New Arrival: Nikon SB-16 Speedlight

As it happens, the person from whom I acquired the Nikon F3 also had an SB-16 Speedlight. And being that the AS-17 adapter to use a standard hot-shoe flash in TTL mode on the F3 costs about $140.00, this was a cost-effective solution.

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First Impressions: Nikon F3

Nikon F3 HP. Professional 135 SLR with High-Eyepoint Viewfinder.

The irony of having all these collectible cameras, many of which are working SLRs, is that not one of them has been a Nikon. Until now.

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Film Processing: Cheaper Than a Cup of Coffee

This morning I picked up my film from CVS. For less than a Grande Pike’s Place blend at Starbucks, I have color processing, in as little as an hour if I needed it. $2.34 to be exact. No crappy 4x6 prints, no lo-res scans on CD-R.

I also opted not to have the negatives cut. With all this high-volume, automated processing, they often come back miscut. Plus, they put them in cheapo sleeves that I have to throw out anyway. Instead, they deliver the negatives rolled-up in a recycled film container. That’s fine with me.

So, does the Konica IIIA work? Well, every frame came out. Negative densities look good. I’m on my way out to a gig, so, I sleeved them to relax the curl and tomorrow I’ll loupe and scan them. I did an initial scan of one frame shot indoors, wide open, and aside from a little motion blur, it looks pretty good.

The Epson V500 can scan up to 12 frames in a batch, if your negs are cut in strips of six frames each. Four is the norm, so it takes three scanning sessions to complete a full roll. You prescan them, check off the boxes of the frames you want scanned, select each thumbnail to set the exposure and resolution preferences, click scan, and go get a cup of coffee. If you have the Digital Ice feature turned on to filter out dust and scratches (and it’s well worth it in the long run) it takes a while, but at least you can go do something else while it’s doing all the work.

Scanning a “contact sheet” is much quicker. You can turn off Digital Ice and use a lower resolution. Later, you can rescan the “gems” at a higher res, and any adjustments you applied in Camera Raw can be transferred to the higher-resolution file.

Before I judge too harshly the sharpness of the IIIA’s lens or the accuracy of its focus, I’ll need to keep the film as flat as possible. This may mean modifying or replacing the V500’s negative carrier, which allows the film to curl. Every little problem is amplified with 135 film, which is much smaller than 120.

So far 1/250, 1/100, 1/50 and 1/25 seem to work fine. The next step is to check the really slow shutter speeds, and make sure the flash syncs up. If everything checks out, this will be that real rangefinder experience I’ve been looking for. At least until that bargain Leica M4 come along.

Analog Anticipation

1950’s Konica IIIA Rangefinder with 2000’s Gossen Digisix meter installed.

Anticipating how your photographs will turn out is an experience missing from digital photography. More often than not, that wait-and-see aspect generates a feeling of excitement. And right now, I’m excited about my first roll from the Konica IIIA.

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Lucky 13: Adobe’s Photoshop Makeover

Photoshop 13 (part of the Adobe CS6 creative suite) is now shipping, and its drastically new interface is sure to ruffle a few feathers.

Following in the footsteps of photographer’s tools such as Apple’s Aperture, Capture One and Adobe’s own Lightroom, Photoshop 13 has adopted the serious and foreboding “dark grey” interface.

There are actually four grey color schemes, one darker and two lighter than the default. The lightest restores Photoshop to its more traditional look. Bridge shares these same color schemes, so you can easily keep them in sync. And Illustrator has adopted them too.

Also, the floating “panels” have been combined into one unified window with a solid backdrop which Adobe calls an “Application Frame”. This was actually first implemented in Photoshop 12 (CS4), but is now turned on by default. It can however be disabled, fully restoring Photoshop CS6 to its CS5 look and feel.

In CS4, Adobe changed the tab fonts to uppercase. It was a “change for the sake of change” which took up more space and made the tabs harder to read. However in this version it has been “fixed” by reverting back to upper and lower case.

Those of you who live and die by Camera Raw are in for a bit of a shock. Recovery and Fill Light are gone, replaced by “Highlights” and “Shadows”. Brightness has also been removed and replaced by “Whites”. All of these are now bi-directional sliders meaning that negative values are possible. The good news is that settings previously made in Camera Raw 6.x show up with the previous interface’s sliders. In fact, you can set the RAW 6.x sliders to their default values and save them as a preset so you can still use the Recovery, Fill Light, and Brightness sliders in ACR 7 if you want to. However you cannot have both the sliders from ACR 6 and ACR 7 at the same time.

This new approach seems more logical. Exposure and Brightness may seem redundant to many, despite their use of different algorithms. And it’s not unreasonable to want to lighten the highlights or darken the shadows, the opposite of recovery and fill light. To compensate for the loss of the Brightness slider, Adobe has given the Exposure slider a five-stop range instead of four.

Photoshop’s interface has been much improved by separating the adjustments and properties into two separate windows. Now, when you double-click an adjustment layer, the properties panels pops up like a dialog box, and goes away when you click on something else if you have “hide iconic panels” checked in interface preferences. This is great for saving valuable screen real estate.

At first glance, Bridge remains relatively unchanged. They did change the interface slightly by eliminating the alternate light/dark rows in the Metadata panel. This reduces the readability somewhat, but it comes at the welcome expense of fixing an annoying problem. Previously when you clicked on a single field, all the fields became active which was very distracting. Now, only the field you click on is highlighted. Happily, the alternating light/dark rows remain in the Keywords and Filter panel.

There are lots of other features to explore, which we’ll roll out as time progresses. And only time will tell if the many bugs in CS5 have been resolved. But so far, this looks like one of the more noteworthy releases of Photoshop.

The Collection

It was never a cognitive decision to become a collector of cameras. It just sort of happened. After acquiring about five collectible pieces, of which I have no idea as to how I came about them, it seemed to be a logical outlet to my fascination with these precision little devices.

I then came to realize that if I’m going to have a collection, it should have certain pieces in it; that is, it should contain a reasonable variety of cameras from different periods, of different designs, with different purposes. This summer’s acquisitions, which were intentional, helped to fill the rangefinder void, and even provide some new shooters. I’m quite excited about the prospect of shooting some 6x9s with the Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye.

The ongoing process of building a virtual collection comprised of downloaded and painstakingly groomed images has kept me aware of what to look for. Still, I had no idea that the Bull’s-Eye even existed. Now, I feel as if I should get a second example to modify, Holga-style.

Until now, these cameras have been tucked away in cardboard boxes, taken out from time to time to float around, only to return to their corrugated cells. But now that it’s official, I’ve decided to give them a real home.

IKEA sells an inexpensive ($65.00!) mostly-glass display case which is perfect for collectors. Its IKEA name is Detolf, and it measures approximately 16" x 14" x 64". It has four fixed shelves which can easily accommodate four cameras each, and up to nine if you get creative. I decided to place my cameras on graduated risers, three across by three deep.

The design of the case seems to have evolved over the years, and it now features frosted plastic channels along the back corners to join the glass and keep out dust. The narrow gap at the front could easily be sealed with foam weatherstrip if need be.

Although many of these gems still work, it’s nice to be able to appreciate them as the mechanical marvels they still are in the digital world of today.

