Tag: nature

On a fall day – Part Two

Posted on by david.kennedy

Fall leaves
Fall leaves, Sandy Creek Park, Durham, N.C. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS Mk. II lens with 2x II TC @ 320mm | Exposed 1/400 sec. @ f/8, ISO 200

Experimenting with the 2X Teleconverter

Over the weekend, Arthur Morris posted on his blog that he was experimenting with the new 70-200mm f/2.8L IS Mk. II lens with Canon’s 2x II teleconverter, which turns the lens into a 140-400mm f/5.6 lens.  When using this combination, the short end should be avoided with this combination because 140mm is encompassed by the lens’ natural zoom range.  I was intrigued by Artie’s post because he was so excited by the image quality he was getting with this combination, and since I had such a lens on hand from Canon Professional Services, I thought I’d go out and give it a try, and I was impressed: it is sharp, and it works well!

Now, I could do this with my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens, but then I’d be working at f/8, and would have to stop down to f/11 to overcome the vignetting that is inherent to working with teleconverters, so I usually only work with the 1.4x TC.  The bottom line is that this is a surprisingly useful application for the new zoom lens, especially for nature photographers, but for most other forms of photography as well.  I certainly wouldn’t argue it’s “as good” as having a 300mm prime and a 400mm prime lens, but not everyone carries those two lenses with them daily!

Maple leaf
Maple leaf, Sandy Creek Park, Durham, N.C. | Canon 5D Mk. II and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS Mk. II lens with 2x II TC @ 342mm | Exposed 1/320 sec. @ f/11, ISO 250

Scenes from North Beach

Posted on by david.kennedy

Washed ashore
Washed ashore, North Beach, Racine, Wis. | Canon 1D Mark III and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 70mm | Exposed 1/250 sec. @ f/8, ISO 400.

I am presently writing a full review of RawWorkflow’s LensAlign Pro–a product I briefly worked with in June–so I’ve been busy adjusting the autofocus performance of my cameras with several of my lenses.  While it’s nice to look at a test photo of a focus alignment ruler and see your depth-of-field falling exactly where it should, there’s no substitute for confirming that the changes are for the better than to go out and make some images!

Note that both images in this post were created at f/8, but for different reasons.  In the image of the feather and debris on the beach, I wanted to make sure that the feather, which was almost flat against the beach, as well as the taller matter, would all be rendered in sharp focus.  However, for the photograph of the Ring-billed Gull below, I was using a Canon 1.4x II teleconverter, and I always try to stop down either 2/3 or a full stop from wide open in order to eliminate the vignetting introduced by the teleconverter, and to counteract any loss of sharpness.

Ring-billed Gull stretching
Ring-billed Gull stretching, North Beach, Racine, Wis. | Canon 1D Mark III and 400mm DO IS lens with 1.4x II TC | Exposed 1/1600 sec. @ f/8, ISO 400.

Horicon after LensAlign and Focus Tweaks

Posted on by david.kennedy
Black Tern in flight
Black Tern in flight alongside Hwy. 49, Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, Mayville, Wis. | Canon 7D and 400mm f/4 DO IS lens | Exposed 1/1600 sec. @ f/4, ISO 400 (neutral EV)

A Brief History of “Back-focus”

Last weekend I was at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge and experienced some focus problems with my Canon 7D heretofore non-existent, or so I thought.  Upon reviewing photographs from the 7D from the past several months, I noticed that none of them were actually as sharp as they could have been.  I attributed the softness to the lack of acutance in the files, and while I continue to believe that is an inherent property of cramming 18 megapixels into an APS-C format sensor, there was a real problem in play.

I didn’t want to believe that it could be a question of the camera “back-focusing” (or front-focusing) because I’ve grown to distrust people’s claims that their camera, and not their own inabilities, are to blame for their out-of-focus photographs.  I don’t remember these claims from the film days.  Perhaps I was just oblivious to the complaints, but I tend to believe that the instant feedback of the digital camera is partly to blame for the knee-jerk reaction that anything wrong with the pictures must be camera, not operator, error.

I will not mince words: ever since the Canon 10D and the Nikon D70, there’s been a lot of bitching and moaning in online forums about back-focused images, and I did not believe them.  At all.  Until now.

Now, I will argue that there is definitely operator error to blame in most many cases of complaints about back-focusing.  Last weekend I was convinced that I must have chosen the wrong focus point or didn’t have the AF locked by holding in the rear button–some prefer AF to only be activated by using the back button, I prefer AF to only be turned off if I hold in the back–and allowed AI Servo (Continuous AF for Nikonians) to screw up the focus.  To confirm my assumption, the next day I took test photographs in the garden around my parents house in Racine, Wis. and was shocked to discover that none of them were sharp.  Sure, the wind was to blame in a couple cases, but even when conditions were perfectly still the results were poor, so I rented a LensAlign from Lensrentals.com to investigate whether front or back-focus was to blame.

And what did I find after I unpacked and set up the LensAlign?  The 7D and the 5D Mark II both back-focused with the 400mm DO IS lens.  Well, there goes the neighborhood.  And a lot of preconceived ideas, with it.

