Selective highlights ...

Selectively highlighting subjects or elements in the photograph can help in focusing attention to them.

Other techniques to direct attention to various elements in the picture include selective focusing (using depth of field) and using composition techniques like framing, colors, leading lines etc.

The key is to ensure detail in the highlight areas as well as relevant shadow areas. Given the limited exposure latitude, this is a tough challenge. Taking the photo at the right time of the day will ensure adequate exposure to capture details in highlights & shadows.

Backlighting plus selective highlights can bring out the details in leaves and flowers and draw the viewers eye to them.

All photographs with Canon EOS400D and Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens.

A Century - One Hundred Posts and Counting ...

This is my one hundredth post to this blog.

A toddy tapper coming back with his day's collection through the backwaters of Kumarakom in a traditional country boat.

I started this blog to share photographs with my family and friends, somewhere along the way, it expanded in scope to become a medium for me to track my photographic evolution and changes in my style and technique as I continue along this path of learning photography as a medium of self-expression. It continues to be a vehicle for sharing photographs with family, friends and the greater internet community, and to collect their appreciation, feedback and critiques. And in some cases, to serve in documenting my travels & experiences for the benefit of others.

But above all, this serves as one memory that I can look back upon continuously, deriving some inspiration from the subtle signs of improvement that show up in my body of work as time goes on.

After the rain

When I initially started learning and experimenting with photography around eight years back, I never "slotted" myself into any particular genre of the art. Recently however, my primary interests in photography have revolved around travel, adventure, nature & people. This itself is quite generic, and I am fine with this lack of "specialization" that some regard as key to defining and developing a style of one's own. Maybe one day in the future I will find a particular genre more appealing than the rest, but for now, I photograph the moments and/or subjects that I feel must be preserved.

Another discovery is that I do love monochrome photography, they have a quality that is not just restricted to the old time charm that they evoke in the viewer. To strip away multitudes of color is to see the world with different eyes, and this is one key aspect of making interesting photographs. When we play with focal lengths, depth of field, noise, saturation or any other creative effects, what we are trying to do is to convey a vision that would not appear "normal" or "natural" to our eyes. In fact, a 2D representation of a 3D world itself is inherently manipulative and unnatural, and hence a creative tool.

Identifying images that come into their own in monochrome is an interesting exercise in itself.

Flowers at Lalbagh

Hopefully I will continue to have the time to pursue this interesting and challenging hobby, and to keep this blog updated with newer photographs.

If you follow my blog, there are two easy ways you can keep track of updates to the blog:

1. Add yourself as a follower of my blog in the "Followers" tab on the right panel, any updates to my blog will show up in your Blogger Dashboard.
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My Equipment

I use the following photography equipment:

Camera Body

1. Canon EOS 400D
   

Lenses

1. Canon EF 50mm F/1.8
2. Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM
3. Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM
4. Tamron AF 28-200mm F/3.8-5.6 XR Di Aspherical Macro (from my film days)
   

I have Tiffen or Marumi UV filters on all the lens at all time.

Adapters

1. Tamron SP AF 1.4X TC (for use with 70-200 L)
   

Flash

1. Canon Speedlite 430 EX
   

Bags

1. Lowepro Fastpack 250
   

Tripod/Monopod

1. Canon Monopod

Batteries

1. 2 x Canon NB-2LH
   
2. 4 x 2500 mAh NiMh for flash
   

New Canon Lens: EF-S 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 IS

As mentioned in my previous post on Canon walk around lens choices, the EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM is my current lens of choice for such a purpose. However, that might change depending on how good the new EF-S 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 IS lens announced by Canon is.

Photo courtesy dpreview.

Announced in August 2008 prior to Photokina 2008, this lens provides an equivalent focal range of 29-320mm with an exciting 11X zoom range. With up to 4 stop Image Stabilization, 1.5 ft closest focusing distance and 600g weight, this lens promises to be an ideal companion for a 1.6X FOVC camera as the lens to have on all the time. Lack of USM is a disappointment, autofocus performance needs to be seen once the lens is out. The major factor would be the Image Quality (IQ) of this lens and how much Canon had to compromise to bring out a budget (?) lens with 11X zoom range.

Priced at $699, this is not exactly a cheap lens. Alternatives are Sigma 18-200mm F/3.6-6.3 DC OS or the newly announced Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro (whew!).

