Baby Bunnies

Baby Bunnies

Getting Serious with the P5100

A while back I mentioned that the polarizer is one of the essential filters for both digital and analog cameras. This comes from the fact that it makes a vast improvement in your images that’s not attainable in Photoshop. In studio photography, you can change the look of the photo by changing the position and intensity of the flash or hot lights. In nature, the polarizer allows you to change the “lighting setup” as well, by selecting which of the rays reflected by the subject enter the camera. You can change the contrast and saturation in Photoshop, but you can’t select which light rays you use to do it.

Fortunately, I can outfit my Nikon P5100 with the same quality Nikon circular polarizer that I use on my other lenses. But, it comes at a price, because the viewfinder and flash are both partially blocked.

Nikon Coolpix P5100 outfitted for 67mm filters

I’ve overcome one of these problems, and may just have the other one licked as well. I’ve installed a universal Cokin A-Series filter holder to the back of the camera, so I can use the hood as an LCD shade. It works pretty well. If I make a small, removable extension at the top of the hood, it will work even better.

I’d prefer not to use the LCD, but, it’s difficult, because it solves so many problems. First, it literally turns the camera into an SLR by letting you see exactly what the lens sees; no parallax error or partial coverage. Second, it gives me the shooting information I’m accustomed to seeing in my SLR viewfinder. My ideal “Bridge” camera (the equivalent of a 35mm rangefinder?) would have a viewfinder based on a miniature, internal LCD. This would give the best of both worlds. Or, a much simpler solution, a dedicated attachment complete with lens, to turn the existing LCD display into viable a viewfinder. Perhaps another project.

Cokin A-Series Universal Filter Holder and Hood as LCD Shade

Now, onto the flash. The problem is easily solved by using an external flash. But that’s too easy for me. So, I try the flash diffuser that I recently raved about:

The first test revealed a harsh shadow created by the lens partially blocking the flash’s output. A business card slid between the body and the diffuser, just below the flash lens, solved the problem so well, that it’s worth further investigation. So, my next project is to fashion a mask to attach to the diffuser that will permit me to use the on-board flash with any kind of filter or secondary lens setup. Something I’ve actually been kicking around for some time now.

Now, on to some photos.

Beach day. Bright sunlight. Traveling light. No LCD shade. Incomplete sentences.

Long story short, I use the viewfinder because at the beach, even with the LCD shade, using the LCD is useless. So, I can’t see the effects of the polarizer. But, before I put it on the camera, I look through it and note which angle of rotation gives me the desired effect by observing the position of the tampo printing on the rim. Problem partially solved. I say partially, because with a DSLR, I could dial in an exact balance between the two settings, each 90° apart. With this method, I can only guess. But it’s the big change I’m going after today, so it’s not a real problem.

Each of these photos was taken with the polarizer on, but rotated 90° apart:

With Polarizer

Without Polarizer

Personally, I much prefer the bottom one. It appears more like the image as I perceived it (which is not to say exactly as it was). The top image seems sort of depressing. All at once, the polarizer solves three major problems here; It darkens the sky, it adds saturation, and it opens the shadows, creating a more pleasing contrast. Definitely worthwhile.

It’s not unlike white balance. My brain “white balances” automatically when I move indoors, because I don’t perceive everything as having an amber cast. And, my brain processed the live image at the beach in such a way as it looked more like the bottom version, and not the top. But this is all very subjective, and part of the art of photography.

I didn’t take a picture with the polarizer off, as a 45° rotation would have provided an equivalent effect. Anything in between 0° and 45° would provide one effect, and between 45° and 90° another.

If I switch to 52mm filters, the scenario changes a bit. Only about 1/8 of the optical viewfinder is blocked, and that’s only at the widest zoom angle. So, it would be worthwhile investing in a 52mm polarizer for the P5100 so I could use the viewfinder (not that I couldn’t also use it with any of my other two, soon to be three 52mm-filter lenses). But, the flash would still be an issue.

So, if you’re planning a new camera purchase, and would like to use a polarizer, be sure it has the capability of adapting to standard filters. Keep in mind that the higher the quality of the polarizer, the more effective it will be; there will be less light loss, and less flaring.

Also, If you’re planning on using the LCD, avoid wearing polarized sunglasses. Because LCD screens have their own polarizing filters, the screen will go black if you rotate the camera 90° to shoot portrait. Another kudo for the optical viewfinder!

Sandy Hook, NJ

Macrolomography?

Imagine if you had a toy camera with a plastic lens that you could focus closely. Really closely. And that it was a fixed focus lens. And that this camera was fully manual; no autoexposure, no autofocus, nothing. The only thing you had control over was...the shutter speed. And when you took photos with it, you weren’t quite sure how they were going to turn out.

