After some reservation, I think I’m ready to commit to some sort of daily photograph regime. After all, I just sunk about a year’s discretionary income into a piece of camera gear. Sure, I’m not doing anything new here; I’m not breaking new ground. Every bellybutton-gazer or aspirant photographer has pulled this trick. It’s predictable and copycattish of me. But it is a solid way to force me to use this camera.

Why I Paid So Much

Because of situations like this. The weather was dreadful, socked in, last night. Murky, foggy close and chill. The sky was mostly a bouncing zone for orange-frequency photons. Visibility was limited. But I wanted to take a photo or two with the new cam.

We arrived a few minutes early for our reservation at Carlyle*, so I braved the elements, squatted in the road, swore at the tripod a bit**, and took exactly two photographs of the underside of the Fremont Bridge. Again, I’m a bit ashamed of my early photographs from the new camera; they have not been inspired. I know I can do better. But the weather, O!, the weather. It’s been crap grey since Friday.

When I pulled the Fremont Bridge RAW data off the camera, the results were a bit utterly disappointing. The shot looked like this:

Fremont Bridge: RAW Photo Data. Bleck!

The rendered JPG out of the camera fared a touch better as it applied the in-camera “filters”, but was no winner.

However, about three minutes of RAW adjustment (white balance, color balance, saturation, levels/histogram) gave me this:

What a Difference 2-3 Minutes of RAW-Data Adjustment Makes

None of this eliminates the fact that the photo isn’t any good. But still, the clarity and sharpness and color response of this new camera makes me feel a bit like a hero.

Versus Film

This is still a far cry from Fuji Velvia 50 35mm, which looks something like this:

Fremont Bridge, Taken with Fuji Velvia 50

But I have a sense that, with enough patience, anything is possible with the new camera. With Velvia, I’d get the above. But with the new camera, I can get…whatever I want. I just need someone to show me which buttons to press in Photoshop to emulate the Velvia version. I spent a few minutes tinkering with Channel Mixer and Saturation and Curves and got this:

I have a way to go here, but a bit of tinkering with Channel Mixer, Saturation and Curves gives me something that is moving towards a poppy Velvia look. Still too candy-ish, more work to be done. If I figure it out, I'll share it with you. There are numerous hits out there on the Internet for various techniques, but none seem like the silver bullet.

Additionally, with film (e.g. Velvia) I get one result. All of the data point to a single general rendition. With RAW data, I can emulate a huge range of effects without losing data (or not having enough of it to render something). It’s going to change the way I do business.

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* Oysters with mignonette, a bite of David’s sweetbreads, seared tuna with lobster-leek ragu and olive tapenade***, Belgian raw-milk pave, a subtle French blue, espresso–if you were asking.

** My friend Duncan gave me a most wonderful tripod but I’m still getting used to it. A decade with my previous one embedded some serious habits.

*** The seared tuna was served on a bed of butter-rich sauteed leeks with lobster, but also with an olive tapenade. I don’t think I’ve ever been so perplexed by a combination in a decent restaurant. Olive tapenade? What? Guess what happens when you take some of the most subtle flavors on the planet (butter, lobster; even leeks are fairly low-key in the culinary scheme of things) and then also mix it with olive freaking tapenade? Great. A plateful of brine. Seared tuna, impressively rare (I’ll grant that!). Olive tapenade. Lobster. I fundamentally do not get it. Also, while I’m complaining, I’ll mention that our table had the worst Feng Shui of any restaurant table I’ve ever sat at; it was simultaneously at the edge of the room and in the middle of it. Waiters used the space right behind David as a hallway/aisle. The cheese was good. And I do adore Prince Edward Island oysters. And I’m happy to eat mignonette by the spoonful.