The Lazarus Shoot

In the previous post I used the excuse of a dull New Mexico day to do a single image macro of a Darkling beetle on a Damascus cauliflower. Because of the very narrow (mm size) depth of field, the resultant image was only acceptably sharp where I focused, ie on the beetle.

Today’s weather provided another excuse to work indoors, ie cold with hints of snow. However, as soon as I tried to recreate the previous post’s scene, I had the first problem: no beetle. It seemed to have just vanished. I was sure it was dead, but it seems to have simply got up and walked away!

So I was just left with my fractal cauliflower, which by now was showing some brown spots and damage.

Although I have several ways of taking macro focus stacks, my go to approach is the Promote Control: www.promotesystems.com/

I put my Canon 100mm F/2.8L on F/16, ISO 100 and a shutter speed of about 3s, set by Magic Lantern’s ETTR function. The depth of field being just over a 1mm.

The Promote Control allowed me to take about 25 (overlapped) images for focus stacking, by simply pressing the PC’s start button.

After ingesting into Lightroom, adjusting a few sliders on one image and syncing to the rest, I exported the images as PS layers and used the PS Auto Blend option, which pulled out the sharp areas of each layer.

A tweak with Fixel Contrastica 2 and a return to LR for a final ‘polish’.

Bottom line: macro photography is a great way to occupy a dull day. Although there are alternatives, I find myself going to Promote Control, as my sturdy workhorse. Although I didn’t use bracketing on this image, I could have: all automatically.

Macro to the rescue

Today was not the best for outdoor photography, being rather dull and cloudy. Nevertheless I wanted to do something. So, as I was getting in some wood for the fire, I found my subject: a desiccated a Darkling Beetle, a member of the Tenebrionidae family...but don’t ask me what one!

Of course the subject selected the lens for me: my trusty EF 100mm F2.8L macro lens and I decided to ‘just’ see if I could use natural window light, as the dull sky created a rather large soft box.

As for a background, I remembered we purchased Romanesco broccoli, which is also known as Romanesque cauliflower. Wiki tells us that the Romanesco superficially resembles a cauliflower, hence its other name, but it is light green in colour, and its form is rather fractal like. The inflorescence (the bud) is self-similar in character, with the branched meristems making up a logarithmic spiral. In this sense the bud's form approximates a natural fractal; each bud is composed of a series of smaller buds, all arranged in yet another logarithmic spiral. This self-similar pattern continues at several smaller levels. The pattern is only an approximate fractal since the pattern eventually terminates when the feature size becomes sufficiently small. The number of spirals on the head of Romanesco broccoli is a Fibonacci number.

Anyone looking out for unusual macro settings would be well advised to get down to their local food store and look at the exotic food that is readily available these days: we got ours from Whole Foods.

The beetle, of course, being dead, was a rather willing subject; so posing was simple! As for camera settings, I decided not to focus stack: I will try that on another occasion, together with my ring flash.

Being a macro lens, the depth of field was only a millimetre or so, hence I was expecting a fall off across the depth of the image. I manually focused, using a 10x zoom window, and used Magic Lantern’s dual-ISO, ie a single image, ISO-bracketed shot, with alternating Bayer line pairs at ISOs of 100 and 800. Finally I pushed the aperture to F/20, which placed it in the degraded diffraction area, ie beyond F/16, but I needed help with the depth of field.

After exporting the images into Lightroom, I first delaced the dual-ISO, which gave me my starting DNG negative. I then used a little LR ‘trick’, after carrying out the lens correction.

The trick, which is useful for dark images, is to go to Camera Calibration and select the 2010 Process. Then go to the Basic Panel and, low and behold, there is the ‘old’ Fill Light slider. After I had adjusted the Exposure and applied some Fill Light, I then ‘burned in’ the 2010 Process settings by exporting to another application, eg one of the Nik plugins, BUT without changing anything. This gave me 16-bit TIFF which I then adjusted further with the 2012 Process sliders.

A final tweak was achieved after exporting the image to Photoshop and using one of favourite plug-ins to enhance and boost local and global contrast, namely Fixel Contrastica 2 (http://aescripts.com/fixel-contrastica/)

Although these two images need more work, eg I will try focus stacking next and look for another ‘subject’ around the house, I think the combination of the beetle and the Romanesco broccoli provide a rather interesting image. As usual I welcome feedback on this any of my posts.

Fisheye perspectives: First impressions

After experimenting with a cropped fisheye lens, which I returned as the loss of view when attaching it to my full frame 5DIII was too much, I was pleased when Rokinon came out with their full frame 12mm fish eye: http://goo.gl/3c67oG

My first impressions are that this lens is a keeper. It is sharp and fun to use. Here are two sample images taken this weekend at the Acoma Pueblo: having bought a photo permit :-)

The first image shows an ‘un-fished’ view from the Acoma mesa, whilst the second image shows a defished view of the San Estevan Del Rey Mission Church at Acoma.

