07 February 2010

Groovy baby!

Found a funky new feature on my Nikon D300 today. Deep in the shooting menu (shooting menu-set picture control-modify existing picture controls-blah blah blah) is a 'date style' setting. Basically, you set a date and the camera uses its image processing settings to adjust the picture controls (sharpening, brightness, saturation, etc.) in an effort to recreate the picture as if taken on the required date. This is then saved as an additional profile which can then be applied (or not) later in Capture NX2. Fun huh? Here's an example (you may need to click on the pics to see the full effect):

A. 2010: bulk standard, über digital, every-boring-bastard-can-take-them, Wren pic.

B. 1979: a Wren in the age of Brenda Ann Spencer (and, later, the Boomtown Rats), the Islamic Revolution (and, later, the hostage crisis); of Vietnam in Cambodia, China in Vietnam, Tanzania in Uganda and the Soviets in Afghanistan; Voyager prying on Jupiter and our first sight of the shuttle (and CDs); Three Mile Island, the Unabomber, Ixtoc I, SALT II, the Gossamer Albatross, Fastnet tragedy, Mountbatten (and Warrenpoint); the arrival of Thatcher (and Saddam Hussein), the birth of the One Child Policy, Pete Doherty, Usenet, Heath Ledger and the Happy Meal, the death of smallpox (sort of), Airey Neave, Sid Vicious, Marion Morrison and Mary Millington; Mother Teresa being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (back when they were given to the deserving) and the world in the grip of an energy crisis, cold war anxiety and Lego. In response to this, Nikon seem to apply a warm-glow of nostalgia, a bit of grain, the softened and vignetted edge of a poorly hand-crafted lens, a date-ravaged semi-cross-processed colour palette and a 'chirpy' post-Vietnam, pre-AIDS, pre-climate change glint in the eye, albeit, on close inspection, there is definitely a slight furrowed browedness, perhaps he's just heard Mr. Ed is dead.

Can you tell it's February?

PS. Whilst writing this, I have been reliably informed that the Ring-necked Parakeet is still in Haisbro Avenue, quick,... to the Bat mobile! Category E Gwent-listing, it's where it's at.
PPS. I forgot to mention the 'Sverdlovsk leak' and the 'Vela Incident',... bugger.

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