An Evening Among Friends

D7000 + 70-200

I took photos for my friend's party.  It was an intimate affair for close family friends, with approximately 60 people, at a hotel.  In this post, I'd like to share some of the photos and give my thoughts on the cameras and lenses I used.

I used three cameras: the Nikon D600, Nikon D7000 and Fuji S5 Pro.  I used a clone of the black rapid strap (reviewed here) while the other camera was on my neck.  The setup worked well, allowing me to access any of the three cameras quickly.  The only thing was, by the end of the evening, my lower back was starting to ache, probably from the weight of the 70-200.

I used several lenses:

Nikon 28-70 2.8D and Sigma 35 1.4 (with the D600)

Nikon 70-200 VR II and for a few macro shots, the Nikon 28-105 (with the D7000)

Tokina 11-16 and Tokina 10-17 fisheye (with the S5).

I also brought the Nikon 85 1.8G but did not get to use it.  The party was in a ballroom with beige walls and a white ceiling, approximately 25 feet high.

A couple of weeks before the party,  I asked my friend to check out the place for me so I was aware of the high ceiling and the general layout of the room.  I brought my handheld umbrella but found that I was able to use bounce flash without problems.  So I just used bounce flash and my hand as a flag, the way I normally do.  In retrospect, using a black foamie thing or a similar device would have been better for the D7000 and 70-200.  That combination was quite heavy to hold with just one hand while using my other hand as a flag.

Nikon 70-200 VR II

A while back, I had bought a 70-200 VR I.  However, I was not too impressed by the sharpness or the image stabilization.

For this event, I wanted a fast telephoto, and rented the Nikon 70-200 VR II.  I had never used it before.  I was very impressed.  It focused quickly and accurately.  Most of the shots I got were sharp.  I was concerned that the effective focal length would be too long for the D7000 (because of the APS-C crop factor).  However, it was about right.

D7000 + 70-200

D7000 + 70-200

D7000 + 70-200

Nikon 28-70 2.8D

This lens is the predecessor of the 24-70 2.8G.  I had used it before on the Nikon D3 and was pleased with it, but I sold it when I got the 24-70.  Later, I found that I was not using the 24-70 much so I sold that one too.  For this party, I was thinking of renting the 24-70, but I found the 28-70 for a very good price, so I bought that one instead.

I knew the 28-70 was great on the 12mp Nikon D3 but I didn't know how it would perform on the much more demanding 24mp sensor of the Nikon D600.  I was pleasantly surprised that it was every bit as sharp as the 24-70.  Even the focus was also fast and accurate (though louder).  Another surprise was that I found it could focus much more closely than the specs say.  The minimum focusing distance is listed as 2.3 feet.  However, I found it could focus as close as one foot, which seems to be closer than the minimum focusing distance of the 24-70.

Anyhow, the 28-70 performed marvelously at the party, giving me sharp shots again and again.

D600 + 28-70

D600 + 28-70

Sigma 35 1.4

I wasn't planning to use the Sigma for the party, but at the last minute, I brought it with me.  I'm glad I did.  At one point, when I felt I had enough 'safe' shots from the 28-70, I decided to use the Sigma to change up the shots.  It got me some of the better shots from the evening, as you'll see below.  The depth of field is noticeably more shallow, making the subjects a little more prominent.

While using the Sigma, I did not feel too limited with the focal length, partly because if I wanted a tight shot I could use the 70-200 on the D7000 (although at that point, I did wish that I had been using the 70-200 on a full frame instead).

The one thing about the Sigma is that the focus was a little off, as I've noted in my preview.  The shots were still usable but some of them will not withstand zooming to 100%.  I'm hoping the Sigma USB dock will help me correct the AF (the USB dock was delayed and the Nikon version will be available in June).

D600 + Sigma 35 1.4

D600 + Sigma 35 1.4

D600 + 35 1.4

D600 + 35 1.4

Tokina 10-17

I used this lens more than I expected and was glad to have it with me.  However, I did wish that the S5 had better high ISO capability because the 10-17 goes only as wide as f/3.5.

