Lifepixel Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Infrared Conversions, IR Modifications & Photography Tutorials

First Look at K&F Concept Large Professional Camera Backpack

When K&F Concept was first brought to my attention I will admit that I had never heard of the company before. The world of camera gear and gadgets is of course, “saturated” to say the least. So, when I took a closer look at K&F, I was pleasantly surprised at the apparent quality of many of their offerings.

I just received their “Large Professional Camera Backback” and after a quick once over I’d like to share my thoughts on this surprisingly outstanding(and affordable) gear bag.

So, grab a snack and take a seat. Hopefully you will be as happily surprised as I was to have a look at this nifty camera bag from K&F Concepts.

First Impressions

After a hurried unboxing, the bag emerged as a welcomingly unassuming backpack.

I was expecting it to be somewhat larger(it is a “large afterall) and I was glad to see it wasn’t bulky. The material itself resembles a stone washed denim and looks great. I like the look of the pack. Urban, casual, and streamlined. It would find itself well at home on the sidewalk during a street photography outing or as a refined travel option when shooting on the go. The bottom of the bag’s exterior is lined in black faux leather that adds not only aesthetic appeal but also protects the part of the bag that is likely to contact the ground the most.

The straps are nice and wide and very comfortable with a mesh backing that works to keep your shoulders cool.

There is an adjustable sternum strap which is awesome for distributing weight when you might overfill the pack. The nice thing about having an adjustable sternum strap is that it works with all manner of body sizes. Lady photographers also won’t have to worry about any unfortable “binding” from the strap.

All the zippers and straps are robust and work smoothly.

Space, space, and more space!

If there’s one thing that stands out with this K&F Concept backpack is the monumental engineering in regard to usable space. The storage real estate on this bag is outstanding. The bag itself is a flip open design which gives you front and rear access to the gear you need. We’ll start with the main compartment….

There are lots of padded partitions to keep your camera, lenses, flashes, and whatever else secured. The two main separators are padded but benefit from the addition of a rigid spine which helps keep larger lenses and camera bodies in place and helps the pack keep it’s shape loaded.

I was able to fit a smorgasbord of odd and end gear into the bag with no problems.

Gear shown: Canon 7D, Sony Zeiss Vario Tessar 24-70mm f4, Nikkor 85mm f1.4, Nikkor 50mm f1.8, Rokinon 14mm f2.8, Sigma MC-11 Converter, Canon 430EX Speedlight…stll lots of room left….

Flipping over to the front compartment we have lots of space for a laptop, tablet, paperwork, you name it.

There is room to hold so much here as well depending on your needs. Everything is secured with a large velcro strap. I was able to fit a 13 inch Chromebook into the pocket and had no worries about it being protected.

Tripod Carrier

Perhaps my absolute favorite feature of this backpack is the inclusion of a tripod carrier. There is strap and nifty fold-down flap(which sports has a zippered pocket) that serves to firmly secure your tripod to the bag.

This will work great with travel sized tripods such as the Vanguard VEO 235AB Travel Tripod I reviewed here LifePixel. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was the inclusion of a quick release clasp on the tripod tripod strap for quicker attachment and release of the tripod.

Closing thoughts….

The K&F Concept Large Professional Camera Backpack appears to be a great option for those who need a stylish gear carrier that can fit a monumental amount of camera equipment into a package which is wonderfully manageable. The appearance and comfort of the pack is great. I look forward to using this pack more in the field but if the initial impression of this pack holds I can highly recommend it for those needing a cost effective backpack-style camera bag.

Understanding Basic Lens Anatomy and Terminology

The lens is the eye through which a camera sees. No matter what kind of camera you use, the lens is one of the single most important investments you will make. So in the spirit making wise decisions and minimizing buyer’s remorse the gear-savvy photographer will make it a point to understand the basics of lens anatomy. Not only with understanding the basic ins and outs of your lens make you a better technical shooter, but it will also enable you to squeeze every last drop of performance from whatever glass you happen to be using.

Without a doubt the numbers, markings, and terms often associated with camera lenses can be confusing. The good news is that they don’t have to be! Generally speaking, all those numbers and symbols are actually quite simple to understand. Let’s begin with some terms and names of common lens components you will likely encounter with most camera lenses.

Basic Lens Anatomy

Barrel-The physical outer body of the lens which houses the internal components.

Elements-A term used for the individual internal pieces of glass which make up the optics of a lens.

Bayonet-The end of the lens that attaches to the camera body. Bayonets are designed in different “mounts” based on the camera they are intended to fit.

