Help Chile – Donation Match
I will donate two times the sales price to the red cross efforts in Chile for all sales for the picture below between now and March 31st.
Update: I will extend this offer to my whole iStockphoto Portfolio.
The smallprint: My part of the contribution (Donation – (Sales – iStockphoto commissions)) is limited to USD 10,000; afterwards I will still donate all sales revenue until March 31st 2010 to the red cross.
Zurich Fasnacht 2010
Here are some pictures of the carnival in Zuerich (Switzerland):
Fasnacht – Zurich 2010 – Images by Markus Linke
Spezialeinheit «Skorpion» rückt nach Streit an die Weststrasse aus
Bei einem Grosseinsatz der Polizei in Zuerich (Weststrasse) wurden heute, am 17.02.2010 zwischen 20:00 und 0:00 drei Personen verhaftet. Mehrere Manschaftswagen der Polizei, scheinbar Spezialkraefte mit kugelsicheren Westen, Maschinenpistolen und Hunden sperrten die Weststrasse kurz vor der Zweierstrasse komplett ab. Fotografie: Markus Linke
Polizeigrosseinsatz Weststrasse Zuerich (edited) – Images by Markus Linke
Nikon CLS vs Pocket Wizard
For my studio strobes I use Skyport triggers (because they came with the Bx RI-strobes), but recently aquired a pair of Pocket Wizard Multimax-triggers (because of their range and ability to remote-control the camera). I wanted to find out what works best with the two Nikon SB-900 I use.
CLS is cool. It is quick, allows for fastest shutter speeds and you can control everything from your camera.
But it is not working for me. All those pre-flashes make my subject blink and I didn’t manage to get a decent portrait of any of my subjects. It might work fine for objects. This problem does not exist with the Pocket Wizards or Skyports.
AND THE WINNER IS: Pocket Wizard Multimax
The New Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VRII
Cliff Mautner published the first review of the new Nikon 70-200/2.8 VR II lense yesterday…
Check it out here: http://cliffmautner.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/101309-the-new-nikon-70200mm-f28g-ed-vrii.html
My new color managed workflow
NB: This document is work in progress and not completed yet.
Being an average photographer I’ve decided to at least get my pictures to an excellent (well … as good as it gets …) technical quality. Basically I want the picture to be sharp, the exposure right and colors correct. Not much more, but not less either.
Pre-requisites:
- calibrated display using X-Rite Eye One Display 2
- create custom ICC profile for my Nikon D700 (update: X-Rite Eye One Display 2 does not allow to be updated to create camera profiles, therefore I don’t have a custom ICC profile I’m going to use. Instead I will be using the generic D700 profile in Capture One).
- My first shot includes the Colorchecker SG target, which I will then use to create an ICC-profile per session using the Photoshop Plugin inCamera from PictoColor.
I’m following the Color Management Recommendation by Thom Hogan:
1. Set ProPhotoRGB in your converter as your Color Space if you shoot raw (it doesn’t matter what the camera setting is). You’ll be surprised to know that your DSLR can do much more subtle and extended color than AdobeRGB can do. Fortunately, whatever setting you have in your raw converter will override your camera setting.
2. Set sRGB as your Color Space if you shoot JPEG and print at labs or if you only output to the Web. Setting anything else means you have to convert your Color Space before sending the image to print or putting it on the Web.
3. Profile your monitor. This is the best thing you can do to help you achieve good color. And these days, it doesn’t cost much. But make sure the monitor profile is only used for the monitor! It’s not a Color Space.
4. Use the printer driver and custom profiles for the paper you print on. All printer makers have profiles for their papers, and most paper manufacturers have profiles now, as well. Only when you know how to print this way should you try anything more sophisticated or switch to having the application handle the color management during printing.
I also found a nice guide to Color Management on the X-rite website.
