Raw Consciousness

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Some shots from Hermosa Beach...

So I decided to go to Hermosa Beach here in CA after some things I needed to do in the morning...  I used the FZ20. I also have some photos I made with the F710 but I haven't posted them- and may not.  Although I am not 100% pleased with the photos, I think there are a couple of cool ones. The surfer kids is just hilarious.. they actually asked me what I was taking pictures of, and the mere suggestion of taking a picture of them brought them lined up to pose instantly on their own using a "kick ass pose."  The photo I am referring is this one.

I gave them contact info, and told them I want their parents to contact me.  Since this is legal, I am posting it (yes, it's legal to take photos of kids in the US)- but I certainly wil take it down if there's an issue.

The gallery is here.

Anyway, there's like a white balance/contrast issue or something. I won't blame the camera, *I NEED* to pay more attention.  Oh and yes, btw, some photos were not from the beach, but from a place in Encino, CA- around and inside a restaurant. Just before I ate lunch to then go to the beach.

Zero post processing has been applied.

UPDATE: I decided to go ahead and apply a "one size-fits all" white balance correction to all the beach area photos, as I had inadverntently set the camera to the same custom white balance for all of them. You may have to hit "reload" on your browser to get the proper non-cached update.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Dusk Walk...

Well I gave my Lumix FZ20 a twist again. I wanted to see what you could do in black and white, high ISO (since it has tons of noise at that ISO) and it was kind of low light.  I think it was all right, though you can tell detail is being eaten away a bit.  When it became darker, the LCD/EVF became a pain to use.  I would still think it wouldn't be as bad being on Hollywood Boulevard I suppose, since there is more light there.

As always, comments & critique welcome. The gallery is here.  Can you spot the ghost in this picture?  Creepy.

Update: I forgot to clarify- that none of the shots have *any* post processing at all. It's all out the camera jpegs at the high quality jpeg setting, and then resized for the web. Zero, nada, no post processing.  Also all were hand held.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Walking with the Lumix...

Looks like I feel I want to see how my skills and appreciation for different cameras play now that I have much more experience with photography. This time it's my Panasonic's Lumix FZ20's turn. No Street Life Photography, just went for a walk, and photographed some trees, landscape, etc.

 

A couple of thoughts:

 

• I like the      weight of the camera, and the fact that it's like carrying my evolt with      two lenses all rolled into one. I      think I would even prefer the tinier FZ5 actually- though that camera      doesn't have manual focusing. I am afraid in some shots it will fail      because of that.
• I had to manual      focus some shots like very distant mountains, etc. That I find fine, but the resolution of      the LCD/EVF on the FZ20 doesn't seem high enough resolution to make this      task pleasant and accurate.
• It's nice to      know the FZ20 has no shutter lag once you have pre-focused
• I found myself      digging to the menus to change contrast, B&W to color and back, modes,      and saturation. I found the digging through the menus annoying though at      least Panasonic makes the menus respond in real-time to any presses, and      you can actually jump pages of the menus by using the telephoto zoom      in/out controls when in menu mode.
• I definitively      didn't venture outside ISO 80. This camera is noisy at ISO's greater than      100.
• There doesn't      seem to be a huge advantage in capturing in TIFF vs JPEG, since a lot of      the noise artifacts are the same, not a result of the compression of the      format. The FZ20 doesn't have raw mode.
• I found the      continuous shooting mode (3fps) helpful to get some shots in focus.
• Like the      shooting with the F710, now that I look at the photos in my computer, I      did a lot of crooked shots… It's like I need to get used to the camera I      am going to use…
• I found the      shutter speed variations along with apertures a bit weird, non-intuitive      and in 2-3 cases annoying (but that's the less of the cases, and it's just      a matter of getting used to the constraints, coming from the e-volt).

 

As always, comment & critiques always welcome. The gallery is here.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Street Night Life Attempt #4: Fuji F710

Ok, so I think I am (hopefully) done with my Street Night Life homework. This is my 4th attempt, and I did it using the Fuji Fine Pix F710 as promised. Some notes:

 

• Most photos at ISO 800 & 1600, full manual controls. I dared to take more color photographs this time.
• F710's secret weapon is the "last 5" shot mode where you can hold the shutter, the camera continuously takes up to 40 shots in a sequence and when you release the shutter (or you reach the 40th shot) it saves the last five shots. This mode wouldn't be a biggie except the F710 can capture up to 5 full resolution frames per second! (jpegs, not raw). This can serve as a poor man's "image stabilization" - just capture a sequence and pick the less blurry shot.  Simliar to what some Nikon cameras do actually except they pick the best shot automatically.
• I converted picture 2005_0827fujif710nightlife4_20164 from RAW format, and did apply cropping. I didn't want to crop it in post processing, but since it was worse composition wise than what it looks, and I wanted to give an example of a RAW file at night, I had to - since I didn't capture any other RAWs.

 

I think I succeeded in what I wanted to prove to myself. Of course, you can play ultimate judges… so go ahead :-) Comments & critique welcome.

The gallery is here.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Tonight...

Tonight I hope concludes my adventures into Street Night Life- for now. But there's a big twist: I am going to use my dinky cute fast SR-sensor extra dynamic range Japanese-imported Fuji FinePix F710... ISO800 & ISO1600 shots (yes, that model has ISO 1600 though at 1 megapix only).  It's weird but I already feel less intrusive with a much smaller camera considered a "point n' shoot."  On the other hand, I also feel I will be taken less seriously...

Digital Photography- F710 gallery issues...

