Category Archives: Equipment

My Landmark Image

Posted by thelightweightphotographer on

My Landmark Image

My Landmark Image

This is an image, a landmark image, that I need to share with you. Now I suspect you are asking yourself what on earth is he talking about. This is a typical, pretty, stock shot but there’s nothing landmark about it. Has he lost the plot and gone off at the deep end.

But stay with me here.

This reason I say this is my landmark image is that it’s made me decide to sell my Canon 5D MkII and all those lovely L series lenses. I will be leaving the ranks of SLR ownership, probably forever.

No, I haven’t had a bang to the head and I’m not taking any medication that carries a warning.

You see, I have been thinking for some time that I don’t use the 5D very much these days; perhaps once every month or two. I actually find myself carrying the GX1 most of the time when I am out, especially if I am walking in the hills. I now find the 5D just too heavy to haul around for 8-12 hours at a time and even suffer from quite a bad neck from how I used to carry it.

These are all reasons that made me question my ownership. The reason I held off selling however is the excellent quality of the images it produces. The images have low noise, very nice tones, good saturation, superb detail and sharpness. Each time I look at one of the 5D images I know why I don’t sell it.

Then came this image. It was shot on an Olympus OMD when I attended an experience day run by Steve Gosling. At the time I didn’t really process any of the images but recently my wife wanted something that could be framed for the wall of the newly decorated spare room. This image fit the bill perfectly (for all you male photographers out there means it was the right colour – no, that isn’t a sexist comment. I still don’t understand this line of reasoning but my wife’s friends do).

I opened the RAW file and processed it in my usual workflow. I was surprised at how nice the colours were and how well the detail had been captured. Then I noticed, this image had been shot at ISO800 – WOW!

Looking further I noticed that some of the lines in the image were bowed and the lens was displaying barrel distortion (corrected above). I thought this was very odd as I had been using my 45mm lens which I thought was superb and virtually distortion free. I checked the camera data in the file and realised the image had actually been shot with the 12-50 kit lens for the OMD and worse still it was wide open at f/4.0. This did however make me realise how good this camera was and that I no longer have a sound argument for keeping my Canon.

Here is an excerpt from the above file at 100% with no sharpening at all; not even capture sharpening.

Sample from the above file at 100%. Click to see the full resolution.

Sample from the above file at 100%. Click to see the full resolution.

Now, to give you the full story. When I printed this image, it was as an A2 print using a 360dpi image. What you are looking at above is a sample from that file. If you printed this at 250dpi (the recommended level for large format printers) you would have a 30″ print. That’s a 30″ print from an ISO800 image shot with a kit lens wide open.

I’m sold and the Canon goes on eBay at the weekend.

Seeing in the Shadows

Posted by thelightweightphotographer on

GX1 Infrared image using 14-45mm lens and converted with PhotoNinja and Silver Efex Pro.

GX1 Infrared image using 14-45mm lens and converted with PhotoNinja and Silver Efex Pro.

My infrared converted GX1 continues to draw me in and has become somewhat addictive. I often see comments from people saying getting an old camera converted is making good use of it. If you have an old camera and are considering getting it converted I would however suggest thinking twice. Not because it’s addictive and will move you away from standard photography, but because I don’t think old cameras are really that usable when converted. I have three reasons for this:

  1. Shooting infrared becomes much easier when you are able to see the IR results in live view, something that a lot of older cameras don’t have. Trying to compose an image through a viewfinder often leaves too much to luck as you attempt to maximize the IR effect. Live view is a real bonus in this respect and I would consider it almost essential for IR work.
  2. The sensor quality of the older cameras is not really great for IR. Most of the data in an IR image is captured in the red channel with the other channels being interpolated from this by the camera and RAW converter. This means your image quality can be much lower than expected so using an old low resolution sensor can lead to disappointing results.
  3. Simply using an old camera can be frustrating. It’s quite amazing how much the technology has moved on in the past 5 years and how much you will miss some of the features you now consider standard.