The No-Less-Mighty Brownie Bull’s-Eye

Shot the same way as the on-location Brownie Hawkeye. Just for comparison.

Hawkeye’s Bigger Brother: The Brownie Bull’s-Eye

Well, almost. The lighting was not as good, so I slid the subject further back and rested the camera on the edge of the table for more stability. It came out tack-sharp. The warmer surroundings made for a warmer picture. If you turn the camera upside down, you can get within 1/2" of the surface. Just be sure not to press the sleep button. You can use a coin if necessary.

Short and Sweet

I’ve stopped naming and re-naming files. From now on, I let Adobe Bridge do it for me.

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The Mighty Brownie Hawkeye

Here it is, my Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. Only this one wasn’t for sale. It was a prop at The Container Store.

The Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, a tiny cube-shaped Bakelite box camera. 

I did get a chance to play with it though. It’s quite tiny in real life. It always seems much bigger to me in pictures. To drive that point home I temporarily relocated it and shot it from a low angle with my iPhone 4S.

One of the first rules of good photography is to get down low, at the same level as your subject. When shooting small children for example, you should position yourself at their level.

As for the Brownie, the perspective of the wide-angle lens combined with the low angle makes it look enormous, and in a way, majestic. This technique is also frequently used for beauty shots of automobiles. The size of the subject doesn’t matter; whether it’s a real car or a matchbox car, the perspective is the same. Only the necessary camera-to-subject distance changes.

With the iPhone used in its “correct” landscape position (with the volume/shutter release button at the top of the camera) you can get within about 1/2" of the surface the subject is on. This would be about fender height to a matchbox car. The vertical height is important, as it determines the scale.

Imagine that you were the height of a 4" action figure, crouching down and taking a picture of a 4" high Brownie Hawkeye camera. Now imagine that you are normal height, and the camera is 6 feet high. You’d also be crouching down, about three feet off the ground. The two photos would look pretty much the same.

Equipped with this knowledge, you can be a master of scale and perspective. The inverse is also true when using a perspective control (tilt-shift) lens, or the Lensbaby. To get the “scale model” effect, you shoot from a higher angle, and the selective focus simulates the narrow depth of field of a macro or close up lens.

Bakelite Rules!

I have a thing for Bakelite cameras, and always wanted to add the classic Kodak Brownie Hawkeye to my collection. It’s just a matter of time until one passes my way. But when I came across the unfamiliar Brownie Bulls-Eye in a flea market in Montsweag, Maine, it seemed a good consolation prize.

Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye Bakelite 620 Box Camera

I quickly learned that the Brownie Bull’s-Eye is an eye-level viewfinder camera similar to the Hawkeye, but with zone focusing, a better lens, and a larger rectangular format. Like the Hawkeye, it uses 620 film and can be easily adapted to 120 film. And it too has a fixed aperture of f/11, with two shutter speeds of 1/50 sec. and bulb. Both the Bull’s-Eye and the Hawkeye were designed by the influential industrial designer Arthur Crapsey who is also responsible for the Signet 35.

Like the Holga, these bakelite box cameras are wonderfully simple, but they are substantially better built. Bakelite is strong, lightweight, and dimensionally stable, not unlike cast aluminum, but much cheaper to manufacture. Compared with the Holga, these cameras have very good quality lenses. In fact, the Bull’s-Eye has a two element lens, as opposed to the simple meniscus lens in the Haweye.

This example was in good shape except for one thing; the dreaded mold. The lens was covered by a film of white mold, both inside and out, and also between the two element lens. But I’m pleased to report that it was an easy matter to remove the faceplate holding the lens assembly to clean both outer surfaces of the two-element coated glass lens. And in so doing, I discovered the Bull’s-Eye’s little secret; the rear element can be easily separated from the front by twisting off the bayonet retaining ring. The lens is now as clear as the day it was made.

Likewise, it was easy to restore the viewfinder lenses to their original condition. The rear viewfinder lens can be popped out along with its retaining clip by gently pushing from inside the back with a Q-tip.

Now that everything’s clean, I can look forward to taking some nice 6x9 frames by respooling 120 film onto my 620 rolls. Since I now have two 620 cameras, I have both a take-up spool, and one to respool the film onto.

This turned out to be quite a windfall. The Bull’s-Eye is much more usable than the Hawkeye, even though it does not possess quite the same cube-like charm.

Epson vs. Noritsu

Well, I retrieved the CD from my client, and the Noritsu scans of 120 film look great. That is, until you zoom in.

True, they have nice contrast and saturation. But the resolution is way, way less than the Epson. The Epsons also have much more shadow detail. True it’s at the expense of contrast, but this is easily added in post-processing.

I can resample and enlarge the Noritsu scans, and they look pretty good as long as there’s no diagonal lines to cause aliasing. But the CD is just not a good value. Twelve 1024x1024 px scans versus 36 3000x2000 px scans for the same ten bucks. You get 203,417,088 more pixels with 135 film versus 120.

The Verdict
120 Color Negative or Transparency Film send it out for processing, and scan it yourself.

135 Color Negative and Transparency Film send it out for both processing and scanning.

120 or 135 Black and White Negative Film. process and scan it yourself.

Prints
At fifty cents apiece, the 4"x4" prints were nothing to write home about. It would be more cost effective to gang the 120 scans together with other image files and order prints online or from a pharmacy. They often have specials that can save you money.

Also, 4"x4" prints are kind of small for 120 format. A 4x6 print has an image area of twenty-four square inches, but a 4x4 print is only sixteen. It makes sense to pull 5"x5" prints on 5x7 paper, and trim off the sides. That way, you have twenty-five square inches to enjoy.

Holga Scans: Commercial vs. DIY

I just returned from the lab with a set of prints from the Holga 120FN. It was nice to put it to some real use, rather than just experimental. And at this point I feel like putting the digitals away for a while and concentrating on film with the Holga.

I’ve been working with Imaging Coliseum on 39th Street in NYC, and they’ve really been coming through for me. They know film, and offer a full range of services for creative photographers, such as cross-processing. They’ll process your film exactly as you ask them to. I went all out on this roll, ordering both prints and a CD. Sadly, on my way home I stopped off at a client and accidentally left the CD behind, so when I got back to the studio, all I had was the prints and the film. They say things happen for a reason, and this forced me to scan in every frame of film on the Epson V500. Had this not happened, I might easily have defaulted to the standard, lo-res machine scans.

If anything can be said for the Epson V500, it’s that its forté is 120 film. It’s easily able to resolve fine detail when working in medium format. In thumbnail mode, it will detect and automatically crop 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9 formats, and you can scan up to 6x12cm in non-thumbnail mode for the Holga 120WPC. In a pinch, you can even scan each half of a 4x5, and stitch it together manually or with Adobe Photomerge. With the transparency mask removed, you can scan an area of 2.7" x 9.3" (6.9cm x 23.6cm). So you can overlap multiple exposures to create one long continuous negative and scan it intact.

When scanning reflective art, I usually set the levels manually. But with color negative film, you’ve no choice but to use the automatic exposure mode, which fortunately works quite well. I use the Digital Ice feature to remove dust and scratches, and it definitely makes clean-up go a lot faster.

