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Author Topic: The Don Valley Brickworks Shoots  (Read 12181 times)

boku

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« on: November 12, 2005, 03:55:53 pm »

I know the forum was offline during the Brickworks shoots, but I am anxious to see work from folks that attended these session. Today I finally got around to preparing my little online gallery. Let me warn you right now - my work is a source of leisure, not income. I have no one to answer to and make no apologies for my use of digital enhancements. This was all part of what I set out to do from the onset, not a desperate attempt to resurrect defective work.

The link to this gallery is: http://boku.smugmug.com/gallery/956047

I would like to thank Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape, Inc. for providing this opportunity and organizing this shoot. In recent years, I have grown because of my acquaintance with Michael and the Luminous Landscape website community he maintains.

Side note: I had considerable problems with flare (cropped out) and curviture distortion (PTLens corrected) from my new 24-105 f/4L lens. I am trying to get a refund so I can get the 24-70 f/2.8L I should have purchased in the first place. Hopefully Canon will do the right thing here.

Folks - please share your stuff. This is not intended to be a critique, just an expose of the wonderful shoot Michael put together.

Here's a little teaser:

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Bob Kulon

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paulbk

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« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2005, 04:37:03 pm »

Bob,
Very cool! Clean and yet you kept the tonality. What are you using for your RAW convert?

And yes, you should have the 24-70, 2.8L. Mine lives on the 1Dmk2. I'm so glad I'm old and poor with simple taste. Speaking of the latest thingy, Michael clearly has far too much disposable income if he can pay $35,000 for a contraption like the Schneider. Frankly I wish he’d stick with his 1Ds mkll or Contax. His photographs are stunning. And I think if he was less involved fiddling with the new high orbit gizmo he’d do more of it.
p
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paul b.k.
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boku

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« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2005, 05:04:55 pm »

Paul - Ken Raber (sp?) of Phase One was as the shoot and brought the Cambo thingy. I'll tell you what - no matter what kind of images it takes, that SOB looked like a boutique honey. That rosewood handle was so sexy. They say the Digitar lens produced the finest results ever from any digital camera.

The camera itself was sort of delicate looking. I wonder about Michael taking it to his forthcoming field shoot. It doesn't look too rugged. But man is it beautiful. I touched it when no one was looking.

BTW - I use Camera Raw 3.2 for conversion.

Quote
Bob,
Very cool! Clean and yet you kept the tonality. What are you using for your RAW convert?

And yes, you should have the 24-70, 2.8L. Mine lives on the 1Dmk2. I'm so glad I'm old and poor with simple taste. Speaking of the latest thingy, Michael clearly has far too much disposable income if he can pay $35,000 for a contraption like the Schneider. Frankly I wish he’d stick with his 1Ds mkll or Contax. His photographs are stunning. And I think if he was less involved fiddling with the new high orbit gizmo he’d do more of it.
p
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Bob Kulon

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michael

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« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2005, 05:19:40 pm »

Bob,

Excellent work. Some of the shots are very well seen indeed.

Michael
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Lisa Nikodym

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« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2005, 05:21:01 pm »

Cool & weird photos, Bob.  I like them!  The contrast range looks great, and it looks like it probably took a lot of work to get it right.  Just one bit of critique, if it's OK: the color ones look oversharpened (at least on the screen), so much so that it distracts one; a sort of unnaturally "sparkly" look.  Or was that intentional?

If you don't mind my asking, just how unacceptable was the curvature problem with the 24-105 lens?  Other than that and the flare problem (which it sounds like Canon is fixing...?), were you happy with it?

Lisa
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boku

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« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2005, 05:48:53 pm »

Quote
Cool & weird photos, Bob.  I like them!  The contrast range looks great, and it looks like it probably took a lot of work to get it right.  Just one bit of critique, if it's OK: the color ones look oversharpened (at least on the screen), so much so that it distracts one; a sort of unnaturally "sparkly" look.  Or was that intentional?

If you don't mind my asking, just how unacceptable was the curvature problem with the 24-105 lens?  Other than that and the flare problem (which it sounds like Canon is fixing...?), were you happy with it?

Lisa
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51124\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Lisa - the sharpening isn't even a factor other than for the Black & White work. Like I warned when I introduced this topic, there was digital manipulation at work. I think all of the color images went through a surreal application of Photoshop's "Poster Edges" filter. I did straight color shots as well, but when I looked at the "poster edges" versions and compared, the effect pleased me a great deal. I do not claim these to be documentary photographs. They are photo illustrations at this point. My reason for showing this work here is to get folks to see what can be done when one actually plans ahead to go over to the "dark side" of digital manipulation. The site was so abstract, I figured I would exploit its graphic characteristics. Close to 100 other photographers (in 4 sessions) were busy doing the documentary stuff. (Except for one fella that brought a suitcase full of ladies' negligee props for his scenes, no kidding.)