S5 + 10-17 fisheye

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How to Synchronize Multiple Cameras

I took photos for my friend, whose parents were celebrating their 50th anniversary.  I used three cameras for this party (the Nikon D600, Nikon D7000 and Fuji S5 Pro).  The cameras are usually not completely synchronized.  When editing the shots, this can be a headache.  Fortunately, synchronizing multiple cameras is easy enough in Lightroom.



1. Take a shot of a clock (such as my computer's clock) with each camera.  You can do this before or after taking the photos.  You don't even need to do it on the same day, although ideally you would do this before importing the photos.  Note the exact time shown on the clock in the clock photo (not the file's timestamp).

2. I import the photos into Lightroom (including the clock photo).

3. Select the photos from that particular camera only.  There are several ways to do this:
a.  If you imported the photos together with the clock photo, you just have to select everything that you imported.
b.  If you imported the photos separately from the clock photo, switch to library view and change the sort method to added order instead of the default capture time.  Then you can easily select the photos that belong to a particular camera.  Add the clock photo to the selection using ctrl+click.
c.  You can also use a metadata search to look for the photos from a particular camera.

4.  Switch to the Library module.  While still keeping the particular camera's photos selected (including the clock photo), highlight the clock photo by clicking on it.

5. Click on the Metadata menu option and select "Edit Capture Time...".  Select the first option, "Adjust to a specified date and time".  Specify the time shown on the clock.  Click on "Change All".  (Note: if it says Change instead of Change All, you most likely deselected the other photos.  Go back to step 3.)

That's all there is to it.

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Lab Experiment on Three Koi

Three Koi

Happy Memorial Day!

Today, I'm going to discuss a Lab experiment on three koi.  Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the making of this post :)


Here is how the shot above looked originally:

Quite different from the final result, and something that I probably would not have known how to do a few months ago.

My son and I were watching some koi in a pond.  I let my son take some pictures with my camera while I fed the fish.  He used the Nikon D7000 and the Nikon 85 1.8G.  The shot above stood out to me because of the symmetry.  I also found it interesting because the three koi looked like the Chinese character for the number three ("san").

The shot would have looked much better if I had a circular polarizer so that the sky's reflection on the water could be minimized.  I worked on trying to reduce the reflection in postprocessing.

The obvious way to reduce the reflection would be to change the black point and/or increase the contrast.  Here is how the shot would have looked:

Here, in Lightroom 4, I raised the contrast +66 and decreased the black to -50.  Indeed, the reflections have been drastically reduced.  However, the side effect of altering the contrast and black point is that the koi's colors are now unnaturally intense.  Fortunately, there is a way to change the contrast without changing the color.

INTRODUCING LAB
One of the helpful folks on the Flickr D7100 Group told me about Lab. Lab is a colorspace similar to like CMYK, RGB (including sRGB and Adobe RGB).  It is one of the modes available in Photoshop.  Unlike the more familiar RGB and CMYK, Lab's channels are very different: Lightness, Channel a and Channel b.  Lightness is luminosity, i.e. how bright a pixel is.  Channel a is the magenta/green continuum.  Channel b is the blue/yellow continuum.  I'm still new to Lab, so I don't dare try to explain how the channels work in detail.  Suffice to say for purposes of the editing here, the important concept is that in Lab mode, the luminosity information is separate from the color information.

I exported the image into Photoshop CS6.  In Photoshop, I changed the mode from RGB to Lab.  I first tried changing the black level, making sure to apply the change only to the Lightness channel:

In RGB mode, changing the black level changes the color, making them more intense

In Lab mode, changing the black level in the L channel does not change the color

The result is already a significant improvement from changing the black level in RGB mode.  However, changing the black level made the midtones darker.  I therefore changed the contrast level instead.  As you can see below, increasing the contrast while in RGB mode intensifies the colors.  In Lab mode, the exact same change in contrast does not affect the color.

RGB

Lab

I wanted to reduce the reflections further.  Fortunately, the reflection has a distinct color.  The reflection is blue (because it's a reflection of the sky) whereas blue doesn't appear anywhere else in the image.  I therefore applied a levels adjustment, but limited the change to reflection using color range.  I added a levels adjustment layer, clicked on the mask tab, clicked on color range, then clicked the eyedropper on a reflection.  I increased the fuzziness to 50.

