High ISO/ASA (400+) | Carl Rytterfalk Fotografi

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Dali fire festival! (edited, new shots!)

Published

on August 7, 2010

. 2 Comments

EDIT! I redeveloped some using SPP 3.3 and added some others. Please see the full set for higher resolution.

Now, it was getting dark, really dark and that’s when people started to gather in the city center of Xia Guan, the Capital of Dali County. Now, this festival sounds nice and I’ve noticed preparations for days. People walking around with large torches, or truck loads with them preparing for the final day of sells.

Fire festival. I heard about it for years but I never had the chance to go and now, finally I’m here! My SD15 (had to return the “pre-version” and being sent a real one) is stuck in customs and I only have my DP1s and Dp2. Not that they’re not good but the SD15 would give me more situational shots – but I’m very very happy with these images! Not as many as they could have been but SPP did a great job on those colors!

Dali Fire Festival, second batch

The strange thing is that EVRYONE was here, streets where filled with people of all ages and torches was being lit everywhere. Some placed like on the picture above as a big fire others where carried around.. Everything would have been just fine if it stopped here but no, these Chinese are crazy! in every street corner sits people selling some kind of powder containing wood and from the smell I guess it’s something else that ignites superfast and this powder you buy and then you take a hands full and throw it into the fire! It all fires up with a woff and a huge flame and people are cheering.

Dali fire festival

Three images below, made using SPP3.3. First is Linn, second me and third her mom.

Dali Fire Festival, second batch

We bought some too and we had lots of fun but we soon realized that people carrying those torches was looking at ME with fire in their eyes and suddenly I find my self in a huge flame and my back is superhot – they’re throwing this powder at each other too! And me and girls are perhaps the perfect pray – it’s from now on I feel like a hunted animal and I don’t want to go home! It’s dangerous and it’s not dangerous and they’re putting me on fire with a smile! SOO STRANGE!!! :D

Below, the second more blue version is SPP 3.3 while the first is SPP 4.1. ISO is above 1600, but exposure compensated for higher so more noise visible. Still, fire is beautiful!

Dali Fire Festival, second batch

This guy was trying to get closer to me without me seeing and his friend had his hand full of powder getting ready to throw at me, luckily I turned around before it all happened and could get this shot instead. hehe.. We where really running around like crazy trying to hide with groups of people and at the same time I was eager to get some shots. aaaaa

Dali fire festival

I would be surprised if there was less than half a million people on the streets – it was that many and I didn’t see ONE foreigner. So I was the haunted one. haha. And beautiful girls too, like Linn. So we tried to stay together as much as possible – she went up in flames a couple of times and her but hurt.. at least she said. My eyebrows was curly the day after, says something about the heat.

Dali Fire Festival, second batch

All images available at full size at my flickr China 2010 set.

Lucky little Bee

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on July 29, 2010

in Adobe Lightroom, Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), ISO50, Portraits, Sigma DP2 and Sigma Photo Pro

. 16 Comments

Now, I had a some days together with only DP2 – the strange thing is that when I bring the DP2, then all situations are begging for wider – and when bringing the DP1 the opposite. But these below worked perfectly well using the DP2′s 42mm lens. Also, a reminder. Edited on nothing calibrated but I think they should look ok.

Lucky Bee
This little girl stood outside the window of a restaurant and she looked at me constantly – the guy sitting there is the restaurant owner and he tried several times to scare her away by banking on the window and by by looking at her with angry face.. But she remained with the same face, looking at me.. This is perhaps the only time I been thinking about adoption. :P

Also notice that some have a cropped version as well.. it’s not me taking two shots. :)

Two young girls in Kunming.

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on July 21, 2010

in Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), Portraits, Sigma DP1 and Sigma Photo Pro

. 3 Comments

A couple of days ago Linn wanted to get her nails done as it’s extremely cheap in Kunming compared to Sweden (about 1/20th of the price) and while waiting I walked around a bit and saw these two young girls coming in a near by alley.

I walked a bit more and when I returned I saw the same girls standing outside the same store where Linn did her nails. I took another shot.

Now, they really did time pass fast and we had a great time together. They really wanted me to take lots of shots and their mother came too – but I didn’t get a picture of her. (or one of the girls mother as of the one child per mom rule).

All shots taken with the Sigma DP1s and developed using SPP 4.1 / but I really have no idea about colors as I sit on an old laptop only visually calibrated.

These are part of my China 2010 set. Almost all are higher ISO, 200 and above. lots at 400 and 800 as weather was pretty dark. Raining a lot. Also I’m not keen on the way SPP 4.1 handles noise at higher ISO, will perhaps redo some using SPP3.3.

