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Reviews of photography products that enhance the enjoyment of taking pictures. Published frequently but irregularly.
Around The Horn
18 November 2013
In this recurring column, we highlight a few items we've run across that don't merit a full story of their own but are interesting enough to bring to your attention (with more than 140 characters). This time we look at Taitiana Altberg, an 'in spec' lens, making fine hair selections and a simple three-light portrait setup.
- In Brazilian Stories and Selfies Through a Pinhole, Taitiana Altberg teaches Brazilian kids how to make a pinhole camera out of a can.
- Roger Cicala's Inspecting an 'In Spec' Lens sent one lens back three times for a corner sharpness problem the service center claimed was within spec before seeing if his guys could improve it.
- In Photoshop Playbook: Making Fine Hair Selections Photoshop Senior Product Manager Brian O'Neil Hughes shows how a Quick Selection learns from your adjustments how to make a refined mask.
- Neil van Niekerk shows off his three-light portrait setup in Headshot Photography in the Studio.
More to come...
Comments
Really enjoyed the 'In Spec' lens article. Shows you don't always get what you pay for.
Being basically an amateur photo enthusiast, I remember having a wonderful 50mm f1.4 lens which I used back in my Canon A-1 camera days. It was wonderfully sharp and worked well for many years until becoming a victim to a flooded basement.
I replaced it twice with other 50mm 1.4 lens using the same Canon A-1 camera, but was never as happy with the results. Now, many years later than I want to admit, I'm finally using digital cameras and find it takes HDR shooting to get the sharpness I fondly remember from my old beater of a lens.
-- Joyce Stein
Sharpness being a combination of resolution and acutance, maybe we can explain that special 50mm as having delivered more local contrast (or acutance) than its successors.
Software can help here, as you've found with HDR. The hard way to do it is with unsharp masking (with one too many balls -- or variables -- to juggle). Smart Sharpening in Photoshop avoids the artifacts of unsharp masking (but still has a few balls to juggle). But the simplest way to get there is with the Clarity slider. Some applications simply call this micro-contrast, but it's the same trick.
Positive values increase local contrast, enhancing acutance and hence sharpening the image. And, as a special bonus, negative values decrease it, which minimizes wrinkles in portraits.
-- Mike