Martin Munkacsi

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Martin Munkacsi was born 18th May 1896 in Austro Hungary, Died July 13th 1963 New York. Munkacsi was a newspaper writer and photographer in Hungary, specializing in sports. At the time, sports action photography could only be done in bright light outdoors. Munkacsi's innovation was to make sports photographs as meticulously composed action photographs, which required both artistic and technical skill. He signed on with Harper's Bazaar, a top fashion magazine. He often left the studio to shoot outdoors, on the beach, on farms and fields, at an airport. He produced one of the first articles illustrated with nude photographs in a popular magazine.

File sizes

On the trip to Branston water park I unknowingly took pictures in RAW format and when I returned home I couldn't get my photos of my camera onto my computer as I didn't have a program that supported RAW. Having done this I thought I'd look into different file sizes and what it all means. On my camera I have the option of RAW, and small - large JPEG's.

The digital sensor in digital cameras is known as a Bayer Pattern sensor. This relates to the red, green and blue sensitive areas. Each pixel in the sensor responds to either red, green or blue light and there are two green sensitive pixels to every red and blue. The sensor measures the intensity of light falling on it.
A digital image has pixels which can be red, green, blue or one of the millions of other colours , to generate an image from the data output by the sensor, signal processing is required. This is called Bayer interpolation which means calculate what the colour of each pixel should be. The colour and intensity of each pixel is calculated based on the strengths of the red, green and blue data from all the pixels. Each pixel in the converted image now has three parameters, red intensity, blue intensity and green intensity.

RAW data is the output from the red, green and blue sensitive pixels of the image sensor. The sensor data is collected and it is at this point that the ISO is set. RAW isn't an acronym, it just means raw, unprocessed data. One of two things can be done with a RAW file. It can be stored as it is or it can be processed into a JPEG image.
If the data is stored as a JPEG file, it goes through Bayer interpolation. White balance, saturation, sharpness, contrast etc, is subject to JPEG compression. The advantage is that the file size is smaller and the file can be directly read by many programs. The disadvantage is that there is quality loss (lossy), the amount dependant on how much the file is compressed. The more compression, the smaller the file, the easier it is to download but the lower the image quality. A larger JPEG file can save a significant amount of space without loosing much quality.

RAW data contains 12 bit data, which means that there can be 4096 different intensity levels for each pixel, but in an 8 bit file (JPEG), each pixel has 256 different intensity levels. The larger RAW 12 bit data allows you to change the image more than a 8 bit JPEG without degrading the quality and it then can be stored as a JPEG.
The main reason to shoot in JPEG is that you can get more shots stored on your memory card and it's faster, both on the camera and downloading onto PC. If shot in RAW then you have to convert them to JPEG before you can print. If you have many images this takes a long time. If you know you have the correct white balance and all the other camera functions are set at the optimum settings, then a high quality JPEG will give as good a print as one converted from RAW. If you are not sure about the exposure, white balance or as a back up, and you want to keep the maximum possible processing on the PC, then its best to shoot in RAW.

Temperature control

Colour

temperature is a standard method of describing colours for use in a range of situations and with diff

erent equipment

I went out the other day to Branston water park to take some trial photos to experiment with ISO's, apertures, and shutter speeds. It was a fairly bright day with some clouds in the sky, I found a very photogenic Robin and started snapping away. Little did I know I had the white balance set incorrectly and all my photos came out with a blueish tone to them, (this I did not notice until I downloaded them to the computer at college and Steve picked it up). I chose a couple of photos

to adjust in Photoshop (please see photos below). I uploaded the images and altered the white balance from a very blueish shade at around 8000-9000 to around 5500 which is the tone my camera should of been set to.

I think this happened because my camera was set on RAW and I hadn't changed all of the settings I needed to. That is one big lesson learnt.

I know there is a sign post in the back ground, again I didn't notice it when I was taking the photos. I'm not yet sure of how you can Photoshop that out Or next time I will be more vigilant when taking the photo.

