Driving into the The Light

Driving into the The Light, a photo by Ananda Sim 88 on Flickr.

This is another IDHDR shot. Spotted this familiar scene driving, watched for traffic and stopped by the side of the road. In most circumstances this would be a fail or defeat shot. The sun is in the frame of vision and it would distract the exposure metering such that most of the scene would be black silhouette. With the HDR treatment, we've got a road and roadside with trees and shrubs and grass that you could swear were what you saw - notice that red tree. Of course we get sunspot flare but that's not too distracting either. And the sun looks blinding which it was.

Amazing in its white brilliance

Amazing in its white brilliance, a photo by Ananda Sim 88 on Flickr.

This is quite an amazing shot for me. The building is quite mundane although I have not figured out what that rectangular arch above the footpath is - it does not seem to have any functional use.

Anyway, I've shot the building a few times but the results have not been of any consequence. This time, I whipped out the Samsung Galaxy S Android phone with the HDR Camera+ app. Three quick JPEG shots later, here it is.

You can see a niggly rainbow from the moire pattern caused by blending of three shots but this is the scene as your eyes would see it. The white paint is searing bleached white in the sun, although your eyes might see some texture as they would be better than any camera sensor. The shadows would be dark and deep but again, your eye might pick up some shadow detail. And the footpath is that off grey colour with the wall bricks a little beigy.

It would be pretty hard to capture all the tones with a conventional shot from even a better camera but this IDHDR allows a puny camera phone with this leeetle small sensor to render a whole lot of detail and tonality.

Selling a camera is easy. Really?

I’m not talking about selling my second hand gear. I’m hopelessly truthful. I’m talking about those camera companies very seldom “getting it” with regards selling cameras – their lifeblood product. What do they try?

They get actors, tennis players (not the sports photogs) to do product endorsements.

They get artsy artist-photographers, the more abstract and high fashion the better, to showcase their art. Yet, somehow, the camera becomes a wanna-be second, eclipsed by the photog’s distinctive style. They actually alienate the buyer as the results are so different from what the man-on-the-street envisions.

Really, it’s much simpler than that. Have a look at The Gruen Transfer specifically Episode 4 Season 7 (sorry for those not in Austalia, the video is restricted). It’s about selling shampoos. Look at

• 2:49 “Appeal to sub-categories of consumer – make it appear specific to the user” – say Crafted for Experts, Made for You
• 5:40 “Actual Self + Brand = Ideal Self”
• 6:30 Create “Perceived Value” on top of the common features for every product.
• 11:00 “The Price Placebo” – say “Pros use this Product” – it must be better than the other product that Pros seldom use.
• 16:00 “Count your features twice – increase Believability”
• 17:15 “use the Because phrase” – make reasons to rationalise that choice.

Oh, and throw a science diagram, numbers and charts into it.

Now, you may, well selling shampoo is selling shampoo, surely we’re selling a Nikon D7000 or Canon 7D or an Olympus PEN EP-3, they’re a different product category. Well, think about this. If you could sell as many units of cameras as you can sell bottles of shampoos, it sure doesn’t matter when your company laughs all the way to the bank.

Let’s put this in the context of cameras. The easiest sell for me, is to appeal to sub-categories of consumer. Take a look at any varied forum. The point and shoot owners and the DSLR-owner wanna-bes. What do these people shoot? Photos of dogs, cats, birdies, bugs and flowers, firstborns, grandchildren and GFs (Girl Friends). Even turn the camera around and shoot themselves. Holiday snaps, repetitively of the same sights in Venice or Rome. Sunsets skies. How many people are in this category? By my guess, heaps. Many, many more than the vocal seniors at the DPR forums. Recently, Simon Joinson remarked in a forum post that the site gets way more traffic than the forums themselves. If these people are really the ones who will buy the camera you are selling shouldn’t you primarily (pardon the pun) focus on them?

What selling angles would work best with these people? Hands up! Who says “Subcategories – Crafted for Experts – Made for you!”. Simply put, that means showing these people examples and scenarios of “Actual Self + Camera = Ideal Self”. Those are very, very easy to do, powerful and yet underutilised by the camera brands.

Instead, too many camera ads work on the only point – “Count Your Features Twice – Increase Believability” – that’s a very, very hard angle to sell in a tech gadget which modern cameras are – whatever you innovate now, in six months, your competitor will have come up with another feature. Counting features is well known to the electronic appliance companies – the deeper the pocket for gee-whiz features  and multi-lingual cute icons representing the matrix of features.

For the rest of the potential buyers – the camera fans, nerds, high ISO low noise / dynamic range / resolution numbers measurebrators, you seed the community with evangelist fanboi and trolls. You conjure perceived value and work on the price placebo. And you use the “Because phrase” a lot.

