Character Faces ....

[Guest .]

Hi All,

Today, there was some LIGHT after weeks of darkness.

Nothing could hold me ... I got my weapons for shooting.

Although very cold in Germany (around freezing point) I managed some portraits.

Ostriches have their individual faces. Each is individual and different to their mates.

I like their eyes which are clear as glass. Nice sunlight was striping their faces which resulted in extreme contrasts within their faces. We all know, that the SD copes well with these difficult light conditions as its DR is immense.

Just have a look at my portraits....







SIGMA SD14 (ISO200) / SIGMA 80-400mm EX OS / freehanded

See you with nice pictures

Klaus

 

[netzuser]

Hi Klaus,
very interesting shots.
No.4 is the most impressive to me.
Regards
Uwe

 

[laurence2]

Beautiful! The very last image is a fine angle of the head, and shows a beautiful shape and form. I love the way the feathers reflect the blue spectrum. And of course, the usual deep colors and fine sharpness that I'm learning to respect from the sensor and lenses.

 

[foveonfan]

What an impressive set, Klaus! Beautiful!

OK, seeing you had to be challenged on the 1 cent shot, would you please tell us which ones are muppets and which ones are real?

Sincere regards, Jim R

 

[Guest .]

Hi All,

thanks for the kind comments.

Well, digital image processing is a highly, interesting thing ... worth to be mastered ... but should not end it itself.

It is worth the effort whenever it can serve to polish up a photo which has good image-material.

I do not like any photo-compositions which include foreign image materials.
If I do so, all picture material is from my own hands.

Those who are handy with digital tricks do best, never to admit it!

If they do admit so, everybody is then looking for digital tricks!

The shots above are most honest! The only thing is that I had a fight with the extreme contrasts between the dark shady parts in the portraits and the very bright highlights on the other hand. Well, our SDx cameras do record these image info ... you just have to work it out from the RAW-data.

To give you an impression... That is the way pictures look without image processing:



Here we are without any structures in the highlights and shades. The image information is contained (as my pictures above illustrate) but must be made visible. Only X3F-RAW-mode makes this possible! Go for jpg-mode and you lose the match.

Therefore I always point out clearly that good SIGMA-Foveon results strongly depend on the photographer's digital-darkroom abilities. Often you do not get good results out of cam.

Most camera-testers do not seem to have understood the cameras' potential, simply because they neither can work the cameras nor do they manage their RAW-data. Most of them never went beyond jpg-mode... a sad story.

Let me give a short instruction how to work shots that contain such extreme dynamic range (extreme contrasts).

1) Check camera exposure carefully at the scene using the overexposure indicator (display shows overexposed areas red). The display warns early enogh. Speed up exposure so, that the first red areas are already displayed ... believe me you are save then .. the foveon has its reserves in the highlights.

This "expose to the right" procedure realizes the full dynamic range.

For a most scientific explanation have a look here!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Digital-darkroom procedure on the computer using SPP 2.5 converter:

2) Adjust "exposure" precisely ... watch the histogram most carefully

3) Turn on over-exposure warning mode and do the necessary FILL LIGHT adjustment. The extreme Dynamic range of the pic becomes compressed now. Highlights and shadows now gain structures. Do not care all that much about noise that now comes up in the shadows ... that can be fixed later on.

4) Do fine corrections with the highlight and shadow sliders until all the picture's details are nicely visible. I always find it fascinating what the SIGMAs really see.
Be very carefull with the contrast slider ... it tends to destroy a lot ... I just use it very rarely.

5) Save the image! Then work on possible picture noise which turned up using large amounts of fill light, using other software, do colour corrections, crops and so forth.

As I pointed out so many times ... Arcsoft Darkroom / RAW PHOTO STUDIO provides the best filters to the typical Foveon low frequent RGB (chromatic)-noise.

Neat Image is a very sophisticated tool to do luminace-noise.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

See you with nice pictures

Klaus

 

[laurence2]

I have copied this information into my electronic notebook. VERY valuable! Thanks so much!

Laurence

 

[foveonfan]

Laurence, seeing you are "new" to digital and may be just getting into Photoshop, I take this opportunity to make you aware of a site called

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

Russell has been involved in the PS project @ Adobe since its inception. His site features a great set of FREE (Quicktime) training movies that you can download. He has an interesting training style that works for me.

As Russell would say, "Give it a try".

Sincere regards, Jim R

 

[laurence2]

Please, Log in or Register to view quote content!

I'm "all over it"! THANK YOU!

 

[Guest .]

Hi Jim,

thanks a lot for this very valuable link!

See you with nice pictures

Klaus

 

[foveonfan]

Your welcome to access what I have gleaned over the years! I have a long list of links, but most of it is related to illustration, both with Adobe Photoshop and an application called Painter (nowadays owned by Corel).

If you want to experience how PS can be applied to an illustration discipline (and this guy inspired me to head in that direction after reading one of his books on the subject), take a look at

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

A large part of my income these days comes from drawings such as the attachment here.

Sincere regards, Jim R

 

[laurence2]

This is BRILLIANT work Jim. I am hoping that it's okay to use a link to your work for the local auto club? It seems that last time I went to their "muscle car" show, that a few of them approached me as I was photographing their beautiful automobiles of the 50s and 60s, and asked if I did any kind of "painting or illustration".

I would even be willing to enlarge some of your work to display at the next show...

NICE illustrations, sort of a cross between photographic and illustrative venues.

[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial][SIZE=-1]Little GTO, you're really lookin' fine
Three deuces and a four-speed and a 389
Listen to her tachin' up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine
C'mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO

You oughta see her on a road course or a quarter mile
This little modified Pon-Pon has got plenty of style
She beats the gassers and the rail jobs, really drives 'em why-ee-eye-ild
C'mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[foveonfan]

You are welcome to post links, Laurence, but I prefer to maintain full control of my art. What I can do is send you a sample high resolution poster.

The mentioned club is welcome to contact me re contract artwork. I have very reasonable rates. I can supply art for all manner of applications such as posters, Thirts, cooling sleeves for drink cans, coffee mugs, etc.

If you want the poster, PM me with personal delivery details and I will also enclose a brochure of souvenirs I currently supply to a local car show.

Regards, Jim R