No tilt shift lens, no problem.

I took this photo of the Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal with a 17-85 lens at 17mm  the exposure was f11 20 seconds at iso 100.  The camera was on a mini tripod sitting only inches from the ground and pointed up at a sharp angle.  The angle of the lens makes the building look like it's leaning away from you.

Using the perspective correction tool in my RAW conversion program. (DXO) I was able to straighten out the distortion and get a much better looking photo finished photo. You just need to remember to shoot a little wider so that you can crop.  I ended up having to fill a little space in the bottom left corner with the clone tool in photo shop.

Finally Embracing Photoshop (My photographic history)

I have been perusing YouTube looking for information and lessons on post processing photos using raw converter software and Photoshop. I have a number of photos that I have taken that are good but when I took the photo I saw, "Great".  I failed to achieve the photo I was after.  the reasons for this are inexperience with the camera and a lack of understanding of the post processing tools.

When I was younger I had a really nice setup with a Contax 137MA and a Yashica FX-D Quartz.  I had a few really nice Zeiss Prime lenses 28, 50, 85 and 135 plus a 70-210 Yashica zoom.  the quality of the photos I was taking then is better than what I have been doing with my Canon XTI.

The difference isn't the quality of the gear.  The difference isn't the switch from film to digital.  The difference is my retention as a photographer.  My camera bag was stolen in 1998 and I lost all of my gear.  shortly after that I got my first digital point and shoot.  a 3.2 mp Fujifilm camera that was reminiscent of a mini slr.  a little while later I got for Christmas a Nikon camera that was as small as a deck of cards and had a whopping 5 mp sensor.  Yah. I know 5 mp was gigantic.

That little Nikon is a great camera and takes a nice snap shot.  My Son still uses it.  A snap shot however is not the same in my mind as a photograph.  A snap Shot is a record of events taken without thought to form or composition.  A Photograph is a image created with a camera with the purpose of having visual interest or artistic merit.  Please remember that this is not a definition but an opinion.  My own opinion, thank you.

Here is an example of some photographs taken with my little Nikon point and shoot.  I had no control over focus, depth of field or exposure.

I just wasn't able to capture with the camera what I envisioned.  I ended up using the camera for nothing more than snap shots which it did very well.

One day My wife came home with an Epson scanner that she picked up to digitize all of her old photos.  This scanner had racks to scan negatives and  slides.  I used it to scan some of the slides I had from my old camera an was amazed at the quality.  It blew my little Nikon out of the water.

This photo was scanned from a 35mm slide.  The photo was taken with my Contax 137MA
It is the flag pole atop the Parliament of Australia in Canberra.

Seeing the striking difference between the capabilities of a small point and shoot and an SLR camera I started the hunt for a new to me and free camera.

My hunt didn't last long.  I soon found an unused Canon Elan 7 sitting in a corner of my parents house.  Seeing as my parents are happily the providers of things borrowed and not returned, I liberated it.

My first trip with this camera was to Disney Land in California.  The following is one of my favorite shots.  the software in the scanner automatically cropped the top of the image but as I really liked the result I kept it that way.  My Nikon point and shoot would never have been able to manage a night shot like this.

The time and cost involved in buying, developing and scanning film soon had me haunting local camera shops looking at digital bodies that would fit with the gear I now had.  I settled on a slightly used but in great shape Canon XTI and was off to the races.  I have found that with auto exposure and auto focus and auto everything else I started using these newer cameras most of the time in the P or Program mode which is really just automatic that allows for some user interference.  Most of the really good photos that I have taken, I have been in M of Manual mode and have taken the time to consider my vision, my exposure and the camera settings.  Just the way I used to take every shot.

After watching some episodes of Postpro on YouTube with Kevin Kubota, I decided to go back through my pictures and re-look at some I had dismissed in the past. When I first looked at this picture in my computer after the trip I just dismissed it as lost opportunity because it didn't portray the feeling I remembered when I took the photo.  I was on holiday on the Oregon coast with family.  The girl in the photo was lying in the sun to warm up after playing in the lake.  The light was really nice with the sun providing a rim light.  I could see a really nice shot in my mind but was unhappy with the result.

I had envisioned the light being warmer and brighter.  Had I used manual exposure I could have brightened it up a little but would have risked blowing out the highlights.  Some fill flash would have made a big difference but I hadn't brought a flash with me to the lake and I don't use the pop up flash because with the hood on my 28-135 I end up with a big shadow arc in the bottom of the frame.

