Taking a Sunset From Raw to Refined

In the last few months I've been shooting in "raw" file format as opposed to jpeg format. If you aren't familiar with what raw is, raw is basically all of the information your camera sees when you snap the shutter. It creates huge file sizes as opposed to shooting in standard jpeg format. For example, on my Nikon D7100 camera, an image in a raw format is generally 30mb+ in size, while a jpeg of the same image is 12-14mb.

What is the real difference between the two? The easiest way for me to explain it is in old-school printed/developed photo terms.  The raw file is like a film negative, and a jpeg is like a developed and printed photo. The camera internally processes the image and gives you what it thinks you want to see and gives you the jpeg. Sure you can adjust your various camera settings to influence that outcome, but what you end up with is something that has been processed and "unimportant" data, as far as the camera is concerned, is stripped out. That's why the file size is so much smaller. Pretty much all phones and point-and-shoot cameras shoot in jpeg format, while higher end DSLR cameras give the option to shoot in either format, or even both at the same time. You can still somewhat "process" a jpeg after you've taken the picture (think of all of the cute filters and changes that instagram and other programs let you do to your phone pictures), but you're still working with an image that has lost data.

There's a ton of debate in the photography blogger and video world regarding which is better, with hard lines drawn between the sides that none shall pass through. What I said at the beginning of this post is a little untrue: I don't just shoot in raw only. I also have been shooting jpeg at the same time, because I've been afraid to commit. It's because my D7000 and D7100 cameras have two card slots each and I have them set to put a raw version of the image on Card 1 and a jpeg version on Card 2 every time I click the shutter. Why? Like I said its a commitment issue...what if I just need a quick and dirty jpeg and don't want to take the time to put the image into LightRoom and process it? Well, I can tell you that hasn't happened once in the past couple of months..........so guess what? This week I'm setting all of my camera bodies to raw only and not looking back. No more putting peg images on Card 2 and wasting space because I "might" need them. If I need a quick small jpeg I'll use my phone or my old trusty Nikon P90 point-and-shoot.



Set up for the shot.

Friday night after work I convinced Renee to go with me to downtown Dayton near Riverscape to get a sunset photo. I've been wanting to get down there for awhile for the sunset and everything was coming together to make Friday night a good opportunity. None of the nasty winter haze was hanging around and it was a balmy 35F degrees.

I brought my tripod with me along with my wide-angle Sigma 8-16mm lens. It's a great lens for taking images of landscapes, and is usually my go-to lens for this sort of thing. I probably could have done OK with my 16-85mm lens that's on my camera most of the time, but I had time to properly plan so why not bring the right tool for the job?

After taking shots for 15-20 minutes, the sunset was over and the temperature dropped fast! So it was time to get out of there and head home.

Saturday I had a chance to go through the images and started working on processing (ie, "developing") the image. I pulled BOTH the raw image and the jpeg image so I could show a "before and after" comparison of what developing does. Untouched jpeg:

Not exactly as our eyes saw it. The sunset really was more brilliant, and the faces of the buildings had an awesome "glow" to them, especially the glass building near the center of the picture. But this is what the camera gave us in jpeg format. And truthfully, I did just *slightly* underexpose it so that I didn't blow it out and had plenty to work with in the raw file......

.......And below is the final version after putting the raw image in LightRoom and massaging it a bit:

I used the lens correction tool in LightRoom that compensates for the lens and fixes any stretching or distortion. If you look closely at the tall building on the far left it looks more upright and straight compared to the original. I've also obviously cropped the image slightly. In the raw file I was able to bring back the details in the buildings and also punch up the color on the horizon so that it looks like the way we really saw it.

IMAGE DATA: Nikon D7100 with Sigma 8.0-16.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 lens at 11mm, ƒ/14.0, 1/60 second shutter at ISO 100.   

That's it for this week. If you are shooting on a DSLR and have a chance to try out the raw format, give it a try! You can always go back later and change the settings back to jpeg on your camera if you don't like it................but I bet you'll stick with raw.

Jeremy

Its the Simple Things

I started a new job in early December. It was a big change for me but something I needed to do. I've never been good with big, wholesale changes but I'm getting better at it.

Interestingly enough, my career change was one of the two things that led me to start this blog. My former job required a lot of writing; product/website content, communications with factories, and social media generation. Not having some of those requirements in my new job meant that I needed a new outlet for writing. I had a void to fill.

I hadn't given much thought to writing a new blog until Christmas day, when the other thing happened that put it all together for me. My niece, Amanda, has a great eye for composition and has always wanted a DSLR. Every time she comes over one of my cameras ends up in hands and she takes some great, spontaneous shots of things in my house that I see everyday. But yet they look totally different when someone else takes an image of them with new perspective.....

