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Phase One Capture One 20 software review

28 Jan

Phase One Capture One 20
$ 129-299 | captureone.com/en/store

For many years, Adobe’s Lightroom was seen as the gold standard for photographers seeking a way to manage and edit their Raw files on Windows or Mac OS. These days, though, there are an ever-increasing selection of third-party alternatives on both platforms, and one of the most popular of these is Phase One’s long-running Capture One series. I regularly hear from pros who’ve switched to Capture One, and its popularity with enthusiasts is also on the uptick.

Now in its 13th generation, Phase One’s flagship imaging application covers all the bases: Images can be tagged, rated or given easily searchable keywords, and a wide range of manual and automatic tools are available to correct common exposure issues and lens defects, or to grade color and bring your artistic vision to life.

And for many cameras and camera backs from Canon, Fujifilm, Mamiya Leaf, Nikon and Sony, Capture One can even take charge of the capture process, allowing you to shoot remotely by tethering your camera to your desktop or laptop.

Key takeaways:

  • Organize, rate, cull and edit your photos in one app
  • Improved ease of use and image quality
  • Redesigned Basic Color Editor is both intuitive and powerful
  • Fair performance, but image rendering is on the slow side
  • Easily import your catalogs from Lightroom
  • Good support for mainstream/pro cameras, but less popular brands and some consumer-oriented models are missing from the list
  • Higher pricing than rivals, but you can choose subscription or perpetual licensing

What’s New in Capture One 20

Capture One 20 follows on from Capture One 12, released in 2018 and will still look very familiar to anyone who’s used recent versions. Although it’s not the revolution that the new version number might suggest, it nevertheless includes a few new and updated features, as well as support for a variety of more recent camera models.

In addition to its new camera support, Capture One 20’s main focus is on improving ease of use, and on getting better results from your images. Its extremely customizable user interface has been updated to make it less intimidating to new users, and it’s also easier to keep the tools you most use close to hand. Updated tools and algorithms promise easier cropping plus better noise reduction and dynamic range adjustments, while improved support for layers-based editing makes it simpler to copy your changes between images. And there are a variety of more minor tweaks and bug fixes on offer, as well.

The tool stack in Capture One 20 is now split into pinned and scrollable areas. You can easily add or remove tools, or drag them between the two sections.

A friendlier UI that’s easier to learn

Phase One has put a fair bit of work into making Capture One 20’s user interface more approachable, and I think it’s succeeded pretty well. New users will definitely appreciate the addition of text labels beneath the icons in the main toolbar, whose function otherwise might not have been obvious. And I found myself quite a fan of the tooltips which pop up when you hover your mouse pointer or pen over individual UI elements. These not only tell you what the various unlabeled controls do, but also show which shortcut key you could’ve used to access them more quickly.

You can now pin your most-used tools atop the redesigned tool stack for quick access

Speaking of keyboard shortcuts, these are searchable through the edit menu too, making it very easy indeed to learn how to operate Capture One from the keyboard wherever possible. (You can also customize them all to your heart’s content.)

Another notable redesign is in the tool stack which, by default, lines the left-hand side of the screen. Your most-used tool panels can now be pinned to the top of the list for quick access, while the others remain accessible in a scrollable area beneath, and it’s very easy to drag individual panels between the two sections to arrange things to your liking.

The Basic Color Editor is surprisingly powerful

Phase One has tweaked several of the individual tools on offer in Capture One 20. The most significant change is in the Basic Color Editor, which now sports two additional color ranges for a total of eight. Tweaking a color range you want to modify is now as simple as clicking on the nearest color in the tool panel and then dragging the hue, saturation and lightness sliders to make your change without affecting any other color range in the image. As you do so, you see your change take effect in near-real time.

Capture One 20’s new Basic Color Editor makes adjustments to specific colors — whether subtle or, as here, quite radical — both quick and easy.

While this in itself is great, I found the Basic Color Editor’s eye-dropper to be even more powerful and intuitive. To use it, you click to select the color you want to edit from the image itself, and then while holding the mouse button down, drag either horizontally or vertically to adjust the hue or saturation directly. If you want to adjust the lightness, you do the same thing, but hold down the alt key (or, on Mac OS, the option key) as you click-and-drag.

Regardless of which method you’re using, the Basic Color Editor tool now also supports layers-based editing, helping you to avoid the more complex (but also, even more powerful) Advanced Color Editor.

Better noise reduction, cropping and HDR editing

The updated Basic Color Editor is more of an attention-grabber, but several other tools have also received some useful updates. The noise reduction tool can now hold onto detail and color better, taming unsightly noise patterns. I still don’t think it’s as powerful as the PRIME de-noising engine in DxO’s PhotoLab, but it’s also far, far faster. A fairer comparison would be to Lightroom Classic’s noise reduction tools, and here I think Phase One is the equal of its main rival.

Capture One 20’s noise reduction can now better hold onto detail and color. Here, I’m comparing before-and-after 100% crops from a Canon M6 II shot at ISO 25,600.