Canon EOS 50D

Before Photokina 2008, Canon has announced the EOS 50D DSLR along with Canon EF-S 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 IS Lens.

Photo courtesy dpreview.com.

Comparing against the EOS 400D I have owned since the beginning of this year, why would I consider an upgrade to EOS 50D (or EOS 40D as that will continue to be available)? I can think of the following reasons, assuming EOS 50D will be at least as good as EOS 40D for the following parameters:

1. Better image quality due to sensor enhancements and 14-bit processing
2. Expanded usable ISO range and better noise reduction
   
3. Faster auto focus that works better under low light conditions
4. Better build quality and weather resistance
5. Better LCD screen (3.0" size, VGA resolution & usability under bright light) for image review
   

I am ambivalent about the following features:

Live View
Even on Point & Shoot digital cameras (I have owned and used quite a few including Canon S2 IS), I tend to use view finder rather than LCD screen. The poor performance of LCD screen under sunlight and power drain are two major factors why I choose not to use LCD.

Higher Resolution The 15 MP on EOS 50D comes at a cost - file size. I started shooting RAW recently and find disk space an issue even with the 9 MB RAW files generated by my 10 MP EOS 400D. As of now, my photographs are pretty much used only for display on my blog, but I would still like to have archival copies of all images for whatever the future holds.

High Speed Continuous Shooting
I am primarly a landscape photographer and have not used the high speed continuous shooting mode extensively. However, this is something I would like to experiment with for wildlife & sports photography and maybe even for portrait photography, especially with kids. EOS 40D & 50D are capable of 6+ fps and have higher buffer sizes for storing more images in burst mode.

In summary, I personally would evaluate & justify the price premium primarily with respect to image quality, low light performance and build quality. There are of course, other factors like weight, battery capacity, responsiveness and custom functions. But they would not weigh in as primary factors if and when I consider upgrading to a better camera body.

Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II

The Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II is the smallest, lightest & cheapest lens available from Canon. Although I was not a big fan of this lens on film as I did not find the 50mm focal length very exciting, I am very impressed with the performance of this lens on a digital SLR with 1.6X FOVCF. Mounted on my EOS 400D, for example, this lens becomes a 90mm F/1.8 lens which is perfect for portrait and low light photography.

Rathi @ Krip & Pari's engagement party
Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II
1/20s @ F/1.8, ISO 400, Fill-in flash

Although there has been negative reviews about the poor bokeh (image quality of out of focus areas) of this lens due to usage of five non-rounded aperture blades, I found the bokeh of this lens to be quite satisfying. In the shots taken at Krip & Pari's engagement party, the tiny bulbs illuminating the surrounding were rended as nice, rounded, out of focus highlights that formed a nice pattern on all the portrait shots.

The Image Quality (IQ) of this lens is one of the best, and belies its rather modest price. This is currently my preferred portrait lens, with its sharpness, fast aperture, good low light performance and nice background blur possible with F/1.8. I just wish it had better macro capability rather than the uninspiring .15X maximum magnification at a closest focusing distance of 1.5 ft (.45m).

Canon walkaround lens choices

Bob Atkins has a good review/comparison between a Canon EOS 5D with EF 24-105mm F/4L IS USM and EOS 40D with EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM. I personally use the EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM as my walkaround lens which I purchased after much delibration prior to leaving for my Everest Base Camp trek.

Friendly match in Texas Instruments, France
Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM, 108mm
1/400s @ F/5.6, ISO 400

My requirements from a general purpose walk around lens are:

• Wide enough for general landscape photography and group photographs (~ 28mm)
• Long enough for good portratits with out of focus background and for compressed landscapes (~ 100mm)
• Image Stabilization, because I mostly shoot hand-held and it's pretty difficult to carry a tripod or set it up on a hard trek in single digit temperatures
• Fast apertures, to avoid blur when shooting under low light conditions and for good out of focus backgrounds
• Good image quality, bokeh, low distortions & aberrations
• Light and small enough to carry around
• Price

I had purchased my EOS 400D body only, and bought the EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS at the same time to serve as my general purpose lens. The reviews were good to excellent for the (then) newly introduced lens, it was stated to be much better than the bundled non-IS lens in terms of optical quality. However, I found the 55mm (88mm conventional) too limiting and decided to upgrade before I left for the once in a lifetime trek to EBC.

