Been fooling around with my mirror adjustments and one of my old SD14′s got helped and asked for a last ride – we had our glorious moments in the past and I must say that although the SD15 is a much improved camera with it’s awesome LCD and more realistic colors – the SD14 does indeed have another stop or two of highlights and those colors are much more playful and “foveonish” than later cameras. (including the DP series). Having used the SD15 as my main work horse since it was released the SD14 feelt very old, perhaps mainly because of the tiny LCD! It’s so hard to evaluate anything useful from it compared to it’s bigger brother, the SD15. I was also reminded that bigger buffer is better. :)

I will not write much here, but let these pictures do the talk. It’s some of what’s been passing by the last two days and well.. SD14 is a great camera and somehow I feel that it has a wider spectrum of colors compared to anything out there – especially in ISO50 mode and that will also be the reason for me to keep using it. It has a depth that’s really hard to beat.

The two bird shots are both highly cropped.

If you go to a party, what could possibly be better to bring than your SD15, the 17-50 2.8 OS and a couple of strobes? I asked myself the same question and came to the fantastic conclusion that  - nothing could be better! if you find some of these shots a little bit “smoother” than usual – then you’re correct and what I did was using a new plugin that I felt I needed for another mission – a skin fix thingelebing.. Imagenomic Portraiture. Amazing software, if you ask me.

Now taking a picture in a mixed light situation like here you really need to think twice about how to place your subject and what you use as your background. I personally love the warmth that light bulbs provide when used against the colder flash – but in order to get the effect wanted you need to meter for the background – in this case here my iPhone light meter gave me 1/8s at ISo200. (Some are ISO400 as well) – and as you understand, using 1/8s would be a No No if there was any light in the subjects face you would end up with a smeary result with mixed yellow / bluish tones.

Lucky enough, I was able to stand in another room with the light turned off – and if I took a picture without using any strobe, you would see the person almost as a silhouette. My Friend Josef Johansson, a photo entusiast, helped me by running around with the smaller Sigma 530 strobe as a “head light” – I really like when it hits hard as with Elin’s portrait below – but it does take away some of that contrast..

added explanation.
But having a headshot without light wouldn’t cool so I placed my Quadra with a tiny amount of flash, in an umbrella over my right shoulder – Powered at something like 25-40Ws (full power is 400Ws) – and because there is no ambient light in their face, all light comes from the flash which gives a very pure coloristic and a VERY warm background.

Now, how can I possibly shot with such a super slow shutter speed hand held and still get away with it? Well, the trick is dual – First, the Sigma 17-50mm 2.8 OS which has a fantastic optical stabilizer gives me the opportunity to freeze the background enough even with speeds as low as 0,3s – normally if it was a persons face I would have had him / her to stand completely still in order to freeze – but that isn’t possible, people move, it’s in their nature.

So why is the face so sharp and even looks like it’s sometimes in the middle of an emotion which sugests movement. The answer is that because the face isn’t lit by anything except the flash, the flash exposure overtakes the cameras exposure. So the shutter speed in these photos is in reality two different ones in one. The face is exposed with a very short flash duration of something like 1/8000s and the background which isn’t touched by the flash with it’s 0,3s..

Pretty cool really. :)

As a skin fix show – in this case it’s kind of stupid to use it, but it gives you an understanding of what it does. the foveon sensor does catch a tremendous amount of information and in a portrait situation, some of that info just is a little too much. :) So, we could call this a forced bayer / nutella effect.

All images was developed with Sigma Photo pro 4.2 (Mac) and then post-processed and uploaded to flickr using Lightroom 3. All images can be found in their full glory at my spring 2011 set.

