Archive for the 'ISO50' Category

Jewelry photography, day five.

Diamond ring..
Now I moved so much away from my initial setup that I feel that I will show you a picture or two of what my current setup actually looks like. Woohoo! I will post some in the comments section.  The above shot is slightly cleaned up – the gold surface was slightly scratched and some dents so I repainted the middle reflection and the bottom left - but other than that it’s the original photo – I’m now very satisfied with how reflections works – and if I change ring reflections still look beautiful. I must say that the pure IQ that the Sigma SD15 gives is extremely high. I’ve been looking at other photographers works with jewelry and once you go closer it just doesn’t look good. This shot is available in full size as well. A bit too full really. :)

This time I didn’t use anything else than LR3 and PS5. The only thing left now is to continue with OOF – and see where I should stop before text is readable. This shot is ISO50, 105mm, f11, 1/160s.

Playing with OOF

Lightroom conversion test

I noticed that it’s more or less impossible to get correct focus at more then one ring at a time (at f7.1) – so I took three shots and combined them in PS.. :)  It’s really late too, I should go to bed. hmm.. This is a Lightroom 3 conversion of SD15 file, not bad – but not as good as from SPP.

I’m pretty much set now with my setup – this last shot had no changes, no painting except taking away a little dust – although getting the background WHITE is time consuming when there is so much blur to deal with. The foremost black corners will also be a little bit less black – one white foam infront of camera is missing.

Jewelry photography, day four. (Updated)

Final capture for day four: We had a long talk today, me and the jewelry guy. He wanted the text within each ring to be unreadable so we decided that taking each text away using PS would take way to long, but using a wider aperture could work instead. I had to move the light quite a bit (I used lowest power at f20 on those last shots) and now I had to use  a semitransparent white circular reflector in-between the softbox and the “set” . I finally got a working F8. I could go all the way down to f5.6 but then it was hard to see anything exept one or two diamonds in focus.

I also wrapped the whole sets bottom in golden reflective material – and it seams to work pretty nicely. There is a 3000px version of the below image.

Four diamond rings

Continue reading ‘Jewelry photography, day four. (Updated)’

Jewelry photography day 2.

ringtest1

Alright, it’s not really day two, but at least it’s first shot! I dealed a little with it in Photoshop and will play more with reflections to get the right feel (but not in Photoshop, but on the set). What do you think? It’s ISO50. I think I will get more black in the corners of the ring, like a black frame somehow. Also it’s a little too tilted. :) But that’s not the important part right now.

Right now, I only play with fake rings – will get the real stuff when it’s time for the real deal. About 200 of them.

Light from above, two paper reflectors on the side. Elinchrom Quadra. Sigma SD15, Sigma 70mm.

A day at Marstrand. Strobist.

SDIM7428.jpg
The knife maker. Shot on Marstrand using SD14 + Sigma 50mm 1.4 and using sun as main light and Sigma 530 DG and back shape light.  ISO50. Now, ISO50 is such a compressed format that you really need to expose with great care. His shoulder is totally white and if it was shot at ISo100 it would still be information there. There is, if I convert to Monochrome but because it’s only info from one or two channels (Showing strange colors if still shown) Sigma has decided to erase everything in those areas.. I had lots of overexposed ISO50 shots yesterday and I regret shooting at ISO50. Stupid me.

SDIM7456.jpg
If you look closer you’ll see a light shadow in his glasses, that’s where the round shape of a tiny beauty dish were before I erased it using LR3. Strong sun from the back and the Sigma 530 DG from slight above using a beauty dish making the sharp light disappear. SD14 + 50mm 1.4 + ISO50 (or more ISO25). Too much light entered the 50mm so I had to emphasizes those shadows and the hat quite a lot.

SDIM7493.jpg
The oldish couple. Shot using 10-20 with sun as main and 530 DG as side light. Slight green color on the left shows where 530 is placed. SD14 and ISO50.  This came out slightly dark, best viewed at full size.

