Ming Thein | Photographer

On Assignment: Time factors and big magnets

August 22, 2012 by Ming Thein

MRI machines are a lot thicker than they look on TV. Nikon D800E, Zeiss ZF.2 2.8/21 Distagon

I’ve shot for hospitals before, though not under these conditions. The day – well, night – before the shoot, I didn’t know I was going to be shooting the next day. Turns out that the hospital ordered a new MRI machine, at a cost of just RM13,000,000 – making it by far the most expensive object I’ve ever photographed. Here’s a bit of background on MRI machines: they’re so heavy that the room has to be purpose built to accommodate it, and the machine settled in then the rest of the place completed around the outside. (The control booth wasn’t operational or in place when I went there.) Apparently the magnet has to be cycled when it’s new to run in; during breaks in the cycling when the magnetic field strength dropped to zero was the only time we could go in to shoot it – they never fully turn the thing off. The upshot of all of this was that I had about half an hour to complete the shoot before they had to gas the MRI machine up with helium and start the cycling process again.

Inside the donut. Nikon D800E, Zeiss ZF.2 2.8/21 Distagon. Single SB900 with an umbrella outside to illuminate the patient and room. I don’t know why, but I kept thinking of Star Wars whilst I was inside here shooting.

There were about ten shots to complete inside the room – several of the room and machine itself, a few with a patient in it, and a couple with doctor-patient interaction. Needless to say, everything required lights to be brought in; not because ambient wasn’t bright enough, but because even, flat light is great for soothing patients but utterly crappy for providing definition on white objects. I used two SB900 speedlights for this shoot, triggered by the built in on my Nikon D800E. One was the main key light on a stand using an umbrella, and the other was placed to provide background fill. Whilst they work fine with line of sight, I do find myself wanting to hide them in ever more creative places; the inside of the MRI’s donut hole being one. I think I must be one of the few people to ever stick a flash inside an MRI machine. Perhaps I’ll pick up a set of Pocket Wizards at some point.

Half an hour and one haematoma on my finger later (I clipped it between the leg joins of my Gitzo while rushing to pack up) – good thing I was at a hospital – we were done. Possibly the most rushed shoot I’ve ever done, but also rather fun.

The Mammomat. Has a rather neat carbon fiber um…rack tray, too. Nikon D800E, Zeiss ZF.2 2/50 Makro-Planar. SB900 with umbrella from top right. The bluish color is actually a big glass panel that’s part of the machine; it changes color which supposedly helps keep patients calm.

The session actually started off here, in Mammography – it’s challenging to make a room that’s designed to have some separation between the x-ray source and the operator booth look cosy and inviting. And even more challenging was to show the process with a model patient in a way that didn’t reveal any skin.

The trick with lighting here was to balance the mid-warm ambient fluorescent with flash to provide definition and shadows; I shot manual for all of the exposures at about 0.5-1.5 stops under ambient. A SB900 with umbrella behind and above the subject provided face definition, with a second naked one on the floor provided room fill.

Showing everything while showing nothing. Nikon D800E, Zeiss ZF.2 2/50 Makro-Planar

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Filed Under: On Assignment Tagged With: flash, hospital, mammogram, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, mri, nikon, on assignment, speedlight, thein, zeiss

Photoessay: New car time

August 21, 2012 by Ming Thein

I don’t normally shoot cars – I leave that to my good friend Darren Chang – but my wife recently got herself a new ride. Since I photograph everything that moves or doesn’t move as a matter of habit and for practice, I couldn’t help myself. The 6R Volkswagen Polo GTI is one of the best bang for the buck cars you can find here – 185bhp from a 1.4 turbocharged and supercharged four; it gets to 100km/h in the mid-six second range, and has a great growly exhaust note. Also, it’s a lot of fun. MT

This series shot with an Olympus E-PM1 Pen Mini and 14-42 kit lens.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: car, micro 4/3, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, olympus, photoessay, thein, volkswagen, vw

