PYKtures

The camera game of 2011

2012-01-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

2011 was a year where mirrorless cameras evolved intoserious cameras and where some interesting brand decisions were made. Lets tryto put some order into all of this and explain.

The Exmor R domination of the compact camera world

The Sony Exmor R sensor is probably a marvel of recenttimes. It can produce great full HD video, ISO 1600 images and shoot fullresolution images at 10fps. Most of its common 10fps uses were for “handheldtwilight mode” where the camera shoots many hi-iso frames and combines theminto a noiseless image, “HDR mode” where the camera brackets a few shots atdifferent exposures then combines them automatically and the highly popular“sweep panorama” that lets the user create panoramic shots just by sweeping thecamera from one side to the other of a landscape. Not only Exmor R sensors arethe saving grace of many photographic devices today like the Nikon p300 or theApple iPhone 4s, such technology brought Sony to sit comfortably at the top ofthe compact line with its X series (WX, HX, TX), a territory usually shared by Canonand the now fallen Lumix. Canon’s only response against the Sony uprising isthe S100.

The restructuration year of Lumix

Lumix in 2011 tried pushing in various expensive directionswithin the G line of micro-4/3 cameras. It first started with the expansion ofits 16mp sensor from the much successful GH2 on lower end bodies like the G3and GF3 to accommodate the need for better image quality at high-ISO and to beable to produce high quality HD videos to compete with Canon. It also producedX series lenses for the micro 4/3 system, a line of high-end motor driven (notbarrel driven) zoom-lenses with special nanocrystal coating that reduces lensdefects and enhances contrast. While Sony was dominating the compact world withits new sensor, many Lumix enthusiast were wondering if the LX6 would onceagain set a new benchmark in compact image quality. The answer came to theworld bearing the name of GX1, a high-end compact micro-4/3 camera body. Bychanging the L into the G, it became clear that Lumix is attempting a migrationto the G series while keeping its once great compact line in vegetative state.As such 2011 was spend redirecting itself in camera evolution. One might agreethat to fight against both compact (the much better s95 and the Sony Exmor Rline) and dSLR fronts (the new Sony 16.2mp sensor found in the D7000), Lumixhad to attack in sacrificing its current evolution and begin exploiting a middleground solution to create a space that the consumer wouldn’t have thought toexist.

Canon’s video domination

It has to be said. Canon’s new found direction in HDSLRvideo dominance created a huge market for videographers among with a world ofnew video accessories that emulate the setups found in more expensive videosolution. All the recent consumer Canon dSLRs have a tilt and swivel screen tohelp the videographer frame video images. There is no denying that regardlessof how good the competition is, Canon dominates completely this market and isthere to stay. On the other hand, the company has fallen behind in thephotography department by recycling the once great but very plasticky Canon 7D18mp sensor.

Nikon’s strong start and weak finish

Looking at Nikon’s decisions in 2011, one would say that thecompany knows what it wants and can afford wasting money experimenting increating the ipod-like abominations called the Nikon 1. Nikon started strongwith the D7000 literally taking the photographic industry by force. The D7000offered a significant upgrade to the crop sensor crowd with much better ISOperformance and many more stops of dynamic range. Then it continued strong withthe release of the 50mm f/1.8G that finally gave the low to mid end crowd anaffordable 50mm lens. Then the Nikon 1 happened… That new camera line made Nikon’sevolution in cameras questionable in which it’s sacrificing resources incompeting in a market with a product that isn’t ready to be released into it.

Olympus search for speed

Olympus didn’t do much aside from releasing lenses that Inever tried and that cost way too much to purchase and upgrading its AF enginein its recent entries in cameras. 2011 was an evolutive year for the company onthe micro-4/3 side only, almost like it’s letting other product lines dieslowly.

Pentax’s worst year ever

A brand stuck in between owners and failing at producingcoherent photography products, Pentax managed to downgrade itself into anabysmal level by creating the Pentax Q line, a failed attempt into themirrorless camera industry. Like all pentax products, the initial idea wasbold: to use the acclaimed Exmor R sensor in an interchangeable lens body thatencompasses the retro look of the Fuji X100. Like all Pentax products, it feelslike an unpolished turd: slow menus, slow operation, generic looking buttons,etc… Over the past few years, Pentax only updated the sensor within its dSLRline without enhancing anything else. It was eventually bought by anotherexcentric brand that produces awkward looking cameras: Ricoh. Lets all pray fora complete reboot for 2012.

Fuji’s suXess

As cheezy as that tag line just sounded, Fujifilm didsucceed in reproducing a series of retro-looking like cameras to please itscrowd looking to dive in some of the magic of the leica rangefinders withoutactually knowing how to shoot with one while applying its expertise on high-ISOimage quality on the image. It’s also great that Fujifilm decided to dump thedreaded color-fringing SuperCCD for a Sony sensor. It stands now as a competentcontender to the mirrorless camera solution.

Nexavior

Some might call me biased towards the NEX. Thing is that theSony NEX series has come a long way from being that sony Ericson cellphonecamera with a lens device. Throughout the year 2011, it has received aconsiderable amount of firmware updates to improve the user experience andupgraded to nearly flawless modern digital photography sensors (great hi-isoand dynamic range) on its current camera line. On top of that, a huge varietyof lens adapters made using attractive 35mm prime lenses on the NEX possible.With the peaking mode, it’s even more encouraging. The NEX has truly become thedefinite example of how a mirrorless system should work.

The beginning of the end of the compact camera

In 2011, cellphone cameras started to be capable of greatimage quality. With the help of strong processors and great image enhancingsoftwares, creating great images with a modern smartphone is somewhat easy andfast to share. The trend of image sharing drove the use of the smartphone ascamera and the abandonment of the compact camera that added an extra electronicdevice in everybody’s pocket or bag.

2012: the year of the next generation of dSLR

2012 will be a defining year for dSLR photography. The nextCanon 1 series will clash against the Nikon D4 (16.2mp camera which ISO goes upto 204 800) whereas the Nikon D800 (36mp sensor camera) is set out toannihilate the Canon 5dmkII. I would also expect Nikon to finish making AF-S Gversion of its current non-G prime lens lineup (85 f/1.8D, 135 f/2DC, etc…). Itwould be also very surprising to see Nikon make a 50mm f/1.2N. I’m also quiteglad rumors are suggesting the production of a version II of the legendaryCanon 35L lens. Lumix has to come up with a way to drop the price down in orderto make its G series much more attractive. NEX needs to continue releasinglenses in order to beef up its library, including a low aperture zoom lens. Fujifilmis expected to release an ILC system. Pentax/Ricoh needs a reboot. I can seethe smartphone cameras becoming better up to a point where users wouldn’t beable to tell the difference between a cellphone and a compact camera. I wouldlove if Sony makes a pro-compact camera with its amazing sensor to go againstthe Canon s100, but to do so would put Sony out of its philosophy in providingfor the everyday consumer that wants a camera that takes great photos onauto-mode. To finish, I think the year 2012will be even more interesting than 2011 because our glimpse at the future ofphotography through the clash of the flagship dSLRs of both leading brands inhigh-end consumer photography will define what is possible to capture todaywith a digital camera.

Stay tuned.

2011 Lightroom workflow

2011-08-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Hey there people. Back then in june 2009, I had lots of people ask me about giving out a Lightroom post-processing workshop to accelerate their workflow and help them give a better render in their pictures. So with a stroke of inspiration, I wrote my whole photography style down to give back to a community that produced such strong friendships and inspirations to me.

Two years later, my photography has greatly improved to the point of being at quite a decent level of legend…. Wait for it… DARY. Still a lot of demand on a Lightroom tutorial of mine came to me, especially with the trend of shooting in raw and taking months to post-process. So I devised a way to effectively produce jaw-dropping images in the shortest time for everyone to just post those hard drive killing pictures and get rid of their RAWs as fast as they can.

So without further ado and with lots of love for you people who follow my photography, here’s my revised Lightroom processing article.

STEP 0 : the basics

G : Library Grid
E : Library Fast preview
D : Develop interface
N: Multiple pictures layout display
1-2-3-4-5 buttons: add stars
R : Crop interface
M: Gradient Mask
K: Brush Mask
V : toggle grayscale (black and white)
Ctrl/CMD – Shift – S : Synchronize settings
Ctrl/CMD – Shift – E : Export selected pictures

Post-processing
Regardless of people telling you they don’t do it (probably because they don’t have time or don’t know…), post-processing is mainly consists on applying corrections (exposure, color balance) to a picture to shape it in the ways we saw the picture when we first used the camera to shoot it. It’s an action that produces a picture. It happens either in the camera settings when it’s creating a digital picture file, at the lab when they are creating the negative, in the darkroom when you are printing a picture by enlarger or in a software like Lightroom today when you are post-processing a RAW file.

RAW vs. JPG
It’s not a question of being pro or being skilled or to the level of shooting raw, it’s a question of practicality. It’s necessary to shoot in RAW when it is available if you are planning to color balance or even correct exposure. The RAW file contains a lot of hidden exposure and color information (called dynamic range). They reveal themselves when called upon by the software (as in the software doesn’t have to virtually add extra information on the image as it is already there to display when the user makes a change). The JPG file has no such information and the software has to emulate and add additional information like some god ugly gray tones to an image by rendering post-processing a headache for the inexperienced ones.

Two types of noise : Chromatic vs. luminance
Chromatic is the color noise that appears in Red, Blue and Green dots in the grain of the image. Luminance is the graininess of the image.

STEP 1: Shooting for post-processing
In order to give yourself the best working platform for post-processing, you must change your exposure metering habits to meter for the best file rather than to meter for the photo to be viewable on the fly. Since each brand has it own ways to write a RAW file, I discovered through massive stress testing a way to shoot for the best file rather than shoot for the best photo.

Canon: +1EV at ALL TIMES
Modern Canon raws are really beautiful when shot well (especially using L level lenses). They are very contrasty, colorful and almost publish ready. When turned in black and white, they look naturally stunning. The only issue you will have with Canon is the level of post-processing you can do on them. Rarely have I seen a Canon user apply a lot of changes to his pictures before adding colors to them or turning them all to black and white. Canon highlights are very easily recoverable. The canon raw has also a lot of native contrast so it’s best to overexpose at least a stop to get a decent level of shadow detail as shadow recovery generate a lot of chromatic noise in the process.

Nikon: -1EV most of the times
Nikon raws are files of massive dynamic range that can really take a beating in Lightroom when shot well. Most the details in a Nikon lie in the shadows. Shadows will always be recoverable with little noise. Until the release of the Nikon D7000, Nikon cameras were never able manage overexposure well which made highlight recovery to near impossible. Save yourself the troubles by underexposing the picture to get a decent level of highlight detail.

Sony: -0.3EV to -0.7EV
Unlike what the Nikon users will tell you, Sony is sensor maker (its sensors power the best of the Nikon and Pentax dSLRs) that know how to get the best out of its sensor. For the same sensor, a Sony raw file will capture twice more exposure detail than any other equivalent camera by also weighting twice as heavy. I remember seeing how far superior the Sony A700 file quality is to that of a Nikon D300s. With Sony, you can recover both Highlights and Shadows. It’s probably the best file ever to work with until the Nikon D7000 came out.

Panasonic: as long as there is highlight detail.
Panasonic makes the noisiest files of all but also the most detailed ones. You will always get noise in a Panasonic raw file no matter what you do. Just make sure your highlights are complete.

STEP 2: Import pictures

Have a dedicated folder to store your “original pictures” and another folder to store your “processed pictures”.
When ready, just plug your camera. Lightroom will usually detect it and automatically classify the shots by date.
Be sure to “select copy to harddrive” and to specify the folder for “original pictures”
Select the date you wish to import. If you are not sure, check the box that prevents your from importing duplicates of shots you have in your harddrive.
Click import and wait

STEP 3: The staring process in Grid (G) and Preview mode (E)
This is what I usually do:

Render all the standard size preview with Library->Previews->Render standard size preview
Using preview mode (E), go through every picture and ask yourself if you REALLY like it and add 1 star to it.
Sort all pictures that had 1 star or more. If the number of image is still too much for you to handle, add a 2nd star. At this point, you might start seeing duplicates of pictures that you shot using continuous shooting.
Select multiple image (with either shift or ctrl/cmd pressed down) and press N to compare and remove images from the selection.
Sort all pictures that had 2 stars or more and look at the number of images to process.
Repeat 3 to 5 if needed.

After this, you will have a decent doable amount of images you want to keep and process. Failure to doing so generates:

Duplicates of a same subject
More work for you without knowing it’s more work
Bigger album with less interesting images due to repetitiveness.

STEP 4: Develop mode
This is where the real magic happens.

Develop mode has many settings and sliders; here are some of the most important ones.

The Basic section

White Balance and Tint: Manages the color balance of the image.
Exposure: Manages the overall light of the image
Recovery: Recovers highlights details
Fill Light: Recovers shadow detail
Blacks: Darkens the shadows of the picture
Brightness: brightens the highlights of the picture
Contrast: Manages the differences between the brightest and darkest parts of the picture.
Clarity: Hardens or Softens the picture. Do not use Positive Clarity for beauty portraits
Vibrance: Manages the intensity of the colors
Saturation: Manages the presence of the colors

The Tone Curve section (best section evar)
Each slider of this section is pretty much self-explanatory and it’s pretty much the best section ever because it gives you so much more control on your image than the basic section.

Detail
This is where you’ll find NOISE REDUCTION!!! Use them wisely. If you reduce noise, you also reduce detail, so you must find the right balance.

- Luminance takes care of the graininess
- Color takes care of the chromatic noise

Camera Calibration
VERY VERY IMPORTANT SECTION for Canon and Nikon users. There is this option called PROFILE that lets Lightroom switch between different camera profiles of both brands. Some profiles have more or less contrast than the other, rendering post-processing much easier for the user. I usually leave it on adobe standard but when things get harder, I do this:

Canon: put it to camera faithful for colors, camera landscape for black and white
Nikon: put it to camera neutral, camera landscape for black and white

STEP 4a: My basic practice

Color balancing the image: Use white balance and tint to make sure there are no unrealistic colorcasts. Some cameras like to white balance to the blue side in daylight and the yellow side indoors. Add split toning for extra color correction.
Graying out the image: In Basic, put blacks to Zero. In Tone curve, bring up the Darks and Shadows.
Adding contrast to the image. Bring the exposure down still you see some highlight details. Use Lights to stretch contrast of the image. Use Shadows to dig in the blackness of the image.
Removing Noise: Remove color noise. Remove luminance noise.
Add exposure masks (will explain later probably when I come back from my trip) to selectively modify the exposures or color balance in the key points of the image. (M for gradient, K for brush)
Add another star

STEP 5: Synchronising settings.
If you have a stack of pictures that look alike, you can attribute them all the same setting so that you don’t have to redo the same process you did for the first picture of the gang.

Develop the first picture
While having the shift key pressed down, select the last picture of the batch in the film roll
And synchronize the settings (Ctrl – Shift – S)
Click the stuff that you want to be synchronized in the window that pops out and click OK

STEP 6: Exporting the pictures.

Almost done!

Sort pictures by the highest star grade (these are the ones you processed…)
Select all
Add Exif information like title, description, tags etc…
Export (Ctrl – Shift – E)
Select the “processed pictures” folder
Name the subfolder: year-month-date “title of the album”
Have JPG at Quality 100, sRGB, image resolution at 180 in the image parameter settings
Click OK and wait
When done, delete RAWs

EXTRA: Getting the right post-processing equipment
If your computer lags here’s what you can do:

File->Optimize Catalog
Keep a small catalog of images
Max out your RAM.
Buy a Solid State Drive for software and temporary working files. it usually goes for 2$/Gb so spend wisely (I had to go for a 160gb because my computer can only get an internal harddrive)
Make sure your processor is 2.2Ghz at dual core.
Get a future proof mac computer of the current year.

I guess that’s it for now. If anything, write me a comment below and I’ll consider adding it to the already beefy Lightroom processing article. For now I gotta pack for my trip to San Francisco!!!

Have a great end of summer!!

A small reality check on the State of the digital camera (summer 2011)

2011-06-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Today, digital photography has evolved to a point where image quality from daylight to low light has been achieved and perfected. Lets take a look at the current trends and behaviors of the mid of 2011 camera users.

Nobody prints

Everybody publishes on facebook or the web. Some will print 4x6 because they cost 10 cents at the pharmacy store. Only commercial photographers or fine arts photo students print bigger than 8x10 and a bigger print is expensive as shit for consumers.

HD recording
Coolpix p300

Most cameras can record 720p HD video. Most of it ending up on vimeo, youtube or facebook video. The main difference will be in video quality, sound, optical zoom and continuous autofocus.

State of the affordable fullframe sensor dSLR (35mm equivalent)

5dmkII

D700

A game of specialty (moving vs. staged)
On one side, you get the extremely responsive time-freezing Nikon D700 that gives you a 12mp file that has infinite exposure latitude and color balance capabilities and on the other, you have the Canon 5dmkII that produces massive images of high resolution with the most beautiful bokeh ever. If you are reading this and planning to buy one of them, you are either rich or a working photographer. If you are buying of these to work, look at what you mostly shoot: moving (events, weddings, sports, high-dynamic range, low light) or staged (portraits, fashion, studio) subjects. Using only the middle focus points in the best to mildly good lighting conditions, the 5dmkII is a bitchy princess that needs to be shot slower (+1 EV) than the Nikon and used with L lenses to avoid its white balance failing on you, but if you manage to overcome all of these constrains, you will create the world’s most beautiful images (mainly because of the bokeh of its L prime lenses). The Nikon D700 is an image-snatching gazelle that shoots everything anywhere anytime as fast as you can move.

State of the cropped sensor dSLR (1.6x, 1.5x)

The useable ISO performance of a dSLR goes up to 12800 : The absolute death of the Fullframe dSLR for ISO performance.

While Canon’s 18mp camera sensor is lagging behind in the ISO range and exposure latitude, the new Sony 16.2mp sensor that powers the current generation cameras (Nikon D7000, Sony a55, Pentax K5) brings a revolution that removes the need of a Fullframe camera upgrade for image quality: a massive increase in exposure latitude (to the point of near HDR looking raw files) and ISO performance (two stops gain).

Massive increase in RAW file
14-bit RAW files now weight an average of near 20mb per RAW file at minimum. This fills up buffers, memory cards, external hard drives a lot quicker than before. It’s a nightmare for photographers who shoot a lot on a daily basis, as they need to buy faster and bigger cards (UHS-1 type SD cards) in order to manage the body transition.

Decent HD video quality achieved yet still very far from camcorder
for full HD video go here

Every dSLR of 2011 can produce jaw dropping HD video that fill the screens of HDTVs or 20+ inch computer monitors. Yet to be able to use the video mode, you’ll need to spend a few hundreds on a video rig in order to keep the footage stable and still manual focus your subject as the continuous autofocus engines are still globally retarded at this point. Audio recording is still mono so you’d need to invest in an external microphone to plug in the camera. All in all impractical and making you look like a boss if you ever plan to use this function properly…

Any lens, regardless of zoom or aperture, is sharp enough for most consumer purposes.
This also applies to image stabilized from 18-55mm up to 18-135mm kit lenses. When the proper photography technique is applied, they produce images that are clear enough to be uploaded in low-resolution on the web or printed at 4x6, 8x10, 12x18, etc… the extra things that other more expensive lenses will offer are
- Bigger practical range that go from 18-200mm up to 18-270mm (resulting in bringing less lenses for a daylight photo outing)
- F/2.8 apertures for low light shooting (resulting in smaller range pro-level zooms)
- Aperture of f/2.0 or lower for incredibly thin depth of field (resulting in prime lenses)

Death of the Entry-Level dSLR kit (18-55 + 55-200 lenses)
People that buy a cheap Entry-Level dSLR (Nikon D3100, Canon T2i) will surely gain access to half of whatever’s been written so far on such gear. The problem is the usage of them. From all the years I suggested friends on their fearful and hesitant 1000$ or more investment on a kit, only a small amount of them still frequently use their dSLR on a monthly basis. The other ones simply left the camera at home because they can’t afford the better dSLR lenses (especially for low light shooting, like the f/2.8 lenses that go for 500$ or more) until technology makes a leap or I start writing another State of the digital camera article. And remember folks, an investment becomes expensive only when it’s useless. Then again, some really love to feel like they are holding a big-looking 1000$ investment in their hands, the best they could come up with according to their reading of the reviews and the specifications, etc…, and they loooove to feel like they are shooting like a boss with cameras of big names and shit… once every year. It’s the biggest waste of money in 2011.

You can’t bring one to a concert

Yup, dSLR are prohibited at most paying concerts. So your 1000$ investment stays at home while your neighbor uses its compact camera or smartphone.

Don’t bring a dSLR in da club
Because everybody would think you’re the club photographer and request pictures from you. Also, clubs are so tight nowadays, alcohol will splash on your camera and people will bang on to it. Finally, the working club photographer would go WTF on you because you’re stealing his business… just get drunk and dance dammit!

State of the mirroless camera
In 2009, the Olympus EP1, very first mirrorless camera, made its appearance. Made by Olympus, it was obviously a laggy, slow, unpolished interface of a camera. The lenses were also badly made and ugly. While the camera completely sucked, it introduced an image quality that rivaled the entry-level dSLR cameras while still being able to fit in a woman’s handbag. The problem was just the responsiveness.

Today in 2011, Panasonic, Pentax and the giant Sony are all intensely competing in this format using various designs to achieve amazing image quality. It sells for about the same price as an entry level dSLR (800$) and delivers the same results.

Sony NEX cameras of this fall (NEX-C3, NEX-7) will be powered by the amazing 16.2mp sensor that makes the Nikon D7000 dominate the crop sensor market. It comes with the standard 18-55 kit lens and delivers as much goodness as the current entry-level dSLR. The lens selection is modest though the system is barely one year old. The amount of adapters you can have for the NEX is infinite though: adapters for Nikon F mount, Canon EF mount or the more popular FD mount, etc…

Olympus EP cameras are making a comeback this fall with 3 new bodies who apparently are instantly responsive so stay away from it for now.

Panasonic G series cameras are the one who offer the most hands on manual modes of all cameras. For photographers who want the most control for the buck, you better go for them. Panasonic also has the most vast lens library for the enthusiast photographer with great lenses like the 20mm f/1.7.

Pentax Q cameras seem to suggest the most compact mirrorless system ever created. Using the revolutionary Sony EXMOR R sensor, it will attempt to create the very first Sony EXMOR R raw shooting camera. It will be interesting to see where that leads in September.

State of the compact camera
LX3

Fuji F70EXR

FH20

Back in 2008, the Lumix LX3 dominated the market with its hypersharp leica lens and great CCD sensor. It was Panasonic domination over Canon, the age of the CCD. The competition was very far from the duo of Panasonic and Canon. The main drawbacks of the compact cameras were the ISO performance destroying the image quality after ISO 400 and the native jpg dynamic range being close to zero or ugly-grayish because of the “shadow enhancement”/”fake HDR” engine. Fujifilm tried to resolve the problems with its SUPERCCD sensor, but it failed because the sensor couldn’t drop down from ISO 400 without showing signs of image defects, took a lot of energy to run and recorded at half-resolution with defective white balance and horrible menu interface. HD recording was primitive and not very good. For 200$, you could get a sub 400 ISO full auto camera. You would need to get to 400$ to have the zoom range exceeding 10x with manual functions and pay the premium price of 500$ for a RAW shooting compact. RAW was a necessity because you could manually increase the dynamic range of your pictures and neutralize the noise. Lets look at what's cool today.

500$ High-end compact are only good for photos
The two only good CCD cameras are situated in the high-end 500$ cameras: Canon S95, Lumix LX5. Other equally priced cameras are either slower working or bulkier versions of those models offering nothing more or less. HD video recording on them is subpar. If you are buying one of them, you are looking to shoot and process RAW files. Their lens is quite limited in zoom and the technology that powers them is almost 4 years old. I expect CCD based high-end compacts to die in 2012, because it cannot outdo the image quality of the Sony EXMOR sensor.

Sony’s blessing: the EXMOR R sensor.
The Sony EXMOR R is a back-illuminated CMOS sensor dominates today’s current compact market. A BSI (back-illuminated sensor) basically means that the electronic circuits of an image sensor are placed at the back rather than in the front blocking light and noising up so that more space is dedicated to record incoming light.

Coolpix p300

First of all, it reaches a staggering useable ISO 1600 sensibility setting. That’s 3 stops higher than the useable ISO 200 of the CCD powered compact cameras.

Coolpix p300 (for full HD video go here)

Second, 1080p HD recording comes at standard. Most EXMOR R equipped cameras even have optical zoom enabled during video and stereo sound, perfect for youtube!

Coolpix p300

Third, because the sensor is sized at 1/2.33 inch, the zoom range can go from 18 times to a whooping 35 times zoom from a 24mm wide angle start or support a massive aperture of f/1.8 for extreme low light. The native focal length of 6mm gives the user the possibility to shoot at low as ¼ sharp.

High fps rate of 7fps and above made many things possible like the multishot HDR or multishot hi-ISO modes possible and sweep panorama functions that don’t require a panorama stitching software.

The Sony sensor can be found in any compact camera claiming they have a CMOS sensor built-in: Sony WX/HX/TX series, Nikon s9100/p300 series, Canon HS series and so on and so forth.

Current suggestions
If you are thinking of getting into photography with an entry-level dSLR kit don’t! Get an EXMOR R compact camera instead. Chances are you’ll be using this investment a lot more than your entry-level dSLR. If you have more money, get a mirrorless camera. dSLR today are only worth getting for the ones that can afford spending a lot of time on them and buying them with gear and lenses that either excel in lowlight (below f/2.8) or zoom range (18-105 or more with stabilization) while still being able to carry all this bulk everywhere you go and taking more than 3 seconds to get out of the bag and being spotted as a photographer etc…

A look to the future
Cameras will need to produce something that will give them a big advantage over the next generation of high-powered smartphone.

