Art & Craft

This 5x7 glass plate negative made in the nineteenth century was made into a print by scanning using a flatbed scanner. The mix of materials and techniques in photography bridges technology and melds 100 year old images with modern techniques. While the image, the art, remains, the techniques are in a constant state of change.

When lovers of great literature gather they rarely debate the make of typewriter used by Hemingway, or the paper on which he typed his first draft of A Farewell to Arms. Yet photographers tend to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing equipment and technique. Naturally, lively talks about inspiration and vision take place, but only critics and outsiders seem to disdain the important matters of craft. Those who practice photography know instinctively that there is no wall between the art and craft of photography.

Photography is a field in which this dialectic is affirmatively resolved, where discipline of craft equals freedom of expression. It’s as if a painter could create a painting without knowing how to mix paint. It might work, but some subtlety of expression would be lost.

Even the briefest study of photography leads to the conclusion that the greater ability to express, and the expanded modes of expression are intimately tied to the evolution of the ways and means of taking and making pictures. While the subject of the image is often a child of its age, an expression of the attitudes and social mores of its times, the mechanics of camera, processing and printing is often as much a part of the image as the idea communicated in the image itself. Though new ways of seeing are at the core of the evolution of photographic art, the defining principles of that vision are greatly determined by the equipment and processes used to manifest that vision.

Arguments have been made that portraits made in the first thirty years of photography surpass in beauty, charm and revelation of the human spirit those made today. Those images were more startling to their contemporary viewers than most photographs are to us today, if only because the medium was nowhere near as prevalent as it is now. Yet the revelation of character in today's fine portraiture, with all the layers of meaning we bring to the image, could only be achieved with today's equipment used by today's photographers.

Just as with early photographs, admittedly viewed through the filter of the ravages of time, the images created today are subject to the matrix of vision that is bounded by our ability to manifest that vision. That is why with each progression in technology there is so much more visual expression to explore.

The vigor with which photography grabbed the human imagination can be traced to its serving both masters so well. Essential to its understanding is that it addresses most directly the very human need to communicate through images, and plays upon the human ability to empathize with abstract forms. Thus, the mechanical serves the artistic, which in turn creates communication on virtually every level of visual perception.

The linkage between the art and craft has its roots in those people who pioneered modern photography. Many of the early explorers were artists seeking new and more efficient ways to create images from nature. Many were men and women who were grounded in the scientific method of discovery, yet who were also practicing artists, or associated with circles concerned as much with aesthetics as they were with experimentation.

Photography sprang from a time when the lines between science, art and craft were no so clearly drawn, and when curiosity went beyond prepackaged solutions to meaningless problems.

What’s Tech Got to Do with It?

Image: Today's camera tech opens up some amazing photo ops that would have been near impossible before and makes us think less about how we make the image than why we might be making it. This shot of Taos Plaza at Christmas time was made at an ISO of 12,800 with a handheld camera at 1/10 sec using a VR (vibration reduction) lens. Copyright George Schaub

Do today’s SLRs: A) help us make better pictures; B) change the way we see; C) all of the above; D) none of the above

There’s no question that modern SLR cameras represent the height of photographic technology and in many ways echo the ingeniousness and at times presumptuousness of all machines today. The speed at which these cameras make and apply judgments about focusing and light reading is incredible, at times following focus and adjusting to changing light at 10 frames per second. Considering that we are often still dealing with a mirror assembly (though this may change with Sony’s new “translucent” technology) that must raise and lower while the camera simultaneously changes light settings and focusing distance, the coordination of calculation and mechanical application is fairly mind boggling.

Many people have mixed feelings about just what this technology offers. They question whether it helps or hinders the photographer in becoming more expressive and spontaneous, yet have little doubt that it allows him or her to more productive in their work.

The obvious response to all this is that it’s the eye and not the camera that makes pictures. But there are other factors involved. In some instances the capabilities of today’s picture machine demands that the photographer think beyond what their eye can see and that presumed limitations on the kind of images that can be made no longer hold true. It is becoming evident that photographers should consider changing their thinking and go beyond what he or she might have created with a standard bred 20th century 35mm SLR. The new technology is challenging in and of itself, in that photography must be relearned in the context of how it is now applied. The challenge necessarily extends to considerations of just what kind of images the new technology allows us to make.

Recent advances have a lot to do with speed, both in operating and capture times. There are now super-fast shutter speeds (such as 1/8000 second is typical) and super fast framing rates (8 frames per second is not uncommon). We can also now use longer lenses at faster shutter speeds with vibration reduction technology. Along with speed comes increased exposure and focus automation. One of the most exciting fields is in flash exposure automation and multiple wireless flash with TTL automatic exposure.

The old school still insists that photographic principals haven’t changed for 150 years and that we should continue to teach photography in the same way we did in the middle of the 20th century. Where I teach some of my colleagues still insist that students go out and buy a manual exposure SLR, take manual exposure readings and set them by hand. The thinking is that this is the only way to understand light and equivalent exposure, learn depth of field, and so forth. This might have been true twenty years ago but to me it’s like considering the divine spirit as some sort of thirteenth century robed patriarch with a beard sitting on a throne up in heaven.

