Photographic Talk

I met a friend a couple days ago on a dog gathering and we have shared, briefly, our opinion in photography.  Photography when considered as a kind of creative work can't have a fixed way of doing it.  And is this nature of it that makes camera and lens different from merely a recording machine.	幾天前在一個狗狗的聚會上跟一位狗友分享了一點點攝影的感受，感覺上攝影是一種創作，因而各人有自己的處理方法，所以，相機和鏡頭不止是一種記錄的工具。
Fig 1 : 70-200 F4 IS 圖一：小小白 70-200 F4 IS
My friend has recently purchased her "little little white" 70-200 F4 IS L lens for her Canon machine.  She said the price for this lens is nearly the same as its big brother F2.8 "little white" lens.  Her choice between them based on the weight of the lens.  F2.8 lens is too heavy for her and as F4 has IS which can keep the safe shutter speed 4 stops down for her to take photos at dim light with hand held camera, her decision goes to F4 lens.	朋友最近買了她的小小白，是用在她Canon相機上的紅圈白鏡70-200 F4 IS L鏡頭，據朋友說，這鏡頭因為有IS的關係，售價跟它的大佬F2.8的小白相差不遠，而她選用小小白而不用小白的原因，是因為F2.8的小白對她而言太重了，加上小小白有防抖IS可以讓她在暗光下手持拍攝時減四級快門，所以她別無選擇。
Fig 2 : 70-200 F2.8 圖二：小白 F2.8
This sounds reasonable and base on my experience in using this lens in a studio, I agree that its outcome is extraordinary.  But for me, I would opt the F2.8 brother rather.  I make this decision base on two things.  One is that IS can't replace large aperture lens.  IS can just keep the safe shutter speed lower but not make the lens faster.  When I need to take photos of my energetic dog at dim light, I need a faster lens to freeze his motion.  This traditional wisdom may not hold nowadays with the out spring of high ISO machines, but, the basic difference between fast lens vs anti-vibration design still applies. The second reason is that faster lens gives shallower dof with beautiful bokeh.  A photographer can't just ignore the unimportant things as a painter does.  To keep us looking at the important part of a photo, photographers may blur out the unimportant part.  This comes the choice of dof.  The blurred part, bokeh as they called it, reveals the design of the lens. Although a fast lens may not give beautiful bokeh, a slow lens can never give good looking bokeh, or just can't give bokeh.  Thus, irrespective of the difficulties and the heavenly cost in making large aperture lens, people are still making this kind of lens.  When I need to pay for the lens, I think the optical thing (such as large aperture) worths while the electronic things (like anti-vibration system) are not.  The cost of making electronic things is low tho the developing cost is high.  This makes its price tag drop easily.  However, the cost of producing optical lenses can hardly cut and thus their corresponding products can hardly reduce their price.	這也頗有道理，並且我在影樓用這小小白的經驗告訴我它的表現也十分突出，朋友的選擇自有她的基礎。但若果可以讓我作選擇的話，我還是會選用F2.8的小白，原因有兩點： 第一是防抖不可以替代大光圈快鏡；不錯，小小白的IS可以讓我們減4級快門，可是這不能曝光時間減少。考慮到若我要在暗光處拍我坐不定的狗狗，我想我要一支快鏡來凝固我的狗狗的動作；當然，上面的傳統觀念也是要與時並進的，有了高ISO的機器，我們已經可以利用高ISO來推高快門速度了，未必要選用大光圈鏡頭。 第二個選擇小白的原因，是因為攝影時我們要選擇景深來強調主體，而景深以外的散景美麗與否，就是取決於鏡頭的設計。雖然大光圈鏡頭不一出完美的散景，細光圈鏡頭就一定做不出好的散景，甚至乎不會做出散景效果。基於這點，就算製造大光圈鏡頭有一定難度及成本趨於天價，我們仍在追求大光圈鏡頭呢。對我來說，要付出金錢去買一支鏡，我會願意把錢花在光學而非電子部份，電子部份的開發雖然也是天價，但製作費輕，降價的可能非常高，相反，光學的製作抗跌能力非常高，所以大光圈的鏡保值能力較好，高價是合理的。
Fig 3 : The bokeh by Nikkor 135mm DC at f2.8 圖三：用135mm DC 在 f2.8下做出的散景
Another point we have talked about is whether to save pictures at raw or jpg.  To reduce the post-photograph workload, jpg is the only choice.  However, as the degree of retouching a jpg picture is limited, we need to be very careful in selecting the picture style in the camera.  To people like me who cannot do this professionally it is better to use raw files instead.  Raw files eat away my storage but is more safe as I can do lots of adjustment when I back to my home. The following pictures show the different picture I can easily produce at home.	另一個觸及的問題是該影jpg或是raw檔，由於jpg檔後製的能力有限，所以在拍攝時要做好相機的設定，對於像我這此在這方面能力有限的人，還是拍攝raw檔比較保險，當然，raw檔的體積較大，消耗記憶體較多，好處是保留了最多的原始資料，要怎樣的相片，可以回家才調出來。 下面的一組相片，正正是我把一張raw的原始相片用不同的調教出來的不同的效果：
Fig 4 : Results of different retocuhing by NX2 圖四：利用NX2把RAW檔調成不同的效果 a : original picture/原圖
b : white balance set/調好白平衡	c : effect at neutral/效果設為neutral
d : effect at normal/效果設為normal	e: effect at vivic/效果設為vivic
f : photo style at protrait/人像模式	g : photo style at landscape/風景模式
h : sharp/銳化	i : D-lighting: off/動態補光 : off
j : D-lighting : normal/動態補光：normal	k : D-lighting: super high/動態補光 : super high
l : -0.5eV	m : curve in S shape/S曲線
You can see there are lots of possibilities and you should bear in mind that there is no correct or incorrect in this retouching but only a choice of taste.  Of all, white balance affect the most and is the one I would definitely check before export as jpg files. The following picture is the one I choose for this baby, but is not based on this picture but the whole lot of pictures I took that day by a batch process.  You can see that it is not that good but is acceptable.	看了這麼多個例子，你會發覺根本沒有對錯的問題，只是個人口味而已。其實，眾多個修改當中，以白平衡的修正最為重要，我一般會先教正白平衡才轉為jpg檔。 下圖是為這相片後製的選擇，但我並非專為這相片做的個別微調，只是把當日的照片統一地用批次過程一次過調整過來，這樣做雖然不是最合適，但仍給出可以接受的效果。
Fig 5 : My choice of the retouch 圖五：我選用的微調 honey, you're so cute