Another image from the Konica Hexanon AR 50 f1.7. Again I like the finished image. The wife will probably kill me when she sees this, but hey, you only live once. This was also developed in Lightroom and finished off in Photoshop. I just can't get used to using Lightroom for everything. My Lightroom books have arrived and I'm trying to find time to start reading them. Sometimes I wish the day had 48hrs and I didn't need to sleep. I'll just have to find the time I suppose.
PhotoBlog of Random Images
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10/08/11  Konica Hexanon AR 50 f1.7 III2416
E-P3 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/1000 sec ISO: 200 10/07/11  Konica Hexanon AR 50 f1.7 IIHere's another from the Hexanon. Quite sharp I'd say. It amazes me how these old lenses hold up to their new counterparts. They also produce a different redering to the image. I like it and it really brings out the image. I think it must have something to do with the coatings used today, or looking at it another way, a lack of these coatings on the older lenses. Whatever they use presumably reduces flare etc but I prefer the older lenses. True, they are manual focus lenses and my quota of keepers has been reduced since I've been using them but...the keepers I get really seem to shine. Difficult to tell on a small image like these on the photoblog but the originals are really nice. 2561
E-P3 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/1250 sec ISO: 200 10/05/11  Konica Hexanon AR 50 f1.7This is one taken with Konica 50 f1.7 manual lens adapted for m4/3. I found it a little more difficult to manual focus and it showed by the amount of out-of-focus shots I took. The image above was taken on the same outing as the previous Nokton 40 f1.4 images in the previous posts (had a great day out). Also developed with Lightroom and very little processing needed in Photoshop. I really am amazed at the quality I get from Lightroom. Just ordered two books to get to know the ins and outs of it. I'm still missing a few things within the general workflow. But I'll get there.
More from this lens in a couple of days.
By the way, the babys name is Birke and is one month old. Sweet huh? 2094
E-P3 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/250 sec ISO: 200 10/04/11  Lightroom 3.5I decided to test the latest version of Lighroom with the Nokton images I took the other day. I've been using Silkypix for a number of years and I've quite happy with the output it gives me with my Pasasonic camera. I wasn't very impressed with the earlier versions of Lightroom but I did keep it up-to-date thinking that Adobe would get it';s act together sooner or later. Well, I had quite a surprise. The output is simply superb. It's still quite fast on my old machine (maybe an excuse to upgrade?) and Silkypix keeps getting slower and slower with each update. Could be my imagination though.
My normal workflow if to develop my raw files in Silkypix and do the rest of the work in Photoshop. What I experienced was that the files from Lightroom required a LOT less work in Photoshop, actually very little work needed doing. The image in this post had no work done at all in Photoshop apart from reducing for web use and a little sharpening. I'm amazed. I think I'm going to have to some more work with Lightroom. The learning curve is quite steep coming from Silkypix but I think it's going to be worth it. 2850
E-P2 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/640 sec ISO: 100 • Adobe • Lightroom • Voigtlaender • Nokton 40 f1.4 • Silkypix • Olympus • E-P2 • m4/3
10/04/11  Voigtlaender Nokton 40 f1.4 RevisitedThis is the first time in weeks I've have had a chance to test anything. The past weekend was just glorious, hotter than summer (what summer some might ask), and perfect for testing my Nokton 40 f1.4 again.
Some may remember one of my previous posts about this lens stating that I was not really impressed by the image quality. Bought off ebay I was wondering about the reason the seller was actualy selling the lens. After looking at the images I thought I'd bought a dud. I realized that there was a cheap UV filter on the lens and maybe that was causing the problem. This is my first time out with the lens after removing the filter and boy, what a difference that made. All my previous images with the lens lacked contrast and I was getting very soft images. Well, all that changed with the filter off. Very good contrast and colour rendition. Sharp in the center and good in the corners. What a difference a filter can make.
I am very happy with the lens at this stage adapted right now for m4/3 cameras. 1798
E-P2 Focal Length: unknown Aperture: f/1.0 Exposure Time: 1/500 sec ISO: 100 • Voigtlaender • Nokton 40 f1.4 • Olympus • filter • E-P2
10/02/11  Vari ND Filter IVDopn't want you all to get bored so this will be the last of these long exposure images for awhile.
Things did improve as I took more and more images. I think the camera plays a big part here, you have to know how YOUR camera reacts to long exposures. I had to Olympus camera with me and both reacted differently. My advice is take one camera, get to know it, and stick with it for this sort of thing. I found it took me some time to get into the particular camera I was using at the time. That's what I'm going to do in the future. The only thing I have to find out now is which camera is best for these long exposures. Does format count? Probably because of pixel count and format, dynamic range and a couple of other things. And here's me thinkting I had this subject beat.
Oh well, back to the drawing board. 1518
E-PL1 Focal Length: 60 mm Aperture: f/11.0 Exposure Time: 13/1 sec ISO: 100 09/30/11  Vari ND Filters IIII'm quite pleased with how this one turned out. Another thing I learned on this little outing, the longer the exposure the more vivid the colours. They really do seem to pop. 1513
E-PL1 Focal Length: 36 mm Aperture: f/16.0 Exposure Time: 10/1 sec ISO: 100 09/29/11  Vari ND Filters IINot all of the exposures were duds at first though. This is one I thought turned out ok. As I look through the images what soon became apparent is the attention required to composition. I see possibilities of how I could have taken these differently, or composed the shot from another angle, or, what I would have left out of the image. I think the adage of "less is more" really is true. 1629
E-PL1 Focal Length: 18 mm Aperture: f/11.0 Exposure Time: 30/1 sec ISO: 100 09/28/11  Vari ND FiltersI've been wanting to try these filters for some time now, so when I was wandering the wilderness in the Black Forest region I came across this waterfall. What better time to try it out. The wife rolled her eyes and took out her portable stool and book. I needed no more encouragement and off I went.
2 to 3 hours later I was still at it and having a great time. This is something I can really get into. I didn't buy an expensive Vari ND to start with, just in case it wasn't my thing, but things turned out just fine. I blew a couple of shots where the highlights are blown out but by the end of the day I was getting the hang of it.
Sooooo, the next few images are going to be of cotton wool water. Some like it and some don't. I personally like it, but next time I'll try it with shorter exposure setting, say between 1 and 3 seconds. Most of the blowout images were around the 15 seconds mark. Clearly too long. 1789
E-PL1 Focal Length: 56 mm Aperture: f/11.0 Exposure Time: 20/1 sec ISO: 100 09/27/11  Highlighted TreeOn a little break during one of our hiking expeditions, this tree was suddenly highlighted as the sun came around. I though it looked nice against the dark background. The tree was actually growing in the middle of a lake on a floating peat island. The lake is man-made and when filled during its creation, peat floated to the top of the water and has steadily grown over the last decades. 1106
E-P3 Focal Length: 60 mm Aperture: f/11.0 Exposure Time: 1/50 sec ISO: 200 | |