Considering the 1.6 Field of View Crop of my EOS 400D, I was left with the following choices:

1. Canon EF-S 17-55mm F/2.8 IS USM
2. Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II
3. Canon EF 24-105mm F/4L IS USM
4. Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM

I am not including the super zooms from Tamron due to lack of image stabilization and image quality issues inherent with a super zoom. That said, I do own a Tamron 28-200mm XR lens from my film days that I still use with digital. I do not prefer Sigma lenses, since I have read of compatibility issues with Canon, however there are lots of Sigma on Canon users out there.

Train des Merveilles
Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM, 27mm
1/80s @ F/6.3, ISO 100

Considering my requirements, I arrived at the 17-85 after a process of elimination, mostly based on the focal length range supported by the zooms. The 17-85 is a well regarded lens, the complains about the lens are mostly the following:
- Not fast enough (F/5.6 @ 85mm)
- Distortion and Chromatic Aberration (CA) at wide angle

However, these were more or less what I could live with and/or work around (either by stopping down or correcting using software), so I decided to go in for the lens and has been more or less happy with the choice. I have shot with this lens in Nepal, Kudremukh and France amongst other places.

I recently purchased (yet to get in hand) the Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM lens that should nicely compliment the 17-85. Combined with a Tamron SP AF 1.4X TC, my lens range covers 17-280mm (27-448mm) with a max aperture of F/5.6 (1 stop loss with 1.4X TC) which I hope should be sufficient for most photographic opportunities.

The-Digital-Picture has a nice survey of most Canon general purpose lens choices.

Great deal on Tamron SP 1.4X TC at Amazon

Today I saw that the price for Tamron SP Autofocus 1.4X Teleconverter is $136.14 as opposed to yesterday's price of $189.00 in Amazon. I was planning to buy the TC to extend the reach of my new Canon EF 70 -200 F/4 L IS USM lens and hence had the TC in my Amazon shopping cart. The only caveat was that shipping estimate was one to two months.

I anyway went ahead and ordered it, hope that it will ship in time for my in-laws to bring it back from the US. Current status shows the delivery estimate between August 1 - August 18 (I chose 2 day shipping for $11) which is just within margin as my in-laws return on August 20th. Keeping my fingers crossed.

1.4X Tele Converters: Tamron vs Canon vs Kenko

I have just ordered a Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM lens from Adorama (Amazon stock availability was on and off, and Adorama also had free shipping like Amazon), and am looking at the possibility of adding a 1.4X Tele Converter to my kit. On the 1.6X FOV crop EOS 400D body I am using, the lens behaves as a 112 - 320 mm F/4 lens, combined with a 1.4X TC, it will become a 157 - 448 mm F/5.6 lens. The intended usage is for candid and wildlife photography.

Note that the 1.4X reduces the maximum aperture by 1 stop whereas the 2X TC reduces it by 2 stops. So the F/4 lens becomes a F/5.6 lens with the 1.4X TC attached. Note also that Canon bodies (other than the professional bodies) cannot autofocus if the max aperture of the lens is smaller than F/5.6. So I will retain AF with 1.4 TC, but not with a 2X TC as that reduces the max aperture of my F/4 lens to F/8.

I researched on the net for the following options:

1. Canon EF 1.4X II
2. Tamron 1.4X AF
3. Tamron SP AF 1.4X Pro
4. Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 DG AF 1.4X
   

Canon EF 1.4X II

• Expensive
• Weather resistant
• Limited to certain lenses (L series mostly) due to construction
  
• Reports correct minimum aperture to camera
• Lowers AF speed to accommodate the TC

Since the 70-200 F4 IS is the only "L" lens I own as of now, the Canon 1.4X would be a bit of overkill for me at this price.

Tamron 1.4X AF

• Cheapest of the lot
• Does not report aperture to body correctly
  
• Black, does not go well with white of L series lens (well that matters a bit!)

Tamron SP AF 1.4X Pro

• Optimized for F/2.8
• Claimed to be identical to Kenko PRO
• White (matches L series)
  

Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 DG AF 1.4X

• Good reviews
• Claimed to be identical to Tamron SP 1.4X
• Cheaper on eBay

The Kenko PRO and Tamron SP are supposed to be identical using glass from Hoya and packaged differently.

