Tips for using digital cameras; inkjet printers, and post-production software such as Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and NIK software.

Further notes on Canon EOS T4i (live view focus)

Jul 272012
 

I’m now at the point where I’m very comfortable with the T4i in terms of street shooting.  I will make one observation about using Live View for focusing.  Although there are three different modes, you have to be pretty lucky to use live view for street shooting.  By street shooting I mean that you want to focus quickly on a subject, lock focus and wait a second for the person to hit there spot.  I’m not talking about hyper-focus, which is possible.  But you simply can’t use the LCD and Live View for fast shooting.  Each of the three modes has their fault and I’ve gone back to shooting with the viewfinder most of the time.

Now for carefully setup shots, which I also enjoy doing, focusing with Live View is fine.  But if you are going to use it a lot, make sure to have an extra battery.

The other advantage of using the viewfinder besides focusing, is that there is no lag between shots.  I don’t mean focusing – but the lag between shots is minimal compared to Live View lag.

I’ll give you a couple of examples of how I use Live View.  If I’m going to do an overhead shot, or a low-angle shot, I’ll use the viewfinder first to get focus; then flip off the switch on the lens so focus is locked; and then turn live view and hold it over my head (as an example) and not have to worry about focusing in live view.

The same goes for some sort of careful scenic shot.  I’ll focus first with the viewfinder, lock focus, and then experiment with composition on the Live View screen.

One other bit of advise.  If I’m shooting HDR (3-shots) I will always shoot through the viewfinder.  The reason: there’s almost always something in the image that’s going to move a bit, often it’s just leaves in a tree, plus I usually hand hold the shots.  So you want the three shots (generally) to fire off as quickly as possible.  And that’s what you’ll get with the viewfinder.  Also, you can hold the camera much steadier with the camera pressed against your forehead unless you are have the camera on a tripod or something steady.  I suspect that the real purpose for the Live View screen is for movies.

Now another big selling point is the fact that the Live View Screen is a touch screen and you can fire the shutter, and even pick focus, by touching the screen.  In other words, there’s an entire second menu for operating the camera.  For me, one menu is enough.  I’m sure the time will come when the entire menu will move to the screen – but that’s going to be for a younger generation.  My fingers know where the buttons are, and I can change modes, and pretty much do whatever I need to without having to look at the buttons.  In other words – the touch screen means you’ve got to look at it and I like to prepare shots and modes etc. without having to look at the camera.

The single best feature of the swivel screen is that you can twist it in such a way that the screen is safely facing the camera, i.e. it’s well protected from scratches.

Garbage Pail in the Garbage

 

Example of handheld HDR (viewfinder) with Canon EOS T4i.  Just a regular garbage pail that was on the sidewalk to be picked up by sanitation.

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Subway Photography Way Back When

Jun 112011
 

This is a quote from my early blog writing days in 2000:

I’m still taking my G2 to work on the train every day — but I’m pretty bored. What I really want to do is put the camera over my head, during a particularly crowded ride and snap away. That’s the only view that has the potential. Would need to use the f2.8 21mm. But I’m too chicken!!

Most of my shooting has been relatively secretive, from the hip. I know the feel of the camera enough to know when it’s focused properly on something — and I usually wait for some noise to distract people. But to put the camera above my head is to call attention to myself — plus I would be in a part of the car far from the door,  and not that easy to make a quick getaway. Still, I’ve done crazier things, like the time I took the Rolliflex on the train on a tripod — set it up with a cable release in my pocket and snapped away. But that was just odd to most people. Many people have written to ask how I’ve managed to get some of the close subway stuff without people noticing. My answer is — very carefully. Walker Evans did it with the camera under his coat, often with an accomplice to distract people.

And on top of all that — it isn’t enough to simply get an overhead shot — people have to be arranged properly for it to work. You really want faces! You want people looking at you, or at each other. You don’t want to have the whole foreground blocked by the back of some guy (as it was today). You don’t want someone right on top of you blocking the frame! In short — you want to know your depth of field — and have people arranged so that they don’t completely null each other out.

