Learning to See » Photo Equipment http://www.jonroemer.com/blog Jon Roemer's Blog Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:45:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Stopping Short of Rails http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/11/stopping-short-of-rails/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/11/stopping-short-of-rails/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:10:28 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=5699 Back in April, in my post Zacuto Stuff, I looked at mating a Zacuto Gorilla Plate or DSLR Baseplate with Really Right Stuff rails and clamps to create a quick release system that would allow you to move from platform to platform without having to reconfigure your DSLR.

That setup worked well but [...]]]> Back in April, in my post Zacuto Stuff, I looked at mating a Zacuto Gorilla Plate or DSLR Baseplate with Really Right Stuff rails and clamps to create a quick release system that would allow you to move from platform to platform without having to reconfigure your DSLR.

Zacuto Z-finder, RRS MPR-73, RRS B2 AS II clamp, and Sachtler FSB-8 head all playing nice together.

That setup worked well but it fell short in one area – the addition of longer lenses with their own lens collars and mounting feet. On shoots this past year I have had to switch between my 70-200 lens, my 300 mm lens, and shorter focal lengths on many occasions. The problem with this is the orientation of the RRS rail which parallels the film plane when mounted via the camera body but is perpendicular to the film plane when the body/lens combo is mounted via a lens foot.

You could use a screw driver on location and change the orientation of the RRS clamp as needed but that is leaving room for error and it eats up time. Likewise, you could set your camera up on a 15mm rail system with its own lens support but that too adds time and it adds to the overall bulk of the system. Lastly, you could opt to not support the lens and continue to the mount the camera by its RRS rail but you are asking for trouble with that setup. It could damage the lens mount on cheaper cameras and on all cameras it creates an unbalanced, somewhat wobbly setup.

My first attempt at conquering this involved using whatever I had on hand MacGyver style. In this case, I had an extra older RRS base clamp and an extra Zacuto Gorilla plate. The latter was needed to raise the level of the second clamp up higher (a lens foot mount is often low and with a taller camera body there can be clearance issues.)

Two RRS clamps at 90 deg. to each other to accommodate a long lens or a camera mount.

While this setup worked, in practice it was a bit unwieldy. It required turning the Sachtler camera plate 180 deg. depending upon which clamp was being used and with a taller DSLR there were still some clearance issues.

The answer I found required getting a new Sachtler camera plate and a new RRS clamp. Since I had bought my FSB-8 fluid head Sachtler had released a new camera plate, the DSLR Plate. It is longer to allow for more balancing options with longer lenses and it is slightly raised at the mounting point to give additional clearance.

The new RRS clamp I opted for is a pan head, the PCL-1 Panning Clamp, so you can leave it locked down on the tripod’s camera plate but rotate it 90 deg. as needed to shift between a lens mount or a camera mount.

While this costs more money it’s a far more elegant solution.  It can adapt quickly to a lens mount or a camera mount and it stops short of everything that comes with putting the camera on 15mm rails, needing a matte box, or in a cage.

Sachtler DSLR Plate for FSB fluid heads and the RRS Panning Clamp.

The Panning Clamp has a 3/8-16 center socket and a 1/4-20 side socket allowing for two mounting points.

The Panning Clamp's large knob is to lock the clamp, the small knob allows rotation.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 70-200, with Sachtler DSLR Plate and RRS Panning Clamp.

The setup allows for just enough clearance to leave a Zacuto plate and RRS mount on the camera body.

As with the prior picture you can quickly switch to a short lens and use the camera mount.

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Notes:

Zacuto has two plates called the Gorilla Plate and the DSLR Baseplate. Both allow you to mount a Zacuto Z-Finder.

Sachtler’s new plate, the DSLR Plate, is made for their FSB series fluid heads.

Really Right Stuff (RRS) makes the clamps, panning or fixed, and they make the rails which will fit a lens collar mount.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/11/stopping-short-of-rails/feed/ 1 Canon EOS-1D X http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/10/canon-eos-1d-x/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/10/canon-eos-1d-x/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:56:33 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=5645 Canon, never one to shy away from confusing product names, has announced their latest flagship camera – the *1D X. The web is already becoming inundated with information.

CPN Europe has a lot of information including a 12-page technical paper.