Conclusion

After reading all the reviews and comments online, it looks like the Kenko PRO & Tamron SP are good bets over the Canon which is $100 more. I am inclined to pick up the Tamron because 1) I have used Tamron lenses before and like them and 2) it is white and will match my new 70-200 mm f/4L IS and 3) it is said to be optically identical to Kenko 1.4X PRO which has good reviews and 4) it will be useful if I upgrade or buy any F/2.8 lenses in future.

Reviews

• Overview of TCs by Sean
  
• From Bob Atkins, an overview of TCs
• Comparison between Canon 1.4X and Tamron 1.4X on photo.net by Bob Atkins
• A FAQ on teleconverters at Photography-on-the-Net
• Tamron/Kenko compared aginst Nikon in NikonLinks

Photo of the Day

I have always liked this sunset photo that I took in Gokarna in 2006. So when I saw that Imaging Resource has a Photo of the Day contest, this picture the obvious first choice to try my luck.

Canon S2 IS, 106 mm, ISO 200, 1/500s @ f/4.0

Under the entry guidelines, they had mentioned that "The image may be edited, enhanced and modified as you see fit", so I decided to try and post process it to make it better. Since the image was short under low light at higher ISO on a small sensor, the noise levels were quite high. So I used the excellent Neat Image to create an auto noise profile and applied it to remove the digital noise in the picture. The end result is a bit softer picture, but the noise was visibly reduced to acceptable levels.

Next, I used Picasa to crop the disconnected rock on the left side of the picture and tighter around the lady's shadow. I left the right side as such because of the whitish clump of clouds that added detail to the sky. Although the warm red color of the setting sun established a certain mood, the image lacked punch, so I used the "Color Temperature" to see if I can warm it up a bit more. However, instead of the reddish hue, I found that the cool blue suited the picture better and resulted in a much more pleasing image to the eye. I also adjusted the brightness/contrast a bit to bring out the light highlight around the lady more and darken the shadow areas, especially in the waves.

Here is the final picture that I submitted to Imaging Resource site on 4th June, 2008 ...

Canon S2 IS, 106 mm, ISO 200, 1/500s @ f/4.0

This serves as another reminder that in digital photography, like in film photography before it, the photographic process does not end at the press of the shutter - in fact that is just the beginning. However, I have also learned that the key to getting a good photograph lies with the clicking of the shutter - if you do not have a good photograph then, no amount of post processing will make it great.

I am only now learning to appreciate and conceptualize making of a photograph as a work flow that begins with the capture of the photograph. In the future, I will be concentrating more on making a complete picture by paying attention to the entire process from concept to capture and post processing.

Mensa May MHK: Kudremukh

Mensa May MHK trip to Kudremukh. Trip report by Rathi, photographs by Roshin.

Route

Bangalore - Tumkur Road - Nelamangala - Kunigal - Channaraipatna - Hassan - Belur - Chikmaglur - Balehunnur - Kalasa - Kudremukh

Kudremukh - Kalasa - Kottigehara - Mudigere - Belur - Hassan - Channaraipatna - Kunigal - Nelamangala - Bangalore

Except for the stretch from Kalasa to Kottigehara, roads quality varied from moderately good to excellent. The road from Belur to Hassan requires special mention, one can easily drive at 100+ kmph on this road.

Trip Report

Kudremukh is a quintessential picturesque valley lying in the bough of the Western Ghats. Surrounded by peaks and dense jungle is this quaint little town with a population, numbering a few thousands. Previously an iron ore mining reserve, it is now purely a naturist's delight! The mining operations came to a halt after the Supreme court passed a judgment to shut down the factory in 2005. The town was inhabited only by the employees of Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited, now with the closure it is close to becoming a ghost town.


It was midnight on the 23rd of May, 2008 when we 7 Mensans and 3 guests started off from Cunningham Road, in two cars, with Kudremukh as the destination in mind but no route chalked out. We thought we will take it as the road curves. After brief stops at Nelamangala, Kunigal and Chanraipatna, we were thrilled to get on to the Hassan - Belur road. At Belur, we mulled over the map to take a decision on our next move. Well, it was Chikmaglur that finally won and we headed off in that direction. Fortunately for us the roads till that point were excellent. At Chikmaglur, around 5 AM, we were happy to find quite a few people strolling around. With some assistance we got on to the road that headed to Balehunnur.

