Photo

   It’s not a problem any more nowadays to obtain an acute image. A blurred image isn’t a problem too. Let’s try to understand: what for is this wealth for us? The task is not as simple as it seems in the beginning. Imagine that Robinzon Cruso’s friend, Man Friday, managed to find a jug with golden coins. He would be glad with the jug, but most likely he would throw away the coins. These round objects are useless in his world. You can see the work of other people conserved in gold only after you have moved to another reality.
The same happens with blur. We are born in absolutely acute world. Our brain guards us from blur which is peculiar to our eyes like any other lens. It focuses pupil of the eye on things we are looking at in every moment of our life, ignoring other objects.
Any modern camera, even the most advanced one, is only an analogue of human eye. But it doesn’t select a definite object in visual environment. We can name this object most important in the shot, or the main point of the shot, or sense of the shot. A photographer, pushing release button, stops the definite moment of life, takes it out of everlasting consecution of moments. At this a transformation happens when a three-dimensional picture turns into a plain photo card lacking in true size and motion. Everything is relative on the plane of a shot. That’s why photography has developed language of symbols that enables perceiving depth of the shot, objects true size, warm and cold materials, when looking at a plain piece of paper. Provided that the viewer accepts and understands this symbolic language, he can see the message of the photographer, experience the feelings of the person who pushed the release button.
   Human speech would be monotonous and inexpressive without accents. We always emphasize the main words by raising our voice or pronouncing words in a particularly low voice. Photographic language is also poor and monotonous without emphasizing the main point in the shot. Acutance is one of the main tools of accentuation of the shot expressiveness.
Sometimes it’s enough merely not to lose fine details of the image and dispose correctly the main spots on the plane of the picture to excite general admiration. It happens when a photographer has luck to shoot something unusual. Foe example, shaggy and ample hoar-frost is a rare phenomenon in Moscow. One night there was a sever frost and in the morning I drove on the ring road. Near Kapotnya all the cars dived into a solid shroud of fog caused by warm water evaporation. There is Moscow petroleum refinery nearby. It pours out hot water into The Moscow River. Moisture stayed on the benches of surrounding trees. I looked at the side of the road and saw a marvelous picture. I didn’t have to invent anything: I just focused the camera and waited until a girl, hurrying to the work, would enter the shot. The charm of this landscape picture is in thorough representation of small details. A slight blur would spoil it. Thus, I soundly stopped camera lens and did my best to avoid any motion. I also had to find a good position to get correct light. Sunlight should fall not from behind but from one side to make strict long shadow of each twig. Otherwise the landscape photo would lose its almost substantial tangibility. Resolution capability of the system “camera - lens” has great importance for such photographic illustrations. Six megapixels of modern digital cameras are insufficient for fixing small rimy twigs. Even now, when I’ve bought 12 megapixel digital reflex camera, I can’t obtain detailing sufficient for landscape shooting (See photo 1).

 
  1. Going to work in the morning. Camera Model Name - Nikon D2X. Camera lens Nikkor 70-200/2,8. Sensitivity 100 ACA. Exposure 1/100 sec. Aperture value 13.