Photockie Talk

FTC Blogger Disclosure Statement

2009-12-08T02:29:00Z

I receive no financial benefit from any of the vendors or individuals mentioned in the blog. Not that I would have a problem with that mind you. In fact I'd love it.

If that were to happen, though, I would let y'all know.

Photo Bags for Small Aircraft

2009-12-07T04:28:00Z

Take a trip to most anywhere off the beaten path, and a severe carry on weight limit is likely. In my travels 11 or 17 lbs have been the most frequent limits. These restrictions are typical for the small aircraft run by local carriers.

My sense is they're actually more interested in the size - they want to be sure it fits in limited overhead space. So, the trick is to pack the gear so it looks light.

Most photo bags are heavily padded and bulky. The ones that looks small are small. ThinkTank to the rescue. Their Urban Disguise series of should bags is perfect for this. I bought the Urban Disguise 35.

First, it doesn't look like a photo bag for thieves to target. Fully loaded it looks like it weights maybe 9-10 lbs. Here's what I pack in mine: Nikon D700 with 70-300 mounted, 70-200 f2.8, 12-24, 50, 1.7 tele, SB900 flash, 2 Nexto image backup units, extra batteries, rechargers. And a 13 inch laptop and recharger! There's even room for a Bluetooth mouse. It weighs in at well over 20 lbs, but looks less than 10 lbs. Since it is so small, it fits anywhere once onboard.

No one has ever given it a second glance for weight limits. Remember, though, you have to carry it like it's light! Once you arrive, pull out and attach the optional backpack harness and you're all set.

How to Photograph Butterflies

2009-04-25T05:05:00Z

Several years ago I contacted a number of great butterfly photographers on www.dpreview.com. I told them I had a D70 camera body, Nikon's 105 macro lens, and SB-800 flash. Following are their comments and suggestions:

When I shoot without flash I allow the ISO to go as high as 400 or 800 to obtain shutter speeds of 1/100, shooting with aperture priority set to at least f4.5. With Nikon's 105 macro lens, shoot hand held.
Use a monopod and try to align your D70 focal plane to their wings. Sometimes I use my sigma 70-200+2X teleconverter to get distant shots. With the 105mm, set the camera to f8 Aperture priority and set the SB800 to TTL-Bal.
Shoot shutter-speed priority at 1/500 or use manual mode. I tend to stick to manual mode these days when I'm using the flash. For flash I cover up the back two terminals of the flash with tape to go fully manual. The D70 doesn't know the SB800 is there, but still fires the flash, so you can use almost any shutter speed and aperture combination. You need to experiment to see what works.
Shoot as often as you can, expect no more than 10% will be worth keeping.

Butterfly Habits (AKA reduce your frustration trying to get these critters):

Make no sudden moves and approach them very slowly. Don't be frustrated if it doesn't work at first, and stay put once in position. Butterflies often comes back to the same place.
The best time to shoot them is in the morning, as the wings are still damp from the morning dew and they are less active.
If there's a tray of fruit or cut flowers, some species get really hooked on the goodies and don't budge when you get close.
Some species flit around and never remain on a flower for more than a few seconds. Often they don't even stop flapping their wings. This is when high shutter speeds are a must.
Butterflies have short life spans. Later in the day you may find some that aren't moving around much. They may be dying, but not dead! Some will be a bit tattered and won't make good subjects, but others will be in good shape.

Hope you find the info as useful as I did! Some examples are in my Butterfly Gallery.

Taking Pictures from a Plane

2009-04-07T23:17:00Z

Getting crisp cloud, sunset and ground shots out an airplane window is fairly easy.

Set the camera to aperture priority mode
Set the aperture to the smallest number the camera will allow
Get as close to the window as you can without touching it
Do not rest your arms or the side of you body on the plane's "wall" or armrests
Shoot away

Use the smallest aperture to ensure a fast shutter speed. That helps freeze movement and plane vibrations. Avoid touching the window or using the plane walls/armrests to minimize vibrations from the engines getting to the camera.