With a square composition, it’s easy to specify the target width (or height) as 4,000 pixels, and let the other dimension fly, as long as it’s over 4,000px. Then, if you like, you can crop it down to exactly 4000 x 4000 for a 16MP image. Of course, you could also go 6000 x 6000 for a 36MP image. The choice is yours. The scans are far superior to the standard 1024x1024 scans from the Noritsu. Higher resolution scans are available, but they’e quite expensive. So, this was a test to be able to make a valid comparison between the machine scans, the prints, and my scans. In the future, I’ll just have the film processed and do the scanning myself.

ISO 400 is definitely the film to use on an unmodified Holga 120S, 120FN, or 120CFN. It has great latitude, and creates nice, dense negatives which scan easily. In low light, the flash of the 120FN works quite well in group shots with the default aperture. With ISO 100 film, the images would be two stops darker, and underexposure is never a good thing with film. So, this may prompt me to modify the “sunny” aperture to f/10 (right now that’s the “cloudy/flash” aperture) and make the cloudy/flash aperture f/8, which is exactly as the camera is meant to be. This way, I could use slower film with cloudy aperture if need be. This seems to be a much more sensible approach.

Day Fourteen: Griffith Head

The storm broke, and we awoke to cloudless blue skies once more. It’s a perfect beach day, so we’re heading out to Reid State Park for the second time this trip.

Day Thirteen: Rained In

An early morning thunderstorm and ensuing rain put a damper on things. We finally decide to venture out into the pouring rain to avoid a day’s worth of cabin fever. We meander up Route 1, finally making our way to Camden, where we stop off at Cappy’s for Chowder.

Although it’s rainy, it’s a lot less foggy that it was last Friday. I manage to get off a Holga shot, and a PhotoSynth of the waterfront.

Day Twelve: Sunrise, Ocean Point

This is one of my favorite Downeast haunts. Just east of Boothbay harbor, down Route 96, lies a stretch of road that follows the coast. There’s plenty of public parking along the road, so you can park, walk, and shoot. Again, my partner and I attempt to catch the rising sun. Only this time I bring the D50 and the B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter along with the D90. And of course, my iPhone 4S is always with me.

Sunrise, Ocean Point, Maine.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

A daylight white balance setting objectively captures the amber glow of the rising sun. Moments later, I take a wide angle shot with the iPhone. With a little in-phone post processing using Camera Plus Pro, I arrive at this…

Sunrise, Ocean Point, Maine.
Apple iPhone 4S, Camera Plus Pro App.

The iPhone is not so objective. The only white balance option is AWB (Auto White Balance), so its interpretation is not so objective. But still beautiful nontheless. On the other hand, the D50’s Infrared interpretation is vastly different…

Infrared Interpretation of Ocean Point Sunrise.
Nikon D50, B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter.

Without the Voigtländer finder, I fix my gaze on the focal point of the scene and bring the viewfinder square up to my eye. I can just see the outline of the center focus indicator, so I align it with focal point of my gaze. In a pinch, this seems to work well.

Most of my shooting is off in the distance, so I just set the infinity mark to the infrared index. Zone focusing seems to be a good approach in this case. The NIKKOR 28mm and 50mm Series E would be ideal for this, except that auto exposure is not an option with manual focus lenses on the D50. However, with professional-class cameras like the D800 this is not a problem since the lens’ focal length and maximum aperture can be entered into its database for full metering capability. But I’m not counting on the D800 for infrared.

The metering capability is important, as I’m finding that Program mode works quite well. In fact, if I second-guess it, I usually wind up with overexposed images where the highlights turn to an unflattering cyan as they have above (note the very distracting banding). The images look very dark on the D50’s LCD; the histogram shows that the highlights start at the quarter-tone mark. But if I swap the SD card out and view them on my D90, they don’t look too bad. Sometimes, you just can’t trust the LCD.

I quite like the natural, sepia/blue duotone effect that comes naturally with the D50. It works well under certain circumstances. Usually though, I like to invert the a and b channels, which turns the sky back to blue, which tends to look more natural. Here’s the same image after post-processing…

Post-processed version of the above image, using a/b channel inversion.

I find that turning on the D50’s auto ISO feature helps a lot. I set the camera to ISO 200 and set the minimum shutter speed to 1/30 second. There are only four ISO settings on the D50; 200, 400, 800 and 1600. But interestingly enough, if program mode needs to set a shutter speed less than 1/30, it changes the ISO in incremental steps, sometimes quite small. This is huge, as it goes a long way to preserving image quality.

Looking west, we have a much lower contrast scene, and the cyan blooming is not as much of a problem…

Looking west at Ocean Point.
Nikon D50, AF NIKKOR 20mm f/2.8D, B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter.

For this image, I remapped the start point to the quarter-tone point, and added just a touch of saturation and vibrance, but otherwise left it as it came from the camera. This can all be done in Adobe Camera RAW. Often, desaturating the image to create a split-toned monochrome interpretation produces beautiful results. This image is much sharper than the eastern-facing image above.

With the D50, there’s no way to convert the image to monochrome in the camera, so you’re always shooting in color. And no, you cannot swap the SD card and process it in the D90. The D90 will only allow you to modify its own images. But in post-processing on the desktop workstation, you can create monochromatic (Black and White) images from any of these color interpretations. And to be honest, this seems like a more natural domain for Infrared images.

Montsweag Camera Find: The Sequel Yes it’s Wednesday, Montsweag Flea Market Day. So, after breakfast we head down Route 1, and just before the rain sets in, and the vendors start packing things up, my partner comes across an epic camera find:

Kodak Retina IIIc Rangefinder

Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye Bakelite 620 Box Camera

Kodak Signet 35 Rangefinder

These are all in excellent condition. Ever since I first saw the Signet 35, I’ve wanted one; it’s really tiny, and built like a tank. The Retina IIIc features a Schneider Lens and a Synchro-Compur shutter, and is a serious, German-made rangefinder. Unfortunately, it’s in need of repair. The Brownie Bull’s-Eye is a focusing bakelite box camera. Bakelite rules!

Then, we head back towards Boothbay, stopping off at Sarah’s in Wiscasset for lunch. Afterwards, we browse some gallerys and antique shops, and I come across this:

Konica IIIA 135 Rangefinder

This is the most significant find of all; a superb, fast rangefinder that was years ahead of its time, in full working order. Definitely planning on shooting with this.

Sarah’s is right on the waterfront of the Sheepscot River, former home of the Hesper and the Luther Little, two of the last four-masted ships built in New England. They have since been reclaimed by the sea, but their moorings stil remain, captured by the D50, which I kept with me all day.

Sheepscot River, Wiscassett; former resting place of the Hesper and Luther Little.
Nikon D50, AF NIKKOR 20mm f/2.8D, B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter.

Day Eleven: Sunrise, Hendricks Head Light

An early rise gave way to some photography by both my partner and me. Nothing fancy, just our Nikons and our standard zooms, in my case the 16-85mm, and in hers the 18-55mm. Having 400 speed film loaded, I also brought along my Holga 120FN.

