50 Years of Photography

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 7

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

ACR Support, At Last!

Today, Adobe Systems announced an update to Adobe Camera Raw. Camera Raw 6.6 supports the Fujifilm X10. I hope they soon make available a profile for the camera, which will add lens corrections. Meanwhile, here are some sample photos converted from raw. I grabbed several from a recent trip to Denver.

These were minimally processed, using the "auto" setting and later applying modest sharpening.

Denver Union Station

Bike rentals outside Union Station

Lodo building

Denver Public Library

Denver Public Library from the bridge at Denver Art Museum

Red Rocks Park

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 6

2011-12-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

A Bargain Lens Hood

I found this filter adapter and lens hood for Fujifilm X10
at Amazon. At less than a third of the price of the Fuji accessory, how could I go wrong? I don't think I did.

The top shot shows the whole thing mounted on the X10 with a 52mm polarizer attached. The second shot shows the filter adapter and filter mounted to the camera. The shot below shows all of the parts, and the lens cap. Read on for my impressions.

The build quality seems just fine, with an even matte finish. It's aluminum, so be gentle screwing and unscrewing it lest the threads gall. I'd love it if this were made of brass like the rings of top quality filters, but that's more than I'd expect at this price. I wonder if it's a coincidence that it takes just over three revolutions to screw the adapter to the camera and to screw the hood to the adapter.

As you can see, a normal polarizer (this is an old Tiffen) fills the hood. This is good and bad. The good is that you can easily touch the filter ring to turn it. The bad is that the hood does not shade the filter. The takeaway from this is that it will function fine as a lens hood or filter adapter, but less than optimally as both. If you feel the need to use this to mount a protective filter, make it a thin one.

Like the factory hood, there are slots to provide some visibility in the lower right corner of the viewfinder. This is fine if you use it as a hood only. It's a terrible idea for a filter adapter since light can strike the rear of the filter. I'll be looking for some means to block these slots. This will probably be most critical if you plan to use an R72 filter to shoot infrared.

A feature you sacrifice with this accessory mounted on the Fujifilm X10 is the ability to use the lens cover. I'll be looking for a slip-on cover like the original, but larger to cover the hood.

For me the key points regarding the filter adapter and lens hood for Fujifilm X10
for the Fujifilm X10 are these:

The price is right.
It allows use of 52mm filters.
It provides some shading for the lens.
It makes the lens cap unusable.
The hood part is not deep enough to effectively shade a filter, at least not a polarizer.
The slots on the filter adapter allow light to hit the rear of filters.
Since it blocks a good chunk of the viewfinder view, it will be most useful when composing with the LCD.

Holiday Show

2011-11-12T11:29:00.001-08:00

The gang of 11 will be showing gift-, decor-, collection-worthy art at the first annual Made Right on Whidbey holiday art show. So don't rush out to the mall to do your gift shopping. Keep your money and tax dollars circulating on Whidbey.

Epson 3880 Rebate

2011-11-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

I use an Epson Sytlus Pro 3880 pigment ink printer and it's the best printer I've owned. The price of the printer and consumables, plus its reliability and image quality, make it my workhorse for gallery prints.
Since Epson is offering a $300 rebate right now, there's no better time to step up and get your own Epson 3880. Highly recommended!

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 5

2011-11-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

This post will be some random observations as they come to mind. I'll update this one so these are all in one place.

It strikes me as illogical that selecting raw vs jpeg is in the set-up menu rather than grouped with the other image size/quality settings in the shooting menu.
Dedicating a button to white balance seems wasteful. Why not ISO so the Fn button can be used for something else?
It is inconvenient that I have to remove the lens cap and twist the zoom ring to turn the camera on when I just want to get into the set-up menus (or to review images, for that matter).
I set the Fn button to ISO. I see that you don't hold the button (like on my D700) to change ISO, rather you press and release.
When using the viewfinder there is no indication of autofocus. Even with the audible focus confirmation, this is disconcerting.
The battery/memory card door is spring loaded to open when the catch is moved. But the catch is not spring loaded to lock when you close the door.
Why no RGB histogram in playback?
Motion panorama is pretty nice. Here's the Admiralty Head Lighthouse at Ft. Casey State Park. It's a 120 degree pan with the camera in portrait orientation. Although the X axis dimension of a normal image is 4256 pixels, my panorama came out with only 1624 pixels on that dimension. Perhaps that's because the camera is firing off a bunch of individual images, so it has to make them smaller to maintain sufficient frames per second and total frames without overflowing the buffer.
I've installed Silkypix, A.K.A., Raw File Converter EX, and agree with those who pan it. I really hope we get DXO Optics Pro support for the X10 soon! I also look forward to support in Adobe Camera Raw. I'm not specifically reviewing Silkypix, but my initial impression is that it is less capable than my preferred raw converters. And, really, who needs to learn one more program that brings nothing new to the table?

I'm happy with how the X10 renders highlight gradients. The bright spot here measures 255,255,195. The darkest area is 11,11,11. This is a jpeg straight from the camera. f5.6 @ 1/1900, ISO 100.

Please note that these are observations. I notice what catches my attention, which will often be the features I find illogical. These don't negate other positive observations throughout the sections of this review.

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 4

2011-11-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

This installment will be some impressions from shooting Friday and yesterday. I'll follow with more images you can evaluate. I spent Friday evening at a community pot luck and barn dance. It's a big barn that sucks light. Saturday I shot indoor conference presentations ranging from a large hall to smaller groups in meeting rooms. I also shot some outdoors.
I was using the Fujifilm X10 side-by-side with my Nikon D700. As a general observation, it was handy to use the quiet X10 to do some unobtrusive shooting during conference sessions.

On using the viewfinder
Yes, the lens intrudes on the corner of the viewfinder. It is significant at 28mm and shrinks until it is gone at 50mm. This is without the hood, as I'm waiting for something less expensive from the aftermarket.
I wear progressive lenses. I had to tweak the diopter to get the viewfinder in focus.
With or without my glasses, I can see the entire viewfinder area, plus some of the black space around it.
I almost always used the LCD to compose shots.

On autofocus
The situation in which I was shooting clearly showed the difference between the autofocus capability of the X10 and D700. But to be fair, the D700 is exceptional in this regard.
I experienced plenty of instances in which the X10 failed to focus.
I missed peak action in some situations.
In other instances, the subject had moved by the time the camera achieved focus and exposed the shot.
In good light, the X10 seems to focus just fine. But in a darker room it is challenged when asked to quickly grab focus.

On using flash
I shot a lot of available light, a few shots with the internal flash, and more shots with a Yongnuo YN560.
The YN 560 is a dumb flash, but it's inexpensive and puts out loads of light. By manually adjusting zoom and output of the flash and chimping to check results, I was able to light shots inside the barn. I intuitively held the flash rather than the camera due to the size of it. In order to use an external flash, I dove into the menu on the X10 and selected external flash.
For closer work, the internal flash worked well, though I think I had some red eye issues with it. I had to remember to change the menu back to internal flash or it would not fire.

On shooting without flash
My initial impression of the image quality using the X10 in available light is favorable. I just checked a shot taken in an auditorium with moderate light. Using auto ISO, the X10 chose ISO 1000. I can see that noise reduction blurred some detail, but the shot was well exposed and quite usable for most purposes. It is not as good as the D700 at ISO 3200, but what do you expect? Here are a few sample shots, JPEGs straight from the camera, with and without flash and at various ISO settings.

f3.6, 1/27 sec., ISO 400, 7.1mm, no flash

f2.5, 1/40 sec., ISO 1000, 19.5mm, no flash

f5.6, 1/100 sec., ISO 1600, 28.4mm, external flash

f4.5, 1/750 sec., ISO 100, 9.3mm

I still think that the Fujifilm X10 is likely suitable for my intended purposes. I want a daylight camera I can carry everywhere to catch opportunistic shots for stock and gallery sales. At the same time, it can be a snapshot camera for friends and family shots. Much of my shooting over the last two days constitutes a fairly extreme test since I'll mainly use it in daylight.
I need to do two more things to really get a handle on it: take the time to optimize settings for raw capture and shoot more deliberately, and process some raw files to compare to the JPEGs.

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 3

2011-11-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

In the Field

Shooting
I set the camera to capture raw + large fine jpeg. A walk around Coupeville in late afternoon light gave me some opportunities to evaluate bokeh, metering, exposure accuracy and general shooting experience. For now we'll look at jpegs. I'll be back to compare them with raw images after I've installed the Fujifilm File Converter EX provided. It's too early to try my usual raw file converters: Adobe Camera Raw and DXO Optics Pro. When these raw converters support the X10, I'll be back to compare converted raw files.

Handling
I liked the idea of the on/off switch in the zoom ring better before I worked with it. Now I'd rather have a conventional switch. I suppose the way this is implemented was the design team's idea of how to get the lens collapsed into the body. Brilliant? Not!
Since it was chilly out, I wore my flip-back fingertip fleece gloves to shoot. I was able to shoot, as well as change some settings, with no problems in spite of the small controls.
The camera is small enough to cradle it inconspicuously in one hand. Of course it dropped in my coat pocket with room to spare and weighed little enough to not make the coat list to one side.

Bokeh
A couple of shots illustrate the X10's bokeh at both the wide and long focal lengths. I saw nothing objectionable in the bokeh, though I didn't get any shots with out of focus highlights so the jury is still partially out. It's not like shooting with my D700 and Rokinon 85mm f1.4, but what do you expect?

Dynamic Range
I tried one shot set to dynamic range 100% and again at 400%. I detect some slight differences in the lightest and darkest values.

In this shot the brightest sky is 250, 241, 226 and the deepest shadow by the window frame is 7,7,9. Settings are 1/15000, f4, ISO 400, dynamic range 400%, 7.9mm.

In this image, the values are 253,244,229 and 5,5,7. Settings are 1/685, f4, ISO 100, dynamic range 100%, focal length 7.9mm. Maybe I didn't find a subject with a wide enough range, but I don't get it. Guess I'll have to try EXR mode to see if that does a superior job of handling wide dynamic ranges. Yes, these images are straight from the camera.

Other Shooting
Here's a pretty picture. which looks nice enough.

But a 100% enlargement shows something unattractive.

Along high contrast verticals there is something happening that looks like excessive sharpening. There's no color fringing, so this may simply be a default setting I need to tweak.

Keep in mind that these shots are all straight from the camera. And I've no doubt that these can be improved as I get the camera set up, let alone shooting raw. I think you'll get the full images by clicking on each.

More to come!