The bayonet of a Canon EF Mount lens

Zoom Ring-A circular ring which allows the photographer to control the zoom of zoom lenses.

Focus Ring-A ring present on virtually all lenses which allows the shooter to manually adjust focus.

Focus and zoom rings on a modern lens

Aperture Ring(manual lenses)-On fully manual lenses, the aperture ring controls the physical size of the aperture with no selection being made by the camera.

Fully manual lenses often sport an aperture adjustment ring

Basic Lens Terminology

Some of the most confusing aspects about lenses isn’t their physical operation but the terminology used to describe their characteristics. Here is a breakdown of some common terms and phrases you will encounter when talking about camera lenses.

Focal Length-At the risk of oversimplifying the concept, think of this is simply the magnification strength of the lens measured in millimeters. Shorter focal length lenses are deemed “wide-angle” while long focal length lenses are considered “telephoto”.

Prime-When we say that a lens is “prime” it means that the lens is a fixed focal length. Basically speaking, the lens doesn’t “zoom”.

Lens Speed-The speed of a lens is directly connected to aperture. The wider the maximum possible aperture a lens is capable of the “faster” the lens is considered to be. This means that the lens is capable of shooting in lower light situations at faster shutter speeds. Remember, the smaller the F/number of the wider the aperture. Check out “Aperture Simplified” ,another one my articles here at LifePixel, for a nice and simple breakdown of aperture that will help make since of F/numbers….

What the heck is this symbol ⌀ anyway???-You will likely find this symbol located around the outside front of your lens along with lens speed and focal length information. Fear not, that little guy is just the indication of what circular filter(polarizer, neutral density, etc.) size your lens accepts. It will be accompanied by a measurement in millimeters. If you see a “⌀77” then you will need a 77mm filter. What’s more, if you lose a lens cap, that is also the size for the replacement.

The face of a modern lens showing aperture, focal length, and filter size information

And always remember….

Your lens and camera work as one piece of gear along with you and your creative spark.

Understanding how your lens functions and the basics of lens anatomy will not only make you a better photographer but also a more competent when it comes to acquiring the gear you need. Arm yourself with all the information you can and build on the basics. Knowledge is power when it comes to lenses.

My First Infrared Conversion – LifePixel Super Color Filter 590nm

The purpose of this article is to help people through the process of filter selection.

A few years ago I upgraded my Canon G12 cameras to a newer model, the G1X. At the same time I decided to convert the now G12 camera to infrared.

After reading a number of online reviews I decided on Life Pixel for the conversion process. That was the easy part. The difficult decision was choosing the right filter for my needs. So what exactly was the ‘right’ filter for my needs, or your needs for that matter? That depends upon the type of photographic images you intend to produce most often, i.e. what you really love to create as an artist.

So what type of Infrared photographs would you like to produce? If you are not sure how to answer that question I would suggest looking through the galleries on the Life Pixel website, or performing a Google search. It is important to be honest with yourself as to what images you truly like the best. Purchasing photography equipment is a lot like buying a car in that we can convince ourselves that each and every type of vehicle would be the correct choice for a different aspect of our lives, and ego often tends to get in the way of clear judgment. Sure we can all picture ourselves in a Ferrari, but if you have a large family, or work necessitates carrying a lot of tools then that might not be the best choice.

Back to the filter dilemma:

My first selection criteria involved color versus black-and-white. While I appreciate good black-and-white prints I was especially attracted to the results produced by the ‘color’ infrared filters, especially the deep blue sky affect. Sure I could see myself wanting to create Ansell Adams style black-and-white photographs, but again this is not going to be the majority of my work. This quickly narrowed the choices down to the Super Color IR or the Super Blue IR filters.

My final selection was to Super Color IR as it seemed to be the best filter for producing the type of color infrared photographs that I was most interested in. As an additional bonus for those times when I want to produce a black-and-white IR shot I still have the ability to easily de-saturate the colors in Photoshop using the saturation slide adjustments. Some final tweaking of the contrast and you will have an excellent black-and-white photograph if you desire that.

Whatever filter you decide upon you will need to play around until you get used to it, the same as any other new tool. You also need to play around with Photoshop, or similar software, until you get the results you are looking for. I will admit that until I got this part down I was a bit frustrated. Now I am extremely happy with the Super Color IR conversion from Life Pixel.