As you might have noticed I haven’t posted in about a week – and it’s mostly because I’ve been busy taking photos.. And to make things more fun I also used the Nikon D300 along with my SD15 – the true reason was an assignment that included some football player running around with a ball – and knowing my cameras limitations I decided to make it safe – and got the D300 along with the 70-200 2.8 VR lens (Thanks Niklas!). When I lent the camera the guy also lent me the Nikon 24mm 1.4 lens – which I just HAD to use now that I had it – so lots of photos was taken with that combo. :)

Because these images is being sold to customer I can’t publish them – but what you see below is the way I present a shoot to my customers – they then pick what they want and I develop those shots and send them as TIFF. First a shot taken with my SD15 and the 17-50 2.8 using strobe light. (Lightroom)

And here’s two sessions using the Nikon D300 and the 24mm 1.4 lens.

I also had a session at a tire hotell – some newly built place where you put your tire over winter / summer. This was shot using the Sigma SD15 and the truly awesome 10mm fisheye lens. (this is a screenshot from the full 360 QTVR that I gave the customer). Developed using SPP and PS.

Now I’m off watching the news again – I can’t really stop thinking about Japan at this moment and I’m happy to report that none of the Sigma employees are missing – although we know little about their friends and families. JAPAN, WE LOVE YOU!

Lately I’ve been very busy making sure I handle my Manfrotto 303sph correct as I might have a job coming up that really needs 100% of my attention. I have the Canon 5D Mark 2 equipped with Sigma 12-24mm against my Sigma SD15 and the 8-16mm lens. I wanted to know what combo would make life easiest and as I’m not done testing, this is only a little something for you to look at – if you jump over to the Canon version, then all links are done and working – but the Sigma version only contains three rooms so don’t be angry if you find links without function.

All Canon 360′s was shot using the RAW2 mode (smaller RAW files) and developed using Lightroom 3. Sigma files has been developed using SPP. All shots done in one single row, no upper or lower shots. 8-16mm required 8 shots, while the Canon with it’s full frame and 12-24 only needed 6. Kitchen was shot using 5 bracketing frames – but I deleted the darkest where I wanted light and the brightest at the window area – so it looks weird. :)

Just some shots from today.. I’m on my way to celebrate someones birthday so I don’t have time to write much. :) Last shot was taken yesterday. Alla are developed using SPP and post processed some in LR.

Camera: SD15 Lens: 120-300 @ 176mm Exposure: ISO200 f5,6 1/100s

How big is the buffer on the SD1? How many frames per second? How much space will one shot take? And how many different resolutions will be available?! And will fps change with lower? How well will it deal with shadow noise?! Will highlights still be amazing? How well will existing lenses cope with the 15,5MP x 3 resolution? How good battery life? Will live view be available later?

These are some of the thoughts passing through my mind as I get ready to squeeze the trigger..
Camera: SD15 Lens: 50-500 OS @ 375mm Exposure: ISO400 f6,3 1/60s

Camera: SD15 Lens: 120-300 @ 275mm Exposure: ISO300 f5,6 1/60s

120-300mm bird in flight – iso400

Raw Developer has for many years been a jewelry among developer available for the Sigma raw. I had many letters and raw files exchanged with the creator of RD and  I can’t say how happy I am that we have native support for more or less all Sigma cameras to date. It’s NOT a perfect developer but it has a such neutral and natural view of colors that I feel is really hard to get using any other software.

These were post developed using Lightroom as a green shift on the right side of each shot was left untouched in RD. I had to add a touch of gradient filter to take it away. (a tiny amount of magenta).. I also lifted the chest of the bird in some shots and I switched off noise reduction in RD to further bring those colors out in the open – if you open them at full size you will see some of that.. :)

All shots shot between IS075- 1200 and of course taken with the Sigma 50-500 OS. Hand held.

This was shot using ISO400, I lifted the bird slightly so it’s a bit more ISO in terms of noise. Noise reduction is put at a minium so it’s quite noisy if you look really close. :)

These black and white ones has been heavily cropped and was both shot at very tricky light conditions.. ISO on camera was set to 800 but they had to be pushed some to get the right look. I shot using bracketing with a +0.7 setting to ensure some correctly exposed shots or a shot with useful sharpness. Noise reduction is completely turned off, which gives this really nice tone to the shot.

