Simplicity vs Complexity: parametric fantaisies

 Each time you are anticipating to start a new photo taking session, there is often the question on how to configure your photographic device. Since we can choose and select about anything we want (and even more on what we doesn't know it can be done) through imaging preset bias (and post editing too), it is becoming a very challenging and confusing task.

Nobody can pretend to describe an absolute and universal parametric guideline regarding doing photography but we can imaging that some sort of partial check list may help at least the ones who are asking for and as soon you already have determined which camera and optic you will work with, you may concentrate yourself on some very basic photographic parameters like:

-some technical aspects:

The choice of the image sensor picture mode and its effects;

The sensitivity (image sensor "speed" - ISO) and its pixel resolution level impact;

The shutter speed or the movement expression;

The lens aperture or the focusing discrimination;

-and some creative approaches:

The angle of view or the importance of the subject in its context;

The composition or the graphic canvas organisation;

The light distribution or the contrast of the subject surfaces and the importance of their respective details (or absence of);

The expressive and decisive "moment" of the picture taking;

Any of those have an important impact on the image final rendering and its ability to seduce the looker. The other ways around is letting the camera brain decide for you what will important to adjust, providing you have firstly program it on the type of picture you are looking. In fact this is not new (it already has been present during the last decades of analog-film photography) but the degree of sophistication is now so high that is often surpassing our human ability and motivation to do by ourselves.

The thing that doesn't change is our choice of subject and the moment we are selecting to take its picture (although you can literally "film" it with a large picture taking sequence). So, the intention of photographing is still there and its purpose stays into our hands. Some photographic parameters are easier to master and with the modern electronic viewfinder (EVF) or the live screen (LVF) you can control their final effect right from the start before taking the picture. In a way digital photography is a much more effective way of doing it with less incertitude for the final result.

Many "partial" automated camera programs allow you to control one parameter at a time such as the lens aperture (A) or the camera shutter speed (S). Even with the full program position (P) you can introduce an exposure correction factor. Most modern digital camera models are giving you the possibility to vastly reconfigure them. At this stage simplicity leaves place to complexity which is asking for a more skill approach from the photographer. But in any case, you have the choice do less or more and determine the level of technical implication you want to involve into your photographic essaies.

Photos Daniel M: Panasonic Lumix G95; Fujifilm X-S10; Olympus OM-D E-M5 III 

Simplicity can be digital!

Fujifilm X-H1 / XF 50mm f2 R WR

Prelude: Having worked with different Fujifilm X-mount camera models * have teach me that simplicity is still reachable with digital camera devices. The photographic fundamentals stay the same as we can select the basic setting in the same manner as we use to do during the film (analog) era. Opting for a film simulation, choosing an ISO sensibility, reading the exposure reading in accordance of our shutter speed and aperture preferences and finally adjust our focus point through manually or automatically.
* Thanks to the digital camera designs from Fujifilm that mimic the film (analog) ancestors.

Yes, that debate seems to rage over the web photo planet for years and since the digital cameras and their vast inherent electronic possibilities have substituted their film-analog counterparts. Not new but always so actual. In fact, all the basics in photography remain the same (although sometimes translated differently technically) but the digital access to more parameters like film simulations, color and exposure sciences that were almost impossible to think when we were using traditional films cameras, have completely changed the photographic landscape.

Fujifilm X-T20 / XF 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

Giving access to some specific technical parameters wont obviously give you the understanding of them and the competence to interact with them. And may be the will to go that further in your photographic art! Because we don't need to absolutely fine tune everything, we intend to use to get your picture results. And some camera implanted formulas are widely renowned for obtaining outstanding performances into our picture making and it doesn't diminish our involvement to reach great imagery.





Even if we appreciated the well technically mastered pictures of all kind, it stays that the choice of the subject, its composition and its picture taking moment are still the very fundamentals of success in photography. And imperfections could be in a way part of the originality of every photo interpretation. Personal sophistication is also a manner of our mind (previsualize) image selection.

You may want to better control some exposure parameters for specific photographic purposes. The most noticeable ones may be the shutter speed for freezing or not the subject movement(s), and the lens aperture, for reducing or increasing the deep of field (the subject in the clear focus distance range). Experimenting and studying the different results you will obtain can help you to further push your artistic creativity and by extension your own visual originality.

In some extend, as you get more familiar to play with these parameters, you will develop some photo setting reflexes that will increase your working efficiency and also allow you to get easier the picture results you are looking for. You may find that every single subject may ask you a different technical approach and it is up to you to create different setting formulas that will apply accordingly. For example, action subject in movement could ask you the use of an higher shutter speed to freeze them or, on the contrary, a slower one to reproduce the impression of this mobility or even a moderate shutter speed combine with a panning of the central subject to produce its blurred background. So, every personal requirement may ask a specific formula.

Fujifilm X-H1 / XF 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

The deep of field debate is another never ending discussion. On the opposite side of the usual argumentation, blurring a subject can also develop a specific interest of it. The travelling of the observer image eyesight can create a complex interest about a two-dimensional picture. Tack subject sharpness is not always the perfect solution for a subject or a scene. Impacts of second level or third level can enhance the total photo experience. Even with a modest maximum aperture lens, you can use the deep of field phenomena creatively especially for short distance subjects.

I cannot more emphasis how the choice and the interaction with your photographic subject is paramount into your visual artistic picture expression and also for the image composition and the picture taking moment you are privileging. Those important points can surpass the only technical requirements of many in doing a more interesting content. Yes, the digital photo cameras are wonderful tool, but we have to develop also our personal vision of this world that must be translated using these devices. Persistent et repetitive photo experiences are a good way to fulfill that always renewing task.

Fujifilm X-H1 / XF 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

In a short conclusion, my only concern is that the present photographers may not be fooled by the actual film-analog resurgence fashion that is falsely stating that film is the equal to digital in terms of technical possibilities. It is simply not the case. Furthermore, as a ex-photographer of the film (analog) era, I can assure you that the present digital photography technology surpass in every ways the old film way of producing pictures, and if you need a printed result, there is a lot of digital printers and fine art papers that can fulfill the challenge. But if you want to reproduce the film (analog) era experience of setting and using a camera, it can be easily done with a present digital camera model of your own.