I haven’t worked much with Sigma Photo Pro (SPP) in a long time, mostly because Silkypix has come out and some recent shoots had to be developed quickly and at those times Lightroom comes in handy. But tonight I gave SPP a chance to show it’s true self – These are developments exported as 16bit tiffs and post processed in Photoshop using Nik Viveza. It’s fair as Lightroom has tools very similar to what’s possible in Viveza.
In one of our trips we went to the small island, Åstol. It has 200 inhabitants and is very beautiful. These shots I took with DP1 and DP2 – used Sigmas polarizer and Cokin ND graduated filter. And of course a tripod. :) Weather was really boring, cloudy and cold. Pretty windy too.
So, looong shutter speeds as I used maximum aperture for all nature shots. (1-4s) Why? To make water look cool! :D ISO50 and 100 used. Oh, and Adobe Lightroom 3 has developed all shots.
Tuesday evening Bob van Ooik, Olga and Anastasia Vasilkova showed up – on Linns birthday. They stayed a couple of days and we had no real plans more than having a great time. They followed me to my photography classes for young people, and my new film making class. And not only that, we also took a cover photo for a music album – a local rapper that I’ve shot in the past – and we painted with light – you know long exposure and then try to make things look nice running around with the light when it’s dark outside. Really cool. :D But I can’t really show that just yet.
This shot is taken with Sigma DP1 and by Linn. The rest above is taken with the Nikon D700.
We also went to the ocean where we played with my Elinchrom Quadra. Bob brought his D700 (perhaps it belongs to both?) and I enjoyed playing with it a lot. It’s fun with full 35mm and the possibility to shoot when it’s really really bad light. Oh, and it’s so fast too! :D
Olga painting my students while I’m taking a 30s shot.
Above shots are taken at one of my classes, all taken with the D700 – at ISO ranging around 4000-6400. Pretty amazing really. They would probably look better too if I was used to dealing with Nikon raw and if I used other software then Lightroom. :)
If you want to visit Bob and Olgas homepage click here!
Much can be said about the specs of each of these beasts – but nothing for me more interesting than the possibility to grab stunning video or perhaps I should say film – it’s far from “video” in my book. Myself has been waiting now since forever for Red to release the Scarlet but it seams to be delayed – and the biggest difference I think between these two new players is RAW footage. And that’s probably also why I will wait a bit more before jumping on. I think I have a movie director inside that wants to come out. That said, I’ll continue to use Foveon equipped products.
Canon 1D Mark IV video example by Vincent Laforet..
If you can’t play, go here to his smugmug page or his blog.
Nikon D3s video example Video example from Vincent Munier..
Impressive, isn’t it? Consider that both these cams can go all the way up to ISO102400, which is really insane! Compared to RAW footage possible with a RED, above shots still looks good but somewhat video. Did you notice how Canon footage look Canon? A special brownish tone to skin and enviroment that’s always there in low lit situations. Still impressive. :)
Red one footage: Right click and save as!
(HD720, h264 around 500MB size, but well worth looking at) – Oh, the Mysterious-X is on it’s way too – the next generation sensor from RED that will be even more impressive. Starting at a clean ISO800. You surely need lots of ND’s to do outdoor footage with any depth. You can follow some of that here.
Now, looking at all these mighty riders in shiny armor – when do we see the Foveon sensor do film? (except DP) It would probably not be able to go as high ISO wise but colors and definition will surely be in another league. Especially if it will be able to record in some type of RAW format. Should be possible if you consider what RED team has been able to do.
I still enjoy the possibilities provided by the DP1 and DP2 – and it shows that it’s possible. But still, resolution is way too low. :(
Sigma DP1 – my Sigma AML-1 lens adapter review (sorry, nothing new to share).
Movie below shows what I mean with bleeding colors in Silkypix and how you solve it – but I must admit that in many pictures, this type of noise reduction is clearly visible in a way that I really don’t like – especially in bokeh areas. Lucky for us you can reduce and perfect it to your liking, but only almost. Sigma Photo Pro has a better way of noise reduction. I guess they should have being the master of everything Foveon but still.. Also, Sigma has a really really nice sharpening that is somehow not affecting areas out of focus in the same way as the rest of our developers. (RD, Silky and LR included). The Video below tries to somehow show what I mean. Also the RAW is available in this post.
I’m sorry for not being very clear when speaking. I hardly hear myself sometimes. grr.
