Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham Photographer - Czeiszperger Photography Photo Gallery http://www.learningtosee.org en-us Copyright 2008 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:12:01 EST michael@learningtosee.org michael@learningtosee.org <![CDATA[1222392065]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1222392065

The room where my newest nephew lay was very dark, but the Nikon D700 paired with f/1.4 made easy work of the gloom. With a full frame, the Nikon f/1.4D seems to be much less sharp, especially in the corners, but it was soft even in the middle. Its simply not nearly as sharp as the 85mm f/1.4D, and according to reviews completely outclassed by the new Sigma 50mm f/1.4 which I'm now going to have to try.

On this image I also tried out the new features in Lightroom 2.0 where you can selectively paint in such things as sharpness, exposure, and even contrast. The contrast on the entire image was lowered, and I think painted in contrast for the facial features.]]>

The room where my newest nephew lay was very dark, but the Nikon D700 paired with f/1.4 made easy work of the gloom. With a full frame, the Nikon f/1.4D seems to be much less sharp, especially in the corners, but it was soft even in the middle. Its simply not nearly as sharp as the 85mm f/1.4D, and according to reviews completely outclassed by the new Sigma 50mm f/1.4 which I'm now going to have to try.

On this image I also tried out the new features in Lightroom 2.0 where you can selectively paint in such things as sharpness, exposure, and even contrast. The contrast on the entire image was lowered, and I think painted in contrast for the facial features.]]> <![CDATA[1222030113]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1222030113

My latest nephew hangs out with his Aunt near a window. Their visit was so hectic and short I didn't feel like dragging out any lighting equipment, and so just plopped 'em by a window one morning. Its difficult to get used to shooting full frame after taking advantage of the 1.5 cropping so long, so the 85mm feels more like a 50mm.

Its hard to go wrong with window light-- you can do so much with it as long as you get the subject angled the way you want. ]]>

My latest nephew hangs out with his Aunt near a window. Their visit was so hectic and short I didn't feel like dragging out any lighting equipment, and so just plopped 'em by a window one morning. Its difficult to get used to shooting full frame after taking advantage of the 1.5 cropping so long, so the 85mm feels more like a 50mm.

Its hard to go wrong with window light-- you can do so much with it as long as you get the subject angled the way you want. ]]> <![CDATA[1220812827]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1220812827

There's always kid's activities at Saturday Night in Saxapahaw to the grown ups can enjoy the show. The activities are always something different, but they often end with a long snakey parade through the dark. The only light on these kids is a street lamp from hundreds of feet away. Again, no noise reduction, and excellent focus for such low light. ]]>

There's always kid's activities at Saturday Night in Saxapahaw to the grown ups can enjoy the show. The activities are always something different, but they often end with a long snakey parade through the dark. The only light on these kids is a street lamp from hundreds of feet away. Again, no noise reduction, and excellent focus for such low light. ]]> <![CDATA[1220813036]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1220813036

A fellow parent from The River Rock School on the Haw, Tom LeGarde, watches the sound board even in the dark at Saturday Night in Saxapahaw. In this shot you can see how bright even the light on the music stand is to illuminate the musicians; the street light is visible only the edge of the upright bass. ISO6400, and no noise reduction...]]>

A fellow parent from The River Rock School on the Haw, Tom LeGarde, watches the sound board even in the dark at Saturday Night in Saxapahaw. In this shot you can see how bright even the light on the music stand is to illuminate the musicians; the street light is visible only the edge of the upright bass. ISO6400, and no noise reduction...]]> <![CDATA[1220812593]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1220812593

Pushing the extreme limits of hand-held photography, with no noise reduction or processing or than the as-shot defaults in Adobe Lightroom. This is my niece visiting from Ohio, watching the last song from Gravy Boys at Saturday night in Saxapahaw, NC. It was so dark I couldn't see the camera, and just felt for the controls with my fingers. Despite the downpour, it was a beautiful night in Saxapahaw right next to the Haw River.


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Pushing the extreme limits of hand-held photography, with no noise reduction or processing or than the as-shot defaults in Adobe Lightroom. This is my niece visiting from Ohio, watching the last song from Gravy Boys at Saturday night in Saxapahaw, NC. It was so dark I couldn't see the camera, and just felt for the controls with my fingers. Despite the downpour, it was a beautiful night in Saxapahaw right next to the Haw River.


]]> <![CDATA[1220812342]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1220812342

The same Saturday night in Saxapahaw, NC at the farmer's market/concert listening to the Gravy Boys. The only light illuminating the band are a string of christmas lights on the floor about 7 feet away, that's what you see coming in from the left, and a street light coming from the right creating a shadow of the guitar on the singer's shirt.