It also misses the point of just what the modern SLR offers. True, there is certainly merit to the thinking that much of the new technology is technology for its own sake, a competition between rival engineers who sit up at night gnashing their teeth over how to shave microseconds from mirror bounce effects. But there is also merit in considering just what this new technology means to a photographer’s view of the world and how he or she can express it.

To me the changes in camera technology, which I have reported on for the past thirty years, have as profound effect on photography as the affordability and accessibility of digital imaging techniques. Anyone who has worked for any amount of time with images in the computer know how it changes your relationship with your work. It has freed photographers from the old limitations of the chemical darkroom and made imaging more available to more people than ever before. I am of the school that the creative cycle is not complete until you make your print from the image you captured. Anyone who has done so knows how it closes the circle and how essential it can be to the photographic process.

Today’s SLR technology might seem quite shocking to anyone who hasn’t played with a new camera even in the last three years. Autoexposure is one clear example. Today’s systems are a far cry from past light measuring cells that sent out current to a meter that converted the light energy to aperture and shutter speed values. Evaluative or Matrix metering systems now analyze the image by dissecting it into a number of zones. The system then calculates exposure by performing complex calculations. This compares the distribution and intensity of light in those zones to a large set of stored exposure solutions in its microprocessor. Only then is the exposure value sent to a system that holds one factor constant (aperture or shutter speed depending on the photographer’s chosen metering mode) while calculating and setting the other to match the light intensity at hand. Add built-in tone compensation, built-in “HDR” and more and exposure, and even consideration of light, is a far cry from the work done even in the late 20th century.

With this automation comes the recognition that overrides are needed to sometimes correct the camera-recommended exposure. This is especially true should the photographer work in any of the spot metering modes, where tonal placement must often be adjusted for the classic metering failures such as bright and dark dominance within the frame. We can take for granted that these overrides will allow us to finesse the automation. We also have autoexposure bracketing, autoflash bracketing and easy exposure compensation inputs. We can even control which variable will be affected by choosing aperture priority when we want to compensate via shutter speed and shutter-priority should we want to have aperture change in our bracketing sequence.

Autofocusing has come a long way since it’s first awkward attempts at hands free distance settings. I remember the amazement that met the Minolta Maxxum camera when it first hit. But I also remember going out on a field test with Sports Illustrated photographer Richard Mackson with one of the early AF cameras (not the Maxxum). About ten minutes into the basketball game Mackson asked me to hold the camera between toe and finger so he could make a field goal kick of it into the stands. It couldn’t follow any action and often jumped from player to player just as he was about to take the picture.

Now we have follow focus, dynamic focus and multiple focusing targets within the viewfinder. AF lock stays with a subject even if another one momentarily blocks the view. Subjects are passed from one focusing target to another through the viewfinder frame. We can select single or multiple AF sites and even link or separate metering from those sites. True, autofocusing still has its foibles, but ask nature and sports photographers how AF has affected their work.

Advances in flash exposure, especially when coordinated with ambient readings and fill flash techniques have been particularly impressive. Those who grew up with guide number calculations and chart reading on the back of flash units and who haven’t experienced a modern dedicated flash can only guess at the convenience they afford.

Tricky daylight fill flash, night slow sync techniques and off-camera and wireless, three unit flash exposure is now through the lens automatic. Even close-up flash techniques, which in the past required bellows extension factors and all sorts of angling and reflectors, are now pushbutton automatic and multi-flash capable. Flash overrides and compensation can now be coordinated with ambient light exposure compensation to give the photographer more control over light and its manipulation than ever before.

You can now also customize SLRs to operate in ways that you feel fit your personal style or shooting needs. These custom function settings arrange or re-arrange the camera’s default operating procedures. You can change the buttons and dials you use for exposure compensation and autoexposure and autofocus lock, change the degree of compensation, change the focusing patterns and spots, link or disengage autofocus and spot metering coordination, change the coverage of the center-weighted meter, add or eliminate a grid screen display in your viewfinder or LCD, etc.

All in all, it’s fairly easy to scoff at automation as a crutch for the less photographically gifted. Sure it’s easy to figure out flash exposure if you have the guide number and know distance and aperture, or to even gain an instinct for it. And one could say that it is best to learn enough hand/eye coordination to release the shutter to catch the peak of the action rather than bang away at 10 frames per second knowing that the peak will probably not fall between the cracks.

But to me that misses the point. No one has to prove themselves to work with a camera. There is no test you have to pass to make images. There is no gauntlet you must run to prove yourself worthy of the name “photographer”. Life is too short for that sort of nonsense.

But there is some added responsibility with this new tech. First there’s the need to understand the new terminology and how it translates from the old. Following that there’s the need to consider what a shutter speed of 1/8000 second or a ten frames per second framing rate might teach us about how we can image time and motion. Or how multiple flash automation might change the way we think about light manipulation in the field.
Consider the new tech as a springboard to new ways of making images.

If you could be fairly well assured that 90 percent of the time exposure and focus will be on the mark, how would that free up your “seeing”? Perhaps this automation allows us to dwell on what we want to say rather than how we need to make settings to go about saying it. Perhaps we can waste less time making settings and more time looking.

In essence it raises the question of what’s more important--the how or the why. Today’s automation diminishes the worry and time taken with the how and gets you closer to the perhaps more essential issue of the WHY.