Obviously, as straight color shots, this would represent quite bizzare sharpening. Every once in a while I like to shake things up to make life interesting. I still have all the straight source files if I ever need them.

The curvature problem with the 24-105 was the worst I ever experienced with any lens - period. 24 is pincushioned beyond belief; 105 is so barreled it is a joke. Fortunately, PTLens had presets already for this lens, so correction was automatic.

If it wasn't for the flare and the curvature, I would rank this as a reasonable member of the L class lenses; however, even my 17-40 L and 70-200 f/4 L seem to be better build. Maybe the extending barrel during zooming is irritating me. The replacement I am trying to get, the 24-70, also extends the barrel to zoom, so I can't be too picky.

I don't know, as my skills get better, I really see the value in high performance glass. Having the 5D keeps me concentrating on precision imagery. (Of course, the paradox is that I ran all those files through the Photoshop "Poster Edges" filter to destroy any possible image precision. Heh-heh!)
« Last Edit: November 12, 2005, 05:57:42 pm by boku »
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Bob Kulon

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Lisa Nikodym

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« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2005, 11:59:07 pm »

Quote
Lisa - the sharpening isn't even a factor other than for the Black & White work. Like I warned when I introduced this topic, there was digital manipulation at work. I think all of the color images went through a surreal application of Photoshop's "Poster Edges" filter. I did straight color shots as well, but when I looked at the "poster edges" versions and compared, the effect pleased me a great deal. I do not claim these to be documentary photographs.

My bad.  I just knew they looked weird, and my best guess was oversharpening.  Now I know it's the Poster Edges filter.  Not sure if I like it or not, at this point.  It takes a bit of getting used to.  I completely agree it's a very interesting experiment, though.

Lisa
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mikeseb

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« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2005, 01:05:47 pm »

Bob:

Which session did you attend? I was at the Saturday a.m. session. Left just in time to get rained on waiting for my cab back to town. Great workshop--I second your thanks to Michael for making it happen. Everyone was courteous and imbued with the spirit--a great group of participants.

Here's one shot (I went in for staid, boring B&W--film, no less, so I've been scanning for a week!):



Other shots from the shoot are here.

Really could have used that Hartblei Super-Rotator that arrived the day before I left.

Best to all,
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francois

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« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2005, 01:48:54 pm »

Quote
If it wasn't for the flare and the curvature, I would rank this as a reasonable member of the L class lenses; however, even my 17-40 L and 70-200 f/4 L seem to be better build. Maybe the extending barrel during zooming is irritating me. The replacement I am trying to get, the 24-70, also extends the barrel to zoom, so I can't be too picky.
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Bob,
On the 24-70, the lens shade is fixed (it doesn't move with the front of the lens ), so it should lessen your irritation    

Congratulation for your photos. I like the poster edge effect!
« Last Edit: November 13, 2005, 01:49:08 pm by francois »
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Francois

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« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2005, 04:36:02 pm »

Quote
On the 24-70, the lens shade is fixed (it doesn't move with the front of the lens ), so it should lessen your irritation   
To be precise, the 24-70 extends as you go from telephoto to wide angle, which means that the lens shade is about the correct length at all focal lengths.

I'm fond of that lens, except for its weight.

Quote
Congratulation for your photos. I like the poster edge effect!
I really wondered what it was that made for the phenomenal colour contrasts and very special look. I tried figuring out what made the images interesting, because a couple of them weren't obviously so. I expect it is the poster edge effect.

Thanks for sharing new artistic ideas! Maybe I'll look more into using various effects on my less documentary shots.
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Jan

boku

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« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2005, 08:42:21 pm »

I didn't see that Chinese doctor's office sign - that was cool. I really enjoyed your shots. I think B&W works very well. I printed every one of my final culled set in B&W, some toned ice blue, some toned sepia. If the scene holds up, B&W makes a very strong statement, no?

I went Sunday morning: sun, clouds, torential downpour, drizzle, sun, clouds, drizzle. A real mixed bag of weather. I was very windy, but that obviously wasn't a factor. Hopefully, I meet you some day if we ever cross paths.

As long as you scanned your negs into Photoshop, why not use the perspective controls to simulate the PC lens you wish had taken?

Quote
Bob:

Which session did you attend? I was at the Saturday a.m. session. Left just in time to get rained on waiting for my cab back to town. Great workshop--I second your thanks to Michael for making it happen. Everyone was courteous and imbued with the spirit--a great group of participants.

