I could hardly see anything thru the viewfinder, I could see the moon. the rest I had to guess. 2min exposure at more or less wide open at ISO400. I love the SD14 for long exposure black and whites. See full size on flickr.
I’ve passed this tree many times daytime but never took a shot at it. It’s placed by the road (the road you see inside is bicycle road) and now and then a car was passing, giving light enough to fill the tree with life. It was very very dark. 82s at ISO400. See full size on flickr.
ISO50 at almost 2 minutes. take a look at the full exposure to enjoy the great detail. It was windy and I’m amazed how still the grass was.. :) Used SPP for developing and Lightroom 2 for post. (darkening the sky and lifting the shadow some. See full size on flickr.
I had to shoot my neighbors house, the moon was beautiful from behind and street lights brought life to the front. See full size on flickr.
Was fooling around some with this tree and with this shot I was aiming for 2min exposure but didn’t make it. :) Developed using Raw Developer 1.8 (all others using SPP) 122s at ISO400. See full size on flickr.
A quick HDR from a rainy late night. Look closer at the full size version and you’ll find all kinds of nice raindrops. :D I used my 10-20 + f8 and f5.6. The last picture had a 80s long exposure + shorter ones. Take a look at the tree and see how the wind is playing. Looks cool in a long exposure like this.
I took these shots yesterday for an ad on “blocket” a swedish online market place. I have this kitchen that I have to trow away but it hurts some to just trash it so we are giving it to anyone who takes it away for us. :D not sure anyone wants it but maybe there is someone out there that has a little summerhouse that needs a fully working kitchen. And these colors are details are sooo cool I think. :)
SD14 + DP1, 12-24 and 120-300 used most on these. Sigma Photo Pro for all color pictures and Raw Developer 1.80 used on all Black and white shots. Aperture for post and publishing. Click more for more! :D Full size images for all.
Trying out the new Lightroom 2.1, these shots were taken with SD14 + 120-300 and 50mm 1.4. (Sigmas). I did add lots of vignetting, so don’t blame sigma. ;) I’m not satisfied with Lightrooms way of handling the RAW Foveon data BUT I’m VERY happy with Adobes approach with DP1 images. In their latest RAW update for Photoshop and Lightroom there is support and it’s more vibrant and better color separation than Sigmas photo pro. I’ll do some more tests and share later.
I think I’ll redevelop these and see what they could look like using SPP 3.2 + Aperture. Just for fun! :D
Alright - with my new Mac I had to get started! These are produced with the help of Sigma Photo Pro 3.2 (color shots) and Raw Developer 1.8 (black and white shot). All pictures ends up as 16bit tiffs in Aperture. From aperture I add some final adjustments - sometimes with the help of Viveza and sometimes with a little bit of vignetting etc - it’s mostly for the easy upload to flickr and possibility to add my signature without hazel.
Look, it’s me!! :D 12-24, cokin, SPP + aperture. Sky enhanced with Viveza.
Another really fun wedding session, this time a bit north or everything in a town called Mariestad - more famous for it’s fine beer. It was a bit tricky as Linn is now working down south as a guide on a castle and she couldn’t be my assistant. I really wanted that - so we improvised and used the best man for the job. Lucky for Jon and Carolina, it worked great! You can actually see him on several shots.
Oh, I also improved my car shooting style thingi - fun stuff! Lucky for me we had the time needed to play.
Cameras used was SD14 and DP1 - I had many lenses with me - more or less all but I ended up using the trusty 12-24 the most as I love the cokin filter border effect so much. Second place I think is 30 or 50mm 1.4 not sure as 50 is so new for me I tend to reach for the 30mm. 120-300 does give me joy when needed. It’s not very easy to find good occations or locations for it but when it’s time then it’s great!
I also noticed a slight magenta cast in some of the “just out of the church” shots - just so you know. :D
When open the whole article more pictures appears as well as some whom has been shown already above. Don’t be frightened about that, it’s perfectly normal.
Rainy day going out with my little brothers boat. Windy and dark sky made my day. Light changed rapidly as sun sometimes came throu and I must say there is lots more easier tasks than correct white balance a day like this. :D - So bare with me. Btw, we went out to fish - the only fish we saw was this one. (see below shot)
And above shot shows myself doing one of those - don’t know how to behave in FRONT of the camera. I really do have a problem with that. Behind me is Xiao Gang - the guy that I used to live together with during some of my years in China.
