Monday, April 2, 2012

Cameras for Visual Artists

Bon Voyage from Bayshore Boulevard
Yesterday, Palm Sunday, the Bayshore Boulevard (of Dreams) in Tampa could not look more inviting than in this snapshot.
 
For several months, my fifth digital camera has been on the fritz. I've only had this one for three months. Granted it's only a P+S Kodak, but the prior two gave me acceptable results when shooting outdoors. I'd drag out the old SLRs but they're no longer practical. I don't even want the bulk of a DSLR.


 Bayshore Boulevard Rainbow Sans Pot o' Gold
This photo taken across the street from the above, and minutes apart, is a little pond in old Palma Ceia. It's actually the old Palma Ceia Spring swimming hole from days long past.

In different light, different colors, this shot is problematic for many digital P+S cameras. The lens is fast enough to stop motion, stabilized, but colors are hard to correct.

Look at the rainbow, though, beautiful. While the greens are okay and the focus is spotty in a few areas, this is still a pretty greeting card scene.

Point+Shoot cameras I've owned and researched have a problem with contrasting and differentiating the transition from sun to shade and, in my more colorful flower shots, correct to blobs of bright color, or everything is monotone blurred blues.



Bayshore Garden Club Live Oaks Draped in Moss

A lovely scene across the side road to the spring, shot on automatic setting with strong backlighting and multiple shades of green. Not bad. I'll re-shoot when I have a new camera.
This link offers lots of information from an experienced professional fine art photographer.
Photograph Art 

Maybe more technical than you need, but you can easily pick out the sections on 2-D art and just enjoy the pictures in the rest of the post.


Cruising Down the Bayshore


Off to look at cameras now. Our difficulty in photographing our art is the close-up focus required for reproductions. Artists need those fantastic scenery shots only for reference, unless like me, uploading photos for prints.

With my current information, I may choose a Panasonic Lumix today and continue reading before committing to a Canon Powershot SX40HS, as referenced in my prior post link - New Camera - which the author has updated.

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too. 

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios
 


No comments:

Post a Comment