After a couple of days walking the 30mm I decided to visit one of the small studios that I used many times before. I had 28 pictures left in my camera (and no memory dump thingi with me) so we had to do the best we could with our precious time.Who are we?! It’s always been the question, and now also our theme. Is this us? We used the memory space with great care and love. One thing is for sure. My glasses are stronger then yours!Btw. By clicking one of the images you get a larger version. Not full, but large. And if you look carefully enough you might notice that focus is on the eye, but not on the face. Isn’t that kind of weird?! I’m sure there is some optical voodoo going on..
Archive for the 'Sigma SD10' Category
A couple of days ago I got my hands on the new 30mm 1.4 EX from Sigma. A lens that me myself and I have been looking forward to a lot. And now when I have it I must tell you, I’m sold, in love!It’s a well built, pretty small, good looking piece of glass that behaves as you which it would. (most of the time, more of that later) Here comes the first teaser image. A 100% crop taken with auto focus and @ F1.4. (Wide open)
My first impressions on image quality is as follows: sharp, saturated, contrasty and very very nice bokeh. There is some distortion but I’ll get back to that later. Right now I’ll use it for some up’n'coming projects and tell you more as time goes by.Photo has been processed using Adobe Lightroom beta 2, no sharpening applied in lightroom (does a very bad job) but normal amount applied in PS.Over at Dpreview I’ve posted some more images and thoughs. Take me there!Link to edge sharpness test and my first studio shots: Take me there!
Yesterday I was walking my 30mm 1.4 and in the middle of everything I saw that my fellow walker was visible in a mirror of a motorbike. Happy as I am about mirrors I took a quick snapshot and not realizing that the two persons sitting at the table behind the mirror was two good friends of mine. I got three for the price of one!
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I’m not sure how to describe the extreme detail-richness that the foveon sensor gives, but here are two day to day examples. The eye picture is not only very detailed but also exposure compensated in the RAW converted + 2 step. Thanks to wide dynamic range the photograph is still use full and everything is there! \
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Camera: Sigma SD10, Lens: 24-60EX | Observe! The cropped version is NOT 100% in this web view. There is more!\
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Camera: Sigma SD10, Lens: 24-60EX | Handheld | Yes, there is overexposure in two of them, but I just couldn’t resist posting. Remember it’s a one shot.\
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Camera: Sigma SD10, Lens: Sigma 24-60EX | Mixed light. Some daylight, some flash. | See gallery for more images. Some fullsize.\
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Work work work, and movies. :) Last night I saw “Unleashed” or as it was first called, “Danny the dog” with Jet Li. (I\’d5m a fan of Luc) It was VERY good. \
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At work I’m working hard and quick with the children book. 88 pages and 40 scanned and photographed artworks.. two languages as normal. (Will feel like blessing when I return to one back in Sweden) I\’d5m reading some forums about HD editing, photography and cars at the same time. I should shut down Internet to be truly focused but that’s so boring. :)\
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Linn came back from a 7 days trip and I feel less alone now.
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\f0 She had my SD10 with power pack and the 24-60 lens. She had a lot of fun and people took her for a pro.
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\f0 She is 1.58cm high and weight about 44kg so you can imagine how big the camera looked. :D\
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I\’d5ll post some of her pictures soon. She\’d5s getting really good.\
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Arto, chef at Nordica
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
Maria All\’8en, visitor at Nordica
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
Thomas Edenholm, friend from Sweden.
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
Playing with ONE light
With inspiration from the One Campaign I bought a very light, light setup. I’ve been thinking about this light for many years but never had a light that worked. (too wide, too big or too strong.. most of the time too clumsy) \
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I use two small 500w halogen lights put together, nothing else except a stand that is hung from another stand so that I can take pictures without getting anything unwanted (stand, cables etc) in the picture. This also works great for filming, thread above shows what it looks like. \
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One problem using halogen this way (500W x 2 = 1000W) is heat. I don’t use any makeup for my subjects but I think I should. It’s too much sweat after just a short while. And people have a problem to look at me because of the strong light just above the camera.\
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Camera used: Sigma SD10\
Lens used: Sigma 24-60 2.8 EX\
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As always. Please look at these with a monitor showing gamma 1.8. If you’re using a PC they are way too dark. Get a mac!\
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Today it’s raining. As it did yesterday and the day before that.\
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To take photos in times like these, a fast lens is a big advantage. Sigma is about to release a new, to me fantastic lens named “Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM” and initial Canon owners have taken their pictures with very good result. (the Canon mount was released first. Nikon mount scheduled for Tuesday (12th of July) Sigma mount a little later. \
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\’a5 Thanks to Date Junichi: Sigma 30mm F1.4 initial tests on Japanese site. Link brought by Staffan Berggren.
\’a5 Sigma 30mm f1.4 vs Canon 35mm f2 @ www.whichlens.com
\’a5 Photozine magazine test | NEW!
Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM
Copyright Sigma.