Canon Japan has a short film made with the [...]]]>

Canon EOS-1D X

Canon, never one to shy away from confusing product names, has announced their latest flagship camera – the *1D X. The web is already becoming inundated with information.

CPN Europe has a lot of information including a 12-page technical paper.

Canon Japan has a short film made with the camera which includes stills and video. At the very end it lists which lenses were used and what ISOs were utilized.

The camera looks to be intriguing, interesting, and a bit of a challenge to or, maybe better put, a practical recognition of shooters needs. For the first time Canon is lowering the megapixel count of its flagship model, in this case from 21mp to 18mp. This is being done in favor of lower signal to noise ratios and it should add another 2 stops of range over the Canon 1D Mark IV.

The 1D X is also a merging of Canon’s two pro lines, the 1D series and the 1Ds series. Canon themselves foretold this a couple of years ago – saying that once processing speed allowed there would no longer be a need for a sports optimized camera and a studio optimized camera.

Having shot with both the 1Ds Mark III and the 1D Mark IV I can see the value in splitting the difference between two. My clients rarely need a native resolution file from the 1Ds Mark III and the 1D X promises to still hit tabloid size at 300 dpi. Add in the 1D Mark IV better low light performance, its better focus, and better screen, then improve them all (Canon claims) and it should make the 1D X a great tool.

On the video front the changes look encouraging as well. Canon states that moire will be greatly reduced (“virtually gone” in some reports) and rolling shutter will be lessened. The 1D X will offer two compression options for video capture. Both are h.264 but one uses very little compression (e.g. ~6 min. of 1080p on a 16gb card vs. ~48 min as in the past.) There will be the ability to set sound levels before and during recording via a touch screen, two timecode options, and the clip length is expanded to 29 minutes and 59 seconds.

For those who wanted raw format video, xlr or sdi ports, in-camera sound monitoring via headphones, it’s not going to happen. But I wouldn’t have expected it with a body that is a stills camera at heart. There just isn’t the room, the available processing power, or the need. For that you might want to look to Canon’s big announcement on November 3rd in Hollywood…

Canon USA on the 1D X

Planet 5D beyond the press release

RobGalbraith.com

DSLRnewsshooter.com write up and news on expanded 1D X triggering options.

DSLRnewshooter first look (added 10-27-2011.) In the 14 minute video, the Canon rep states “no line skipping” in video mode on 1D X – that’s huge and will reduce if not eliminate moire and aliasing.  Dan also tests a few accessories on the prototype body.

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*In the early 00′s Nikon had the D1x.

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Update – 12/12/11:  Information on the Canon EOS C300.

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Related – 1/26/12:  Change, Flux, Reinvention.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/10/canon-eos-1d-x/feed/ 1 We Can Be Hipstas Just For One Day http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/06/we-can-be-hipstas-just-for-one-day/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/06/we-can-be-hipstas-just-for-one-day/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:17:22 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=5041 I am probably the anti-hip. Not to say that I’m square, I hope I’m not, but I wouldn’t claim to know all the current trends, what’s in fashion, what’s not, or to be searching that out for my look. That said I’ve been playing with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone for a [...]]]> I am probably the anti-hip. Not to say that I’m square, I hope I’m not, but I wouldn’t claim to know all the current trends, what’s in fashion, what’s not, or to be searching that out for my look. That said I’ve been playing with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone for a couple of weeks now and having some fun with it.

The concept is to turn your iPhone camera into an analog instamatic from the days of yore. Think 126 film in a Kodak or earlier. On a certain level, as a photographer, I want more control over the focus, white balance, and exposure than the app allows but that is going against the concept of the app. It wants you to select a lens and a film stock and then let it do its thing. In other words, be a little surprised at what it comes up with, a small compromise for some instant photo mojo.

Oil patterns on road. Click images to enlarge.

New studio.

Lost shoe.

Getting nowhere efficiently. Chevy Volt siting.

Bix.

Thunderhead.

Lightning, storm passing to the south. Princeton, NJ; June 1, 2011.

All of the above are straight out of the Hipstamatic app except the first and the last. The oil on the road needed some contrast work and the lightning shot had a black edge toward the bottom which I took out (from the iPhone’s rolling shutter.) This image is about the limit of what you can do with the iPhone and this app. It was after 9pm, the camera is handheld, and timing it with the flash of light it is the bare minimum of what’s needed for exposure.

