Going for ice cream

We woke yesterday morning thinking how good ice cream sounded so decided to see how the saguaros were doing with their spring flowers. What better way to go for ice cream than to drive through a thick bunch of saguaros.

So armed only with the Leica M9 we headed out the door for Pacheco Peak and the Dairy Queen stopping along the way to admire the beautiful saguaros. While it may still be a week too early for all the blooms we did manage to find a few.

Leica M9 135mm with a 100% crop that follows.

We also decided to take the longer way home passing through Red Rock where we were able to capture this one using the Elmarit 24mm.

All in all a fun couple hours spent getting ice cream....


Sandy & Don

Phase One P65+ on a technical camera Part IV

Looking out over the South Rim

Canon 1DsIII

I go whenever possible to locations I've shot before to test new lenses or cameras and this trip was no different as I've been shooting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for many years.  I've captured the South Rim with 35mm cameras as well as each medium format I've owned both film and digital.  I've now had the pleasure of capturing this area with 3-different Phase One digital backs P30+, P45+ and now the P65+.  While the trip was primarily a way to test and get comfortable with the new back we believe we came away with at least one new gallery image.

The images included here are the result of shooting 5-images with a Cambo WRS1000, Schneider 35mm (with center filter) and a Phase One P65 digital back with a LCC shot prior to each image.  The camera was set in portrait mode.  Each image captured was taken at 5mm intervals beginning with center then outwards left to right.  The LCC captures were corrected in C1Pro using Lens Correction along with "Color Cast", "Light Falloff", "Dust Removal", and Chromatic Aberration analyzed.

Center

5mm shift left

10mm left

5mm right

10mm right

I routinely use Photomerge directly from CS5 Bridge in order to keep the images 16bit.  Admittedly shifting 5mm is a bit of overkill however I wanted to see exactly what happens.  If I were to actually shoot a panorama for a print I would, based on this test shot a total of 3- center and 10mm either way. Each native image measures 22.44x29.947 with the end result of a native merged image measuring 39.06x29.987.

 Uncorrected photomerge

LCC corrected photomerge

To summarize the workflow for these images:

Capture:

Shoot Lcc
Shoot image

Processing:

Using C1Pro perform an analysis (in this case "Technical Wideangle) along with Color Cast, Light Falloff and Dust Removal.


Once the LCC is performed apply it to the image.

Save image for Photoshop processing

Merge images using Photomerge directly from Bridge




Flatten layers

Resize for web


The images used here are samples from the test I did at Pipe Creek Vista. The sole purpose of these captures was to see just how well a finished image prior to any real post processing would hold up. The processing done on these images was solely intended to correct any color cast light falloff and dust removal prior to merging into one cohesive image. Based on image review any further processing would more than likely be in black & white.




We shot the sunset at Mather Point later in the day and got much better color results. The sole purpose of shooting this day was to use the 35mm lens in any and all conditions; later in the day I had wished I had used the 72mm but that'll be the topic of another post.


In future posts we'll be sharing the results of sunset images from Mather Point shot with the P65+ as well as Sandy's Canon 1DsIII and thoughts and images from our hike to Ohh ahh Point on the South Kaibab Trail where we used the Leica M9 and 1DsIII.


Stay tuned for more.




Don 

Shooting the Grand Canyon South Rim

We took a very fast trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon this week so that I could shoot the P65 under "normal" shooting conditions; besides they were calling for great skies and just could pass that up. I used a Schneider 35mm an entire day connected to the Cambo WRS figuring that was the lens that offered the most color cast and I want to see how the images would turn out.

Total equipment used with the exception of one image shown here is the Cambo WRS1000, Schneider 35mm lens (with center filter), Phase One P65 all sitting on top of a Swiss Arca Cube. One of the new (to me) features I had written about earlier and thought I wouldn't get much use of was the ability to check the horizontal plane on the back; I found I was mistaken. While the Cube is very easy to setup and fast to level, there are times when you need that extra amount of information and help. This is where the horizontal check on the back was indispensable.

I shot a lot using the Cube in this configuration - notice the camera is not sitting directly on top of the tripod but leaning out at least 2-different angles yet the horizontal plane is level.

A LCC was shot prior to each image capture then analyzed in Capture One (C1Pro) using the technical wide-angle function to clear and color cast.

The following image is a result of 2-images stitched together to form a panorama. Both are a result of processing first in C1Pro then over to CS5 to stitch and in the case of the black & white, final processing using Nik Silver Efex Pro.

 

This image is the result of 3-captures set at a slightly different focus point.  The images were first processed in C1Pro before saving and opening in CS5.  The images were then blended together using focus blend.  Slightly more processing was done with this images as the color image was then processed using Nik HDR Efex Pro and later using a layer effect "toned down" a bit to taste.  The image was saved then later processed into black & white using Nik Silver Efex Pro using a tin type to achieve the end result. 

As a side note on the last image - after processing in C1Pro and blended together in CS5 and later cropped the image became 135 megapixels at 30x50. Web jpegs usually don't show the detail of the actual image and can often time introduce strange colors - the colors in the actual images are in my opinion striking to the point of being an image I'd print for the gallery.

We spent the better part of 2-days at the South Rim hiking to Ohh ahh Point on the South Kaibab Trail then later the next day shooting from various viewpoint along the canyon rim. We'll be posting more later on the hike and maybe more from a sunset shot we did at Mather Point. The images included in this post were all taken near the Mather Point Amphitheater.

More to follow

Don