Garden Gallery

Remember those old movies starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland from the 30’s where they get together and decide to put on a show?  Well something similar to that happened to a small group of us a couple of months ago.  Artists FRO Butler, Kurt Vorheis and I were talking and somehow we decided to put on our own Art Show.  Our idea was to have a small, by invitation only, show to make contact with local artists, curators, gallery owners etc.

We were probably crazy to attempt this in just two months but we did it anyway.  The show was titled “Garden Gallery” and scheduled it for Sunday October 23rd.  Invitations were emailed, budgets prepared and additional artists identified.  The final program included:

Kurt Vorheis – Stainless Steel Sculpture
Mark and Cathy Pemberton – Photography
FROgard Butler – Watercolors and Oils
Nancy Robinson – Acrylics
Ann Vestal – Ceramics
Walter Crew – Acrylics and Scratchboard

After much preparation we successfully launched the show yesterday.  While we have no official headcount there was a steady stream of people all day long.  We had lots of snacks, punch and maybe a bit of wine to keep our visitors happy while visiting with the artists.  The energy level was very high and several of the artists made significant sales.  It was an extremely successful outing.

Many thanks to the artists who participated and to Kay Vorheis who kept the food table supplied.  During the show Cathy took a lot of photos which we’ve put together into a short video.

Enjoy, and wait until next year…
Photos by Cathy Pemberton

The Polar Bears of Churchill - Presentation at REI

Cathy and I will be giving a presentation on "The Polar Bears of Churchill" at the Concord REI store on November 2nd at 7 pm. If you have not been to one of our previous talks, and would like to learn more about these fabulous animals, please join us. There is no charge but REI requests that you register in advance due to limited seating. Click the REI link below to register.

November 2
7 to 8:30 pm
REI Concord
Willows Shopping Center
Concord REI — Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba

November 3
7 to 8:30 pm
REI Brentwood
2475 Sand Creek Road
Brentwood, CA 94513
Brentwood REI - Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba

Why You Can’t Believe Your Histogram
Mark Pemberton
The Digital Curmudgeon

I love digital. I love everything about it. That’s why it is so disappointing when you discover that all is not perfect with your true “love”.

However, before I get to the problem with my “love” I’d like to quickly discuss a very important aspect of digital photography and histograms. A typical histogram from an image containing a full range of tones will look something like the example shown below:

However, sometimes the subject matter does not contain the full range of tones from black to white. A histogram from that image might look like this:

Many people are familiar with the concept of “exposing to the right” (ETTR). If you aren’t, it is the practice of exposing the image such that the histogram is forced to the right hand side, but without actually touching the “wall”. This can be accomplished by dialing in positive exposure compensation if you are using Auto Exposure (AE) or by opening up your aperture if exposing manually. That histogram should look as follows:

Why would you want to do this? The amount of information carried by light is proportional to the quantity of light. Every time we reduce the amount of light striking the sensor by 1 f-stop we cut the amount of light, and thus the amount of information in half. A 12 bit RAW image can theoretically produce 4096 (2¹²) different tones. Those tones are not evenly divided across the typical 5 f-stop range of the histogram. The 4096 tones are actually arrayed as shown:

It is entirely to our benefit to shift the histogram as much to the right as possible to take advantage of the greater number of tones available there. This is also why it is critically important not to under-expose your images in digital photography.

So what does this have to do with my alleged disillusion with digital photography? The other day, Cathy and I were shooting close-ups of flowers. Everything was perfect. The lighting was good. We carefully metered the light and checked our histograms and then began to shoot. After a while we took the images and loaded them up to Lightroom. To our surprise, the petals were blown out, completely lacking detail. Yet the camera’s histogram was perfect and there were no “blinkies” on the highlight display.

The answer was completely obvious in Lightroom. Lightroom’s histogram is a true RGB histogram, showing all three color channels independently. It was clear that the green channel was “blown out” and the red channel was just about to start “climbing the wall.”

Why did this happen? The answer lies in the fact that the basic histogram displayed by virtually all digital cameras is a “Luminance” histogram. It displays only the brightness data. The Luminance histogram can differ significantly from a true RGB histogram. Our problem was exacerbated by the fact that we were shooting close-ups of flowers with just a single color predominating.

