This week, Bob Coates told us why the micro four-thirds format is still great, while Julie Powell showed how she uses Plotaverse for some amazing commercial photographs.
Bryan Esler reviewed the Tamron 28-200mm for Sony and Bob Coates explained how he finds similar photos in a snap. Levi Sim gave us a creative double exposure idea, and finally, Michèle Grenier walked us through the importance of color calibration.
Why the micro four-thirds format is still solid - Even in this day and age I am hearing from some photographers that the micro four-thirds format is not good enough. I disagree wholeheartedly! My start with micro four-thirds For years I was looking for a camera system where the files would not explode in post-processing. My wife was always complaining that I was bringing 35 pounds of gear on vacation. Asking why it was a problem for her as I was the one hefting it she said, “You aren’t using the camera gear as you often — leave it in the room because it’s too heavy!” As usual I had to admit she was right. I searched and tried multiple point and shoot cameras and found them wanting. Then I tried the Lumix GH2. I took it, along with three lenses, on a riverboat trip through southern France. The kit stayed with me for the entire trip never leaving my side and upon return I was able to create the art images I wanted. Yay! I ran around chatting up all my photography buds that I found the vacation camera of our dreams. Lumix Luminary/Ambassador While the GH2 wasn’t ready for prime time pro use I shared how excited I was to use it. My buddy Skip Cohen suggested with my excitement for the camera and my work I should talk to Panasonic. He had to twist my arm a bit but I met with Tom Curley, head of the Lumix Luminary team. My question for him was, if I am out speaking with Panasonic as my sponsor and I’m sharing an image made on my Canon camera what do I say? Tom replied, “Tell them it was shot with the Canon — proper tool for the proper job.” That’s when I knew I could work with them as a sponsor. Moving forward The Lumix GH3 was a great improvement over the GH2 and I started using the format for some of my commercial work. There were still a few limitations, so I alternated the Canon 5D Mark II and the GH3 depending upon the specifications for the job. When the GH4 came out I thought, “OK we are ready for prime time with the format.” I had a photoshoot scheduled for a Hilton property in Phoenix. I photographed the job using both cameras side by side just in case. Note the header image and next below. I submitted the micro four-thirds files and Hilton corporate approved the images with no problem. I was so convinced of the solid performance of the camera I started selling off my full frame gear. And, I haven’t looked back. Micro four-thirds manufacturers keep improving, consistently adding new features. You can have access to the new technology via firmware upgrades instead of purchasing a new camera to access new features. In spite of my success with the files in a commercial application, printing large images with no ill effects. My joy with loosing a lot of weight in changing formats as an important aspect. Still I was hearing from some fellow professionals, “But micro four-thirds isn’t good enough.” Panasonic added the Lumix GH5 and subsequently the flagship stills camera Lumix G9. This stepped up quality even further. I enjoy the features available in the micro four-thirds format including in-camera focus stacking, focus blending, time-lapse, silent mode and fast shutter speeds. The rotatable EVF screens make it easier than ever to place the camera in weird positions and still see the viewfinder. Meanwhile Olympus, which shares a camera mount with Panasonic, has been upping its game as well. I got the opportunity to try the OM-D E-M1X and was surprised with new computational features. In addition to the features listed above in the Panasonic cameras, Olympus has an onboard neutral density filter system called Live ND, Live Composite, Live Time and Pro Capture. All of these tools make it possible to be ever more creative in image making. When I bought my Olympus camera I opted for the OM-D E-M1 Mark III. It does not have the built-in battery grip so the weight stays low. Final thoughts Is the micro four-thirds system the be-all and end-all? Nope. But I’ve found the system is a LOT better than many photographers give it credit. I do all my work with the system. There are situations for which a larger format is needed. As Tom Curley originally shared with me, “Proper tool for the proper job.” Just know micro four-thirds works for my imaging with no regrets. Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Creating commercial product shots with Plotaverse - I recently wrote a post about the fun you can have playing with Plotaverse software, but there is a serious side as well. In addition to the fun, you can create some really cool, but effective commercial product shoots. Everything is moving to a video platform these days, as it is often much simpler to get your message across in a 5-second video than a still photo. Food photography With Plotaverse you can quickly and easily add a 5-second snippet of steam rises from hot fresh food, a cup of coffee or bowl of soup. It can work wonders over just a still image. You can choose to add audio as well, sizzling hot food for instance. There is the argument that audio is often not needed and the majority of people scanning social media actually have the volume muted. Even without additional audio, it can make quite an impact. What about advertising and product photography? So what about other areas of photography for commercial applications? With still life, you can add gently sway curtains, butterflies and more. Even with gardening and home decorating images, there is something for just about anything you can think of. Jewelry? Overlays of sparkles. Audio equipment or instruments? You can adding moving musical notes. Travel images, moving water, swaying grass … you name it. Add movement and light catchlights to water for pool advertisements. You could even use it in real Estate. There really is quite a lot of scope with this software. Ultimately it really is dependent on your imagination. So how do you create these wonders? Here is a little video on HOW.