With low-light image quality nailed, the only remaining problems with compacts today are native dynamic range and DOF control. And yes, I do understand this limitation because of the sensor size. Yet Lytro claims to have cracked the virtual DOF emulation process while other brands like Sony and Fujifilm are offering their way of emulating background bokeh.

I do believe people will stop buying entry-level dSLRs in the future as current mirrorless or EXMOR R compacts remove the need for one.

Sony NEX better step their game up because of the massive variety of low aperture prime lenses available on the Panasonic and Olympus micro four-third side. The Nex-7 is said to be the enthusiast upcoming NEX camera with more hands on controls and a next generation sensor capable of useable ISO 102 400 images. Fujifilm is said to produce its own version of a micro four-third sensor.

The Pentax Q will probably make Nikon release a mirrorless camera with the same specs and Nikkor lenses. I would be very surprised to see Pentax and Nikon sharing the Q mount.

dSLR cameras will either become more like working tools for the photography or videography professionals, enthusiasts and students or be bought by value-seeking consumers and stay at home.

Anyhow the gap between casual photographer and enthusiast will widen a lot more than it is today.

Photography in Concordia :: PYKtures Spotlights

2011-01-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

University has always been quite the “buzz word” that brings people to believe in the promise of higher education especially mixed with the word "photography" which is today's most popular practice. Then again, what exactly is higher education? The application period for college programs has started and there have been many of my friends wondering what is the Photography program in Concordia. Some of which are excited to build their portfolio and get in. But what are you really getting yourself into?

I know that I’ve only been there one semester but ever since the beginning of my 2nd semester, things have become a bit clearer on what the program really is about. So I will attempt to write about it in order to inform you guys.

Art School, not technical school

Being part of a BFA (Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts), it is truly a program of FINE ARTS. So, it is purely artistic program. To be honest, the technical classes (like one class that last 2 hours in the whole semester) only show an overview of what they expect you to know already. In other words, it’s best that you know the technique of photography before getting in. As in technique, I speak about spot on composition, shutter speed, aperture, metering, post-processing etc… I feel that most of the classes I’m having teach me on how to think more on how to shoot. This is CLEARLY NOT a technical program. This is NOT a place where you learn how to use your camera. If you feel you lack the technique, take a few classes at Lozeau/Photo service or go for Dawson College or Collège Vieux-Montreal as they have a commercial photography program that teaches you every technical single trick in the book in order to produce working pictures.

Film

You will shoot film, a lot of negative film rolls and use up tons and tons of photo paper sheets. You will have to pay for your film and photo paper as well. You will need a film camera to shoot film. They don’t cost a lot and if you are using fullframe lenses on your dSLR, just getting the cheapest functional film SLR compatible to your lenses will do. Image quality in film comes from the quality of the film roll you are using and the sharpness of the lens. You can also borrow Medium Format cameras from the shop but they are usually borrowed a lot. But, don’t be afraid of film. If you master digital photography, the transition to film goes on quite smoothly. It’s best to wait for darkroom access to shoot film. Else, you are just wasting your money. The darkroom unleashes so much power out of film that you’d think that your dSLR takes pictures with ugly image quality in daylight.

Portfolio

All the instructions are HERE.

To get in you have to give in 20 pictures and a letter of intent. Now don’t just go on choosing the 20 best pictures of your life, it doesn’t work that way. I often hear about portfolio being refused due to their “too commercial” nature. I then asked my teacher about what they expect to see in a portfolio submission: VISION. They want to know that you can carry an idea over a number of pictures in progression, not know that you have the technical qualifications to practice photography. They want SERIES of pictures. For my portfolio, I submitted a series of 20 shots. But, you can go by 5 shots or 10, you choose.

Will not turn you into a pro

I think to this point you are wondering if this program will ensure that you will be able to sustain your life after it ends. The answer is NO. Then again, I knew that from the start and got pleasantly surprised at the content of the classes. They push your creativity so much that if you really let the program change you, you’ll have a chance to have your work requested.

I hope you are more informed about what the program is really about and will make you decision more carefully. :)

Other useful sources
Office of Student Affairs

An ongoing list of awesome photographers :: PYKtures Flashes

2010-12-04T07:00:00.001-08:00

In my search for inspiration for my Wonderland project through some amazing blogs, teacher references, friend references and books among other things, I found a set number of photographers that keep a flow of continuous awesomeness on their part. Here's a small list of legendaries I crave for today.

Gregory Crewdson

image source: http://cityzenart.blogspot.com/2010/07/gregory-crewdson.html

It was my friend Champ that showed it to me at first, then my teacher featured that photographer in our photo class. There is clearly something I really adore about him: the narrative each image creates, a great knowledge of artificial lighting, a painting effect that surrounds the images. Aahhh, if I want to become a good photographer one day, I wish if anything to follow his footsteps.

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Crewdson
aperture.org article: http://www.aperture.org/crewdson/
other links:
http://www.emptykingdom.com/main/featured/dont-be-crude-son-be-gregory-crewdson/

Kanako Sasaki

image source: http://www.oneroll.cn/photographer/kanako-sasaki.html

As I was doing my wonderland project, my teacher suggested me to look at her work. I was so inspired by her creativity on the subject I was exploring. One day, I aim to become as good as her.

Her website: http://www.kanakosasaki.com/index.html
Her wonderlust project: http://www.oneroll.cn/photographer/kanako-sasaki.html

Julia Fullerton-Batten

image source : http://www.popphoto.com/Galleries/Personal-Work-Category-Winner-Julia-Fullerton-Batten

There is so much imagination and technical brillance to her photographs. It just blows my mind

her website: http://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/

Ann He

15 years old girl wonder. I'm speechless of her talent. There is so much flow in her pictures that make me go Woahhh everytime.

her website: http://www.annhe.com/
her flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quicklikesilver/

Tamara Lichtenstein

I really really really love her subjects and how she makes them look sooooo beautiful. I wish I was able to do that. For now, I can only envy and admire. She also manages to pull of some sweeeeeettt double exposures.

her flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamgutlich/
her website: www.tamaralichtenstein.com

Jill Willcott

She is sooo lucky to have such beautiful environment and subjects to shoot with. Eyes can't stop looking at her pictures.

her flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillwill/

Danny Taillon

He's the Champ, a schoolmate and great friend of mine that I admire, over-admire and idolize. Zen and serious, highly selective, showing only but the strongest of his pictures, there is something about his series that speak so much to me. A scary level of consistency, technicality that inspires and drives me to make my series stronger.

His amazing flickr: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/dagitaisight/

Ellen Kooi

I love her narratives. Very vivid, quite huge (when I look at the size of the prints in the rare videos that showcase them).

Her website : http://www.ellenkooi.nl/
Feature on 500 photographers: http://500photographers.blogspot.com/2011/01/photographer-197-ellen-kooi.html

A small reality check on the State of the digital camera :: PYKtures Point of View

2010-12-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today, digital photography has evolved to a point where the difference between consumer and semi-professional camera bodies isn’t significant anymore. We have arrived at an era where image quality from daylight to low light has been achieved and perfected. In the mildst of the Holiday season lets take a look at the generalities of the end of 2010.

State of the cropped sensor dSLR (1.6x, 1.5x)

The useable ISO performance of a dSLR goes up to 3200

This means we can shoot in low light now. When we use an f/1.8 lens at ISO 3200, we can nearly see as good as the human eye in the dark. People can stop panicking now.

One type of sensor powers the entire range of bodies
This means, regardless of entry-level or semi-pro body size of the same brand, all will produce the exact same image quality. It is usually the semi-pro bodies that receives the technology upgrade first then you can be sure than the entry-level camera will inherit the exact same technology. For example, the Canon T2i will produce the same exact image quality as the Canon 7D.

The 10 megapixels barrier has been breached (today’s lowest resolution is 12,3 megapixels and climbing)
This means image quality for quality 12x18 prints is guaranteed. A higher resolution won’t change a thing. Besides, most consumer digital photographers will not print their pictures as they rather prefer stocking them in hard drives, uploading them on photo sharing website like Flickr or Facebook where the picture will be displayed in low-resolution or at worse, display them full screen on electronic screens of max 1080p.

Any lens, regardless of zoom or aperture, is sharp enough for most consumer purposes.

shot with a Nikkor AF-S 18-105mm VR (the ones would wrote the lens to be unsharp are blind fools)

This also applies to image stabilized from 18-55mm up to 18-135mm kit lenses. When the proper photography technique is applied, they produce images that are clear enough to be uploaded in low-resolution on the web or printed at 4x6, 8x10, 12x18, etc… the extra things that other more expensive lenses will offer are

- Bigger practical range that go from 18-200mm up to 18-270mm (resulting in bringing less lenses for a daylight photo outing)
- F/2.8 apertures for low light shooting (resulting in smaller range pro-level zooms)
- Aperture of f/2.0 or lower for incredibly thin depth of field (resulting in prime lenses)

State of the high-end compact camera

Almost all high-end compact camera are using a 10 megapixels CCD sensor
Canon S95, Canon G12, Samsung EX1 and Nikon P7000 use the same sensor. Main benefits are useable images up to ISO 1600. The difference is in the lens and operation speed.

The S95 sports an f/2.0 lens for very low light shooting but heavily distorts when using RAW. Use only JPGs on this camera.
The G12 has a slower lens (F/2.8) and doesn’t distort when using RAW (it stands today as the only Canon camera with useable RAW files)
The EX1 has the fastest lens (F/1.8) and an amazing AMOLED flip screen but its operation speed borders on the ridiculously slow.
The P7000 has the most versatile lens (28-200mm) but is as slow as the Samsung EX1 to operate

oh Canon S series RAW distorsion, we love you!

The Lumix LX series are still the only all-round RAW capable compact cameras

With camera ergonomics and sophistication that feel perfect in the hands of photographers, it has a fast super wide 24mm f/2.0 leica lens with no distortion and perfect edge-to-edge sharpness. Image quality offers a useable ISO range up to 800, pusheable to 1600. With its fast operation, it's the best compact camera ever for photographers.

State of all digital cameras

Weather sealed or not, Magnesium alloy or not, any camera of a decent brand (Canon, Sony, Lumix, etc...) can withstand ridiculously shitty weather conditions for at least an hour.
Honestly, I feel that cameras can withstand shooting in intense conditions a lot more than most photographer I know. Let me just present you some of the projects I did over the past 3 years in intense freezing snowstorms and cold pounding rain. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW :)

Advices on how to present a photo album PART 1 :: PYKtures Tricks

2010-12-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

With digital photography becoming a common thing today, most digital photographers will tend to overshoot. Although such practices help getting the best shots (especially in situations where there’s a risk of camera shake), they also tend to create visual pollution due to the repetition it creates and confusion due to the variety of angles of the subject captured by the photographer.

This article is not the definitive way of doing things. It rather helps putting a good quantity of great shots in an album rather than spam our eyes to death and cause us to skip to the end.

You are the creator. You create for your own self-enjoyment.

Avoiding the Contact Sheet Syndrome

A contact sheet is basically a layout of all the shots you took for you to decide on which one to “blow up” (when you are shooting film and darkrooming) or in this case, process out of the many shots you took. In the darkroom, I’d spend at least an hour per print so when I choose carefully what shot to present. In the digital darkroom, it is important to apply the same mindset when looking at your pictures. Else, you’ll be presenting a contact sheet.

“Star”ing your favorite shots through screening
When facing a giant library of pictures, I go through then quickly by giving each of them a star just like I click the “like” button on facebook.

These are the questions that go through my head when I give the first star to my pictures:

- Does that picture help to advance the album?
- Do I like this picture enough to not get bored of it?
- When I go back to this picture a year later, will I still like it?
- Etc…

I then get rid of the pictures with no star and proceed to the addition of another star to the pictures I gave one star to and repeat the process until I get a reasonable amount.

Knowing the reasonable amount
You know when you have a reasonable amount when

Each shot takes the last shot’s perspective and really adds a new and interesting point of view.
Each shot is the definitive shot of the ideas you have in your head.

You failed to select the best shots when you have more than 2 shots of the same thing with similar point of view (horizontal version, vertical version etc…) that are really too close to each other. If this happens, either you select the best out of the repetitions or you find a reason to keep them aside from “I want to give them a variety of angles for them to choose which one is best” because your album will become a contact sheet rather than an album.

So there you have it: a way to keep your albums to the point and to make you remember the best views you could make.

Next part will cover the post processing workflow.

Lumix LX3 review :: PYKtures Reviews

2010-11-20T09:26:00.001-08:00

So I was about to write a super long and detailed review about the LX3, a camera that I shot more than 12 000 pictures with it already. But I’d rather talk about how perfect this camera is in the hand of photographers and how it replaced my dSLR for most of my photography.

Perfect lens, edge-to-edge sharp wide open with not a single hint of distortion or image defect correction. Super bright aperture and highly effective image stabilization makes you shoot handheld low light shots at 1/5 of a second using very low ISO values. You won’t find that in any other brands (and yes I’ve tried them all).

Surprisingly flexible RAW files, they become even better when you expose for the mids rather than highlights for Nikon cameras or shadows for Canon cameras.

The build quality of the camera is crazy. I dropped it so many times but it manages to work at its best. It even survived a lot of time in the rain.

I can mount a standard Nikon or Canon flash on its hotshoe and set it to manual for indoor photography.

It has replaced my dSLR in almost everything except for portraits or situations of high dynamic range.

So there you have it, if you are a photographer, you owe it to yourself to get the LX3 or the LX5, instead of listening to the highly marketed Canon (S95, G12), Samsung (EX1) or Nikon (P7000) “power” raw shooting compacts. They are a just bunch of incomplete consumer (good for consumer use, but photographer are better served with the LX3) toys that make you “believe” in something you can achieve with the LX3.

Recommendations

I recommend you buy a wrist strap (the Leica D-Lux 4 one on ebay sells for very cheap) instead of using the neckstrap.

For maximum hotness, my daily image quality settings are

PROGRAM MODE (for daylight or every situations)

DYNAMIC
Contrast : -2
Sharpness: 0
Saturation: +1
Noise Reduction: 0

AUTO WHITE BALANCE
+ 1 Green
+ 1 Blue

Intelligent ISO: On (MAX 800)

In lowlight I’m using.

SHUTTER PRIOTITY MODE
If I shoot at wideangle, I set the speed to 1/6. Else, it’s at 1/10 for telephoto. The Panasonic OIS is the best in the world.

Buy the camera, enjoy it.

Taking pictures of my Film rolls...

2010-10-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Okay so far, I've been taking pictures of my film rolls (which I shot for my Concordia class) because I'm frigging excited to get an idea of what pictures I would print. As I saw my friend Danny print once back in the darkrooms of Concordia, Printing in film photography usually enhances the awesomeness of a film shot better than I would do with digital enhancements. Here are a few of my favorites.

Mind you, those are not the final results of the pictures. The prints are expected to rock to way higher level than these things haha.

The setup
So I took a picture of my negative using a Nikon D90 + 105VR macro lens in order to get the RAW flexibility to balance the colors back to normal. To light my negative up, I used a cls triggered sb-600 with a Gary Fong diffuser and a piece of white paper, on which I placed the film to be shot/scanned.

My fav shots so far

A bunch of album covers... :: PYKtures Flashes

2010-08-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been inspired in including some basic typography to enhance the look of my series on facebook (might be soon on some behance.net account I'll be starting this week as more projects pile up).

When I look at them again, they are awesome to look at. so... read more or... see more lol

I want... 2012

2010-08-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

I want (not to be taken in order):

To be faster and more efficient at what I’m doing. CHECK
To be better than that I think I can be. CHECK
To think about and finish processing all my creative photoshoots ONE REMAINS
To shoot more emotional portraits. CHECK
To be able to have a better mindset at photography. CHECK
To get excited about how amazing school in Concordia will be!! IT'S AWESOME
To exceed at what I’m learning over there. STILL SUCKING IN ARTH
My website up and running! BEHANCE IS WHERE IT'S AT!
My business cards! NOT READY
To exhibit and sell my pictures (and for people to get excited and buy them too) NOPE :(
To pass my driver’s license test THIS YEAR!
To get my blog running again with tons of very useful articles (concordia photo collective)
To be able to help my friends get as good as me at photography (NO TIME... I can only answer questions)
To have time to enjoy epic moments with my friends CHECK
To visit my friends around the world (Albuquerque, Chile, Europe, China) ohhh Europe and Asia this year!!!
To get my 4000 unprocessed pictures back from my failed WD external drive :(
The Nikon D700 body D800 IS COMING OUT AND I'LL GET IT COME 2013
The Nikon D7000 body CHECK
The Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.4 N GOT THE 1.8 AND LOVE IT
Someone I can love and share, create my life and passion with and even cry on about how much I’m so unpowerful and weak about wanting things and not getting them done even though I try so hard. TAEIM TAEIM TAEIM <3
To not have to write down this wishlist of things I want ever again so that I can move on becoming more. FAIL... I HAVE A TXT FILE CALLED GAMEPLAN WITH ALL THE SHIT I HAVE TO DO

Treating the Lumix jpg file with Lightroom :: PYKtures tricks

2010-06-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lumix cameras are the pioneers of compact camera technology. They started with designs and philosophies inspired by Leica and have today’s most effective optical stabilization and intelligent auto mode (a scene recognition mode). Though they current rock at the top spot, only one major flaw prevents them to be perfect: noise.

Now there is a way to treat such an issue with the power of post processing and I will show you how in this blog article.

1- Open Lightroom
2- Go into develop mode (D)
3- Go to the noise reduction tab
4- Reduce color noise to the max
5- Edit the jpg

When processing Lumix files, please notice that the “extensibility” of the file is very limited. Thus if you start seeing pixilation, it’s best to stop or find another way to get where you want (probably by reducing luminance noise… then again that would also dramatically reduce detail and sharpness).

Also, it is crucial that you only work from ISO 80-400 (ISO 400 is near limit). The ISO 800 files are untouchable (the ISO 1600 files, unless the BW film grain mode is used, are of no man’s land). Because Lumix files are mostly jpg, it is best to nail the white balance before the shot.

It is also best indoors that you DO NOT ZOOM with the FH20, to use the high aperture (low F number) to suck in the biggest amount of light possible. Only then can you achieve my results.

The Salon D-Clic 2010 Reports: NEX series (incomplete)

2010-05-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

2nd year brings a much bigger salon than before. The big trend this year is about micro dSLRs (I call them like this because their are small cameras with interchangeable lenses) and small companies making moves that relate closer to the minds and needs of today's camera users. This year I decided to go to the salon to get information on things I needed to clarify and discovered more than I could expect.

As I arrived on site, I was given a free Sony Alpha bag that made me curious of looking at the NEX system cameras. for those who don't know much about them, they represent the first generation of mirrorless micro dSLRs by Sony. I was first amazed at how fast the live view focussing was. Then I moved on to try the pancake lens and handling the camera was fun thanks fot the quality an attention to detail Sony puts in the design of the interface.

Sony prides itself at making a wet dream of a micro dSLR by using the same sensor as their conventional cropped-sensor dSLR line (which means an ISO performance comparable to the Nikon D300s). The NEX also supported sd cards which makes going from SD card devices to the NEX an easier transition. It seems that this was as close as what consumers want as it gets (the next step being a fullframe sensor in a body the size of the NEX).

When I got the time to think, I realized how flawed the NEX was.

1- The sensor being a 1.5x crop, it requires lenses that are as big as the ones used on my Nikon. Aside from the Canon DO 70-300 is, there hasn't been a successful zoom lens shortening in history... I think.

2- The minolta/alpha mount adapter for the NEX isn't fully compatible as advertised (only manual focus can be achieved throwing us back to the days of the Nikon D40 crisis)

3- The NEX doesn't have super steadyshot. While this can be understood to save energy on the camera's already average battery life (300 shots), this is a complete abandon of the design that made the Sony Alpha series so great (the Olympus PL1 has super steady shot inside... why can't the NEX do that?)

4- The interface design is sooo unphotographic with all the functions inaccessible on the fly and hidden through layers of menus. The mode dial is even hidden within the menus. It's like a camera that handles like a cellphone...

This is our victory :: PYKtures stories

2010-04-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at midnight, I got home after a long day of post processing and a tasty unusual Vietnamese meal among good friends. I then opened my email and there is it was: a message with the subject “Concordia Admissions” arrives after nearly a MONTH of wait. The letter goes as follows.

Dear Mr. Khong,

I am pleased to advise you that you have been granted admission to the Faculty of Fine Arts of Concordia University. Your program choices have been carefully considered and you have been admitted to:

Bachelor of Fine Arts
Major Photography

Oh my god!
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG OMFG
WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!

Seriously, I believe this is a victory, not only for myself but also for everybody.

Regardless of your implications in my life or the pursuit of my dream, you all were part of my life. As you might have known on my last article, I never went to school for photography. I learned everything by living and documenting life itself. Sad or happy, my life experiences are what shape what I shoot.

THIS IS OUR VICTORY for all of you who were part of my life: enemies, rivals, friends, teammates, partners, employers, mentors, models, photographers, and all passionate amazing people I had the pleasure to meet, talk and see and all of you that had to endure my never-ending speeches about photography and life etc… TAKE CREDIT! I cannot emphasize this enough.

I am a very lucky and happy human being. So far, ever since I said goodbye to engineering, AMAZING things have started to happen to me. I know some may envy me and I wonder how that streak of amazingness will last but so far, I’m pushing myself to enjoy every gifts I have so that I make sure that I don’t waste any.

I promise you that I will continue to stay this photography ambassador that I always saw myself to be by:
- Writing helpful blog articles
- Helping out my photography friends
- Getting people to shoot in many occasions and conditions etc…

Nelson Mandela once said:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I am shining with great passion and I realized that those words hold true today! I am with you amazing people today!

YES! THIS IS OUR VICTORY! HIGH FIVE PEOPLE!

It is no more a secret… :: PYKtures Stories

2010-04-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

For the past few years, I’ve been talking passionately about it and it seems the passion or addiction was strong enough to influence most of the other things in my life. My flickr gallery is composed of more than 20 000 shots; pictures kept out of more than 190 000 shutter actuations… My last semester in IT engineering went from hopeful to painful to disastrous. It seemed clear now that I was due for a change. It is no more a secret… I live for photography.

It seems strange, even freaking to think about making a hobby into a study or even a job. I was raised to separate the fun things from the hard things: fun leads you to nothing while hard work leads you to success. My parents introduced me sports, travels, cinematography and photography while I discovered Dragon ball, mangas, videogames, Japanese animations, movies and Star Trek. All of these seem to be areas where I have the most fun. Yet there was always this gap of fun vs. not fun I felt between hobbies and school homework.

Heck even during my high school years, I was drawing comic books, writing stories in secret (well okay writing poems and reading them to the girls I have a crush on and getting rejected isn’t so secret). I’d also go through countless J-RPGs on Playstation because I loved the stories. Because I was taught common knowledge in class, the gap between hobbies and schoolwork still remained. During the last years of high school (or surviving enriched science learning program), I met some friends that were into cinematography (at that time regarded as geeks by the school bullies and the hot girls). Together as a trinity of talents, we produced our own movies. During the summer, I continued using my creativity by leading children to epic adventures at summer camp. The hobby side of me was taking over. At that time, I wanted to become a videogame director or interactive storyteller. Applied science really wasn’t my thing…

When it came to apply to CEGEP, I chose to pursue multimedia to gain the tools to create the things I enjoy: videogames and movies. I’ve enjoyed every single class that involved anything visual, as they were related studies to my hobby: Photoshop, illustrator, page design, interface design, video editing, video post-processing, 3d modeling, 3d animation. Those were areas where I shined: the visual arts. I was also forced to embrace programming and other classes I didn’t like. There, my hobby became my field of study and it was amazing. Unfortunately, my other classes suffered and I had to stay extra years to finish them. It is in those times of boredom that I discovered photography as a hobby.

Where as photography at the time was mostly about the shooting, cinematography is also a longer process: scripting, planning, shooting (many takes), editing and publishing. I loved cinematography but I realized that my photography direction lacked shine especially right after I saw the movie Cashback where the director used the power of photography to make a bare supermarket interesting.

It was a time when dSLRs became affordable. Seeing more and more people using those machines led me to save up money and sharpen my skills (using a canon point and shoot camera) for a Nikon D80.

Photography became an obsession. My dad and my neighbor happened to be Nikon users. Thus, I was always borrowing their gear. Which each new lens laid a new challenge to understand and master. The lens system I had access was limitless in potential. Being very passionate about the art (you might have noticed that already with this bIog), I’ve also shared my passion to the photographers who answered my call. In a matter of weeks, I discovered social media (Facebook, Deviantart) and built a growing contact list of friends I made through photography. I was so addicted to it that I gave more attention to it than my own work (in web design at the time). Eventually, I was forced to quit my job.

Blaming my hobby to be the culprit of my main demise, I wished to shut myself from it in pursuit of a stable career. Seeing how other professional photographers I know suffer in the field, I was very afraid to throw away my life at the time in pursuit in the career I thought of embracing. Following some peer pressure, I then applied to ETS in IT engineering. The first semester seemed interesting and for most of the specialized classes, it was very interesting. I tried to stop shooting for a while but the will was always there, hunting me. Instead of taking pictures, I was networking with photographers in social media sites. I then succumbed into photo outings organized by my photography friends and drifted towards the passion once again. My marks suffered and I was forced to quit studying engineering.

