Japan is Tea is Japan (film v smartphone)

There's a lot of talk about how great smartphone cameras are these days - the portability and versatility are deniable but for me large cameras and film have a look that are never going to be beat by something that can fit in a pocket. Just check out the difference in exposure, depth of field, leaf greens and sky blues between the two pictures. One is take on a Motorola One Vision, the other taken on Pentax 645 with RVP 50 film.

While modern technology keeps moving forward, it doesn't always capture what made the past so great.

Japanese tea on the other hand has no competition! ;)

Kodak E100 VS

Kodak Ektachrome E100 VS (Very Saturated) is a film that is unfortunately discontinued but still there's a few rolls taking up my fridge space. I put one roll in my Pentax 645 and found it to produce interesting results but it is probably restricted to landscape photography.

European Central Bank in fog. Slight magenta cast visible at the bottom.

For portraits, the colours are otherworldly and so extreme it feels like they were part of a drug inspired hallucination unless they are toned down in editing. Even for landscapes, the film responds differently to over and under exposure by producing a magenta hue when done wrong-unless that's what you are after. The variation in tones produced by the camera settings when taking the shot is one of the reasons why film has a unique organic feel compared to static film effects produced in digital software. Sometimes, mistakes create the best photos!

Unreal colours for portraits that need taming unless you are the kind of person that likes those super saturated HDR effect photos in your face. (This photo desaturated in post) Pentax 645 80-160 f4 zoom

Prisma Review

I noticed a new style of photo being uploaded to Facebook recently. As I am not the first to attach to new trends (I must get round to sorting out my own MySpace) but it was related to photos, I thought I would give it a look. After a quick search (I hadn't thought about looking up the name in the watermark in most of the pictures) it turned out to be an app called Prisma. On the Google Play Store, it has already topped 1 million downloads (10 million+ on iOS) so I thought it must have some appeal.

An example where Prisma gets it right.

It's a new app and  quite quirky but no doubt will get updated and improved over time. The version I tried only produces square images (I doubt it's because the makers are fans of Rollei or Hasselblad) so it is not possible to preserve the original images aspect ratio. In a similar way, the app forces portrait viewing which is a bit annoying when using a tablet and a keyboard.

However, once you have taken a photo or selected one from your device you can have some fun. There are over a dozen different presets which you can select and see which one takes your fancy. Some of the names and thumbnail pictures are a bit more intricate than the actual result you can expect but the results also vary largely depending on the image that you use. For instance, there is not much point in going for the Heisenberg filter with a very dark image as most of the detail will be lost. 

The odd thing about the app is that all of the processing is done online. Seeing as the app is trendy right now, the servers get overloaded and you either have to wait a while for the image to get processed or it down right won't work at all. This is probably fine if on a home network but you may want to consider uploading large images over your mobile as it isn't clear how much data is being used each time you try and fail to get a result.

Square ladies don't look as good as in real lfe.

Furthermore, it isn't actually clear why the app needs to be online to do what it does anyway. The app's website is http://prisma-ai.com and there is the briefest of notes claming it uses artificial intelligence. Without any further information, I would err on the side of cauton before using any sensitive, copyrighted or works not intended for the public through this app. I can't imagine there is much AI involved in the process, or if there is, the company isn't very clear about what it is or how your photos might be used if processed through their app. AI would infer that some kind of judgment is made about the application of the preset to the contents of your picture, but there is no feedback to say you like what it is has done or to request a different rendition using the same preset, so how can the app 'learn' anything? So, I am calling 'marketing speak' on its AI nature until I find out otherwise.

Different strokes for different folks.

Given the advances in mobile technology I would have expected larger size images. The ones I downloaded have all been 1080x1080 pixels whch is OK for basic mobile and web use but won't look too great printed out on anything bigger than a postcard (not that they are usually square) and it won't satisfy the needs of megapixel freaks on the latest HD/4K screen devices.

To be honest, it won't satisfy the needs of real photographers either and apears to be as fadish as Pokemon Go right now. There are only a set number of presets with no user controls except to fade out the effect. There isn't much point in going half way so it`s all or nothing with this app. In the long run, once the 11 million+ other uses have flooded Facebook etc with the same presets, it's all going to get very samey and cliched very quickly. 

Hokusai inspired preset - Wave

If you really want to test out the app, you might as well do it before everybody else on the net does. I do like the Hokusai inspired Wave preset and it proved to be the most versatile at working with dark pictures and giving them a bit more life. Where the app presets might come in handy is jazzing up mundane photographs. Seeing as most of the presets destroy a lot of the fine detail, it is possible to bring back a blurry photo from the dead as a Pixma version. And perhaps that's where the appeal of the app lies as it can do a lot for people using low quality cameras that need to give their photos an extra oomph. For photographers with DSLRs, I think other apps like VSCO, Pixlr and Snapseed have most of our needs already covered to just enhance a photo that should be good enough without too many tweaks or embellishments anyway. And despite its grand claims, it's not going to be stealing much gallery wall space from real artists. There is a total lack of precision and finesse to the generated 'brush strokes'. Even if they correct it, you will still just be creating digital knock offs that don't have any of the techniques or impact of real world art.

Oh dear! Not many artists would uglify their models this badly!

Day 240

The Street

While looking for the right person to take a photo of this morning, I spoke to an inelligent guy (who I didn't photograph) who really got me thinking about what I am doing when I talk to somebody and ask them for a photograph. I haven't completely formulated my thoughts into words yet but can say there is something distinctly different between street photography and street portraits. They employ different skills and a different way of looking at the world. I perceive subjects in street photography as demonstrating humans in their natural world doing what they do without noticing the photographer which forms a barrier between them and the observer. Sometimes the cameraman holds a power that may be abused and results in a stolen moment in time. Galleries everywhere are filled with such moments but there is seldom any true connection between the subject and the viewer - we are just voyeurs looking down on somebody without them being able to reciprocate. On the rare occasion that the subject looks through the lens at the viewer and breaks that 4th wall, there is an expression that cannot be gained by having spoken to that person to receive their permission before having taken the shot and this tends to give the person in the photo a greater connection to the viewer.

However, being allowed to take somebody's portrait while on the street invites the photorgrapher and viewer to enter into that subject's personal space with their express permisson. The look the person has is completely different and the overall tone of the image feels softer to me. Even though there is the briefest of exchanges before the shot, there is a trust from the subject that the photographer respects them and their personal property will not be misused or abused. In constrast to this, knowing that a camera is pointed their way, the subject stops behaving normally and will try to pose and look as they feel is apporopriate and this might be at odds with what would make the best photograph for them. This can form quite a dilemma as a photographer needs to balance their own desires with the rights of the person in the image and what would be the best method for obtaining a photo that could satisfy all parties.

As yet, I don't have a clear vision of what is the best way to approach my own photography to push myself in the right direction regards street photography. However, the more I talk to, and take portraits of people on the street, the more I see the beauty in them and the value in making a connection and learning from each by coming out of our comfort zone. I think we miss out so much by being engrossed in commuting, playing mobile games, reading books and so on that we ignore a vast wealth of potential from the amazing people who are within touching distance of us sat on a train or at the next cafe table and one of the things that stops us from talking to each other and strengthening our communities against prejudices is the fear of rejection which may ultimately be why it feels easier to be a street photographer than a portrait photographer.