The app only makes square photos (maybe I am square? maybe square + mojo = hip?) and it comes with a number of default lens, film stock, and flash options which you can combine. It’ll make images at screen res up to print res (~6.5″x6.5″ @ 300 dpi.) You can buy more lens/film/flash packs as an in-app purchase. The first image was shot with the “Jimmy” lens and “Blanko” film stock, the rest with the “John S” lens and “Blanko” film stock.

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Update – 8/2/11:  I added a Hipstamatic post tag.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/06/we-can-be-hipstas-just-for-one-day/feed/ 3 Grumman’ing http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/grummaning/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/grummaning/#comments Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:39:18 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=4833 Earlier in the month I posted, Shrubbery, about a trip to photograph a former Grumman factory mid-way out on Long Island. The images are to document the complex for a real estate capital intermediary company (I leave that to others to parse.) As mentioned in Shrubbery, it’s an interesting group of [...]]]> Earlier in the month I posted, Shrubbery, about a trip to photograph a former Grumman factory mid-way out on Long Island. The images are to document the complex for a real estate capital intermediary company (I leave that to others to parse.) As mentioned in Shrubbery, it’s an interesting group of buildings ranging from somewhat re-habbed to fully renovated.

Establishing shot showing two of the three buildings. Click images to enlarge.

The newest building, #300, seen on the far right above, has a new exterior and puts out a very different vibe from buildings #100 and #200.

Private entrance for University Support Services LLC.

USS LLC lobby interior.

Main entrance building #300.

Lobby, building #300.

Balcony view, building #300.

The other lobby entrances reflect the other buildings’ stature. You can imagine they were security checkpoints when the site was developing equipment for the army.

Building #200 lobby, exterior seen in the Shrubbery post.

I love the sense of scale in the background hallway. Two-point perspective as far as the eye can see. The three buildings are about 1000′ across and 400′at the deepest (as seen above.)

The interior spaces are similar – often large and open, reflective of a manufacturing past.

A combination of three frames to populate the image. I like the density.

Most likely a better image for the client. A bit more room to breathe, a sense of scale and adaptability.

Building #200 cafeteria.

My tilt/shift posts remain some of the most popular on Learning to See. The images above were shot with the Canon 24 TS-E II and the 17 TS-E.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/grummaning/feed/ 0 Zacuto Stuff http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/zacuto-stuff/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/zacuto-stuff/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:28:14 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=4674 In my April Fools post I wrote that Zacuto USA was buying Really Right Stuff, becoming a new company called Zacuto Stuff. That, of course, is not true but for many making the transition from shooting stills to shooting HDSLR video it is a goal of sorts. Not to [...]]]>

Zacuto Z-finder, RRS MPR-73, RRS B2 AS II clamp, and Sachtler FSB-8 head all playing nice together.

In my April Fools post I wrote that Zacuto USA was buying Really Right Stuff, becoming a new company called Zacuto Stuff. That, of course, is not true but for many making the transition from shooting stills to shooting HDSLR video it is a goal of sorts. Not to make the companies merge, but to get the equipment to play nice together.

Most professional still photographers have been using RRS equipment for years. It’s rock solid and beautifully made. RRS’ L brackets are the way to go – you can easily switch from vertical to horizontal without realigning your tripod head and RRS’ anti-twist design keeps the camera where you want it.

Arca-Swiss Cube and Ball Head with RRS quick-release clamps added.

Adding video into the mix complicates this setup a bit but there are ways to make it work so that you can have the video accessories you need and move the camera from platform to platform with the same ease of shooting stills.

Zacuto’s Z-finder is de rigueur for shooting video when you need to keep your eye to the camera’s display, focus, and shoot. If you are handholding and that’s all you are using then you are good to go. But if you want to make it all work so that you can handhold, shoot on a tripod, or move to a shoulder rig, then some pre-shoot engineering needs to be overcome.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Z-finder, base plate, RRS rail, RRS clamp, fluid head.

If you are using an older Z-finder which attaches to a frame glued to the camera’s display you could continue to use an RRS L bracket. It’s more than you need (since you don’t need vertical for video) but it would work fine. Zacuto’s newer Z-finders require a base plate, either the Gorilla Plate or the DSLR Baseplate. They cannot be mounted beneath an RRS L plate. So, you need to mount an RRS plate underneath the Zacuto plate.

