For those that follow my blog also knows that I sometimes use my little sisters music – and her song Autumn depression was a theme song on one of my videos (can’t reach youtube from China so I can’t find it nor link to it) but I just noticed when playing it to my parents in law that Kerstin updated the song and it’s now super great! :D

Original

To the song I give you my first Pixelmator edited photo, it’s tough to work in a new software and it was frustrating but I think result is OK. It doesn’t have any advanced sharpening – and RawTherapee that I relied on so much lately doesn’t work in OS X Lion – So I’m stuck with what I got. Not much. :)

Hopefully Pixelmator 2.0 will have everything that I lack right now, but then it’s too late as I’ll be back home to my safe PS. :D

If anyone has any other suggestions for great sharpening softwares outside PS and on a Mac – and free or not very expensive then feel free to shout!

Before I go to bed..

Don’t forget to visit Bob and Olga’s SD1 page over at Vstudio! They have some awesome shots to show! http://www.vstudio-fotografie.de/studio-portraits/. They even have RAW packs for download! :P

That’s it for today. Good night.

As you know I’m on a laptop and I developed these in different light etc so just enjoy, don’t pick too much on the development. I used iPhoto as my post production software and iPhoto saves JPEGS either as super compressed or not compressed – the not compressed option creates JPEG’s of 15MB-21MB each so it’s really a no no.. So, jpeg artifacts can be seen quite easily. So beware! :)

Some shots from Kunming:

Original

Linn’s grandmother recently past away. Some shots from her grave and home.

My Chinese family, with mom and dad (in China, the custom says that when married, they become my parents as well.. So saying mom and dad to them feels awkward but nice. :)

70-200 in action! I’m not often keen on using it as it’s a bit heavy. But it’s really a nice lens! It’s the old version btw, without Macro.

Have to go, all at full size over at flickr. Please go there for more images and more info. I’m off now to the old parts of Dali.

Sigma today announced the following (or some of it).. And as far as I can see they’re really pushing that optical stabiliser into more or less all lenses in the line up! And not only that, if you translate that Japanese stuff you find that the 105mm also has “Adopted a highly weather resistant construction, also supported the harsh conditions of professional photography” – of course, it’s supposed to be used together with the soon to be released Sigma SD1 and MAAAN is this going to be fun!

SIGMA 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 II DG HSM

SLD glass + Full frame + HSM + dust and moisture resistant..
(According to the google translation that is)

SIGMA MACRO 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM

Optical Stabiliser + SLD + HSM + full frame + weather sealed

SIGMA APO 50-150mm F2.8 EX DC OS HSM

Optical Stabiliser + SLD + HSM

SIGMA APO 120-300mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM

Optical Stabiliser + HSM + full frame + weather sealed + FLD glass!! This is a biggie because it’s really top of the line type of glass!
(Also said to be Sigmas best lens ever made!)

SIGMA DP2x

According to Sigma it has something called AnalogFrontEnd or AFE. Analog signal data gets better, thus the tonal rendering gets better.

The history of Sigma and Foveon has in the past been somewhat clouded and the vision has in the past not been the most exiting – I remember when the SD10 came a year after the SD9 with the new sensor that had been updated with micro lenses (like all other players on the market at that time) but with a pixel count that stayed the same. Somewhat disappointed I didn’t upgrade directly as I didn’t really feel that the update was necessary and my budget didn’t allow it either to be honest. I had put a slight fortune on the SD9 just a year prior (I payed about $2900 for SD9 body only back in 2002 + Sigma 105mm, Sigma 15-30 and Sigma 50mm 2.8 which together was pretty expensive stuff). and it took me another year or so before I upgraded to SD10.

Now, around this time I exchanged email with people inside Foveon and even if they never really told me any “real” secrets I sort of read between the lines that their focus was divided – they wanted more market share (understandably) and when the SD14 sensor was released back in 2006 it felt like Sigma as their only real customer (yes there was some others but not for consumers) was placed really far down the ladder. Foveon was at this time focusing all their energy into the mobile market – making mobile sensors – Small, tiny sensors with really tiny pixels and though I cried inside about this and hoped that it would all play out well..

