Even after all these updates and features, the one thing that is still lacking in the Nik Collection, and some others as well, is the almost total lack of attention to the UI/UX and consistency of usage.
Let us look at the latest version of the Nik Collection, one by one, and see what I mean by this.
Inconsistent menus, zoom, pan, navigation, buttons and settings. No standard shortcuts apply where they could.
#Photography #Nik #NikCollection
I have already shared how to create black backgrounds earlier, but, this one is going to be slightly different as we will also discuss a bit about the original exposure and which shots lend themselves well to a white background.
Do not confuse a white background with a high key image. High key images are those that are mostly light and white which is not true for just a white background image.
We will go through the process of making a white background in Lightroom, Photoshop (with and without Topaz Mask AI) as well as ON1 Photo Raw.
Yes, I have recently installed the trial version of Topaz Mask AI and so far, not very impressed as far as wildlife is concerned. Still learning more about it and experimenting…
This would also give us a reasonable comparison as to what one can do with each.
So…This is an image from my rooftop shooting today and this is what we will use in this session. Let’s start with this in Lightroom and then we will look at the same in Photoshop and finally in ON1.
First, the shot itself. As you can see from the base EXIF, this is overexposed specifically for a white background. I have avoided the wall behind the bird and it’s mostly the floor of the roof in the background. The angle of the shot is just over the bird to do this.
Similarly, when you have grey and/or overcast conditions, you can always look to overexpose a bit to create similar effects. Even low light conditions are good for this as long as the subject is close enough. In this case, the bird is just 6 meters away.
Now that we already have a dull background, let’s see how we can make this image pop a bit…
First, we apply my wildlife preset to this and tweak it a bit for a white background. Then, as with the black background, we use the adjustment brush and mask the background around the bird and then pull up all these sliders to make it white.
Do keep in mind that we can only do black or white in Lightroom, anything beyond that, you would have to look at some other application.
Okay, now, let’s remove the mask and try the same in Photoshop.
First the select subject.
Now, let’s try the Topaz Mask AI
Finally, let’s do the same in ON1 Photo Raw…We will use the local adjustments here with the perfect brush which is the equivalent of the auto-mask in Lightroom.
#Photography #Post #Topaz #Photoshop #ON1 #Lightroom
I had already uninstalled the Topaz Mask AI and the Topaz Studio 2 which I was considering to purchase as part of one of their packs. I am running MacOS Catalina 10.15.5 with all updates applied.
I had already searched around on the net and their own FAQs and forums and nothing helped. I had also downloaded the full installers, but, did not work.
I was about to log a ticket with and then I thought I would go through the apps to try and see if I could fix the issue manually.
Took me around 5 minutes to figure out and fix the issue. The solution is what I will share here.
I would recommend you download the full installers since that takes a lot lesser time to install than the online installers.
Once you start the installers, you might get an error message that the application is from the internet or unidentified developers. Not an issue, just right click on the installer application and click on “open” and then you will be prompted if you really want to run the app and you click on “open” again.
That will start up the installers. Once you have installed any of these products, you will not see them appear in Photoshop as most others do.
You will manually need to copy the plugins to the Photoshop plugin folder and then start up Photoshop to see them appear.
That’s it. Repeat the process for all Topaz apps.
Now when you start Photoshop, you will see them appear as they should have to start with. These are simple to add in Lightroom, so, that should not be an issue.
I can only hope that Topaz fixes these installation issues soon…
#Photography #Post #Topaz #Photoshop
I have hundreds of shots that I have taken over the years to use as a background.
These shots include clouds, sunsets and bokeh shots.
Since both Luminar 4 and ON1 Photo Raw 2020 make it easy to replace backgrounds, I decided to make this set of 25 backgrounds/textures/sky replacements that people can use with their own images.
These are all full-frame images in the TIF format which would allow you to further process them where needed.
The link to download these images is given below. If you find this useful, do leave a comment and I will try to create more such packs.