Minath Tirith?! No, it’s some huge river flow balancing tool. They do look monstrous.
And some from the day before at the cliffy beach.. :D
Wide open at 2.8! The 70-200 has recently given me really nice pictures.
Just received the new Sigma 50mm F1.4 and due to heavy sunshine I couldn’t really in a fair way try it wide open - but even if the above shot is taken at F4 the bokeh is amazingly sweet.
I was thinking it would be bigger. a whopping 500g piece of glass could have been heavier. It’s pretty short and very fat somehow - gives a very cool impression - big opening that tell you I’M BRIGHT.
Alright, another shot at F2.5 and a shutter speed of 1/3200s. A friend holding a reflector to even out the light a bit. The widest I could go was F2 - so here goes another shot at F2.
(This one is not perfectly focused, it’s kind of hard at F2 - hard training lays ahead)
I will try hard the coming days to find other things to photograph and hopefully I’ll be back with some nice pics.
Another wedding session, and I’m happy to announce that DP1 is a great b camera! :D Linn had hers with her all the time (she assist me) and she took quite a few really nice shots. I used mine as well and I got more keepers from the DP1 (compared to amount of shots taken) than with the SD14. More time to think? I think one or two of Linns are among these too.
My workflow has slightly changed and looks like the following. I make the basic adjustments from SD14 and DP1 RAW in SPP 2.5 Windows. After adjustments are done I import all into a new project in Apple Aperture.
In Aperture I use the new plugin called Viveza to further adjust certain spots - add light to face or simply to enhance black and white images. I also use Aperture to dodge and burn, crop and straighten, add vignetting and my little watermark. I don’t apply vignetting to all but to many shots. So don’t judge lenses because of my images. hehe..
During all this I also add stars to my favorites, this I later use when publishing to the couple and the very best here on my website. I ended up with 44 images in this post and 133 to the couple, I started with about 300 from SPP and around 700 in total from field..
The two above shots are DP1
DP1
There is all in all 44 images in this post. Click each image to view the full size image. Remember that this is copyrighted material.
About a week ago I received the much awaited (at least by me) close up lens made by Sigma. I must say that I was happily surprised about the little leather box that came with the lens! Soooo retro and beautifully crafted! WELL DONE SIGMA! Now, is the lens as good as the box it came in? :D
I’ve read numerous threads over at dpreview on different solutions and I’ve seen magnificent macro shots with all sorts of filters - some good, some not so good. Now, when the Sigma AML-1 was announced I was a bit surprised on the closest distance which is 20cm - not very Macro on a 28mm lens is it?! :D and in order to show you just how close 20cm is and what it feels like - I made this little video. If you watch it on Youtube then you can see it in higher resolution. Embedded is low res.
The lens is very bright - not sure you loose any light. Can’t really see any difference in shutter speeds and the lens says nothing about it. You can’t focus to infinity with it on - but it’s made for closeups so it’s not really a problem. OOF becomes BEAUTIFUL! Especially welcome when you’re making movies. Along with the extremely sharp lens and sensor it becomes almost unreal. Take a look at the shot of Linn, click it and the full version will load. It’s so so detailed. If the DP1 only had MORE resolution when making movies!! :D
The AML-1 as a slight negative distortion in corners - The opposite to the type of distortion we’re used to with normal lenses. But it’s not noticeable in day to day images. The picture below shows the effect, look at the window and you’ll understand what I mean.
Conclusion. I should have had TWO lenses or even three and stacked them, that would probably give very nice macros. Right now you don’t get close enough for that type of photography with only one lens. For movies and portraits such as the ones above it’s a wonderful solution and gives you new views - plus that the extreme OOF is perfect for videos.
Btw, the lens / filter itself is very very well made and NO CA can be found. At least not in any of my photos so far. Contrast and sharpnes are really top notch.
Not much to say, have a session tomorrow and wanted to know how much I could trust my 30mm wide open. Some shots turned out quite nice so I decided to share. :) All images are uploaded as full size (converted automatic via 1001 flickr uploader - in case you see some nasty JPEG artefacts).