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 2

2011-11-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

Setup
When you first turn on the Fujifilm x10, it prompts you for language and allows you to set the time and date.
Another setting you'll want to decide on is the starting mode for the rear display. It defaults to "info display, which allows you to run through settings like aspect ratio, jpeg settings, auto ISO or select ISO, goodies like dynamic range modes and film simulation. white balance shift, color saturation, sharpness, shadow tone, noise reduction ... but where do I set it to just shoot raw?
Oh, there it is: the lower right button on the back. Be warned, if you just press the button, the camera will default to jpeg next time you turn it on. I set custom setting 1 and was able to turn the camera off and one without losing raw. Whew! Wait, I lost it. Resorting to the manual for the first time, I see that I have to go deep into the setup menu to choose raw, raw+jpeg or jpeg.
So I'm set to shoot raw, but if I do shoot jpeg I have all settings at default.
Well, before we leave settings here are a few observations. The LCD grid has three options: 9, 24 and HD framing. I'm changing the color space to Adobe RGB. I also changed the power management from power save to clear display ("LCD display gets brighter and smoother").

Feel
The X10 really feels good. It seems quite solid but not too heavy. The controls are a little stiffer than I expected. There is absolutely no chance that I'll accidentally turn the exposure compensation dial!
The buttons are quite small compared to my Nikon DSLR, and the sub command dial is pretty slippery. The main command dial feels much better. Overall, there's plenty of metal to convey a quality feel.
I think I read some expression of concern that the zoom/on-off ring might lead to accidentally turning the camera off. I doubt it. There is good resistance and significant travel. "Off" doesn't happen until you get all the way.

Looks
Well, yes it does resemble a rangefinder of old. After all, Fujifilm built a lot of 120-film rangefinders, not to mention the Hasselblad XPan. The company has cred in this area.

Playback
The obligatory first frame shot with my X10 is the Eizo monitor I use for photo editing. The auto white balance seems to have shifted toward warm when I look at the wall behind the monitor. I don't lose sleep over this since I nearly always shoot raw.
In the default playback mode, the image overlay includes date, time ISO, shutter speed, f stop, jpeg settings, battery state and image number (100-0001). I love the four-digit capability, which should be useful on trips with my 32GB Transcend card.
Turning the main command dial changes the display to show additional info such as dynamic range, sharpness, film simulation, white balance, focal length, flash mode ...

Shooting
I found the display mode that fills the LCD with all I need: mode, f stop (in aperture priority) or shutter speed (in shutter priority), rule of thirds grid, ISO, battery condition, composite histogram (will look for an RGB option), shots to go (in best jpeg mode, I have room for 7443 more images), exposure compensation, focus distance and artificial horizon.
I see that in shutter priority, I can use either dial to change speed. Nice touch! Ditto in aperture priority.

Other
Here's a gripe: the manual lacks an index.

Well, it's 4:30 here and sunny, so I'm going to run out to grab some shots. The real test will come this weekend when I use the X10 next to my D700 at the Ebey's Forever Conference here in Coupeville. But I have time for a few tests and will see if I can get some shots posted tonight.

Fujifilm x10 Review: part 1

2011-11-03T14:09:00.001-07:00

The arrival of a new camera is always exciting, and my Fujifilm X10 came today. As you can guess, the battery is charging. While we wait for that, here are some shots of the package and contents. As soon as the camera is operable, I'll post hand-on impressions of a production camera.

The box

The open box

The box contents

Top control dials, release and hot shoe
Do I regret having given away all of my threaded cable releases? Probably not given the intended use. It is a fun retro feature though. Overall the feel reminds me of my old Hasselblad XPan on a smaller scale. I kept that (my last film camera) until about two years ago.

Back and bottom view
Buttons are quite small compared to my D700.

Battery charging

Inserting memory card
Transcend 32 GB Class 10 SDHC Flash Memory Card

Battery and SDHC card in place

For scale
I'll admit that I was surprised by the small size of the camera. Though not what you'd call a pocket camera, it is quite compact. Thank heavens for the thumb ledge on the back next to the control dial. Still, with hands the size of mine (large, but not farmer hands), it will take two hands to do anything.

As soon as the battery gets charged, I'll do some shooting and post impressions.

Fujifilm X10 Review is Here!

2011-11-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

The review process has started and I'm incrementally adding posts. What's below is a pre-delivery intro. The hands-on review of a production X10 starts here.

Yes, this is a teaser. I received an email today that the Fujifilm X10 camera I pre-ordered has shipped. Fuji says Nov. 7 is the expected availability date, so this is earlier than anticipated.
The X10 is intended to be my "carry everywhere" camera since the Nikon D700
and lenses are far too bulky to keep with me at all times. Several years ago I tried a Canon G10, which was pretty good in good light. When I had it converted to infrared only, it's high-ISO noise issue convinced me to sell it (at a big loss). I'll quickly run through my reasons for choosing the X10 so this will be out of the way when I receive it and start writing about my experience shooting with the Fuji.
Size
I looked at the Sony NEX-5N. The image quality is outstanding. The lenses are not. And the size of the lenses defeats my purpose.
The X10 is compact but not tiny. It is not a shirt-pocket camera, but with the integrated lens it is small enough. Once I get it I'll figure out if I want to carry it in a tiny M-Rock bag bag I was given or if it needs more of a skin covering.
Lens
I've owned several Fuji cameras and the lenses have been outstanding. These were the G670 120 panoramic camera, the Hasselblad XPan with 45mm and 90mm lenses, and one of the early 120 rangefinders, perhaps the G690. The 28-112mm f2-2.8 lens has a useful range and wide aperture. The Nikon COOLPIX P7100 reaches 200mm equivalent, but falls short in a number of aspects.
Image Quality
My first DSLR was the Fujifilm S2 Pro. Image quality was good enough to produce 20x30 prints. Based on the image quality of Fujifilm X100 (a really sweet camera, but larger, no zoom and twice as expensive), I have high hopes for the X10.
Usability
The G10 had a miserable rangefinder. It is said that the one on the X10 is quite good. That should eliminate the need to take a lot of shots at arms length using the LCD. The camera has plenty of external controls, so I won't be constantly menu diving.
Features
The sweep panorama may get me in gear to post a collection of casual pans on www.cometocoupeville.com. Film simulation modes, dynamic range modes, and various bracketing options may be useful ... time will tell.

Got Gallery?

2011-06-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

I'm showing my work in a new gallery, but have no photo of it. Why? I'll explain later.

Whidbey Art Gallery is the cooperative gallery in Langley on Whidbey Island. Once known as The Artists' Cooperative, WAG was long on First Street. When the rent got too high, the group moved to a smaller space at the corner of 2nd and Anthes. During the depths of the recession, the group held several shows a year but did not maintain a store front.

This spring Whidbey Art Gallery came to life again in the building that housed the Langley Clinic. But there was a catch: the building was for sale. Well, it did sell and rather quickly. We opened the first of May and must be out the end of June!

Not to worry, though. The diligent artists of WAG are tapped into Langley the way I hope I am in Coupeville. We've lined up a new, larger space on 2nd Street across from US Bank.

So if you're in Langley after July 1, please stop in to see the gallery and my latest work.

Rightsizing My Tripod and Head

2011-04-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

Rightsizing My Tripod

For the last few years, my tripod setup has consisted of a large Dutch Hill tripod and Foba Superball with Really Right Stuff quick-release clamp. The Dutch Hill is carbon fiber, so although it will extend so high I can't look through the viewfinder, it is not heavy. It's similar to a professional video tripod, i.e., far from compact.
The Foba Superball is an old-school ball head, offered before the proliferation of ball head choices of the last dozen years. I've owned it since the mid 1990s. To give you an idea of how robust it is, I used it with a Sinar P monorail 4x5 camera, a V-Pan 6x17 (cm) panoramic view camera and a Canham wooden 5x7 camera.
When I wanted to shoot panoramas, I added a Jasper Engineering panoramic head.
You can imagine that I did not carry all of this all of the time. I never hiked with the Dutch Hill and only took the panoramic head when I knew I'd use it.

Lightweight Ball and Panoramic Rig

When I decided that a lighter rig was in order, there was no question that the new ball head would be from Really Right Stuff. I've used their gear for about 15 years and got a RRS BH-55 ball head for the Navy when I worked at FASOTRAGRUPAC. This time, I actually ordered a BH-40, thinking I could save some weight, but when it arrived I realized that I was not prepared to go quite that light. So I ended up with a BH-55, the model with just a platform. To this I added a RRS PCL-1 panning clamp I already owned.
The panning clamp serves two purposes. First, once I've leveled the camera, I can pan to recompose without losing level. When shooting real estate this is a huge convenience. The bonus is that the PCL-1 allows me to quickly convert to panoramic mode.
To shoot panoramas, I remove the camera, insert a multipurpose rail with a (RRS) quick release clamp, then mount the camera. So the only equipment unique to panoramas is the rail and clamp.
At this point I should digress to mention why the rail is necessary. To shoot panoramas with wide-angle lenses, it's necessary to rotate the camera around the entrance pupil of the lens to eliminate parallax that makes clean stitching impossible. This can often be ignored with longer focal lengths since the parallax problems lining up near and far images (they move relative to each other when there is parallax) diminish.

Here's the camera in panoramic mode.

This gives you a good look at the panoramic setup. The rail is a cheaper (than RRS) one I found on eBay and it works fine. It has provision to insert cap screws in a variety of places and two are under the Really Right Stuff B2-LLR quick-release clamp that I removed from the Superball. They prevent the clamp from twisting. You may also detect the stop attached to the rail, so it is at the correct extension for my 14-24mm lens (not shown here) at 14mm.

The camera mounts directly in the PCL-1 on the BH-55 when not in panoramic mode.

The Tripod

I took a chance that seems to have been a good gamble and got one of the new style Benro M8 tripods. The construction rivals a Gitzo I once owned that cost more than three times the modest price of this "made in China" carbon fiber tripod with magnesium castings. I went for three leg sections for greater stability than the more compact four-section tripods. The BH-55 is a little out of scale with this, but the result is a stable, robust and light rig. The whole thing is under six pounds and it is quite stable.
With my ball head setup, my D700's viewfinder is 58.5 inches from the ground without center column extension.
Benro is now imported by MAC, so it's truly a mainstream product. They include a nice padded bag (I can barely squeeze my tripod/head into it), metal spikes in addition to rubber feet and tools. There's even a hook under the center column for ballast.
If you're curious, yes I have more than twice as much invested in the head as in the legs, and might have considered more economical alternatives like Acratech or even a Benro head. I like the Really Right Stuff head for several reasons:

There is absolutely zero creep when locking down.
I don't think there's a shorter full-strength ball head, so greater stability.
My experience with this head is that it is without compromise.

I can tell you one result from putting together this outfit; I shall certainly carry my tripod a lot more!

