May 09, 2003 18:42
So of course the thing i want to do with the digital camera is exactly what digital cameras don't do very well. Take it to bars a photograph people. Digital cameras are not good in low light, and there is always some delay between when you press the shutter release button and when the exposure is actually made. You tend to miss the shot you wanted to take unless you have jedi reflexes. Oh my god. i'm going to geekville. i made a star wars reference on my blog. can't.....breath.......
And the truth is that digital cameras can be complicated with landscapes too. They have crappy digital capture of blues and cyans. so you'll see a lot of pixilation or noise in the sky or water.
And of course studio lighting is difficult too. proffessional tungston light has a flicker that can wierd out the firmware of many high end digital cameras leading to noisy captures. Strobes are ok, but not great either. they have to be very very bright which can alarm all but teh most seasoned models. The only real solution is natural light or ultra expensive HDC lighting about which i know nothing.
Now don't get me wrong. a digital capture of a new england forest during peak leaf viewing season on an overcast day can far exceed the quality of anything made with film.
really
And as long as you don't need a lot of pixels (like you work for a newspaper), and can cary three pounds of equipment, you can photograph a bar brawl with no difficulty.
and just a couple day ago someone (who works for the New York Times no less!) suggested i get a flatbed scanner and put it in a cardboard box to creat a digital pinhole camera. and i was really intrigued.
and on top of that i think there are maybe seven people in the world who actually understand the mathematics behind the levels command in photoshop enough to be able to explain it to someone else, and i may soon make the eighth, a fact that disturbs me no end.
really