Cinematic Photography (night)

Cinematic Photography is an expression that I came across lately. Another name for the same genre seems to be "Hollywood Look".

There is a difference in tone rendering between photography and cinematography, no doubt. However, a certain flavour of street photography, in particular during night time, adopted the Hollywood cinematography look.
To my surprise, it is very effective, and very simple to do.

Before learning about the "Hollywood Look", I just enjoyed watching Hollywood movies once in a a while. Now that I am aware what the effective colour composition used for the Hollywood look is, I am surprised to find it all over the place, e.g. in commercials.

Now, what is so particular about that "look"?

The basic concept seems to be to create a background in complementary colours of the foreground. The foreground will therefore be dominant over the background.

Movies usually tell stories about humans. Those typically have an orange skin tone. So, in order to put an emphasis on the "subject", i.e. the actor, one would tone the actor in the scene in an orange like hue. To make the actor pop, the background would now be toned in the complementary colour, i.e. turquoise.

With that knowledge, watch a Hollywood movie! You will notice, there is a strong preference to orange tones, accompanied by blueish and/or greenish backgrounds.

The Hollywood Look follows a really basic compositional principle that warm colours attract, while cold colours repel (fore- and background).

Let's have a look on a simple photography

Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto

The very same photography, with a Hollywood look applied

Cinematic look

So, what did I do to achieve this look?
First of all, this applies to nighttime images. Nothing I will tell you here will look good in daytime pics!

To achieve the look, I used 3 steps, which only concerned colour temperature.

1. Graduated filter from the top, decreased colour temperature (getting some blue)
2. Graduated filter from the bottom, adjusted tint to green
3. Broad radial filter, warm up colour temperature

The above filters can be stored as presets.

I advice to store the radial filter within the above mentioned presets. 

Now, having applied a preset, the radial (orange) filter can be used as a spotlight, to determine the area to be highlighted.

Concluding, it seems that a rather blue upper portion, a greenish lower portion and a foreground mid-portion having orange tint, define the look of movies.

Very often, the blue is ignored and replaced by turquoise produced by the original process.

Charging by USB

This might be a bit of a controversy, shall or shall not digital camera manufacturers add an external charger or not. To make a long discussion short, of course they should!

Similarly controversially discussed, shall camera manufacturers add internal USB chargers in their camera. At least for me, that is a very clear yes again.

While staying in one part of the world, having dedicated chargers might be a good idea, such that while using one, a second battery can be charged. Of course, I do that!

However, the story changes when we think of travelling, in particular when travelling light.
For many years, I travel with cabin luggage only. That means restrictions concerning the equipment that travels with me.
When it comes down to travelling to a country with different wall sockets, adapters for mains supplies are slowly coming into the picture. While those things are not heavy, they add some volume to the baggage and so do chargers and power cords.
So, imagine that, you travel, with a notebook computer and a camera, a light as possible. Clearly, the computer requires a power supply, no doubt about that.

Presently, there is only one mirrorless system and one compact camera in my possession allowing for internal charging of the batteries by USB connection.

1. Samsung's NX system (NXmini, NX300, NX1)
2. Ricoh GR

From earlier posts, you might know that the Samsung NXmini and the Ricoh GR are my main cameras for street-photography. Good news that both can charge their batteries from USB power.

During my last 2 stays in North America, I used the NXmini (with 3 lenses) exclusively. It was always charge by the USB port os an ASUS netbook. Eventually, I just connected the camera to transfer the images, when that was done, I just switched the camera off, but left it connected, so it would charge the battery.

This method worked for me 100%.

For my next stay in Canada, I will further reduce volume by using the Ricoh GR.

Conclusion:

With the Samsung NX system, I got a mini camera, a carry about camera and a prosumer camera, which all can be charged by USB connection.

The Ricoh GR, my favourite street-shooter got it too.

=> Lucky me!

However, I wished that more manufacturers would follow the example and add internal charging of the batteries.

