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.

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.

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.

Slightly older part, posted this morning: Today I wanted to try something real and off went Linns ring. I told her to clean it carefully because of all the dirt seen by the mighty 105mm Sigma lens. But wow, we didn’t expect this much scratches to be there – and thanks to photoshop and my great painting skills I was able to partly save her ring. :)

This time I added the Sigma 530 DG, snooted from the right – and the big softbox as always from the top, slightly tilted so that I can reach with the Sigma SD15. Developed using Sigma Photo Pro 4.1 using vivid color mode.

After:

Before:

Also, here’s another shot, another ring, this time a fake one – just trying different ways to reflect. This time I’m holding a long hard, white paper above the ring, infront of the flash. Creates a light, pretty OK looking thingi. And don’t look too close on this one, at 100% size it looks horrible!! Sooo much dirt. (although I didn’t upload the full size of this one).

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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

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.

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.

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. :)

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. :)

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.

Zooming by running! Above shot shows how you can get some cool colored light even from the DP2.

ON / OFF, With and without light below. Sigma DP2 used. It was pretty tricky to get a good ambient light in order for the background blue sky to show, but after a few exposures I found a good balance. ISO100 used.

And about the same place a few meters to the side, but this time using the Sigma DP1. And it’s also slightly cropped.

Silly tests below. ISO200. Dp2 and DP1.

And finally, one shot of Johannes who was holding the light most of the time. Shot taken using Dp1 and ISO200.

All shots available as full size, click here if you want to have a closer look.

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.

But take a peak at the portrait version – (below) and enjoy that bokeh which I think is amazing! The shot itself isn’t that sharp but it’s hand held and 1/125s on  a long zoom, so I forgive myself.  Lots of talk about bokeh lately, but also light has finally come to Sweden and – that makes me happy! :) – Bengt assisted me with the reflector. (golden from the right)

Sigma SD14, 120-300 @ 2.8  1/125  ISO50 (hand held)

50-500 OS

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)

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

It was hard to catch them sometimes. This one is 1/30s.. :D  Still in focus. hehe

First birdshot. :)

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

1/60s, f5.6, ISO50, 203mm

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

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

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!

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/

Original

Original

Original

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

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!

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?

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.

Full size: Coffee and milk (ISo200) | Moon above house | Big snow (ISO100)

Then, SD14 + 17-70 and 50mm 1.4 (ISO400). Oil paint shots are both ISO50

Full size: Dad, the man. (ISO400) | Mom, the women. (ISO400) | Tools of art F5 (ISO50)

And some more DP2

Above as full size

And finally some SD14 + 50mm 1.4

Farmer as full size

All images can be found as full size at flickr.com/rytterfalk

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.


Above shot taken in high speed inside car – zooming out with speed (ever tried that??) trying to get a stable shot.

This guy was driving on a road and he really had no clue where the road was and ended up in the ditch. We stopped and helped. We’re sooo good. :D (Linn helped too) – and YES I do know that car is in focus and not the guys eyes! :P

Not sure how to make a correct white balance when it’s taken when it’s really dark and really cold. This shot is hand held at ISO400 and 1/10s and is mysteriously sharp. hmmm… :)

(Last one is a 100% crop of the picture before that – Snow gives the shot a almost painted effect that I like). :)

And for everyone with unanswered emails – I’m about to go though everything and you’ll have your answer soon. If you think I’ll forget, please mail again. :)

Now I’m currently waiting for an SPP upgrade and a Mac version of Silkypix. Life’s too slow!!!! Oh and the SD15. ;)

I haven’t worked much with Sigma Photo Pro (SPP) in a long time, mostly because Silkypix has come out and some recent shoots had to be developed quickly and at those times Lightroom comes in handy. But tonight I gave SPP a chance to show it’s true self – These are developments exported as 16bit tiffs and post processed in Photoshop using Nik Viveza. It’s fair as Lightroom has tools very similar to what’s possible in Viveza.

You find Lightroom 3 beta versions here.

View this shot as full size too..