Below is an image of the “Duck Pond” located outside of Philadelphia PA. The image was shot in May of 2016 on a hot sunny day with the Canon G12 Super Color conversion, 1/320s., f4.0, ISO 100, EV-2/3. I like to underexpose by 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop if I have foliage in bright sunlight.

What about those cool purple and magenta photographs I often see?

Not a problem;

Canon G12 Super Color conversion, 1/160s, f5.6, ISO 100, EV-1/3

“But I also want B&W.” Again not a problem;

Canon G12 Super Color, 1/160s., f5.0, ISO 100, EV0

In upcoming articles, as well as videos, I will cover the techniques I use to produce the images presented in this article.

Take care, and keep experimenting.

Confront Your Photographic Challenges

Are there times when you feel challenged to complete an assignment, or even to just go out and take some photographs? Tangential activities take on an unanticipated urgency. I have never really understood what drives this onset of dispassion for the task, but I know I have experienced it many times, and I find it helps to set myself a few challenges and hold myself accountable until each of my personal challenges are completed.

Nature photographer Jim Brandenburg is known for challenging himself. Jim decided to limit his images to only one photograph a day for a 90-day period between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. His project was deeply personal, and the amazing work that developed over the months most certainly speaks for itself.

Here are a couple of ways you can provoke your challenges, and learn a few new techniques in the process:

Join a Photo challenge site – One great site, Photochallenge.org encourages you to increase your photographic skills by committing to a photo challenge. No tutorials, just photographers interacting with each other. The team sets out common guidelines, which are easy to understand and simple to follow. The challenges are specific, such as; capture black and white shots of the human body, or take portraits of people or animals, and then share with others also participating in the challenge. If you are not quite up to engaging at that level, it is still worth visiting the site to view images and to ultimately gain the courage to start interacting online with other photographers.

Commit to taking a tutorial a week – There are many sites that provide free tutorials, such as Iheartfaces as well as subscription based sites like CreativeLive, KelbyOne, and Lynda.com that offer the opportunity to learn a little more about your camera, as well as how to use software applications to successfully edit your images. If you find it easier to learn in a classroom, give yourself the gift of a workshop a year. The secret is to follow through on what you have learned.

Set specific parameters – Make some definitive decisions each time you go out to take images. Consider some of these ideas:

1 – Take only one lens with you. If you do not have fixed lenses, choose a zoom lens focal length and don’t be tempted to change it. This will encourage you to position yourself correctly for each shot. It will also help you to really understand the capabilities of each lens.

2 – Utilize the full frame. Fill your frame with the shot and don’t plan on cropping in post. This will encourage correct orientation, and enable you to make every pixel count.

3 – Decide upon a color or texture and concentrate on images of that color or texture. This makes you evaluate your surroundings and notice many things you may not normally have seen.

4 – While teaching at a photographic conference in Las Vegas, I played around with the color/full frame challenge and spent a couple of hours in the beautiful botanical gardens located in the Bellagio hotel. I started with some fairly simple images and then dug down into the fragility of petals. I found myself down a whole new path involving the combination of shadow and color.

5 – Dedicate a photographic day to simply using your mobile phone, and get creative. There are many apps for editing camera phone images and some of the results are pretty impressive. While boating in Maine, I was able to capture the old Maine Windjammer, the Isaac H. Evans. I challenged myself to use only my mobile phone all day so that I would concentrate on light and composition. It was quite refreshing to have my head up and looking at my subject, rather than staring down the camera viewfinder!

6 – Limit the number of images you take. Imagine you do not have the capability of taking many photographs. Make every image count, and don’t cheat by erasing images!

Sometimes it is important to try to recognize the route of the challenged feeling! Each time I head up to Rockport, Maine to teach drone flight and aerial photography, I find myself having to overcome the inherent fears surrounding the nature of the class. I am not immune to the constant commentary surrounding the use of drones and their various applications. In order to overcome those mental challenges, I remind myself that I teach because I enjoy teaching, and the pleasure I receive from watching students initially grapple with the technology, and then start creating beautiful images is most certainly more contagious than the niggling doubts in my head. I also take time out to go and fly with my teaching partner and hone my skills a little more.

Flying over water takes a little more concentration and awareness of the wind conditions. but the results can be incredibly rewarding. The image above is a single capture, and below, a 5 image panorama created in Lightroom. These were taken using a DJI Phantom 4.

Finally, I have also noticed that as infrared photography becomes more popular, there are many discussion groups debating about what constitutes a good IR image. No matter what my assignment, I carry my converted Canon 1DS with me and find an opportunity to experiment.

