Archive for the 'full size' Category

Daniel & Maria | Wedding with SD14 and DP1

Published at June 21, 2008 in 10-20, 105mm, 12-24, 16.5mm, 30mm, 4.5mm fisheye, 70-200, ISO50, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, high iso, portrait, sd14 and wedding. 20 Comments

SDIM0524

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..

SDIM0730SDIM6189SDIM6232
The two above shots are DP1

SDIM0578SDIM0628SDIM6150
DP1

SDIM0608XSDIM6156

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.

Continue reading ‘Daniel & Maria | Wedding with SD14 and DP1′

Sigma DP1 AML-1 Lens review - In Video and Pictures!

Published at June 19, 2008 in 16.5mm, 70mm, Movie, Raw Developer, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, how to, photography, portrait, review and sd14. 8 Comments

Images of AML-1

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

Images of AML-1Images of AML-1

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

Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images

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.

Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images

Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images

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.

Crazy studio session, SD14 + DP1 | Part 1

Published at May 30, 2008 in 10-20, 120-300, 16.5mm, 30mm, 70-200, 70mm, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, portrait, sd14 and studio. 9 Comments

Photo session - first upload
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).

Photo session - first upload

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!

Photo session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first upload

Yes, it’s me (above and below).

Photo session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first uploadPhoto session - first upload

There is more to come.
Click below for some more from this very session.

Continue reading ‘Crazy studio session, SD14 + DP1 | Part 1′

Red Blue Yellow color filter + Tobacco tone

Published at April 20, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, high iso and how to. 6 Comments

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.

Cokin color filter test. Dp1.

Direct output from camera using filter and black and white mode: (ISO800)

direcly-from-camera-bw

Nature in Black and White

Published at April 20, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1 and full size. 4 Comments

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?

Sweden in B&W

New SPP due soon! First preview.

Published at April 7, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, flash, full size, high iso, how to, portrait, review and studio. 33 Comments

[edit - Sigma today announced the new version for PC and Mac here as well as first DP1 update]

Working with SPP - DP1 all shots Elmia foto video 2008

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.

Continue reading ‘New SPP due soon! First preview.’

DP1 8s at ISO800

Published at March 19, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size and high iso. 17 Comments

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.

Snow! DP1 OOF and SD speed.

Published at March 18, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1 and full size. 13 Comments

Cold day with DP1 - oof test

I love the control over the picture that the DP1 gives me. I’m the King and the DP1 my slave. Just as I want it to be. :) Now, last morning I woke up with snow outside - I live in Sweden and normally this is normal - but years have become warmer and snow a rare sight. I took some shots more or less to test how nice bokeh the DP1 have - walking the dog.

Btw, as someone said at the forum already - turning off quick preview makes the DP1 faster between shots. And I also tested a normal SD card that came with another camera - it’s SOOOO SLOW! It really takes ages. So please. Use fastest card you can find, it’s a huge difference!

Timed save times RAW (light blinking):
SanDisk Extreme III 4GB: 2.5s
Canon SD SDC 32MB: 10s

Time before you can take another shot (single mode): 3.8s and quick preview off.
(As soon as it start to save to your card, you can take another shot) but you can’t change exposure etc during the “save” time so fast card is very important for the overall feel. If you try the camera make sure you have a fast SD.

Cold day with DP1 - oof test

Skagen, Denmark using DP1

Published at March 16, 2008 in dp1 and full size. 12 Comments

Skagen (dp1)

Skagen (dp1)

Just came back from Skagen in Denmark - a beautiful village famous for it’s history of painters - with small harbor and very special beach. Lots of dunes and special wild life. I saw seals and one dead wale. Here the two oceans Skagerrak and Kategatt meet and waves comes from two different directions (btw, Skagerakk is named after Skagen). I will post more images as I process them - these two as the first. Click on each for full size.

Upsize DP1 video, Said and GRD’s.

Published at March 16, 2008 in Link, Movie, dp1, full size and review. 9 Comments

HD video with DP1

480p version. 640×480
720p version. 960×720
Original version. 320×240

What does a 320×240 resolution DP1 video look like when upsized to 480p and 720p? That question has been on some peoples mind and one reader took action and made two versions of the above video. Resized by Dik Hoek with something called “super-resolution”.

