Karl Schuler

<p>The eternal question: Does size matter? ;-)</p>

Dear all who participated in this WPPC,

 

Thank you all for your contributions. I find this exercise very instructive and inspiring and the visits of the UFO and the

bats added some fun to the story.

 

It is interesting to see the variety of results with diverse moods, created by using different programs and individual

processing techniques, based on one original file.

I posterd this photo because I found it very difficult to capture and reproduce the extraordinary scene we witnessed on

this New Year's Eve over the snowy hills of Emmental, towards the setting sun. The photo shows a view over the ridges

of the Napf Mountain, with summer pasture land on the top of the hills and forests on the slopes. It is the area where

initially the famous Emmental Cheese comes from. Single linden trees on top of the hills are a cultural speciality of this

very traditional region. Many spooky tales are told about this secluded area with isolated farms and dark forests, where

centuries ago the Anabaptists sought refuge. Recently the once extinct lynx started resettling in this area.

 

In my view, the settings of the original photo were too dark. There is plenty of space towards a brighter shot. Under this

conditions I should have have used the HDR function producing 3 to 5 brighter and darker frames. Should have... However with the RAW

file it is possible to correct it without loosing too much of its quality. Unfortunately it is not possible here to post the RAW

files.

In the photo initially processed by me and then improved by Peter Krenek, I used Lightroom to make the snow on the

trees visible and to control the light of the sun and the clouds. The clarity and the noise reduction tools and the Silver Efex

Pro NIK Filter were crucial to get more or less what I wanted. Still the real spectacle was far beyond what can be depicted

in a photo.

 

I am looking forward for the next WPPC. Karl

This is gorgeous! So different moods! Day and night. Monochrome and colorful. Bold and subtle. Cropped and levelled.

Threatening thunderstorm and moderate pastel. The handwriting of the autors.

 

Impossible to do justice to the original scene, bathed in light, towards the dazzling glow of the sun and the clouds. An

almost monochrome landscape covered with snow. A short moment of a fascinating, ever changing lighting.

 

Some contributions tend to recover the natural scene while others try to fetch a catchy picture, quite different from the

reality. Great to see what potential lies in such a photo!

 

I, for myself, have tried to reproduce as much as possible the scene as I remember it. I have posted the result in my

Switzerland Folder. Based on this, Peter Krenek did some improvements. I hope he will copy his result here as an

additional contribution and if somebody wants, he or she could take this as the starting point for a different post-

processing challenge.

 

Cheers! Karl

Here is a larger version of the photo:<div></div>

I selected an image for this week's challeng that was taken on New Year's Eve in Emmental, Switzerland. It was shot with the Olympus E-

M1 and the new 40-150 mm 1:2,8 lens towards the setting sun. The hills and trees were covered with snow and the sun disk was

sometimes visible through layers of quickly moving clouds. The original photo, that I post here in JPG version, is quite dark in order to keep

details in the bright parts of the photo. I found it difficult to depict the extraordinary mood of this scene and would like to see what the

experts of photo.net are able to achieve and how they processed it to get there. A larger version of this photo will be attached below.

Thanks for your contribution. Karl<div></div>

Here is the resized photo. Karl<div></div>

Cropped and BW processed in Photos app on iPad with the intention to get the essence of the picture with focus on the

man on his mobile phone. On this app I do not know how to change a particular area of the photo. Otherwise I would have increased the contrast on the man. Also, I can not resize the photo to make it directly visible in the thread contribution. Karl<div></div>

Thanks Jos and Michael,

Yes, I have now discovered that I can disable "block downloads.." in my accounts options, so that I can alllow somebody

to copy a photo directly from my site.

