Not that lucky…  The below photo is an 11.5 minute exposure from the Altimont Wind Farm east of Livermore.

2010 Perseid Meteor Shower over Altimont Pass

At first glimpse it looks like a suitable photo.  Yes, the light pollution from Tracy (20 miles over the hill and behind the wind turbines) limits the impact of the night sky, but otherwise it looks acceptable except for the lack of any meteors.

Now, let’s zoom it to full resolution (click thru to view full size):

Full Resolution Portion of Alimont Wind Farm

See all those colored dots?  That is noise from created by the sensor of the camera becuase it was turned on for 11.5 minutes. This is the down side of digital photography.  But what the technology taketh away, the technology giveth in return.  Most DSLRs have a feature buried in the camera menus called “Long Exposure Noise Reduction”.  In a nut shell, this feature (when on) removes that digital noise from your photos when taking long exposures.

My unlucky part is that I was spooked when setting up my camera and forgot to turn on that feature.  (more on the spooked bit in a second)  So all my photos from Thursday night have pretty red, green, and blue stars!

How Does Long Exposure Noise Reduction Work?

When you turn on long exposure noise reduction, all long exposures (over 1 second on my Canon 5D Mark II) have the actual exposure capture with the shutter open followed by a second image capture with the shutter closed.  Then the camera subtracts the noise captured in the second shot, from the photo captured in the first shot and writes the cleaned up image to the memory card.  Bye Bye red, green, and blue stars…

On the Canon DSLR’s that I’ve used, when you capture a frame the card access light turns on for the duration of the second exposure.  If you don’t realize that you have this feature turned on, it can be confusing why the photo exposure is complete but you’re camera is not responding.  For this reason, I typically keep this setting to Off and turn it to On only when shooting at night with long exposures.

Remember: this feature will double all your exposures.  So my 11.5 minute exposure above would have been 23 minutes long had I turned this feature on.  Something you need to keep in mind when doing the math of how long you’ll be out and how many exposures you plan on capturing.

How Do I Turn on Long Exposure Noise Reduction?

On the Canon DSLR’s this feature is located in the mysterious land of .  On the 5D Mark II it is under Custom Function II: Image menu. Refer to your owner manual for details on where to find this on your specific camera.  (Yes, the Owner’s Manual…that little book that was also in the camera box with the camera when you first opened it…    )

Getting Spooked on Thursday

I mentioned that I got spooked and forgot to turn on this feature…it was one of those close encounter moments that makes you want to call out for Mulder from the X-Files.  I was parked on the side of the road with my car perpendicular to the road to block the wind (the wind turbines are there for a reason).  This road is isolated every night except for the few locals who know about it and use it for watching meteor showers or submarine races, so it is pitch dark and isolated. I was pulling my 5D Mark II out of the back seat of the car and turned around toward the tripod when suddenly the entire area was light up by a light streaming down from above.  I could clearly see the windmills and cows grazing in the fields as I tried to put my heart back in my chest….

At the exact moment I turned around, an airplane coming in from the east to land at the Livermore private airport had turned on their landing lights and they just happened to hit me dead on.

I think you can now understand how I forgot to turn on the long exposure noise reduction…

]]> http://www.latogaphoto.com/2010/08/long-exposure-noise-reduction/feed/ 2 http://www.latogaphoto.com/2010/03/canon-releases-5d-mark-ii-firmware/ http://www.latogaphoto.com/2010/03/canon-releases-5d-mark-ii-firmware/#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:07:17 +0000 latoga http://www.latogaphoto.com/?p=1981 A few days ago Canon released firmware version 2.0.4  for the Canon 5D Mark II.  This came a few days after they released 2.0.3 which had some issues around sound recording for video.

The key features of 2.0.4 are:

• Adds or changes a number of movie frame rates
• Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
• Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
• Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
• Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
• Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning.

I upgraded my firmware in less than 5 minutes.  While most of the features are behind the scenes, the sound level adjustment is nice.

Color Gamut for MacBook Pro 15 inch Screen

Color Gamut of NEC 2690WUXi

Back in February I upgraded my old CRT to the NEC MultiSync LCD monitor.  So while I’m working in my home office, I have the NEC setup as my primary monitor with the MBP’s screen being used as a second monitor sitting off the side.  (This setup is extremely useful in Photoshop to keep my tools pallets visible and in Lightroom to always have a larger view of any photo I select in the library.)  The reason I selected this NEC monitor was for the wider color gamut (more colors that it could display), which is represented by the black triangle in the color gamut graph on the right.  So all of my photo editing occurs on the NEC monitor so I have the most accurate representation of the colors in the photo.

