Published at May 30, 2008
in 10-20, 120-300, 16.5mm, 30mm, 70-200, 70mm, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, portrait, sd14 and studio.
Finally after much wait - here is the first of two parts from a photo session I had for the second year somewhere in the wilderness of Sweden. Now, these shots are not meant to be examined deeply - much because some of them are not extremely in focus. (I left the camera sometimes on a tripod having just a trigger in my hand and therefor they could walk out of focus).
I alternated between three different PS plugins to get the look that I wanted or simply to blow out the white background. The ones used most (for white background) is Viveza, the secondly most used is AlienSkin Exposure and the third used for one or two shots is Nik Color Efex Pro.
All shots are here presented in full resolution. Two shots have been slightly cropped. The rest have been left as is.
Click each for full size view. Enjoy!
Yes, it’s me (above and below).
There is more to come.
Click below for some more from this very session.
Continue reading ‘Crazy studio session, SD14 + DP1 | Part 1′
[edit - Sigma today announced the new version for PC and Mac here as well as first DP1 update]
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a beta of the next SPP 2.x and for those of you being irritated of green corners I can now tell you that green corners are now only a bad memory! :D I could only test the PC version but it ran extremely quick under vm-ware, actually much faster than my Mac version of SPP3.1. I did try some SD14 files and especially reds are now better. But this article will concentrate on DP1 images.
I thought that my photos from Elmia foto video 2008 could be used for this preview and at the same time you can see what I do in SPP and maybe learn something about processing. In every image there is important data inside. Exposure, ISO, White balance as well as processing. All kinds of situations ranging from high iso mixed light to long exposures in tricky situations. And as an extra bonus - studio shots! Continue to read this article.
Continue reading ‘New SPP due soon! First preview.’
I got lots of questions / full size sample requests about the first black and white portrait so I decided to make it available not as RAW this time but resized to match 14mp. All noise reduction is completely turned off (possible using Raw Developer) which gives extra detail and realistic, film like qualities. - I also saved info in the darker portion of the image.
No additional sharpening, level, curves etc. I did clone out part of a wall though and added vignetting. :) - This sample should be perfect for anyone having a printer and that would like to know what a SD14 4.6mp image will look like a bit bigger. There is stair stepping in this image and with qimage or other software it would probably look a bit better.
Click for the final 4600 x 3057 (14mp) image.
EDIT: I posted a comparison over at dpreview’s Sigma forum.
RAW + Raw Developer setting: download.
ArkadiaFoto in Partille / Göteborg invited me to help them shot some models. I wanted to see and test the studio so I went there this very evening and tried light and some of my lenses. So here’s some of the resulting pictures. All images availible as almost full size download. I ended up using one profoto softboxed 1200w light slightly behind me to the right.
Lenses used: 30mm, 70-200, 120-300 and 10-20.
Camera: SD14 - ISO set to 100 by mistake. Should of course have been ISO50.
Sigma 30mm - RD note: Monochrome XDR
Sigma 10-20mm
Sigma 120-300mm RD note - colors slightly damped.
Sigma 70-200mm
Sigma 30mm again. Too much fun.
Note: All images has been altered slightly in PS with vignetting and some has seen a touch of Alien skin Exposure. The man on these images belong to Arkadiamodels.com
I just have to show you this one. This shot was taken using ISO50 at the photo fair in Stockholm. It’s shot thru a dirty window with the 18-50. Continue reading ‘18-50 thru a dirty window..’
Or is it an insect? Click image for closer look.
Continue reading ‘Strange fish..’
Our dog Ester had puppies the other day, nine of them. One look like this. Click image for much bigger version. :D worth it, specially on the last one were I got focus just right.
Latest update above - just to let you know I’m alive. ;) Can’t give you bigger for the moment (I want to give you the original at 12800px) but for copyright reasons I can’t. The biggest problem has really been to make these look ok on a white bottom and ina sort of square angle. You know, everything boringly straight. :)
[Edit: It’s easier to help if you know what I’m doing so here’s what I’ve done. I tried many different ways and I do have another flash that I can use if needed. The tent is 90×90cm. These examples are taken one by one with the 105mm lens. Can’t go shorter. Need them to be possible to place as seen on the picture and I tried 7 different lenses and found 105 to give the “right” feeling. Even tried the 120-300 hehe /Edit] .