It is interesting to compare my results with images taken from the Phantom 4. In the image below, I am actually much closer to the boats in the harbor, but hovering over the water.

I challenge you all to experiment with IR. If you are not yet ready to convert one of your cameras, consider purchasing a filter that somewhat replicates the look and feel, and this will give you a great introduction. I am pretty sure you will soon be hooked. Whatever your end goal, don’t let those perceived or real challenges get in the way and don’t let the negativity of others (or your own doubts) prohibit your creativity.

Astrophotography Image Stacking – Astro Stacking

Hopefully you’ve been out shooting and applying what you’ve learned about astrophotography. For most there’s a fairly big learning curve with astrophotography. I was always pretty good with the computer, electronics, and the mechanical hardware, but learning to process the images was a huge challenge. Hopefully I can share what I’ve learned to help speed up your learning process.

There’s a lot to learn when it comes to taking the images from the camera to making a final image for display. You’ll find that 99% of the deep sky images that you shoot will require some form of post-processing. But before we even discuss doing any processing, let’s discuss how to best shoot the scene.

In the previous blogs, I’ve hinted about a technique that will let you get the most out of your astro images. Shooting very faint moving targets can be pretty challenging. It takes fairly decent equipment to get the really faint stuff, but beyond this, it’s important to properly photograph the subjects. There is one valuable technique that will help tremendously with processing and make the most of your data. This technique is stacking.

Let’s take a look at stacking in very basic terms. Shooting faint targets makes for generally noisy images. This is true for astrophotography as well as regular photography. This means that the photos look grainy and lack the silky smooth transition. In astrophotos, noise will disturb the transition from the target object to the dark regions. But if you shoot many photos of the same subject and stack them together, the result is far better than that of a single frame. The noise and graininess is filled in and the image will appear much smoother and complete. When I was going for the best quality images, I would generally shoot for between 10 and 20 hours of open shutter time. But again, these were for my very best deep sky images on professional level equipment. For me, that meant shooting over many nights and stacking all the data in the final image. I was shooting exposures that were ½ hour long,o I needed fewer frames. But the end result was a lot of data, that when assembled, resulted in very good data sets.

If you’re just starting out it’s not necessary for you to shoot this much. But generally the more you shoot the better. There’s a big difference that can be seen immediately in the final image. There is a point of diminishing returns, but most astrophotographers will never come close to this limit. So if you can start with shooting a couple hours you’ll end up with fairly decent data. But even shooting and stacking 10 images will be better than one single frame. The better the data, the easier it is to process into the final image.

How do we begin…? Once you have your mount aligned (see my previous blogs) the target framed and the lens or telescope focused, you can start shooting your images. Shoot the same subject, over and over. I generally use a computer or an intervalometer to take the work out of this. This allows me the ability to walk away and let the camera shoot until it’s done. Just be aware that you may need several batteries or an AC adapter for your camera. This is especially true in the cold. For your first outing, try to shoot for at least an hour of open shutter time. That means if you’re shooting 5 minute shots you’re going to want 12 of these to make an hour. It’s generally best to shoot with an exposure as long as possible, but not so long that the image becomes saturated with light fog or you begin to get star trails. I generally tried to shoot until I reached about 25-75% on the camera’s histogram. But this depends on the target and from where I’m shooting (and how much light pollution is present). Just keep in mind that 1 hour is not a magical number. Shoot more, if you have time and patience. This will make the post-processing after the stack easier and the final image even smoother.

Once you have the stack, what’s next? You need to process all these images into a single image. This is possible in Photoshop and there are some really great videos and information on the topic. So I’ll leave this learning process to those interested in doing the stacking in this manner.

The real benefit is doing the stacking in a program that is meant for processing astrophotos. There are many programs that are available to do this, some are even available for free. I used a program called MaximDL which is a high-end piece of professional astrophotography processing software. In addition to doing some processing, it also handles camera control, filter wheel control, focusing, guiding and many other aspects of shooting deep sky images. In a complex setup, it’s very beneficial to have control of everything in a single piece of software. However for those just starting out, look at getting Deep Sky Stacker (DSS). It is an excellent stacking program and is available at no cost. This allows you to practice shooting and processing images without investing a lot of additional money in software.

Be sure to take a look at the excellent instructions on the DSS website and online. It is fairly powerful and capable producing nice images. It will also allow the addition of calibration frames (discussed below), which is another very powerful feature for noise control. I generally found that I liked doing the stacking in DSS and then doing the remainder of the processing in Photoshop or similar image processing program. But that’s totally my preference. Each photographer should investigate the best workflow and combination of programs to use to produce the final image.