The saving grace is that it is a nice photo and it was shot in raw.  I was able to add back the warmth that i saw by adjusting the white balance I than made a small adjustment to the exposure to capture the brightness that I was looking for and then did a little retouching to her face.  The end result has a totally different feel and is more representative of the actual conditions when the photo was taken.

I never would have been able to make this photo with a film camera.  I could have come close if I was doing my own developing and printing in the darkroom but color printing is time consuming and expensive.  I have done it and really enjoy the process but with work and family I just don't have the kind of time it would require.  Using Photo shop on the other hand I can work in small increments like when the kids are doing home work or gone to bed.  It allows me to have the freedom to produce the photograph that I envisioned on my own for little cost.

I think that I am going to embrace Photoshop and all it has to offer.

Retouching a Self Portrait.

I have some studio lights and took a self portrait to use as a profile picture.  the shot is OK right out of camera but why settle for OK when we have tools like Photoshop.

The first thing I did is make a duplicate layer i removed blemishes and dark lines under the eyes using the clone stamp at 20% opacity.  I then made a copy of this layer and added a Gaussian blur.  I used the eraser to remove the blur from around the eyes, mouth and all areas with hair. This layer is at 50% opacity so that the detail shows through.

I then add a last layer set as an overlay with a high pas filter set to 2.5 pixels for sharpening.

The end effect isn't much different from the beginning the texture of the skin is still there and the lines are left but the finished look is much cleaner. The sharpening and the blur on the skin pretty much cancel each other out and can be adjusted with the opacity slider.  The detail in the eyes and hair comes out nice but the grey hair is more prominent.

Buying a broken lens. Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

I recently found a great deal on a Canon EF-S 17-85 on Craigslist. The only problem was that the zoom was stuck.  I contacted the owner and inquired if the focus and IS were working.  The owner confirmed that everything functioned except the zoom.  I mad arrangements to meet at a local Starbucks. The sekker was really friendly and I ended up talking way too much and not looking at the lens properly.  I noticed while it was attached to my camera that something was funny with the focus but i got a confirmation on my first try so i just accepted it and didn't even look at the focus window. Oops!

I now owned a lens lens that had a stuck zoom and no response from the focus motor.  I paid too much.  If I have to buy a zoom barrel and a focus motor to fix this I will be paying the same as I would for a working lens.
The bright side is that this lens appears otherwise to be in excellent shape. The optics are clear and have no blemishes and the body is perfect.  There is a little internal dust but that will be taken care of when I have it apart.

The dis assembly begins with the removal of the rubber zoom ring,  under the ring there is a rectangular plastic cover you need to peel this off.

 Underneath this cover is the zoom brush. This brush is very delicate and needs to be removed carefully.

Beside the zoom brush you see a brass bushing with a black screw inside it.  There are 3 off these and they will come out later.






Using a 00 size Philips screwdriver remove the 2 small screws holding the contact strip to the mounting ring.
Then a 0 size to remove the 4 screws holding the mounting ring to the lens body.  The center plastic spacer needs to come free before you can release the ring from the contact strip.  I lift the mounting ring carefully and slip a finger underneath and push the plastic ring out.

 Once I removed the mounting ring i noticed that the focus motor ribbon was disconnected (circle).  This is confirmation that the lens was probably dropped.  As there is no damage to the outside of the lens I an hopeful that it will be an easy fix. The ribbon with the arrow is for the switches on the outside of the lens barrel and needs to be removed before pulling the barrel off.

There are 6 ribbons that need to be removed  to take off the circuit board. Starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise.  The first has two locking tabs at the edges.  pull these back with a fine tip flat screwdriver and carefully pull our the ribbon. The next two have brown gates that hinge up.  place a small flat blade under the gate and lift.  the gates hinge up and the ribbons come loose.  The next 3 are simple pull our ribbons.  They all have tabs on the side to pull/push on.  the one at 6 o'clock is already removed.  There is 1 screw holding the pc board onto the lens body.

 Once the circuit board is removed there are 6 screws holding the focus motor assembly in.  Don't try to take the focus assembly apart. If it's faulty you can order a complete unit to replace it.  I unfortunatly do not have a photo of these 6 screws.  Once you lift off the focus motor assembly (last picture top right) you remove the 3 screws with the brass bushings we looked at earlier. and remove the outer zoom barrel.

