The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[dsavitsk]

When I was in college taking photo courses, there was no dirtier word than Ansel Adams. Even Weston had a better reputation. (This was in the days when Serrano was all the rage.) Has his reputation been rehabilitated among the cognoscenti?

[Grahame]

Any particular reason for the hate against someone who defined a genre and it's associated techniques and processes? Or just not the flavour de jour?

[dsavitsk]

I think it was the prevalence of dorm room posters and coffee table books on display in corporate waiting rooms.

I'm not expressing an opinion. Simply asking if the general grumpiness among budding photo types from 30 years ago is still prevalent.

Edited April 14, 2023 by dsavitsk

[TMoney]

Oh the middlebrow slander! 🙃

Edited April 14, 2023 by TMoney

[Grahame]

52 minutes ago, dsavitsk said:

I think it was the prevalence of dorm room posters and coffee table books on display in corporate waiting rooms.

I'm not expressing an opinion. Simply asking if the general grumpiness among budding photo types from 30 years ago is still prevalent.

So the curse of "over exposure" as it were?

[Grahame]

@dsavitsk This might be more to your (peer groups) taste, then. 

 

https://www.californiapioneers.org/current-exhibition/

 

[blessingx]

I have to admit there's still a tiny residue taint here. Silly I know and won't keep me from seeing the show. I'm just repeating what everyone else has said, but it was similar for Hitchcock for years (or during those Serrano years early Spielberg). I lived in the architecture dorm for a year and Frank Lloyd Wright was the same. Just really hard when a single name is known by so many and repeated so often, no matter their justified fame. 

As for dorm room posters, was in Esmé's fifth grade class yesterday and they recently put up Escher prints and I cringed. See? Exposure, then corruption for life. 

Grahame, the recent Exposing Muybridge doc could be a fun follow-up as the above shots of different photographers in similar locations are mentioned. Also, due to the timeline, the photographers life Adams was born into (about when Muybridge died).

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by blessingx

[Knuckledragger]

Even though I tend to pontificate about cartoonishly large format cameras, I must say I find the works of Henri Cartier-Bresson and his "humble" Leica 35mm rangefinder (usually with a fairly slow 50mm attached) far more compelling than nearly everything that Ansel Adams did.  HCB's nighttime Paris photos are directly or indirecty an inspiration for all the long exposures I did in the second half of the 00s.  The same can be said for his candid portraits and street photography.  Candid portraiture was the one area of photography where I excelled in spite of myself.  I put the most effort into landscapes, but in spite of the planet, you know, in general holding still and not GAF if I was photographing it, I only ever had mixed results.  Conversely, I was quite good at annoying people I barely knew with an oversized DSLR and large-ish lens and getting interesting results from them.  Of course, as descendents of tree monkeys, we're programmed to study each other's facial expressions and consequently find faces far more interesting than some mountain range.  Maybe I'm a hack after all.  🙃

Case(s) in point:

I've never done much true street photography, but I've always lvoed this shot of a young couple on vacation on MV during the "shoulder season" of early September.

As many/most HCers know, I ran a one man nightclub lighting business for over 15 years.  I originally got into photography to take photos of my lighting gear in action to market it.  Quickly I became more interested in photography than nightclub lighting.  One thing I learned early on was how to take photos in low light conditions with mid 00s low ISO digital sensors:

This photo has a bit of a story: I was taking some pictures from the stage and two inebriated idiots wandered up, wanting to talk to the DJ.  They didn't know (or didn't care) that I was shooting, and stood right in my way.  I set the AF point to the center, and used the two drunks to mask the sides of the image.  I cropped the photo to 5x4, but otherwise did no edits.  The subject is actually a fairly awful person, but in this moment she was a dancefloor diva.

 

A good friend of mine with his then girlfriend.  She was nothing but trouble for him, but I like this moment captured.  Bonus: that Asioan woman out of focus above his arm is his *ex* girlfriend.  I did not plan that.

Hooray, beer.

[blessingx]

Here's a great, short, old doc on Adams... 

 

[dsavitsk]

Photographer admits prize-winning image was AI-generated

[mikeymad]

it looks like it

[blessingx]

 

[blessingx]

On 4/17/2023 at 11:29 AM, dsavitsk said:

Photographer admits prize-winning image was AI-generated

https://petapixel.com/2023/04/19/lonely-redditors-duped-into-paying-for-pictures-of-ai-generated-woman/ 

 

[Grahame]

29 minutes ago, blessingx said:

https://petapixel.com/2023/04/19/lonely-redditors-duped-into-paying-for-pictures-of-ai-generated-woman/ 

 

[Knuckledragger]

Well, I did it.  I finally got a digital camera with some Leica glass.  No, not like that. 

I went to the second hand store on MV and saw a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7.  Some of you may remember when Panasonic licensed the Leica name for their point and shoots in the late 00s, to the sound of much snickering from the photography world.  This thing is very silly.  It has a tiny 10MP sensor, a "25-300mm equivalent" zoom with an F/3.3-F/4.9 max aperture.  In a word, yick.  A super range zoom is more or less the opposite of what I like (fast, short primes)  Also, the exposure controls are lousy.  Even my mid 00s PowerShot S60 had manual (push button) controls for shutter and aperture.

I actually kind of like 00s digital cameras.  I've shot with a bunch.  My OG IR 5D is still in service (once I give the sensor a proper cleaning).  As I have said before, I now have an active disdain for the pseudo HDR look that current SMRT phone cameras shit out.  The somewhat goofy behavior of older digital cameras is vastly preferable to me.  With that said, this Lumix isn't the kind of vintage I like. 

