Another day at work. A pleasant morning photographing medical products for Abbott. A wonderful and jovial art director presiding.

 

I worked as a photographer today. Not a pontificator. I didn't spend time bragging about stuff I did twenty years ago, I concentrated on doing the workmanlike steps required to supply a client with a number of photographs to use in international marketing and advertising right now. There was nothing glamorous about the shoot. I didn't have a video crew document my shoot and show off my collection of silver and turquoise rings nicely contrasted by tattoos all over my hands. I didn't hold a wide angle camera in front of my face and walk around. I actually did stuff real photographers who earn their livings taking photographs have done for decades and decades. 

It started yesterday when I swept and then mopped the floor in the studio. Then I set up a table which we would use to lay out products to be photographed against a neutral background. After the basics of cleaning and furniture moving were taken care of I pulled out cases of gear and made sure I could put my hands on the Atomos Ninja monitor I wanted to use, which led to a search for the correct HDMI cable and batteries for the monitor. Since the monitor has been stored, unused for a couple of months, I also needed to find chargers for the big NP-9xx batteries. Once I got those charging I started setting up lights. I've given away all of my big studio electronic flashes but that's fine as still life work is better, in my opinion, with continuous light sources.

It took a while to set up the ungainly octa-bank with all of its finicky rods and velcro closures. I also set up a smaller box with a second light fixture. I tested both of these to make sure they were fully functional. Then I took a break from the tyranny of the rods and speed rings to put up fitted pieces of Foamcore over the windows to prevent mixed exterior light from messing with the light from the LED fixtures. It's a little thing but who wants mixed color casts? And who's going to correct the resulting files?

I built a tripod shooting rig that allows me to shoot straight down on products and to check composition and focus on the Atomos monitor so that even when I have to go to the full height of the tripod and head (about seven feet) I can see with great clarity exactly what we'll be getting in the final image. The crossbar I use will allow for two cameras to be set up side by side or you can do as I have and hang one on either end, facing down. But I anchor the camera with a ballhead to give me more flexibility if I want to shoot at an angle or double check that everything is level and make adjustments if it's not. 

I'm a worrier so even though I've done shoots like this for about 40 years I always (always) set up the camera, the lenses I'll be using, the cards I'll be shooting to and the cables I'll be use to connect it all together the day before the shoot. Early enough in the day so that if there is something giving me problems I have the time to source and grab a replacement --- if it's something I don't already have in studio. 

The afternoon before the morning shoot I will have set up all the tools and materials I think we'll be working with and will have turned them all on. I have done a custom white balance, formatted two memory cards, metered the exposure with a handheld meter and then confirmed it with the in-camera meter and the histogram on the test files. I have five fully charged camera batteries ready to go even though I don't expect that we'll be shooting for much longer than the first half of the day...

I knew I wanted to shoot in the .DNG format so I could make use of the A.I. Noise Reduction and Raw Detail features of Lightroom Classic in post production. Those features are currently unavailable when using non-RAW files. .DNG is the raw file format for Leica SL cameras and I knew that I wanted to use the SL2 camera for its high resolution capabilities. And the lovely color. 

The last thing I did in the studio was to change the filters in both the air conditioner and the HEPA air cleaner because I like working in clean air and feel my clients deserve the best environment I can give them. But the day before the shoot doesn't end at the studio door. 

I went into the house and straightened up. Our master bathroom was already spotless and it's at the far end of the house from the studio. We don't take clients that far into the house usually. But we do get a lot of traffic in the guest bathroom so that was next on my pre-shoot checklist. I swept and mopped the floor, cleaned the countertops, the sinks, the bathtub and the toilet. I looked at the window in the bathroom that looks out over the garden. It was too dirty. I went outside and washed a number of the windows. Much better. If you are going to use my guest bathroom you deserve to have a nice, clean view of the garden. 

I made sure the toilet paper roll was still bountiful and that the liquid soap container on the counter was filled. Guest towels hung up and ready as well. 

With any shoot that starts in the morning your "evening before" chore list is never done until you make arrangements for coffee and snacks. I didn't know how many people from the client side would be attending so I guessed. I went to the grocery store and bought fresh baked banana nut muffins, some Cliff Bars, some fresh fruit and a variety of granola bars. I also bought a pint bottle of half and half for anyone who'd like to add a bit of saturated fat to their coffee...

When I got home I put the snacks on a big serving trays and then double checked my coffee supply. I also got down, from a high shelf, my stainless steel, insulated coffee carafe. I draw the line at trying to figure out how to make coffee in advance. That seems immoral. 