To solve this connection dilemma I have been using RRS’ MPR-73, a 73mm rail which can be screwed into the 1/4″-20 socket on the Zacuto plate. What’s great is that it comes with a small flange which will prevent the MPR-73 from twisting. The MPR-73 has four pairs of holes for placing the flange and that combined with the flexibility of the 1/4″-20 screw position will allow you to brace the flange against one of the inner recessed edges on the bottom of the Zacuto plate.

With this type of setup you can quickly move the camera almost anywhere and have a consistent, reliable, and extremely fast method of locking it down. If you remove the Z-finder you do not need to remove its base plate, saving you setup/breakdown time. All you’ll need to do is get RRS’ Quick-Release Clamps to place as needed on tripod heads. If you are moving to a Zacuto shoulder rig or similar the MPR-73 will not interfere and you can use Zacuto’s lock-down knobs as usual.

Kessler Cineslider with ball head and RRS quick release clamp ready for use.

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11-14-11: Stopping Short of Rails, adding a long lens with a lens collar into the mix.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/zacuto-stuff/feed/ 0 Canon 1Ds Mark III Now Shoots Video http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/canon-1ds-mark-iii-now-shoots-video/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/canon-1ds-mark-iii-now-shoots-video/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:11:51 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=4616 Pre-NAB 2011: Canon announced a firmware upgrade for the 1Ds Mark III today unlocking a hidden HDSLR video capture feature. Firmware v1.3 enables HDSLR video shooting in 1080P at frame rates of 25P and 24P, and in 720P at frame rates of up to 60P and 50P.

The firmware utilizes a new algorithm [...]]]>

The Canon 1Ds Mark III, now with video.

Pre-NAB 2011: Canon announced a firmware upgrade for the 1Ds Mark III today unlocking a hidden HDSLR video capture feature. Firmware v1.3 enables HDSLR video shooting in 1080P at frame rates of 25P and 24P, and in 720P at frame rates of up to 60P and 50P.

The firmware utilizes a new algorithm which, similar to Panasonic GH2, allows for HD video without line skipping reducing the risks of artifacts and moire. The 1Ds Mark III does not have an HDMI out but Canon will be releasing an accessory, the Video Transfer Attachment VTA-E1A, which adds HDMI and BNC ports to the side of the camera.

The firmware upgrade and VTA-E1A will be available in early May. The firmware upgrade is free and the VTA-E1A is expected to retail for a street price of $500.

Breaking with tradition, a Vincent Laforet movie using the 1Ds Mark III is not available at the time of this announcement. Canon had sent Laforet the firmware update and VTA-E1A two days ago but Laforet had liquidated the bulk of his HDSLR gear earlier this year.

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In related Pre-NAB HDSLR news: Zacuto USA, a Chicago-based film, grip, and accessories manufacturer, has announced that they are purchasing Really Right Stuff, the San Luis Obispo-based manufacturer of Arca-style camera quick release plates and accessories. The new company will be called Zacuto Stuff.

Steve Weiss, president of Zacuto, called this a match made in heaven and cited both companies expertise in making high quality expertly crafted anodized aluminum products. Joe Johnson, president of Really Right Stuff, has stated that Really Right Stuff products will be sold with red accents effective immediately.

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Update 5/31/11 – Please note: This story continues to get translated via Google searches into many languages. It was posted on 4/1/11, April Fools Day in the United States. Everything in the story is true except for the parts about Canon, Zacuto, and Really Right Stuff.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/04/canon-1ds-mark-iii-now-shoots-video/feed/ 1 Stumptown Joyride http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/02/stumptown-joyride/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/02/stumptown-joyride/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:23:04 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=4331 Gourmet food trucks are all rage in New York City and this past December Middlebury Magazine asked me to pay a visit to recent graduate David Belanich. David and his partners founded Joyride Trucks, rehabbing a former FedEx delivery van to bring frozen yogurt and Stumptown coffee to the streets of [...]]]> Gourmet food trucks are all rage in New York City and this past December Middlebury Magazine asked me to pay a visit to recent graduate David Belanich. David and his partners founded Joyride Trucks, rehabbing a former FedEx delivery van to bring frozen yogurt and Stumptown coffee to the streets of Manhattan.