Long lens technique and tips

August 20, 2012 by Ming Thein

Snow duck, Hokkaido, Japan. Nikon D3, 70-300VR

Today’s article is going to be a little bit out of character for me – one of my great photographic passions used to be birding and wildlife; I don’t know how I got drawn into it, but my neighbor (and Photoshop guru, illustrator Gordon Hurden) happening to be on probably had something to do with it. I gladly spent my weekends in humid swamps, with nothing but mosquitoes and bugs for company; fortunately I managed to avoid dengue despite averaging at least a dozen bites from every session – inevitably on the tiny slivers of skin I’d forget to cover in repellant. I learned three important things from this period in my photographic career: one, patience and timing are everything; two, know your subject; and three, how to handle a long lens.

Eagle-Hawk. Nikon D3, AFS 300/2.8 VR

The first thing I can’t teach you, unfortunately; the second requires self-study, and the third is the subject of this article. For the purposes of simplicity, I’m going to wear the hat of a wildlife photographer, and discuss exceptions/ applications to other types of photography (sport, landscape, macro) at the end of the article. But before we begin, there are some golden rules that need to be shared and explained:

Gray heron in flight. Nikon D200, AFS 300/2.8 VR + 2x TC

Forget about hand holding: Sure, you might get off a good shot or two, but try hefting that thing around all day and not getting tired – even if you are built like Arnie in his heyday, you’re not going to be at all stable. Remember: the longer the lens, the higher the magnification; the higher the magnification, the more obvious a given degree of angular shake is going to be proportional to the size of the frame (angular frame coverage decreases as focal length increases).

You get what you pay for: Cheap, optically good, and fast: when it comes to long lenses, pick any two. There are no bargains in the super telephoto world, unless you count some of the older manual focus lenses; then you lose AF, VR and gain a whole load of weight (no carbon-fiber hoods and helicoids here). This also applies to heads, tripods and any other part of the system you can think of.

Size does matter: For small, nervous animals – some birds are a great example of this – you can never have enough millimeters. And more millimeters means more reach, but also more shake. More shake means you need to go up a size for tripods, heads, etc – anything that forms part of your imaging system and associated supports.

You may be perfectly stationary, but your subject isn’t: Even if your system is rock-solid and can give you a perfectly sharp image consistently at say 1/10s and slower, your subject is probably not going to be able to stay still for that long – don’t forget this when you’re trying to figure out why there’s still motion blur in your image: it may not be from your camera or tripod.

Bluetit. Nikon D200, AFS 300/2.8 VR + 2x TC

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the things we can do to minimize camera shake.

Increase shutter speed.
This seems like a no-brainer, but the inevitable tradeoff is shutter speed against noise: would you rather have a blurry image, or one that’s sharp but noisy? Personally, the latter gives you some options for processing afterwards, but the former may just land up being frustrating. Throw the 1/focal length rule out of the window: how slow you can go depends on your technique/ support system and subject – I limit this to about 1/60 with relatively lethargic birds, and 1/500 for hyperactive ones (hummingbirds are a good example). 1/60 also avoids the danger zone of most support systems, and You’re not going to be able to handhold a 600mm lens at 1/600s, so give up that idea.

Duck. Nikon D200, AFS 300/2.8 VR + 1.4x TC

Mirror lockup.
Most the vibration in an exposure comes from either the action of depressing the shutter, or recoil from the mirror raising into position immediately before the shutter fires. The shutter itself is designed to be as light as possible with very little inertia so it requires little energy to move; it contributes relative little shake. Although mirror lockup (or at very least, a self timer) is a great way of removing this issue from long exposures, the main problem with wildlife photography and mirror lockup is that response is not immediate, and you’ll almost certainly land up missing the critical moment. The best way around this is to use live view, and fire the shutter that way – on most of the newer live view cameras (D800 and D4, for instance) the mirror doesn’t have to cycle before firing a frame; only the shutter fires, resulting in much lower vibration. Some cameras even have an electronic first shutter option (D4) which further lowers vibration. Needless to say, the mirrorless CSCs are the best type of camera for this kind of work thanks to their combination of reach/ crop factor and lack of a mirror; it’s just a shame that there are no serious long lens options currently available. (A good 300/4 wouldn’t cost that much and give 600/4 equivalent reach and speed – are any of the manufacturers reading this?)