All About Texture

2011-03-29T20:47:00.001-07:00

This image combines several techniques and -- I must say -- got me more inspired than I've been for a while.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
I'm not always motivated to get up early to get to a spot where I think a good photograph awaits. On this particular morning, I was motivated by recent Mt. Rainier sightings from Central Whidbey. At dawn, I drove to the Prairie Overlook adjacent to Sunnyside Cemetery. The reward was both Mt. Rainier and nice fog in the prairie.
COMPOSITION
The scene demanded a panorama, so I took several shots with my 70-300mm lens at 70mm, using the structures of the Smith Farm to anchor the lower right corner.
STITCHING
I used Adobe Camera Raw to determine how the NEF files would be processed, applying the same settings to all images. But rather than process the files individually, I clicked "DONE" and returned to Adobe Bridge where I called up the photomerge routine. That resulted in the basic panoramic image.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE
While I had a nice image at this point, I realized that this would be a great opportunity to try adding textures. I selected two from a collection I had downloaded, chose appropriate blending modes and opacity, then duplicated and flipped one. There's also a little joke in the photo: a faint upside-down image of Georgie Smith's house in the sky.
AND FOR AN ENCORE
The next evening I went out to take photos of the super moonrise. I always have trouble getting usable moon shots, and came away with nothing really useful. But I realized that this "dream" shot could benefit from a moon, so I composited one in. And the moon is approximately where it rose, so this was more time compression than adding a fictional element.
That concludes my first foray into texturizing photographs.

Photograph Bulgaria

2010-12-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Experience Balkan mountain village life while improving your photographic skills. Travel to the Black Sea with a small group of photographers and painters. On June 10-21, 2011, I'll lead just six photographers (all skill levels) as we observe, create and experience Old Europe with Bulgaria Art Workshops.

Having visited these areas in 2009, I decided to offer this workshop in collaboration with my painter friends Stella Canfield and Vesko Velev. To maximize your experience, we're limiting the workshop to just six painters and six photographers.

Photo buffs of all skill levels will be inspired by the sights of Bulgaria, and our daily "technical sessions" and critiques will offer learning opportunities for everyone from snapshooters to serious photo buffs. But this is no classroom experience; we'll be out seeing village life and photographing most of the day.

Since Stella and Vesko are natives of Bulgaria, the package is an extraordinary value: just $2500US for instruction, food, lodging, ground transportation ... (see the reservation form for details).

WiFi will be available in common areas of our hotel in Dulbok Doll.
Please contact me with any questions: denis@whidbeypanoramas.com or 360.320.4844.

INSTRUCTION

Your instructor will be M. Denis Hill, QPP (www.whidbeypanoramas.com). This workshop will focus on “on-location” photography skills, but also is tailored to help you develop your technical knowledge and personal expression. You can either simply shoot in your style and enjoy the camaraderie of other like-minded participants, or seek instruction on how to capture memorable images of the abundant local subjects.

Denis will be available throughout the day on location for personal instruction. The daily pre-dinner critique, accompanied by wine and appetizers will allow us to share our successes and adventures (photographers and painters).

Denis will consult with each participant in advance of the trip to help you develop a packing list that includes the right amount of gear (existing or new) to support your efforts without being a burden.

MEALS

All breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are provided in the cost of this trip. Breakfasts will be served in our hotel. Our noon meals will either be boxed lunches, provided each morning before you set out or brought to us on location, or group lunches when we are traveling. Plan on enjoying traditional Bulgarian offerings: delicious soups, meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, salads, and desserts. Of course, famous Bulgarian rakija will be on the menu, as well as wine.

TRAVEL INFORMATION

We require a copy of your travel itinerary at the time you book your flights.

FITNESS

Please note, most of the streets in Bulgaria are cobblestones so be prepared for walking and bring comfortable walking shoes.

Day by Day Itinerary

Day 1 – pick up from the airport (or hotel if you decided to arrive earlier and spend couple of days in the capital city of Bulgaria, Sofia)
Day 2 – relaxing day of introduction to instructors and participants, optimizing camera set-up, etc.
Day 3 – photographing in the village of Dulbok Doll.
Day 4 - photographing in the village of Dulbok Doll
Day 5 – photographing and spending the night in Veliko Turnovo, an hour way from Dulbok Doll.
Day 6 – photographing in Veliko Turnovo and having an afternoon free for shopping if desired.
Day 7 – photographing in Dulbok Doll.
Day 8 – photographing in the surrounding of Dulbok Doll.
Day 9 – photographing in Balchik on the Black Sea and spending the night there.
Day 10 – photographing in Balchik and traveling to Dulbok Doll in the afternoon.
Day 11 – photographing in Dulbok Doll.
Day12 – travel to Sofia.

All meals are included in the price of the workshop as well as logging and transportation.

This itinerary is subject to change if necessary.

Moving Days

2010-12-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

I'm moving out of the studio space I've enjoyed for the last two years. While living on North Whidbey, I began renting space from my gracious hostess and friend, Ann Wilson in her building: Ann's Coup d'Art in the heart of Coupeville. This era is ending due to two factors.
First, I've been living right in Coupeville since March 2010. Second, Ann is consolidating her activities in her Coupeville home and the building will revert to residential use. The new occupant is moving in December 31.
Happily, I have available space in the basement of my current residence. It's a finished space with large windows, though I have to go outside and down a flight of steps to get there. Still, it will work for framing and encaustic work. I'll post pictures when I get organized.
I'm about 1/3 moved in and making good progress since the weather is holding off pretty well. More later ...

Sept-Oct Road Trip, Part Deux

2010-12-03T07:27:00.000-08:00

Here are a few new images from the road trip that I'm debuting at Ann's Coup d'Art during the Holiday Art Boutique and at Penn Cove Gallery during the Greening of coupeville. All were taken with a Nikon D700.

Descending from Yellowstone in to Jackson Hole, I encountered fall color.

The Moulton Barn with Tetons in the background is iconic Jackson Hole imagery. There was a crowd with tripods at this site every morning.

Finally, something less common. This is actually right on a busy highway. I returned several times in different light, but this was the only time one of the horses cooperated by being in a good spot.

Had a grand time photographing at Dead Horse Point State Park. This scene is very colorful, but I worked it into a black and white image to make it my own.

The sky was flat blue until my last afternoon in Jackson. This is another result of searching for an atypical image in a heavily-photographed area.

Here's another shot from the one afternoon with some sky interest. I enjoyed the fall color for a different look.

Sept-Oct Road Trip

2010-11-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

I have neglected to post a record of my recent 5,000 mile road trip, so here's a summary. It was a combination of photographing favorite places, visiting friends and visiting my brother. This post is by no means comprehensive, but may reveal some of the photographic attractions of the places I visited.

I left Whidbey Island on September 27, after the Open Studio tour. Spent the night in Coeur D'Alene then headed for West Yellowstone. As is my habit, when passing through Butte, I stopped at the Great Harvest bakery for coffee and lunch. Once off the interstate, the scenery improved, like this 79-year-old cowboy herding cattle.

All I can say for West Yellowstone is a) it's close to Yellowstone NP, and b) I'm glad Coupeville is not like it. Once in the park, I found myself attracted primarily to geothermal features such as these in Norris Basin. I had no idea what I came to photograph but these and the colorful water laden with minerals kept me busy.

Heading south into Jackson Hole, I revisited some familiar sights and found new ones. The sky was tenaciously flat blue except for a couple of occasions. Aspens were in full fall color here, which contributed to some of my shots.

Here's an example of the Tetons reflected in the Snake River. I've stayed at Coulter Bay Village in the past, but it is closed this time of year.

On the La Sal Loop, the rising moon danced with Aspens.

Having taken the drive counterclockwise, I came to the view of Fisher Towers a little later (light-wise) than I'd have preferred, but can't complain about this juxtaposition of evening light and scrub in fall color.

After a productive morning at Dead Horse State Park, I took the Gemini Bridges Road. Every other vehicle I saw as a Jeep, quad, dirt bike or mountain bike. The Forester did a fine job on this 13.5 mile road that included some very rocky and rough sections.

Stay tuned for more on the trip, including photos from Arches National Park.

The Morning After

2010-11-23T14:11:00.000-08:00

Puget Sound was hit by the first major storm of the season yesterday and Whidbey received a good dose of it. Today has been full sunshine, however, so I ventured out for some morning after photos of Ebey's Reserve. The heavy winds reduced the visual impact of the snow, blowing most of it across the open prairie. Still, it was worth braving 20 degrees (plus a bit of wind) at Ebey's Landing.

The Forester gets credit for getting me up the icy hill on Hill Rd. This is why I drive with the Nokian tires I learned about while living in Maine. Needless to say, traffic was light on central Whidbey roads.

Summer Images

2010-08-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Just a few recent images from this summer. The tall ships, Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain were in town for six days around the Historic Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival. The native canoe shot shows tribal youth on an annual trip around Puget Sound. Coupeville has been a regular stop for them.

Portable Power

2010-07-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

I'm finally migrating to one computer: a laptop that will serve at home and away. There are several motivations:

I'm living a smaller footprint lifestyle.
My desktop computer is a bit slow.
My laptop computer is an ancient Dell Inspiron 5100 with a 40GB 5400RPM hard drive and .75GB RAM.
I came across a $400 discount coupon.

The new system arrived yesterday, so I'm in the throes of installing software and configuring the computer. When I get done it will look like this:

Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv7 Select Edition
Intel Core i7 720 cpu
6GB DDR3 667MHz RAM running at 1995.2MHz
ATI MObility Radeon HD 5650 graphics card with 1GB RAM
17.3" screen running 1600x900 resolution
Two 500GB Hitachi 7200RPM hard drives
3 USB2 and one combination USB2/eSATA ports, HDMI port, ethernet port
WIFI and Bluetooth
Full keyboard with 10-key pad
Card reader (but, alas, not CF)
Webcam and microphones, fingerprint reader, subwoofer, etc.
BlacX eSATA hard drive dock with 1TB WD bare drive or 500GB WD bare drive
2TB WD MyBook Essential USB2 backup drive
Cables Unlimited 7 port USB hub
Eizo FlexScan L768 19" external monitor

I had not way of knowing that HP uses Hitachi drives. Had I known, I'd have ordered two drives. I ordered one drive with the system and got a second drive from TigerDirect. Then I learned that I need a $60 kit to install the drive. That explains why getting the drive in the original configuration was more expensive than buying a bare drive from another source.
The eSATA dock allows hot swapping SATA drives (2.5" or 3.5") so I'll have infinite external storage running at SATA transfer speeds.
500GB is as large as 2.5" 7200RPM drives get these days. I'm installing all programs on the boot drive and the second internal drive will have current data. The external 1TB drive will be all data, and everything will be backed up to the 2TB external drive.
The Eizo monitor is one I purchased three years ago. It can be hardware calibrated using special software and my profiling equipment (an old eye one). I have an HDMI cable with DVI converter to connect it.
I went through my box of software and threw out a bunch of old stuff I've been carrying around. I don't think I'll be using PageMaker 6.5! I'll also move several CDs worth of older scans into the system since backed-up hard drive storage is more reliable (and convenient) than CD storage.
I do look forward to trying out 64-bit PhotoShop with the quad-core processor, loads of memory and a modern graphic card. My desktop has a card from the old Dell that died three years ago so I've not been able to enjoy all PS display features.
The cost of this, including everything except software, was around $1350. Remember, that includes 4.5TB of disk, 1.5TB of which I already had.