And this one. :)

Original

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.
Quadra time.." width="500" height="333" />

With the Sigma AML-1 you get closer, and not only that you get even shorter area in focus. You can create new worlds. :) I had the Sigma polarizer attached as well. Further down in this article you will see shots with and without reflections plus a comparison with DP1 and DP2. All except one shot is taken with DP2.

original

Below you seetwo shots, the first – a bit bluish – has the polarizer turned so it allows reflections from the sky. In the second shot I turned the polarizer and oala, reflections are gone, shutter speed is longer and colors are thicker. The whole image look different. SPP settings are more or less the same. (see iphone shots of the exact setup image 1, image 2 and image 3)

Just a 4s forest shot. :)

Above with reflections, Below without. Both shots at f4, the next below has f2.8. AML-1 used.

Below: Playing with different aperture. Fun if you have a good tripod.

f3,2  1/2s – original

f6,3  2s – original

f14 10s – original

Below, DP1 version on the exact same position as above shots. AML-1, f4 1,3s exposure.

Above: This shot was taken in a very dark part of the forest. I couldn’t focus so I used my iPhones bright screen  and put it beside the little mushy and focused. I also used the iPhone to lighten this mushroom a little. it’s a 15s exposure.

All originals can be found at my flickr page. Here’s a link to one of the above shots and you can find the rest beside that one.

DP2

I admit! I’m not a big fan of picking mushrooms but I LOVE to shoot them! Earlier today, Mom and Linn decided to go out. It was already quite some time after sunset and I’m not that keen on searching hard for something I can’t really see so I took my DP2 and Gitzo Explorer and went along (that way I could play with ANY findings, eatable of not). Also, I got some comments about Aperture so here’s a SPP developed and Aperture post processed series of mushy images. When I say dark I mean pretty dark. I’ll give you some exif info below each shot.

Another annoyance with late evening shots is what white balance to select. Light differ quite a lot depending on surroundings and I tried sunlight, shade, cloudy, auto – and went back.. It’s hard not to make it look warm and fuzzy even though you know it was pretty cold colors. Well, I settled for Cloudy in SPP. Except for the very first one (above) that one uses the sunlight wb.  Hope you like it!

ISO50, f4, 4s


ISO50, f6,3, 5s

ISO50, f2.8, 1/2s


ISO50, f2.8, 0,6s

ISO50, f2.8, 1/3s


ISO50, f6,3, 1,6s

ISO50, f2.8, 1,3s

With Lightroom I used some tricks like painting in order to make it look even better. The paint is a slight orange tone applied to places with direct sunlight. I made a movie that will be on youtube in a while with my exact workflow.. I didn’t use fill light much, instead I used a gradient mask to make half the picture lighter.

The second software I tried was Raw Developer, but because RD don’t have native support for Sigma DP2 I first had to convert my RAW to Adobe DNG format using Lightroom 2.4
With Raw Developer 1.84 I used fill light, and shadow lifting in order to both have sky and shadows. I also corrected horizon before saving. This particular shot is actually saved twice as JPEG so don’t pay too much attention to pixel peeping. I realized that a watermark on each picture was a nice touch, but too late. :)

Third software used was Sigma Photo Pro 3.3 for Mac.

With Sigma I normally don’t use X3 Fill light so much but here I decided to give it a try. Result isn’t too bad, but perhaps a bit too artificial result. Normally I save as two pictures. One for highlights and one for shadows and then I bering those two shots together using Photoshop. So I did:

So this is the combined result of two Sigma Photo Pro versions. Also in Photoshop I corrected the horizon which I couldn’t do with the SPP only shot (above this one).

Which one do you prefer?

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. :)

Wanted to share how to use a Cokin filter with this little movie. I’m currently making my DP2 video review and I’m more or less testing my gear to make it possible. We’re experimenting with a new microphone from Röre.. And I think my voice is pretty clear.

Here’s photos used in above review. They’re pretty quick and dirty so I don’t want you to see them at 100%. That thing we stood on was moving some etc.. :D Btw, when I developed them they looked fine but right now I think they’re bit dark and too saturated. Oh well. :) (I place them under a “more” thing so you don’t find them easily.. haha)

Last week before my Quadra lost it’s way I took this picture (Getting it fixed tomorrow). I played with SD14 and the DP2 and with the Quadra I could really make this really sunny day sing by staying in the shadows. But without it (as it stopped working) I really lost inspiration. I didn’t bring any reflectors and well.. The Quadra has within a week started to become important! A bit too important I think. Oh Well.. :)

Also, this shot I developed using Raw Developer, I did try with SPP and ACR but RD did bring that detail to the fullest.