Hendrick's Head Light, Southport, Maine.
Holga 120FN, Kodak Portra 400

The trick with taking sunrise, sunset and night photographs is interpreting the exposure correctly for the effect you want. If your goal is to capture the scene as it actually appears, then you need to underexpose by up to two or more stops. The exact amount varies widely, so keep your exposure compensation finger at the ready, whether your control is a single dial, or a combination of buttons and command dials.

Of course, you needn’t worry about any of this with the Holga; you just compose and shoot, and fix it in post. I was betting that, at ISO 400, with the subdued morning light, the exposure would be just right to satisfy the rule above. I was right.

Cameras typically do a night for day act, making everything look as if it were shot in broad daylight. That’s fine for taking pictures of aquarium tanks where you want to see lots of color and detail, but not so much for times when you want to preserve the original mood.

Contrast is also important. Underexposure naturally saturates colors, but also decimates dark detail, so be sure to reduce contrast when shooting in Vivid mode. Vivid means both colorful, and contrasty. When you set your camera to Vivid, you’ll be enhancing both saturation and contrast. So, if your camera allows it, dial the contrast down in Vivid mode.

Hendrick's Head Light, Southport, Maine.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

As you can see the digital and analogue (film) versions are very different. The beautiful color in the sky prompted me to use a more expressive use of color. It’s much easier to tone down the color in post-processing than it is to add it where it never existed. So, when color is the key element, I prefer to shoot slightly on the colorful side. You don’t want to overdo it though, as saturation robs the image of shape.

Moon and Stars, looking east.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

Moments later, the sky bursts with color.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

Day Seven: Hendricks Head Beach

Good weather has returned once more, so we’re heading back over to Hendricks Head Beach to try out my daughter’s new boogie board. With the lighthouse looming in the inaccessible distance, there should be plenty of photo ops.

Low tide is at 2:30pm, so we’ll arrive just before noon. First order of business is breakfast at Mama D’s the breakfast and lunch hotspot.

Situated at the Head of the Harbor on Union Street, Mama D’s offers gourmet, al fresco dining for breakfast and lunch, and they’re pet-friendly!

Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm f4.5-5.6G All I had to work with on my last visit was the DX 16-85mm G. Today, I’m using the 70-300mm G both alone and with the Kenko Teleplus MC7. If I can’t get physically close to the lighthouse, at least I can get optically close.

Lensbaby Pinhole Optic As I previously mentioned, the Lensbaby presents a strong case for upgrading to a full-frame camera, and the Lensbaby Pinhole Optic only strengthens that case. It’s about 75mm on an APS-C camera, but about 52mm on full-frame.

But today I’m going in the opposite direction, being that one of my subjects, Hendricks Head Light, is far away; the Kenko Teleplus MC7 and the Lensbaby Pinhole optic. Together they create a 150mm telephoto pinhole. The optics in the teleconverter actually make no difference. The Kenko extension tubes would also work equally well.

Focusing the pinhole optic has no effect other than to move it closer to or further away from the film/sensor plane, creating a subtle zoom effect. This also changes the exposure; the longer the focal length, the longer the exposure time or else the darker the image. And naturally the Kenko MC7 adds two stops just as it does with a lens attached.

CHIMPing is futile under such bright lighting conditions. Even properly exposed images look wrong, and you can really mess yourself up by judging the quality and exposure of images based on the preview. At most, trust the histogram. These pinhole images look awful when previewed in sunlight, but are much more compelling when viewed under dimmer conditions.

The real issue with pinhole photography is the surface area capturing the image. Diffraction limits the size of the point of light formed by the pinhole just as it does with a lens. So the bigger the better, and full-frame just means you have that much more of an edge.

Holga 120WPC Now this is a pinhole camera I can really be excited about. I’ve been collecting tins of various sizes over the years to construct the ideal film-based pinhole camera, but I think Holga has already done it for me. What could be more convenient than 120 roll film, and have more than eight times the surface area of 35mm film! And, the 120WPC shoots in two formats, 6x12 cm or 6x9 cm.

Tripod Photography In the early days of photography, tripods were a given, due to slow film, and lenses. Today, using a tripod is often more of a conscious choice. Even if it’s not essential for exposure, it frees your hands to swap out lenses or make adjustments.

You should avoid using VR when using a tripod. Tiny vibrations can actuate the VR system, causing it to overcompensate, creating more motion blur. In fact, if you use the self-timer instead of a remote cable release, VR times out and automatically switches off, preventing this problem.

Keeping Your Camera Dry

You know those little packets of silica gel that come with practically everything we buy? NEVER THROW THEM OUT!

Itstead of throwing them away, keep them in a safe dry place, and you can reuse them to keep humidity from damaging your equipment!

Film Cameras Drop one inside the film compartment when storing the camera for long periods.

bold If you have a packet small enough not to foul the mirror, hot glue it to the inside of a body cap. Or, you can place it in the battery compartment.

Lenses There’s plenty of room inside the rear cap for a packet. A dab of hot glue will prevent it from moving around or touching the rear lens, or you can just make sure you store and transport them facing upward.

Bags For all-around protection, place one in every pocket.

During very dry spells, swap out the packets so they can dry up, and store them in an airtight container ready for use when the going gets damp.

They also work great for protecting negatives and prints!

Day Nine: Boothbay Harbor

Apple iPhone 4S
There’s a lot of things the iPhone is good at as a camera. Most of all the fact that it’s with you at all times. But its flat form factor and wide angle enables it to do things like sit flat against a window and shoot through it with a minimal amount of reflection. In fact, with the standard Apple “bumper” behaving like a grip-inducing light gasket, the phone behaves like a kind of “light baffle”.

In the center of the town of Boothbay lies Romar Bowling Lanes, a candlepin bowling alley that’s been in service for longer than I can remember. For 66 years Charlie Rowe maintained the pin setting machines, until last year, when he passed away. The landscape of Boothbay as we know it will certainly change from this event, and this may the last chance to photograph this landmark.

So as my partner and I are walking back from picking up the Sunday New York Times, I pass by the west side of the Lanes and see the morning light passing through the windows on the east, perfectly illuminating the interior. With the iPhone, I was able to shoot right through the windows, as I If was inside.

The Snack Bar

The Head of the Lanes

The Back End

   The Pin Setting Machines

Nikon D90/AF-S 35mm f/1.8G
Our first real activity of the day is the Maine State Aquarium at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. For this I swap out the Lensbaby for my AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G “normal for APS-C” lens. Its incredible speed and sharpness make it perfect for the low illumination of the tanks in the dimly lit interior. It’s such a great lens I can forgive it not having a focus scale or aperture ring.

I switch to AF-C Area Mode to shoot through the glass and into the tanks to focus on the moving fish; not exactly high art, I know. But after all, I am on vacation.

This lens never ceases to amaze me. It makes everything look good with almost no effort, letting you concentrate on content and composition. It’s super light and has only one control...the auto/manual focus switch. It’s not entirely ideal for infrared work, as there’s no focusing scale or IR index dot. You’d have to auto-focus, switch to manual, and rotate the geared focus ring to the left by...some amount. But you’d get better at it with time and practice.