More on the Crockett Barn

2010-07-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Paula and Lance have issued this statement regarding the Hearing Examiner ruling. Please read and -- if you want the barn to survive as a community asset -- write to the Island County Commissioners.

-----

As promised, here is our statement regarding the ruling handed down by the County Examiner. Please feel free to share this email with anyone whom you know who may wish to let their thoughts be known. I will again include here the link to the hearing examiners report in a PDF formatted file:

www.loomis.8k.com/page1895.html

By now, most of you know that last week the Island County Hearing Examiner came out with his decision. There were many things in the decision that were favorable, most importantly that he examined and dismissed all of the claims by our small group of protesting neighbors and decided that the Crockett Barn was an appropriate site for a rural event center. He essentially acknowledged that there was no evidence submitted of any negative impact on the neighborhood, what we had been saying all along. Unfortunately, he gave way too much credence to the county staff recommendations, and “assuming” that there would be some noise he imposed conditions on us that will make it difficult or impossible to actually operate an event center at the Farm.

From the community’s perspective, two conditions in particular were devastating. The first was the limit of 30 event days per year. To put that in perspective that is less than 3 event days a month or one weekend art show. In April, when the Fireseed rural event center application was before this same Examiner, county staff had recommended and Fireseed was given 52 events per year. Staff will argue that Fireseed is wooded and that makes a difference. In reality it doesn’t, especially if you consider that our limitation was based upon an “assumed” presence of noise with no real evidence of the same. So what does this mean? A 30-day limit means we will no longer be able to host community civic and charitable groups at no or very little cost. In 2008, before the county planning department shut us down, we held 18 such events (charging a total of $1,400 to help cover our electrical costs). Going forward we had actually hoped to increase that number. We have been in discussions with the Seattle Dance Project to establish a summer dance program in the barn. We have been seeking out a Shakespearean troupe to play in the barn. A 30-day limit means all of these programs are no longer possible. Given the financial needs of restoring and preserving the barn we will have no choice but to rent to the high-paying private event business and not to community groups. Our passion was serving the community and promoting the arts not in doing private parties and weddings. All we asked for was the same thing given to Fireseed, 52 event days per year. With that we could have continued to serve the community, doing what we love, and tried to raise the money to preserve the barn. Once again, let’s look at this in perspective, a 52 day limit would have meant slightly more than four event days per month instead of three. Looking at it in this light, you can see how unreasonable this decision was, and how damaging to the community.

The second major restriction was the requirement that the barn doors be shut and everybody gone by 10PM every night, including Friday and Saturday nights. That restriction effectively means we have to shut down events starting at 9PM. It will be extremely difficult to rent the barn if we have to tell people their event has to end at 9PM. Why rent from us when you can go somewhere unpermitted and have your event end at 11PM? As for the loss to the community, this time limit impacts the barn dances and pot lucks we have been holding. On average we have held two barn dances per year lasting until 11PM or 11:30PM. We can’t do that anymore. Interestingly, when the barn was first built a barn dance was held that didn’t break up until around 8AM. So, in 1895 dances lasted the night. In 2010 we are not allowed to have a dance last until 11PM on a Saturday night. Why? Because one neighbor argued that: “what you can do at 11PM you can do at 8PM.” He claimed that he went to bed at 8PM every night and could hear the “loud” music inside his house. But another neighbor, his next-door neighbor, testified he couldn’t hear any music in his house at all. And the Navy regularly flies directly over our homes all year long, and as late as 1AM in the morning during the summer months. You can hear the jets inside our homes. Was there any evidence submitted however, that this opposing neighbor could hear barn events inside his house? No. His claims are not credible and we still wonder why his opposition has been so fierce. Is it really about events in the barn? We don’t think so.

On Friday and Saturday nights we should be able to be open until 12AM, that way we can shut down the band, etc., at 11PM and have everyone out by 12AM. Washington State law establishes strict noise limits. Our neighbors are protected from noise nuisances by state law, whether at noon, 8PM or midnight. Given the same, why does there need to be a 10PM curfew?

There are some other restrictions and requirements imposed upon us that nobody else is being required to do, but those are the two biggies. We had assumed that the Hearing Examiner would look at the evidence submitted and apply the law. No evidence of any negative impacts from events in the barn was ever submitted. Anyone who has attended events at the barn knows that we go out of our way to make sure there no problems are created for our neighbors. Given the evidence, there should have been no restrictions at all. We didn’t expect or ask for that result. We just wanted to be treated fairly in a way that we could continue to preserve the barn and make it available for the betterment of our community. That didn’t happen.

This is now out of our hands. We have spent the last two and a half years trying to work things out with the county. We have spent a small fortune doing everything county staff wanted done. There really isn’t much more we can do.

So who can do something: our county commissioners. They are the ones who hire and manage county staff. They are the ones who contract with the Hearing Examiner. If you disagree with this decision, let them know. Spread the word.

We have opened the Barn to be a community asset. There is nowhere else in Central Whidbey that can serve the same functions as the Barn. It is the only venue that can comfortably seat 200 people. It is the only venue of its nature with great acoustics and a dance floor. It is a spiritual place. The community should not lose its use of the Barn for the personal agendas of a handful of people. Now it’s up to you.

Lance D. Loomis
Paula Spina
Crockett Farm

The Independence Day Show

2010-06-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

July Art Shows

2010-06-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'll be showing many new creations this summer. See them at these events:

INDEPENDENCE DAY: See my latest work July 3-4 in the hear of Coupeville. For the first time, I'm participating in Nancy Sanders' Summer Art Show. Visit for a look at a collection of new photographs, presented in new ways. See Nancy's watercolors and shadowboxes, Katrina Hude's glass and JC Hockett's wildlife photography ... plus four more artists. We'll be there 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday. Come by after the Liyons Club garage sale!

SUMMER STUDIO TOUR: Whidbey Working Artists is hosting a free summer tour this year, July 17-18. I'll be at my studio inside Ann's Coup d'Art at 9th and Center Streets (Coupeville, of course), where you can get a brochure listing the participating artists. Ann Wilson and Stacey Neumiller will be showing there, too. The tour includes 18 Whidbey artists in 13 studios from Oak Harbor to Greenbank. We're open 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

WRAP UP A GIFT: For a thank you, graduation, anniversary or other significant life event, you'll find my popular Whidbey scenes available in a range of sizes and price points. Small framed prints now start at $35. Prints on metal are distinctive and start as small as eight inches square. For a more significant statement, take home one of my 20x30" "thin wrap" prints; they float off the wall with a clean look that fits any decor. And you'll still find a good selection of prints in both barnwood and clean black frames.

CUSTOM ORDERS: Art lovers have been ordering my gallery-wrapped canvas prints up to 40x60 inches large. Recent installations include residences and offices. If you need a focal point for your conference room or family room, ask me about large canvas prints made to order.

NEW CARDS: I've expanded the selection of my images available on notecards. The latest additions are the Ferry House shot used by Ebey's Reserve to promote the recent open house and "Coupeville Dawn," the moody morning scene shot from San de Fuca. These and "The Bridge" are available individually and in packs of five. My individually printed giclee panoramic cards are suitable for framing; check for current inventory.

Save Crockett Barn

2010-05-29T14:16:00.001-07:00

My friend Paula Spina needs support to avoid having Island County severely curtail the use of the Crockett Barn for community events. I support her and I hope that you do as well. Here's the story:

"We are letting everyone know, who have been following our trials and tribulations in our effort to keep the Historic Crockett Barn open for events by getting it permitted, that next Thursday, June 3rd, at 10am in The Commissioners Hearing Room, our application will go before the Island County Hearing Examiner. Of all hearings and meetings, etc., regarding the Rural Event Center permitting, this is the one!

We would request anyone who is able to set aside time for this meeting, that you would attend, and, hopefully, express your support for this permitting.

Please forward this information to everyone you know, who is interested in this important issue and meeting.

For those who have heard about all this, but are still a little fuzzy regarding the details, I will take a couple paragraphs to lay out what has been happening and what our goals are:

When we purchased the Crockett Farm five years ago, we were most taken by the historic barn, built in 1895 by the Lovejoy brothers, an early Island County business that primarily focused on ship building. When wooden shipbuilding began to wane in the late 1800's, the Lovejoy brothers turned to building homes and buildings. One of the most famous was the old County Courthouse in Coupeville torn down in the late forties, a great loss of our historical heritage. The building was so well built, that because of its integrity and craftsmanship it took far longer than the contractor had thought to tear down. That courthouse would still be as sturdy today as the day it was built, if only a means and the will to preserve the structure had occurred.

The Crockett Barn is in the same situation. It is a very solid structure, old growth timbers as clear as heartwood that can be found. The builders employed the mortise and tenon type of joinery. This means it's like a big jigsaw puzzle with the end of one post or beam cut to a peg, while a hole is cut in the adjoining piece. It is then fitted together and a hole is drilled perpendicular through the beam and a wood dowel is driven through to anchor the post and beam together.

In order to replace a beam or post, without doing a splice, one would need to start at the very cupola and begin to dismantle the whole building from the very top down as the structure was built by starting at the ground and working ever upward, one piece fitting into the next. This alone, makes the barn historically significant, as it was built based on ship building techniques of the 1800's.

The very first use of the barn in September of 1895 was a grand celebration with dancing and food well into the night, they were just warming up by 3am and going strong into the dawn. Folks came by steamer from Port Townsend to attend and every one on the Island was invited. It was a festive evening and many dignitaries were there to help consecrate the barn. And why were dignitaries there? Walter Crockett, Jr., who commissioned the barn, was also an Island County Representative in the Washington State Congress!

For many years, the barn and grounds were used for agriculture, but also, as we've been told, the barn and farm was a Sunday gathering place for the community. When Fort Casey was established, the Crockett's and then the Armstrong's, would host Sunday afternoon soiree's for the servicemen at the Fort and the neighbors from all around Crockett, Smith and Ebey prairies, would bring fresh home cooked meals to share with the servicemen. And of course, there were ball games played in the fields, and, no doubt, a few young women found potential husbands from the many enlisted men.

In the early nineteen eighties, the then owners of the farm property, which amounted to several hundred acres, subdivided the land into 10 acre parcels and began to sell off all their holdings. The Crockett farmhouse and barn remained united on one eleven-acre parcel. The barn needed repairs and the old farmhouse had seen better days.