Not only is the NEC monitor showing more colors, but also displays them more accurately.  The graph on the left displays the shifting that occurs on each monitor within each major color of the spectrum (Red, Green, Blue).  When the monitor has no shifting, the line is straight as in the NEC graph. When the lines bow, as in the Apple screen, the colors are not being displayed accurately by default. Luckily, this is where the color profile comes into play to correct the monitor’s display tendencies and keeping it as accurate as possible.  This is also why you should update your color profile with a colorimeter at least weekly if not every time you work on photos; in general the older the monitor the more frequently you should do this.

It still surprises me how many photographers rave about the quality of the screens on the MacBook Pro laptops.  Sure they are great screens for a laptop, but they don’t show that much of the color gamut (even the Apple external monitors don’t display that much of the color gamut — try asking someone at the apple store and see if they can even tell you the percentage of the aRGB gamut that the monitors display…). To really highlight the difference, the composite graph below is the color gamut of the MacBook Pro 15 inch screen (smaller black triangle) with the NEC 2690WUXi LCD monitor (larger black triangle).

Color Gamut Comparison

As you can see, my NEC monitor shows considerably more shades of green, red, and blue and significantly more shades of yellow, orange, and magenta.  I noticed this right away when I installed the monitor based upon the abstract background image I was using on my desktop, there was more detail in the orange shading within the image.  And, since I use the NEC as my primary monitor for doing all most all my work while in the home office (hard to give up the large screen…) I really noticed the difference once I started visiting photographers’ websites.  One rather prolific photographer on twitter (who shall remain nameless) had a website with a green background that became so bright and hard to read on the NEC that I question whether this photographer had ever used a wide color gamut monitor.

The lesson to be learned here is don’t short your photographs by using a poor quality monitor.

If you are doing any printing from your digital dark room on a high quality printer or marketing your photos for stock/print publications, make sure you have an adequate monitor to know how the colors will look.

Canon 5D Mark II Pop-Up Shade

It’s time for a give-a-way! I have a Belkin Devices Professional Pop-Up Shade for Canon 5D Mark II that I’m giving away here at the blog–still in the original packaging, valued around $30. The photo is of the actual shade on my 5D Mark II; the shade was only used twice, once for a brief test after purchase and the second time while taking this photo.  The shade slides onto the eye piece slot of the viewfinder and includes overlay buttons for all the buttons to the right of LCD screen.  The shade helps protect the LCD on the 5D Mark II and pops-up to provide shade when viewing images on the camera.  The protective film is still on the inside of the shade’s screen (evident by the printing on the screen when you click on the image to see if full size…).

Why the Give-A-Way?

No, this is not a vendor sponsored give-a-away (if it was I’d say so).  Simply put, I bought this pop-up shade shortly after I bought my 5D Mark II.  Unfortunately, the shade won’t fit on the camera when my tripod L-bracket is installed (fellow L-bracket owners take note!). When I had the time to return the shade, I had missed the return window.

My bad timing = you’re good luck!

How to Enter

Obviously, this give-a-way is only of interest to 5D Mark II owners.  So if you have a 5D Mark II and want to enter the give-a-way all you have to do is:

• leave a comment on this blog post before Midnight Friday October 16th.

Comments require your email address (which I do not disclose to any outside parties) which I will use to alert the winner. After alerting the winner, I will do a post announcing the winner here on the blog.  So leave a URL with your comment for inclusion in the announcement post.

And rather than just leaving a blank comment, provide a link to your favorite photo or video that you have taken with your 5D Mark II.  Not required to participate…just trying to make it more interesting for all!

How The Winner Will Be Chosen

Each comment is assigned a number.  On Saturday October 17th I will have a random number generated using Random.org between 1 and the total number of comments.  The winner will be the comment associated with the random number generated.  The winning commenter will be alerted by email and I will mail the shade to them.

Please help spread the word by (re) tweeting this post!

• What LCD screen protection devices to you use and recommend?
• What do you like about it?
• What don’t you like about it?

Please leave a comment with your opinion as I’m seeking the advice for one last purchase before my upcoming photography road trip!