Grooming. Nikon D200, AFS 300/2.8 VR + 1.4x TC

Continuous AF, or manual focus
Long lenses have extremely shallow depth of field; if your subject (or you) move by a small distance, this is very obviously translated into the focal plane sand not covered by depth of field; you will need to either use continuous AF, and control the point used manually (hint: cover the near eye of your subject) or focus manually. I did most of my wildlife photography with an old manual-focus Nikon AI 500/4 P telephoto, which was both lighter than the autofocus versions, as well as being considerably cheaper.

Moorhen. Nikon D200, AI 500/4 P and 1.4x TC

Shutter technique
I mentioned the act of depressing the shutter earlier – jabbing vertically at the button is almost certainly going to ruin your exposure through photographer-induced shake; slowly stroke the button instead from left to right, or roll the pad of your finger onto it from right to left. Either way, be gentle. Curiously the position of the shutter on the top plate makes depressing it especially susceptible to causing camera shake; I don’t know why none of the camera makers have cottoned on to this and implemented a more vertical release instead – squeezing the grip would produce far less shake, and still be just as ergonomic, if not more so. The only cameras that come to mind with a nearly vertical release are the old Olympus C-8080 and to a lesser extent, the Leica S2 – none of which are at all suitable for wildlife photography.

Hanging on. Nikon D200, AFS 300/2.8 VR

Tripods
A good tripod is your best friend, and a must for prolonged telephoto lens use. Monopods are better for mobility, but lack the ultimate stability and require constant attention to keep upright – a tripod, on the other hand, is happy to stand by itself all day (unless attacked by a bear) and is far less fatiguing to use. It’s tempting to get something light – especially since you know you’re going to have to carry it to the shooting location, which might be quite far from your transport – but don’t fall into that temptation, even if some of the lighter tripods have higher load ratings than your camera system. The reason for this is small tubes – both in thickness and diameter – will be far less effective at absorbing vibration than larger ones, and smaller joins will always be less rigid. Again: you get what you pay for. Carbon fiber is preferable to steel or aluminum because of both weight and damping properties; the orientation of the weave helps with this. Wood is also another option, but a bit heavier and not so happy with moisture. I highly recommend the Gitzo 5-series systematic tripods for serious telephoto users.

The only good image I managed of a robin – they’re fast fliers and don’t stay put for long. Nikon D200, AI 500/4 P

Monopods
If you need to run and gun, or are shooting with better light, or don’t plan to be out for long, then consider a monopod – it’s lighter, easier to set up, and more flexible. The same rules apply as for tripods – get the thickest, sturdiest one you can find; either attach it directly to the lens foot, or use a rigid monopod head (that permits only tilt) to minimize slop in the system. With the right technique, (see bracing below) I’ve been able to get critically sharp results from a monopod and 750mm equivalent lens at 1/30s. Note: monopods are not recommended if it’s windy; enormous lenses and their hoods tend to act like sails and windsocks and start to swing about a bit in the breeze.

Lorikeet portrait. Nikon D200, AI 500/4 P

Heads
There’s no point in spending a lot of money on a good tripod or monopod then letting it down with a lousy head – this is the critical portion of the support system. The most important thing is that the head must not be able to suddenly unlock and let go of your lens; this will make it both highly likely to result in an expensive accident, and difficult for you to adjust framing precisely. At very least, use a ballhead with tension control; I like the Manfrotto 468MG Hydrostat series. Ideally though, you probably want a gimbal head of some sort; this allows you to leave the system unlocked (providing you’ve mounted the lens at its balance point, of course) and simply aim the camera like a good artillery piece. Monopods should either have no head (screw the top of the monopod straight to the lens foot) or a dedicated monopod-only head to provide tilt. And this may sound stupid, but don’t forget to lock down the rotating collar on the lens – if it didn’t have any play in it, you wouldn’t be able to turn it. But at the same time, that play is death to stability.