Fortunately, Robert and Beulah Whitlow purchased the farm with plans to restore the Crockett house and barn to be used as a bed and breakfast, and for special events such as weddings. The farmhouse was brought back to life and with a careful eye by Bob Whitlow to preserve the original character of the farm house, the B and B began operations and continued into the early two thousands.

During their tenure of the property, they held many weddings, birthdays, etc., on the farm and put a great deal of money into repairing and protecting the barn from deterioration. They even talk of the time that one wedding party was flown in by helicopter, landing in the field adjacent to the barn. Because of health issues and reaching an age when Bob and Beulah wanted to enjoy traveling and not being burdened with the many hours required to maintain the farm, they put it up for sale. Of course, that is when we came along and realized the wonderful vision that the Whitlows had for the property.

Almost as soon as we were settled in at the farmhouse, we were contacted by the Engle and Wilson families about using the barn for their wedding. The Engle's were one of the early pioneer families on Whidbey and the elder Mr. Engle had used the barn for many years to store his farm equipment. We were thrilled to have been asked and happy to oblige them and it seemed like the whole Island showed up for their wedding. A circle of hay bales were placed out in the field of violet colored alfalfa plants and the vows were said. Admiralty bay provided the backdrop for this momentous occasion.

Soon we were hosting the Lion's Club, Boys and Girls Club, Whidbey Camano Land Trust, and many other deserving non-profits who provide various community services. We were again, happy to oblige and give them a venue that just isn't available anywhere in Central Whidbey. We also had several weddings a year to help with the costs of maintaining the barn. All was running smoothly until December 2007 when Island County decided our charitable events would be required to obtain temporary use permits at nearly $300 a pop. When we tried to find a way to let the civic groups continue to use the barn without having to pay those fees, we entered into the black hole of county administration. Ultimately we were required to file for the Rural Event Center permit.

This application has been very intense and has required many engineering, environmental, and other studies to be done, in order to be granted. It didn't matter that all we wanted to do was have the ability to hold events, weddings, etc. in the barn, in order to preserve it. If we wanted to keep the barn available to the community, we would have to go through a permitting process as if we were building a sports arena or other large conference event center.

So, what choice did we have? So now, after three long years, an application that measures almost six inches tall of paper and thousands of dollars, we are a week away from our hearing. In that three years, our three closest neighbors, who we spent many evenings with over dinners and pizza's in each others homes, and who were totally in favor our permitting of the barn, have now turned, for various reasons of their own, to oppose this permitting to the point where they are actively working and lobbying to get it denied and the barn shut down.

One has hired an attorney and has been the most vocal in the public, using inflammatory terms such as "party barn" and "nightclub" to try and get the permit denied. We have had incidents of property trespass and property damage by all three of these neighbors, though the damage was more symbolic than monetary, however, in one case it required time and expense to repair the damage. The other was damage to the fields by driving heavy equipment onto our property without permission and gouging a roadside bank.

Most amazing is that the one individual that is most outspoken about the permitting is also the person who has benefitted the most from using the barn, go figure?

In the past week, we received a letter from the Island County Planning department, outlining what they will recommend to the Hearing Examiner next week and in their proposal, they have placed very arbitrary and capricious requirements on us. For instance, they say we must end all functions at 10pm regardless of the day of the week. So, for us, we could live with this Sunday through Thursday, but if we must close an event at 10pm on a Friday or Saturday, organizations may choose not to hold events with us.

Further, we don't know if the county means that all activity must cease at 10pm, so does that mean we really have to close down events at 9pm, because the county means no vehicles, clean up or other after event activities can occur after 10pm? The county is also recommending unreasonable limits on the number of events that can be held each year. And these are just two of the many restrictions.

Today this wonderful old barn is in danger. Substantial repairs need to be done to assure its survival into the next century at a cost exceeding $250,000. Without being able to use it, we won't be able to afford to preserve it. The county's conditions make it nearly impossible for us to raise the funds necessary to preserve this historic structure. Not to mention, they limit our community's ability to use it. We have been trying to bring dance programs, Shakespeare in the barn, art shows, and other cultural events to Central Whidbey. Under the county's conditions none of these will be possible.

So, the bottom line is this, if you care about our historic buildings and properties, if you share in the betterment of our community through our various non-profit service organizations, if you want cultural programs, and if you want to be able to continue to use the Crockett's barn, then you need to attend this meeting and be heard."

This blog has moved

2010-04-27T22:17:00.001-07:00

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New for the Studio Tour

2010-03-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

March 6-7 are the dates for the 2010 Whidbey Working Artists Studio Tour. Although my printer is giving me fits again, I'm turning out prints of some new images pleased with the results.

Tractor on Arnold Road

Rejects

Eagle Eye on Coupeville

On Harrington Lagoon

Aya Sofia

Free Spirit

D700 Love

2010-02-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Borrowed Image

I recently revamped my camera/lens arsenal. The hub of the system is a Nikon D700 DSLR. Also pretty exciting is the Nikon 14-24mm lens I'm using with it. Details on these below.
The history is that I have been shooting with a Nikon D300 and a Canon Powershot G10 converted for infrared (IR) use. The D300 was a big improvement from the D200 I used before. The IR G10 was great fun. I also still had one film camera: a Hasselblad XPan. It is responsible for most of my popular panoramas of Whidbey Island. So why change?
My goal is to reduce the amount of equipment and optimize it for the kind of shooting I do. I hardly used the XPan any more. I loved shooting IR, but the G10 exhibited too much digital noise. The other motivation was the extremely low noise produced by the D700.
As a full-frame (sensor size equal to 35mm film) camera, the D700 exhibits amazingly low noise at high ISO settings. I've used it at ISO 3200 with good results and with experience I think 6400 should be usable in extreme situations.
The other full-frame benefit is what happens with Nikon's amazing 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S lens. This 2.1 pound monster is one of the finest lenses Nikon (or anyone) has ever produced. The 114 degree angle of view, coupled with low distortion, make it a great landscape lens, and it shines for architectural interiors.
To keep the camera bag from causing injury, I rounded out my kit with a light 24-85mm and an old but optically great 75-150mm. The latter will probably be replaced by a 70-300mm fairly soon.
April 10, 2010: I now have the 70-300mm and it performs nicely with the D700. I do suspect that its performance falls off as 300mm is approached, and the two foot minimum focus distance is a limitation, but it seems to be an excellent overall balance of size, weight and optical quality. I'm not a huge fan of stabilized lenses, so I'm keeping this feature turned off most of the time. One downside of optical stabilization is that it uses more battery, and the D700 is a little power hungry anyway.

Photographing Your Art

2010-02-18T09:21:00.000-08:00

Whidbey Photographer John Olsen and I will be instructors at two short workshops packed with practical information for 2D and 3D artists who want to photograph their own artwork. Painters, printmakers, sculptors, potters, jewelry artists, and others will learn how to capture quality images for show submissions, documentation, publication, and even giclee printing.
The morning session (April 10, 2010) is for 2D artists and the afternoon is dedicated to how to photograph three-dimensional art. We'll discuss cameras, lights, settings, exposure, backdrops and more, with emphasis on how to get good images with minimal investment.
Visit the Pacific Northwest Art School site for registration information.

Cama Beach State Park

2010-02-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

Cabins at Cama Beach

I finally visited an exquisite little Washington State Park on Camano Island, Cama Beach. A former fishing camp, the main attraction is nicely restored cabins on the beach facing Whidbey Island. There is an outpost of the Center for Wooden Boats on site. I'll be back to explore the photographic potential of this spot.

2010-01-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

Free Shipping for Online Purchases

Treat your Valentine or yourself to a photograph custom printed and framed and enjoy free shipping if you purchase by midnight, February 8, 2010. This applies to all orders over $30 on my online store.
One of the advantages of buying art this way is the wide variety of paper, canvas, matting, and framing available. If you really want to make an impression and fill wall space, consider a gallery-wrapped canvas print. If you go for custom framing, be sure to look through the many mat choices and frame galleries.
To take advantage of this offer, visit my online galleries and store here and use promotional code VDay10.

Save the Prairie

2010-01-30T18:31:00.001-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Trust Board of Ebey’s Landing
January 24, 2010

Book Signing to Support Preservation & Education in Ebey’s Reserve

Contact: Emi Morgan, Education & Outreach Coordinator
360-678-6084; emi_morgan@partner.nps.gov
Coupeville, WA

The beautiful and favorite places of Whidbey Island are captured in a newly-released book, Whidbey Island, the Jewel of Puget Sound. On February 13 from 11am-3pm at Pen Cove Gallery, photographer Denis Hill will sign and sell his book, donating the proceeds to preserving Central Whidbey’s rural character through the Ebey’s Forever Fund.

Hill is has spent a decade exploring and documenting Whidbey Island. Whidbey Island, the Jewel of Puget Sound is a portfolio of 44 scenic photographs from Oak Harbor to Langley with special emphasis on Deception Pass, Coupeville, and Ebey’s Reserve.

“I hope that this event inspires every artist who is inspired by the landscape, structures, and agricultural activity of central Whidbey to find creative ways to support the Reserve’s preservation and education effort,” commented Hill. “It is we who are especially invested in the Reserve; without these sights we would be poorer at our pursuits.”

Hill is widely recognized for his work, with photographs published in Runner’s World, Places to Retire, Wings West, Stock Car Racing, the Denver Post, and National Geographic’s The GreenGuide.com. He also earned the Qualified Panoramic Photographer designation from the International Association of Panoramic Photographers in 2002.

During this special event, $10 of each $19.95 book sold will be donated to the Ebey’s Forever Fund. The Ebey’s Forever Fund was created by the Trust Board of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve as a way to provide education and financial assistance to preserving the 400 nationally significant historic structures within the Reserve. The Pickard Family, LLC contributed a $50,000 matching grant to kick-start the fund last November.

“The Ebey’s Forever Fund works with owners of significant cultural resources to preserve and protect the scenic vistas and unique history, visible to us all,” said Reserve Manager, Mark Preiss.

Penn Cove Gallery is located at 9 Front Street in Coupeville. Attendees are invited to enjoy Valentine’s Day cookies and hot coffee.

Save the Prairie

2010-01-30T18:31:00.000-08:00

Tour Time

2010-01-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

Not to be confused with Tool Time, tour time refers to the Spring Art Studio Tour, featuring some of the most creative artists of central and north Whidbey Island. This March 6-7, 2010 event coincides with the annual Penn Cove MusselFest, so there are myriad reasons to visit the island.
The not-to-be-missed stop on the tour is my studio in Ann's Coup d'Art. Though Ann will be away from the island, it will be a great opportunity to visit Kay Parsons, Bev McQuary, Patty Picco, and moi.

Whidbey Island Book

2009-12-08T18:07:00.001-08:00

My new book, Whidbey Island: The Jewel of Puget Sound, is now available. I've been selling copies at Ann's Coup d'Art, where my studio is. It is also available online at Amazon.com here.
The book is a portfolio of images representing Whidbey Island from the Deception Pass Bridge to Langley.

