I was going to put up the companion shot to yesterday's entry today, but it's rather similar so thought I'd go for this one instead and post the other shot tomorrow.
As for this one: I mentioned that I had between five and fifteen shots to put up from my trip. I went through them all today, and while I could probably manage to put up about twelve of them, there are only nine that I think are any good, and this one is by far and away my favourite. It's another candid shot-from-the-knee attempt, this time on the tube, and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, not least because it was a 1/10th second shutter speed. You may have noticed that I always shoot at ISO 50, despite the fact that the G5 will (supposedly) go up to ISO 400. In my experience anything above ISO 50 is so noisy that it's really not worth bothering with so I often end up with quite slow shutter speeds.
Anyway, I've put this in my portfolio category as I think it's definitely one of the best shots I've produced recently, so I'd be interested to hear what you think.
And finally, I was really pleased yesterday to see that Jon (Ground Glass) is back after a couple of unavoidable weeks away. Welcome back :-)
camera capture date aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO focal length image quality white balance cropped?
Canon G5
1.43pm on 18/6/04
f2.2
1/10
aperture priority
+0.0
evaluative
50
11.2mm
RAW
auto
no
BTW, try Neat Image -- it does a fantastic job of removing noise. I'm sure you can pump it up to 200ISO and process in NI.
comment by djn1 at 05:41 AM (GMT) on 21 June, 2004
JR: thanks, Neat Image does look good, but unfortunately it's PC only and I use a Mac. We do have a couple of PC's in the house, but one is quite antiquated (with an 800x600 monitor) and the other is my wife's laptop, and I'm not sure that I'd ever really have the time to go to the trouble of pushing files round our network just to work on them with Neat Image. No, the obvious, and much more convenient solution, is that I need a DSLR ;-)
comment bypixeldiva at 09:18 AM (GMT) on 21 June, 2004
Fabulous shot, and a reminder that I haven't done any tube photography in aaaaages.
I have a real soft spot for this kind of photography, and this is a great example of the best of it.
I'm particularly impressed at how sharp it is, given the low ISO and shutter speed - you have a very steady hand :).
comment byMaria at 10:08 AM (GMT) on 21 June, 2004
Very nice, David. Your photos are an inspiration. :)
comment byUrbanite at 01:53 PM (GMT) on 21 June, 2004
I would love to know how you get the photos to upload so crisp and sharp whilst still keeping the file size low, I try to keep my files sizes low for people on dial ups but they always look a bit grainy and smudgy once they have uploaded.
I find your photos very inspiring, I live in London and keep meaning to take the short bus journey into the West End now I have my Olympus C-5060, each time I see one of your photos it spurs me on.
comment by djn1 at 05:42 PM (GMT) on 21 June, 2004
Urbanite: thanks. As for the reasons for my images being relatively small and sharp: first, I use Web Presenter Pro to reduce the image to the required dimensions (normally 700x525px). This Photoshop plugin does a much better job of retaining an image's detail than a straight 'image size' conversion in Photoshop. Second, I typically spend quite a bit of time getting the sharpening right. Normally I use two passes of Photoshop's Unsharp Mask, the first set to around 160, 0.3, 0 and the second something like 350, 0.2, 0. The key thing is to sharpen the final image rather than the original full-res' version. And third, I use Photoshop's Save for Web set to 75% as this level of compression doesn't seem to be visibly noticeable yet it does significantly reduce an image's size.
For Mac, you can use Noise Ninja from picturecode.com. Same concept as Neat Image: prepare a noise profile once and then batch 'em and let her rip.
Also, if you have PS CS, you can try the "Resample Image: Bicubic Sharper" - it's a new option in CS (as opposed to v7) that retains a lot of the original sharpness when downsampling.
comment by Beilie at 08:22 PM (GMT) on 21 June, 2004
Hey David,
I'm wondering which tool do u use to process the original image in RAW format??
comment by justin at 12:20 AM (GMT) on 22 June, 2004
Great image. Makes me think of possibilities. Who's going to sit there? intriguing leaf shapes outside add something too. very nice indeed.
comment by Tom B at 03:13 AM (GMT) on 22 June, 2004
Great Tip and fantastic shot. Some of the things I like about the photo are the one eye'd stare of the litte girl, how intense, as well as the reflection in the glass, the colors and pattern on the seat and the overall composition of the photo. Very well done again David. I sound like a broken record but many of your shots are truely inspiring.