The crop tool, meanwhile, now has visible handles at its corners and the center of each side and, when used in concert with the shift and alt / option keys, allows you to either fix the aspect ratio or to lock the crop adjustment around its center point. And the HDR tool has gained new white and black sliders to adjust the darkest and brightest areas of the image, while its highlight and shadow sliders now default to a centered position when zeroed out. Layer-based editing support has also been improved; you can now copy layers between photos even if their dimensions differ, all without replacing their existing layers in the process.

Improved camera support

One of the key changes in Capture One 20 is its improved support for more recent camera models. With eight cameras added to the list, the app can now work with raw files from almost 560 different models from most of the main brands used by enthusiasts and pros alike, and it also sports profiles for a similar number of fixed-lens or interchangeable-lens optics.

Capture One 20’s updated HDR tool in use.

Newly-supported cameras include the Canon EOS 90D and M6 Mark II, Nikon Z 50, Leica V-Lux 5, Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H, Pentax K-1 II, Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III and Ricoh GR III. In addition, GoPro’s HERO line of action cameras have received generic Raw support, and you’ll get better results with native or converted DNG Raw files from cameras which aren’t explicitly supported. There’s only one new lens profile, though, for the Rodenstock RS-23mm/Aerial.

If your camera’s Raw format isn’t supported, you’ll still be able to edit JPEG images or Raws that have been converted to DNG format, but you’re not going to get the benefit of Phase One’s custom profiles which are tuned based on the company’s in-house hardware testing process. Phase One’s website has lists of cameras whose raw files are natively supported by Capture One 20, and lenses that Phase One has profiled for automatic correction.

Support for pen / touch and 4K, even on Windows

Although 4K displays are now quite common even in laptops, Microsoft’s Windows OS still doesn’t support them terribly well, and many apps are harder to use on really high-res screens. Thankfully, Capture One 20 has no such issues, even on Windows. All of its user interface elements are shown at a size that is not only readable, but also large enough to serve as touch-screen targets. (And they all function properly with my Wacom AES 2.0 stylus, as well.)

Modern hardware like 4K screens, touch screens and pens / styluses is all well-supported

Really, my only complaint on the resolution front is a relatively minor one. For the best performance, Phase One recommends making previews with at least the same resolution as your display, yet Capture One 20 defaults to previews that are just 2,560 pixels on the longer side even if installed on a machine whose display resolution is far higher.

It takes only a few clicks to change the preview image size in the preferences dialog, but new users with high DPI displays are likely to find themselves wondering why it takes a moment for their images to render when browsing them full-screen. I’d like to see Phase One detect the display resolution instead, and then either adjust the default appropriately, or prompt the user to do so on startup.

The updated crop tool in Capture One 20 is now easier to use.

Performance is fair, but could use improvement

Speaking of performance, I found it to be a bit of a weak point. Initial imports are pretty quick, letting you start browsing and editing images relatively swiftly. And browsing / editing of images is reasonably swift as well, although previews did lag behind my adjustments by perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 second, which is a bit slower than Lightroom Classic on the same hardware.

Creating preview images on my machine, however, took about twice as long as Lightroom, even if I allowed my computer to remain otherwise idle until the process was complete. And processing / exporting full-res images took about 20-30% longer in Capture One than in Lightroom, using similar settings.

Creating preview images and exporting full-res ones is a fair bit slower than Lightroom

Interestingly, this seems to be a conscious decision on Phase One’s part. If I open Windows 10’s resource monitor during these processes, I can see that Lightroom pegs all my CPU threads at 100% for the duration of the operation, whereas Capture One 20 would typically hover at around the 40-60% utilization mark on all threads, with only occasional spikes to 80%, and seldom reaching 100% utilization on any core.

I can only speculate that Phase One is attempting to keep the UI responsive during image processing, and indeed I did find it much more usable than Lightroom if I continued to browse and edit other images while these background tasks continued. But if so, I’d rather the full processor power be unleashed when the machine is otherwise idle, as it’s frustrating to be kept waiting longer than necessary.

On the plus side, though, Capture One does at least give you a surprisingly accurate estimate of how long each operation will take to complete. Adobe gives you no such estimate.

It’s likely Phase One are intentionally trading off pure rendering performance for a more responsive user interface

For reference, I am using a 2018-vintage Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop with 2.2GHz hexa-core processor, not a cutting-edge machine by any standard, but nevertheless reasonably recent and powerful. To ensure a fair comparison, I imported the same mixture of several thousand raw and JPEG images shot with several recent cameras to both Capture One and Lightroom. I first reset both applications to their defaults, and also used a fresh catalog. (The preview image size was set to 3840 pixels in both apps.)

Up next – let’s take a look at how Capture One 20 compares to an industry standard: Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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DNP Photo launches new dye sublimation printer with mobile support and more

28 Jan

DNP Photo has released its new QW410 compact dye-sublimation photo printer featuring a 4.5in print head, 5.9kg (13lbs) weight and relatively small dimensions at 20 x 19.6 x 24cm (8 x 7.75 x 9.5in). When compared to the maker’s DS-RX1HS and DS620A models, the QW410 has 28% and 35% lower power consumption, respectively.

The model offers a number of key features, including a lay-flat printing function that reduces print curl, support for glossy and matte photo paper, an optional wireless accessory that add supports for directly printing from Android, iOS, Windows and macOS, as well as print speeds as fast as 19 seconds for 4 x 6in prints.

