Apple, camera phone, HDR, photography, Photoshop

IPHONE 4.0 revisited

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Well, I’ve finally had the new Iphone long enough to do a review on the camera portion of the phone.  Frankly I love the phone.  By no way am I an expert on the phone but I’m a semi-power user.  I use it everyday and even in the evenings.  I use the text and email functions religiously.  I’ve even started playing an app called Flick Fishing since I don’t have time to do the real thing.    Right now I’m listening to the Aztec postgame show while writing this post.  But I digress.

When I did my first review I was excited about the new camera in 4.0.  I’ve definitely used it to come away with a mixed review.  One of the exciting new features was the new led flash.  Although it’s a great improvement over the previous non-flash version there are mixed results.  Red eye is a major problem.  If your subject looks straight at you there will be this effect every time.  The problem is because of the flash being so close to the lens.  So, you either need to run it through a red eye reduction program or have the subject look slightly away so the flash doesn’t hit the back of the retina in the eye.

The image and lens quality are greatly improved.  All the images above were made with the new Iphone.  There is improved sharpness, image detail and color capture.  The color capture is fairly accurate until you use the flash.  My images turn to turn warm (slightly yellow) which can be easily adjusted in Photoshop or any other editing software.

The video on the camera is excellent.  It give a good capture and the sound quality is excellent.  On top of that you can upload your video to your MobileMe account and share with family and friends or….. even a client.

The original Iphone camera was a piece of junk, especially for the price you had to play.  The 4.0 is much improved and hopefully Apple won’t be satisfied with it.  With a little practice you can make some fun, even creative images.  You can share, print and publish them with good results, provided used small.  There is even a hdr capability I’ll expand on later.  Thank you Apple for the improvement but you have a long way to go.  (btw Apple, how about a photo contest to show the awesome Iphone images being created and show your support for photographers by not doing a right grab in the process.)

Tech info:  I’m providing very little.  the exposures varied but the ISO ranged from 80 – 800 for the night images.  The still camera function is aperture priority with a fixed 2.8 lens.  I may provide more in my next review but I’m more inclined to show and discuss creative possibilities with this fun phone.

Subjects:  l-r  Halloween decorations at our home, Lake Wohlford mailboxes, California Screaming at Disneyland,  graffiti at Cal Tech, Lake Wohlford Cafe restroom and Casa Bandini entry design.

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

black and white, location shoot, music, photography, San Diego, Uncategorized

The King and Lucille

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The King and Lucille

I love looking at old shoots I have done.  My career so far has been in the newspaper industry, the sports world and now in the corporate and architectural realm.  I, like so many of my counterparts, have covered a myriad of events that have helped shaped my career and myself as a person.

Music is one of  the sources of enjoyment, enrichment and creativity that is part of our daily lives.  It is the stories real or unreal of our daily live that the musicians have created to share  with  us.  It evokes emotion.

One of the finest bluesmen ever is B.B. King.  I had the honor of photographing him when he was 79 years old during a concert and meet and great afterward.  What a treat.  The music was great.  In fact, I left there wondering as good as the show was how good he must have been  30, 40 or 50 years ago when he was in much better health.  Or……. is music, like photography, like good wine, better with age?  Nothing beats experience and passion, they just enrich  our lives.

After the show I had to take meet and greet photos of the VIPs with The King and Lucille.  After finishing B.B. looked over at me and smiled and asked “Would you like a picture with The King and Lucille?”  I’ll never forget that.

*** the techy stuff.  Shot with a Nikon D2X, iso 1600.  Image processed in Lightroom with personal presets ***

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

Apple, camera phone, family, location shoot, photography, Uncategorized

Eye on the Iphone4

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I finally ordered my Iphone4.  It should be here early next week.  I can’t wait.  Finally it appears it has a camera that is actually useful.  I have not actually tested it but I have used each generation’s camera and cried…… For a high end phone there was never anything high end about the camera.  Can you believe not one version had a flash?  My wife’s cheap $99 camera phone had one, but not the Iphone, until now.  The new Iphone4 will have a 5 megapixel camera, digital zoom capability and a led flash.  Can’t wait to play.

I’m not convinced there is any professional use for the phone except for scouting photos and creative fine art.  Don’t get me wrong.  There has been some great “art” produce and posted on the web.  One of  the top photogs creatively using  the Iphone is Chase Jarvis who not only has shot jobs with the Iphone but has written a book and App about the Iphone.   Here’s a link to his blog: /blog/2009/09/the-best-camera-iphone-app-book-community/ If you like to shoot photos with your phone check it out.

I’ve been trying to do more personal shooting, but I can’t take my D3 with me all the time, I want to stay married.  So the Iphone is the choice for me.  Because it’s really limiting it make you use your imagination and creativity more.  I don’t think that I would ever use one on a job, I’m not that crazy, but it sure is fun when there’s no motivation to shoot other than to have fun.