To document this effect further I went back into the yard and took a few more photos of a yellow-orange rose. These are shown below. Below each photo I have included the associated histograms. The top histogram is a luminance histogram, similar to that found on the camera. The lower three histograms are for each of the RGB channels.

Figure 1

The first image was shot with a normal, metered exposure. Note the significant difference in each of the three RGB channels and how the red channel extends much farther to the right than the Luminance histogram.

I then over-exposed the flower by one f-stop to move the Luminance histogram to the right. (Remember ETTR?) This was probably the perfect exposure for this situation. Note that none of the histograms is touching the right-hand side.

I took a final exposure at + 2 f-stops. Even at +2 stops the luminance histogram was not touching the right-hand side. However, the green channel is now “climbing the wall” and the red channel is about to start. This is the situation that Cathy and I experienced earlier that lead to the blown out petals.

So the camera’s histogram failed to alert us that there was a problem. But what about the “blinkies”? The following two images were shot from the back of the camera.

Figure 2

The first image is a typical view of the Highlights display on the back of our camera. The “blinkies” are based upon the combined RGB luminance data. No “blinkies” are visible. Our Nikon D300, however, allows you to monitor the individual RGB channels for “blinkies”. When I changed from RGB to the Red channel the screen lit up with “blinkies”, indicating gross over-exposure.

This is all academically interesting but is it really important to obtaining good images?

To test this out I took the two over-exposed RAW images from Figure 1 and adjusted the exposure down in Lightroom and compared them to the correctly exposed image. I also took a 2 f-stop over-exposed JPEG image and corrected it in Lightroom.

Figure 3

A – Correctly exposed RAW image
B – 1 stop over-exposed RAW image corrected in Lightroom
C – 2 stop over-exposed RAW image corrected in Lightroom
D – 2 stop over-exposed JPEG image corrected in Lightroom

These results show that even though the Green channel was blown out in image C, I was able to recover the image in Lightroom with no sign of significant loss in detail. However, the JPEG image did not fare so well. Although I was able to produce an adequate result in Lightroom the loss of the data from the Green channel was significant, causing the color to shift from a light orange to yellow. There is also some loss of detail in the upper petals.

Conclusions

This was a fun set of simple experiments. However, it reinforces certain concepts.

1. Always shoot RAW. It has more flexibility and latitude.

2. If your camera has the capability, turn on your RGB histogram display, AND LOOK AT IT! My camera is set to display all three channels. Unfortunately, when we set up Cathy’s camera, we forgot to turn that feature on. It’s on now.

3. Go ahead and expose to the right. Just keep an eye on those RGB histograms.

Further Reading

Not surprisingly, this topic has been covered by others. There are a number of good articles on Luminous Landscape and other sites on this and related subjects.

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/technique/camera-technique/exposing-for-raw.html

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

JAZZ MUSICIAN

Glenn Howell is the Director of the Contra Costa County Animal Services Department. He is also a fabulous bass player. The following video is from a photo shoot at my studio last Monday.



Please check out my website at: http://pembertonphoto.com/
or our fine art website at: http://mcfineartphoto.com/

MOONLIT NIGHT AT BADWATER

During our recent visit to Death Valley, Cathy and I continued our exploration of night photography. On our first night out we went up to Zabriskie Point. The moon had not yet risen and we obtained some wonderful images.

A few nights later I realized that we would have a waxing crescent moon. That day we had been to Badwater and marveled at the immense salt flats and polygon salt formations. Thinking back upon our experiences at Arches National Park I realized that we could perhaps use the moon light to illuminate the salt pan while still getting a beautiful sky full of stars.

We got down to Badwater at about 9 pm and set up our equipment. After a few test shots to establish the proper exposure we got to work. The following shot was the result.

Exposure for this shot was 20 seconds, f 2.8, ISO 3200 using a 17 mm lens mounted on a Nikon D700. I turned on long term noise reduction to reduce the amount of noise in the sky. The salt pan was brightened somewhat in post production to improve the image.

Give it a try.
Mark

SOMETHING NEW

Many of our faithful followers are familiar with our Digital Abstractions. These are photographs that we modify in Photoshop to produce artistic images that have abstract and or impressionistic character. If you haven't seen this work before please check out some examples at:

http://www.mcfineartphoto.com/digital_abstractions/

Many people have asked us how we create these images but it is very difficult to answer because each image is different. There is no filter or button that you can press in Photoshop to accomplish this. Each image is the result of hours of work

Recently we have started working with the blending brush and other filters and have come up with what we hope is a unique look. In the example below I started with a photo of a cluster of white flowers and came up with the following image. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

Cathy and I would greatly appreciate your comments on this new addition to our Digital Abstracts, especially from those of you with fine arts backgrounds.

