I keep bumping on this issue often in certain shooting conditions. Yesterday under a rush of shooting from a Cessna Skyhawk 3,500 feet in the air, I made a couple mistakes when quickly taking cockpit pictures using the pop-up flash. I kept my D700 in aperture priority (A) mode. I forgot to make the flash mode to “slow”, otherwise it sticks to 1/60 shutter speed no matter what. This blew away the blue of the sky. Ideally what I should be doing is:

1. Always keep the flash mode to “slow” and dial in flash exposure compensation to -0.7.
2. When popup flash is needed, switch to shutter priority (S) mode and select any speed upto 1/250. If there is too much light, lower the ISO. If the situation is very urgent, just use program (P) mode and shift if necessary.

Many photographers scoff at the P mode since it makes a $$$ DSLR work like a point and shoot. I am guilty of being such a snob until yesterday. A camera is a tool and every feature can be used to the benefit of making an image as best as possible. Time to grow up.

I scouted a specific location on interstate 280 to photograph a special tree at dusk. I pull over beside freeways all the time when riding my motorcycle, for one or other reason, including a quick snapshot. But with a car I did not feel that comfortable. Somehow I managed to pull out my Mamiya RB67 and click through a couple frames.

And then I saw yellow lights.

I just stood there, about to wrap up and go, when the officer approached me. Strangely I did not feel anything, just smiled and said I saw a beautiful tree and had to photograph it. He just warned to never pull over beside the freeway unless for emergency. I said a polite thanks and went back on the road in a hurry.

Turned out that both the digital frames I captured besides the Mamiya are keepers.

I have started a photoblog and set my main website url to redirect to it. It had a fancy static page so the decision was not hard. I already have this blog and a huge photo repository on flickr, plus a dedicated portfolio website, then why this ? I can show my ongoing best work in bigger size in this photoblog and it is worth all the trouble.

So, here is how I arrived at this decision:
1. My main website http://joydutta.com had a static page with a bunch of links, not doing anything useful.
2. The regular blog (this one) is mostly for writing articles, and not for displaying pictures in large sizes.
3. While flickr is a great tool, it shows images in a tiny size by default. It can be my regular image repository.
4. My dedicated portfolio site http://joyduttaphoto.com is a static collection of best images of specific categories and it will stay that way.

With all the web based tools, I was lacking a way to showcase my ongoing favorite images in big size in a clean, easy-to-manage site. A pixelpost based photoblog filled that need just perfectly. The install involved downloading the pixelpost framework from and the install was a breeze. Then I downloaded the template the-world-in-35mm and tweaked it to make it fit images at most 900px wide.

Please visit http://joydutta.com which will take you to the photoblog. If you like it then it would be nice if I get a positive vote about it on my coolphotoblogs profile.

Photo Black on Velvet Fine Art paper

Got a bunch of velvet fine art (VFA) watercolor papers when I bought my Epson 2200 printer off craigslist. Never got around to printing on it since it is supposed to need Matt Black (MK) ink in place of Photo Black (PK). A cartridge swap wastes ink, so I decided to wait till PK is low enough to do a comparison. First print turned out very muddy, but then I figured I printed it on the wrong side. Waste of one nice 13×19 VFA to learn how to figure the printing side (Lick a finger and rub on paper, the tacky side is the print side). The following print on the correct side came out much better, good enough to mat and gift to someone. I did a few more till the PK ink ran out. Time for the Matt magic as all the online articles say. Had to do the usual delete-printer-and-add-again trick on the mac to get the MK ink recognized. Out came the next print. I could not believe how much better it was. The image seemed to jump out of the paper. The illustrated comparison only gives a rough idea about the difference.

Just to check how the MK ink performs with normal glossy paper I did a test 4×6 print. It indeed makes some weird reflections but looking directly at the image makes it look normal enough.

Right after I switched back to Nikon, I somehow thought I could keep my Canon A2 with EF 50/1.4 but that didn’t happen. The lens got sold like a hot cake and I just could not help looking for a film body. Drooled at some craigslist ads for F100 at $200 and N90s for $125. Then saw a sweet F3HP+50/1.8E deal and thought that could heal my regrets over the FM3a I sold a few months earlier.

Went to check out the F3HP and lo and behold, neither the meter worked nor I could trip the shutter. Didn’t even like the narrow focus ring of the MF 50mm f/1.8 Series E. It didn’t disappoint me as much as it should have since deep in my mind I knew I was more inclined to try out medium format film in parallel to my digital workflow.

As luck would have it (or destiny), an RB67 with 3 lenses in a terrific deal was just a few miles away. The seller, a harley rider, had a room full of older manual Canon bodies. The RB67 was old but everything seemed to check out ok. The deal included the Mamiya Sekor 90/3.8, 250/4.5 and 360/6.3 lenses, 120 back, prism viewer, pistol grip and a cable release.

The magic with larger formats is that one automatically tends to be hyperselective. I have seen that happen with the hasselblad I rented. Took me several hours to finish a roll of 120 film. Looking forward to times like that, and to be able to print without waste of paper like when printing from a square format.

