This afternoon I was back at the beach at Eastney … which in the summer is full of nudists cavorting, but today had just a handful of textiles fishing and walking. Plus me waving a camera around trying to come up with interesting images.
#0: Untitled (for obvious reasons)
Untitled
#1: Ferries In The Sunshine
Ferries In The Sunshine
It has been a while since my urge to photograph random scenes, and the time available to do so actually met comfortably, but I managed a short session at the weekend wandering around Southsea. Nothing especially interesting – apart from anything else I’m obviously a bit rusty.
But to give this place something a little more interesting than just random noise :-
#0: Two-Wheeled Partyers
Two-Wheeled Partiers
It looks like they arrived a little late.
#1: Giving The Sky The Finger
Giving The Sky The Finger
As someone who has a preference for making black and white images, but frequently gets asked ‘what does that look like in colour’, and likes colour images, I sometimes wonder about the differences between B&W and colour. In addition I also recently saw an episode of the BBC’s “Genius Of Photography” where it was commented that in the 1970s, colour photography was not taken seriously in the art photography world.
Personally I think it is up to the photographer to decide what kind of image to make … B&W or colour. It is their choice of how to make the image to draw attention to those aspects of the image the photographer wants to draw attention to.
B&W images are supposedly more artistic and colour images are supposedly more realistic. The first is ridiculous … does anyone criticise painters for their ‘unartistic’ use of colour ? And the second is almost as silly … sure the real world is in colour, but it is not frozen in time.
B&W images do tend to make it easier for me to see the geometry and patterns in an image, and give a different slant to the light in the image. But images in colour let you see the colour which is just as important; or more so in some images.
Both are equally valid.
A rule of thumb giving base speed/aperture values to use in manual mode.
Set the shutter speed to 1/(ISO setting).
Set the lens aperture to f/16 in sunny conditions with distinct shadows or …
| Aperture | Lighting | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| f/16 | Sunny | Distinct |
| f/11 | Slight Overcast | Soft around edges |
| f/8 | Overcast | Barely visible |
| f/5.6 | Heavy Overcast | No shadows |
| f/4 | Sunset |
I hate cleaning the sensor on a DSLR … there you are doing the equivalent of scraping a spatula across the surface of something tiny yet sufficiently expensive that it would cause me a heart seizure if I were to scratch it. Not uncommonly I clean my sensor only to find out that the dust spots found in the raw images are still there! However this time I seem to have removed a good amount of grime.
Took the newly cleaned camera out with my fisheye lens around Old Portsmouth to make some images. Not a bad little stroll :-