A Pair of Friends

Say hello to daughter Sue (on the left) and her good friend Jody. It sure felt good to be out of the house, camera in hand, basking in the warm sunshine for a few hours. We went to watch Sara, Emily and Julia play soccer last Saturday.

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These two photos are from the tail end of a roll of FP4+ B&W film I started in the spring and finished last week at the soccer games. Sue and Jody standing behind me (I was sitting in a folding chair) said “take our picture.” I turned in my chair, pointed the camera and took two shots: One with Jody wearing glasses and one without. Hope you like them.

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I have another good shot from that roll that I’m saving for next week. Hint: Maddy loves having her picture taken.

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Wenonah: First Reflections — Break Back Run

I stopped in Wenonah late one Friday afternoon at the end of January looking for an entrance to one of the Wenonah Trails. This was before I had a Wenonah Trail Guide (a sort of map of all the trails) so I had no idea of what I was doing.

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This is a photo taken along Break Back Run, a tributary of the Mantua Creek and the first photo I took in Wenonah. I was on the north side of the main drag and the bridge over Mantua Creek. Even though Mantua Creek flowed under the road, the trail didn’t. Access points for the main parts of the trail are on the south end of Wenonah. I returned the following week and began my exploration, then a few days later I bought a copy of the Wenonah Trail Guide at the town office so now I have a map and a much better idea of where the access points are located.

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Ceres: Reflections in the Cedar Swamp IV

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Pulled another swamp portrait from my archives.

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Ceres: Light Comes Out to Play

It’s funny how one discovery can cause a paradigm shift in our thinking, leading to new insights and creative possibilities. My ‘discovery’ of the DigiKam/showFoto refocus plug-in I wrote about last week is a perfect example. I chose a trio of photographs taken on a wonderfully sunny morning in mid-June, 2010 to illuminate (pun intended) my findings. To get the full impact of the photos below, please click to enlarge each of them in turn.

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This photo (and the others in this series) was taken along the Chestnut Branch inside Ceres Park. This was a day when the light came out to play, celebrate, sparkle on the foliage, reflections in the stream — a dance of light and shadow.

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I simply turned the camera from portrait to landscape to change the feel of this second image, from the vertical reach of the trees to the horizontal sweep of Chestnut Branch as it slips around the curve.

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This last photo was taken further upstream after crossing a homemade bridge christened tongue in cheek as the Commodore Barry Bridge by the mountain bikers who built it. It’s a lovely secluded spot with marvelous lighting.

All of the images were taken hand held with my Nikon N8008s, 35mm AF lens and Neopan 400 film rated at ISO 640. I’m sure I published these photos in the past but this time with improved post processing, I got much better results.

I experimented with curves in DigiKam/showFoto but in the end, I returned to the sheer power of the brightness curve transformation in PWP. If you want to get the best out of your images, you must learn how to work with curves and PWP is the best tool in my arsenal.

Rich, textured shadows and brilliant (but not blown) highlights are important but the real key to good B&W printing is in the mid-tones. I didn’t have to do much with these images because I had decent exposures and good scans. I pulled the mid-tones down and to the right.

I liked the platinum tones I got with DigiKam/showFoto but that’s a no choice one click transformation. PWP has a more sophisticated tint transformation that gives me complete control. All I wanted here was to warm my photos just a bit.

All my original scans are large enough for high quality 4 x 6 prints but too large for web display so the next step is to resize. I’ve standardized on 800 pixels for the long dimension for digital display. Any time you downsize an image, you lose sharpness and you must re-sharpen. The trick is to get your images sharp without introducing crunchy over-sharpening. Here’s where PWP and I part company. After downsizing, I converted the 16 bit image to 8 bit and saved it as a new tiff file and exited PWP.

As I mentioned last week, I ‘discovered’ refocus sharpening in DigiKam/showFoto so I loaded each image into showFoto, ran the refocus sharpening, added my watermark and saved the result as a jpeg file. Photos #1 and #2 were re-sharpened with refocus in showFoto.

I learned that the refocus plug-in used in showFoto was ported from the refocus plug-in in the Gimp. Who knew? So I used the Gimp refocus on the final image.

