Читать книгу Collins Complete Photography Course - John Garrett, Graeme Harris - Страница 7

The double-page photograph on pp.12-13 is of pressed campanula flowers, from a series of images I made of flowers and leaves. I placed a sheet of Japanese paper on top of a lightbox and put the flowers on the paper. The light coming from beneath has passed through them, giving the appearance of an X-ray (see p.121). The textured background behind the flowers comes from the paper. GH

35mm cameras

DSLRs are of course digital versions of the time-honoured 35mm ‘miniature’ film camera – so-called because when it was developed in the 1920s it was so much smaller, both physically and in the negative size it produced, than the large cameras used at the time. These cameras gave birth to photojournalism and many people still choose to use them rather than DSLRs.

Compact cameras

The film compacts usually called ‘point and shoots’ have bred the digital compacts. These vary considerably in price according to the quality of the lens and resolution and the sophistication of the controls. The compact camera comes into its own for trekkers, mountaineers and extreme sports fans who are often in spectacularly beautiful places and are keen photographers but can’t carry an SLR around with them.

Underwater cameras

These cameras are increasingly in demand as scuba diving becomes more popular. As well as the traditional 35mm film cameras such as the Nikonos (now only available on the secondhand market), there is a large choice of digital underwater cameras available in a range of prices.

Cellphone cameras

The rapid advance of cellphone camera technology has added to the ubiquity of the digital image. The cellphone camera is already beginning to take over from the compact camera as a visual notebook, and it won’t be long before they all have zoom lenses and can produce higher-quality prints.

What seems to be the weakness of cellphone cameras is that they are totally automatic and we cannot alter anything. However, this can liberate us from all technical decision-making responsibilities and leave us with just the subject, composition and light to play with.

Remember, most of the great pictures from the past were shot on much less sophisticated cameras than compacts and cellphone cameras. It is still the photographer who takes a great picture, not the camera.