For the photo of the robin I used ISO 300, a shutter speed of 1/250 and a Aperture of 6.4 with a focal length of 55mm using my canon 450d with the 18-55mm lens. In photoshop all I had to do was correct the tone/temperature of the image. For the image of the water I used ISO 300, a shutter speed of 1/800 and a aperture of 5.6 with a focal length of 35mm using the same equipment. Again all I needed to do in photoshop was correct the tone of the image.

With being at a gravel pit and walking around the waters edge I had to be aware of the safety factors of this. Suitable footwear should be worn and great care to be taken whilst taking photos especially around the water. With it being a public area you have to be aware of other people around you and be considerate and keep all equipment out of the way as to not cause any accidents. Also with it being a nature reserve whilst you are there you have to follow the rules of the site, for example only go where the public are permitted.

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Thoughts 1.4, 1.8, 1.9

Planning to go upto Derbyshire this weekend with my camera equipment and hopefully with the equipment I have borrowed from college to take some pictures to explore ISO's, aperture, shutter speeds and practice some techniques used in photography. Going to write myself a list of things to do, such as what photos I plan to take i.e. Waterfalls, scenery, close ups, Wildlife and the places in which I am going to take the photos, so as to use my time wisely because I am limited to when I can borrow equipment from the college as I have little kit myself.
Whilest I am up there I shall be sure to follow health and safety proceedures to ensure a safe trip for me and the equipment. For example, with it being rough terraine I will be wearing walking boots and all the equipment will be safely packed away, and in the cold weather I will be sure that myself and my dogs (although i'm not sure I will definately be taking them as they may cause accidents and possible damage to equipment so are a health and safety hazard (and get in the way of shots!!)) will be dressed up warm. I also have to be aware of any other members of the public, as some equipment like a tripod could possibly get in peoples way.

Richard Avedon 1.2

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Richard Avedon was born on 15th May 1923 in New York city and died on 1st October 2004. A long life in which photography had played a central role for around 60 of them years. He started his career in photography taking portraits of crewmen for identity cards in the Merchant Marine, he then began working as an advertising photographer for a department store which is where he was discovered and went on to open his own studio and produced photographs for Vogue. Life and Harper's Bazaar to which he soon became head photographer until 1966, when he moved to Vogue.

Angus McBean 1.2

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Angus McBean 8 June 1904 - 9 June 1990
McBean was born in Newbridge, Monmouthshire, the son of a coal mine surveyor. He bought his first camera - a 2½ x 3½ inch autographic Kodak - and tripod as World War I was ending. Fascinated by the apparently magical properties of photography, he wanted to be able to take pictures of people and sold a gold watch left to him by his grandfather to raise the five pounds necessary for the equipment.
In 1925, after his father's early death, McBean moved with his mother and younger sister to London. He worked for Liberty's department store in the antiques department learning restoration, while his personal life was spent in photography, mask-making and watching plays in the West End theatre.
There were in effect two periods to McBeans career, his pre- and post-war phases. Pre-war he was a lot more confident in himself and experimented successfully with surrealism, indeed his work with the likes of Vivien Leigh are some of the most accessible surrealist photographic images known. Post war he reverted to a more regular style of portraiture photography, nearly always working with the entertainment and theatre profession.

Alfred Eisenstaedt 1.2

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Alfred Eisenstaedt December 6, 1898 – August 24, 1995 was a German American photographer and photojournalist. He is renowned for his candid photographs, frequently made using a 35mm Leica M3 rangefinder camera. He is best known for his photograph capturing the celebration of V-J Day.
Eisenstaedt was successful enough to become a full-time photographer in 1929. Four years later he photographed a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy. Other notable pictures taken by Eisenstaedt in his early career include a waiter ice skating in St. Moritz in 1932 and Joseph Goebbels at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1933. Because of oppression in Hitler's Nazi Germany, Eisenstaedt emigrated to the United States in 1935, where he lived in New York, for the rest of his life. He worked as a photographer for Life magazine from 1936 to 1972. His photos of news events and celebrities, such as Dagmar, Sophia Loren and Ernest Hemingway, appeared on 90 Life covers.