Hopefully with the Iphone4 I won’t have to take a separate pocket camera or separate video camera.  Less, is definitely better.  I can’t wait for it to arrive.  Maybe eventually there will be an Iphone photo on Zwink.com.

The lead photo is of a maniquin photographed in a store display window in Kauai, Hawaii with a Apple Iphone 3G

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

location shoot, photography, San Diego, Sports, Uncategorized

The Double Bird

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When do you take or not take the photo?  Whether or not you are a professional at times this can be a dilemma and potentially create problems for you.  Hopefully if you’ve pondered this question ahead of time you won’t freeze when it’s your time to capture that once in a lifetime photo.  As my mentors often told me, it’s easier to delete or throw away a photo than it is to not have one to start with.

I previously worked for the San Diego Padres as one of two contract team photographers.  My assignment was to cover a fundraiser for the Hall of Champions featuring two of the best hitters ever in baseball, Ted Williams (right) and Tony Gwynn.  Going into the event the premise was simple.  The patrons for the evening would be able to have their photo taken with Mr. Williams and Mr. Gwynn and then later enjoy a discussion on the art of hitting.  Simple concept?  No……

Hall of Famer, Ted Williams was passionate about hitting.  He had a profound respect and enjoyed talking about the art with Tony Gwynn.  Apparently either he wasn’t told about the photo shoot, or he didn’t care.  All he was interested in was talking hitting with Gwynn.  Each time someone one came up behind them for a photo I would have to say something like, ” look here sir, look here Ted, look here Captain” to get his attention.  Finally “The Splendid Splinter” got fed up.  Without any hint he went ballistic and angrily blurted out “I show you something to look at…..” and proceeded to award me the double bird.  I shot the photo without hesitation.  Needless to say William’s handlers rushed in to stop him and calm him down.  Gwynn and John Moore’s nephew (the boy behind them) were shocked and later Gwynn would laugh and joke about it.  After a few minutes we continued shooting the last few guests and moved on to the rest of the evening’s schedule.

After the film was processed and printed the image was circulated to the ownership of the Padres.  It was decided that even though it was a great photo that it would not be released or published until after the death of Mr. Williams.  However, several prints were made and given to a select few.

I have great respect for the subjects in my photo.  However, I am first and foremost a photojournalist.  Without the photo, often times there is no story.

Technical notes:  Shot with a Hasseblad ELM and a 50mm lens on neg film using Dynalites.  The image above was scanned and color corrected in Photoshop from an 8×10 print.

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

Old archives and sports images are on: www.bigstudioz.com

Fishing, HDR, Kansas, location shoot, photography

Catching the Storm

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Woods Pond 2

SINGLE IMAGE HDR:

HDR photography is not always a product of three to seven separate images.  Nor does it have to be overdone to loose the effect and value of the hdr.  The image above was taken during a visit to my home town in Kansas.  Having been there previously I knew there was the likelihood of a potential nice landscape image at sunset, not to mention a high probability of catching a fish or two.

Shortly before this image was captured on a nearby field they started burning some native brush.  This gave the perception of a gathering storm and gave texture to the sky.  As I was ready to start shooting the big fish struck.  My host Glen quickly came over to reel in the fish.  With a slight reposition to the right I was able to capture this image as the fishing rod was bent over lined up with the cloud formation from the fire.

In postproduction I brought the files into Lightroom.  I made two virtual copies and then adjust them to give three distinct images for the highlights, midtones and the shadow detail.  After merging them and adjusting them in Photomatix we had the sunset, fishing shot and a thank you print for my host.

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

black and white, location shoot, photography, Uncategorized

Impact Black and White

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I was testing the new beta version of Lightroom 3 and decided to play with some old images.  To my surprise the presets that I’d made in my other Lightroom 2 copy were included following the installation.  One of the presets is one that I’ve used to make a hi pass filter image that starts with a dark over saturated image and ends up with a high contrast color image.  So, I selected an image of DeAngelo Williams of the Carolina Panthers that I’d shot for Donruss Trading Cards.  After applying the preset I backed off the recovery and brightness sliders in LR3 to make it brighter and contrasty.  I then added sharpening in Lightroom to add snap to the highlights on the skin and football.  This gave me a final custom black and white image with it’s own character.

Although this was just a test image I can see making a small portfolio of these portraits in black and white.  My initial impression of Lightroom 3 is very favorable.  Normally I like to just discover new changes in the programs but this time I watched the videos that Adobe made.  Each new version of Lightroom has been a significant improvement and I don’t see Adobe falling short on this one too.  I’ll be watching the changes on the beta and anxious for it’s actually delivery.

