The Growing Pains of Google+

Preamble

Google+ is one of the youngest social networks around. Because it is sponsored by Google, this social network is growing faster than any other social network. It's not Number 2 after Facebook - and Facebook has been around for quite a while longer.

I enjoy Google+ because I'm interested in photography and evolving my appreciation, my taste and my skill.

I generally like Google+ but some people have mixed experiences. Here are some tips to help you enjoy yourself there.

Incoming Traffic

1. Create three circles. Name them Favourites, Approved, Pending.

2. Limit how many Favourites you have. If you have about 20 real true friends in real life, well, that's these.

3. Limit how many Approved you take in. If you feel they will overwhelm, limit these to 2x what you have in Favourites

4. Put the rest into Pending.

5. Set the volume of each circle contributing to the Home Stream.

• Favs should be More. 
• Approved should be Fewer 
• Pending should not Show in the Home Stream

6. Do not add people just because they add you

7. Set Community posts to zero volume so that they do not invade your Home Stream.

Tweak points 2, 3 and 5 for your Home Stream

8. If the Home Stream continues to be overwhelmed and you are missing really favourite persons, do not visit the Home Stream. Only visit the Favourites, Approved or Pending directly.

Outgoing Traffic

1. If you have not established yourself and gathered people you like, join a Community and post there. After sometime, you will spot people you like and vice versa so engage with them. If you like each other you will have circled each other.

2. At the same time, establish you own identity, not the Community's by posting your own flavour of posts directly from yourself, not into the Community. If you feel that once in a while you want to share into the Community, post directly first, and then reshare into the Community. Donot only post into the Community because Community posts do not automatically appear in the public.

3. Post to Public to encounter new people. Participate in Themes to meet birds of a feather. On the other hand, if you have had too many encounters with strangers you don't like, create an Outgoing Circle to post out to.

Points People Ponder

A.  Do not gauge a person's worth by the number of followers. That is not a measure of worth

B. Do not gauge a photo's worth by the number of plusses. That is not a measure of worth.

C. If people like you or people like your photo - it just means someone does.  Be happy. Don't compare 10 against 10000 plusses or followers.

D. Why do you have thousands of people circle you but only a handful engage with comments or plusses? I don’t know. It could be that these thousands think this is Facebook – they want you to follow them so they follow you. This isn’t Facebook. Anyone can follow anyone – you don’t need permission. It could be that some brands or companies think following you is an SEO technique. Whatever. I don’t bother about them. It could be that you have been exposed in a Shared Circle or some Recommendations website – so people who want to fill their Home Stream and see the world go past have circled you.  Maybe some of them want to propose marriage or flash their bits at you. Don’t let it bug you.

E. Why does so and so have thousands and millions of followers but their published content is meh? That’s life. Same reason why certain restaurants or tourist sites get lots of hits. Does popularity equal refined taste? Do you bother to track them in real life? Really?

F. Why isn’t everyone you encounter or engage with on Google+ not your type? Huh? Does that happen in real life?

Take It Slow, Let It Flow

Way too often, people want to start from zero experience in photography to doing Peter Hurley headshots, Zack Arias studio lighting or do become a McNally. There are some talented people who are born like that, for the rest of us, take your time, practise, learn, rinse, repeat.

Let It Flow

A Homage to the Kodak P880

The end of this year, 2013, is shaping up to be a thrilling time for new camera models. The camera industry has been seeing a decline in sales over the past few years. To excite and motivate the market, we’re seeing ground breaking new models at the full frame end (Sony A7, A7R), exciting challengers for the middle position in Micro Four Thirds (the OM-D EM-1) and a revitalisation of the bridge, all-in-one camera (the Olympus Stylus 1 and Sony RX 10).  But what about the old digital old timers – the ones that were an earlier part of digital history?

The Kodak P880

The P880 is my third digital camera – after the Nikon Coolpix 775 and the Olympus C-750 Ultrazoom. For those of you who just came in, there was a time (around 2005) when DSLRs were expensive and not consumer items. The age of the all singing, all dancing bridge camera. Olympus had the remarkable C-8080. Konica Minolta had the DiMage A200Z (remember Minolta?). Nikon had the Coolpix 8400. Canon had the G6 and S2. Panasonic had their Lumix FZ-20. Samsung had their Pro815. Fuji had S9000.

The Kodak company was in its death throes – it had managers who were experienced in film and print. It had a digital sensor division and a digital camera division – but, in the field of digital, it couldn’t focus on how to make the migration. The P880 was not well built or robustly designed. It didn’t use premium parts. It was offered for sale at a crazy Recommended Retail Price. So what did it have going for it? A Schneider Kreuznach branded zoom that starts at 24mm equivalent. A slightly larger than sensor for a bridge camera (hence the limit on the 5.8x zoom range). And that Kodak Color Science chip. Yes, the Color Science chip. For some reason, the Kodak JPEG engine is exemplary in handling the way the highlights when they hit the limit. After this, engineers created cheaper, larger sensors. Intelligent dynamic range compression. But this camera was designed before then.

