Wilhelm -- I become a bigger fan with every new post you make!
So, tell us about the lens and photos. I recently bought that Contax N 24-85, which I assume is what you are using here. I like it on the limited shots I've taken on N1 film body, but nothing on digital -- you give me hope that it is going to be a strong lens for me. Are you doing any HDR these shots, or unusual PP? They are all so dramatic and acutely textured -- what is your method?
Thanks for the great shots, including little Judith.
Carsten, great angle of view in the last photo.
Wilhelm, nice set from Huddinge and #1 is may favorite and a good portrait too.
Samuli, thanks for the HDR work-flow instructions. From your posted Devil's castle posted I find 2 to have the least HDR effect (actually none) while 4 is the most interesting one.
I'm still not convinced about HDR for landscape photography, it seems to go much better with concrete and steel than rocks and threes.
Samuli Vahonen wrote:
I replaced PhotoShop with ImageMagick + ExifTools (running Linux virtual machine on VMware Fusion) saving many seconds/image (and reducing radically number of steps I actively needed to participate). If I can get rid off PhotoMatix with script (e.g. let the computer calculate 10 different HDRs from same source images while I make cup of tea or do something else than sit in front of computer and then just pick the best one) I might shoot more HDRs - my main reason not to shoot HDRs is the hate towards sitting in computer processing images...
hi samuli,
the godfather of hdri, greg ward, has several little command line utilities and gadgets available on his website (www.anyhere.com and http://www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/~jm/doku.php?id=resources:hdrcaposx) that can be used when scripting the processing of hdri images.
i use a pipeline of these to automatically capture/cook hdri images to a laptop attached to my canon.
because greg is more interested in hdri for its pure performance these tools are not designed for their artistic ability but they produce results that are technically very good - i find that the alternatives are more 'toy-like' in their approach, producing 'artistically' tone-mapped final results rather than an accurate hdri image for starters.
Jim, you're too kind, with comments like that I might get overly self-important . For most part there are no special treatment apart from a slight underexposure to be able to take care of details in the sky, and then some equalizing of light. No HDR. It was an overcast day - it's only a few minutes between the shots where the sky is grey/rainy and the one which looks summery blue and white. Rainy skies is good for photography, acting like a giant softbox equalizing light all natural.
Otherwise the most special treatment went into number one. I intended to do these shots BW but ended up choosing color anyway. By chance that image became a blend of the BW version and a color version (making the top BW layer somewhat transparent to the underlying colored layer). On the BW version the sky was darkened with a red (or perhaps yellow) filter, hence the blend result is a pale darkish blue. Finally a soft brush to strengthen/reveal the underlying colors for some of the cars and grass.
...and yes Jim, Aham/Benjamin is right. The lens is this little beauty, Contax (CY) 28-85/3.3-4:
It's a really good/top-IQ lens, but for me not using tripods I am confined to more or less two kinds of usage. Either wide-open (focusing with matte/EG-S) or more or less infinity usage stopped down (normally F/8 in my world). I find anything in between a bit tricky.
I dont know much about Contax N, but if AF is snap-on the 24-85 should be a winner in versatility.
Carsten, I like the atmosphere and processing of your HDR images.
HDR is for sure a topic that creates lots of discussion, and I'm not sure whether there is a "right" or "wrong" as to how it should be done (if at all, even!), as this varies with each person's perception of photography and image-making. I understand the viewpoint where photography is seen as a way to document the reality, but I personally like the idea of experimenting with the dynamics of a scene.
wfrank, the light and color in your images is astounding. Great work!
I guess I am going to have to brake my promise of not polluting this thread so as to not bore everyone with the talk but provide some images into the mix as well.
Jaakko -- I like those shots very much. The "Into The Open" is very appealing, in a spooky way. Odd to have such a bright shot seem so ominous.
Wayne -- Great shot of the redwoods.
Too bad the Zeiss 21 was decentered! Did you get any compensation/discount for the rental?
You are echoing Fred's recent comments about the D800's LV performance. Too bad, it's such an awesome machine in almost all other ways. I thought of getting one, but it seems too handicapped for focusing twilight shots. I suppose we have to consider the LV is a step up from what we had several years ago. It's still on my radar, but the 5D3 seems more practical for my needs.
Thanks Gunzorro!
No, I haven't gotten a chance to send them email about it but I will
soon. Fred with his love for his T/S 17 and 24 lenses didn't seem to give the D800 it's fair share of the limelight in his review, IMHO. If you can live with the slightly more challenging LV manual focusing experience of the D800, you will be rewarded with its top notch sensor's DR which can allow excellent brightening of the shadows without noise as has been shown by Fred.
There are some tricks like increasing the jpeg sharpness setting which doesn't affect the RAW but helps make it easier to focus in LV. There is another trick by changing the mode out of aperture mode so that the aperture is wide open during LV and thus help in low-light manual focusing situations.
I hope Canon gets their act together and designs a competitive sensor soon as I have a lot of alt glass which only works on the EF mount.
Also, forgot to say earlier, nice shots by Carsten, Wilhelm, Jaakko, and others. Just been to busy with work to respond earlier. I enjoyed Carsten's last HDR shots and the ensuing discussion. I took a HDR class with Uwe Steinmuller and have several HDR software programs. I used to Photomatix but now like the newer Unified Color's HDR program as it is the most real looking and more intuitive to use than Photomatix tonemapper. I haven't tried Enfuse, but heard good things about it.
Carsten, Gunzorro, Wayne - thanks a lot. I took these images while taking the boat home from the yard during a misty and windy day.
Wayne, it's interesting to hear about your experience with the D800, although I am also quite heavily invested in EF gear and will most likely stay with Canon.
Thanks Jaakko and wayne. Like you 2nd shot Jaakko, perhaps a square would do it more justice?
Here are a few leftovers from the mammoth hospital before. First a repeat shot but now with distortion correction - or to be picky - partly shooting position correction. It's a little bit like tilt-shifting in PP. Three with CY 28-85 and the last is a random cafe shot with 50P and a not-so-happy girl.
wfrank wrote:
Thanks Jaakko and wayne. Like you 2nd shot Jaakko, perhaps a square would do it more justice?
Wilhelm, you are absolutely correct. I tried a 1:1 crop, and the image just fell in place.
One would imagine that cropping an image properly is one of the first things one learns, but so it goes. I will surely pay more attention to selecting the correct format in the future.
Thanks Jaakko. Good guess too, very close but it's actually "Boende Södermalm" (one of the city islands) and as you said, part of the intricate parking system downtown Sthlm :-)
. For most part there are no special treatment apart from a slight underexposure to be able to take care of details in the sky, and then some equalizing of light. No HDR. It was an overcast day - it's only a few minutes between the shots where the sky is grey/rainy and the one which looks summery blue and white. Rainy skies is good for photography, acting like a giant softbox equalizing light all natural.
