ESFotoClix Blog

Figuring out what story we are telling with our images is one of the biggest challenges photographers face. Often we take photographs without giving their story-telling aspect much thought and achieve images that don’t quite come together. Other times, we may give story-telling some thought, but end up choosing our composition through technical criteria and fail to create a compelling image. This past week, while participating in our church’s photography team, out on the town to capture Serve Weekend 2010, I struggled with my approach to story-telling.

Our team’s job essentially boiled down to a photojournalism (a.k.a. PJ) job. Capture people at work, serving and impacting their community, and that was the story, I told other photographers. As I prepared for my portion of the assignment, however, I had a nagging feeling that this approach was missing something, that it was a tad cold and detached. Not that it wouldn’t produce some interesting and perhaps compelling shots, as these next three examples show. But something was still missing.

Part of the problem here is that these could have been any two guys and gal prepping and painting up a storm. The story wouldn’t come across without other images that capture more than what was happening or being accomplished. We needed photos that captured the spirit behind the action. Here are three additional examples, which, in combination with the more standard PJ shots, captured the story behind the story.

The moral of the story for me: the next time I ask and answer “what is the story?” for a photo, I also need to say to myself, “yeah, but what is the story behind the story?”

One often hears and reads that image post processing (PP) is not necessary. Some folks even go as far as to take pride in setting up their cameras in such a manner as to get the JPG file output to be just as they like it, thus avoiding PP. After working at this digital photography thing for a while, as much as I’d like it to be true that I can get “perfect” JPGs out-of-camera (OOC), I am convinced that at least when it comes to B&W that’s just chasing fool’s gold.

Here’s one recent photo I post-processed with a heavy red channel filter to emulate the effects of physical red filters. This particular image is inspired by Ansel Adam’s Monolith in which he used a red filter to contrast rock formations against a darkened blue sky. For me, it is a nice example of why post-processing (PP) rocks. Try doing this with a JPG straight out of camera.

Joshua Tree Rocks, Nikon D700 & AF-S 17-35

The case for post-processing, or so I thought, is tougher when it comes to color images. In many situations, if you take the time to get the exposure and composition right, along with all those customizable camera settings, there is little benefit to shooting RAW. Right? Not so fast. In reviewing some photos I took on a recent trip from an airplane window (yeah, you’re not supposed to shoot through 2 layers of dirty glass, with reflections everywhere, etc.), I got the following images out of camera:

Blah sky view 1, Nikon D300 & AF-S 16-85 VR

Blah sky view 2, Nikon D300 & AF-S 16-85 VR

Pretty, blah, right? The problem here is that the histogram is bunched up smack in the middle, giving a very low contrast image. I’m 100% positive that is not how the scene would have looked had I been on the other side of that window. Though there probably was some atmospheric haze at play here, even on the passenger side of the window, the scene didn’t look like that. Can these be rescued?

Yes! Since I shot 14-bit RAW with my Nikon D300, I had some latitude to use the Levels tool on each of the color channels to both fix the White Balance *and* spread out the histogram from 0 to 255, thus achieving higher contrast. I added a little “Clarify” (aka, Tone mapping) after the Levels step, resized, and presto! My own “Angel’s View”:

Angel’s View 1, Nikon D300 & AF-S 16-85 VR

Angel’s View 2, Nikon D300 & AF-S 16-85 VR

This is where someone comes running in and shows me how to achieve the same results in-camera.

Sony’s recent release of their new NEX mirrorless interchangeable lens camera line may come across as Sony doing what they have to do to keep up with the Joneses, namely Olympus and Panasonic with their much-acclaimed micro-4/3 line. But I think Sony is besting the Joneses on at least two counts.

First, not only have Sony produced a smaller mirrorless interchangeable lens body, but they have done so with a larger APS-C sensor. While Olympus’ and Panasonic’s micro-4/3 sensor comes at 18.0×13.5mm, Sony’s sensor features the APS-C dimensions of 23.4×15.6mm. This means more potential for improved noise performance. At 14MP some are already saying that Sony didn’t do so well in the high ISO, low noise department. Nonetheless, the exciting prospect here is that others (Canon and Nikon) have shown they can do better in this format. Some have predicted a development like this would spell the end of the entry level DSLR, and that may well prove true in short order.

Second, and perhaps just as exciting are Sony’s plans to release a camcorder line using the same E mount system that they developed for the NEX cameras. This at a minimum renders DSLR video irrelevant, if not altogether obsolete. Some folks have been clamoring to DSLR video as an affordable option to shoot high quality HD video with all the creative advantages of using DSLR lenses. The problem with this approach is that hand-holding a DSLR for video isn’t the most user-friendly path to win a cinematography award, and other DSLR video gotchas (rolling shutter effects), make it at best a compromise. Sony now gives us all those nice depth-of-field creative choices in a proper camcorder package. Independent and/or low-budget film makers and videographers will likely jump on this with as much if not more enthusiasm than they showed with DSLR video.

We will have to wait to see some results and reviews before we decide how good of a system Sony can put together, but it appears that this E mount will indeed be a game changer — and perhaps more so than just for DSLRs.

References: Sony NEX-5 review.