The QW410 features a 300 x 300 dpi resolution and support for the following print sizes:

  • 4 X 6in
  • 4 X 4in
  • 4.5 X 8in
  • 4.5 X 4.5in

Photographers who need to print photos while away from the office can pair the QW410 with an optional portable battery for use without an outlet. DNP Photo also offers an optional carrying bag. The photo printer is available to purchase from several retailers like B&H Photo in the USA, Canada, and Latin America for $ 469.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Autel pushes back EVO II launch to March after discovering pre-production bug

28 Jan

Autel’s three EVO II drones were set for a late January release, but due to a last-minute software bug the engineering team discovered during production, Autel has confirmed to DPReview that its EVO II drones will likely be pushed back to a March release.

The bug, which ‘could limit flight performance under normal operation,’ according to an email sent to us and copy shared on Autel’s social media accounts, is being addressed on the production line, rather than needing to be fixed by consumers as a day-one software update. Due to the combination of this delay and the Chinese New Year, Autel is estimating that the first units should hit shelves in March, although it notes ‘this is not a set date or time frame,’ as ‘things can always change.’

The post, which is shared in its entirety below, thanks interested customers for their patience as the 18-member Autel team works to get units out as soon as possible.

You can read our original Autel EVO II series coverage for more information about the impending drones and keep up to date with the latest developments via Autel’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channel.

Hello Everyone!

First, we want to thank all of our fans and followers. It doesn’t matter if you just follow one of our social channels, or if you fly our products every day. Your support and enthusiasm have always kept us going here at the Seattle office.

With the announcement of EVO II at CES, the response has been absolutely crazy. This community is exploding, and we thank you for your patience with us as we are still trying to catch up on responses. We also want to be as transparent as possible and give you all periodic updates on the status and availability of EVO II. That way you have the most up to date information straight from us and not just rumors.

Our goal at CES was to get the initial units of EVO II (8k) into the hands of dealers by the end of January. Unfortunately, during production, we found a bug in our software that could limit flight performance under normal operation. Instead of shipping the hardware with a known issue and forcing users to perform day 1 updates, we have decided to delay the rest of production and shipments until we have resolved the issue. Our projected timeline is to have EVO II available for purchase in March. This is not a set date or time frame, and things can always change. But with the information we have today, that is our goal.

The team in Seattle is very small and we are adding channel support as we can. We are looking to start up our website newsletter again in the next few weeks. So for any future updates, please check our website, the official social channels, and emails coming directly from us.

We thank you for your patience. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get a hold of us at support@autelrobotics.com

Thank you all again and fly safe!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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OnePlus promises major video improvements on its future smartphones

28 Jan

Earlier this month smartphone manufacturer OnePlus hosted on Open Ears Forum, an event designed to gather user feedback, in New York City. This time around the focus was on smartphone videography and attendees included OnePlus users with varying degrees of video experience, from casual users to video shooters that use smartphones as a work tool.

Now OnePlus has published its own comments from the Q&A sessions held at the event and committed to improving video quality and features on its existing products as well as upcoming models. The most important points include exposure and color consistency across all camera modules, LUT options in editing and a video night mode. You can see the full list below:

  • Exposure / color / white balance shift and consistency across all cameras
    Tuning all the cameras to have the identical exposure, white balance is our first priority and main goal.
  • Auto focus consistency
    We weren’t be able to reproduce the issue reported by the OEF attendees in our lab, but an upgrade both on hardware and software for auto focus will come in 2020.
  • Skin tone consistency
    Skin tone improvement is one of our top priorities. It will improve via future system updates.
  • Sharpness: Sharpness needs improvement across all scenarios
    We are trying to find the new balance between sharpness and noise.
  • Super stabilization: Support for 4K recording; Reducing noise and improving low light quality.
    There are hardware limitations, but 4K super stabilization will be supported in some of our future devices.
  • Dynamic range: Subject is lit but background is too dark
    We have been working on video HDR, which will solve these dynamic range problems.
  • Light flickering
    We’ve heard a lot of feedback about this, and we are working on de-flickering solutions to reduce this issue.
  • Panning shots are not smooth: Improve panning shots stabilization and smoothness
    So far, we weren’t be able to reproduce this issue in our lab, but smoothness and video are part of our key improvement points for 2020.
  • Faster camera
    Again, this is one of our main goals in 2020. Faster shutter requires updates from system, application, as well as the animation. It will constantly be improved via future updates.
  • Lens feature-parity: 1080P and 4K should be supported in all three lenses, allowing to switch between lenses while recording
    This is due to a hardware limitation in current devices, but we’re exploring ways to make it possible for future devices.
  • Limited 4K record length
    Having considered overall performance and temperature, we will not change current limit, but will keep working on optimizing this in the future.
  • Single handed use: Difficult to reach the top bar for features; Single hand zooming
    This is very important feedback for us, and we’ve already been discussing solutions with the design team.
  • Video editing
    We plan on completely updating our Gallery app’s video tools, so many of the features requested during the OEF will be supported. For color grading or LUT options, we will have news soon.
  • Pro video mode
    Pro video mode will be put into backlog, since our high priority is improving default video quality and use experience across the board.
  • Depth of field for tele camera recording (optical)
    We have already been researching and working on this feature, and the current quality has not reached our standard to release.
  • Zoom-in time-lapse
    We have some similar ideas for time-lapse as well, they are already in future product plan.
  • Reverse recording video
    Less frequent user scenario, so we’ve put into backlog. Our main focus in video is basic quality and user experience for all users.
  • Night mode for night video
    This is something we believe to be very interesting, we have already been researching and working on it.
  • AR emoji and stickers recording
    We still haven’t found a killer scenario for AR in video. There are some third-party apps that already offer interesting sticker features, so this isn’t a big priority for now.
  • Social media mode: Directly to twitter, crop ratio for Instagram, etc.
    We believe the image quality in third-party apps is of high importance and has a higher priority. We have been working on this, these features are planned after image quality improvement.
  • Light painting mode
    We decide not to follow on light painting effect due to a narrow user scenario.
  • 2 cameras recording at the same time: Wide and ultra-wide; rear and front
    This is already supported by current platform and cameras, but we are looking for user scene to fully take advantage of this feature.

