some gouda with Haje while getting a few answers to our questions.

Thanks for agreeing to chat with us, Haje! Why don’t we start off finding out how you ended up in the U.K., passing through Norway, after starting off in Holland (where you were born)? (But first, tell us how to pronounce your name!)

My name is pronounced like “Higher” but without the last R. Or perhaps like “Hiya”, the greeting commonly used in Liverpool, much to my confusion when I lived there. My globetrotting ways are entirely unglamorous, actually – I was born in the Netherlands, but was dragged off to Norway when I was 5 years old or so. My dad’s a petroleum engineer, so he goes where the oil lives – my parents have done a lot of moving about, including stints in India and Trinidad. Without us, sadly, but it’s great for going on holiday, of course!

I ended up in England by accident, actually. At the time about 10 years ago, I was working part-time in a petrol station, with aspirations of being a writer. Petrol station work is intensely boring, but that meant I had a lot of time to spend in my own head, coming up with characters, plots, etc. I genuinely planned to just continue doing that: Writing the Next Great Novel, and working at a petrol station. My parents – but my mum especially – wasn’t particularly enthralled by that idea, and proposed I’d go to University.

I was going to Folkehøgskole at the time, and met someone who became a good friend, who was from the UK. Around the same time as the discussions with my parents about uni were taking place, he was filling in his uni forms, and that gave me an idea. I went to my parents and said “Ok, then, I’ll go to uni… But only if I can go to the UK”. I had expected them to turn it down, but they were rather enthusiastic about it, actually (quite obvious, in retrospect, with their globetrotting ways), and so I applied, got accepted, moved to Liverpool… and now I’m still in the UK!

How many photos do you take with your iPhone each day, and how long will it take you to start a blog about it?

At least 5 on average, I think, but I doubt I’ll be blogging about it specifically. I have done a couple of posts about the iPhone’s photography capabilities, of course, one with 100 great examples of iPhone photos, and an interview with the fantastic Sion Fullana, about how he manages to get such great results. Ultimately, however, the iPhone has a pretty rubbish camera, and while you can do pretty cool stuff with it, it’s never going to be a huge part of my photographic aspirations. It’s great for always having a camera in your pocket, however, and I do use my iPhone to show off my portfolio of photos to potential clients.

Tell us about your stint making money as a photographer. Would you go back to that?

Never. In my more inebriated moments, I liken it to prostitution. Sex, like photography, is amazing and great, but only when you’re in the mood – as soon as people start paying you for it, there are demands for quality, and you have to take photos to a deadline, not when you feel an irrepressible urge to go take pictures. To be honest, I hated it with a passion.

The problem is that when I’m working at my most creative, only one out of a thousand photos comes out well: I’m experimenting, playing, having fun, and learning all at once. Some times, I can spend hours shooting and never walk away with a single shot that I’m happy with. It’s still worth it, because I’ll have a deeper understanding of photography and why some things work and others don’t, but I challenge you to have that conversation with the bride… “Yeah, I know I took 6,000 photos at your wedding, but none of them were any good, so you can’t have any pictures”. It just wouldn’t work.

In a commercial setting, as a commercial photographer, 0.1% hit rate is completely unacceptable. You need closer to 10% – or better. Much better. As a result, you drop your creativity, and use the techniques and tricks that you know are effective. The problem is that you’re falling into cliches, and just doing the same old thing again and again. It’s dreadfully boring, but what’s worse is that you end up not taking pictures for fun anymore.

I have a lot of respect for commercial photographers, they deliver amazing work… It’s just not what I’m cut out to do

I feel the same way; once you’re paid to do something, and have to do it on somebody else’s terms, I just cannot imagine it being fun anymore. And speaking of jobs, you recently quit yours. How do you pay the rent?

I’m a writer! Currently, I’m working on several exciting books about photography—a ghost-writing project, and another book which will be published in my own name. I can’t go into details about either book, but I’ll announce the latter in due course, of course In addition to book writing, I take on other writing tasks for various agencies, and I do the occasional job from Elance.com.

How cool! Maybe you’ll send a copy over to EtL HQ so I can review it (ahem, ahem)…

In my F-BoM post I highlighted my amazement at the amount of time you seem to have on your hands. Are you the most organised person in the World? How do you do it? I’ve been thinking of getting a divorce so I can free up some time for the blog…

Well, considering it has taken me 6 months to get back to you on this interview, I guess that answers your own question I think my thing is just that I’m like a heat-seeking missile: I find something that excites me, and I go after it like a blood hound until it is completed. When I’m in ‘Ooh! Excited!’ mode, I can go for 20 hours a day without sleeping and with a minimum of food and drink, fuelled by excitement and adrenaline. That’s generally how Things Get Done in Haje-world

Is there a particular style of photography you like? Looking at your Flickr page I see a bit of everything. You seem like a jack of all trades.

I like photography on two levels: On one side, photography is a fantastic technical achievement: If you stop to think how incredible it is that we can use electronics, pieces of metal and chunks of glass to capture light… It sounds like science fiction! But I also really enjoy the artistic side of photography. It’s doable, to be documentary and very literal in your photography (“this is a picture of a bench”, “This is a picture of a goose”), but it’s also possible to go beyond that, and create or capture scenes which have an inherent artistic quality.