The purpose of this post however is to share the image above of Whitby Abby and mention a strange effect I have noticed. When shooting Infrared I find I can often use the camera handheld when a traditional camera would struggle with low light levels as was the case with the image above. The other thing I have noticed is that there is less contrast in shadows and this allows the Infrared camera to reveal more detail. Certainly in the image above a standard GX1 would have shown dark shadows and bright highlights. With the image above I actually needed to boost the contrast as the shadows were too light.

I don’t know if this information will be useful to anyone but I thought it worthwhile sharing in case.

Day Out with an Olympus

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Shot at ISO 800 on the Olympus OMD, handheld with a 45mm lens. The RAW image file displays low noise, excellent sharpness and lovely colours.

Shot at ISO 800 on the Olympus OMD, handheld with a 45mm lens. The RAW image file displays low noise, excellent sharpness and lovely colours. I didn’t take any brilliant shots but it was a great day out.

I won’t bore you with the details but all of my free time (including that I use for blogging) has vanished, at least for the short term. I am actually putting this blog together whilst trying to eat some lunch. Yesterday however I was fortunate to have a day out on a photography course designed to allow you to try out a camera – the Olympus OMD.

This Olympus Experience Day was put together by Olympus with pro landscape photographer Steve Gosling. I like Steve’s work a lot and having been on his “Business of Photography” course some years back so very interested in attending this day. The course was held at the RHS gardens in Harrogate and whilst not my usual subject matter I found a few things to shoot and try out the camera. What I thought was good (other than the exceptional value of the day) was that I had an OMD to myself for the entire day.

At the start of the day there was a short session to help delegates understand how to use the camera followed by a questions wrap up at the end. In between Steve spent time with each person individually to answer any questions they may have. I think this is a great way to allow people to try before you buy and I wish more manufacturers would follow the model (other than Hasselblad and Phase One as I can’t afford their hardware). It was also a great day with an experienced pro photographer and opportunity to draw on his experience and thinking.

Now you know I was impressed by the day, what about the camera.

I really like this camera, but to be honest I didn’t expect to at the start of the day. I had read some horror stories about the poor menu system which is something I have experienced before with my NEX5. I actually found the OMD’s menus quite logical and was able to set up the camera relatively quickly. It was certainly much better in my opinion than the NEX5 (when first launched).

I tried the camera with the 12-50 Olympus lens, my 14-45 Panasonic lens and my 45mm Olympus lens. It handled extremely well with all and felt very solid in the hands. I wasn’t however that impressed with the 12-50 lens other than a very nice macro function it offered.

To me, the most important aspect of a camera is how it handles and the image quality produced. I have to say, this is an exceptionally well made camera which feels very durable. The image quality is also very impressive for a Micro 43. Much of the day I was shooting at ISO400 or ISO800, something I would avoid with my GX1. The image above was captured inside a potting shed at ISO800 and my 45mm lens hand held. It’s very sharp with no camera shake and is very clean in terms of noise. In fact I can’t believe how clean the images from this camera are. I will have no issues submitting ISO800 images to stock libraries and believe me; I am very picky about this.

So will I buy one of these cameras? I would certainly like to. The only thing stopping me is that I have just sold my Canon 9500 printer with a view to upgrading to A2, so that’s my current priority. I may therefore need to stick with my trusty GX1’s for a while longer.

Technology Marches On

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Captured on a GF1 with 14-45 lens. Colour and saturation adjustment in Nik Viveza followed by B&W conversion in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Captured on a GF1 with 14-45 lens. Colour and saturation adjustment in Nik Viveza followed by B&W conversion in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Yesterday, for some reason I was looking back at some images I shot a year ago in Norway, including the one shown above. At the time my lightweight travel camera was a Panasonic GF1 which soon after I upgraded to a GX1. At the time I was very happy with this camera and the quality of images I could capture but as soon as I had upgraded to the GX1 I literally forgot about my GF1 and image back catalogue. It’s almost as though I had written off the images despite having captured some great shots.