Thanks for your help.
Mark

Camera West Presentation

Tonight Cathy and I will be presenting at Camera West. The topic of our talk will be "Becoming Focused" and represents our development as photographers. For those attending tonight's presentation I have two recommended sources of information.

For photography in the US I cannot recommend highly enough Robert Hitchman's newsletter Photographing America. To date, he has published 117 issues, all packed with invaluable information for photographers. Check out Robert's site at:
http://www.photographamerica.com/
I highly recommend purchasing all of his back issues!

My second recommendation is for anyone planning a trip to the southwest. I strongly recommend purchasing any book by Laurent Martres. He has three volumes on the Southwest and one on Oregon. These books are full of precise detail that photographers will find very useful.

Best regards,
Mark

Experience, Create, Share, Re-Experience

As I mature, both chronologically and psychologically, I find myself becoming more contemplative. In my early days of photography, if it moved, I’d shoot it. In fact, if it didn’t move I’d also shoot it. My goal was to create great looking images. These days I’ve become much more selective. I want my images to be meaningful. I find myself not taking a shot as often as I take one. My choice of subjects has become much more selective. Simply creating a good-looking image is no longer sufficient. To achieve this goal I have boiled my photography down to the following four steps: Experience, Create, Share and Re-Experience.

As photographers we are continually advised to get to know and understand our subjects. Excellent advice, to be sure. Understanding the habits of wildlife or the prevailing lighting conditions of a location will undoubtedly lead to better photographic possibilities. It is essential that you take time to experience the environment and your subject before shooting it. This will result in both better images as well as an experience to add to your lifetime of experiences. For myself, photography has ceased to be about creating images and is more about capturing experiences, hence the first Experience in my process. Two years ago Cathy and I toured Iceland. Iceland is an amazingly beautiful country, and we certainly came home with many beautiful images. However, it is the memory and experience that we had while touring the country that I wanted to capture. The book that we wrote when we returned, is titled “Iceland – A Personal Journey” to reflect that this was a book of our experiences.

The second step in my process is to Create. Joe McNalley wrote a wonderful book titled “The Moment it Clicks” about “the sheer joy of clicking the shutter”. This moment of creation is essential and includes all the things that we have been taught as photographers; composition, exposure, lighting, anticipation of action, etc. The moment you click the shutter you have created an image, frozen one instant in time. However, the process of creation is far from over. Ansel Adams is famously quoted as saying: “A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” This takes you back to what you experienced as you took the photo. The totality of what you observed and felt should be expressed in the final image. The idea that a camera’s CMOS sensor is the equivalent of the combination of the human eye and brain is ludicrous. How the image is processed will reflect the artist as much as reality. Will the image be printed on gloss or matte paper? As a color or B&W print? Should you darken the sky or burn in some of the highlights? Add a vignette? These are just a subset of the many decisions to be made in the final stage of creating an image. The final image should represent the photographer’s experience of the event as well as their vision.

One thing that almost all artists enjoy is Sharing their work. What is the point in creating a work of art if not to share it. As a matter of fact, sharing of photographs is what is driving the current explosive growth in digital photography. Most of us remember when sharing images meant carrying around a paper envelope of 3 ½ x5 inch prints and showing them to friends and family. You could always tell the serious photographers, they carried around their latest 8x10 B&W prints. Times have changed radically. Online sharing is now the norm. Today a person is more likely to pull out their smart phone to show you photos from their last vacation or of their new baby. In fact, it is highly likely that they took the photos with their smart phone. You can have your own internet gallery on pbase, photo.net, photosig or Flickr. And of course there is the omni-present Facebook. There is no question that technology has tremendously enhanced our ability to share our images, and experiences, with others. But what does this mean for the serious photographer?

The beauty of the digital revolution is that it has opened up so many new ways for photographers to share their images and to express themselves. It is very easy today to create an attractive website to display your portfolio. Some of the savviest photographers today are making great use of Flickr. If you are serious about selling your work or services is it assumed that you will have a Facebook page and a blog to promote yourself.

