Street Photography

 I started on this post sometime ago and didn't get it finished. Figured as I restart this blog for the winter I might as well make this the first offering.

A few days ago I was reading this post and got to thinking about street photography. I imagine there are some definitions for what street photography is, however I tend to think of it as photos of people out in public going about their business. My version of street photography doesn't mean that the subjects have to actually be along a street.  And around here as in most places streets aren't what they used to be. There are a lot of cars, however not many people walking on the sidewalks.

So I got to wondering about the photos that I have taken in the last few years that might fall into a broad definition of street photography. What I found is that most of my pictures of this type where taken at events like festivals and flea markets.  The one above is from a flea market. I took it using a Canon 50-250 lens on one of my Canon digital SLRs.

The ones above also were with the Canon 50-250.  I think I get the best results with this lens since it lets me get close without sticking a camera in someone's face.

A couple more from when I had a phase of liking to put frames around things.

The two below are with a Holga lens for Canon.  Since this lens is around 50mm it makes me get closer.  I like the soft look of this lens.  I wish I could remember where I put it.

The last one is with a Sony DSC TX7.  I usually carry this one in my pocket. I took this one at Flesor's Candy Store in Tuscola IL. I thought it looked much better converted to B&W. Hope that no one is offended that my first post in a while is digital. Plan to be back with more film cameras soon.

VistaQuest 1005

I came across this camera when I was looking for some batteries.  I hadn't used it in a while.  The VistaQuest 1005 is a key chain camera that enjoyed some popularity a few years ago for being able to produce  lomo-type images while being a digital camera.







The VistaQuest 1005 is about as simple as a digital camera gets.  There are no choices to be made.  It is just point and shoot. The images are small at just 1.3 megapixels.  The viewfinder is fairly useless especially at closer distances. The images are often soft, almost painterly.  Sometimes there is vignetting. It gets the closest in look to some of the toy plastic cameras that I have gotten using digital.

I did find the VistaQuest fun to play with back in the days when I was only doing digital. Upon becoming reacquainted with the VistaQuest I can say it is still fun for a change. Sometimes I like being surprised by the results I get and the VistaQuest  does well in surprising me.

With its vibrant colors and softness the VistaQuest can make some lovely images.
















Anyway I thought I'd record a little about the VistaQuest before it goes back into the battery drawer.  Here is a VistaQuest 1005 Gallery.

People Pictures From 2012 Covered Bridge Festival

I don't do much people photography. At the Covered Bridge Festival I decided to take a few shots of what may be a vanishing group of dealers and collectors. I say vanishing since operations like Ebay seem to have taken a bite out of the face-to-face dealer seller world.

Don't see many people smoking in public anymore. When I smelled his pipe smoke it took a moment for me to realize what it was.

If you are a dealer you hope not to spend most of your day sitting watching the crowd walk by. Last Friday morning was an especially chilly time to be doing that.

Instead of sitting, hopefully there will be some sales to record.

Just judging by observation, crowds at flea markets have gotten smaller and older since I occasionally did them in the 80's and early 90's.

A dealer selling things in Rockville, IN.

The woman with blond hair and the dealer with the hat were haggling over several items.

Did a B&W conversion on this one.

















I was fairly pleased with how most of these turned out.  Especially since the lighting wasn't the best. Although it does seem like the light is starting to get softer this time of year. I used my digital SLR which isn't an inconspicuous camera, however I have never encountered any problem taking photos at an event like this.  I am surprised that I seldom see anyone else with a camera at such events.  

I saw more cameras this year at the CBF than I did last year.  Although most were the dirty over-priced box cameras.  Still I did get a nice Pentax K1000 and a Yashica FX-3.  I'll probably have more to say about them later in the week.

Fall Festivals

Fall festivals are a good place to take pictures.  There are usually a lot of interesting objects.  Also the light and the weather are often good. I saw this parrot at the Apple & Pork Festival in Clinton, Illinois Saturday.

One of the best events for pictures around here is the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County Indiana.  I took a lot of pictures there last year with a Holga lens on a digital camera. I think the Holga fit the subject pretty well.

I wonder how many years she has been going to flea markets?  The flea market seems to be one thing that hasn't changed much in the last thirty years or so. Although I would guess that the average vendor is much older today.  However since I am also much older I tend not to notice.

At least in this part of the US there are always some old tractors at the fall festivals.  I took this last year at the CBF on Legacy Pro 100 with a Canon F1 using a 24mm lens.