Best Match

Matching lenses to any mirror-less camera system does not seem to be such an easy task
That's my turn on the match.

What are the requirements of a match?

• sensor size close to the design of the lens
• focus peaking for manual lenses
• ease of handling

In my personal arsenal, there are Canon EF compatible and M42 lenses. For the assumption of convenience, I would like to write about manual lenses only... M42 are all manual, EF, should not be, besides the funny stuff created by Lensbaby, or the manual lenses made by Samyang.

Regular readers of my blog already know where this is going towards... adapters!
Indeed, my collection holds adapters from EF and M42 to MFT, FX and NX.

Focus peaking?

• MFT (my cameras) - not supported - some basic hack using art filters of the Olys
• FX - focus peaking included - poor performance
• NX - focus peaking included - good performance - press OK bottom every time!

Lenses I use:

Canon EF:

• full Lensbaby set
• Samyang 24mm T-S
• Samyang APS-C Fisheye

M42:

• 28mm f/2.8
• 35mm f/2.8
• 50mm f/1.8
• 55mm f/1.4
• 90mm f/2.0
• 135mm f/2.8

So, there we got 3 system against 2 lens families.
The systems got the pros and cons:

• MFT - in body image stabilisation, 16 Mpix
• FX - best sensor, 16Mpix
• NX - best focus peaking, 20Mpix

Unmatched Pairs

Sometime you wonder what is going on in the head of marketing and sales departments.Usually, the confusion between marketing and sales opens some opportunities for bargain hunters.
Fujifilm did just that this very year.

Since my very first steps in photography, during the 70s and 80s, I used Fujifilm products. To that time, this was limited to film, the cameras were beyond my reach.
However, lately, having returned to film, I was able, thanks to ebay, to obtain some still expensive secondhand medium format Fujifilm cameras. Wow, what beauties, what an image quality!

Concerning digital, Fujifilm made some remarkable cameras, e.g. the X100S, which I am lucky to own. As much as I like the X100S and its tele-converter, the camera is still limiting, since it does not allow for shooting with my old glass from the film days.
Even before the X100S, Fujifilm sold a camera, called X-Pro1, for a professional price. No way I will ever buy this camera, I thought. Time proved me wrong, in the middle of 2015, I actually bought the X-Pro1, as a special sales, due to the announced advent of the new X-Pro2 in fall the same year. Well, the X-Pro2 is yet to appear on the market.
Anyway, the offer of just €900,- including the X-Pro1, the XF 18mm f/2, the XF 27mm f/2.8 and a leather case, was just too good to not take. The prices of the 2 included lenses added result in a greater sum. A no brainer!

So, the X-Pro1 combined with the XF 18mm is a nice moderate wide angle camera. However, the 27mm never made any sense, in particular I felt it was important to get a XF 35mm f/1.4, which now is my favorite lens with the X-Pro1.
The 18mm and the 35mm, both add to the old school feel, due to the aperture rings of those lenses. The 27mm, lacking an aperture control ring falls short in this respect and consequently has not seen any action with the X-Pro1.

I consider the X-Pro1 and the XF 27mm an unmatched pair, not making much sense other than emptying warehouses filled with soon to become obsolete and unwanted products.

Along came another offer, the entry model into the X cameras, the X-M1. A local store got those on outlet, including the XC 16-50mm zoom for just €290. Seen that another local store offers a secondhand XC 16-50mm lens for €300, this is a lens with a free X-M1 body... which I could not resist!
Picked up the package today, just to find out, that this was yet another unmatched pair. This time, not Fujifilm's strategy... The X-M1 body came in black, as ordered, the lens came in silver, despite the offer said black. Of course, having a silver lens on a black body looks crap... however, I decided, that I should not care about the looks, in particular since the X-M1 will be used with the XF 27mm anyway.

By the way, the X-M1 with the XF 27mm not only looks killer, it creates superb images, just what I was hoping/shopping for. Splitting 2 unmatched pairs might still result in matches at end.