Is the Tamron 28-200mm for Sony the latest and greatest all-purpose lens? - In my tests with the Sony a7 III, I tried out a few different lenses, one being the new Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD (B&H | Amazon). This lens has a unique place in the E-mount lineup, as it competes directly with Sony’s 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3, but offers slightly better low-light performance on the wide end. It also comes in at approximately $300 cheaper. But how does it stand up in terms of performance and build quality? First impressions When I shot with Nikon back in the day, all of my lenses were Tamron. They were reliable and provided me “good enough” image quality. More importantly, they were significantly cheaper than the native NIKKOR lenses. Today, Tamron has grown up a bit, modernizing its style and putting a focus on good quality, lightweight lenses. The 28-200mm is no exception. It reminds me more of my Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens than any other lenses for Sony I’ve picked up. It has a small footprint, though it does push out quite a bit when you extend the zoom — almost double with the lens hood attached. The design looks and feels very slick though, and I was excited to use it. One minor thing that did irk me was that Tamron decided to flip the positioning of the zoom and focus rings, meaning that if you mixed a Tamron E-mount lens with a Sigma or Sony lens, you might have trouble with muscle memory from time to time. Personally I wish Tamron would have matched the design of its lens rings to the native camera manufacturer, but it’s not a deal breaker, either. Specs Aperture: f/2.8-5.6 maximum to f/16-32 minimum Minimum focus distance: 7.5 inches Optical design: 18 elements in 14 groups Diaphragm blades: 7, rounded Image stabilization: No Filter size: 67mm Dimensions: 2.91 x 4.6″ Weight: 1.27 pounds Use cases While the Tamron isn’t going to be a low light master zoomed in, nor will it obtain that super sharp image quality that fixed aperture lenses are known for, it does have several use cases. For me, I was intrigued by this lens because I photograph a lot of outdoor events. Typically with those I don’t go below f/5.6 in these situations, so having a variable aperture is not a downside for me. More broadly, it serves as a great travel or walk-around lens. I can certainly see photographers using this lens on photowalks and vacations to avoid having to pack a bunch of gear. It’s wide enough to get a decent landscape shot and also provides enough reach to zoom in on details. Performance I tested the Tamron 28-200mm at an outdoor lunchtime concert event as well as some street photos for a client of mine, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. The lens performed well and kept up with burst shooting of the musicians no problem. The lens was pretty sharp, provided a pretty good, creamy bokeh (even at f/5.6) … overall it performed beautifully. I did hear some users having some “misses” with autofocus, but I really didn’t experience this any more than I have other lenses. Autofocus was reliable and pretty fast. While the lens doesn’t have built-in image stabilization, it takes advantage of the a7 III’s 5-axis SteadyShot sensor-shift stabilization technology, which minimizes the appearance of camera shake by up to five stops. I’m one to quickly move my camera and hands to follow the action, and I had no trouble obtaining sharp photos with the Tamron 28-200mm, probably somewhat due to its size and lightweight design. I also used the lens capturing several wider street scenes, with trees overhead. There were some minor chromatic aberration issues with this test, but it was easily resolved through software like Capture One or Lightroom. Sharpness was slightly soft in the corners, but certainly not a deal-breaker. I typically add a minor vignette to the corners of my images anyway, so I didn’t really notice any lack in quality when all was said and done. In terms of bokeh, it’s what you’d expect at the wide end at f/2.8. I was able to get super close — the below photos are not cropped at all. When I bumped down to f/5.6, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the bokeh effect I received. It presented with a feeling much closer to f/2.8 than f/5.6. Is it worth it? All in all, the Tamron 28-200mm provided with a great view of what I was photographing, and was what I expected from an all-purpose lens of this kind. It does what it’s supposed to — capturing the world around you — without any complaints. It certainly fills the need for a budget-friendly lens with quite the reach. Whether or not you buy this lens, though, will ultimately be based on why you’re considering it. If you’re like me and you would love a good all-purpose zoom lens to carry around, the Tamron is definitely a winner. It’s clear Tamron is trying to make a dent in the Sony lens market, and it’s done a great job so far. For current pricing of the Tamron 28-200 f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD lens, visit B&H or Amazon.
