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PHOTOGRAPHY
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Image Masters
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Ian Coristine
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Interview with Ian Coristine
Image Masters
Ian Coristine
Digital photography has changed everything, introducing amazing new possibilities. One of the most amazing achievements is DxO Optics Pro software.
Why I use DxO Optics Pro:
We all quest for better cameras and lenses to improve our work and that quest for quality can get very expensive. Even with the very best and most expensive equipment, there is no such thing as perfection, or is there?
I shoot the majority of my photography from my floatplane, a Challenger II, which is particularly good for the task because it can fly at very low speeds and the doors are removable, so the visibility is fabulous.
I prefer shooting in the first and last hour of the day when the light is at its richest, and in the fall when “sea smoke” and fog rises from the warm water into cold air creating mystic scenes, but these conditions are tough to photograph from above.
Shooting down at dawn and dusk means the subjects are often poorly lit, typically with no sky to help brighten the scene. The plane’s motion compounds the problem, so getting good, clean images is a bit of a challenge.
DxO is a huge help with this. It won’t save an out of focus or blurry image, but its abilities to brighten and sharpen a drab one are heaven sent. Equally, as I frequently shoot wide angle, the distortion and vignetting correction is a minor miracle.
I can’t even begin to imagine the challenge of writing software to analyze and quantify all the weaknesses in a given camera/lens combination with the infinite variables of aperture, exposure, focal length and more, but that’s exactly what DxO does. Then it rearranges and corrects the offending pixels, putting them exactly where and how they should be, if the equipment were flawless.
I processed the images in my latest book, “Water, Wind and Sky” with DxO software. Every image immediately benefited. Brighter, sharper, richer, straighter - like magic. A huge improvement every time I used it, as if someone had re-shot every scene with perfect equipment. And effectively, that’s exactly what happened, and it cost a pittance.
To be totally honest, anyone not using DxO Optics Pro is simply not taking photography seriously.
Why I use DxO Optics Pro:
We all quest for better cameras and lenses to improve our work and that quest for quality can get very expensive. Even with the very best and most expensive equipment, there is no such thing as perfection, or is there?
I shoot the majority of my photography from my floatplane, a Challenger II, which is particularly good for the task because it can fly at very low speeds and the doors are removable, so the visibility is fabulous.
I prefer shooting in the first and last hour of the day when the light is at its richest, and in the fall when “sea smoke” and fog rises from the warm water into cold air creating mystic scenes, but these conditions are tough to photograph from above.
Shooting down at dawn and dusk means the subjects are often poorly lit, typically with no sky to help brighten the scene. The plane’s motion compounds the problem, so getting good, clean images is a bit of a challenge.
DxO is a huge help with this. It won’t save an out of focus or blurry image, but its abilities to brighten and sharpen a drab one are heaven sent. Equally, as I frequently shoot wide angle, the distortion and vignetting correction is a minor miracle.
I can’t even begin to imagine the challenge of writing software to analyze and quantify all the weaknesses in a given camera/lens combination with the infinite variables of aperture, exposure, focal length and more, but that’s exactly what DxO does. Then it rearranges and corrects the offending pixels, putting them exactly where and how they should be, if the equipment were flawless.
I processed the images in my latest book, “Water, Wind and Sky” with DxO software. Every image immediately benefited. Brighter, sharper, richer, straighter - like magic. A huge improvement every time I used it, as if someone had re-shot every scene with perfect equipment. And effectively, that’s exactly what happened, and it cost a pittance.
To be totally honest, anyone not using DxO Optics Pro is simply not taking photography seriously.
