camera settings

27 Jul 2015

Appraising camera equipment and workflow

A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.  Dorothea Lange. 1895 – 1965

Please click on any of the photographs to see a larger view.

I’ve been thinking a lot about cameras and photography recently and appraising my equipment and image processing workflow.  My photography has meant different things to me at different times in my life, but has been an important constant since childhood.

On a recent walk, we saw Foxgloves that were as tall as I'd ever seen, this patch were as tall as me.
On a recent walk, we saw Foxgloves that were as tall as I’d ever seen, this patch were as tall as me.

Ideally, I’d like to swap my now rather heavy DSLR for a smaller, lighter model, as my use for it has changed in recent years.  But at the moment, I can’t make the numbers work for me or justify the additional expense.  I was lined up to trade in my heavy DSLR for a lighter modern model, but the retailer concerned reduced their part-ex offer to me at the last minute, so in rather a fit of pique and annoyance, I asked them to just return my old camera to me and took the new camera out of my shopping cart.

I took ownership of a new (at least to me) computer a few months ago and am gradually replacing software for the multitude of things I use my computer for, so image editing processes were important things to consider.

A favourite spot for bluebells, this is an old photograph I revisted in RAW format as it had been overexposed in the patches of sunlight.
A favourite spot for bluebells, this is an old photograph I revisited in RAW format as it had been overexposed in the patches of sunlight.

Until my last computer got too tired to handle it, I habitually took all my photographs in a RAW format to process later and would never consider buying a camera without that functionality.  But I had more recently started working just with JPEGs – it seemed a better solution with the bridge camera and compact I was currently using as walkabout cameras.

If you’d like to see an even larger version of the bluebell woods to the right, I’ve also uploaded a large version of the file – sometimes with detailed images like woodland, you need to see them large to appreciate the details.  I wish I was there right now, perched on a log with a cup of coffee, a book to read and to just enjoy the birdsong.

But having installed several trials or free programs for RAW conversion, now my computer can handle it, I started looking out older photos from different cameras to test with and it has been fun to tinker with images again.  The program I’ll probably settle on using is so feature-full that it’s going to take some time to learn in order to get the best from it.

This is a spot we stop at regularly for our picnic lunch, as there's a parking spot adjacent and it's very tranquil and peaceful.
This is a spot we stop at regularly for our picnic lunch, as there’s a parking spot adjacent and it’s very tranquil and peaceful.

Although I have concluded after several days with the programs open and periodically tinkering with them, that I’m still getting better results with JPEGs with the two general purpose walking cameras I’m using, the RAW format files just don’t seem to work as well (almost certainly down to some degree to my own ineptitude) as the cameras own purpose designed processing algorithms.  Whilst I can certainly improve exposure, tonal range and colour, it seems to be at the considerable expense of noise and deteriorating image quality – probably due to their tiny sensors.  So the exercise has been worthwhile, even if what I take from it is ‘as you were’.

The light is always filtering through these trees in an afternoon when we tend to visit, I must try and get there early in a morning when it's shining the other way.
The light is always filtering through these trees in an afternoon when we tend to visit, I must try and get there early in a morning when it’s shining the other way.

But revisiting some of my old RAW files from the DSLR (and the previous model), those certainly do very well.  I’ve got great results even with quite old files with the new apps and have rescued images I’d written off as unusable.

It has however thrown into sharp relief the quality of image that I get from the DSLR (even though it’s a 10 year old model) compared to the newer digicams and made me even more determined to get a smaller walkabout DSLR model.

I’ve salted a few of these recently re-worked images above.  It has been enjoyable, whilst I count down the weeks to some holiday time, to look again at some of my favourite spots as I work on the images.  It’s not quite the same as being there, but for now, whilst we have another summer of unseasonably poor weather, it’s been a little treat.

On the BBC's Springwatch, Chris Packham gave a word of the day and one day it was 'shivelight' to describe shafts of sunlight breaking through woodland canopy - as you know, one of my very favourite things.
On the BBC’s Springwatch, Chris Packham gave a ‘word of the day’ and one day it was ‘shivelight’ to describe shafts of sunlight breaking through the woodland canopy – as you know, one of my very favourite things.