So, for Melbourne Cup Day 2013, I took out the old, cranky, faltering P880 and shot some bright sun, harsh contrast, Melbourne spring scenes. And was pleasantly surprised.

Quick advice to a Facebook Friend about Google+

Benefits of using Google+

• You can highlight your blog entries in G+ easily so that people who circle you can read well laid out content
• You can embed G+ entries in your blog so that you display fresh, imrpromptu content more frequently - blogs are too formal, too hard to post to quickly

1. Circle those people you find have interesting photos and engage with them to inspire each other
2. No need for reciprocation in "Friending" like Facebook - some people you just don't want to see everyday
3. Look for and enjoy new talent, new photos without needing consent from people to "Add as Friend"
4. Put people you like in your Circles so that you see their stuff. Remove people you think are boring or have tastes which are not compatible with you
5. Mute or Block or Report nasty people who don't add to your happiness
6. Post Public to gain exposure to people of the same interests, if undesirables become painful change the ratio of Public vs Private Posts 
7. Add a few lines of description in your profile and put on a profile pic (you don't have to use your face yet if you don't want but don't use a scary avatar or take some Hollywood celebrity as your avatar)

Sit back and watch your stream come through. Engage when you want to praise someone and they will return the praise on your art if they find it is interesting to them

More tips

http://plus.google.com/+AnandaSim/about under the Story Panel

Evolving The Camera (or our choice of one)

An interesting discussion about how our useage of

Why use Google+ to improve your Photography

Initially posted by +Leigh Diprose

The Olympus Friends (Australia) Google+ Community

I've just created a Google+ Community as a rallying point for Olympus camera users in Australia. I hope that the Community is inclusive - to include Olympus Micro Four Thirds and Four Thirds gear owners, to include owners of other Olympus models, digital and film, to include people who are thinking of getting into Olympus gear. Owners of Panasonic Micro Four Thirds gear and people outside of Australia are warmly welcomed as well.

Your chance to hands on OM-D E-M1 in Melbourne

The #autoawesome wave on Google+

One can always use GIF animation programs to collect several frames together but favourite social network Google+ launched autoawesome for the masses. Yes, it can be overused like any other tool but there's more good than harm in the overall balance of things.

An interesting time for Photo Editing Programs

Wherefore goeth thou photo editor?

Just the other day, Adobe moved on from the traditional desktop licensing system which revolves around irregularly purchasing locked, desktop software to the new method of ensuring regular, monthly income - known as the Creative Cloud. Adobe is not the only company looking at bottom line financials - Microsoft, another traditional desktop company has also implemented a regular income model in Office 365.

There was an initial hue and outcry but the white balance held and customers and potential customers are going about their regular activities - notable customers accepted the Creative Cloud premise, non customers, well, they were always non customers.

The big deal was that there was no real alternative to Photoshop - by delivering a rich, well endowed product, year after year, Photoshop had become the de facto industry and amateur standard for photo editing - job recruitments could demand Photoshop certified skills, employers could demand Photoshop knowledge and there is a flourishing market of Photoshop workshops, face to face teaching, online tutorials, magazines and books. Amateur photographers who may not need the comprehensive and extensive Photoshop goodness had / still have the perception that anything they needed to do, had to be done in Photoshop because, well, that's what the pros use and if a pro uses Photoshop, it must be the standard.

Essentially, the global community had voted Photoshop into premier position and may still do.

Going forward

Photoshop is still the nominated king but it is up to each one of you to engage with competitor products, to cheer them on with effort, useage or income - it is in everyone's interests, even Adobe's to support diversity in alternatives, to allow uniqueness and tuning to various needs, budgets, interests and skills. Here are some products that you might want to encourage.

Sagelight Image Editor (Windows)

Sagelight is programmed by Rob. Yes, one person programming team. Rob. He's not asking a lot of money for it. That program does have a lot of kung fu . I bought it some time ago and love the very intuitive sliders and screens, just discovered CLAHE. When I encountered lack of support for my Olympus E-PM2 camera's raw files in Corel Aftershot Pro and Adobe product, Sagelight didn't blink and just worked. Sagelight implements the Photoshop 8BF plugin interface - but because the Sagelight is so different from Photoshop for some plugins, there are user interface or functionality glitches. Topaz Restyler, Nik Color Efex and many other plugins work.