So, all of that falls into the realm of pre-production. I think it's important. It's why, I think, I rarely lose a client once I've worked with them. I try to actively make sure that their experience is as problem free and hassle free as I can make it. 

I made one more pass through the kitchen, the dining room and the great room and headed to bed. But before I turned the lights out I picked out a "uniform" for the morning's shoot. Best to look like a well put together photographer rather than someone who just doesn't care. 

My big sacrifice was having to hit the early morning swim practice which allowed me to be a back at home base 45 minutes before the scheduled client arrival. It gave me time to make a nice, smooth pot of coffee and to shave my scraggly face. 

The art director arrived, solo, and I poured her a cup of coffee and offered food. She's photographed with me here before so she knew the lay of the land well enough. Emboldened by coffee and food we headed to the studio and started the process. Nothing at all glamorous. In fact, the bigger the client the more layers, and layers of "style guides" and graphic rules, there are to follow. That's okay, we're nothing if not disciplined; on both sides of the "aisle." 

Once we started photographing my art director would place high tech medical products on the shooting table and arrange them so their features and control points were well positioned. I'd spend time carefully focusing and staying within the comp boundaries. Focusing very small products, like cardiac devices that are about a quarter inch by an inch, and have braided cables attached, requires very careful distribution of focus if one is to get focus over the entire object. And certainly products with greater depth are more challenging. 

With the attached monitor there to share the images in real time we worked quickly and in close collaboration. I shoot two frames for each set up because once processed the images are about 250 megabytes each and, at some point,  excess becomes unwieldy. 

We started photographing at nine and we wrapped up the last shot around 11:30 a.m. I suggested to the client that instead of just taking the raw files ( She is at least as proficient with post production as I am...) I could take the images and run them through Lightroom to apply metadata, put them through the A.I. Denoise feature, coupled with Raw Detail Optimization. I'd output the finished files as .DNGs and delivery them on a thumb drive. I suggested WeTransfer.com as a file transfer option but like many big companies that need to take security into account at all times those web-based programs are off limits at her company. 

After the A.D. left I took a break to eat a peanut butter and blueberry preserve sandwich and then I sat down to process. Since the background on the photos will be dropped out (not by me!) I cleaned up the files as well as I could and trimmed some that had a lot of blanks space on the top or bottom. The added Lightroom processing was good and while the effects can be subtle, in aggregate they do make for a better looking final file. 

After handling that exercise of the post production I pulled a 32GB thumb drive out of a desk drawer and formatted it. They generally come already formatted but mostly it's for (pre-historic) MS DOS fat 32 so if one is using the thumb drive in conjunction with a current computing system running a superior OS it just makes sense to start out fresh with a better format. Even if you are just using EX-Fat. 

Once I confirmed the integrity of all the files I wrote out a "thank you" note and slipped the thumb drive into the envelope with it. I drove over to the client's offices and hand delivered the files at 2:15 p.m. Since the project is being done under a very tight deadline the client was very happy with a speedy delivery. We cut a day off her production time by being a bit earnest. 

The sexy part of the day came next. Breaking down the gear and putting everything back in the cases, on the shelves, etc. And putting all the used batteries back on the chargers. Oh, I almost forgot, I also wanted to create a couple redundant back-ups of the original files as well as an online folder of the processed files but the ones for online needed to be Jpegs. So those needed to be processed as well. 

Then...I took out the trash. Tomorrow, after swim practice, I'll write out an invoice and send it via email. The client indicated that they'd like to pay very quickly, with PayPal, instead of getting bogged down in internal accounting. Fine by me. 

After all the excitement and drama of the shoot (there was none) a friend came over to buy several of my lenses. I used to have an enviable collection of longer, fast glass for theater work but since I've passed on that torch I feel lighter and happier getting rid of stuff that, for the last year or so, as just been gathering dust and depreciating. 

Tonight's excitement? B. is home and it's Thursday so that means "pizza night." Might get crazy this time and order a mushroom pie. I'll go pick it up and bring it home after I sort the recycling. 

No bungee jumping over a gorge for me today. Just working as a tradesperson, getting a job done. Knocking down a paycheck. So cliché I should be drinking a Bud Lite as I type this. 

The glamorous life of a real, working photographer. In detail. 

Camera: Leica SL2

Lenses: Sigma 70mm Macro Art,  Leica SL 24-90mm Asperical. 

Lights: Nanette LEDs, various. 

There you go. Lots of excitement. ta da.  Oh...forgot the composting. My turn.....

We're currently getting huge numbers of page views from Singapore. A thousand percent more than from anywhere else. We're closing access for 24 hours until we better understand what's happening.