Going back to the levels dialog box, I moved the black point to the right to purposely crush the blues into blackness.

The reflection has been significantly reduced, but the colors of the koi are still the same.

To further refine the reflection, I feathered the levels adjustment by 5 pixels, to make the adjustment smoother:

without feathering

feathered by 5 pixels

I flattened the image and converted the image back to RGB, and sent it back to Lightroom.  In Lightroom, I changed the color of the leaf on the lower right color to a yellowish hue to make it more similar to the other colors in the image.  I also added a graduated filter to darken the lower left corner.  I also cropped the image a bit for better symmetry.

I felt the colors were just a little too bold, so I reduced the saturation a tad.  Here again is the final image:

Like I said, I'm still very new to Lab.  To help me learn more, I got Dan Margulis' book Photoshop LAB Color.  I don't think you can find a better book or better expert on the subject.  I have to warn you that Lab can be very complicated (that's why I changed the color of the leaf in Lightroom instead of Photoshop through Lab) but it has many applications, such as color substitution, sharpening, noise reduction, and many others.  If you are interested in learning to use Lab, please consider supporting our blog by buying it through our Amazon affiliate link below. Thanks!

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Coming up: Nikon 28-70 2.8 vs. Tamron 28-75 2.8

UPDATE: the Tamron 28-75 and Nikon 28-70 comparison is here.  The party photos are here:

This weekend I will be taking event photos for a friend.  Her parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  I initially planned to rent a Nikon 24-70 2.8G (I already sold mine) and a Nikon 70-200 VR II (sold my VR I too).  However, on eBay I came across a listing for a Nikon 28-70 2.8D (reviewed here).  It was listed for less than $800, whereas I usually see it for around $9xx, $1000, or more.  I ordered it and received it yesterday.  To my relief, it is as described and so far it works very well.  In fact, it even comes with the original lens case in great condition.  The serial number on the lens starts with "US" so I know it is not gray market.  Thank goodness.

I will be posting a comparison between the 28-70 and the Tamron 28-75, with an emphasis on its use for full frame (FX), as less expensive alternatives to the excellent but pricier 24-70 (reviewed here).  (Of course I will also do posts about the event photos and the Nikon 70-200 VR II.)

FYI, I found out the seller from whom I bought it (daniphotoelectronics) another listing for another 28-70, which looks to be in a similar condition, for an even lower price.  The seller also offers a 14-day return period.  I'm not affiliated with the seller but am posting it here in case anyone's interested.  Of course, caveat emptor.

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Phone Photography, Mirorrless Happiness And The OM-D EM-6

Say hello to my new phone. I have been a faithful Samsung Galaxy S owner since the series was first introduced more than three years ago, I owned the original Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy S III, and now the latest Galaxy S4 (yes, Samsung ditched the Roman numerals). You see, here in Egypt we don't have the concept of carrier locked phones and 2 year contracts, phones are usually (97%) sold unlocked, and you have zero obligation to stay with a single carrier, that's why there is a huge market for buying and selling used phones, and that's what I do, once a new model is announced, I make a deal with someone to buy my phone, and the exchange date is once I have the new phone in my hands. People like to buy from me because I treat my phones really well, and they rarely have a scratch on them, despite never using any screen protectors or covers.

But we're not going to talk about phones all day now, are we? Hit the jump to go back to photography.


PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY
 

So why am I talking about phones? The fact is that phones are available within an arm's reach 99% of the time, and nowadays they have good enough cameras for casual snaps in good light, and even in less than good light in some cases. I have used all sorts of famous camera phones in the past (Nokia N95, N86, N73, Sony Ericsson K750i, K810i, W910i, K850i, C905, etc...) and I used to blog about them, but they rarely produced pictures that impressed me.

Even by today's standards, the previous generation of 8MP phones (Galaxy S3, iPhone 4 & 5, etc...) didn't impress me on a pixel level, they didn't respond well to exposure adjustments in lightroom, and they didn't provide me with enough resolution to crop a tighter composition given their fixed 28mm equivalent lenses. But come see my S4 here, when they announced that it will feature a 13 MP sensor, I thought "ok, here's one more victim of the megapixel race". I didn't think I'd see good quality pixels, and that noise (or noise reduction smearing, depends on the manufacturer's JPEG engine tweaking) would be astronomical.

