Saturday, January 21, 2012
Fall Colors 2011
I just realized I have not shared many of my shots I took during the fall season this year. I was only able to get out once and that one time was to Yates Cider Mill in Rochester, MI. I went out early to catch the sun rising to grab some additional color in the shots, then after the sun came up I focused more on composing more closeup/zoomed in perspective pictures. Check out my Fall Colors Gallery here.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Hocking Hills
I had the opportunity to visit the Hocking Hills for the first time in roughly two years. It was there that I first started taking landscape photographs and it was there where I realized that I really enjoy shooting landscape photography. When I first went there a couple years ago I was introduced to the obstacle called High Dynamic Range. I didn't realize it there but I did when I got back to my computer and saw the washed out highlights of any sky that was in my photos and the very dark shadows of the cave areas. I had to come prepared for this the next time I visited.
So what did I do? I purchased a set of 1, 2, and 3 stop graduated ND filters from Cokin and 3 stop ND filter from Marumi. I figured with this I would be set. Well as it turns out, 3 stops was NOT enough. I had to switch my plan on the fly and went with simply multiple exposures which I would then blend in Photoshop. Why not do HDR you ask? Just don't like the cooked look HDR images. I want my images to look as natural as possible. My goal this time out was to do as little processing as possible. Here's the science behind the image.
This shot was taken with a Tokina 12-24mm wide angle at about 6:30 in the morning on August 6th 2011 at Hocking Hills State Park in southern Ohio.
This shot contains 2 separate shots with 3 exposures
Shot #1 Exposed for the sky
Canon EOS 60D, 12 mm, AF, f/11, 1/10 sec, ISO 200, HTP enabled, 3-stop Marumi ND filter
Shot #2 Exposed for the waterfall...
Canon EOS 60D, 12mm, AF, f/7.1, 1.3 sec, ISO 200, HTP enabled, 3-stop Marumi ND filter
I took shot #2 and added 2 stops of exposure for the dark cave area just above the water in ACR. (I wasn't happy with my separate shot of the cave area, the water stream didn't look right)
I blended the sky with the trees in the upper left corner with Photoshop layers.
Then I took the +2 of the area under the falls and above the water and blended that in with Photoshop layers.
I then added an adjustment layer on only the rock/water/tree area of +10 saturation to make the leaves pop a little more and pull out some more of the orange in the rocks.
No other processing applied other than lens correction, contrast and black levels, etc in ACR.
There you have it. HDR image without cooked look.
So what did I do? I purchased a set of 1, 2, and 3 stop graduated ND filters from Cokin and 3 stop ND filter from Marumi. I figured with this I would be set. Well as it turns out, 3 stops was NOT enough. I had to switch my plan on the fly and went with simply multiple exposures which I would then blend in Photoshop. Why not do HDR you ask? Just don't like the cooked look HDR images. I want my images to look as natural as possible. My goal this time out was to do as little processing as possible. Here's the science behind the image.
This shot was taken with a Tokina 12-24mm wide angle at about 6:30 in the morning on August 6th 2011 at Hocking Hills State Park in southern Ohio.
This shot contains 2 separate shots with 3 exposures
Shot #1 Exposed for the sky
Canon EOS 60D, 12 mm, AF, f/11, 1/10 sec, ISO 200, HTP enabled, 3-stop Marumi ND filter
Shot #2 Exposed for the waterfall...
Canon EOS 60D, 12mm, AF, f/7.1, 1.3 sec, ISO 200, HTP enabled, 3-stop Marumi ND filter
I took shot #2 and added 2 stops of exposure for the dark cave area just above the water in ACR. (I wasn't happy with my separate shot of the cave area, the water stream didn't look right)
I blended the sky with the trees in the upper left corner with Photoshop layers.
Then I took the +2 of the area under the falls and above the water and blended that in with Photoshop layers.
I then added an adjustment layer on only the rock/water/tree area of +10 saturation to make the leaves pop a little more and pull out some more of the orange in the rocks.
No other processing applied other than lens correction, contrast and black levels, etc in ACR.
There you have it. HDR image without cooked look.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Black Rapid RS-7
Just received my Black Rapid RS-7
in the mail today. Initial impression is impressed. Defiantly a step up from the stock camera strap. I may do a full review at a later date if enough people request it, otherwise, here's a quick video of how it works. And when I say quick, I mean real quick.
in the mail today. Initial impression is impressed. Defiantly a step up from the stock camera strap. I may do a full review at a later date if enough people request it, otherwise, here's a quick video of how it works. And when I say quick, I mean real quick. Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Marumi ND8 Filter Review
I recently went through the process of evaluating ND filters for an upcoming trip I am taking. In my search I had the following requirements I was looking to attain.
Must be Glass
Must be Multi-Coated
Must be True 3 Stops
Must be Circular
Must have no color cast
Must not affect image quality
There are a lot of brands out there to chose from, once you remove all of the plastic/resin filters, your selection is much smaller. Many people have their preference and will never go with anything else. Me on the other hand, I am open to new products, objective information and good deals. I should note that I have never tried any other brand ND filter so I have nothing to compare this to, however, I thought I'd just share my thoughts and experiences with regards to the Marumi 77mm ND8
.