Black-crowned crane. Canon 1DIII, 500/4 L IS

Beanbags
If you have something to lean on, like a tree trunk, vehicle door or a wall, a beanbag can be an interesting option because it’s both stable and allows for a range of positioning; the beans mould to the shape of the lens and absorb vibration. In fact, this is one of the most stable support methods available. A cheaper (but heavier) alternative is a sack of rice. Just make sure you don’t let go of the lens, because it’s not attached to anything…

Hummingbird. Nikon D80, AI 500/4 P + 1.4x TC

Bracing
Bracing the camera lightly against your forehead via the eyecup is also a very effective way of dampening motion, because it couples it to the greater mass of your body. This is critical for monopod users, and of less importance for tripod shooters. In addition, if you’re using a monopod, it’s a good idea to put a little pressure on the monopod to keep everything under tension; hard to describe but what I usually do is stub one toe into the monopod’s foot, hold the camera at the grip and put a hand over the attachment point of the lens, whilst pushing forward slightly on the whole rig. This anchors the monopod firmly to the ground, as well as preventing the end of the lens from wobbling.

Stealth duck. Nikon D200, AFS 300/2.8 VR and 1.4x TC

Breathing techniques
Similar to bracing, this is of importance to monopod users, but less so for tripod users as you should be shooting with the head locked down, and the entire setup static. Monopods are never static by definition, so you need all the tricks in the book to maximize stability. Don’t hold your breath when you shoot; this actually increases your heart rate over time. If you’re using a long enough lens – around 700mm and up – and hold your breath and stabilize the camera against your forehead/ eye socket, you’ll actually see the finder jump a little every time your heart beats. This is obviously counterproductive. The best technique to maintain an even heartbeat (shared with me by a competition pistol markswoman) is to exhale slowly when firi…oops, I meant depressing the shutter button.

Cattle egret. Olympus E-410, Nikon AI 500/4 P

Burst shooting
Since we’ve already established that mirror lockup is not practical for wildlife photography because of the lag involved, the next best thing is to shoot in three-shot bursts – this helps with both finger-induced motion (your finger is static for the middle burst) and mirror-induced motion, and works best with high frame rate cameras. The idea is that the camera will be displaced during the first frame, stay there during the second, and move back to the rest position during the third (where you lift off) – all I can say is that it works.

Cassowary portrait. Olympus E-410, Nikon AI 500/4 P

Stabilizers
Optical stabilizers work much better than sensor-based ones when using long lenses – this is because being at the nodal point of the optical system, they can correct for a much greater range of angular motion. However, they have their limitations – above a certain shutter speed threshold, stabilizers should be turned off; they simply don’t react fast enough and can actually cause double images. If you’re locked down on a tripod, they should be turned off too; these systems have a tendency to overcompensate for small movements of the kind that might be experienced on a tripod. Finally, although they can reduce camera motion, they can’t compensate for subject motion. Most of the time, I shot with stabilizers off.

Polo. Nikon D700, AFS 28-300VR

Application to sport photography
Most sports are shot at high enough shutter speeds (to freeze action) that a monopod is sufficient, stabilizers aren’t really required, and although the refined techniques described above can help, they’re not strictly necessary until you start to get into the borderline 1/500s region – (due to the necessity to freeze fast action). Tripods generally get in the way and don’t allow the photographer to respond fast enough to changes in action.