Locate similar photos in a snap - I saw that Excire Search would help find images, but it is an Lightroom Classic-based plugin. At that point I didn’t give it much thought, as I am an Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop user. I put away any ideas of using this tagging and visual search software, until I was asked to take a look and review a new version. It’s called Excire Foto. You can see results from the keyword ‘fireworks’ in the header image. Very cool — I like it! Getting started Getting started was easy. I installed the software on my main computer to give it a full workout. It stood up to the test. Performance was way better than I thought possible. I set the software to ingest the images and ‘do its thing’ before I went to bed. Upon waking, I found Excire Foto had analyzed over 155,000 files. That’s the right word — thousands of files. All images were cataloged into a searchable database. The really incredible part is that during the analysis Excire Foto recognizes image content, colors, properties and more, and assigns the corresponding keywords. Accuracy in search With no input from me, as far as I can tell, the keywords are approximately 95% + accurate. This includes many search terms of which I wouldn’t have thought. The world is changing quickly. This being a case of one change that makes my life easier. When trying to find a specific type of image I can ask for a keyword or a similar image to another or more possibilities. In the past I used to have to remember file names, places or dates of the capture and wander through my folders. I gotta tell ya — the old grey cells ain’t what they used to be! I didn’t realize how much time I was spending trying to locate images until I started using Excire Foto to comb through my files with keywords. Once the keyword selection is made the visual output can be displayed in many formations from a lot of tiny photos to just a few if you need to see more detail. Is it worth it? There was one little disappointment for me in that PSD files can’t be recognized by the software. As that is how I save my working files I thought it would be harder to search my worked files. I found that not to be the problem I thought it would. The software recognizes the RAW files. Viewing the RAW files usually gets me to the folder I need to find my working files. Going forward I’ll be saving a small JPEG of my processed files to ensure I can find them using Excire Foto. I only have two thumbs and both of them go up for this software. Check out this additional article by Andrew Ford on Setting up Excire Foto. Yours in Creative Photography, Bob For a limited time, save 10% off when you use the code ExcireFoto!
Portrait Tips: Try something new with old friends - I’ve never done the double exposure effect in Photoshop before, but my client had this idea that she wanted to use one with an upcoming magazine article and she asked me how I would do it. This was also my audition for a new job, so I was super anxious. A philosophy professor wrote the magazine article. He is thinking about being stranded on Mars and how if he teleports to Earth he has to choose to either destroy the copy of himself left on Mars or let it live. The story is all about weighing the consequences, etc. As a picture maker, they lost me at “stranded on Mars” :) My mind was already going a million different ways. I thought a lot about the double exposure idea and sketched several things. I also sketched several other ideas that could illustrate the dilemma. In the end, my client still wanted to do the double exposure, which was exciting because it would push my skills and creativity. Making the double exposure effect is really quite simple, and I’ll lead you through how I did it another day. The thing I noticed as I learned about the effect is that most people just do it as something cool, and rarely is done purposefully. I’m all for doing things because they look cool, but if you can use it further your skills and your art, all the better. Planning it out The thing that I feel set my plan apart was that I had a plan. I wanted to photograph the professor and do a purposeful photo for the background image, as well. Photographing the professor was a great idea — he’s got the quintessential beard, the glasses, the sweater vest and most importantly, the willingness to play. We had a great time and made lots of good portraits. For the background image, I imagined an astronaut on Mars looking solitary, but not stationary. I thought that if the astronaut was standing still and the professor was, too, then the whole thing would appear very static. Fortunately, I know how to get to Mars, and it’s only a couple hours’ drive. The harder part was finding an astronaut costume. I called my past client who teaches drama and dance, knowing she had a huge closet full of costumes. Well, she didn’t have a realistic-looking outfit, but she thought her sister might. The sister — also a past client — had one but it was at her other sister’s house, and she’d have it by the weekend. Oh, and it’s a women’s small. So much for me wearing the outfit and using the self-timer. However, I have another past client who is now a costume maker. She was excited to both join me as the model for the shoot and she made a helmet and backpack that complimented the rest of the costume. We headed into the desert and made a lot of pictures