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My Perspective on Zooming

Transitioning to digital, specifically the 16mm x 24mm DX format, has given me a greater awareness of focal length. Figuring out the crop factor has not been a major issue for me. Quite the opposite in fact, as being forced to really think about the focal length I’m using has made it easier to understand it.

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Quotable Quotes: Is It Just Me, or…

“If you use these stepping rings you probably won’t be able to use a standard hood. I never use hoods so I don’t worry. Lens coatings have made hoods obsolete for decades, except as prophylaxis (protection). Your hand provides much better shielding against the sun.”

—Ken Rockwell



Never use hoods?

If I’m not mistaken, isn’t that a hood on that ginormous telephoto lens on Ken’s home page?

The Histrionics of Ergonomics

I photographed an evening event this past weekend using a rather odd setup. Since the Janco flash diffuser has greatly improved the quality of the D90’s on-board flash, I wanted to experiment with a dual flash setup. The original plan was to use it in conjunction with an external Nikon Speedlight in “Commander Mode”, Nikon’s answer to wireless flash. So, I decided to use it as part of a temporary flash setup until I get my Nikon SB-900 Speedlight (or SB-600; I’m still on the fence)

With my ol’ Canon Speedlight 199A attached to my Strobframe, I used the D90’s on-board flash to trigger it through a Vivitar SL-2 slave, simulating the SB-900 used in Commander mode.

Marisa Clark’s Sweet 16 Party

It worked pretty well, except that I had to shoot everything manual, since that’s the only way everything would sync up. No big deal.

So where do the ergonomics come into play? Well, faced with the dilemma that the most ergonomic way to take a portrait would be to rotate the camera 90° counter-clockwise, but that my stroboframe doesn’t work that way, I reversed it and attached it to the camera with the handle on the right side. Bad move.

Nikon/Canon Dual Flash Setup:
Direct plus Bounce, Portrait/Landscape, Lumiquest Softbox

Yes, now when I swing the flash to the portrait position, it’s above the lens with the camera rotated 90° ccw, but the whole setup is awkward to hold, and access to all the important controls is blocked by the Stroboframe’s grip. Controls that are essential to shooting manually.

If I installed the bracket normally and didn’t use the portrait flip, would the flash to the left of the lens made that much of a difference? Was it worth the sacrifice in ergonomics? Perhaps not.

There are other flash brackets available that do work with a 90° ccw rotation. This Stroboframe is simply not one of them. And forcing it to do so was a poor compromise.

The thinking behind all this is that most battery grips provide a shutter release for use when shooting in portrait orientation when the camera is rotated counter-clockwise. The Nikon grip also provides Command and Sub-Command dials. So, I’d like to adopt the ccw twist as a standard for portrait composition, and enjoy all the ergonomic advantages it provides.

Even if I don’t use the grip, it’s far easier to shoot portrait with a counter-clockwise rotation than by bending my wrist in an awkward position at the bottom of the camera as I try to release the shutter. And forget about using any of the other controls.

A simple solution for the time being would be to add an extension to the top arm of my Stroboframe, and not flip it when rotating the camera. This puts the flash above and to the right for landscape, and above and to the left for portrait. Not the best scenario, but better than having the flash fire from below lens-level.

This issue has been addressed in many of the new flash frames available today, so it looks like an upgrade is in order.

Aperture Priority

Last August, I began looking for alternatives to Photoshop for digital photo processing. Having worked with Photoshop since version 2.0, I thought it might be a good time to explore other options.

Working with Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin Since version 10 has been wonderful. Finally, Photoshop has dedicated tools designed to address the specific needs of the Photographer. Only, you can’t print from Camera Raw, you can only export to Photoshop, which means you now have two files to manage; the original, and the working copy.

Working with Adobe’s Bridge has also been wonderful. It’s a great way to organize your library in an open architecture that works in conjunction with the OS. But, it is a separate application from Photoshop.

So, I decided it to look at Capture One, Adobe Lightroom 2, and Aperture 2. I downloaded the 30-day trial versions, and explored each one. They were all very good. They all had their unique advantages. But Aperture won.

Lightroom was a close second, but if you already have Photoshop CS3 or CS4, it didn’t offer any real advantage, except perhaps a more integrated approach.

Capture One was very powerful, but focused more on Raw conversion, and not at color correction or retouching. Plus, the interface was a little difficult to navigate.

Aperture combines an image browser, Raw converter and non-destructive adjustment tools in a single, intuitive interface. There is no differentiation between JPEG or RAW images other than a few special tools dedicated to the RAW format. It’s all pretty seamless. And, I can still work with any of the files in Photoshop just as I could before.