Sorry for that. Looks like the gallery software has issues rescaling some of the aspect ratios of the F710, makign the photos in bigger sizes look like pixelated junk - which is NOT the way the camera is doing it.  I tried several things and had to delete the gallery a couple of times.  I'll try to see if there's a true way to fix this, until then, most photos will be medium size.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Burbank Day + Fuji F710

Well, after meeting with some friends for lunch, I decided that to test my own skills and see how my use of another camera has changed, that I would go back to my old nice ultra compact F710 and do something with it again. I also plan to do one Street Night Life sequence with it. The short one I did was too hastily done and it was for me to test the waters.

I basically want to prove to many, that it's the photographer and not the camera, who makes far and away the biggest difference.  And I like the challenge of using an F710 for this.

 

Couple of observations:

 

• I tended to do      a lot of "crooked" (tilted) pictures. It's like I calibrated      myself around my e-volt and now I would have to "calibrate" my      intuition around the F710
• RAW files from      the F710 are truly wonderful when using either S7Raw or the very latest      Photoshop CS2 Raw converter.
• Depth of field      control is an issue (too much) and the only reasonable way I found to have      short depth of field was to use the macro mode
• The 5 shots per      second shot speed is wonderful. Even more wonderful is Fuji's "last 5      shot" mode where the camera will fire up to 40 shots, and when you      release the shutter (or it is at its 40-ieth shot), then it will save the      last five shots. This is good to      capture some action, and also allowed me to recompose dynamically for      alignment, as the camera shows each shot just taken very quickly
• The metering      seemed to be just a notch more painful to work with than the evolt, when      spot metering. Just requires a feel of where exactly the camera is      metering at
• ISO 1600 is      quite doable if you don't require a big size (images are 1 mega pixel      only) and you use black and white
• The F710 is a 3 megapixel camera that creates in RAW a 6 megapixel file due to Fuji's interpolation needs, as the camera captures a rotated image. But the resolution resembles about 4 megapixels in some cases.
  

As always, comments & critique welcome. Only 3-5 shots were converted from RAW, the rest are out of the camera jpegs. To convert I used S7raw, which is a great Fuji digital camera raw converter and has gotten better and better. It's also free though they accept donations, and it's from Japan.

The gallery is here.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Street Night Life compact camera attempt

So I decided to try some ISO 1600 shots in black and white with my Fuji F710 to see how with my new madz skillz I can use a "small, dinky camera." And here they are. All from my car, and using the Fuji "last 5 shots" mode a lot.  I think I should give this a real try getting out of the car just to make a point... (i.e it's not the camera).  Mind you the F710 can do better than this.

The gallery is here.

PSYCHOLOGY - People's reactions to my camera...

Seeing people react to my camera has been interesting. I was trying to prepare for a telephoto shot, when the light turns red and an SUV full of 3-4 guys stops, and one of them with a lot of intent made it very clear (in a funny impromptu way) that he WANTED me to take this photo.

Here's the best shot I took out of three:

Yeah, I realize it's underexposed, oh well. 

I found very amusing that before this shot a car actually passed in front of me and him when I took one of the shots, and he actually yelled at the car "you ruined the shot!"  I couldn't stop laughing.

I remember about 3 months back I was in downtown Burbank, CA, and there was a kid (bordering on teenager) with a friend that just sat down and asked me point blank "please take my picture! take my picture!"  Now I carry contact information with me in case this happens, and I take a picture and I give my contact info, but back then I didn't. When I pointed out how I was going to get the photo back to him he looked a bit dissapointed as the realization dawned on him, and his friend convinced him to not do it anyway.

Nevertheless, I find the whole thing amusing... like we all have some exhibitionist side to us... and who knows where that photo would end?

I also had some people ask me if I was a professional photographer, what I was doing (in a curiosity-non threatening tone), others smile and comment on me taking their photo while they continue walking, etc.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - Street Night Life 3rd Impact...

Ok, I decided to go out last night, this time armed with my new n' shiny™ tripod. I have to say the tripod definitively makes a difference… I felt I could shoot at ISO 800 and I did. Also I decided to shoot some color shots this time.

 

A couple of observations on this assignment:

 

• I was trying to      THINK a bit more before shooting, but I still found myself "must try      a shot now" in a big of out of control feeling
• I don't know if      the solution is learn to manual focus to the hilt but I found situations      where the camera focusing helped, others where I should have      pre-manually-focused
• Sometimes I      used Program Auto, most of the time Manual, and often I I felt I should      have used manual with some pre-set exposure/aperture
• And speaking on      presets, the camera metering proved from useful to useless in many      situations. Seems like the only solution is to develop an      "instinct" of what to preset the camera to use, shoot n' pray      :-)
• In this batch I      think I have done better, but I noticed there's a higher percentage of      crooked (tilted) shots and some shots where I cut the legs off at the      wrong point of the subjects.. I still decided to post them because I felt      later on if I have to I can rotate them and crop them. However I posted      all the shots with NO post processing because my teacher wants me to      enforce as much as possible to capture the shot right from the get go
• I need to pay      more attention how I align the camera with the tripod
• Yes, some      exposures here are off. GRRRR.
• Continuous      focusing on the camera works but ONLY in good light and only if the      subject you are tracking is not going to be obscured by temporary subjects      in between (i.e. cars)

 

Did I get what I wanted out of this shooting trip this time? I think I did better, but believe it or not I am not quite satisfied yet. But I am happy I see an improvement.

 

As always, praise/critique/comments/demands/shouts/whatever is welcome.  Click on the link on the left or if you have problems finding what the left means, click here.

UPDATE: I am using the Olympus Zuiko 14mm-54mm and the 50mm-200mm digital lenses. One important thing when looking at the Exif, is that to get the 35mm zoom equivalent, you need to multiply the Exif data numbers by 2.

 
  So if it says "200mm" it's actually 400mm in 35mm terms. This is because the 4/3rds factor of conversion is 2x (Nikon uses 1.5x and Canon uses 1.6x I believe - in their non-full frame sensor cameras).