Finally after much wait - here is the first of two parts from a photo session I had for the second year somewhere in the wilderness of Sweden. Now, these shots are not meant to be examined deeply - much because some of them are not extremely in focus. (I left the camera sometimes on a tripod having just a trigger in my hand and therefor they could walk out of focus).
I alternated between three different PS plugins to get the look that I wanted or simply to blow out the white background. The ones used most (for white background) is Viveza, the secondly most used is AlienSkin Exposure and the third used for one or two shots is Nik Color Efex Pro.
All shots are here presented in full resolution. Two shots have been slightly cropped. The rest have been left as is.
Click each for full size view. Enjoy!
Yes, it’s me (above and below).
There is more to come.
Click below for some more from this very session.
This one is saved as “double size” = 18.5MP res. Click to open each picture in full size. (or more)
I went to this very place with my Danish friends recently (SUG meeting) but felt the urge to go back and see if sunset would give some better pictures. To be honest, last time I was mostly shooting video with the DP1 and had no real time to think about stills. :D Anyways these are two new shots taken with the DP1 handheld and with ND Grad 121P filter. Plus one more at my flickr account.
Listen carefully in the end and together with this movie you can go and create your own great DP1 epic thing. AEL + WB + Close focus + ND = great stuff!
1. Lock white balance to dominant light source (or whatever you want) in this case “sunlight”
2. Move camera around and press AEL (lock exposure) when you think you got a good overall working exposure. Sky skin should be ok.
3. Press the “Focus” button (one time up on the four way dial on the DP1) this gives you close up mode or Macro mode (focus is now about 30-40cm from camera)
4. It helps to have a ND grad filter ready. Most occasions are perfect for this, makes a nice moody feeling. Very much used by the film industry. You can of course try different colors etc .
5. If you attach a polarizer it gives even more dramatic feeling to your movie. Deep nice colors with cool skies and less sweet in faces. If you have the wrong size you can hand hold it. haha
6. Upsize your video using “super resolution” with Video enhancer software (free 30day trial). PC only. I use VM-ware to run it on my Mac.
You don’t need a close up lens. I don’t have one. I will try to find one though. :D Film in macro mode MUST be cool!
What is a nice, sunny spring day on the cliffs at the swedish west coast like without a cold beer? Well. Ole tried to get rid of it using a tire - but soon decided to pick it up again. Watch the action here!
This was FUN! I took a lot of photos this way too, a cool way to frame your subjects but a bit tricky to balance it all. One hand filming and trying to keep sturdy and control the polarizer at the same time. AND walk. I’m not a woman am I.
Video clip hosted by the Norwegian photographer Yvind giving us important info on the 120-300 and how to use it properly. Inside you’ll find people like Ole, Filip, Oliver and myself. We also try to find another lost soul - the danish dragonfly photographer Fritz. - these are regular posters over at Dpreview and we had a little “get together” here at my place this very weekend. We had really great weather and much to talk about. And of course to shoot. I will post several un-cut videos.
These are all taken with the Sigma Dp1. If you wonder why you can’t see the SD14 display in this clip, that’s because I looked exposure by using AEL (because sunlight was very strong at the moment) and therefore the LCD will not show.
Somehow the movie became squeezed, not sure when or how. hehe
1. Lock white balance to dominant light source (or whatever you want) in this case “sunlight”
2. Move camera around and press AEL (lock exposure) when you think you got a good overall working exposure. Sky skin should be ok.
3. Press the “Focus” button (one time up on the four way dial on the DP1) this gives you close up mode or Macro mode (focus is now about 30-40cm from camera)
4. It helps to have a ND grad filter ready. Most occasions are perfect for this, makes a nice moody feeling. Very much used by the film industry. You can of course try different colors etc .
5. If you attach a polarizer it gives even more dramatic feeling to your movie. Deep nice colors with cool skies and less sweet in faces. If you have the wrong size you can hand hold it. haha
6. Upsize your video using “super resolution” with Video enhancer software (free 30day trial). PC only. I use VM-ware to run it on my Mac.
You don’t need a close up lens. I don’t have one. I will try to find one though. :D Film in macro mode MUST be cool!