This image on the left, of a new path we walked over the weekend, is an example of what I mentioned above about working with JPEGs.  Due to the extremes of light, I took it as a large JPEG and a RAW file together (on my bridge camera) and spent some time trying to get the result I wanted from the RAW file and wasn’t especially happy with the result.  So I opened the JPEG and used my usual workflow and within 5 minutes had got a much better result.  I doubt that would be the case with RAW files from my DSLR, but certainly with this camera and its tiny sensor, I don’t seem to be gaining enough to be worth the effort.  It also trains me to ensure I get the exposure right at the point of taking the image and not allowing myself to be sloppy, knowing I can pull it back in processing, so perhaps this is a complimentary technique to ensure I keep my mind on good camera practice.

When you've had a nice walk, a picnic supper, sat and read whilst listening to the birds, what better way to end the evening than a sunset like this.
When you’ve had a nice walk, a picnic supper, sat and read whilst listening to the birds, what better way to end the evening than a sunset like this.

I do however have my camera set up to give me the best possible neutral file to work with, knowing that I like to post process my images to my preferred result later in software.  I keep processing parameters to a minimum, like sharpening, contrast and saturation.

This means that my images tend to come out of the camera looking a little soft, flat, dull and bland.  Which is fine by me, it preserves highlights and detail and gives me a good neutral foundation to work with.  This wouldn’t work if I wanted to print directly from the memory card or wasn’t prepared to work on images, but for me, that’s half the fun.  It’s not an approach that most people would wish to adopt, but I see it as a pseudo-RAW intermediate format; the best possible JPEG data is recorded, but it certainly needs to be knocked into shape visually.  So until I can find the pennies for a new DSLR, I’ll use my old one when that’s needed and make the best of what I already have.

My work this week:

I’ve not just been tinkering with photos and thinking about cameras this week, I’ve put in some quality time with some silver clay.  I bought some at Christmas when it was a good price, but this is the first chance I’ve had with the time to crack it out and get something made.  My copper wild rose pendant sold soon after going on sale, so I also wanted to try a smaller one in silver.  I scaled down the component shapes and worked in just the same way as previously, except I replaced the round disc I’d used as a base on the back of the copper one with a proper calyx shape, so that it’s as nice on the back as the front.

Hand sculpted wild rose pendant in pure silver.
Hand sculpted wild rose pendant in pure silver.

 

Each petal is hand sculpted and they're all different. The pendant hangs on a discreet bail loop behind the top petal.
Each petal is hand sculpted and they’re all different. The pendant hangs on a discreet bail loop behind the top petal.

 

The back of the pendant shows the calyx and remains of the stem to make the back structure interesting too.
The back of the pendant shows the calyx and remains of the stem to make the back structure interesting too.

 

I’ve always been very fond of simple, uncluttered jewellery and especially silver with sleek lines.  I wasn’t sure how sleek I could get with silver clay, so this pendant was a bit of a trip into uncharted waters for me, but it worked rather better than I’d hoped.  I also love marquise shaped stones and have had a few put aside for the right design for some time.  I decided that the greater shrinkage rate of copper clay might render it unsuitable for setting a stone with such a long perimeter distance (a lot of distance to shrink and potentially crack), but it worked perfectly in the silver, which I’m finding only shrinks around 5% from dry after firing.

This hand crafted silver pendant features sleek lines and a gorgeous marquise shaped Cubic Zirconia stone.
This hand crafted silver pendant features sleek lines and a gorgeous marquise shaped Cubic Zirconia stone.

 

Contemporary silver pendant set with a large marquise Cubic Zirconia faceted gemstone.
Contemporary silver pendant set with a large marquise Cubic Zirconia faceted gemstone.

 

28 Mar 2011

Revisiting my image processing workflow

As I’ve mentioned before, I was kindly given a new camera for a big birthday I had in January and have spent some time since getting to know it. Despite being a very long term photographer with a lot of experience of different cameras, it’s been rather a steep learning curve with this particular one.

I’ve had to work on how to get the best of it when actually taking photographs – and that’s something I still haven’t settled on yet – every time I think I’ve mastered what’s required, a series of photographs disproves my earlier conclusions and it’s back to the drawing board. I’ve never had a dilemma quite like this before with any camera.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view, they tend to look rather dark here on the page.

A recent image with the new camera taken on a very cold and grey day – which didn’t quite work when I took it, but some extra saturation and a different sharpening technique brought much more out of it.

