In spite of my reservations about its overuse, I have been playing around with HDR (High Dynamic Range imaging) a bit lately. I used the technique on a shot a few days ago that I am really pleased with (you can see it here). While I was wandering around my parents yard yesterday with just the Holga HL-C lens on my camera, I decided to give it another shot.

The Holga HL-C does not produce crisp images; they are rather blurry and dream-like so it could certainly be argued that some of the benefits of HDR are lost when using this lens. But, the technique is more about expanding the total dynamic range of a photo than fine detail, so what the heck. Just to be clear, dynamic range is basically the total amount of light and detail represented in a photograph, from the darkest black to the brightest, sunny spot. Generally, modern DSLRs can capture about 9-stops of light but if you stack an image that is over exposed by 1-stop along with and accurately exposed image and one that is under exposed by another stop then you increase the dynamic range to 11-stops and thus more of the bright and dim areas of the photo are properly exposed and contain legible detail… if everything goes to plan.

The web is full of HDR guides and I am no expert so I won’t pretend to give people a guide to the technique (Google should fill you in nicely). This is more of an example of what the Holga HL-C can do when used with HDR and compares it to single shot exposures so you can see the difference.

As my subject I chose a slide in my family’s yard that has seen the butts of many a generation of McMains children gleefully sliding down it. The dreamy benefits of the Holga HL-C seemed to fit this childhood plaything well. I set my tripod up low to the ground with a cable release (and you will absolutely need a tripod for HDR and probably a cable release if you are shooting with a lens like the Holga that has a fixed aperture of f/8), then used Aperture to convert the photos from RAW format and put them straight into Nik’s HDR Efex. Later, I also tweaked them with Nik’s Silver Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro. Below are the three images that I combined to create the lead photo for this entry.

The single exposures were adjusted for exposure and highlight/black point recovery in Aperture then processed through either Color Efex Pro or Silver Efex Pro and finally cleaned up in Nik’s digital noise reduction software, Dfine 2.

The lens is fixed at f/8 and I wanted to minimize noise so I kept the ISO at 100 so the exposures ranged from about 1/60th of a second down to more than a second.

I think the take away from this is that the Holga HL-C (or its Nikon equivalent) can be usefully used for HDR work. You will notice in the final Black and White versions that there is a grittiness to the HDR shots and that the color HDR exposures show a nice balance across a scene that had wide lighting conditions. On the other hand, the single exposures, probably because they were so long, also handed the lighting conditions well and by no means indicate that HDR is necessary to get a nice, balanced shot when shooting the Holga HL-C at low ISOs. They just require a very still subject, like a rugged metal slide and a tripod to shoot it from.

I drove to Eunice on Sunday night in spite of the excesses of Spanish Town Mardi Gras and an unsightly rug burn on my forehead. I had to photograph a boucherie for Spencer Magazine at 7AM and leaving my house at 5:30AM just didn’t sound to appealing. So, the magazine was nice enough to arrange some accommodations for myself and the writer.

The pig was killed, butchered and cooked in a phenomenally short period of time. But, many hands speed the work. Sadly, I can’t post any of the 1,200 or so shots I got of the boucherie because the magazine doesn’t go to print until April. But, I did see some interesting things on the way back.

There was an abandoned grain silo that looked like a castle and the constant s-curves of crawfish ponds replete with huge flocks of white egret and black marsh ducks. I also stopped at the boat launch off of I-10 for the Atchafalaya and played around with the fisheye there. I think I need to do some more work on the shots of the flocks of birds. Their alternating black and white plumage was very stark against the cloudy, Cajun prairie sky. The two treatments here just don’t do justice to the flapping, startled natural palate that was these birds in flight.

Regardless, it was a good day to be up early and driving through that green, sunken landscape. I have had a few offers to head over to one of the smaller Cajun Mardi Gras in Iota tomorrow and I may tag along for the photo opportunities but work at the bar beckons and I do have the aforementioned 1,200 photos to wade through. Who knows what tomorrow may bring but I hope you all have a safe and happy Mardi Gras (more happy than safe). And, I look forward to things getting back to normal after what feels like the endless festivities of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Football Season and Mardi Gras drunkenly sloshing into one another.