Fate as it seems found a way to flunk me out of two promising career choices to make me realize a lesson: photography is my true calling. It’s true when I realize it: posting more than 19 000 shots and taking more than 190 000 actuations during the past 2 years; lightroom processing at 70-100 shots per hour (not kidding), being good enough to borrow photography gear from my friends and use/test them, getting praised, getting asked to take pictures, reaching more and more people, making new exciting friends all the time.

It is no more a secret; I plan to become a successful professional photographer. I truly believe to have the skill set and the friends that will make my dreams come true. So, may the world witness my expansion! I will enjoy it to the max!

Nikon D3000 review :: PYKtures Reviews

2010-04-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

When my friends asked me for a good cheap dSLR camera to suggest back in Christmas, I was reluctant to suggest a Nikon D3000 because it has almost everything going against it: mainly old Sony 10 megapixel CCD that most of the pixels peepers know to be darn noisy over ISO 800, no live view, no video and compatibility issues with older F-mount autofocus lenses. Within the competitors that populate this price range of below 600$, there’s the Canon Rebel XS kit, the Pentax Km (with the Kx closely priced), the Sony Alpha a230/a330 series and Olympus e400/e500 series. The word on the net talked against the design of the D3000 and leaned more towards the Rebel XS (with some written support to the Pentax cameras) due to it’s great high-iso image quality and compatibility to the full EOS line. But what I forgot to look for in a great starter camera was the way it can be used in the hands of people who don’t know how to use the specs mentioned… Thus I gave a shot at my theories in asking my good friend Cassandra who loved using my Nikon D80 a lot to get the D3000 as her first dSLR. After reading countless reviews on the D3000, I thought I knew how the pictures would turn out, but I was told wrong by the camera itself. And what camera it is!

The Nikon D3000 is probably Nikon’s last attempt at using the sensor that powered the D200/D80/D40x/D60 bodies. On the Nikon D80, this sensor could display great image quality in sensitivities up to ISO 800 then deteriorate badly when the user reaches ISO 1600.

It was also running on a pre-EXPEED color processor. The D60 was the first body to feature the EXPEED processor (featured in the Nikon D5000 and above) but I sadly didn’t have the chance to test it. The EXPEED processor is the Nikon’s newest processor. It is known to convert the horrible noise into a film-grain like pattern through the reduction of chromatic noise (the color noise) and leaving the luminance noise (the grainy noise) untouched. As a result, pictures would keep their detail a lot more than in the situation where both types of noise were reduced.

Ken Rockwell quoted the D60 to be noisier than the D40 and proved it with test pictures of his gorilla. At the time, I relied more on the written word than my experiences so I skipped that version. On the opposite side, from what I’ve heard of my photographer friend Julius Adarma, it seems that the D60 had better image quality than his D200.

On The D3000, the 10mp sensor now runs again on the EXPEED processor. I’m surprised that I can still go up to ISO 3200 and still get my color tones great with sharp detail at the cost of the shot displaying some fine grain. For sure, you can feel the limitations of the sensor when you underexpose your shot but try not to get there.

Believe it or not, I love how that three inches screen looks even if its resolution is reduced because it displays great colors and contrast that are accurate to the taken shots. On the D3000, I find the same viewfinder display as my D90; having 11-Points AF system with 3D Tracking, grid lines makes the shooting experience much more pleasant then the old 3-Points AF system of the D40. A very useful interface shows the first timer visually what the F-number (aperture) does to the lens.

The color profiles are now full customizable too. So if you want a shot to look sharper and more saturated, you enhance those features in the camera. In the retouch menu you can even add a fake tilt-shift effect. When I hear stories about the files not being sharp enough, I think reviewers try to be most unbiased by reviewing what the d3000 natively does at default setting without trying to find solution to overcome the limitations.

So far, I’ve tested the camera with the 18-55VR, the 18-105VR and the 35mm f1.8 DX. And I say again that I’m very impressed with the results I got for something that Cassandra paid 400$ for the kit (we got a great deal on it).

Which leads us to what assortment to get exactly for the budget you are paying before tax. So these are the ensembles that I’ve thought out. It is always best that you get a zoom lens for versatility over range and a fast lens for versatility over lighting conditions. The more range the zoom lens is, the better; that way, you can keep one lens during the day and use the fast lens at night when you go for a photo outing. Usually, the D3000+18-55VR kit comes paired with a 55-200VR. The 55-200VR is a great lens but is still limited only to shoot during the day.

Bottom line
Forget the D5000 and get the D3000 with a Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8 DX. I know one of my friends listened and brought this combo to Japan to take amazing pictures!

The D5000 sucks?
I believe the D5000 to be truly an error of camera design. The flip LCD screen on it isn’t quite useful because autofocus in Live View is unusable and very slow. The HD video mode on it (or on any dSLR aside from the Lumix G series) doesn’t fit consumer use (no autofocus, no decent image stabilization) and most of the people I know (you know who you are!) that are using a video dSLR don’t have time or patience to use this feature on their camera. The only redeeming factor of the D5000 is that it produces the same low-light image quality as my Nikon D90. For the 200-300$ price difference you have between the D3000 and D5000, you can get the Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8 DX that will push the D3000 farther than what you’d get with the D5000 kit alone.

But you want video?
For the 300$ price difference, you can also get the Lumix FH20 compact camera that can produces 720HD video!

As usual I will leave you on pictures I've taken with the D3000. ^^

The PYKtures Guide to FH20(FS30) coolness :: PYKtures Tricks

2010-04-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

And so I gave my FH20 to my sister and bought myself an LX3. See my impressions there

It’s been a while I posted anything. On this blog and I have many articles that are in writing at the moment. After listening to all the requests and questions I’ve received about the FH20, I now believe to have gathered enough practical information on how to make the best out of the Lumix FH20 (including how to pull of the 425 pictures trick). I write this article to be a guide and not a manual to your photographic journey with this amazing camera. There are things I might be wrong about and you can add some of your own feedback and experience in the comment section.

Summary
Compared to higher models (like the ZR1), the FH20 lacks some cool features such as
- A settable minimum slow shutter speed value (The FH20 is locked at 1/8…)
- 11-point AF mode (The FH20 can go up to 9-point AF)
- 3 shots burst mode at high fps (frames per second) (The FH20 can only go at a 1.5fps constant fps rate with infinite shots)
- Metering mode to average, center-average or spot (The FH20 is only average)
- the ability to select high-speed autofocus (not like the FH20 doesn’t focus already quickly….)
- Intelligent exposure mode that recovers highlight and shadow details using area specific ISO values (lower isos in highlights and higher isos in shadows)

Aside from video mode, there are 4 main modes that I use on the camera:
- Normal Mode
- Intelligent AUTO Mode (iAUTO)
- Sports Mode
- Film Grain Mode

I also use Lightroom3 Beta 2 to process my pictures where I usually take out the classic Lumix chromatic noise signature that looks like a pack of yellow blotches that pollute my pictures.

Cool ways to use Intelligent AUTO Mode (iAUTO)

lol at the picture... this is how cool selfshooting at 28mm can become XD

Well Intelligent AUTO Mode can be also described as “Panic Mode”, “Savior Mode”, “OMFG I need a picture taken… Mode”. Because the button is so easily reachable, it’s the Mode I always jump back on when I’m shooting in other modes and want to snap something quick and sharp with a slight compromise of image quality.

A pioneer of digital camera technologies, the Lumix Intelligent Mode reacts and adapts to many types of scenes according to the proximity, the movement speed or the lighting of the subject. Yet sometimes, it overcompensates the scene and reaches hi-iso values to capture something that can be humanly possible to get at lower-iso values. The color profiles are also quite limited in this mode: Standard, Black and White, Sepia.

I also use this mode when I have a group shot to take or have to selfshoot myself with my friends.

Cool ways to use Normal Mode

The FH20’s Normal Mode is the equivalent of the Program Mode found on more advanced cameras. As such, you have access to many practical things like color profiles, ISO value, image stabilization and autofocus behavior etc…

First cool way to use Normal Mode
- Stabilizer : Mode 2
- Color Mode : Vivid
- Burst Mode : On
- ISO: Intelligent ISO
- AF-Mode: 9-Point
- LCD Mode: Auto Power LCD
-- Flash: OFF

At all times, I shoot at -1/3 EV to save the highlights for later post-processing and get a faster shutter-speed. Intelligent ISO works in tune with most of the Intelligent AUTO Mode’s means of scene detection, so it might sometime go overboard with the ISO values.

I use Vivid because Panasonic Lumix’s Standard color mode always seems to desaturate the colors to try to match real life. Yet in our gray lives, we tend to seek life in vivid color palettes sooooooo, I choose to shoot in vivid. This way is cool to shoot anything you have your eyes at.

And sometimes, you can make the shutter speed go below 1/8 and reach 1/4 sometimes. This is the only way you can get the camera to go below 1/8 limit that Panasonic has put on this camera.

I use the Mode 2 Stabilizer because it activates only when the camera is taking the picture. Therefore, it is saving battery.

Second cool way to use Normal Mode (and the 475 pictures trick)
- Stabilizer : Mode 2
- Color Mode : Vivid
- Burst Mode : On
- ISO: 80,100,200,400,800
- AF-Mode: Single Point
- LCD Mode: Auto Power LCD
- Flash: OFF

Fooled? I’m just using a specific ISO value to shoot still subjects that don’t require a fast shutter speed to freeze. The Single Point accelerates the camera’s focusing speed to quickly lock on my main subject. This way is the most “manualistic” way to shoot with the FH20. For the ISO performance, I can get some decent sharp results up to 400. At 800, the color balance becomes weird-greeny and you have a huge lost of details. You can overcome this by selecting a proper white-balance. ISO 1600 is a no-man’s land because nothing can be recovered and the camera does a horrible job at shooting at this ISO… unless you are using iAUTO mode.

Sports Mode (found in Scene Mode)

This is THE MODE to shoot anything moving fast or when you are moving fast. It forces the camera to reach a fast shutter speed to freeze anything regardless of ISO. I usually make use of this mode when I’m shooting on a moving vehicle and when I have enough daylight. NEVER USE THIS MODE FOR NIGHT or INDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY, the camera will cram the ISO up to 800 and it will look ugly. Remember to activate burst mode in this mode. If you have a still subject to shoot while you are in Sports Mode, always revert back to iAUTO mode to capture it instead of staying in Sports Mode.

Film Grain (found in Scene Mode) in full 14.1-megapixel glory

This is THE MODE to use when you are shooting… anything black and white. This mode is better than any black and white setting I’ve seen on any camera. The brains over at Panasonic are probably the smartest ones when they thought of creating this mode.

As you might know, noise is one annoying thing that plagues the digital era mainly because it adds some unwanted color blotches to the image instead of something resembling film grain. Over the years, the processing of noise (also called noise reduction) has improved to mimic film grain (like the Nikon dSLR noise signature).

As we can see, Panasonic’s noise reduction on ISO values above 400 removes detail and fails to suppress additional coloration. What if the noise reduction behavior was not to reduce noise at all? The Film Grain Mode is the result of that way of thought!

Every shot I take in Film Grain Mode is taken at ISO 1600 and 14.1-megapixels with no noise reduction. As expected I get a shitload of noise, but because I don’t have noise reduction, I get all the sharp details I would have if I was shooting at ISO 100 and a nice grain-like render to my pictures.

The cool way to use this mode is to cram the exposure compensation to +2 EV to create that cool looking high-contrasty black and white look with little to no mid-tones.

This is also the mode I use for night or lowlight shots without flash.

Using flash for this mode is also very cool.

HD720p Video Mode
It’s functional, it’s sharp, decent colors better than the cellphone… what else? Oh, you cannot zoom when recording… bummer.

And voilà!
My secrets have been unveiled! Please go forth and spread the joy of shooting with such a cheap yet awesome camera! If you have other questions and feedback please comment.

Appendix A: Lightroom
Yes, I do use Lightroom to process my pictures regardless of their source. For the FH20 jpgs, I usually just remove the chromatic (color) noise (slider located in the details tab in Develop mode) and slightly bring some vibrancy (in develop). For the full article about lightroom, please refer to this one.

Appendix B: Lumix FH20 Vs. ZR1
Yes, both cameras have similar feature. Fortunately, I have had a user in my community do some interesting testing and also done some reading for my sake to come up with some interesting results. Replaced by the radically better ZR3, the ZR1 is an older camera than the FH20, I think of it as the testing form of the FH20...
- The ZR1’s lens is Leica-branded: think of a wider (25mm instead of 28mm) non-distorted version of the FH20 lens with a slightly sharper rendering.
- The ZR1’s lens supports Power O.I.S. : This is Lumix’s new optical image stabilization engine. It is advertised to be much better than the old Mega O.I.S. equipped on the FH20 so this mean lower reachable shutter-speeds (so that you can set the minimum shutter speed to go as low as 1/2)
- The ZR1 has almost all the Lumix features you can find in higher models: as mentioned above.
- The ZR1 has an HDR mode.
- The ZR1 has a better screen: better view angle so that you don’t have to activate this crappy high-angle lcd crap mode.
- The ZR1’s lens can ZOOM WHEN RECORDING VIDEO!
- The ZR1 has Venus V engine: faster AF (thus the ability to select the high-speed focusing modes…).
- The ZR1 cannot reach max resolution with film grain mode
- The ZR1’s lens is 25-200mm in 35mm equivalent and the FH20 is 28-224mm

If you are hesitating between FH20 and ZR1, there is around an 80$ difference between both. It really depends if you want a better lens due to the Leica-branded nature of it combined with Power O.I.S. If I had more money, I’d get the ZR1 instead. But so far, the FH20 has served me plenty!

and now the answers...

To the people who can’t reach my results,
you are not me… Having been in photography for a while and being incredibly good at it, I am known to push some photographic hardware above their consumer specs to see how cool they can really be. What can you expect from a cheap high-valued 200$ camera? This is entry-level price for a decent performing camera, not a premium! If you are complaining about performance just go grab a Lumix LX3 or a Canon S90 and be done with your complaints!

To the manual control freaks of photography,
I believe in automatism. Through the advances of technology, AI has evolved to help and render some human practices practical so that the user can think of other things like composition and creativity. To understand how a camera thinks is to be in sync with the creative tool rather than force our beliefs onto it. If you can't evolve, please let me be the first to welcome you to 2010.

While using my dSLR, I mostly take my pictures in some kind of automatic modes either it is with program mode, aperture, or shutter priority or even manual with the auto-iso function activated. Like anybody, I just want a sharp picture when I’m in low light conditions (shutter priority) and I want to control my DOF on a selective focusing situation when I have enough light (aperture priority)...

A Photographic Journey Across My Usual Summer (2011) :: PYKtures Spotlights

2010-03-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Every spring, I look forward to see Montreal burst with life. This city enter an amazing growing process of great visual orgasms presented week by week until summer strikes.

Every summer, Montreal is alive. The World comes to Montreal to celebrate and loves it. I love it too.

It is no wonder why I feel very attached to this city more than the fact that I've lived next to it for the past 24 years and will live there for probably the rest of my life; more than the fact that I haven't been into other big cities around the world aside from Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles (can we count Cancun into this?).

Let me take you on a photographic journey to a summer in Montreal.

April: Nature's festival

It the time of the year where I can witness the rebirth of nature and celebrate it.
Outside, millions of buds grow at great speeds. Some turn into flowers and gracefully fill the landscape. It's amazing to walk outside too because the weather is usually always sunny with blue skies.

Inside, the Botanical Garden lets thousands of butterflies go free in one of its many greenhouses and I usually go there with my macro lens to capture some floral pieces as well as the butterflies themselves.

PYKtures suggest: Use a lens that has a short minimum focus distance and a high focal length to get close to the objects and blur the background. Or a wide angle lens to shoot some amazing urban landscapes.

May: Rebirth of Street Life

The people of Montreal just fill the streets. It's amazing to witness the neighbourhoods on the Plateau or Miles End where buildings live in harmony with the natural vines that grow on them. The sun sets a lot later by then. Going for late evening snack and drinks with friends after sunset is quite relaxing. Bike rides to the south shore from my place in Brossard bring me to a spectacle no 514 people can admire.

PYKtures suggest: Bring a small lens like a prime lens to capture some discreet and intimate street photography. Or a wide angle lens to shoot some amazing urban landscapes.

Picnic Electronik (Every Sunday from May to August) Base Price: 10$

International DJ's come to set Jean Drapeau on a rhythm every Sunday for all summer. Just go there, relax, party with good friends. Outside. Voilà. Good times.

PYKtures suggest:Don't bring your dSLR. Just keep a compact camera close with a wide angle, enjoy time with your friends and shoot yourself with them on some occasions and relax.

June to August: The Endless string of Festivities

In June begins the endless string of Montreal's festivities. If you are staying there, it is difficult to get bored with what Montreal has to offer aside from just taking it easy, wearing light clothing, sandals and relaxing and admiring sunrises and sunsets.

After taking a look at what Montreal has to offer this year, I feel this summer is going to be epic. The key here is to get there in ADVANCE and NEVER COME LATE TO A PARTY.

PYKtures suggest: Street or Performing Arts photography is super cool. Shooting this will require a fast lens (something of f/2.8 and lower) and some medium to high ISO values. STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT NOISE! I will give more specific suggestions as we move on.

Grand prix celebrations (this year is June 10th to 12th) Base Price: Free

Almost every year, the Formula One world championship lands in Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Montreal celebrates it big. Being the first international visit Montreal receives, the urban population sky rockets for those three days. Many of the streets of downtown around Crescent street are closed to make way for lavish sports and luxurious cars to park and be exposed to eyes around. Playstation machines, free giveaways, concerts, pit stop competitions, celebrations of motorsports attract huge crowds. I usually go there to listen to the free concerts which are usually comprised of highly dynamic cover bands.

PYKtures suggest: it's also a great time to apply do some street and event photography again. You can also use a wide angle lens to get low on the street and shoot some exotic cars or use a high vantage point to capture the high crowds of people moving. Use a fast lens (low F number) to freeze the concert artist at some 1/125 shutter speeds.

Les Francofolies (June 9th to 18th) Base Price: Free

If you thought you've listened to everything about music being sung in French, listen again. The Francofolies is a huge celebration of music being sung in French. Even if you don't understand a word of what's being sung, your ears will be pleased by the tunes being played there.

The Francofolies is such a big event that you sometimes need to plan out your sortie. If there is an artist you wish to listen to, I suggest that get there some minutes earlier to have a decent view of the stage and stand within a good distance of the speakers to feel the artist's intentions. Every hour, the many stages has artists performing. Because you might not know the artist, it is best that you consult the website for the schedule. Usually the artist's MySpace website is accessible or you can look up his name on YouTube. If you like the artist, put it in the schedule. That way you can enjoy the music you enjoy played live in front of you and that's how I enjoy my Francofolies. Bring binoculars!

PYKtures suggest: Use a high vantage point to capture the high crowds of people moving or a good fast telephoto to get close with the artist. Bring a combination 2 lenses going from 17 to 200mm or a zoom and a prime lens. The point here is to use a fast lens (low F number) to freeze the concert artist at some 1/125 shutter speeds. Don't you dare try flashing!

St-Jean Baptiste (June 23th-24th) Base Price: Free

Québec's day of celebration. For two days, the people of the Québec province celebrate their identity. This day happends in two ways: either to go to Québec on the Abrahams plain and get drunk in celebrations (which I plan to do someday!) or you attend the many culture celebrating concerts around the many regions of Montreal, and get drunk in celebrations. It's a moment you want to spend with your friends to do something...

PYKtures suggest: DON'T BRING YOUR DSLR! Just keep a compact camera close with a wide angle, enjoy time with your friends and shoot yourself with them on some occasions.

Montreal Jazz Festival (June 25th to July 4th) Base Price: Free

Montreal's biggest music party ever. Right after the St-Jean, music artist around the world come to play in the Quartier des Spectacles and around the Place des Arts. Hundreds of amazing free concerts are given as long as paid ones for the better known artists. Last year, I went there for 9 straight days of free concerts and I've been well served by new discoveries and autographs.

Jazz fest is such a big event that you sometimes need to plan out your sortie out to look for the artist you want to listen to. I suggest you guys to NEVER ATTEND THE BIG SHOWS unless you plan to go there and wait in your spot an hour or two before the concert starts. Last year, because it was a highly advertized free concert, people waited 5 hours for the Stevie Wonder concert and those who came an hour before had to be put elsewhere in front of decent big screen with some questionable acoustics placed in other locations around the site. And yes, you will stand VERY CLOSE to the next person and will not be able to see a thing sometimes if you are small. Bring binoculars!

Sometimes, some of those big concert artists do something amazingly special, like Patrick Watson who played some songs in the middle of the crowd instead of on the stage.

I'd rather suggest you to attend the lesser known concerts, where you have a decent view of the stage and stand within a good distance of the speakers to feel the artist's intentions. Every hour, the many stages has artists performing. Because you might not know the artist, it is best that you consult the website for the schedule. Usually the artist's MySpace website is accessible or you can look up his name on YouTube. If you like the artist, put it in the schedule. That way you can enjoy the music you enjoy played live in front of you and that's how I enjoy my Jazz Fest.

PYKtures suggest: Use a high vantage point to capture the high crowds of people moving or a good fast telephoto to get close with the artist. Bring a combination 2 lenses going from 17 to 200mm or a zoom and a prime lens. The point here is to use a fast lens (low F number) to freeze the concert artist at some 1/125 shutter speeds. Don't you dare try flashing!

L'Internationnal des Feux Loto-Québec (June 12th to August 14th) Base Price: Free

A Fireworks world competition that happens in Montreal's little theme park, La Ronde. While the best spots to witness the beauty of those exploding rockets is on the LaRonde site, many of us don't want to pay to get in. So the other good spots to see the fireworks are: the Jacques Cartier Bridge, the Clock Tower of Old Port, or right under the bridge near Metro Papineau. It's also wise to check out in what direction the wind is going because you might just see the smoke and not the fireworks... Bring a radio with you too and tune it to the frequency of 105.7FM because the fireworks are supposed to explode in sync with the music. Those events happen every Wednesday and Saturday nights at 10pm.

PYKtures suggest: get as close to the fence as you can. Bring your tripod with a wide zoom lens and a remote (if possible). Put your camera on M mode and slow down the shutter till you hit BULB (manual shutter control). The trick is to open your shutter while a fireworks rocket explodes and close it when it's done. As for ISO and Aperture values, I'll leave that to you. I usually use the lowest ISO value with a very small aperture (f11) and let it rip.

Montreal Fashion Festival (August 4th to 7th) Base Price: Free

Invited DJ's dropping the beat next to music artists performing the music that produce the rhythms on which models walk the runway dressed in hopefully interesting attire. Thousands of cameras of all sorts come to populate McGill college street between Montreal Trust Center and Eaton Center. It's quite an interesting event because I usually go for the shows that display some cool stuff and listen to the cool and relaxing music that plays. It is also common that shows don't start on time and are delayed for more than 30 min. Fashionably late is a word that describes this philosophy perfectly.

The best spot to enjoy the fashion show ISN'T AT THE CAGE OF THE PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS (they have the job to mechanically shoot the walking model from a frontal point...), it's best to look at this from the side. To easily get to the side of the runway, I usually go into Eaton Center then take the escalator to the 2nd level and take the exit where the Starbuck Cafe is located. There, you usually have spots to stand above the crowd and get a nice vantage point. Enjoy the last big event of the summer then!

PYKtures suggest: YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER! YOU AREN'T OBLIGED TO SHOOT EVERYTHING! (just what you like) Outside of this, you want to get a fast telephoto lens (something that has a focal length above 55mm). The best settings for this is to use continuous autofocus on a single point to track the subject's movement and take burst shots at 1/160 speeds with the lowest ISO possible... If your shot is too dark, use a higher ISO, get a faster lens. etc...

This happens if you are trying... too hard... (click on picture to see)

Seriously... A telephoto lens... WITH a flash?... WTF the model is like... super closed to you man...

now lets show the real shots I took...

Otakuthon (August 13 - 15) Base Price: Free (yes it's 20$ to get in but... ^^)

To sum this up, it's a Halloween costume party during the summer where many fans of cartoon culture dress up in the costumes of their favourite heroes. They are the cosplayers. The name "Otaku" defining an over hardcore anime fans might traumatise some of the common people around Montreal, but I was proven wrong last year.
Most of the costume and behaviours show a lot of enthusiasm and most of the costumed population wants to mimic their character well. If you stay out of the other Japanese culture habits and events being organised there (like some weird disco dance, karaoke competition...). You end up looking at a Cartoon Wonderland made out of real people. It's quite interesting.

The asking admission price is really off the charts though but I guess the organizer didn't received much submission to expose there... oh well.

PYKtures suggest: BE OPEN MINDED. Ask kindly the cosplayer to pose and they usually will help you on getting great shots (because they want to be shot too ^^ ). If you are cheap, you can catch the cosplayers outside the exhibition halls and shoot them outside. Bring your normal lens or a telephoto portrait lens with a fast aperture to take some great portraits.

here's a shot to show you how much Cosplayers love Photographers ^^

Aftermaths: Go Travel! Base Price: Your travel ticket

YEAH! My family and I usually escape Montreal to look for nature hikes elsewhere. It's also important to get some air... nature air to resource ourselves. Last year, I went to Cancun, Mexico and stayed a week in Toronto. The year before, I went to the West of Canada. So yeah, if you can, just travel.

PYKtures suggest: Carry CLOSE TO NOTHING. Seriously, you will not be doing any serious photography while you travel. You are there to live and enjoy the culture shock, not to view it. I usually carry a long zoom 18-105VR and a prime lens 50 1.4 (now 35 1.8) with me.

Although I've cited many things I attend throughout the summer, I've also:

- Biked,
- Taken hikes around many streets of Old Montreal, the Plateau and Miles End,
- Climbed Mount Royal so many times.
- Went on many nature hikes etc...
- Look at sunsets,
- Enjoyed time with my friends,
- BBQ
- Go to get some good cheap eats in Chinatown,
- Lived.