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On my camera, A sigma SD10/SD9 with a crop factor of x1.7 this lens would become a 50mm f1.4 lens. (30mm has to be multiplied with 1.7. The result is 51mm). Shooting people as I am most of the time this is almost a dream coming true. a 50mm lens is a perfect combination of reach and stability. \
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Article about Focal Length Multiplier on Dpreview\
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To have longer focal length would mean that you have to be steadier. I might have big feet but I quite often find myself to be a little to shaky for rainy days. And for studio use it’s just perfect! My room is small meaning I don’t have to find my self squeezed to the wall to get the shot I want. (of course I can use one of my wide zoom, but I like primes.. (prime = fix focal lens = not a zoom) And there is something very pleasing almost magical over a prime image.\
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One thing that a lot of people overlook is bokeh. If you look at images from a very cheap lens and then look at images from a very expensive lens chances are that you by looking at the bokeh can see witch one is witch. The out of focus blur, the part of the image that is not in focus, what does it look like? Is it still sharp and blurry? is it smooth as silk, is it strange artifacts showing up around light etc? \
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Luminous-landscape article about bokeh\
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So what about bokeh on this new lens? Well, to my eyes, it’s VERY nice. The problem for a lens maker is that getting perfect sharpness/perfect lens isn’t the same as getting pleasing bokeh. The hard part is to find an artistic balance between sharpness and blur. Initial images shows that they done a great not to say fantastic in this regard.\
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I’ll be back when I know more about this wet dream of mine. Now I need some breakfast. I have to run thru water and rain to get to my little restaurant that serves my morning rice noodles.
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Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM
Copyright Date Junichi.
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Shangri-la in northern Yunnan is originated from a novel, Lost Horizon written by the British writer James Hilton in 1933. It\’d5s described as a mystical, harmonious valley somewhere near the Himalaya. Often referred to as a paradise, and a place of peace, happiness and rest. An Utopia. \
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Some ISO1600 shots from that
evening.
Sigma SD10 50MM EX
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
This utopia is about 12h with buss from Kunming. It isn\’d5t that far in reality but roads aren\’d5t super nice if I put it that way. Shangri-la is a beautiful place, mystical, harmonious plateau with a lot of drunken citizen every night. It\’d5s so bad that driving nighttime or late evening is seen as something you just don\’d5t do as a visitor. You let local people do that. They drink a lot! And I mean a lot. \
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I have some friends, some local friends that I by mistake meet in Kunming. Those friends of course wanted to eat dinner to enhance and deeper our friendship. They brought some friends too and soon we ate great food and drank nice local rice wine. \
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If a local guy wants to drink a cup with you you\’d5re supposed to drink with him. Not a zip, but the whole glass. Glasses aren\’d5t very big but when something has about 52% of alcohol inside then size really doesn\’d5t matter. If you don\’d5t they are all VERY confused about your friendship and you really do act like something the cat dragged in. \
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Everybody wants to be your friend. Everybody wants YOU to be his friend. So drinking never ends. It\’d5s tough. Very tough.\
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This is the first part of my Shangri-la story. I was there for 10 days, traveling around to many different places and bit by piece I\’d5ll make you understand more and more about this mystical place.\
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Sigma 50mm EX
Tattooed Minority women
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
Cleaning my room to some Ono Lisa songs.. I don’t think my brother would bother, but he have this girl.. hmm.. How much should I do? And 20:00 tonight I am attending a English Corner that I just have to attend. So much to learn. (culture and such things)\
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The Image to the right is from a trip I did some time ago to another place also called “shangri-la” they want it to be the real one. Mountains, ravines, majestic views and mountains with glacier tops. Most people in this part are Christians and belongs Lizu minority group.
To find this lady I had to walk far up in the mountains, and I had to pay her 50RMB to get the picture. She was not a Lizu and on the question why she had a tattoo she said, - I did it when I was young for fun. So much for walking all that way. Anyways. I’ll post some more from her later. She had some extraordinary hands. Working hard as she was/is.\
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Back to cleaning.. I chose this picture, hey look at her face! She needs some cleaning too!\
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This picture is taken at the biggest Zen temple in the world.
It’s supposted to represent the religious part in my article.
Sigma SD10, Shangrila June 2005
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
The other day I visited IDG.se and read an article about longhorn that recently been tested for the first time by IDG’s magazine PC World. ) and after the article people had participated in a free forum connected to the article in question. Reading that thread reminded me how different Chinese people often is to Swedish. \
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Read article and comments - In swedish\
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There is a hidden rule in Sweden and that is, - don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Don’t come here and. This is called \’d2jante lagen\’d3 or \’d2The law of Jante\’d3 I.e. if your neighbor buys a new car, the law of jente do not permit you to share his/her joy. (Not everybody follows it) Reading that thread made me very very tired, all the time people jumped on each other with rude comments to some ones misunderstanding or not so informative answer to some ones question. Some ones joke became another persons death. \
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This might be very Swedish behavior. I’m not sure. Being a member on the Sigma forum at Dpreview.com (linked to Dpreviews Sigma forum) since it started in 2002 I must say I never or rarely accounted this behavior. Only by trolls that was easy to mark, very few.\
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In China, where people very much act according to basic rules in Daoism; Bend to problems rather than start a fight. This is maybe why today politics are as successful as it is. To act like if you where a bamboo in the wind, if you try to stand when the wind blow you might brake. Or be as water in a flood, when a stone comes you flow around it. These are two very strong images that very much, according to my personal experience represent the Chinese personality. Some people have tried to be the standing bamboo and with the natural consequence
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\f0 This doesn\’d5t mean that everybody is religious, not many are. But these rules are deep rooted into the society and everybody expects everybody to act accordingly. \
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This would, in a thread mean that you instead of jumping on some ones not so smart comment you try to first tell how not so wrong he was but that you might have a better explanation. i.e. I work a lot with books. If I would write something negative about Chairman Mao I would have to write a lot about how good he was before coming with my \’d2real\’d3 comment. The same if you have a conversation. \
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More of this later. Now I\’d5m sitting at a teahouse enjoying nice expensive Chinese tea while the rain is pouring down. It\’d5s so cozy to sit here now with my power book on my knee. Mmm (I\’d5m not paying btw)\
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Names: Samuel, Per, Josef, Sven, Carl, Rickard and Lars.. Did I mention I have a bunch of sisters too? AND a mother as well. Btw, all pictures are taken with a Sigma SD9 or SD10.\
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