from RAW file with minor post processing in Photoshop - skin color is more natural and background contains less noise, also more details in face and hair

I have had cameras that have the capability to shoot in RAW for over four years now. However, every time I have taken RAW photos I have done nothing with them. I have tried to convert them to .jpg format without much success. Usually my out-of-camera .jpg looked better than my converted RAW image that I worked on for 5-10 minutes.

Today, however, I believe I have made a breakthrough. These .jpgs didn’t look very good no matter what I did in Photoshop to them so I struggled with the RAW images and finally came up with something better than the original. What do you think?

from jpg (with minor post processing in Photoshop)

from jpeg with minor Photoshop processing

from RAW file with minor Photoshop processing - you can see John's face again and less noise

This second photo is of John Javna. He spoke at the Ashland Martin Luther King Jr Holiday Celebration. He is a major reason why we have ScienceWorks in Ashland. My son loves his Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers. On this occasion he delivered a message about the Ashland Food Project.

Posted on January 18th, 2012 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Ashland Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration, photography, raw vs. jpg jpeg. Comments: 4

Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/5, 1/640 second, 70mm, ISO 400

Last week I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping and one of the places I stopped by was the Emz Blendz Soap Co. in Ashland. They are right next door to the Standing Stone Brewing Company.

Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/2.8, 1/200 second, 24mm, ISO 400

But today I’m not here to talk about soap, candles, or bath salts; I’m here to talk about camera lenses.

Perhaps you received a DSLR for Christmas? And it probably came with a kit lens–something like 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6? So far you are happy with it, and you wonder why anyone would need anything else? That was my thinking back when I purchased my first DSLR earlier this year. Since then I’ve purchased about a dozen lenses. I’ve sold half of them as they were more to help me learn than to use for the long term. I have found that I really only need four lenses so I’m still looking to sell two more. Today’s photos were taken with one of those lenses.

Why may you want to upgrade a lens similar to an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6? I can think of many reasons. Here are some in no particular order:
1) More reach. 55mm doesn’t get you as close to the subject in some situations as you would like. 18mm isn’t that wide either. If you really want to take wide angle shots you should probably invest in something like a 10-24mm lens.
2) f/2.8 allows for much faster shutter speed which means sharper pictures.
3) f/2.8 works so much better in low light and indoors.
4) Depth of field. An ordinary photo at 55mm and f/5.6 can look extraordinary if it is instead taken at 70mm and f/2.8. Photos 2 and 4 in today’s entry show you what depth of field can do for an image. Your subject matter is super sharp and clear while everything else in the photo turns into milky goodness.

Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/2.8, 1/60 second, 70mm, ISO 400

Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/2.8, 1/160 second, 52mm, ISO 400

Posted on December 29th, 2011 under places. Tags: photography, sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Comments Off on Emz Blendz Soap Co.

I have always had problems photographing the moon. Even the fullest of moons are difficult to have, with details, in any photo of something else. Night photography frequently involves leaving the shutter open for a few seconds and then things get even worse. The moon ends up looking more like lens flare than the highlight of your photo.

A couple weeks back we had an eclipse. I didn’t stay up for it, even though the sky was clear, because it wasn’t scheduled to happen until 4 a.m. and by then I thought the moon may be behind a mountain if I tried to view it from home. Even if it wasn’t, it would have been on the non-window side of my house which meant I would have had to go outside in below freezing temperatures in order to get a peak. So, instead, I took this photo much earlier in the evening from inside my house.

Contrary to intuition, leaving your shutter open longer to photograph the moon is a bad idea. A fast shutter speed and low ISO are key to achieving any kind of detail. I shot this photo (which has been significantly cropped) at 200mm at f/2.8 with an exposure of just 1/2500 of a second.

Posted on December 28th, 2011 under nature. Tags: moon, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, photography. Comments: 1

One of the main reasons I recently picked up a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II lens was to photograph Ellie playing volleyball. However, it takes fantastic portraits in low light as well. The only lighting for this photo was Ellie’s computer screen and a distant light in the hallway. The room was actually quite dark.