The main challenge for me at these festivals is deciding what cameras to bring.  Usually you have to park far away from the event so it is not convenient to return to the car for cameras or lenses.  I usually carry a combination of film and digital cameras and hope one will suit whatever I see.  After some experience I am getting to like the combination of the Olympus XA, the digital Sony TX7, one digital SLR, and a film SLR.  I can carry the Olympus and the Sony in a pocket and the SLRs with some lenses in a shoulder bag.

So far I haven't had much luck finding camera stuff at these festivals.  I didn't see a single thing that tempted me at the Apple and Pork Festival.  Just a few dirty old box cameras that were priced like they were mint.  So mostly I just see these events as picture taking opportunities. If you are the kind that likes to take pictures of people these are good events.  Most people are too wrapped up in what they are doing to pay much attention to someone taking pictures.  

Saturday I did see quite a few people taking pictures with camera phones, however I only saw one person with a more traditional camera.



















So even if you don't like the festival/flea market stuff it still might be worthwhile to pay a visit just to take some pictures.  One of the first galleries that I made on Google is of some photos that I took at the Covered Bridge Festival last year.  Covered Bridge Gallery.

Circular Polarizer and more Holga HL-C

A couple of days ago there were some nice clouds which have been rare this summer. To make the clouds stand out more I used a circular polarizing filter. 




















If you don't know about polarizing filters The Luminous Landscape has a good section about polarizing filters.  If you do much landscape photography a polarizing filter is very helpful.

Here along with helping with the clouds I think the polarizer also helps with the color saturation. 












In the post on Tuesday  I forgot to mention that most of the time I use the fish-eye attachment with the Holga HL-C when using a camera that is not full-frame. With the smaller sensor there is no fish-eye effect, however there is an amount of distortion that I like. 

An example of using the fish-eye attachment with an APS sensor.













That's all for today. 

Holga Lens for Canon Digital in Downtown Champaign Illinois

I don't have any kind of ideological preference for film or digital. I think both have their place in image-making. I do think it is unfortunate that many photographers do have some prejudices or just a lack of curiosity that inhibits their range of image-making tools. Myself I like going using both film and digital.  I also like using different lenses even if they are cheap plastic ones. Many times I have been happily surprised by such exploration.

Yesterday was the kind of bright sunny day that the Holga lens for Canon does well with. If you haven't heard of this lens I wrote about it here.

Radio Maria is a restaurant in downtown Champaign.  The name is my current favorite local restaurant name.

Photomatix has an option to make a HDR image from a single raw file.  Here I used that to add some pop to the Holga HL-C image.  The seating is for the Blind Pig in downtown Champaign.  The building in the background is the Champaign City Building.

Sometimes a digital image doesn't need color.  I used Topaz BW Effects to convert this image.






















Overall I was pleased with how things came out with using the Holga HL-C.  The time of day when I took these images is one where the light is still fairly harsh around here.  I think the Holga HL-C softened and diffused the light well.
Holga HL-C in Champaign Illinois Gallery

Some Black & White Effects

While if possible I prefer B&W film for B&W images, there are times when a digital image looks to me like it would be better presented in B&W.  There are several options for doing such conversions in the default tools in Photoshop.  There are also many Photoshop plugins that can help with the conversion along with offering some other elements like toning. Today I am showing some images that were made with a couple of these plugins.  This is not a tutorial on using the plugins.  Just some images and basic info so you can get some idea of what they can do.

The image I started with.














The first one is a free plugin called Virtual Photographer. Virtual Photographer works with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  If you don't have these programs than you can use it in a free editing program, Virtual Studio, that is made to work with Virtual Photographer.

The Virtual Photographer preset "Aluminum".














Virtual Photographer has a large number of presets in which you can make adjustments for things like exposure and film grain. It is a fun program to play around with.  There also are a large number of effects that can be used for color images.  Unlike a lot of the free plugins Virtual Photographer has a good interface with an excellent preview image area.  Virtual Photographer only works with 8 bit images. There are a few more images from Virtual Photographer in the Some Black & White Effects Gallery.

The second plugin is Topaz Black & White Effects.  The Topaz plugins used to be fairly inexpensive when I first started using them. However in checking for this post they seem to have experienced some inflation.  Even at that they are still are more reasonable than many Photoshop plugins.  Topaz Black & White Effects comes with a lot of presets which I used in the images here to give some idea of the things it can do.  Unlike Virtual Photographer this plugin has a very large number of adjustments that you can make to your image. I usually find it helpful to find a preset that is close to what I want and then make adjustments.

This is Topaz's idea of a classic b&w image.

With a Sepia/Gold tone.