He's engaging in his forum, recording video tutorials on Facebook and on Google+ - what more can you ask for? You're talking direct to the designer and head programmer!

The Lightzone Project (Windows, Linux)

Lightzone is an old program but has been resurrected in an open source project. It's free as in beer. I've just started looking at it but what is intriguing is the presence of an Ansel Adams like Zone Mapping Tool. Lightzone has a Google+ Community and a user forum.

Corel Paintshop Pro X6

Corel used to be a large company, famous for Corel Draw, the vector graphics program in the early days of Windows. Now, they are perceived as a distant second to the Adobe brand. To me, Paintshop Pro is the closest commercial competitor to Adobe Photoshop - it misses out on many high tech features, polish, robustness. I find Paintshop Pro more approachable for me. It has a recordable and playable macro language if you need to carry out repetitive work.

Paintshop Pro implements the Photoshop 8bf plugin interface but because of product differences, not every plugin will work. Topaz Restyler, Nik Color Efex work. Paintshop Pro is often discounted. When purchasing online, take the time to check the Corel webpages and discounts - I found different entry points into the website caused inconsistent offer prices to be displayed.

The current retail version for new customers is X5. Existing customers can upgrade to X6 - this will be officially available to public on Sept 4, 2013. Paint Shop Pro X6 is available in both 32 bit and 64 bit editions - the 64 bit edition needs Windows 64 bit to support it and then it can reach out to memory above the 4Gb limit of 32 bit Windows. Some old plugins may not be compatible with the 64 bit edition - you can install both editions side by side in one installation step.

Corel has inconsistent social media participation but does have a user forum.

The GIMP

No discussion of alternative photo editors would leave out The GIMP. I find it hard to get into because it is so old style rich but lots of people swear by it.
For example, Pat David wrote Getting Around GIMP - Photography Plugins and Tools. The are masses of websites devoted to The GIMP - they also have a Google+ presence.  Most importantly, there is Portable GIMP - this means this free-to-carry-around software does not have to be installed onto your Windows PC and can be carried around on a USB stick or a portable hard disk. And it's cost free.

Mediachance Products

Way back in the olden days, I was looking for something simple and bought an earlier version of Photobrush. Mediachance is another one man company. Now there are more sibling products - Photo Reactor, Dynamic Photo HDR and Photo Blend. There are free trial downloads and user forums.

Photo Reactor in particular is a very curious design for a photo editor - it reminds me of a visual object based programming system - each editing category is defined as a visual box and you link boxes together.

OnOne Software's Perfect Photo Suite

Although available plugins for Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, the Perfect Photo Suite is now available in a standalone edition. The programs are not basic photo editing programs but if you are looking for bottled refinements, they have much to offer.

Enjoy your time on the computer.

The background behind the Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras

Preamble

When you are more used to other brands (read Nikon or Canon) and decide to pick a camera from Olympus it can be initially confusing as to what model does what. It gets worse if you look at the older models (which are still on sale but production has ceased). Here're my insights.

Before the Beginning

Before the beginning of the Micro Four Thirds Standard, there was the Four Thirds Standard for DSLRs. Although this was grandly called a Standard, only a few brands sat at the Committee table. Olympus was the lead, Panasonic, co-leader. Sigma promised third party lenses, Kodak made a sensor or two (the E-1, E-500 had a Kodak CCD sensor), Panasonic made NMOS sensors and in collaboration with Leica, made some Lumix/Leica (affectionately called Panaleica). I think Samyang made manual focus lenses as well.

Olympus was keen on embracing Live View and competent Auto Focus in Live View. For that, they innovated the E-330 that offered two Auto Focus mechanisms - Live View A and Live View B.

The whole idea of Four Thirds with that infamously small sensor was that the lenses could be designed smaller, the body could be smaller and the sensor technology would advance to the stage that the difference between APS-C size vs Four Thirds size would not be significant to cause pain to the camera owner. The lens mount was brand new, all the lenses would be focus-by-wire instead of clunky mechanical coupling (since Olympus did not have a legacy of autofocus lenses) and this would offer brand differentiation and advantages over the other brands - at that time, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta.

Sadly, the idea was ahead of its time.  Financial year after financial year, there were losses - it's hard to take on the near duopoly of the big two. Although Olympus made a 3 tier model structure - Pro level, Enthusiast level and Entry level, all three levels failed to make inroads in the market. Technical handicaps were immature sensor technology, zoom lenses that refused to shrink and were not able to compete on price because of lower volume sales, bodies that lacked the AF finesse of the competition.

So the Micro Four Thirds Standard was born

Olympus finally decided to give up the Four Thirds DSLR line (including lenses) and embarked on niche market, knowing that it would eventually grow. This is Micro Four Thirds. It does not have a mirror box and the body shrinks considerably.