Photoburst is a website dedicated to showcasing travel photographs. They pick a daily travel photo, weekly winners and have a monthly prize as well. I am flattered to report that one of my shots from my recent trip to Nicaragua won their contest on Friday, February 17th. The shot is featured above.

It was taken on my last day in Granada, Nicaragua when I had wandered down to the municipal market. As I have said many times, I love markets and really enjoy photographing them. So, it is very gratifying to have that love recognized by such a good site.

If you have the time, i highly recommend browsing though past winners. You will see some amazing stuff. One of my recent favorites is linked here. But, you can scroll through the daily winners using the date bar below the photographs (there was some really remarkable stuff last month). It means a lot to me to have my photos appreciated and recognized by a group of international photographers. We all try to  do out part to make our personal corner of the world a more beautiful place or to shed some light on the amazing things we are fortunate enough to see. Photoburst does a great job of aggregating some enlightening and moving vignettes from around the world. So, I hope you will take the time to follow this link and explore some of what they have on display.

Tomorrow is the Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade and normally I would take the opportunity to get some photographs of the characters that always turn out. But, the weather looks like it will be pretty foul. The parade organizers have even moved the time of the parade back to 4PM to accommodate the weather. The rain not only dampens my person but also my desire to haul out nice camera gear. Oh well, there is always next year.

The last week has been a hectic one as we have been trying to fill three positions behind the bar at Red Star. I think Jeff and I have settled on our choices but there were a lot of good applicants. The good news, beyond having some fresh faces at Red Star, is that I can get back to photographing a bit more. The past few weeks have been pretty consumed with bar related activity and that has not given me much time to shoot.

Happily, I was asked to go out to a salon today and speak with the staff there about a photo project that sounds like intriguing and fun work. Booking is starting to fill up again as people have begun to shake the January slump off and Mardi Gras is nearing its close. I will also be shooting feature photos of a boucherie in Eunice for Spencer Magazine on Monday, which should be more than just interesting. A multi-team bunch of porcine enthusiast will be taking on the whole hog for what promises to be a delicious day in Cajun Country. I tell you, it’s a rough life. There is more work lined up but I’ll save that for another post.

In the meantime, thanks to all the readers of this blog. Referrals have been pouring in and I know a lot of them have comes from people who read, enjoy, support and disseminate the stuff I do here. I deeply appreciate it. Knowing that people like what I do enough to recommend me to their friends is gratifying beyond words. But, keep them coming, there is still plenty of room on my calendar. So, thank you, faithful readers, and have a happy Mardi Gras.

As a side note, it was almost a year ago exactly that I won Photoburst’s Travel Photo Contest with this shot from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. By some strange coincidence, both shots were taken with a Cosina Voigtlander Ulton 40 f/2. It might not be that odd, other than I don’t shoot with this particular lens that often, but it’s tiny size makes it great for travel. I have commented on this before, but the lens has a certain “something” to it. Maybe it is the manual focus or maybe it is the German-inspired glass and engineering, but I really should use this lens more often, especially if I want to win photo contests… If this rain slacks up, I think I might slap in on the camera and see what I can get. Or, maybe I’ll stay inside and write an homage to the 40mm lens. That sounds a little more pleasant.

My mother says I have been overtaken by a “cooking frenzy.” This is, in large measure, true. I have not had a lot to photograph lately and cooking, for me anyway, is very therapeutic. So, even though I spent some time at work, answered lots of emails, sent several query letters about jobs and did other bits of this and that, I have still tried to fill me late afternoons with cooking.

There is something of a slump in the bar business and the photography business this time of year. Being idle makes me a little stir crazy and as I presently have nothing else to really devote my attention to once the day’s work is done, I have been in my kitchen.