Comparing the quality of the GX1 with the GF1, the GX1 images are larger by about 4Mpixels and have lower noise at all ISO levels. Other than this there is nothing at all wrong with the GF1 images and they look really nice printed large. Is this really the basis for an upgrade? I am now asking myself why did I “write off” this camera – I think it must have been some subliminal mind trick from my daughter who was the beneficiary of the GF1.

Interestingly, I recently purchased a Sony RX100 as my pocket camera. This has around twice the pixel count when compared with my LX5 that it was intended to replace and has great low light and noise performance. Bearing in mind the GF1 to GX1 upgrade, I am now asking myself if this was a good move. Sure the RX100 is a great camera but then the LX5 is incredible and large detailed prints are also easily achievable. Further, I love using the LX5 in a way that is hard for the RX100 (actually any camera) to compete with. I suspect this is why I have hung on to the LX5 and am unlikely to sell it.

Now given all my waffling above, the question I want to answer is how long should we been keeping a camera? At what point should we look to upgrade? Does anyone have a view?

Lensmate Adapter for Sony RX100

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I'm finally able to use ND Grads with my Sony RX100

I’m finally able to use ND Grads with my Sony RX100

Looking back a couple of months when I first purchased my Sony RX100 I said that I needed some form of adapter in order to use ND Graduate filters with this camera. As most of my work is shot in the landscape, ND graduate filters are an essential accessory for me and I just can’t work without them.

If I compare my LX5 I have an adapter tube that I can screw onto a threaded ring at the base of the lens. The RX100 however has nothing like this which is why after some searching I found the Lensmate solution. I have to admit that this is not a cheap solution and having incurred £12.50 in duty charges when it was shipment into the UK, it borders on being extortionate.

Well the adapter has arrived and it looks like just a couple of small pieces of metal and plastic. Basically there is a ring that sticks to the front of the lens using 3M double sided adhesive tape. Once in place there is a second threaded adapter that mounts onto the ring and clicks into place. This allows you to easily remove any filters with a small 90 degree twist of the adapter.

Now I have to admit that I was a little worried sticking a ring to the front of my new camera. I thought that it looks fiddly and troublesome to mount correctly. The kit does however come with a simple tool that aligns the ring e3xactly. There is a supporting video on the website and having watched this it took me less than 1 minute to attach the adapter and it was perfect first time.

So despite my complaints over price this is a very good design that works very well indeed. I have used the adapter out in the field and it’s perfect. It’s also very light and small enough so that the camera still fits inside the Sony case. If you need a filter adapter for an RX100 then this is worth looking at but beware the price is high.

Lightweight Photography Limitation

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For long exposures in strong winds a sturdy tripod is essential. The size of the camera also matters.

For long exposures in strong winds a sturdy tripod is essential. The size of the camera also matters.

This last weekend was an interesting one as I was back in Northumberland photographing. I didn’t sleep much the night before which is often the case when making an early morning start, however this time it wasn’t the early start causing this; it was the howling wind. All night long the wind continued and well into the next day.

In the morning we sat in the car just before daybreak watching the huge wave’s role in, creating huge plumes of spray from the top of each wave. It was at this point that I realised my lightweight tripod just wasn’t going to support my Canon 5D with filters; at least not without showing signs of vibration. In the end I decided I had to use my old Manfrotto 055 tripod which is much heavier and was in the car as a backup.

Most of the results from the dawn shoot using the Manfrotto were vibration free and very crisp. Later in the day I switched back to my lightweight Velbon tripod which although still windy, t performed very well given I had a large DSLR mounted on it.

The following morning was pretty much a repeat of the day before except the winds were even stronger.  So strong in fact that I struggled to use the Manfrotto tripod with the 5D and ended up trying to shield the camera whilst holding down the tripod. I did manage a few wide angle shots with the smallest of my lenses but I wanted to use a long lens and in the strong wind I couldn’t.

My solution was to switch the 5D for a Panasonic GX1 with 45-200mm lens. This gave the equivalent of a 90-400mm lens on the 5D. Interestingly the smaller profile and weight of the camera allowed it to sit solidly on the Manfrotto tripod. So, although the Lightweight Velbon tripod suffered in the strong winds, so did the 5D and best of all, the lightweight GX1 solved the problem.

