My industrial design class just completed their semester-long power equipment design project culminating with the building of full-scale appearance models. I set up a make-shift photo studio in a lightly used classroom and over the past 24 hours shot over 600 images. All were taken in RAW format (DNG) with my Pentax K10D and my 18-55mm kit lens and FA 35mm f/2 AL and processed in Adobe Lightroom. By shooting in RAW I was able to set the white balance for all the shots with one click by selecting an underexposed portion of the white backdrop with the eye dropper tool in Lightroom and then copying and pasting that setting to all images.

Most of the shots required a heavy dose of positive exposure compensation while shooting to keep the white backdrop white and not grey. I was pretty diligent with the use of the histogram while shooting so there wasn’t much need for exposure adjustment. I just made sure there was a good spike on the right hand side of the graph without going very far into the mid tones. Here’s a shot of the “studio” set-up:

I positioned the white paper backdrop centered under a row of fluorescent lights so that there was a row flanking the backdrop on either side. This provided nice even lighting front to back and reduced shadows to a minimum.

For each of the 14 students I took anywhere from 40-70 shots (all hand-held @ ISO 400). I started with low-angle orthographic views at a medium focal length (35-45mm) followed by eye-level perspective shots at a wider angle (35-24mm), short depth of field detail shots (to hide any imperfections), and specialty shots as required (use, high angle, ultra-wide low angle perspective, etc.). All in all I was really pleased with the results right out of the camera and I think the students ended up with great shots for their portfolios.

Unfortunately, the confidentiality agreement I signed prevents me from showing most of the shots or even revealing the client or other interesting project details, but here are a few ambiguous detail shots of the final models to show what I was able to achieve with this make shift DIY studio set-up:

Oh, and I have over 2,000 photos that I have taken of the students working on their projects this semester that I need to burn off onto DVDs within the next week!

Pentax K10D, Pentax SMC-A 50mm f/1.7 (manual focus), ISO 100, f/8, 30 sec, +/-0 EV, IS off

Taken in an alley behind an apartment building on Historic Highland Avenue in Birmingham, AL. I was drawn to the combination of lighting (sodium vapor and mercury vapor), the texture of the brick and the arrangement of the trash cans. This photo was taken with my Pentax K10D and my old manual focus 50mm f/1.7 lens on a Joby Gorillapod. I set the camera to manual mode, selected ISO 100 (for minimum noise), Auto white balance, 30 second shutter (maximum shutter time in manual mode), f/8 aperture (for maximum sharpness), and set the self timer to the 2 second delay position (to eliminate camera shake when the shutter opens). I manually set the focus at infinity and didn’t bother checking the light meter reading. Since I shoot these shots with the long exposure noise reduction turned off, I was able to review the shot immediately and saw that it was good on the first try. The alley was a lot darker and creepier than this photo suggests so after one shot I grabbed up my camera and kept moving…

Once back home, I dumped my RAW files into Adobe Lightroom where I sorted through my shots and selected this one to post. I played around a bit with the white balance but found the as-shot auto setting did the best job of capturing the variability of the two competing light sources. I bumped up the exposure a bit to brighten the shot. This was easy to do without introducing too much noise since I had taken the shot at ISO 100 (which gives more leeway for adjustments in post-processing). Had I shot at ISO 400 or above I would have had to make sure I got the exposure right in-camera as any tweaking would have introduced too much noise.

Here’s the same shot with the white balance adjusted to compensate for the orange cast of the sodium vapor lighting in the alley (I clicked the WB eye dropper on the neutral colored stone work on the brick wall in the foreground):

I use this technique a lot for long exposure urban night shots. Usually I only adjust the aperture between f/4 to f/16 or so to dial in the exposure for varying lighting conditions. Using a Gorillapod means I can easily carry the whole rig around and set it on sidewalks, streets, walls, etc. or quickly wrap it around a railing or sign post. I like to keep moving with a purposeful walk. Anyone I encounter on the streets I look square in the eyes and greet confidently. This tends to discourage too much unwanted conversation and draws attention away from my fancy camera. Using my little 50mm lens also helps to make the camera seem less significant to anyone that might be having unscrupulous thoughts.

Here are a few more photos from last night shot using the same technique:

Nothing really amazing here but I only spent about 10 minutes walking around this one block and snapping about a half dozen or so exposures. Using the same technique I’ve gotten much better results with not much more effort by just scouting better locations. Practice like this then when you come across those great scenes you’ll be ready to go with a minimum of fumbling around!

