The Nikon has been shot at F10, the Sigma at F8. Nikon with ISO200 and Sigma at ISO100. (ISO200 is standard on the D90). Also, notice that the Sigma is slightly closer. Nikon is set at 66mm and Sigma at 50mm. So the Sigma’s at maximum zoom level (which normally is a disadvantage).

Sigma SD14 vs Nikon D90" src="http://www.rytterfalk.com/wp-content/300dvssd14_3-480x293.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="293" />

Sigma on the left, Nikon on the right.

You can’t click the above shot to zoom in, but the other two shots below.  Notice that the Sigma has no extra sharpening applied. Just standard from SPP3. Nikon is sharpened normally in Lightroom 3.

Sigma with 4.6MP | Nikon at 12,3MP (here at 100% crop - click for full)

At 200% crop | Sigma processed using Sigma Photo Pro, Nikon using LR3 (click for full)

Conclusion?  Those 4.6MP’s are truly insane!

This video is made for Linn to show on her last day at work for colleges. But I think it might be fun for you to see it as it shows how I work a bit. :)

And here’s a picture of Linn, in case you don’t know what she looks like. She’s the shorter of them two.

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!

We also had lots of fun in a small studio, a bit too small for groups like above. :) Shot using the Quadra as main light from right and above. Worked out pretty good.

Below, just some extras…

This last one was shot using the DP2 and light was two 1200(w?) tungsten lights. Pretty cool but didn’t allow for magic shutter speeds – but very easy to work with, did realize how fun it was to model with it. So easy. :)

Back at Schillerska, this time taking pictures of Linn’s Chinese classes. Will go back tomorrow to take some more. Here’s a few. These has been taken with long shutter speed (2-3s) and El Quadra.. There is still lots of strong yellow light and I’ll try to shield them some tomorrow using something big protective thingi. mm.. need more assistants. :) Developed using SPP and post-developed using Lightroom.  Doing develops this late isn’t always a recommended thing.  Hope I like it in the morning too.

One problem is the huge color temperature difference between room light and flash. Perhaps I need to get some gels.

Original processed full size
Download Original RAW (Both images)

Sigma SD14

Today I had my last photo class for this term,  I brought my SD14 and the trusty 18-50 2.8. It’s a bit short to be a perfect studio lens, I often find myself a tad too close. :) I think the 24-70 might be better suited but what the 18-50 really has is a GREAT crispiness, very sharp and nice to handle. Most of the time spot on.

Also, the Japanese version of Silkypix for Mac is released (Thanks Gen!) and it’s a joy to be able to work without starting VMWare. :D – the old .dat trick works great if your Japanese is as bad as mine. Also, I now have another 30 days of fun. ;)

It’s now much faster, and most everything is better but the real-time preview when hovering on different WB’s etc is now history. Perhaps a windows only thing. Too bad.

These photos now has been developed in Silkypix and then saved as TIFF and post-processed using Lightroom 3b (that’s where I upload to flickr) – I also painted the background on each shot with a slight color of blue, different tint every time I think. hehe.. Oh well.. Only for fun.

View BIG version..

2 världar and Broshan (names of above guys) is about to release a new album called Hollywood and asked me if I could take their cover shot. Bob and Olga was staying at my place at the time so we decided to have some fun together. With me and Bob dealing with the camera, Olga took the job of running around with the light, light in this case is my beloved Elinchrom Quadra. It was difficult to find a good spot that was dark enough because we were limited by time – (we had about 30min). Actually we took what was closest at hand, beside the very parking lot that we were at. :) But it worked out great! Olga did a great job of light painting. (above shot is taken with a Nikon D700)

I also went to Brålanda taking this shot of one of my students there – this time using a small LED lamp that someone lent me. and then ending the whole thing with a flash from the Quadra. Above shot is developed using the latest version of Silkypix pro for Foveon. And that shot is a 30s exposure taken with the SD14. Heavily cropped too..

I’m sorry for not being very clear when speaking. I hardly hear myself sometimes. grr.

Silkypix Original

EDIT: Now LINKS ARE FIXED FOR REAL! Man that was tricky. :D Now you can switch between shots easily.
Raw file for download here!

It’s quite a big difference if you click between. Especially at skin tones / skin contrast and the blue thingi. In Silkypix you have so many options – and it’s easy to loose yourself in all possibilities. The blue has been desaturated using the special color wheel and lightened and all green tones has been moved towards a greyish saturation as well as little magenta.  Also noise reduction has been reduced quite a lot as blue has a tendency to bleed. Why I have no idea, something with the noise reduction in Silkypix. Raw Developer has a better solution I think.

To be fair, SPP (Sigma Photo Pro) is made with more or less one click. Nothing really changed. I use florescent WB with a warmer touch using color wheel. Other than that it’s “out of the box”.

Picture taken with Sigma 18-50ex macro.

Above shot is taken in a studio yesterday (the place I worked with jpegs only – this shot I took as RAW though).  The shot came out underexposed and has been adjusted solely inside Silkypix (except for the white border). Even the copyright text is inserted inside Silkypix. (Really good control over watermarks btw).

So what do I think about Silkypix? I have found both greatness and the other way in the way Silkypix does its processing. The good thing about silkypix is that you can go back to the start, take away all noise reduction, all sharpening, all whatever they applied when you first open the shot – and slowly adjust to you liking. You have very nice control over colors and contrast – better than Lightroom (at least better for SD / DP shots) and also parts of it is better than SPP.