For Christmas this year we gave her a D5100 DSLR with the 18-55mm kit lens. She was super excited and I was excited to go over the camera with her, to show her the first few things she needed to know to be up and running with it. It was during that discussion that I realized that I really enjoyed sharing what I know (which is very little, trust me!) about photography. And talking/writing about it gets me excited to go out and take more photos....so it was a no-brainer that this blog became one of my resolutions for 2015.

My new office has a lot of employee artwork hanging on the walls, and last month they put out a call for art with the theme of "black and white". Not wanting to just simply submit one of my many black&white landscape images, I had to come up with something different. So I put myself in Amanda's shoes and set up a shot in the kitchen early this morning with a few common everyday objects: a white ceramic coffee mug, a black granite counter, and a small flashlight with a thin piece of cloth to act as a diffuser. I wanted to take a different look at something I see or use everyday.

Shot info: Nikon D7100 w/16.0-85.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at 62.0 mm, ƒ/5.3, 1/25 second exposure at ISO1600.

I love the simplicity of using an everyday object with some added drama. I don't care whether or not this ends up as part of the current artwork in my office; I just enjoyed taking the shot. It is truly the simple things!

Abandoned Farm, Round Deux

Last weekend I was hunting for an old schoolhouse that I knew just south of Waynesville, Ohio when I happened across an abandoned farmstead not far from Harveysburg. I took some shots but frankly they were crap. The day was grey, overcast, and the light wasn't right. But the composition was good................so I filed the location away in the back of my mind as a "gotta get back there again when the light and conditions are better" thing.

Yesterday I planned to take some nature shots at Charleston Falls, near Huber Heights, Ohio, but Mother Nature had other plans. It was raining, cold, and pretty nasty. I still got a hike in at the falls but there was no way that I was taking my camera out in that weather and it was nice to just get a good hike in.

This morning I woke early to find that the rain had just ended, and the sky was full of dark, angry, fast-moving clouds. But otherwise the air was clear and lacking any mist or haze. Could this be my chance to get a better image of the barn?? Thankfully Renee, my muse, agreed to go with me to back the farmstead after I promised that we would stop by a Starbucks along the way. So with camera equipment, and coffee, in hand we headed south.

We arrived to find that the clouds weren't quite right, and a little dark.....so feeling dejected I decided we were going to just turn around and head back home. It's a fault of mine that I am working on: getting worked up about something then getting into that "the hell with it" mode if its not perfect.

Thankfully, Renee convinced me to wait for the perfect shot. After a short while, the clouds became even more dramatic. And then suddenly, there was a break in the clouds to the south where the sun peaked through and illuminated the barn and the silo.

I'm happy that she convinced me to wait, and here's the outcome......

Image Data: Nikon D7100 body, with 16.0-85.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at 22mm. ƒ/8.0, 1/250 exposure @ 100 ISO.

So, I learned today that waiting for the perfect shot is a virtue, and possible even really more of a skill. I had the composition down already when I was there last week, but composition is only one of several pieces of an image. It doesn't matter what camera you have, or your collection of lenses. If you don't dedicate the time, and the mental commitment, to get the right shot...........its not just going to fall into your lap.

Jeremy

New Years Day 2015

Welcome to my new blog, "In Search Of Focus".

The title might seem a bit cliché given that this is a blog about photography, but bear with me for a second and I'll explain a bit..........

I love taking photos. I love writing. And I (most of the time) enjoy traveling. Creating "ISO Focus" (you see what I did there?) is a way to combine all of those things into one portal. And, most importantly, it will force me to be a little more disciplined about taking photos on a regular basis and posting them here. And hopefully it will make me a better photographer along the way.

Inspired by Toni Ahvenainen's "Year of the Alpha" blog (http://www.yearofthealpha.com/abouttheblog), I will be posting images weekly to my blog along with descriptions, thoughts, and personal insight. Sometimes I'll be focusing on composition, sometimes technique, sometimes both. And there may the occasional "snapshot" or "picture" instead of perfect photograph (sorry Fro!).

Last night, the last night of 2014, Renee and I stayed in Cincinnati at 21C Hotel and went to see the Philharmonic Orchestra and Storm Large at the Cincinnati Music Hall. Then we had a late dinner at Metropole and rang in the New Year.

This morning we went for a walk after breakfast and found ourselves down near the river at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. I absolutely love the building with its varied stone and metal construction. I've taken many photos of this building inside and out but today I challenged myself to find a new perspective or angle. On the southwest side of the building several walls come together and there is an opening where you can see the copper façade that faces the south.

Unfortunately this scene was a little out of reach of the 35-70mm lens I had on my camera, so this is a slight crop to get in a little closer.  Body: Nikon D7100, Aperture: ƒ/7.1,  Shutter: 1/200, ISO 200.

If you are interested in checking out the museum for yourself, more info can be found at http://freedomcenter.org/.

That's it for my first post! Stay tuned for more!

Jeremy