My photographic style is whimsical at best, but I do enjoy a challenge, I think that’s why my Flickr stream comes across as rather ADD Having said that, my two favourite photo styles are concert photography and street photography.

That would explain your latest book, Put Another Dime in the Jukebox, a how-to on photographing live music.

What is the goal you set yourself when you started your blog, and how has that goal evolved?

My very first post on the blog was about how to create a macro extension tube out of a pringles can. That post went insane, got me on Slashdot, Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit, got me commissions from Make Magazine, and eventually was the reason that my first book was commissioned, too.

The blog started off being about DIY things to do with photography, but I eventually realised that I wanted to cast my net wider. It’s my blog, after all, and I can write about whatever I want. These days, the strapline to the blog is ‘Doing cool stuff with photography’, which is a pretty decent description. I write about fun techniques, photography ideas, things that inspire me, and all that. I try to avoid writing about equipment, because those posts are so quickly ‘old news’, and I don’t want Photocritic to be a news-driven site at all. That’s partially why the articles aren’t dated (you can find a date when something was published, but you’ll have to search around a little). That’s not a coincidence; basically, I’m hoping to write in such a way that an article written today is valid next week, next month, and next year, too. That way, I’m building up a reasonably big portfolio of articles that are worth reading whenever you fancy exploring and learning new things about photography.

The idea of a timeless article is how I tackle my Philosophical Ramblings, but sometimes I do get excited about photo news and just have to share it. Or give people my opinion, which they never ask for. Maybe you are a better human being, Haje

How do you find themes to write about?

The themes tend to find me, I think—an idea that pops into my head, a question in a comment on one of my posts, or a statement someone makes on Facebook of Twitter that makes me think… And if I feel I have something to contribute, I’ll write about it.

Do you think there’s anything new to discuss in Photography? People fixate on the equipment, but the principles driving Photography as Art are still the same they were a century ago. Is there anything new to say?

I really don’t care about equipment, it’s the least important aspect of photography… I still think that people are doing a lot of amazing things with photos, though, and I like the idea of collaboration, inspiration, and learning that the Internet offers people. I understand your question, and no, I doubt there has been much ‘new’ that hasn’t been done before. But just because there isn’t much new to say, there are always different ways of saying them, and I’d love to think that I have a way of explaining things that people can understand.

Now you need to live up to your blog’s title: What makes a good photo?

I did a post a while ago titled how to win a photography contest, which explains a lot of the things I feel strongly about. Basically, a good photo has vision, passion, and tells a story. It doesn’t have to be technically perfect, but if it isn’t, there has to be a damn good reason for it. A great photo does something unusual, makes you think, and challenges the way you look at the world. A truly great photo does all of these things and makes it seem as if time slows down. What you are looking at echoes something that speaks to you strongly. I’m sad to say I’ve never yet taken a truly great photo

Great photos are overrated—I take about one a day, and look where I am. I know it’s hard to choose, but show me a photograph you took that you’re very proud of.

I’m proud of a lot of my concert photos, and I think there are some gems among my street photography work as well. If I had to pick one, however, it would have to be a street-photo style photo I took in Vietnam last year (see below). I brought a Canon EOS 450D and a 50mm f/1.4 with me—and nothing else—for 3 weeks, and the resulting limitations were a challenge… But it also means that you eventually know your equipment extremely well. You don’t have to fuss about with changing lenses (I didn’t bring any others), lighting equipment (I didn’t bring any), Tripods (again… Didn’t have one) etc. It becomes a very pure experience, and when you occasionally get a good shot, boy does it feel amazing.

I have to agree, that is a winning portrait…even if it’s not B&W

After touring Scandinavia, where will you go next with your yellow motorbike? Let me know if you make a stop in Boston!

I would love to, but my yellow motorbike has gone to pastures new, I’m afraid. I wrote it off in a roundabout a couple of months ago, by parking it unceremoniously into the side of a peoplecarrier (what Americans would call a minivan, I believe). There’s nothing left of the bike, and I escaped with a slightly squashed knee, luckily! I’m waiting for my insurance money, and hopefully I’ll be able to buy another bike for new adventures!

Oh no! That’s so sad, although I’m glad you’re OK.

Has anyone told you that with a beard you look a bit like Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Haha, no that’s a first, thank you

What inspires you to pick up a camera and shoot?

You know, I honestly have absolutely no idea. Sometimes months go by without touching my camera, other times I just can’t put it down. It varies a lot, but it depends on what I am doing, I suppose. I was working on a book in the Netherlands over Christmas, and had left my camera at home – I got the urge to take photos, and it was hideous to not have my camera in arm’s reach…

Thanks, Haje! We wish you the best of luck in your freelance future. And please keep your blog running with Dutch efficiency

Thank you!

  

  

All photos: ©Haje Jan Kamps.

by Miserere

  

Dear Readers,

We’re moving the blog to its own host and domain name. This will allow us to customise the blog to our needs, and hopefully make posting easier for us. From now on all new content will be published on EnticingTheLight.com.

Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds. Anyone clicking through to any articles in the (now officially) old blog, will be redirected automatically to the new site. In fact, if you’re reading this, you already are on the new site. Did you even notice?

Keep coming back for more articles, humour, and general Photography talk. If you don’t, we’ll miss you.

Cheers,

  

    –Miserere and Peter