Not a typical Wednesday
Last Sunday I promised to do some sort of fun post today. I want to do so with some photographs that didn’t make it before in the final cut.
In case people do care you can check the exif data to see which camera or cameras I used. For me it personally doesn’t matter as long as I feel comfortable with it. Don’t care if it has a red badge or the name of an electronic consumer products manufacturer. The one that is with me is simply the best. What works for me might not work for you. To get things into perspective read this review by Zack Arias about the Fuji X100. You know, that camera with the tiny buttons and wrong interface according to many forums.
Oh yeah, Ricoh bought Pentax from Hoya last week. Any thoughts from me? Nope, not really. Only Hoya gave a press statement, but not Ricoh. It would only be speculative and there are already too many websites and forums focused on just that. I am no Thom Hogan. Well one thing, it won’t kill the GRD I think. But I really don’t care if a camera is from Ricoh, Pentax, Leica, Canon, or Nikon. It is a freakin’ camera and it should help me take photographs. As long as manufacturers produces the cameras I like I am OK with that.
I sometimes receive questions whether the questioner could get similar results with out of camera (OOC) B&W jpegs like my B&W photographs. Honestly I find that hard to say. Some cameras do pretty good B&W’s in-camera, some not. But most importantly it is all a very personal taste and it depends on your expectations. To give you an impression I added the image below to see and judge it for yourself. Above OOC and below with some post processing. In this case I used Adobe Lightroom version 3 where I use the curve to reduce the dynamic range and a S-curve for more pleasant contrast. I use an adjustment brush with negative clarity to diffuse the highlights (makes the edges near the highlights more appealing in my opinion). Sometimes a vignette and some additional grain. And basically that is all.
All photographs by Wouter Brandsma
Part of a discussion related to this article follows here http://ow.ly/5zubr, but since the comments thread got so long and the article is nearly two years old I decided to close it.
Wouter,
Your work is always inspiring.
Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you Matthew!
Wouter, if you keep shooting at 40mm (20mm on GF1), you’re going to have to change your blog address (no more “wouter28mm”)!…;p Excellent images as usual…:-)
I am afraid so.Michael. Thank you.
Hi, Wouter:
My progress is still slow, but I’m learning a lot. It seems that there are other lens modules available for the GXR–and they’re much cheaper, but also, I gather from some reviews, less worthy also, which makes me wonder why Ricoh bothered with them at all. I hope to receive my Ricoh GRD III soon.
Good luck with your new glasses, Wouter.
Best,
John
You made a great choice with your GRDIII John. It is a real good camera and the best option available from Ricoh except the more expensive GXR+28mm.
Nice article Wouter!
I agree, it’s the eye of the photographer, not the camera. It’s important to know your camera for 100%, so you can concentrate on seeing.
I always love the way you treat your pictures in b&w. It’s what keeps me coming back…. the very contrasty nature. The deep blacks. The quality of light. The subject matter.
While I don’t have the desire to shoot the same thing I fully appreciate what you bring to the world of photography. No doubt it must have some impact upon what I do at some subliminal level.
Thank you Piet and Marc!
Wow just loved your work and immediately subscribed to your blog! I shoot on the streets of Mumbai, India and can use all the inspiration I can get.
Thanks!