Opportunistic Shooting

2009-11-27T20:10:00.001-08:00

Ferry and Couple

Although I anticipate many shots and execute them when conditions agree with my intentions, and I stake out some shots and wait for the light, sometimes just being alert pays off. This was the case today when a friend and I were checking out art galleries in Seattle. Returning to my car parked under the Alaskan Way viaduct near Pioneer Square, I saw a ferry approaching the terminal, some nice clouds in the sky, good side light, and a couple deep in conversation on a bench by the water.
Because I knew I'd be parked in Seattle, I had not brought my bag of "real" camera gear, instead opting to carry my infrared-converted Canon G10 in my "European shoulder bag" (not a purse). Actually it is an Ace Leather (of Whidbey) shoulder bag. Anyway, I was happy to have it and here is the result.

#@!%&* Printer!

2009-11-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

Although I've made my living as a computer programmer and was first directly responsible for a (mini)computer way back in 1981, sometimes technology still confounds and frustrates me. Recent experience with my photo printer is a case in point.
A little background. I attempted to make my own prints with two Epson 2000 printers around 2001, one set up for third-party archival color inks and one that used several shades of black and gray custom inks. They clogged so badly I quickly sold them. I should note that clogging is primarily an issue with the printers I use because they employ pigment-based inks which are archival. Consumer printers rely on less durable dye-based inks.
Later I purchased an Epson Stylus Pro 7600, a honking printer that used 24" wide roll paper and did a nice job. Many of the large prints of my work from 2004-6 were made on this printer.
But the Epson suffered a clogged print head that had to be replaced, fortunately under warranty. This was an issue with those printers if they were not in constant use. Since the cost of a maintenance contract was $700 a year, I decided to sell it.
I replaced the 7600 with another Epson, the 4000. This one was smaller, only taking 17" wide rolls of paper. It had an improved ink system and was more able to unclog itself when necessary. It also had improved handling of sheet paper, which was a convenience. This printer went to Maine and Ohio with me, but I sold it in Ohio because I was printing less.
That's when I purchased my current printer, an HP Photosmart Pro B9180. This only handles paper 13" wide and has no roll paper handling. It works for me because I do most of my printing on 13x19" or 11x17" sheets. I have any larger prints done by one of several outside services. The HP makes very nice prints and is compact compared to the Epson's I've owned. The consumable costs are higher because the ink cartridges are smaller; everything is a trade-off.
The bad news is that the HP has sporadically misbehaved. It's probably my fault when it surprises me by scaling the image to a different size than the original file, but I blame it for truncated images. A few days ago it just stopped working. It would sometimes spit out paper and say the job was done without printing anything. It would say "printing" and do nothing. I thought I was going to have to throw it out.
The solution was one of the following, which I did simultaneously:

Unplug it and leave it overnight.
Uninstall all of the supporting software and reinstall everything.

The upshot is that the B9180 is back in action and printing just fine. But with the holiday shopping season upon us and my sales starting to pick up, I thought I was going to have to send my printing out while shopping for a replacement printer. It's a happy ending for now.

ADDENDUM as of Dec. 7, 2009
The printer started truncating images again. I now suspect the Windows Vista print spooler. I have good luck if I only print when the computer has been recently booted.

More Metal

2009-11-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

Gypsy Girl and Her Cat

I am so happy with the first few images I had printed on metal and I just ordered a set of 12x12 metal prints of these three shots of a Romani girl in Barzitsa, Bulgaria. This is a step up from the first set of eight 8x8 prints.
The labs that offer metal prints don't fully reveal the process, but it is a heat sublimation process in which the image is printed on a white substrate and the whole thing is fused into the aluminum plate, with a very durable overlaminate. I accept the claims that this creates a print as archival as good giclee and silver gelatin prints, with the usual caveat that art should never be exposed to direct sunlight. Some vendors say use window cleaner on the surface, though I'd probably stick with a damp microfiber cloth.

Metal Prints

2009-11-10T08:01:00.001-08:00

Here are six of eight square images that are being produced by one of my labs, printed on metal. They will have 1/8" rounded corners and be mounted on blocks to float off the wall without frames. It seems an interesting and different presentation for photographs (it is pretty new) and these will be introduced at my holiday shows (see home page of www.whidbeypanoramas.com).

About the Photos

From top left to bottom right: The grave markers in Istanbul were shot in infrared and processed with sepia toning. IR is great for clouds! I noticed the trees in the pasture where the sheep graze on the edge of Barzitsa and watched for a foggy morning to shoot them. This was infrared converted to pure black and white (the raw IR images have some color in them). The fishing boat was near Varna in an estuary that serves as an extension of the port. It's another IR shot. The outdoor sink with dish is conventional digital color. It is in the back yard of the small pottery near the village where Bulgaria Art Workshops is being established (watch for news). Though it might look staged, the blue dish was there, waiting for my eye. The orange lifeboat was moored behind a dilapidated waterfront home on the Bosporus. The original shot is in color but I desaturated everything in the scene except the boat. I spotted the staircase while walking around the same Bosporus village in drizzle and was taken with the Mediterranean colors juxtaposed with potted flowers and weathered wood.

Encaustic Endeavors Encore

2009-11-04T14:49:00.001-08:00

"Extra Dry"

This encaustic greets visitors to my current show at Christopher's on Whidbey, my favorite restaurant in Coupeville. The Bombay label is a scan printed on kozo paper. The martini glass is cut from copper mesh and "filled" with wax to make it three-dimensional. Some glass bead sprinkles add highlights.

More Canon G10 Infrared (IR) Images

2009-10-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

On a couple of puffy-cloud days this week I worked with the IR camera again. This time I used DXO Optics Pro to convert the raw files. Since it works based on profiles for specific camera/lens/focal length/ISO, many issues that might otherwise be bothersome are dispatched with ease.

This Coupeville house just looked interesting with the cloud behind it. I used the auto white balance setting provided by the camera, used DXO's ability to do film look emulations, then applied medium-high contrast. The B&W film look I chose for this was Ilford XP2.

For this image of the barn at Jenne Farm, I simply applied a curves adjustment, then in the HSL section (hue, saturation, lightness) I set saturation to 0 to convert to black & white. Remember that the IR images have some color content as they come from the camera.

For this shot of the same barn I tweaked quite a bit: highlight recovery strong, black point 99, local contrast 43, then in color mode I chose the sepia gold toning with medium-high contrast and grain 0.

Finally, for this shot of the Jenne farm house and barn, I used color mode b&w, high contrast and daylight white balance. Note that without the b&w conversion, daylight white balance produces a major red cast as one would expect of a color IR image.

Infrared Photography

2009-09-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Never one to leave well enough alone, I sent my Canon G10 camera to have it converted to a dedicated infrared camera. NOTE: if you decide to have a camera converted by Lifepixel, as I did, please use my name as referrer; it won't cost you more but I'll make a few bucks. I chose the extended color option for my camera, which includes a sensor filter that accepts a wider light range. The idea is that this provides more to work with in creating what's known as "false color" IR images.
Here are some samples from today.

First is a "straight" image, right out of the camera with minor tweaking in Adobe Camera Raw. This is Dugualla Bay, by the way, on the northeast side of Whidbey Island. Low clouds obliterate the Cascades.

Next we have a grainery on Ebey's Prairie, framed by a pine branch. The top image is before processing. The bottom image is after a black & white adjustment layer and a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop CS4.

Finally, we have the blockhouse at Coupeville's Sunnyside Cemetery. To give it a traditional infrared look, I processed in Adobe Camera Raw with a minus clarity setting, producing more glow. Then I used a channel mixer layer to turn the red sky blue. Notice how the flag is burned out even though the rest of the image is well exposed. IR really reflects differently off of different materials. That seems to be why it can make what would ordinarily be a boring scene come to life.

Some things I think I've learned from my first IR outing include:

Look for a variety of foliage, deciduous and conifer trees, crops, grasses.
Look for cloud texture.
Look for bright light (it's still a point-and-shoot camera with a tiny sensor).

Obviously, I need experience to optimize my raw and post-processing. I should try a polarizing filter. So far I have not noticed a "hot spot" problem with this camera/lens; that may vindicate my decision to stick to the P+S camera rather than converting a DSLR.

Canon PowerShot G10 Redux

2009-08-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

NEWS FLASH!
The G10 is obsolete! OK, it's only obsolete if it no longer serves its purpose. But Canon has announced the G11, which seems to take image quality to the next level with reduced noise and better dynamic range. I have a proposal in to Canon to give the G11 a field test during my trip to Istanbul and Bulgaria this October.
All that said, I've been pretty happy with the performance of the G10. When the light is good, it can capture excellent images. Am shooting a lot at the wide end of the zoom range, so processing in DXO Optics Pro is a boon. I also use the film looks available in DXO to give images the right look (color balance and contrast curve). Last week I printed a couple of G10 images and they are now on display at Penn Cove Gallery.
Here are a few examples of the images I'm getting with the PowerShot G10. I am really enjoying the opportunistic shooting afforded by having a "pocket" camera, as well as the stealth factor since using it makes me look like any snapshooter.

Lavender Wind Festival

2009-08-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

I stopped by Lavender Wind Farm today to check out the art festival there. This runs through tomorrow, so please check it out. This is a small event but with many worthwhile artists showing their work in photography, felting, polymer clay, watercolor, mixed media, acrylic, rugs, hand painted silk, ceramics, fiber art ... There's live music, wines, and a variety of food vendors (not the usual festival stuff including reindeer hot dogs, ice cream, lavender mussels and more.
Lavender Wind Farm is just off of West Beach Road, near Libbey Road.

Online Print Sales

2009-08-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

At last! I have finally found the right service to offer online sales of my images ... printed to my standards. My new online store is hosted by Seattle-based Imagekind. All prints are giclees printed on the latest large-format Epson printers with archival pigment inks.
The majority of my popular images ... and some new ones ... are now in the store. To maintain my sanity, I have eliminated the Flash gallery of photos on the web site; look in the store galleries. I have yet to complete tagging the images, so the search box won't find all relevant images; please bear with me and just surf through the galleries.

Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival

2009-07-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the scoop on my participation this year in the Historic Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival, August 1-2, 2009. I've been invited to participate in the Artists in Action section, which means I'll be giving advice on how to take better pictures, properly set up cameras, use features, etc. This will draw from my experience teaching introductory digital photography at the Pacific Northwest Art School (formerly known as Coupeville Arts Center).
I'll also be entering work in the Juried Gallery in conjunction with the festival. In past competitions I've taken first place in photography twice, and third place once. Here's my entry in photography.