To get the most out of this lens, or any fisheye lens, you need to know how to defish it. After much reading I decided on a two part strategy. First I bought into FisheyeHemi, http://goo.gl/IlE7U, and second I use Photoshop CC's wide angle filter and/or the perspective transform tool. 

Bottom line: a really fun and useful addition to my lens inventory and one I can recommend, especially for those with full frame cameras.

Geotagging for Photographers

More and more cameras are GPS enabled these days. But what if your camera isn't GPS enabled?

If your phone is GPS enabled, for instance the latest iPhone, all you need to do is download the free GPS Stone for iPhone application.

But what if you don’t have an iPhone?

Having looked into various options, I decided to go with the Bad Elf GPS Pro: http://goo.gl/rPBsjY

The Bad Elf, via a .gpx file, allows me to do Geotagging in the Lightroom map module; where I can update the image’s EXIF data with the latitude and longitude of the location where the photograph was taken.

The Bad Elf rechargeable battery usage is very good, allowing me to log about 100 hours at a time. It can be Bluetooth paired to my iPad or iPod, from where I can change various settings, ie the sample rate, which can go as fast as 10Hz.

The accuracy, is stated as to be within 8ft, and the Bad Elf can operate up to 66,000 ft and up to 1000mph :-)

Workflow is very simple (after downloading the free Bad Elf App):

• Ensure the camera’s time is synced with the Bad Elf GPS time;
• At the start of the journey, press the Bad Elf GPS button for 3s to initiate the data logging;
• At the end of the photo session simply press the GPS button for 3s to stop data logging;
• Pair the Bad Elf with your iPad or iPod and, using the Bad Elf App, download the journey, reviewing it in the Bad Elf App if you wish;
• Email the .gpx file to yourself, thus allowing access on the PC where Lightroom sits;
• In Lightroom ingest your images in the normal way;
• In the LR Map Module load in the .gpx file and link the images to the journey, as recorded in the .gpx file.

Bottom line: the Bad Elf GPS Pro, at about $140, is a great tool for those who don’t have a geotagging capability in their Camera or in another device, eg an iPhone.

Quick gadget update

As we know manufacturers need to make a profit, hence they will often make material selections based on cost. Many believe the lens mount on Sony cameras is such an example.

Also some suggest the Sony (supplied) variant suffers from light leaks, which is of particular concern for those of us who take very long exposures.

So, once again, Fotodiox to the rescue: http://goo.gl/EaYFdo

It is a simple matter to take off the two-piece Sony mount and replace it with the single (brass) Fotodiox one; and once fitted the A6000 looks like this:

Bottom line: from my perspective the simple conversion looks good and appears to do the job, ie lenses, especially large/heavy ones, appear to be more robustly connected to the the A6000 body.

The Story of an Image

This is the first post of a series of posts that try and tell the story of an image. Each post will show the in-camera RAW (JPEG version) and the final image.

Last year I was fortunate enough to travel back home to Albuquerque, from Salt Lake City, with a few business colleagues. This gave the chance to visit some of best National and State Parks in the US. One of the first stops was the Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah, which overlooks of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park.

The park covers 5,362 acres of high desert at an altitude of 5,900 feet. The plateau is surrounded by sheer cliffs 2,000 feet high with only a narrow neck of land 30 yards wide connecting the mesa to the main plateau. Thus it was easy for cowboys to simply fence off this narrow neck, and keep rounded up wild horses from running away.

There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.

According to one legend, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush.

This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they sadly died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

On this trip I had decided to only use my IR converted Canon 50D, with a 720nm conversion. The base image was taken on a tripod at ISO 100, F/7.1 and at a shutter speed of 1/40 sec as set by Magic Lantern's ETTR exposure option. I tend to not worry too much about white balance, as I’m shooting RAW, but I usually use a custom WB that I have set off of live grass. The base image looked like this:

When processing IR images I tend to favour monochrome processing, when I would make full use of Nik Silver Efex Pro II. On this occasion, however, I decided to use a ‘colour’ processing workflow, which went like this:

• In LR set up the basic exposure, ie adjust highlights and shadows, set white and black points, and adjust contrast, eg reduce slightly as the white and blacl point adjustments tend to increase contrast;
   
• Export to Photoshop and carry out a (red/blue) channel swap. I have two channel swap actions set up, one in RGB space and one in LAB space. On this occasion I chose the LAB route;
   