I think the refocus sharpening is superior for re-sharpening after downsizing for web display. From the manual: “The FIR Wiener filter is frequently better
in restoring small details” which is precisely what I needed here. The images are sharp and don’t exhibit any evidence of over sharpening. The photos have that pop that can be so elusive. You need to enlarge the images to see and appreciate what I’m talking about.

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Ceres: Swamp Crossing

When I visit Ceres, more often than not I cut off the main trail early and take the ridge trail because I like the perspective of being high above and parallel to the two lakes. The trail is narrow and the footing gets tricky in many places. The trail drops to lake level midway and there is another trail that branches off to cross a section of swamp between the lakes.

Swamp Crossing -- Click to enlarge

I took this photo from the wooden plank bridge that crosses the wettest part of the swamp. This image was taken during the summer. I don’t think I used a tripod here because I don’t like to linger and become a meal for the mosquitoes. The only time you can beat the buggers is when there’s a stiff breeze.

It’s amazing how dark it gets even on the brightest day under the thick forest canopy. When I find a spot like this one where the light is filtered, I like to play with the light and shadows.

Addendum added March 10, 2012 ——————————————————-

Swamp Crossing Addendum -- Click to enlarge

I’m an inveterate experimenter. I always scan 16 bit, then edit in 16 bit mode using Picture Window Pro 5.0 (PWP). PWP is a great photo editor that I’ve been using for something like 10 years now. But — here it comes, PWP is a windows only program and my desktop computer runs with Linux (Mint 9) as my operating system, so I have to use PWP under Wine which works OK but with some compromises.

DigiKam is a KDE (native Linux) image management program that includes a capable image editor that can work with 16 bit files. The editor is available as a stand alone program called showFoto. I created the Swamp Crossing Addendum above using showFoto as an experiment, a successful one in my mind.

I almost always use USM sharpening for local contrast enhancement. ShowFoto has a local contrast plug-in that works even better. ShowFoto also has an interesting sharpening method called “refocus” that I’ve never seen anywhere else. I like the results I’ve been getting from sharpening with refocus and will continue experimenting.

“Refocus is a tool to refocus an image by enhancing the sharpness. It uses the Deconvolution Filter algorithm copyrighted by Ernst Lippe. This tool attempts to “refocus” an image by undoing the defocussing. This is better than just trying to sharpen a photograph. It is employing a technique called FIR Wiener Filtering. The traditional technique for sharpening images is to use unsharp masking. Refocus generally produces better results than Unsharp masking.”  Quoted from the showFoto manual.

I also discovered the B&W tone filters. I used the platinum tone filter that replicates platinum toning done  in the traditional wet darkroom. Platinum toning is done for archival permanence and gives the finished print a lovely tone. I think the addendum version of Swamp Crossing is better in many subtle ways. I will be experimenting more with showFoto with the idea of making showFoto my image editor of choice.

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Reflections: Turtles on Emerald Lake

While browsing through my image collection, I came across a series of color shots of turtles sunning themselves on a log in Emerald Lake in Ceres Park taken almost two years ago. The images are scans from Ektar color print negatives. All of these images have been published in the past. I was in the mood for a re-run.

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Reflections: Drone Bee in B&W

I took a series of photos of a drone bee sitting on a hosta bloom at the end of the summer in 2009. I published versions of several of these images in 2009, but I decided to re-scan, rework and re-publish them tonight. The last image was never published before. This series was shot using Ilford Plus 50 B&W film and my Nikon F3HP mounted on my tripod. The film is high resolution but also high contrast and a bit fussy.

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Reflections: Cedar Swamp in Color

I don’t shoot color much these days because I must send the film out to a lab for processing. Outside processing is expensive, takes time and moves me out of the control loop. But every once in a while I’ll shoot a roll of color film.

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I took this photograph in Ceres Nature Preserve in the spring or summer of 2010 and this is an encore presentation with a different interpretation this time. The reflections, the shapes, the light and shadow and the colors all fascinate me. I took some of the lessons I’ve learned since the original posting and applied them. The image has more contrast, the shadows are deeper and the color is more accurate (I think).

I tried a conversion to B&W. It was merely OK, not worth pursuing. I like this image in color. I used Kodak Ektar color print film, an exciting new (well it was new two years ago) version of an old emulsion with vibrant color designed for scanning. When you get the color right, the results can be stunning. I struggled with the color a bit (no profile in VueScan) and I think this version is better than the first.

