Page 31 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 5 #2
P. 31
to believe that all there is to graph. First, is the mastery of
photography is pushing a but- the technology of the cam-
ton. When people look at our era. Our forebears called
work and we tell them that for this seeing through the lens.
every hour in the field it could Seeing through the lens is
take up to four hours of post learning to see the world as
processing, their eyes glaze the camera does not as the
over in disbelief. Instagram human mind interprets the
has made this even more world to be.
problematic. Great images are
the product of a process that For example, early in my ca-
begins before the image is cre- reer, on my way to New York,
ated and which isn't complete I stopped in Philadelphia late
until post processing is fin- at night to create some imag-
ished. They aren't the result of es. When I got to New York
applying a filter to a cell phone and looked at the images on
image. my computer I was appalled
to find that my images were
This is a case in point. A cell yellow. In fact, city lights are
phone picture is saved as a sodium based and cast a yel-
JPG. The price we pay for that low light. My brain changed
instant image is a loss of qual- the color of the street lights to
ity - up to 80% of what a cam- white because we have been
era's sensor captured is lost lead to see light as white.
when an image is saved as a Ansel Adams was a master of Capucine Rose from the Summer of 2005
JPG. I am continually surprised the technology of the cam-
by the number of profession- era and what he produced
al photographers who don't was technically superb. He
know this. was also a master of post
processing. Though not emo-
The only way to capture ev-
erything the sensor saw is to The only way to capture everything the sensor
work in a format called RAW sees is to work in a format called RAW.
and that requires every image
to be processed before it can tionally compelling for me,
be used or modified. Post pro- his images demonstrate the
cessing - the kind of work that importance of technical mas-
was once done in a darkroom tery.
and now is done on a comput-
er - is a critical part of creating Second, it is important that
a quality image. we understand the world in
which we live. The time of
Seamus: But it isn't just about year, the intensity and the
post processing - is it? variability of light during the
day, the difference between
Falcon:: No. Not at all. There
are at least three basic ele-
ments for creating a photo-
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