If the camera's having trouble focusing, set it to manual focus and adjust the focus to infinity for shots of the ground or clouds. If the pictures are still blurry increase the camera speed or ISO. On a Nikon D70 use 400; on a D200 try 800; and a D700 1600.

My Photographic Workflow

2008-12-26T19:19:00Z

With the advent of digital cameras and inexpensive memory cards it's possible to take take hundreds or thousands of pictures over a few days. A Workflow provides a standardized way to process all these shots to add relevant metadata (keywords, geocoding), "quickly" identify the best shots, and post process them to look their best (or at least close).

For me, everything starts with Photoshop Bridge CS4 (included in the Adobe Photoshop CS4 package). I use it to import photos from the camera card, convert the files to DNG format, add metadata indicating copyright ownership, and place them in a "working directory" on my machine. It only takes a few mouse clicks to get this whole process running. (The copyright ownership data is set up beforehand and includes my name, contact information and copyright ownership declarations.)

Once the images are in the working directory, Bridge is used to assign keywords. (I tried Lightroom 2, but its keywording facilities stink. As your collection of photos grows, having keywords make it much easier to find a specific photo later. Bridge embeds the keywords in the photos. If they are ever published on a photo sharing site, such as SmugMug, the keywords go with the photos. SmugMug and many other sites list keywords users can search across making it very convenient for them as well.)

At this point geocoding is added to the photos (assuming it wasn't automatically added when the photos were taken).

From here on out everything is managed in Lightroom 2. I begin by importing the photos into Lightroom 2. The import process takes a couple mouse clicks and away it goes. (Lightroom provides the option to copy the photos into its database, which I do.)

Once the photos are imported it's time to identify the best shots. Lightroom 2 really shines for this. I use the Compare View in the Library Module to identify rejects first. These are the the out of focus, obviously terrible shots. After going through all the photos, the Photo/Delete Rejected Photos... command automatically removes them.

A second pass is made, now looking for the standout shots. The Compare View and Survey modes are the primary tools for this. Often I'm looking at a series of shots of the same subject, trying to find the most expressive, best focus, etc. This is a go/no go decision. I do not grade them as very good, good, not so good, etc. It either makes the cut as a serious contender for use now or it's held in storage. A key point is the no go's are not deleted. They are good photos, but don't fit current needs. The photos that receive the go sign are moved into a "collection" named "Best Shots assignment name". (Note this photo sorting and grading procedure is a modification of the process described by Scott Kelby in his book The Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers.)

For all the shots that make the cut, next up lens distortion correction using PTLens and noise reduction using DFine 2.0 if needed (both are installed as external editors in Lightroom). This is wrapped up with simple corrections with the tools under Lightroom's Basic tab: white balance, tone, spot removal, and red eye removal. This results in a collection of post processed Best Photos with full keyword, copyright and geocode metadata.

If the photo works as is, only two steps remain prior to publication. It's cropped as needed and Sharpener Pro 3.0 is run as an external editor from Lightroom 2 to provide output sharpening for printing or display on the web.

If the photo doesn't work as is, often one or more of the effects in Color Efex Pro 3 does the trick. Another option is to go into Photoshop CS4. A luminosity blend, often a green luminosity blend, is tried to see if it enhances contrast. A color blend may be tried to enhance colors using the "Man from Mars" technique. Other creative enhancements may be applied at this point using Mystical Tone, Tint, and Color. (Note the two blends mentioned were developed by Dan Margulis and are detailed in his book Professional Photoshop.) Then it's back to Lightroom to crop, sharpen and publish as described previously.

What Lens for What?

2008-12-26T04:59:00Z

Specific lens recommendations is tricky business. The recommendations below are typical. By no means do these recommendations imply what a lens shouldn't be used for. In the right circumstances a 50mm can be the perfect lens for a bird shot.