I’ll actually start the process off with my feedback on the Delkin Devices (was e-Film) Pop-Up Shade Pro for the 5DmII.  I purchased this yesterday as I was hoping that it would help with viewing the LCD in strong light.  I’ll be taking it back upon the return from my trip.  While the concept and general design of Pop-Up Shade is great, there were a few specific things that didn’t allow it to work for me:

• I have a Really Right Stuff L-Bracket mounted on my camera for use on my tripod.  The shade is designed to wrap around the bottom of the camera a slight bit.  Unfortunately, the L-Bracket wraps up around the same part of the camera bottom.  Can’t have both on at the same time and since I never really remove the L-Bracket it wins.
• The shade is designed such that it replaces the eye cup on our camera, it actually slides over the eye piece as that is the way the shade stays attached to the camera (you can place your current eye cup or eye piece extender on the shade if you want).  When I looked through the eye-piece, it was cutting off some of my field of view.  I found myself shifting my head a bit to see the information at the bottom of the viewfinder or to see one edge or the other.  Slight annoyance that you may be able to adjust to over time, but I have enough annoyance in my life already thank you.
• On the 5DmII the bottom of the shade body actually overs the ambient light sensor.  I’ve haven’t used the camera enough yet to know if I want the auto-adjusting LCD brightness turned on or not, but the shade forces that decision on me.
• Since the shade sticks out a fair bit from the body of the camera, I found it a bit harder to access the power switch on the camera.  Not impossible, but definitely more difficult.

So, it’s time for some crowdsourcing feedback.

Which of the following three photos (all from my wine country portfolio) speaks to you most?  Why?

Please leave a comment with your explanation.  I need some feedback in the next couple of days.  Afterwards, I’ll post a comment with which was my favorite and what points that my wife raised that made me second guess it.

On a last minute, spur of the moment decision I decided to rent a new lens for use over the Holidays.  So yesterday I picked up the Canon 16-35mm EF L II.  For those who are close to the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a great lens and camera rental outfit in San Mateo, CA called BorrowLenses.com.  I have rented lenses from them a number of times over the past few months and love their service.  You can rent a lens from them and have it shipped to you (they’ll ship anywhere in the 50 United States for overnight or 2 day delivery) or if your lucky enough to live in the Bay Area you can pick it up at their location.  Here is a holiday cost savings tip for you.  If you rent something from them before the end of the year for 1-4 weeks, use the promotion code FREEWEEK and get just that, a free additional week of rental time.  (Hint Hint: If you choose the right rental duration and time your rental right, you can even get it a bit long if the return date is on a day they are closed…)

Anyway, I’m jazzed about the possibilities that this lens will give me over the Holidays.  Even thought I’m shooting on partial frame sensor (20D), 8 more mm of view is huge!  You don’t realize it until you look through the view finder and compare 16mm with 24mm (the widest L Series lens I own).  I then tortured myself even more by popping the lens on my old film camera…ohhh, how much more options I would have with a full frame sensor.  Just one more justification for my 5D Mark II upgrade…someday.

Look for some posts soon with the new lens.

And for the record, yes, the Mark II version of this lens auto focuses very fast.  Without ever having shot with the first version, I find this lens working very well for auto focusing in low light.

Composition I is the widest view of the scene. This was the first photo that I composed, noticing the rower coming across the bay my instincts kicked in and I knew I would have to act fast to place him in as many of my shots as I could. In general, I think this image is a bit too busy: with the row boat in lower center, and the sailboat on the right, and power plant in the distance the photo feels out of balance to me.

Composition II is more balanced and stronger. With the seaweed floating in the water in the foreground, your eye is lead into the the scene. The row boat on the left in the lower left corner and the horizon with the power plant on the lower third, this image feels more balanced. The empty space at the top helps the image to breath. Following the golden triangles, the rower is near the cradle with the power plant landing in the second largest triangle and the wind blowing the steam toward the empty space of the largest triangle. Or flipping your golden triangles, the seaweed is in the smallest triangle leading your eye toward the rower in the second largest triangle. And the the wind is blowing the steam along the long edge of the largest triangle.

Composition III is also well balanced and stronger than I. With the rower out of frame, your eye is focusing on just the sailboat with the power plant in the background. Using a golden spiral, the spiral ends right on the sailboat with the sweeping arch passing over the power plant. Also, the fact that the wind is blowing the steam from the power plant away from the sail boat helps to reduce and conflict in the image, it flows better from foreground to background.

Composition IV is the weakest of the tighter variations of I. With just the power plant in the image, there is nothing to lead you into the photo. Using golden triangles again, the steam is still following the longest diagonal line and the the large smoke stack falls just outside the cradle. However, the single layer of depth of this image weakens it overall.

If your new to the concepts of the rule of thirds, golden triangles, and the golden spiral and your a Lightroom user there is good news. When you activate the Crop and Straighten tool in Lightroom’s Develop module, you get all of these tools to help with your composition. Under the View menu you have the Overlay Tools option…I always leave this turned on. When you activate the Crop tool, you will see a Crop Grid Overlay displayed on top of the photo, most likely the Rule of Thirds overlay. The trick is you can use the “O” key to cycle through the other overlay grids. If the overlay isn’t lining up correctly with your photo, you can hold down the shift key and press “O” again to adjust the orientation of the overlay. Great way to learn composition rules by doing.

