2019.04.08-04.13

Post date: Apr 14, 2019 3:46:6 PM

Why I took these pictures:

I find many of the displays in the museums visually interesting for photography: people interacting with them makes the scenes even more interesting. Unable to resist, I take these pictures. I prefer the people to be unidentifiable: silhouettes, shots from behind, from distance… In some cases, I cannot help and I share a picture with some identifiable persons in it. But I make sure that they are not in a “compromising” position. Even when the humor is intended, there is no room for ridicule. Maybe the Golden Rule of the “street photography” can be formulated as “Don’t take pictures of others in a way that you wouldn’t want your picture (the picture of your loved ones) to be taken. A not easy thing to do since our tastes may differ…

Gear used:

FUJIFILM X100T with 23mm fixed lens. 23mm (35 mm in full frame equivalence) provides a fine angle of view — indoors — for staying close to people but also for including some part of the environment. Its maximum sensitivity of 6400 doesn’t bother me that much. 16-megapixel resolution is also fine when cropping my pictures substantially.

The rationale behind the settings:

To react the moments quickly, I was using my camera in Aperture Priority mode. The aperture of f5.6 is my safe bet. I define my AUTO ISO as default sensitivity of 200, the maximum sensitivity of 6400, and a minimum shutter speed of 1/125. But I accept the overwriting of the camera if the shutter speed were not to fall within this range. But I keep an eye on it.

File utilized in preparing the photograph:

I was able to utilize the in-camera JPEG, as I prefer, for these pictures except the one I took in total dark. For that one, I felt I needed the flexibility of a RAW file to make the necessary contrast adjustments. The JPEG files were generated using VELVIA film simulation — I must confess by mistake. Before entering the building, I had taken a picture of the sunset using this film simulation and I forgot to change it afterward. But when I compared them to the RAW files with Classic Chrome film simulations, I thought the VELVIA was doing better justice to the scenes.

Adjustments during post-processing:

As usual, I kept them to a minimum almost in all cases: Tonal adjustments, small changes to contrast. I didn’t correct the white balance in one case, it was tilted toward purple — I thought it was for the better. I prefer the pictures I share on Instagram to 1x1 aspect ratio. For others, I like the 16x9 aspect ratio for a somewhat panoramic look. But I don’t manage to achieve this all the time.

Location:

ICA — Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA

You can learn more about the ICA by visiting their WEB site: https://www.icaboston.org

You can see these pictures in the following albums - FLICKR album also contains my comments on individual pictures:

FLICKR album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmCiRaAk

GOOGLE photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YpEn4TV3yobje21a6