This is ISO 6400, no noise reduction or processing. The show, by the way, was really good. The band was great, and everyone stayed even through a downpour. ]]>

The same Saturday night in Saxapahaw, NC at the farmer's market/concert listening to the Gravy Boys. The only light illuminating the band are a string of christmas lights on the floor about 7 feet away, that's what you see coming in from the left, and a street light coming from the right creating a shadow of the guitar on the singer's shirt.

This is ISO 6400, no noise reduction or processing. The show, by the way, was really good. The band was great, and everyone stayed even through a downpour. ]]> <![CDATA[1220802784]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1220802784

My new Nikon D700 has arrived, and this is its first outing-- a Saturday night in Saxapahaw, NC at the farmer's market/concert listening to the Gravy Boys. Its so dark you can only see the band because of a string of christmas lights at the foot of the stage, and the crowd in the foreground is illuminated by a distant street lamp.

At f/1.6 and ISO6400 this is pretty much the limit of how low the light can go hand-held. Obviously with a stand the shutter speed could have been dropped, although at the expense of motion blur. There's no noise reduction at play here other than the in-camera defaults, as is the white balance. (No hint of the usually sulfur yellow, and its found a good balance between the white balance of the christmas lights and the sulfur street lamps.) I've never seen a better low light white balance, or more accurate low light focus, all-in-all, the most amazing experience I've had with a camera. ]]>

My new Nikon D700 has arrived, and this is its first outing-- a Saturday night in Saxapahaw, NC at the farmer's market/concert listening to the Gravy Boys. Its so dark you can only see the band because of a string of christmas lights at the foot of the stage, and the crowd in the foreground is illuminated by a distant street lamp.

At f/1.6 and ISO6400 this is pretty much the limit of how low the light can go hand-held. Obviously with a stand the shutter speed could have been dropped, although at the expense of motion blur. There's no noise reduction at play here other than the in-camera defaults, as is the white balance. (No hint of the usually sulfur yellow, and its found a good balance between the white balance of the christmas lights and the sulfur street lamps.) I've never seen a better low light white balance, or more accurate low light focus, all-in-all, the most amazing experience I've had with a camera. ]]> <![CDATA[1219672444]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1219672444

What type of people even contemplate starting a new private school one month before school is supposed to start? Well, say hello to The River Rock School on the Haw, located next to the Haw River in Saxapahaw, NC. Of course, you can't start a new school without some cool graphics, so I waded out into the middle of the Haw on Friday at dusk with a canoe and a rented lens and tried to get some pictures to fit in with the school's river theme. Since school starts this week, every parent and student spent all day on Sunday painting, sanding, cleaning, and getting everything ready for the first day of school on Thursday.

Here's how we're describing the focus of the new school:
The River Rock School on the Haw will open August 28th in Saxapahaw, NC for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th & 5th graders with a focus on environmental and community stewardship, collaboration, creativity, adventure, and rigorous academics. The school is an indepedent private school with mixed age groups and an integrated curriculum allowing for extensive, project oriented explorations in the sciences, arts, history, social studies, problem-solving, math, languages and literature.

The teaching staff includes a lead teacher who has previously taught at The Community Independent School, Carolina Friends School, The Duke School, and Chapel Hill Public Schools. The resource staff includes seasoned teachers in Music, Art, Spanish, and Natural and Physical Science.
There are still a few spaces available and limited full scholarships for minority students.

My new full frame Nikon D700 arrived the day after this shot was taken, and I'd already sold my wide angle DX lenses in anticipation. (DX lenses only work on the DX format, not FX format, or full frame like the Nikon D3 and D700.) Instead, Southeastern Camera in Raleigh and Carrboro rented me a Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens for only $20! That's got to be the camera rental bargain of the century, especially compared to online rental prices. The lens itself is incredible sharp, as you can see here. At f2.8 the transition from sharp to blur is quite pleasing, and this is now at the top of my list to acquire as a wide angle lens for my new D700.