I was going to put up the companion shot to yesterday's entry today, but it's rather similar so thought I'd go for this one instead and post the other shot tomorrow.
As for this one: I mentioned that I had between five and fifteen shots to put up from my trip. I went through them all today, and while I could probably manage to put up about twelve of them, there are only nine that I think are any good, and this one is by far and away my favourite. It's another candid shot-from-the-knee attempt, this time on the tube, and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, not least because it was a 1/10th second shutter speed. You may have noticed that I always shoot at ISO 50, despite the fact that the G5 will (supposedly) go up to ISO 400. In my experience anything above ISO 50 is so noisy that it's really not worth bothering with so I often end up with quite slow shutter speeds.
Anyway, I've put this in my portfolio category as I think it's definitely one of the best shots I've produced recently, so I'd be interested to hear what you think.
And finally, I was really pleased yesterday to see that Jon (Ground Glass) is back after a couple of unavoidable weeks away. Welcome back :-)
capture date
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
focal length
image quality
white balance
cropped?
1.43pm on 18/6/04
f2.2
1/10
aperture priority
+0.0
evaluative
50
11.2mm
RAW
auto
no
Great.
BTW, try Neat Image -- it does a fantastic job of removing noise. I'm sure you can pump it up to 200ISO and process in NI.
JR: thanks, Neat Image does look good, but unfortunately it's PC only and I use a Mac. We do have a couple of PC's in the house, but one is quite antiquated (with an 800x600 monitor) and the other is my wife's laptop, and I'm not sure that I'd ever really have the time to go to the trouble of pushing files round our network just to work on them with Neat Image. No, the obvious, and much more convenient solution, is that I need a DSLR ;-)
Fabulous shot, and a reminder that I haven't done any tube photography in aaaaages.
I have a real soft spot for this kind of photography, and this is a great example of the best of it.
I'm particularly impressed at how sharp it is, given the low ISO and shutter speed - you have a very steady hand :).
Very nice, David. Your photos are an inspiration. :)
I would love to know how you get the photos to upload so crisp and sharp whilst still keeping the file size low, I try to keep my files sizes low for people on dial ups but they always look a bit grainy and smudgy once they have uploaded.
I find your photos very inspiring, I live in London and keep meaning to take the short bus journey into the West End now I have my Olympus C-5060, each time I see one of your photos it spurs me on.
Urbanite: thanks. As for the reasons for my images being relatively small and sharp: first, I use Web Presenter Pro to reduce the image to the required dimensions (normally 700x525px). This Photoshop plugin does a much better job of retaining an image's detail than a straight 'image size' conversion in Photoshop. Second, I typically spend quite a bit of time getting the sharpening right. Normally I use two passes of Photoshop's Unsharp Mask, the first set to around 160, 0.3, 0 and the second something like 350, 0.2, 0. The key thing is to sharpen the final image rather than the original full-res' version. And third, I use Photoshop's Save for Web set to 75% as this level of compression doesn't seem to be visibly noticeable yet it does significantly reduce an image's size.
Hope that helps.
Great photo. Also, your tips on the resizing/sharepening is helpful. Will have to try it out myself.
There is just something about the empty seat that piques my emotions. Somehow a statement is being made, though I'm not quite aware of what it is.
David,
For Mac, you can use Noise Ninja from picturecode.com. Same concept as Neat Image: prepare a noise profile once and then batch 'em and let her rip.
Also, if you have PS CS, you can try the "Resample Image: Bicubic Sharper" - it's a new option in CS (as opposed to v7) that retains a lot of the original sharpness when downsampling.
Hey David,
I'm wondering which tool do u use to process the original image in RAW format??
Great image. Makes me think of possibilities. Who's going to sit there? intriguing leaf shapes outside add something too. very nice indeed.
Great Tip and fantastic shot. Some of the things I like about the photo are the one eye'd stare of the litte girl, how intense, as well as the reflection in the glass, the colors and pattern on the seat and the overall composition of the photo. Very well done again David. I sound like a broken record but many of your shots are truely inspiring.