SDIM7518.jpg
The above shot was slightly overexposed ISO50 shot, skin was overexposed in the color version – this version is equal to ISO25.  These two guys are well known over at www.99.se Goflorp (handle) and Rei Trulsson.. Nice to talk a bit with to of my readers in real life. :)

SDIM7523.jpg
Childhood friends passing by, had to take their picture. The 530 from the far right. I should have used one more flash on their legs, that would probably make this shot a lot better. And yes, the 530 was a little too powerful this time. SD14 10-20mm ISO50

And finally, three shots of Linn. I’m so happy to have her around so I can play!! :D

SDIM7418.jpg SDIM7563.jpg SDIM7571.jpg

These last two could have been more worked on in SPP or LR but.. I didn’t. In the last shot the flash was slightly to close to her and skin is a little overexposed. Could work better as monochrome. All three  shot using SD14 and 10-20mm. ISO50 on all.

All above images available as full size on flickr. Handle with care.

Playing with two YN460-II

SDIM7323.jpg

Today I had a wedding photo session – used Sigma 10-20 and Sigma 70mm together with my beloved SD14. Linn assisted (I LOOOOVE when she assists!) and on he way home we had a car full of gear, far away from home. What to do? Of course, we stopped and took some shots of each other. Sky was rapidly changing which made everything so much more interesting. :) And just for fun I used my new Chinese equipment. Two speed lights, stand and some transmitting equipment. Shot of me was way overexposed (ISO50) but in monochrome WB there was lots of information in blown areas so I turned it BW. Shot of me is also cropped some.

Btw, the cheap chinese equipment that brought works perfectly well together with the Sigma, (including DP’s) which is really nice! I had my Elinchrom Quadra in the car but – the Yongnuo YN460-II worked great, especially when two put together.

SDIM7362-Edit.jpg SDIM7335.jpg

Everything developed using SPP 4.1 and post edited using LR3 (darkening sky some etc). Full size available at my Fall 2010 set at Flickr.

You might ask why I don’t use my Sigma 530 DG Super instead of some cheap chinese ones – well, as you see the light is on a pretty light stand and it’s windy, I don’t dare having my beloved and TTL working 530 on that one without someone being able to save it of it falls. The two in the background DID fall – and one broke but was easy to fix. :)

Lucky little Bee

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. :)

Trying to hideCrop of hidden manCorn and stuffCrop of cornModern Dali

StrangerCrop of strangerIn DaliLinn awaiting drinkCrop of Linn awaiting drinkAt dentistTesting wedding make-upfarmwilleDesaturatedLinn at market BananamanCrop of BananamanPosition Fishing pigscrop of pigat hospital 2at hospitalStreetMy chinese dad

Let there be light!

Decided that I wanted some practice using my Sigma 530DG Super and my Elinchrom Quadra. Today was a bright sunny day and I was hiding together with my students in the shadows trying to get optimum conditions for photography. I used both Sigma DP1 and DP2 and as soon as you see strong colors around the flash, that’s the DP1 used and It’s me forcing it by placing the light inside the frame (I enjoy those colors tremendously) . All shots processed using Sigma SPP4 and Lightroom 3 Beta 2. (from TIFF)

Before After

These above where the very first shots, I noticed that I had to turn on something in order to make it work. :) And as you might notice it has a very strong “flashy” feeling and by increasing shutter speed and lower the quadras power I got a more natural looking light. See below. Also notice that there is no “color” problems as long as light is outside frame.

Continue reading ‘Let there be light!’

H&M Spring collection..

Another 50-500 OS shot.. :) Golden reflector reflected too much yellow – skin tone was gone so I made it black and white. Still nice I think. :)

More of Linn

Sigma 120-300 shot Linn @ 2.8!!

Liu Dong yun
Sigma SD14, 120-300 @ 2.8  1/500  ISO50 (hand held)

The 120-300 is a classy lens, here I’m trying hard (especially the second shot) to shoot it against the 50-500 and I might add it was a bit tricky as the wind was blowing and I could feel how much movement I was making. Now, these shots are both ISO50 and both wide open at 2,8! Quite a bit faster than the 50-500 can do. Also, colors came out quite different compared to the 50-500 shot. Now, I used two different SD14s and they have a little bit different coloristic, and I’m not sure how much is down to the lens, camera or work in SPP.

Continue reading ‘Sigma 120-300 shot Linn @ 2.8!!’

Sigma 50-500 OS – First look!

