Fuji S200EXR Raw Files

Raw photo processed with Fuji FinePix Studio

 So, with my camera, I'm shooting almost exclusively Raw files.  The benefits that this provides is that it allows far more options post processing to get the shot I was looking for at the time.  The down side is that I have to then post process them on the computer.  There are very few options for software that can handle the Fuji Raw files and I think that this is because of the way the CCD works inside the camera.  I think most other cameras have a CCD that captures the picture similar to how it is displayed, in a grid which can be represented with X and Y coordinates.  The Fuji CCD, however, captures the pixels in a honey-comb format.  The end result is that the Fuji cameras can produce some stunning Jpeg files and mine will pump out a 12mp (4000x3000) jpeg file with good results.  However, by working with the original raw file, I can get 5616x4216 which equates to an impressive 23mp photo.  The camera comes with Fuji Software (Finepix Studio) which does a reasonable job but it is very basic and painfully slow (and I do mean very painfully slow)

Raw photo processed with S7Raw

The next processing software used is some opensource/freeware called S7Raw.  It's quite fast, and produces not bad results but, oh, the noise.  I just can't seem to get around the noise. It could just be that I'm not getting the settings right and it could well be that when printed, the noise would not be an issue anyway but even with a low ISO, I'm getting annoying noise.  It produces images at 5640x4252, again just short of 24mp so production onto canvas is not an issue but just concerned that the noise would be more noticeable when enlarged to anything more than a small photo.

Raw photo processed with Adobe Lightroom

I must say that I am impressed with the abundance of features available in Adobe Lightroom but at a whopping £238, lightroom is out of the price-range for the average amateur photographer.  Adobe does allow you to trial their software but here is the issue that I found - When processing the image, Lightroom produces a 4000x3000 image.  Yep, all that extra data is discarded.  Is this really an issue?  I'm not sure really.  The noise reduction is impressive and being able to fine-tune your end result is just bliss but I for one cannot justify spending that amount of money on something which is purely a hobby.  Maybe, if I get enough people wanting portraits done, then it may well justify itself with speed and flexibility.

Raw photo processed with PaintShop Pro

 I like paintshop.  It is easy enough for a complete novice to find their way around whilst having enough features for a hardened photo editor to get some great results.  Vignettes and soften photos are created in seconds however, how it deals with Fuji S200EXR Raw files is just diabolical.  It takes your 23mp of data and produces a 2824x2128 6mp image that is grainy and dark (even with the brightness pulled up)  To say that I was disappointed is an understatement (especially after downloading the patches just to get it to recognize the S200EXR files)  It has a very limited number of sliders to manipulate your image and the end result leaves you thinking "Why did I even bother."

In summary, Lightroom and Finepix Studio give the best results but S7Raw may well be the compromise between speed and features.  It could be that the 12mp produced by Lightroom allows for sufficient enlargements.  All of these except Paintshop Pro have something to offer.  Paintshop Pro, whilst exceptional at manipulating Jpegs, falls far short of the mark when processing Fuji S200EXR Raw files.  Small and grainy leaves little options for cropping etc.  I think the next stage would be to actually print these images and see what the printed image results are.

 

Up at 04:00hrs to arrive at Broadstairs for 04:30hrs in time for sunrise.  High tide was at 02:00hrs so tide was going out.  Jo thinks I'm nuts but I was rewarded with a golden sunrise and some nice reflections.

 I read a blog that advised, when taking shots of a sunrise, to look behind you.  Sure enough, the golden sun shining on a stainless steel ring with the water splashing at the harbour wall.  Slow shutter speed and ND Filters (ND4+ND8) so that I could smooth out the water as it ran off.

Again, a slow shutter speed to smooth out the water and combined several images to get a HDR (High Dynamic Range) effect.  As you can see from the shot before this one, the sun was super-bright so it naturally underexposed everything else.  I don't think it would have been possible to get this shot without manipulating the image.  Jo would say that this is cheating but there is no other way to get a rendition as you see it with your eyes.

New Portrait Portfolio Page

 

I've added a page for me to portfolio my portraits that I've done.  Many are of Ellie but the more I do, the more selective I will have to be.  I would of course be grateful for people to come back here and comment on my photos.  I'm always open to constructive criticism.

