147. Valokuvatorstai: Kuu

Moon over Kesäranta. A photo of the moon, jupiter and venus can be seen in my travel blog.

Comments About Wedding Photography Through BBC

In the aftermath of a really badly done wedding photography gig, BBC has published an article How hard is it to photograph a wedding. At the end there are some interesting comments from both sides of the camera.

The advice given to couples looking for a wedding photographer was “Look at their portfolio and make sure it is all their own work.”

Wedding photography is one of the most talked areas of photography because it is one of the rare occasions when regular people hire photographers. Considering how attached people can become to photos, it is a bit weird that professional photographers are not used more often. Photographers should also be more actively inventing new services or atleast marketing their existing services.

Photos of Zoo Lion Chasing a Crow

Setting Up Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mk II and Adobe Lightroom for Printing

Edit 27-Sep-2009: I’m getting close to the settings I want but I’m not yet there so I will keep updating this entry whenever I do changes to my setup.

I have just recently installed Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mk II photo printer to Windows XP + Adobe Lightroom 2.5 setup and here’s what I found relevant during the process.

Printer and Pinter Driver Setup
Pixma Pro9500 Mk II printing setup is described well in the On Screen Manual that is installed to your computer at the same time as the drivers and other software. See Digitail Photo Printing Guide / Printing from Computers / Printing from Other Applications / Case 2 Printing by Specifying an ICC profile within the Application.

Lightroom Setup
Lightroom specific things I learned from this article from Inside Lightroom blog. Use “Other” (=select profile for your printer and paper) instead of “Managed by Printer”

Monitor Setup

Calibrate your monitor. The linked article lists Spyder products that are pretty popular but there are also other choices available.

Brightness of many monitors needs to be much lower than it is by default and it is a setting that typically needs to be adjusted manually before the calibration. Depending on a source, the luminance of your monitor should be somewhere between 90-160cd/m2. Calibration software should be able to tell your luminance value.

Issues
Selected ICC profile must match your printer, ink and paper.

Based on what I read on discussion forums, the most common mistake is to let both the application and the printer driver to manage colors. Only one of them should do the management and in this blog entry the responsibility has given to the application (=Lightroom) as then you have more control.

Another common problem is that prints are too dark and there can be several reasons for that. Check if the prints are too dark also with the printing application that came with the printer and/or another application that manages colors like photoshop. I didn’t have this problem so google to find solutions. Many monitors are too bright by default so brightness must be lowered before monitor calibration.

You can’t see exactly what the final print is supposed to look from Lightroom. Photoshop has softproofing that simulates on the screen how the ICC profile, printer and used paper will change the photo but this function is not available in Lightroom.

Other useful resources

• Northlight Images: Why are my prints too dark?
• Northlight Images: Test images

A Day Full of Action at Korkeasaari Zoo

What a day at Korkeasaari zoo! My intention was to take only a small number of carefully composed photos but that plan was discarded immediately when there was action everywhere: otters, amur leopards, bears and lions all had their own shows.

You might not see any of this during a normal visit – especially if you just quickly have a look at each animal. If the animals are doing something, they might do something more interesting during the next 15 minutes.

More photos of the lion and the crow in this serie.

Charles XII Died in 1718 and Still There is a Photo of Him

From an autopsy of Charles XII in 1916. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Swedish King Charles XII died in the battlefield in 1718 and ever since Swedes have been speculating whether he was shot by a Norwegian or murdered by one of their own. Despite a promising start, the kings reign meant the end of Sweden’s position as a European superpower.

I was very surprised to see a photograph of him – even from a time when he has been dead for a long time. I didn’t know that the Swedish kings, or at least one of them, were buried in a way that they are still recognizable after a few centuries.

Lately I’ve noticed several times that I’m most interested about photos that teach me something I didn’t know before. If the subject is interesting enough, flaws in technique and artistic vision are not that important. And a perfectly executed photo is just as interesting as the story it tells.

Panasonic GF1, The Reason to Return to Smaller Cameras?

I bought a DSLR camera when I was fed up with compact digital cameras

1. I missed shots because the camera didn’t focus quickly enough
2. I felt that the camera was controlling me and not the other way around
3. Compact cameras required a lot of light thanks to poor ISO performance
4. Lot’s of blurry images for various other reasons (photographer being one of them)

Panasonic has just introduced GF1 camera that is small in size but at the same time is very close to entry-level DSLR cameras in its features. If GF1’s autofocus speed is really comparable to the entry-level DSLRs and ISO800 is still usable, this could very well be the camera that I would carry with me all the time. I still would use DSLRs but I could leave them home more often.

GF1 even has interchangeable lenses and with small fixed focal length pancake lenses the setup is really small. An (expensive) ultra-wide angle lens also exists for the Micro Four Thirds format. The same lenses can also be used in Olympus E-P1 that was almost the camera I had been waiting for. If only its auto-focus would have been better. I haven’t used one personally but I’ve read several reviews.

This is the way digital technology should be heading and not the full-frame way. It is interesting to see how companies like Canon and Nikon will respond to these smaller cameras that are a threat to their compact cameras and DSLR cameras.

138. Valokuvatorstai: Inhimillinen

His mate has left a note saying he’s on vacation but will be back soon.

Should I Upgrage My Canon 40D or 5D mark II to 7D?