“Super-resolution” is a term for a set of methods of increasing image or video resolution. All these methods are based on same idea: using information from several images to create one upsized image. These methods try to extract details from one frames to reconstruct other frames. This approach differs a lot from some sophisticated image upsizing methods which try to synthesize artificial details”. - To get your hands on a 30 day trial version of the software doing this - Click here!

And I can just say, Wow! It really works and it does look awsome! Sure, pixalation etc but it looks very cool indeed and using this you can cut together movies much easier in software such as Adobe premiere and Final cut without coming out with lower resolution video. (useful to take away the hi pitch “cut” sounds) I use the video-part of the DP1 quite often and results are very good. I really love the feeling it gives - something super8 like. :)

What’s next? Said Karlsson’s
Second impressions of the Sigma DP1

He’s another DP1 user that doesn’t come from the world of SD-cameras. He is a professional photographer and journalist - he’s mainly using his Canon 5D but been waiting for something to replace his Ricoh GX100. Said is now an DP1 owner and reading his blog is very interesting as it gives a little different view then the one from me. :) - But maybe best of all, he’s really good with the camera.

Image by Said Karlsson
Photo and copyright: Said Karlsson

And more from the east: Euyoung’s Soliloquy..  

We have a Ricoh GR fan site that have tested the DP1 against the Ricoh’s - it’s in Chinese but interesting. Especially the part where they compare out door, real life images between GRD2 and DP1. Go, check it out.  (The good and bad thing about visiting a Ricoh fan site is that they’re really not trying to hide any flaws. :)

Ricoh GRD2: (copyright Euyoung’s Soliloquy)

Sigma DP1: (Copyright: Euyoung’s Soliloquy)
image belonging to GRD fan site mentioned above.

More to come..

DP1 Raw pack for download!

Published at March 7, 2008 in Link, RAW, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size and high iso. 30 Comments

[updated] It’s time for the first RAW pack! I think it’s an interesting selection of handheld shots (mirror image on tripod) that shows the ability of the Sigma DP1 in different environments. Make sure you have the Sigma Photo Pro 3.1 (mac) or Sigma Photo Pro 2.4 (PC) installed. The new DP1 raw format is different from the SD14’s. Photos taken in all different ISO speeds and different light. Good for SPP training. :)There is a video out where I play with these shots as well as others. Go to video.

dp1 raw pack for download

Download 111mb dp1rawpack.zip!

Just saw that I didn’t have a shot of the dp1 in any of my articles. Here’s one. :)

Sigma DP1 ISO400 good mixed light.

Published at March 4, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, high iso and portrait. 16 Comments

People has been asking about mixed light shots so I took some of kids playing. This room had fluorescent light and daylight coming in from widows at roof level. So more daylight than fluorescent - (= Good mixed light)

Both ISO400 first 1/25s second 1/40, both has been slightly altered in PS. Sigma DP1 - indoor mixed light

Sigma DP1 - indoor mixed light

Sigma DP1 - day 2. Battery / film test.

Published at March 3, 2008 in 16.5mm, Movie, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, flash, full size, high iso and portrait. 25 Comments

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO800

I decided to see how good the battery was and how much juice I could squeeze out before dead - It’s not a perfect test but a real world sort of version. I manual focused more or less 99% of the time - I did try some AF shots but decided that manual focus was a bit more cool. I’m sure that AF + no LCD would give you lots and lots of more shots.

I turned off the camera very often. I’m not sure if that’s draining or some, but I guess that there is a good sleep mode that could have worked instead. Of course I looked and showed everyone around me so lots of peeking done.

Result? I have a total files of 182. Among those is 26 movies, 3 audio recordings and 151 RAW files. No Jpegs. Sorry, have a hard time getting used to the ability to shot JPEG’s since my early days with the SD9/SD10.. :) And camera is fast with RAW so there is no reason not to use it.

Movie clips direcly from the DP1:
DP1 video DP1 video DP1 video
DP1 video DP1 video

Now to some of the images: All hand held. Click for full size.