So yeah, I hope you can enjoy your summers in Montreal as much I as enjoy them. They've been getting better and better each year so I wish it will be the same for you guys.

Now I'm going to finish my website! ah!

Fluidr: The Quest to Improve Flickr :: PYKtures Spotlights

2010-03-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

Here's the link to Fluidr right away. Flickr users log in on the upper right!
And here's the link to my Fluidr. teehee ^^
And here's the link to Marie's Fluidr. She's the one that showed me that awesome way to make my Flickr look hotter!

I love Flickr. It stores and protects all my original jpg shots very well and the pro account gives me unlimited uploads for a mere 40$CAN per year. But that solid website can't afford to evolve at the speed of Facebook.

When viewing pictures, Facebook uses the AJAX programming philosophy to specifically load the next shot without reloading the whole page or just load the specific content you want to see or use. With Flickr, you need to RELOAD THE WHOLE PAGE to look at the next picture or even post a comment. Very time consuming, it becomes a frustration in the long run.

While Flickr displays smaller sized shots by default (500 pixels), the pictures keep their original colors. The gap between Flickr photo quality and Facebook quality was once HUGE. Before, this reason alone motivated most of us to use Flickr pro account (or other photoblogging websites) as our main photo account. Believe it or not but my friend once made 4x6 prints of Facebook shots and they look pretty darn good. Now that Facebook is giving users the means to keep decent 720 pixels versions of their pictures, I believe people will lose interest in what Flickr has become: great image quality storage with an ass-shitty interface.

Being the number one photo hosting site out of Facebook, Flickr should have gained the possibilities to evolve right?

It's not like they didn't try to make it better by:

Releasing an simple yet horrible looking external photo uploader
Improving their flash-based slideshow program, even making it embeddable to blogs and websites
Flickr Organizr is a decent AJAX-powered way yet hyper buggy way to organise pictures.
Improving their search engine with AJAX and making the results "slideshowable"

But those things simply didn't improve the way Flickr users navigate from picture to picture. This annoys me a lot and I'm sure I'm not the only one. One good thing Flickr did was to release an API module for the community to develop applications to improve the life of the Flickr user.

The current hot stuff around are:

Decluttr: it's the new way to show Larger version of the 500 pixels shots. It's better and much simpler than Big Huge Labs's offering. All you need to do is to put www.decluttr.com/(Flickr picture ID). Here's an examplr of a shot I put in Decluttr. Your flickr picture ID is found in your usual Flickr URL: "www.flickr.com/photos/your_username/YOUR_PICTURE_ID"
Flickriver: it's the new way to browse from picture to picture. Pictures stream continuously as you scroll down the page. To use Flickriver, just add "iver" next to Flickr and see. Look at my Flickriver.
TheGOOD Uploadr: an Adobe Air and better way to upload pictures to Flickr as it offers a lot more options than the normal uploader.
Big Huge Labs: a nice set of stuff to play around with Flickr pictures.

Now what if Decluttr and Flickriver became one? Would that make Flickr picture to picture navigation a bit more fluid? HERE COMES FLUIDR! Seriously, the dark interface is hot, slick and a lot more dynamic than Flickr. It has the scroll down features of Flickriver and the enlargement features of Decluttr.

Here are some comparisons

Photostream

Sets

View Larger

Normal image view

I just wish now that Flickr actually makes a radical change of look just like Facebook does. Come on!

Here's the link to Fluidr again. Flickr users log in on the upper right!

Lumix FH20/FS30 review :: PYKtures Reviews

2010-03-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

This entry is dedicated to my man Choucri Bechir, a Canon G10 user that really rocks this compact like no one I've seen before clearly pwning a lot of photographers out there with better cameras. He made me drop my dSLR for a while, pick up my compact camera and shoot; he trained my eyes to better views. You can see his stuff here: http://www.choucribechir.blogspot.com/.

If you want to know how to make the most of your FH20/FS30 go here to read my article on it

I’ve lately given a first impression on the camera about how good the image quality was according to the price I paid. Yes, I did lose my F70EXR on some unzipped pocket incident and will not lose it again! I was thinking of getting another F70EXR but something really annoyed me near the prematured end of its time: lens quality and auto white balance. Even though its ISO performance would thrive to produce useable 1600 shots, bad color management and a very bad lens that produces some ugly resolution figures and a pile of lens defects would ruin its image quality. So I went looking. What in my asking price (around 200$) would satisfy my needs? On the Canon side of things, you have the SD1200is; a very typical stabilized 3x zoom pocket compact camera with regular video… Then I decided to return to the land of the Leica inspired brand: Panasonic. What I found was the FH20 (also called FS30), a hidden gem inside Lumix’s camera lineup.

Camera's official site

The camera

This is how the camera looks (image taken from dpreview). I got the black one... no choice...

It stands there, very humble without pulling any punches. Its slim and sober design derives from a long bloodline of FX cameras without the solid all metal shell of the FX series. On the non-Leica branded lens (now a Lumix DC Vario), the carved letters of “Mega O.I.S/28mmWide” stay uncolored as if such features weren’t already amazing. In fact, Lumix has moved onto lenses of 25mm wide with a better stabilizer (Power O.I.S).

The lens is an 8x zoom and surprisingly, it’s smaller and thinner than the TZ series from back in the days. I don’t know what kind of black magic Lumix has evoked to fit something of this range in something this small.

Most of the buttons are made out of semi-cheap plastic. While it’s producing great colors and sharp imagery, the LCD screen dates from the one found in the old FX33: horrible viewing angles and there is even a “high-angle” mode to activate… One can say that it looks like a high-end Pentax compact point and shoot from the back, but the designers selectively put the money where it was needed: solid metal zoom rocker, shutter button and on/off button. Those elements are bolted on an aluminum rim that gives the camera a solid feel.

So from the outside, people might think you are using a Lumix FX-type camera, which is always cool, if you are showing off. Haha

The shooting experience

Lumix has fixed a lot of things that plagued the fx35 and fs5 cameras. The operation speeds have now almost doubled! Opens fast, focuses faster (not quite there yet with the top ones but it’s still good!), shoots fast. What else do you really need? For sure it doesn’t run at the speed of a good F70EXR camera but for what it does, it does so well. Rediscovering the joys of MEGA O.I.S. brings happiness in my shooting experience: I could land sharp pictures at full 224mm using slow shutter speeds of 1/30.

There are 2 main modes I use on the Lumix: Normal Mode and Intelligent mode. Normal Mode is a very limited Program Mode where AF-points, ISO value, Burst mode, White Balance, Color Management, 2 stop EV compensation, Macro Mode, Flash (on/off) can be set among other things. There seem to be a limiter switched on that limits shutter speed of going below 1/8. The minimum shutter speed could be set on the FX35. I’m surprised that Panasonic removed that feature. You could go over that limiter by using Intelligent mode.

Intelligent mode is Lumix’s highly effective scene recognition mode. Everytime you point the camera at a scene or a subject, it cross references what it sees with every scene mode it has in store then picks a scene mode to capture the subject. Intelligent mode has now a dedicated button to push on at any time and grab a picture without fiddling with the menus. This makes shooting things you camera wasn’t set on shooting. Say I was shooting a still object. I can switch to Intelligent mode to quickly shoot to a moving one.

The camera is very smart though: it knows that it doesn’t have the best ISO performance in the bunch; it knows it has the best optical image stabilization of the bunch too. The FH20 really wants to give you a sharp picture: it chooses smartly at what shutter speed to go and usually at what ISO to go too. Unless obliged to get into Sports mode, it will always chose the slowest shutter speed to give you the lowest ISO value every time, therefore guaranteeing sharp results on still subjects.

I’ve probably landed on the best battery life I’ve seen in a while. 475 shots taken and I’m still at 2/3 of battery life… Never in my life have I reach a number this high using a compact!

All in all, it runs at a slightly below average speed of today’s 2010 generation of cameras and would follow your eyes effectively without a fuss. It will put a smile on your face because the camera has a decent screen for you to admire your pictures. The camera can even last you a whole day of intense shooting!

Image quality
When I went back to Panasonic, I was afraid to get back the image quality drawbacks of my FX35. That camera could land great shots from ISO 80 to 200. The Leica branded lens on the FX35 was very sharp wide open at 25mm but became terribly softer as I approached telephoto.

Seeing that the FH20 can be pushed up to 800 before giving up came as a big surprise. From ISO 80 to 400, it will keep most of the details. At ISO 800, it will blur the detail while keeping the noise low. At ISO 1600, unless your shot is well exposed, it produces an unusable shot.

this is ISO 1600

Color management is SPOT ON nailing the colors at almost all lighting conditions. Using the Vivid color management gives style to the pictures.

The lens of the FH20 isn’t Leica branded. Panasonic took some liberties in inspiring itself out of the Leica lens designs it was taught to produce in its factories. We can see the Panasonic Vario lens series in the Micro G interchangeable lens system too. So can we assume that the lens I’m using is good? Maybe. Well all I can say is DANG! Sharpness all across focal lengths! O_O Truly, this is a lens that sharpens every single pixel of the camera’s 14 megapixel resolution. I never thought the lens could handle such a resolution. Seriously, try shooting a 15 megapixel shot of a Canon 50D with a EF-S 18-55is kit lens... Even though the FH20 lens has some distortion at 28mm, I can witness the other cool factors of lenses on a Lumix: no chromatic aberration, no purple fringing, edge-to-edge sharpness and whahahahahahahahaahahah. Oh well, this makes me happy!

So even if this isn’t a LX3, we got some decent ISO management and a good sharp versatile lens. Viva Panasonic!

Bottom Line
It is hands down best 220$ compact of the year. The higher level will give you better customization features (like shadow correction, manual modes etc…) and probably a wider lens (like 25mm or 24mm). But for what it’s worth, get it now. I highly recommend it.

Here are the rest of the pictures I've taken with the camera. Press play and enjoy!

Mouvements in Flashes :: PYKtures Flashes

2010-03-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Okay I was a bit tipsy that night and my friend's friend organized some dance competition inside a club (Tonic, montreal). I've never tried that environment... Also I wanted to try to reproduce the dynamism of dancing so what I technically was to use a slow shutter speed like 1/15 to capture the ambient light and a 2nd curtain flash to freeze some action. What I got was epic.

I think the two group were Urban Groove(girls) and Pulse N' Limited(purple). Enjoy, use and credit when needed. ^^

Here's the whole album!

Sharpess 220$ compact camera ever? :: PYKtures Flashes

2010-03-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

Okay wow, what did I just do? Okay dudes, I lost my F70EXR that other days and recently I got the means to get myself yet another pocket cam for around 200$ (no Samsung EX1 or Panasonic LX3 or Canon S90 again...). I didn't care much about having a fully automatic camera because I was to use that for some occasional snapshots for leisure purposes... sometimes location scouting. Besides, my eye for composition kicks enough asses I can let my brain turn off and snap some awesomeness out of... anything? (Okay that just came out wrong wtv... >> )

So yeah I got myself the Lumix FH20(FS30), I tried looking at reviews or even people on Flickr who have shot with this camera: NOTHING!!! And yet I desperately NEEDED a compact camera around 200$ (poor me). Wow, that lens is sharp O_O like... Lumix basically took care of lens softness when you zoom... sorta. Look for yourself, the lens on the lumix sure ain't Leica but it might have been inspired... because it totally pwns the F70EXR for it O_O.... Okay noise thing, it can't go above ISO 400. But whatever, I'm just happy I got it now. (will give a better review soon eh?)

Next week, job hunting!

This is how the camera looks (image taken from dpreview). I got the black one... no choice...

Oh wait the test shots I took with it

Consumer level cameras in a snow storm, is it gear safe? :: PYKtures Spotlights

2010-03-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

This article goes a bit late in the season, yet I'd like to address the issue of shooting in some condition some might consider harmful for their cameras and destroy some myth at the same time. By consumer cameras, I mean photography equipment that isn't weather sealed. Weather sealed camera have rubber gaskets to prevent damaging elements such as water and sand to get in. Before, I talked about shooting in very cold conditions. This time it's about taking pictures during snowfalls or snowstorms.

So is it safe to use a consumer level camera in a snowstorm? Yes!

Just be sure to wipe out the snow out of the camera when you bring it inside and that's about it. Good quality consumer cameras and lenses of today are made tight enough to prevent an object as big as a small snowflake to get inside. If snow was to melt into water, such damaging elements need a strong enough pressure to squeeze through those tight spots.

Here are some examples of situations where I shot in snowstorms and got out of them fine.

Story 1: Epic traffic stopping snowstorm of winter 2007
Material used: Nikon D80 + Nikkor AF-S 18-135mm
Survival: YES!
That morning, my dad woke me up and told me to bring my camera because something amazing was happening. So I got on the bus to school and slept... for a very long while. When I woke up, we were still stuck in the traffic and our bus had to let us disembark in the middle of the exit. As we walked towards the metro station, it was snowing like crazy. This snowstorm surprised everyone and created one huge traffic jam. What a great morning it was!

Story 2: White background snowstorm of winter 2007
Material used: Canon Powershot A640 (Canon's plastic equivalent of today's G11)
Survival: YES!
After seeing my pictures with the nikon D80 in 2007's huge snowstorm, my parents obliged me NOT to bring my dSLR outside on another snowstorm. So I grabbed my point and shoot and ran out to catch some winter landscapes. It was snowing a lot more intense than last time. I couldn't see more than 4-5 meters ahead of me. I must say I did do some blind firing because of the amount of snow being thrown on my face. Thx to the A640's flip LCD screen, I could lie down on the snow and take some amazing ground level shots.

Story 3: A Weekend to Tremblant during winter 2007
Material used: Panasonic Lumix FX-33 and Nikon D80 + Tamron AF 17-50 2.8
Survival: YES!
Being very good at skiing, our family decided to settle down on the slopes of Mont Tremblant to test our skills on some interesting and challenging high speed drops. I was also my first run with my Salomon SC Race slalom racing skis and wow, they turn really fast! Camera wise I started my day with my FX-33 in my pocket and ended up bringing my D80 out. Snowfalls on mountain can be such a treat to the eyes. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to capture this view and share it with my friends.

Story 4: First snowstorm of winter 2008
Material used: Panasonic Lumix FX-33
Survival: YES!
That year I got tired of carrying my dSLR with me all the time so I got myself a slim pocket cam. It was the Lumix's turn to shine as I was walking to school in yet another landscape shaping snowstorm. I didn't remember much of that day besides the fact that I was yet again amazed by the magic of snow.

Story 5: A Weekend to Bromont during winter 2008
Material used: Arvind Eyunni's Sony Alpha a300 + Tamron AF 17-50 2.8
Survival: YES!
On the first day I arrived there, it snowed so much I had snow covering most of my legs and snow literally blocking my view. I'd obviously wanted to keep those memories in my hard drive so I brought the a300 with me. I can still remember how cool using the live view was (why does Nikon doesn't think of things like these?).

Story 6: First ski day to Bromont in winter 2009
Material used: Nikon D90 + Nikkor AF-S 18-105VR
Survival: YES!
Okay after a YEAR of inactivity, I've finally decided to get out of the house and do some physical activity. I must say I was really overweight and definitely needed some exercise. Because I knew I was going to stop often, why not bring a camera to help me stand still instead of moving? (BAD IDEA!) In a full day of 8 hours I managed to go down 4 times and rest in pain inside the main chalet. Pathetic! A good thing I got out of this day were amazing pictures. Because it was cold enough, the staff decided to make artificial snow and blew it right in front of us while we were going up the mountain with our asses sitting down the chairlift. At the same time, there was a huge snowstorm cloud that passed by the mountain. Result: Awesome shots, failed ski day. teehee

Story 7: Montreal's first true snowstorm of winter 2009
Material used: Nikon D90 + Nikkor AF-S 18-105VR
Survival: YES!
Woke up that day, my dad told me about a weather forecast alert about a snowstorm hitting Montreal. So I brought my camera to the city and started shooting after finishing my math assignment. It was also the same day that I got my tooth implant. Magical night as all snowstorms. ^^

Story 8: Waiting for the bus
Material used: Fujifilm F70EXR
Survival: YES!
Self-explanatory shot... lolz

After reading through all those stories, you should know by now that photography equipment of all grades can be used in snowstorm conditions. I'm sure it's not suggested to go into the snow for extended long hours of shooting but it should hold for at least an hour. If you hear someone affraid to hurt his equipment from taking pictures in a snowstorm, it's probably that person doesn't want to go in the snowstorm, not protect his camera. Just be careful but not paranoid. ^^

Pentax K7 :: PYKtures Reviews

2010-02-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

Where as economy was going down, 2009 was an amazing year for the digital photography industry. Where as Canon and Nikon continued their struggle to supremacy, other brands would strive to produce cameras to enter the next generation of post ISO 1600 performance. Long overdue, the Pentax K7, a semi-pro camera pitched to compete in the field of the Nikon D300s, Canon 7D and Sony A700, was launched to bring a new era to the Pentax users and maybe, just maybe convince some users of other brands to jump ship to the land of the SMC lenses. Unanimous, many reviews gave editors choice to the Pentax K7; it was the best Pentax dSLR ever made. At the dawn of 2010, it claimed the prize of camera of the year. Now what to do with such hype? I was quite fortunate to have pentaxian friends would wield such equipment and truly benefit of their trust to let me use their gear for a weekend.

The shooting conditions were amazing: blue skies, sunny day. I wanted to go mountain hiking with the thing but chose the Mont Royal Plateau instead as testing grounds. My gear was comprised of the top dog stuff from Pentax:
- The flagship camera Pentax K7
- The professional grade zoom lens Pentax 16-50mm f/2.8 SDM

Let the game begin!

Shooting experience

I started shooting on Program mode. I was surprised at how customizable everything could be: you can customize the behaviors of the mode to prioritize resolution or shallow or wide depth of field. The camera also brings a new vision to auto ISO behavior: I could set it to use the slowest shutter possible (in relation to my focal length) or a faster shutter speed to freeze the action before changing to ISO value. This proved highly effective. While in Program Mode, I could also use the two wheels to quickly jump from program to shutter or aperture priority. Pentax calls it the “hyper” mode. It’s a nice buzzword. The high amount of in camera customization features made me feel like I was shooting with a camera in console mode. This isn’t a user-friendly camera; you need to know where you are going with it.

While the body felt as solid as ever, the button layout made menu operations with winter gloves impossible. I’m just too spoiled by the Nikon dSLR button layout. The viewfinder is large and bright but lack the focusing screen of this generation of cameras. I only see the bright red points when I’m using the autofocus. It takes getting used to.

The shake reduction makes it possible to use a slow shutter to keep the ISO value as low as possible. I just wished it could have a blur index indicator like the Sony Alpha does by this generation.

In terms of reactivity, I found the AF to be fast but that’s the only good side. The shutter felt a tad laggy like my D80 used to be (probably because it needs to activate the shake reduction engine before taking the shot). Such lag for a semi-pro camera goes quite below average compared to its competitors (the Canon 7D and Nikon D300s). 5fps is a welcomed addition, but when the time of your first shot is delayed, a high burst rate seemed to be there to help prevent the user from missing a moment. Such an issue isn’t that big of a deal if you get used it. Another annoying factor was the time the camera took to display a picture after a shot. Depending on the usage of image correction modules (shadow and highlight correction, distortion correction, etc) it goes from 1.5 seconds (with no image correction modules) to nearly 4 seconds (with image correction modules). Slow times like these are issues that I thought to be extinct to this day and age (I don’t even get those issues on entry level Rebels or Nikon d3000). It’s probably due to a poorly conceived color processor unit that wasn’t made to analyze 14.6 megapixels of data.

Image quality

Okay, the camera behaves at the speed of something that was made from three years ago. What about the pictures it can take? Mindblasting auto white balance came to me as a big surprise; it’s amazing. It nails every single scene I aim this camera at with great color accuracy. I found it to be better than anything I tried before. This is quite the achievement for Pentax whose AWB engine was weak from back in the days of the old k10d. Honestly, I didn’t have to correct the white balance a lot during the post-processing, just enhance some saturation and that’s it. For people who are looking to reproduce highly realistic colors right from the start, this camera makes it so easy. So far, I’ve been taking low to medium ISO shots all afternoon. What about low light? I’d say it’s good up to ISO 1600 but terribly noises up and loses color balance afterwards. The noise signature seems adequately grainy without too much color patches until you go post-1600. That’s an ISO stop better than a k10d. In theory, it’s great but leading cameras of 2010 in the class of the K7 have already mastered the ISO 3200 sensitivity and are aiming to get to an acceptable ISO 6400. I have no doubt in the sensor recording a lot of rich details. The image quality gap between the K7 and the K10d is huge but it doesn’t match its peers.

Video Mode

The Pentax K7 live view and video modes are quite enjoyable to use, while the fun last. Overpowering a slow color processor to process the data captured by a high- resolution sensor while keeping the shake reduction mechanism active takes a whole lot of energy out. Thus, the camera loses energy very quickly. In the K7’s defense, I’d say that the audio-video quality is a whole lot better than Nikons. Having the shake reduction active makes shooting hand held without a complicated rig system possible too. This is a big success for Pentax.

The defective lens issue

One very frustrating thing happened to me during the testing; the 16-50mm lens seldom failed to focus on objects that stood beyond 1.5 meters of distance even when I was using the center AF-point. At first, I thought the lens was soft at certain aperture values so I called some friends to look into the lens’ MTF chart to look for the sweet spot of sharpness. Then I was a bit surprised of the lens’ softness wide open for something of its grade (this is a pro-level high grade lens after all). After doing some digging, I might have been using a lemon. Having no other lens to use, I had to put up with this problem for the duration of the test. My friend didn’t have issues using his other lenses with the K7 so this might be an isolated problem. If possible, I’d like somebody’s input on the matter.

Food for thought

For a 2010 camera of a semi-pro class, such slow overall operation is difficult to bear for today’s standards especially when other competing brands in the business are producing similar results with much more responsive bodies. It’s weird go use a camera of this generation that has issues from the era of the Nikon D200 that I expected to be fixed and perfect already. Maybe I was spoiled in testing Canon and Nikon cameras of the same class or above. Then again, Nikon D300s and Canon 7D cameras have different aims in design and application that derive more from photojournalism and moment photography.

In the camera market, there are products that were designed to comply with specific applications. Some even sacrifice some aspect of their overall performance to do so. For example, the Canon 5D is less reactive than the Canon 40D in movement photography but excels in resolution, depth of field control and ISO performance.

I believe Pentax is no speed demon and justifies it partly. For my sake, I love my D90 more than anything except the D700, which I consider being Ze perfect caméra mainly because do a lot of street photography. For landscape, portraits and still life specialists on a budget, this camera is something to seriously consider using as it produces shots with unmatched color accuracy with great resolution figures and details at low ISO. You can even call this, the poor man’s D2x. The Pentax lens library is also filled with amazing limited prime lenses to match the K7’s sensor it’s just a shame that you can’t benefit from the shallow depth of field they offer when used on a full frame body.

So who might buy this? Pentax users upgrading will see this as the second coming of Christ while users who already have a body in other brands might not find the appeal of jumping ship.

Is this the Camera of the Year 2009? It is probably on paper (buzzwords like 14.6 megapixels, shake reduction, 77 weather seals, magnesium body, HD video lead the way of the future). As far as it stands, it more like a joint marketing stunt that the camera magazine editors were trying to feed us.

Recommended with caution.

more sample pictures taken with this great camera!

The Definitive Reference Guide to the Technical :: PYKtures Flashes

2010-01-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

CLICK THIS LINK HERE!
Cambridge in Colour Digital Photography Tutorials

I've once said I hated people that focused too much on techniques, but it doesn't mean I don't like the benefit of knowing the bare necessities.

The Cambridge in Colour Digital Photography Tutorials website (oh boy that's a long name!) compiled some of the most basic technical terms of today's digital photography knowledge into many steps of comprehension.

This website, should you use it, serves as a reference guide to those seeking basic to medium technical knowledge of photography. If someone should harass you with unaccurate teaching, you can glue some of the articles seen on this website on his face.

But always remember, this website does not teach you how to make art or magic. It just explains things.

Photography in 2010: to document rather than to impress :: PYKtures Stories

2010-01-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

At the end of 2009, I’ve shot over 90 000 pictures. After shooting this much, I believe I’ve proven myself enough to be a good photographer when the moment or subject presents itself to me.

Taking a lot of shots required me to stop moving while shooting and to sit my ass down to process on my computer. Posting pictures online drew comments in that I respond to. The community involvement quickly became a necessity. This caused a lot of inactivity in my life.

For sure, carrying medium to heavy gear (lenses + camera + tripod) might be highly physical, but it also made me a lot less mobile. Near the end of 2009, I tried to lighten my load by getting a smaller bag and shooting more with fast zoom and prime lenses, but it still made me stop to take a shot. Walking/Hiking with a camera in hand doesn’t build enough momentum to become a cardio activity. With studies and all forcing my ass down in front of a desk with notes, homework and computer, I don’t think photography is a great idea to stall my physical activity.

Being easily tired in the first weeks of 2010, I made the decision to put more physical activity in my life. Thus, I started looking for opportunities to skate and do downhill skiing. While I was practicing those sports, my body didn’t seem to respond as well as some years before and I’ve quickly run out of steam. To think, I used to be a very active person, boy was I ashamed of myself to not be able to get to a level I once was.

So far, I’ve done a lot of outdoor activities with friends and family and been doing some televised aerobics. Yes, televised aerobics might sound cheesy to some but hey it’s really giving me a workout!

