Technique

Too Much Polarization

June 6, 2010 in Photography, Technique

On my recent trips I mostly shot with my Hoya HD Polarizer on. I always adjusted the angle of the filter to get the strongest effect and it always looked good in the viewfinder! Just awesome blue skies. Sadly I couldn’t check the result on the display, because it was too bright outside. Back home I imported my shots to the computer just to see that many of the shots are unusable, because the sky is horribly dark. It looked different through the viewfinder, which is related to the much lower dynamic range of the digital sensor compared to the eyes. (+ The Photo is underxposed)

It’s simply a handling error on my side. The effect of a polarization filter depends on the atmosphere and the angle to the reflecting surface. In the above image the sky was very clear and it seems like I shot in about an 90° angle to the sun. A simple rotation to lessen the strength of the polfilter, and the sky would look much more natural.

So, always check your results! I think I’ll get a Hoodman Hoodloupe for my camera…

Grad ND – Why you DON’T need one!

May 21, 2010 in Equipment, Photography, Technique

Earlier this year I was about to buy a graduated neutral density filter. These filters are mostly being used to darken the sky in landscape shots. I did a lot of research and in the end wanted at least two filters in the expensive glass 100x100mm version which I would then simply hold and move in front of my lens to have some flexibility.

In the end I didn’t buy anything for three simple reasons: (1) About 100€ for two good filters is just too much for those rare scenes I would really use them (at least in my eyes), (2) It’s pretty inconvenient to carry around when traveling light and (3) I would need an additional (and expensive) filter holder for long exposures.

My solution (to at least some degree) is to use the Graduated Filter tool in Lightroom. I used this technique a lot on my recent B&W Photos. The good thing is, that you have full control about the intensity, the height, the strength and the position of the effect.

I don’t know if that’s common practice, but at least I wasn’t aware of it and didn’t do it before. Matt Kloskowski at lightroomkillertips.com did a great video about it: link.

The downside is that this doesn’t help in extreme situations. Most people say you have about 1 f-stop backup if you’re shooting RAW. You can go lower, but you will loose quality. So in very extreme situations you will still need a dedicated Grad ND, or you can do HDR or exposure fusing. But for me this technique works well enough.

Below I attached a before and after (-2 Stops) screenshot of the Graduated Filter effect in Lightroom.

Going Black & White

May 12, 2010 in My Photos, Photography, Technique

I am recently very interested in B&W (No, not Bowers & Wilkins, but Black&White). I was digging through my unedited photos today and tried B&W conversion on some older ones from last winter that I actually found rather boring because of the flat light.
Here’s my favorite so far:

I played with contrasts, clarity, color channels, added a graduated filter and so on to get this look. Here’s what it looked like out of the camera:

What do you think? Did I overdo it?

How-To: Clean Your Camera Gear

February 8, 2010 in Equipment, How-To, Photography, Technique

Inspired by a conversation on Twitter I thought I’d tell you how I clean my gear. I read many posts by professional photographers out there that suggest to use commercial and expensive stuff like Lens Clens, Eclipse and so on, but most of them are just re-labeled alcohols. I also read through several forums about alternatives, but it often becomes a question of faith.

I used to use Methanol, but it can be hard to purchase here in Germany because it’s highly toxic. Now I use Ethanol, it’s non-toxic (in fact it’s drinking alcohol). You can get it inexpensively in most pharmacies and it works almost as good as Methanol. Don’t use Isopropyl. It’s hygroscopic and leaves a lot of residue after evaporation.

Cleaning Gear My cleaning procedure is pretty simple and inexpensive. Except the (M)Ethanol you need a Rocket Blower, a Microfiber Cloth, Lens Tissues and some Q-Tips.

The very first thing I clean is the Camera body and the lenses. To do so dismount the lens from the Camera body and put all the caps on. Then use a dampish microfiber cloth and wipe off all dirt from your body and lenses. If you have a zoom-lens that extends when zooming, zoom it all the way out.

The next thing I clean are the front element of my lenses and my filters. Take off your front-cap and use the Rocket Blower to blow away any dust because it might scratch the glass. If you have fingerprints or spots on the front element, put one drop of Ethanol on a wadded lens tissue and wipe it with very little pressure in circulating movements from the inside to the outside. Don’t do this on the rear element of your lens because they are very damageable! Just use the Rocket Blower to blow away any dust!

From time to time I also clean the contacts of the lens and the lens mount. To do so, put some Ethanol on a Q-Tip and twist it along the contacts.

The last thing I clean is the sensor. I don’t do wet cleanings myself, but I usually don’t even need to. Just don’t change your lenses in dusty environments. If I ever get visible dust on my sensor (which only happened once after shooting in the desert and on the beach on my Trip to Egypt) I bring my camera to a local camera store and let them clean it.
All I do myself is blowing the dust off. To do so you need to lock the mirror up in your camera’s menu (full batteries required). Then use the Rocket Blower and throw some hard blows on the sensor from a short distance. But take care to not touch the sensor.

How often should you clean your gear? Well… as less as possible and as often as you need to. I have cleaned my coated lenses with Ethanol for a year now, and I don’t see any damage to the coatings, nor have I found any serious reports on the Internet about it. But you should be careful and don’t overdo it. I usually clean the body and lens after each shoot and the front element only if it’s dirty.

Also have a look at the YouTube videos of Lilkiwiguy87.