EDIT: Now LINKS ARE FIXED FOR REAL! Man that was tricky. :D Now you can switch between shots easily. Raw file for download here!
It’s quite a big difference if you click between. Especially at skin tones / skin contrast and the blue thingi. In Silkypix you have so many options – and it’s easy to loose yourself in all possibilities. The blue has been desaturated using the special color wheel and lightened and all green tones has been moved towards a greyish saturation as well as little magenta. Also noise reduction has been reduced quite a lot as blue has a tendency to bleed. Why I have no idea, something with the noise reduction in Silkypix. Raw Developer has a better solution I think.
To be fair, SPP (Sigma Photo Pro) is made with more or less one click. Nothing really changed. I use florescent WB with a warmer touch using color wheel. Other than that it’s “out of the box”.
Pretty amazing really how shallow DOF can isolate an object like this. It’s like entering a new world, and I find it very fascinating. Above shot is taken with the Sigma DP2.
As some of you noticed we like mushrooms, and fall in Sweden is like candy store for kids. These mushrooms are called Trattkantareller in Swedish and Cantharellus tubaeformis in Latin. Now you know. And we will dry them and use them during the cold and inhuman Swedish wintertime. See above shot at original size.
Here follows some shots that been on flickr for some time, but without me saying much. These are a bit Strobist as you can see how I did most of them. :) Btw, Everything in this post is developed using Silkypix. I actually learned more on how to use Silkypix since I developed these but they’ll do for now. Quadra time.." width="500" height="333" />
I just wanted to say that I now added a Chat page which is connected to the mighty Panorama_chat IRC channel. So, no more searching for that Mirc or Colloguy application, just jump right in!
Updated! Now including the RAW from Flyingrooster and Biggydogs english fix.
Movie is now OK. ;)
I also baked a nice little raw pack for you so that if you don’t currently have a Sigma, you can at least play around with some files. It’s a small collection of recent pictures taken with SD14, DP1 and DP2.
The above movie is recorded as HD (1280×720) so view full screen with HD turned on for best experience. It’s currently processed and might be done when you watch. :)
You want to make my next video together with me? With Screen share it’s easy and all you need is a Leopard equipped Mac with microphone. Also, you should be interested in talking Silkypix and image quality. But that includes most people visiting this site? :D It’s nothing advanced or fancy just a bouncing ball of thoughts and images..I have lots of good and bad images, and many developers installed to make it more fun.
Above shot is taken in a studio yesterday (the place I worked with jpegs only – this shot I took as RAW though). The shot came out underexposed and has been adjusted solely inside Silkypix (except for the white border). Even the copyright text is inserted inside Silkypix. (Really good control over watermarks btw).
So what do I think about Silkypix? I have found both greatness and the other way in the way Silkypix does its processing. The good thing about silkypix is that you can go back to the start, take away all noise reduction, all sharpening, all whatever they applied when you first open the shot – and slowly adjust to you liking. You have very nice control over colors and contrast – better than Lightroom (at least better for SD / DP shots) and also parts of it is better than SPP.
I’m now putting together a video showing the good and the bad. With some comparisons with SPP and RD. Perhaps LR and Darkroom too? If my RAM is big enough. hehe. Poor iMac.
FlyingRooster has posted his findings as a comment in this thread. Including comparison images. Well worth reading.
[updated] Thanks silvar23 for the heads up about the DP1s – click here for the announcement! And to Shinzo Fukui for the cool news that there is one more native developer for Sigma RAW files – Silkypix! Click here to download your beta. Windows only though which is a pitty! But VMware is your friend. Anyone tried yet?
Just came home from a car photo session – an old Ford Escort from the 70th with about 700hp. We drove into a beautiful landscape, my assistant Bengt drove my car, I sat in the trunk with back open. It was cloudy with strong sun now and then, a bit chilly – three nights in a row with frost. Well, the car broke and we were stucked in the middle of nowhere with these little fellows as company. Sun was really low and I tried to shield the 120-300 with my hand without too much success. :D (to my delight)
I developed once more with Raw Developer. I did first with Lightroom but RD gave more filmic feeling. These are ISO200 and 100 – noise reduction turned off. All available as full size at flickr.
Here’s the RAW from the video if you wanna play some yourself. All Raw developers links can be found on the right side. –>
Playing some with RD’s monochome settings. It gives something cool. Pretty dirty if you press the original, both is higher ISO too – a little bit above iso200 (so no extreme amounts) mostly because they came out underexposed.
Quadra
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