60230028; pentax K1000, film

60230028; pentax K1000, film, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

We live and work in a fast paced world of digital photography. Shooting film cameras allows us to slow down and see the image before we press the shutter, instead of checking the LCD. Manual film cameras take this one step further, putting us back in touch with the light in the frame, instead of letting the camera make most of the decisions.

My favorite film is black and white, low ISO (ASA for us old Kodak folks) film. Kodak Tmax 100 and Ilford 50 print films are two of my favorites as they provide a very fine grain and large yet subtle range between the very bright and dark areas of the image.

The number of labs that process black and white film is shrinking. I send my film to a lab in Southern California. They develop the film then scan the images to high resolution .JPG or TIFF files. I can have a CD mailed to me, or download images from an FTP site.

NCPS
North Coast Photo, Imaging and Frame, Carlsbad California
760-931-9840 http://www.northcoastphoto.com/

(thanks to Ken Rockwell www.kenrockwell.com for the suggestion of NCPS)

Working in a world of fast paced digital photography, shooting these old cameras and film ground me to where I began in photography, and provide a great amount of joy in the process!

60230005

60230005, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

I love film. I love old manual cameras.

Technical reasons; film has a much deeper range of dynamic light response than our small digital cameras. Forget the exact tech specs; this black and white image has much more detail in the very light and very dark areas than it would if I took this withy my full or crop frame digital sensors.

Non-Technical reasons; I love shooting black and white, and shooting film absolutely forces me to slow down and think about each shot. I try and see most shots before I take them, but with a digital camere I shoot then chimp (bend over like a monkey and stare at my screen.) With film I stare at the scene, then through the viewfinder. I work hard on manual focus, then move the camera about watching the analog light meter move up and down, gauging the exposure. Exposing for the light areas, I let the shadows fall where they may.

I shoot an old 1970's vintage Pentax K1000 first made in 1976. I have two lense; both Asahi, 50mm f1.4 and 28mm f2.8.

EXIF (ha!) Pentax K1000, Asahi 50mm f1.4, TMAX 100 print film shot at f2.8 and a fast 1/500 shutter to meter for sky +1 stop over mid grey. Sun is camera right.

ps; this is a photo of my father, taken in April 2012. 82 years old and still buiding homes for Habitat for Humanity. You go Dad!

Experience Counts

Experience Counts, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

In the harsh light of mid afernoon, I try and put the sun behind and off to one side of the face I am trying to photograph. I center or spot meter on the face, and let the background go over or underexposed, and pay attention to highights near the face.

This cowboy was watching the action at our local rodeo, and I photographed him using a Nikon D300 and Nikon 70-200 f2.8 at 200mm with VR set to active. Fortnately the backgroud was rather dark which allowed for a pleasant soft background with interesting detail. Post in CS5 and Nik Silver EFex and Color Efex plugins.

Indoor Gymnastics Photography

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This post was written in 2011 on an old blog platform; I have repeated it here so it can live on  , , 


These photos are taken at the USA Sports Winter Spectacular. Flash photography is not allowed as this distracts and endangers the athletes. Flash is a no-no in these competitions as it will distract the athletes and can  cause serious injury.  


There photos are taken without flash, using a very fast 85mm or 50mm f1.4 lense at 1600 to 3200 ISO at 1/500sec to 1/1000sec on a Nikon D700.  Speed in the lens is very important.  ("speed" is the ability of a lens to open to a very wide aperture.)  Even the fast and expensive f2.8 telephoto zoom lenses will struggle to perform well in this lighting; remember f1.4 is 2 stops, or double-double the amount of light as f2.8..  Slower f3.5 lens will have a difficult time working in this dim lighting.  


Full frame DLSR with lower (10mb to 16mb) resolution tend to handle higher ISO with less noise than crop frame or mega-pixel monster bodies with 24+ mp.  Simple reason is pixel size on the sensor; the smaller pixels found on higher resolution sensor have more trouble getting rid of heat, and heat equals noise.  Technology is changing all the time, and new (and expensive) bodies are being produced that have both very high pixel count resolution.  


Spot or center focus tends to work best or you might find your camera focusing and metering on the back wall or crowd while following these fast routines. I shoot in bursts as fast as the camera will allow.  Color balance and exposure is always an issue with Gym lighting.  Shooting in raw, presetting color balance and pre-shooting grey cards helps.


The good news is that new, less expensive "consumer" mid-mp cameras in the 16mb range are being produced that handle high ISO very well and take fantastic images.  "Consumer" means less expensive (typically under $1,000,) not cheap!  Professional bodies (typically $3,000 and up) are made tougher and heavier, and are geared towards full time photographers who want full control over the camera with minimal "auto" settings.  Don't lug one of these rocks around unless you need this type of manual control, the current "consumer" cameras are fantastic! 


All the tech stuff is great, but it helps to know the gymnast routines and get to the best spot possible to shoot.  As the “official” photographer at his particular event I was able to move about the periphery of the floor to take photos.  I never place myself where I block the parents view; these shows are for family to see these gymnasts. I do mange to bang my head on equipment as I move quickly around the gym, , , ,


Please visit my web page at Steve Loos Photography
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Blue Light Photography

Vets Hall, Hollister California

This image was taken for the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce for use in web and print media. I had seen many beautiful examples of "blue light" photography and conceptualized this image while looking at those beautiful evening light photographs.