I think this is one of the best images I've created in quite a while, so I've high hopes for how it will be received by the juror. There is a wine tasting opening party on Friday, July 31. This is a great time to visit with Whidbey artists and art lovers.

Each artist can enter three works, and my other two will be encaustic pieces. One is Bench by a Lake, seen in an earlier blog post. I'll photograph the other one (edgy!) and add it here tomorrow.

During the festival, my work will also be on display at Penn Cove Gallery, on Front Street and in the middle of the action.

Due to the schedule change (a week earlier than usual), it will be easier to visit the festival this year. Two other events are not taking place the same weekend, so there will be a better chance of getting a room and less traffic on the island. Please visit!

Snapshots with Canon G10

2009-06-10T16:46:00.001-07:00

After considerable research and rumination, I settled on the Canon G10 as my "pocket camera," something I could have with me at all times and get shots I might miss when the major equipment stayed home. The G10 has a pretty good all-around reputation in reviews and among users, including Paul Canfield, son of my friends Stella and Michael.
The 28-140mm (in 35mm equivalent terms) lens covers at least 80% of needs. It has a viewfinder. It has very convenient exposure compensation and ISO dials on top. And the raw files it produces can be processed in DxO Optics Pro, a specialized raw file converter I already own because it does a great job with my Nikon 12-24mm lens. DxO uses sophisticated optical analysis-derived profiles to correct lens distortion, chromatic abberation, and sharpness.
I carry the G10 in a Lowepro pouch that just fits it since it is a little large as a pocket camera. So far I have been satisfied with the Canon. I shoot in aperture-priority mode and auto-ISO and keep an eye on what's happening since at ISO 400 the camera starts to show how foolish Canon was to build it with a 14.7 megapixel sensor. COME ON! You can't cram that many photosites in a very small sensor and expect clean images. While this is a very good camera as it is, with a 9-10MP sensor, it could have been excellent. I know from experience that with these sensors, the size that matters is the size of individual photosites (so an adequate number of photons can strike them).
Well, on to some results. I'm house sitting in Port Townsend for several weeks, and here are some snapshots as I start my stay here. Since I don't do serious image processing on my laptop, these are converted in Picasa. Picasa is free and great for quick image processing, but it is hardly my choice for the best possible output.
UPDATE JULY 23, 2009: I added a peony photo processed in Adobe Camera Raw. In a future blog post I'll compare ACR, DXO Optics Pro, and the raw converter provided by Canon.

Dog shop in PT

Peony in the garden of the widow of painter Andrew Martin

PT is in bloom

So far, I'm finding it challenging to get shallow depth-of-field to see how the bokeh develops. Zoomed to 140mm, the maximum aperture is f4.5. On this tiny sensor that still produces significant DOF. Picasa is not ideal for evaluating the quality of the out-of-focus areas, but this example shows that it can be at least OK.

High Dynamic Range Photography For Real

2009-05-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

Rainier From Ebey's Landing

Extreme Ebey's Sunset

After settling on Photomatix as my HDR processing software of choice, I have now processed some real work. The two shots above went into the member's show at the Pacific Northwest Art School (formerly Coupeville Arts Center), and both sold during the opening reception celebrating the name change. BTW, these two shots were taken at Ebey's Landing, with the camera within 100 yards. For the top shot I was standing on the beach by Hill Road. For the bottom shot (taken first), I was beyond the parking lot, on the edge of the beach to maximize the driftwood.

Dugualla Dawn

I'll be showing some of this new HDR work at Penn Cove Gallery starting Wednesday, after the next rotation, and at Garry Oak Gallery when we rotate (July?). This one is from the Dugualla Bay beach, looking at the Cascades across Saratoga Passage.

Encaustic Progress

2009-04-23T07:22:00.001-07:00

Ann Wilson and Patty Picco have recently facilitated my encaustic endeavors. Ann has agreed to rent me studio space in the garage at Ann's Coupe d'Art in Coupeville. This allows me to install a stove vent hood to exhaust the fumes from keeping a bunch of beeswax hot, and I can open the garage door to enjoy Penn Cove breezes.

Patty tutored me for the best part of a day in her own garage studio, introducing me to a variety of techniques and making me drool for a hot palette. Now I'm going to have to build another accessory! I completed one new painting.

The piece pictured above is 12x12" on braced panel. The background is hand made paper, with a layer of unfiltered beeswax under and over it. The photograph is a scene from Silver Lake, Ohio, printed on 55# kozo paper, which I like because the wax really soaks in. I used a steel brush to score the area where I next added the brown stripe mirroring the sidewalk in the photo. Using a clay sculpting tool, I scraped away some of the stripe. "Sprinkles" of the scraped brown wax were dispersed to carry that color throughout the painting. Finally I covered everything with clear medium (filtered beeswax with damar resin to make it harder), being sure to drip a lot over the sides.

The Tulips Are Coming! The Tulips Are Coming!

2009-04-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

Does that remind you of an Alan Arkin movie? Well, although the Dutch "stole" tulips from the Turks, no foreign invasion is afoot here. Just a preview of Skagit Valley tulips that are coming up quite late this year. It looks like peak bloom will coincide with the last week of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Here are a few shots from April 20.

Dynamic Photo HDR, Part Deux

2009-04-12T20:34:00.001-07:00

The bottom line here is that the Tone Mapped image looked pretty good in the preview, but once processed it was a dud. The sky looks good, but the windmill is quite flat. Here are the settings I used:

Tone Mapping: Eye Catching
Brightness: 17
Color Saturation: .46
Vivid Colors .22
Dramatic Light Radius: 6.9
Dramatic Light Strength: .72
Surface Smoothness: .3
Gamma: 1.73
Add Clarity: checked
De Haze: checked
Noise Reduction: checked

One interesting thing I learned is that once I played with Light Tuner and clicked Apply, there was no going back. There is no Undo for that.
There is a fun function called Match Color that emulates the color balance of a variety of painting styles. I don't know that this is useful, but it shows some imagination. There are also a variety of ways to get other extreme looks: Curves, Color Equalizer, and Hue Shift. Perhaps more useful are the wide variety of color filter presets. These range from Mysterious Light, to Orton Sepia, to a really lame Watercolor.
Bottom line: Dynamic Photo HDR does a lot, but in my opinion it does little well.

Photomatix, Part Deux

2009-04-12T17:41:00.001-07:00

PHOTOMATIX PROCESSED IMAGE100% DETAIL

Now that it is time to dig deeper into the two top candidates as my high dynamic range (HDR) image processor, I selected a different test image. This is the iconic windmill in Oak Harbor, Washington's Windjammer Park. Oh, the park name is part of the city's effort to rebrand itself as a tourist destination. In the same vein, the Pioneer Way shopping district (old downtown) is now known as Harborside Shops.
Anyway, I had a sequence of five images of the windmill taken with an interesting sunset behind it. This is an ideal challenge for HDR imaging since the subject is severely backlit. On my first attempt to use five images, Photomatix substantially misaligned one. I went back and used three images, with Reduce Noise turned on and Auto Align turned off. Success!
Then I turned to Tone Mapping the raw HDR image. It should be no surprise that the various settings interact with each other, but it did not take more than 2-3 minutes to bring out the best in this image. My Photomatix settings were:

Details Enhancer
Strength 94
Color Saturation 73
Luminosity 0
Light Smoothing second strongest (second from right)
White Point 1.799%
Black Point 1.367%
Gamma .81
Temperature 6
Saturation Highlights 5
Saturation Shadows 1
Micro Smoothing 3
Highlight Smoothing 5
Shadow Smoothing 13
Shadow Clipping 42

I saved the resulting 16-bit TIFF, then opened it in Adobe Camera Raw. Here I made some small tweaks to maximize the histogram and reduce color noise, then reduced the size, sharpened, and saved a JPEG.
Pretty nice result, eh? The sky is reasonably free of noise. Halos are well controlled. And there is none of the "find edges" extreme look. I think this is very close to what one would want in an HDR image: you can tell if you know, but it's not freakish.
When I went back and created the 100% detail shot above, I realized that ACR could not eliminate all of the chromatic aberration evident along edges in the HDR-processed image. I suspect that the ideal workflow will involve processing the NEF images in ACR, then in Photomatix. That way when I return to Photoshop there will be less to clean up.
I would probably do some additional post-processing in Photoshop to optimize this image for printing. For example, I'd mask the windmill blades and give them a bit more snap. But I am quite happy with this Photomatix-processed image.

High Dynamic Range Photography ... HDR

2009-03-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Background
High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography combines multiple shots at bracketed exposure (constant aperture, variable shutter speed) to render extended dynamic range and, often, an exaggerated look. I'm not an early adopter at high dynamic range (HDR) photography. Let's say I've been exercising some restraint; that sounds better than I'm lazy. Actually, I hate to buy software that I use infrequently and forget that I have, so I've been waiting to be sure I'll really do this. Last night, with the tax info off to my preparer, my reward was to dive in and try HDR.
I have been shooting bracketed sets of shots in anticipation of HDR imaging ... for about two years. That means I have some material to work with: Blue Hen Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Jacob Ebey House in Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, the windmill in Windjammer Park in Oak Harbor Washington, sunrise across Saratoga Passage from Dugualla Bay on Whidbey Island.
I suppose I am an early adopter in a way; a good fifteen years ago, I shot a series of three exposures of a scene in Zion National Park on 4x5 film. I had the lightest and darkest drum scanned and later combined them in Photoshop. My Photoshop skills were limited, Photoshop tools were crude, and it took a lot of work to mask areas. Still, the result was pretty good. I may try to find the scans and do it again.
My approach to selecting an HDR program will be to try a quick conversion with each program, then select the top candidate and explore at greater depth to confirm that it suits my needs. So please keep in mind that the results and comments you see here are at the quick and dirty level, therefore subject to revision.

Photoshop CS4
This is to establish a baseline, not a suggestion that you'd want to do it this way. Can you tell how I was unimpressed with Photoshop's ability to creat HDR images?
Starting in Bridge, I selected the lightest, darkest, and good middle image. The full set is five images, but I don't think this scene requires all of them. Then it's TOOLS>PHOTOSHOP>MERGE TO HDR. When prompted, save the file as 32-bit. Then in Photoshop IMAGE>MODE>16 BIT (or 8 bit if you prefer). At this point, local adaptation seems to be the choice. Play with the sliders and the tone curve until you get something close. After processing, use Photoshop curves.

PHOTOSHOP TEST EXAMPLE

In Photoshop I applied the Strong Contrast preset in the curves dialog to achieve the look above. To me this still suffers from the flat look of a native HDR image.

