Rainy Day HDR

Rainy day HDR

Once I a while I play with HDR, but not often.  All images are art, and a such they each have their own beauty, but I don’t connect with heavily processed HDR images.  This was a day where clouds would be a challenge; the clouds were low and flat and very bright, and it would be hard to retain much detail in the mountains while keeping the cloud exposure within reason.  I did not have any split grads (oops) and so shot some bracketed images and called it “in the can!” (sorry, have watched too many Peter Lik shows lately!)

This is one of my favorite drives here in San Benito County.  Browns Valley is a historical cattle ranch deep in the rural area of the mountains.  Browns Valley Road winds through the valley before climbing a steep ridge and dropping down into the Panoche Valley.  Along this ridge Bald and Golden Eagles, as well as Peregrine Falcon are a common site.  At just over 3,000 feet above sea level you can find snow in these hills. 

Time lapse made easy!

Time Lapse Photography

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Many new cameras have the ability to shoot time lapse.  Time lapse is simply a series of still images put into a movie; a movie is nothing more than a series of still images. Take a series of 500 still JPG images, load them into a movie maker software, and hit "make my movie" its that simple!  This post is a short overview to the time lapse photography; tons of free information can be found on-line, or just send me an email!  

How to setup camera?

Tripod:  the camera must be on a sturdy tripod, and can not be moved or bumped during the photography

Focus: put the camera in manual focus; this way the focus will not be int erupted by someone very close to the camera as in the painters above.  Take a test shot to check focus before shooting

Auto program without flash:  let your camera do the work; aperture or shutter priority can be better choices at times but when your starting out auto is fine; I shot this movie in auto.

Image Format:  shoot basic JPG files in normal mode.  These movies are viewed on small screens so using a large photo file size is not necessary and just slows things down.  

Battery and Memory Card:  fresh battery of course, and format your memory card prior to taking photos.  Its much easier to pull large amounts of photos off when there are no other photos.  

My Setup:

Nikon D5100 + Nikon 17-70 f3.5 mid zoom at 17mm, manual focus

Auto program mode, Nikon D-lighting set to high, Nikon picture control set to vivid

Manual focus (checked in live view)

Interval shooting every 15 seconds, I let the camera run 3 hours while the work was done.

Movie clip in windows movie maker (no music I know, will add some later.)

What interval between frames?

This depends on what you are filming.  The deck work above could have been shot every 30 seconds for a jerky movie (lots of movement between frames,) or every 1 second for a smooth movie (less movement between frames); I shot at 15 second intervals.   If you are shooting for a very long time (say 8 hours) the interval between frame becomes more important; if your are not careful you will end up with way to many images.  Here are two examples:

* 1 frame per second is 60 frames per minute.  60 frames per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 8 hours = 28,800 images!

* 15 frames per second is 4 frames per minute: 4 frames per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 8 hours = 1,920 images ~ much better!

How long will the movie be?

Most movies play back at 24 frames per second. (some at 30fps)  You can slow this down to make your movie longer, but it will be more jerky.  

Divide the number of frames by the playback frame rate per second:

* 900 frames divided by 30 frames per second = 30 second movie

* 900 frames divided by 10 frames per second = 90 second movie

How to make the movie?

I used windows movie maker;  simple and free software included with windows since XP.  I also use Apple Quick Time Pro ($40 ~ and more options,) and Picassa a free Google product.  

Each program has its own procedure, but in a nutshell you go the folder with all your images and drag those images into the movie program.  You can add a song from you hard disk if you like - there is an "add music button" in each program.  The click auto "make my movie" button (slightly different name in each software, you get the picture, er ~ uh, movie!)  

And just like that you made a movie!

a quiet place

a quiet place, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

I shoot high end DLSR’s for my professional photography work, and while those cameras and lenses are absolutely incredible pieces of equipment, they do not “make” better photographs.

I enjoy shooting old manual film cameras for landscape, but on this hot afternoon I had only my smart phone, a 2 year old Driod X. This is a beautiful hike up a 1,500ft peak, and offers sweeping views of San Diego Bay at the top. This particular trail wanders through thick brush and small creeks before sending you up (straight bloody up) the side of the mountain. On the way down, in the soft light of late afternoon, I took a rest at this beautiful little stream. The scene was beautiful, and I framed and snapped this shot using my phone. The light was soft and even and the camera did a great job of capturing the soft details in the shades.

I am a great fan of following the work of photographers from around the world on websites such as Flickr and Aminus3. The fantastic, creative, beautiful images posted by photographers from around the world have nothing to do with equipment and everything to do with vision and art. I am as happy with this little image snapped with a cell phone as I am with any taken with my expensive cameras.

I converted the color digital image to black and white in a two step process; first I loaded the image to Photoshop and opened in Nik Software Color Efex 4, and use a “Glamour Glow” Filter to saturate and contrast the image in kind of a dream like way. I learned this technique on Moose Petersons website www.moosepeterson.com, but take it one step further. Once I have saturated the image, I open in Nik Software Silver Efex 2 and convert to black and white, and use the controls to amplify blacks, sharpen and add contrast and border. I then save as a Photoshop file, flatten and save as high quality JPG.

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, , , ,


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