We will just run through the images in this pack and see how they can be used in ON1 and Luminar…
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17IbOM6oM3mayhYv3qYjKJIa0eaesiMiQ/view?usp=sharing
DxO just released version 3 of their popular Nik Collection of plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom.
The plugin pack also contains stand-alone applications for all the 8 plugins and can, therefore, be used with any application that can export and import TIFF files.
There has been an issue for quite some time with the Collection that if you set your Lightroom presets to be stored with the Catalog, the plugins will not appear in Lightroom. You will have to manually add them, one-by-one.
ON1 seems to have no such issues and for some reason, picks up the applications automatically.
Let’s see what the new, non-destructive edit for Lightroom really means.
To be honest, not much. The idea is to export a TIFF file from LR to edit in the Nik Collection and the changes you make in the Collection, is retained and you can keep tweaking that for the TIFF file. The settings are saved back to the TIFF file and there is no “sidecar” file. This also implies that Nik will take a while to save the edited file every time.
The issue is since we already exported the raw file to a TIFF, we have already lost the raw data for any kind of recovery. This might not be a major issue in practice though. Once you have made all your basic adjustments in LR, then, Nik can be used to enhance and tweak the same bitmap/raster image over and over again.
You have to check the box to make sure the “non-destructive” part is saved. If you want to save space on the TIFF files, make sure that you select “ZIP” compression in the Nik Collection settings. Changing the setting here will work for all cases including ON1.
#Photography #Nik #DxO #Lightroom #ON1
After the AF modes and areas, we now talk about the external flash and how to use it for macros.
Firstly, check and set your flash sync speed and make sure you never exceed the shutter speed specified here. You will start getting black on the bottom of the frame if you exceed the sync speed.
Second, check the flash mode on the camera. If it is set to red-eye, then make sure you change it to normal. Most flashes support the red-eye double flash and that can totally ruin a wildlife shot.
Keep in mind that not all camera bodies have a popup flash.
Let’s now look at the modes a flash would offer. In general, you would have an auto or TTL mode which works exactly like a popup flash and you can control the flash via the camera. There are master and slave modes which allow controlling either a single or multiple flash setup. Finally, there is a manual mode and that is the only mode we are interested in here.
Since we use a flash cord to connect the flash and the camera body, we only need to set the flash to manual mode along with the zoom and power we want.
In the wild, one would generally not get a chance to fiddle with the power and zoom of the flash and we will see how to get around that. Recall the inverse square law for light falloff we discussed earlier? Yes, that is how we control the power of the flash in the wild. Simply changing the distance of the flash to the subject will increase or decrease the power of the light on the subject. We would, in general, never need to change the power once we are set for that depending on the GN of the flash and the capability of our camera sensor.
This is an aspect you will have to experiment and find out for your setup based on the aperture you use. I will discuss what I generally use in a later video.
Let us now look at the zoom and power aspects of the flash and how they impact our macro shots.
First, the zoom.
The zoom on the flash tries to match the zoom or focal length of the lens to cover the FoV for that focal length. A 50mm zoom would cover a wider area than a zoom of 90mm. In the TTL (auto) mode, the flash would automatically set the zoom to match the focal length of the lens on the camera.
So, where would we change the zoom to be more or less than the actual FoV of the focal length?
Recall the example in an earlier video where I used a zoom of 50 on the flash instead of the 90mm focal length of the lens? This was to spread the light out a bit more so we could see more of the surface and the reflections the objects created on the surface. The other case would be where you are lucky enough to get a subject in a clear area and want more of the natural background to blend in the frame rather than holding the flash on top of the subject for a dark background. In this case, you would point the flash directly at the subject, but, do not want intense light on the subject itself and therefore you can reduce the zoom to spread the light more than required for the FoV.
Now, let us look at the flash power.
Almost all flashes will shoot at the full power based on their GN, down to around 1/128 of the full power. Generally, the increments would be in 1/3rds but, can differ for different flash units.
