A walk with the Sony A99

Canadian Savanna

Sony A99

An exercise in my search for the film-look

 The tools:

Minolta 7000, loaded with Kodak Gold 200, set to ISO200, aperture priority at F4, no exposure compensation afjustment for the snow scenes. Film was processed by Grainnation, and they're shown here without any adjustments: straight from the scans.

Sony A99: 24MP, known for it's creamy rendering. set to ISO200, aperture priority at F4, exposure compensation adjusted for the snow scenes. The digital files were adjusted for brightness and contrast to match the film files. Very little adjustment was necessary, since the exposure compensation applied in shooting worked quite well.

Lens used by both cameras: Tamron 20-40 F2.7-3.5

The top image is on digital and the bottom image is with film.

The weather was overcast, like a very thick diffused softbox was hung over the whole scene. Undoubtedly this lack of lighting extremes led to a very close matchbetween digital and film. With a wider lighting range, film will differ significantly from digital, and I suspect, negatively.

No preset was involved in this exercise. I use presets when necessary to get the look that I am looking for; and it's a different look for different occasions. Presets can add grain, halation, edge contrasts, vignetting, etc, all in almost-ready-to-apply packages.

It's essential that I don't define the finished product as a digital-look, or a film-look, or a hybrid-look. It's not even a Dodge-Baena-look. It's just a look that suits the image, for the purpose and the audience it is intended for. Hopefully, it's a pretty picture, too. Presets are tools for specific jobs.

This is my first time using the Tamron, which came to me as a bonus with the A99 from Facebook MarketPlace. One discovery from this exercise is that the Tamron 20-40F2.7-3.5 is an underrated lens, a fine optic with character. Pairs nicely with the Sony a99. I think I'll hang on to both.

Sony Diaries #1049: More of Guelph's streets

Details on Print Purchase here.

Sony Diaries #1046: Trees & Split-Rail Fence & Gate

Sony Diaries #1045: April's Melt

Taken at the Guelph Arboretum. Prints available for purchase here. Best viewed on a desktop.

Sony Diaries #1044: Milkweeds

Milkweeds are fascinating with their tropics-like rapid growth of broad, light-green leaves, and bright pink flowers in the Spring. Fall finds the plant "diminished" to a brown skeletal shadow of its former self, distinguished only by hard, prehistoric-looking seed pods. These pods break open to reveal seeds borne on elegant tuffs of platinum filaments, ready to be dispersed by wind and water.
Available for purchase here.

Sony Diaries #1043: Sprouts

I noticed these sprouts poking out of an ice-encrusted, decomposing log in the woods. they look like curious little baby cobra heads looking at the signs of the coming spring around them. Their silhouettes looked interesting enough but the colours under the shadows were a pleasant surprise.

Images available for purchase here.

 pre-Photoshop

post-Photoshop

Sony Diaries #1041: In memory of Rhodie

Sometimes, if one is fortunate enough, someone comes into your life that makes the inevitable saying goodbye so bittersweet. Almost 5 years ago, we said our farewell to Rhodie.

Rhodie was a Rhodesian Ridgeback that Ben got through a kennel in Jordan, a hamlet in the Niagara wine region. He wasn't your classic, long-limbed Ridgeback; rather, he had more mastiff features: broad and deep-chested. He held on to his puppy'ish exuberance longer than usual, and at close to a hundred pounds fully grown, he was a handful on a leash. He had the gracefulness of a gazelle, the speed of a horse, and the strength of a bear. He was so gentle with Misha, the Shih Tzu and Moxie, the cat. He became a mentor to Diesel, the neurotic, hypersensitive Boxer-Spaniel. Rhodie was a match with any poodle, retriever, or shepherd in the intelligence department.

So it came as a surprise when he developed a lump in his neck. We learned that Lymphoma is the most common cause of mortality in dogs, particularly of mastiff-type dogs such as Ridgebacks. And so in 2016, we said our goodbyes to Rhodie.

So here is Rhodie, in an impromptu photo session 8 years ago (March 2012). He would be 10 years old at this writing.