The Joyride truck at Lex. and 52nd. Click to enlarge.

David armed with a fresh cup of joe. Click to enlarge.

Composite of three Canon 24 TSE II vertical frames. Click to enlarge.

Working the assignment:

The truck was parked on a busy midtown southeast corner which meant limited space, lots of people, and no direct light. Nice soft, diffuse light can work but there was great contrast between lit and unlit areas.

Additionally, the truck had to be exactly where it was to meet setback and parking regulations. So, I was stuck with the very large parking sign bisecting the truck.

The first order was to get some establishing shots featuring the truck, its logo, and the surrounding area. This was done with numerous lenses, varying the amount of blur visible in passing traffic, and experimenting with the tilt/shift lens to throw areas out of focus and guide the viewer to the truck.

Then came portraits of David interspersed with candids as customers arrived. Given the location, time of day, and masses of humanity I knew going into this that I would have to travel light. My battery powered Profotos would not be practical so this was a perfect job for my Canon Speedlites. I brought three with me, knowing that at a minimum I could use one on the street triggered by a second on the camera, and the third would be a backup or add some options if photos in the truck were feasible. Canon’s external 8-AA power packs were also brought along with a few small softboxes and two light stands.

The portrait above was the best of three different setups. It has the most color, interest, and sense of place. There are nice specular highlights from the truck’s LED lighting and the awning shadows David so that the effect of my light can be seen the best. He is lit with one Canon 580EX II, to camera left and almost perpendicular to his face, in an extra-small Chimera softbox with a fabric grid. The softbox is triggered by another 580EX II on camera and acting as a master flash only (it outputs no light during the exposure.)

When I’m shooting portraits I’m always watching the subject for clues – what angle do they look best from, how are they the most relaxed, what body posture do they fall into naturally. If they are nervous can I use that or should I have them do something to refresh their pose? David’s expression lit up and his body language had more energy when I asked him to look down the street and pretend that he saw someone he knew. Acting a bit silly about it helped to lighten the mood further.

The last image (reverse angle to the establishing shot) was a way to show more hustle and bustle, show some patrons, and give a sense of Manhattan via the buildings. I made many single shot images but also shot with the 24 TSE II, camera oriented vertically, and shifting horizontally so that final images could be composited afterward. This is more work in post but it has a different look than just going wider with a different lens. You can concentrate on action in different areas of the frame as you shoot and it has the feel of a larger format (you get a wider view with a longer lens.) I often shoot my personal work this way.

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Middlebury Magazine: Coffee Brake.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/02/stumptown-joyride/feed/ 0 The AcuteB Head to Acute2 Pack Defusenik http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/the-acuteb-head-to-acute2-pack-defusenik/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/the-acuteb-head-to-acute2-pack-defusenik/#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:17:33 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=3911 This happened on a shoot late last year, thought I’d pass it along. There are probably others like me who own both Profoto AcuteB and Acute2 packs and heads. Great kits, you can use all of the same modifiers, but despite having the same cable-to-pack connectors you cannot interchange the heads.

The AcuteB [...]]]>

Profoto Triptych: AcuteB head w/fuse slot, fuse, and AcuteB batteries. Click to enlarge.

This happened on a shoot late last year, thought I’d pass it along. There are probably others like me who own both Profoto AcuteB and Acute2 packs and heads. Great kits, you can use all of the same modifiers, but despite having the same cable-to-pack connectors you cannot interchange the heads.

The AcuteB 600 packs take the Profoto AcuteB head and the Acute2 packs take the Profoto D4 heads. Pretty simple but they’re all black, they all look to have the same cables, and with the same connector… an assistant unfamiliar with the packs plugged an AcuteB head into an Acute2 pack. What you get is the light starting up, the modeling light dims, and with a pop goes out. The good news is that the head will still fire as a strobe on the proper pack (an AcuteB) but the modeling light no longer works.