Of course the weather decided not to cooperate, and with a deadline looming I was watching the sky every evening for several weeks. Finally one evening the sky to a deep crystal blue color with a few wispy white clouds. At the time I was sitting on my back deck and well into a bottle of red wine and a fine cigar when I looked up and saw these conditions forming. I apologized to my friends, grabbed a camera and tripod and off I went.

The challenge of photographing buildings is that in photographs they look like, well, buildings. There are many types of architectural photographs that catch my eye; close up detail shots, perspective shots taken from far away with a long lens, close up shots taken with a fancy tilt/shift lens. I learned of these “blue light” shots several years ago when I was taking a lot of real estate photos. The trick is to catch the light at some balancing point between the light on your subject and the light in the sky. For several minutes the light coming off your building subject will balance with the soft light of evening. And, if the sky is cloud free with no haze you will see this soft blue light just before dark.

Its best to frame your shot early, just as evening begins and then take a few shots every 3 to 5 minutes and to check the lighting.  The sky will move from being over exposed to balancing with the landscape. I set exposure by watching the histogram and the highlights for “blinkies.” 

I shot several images on the D700, 17-35mm f2.8, ISO400 at f8 and 17mm, trying ¼ to 2 second exposures.  The 1 second exposure came out the best and was used for single image processing.  I also shot several 1 stop bracket series adjusting exposure only.  I plugged these into Photomatrix Pro and used exposure fusion.  I ended up enjoying the single exposure best (I usually do over HDR) but both single and blended images were acceptable.  Post processing was performed in Photoshop CS6 and Nik Viveza for color, contract and selective exposure, then Nik Define for noise and Nik Sharpen.  A 1:2 crop was applied to the final image. 

Lazy Hazy Dazy

(click to view)

Lazy Hazy Dazy, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

View east looking into Panoche Valley from a ridge in the Diablo Range off of Panoche Road; the historic New Idria Mine and Clear Creek are located in the distant hills.  This was a very windy and hazy afternoon and I was not in this area looking for a landscape image.   I was working my way up a ridge looking for birds, but the wind had most birds tucked well into trees. 

As I was shooting I noticed the light and shadows painting interesting patterns on the hills, and the sunlight was mixing with the haze and forming interesting layers of the ridge lines that ran to the horizon.  The hazy scene was very relaxing and pleasant to view, and I was wondering if I could capture an image that allowed the viewer to enjoy this relaxing, hazy, sunlit view. 

I framed up this image using a 70-200 f2.8 VR at around 135mm and liked the frame.  This is a very “front to back” image, in that the ridge lines that run into the distance provide an important depth to the image.  I shot this with a wide angle lens and the look was dramatic but the wide shot highlighted the valley and not the light and shadows in the distance. 

In post process I moved this image into black and white using Nik Silver Efex and added a bit of sharpness as well as enhancing the blue tones a bit; the black and white process removed a color cast caused by the haze, but the color version was pleasant also.

I learned a few lessons here.  My first assumption when viewing this hazy scene is that a landscape image would not be very appealing.  Only after sitting and enjoying the view did I realize the interplay between the haze, light and shadows was creating a really cool affect on the hills in the distance.  Also the urge to grab a wide angle lens on this vista was strong, but the wide shot distracted the eye from the really nice parts of this view, namely the light and shadows in the distance.  So, don’t be afraid to try a shot on a hazy daytime scene, and be creative with the lens in your bag.  Don’t limit yourself to the wide angle lens when viewing wide angle vistas; sometimes beauty is in the small details even when viewing huge expansive views.  

Also I was shooting in full manual mode and made sure the highlights in the clouds were not over exposed.  I did not use a split grad filter as the shadows in the hills contain enough detail to be interesting, and I prefer the dramatic difference between the bright cloud and dark shadow.  Graduated filters and HDR processing are great tools for handing huge differences between light and shadow in the frame, but consider leaving most of the shadow in place if it is part of the view.  Sometimes letting the shadows fall to a black silhouette can be a dramatic affect.

Storm over Gablians

Storm over Gablians, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

This photo was taken last week during one of our many storms.  I walked up the hill behind my home and shot this image looking east towards a spectacular thunderstorm.  The shafts of rain and sun under the cloud were mesmerizing, and I’d hoped the photo did the view honor.

I did not use a grad filter and often do not on these storms as I like the dark, ominous feeling under the clouds.  If I can capture event a little detail beneath the cloud without over exposing the cloud tops I usually don’t use a grad filter.  In this image the sun was off my right shoulder and much of the rain beneath the cloud was in sunlight ~ a lucky combination that allowed the camera to capture detail in shadows and rain beneath the cloud without over exposing the white tops of the storm.

This image was shot in raw and use Adobe Camera Raw to post process for color and contrast; no HDR or double process was used.  Mid-tone contrast was enhanced by balancing fill, blacks, brightness and exposure in ACR; a combination of levels and curves can achieve similar results in JPG process in Photoshop (most process software can adjust levels and curves, or look for shadow/midtone/highlight adjustments.)  Try adjusting mid tones before working on shadows and highlights and pay attention to clipping (blowing out highlights and driving shadows to pure black.) 

Then the photo was loaded into Nik Software Silver Efex; a great program for converting photos to black and white.  I played with various settings, and ended up enhancing contrast and adding the “selenia” overlay which gave the image the blue / metallic feel.