What you will find below is a sort of Beef Bourguignon or Beef Burgundy recipe. It owes a lot to the basic pot roast concept and relies heavily on hearty winter vegetables. You might want to read the recipe all the way through before trying it yourself as there are a few options of how to follow through with the process. The grilling, for instance, adds a little smokiness to the dish but is not necessary if you don’t feel like firing up your grill. I can also see this dish being very successful with a reduction in some of the root vegetable and the addition of other winter staples like parsnips, whole garlic cloves or fennel bulbs. Anyway, have fun with it. These sorts of cuts of meat are very forgiving provided you give them long enough to break down a little over low heat and a long cooking time. If you try to rush it, you will end up with a tough roast, and no one appreciates that on a plate. Without further ado:

 Beef Bourguignon 

1 Beef Roast, about 2lbs (preferable Chuck or Round)
1 Large Yellow Onion, Diced
1 Bunch of Carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
4 Medium Turnips, peeled, ½ inch chop
5 Medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled, ½ inch chop
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
3 tbsp Your favorite Dry Rub (you can mix up a batch of mine, recipe can be found here)
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Dry Mustard
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Dried Thyme
1 tbsp Dried Oregano
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tsp Smoked, Sweet Paprika
1 tbsp Paprika
1 Bay Leaf
1 Can of Lager Style Beer
1 Bottle Red Wine, just whatever you have around. It doesn’t have to be a Burgundy
3c Vegetable Broth

There are two ways to do this. One really just adds an aesthetic flourish but both
accomplish the same in, which is to brown the Roast. First heat your grill to its maximum heat (about 500F). Clean the grill well and oil the grate with the Canola Oil using an oil soaked paper towel held with tongs. Cover the Roast with the Dry Rub and allow to the meat to stand for a while so that it approaches room temperature. Sear the two largest sides of the Roast for about 16 minutes total, turning 90° at 4-minute intervals to achieve nice grill marks and flip it half way through the grilling.

Add the Olive Oil to a large, heavy bottomed, pot and heat it over medium heat. Take your seared Roast (or raw and if you are skipping the grilling part) and sear each side that didn’t get grilled (or the whole thing), one side at a time or until a nice fond has developed on the bottom of the pot and there is a notable browning of the meat. Remove the Roast and set aside. Add the Onions to the pot and stir. Then add in the Beer and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze ( get up all the tasty bits). Add the Garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, still over medium heat. Add about 1 cup of the red wine and allow the mixture to reduce until most of the liquid is gone. Add your herbs and spices— Dry Mustard, Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Oregano, Smoked Paprika and regular Paprika. Stir the whole concoction together then place the Roast in the middle of this flavorful and fine smelling mixture.

Surround the roast with the chopped Potatoes, Turnips and Carrots. Then add the remaining Red Wine and the Vegetable Stock. Stir enough to bring some of the Onion and spice mixture up from the bottom. Slip the Bay Leaf into the pot and allow the liquid to come back to a boil (about 5 minutes). Then reduce the heat and cook, securely covered and on low, for about 3 and 1/2 hours or until the Roast is fork tender. Flip the roast from time to time to ensure even cooking. Once the roast is falling apart, pull it apart a bit and allow to cook a while longer so that the liquids can permeate the interior of the Roast.

If you prefer your vegetables to hold a bit more of their shape then wait to add the Potatoes, Turnips and Carrots until the Roast and liquid combination has cooked for about an hour.

Crawfish and Roasted Butternut Squash Soufflé

2 Large Butternut Squash
1lb Crawfish Tails
1 Yellow Onion, Chopped
1 Golden Bell Pepper, Chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper, Chopped
2 tbsp Garlic, minced
2 tbsp Ginger, minced
1 tsp Dry, Spicy Mustard (heaping)
1 tbsp Tumeric
1 tbsp Dried Thyme
¼ c Dry Vermouth
¼ c Amontillado Sherry
6 oz Panko Bread Crumbs, by weight
¾ lb Oaxaca Cheese, grated
½ c Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tbsp Double Acting Baking Powder
1 pint Heavy Cream
3 Eggs
2 tsps Salt
2 tsps Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Set your oven to 350F. Cut the Butternut Squash in half, remove the seeds and oil the fleshy part, then place them, oiled side down, on a baking dish. Bake the Squash in your oven for about 45-50 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the flesh. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

