Outside Lighting In

Nikon D800E Test on Architecture... shows no-moire but BIG CA

Today was my second day out with the D800E on a safari looking for more moiré = wide-angle lenses + buildings with lines. After my first attempt at bagging a moiré came back with only a minor specimen that I mounted on the wall of my Flickr photostream. Today I executed at least seven U-turns in hot pursuit, but as you can see from the 23 captures, no moirés were found in today's safari. (All fullsize Jpegs on Flickr)

There isn't a moiré in the bunch on the 23 full-size photos.

The new issue for me and anyone stepping up from around 12MP is that you now MUST use all your lens calibrations and CA removal tools to make the 36MP image clean at 100%. Note: Nikon Capture NX2.3.1 software is extra; an upcharge on this $3300 camera allegedly prone to moiré. This was best described on a forum post when it was said that when you buy a car you don't expect the gas but you do expect a spare tire. (This also proved the hypothesis that most online forum posts will eventually devolve into arcane references and obscure data about why MTF curves suck or why software design is/isn't free or who has the best hash-browns...)

However, in a glow of optimism I asked the interwebs to rescue me from being drafted into the cult of Nikon Capture NX2. I am an architectural photographer, not a software designer, and I don't have time to try every RAW converter on earth to see if they can contribute to my workflow, or learn a new software if I'm happy with Lightroom 4. Neither do you, I suspect.

At issue are the NEF files out of the Nikon D800E. They are proprietary to Nikon, and if you use Nikon Capture NX2.3.1 to tweek those NEF photos the tweeks are only visible in Nikon Capture NX2.3.1 unless you save the image out as a tiff or a Jpeg. That blows. I want to use/tweek the raw files in Lightroom 4 and I want to continually tweek the raw files in Lightroom 4 and add and subtract where I left off. Not do the corrections outside LR4 in CNX2 and import back to LR4. If that sounds confusing it is, that's my bitch. 

Old workflow: Expose image as NEF (RAW) on D300 > Upload to LR3 & convert to DNG in one step > Correct and enhance DNG in LR3 > Lather, rinse, repeat the edits, go backwards, print,etc...

New Workflow: Expose image as NEF (RAW) on D800E > Upload as NEF into LR4 > use custom export preset to export and open as NEF in Capture NX2.3.1 > edit/correct/enhance NEF in clunky CNX2 > Save as new NEF in CNX2 > Import back into LR4 > manage in LR4 (realize CNX2 edits are not visible in LR4) When a print is needed re-export to CNX2 as NEF > double-check edits > save as TIFF in CNX2 > Import CNX2 Tiff into LR4 through Import dialog > Print from LR4...

My deal is I'll give freely of my time and images and take photos that people are curious about with the camera I was lucky enough to get as a Nikon Professional Services member on preorder.  I love the camera as my last post shows. I do not have green-display issues, or white spots on long exposures, or out of focus edges. I love the camera and have seen tremendous image quality in the last three days.

Hopefully the world would crowd-source answers for all of us to use to work around CNX2. The good news is that the D800 NEF files already open in LR4. I learned enough of the CNX2 (60 day trial) software yesterday evening and used all the relevant NIK buttons to try to understand why my photos looked good in CNX2 and like dirt in LR4. CNX2 did a really nice job of making the NEF files look their best. But I still don't want to use it, maybe you do. The way I understand it, non-destructive edits to the NEF file in CNX2 are stored inside the NEF file in a secret hiding place that is only readable by CNX2. If you want to add a gradation and a blur in Lightroom 4 to your perfectly corrected CNX2 NEF file, you can, but in LR4 it will still look like an uncorrected NEF with a LR4 gradation and blur. Did I mention that blows?

I'm now looking for ways to fix the Chromatic Abberations (CA) and convert the NEF entirely in LR4, and any ideas for fixing the moiré if I come across it. The DX cameras at 12MP were really forgiving as far as CA and lens calibrations were concerned, the new D800E will expose any errors or sloppiness in my work, so I'll need to be very meticulous. The medium-format photographers have already danced this waltz since they always had big files and no AA filters. With 36 Megapixels the D800E now makes it imperative we use the best glass and correct for CA and lens distortion in-software before sending any images out to clients. I know this means a new step in the workflow, but I really want the outcome to all be within Lightroom 4.