In the wake of the economic crisis Foveon had major problems with the economics and was close to bankruptcy, no mobile phones had used their tiny ones and all my own hopes and dreams about future cameras was about to go down the drain. I knew that CEO of Sigma, Michihiro Yamaki once said that he wanted to create the best cameras on the planet – but would that be possible with some bayern solution? In November the 11th of 2008 Sigma acquired 100% of the stock in the Foveon company and for the first time since the SD9 (I think) Foveon was about to concentrate 100% on camera sensors for one player only.

That was three years ago. It’s now 2011 – and in a few month we will (I still hope for Feb) see the new Sigma SD1 which is really the result of years and years of dedicated hard work – The new generation of sensors that will come out from the Foveon labs and starting with the SD1, are for sure the most interesting things sensors since the original SD9 and for the first time I really feel that this will change how people look at Sigma and three layered photography in general. Now I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t have a slight more insight than just looking at some prints and I will give you a little bit more.. :)

Back at Photokina 2010 I was talking to some of the brains behind the sensor development at Foveon and seeing their excitement about the future was really awesome! I had many questions to them as I felt the level of shadow noise was bigger with the SD14 sensor than with the SD10 – and with that bigger pixel count in mind now going forward from 4.6 to a whopping 15.5MP’s I wasn’t sure what to make of it. They drew some graphs (or at first actually one guy tried to explain in terms of mathematical equations but I had to stop him as it didn’t really make too much sense to me even if I love math) and they explained how big a wavelength of light was and how they now learnt more about how to capture it and also – how to make that digital noise which seams to be the biggest bad guy in terms of IQ, become less intrusive.

They spoke in terms of a hundred times better this and stuff like that and even if I didn’t really get what was a hundred times – I understood that they had come up with ways to make a better picture, even with three times the pixel count! And looking at those prints that I filmed and looking at those shadows – that looked sooo clean (especially that girls portrait, at the eye) and thinking about whatever a hundred times and I feel excitement just flowing thru my veins!

The year of 2011 will be a year to remember starting this very spring!

PS. My little brother Josef called me today and said that I just HAD to go out and take a few pictures - and so I did. I needed some groseries and stopped on my way and ran out in the winterland and took a few before people was honking about my car being badly parked. :)

All above was shot using the Sigma 8-16mm and SD15. All uploaded at full size and PLEASE have a look at those full sized versions as this lens is truly something extra!  Start HERE!

Laurence Matson and myself are both old timers – perhaps the oldest of the Sigma community as we both got our first Sigma SD9′s back in 2002. Now Laurence has for many years been the grand father (no, he’s not thaaat old but still.. ) of the Sigma user group and he often has good information to share about stuff regarding Sigma and Foveon. He also spend lots of his time trying to straighten out strange remarks and questions at the Dpreview Sigma forum even though he answers a lot like Steve Jobs, short. He has this remarkable sense of humor that some get, some don’t – it’s kind of abstract and.. a lot of fun. :)

Now, this man recently answered some question at the forum and his text, or article was interesting and should be shared.  Direct link.

Dpreview have interviewed Sigma Chief Operating Officer Kazuto Yamaki, Foveon Vice President for Technology and Operations, Shri Ramaswami and its Vice President for Strategic Marketing, Rudy Guttosch.. It’s an interesting reading!

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1010/10100504Sigmainterview.asp

Thanks Mauersegler for the heads up!

Bob and Olga did a amazing job, I never thought I would fit properly inside any of those images but they managed to squeeze me in! :D They used three cameras, the Sigma SD15, the Nikon D700 and a Sony 850. Nice setup, uhu? :) Click here to see the rest over at Bob and Olgas place!

There will be some really amazing shots made by the SD15 posted later as well.

Sigma announced yesterday the release of the new  Sigma Photo Pro 4! In addition there is a new firmware to the Sigma DP2s version 1.04 which has focused on AF speed and accuracy.