Post processed using Lightroom 3.

Common Cranes – 120-300 [updated]

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on April 5, 2010

in 120-300, High ISO/ASA (400+), Sigma Photo Pro and Sigma SD14

. 4 Comments

Went to the famous Hornborgarsjön today, it’s famous because every year tens of thousands of Common Cranes come here to play and so do tourists. And me. The lake is located about 100km from where I live so it’s a bit stupid that I don’t go there more often. It’s such a nice place for the 100-300 to play. Perhaps the SD15 plus 50-500 OS would be even better?

I made them BW because it’s so nice, colors looks perfectly ok too but.. and these are all SPP 4, which actually, believe it or not makes pretty nice BW’s from ISO400 and below. (not above). I had to underexpose some in order to get decent speed, light was so so.. So BW’s the way to go. Might show you color version another time.

Oh, and do you know what’s so cute about these birds? Once they found their mate, they stick together! :)

Above: Cropped image.

Another way to crop the above shot. :)

Please enjoy the bigger version. Click to get it.

Having fun with Canon 5D Mark 2.

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on April 2, 2010

in Canon, Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), Portraits and Review

. 8 Comments

5D2 ISO320 | <a onclick= Quadra" width="500" height="333" />

It fits perfectly to have a post about my Canon 5D experience after my article from yesterday don’t you think? :D Anyways. Every wednesday evening I have open photography classes in a near by high school and this time I brought the Canon 5D Mark 2 with me – much because it’s still dark at this time of the year and indoor light isn’t perfect for any of my current Sigmas. So I went coupled with a 24-70mm and my Elinchrom Quadra. (Quadra is only used when I say so, or you see it).

OBS. None of these images will hurt your eyes. I promise! :D

Continue reading ‘Having fun with Canon 5D Mark 2.’

SPP 4.0, the good and the bad! [edit]

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on March 29, 2010

in High ISO/ASA (400+), ISO50, Review, Sigma DP1, Sigma DP2, Sigma Photo Pro and Sigma SD14

. 27 Comments

Alright, I guess this will be the first in at least two reviews of SPP4 and I want to concentrate on differences between this version and the old 3.3 image wise (will come back to selective noise reduction a bit more later on). Most things with this new version is good. It’s faster, has better colors and you can adjust amount of noise reduction. But, and there is a big but! Sigma forgot about all of us that loves BW conversions. :´(

Now you might wanna try out different WB´s instead of just fooling around with the color wheel. Each pre-white balance has been altered some and correct WB can sometimes make your day, more so with this version than with old 3.3.

If you have lots of ISO50 images around then you can go ahead and redevelop them because they will most likely look much better in this version, especially if some of that highlight was burnt. Higher ISO shots now has a much more vibrant look, greens are more green, reds are less yellow and less saturated at the same time but in this case this is all good. Also, you can now select white balance for a big bunch of images instead of having to select them one by one. Nice!

First, SPP manage to squeeze much more colors and life out of old high ISO images. Also, have a close look at that fire!!

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO400. You can see how fire has lots more dynamic range and the reflection in his face looks much improved. Also notice how the green trees behind looks more saturated and less dull. Both images has been treated the same, same settings, same WB (shade) and white balance picked from eye.

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO1600. Sigma worked hard to improve image quality in bad indoor light. Be careful with your WB selection as this one looked terrible with the wrong one selected. Also play around with that new noise reduction. Some images don’t need so much and you gain some nice saturation to leave it at lower levels.

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO50. What’s really amazing is how they improved ISO50′s dynamic range! Take a look at the sky, and remember this image has lots of fill light applied. I think 0.8 on both SPP3.3 and 4. Colors, especially reds looks better too. Less orange.

At first I thought SPP4 did a bad job, there seams to be less information in the highlight.

But after I pulled the exposure compensation slider back -2.0 you clearly see how much more dynamic range you get in this new version. Looks like a full stop or perhaps even more! ISO50 will certainly be more useful in the future especially with all these OS lenses coming! :)

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO200. Green has been more separated and it feels like you have more tones of green to play with. a very welcome addition! Not sure if Sigma beats Silkypix though, I think they’re still is ahead in the green departement. I know someone over at Dpreview complained about SPP4s green and I tried to find issues with it with many different shots from various cameras but without luck (or should I say, with luck?!) – and couldn’t really find any bad or flawed situations. Help me! :)

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO400. Inside a shop, mixed light. And as you see red has been mighty improved! Now contains much less yellow and has a more realistic tone – also lots more tones and detail inside the red. Nice! (same settings on both images, DP2)

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO1600. Now to the BAD. As you know I’m a monochrome junkie and I love how SPP deals with black and white high ISO images. But that’s now history and we now have something that looks terribly bad.

