Linn doing her thing, actually, she’s painting the front of our wedding invitation card. Jaij! She’s a really talented painter in case you didn’t know.. maybe I’ll post some of her works.. :)
Archive for the 'Flash' Category
Raw Developer is my preferred tool when dealing with images that I think of in terms of black and white and the SD14 is my preferred camera. Last week I had one of my studio classes (that’s when we did the milk thingi) I took some shots when preparing the light – also because I wanted to test a lens that I’ll come back to later. Raw Developer has lots of interesting settings to play with – today I played with the curve tool and “lightness” channel. Recommended!
This whole post is Bob’s fault and can be viewed as full size (some saved at 200%)
And some in color: (Photo of Dad is ISo200 with noise reduction turned off)
Last shot has been saved at 200% size – Have a look!
OBS! Noise reduction is turned off.. (on all above images)
Some time ago I had this photo session for a company – some portraits made “on location” using my Quadra. Now, I had this 18-50 lens that I adore but that had a bit of a focus issue on my SD14 so I brought one of my photo students Nikon D90 to be on the safe side (same sensor as seen in the D300s). I took all shots with both cameras. The Nikon had the regular 18-105mm VR lens – I have no idea how that one compares to Sigmas 18-50 but the Nikon cost about the same when it hit the market (about $400).
The Nikon has been shot at F10, the Sigma at F8. Nikon with ISO200 and Sigma at ISO100. (ISO200 is standard on the D90). Also, notice that the Sigma is slightly closer. Nikon is set at 66mm and Sigma at 50mm. So the Sigma’s at maximum zoom level (which normally is a disadvantage).
Sigma on the left, Nikon on the right.
You can’t click the above shot to zoom in, but the other two shots below. Notice that the Sigma has no extra sharpening applied. Just standard from SPP3. Nikon is sharpened normally in Lightroom 3.
Sigma with 4.6MP | Nikon at 12,3MP (here at 100% crop - click for full)
At 200% crop | Sigma processed using Sigma Photo Pro, Nikon using LR3 (click for full)
Conclusion? Those 4.6MP’s are truly insane!
Photo taken by Martin Carlsson using a Canon 5D Mark2
Me and my friend Martin Carlsson had one of our nerdy meetings yesterday. We didn’t have a real plan, more then go out for a session but weather was really as dull as it gets and none of us felt really happy about it so Martin came up with this truly excellent idea to try out some extreme macro using the reversed lens technique.
I thought the idea was brilliant, especially in mind that I had my trusty 70mm macro that probably would become like a microscope and what if I turned my 120-300 bigma around? Would that make me see atoms for real? I was pretty sure I would so we made a setup with my Quadra, a bunch of lenses and a VISA card. Mostly because people know what it looks like.
Now, here’s a shot with the Sigma 70mm Macro NOT reversed. You get pretty close by doing nothing, just using it as it’s supposed to be used. This is as close as you get. (and don’t you dare try using those numbers!!!)
Now I reversed it but to my surprise nothing much happened. I didn’t get any closer. hmm. I ran out getting myself a bigger gun. My 70-200mm 2.8 lens. I swong it around and it gave me less then the 70mm, at least at 200m. 70mm looked closer. So I figured that my assumption of more mm was wrong. So I got myself my 17-70. At least I could try and see if wider meant closer.
Sure enough, soon I was traveling over the VISA cards surface and maan was it a beauty. I never thought a piece of plastic could look this beautiful. Close to the same feeling looking at Avatar in 3D for the first time. :D
So if 17mm meant closer what was my next step? The 12-24 (which Martin now tried in the background) was a bit tricky because of the round frontal lens. But I did have something even wider – my 10-20!
Now, the 17mm was difficult enough to control. Every breath and dare I say heart beat effected my steadiness greatly and things didn’t get easier with the 10-20 at 10mm. It was really tricky, to give you a feeling for how shallow depth of field is I tried to catch the top of one of those small letters on the card.. See how background fades away! Nice bokeh too! :D
It was EASY to miss, either you got the top, bottom or just a big blur. All depending on who touched the table or walked the floor or if a big bird flew outside my window.
Now, what’s next? All above shots has been taken wide open. I had no idea how to change aperture on a lens that wasn’t mounted but Martin had an idea. By changing the Aperture while mounted he then pressed the “aperture test button” and while holding the button he gently released the lens and oala – aperture was still at wanted f-stop! Now things got even more interesting!
How about Linns face at f8 – f32?
Or why not some fine salt? (not sea salt or anything huge like that)
Or the landscape of a swedish 20kr bill? And yes, the black part of the image was me not holding the reversed lens perfectly aligned. It wasn’t that easy!