Weighty issues those, considerations of time and motivation. And, perhaps, pretentious ponderings as well. But if we are to take our photography seriously, and I contend that it is one of those things we should take seriously only because it often tells the story of our life, then we should perceive automation not as a deterrent to learning about photography but as a way towards gaining a newfound freedom of expression. Of course we should know what increases and decreases the zone of sharpness and how shutter speed settings affect how thinly we slice the arc of time, but let’s leave it at that and let the machine handle the rest. The more transparent the machine the more we can think about where it can take us. Perhaps we will have less control over camera operation. But letting that go might just allow us to create images that we might not have imagined possible before.

Hyperfocal Distance & Zone Focusing

This entry is aimed at those who want critical focusing control in their work. The techniques apply to working with a fixed focal length lens and working in manual focus.

Image: To make sure that focus was sharp from the foreground of this old truck to the facing truck in the background I worked in manual focus mode with a 24mm lens and used the hyperfocal distance technique described in the text. Copyright: George Schaub

Focus on an object very far away and take a moment to look at the distance scale on the lens; you might see that the distance setting is beyond the last numerical value on the distance scale (usually that's 30 feet on a 50mm lens) and is marked with an infinity sign. Now check the parameters of the f/16 notation on the depth of field scale-this shows that your zone of focus stretches from about 15 feet (the distance on the border of the f/16 mark on the left side of the depth of field scale) to well beyond any marking on the distance scale. As there is no distance beyond this infinity, this setting tells you that you are in focus from 15 feet to, well, the moon and beyond.
But what about the fact that you have the right side of the f/16 depth of field hash mark well beyond any footage indicator-does this mean you are "wasting" depth of field potential? In a word, yes; but there's an easy way to get it back. (Note, in some lenses the footage markers within the depth of field scale work in reverse to how we're describing it here. If your camera works in this fashion, just reverse left and right as you read on, Actually, the direction in which the distances move is much less important than the idea of manipulating distance settings on your lens to maximize depth of field.)
If you're shooting from the rim of the Grand Canyon out into the distance, your depth of field setting is unimportant, as long as the infinity setting is enclosed within the hash marks of the aperture in use. But if you have subjects in the scene that sit closer than 15 feet, you can set the lens so that you still have focus at infinity and include a focused item in the foreground as well.
The technique you use to do this is called using hyperfocal distance. The first step here is to turn off autofocus. Then you align the infinity marker with the right-side hash mark on the depth of field scale with the aperture number in use, then take note at what distance the left side aperture number falls. The left side number is the minimum distance at which you will have focus, when your furthest point of focus is at infinity.
For example, if we set hyperfocal distance on a 50mm lens at f/16, we find that our zone of sharpness is about eight feet to infinity. This is a pickup of seven feet from our previous setting; we don't lose anything by setting hyperfocal distance, we just gain a bit more foreground sharpness.
You can also manipulate the zone of focus when the farthest shooting distance is less than infinity. Called zone focusing, it's based on the same idea as hyperfocal distance; you manipulate the depth of field scale so that aperture settings enclose certain distances-these distance settings become your zone of sharpness.
For example, let's say that our farthest subject is ten feet away; by setting the number 10 next to the f/16 hashmark on right side of the depth of field scale, we see that we know have a zone of sharpness from about 4&1/2 to 10 feet. Likewise, setting at the 30 foot mark shows a near-focus of seven feet. Keep in mind that these settings are estimates of the actual depth of field; however, the settings certainly will be close enough for most of your shooting needs.
Pre-setting zone of focus can be a real help when you're doing spontaneous candids, or when you just don't have time to focus each shot. By pre-setting your zone of focus so that you can shoot without worrying about focus from, say, four to fifteen feet, you can photograph without bringing the camera to your eye, and still get almost every shot you take in focus. Of course, your composition may be a bit off, but "shooting from the hip" is an old tradition with candid street photographers.
Of course, there are times when you can be more deliberate about what you want to bring into focus. By using the depth of field scale you can make fairly precise settings to get the most out of the available zone of sharpness. For example, let's say you're shooting a statue in front of a building and want to include both the statue and building in focus. Without using or being aware or depth of field manipulations you might not get the effect you wanted; with them you can play some amazing visual tricks. It's safe to say that depth of field manipulations are underused by most photographers, especially those with autofocusing cameras; get a handle on them so you don't lose out on their amazing potential to make the most out of every shot.
The depth of field preview button is an important player in this game as it stops the lens down to its taking aperture, thus allows you to see the effect the lens setting has on focus. At some apertures, such as f/16, the viewing screen becomes quite dark; so dark, in fact, that you may have trouble seeing what's going on. If this happens, open up another stop so you can see focus on the viewfinder better, then stop down to your selected aperture when you take the shot. This won't give you an exact idea of the depth of field at your taking aperture, but it will certainly give you a better idea of final picture focus than will looking through the lens at maximum aperture. If your camera does not have a preview button, get another camera and in the meantime use the depth of field scale on the lens.

Online Photo Storage: A Cautionary Tale

The following I guess could be thought of as what's known as a cautionary tale, one that you might like to read to get an idea of the ethereal nature of this medium, especially for items you might treasure like family photos. This was written in late 1999 and while admittedly things were in their "infancy" at that point, in terms of photo sharing the models and concepts remain the same. The game here is to find how many of these photo services are still around and guess what might have happened to all the images stored on them. It also shows just how naive the writer (me) was about all that at the time.