It has been days since I seriously shot with my Nikon D90. Ever since the beginning of the year, I didn’t have time to think about my next portraits or concepts because I’ve been thrown into a wheel of endless personal homework and outdoor activities.

The Fujifilm F70EXR has been accomplishing his duties very well as a pocket camera by offering me an ISO range of 100-800 combined with a stabilized 10x zoom and decent dynamic range. For sure the shots look a lot less good than the Nikon but at least I don’t have to carry that bulk everywhere I go. Yes I feel that the only way for me to keep photography in my life was to take pictures of the things I find cool in some interesting enough angle and nothing else.

Photography has taken a more documental phase rather than a passionate hobby of mine. It’s a choice that I took to save my life from the amazing chaos that was 2009.

Doing so did raise some eyebrows in the community I used to hang out with. Some understood while others felt sad of my lost of passion and rebelled against my decision to stop. I’m sorry to disappoint but photography has done more bad things to my life behind the scene than good. It’s weird for me to say this because I’ve lived through many memorable moments during this photographic life too and don’t want to sound too dramatic about those statements. I’ve also tried to live by that statement last year and failed to do so. But I think I’m doing well so far this year and intend to keep it that way.

Thus I’ll shoot to document my life rather than impress. There are better things in life than this.

Shooting cars is boring the 3rd time around :: PYKtures Stories

2010-01-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

Another year, another car show. When the event invite came up on Facebook, I felt already déjà vu and bored… 2010 seemed like a boring year for cars. Evolution of car design seemed to be as slow as… the Canon camera evolution rate between 2007-2009. Maybe, it’s because a longer product cycle. The car show was mostly comprised of consumer cars that are “environment friendly”. I expected little to no Top Gearesque car appearances. So if you read my blog entry until here, you might think I didn’t go (oh wait, there’s probably a picture posted before this text =_=”).

It’s Friday, I’m tired… really tired. At the very last minute, I call my friend Kai who I didn’t see for the whole Christmas break and ask him if he wants to hang out at the Car Show. Then we got it on.

The gear I brought was mainly comprised of the amazing Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and Micro-Nikkor 105 VR f/2.8. The main focus of my shoot was based on the details of a car rather than the whole body because it required more challenges in composition. I’ve also taken full body shots of cars that I found cool to do so.

The car show is hosted in Montreal’s Palais des Congrès, a very architectural building in which photography is usually prohibited outside of exhibition dates.

The first room we entered was the 7th heaven room where “high-end” cars are usually displayed. I was disgusted to find Cadillac among the attendees next to the boring Porsche and Maserati (they kept on showing the same cars year after year… we get the point already…). What frustrated me most was the absence of panels to show the model of the car. Like if I didn’t listen to Top Gear, I wouldn’t be able to identify the awesome Ferrari California… The other cool car of the room was the AMG SL65 Black present at the AMG stand: it looked like a fusion of a Mercedes and a Mustang hot rod.

The second room had Chevrolet monopolizing at least half of it. I believe Chevrolet became the new GM and had something to prove to people. Obviously its two hot cars were present: the Corvette and a Bumblebee version of the Camaro. Besides that the presentation was crappy, most of the cars there were gray… seriously WTF…

We were then treated by a display of Lamborghini, Lotus and some humongous vintage cars. Thx to the Top Gear show, I saw the famous Murcielago Sport Veloce, the last line of the Murcielago design. It looked soooo awesome, it’s like Lamborghini made a Batmobile for Batman. I was amazed by it.

I later turned my head left to find the Lotus Evora, the car with the alien aquaface. Seriously, I don’t know what Lotus was thinking, I liked the Elise very much and the Exige kept some of the Elise’s sexiness but Evora is just plain ugly or… fishy?

The vintage cars were a breath of fresh air to the near perfect, aerodynamic, environmental friendly designs of modern cars. One of my friends loves them for the amount of soul and passion given to the making of these old school machines. I’m starting to understand why. It looks like all the parts were molded out of molds taken from Renaissance Era statues. It’s crazy how classy they are!

The next room was made out of cars designed by people thinking outside of a box shaped in irregular form designed by someone that was high on… whatever hallucinogenic drug… terribly unpractical yet unique and weird in a good way. Funny stuff.

So far, only the Ferrari California and the Lamborghini Murcielago SV got my attention, but when I reached the Infiniti booth, my jaw dropped to the ground: the Infinity Essence this way comes. It looked so great from so many angles that I took 30 shots while walking around it for more than 5 times. I lost count of all the curves of that car. It felt like everything on the car made it more slippery to the air or just if someone was shaking flag to the wind and froze it. It is simply gorgeously sexy. But it makes me wonder; the shape curiously feels like a Maserati GranTurismo Japanese interpretation. Anyway, plagiarism or not, the Essence is a great add to sport cars. All that’s missing are side mirrors. This is by far the coolest car of the show.

I could go on and on about the Essence but I ran out of time writing this article so I'll leave you with pictures from my car show outings of this year and the one before. Enjoy

Car show 2010

Car show 2009

Lunch at Il Campari Centro :: PYKtures Stories

2010-01-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, we went to eat lunch at Il Campari Centro. This is one of the highest rated Italian restaurants in Montreal.

I was delighted by the presentation, service and the quality of the food of the place as everything was above top notch. I’m even thinking of spending my restaurant money on expensive lunches instead of decent dinners to eat in fancy places. The gap of quality is sooo wide.

My appetizer: Angel hair thing...

My "plat de résistance": Pork

My desert: Chocolate Mousse

Best Lunch Ever...

F70EXR, 24 days later :: PYKtures Reviews

2010-01-15T13:38:00.000-08:00

I seriously don’t know how much time reviewers spend testing a camera in real life situations. I think that my first review of the fuji F70EXR camera was mainly built on my first impression of that fabulous camera (no pun intended lol). 24 days later after the purchase, I’ve taken many many many shots with it and can now give you some more details on it.

Shooting experience

It feels amazingly great. The reactivity of the camera through zooming, focusing and shooting rival those of dSLR speeds as you can really get closer to the words of point and shoot while other competitor need to point, focus and shoot. The usage of all the built in elements of the camera from the super bright LED AF-Assist lamp to the flash is incredibly smart: everything there is used without overcompensation. For example, the AF-Assist light will flash only once during a very short moment for the lens to find focus. To think Canon ELPHs were fast or the Nikon Coolpix s640 to be reviewed as fastest working compact, none of the marketing bullshit each brand is vomiting out can save their cameras from even trying to match the speed of the F70EXR. There is nothing today that compares to the speed at what the F70EXR is running at.

One thing though: you must remember to FORMAT your SD card BEFORE using the camera. Failure to do so will reduce the speed of the camera by more than half.

Image quality

FULLY USEABLE ISO800!!! Do you read this? Most of today’s compact cameras lose big in image quality after ISO400. At ISO800 and above, some resort to heavy noise reduction to soften the image, some emulate film grain and some just look damm ugly! I remember my Lumix FX35 (which was the best compact of its time) producing really bad ISO400 pictures, so bad I have to stay below ISO200 and pray that the optical stabilizer helps taking ¼ second exposure shots… Now I don’t mind jamming the ISO up to 800 and still getting my shots right shaaaarp! ISO1600 is yet only useable for the Pro-LowLight mode though.

Statements we read on the net or elsewhere about the F70EXR:

Yes. The lens will occasionally produce corner softness at wide angle and I miss the wide-angle sharpness of the Leica lens of the FX35. Apart from that slight wide-angle shortcoming, the 10x Fujinon lens of the F70EXR is consistently sharp during the range.

Yes. There will be some or a lot of chromatic aberration, yet they don’t appear in such a big presence to distract the viewer from the big picture.

Yes. The video mode is shitty in quality, but you can zoom and autofocus in real time during the recording.

Yes. The colors won’t look the same as the Canon or Lumix renderings as they tend to be more on the magenta/blue side of things. In reaction, you can use a specific White Balance setting or just calibrate your own. I tend to just leave it be.

Yes. You will have to shoot at HALF RESOLUTION (5mp instead of 10mp) to achieve the image quality I rave about. Face it: this is a SuperCCD camera. Thus, it works by combining the captures of two sensors (5mp sensors in this case) into one image. Is there a compact camera that takes great ISO800 shots at full resolution? Yes! But you’d have to pay more than 2 times more to get the Lumix LX3, Canon G11 or Canon S90.

Yes. It’s 210$CAN at le Centre Japonais de la Photo in Eaton Centre.

No. You can’t shoot RAW, but you get an already absurdly good image quality that beats the shit out of any compact produced RAW shot except the G11’s.

No. There isn’t a Manual Mode on the F70EXR. It feels more like Shutter Priority. When you set the camera to Manual Mode, you are given many shutter speeds and 2 aperture values. Because changing the aperture value (in Manual Mode) on the F70EXR doesn’t influence the depth of field (DOF), I can attest that the aperture is emulated. The DOF is only influenced by the aperture value you get at each focal length of the Fujinon Lens.

Best settings for the camera

Having read some of this information of someone else’s website, I’ve decided to try it on the field and have remade my own version of it.

For ANYTIME shooting: These are the settings for pure point and shoot bliss. When you feel like using the flash, just put the flash into “Slow Synchro Mode”

- Mode: P
- ISO: Auto(800)
- Size: M 4:3 – 5 megapixels
- Quality: Fine
- Dynamic Range: 400
- Simulation Film: Velvia

For day shooting: this is to shoot during the day only. Flash doesn’t work here. Note that putting the DR to 800 makes the camera shoot at ISO200 constantly.

- Mode: EXR
- EXR Mode: DR Priority
- ISO: Auto(800)
- Size: M 4:3 – 5 megapixels
- Quality: Fine
- Dynamic Range: 800
- Simulation Film: Provia

Comparisons with competitors

Canon SX200is: This is the superzoom that has ALL the priority/manual modes of dSLR.

Lumix ZS3: HD video has become a big trend, I’d consider this camera to be interesting for those who look for an HD video oriented performer. (mainly because this one can zoom and focus during recording while the SX200 can’t)

Notice that none of these cameras can produce great ISO800 shots. If image quality is most important to you, get the F70EXR.

F200EXR: I tried that camera. I must say that image quality wise, you might get a slight edge because of the bigger sensor in that camera. But the features of the F70EXR like the Pro-Lowlight make up for it.

Now that the article is finished, here are some more of the shots I took with the F70EXR!!! Press PLAY and ENJOY!

Getting out of the city :: PYKtures Stories

2010-01-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

I’m at heart a nature person. In my childhood, I used to spend a lot of time doing a lot of outdoor activities by going to summer camps and even went to become a camp counselor for many summers, and ski instructor during many winters. Being stuck to the city with all school studies and jobs, I’ve rarely gone to walk in this peace haven. Thus, I spent most of my vacation time just looking for nature hikes instead of beaches to lie down.

Obviously, my desire to hike is much associated to my love of street photography: I take a lot of photowalks in Montreal to shake the stress out of my system. Listening to the city breathing is quite nice. Yet after many months spent at the same place, I got sick of it and needed a getaway to the quiet and peaceful.

Thankfully, I have a big park in front of my house where I take walks a lot, but even this safe haven of insanity isn’t enough to prevent me from going insane. During my Christmas break, I had a chat with fellow photographer Zhiyao for a mountain outing at Mont St-Hilaire for some landscape and nature photography. It would be a great occasion to try out my newly acquired snowshoes (Christmas gift from the parents). I’ve also gathered some people to join us for the hike and last Saturday, it was D-Day.

For that day, I wore polypropylene undergarment under my ski jacket and pants. Polypropylene clothes are made very light and thin. They keep you warm during activities in cold to very cold weather because they don’t keep the humidity in. I believe everybody here in Québec should at least have a set of those at home as they are very handy for walking in near -25°C temperature.

The gear I decided to use was:
- Nikkor AF-S 18-105VR (for most of the walk)
- Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 (for the later darker moments of the walk)

So back to Saturday, my friends picked me up at my place at 11:30am then we drove to the mountain. I didn’t expect the McGill University to own the nature park.

Anyways, it didn’t take long before we got our boots (snowshoes in my case) on the snow and started walking among all the other outdoor lovers with sticks and high-end hiking equipment, which we didn’t have. Compared to the easy architecture lines of the city, looking for interesting things to shoot during the hike was quite a challenge due to the chaotic texture of the trees. Yet chilling out with my friends in a peaceful forest gave me the priceless feeling of satisfaction.

Walking with the snowshoes happened to be the best idea I got yet. With those I could go “offroad” and get to the vantage points I wanted. The amount of grip the claws gave was so great I could confidently walk/run up or down any surface, even on the edges of a cliff. The only downside was that they make the sound of a Gundam robot during each step I take.

Some friend brought his newly bought Nikkor AF-D 10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens and let me try it for some steps. The feeling was amazing and it brought something new to composition (mainly because it could almost see 180°).

The best moments of the day were when we entered sunlight as we walked from the shadow areas of the mountain to the sunny ones. I was immensely amazed by the frozen landscape that covered the perfectly blue sky. It felt like entering a fairy tale in the land of the Narnian Ice Queen.

When we reached the summit to the sum of all our efforts, we were rewarded by a beautiful sunset on a flat yet textured landscape. I was turned speechless by the view as if time slowed down to the speed of sunlight. A moment of Zen carried my thoughts as I stood there taking pictures.

Naturally, when the excitement’s gone, it was time to go down. Because we only had 15 min to go down the mountain, I ran down with my snowshoes while still looking for interesting composition. I couldn’t get my eyes of that beautiful gradient behind all the treeline.

When we finally reached the parking lot, we were the last ones left to leave. Then we went for some coffee and treats over at Tim Hortons before calling it a day. And what a day it was! I’d redo that anytime!

For all the pictures look here

Addedum: You might have noticed how bigger the pictures are. I wanted them to be bigger to match the size of those found in Boston The BIG Picture. This is also a test of how the new layout reacts to big pictures too. Please comment on how readable this article is. It will help me post better entries. Thank you!

Compact cameras of 2010 :: PYKtures Spotlights

2010-01-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Recently camera manufacturers have released their models for the year 2010. Many of them share similar shapes and characteristics in camera design rather than trying to differ from one another. All lead to one goal: versatility.

1st trend: Wider and wider going from 35mm to 24mm
Not like you’ll really look but, if you look closely at the 35mm equivalent wide focal length of each camera lens you’ll see that most of them start from 24mm to 28mm. I believe many manufacturers finally understood how many compact users like to self-shoot with or without friends. When I had the 25mm lens on my FX35, I was able to put many heads into the frame.

2nd trend: Goodbye 3X zoom lens
2010 marks the end of the classical 3x zoom lens. Back in the days, giving the focal range of the lens of a compact camera was to talk gibberish to the consumer. Instead, the multiplication factor was born to tell the consumer that he can zoom in X times his “normal” field of view (which at the time was 35mm). Ever since the first 28mm zoom lens got out, the equation slightly changed to X times the “wide” field the view. One shouldn’t be surprised to see a 24mm wide-angle zoom lens have more Xs to reach a narrower zoom lens’s max zoom.

For example: to get to 200mm, a 24mm zoom lens needs to have an 8.3x zoom where as a 35mm zoom lens only needs 5.7x. Thus, the number of Xs can be used as a false marketing tool (but we’ll get to that in another blog article)

My point here is to show that 4x has become the standard instead of 3x and many have gone past the 7x zoom ratio.

3rd trend: Goodbye handgrip, Hello pocket.
The handgrip was once popular among compact camera mainly because it encouraged a better tactile photography experience to the user’s hands: better grip, better stabilization. The trade-off was that the camera wouldn’t be pocketable. As the image stabilizer got better, the need for a better camera grip was discarded for the sake of portability. For 2010, most of the compact cameras can be slid in medium pockets.

We can now understand how versatile the compacts of 2010 will be in terms of the lens. Usually, a zoom lens’s sharpness or brightness degrades in correlation of its amplitude: low aperture (f3.3 instead of f2.8), lens defects like chromatic aberrations, distortion and corner softness arise from such design choices. As such, some brands even stopped associating their lenses to famous lens makers like Leica or Carl Zeiss. Sony mostly jumped to G lenses, Panasonic uses Lumix DC Vario lenses. I presume it’s because they couldn’t afford to keep producing lenses up to lens makers’ standards and have to process the lens defects with the onboard image processor. It seems only Schneider-Kreuznach remain in some Samsung and Kodak cameras.

I believe it’s a good thing that zoom lenses are this versatile over sharp. In good light, they give the consumer the opportunity to reach everything they want either close or far.

Lets continue with other trends.

Continuing bad trends: The quest for megapixels on compact
It seems the release of the Fuji EXR cameras, the LX3 and the two Canon flagship compacts didn’t make the consumers or manufacturers understand how insignificant megapixel boosts over 10 are. Some of the 2010 compacts have a megapixel count of over 14!! I have to disagree with the choices. Unless some genius engineer programs a fast noise removing algorithm into the image processing chip of a camera, I don’t believe image quality in something this huge can be achieved beyond ISO200. Pointless if you ask me.

Continuing good trend: The spread of low light performing sensors
After the success of his EXMOR R sensor (fast fps, sweep panorama, good lowlight), Sony added two new entries in the X-type compact series: the super-zoom HX5 and slim-compact TX7. They now have the EXMOR R sensor in the H, W and T series that compose of Sony’s compact line. Just before 2009 ended, Fuji’s got his EXR sensor into the S200EXR and F70EXR to give out a compact and a bridge solution to the consumer. We can see that both brands have produced great performing low light machines and are making the best of them.

I’ll have to say that 2010 will be a very interesting year for those looking for compact cameras because most of them fill the convenience of having one: responsive and portable with a versatile stabilized high zoom lens.

Consumer level cameras in cold winter weather, is it gear safe? :: PYKtures Spotlights

2010-01-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

One of the main phobias about winter photography is the weather itself. Some say the gear jams and the battery dies at temperatures below 20 Celsius. They say a lot… really.

The possibility of gear malfunctioning in below freezing temperature might be true… through very long exposure to the weather maybe. Usually the obvious symptom is the LCD refresh rate lagging behind. The other issue might be an accelerated battery consumption (as in the battery flashes red like if all the power was drained). This doesn’t mean the camera is dying nor are you damaging it. I have done many photo outings in such conditions.

Extreme cold shooting 1: New Year All-nighter

After partying like a rockstar over at Tyler’s place during the passing to the year 2009, me and some other friends went outside on my friend’s balcony to shoot the sunrise. It was freezing outside and we stayed there for at least an hour or more I don’t remember. The d80 still worked months after this.

Extreme cold shooting 2: Winter Full Moon

I once went taking pictures of a full moon at night for 3 hours straight with my Nikon D80. The sky being very clear, the thermometer showed -30°C. I just got dressed very warm, put some beat in my ears and shot. After some minutes, the LCD screen started to lag in refresh rate, but the camera continued to work.

Extreme cold shooting 3: Montreal All-Nighter

Long exposure night, long night photo outing. Camera survived.

Extreme cold shooting 4: F70EXR test day and ski trips

Not long before Christmas, it was -20 outside during the day. I went for a 45 min walk with my new bought camera to try it out. I’ve noticed some LCD refresh lag and the battery was drained faster, but the camera was still working. Some weeks later I went on a ski trip with the camera. I left the compact in a pocket with no isolation layers other than a windproof layer in temperatures varying from -10 to -20 with wind on the top of the mountain. The camera still works today.

Precautions

Now the precautions you have to take for cold condition shooting are mostly about when you get from cold weather to warm indoor weather. The best way to do this is to leave the gear in the bags and let them warm up before opening the bag and using the gear. If leave the gear exposed to the indoor air, it will fog up. If this happens, you have to let the gear dry up before touching it. That way, nothing harmful will happen to it.

A Rant to people who worry too much... Part Three :: PYKtures Point of view

2010-01-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

... about reading/comparing Specs, reviews, ISO performance comparison and megapixels.

photos by Michelle Lim

I’m sorry, I’ve heard too many atrocities in digital photography statements today based on read stuff, stuff on the net to really stand and do nothing. This blog entry can get a bit technical so I’m sorry if I lose you in the process. I will include pictured examples when I have time. Right now I just want to rant my ass off. The ranting end here...

I myself was among those technology-reading people. I still am among that stupid line of thought. I apply this loser method of research when I have no budget! I’m a student in engineering, and yes I’m excited about technology. I guess we all go through that phase that new and better performing means better through the hype created by the industries but we all see it different through different eyes. As a photographer, a picture taking person, it is truly important for me and everyone in my situation to understand what new technology brings to photography and workflow.

Say a camera system (body + lenses + flashes + whatever) of another brand has better technical features than my camera system; I wouldn’t give a damm because it doesn’t make the same photo files I like to process, unless I’m forced to follow somebody else’s conflicting line of thought.

Buying advices

Stop sticking to what’s written online! Even this written blog, think like a normal human being and feel!

Now if someone would ask me if a camera is good or better than other one, I’d tell him/her: “Do you like the pictures it takes? If yes, go with it. If no, get something else!”

Now if someone would ask me what camera to suggest, I’d start with a camera of the brand I like (Nikon in this case) and ask him/her: “Do you like the pictures it takes? If yes, go with it. If no, get something else!”

Now if someone would ask me to compare two cameras of the same brand, that someone needs to go try it at the stores. Usually there are features in a camera that correspond more to the user’s needs but what’s most important is still, if the user likes the pictures the camera takes or not.

Everyone should just compared pictures on the Flickr camera finder and ask the users of those cameras on how they feel using it, because many of them spent more time on their machine than any of the review you read on the net.

To conclude

Today’s advances in digital camera technology are made to help the making of art. Manufacturer brands will always have their ways of seeing the world and users shouldn’t just focus on technical stuff like ISO performance and megapixels. They should rather subjectively embrace one manufacturer’s vision over another and make art.

The problem with photography is that it is at it basic form an art. Art is subjective and so should all photographers be about it!

read part one
read part two

A Rant to people who worry too much... Part Two :: PYKtures Point of view

2010-01-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

... about reading/comparing Specs, reviews, ISO performance comparison and megapixels.

Photo by Kristopher Laurin-Racicot

I’m sorry, I’ve heard too many atrocities in digital photography statements today based on read stuff, stuff on the net to really stand and do nothing. This blog entry can get a bit technical so I’m sorry if I lose you in the process. I will include pictured examples when I have time. Right now I just want to rant my ass off. The ranting continues..

The second factor is the sensor size.

Recently, I’ve heard that the Canon 1DmkIV matches the Nikon D3s for image quality and aces it for 4 additional megapixels. Now I wonder if the voices I’ve heard really know about the influence of the sensor size over a picture’s visual appearance…

I’d just like to resume what that amazing Cambridge in color article is trying to explain about how sensor size influence photography.

Say, a sensor and a lens.

The sensor is a light gathering surface. A bigger surface records more information like the color tones and dynamic range that make a photo file. A bigger surface makes a bigger coverage on a lens.

A lens is made out of many glass elements. Depending for what sensor size and aperture the lens is made; the glass elements vary in diameter. Normally, the glass elements needs to be a least as big as the sensor. In the best cases, a manufacturer makes the element bigger than the sensor to minimize the common physical lens defects like corner softness, chromatic aberrations (the pink/purple/blue highlights on the corners of lenses) and vignette (the dark corners of a lens).

In common dSLR lens libraries, there are lenses made for full frame sensor and cropped sensors, each with glass elements built to the size of each sensor. Full frame lenses can be used on cropped sensor: the cropped sensor only sees a part of the full frame glass element. Such thing is called a crop factor.

The crop factor was created to give the visual appearance of a lens for the 35mm equivalent value in focal and aperture values for cropped sensors. So… say a cropped sensor has a crop factor of x1.5, it multiplies both focal and aperture values by the crop factor. So in the case of a 50mm f/1.8 lens, 50mm x 1.5 becomes 75mm in focal range and f/1.8 x 1.5 becomes f2.7 in aperture visual appearance. The light gathering of the 50mm f/1.8 doesn’t change but the visual appearance will. Crops are convenient in terms of weight because the lenses used on crop sensor cameras are usually smaller and lighter to achieve the 35mm equivalent focal range. The trade off is the less apparent background blur.

The background blur is more present when the aperture value of a lens is small. The technical term for this is depth of field. The depth of field or DOF determines what’s sharp and blurry in the shot. It is usually measure in thickness. A thinner depth of field strengthens the presence of the background blur.

Do you notice that the closer you get to an object the more background blur you get? Well when the sensor covers the whole frame, you can use the whole glass element to cover whatever you are covering. The crop factor is x1 so a 50mm f/1.8 lens gives the visual appearance of a 50mm f/1.8. In practice, you can move in more closely and get a thinner DOF than the cropped counterpart. This is an artistic trait widely (though subjectively) appreciated in photography because it isolates the subject very well in most cases.

In comparison, a medium format sensor is bigger than a full frame dSLR sensor. This means bigger glass elements and a thinner DOF.

As such, it is truly wrong to seriously compare camera sensors size on image quality comparison points we are used to see in reviews like ISO performance and megapixels mainly because they don’t give the same native visual appearance (I say native because Photoshop can tweak pretty much anything nowadays…). People just got to know what kind of photography they are into before defining their needs. Cropped sensors usually suffice for general applications. For classic artistic usage where thin DOF is needed, a bigger sensor gives better results.

This is why I’m convinced that for the pictures I’m taking, a smaller sensor will never beat it’s larger counterpart. Yes I truly think that a 12 megapixels full frame sensor camera (even there was to be a 6 megapixels full frame sensor) would beat a 18 megapixels cropped sensor camera. But for now, I can’t afford a bigger sensor so I’m sticking with what I have. I’m just frustrated at the people who have bigger sensor cameras that mostly shoot the same stuff I do complaining about cropped sensor cameras that have better performance then what they have… They are not photographers. They are an insult to photography. They are just tech toy users. Damm them.