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Finding Your Photographic Style

Jun 082011
 

Many photographers, especially when they’re first starting out, are advised to find their own personal photographic style. And even after you’ve been shooting for many years, it’s one of the things you wonder about. Do you have a personal photographic style? If you do – can you define it?

After decades of shooting I began to wonder whether I had a personal style? If I do – I couldn’t see it. What I saw as I flipped through the images in my portfolio, is that they almost all have a feeling of being shot in the 40′s or 50′s and that certain subjects (children, old people, subways, even benches) were always popping up. I began to think that a big part of photographic style was simply what you took pictures of. What interested you.

Even among the greatest photographers, if you didn’t know that a shot was done by say Ansel Adams, could you tell? You would have a clue, if the subject was Yosemite Park, but Ansel had many students – some went on to do very similar work. Others diverged from his style. Again, if you didn’t know the particular photograph, would you know if it was shot by Cartier-Bresson or say, Doisneau. Many of their images are similar. From a single photograph, it would be difficult to absolutely pinpoint the photographer.

It’s true, there are some photographers that can be guessed at because you know they are interested in geometric shapes, or a certain type of lighting. Some even go through the expensive process of creating something akin to a movie set – to take one picture. But being able to tell the photographer by how exactly the shot was taken is very rare.

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Infrared Photography with Digital Unmodified Camera

Jun 072011
 

You don’t need to have your DSLR modified to produce “real” infrared images.  But it helps.

I began infrared with Kodak HIE film (no longer made) and a Leica M3 rangefinder.  I used that for a very long time, and I have to admit, it was my favorite in terms of results, but using it could be a real pain because of how sensitive that film was to light.  Maybe it was just me, but I found that I needed to load and remove the film in a film changing bag.  Then I read about how you could take a digital camera and have it modified to capture infrared images.

Then I had an early digital Rebel modified for me, which I liked a lot.  The big thing with a modified infrared digital dslr is that you can really see what you’re doing and you get a nice bright image to work with.  You don’t need any special filters.

But if you don’t have the money, or don’t want to get your DSLR modified, it is quite possible to do infrared with an unmodified digital camera.  You’ll need to choose the infrared filter of your choice.

In a nutshell you can choose from the following infrared filters:

Hoya R72 Filter (Wratten 89b, B+W 092 equivalent)

The Hoya R72 was my personal favorite.  It lets in some visible light and is probably going to need an adjustment of six or more stops depending on the subject and the lighting.  If you were shooting foliage (which emits infrared light) and the normal exposure for a sunlit day was f8 and 1/1000th of a second shutter speed, you’d need to open up to about f2.0 and 1/60th (or some combination that gave you about 8 more stops of light).  But with a digital camera it’s so easy (compared to film) because you’ll be able to immediately check the exposure on the back of the camera.

And then there’s the let’s cut out all visible light filters.

The Wratten 87 and 87c Filters

Assuming that you are using a DSLR, both filters are tricky to use because once they are on the lens, you really can’t see much since you are looking directly through the lens.

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Do You Need Top of the Line DSLR?

May 142011
 

(This is another re-post from June 17, 2010) But it has held up well.  At this time I shoot with the Canon T1i (though I admit to having a hankering for the T3i).

For those of you that follow these ramblings, it struck me this morning after a couple of days of heavy shooting, that the switch to the Canon 500D has worked out well for me, and in fact I think I’m hooked on that line of cameras.  In other words, I’m already reading about the 550D which has been out for a while now.

Just to go back a few steps.  A while ago I traded up from a 40D to the Canon 5D (used).  I got a good buy on it and also bought a used 28mm for my foray into full-frame DSLR land.  Well, it was true that image quality, and the ability to easily use ASA 1600 was better, and that my 20mm Canon f2.8 now looked like a wide angle lens.

But I also ran into unexpected issues.  The biggest one was that the camera simply did not focus quickly enough compared to the 40D, or even compared with the 450D which I had had modded for infrared work.

