Seattle at night

The opportunity to photograph belly dancers brought me to Seattle the other day.  This was quite an interesting exercise, once I edit the images I'm thinking I will have a few keepers.

The opportunity to photograph the city on a clear night with a large moon rising was irresistible.I completely mis read the Yahoo map of seattle, or else I don't understand the Navy Altitude/Azimuth charts, or some of each.  I had not positioned myself properly to take advantage of the moonrise as I had hoped.  Oh well.  What I was able to do was photograph the city again from an area I've used before, the result is above.  I am quite impressed with this camera's abilities yet again.  I like this image very much.  It's different, better somehow from the other images from the same place, film or digital.

Technically I had the camera on a tripod of course, but I had the meter set to center weighted.  I reviewed the images with a loupe after shooting and could quickly see that they were overexposed, didn't think to try spot metering.  This shot was at a -3 EV, I think it's just about right.

A few interesting notes.  The dots in the sky are celestial objects, most are stars, the bright one in the middle of the sky is a planet.  Not sure which planet, Venus perhaps.  The streaks are airplanes taking off.  I am looking south and there are 2 active airports there, Boeing Field on the right side of the image and SeaTac towards the middle.  Aircraft flying north will usually turn just before reaching the city and I see there are 2 streaks from turning aircraft, the alternating green and red wing tip lights are visible.  Above and a bit to the right of the red roof is a glimpse of Mount Rainier.

DP1, lavender and red

Spent a few hours in Sequim WA where the lavender is in bloom.  Very lovely fields, various shades of purple flowers, well manicured green grass, plantings of vibrant red poppies and the occasional yellow sunflower.  I'm sure that running a lavender farm is a full time job, much like any other job, but at this time of year I wonder if one gets paid to work there or has to pay for the opportunity.

As I was "Chimping" the pictures I was taking I couldn't help wondering just how to deal with the red colors, which as expected look too pink to me.  The fix was much simpler than expected.  I use Apple's Aperture to manage my image files and the adjustment tools it offers are quite comprehensive.  One of the boxes is labeled "Color" and offers an eyedropper tool to adjust Hue, Saturation, Luminance and Range of the color selected.  I selected the pink and moved the Hue slider about 11 clicks toward the yellow side.  The results are very good and toggling quickly between the original and adjustment shows me no variation in any other color at all.

So easy even I can do it.  I am quite certain that CS3 offers similar capabilities.  I also expect that Elements, iPhoto, and a host of other tools also have this capability.  It's also possible that SPP has some abilities here as well but I don't know for sure.

DP1 lens choice

Earl Thomas

John Lee Hooker Jr.

Randy Oxford trombone

The Legendary Roy Gaines

Tony Ruiz, bass man for Dennis Jones Band

Admittedly I differ from many others in my choice of lenses.  I have found that a wide angle is almost always the correct choice and a telephoto a poor choice.  I'm not sure why this is.  The concept of "Getting more in" is probably part of it but a small part.  I am quite excited by changes in perspective.  For this reason I find the (28mm) lens to be a good choice.  

In reality it is a bit longer than I most often use(d) with my Nikon but quite acceptable.  The above photo's are all shot with a Nikon DSLR using the 12~24mm lens at 12mm.  With the chip size factor this equates to about 18mm, unusually wide for many,  just right for me.

When my Granddaughter Emma was born,  "Can you believe I'm six?" I purchased my first digital camera.  I also attached a Contax TVS point and shoot film camera to my belt, right next to my cell phone.  The TVS has a 35 ~ 60mm zoom.  35 to 60 should be called "Zoom?" it ain't much.  Reviewing the images shot at each end of the range though I found that I almost never was unhappy when choosing 35mm and quite often was when I chose 60mm.

What this tells me is that if Sigma offered an identical camera with a longer lens I would NOT be part of the rush.

That's all?

There is a current large discussion thread about Foveon and Red.  I have been aware of other questions about the chip's capabilities with red and so I participated.  I had hoped to learn something about the DP1's capabilities.

As near as I can tell from the thread, this chip sometimes produces a red with too much pink overtone.  Umm...huh?  Is that what this is all about?  A piece of cake adjustment in Aperture or Photoshop or one of many other programs generates this much discussion?

An inability to focus properly or render fine detail now that's a REAL problem.  A completely blown out unrecoverable red channel...yup a REAL problem.  A little too much pink?   C'mon.  Really?