Blue mountains, Courchavel, France. Nikon D2H, 70-200/2.8 VR I + 1.4x TC

Application to landscape photography
Although landscape photographers tend to not use such long lenses, a sturdy tripod is still recommended especially if long exposures are required; here mirror lockup (or at very least, the self timer) will help immensely with stability. Most support systems have issues around the 1/10-1/50s region; try and avoid this if possible, especially with longer focal lengths.

Prismatic red eyes. Nikon D3, AFS 105/2.8 VR

Application to macrophotography
At first glance, this may seem out of place, but in reality, macrophotography techniques are quite similar to those for handling long telephoto lenses; stability is paramount, and the smallest camera movement is hugely magnified. The main difference is your ability to control subject lighting with flash; this allows you to freeze motion (both camera and subject) through an artificially short exposure time – limited to the actual flash duration. All of the tripod-based techniques described above are useful to the macrophotographer; I can’t think of any situation in which a monopod would be useful.

You might also enjoy my review of the Gitzo 1542 Traveller and 5562 Systematic tripods here.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: how to, long lens technique, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, supertelephoto, telephoto, thein

Temporary absenteeism, and Salam Eid-ul-Fitr to our Muslim friends

August 19, 2012 by Ming Thein

Just a quick note to say that I’ll be off on a much-needed vacation for the next week, back on the 25th of August. So if you send me an email or leave a comment on something and don’t get a reply at my usual speed, don’t worry. Please note that all DVD orders received after today will be shipped on my return. Everything received up to Friday has already shipped (post office here is closed for the holidays).

However, please note that daily posts to the site will continue as normal (thanks to the power of editorial discipline and automated scheduling), so please continue to visit as usual. MT

PS: In case anybody is curious, my photographic equipment will be limited to the Sony RX100 for this trip.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

A gentle reminder – two weeks left for the August competition!

August 18, 2012 by Ming Thein

Entry details here.

Remember, the more entries, the bigger the prize pot! MT

Filed Under: Competitions Tagged With: august 2012 competition, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, thein

There’s always room for improvement: self-critique of my popular images

August 18, 2012 by Ming Thein

One of the things I’m perhaps a bit infamous for is being quick to offer critiques on other people’s work. I’m going to remedy that with today’s article by turning the spotlight on myself by critiquing some of my own images, and encouraging readers to do the same in the comments. The only way a person can continue to grow and improve their skills is through constructive feedback and performing self-analysis; I’m a big proponent of both.

Determining popularity is a tough thing to do – so I’ve let Flickr do the work for me. I’ve picked a small selection of images by number of favorites; interestingness is something which nobody outside Flickr really understands, and number of views is also somewhat meaningless because photos of equipment and test shots tend to score highly due to being used in other posts. I’ve worked my way down the ranks, ignoring images that have no photographic merit (e.g. product shots for reviews, setup shots) and just focused on the ones which I would consider ‘proper’ images. Note that even this method of selection is bound to be slightly imperfect as older images will have had more time to accumulate favorites than newer ones – borne out by the fact that there are only three of the ten images were from 2011 or later. This means that there are going to be older images in there which are probably not as good as the work I’m producing now. Interestingly, almost all of the highest ranked images are watch photos – even though there are far more ‘reporting-on-life’ type shots. I suppose that’s my niche…

It’s also important to remember that criticism is subjective, and biased by one’s own point of view and photographic stage of development. This means what I find ‘works’ now isn’t necessarily the same as at the time the image was shot.

I will not be holding back. So, without further preamble, here we go.

#1. Water droplets (2011) – 2,067 views, 85 favorites

An attempt to capture some texture with the (then new to me) D3100. Two things bother me about this image: one, the truncation of some of the droplets at the edges (understandably unavoidable given the nature of the subject) and the depth of field; it’s only just enough to cover the two droplets at center. Not immediately obvious that this is the best choice of focal plane. Processing may be a little bit overdone, too – tones appear heavy and there isn’t enough highlight pop at the top end.

