CCC Forum

Insert witty intro sentence here.

Orchid Just coming out to bloom.

A version of the "cookie splash" shot popularised a few years back. Homemade chocolate cupcake plus coffee and a handful of sugar cubes spread by the patio door with plenty of newspapers on the floor! The image is made up of 3 layers of splashes combined plus a separate layer for the sugar cube (which I just held above the cup). Shot at F4, 1/320s at ISO 800. I also had 2 strobes on at 1/32 & 1/64 power to throw a bit more light into the mix. Would have preferred a brighter day to get a faster shutter and dispense with the strobes but there you go.

Interesting results, especially based on the settings. I assumed you had frozen the motion using a small aperture, low ISO and shutter speed around 1/125th - 1/200th second, rather than a fast shutter, large(ish) aperture & high ISO

Did you get any problems with the shutter being caught on some of the frames?

Taken in East Coast Park, on the beach obviously. I'd gone with a different shot in mind but got lost getting there and the tide didn't do-operate either. I'll be back again later, with better planning.

The lights on the horizon are from the ships that are constantly waiting for a berth in the harbour. They are worthy of shots of their own but with only a 17-40 lens I wasn't able to tackle that tonight.

Shooting this at f22 to get a shutter speed long enough to generate blur in the waves also highlighted how mucky my sensor was. I think the Lightroom preset was one of Mike's favourites (if memory serves), aka "wet rocks", though I tweaked it a bit in Photoshop afterwards.

It seems the exif has again been lost when uploading to Flickr but from memory it was

ISO 1600
F/22
1/40th sec

This was on a tripod in the sea. I didn't set it up in the sea, but that's where it ended up.


Tidal Forces by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

When I tried with a larger aperture the shutter was around 1/400s and I did see a darker band on the lower third of the image, although it wasnt completely black, which I thought is meant to happen

davidc wrote:Interesting results, especially based on the settings. I assumed you had frozen the motion using a small aperture, low ISO and shutter speed around 1/125th - 1/200th second, rather than a fast shutter, large(ish) aperture & high ISO

Did you get any problems with the shutter being caught on some of the frames?

Had difficulty motivating myself today after seven days of continuous shoots and workshops. I was planning a day of rest.

I had a few things to do in Croydon so I took the camera with me hoping to find something inspiring. On the way back I decided to have walk around the Fairfield hall. No luck there.

I had nearly given up until I was crossing the bridge with train lines towards South Croydon, thought I might be able to do something?

I have download a trial version of Silver Efex Pro 2. Not familiar with the programme yet so I have used a pre-set to get that harsh look.

My entry for day 4 from Canterbury Cathedral earlier today.

Technical details:

Sigma DP2 Merrill
30 mm (equivalent to 45 mm on 35 mm full frame)
f/5.6
1.3 secs
Tripod

Initial Raw conversion in Sigma Photo Pro 6.1 to produce a TIFF file. Further processing in Photoshop CC using the Camera Raw filter. Mono conversion in Photoshop using the gradient layer method.

@Mata - Nicely done, probably my favourite of yours so far

@Mike - what a curious choice of camera, did you buy it or loan it?

davidc wrote:
@Mike - what a curious choice of camera, did you buy it or loan it?

So what is wrong with the Sigma DPx Merrill*. Quite a lot actually. AF is slow, write times are even slower and lock up the camera for part of the time, there is a wait of several seconds before being able to review the shot on the rear screen, shooting above ISO 200 introduces coloured artefacts, battery life is so poor that Sigma supplies two and even then that is only sufficient for a maximum of a 100 shots if you are lucky. If you shoot Raw, the only conversion software for Windows is supplied by Sigma and it is slow and clunky in use. Apart from one other application for the Mac, no one else supports the camera. Post processing workflow is a pain. All in all it is a poor piece of equipment, a total piece of - well you get the idea.

Except it has an outstanding lens and image quality is amazing, converting well to monochrome. When you see the results and the amount of detail it gives, you'll forgive the camera for everything. Use it in the right conditions and you'll be blown away. Medium format quality from a device the size of a compact and at the cost of one at its remaindered price. I would not part with mine.

* There are three cameras in the range, each with a different lens which is a fixed prime. My comments apply to all the models.