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO200

DP1 ISO800 - bad light take 2
ISO800 (redeveloped)

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO100

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO100

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO400

mixed Sigma DP1

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO100 + EF-140 DP1 flash. TTL-mode.

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO100 (shaky - should have used higher)

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO100

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO200

mixed Sigma DP1
ISO100

Sigma DP1 first impressions.

Published at March 1, 2008 in 16.5mm, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size and review. 29 Comments

Sigma DP1 @ ISO400
ISO400

It’s been lots of buz lately about the much anticipated Sigma DP1 - the every mans Leica that finally is ready to ship (or very close to) and I, as maybe the most happy guy on earth right now I HAVE ONE! :D And of course I will have to write a little something about it - from an SD14 users point of view.

Sigma DP1 image
ISo200

Build quality is very good, front and back made out of metal and nothing is flimsy. Very sturdy feeling. Should be at almost 300g. Almost too much when it comes to the MSAP wheel. The other wheel is the one for manual focusing and it’s very easy to turn without any clicks - easy to fast manual focus and this feature was one that I was afraid of being bad - is very good and very very useful. I use it 100% of the time. (at least at day one. ;)

Lens is superb. Bokeh is wonderful. F4 works very very well much thanks to the great sharpness wide open. Remember that common lenses such as 10-20 and 12-24 is the same or slower and much bigger! Do I dare say that this little DP1 16.5mm lens is sharper? I think it is. More or less all my shots this first cloudy day has been taken at F4.

DP1 @ ISO400+
ISO500

Speed was another thing that scared me some. In order to make it less painful I bought the fastest SD card I could find, the SD Extreme III from SanDisk and I have no idea if it helps but I have yet to miss a shot because of save times. It’s a bit faster than my SD14 I think but with smaller buffer. About half I guess. There is two ways of taking shots. One in continues mode - about three shots in less than a second (RAW mode) - and a “normal” shot mode that will give you about two-three seconds between shots. - this is no SLR and will not be used as one either.

Flipping thru images, zoom in to see 100% etc is very fast and interestingly enough much faster and better implemented than in my SD14.  Feels instant.

Sigma DP1 at night club
ISO200

The external flash is extremely cool looking. I had it to one of my night club sessions and people wowed it many times. I had to lend my little camera to many people. Never did that with my SD14. :) - one good thing here is that you can turn the focus wheel to 1m and leave it there. It’s pretty easy to learn how far away 1m is and keep it that way. :)

LCD is 230 000 dots and OK. It’s not the brightest in the business but works great. Better than the LCD on my SD14. Colors looks accurate and gives me a good feeling for sharpness etc. It’s also possible to see histogram etc as you would expect. In dark enviroment the “live” flow becomes very grainy - look cool but isn’t very useful to judge sharpness from at those times knowing how far one meter is, is good. :)

Battery life is yet to be known. First impression is that it’s similar to my SD14, maybe a bit less.

Final word from day one - I like it - it’s going to be where I go. :D  and now some images. Experimental ISO3200 and others.

Sigma DP1 @ ISO3200
ISO3200

Sigma DP1 @ ISO3200
ISO3200

Sigma DP1 image
ISO200

Sigma DP1 image
ISO100

Sigma DP1 @ ISO1200
ISO1200

Dpreview thread.
Video example

BW DP1 experiment | iso3200 - 6400

Published at February 13, 2008 in 12-24, Raw Developer, full size and sd14. 13 Comments

I’m taking this seriously! I realized that the more I learn about high ISO BW - the more I love the feeling of what comes out. These are all more or less taken at 16mm (28mm) - so this is what the DP1 would produce more or less. And the Dp1 has a sharper lens - it will produce nothing less than magnificent black and whites for sure!

All of these are developed using Raw Developer and the profile Monochrome XDR. PS has pleyed a minor role with burn tool and vignetting on some shots.

Black and white experiment part 2SDIM9804500Black and white experiment part 2Black and white experiment part 2SDIM9852500Black and white experiment part 2

High ISO experiment. 3200 - 12800 BW

Published at February 10, 2008 in 12-24, 30mm, Raw Developer, full size, high iso and sd14. 11 Comments

Extreme ISO - SD14

Been working with a photographer in HK with an very interesting photo book. The book contains photos taken mainly with tmax iso3200 film and I wanted to know how far the SD14 could go, especially with the “film alike” three layer technology that we’re blessed with.