#2. JLC Master Minute Repeater, titanium (2011) – 759 views, 63 favorites

Again, two major criticisms in hindsight – firstly, the warm color tone doesn’t reflect the actual warm-gray color of the watch; however, I can excuse it as an attempt to create a mood. The bigger problem is that you can’t read the manufacture’s name printed on the crystal; it just doesn’t stand out from the dial, which happens to be almost exactly the same tone and luminosity. There isn’t a lot you can do about this due to the physical nature of the object, other than shift the camera to have something dark behind the printing…but that would also change and imbalance the composition, which at the moment feels equally weighted left-right.

#3: Lemania monopusher chronograph (2007) – 2,920 views, 58 favorites

The ‘heaviness’ and darkness of the processing lends suitable gravitas to the subject given its age; however, it does seem a bit too contrasty in some areas, with clearly blown highlights around polished parts (e.g. the screws). In hindsight, I find the crop a bit too tight, and the lighting uneven; the lug areas – especially the top portion – is too shaded relative to the movement and doesn’t bring out the shape of the watch case enough. Furthermore, the right hand side just feels cut off.

#4: Ferrari 599 GTB (2008) – 2,567 views, 48 favorites

If I hadn’t posted the lighting setup, it seems that people would have mistaken this for a real car. I like the mystery of it, but I find the overall composition a bit imbalanced; the main shape of the car and light pool around it doesn’t really match the shape of the frame. Furthermore, the light pool around the bottom of the car is too well defined and not diffuse enough; it feels a bit like a cutout. There are also some odd fine reflections along the top edge of the bodywork (specifically, the back) which look unnatural.

#5: Lange 1815 (2007) – 4,005 views, 47 favorites

This remains one of my favorite images for sheer ‘pop’; however, the color is atrociously awful. It’s not accurate, too saturated in some places and not saturated enough in others. Although the image pops contrast-wise, it perhaps pops too much; there are harsh blown highlights in various places and ungraceful mid tone transitions. The lighting could use a little more diffusion, or fill, or both. The bottom right loop of the regulator is truncated, but there’s empty space at top right – rotating the camera clockwise slightly would have helped balance this out. Finally, there’s clear sensor dust on the balance rim and near the numbers that wasn’t retouched out…

#6: Jaeger LeCoultre Duometre (2012) – 1,071 views, 46 favorites

This is actually a very similar image to the previous one in subject and lighting style – but with five years of lighting experimentation in between the two; to make things more challenging, it was shot with a Leica M9 and huge frankenrig. Note how this image maintains the same contrast, but has much better highlight transitions and mid tone gradation; there’s also nothing obviously cut off and no empty areas in the frame – it’s a balanced shot. Color is also much more accurate. I think if anything, the top left portion of the image needs work, though – more depth of field, more brightness, and more pop in general.

#7: Sinn 757 (2007) – 1,401 views, 35 favorites

The form of the image is nice, and the strong lighting helps delineate the contours of the watch well. However, the truncated text and curvature on the left feels incomplete; less exposure on that side of the case would have helped better maintain balance in the image. Aside from that, compositions like this need perfect geometry; the watch is leaning left slightly and not perfectly in plane. Finally, there’s a lot of rather obvious dust that hasn’t been retouched out…

#8: Seiko SNZH53 ‘Fifty Three Fathoms’ (2011) – 1,054 views, 34 favorites

Firstly, the lighting in the image suits the subject perfectly; it lends a degree of transparency and luminosity to the textures in the image that make it clear you’re looking at metal, water, and glass/ crystal; colors are bang on, and it’s clear what the subject is. There are only two issues here – firstly, the upper left portion of the frame feels empty; I should probably have added another water droplet there to fill out the emptiness. Secondly, you can’t read the name of the watch, and the case design in itself isn’t distinctive enough to be able to tell. This is only a problem of course if it’s a commercial image, which this wasn’t.