Day Eight: Lensbaby at Boothbay Harbor

One very strong case for full-frame cameras is the Lensbaby. On an APS-C camera, the Lensbaby is about 75mm—which is ideal for portraits. But you often need something a little wider, and on a full frame camera, the Lensbaby’s 50mm length is quite versatile. Sure, there are two wide angle adapters, but it’s nice to use the Lensbaby naked and be able to swap out those aperture disks at will. This is why I recommend the Lensbaby Composer Pro with the Sweet 35 optic for first time Lensbaby buyers who use the APS-C format.

The Sweet 35 Optic, as its name implies, has a 35mm focal length, and a built-in 12-bladed diaphragm with adjustable apertures from f/2.5 to f/22. It’s ideal for both APS-C and full-frame cameras.

Then, when you’re ready to move up to a full-frame camera (or need an excellent portrait solution) you can swap out the Sweet 35 for any of the other four classic optics.

If, like me you went for the standard composer, then the wide angle (45mm equivalent), and super wide angle (30.5mm equivalent) converters are for you. (Be forewarned: the super wide-angle has a bit of a fisheye-esque curvature to its wonderfully versatile width!)

As with the Samyang 8mm Fisheye, the Gossen DigiSix meter comes in handy for getting you in the exposure ballpark. So, I assemble everything and head out.

Tip: Dockside is no place to swap out aperture discs! I didn’t even attempt it! It’s far too easy to drop one overboard!

I ordered the soft focus accessory aperture kit, which gives me the three aperture discs you get with the soft focus optic, plus a duplicate set of the standard discs. Good to have as spares. Lensbaby is not cheap, but their quality is impeccable, and they’re not sneaky by making you have to buy the double-glass optic all over again just to get the soft-focus aperture discs.

Unfortunately, the weather has turned, and it’s overcast and foggy today. So perhaps I’ll revisit the Lensbaby on another day. For now however, I’ll scour the harbor to see if anything interesting comes my way.

Tips & Tricks: Leveling a Tripod

Many tripods these days come with built in levels. But if yours doesn’t, or the level is not accurate, here are some ways to accomplish this sometimes important task.

Flash Shoe Spirit Level There are many hot shoe-mountable spirit levels available. Simply slip one into your flash shoe (quickly becoming known also as an “accessory” shoe) and level your ’pod. But, if your camera doesn’t have a shoe, simply attach it to your tripod using a cold-shoe to 1/4-20 adapter.

Torpedo Level Even more accurate and a handy non-photographic tool to have in your kit is a torpedo level, which can be found at just about any hardware store. It can be placed against the vertical riser of your tripod to check its “plumb-ness” (the vertical equivalent of being level).

The Boothbay Time Warp

Some Things Never Change.

In 1977, I was sixteen years old and spending my summer vacations in Boothbay Harbor. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors had been released in February, and was a huge hit. I recall standing at the foot of Wharf Street outside the pizzeria, listening to songs from that album. And today as I walk up that same hill towards Sherman’s Books & Stationery, what should I hear but Don’t Stop from that same album.

Like our sense of smell, music can be a powerful force in recalling a memory. And today, it’s as if I was warped back to 1977. It was a very strange feeling.

In general, that’s one of the things I love about Boothbay. It is, in its own way, timeless and unspoiled. The pizzeria is still there, although I’m sure it has changed hands since then. But so much is still the same, like Downeast Ice Cream which is just across the street from Pier One Pizza. Each night after supper we journey across the footbridge in search our favorite of the 30 or so flavors.

Day Seven: Camden

It’s a little cooler today, a perfect day for a long drive up the coast to Camden. Don’t know what I’ll need, So I’ll just take the big bag.

So now that I have yet another lens standard in my possession the “Pentax M42 Universal Screw Mount” the burning questions are, what can I do with it? Can I adapt it to the Nikon? Can I Adapt the 1000DTL to other lenses? What can one really achieve with only a normal lens to work with?

Well the first answer is yes, there are Nikon F mount to M42 lens adapters. But a quick free-lensing test reveals that regardless of the adapter, you could never mount the lens close enough to achieve infinity focus. But it’s really close. So close, that at f/16, I might just be OK. So that’s certainly a thought.

The second answer looks like a no. Can’t seem to find any M42 Screw-mount to Nikon Lens Adapters. But my quest isn’t over yet.

The third answer applies to all cameras with normal lenses. I can convert it for close-up work with closeup lenses or macro extension tubes. For higher magnification, I can use the longer tubes, or flip the lens around with a macro ring. I can add a 1.4X or 2X teleconverter, and have a portrait or mild telephoto lens. Even if the lens was only moderately fast (like the 50mm f/2.0 that came with the 1000DTL) I’d have a 70mm f/2.8 or a 100mm f/4. Either option would be faster than my Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm G lens.

Wide angle seems to be the real challenge. I’m not a big fan of converter lenses on SLR-class cameras, but If I come across a really good one with a 52mm screw mount, it could add a lot of versatility to not only this, but my other “normal” lenses as well. A new quest, perhaps.

But in the meantime, I could use Photoshop’s Photomerge feature with a series of frames stitching them together to create a wide-angle shot.

The day turns out to be very overcast and foggy, so not many photo ops present themselves. But, I do get a nice panorama of the harbor with Photosynth.

Day Six: Hendricks Head Beach

Since I’m heading up to Hendricks Head Beach today, I decide to take along my trusty Sima 5-section monopod. I actually rescued this from the trash, because the QRP (quick release plate) was missing. I put a call into Sima, and they sent one out to me free of charge.

It might interest you to know that the primary reason for using a monopod is to support the weight of the camera on long shoots. True, it helps to steady the camera vertically, but it’s not meant to take the place of a traditional three-legged tripod. Sports photogs typically use these to take the burden of their heavy but fast high-power telephoto lenses. But for non-sports lensmen, they also have many other uses that make them an essential piece of equipment.

The Walking Stick A monopod can double as a walking stick on long photo hikes. It can help you steady yourself when climbing rocks, preventing a fall that could cause substantial injury to you or damage to your expensive equipment.

High Angle View Used with a self-timer or IR remote shutter release, the camera can be raised high in the air to create an overhead view. This can be very handy for event photography.

Flash Bracket/Extender You can attach a cold shoe adapter to the quick-release and use the monopod to hold an off-camera flash. You can extend the monopod as far as needed to reach the necessary height, holding it with one hand as you work the camera with the other. Or, you can have your assistant follow you around and position the flash at your command.

Backdrop Support Suspended between two objects, an extended monopod can serve as a support for a fabric backdrop.

Angling the camera down slightly when mounting it allows you to control the vertical tilt by the angle you hold the monopod. The topmost section of the monopod is grip-actuated, so I extend that fully and adjust the final height with one of the lower leg sections. I can now quickly shorten the entire assembly if needed using the grip.

Hendricks Head Light, Southport, Maine.

Off to the west is Hendricks Head Light, now privately owned and inaccessible to the public. Dead center in the cove is a large outcrop of rock that offers a better view, so I put the Sima to the test. With the D90 mounted, I use the monopod to steady my ascent and support the weight of the camera. Without worrying about the camera bouncing around my neck, I have one hand free, and the other, with the extended reach of the monopod, able to brace myself against a fall.

The remainder of the day is spent exploring more of Maine’s rocky coastline.

Day Five: Reid State Park, Georgetown

Today we’re heading out to the beach at Reid State, but beforehead we’re going to stop off at the Montsweag Flea Market. And before breakfast, I head into town for a little fisheye fun.