Dynamic Photo HDR 4 ($55US)
The web site does a good job of selling Dynamic Photo HDR. It seems to be easy to use with gobs of flexibility. I was particularly taken with the apparent ability to create a range of looks from subtle to extreme HDR. Following are my initial impressions ... with no attempt to RTFM (read the manual).
It seems that aligning images is the expected first step in creating an HDR image. The assumption is that even with a tripod there can be some misalignment of images. I went with the flow. Working with a five image set (shot on a tripod), DPHDR needed manual help aligning the darkest image pair ... even with my windmill test which included blades of the windmill against the sky (boucoup contrast). It allowed me to manually adjust, but I found the interface difficult and not fabulously intuitive.
Step two is to walk away and make a cup of coffee while the HDR image is built. The resulting file contains the full dynamic range of information from all included images. When this is done, the fun begins.
DPHDR is a real playground when it comes to tweaking the image for output. HDR images contain much more information than monitors can represent, than printers can print, than eyes can see. Adjusting and compressing the information allows us to preserve detail ranging from shadows to hightlights that would be impossible to record within the limited dynamic range of digital capture (or film, for that matter). The result can be natural looking or exaggerated, usually with extreme local contrast. Each approach can be pleasing in its way.

DYNAMIC PHOTO HDR TEST EXAMPLE

My tests came out showing more digital noise than I like (I worked from NEF raw files) but I was able to achieve just the HDR look I wanted, on the verge of extreme but not over the top. The realtime preview of adjustments was responsive, allowing me to have a good time trying variations. It does take a little while to render the final tonemapped image.

Photomatix Pro 3 ($99US)

It always seems that when I spot HDR images in a gallery or when I'm judging a show, the author uses Photomatix. I'm willing to call it the gold standard based on the results I've seen. It strikes me as pretty spare, with a simple workflow and reasonable range of adjustments.

PP3 had no trouble aligning my test images. It offers just two types of tonemapping, with nine sliders to adjust parameters to get the desired look. It is necessary to make adjustments, release and wait for the preview to catch up: not real time preview. Although noticeably not as responsive as DPHDR, the delay was not too irritating.

PHOTOMATIX TEST EXAMPLE

I was not able to achieve as much "HDR look" with Photomatix, but found a pleasing lack of edge artifacts and grit in the result. I should note that I again worked directly from raw files. The publisher recommends converting to TIFF first, admitting that other raw converters are better than what's built in. I found that it produced a cleaner result than DPHDR.
At this point, I am inclined to go with Photomatix even though I'd like to be able to have the option to sometimes get a more extreme look. Clearly, this program will produce images that will sell, that fulfill my artistic ambitions, and that convey the mood of time and place.

FDR Tools Advanced (39 €)
FDR Tools has a slightly quirky interface, opening separate windows for various dialogs. When I launched it I saw the main window, plus windows for progress, Tools and Navigator. Navigator is actually the preview of your finished image, though the individual shots show up as thumbnails with histograms in the main window. This could be interesting.
FDRT was not initially intuitive, so I followed the steps outlined in the online manual, importing images, then clicking "edit," which creates the HDR raw image. For this trial run I chose the compressor method of tone mapping, with compression 10, contrast 6.4, smoothing 7, and bringing curves over to the darkest and lightest pixels, darkening the lightest ones a bit.
Opening the resulting 16-bit TIFF in Camera Raw 5.3, it was much flatter looking than the preview in FDRT. The red channel was clipping a bit so I lowered exposure, then cranked up clarity to +30. Using the default curves points in ACR, I left highlights at 0, lights at +60, darks at -20, and shadows at -80.

FDR TOOLS TEST EXAMPLE

For some reason the trial version of FDRT did not leave a visible watermark, as promised. As you can see, I was not able to get as punchy an image as with Photomatix. The good news is that the result seems pretty clean and halo-free. I would say that my primary gripe about FDRT is the inscruitable interface.

Essential HDR Community Edition (free)
It seems that the free "community edition" of Essential HDR is identical to Essential HDR Standard Edition ($48.99) except that it shrinks the image to less than one MB. I say it seems so because the full program cannot be downloaded until after purchase, so I have to go with this assumption for now.
EHDR is fast in all operations, but since it shrank my image, I cannot compare directly with other programs. The interface is intuitive and simple. Dabbling, I was able to create a range of looks, from moderate to extreme. Halos are a little more obvious in the final image than in the preview.
Once it has combined your source images, select the tone mapping method you prefer: Detail Revealer (my choice) or Fast Tone Balancer. Tweak the Details, Brightness, Color Saturation, and Fill Light sliders for the desired look. I set black point and white point is also available. Color balance can also be adjusted.

ESSENTIAL HDR TEST EXAMPLE

No Photoshop touch-up here; this is the result straight from the program. As I look more at the results I'm getting, I realize that the challenge in this image is to prserve the color of the tilled soil and dark forest.

Ariea HDR Max ($129US)
Well, HDR Max won't run in 30-day trial mode. I downloaded and installed it, but get an "unknown error" message when I click the trial radio button and next. After having the install program repair it, same crash.

Picturenaut HDR 2.12 (free)
Since Picturenaut will not accept raw files, I converted the three images to TIFF format in ACR first. The program quickly built the 32-bit HDR file. After trying both Adaptive Logarithmic and Photoreceptor Physiology tone mapping methods, I went with adaptive. I was struggling to get an interesting result when Picturenaut crashed. Play as I might with the sliders, I was not able to achieve anything remarkable. I will say that Picturenaut produced a clean image, free of grit and halo. But it really was no improvement over what I can get with careful processing of a single raw file.

PICTURENAUT HDR TEST EXAMPLE

This looks a bit like the Photoshop CS4 HDR image.

Photo Acute Studio ($119)
Photo Acute Studio seems to have two primary functions: building HDR files and extracting additional detail from a series of more than four shots. I did not explore the second function.
The interface is straightforward. On my first attempt, I brought in the three raw files I've been using. After setting everything up, PAS told me it wanted a DNG (Adobe) raw file. I went to the site a verified that the Nikon D300 and 50mm f1.8 lens used for these shots are supported in NEF format.
Plan B was to use my TIFF conversions of these images. The process was easy. First, I brought the images in, selected all three, and highlighted the one with no blocked highlights, as directed. I had to tell the program what camera and lens I used. I then chose the program's High Dynamic Trange Tripod Mounted preset and the processing took about two minutes. The result had a gross white halo around dark objects, but I saved it anyway.

PHOTO ACUTE HDR TEST EXAMPLE

I cannot show you the results of this test because Photoshop can't open the resulting 16-bit TIFF. Went back and processed again, saving as a JPEG this time. The results were no better, but at least you can see what it did. Since the result was rather dark, when I was resizing in Photoshop I applied the curves "lighter" preset.

What's Next?
I've covered the HDR programs of which I am currently aware, so the next step is to narrow the choices in a new blog entry. I plan to look closer at:

Dynamic Photo HDR because the results were interesting if exaggerated. If it can be moderated, it's a great value at $55.
Photomatix because the results were interesting if too tame.

Did I mention that these were the favored candidates at the start of my research?

The Master List

2009-02-20T22:49:00.000-08:00

This is the big list of all of the cameras and lenses I've owned. I'll certainly update it as my memory is jogged. * indicates incomplete model name to be fixed later. As time permits, I'll add review comments on each item.

View Cameras

Zone VI 4x5
Sinar P 4x5
Toyo View 4x5 field camera *
V-Pan 6x17 (cm) panoramic monorail
Speed Graphic 4x5 with Zeiss Planar 150mm f? (uncoated) lens in Copal shutter

View Camera Lenses (all in Copal shutters, if memory serves)

? 65mm
Schneider 150mm *
Calumet 150 mm
Rodenstock Grandagon N 90mm f4.5
Nikkor 360/500mm convertible telephoto *
Rodenstock 210mm *

Wide-field Panoramic Cameras

Fujifilm G617
Art Panorama 617 with Nikkor 90mm f9?
Hasselblad XPan with 45mm and 90mm lenses
Custom based on Stereo Realist body opened to 100 wide frame with Mamya 75mm f5.6 lens from a Polaroid 600SE press camera

Short Rotation (swing lens) Panoramic Cameras

Noblex 150UX (120 film)
Noblex 135U (35mm film)
Widelux 1500 (120 film)

Rotational Panoramic Cameras

Hulcherama 120S
Seitz Roundshot Super 220 VR
Seitz Roundshot 65/70

Medium Format Cameras

Hasselblad 500C
Rollei 66
Fujifilm G670
Mamiya 645 Super
Mamiya 645 Pro
Pentax 645
Rolleiflex twin lens *
Agiflite aerial cameras

35mm SLR Cameras

Nikon F Photomic FTn
Nikkormat *
Nikon F2
Nikon F3 with motor drive
Nikon F5

Other 35mm Cameras

Petri Racer
Rollei 35 *

Digital Cameras

Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi
Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro
Nikon D200
Nikon D300

Medium Format Lenses

List to come

SLR Lenses

Soligor 28mm pre-set aperture
Nikkor 80-200mm f8D (one ring)
Nikkor 180mm f2.8
Nikkor 70-200mm AF-S VR
Nikkor 28mm f2 AIS
Nikkor 12-24mm AF-S
Nikkor 35mm f2 AF D
Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AF D
Nikkor 50mm f1.8
Nikkor 105mm f2.5 (pre-AI and AIS versions)
Nikkor 300mm f4 AF-S
Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF D
Nikkor 35mm f3.5 PC AIS
Nikkor 200mm f4 (pre-AI and AIS versions)
Nikkor 24mm f2.8
Nikkor 500mm f8 mirror
Tamron SP AF 70-200mm f2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro

Current Equipment

2009-02-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

Here's the current lineup:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 28mm f2 AIS
Nikkor 12-24mm f4 AF-S
Nikkor 35mm f2 AF
Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AF
Tamron SP-AF70-200mm f2.8 LD(IF)MACRO
Hasselblad XPan with 45mm f4.5 (normal) lens
50mm Lenox Laser Nikon F pinhole
Dutch Hill P900 Extended Height carbon fiber tripod
Foba SuperBall ball head modified with Really Right Stuff lever quick release clamp
Jasper Engineering PanoHead 2 modified with quick release clamp removed from Foba Superball
Kata camera raincoat
HP Photosmart Pro B9180 pigment ink printer
EIZO FlexScan L768 LCD monitor
8GB SanDisk Extreme III compact flash card, as well as other older/smaller cards
Nikon SB800 flash
Phottix wired/wireless electronic shutter release
Cambridge Soundworks radio/CD player (whistle while you work)
Baseball cap (universal lens hood)
Photoshop CS4
DXO Optics 5
DXO Film Pack 1
Photomatix Pro 3
Vuescan Professional 8.5
Neat Image Pro 6
Nikon Capture NX 1.3.5

Statement of Purpose

2009-02-20T13:57:00.001-08:00

Ever since I created the current iteration of www.whidbeypanoramas.com, I promised to post my opinions and experience with gear I've used, and other information of interest to photographers. If I managed to set it up correctly, the project is now underway. Thanks for joining me.