Assuming it was the bulb I bought a new one from B&H. No go, still no modeling light. I called an authorized repair shop who said I would have to leave it and mumbled Profoto, expensive, and shipping as a warning. I then called Mamiya (aka MAC Group, Profoto’s US distributor), explained the situation and they said, “It’s probably just the fuse.” Swapping out fuses with a working AcuteB head showed that to be case. I was advised to call the Parts Dept. and they would hook me up.

The AcuteB head takes an odd ceramic fuse made by SIBA. You are not going to be able to waltz into a hardware store and get one. Fearing the worst in terms of prices, I called the Parts Dept. but was relieved to hear, “That’ll be $3.25 per fuse. Shipping is free. How many do you want?” Chalk it up to be the most inexpensive Profoto piece of kit or part ever.

A side note: the AcuteB batteries which cost about $275 each – you can swap out the battery for only $45 and reuse the cassette tray from the old battery.

Profoto Professional Division @ Mamiya America Corp.: 914-347-3300 and ask for the Parts Dept.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/the-acuteb-head-to-acute2-pack-defusenik/feed/ 0 ProLost ProGained http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/prolost-progained/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/prolost-progained/#comments Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:43:25 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=3887 Back in September I published a blog post looking at HDSLR resources. One of the links in that post was to Abel Cinetech’s Field of View Comparator, a great tool for a getting a sense of the lenses needed to match the field of view for various HD capture formats (Super [...]]]> Back in September I published a blog post looking at HDSLR resources. One of the links in that post was to Abel Cinetech’s Field of View Comparator, a great tool for a getting a sense of the lenses needed to match the field of view for various HD capture formats (Super 35; Canon 5DM2, 1DM4, 7D; Panasonic AF100/GH2; HD Video, etc.) Of course that doesn’t tell the whole story. What if you want to match the look and the feel of a shot, not just the field of view? For that focal length and aperture and their relationship to the capture format come into to play.

In general, the smaller the size of the capture format the faster and the wider the lens you’ll need to match a larger size capture chip. This is no different than in the film days with still cameras. A smaller format, e.g. 35mm, needs a faster and wider lens to match the depth of field seen in a larger format, e.g. 4×5. The problem is – how do you visualize this?

Enter Stu Maschwitz, self described “filmmaker and accidental technologist.” On his blog, ProLost, he has published two posts exploring and creating a visual representation so that cameras and how they see can be compared:

The Shot You Can Make

The Shot You Can Make Gallery

Thinking about that AF-100 or GH2 but wondering what it would take for it to mimic the feel of Super 35, a 5DM2, or a 1DM4? Considering the Red Scarlet fixed lens camera but wondering how much it can throw the background out of focus? Trying to decide between Canon’s three formats (1x, 1.3x, 1.6x)? Check out his two blog posts.

]]> http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/prolost-progained/feed/ 0 Aperture 3, Too Sharp? Tweak the Default http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/aperture-3-too-sharp-tweak-the-default/ http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/2011/01/aperture-3-too-sharp-tweak-the-default/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:35:29 +0000 Jon Roemer http://www.jonroemer.com/blog/?p=3873 If I have one image quality issue with Aperture it’s that it’s sometimes too sharp. Which is kind of ironic if you have ridden the digital wave as I have going back to the Nikon D1 and D1x. Those camera’s raws were never too sharp. Cut to 2010/2011 and a Canon 1Ds Mark III’s raw [...]]]> If I have one image quality issue with Aperture it’s that it’s sometimes too sharp. Which is kind of ironic if you have ridden the digital wave as I have going back to the Nikon D1 and D1x. Those camera’s raws were never too sharp. Cut to 2010/2011 and a Canon 1Ds Mark III’s raw files can look too sharp, almost digital-medium-format-back-no-anti-aliasing-filter too sharp.

Turns out there’s an easy answer for this and it came via friend who’s been testing the waters with Aperture. He’s been asking me lots of questions and one touched on Aperture’s Raw Fine Tuning sharpening. Apple’s default capture sharpening in the Raw Fine Tuning is Sharpening @ 0.82 and Edges @ 0.71. Fine on a landscape or tilt/shift image but usually much too much on a strobe lit portrait. The answer is too simply set both Sharpening and Edges to “0″.

Aperture 3: RFT Sharpening off on the left, at default settings on the right. Click to enlarge.

You can cut and paste this change to other raws, as needed, and you can also set it up as a default to be applied upon import via an Adjustment Preset.

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