Yes, the text is fake, and of course was done in photoshop using a variation of the classic techniques. First the text was converted to a path and the rotate and perspective transformations used to get the general angle right. The tricky bit there is the perspective doesn't work on regular text so you first have to convert it to a path. I then used a clipping mask against the text using a b&w white version of the canoe to make sure the text had all of the scratches and defects of the side of the canoe. Typically used use overlay mode for that, but it wasn't give me the text color I wanted. To fit the text better to the undulating nature of the side of the canoe the standard displacement map is used, (Filter->Distort->Displace), and finally a blur map was applied so that the text got blurrier as the canoe got blurrier. Its a lot more complicated than that, but you get the drift, I hope. One one question is why overlay mode wouldn't work like all of the tutorials show.
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What type of people even contemplate starting a new private school one month before school is supposed to start? Well, say hello to The River Rock School on the Haw, located next to the Haw River in Saxapahaw, NC. Of course, you can't start a new school without some cool graphics, so I waded out into the middle of the Haw on Friday at dusk with a canoe and a rented lens and tried to get some pictures to fit in with the school's river theme. Since school starts this week, every parent and student spent all day on Sunday painting, sanding, cleaning, and getting everything ready for the first day of school on Thursday.

Here's how we're describing the focus of the new school:
The River Rock School on the Haw will open August 28th in Saxapahaw, NC for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th & 5th graders with a focus on environmental and community stewardship, collaboration, creativity, adventure, and rigorous academics. The school is an indepedent private school with mixed age groups and an integrated curriculum allowing for extensive, project oriented explorations in the sciences, arts, history, social studies, problem-solving, math, languages and literature.

The teaching staff includes a lead teacher who has previously taught at The Community Independent School, Carolina Friends School, The Duke School, and Chapel Hill Public Schools. The resource staff includes seasoned teachers in Music, Art, Spanish, and Natural and Physical Science.
There are still a few spaces available and limited full scholarships for minority students.

My new full frame Nikon D700 arrived the day after this shot was taken, and I'd already sold my wide angle DX lenses in anticipation. (DX lenses only work on the DX format, not FX format, or full frame like the Nikon D3 and D700.) Instead, Southeastern Camera in Raleigh and Carrboro rented me a Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens for only $20! That's got to be the camera rental bargain of the century, especially compared to online rental prices. The lens itself is incredible sharp, as you can see here. At f2.8 the transition from sharp to blur is quite pleasing, and this is now at the top of my list to acquire as a wide angle lens for my new D700.

Yes, the text is fake, and of course was done in photoshop using a variation of the classic techniques. First the text was converted to a path and the rotate and perspective transformations used to get the general angle right. The tricky bit there is the perspective doesn't work on regular text so you first have to convert it to a path. I then used a clipping mask against the text using a b&w white version of the canoe to make sure the text had all of the scratches and defects of the side of the canoe. Typically used use overlay mode for that, but it wasn't give me the text color I wanted. To fit the text better to the undulating nature of the side of the canoe the standard displacement map is used, (Filter->Distort->Displace), and finally a blur map was applied so that the text got blurrier as the canoe got blurrier. Its a lot more complicated than that, but you get the drift, I hope. One one question is why overlay mode wouldn't work like all of the tutorials show.
]]> <![CDATA[1218249630]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1218249630

Another image from the Saxapahaw Saturday night music series, this time with a little B&W sepia treatment. Its amazing how much fun kids have in the heat if you just put out a sprinkler. The adults can enjoy the band and a glass of wine, and the kids have the time of their lives sliding down a muddy hill.


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Another image from the Saxapahaw Saturday night music series, this time with a little B&W sepia treatment. Its amazing how much fun kids have in the heat if you just put out a sprinkler. The adults can enjoy the band and a glass of wine, and the kids have the time of their lives sliding down a muddy hill.


]]> <![CDATA[1217730355]]> http://www.learningtosee.org/img/1217730355

It was Saturday night in Saxapahaw, and Jimmy Magoo's band took the stage in the heat and humidity to a great and enthusiastic crowd. The light was less than ideal, being dappled light through some sparse leaves, creating intense spots of light and dark blacks: almost impossible to get a good shot. Instead I tried shooting right into the sun, letting the highlights blow out, and trying to create something salvageable. Its always a challenge to shoot a band as its been done to death, and instead of shooting "band like" concert photos, I decided to try and create a portrait of each band member separately.

Here's the first, the bassist.

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It was Saturday night in Saxapahaw, and Jimmy Magoo's band took the stage in the heat and humidity to a great and enthusiastic crowd. The light was less than ideal, being dappled light through some sparse leaves, creating intense spots of light and dark blacks: almost impossible to get a good shot. Instead I tried shooting right into the sun, letting the highlights blow out, and trying to create something salvageable. Its always a challenge to shoot a band as its been done to death, and instead of shooting "band like" concert photos, I decided to try and create a portrait of each band member separately.

Here's the first, the bassist.

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