0.4. Photo tech

Typically autodidact, I learned photography techniques and exercised them as often as possible beside my main activity. My robust intercultural know-how, a few workshops, abundant online readings, and regular shooting practice are my main sources of creative and technical improvements.

Shooting interests and style

The objective of this blog (see 0.2. My goal) made clear that my main photographic interests relate to people and social encounters.

To me, photography is foremost a matter of vision, inspiration, and social interaction, rather than the product of complex photographic techniques.

Before shooting, I am particularly cautious at light and composition. I can wait long until the missing element fits in. I also proactively prepare a given situation, if needed. For instance, I often spend time in creating or facilitating the enabling environment for a good portrait.

I better describe my shooting style as what it is not. I rarely rely on paparazzi shooting techniques, as I consider them as last resort options. My people’s pictures are usually not “stolen”, because my photography intends to report as much as possible real social encounters. They are also not fully arranged portraits.

I rather try to capture the essence of a social encounter, which sometimes implies slight aesthetic arrangements. In this approach, the positive energy produced by the encounter often more than fully compensates what is lost in spontaneity.

When I feel the moment is ripe for photographic action, I am rather quick shooter: I do not spend ages in shooting hundreds of pictures of the same subject.

I still shoot mostly in semi-automatic (aperture priority) or manual mode, usually with fast primes and available light (no flash). I shoot as often as possible with wide open apertures, as the resulting narrow depth of field helps creating aesthetic 3D effects in my photographic compositions.

I often convert my colour files into black-and-white. Black-and-white photography fits my fondness for simplicity, composition, and expressivity. It guides the reader quicker and deeper into what the photographer intends to express. If colour seduces the eye, black-and-white charms the soul.

My posts typically present black-and-white and colour pictures. It allows me to take the best out of my files, because not all colour shoots produce a nice black-and-white output, once converted. The colour/black-and-white combined style is also meant to facilitate the reader’s journey from a vision close to “reality” (colour) to a more artistic and subjective one (black-and-white).

Bodies

Between 2000 and 2006, I shot film with a Nikon 801-S body. Posted pictures dating that period are made of scanned negatives.

I switched to digital photography only in 2007. Between 2007 and 2010, I used a Nikon D200 body with half-frame sensor (DX).

Late 2010, I moved to full-frame (FX) digital photography with a Nikon D700. My decision was motivated mainly by the lower low-light performance of the D200 compared to the D700, and by the wish to evade from the 1.5 cropping factor of the D200.

I hope that Nikon will release soon a full-frame but light body dedicated to producing high-quality pictures with simple functionalities, leaving aside video shooting and image files post-processing.

Lenses

Between 2000 and 2009, I used five Nikon prime lenses – 24, 50, 85, 180, and 300 mm. Late 2009, I switched to Carl Zeiss manual-focus primes – 25, 35, 50 and 100 mm.

The exceptional optical and mechanical qualities of Zeiss lenses, though non-autofocus, fit well my shooting style and interests, as well as my rather classical photographic stance.

Software

I shoot RAW/NEF files, and process them with Lightroom 3.2 and Photoshop CS4 for Mac, enhanced with various Nik plug-ins. Black-and-white pictures are created from colour digital files using Nik Silver Efex converter.

Last updated 18/08/2011