Pentax K10D, SMC PENTAX-DA f/3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL @ 18mm, ISO 160, f/4, 1/30 sec, +1 EV, IS on

Read all about Auburn University’s Department of Industrial and Graphic Design’s annual Designing Green competition on my personal blog.

Designed by Aran Mun, the hand-made laser cut cardboard trophy above was shot in a simple whitespace studio with a single incandescent bulb behind a white umbrella diffuser (reversed from the set-up shown below):

RAW file processed in Adobe Lightroom to correct white balance and tweak the exposure slightly. I shot another version at f/8…

…but I preferred the way the vignetting and shallower DoF in the f/4 shot really adds depth to the photograph and focuses your attention on the logo. Best thing about having access to a studio like this is that the total time to set up for this shot and snap the four frames I took was less than 2 minutes!

Click here if you’re just interrested in seeing all the photos I took during the event.

Pentax K10D, Pentax SMC-A 50mm f/1.7 (manual focus), ISO 800, f/1.7, 1/50 sec, +0.7 EV, IS on

Speak to me…as in little green men from outer space ;-) This image makes me think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Taken in the bar at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas. The Centrifuge bar (as it is known) is designed around a central cylinderical tower covered in tiny color changing LED or fiber optic lights. I was sitting about 12-15′ away from the bar when I took this relaxing from 3 days of walking the show floor at PMA. I simply manually set the focus on my 50mm lens (at f/1.7) to around 3′ and let the camera do the rest. Shooting bokeh is really one of the easiest things to do once you understand the technique. The hard part becomes making an actual composition out of the bokeh. In this case the arrangeent of the lights themselves was all I needed. Tomorrow I’ll have another example shot in the same place.

Sitting in the Southwest Airlines C gate departure lounge at Las Vegas international Airport yesterday this is pretty much what I was seeing through my glazed-over post-PMA eyes. This image is pretty much SOOC (straight of out of the camera). I did apply my standard Lightroom import processing but didn’t have to do much else. For the shot I just opened up the aperture, focused on the backrest of the seat across the aisle from me, recomposed and shot. The large aperture took care of blurring out the background and created the nice bokeh balls from all the lights. The sun had set behind me about 20 minutes before so I got a nice blue hour band through the east facing windows in the background. This is the original composition:

It took a few tries to get the focus right but I figured I had a pretty good shot on about the third or fourth try. A few minutes later, the gentleman on the right walked up, sat down in the second row and pulled out his headphones and I knew that the shot I was looking for had finally materialized.

Shooting in airports is one of my favorite locations but they can be a mixed bag. There is so much to see and so many walks of life confined in a relatively small and typically interestingly designed space. However, you have to be careful of invading peoples’ privacy too much since there’s usually nowhere to run and hide. Shooting shots like this though, can be quite innocent as most people are lost in their own little iPod-isolated world. Also, if they give you a hard time you can show them the shot and prove that they’re nothing more than background texture ;-)

Technical difficulties involve poor and variable lighting conditions and constantly moving subjects. I tend to set my Pentax K10D’s auto ISO to 100-800 (or maybe 1000) and shoot in RAW so I can tweak the white balance later if needed. Generally I like to use my old 50mm lens left wide open at f/1.7. It is small with decent reach and not nearly as imposing as a larger and longer lens might be. Personally, I think Pentax’s SMCP-FA 77mm f/1.8 Limited lens would be a better choice for this type of photography. It is just as small and fast, sharper wide open, has longer reach, and is autofocus. Autofocus here is nice as it allows you to compose and shoot much faster with better accuracy than a manual focus lens (at least for me). That way you draw less attention to yourself while taking pictures.

Anyway, next time you find yourself at the airport, take your camera out of your bag and see what you can get! Here’s a few more that I took:

13 second exposure @ f/16. Camera was set on window sill and triggered with the 2 second delay self timer.

Tram passengers.

This shot was taken at f/4 to give a bit more DoF and sharpen things up a bit.

This was shot from the hip and I knew it would be out of focus but somehow it still works.

Waiting in line at the ticket counter. The shutter release caused him to turn around but I feigned taking a picture of the ceiling to avoid conflict ;-)

]]> http://www.booleansplit.com/?feed=rss2&p=481 0 http://www.booleansplit.com/?p=336 http://www.booleansplit.com/?p=336#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:18:52 +0000 Robert http://www.booleansplit.com/?p=336

I’ve already blogged here once about taking sunset photos but after taking this blue hour shot tonight I just had to share how easy this is.