Topaz does offer a 30 day fully functional free trial.  Also in the past they frequently had special offers so that you seldom had to pay full price.  Another thing is that it seems that once you buy one of their products you keep getting free updates.  At least I haven't had to pay for a new version yet. 
There are more Topaz images in the Some Black & White Effects Gallery.

Anvil effect from Virtual Photographer.

Asahi Super-Takumar 1:4/150

Mounted on my old Canon XSi using an M42 adapter.
Manufactured: 1965—1967
Lens Elements: 5 
Groups: 5
Maximum Aperture: f/4
Minimum Aperture: f/22
Minimum Focus: 6 ft
Weight: 324 g







I got this lens last summer when I was in a mania about getting M42 lens.  It was an odd focal length, however it was also a Super Takumar going for what seemed like a low price.  I have to admit that I haven't used it much.  And that is not a knock on the lens.  The build quality is excellent and it functions as smoothly as any lens that I have.  The pictures it takes are also pretty sharp and I like the color rendition.  Still it is a focal length that I don't use much. 

I have been impressed by the color I get with the Asahi Super-Takumar 1:4/150.












In theory I like it that I can get a focal length of 240mm when using the Asahi Super-Takumar 1:4/150 with an APS camera.  That is especially nice considering how small and light the lens is. Even at my advanced age it is easy to keep this lens steady handheld. So while I haven't used it much I do think this is a fine lens.  It is certainly worth what they are selling for these days. And after writing this post I think I will use the Asahi Super-Takumar 1:4/150 a little more.  I have been stuck on wide to standard lenses for a while so it might be good to get to know more about what I can do with a lens like the Asahi Super-Takumar 1:4/150.
Asahi Super-Takumar 1:4/150 Gallery

Imitating Film Cameras in Photoshop

I can well understand how the idea of using Photoshop to try to make a digital image look like one from a film camera could be a horror to many. However I have to admit that on occasion I like to play around with such effects. Still I do believe that these effects, like with most imitations, while they may be interesting and entertaining they aren't a replacement for the real thing. 

The newest version of Topaz Adjust has some film effects. There are some presets or you can make your own settings.

This is another one done with Topaz Adjust.  Topaz makes several plugins that are useful for digital photos.  And they are generally more affordable than other plugins for Photoshop.

This is one of the many sets of effects in the Filter Forge plugin.  It is called Memeroid and is supposed to imitate a Polaroid photo.

Another Memeroid.  While not of the same proportions as this type of Polaroid I think it adds some interest to the image.  The Filter Forge plugin is sorta expensive, however it does let you make your own filters.  And you can download a large number of useful filters made by Filter Forge users. 

This is a filter from Filter Forge called Analogue.  Some of the effects in Filter Forge can take a while to render.  I had a cup of coffee and went outside and took some pictures while this one was processing. Normally my computer handles Photoshop stuff quickly.  Some Filter Forge effects are the exception.

I think this effect fits the character of the buildings.  This one is from Topaz Adjust.

Here is one from Filter Forge call Toycam 82.  The buildings on this page are in Danville IL.  An interesting town to take pictures in although they have a tendency to tear down their most interesting buildings.

Lastly, one from Alien Skin Exposure.  This is supposed to be an imitation of one of my favorite 70's slide films, GAF 500.  When looking at a much larger version I thought it did a pretty good job. At this size I am not sure if the looks so good. Generally I don't find the Photoshop versions of films to be very satisfying.



So here you have some of the results of my playing around with these filters. If you are like me and enjoy this kind of look than you may find that these effects can liven up some otherwise dull digital photos.  Still as someone who has experienced both I think you can more easily get more satisfying and interesting results using real film cameras.  

Sort of like HDR

Having an in-camera HDR mode is not a new thing.  My Sony DSC-TX7 has something called Backlight Correction HDR.  And that camera has been around for two or three years.  Backlight Correction HDR works by taking two images with different exposures and merging these together in the camera.  Of course this doesn't give anything close to the dynamic range of a traditional HDR, however in some circumstances it is a nice feature.

Here I think it helped the improve the lighting on the corn.

Fairly extreme back-lighting in this image.

Probably without Backlight Correction HDR either the highlights would have been blown out on one side, or the shadows would have been too great on the other side.










The effect of Backlight Correction HDR is more subtle than real HDR usually is.  I think it does a pretty good job of giving a bright background and darker foreground a natural looking balance.  I don't keep up with trends in digital cameras the way I once did, however I would guess that some kinda in-camera HDR is or will become a common option. And for the most part it appears to be a useful one.