OMG I just wrote another 700 words on my second part! Am I done? FUCK NO!

read part one
read part three

A Rant to people who worry too much... Part One :: PYKtures Point of view

2010-01-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

... about reading/comparing Specs, reviews, ISO performance comparison and megapixels.

I’m sorry, I’ve heard too many atrocities in digital photography statements today based on read stuff, stuff on the net to really stand and do nothing. This blog entry can get a bit technical so I’m sorry if I lose you in the process. I will include pictured examples when I have time. Right now I just want to rant my ass off.

First of all, the file isn’t the same!

Worrying about the tech wiz is one thing but getting your shots the way you want them is another, especially when you post-process them. It starts with the photo file! After trying MANY brands, I can surely attest that native color rendering differs from one brand to another and so does the behavior of the photo file that goes into post-processing.

Back in the film days (I never truly shot film by the way, but I’ve asked the advice of many of my photography colleagues), many films came from many photography brands like Ilford, Kodak, Fujifilm, etc… and they were all different in terms of colors, contrast, white balance and darkroom developing behavior. Such a thing stands true today with the digital photography. Lets vulgarize.

Say: A digital camera is made of a lens, a photo sensor and a color processor.

In many cases today, when you take a picture using a digital camera, the job of a photo sensor is the same: to record what they see through different light and temperature readings that go through the lens. The color processor later analyzes the recorded data and produces a photo file.

A Photo file (also called an image file) is a file that has been produced by the digital camera (or a digital still making device). This file is usually turned (processed) into a picture or a photograph (when printed).

The most common types of photo files are the JPG file and the RAW file. The JPG file is a universal image file pre-processed by the camera. As such, many devices or programs can open it. In this case, a JPG file is more likely a picture file. The RAW is a photo file made from all the recorded information of the photo sensor. A RAW file is not a picture file yet as it needs to be processed by the user using a RAW editor.

Now the thing that differentiates the photo files from one brand to another is the color processor. Each brand designs its own processor to behave, interpret and usually match what the user sees through the production of a photo file composed of mainly two variables: colors influenced by the white balance and contrasts influenced by the dynamic range (sorry to throw 4 specific photography terms on you readers ><). The white balance (measured in Kelvin values) is one defining variable that determines what temperature the colors of a scene have: it is warmer when the colors lean towards the yellow color and colder when the colors lean towards the blue color. The dynamic range is another variable that determines the tones of gray from the whitest part of the shot to the darkest part. It influences the contrast. Thus, each brand interprets those variables in a unique way. For each ISO sensitivity value, the color processor’s work can be evaluated on a technical level by comparing the noise performance and the dynamic range among many other technical things machines can measure (see DXOMARK). Yet the appreciation of the photo file’s visual result and behavior through post-processing is purely subjective to the photographer. As such, when a photographer likes the rendering of a certain brand or has built his solid workload around it, it is very difficult to make him change his mind. The native colors of a file become part of what defines the photography of the artist, because he’s processing with the colors he wants right from the start. It’s like painting or drawing on a certain type of canvas/paper; the behavior of the material differs from one brand to another (even if they are the same specified, those material might come from different places… right?) Seriously, in the case of someone looking for his/her first digital camera, instead of comparing camera specs, AF performance, ISO performance, megapixels, blablabla and reading some reviews on some website, people should compare what colors those machines produce before getting it. Technically speaking, dSLRs of today have light gathering capabilities that run circles around the human eye especially when you pair an f/1.4 lens and a ISO 3200 capable camera…

Now back to me, it is very difficult for me to accept one brand’s superiority in image quality over the other mainly because I like what photo file my current camera (the Nikon D90 and well… Nikon dSLR in general) gives me when it comes to processing those amazing colors you see in my photography. This is one of the main reasons why many appreciate my style and I like it that way. I find that the technical comparisons and the mostly non-biased (à la dpreview) reviews made on sensor and camera performance only show half of what cameras are capable. The other half is the whole feel of it when I take my shots, get the colors, I want and process my shots into the vision I like and this, my friends, can’t be replaced by technology (nor does talent). Most of all reviews are made to sell shit, duh!

Right now I still need to get used to the Fuji F70EXR’s photo file, because it differs so much from what I was used to on my Lumix FX35 while being technically better. Yes shooting at ISO800 is freakin’ hot but colors occasionally not!

OMG I just wrote 700 words on my first part! Am I done? NO!

read part two
read part three

Facebook Photo Quality :: PYKtures Spotlights

2010-01-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

Yo guys, I recently ran into some problems with Facebook concerning my colors and picture quality. Obviously Facebook isn't made for high quality photography and for the people who are afraid of their pictures/rights getting stolen by the site, such a steal (by Facebook itself, not some users on that website) didn't happen to me yet, so I don't give a F...

Now, I ran a series of test using:

The iPhoto Facebook Uploader,
The Java-web-based Facebook Uploader (not available anymore)
The Facebook Simple Uploader
The NEW plugin-based Facebook Uploader (as of January 2010)
The Bloom 2.6 Facebook Uploader (not available anymore)
The Bloom 2.7 Facebook Uploader
The Picasa-to-Facebook Uploader (thx to my friend Rémi)
The Lightroom-to-Facebook Uploader
The New Facebook 720 pixel wide resolution upgrade (thx to my friend Rob)
The FlickrImportr (Uploads from Flickr to Facebook)
The Facebook Mobile Uploads Option

All on a MacBook Pro (that's so baller of me lol). I will also post the image size generated by the rendering engines and sort them by the generated file size. This might tell us how much got sacrificed. ^^

Update: Rémi just sent me the files from the Picasa-to-Facebook Uploader.

Update (2010/02/08): Robert Smith just showed me the Lightroom-to-Facebook Uploader.

Update (2010/02/08): Rob Ahern was so kind to give me the renders from the new Facebook 720 pixel resolution compression he got access to.

Update (2010/02/21): Marc just pointed out the way to upload information to Facebook using Email. I updated the results and even added the file size of each render. And suggested I use PNG files to upload to facebook. I'll do it with Bloom and Mobile Uploads.

Update (2010/03/11): I just got the 720 pixels upgrade from Facebook. I must say that this is truly breathtaking to get his shots blown out in full facebookial glory. Okay but I must warn you about the current issue plaguing the facebook uploader (if you have more issues, please comment!):

Facebook Uploader is buggy and progress bar seldom disappears when you create an album. Then the uploaded shots are in a fucked up order and it takes tooo long to reorganise them.

Ze Color Test

The Original-481.68 KB

Now we export all from Photoshop for the web at Quality 12

Facebook 720 pixels upgrade-103.75 KB

iPhoto-67.44 KB

FlickrImportr-71.68 KB

Plugin-based Uploader-72.74 KB

Java-75.56 KB

Facebook Mobile Uploads-77.52 KB

Simple Uploader-77.52 KB

Bloom 2.7.1 with PNG-78.09 KB

Picasa (thx to my friend Remi)-79.99 KB

Bloom 2.6-82.16 KB

Bloom 2.7-83.04 KB

Mobile Uploads with PNG-84.98 KB

Lightroom to Facebook-119.78 KB

Among the top results, I notice that the Bloom 2.7 version, a part from being much more useable and stable than the 2.6, keeps more colors while still being sharp. Using a PNG file with Facebook Mobile Uploads produces better results. As we can compare, Lightroom seems to keep more detail than Bloom here. If we take a look at the image sizes, Lightroom seems to contain more information than its counterparts.

Some days ago, Facebook was testing a resolution upgrade from 604 pixels to 720 pixels to display bigger picture in better image quality. So far in color, we can see some desaturation while native sharpness seems to be well kept with no additionnal sharpneing filters like Bloom.

Ze Black and White test

The Original-112.11 KB

Now we export all from Photoshop for the web at Quality 12

Facebook 720 pixels upgrade-25.97 KB

FlickrImportr-16.66 KB

Bloom 2.7.1 with PNG-19.66 KB

iPhoto-21.17 KB

Java-21.47 KB

Plugin-based Uploader-22.47 KB

Picasa (thx to my friend Remi)-23.98 KB

Bloom 2.6-23.98 KB

Lightroom to Facebook-23.98 KB

Simple Uploader-24.24 KB

Bloom 2.7-24.24 KB

Facebook Mobile Uploads-24.24 KB

Facebook Mobile Uploads with PNG-24.24 KB

iPhoto Uploader destroys the sharpness of the shot... totally while keeping more dynamic range (tones of gray from the whitest part of the shot to the darkest) than the Java-Based Uploader. While the Java-Based Uploader and the New Plugin-based Uploader seems to keep up with Bloom in terms of Sharpness, the Bloom 2.6 Uploader seems to keep a lot more of the dynamic range than the others but pixelates. This issue is resolved in 2.7. As I add the Lightroom-to-Facebook plugin, I can see some additionnal noise in the gray area while Bloom seems to smooth it better. This is very interestion because Lightroom won the color battle over Bloom. FlickrImportr again doing a decent job at smoothing the tones.

By looking at the pictures it seems that Bloom and Mobile Uploads regardless of the image format seems to cap at 24.24kb yet the difference gap between them is too close to give a call. It all ends up with the program you like using...

Again with the 720 pixel facebook shot, I notice a lack of extra sharpening done to the larger picture which makes the Bloom and Lightroom version much crispier in sharpness. Then again, 720 pixels is a great intro to new ways of compression.

Final rankings Color (according to my observations)

Lightroom-to-Facebook
Facebook Mobile Uploads
Bloom 2.7
Facebook Simple Uploader
FlickrImportr
Facebook Plugin-based Uploader
Tie: Facebook Java-Based Uploader and Picasa Uploader
iPhoto

Final rankings Black and White (according to my observations)

Facebook Mobile Uploads and Bloom 2.7
Lightroom-to-Facebook
Facebook Simple Uploader
FlickrImportr
Facebook Plugin-based Uploader
Tie: Facebook Java-Based Uploader and Picasa Uploader
iPhoto

Bottom line

The iPhoto Facebook Uploader downright SUCKS. That isn't very surprising since the last update was at May 20, 2009. The now deceased Java Web-based Facebook app is a pain to use but aces the iPhoto Facebook Uploader by giving out a sharper rendering.

Bloom is a great choice to upload photos, yet this software is even more painful to use than the 2 others lol (at the moment of this writing, I'm not used to it yet). Some days ago, Bloom updated from 2.6 to 2.7. Bloom 2.7 is quite an improvement in stability (little to no crash) and image quality over 2.6 and still produces today's best rendering on Facebook for black and white pictures with rich tones. With the new Facebook, there are issues with Bloom not being able to sync correctly with Facebook these days. I hope they are resolved.

I can also come to the conclusion that Lightroom-To-Facebook performs a lot better when given color pictures to export and it keeps more detail to the cost of sometimes more noise.

PNG files through Mobile Uploads produce some top notch results but it isn't too convenient for the people who do massive uploadings of pictures.

The lazy bums that have Flickr Pro account can import shots from their Flickr photostream onto Facebook Albums using the FlickrImportr. The results aren't stellar but this workflow can be very efficient to those wanting to save time with a few click to transfer their Flickr content to Facebook.

On January 19th, Facebook introduced a plugin-based uploader that prompts the user to install and run it from the browser. The usage is much more simple and streamlined than the Java Uploader. The plugin works 5 times faster than any of the other options compared. So if you want a slightly above average image quality solution for Facebook, you might seriously consider that. So far, Safari/Firefox/Internet Explorer are the only browser to support such technology.

In February of 2010, Facebook upgraded image resolution to 720 pixels wide which in turns give a more HD and detailed picture. So far, it's under test phase on some selected users of Faceboook. It's a good thing because once this option becomes public. Uploaders like Bloom will take advantage of such format to add their famous sharpening algorithm to the final shot.

So... Image Quality Addicts that upload shots to facebook should consider implementing those top uploaders in their workflow. Other should just use the plugin-based uploader. All said, it depends on the workflow you are used to and the results you like or want to achieve.

The whole test album can be found here.

The picasa test album can be found here.

Thx for reading ^^

Fuji F70EXR

2009-12-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Not long ago, I lost my Lumix FX35 (aka my “Leica” <- yes that’s his/her name) and felt very sad about it. While desperately needing a replacement for that loved one, I couldn’t allow the same budget I had for the FX35 (400$ at the time, it was THE best compact camera of its generation). With a 300$ budget in mind, I searched the market for the best I could afford. This is when the F70EXR stood out.

Little history lesson

Fujifilm has been a once legendary brand of photography that made high quality film. As it enters the digital age, it took sensor technology in different ways than the main gearheads over at Sony, Canon and Nikon and produced the SuperCCD. While the first version of the compact Fujifilm F series, the F10, harnessed the powers of that sensor, it isn’t until the F30 shook the compact camera business to its very core by producing the first useable ISO 800 picture ever. Although the F30 (and its slightly improved sibling F31fd) were the best high sensitivity performers, they were competing against market filled with cameras with more than twice the megapixel rate: the Fujifilm only had 6 megapixels. Thus by adding more megapixels to their cameras, Fujifilm sacrificed a lot of shine in their legend. In the spring of 2009, the introduction of the SuperCCD EXR brought the brand back in the map with the F200EXR camera. The results were astounding: never has a compact camera achieved this much dynamic range in a picture. The ISO performance also made a great return thus reclaiming the throne of image quality from the era of the F30.

What is dynamic range?

You might be unfamiliar of this technical term, but let me explain shortly. It’s the number of light variations from the brightest part to the darkest part of the picture. The wider the variations are, the higher the dynamic range.

The SuperCCD phenomenon

The Fujifilm SuperCCD is a sensor that works differently than a conventional one. One can picture it as a sensor made of two sensors working together: one records the highlights while the other records the shadows and the camera merges both renders together in a final composite shot. This procedure immediately boosts the dynamic range of a picture but halves its resolution by half.

Shooting experience
I once tried my friend Manli’s F200EXR and pretty much loved how responsive the camera was (fast zoom controls, fast autofocus, low shutter lag). When opened after 4 long seconds of power up, the F70EXR behaves as swift as it’s big brother. I’m surprised at how slim and light the camera was compared to its counterparts: a 10x zoom that fits in my pants pocket.

The battery life isn’t quite stellar. I remember being able to hit at least 300 shots with my old Lumix while the F70EXR shuts down after 220 shots or below (depending if you zoom a lot). I believe the SuperCCD requires a lot of processing power to run.

The lens isn’t very fast (f3.3-5.6), so it’s a bummer for night photography (I’d say it’s good enough for minutes after sunset and it goes downhill from there). Thanks to the image stabilizer, you can push your luck for wide angle low light shooting (the metering will make your camera take ¼ speed shots). This is a compromise the designers had to make to fit a huge 27-270mm equivalent 10x zoom lens in such a small camera. Getting that focal range is very handy for me.

I found the AF very fast for most of the daily normal subject but it lack the precision or customization found in other brands. Only three modes: a defective face detection mode, multi-nine-point-AF mode, and center cross-point mode. When doing macro photography, the center cross-point mode often misses the mark.

What I also found a bit retarded was the camera’s auto ISO function. Usually, to get a sharp shot of a static subject, a speed of 1/(current focal length) is fast enough, but the camera tries too hard to compensate for camera shake as it meters, without taking the image stabilizer motor in account, a speed two stops above the correct value. I found this way of thought a bit frustrating when I was trying to get the lowest noise possible for my shots (even if 400 is very good on it)

So the camera is a blast to use during the day but it’s best to carry a second battery if you are going for a day trip of photography.

Interface
The high quality screen makes you forget it only has 230 000 pixels, a number below average in today’s camera screens.

Most of the controls are straightforward. I have the mode dial wheel, the four-way function controller for macro, compensation, flash etc… the display control button and pretty much what you get from a conventional compact camera.

The complex old school 8-bit-like menus might require a computer wiz to comprehend and use (two buttons: F-button for quick access to “some” settings or MENU-button for the full deal… why not just make us customize what to show when we press F-button?). At the time of this writing most of the major camera brands did an overhaul of their menus… it’s a bit time for Fujifilm to step up. At least I didn’t get the Monochrome-like menus of RICOH cameras… lol

Image quality

I also enjoyed how good the ISO 400 of the F200EXR looked on the pictures (this level is usually the max useable ISO value on a conventional compact). Thus, the final results of the F70EXR came to no surprise: they were awesome (mostly sharp at all focal length and with great colors). What’s even more amazing is the dynamic range the F70EXR could record for something of its class: normally the other competitors I’ve tried would have given up trying to balance highlights and shadows in a high contrast shot or cheated using ISO to compensate.

In terms of ISO, yes I can go to 800 without much compromise. One gripe though is the fact that the camera is most effective running at half resolution than indicated: to fully push its image quality, it needs to be set to produce 5 megapixels shots instead of 10 (I have yet to truly see a difference in both).

Another cool thing is the Pro Low Light Mode: it’s a scene mode in the camera that makes it take and merge 4 ISO 1600 shots into noiseless one. I was able to get some fairly sharp results using that function.

This is hands down the best image quality you can get from camera around 250$.

The video quality
CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP… yes it truly is. Not HD and noisy as hell, even a cheap HD USB camera (like the Kodak Zi8 or the Mino FlipHD) can do a better job than this! But you can use the lens to zoom during recording. I believe the SuperCCD sensor wasn’t design for such use and the video function is just there… to be there. It’s good enough that Fujifilm designed a true photo sensor and not a video sensor.

Bottom line
For me, at the moment of this writing, the F70EXR is good enough for my everyday use. I’ve taken some great shots with it and I’m very happy of the picture rendering it gives. I’m surprised at how little post-processing I had to do on the shots before I share them online! So if you are shopping for the best image quality in a low cost compact camera, forget the other brands and get the F70EXR. If you want a more balanced option, look elsewhere.

This is what I wrote about the F70EXR 24 days after buying it.
http://pyktures.blogspot.com/2010/01/f70exr-24-days-later-pyktures-reviews.html

A week of living the life at FX 3/7 :: PYktures Stories

2009-12-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

Third day: shooting Michelle’s portrait (the portrait test)

Usually when you are used to being tired for school and suddenly you don’t have school to be tired of, you get tired of… doing nothing and it stayed that way until my friend/muse Michelle got on MSN as depressed and tired as I am telling me that she’s free. So I organized a meet for picture taking, with the fall/depression/reminiscence as a vague theme. It was one of those days when you look outside the window and the cloudy sky depresses you more. The D700 was craving for a run and I had to make use of it. So we went out to shoot.

I’ve decided to mainly use the 50 1.4 (again!) to get the shots done. I wanted to explore the area around Metro Laurier near Parc Lafontaine for pictures, especially in the backstreets of that neighborhood.

The shoot started on some walls where I didn’t notice any visual difference between the D90 and the D700 for depth of field until I started shooting high aperture portraits with a farther background than the first shots. Wow, the pictures I got out of the camera were amazing.

The range of bokeh (lens blur) from the sharp foreground of the picture to the background is soooo large that the subject is perfectly isolated and put in value. As usual, low light came really fast but it wasn’t a problem for the D700 to use higher ISO values to shoot what I want when I want and make it look amazingly good. From this day on, I understand why Full Frame FX cameras are the best dSLRs you can get for portraits.

More Pictures Here

A week of living the life at FX 2/7 :: PYktures Stories

2009-12-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

Second day: the strobist meet (the low light test)

My good friend and amazing flash master Benjamin Von Wong organized a Strobist meet to test and learn about flash photography and invited me to come and try his huge Paul C. Buff White Lightnings. I must say that I was very tired and depressed from… I dunno… school? While awfully unmotivated by anything, I went on with it to probably try some low light high aperture shooting with the D700 and learn some notions of flash photography.

I met some interesting people who knew how to craft light effectively and greatly enjoyed their sharing of knowledge. I never new flash photography could be that difficult and complex to grasp. To me I’d just put a flash on a Gary Fong, lose a lot of light and probably creating a fill light good enough to compensate, but I learn there was more I could do (oh well no time yet to play with that).

After a talk with an ex-photojournalist, I was compelled to try out the Nikkor Ai-s 24mm f/2.8 (mainly because it was the photojournalism lens of choice due to it’s amazingly large depth of field while still being shot wide open). But the tryouts will happen another day. As for the high-iso shots, boy was I surprised of the results! Not only the camera was better at low light then my own two eyes, it shot the pictures I saw without too much noise O_O. Capturing many decisive moments on the fly has never been that easy: because I could shoot great looking iso 6400 pictures at f1.4 of aperture, I could go at movement freezing shutter speeds. OMG!

more shots here

A week of living the life at FX 1/7 :: PYktures Stories

2009-11-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

We are at mid-october. Rain and leaves are falling down, my Nikon D80’s focusing system just failed me, and the depressing times take me. My last midterm would mark the beginning of my week off from school without a camera in hand. So I make a phone call to a good friend that previously lent me his Nikon D700 with lenses and he accepts to my great joy.

Learning from past experiences

My previous encounter with the body ended up in a weight complaint and led a crusade against buying Full Frame cameras because it didn’t do much difference to the render of my D90. But I believe I was shooting the wrong subjects with the wrong lens. This time, in my moment of prime craze at using the 35 and the 105 on my cropped DX bodies, I decided to go fully prime’d on the machine with:

Nikkor AI-s 24mm f/2.8
Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8 DX (yes it works!!!)
Nikkor AF-D 50mm f/1.4 (from my friend)
Nikkor AF-S 105mm f/2.8 VR N
Nikkor AF-S 24-70 f/2.8 ED (from my friend) (ok not a prime I’ll get to that later)

First day: walking around (the street shooting test).

My friend was kind enough to give me the body, fully charged with an empty 4gb memory card that I used right away. Walking around downtown towards my midterm exam. After the exam, I went to shoot with a friend of my school photo club. Nothing groundbreaking came out of the walk besides the discovery of the awesome neighborhood surrounding my campus with my friend Danick Denis from my school little photo-club ReflETS.

While the camera was reacting four times faster than my beloved D90 and doing a great job at capturing anything I aim it at, I was quite shy to shoot because I felt I couldn’t blend in the street environment due to the huge size of the camera (I was using the 24-70 2.8… how the f*ck can you blend in with that?!).

Met up with my friend Christian for his last days in Montreal before he moves to Toronto for fame and fortune. Ate some great Chinese Stew pot then walked, talked and shot our way back home. Good times. Great friend. Back in Lightroom, I noticed how far the RAW files of the cameras could be stretched for dynamic range. That is very cool.

To be continued...

more pictures
here

Words cannot even begin to describe...

2009-10-14T23:33:00.000-07:00

Words cannot even begin to describe...
...what just happened today.

Words cannot even begin to describe...
...the number of hours I spent on studying for my math midterm.

Words cannot even begin to describe...
...the daily deviation I got on Love by the Fountain.

Words cannot even begin to describe how thankful I am...
...for ctJemm to have suggested that picture to PorcelainPoet
...to live in a pool of photographic inspiration created by my friends and only one year ago
...for every single one of you
-- that supported me from the very beginnings of my photography
-- that approved the choice of the daily deviation I got
-- that I made smile with the pictures I take
-- that commented or faved that shot

I woke up today semi-disappointed by the Nikon recent news of the D3s features and 85mm f/3.5 macro lens (?) to after notice that I got more than 3 times as much messages I get in one night... only to find out that all the faves led to Love by the Fountain where it got Daily Deviation'ed and already faved and commented by so many.

screenshot of the most popular "emotive portraits" of the month with my shot ranking top 10 among famous users like Zemotion and Alex Evans. this is just amazing!

I was surprised, speechless, in tears of joy, joyful, jumping, crying, running all over around the place in celebration for what was given to me. This is clearly the accomplishment of one of my life's dearest achievements. To be completely honnest, I totally didn't expect that to happen as there are way better photographers in this world. Is this a sign of recognition of my talent to shoot? Maybe, who knows? What a DD really is?

As for photography itself, it doesn't stop there. I shall continue to shoot and enjoy photography as I always have. I just didn't know I was... "THAT" good. Thank you so much to noticing it.

As I write these words of thank you in this blog, favs are still registering on that shot and I'm watching the number of messages continuing to grow and grow. It's crazy. It feels great to get a DD. Thank you again.

It's 3 am in the morning and I need some sleep. I'll be sure to write back all to all the comments I got soon enough, I promise.

I cannot thank you enough for all of this. I don't even know if I was thankful enough in this journal entry but...

Thank you

:)

Going back from D90 to D80 mainly means...

2009-10-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

- Losing good ISO3200 and back to good ISO800 -> Light
- Losing 4.5fps and back to 3fps -> Speed
- Losing the super fast shutter lag and blackout -> Reactivity
- Losing 3D tracking -> Autofocus
+ Getting twice more detail at ISO 100 yay...

Damm I feel I need to relearn everything at using a camera slower and noisier than the D90 in every way with more than 80 000 actuations... I can't even shoot a decent handheld shot at night anymore. Using Noise Ninja again to remove the noise just destroys way too much details. I'm sorta doing it with Lightroom nowadays... Trying to learn how the "DETAIL" section of DEVELOP works. So far so good...

Canon S90 and G11: Destroying the boundaries of compact ISO 1600 image quality :: PYKtures Flashes

2009-09-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

You must have know not long ago, last spring, that the Fujifilm Super CCD EXR powering the F200EXR gave us an accessible ISO 800 image for low-light shooting in compact-class cameras. Such a barrier wasn’t broken ever since the Fujifilm F30. Yet in recent weeks, Canon surprised every enthusiast with his two flagship Powershot compact cameras: devices that generate a good ISO 1600 image thus, blowing away Fuji’s domination.

The importance of high-ISO performance
As much as I sound like a broken record, good high-ISO brings
- More light-gathering capabilities
- Faster shutter speeds
- Sharper images.