When they built and sold the Four Thirds DSLR lenses, they could not foresee the motor and mechanical performance needed to work fast with the Micro Four Thirds adoption of Contrast Detect Auto Focus (DSLRs use Phase Detect Auto Focus). For that reason, they had to build and sell all new lenses again. And amateur home movies had not become popular - newbies want movies that are Auto Focus, Auto Exposure, no sounds from lens motors during zoom and focus, no jumping of the image during zooming in the movie.

Note that with an electronically coupled Olympus or Panasonic lens adapter, Four Thirds DSLR lenses will drive and shoot on Micro Four Thirds bodies, but AF will be slow. And with the plethora of third party adapters, legacy manual everything film lenses can be fit onto Olympus cameras - exposure control can be set to Manual with metering or Aperture Priority.

Olympus decided not to tackle the Pro segment of the market because that is a high cost, low volume market requiring high performance, bright, fast AF lenses and high performance, robust, fast AF bodies. They knew their first Micro Four Thirds models would not have fast enough AF and they still produced the E-5, their last Four Thirds DSLR which was the best Pro level body they could make.

Panasonic decided that they would build all three tiers - Entry level, Enthusiast level and Professional level Micro Four Thirds bodies. Panasonic did not have a Pro level DSLR to keep alive nor did they have a sizeable DSLR owner base.

The Olympus model tiering

There have been several generations of Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras. Olympus uses the phrase Olympus PEN to invoke nostalgia driven sentiment (they produced a legendary innovative half frame film camera called the Olympus PEN F) and styling clues.

There are three levels of PEN. The three levels are differentiated thus:

1. The top PEN - the E-P model. This has enough buttons and dials, should exude some luxury feel in the hand and be the most styled cosmetically. It is not aimed at the Pro level of photographers.
2. The middle PEN - the E-PL model. This body does not have the strong style emphasis. The body does not have to be especially thin. There will be less dials or buttons to distinguish it from the E-P model.
3. The entry level PEN - the E-PM model. This body has markedly fewer buttons and dials - in fact, just one dial. It is assumed that price would be the major imperative with this model and owners would not normally be that keen to change camera settings between shots.

In the OM-D. Olympus decided that the technology had matured enough to aim for Enthusiast / Pro level market. This series has these features that the PEN range are not designed to have:

1. Built in eye level Electronic Viewfinder
2. Optional battery grips to allow longer sessions without needing to swap batteries, better ergonomics with larger lenses,  sometimes incorporating second shutter release button for portrait orientation shooting

Launch Dates and Reviews

Generation 1	E-620 DSLR March 2009	E-P1 June 2009 DPR	E-PL1 Feb 2010 DPR
Generation 2	E-5 DSLR Sept 2010	E-P2 Nov 2010 DPR  CL	E-PL2 Jan 2011 DPR   CL IR
Generation 3		E-P3 July 2011 DPR   CL  IR	E-PL3 July 2011 DPR  IR	E-PM1 July 2011 DPR   CL  IR
Generation 5		E-P5 May 2013 DPR  IR	E-PL5 Sept 2012 DPR  CL  IR	E-PM2 Sept 2012 DPR   IR
Current PEN			E-PL7 Sept 2014
Current OM-D		EM-1 Oct 2013 DPR  CL IR	E-M5 Feb 2012 DPR  CL  IR	E-M10 March 2014 DPR CL IR

Note: Dates generally from DP Review

Generation 1 - had sloooow AF. The sensor is a Panasonic sourced sensor.

Generation 2 - Quite improved AF. Accessory Port introduced.

Generation 3 - Very fast AF. Touch Screen for AF and control.

Current Generation PEN and E-M5 - First generation with Sony sourced sensor.  Very fast AF. Considerably better dynamic range, low noise high ISO performance. Fast stills frame rate.

New  Generation EM-1 - Phase Detect Elements on Image Sensor - Dual Fast AF system. AF that can handle legacy Four Thirds DSLR lenses comfortably.

Navigate to my Index of Articles on Olympus cameras

Having fun with Fireworks

Coinciding with +City Of Melbourne What's On 's announcement of the Docklands Fireworks Season,  +Ockert Le Roux wrote a blog article to advise on techniques.  I missed the fun of last year with our gang and it wasn't raining yesterday so Ockert,  +Luster Lai and +Sophie Argiriou waited by the Cow In The Tree whilst I got myself in a standstill traffic jam at the end of Bourke Street.

I confess, I seldom do well at fireworks - it's a mental thing - Most defeated photographs happen in your head before you even press the trigger.. This time, I had a more positive outlook.