Product Descripton
Marumi® brand. DHG Multi-coated Light Control 8 ND8 Neutral Density. Pro quality filter. Made in Japan. Ultra-low reflective coating minimizes reflection off internal CCD & CMOS sensors. Multicoated (6 coatings) optical glass filter. Black rim: Edge treated with black ink to eliminate reflections. Low profile: Just 5mm high (not inc rear threads). Great for Wide angle lenses, no vignetting. Non-reflective metal frame eliminates reflections. Metal, double threaded frame to allow additional filters or hoods. 4 main uses: 1. Enables slower shutter speeds to be used. To display movement instead of freezing motion. Example, creative waterfall shots. 2. Decreases depth of field. Effectively blurring the background. 3. Reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor, but with no affect on color balance. Reduces light intensity, (sunshine, snow etc). 4. Allow video cameras to operate in bright light. Brand new in package.
Hands on Review
The filter was packed nice and feels very solid. It has a metal ring with a dull matte black finish to it. The optics look great and you can see the effects of the multi coating when pointing it at a light reflecting a green and magenta reflection.
Experiment Notes:
Shots were taken indoors with florescent lighting and custom white balance on a Canon 60D.
Each shot was manually focused using 10x magnification in live view using Canon 50mm f/1.8 and step up ring from 52 to 77mm.
Shutter speed is the only difference in this test as it was necessary for proper exposure.
All shots taken at f/7.1
The only "modification" to the image was lens correction in Adobe Camera Raw
Please make note that you are viewing a 72dpi JPEG image with quality set to 12, then whatever Google does to them when uploading and posting them.
This review consists of 3 objectives, review image quality, test for a color cast and ensure a true 3 stops of filtering.
Image Quality
Here are 100% crops of the focus point I used when manually focusing the image.
Use this as a reference when looking at the other images. I should note that with the step up adapter attached to the lens, it is very difficult to get my fingers in to focus the image. I think I did a pretty good job of lining them up, so take that for what it's worth.
I selected what I thought was a good representation for crisp lines. The printing on this bottle was better than the other and there is higher contrast between the dark bottle and the white label where you might notice a softer edge. As far as I can see, their is no discernible evidence of any image quality degradation.
Color Cast
I used a white cloth backdrop and shot a 1-stop over exposed image of it as reference for my in camera white balance setting. The images look very close. If I wanted to be picky, I would actually say the shot WITH the filter looks better and the one WITHOUT is sort of yellow. I would probably attribute that to changing ambient light coming in through my basement window(Cloudy/Windy/Sunny day). It also could have been due to the stupid yellow ball I put into the test also. With that said, I consider this is a true Neutral Density with no color cast.
Must be Glass
Must be Multi-Coated
Must be True 3 Stops
Must be Circular
Must have no color cast
Must not affect image quality
There are a lot of brands out there to chose from, once you remove all of the plastic/resin filters, your selection is much smaller. Many people have their preference and will never go with anything else. Me on the other hand, I am open to new products, objective information and good deals. I should note that I have never tried any other brand ND filter so I have nothing to compare this to, however, I thought I'd just share my thoughts and experiences with regards to the Marumi 77mm ND8
.
Product Descripton
Marumi® brand. DHG Multi-coated Light Control 8 ND8 Neutral Density. Pro quality filter. Made in Japan. Ultra-low reflective coating minimizes reflection off internal CCD & CMOS sensors. Multicoated (6 coatings) optical glass filter. Black rim: Edge treated with black ink to eliminate reflections. Low profile: Just 5mm high (not inc rear threads). Great for Wide angle lenses, no vignetting. Non-reflective metal frame eliminates reflections. Metal, double threaded frame to allow additional filters or hoods. 4 main uses: 1. Enables slower shutter speeds to be used. To display movement instead of freezing motion. Example, creative waterfall shots. 2. Decreases depth of field. Effectively blurring the background. 3. Reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor, but with no affect on color balance. Reduces light intensity, (sunshine, snow etc). 4. Allow video cameras to operate in bright light. Brand new in package.
Hands on Review
The filter was packed nice and feels very solid. It has a metal ring with a dull matte black finish to it. The optics look great and you can see the effects of the multi coating when pointing it at a light reflecting a green and magenta reflection.
Experiment Notes:
Shots were taken indoors with florescent lighting and custom white balance on a Canon 60D.
Each shot was manually focused using 10x magnification in live view using Canon 50mm f/1.8 and step up ring from 52 to 77mm.
Shutter speed is the only difference in this test as it was necessary for proper exposure.
All shots taken at f/7.1
The only "modification" to the image was lens correction in Adobe Camera Raw
Please make note that you are viewing a 72dpi JPEG image with quality set to 12, then whatever Google does to them when uploading and posting them.
This review consists of 3 objectives, review image quality, test for a color cast and ensure a true 3 stops of filtering.
Image Quality
Here are 100% crops of the focus point I used when manually focusing the image.
