Peter Aitken Photographs
 

Technical Information

 

I don't think the technical details of digital photography are particularly interesting. One must master them, to be sure, but I feel that many photographers spend way too much time and energy fretting about pixel counts, lens sharpness, and printing papers, and too little working on their vision and aesthetic sensibilities. Just think of all the technically perfect but dull-as-dirt photos you see out there! Technical skill is a means to an end and should never be the end itself.

And we have been blessed with continual technological advances in the world of cameras and lenses. No longer is it necessary to haul around a full-frame DSLR and $10,000 worth of heavy lenses to get technically excellent photos. It's a good thing, too, as my increasing age makes it less and less pleasant for me to haul a lot of heavy gear. Even so, full-frame cameras produce exceptional technical quality and with the advent of mirrorless cameras they are less onerous to carry.

The photos in my portfolio have been taken with a wide range of cameras, ranging from a cheap Casio point-and-shoot to my current high-end Sony A7-R5. It's the photographer and not the camera that makes the photograph! Just in case anyone is interested, here is a rundown of the equipment and software I currently use.

Cameras

Sony A7-r5 (full-frame mirrorless, 62mp)
Sony A7-r4 (full-frame mirrorless, 62mp)
Sony Rx10-iii (1 inch sensor, 20mp)

Lenses

For the Sony A7 cameras: Sony 70-200mm f/4 macro zoom; Sony 100-400mm f/5.6 zoom (with 1.4x teleconverte ), Sony 24-110mm f/4 zoom, Kamlan 50mm f/1.1, Voigtlander 105mm f/2.5 macro.

For the Sony RX10: Has a fixed 24-600 mm (equiv) zoom.

Tripod Hakuba HG540mx with Acratech Ultimate ballhead
Computer

 Dell XPS-8690 with Intel I7-14700 20-core CPU and 64 GB RAM. Video: NVidea GeForce GTX4060. Two internal 1TB SSD.

Monitors

NEC MultiSync PA301w (30") and Dell UP2818Q (26")

Scanner Epson Perfection V750 Pro
Printer Epson P900
Primary software Lightroom, Photoshop
Monitor calibration NEC Spectraview with X-Rite i1 "puck"
Color space viewing/comparing Color Think Pro
Printing Photoshop or Lightroom
Focus stacking  Helicon Focus
Upsampling, sharpening Topaz Photo-AI
B&W conversion Lightroom
High dynamic range HDR Expose 3
Panorama stitching PT GUI

 

 

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