Photographers legacy

Recently I got to know about Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky and his photographs. What makes his photographs really interesting is that they were meant to be color photographs at the time when color film did not exist. 

He travelled around Russia taking photos of various places using his special camera around 1905-1915. His camera took three exposures for each light component. These sets of three black and white photos were very difficult to merge to a complete color print on his time but couple years ago they were scanned and processed using modern technology. Library of Congress has 'The Empire That Was Russia' exhibition and many of the processed photos can be seen online.

I wonder if Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky thought his photos would have such an important historical value after so many years. In our current lifestyle photos usually became useless as soon as nobody remembers where it was taken and who were on it. In case of digital photography I am not too sure how well digital archives survive for one hundred years. And how to write all the important information on the back of the digital image? In any case, I would be very curious to know what kind of piece of history future generations will find as fascinating as these old color photos.

Depth of Field calculator

Most photographers know the effect of different apertures. The smaller aperture (=bigger f-value) the longer depth of field. But how long is the depth of field precisely?

I was quite surprised how much the distance from the subject affects the length of the depth of field. Let's imagine that we are taking a photo of a flower from one meter distance with 100mm f2.8 on 1.6 crop frame. Based on an online calculator the depth of field is 9.7 mm. But we want to double that because the flower is not completely sharp.

Stepping down to f5.6 gives depth of field of 19.3 mm. Now the dof is twice as long but the exposure time has become four times longer. In case of hand held photography this might be too much.

Another option is to keep aperture at f2.8 but take one step backwards so that the distance is 1.4 meters.  This will give the same depth of field as above but without the expense of longer exposure time.

Canon 500D introduced

Today I realized that my less than a year old Canon 450D is obsolete. Canon published new Canon 500D which replaces 450D in their product line. But after checking the specifications and preview from dpreview.com I did not rush to a camera store to pre-order it.

The camera shares same form factor as Canon 450D so there is no improvement in ergonomics except the new and sharper LCD screen. The internals of the camera have received some updates including a sensor with more pixels and a processor allowing video shooting. But the video shooting is clearly limited compared to 5D mark II and there is no possibility to connect external microphone. 

The only feature I really would like to have from Canon 500D is its ability to shoot on higher ISO settings. I haven't seen any example shots with ISO 1600 or 3200 yet so I am curious how noisy they are compared to 450D's ISO 800 or 1600. Apart from this I think there is no need to upgrade for 450D owners - especially after checking 500D's price tag.

Bad weather for photographing

Some time ago I was complaining about cloudy and dull weather on a photography forum. I was not happy how boring everything looked compared to brighter day. I received some feedback but I did not expect anything as I was just ranting. But that is the whole point. The camera records what you see. If your mood is already pessimistic there is very little chance to take photos telling the opposite.

Getting involved with photography

One day I was thinking how and by whom I have been affected in the sense of photographing. I did not simply go to closest photo store and buy DSLR with lenses and other equipment. Instead, there has been slow progress going on for long time. But only until very recently  I did not call photography my interest.

My father used to shoot a lot on slide film but I was only involved being a subject. Later on I did experiment a bit with his Minolta 7000i but photos were just casual snap shots. The interesting point with that camera was its broken autofocus so I ended up focusing everything myself. 

A distant relative used to shoot much more and talk even more about photography. He also demonstrated the black and white developing and print process. I did not understand half what he said but I did read many camera magazines while visiting him. Maybe those artistic photos featuring women got my attention as a boy.

I did not have my own camera for a long time and the first one was a simple point and shoot. I chose the camera based on its size and ease to use. So I bought Canon IXUS 60. Being such a small camera it served well as a travel camera. I still have it and it is in good condition. But because of its limitations came the need for something else.

Actually, the topic of buying DSLR was brought up by my girl friend. She started to talk about how much better DSLR would be and she also listed up suitable models. I was rather hesitant because of the high price and I did not really see the need for such a camera. However, she managed to plant the idea in my mind and one day I bought Canon 450D with 18-55mm IS lens on the way home.

She has been giving quite a lot of comments about composition and style and I have been commenting her technical skills. Sometimes things get a bit heated but there is only one DSLR at the moment so we have to be able to co-operate. But we are both improving and for my surprise, I am the one spending time studying and trying out new things.

Welcome

Apertoire is a blog about photographing and related matters. The author is relatively new in the world of photographing so every moment with the camera or photos teaches something new. Talking about your interest is a powerful way to learn - therefore this blog is established.