On 13th April 2011 we took an early morning trip to Whitstable to try and get some nice scenic photos. We got up very bright and early and set off to catch the sun-rise. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast which produced some very lacklustre images.

The good thing about overcast weather however, is that it is ideal for portraits. It softens the skin and generally gets rid of harsh shadows that you get from direct sunlight. You also get softer, subdued tones making it well suited for shots of people.

The shots of the brightly coloured beach-huts lacked the impact that would have been produced from bright sun-light. With this in mind I did a sepia on them to give a more dated look and negating the need for the colour. I will have to plan another day there when the weather is clear and maybe try to get a decent sunset instead of having another wasted journey by going up there first thing in the morning.

 Yesterday, I took a few shots of Ramsgate.  The idea was to try to do some HDR photos but in the end, I think that night shots work best without HDR.  Strange how, when you pull out a camera, you automatically draw attention to yourself.  Everyone seems to pay attention to you.  I've noticed this a few times now, especially at family functions where I get asked, "Are you the official photographer?"  But it is fun to take some shots that are worth sharing.  On the right, are two new pages that I've added to my Blog.  One is promoting my photography, the other is my wish-list of items I'd like to get to advance my photography further.  The thing I really like about digital photography is that it is effectively a free hobby now that I have my camera.  Added bells and whistles would allow me to do more, but I'm getting pretty good results with just the basic set-up.  I'm starting to get a bit of interest in my photos so it may be that I could do with producing some business/contact cards for people.

 Today, (well, yesterday now, technically) 27th February, we took a trip to Whitstable to take some photos however the rain soon came down and messed up those plans.  I will have to look at travelling there on one of my days off during the week so hopefully I can spend more time on it.  I hate being rushed and this is always the case when I have other people with me.  On the way home, we did come across a fishing lake with some nice reflections so I jumped out and took a few shots.  The sky was more overcast than cloudy but even so, they did not come out too bad.  I got a shot of Ellie on Tankerton beach.  I would have liked to have gotten more but again, it was cold and people were in a hurry.  I enjoyed my night shots in London and will have to try to take some more night-time shots.  I'm working lates for the next three days so I will have to recon the area where I work to look for some interesting shots that I can take on my days off.

On Saturday 19th February, we went to London and visited the Natural History Museum. For starters, there was a huge queue to get in and a light rain but I managed to take a few shots of the external architecture and this statue in the garden. I've been shooting in raw mode with my Fujifilm S200EXR and whilst having the ability to tweak things like exposure at a grass-roots level is good, I find the software bundled with the camera poor and strips the EXIF data from the file. Maybe I'm just being fussy but I like to know what aperture and shutter speed a shot was taken with so that I can learn and recreate the shot if I want. I get to see what worked well and what did not work so well. Shooting in jpeg has the problem that the camera takes the data from the chip and sets things like exposure levels and colour balance and then saves that data whilst discarding all the surplus data. Raw on the other hand records exactly what the chip saw and allows you to do the processing very much like the old darkroom techniques of my youth. Whilst, with digital photography, I am denied doing the developing, the processing side is now available to me. But, as I said, I was not completely happy with the Finepix Studio raw Software.

So, looking at opensource alternatives, I found UFRaw which handles the raw files from the S200EXR very well. It is quite complex but I'm getting the hang of it. It's not as polished as Adobe Lightroom, but doesn't come with the inflated price-tag either. And here's the important bit for me, it allows for the embedding of the EXIF data. It allows me to look at exposure levels, white balance and curves and saves out in several formats from lossless TIFF to Jpegs with variable compression levels. I must say that the developer has really done a great job and I would recommend this to anyone like me who wants to shoot raw but does not want to shell out £200 on conversion software.

Paintshop Pro or one of the multitude of similar software like GIMP are a must for giving your photos that polished edge. I'm still learning the basics but I'm getting there. I feel that my last photos taken from Margate Cemetery have been given a little extra punch which I could not have achieved from just my camera on the severely overcast and misty day. I'm hoping to get out more and take plenty more photos and people have started to give me requests for shots that they want taken.

