Oct 4, 2018 | WRP Ed Zone
I love, love the incredible wide view the Nikon 8-15Fish captures at 14mm & 15mm! There are time though when I don’t want the horizon curved. First option is to plane the horizon line dead center in the frame. There are times though like with this example, that doesn’t work either. Since I am using a Fisheye lens, keeping all line perfectly straight isn’t the goal. Sharing the wide open views is. The way I do that is simple and done in Photoshop.
Why not use Lens Correction? Lens Correction crops the image and I don’t want to lose any of the grandeur. I also don’t want the “stretch” marks it creates. And this is so simple and only takes seconds. I like simple!
#1 Free Transform
Open up your image and hit Cmd(Ctrl) T which brings up Free Transform. Next right click within the bounding box and click on Warp which brings up the grid.
#2 Grab bottom handles
Grab the handle on the bottom line 1/3 line of the grid and pull that handle all the way down to the bottom handle below it. Do the same with the handle on the opposite side of the grid. You want to remember where to place the horizon when you’re shooting to take advantage of these two handles.
#3 pull to the bottom
When done completely the handles will disappear into the bottom handles.
#4 pull up center handles
Then grab the center two handles (red arrows) and pull them up until the horizon line looks the way you want it. And this it, you’re done. The only suggestion I would make to you is shooting with a camera like the D850 or Z7 cause this technique at the very least bends pixels pretty severely. The more you have, the better your results will look. Then just have fun!!!!
Sep 25, 2018 | WRP Ed Zone
At Work on C-49 Tail Wheel
captured by Z7 / Z24-70
I’ve never been a huge user of the special “picture settings” in cameras for the simple reason I’m a control freak when it comes to content. I had heard from a number of my fellow Ambassadors who shot the Z7 and saw from their results, some really cool new settings. Sorry, I’m not 100% sure what they are called as I don’t have a Z7 with me and no IB. But I tried one this past weeked called, Dramatic 06. Above is the scene processed as a straight shot in ACR.
At Work on C-49 Tail Wheel
captured by Z7 / Z24-70
I was shooting with the Z7 / Z24-70 in Dramatic 06 this particular scene because I knew from what I learned that it would retain the “yellow” color componants of the scene while making the rest monochormatic. The two photos you see here out straight out of the Z7 via Nikon Capture NX-D. I did NO post processing, as in, I didn’t change any sliders just went from Nef to Tiff (and then Jpeg for the web). Now this setting isn’t for every shot but just those where that hue is what you want to emphasize in your photograph. In aviation, I see lots of applications for this which excits me. It’s just another cool aspect of the Z7 I thought you might like to know about. mtc
Sep 19, 2018 | WRP Ed Zone
It’s real simple, you like free money? That’s how Ed explained it to me when talking about copyright registration. Because without your images being registered, you can’t legally go after someone who has used your image without your permission. Ed & Jack really know their stuff and they love sharing it. Their problem is, so few of us photographers listen. So, click on the book above and order it. Head to their blog, The Copyright Zone and do some reading. And their latest B&H Event Space class was just posted. There is every reason all of us should have our images registered!
Sep 4, 2018 | WRP Ed Zone
One lens most don’t think of for photographing folks is the Nikkor 8-15 Fisheye. I have found though that this lens is not only good in this role but essential in documenting the restoration of the C-47 of our Normandy Bound project. Shooting at 15mm, the 8-15Fish permits me to tell the story of the work, the enormity of the project and a sense of the scale of it all. While taking in that 180 degrees is what I’m after, it presents a heck of a problem when it comes to adding flash. That’s because you don’t want the flash in the photograph.
Harry & “Hit or Miss”
captured by D5 / 8-15Fish / SB-5000
With the huge range of light and the fact the 8-15Fish takes is so much of that light, to balance the ambient light with the flash, I shoot in Manual / Ratio mode (from 1/4 to 1/32). I use the WR-R10 to control the SB-5000 which is essential, I can’t afford cords getting in the photo. I start with framing the story in the viewfinder and then I determine what direction I want the light from the flash to come into the frame. The hardest part is then getting the flash in that location and not see it in the frame. By the end of the day my shoulder, elbow and wrist are sore contorting to make it all work. The results make it all worth it cause you can’t but see the size of the project. And that’s the goal!
