The relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO (again?) .... now simplified

This might sound like a topic that has been hammered enough to not even bother to publish an article on, but I can see the confusion in the eyes of my students every time this comes up. Why do we have 3 (four if you count the flash!) different adjustments for exposure in a camera?

The usual explanation goes like: "...aperture controls the ammount of light entering the lens, but it also has effect on the depth of field in the image..". So this gets even more confusing as we bring another parameter into play! I seem to have much more success with a little twist that I have given to these well-known (for a photographer) concepts.

I try to explain what are the unique effects of each of the adjustments in the camera in terms that are not related to exposure and then add, "...but it also has a collateral effect of changing the exposure.." So here is the whole explanation:
Aperture affects the depth of field. The higher the "f-stop" number, the better the depth of field. The lower the number, the shallower the depth of field. Changing the aperture has the additional effect of changing the amount of light that gets into the camera. The higher the number, the more light is blocked.
Shutter speed affects how motion is recorded in the image. Increasing the shutter speed will stop motion. Slower shutter speeds will cause blur or will make the camera more prone to record camera shake. Shutter speed also affects how long the sensor is exposed to light. The higher the number, the faster the shutter, more light is kept out of the camera.
ISO is the sensor sensitivity and the lower it is, the less noise we have in the image. But the higher the number, the more sensible the sensor is to light.
So is clear now the function of each parameter, but it is also clear that if you want to get a certain (many times referred to as the "correct") exposure, when you move one of them, either one of the other two have to change accordingly to restore balance. If you are in any of the automatic exposure modes (Aperture priority, Shutter Speed priority), this will happen automatically.
This is proving to be a much more easier to understand approach as it assigns at first a unique effect to each control and then ties them together through exposure.
Shoot away...

What would Cartier-Bresson use today?

I was pleasantly surprised when I read this month's American Photo's article on the iPhone's camera apps. It has been a long time since I saw an article on Cameraphones, besides the usual novelty note.

In my opinion, the iPhone with their camera apps is the new Leica. It has reasonable quality for web and even an 8"x10" print, is highly portable, silent and inconspicuous and -because of the audience that the iPhone and Apple in general appeals to- now in the hands of a highly creative people. Because of these reasons, i believe that the iPhone, and the cameraphone in general, is the new candid and street photography tool by excellence andwe willbe seeing a lot of art created by this craft.

I have always been excited about the possibilities a Camera Phone brings to the table and I did some early experiments in 2003 and early 2004 when I used to work for Nokia. They released one of their first cameraphones, the 3650, and I got one of these in my hands early enough with all its then mind-blowing 640x480 resolution.
The result of these experiments are captured in a flash gallery that you can check out at http://www.rostonics.com/files/TravellingImages.swf

Digital Crayola

I just read this article on the future of photography on PopPhoto on how photography will look like in 2006.

The author goes into every possible hi-tech gadget possibility, ranging from photo-gloves and eye implants. In my personal opinion the article looks, in the best case like a 3-D visual effect sensationalist Sci-Fi with a crappy storyline, sometimes childish.

It totally misses the point of photography as an expression -and I am presuming you are on my side of the discussion on whether photography is art-. If you reduce photography to its simple, snapshot-taking, everyday-event-documenting simplicity, the article might be somewhat on target on predicting the future.

If we are going to be so evolved by 2060, Why not think about a world that is constantly surveyed by hi res cameras and every inch of our existence is documented by automatic picture-takers? We could then get any possible picture just by downloading the image from a giant "world-stock" database, making any gadget absolutely pointless.

With all due respect to the never-to-be-released-cool-factor-technology-creating (remember the 3-D manipulator? or the Human-face-shaped CRTs for video conferencing?) guys at the Media Lab at MIT, having a photograph that can be modified by the viewer depending on the mood he is in, well...that is so 1960s...I used to do it in pre-K....with crayola. While it can be fun, it is also insulting for someone who is intending to express a message and a mood and somebody is "interpreting it" differently. I know a lot of people who would be upset if I did this just with one of their phrases, let alone admiring the "guernica" and "interpreting it" as a bachelor's party.

Claudio lovo melts SoBe

How do you define yourself as a Photographer?
As I capturer of dimensional light & space

Was it that way ever? When did you first pickup a camera?
Yes, since my early years living in Michigan, I had a darkroom in the basement of my house and experimented with distortions and dodging prints and negatives. I loved the magic of the darkroom, as much as I did capturing.

What made you move to South Florida? What makes it special for the photography business in general?
I’m originally from Nicaragua, studied in Paris and have lived in Louisiana, Michigan and Washington D.C where I came from 21 years ago from, where I was a media consultant/producer for government and private companies.
I arrived January 1st of 1988 and worked for PBS as an independent Director-Producer of a documentary series “Consuming Passions, origins & adaptation of food in America*. That took me 4 years of production and editing.
I was here when the photographers and models from Europe discovered SoBe and it was wonderful, no traffic, just a quiet location with beautiful morning light and vibrant colors.