I started at f/11 but I moved onto f/22, the smallest aperture I could go, and the lowest ISO my camera could do -ISO 200, I didn't like bleached out trails and overwritten trails so on Ockert's advice of using a black masking board, I brought my Olympus polyprop environmentally friendly bag, tied the strings around the tripod head and laughed as I played peek-a-boo blacking out the scene between bursts. 

Oh and turned on Olympus's unique Live Time  - the feature that +Trey Ratcliff was asking for on his NEX. 

We could have gotten nearer. I could have swapped my DSLR 7-14 (used at 14mm) on the Olympus E-PM2 for the Panasonic 20mm prrime, to get more magnification. Even this is cropped a bit. But, hey, that event only takes like a few minutes and then it's over so what-the-heck, leave it alone. Let's set this one up for lots of negative space, shall we?

Does Live Time really help? It sure does. You can "see" when you are getting too many bursts superimposed and when the white trails which are so much brighter, are bleaching the scene so that you can end that frame and start a new one. 

But you must set the refresh frequency right. For this series of cameras, you can only refresh the LCD 24 times. If you set it at 2 secs refresh and you use a black mask in front of the lens to keep the exposure running but not take in more light, you could have the shutter open for way longer than 48 secs. (there is finite limit to the number of refreshes). Something like 4 secs at this fireworks density is about right - if you have more fireworks bursting per sec, then you may not hold the shutter open for that long).

And so, Enjoy!

Walking with the Leica X Vario - Part 3 - Conclusion

The Questions to Ask

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series. Links to Previous Parts - Part 1 and Part 2
The Questions one poses are as important as the answers that one figures out. I'll start with the elephant in the room question and carry on from there.

Is the Leica X Vario worth all that money?

You don't gauge the worth of a Leica on some pragmatic assessment of features. Is the high ISO noise performance good enough for the price? Is the lens bright enough for the money? Questions like those aren't the issue. You buy a Leica, any Leica because it is a Leica. It may have a sharp lens, it may have German engineering encased in luxurious metal. But above all, it's a Leica. That's what you pay for. Money isn't an issue.

Can I use this camera to take satisfying photos?

Certainly. People in black and white.

And in colour

There are issues with the speed of the Auto Focus. You're not seeing some shots of kids on BMX bikes doing jumps on a bike challenges playground. Because they were pretty much blurred - not the artistic blurs, just the mundane blurs. With manual focus and the scale marked focus ring. preset at a target distance, some skill and experience, they would not be impossible.

How about touring and some street scenery?

Street Art

Street Photography

Indoors

Auto Focus speed and sureness indoors is unexceptional (the camera does have a red AF Assist light but it was not obviously making AF better).  Incidentally, the AF motor sometimes murmurs in a steampunk way.

The lens brightness is pedestrian (similar to those DSLR kit lenses) - f/2.8 at 28mm equivalent and f/6.3 at 70mm equivalent.

The APS-C sensor allows the camera to offer high limit of 12,500 but I didn't use that. The Auto ISO defaults seemed to suggest 1600 as the max and it didn't occur to me that there was anything higher than 3200. I should have tried an even higher ISO.

Window lit interiors appear subtly lit but photo results often show a severe dynamic range. When kept comfortably away from highlight burning, the camera's JPEG engine produced quite lovely tones. At the overexposure boundary, skin complexion turned yellowish and plastic.

An Olympus OM-D / EM-5 captured by the Leica X Vario

Summing Up

I liked the camera. It was my first time with a digital Leica and I enjoyed it. 

The shutter could be made absolutely silent. Within the dynamic range, the sensor and in-camera JPEG engine produced classic film like colours and monochrome tones. I appreciated the focus scale marked on the lens barrel. And the two physical dials on the top deck - one for f/no, one for shutter speed. I wish Leica had prioritised and/or dedicated the right hand top deck dial to EV adjustment, with scribed EV markings.

 That's not to say there are kinks and quirks to iron out.  My biggest irritation?

1. Press the button on the bottom left back of the camera to "Menu/Set" to display the Main Menu
2. Scroll with the up or down edge switches of the silver Control Disc.
3. Arrive at the value you want but you cannot Set by pressing the center of the Control Disc with the same hand.  You must use the other hand to press the "Menu/Set" button.

Walking with the Leica X Vario - (Part 2 - the Monochromes)

The monochrome set

If you want to catch up, see the Part 1 of my experience

Leica is rightly famous for their monochrome, black and white look. They have a rich and long history in film and that started with black and white. Monochrome is still vital and real today - it discovers shapes, patterns and tones without the distraction of colour. Getting the right look however, when sensors are colour, can be a feat, particularly without clever post processing - Leica by the way, does make the M Monochrom that has a monochrome sensor.