Celebrity endorsements? Worked for Lux soap – or was that “Actual Self + Brand = Ideal Self”? I don’t think it’s that effective for cameras.

IDHDR–the confessions of a former HDR reluctant

No, don’t look at the title, and leave. Just because every Google+ photographer seems to have a fetish for HDR doesn’t make this current vogue or passé.
I’ve previously recoiled a bit from HDR. Trey Ratliff has been the sifu and legendary evangelist of HDR and some of his works are exemplary, not just in HDR but in wide angle lens compositions. But as with anything if you see too much of that, you get jaded. And I am seeing too much of the dramatically emphasised tone mapped HDR the past month at G+.
I’ve tried HDR – the Photomatix way. The EasyHDR way. The Dynamic Photo HDR way. They’ve all been klutzy. Really, taking the time to shoot at least 3 shots. Coming back to the computer to blend them. No, I won’t use Photoshop super alignment whizzo. I’m about as keen to Photoshop anything as plucking my eyebrows.
In-Device HDR, on the other hand, I’m recently more than happy with. My Samsung Galaxy S (Android) phone-cam has an easy no brainer app HDR Camera+ – costs heaps, all of AUD 2.82 – yes, I haven’t made a mistake with the decimal point. You point, you hold steady for 3 clicks, and that’s about it. You can even post up to Google+ or Facebook. The small sensor phone-cam really benefits from extending the handling of dynamic range – skies improve instead of being dead white.

Rob and Rae's big Eucalypt at sunset – a tough shot in view of the shadows




Early morning at the Monash Staff Development Unit on Wellington Road with deep shadows and bright, bright happy but cold sun.

Your Sense of Self in the Photos You Take

It’s father’s day 2011, “Happy Father’s Day” to all those Dads. I’m pausing for reflection on the times and memories I had with my Dad and those I have myself with Number One. I’ve also been thinking about the photos I take and incidentally, Robin Wong has just posted on his blog - Robin Wong- Snapshots vs Photographs.

To add context to my searching for self, I’ve been exposed to a barrage of Photogs on Google+, with lists of lists of lists of Photogs. Some with an immense sense of self, some with a sense of sharing, some that make images that you can tune in, some that are nowhere like it. On the other hand, I participate in the Beginner’s Forum at DP Review and that brings insight as well into how digital beginners view their efforts and their search for instantiation and validation by their peers.

Really, it’s this. Photography is a journey for me. A search for my ability to create artistically – when my other pursuits are more logical and analytical. A liberation and a breathing of soul and life.Not every one approaches photography like this.

Some people just want a quick snapshot of life, of the moment, of the people, of the circumstance. We speak of snapshots in a somewhat second class way, as something we don’t bring to the table in intellectual company. And yet, without this fervour for snapshots through the years, those intellectuals and collectors who now treasure sepia toned or faded colour photos for their vintage effect, won’t have much to treasure or collect.

Some others treat Photography as an income source, with a workman like approach to the skill, to the photos and whatever perfectionism they place in competently and repeatedly taking a reliable, technically valid shot for a client brief. No, these are not snapshots, they’re sometimes very “set up”, staged and planned but I propose, they are not automatically satisfying to every individual viewer.

And there’s a whole rainbow and plethora of reasons and rationale between the two cases.

So, where does that leave you?

• You’ve got to shoot what you like, in the way that you like.
• The issue is that on the start of the journey through photography, one seeks validation and one seeks out a critic, a judge or failing that a peer. I guess that is part of the learning process – what do people think about your efforts. Is it too dark? Is it too light? Can you see what I see? Is my bum too fat in this?
  
  In some ways, this is inevitable – the search for truth in aesthetic appreciation. In other ways, it can be quite painful, tortuous as different viewers give varying opinions. Do you trust this opinion or the other opinion? At the end of the day, it comes back to you making your own opinion – it’s like the oft repeated saying of hiring a consultant to affirm what you already know.
• A new aspect to me, is establishing what I like to see. Yes, before Google+, you had to venture out to see another artist’s work. Now, you just have to Circle everyone and your Stream is full of some gems and a lot of photos that you would not shoot yourself. And that’s the second big point – you take the time to sieve out what you don’t like and you absorb osmotically, visually, what makes you happy.
• Finally, the pursuit and the journey – to produce the images that make you, and make what you like.
• Don’t be in a hurry to achieve that final goal. Remember, it’s a journey of self discovery. You’re supposed to enjoy the journey. You’re supposed to discover yourself and your skills. If you could produce what you want yesterday, what would you do next?