Photoclubalpha

Mainly inspired to see whether the Berwick (Tweed estuary) beach half an hour away could offer anything to match Mark Cargill's Fife coast, especially by afternoon light (from the landward side, and with high ground meaning the last hour of sun never hits the beach). Blended HDR (the upper left has about 1.75 stops less than the lower right in ACR, and the colour temperature and other controls are adjusted too), f25 at 22mm, severely diffraction limited:


http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/104230090 for a full size 24.6 megapixel view

A lot of capture sharpening has been used here - ACR with Sharpness 50, Radius 1, Detail 50. This is needed to overcome the loss of sharpness at f25. But - with this full format, I really need a tilt-shift lens to be able to do this type of shot and get everything sharp at an optimum aperture like f11. My Gitzo tripod was not right for the conditions, and the shot was almost grabbed - camera in hand, drop the tripod down on a predetermined spot when the water receded, fire, lift it up and jump away before the next wave.

Here is an f11 shot at 60mm on the 28-75mm, and the zone of sharpness is really limited to the centre of the shot:


http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/104230267 again, there is a full size file available

Finally, something I don't do these days - digital work like darkroom work. These rocks only occupy about a 50ft by 20ft area of a mile long beach and they are only hit by the tide for a brief time; the area shown is about a yard square in the foreground. The lighthouse is there, but not as shown - it is more to the left, so it is duped in from another shot, along with a gradient-darkened sky. Contrast has been finally boosted by a strong S-curve in Photoshop, and the large file reduce to A4 printing size (which improves diffraction-softened detail, again treated the same way with strong capture sharpening). A black ground was added with white keyline, as might be printed for a 20 x 16 overall.


http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/104230363

Two things became clear on this shoot. First, I never did this type of work with a 35mm SLR in the past, always with a view camera (6 x 9cm or 5 x 4") or with a Hasselblad, or a Mamiya 645 with the WLF fitted. So I never had to try to look through an eye-level finder with the camera 18 inches off the ground and the sea or wet sand under my knees! A live view option would really have helped composition (getting horizons level, and overall framing) but so would my angle finder, which I did not take with me. Second, I should have used the 2 sec mirror up timer and maybe the remote release - or even the mirror lock up. A lot of these pix, with no ND filter available, were at around 1/8th of a second and the A900 is about at its worst for mirror slap shake at that speed, on a tripod.

I've sold both my regular and my Giant Benbo a decade ago but I do have a Neotech tripod with sealed inverted legs I will dig out. The Gitzo with normal legs risks getting sand in the locking rings. Also, my ball and socket head which is fine for the A700 is just a bit too weak for the A900. A three-way head would have been better. It's many years since I tried 'camera club' style photography and I have to say I enjoyed it, and the results. The fantastic resolution of the A900 makes it easier to produce the perfect 20 x 16 which is the objective of 'salon' or club work. But the depth of field issue - Sony does need, at least, a 35mm TS lens if not a 24/45/90 line up like Nikon and Canon.

David

Very good photo!

Hello David, this is my first posting on your incredible web site. I have never tried to send post on your forum, but i have broke the glass tonight .

I have received my A900 a few hour ago, i was a big Fan of my 7D and now my A700, and i think, just after some few shots ... i will become addict to the A900.

Just to had some information in your forum, i have Done some test of Lens adjustment tonight. This is strange because nobody seems to talk about that, when this is , i think one of the big feature of the A900 compare to other Sony models.

I am a Prime lens shooter first ... and one of my big problem was when i have discovered that almost all my beautiful Old Minolta lens was in fact sharper that i thought because of the incorrect focus.

Tonight i have calibrated 8 of my lenses in almost 15 minutes ... and here is the result for the Old an incredible 70-210mm F/4.0 at 200mm wide open :

First shot before the calibration : Focus on the eye of my sexy subject :


Shot after +5 calibration inside the A900 camera (same focus point):


Those two pictures are a 100% cropping factor.

hope this can engage some new observation in your article.

Regards,

Frank
P.S. I'm from Quebec Canada, and English is my second language ... sorry for the mess i can do with my writing ... i will improve that

i have seen that you looks like the superman of this forum and i have an another proof today.

Regards,

Frank

Nice to have you with us Frank.

And I would've like to have the lens calibration feature in A700... V.5 maybe?

However, one question - I remember that you've mentioned an S-curve several times in the past, including in a reply where you've explained how a guy in alamy got better sales by using a dramatic s-curve. So, do you have a pre-made curve that you apply to all your images, or do you apply curves selectively to each image?
Thanks!

InTheSky wrote:Tonight i have calibrated 8 of my lenses in almost 15 minutes ... and here is the result for the Old an incredible 70-210mm F/4.0 at 200mm wide open

Hi Frank. It would have been better to put your post in a separate thread headed for lens calibration, but I have had problems trying to move posts new threads so I won't do that.

The only problem I have with your calibration is that you have done it very close up. It may work perfectly for close ups now, but you should check it for distant shots. It's best to do the calibration at the typical distance you shoot, so if you use the 70-210mm a lot for portraits at 2-3m, calibrate at 2.5m - if you use another lens mainly for landscapes, calibrate at 15m.