You do commercial photography, and then there is your work with Photoshop, giving images fluidity. How do you reconcile these? Which one is the real Claudio?
I say that the “real” Claudio is both, since I enjoy them equally. I love the process of shooting the pictures but then I love sitting in my computer with A/C and begin the workflow. Sometimes I see a photo that I feel connected and instead of being commercial it becomes art.

For your fine-art pieces, what is the process that you follow and where do you get your inspiration?
The process involves 10 to 20 layers in Photoshop with a myriad of filters. Many are home made (custom filters). I think that “filters” gives you the “signature”, like in the case of music, when you hear the sound of Carlos Santana playing, the sound of his guitar its unmistakable. Edison said once that his work was “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration” and he’s absolutely right I think of the possibilities and have a concept of my final intention but to get there it might take me 20 hours of work, that’s where you need the inspiration: work. I wish I had that “Muse” all the time!

What is Claudio’s "Secret Sauce”? Can you tell us about your lighting style?
My “secret sauce” has to be my wife, Lisa Mae; she’s my muse and inspiration. She let’s me create and be myself. I think that’s the most important part, to have the freedom to do your thing, like working until 7:00 am and waking up a 5:00 pm to continue working… She takes care of the management/financial affairs and that gives me the freedom that I need to create.
My lighting style hmm? Well I’m obsessed with light as much as I am with shadows. I feel the light, and feed from it too. I spend considerable time playing with it, be it with flashes, bouncers and natural light.

With ubiquitous access to digital cameras and editing software, where do you see professional photography going?
I think that now they’re so many digital photographers that its tough to compete for the younger generation in certain fields, like adventure, extreme sports, etc.
The cameras are getting better and more affordable, this makes it harder to succeed, I have a name and most of my work is from word of mouth and referrals and thank God, keeps me busy.
I think that the key is to find a “niche” in the marketplace and do whatever but do it good and with passion.


Check out Claudio's website, http://www.mysurrealestate.com and more of his selected work.

For more info: Huba Rostonics is a Florida-based Photographer. He is constantly looking for new things to put a frame around. You can check his work at http://www.rostonics.com, you can also follow Huba on twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/rostonics.

Where I set my sight I place the bullet

This week we sat down with Kiko Ricote, a renowned Commercial Photographer based in Miami, with their studios in Miami . Kiko has made commercial work for such brands as Corona, American Airlines, ATT, Cocacola, Ritz Carlton, etc.

How do you define yourself as a Photographer?

I am a Commercial Photographer and with this I mean that is irrelevant for me what I shoot, my goal is to sell. I can very comfortably do fashion, architecture, children, people, products, etc. What I am looking for is that the picture appeals and that the subject on the photo looks good, with no distractions, it should be the first thing that catches your eye, always looking for angles, lights or something, so that when people see the photograph it will catch their attention. In summary, always trying to sell.

Was it that way ever? When did you first pickup a camera?

No, I started out working as a model, one day I bought a camera for fun, never thinking in becoming a photographer. I didn't realize at that moment that the years I have been in front of the camera and the numerous hours I have spent looking at photography books, magazines,etc. in different studios while I was in between shots, have taught me so much about photography. Then I took some pictures of a model and the model agency I used to work for in Munich liked them. They started sending me models to make tests of them for their composites. After the third model I started charging, that was 30 years ago.

What made you move to South Florida? What makes it special for the photography business in general?

I am Latino, and I love to live in a Latin city with the rules of the first world. Work is good here, since you keep getting jobs from many cities in Latin America. Besides that, the light, the weather, locations and the variety of models available at hand make for an ideal place.

You do a lot of architectural photography, What is Kiko's "Secret Sauce"? Can you tell us about your lighting style?

I love to mix lights, natural with the ones I place, without being evident. That gives photographs a special taste that resembles reality. If you do something real, natural, photographs are always pleasing.

Kiko is a diminutive of Francisco, But You are called "Quicko" by some. Can you tell us about that?

Well, after so many years doing photography, there is nothing I haven't done or tried -several times-. So, "Where I set my sight I place the bullet". I am very quick, sometimes too quick, which makes things seem easy. If you know what you are doing, illuminating and composing are made in minutes. Because of that, people started to say how quick I was and Quick and Kiko, they started calling me Quicko.

With ubiquitous access to digital cameras and editing software, where do you see professional photography going?

Honestly, I don't think it is going to change a whole lot in the next few years. Digital Photography is quite developed already. What I am seeing more and more is a merging of full-motion video with still photography. Cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark II do amazing HD video. I see video very much related to photography, covering movement between one initial shot and a final one. What you have to know is how to start and how to finish and then light up the transition.