I cannot complain too much because I got the camera for $8.  Strictly speaking, the charger and battery were $8.  The young fella at the second hand shop who sold it to me (who appeared to be more stoned than I was at his age and, well... 1996 was the best year of my life that I don't remember) couldn't figure out the price of the camera.  His solution was to consider the camera, charger, battery and case to be one item use the price tag he had at hand.

Oh, the punchline: The TZ7 can address has a maximum SD card size of 32GB.  The only SD card I had on hand was a 64GB.  I went on a rummage and found a 256 megabyte card that is doubtlessly older than the sentient cloud of pot smoke that sold me the camera.  Fortunately, it formatted just fine and the Lumix was happy with it. 

[guzziguy]

I have a Lumix/Leica point and shoot stashed away somewhere.  I haven't used it in at least 10 years.   I should probably see what's it's worth and sell it.

[blessingx]

Maybe the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 is too new? Coincidently yesterday I got stuck at a "drop off" party at California's Great America, or as I call it "hell hole", and I've only been there once before, with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, also 10 megapixels, but CCD. Really loved the colors, which sent me down the CCD rabbit hole. This time the only camera I had with me was the hipster Hasselblad with a Voigtlander lens that required using electronic shutter and these 44 x 33mm medium format Sony sensors are known for the horrible rolling shutter. Anyway, in case there is any doubts, the 13 year old tiny 1/1.63" sensor Panny LX5 destroys the Hasselblad 907x 50C II with ES on moving objects.  

[mikeymad]

But artistic AF

 

Oh wait, that works in a photography thread.

[blessingx]

For Lee Friedlander and/or Coen Brothers fans, a couple shows (SF & NYC) and corresponding book coming out.  
https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/lee-friedlander-framed-by-joel-coen

[blessingx]

The older I get the more I think still lens and cine lens people don't have much in common (even historical references), but... 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/moment/the-tuner-create-classic-cinematic-looks-on-your-camera 

 

[blessingx]

Fun explanation on how photos were sent by wire 

 

[blessingx]

Got outside with the Light Lens Lab 50mm f/2 “Cooke” Speed Panchro II. For those not in the know LLL is doing historical recreations of long out of production classic lenses, a Cooke design this time, but usually Leica. It seems to be a split lens personality. Glow and vintage f/2-2.4, sharper and more modern very quickly as you climb. Distance plays a big role. Anyway, honeymoon stage and these are just short walks in Woodside and Alviso, CA this weekend to test, but as we have M-mount shooters posting a few to show rendering. Tempted to picked up their 50mm f/2 “Elcan”, now discontinued and prices climbing weekly, to give a go as original completely out of reach. 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by blessingx

[Iron_Dreamer]

I like the effect on images 2 and 3 the most.

[crappyjones123]

[Knuckledragger]

 

As the zoomers say, that last one hits just right.  Serious purists would grouse about "nisen bokeh" but as most photographers eventually figure out, faults can make a lens interesting.

I haven't taken too many photos since moving to MV, which is silly as when I lived off-island I took photos like mad when I visited here.  I mentioned a while back I bought the Moment and Hipstamatic apps for iOS:

Hipstamatic is never not silly, but I actually really like the framing of this image.  The faux vintage effects add nothing, TBH.

This one actually works pretty well as a photograph, hipster or not.

 

Not hipster at all.  The Edgartown docks.  IR 5D, 17-40L at the wide end, F/4, 1/60th, ISO50.  Straight out of the camera with no edits at all.  This happens remarkably never.  There are two types of photographers: those who have no idea about metering for infrared and liars.

My street.  IR 5D, 50mm F/1.4 @ F/8, 1/200, ISO100.  I ambled around the neighborhood with the 5D and faster 50mm.  The latter is actually a terrible match for the former, for a variety of reasons.  The biggest one is that the 50/1.4 has a huge bright spot dead center in infrared that doesn't appear at all in the visible color spectrum.  Curiously, my older 1987 50mm F/1.8 doesn't have this problem at all.  Of all the photos I took this afternoon, this was a last minute one as I was crossing the road.  At the time I remember thinking "well, there was no effort in that one so it will suck."  It was the best of the bunch, by a huge margin.

 

South Beach, EDG.  Moment app on iPhone 13.  I adjusted the EV down a bit.  I do not get along with touchscreen controls.  Some days I wish I'd sprung for a 13 Pro, but the price difference could get me a Canon 35mm F/2 IS.

The gateway to South Beach.  Also Moment on the i13.  I got the sea horizon reasonably straight but that didn't stop be from loading the image into Photoshop, pixel peeping and getting that MFer as level as I could.  I do like the framing on this one.

 

About 5 feet ahead of the previous photo.  I adjusted the horizon and fussed over the levels of this shot quite a bit.  It looks remarkably non-pseudo-HDR, and I consider that to be a success at this point.  Missing from this image: the cold AF breeze coming off the Atlantic.

 

EDG harbor again.  Taken right after the IR photo at the top.  The late afternoon sun was gorgeous and the iPhone was the best (visible spectrum) camera I had on hand.  I did correct the horizon but didn't make many adjustments otherwise.  I like it.

 

Throwback Thursday: ("Knuckles, it's Wednesday.")  Truly a monstrous edit.  I started with a not very good photo I took and had previously edited in 2005 and rand it through Topaz Gigapixel AI, upscaling it 6x.  Then I loaded it into Luminar 4, where I made dozens of tweaks and applied a lookup table.  Next I used Topaz DeNoise AI to clean the image up and remove some of the posterizing effects brought on by Luminar.  Lastly I dragged into Photoshop, used QuickMask to select the sky and denoised and otherwise cleaned it up (it needed a lot of work.)  Then I straightened out the horizon and adjusted the levels.  This was a project I worked on and off again for a week.  Was it worth it?  Probably not.  I find the end result kind of amusing.