I selected what I thought was a good representation for crisp lines. The printing on this bottle was better than the other and there is higher contrast between the dark bottle and the white label where you might notice a softer edge. As far as I can see, their is no discernible evidence of any image quality degradation.
Color Cast
I used a white cloth backdrop and shot a 1-stop over exposed image of it as reference for my in camera white balance setting. The images look very close. If I wanted to be picky, I would actually say the shot WITH the filter looks better and the one WITHOUT is sort of yellow. I would probably attribute that to changing ambient light coming in through my basement window(Cloudy/Windy/Sunny day). It also could have been due to the stupid yellow ball I put into the test also. With that said, I consider this is a true Neutral Density with no color cast.
Is it a true 3-stop ND
Yes. Whether shining it at a light, a flower, a white wall or my car, it always adjusted by 3 stops. I don't know of any way to graphically display this other than taking a video using live view, but my camera phone needs a serious upgrade, so you will just have to take my word for it I guess.
Conclusion
Considering the favorites out there, Singh Ray, B&W and Hoya, I stumbled across this manufacturer while shopping for filters on Amazon. Searching Marumi I was only able to find but a couple reviews on Amazon and only a couple random forum posts. That is what prompted me to create this review. At nearly half the price of the big names, being multi-coated glass and a true 3 stop (a lot of reviews had the Hoya at 2 1/3 to 2 2/3 stops ) Overall I have been very happy with this filter thus far and in a couple weeks I will get to actually use it shooting real landscape scenes and not just flowers in my back yard.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sun Sets
We've had a few thunderstorms roll through my neighborhood the last few days creating some amazing color in the sky's. So I ran out and snapped a few pics of them and thought I'd share one of my favorites.
When I walked outside this was my immediate view from my driveway. The sun was behind thick clouds diffusing it a little causing a concentrated orange glow. A few remaining low hanging storm clouds were passing by. I didn't see it until I looked through the viewfinder that from the position I was in, it appeared as if the tree were on fire. The low clouds were moving fast so I set my exposure for the sky and left the foreground underexposed as it offered nothing to the image and took the picture.
I like this image because often I don't "see" abstract in my images. I take pictures of things as they are. This time I kind of fell into this one and didn't position myself to make it look like this, but the fact that it is what I thought when I saw this gives me hope that there is a creative side to me.
When I walked outside this was my immediate view from my driveway. The sun was behind thick clouds diffusing it a little causing a concentrated orange glow. A few remaining low hanging storm clouds were passing by. I didn't see it until I looked through the viewfinder that from the position I was in, it appeared as if the tree were on fire. The low clouds were moving fast so I set my exposure for the sky and left the foreground underexposed as it offered nothing to the image and took the picture.
I like this image because often I don't "see" abstract in my images. I take pictures of things as they are. This time I kind of fell into this one and didn't position myself to make it look like this, but the fact that it is what I thought when I saw this gives me hope that there is a creative side to me.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Ludington, Michigan
While I was up in Mesick, MI for the Jeep Blessing I thought it would be a good opportunity to capture a sunset over beautiful Lake Michigan. After the event, I drove south just over an hour to a town called Ludington, Michigan. I did research this location. I liked the clean looking sandy beaches, the lighthouse and the long walkout pier. When I got there the clouds were thick on the horizon and I didn't think I was going to get a sunset but I stayed anyways. While I was waiting I scoped out the area for some locations to take some pictures when the sun was setting. While I was out scouring, the clouds started to break up, revealing these magnificent beams of light shooting from the clouds. It was only for a little bit though before it was gone.
I took a nap in preparation for the 4+ hour drive back to southeast Michigan. When I woke up, the first thing I looked at was the sky. Very little color, the clouds were very thick and gray. I decided to try and take some shots anyways. While I was out snapping pictures a line in the clouds started rolling ashore. It moved quickly as it was very windy. I was able to capture what I think is a unique photo of this cloud formation shooting from the horizon. It was worth the wait. I am glad I stayed. Check out some of the photos and let me know what you think.
I took a nap in preparation for the 4+ hour drive back to southeast Michigan. When I woke up, the first thing I looked at was the sky. Very little color, the clouds were very thick and gray. I decided to try and take some shots anyways. While I was out snapping pictures a line in the clouds started rolling ashore. It moved quickly as it was very windy. I was able to capture what I think is a unique photo of this cloud formation shooting from the horizon. It was worth the wait. I am glad I stayed. Check out some of the photos and let me know what you think.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Jeep Blessing 2011
The Jeep Blessing, hosted by Cadillac Jeepers, had it's 10th annual event on April 30th 2011 in Mesick, MI. It was my first Jeep Blessing and it surely won't be my last. I had a lot of fun. More fun than I thought I would. I didn't drive my Jeep on any of the courses, I just sat back and snapped a bunch of photos. The weather even held up and we ended the day without the rain we were supposed to get. There were some pretty sweet Jeeps there running through some pretty wicked obstacles. It's amazing what these vehicles can do. They even had stocker courses for those that haven't yet lifted their Jeeps to partake in the fun. Check out some of the photos and see for yourself.
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