Posted on December 23rd, 2011 under people. Tags: ellie, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, photography, portraits. Comments Off on Ellie

Josi McDermott

I tried out a new lens this past Tuesday at the Southern Oregon University women’s basketball game. The Nikon 85mm f/1.4 D produced the above result at an aperture of 1.4 and a shutter speed of just 1/1250 of a second (an exposure time I’m not used to indoors with gym lighting). I didn’t even need to bump the ISO up very high to get that kind of shutter speed. This is at an ISO of 800. Needless to say, I’m very happy with the results. The isolation and sharpness of the subject, while leaving the background in a state of creamy bliss, is just what I was hoping for.

Click on the photo for an even larger view to see just how sharp Josi was captured.

Posted on November 25th, 2011 under only in ashland, people. Tags: basketball, bokeh, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, nikon d7000, photography, Southern Oregon University, sports. Comments Off on SOU Women’s Basketball

Today’s photo sequence is from the first of those three wins. My Nikon D7000 can take up to 7 photos per second which allows this type of photography. With no big screen down on the field, taking a series of photos of the big plays and then watching them back on my camera was the best replay in the house.

Posted on October 11th, 2011 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, nikon d7000, photography, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, sports. Comments Off on SOU Raider football has three wins in a row

Southern Oregon University Women's Volleyball

I took this on 9/10/11. Next home game for the Lady Raiders is 9/23. I’m hoping the lens I have purchased since I took today’s photo (Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D) will allow me to take a shot like this with less blur. I took this with settings of f/4.5 and 1/200 of a second (ISO 1600) with my 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens in poor, indoor, gymnasium lighting. With my new lens I should be able to do something like f/2.8 and 1/320 with better results. Stay tuned.

Posted on September 14th, 2011 under only in ashland, people. Tags: nikon 18-200mm vr ii, nikon d7000, photography, Raider Athletics, Southern Oregon University, volleyball. Comments Off on Liz Madden with a kill for SOU volleyball

Wildflowers on Wagner Butte hike

For today’s first photo I decided to have some fun with my new ultra wide-angle lens. At f/3.5 (the lowest f stop I can go with it), 10mm, and getting as close to the flower and still being able to focus as I can, the results are intriguing.

View from Wagner Butte Trail

Butterfly lands on yellow wildflower

With lots of wildflowers come lots of butterflies. I’m digging the macro capabilities and nice bokeh with my new lens.

Posted on September 11th, 2011 under nature. Tags: flowers, hike, nikon d7000, photography, Tamron 10-24mm lens, wagner butte. Comments Off on Wagner Butte Hike (6 of 7)

Wagner Butte wildflowers - Little Applegate

Looking west (and maybe a bit south) from the western slopes of Wagner Butte yields the above view which is probably Little Applegate in the foreground. I’m not sure what mountain ranges go beyond that.

As I mentioned yesterday, sometimes the landscape can get a bit desert like; however, frequently there are wildflowers right in the middle of these scenes. I wonder how different this view would be in the morning (or a month or two earlier). I took this photo in the late afternoon in early September.

Wagner Butte Trail log "bridge"

Along the Wagner Butte trail you cross a dozen or so streams. This late in the year they were mostly a trickle of water, but in spring, or while it is raining, I imagine they can be somewhat tricky to cross. This one was probably twenty feet across of mud in early September so crossing over via the log helped to keep shoes from becoming a mess even without a small river coming down the mountainside.

Flowers along Wagner Butte hiking trail

My new 10-24mm lens can do some pretty cool things in the macro photography world, nice bokeh too. I was surprised how close I could get and still focus. The specs said the minimum focus distance was 9.5 inches, but I was less than that far away on this photo (and even closer on some others I’ll show you in the next few days). My other lens really does require a distance between the end of the lens and the focus subject of at least a foot and a half.

This flower probably looked much better a week or two earlier in the year. I’d like to do this hike in, say, July and then again in September of the same year to compare the wildflowers. Do some last all summer long or are there totally different wildflowers blossoming and dying as the summer progresses?

Posted on September 8th, 2011 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: flowers, hike, photography, Tamron 10-24mm lens, wagner butte. Comments Off on Wagner Butte (3 of 7)