The screw in the white circle is the culprit in the jammed zoom ring.  They tend to work themselves loose. Especially in a lens that has been dropped.

In My case the screw had come completly out and was lodged down beside the front element.  the slider that it connects to in the inner zoom barrel had slipped and was stuck as well.  I had to continue well passed this point to get the lens repaired.

 At this point I was totally focused on the lens and didn't take any other photos.  I ended up with a really good lens that takes really nice photos. Once reassembled the zoom work perfectly, nice and smooth.  The focus works flawlessly ass well. (Lucky)  It is much better than my 18-55.  My 28-135 lens that I have from my old elan 7 film camera still produces better contrast.  The wider angle on the crop sensor makes it worth the effort.

Agfa Box 44

Agfa Box44 - With case and film spools.  The wooden spool came with the camera and  is marked Agfa.
Circa 1932

My Mother in law, knowing my interest in photography, picked up an old Agfa Box 44 camera from a market in Austria and brought it home. It is a neat little camera.  It has a fixed aperture, meniscus lens and 2 shutter speeds. Momentary marked as a dot and bulb, marked as a dash.  The camera used 120 film and make a 6cm x 9cm negative.  I took everything apart and cleaned it all.  The camera looks as though it has seen little use.  It even had an old wood film spool in it.

Agfa Box44 - Camera opened for reloading
This camera makes a 6cm x 9cm negative on 120 roll film.  8 shots per roll.

To use the camera you need to load 120 film by removing the back and pulling out the insert. You just place the new film in the holder and wrap it around the backside and attach it to the take up spool. you then place the insert back inside the camera box. Make sure that the take up spool is on the same side as the winder.  Place the back cover on and wind the film until the number "1" shows in the little red window.

Agfa Box44 - Insert holds the film and the lens.  the hole is where the winder attaches to the film spool.

The lens is build into the tube at the front of the insert and the shutter sits in front of that. To take a picture you aim the camera with a little viewing window.  There are Two. One for portrait and One for landscape.
the speed lever has 2 positions a dash for bulb and a dot for quick.  I really have no idea how fast the shutter is or what the aperture is set at.  The only adjustment you really have is the film ASA.

Agfa Box44 - looking at two film spools through the viewing window. also shown are the shutter selector, shutter switch and the winding knob.

Agfa Box44 - Front of camera open showing shutter open in bulb position.

 This first photo was taken of some trees at the side of the road in the country near my fathers home.
The EV value of this sceen is about 14  The film is Ilford FP4 developed for 125ISO.
The photo is slightly over exposed.

Trees
Agfa Box44 - Ilford FP4 6x9 

The second photo is of an old truck on the back of my fathers property the exposure value is slightly less at 13.4 and the mid tones are a lot more apparent.

Old Truck
Agfa Box44 - Ilford FP4 6x9 

I would hazard a guess from these photos that the camera is close to f 16 at 1/60sec.

ND Filter Magic

I have, in my bag of camera equipment a filter called an ND8.  This is a Neutral Density filter. its sole purpose is to reduce the amount of light entering the lens.  I have spent so much time trying to get more or better light that using this filter almost seems counter intuitive. That is until you want a slower shutter speed on a sunny day in order to capture a photo with motion blur.  In the first photo I was in the parking lot at my office trying to capture a vehicle on the highway while panning. even at f22 i was still getting a fairly sharp background. adding the ND filter to the lens allowed me to achieve this with relative ease.

The moving water picture which follows was quite a challenge.  I didn't have a tripod with me and it was really bright.  I had the ND filter and a Polarizer in my 28-135 lens.  I didn't have to worry about vignetting as I was using a 1.6 crop factor camera.  The setting were f22, 2 second exposure, 100asa.  I managed to brace the camera against a tree while using the self timer to reduce shake.

Neither one of these shots would have been possible without the use of the ND8 filter. I am defiantly a fan of  the ND filter. If you want to get creative with your outdoor photography you really need one of these.

Depth of field

I love this Picture.  The really narrow depth of field makes the flower seep to pop off of the photo almost like 3D  I took this with my Canon XTI and 28-135 lens.

F-stop.  f/8
Speed.  1/250 sec.
ISO.     100
Focal Length.  135mm
Subject Distance 400mm

The Minimum focal distance for this lens is published at 500mm.  I am able to get focus confirmation at 400mm with my copy.  I wonder if other 28-135 Lenses are the same. I

This photo was shot in Raw.  Cropped square and converted to Jpeg.  no other editing was done.