The other issue was that the 5D seemed more imposing as a street camera / everything camera.  As you can see, I do both sorts of work, both tripod and quick street shooting.  For several days with the camera I was missing quick street shots that I would’ve easily gotten with the previous cameras.  On top of all that, the user interface and LCD screen were not in the same league with the newer 450D or 500D.  Plus the 500D has a feature which has been around for a while, but which keeps getting better: Live View.
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Silver Digital Imaging Printing

May 132011
 

In the never ending search to produce high quality black and white prints from digital files, I have been looking into SilverDigitalImaging.com which offers Ilford Fiber Prints (similar paper as the Ilford Graded Paper I used for years) in both fiber and RC.  Prints are exposed via a 3-color rgb laser and then go through the usual (or what was once usual) chemical baths.

Here’s a related LAMBDA link with an offer for discount in May.

LAMBDA can mean a bunch of things. The term can be used to describe any chromogenic print. It might be printed on an RC type of Kodak paper using color chemicals. But it can also be used with traditional Ilford fiber paper and black and white chemicals.

Here’s a PDF that explains the process.

PDF about Silver Digital Imaging.

And here’s a price list for the fiber printing.

I have a bunch of questions for them – which should be answered on Monday when I’ll speak with the owner (I think) Eric.  I really only have a few basic questions, such as what profile to use; and what the turnaround time is.  Just for the record, I haven’t received a print order since raising the prices to accomodate the WCI prices; but it’s early in the game, and one thing that you know about me if you’ve been reading this blog for a while is that I keep searching for solutions until I find something that works.
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Street Focusing Techniques I

May 112011
 

Hyper focal distance is a popular technique used mostly with rangefinder cameras.  If you are using a Leica or Contax manual focus rangefinder – you’ll find the lenses marked and easy to read the hyper focal distance.

Look at the lens and see foot and meter distance measurements for a given F-Stop.  Since most street photography is done between 7 and 15 feet you can easily set the lens so that everything that falls within this distance will be in focus for a given f-stop.  It’s not what I’d call exact focus – but it’s close enough so that focus will seem fine.  After that you can walk around and know that if your subject is within your hyper focal distance you’ll be fine.  Obviously, you need to be able to judge distances, and it will not be possible if you are shooting “wide open” at say f1.4.  There just isn’t enough depth of field (DOF).

Modern SLR lenses don’t usually show the hyper focal distance (because they’re auto-focus).  I like to have the foreground and/or background out-of-focus.  In other words, even when I was shooting with a Leica M, I would tend to pre-focus and use a lower f-stop.  In fact, I brought neutral density filters with me (since I usually shot a fast film) so that I could shoot at a wider, more-open f-stop if I wanted to.

Pre-focusing, whether with a manual focus camera or an auto focus camera involves anticipation.  You have decided what your shot is going to be and find an object that is at an equivalent distance to focus on.  With a manual camera, once you’ve pre-focused the lens, just leave it as is, and point it at your subject and take the shot.
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Flat Iron Top Photo (color & b&w)

May 112011
 

I was sent on an assignment to photograph the New York Life Building.  I couldn’t get inside because of the guards, and while I was outside the building I was also approached by two guards who wanted to know what I was up to.

Anyway, I got a few decent shots of it but I did better with some other nearby buildings.  Used infrared for most of the shots but had both cameras around my neck, often getting tangled up.  So I was shooting street shots one minute and architecture the next.

The top of the Flat Iron building appeared to me in a way I hadn’t seen before: almost like the prow of an ocean liner cutting through the sky.
Color Infrared Photograph of Flat Iron
Flat Iron Building Top (b&w)

This is one of those things that you can’t really do with film. At least not easily. Yes, you can shoot in color and then convert it to b&w, but it really is never that great. But with digital, you are always shooting in color, even with a digital infrared camera. And so you get the post-processing choice of b&w or color. In this case, I think the color version is better.

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