Clever clips

Clever clips

Relatively early in the first lockdown, I bought myself five KN95/FFP2 masks, with straps that went behind my head, rather than round my ears. They were intended for repeated use, and two packs of five have lasted me most of the time since, supplemented by washable cloth masks. The latter are a much poorer fit, though.

I’ve reached the last KN95, and my local chemist has had no further stocks. Off to eBay…



Some technical stuff. KN95 is actually a Chinese self-certification standard, and the tested, European equivalent is FFP2 – just so you know. Read what you wish into the distinction, and you’ll probably be partly right. But this is a distraction from the point.

My eBay masks arrived, and they’re disappointing, with ear loops: easier to put on, but a much poorer fit. Wearing one with glasses to drive leads to steamed-up glasses. But in another chemist’s today, I found the answer, although it came with a further five masks – but we’re in this for the long haul, I reckon. It’s a little plastic clip, allowing me to attach the two ear loops to each other behind my head. The fit is now excellent.



What on earth has this got to do with photography? (Apart from allowing me to transport models with a higher safety factor for both of us?) The point is that there are sometimes little tricks and techniques that transform things. Sometimes we need the right gadget, but finding it is likely to be far easier if we know what the problem is…

So let’s look at a couple of simple digital examples, to do with colour and sharpness.



Cameras tend to come set to auto white balance, and this usually gives a rather blue result (I don’t know why, but that’s how it goes, in practice). The intellectual bit is understanding that colour is one of the artistic choices in any picture: the ‘gadget’ is the white balance button on older cameras, the right item in the menu (or the right box in the quick access screen) in more modern kit. If you don’t like the colours, change the white balance. ‘Sunny’ works for very many things, but ‘Cloudy’ isn’t a bad thing to try on a cloudy day. Who knew?

How about sharpness? There’s a lot of effort and slider-tweaking goes into making pictures look sharper, but there’s a really easy way to increase apparent sharpness, and that’s to push the contrast up a little. Adjusting Contrast (or Levels) will often sort out a picture that seems a touch fuzzy, because the human eye responds to contrast rather than sharpness.



You can’t fix a shot that is just not in focus, but if a good lens used competently is looking a tad soft, check the contrast. You may be surprised…