The full image can be found here: Original

…Right now. Or was, now it’s time for bed. These images are screen dumps taken from within Sigma Photo Pro, will deal with them later in Photoshop I think. Or play some using ACR too just in case. ;) I already tried some of these in RD with good result. Especially for BW’s. Oh well. These are all SD14 images, with the cokin on (as you see on some) and the lens is my wide 10-20mm. It’s really a sharp nice lens. I do want a 12mm f1.2 that is sharp from corner to corner and very perfect in all ways including beautiful bokeh.. oo aaaa I want that!

btw, I used ISO50 with both SD14 and DP2 – only – not my smartest move to date. Highlight did clip a little to often. Sun was really in and out a bit to often. Oh well. I got myself lots of keepers too, more than enough so I’m happy. Elinchrom ranger quadra used on all these shots.

Quadra rocks!" width="500" height="333" />

Get the latest Safari web browser for PC/Mac here.

DP2

ISO400 shot – original sized jpeg

Raw Developer has always giving me a very natural look (as with these) to things and I have no idea of how much processing is done by Adobe – perhaps Brian Griffith at Iridient Digital can give an answer to that one. Anyways, I like the result. :) But I want “real” support with RD doing ALL the computing like with my beloved SD14 raw’s.

Original sized jpeg

Original sized jpeg

Original sized jpeg (a bit bluish?)

Original sized jpeg

DP2

Workflow for these has been Sigma Photo Pro develop RAW file with slight adjustments – no sharpening added, color mode is either standard or landscape. Saved as Adobe RGB and later converted to sRGB before saving in Photoshop. No further adjustments made in Photoshop except text and curves on the black and white shot. And I must add that when saving to JPEG a pretty big part of the glory is gone. Even if I shoose 100% jpeg quality it’s never the same – colors and contrast is just not “there” the same way.

Full 100% size available here.

ISO50 – 800. + bonus movie. 99MB – Download now!

No people inside more than inside the movie. Will make another pack with some skin. You’re free to play around with these for noncommercial purposes only.  If anything else, please contact me. Also note that these are taken with a pre-production camera but using the “final” firmware.

You also need: DP2/photopro.html">Sigma Photo Pro 3.5 (Win) or Sigma Photo Pro 3.3 (Mac)

Other RAW packs availible for download (SD14, Dp1)

DP2 at ISO50" width="500" height="333" />
Original

ISO50 can do wonders! If you can live with a blown sky and concentrate on the subject then ISO50 will make you a very happy shooter. These shots are all done hand held yesterday afternoon using ISO50. (except last one)

Original

Original

Original

Original

I must say it was difficult to find correct WB, I’m not sure I did always – some seams a bit warm etc but well, hope you like them anyways. The original version is like WOOOAAA I’m sooo impressed with the smoothness of ISO50 – it really adds another dimension.

To make sure I got the exposure right (which can be tricky in nature) I took three different exposures for each picture. (Auto bracketing +1). It’s fast and easy to do and gives you the choice of selecting later (I’m NOT making an HDR, that’s very tricky do with hand held shots such as these. I’m simply giving myself more options). Today when memory cards are cheap it’s a good idea to use.  Also note that these shots hasn’t been altered in photoshop, some could perhaps use a little bit off added sharpness but I think el naturale is nice too.

Here’s a ISO200 shot too with the often not used mode, Vivid color mode.

Original

Click on picture for “large” flickr size.
Click “original” for full resolution version.

DP2 examples!" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3585/3456505067_6d34b9d5fe_b.jpg">
Original. Not sure how Sigma makes this possible but this insane 24,5mm F2.8 lens wants to be used wide open. And working in monochrome white balance in Sigma Photo pro is just a joy! Look at these tones! (and yes, that’s my grand mother!)

Original. Another shot wide open. Not sure you understand how useful and cool this is. Look at rendition of the fabric and her skin. And how sweet isn’t the bokeh? and and and..