Bugs – a 200mm macro lens. The 200mm lets you take the shot farther away, so you are less likely to spook the bug. Strapped for cash? A 100-105mm is much cheaper, but you'll have to get closer and risk scaring the critters.
Landscapes, cityscapes – a wide angle zoom is very convenient, 24mm-35mm are popular focal lengths. In general a small aperture isn’t a huge issue with wide angles, so you can save some money getting a slower (and lighter!) lens. If the budget permits, get a wide angle zoom that will work on a full frame sensor camera. Right now, consumer level cameras aren't yet full frame, but manufacturing costs are coming down. In a few years most consumer DSLRs will have full frame sensors.
Party photos and around the house shooting – get the good old 50mm, f1.8, 1.4 or 1.2, whichever has best image quality for your camera system. In a pinch this will be your “go to” low light lens.
Portraits – something between 85mm and 135mm.
Sporting events and indoor recitals – something in the 70-200 range, f2.8, and with some form of image stabilization. This is a bread and butter lens for the pros, so both Canon and Nikon make magnificent zooms in this range. Along with this, a 1.7x teleconverter will convert it to a 120-340 for longer range shots. And if you don’t want to spring for a macro lens and sport lens, then get the Canon 500D close-up lens attachment and this lens (Nikon or Canon, it's a screw on lens). It’s a bit heavy, but it’s fast, sharp, and versatile.
Birding – Birders say the perfect birder lens is always 100mm longer than what you have. 400mm is the minimum for serious birding. We’re talking serious cash to be a serious birder.
“Vacation” – When you don’t want toscrew around carrying 50 pounds of lenses on vacation get the 18-200from Canon or Nikon. A number of compromises had to be made to get thishuge range, so it doesn't have stellar image quality. For shots up to8x10 or the web, it’s more than adequate. If you shoot at f8 or f11 andspend some time in Photoshop correcting the image, this lens canproduce much larger prints. This lens stays mounted on one of my camerabodies all the time. Note it is not designed for full frame sensors,but is such a great lens is deserves to be listed.

If your primary interest is general photography and you're just starting out, I’d get the 18-200mm and a 50mm. If one of the above areas is a dead-on hit, then go with that.

How Many Megapixels Does My Camera Need?

2008-12-26T04:29:00Z

First we need to make a an important assumption. We're going to assume our photos fill frame, so there's no need to crop. With this assumption let's look at how many megapixels are required.

If the image will only be seen on a typical computer or TV, no more than 2 megapixels are needed. For a 30 inch monitor run it at 2560x1600) resolution at most 4 megapixels are needed for wallpaper.

Ifthe image will be printed as a 4x6 or 5x7 snapshot, about 2 megapixels are needed. For an 8x10 about 5megapixels is plenty.

With a really sharp image, i.e. no subject or camera movement, 11x17 enlargements are easily achieved on a 6 megapixel camera.

For the average person anything more than 6 megapixels is overkill. Don't pay extra for more pixels!

For folks who want really large prints, 6 megapixels isn't enough. If a shot is sharp and properly processed for printing, a 12 megapixel camera picture can readily produce a 30x40 print. Here's a shot of the Cape of Good Hope taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D200. It's stunning at 30x40.

How to Get the Most from Cheap Lenses

2008-11-10T01:47:00Z

Let's say Uncle Fred gave us a cheap lens as a present. He probably had no idea what separated a top lens from a cheap lens and figured this one would be great. Then again maybe he's a cheap ass. Regardless, we can probably make good use of the lens with some restrictions. First, let's look into what makes a cheap lens cheap (in order of importance).

Inferior sharpness
Pin-cushion, barrel, and moustache distortion
High levels of chromatic aberration
Cheap plastic instead of high quality plastic or metal

The first three are the most troublesome. Careful handling can minimize the last.

To get the best sharpness shoot at f8. Most cheap lenses aren't very fast, so they are near their sharpest at this f stop. In practical terms, f8 means we need bright scenes - shooting in low light requires lower f stops and the sharpness will quickly degrade.

After the shoot, a heavy hand on the sharpening filter in Photoshop or the use of something like Focus Magic will often help perceived sharpness. If we're only planning on making small prints or posting shots on the web, it may not matter that much. The lack of sharpness does becomes more evident, though, the larger we blow up the shot.