I was afraid that Canon’s new 7D camera would be something I would want to have but “luckily” I don’t see any reason to replace my 40D or 5D mark II at the moment. Now that 7D exists, I couldn’t justify the purchase of 5D mark II anymore. But I don’t have any regrets buying it either.

Things look promising as now we have a crop camera that has pretty much all I need (until someone introduces a new must-have feature). What is missing is the equivalent of 70-200 IS (f/2.8 or 4) lens made for the crop – and that is not the fault of the camera. Full frame cameras are based on film technology and I’m hoping that digital technology will allow more than enough quality in much much smaller size in the future.

In this comparison I’m using the same criteria as in my earlier 40D => 5D mk II and 40D => 50D posts. Additionally I will compare 7D to the factors of 5D mark II that I find the most limiting. This is not a general comparison of the cameras, but something that helps me to see whether the camera would be a considerable improvement for myself or not.

7D vs. 40D’s most limiting factors

• ISO-limitations: Big improvement as the maximum usable ISO should be 6400 or 3200 (40D 1600).
• Auto-ISO doesn’t go higher than 800: 7D goes to 3200, another big improvement
• I need to switch lenses too often: Same crop factor, very good quality telezooms are too long in the wide end.
• 40D is VERY LOUD and its silent mode is not very useful: 7D should be better, but didn’t have the time to check.
• It would be nice to be able to take videos: 7D allows recoding of HD video.
• Viewfinder: looks like a major improvement, close to 5D mark II size.
• Inadequate dynamic range: Don’t know if there are major improvements.
• Exposure compensation is only +/- 2 stops: 7D has +/- 5 stops

7D vs. 5D mark II’s most limiting factors

• expensive: 7D is clearly cheaper, I would feel more comfortable travelling with a cheaper camera
• only one auto-focus point that can be trusted: 7D has even more focus points than 40D and should be better in this area
• fps low for action: 7D has more than enough fps for a non-professional
• more vignetting, barrel distortions etc. than with 40D and similar lenses: 7D should be same as 40D so no problems.
• no internal flash (fill-flash for unexpected situations): 7D has internal flash.
• Exposure compensation is only +/- 2 stops: 7D has +/- 5 stops

And my biggest limitation:

• Photographer lacks skill and vision: 7D doesn’t help in this department.

What would be interesting to see is whether 7D already has too many megapixels and how does its ISO 3200 and 6400 really compare with 5D mark II.

Today I need to use a combination of an action camera and general purpose camera. 7D could be the camera that does both.

EDIT 02-Sep-2009: Added exposure compensation, I had forgotten that from my original list of limiting factors.

You Can Take Photos at UEFA EURO 2009 Football. No you can’t! Yes you can, maybe….

(I’ve moved this almost unchanged from my Helsinki daily photo blog because this is more about photography than about Helsinki)

UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2009 is not doing a very good job communicating the fans whether we can take photos in the matches or not. They are unfortunately not the only event organizers who have trouble communicating the paying customers what is allowed and what isn’t.  The UEFA photography story is different

• when buying the ticket (photography allowed)
• when reading the ticket (photography not allowed)
• when entering the stadium (photography allowed but not with a DSLR )
  • DSLRs are used by many hobbyists like me and professionals
  • DSLR = järjestelmäkamera in Finnish

I don’t think this is acceptable. An experienced organization like UEFA should have a firm opinion about this years before the games! Those who are not interested in the details can skip to the last paragraph to see my main point.

While the event’s official website provides a lot of good information to many different stakeholders, football fans have to read a long and difficult to find legal mambojambo to see whether umbrellas or cameras are allowed inside the stadium. Would you really want all of us to email or phone you to ask whether item x is allowed?

Since UEFA wants to mambo with the fans, let’s mambo: Photography for private use is allowed (see 8.2 in the mambojambo) and the long and detailed list of prohibited items (see 7, e.g. they have defined how tall a flagpole can be) does not include anything about DSLRs or even about cameras. But when you reach the stadium, you learn that UEFA has given conflicting instructions to the security despite promises of updating the mambojambo (see 15.2) and mentioning that the mambojambo prevails if there is a conflict with the rules in force at the stadium (see 7.6).

I didn’t go there to take photos of the game but to enjoy the game. I had a DSLR mainly to take photos of the athmosphere outside the stadium for this blog. I have a DSLR with me practically always. For sports I would have taken a bigger DSLR and bigger lenses but they would have disturbed other spectators. UEFA’s big sponsor MasterCard is right when they say that the moments inside the stadium are priceless and naturally I would have also taken a few snaps from the game. Just like the many compact camera owners who now have their priceless memories also as photos.

One of the good things was that the head of security at my gate was both professional and pragmatic. They also had thought about what to do with the “prohibited” items so that people could still enter the stadium and go home with their stuff. DSLR stuff is just a bit expensive to be left in the care of strangers.

My untaken photos are a minor issue here. In the future I expect that UEFA and other event organizers clearly and correctly communicate the most common prohibited items before the event. Photography is not an issue that comes as a surprise for the organizers at the gate! If photography is not prohibited, it is allowed. If DSLRs are not explicitly prohibited, I’m going to record my memories with a DSLR in the future as well. I prefer clear memories over fuzzy memories.