I've been playing with my camera some more. I've been trying out shooting in raw mode. To be honest, my camera does such a good job with Jpegs, there really is not too much difference between the two. I often use curves to pull in the light and dark and tighten up the contrast but this can be done either with the raw file or in paintshop pro with the Jpeg file. If anything, raw takes that bit longer to save to the card and to convert to Jpeg for uploading so I'm seeing very little point. I'll persevere with it as it makes little difference to me at this time but I imagine that if I had lots of photos to process from a photo shoot this would become an issue. Likewise, if I'm out and about and I find that I fill up my memory cards with raw files when I could fit a lot more high quality jpegs on them, then it would also be an issue.


Still trying out my strobes. This one was done in our dining room. Background light was about 1m from the wall and set to 50% power. A second strobe was set at 45 degrees above and to the left of Jo, about 70cm away with a bounced white umbrella and set to 50% power. The original came out fine but I used a screen layer in paintshop pro just to brighten the image some more. Jo was getting all funny about having her photo taken and she says that she does not like this one. I like it because it was one of the only ones I could get where she looked halfway near relaxed.



I thought I would show a bit about my new lighting pack. Above is a picture of the remote trigger for the flash units. The square bit sits in the hotshoe on the camera. I have to turn on "External Flash" in the camera settings so that it knows to use the hotshoe instead of the internal flash. When the shot is taken, it sends a signal to the receiver (The bit with the wire) which is plugged into one of the flash units. The other flash units are set up as slaves which means that they use a little sensor on the tops which, when they "see" a flash, they quickly fire themselves. This way, I don't have complicated wires conecting all of the flash units together. I don't know if there is any disadvantages of using a wireless trigger over a wired one but to date I have not had any problems. One thing I did do is put larger labels on the On/Off switch on the receiver because the writing is tiny and did not stand out. So rather than getting a magnefying glass each time I wanted to check that the receiver was on or off, I just stuck a couple of labels on it.




These are the flash units themselves. Each one is rated at 250w but has an analogue dial tha allows adjustment of the power. I was playing yesterday with the distance of the flash and the power settings. My biggest obstacle now is space. Space is at a premium in our home. Another problem is lack of willing models for me to practice on. Ellie is quite often at school on my days off and Jo is just uncooperative all the time. I'm looking to get some more backdrops so I've been offering to do photos for people in hope of making enough money to get the extra bits I need. I could really do with a light meter but I'm amazed at just how expensive they are.

On a side note, I'm down to 13st 3lbs. I'm pretty much still on target to reach my ideal weight by the end of the month. I'm down a notch on my belt which I'm pleased about. I haven't been less than 13st 8lbs in about 15 years so I'm really excited about reaching my ideal weight.

I've currently got painful cracked chapped lips which are so sore I've had to resort to putting lip balm on. I'm very texture orientated, so having this stuff on my lips is like nails down a chalk board. I hate it but it has taken the pain away so I'll try to persevere with it.

I have not been so strict with my diet as I should have been and thus today I am at 13st 5lbs. I'm back onto night shifts tonight and I should find it easier to cut down on what I eat over the next few days. 12st 7lbs by the end of the month is, I feel, achievable.

I've been playing some more with my new strobes and I'm really happy with the results. My biggest hurdle at this time is space. Both our lounge and dining room are very small so it is very difficult to set up the lights and background in such confined areas. I've seen some tips on how to get a high-key photo just using flash and no background which I need to have a play at. It will be interesting to see if I can get pure colour backgrounds using this method and gels but I very much doubt that it is possible. It seems that low-key photos similar to the one above are just as possible by making sure that the flash is not directed at the background. It will be interesting to see if I can do that.

For Christmas, several people who knew that I was saving for some studio flash units gave me money so eventually I've managed to get them. I'm really pleased with them. I still need some more practice with them but I'm happy with my initial shots. I need to practice with the umbrella vs softbox too.

I weighted myself this morning and found that I'm 13st 3lbs, so the diet is working very well. I imagine the taking a long walk around QEQM Hospital in the freezing cold proabably helped my weight loss but I can't imagine that it helped my cold. I'm over the moon with my progress so far. I'm finding it a lot easier than I thought I would. I didn't go overboard on my rest-days which is quite hard for me, especially when Jo sends me out to buy biscuits and ice-cream. I managed to limit myself to one biscuit the day befor yesterday (96 kcal) I can see how woofing a packet now takes me well over my daily allowance. I have planned out my callerie allowance for next month and I think that by planning the way I have, I should find it that much easier. I've not been as hungry as I thought I would. I doubt that my stomach has contracted in such a short period of time but maybe it has. It could be that my insulin levels are now getting under control, which I think helps control appetite. Just 10lbs to February's target but if I do as well in February as I did this month, I should trounce that.