In general, we will never use the full power mode for macros. A higher power for the flash implies a longer duration of the flash and vice-versa for low power. Understanding this part is critical for macros. Using a low power not only allows the flash to recharge faster (generally under a second), but, more importantly, since the duration of the flash is so short, it helps in freezing the subject and eliminating any shake we might get when shooting at 1:1 or higher magnifications.
For example, the flash duration range on my Godox flash is 1/300 – 1/20000 of a second. Imagine the speed of the low power flash. This is also the reason why the shutter speed cannot be used to cut the flash light and only the aperture can.
Therefore, my recommendation would be to use the lowest flash power that allows you to shoot around the base ISO of your camera to get the best possible details in your macro shots.
Now that we have covered the flash part, let us look at a few examples…
In the Desktop Macro Photography video, I did not go fully into the camera auto-focus modes and what the general recommendations would be for different scenarios. This is what we will discuss here.
I have only Nikon bodies, so, I can only talk in those terms. Other brands would have equivalents of the modes that I will talk about here.
For this brief session, I would strongly recommend that you put on the macro lens on your camera body and pause the video, where needed, and try out the settings that we discuss here.
Depending on the camera body, the number of focus points and groups would differ, but, we are generally not really concerned with that since we will generally use only a single focus point for the Af-Area (S).
The AF-Mode, unlike for most other purposes, will also be single shot or AF-S instead of the more commonly used AF-C.
As I explained in an earlier video, Nikon users would have to go into the custom settings and make sure that AF-S is set to focus, which is the default. As a side note, I use focus priority for AF-C as well.
I am assuming that your camera is already set up for back button focus. This is a requirement and not optional in this case.
So, for the Nikons, you would use AF-S/S for macros and make sure the AF-S is set to focus priority.
What this setup does is that the camera will not release the shutter unless it has focus on something. You can keep the shutter button pressed and nothing will happen till there is some object that the camera thinks it has the focus locked on to.
Now for the exercise to check this out…
This is also referred to as a “focus trap” and can be used in other scenarios as well.
So…How does this experiment help?
Given the razor sharp DoF when shooting macros, the point of focus becomes critical.
For example, this is a snapshot from one of the many DoF calculators available online. Although lenses in real life are far more complex than this simple computation, but, this does give you an idea of the DoF when fully stopped down on this Tamron 90mm macro lens.
This is also the only way you can be sure that at least the camera “thinks” it has the subject in focus. This will almost always be correct unless your lens is front or back focussing. I will explain how to correct this issue in a later video.
Now, one might wonder if this is it!
The ultimate settings for macro photography…
Not really, this is just the ideal scenario which may or may not happen in the wild or even your own desktop unless you have sufficient light for the camera to detect and lock focus. This is just the only way to go about getting the smaller subjects where you want to make sure you are shooting at a full 1:1 magnification. Using AF would generally lock at any distance over the MFD and you might not get 1:1.
For subjects larger than the sensor size or if you are looking for more of a composition close shot, the AF works fine most of the time in all such cases. In fact, for larger subjects, you can even switch back to AF-C/Any Focus-Area mode.
Okay, so, where would this fail or not be desirable?
One, of course, as we already discussed, for larger subjects, it does not matter what modes you use. The prime macro lens will give you a much better IQ than a zoom in all these cases.
The second is in low light scenarios. I don’t mean low light as in late evening or similar. What I mean is when shooting wildlife in the open, the subject might be in a location where the light and/or the contrast of the subject will not allow the camera to figure out if it has acquired focus. Even though you might see a sharp image in your viewfinder, the camera will refuse to release the shutter. In such cases, just change to a group focus or auto and shoot before the subject vanishes.
The third is if you get lucky and get a subject in the wild that is stationary for a few seconds even after the first shot with the flash. This is a perfect opportunity to try and get multiple shots and stack them later. This is generally referred to as focus stacking and we will see how this is done in a later video.
Of course, there are specific instances as well. For example, if you are shooting some object in a glass and want to focus on a specific point.
I hope this clarifies the focus mode and areas when shooting macros.
After the long discussion on the gear required for macro photography, I will demonstrate some desktop shots in this one which would allow building up more for the future videos.