Some of the problem stems from the fact that I like to work with RAW format images, that is, the camera records the data of the photograph without finally processing it into an actual image – you download the file to the computer, then use software to make that final conversion. The idea being that your computer, coupled with your own knowledge and hopes for the photograph, combined with the luxury of time and sophisticated software, can do a better job of it than the camera can in the milliseconds it has to process the image for you.

I was tinkering with my 720mm equivalent lens on my lunchtime walk and this chap thought I needed investigating and came over for a closer look – at the time he was the other side of the field.

The camera itself is restricted to the recipe of image processing algorithms that are preset between the camera manufacturers taste and the settings you chose in the camera – like saturation level, in-camera sharpening etc. That becomes a sort of one-shot deal – once the moment has passed, that image has been recorded within those constraints and whilst you can post-process it later to quite a large degree, some aspects of it may be beyond retrieval.

The daffodils outside the house are at their most perfect at the moment and the patch of them gets the last dying rays of the sun as it sets behind buildings opposite and gives them a lovely evening glow.

So working with a RAW format gives you a second chance to wrangle a better image from the data you recorded when not constrained by the camera processing. It also gives you an opportunity to develop more than one version of an image and merge the best from each – this is a practice I especially like to do, predominantly with landscapes, which have a lot of contrast in the scene – if you get dark areas under trees well exposed for example, this might leave the sky too pale and you might blow the highlights of white clouds or reflections from water. In the past you might have done this with bracketed exposures taken at the same time, but this needs a tripod and still conditions to work well.

This image could not have been achieved, as it looks here, from a single in-camera JPEG – I developed two versions from the RAW file – one to expose for the distant hillside in full sun and another for the dark foreground areas in deep shadow. I manually blended them to get the best from each exposure.

You can blend separately developed images from the RAW file for colour as well as exposure – in this interior I did for a client recently, the grey tiles under the cupboard had a different colour cast from the rest of the room and were over exposed too due to the proximity of the lights – but I could blend the best of two versions of the image to get a natural looking result, more in line with what your eye and brain are capable of interpreting at the time.

You do of course see an image in the camera as you work with RAW files, as usually a small format JPEG is recorded at the same time as the RAW file is saved and embedded within it, otherwise you couldn’t view your photos back in the camera or preview and identify them on your computer.

An image that I never did get to look quite how I wanted and in line with how the scene was, but some work on it retrospectively gave the result I had been after. Sometimes revisiting such images later with fresh eyes gives better results.

With my DSLRs I’ve always chosen to work with a RAW format and had a good workflow for doing so – I thought any extra time that process took (and I’m not convinced that it actually did) was more than repaid in better results. I got into good habits early on and didn’t actually find the process tiresome, as many often cite as a reason for NOT shooting RAW. I preview my photographs (i.e looking at the embedded JPEGs just mentioned) in image viewing software and choose the ones I want to look at in more detail, then move to the RAW development software and only work on the ones I’ve already shortlisted – I certainly don’t develop all of the images I take in a RAW format and often, the embedded JPEG is good enough for many uses.

What’s not to love about sleepy piggies – another older image revisited with the revised workflow which gives a result more like what I saw and wanted from it.

And this is where my difficulties stem from with this camera. It has the ability to shoot RAW which was a big tick in the plus column when initially choosing the model. But, the particular file format is not well supported by many of the main RAW development softwares and those that do, won’t work on my now old and insufficiently specced computer or they cost lots of pennies – and still won’t work on my old computer. It does of course come bundled with a suitable application – but it’s very much a stripped down ‘lite’ version without many of the functions I would consider essential – although they tantalisingly leave them visible but greyed out to add to the frustration. It’s also very slow and a resource hog on my poor tired old computer. Plus, I simply don’t like it very much. I really like the application I use with my DSLR images and that has spoiled me somewhat.

The scene at the top of the hill on one of my lunchtime walk routes. By the time I reach this point I tend to be gasping and panting and happy to just stop a moment and enjoy this scene.

So I’m currently having a battle between short term ease of use at the moment and better potential image quality – complicated by the likelihood that I will hopefully get a new computer in the not-too-distant and then I would be able to revisit images I’ve already taken more easily. So, for today at least, I’m just shooting JPEGs and as soon as I take an image that needs something more than I recorded, regret not having a RAW image to tweak. I’ll certainly change my mind again next week; I’m already on ‘Plan J’.

This is an image I’ve no doubt posted before, but as it’s typical of the type of scene I can’t resist, it was important to me to hone a methodology for both taking images like this and for post-processing them, to get results I liked. I finally got this one to look how I envisaged it.