But when I used my phone's camera on a recent sea-side trip, I was quite impressed, see that picture above? A casual snap of a fish restaurant setup inside a man-made lake. Now look below to see a 100% crop.

What do you think? I am indeed very impressed with the image quality in good light, especially given that this is a 13 MP teeny weeny sensor, and I finally have enough room to get a useful crop when needed. What impressed me even more is the shadow recovery, it is no where near comparable to a RAW file from the RX100 or the OMD, but is quite good compared to all the phones I used before.

One more useful feature is the panorama mode, I tested both the RX100 which has it's own panoramic mode and my phone, and the phone came on top each time, it was way easier to follow up the required movement, and the phone stitched the images much better, click on the picture below to see the full 10,000 x 1,600 pixel wide panorama (it's a 6 MB file).

And on a final note, here's a quick comparison between the dynamic range of my phone and a RAW file shot using the famous sensor of the Sony RX100. The first image is taken with the phone, and was given my best efforts on lightroom, the fake tilt-shift effect was done with the gradient tool.

Now here's the same location, same timing, but shot with the incredibly versatile RX100, it has proven to be a very powerful tool as long as you're not shooting a lot of portraits.

PANALEICA 25MM F/1.4, AGAIN

Remember that shot? You saw it in my "Tale of 7 Cameras, And One Subject" post.

I got a lot of positive feedback on this picture, it was taken using the 5D Mark III, the 50mm f/1.4 and the Canon 600EX flash, to me, a great deal of the appeal of this picture is a result of the colored out of focus areas, the lighting direction of the bounced flash, and the mix ratio between the available light and the bounced flash.

So I went there again with my 50mm equivalent MFT lens, the Panaleica 25mm f/1.4, and decided to try and see if I will get similar looking shots, but unfortunately I forgot to take my flash with me, so I shot available light only (i.e. not that good).

What do you think? All three pictures were shot wide-open, and I quite admire the rendering of that lens, no regrets there, it deserves each of it's 499 dollars.

By the way, see that last picture with the two eggs? My brother took this picture himself, he got some eggs, drew the faces, and then killed one of the eggs as you can see, needless to say, it was a mess.

Before I skip this topic, here's one more Panaleica shot, don't ask me why, but I like it, a lot.

LUMIQUEST GEL HOLDERS

I have been using the LumiQuest gel holders for a long time now, I have one for each of my flashes. I don't take them off even when I'm not using gels. I was taking flash lit photos in full daylight @ 1/2000 sync speed using the RX100, I had one YN-560II flash inside the LumiQuest Softbox III triggered optically using the RX100 popup flash, the flash power was set to full power, since I wanted to kill most of the daylight, and when I finished I saw those burning marks on the gel holder, nothing melted on the gel holder, but now it permanently features those ugly burn marks.


THE OM-D EM-6

Remember my EP-5 announcement post? I said that the EP-5 gave me a very good glimpse on some of the features that will be included in the next OMD iteration, according to 43rumors.com there is more:

• The new OMD will have the same viewfinder quality as the just announced VF-4.
• It will have phase detection on sensor.
• It will probably be announced between August and September.
• More surprises are coming regarding the EM-6.

Here are the three links I used to get this information, here, here and here. If those rumors are true, I suspect we will have another great hit in our hands soon. I already love my EM-5 and I consider it one of the best cameras I have ever owned, but I am still bugged by some missing stuff, so in the next update I hope/expect to see the following:

• At least the same sensor quality as the existing OMD.
• More dynamic range, especially the highlights recovery.
• Sharper & larger EVF, but that's almost certain.
• Higher resolution rear LCD.
• True focus tracking that works, hopefully this will happen with the built-in phase detection.
• Better video features: touch to focus, 14x magnification, manual audio control, 24p and 60 fps.
• Higher max. shutter speed 1/8000, almost certain similar to the EP-5.
• Lower base ISO.
• WiFi & GPS.