Online Finishing: The Growth of a New Industry


With the growth of digital camera sales and especially the increase in film images being digitized, the photofinishing industry is gearing up for a new way to receive and print your images. The idea of photofinishing on line has become a reality. Everywhere you turn—from radio to TV to newspaper ads—there are photo related sites touting the ability to hold onto the family album, send and share pictures between distant relative and friends and offer prints from uploaded or pre-loaded images that come from virtually every source. While the digital minilab and the walk-up kiosk may still handle the walk-in trade of the future, it’s becoming clear that many people think that the Internet will be a major venue for photofinishing services as well.

According to Media Metrix, the use of home PC photography programs has grown from 3.8 million users in 1997 to over 16.7 million users in late 1999. That means that just about 1 in 5 of every home PC is using digital photography in some fashion or other. While that growth is impressive, so is the future potential.

A host of innovative companies have fueled the rapid development of online digital services. Many of these Internet sharing sites are brand spanking new. In a touch of graceful irony one such firm, established in 1998, claims to have a “well-established track record.” But that’s what’s old in this new age.

If you’d like to check out what these sites are like you might try two of the most successful, Shutterfly.com and ActiveShare.com. In fact the two sites are linked in a partnership that brings the best of both worlds—the photofinishing expertise of Shutterfly and the muscle of ActiveShare’s parent, Adobe software—to the table.

Shutterfly.com is a sharing site, printing site and photo enhancement site all in one. Just what is a sharing site? It’s a place where you can either upload your images from your digital camera or those film images you have had digitized via Picture CD and share them with family and friends. You are assigned an album space, actually memory on a server, that you fill up with images. Your album has an address that is accessed only through a password you choose and that you share with those you want to see the images.

Once you have an album account established you can order and send prints, enhance the photos with borders, cropping and other special effects and then have them printed and add to or create new albums as you go.

So let’s say you take some photos on vacation and want to show them off to your family and friends in different parts of the country. Or you’ve met new friends on your travels and want to send them images you took of the times you spent together. All you need is their e-mail and your album password.

You use Shutterfly's Smart Download software to get your digital images from your camera or hard drive and send them over the line. Or if you’ve shot film you can send them the roll and..guess what? You get free film processing and posting of your images online. It seems like a win/win situation all the way down the line. You get free film processing, free sharing and free access to your album while Shutterfly gets the chance to sell you prints for yourself and your family and friends.

Adobe’s ActiveShare site works with Shutterfly. If you enter their site at ActiveShare.com you can also get prints through Shutterfly, plus you can create a sharing circle of friends. The service is called e.Circles and it’s a way to create an instant community of photo sharers. What you do is identify friends as interested parties in certain types of your photos. Some might like to see your vacation shots while others are for closer family and friends. You can limit pictures of the kids to grandparents and siblings while sharing your hobby with another group of eCircle folks. It’s like a broadcast service built into a sharing site.

You can also use ActiveShare.com’s AmazingMail.com for creating postcards using any of your images. You upload images and order the postcard, and the company will create and mail them for you.

Of course the best way to get the most from the site is via Adobe’s PhotoDeluxe software, which comes with ActiveShare as part of the package. That way you can make all sorts of changes and do lots of creative work on your images and then send them or order prints.

Another active e-finishing business is PhotoPoint, which claims to be the world’s largest photo sharing website. Recently, PhotoPoint signed an agreement with Kodak making Print@Kodak available to PhotoPoint folks. The company is also very promotion minded, recently awarding a photographer a million bucks for winning a contest. The company also announced that it recently received their 10 millionth image.

Zing and Sony
At Zing they claim to be the most trafficked online photo community. The site, zing.com, provides free photo storage, album and sharing services, content and mail order photo printing. The company claims that their open architecture allows them to provide a customized, co-branded photo center that can be integrated easily with partner website activities.

Recently, Zing announced a partnership with Sony to help strengthen Sony’s online digital imaging presence, dubbed ImageStation. The company also is offering PictureIQ, an online photo editing and manipulation application. The company also works with HP and their new “scan to web” technology. This takes images scanned on HP scanners right into a Zing sharing site.


Talking Pictures
At dotPhoto they claim to be the first web site that integrates photo sharing with voice and sound capability plus digital finishing. The company offers, for $4.99, a first time membership that includes printing of 36 uploaded images, free shipping and a free personal computer microphone, required for the voice-to-picture technology.

The Kodak/AOL partnership has been getting some press, so the logical next step was for Yahoo! to get involved. They have done so with Yahoo! Photos, with printing and services provided by Shutterfly. As an intro, the company is offering first time users 15 free prints. At Yahoo! Photo you can create albums, add photos, share and send and order prints. There’s also one click access to club and auction sites.

So photofinishing has become e-photofinishing and now labs are web-based application service providers for both consumers and other imaging partners. The jargon is amazing, but so are the ideas and changes ahead. Has e-finishing taken the world by storm? Not yet. In fact, regular film processing increased over 10% in the last year. But digital camera users now have a photofinishing service that is almost as convenient as bringing the film down to the corner store. But the only highway they have to drive on to get there is the Internet.