Lightweight Infrared

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Infrared effect in Lightroom

Infrared effect in Lightroom

I made an interesting discovery last night as a result of seeing a friends work on Flickr. Ed, the friend in question (who will probably also be reading this at some point) is on Flickr as Vision and Light. His work is excellent but he recently added one image of pine trees in a forest that I find simply stunning. The image looked like it had been shot with an Infrared Camera but it turned out that it was captured on his GX1 and then converted to black and white in Lightroom using a Blue filter (http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionandlight/8421599676/in/photostream).

Now the blue filter isn’t something that I would naturally use as it tends to send most images very dark (unless you have a clear blue sky which turns white). As a result I decided to experiment a little with my own images and in particular the one above. Whilst the Blue filter and even High Contrast Blue filter didn’t work for this image the Infrared filter did. What made me really think however is that I have loads of Lightroom Presets (I have downloaded lots) but I never use them other than as an initial set up for some of my RAW files.

In the past I have tried quite a few different “standard” settings for creating that wonderful infrared look but none have been successful. This particular Lightroom preset (ships as standard in Lightroom) was quite different. When I looked at what was happening, it was quite different to most others I have seen. Whilst the Yellow and Green sliders had been pushed to +100% the Red slider remained at 0%. Unusually the Blue sliders also remained at 0% where the common wisdom is to reduce the Blue slider to say -50% to darken blues. Reducing the blue slider is something I don’t like doing usually as it tends to reveal low frequency noise in areas with lots of blue (such as the sky) and can be very difficult to correct.

So the image you see here is based on the Lightroom present for Infrared.  Have however removed the grain and made some fine tuning adjustments to contrast and exposure. With these changes made I then exported the image to Photoshop where I added selective blur to the highlights using Focal blade before final sharpening and printing.

The lesson in this for me is that I shouldn’t ignore ways of working such as using presets. The lightweight route is to minimise equipment and processing to achieve great results. I don’t think the Infrared route I have chosen (converting a GX1) is truly a lightweight route; the Lightroom option may have been better in some respects.

Last of the Snow (for now)

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RX100 being put through its paces in the hills near my house

RX100 being put through its paces in the hills near my house

Well the snow came as predicted but in nowhere near the volume warned by the ever panicky media. Where I live in Saddleworth the snow can really pile up and I have known the road across the moor to be closed for months with snow drifts deep enough to cover cars and vans. The 4-6 inches that fell at the weekend seemed more of a minor inconvenience than the predicted disaster.

Saturday then I took the opportunity to get out for a walk over our local hills and pocketed the Sony RX100. As the weather was cold and I was wearing gloves I thought this would be a good test of the new “Half Case” I had bought to give me a neck strap for the camera (something that is missing for the box when you buy an RX100) and to help with gripping the camera.

I had looked at quite a few camera cases before I decided to purchase the genuine Sony accessory. I have to report that despite being what I consider to be overpriced for a leather case, it is excellent quality. It isn’t too bulky even with the top half of the case attached. The press-studs attaching the top half of the case to the bottom are strong and well placed. The neck strap is thick, strong and well attached. The camera fits snugly in the lower half case and there is sufficient dept to the case to then attach this to a tripod mount. This solves the problem that the adjustment ring around the cameras lens can’t normally be used on a tripod as it is flush against the tripod mounting plate. All in all I am impressed with the quality and ease of use.

The image you see here was one of those I captured at the weekend (the snow was gone the next morning).

I shot this using the 16:9 format in RAW. When I opened the RAW file in Lightroom I was surprised to find the image was full sized but had a crop in place to make it 16:9, but I could adjust this. Selecting the 16:9 therefore just helps with composition by adjusting the rear screen of the camera. This is a different approach to the LX5 which actually changes the dimensions of the RAW file. I am not sure how the other format options are interpreted for the Sony but I will check when I have time.

The post capture processing for this image was performed using Lightroom and Viveza 2. I hope you like it.