I had to run downtown around 6pm to pick up some fresh oysters from the Fish Market. On the way out the door I grabbed my Pentax K10D, 16-50 f/2.8 DA* (borrowed) and tripod. I made a bee line down 21st Street South (past the Fish Market) to the viaduct that goes over the railroad tracks into downtown. From this elevated vantage point over the tracks I knew I would have a decent view west with enough streetlights for some killer starburst action.

Here’s the set-up for this shot:

• camera mode: MANUAL (you can’t do this in AUTO!)
• aperture: f/22
• shutter speed: 30 seconds
• ISO: 100*
• white balance: AUTO
• flash: OFF (!!)
• IS: OFF
• auto focus: OFF (manually set focus to ∞)
• self timer: ON (2 second delay)
• focal length: widest setting (here: 16mm)
• battery: fully charged (!)

*Nikon users with ISO 200 as the lowest setting may have to back off the shutter to 15-20 seconds.

That’s it. Mount the camera on a tripod, compose the shot, trip the shutter (using the self timer prevents camera shake), step back, and wait. If you time the light right that’s all you’ll ever have to do. The small aperture ensures everything is in focus and creates dazzling starbursts. The long exposure pulls in all kinds of light and colors and the low ISO keeps things s-m-o-o-t-h. I did shoot this photo in RAW but all I did in Lightroom to this shot is apply my standard import settings and touch up a little sensor dust.

Truthfully, I rarely look at the exposure meeter for these shots. I usually just take a 30 second f/22 shot at ISO 100 and check the LCD. If it’s too dark I’ve probably missed the magic blue hour and it’s either time to pack it up or break out the DIY bulb switch (though I usually try a few in vain at f/16 and f/8 just to be sure). If the shot is too bright I’ll just back off the shutter to 15 seconds and try again. If that doesn’t work I just wait a bit until the light drops off some more. The only real hard part is getting the timing right (most people are packing up to leave about the time I’m setting up for my best shots) and being patient (30 second exposures can seem like an eternity sometimes).

It’s really one of the few never-fail shots if you use these settings. Trick is you pretty much have to use all of these settings to get decent results. Break out the tripod and give it a try tomorrow night!

Here are a few more examples on my Flickr stream if you’re interested.

The Canon 5D Mark II’s in-camera JPG processing is awful if you’re making huge prints. The in-camera processing of the raw data oversharpens harsh edges, adds too much contrast and smudges subtle textures into mush.

For the Canon 5D Mark II, if you’re making huge enlargements, shooting CR2 files and processing them with Adobe Lightroom 2.2 makes a world of improvement over in-camera processing. Shooting CR2 files in the 5D Mark II and processing them in Lightroom 2.2 makes files almost indistinguishable from the JPGs that come directly out of the Nikon D3X.

I find this quite amusing as Ken is infamous for bashing anyone who shoots RAW as a hack. Read his article on RAW vs. JPEG to see what I mean. If you can get beyond all of his opinions there is some pretty useful information in there.

Personally, I pretty much agreed with Ken and shot JPEG exclusively up until last year. I switched to shooting RAW with my Pentax K10D and post processing with Adobe Lightroom when I discovered how much better the RAW images looked coming out of Lightroom as JPEGs than they ever did coming out of the camera. The thing that makes it work for me is that I know the camera so well that I can picture what post processing adjustments I am going to need to do to an image as I’m peering through the viewfinder… much the same way a good film photographer considers how they will later develop and print an image in the darkroom.

I have lens specific import presets for my K10D’s RAW files that automatically apply my preferred adjustments during import (Sharpening, Detail, Clarity, Vibrance, Noise Reduction, Defringing, etc.). I shoot in auto white balance mode so all the post processing I have to do is make any required adjustments to the WB where the camera missed (which happens more often than not. Often, I can do this quite simply with a large number of images shot in the same light with less than 3 clicks (click on the first image, shift-click on the last, click on the WB pull-down tab, scroll to the correct WB preset and release). I certainly fail to see how this can be any more time consuming than fiddling with the in-camera WB settings while shooting.

I don’t recommend shooting RAW for beginners. Post processing can be a quagmire where inexperienced photographers often get lost and discouraged. However, once you get to the point that you can see what kinds of adjustments an image might need before you even release the shutter, shooting RAW starts to make a lot of sense. Used wisely, RAW images can open up a whole new world of creative and critical control. Best of all, you can always reset the image back to the default as-shot capture and do it all over again- all without creating multiple JPEG files to keep track of and store.

If you want to get an idea of what shooting RAW will do for your core image quality, look up the review of your camera on dpreview.com and navigate to the “Compared to (JPEG)” and “Compared to (RAW)” sections.

Camera Dojo just posted a pretty in-depth article on the same subject that is worth taking a look at.