Original. Strong spring sunlight ISO100, wide open. :)

Original. The blue “sky” is water – and this is a good example of the new color modes within the DP2. To get the very best color dynamics Sigma created different color modes that really brings life into every shot. Of course these color modes can be changed later in Sigma Photo Pro if RAW is used.  This particular picture is slightly overexposed but I think it managed this bright sunlight well. Oh, and slight hand shake included! :)

Original. Please take a closer look. admit it’s a really insane lens!

Original. 15 second exposure. Trying those color modes. I do have a “real” looking shot with correct white balance and another color mode but I liked the look of this one. It came out way dark and that’s why 100-200 ISO (was shot at ISo50) – Also my only picture with tripod used.

Original. Bokeh / close up test. And this is F5.6 and ISO50 which does burn highlights if not careful. Amazing detail even at lens corners. Here’s a recent post with more DP2 ISO50 shots and comments.

Original. The Dp2 now has a ISO1600 and 3200 mode – which I think should be considered monochrome modes as they don’t really look good in color. But as soon monochrome white balance is selected in Sigma Photo Pro they really come to life!

Original. Just processed. ISO200 and F2.8. And NO, no saturation added, only the magic Landscape mode. ;)

Ok, main pointers.

• Faster operation! Now very useful in studio as shot to shot is much improved! Also for 360 panoramic photography. Wait is now over. :)
• Color Modes! For color maniacs such as myself I really like this. Will get back to this in more detail later.
• Lens. 24,5 (41mm) at F2.8. One word! Wow! There is a slight distortion but none has been taken care off in the above shots – it’s really no issue.Just look at that Bokeh and how well it handles tough light etc. jaij!
• TIME LAPS function! From 30s to 24h (and options in between) – Will make something fun using this. :D
• Sigma Photo Pro 3.3 is now speedier on Mac. :)
• ADDED! ISO1600 and ISO3200! Not perfect for color but very very nice for the unique monochrome setting available in Sigma Photo Pro.
• ISO50 looks fantastic!

And negatives? Well, I’ll get to those later as well. First I need to get my hands on a “real” production unit so I don’t give you rubbish. UPDATE! But a little something is now made with both good and bad. Link to High ISO.

Once more I used one light, you even see it bright and clear including ME in their eyes. Aperture differs quite a lot in these shots from f3.2 to f8. I did notice that the 28mm sharpens up quite a lot with aperture. Sweet spot around F8 as normal, but this one really becomes VERY sharp at f8. Most of these shots are done with the 28mm. It’s my favorite studio lens. (I wish I had the 20mm and the 24mm as well).

His music happens to be very good, listen at www.broshan.com (or at their myspace page)

Did I tell you I LOVE my DP1? :D (I don’t love everything about it, but I do forgive when playing with the RAW). These images are all taken with one light. One big softbox with a not well known branded flash so it’s probably a setup that everyone could afford. These images are all available as full size for pixel-peepers out there They are as sharp as they look all the way down to 100% and will look terribly good printed. Better so of printed big! Please do try! :)  (go to my flickr account for more images from the same series).

Workflow is terribly simple. Sigma Photo Pro, save as TIFF 16, post process using Aperture or Lightroom. I did use Lightroom 2 only for the BW below.

Here you can see how big the softbox is, and what the setup looks like. I never moved the light (or at least very little).

It’s my pure pleasure to present to you my friend Magnus. He came to one of my photo lessons and for this lesson we rented a smaller studio and he was maybe the best target I could ask for. I used the DP1 most of the time even though I did have the SD14 with me. I’m pretty sure the DP2 will become a very good friend to both me and my DP1 ones it’s out. For your info I used one big softbox and a white backdrop. I tried to have the light straight behind me so I kneeled under it to take these shots. (it also made sense to go down, this guy is 14 years old and not very big). Wanna see this image at full resolution? 

DP1 RAW PACK MAGNUS | four images, 46MB
Use Sigma Photo Pro or Adobe Lightroom to develop these images.

This one is the same as I published before with the only difference that I developed the same shot three times and created a false hdr shot. I did play some in photoshop with shadows and such too. No colors this time.

Getting boring looking at all this water? Well, it’s just beside where I spend most of my days so please bare with me. :) A dark day and small aperture can turn boring into fun. Maybe some you you could try some and show me? :D If it’s on flickr then I could put them into this article. Could be fun.