 Starting at 5pm today. Should be back up tomorrow. Thanks. KT

What can you shoot in an hour with a 40mm f2.0 lens and an older camera body? Daido Moriyama sez: (paraphrasing): "blaze away and shoot anything that captures your interest. No hierarchy of subject matter. Don't think! Shoot! His first piece of advice for newbies? Get Outside!!!

Sometimes it takes me a while to warm up to a lens. Not so with the 40mm f2.0 Ultron Aspherical, version 2, from Voigtlander. I bought it brand new, in a Nikon F mount, adapted it to the L mount, put it on a Leica SL and only take it off if I want to use its bigger brother, the 58mm f1.4 Voigtlander --- also in a Nikon F mount. They even share a lens hood...

Why a Nikon F mount and not a Leica M mount? Cheaper. More real estate to park your fingers on. Bigger (more standard) filter ring. Exactly the same optical formula. Easy to adapt to any mirrorless camera AND --- who knows? We might devolve back to DSLRs in which case my choice would have to be a Nikon D850. The lens has the electronic contacts to communicate aperture and exif to digital Nikon bodies.

Do I like the lens? Hell yeah. It's easy to focus, it's pretty sharp wide open. It's deliriously sharp at f5.6 (where I find myself using it most often) and the colors out of it match up well with the color science embedded in Leica's first gen., full frame mirrorless camera body = The Leica SL 601. A camera so nice and so cheap on the market that I bought two. (Cheap is relative; I know. But $1800 bucks for a body that cost $7500 just a few years ago works for me. Plus, you know, I sell the plasma...).

Here's my assortment of images from a brisk walk through the area just to the West of the UT campus. When I lived there it was all hippy co-ops and weird re-dos of old houses into tiny apartments. Almost everyone rode bicycles for basic transportation. When my bike got stolen I walked. Or rode the bus. 

Now it's a sprawling neighborhood of giant, high rise luxury dormitories and condos. Looks a lot like Dubai but with scruffy, rich kid students roaming around in flip flops, board shorts and odd t-shirts. Boys seemingly are required to wear their baseball hats backwards. Sunglasses at all times. 

Several of the newer high rise dorms have lobbies that look to have been designed by the same folks that design the Four Seasons Hotel and Ritz Carlton Hotel lobbies -- only these are bigger and nicer. And get this: Five of the high rise dorms have, wait for it, valet parking for the students. 

That never happened when I went to UT. And back when I was on the faculty we drove old VW bugs or harshly used Volvo station wagons, not the latest M5 BMWs or the almost ubiquitous (all over West Austin) Porsche Macans. You can now tell the students from really wealthy families apart from those who are just well off...The really wealthy ones have the Macan S Turbos while the "riff raff" are driving the standard models or the Newports.

Nobody to photograph on the streets....they're all driving around behind tinted glass...

But here are the images my house manager selected for me to share. I hope our personal chef agrees.

(both would be --- me). 

 A message from Daido Moriyama: "Get Outside!"

Post processing versus "tweaking" a file. Big difference? Little corrections?

 

Original Version from the camera. 

A greenish wall of construction material with barbed wire in the foreground.

I've spent a lot of time this week reading about and researching topics around A.I. and photography. There is not just one slippery slope to contend with, there are many. While I'm opposed to creating fantasy images out of a combination text descriptions coupled with the endurance of being able to hit the "generate" button some 2,000 times before selecting a machine proffered, computer-created picture that one likes ( his practice according to an A.I. poster of such images on Instagram), I'm also reconsidering where one draws the lines/boundaries in something as simple as image tweaking. Or its more complex sounding brother: post processing. 

It's important to remember that even digital cameras set to all neutral or standard settings are still a design team's working idea of what a digital image should look like and are just two dimensional representations of the reality existing in front of the camera. Move from RAW file to Jpeg instead and the ability to introduce these kinds of subjective "tweaks" goes up dramatically. But where is the line between "sin" and "salvation" for a typical image that's meant to be shared with an audience?

I walked by this elevation of a building project when I was over near the UT campus yesterday afternoon. I liked the color of the wall but the added attraction which actually stopped me and convinced me to take a photograph was the barbed wire running across the bottom fifth of the frame. When I got back to the studio and looked at the .DNG file on my computer the overall image seemed flat and lacking the "pop" I experienced when I initially saw it. I'm sure the top photo is more accurate a representation of what's there but if you consider that I was wearing my polarized, anti-reflection coated, prescription sunglasses at the time of the reveal you might understand why my memory of the wall doesn't quite jive with the reality of the wall. At least from my point of view. Probably a good reason not to wear your sunglasses around when you are out photographing....if you are looking for faithful concordance with the "facts."

