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.
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
Using a filter holder + Cokin filters you can play with black and white the good old way. First I tried with filter and then I tried the photoshop / lightroom way - I used the predefined color filter option that is available in photoshop in order to make a fair comparison. Click for “the big picture”. The black and white “real” images are made by using the monochrome wb option inside SPP. And yes, it could have been a more intresting scene but it works. You get similair result directly from camera if you select in-camera black and white jpeg mode. see this image.
When I bought my mini cokin A (amature) holder then I bought some filters at the same time. All ND’s were sold so I had to buy some colorful ones instead. One was called tobacco or coffee grad - can’t remember what word they used. Both works. :) And I have done several black and whites with it on and it works great. One cool thing is also that when you put camera into black and white mode (jpeg) and use a filter such as this you get really nice nice results directly out of the camera. Feels cool too when you aim as you see the result directly on the LCD.
Direct output from camera using filter and black and white mode: (ISO800)
My little sister Anna Ingvarsson went away to shoot nature and lent my DP1. She came back a day later with lots of really nice shots - I’m only going to show you one because that’s the only one I dealt with (making it black and white). I think it’s beautiful! What do you think?
I sometime visit a local school to spend time with local youngsters - most of the time I bring my DP1 and a snap a few. Always at ISO800 (badly needed). Colors looks ok but black and white is just so much better! These have had some vignetting added in Photoshop - so it’s not the lens fault. :D - And no, I wouldn’t use the flash as it would feel wrong. Btw, these are made black and white using the monochrome mode in Sigma Photo Pro.
My little brother just had his first kid - a little fellow named Jakob. These are just a few shots taken with the Dp1 the very first time I saw him. :) I’m a very proud uncle! (a few more over at my flickr account)
[edit - Sigma today announced the new version for PC and Mac here as well as first DP1 update]
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a beta of the next SPP 2.x and for those of you being irritated of green corners I can now tell you that green corners are now only a bad memory! :D I could only test the PC version but it ran extremely quick under vm-ware, actually much faster than my Mac version of SPP3.1. I did try some SD14 files and especially reds are now better. But this article will concentrate on DP1 images.
I thought that my photos from Elmia foto video 2008 could be used for this preview and at the same time you can see what I do in SPP and maybe learn something about processing. In every image there is important data inside. Exposure, ISO, White balance as well as processing. All kinds of situations ranging from high iso mixed light to long exposures in tricky situations. And as an extra bonus - studio shots! Continue to read this article.
Red is a new camera (brand) embraced by directors such as Steven Soderbergh and Peter Jacksson - Red is the new cool thing in the world of cinema. And what you probably didn’t know - the DP1 is like a tiny Red. Extremely simplified, but still.
The Red has a sensor-size of 24.4×13.7 mm and DP1 has 20.7 x 13.8 mm. (see comparison) This means that the Red sensor is slightly wider (as in 16:9) than the Foveon equipped DP1. This makes them very similar - the depth of an actual movie using a f4 lens at 28mm would look more or less the same (at least at extremely small size).
Now, what would happen if the next Sigma SLR would have the DP1s movie mode AND with higher resolution. Wouldn’t that be a real killer?! (plus mic in etc) :D
I’m even sure that the Dp1 will get much improved movie mode with time. Sigma is known for good firmware upgrades (at least on the SD14) and hopefully this will continue with the Dp1.
Link to Red.com
Here’s a small little video showing depth from Dp1. :)
Sigma will come out with a easy to use solution within SPP itself or by firmware, until then we can do it our self’s in Photoshop (or other software such as Gimp).
I felt for some time that the DP1 have much better battery life than I expected or felt at first - mainly due to the fact that my initial shooting habit changed some with time - my interest in zooming into every single detail in every image has now matured and I can relax more.
I decided to make new test.
I turned off the LCD, turned on full AF and put on the external view finder. In order to take as many shots as possible I also turned on continues mode. Three pictures was taken each time. (95% of the time). ISO100 used on the first 400 - then ISO400 after that. I restarted the camera 30 times in a row to make test more real. I shot some indoor and some out door. It does take some energy to take as many shots as I did. :D In one day.
Alright. I took a deep look into my growing DP1 video library and made a music video out of it. Upsized to 640×480.m4v (which is the iPhone format). Some quality is still lost but I think you get a feeling for what the DP1 can do. It’s not a HD killer cam - but useful! :D - Also remember that DP1 video format is 320×240 to begin with I made it bigger using Final Cut.
Stopped the car and brought my little buddy out in the winter night. It’s cold he said and asked me to make it quick - I thought to myself - ISO800 could work. He looked at me with his big black eye - scared that I would go all the way to 15s but I smiled and said I would make it painless. 8s later I took him into the warm car and we drove home.
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!