Dawn breaking over the mountains

From Balehunnur to Kalasa, we drove through the ghats, with the sun rising just behind the mountains. The sky with a hue of indigo was simply breathtaking. Irresistible as the scenery got, we stopped randomly to capture nature in its naked form either through the eye or through the camera. Almost close to Kalasa, we crossed this bridge with huge bamboo trees on either side of the river, Tunga, caressing the water. It was a mini Amazon of sorts! At this point a few of them had rumbling tummies and munched on idlis while the rest headed off to "Sahyadri Bhavan", our hotel in Kudremukh.

Misty river

It was 8:30 when we finally reached the hotel. A quick breakfast and a long freshening up later we were all set to explore some of the unknown terrain. Our local guide, Srikanth, took us to Samse, the closest village to Kudremukh (his hometown). After offering us some delicious home grown bananas and a refreshing drink, the 11 of us, yes the whole lot of us got into one jeep with the driver! Totally unprepared were we, to experience the rickety ride that took us through tea estates, up a hill through the jungle to finally stop a few hundred meters from the summit of a hillock. We got off and started to trek to reach a height from where we could see the valley extend till the eye could see.

View of the valley

Exhilarated and famished, we gobbled our packed lunches in the shade of a tree, surrounded by a herd of cows that had come to graze. The cowherd suggested we try and climb another peak, apparently from where the view was even more stunning. Getting adventurous, we started the climb and about 25 minutes later reached the point from where it felt, we will never get enough of this! Srikanth constantly reminded us that we have been really fortunate to view this as the skies were unimaginably clear that day after a thunderous downpour the previous day.


Content and rejuvenated, we headed down, and traced our path back to Samse, just in time to be saved from the rains which could have severely curtailed the movement of the jeep in the slushy muddy trail. It was at Samse that quite a few discovered they had brought along leeches on their legs! With a dash of salt the leeches were gotten rid off and a hot cup of coffee was welcomed by all. Heading back to the hotel, we thought of spending the rest of the day, generally doing nothing much.

The tree lined avenue of Kudremukh campus

Sunday was a late morning for most of us. Few of us went about discovering the town on our own and then finally packed to leave by around 12. A second round of breakfast was devoured at a nondescript restaurant with the TV playing out the Karnataka election results in the background. Thereafter, it took us almost 30 minutes pouring over a detailed map of Karnataka to decide that we should go back the way we came! So that meant the two cars would sync up at Chikamglur.

The three "guests" on the trip

But as luck would have it, both the cars lost the track and ended up heading in two different directions. We reached Kottigehara from Kalasa (bad roads) while the other car somehow managed to land in Balehunnur. It was then decided to meet in Hassan at the Kamath. Then again, we were one and a half hours apart, and so after having a bite at Kamath, we moved on to Bangalore. Reached Bangalore at 9:30 PM, ate dinner at Casa del Sol and reached home by 11:30 PM. The second group reached Bangalore at 1 AM after spending some quality "pool-side" time at the Taj, Chikmaglur.

We couldn't have asked for a more favorable weather, what with a few showers and the whole place being green and teeming with life.


Photography

All photographs shot with Canon EOS 400D with one of the following lenses:

Canon EF 50mm F1.8
Canon EF-S 17-85 mm F4 - 5.6 IS USM
Tamron 28 - 200 mm F3.8 - 5.6 XR

Raksha. Canon 50mm, ISO 1600, no flash

Moon was visible even close to sunrise

Sunrise

Early morning mist adding a surreal feel to the trees

Clouds proved favorable enough to get this shot

Had to wait quite a while to get a person at the right point in the picture

The tea bushes clothed the mountain side like a lush green carpet

Rathi. Fill in flash alleviating the harsh shadows of the midday sun to an extent.

Sugandhi

Rana

View from the small peak that we climbed first

Captured Tharunya against the blown-out sky while she was admiring some distant mountains

We found this nice rock where you could dangle your feet hundreds of meters above the valley below

Manz

The tree under which we had lunch

Su decided to take a quick post lunch siesta

The summit outcrop which we reached after a short trek

Inside Kudremukh campus

This bee was having a feast with all the flowers around