Here's what I did to make the image match what my brain first saw when I turned the corner and happened on the wall...

The first thing I did with the RAW image was to go to the lens correction menu in Lightroom Classic and look to see if the lens I was using was represented. I scrolled down to the Voigtlander submenu and a then scrolled through a couple dozen profiles to find the 40mm Ultron f2.0 SLii Aspherical profile and I selected that. On the screen you could see the building straighten out and the gentle barrel distortion get corrected. Look closer and you could see the vignetting in the corners brighten and the corner details tighten up. The image also seemed brighter overall; a result of subduing mid-frame vignetting perhaps. 

My next step was to see what the noise reduction menu would serve up. I wasn't so interested in noise reduction as I was with another selection in that submenu; it's called: "Raw Details." This uses some degree of A.I. to bring more observable fine detail to the files. Yes, it's perhaps technically A.I. but not sentient by a long shot. I think the extent of the feature's intelligence is to look at the basic structure of the file and make assumptions about how sharpness gets robbed in the process of going through a camera's circuits and internal processing and then trying to reverse that sharpness and detail degradation by interpolating using existing structures and then augmenting them with presumed "lost" data.

It seems to work very well but the effect is subdued. At least in the files I worked with. Why not just click the noise reduction option? Well, the file was shot in bright light at ISO 50 and a close observation at 100% didn't show me any reason to fool around with noise reduction in what was basically a noiseless file. 

My next step was to apply a "user preset" I've engineered for Leica SL 601 raw files. It boosts the white slider in the basic control panel, also increases shadow exposure, adds a +20 to the clarity slider awhile adding +20 to the vibrance control and +20 to the saturation slider. 

Most of these settings are "canned." Which basically means I've processed enough similar files to establish a look that I like. Not a neutral look, or even a more accurate look, but a look that conflates with my own subjective appraisal of what a generic, sunlight scene needs to have added in post production to make it look the way my brain wants stuff to look. Call it my "Pollyanna Profile" since it is almost inevitably brighter and more colorful that the camera's initial point of view. 

If I was incredibly busy, day-to-day, and a lot of my work involved endless post processing of similar files, I would probably spend a bit of time creating individual presets for not only every camera's raw files but all manner of subject types and lighting conditions. Examples: Portraits in open shade. Portraits in full sun. Portraits in artificial light interiors. Portraits at dusk. Architecture on cloudy days. Architecture on sunny days. Architecture at dusk, etc. etc. 

While I bump up against a prejudice (mostly from engineers and people firmly and fully invested in some form of linear logic...) that states that we should all be invested in creating photographs that are as close to the objective reality of a scene as humanly possible that's really not for me. Sorry, that's not part of my "religion" as a photographer. I know that we're "interpreting." That's where the fun lies...

I think my work should match my subjective intention for a scene instead. But where are the edges of the slippery slope and at what particular angle does it become dangerously out of whack? I guess that's for each of us to figure out in our own work. The steeper the slope the more exciting the journey; but the same thing that makes the journey exciting increases the chances of peril.

Just thought these samples might give you some insight into my point of view. Thanks. 

"Lightly" processed wall. To my taste. 

Camera and lens?

The fabulous Leica SL (601) and the Voigtlander 40mm f2.0 Ultron ZF.2 SLii. 

And here's one more, just for grins:

Advertising aimed at anyone who might want to shave their armpits. 

When writers or bloggers or vloggers write about processing I think

it's only correct to supply samples of their own work when 

explaining their choices. Just pontificating isn't as 

instructive. 

New Eyeglasses arriving Wednesday. Can't wait. 

Been reading a book about Daido Moriyama's Street Photography and have already started to fall under the influence...

 

After reading the passages in the book, "How I Take Photographs." and also looking intently at his work in the book, I grabbed a camera and headed over to the UT campus area to take some of my own photographs. His aesthetic is very much about the quick snapshot and I pushed myself to see quicker and photograph quicker. 

It was a fun exercise. I also came to understand his idea that we can spend way too much time analyzing and dissecting snapshots and raising the anté around taking them. I see Garry Winogrand as the "American Moriyama" now. It's a liberating way of making images. 

Shot here with an ancient Leica SL 601 camera and the Voigtlander Ultron 40mm lens. 

The best images I think I've taken in many weeks. 

Making Generative A.I. Jealous for Decades to Come...

 

Actual analog portrait. 

