And then, there’s Black and White

For a long time, I didn’t get any joy out of black and white shots in the digital Bayer colour sensor era, with LCD screens. I didn’t get the drama that I wanted, the depth of tones in monochrome that I visualised.
Not that I did that well in the film days. I used several films but my favourite turned out to be Agfapan 100 processed in Rodinal. Or was it Neofin Blau?
Seeing the picture was an issue with black and white. I guess I dream in colour and that hampers my recognition of what the panchromatic translations would yield, days after the fact.
With the Olympus PEN E-PL1, I’m on a new adventure. I can see, in Liveview and in different aspect ratios, the gritty black and white that I almost like (well, it’s better than most of the bland monchromatic transformations). It’s not that I can’t get one good monochrome shot, once in a while, it’s just that I don’t get one regularly.
Victory with Kodak V705

Discarded Shoes with the Samsung Galaxy S

Fellini with the Olympus C-750uz

Enchanted with the PEN E-PL1

Better in Black and White

After a long time away from film, I shot a roll of expired Rollei Retro 100 – it reminded me of Agfapan 100 that I used to shoot in the late 1970s.
But these days, film is messy and expensive – you pay for the roll, you pay for the processing and optionally the scanning and the scanning (for a 35mm film) may have hideous tramlines and dust artifacts.
So I thought, how well does Kodak do in their cams with black and white? I mean, born in the camera but lightly adjusted later. Because, black and white to me is about visualisation and visualisation in monochrome is difficult for me these days when colour is prolific. Well, not too bad. Kodak V705.

del.icio.us Tags: Kodak,v705,blackandwhite,monochrome

Keeping the light burning

Why do we leave the light on in the front? Is it to give us working illumination when we wake up earlier than sunrise? Is it because we forget to switch off the night before? Or is it to be a beacon to lost souls?

The Head of Kodak Kuala Lumpur Advertising Department

I was on the DPR Kodak forum (where we have a nice social camraderie) and posted a photo of the first advertisement I had ever seen (in Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur) extolling the features of Kodak Smart Capture in their cameras. Kodak has been through a tough financial year (well, several) and their camera business is sadly in some disarray. Lots of what looks like oem models (i.e. somebody makes them, maybe somebody designs them, proposes them, makes them – an Original Equipment Manufacturer with a name beginning with F… with factories in South East Asia and elsewhere). Kodak diehards were horrified to hear that one of the new gen 9xx series ceased production just before 2009 Christmas and New Year holiday sales season, goss being that they had contracted the oem for a fixed number of units, contract satisfied earlier than expected (hey something went right, sales were good) but the manufacturing and distribution dried up at such a crucial time. This is goss, we won’t know the truth.

Anyway, we love our Kodaks, old and new and I was thrilled to see scooter rider (in sandals, teeshirt) flying the flag at an intersection. Chiue reckons he’s the head of Kodak Kuala Lumpur Advertising Department. Maybe they’re starting a viral ad campaign at the grass roots? Maybe…..

del.icio.us Tags: Kodak,V705,Malaysia,Advertising

Caring Tuppen for Precious Rocks

See how loving wrapped the rocks are? They must be fragile art pieces.

APR – AnandaSim’s Photo Rating System

Ananda's Photo Rating System Edition 1.1

Note: Updated 22nd April 2013
See also Edition 2: Ananda’s 10

With increasing awareness brought by the accelerated learning that digital photography and the internet brings, I’ve sometimes thought of a rating system to assess my own as well as other photos I see.

Subject Choice	Max 2 out of 10 aggregate points
Wow Factor (includes Story Telling)	Max 2 out of 10 aggregate points
Visualisation – Covers Scene Lighting, Composition, Specific and explicit choice of exposure and other elements of rendering, presentational aspects	Max 3 out of 10 aggregate points
Execution – the Technical Image Quality – Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness/Sharpening incorporating in-camera processing as well as post processing	Max 3 out of 10 aggregate points

Observations:

1. The maximum possible score in each category is largely subjective. That’s intended. You preference for a Subject may be quite different from mine.
2. The subjective parameters outweigh the technical parameters. That’s intended. Glorify art and life not gear.

S:2 W:2 V:3 E:2 Agg:9

del.icio.us Tags: photography,assessment,rating,appreciation,imagequality

Been distracted....

I've been distracted from blogging - a lot of fun interacting with the folks at the DP Review Forums and in my work life. I would write that I picked up a second hand Kodak V705 - always wanted the 23mm wide angle and in-camera-pano-stitch in the dual lens pocket. There's the old saying of "be careful for what you wish for, you might get it and it's not what you want".

Well, for the second hand price, it has given me much joy - as much I suppose as those Olympus PEN EP-1 owners are getting. This small camera lets you let your hair down - you don't have to be so ultra formal and ego centric with a big DSLR and big lens, you just stretch out your arms, point and shoot, and oh, well, if it doesn't work, next time, you did try.

There are serious deficiencies with this Kodak V705. The JPEG compression is really aggresive - the Kodak P880 which I also have has selectable compression but the V705 does not - it's a V series, not an el cheapo C series - why did they make it compress JPEGs so much? Buyers of the camera when it was new would have had enough money to buy more SD cards for sure, so card capacity isn't an issue. Maybe it's the camera busy time during file save.....

The second lens, the 3x zoom is poky to autofocus despite the impressive looking illuminated AF points on the LCD screen (the P880, even more expensive does not have that) and having an AF LED (that you can't switch off). And sometimes, it just loses focus trying too hard - maybe my second hand sample is faulty.

But the 23mm equivalent angle of view that I bought it for? That's a barrel of fun.

The V705 is now my in-pocket-always-with-me camera.

Looks like Rome? No, it's the Box Hill Town Hall.

I call this, Pierre as he goes home after a long day....