Product photography in rain..

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

Rainy day in may
Original

Rainy day in may
Original

What do you do when you have set day to shoot, and that day turns out to be very dark and rainy? You could reschedule or.. use your SD14 and the Sigma 120-300 OS for every single shot. Why SD14 when I have SD15? Well, it wouldn’t be as much fun now, would it? No. :) And it was tricky to get colors the way i like them – and these are more or less straight out from SPP5 beta.

Rainy day in may
Original

The 120-300 OS is such nice lens to work with – I had a monopod and nothing more. I wasn’t afraid of the rain as I know the SD14 can take quite some – and the 120-300 OS is weather sealed so the combo should work fine and as you see in these shots – even if it was raining it wasn’t like cats and dogs.

Rainy day in may
Original

Rainy day in may
Original

I tried to keep a nice distance between me and my objects – Above shot is taken using the full 300mm – they’re all electric bikes so I thought it was a bit fun to shoot with the old gas thingi in the background. Sort of fit the retro look of those bikes as well.

Rainy day in may
Original

Rainy day in may
Original

There was some foldable bike that I had to shoot – I used my little brother as my model, he’s very proud of his work. :) I might also add that the bluish / magenta tint that’s slightly over each shot is more or less a side effect of bad light and sd14. SD14 has a strong tendency towards green and well, I could have fought back using flash and more light which normally solves the issue but this time I didn’t wanna risk them due to the weather. So bare the slight tint – and try to look beyond.

Rainy day in may
Original

Rainy day in may
Original

Rainy day in may
Original

So, these are all taken using the old SD14, using it’s 4.6MP capability. Please have a look at those full sized versions to fully appreciate the quality.

Rainy day in may
Original

Posted in 120-300, Full size, Portraits, Sigma Photo Pro, Sigma SD14 | 55 Comments

Added photographer: Steve Chong

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

sdim8117-1680

Steve Chong is another one of my sources for inspiration. He’s been shooting film a lot in the past but somewhere around 2004 he bought his first Sigma camera and he’s now fully addicted to three layered photography. He is also one of those people that thinks SD1 is cheap and that shooting above ISO400 is for kids. ;)

Anyways, please welcome Steve to my little wall of inspiritors. (my own word). He will also add more images as time goes by and we can expect some SD1 talk as well from him.

Posted in All | 22 Comments

Interesting read..

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

Michael Reichman from Luminous landscape wrote an article yesterday trying to somehow bring clearness into the pricing of the SD1. It’s well worth a read.

btw, somewhere in some post there must have been a <strong> or <b> without an end </b> because now I have lots of bold text everywhere. :/ Trying to fix.. Also as some of you noticed, my site went down yesterday due to heavy traffic. Thanks for all emails reminding me. :)

Btw #2. Don’t pixel peek those jpeg’s posted on Sigmas site too much – They’re developed from RAW and saved as pretty low compressed JPEG’s – White balance is definitely not perfect in some of the samples it seams so wait for my RAW pack before judging too much.

Posted in All | 112 Comments

SD1 camera ships in early June!

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

Update #2. On the Sigma USA SD1 page it now says “check back for pricing” – before it said $9600 – Interesting! (Thanks’ Chebb for the heads up!)

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/news/sigma-corporation-of-america-to-ship-sd1-camera-in-early-jun

The price mentioned is $970 (Sorry folks, it says $9700 but I wonder if that’s correct).. I’ll get back to this in a while.

Update: I tried to get a comment from Sigma Japan but at this point it’s been silence. Also noticed (Thanks’ BobNL) that the pricing on the Sigma USA page is somewhat strange – Get the SD1 together with a lens and you suddenly pay around $2000 less. Makes sense?

There are likely some good reasons for Sigma to do as they’ve done that I fail to see. It’s  a great camera – and those who can afford it will likely love it, but it’s truly going to be a rare sight. Not as I imagine things since the 7D pricing talk. (Been good promotion for Canon though!).

Posted in All | 339 Comments

new SD1 Sample images!

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

And, as some of you might have guest – I HAD IT! :D and Sigma has selected a few for public viewing and they are all available at the SD1 Sample gallery .

I’m not allowed to publish any of my photos taken using the SD1 and that’s because they enhanced things since I had it – soon I will have a production unit and then I will give you more than you can handle.

Posted in All | 94 Comments

I’m in Stockholm, are you?