My photo workflow:
- apply custom white balance using an Expodisc
- use Elinchrom BX Ri studio strobes if needed
- manually meter necessary exposure using the light meter (only for studio strobes)
- use ISO 200 whenever possible
- shooting in RAW
- ingest photos from CF-card using Photomechanic, apply default caption and default keywords
- add basic description and keywords in Photomechanic
- open photos in Capture One doing the following corrections:
– use generic Nikon D700 camera ICC profile
– correct exposure
– correct white/black-point
– apply 5:4 crop
– export JPG (for upload to Photoshelter) [sRGB]
– export TIF (for further processing in Photoshop) [ProPhotoRGB]
– merge RAW and JPG (group together) in Photomechanic
– upload both to Photoshelter for archiving
For panoramas:
- same as above but no crop
- stitch photos using autopano pro
- crop to taste
For HDR:
- same as above, but no exposure correction
- using Photomatix to create HDR
- Post-Process in Photoshop (white/black point, crop)
Further Processing:
For pick’s, pictures I like enough to spend some more time on them, I do the following in Photoshop:
- create shot-specific ICC profile using
- reduce noise using NIK Software where needed
- apply Portraiture on portraits where needed
- apply LucisArt effects where benefitial
Book recommendation:
Update 20091012: I give up … I like the color calibration of my monitor and I’m glad I did it (and repeat it at least weekly now); however, the custom profile of my camera did not bring any good results .. I was hoping, that I just add a shot of the Colorchecker SG Target, apply it to the picture and good, but that’s not the case. If you want decent results you need to spend a lot of attention to have it evenly lightend etc. In the end the generic camera profile Capture One provides is good enough for me and because the monitor is calibrated what I see matches the print. Thats good enough for me.
Creating a Photo Book with Adobe InDesign CS4
I am trying to create a photo book using Adobe Indesign CS4. I will send the exported JPGs to Millers Lab, but have trouble to come up with a good photo book design. Are there any professional templates available?
Please note that I am not looking for a company to print the book. I have tried Blurb before and even though it was ok, I wasn’t perfectly happy with the results (prints were too dark). I am impressed with Millers Lab so far, so thats my print company of choice. I am really only looking for an InDesign Template. Unfortunately Google-searches so far only returned print companies.
Update: I finally found at least one provider at ScrapGirls. Please comment on this post if you know others.
Nikon 50mm/f1.4g lense review
This became my favorite lense. It’s (relatively) cheap, has a fast autofocus and f/1.4 is great for most subjects (portraits). I also use it for panorama pictures where I stitch picture together using Autopano pro.
Well, now I have a 3-line review.
I will write a bit more later on, but bottom line is: it is a great lense which I like very much.
Some sample pictures taken with this lense today:
Zoo Zuerich – Images by Markus Linke
Stephansdom in Vienna, Austria
St. Stephen’s Cathedral (German: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP. Its current Romanesque and Gothic form seen today, situated at the heart of Vienna, Austria in the Stephansplatz, was largely initiated by Rudolf IV and stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first being a parish church consecrated in 1147. As the most important religious building in Austria’s capital, the cathedral has born witness to many important events in that nation’s history and has, with its multi-colored tile roof, become one of the city’s most recognizable symbols.
Miller’s Professional Imaging Review
wow … I ordered a couple of prints from Miller’s and some consumer printouts. Millers is in a completely different league.
Grimmselpass in Switzerland
Yesterday I went to the Grimmselpass in Switzerland. It’s a very beautiful road for motorcyclists and great landscape. Here are some pictures I took:
Grimmsel Pass 2009-08-01 – Images by Markus Linke
Expodisc Review
The expodisc is a tool to set custom white balance on a digital camera. Basically it works just like a simple grey-card. However, it’s nicely small and good to handle. I like it very much and use it all the time! On a Nikon you hold it in front of the lense and set the white balance to pre. Then you press the WB button again (press and hold) point the camera in the direction of the light source and “take a picture” (no picture is actually taken but the white balance is recorded). You should repeat this step every hour or so to make sure that the light didn’t change inbetween shots.
Nikon D3x review
I’ve rented a Nikon D3x from Profot.ch and compared it with my Nikon D700.
This is the placeholder for the review.
Pro:
- build like a rock
- 5:4 format
- professional gear
- viewfinder
- speed
- 2 card slots
Con:
- too heavy
- too expensive (for me)
I really like the 5:4 format, I didn’t realize until today, but it’s much nicer than the long pictures a D700 does, and if you crop the D700 picture you only get a 10 megapixel picture. I agree with Ken Rockwell on this. After some research I found Katz Eye which has crop lines for a D700 … I’m going to try this out.