The Images that Got Away

I feel dissatisfied when a monochrome shot is not sharp in context, lacks texture, solidity, shape or finesse. Trust me, I shot quite a few like that on this encounter. Why they got away (or at least, my side of the story).

The Autofocus on the X Vario isn't bad but let's say, it's leisurely.

Street photos of people tend to be monochrome, but I had difficulty getting response from the camera in time for street shots. Many of the Japanese competitors have upped their AF performance but it hasn't trickled down to Leica. The lens also warbles in sound when it focusses - a very quiet warble but you can hear it - again, the Japanese competitors have all kinds of ultrasonic and super quiet motors (partly motivated by movie shooting) and this detracts from the luxuriousness of the camera build and finish.

The Focus Scale

I was happy to see a nice feature that modern digital cameras do not have - a distance focussing scale. The focus ring around the lens has an "A" position which enables autofocus. If you take it off the "A" click position, you enable manual focus. There is no Depth of Field Scale so you need experience or a DOF aid (smartphone app, paper chart) to figure out what happens if you set the lens to f/8 (and be there) and 2 metres. Don't forget to take the ISO off from Auto otherwise, the camera might drop ISO to 100 instead of something feasible like 800 to keep the shutter speed fast enough to freeze motion blur. Doh! I did that. Lots of that.

The trouble is, this is a zoom lens camera - it is way too tempting to zoom and then you have messed up the expected DOF. I did that. Lots of that.

And really, it is Autofocus capable - I was too tempted to flub the estimate of 2 metres on MF, switch to AF, flub that and then switch to MF.

 

So, on to the ones that didn't fail.

Normal Black and White or High Contrast Black and White?

I missed quite a few of some people with fascinating clothes. By the time this shot came, movement had slowed down. This is SOOC JPEG and comes with white sky, gratis. I like the timelessness that black and white brings to this.

Have you wondered why people prefer not to live in No. 3 but 2A? Is this some Chinese auspicious number allergy? This image has had histogram widening - the textures of the wall and on the numbers make it worthwhile.

Leafless trees hold endless fascination for photographers. It's worthwhile finding ones that offer a shape and clarity on negative space but sometimes a busy scene brings context

One of the metro train lnes connecting to the South Yarra Station

Remember, we have a colour capable camera? Sometimes what looks black and white doesn't have to be black and white filtered.

It's not to say that grab shots of unposed people are impossible. This couple had just exchanged a chat and were waiting for the lights.

As I said, we need tones to be obvious as in monochromes, we don't have colour to provide separation.

Part 3, a summing up, maybe, coming soon...

Walking with the Leica X Vario (Part 1)

Preamble

It was delicious of +Frank Yuwono to recruit +Leica Camera in Australia to offer a Leica X Vario for test drive loan on our Google+ 2nd Anniversary Photowalk in Melbourne. And I was quite charmed to shoot the X Vario for 2 parts of walk.

It's a quirky camera and I had not encountered Leica Digital cultural notes and design ideas before - so it was a first for me. I often encourage potential buyers of camera gear to meet up with other photographer enthusiasts locally. There is so much that one can ONLY get from hands on, half an hour, several hours experience - you can't get this vibe of the gear from standing at the shop with the salesperson peering over your shoulder in case you make a run for it, you can't get this assessment from reading copious reviews, comments, notes on internet review sites and forums.

Thanks to distributors like Leica Australia who are willing to loan out gear on a supervised meet or walk - although Frank and the Leica rep did sound a bit worried when we got separated for some hours and they wondered whether yours truly had absconded. Frank jokingly said - "I know where you live".

This isn't a review, nor is this an objective assessment, technical or visual of the camera. And I don't at all, endeavour to leave JPEGs SOOC (Straight Out Of The Camera) virgin nor do I post process .DNG raw files for pixel peeping. To provide context, I normally shoot Olympus Four Thirds and Olympus / Panasonic Micro Four Thirds, with a film background stretching back to my school days. I am not a photo editing enthusiast although I teach and train Microsoft Office and Google Apps - I have a sad case of MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) after the phrase "first, create a layer"

It's a celebration of the joy of that day, a celebration of being able to shoot with friends and puzzle / challenge to work with a camera and a brand I had not seen or used before.

Let's get outside for a walk.

A quiet pastel scene on a cloudy day

There's quite a lot for me in this quiet scene. It's winter in Melbourne, this was in the morning, no rain but it was a dull lit morning, cloudy (EV11@ISO100). When I first spotted this scene, I was attracted to the dull pink, the off white, the greens and the leaves left over from autumn. It's a photo that needs a pause for thought, to enjoy the scene in context and the feeling.