Samyang 8mm Fisheye, Gossen DigiSix Meter It’s likely that anyone who has ever taken a high school photography course has been exposed to the fisheye lens. And I’m sure many feel the urge to go right out and buy one. And shortly thereafter, the fascination wears off, and it never again sees the light of day.

Truth be told, the fisheye look is not everyone’s cup of tea. But the fisheye lens can be an amazing tool when used in a way that takes advantage of its unique qualities.

Ultra Wide Angle You can think of a fisheye lens as a non-rectilinear ultra wide-angle lens. And you can use it that way by simply making sure that the horizon line coincides with the vertical dead-center of the frame. If there are any converging lines in the field of view, put them dead center in the frame, to tame the fisheye effect and minimize distortion. If you can, alter your position to avoid horizontal lines in the foreground by foot zooming.

Global View When used from a high angle pointed downwards, the scene takes on a globe-like quality as if everything existed in an enormous scale on a tiny planet.

Hemispherical Panorama When pointed upwards, the effect is that of a 360° panorama, where the horizon runs around the periphery of the image and all comes together at the center, creating a hemispherical view. This is especially true of circular fisheye lenses with a 180° or greater field of view. However, woodlands and cityscapes also lend themselves well to full-frame fisheyes such as the Samyang 8mm.

Bender of Lines Fisheyes are wonderful for bending straight lines, such as those of bridges, transmission towers and other overhead superstructures.

All told, the Samyang is a wonderful addition to your kit, as it represents a modest investment which yields much in terms of quality and versatility. First off, it’s manual focus, which is perfectly fine for a lens with nearly infinite deep depth of field. Secondly, it’s quite sharp and has excellent saturation and contrast. But, last but not least, this fisheye has what is known as a stereoscopic projection. Simply speaking, it has a much more pleasing interpretation of the fisheye aesthetic.

Being a non-chipped, manual focus lens, I get to work the aperture ring, which is smooth and offers atypical half-stop increments. Like the Voigtländer external finder, the Gossen DigiSix slides into the flash shoe to become part of the camera. It assists me in setting exposure, which is tricky with a lens that can pull together so much information a single frame.

Tip: The DigiSix has no power switch, so be sure to remove the battery if you’re planning on storing it for an extended period of time. It will give out in you when you least expect it. Also, a tiny drop of locktight on the threads of the hot shoe adapter will prevent it from loosening and falling off your camera.

I head out along East Boothbay where the Samyang 8mm can capture the vast scope of the Harbor. The footbridge adjoining east and west sides offers an ideal collection of converging lines to work with.

Part of the fun of working with fisheye lenses is hunting for subjects that lend themselves well to the aesthetic, and learning more about your visible world in the process. The Harbor has much to offer in this respect.

Montsweag Camera Find
Every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday there’s an outdoor flea market in the town of Montsweag, a short distance down Route 1 from Boothbay Harbor. And this week’s browse netted a unique camera find; a Mamiya-Sekor 1000DTL.

The 1000DTL was a very popular camera in the ’70s, and a ground-breaking one at that. It’a a great addition to my SLR collection, as it’s an M42 screw-mount, popularized by Pentax. In the world of Mamiya, leading manufacturer of medium format SLRs, this is also known as the “Praktica-Mamiya/Sekor 42mm universal threaded mount.”

This was the first 135 SLR with a dual-pattern TTL meter, switchable between a 6% spot and an averaging meter. It employs stop-down metering, which is more cumbersome, but also more accurate than full-aperture metering. Its user interface is elegant and simple; pull out the rewind lever to its first stop to turn the meter on, and push it back in to stop the lens down for metering and depth of field preview. When you’re finished shooting, press the center hub of the rewind lever to turn off the meter and fully retract the lever. The meter runs on a single, easy to find S76 battery.

Part of the fun of collecting these old cameras is cleaning them up. An old toothbrush, a few Q-tips, some multipurpose cleaner, and they look practically new. For stubborn stains, a dab of Soft Scrub goes a long way, and some mineral spirits removes sticky, greasy residue. A drop of bleach helps to whiten engraved and painted markings.

So, I drop in a silver oxide 357/303 battery (equivalent to the S76) flip the rewind lever, and sure enough, the meter works just fine. I just might have to pick up some 135 film to shoot before I return home.

At Last, Griffith’s Head Beach, Reid State Park Here I turn to the Nikkor AF-S 16-85mm G with the Cokin P173 Varicolor Polarizer.

Cokin P173 Varicolor Polarizer This wonderful filter uses two colored polarizers mounted at a 90°angle to one another. When light reflects from an object, it’s polarized into many individual planes. A standard polarizing filter allows you to screen out one of these planes of reflection. But the Cokin Varicolor filters allows you to color them, and the P173’s blue/yellow color scheme is particularly pleasing and useful.

The surf and sand at Reid State Park are perfect for showcasing the P173’s unique effect. You simply rotate the filter to find the right degree of separation between the two “channels” of polarized light. You can make the sky or water a deep blue, while retaining warmer tones in the landscape or foreground. Or, you can literally change the entire mood of a scene from icy cool to warm and inviting. It’s your choice.

Day Three: Linekin Bay, Whale Watch

My first expedition is to nearby Barrett park overlooking Lewis Cove. I didn’t get much of a chance to try out my new B+W 092 Dark Red filter, so I reach for my Nikon D50.

As it turns out, the AF NIKKOR 20mm f/2.8D is a good choice for D50 Infrared. Its smooth manual focus, real focus scale and infrared index give it an advantage, and its 30mm APS-C angle of view almost perfectly matches the Voigtländer 35mm external viewfinder.

Combined with the D50’s greater IR sensitivity, the 20mm f/2.8 is more practical than it would be with say, the D90. At ISO 1600, handheld shooting is possible, and the D50’s noise is surprisingly low at that speed.

The D50 does not have Live View, so the Voigtländer finder assists with composition, while AF assists with focus. I say assists, because once the D50 sets the focus point, it needs to be adjusted to the IR index, just the same as it does with manual focus. The difference is, with infrared, you can’t see to focus without first removing the filter, so this is a big help. Program mode yields a workable image right away, but exposure in IR is very tricky, so tweaking with exposure compensation dial is almost a given. Certainly it gives you a baseline to work from if you choose to switch to manual exposure. To get the highest resolution image possible, I use a tripod with an ISO of 400 and an aperture of f/5.6 in A mode.

This was a great opportunity to try out the new B+W 092 Dark Red Infrared filter. This filter has a lower cutoff point, allowing a little more visible light to find its way to the sensor. This creates a more “colorful” false-color image. It’s also a little easier to work with. This 67mm filter and the required 62-67mm step-up ring can be used with the HB-4 bayonet hood, but the 67mm Hoya screw-in hood is more effective.

Nikkor AF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6G
After Breakfast, we head over to the center of town for a whale watch cruise to which I bring the D90. Equipped with the AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm and Nikon Circular Polarizer II, I’m ready for some full-spectrum photography.

The Nikon Circular Polarizer II is about a third-stop faster than most other polarizers. It’s is one of the most important filters to have in your kit, as it modifies light in a way no post-processing can.