Will they do it? I certainly hope so, we will know in a few months, if not before.

This brings us to the end of this post, I am sorry if it is a long one, but I don't have enough time to sit down in front of my PC, and post regularly, that's why I gathered lots of topics in this post, maybe when the new iPad is announced, I will get one and post more frequently using the brilliant Blogsy client, but you have to ask Apple to hurry up and release it already. :-)

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Tamron 24-70 VC earns DPR Gold

DPReview posted their review of the Tamron 24-70 VC, giving it their prestigious Gold award: http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tamron-24-70mm-2p8-vc-usd/

DPR's evaluation agrees with DXO's, which found that the Tamron was "impressive," and even outresolved the vaunted Nikon 24-70 2.8G (15 vs. 14 perceptual mp). http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Publications/DxOMark-Reviews/Tamron-SP-24-70mm-f-2.8-Di-VC-USD-review-A-uniquely-versatile-pro-worthy-alternative/Comparisons

(In fact, in DXO's comparison, the Tamron bested the Nikon even though the Tamron was on the Canon 5D2 which has 21mp while the Nikon 24-70 was on a D3X which has 24mp.)

The most significant drawback noted by DPR is vignetting, which for some purposes like portraits, is not a big deal.

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Settings for Lighting Scenarios

When I'm using flash, I have a usual starting point for certain scenarios.  A couple of them can be programmed into the custom U1 and U2 settings of the Nikon D600, D7000 and D7100.  Hit the jump for my specific settings.


I have four typical lighting scenarios:
1. Mixing ambient and flash: flash as fill.  The primary light source is the existing light.  I'm only using flash to supplement the existing light, usually to add a little fill to the shadows.
2. Mixing ambient and flash: flash as key.  There is still some ambient light, but it's not bright enough to serve as the key light, therefore I am using flash as the key light.
3. Maximizing flash.  In this situation, I'm in bright outdoor conditions and I'm using flash either to supplement the existing light or to replace it with flash.  In either case, I'm concerned about maximizing the output from my flash.
4. Controlled setup.

FLASH AS FILL
When I'm using flash as fill, I don't use U1 or U2.  These are my settings:

• Max sync speed: 1/320 Auto FP.
• Auto ISO: on.  Minimum shutter speed: 1/125 (D7000) or auto - fastest (D600, D7100), i.e. 2 stops faster than the 1/focal length rule.  I like using a high shutter speed to increase the probability of sharp shots.
• Minimum flash shutter speed: 1/125.
• Exposure compensation for flash: background only.

FLASH AS KEY
I set this as my U2 mode for quick access.  Note: I use U2 more often than U1 because it's next to the PASM modes.  At around sunset, the amount of ambient light usually dips and if I have been shooting with the settings that I use for flash as fill, the shutter speed usually becomes too slow.  So slow that it typically results in flash blur.  To remedy this, what I usually do is underexpose the ambient, so that the primary light source becomes the flash, and the effective shutter speed is the flash duration.

Here are the settings I use:

• Sync speed: 1/250 (D600: 1/200).  I turn off HSS because I need all the flash power I can get.
• Exposure mode: aperture priority.
• Auto ISO: on.  Minimum shutter speed: 1/15 (D7000) or auto - slower (D600, D7100).  Because ambient is sufficiently underexposed, the flash will freeze the subject.  It's ok for the shutter speed to be slow.  However, I don't want it to be so slow that the background will get smeared due to camera shake.  1/15 is as slow as I can hold it while still making the background look clear enough.
• Exposure compensation: -1.3 EV.  I want ambient to be underexposed to avoid flash blur.
• Minimum shutter speed for flash: 1/15.
• Flash exposure compensation: 0 EV for D600 and D7100 (both of them: exposure compensation for flash: background only). For D7000: +1.3 FEC to offset the reduction in flash exposure from the -1.3 exposure compensation.

By the time I get a breather, ambient light levels have usually dropped so that most of the light is coming from artificial light sources, which means that they will be stable and therefore I switch to manual exposure.

MAXIMIZING FLASH
I have this set as my U1 mode.  If I see that my flash is underexposed using my normal settings despite being on full power, I want to be able to quickly change my settings to maximize my flash output.

