RAW Processing test

I read an article about the differences between the various ways different RAW processors handle files, and decided I wanted to try it with a "backyard shot." The shots lack any compositional or artistic merit, but they have a range of edges and tones that simultaneously allowed me to test a new camera and lens.

I shot the scene in daylight, and then again after sunset (at 3200 iso setting). I also was simultaneously checking the autofocus on this camera and lens combo with the zoom fully wracked out at the 210mm/tele end.

Take a peak at the results and see what you think. It looks to me like Phase1 or DxO gave me the  best results—but you may find another attribute within the photos lacking.
[click image to see the Flickr gallery]

RULE OF THIRDS...

The Rule of Thirds is one of those time honored compositional norms that have been taught (and held to) for years in the world of Photographic Composition. Every once in a while, I'll get a student who will question "the rules" of composition and the need to have any rules at all. While I will conceded the rules can sometimes be broken to positive effect, more often than not they are a sort of structure for the photo that one may not even be aware of.

I like to give students the analogy of kid who writes songs while strumming on his guitar: he may know chord structure, and think out a "I, IV, V chord progression" in advance.

He may also just strum and pluck in bed without the knowledge of structure. He strums and plucks until he hears something that sounds nice, and writes it down onto paper. After looking at his song (or maybe after learning chord progressions) he realizes that the I, IV, V chord progression is present.

Not every photographer will think out the composition in advance. Some will shoot and shoot and shoot, and then find that one shot in the mix that works well...to realize later than one of the compositional rules is present.

Back when I was an undergrad shooting B/W film (we walked to school barefoot, uphill both ways as well btw ;-) we had to shoot with quite a bit of forethought. Film rolls had 24 to 36 shots on them. You had to fight with the snooty grad students for developing time, and the process of developing negatives and making prints cost quite a bit of time and money. Compound that by the fact that when you took your pics, you never knew with complete certainty what you were going to get until the darkroom phase.

Fast forward to now.
Film is just a quaint artisanal remnant to many. Students have digital SLRs capable of totally blowing away my 35mm Fujica film camera...and can shoot (and even edit) right on the camera. The number of shots is limited only by your memory card, and memory is cheap these days. If you didn't nail composition in the camera, you can easily do so in post with more ease than cropping on a darkroom enlarger (and lest you think me "holier-than-thou," I am guilty as charged also).

But getting it nailed in camera is still the gold-standard. Figuring out what you are seeing, and then creating the communicative image of that is key, and composition can help to unlock it.

Without further adieu— I present the RULE OF THIRDS as explicated by Mr. Levi Sim on PHOTOFOCUS.