I've hit January's target early. Weighed myself this morning and I'm 13st 6lbs (188lbs) which I'm delighted about. I've been working out my calorie intake for next month so that I can see exactly what I need to be eating to achieve my goal. It is so much easier to diet when I'm at work because I can effectively go 10hrs without eating and I'm generally too busy to really notice. This, combined with eating the 30g of cereal for breakfast rather than the 120g that I would normally have has had dramatic effects. I still fall down on my rest-days so I need to look at that and ways that I can stop myself from snacking. I'm really pleased with my results for January and I'm feeling really positive about February. Cycling home last night, I felt really fit and healthy. A feeling I've not had in a long time. This alone gives me renewed vigour to get to my ideal weight which I've not been at since I was about 19. I've got to get ready for work. It is wet and miserable outside. I can't put it off any longer, I have to go. However, I do like to add a picture to my posts so, as you can see above, my first decent LBP2 creation. It's not brilliant but it was fun to make and not bad for my first attempt.

I came home from work on Monday morning and it was crisp clear night and the stars were shining so I thought I would take a shot. At the start of the year, I made a sportsman's bet with Robbo to see who could lose the most weight in January. I'm sure he would not be too offended in me saying that we are both sporting a few extra pounds that we could do with out. Now, it would appear that he is on the "Go to the Gym and Eat Kentucky" diet, whereas I am just trying to eat a bit more sensibly. I don't go to the Gym during January because everyone and their dog is in there and I prefer a bit of solitude. It is a lot easier for me to cut down on what I'm eating whilst I'm working because I have always got something to do rather than eat. My problem is on my rest-days when I'm at home. Normally I pick and eat things like crisps, biscuits and chocolate. I must confess to eating some chocolates and some lemon meringue pie yesterday but I don't think I over indulged as I normally would. So, we started off at 201lbs (14st 5lbs). My ideal weight is 175lbs (12st 7lbs) which I want to achieve by the end of February. If my total weight loss is 26lbs, I want to have lost 13lbs by the end of January. Makes sense to me. Works out to be 188lbs (13st 6lbs)

There aren't many photos of me with my shirt off for obvious reasons. But I'm determined to get my flat stomach back that I had when I was 18. 19 years of comfortable living has taken it's toll. I want to have a stomach that I can show off by the end of March. I was joking with Jo at work (not wife Jo) about the screen saver on her phone which showed a male torso. I jokingly said "That'll be me at the end of March." and she said that I would have to prove it. I do think that it is achievable and I'm seeing steady progress. So hopefully, by the end of March, I'll be able to do some nice B&W photos of my own torso. We'll see.

On Saturday 18th December 2010 we went to some steam railway near (or in) Tenterden (I don't know where, I just do as I'm told). I had gone to the gym bright and early that morning and the weather was clear but cold. When I got home and was getting all set to go out again, Ellie came and said "It's snowing outside." And I did the bad parent thing and said "Don't be silly, it's cold but clear." Imagine my surprise when in about 20 minutes we had a couple of inches of snow. I looked out and realised that I would be travelling quite a distance in snow and it had no sign of letting up.

So, throughout the journey to pick up Jo's Mother and her boyfriend, the snow continued to come down. We then drove to Tenterden following a sat-nav that took us down every country track it could find and the snow continued to come down. We had a great day there. Snowy train journey through the countryside and Ellie got to meet Santa and go on a carousel. Even had her photo taken with a Snow-Princess. It stopped snowing just as we were about to leave.

So we started back the way we came, having enough fun just getting out of the car-park. We had a few hairy moments sliding on the snow but most of the issues were other people not understanding how to drive on snow. People trying to get up hills in first gear and wondering why their wheels have no traction. It took us two hours to get back from Sittingbourne because people were driving at 25mph despite the lane they were on being clear of snow. This meant driving over a ridge of snow to get into a snow compacted overtaking lane and then crossing back over the ridge of snow to the lane that was clear of snow every time I came across someone doing 25mph.