Here's one shot (I went in for staid, boring B&W--film, no less, so I've been scanning for a week!):

Other shots from the shoot are here.

Really could have used that Hartblei Super-Rotator that arrived the day before I left.

Best to all,
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51180\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
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Bob Kulon

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boku

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« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2005, 08:43:48 pm »

Quote
Bob,
On the 24-70, the lens shade is fixed (it doesn't move with the front of the lens ), so it should lessen your irritation   

Congratulation for your photos. I like the poster edge effect!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51187\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Ahah! Very good to hear that!
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Bob Kulon

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Tim Gray

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« Reply #12 on: November 14, 2005, 08:42:59 am »

I was there Sat am, wish I could go back and correct some of the goofs I made.

My Brickworks Gallery

Here's the obligatory brick press shot:



I also did a couple of 8 shot (portrait) pano's using an offset pano head - they came out really well, and I'll post them shortly - that format is a bit of a pain to display in a web browser.
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mikeseb

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« Reply #13 on: November 14, 2005, 11:40:47 am »

Quote
As long as you scanned your negs into Photoshop, why not use the perspective controls to simulate the PC lens you wish had taken?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51217\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I did so. I tried to take out enough keystoning to make the images look better, without taking out all of the wideangle-lens distortion; I liked the effect of that in some shots. I wonder how much damage the perspective controls in PS do to your image's files? Seems like it degraded their sharpness to some extent--could be my imagination.

The admin is changing my login name, so I may be another person when you read this!
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michael sebast

boku

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« Reply #14 on: November 14, 2005, 12:54:16 pm »

Quote
I did so. I tried to take out enough keystoning to make the images look better, without taking out all of the wideangle-lens distortion; I liked the effect of that in some shots. I wonder how much damage the perspective controls in PS do to your image's files? Seems like it degraded their sharpness to some extent--could be my imagination.

The admin is changing my login name, so I may be another person when you read this!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51272\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I used to worry about that too, but now with having the Canon 5D, I figure I have enough resolution "wiggle room" to still do some software pespective control and get away with an 11x14 print.

You shot 2-1/4 right? Those scans should hold for software manipulation. Lord knows you have a ton of resolution. What is your intended final print size?

BTW - I did perspective corrects on alomost all of my Brickworks protfolio. Of course, at such small magnifications as a web gallery, you can't see any detrimental effect. But I understand your concern.

I don't know about you, but I didn't bring a flashlight to the shoot. I would have had no way of setting a perspective control lens because I couldn't see anything on the lens barrel.
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boku

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« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2005, 12:57:15 pm »

Quote
I was there Sat am, wish I could go back and correct some of the goofs I made.

My Brickworks Gallery

I also did a couple of 8 shot (portrait) pano's using an offset pano head - they came out really well, and I'll post them shortly - that format is a bit of a pain to display in a web browser.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51254\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Great work Tim - I like to opportunity to see others result. I wish I would have done one of the brick press with frontal distant flood lighting. I never bothered to move the flood light. When I arrived it was to the side and very close. I see that helped you balance the tonal values in the scene.
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Tim Gray

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« Reply #16 on: November 14, 2005, 01:56:31 pm »

Quote
Great work Tim - I like to opportunity to see others result. I wish I would have done one of the brick press with frontal distant flood lighting. I never bothered to move the flood light. When I arrived it was to the side and very close. I see that helped you balance the tonal values in the scene.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51282\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Not moving that light was one of my goofs - the shot I posted was OK but if I'd have moved it I could have got some more interesting ones from other angles.
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mikeseb

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« Reply #17 on: November 14, 2005, 03:42:41 pm »

Quote
Not moving that light was one of my goofs - the shot I posted was OK but if I'd have moved it I could have got some more interesting ones from other angles.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51285\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Same here. The shot I took was with the light at 90 degrees to the lens axis. COmbined with erroneous reciprocity compensation I have several exposures that are harshly lit like a Halloween witch.

Definitely a shoot where I wish i were digital. Just don't want to give up my Contax and Zeiss lenses, and can't (yet? Ever?!!) afford a digiback for it. Sigh. (A poor workman always blames his tools.)
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StephenS

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« Reply #18 on: November 14, 2005, 06:18:14 pm »

Saturday am. And yes, I wish I had brought a flashlight!

Gallery: My Gallery





Sorely out of my element, a great time and yes, a terrific group of considerate, respectful photographers. Thank you, Michael.

Stephen
« Last Edit: November 14, 2005, 08:22:14 pm by StephenS »
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mgts517

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« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2005, 09:32:26 pm »

Hi Bob,
   Really nice work..very well done..
I especially like photo # 2..great color effects.
Mike
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