Uptown Dave's Return

Which camera to use

Made a very nice portrait of Uptown Dave yesterday. He’s been away recuperating from a medical issue but has returned to his favorite spot in front of Old Bag.

I knew I needed a photo of Dave, both for the record, and because I wanted to post about his status after returning to his apartment. (I did just that in the westervilleOH.IO newsletter.)

Shot him with the wide-angle lens to show his position on the sidewalk. The sidewalk where so many people pass by to talk with him. Didn’t process it because I didn’t like the background. Too busy and without enough information to carry the story. It was not strong enough to be the single image I wanted.

Shot a few portraits with the short zoom. Shot narrow depth-of-field to throw the background out of focus. At first I thought I’d overshot, taken too many photos that looked too similar, 13 in all. They were different but none of them had the expression I wanted. Several were close but not quite right.

I also shot a few photos with my iPhone using the portrait setting. Those had the best expressions and pose.

Not sure why the iPhone photos were better. It might have been Dave was less anxious when I switched to the phone. Maybe I put on a different creator’s cap with the phone. Maybe it was just the way it was and I’ll never know.

One thing I did notice that was obvious when you compare the two technologies. Both backgrounds were about the same amount of defocus. The digital camera lens produced a circular bokeh pattern in the highlights. The iPhone camera was just blurry, no highlights, no circles of confusion.

The finished photo was done completely on my iPhone using Snapseed.