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While good artists can create great work with almost any tool, it
is certainly helpful to have at least decent tools. Film
photographers need a camera body, lenses, tripod and other
accessories such as filters, cable release, flash light, etc., and
film. Some photographers develop their own film which will require a
dark room and lots of other items necessary for the development of
the film. Digital photographers differ from the first type in that,
instead of film, they use a camera equipped with a light sensor and
usually a storage device such as a compact flash card. The images
are then downloaded to a computer where software is used to
"develop" the image and even alter it. My first camera was a Kodak
DC-25 which I acquired in 1997. A consumer type camera, barely had
features. The resolution of the images was lower than VGA and had a
tendency to show color distortion under high intensity highlights.
Due to the nature of my job, I had opportunity to use a more
advanced Kodak DC-210 which had a zoom lens, better quality files
with a maximum resolution of 1152x864. Latter on, I upgraded my
DC-25 with a Kodak DX3900. This camera had a 3:2 factor, a
resolution of 2160x1440, zoom lens, 3 programs and other features
such as long exposure, 3 different metering modes, white balance and
exposure compensation.
Computers age so fast that it will take too long to describe all
the models I had since 1997. Software, while upgraded with
frequency, usually takes longer to evolve in a radical way;
therefore is much easier to list. My first photo editing package was
Corel Photopaint. I started with version 7 and upgraded it until
version 9 when it was no longer offer as a separate application. I
then moved to Adobe Photoshop Elements for Mac which included Adobe
Bridge.
As I write this on 2008, I am currently using a Canon EOS 40D, a
semi-pro single lens reflex digital camera. I also have 2 zoom
lenses: EF 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM and EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM. For
self-portraits and long exposure, I have a tripod; and for panoramic
composition I have a panoramic head.
On the software front, I currently use Adobe Lightroom for
overall editing and Adobe Photoshop Elements for pixel-based
editing. For 3D modeling I mostly use Autodesk's Architectural
Desktop and for rendering and some modeling tasks I use Autodesk's
Maya and mental ray. |