Update 1: The KatzEye is ok but I was struggeling with some dust on the viewfinder after installing it (managed to get it clean finally), however, even with the 8×10 marks it’s too much of a hazzle.
Bottom line: the D3x is a great camera and I would love to have one, but the pricetag is too heavy …
Nikon GP-1 review: useless
I’ve tested the Nikon GP-1 GPS module on my Nikon D700. It’s useless. After running around with it the whole day it did not catch a single signal. I double-checked and the iPhone GPS always had reception. I think it’s just not working. Also the cable to connect the GPS-module with the camera is anoying.
Imagekind
Today one of my pictures and this blog was featured on Imagekind. Check it out here: http://blog.imagekind.com/2009/03/05/how-to-photograph-in-hdr/
My HDR Tutorial
This tutorial explains step-by-step how to create beautiful high dynamic range HDR-pictures using your digital camera, photomatix and photoshop.
I enjoy photography since I was in school but just recently discovered this as a hobby again. Coming from a tech background I enjoy doing the processing part of it as much as doing the pictures itself. In the past few years apparently all the technologies (HDR, stitching, etc.) grew from being toys to professional solutions.
The first useful tutorial I found on HDR was written by Trey Ratcliff who not only shoots on the best locations and has the best equipment, but also can prove that he knows his stuff by publishing many beautiful pictures on Flickr.
However, my workflow is slightly different, so i thought I give this tutorial a shot too.
Shooting
The biggest problem I have with high dynamic range (HDR)-pictures is that they are not sharp at 100%. If you take a high-res picture and downscale it on screen resolution it still looks great, but it’s not what I want. I shoot my pictures in either of the following ways, depending on the situation:
- ISO Auto: OFF
- Custom white balance (I use an Expodisc)
- A-Mode (M-Mode sometimes)
- After focussing lock (or switch auto-focus to manual)
- One RAW picture (call it pseudo-HDR if you like) or
- 9 RAWs (-4EV,-3EV,-2EV,-1EV,0EV,1EV,2EV,3EV,4EV)
In either case I convert RAW to JPG using Capture One which is my RAW converter of choise. If I only have one picture I create 5x JPGs for further processing (-2EV,-1EV,0EV,1EV,2EV).
If I shoot 9 pictures, I:
- use a tripod
- use interval shooting on a Nikon, so all 9 pictures are taken hands-free with no camera shake
- in rare situations I just use the bracket boost hand-held, but those pictures are usually not sharp enough. An example where it did work out nicely can be found here:
Basically if you only shoot one picture it will hopefully be sharp. If you shoot 9 with a tripod you have most flexibility and if you shoot the 9 hand-held you might be lucky, or not … Please note that your picture will have more noise if you only use one RAW-file.
Here is an example using one RAW file to create 5 JPGs:
Here’s the same picture using 9 RAW images:
Processing
I use a couple of tools when processing my pictures. Capture One, Photomatix, Photoshop CS4, Noise Ninja, LucisArt 3 ED/SE, Genuine Fractals, PhotoFrame 4.
Step 1: Capture One
I import my photos using Adobe Bridge and then process them in Capture One “to taste”. For HDR pictures I keep processing to a minimum. If I only have 1 RAW picture I create 4 more (5 total) variations using -2EV, -1EV, 0EV, 1EV and 2EV.
If I have enough RAW pictures I do nothing and process them directly in Photomatix.
Step 2: Photomatix
I was playing around with some other HDR tools too (e.g. Dynamic Photo HDR), but I like Photomatix most. I’m trying not to overdo HDR so that the pictures are still a little bit like the real world.
I select all pictures (9 RAWs or 5 JPGs) and drag and drop them to Photomatix. Generally speaking I prefer the look of my 5 pictures created by Capture One from one RAW-file over the pseudo-HDR look created by Photomatix if you only open one file.
Only for hand-held pictures I select to auto-align them by matching features, for everything else I de-select all tickmarks.
Once opened I move the sliders to taste. Usually I look at both extremes (all right, all left) and then move it until I like the preview. As mentioned I try not to overdo the effect.
Usually I only adjust the following values; the numbers in brackets are my starting points:
- Strength (95)
- Color Saturation (55) – a bit more than natural
- Luminosity (0)
- Light Smoothing (High)
On a regular basis I do not change any of the other parameters.