So, this is my “desktop”…Actually, just a corner which I use for most of my desktop macros. I recently got some small acrylic sheets just before the lockdown. It is a good replacement for not cleaning my desktop 🙂
I am using a Nikon D850 with a Tamron 90mm macro lens for this demonstration along with my Godox flash on a cord as explained in the previous video.
For this demonstration, we will see how to get objects with a black background.
First, a brief explanation as to how…
A basic understanding of the depth of field would be very helpful. In general, the larger the distance of the camera to the subject, the larger the area that appears to be in focus. A good site to get a general idea on how this works is https://dofsimulator.net/en/.
For macros and close ups, the DoF is generally very, very narrow and it becomes critical to have the focus exactly where we want it.
Another critical term to understand is the flash sync speed. This is essentially the highest shutter speed you can use when using a flash. There are ways of using a higher shutter speed, but, we are not going to get into that for macros.
We will discuss all of this in more detail in the future videos.
For now, let’s just check the settings that I am using for the demo desktop shots and how to improve them in post using Lightroom or any equivalent application.
I have my shutter speed set to 1/250 which is the flash sync speed for the Nikon D850. The aperture is set to f/22 and ISO to 100 (I would take it down to 64 for the D850 most of the time). The AF is set to single point, multiple shots AF-C/S (this is another one we will look at in more detail later).
My flash it set to manual mode at 1/16 power and a zoom of 50mm. Yes, I know I am using a 90mm macro lens, but, we will get into all those details, one by one, later.
One word of caution before we start, when shooting desktop macros, make sure the object is clean otherwise the shot will show all the dust and stuff on it. If possible, wash with soap and water.
I have these 5 objects that we will shoot and see how changing the angle and distance of the flash changes the image.
#Photography #Nikon #Macro #Wildlife
There are quite a few options for macro photography and I will briefly touch on those and move on to what I use and recommend after years of macro photography. This video will primarily cover the gear required for wildlife and other kinds of macro photography.
For a more formal definition, refer to Wikipedia.
This is one of the options that allows you to mount your kit lens (generally) with the front element reversed. Yes, like all the options I will touch upon, I have tried all this and although it might be good fun, but, not recommended for a variety of reasons. If you happen to get your lens stuck…
These are generally simple magnifying glasses that attach to your lenses as a lens filter to give a magnified image. In general, they have high diffraction and will not provide a reasonable image quality.
This is essentially where you reverse a shorter focal length lens over a longer one using an adapter. Again, while this might sound geeky and fun, that is all it is. I would not recommend trying this. Both #1 and this use specific adapter sizes and can only be used with the same lens filter size.
This is where you put empty tubes in between your lens and the camera to achieve magnification with any lens that you might have. Extension tubes are easy and safe to use. This is the method I would recommend for all who want to start with macro photography, but, are not ready to invest in a macro lens.
This is the right way to go and there is no replacement for a real 1:1 macro lens. One of the reasons I recommend the extension tubes is the fact that you can use the tubes with a true macro lens to achieve even more magnification. The 1:1 means that you get a 10mm subject as 10mm on the image sensor also called “life-size”.
For macro photography, there is no replacement for a true macro lens and we will get to the reasons.
Let’s talk more about the Extension Tubes and then the Macro Lens.
In reality, though, the AF support does not make a difference for macro photography since it would be manual focus even with a macro lens. The ability to control the aperture over the tubes does matter and therefore I would recommend only #2 or #3.
The extension tubes generally come in a set of 3 parts and depending on the magnification we require, we can use all 3 together or in parts.
A true macro lens would imply two points:
Although by popular definition, a macro is considered to be 1:1 only, but, in practice, we do have larger subjects like butterflies, large spiders and other insects. On the other hand, 1:1 might not be good enough for tiny subjects like Aphids or Fruit flies and similar insects.
Although some brands put the word “macro” on their lenses even when they are not 1:1, you should know the difference and decide accordingly.
Let us look at some of the key factors while deciding on a macro lens.