In a large sauté pan heat the Olive Oil over medium heat. Add the Onions and sauté until they begin to color being mindful that they don’t burn. This should take about 15 minutes or so. Add in the Garlic, Ginger, Yellow and Red Bell Peppers and toss to combine. Allow the mixture to cook until it becomes fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add in the Turmeric, Thyme and Dry Mustard. Stir and allow to cook for about a minute then add in the Dry Vermouth and Sherry and reduce the heat. Let the whole combination simmer until most of the moisture has evaporated, stir from time to time. Add in the Crawfish Tails and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring as the mood strikes you. Pour the vegetable, crawfish and spice mixture into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool in the refrigerator.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the Cream and Eggs. After they are thoroughly combined, whisk in the Baking Powder and set aside. Remove the vegetable mixture from the refrigerator and fold in about 2/3rds of the grated Oaxaca Cheese. Scoop the meat of the Squash out of their skins and into the large mixing bowl that now contains the vegetables, crawfish and cheese mixture. Add 2/3rds of the Panko Bread Crumbs, Salt and Pepper and stir to combine. Provided that the whole mixture is relatively cool, pour in the cream, eggs and baking powder mixture and fold it all together.

Using the remaining Canola Oil, grease a suitably sized baking dish and then pour the whole mixture into the dish, distributing the mixture evenly with a spatula. Top the combined mixture with the remaining Oaxaca Cheese as well as the Parmesan Cheese then top with a layer of the remaining Panko Bread Crumbs. Raise the temperature of your oven to 375F and once it has come to temperature place the dish inside and bake for about 45 minutes or until it has risen and browned.

If you want to go with a more convention soufflé presentation, you can put the mixture in individual ramekins where the smaller surface area will allow for a more notable rise than with the large dish. Keep in mind that the soufflé will fall somewhat as the temperature drops once it is removed from the oven. But, the dish should maintain some of its structure because the breadcrumbs and eggs should help the soufflé to retain some of its form.

Pinto Bean and Venison Chili w/ Vegan Alternative

1lb Dried Pinto Beans, cleaned and soaked overnight
1lb Ground Venison (Venison/Pork Mix is fine)
2 Large Yellow Onions, medium dice
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
4 Medium, Roasted Hatch Peppers with the stem removed but seeds retained
2 tbsp Cumin Seed, dry-toasted and ground
1 tbsp Dried Oregano
2 tbsp Olive Oil
I Can of Mexican Lager
½ c Amontillado Sherry
1/3c Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tbsp Salt
2 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 dash Peychaud’s Bitters
2 tsps Smoked Paprika (Sweet)
8c Vegetable Stock

Drain the soaked Beans and add them to a large, heavy bottomed pot. Pour in the Beer and enough of the Vegetable Stock to cover the beans. Cook the beans, adding stock as needed and stirring regularly, for about 3 hours over low heat or until they are soft with the lid slightly off of the pot. Remove from the Beans from the heat.

In a large skillet heat the Olive Oil over medium heat then add the Onions and cook until they are translucent and have begun to color. Add in the Peppers and Garlic and stir to combine. Allow to cook for a few minutes longer then add the ground Cumin, Oregano, Salt, Black Pepper and Smoked Paprika. Stir to combine and cook a few additional minutes, the mixture should become very fragrant. Add the Sherry and Apple Cider Vinegar and cook over medium-low heat until most of the liquid has evaporated.

If you are preparing this for vegan consumption then add the aromatic vegetable mixture to the beans along with the Bitters and the remaining Stock and stir it all together. Cook over low heat until the desired consistency is achieved or some of the beans have begun to break down and thicken the chili.

If you are going to use ground Venison in this dish then take your sauté pan and brown the ground meat with a little Olive Oil, then drain any excess fat or liquid and add the ground meat in when you add the aromatics. The aromatic vegetable mélange can be set aside in a bowl while you brown the meat. Both variations are pretty tasty.
I served the one with Venison over a slice of Cornbread. Everyone who lives below the Mason-Dixon Line should have their own cornbread recipe that they know by heart but I am including my Basic Cornbread recipe here just in case. I have a strong suspicion that the vegan variant would go well with some corn chips.