A nice informative site: RB67 Guide

I am an objective photographer, not a brand name fanatic. I started photography in 2003 with a Nikon FM10 film SLR, since it was more readily available in India. I upgraded the system slowly through an F80, FM3a, and then the D70. Acquired a few lenses, but nothing expensive. Then around 2008, I took a special interest in portraits and started shooting a lot, often indoors in low light. The D70 was a great camera except the noise was unacceptable at ISO 800 and above.

I needed to upgrade and saw no sense to get another DX body, despite being impressed by the high ISO performance of the D300. What I needed in a new Nikon was already in the D3, but I neither had $5k nor wanted such a brick for a body. A good friend of mine suggested the three year old Canon 5D which he has been shooting since it came out and been satisfied all along. I took a risk of brand switch just because I had no expensive Nikkor lens. I managed to sell all the Nikon gear for a good price and was able to start a clean slate with the 5D. I was happy for two things – the kit lens 24-105/4 was an IS lens (my first), and the ISO 1600 images were quite usable, despite some chroma noise. I got a lot of shots I could not get with the D70, and then one day I got hooked into landscape photography as well. I also discovered the great power of RAW and stopped shooting JPG. The RAW processing and 12mp images produced fantastic 12×18 prints to keep me satisfied. Everything was well.

And then, canon came out with 5D markII. 24mp, HD video – Wow ! Ironically these two are precisely the features I just didn’t expect or ever need in an upgrade. Same old AF as in 5D which hunts a lot in low light, and does not track moving kids well. I thought Canon would at least put the AF system of the fantastic 40D in the new body and make a faster frame rate than 3.9fps. It seemed I had hit a wall.

Checked out what was happening in the Nikon camp. Ken Rockwell was all praise about the D700, especially the AF with face detection, even after admitting that 5D2 was still the best camera for landscapes. True that, but I don’t shoot landscapes only. I checked out a D700 at the local store and what can I say, I was blown over. This was the best camera I ever put my hands on. Ergonomics, features, versatility of using older MF nikkors, and the AF totally knocked me out.

Amazon had it $400 less than bhphoto and adorama, so fearing this was a temporary deal, I grabbed one. Picked up a like new Nikkor AF-D 80-200/2.8 off craigslist for a great price. Didn’t care about the VR version since it is $1500 and I can just bump up the ISO if I need to.

So in short, I got the D700 because:
1. World class AF, especially AF tracking
2. Totally usable ISO 6400 with no chroma noise
3. 12mp — I need no more since this is enough for a 20×30 print
4. Ability to use older MF nikkors I can pick up off craigslist for cheap

5D2 lost out because:
1. Same old AF as 5D, hunting in low light and poor tracking
2. 24mp — no thanks
3. HD video — no thanks

I still regret not keeping my Nikon FM3a with AF-D 50/1.8, but hey, I hardly used a 50 on the digital bodies.

Update: Here is a blog post of another Canon user who recently switched to D700.

After a few days of messing around with color management in photoshop, I finally drilled down a workflow I am comfortable with. This is big change from what I have done till now, but all for the better.

My old workflow was:
1. Shoot JPG… I know, big mistake, and I regret shooting my favorite Mono Lake images in JPG.
2. Edit directly in PS and spend a lot of time adjusting tones using layers.
3. Work in sRGB and save both hi-res and for-web in JPG, without embedding any profile – this makes the browsers (tested with firefox and safari) assume the default sRGB profile and show exactly same colors.

New workflow from now on:
1. Shoot RAW – as much as possible, JPG only for trivial snapshots.
2. Initial edit in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) regardless of RAW or JPG – nondestructive adjustments are just awesome. Lightroom is even better – it can hide dust spots as well.
3. Open in PS as aRGB/16bit and tweak whatever is needed. Do not change default working space because if an image has an embedded profile, it is preserved so I can work in aRGB in this case.
4. Save in hi-res: aRGB/16bit/TIFF or aRGB/8bit/TIFF or aRGB/8bit/JPG depending on how much space I want to use. Save in for-web: sRGB/8bit/JPG

About monitor:
I have profiled my Dell 2408WFP LCR monitor using eye-one but if I choose that profile, the images open in PS with distinct green cast. My observation is that the monitor profile can be kept as sRGB for the best experience so far. The prints are slightly more saturated but very close to what I see in the monitor.

The photographic process is not complete unless one learns printmaking. I have done traditional b&w chemical prints and loved the process. It was high time to do some color printing. Despite the cost of inkjet inks, the convenience and excitement of printing at home lured me to find a great deal off craigslist. Did a 120 mile roundtrip to bring home a like-new Epson stylus photo 2200, a little older model but got good reviews from http://luminous-landscape.com, it can print 13×19, and also takes roll paper, just what I needed for a start.

I was ready for some confusion regarding profiles and color management, but found some help from this link: Photoshop CS3 – Print with Colour Management

Without wasting much paper, my initial tests found that workflow-1 (with “No Color Management” in the Print dialog) works better than workflow-2 in the above link. In workflow-2 when I use “Photoshop Manages Colors” with the correct printer profile and no color management in the printer driver, the result is significantly darker, losing much of shadow detail.

Been eyeing on this lens for a while. Got a decent one today off Craigslist with filter and hood. Even a few months back I never cared about macro, since I am too bored of the technically-perfect-cliche photos of dragonflies and butterflies and catterpillars. Recently I got hooked to the idea of finding patterns in flowers and printing a couple large ones.

Can’t wait to test the lens this weekend at some garden.