Apology

Hello, dear readers. I know it's been a while since I last updated this blog. And by a while, I mean over ten years. Yes, you read that right. Ten years. A whole decade. A lot can happen in ten years. You might be wondering what I've been up to all this time. Well, let me tell you.

First of all, I want to apologize for not posting in over ten years. I know some of you were eagerly waiting for my next post, and I'm sorry to disappoint you. I had a good reason, though. You see, I was abducted by aliens. Yes, you read that right. Aliens. As in extraterrestrials. As in little green men from outer space.

It all happened one night when I was walking home from the grocery store. I saw a bright light in the sky, and before I knew it, I was lifted off the ground by a tractor beam. I was taken aboard a spaceship, where I met some very friendly (and curious) aliens. They told me they wanted to study me and learn about human culture. They also said they would return me to Earth after a few days.

Well, as it turns out, their days are much longer than ours. A few days for them was actually ten years for us. So that's why I've been gone for so long. I was busy being a guest (and a guinea pig) on an alien spaceship.

I have to say, it was quite an experience. I learned a lot about their culture, their technology, their history, and their biology. They also learned a lot about me and humans in general. They were very fascinated by our music, our movies, our food, and our emotions. They even taught me some of their language, which sounds like a mix of clicks and whistles.

They were very nice to me, and treated me with respect and kindness. They never harmed me or experimented on me without my consent. They even gave me some gifts when they returned me to Earth. One of them was a device that lets me communicate with them anytime I want. Another one was a necklace that makes me immune to aging and disease.

So here I am, back on Earth, looking exactly the same as I did ten years ago. Everything else has changed, though. The world is different now. Technology has advanced, politics have shifted, trends have come and gone. And of course, my blog has been neglected.

I don't know if anyone still reads this blog, or if anyone still remembers me. But I wanted to let you know that I'm back, and that I'm sorry for not posting in over ten years. I hope you can forgive me for my long absence.

I have so much to tell you about my adventures in space, and about what's going on in my life now. I hope you're still interested in hearing from me. If you are, please leave a comment below and let me know.

Thank you for reading this blog post. And thank you for being loyal readers of this blog.

I'll try to post more often from now on.

Until next time,

Your friendly blogger,

Perry

Along the Pacific Coast

This photo was taken last year on a wonderful drive down Highway 1. This might be Pompano Beach.


Pompano Beach

What is ISO and why is it on my camera?

Is this really important to me, especially now that I am using a digital camera? After all, doesn't the little computer in the camera take of everything?

ISO is the abbreviation for International Standards Organization. Back in the day before digital when everyone had to use film, manufacturers such as Kodak made films with different light sensitivities. The more light sensitive it was, the film was considered "faster". In order to properly evaluate film sensitivities between manufacturers, ISO developed standards for measuring the light sensitivity of films. This measurement is called the film "speed" and the numbers usually ranged from 32 to 1200 and maybe even higher. The higher the speed of a film, the more light sensitive it is. In order to photograph an indoor scene with existing lighting, film speeds of ISO 400 or higher were used. A common film speed of ISO 100 was often used for outdoor photography.

Digital cameras today have an ISO setting which approximately duplicate the ISO settings of film. In a digital camera, the ISO setting refers to the sensitivity of the camera's sensor that captures the images.  You can set your camera's ISO speed manually or let your camera set it automatically for you.  In order to get the best quality digital photos, I recommend that your camera's ISO speed be set at 100 unless you are shooting in a low light situation without a flash.

Why not just set ISO at a high number all the time?

There is no such thing as a free lunch! There are trade-offs in using higher ISO speeds even in digital cameras.

Advantages of higher ISO speeds:

• Capture images in low light settings without the need for a flash or addtional lighting.
• "Freeze" rapidly moving people or objects

Disadvantages of higher ISO speeds:

• Additional "noise" or for films, "grain" is added to the image.
• Possible shift in colors.

A picture is worth a thousand words:
Here are several photos of the same objects taken with different lighting and ISO speeds.
This one was taken at ISO 3200:

When this picture is enlarged (click on it to enlarge it), it is possible to see lots of noise especially in areas where there are areas of the same color.

It is possible to remove the noise either in some cameras before the image is written to the memory card. Look for a menu setting of "Noise Reduction".

There is one thing you can do if you wish to use ISO 100 here.  Reduce the ISO to 100 and use a slower shutter speed.  Here is a photo taken using ISO 100:

This photo was taken using a shutter speed of 1/13 of a second.  This shutter speed is way too low to take just holding the camera.  I had to put my camera on a tripod to take this.

Another alternative is to set the ISO just high enough to hand-hold the camera.  Here is a photo taken at ISO 800 with post-processing noise reduction applied:

"Post-Processing" means that work needed to be done on the computer with this image after the photo was taken and uploaded to the computer. Post-processing is done by a software application such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements.  It is very hard to tell the difference between this photo and the one taken at ISO 100.  Of course, the difference is the amount of time spent doing the post-processing.  Again, there is no such thing as a "free lunch"!

Can you see any difference just looking at these on the screen?  (Double click on each photo to view them in their actual size.) However, if these were printed 8x10 or larger, the difference would be very noticeable.

Finally, let's jump into our time machine and go back about 15 years or so before digital cameras.  Using a film camera inside without flash, we would use a very fast color film, something like Kodak Max 400, which was a very popular high-speed (ISO 400) film.  Here is what the photo above would look like if we were using a fast color film:

Notice that not only is the film grain very visible even at a small size, but the colors are slightly different and in several areas quite blotchy.  Since there were no digital cameras back in those days, this was the best one could get at that time.  No wonder why there are so few film cameras still in use today!  However, some people may like this photo because the film grain makes it more "realistic".  You be the judge!

Welcome!

This blog is to help people understand some of the details of photography that may seem confusing. Understanding some of the terms and concepts of photography should help improve your photos no matter what camera you are using.