Monthly Archive for September, 2009

Todays lesson – some shots.

Portrait lesson, quadraPortrait lesson, quadra

Nothing much, just a few shots from todays lesson with my yongsters. We used the Elinchrom Quadra plus a raster (no make light spread as little as possible) plus a big softbox in background (behind photographer) to control ambien light. I just finished developing using Raw Developer and made final changes in Aperture with 16bit tiffs. In RD I took away all noise reduction and all (almost) sharpening to get as neutral result as possible.  See my latest youtube video for more info.

Portrait lesson, quadraPortrait lesson, quadraPortrait lesson, quadra

These last two black and white shots are actually developed as color and later processed using Silver Efex Pro in Aperture (plugin).

Yeaaahaa! I got fiber!

I need to try iChat screen share with good speed. Anyone out there with good connection and using a Mac? :) My iChat (AIM) name is Rytterfalk

SD14 + Jpeg studio experience. Part 3

Continuing from Part 2.

So the time has come for the final post in this series of my forced jpeg experience. I do feel silly about the whole thing really – User of Foveon equipped Sigmas since 2002 and still haven’t learned anything about modern modes such as the JPEG mode. :) Remember though that the very first Sigma was the SD9 and it didn’t even produce any JPG’s, only RAW. Perhaps that says something about my old fashioned work flow?

Back to the session. I selected a small number of shots using the following settings, actually I never changed once settled.

SD14, studio JPEG only workflow in camera settings: Contrast: +0.8, Sharpness +0.4, Saturation +0.1, Color space: sRGB. And Fluorescent white balance.

I might add that if you wanna be cool and take nice shots of someone in a Studio and show the person what he / she looks like on the LCD then this work flow works nicely – even if you shoot RAW – BUT be prepared to change back to some other WB, like flash or daylight. Perhaps with one of the shots using a grey card visual in a shot and color pick wb for the rest of the shots. Perhaps Bob has something to say about this? I know you use Fluorescent WB a lot!

Now, first I think you wanna see something from the day:

Some collected shots from day 2.

Some collected shots from day 2.

50% magnification.

50% magnification.

100% magnification.

100% magnification.

200% magnification. Do you see me?

200% magnification. Do you see me?

It’s no RAW but it’s really nice to see how well the JPEG engine is working. I can’t let you have these are full sized downloads mostly because they’re not aware of their sudden fame but these crops still shows what I’m talking about. I’m sure they will resize and print nicely large.

The second day I had some time before the first customer arrived and I had a slight different light setup. I wouldn’t cry if I had these as RAW, would sure be nice too see how good I could make them look. Still, for a normal person, these looks nice enough.

Some others jpgs, straight out with no adjustments made.

Some others jpgs, straight out with no adjustments made.

All in all I now know that my SD14 can do jpegs and they will be perfectly usable if there is a studio occasion where speed as a must. And yes, light areas will clip much sooner then with a RAW, so you need to lighten your subject more carefully. Or agree that blown out areas can be cool if in the right spot. :) I’m totally not used to that but will live.

Oh and the 18-50 2.8 ex did a magnificent job. It’s no prime but delivered nice, crisp contrasty shots. Also, I never really had any problems with batteries, I brought way to many with me. Good as backup but not really needed. I used six batteries in 8h of shooting using battery pack. Perhaps the smaller file size gave some extra juice?

Please feel free to comment and share your own images and experience. Or just ask a question or two.

SD14 + Jpeg studio experience. Part 2

Continuing from Part 1.

With shaky legs and really only one thing really working reliably, my new lens 18-50 2.8 Macro. I went to the studio again.

Now, this second time I got help from another photographer. Again. Felt like bambi on thin ice and I was happy not to be alone in case I fell. There was actually more things than just JPEG’s that worried me. Battery was one and I brought eight fully charged batteries and the grip, to be on the safe side. Also, this time I was supposed to actually work with customers and bring in some great shots that would sell. But, with the other photographer as main, or backup. Not sure what the deal was, it overall felt safe.

Here comes the very first shots, with custom WB and one using fluorescent wb. Using the custom white balance just didn’t work. Probably because of colored light in background or something, not sure. But it all looked yellow except perhaps the last, which had a magenta tint instead.

Very first test shots with Carl (yes, we do have the same name). He suggested that I would do as he on his Canon, use Tungsten WB - but I said that this is a Sigma, very different and needs to set custom WB using grey card. (and yes, he used some colored filter for the background light)

Very first test shots with Carl (yes, we do have the same name). He suggested that I would do as he on his Canon, use Fluorescent WB - but I said that this is a Sigma, very different and needs to set custom WB using grey card. (and yes, he used some colored filter for the background light)

After just a few shots I felt like – what am I doing here?!!! Desperately I started to test my options. Settings for saturation, contrast, sharpness and of course WB settings.

Incandenscent WB Hmm.. perhaps this bluish tone would work if I added lots of yellow?! Strange but a bit "cool" looking. Nha, this is a RAW camera - this is childish!