SUPER SHORT Recap of Canon’s past years
Before such a revolution, Canon was convinced that megapixels gave the consumer the opportunity to make large prints and crop. We can easily notice this line of thought by counting 13 megapixels out of the G10 (2008) or 12 megapixels out of the G9 (2007). Yet despite many reviews stating Canon’s lack of hi-ISO performance in comparison to the Fujifilm F30, the brand didn’t shift between each year models and blindly added excessive resolution. As such, compact ISO performance stayed bad past the ISO 400 value.

Yet the year 2008 saw the birth of another dangerous competitor to Canon’s G series: the Panasonic Lumix LX3, a camera sporting a wider, brighter and faster lens (f2.0-f2.8). Despite having less megapixels (10mp) and reach (24-60mm lens instead of the g10’s 28-140mm), the LX3 proved to reach a good ISO 800 image quality. The rest of the Panasonic line of that year benefited from the LX3 innovations. Thus the Lumix ZS3 stood to be another high seller towards the SX200is or the SX110is. With Nikon attacking from the dSLR front and Panasonic eating up market shares from the compact front, Canon needed to bounce back both sides.

Canon’s recent radical shift in compact image quality: Fall 2009.

When came the time of the year for Canon to release the next G series, many rumors spoke of a CMOS camera in hope for image quality up to EOS Standards. Yet we can all agree that the SX1is’ CMOS sensor didn’t benefited much improvements from such hardware. With the Sony EXMOR R sensor claiming above average image quality and the Fujifilm SuperCCD EXR cameras standing in top spot, eyes turned to Canon awaiting his move. And a groundbreaking move it did: the announcement of the Powershot S90 and G11 blew me away!

Portrait of a man at ISO 1600 taken from the S90 samples of DPreview
click here or on the picture to access the full gallery and the originals.

Just by looking at the picture quality from the dpreview samples (especially the man’s S90 portrait), we can notice that noise at ISO 1600 has been converted into a something that resembles grain thus not being destructive at all. Detail is also kept at a very high level. If I’m not mistaken, this new ISO 1600 is reminiscent of the 350D’s image quality at ISO 1600. This totally changes the name of the game!

A compact camera capable of producing high-ISO image quality is now within the reach of the consumer. This would remove the need of a dSLR camera for many types of still photography. I would be able to produce decent pictures without the bulk.

At the moment of this article, the S90 and the G11 are priced 530$ CDN and 600$ CDN. A tag that puts them against the likes of the dSLR Canon EOS Rebel XS/XSi, Nikon D60/D3000, Sony Alpha a230, Pentax Km.

I’m not sure how the competition is going to react to this. So far, Canon runs unrivaled compact camera performance at a level only beaten by its EOS line and the Nikon CMOS-EXPEED class dSLRs.

Quoted from the Canon USA website : You asked, and Canon not only listened, but delivered big-time.

Only one question remains: Why didn’t they put HD720p in the S90 and G11?

More info

DPreview's Canon Powershot S90 samples
http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canons90_preview/

DPreview's Canon Powershot G11 samples
http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canong11_preview2/

Canon USA's S90 page
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=19210

Canon USA's G11 page
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=19209

A look at what the competition is doing

A Flickiver of shots taken with the Sony EXMOR R WX1 camera
http://www.flickriver.com/groups/dsc-wx1/pool/

DPreview's Fujifilm F70EXR samples
http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/fujif70exr_samples1/

R.I.É.T.S. dear Dow Brewery :: PYKtures Flashes

2009-09-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

Rest In École de Technologie Supérieure dear Dow Brewery

To those who wish to know where I once took those pictures two years ago, I went on an urban exploration outing with photographer Michael Hill to the Dow Brewery. We got in thanks to the huge snow mountains that the snowplows stacked near the walks of our entrance to the famed abandoned building.

Today, the back of the building has become a construction site for yet another pavilion of the École de Technologie Supérieure, my university.

Here is the link to the article (in French).
http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/September2009/28/c9625.html

And the google translate version (sorry)
http://bit.ly/TqQMx

and the link to the whole set of location scouting pictures
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/yannick_khong/sets/72157621775428005/

As stated, the new building shall become the industry’s center of innovation and incubation hosting more than twenty enterprises. As such, collaborations between my university and the enterprises shall become easier and more job opportunities will spring out from this action.

It is sad that such a famous place of urban exploration get closed off, yet its future will serve to define the metropolis of Montreal and augment the size of my university campus.

Not so bad! ^^

My Life in reality 4 weeks later… :: PYKtures stories

2009-09-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

As I previously stated in my last blog entry about my life, photography will take less parts in my life, as school will occupy first priority. It’s been four weeks now and I can finally blog about it.

Life at school

Not a day has passed without me filling my brains with tons of information and homework gathered from all my courses. It a good thing that my teachers are in some ways interesting in giving such brain damaging classes. Yet the things I learn will be useful in future classes that I’ll follow. Boy, I feel like doing a 6:30 am to 10:30 pm shift at some work where you have to listen, read and write. I’m even starting to lack a lot of sleep. The weeks are very tiring and I usually end up dead when Friday night comes. Being dead usually prevents me from doing anything crazy during the weekends but to have 1 day of fun (usually filled with photography) and resting/studying for what’s left of my “free time”. Ahhh bold coffee is a student’s best friend!

Every time, I finish a class, I isolate myself in my photoclub where almost nobody besides the members comes in: a peaceful quiet place where I can sit beside a black backdrop supported by Manfrotto stands, a series of Nikon umbrellas that rest in a locker, etc. Sometimes, I even walk up the hill to join my McGill friends who I discovered through photography and keep a strong bond with them. Ah, it’s a great student life.

How’s photography?

Weekends! What else can I say? I decided to leave my gear at home when I go to school unless there is a good reason to bring it out. I still suffer from a bad case of hyper-compositionitis (that sickness that makes your eye constantly compose shots even when you don’t have a camera). I also try to shoot every weekend at least 1 day out of the two. So far, it has been working out and I’m happy for it. I’ve also gotten 2 new photography gear pieces:

The Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8 DX
A Lowepro Inverse 100 AW bag

The Nikkor is just a crazy prime that gives me sharp results wide open at f/1.8. I think I got it because I sent my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 to repairs for 4 weeks and got stuck into this Leica M-like way to shoot primes. After seeing the results of the Noctilux 50mm f/0.95 shot on a new Leica M9, I couldn’t help but think of shooting with the same field of view. So I started to read on the 35mm and ended up buying it. I love it! Mounted on my D90, I can practically use one hand to shoot.

Thus I got into shooting with primes, using mainly my Nikkor AF-S 105mm f/2.8 VR N and the 35 as my two primary lenses, without using flash. Having those two items in my once small Slingshot 100 AW made the bag feel big. I would normally use my beloved Top Load Zoom1 (that I greatly used during my travels to Cancun and Toronto), but this bag now houses my sister’s D80. Thus I went on a quest for another bag. After going through my usual research (Google, friends, etc…), I decided to bring my gear to a camera store and came back with the Lowepro Inverse. When I look at it, it feels like a smaller Slingshot fused with a Fanny belt pack. While I think I would look ridiculous using the very comfortable belt, it felt natural to clip it when I augmented the load of the bag with other lifestyle accessories. Bottom line, I like it.

Last Saturday, I went on a photo outing with members of ReflETS called PORTRAIT (something that has to do with portraits) and had a blast. After that, I was sooo tired that I ended sleeping through 14 hours to recover for Sunday and Monday.

I'm not that I’m the same crazy passionate photographer as I was a year ago, but I've learned a few thing while dwelving into that madness.

To sum it up

School is tough, but I love it. It brings me less time to… have fun (aka take pictures), but I’ve adapted and even lightened the load of the gear I carry to bring my photography to an even more casual level. I’m clearly leaving the high-end creative flash photography territory for good and going back to the style I used to shoot: street (lol I only recently discovered what it really meant and it makes sense with what I like to shoot) with occasionally a portrait or two along the way.

dSLR culture :: PYKtures Point of View

2009-09-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

As you walk today’s streets and look around you, a lot of people use dSLRs. A dSLR is short for digital Single Lens Reflex, a camera for interchangeable lenses. As some would see this as the result of a big plague, it is only natural that getting a dSLR guarantees better image quality and more moments captured at the right time. Lets understand the driving force behind the purchase of such machines.

The quest for decent image quality
A dSLR makes pictures of better image quality. Why? At least three times, bigger than those found in little compacts, a dSLR sensor produces a lot less noise and captures more detail in any light condition.

The quest for response
dSLRs of today boost an autofocus speed at least 2 to 3 times faster than compacts. This means the time to shoot is greatly reduced and the response time is near instant giving the benefits of getting the shot whenever the user wants to.

The quest for control
A dSLR offers a lot of manual controls to the user. Right of the bat, the lens bundled offers manual zoom to fine tune the framing of a shot. Add the ability to control, the shutter speed, the aperture, the focus (manual focus) and many other behiaviors of the camera and you get a lot of things to control. Usually, the more a dSLR is expensive the more options will be available to the user.

The quest for blurred backgrounds (bokeh) behind subjects
A dSLR lens offers a thinner depth of field (a zone of clarity) than compacts, giving the user the power to isolate nearly any subject in a shot and have the background behind it blurred in smooth round shapes called bokeh. Why? The glass elements of the lens are simply larger in diameter than the ones in the lens of a compact camera.

The price/performance ratio
Today’s lowest priced dSLR performs five times better than the best/most expensive compact camera there is. Last time I checked, you can get a dSLR kit for the low price of below 500$ (don’t expect much but consumers dig that price!) which is equal to the price of a high-end compact camera. It doesn’t take a genius to notice the difference in the price/performance ratio. Those machines are accessible and they will be more in the future!

After all those reasons, no wonder why so many people carry those cameras strapped around their neck.

Back to Reality :: PYKtures Point of View

2009-08-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

Now my Montreal summer has ended and I had time to think during my trip to Cancun about the way I’m going to tackle photography for my next college semester.

I believe I was too involved into that photography community thing. Last fall I was hyped in creating something amazing with the friends I made through photography. We were doing large-scale photo-outings and it was fun. I even started to seek for more people in my entourage and on the net to get them to join our little small and “supposedly” strong community. Then some went on pursuing studies, jobs and careers in the business as other were still keeping it as a hobby: reality was here to remind us to keep moving in our lives. As some learned more about others, groups were formed while some started to move on. As a result, interesting photo-outings would be more and more difficult to organize. Then, I stopped speaking to many of the people I met in the beginnings of that community. I have to admit that I still have some issue with some photographers as we speak today. Bottom line, my over-enthusiasm killed my desire to commute.

I met so much new faces through photography: people from all-round town and all-round the world. There are friends I would actually like to hang out with once I get to their faraway homes and others living in my neighborhood that have become some of my closest friends. Through the outings and conversations, I wasn’t prepared for what I would discover about some people once I learned more about them. It’s a risky business. As we are all different, we don’t walk the same path. As such, it is difficult to digest the sight of someone you consider a friend make terrible mistakes that you tried your best to point out countless times prior to the mistake; or to witness multiple behavior changes that you dislike. Sometimes, friendship isn’t enough to keep the boat afloat because friends (not contacts nor family members) aren’t people I am not forced to live with as I usually try to surround myself with the best ones I can make to hang out with for the little free time and I can find. Yes, the opposite can be true, I might have offended some people too. I’m truly sorry for my offenses. If you turn your back on me, it may be a sign that we weren’t made to understand each other.

Honestly, I feel that deep inside me, there is a lust for impression that drives me to shoot hundreds of pictures. By diving deep into that photography passion, I alienated myself from those I considered my best friends before I went crazy about the art. Thus, I really need to get back with some if they still remember me.

I can tell you this, be careful of the ones you choose to be your friends because some of the people you meet will suck you dry of forgiveness and drive you down the road of madness. I was over-enthused about photography, I’ve met many people through it, some sucked me dry of forgiveness and some drove me down the road of near madness. As a result, my desire to build a photography community has now come to a halt.

I’d also like to address the critics and watchers that follow my work.

Please know that every shot I took was taken out of pure passion. I do not aim for perfection nor shoot to sell. I shoot to relax and to be amazed at beauty during my free time. I don't shoot to improve. I show you my pictures because I like to share my amazement not because I want to win a contest or gain visibility. I believe out of all doubt that I’ve gotten to a level that I’m satisfied and don’t need to stress myself to improve further in order to compete with the REAL professionals (the ones that actually make a living out of this art NOT the ones doing it part time or the ones with pictures worst than mine charging pennies for shoots). I don’t mind people commenting on my shots; I’ll just delete the unwanted critiques that pollute the shots I post without asking for critiques, so don’t waste your time. The opposite is also true, I shall not critique any work nor help the photographer get better unless demanded.

I wish this to be as clear as water. I am not for hire.

Now that I’m fully dedicated to my college life, please know that any photography activities I plan to do might be cancelled due to school work, rendering me unfit to carry on a photography business based on a high cancellation probability.

The deviantART submissions, facebook photos and flickr uploads will continue as such as the PYKtures blog.

Anyhow, this is the way I plan to live my photography life for the next semester. I believe this is the sane way for me to move on from my madness.

SAVAGE BASH SUNSET :: PYKtures Flashes

2009-07-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

This video is in super high quality. Please patient for it to load.

I once said"
Now the flaws I've pointed out of the D90's video mode are:
- Impossible to have handheld stability during mouvement/focussing/passing.
- Wobble effect during fast panning, effect inexistent during very slow mouvement.
- Horrible mono sound."

Well, I decided to try shooting something unusual with my D90 that other day: a Savage Radio Controlled truck on a super cloudy day. So Michael Fortin and I went to a place called "La Carrière", a wasteland of some sort.

By looking at the sky, I thought it would pour down on us. Fortunately, it dodged us and we caught a little sunset near the end of the day.

RC loves me too much
Shooting an RC is unusual indeed. For some moments I thought it liked me.

This video is in super high quality. Please patient for it to load.

and it resulted in this

Conclusion
I was surprised at the quality the D90 can produce while following such a high speed subject. anyhow enjoy some more footage.

This video is in super high quality. Please patient for it to load.

Editing by Michael Fortin

Sound Addiction :: PYKtures Stories

2009-07-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Ever since my first university semester started, Michelle Lim and I wanted to get together for a concept driven photoshoot but we ended up not having the time to lead such project to completion: I study a lot and Michelle studies then works a lot. Through our various phone calls, we started throwing ideas around: man shirt, headphones, windows, bed or just something sexy. Then we finally got a date to shoot, this is the story behind the sexiest shoot I ever made.

The objective

It was clear from the start that I wanted my next photoshoot with Michelle to be even sexier than the previous one. The previous one was more fashion oriented and happened in fall during the photo outing my friend Ben Wong organized (man I miss those outings) and it was mostly improvised. The theme of Michelle’s shoot this time is about a girl dressed with a man’s white shirt and some tight garments on a bed. Because we wanted to use window light, the shoot had to happen inside. The location was fixed to be at my place.

The challenge
I decided that the shoot would happen on my bed (no don’t get any funny ideas!). My room has a window but that window doesn’t receive a lot of light. My Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 was still in repairs so I had to use my kit lenses, mostly the Nikkor AF-S 18-105mm VR because I needed the image stabilization to get most of the ambient light without using an ISO too high and get noise. In that situation, I would admit noise might compromise the shot vs. a concert/event shot where I wouldn’t care much about it… It was also a cloudy day. This means that the light that goes through my window is already dimmed but is softer than sunlight so I’m sort of thankful for that…

The solution

I’ve read on Hot Shoe Diaries (a very good book that I lost, stupid me…) that Joe McNally would sometimes use the flash to mimic daylight. Thus, I tried to implement his teachings to my photography. I used:

A Nikon Speedlight SB-600
A Gary Fong Lightsphere
A Manfrotto 190xProb + 486RC2

I put that gear on the left of Michelle to complement the window light I was getting from my window. Also, to keep some ambient light, I had to use a medium ISO value.

The shoot
That day, my bed had this incredibly colorful duvet cover and it was very fitting to complement the white shirt with black tight garment she would wear. When she arrived, we started looking for cool looking headphones to put on her head: we first thought of using

the Sennheiser HD202: Too ugly of headphones
the Sony MDR-150: Too typical
the Koss Porta Pros: Too small
the Koss UR20: Too “princess leia” and bland

While digging in my dad’s goldmine of hi-fi audio gear (which I won’t tell how much they cost… probably more than my current photo gear ><) and found a lost treasure: The Koss ProAA headphones.

To put the room in a sexy mood I put the music of Clazziquai through the speakers. Michelle was giving some great poses one after another and I was really sweating. Felt like she was flirting with the camera or something. Anyhow, I had a great time to shoot that and was very happy and honored to do it.

here are the best shots of the photoshoot.

Afterthoughts
I hate to complain about gear, but I did feel that my picture would be sharper if I had the Tamron. This is yet another occasion where the shoot would heavily benefit from low-light sharper lenses than my kit. Yet this moment could happen anytime other than this day, because Michelle wouldn’t be free (and she’s still very busy at the time this article will hit the blog). I wouldn’t totally deny the need of a MUA (Make Up Artist) but I feel Michelle does make up pretty well I would say, until proven otherwise. I’m beginning to wonder if I would have the chance to shoot girls like that ever again even though I would really wish to do that again. I’m yet again so lucky to have such good-looking friends and I thank them for being this great. Now I got to do some sports to be good-looking as well, for myself.

Shoot more and maximise your gear :: PYKtures Point of View

2009-07-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Through the months I started advising friends about cameras and photography in general, I started looking what purchase they make. Seriously, I don’t care anymore about good or bad cameras. Comes a time when you can take great shots with any digital medium just with a minimum of … composition?

Given the evolution in the performance of ISO, megapixels and other functionality, pros will change cameras if their job demands it… I think… For my case, I switched to D90 because I got it as a gift from my parents (yes I’m that lucky…) vs. me paying my D80 kit in full.

But I’m not a pro. I just take pictures with mostly any dSLR camera of this generation. Yet I hear stories of people telling me: “My camera doesn’t take great shots!” Most of the time (not all the time) without offending them, I wish I could tell them: “It’s not the camera that sucks. It’s you!” Come on people, just spend more time taking pictures with your camera, you’ll start feeling what it can do and what it can. Knowing its limits, you can find ways to maximize them. It’s not some review on what ever website or magazine (not even my words) that will tell you what your camera can or can’t do. That’s purely marketing shit. If you think your camera pictures aren’t good enough:

Take more pictures
Know your camera...
no seriously... TAKE MORE PICTURES! if this fails then..
Use an image retouch program: Picasa, Lightroom, Aperture.
Use a noise remover: NoiseNinja, Neat Image, DFine.
Use a image enlarger: Genuine Fractals.
Print a shot and see if it looks bad: seriously, some are just a bunch of pixel peepers that would look at pictures on the computer and find a pixel that isn’t colored the right way. Printing is a good way of seeing if you need the shitload of megapixels that your camera produces.
Get a photography course: sometimes you just need that extra once of knowledge.
Get a better lens: we’ll get to that later on this blog.
Get an external flash: to add some creative light in your shots
Get a tripod (a GOOD ONE not that crappy 20$ tripod): to prevent blur when using a slower shutter speed
Get a better camera: if the lens fails… then again, I wonder if you tried printing your pictures… I can understand people changing because they maximized their camera and want more (more focus points, better grip etc…) but if you are not among those people, keep shooting!
Go film: film can still produce some effects that digital can't.
If all else fails, fuck photography, do something else. Like watching grass grow.

My gosh! I can’t believe how much people can’t maximize their camera purchase. It’s like someone that can’t compose with a puny little compact camera moving to a dSLR. There are so many examples I could show you but I won’t. Seriously, if you think your camera sucks, try to find your camera model on flickr and see how many great shots are taken with yours everyday! This should kick your ass!

Chase Jarvis once said: “The best camera in the world is the camera that’s with you.” I think it really makes sense!

Even if you buy the best dSLR in the world, usually those high performance dSLR are built for professional use. They are mostly a reliable means to an end so expect them to be incredibly heavy and not too user-friendly. I’ve seen people buying them and using them just only once or twice per month (because they are usually too heavy or they can't carry them around easily)then, like marketing victims, changing to a “better” camera when a new one comes out. What a waste!

Finally, buy what motivates you to produce a lot of pictures or maximize what you already have, I guess. If you don’t maximize, you fail, many of you.

Lightroom Post Processing Basics :: PYKtures Tricks

2009-06-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

Lightroom is a program built for fast photo processing. Lets first start to learn the shortcut keys for fast navigation.

G : Library Grid
E : Library Fast preview
D : Develop interface
B : Put or remove from Quick Collection
R : Crop interface
V : toggle grayscale (black and white)
Ctrl – Shift – S : Synchronize settings
Ctrl – Shift – E : Export selected pictures

Import pictures

Have a dedicated folder to store your “original pictures” and another folder to store your “processed pictures”.
When ready, just plug your camera. Lightroom will usually detect it and automatically classify the shots by date.
Be sure to “select copy to harddrive” and to specify the folder for “original pictures”
Select the date you wish to import. If you are not sure, check the box that prevents your from importing duplicates of shots you have in your harddrive.
Click import and wait

Selecting only the best pictures to process

Go to grid mode (G). You can play with the size of thumbnails in Grid Mode. You will find that your pictures are also displayed in the film roll (mini thumbnails on the lower part of the window). Also you can find your pictures at the right date in the Library’s left column. You can also find Quick Collection.
If you wish to see the picture bigger, use Quick Preview (E).
Put only your favorite shots in Quick Collection (B)
Go to Quick Collection by clicking on the black line above the film roll.
Switch to Develop mode (D)

Developping the pictures
Develop mode has many settings and sliders, here are some of the most important ones.

Exposure: Manages the overall light of the image
Recovery: Recovers details in the highlights of the picture
Fill Light: Brings back detail in the shadowy and dark parts of the picture
Blacks: Darkens the shadows of the picture
Brightness: Another way to adjust exposure
Contrast: Manages the differences between the brightest and darkest parts of the picture.
Clarity: Hardens or Softens the picture. Do not use Positive Clarity for beauty portraits
Vibrance: Manages the intensity of the colors
Saturation: Manages the presence of the colors

Blacks are the last thing I touch and are only used if I really need the shadows to come in.

Positive clarity augments the details in a shot. Sometimes too much details can be distracting to the eyes. Negative clarity does the opposite

Remember, balance is the key!

So what do I do most of the time for my pictures (mainly the Nikon NEF)?

Boost the contrast to the max
Recover the shadows with fill light
Correct the parts that are too highlighted with exposure
Add a notch of vibrance
Add vignetting
At any time you can remove a picture from Quick Collection by pressing B

Synchronising settings
If you have a stack of pictures that look alike, you can attribute them all the same setting so that you don’t have to redo the same process you did for the first picture of the gang.

Develop the first picture
While having the shift key pressed down, select the last picture of the batch in the film roll
And synchronize the settings (Ctrl – Shift – S)
Click the stuff that you want to be synchronized in the window that pops out and click OK

Last Step: Exporting the pictures.
Almost done!

Select all pictures in Quick Collection (Ctrl-A)
Export (Ctrl – Shift – E)
Select the “processed pictures” folder
Name the subfolder: year-month-date “title of the album”
Have JPG at Quality 100 and sRGB in the image parameter settings
Click OK and wait

Congrats! You have processed your pictures in a blazing speed. Now have Picasa find them and export them online!

Appendix A: RAW vs. JPG.

RAW has more "resistance to modification" than JPG as it contains more information than JPG. If you wish to apply heavy lightroom modifications on a picture, it's better to have it be RAW instead of JPG. It also takes a lot more computer power to process a RAW than a JPG so if your computer is slow with Lightroom, consider processing JPGs instead.

Appendix B: JPG in Lightroom.

JPG might already have enough contrast and vibrance (mainly due to the vivid settings of digital cameras). So it's a lil bit of trial and error there... Remember how I described the sliders in develop.

Cheap buys under 1000$ :: PYKtures Spotlights

2009-06-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Okay guys it’s summer time. More time to go out gives more time to take pictures. The need to take pictures leads to the need to take better pictures. And better pictures are usually the main reason why many would want a dSLR. dSLRs have been the better performers in:

Low Light
Great details
Blazing Autofocus Speed
Beautiful Out of Focus backgrounds for portraits

Usually buying a dSLR involves more than just a camera kit. It needs the purchase of many additional accessories that I’ll leave for you to find:

High speed memory card (something along the speeds of class 6) : 80$
Multicoated Clear Protective filter (no obligated…) : 80$
Camera Bag (usually the Lowepro Top Load Series or the Tamron Digital Zoom series : 50$

Total of extra accessories: 210$

Notice today that all camera systems are mostly made equal for various reasons. Some might be more specialized (like Pentax, Olympus, Panasonic and Sony) as other are more overall performers (like Nikon and Canon). For those who wishes to get something decent for under 1000$, you’ll have to look elsewhere than Nikon or Canon.

Now the bad part, most of the proposed kits in this article will come with a 18-55mm lens. The kit lens’s job is to give the user a taste of what dSLR photography is about but it won’t unleash the machine’s full potential. Sometimes, a 55-200mm might be paired up with the kit lens to add versatility to the shooter experience. While I’ve once tried the 55-200, such lenses won’t give you incredible low light performance like the better ones or will obligate you to change lenses for each type of shooting. Versatile solutions are the lenses that go from 18 to 100mm and more. For price, they usually go from 400$ to 1000$. If you wish to gain versatility right from the start, ditch the kit lens solution and go right to the super zoom lenses. While they still wont give you good low light performance, the range proposed by them will suffice for most casual beginner shooters. I highly recommend one. In fact, start with the cheapest body combined with any superzoom lens.