in different styles and poses to ensure I could make the right combination in Photoshop. I couldn’t just use leafless trees and flying crows for this compilation, but it was looking like I had a good combination for what I needed. Now back on the computer, I made a couple of drafts and added some innovation I hadn’t seen in other double exposures. Finally, the magazine chose this as the final draft. What came after the photoshoot Three noteworthy things happened in this process. First, I got the job — so I’m now Utah State University’s photographer (and a lot of my pictures in the future will reflect that, which is great because this is the beautifulest campus in the country). Second, I tried a new process and had success doing it. Double exposure effects are simple to achieve in Photoshop — or even Luminar — and I feel that my skills expanded. Lastly, and best of all, I got to work with clients I hadn’t seen in eight years and they all supported my effort. I have always known that relationships are more important than pictures. When I create with a person, we always become more than just a business relationship. And it’s essential to stir those relationships now and then so they don’t go stagnant. Social media makes keeping up to date with people simple. I hope you take the opportunity to go create something new with old friends. Portrait Tips come out each week, and you can see them all right here.
How to know when your white is really white - Are you delivering digital photos and/or selling prints? Then having accurate colors is essential! Make sure to know when your white is really white by using grey cards and calibrating your monitor and camera. What are you talking about? My white IS white, I see it right now on my screen! Yeah, you really think so? How can you be sure? I’ve got some news for you. Unless you’ve already been using the tips I’m sharing in this article, there’s a 99% chance your white is NOT a true white. The colors you’re seeing right now are a combination of personal perception and the settings of your monitor. Basically, what I see on my display is different than what you see at this very moment unless both of us have calibrated them. Why color accuracy matters If you happen to edit your photos on a cool-toned display, they will have a warmer hue to balance it all. This will look very nice on your computer … but what happens if you want to print it or send it digitally to someone else? The picture will likely show with a yellow or orange hue. The same is true for low-contrast monitors. You will compensate by editing your picture with more contrast than what’s actually needed in order to make it look good. And guess what? Your shadows will probably turn to black and your highlights white (the opposite is also true). Right below is the example of my own MacBook Pro’s display. You can see how the “before calibration” has more contrast and is much cooler than the “after calibration” version, and how the overall colors become much more vibrant. So how to make sure your white is really white? In photography, you have the power to control the color over three main elements. Your screen Your camera Your files (pictures) Mastering one of them will dramatically improve your color accuracy. Mastering all three of them will ensure 100% accuracy — and your white will be white 100% of the time. Here’s how it works. 1. Your screen There’s a tool called a monitor calibrator. Simply put, this device reads, recognizes and automatically corrects the colors of your display to make it perfect. How long does it take? It’s a step that can take up to 20 minutes, but Datacolor holds the record with the SpyderX that can calibrate under two minutes. Calibrating your screen is perhaps the most important key element of all. 2. Your camera You might have already seen these multiple color patch charts, like the Spyder Checkr 24. How does it work? This card — taken in a picture during your photoshoot — is being analyzed by a compatible software to create a unique profile for your camera. This profile of perfectly accurate colors can then be used on most popular editing software such as Photoshop and Lightroom (and it works for video, too!). 3. Your files (pictures) Another powerful tool is the grey card. The good old version comes as a traditional card but there have been technological advances since then: It is now available as a small cube called the Spyder Cube. This form not only allows to have an accurate white balance but also gives lectures and references about exposure, black level and brightness. To use it, take a photograph with the cube facing the camera. Once the file is imported in your favorite editing software, click on the white-balance eye-dropper to automatically correct it. This is a very fast and easy way to make sure the white is completely neutral (and not blown out by the same occasion). One white to rule them all In a perfect world, every display of the planet would be calibrated. That way, everyone would see exactly the same colors. Until then, we have the power (and the responsibility) as photographers to take care of it ourselves. Tools such as those offered by Datacolor are meant to be fast, accurate and easy to use. They also help reduce post-production work and create a more constant look. To get more information on monitor calibration, color charts and grey cards, head to this link!