Minolta Maxxum 9

Occasionally I will post some older reviews of cameras for the purposes of saving these archives for future searchers and researchers. Some of these were published prior to content being saved on the Internet; most are fairly arcane and I trust of some historical interest.
Here's a review of the Minolta Maxxum 9, one of the last full featured camera 35mms from that company and indeed in its class. This was written in August, 2000.

The Minolta Maxxum 9

by George Schaub

Every time you turn around another 35mm SLR manufacturer plays "top this" with its competitors and perhaps with the electronic imaging medium as well. This is great news for photographers and has resulted in some rather amazing photographic instruments of late. We've seen cameras with 10 frames per second framing rates, metering systems that measure both light intensity and color influence on exposure and now, with the Minolta Maxxum 9, a top shutter speed of 1/12,000 second and truly easy wireless remote flash. It makes you wonder just what SLR makers might have up their sleeves next.

The Minolta Maxxum 9 is one of those instinctive cameras that feels right at home the moment you take it up in your hands. It weighs lighter than it looks, which is quite sturdy, and apparently can take some punishment, due to its stainless steel and zinc body. Like some of its recent competitors, the Maxxum 9 has a decidedly analog look, although the insides are hardly driven by springs and wind up gears. Virtually every override and extra control is done via these "analogish" dials, while the basic choices of aperture and shutter speed and some custom functions are the work of the front or rear control dials.

While thinking that there is logical placement of controls may be the work of a rationalizing mind, the Minolta Maxxum 9 does seem to have been designed by, and for, people who actually take pictures. After a ten minute drill there's little confusion how to work the camera. The really good thing about it is that controls that are too often buried inside submenus or require near-impossible feats of dexterity on some cameras are right up front on the Maxxum 9. And these are the controls that most experienced photographers will use every day in their work.

Let's talk flash and exposure compensation controls. Both are located on stacked analog dials on the photographer's left side of the camera body. You first unlock the dial and then turn plus or minus 3 EV. The flash exposure dial is on the bottom of the stack, placed there because it probably will be used less than the ambient exposure compensation dial on top. The flash exposure compensation dial can be moved in half EV steps. The ambient exposure dial can be twirled so that it can compensate in either 1/3 or 1/2 EV steps. That right, no custom function to apply, just a manual changeover in how the dial functions. And yes, the dials do lock well into place. In a week of trials I had no misfires there.

There's an equally ingenious and stacked dial on the right side of the body for changing exposure mode (the usual suspects of manual, aperture- and shutter-priority and program) and for setting up an autobracketing sequence. You know about these exposure modes. One thing you might be used to is a Program shift mode, but the shift here is actually in manual mode. You get the exposure you want, hold in the AEL (autoexposure lock) button and then turn the control dial to get equivalent exposure while changing aperture and shutter speed relationships.

The dial beneath the exposure mode dial handles a number of functions including multiple exposure, drives (continuous and single shot, with 5.5 frames per second in single AF or manual focus and 4.5 fps in continuous AF) and autobracketing in both single and continuous drive modes, as well as a self timer. This may seem like a lot of controls on one dial but it's really easier and more efficient than it may sound. There's no lock per se on either of these dials and once I did move the exposure mode dial accidentally while setting up a bracketing sequence. I did that because I grasped the dials somewhat clumsily. When you get used to how they move, as I did quickly, you'll probably not make the same mistake twice.

I kind of glossed over the 1/12,000-second top shutter speed, and it is worthy of extra note. While I'm not certain what I would have to photograph at that speed I know it's certainly a bragging right for this camera. You may have great use for that speed and if you do the Maxxum 9 is for you. Just remember to pack some fast film. (Using the sunny 16 rule with ISO 400 film you'd get 1/12,000 second at f/2.8.) A few pro cameras do have higher framing rates, and for those who do sports having more than 5.5 fps available might be necessary. For those of us who photograph more sedentary subjects the 5.5 fps is sufficient.

On the back of the camera are the flash controls for the built in flash (more on that shortly), the metering pattern selector (14 segment honeycomb for ambient, 4 segment for flash, center-weighted and spot), the slow sync selector (actually the AE lock), the AF lock and the AE lock. You also get a rear control dial and a little switch that allows you to light up the very basic LED. The LED gives you frames shot, aperture and shutter speed. It also helps you set up bracketing sequences and change Custom Functions. That's it, and that's okay. For more info gaze into the viewfinder, where the information should be anyway, and you get a meter index, indications of flash status and mode, a focus signal, aperture and shutter speed, an AEL indicator and a countdown when less than ten frames remain on the roll. Of course you also get the AF indicators and spot metering circle. By the way, a nice and rare treat is that the viewfinder gives you 100% coverage.

These indicators and controls are for those who know their way around a camera and who understand the cause and effect of it all. In other words, readers of this magazine. There are no pictographic modes like people running or little flowers to guide you on you way, or to get in the way of your work. Please join me in a round of polite applause for this return to sanity. But Minolta still has kept "eye start" on the 9, a feature I am at a loss to appreciate. It certainly doesn't get in the way and can be turned off when desired. For those who haven't experienced it the camera powers up when eye start is on and you move the camera to your eye, saving you the great effort of having to flip the on/off switch.