Finally, the X-Pro1 and the X-M1 share the same battery format. So, the X-M1 body really add to a X-Pro1 bag.

Concerning the remaining ugly duckling, the silver XC 16-50mm, I put it in front of the X-Pro1, despite looking stupid, the lens balances nicely. I also learned that the frame-lines in the optical viewfinder change with the zooming. On the wide end of the lens, the X-Pro1's optical viewfinder is just not wide enough, but only by a fraction.
Despite of not looking good together, the XC 16-50 might fit the X-Pro1 just fine as an all purpose walk and shoot about lens.

Free Camera

Off I went, shopping, for 2nd hand gear again.

I am a wide-angle guy, at least this is what I love for use in street-photography. Having browsed the local stores for a while, I found a Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 (first generation) for just shy of 200 Euros. Actually, the lens was not listed individually; to be precise, the lens was not listed at all. What was listed was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3, which the 14mm lens attached.
Interestingly enough, another store had the lens itself listed for 200 Euros, i.e. the same price.

You guessed it, I took the one that came with a free camera attached.

The use of the 14mm lens is rather obvious, it will go into my OM-D outfit; this is what I bought it for.

Now, what can be done with the Lumix GF3? The GF3 is a first generation MFT camera with a 12 Mpix sensor. The camera is trimmed to be as small as possible, minimal controls. It is not meant for the prosumer, that's for sure. At least is shoots in RAW, that's a plus.
At its time, the GF3 was the smallest interchangeable lens camera. That title was taken by Pentax with their Q-system not too long thereafter. However, that might actually set the theme of my use of the GF3.

Some of my favorite street-photos where taken with an Olympus PEN E-PM2 and an Olympus 15mm body cap lens (BLC-15). In comparison to the GF3, the E-PM2 is relatively big. Consequently, it might be actually a good idea to fit a BCL-15 to the GF3. After all, the 15mm BCL would be close to the 14mm lens I closed the deal for.
Of course, the GF3 needs to be set to shoot w/o lens, since the BCL-15 does not have electronics built in. Other settings might need revision as to get the best out of the combo.
First shots promise big time fun using the GF3 with a BCL-15.

4x5 Press Kit

What a nice day! My genuine package arrived today, howling a full 4x5 press camera kit to me, including a case, 10+ film holders, a flash and that came in a fitting case! And yes, this cost me just over US$150.
The images on the bay showed some corrosion... for that price, who cares? Actually, the film holders alone would have been worth the purchase.

To be honest, the camera seems to be missing some bits and bops. Nothing vital however.

At first, the shutter was all frozen up due to corrosion. I took some forceful persuasion to get the T setting to work. I continue on B, with decent force and some patience. Some tries later, I got the shorter time operational, so, from s/400 to s/10 where up fine. So, the 2 higher speed gears are up and running now. Still., the lower speed gear seems to giving me attitude.
Some playing got s/5 going fine.
However, there are still 2 speeds not going smoothly: half second and one second.
Contrary to my earlier Graflex shutter fix, this time it seems that I do not have to disassemble the shutter and re-grease all the gears.

However, with that kit, it is not all smooth sailing. This kit employs a Graphlock back, which depends on springs. Said springs are in this model corroded too, and hence, do not show the prompt springy action you will need for operating the camera smoothly.

Also, there seems to be some fungus on the outer surfaces of the rear lens group. The front group appears to have suffered from a quick clean (hopefully w/o any damage).

Next steps for me:

• clean the lens groups
• clean the ground glass
• replace some lost screw
• make sure the bellow is tight
• make a new hand strap
• remove corrosion from and grease all springs
• fix an electronic flash into the flash unit

All in all, this was another XMAS-Xperience today!

OMG the NX mini

As a street photographer, never in my life, I could imagine that a selfie camera grows to my heart as quickly as easily. And here it is, the Samsung NX mini, the ultimate selfie camera, and I am a fan boy by now!
To be honest, I bought the camera (with the 9-27mm kit lens) when it was at sale, just for the Lightroom 5 licence which came with it. Actually, I was prepare to sell the camera for cheap and keep the LR5 licence. It turned out that I kept the licence and the ultimate selfie camera.

