civilized ku # 5203 / diptych # 227 ~ get serious

Clare & Carl's* ~ Plattsburgh, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone

after / before ~ embiggenable • iPhone

* Yes, the building leans dramatically. Notice the sign pole and utility pole for vertical reference.

I'm getting kinda sick & tired of reading about how disappointed a picture maker is with pictures made using his/her phone.

My first gripe with such ramblings is, unless the picture maker / commentor is using a state-of-the-art device (admittedly, an ever moving target), he/she needs to stop enumerating a devices' shortcoming(s). I can list the shortcomings of my first digital camera but, really, what's the point?

The other great unmentioned-in most cases-is, does the picture maker know how to best use the device? Things as simple as cleaning the lens protector, to always using the HDR setting (if available - the now standard setting on an iPhone), and, the use of on-device picture processing apps to-in may cases-greatly improve the end result.

Re: picture processing - dependent upon my picture use intention, I might choose to process a picture on my phone. Or, for more "serious" intentions, I download a picture from my iCloud and give it the complete Photoshop treatment. In doing so, I have found that there is a great deal of "meat" on an iPhone's picture bone-one can shoot RAW files-which allows for considerable processing manipulation without any noticeable degradation of the image. See the above before / after diptych.

All of that written, phone camera modules are not a "perfect" picture making device. That written, I have found the iPhone camera module (7 Plus) to be a very capable picture making device for most of my picture making needs. I regularly make 19x19inch prints which compare favorably to 19x19inch prints made from a "real" camera when viewed from a normal-non-pixel peeping-viewing distance.

FYI, I am about to do a 7 Plus / 8 Plus camera module comparison. I have been told / read that there is a considerable improvement in file quality. If so, the 8 Plus is in my future.

civilized ku # 5198-5200 (kitchen sink / kitchen life) ~ the last supper

the last supper ~ Burlington, Vermont (embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable)  • µ4/3

(embiggenable) • µ4/3

Re: the last supper. The meal could have literally been my LAST SUPPER had the heart procedure the following day gone horribly wrong. Fortunately, as it turned out, it was just my last supper before the procedure.

civilized ku # 5190-93 (kitchen life) ~ taking the ferry across the lake

embiggenable ~ µ4/3

embiggenable ~ iPhone

embiggenable ~ iPhone

embiggenable ~ iPhone

I've been making pictures in the kitchen over past week or so. Other than life in the Adirondacks itself, my kitchen is probably my most fertile place for making pictures - an ever-changing tableau of stuff.

Off to Burlington today for my ablation - scarring the interior walls of my heart with the intention of permanently interupting the electric signals which cause my irregular heart beat (better known as afib).

civilized ku # 1515 / the new snapshot # 163 (kitchen life) ~ when "good enough" is actually perfect

one red leaf ~ in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenable) • µ4/3

in the grocery bag ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

In his entry on TOP today, Mike Johnston stated / inquired:

...it's not the ultimate in detail (ed. referring to a sample picture), by today's standard, but doesn't it give you pretty much all the detail—all the information—your actual human eyes could, at a distance where you'd be seeing that woman, the subject, in about the same way? Doesn't it get the idea across about as well as anybody needs?

... So we started this endless roundel of trying, comparing, shooting "test shots," making the most fanatically minute comparisons, and of course upgrading, always interested in the latest and the next. "Neomania," I called it back then. We became maniacs for the newest thing.

But at some point, I just assumed, things would settle down and we'd go back to just...well, making, and looking at, pictures. You know, without caring how the pictures were made. Are we there yet?

No, most "serious" picture makers are not there yet and, most likely, never will be. However, on the other hand, most non-serious picture makers (snapshotists[?]) or non-picture-making viewers of pictures, are primarily, if not exclusively, interested what is pictured and could care little or not at all about the whys, the hows or the wherefores.

Re: Johnston's question - ...it's not the ultimate in detail by today's standard, but doesn't it give you pretty much all the detail—all the information—your actual human eyes could, at a distance where you'd be seeing that woman ... in about the same way? Doesn't it get the idea across about as well as anybody needs?

iMo, of course it does. That is the reason I have always wished that, at exhibitions of my pictures, I could employ those red velvet rope things to prevent viewers from moving in too close - the distance determined by the size of the pictures - to view the pictures in their entirety. Why?

iMo (in the case of my pictures or for that matter any good picture), a good picture is always about* the relatiosnship and interplay of the visual elements - light/shadow, shapes, lines, colors, et al - as placed on the 2D plane of a print and within the frame, as imposed by the picture maker, of the picture. The thing pictured, the referent, may or may not be of any particular importance.

