Imogen Heap, Photoshop and Modern-Day Lens Mix & Match

[Benjamin Marks]

I came across a song this morning by Imogen Heap, which was a combination of found sounds, voice recording, instrumentals and elctronica. Goodnight and Go, for you music fans

It struck me that the toolbox that produced this music bears remarkable similarity to the way I produce photographs these days. 50 year old lens on 3-year old digital camera, electrons converted/interpolated by Photoshop: images stitched in final output that would have been unimaginable to the version of myself that picked up a K1000 25 years ago.

Anyone else find that similar worlds converge?

Ben Marks

 

[Ezzie]

Imogen is top notch, love all her stuff. Many have probably heard her voice without knowing it. She does a cover of an old Bonnie Tyler song: Holding out for a hero. At the end of Shrek 2.

Regarding worlds converging. I find myself thinking of it every time I pick up the R-D1. M-mount digital rangefinder with manual advance lever, manual focusing and dial meters. It a contradiction in terms, the whole camera.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

The bigggest similarity of these two fields (music production, photography)seems to be the technological mindset of the practitioners. When I learned how to develop film, I was engaged in a set of practices (trial-and-error densometry) that hadn't really changed (except to become more convenient) in 100 years. Camera, lens, test film, find film speed, make exposures, develop film, make contact prints, test prints, final prints etc. My father would have gone through the same processes, only with slower emulsions. In contrast, I don't seriously expect that I will be using the same workflow in ten years that I use today. The rate of change has become too great. In fact, even skipping every other generation of Photoshop, I find that I am spending a non-trivial amount of time mastering/evaluating new software packages every year. Cameras too.

Now that music is digitally produced, I wonder if it is the same product cycle.

Ben Marks