I’m sure Sigma will do something about this and I hope that they at the same time realize the need of monochrome white balance in RAW mode so that we can enjoy high ISO shooting for real!

SPP3.3 on the left and SPP4 on the right. ISO1600. The only good is that with lower ISO (below ISO400) this mess isn’t applied.

Please Sigma, have an option to turn this strange massacre off!

Alright.. This was a first look. Comments?

Linn Göteborg.

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on March 23, 2010

in Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), Sigma DP2 and Sigma Photo Pro

. 0 Comments

Here’s a shot of Linn taken in the big city of Göteborg. DP2, ISO400. I said in the video that I was about to publish it so I felt obligated to do so. :D Full version.

Develop black and white

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on March 21, 2010

in All, Apple Aperture, High ISO/ASA (400+), Movie, Sigma DP2, Sigma Photo Pro and Studio

. 9 Comments

A basic tour in how to produce nice black and white images with the help of Sigma Photo Pro. And in case I didn’t make myself clear in the video, no flash or strobes has been used in any of these images. Only halogen “flood” light, a 1000w of it -- pretty bad really and therefor black and white is a really good solution. Also, camera used? Dp2. Surprise! :D

You made some successful attempts? Please add images to your comments. :)

Some BW’s from tonight. DP2

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on March 17, 2010

in Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), Sigma DP2 and Sigma Photo Pro

. 8 Comments

Well, we were supposed to have one of my studio classes this evening but our key to the locker containing our strobes were lost and all I had was this strong (1000w) light that we tried to hold and aim. It was way to hot. :) We also had an umbrella that worked as an reflector hand held, really clumsy setup.. :)

Normally during evenings such as these I don’t take many images, they do. But tonight I wanted to play a little with my Dp2. So here you go. :D BW conversion is pure SPP and different red / blue / mono techniques used. You wanna know more about this? Say yes and I’ll make a video. :)

Above shot is almost pure red channel. (color wheel at red, saturation slider at monochrome).

Above is more bluish color wheel thingi.. (compared to red channel in the photo above this one)

And yes, all can be found as full size images on my Flickr. Although remember, no flash has been used and me + coffee + coffee + some more and bad shutter speed = not as sharp as I’d like. :) ISO differs between ISO200 and 400.

Sigma 17-70 2.8-4 OS – preview

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on March 7, 2010

in 17-70 OS, All, Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), ISO50, Sigma Photo Pro and Sigma SD14

. 10 Comments

Some time ago I was sent a pre-production unit of the 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM lens made by Sigma. It has been out for some time for other cameras such as Canon and Nikon but my version was of course made for Sigmas SA mount. It was a pre-production unit and I couldn’t really utilize the full OS capability as it wasn’t yet optimized but I did get some real stunner from it with OS and even more so without. Some shots below has had the OS enabled and they appear less sharp in full view, I’m told this will not be the case with the final version.

Those of you that used the older 17-70 will most likely enjoy this new version as well as it’s now more of an EX lens although no EX branding on it. The build quality is very high and it’s bit heavy and feels very solid. It’s like a bigger brother to the current 18-50 2.8 EX – same materials but a bit longer and fatter. Both lenses can produce stunning captures.

Full size version

(another, ISO400 with OS on) View big. (notice that focus is slightly behind)

Full size version

The quality produced by this lens is quite extraorinary, to be a none EX lens and a zoom.

Full size version (look at his chest!, that’s where focus is)

Full size version

Final verdict will as you might understand comes later when I have the “real deal” to play with but what’s seen so far is pretty amazing. Good stuff! Just take a look at this last picture of the trees, detail is not bad and I’m told that it might give up to four full stops of stability. I did get some 1/10s shots that I might show later using ISo3200 (very dark environment) and they looked very nice! :) Me like.

Family picture from tonight..

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on February 28, 2010

in High ISO/ASA (400+), Sigma DP2 and Sigma Photo Pro

. 7 Comments

Here’s my family from a couple of hours ago. Sigma Photo Pro saved as color, made black and white using Alien skin Exposure 2. Can you find me? And yes, some of my sisters and brothers wanted to pull a face.

Camera, Sigma DP2
Exposure ISO600 and 1/15s.
Incandescent light.