• Keeping in LAB mode, I undertook colour correction and introduced the colour look I wanted using the LAB a and b channels;
   
• I then use Tony Kuyper's TK Action panel (http://goodlight.us) to select various luminosity masks and carry out further adjustments using various adjustment layers, both in RGB and LAB colour spaces;

• Finally, converting to RGB space, I made use of Nik Color Effects to bring in the look I'm after, once again making use of a TK luminosity mask to limit the effect;

• BTW I also make full use of Sean Bagshaw's masking the mask technique - http://www.outdoorexposurephoto.com;

• I then imported the image back into LR, where I finished of the look I was after and cropped to a 16:9 framing; ending up with this image:

 And here is another image of Dead Horse Point created using the above workflow:

As can be seen above, the IR converted 50D provides an alternative view of the Colorado River’s red rocks. Creating ‘faux colour’ images, with natural looking skies, is a relatively simple process, thanks to a simple channel swap in Photoshop and the fantastic TK Action Panel. 

Four Views of an Urban Icon

During a recent trip to Washington DC I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Jefferson Memorial with a good friend who lives in DC.

Having seen how other photographers had approached the memorial I was convinced that a ‘Blue Hour’ shoot would be ideal. However, dinner and the DC weather decided otherwise!

Also, nobody had told all the other ‘tourists’ to stay away while I was in town!

I therefore decided to adopt a Long Exposure (Bulb) approach, from 30 to 240+ seconds, to eliminate/reduce the tourists; and see if Photoshop could ‘recover’ a Blur Hour feel.

Wiki tells us that The Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), one of the most important of the American "Founding Fathers". He was the main drafter and writer of the "Declaration of Independence", a member of the Continental Congress, Governor of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, an American minister to King Louis XVI and the Kingdom of France, first U.S. Secretary of State under the first President George Washington, the second Vice President of the United States under second President John Adams, and also the third President of the United States, (1801–1809).

Later he also was very proud of being the founder of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia. The neoclassical Memorial building on the "Tidal Basin" off the Washington Channel of the Potomac River was designed by the architect John Russell Pope and built by the Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction of the building began in 1939 and was completed in 1943. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947.

As I was travelling light, I made full use of my Sony A6000, my favourite wide angle lens, the Rokinon 14mm F/2.8, and, of course, the ND Throttle adapter to cover the LE exposures.

Image 1: The intent here was to capture the memorial reflecting in the Tidal Basin at Blue Hour: the reality was that the Tidal Basin was frozen and we were shooting in very overcast weather way after Blue Hour. Here is the RAW image, showing the frozen Tidal Basin, shot at ISO 100, using the Sony 18-200mm at 94mm, F/8 with a 30 second exposure.

Post processing involved first correcting for white balance and basic exposure in Lightroom. After exporting to Photoshop, I adjusted the image size aspect ratio to accommodate the reflection, fixed the sky, adjusted the look of the image using a few adjustment layers and Camera Raw, before exporting to the Flood plugin (http://www.flamingpear.com/flood.html) to counter the frozen Tidal Basin. I then finished the image off using TK-Actions and ALCE (http://pspanels.com/alce-advanced-local-contrast-enhancer/) ; before returning to Lightroom for final tweaking.

Image 2: The intent here was to show the Memorial and Jefferson statue from the ‘front’. The main challenge was accounting for the various tourists, so I decided on a 200 second exposure at F/8, using my Rokinon on the ND Throttle.

Post processing was similar to the first image, with the addition of using PTLens (http://www.epaperpress.com/ptlens/), but I wanted to go for a slightly ‘higher key’ view of the Memorial,

Image 3: The intent here was to create a square framing with a slight split tone effect. Once again I used a long exposure of 240 seconds to get rid of the tourists. The JPEG of the RAW image dramatically shows why looking at a JPEG on the camera underestimates the exposure. I deliberately used ETTR-based exposures, via the camera’s JPEG histogram, knowing that in post, the RAW would provide suitable ‘insurance’. Many will, I’m sure, be ‘shocked’ by the ‘overexposured’ look of the base image.

Post processing, once again, was similar to the above, less the sky and the flood effect!

Image 4: My vision for the final image was to get Jefferson book-ended between some of the most famous words in the world. As there were no tourists I decided on an ISO 100, 25 second exposure at F/11.

Post processing was relatively simple, although I attempted to ‘recover’ a Blue Hour look, as I did with the other images above.

Bottom line: In this post I have tried to bring together a few things: Photoshop can help you ‘time shift’, ie recover some semblance of Blue Hour; there are some really good plugins that can help with reflections, I use Flood; finally, it is worth exploring different looks, ie don’t make every image from a shoot ‘look the same’, eg explore spilt toning.