Incandescent WB Hmm.. perhaps this bluish tone would work if I added lots of yellow?! Strange but a bit "cool" looking. Nha, this is a RAW camera - this is childish!

At least Carl got some really Swedish eyes!! :D At this point I already had given up and I continued just for fun. Carl was a fun guy and we had a great time together. And we talked about what other cameras I could use – a cheap Canon D450 would probably be inexpensive and do the trick.

But shame to those who give up! I by mistake (probably) switch over to fluorescent wb.

Fluorescent WB

Fluorescent WB

I suddenly realized, especially with those last three pictures that although they had a slight magenta tone on his lips they overall looked really good. From this moment it was all about setting up contrast and saturation correctly and I felt for the first time that there was hope!

100% crop from in-camera jpeg using studio strobes and Fluorescent WB. (from one of the above shots).

100% crop from in-camera jpeg using studio strobes and Fluorescent WB. (from one of the above shots). Also wordpress adds it's mark by re-compressing the original jpg.

Get ready for part three. Would this work in reality? With REAL people?

Continue reading part 3!

SD14 + Jpeg studio experience. Part 1

EDIT: First test was actually about an hour just before opening time. Peter, the photographer on these pictures was kind and showed me how things worked in his studio. This was the first of September.

I’ve been working in one of the model studios here in Gothenburg. The kind of studio where anyone can come, get pro make up and pro photographed. I went there in the hope that they would have some pro-gear for me – No, I had to use my own gear. That would be SD14. Well, that’s cool if I can sit down with each RAW (I saw a potential problem directly, what software did they use?!) but in a studio such as this – Raw is not an option and spend time with each shot is not an option either.

So I was, to be honest, scared how my SD14 would take this. I asked to have a couple of hours in the studio together with another photographer to see if my gear could cope with the work flow. Each shot had to be perfectly made in camera (lightning, contrast, colors, framing) – no adjustments would be made before showing customer. Would you agree to anything like this if you owned a SD14? I wouldn’t, but I was VERY curious and I came with a bag full of lenses (thinking that what I lack in out-off-camera IQ I got in cool looking gear). Oh well.

Day one I tried with WB card and fighting with internal settings for saturation, contrast, sharpness and so on.. (stuff I never really looked at before). Owning an SD since 2002 I NEVER took a jpg for anything else than pure test. I was very dissatisfied, and my grey-card didn’t make me happy. Stuff looked too warm and not very appealing.

Jpeg shots straight out of SD14, no adjustments made in LR. WB card used except on photos with odd color tone. Those have flash, cloudy, incandescent WB settings. Had to see what was possible.

Jpeg shots straight out of SD14, no adjustments made in LR. WB card used except on photos with odd color tone. Those have flash, cloudy, incandescent WB settings. Had to see what was possible.

I came home from day one with lots of shots on my CF – but nothing looked really good. I had to readjust colors on most shots using iphoto or Lightroom. I was really not feeling good and I was thinking about buying some cheap Canon / Nikon just to be able to do shoots like this one.

About a week later the owner of the studio called me, asking if I thought I could work one day. I needed the money, prayed and said Yes, no problem. I’ll do it.

Continue reading part 2..

Faces of happiness and Spinning faces..

Now when youtube allowed higher quality videos I decided to upload my two short happy videos I made in China. :) The second video, “Spinning faces” is still processing so image quality looks bad still. Will be ok in a couple of hours I hope.

DP1s and SD15 rumors.

According to the DP1s will arrive in November this year. They seam to be quite poetic about the new camera too, at least if you’re reading the Google translated version. Try the last paragraph. It doesn’t say much really about what’s new but my guess is that it will have everything good about the DP2 as the TRUE II engine, faster and easier operations and better image quality with color modes. Perhaps higher resolution for movies? Here hoping. New LCD? That would be great!

Also news about the up’n'coming SD15 – a photo store (Scandinavian photo) has it on their site with a price tag of approximately €800 without tax. Hopefully that means both cameras will be out in a not too distant future. Also this is a VERY welcome update to the somewhat old SD14 and I hope they get buffer and speed right. :) Oh and some bright LCD would be nice and and and..

Now, what I’m really waiting for is a new beast that must be in the make somewhere in the crypts of Sigma – they’re not purchasing Foveon without continuing the magic, are they?  I’d like to see a square sensor. Can someone tell me WHY there’s no square sensor except price of cutting the sensor cake differently? No more portrait or landscape thinking – just as with my Mudan 6×6. That’s such a great way to take photos. In RAW they’re always square – in Jpeg you select what ever size you prefer. Or are lenses made for 2/3? is the coating etc just bad in the upper / lower unused part? Also one of the very first tests of the foveon camera back in 2002 utilized a square sensor. Sooo cool. :D

Alright, I got that off my chest, feel much better now. Thoughts?

One light only. #2

One light only.
Original

One light only.
Original There is also a second shot. Can be viewed here.