Aug 28, 2018 | WRP Ed Zone
One of my first classes in photography was taught by my best instructor. He said the first day of class, “It’s all about problem-solving!” “Those who can solve problems in the picture taking process are those who will be successful. And those who can’t, well …” The funny thing about this simple proposition or, fickled finger of fate is, it’s true! I had the great fun of flying to NYC for the Nikon Z7 launch with my dear friend and hero Dave Black. We pretty much spent the three days together reminiscing as well as comparing notes on the Z7. And the funny thing is, we talked most about the Z7 and the problems we could see it solving in our own photography. Above, Dave has the 105f1.4 on the Z7 / FTZ to see if it does work as advertised. It most certainly does! It was simple, old fashion identifying problems and working out the solutions. What you should do with ANY piece of gear YOU think of buying!
Another example is for our upcoming Normandy Bound project. We shoot about 1TB of video a day on the project. We’re going to be gone for 40 days. Do the math, that means we’ll need about 40TB, repeat, 40TB of storage for just the video part of the project. Then you can double that again for the backup, which will be shipped back to the office during the trip. I wish I had an answer for this problem that is simple as, buying a Z7.
That’s because the Z7 solves some big video issues for us like focus follow and pull/push focusing. The smaller form factor of the Z7 means we can place it in at least two locations on the aircraft where the D850 physically can’t fit. A few have asked if the single XQD slot is an issue which for me, it’s not. I guess I’m just too old school because one, my Nikon film cameras only took 1 roll at a time, my D1 and other digital cameras only had 1 slot and in all my years, what has broken down is my brain and not my gear. You see, being old school, I was taught that photography in a large part is all about problem-solving. My gear will never be the perfect fit for my shooting, I problem solve. My brain will never be perfect, so I problem solve. And my photography, well, it’s never perfect so every day to improve I remind myself, it’s all about problem-solving!
Aug 10, 2018 | WRP Ed Zone
Bryce Canyon
captured by D1 / 70-200f2.8 in 2000
“Printing moves my photography forward?” A handful of emails came in with this question as folks read my latest Print Lab (and thanks!). While all the steps, the mechanics of making a print are on my site and in the PDF, how we can learn from our printing isn’t listed anywhere there or on my site. This is because printing is a visual that must be witnessed and experienced in person. I post here a photo from Bryce Canyon I took back in Feb 2000 with the new digital Nikon D1. Its sensor (2.7mp) took this file creating the 11MB Nef file that I printed 24×30. It’s from that image, that print that I knew then that digital was it for me and never shot film after that time. It totally changed my career and more importantly, my photography, forever!
We hosted a Print Lab “party” for four dear friends a couple of weeks back at our office who wanted to learn for themselves from their images how to print. More importantly, how to print like masters so they too can move their photography forward through the lessons from their own prints. It’s only by looking at your OWN photographs that you print BIG can the miracle of printing take effect. For these four folks, it wasn’t until they saw the importance of a clean black, and how to obtain one and the huge impact it made did the importance of printing come into play. One of them had a sweet image of a Blue Angle on the ramp with a gorgeous sunrise behind it. By simply cleaning up the black and NOTHING ELSE, touching nothing else, that sunrise jumped off the print! The thing was that when you compared the dirty black print against the clean black print, the actual color or exposure of the sunrise had not changed a pixel. It was identical in both. It was the mere perception the brain made, the association it connected to that clean black that made the sunrise burn vivid. And without seeing it for yourself, none of this will make any sense.
The lessons about how to be better behind the camera come from being in front of a printer! You first have to concur the mechanics of creating consistently the print that the magic begins (where the Print Lab comes in). And then the more you push your printing, you will find that printing moves your photography forward.