Sigma <a onclick=50-500 OS - First shots!" width="500" height="333" />
1/160s, f6,3, ISO200, 413mm

Today a nice little packade arrived with something latest and greatest. The Sigma 50-500 with optical stabilizer! YES! I really never had any long zoom to talk about – nothing longer than 300mm and that really wasn’t enough when I did those cranes a week ago or when doing any animals on a distans. So, here’s a first preview.. (ask questions if you have any).

The first thing that strikes me is how clear the view is. Lots of Sigma lenses has a warm touch which for most users is fine, and sometimes even wanted (Sigma users tend to dislike that as we have enough of green/yellow as it is). And I think the clearness of the view is due to that new glass that they developed together with Hama or something. Was it?  (it’s too late now and I should be in bed, just wanna finish this alright?!)

So and but, All of the images below has been developed using SPP4. Two images has been “cleaned” using Dfine (a first timer) although only on background and very little. Almost all images has been sharpened some in photoshop – very slight. Only to get a little extra for flickr view here. Someone complained!!! (can you imagine!)

All images are not perfectly sharp – sometimes me, sometimes OS – but it worked pretty much as expected all the time. It was a terrible feeling to turn OS off – sooo hard suddenly!  All images has been taken handheld. All images except one has been taken wide open.

So, some images from today. (yes I know, a bit many of the same type of bird.. shhhh)

Sigma <a onclick=50-500 OS - First shots!" width="500" height="333" />
1/250, f6,3, ISO100, 500mm (not top notch sharp but beautiful anyways)

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
It was hard to catch them sometimes. This one is 1/30s.. :D  Still in focus. hehe

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!

First birdshot. :)

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
Reminds me of the beautiful colorations made by the Dp1 – although I just saw this once, I think it’s beautiful. And it was there for only a millisecond or so. (didn’t count) f5, 1/30s, iso100

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
1/60s, f5.6, ISO50, 203mm

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
And the wife I assume. Behind fence and all. buhu. But look at that bokeh! It’s to DIE for!
1/60s, f6.3, ISO50, 332mm

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
The two above has same exposure and I think she walked a bit.. hmm.. sharp feet! :D Also, she has been both cropped and straightened some. So din’t be too picky on her.
f6,3, 1/400, ISO100, 500mm

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
1/400s, f6,3, ISO100, 450mm

And the last one is of my friend Conny, it was too sunny really and this is not really a shot to show but, hey – it shows some of the magic this lens is capabel of!

Sigma 50-500 OS - First shots!
1/80s, f6,3, ISO100, 56mm I was surprised to see how close I could get! This lens will actually be useful in weddings too I think.. hmm.. maybe. I might scare them.

Link to all full size.

Other posts on the 50-500 OS
http://www.rytterfalk.com/category/lens/50-500os/

Sigma 120-300 @ ISO50

Amazing lens, so clear and crisp results. These are all ISO50 and of course still using the SD14.. Sigma Photo pro 4 might not be the very best at everything but with lower ISO, it’s king!  Also notice the danger of using ISO50 on birch trees with their light white parts. I should have been more careful but I thought I could save some but no no. Still cool I think. :)

bjorkar2
Original

gran
Original

kungalvsfastning
Original

And us, the people. :) I’m hiding behind the 17-70 OS.

us

Grandmother and Raw Developer..

Grandmother, 1/8s 17-70 OS for www.rytterfalk.com

SD14 and 17-70 OS at play – this time at ISO50 and a pretty slow shutter. I was more or less laying on another sofa to get the right angle but still 1/8s of a second and it’s pretty sharp. :) (I was aiming for her hand). Also, in order not to trick you too much I included the original below, only to show you how much I altered the image from RAW. I added much brightness (totally ok when dealing with ISO50 images) and I also took the freedom to add some yellow sunny tones to the right side. hehe. :D

I used Raw Developer as it gives that extra crispiness that we all love. :)  Full image found here!

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

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!!

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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.

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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.

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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.

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
At first I thought SPP4 did a bad job, there seams to be less information in the highlight.

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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! :)

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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 vs SPP4
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)

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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!

SPP 3.3 vs SPP 4
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?

Sigma 17-70 2.8-4 OS – preview

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



Full size version



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.