It’s a long list and we’ll have to see if the OnePlus engineers will manage to implement all of the features and improvements in it. In any case it’s good to see manufacturers interact this closely with its customers and vowing to make improvements that users are asking for.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Xiaomi asks users which camera manufacturer it should collaborate with

28 Jan

Collaborations between smartphone camera manufacturers aren’t anything new. We’ve seen Leica labels on Huawei phones, the Zeiss logo on Sony and Nokia handsets and Motorola used to offer a Hasselblad-branded camera module for its Moto Z series. It’s often difficult to tell if the teamwork is mostly marketing-driven or actually happening on an engineering level but one thing is clear: smartphone manufacturers like the logo of a big-name camera brand on their devices.

Chinese company Xiaomi has so far (as far as we know) worked without the help of a big name in the camera business, but it appears this could be about to change. The company launched a survey on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, asking users which camera company it should collaborate with.

Image: Weibo

Options included Hasselblad, Canon and Nikon. The ‘vote’ was won by Hasselblad. There is, of course, no way of knowing if we’ll see a Xiaomi phone with Hasselblad-branded camera anytime soon but out of three camera manufacturers, it would be the most logical choice. It’s the only one with previous experience in the mobile business (through the Hasselblad True Zoom module) and has previously collaborated with other manufacturers in the camera category. In any case, we’d hope a company like Xiaomi does not base strategic business decisions solely on social media surveys.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: 20 couples poses in under 10 minutes

28 Jan

Adorama has published a new video featuring photographer Pye Jirsa as he teaches photographers more than 20 couples poses in less than 10 minutes. This is the second part of Jirsa’s Couples Crash Course; the first part introduced five foundational couples poses that ‘every photographer should know.’

This is part of the ‘Master Your Craft’ photography tutorial video series published on the Adorama YouTube channel.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Florian Ledoux’s arctic photos illustrate the effects of climate change

27 Jan

Florian Ledoux’s arctic photos illustrate the effects of climate change

About this photo: This image of people rowing through chunks of glacial ice was a semi-finalist in Red Bull’s Illume competition.

Chances are, if you follow what’s happening in the world of photography, you’ve already seen at least one image taken by French photographer Florian Ledoux. His work has won multiple awards, has been published in major magazines including National Geographic, and was recently on display at the Louvre Carrousel in Paris. Ledoux took a big risk, several years back, and left his 9-to-5 job to pursue photography full-time. His involvement with the Arctic Arts Project is what made his images stand out to an international audience.

I got a chance to interview Ledoux and discover what inspired him to start documenting the effects of climate change. Florian will be leading a guided photo tour through East Greenland next September. To learn more, contact him through his Facebook page.

What inspired you to get involved in the Arctic Arts Project?

I love the polar regions of the planet for their immense landscape and nature, which remains wild and almost untouched by human activity. You can sail, hike, and explore for several days or weeks without witnessing any sign of human presence. The scale of those landscapes where incredible species live is what draws me there. I was deeply touched while I took my first journey above the Arctic Circle when I was ten years old, with my parents, and this feeling is something that is still growing in intensity as I explore further.

As I got into photography, it came naturally that my work has to serve science and conservation. The Arctic Arts Project aims to work together with scientists and conservationists. The main idea is that they have the data and we have images to combine to better communicate to the public and leave a stronger impact. In March, for example, Jason Box and other researchers published a meta study gathering 35 years of data on climate change in Greenland — from temperature increases to sea ice loss, from shifts in the tundra to land ice loss.

Two months later, in May, Arctic Arts Project photographers went to Greenland to see exactly how those changes are playing out in real time. We captured images of early flora bloom, of dissolving sea ice, and the ice sheet melting. The Arctic Arts Project presented the findings from our May expedition to Greenland to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). Here is a video of the presentation, if you’d like a better look at what we found and some thoughts on the changes in Western Greenland and the world.

What message would you like to convey to people who don’t believe climate change is real, based on your observations?

Nature is everything to me, it is the place where I feel connected to the rest of the world. Nature is the place where it all makes sense, the place where we find all the answer about life. It feels like it is where it all began! These are our origins. Not only do we come from nature, but we are part of this complex ecosystem – the mysterious equation called LIFE.