For those who are asking, I got my prices at this camera store (lozeau) as they offer quite a big load of deals and camera associations there. I’ve often done business with them and the service was always great. If you want to go the “rugged” way, go here.

The Sony System

After trying one of those cameras for a very long time and done some light reading on the subject. While most of the people look at Sony to be the 3rd player in the Canon/Nikon dSLR battle, The Sony Alpha System’s goals are simple. To become the very first dSLR a consumer would get, the “alpha” being the beginning of one’s journey. For less than 1000$, the user can save to acquire better equipment in the future.

Sony Alpha a200 + 18-70 Kit 540$ (780$ with the addition of the 75-300 lens)

Notable specs:

- 10 megapixels CCD of the Nikon D200/D80/D60/D40x
- Built-in Image stabilization
- 9 AF points
- 40 segment metering
- Super Low price
- Wireless Master Flash for the Sony Wireless Flash System

The redesign of the first Sony dSLR, the a100 that was powered by the same 10 megapixels CCD sensor that was in the Nikon D200/D80/D60/D40x series, came back into de game last year with an improved AF and a more comfortable body. Results were mostly the same. The body itself handles very well and sports a built-in image stabilizer that gives sharp ¼ exposure shots. ISO Performance is the weakest of the gang but rendering great image quality up to ISO 800 and going downhill from there. The list of great features continues: 9 AF-points make sure you are focused every time you take a picture; the 40 segments metering make sure your picture is well exposed. The highest selling point of this camera is really its price that can sometimes go well below 500$. If you are trying to get into the dSLR culture or just wish for a camera that delivers great pictures that go above even the most expensive of compact camera, get that camera. Forget about the a300 or a350.

The a300 is basically the a200 with Live View in a LCD screen that can tilt. Here’s my review on this camera. If you are more of the artistic weird angle type, or just need a camera to conveniently shoot over the head. The a350 gives an unusual boost in megapixels (14 megapixels). Personally, I wouldn’t go for that one. Faking 4 extra megapixels for shear marketing is one of those dirty tricks manufacturers like to do to get that extra money on misinformed people.

Sony Alpha a230 + 18-55 Kit 600$

Notable additions to the a200:

- Redesigned super light body
- More shooting assistance
- Better kit lens with SAM motor

This is the 2009 line of new Entry level Sony dSLRs that are completely consumer oriented. Like the Nikon D40, the new a230 will sport shooting assistance that involves a built-in digital tutor that teaches you how to use the dSLR in many situations. The new body weights a mere 425g and is proven to be a lot more compact than the a200 design. The new 18-55mm kit lens is announced to be sharper than the 18-70 that came before it. The new lens also focuses faster. The question you have to ask yourself is if you really need the extra sharpness, lightness, compactness that this solution gives your for 60$ more than the a200. If the answer is yes, you get this camera. As usual, the a330 will add the Live View LCD screen, and the a380 will add 4 extra megapixels. Be warned that until I really try it, I speculate no improvement in the ISO performance, maybe just in the sharpness.

The Pentax System

Pentax walks a different path than the other camera systems. It’s a brand completely dedicated to the digital format. Thus, its pro lenses, the DA* series, are made for digital cropped sensors. Once using the Sony 10 megapixels CCD sensor that powers the Nikon D200/D80/D60/D40x and all the Sony Alpha entry-level dSLRs, Pentax has shifted it’s sensor development to Samsung. The new 14.6 megapixels CMOS sensor used in the k20d is a result of such an alliance. Pentaxian bodies are usually made tougher than the competition with better plastics and perfect weather sealing. Also, built-in image stabilization helps to get those extra stops of light needed for low light photography. Pentax is also the camera brand that uses the least of noise reduction. This means that details are usually kept more than other at the sacrifice of poor noise performance. As you might notice the first time you enter the menus, their appearance might be some years behind the great looking ones of Nikon, Canon or even Sony. I think the only camera I’ve ever used in the Pentax system was my friend’s k10d, which triggered that infamous review.

Pentax Km + 18-55 + side bag 560$ (720$ with 55-200)

Notable specs:

- 10 megapixels CCD of the Nikon D200/D80/D60/D40x
- Built-in Image stabilization
- 5 AF points
- 16 segment metering
- Super Low price
- AA batteries
- Shooting Assistance
- Wireless Master Flash for the Pentax Wireless Flash System

I haven’t tried this little baby but I’m sure my friend Arturo Las Pinas Jr. will have the pleasure to introduce you to it. This solution contains a super small yet heavy (625g) and well-built body with built-in image stabilization and probably one of the sharpest 18-55 lenses you can get. As this camera was geared towards the consumers, there is a dedicated shooting assistance button to ask the camera’s digital tutor for help and advice. The batteries that power the Km are of conventional AA batteries that can be found easily if one runs out of battery. As a downside to its call to simplicity, many of the custom functions like the AF point selection for precision focusing are removed. The 16 segments metering might result in poor metering by the camera. So passionate shooters might stay away from this one. Other than that, for a point and shoot dSLR, this should fit the bill nicely. The k200d can be found for a little extra. It brings perfect weather sealing and 11 AF points to the table.

Pentax K20d + 18-55 + side bag 1099$

Notable specs:

- 14.6 megapixels Samsung CMOS
- High Detail
- Built-in Image stabilization
- 11 AF points
- 16 segment metering
- Super Low price (for what you are getting)
- Near Semi-Pro Built quality
- 100% Weather Sealed
- Wireless Master Flash for the Pentax Wireless Flash System

Okay, this shouldn’t be here but the k20d is a too good camera to ignore at this price. This marks the first time Pentax is ditching the old and busted Sony 10mp sensor and using the homemade Samsung CMOS 14.6mp sensor. Most of the benefits of CMOS on dSLRs are present: better noise handling, better dynamic range, etc… Also, because the Pentax PRIME processor doesn’t reduce noise a lot, the sheer amount of detail you can find in those 14.6 mp shots is astounding. The only gripe I would have against such a solution would be the accuracy of the metering engine: just like that k10d (that infamous bike shot I took during my review), this camera measures light from only 16 segments thus augmenting the risk of exposing the wrong subject… The Pentaxian experts I talked to all told me that such an issue is fixed on the k20d. So, if you want to drop money on the best camera deal for around 1000$, this is it!

Nikon
For many generations, Nikon has been the pinnacle of photography equipment. The 3d matrix metering engine that is implemented in all Nikon dSLR is today’s most advanced metering engine. Measuring light from at least 420 RGB pixels to a whooping 1005 RGB points, the camera is almost never wrong about lighting. Add the most advanced Auto ISO adjustment system, the flawless MultiCam AF interface capable of locking focus in the most dim of situation and you got yourself an almost failsafe instrument of picture taking. The wireless flash system is also one of today’s most cost effective solutions to creative lighting. From 18-200mm super zoom lenses to pro lenses that cover 14mm to 200mm at f/2.8, Nikon produces a wide range of convenient and super sharp lenses. It’s mostly what we would call a perfect system. The problem is… the price.

D40+18-55 490$ (might be discontinued)

Notable specs:

- Super light
- High Detail (due to the super sharp kit lens)
- 420-Point 3d Matrix Metering
- Super Low price
- Highly intelligent Shooting Assistant
- 3 AF-points that really lock on pretty much anything…
- High contrast LCD screen
- Superior ISO Performance (one slight notch inferior to the Canon)
- Vivid Colors

The D40 has mostly been considered the black sheep of the dSLR industry. As Nikon gave us a Nikon dSLR (unbeatable 3d matrix metering, great vivid colors, print-ready jpg pictures) that was affordable by many first time dSLR users, Nikon downgraded that machine so much that it looks more like a photography toy rather than a tool of serious passionate photography. Not only the body lacks of AF points (only 3 points), it doesn’t have an internal focus motor to function with non-AF-S (or built-in motor) lenses. Such lens issues are mostly resolved in today’s lens industry. Nikon’s point is clear here: it’s a beginner’s camera. The design of the body has been incredibly simplified for the camera to be picked up and played with easily. Not only the shooting assistant flashes during most scenes to teach you how to use the camera and how to shoot it, it contains tutorials for every single setting built-in the camera. The weight of the kit is also very light, making it easy to carry it around. I don’t know if I should recommend this camera or not to the passionate photographer. The only way I would see someone use a camera like this would be for:

- A carry around walk around camera
- A first camera to learn about photography
- A high quality picture taking machine

The D40 format of Nikon has stayed as an entry format dSLR for a very longtime, seeing many changes to its internal pieces:

- D40x added the D80’s 10mp sensor with added saturation
- D60 added the EXPEED processor for Active-D-Lighting and Lens Correction capabilities. What’s good about the D60 is that is also come with a VR version of one of the best 18-55mm kit lens in the world.

Nikon D80
Notable specs:

- Nikon CLS enabled
- 11 AF-points
- 420 RGB point Matrix Metering
- Build quality
- Gazillion shortcut buttons and 3 programmable additional ones!

It’s my first and best dSLR ever. Now that’s subjective! Seriously, I love almost everything about this camera. Now I’m an enthusiast level photographer so getting almost everything the D200 has in a smaller and lighter body is incredibly cool. 11 AF-point makes sure you never lose a subject. The matrix metering gets most of your exposures right and you can change your settings at the speed of light with the shortcut buttons, do you really need anything more? Oh weatherseal… well can’t be perfect. Haha. Well, if you can still find it new in today’s market, the D80 is possibly the best enthusiast camera you can get under 1000$

Canon
Canon is the brand that completely optimized his system for autofocus. Inventor of the Electronic Optical System EOS, the brand has been in the business of making camera and lenses that work, on paper, perfectly electronically together. This means that, with the right USM lens, the Canon dSLR can focus to blistering speed superior to any brand. The CMOS sensor used in Canon dSLR is also one of the best performing sensor of the class. For ages, before Nikon incorporated the CMOS sensor in his range of dSLR, Canon reined the photography industry like a king. Today, it fights its way to supremacy with Nikon. Things that are obviously noticeable on a Canon camera are the megapixels. Many times, such products will have superior megapixels than its counterparts to give the possibility to crop in a picture. Some purist might begin to accuse blurring of details due to the heavy noise reduction applied on High-ISO image. Also, err99 issues happen often among cameras due to short circuit of the electrical system. Anyhow, Canon continues to be strong on all fronts and continues his heavy marketing campaign.

Rebel XSi (EOS 450D)
Notable specs:

- Super light
- Live view
- Great design improvement from the XTi
- DIGIC III
- 12 megapixels
- Superior ISO performance
- New kit lens with IS

The superior entry-level camera when usually compared with the Nikon D40/D60 series, the Rebel XSi is about cramming down an incredible potential of making great pictures hidden in a consumer body that looks like a mini plastic 40D/50D. The images I got raw out of the camera weren’t exactly print ready (very desaturated and neutral colors) but, in the right hands of those who know their way into post-processing (ergo photoshop, lightroom etc…), this is a camera that nails every single checkbox of versatility.

Canon 40D
Notable specs:

- Magnesium Body
- Live view
- Very very very fast focusing
- Very very very responsive
- High rate of continuous shooting
- DIGIC III
- Big viewfinder

The Canon 40D was modeled to perform as a backup body to the 1DMkIII as it gets many features of his big brother: 6.5fps continuous shooting, hyper fast AF system and Live View. The secret? DIGIC III was a processor built for speed. Image navigation is bliss thanks to the iPod-like wheel. The shutter is super silent and shooting with the 40D feels like going at the speed of instincts. Any flaws? The usual desaturated colors any Canon dSLR would produce. It has some metering problems and will also fail to focus in very low light. If you are on a budget and have a great desire to go Canon, this is one of the rare gems you can find below 1000$ if they still exist.

1000$ for enthusiast?

Normally in the best of worlds, 2000$ would be a great starting price to get amazing starting gear in possibly any camera brand. As you can see here in this article, camera brands other than Nikon/Canon try to put the emphasis on the features like Image Stabilisation, Weather Sealing or the price. None of them though would reach the level of image quality than a Canon or a Nikon produces.

Now here’s the thing, if you just want a small dSLR camera that takes print-ready pictures with no post-processing to do, get the Nikon D60.

If you are willing to do a lot of processing on your pictures, get the Canon Rebel XSi.

If you are willing to have a body that will grow with you as you learn more and more about photography, go for the Sony a200 or the Pentax K20d. The difference between the Sony and the Pentax is that Sony will have better colors, better dynamic range optimization while Pentax will have sharper pictures due to less noise reduction.

...

2009-06-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

I am human. Humans make mistakes. It’s crazy how a single one can erase a series of good moves. Recently, in my life, my ambition harmed a friendship I treasure dearly. Why? I think I got to a point where over-enthusiasm blinded my actions. I didn’t think about the consequences of my actions, the consequences that are affecting the others around me. It’s not the first time my photography passion gave a negative impact in my life.

I do remember the first time people hated me for pictures. It was at the funeral of an important personality of my high school: a student of my promo year. I remember I did ask permission to take pictures to pay tribute to such a great person. But the other people there didn’t understand my motives and hated me with a passion. My high school reputation has now been tarnished: the ex-bullies of that school flagged me as the archenemy. They ever threatened to kill me and destroy my gear. I wonder if I would regain forgiveness one day.

Less harmful, the second time my photography went to give a negative impact was at the Montreal Nuit Blanche 2009 where I decided to bring my whole gear for an all-nighter photography session. I ended up not enjoying my night, as I wanted. Carrying it to explore the many galleries of the Nuit Blanche was a chore on its own…

And then yesterday, with my photography, I put someone I care for in a bad situation. I did things to this person without thinking of the consequences or her feelings. How dumb and stupid of me…

Ironic isn’t it? Such passion, such addiction for beauty can be turned against itself. I got sick of photography passion again and it kills me to be that way. I’m such a junkie sometimes, yet I try very hard to control this addiction as I know it will lead me to a place I wouldn’t like to go or make me become someone I’m not, a monster, a freak.

There is definitely more in life than this and by learning from my mistakes, I will strive to evolve into someone I'm comfortable with as a friend, person or human being.

Life continues ^^

My wall is now empty so that you can decorate it with your words because I have nothing else to say.

Sony Alpha a300 review :: PYKtures Reviews

2009-05-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

A Quick View of the System

Not so long ago, Sony purchased the camera division of Minolta Konica and attacked the dSLR market by force. My story with the alpha system of Sony started with the introduction of the a100 dSLR camera prior to the purchase of my Nikon D80. The a100 cost less than half the price of the D80 and produces similar performance. The objective of the Alpha system is simple: to maximize the Nikon D200 10mp sensor (which has been produced by Sony…) and add image stabilization. Wait! Doesn’t that resemble what Pentax is trying to achieve? Not exactly.

What differentiates Sony from the rest of the pack is the Bionz processor that first introduced the concept of a Dynamic Range Optimizer engine. Such a function uses an optimized way to restore details in the underexposed regions of the picture (mostly shadows). As a result, the output of Alpha camera would generally have bigger dynamic range than Nikon. Such a benefit doesn’t go without flaws: Bionz doesn’t perform well at high ISO values.

Testing day

My spring break happened from the 21ist to the 24th of February of 2009. Anticipating such free times, photography and alpine skiing, I’ve asked my good friend Arvind Eyunni to borrow his a300 for a spin. The a300 is one of the first dSLR to nail the Live View autofocus technology: the dSLR would be able to focus just as fast as in traditional optical viewfinder mode. The cheat applied by Sony is a dual sensor technology:

In Optical Viewfinder mode, the camera would behave just like any traditional dSLR. The mirror would divert the image seen by the lens to the eyes of the photographer. When, the user takes a picture, the mirror would lift and the shutter would open for the sensor to capture the image
In Live View Mode, the camera hides the viewfinder with a secondary micro-sensor that acts like the eye of the photographer. By doing so, the micro-sensor captures the image given by the lens and displays it on the huge LCD flip screen.

Arvind Eyunni is a student that loves photography, Minolta and film. The gear he accepted to let be borrow in exchange for my Nikon system was basically:

The Sony Alpha a300
The legendary Tamron 17-50 2.8 lens

Because I could have the Sony for quite a long time, I could test-drive the camera through various test fields.

Experiment 1 – Low Light Portraiture

As I saw my sister lying down playing with her teddy bears in her very dim lit room, I said to myself that it would be the perfect opportunity to try out the Live View mode of the camera. Usually, such situation would require me to go over my sister to aim for the face without showing my feet in the final picture. With the usage of the flip Live View screen I could frame the shots without really “being there”. Shooting at such creative angles was something I could achieve with none other than the a300. The image stabilizer made sharp medium exposure shots of lower than 1/20 possible. I was very thankful for that. The final result was something that could capture a lot of ambient light in a very sharp way for medium exposures.

Experiment 2 – High Speed Skiing

I knew the LCD screen would help me get shots in angles I haven’t seen before. So I’ve decided to push on such a concept to get pictures I only could get with the a300. Thus I’ve tested the a300 on the slopes of Bromont. The challenge would be for me to capture the intensity of a ski ride while riding down at breakneck speeds. The best way to shoot stuff like this is to stay very close to the ground. I’ve been practicing the sport for 13 years now, so I know my way on riding the skis. I’ve tried to film my skis going down the slopes with my small compact but never have I tried to properly compose a shot. The skis I use are a pair Salomon SC Race. Very light, they accelerate very fast and can do turns on a dime.

I went to Bromont for 2 days: the first day had a snowstorm; the second one was sunny. I made use of the Live View LCD to help me to frame the shot while I was sliding down. The settings were:

Shutter priority: 1/250 or 1/15
Continuous shooting
Continuous autofocus

After many tries, I was able to pull off some shots of me carving for my life. I wouldn’t be able to perfectly frame my shots without such a feature. The Super Steadyshot was able to dampen the skiing vibration and helped to register sharp 1/15 exposure shots.

Experiment 3 – A walk in the deep snow

On that Bromont sunny morning, the snow was looking bright and white. Because I didn’t have many snow shots that winter, I decided to take a hike in the deep snow. And boy it was deep. It was so deep, the snow was up to my waist. With the iPod putting some sweet bonobo music in my ears, I began my hike into the nothingness of the snowfield. The tilt-lcd screen was useful once again for many of the shots there were taken at snow level. If such a feature was inexistent, I would have to lye down all the time, rethink/reframe my shot and glue my right eye to the viewfinder; lots of time will be wasted just getting in the position. I love this screen!

Issues

Even though all the features of the a300 point to the perfect camera, there is still a lot of issues to be resolved:

The Bionz processor: It can give great eye popping saturated colors. The DRO is great. But it can’t process noise. Noise becomes troublesome at the early stages of sensitivity. ISO 800 is noisy for a dSLR and 1600 downright horrible. I feel I just have 2 EV of advantage over a typical compact camera where normally I would have as low as 4 EV advantage with a Nikon, a Canon, even a Pentax.
The tunnel viewfinder: Because the camera needs to add a secondary sensor in the viewfinder to make a useable Live View, the viewfinder has been severely reduced. Because of its very small size, I can’t really frame my shots right and get frustrated a lot using it. Besides, the 2.5 inch Live View LCD screen is very comfortable to use.
The Live View system: Because the secondary sensor is used to display the images that would normally go through the viewfinder, its size is very small. As a consequence, Live View in low light is very difficult. Thus you have to go back to the traditional method of framing with the viewfinder. But because the viewfinder isn’t bright or big enough to see, it’s very uncomfortable to use the camera in super low light situations.
The LCD can only be tilted up and down. It doesn’t offer a full 270 degrees flip like the Olympus E-System or the Lumix G-System
The 3 years old Sony 10mp CCD sensor that powered the Nikon D200/D80/D60/D40x and the Pentax K10D/K200D/Km is getting old and cannot produce a performance equal to its competitions that made the jump to CMOS and processor upgrade.
The build quality of the dSLR body might feel cheap for some people.

End notes

I applaud what Sony is trying to do by introducing this technology. It has given us the first true functional Live View to dSLRs. It’s a big leap forward. I’ve enjoyed the benefits of such technology and have written stories that chant the marvels of it. The question is: will Sony answer the issues brought at hand by many of the a300 series users by adding at least the EXMOR CMOS sensor to the next generation bodies or stay with the ageing CCD sensor and squeeze more megapixels in?

Recent updates

The announcement of the new entry-level dSLR of Sony struck me last week. The newly redesigned attractive bodies don’t seem to have anything new to bring to the table besides the design of the menus and the bodies themselves. They are using the same sensor… sad.

Directions to Coldplay :: PYKtures Flashes

2009-05-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

This post has nothing to do with photography... lol? I love the sound of Coldplay and recently, they've offered the free download of their latest album: Left Right Left Right Left. The title reminds me of the Konami Code haha.

The sound of the album is just plain awesome as it has been recorded live in concert! It reminds me of the concert album of 2003 but better.

I think we should all rush to this site and get our piece of it before the website fails to load due to over usage of the bandwidth :P

the album website
http://lrlrl.coldplay.com/

the band's .com
http://coldplay.com/

Looking Back :: PYKtures Point of View

2009-05-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

A year ago,
- I didn't have many photography friends in Montreal.
- I was just getting used to my Nikon D80
- I was shooting events and quickly got tired of them.
- I had delusions of grandeur and wanted to be in the business of making pictures
- I've just got a job at Cirque du Soleil of copy pasting content on web pages

Now
- I have met many friends through photography here in Da and in Montreal.
- I have a very large knowledge of photography gear in general.
- I've gotten just a tiny bit better if not much...
- I just hang around shooting what I want when I want.
- I hate the idea of photography as a job and will never charge for pictures I want to take, nor will I say yes to pictures I don't want to take.
- I'm back to school, starting my second semester in IT Engineering. Enjoying it so far. It feels like serious interesting business.

Well it's been quite a ride. I'm more than greatful to many of you who watch me grow and correspond with me. I think that my photography has reached a level on which I'm satisfied of. I'm able to capture beauty with mostly any camera I have in my hands and display it for the world to see.

I've once tried taking portraits and noticed that to get to the next level, I would need some extra time alone to practice and some extra stress to think about the ideas behind each photoshoot. I have no time for this right now.

A close friend of mine told me that I should stop "teaching others" about photography and concentrate on improving myself. I think this would involve a life of solitude. As improving myself would lead to some time alone and a lot of training to get that extra step. This is something I don't want for now. My studies give me enough time alone for me to find the need to just hang out with friends and my camera.

Photography will be never seen as a job for me. I shall never become a professionnal photographer. What does the quality of my images have to do about being professionnal? They are just good pictures! They don't look professional at all. I think people tend to think professional when they see a picture that is sharp, well colored and well exposed. I think people tend to forget all the works and efforts and accessories there are behind a true professional picture. I think people can't see past the results. I've once bashed on professionnal photographers too. What a jerk I was...

I think this is why I'm blogging so much about tricks and teaching: to give the tools to other camera users for them to get to my level... and amaze me with great shots. Then again, I totally forgot about the number of shots I took to get to "this level". I totally forgot that many beginners have various sense of composition before learning more about photography. I think my way of teaching photography has failed because I forgot about the aspect of "personnal development". And for this, I'm sorry: many should go back to practice their composition by taking photo walks alone with some music in their ears.

As I get to a level where my composition and post-processing are at a "satifying level", why should I be so serious about rules, details, numbers? I can tell you that I'm really not. If I find a picture I like, I frame it and take it. If I lose shots, I'll take better ones in the future. I'll keep trying things but at a slow pace. I'll keep looking for the next beautiful composition and angle. I'll keep looking for the next beautiful thing, perhaps writing stories about it. I'll try to reach out to other people and get them to pick up a very good camera and shoot to their best.

Thus comes my way of photography for the summer...

Gilad Benari, a master of composition :: PYKtures Flashes

2009-05-06T07:40:00.001-07:00

Recently, I got asked too many times to show people how to do this or that. I've realized that most of them didn't have a good enough photographer's eye to start learning about the technical aspects of photography and how to create some of the shots I take. Here's the prime example on how composition makes a picture looks sooooo cool.

I've followed the works of Gilad Benari ever since I got on deviantart. His mastery of composition is a level I strive to reach one day in my photography. I first didn't understand how he shot his things but then I started walking alone and carefully training my eye to see the way any decent photographer would see. I strongly believe that the eye of the photographer needs to be trained enough to see things like these.

his flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/giladbenari/

his deviantart
http://gilad.deviantart.com/gallery/

Want more?

EARTH DAY 17 :: PYKtures Stories

2009-05-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm just sooooo late to put those shots on my blog hehe but here's a story I've improvised after seeing the shots of a walk I did.

The world outside isn't as it seems...

I take a walk on the street and notice that we are all dying...
Just a little quicker...
More than 2 times faster...

Pollution reached an all time high...
The moon exploded...
The sky is covered in smog...

Nature is dead...

As a reaction, the planet condemmed the human species to extinction so that it can be reborn...
Thus the trees have stopped photo synthesis...

Cars have shrunk to accomodate space...

World's overpopulation forced us into living in cells...

The wealthier people live in appartments behind a glassed protective layer to prevent polution from entering...

It is up to the skies that the rich people live, living is sky palaces...

The richest of the rich have enough cash to make the jump to space in this colonial vessel and live a better life from this polluted planet...

and no ship has returned...
Either there's no hope in space or they just don't want to go back to Earth...
Oh well, we have to wait another 5 years for another colonial vessel to be ready. By then, will we be still alive?

Remains of a luxurious hotel project for a thing now extinct: tourism...
It has become a shelter and tomb for the homeless as they choke to dead...

Some of us seeked salvation in religion. But they all died choking from a failed life support system. The corporations abandonned them...

Some of us seeked salvation through human science, but you cannot be saved...

While the world is falling apart, we still need amusements...

Anarchy is still present...

It's a sad world really...