One really great feature of DSS is the comet stacking routine. Processing comets is even more complicated as the comet is typically in a different location in each frame. Some move slow enough not to have to worry about it. But others can move significant amounts in each frame. This typically takes some crafty processing to get a decent image. DSS takes a lot of the work out of it. This image was processed in DSS and Photoshop.

Coat hanger Asterism (CR399) and Comet Garradd

When beginning the stacking process, the images need to be quality sorted first and then aligned (or registered) first. The quality sorting can be done automatically in DSS, but I generally liked poking through the images and picking out the ones that were blurred from movement, or had clouds or planes. The registration or alignment will adjust the images up and down and also in rotation in order to bring all the frames in perfect alignment and then stack them together in one of several stacking methods. I generally prefer one of the median stacking methods.

Many of my astrophotos, including the comet photo above, were shot with professional level equipment. This equipment cost about half what my first house cost. To be fair I wanted to show what can be done with a DSR and Lens (or small telescope), so I re-processed some of my earliest images in DSS, knowing what I know now. These were shot with an Astro-modified, 6.3MP Canon 300D (Digital Rebel). This is one of the earliest DSLR’s. It was noisy and did not generally produce very clean astro images. But even with this old camera, the data was very usable and produced some fairly decent images. We’ll take a look at a few of these below:

My first modified DSLR for Astrophotography

Stacking Examples

Here are some examples of images right out of the camera and also some processed images. The first is a single frame that shows the Heart & Soul nebula (IC1805, IC1871, NGC 869 and NGC 884) as well as the double cluster. The top is out of the camera the next is after stacking and processing.

Unprocessed, right out of the camera

Stacked and post processed

The difference in these is drastic. In fairness, the single frame image was fogged by heavy light pollution. But this is a problem that will plague the majority of astrophotographers. The only way to combat this is to shoot from dark sites away from the city lights.

This next example is not as drastic. The top is out of the camera, the bottom is stacked and processed. Also included are crops of a single frame and stacked and processed images.

Single Frame and crop of the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237)

Notice the missing details in the crop of this image.

Stack/post processed image and crop of the Rosette Nebula

The stacked image makes is much cleaner and much of the missing data has been filled in. Also note the better detail that is visible in the crop of the Rosette. This is the real benefit of the stacking method. One thing that you need to keep in mind with processing astrophotos is that it’s an incremental process. No single step is going to make a magical image from junk. Each step will add a tiny improvement, and with enough tiny steps you’ll end up with a very pleasing image. If you’re stacking many photos, most pieces of stacking software will take quite a while if you’re computer isn’t up to the task (like mine). So be patient and just let it run until it’s completed the registration and stacking processes.

Here’s another example of a single frame vs a stack. This one is of the Horsehead Nebula (B33) in Orion.

Single Frame and crop

Stack/post processed image and crop

It’s fairly easy to see the benefit of stacking when shooting astrophotos. One more advanced technique that will help reduce the noise in your stacks is called dithering. Basically this is moving the camera a couple pixels in a random direction after every frame. When using a median stacking method, objects in a different location on each frame will be eliminated. So using the stars as the alignment reference, the galaxies, nebulae or other subjects will remain in the same place. But hot pixels, satellites, planes, noise and other random effects will be in a different location, with respect to the stars, so these are eliminated when stacked. There are many guiding or tracking programs that will do dithering automatically. But even with a manual shutter release, it can help tremendously if you manually move the mount between exposures. It seems like a hassle, but dithering will add a fairly significant level of improvement. None of the images above (except the comet image) used dithering.

Another helpful addition is to add calibration frames. These will serve to help remove additional noise and other artifacts from the images. Dark frames will help remove hot pixels, Bias frames reduce read noise and flat frames will help clear up any dust spots or other specs that are caused by looking through the lens or telescope. There is a superb description of this in the FAQ section here. The newer more modern cameras tend to provide better noise and hot pixel control, so calibration might not be needed. But at the very least, flat frames should be used to ensure the removal of artifacts caused by a dirty lens or sensor. It will also help reduce any vignetting that occurs in the images. Remember: incremental improvements.

In the final installment of this Astrophotography series, we’ll discuss some of the details of going from a rough stacked image to the final image. This is where a lot of the magic happens so I hope you’ll stay tuned. In the meantime get out and shoot. See you soon.