tfttf578 – Size DOES Matter

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Today we will find out the secret behind the fish-eye picture, Chris will look at how to balance light at a sunset model shot on the beach, you’ll learn about the confusion between pixels, inches and file sizes. Special guest: Dave Junion of After Dark is back with some exciting news!

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Coming up: workshops with Chris Marquardt
Jan 2013: Snow Monkeys & Hokkaido, Japan (completed)
Aug 2013: Liverpool, UK
Aug 2013: Farnborough, UK (outside London)
Nov 2013: India
Mar 2014: Iceland
» all workshops

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  • http://twitter.com/gadgetshed Steve Cooper

    Well based on the reasoning for last week it could be anything, like its the car you used to get to after dark :-)

    But best guess is that it’s a fill flash picture balancing the light from the background with the light on the car coming from the building (shown reflected in the bodywork) and the flash to balance the dynamic range of the image.

  • alfora

    I also like Steve’s idea with the fill flash.

    But in this case it could also be related to the title. The wide angle lens distorts the proportions of the image and depicts a “larger” front tyre. Size does matter. :-)

  • Martin Stepka

    About the jpeg image sizes… I recently discovered an App at the App Store called JPEGmini. They claim it can reduce the size to 1/5 without visual loss. My experience is rather 1/3, but still very good. It costs like $20. You do not set any parameters, just drag and drop (and wait). I find it very useful and you can store high resolution images smaller than the downsized versions. Not to mention, you do not have to try out various compression settings.

  • Sean Clark

    I suspect Steve is correct and that this image was taken with the strobist method to balance the exposure of the sky with the exposure of the car.

    However, I would like to add the additional info (from the EXIF) that this image is a very small (667 × 1,000 pixel) JPEG image, using 94% compression, and weighing in at 0.12MB. As such, it is a prime example of the size of the display media (a thumbnail on the blog, or album art on your very small media player screen) being important in your calculation of whether a picture is “good quality”.

    We all agree that this is a great photo, and with the small image size and high compression, it looks great for the media where it is to be displayed. If it were blown up to a poster size, it wouldn’t look as great. But keeping an eye on the transmission media and how people will see the image, Chris has an image that is great, but saves him on bandwidth and storage.

  • http://twitter.com/marti_b Martin Baldwin

    I think that this is possibly a model car, however the perspective to the casual eye makes the image like a full size car. :)

  • http://twitter.com/joemanich Joe Manich

    Chris, I’m interested in the possible ICELAND trip! I may be able to convince a buddy also.

  • Dave Schuder

    I am thinking, as already mentioned, this picture is a good example of using off-camera strobes to light the subject well and not over expose the sky. I do think it’s a full-size car at a Mercedes dealer.

  • http://twitter.com/apographon oli

    I guess Chris was selecting this picture to illustrate that SIZE DOES(N’T) MATTER. My guess is: This is not a toy car! But the way he took the foto, it appears like one. (Appeature, position etc.) Taking the light and shadows into consideration, I’m not sure if he used flashes or not.