My 900 appears to be correct with all the lenses I have used so far except, maybe, the 28mm f2 which looks a bit soft. This may be a calibration issue, so I will be testing it. My 70-210mm looks to be spot on.

David

InTheSky wrote:Very good photo!

Just to had some information in your forum, i have Done some test of Lens adjustment tonight. This is strange because nobody seems to talk about that, when this is , i think one of the big feature of the A900 compare to other Sony models.

I am a Prime lens shooter first ... and one of my big problem was when i have discovered that almost all my beautiful Old Minolta lens was in fact sharper that i thought because of the incorrect focus.

Tonight i have calibrated 8 of my lenses in almost 15 minutes ... and here is the result for the Old an incredible 70-210mm F/4.0 at 200mm wide open :

)

Welcome Frank

Interesting because someone commented a shot of mine with a 24-70 lens had bf/ff issues (although i was not totally convinced) and so would love to know how you went about this. The manual is woeful on the subject.

Richard

David Kilpatrick wrote:The only problem I have with your calibration is that you have done it very close up. It may work perfectly for close ups now, but you should check it for distant shots. It's best to do the calibration at the typical distance you shoot, so if you use the 70-210mm a lot for portraits at 2-3m, calibrate at 2.5m - if you use another lens mainly for landscapes, calibrate at 15m.

On DPR he also says:

InTheSky wrote:I have done some test a short distance and at long distance, and it seems that when it is well calibrated, it is working in both way.

/Z!

(btw. 100'th post - wohoo! )

Yagil wrote:And I would've like to have the lens calibration feature in A700... V.5 maybe?

However, one question - I remember that you've mentioned an S-curve several times in the past, including in a reply where you've explained how a guy in alamy got better sales by using a dramatic s-curve. So, do you have a pre-made curve that you apply to all your images, or do you apply curves selectively to each image?
Thanks!

Using Adobe Camera Raw, there are three default/standard contrast settings - Linear (no curve), Medium Contrast (slight s-curve) and Strong Contrast. You can also create Custom curves, but not save them or load them (except as an overall setting with other adjustments).

Here is a Linear look: And here is a Custom Curve which is fairly extreme - not safe to use in colour, but could work quite well in mono. The curve I used for the rocks pic is similar to this: For this shot I finally chose Medium Contrast, and also applied Vignetting correction +50 as the bottom of the image was very dark, a combination of the lens falloff, focus distance and subject:



David

InTheSky wrote:I have done some test of lens adjustment tonight. This is strange because nobody seems to talk about that, when this is, I think, one of the big feature of the A900 compare to other Sony models.

This I am wondering about, too. No-one talks about this new (for Sony Alpha) most exciting feature, and David keeps saying how accurately the A900 is focusing without any need for fine-adjustments. It almost seems as if the first Alpha DSLR that has AF micro adjustment also is the first that doesn't need it. In fact, your report is the very first on this topic I am seeing on the Internet.

Actually I am considering to purchase an A900 for the AF micro-adjustment feature only. I don't need 35-mm full-frame format, and I don't need 24.6 megapixels. The A700's sensor would match my requirements just fine. Still I don't own an A700. I already had two samples, and I returned both for a refund due to serious lack of focus accuracy.

InTheSky wrote:Tonight I have calibrated 8 of my lenses in almost 15 minutes ... and here is the result for the old and incredible AF 70-210 mm F/4 at 200 mm wide open [...]

Ummm ... judging from your sample images, you've carried out your calibration at close range. Have you verified that the calibration also is valid the medium and long focus distances---say, 20 m?

-- Olaf

[SiC] wrote:

David Kilpatrick wrote:The only problem I have with your calibration is that you have done it very close up. It may work perfectly for close ups now, but you should check it for distant shots. It's best to do the calibration at the typical distance you shoot, so if you use the 70-210mm a lot for portraits at 2-3m, calibrate at 2.5m - if you use another lens mainly for landscapes, calibrate at 15m.

On DPR he also says:

InTheSky wrote:I have done some test a short distance and at long distance, and it seems that when it is well calibrated, it is working in both way.

/Z!

That's good to hear, but it is still safer to calibrate on a medium distance, not minimum distance, target - and a neutral colour or green subject, not red or blue; and in daylight not tungsten light. Not to say that calibration will fail under other conditions, it's just safer to avoid extremes. Sony and Minolta factory calibration is at a distance of just under 2 metres using a monochrome target, with a special light source around 5800K. But then, we all know how accurate factory calibration has proved to be in the past

David

I Wasn't sure you've talking about the LR/CR options.

Yagil wrote:I Wasn't sure you've talking about the LR/CR options.

You can apply curves later in Photoshop too, but they look much the same and have the same uses. It helps to work in 16-bit if you plan to use strong curves. In my b/w example I did not, I used 8-bit and only decided to apply a strong S-curve later. The result is some banding in the sky. It's not a fine-art result, just a quick and dirty result for my pBase gallery.

David

David,I enjoyed the photos of the beach at Berwick (or is that Spittal?)
It is 45+ years since I played on both those beaches as a wee lad in my
knitted bathing costume.....p.s. I'm very much enjoying the a900 threads
and close to switching back to the Sony/dynax mount after 25+ years of
shooting Nikon. All the best,Tourmie Green.

If you switch from Nikon to Sony then there'll be 2 of us.
So welcome to the forum.