Basic Cornbread

1c        All-Purpose Flour (Unbleached preferably, just not self-rising)
1c        Yellow Corn Meal
1c        2% Milk (Butter milk is a good substitute)
¼ c      Canola Oil (or Bacon Fat)
1tsp    Salt
4tsps  Double Acting Baking Powder (make sure it’s fresh to get a good rise)
1tbsp Sugar
2          Eggs

Preheat your oven to 425F with your seasoned, cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven inside. Combine all dry ingredients in one large mixing bowl, sift to combine if you feel like it, otherwise mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl add the milk and eggs and whisk to combine. If your oven had come up to temperature pour the Canola oil into the skillet and return it to the oven for about 3 minutes (less if you are using bacon fat). Then remove it and carefully coat the sides of the skillet with the now VERY hot oil. Make a small well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg and milk combination. Add the oil from the cast-iron skillet to the large bowl that now contains all the ingredients. Mix until the consistency is even but don’t over mix or this will prevent the cornbread from rising well. Time is not on your side here as the heat from the oil will make the baking powder begin to do its thing and produce carbon-dioxide to make the bread rise. So, quickly pour the batter back into the skillet, scraping the sides to get it all in. The dough should spread out evenly but it might need a little smoothing with a spatula. Now, return the skillet to the hot oven and bake for about 25 minutes. When you remove the finished cornbread use a longish and flexible kitchen tool to loosen it from the skillet and place it on a cooling rack. If you leave it in the skillet for too long the residual heat can burn the bottom of your cornbread.

I am doing a series of portraits and photographic studies for The Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and The Capital Area Transits System (CATS). The first morning of shooting started early. My brain was still a little cloudy from only about half its usual dose of caffeine. But, time and the bus waits for no man.

In all the years I have lived in Baton Rouge, I don’t think I had ever ridden on a city bus. Maybe once for a charter to a football game or something and I had taken a spin on the downtown trollies, but this was my first real morning on the bus. I should say that I like mass transit. I like being a passenger and I like the idea that you don’t have to pour endless amounts of money into purchasing, maintaining, insuring and fueling a personal automobile. But, like most Americans who can afford it (and don’t live in a place with a subway system) I don’t ride the bus.

Abstractly, I understood the importance that the bus system played in the lives of people who could not afford a car or who were unable to drive for some reason. But, today was the first time I had an up-close experience with its inescapable value. Put bluntly, there are many people who could not live a normal life without a working bus system. This is not liberal propaganda aimed at socializing the roads. This is simply a fact.

It should also be said that there is no typical bus rider. The majority are African-American but that is by no means the whole of the ridership. I saw people going to and from work wearing hospital scrubs and security guard uniforms. There were young and old. There were mentally ill people. There were old folks going out to get groceries. There was even an employee of the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum who rode the bus for reasons I didn’t query.

The buses are a little threadbare but they are clean and all the staff was friendly. There was even a bit of camaraderie of the sort that develops impromptu among any group of random people thrown together in similar circumstances.

In all the debate that has been raging on the opinion page of the local newspaper it is easy to forget that the bus system serves a vital purpose. People decry it on ideological grounds because it runs a deficit. I don’t pretend to know the numbers but I can only imagine that it would deal a serious blow to our economy if all the people that ride the bus were no longer able to get to work. It would also eat away some little part of our humanity if the elderly were trapped in their homes and the mentally ill worsened because they could not make their doctors appointments.

It is not really my place to judge on such matters but I think that before anyone rails against the fiscal irresponsibility of the bus system they should ride one of the early morning routes and see just what CATS does and what population they serve. That is the least that those of us who are fortunate enough to have the means to afford a car can do before we go cutting services to those who can least handle the blow. And everyone likes being driven around.

Now I understand that some people will be appalled, just on general principle, at the idea of attaching a purposely cheap, plastic lens to a high-end, full-frame camera. They just don’t see the point. The Canon 5D MKII can deliver crisp, beautiful images when coupled with ordinary glass, so why go messing things up by putting a defiantly low-tech piece of plastic on there?