Fighting back against the dark scourge of computer generated images by applying our own skill sets and imaginations to actual, non-virtual subjects might be the best way to fight back. That, and making nice prints. Have a friend who considers himself or herself a photographer but is spending all their time in their basement hitting "generate" and waiting for software to decide what the software would like to show them next? Well, censure them by taking them off your "freinds list," cancelling that coffee date,  and telling them how "disappointed" you are with their lapse in taste/judgement/ethics etc. Suggest that "real photographers" make their work with cameras, and real people, and real locations. Everything else is just a video game.

Programmers who scraped the web, stole "source" materials that never belonged to them and created tools to leverage their theft should be so ashamed of themselves. Content Criminals; for sure.

It's been almost a year now since consumers have been able to walk into a camera store and walk out with a new Fuji X100V. What's the deal?

 The Fuji X100V trended on TikTok last year and every influencer with a pulse rushed to talk up the camera and wear one as a fashion accessory. Or maybe the few columns I wrote about the camera back in 2021 fueled an explosion of demand, but whatever the reason the supply chain issues with this product should be long past by this time and the cameras should once again be widely available --- but they are not. Every major retailer is showing "backordered" on their websites. The used market is still a bit frantic with scummy extortionists asking upwards of $2,500 USD for a copy in decent shape. So now I'm becoming quite suspicious. 

My first thought is that someone did some deep data mining and predictive analysis with the assistance of A.I., predicted worldwide demand and leveraged their Crypto currency holdings to lock up the entire production output of X100V cameras in early 2022. Now hundreds of thousands of these precious cameras are locked up in a warehouse in Azerbaijan waiting for the apex of consumer desire to bubble over into a buying frenzy at which time the culprits will open an online storefront and sell the coveted camera by the  by the train car load for somewhere north of $2000-$2500 each. 

My second thought was that Fuji saw how quickly they were able to sell through their first two year's worth of inventory and is playing pretty much the same game. They sit back and blame the "supply chain" even though the processors used throughout the product line are largely identical. This gives them the breathing room and a consumer availability disconnection to buffer their next move. They'll "discontinue" the product and then when there is a global uproar of protest and bitter consumer angst they will bend to popular demand and "relaunch" the X100V, but at an increased price of $2295 per camera. They might, even now, be stuffing their warehouses to the gills in anticipation...

I can just imagine their new advertising campaign slogan: "Nearly as good as the Leica Q3 but only a third of the price." Followed by: "Get yours now before they disappear forever." Echoed in some markets by Ricoh's new slogan for the GR111x: "Not the camera you wanted but the camera you can get right now." 

Why would Fuji do this? Mostly to add about $600 of profit to each camera sold. And because they've done their historic business research which showed them that people were willing to pay premiums for Enron stock, a company with no intrinsic value, right up to the bitter end. At least a camera holds some physical, residual value...

This might backfire for Fuji. Leica could drop the price of their surplus supplies of Q2 cameras to $1995, dump em on the market and destroy any future demand for the X100v. But I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. 

Alternatively, maybe the group within Fuji that knew how to make the X100v were all lured away by that camera powerhouse, Ricoh, to work on the next generation of the Pentax APS-C DSLR. Yeah, that's probably it. 

Don't get me wrong, the X100v is a very decent camera and, in some hands can be quite a fun picture taking machine. But... a worldwide shortage based on inflamed demand? Driven by TikTok influencers? Perhaps this camera is just the "Chia Pet" or "Pet Rock" of our time, in the camera world.... but unlike those other products is one that requires actual manufacturing instead of just the procurement of.....rocks.

It would be nice if we could buy the X100Vs now. But having owned several I'd peg their real retail value at something closer to $1295. But I guess the cost of rare earth materials like "unobtainium" drives the pricing structure. You can't discount against demand.

The real danger for Fuji is that some company like Sony will wise up and get into the "rangefinder replica" game, come out with an equally "retro" product and snatch the market away from Fuji while Fuji has their eyes on other prizes.... like their "faux" medium format cameras. But that's a whole other story.

Can't wait to see if someone in some large, unnamed country famous for counterfeit products sees the pent up demand and starts flooding the world market with really good knock offs. 

Now waiting on Panasonic to bring out their faux rangefinder version. It'll probably be full frame. Won't that be a market disrupter? Especially if it feature lens interchangeability.

Final thought. What if Fuji waits too long and the entire fickle market of trendy camera buyers moves on to Generative A.I. instead? I mean, if your computer can do the heavy lifting for you and then you get to claim credit for a "mix tape" of other people's work why even bother with the drudgery of camera ownership? Or even worse; having to learn how to make good photographs on your own?

Thoughts?