Last I click on processing and open the picture as a 8-bit TIFF in Photoshop.
Step 3: Photoshop
Camera Raw: Before opening the file in Photoshop I open it in Camera Raw to adjust white/black/gray-points and to straighten the picture.
Noise Ninja: Before doing anything else I run Noise Ninja (that’s why there was no need to reduce noise in Photomatix). I auto-profile the image and process. Usually I do this on a new layer (CTRL-J before running the plug-in). This is always my first step after opening the picture.
Masking: If you have moving objects in your picture you might want to remove the ghosts by opening the best (usually the 0EV) version of your picture, adding it to a separate layer and hide the ghosts. There are great tutorials on this. [link to be added]
LucisArt: I’m addicted. I think a little bit of LucisArt works wonders on all, not just HDR, pictures. However, I’m very conservative using it, so I only do very minor changes and usually mix it with the original image. Check this if you are interested in what LucisArt can do for even old and low-res pictures. Here is an example of a 5 year old picture with a point and shoot camera:
On non-HDR pictures I usually only use LucisArt 3 ED and I enhance the detail until Halo’s show up and then go back a little bit. On HDR pictures I use LucisArt 3 SE and use the Sculpture effect with minimum strength and a smooth detail of 11 as a starting point. Usually I mix it with the original image using a ratio of 30 (processed) : 70 (original).
Genuine Fractals: (optional) sometimes I upscale the picture, especially for Alamy I upscale to 5100 px on the longest side. This is always my last step in the workflow.
Photoframe: (optional) sometimes I add a frame. This is always the very last step, even after upscaling via Genuine Fractals.
Please note: This tutorial is work-in-progress, so I might update it on a regular basis if things change …
Dave Hill Style – my first attempt
This is my first attempt to create a picture with a Dave Hill / Jill Greenberg look.
Stitching Software Review – Autopano, Photomerge, PtGUI and Stitcher Unlimited
I was comparing three four tools to create panorama pictures. 30 pictures were taken hand-held with a D700 in all manual mode. Click on the picture to see it larger in flickr (sorry, I couldn’t upload full sizes, because the JPG-filesize of the output was between 40-60 MB, too big for flickr).
Autopano
Photoshop CS4 Photomerge
PTGUI
Stitcher Unlimited
and another Stitcher Unlimited sample with a limited number of pictures:
I’m disappointed with photoshop and would have choosen ptgui as a winner, but I didn’t like the windows (in the building) in ptgui, so overall the best results were from produced by autopano. I’ve added Stitcher Unlimited to this article afterwards, it appears to be very professional, but for good results you probably require a tripod with pano head which I don’t have.
Update 20091001: In the meantime I’ve done a couple of more images using autopano and so far have always been happy with the results. Please note that I not always cropped the pictures, so please excuse the black areas on some of the samples below:
Panorama and Stitching – Images by Markus Linke
Also I figured that using 30 images mixed horizontal and vertical is not a good idea. If I do panoramas today I only do either horizontal or portrait and usually do much less images (e.g. 5ish). If processed by autopana the merges are nearly undetectable.
Last but not least the scene choosen for comparing the products was appereantly very difficult for the software because of the electric cables in the scene. “Normal” landscape work far better …
How to create a Sekonic L-758DR profile?
L-758 profile error: “the set level does not exist in the image. change the level to a level that exists in the image in order to calculate”
Does anybody know how to get around that error? I’m trying to create a profile for a D700 with the L-758DR and the profile target I. Which corners do I have to select in the v2 software, there are no marks on the target …
No more snapshots!
I currently have 13,282 pictures on flickr, because I use it as a cheap picture archive. I thought just adding some tags to the pictures and putting them into folders would make them easy to retrieve, but I was wrong. Therefore I’ve decided to do some changes to the way I take pictures. In the old days with my F5 I was carefully planning each shot (because film costed money). With digital I just shoot the same thing 10 times for no good reason.
I was planning to only keep pictures:
- which are razor sharp at 100% (unless it’s a memorable moment)
- which have the correct exposure (to justify my new light meter)
- which have proper white balance
- which are straightend and cropped
Those pictures will get a “qa/qc”-tag.
Did I forget anything?