If Uncle Fred gave us a zoom lens, the second problem is most likely to be worst at the limits of the zoom range. For example, if he gave us a 50-150mm zoom, we prefer to shoot close to 100mm when possible. If we have Photoshop or PTLens, they can help out after the fact. They have tools to help minimize these distortions.

Finally, we have chromatic aberration, or fringing, as it's more commonly called. These can be corrected with Photoshop or PTLens as well. Both have tools to help minimize fringing. The cheaper the lens the less likely we'll be able to remove all the fringing. Fortunately, fringing is at its worst at the edges of the photo - so shoot a little farther away and crop out the edges!

Geocoding on the Cheap

2008-11-10T00:52:00Z

The company Eye-Fi introduced a 4 Gig SDHC memory card with two cool twists. The Eye-Fi Explore Video adds geotags to your photos and automatically, wirelessly uploads them to your favorite photo sharing site! That's right, the Explore has a tiny wireless transmitter built in. As soon as you get within the range of one of their 10,000 hotspots, the photos start uploading automatically.

The geocoding isn't perfect. They couldn't fit a GPS receiver into a SDHC card, so they use knowledge of the location of access points to guesstimate your location. If you're shooting in the middle of nowhere, the tags will probably be way off. In populated areas things should be much more accurate.

The card costs $100 and comes with 1 year of the wireless access service. After that, it's $15 a year.

Geocoding, Why You Need It, How to Do It

2008-10-12T23:20:00Z

Geocoding adds information about where the picture was taken to the photo. The information isn't a description, such as the corner of Third and Main, but the Latitude and Longitudinal coordinates.

Fortunately, we don't need to know how to convert lat/long coordinates into the corner of Third and Main. Mapping software has that capability built in. Take a look at this map, which shows where we took photos in London. A click on any map marker shows the photo taken at that spot.

Why bother with geocoding? The best reason is for those born long after us. I've been restoring old family photos the last few years and wish I knew where they were taken. Geocoding preserves a little bit more of our personal history and it's not that hard to add.

For existing photos with no geocode data, the best way I've found to add it is the excellent, free program GeoSetter. The interface is well done and it runs locally, which makes the process much faster than using the SmugMug geocoder. The biggest downside is it's PC only.

For future photos, there are a number of ways to avoid a manual geocoding process. If we have a standalone GPS tracker that can output a log of where we were over time, we have a new option. Take the GPS tracker and turn it on during the photos shoot. Afterwards, Geosetter is used to synchronize the coordinates from the GPS tracker log with the photos are "synchronized" by comparing timestamps. (This does mean the camera's clock and GPS clock must agree on what time it is!) I do not geocode this way, so I can't recommend specific GPS trackers or other software packages.

A number of DSLR's now come with sockets to attach GPS trackers directly to the camera. When the shot is taken, the camera reads the coordinates from the GPS tracker and adds them to the photo. The key items here are the GPS tracker and the connecting cable. A wide variety of options exist. PC-Mobile has cables for Nikons. These cables support the Garmin Foretrex 101, which is one of the smallest standalone GPS units. Nikon also makes the MC-35 GPS cable, but it doesn't come with the connector used on the Foretrex. I have a PC-Mobile cable and a Foretrex. They work correctly with both a Nikon D200 and D700. PC-Mobile also has a standalone GPS unit for a limited set of Nikons, but I have no experience with it. Improper and even proper use of these devices could fry your camera. They are not factory authorized solutions! Use at your own risk.

Before long GPS will be built into all new cameras and this won't be a problem. Nikon's Coolpix P6000 Point and Shoot camera comes with a GPS tracker built in. Modern phone cameras, such as the iPhone, also geocode automatically. The Eye-Fi company has a clever geocoding solution for cameras that use SDHC memory cards.

Please geocode at least your most memorable shots. It will be greatly appreciated by folks you'll never meet and are trying to connect with you the best they can.