RX100 Processing Error – Oops

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Another very deatailed scene captured with the RX100. Fine details have been well rendered but its easy to push things too far

Another very deatailed scene captured with the RX100. Fine details have been well rendered but its easy to push things too far

In my earlier posting about my experiences with the Sony RX100 I mentioned that the results were very sharp and that when printed looked almost unreal. Well, I have a confession to make in that the error was mine it appears.

In the past I have used a number of RAW converters and I often returning to these to see how various images are processed. Lightroom is my all round favourite and where I do most of my RAW conversion. Previously I have used Capture One Express. When I created the image in question I thought the conversion had been done with Lightroom but it turns out I had actually converted the image with Capture One, saving it to be examined against the Lightroom version.

I can only think that I have either imported it in error or the auto importer in Lightroom has pulled it in. Either way, I then did my conversion to Black and White with Silver Efex but had picked up the wrong file.

Since I discovered this I have reprocessed the file, making the conversion from RAW in Lightroom. The results when printed are still very detailed but look much more natural. This was one of the reasons I switched from Capture One to Lightroom as I liked the natural appearance of Lightroom. Additionally I found the Phase One converter, whilst producing excellent colour and detail, also looked a little course when zoomed in at 200% or above. It was as if the converter had overemphasised dark pixels or even introduced some. Whatever the cause I didn’t like it and switched to Lightroom.

So what of the RX100? I remain convinced that this is an amazing compact camera. The images produced are very sharp and very detailed. When I get some more time in the future I will look at publishing a comparison of images using different RAW converters.

RX100 First Real Impressions

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Superbly sharp images from the RX100. Click to see larger image

Superbly sharp images from the RX100. Click to see larger image

Finally I managed to get out with the RX100 at the weekend and despite all the snow headed to North Wales with a friend. The light didn’t last long before the sky closed in with it starting to snow again. Fortunately I managed to get quite a few shots with the RX100 which has allowed me to assess its capabilities a little better.

Firstly the downside to using the RX100:

  • It’s a very small camera and it needs that leather half case to help with grip (I now have one on order)
  • It’s difficult to feel the shutter button, especially when wearing gloves
  • I miss the 24mm wide angle. 28mm is good but there were a few times that I found myself wishing for more

Now to the excellent stuff:

  • It’s a remarkably easy camera to use but better than that, it’s enjoyable and very intuitive. The more I use it the more I enjoy using it.
  • Size wise, its perfect to slip into your pocket
  • The sensor is lovely with low noise and a very high dynamic range
  • Image quality is exceptional

Image quality is the real reason I bought the camera and it’s simply amazing. The image you see with this post was shot with the RX100 and I can’t fault it. The quality looks like it’s out of my 5D and it produces the same size print. At ISO80 to 160 there is no visible noise, even when I set the noise reduction to off in my RAW converter. And whilst I am shooting RAW as always, the JPG’s are really very good and I would be happy to use them. This means I can take advantage of in camera HDR and other creative features.

The camera seems to resolve every little detail of a scene, especially in the first 20-50 feet. It’s not as good as the 5D with subjects in the far distance, which is really down to the laws of physics but it is so much better than I had hoped for. As for the lens, it is so sharp, even with finest details are sharply resolved. I actually printed the above image at A3+ and didn’t apply any output sharpening, only the usual RAW capture sharpening (and even then not much). The print is actually on the verge of looking too sharp and perhaps needs softening slightly.

The other aspect of image quality which you can’t judge from this image is the natural colours. Greens and blues are particularly good and far better than the LX5 or even the GX1 (although my latest GX1 is a big improvement on the one I had converted to Infrared).

As a pocket camera for a Landscape photographer or even urban work this is an amazing tool. And in case you were wondering just how detailed the full image is, here are three sections at 100% resolution with the only sharpening being light RAW capture sharpening.

Sample 1. Click to view at 100%.

Sample 1. Click to view at 100%.

Sample 2. Click to view at 100%.

Sample 2. Click to view at 100%.

Sample 3. Click to view at 100%.

Sample 3. Click to view at 100%.