Tired of this little bird now are you? :D It’s funny how many angles you can find of a bird that only sits still for about a minute only to fly away and stay gone for an hour or two and when people decide to give up he shows again for another minute or so. The orchestra of shutters accompanying his arrival is such music and such fun!

I was talking to Bengt Werner today, a former Nikon user who switched to Sigma for his landscape photography. And we tried to put our finger on why we love the way Sigma images look and what it is that makes them different. It’s always been debated and I often stayed outside those discussions as it’s not been “my thing”. But today I will give you a list the top reasons why I love the way Sigma / Foveon images look and why you should be interested in the new Sigma SD1. :)

1. Nuances! With a three layer sensor you get even the tiniest shifts of colors.

2. Density! And this is what some people refere to as “3D”. Everything feels more massive, more dense, more slide photo. Often seen in images shot at very low ISO often at 50-100. This is also why Bokeh is rendered so beautifully with a foveon sensor!

3. Micro contrast! Due to the design of the sensor you capture everything. That includes dust and scratches which makes the picture seam more real and true. Sometimes annoying as you don’t really want that in some situations (beauty photography or jewelry photography).

4. True sharpness! This is one of the biggest reasons to go Sigma for many – and the trueness of it is seen when resized big, with only 4.6MP’s to go it’s a bit strange that images looks so good at larger sizes – it still looks crisp and clear and never really brakes. It resized in a similar manner as film.. (if you use a really good scanner that is). Jaggies can sometimes be a problem but not often.

5. Dynamic Range! Bengt has often received the question if he uses HDR for his photography – He never does but the amount of useful range between black and white in Sigma raw feels very wide. I never measured in comparisons to others, but I often felt let down by other sensors in this regard.

The Sigma SD15 has slightly less dynamic range (or at least highlights) than SD14. Same with DP1 compared to DP1x. SD15 and DP1x on the other hand has cleaner colors.

(6). Very little post production needed! Often it’s just open in SPP and then publish.

And now, some images from TODAY! All shot using the Sigma 50-500 OS. A bit crazy but it’s actually really useful and the glass quality is amazing! Such clarity!

Above images of the kingfisher was shot with the same lens on approximately the same distance. The second one being zoomed in at the maximum 500mm the first at 167mm.

Should be seen at 100%.. See it now!

Developed using Sigma Photo Pro and post processed using LR3 and PS in some cases. There is only one bird not two. The single bird is heavily cropped.

All images available at it’s maximum size over at my spring 2011 set.

Cropped. Raw Developer. SD15, 50-500 OS @ 413mm  - ISO100  1/50s (this shot was added after article was posted so text talks about below shot only)

SD15 @ ISO1000 (pushed from ISO400), 50-500 @ 500mm

I drove to the same spot today, alone. And it was empty (normally there are plenty of photographers and interested waiting for the kingfisher to show), I turned off my cars engine before reaching the spot so that the bird, if present, wouldn’t be scared. From my window I could see the water and there, on a little stick that others had prepared for people like me, there he was! Sky was cloudy and everything was thick grey – a couple of degrees plus and wet.

I did as I saw others do the day before, I opened the cars window and used the window as support for the Sigma 50-500 OS lens. Distance was a bit too much but I got close enough to see the bird. This shot came out heavily under exposed – shot at ISO400 but pushed 1.5 stops in SPP so it’a really around ISO1000. It’s shot at 500mm so you can imagine that I was sitting pretty far away from this little bird. I couldn’t take more as he flew pretty short after my arrival.

Next time, I wonder if I could hide a couple of flashes somewhere.. I wonder if that would scare him off? hmm.

Can you see it? It’s really tiny so you have to look hard.. very hard..

Today I went out searching for a Kingfisher – you know that small fish catching bird with those bright colors – in a country such as mine we don’t have many of those colorful birds so we really do care for the ones we have. Now, I never saw a Kingfisher before and today a fellow photographer took me to a place where he’s been shooting one everyday since a month back..

