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LETTER OF THE WEEK
Hi res and primes man
In support of Sanjay Vijayanathan (Inbox, 25 April) I too have almost completely changed my photographic outlook. I’ve been a keen photographer for nearly 60 years during most of which I used three zooms. More recently I moved from a Canon EOS 5D to a Sony A7R IV with 16-35mm, 24-105mm and 100- 400mm zooms and was astonished by the resolution. I soon found myself cropping much more than usual and occasionally even to something in frame that wasn’t my original subject. The reason I moved from the 5D to the A7R IV was to reduce total weight. In my advancing years it was easier to reduce my kit weight than my own weight, my late wife pointed out. So I’ve now gone one stage further. Having read so much about the change of outlook enforced by using prime lenses I now have 20mm, 50mm and 135mm primes, saving another kilo.
I now recompose and crop a lot in Lightroom. In street and sport it’s often necessary to grab shots and do the rest in Lightroom. When the undertakers asked for a photo of my wife, who truly hated having her photo taken, I found the best by far was of her laughing at a joke way to the side of the shot of a bowler at our bowls club. It was the high resolution that made it acceptable as a 10x8 print. I’m now firmly a high resolution and primes man.
Embrace AI
I thought that Benjamin Holmwood’s letter about AI concerns (AP 18 April) was quite timely in raising some of the issues around this emerging technology (it has been around for over 40 years or more).
Rather than be afraid of the implications for photography, I would say we should confront this development full on. Understand what AI in its different forms is. Use and evaluate AI-based applications that can support and help you to improve your photography (I have been using one tool for some time now to work on the resolution of images). And continually challenge AI use through cooperation and collaboration with