Another scene that caught my eye with the richness of pastel mixed with reflections and a little bit of punch in some colours was the back bar

Lest you think that the Vario XL JPEG engine is muted, there are several settings for it - Standard, Natural and Vivid. I tried Standard and Vivid and in some of these shots added a touch of saturation. This Suzuki was metallic blue, quite bright and eye catching with the darkness of the garage and the muted maroon bin colours acting as a counterpoint.

As the sun managed to put in a little more presence and I encountered Street Art, I had this on Vivid and to finesse it, added saturation on edit. On a fair monitor, the brickwork is quite absorbing as well as the colour tones.

You would think, after this blast of colour outside, that I would escape to some muted colours indoors. Well, I tried but first encountered this carpet.

Now, let us give your eyes some rest. We'll look for something to read

Something water to drink (that image has been warmed up in post)

and something to eat. What about Eggs on Bolognaise ? (1/60th sec, f/6.4 ISO 3200 46mm optical on APS-C sensor)

Of course, with any food, you do insist that the the kitchen is careful about hygiene and washes well.

All in all, for this set of photos, I was quite impressed with the tonal style of the SOOC JPEGs (and I could touch up the look a little without imposing grossness). The back LCD on the camera showed even more attractive images because of the higher pixel density and brightness than our computer screen.

The images that got away

Just like the notorious fisherman stories, there are photographer equivalents that of the whopper that got away. You can as much blame it on the photographer, the slipping of oppurtunity and incident as well as on the gear.

Photos of people around the table talking

Without asking for a posed shot, it is often difficult with any gear to capture a moment when the person looks good, when the light is good and when motion blur is either absent or helps with the story telling. Obviously a big DSLR with the latest high performing large sensor would help quite a bit but then, I am allergic to tramping big gear with me to a relaxed, friendly lunch. Some people mouth - larger aperture lens so here you go, you now have a big DSLR and a big lens and you're entering into Depth of Field shallower than a Bishop's Nose. This X Vario has a 70mm equivalent lens at maximum f/6.4 - you can get to f/2.8 if you go wide to 28mm equivalent with resulting change in perspective of faces and torso shapes.

Some of these shots were 1/60th sec, f/6.4 ISO 3200 - that's EV6@ISO100 Camera Estimated Light Level - If you got yourself an f/2 lens, you could raise the shutter speed (to reduce motion blur).  And f/2 lens on a 50mm to 70mm equivalent lens would have significantly shallow DOF for a two person, 3 person, head and shoulders shot.

Under the circumstances, with this camera and the non removable 28mm to 70mm equivalent zoom lens, just point and shooting, it was quite difficult to reduce motion blur when people moved their head and hands.

Posing people would be the better choice.

Dynamic Range of the camera JPEG engine

In the shots that got away, once I managed to avoid head movement blur, I found that the camera's choice of exposure for the indoor scene was ambitious - hoping that the JPEG's dynamic range would handle the bright light from the window and the darkness of faces on the shadow side of the window. Of course, this is a pretty tough gig for most cameras. If the camera was optimistic by half a stop, complexion and flesh tones would go yellowish-pink bleached with loss of texture - a plastic look on the highlights. Each camera would have problems coping but this camera had this style of coping.

Exposure estimation and Control

I tried to find the Exposure Value Compensation and could not find a dial on the camera that would do this. After some hurried exploration during lunch, I discovered that the silver coloured disc on the back of the camera is a 4 direction button cluster and the Up direction was inscribed with EV+/-

Although my Olympus PEN E-PM2 has a similar idea, the E-PM2 uses a combination 4 direction button and rotary dial - you can simply twirl the dial to change EV Compensation.

Much later, I was shown that there is a tiny dial on the top right corner of the camera and although this defaulted to Program Shift adjustment, if you held down the Up direction of the silver disc and pressed the tiny dial, you could assign the dial to be EV Compensation.

Chalk it down to lack of finding out how to set up this feature - EV Compensation is, for me, the most important primary adjustment for P A S modes of operation.

For full manual (M) mode of setting shutter speed and f/no, the X Vario is different to the typical Japanese camera - On the top deck, there is a dial for manual choice of shutter speeds including A and another dial for manual choice of f/no, including A.  If you set both dials to A, the camera takes on Programmed mode exposure. If you set one of the relevant dials to A, then it becomes either Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority (I think the LCD displays Shutter Priority as "T"). If neither dial is on A, then you are on full manual exposure control.

There are three options for Exposure Metering patterns and you can choose from several levels of JPEG Contrast control but I didn't get into those variations.

Continued in Part 2...

In the meantime:

Leica X Vario: Digital Photography Review

Leica announces X Vario zoom compact with APS-C sensor: Digital Photography Review

Leica Camera AG - Photography - X Vario

Olympus LIVE TIME How-To

Updated: 13th July 2013

Live Bulb / Live Time - What is it?