Another good polarizer is the Hoya HRT Circular Polarizer/UV. It’s a mild polarizer with good UV blocking characteristics, which gives you about a 1/3-stop advantage over a standard polarizer. You can safely keep it on your lens at all times as a protector, and simply take it off if you really need the extra speed. But when lighting is good and the situation warrants, the Nikon Circular Polarizer II can’t be beat.

Day One: Arrival at Boothbay Harbor

After a once-again lengthy car ride, we arrive at Boothbay Harbor. After unpacking and freshening up, we enjoy twin Lobsters at Brown’s Wharf, within waking distance of our house.

As I unpack my gear, I realize I had enough room for two more compact prime lenses, though I think I can make do with six. (Seven if you count the Loreo Lens-in-a-cap.) I can’t imagine why it’s taken me until now to put this bag back into service. The amount of gear it can hold and organize is nothing short of amazing.

The plan this year is to start out each day with a particular lens, traveling light and not worrying too much about whether or not the subject matter is appropriate for a specific optic. I’ll be reporting on my experiences as they unfold, and adding example images once I return. Unfortunately, the iPad camera connection kit does not work with my iPhone 4S, but I will be able to publish images captured on the iPhone.

Tamrac to the Rescue

This year’s extended trip to the Boothbay Harbor region of Maine requires bringing along a little more photo gear. So, I’ve decided to break out the big guns. The Mighty Tamrac Pro 6 series bag.

Back in my glory days as a dedicated Canonite, I would haul this bag around with two bodies, lenses mounted, and just about every other piece of camera gear you could imagine. It’s enormous.

This exact model is no longer sold, but the current equivalent bag is the model 614. These bags have the “Lens Bridge” feature which allows you to carry two bodies face to face with lenses attached, and feature six, two-level compartments between them. There’s also an ample assortment of padded and unpadded outer pockets. It’s not a bag that you’d want to carry around with you often, but a great “one-stop-shopping” approach to packing your gear. This bag transitions quite well to digital, unlike my Tamrac 757 backpack, which has narrow inner compartments. Some new dividers may solve that problem however.

So off I go with six cameras in all; the Nikon D90 and D50, Holga 120FN and 120WPC, and the Canon SD780. The iPhone 4S qualifies as the sixth, but stays on my person at all times; it slso serves as my photo assistant. Lenses? NIKKOR 16-85 and 70-300 zooms, 35mm f/1.8, 20mm f/2.8, Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye, Lensbaby Composer with double glass and pinhole/zoneplate optic, and the Kenko Teleplus MC7 2X teleconverter. Not to mention filters, external viewfinders, filter rings, and other paraphernalia. All in one bag. Whew! Will I use it all? We’ll see.

Storage: Preparing for the Long Haul

So the time has come to expand and rethink my storage capacity. What was once my backup drive has now become a 1TB drive dedicated specifically to image storage. The drive previously used for photos and graphics will now become dedicated solely to music and video. A new, larger capacity drive will carry the responsibility of backing up all three of the other drives, including the one in the CPU itself. I now have backup capacity well in excess of my storage requirements, which is a wonderful thing.

This extra-large backup drive can also be used for temporary storage, such as a scratch disk and Adobe Bridge cache.

Next step: Blue-Ray disc burner for Data Archiving.

The Universal Filename

Filenames of images (or anything for that matter) can be changed on a whim making it possible for two files to have the same name. But every file has unique information that can be the basis of a filename that never changes. This is simply the file’s creation date and time.

You can encode this name in any of several ways, and you can do it manually or by using an application such as Adobe Bridge with a batch-renaming utility built in.

By using the file’s creation date as the basis of a new filename you can ensure that every file will have a unique name that displays the sequence in which it was created.

For example, cameras typically create images with sequential filenames such as _DSCN00048, _DSCN00049, _DSCN00050, etc. However, if you use two cameras which use the same file naming convention, or reset the numbering on a single camera, it’s possible at some point to create two images with the same filename, and one might accidentally overwrite the other if they’re stored in the same location on your workstation. If you rename these files to something like _DSCN-YYMMDD-HHMMSS, where YYMMDD is the year, month and day and HHMMSS is the hour, minute and secon, you can create a unique name for every second of every day. That’s 86,400 unique names each day. So, unless you do a lot of sports and action photography where you shoot at several frames per second, you’ll have plenty of unique names regardless of how many cameras you use.

This also makes it easy to archive images based on their date of creation. You can easily search for all files containing -11 and archive them as “2011 Images”.

Separating elements with hyphens makes it easier to identify them Visually. For example, you might decide on a naming convention such as IMG-YYYY-MMDD-HHMMSS. This would make it easy to tell at a glance that the file “IMG-2010-1225-083025” was a photo taken on Christmas morning in 2010. If, like me, your legacy goes back before the year 2000, this is an excellent solution. Avoid using a “dot” (period, decimal point, etc.) in your filename as a separator. This special character should only be used to separate the file name from its extension. “/” and “:” should also be avoided, as operating systems use these characters to define folder structure.

If you’re using Adobe Bridge, the first step is to preserve the original filename by renaming the file to its current filename with the “preserve Current Filename” box checked. Then, you can easily change your naming convention on a whim, and also restore the original filename at any time if necessary. You can save these renaming conventions as presets for consistency.

You can also base the name on metadata stored internally within the file. The “Title” field is particularly good for this. If you have many images of the same subject, your naming scheme could be “Title-YYMMDD-HHMMSS” or “Title-YYYY-MMDD-HHMMS”. And you never have to worry about duplicate filenames, because Bridge appends these (1), (2), (3), etc.

Father’s Day with the Ōlloclip.

The Ōlloclip: Three Lenses in one for the iPhone 4 and 4S.

This ingenious little device combines a fisheye lens, wide-angle lens, and macro lens into a single, compact unit. A great Father’s day give for iPhone toting dads.

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Exploring the Infrared World

For the past few days I’ve been working the infrared with a vengeance. Working with both the Nikon D50 and D90, I've been able to develop an image capture and post-processing workflow to accommodate the advantages and disadvantages of both.

JPEGs shot with the D50 have a pleasing aesthetic all by themselves that requires little or no processing, unless creative, false-color images are the goal. Ironically, its raw images are harder to work with due to an Adobe Camera Raw white balance issue, which is easily overcome by using Apple Aperture 3.

For D50 JPEGs and monochrome images, ACR and Aperture work quite well. But for D90 images and some D50 raw images industrial strength L*a*b* processing is needed. And channel swapping in RGB is no slouch either. So I now have two actions, one for RGB and one for L*a*b* which set up every viable adjustment so that all I
have to do is click and slide to tweak. They keep the camera raw image as a Smart Object layer, so it can be edited non-destructively. ACR’s noise reduction alone is instrumental in cleaning up the detritus from the enormous color moves possible in L*a*b*.

So now it's time to go out and do some shooting!

Which K Are You?

Other than using optical filters, White balance is the primary means of controlling color in a digital camera. Normal, Vivid and Neutral color settings control the saturation level of color, but white balance controls the hue or color cast of the image. Cameras which allow you to set the color temperature by degrees Kelvin and the tint by increments of magenta and green offer the most control. The color model of digital cameras is based on L*a*b* color, which uses two opponent color channels, one corresponding to temperature and the other to tint.