While the Minimum Focus Distance of a lens is generally specified from the focal plane of the camera, the Minimum Working Distance is far more critical for macro photography. The working distance specifies the distance of the subject from the front element of the lens. Before purchasing any macro lens, make sure you look up the working distance for the lens since there are some known brand macro lenses which are not practically usable for 1:1 macros.
There is a legacy thought that a longer focal length would offer a higher working distance. While this is correct for a single-lens setup, camera lenses are far more complex and if you check out the specs for some of the more current macro lenses, you will see that almost all of them have a working distance of around 100mm (10cm) for 1:1 reproduction.
This is an often-overlooked factor, but, given the razor-sharp depth of field we have when shooting macros, it might be an idea to remember that shorter focal lengths will offer a marginal increase in the DoF.
This is essential for wildlife. The option to be able to AF and override that is extremely useful in the wild. Otherwise, by the time you switch the lens from AF to Manual or vice-versa, the subject might have vanished. We will see where this becomes critical in a future video.
This is actually a no-brainer IMO. Always prefer newer models of lenses over older ones. The first thing that would have changed is the construction. The glass might also be better as technology has moved on. The other is the coating on the glass which has evolved quite a bit in the last few years.
An external flash is absolutely required for a variety of reasons. We will learn more about the flash and why it is required as we go along with the macro sessions. I would also recommend getting a flash cord rather than using RF triggers for the flash. The flash does not have to be an expensive one since we will be using that in manual mode only. In short, the cheapest manual flash is good enough. Just make sure the GN (Guide Number) for the flash is at least around 48. A higher number would be better once we get into more than 1:1 magnification.
Okay, so, why would I use the model I am using currently?
The simple answer is the battery. This one has a Li-ion battery which lasts a lot longer and charges fast as well when compared to the normal AA or AAA batteries.
This is a challenging one…I have tried all kinds of diffusers including DIY types and ultimately dropped all those and use a plain bare flash. The reasons for this will be more apparent in later videos.
I would also recommend that you check and keep the sensor clean as I have already demonstrated in an earlier video. A clean sensor is critical for macros.
Lens hood would probably never be used in the wild for macros.
Now that we have talked about the basic gear one should start with, we will get into the practical shots with this gear in the next and some future videos.
#Photography #Nikon #Luminar #Birding #Landscape
Time to clean the camera or lenses or both!
One of the commonly asked questions is what should I use to clean the lenses. Most people are fine with cleaning the camera with some kind of cloth, but, are wary when it comes to lenses.
Yes, we do have the lenspen and a variety of kits around and most of those work fine. Over a time period, I have found a better solution to cleaning my gear…Camera body and lenses.
I use plain isopropyl alcohol swabs, the kind we use in the medical field for cleaning up before and after injections. For larger work, like the camera body and the outer part of the lenses, I use Zeiss lens wipes which are larger in size and have more “juice” on the wipe.
To wipe off the lens element, I use a lint-free glass polishing micro-fibre cloth rather than any simple micro-fibre cloth. Ideally, the cloth you use which not look like a towel and should be smooth. Very similar to the kind you get when you buy spectacles.
For the camera and lens body, almost any absorbent, fine micro-fibre will do. Just dab around with the cloth and try not to wipe the gear using pressure on the cloth.
Let’s see how we can clean up our camera and lens…
Ideally, don’t even wipe the lens without using a blower on it first. There might be particles on the surface of the glass that might scratch the element while being wiped across. The same applies to the viewfinder and LCD glass.
Since we are using alcohol, it will evaporate almost instantly in the case of the swabs and in a few seconds when using the Zeiss wipes. Remember not to use excessive pressure on the swabs or wipes when using then. Since we already have alcohol on them, additional pressure will not do anything.
When I am outdoors, I prefer using the blower with either the lenspen or the polishing cloth to clean up any fingerprints or dirt that might have fallen on the front element.
Since I did not clean the contact areas, that is all that I will actually clean here…The rest is “understood” types 🙂
That’s it!
Done.
#Photography #Gear #Sensor #Nikon
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