Great help! Karl

<p>In the past I was able to save a photo of photo.net on my computer. Since some time I can not do it anymore. But recently I downloaded and modified a photo of a member for adding it to a comment. I am confused. Thanks for your help. Karl</p>

Dear Josh, thanks for your help. I tried it out and I am glad to see that it works. Karl

<p>Marc, thank you for your response. You are right: Some limitations of the iPad are really disturbing. One more question as I am not a spécialist in informatics. What you explain with PTF and HTML, can this be done on an iPad or does this need another computer? Can it be learned easily or is it rather something for spécialists? Thanks. Karl</p>

Is it possible to add photos from my iPad 3 to my photo.net folders? The function select photo does not work when I try to do it. Thanks for your insight and advise. Karl

<p>After uploading my photos from the camera to the computer I watch them in full screen size to assess their quality. In the past I used for this the Zoombrowser. Recently I have started watching and rating them in Bridge, but the sharpness and crispness of the photos is better in zoombrowser than in bridge. Is this a problem of Bridge or can it be adjusted by changing the settings? Thanks for your support. Karl</p>

<p>What you need for this trip is mobility, agility and control of your gear in often narrow and sometimes crowded situations.<br>

My suggestion based on 15 years of living in Asia, 8 out of them in Nepal:<br>

Standard take around equipment: 5DII, 24-105 IS, 270EX, camera with flash always mounted on a light, stable tripod. This will be good for 90% of the situations<br>

Additional equipment if really necessary and if compact bag allows quick access:<br>

For portraits and birds 70-300 mm IS small size<br>

For photos inside narrow rooms and landscape: 17-40 mm Zoom<br>

Perhaps a fast 24 to 50 mm prime for photos inside temples.<br>

If you insist on a second camera than I suggest a compact one like Canon G12.<br>

Good photos in these places depend more on the readiness to get the right moment in quickly changing situations than on the ultimate gear in the bag.<br>

I hope this helps. Enjoy your trip. Karl</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Selling it, means to give a chance to a young ambitious photographer who wants quality but can not afford a new camera. I never missed my 5D after having got the mkII.</p>

<p>Dear all, thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. I still do not understand well the DPP RAW histogram. But I have learned that the RGB histogram in DPP is different and more helpful than the DPP RAW histogram combined with the highlight clipping indicator. With this I can live. Karl</p>

<p>Thanks Jacopo, Franklin and Edward. Your explanations help me to understand the whole topic a bit better. But still my question remains. I try to reformulate it with Franklin's words: In DPP I have turned on the highlight and shadow warnings (at 0 and 255). My adjustments stop before one of the warnings becomes active. Then, after saving this file in TIFF and opening in CS2, the levels histogram touches the right border and the highlights are clipped. This is not what I would expect. Karl</p>

<p>Thanks Remco to try to help me. I convert to 16 bit TIFF. I think I do not well understand the histogram of DPP. In RAW view I have the feeling to be within the margins but when I see the TIFF histogram of the DPP window, the highlights are touching the right border. Karl</p>

<p>I have just downloaded the latest version of Canon DPP to process RAW files from the 5D MkII. I am happy about the new possibility to control the contrast of highlights and shadows separately in the RAW format. However the highlights which are right in RAW are blown out when I transform the files into TIFF. What do I do wrong? How can I keep the high dynamic range of the RAW file when I transform the files into TIFF format? Thanks for an explanation or a link to a site where this question is answered. Karl</p>

<p>I think most photographers shoot very rarely very fast lenses fully open. The advantage of these lenses is the possibility to have a very bright viewfinder and to be able to focus in dim light. Karl</p>

<p>I guess the bright green bushes are closer than the rest and therefore out of focus. In addition they may have shaked a bit from the wind. Karl</p>

<p>Sorry, but I think the question of Paul is relevant. Several times when people on PN ask questions about problems with 5DII, they are among others asked by the experts "Do you shoot RAW or sRAW?". Eilter there are more differences between the two in addition to the file size, or the question of the experts is irrelevant. Me to, I am interested to get an answer. Karl</p>

Very interesting. This is just to mark it. Will red when I have time. Karl

I shoot with Canon 5D. My wife has a G9. The only problem she has with her camera is that I use it quite often when I do not want to carry heay gear or when I need a flash ;-) Karl

I scan the selected slides (Provia and Velvia) one by one with the Epson Perfection 4870 Photo scanner at 2400 dpi, (sometimes 3200 dpi) in professional mode, sometimes with slight manual contrast reduction. Before scanning I check the quality of the slides on a light table with a good 50 mm camera lense. Karl