Photos That Look Like Paintings – #1

Sometimes they just strike me that way. Especially when they are blown up larger than they should be.

This image, of Francesca Johnson singing at the Long Room in Chicago, captures that feeling, that atmosphere for me. It was shot in very bad light using an excellent camera pushed near its optimal sensitivity; ISO 3200, mixed warm tungsten lighting, 4 second exposure, f2.0 aperture. Such an exposure always produces “noise” – what used to be called “grain” which we saw when we used film, especially when we pushed it. I loved grain. It was in so many memorable LIFE magazine pictures. I learned to minimize it back in darkroom days, but it was still there. There was a time when I thought photos weren’t real photos without some grain. Now we call it “noise” or “digital noise.”

There are times when you don’t want grain, I mean noise. Like in corporate executive portraits or an annual report. It takes away from the goal. Rate my camera ISO lower, use a larger format camera, use more light to get it done. More often than not, though, I am attracted to scenes that require testing the limits of a camera to capture what I see – what I want to show.

This image is 15x10 inches. I’ll blow it up twice that size to accentuate the noise and mush up the colors. I want to have the image fall apart if you stand too close. Become splotches of color and form. Movement? That’s a plus. Overexposed in areas? So?

This is the first image like this I am posting. When I have 20, I will create a portfolio and mount a show.