Thanks for any tips or ideas. I have 58 days left on my trail of Nikon Capture NX2.3.1 so I want to figure out a DAMN workflow before then. (Sorry I meant DAM)

Comment at Flickr where all 23 samples are full size jpegs: 

http://www.flickr.com

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Stephen Schafer  |  Schaf Photo Architectural Photography   |   www.habsphoto.com

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PO Box 24218  |  Ventura, California  93002

E:   schaf((at))west.net

Landline:   805-652-1000

Selected as one of the

Best of ASMP in their 2011 international competition

http://asmp.org/bestof2011

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (or Dusk)

Dateline Ventura County, Jan 16, 2012. A crisp winter evening in Santa Paula, up on a ladder waiting for the sun to get out of the picture...

My latest glowing architectural photography project is the Santa Paula Housing Authority's new senior affordable housing project named "The Orchards at Santa Paula." This image was created for McCarthy Companies, the project manager on this development, and will grace the invitation for the grand opening and probably the websites of everyone involved. 

It's a really cute place but it faces north, and while this may be great for photos in Australia this time of year, photography of north facing architecture in Ventura California is a real challenge. You can imagine the look on my client's face when I told them, "The best time to photograph your project is in six months at summer solstice... will that work for your grand opening invitation?"

Architectural photography in Southern California allows for a lot of sun-lighting variation but inevitably the south facing architecture is completed in summer and the north facing ones are ready in winter...

Must be Murphy's Law of solar frustration.

The solution is the always the same... "Wait 'til the sun goes down!"

As you can see from the afternoon photo...the backlit sunlight in the afternoon doesn't do The Orchards any favors, it's still a cute little project but it's not as warm and cozy as the dusk view. High-contrast sunlight on the back units, cool, low-contrast reflected light from the open sky on the shaded units in the foreground. Add dark windows and a blank cyan sky and it's pretty hard to get excited about any building in such unflattering light; and remember waiting for solstice is not an option since the grand opening is a week away. So with a ladder, a tall tripod, and cooperation from the staff to turn off sprinklers, remove the tree-stakes, and turn on all the lights, a very handsome photo was created with very little Photoshopping. Of course we had to stand around on-site waiting for the perfect moment, a window of twilight, the five minutes where the exterior sky and the interior lights match, before the sky goes black and the moment is gone.

Always happy to use available darkness whenever the sun is six months away.

 

HABS Photographer Stephen Schafer Selected for Best of ASMP 2011

 

I'm excited to be one of twenty photographers chosen from more than 150 projects submitted by my peers for the seventh annual Best of ASMP 2011 (and the first HABS photographer).

The American Society of Media Photographers, founded in 1944, is the premier trade association for the world's most respected professional photographers. Promoting photographers' rights and providing education in better business practices.

The selected 2011 photographers run the gamut, from documentary to digital shot using a remote-controlled helicopter... and beyond. The twenty photographers have some pretty interesting stories about how and why they chose to execute their photographic vision, I'm just glad I could round out the mostly digital group with my state-of-the-art-1933 approach to HABS photography on the Ahwahnee. The interview has some fun photos of SF County Jail #3 along with photos of the Kaufmann House and Ennis House that will be donated to the Library of Congress HABS, HAER, HALS photography collection in the future.

The 20 Interviews at this link:  ASMP Best of 2011 Link

 

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Old Libbey Bowl Photos...

I had the pleasure of documenting Ojai's original Libbey Bowl in the Historic American Buildings Survey style a few weeks before its demolition in Summer 2010.

The HABS-like archival prints were donated to the Ojai Museum and will serve as a reminder of the design and architecture of the first bowl in Libbey Park. These final images capture a Nordhoff High School concert in the bowl, and details of the sun-dappled outdoor venue which was built between 1954 and 1957.

The original bowl was conceived, initiated, planned and built by famed local architect Austen Pierpont, and noted architect Roy C. Wilson of Santa Paula was also associated with the project.

   (click on photos to enlarge)

Today in the LA Times, architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne reviewed David Bury's new Libbey Park Bowl.

Link:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/06/architecture-review-david-burys-new-libbey-bowl.html

Libbey Bowl has been the backdrop for the appearances of world-reknowned musicians, performers and composers for over fifty years and this tradition will continue under its new arch. The Ojai Music Festival and other community events will now have a much more comfy venue to enjoy, and the termites and dry-rot are now all gone, but I hafta admit, a bit of the funkiness is gone too. 

