…and the line continues to be blurred. Is the average bouncer qualified to recognize this as a “professional” camera?
In defense of the DSLR [update]
…venues don’t actually ever say that DSLRs are prohibited. They don’t know that word, so they use a term they’ve made up: detachable lens camera. This is a bullshit term that has no meaning outside this context.
ANY camera can have the lens detached if you pull hard enough!
Besides this being a stupid way of differentiating “allowed” and “not allowed” camera gear (one can “attach” a lens to an iphone if they so choose), I highly doubt that the average door/gate person can tell the difference between this “detachable lens camera” and this “non-detachable lens camera“. Heck, the average PHOTOGRAPHER can’t tell the difference.
This criteria could also become a liability if bouncers start trying to rip lenses off cameras.
In defense of the DSLR
or: a fundamental misunderstanding about photography and its place at live events
Venues or promoters or bands or some mysterious force behind a conspiracy have decided that “professional” cameras don’t belong at concerts or other performance events. This is a huge mistake that needs to completely reverse itself. Here’s why…
It’s quite simple actually. Picture this in your mind’s eye: a DSLR. It’s a camera you look through. To use it, you raise it to your face. No higher, no lower. Now picture you’re at a show and the person in front of you has a DSLR. They spend the entire show with the camera glued to their face. But you don’t really notice. They aren’t blocking your view. They’re not popping a flash. You might notice them doing it, but it doesn’t annoy you, even though they spend pretty much the entire night taking pictures. You realize at the end of the night that a bunch of people at the front of the stage have had cameras pressed to their faces all night, just like the person in front of you. Huh. You almost didn’t notice at all.
Now, picture a different scenario: The person in front of you takes maybe 20 pictures all night and a video during your favorite song. But this isn’t with a DSLR, it’s with a phone. The bright light and their arms over their head are blocking your view and every time their phone comes on in the darkened venue it takes a couple minutes for your eyes to adjust, so even when their phone isn’t in your face, you can’t see the band. This sucks. You might as well have bought a live bootleg. It would’ve been cheaper than the ticket. And what’s with all the flashes at the front of the stage? Didn’t they ban cameras? People must’ve snuck some pocket cameras in.
just throw ya hands in the air, and wave em round like you just don't care about anybody else (pic via images.google.com)
The posture for using a DSLR means that you only have to hold the camera as high as your face to use it. Phones don’t have view finders. The screen has to be on. And because the
Bit Depth Part 2 of 3
(or: Proving what I already knew)
In the last post we looked at what bit-depth means and how it is theoretically useful. It could theoretically be useful for recovering detail and tonal nuances that don’t appear obvious from standard processing. The example I gave was to illustrate how under extreme settings we could add contrast to enhance the appearance of an edge between two nearly similar colors (two nearly identical shades of green).
Theoretically, a file with more bit depth has more information and if manipulated, we might be able to use that information in useful ways.
So, let’s take a look at this from a capture standpoint. Pedal, meet my dear friend, Metal
one of the images at default settings
Bit Depth Part 1 of 3
Ok, I lied, this one is gonna be big and spin your head…
I had planned on starting small and working up to more complex concepts, but then I decided to address bit depth for my first topic. So this first real post is going to give background to the topic and really, there’s a lot that needs to be said here that I will absolutely refer back to.
In conversations about photography, we refer to bit-depth or cameras supporting 12, 14, or even 16-bit raw files. Cameras generally all put out 8-bit JPEGs and TIFFs, so we’re talking about raw files when we talk about bit-depth.
What is bit depth? Well, let’s start with a description of what every one of us see on a daily basis: 8 bits.
Every computer/tv screen you see is optimized for 8 bits per channel, in the sRGB color space. 8 bits describes 256 colors, or black through the brightest of that color. Like so:
This “ramp” of green has a total of 255 values of green and one value for true black. Each “pixel” on your computer screen has three sub pixels of red, green, and blue, and each gets assigned one of these values. Black gets a value so that each sub pixel can be completely off.
Why is this important? Because the human eye can barely distinguish between value 255 and 254 on this ramp. Really, here they are, try it:
Can you see a difference? Can you see which part of this patch is 254 and which is 255? Unless your monitor is severely broken or improperly calibrated, no, you will not see the division between the two colors very clearly. Why is this important? Well, to illustrate what bit depth means. If the above ramp were 16 bits of green, you wouldn’t get a brighter green or darker black, you’d just get the same range of values chopped up into finer “bits”. A total of 65536 values to be precise.
Why on earth would you want that precision? Read on…
Welcome!
This is the inaugural post of mah blog!
The net is full of conflicting information about photography–lots of myth and mojo about gear, technique, and artistry.
As a working photographer, I’d like to clear up confusion about many of these things for my fellow pros AND amateurs. I’ll start with some nuts and bolts stuff and see where your questions lead me.
Welcome! Browse around and enjoy!