Camera makers have increasingly added built-in flash to their upper end camera models, which I think is a great idea. The Minolta Maxxum 9 does not insult the user by automatically flipping the flash up in low light, like lesser models, but allows you to raise the head manually when you want the extra burst of fill. For some assignments and social events the built in flash might be all you need. It has a nice little GN of 40, which at 6 feet with ISO 100 film gets you between f/5.6 and f/8. The little flash also allows you to shoot with slow sync, red-eye reduction, rear curtain sync and to use the very neat flash exposure compensation and flash bracketing feature that's built into the analog controls. Sync speed is 1/300 second, by the way.

The flash capabilities of the system are truly exploited, however, when you get the Minolta 5400HS shoe-mount flash. The GN varies with film and focal length, but at 50mm with ISO 100 film at a 1/1 power level the GN in meters is 42, 140 in feet. That's enough to get you between f/11 and f/16 at ten feet. You get direct TTL OTF metering in all exposure modes, the ability to set power ratios controls (or levels) from 1/1 to 1/32, an AF assist illuminator for low contrast or plain old low light and power zoom head coverage between 24mm and 105mm. The HS in the moniker stands for High-speed sync, which means you can get flash sync without loss of edge information at shutter speeds up to that incredible 1/12,000 second. This is great for fill flash in bright light when you want to work with a shallow depth of field.

The multi-flash capabilities are easy to apply. You mount the 5400 HS on the camera and turn on the camera and flash. You then slide a lever on the camera to "wireless" and do the same by advancing the mode button on the flash unit. You then disengage the 5400 HS from the camera (leaving it powered up) and raise the built in flash. Because you have it set on wireless the built in flash does not fire but acts as a signal device to fire the flash. You can work with any exposure mode as well as manual where you can set power ratio controls. You can also activate the built in flash to fire along with the 5400 HS to provide a 1:2 fill, the built in flash delivering the lesser output of the two.

This multi-flash capability with wireless worked well in just about every situation I tried it. The trick is to rotate the AF illuminator on the 5400HS toward the built in flash. When you see a double blip from the AF illuminator you know you have communication. If in doubt you can do a test fire before the actual exposure. The 5400HS must be within peripheral "vision" of the built in or the signal will not work.

There are Custom Functions that you can use to customize the camera to your liking. There's the usual film rewind options (leader in or out) but there's also something very neat called Mid Reload. Here you reload a film you've shot to, say, frame 18. You load it as usual, then you use CF 3-3 to put in the frame number to which you want it advanced and the camera does so automatically. Other useful CFs include one that allows you to select the local focus area with the AF button and another that lengthens the display on the selected focus area. You can also make Program exposure mode make action or depth priorities and have flash metering be the default 4-segment, averaged or spot according to the focusing area selected.

The Maxxum 9 fits right in with the extensive line of lenses and accessories that make up the Minolta SLR family. The AF lenses include everything from a 17-35mm f/3.5 G zoom to a AF 600mm f/4 APO G and a AF 200mm F/4 macro APO G. The G lens group, by the way, is Minolta's large aperture, high performance series. You can also interchange focusing screens and use a data memory back.

The Maxxum 9 proved to be an excellent field shooting and travel companion. The flash setup is intriguing, and should be considered by those doing wedding candids with 35mm SLRs. All in all, the design offered many meat and potatoes functions and creative options while basically getting out of the way when pictures were being made. To me, that's the mark of a good camera.

Technology and Vision

Even the briefest study of photography leads to the conclusion that the greater ability to express, and the expanded modes of expression are intimately tied to the evolution of the ways and means of taking and making pictures. While the subject of the image is often a child of its age, an expression of the attitudes and social mores of its times, the mechanics of camera, film and printing is often as much a part of the image as the idea communicated in the image itself. Though new ways of seeing are at the core of the evolution of photographic art, the defining principles of that vision are greatly determined by the equipment and chemicals used to manifest that vision.
Arguments have been made that portraits made in the first thirty years of photography surpass in beauty, charm and revelation of the human spirit those made today. Perhaps those images were even more startling to their contemporary viewers than most photographs are to us today, if only because the medium was nowhere near as prevelant as it is now. Yet the revelation of character in today's fine portraiture, with all the layers of meaning we bring to the image, could only be achieved with today's equipment used by today's photographers.
Just as with the early photographs, admittedly viewed through the filter of the ravages of time, the images created today are subject to the matrix of vision that is bounded by our ability to manifest that vision. That is why with each progression in technology there is so much more visual expression to explore.
Photography emerged within the context of the industrial revolution, with its concommitant alienation and dehumanization. Yet it was also the darling of the age of discovery, and grew alongside other profound changes in the visual arts. The vigor with which it grabbed the human imagination can be traced to its serving both masters so well. Essential to its understanding is that it addreses most directly the very human need to communicate through images, and plays upon the human ability to empathize with abstract forms. Thus, the mechanical serves the artistic, which in turn creates communication on virtually every level of visual perception.
The linkage between the art and craft has its roots in those people who pioneered modern photography. Many of the early explorers were artists seeking new and more efficient ways to create images from nature. Many were men and women who were grounded in the scientific method of discovery, yet who were also practising artists, or associated with circles concerned as much with aesthetics as they were with experimentation.
Photography sprang from a time when the lines between science, art and craft were not so clearly drawn, and when curiosity went beyond pre-packaged solutions to meaningless problems.