 

Photography quote of the day...

  "Everyone has a photographic memory... Some just don't have the film."

 – Stephen Wright

 

Happiness... or would that be HABS - iness?

Happiness is a HABS job, an overcast day, and a bucket truck...

 

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A LIE

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A LIE, that was my bumper sticker in the 90s... I was so stoked and ironic...

Is there such a thing as an anti-HERO photograph? Can a photo be trustworthy and impartial? This is the dilemma of the ethical photojournalist, how to illustrate a story with photographs, being fair and equitable yet still creating compelling images that sell newspapers (and win awards). 

The National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics (NPPA LINK- nine standards) has as its number one standard:

 "Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects."

I was fortunate to learn early that newspaper photojournalism deadlines did not appeal to me. I was promoted to the position of Photo Editor of the local college newspaper, and soon found my staff photographers even worse with deadlines than I. There wasn't really ever a discussion of what ethical standards might be or what constituted an ethically a gray area. If there would have been a controversy over one of our photos we may have had that lecture, but it never happened while I was at the VC Press. 

I then went on to Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, and the concept of photo ethics remained nonchalant. Had a crisis occurred with a student or instructor photograph at the time, I'm sure there would have been a "Memo from Ernie" read in all the classes, and we may have debated it over beer(s) at Peabody's but it never happened while I was at Brooks. 

I decided to go into commercial photography and opened a studio in downtown Ventura. I started knocking on doors with my portfolio looking for work. No one ever asked for my diploma, no one cared if I was Democrat or Republican, they just felt my price was fair, and took my word for it that every image in my portfolio was actually mine. They had to trust that the images I showed them exemplified the quality of work I would deliver.

Ah, Marketing. I caught on real soon that the objectivity of photojournalism is not a requirement for advertising, just look at the healthy-looking cowboys in the cigarette ads. 

At Brooks we used Crisco when we needed scoops of vanilla ice cream.

My first big client made refrigerator-sized industrial equipment. They took my advice and allowed me to use blue, yellow and red gels on the lights (hey it was the 80s), I taped blueprints up on the walls of the research department we were photographing. We then moved every new computer in the building (with 5.25 inch floppy drives attached) into the frame so it would look "High-Tech." Photojournalistically unethical? Yes, yet just another day in advertising. 

In the 90s I photographed so many scientist/doctor-like models, I eventually bought a white lab coat and a stethoscope to keep in the studio so that I wouldn't need to rent wardrobe. The photos depicted a white male wearing a lab coat over a shirt and tie with a stethoscope around his neck. If you assumed that the man was a doctor, then that was merely a lucky coincidence for the client du jour. 

I now spend almost all my time photographing architecture and bridges and the like, and also the people that design them and live in them in their context. In this age when Adobe Photoshop is used on virtually every image seen in public, photographic ethics and the "Photoshop Propriety" of each photographer has more bearing than ever on how a project will look. Much of my work is documentary structure surveys (HABS/HAER/HALS) and in those cases I strive to be as informational and objective as possible. I'm more comfortable with the "Honester" approach to my subjects and since I'm not entering any competitions, I don't have the added temptation of winning awards. Often the final project has never seen a computer, the film is printed in the darkroom and delivered without the aid of modern technology.

   

However my architectural portfolios and editorial assignments call for HERO shots and the most attractive views. The only thing keeping me from spending even more time in Photoshop is a belief that my retouching has reached a point where I think more manipulation stops telling the story and enters the realm of "CGI" (Computer Generated Imaging)(where reality has no bearing on what can be done). Like the Bionic Man, "We can make him stronger, faster..." we can make a building look better than it really is: That paint color is a little dull, let's brighten the hue, the windows would have been bigger if they hadn't run over budget, let's make them bigger, the trees will be mature someday, let's clone in some old trees from the park, etc., etc., etc...

I'm not sure we can proscribe how much a commercial photograph can be changed before it becomes "false advertising." Everyone – viewer, photographer, client, architect, art director, advertiser – will have a different standard. Some photographers will feel more Photoshopping is normal, and others will feel that any manipulation is too much. So today the body of work that a photographer exhibits in their portfolio and website shows not only their talent and point of view, but also the tremendous influence of their "Photoshop Propriety". 