My other work can be viewed at: www.zwink.com

More photos of my NFL portrait collection can be viewed at: http://www.zwinkftp.com/donruss2008/

HDR, location shoot, photography, San Diego, Solar

Going Solar

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I just finished shooting an assignment for Swinerton Builders showcasing the new solar farm installation at Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Hotel.  I ended up doing a couple setups to process in hdr for my client.  The key to a good hdr image is a good steady tripod and good clouds in the sky.  The hdr process has to be handled properly otherwise the image will start to look too much like an illustration.  In this case the choice of hdr helped create the strong contrast elements and accentuated the shadows and made the sky more dramatic.

One of my goals was to highlight the elements and power of the sun  and sky.  This solar farm was a one megawatt facility.  The CO2 savings would be the equivalent to the output of 77,600  cars.

More of my work can be view at:  www.zwink.com

HDR, location shoot, photography, San Diego

Playing with a new lens

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Midland_JDZ7490a
Midland Animal Clinic

I just had brain surgery a week and a half a go.  Seriously…….  Modern medicine is a wonderful thing.  Eight days later it was time to get out the house and go test my new Nikon Nikkor 24 pc tilt shift lens.  I decided at the last minute I was going to do a sunset shot but then waited too long to go to my first choice of location.  So, I decided instead I was going to go shoot the Midland Animal Clinic in Poway where we take our pets to.  This is a fairly new building that I’d been wanting to shoot and this was the perfect excuse.  I knew that the success to making a good image was to take advantage of the lens, using it’s perspective controls to keep the lines on the building straight.  I then did several exposures as the dusk turned into the evening and from those multiple files selected four files to work with.  I used Photomatix to create a HDR image and then carefully layer in one of the original files to pull out the signage in the highlights.

Just a quick word about working with HDR tonemapping in Photomatix.  There are no sound formulas or great starting points that will give you a great image with the automatic settings.  It’s really a starting point to creating a good image and the more you experiment with it the more you will understand it’s controls, allowing for more creativity in the image making process.  HDR won’t work on everything.  Part of successfully integrating it into your work is to use it as a tool to enhance your vision, not create it.

location shoot, music, photography, San Diego

The Mighty Danielle

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The Mighty Untouchables

Danielle Tucker is every thing I like about artists.  Danielle (the brunette) has been singing since she was a baby and will probably be singing when she’s old.  I’ve had the pleasure to do a photo shoot of her when she was first starting to front for local cover bands.  Then about a year ago I was asked to do another shoot of her when she was signed to an artist development deal and produced an ep dvd that already has garnered plenty of airtime on KSON radio.  More of Danielle’s story is on her site: http://www.myspace.com/danielleltucker
Danielle now fronts her own band, The Danielle Tucker Band, and is often booked in many of the local venues while waiting for her call to hit the touring scene.  The photo above is linked to her site and if you love good country music check out her site.
Danielle is also part of The Mighty Untouchables, a corporate oriented band that is loaded with some of the top musicians in San Diego.  The photo above was part of their marketing package I helped create at a beautiful 18k square feet estate in Poway.  The goal was to show a mafia style “family” in the images.  With the great architecture and design of the home we achieved several different images enabling a wider selection for their p.r. and marketing.  We used Profoto lighting and a couple Q flashes for most of the images to create a stronger, bolder, contrasty look.  Post production was in Lightroom and then I used a custom preset to create a high pass effect.  More of the final images including portraits can be seen on their website: http://themightyuntouchables.com/

More of my work can be seen at:  www.zwink.com

art exhitibion, dancer, photography, San Diego

Melding of the Souls

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Melding of the Souls
Melding of the Souls

I was introduced to Ashley by my talented photographer friend, Heather Fuqua.  Heather had asked me to show her some location lighting techniques and said she would provide the talent.  My original plan was just to introduce her to some directional lighting using a couple Quantum Q flashes and Pocket Wizard remotes.  The day was overcast, the alley in North Park grimmy.  After watching the interaction of Ashley and Heather, I finally accepted the offer to join in the shoot.  Ashley was a very strong dancer and was able to easily collaborate with us and react to the adjustments we often requested.  Due to the flat lighting I used the lighting to help create strong lighting patterns to accentuate Ashley’s movement among the alleyway.  The lighting also allowed me to pull out the emotional interaction and strength in the post production process using a combination of increased saturation and hi pass effects.

This image was chosen as part of the Harbor Arts exhibition which opened this past Saturday evening in San Diego’s North Park at J&T Architecture Gallery.  I’ve entered very few images in competitions the past few years, partially a result of not taking my work seriously enough.  After reviewing a portion of my existing work and with the encouragement of my friends I hope to make more of an effort in the future.  Photography is meant to be shared, discussed, learned from and enjoyed.  It’s time for me to start sharing.

More of my work can be seen at:  www.zwink.com

Creative Views of a San Diego Photographer