An Occassional Glossary: F.G

F-NUMBERS: A series of numbers designating the apertures, or openings at which a lens is set. The higher the number, the narrower the aperture. For example, f/16 is narrower (by one stop) than f/11--it lets in half as much light. An f-number range might be f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11...To find the next aperture in a narrowing series of single full stops, multiply by 1.4. F-numbers are arrived at by dividing the diameter of the opening into the focal length of the lens, thus a 10mm diameter opening on a 110mm lens is f/11. Alternately used with f-stops.

FAST: A term used to describe a film or sensor setting with a relatively high light sensitivity, a lens with a relatively wide maximum aperture, or a shutter speed, such as 1/8000 second, that will freeze quick action.

FILE FORMAT: An arrangement of digital information that may be particular to an application or generally adopted for use by a wide range of devices. Image formats in wide use include JPEG and TIFF. Raw format is proprietary to each maker, and often each camera by that maker.

FILL-IN FLASH: Flash used outdoors, generally to balance a subject that is backlit. Can also be used to control excessive contrast, add light to shadows, or brighten colors on an overcast day.

FILTERS: Any transparent accessory added to the light path that alters the character of the passing light. With film, filters can alter contrast, color rendition, or the character of the light itself (diffusion, diffraction, etc.) In printing, variable contrast filters are used to evoke different contrast grades from variable contrast black and white paper. In computer imaging software, a set of instructions that shape or alter the image information. In digital processing, filters are algorithms or a set of actions that change the character of the original image. Filters in digital are often "plug-ins", which means they work within the architecture of the main image processing program.

FILM: A compilation of light sensitive silver salts, color couplers (in color film), and other materials suspended in an emulsion and coated on an acetate base.

FINE GRAIN: Usually found in slow speed films, a fine-grained image is one where the medium of light capture and storage, the silver halide grain, is virtually invisible in the print or slide. With high, or coarse grain films (usually very high speed films) the texture of the grain becomes part of the physical reality, or weave of the image.

FIXER: The third step in black and white print and film processing; the bath removes unexposed silver halides.

FLARE: In lenses, internal reflections and/or stray light that can cause fogging or light streak marks on film. In general, zoom lenses have more potential for flare than fixed-focal-length lenses; in either case a screw-on lens hood helps reduce the problem.

FLASH: The common term used to describe the burst of light produced by passing electrical current through gas in a glass tube.

FLASH MEMORY: A special type of RAM memory that can hold data without electrical current. It is used in memory cards, the removable "digital film" used in digicams.

FLAT: Low in contrast, usually caused by underexposure or, in film, underdevelopment. Flat light shows little or no change in brightness value throughout the entire scene.

FLATBED SCANNER: A scanner that uses a linear CCD array for digitizing prints and film. Generally, the image is placed on a glass plate and the array moves past the artwork.

FOCAL LENGTH: The distance from the lens to the film plane or sensor that focuses light at infinity. The length, expressed in millimeters, is more useful as an indication of the angle of view of a particular lens. A shorter focal length lens, such as a 28mm, offers a wider angle of view than a longer one, such as 100mm.

FOCUS: Causing light to form a point, or sharp image on the image sensor or film.

FOCUS LOCK: In autofocus camera systems, a button, lever, or push-button control that locks focus at a particular distance setting, often used when the main subject is off to the side of the frame or not covered by the autofocus brackets in the viewfinder.

FORMAT: The size of the film, thus the camera that uses such film. Large format refers to 4x5 inches and larger; medium format uses 120 or 220 (6cm wide) film. Smaller formats include 35mm and 24mm. In computer imaging, the file structure, or "language" that can be understood by the device. The film analogy to format in digital terms would be more akin to sensor size and megapixel count.

FRAME: The outer borders of a picture, or its ratio of the height to width. The individual image on a roll of film. Also, to compose a picture.

FRAME GRABBER: Usually refers to a board that can digitize and process video signals to a single frame. Mac's Grab utility is a frame grabber, but can also be used to select certain areas of the monitor for capture.

GAMMA: A value that defines contrast of a photograph or electronic image. Gamma curves are key elements of monitor calibration. Gamma can be altered in black and white printing by working with various contrast grade papers. Gamma can be changed in an electronic image by working the curves in processing programs.

GAMUT: The range of colors available in an image or printer.

GIGABYTE: One billion bytes, or 1000 megabytes.

GRADE: With black and white printing papers, the built-in contrast of that paper, or the contrast evoked in variable contrast papers when printing through variable contrast filters. The lower the grade number the lower the contrast.

GRAIN: The appearance or echoes of the silver crystals in film in the final negative or positive image. The larger the area of the grain in the film emulsion, the more sensitive the film is to light; the more sensitive it is to light the "faster" it is. Larger grains are manifest in the image as mottled or salt-and-pepper clumps of light and dark tones, usually apparent in very fast films on visual inspection, in slow films upon extreme magnification. Grain is most easily seen as non-uniform density in areas sharing the same tone (such as a gray sky.)

GRAY SCALE: The range of tones, from bright white to pitch black that can be reproduced in a film and print.

GROUND GLASS: A specially prepared glass used as the focusing screen in cameras.