I get this objection, but I am just camera-curious. I know what my camera can do with perfect light at f/8 and everything composed just-so. But, I like to mess around with other possibilities. Some will immediately dismiss the Holga Direct HL-C lens as a faddy bit of nostalgic junk. For my part, I get bored with “perfect” images in the classical sense and really enjoy tweaking my shots in post or exploring a new technique that deviates from the standard, photography textbook approach to thing.

For a long while I have been trying to achieve some of the low-fi charm of the Holga (or others like it) using software. But, the chance to make some of those adjustments “in camera” is very appealing. And on top of that, the HL-C will only set you back about $26. In fact, I bought mine with some Amazon points I had accrued, so it basically cost me nothing.

Now, to the lens itself. I already had the Holga Direct Pinhole lens (which I bought accidentally when I thought I was getting the HL-C). In essence, you have the front piece from the both beloved and decried Holga, medium-format camera, it is just built to fit on a Canon EF mount. There is no aperture, but the literature says you are getting about f/8. The focus is manual and reminiscent of disposable cameras where the focal range is marked out in little symbols that correspond to what you are shooting— a single person’s torso means close up, a mountain symbol means far away (or focused to infinity).

The guide that the HL-C ships which tells you what these four focal icons mean in meters but you are better off just guessing based on the icons. This is because you really can’t see a damn thing through the HL-C. Even in decent mid-day light it is hard to detect the subjects in the frame. That is really my only complaint with this cheap little beauty; composition is a bitch. I imagine that this is a legacy of the medium format camera from whence the original lens design came. On the original Holga (a light-leaking, all plastic, Chinese made, mass-market camera) you composed through a view finder where the image did not pas through the lens, much like a rangefinder-style set up. In that configuration, it really isn’t important wether the view though the lens is clear because it just passes light straight to the film.

The HL-C, by design, is a guessing game. And though the manufacturer states that the effective f-stop is f/8, it sure seems lower to me. The shot here was at ISO 1600 to give you an idea of just how little might actually get through. It should almost go without saying that there is no auto focus confirmation with the HL-C. Many manual lenses have a chip  that allows the camera’s AF system to determine if your imagine is in focus, but not so with the HL-C. I  doubt that Canon’s AF system would work even if their was a chip because of how little light get through, but that is just speculation.

The lead shot on this post is the same image, tweaked in Aperture for color separation, exposure compensation and some highlight recovery. I then played with it in Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 to give it more of a film look and restore some of the original vignette which had gone sort o green. Then I passed it through Dfine 2 to remove some of the noise the had popped up.

Just for fun, I played with the original shot in Nik’s Snapseed for Mac desktops. Snapseed is a life saver on iOS devices but it is nice to have it on my main computer just for ease of editing. I also wanted to see the differences between Snapseed and the more expensive and complex Color Efex Pro 4. But, that is probably a subject for another post. I’ll say briefly that the desktop version of Snapssed is as good as the iOS version but has the same limitations inherent in a simple piece of post-processing software. I also included a zoomed crop of part of the image just to demonstrate the resolution of the lens.

In conclusion, the HL-C is pretty much what you would expect. It heavily vignettes your shots, produces soft photos and renders colors very palely and skews purplish. However, for $26 bucks you can’t really go wrong. I don’t know of any cheaper lens out there. And, if you appreciate a certain low-fi appearance to your images and want to accomplish some this before you start manipulating your shots then the HL-C is a good option. Plus, it has a certain smoothness that you lose when trying to get an aged effect on crisp original photos.

Overall, the price point makes this lens a good option for just about anyone but it is tough to work with so be prepared for some frustration. If you’re an odd lens fetishist (read, hoarder) then go for it. But, pristine snappy pictures will not be produced by the HL-C.

Okay, so what do these images show? Mainly they show the differences in distortion, magnification, angle of view and image quality of the lenses that I have in my stable. I performed the test to, as closely as possible, take exactly the same shot with each lens (oops, I left out the Voigtlander 40mm f/2) and see how they compared.