DP1 and Red

                                   D80 100mm

                                   DP1

                                   D80 12 ~ 24mm

                                   DP1

Quite a buzz in dpreview today about the Foveon chip and red.  It seems that there is a general wisdom that this chip has a problem with red.  On it's face this makes absolutely no sense to me.  33% of the sensors are for red on a Foveon chip and 25% of the B&W sensors of bayer type chips are masked to read red.  On it's face 33% is larger than 25% so the confusion starts.

There would be at least 3 avenues here, perhaps more.  The 3 I see are:

How well it reproduces color;

how well it focuses on red detail; and for me most importantly,

how it does in red light.

As I photograph a lot of musicians I often enter clubs with the stage lit by red spot lights.  I usually mention to the club management that the red light is quite unflattering to the musicians.  If this doesn't work I just grumble like other seasoned photographers.  I usually carry a small film camera just in case.

Let's be real blunt here.  With a Bayer chip you WILL NOT get a good photograph in red light.  Don't care if you desaturate to B&W, skin still looks horrid.  If a flash is used the power it takes to overcome the red light burns right through all of the other channels as well.

I have been using the DP1 in red light situations and although were not talking works of art here I do believe it does a better job than my Nikon.

I don't do much macro work or close-ups of flowers so I have little experience with true colors here or focusing abilities.  I did take the above shots today of my tail light. 

With the Nikon I used 2 lenses, a 100mm macro lens and a 12-24mm set to appx the same setting as the DP1.  I tried different f stops and a couple of different ISO's to ensure fast shutter speeds.  WB set to Daylight, DP1 images developed as X3 and saved as 16 bit tiffs, Nikon developed in Aperture 2.

Interesting to me is how orange the 100mm shot is, and how poorly it focused, perhaps due to short DOF.

The other shots are quite similar.  The DP1 color seems a bit pink but this is very easily adjusted in Aperture as well as other programs.  I also see the DP1 image much more is in focus (look at right side of the image) but perhaps this is due in part to the Sigma lens quality.

In any event.  If there's an inherent red problem with the Foveon chip I'm not seeing it.  As someone mentioned though this may be due to ultra violet influence of some sort in flower photography.

DP1 Accessories 3

I have the HA-11 Hood for my DP1.  It works well but causes a problem.  The square hood doesn't have a cover or accept any conventional type cap as near as I can determine.  The problem then becomes deciding if it's better to remove the hood and carry it separately or to leave the lens uncovered.  If the lens is uncovered it seems to actively attract dust which is hard to remove unless of course I remove the hood.

Fortunately the round section of the HA-11 is threaded and another camera's hood will screw into it, in my case the metal Contax GG-2 hood.  Further, the GG-2 size is 55mm meaning the cap from my Tokina 100mm macro fits perfectly, more easily than the Contax cap.  Now if only the GG-2 was threaded so I could use the damn fine polarizer I bought for the 100mm Tokina.

One side note, with this installed I am able to turn the DP1 on without worrying about first removing the Sigma lens cap.  A small thing to be sure but to me a comfortable one.  

With the multi color hood, the Tokina cap and the invisi shield plastic installed and peeling it sure is a raggedy looking thing.  Fits me somehow.

DP1 Accessories 2

been some mentions of wrist straps on the Sigma group at dpreview.  There would be 2 great functions for a camera strap.  One is to keep the camera positioned to always be ready to shoot.  However your arm was moved the camera would always be facing the proper direction and the shutter release button would be near a finger.  I don't have any idea what this would look like but I often find myself wrapping the camera neck strap around my hand trying to figure it out.

The second (or perhaps first) great function would be to prevent the camera from hitting the floor.  I have found that if something hits the back of my hand, or I bump it while walking perhaps, my fingers just spring open...seems to have become an auto response.  I have a wrist strap for my DSLR which was made by OPTECH/USA and it has saved my Nikon more than once in crowds.  Looks kinda geeky but Oh Well.

When I bought a DP1 I went to the local camera store browsing straps and found another strap also made by OPTECH/USA.   Like the SLR strap it has kept the DP1 from meeting the pavement more than once.

The attachment string is much too thick for the DP1 lugs but fortunately the DP1 neck strap comes apart in sections.  I attached the clip to the DP1 neck strap and the wrist strap to the clip.  Works pretty well.

And...at about $10.00 if I do find the perfect strap at least I won't feel like I've thrown my money away.