GUIDE NUMBER: A number that relates the output of electronic flash when used with a particular speed film or ISO setting on a digital sensor. The higher the guide number, the more the light output. Guide numbers, or GN, serve as a way to calculate aperture when shooting flash in manual exposure mode. Dividing distance into guide number gives the aperture: For example, a flash with a guide number of 56 (with ISO 100 film) would give a correct exposure at 10 feet with an aperture of f/5.6. With the state of today's automatic exposure flashes, guide numbers today are mostly useful for comparing the relative power of one flash to another and gauging the coverage a flash will afford. In most cases GN relates to the coverage when using ISO 100 film. It should be noted that some flash manufacturers will fudge the numbers by stating the GN at ISO 400.

Manipulating Light in Recording

Here's some follow-up on metering that to me makes mastering exposure worthwhile.
Moving light values around—it’s an odd idea, but one that allows you to make creative choices about how light is recorded. You can work to get as much visual information and tonal richness as possible, or you can eliminate certain values for graphic effects. Though it's usually best to go for the former, the ability to juggle recorded tonal values is a key creative element in photography that brings a personal touch to an often forgotten skill—seeing and interpreting light as you shoot.
One of the ways to begin the process is to shun the “matrix” or “evaluative” metering pattern. Not that there’s anything incorrect or faulty with that pattern; it’s just that we want to be able to direct the exposure system to read values as middle gray. Move on over to spot metering pattern.
If you spot meter off a bright area in a tonally-varied scene and do nothing, the bright areas will record as middle gray and the darker areas will be compressed down into darker and darker tones. Conversely, if you meter and expose for the darkest area in the scene the brighter areas record brighter on film and may be driven up into overexposure. Think of the tonal scale as working in lock step, with the ability to record a range of values as having a fixed spread that can be moved up and down the grayscale “spectrum” of brightness values.
Once this idea becomes real to you the path toward being able to manipulate light should open. You can, as mentioned, read only from a bright value and record that as middle gray, and have the darker areas lose detail and become dark tones. Or, you can read the bright value as middle gray and then compensate exposure by opening up two stops; thus the birghter value will record as bright with texture and visual information. Or, you can open up three stops and have that value record as bright, textureless tone. (For example, plus two would keep the texture of wood in a brightly lit white picket fence; plus three would give you pure, driven snow.)
Conversely, you can read the significant shadow value and have it record as middle gray, which will make the brighter values record brighter still (or perhaps become overexposed.) You can also read the dark value as middle gray, close down two stops to have detail recorded in that dark value. Or, or you can use that same reading, close down three stops and just get a deep tone with virtually no visual information. In these ways you control what is recorded with detail, and what records as dark or bright tones without detail. Compensation is not limited to working with two stops--you can manipulate values by one stop, or by half stops if that serves your purposes.
The above assumes you are working in an autoexposure mode, like aperture priority. If you prefer working in manual so much the better, as you can dispense with using the exposure compensation and exposure lock features on your camera.
All this gives you control over highlights and shadows, and how the scene you have in front of you will record. Once you grasp the concept of value and tonal manipulation you have a wide range of choices that allow you to shape the exposure in many ways.

Spot metering for the highlight in this shot "drives down" the darker values into deep shadow, or pure tone.

Image and text copyright: George Schaub

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Digital Image Quality Considerations

Today’s digital cameras range from simple point and shoot models to those used by pros. One of the keys to getting good images to print is the megapixel count of the sensor. Mega means “millions” and refers to the number of photo sites—or light and image gathering points—on the sensor. If you would like to make prints as large as 8 x 10 inches you will need at least a 6-megapixel camera. If you want to make larger prints—or get the best quality in your 8 x 10 inch prints—then a higher megapixel camera is recommended.

You might think that you can simply buy an older camera and get the megapixel count required to make great images and prints, but the key here is in the image processor. Older digital cameras tend to produce much noisier images with numerous image “artifacts” that can be quite detrimental to image quality. My advice is to avoid buying a used digital camera made prior to 2009.


You have a number of options when making photographs with your digital camera. For the best prints follow these guidelines:
If you have a camera that only allows you to photograph in JPEG format:
1) Choose the largest file size you can get. If you have a choice of various pixel resolutions choose the largest. This is generally indicated as “L” on the menu choice (with M or medium and B or basic also available.)
2) Choose the lowest compression ratio. Compression is a way for the system to gather more images on a given capacity memory card, but it tosses away information when it writes to the card and replaces that information with mathematical formulas, not “raw” image data. If, for example, you have a choice between Super Fine, Fine and Normal, or some such naming scheme, choose Super Fine.
3) Don’t “tweak” the image processor in the camera with contrast or sharpness settings. These are fine for special effects in the camera, but we can do better with the image information later in the digital darkroom.
4) Don’t use digital zoom. This actually crops into the sensor rather than getting optical information through the lens. Even if you use the largest available resolution (Large) and lowest compression you’ll lose information.

If you have a camera that allows you to choose between JPEG and Raw format, do the following:
1) Choose Raw. The only drawback to Raw is that you have to open and view and change the image file in special software, usually bundled with the camera that has a Raw mode option.
2) If you have a choice of pixel resolutions in Raw choose the highest pixel count.

Although the image resolution or file size is key when making prints, that’s just part of the equation. Exposure and lens sharpness and how the camera’s internal image processor converts the data from the sensor to digitized image information have a very important role to play as well.

When thinking about settings on your digital camera consider how file format and compression will affect results, and what the end use of the image will be. This shot was made in a coastal town in Maine using RAW file format on a Canon DSLR.

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Copyright: George Schaub 2011