But all this contemplation has caused me to revisit my image workflow too – perhaps a task that was long overdue. With the need to produce jewellery images very quickly and efficiently, I developed a workflow for them specifically and set up scripts for functions like sharpening, that gave decent quick and dirty results. These worked well enough for the web based jewellery images, so I got into lazy habits and started using the same workflow for all of my images. But this didn’t seem to work quite as well with images from my new camera, so I decided to go back to basics and work through my original more thorough workflow for my ‘leisure images’ and see if I could hone a new workflow that could be made just as efficient and hopefully give better results.

I can’t resist the abstract shapes and colours of fungi and this was taken on one of my favourite walks in the Lake District that in autumn has a diverse range of fungi growing amongst the trees.

I always used to enjoy tinkering with images to get the best possible result from them, but the need to bang out jewellery photos in volume as efficiently as possible had somewhat spoiled that process for me, but looking at it more carefully again, the bug re-bit me and I think I’ve now settled on a processing routine that will work well with my new camera images, but can also be applied to all of my other images too as I’ve honed some scripts that use the best of both workflows.

I’d forgotten about this particular version of my woodland chum – I’d taken it from down the hill, but with a long focal length to give that feeling of a low perspective and him slithering between the trees. Imagine if you bumped into that in the dark without knowing it was there.

So armed with my re-awakened enthusiasm, I picked some older photos at random and re-worked them, just to see if my new ideas had merit across a range of images from different cameras, some of which are posted above.

This was taken on a damp drizzly and cold August day and I wanted to try and re-capture that misty glow that the scene had with all the moisture in the air.

Time to grab my camera and head out for some fresh air whilst it’s nice – now what settings was I supposed to be trying today . . . ?

13 Feb 2011

The best I could manage on a damp February Saturday

Apologies for yet another post of little worthwhile substance, but it’s been a funny, disorganised sort of week and my mind hasn’t sufficient capacity left for writing anything sensible or of value this week.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

On the perimeter of the reservoir are the remains of some workers cottages and farmsteads from before the valley was flooded. This shot was a blended exposure from two frames developed from the same raw image taken – it would have been impossible to get this much detail in the foreground shadow and good colour in the sky from a single in-camera image.

As mentioned previously, I got a new camera for my recent BIG birthday and haven’t yet fallen totally in love with it – it’s taking some getting to know and get the best from. I was concerned that there was actually a problem with it, I was getting a few totally out of focus shots, despite having focus lock confirmed, so I consulted fellow owners on a photography forum for advice.


After discussion of focus and exposure issues, I took it out for a walk yesterday – I needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air and the 2Km reservoir walk we chose is local, has a good car park and provides just the kind of scene I’ve been having difficulty with.

So armed with some ideas to try and warm clothing I put it through its paces and whilst the scenery was very post-winter and drab looking and the weather very changeable – from bright low winter sunshine to big dollops of cold rain, I came away with a higher percentage of successful shots than I had been doing.

I shot these in a raw unprocessed format which is my usual practice with my DSLR and I think this will be the way to go, I was much happier with the image quality (at pixel level, in terms of sharpening, contrast etc.) and it fits nicely with my preferred work flow for post-processing images – I like working the images to my own taste rather than just accepting what the camera gives me.

My new camera has a wider wide angle than most digicams (24mm equivalent, where most are 36mm or 38mm) and this was one of the reasons I chose it, as I do like to take very wide angle shots like this. I use a 12mm ultra wide angle lens on my DSLR.

I did however have to question one previously published theory – that dogs always carry the largest possible stick they can lift with their jaws. I was passed by a golder Labrador with a very trim stick in his mouth – it was about 2″ in diameter and about 15″ long – with very clean saw marks at each end. I suspect his owner, fearing for the safety of their shins, or perhaps having already come off badly after an encounter with the dog’s favourite walk-buddy – decided to create a stick of his own that was perfect for carrying and throwing and ensured rather less bruising. Mr Boo and I both spotted it simultaneously and pointed, laughing; the owner must have thought we were bonkers!

There’s often little water in this race which feeds the reservoir, but after several days of heavy rain, the waterfalls were more lively than I’ve seen them before.
To paraphrase a quote by Ms Dolly Parton – ‘if you want to see rainbows, you have to put up with the rain’. You can just see that this was a double rainbow and actually was a full arc on both sides too.