In fact, I opened an .NEF image through Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin, saved it as an RGB .TIFF with the base layer as a Camera Raw Smart Object, added it to my Aperture Library (which you can do with the option of storing the image files in their original locations) and applied all sorts of Aperture adjustments to it. Then, I went back to the original .TIFF image, double-clicked the base layer to open it in the Camera Raw plugin, and made some adjustments there and saved the file. Back in Aperture, those changes were added to the ones originally made in Aperture.

So now, I have two weapons in my arsenal against mediocre photos. And, Aperture is about a quarter of the price of Photoshop.

Aperture doesn’t replace Photoshop. You can’t combine images in Aperture. You can’t do pixel-level editing (although you can come pretty close with Aperture’s non-destructive cloning and healing tools) But, for 90% of what I need to do, I find myself going there first. Even though I’ve been working with Photoshop for over 20 years, I’m more comfortable working in the Aperture interface.

Who would have thought Apple would develop an application like this? But then again, who would have thought that they would have created a device to outsell the Sony Walkman?

Custom White Balance in a Pinch

The dome of a Gary Fong “Puffer” flash diffuser makes an excellent custom white balance filter.

If you need to do a custom white balance, but find yourself without a neutral surface to meter off, try using a flash diffuser such as the Gary Fong puffer.

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Best Buy: The Essential SLR Flash Accessory

Janco Flash Diffuser for On-Board Flash

This might just be the best $12.00 I’ve ever spent.

While planning the purchase of an external flash for all of my Nikons, I came across this little gem on Amazon. It’s a knockoff of the Gary Fong “Puffer” flash diffuser, only this incarnation comes with two extra domes, one warming and one cooling.

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Filters, and the final Chapter of the UV Saga

My Hoya Pro1 Digital MC UV(0) filters arrived today. Thankfully, they passed the blacklight test, and their response is identical to the standard Hoya UV(0) filter formula, which is to say they actually work.

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“The ‘machine-gun’ approach to photography – by which many negatives are made with the hope that one will be good – is fatal to serious results.”

— Ansel Adams

Last summer, my family and I visited Washington D.C., and while at the National Zoo, witnessed the death of photography in action. A group of three young men wielding DSLRs were snapping away at various animals of interest. With horror, I watched as the youngest would peel off a frame, then with a quick slapping motion, beat the pop-up flash into submission, obviously annoyed that the camera was second-guessing him in trying to right the wrong he was about to make.

There’s an app for that. It’s called PROGRAM mode, moron.

Sorry.

I guess when you have a digital camera, and a really large memory card, you can afford to shoot this way. The problem is, you don’t learn anything about photography in the process. And that knowledge makes all the difference. So, keep snapping away junior. I can take heart in knowing your work will be no threat to mine.

To be fair, he’s a victim of the new digital age. The age in which we have songs we didn’t even know we had on our iPods. Because digital media and the automation it affords tends to substitute for meaningful thought. Sorry, life is just not that random.

Guinea Pigs Are My Friends

In my world, photography and the computer are inextricably linked. So, I don’t feel that it’s particularly off-topic to speak of my marathon upgrade weekend, and recovery from it.

I never upgrade to a new OS when it first comes out. I give it a while for the software Guinea pigs to test it first. This gives the developers a while to work out the bugs, and third party developers a chance to make their applications compatible with the new version.

My thanks go out to those Guinea Pigs for all their hard work with the latest version of the Mac OS.

I skipped the upgrade to Leopard, Mac OS 10.5x, having interpreted the disaster it must have been by its comparison with Windows Vista. I must say that I do like Snow Leopard, Mac OS 10.6x, having gotten over the anger of the disabling of many of the features that I had come to use and enjoy. Features like the “Install and Keep Package” option in Software Update, or the more powerful features of “Spotlight”, the Mac OS search engine. No longer can you drag an item onto the Favorites folder in your finder toolbar, and have an alias created for you automatically; you must hold down the Command and Option keys to force that option. Even little features like the ability to drag a file onto the column header in a Finder window to move it to the parent folder have been needlessly disabled.

I do like the way folders are displayed from the dock with the “Stacks” feature. “Spaces” I could take or leave, although I know the first time I have a need for them, they’ll be appreciated. “Cover Flow” view is just plain silly for viewing files that do not have a visual component, but I suppose to have made it context-relavent would have been too complicated for the OS. It’s great for photos and music though.

“Quick Look” and the ability to scale the preview in the finder window are features that I appreciate the most as a photographer. While there are many third-party apps that help you to view and sort your library, it’s nice to have these feature built directly into the OS user interface. Nice going, Apple!