I’m now putting together a video showing the good and the bad. With some comparisons with SPP and RD. Perhaps LR and Darkroom too? If my RAM is big enough. hehe. Poor iMac.

FlyingRooster has posted his findings as a comment in this thread. Including comparison images. Well worth reading.

Here’s the RAW from the video if you wanna play some yourself. All Raw developers links can be found on the right side. –>

Playing some with RD’s monochome settings. It gives something cool. Pretty dirty if you press the original, both is higher ISO too – a little bit above iso200 (so no extreme amounts) mostly because they came out underexposed.

See resized 200% from above crop.

See resized 200% from above crop.

Nothing much, just a few shots from todays lesson with my yongsters. We used the Elinchrom Quadra plus a raster (no make light spread as little as possible) plus a big softbox in background (behind photographer) to control ambien light. I just finished developing using Raw Developer and made final changes in Aperture with 16bit tiffs. In RD I took away all noise reduction and all (almost) sharpening to get as neutral result as possible.  See my latest youtube video for more info.

These last two black and white shots are actually developed as color and later processed using Silver Efex Pro in Aperture (plugin).

So the time has come for the final post in this series of my forced jpeg experience. I do feel silly about the whole thing really – User of Foveon equipped Sigmas since 2002 and still haven’t learned anything about modern modes such as the JPEG mode. :) Remember though that the very first Sigma was the SD9 and it didn’t even produce any JPG’s, only RAW. Perhaps that says something about my old fashioned work flow?

Back to the session. I selected a small number of shots using the following settings, actually I never changed once settled.

SD14, studio JPEG only workflow in camera settings: Contrast: +0.8, Sharpness +0.4, Saturation +0.1, Color space: sRGB. And Fluorescent white balance.

I might add that if you wanna be cool and take nice shots of someone in a Studio and show the person what he / she looks like on the LCD then this work flow works nicely – even if you shoot RAW – BUT be prepared to change back to some other WB, like flash or daylight. Perhaps with one of the shots using a grey card visual in a shot and color pick wb for the rest of the shots. Perhaps Bob has something to say about this? I know you use Fluorescent WB a lot!

Now, first I think you wanna see something from the day:

Some collected shots from day 2.

50% magnification.

100% magnification.

200% magnification. Do you see me?

It’s no RAW but it’s really nice to see how well the JPEG engine is working. I can’t let you have these are full sized downloads mostly because they’re not aware of their sudden fame but these crops still shows what I’m talking about. I’m sure they will resize and print nicely large.

The second day I had some time before the first customer arrived and I had a slight different light setup. I wouldn’t cry if I had these as RAW, would sure be nice too see how good I could make them look. Still, for a normal person, these looks nice enough.

Some others jpgs, straight out with no adjustments made.

All in all I now know that my SD14 can do jpegs and they will be perfectly usable if there is a studio occasion where speed as a must. And yes, light areas will clip much sooner then with a RAW, so you need to lighten your subject more carefully. Or agree that blown out areas can be cool if in the right spot. :) I’m totally not used to that but will live.

Oh and the 18-50 2.8 ex did a magnificent job. It’s no prime but delivered nice, crisp contrasty shots. Also, I never really had any problems with batteries, I brought way to many with me. Good as backup but not really needed. I used six batteries in 8h of shooting using battery pack. Perhaps the smaller file size gave some extra juice?

Please feel free to comment and share your own images and experience. Or just ask a question or two.

With shaky legs and really only one thing really working reliably, my new lens 18-50 2.8 Macro. I went to the studio again.

Now, this second time I got help from another photographer. Again. Felt like bambi on thin ice and I was happy not to be alone in case I fell. There was actually more things than just JPEG’s that worried me. Battery was one and I brought eight fully charged batteries and the grip, to be on the safe side. Also, this time I was supposed to actually work with customers and bring in some great shots that would sell. But, with the other photographer as main, or backup. Not sure what the deal was, it overall felt safe.

Here comes the very first shots, with custom WB and one using fluorescent wb. Using the custom white balance just didn’t work. Probably because of colored light in background or something, not sure. But it all looked yellow except perhaps the last, which had a magenta tint instead.

Very first test shots with Carl (yes, we do have the same name). He suggested that I would do as he on his Canon, use Fluorescent WB - but I said that this is a Sigma, very different and needs to set custom WB using grey card. (and yes, he used some colored filter for the background light)

After just a few shots I felt like – what am I doing here?!!! Desperately I started to test my options. Settings for saturation, contrast, sharpness and of course WB settings.

Incandescent WB Hmm.. perhaps this bluish tone would work if I added lots of yellow?! Strange but a bit "cool" looking. Nha, this is a RAW camera - this is childish!

At least Carl got some really Swedish eyes!! :D At this point I already had given up and I continued just for fun. Carl was a fun guy and we had a great time together. And we talked about what other cameras I could use – a cheap Canon D450 would probably be inexpensive and do the trick.

But shame to those who give up! I by mistake (probably) switch over to fluorescent wb.

Fluorescent WB

I suddenly realized, especially with those last three pictures that although they had a slight magenta tone on his lips they overall looked really good. From this moment it was all about setting up contrast and saturation correctly and I felt for the first time that there was hope!

100% crop from in-camera jpeg using studio strobes and Fluorescent WB. (from one of the above shots). Also wordpress adds it's mark by re-compressing the original jpg.

Get ready for part three. Would this work in reality? With REAL people?

Continue reading part 3!

Assisting me this evening was Bengt Werner.

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btw, there is no equal amount between cameras. All full size at flickr.