Eye vs. Camera

Through the years I have been asked by people why what they see when they take a picture is not the same as what comes out. This usually comes from new people to the business or photo enthusiasts. Well what a photographer sees through the lens unless perfectly lit does not necessarily come out the same way. In my early career we had printers like Chuck Kelton who had an amazing eye an understood what needed to be dodge or burned, and of course we gave him direction. Today with digital cameras and Photoshop that becomes easier, with good practice.

The first image here is the way I saw that moment. Sun was blasting on the snow, the contrast was intense, my eye was able to see all the detail outside and inside the covered bridge. The original image further below has all the information there, but not the contrast and detailing that I saw. So from the RAW file I created 2 versions of the image, one lighter and one darker. Then some Photoshop magic and voila! For the lay person this is not as easy and while most just care about preserving the moment some do care about the quality of the image. Most cameras today have a setting that allows you to take the same image 2 or 3 times at different ISO or aperture, find this feature and turn it on, when you trigger the camera it will shoot 2-3 times depending on your setting. If you are not using Photoshop or a similar program to bring your shots to life, you will at least have 2-3 variations and be able to choose the one you like best. This is not as easy when shooting people, specially kids as there is a lag of time between each shot, this could be a few milliseconds to a second in older cameras. The newest cameras will give you the option to shot HDR (high dynamic range) images, Google the term for more information. What it does is similar to the above idea but either it will merge the images on the camera or will bring software for you to do it. Even the iPhone has this feature, and plenty of apps out there that will do it too.

I have been shooting digital images since the mid 90’s when Ken Hansen Photographics started demonstrating and selling them.They were incredibly expensive and Ken and Scott were very kind in allowing us to borrow the equipment to test and play with. And while it was not nearly as good as it is today, I fell in love with the technology. I do have to say, I miss shooting with a 4×5 and the eventual use of an 8×10. Few digital cameras reach the quality and feel that those cameras combined with great film and an amazing lab would give.

Thanks for reading,

Carlos Chiossone