This could be a problem
Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:48 amI’ve been a photographer for longer than I can remember and I have many learned friends in the industry. A few weeks ago I got a call from an old colleague who said the he had noticed something very peculiar. He had been reviewing his photographs from many years ago and had noticed that his images were gradually getting slightly darker as time progressed and that last year, 2016, they had lost almost half a stop of brightness. He checked his equipment and found everything seemed to be normal; he then consulted one of his more technical acquaintances to get his opinion. Nick Niepsi knows more about camera equipment than any other man living and he soon confirmed my friends findings. However, it was not just my friends photographs that were seemingly slightly darker than they should be…it was everybody’s! Nick scanned the photo hosting sites where he was able to critically evaluate thousands of images and confirmed that something odd was occurring. He then had a flash of inspiration and was able to plot geocoded imagery over Google Earth and made a startling discovery. The closer a photographer was to a commercial solar-panel plant the darker his photographs were. The conclusion was sober and disturbing…the installation of millions of solar panels around the planet were causing a corresponding decline in the quantity of light available for photographers. The panels were sucking up photons like some giant vacuum cleaner and making our world just that little darker. So what should you do to correct the situation? Well, if you are an amateur photographer, then nothing. You probably won’t even notice the difference. But if you are a professional and quality is critical to your work, then you may need to add a third or half of a stop exposure every time you take a photograph. (No need to do this if you are working in a studio with flash equipment. Flashguns are not affected). According to Nick if this phenomena continues then eventually we will all have to return our cameras to the manufacturers who will be required to adjust and recalibrate the light meters. No doubt this will be a costly process. But until then, keep an eye on your exposures and maybe stay away from solar panels when using your camera.