So I set my camera at -1 exposure (-2 and -3 depending on wanted ISO) at ISO1600 and started to enjoy my new faster shutter speeds and everything you see here is handheld and most of the would be impossible with anything slower (camera shake). Speed varies between 1/15 to 1/100 and most of them are shot wide open. I used P mode.

Result? Noise characteristics and dynamic range feels very similar to black and white film. I have bought a Sigma SA-300 film camera and will in the near future take same shots in order to really see how well they compare. :)

Click each picture for full size.

Note: Most of these has absolutely no sharpening and noise reduction turned off. Especially extremely high ISO 6400 - 12800 has some noise reduction applied from Raw Developer. Continue reading ‘High ISO experiment. 3200 - 12800 BW’

14mp B&W sample for download.

Published at February 8, 2008 in 30mm, RAW, Raw Developer, flash, full size, portrait, printing, sd14 and studio. 9 Comments

I got lots of questions / full size sample requests about the first black and white portrait so I decided to make it available not as RAW this time but resized to match 14mp. All noise reduction is completely turned off (possible using Raw Developer) which gives extra detail and realistic, film like qualities. - I also saved info in the darker portion of the image.

No additional sharpening, level, curves etc. I did clone out part of a wall though and added vignetting. :) - This sample should be perfect for anyone having a printer and that would like to know what a SD14 4.6mp image will look like a bit bigger. There is stair stepping in this image and with qimage or other software it would probably look a bit better.

Click for the final 4600 x 3057 (14mp) image.

Full SD14 14mp sample

EDIT: I posted a comparison over at dpreview’s Sigma forum.

RAW + Raw Developer setting: download.

Lens and light test

Published at February 5, 2008 in 10-20, 120-300, 30mm, 70-200, Raw Developer, flash, full size, sd14 and studio. 10 Comments

ArkadiaFoto in Partille / Göteborg invited me to help them shot some models. I wanted to see and test the studio so I went there this very evening and tried light and some of my lenses. So here’s some of the resulting pictures. All images availible as almost full size download. I ended up using one profoto softboxed 1200w light slightly behind me to the right.

Lenses used: 30mm, 70-200, 120-300 and 10-20.
Camera: SD14 - ISO set to 100 by mistake. Should of course have been ISO50.

Arkadia studio session | lens test
Sigma 30mm - RD note: Monochrome XDR

Arkadia studio session | lens test
Sigma 10-20mm

Arkadia studio session | lens test
Sigma 120-300mm RD note - colors slightly damped.

Arkadia studio session | lens test
Sigma 70-200mm

Arkadia studio session | lens test
Sigma 30mm again. Too much fun.

Note: All images has been altered slightly in PS with vignetting and some has seen a touch of Alien skin Exposure. The man on these images belong to Arkadiamodels.com

Raw Pack “Club”

Published at January 27, 2008 in 30mm, RAW, flash, full size and sd14. 7 Comments

Nine RAW + One in-camera jpeg from my club-nights. The package is roughly 100mb, they’re all copyrighted but for your enjoyment / printing / testing / playing. If you wish to use any of these images for commercial purposes, please contact me first at carl@rytterfalk.com

Recommended converters:
LR - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 (Mac/PC)
SPP - Sigma Photo Pro 2.3 (Mac/PC)
RD - Raw Developer 1.7.2 (Mac only)

Download Raw Pack Club

raw pack club

SD10 revisited.

Published at December 13, 2007 in 30mm, Raw Developer, full size and sd10. 12 Comments

Man in the village.Old man in Village #2

I tend to forget that I lived in China for a very long time and during that time I took a huge amount of pictures all in raw. Since then lots have changed and new raw developers has popped up such as Lightroom, Sigma Photo Pro 3, Darkroom and Raw Developer. I decided to test one of them and this is SD10 images with the Sigma 30mm lens converted using Raw Developer. Click each image for a full size version. If you have time you can dig and find the old versions from back then. :)