Should have left a little bit more space above heads but the table didn’t give enough freedom. And honestly didn’t notice before checking now. Perhaps you wonder why I made it black and white? Well, it was really bad light, no flash available and I had HDR mode on, so three shots – well this one looked funny and was one of the under exposed shots of the three. so. :)

some DP2 and SD14 from today..

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on February 25, 2010

in 120-300, 50mm 1.4, Adobe Lightroom, Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), ISO50, Polarizer / Filter, Portraits, Sigma DP2, Sigma Photo Pro and Sigma SD14

. 4 Comments

First some DP2 shots.. (all images, mixed ISO between 50-400)

Continue reading ‘some DP2 and SD14 from today..’

the other day..

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on February 18, 2010

in Adobe Lightroom, High ISO/ASA (400+), Sigma Photo Pro and Sigma SD14

. 0 Comments

I visited Church the other day, was there on a photo session and just wanted to share one of the shots. Above is taken using the SD14 using ISO400 plus a lens at 31mm.

What’s interesting about this picture is that white balance I selected was fluorescent – and that gave me very good colors in Sigma photo pro. Shutter speed was 1/10th of a second. Pretty alive if you ask me! :) The blue came out too strong (from outside light) so blue has been desaturated some. If I selected auto white balance or any other more “correct” white balance then colors became more muted and perhaps a bit more correct too. boring.

One week Winter.. 2009/10

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on January 3, 2010

in 120-300, Full size, High ISO/ASA (400+), ISO50, Portraits, Raw Developer, Sigma Photo Pro, Sigma SD14 and Silkypix

. 9 Comments

(See full size version)

Happy New Year 2010!! Well, I’m late, I know. But I just came back from celebrating the new year up at my big sisters place in Brålanda. It’s so far away from everything and Internet hasn’t reached them just yet.. (not). I’m not too often up at her place, it’s a 100km drive (that’s the only good excuse I have not to go there more often and I know she reads this)..

Ah, and you might wonder why I have no splendid pictures of cool firecrackers – Well, it all comes down to luck and really, really bad timing. In Brålanda (a small town of what seams to me to be around 10 people) people have firecrackers but they all live randomly around my tripods position and none of them had ANY understanding of photography or photographers. They could have said: – I’ll let another rocket up right now, and I’ll wait for your signal Carl. But no, they just let them up a little here and there and always in the wrong direction from where I stood with my 20-30s exposure.

Oh well, there is always another one coming!

Now, all these shots has been taken with my Sigma SD14 – some of them using the 120-300 and others using a new lens that I will get back to in a while. (all wider shots). 90% has been developed using SPP with minor adjustments using LR3 before flickry upload. The rest (two shots) has been developed using Silkypix.

Flickr gallery with all shots in full size.

(All above shots except the bird has been shot using the other lens..)

Now, the new year started with lots and lots of snow. We had to stay one extra day because of it. Below you’ll find “extra day with snow and my sisters family”, pictures.

Continue reading ‘One week Winter.. 2009/10′

Schillerska revisited – Day in Black and white!

Published

Carl Rytterfalk

on December 17, 2009

in 12-24, 18-50, High ISO/ASA (400+), Portraits, Sigma DP2, Sigma Photo Pro, Sigma SD14 and Studio

. 11 Comments

I must admit, I’m still in love with how SD14 handles monochrome white balance. It’s so rich! I had three classes to photograph today and I selected a few pictures to show. Everything is shot using SD14 + 18-50 2.8 or 12-24 except the very last shot shown. ISO is set between 100 and 800. Elinchom Quadra used in some way(s) in every shot. Some shots has been perspective corrected (bw group shots) – every development is made in Sigma Photo pro. Some shots has two other shots combined inside (No, Linn has no twin sister).

Why so many black and white? The heavy yellow light made it hard to get what I wanted + that I needed to go higher with ISO as I wanted a natural light and not “flashy” as I got yesterday (see group shot from yesterday and compare with todays). Yesterdays problem was that it was way to dark outside to have any use into the scene. Today was very dark too so I put them in the window.. hehe.

In above shot I used the 12-24, and it’s not very sharp wide open so I had to use a smaller aperture – I experimented with different ones but didn’t want to go above 1s exposure. So I ended up using ISO800. But as you know, using the monochrome mode that’s never a problem. I wanted F11, but was only able to get 6.3. Worked well.

Above: I sort of wanted a serious overall look so I asked them to look .. ehh.. cool? They tried. This particular class was pretty small so I didn’t need to go as wide as the one before so I used 18-50 – picture is wider in reality but perspective corrected to get straight lines. Do you notice any other changes made? – and 18-50 is faster and sharper than the 12-24 so I was able to do this one at ISO100 and. Jaij!