Why am I calling this camera "the ultimate selfie camera"?
Well, there are 2 obvious reasons:

1. it powers up when the display is flipped up to 180 degrees
2. it comes with 2 lenses covering 9mm (equivalent to 24mm on 135 film)

There are more indicators for the camera being the ultimate selfie camera:

• very small form-factor
• various selfie trigger modes using gesture detection
• "stylish" colors
• the 9mm pancake prime lens does not even allow for a lens cap

You that you have seen me writing 9mm twice, you might ask yourself, that the deal with that focal length is. On a 1" sensor, that would be equivalent to a wide angle of 24mm on 135 film, which is a pretty wide angle perspective. When taking selfies that means that with the your arm extended, you still get something of your surroundings in the shot.

It also means that camera shake does not really blur up your shot as much with slower shutter speeds.

Another factor, besides the lenses, would be the color the camera is available in. I choose mine to be brown. Actually, I do not like the color at all... however, the color is dim and makes me look like a hipster type tourist... When I pull up the camera, people just ignore me. What more can you ask for?!

The small form factor speaks for itself, I figure.

The immediate purchase to fit the kit to my needs was the 9mm pancake prime! And this lens did not disappoint! The NX mini with the 9mm prime installed is thin enough to fit into my Jeans' pockets effortlessly. Not having to care about a lens cap, or extending the lens (like one needs to do with the 9-27mm zoom) the camera is ready for shooting in a few seconds. And again, with such a device, no matter how close you are, nobody takes you seriously as a photographer (unless you act strangely, of course), still the image quality of the 1" sensor is good enough to publish... in particular since the camera is able to write RAW-files.

The image stabilized zoom I have not used much... here and there... it is small enough to fit in any pocket, so I had it with me a lot. Again, it did not see a lot of action.

The latest purchase, I could not resist, was the 17mm image stabilized f/1.8 "normal lens" (about 50mm in 135 terms). A hard purchase it was, I can tell! First I ordered it locally, after a month, the seller reimbursed my money. I tried Samsung locally... item unavailable... I tried Samsung globally... no luck. Finally, I found a seller in the UK who had a single specimen... which I bought.

BTW, the process of locating this particular lens took about 4 months. The costs for the lens were about the cost for the camera w/ the kit zoom lens.

Yesterday, the precious 17mm f/1.8 arrived.

First tests showed that the lens was not only worth the wait but also the money! When shot wide open, the bokeh is adorable! Image stabilization does a great job shooting handheld with the shutter open for 1 second (technique: exhale first, press shutter, inhale when the shutter is closed).

Some features I do not like about the NX mini:

• no battery charger provided
• charges via USB only
• microUSB
• expensive lenses having plastic bayonets
• no PC-sync or hot shoe connectors
• no remote shutter release
• WiFi controls limited

Some stuff I really like:

• touch shutter release
• full manual mode
• manual focus difficult to change (*)
• flip-up screen from 0 to 180 degrees
• leaf shutters in lenses
• auto ISO in manual mode

Why is any of this relevant?

1. When you waiting for a shot in front a of setup, the lens way open, you want to take the shot with just pointing the finger on the point of focus.
2. You might want to be in total control of your depth of field and the motion blur.
3. Once focused, you want to be able to rely of the hyper-focal distance set.
4. Looking down rather than towards your subject might conceal your intentions.
5. Leaf shutters a fast, don't create much shake or noise.
6. When DoF and motions blur dictate the shot, amplification (ISO) should take care of the correct exposure.

Up to now, the Samsung NX mini was the camera I expected the least from... however, the camera delivered beyond my wildest expectations, in particular with the 17mm lens.

OMG, why is the NX mini 17mm soooo hard to get?!

Samsung, what is going on? Could be best product of the year.... but only if costumers can buy the product w/o tremendous efforts.