What does this sort of tedious exercise demonstrate? Well, it shows that focal length not only effect the angle of view that you see out of the camera’s viewfinder, but also magnification. A 50mm lens is regarded as a normal lens with something close to 1:1 magnification. Therefore, a 200mm lens has about 4x magnification and the 500 shown here has close to 10x magnification. Any photographer worth their salt would understand this but sometimes it is helpful to see it demonstrated as opposed to reading about it on an angle of view chart. For the pixel peepers among us, it lets you see the differences in various characteristics of the different lenses.

An interesting test to do along side this one would be to take a couple of zoom lenses that covered the range of focal lengths shown and set them at these focal lengths to see if much difference was discernible. I am not looking down my nose at people who shoot zooms, some of my best friends are primarily zoom shooters… But, I prefer prime lenses, or lenses with a fixed focal length. They don’t zoom but what you lose in versatility you generally make up in image quality and wider apertures. Zooms have a lot more moving parts that have to function across a wide range of focal lengths. This has two down-sides. One, there is more glass. And the more glass that light passes through the more the image degrades. Also, because of optical/mechanical limitations they tend to have more narrow apertures which makes then somewhat less useful in lower light conditions. Really, it’s just a matter of choice and I have chosen to shoot prime lenses. That is not to say I haven’t borrowed a zoom when the shoot required it, but it is not my preference.

There are a few things you should understand when looking at these images. First, I did very minimal adjustments to them. Mainly they are just converted from RAW images to JPEGs. They have all been straightened just a bit (because I am compulsive) and a few were exposure corrected to try to create similar lighting conditions/appearances. This was mainly done on the manual lenses that refused to play nice with Canon’s metering software. All the shots were at f/4 because that was the aperute ring I had for the Lensbaby Optics, the exception being Opteka 500mm which is fixed at f/6.3 and I wanted the settings to be as similar as possible. I guess that is about all you need to know. Behold the logarithmic changes in angle of view and magnification that come with different focal lengths!

NOTE: EXIF data on the manual focus lenses generally state that they are Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 USM II’s or “plastic fantastics.” This is not really the case. It is simply a legacy of the chip used on their adaptor rings that allows Canon camera body’s Auto Focus to function, so don’t freak out.

Various Lensbaby Optics and Other Fun Things

I’m new to tethered shooting and I mean totally new, as in, just tried it for the first time yesterday new. On a recent photo shoot I was using a white balance card with a focus resolving square and Live View to get some macro shots of some product details.

Well, the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM is pretty unforgiving with depth of field. So, even though I had my focus spot on using the card, some of the details that were just a few millimeters below my point of focus were blurry. This was very frustrating to me even if the client was okay with the small amount of blur.

This all led me to the realization that I needed to shoot tethered in some situations to avoid just these sorts of problems. Tethering has never really come up in my photography because of the nature of the sorts of shots that I generally do. Most of the time I am in the field and pulling focus is not really an issue.

After this little mishap I decided to look into tethering my camera to my laptop and was happy to discover that Aperture 3 handles it pretty seamlessly. I say “pretty seamlessly” because I had to do some powering on and off to get all the gear to recognize one another but eventually it worked out.

Now, to be truthful, Aperture is not the perfect tethering software. It doesn’t let you control the camera’s settings from your computer, it simply lets you fire the shutter. Other programs (which are apparently more clunky) do let you control things like shutter speed, ISO and aperture from the laptop. But, for my purposes I didn’t really need those controls. The obvious advantage of shooting tethered with Aperture is that you get to import your images directly into your existing library. You can also see and manipulate the images as they come off of your camera.

All you need is a suitably sized USB to 5-pin Mini-B cable. A short-ish one comes with the 5D MK II, but I ordered a 6-footer for less than $4 off of Amazon. Of course you will also want to have around your supported camera and a laptop with Aperture installed on it.

onOne Software has a remote iPhone app that lets you control a tethered camera with the proper software installed on both your iOS device and laptop but I have yet to give that a try. Below is a brief walk-through (with screen caps) of how to set up tethering. I provide this information with lots of admitted ignorance, but I had a bit of trouble digging up the information on the internet and Apple’s “How-To” was a dead link. So, here is what I did—