So, if a picture, as a print, is viewed from a distance which allows the viewer to see it as a singular entity, then I see (literally and figuratively) no value at all in detail / resolution which is beyond the capabilities of human vision.

*in the Art World

kitchen life # 41 / civilized ku # 1510 ~ a picture is just a picture but more

fruitand tubers in a bowl ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3

vines on a wall ~ Plattsburgh, NY (embiggenable) • M4/3

An excerpt from an entry on PHOTOTHUNK ...

Serious photographers who are successful at communicating things, I feel, manage to simultaneously "go beyond" a sack of graphical tricks, and at the same time to return to the naive subject. Of course, I count myself among this sainted number ....

The same applies to looking at photographs. The naive viewer says "what a pretty flower," the more sophisticated camera owner says "tsk, the flower is centered rather than placed on a Rule of Thirds Power Point," and the artist says "what a pretty flower" but in a more thoughtful way.

I like to think because it's the way I do it, that the Serious Artist sees the whole frame of the photograph. They grasp the whole as a collection of forms and tones and lines and colors all in balance, or not, etcetera. And they they see a pretty flower, and the way the picture reveals the pretty flower without clutter (or with clutter, as is fit and meet.) But at the end of the day, it's still the pretty flower.

iMo, it just about says it all, re: making or viewing good pictures.

kitchen life # 40 / infared-ish # 15-17 ~ baloney

egg and jam remains ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3

foliage ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

beach dudes ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

fallen blossoms ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

While indulging in the debunking of an oft heard quote-"The best camera is the one you have with you."-Mike Johnston highlighted a reader's comment which read (in part)

"Color pictures have to work harder to mean anything." I like that line. B&W cuts to the essence of a subject ...

iMo, Johnston should have debunked the reader's comment while he was in a debunking frame of mind. Of course, Johnston has an oft stated preference for BW pictures, both the making and viewing thereof, so he might be hard pressed not to second that idea.

On the other hand I have no such preference so I have no difficulty at all in writing that I believe the idea of BW's supposed superiority over color in getting "to the essence of a subject" is utter nonsense. Now I certainly think I could write quite a long essay regarding why I believe the aforementioned idea is a load of self-serving crappola, but I won't. Instead let me proffer just one particular point.

BW picture making as the pinnacle of picture making is a concept which has come and gone. Prior to the advent of modern-era color film, making pictures with color film was an iffy proposition inasmuch as the early color films were less than perfect. The colors produced were not very accurate-some greatly exagerated other non existent-relative to real world colors and extended exposure latitude was the stuff of dreams.

As a result, "serious" picture makers worked within the confines of the BW picture making genre. Results could be tailor made - film contrast / tonal / grain control with the use of various developers and an veritable cornucopia of paper choices with a wide range of characteristics were the order of the day. "Serious" picture makers most often had their own special recipe for getting exactly the results they desired and they were/are as obsessed with getting their work flow "right" as any digital color picture makers of today.

All of that written, no matter the genre-color or BW-one chooses to work in/with, it is not the genre which works hard to get to the essence of a subject. Rather, it is the picture maker who needs to work hard in order to "master" the genre with/in which they ply their talents. In either case, a picture maker who has "mastered" their genre has the ability to make pictures which successfully represent the esssence of his/her subject. And have no doubt about it, "mastering" either genre-color/BW-is an skill / art unto itself.

civilized ku # 5105 (kitchen life) / the new snapshot # 146-148 ~ vice versa

kitchen reflections ~ (embiggenable) iPhone 7 Plus camera module

Monopole music ~ (embiggenable) µ4/3

Monopole bartneder ~ (embiggenable) µ4/3

Monopole ghost ~ (embiggenable) µ4/3

In a switcheroo, picture making wise, today's civilized ku picture was made with the iPhone 7 Plus camera module and the new snapshot pictures were made with µ4/3 gear. The reason for that is simple ... the µ4/3 sensor is far superior to the iPhone camera module sensor in very low light picture making situations.