Here’s pictures of some of my photo students – the very top shot is taken by Alexander Troll, the rest before the brake is mine. And what we did this time was using one light only, using a pretty big softbox (same as last time) and a blue background. We tried two sets of lenses – Sigmas 10-20 and 70-200 – none of the 10-20 shots where worth showing as it’s a small studio and too much of the surrounding stuff is showing. Might add that it’s great fun teaching photography to a group of this sort as they’re in different ages and nationalities. I have my class in english.

Most shots are developed using Lightroom 2.5 and I played a bit with colors. :) (what?, you did? I thought they came out like this!!)

One light only.
One light only.One light only.

Continue reading ‘One light only. #2′

Walk among mushrooms – once more. [update]

Trattkantareller in sunset
original

With the Sigma AML-1 you get closer, and not only that you get even shorter area in focus. You can create new worlds. :) I had the Sigma polarizer attached as well. Further down in this article you will see shots with and without reflections plus a comparison with DP1 and DP2. All except one shot is taken with DP2.

Trattkantareller in sunset II
original

Continue reading ‘Walk among mushrooms – once more. [update]‘

With which camera? SD14, DP1 and DP2..

All are developed using SPP. No post production made except vignetting on three shots (you see it clearly). Can you match the number to the correct camera? They’re so many so if you pick two shots from each camera that’s enough. The SD14 used a 18-50mm EX lens + polarizer.. Winning what? Great honor! :D

Assisting me this evening was Bengt Werner.

Can you guess what camera?
1

Can you guess what camera?
2

Can you guess what camera?
3

Continue reading ‘With which camera? SD14, DP1 and DP2..’

Behind a face at the barber..

<a onclick=DP2 moments." width="500" height="334" />

When I’m doing weddings I always go to the hairdresser to take the first shots and to get to know the bride. Sometimes it takes forever – like two-three hours and that’s sometimes boring time, time sometimes hard to kill. Of course that depends on how many lenses and cameras I have with me.. lots of lenses, lots of fun! If I’m lucky there are hair style books with BIG facial shots – I LOVE THOSE!  Have you tried? You should. :) These below are from three different weddings. I’m thinking about getting one or two books for myself just in case the barber don’t have. Last Saturdays hairdresser didn’t. Boring.

DP2 moments.

DP2 moments.

Have you taken a shot or three similar to any above? Please share! Just upload when making your comment, or add [img] http://www… [/img] tag to have your image inserted from your own place..

One light on young friends..

Every Wednesday evening I have a photography class for young people – and last night was this terms first. Tried to keep things simple in the studio as it was new to most and we fooled around with the light a bit. Here’s three shots. SPP + Aperture. No full size (still a bit more if you click each) and also using some old watermark! :)
<a onclick=DP2 moments." width="500" height="334" />DP2 moments.DP2 moments.

Nightly Mushrooms and DP2

Muchrooms <a onclick=DP2" width="500" height="333" />
DP2 ISO50, f2.8, 1/3s – Sigma Photo Pro + Apple Aperture (same to all photos below) Also, all these have their full size version on flickr.

I admit! I’m not a big fan of picking mushrooms but I LOVE to shoot them! Earlier today, Mom and Linn decided to go out. It was already quite some time after sunset and I’m not that keen on searching hard for something I can’t really see so I took my DP2 and Gitzo Explorer and went along (that way I could play with ANY findings, eatable of not). Also, I got some comments about Aperture so here’s a SPP developed and Aperture post processed series of mushy images. When I say dark I mean pretty dark. I’ll give you some exif info below each shot.

Another annoyance with late evening shots is what white balance to select. Light differ quite a lot depending on surroundings and I tried sunlight, shade, cloudy, auto – and went back.. It’s hard not to make it look warm and fuzzy even though you know it was pretty cold colors. Well, I settled for Cloudy in SPP. Except for the very first one (above) that one uses the sunlight wb.  Hope you like it!

Muchrooms DP2
ISO50, f4, 4s

Muchrooms DP2

ISO50, f6,3, 5s

Muchrooms DP2
ISO50, f2.8, 1/2s

Muchrooms DP2

ISO50, f2.8, 0,6s

Muchrooms DP2
ISO50, f2.8, 1/3s

Muchrooms DP2

ISO50, f6,3, 1,6s

Muchrooms DP2
ISO50, f2.8, 1,3s

Wedding shot.. DP1 and Quadra.

Wedding shot, DP1 + <a onclick=Quadra in action" width="500" height="333" />
Just came home from a wedding session and wanted to share this very DP1′ish shot! :D I wanted the flash inside to get the “sunny” feeling. hehe. Anyways. BEDTIME.

Again, a Sigma DP2 shot developed with RD, LR and SPP [updated]

SPP and LR
Sigma DP2, ISO200. SPP conversion. Click above photo to enter article. EDIT: The above shot is taken using Sigmas optional polarizer  (DG Filter, Wide C-PL).

Continue reading ‘Again, a Sigma DP2 shot developed with RD, LR and SPP [updated]‘