When I find myself in the remote Arctic, co-existing in harmony with the wildlife that calls it home, I know that this is where everything makes total sense. I know it because I feel it deep within myself. It is a deep vibe that consumes my body and soul in its entirety. At this moment, the urge to create an image that I would remember for the rest of my life with a strong message to protect it comes naturally to me.

What inspired you to incorporate a drone into your workflow?

The bird’s eye perspective a drone provides has become a major part of my work. It started as I was always seeking a new way to show our planet. Drones are a revolution, allowing us to capture images that wouldn’t have been possible with and helicopter. Drones are also much more eco-friendly.

I believe in, and aspire to bring, a new perspective of capturing wildlife we already know well from traditional photography. I believe these images allow us to observe and document patterns from a new angle and approach, revealing the animals in their entirety as well as in a wider habitat and landscape, in a way not before possible. Using a drone has provided a new way of learning about the white Northern part of our planet. Drones need to be used with care and ethics, especially when it comes to documenting wildlife. The same principles apply for a normal wildlife photographer, no one should run toward the animal or disrupt their habitat.

Any final words of advice?

Air Iceland Connect changed my life. In June 2017, I got an opportunity to embark on a sailing expedition from Greenland to Nunavut. Many of us have this life where we are stuck in a 9-to-5 job with excuses not to do things we love. So I quit! I quit my stable life, quit my job, I quit holding myself back, and feeling trapped with not being who I would like to be. I followed my heart, my passion. I now have the most beautiful life I could imagine. In the end, all I want to say is this: Live and don’t let anybody tell you that it is not possible to follow your dreams.

Crabeater Seals resting on the ice in Antarctica

About this photo: Here is a group of crabeater seals resting on the ice in Antarctica early in the morning after a feed during the night. They mainly haul out onto the packed ice in early Spring where they form small family groups consisting of a male, female, and pup. According to some studies, most haulouts are shorter than 24 hours without change through the seasons. However, the timing of haulouts shifted during the study period. After midwinter, the pattern shifted with haulouts starting in the morning and ending in the late afternoon.

Gear and specs: DJI Phantom 4 Pro +; f/7,5; ISO: 400; Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec

Polar bear leaping the ice during summer in Canada

About this photo: It has been a year seen the Canadian government and Nunavut agreed on creating a Marine Protected Area in the Lancaster Sound called Tallurutiup Imanga. It is also a year that I captured this beautiful image of the polar bear leaping the ice with its message on climate. Since then, the image has traveled a lot all around the world.

I am so grateful to everyone that understands the importance of my work, to help conservation efforts in the Arctic. I believe visual images connect us to nature, it helps us to better understanding the planet where we live and make the right decisions. My hope for dear future generations is that you will be able to witness what we see now.

In 2016 only 4.7% of the Arctic’s marine areas were protected. Hopefully, the target of 10% by 2020 will be reached but progress is too slow. Polar bears need the ice not only to hunt but to rest and live.

Gear and specs: DJI Phantom 4 Pro+; f/8; ISO: 100; Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec

Glacier calving in Antarctica last December

About this photo: I have seen beautiful things in my life but I have never seen such a thing as crazy as Antarctica, a place so hostile, so powerful but so fragile. When I lose the words, moved by this beauty of the world, the photos to come will take over what I can not articulate.

This expedition was amazing, with its ups and downs, extensive hours of work, short nights, 11,250 photos taken, 1TB of video stored, a furious sea on our way back, but what images I managed to capture!

Gear and specs: Nikon D5 with 60-600mm 4.5-5.3 lens; f/6.5; ISO: 360; Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec

A polar bear at the edge of the ice during summer in North Canada

About this photo: Where am I going next, asked a guy when I met him on my journey in 2017? There was almost no ice left in the Lancaster Sound and the area. As the sea ice declines, industrial activities such as fishing, shipping, mining, and drilling are expected to expand Northward. But I believe in a world where humans are able to learn from nature and reconnect with it. I believe in a world where polar bears will still be among us and will not be just a memory from the past.

Gear and specs: DJI Phantom 4 Pro+; f/8; ISO: 800; Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec

Huge iceberg from the glacier of Ilulissat in Disko Bay, West Greenland

About this photo: This image was captured in Ilulissat, Greenland, on an expedition last December. I am honored to be part of the Arctic Arts Project team. I joined three other incredibly talented photographers to work together on capturing images in this region. In light of new scientific findings on the effects of climate change in the Arctic, our team also traveled to Western Greenland during the Arctic springtime, as several critical elements of change are evident only during this time frame.

Gear and specs: Nikon D5 with a 60-600mm 4.5-5.3 lens; f/8; ISO: 640; Shutter Speed: 1/2500 sec

The sun sets on icebergs that calve from Sermeq Kuuatdleq in Ilulissat

About this photo: It was a magical night but hard work as I was trying to fly blindly in the thick mist. This was one of the last sunsets in the area before a long period of the year. It set the sky on fire while my drone was navigating through the large piece of icebergs that calve from Sermeq Kuuatdleq in Ilulissat.