Another form of sharing that has become extremely easy is publishing your photos in book form. Pick up any photography magazine and you will find dozens of companies that make it simple for you to create coffee table style books of your works. I find the creation of books to be one of the most satisfying methods for sharing my work. I can include not only my images but factual details and my thoughts of the event. I have also begun to create ebooks that can be downloaded and shared over the web. The options for sharing continue to expand.

Understanding how you will Share your work is essential to the Experience and Creation steps. Cathy and I were recently touring Death Valley. I had never been there before and became fascinated by the geology and history. I thought it would be fun to create a book that would include our fine art photographs as well as describe the history and evolution of the valley. Instead of focusing my efforts exclusively on fine art photography I began to think journalistically, and began to document old mill ruins etc. Thus the manner in which I intended to share my work was driving my experiences and creative process.

The final step in my process is to Re-Experience your work. I know that most photographers enjoy going back to old images and looking at them. They bring back fond memories of past experiences. And, after all, isn’t that what we want? As we age it is extremely pleasurable to be able to look back on a lifetime of work and re-experience it. I can think of nothing more satisfying!

(If you would like to see examples of our ebooks of other works please check out our website at: http://mcfineartphoto.com.)

Time Lapse Photography

With all the advances that are occurring today in digital photography it is becoming more and more an integrated multimedia platform. In addition to creating fine photographic prints I find that more and more of my time is spent in maintaining websites and galleries, as well as in creating books, e-books and slide shows. I have found the process of creating digital slide shows to be among the most rewarding tasks as it incorporates the use of photography and music.

Recently I was perusing the photos that Cathy and I took while shooting in the Southwest. We had gone to Arches National Park early in the morning to photograph sunrise on the Organ rock formation in the park. We set up our tripods and waited for sunrise. Every couple of minutes I took a photo as the lighting changed.

I loaded the photos into Lightroom and as I quickly ran through the images, looking for the best image, I noticed something amazing. Right before my eyes on the computer screen I was watching the sunrise being re-enacted. Because my camera was on a tripod, all of the images were in perfect register. It was one of those Ahah! moments. I immediately realized that by stringing the images together in a slide show I would be able to create the illusion of a time-lapse movie of sunrise in Arches National Park.

I quickly loaded the images into ProShow Producer and created a slide show. Though rough, it was clear that the potential was there. I simply had to define the conditions. In order to create smooth motion I set the slide duration to 0.1 second. I used a dissolve transition of 2 seconds between each image. When I replayed the slide show under these conditions I had a nearly perfect time-lapse movie of sunrise on the Organ in Arches.

I decided at that point that this would be the opening for my Southwest slideshow. I wanted to begin the sequence with a black slide and fade up, as if we had been waiting for sunrise in the dark. Unfortunately, my first shot in the sequence showed the Organ in the pre-dawn twilight, not darkness as I wanted. Undaunted I made 3 copies of the first image and dropped the exposure 1, 2 or 3 f stops to create the illusion of the sun rising.

The end result was almost exactly what I hoped for. Initially the sky and the face of the Organ brighten as the sun rises, then the color changes from a cool pale to warm orange as the rays of the sun illuminate the rock surface. If you’d like to view the sequence, check out the video at the end of this post.

Of course there are may ways to include video in slide shows today. ProShow Producer allows the incorporation of video files directly. However, this is a technique that is within the reach of most photographers in that it is simple to set up. Give it a try and if you come up with something interesting, let me know at mspemberton@att.net.

HOUSE AT ARNARSTAPI DOES IT AGAIN

On Sunday, January 9th, the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs (N4C) hosted its Annual Awards Banquet and New Board Installation. Once again the event was held at the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco. Cathy and I were present to represent the Diablo Valley Camera Club, as were our friends Mike and Lori Espinosa, and Karen Najarian.

All the winning prints from the annual competition were on display. There was time to peruse the winning prints and catch up with old friends before the banquet service began.

After lunch a slide show of the winning Prints and Projected images was presented. As would be expected, the array of beautiful images was amazing. And yes, we took home our share of awards. In the Monochrome Masters division my "House at Arnarstapi" took the 1st place Medal. (see side bar) A second print of mine, "Mill Stones" took 4th in the same division. I also got an Honorable Mention for Brimilsvelir Kirkja as did Cathy for her portrait of "Bosco".

Brimilsvelir Kirkja

Mill Stones

Bosco

Best regards,
Mark