Here are the settings I use when I want to maximize flash:

• Sync speed: 1/250 (D600: 1/200).
• Exposure mode: Shutter priority.
• Shutter speed: 1/250 (D600: 1/200).  To maximize my flash output, I set the shutter speed to the sync speed.
• Auto ISO: on.  Minimum shutter speed: 1/15 (D7000) or auto - fastest (D600, D7100), i.e. 2 stops faster than the 1/focal length rule.  In all likelihood, this won't even come into play because I already have my shutter speed set to sync speed.
• Minimum shutter speed for flash: 1/15.  

CONTROLLED SETUPS
For controlled setups, I don't use U1 or U2.  I use whatever settings are required for the situation.  If I'm building the light with flash (what David Hobby calls a bottom-up approach), then I minimize ambient first.  I switch to sync speed, the base ISO, and a sufficiently narrow aperture to delete the ambient.  Then I add flash as needed, starting out with fill, then key, then other lights (rim light, hair light, background light, etc.).

If I'm using ambient as the primary light source (top-down approach), then I start out with an exposure for the ambient light and adjust as necessary.

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Mother's Day Brunch with My Favorite Lens

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.  Our family had brunch at a restaurant in Santa Monica called the Lobster.  I brought my D600 and my favorite lens, the Nikon 85 1.8G.

To me, it is a little strange to have a favorite lens since each of my lenses has its purpose, so I can't really compare them.  Nonetheless, the 85 1.8G is my favorite because it is very good at what it's supposed to do: it gives me sharp images, with quick and accurate focusing, and very shallow DOF with smooth bokeh (usually).

How sharp is the 85 1.8G?  I took this shot of our daughter:

Here is a crop of the eye:

You can see not only my wife, but also me with my camera!  And note that I did not apply any sharpening to this shot.  I rarely find the need to sharpen shots from this lens.  And as you can see, the focus was spot-on (this was with the viewfinder, not live view).

Anyway, we had a wonderful brunch.  The sky was overcast but it was still nice to dine while watching people on the beach.

D7000 + Tokina 11-16.  No it's not blown - there really was no detail in the overcast sky that day.

Here are some more shots from the 85 1.8G.  This is a photography blog but I hope you guys don't mind me commenting on the food, which was excellent overall.  The dish above was Sautéed New Caledonia Blue King Prawns.  It was very flavorful and the prawns were cooked just right.

I also tried the Beluga Lentil Soup.  The addition of chorizo and lobster to the lentil soup gave it a little extra flavor.  No pictures because it was a plain-looking dish. :)

This was the Shellfish & Black Linguine Pasta.  I'm not sure why the linguine is black, but the linguine had a flavor that reminded me of Filipino-style squid with ink.  I'm not crazy about shellfish but my mother-in-law and my wife liked the dish very much.  It was slightly spicy.

Like I said, I don't like shellfish too much, but I do like scallops.  The Seared Day Boat Scallops had not just scallops but kurobuta (Berkshire pork) belly.  This was my favorite dish from the brunch.  The scallops were succulent and their flavor was complemented by the pork, which tasted somewhat like Chinese braised pork belly.  The pork was especially tender, and the sweet fatty meat was so soft and juicy that I'm sure whatever calories and cholesterol it contained was worth it.  Even the vegetable garnishing was delectable.  It had cauliflowers, cherry tomatoes and farro.  Somehow the combination of spices in the vegetables vaguely reminded me of another Filipino dish, tuna ceviche.

The salmon was to be honest a little disappointing.  It was beautifully roasted but had a slightly fishy smell.  Their salmon also didn't have that fatty taste that I like in salmon.  My mother-in-law cooks better salmon from Costco.

We also had the steak and lobster.  The lobster was of course steamed perfectly, although that was to be expected.  The steak had a green peppercorn sauce.  It was literally not bad --  nothing to criticize about it, but nothing spectacular either.

For desert, I had the Apple-Hazelnut Cake.  I didn't taste much of the hazelnut but it was delicious nonetheless.  My wife wasn't planning on eating any but once she tried it, she had some more. :)

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Nikon 85 1.8G review

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