Kiko has 30 years of experience in photography, the last 14 of those based in Miami. His company, Kikor, Inc. owns a full-fledged production and post-production studio with all the necessary equipment to realize any shot. Kiko also travels extensively throughout Latin America and the US for his clients.

You can check Kiko's work at http://www.kikor.com

Huba Rostonics is a Florida-based Photographer. He is constantly looking for new things to put a frame around. You can check his work at http://www.rostonics.com, you can also follow Huba on twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/rostonics.

Virgin for the light

Every once in a while, a friend and I get caught up in a conversation where we debate where the technology will take us. One of the current topics is the Shutter+Mirror mechanism in modern DSLRs.

The shutter mechanism, with its sliding-curtain and flipping-up mirror is very well known to any photographer who has been around for some years, as it is an exact adaptation of the mechanism used in regular film SLR cameras. Its main advantage is that it allows for composing and metering the subject through the very same lens that will take the picture and then, expose the sensor in a controlled fashion. The mechanical shutter also allows for having a completely clean sensor, "virgin" for the light.

The drawbacks are obvious, being a mechanical device, to achieve the speed needed can be a complicated fate. The mirror mechanism is also somewhat complicated and it accounts for the so discussed "photographus interruptus" where the mirror ocludes from the photographer the actual image being taken. Moving parts are delicate and noisy.

Point and shoot cameras use a less expensive and simpler solution, having a constant opening that allows for the light to hit the sensor and hence view, meter and continuously compose on the LCD screen. This alternative is superior in the sense that it allows for high above and under-the-hip composing as well as being able to judge the noise level on the sensor. When the picture is taken, the CCD device is cleared electronically and the exposure process begins. After the exposure time has elapsed, each pixel is transferred, "stopping" the process.

In contrast with the Diafragm, which is optically needed, there is no doubdt in my mind that with time, this "electronic shutter" will be perfected and will eventually replace the mechanical shutter even on the most expensive cameras.

As it happened with the electro-mechanical sequencers on our washing machines that were continued to be widely used until just recently when replaced by Microprocessors, mechanical shutters are so mature that we will continue to use them for years and they will make for good background noise. It always make me smile when some "sound effects" genius uses an outdated shutter noise and you can hear the whirr of the motor-drive advancing the film.

For more info: Huba Rostonics is a Florida-based Photographer. He is constantly looking for new things to put a frame around. You can check his work at http://www.rostonics.com, you can also follow Huba on twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/rostonics.

Miami, Photo friendly city? Not even close!

I knew it was bad, but not THIS bad. I probably was trying to convince myself that everywhere else was the same, and that this was normal. Being Miami such an Image-Driven City, with iconic South Beach and Little Havanna, and the many model agencies operating in the area, you would think that Photography is everywhere, but -besides a handful of oasis- it can be really dissapointing to try to get photographic equipment or related services locally and many times I end up getting them online.

Also and during almost every single one of my photographic excursions in Miami, I have always sensed some type of hostility in the air. It is like the paparazzi have paved the road to doom for all shooters in this area. I was just taking innocent shots last week of some fuel tanks that I thought might be useful for stock when a guy came asking me for my "Press Pass". When I replied to him that I did not need one to take editorial material, he shifted his argument to "you have to leave". I was still surprised when this week Popphoto published on their online edition a"Photo-Friendly cities" survey. 30 cities, ranked on several factors such as number of parks and zoos, number of camera stores and photo finishers, museums and galleries with photographs, and number of private security companies operating in the city. Miami is not even on the list!

Maybe we were not even considerd, but hey, Isn't that bad already?

Here is an idea for stimulating the economy: Make Miami a Photo-Friendly city and promote its many premium locations for photoshoots. We have already many ammenities, access to our city is easy from anywhere in the US and many South American countries, we have plenty of sunshine and sometimes dramatic weather du jour.

(This is a reprint of an earlier article on The Examiner)

Blowing Rocks

This is a reprint of an earlier article on The Examiner. The photograph can be seen at http://www.rostonics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25

This January, I had the opportunity to photograph at one of the most interesting locations in South Florida.

Blowing Rocks is a nature preserve located at Jupiter Island. The coast of Blowing Rocks is composed out of Anastasia limestone. The sea has eroded holes through the stone and in situations where the tide is high and there is on-shore wind, the breaking waves impacting the shore are channeled through these holes and plumes of water shoot as high as 50 feet.



The spectacle is remarkable even on a calm day. To see a larger version of this image go to my website, Rostonics.com.

Now, for those that live in South Florida, we know that -being on the east- any view of the sea on this shore is better at dawn. This is the case for Blowing Rocks and I highly recommend it, but don't go packing yet to be there tomorrow at 5 AM and catch the Sunrise. The park is open from 9:00 AM on, so there might be some permits you want to clear first.