Tag: photography

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HDR Photos [Photoshop and Luminance HDR]

HDR Photos

It’s been a while since I posted anything about HDR imaging, and I realized that I never put Adobe Photoshop CS5 to the test. I did try creating an HDR image with CS4, but was disappointed with the results…

In the image above you can see my final output of an image. On the left side is all Photoshop, and on the right side is Luminance HDR (formerly “Qtpfsgui” for you old timers.)

Now for both of these images I did the HDR+ thing I talked about a while back, where I blend an HDR image with a normal exposure. Personally, I like the way those turn out, so it’s pretty much how I do HDR.

Pewaukee Lake

Here’s the image from Photoshop. (View it large at Flickr.)

Pewaukee Lake

Here’s the image from Luminance HDR. (View it large at Flickr.)

I think the Photoshop image looks better in the sky… it looks a bit cleaner, while the Luminance HDR image has a little bit of banding going on. You can also see some differences in the trees, and the water, but I think the rocks in the foreground really show the difference, and I prefer what Luminance HDR did.

This is only my first attempt at comparing the two applications, so it’s not entirely scientific. I did go into each file and tweak it a bit to try to match them closely as far as the color balance, but the detail is where the difference is most apparent. I also didn’t see any way to adjust the tonemapping in Photoshop, while Luminance HDR has a ton of sliders and options to twiddle with.

I suppose next time I could combine the two final images into a ‘final final’ image that would be some sort of SUPER HDR+ image. (I’ll add that to the ‘to do’ list.)

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Analog Photography!?

Skylark

It’s been a while since I thought about my film days, and honestly, I don’t know the last time I’ve use the term “digital photography” when describing “photograpy” but there are still people who shoot film, RachelK is one of them, and another is Troy Freund.

Troy wanted to let me know that he’s involved with an Analog Photo Seminar at Cardinal Stritch University on October 9, 2011. Here’s the details:

This seminar will feature presentations and demos by Wisconsin film-based fine-art photographers. Nick Olson, Dr. Yong-ran Zhu and Mark Brautigam will present on their experiences in large-format photography. Over the lunch-break, I will talk about the experience of working with Leica rangefinder cameras.

Each photographer will give a 30-40 minute presentation of their work, followed by a short Q&A session. The afternoon will be spent with each photographer giving a hands-on demonstration of their working methods.

See Troy’s blog post for all the details.

If you’ve got any questions, I’m sure you can hit up @midwestphoto on Twitter and he’d be happy to answer them…

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Vivitar 285

Vivitar 285

I recently got a Vivitar 285 flash.

Yeah, you could say I’m pretty excited about it. :)

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Mobile Phone Photography

With so many people carrying phones with them almost everywhere, and with these phones having better and better cameras, and with these phones having the ability to run applications that use these cameras, Mobile Phone Photography is a genre worth recognizing.

(I’m mainly going to touch on iPhone related stuff, but other platforms have their own apps and features.)

The iPhone camera is simple as heck, you launch it, you frame your shot on the screen, and you push a button. It’s probably the simplest camera you’ve ever used, and with good reason. There are numerous iPhone apps that allow you to use the camera to take a photo and immediately upload it to some online service such as Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I’m not going to cover every iPhone photo app out there, but I’m just going to outline a few of the apps I’ve used on the iPhone.

bestcamera

Best Camera from well-known photographer Chase Jarvis is a step-up from the basic camera app with a set of effects you can apply to your photos. You can shoot the photo directly in Best Camera (or open a photo from the library on your phone) and apply a number of effects and then choose to just save it or email it, or upload it to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or thebestcamera,com.The upload feature is simple to use, and I like it so much I often use it even when I’ve take a photo and modified it with other applications. Best Camera also lets you view images other have uploaded to the site. (Best Camera is $2.99 at the App Store.)

hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is, well, how do I describe it… it’s like an old-timey 1970’s cheap plastic camera that turns your iPhone into a toy. Sort of. I first heard about this app when a co-worker mentioned she knew the guys behind it. If you’re a design-nerd, there’s a lot to love about this one… and if you’re just interested in an interesting camera experience, you’ll find that too. Hipstamatic is this “virtual camera” which hints at a future where more and more of the camera will be customized using software. I’ve heard the guys on TWIP talk about this idea of “a camera with a sensor and a lens mount, where everything interesting happens in software, possibly from 3rd parties” and this is like an early view of that. Hipstamatic also features the ability to swap (virtual) lenses, film, and flashes, which, when combined, create unique images. (Hipstamatic also features the ability to buy more lenses and accessories directly in the application, which is brilliant from a software developers point-of-view.) One annoyance about Hipstamatic is that you can’t open an existing image taken with other camera apps and apply effects to them, it’s sort of an all-inclusive affair where you take the photo in Hipstamatic and you process it there. (To the developer’s credit, I think this is intentional, but it annoys me.) Also, like many of these apps on the iPhone, it can’t easily work with the full resolution image, but often uses a scaled-down version, due to memory constraints and what not. (These are things that should go away in the future, as hardware/software advances.) Hipstamatic also has a community, and contests, and if you really want to get into, well, you can really get into it. See? Here’s a cat photo I took. (Hipstamatic is $1.99 at the App Store. Base-price, without additional accessories.)