Please download some of my RAW-packs in case you don’t own your own Sigma camera and try SPP4′s new engine – especially on higher ISO images where there has been much work done. I will come back with my thoughts when back in business..

Note that even if it looks like you need one SPP4 for each Sigma camera, that’s not the case. Just download the one above and it will work for all Sigma RAW.

Ahh, finally! A ringflash for my Quadra! I can already see how cool images I’ll be able to take with the SD15! :D

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..

Recently we had some friends over – all the way from Germany. Bob, Olga and Anastasia came for Linn’s birthday (Days later Olga had her birthday as well). Bob and Olga are two well known artists in the Sigma oriented photographic community and our roads crossed many years ago deep in the dpreview forums and later we also met when exposing our photographs at the Photokina fair.

I often discuss work with them, they’re two brilliant artists with a rare eye combined with great technical skills.

Now, during their visit in our home they showed me some photos they’ve taken for Schwarzkopf German Hairdressing Awards – photos were taken back in February but they weren’t allowed to show them in public due to the rules of the competition. But I could have a peak.

Fluid females. Photos taken with the Sigma SD14.

I remember that my first feeling was, oh, such nice light – perfectly lit and great focus on hair. Cool expressions from models, dead cool! Soon I had too look again, something was wrong, (right) and I saw that one of them must’v had some body paint or something. Looking even closer I saw some drops hanging in mid air from one of the girls cheek and I soon realized that it was liquid. I don’t know if Olga perhaps told me before I fully understood but oh how cool I thought it was. Is! If a jaw can drop, this was it!

Now I begged them to tell me how, and we talked for hours about how these shots saw the light of day and I was totally inspired! I’ve been waiting for them to be able to publish them somehow and not only that, here’s an article with a “how to” guide so you can – at least try – your own liquid person!

A huge thank you to Olga Vasilkova and Bob Van Ooik for sharing their work and this article on how they created magic!

“how to” liquid Females article.
V-Studio international. The blog.

get PicLens

480p version. 640×480
720p version. 960×720
Original version. 320×240

What does a 320×240 resolution DP1 video look like when upsized to 480p and 720p? That question has been on some peoples mind and one reader took action and made two versions of the above video. Resized by Dik Hoek with something called “super-resolution”.

“Super-resolution” is a term for a set of methods of increasing image or video resolution. All these methods are based on same idea: using information from several images to create one upsized image. These methods try to extract details from one frames to reconstruct other frames. This approach differs a lot from some sophisticated image upsizing methods which try to synthesize artificial details”. – To get your hands on a 30 day trial version of the software doing this – Click here!

And I can just say, Wow! It really works and it does look awsome! Sure, pixalation etc but it looks very cool indeed and using this you can cut together movies much easier in software such as Adobe premiere and Final cut without coming out with lower resolution video. (useful to take away the hi pitch “cut” sounds) I use the video-part of the DP1 quite often and results are very good. I really love the feeling it gives – something super8 like. :)

What’s next? Said Karlsson’s
Second impressions of the Sigma DP1

He’s another DP1 user that doesn’t come from the world of SD-cameras. He is a professional photographer and journalist – he’s mainly using his Canon 5D but been waiting for something to replace his Ricoh GX100. Said is now an DP1 owner and reading his blog is very interesting as it gives a little different view then the one from me. :) – But maybe best of all, he’s really good with the camera.

Photo and copyright: Said Karlsson

And more from the east: Euyoung’s Soliloquy..  

We have a Ricoh GR fan site that have tested the DP1 against the Ricoh’s – it’s in Chinese but interesting. Especially the part where they compare out door, real life images between GRD2 and DP1. Go, check it out.  (The good and bad thing about visiting a Ricoh fan site is that they’re really not trying to hide any flaws. :)

Ricoh GRD2: (copyright Euyoung’s Soliloquy)

Sigma DP1: (Copyright: Euyoung’s Soliloquy)

More to come..

[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.

Download 111mb dp1rawpack.zip!

Just saw that I didn’t have a shot of the dp1 in any of my articles. Here’s one. :)