Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, Philippines (18 November 2011) — I’m still in the “My Color Mode” of my Lumix LX5. This time I played around with the “Film Grain” feature. Last night we got invited to a birthday party and I took this opportunity to give the “Film Grain” feature a run. While waiting for the celebrant to arrive, I took the liberty of going around the house to take photos of very interesting fixtures and decorations that were abundant in the living room and dining room.
Happy Birthday -- the birthday celebrant who just arrived from the airport. His mom organized a surprise birthday party for him. Former classmates and friends (my son Diego is one of them) were invited without the celebrant knowing.
Buddha and Mary -- A small dining table found in between a bust of Buddha and a statue of Mary.
After looking at the shots taken that night, I think I am hooked on this feature. I so love the grain that is generated in each shot. I also love the contrast produced. Looking at the photos, I see more blacks and whites rather than different gradients of grey as what is produced by the normal monochrome feature of the camera. Before, when I want to produce black and white photos, I utilize the channel mixer feature of Photoshop to mix (as it were) a balance between the blacks and the whites . Most often however, I feel frustrated in not being able to get the “right” level of contrast between the blacks and the whites. The photos most of the time, end up with more greys than I would like to have. With the film grain mode of the Lumix LX5 less time is spent on post processing. For the set of photos I have taken that night, I only did minor adjustments in Curves or Levels and resized the photos for easier viewing on the net.
Come, rest a while --- This is what this scene seem to be saying. Found this in in the living room and looking at the shot after uploading into my computer, it looked like an exhibit in a museum rather than a fixture/furniture in a house.
Money Horse --- A horse and coins, two symbols of power and strength. I saw this figurine also in the living room and took several shots from different angles. This is my favorite.
As I have been accustomed to, I kept the lens focal length to its widest (24mm). I find zooming a point and shoot camera a bit slow and sometimes less precise. I’d rather use my legs to zoom in or out of a subject. In film grain mode, the camera keeps the ISO at a constant 1600 regardless of the light levels. Shutter and aperture are automatically adjusted by the camera. Since the ISO was constantly in ISO 1600 (cannot change this though when in film grain mode), I didn’t worry about the relatively low light level of the indoor lights. Shooting in black and white also removed my worry about getting correct white balance. There is no need to deal with color cast brought about by mixed light temperatures. All I did was concentrate on composition, play of shadow and light and make sure that the focussing point selects the part of the subject I want to be in sharp focus.
Double Shadow -- A wooden sculpture of what looked like a Thai dancer found in the living room located directly opposite the main door to the house.
Chow Time! -- For the boys.
Chow Time! -- For the girls.