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

Obsolete! :)

Continue reading →

Posted in All | 19 Comments

Sigma SD14 revisited..

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

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. :)

Hawk dead Bird crop Something american

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.

Posted in 120-300, 18-50, Adobe Lightroom, Full size, ISO50, Sigma Photo Pro, Sigma SD14 | 41 Comments

Countdown clock has started ticking..

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

Billy Chan just received this mail from sigma about SD1 availability.

Dear Mr. Chan,

There is no influence of earthquake on any Sigma product, including SD1. Project is running as already scheduled. Regarding the availably time, countdown clock has started ticking. Due to confidentiality concerns I cannot provide further information regarding availability time of SD1.

Please keep checking it from the closest Sigma representative in your country. http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/network/index.htm

Kind Regards,

Vuslat Tatar

 

Posted in All | 24 Comments

A city stroll..

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

I was having a stroll yesterday together with Bengt – Weather was amazing! Ice creams melting and doves were sing.. making dove sounds. I brought the 85mm and the mighty 50-500 OS – and Bengt mostly used his 18-50mm macro and some oldish film camera from the 30s.

Bengt Werner with 50-500 OSStena Line at 85mm

When there is light, there is love! The Sigma produces such stunning captures when light is great and it’s a pleasure to play around is SPP (The RAW developer that comes with the camera for those of you that don’t know). Most shots taken using the 50-500 OS as it has this nice reach and you can shoot anything without confrontations. :) With the 50-500 I’m a ninja. The above boat shot is the only one taken using the 85mm.

Strong skinface offColorsPerfectly in focus Hmmm
The old man on the portrait shot above is worth a close up look, so please look at the original which really shows how great the 50-500 OS can be. Alright, here’s the original of the seagull as well.. Admit it, you all want a lens that can do that! :D Or perhaps the camera?

Having a drink

And finally – I just can’t help myself..

Sweet doveTaking a shower

Anyone having the problem that when you focus manually and take a shot, that even if you saw your subject in focus it ended up off?

Well, that’s what happens when your mirror is slightly off – my SD15 mirror has been off since I got it and today I decided to fix that (Sigma says it has to be sent to Japan for them to fix) and it turnes out that it’s actually quite simple and easy to do yourself.

But that’s a different story for another day! :D

Posted in 18-50, 50-500 OS, 85mm 1.4, Full size, Polarizer / Filter, Sigma Photo Pro, Sigma SD15 | 25 Comments

120-300 OS | Part three.. (updated)

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Carl Rytterfalk

1/160s . f/3.2 . ISO 100 . 128 mm

Alright a third post with only 120-300 OS images! As heavy as it is, it’s also very well balanced which makes you stable – that plus stabilizer and you will be able to take hand held shots in situations you didn’t think possible (or it only feels heavy.. ). Although, most of these shots was taken at 1/160s and above.

As a street lens it’s kind of big – A bit bigger than what people normally see, and especially bigger than you would mind pointing at you which also makes it kind of harder for someone like me wanting to “blend in”.. That’s also one of the great reasons to why the DP1 / DP2 is such great street cameras.. They blend.

Crop of that other shot.. 1/320s . f/3.2 . ISO 100 . 235 mm

This Dove is one of those great examples of shots where that tremendous amount of resolution shines thru. Have a look at the 100% crop just below and think for second about how it would look if it was taken using the SD1. mmmm.. Yummy!

Crop of that dove.. S1/100s . f/2.8 . ISO 100 . 252 mm 1/200s . f/4.0 . ISO 100 . 300 mm

As someone already pointed out, these are some really yellow flowers! :D Yes, and the secret ingredient is SD15 + color modes! And to get that spicy yellow tone found in nature you need to use “landscape” color mode as I did on the above shot – but beware – some shots just doesn’t look right with it so test but use your eyes and mind. Also at times you might tune saturation down a notch to make it more natural.

Stones.. In tricky sunlight. 1/500s . f/3.5 . ISO 100 . 300 mm 1/1600s . f/2.8 . ISO 100 . 120 mm

This last shot was taken using the SD14 and I’m really happy that I have some of those around as it’s color rendition is quite different and quite interesting compared to the SD15 which is more neutral and perhaps more correct, but not as fancy and the SD15 also lacks some of that extremely wide DR! A bit like changing film in the days.

Posted in 120-300, All, Full size, Sigma Photo Pro, Sigma SD14, Sigma SD15 | 16 Comments