Right now I’m currently working with product photography for a company that creates concept for modern interior design. Really nice stuff. Started today by buying tools needed for the task (Tent, glass table etc). There’s about 500 products that I’m going to take pictures of and they all need to have transparent backgrounds. Tricky to get it right. So I’ve been fighting to get the best possible light, with a background that’s easy to extract. (using PS CS3). Products are mostly quite small, pretty square and often white, some glossy. Which makes it a bit tricky. :)
If you have any tips and tricks I’d love to hear it. :)
Linn made lots of delicious stuff yesterday and she begged me to take some shots together with her. So we did. :) We cleaned the kitchen table and used the light from the big windows and start shooting. The table is really very boring. It’s some yellow wood, not very natural feeling to it and on top it’s glossy. bha! So I tried to not show the table too much by expose all pictures + 1 or more. We did use a reflector to gain a little extra light. We tried with two lenses, the 50mm and the new 70mm. I think both performed very well. F is between 3,2 to 6,3 - all manual mode. Click each image to bring full size version. even download RAW.
I’m going to norway now for a week, so I’ll give a little extra to play with while I’m gone. If you live in Norway and would like to meet I’ll stay close to Ål (Aal), Vats, Farm Langegaard. Give me a ring at +46 734 00 17 17 - I’ll bring my cameras etc so if you wanna see me (and try equipment), please do!
Two food pictures as RAW file. Download now!
Perfume bottles in a vase
These are taken using a halogen IKEA tablelamp. One of those nasty, strong extreamly hot small lamps you have on your desk. It’s a A3 white paper under the vase and bent up behind, with the light aimed on the paper. Shutter speed is pretty low, so a tripod is needed. around 1/20 - 1/60s at ISO100.
Length: 9min 23sec
File: sd14_5d_studio.mov
Watch locally. Watch youtube.
Starring: Alroe, Linn, Carl, SD14 & 5D
About: One day in the studio.
See some of the pictures inside this movie.
[EDIT] Movie is up!
[Edit 2008 | 1 | 23 - Now I look at these shots and I can clearly see that with todays software (both SPP 2.3 and RD 1.72) I could make better developments. So if you happen to download these are RAW - don’t be surprised if they look better! :D /Edit]
I went to Denmark yesterday invited by the Danish photographer Alroe to record my third “review” of the SD14. This time in his studio. It will take a couple of days to finish the movie but until then I want you to see some of the resulting images that came out and in full size and possibly soon as downloadable RAW files. (depends if you’re able to use a decent raw converter. ;)
I must say that I’m very happy and very satisfied with the result of our shoot. mr Alroe is using a Canon 5D with L lenses and that made this shoot a little more interesting. Now, we don’t want you to kill your eyes with pixel peeping so we didn’t take “exactly” the same shots, maybe next time. I’ve heard that Sigma SD14 images are too sharp and might hurt your eyes.
Last in this article you can read some more about my inital 5D feelings. I was using the latest firmware 1.01 for my SD14 and it’s a GREAT update. Colors of the LCD is now very nice and speed is also improved. It’s overall a better feeling doing photography with it. Many of these studio shots are shot at ISO200 BY MISTAKE! But, Bo also did on his 5D so for the sake of review it’s a good thing. But I’m sure result would be even more impressive using ISO100. Now over to some of my images.
One more thing. Lenses used was 30mm, 28mm, 70-200 and 50mm Sigma EX lenses. My ABSOLUTE favorite in the studio was the 28mm, it just nailed focus all the time and it’s very “correct”.
Continue reading ‘[img] SD14 in the Studio together with 5D..’
Studio session
Working with pearls again, this time in the studio. I asked my friend Jacob to help me. (holding reflector, and whatever) At one point I wanted to test the light and asked him to 
pose for me, he didn’t mind, and I asked him if he could maybe try one of the pearl thingis that we where shooting, he naturally refused at first but after some; hey it’s just a test talk, he tried it on.I took some pictures and asked if he maybe could take his t-shirt off, just for the sake of art. :) He laughed and said no, after a little while and a lot of talking he agreed and off it went.
And for me, after playing a little in lighroom these images just came out so beautiful. Of course you might be of another opinion. :) but I like them very much. All three images are more or less lightroom dumps and should be viewed in there original state. They’re so so detailed and has a very natural noise that I just love! click an image and a slightly bigger version will appear. Ask if you want original.Camera: Sigma SD10 Lens: Sigma 30mm EXDownload preset file for LightroomPut in “User - Library - Adobe Lightroom - Develop Presets”
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