And finally Martin started staring into a good old light bulb – as if the quadras flashes and strong LED wasn’t enough disturbing. I’m pretty sure Martin took some better shots with his 5D but here’s my only sharp one. Or at least, a bit sharp. Lamp never stood really still and it was terribly hard to take a decent shot.
But I got pretty close! :)
Alright, if you have your own shots to share, then please do! (it’s easy to do when you post a comment).
Original processed full size
Download Original RAW (Both images)
Take a look at the Original.
(Above shot as been (re)developed using Silkypix and has noise reduction almost completely turned off). See new post including above as RAW for your own fun!
Today I had my last photo class for this term, I brought my SD14 and the trusty 18-50 2.8. It’s a bit short to be a perfect studio lens, I often find myself a tad too close. :) I think the 24-70 might be better suited but what the 18-50 really has is a GREAT crispiness, very sharp and nice to handle. Most of the time spot on.
Also, the Japanese version of Silkypix for Mac is released (Thanks Gen!) and it’s a joy to be able to work without starting VMWare. :D – the old .dat trick works great if your Japanese is as bad as mine. Also, I now have another 30 days of fun. ;)
It’s now much faster, and most everything is better but the real-time preview when hovering on different WB’s etc is now history. Perhaps a windows only thing. Too bad.
These photos now has been developed in Silkypix and then saved as TIFF and post-processed using Lightroom 3b (that’s where I upload to flickr) – I also painted the background on each shot with a slight color of blue, different tint every time I think. hehe.. Oh well.. Only for fun.
View BIG version..
A house once belong to Surte glasbruk. Surte glasbruk is the glass factory famous for designing the very first Coca Cola bottle. But that’s another story. Now the house has since the last 13 years been the home for people with difficulties – in some cases drugs, some health others money etc. Now, a new road is under construction and within a month the house will be emptied – and luckily for the people inside most of them has a new place to go – probably a better place too – this one has really seen the best of days and were never meant to be lived in at all – as it was built and used as an office.
Now, I’ve been visiting them to help my way and I consider them all close friends. I hardly showed them a camera before mostly because I don’t want anyone to think that I’ve been there because of a shot – but today I just couldn’t hold myself and I went there and took a few pictures. No one had any objections..
I brought the SD14 coupled with the 12-24mm lens and I had my friend Bengt assisting me with my quadra. I tried hard to recreate the light that I felt was in the room to begin with – and often going above 2s exposures. tricky. :)
Also all shots has first been developed using Sigma Photo Pro and then post-processed in Lightroom 3 – mostly adding vignetting and some contrast adjustments.
UPDATE: Some of these shots has now been redeveloped using Lightroom 3 beta. Just wanted to try the flickr upload function, not sure these looks any better, but contains lots more black. Previous upload was developed using Raw Developer. They’re all in full size available in my flickr account.
The other week, two of my photography students wanted to play with a home built disco strobe. A 50W light connected to a big wooden box with a car battery inside along with a mix of cables.. We turned off all light, put the camera on bulb mode (a students Nikon D60) and started shooting using a trigger.
One guy standing with the strobe controlling speed of strobe and direction – another holding something to shield the light some (barn doors), a third to hold the trigger as long as something happened in front of camera and the rest standing around waiting for their turn.
We did this for about 45minutes, continues flashing light – it was a very strange feeling to turn on the “real” light after and you could feel how much your brain had worked. Felt very very tired!. :) Almost the same feeling as going of a boat after a windy day..
So these shots of nothing serious – Jimmy, the owner of the camera uploaded some of the shots on my FTP – but unfortunately only those of me. ;)
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.
Continue reading ‘Some nature, some people, something else..’
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. :)
Download the Silkypix Raw Pack.. 109MB ZIP file.
Get the Silkypix beta software, go here for info.
Get flyingroosters test RAW file (used in his comments below). Download.
Get BiggyDogs English menu fix (read comment for install help). Download
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.
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.
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!!)
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.
Just wanted to share two late shots taken during the session that you saw previously and they’re both taken with the Sigma 120-300 at ISO50 and SD14. It was a VERY bright sunny day so stayed in the shadows under some huge trees – Tried to equal the light so that my elinchrom quadra wouldn’t be too noticed, used a white umbrella and without a meeter I had to test shoot some before setting the correct power and exposure. But I never really used a light meter before so I’m not sure it would make things faster. As long as my assistant was staying on the same distance exposure would stay about the same. My biggest problem was that clouds would come and go, so light would change LOTS in a couple of seconds – and so would exposure. Lots of shots trashed because of this.
Raw Developer used for these. :)
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