Gear and specs: DJI Phantom 4 Pro+; f/4.5; ISO: 100; Shutter Speed: 1/120 sec

Gentoo penguins collecting rocks

About this photo: Gentoo penguins are ground-nesting birds. They collect rocks from the beach that they bring on the hill to build the nest, or sometimes give it to their neighbor. The way back from the beach is long and other penguins will come and try to steal it when they arrive close to the colony.

Gear and specs: Nikon D5 with a 60-600mm 4.5-5.3 lens; f/8; ISO: 360; Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec

Aerial view of the sea ice in formation on the East Coast of Greenland during winter

About this photo: Here is an aerial perspective of the sea ice formation in East Greenland. This image won 3rd prize at the international contest of drone photography, 2017, organized by National Geographic and Dronestagram.

Gear and specs: DJI Phantom 3; f/2.8; ISO: 131; Shutter Speed: 1/25 sec

Crabeater seal resting on the fast ice of Antarctica in December

About this photo: This is a crabeater seal resting on the fast ice of Antarctica in December. The crabeaters do most of their feeding at night (typically between 9:00 – 10:00 pm). They can dive as deep as 430 meters although feeding dives are usually around 30 meters.

Gear and specs: Nikon D5 with a 60-600mm 4.5-5.3 lens; f/10; ISO: 300; Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Five reasons you still need vintage lenses in 2020

27 Jan

Photographer and filmmaker Mark Holtze has shared a video explaining ‘5 Reasons Why You Need Vintage Lenses in 2020.’

Throughout the eight-minute video, Holtze highlights five particular reasons vintage, manual lenses still make sense despite increasingly-impressive lenses manufacturers are making nowadays. Holtze says in a comment beneath the video ‘I could have made a list of top 100, but honestly…nobody is sitting through 90 mins of this,’ so eight minutes it is.

Not all of the reasons will make sense for all photographers or filmmakers, but each is valid in their own way. You can find more videos from Holtze on his YouTube channel and keep up with his work on Instagram and Twitter.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Stellina: imaging the sky with a smart telescope

26 Jan

Stellina Telescope Camera
$ 3,999 | vaonis.com

Stellina is a self-contained, portable telescope designed to easily take photographs of celestial objects. All you need is the Stellina itself and a smartphone. It is not a traditional telescope that lets you explore the universe through an eyepiece. Instead, it captures images with its built-in camera which then you can view on your phone (or tablet). During my latest trip to Yellowknife, Canada I was able to put the Stellina to the test and capture some classic telescope targets.

When folded, the Stellina looks like a retrofuturistic home appliance and one could hardly guess that it holds a telescope and a camera inside. Its weight of 11 kg (25 lb) makes it portable but its bulky size of 49 x 39 x 13 cm (19 x 15 x 4.7 in) and the lack of handles makes it a little awkward to move around. The Stellina comes with a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod (1.3 kg, 2.2 lb) which provides leveling and stability to the telescope.

Stellina is a portable astronomical telescope and camera. Everything you need to take photographs of celestial objects is contained in this unit and on a smartphone/tablet app.

Setting up the Stellina

The Stellina requires 5.1V / 2.4A to operate. It can be powered by an external battery connected through a USB Type-C port and stored in a compartment, or by an AC external power adapter. The 10,000-mAh battery included with the Stellina should provide approximately 5 hours of use. Once powered up, the Stellina creates its own Wi-Fi network which you use to control it from the Stellina app (available for both iOS and Android devices) .

The Stellina reads the local time and GPS coordinates off your smartphone and then it automatically focus and aligns itself by looking around the sky and identifying stars. All this is done in a completely automated fashion and in just a mater of minutes. Pretty smart!

The Stellina comes with a 10,000-mAh battery that is easily stored in its own compartment and provides approximately 5 hours of use.

Imaging with the Stellina

The Stellina uses a 400mm F5 apochromatic lens and a 1/1.8″ CMOS Sony sensor (3,096 x 2,080 pixels, 6.4 MP) to produce a series of exposures which are then combined into a final image with a Field-of-View (FOV) of 1° x 0.7°. But first you must pick a target.

Once the automated calibration is completed, the Stellina offers you a catalogue of astronomical objects that are visible from your location at that particular time. For each of these objects the Stellina app provides you basic information about the object, its current location in the sky (altitude and azimuth), as well as the recommended exposure time.

Stellina provides useful information of the potential targets up in the sky at the current time, including recommended exposure times.

According to Vaonis, the Stellina manufacturer, “The catalogue includes all Messier objects and the most interesting NGC targets in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.” Some objects whose angular diameters exceed the Stellina’s FOV are excluded from the catalogue, but Vaonis plans to extend that list when they add the ability for the Stellina to combine multiples images in a mosaic.

Vaonis is also planning to let users enter sky coordinates manually and point at any direction in the sky. That will be another welcome feature since the Stellina does not let you manually slew. Luckily, these features should easily become available through software updates.

I selected the Andromeda Galaxy, the Stellina slew to the correct location in the sky, and started imaging. To do this, the telescope relies on a technique called image stacking where a series of relatively short exposure are combined to produce an image with a higher signal-noise ratio. As more images are exposed and added, you can interactively review how the stacking and image processing improves the final image and decide when to stop exposing.

