A Freckle Portrait

Occasionally I take a portrait that simply stands out from the rest. This was one of them.

Olympus OMD EM5 mk2, 12-40mm f2.8 pro lens, lit by some led panels on light stands. Edited in DXO PhotoLab 3.

Light, Form and Texture 3

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 PRO. Handheld.

Red Bicycle & Blue Door in Landskrona

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & 12-40mm f2.8 wide open at f2.8, hand held. Light processing in DXO Photolab.

I am Very Impressed by the Panasonic 25mm f1.7

I am very impressed by the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 as it is exceedingly sharp even from f1.7. Normally in post I always apply a little sharpening to my photos but so far on the OMD E-M5 Mll with both the 12-40mm f2.8 and this Panasonic Lumix 25mm f1.7 I don't have to do a single bit of sharpening because the raw files are already so sharp that any more just simply isn't necessary.

I took the bike pic below while out on a ride this morning, it is shot wide open at f1.7 and it's tack sharp on the bike. The second pic is a 100% crop from the same photo.

Light, Form and Texture 2

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & Panasonic Lumix 25mm f1.7. Handheld.

Light, Form and Texture 1

On a discovery of minimalist black and white photography where light, form and texture are more important than subject matter.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll & Panasonic Lumix 25mm f1.7.

Olympus OMD E-M5 Mll 40mp High Resolution Mode

When researching the E-M5 Mll online I saw a lot of talk about the cameras high resolution mode and because I like product and landscapes/cityscapes so much I felt that this was a BIG plus for me and of course I was keen to give it a shot and see what happens. Below I posted four images, the first two unresized so that you can delve right in and pixel peek. If that's your thing. Lets face it, most of the cameras in the world are sold to people who fair yearn to view an image at 100% to see if it "measures up". Like it's important or something... and then they post it to Facebook where it will be viewed mainly on mobile phones. 😀

The first photograph is the 16mp file, the second is the 40mp from the high resolution trick mode. I took these both on a tripod, both in jpg format. I downloaded them to my computer, ran them both without adjustments through DXO Photolab to get their special hoodoo, then added a quick url text to the bottom left corner.

Ok, I tried to get a 100% size pic to show but blogger obviously resizes during upload and so they both look the same... for now. I'll see if I can work around this somehow.

16mp

40mp

The next two pics are screen grabs directly from Picasa zoomed in at 100%.

16mp at 100%

40mp at 100%

As you can see the high resolution mode obviously works and works very well. Aside from the higher resolution I am also seeing higher dynamic range. Wins all around!

 I am really looking forward to putting this mode to good use with some controlled lighting in a studio environment.


I am totally having fun with this little camera from Olympus and at the end of the day that is probably the most important reason to delve into the mirrorless world. Carrying around a lot of heavy stuff takes the fun out of even the best intentions...

K&F Nikon to MFT Converter

The day after I ordered the camera I also ordered a cheap K&F converter to use my Nikon lenses on the Olympus... and voila, it works! The first lens I tried was the DX 40mm Micro. At the bottom is a coin.

The aperture ring works but I have no idea how to tell which aperture it is in. Just look at the screen, manual focus, shoot and hope for the best.

Not bad for a hand held shot in bad light.

Olympus E-M5 Mll & M.Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 PRO - Low Light Test

I normally never bother with the Black Friday sales as mostly here in Europe they are not such great value. However an ad popped up on the BBC news website with a deal I could not pass up, an Olympus E-M5 Mll and M.Zuiko 12-40mm f2.8 PRO combo at about half normal price! I have been contemplating a mirrorless camera for some time now and so I jumped in feet first. After fiddling with the rather special menu system for a few days I finally got it set up the way I wanted so today I headed out into town to give it a whirl.

There are a few things I really like about the E-M5, starting with the rather diminutive size. It is tiny compared to the Nikons I have been used to for so many years, but they still manage to squeeze in more external controls than I realistically will ever need. The second thing I like is the viewfinder, it is big, bright and great for chimping on the move. The preview of what the pic is shaping up to look like is fantastic.

Landskrona Citadel

It's an oldie but I liked it so much I decided to post it again.

Wide vs Tele - Which One is Best?

I am often asked why peoples selfies make their faces look distorted and my answer is always the same, serves you right you narcissistic fool! Well no, not really. But the right answer is that the lens on your front cell phone camera is wide and therefore distorts your face making your nose look big.

In regular photography shooting with a wide lens close up has the same result, whatever is closest to the camera looks bigger and therefore the resulting picture is distorted and not a realistic representation of whatever it is you are photographing.

However, this also opens up some creative possibilities. Deliberate wide angle distortion can provide some artistic flair, or interest, or emotional tension, or merely highlight a certain part of an object or product.

I recently took some photos of my beloved motorcycle and was using my nifty Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens. The first photo was taken at 50mm and the second at 17mm. Which is best? Well that depends on what you are trying to achieve, your own personal taste, etc.

The tele produces a realistic representation of the subject at hand,  but to me the wide angle produces an entirely more interesting and dramatic photograph and leaves the viewer with a little more awe and wonder.  But that's just me.

Tele

Wide

So which one do you prefer?

Faux Absolut Vodka Ad

I have always admired the Absolut Vodka ad campaign that used to run in magazines worldwide some years ago and always thought of how I would like to try and recreate something similar. I think it is a study in simplicity embracing the "less is more" ideology while having an attention capturing visual impact. The first step was to find a current news topic that would grab attention, hence I settled on Brexit and the "hard" or indeed "absolute" nature that it entails.

Next step, purchase said product and relevant prop, in this case a bottle of vodka and a Union Jack bowtie.

I studied the lighting techniques that the original ads used and tried to "reverse engineer" it. I used three studio lights, one from behind the backdrop shooting through a snoot, and two from the front on either side of the bottle shooting through two softboxes and positioned so as to give the two reflections in the shiny bottle cap.

After metering the lights and setting up the camera I shot two photos from a sturdy tripod mount, one with only the rear light and one with only the two front lights, and then spent a little time on the computer editing and combining the two to achieve the effect I was after.

The final step was looking up which font they originally used in their campaign, download and install it and then finish off the advert with authentic Absolut punchline at the bottom.

Lighting setup pull back shots below.

Food Photography, with whatever camera you happen to have on hand...

I originally (many years ago) trained as a chef in South Africa and I was quite good at it (if I say so myself) but circumstance and providence led me along other paths for many years. However a couple of years ago I received a good offer and took up a position as a chef at a company here in Sweden. This has of course left me with less time to pursue my love of photography, hence the slowing down to a crawl of this blog.

At work I have been called on many times to photograph dishes for the company website and the requesting always comes when the only camera I have with me is my phone camera. I do not have the latest and greatest, but I have found that with my old Samsung S5 and the incredible Snapseed photo manipulation software for Android I can get amazingly good results. While the fine detail and colour management I get from my DSLR is undoubtably much MUCH better I think that at internet resolution the photo below is just great!

Bear in mind that this was taken, edited and published directly from my phone with only window light in between my normal duties as a chef. It is no wonder then that camera sales are plummeting and photographer jobs are scarcer by the day...

Wedding shoot in France

I had the opportunity to shoot a garden wedding in France and the couple were wonderful!

Blues Harmonica

Just another quick harmonica pic to get the musical and photographic juices flowing at the same time.