With digital cameras, for dim scenes, you hold open the shutter and let the light stream through to the sensor. At some point in time, you decide that you have collected enough light so you close the shutter then, hit the Preview button so that you can expect the LCD for correct brightness of the image.

Live Bulb / Live Time enables you to peek at how the image is progressing so that you can decide when that the image is just right in terms of brightness so that you can close the shutter without wasting the current  shot and trying again. If there are light trails or variable motion in the scene, Live Bulb / Live Time allows you to examine the scene as you are waiting for the long exposure shot to complete - you can then continue or abort if something is not what you want, early.

Any modern digital camera should be able to do this, but most designers haven't got round to it. Live Bulb / Live Time was first implemented by Olympus on the E-M5/OM-D, then subsequently the E-PL5, E-PM2 and further models.

What is the difference between Live Bulb / Live Time ?

Live Bulb means you open the shutter by squeezing the shutter release button and hold it down until you want to close it. It's best to use a remote shutter release rather than press the button on the camera body as you might introduce handshake motion.

Live Time means you squeeze down on the shutter release button and can remove your hand. When you want to close the shutter, you squeeze again.

How do you get to the menu(s)?

1. Set the camera to M - for Manual Exposure (that's the M in the P A S M dial / menu)
2. Set the Shutter Speed slower and slower - as I change the setting on my E-PM2, it goes 1" then 2" then it continues to 60" - it then goes to LIVEBULB and then to LIVETIME - I prefer to use LIVETIME because I don't normally have a remote control and don't want to stand there holding down the shutter release button.

Optional Settings

Noise Reduction 

Setup . Gear . E (Exp/ISO) . Noise Reduction
I set this to OFF. This carries out Dark Frame Subtraction - if you expose for 20 seconds, the camera does that task and then shoots another exposure ignoring light for 20 seconds further - This Dark Frame represents the background noise of the sensor at that temperature. The camera then subtracts that noise from the real image and hopefully produces a cleaner JPEG. The issue is that if I shoot for 60 seconds, I can't use the camera for another 60 seconds. It does not affect your raw image file if you are shooting raw.

Live Bulb / Live Time display refresh frequency

Setup . Gear . E (Exp/ISO) . Live BULB 
or
Setup . Gear . E (Exp/ISO) . Live TIME

You can choose  between 0.5 seconds to 60 seconds.

The refresh display time does not affect the exposure of your final image, it just means that if you choose too brief a refresh time, you will not be able see the last moments of your shot. If you choose too long a refresh time, you may miss that crucial moment when the brightness for the image is just right - and cause a bleached out image.

	IS0 100	ISO 400	ISO 800	ISO 1600
Samples	24	19	14	9
LiveTime	Total Visible	Total Visible	Total Visible	Total Visible
Intervals (secs)	Time (secs)	Time (secs)	Time (secs)	Time (secs)
0.5	12	9.5	7	4.5
1	24	19	14	9
2	48	38	28	18
4	96	76	56	36
8	192	152	112	72
15	360	285	210	135
30	720	570	420	270
60	1440	1140	840	540

Let us work out a case for ISO 200, whatever you set, the display will only refresh for a maximum of 24 times. For half a second intervals, that means you can only see the screen refreshed for 12 seconds. For some fireworks, light painting or dimly lit cityscapes using ISO 200 f/16, you might need 30 seconds or even 60 seconds of light gathering. In that case you might consider 1, 2 or 4 second intervals. In a recent shoot, I found 2 seconds interval, worthwhile.

(One reason some of us are using f/16 is to accentuate the starburst of street lights and other point light sources.)

Live View Boost

Setup . Gear . D Display/Audio/PC . Live View Boost . On

Normally, I prefer my LCD or EVF to simulate exposure darkness / brightness display - this is one of the differences between an Optical View Finder in a DSLR and electronic displays in mirrorless cameras. However, for long exposures, at night /f16, the electronic display becomes so dark that you cannot see clearly. Set the Live View Boost to On so that the camera does not attempt to simulate real conditions - the display remains bright all the time during Liveview for you to carry out focussing, aiming, framing activities.

When you start the actual exposure, then it LiveTime works normally.

Manual Focus

Super Control Panel . MF

When you are shooting in the dark, the Auto Focus system may not stay steady at one focus plane or may fail to settle on the object that you want. You might want to set Focus Mode to Manual Focus - MF.

Image Stabilisation

Super Control Panel . IS - Off

When you are shooting on a long exposure, it is likely you will not be hand holding and be placing the camera on the tripod. Image Stabilisation instead of reducing handshake, may actually create sensor shake. Switch it off.

Want to see some videos demonstrating this feature? Click on YouTube Videos

Also see  Peter Mlekuž 's article

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