Maybe I’ll order a few rolls of Ektar just to have around when I get in the mood for color again.

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Reflections: Emily With Her Clarinet

Say hello to Emily, one of our six lovely granddaughters. Here she is in a moment of introspection getting ready to play her clarinet for Uncle Jim (Tracy’s brother) on Christmas Day.

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Wenonah: Reflections Along Mantua Creek

Wenonah Trail Guide in hand (actually it was tucked into one of my pockets), I stopped on the way home on Friday afternoon last week for a scouting expedition. I knew there was a railroad trestle spanning the Mantua Creek so I headed there first. The water level drops as the Mantua Creek spills over a rocky waterfall a few feet west of the trestle. Perfect!

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This is a hand held shot taken with my F3HP and 50mm lens. The bank under the trestle is wide and gravel covered. I crouched down as close to the water as I could get without falling in.

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I stood up and moved east upstream from the falls for this shot looking west in the direction of the late afternoon (around 3:30 PM) sun. I’m pleased with the mood I was able to capture here. The tones, the textures, the play of light and shadow all embrace the essence of B&W photography. This image alone made the hike worthwhile. But there’s more…

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Back again on Monday afternoon at about the same time. I hiked in from the West this time, tripod slung on one shoulder, F3HP on the other and the pockets of my field jacket bulging with two additional lenses, extra film, cable release and a few filters. I used the 50mm lens again but since the camera was loaded with high speed film, I screwed on a circular polarizing filter so I could use a slow shutter speed. I mounted the camera on my tripod and knelt on the knee unfriendly gravel (big gravel). I left my digital recorder in the car (duh) but I think I shot this at 1/15 second. I also forgot to bring my right angle viewfinder attachment so I made a few contortions so I could see.

I used the F3′s built in meter set on manual. That sucker is accurate and has never once let me down. When shooting at 1/30 second or slower, mirror slap can cause camera vibrations so I locked the mirror up before shooting. This is the first time I’ve ever tried capturing the movement of water using a slow shutter speed.

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OK, I love my 50mm lens(es) but I needed to get closer so I switched to my 75-150 zoom. I took four shots using different aperture/shutter speed combinations. The shots ranged from freezing the movement too much to too soft. I chose one in the middle. I think it was 1/30 this time. I’ll remember to bring my recorder next time. I’m learning. I like the way the water flows over the rocks in this one.

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I zoomed all the way in to 150mm for this one. I shot three frames this time. Shooting multiple frames at different settings is the only way to be reasonably sure of getting a good image with film. Again, my intuition told me which of the three was the best image. I followed the same drill using manual exposure with the mirror locked up.

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My fingers were getting cold and I was kind of tired so I only shot two frames for this one. I fiddled with the zoom and camera angle just a bit.

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I really lucked out here — the single frame came out fine. I moved my tripod so I could get this shot looking across the falls to the far bank of the creek.

I learned a lot on these two shoots. Thanks to Kerry for his example and encouragement. If you haven’t seen Kerry’s photos, get your butt over to his web site Lightscapes Nature Photography Blog . You won’t be disappointed.

So, here are the technical details. The camera for all shots was my Nikon F3HP. I used my Nikon Nikkor-H Auto 50mm f/2, a lens I picked up on eBay years ago for about $35. This lens was made sometime between 1968 and 1971. Originally a non-AI lens, it was converted to work on modern Nikon SLRs. It’s a lovely, all metal lens, the kind they don’t make any more and this guy is sharp.

I prefer prime lenses but make an exception for my 75-150 Nikon e zoom. It’s sort of a cult classic and a damn good performer. I use it exclusively (along with a two element Nikon close up lens) for all my macro work.

The camera was already loaded with Tri-X rated at ISO 1250. I shot the first seven frames indoors on Christmas. Why rated at ISO 1250? Because I process all my film with Diafine and the Tri-X speed in that developer is 1600 but most people get better results at 1250. Next time, I’ll probably load the F3 with Ilford FP4 rated at a more modest ISO of 250 so I can work with slower shutter speeds more easily.

So glad I finally got my first taste of the wonders of the Wenonah trails. I’ll be going back (a lot).

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