Post continues after the jump! Continue reading “Horicon after LensAlign and Focus Tweaks” →

Looking back six years into the archives

Posted on by david.kennedy
Barn in Gilman, Iowa
Abandoned barn in late-afternoon light on Hwy. 146, Gilman, Iowa, in November 2004. | Canon 10D and Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX HSM lens @ 12mm; exposed 1/100 sec. @ f/20, ISO 200.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine from my days as a student at Grinnell College asked me if I had any landscapes of Iowa that she might frame up for her apartment.  For one reason or another it took me a while to get back to her–sometimes, my e-mail inbox gets a bit clogged.

Original capture of the barn
Original capture of the barn

While going through my landscapes from Iowa, which were less abundant than I expected, truth me told, I found this image of a barn near Gilman, Iowa, which was just a stone’s throw from Grinnell on state Highway 146.  I remembered this image when I saw it: I remembered that I never had the right tools to process it, even though it had a perfect exposure (the histogram went “to the right”).  It’s sharp, too–that Sigma 12-24mm was a strange but surprisingly sharp piece of glass.  At least, my copy of the lens was.  As with anything from Sigma, your mileage may vary.  I purchased it early in 2004, back when it was first introduced for about $500, and there were not many options for getting a truly wide perspective on the APS-C cropped cameras.  Interestingly, the Sigma 12-24mm is now sells for $800.  Crazy little world!

At the time I made this image, I was using Capture ONE from Phase ONE as my primary RAW converter, and found this image to be far too difficult to tone properly.  But here it was, sitting in my Lightroom database, long-since converted to a DNG file (the universal RAW format that all manufacturers should be using, but that’s a topic for another day).

I set a custom white balance, and then established a black point and white point.  Then I adjusted the curves to make the black a little richer–I don’t find going beyond about 9 on the black slider in either Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW is very effective.  Three brush strokes and a gradient later, the image was ready to go into Photoshop for some final tweaks–normally unnecessary, as I find the global adjustments with the brush and gradient tools for localized toning to be sufficient for my images.

Amazing what you can do with your images now that you couldn’t–or, at least, didn’t know how to–do a few years ago.

What gems are gathering dust in your archive?

More views from Rock Bridge

Posted on by david.kennedy

Entrance to the Devil's Ice Box, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park
Entrance to the Devil's Ice Box, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 20mm; exposed 87 seconds @ f/11, ISO 400.

When I first looked into the opening of the Devil’s Ice Box, I wasn’t sure what would happen with a time exposure.  There was barely enough light to focus on the rocks–I was lucky that all of the mist above caused by the hot, humid air hitting the cool air from the cave was creating a giant diffuser.  Essentially, localized cloudy conditions on a sunny evening.  I was surprised at the colors that were revealed in the first time exposure–I started at 30 seconds at ISO 800.  I re-adjusted for a bulb exposure at ISO 400 for less noise.  You can see this same sliver of stream passing underground through the cave system in the photo below:

Looking down into the Devil's Ice Box
Looking down into the Devil's Ice Box, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 16mm; exposed 13 seconds @ f/16, ISO 400.

On the way to the Devil’s Ice Box

Posted on by david.kennedy

Rock Bridge Memorial State Park boardwalk
Rock Bridge Memorial State Park boardwalk to the Devil's Ice Box, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 34mm; exposed 1/2 second @ f/16, ISO 400.

I took an excursion–albeit brief–to Rock Bridge Memorial State Park in the early evening hours tonight.  A sudden thunderstorm that passed through Columbia this afternoon had left the colors saturated, and the boardwalk to the Devil’s Ice Box (an extensive cave in the park) was slippery.  As I turned back to see the way I came–taking a cue from Dewitt Jones’ sappy, but helpful mantra “Look around, Dewitt”–I saw the sun bursting through the tree canopy.  Normally, for a scene like this, I wouldn’t worry about stopping down beyond f/9, possibly f/11, but for maximum sunburst without risk of image deterioration due to diffraction, I chose f/16.  I prefer to avoid a lens’s minimum aperture–you can test the theory yourself, and you will find that your lens becomes less sharp, not more-so, at its smallest aperture.

Lightning over Discovery Lake

Posted on by david.kennedy

Lightning over Discovery Lake, Columbia, Mo.
Lightning over Discovery Lake, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 30mm; exposed 6 seconds @ f/8, ISO 800.

Last week, my friends Jakob, Calin, and Jamie called me up to join them on a small lake near Discovery Parkway in Columbia, Mo. to fish.  Well, they fished.  I fished for lightning photographs.

Unfortunately, while the picture above is tack sharp, it’s not quite satisfying.  Later in the evening, I made another image that is far more pleasing–great color, great lightning strikes, including one on a cell phone tower–but is way, way out of focus when viewed at 100%.  Interestingly, when sized for this blog, it’s hard to tell that it’s soft, so I’ll share it here:

Lightning strike on the cell tower, Discovery Lake, Columbia, Mo.
Lightning strike on the cell tower, Discovery Lake, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 43mm; exposed 2 minutes, 36 seconds @ f/8, ISO 100.