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What do Film and Vinyl LPs have in Common?

Dust and scratches!

Just like records, you have to protect negatives from the elements, and just like records, film carries a static charge that attracts them. Happily, my retired DiscWasher has been given a new lease on life. The Zerostat gun is great for neutralizing the static charge on film, and the record brush great for removing dust without scratching it.

I recently rescued these item from my archives and put them back into service. I have other anti-static brushes as well that also work wonders.

Data Transfer in a Flash

My how far we’ve come. I have vivid memories of the days when transferring files between computers was referred to as using the “sneaker net”, and 5-1/4" 44MB SyQuest Disks were a big deal because they were better than hauling around 32 3-1/2" floppies. When the 88MB version came out, we were in heaven. The slow and somewhat unreliable 100MB Zip disk by Iomega was the next big thing that eventually put Iomega out of the removable media market. Today we have solid-state, no moving parts flash memory and life is better because of it.

The USB “Thumb” drive was shear genius from the onset. Exquisitely tiny and universally compatible, they have quickly become the defacto standard for read/write data storage. But not all drives are created equal, as I've recently learned.

I’ve been using 4GB drives from a well-known, third party brand for quite some time now, with no problems whatsoever. Until one went bad on me and I replaced it with an 8GB version that was slow as a dog. Now fully entrenched in this new techology, SanDisk is about to become my Goto brand.

I’ve been using their SD cards for quite some time now, so it seems natural to transition to them for USB drives. I recently purchased an 8GB Cruzer Glide and it’s smaller, FOUR TIMES faster than the other brand, and consumes so little power I can mount it using my keyboard’s USB port!

These come in many different capacities, and there are advantages to each. Smaller drives are faster, and if one does go bad, there's less data to lose. These are great for transferring data between devices, for temporary storage, and for backup. What they’re not good for is permanent data archiving, as their circuitry consists not of transistors, but of tiny capacitors, which have a tendency to break down over time. So, the optical disk as we now know it (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, BD-R and BD-RE) will be around for quite some time.

Macro Me, iPhone Style

Fingerprint taken by using a water droplet at a macro lens.

Being a macro enthusiast, you can imagine my excitement when my friend and expert Starbucks barista Carlos Cespedes came to me with this question; “Is it true you can put a water droplet on you mobile phone camera lens and take closeup images of insects?” “Well, let’s find out”, I said, and proceeded to locate a droplet of water to prove him right.

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Presby Memorial Iris Garden 2012

Purple Iris

Our return to Presby Memorial Iris Gardens for the first time in years did not prove as eventful as we would have liked. We checked the previous week to see if the irises were in bloom, but not much had developed since then. We’re now thinking they might peak toward the end of this week. We did however manage to get off a few shots of some early bloomers.

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X-Pro at Storm King Art Center

Last year’s expedition to Storm King Art Center took place on a strange day. Soon after our arrival, a storm began to brew, so we sought shelter in the outdoor cafe. As we finished our lunch, the clouds opened up. After a brief but intense shower, the sun emerged and gave way to some photo opportunities.

Shot with the Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G, I found the detail and background bokeh to be quite pleasing. The bulk-loaded Kodak Ektachrome 100 was exposed at ISO 100, and I couldn’t have wished for a better result.

It all started when I cleaned out the freezer and discovered I had three 50' bulk rolls of Extachrome Plus 100, one 50' bulk roll of Ektachrome slide duplicating film, and several bulk-loaded canisters of Ektachrome 100. I couldn’t bring myself to toss this stuff until I at least saw if it was usable in some way. Expired film naturally lends itself well to cross-processing, so I decided to lock and load with the Storm King Art Center in my sights.

Unfortunately my yield was not as I had hoped for due to the weather, so I had some frames left over. I shot through the rest of the roll with some street photography in NYC.

The stark contrast contributing to the blown-out highlights is typical of cross-processing. For this series of photos, I adjusted the recovery just enough to eliminate the clipping overlay. This preserves the blown-out effect, but adds a little detail back into the highlights. The photos are grainy, and using noise reduction just defeats the whole purpose of shooting X-Pro. The potential for creative color variations with post-processing are enormous.

I’m definitely seeing some great potential here. The film costs nothing and expiration is no longer a factor. On ice, I should be able to keep this stuff in stasis indefinitely. With a reasonably good scan, the images can be processed in Adobe Camera Raw and I can achieve very good results. I can leave them as shot, or can attempt to take them further.

I refer to this as the “Schindler Effect” from the movie Schindler’s List. A lone red object in a sea of, in this case, green. X-Pro is great for making reds stand out against the surrounding colors, especially in landscapes.

These images are essentially straight from the camera. But, the exposure could easily be improved upon at the risk of taking away from the X-Pro effect. These images also have the potential of yielding very expressive black and whites.

If you’re not in love with the color, you have the option of creating black and white or toned grayscale images with some interesting variations. The color shift and contrast in the X-Pro image yields contrasty black and whites with a unique take on tonal balance. You can tame the highlights with copious amounts of recovery, and further tweak them with a tone curve if needed. There are all kinds of contrast variations possible with the many tools in Adobe Camera Raw.

Black and White Defined

We may casually refer to an image as black and white, but there are subtle distinctions between these types of images and how they should be categorized and processed.

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Giclée Print Toning the Easy Way

There are two routes you can go when shooting black and white. You can use the monochrome mode of your camera and take what you get, or you can shoot in color and use the color information to optimize your image during processing. Either way, you wind up with neutral grayscale image. You can then convert this image to grayscale mode, or keep it RGB.

If you keep it in RGB mode, you can add a Hue/Saturation layer to give it a slight tint, known traditionally as print toning. This is possible because the RGB image has the capability of storing color information while the Grayscale image does not. But if you have Adobe Camera Raw, you don't need to keep your images in RGB mode to do this. You can use the Split Toning adjustment instead to apply color to a grayscale image.

This technique works best when your color printer is profiled to produce consistently neutral prints.

You can even create presets to simulate different types of toning and apply it consistently. Here are some numbers to get you started:

• Copper Toning — Hue 25, Saturation 19
• Gold+Sepia Toning — Hue 15, Saturation 20
• Iron Toning — Hue 198, Saturation 11
• Selenium Toning (diluted) — Hue 19, Saturation 7
• Selenium Toning (strong) — Hue 0, Saturation 6
• Sepia Toning — Hue 50, Saturation 15

Start by setting the values the same for both the highlights and shadows. You can then adjust the saturation level of either, and the balance between the two. For example, you might desaturate the lighter tones while keeping the darker tones the same to achieve a three-color or “tritone” effect.

These same Hue/Saturation value pairs can be applied in Photoshop using the Hue/Saturation adjustment panel, where they will be applied to the full tonal range at once.

For museum-quality black and white prints, a dedicated monochrome printer is the best choice. Many new printers have advanced monochrome capabilities, and some even have the ability to adjust print temperature through the use of a “cooling” ink which neutralizes the otherwise warm gray and black inks.

It’s also possible to convert a color printer for monochrome printing with a special monochrome replacement ink set which uses several shades of gray plus black to achieve finer tonal control.