I have given away the lab coat, the clip-on ties, the stethoscope, the makeup kit, etc. (It was a long list.) I kept the lights – I use them to illuminate dark places. While teaching a California Preservation Foundation Workshop on Photography last week, someone asked if taking a generator and lights into a dark building was indeed honest documentation when the room has been dark for decades and has no windows or electricity. Hmm – we had an answer – but is there a right answer? I'll leave that question open...

-Schaf

Note: when I wrote this, I heard a nice story on the radio about Food Stylists and photography, makes advertising photographers look tame... listen here (NPR LINK)

Our HERO

Where did the term "HERO," to describe the most impressive photograph in an architectural portfolio, come from anyway?

This is the HERO view of the Working Artists Ventura (WAV) sustainable artists complex in Ventura that was dedicated this month; and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of my three heroic assistants and the artists and staff of the WAV who allowed us to light up their studios and neaten up their balconies, etc. 

<<<CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE

For the uninitiated, this photograph took about six hours on site to light, an hour to capture and about eight hours in the computer to create the final HERO. That eight hours is what I would call enhancement & subtraction. No pixels were harmed in the Hero-ification of this image, but some were lightened and some darkened, some were covered up by others, and over time, a "Still-Frame-Movie" was created from about twelve still frames all taken from atop a 10' ladder on a digital SLR. The car streaks came from one view, the clouds from another, the best view of Paul's artwork in the window was chosen along with the Avenue windows with the best car reflections to make the empty commercial space look brighter. The best views of people leaning on the railings were added, and the blown-out Ventura Ave. street sign was replaced from a darker exposure. The prominent Do Not Enter sign and the ratty fence were covered up with ivy and cleaned up link-by-link.

Now, I know you're thinking, "That's Cheating." Yes, guilty as charged, but in my defense, every picture tells a lie. Trust me, I could make this a bigger lie, or I could offer up the plain exposure before the sun went down, or I could show it in the rain, but is a view in the afternoon or in the rain really any truer than a morning view or one with a bus parked in front? I do a lot of documentary photography, and this is not that, but no one asked me for a documentary image of the WAV, they wanted a HERO.

Credits for the WAV HERO "Still-Frame-Movie"

1st assistant/lighter: Hannah Fitzgerald

Key Grip: Lisa Dodge

Best Boy: Ricardo Miranda

Casting: Paul Lindhard

Catering: Spencer McKenzie's

The Dude: Chris Velasco

Sets: Paul Benevidez

Landscape Lights/communications: Sara Wiley

Documentist: Jessica Lindley

Starring Building Exposure: 7:41:48 PM

Offramp and Ivy: 7:55:14 PM

Sky: 7:41:27 PM

Offramp tail light streaks: 8:02:54 PM

Street Lights: 7:23:51 PM

Cars on Avenue: 7:42:55 PM

People on WAV deck: 7:34:04 PM

Guy on the ladder: Stephen Schafer

That cast and crew came together to compress five hours of lighting and 39 minutes of photography into one still frame. THANKS!

-Schaf

Thomas Aquinas Chapel Published!

Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California recently dedicated the new $25 million dollar centerpiece of their rural campus. The Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel was designed by Duncan G. Stroik Architect, LLC. in South Bend, Indiana, with architect of record Rasmussen Associates of Ventura, California. Published in March, in the Wall Street Journal, and in both Architect and Traditional Building Magazine in December 2009. 

Oh, I almost forgot...

photos by www.schafphoto.com.

Don't Call Yet...

On average, a picture is worth a thousand words. I guarantee every photo I create to be worth at least 1250. That's 25% more words! I specialize in words like historic, complex and breathtaking, but also have experience with others like: striking, remarkable, towering, cozy, utopian, arresting, cavernous, provocative and our favorite – WOW!

In the Beginning ( Ventura commercial photographer Stephen Schafer starts a PHLOG )

In the beginning there was darkness, and the photographer said there was not enough light for a good exposure. So on the first day a photographer said, "Let there be lights," and the strobes flashed and the subject was illuminated. And for six days the photographer commanded his camera to bring forth the subject in his images. And on the seventh day the subject was fully documented and the photographer wanted to rest but had to pack up his lights and coil his cords and put away the umbrellas, and pack his tripod, and... Soon thereafter, there was conjured from the RAW pixels the "Hero" shot... And the Hero was blessed by the client, when the client said "WOW". After 30 days the photographer was paid, and all was good with the world. 

And that, my friend, is why photography is just like life...