In the two screenshots below, you can see how the image improved from a combined exposure time of 2 min 40 sec (16 exposures of 10 seconds each) to a combined exposure time of 8 min (48 exposures of 10 second each). As expected, the spiral arms of the Andromeda Galaxy appear more prominent as the Stellina gathers more light.

Comparison of a 2 min 40 sec exposure with a longer 8 min exposure. Stellina has the impressive ability of showing you in real-time how the final exposure improves as more images are added and total integration time increases.

I could have exposed for a longer time but, unfortunately, clouds rolled in. Impressively, the Stellina software rejects cloud-covered images and does not add them to the stack, so when clouds cover the FOV you will notice how the total exposure time pauses until the clouds move out of the way. Evidently, automation is at the heart of Stellina and Vaonis has done a great job in the programming of this telescope.

On the other hand, what did not impress was the feedback given by the Stellina app when saving JPEG photos. You can either save images on the app itself or on your smartphone’s photos app (and in the cloud if your phone is set up that way), but if you choose the latter, the photos are deleted from the app (with no warning) along with any observation information. That is, photos copied to your photos app are saved without any metadata. Furthermore, JPEG photos produced by the Stellina are downsampled from 6.4 MP to 1.4 MP.

There’s definitely room for improvement in documenting Stellina’s features

If you want to enjoy full-resolution images you need to retrieve FITS (Raw) files using the USB port. That’s great! As long as you know that options exists. And therein lies a problem. The Stellina instruction manual does a good job of explaining how to set up the telescope up to the point of connecting it to the app, but nothing further. Once you start controlling the telescope via the Stellina app, documentation and feedback from the app is underdeveloped.

I learned about the ability to save Raw images on a Q&A page on the Vaonis support site. Unfortunately, by then I had returned the unit. There’s definitely room for improvement in documenting Stellina’s features. I look forward to someday using the Stellina again and processing its FITS files.

Resulting (JPEG) Images

Below is the resulting 8-minute exposure of the Andromeda Galaxy. The Stellina did a good job of automatically focusing, tracking, stacking, and processing the images. Nevertheless, a bright vignette is fairly noticeable. According to Vaonis, the vignette ‘is produced by the luminescence of the sensor’ and they are working on improving the image processing algorithm.

1.4 MP JPEG of the Andromeda Galaxy saved from the Stellina app. This is the result of 48 10-sec exposures stacked automatically by the Stellina for a total exposure time of 8 minutes.

Afterwards, I selected the open cluster The Pleiades from the catalogue and let Stellina combine 60 10-sec images. Judging by what the Stellina captured in a total exposure time of 10 minutes, it’s a shame that the clouds rolled in again. The blue reflection nebula around the cluster stars was starting to nicely show up in the final image.

1.4 MP JPEG of The Pleiades cluster saved from the Stellina app. This is the result of 60 10-sec exposures stacked automatically by the Stellina for a total exposure time of 10 minutes.

Final Thoughts

The Stellina is a well-thought out smart telescope. It can easily be transported from one location to another and setting it up cannot be more simple. A carrying case to move the telescope around would be a welcome addition.

The fact that the Stellina finds its orientation with respect to the sky, focuses, exposes, stacks, and process images in a completely automated fashion is quite the feat for a prosumer device. Although the Stellina app needs further development, the whole experience of operating the Stellina is fun and the ability of seeing the final exposure improve as more images are stacked is quite gratifying.

The whole experience of operating
the Stellina is fun

Once you’re happy with your final exposure you can easily share your astrophotographs with friends and the rest of the world in a matter of minutes. Stellina is definitely a telescope for the social media age. Then at home, you have the option of experimenting with the Raw files.

Unfortunately, all this comes with the high price tag of $ 3,999. For that price, some will consider instead the more versatile combination of camera, lens, tripod, and star tracker. But if you want a fun-to-use, click-and-shoot device that will work for you while you relax and enjoy the night sky then the Stellina is right for you!

What we like:

  • Extremely easy to set up
  • Smart and highly automated
  • Instant gratification of previewing images as they are stacked
  • Fun to use

What we’d like to see improved:

  • A carrying case included with the telescope
  • Ability to slew to any location in the sky
  • Further development of the Stellina app

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Blair Bunting on photographing Aaron Hernandez on the same day he shot someone

26 Jan
A behind-the-scenes photograph of Blair Bunting capturing a shot of the late New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.

Editor’s note: Blair Bunting is an award-winning advertising photographer who’s no stranger to being in front of high-profile cars, characters and celebrities. From eight-figure cars to professional athletes at the top of their game, Blair has done it all, but one shoot, in particular, stands out for all the wrong reasons. In the following post, Blair details his experience photographing the late New England Patriots football star, Aaron Hernandez, fewer than 24 hours after the former New England tight end committed murder on February 13th, 2013.

I am writing this after getting a torrent of texts from friends and family who have been watching the documentary Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez on Netflix. It turns out I’m in it… an image of me on set with Aaron appears in the second episode.

My first reaction was a bit of anger as I never licensed any images from that shoot (hey Netflix, call me maybe), but as that passed it eventually got me thinking about the day I spent on set with Aaron… the same day he shot someone.