photoshop

Photoshop.com Mobile is a great little free app that lets you do minor edits (contrast, saturation, crop, straighten, etc.) and apply effects to your images, and save them to Adobe’s Photoshop.com web site. Personally I really don’t care about the Photoshop.com web site, but Photoshop.com Mobile is a free app with a few nice features, so if you want to install it and try it out, it’s pretty painless. (Photoshop.com Mobile is FREE at the App Store.)

plasticbullet

Plastic Bullet is a great new app from Red Giant Software that lets you take a photo, or select one from your library, and apply effects. Again, we’re going after that “plastic toy camera” idea that is all the rage (See Hipstamatic above.) Plastic Bullet is simple, simple, simple. It shows you 4 completely random variations of your original image, and then you can either choose one, or generate 4 new ones. It’s never the same twice, so if you see one you like, save it! Stu Maschwitz is the main guy behind Plastic Bullet, and while it doesn’t do all the fancy uploading and sharing stuff, there’s a Flickr Group, and maybe keeping it simple like that is good enough. (Plastic Bullet is $1.99 at the App Store.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look at Mobile Phone Photography on the iPhone. It’s an interesting future, and I’ve got a few follow-up posts planned, so stay tuned!

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Cactus Wireless Flash Triggers

I picked up a set of Cactus Wireless Flash Triggers from Gadget Infinity many months back, and never got to review them. Now seems like a good time…

The first thing to know is that they are cheap. This is the good part, and the bad part, depending on how you look at it. In the photo studio at work we use Pocket Wizards. They are high quality wireless flash triggers that work properly every time. They’re also about 10 times the cost of the Cactus triggers. If you are a professional photographer who wants close to 100% reliable operation, Pocket Wizards are the choice. (At least, that’s what every review tells me, as well as my limited experience using them.)

Of course for the Strobist on a budget, you’ve got to get started somewhere. I did a lot of reading in the Strobist group on Flickr (and elsewhere) on the Cactus triggers, and finally decided that for under $35 I should find out for myself. I ended up ordering the V2s (version 2) triggers as the v4 (version 4) triggers were not available at the time. (These triggers are also often called “ebay triggers” as you can get cheap, wireless triggers on ebay quite easily, but I did order directly from Gadget Infinity.)

My first tests involved putting in the batteries and pressing the “test” button on the transmitter. I’d press the button maybe 50 times, and it would make the LED on the receiver light up maybe 30 times. Not exactly great. These were all at close range too, so distance was not a factor in these tests. I then connected the receiver to an old Sunpak auto 433 D and took some real photos. Again, the results were good but not great. It would fire most of the time, but on occasion it would go maybe 4 or 5 times in a row without firing. The distance for these tests was maybe 25 feet.

Cactus Wireless Flash Triggers

Cactus Wireless Flash Triggers V2s with a new Panasonic CR2 battery. Inset shows a rubber band to help keep the battery cover in place.

I did a bit more reading of reviews and comments around the web (there’s a great one here, by the way) and one comment I found mentioned that replacing the batteries would help with the reliability. I ended up getting some new batteries from DealExtreme, a 5 pack of Panasonic CR2s for under $7.

A new battery in the receiver made all the difference for me. I’ve been shooting with a Sunpak auto 144 D and a Sunpak auto 433 AF with good results. Again, keep in mind that I’m not a pro doing half-day photo shoots with models, but just a guy who wants to learn more about off-camera lighting techniques on a tight budget. (I’ve tested the triggers with our studio strobes via a sync cable plugged into the receiver, and that works great as well.)

Just for fun I tried the “test” button again to light up the LED on the receiver, and out of 200+ tests, I only saw the LED not light up twice. Much better results than before the new battery was installed.

Keep in mind, these are the V2s models, not the newer V4 models. I’m actually pretty satisfied with the v2s for now and see no need to upgrade to the V4s. With everything right in the world, the V4s should be an improvement on the V2s’ but things are not always right in the world.

If I had to sum up it, I’d say the Cactus Triggers are “good but not great.” They’re definitely a good value, and a great way to get started in off-camera lighting. Heck, even if you do have Pocket Wizards or another well-known name in wireless triggers, these Cactus triggers might make a cheap backup solution in case of an emergency.

(Just a note, I actually have the V2s model, not the V2. I believe the V2s is a newer version of the V2.)