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.
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)
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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:
Now to some of the images: All hand held. Click for full size.
Turn volume down! Sounds like old radio with broken speakers. And, beware, you might need to know your RD in order to really follow - anyways. It’s a simple workflow. :)
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’
Today we had the luxury of spending the day with film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien and his lovely wife. After a different dinner at the entrance cafeteria of ICA Maxi i Mölndal we continued to Kungälv where we looked at some old houses and a castle - Tried to go many places but couldn’t reach people. We decided to go to my home instead and just relax. (and of course I told everything and nothing about my cool equipment! :D
First picture where I was happy to see my self inside his eyes. :D (see crop below first picture) - I should of course have saved the blow out but well..
I attended MyDog 2008 in Göteborg today and took some pictures. The light was really really bad. Weak fluorescent lamps all over the place. I used my SD14 plus my 30mm and set iso speed at 800. I didn’t take much much pictures because it looked horrible on the LCD and that didn’t encourage me.. ;) Please Sigma, let me select monochrome white balance! Later I found Raw Developers monochrome XDR input profile to make wonders - Colors could actually work but BW’s are just so much more beautiful.
This is the third and final part in the series about Jeannette & Magnus. We have covered the preparations for the bride in two sets (Hair and Face) and here, finally we put the Groom into the picture and look at him! :D
Pictures are mainly taken with Sigma 10-20, Sigma 28mm and Sigma 70mm. Camera used is SD14. This last series contains 36 photos. Processed using Lightroom and Darkroom. (read more about them here) - Assistant was Linn (Liu Dong Yun)
All pictures are linked to my flickr album. Half full size images are available there.
This is the first part in a series of three. Hair,Face and finally Together. These images was all taken this last Saturday, 15th of Oct and I used SD14 + four lenses. 10-20, 28mm, 30mm and 70mm.
This first part from the hairdresser contains 19 images. Processed using Lightroom and Darkroom. Some images have been altered using Photoshop. (colors) - click on each one for half, full size.
Lot’s of talk lately about SD14’s high ISO capabilities and I wanna give you some files to play with. I also put together a list of software that you can use in order to develop. Most of them has a trial version.
This time I will not give you as a full package! You select the photo you want to view as RAW and you download that particular shot. Slightly bigger quality shots of these are available on my flickr account. These are developed using Raw PhotoStudio 1.59 for OS X
I went out with mom yesterday (sunday) and we decided to pick some mushrooms again. Linn was working which was too bad, nature showed us her very good side. Weather was British and colors very strong - and light low. grrr - sun actually came through one or two times and I tried to do something when it showed but we often sat in the car when it happened.
These are developed using Lightroom, I did develop side by side with SPP3 but Iwasn’t sure which one I liked the best so I went for the easy ride. I did try Raw Developer again and I still like the way it handles colors but it’s so much fiddling to get there. Too much work and too little time.
I will tomorrow end my “product” job - it’s now done and we’re very happy with the result. Next up is a week long real estate photo session.
Horse: Picture taken by Elisabeth Ingvarsson. She didn’t know how AF worked.
A couple of weeks ago a senior named Per Bäck and his lovely wife comes to my garden and shared a cup of coffee, they’re both young looking so I was very surprised when they told me they’re both a bit over 80 - they had this look and way that told me that they had something more - something to teach. (I think they saw the same thing, but other way around - you know hopeless case sort of thing) While talking we realize that we have an interest in common and that is the love of photography. (I like to think I saw it in their eyes).
Per told me that he’s been taking photos of flowers and that his wife would look them up in fauna-pedias etc. Sometimes they would search for a special rare something or do experiment to find out how they work.
See below image showing this small little thing that is said to find its way on animal hair and move on - Per made this experiment by using his wifes hair and see if it worked as planned. :)
He used Yashicas and lot’s of extension tubes and flip-floped lenses and homemade focus assist holder he was able to take something like 10:1. Quite amazing and very difficult. He said he sometimes had to work an hour only to get focus right for ONE single shot.
Above picture: With a 2x extension tube + 200mm lens + flip-flopped 50mm lens + you get terrible shutter speeds and VERY very small part in focus. very shallow DOF.
It was terribly hard to focus with the focus ring alone so he built his own focus assistant. A beautiful wood + Plexiglas creation to support his work.
After being at his home in Alingsås - drinking coffee and eating delicious sandwiches I have this urge to take macros. Strange huh? Not very. Problem is that I don’t have the equipment (read lenses) nor the full knowledge how to pull it together in order to get closer than my current macros says and that’s only 1:1 - pretty far from 10:1. Any good inputs from you guys out there?! Is there any possibility to use Yashica lenses on a SD camera with Pentax converter? They’re not screw mount or anything.
All pictures in this article is taken with SD14 using Sigma 30mm lens. ISO400 used most of the time. To see two more photos of cameras and flowers:
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