Diving into the mind of another man is enough to make one lose his own. My photoshoot with Aaron Hernandez left me questioning what lies behind the eyes of the subjects who stand before my camera.

My many years of photographing celebrities have led to great experiences and friendships, but this one photoshoot made me question my own mental depth and acuity when it came to the very people that I work so hard to learn about, only to exist until the last shutter closes.

The photoshoot with Aaron took place on the final day of a week-long campaign that I was shooting for a sports client. We had professional athletes from the NBA, MLB and NFL in the studio all day. For me I wanted nothing more than to keep up the quality of the lighting on set through the final athlete, wrap, and then take my wife to Hawaii—the next day was Valentine’s Day.

It had been a long production: through pre-pro meetings, lighting days, scouting and client dinners, mentally I was exhausted and internally I was begging for relief from the pressure that I enjoy so much.

When Aaron Hernandez first entered the studio, I was wearing the jersey and shoulder pads of Clay Matthews (the athlete that preceded Aaron), a Chicago Cubs batting helmet, and drinking a Stella Artois. Perhaps understanding the light-heartedness that I carry on set, he immediately smiled and started laughing. I introduced myself, shook his hand and we started talking pleasantries: how’s the weather, what’s your new house like, how has your day been?

The final question and answer haunt me to this day….

“How has your day been?” I asked.

“Good,” he replied, along with a calm, childlike smile.

Hours earlier, he had shot a man in the head.

Having gone through mental health struggles in the past, the idea of not knowing the mind behind one’s eyes is familiar to me, but the level to which Aaron was able to keep it hidden still frightens me to this day.

As I sit here typing this years later, I still have to pause for a moment in order to digest the gravity of the situation. Having gone through mental health struggles in the past, the idea of not knowing the mind behind one’s eyes is familiar to me, but the level to which Aaron was able to keep it hidden still frightens me to this day.

Upon hearing the news, the people on my crew that day were in shock and disbelief that such a sweet kid could have done such a horrible thing, but as time went on and the details became clearer, we accepted it despite the confusion.

In an odd way, it left me with a dilemma: how do I describe Aaron Hernandez?

I can only describe him with lights and a camera—the truth that existed within him will never play out on set.

As portrait photographers, we are challenged to expose the true nature of the person that stands in front of our camera: be it angry, shy, calm, or intense. However, photographing Aaron Hernandez has taught me a lot about my approach, what I thought existed within the frame lines, and what a camera can never truly capture.

Often times photographers are celebrated for a reaction or expression they’re able to draw out of their subjects (think of Karsh’s iconic image of Winston Churchill). It’s a romantic notion that the photographer is a sort of snake charmer, the subject a willingly controlled entity—together, they make up an act that ends in a great image.

I feel this approach sells the celebrity or model short; a successful photo shoot is the result of the collaborative effort of everyone on set, subject (obviously) included.

What Aaron Hernandez taught me is that all the lights in the world could not illuminate the darkness that lived within his mind.

While he and I worked together very well to get the images that the client wanted, we were merely playing the roles that were asked of us, in a dance that benefits the choreographer more than the dancer. It’s a part of this career where form and light matter more than discovery and truth, where we are not trying to learn anything about the athlete, but rather speak through them for the client’s cause.

On set, if I feel like the shoot has gone well and the images are in the bag, I will sometimes offer my subjects the option to shoot a few frames for fun. Aaron was game, he had seen an image in my portfolio of a football player holing a ball in a profile stance and wanted to have one like it for himself.

We drew the lights and smoke machine and created this image of him in a calm, subtle, almost stoic stance. He was excited about how the pose showed off his tattoos, which seemed to mean a lot to him.

I knew that turning an action light set into an impromptu portrait session wouldn’t be as dynamic a shot as I wanted, but when I got home and looked through the files, it wasn’t the lighting that disturbed me, it was his eyes.

The images we created on set that day were packed with intense expression and focus… the portrait that he asked for was absent of this. It was absent of emotion, of life, almost as if the personality of the young kid with the smiles and laughs had left and what remained was cold and unfeeling.

The images we created on set that day were packed with intense expression and focus… the portrait that he asked for was absent of this. It was absent of emotion, of life, almost as if the personality of the young kid with the smiles and laughs had left and what remained was cold and unfeeling. Maybe this was a result of him being tired, or the difference of direction. But part of me wonders what he was thinking about as the huge light source in front of him popped at full power, probably blinding him, as I could barely see after setting up the softboxes.

We will never know.

Before breaking down set, Aaron asked me about one more shot. I pitched him a few crazy action scenarios (after all, it was the style of set we had that day), but what he wanted was a straight to camera portrait… without his helmet on.

This was the last frame I shot that day, and the last shot of him before the world learned of his dark secret.

I have never shown this image to anybody. Until today, I had chosen not to talk about the situation for many years. But with the recent release of the Netflix documentary about Aaron, and my unsolicited cameo, I found myself watching and wondering what could have been. Hoping, more than anything, that his tragic fall from grace could save someone in his shoes.

This post was written by Blair Bunting and was originally shared on PetaPixel. It was republished here with permission from both parties. Blair is based in Phoenix, Arizona and his work can be found on his website, blog, Instagram and Twitter.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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