decent image processing skills to get the most out of your images<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOk, now to my point. Finally.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/barn-owl-0656-pano-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"barn-owl-0656-pano-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/2500, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nRecently I had a request from a client for a large print of this Barn Owl image. I almost turned her down for the following reasons:<\/p>\n
\n- the photo is ten years old and was taken with my “ancient” Canon 40D. Images taken with that camera are only 10.1 MP<\/li>\n
- she wanted a pano composition that would make the final cropped version (the one above)\u00a0slightly less than 50% of the original image<\/li>\n
- her strong preference was for a large print – 24″ X 48″<\/li>\n
- the owl is a hair short of being tack sharp<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
So I was reluctant to print it for her because I never print images for clients (or for anyone) that won’t look good. But in the end I agreed to take the image file down to my printer (whom I have great confidence in) to see if he thought it would print that large and still have good quality. He put it on his big screen and we scrutinized it together. His conclusion was that it would print that large just fine – that the owl might not look tack sharp and have great detail\u00a0if you had your face inches in front of the print but prints that size aren’t meant to be looked at from that close. He encouraged me to proceed with the printing and he’s pretty picky so I ordered the expensive inkjet\u00a0print.<\/p>\n
Two\u00a0days later\u00a0I went down to look at the print before it was shipped and\u00a0I was pleasantly surprised to see it had plenty of detail, even at that size. What saved my bacon was my high quality lens. Even taken with an\u00a0“ancient” camera the image had enough detail to be printed to that size and still look good.<\/p>\n
Detail matters and it made me think of\u00a0Tom Silva again. When I retired and before I took up photography I built wood furniture as a “hobby” and I took it very seriously, just as\u00a0I do my photography today. One of the first lessons I learned in my carpentry is that paying\u00a0attention to detail is essential if you want a quality product.<\/p>\n
Following is an example (these two\u00a0images are\u00a0distorted by my wide-angle lens so nothing\u00a0looks\u00a0square or level):<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/pie-safe-9920-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"pie-safe-9920-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
I built this\u00a0pie safe about 15 years ago (I use it to store kitchen cooking gadgets, I love to cook). It’s meant to be a copy\u00a0of an antique used in the 1800’s\u00a0and I tried to make it as authentic as possible. That meant using knotty pine, antique nails where appropriate, wooden pegs to\u00a0strengthen glued\u00a0mortise and tenon joints and punching the authentic and historically accurate\u00a0wheat design into each of the sheet metal panels. If I remember correctly those sheet metal panels are made out of nickel\/tin.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/pie-safe-detail-9930-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"pie-safe-detail-9930-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
The detail involved was crazy. As an example each of the metal panels required me to punch 325 holes very precisely\u00a0with a variety of specialized punches – that’s 1950 holes total in the\u00a06 panels. If I made a single\u00a0mistake (and I did several times) I had to start over with each panel. Mistakes in sheet metal can’t be repaired. Here you can also see one of the antique nails on the left and several of the small square\u00a0wooden pegs that strengthen the glued mortise and tenon joints.<\/p>\n
So yes, detail matters. It matters in many if not most of our endeavors including photography, carpentry and nearly every craft I can think of if you want a quality product. Lessons learned, often painfully,\u00a0in my carpentry have served me well in photography.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/p>\n
\n- When Tom Silva says “the money’s in the details” he most likely means “money” in its literal sense. For me it’s more about the quality of my images and the personal value that quality instills in them. <\/em><\/li>\n
- Any local readers who may be looking for a quality printer might want to consider Pixels Foto & Frame<\/a> in Sandy, Utah. I couldn’t be happier with them – to the point that\u00a0they’ve done all of my printing for years\u00a0and I purchase all of my photo gear there too. I don’t give out endorsements easily but Pixels has\u00a0earned this one.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
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Detail matters. It matters in photography, in carpentry and in nearly all of our endeavors if we want a quality product.<\/p>\n
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