Ingvar Carlsson, bird photographer.

When we arrived all we could find was two swans  - not that bad but still white!!!! Com’on I have a foveon sensor!!!! I want some COLOR!!!!

Ok, enough of !’s and I give you the swan Albert.

All shots taken handheld with the 50-500OS using OS. Shutter speeds a bit on the low side and these would look truly awful if it wasn’t for the optical stabilizer. ISO between 100 and 800.

I’m letting the video speak for this post. All images are available as full size in my Spring 2011 set.

Today a fellow photographer (Martin Carlsson from Pixelstore) called and asked if I wanted to assist him during a session with some rock band named Skurk – of course – and because I was only there to assist I only brought my SD15 equipped with what was on since yesterday,  the 8-16mm. I did manage to squeeze the trigger a couple of times and below is a selection of images. Studio images are mostly higher ISO (1600-3200) but there are a few where I did use a tripod and lower ISO as well – Seconds of exposure! aaaah. Lights was disturbingly bad so I HAD to switch to monochrome WB. Martin was using a couple of flashes placed around the room. I didn’t.

Pictures has been developed using SPP and in some cases only LR3.

I’ve been busy with christmas stuff and also with the trip to Stockholm – it’s now in the middle of the night and I just can’t sleep without having posted at least a few pictures before falling into infinity.. So here’s a little something..

Sigma 8-16mm is incredible. Handheld in full speed. :)

Instead of a hotell I used one of my friends – Let me introduce Anders Gustafsson shot using the 8-16 at it’s widest. Some strange corrections applied in LR3.

And also a few pictures of what we actually did in Stockholm.. These are “real time” stuff edited on the spot using a green screen, chroma key thingi and a mac. We printed directly to customers in a big shopping mall. I was only there as a guide to build the set and make the light etc look good. Here’s a few test shots we did before leaving.

..and Finally we printed some shots and framed as christmas gifts. Hopefully the receivers doesn’t visit this site before christmas eve. :)

Could’t help myself from not being inside the frame as well.. Both above shots taken with Sigma DP2 – Shots inside frame taken using Sigma SD14.

It’s now 02:44 and it’s really really time to go to bed. Good night everyone, wherever you are!

O 1.3s . f/7.1 . ISO 50 . 16.6 mm

Went to Göteborg (Gothenburg) today and the evening was clear and bright.. I had the DP1x in my pocket and used all kinds of poles, walls etc to support the long shutter speeds necessary. EXIF should be intact incase you want to look closer. All images except the tractor shot was developed using Lightroom 3.3 – Tractor was developed using Raw Developer 1.8.11.

O 2s . f/7.1 . ISO 100 . 16.6 mm

O 3.2s . f/7.1 . ISO 100 . 16.6 mm

O+0.4s . f/4.5 . ISO 100 . 16.6 mm

O 0.8s . f/7.1 . ISO 100 . 16.6 mm

1/8s . f/4.5 . ISO 100 . 16.6 mm


O 0.5s . f/7.1 . ISO 100 . 16.6 mm

O 1.6s . f/6.3 . ISO 50 . 16.6 mm

O 2.5s . f/6.3 . ISO 50 . 16.6 mm

ISO400 @ f4 and 1/6s hand held leaning on car window. Yesterday evening – on my way home from my parents house where I filmed yesterdays movie – the DP1x really comes in handy when scapes (?!) like this appears.

Lightroom 3.2 used to develop and process.

Edit:

I just had to add a Raw Developer version as the latest 1.8.11 has native DP1x support! I used monochrome XDR and saved as 16bit tiff and continued with some post stuff in Lightroom.. Noise reduction is completely turned off (you can find stuck pixels) and sharpness is down to a minimum.  I also managed to save as 11MP without knowing. So, you have a pretty big image to look at if you wanna pixel peep.