Here are screenshots from Lightroom 2 of each composition with the grid overlay tools visible:

If your looking for more information on these composition rules, check out these other resources online:

• Advanced Composition and the Golden Ratio
• Presentation Zen’s article on the Power of Thirds
• Photo Composition’s list of articles on the Golden Mean

Hopefully this self exploring lesson in composition has opened your eyes up to a new way to look at your own work.

Canon 5D Mark II courtesy Canon

A few weeks ago I gave Brian Auer, of Epic Edits,a little twitter grief about the new Sony A900 announcements.  Last week, he ping me back once the Canon 5D Mark II was announced, this is the camera that I told him I was waiting for as my next potential upgrade.  Unfortunately, I was busy with a trade show in Las Vegas and didn’t have time to comment on the new release.  And I wanted to wait till I could see some low light sample images from the camera

Yesterday my wish came true.  Yesterday Vincent Laforet posted Reverie, a short video he shot in full HD on the 5D Mark II (Don MacAskill had a full HD version posted thanks to Laforet until Canon asked that it be taken down; it was amazing in full HD.  I was surprised to see Canon follow Nikon’s example and give the camera pre-release to a professional photographer to run it thru it’s paces…to bad Canon was so short sighted to realized the viral marketing they were getting for free).

Wow!  Watching this short video, I was amazed at the low light abilities of this camera.  Even more amazed when you realize that it was a DSLR – I love the behind the scenes movie and the expression on the faces of the crowd as they  watch the film crew rig up a DSLR on the hood of a car…to shoot a video.  Beyond the movie example from Laforet, DPReview’s 5D Mark II preview has a set of sample images.  Even at the higher ISO settings, there seems to be very little noticeable noise and impressive low light abilities.

So, I have to admit that I have been waiting for this camera.  The 20D is a little long in the tooth and I really need the full frame sensor at times to get the true 24mm and 17mm from my lenses.  But honestly, I was expecting Canon to release this camera with about 16-18 MP, not 21 MP. I figured there would be the sensor dust reduction feature, new DIGIC processor (or two), faster bus to the memory card, maybe a few more AF points (but not near the 1D Mark III).  And some other minor improvements.  That was it.  I didn’t put much faith in the rumors of three replacement cameras for the 5D as that would fracture the market segmentation way too much.  I expected Canon to play it safe and improve on a work horse but fall just short of the Nikon D90.

I’m glad that Canon didn’t sit back.  However, there are times when I wish the marketing wars would just stop.  First it was megapixels, now it seems to be video from your DSLR. Most of the time I need higher quality pixels, not more of them.  And I’m still not sure I need a video camera inside my DSLR.  It does make me wonder if the comments of the possible anonymous Canon engineer were true, that Canon marketing is holding the engineers back.

Getting my angst over the marketing out of my system, more megapixels does mean more options (not to mention more storage).  21 MP does give me more options when it comes to cropping an image and still having enough information in the image to be usable.  And even though there are three video cameras in my house and, to date,  I haven’t every used one of them, putting that capability into my DSLR and I’m likely to actually play around with it (funny how in the past there was talk of trying to get high quality stills from a video camera and now you can get full HD video from your still camera…).  And I would have to agree that the mixture of HD video and DSLR still photography in the same body will lead to some very interesting developments over the next few years.

All in all, the 5D Mark II is the likeliest canidate for my next camera.  I have used the 5D in the past for a few projects and found it to be an amazing camera (some have complained about shutter lag, but I didn’t notice it).  The only real disappointment that I have iwth the Mark II would be the FPS, I would have like this to be a notch more.  I am aso highly disappointed that we didn’t see some revolutionary features like auto exposure compensation in an HDR mode; let me flip a switch and get 3-5 exposures bracketed in rapid fire succession with one push of the shutter!  Makes me wonder if that is one of the features being held back by Canon marketing?

It seems like every other day you hear about another documented abuses of photographer’s rights by security guards as well as police. I have found an interesting way to state you’re opinion on these abuses without having to get confrontational with people. Check out the I’m a Photographer t-shirt that is available on CafePress.  I’m going to have to pickup a few of these for the next photo walk I do in San Francisco; while I personally haven’t run into too many issues, it seems like it’s just a mater of time…

The TWIP Photo crew is supposed to be working on a similar shirt that is reported to say Photography is Not a Crime, but it doesn’t look like it’s available yet.  Someday in the near future you may have a choice of wordrobe options to make your statement.  Or just design you’re own…