#9: Before blowing (2007) – 497 views, 33 favorites

One thing I’ve noticed is that images from my earlier 2006-7 period are much darker than what I produce today; there are deep, black blacks and shapes/ objects defined solely by highlight outlines. There isn’t a good or bad to this, it simply is what it is. I find the balance a little off; shifting everything slightly to the left would probably help, and reduce the impression of odd hairs sticking into the image at right – seeing the continuation between hair and face would help define the subject better. Finally, the gray background intersects the dandelion exactly midway – it should be lower, achieved by a higher camera angle, to avoid this.

#Lucky Last: Omega Dynamic Chronograph (2007) – 3,293 views, 32 favorites

One of the test shots from my first encounter with the D3, I was trying to figure out how full frame dealt with macro work; quite well, it seems. One of my first experiences lighting to give the illusion of a particular orientation and rotating afterwards rather than getting everything perfect in camera. I got the illusion I wanted, but the lighting still clearly needs some refinement as there’s a hugely obvious hot spot in the case, and odd bit of flare off the crystal. Color is better than previous images, but there are still casts in the dial and case. Finally, there’s also a general lack of retouching and large amount of dust.

One interesting observation out of all of this – what people favorite definitely does not correspond with what Flickr thinks is interesting, or what gets the most hits – I have images with over 40,000 views, but very few favorites – these tend to be the demonstration or illustration kind of image, rather than any with intrinsic artistic merit of their own.

Time for me to go practice now. MT

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Enter the August 2012 competition: Compact Challenge – here!

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, self critique, thein

A teaching collaboration: Making and Finding light with Kristian Dowling, KL 28 & 30 Sep

August 17, 2012 by Ming Thein

I’m pleased to present both my first workshop and first collaboration, in Kuala Lumpur – I know I live here, but I’ve not actually done anything here yet either…

There will be two sessions with noted studio photographer Kristian Dowling from Australia, on the 28th and 30th of September 2012. Each session is limited to 12 participants, and is priced at RM600 per person per session, or RM1,000 for both sessions.

Profoto will be sponsoring lighting equipment for the studio session.

28 September 2012: Studio (Victor Studio, Shriro Building, Lot 22&24 Jalan 225, Petaling Jaya)
The morning session will begin with something simple, yet fundamental: how to evaluate an image, and understand what works and what doesn’t. I’ll then continue with color theory, compositional balance and a bit about the psychology of how viewers react to an image. Kristian will finish off with a session on studio lighting; bring your laptops, lights, tripods and everything you’d normally use on a studio shoot.

30 September 2012: Street (Starts at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and keeps going on foot)
Kristian is a street photographer. In a previous life, I was a photojournalist. We both have different approaches to reportage – this session will be split into two halves; one group will go with myself, the other with Kristian and we’ll swap after lunch. Small groups mean that it’s easy to move around and not attract attention. This session will teach you three important skills:
1. How to anticipate and see a shot; what our thinking process is before raising camera to eye. A lot of composition is done even before looking through the viewfinder.
2. How to be ready and respond quickly
3. How to see the light and get the shot.

Please email either me – mingthein2(at)gmail.com, or Kristian – [email protected] to book or for more information. MT

Update – sorry, there was a typo in the second email address – if any of you sent an email to Kristian and didn’t get a reply, it’s because it should have read workshops@kristiandowling.com – sorry, but please send it again!

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: kristian dowling, making and finding light, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, september 2012, teaching, thein, Workshop

Review: the Voigtlander 25/0.95 Nokton MFT

August 16, 2012 by Ming Thein

There are several fast-normal options available today for Micro 4/3 users – the Panasonic 20/1.7, the Panasonic-Leica 25/1.4 DG Summilux, and the fastest of them all, the Voigtlander 25/0.95. There are also a whole host of modified CCTV and C-mount lenses, some of which cover the whole M4/3 frame, some of which don’t. None of them have enough resolving power to match the resolution of the sensor at full aperture, either.

Given the limited high-ISO capabilities of the earlier M4/3 sensors, there was an obvious gap left for a hyperspeed lens of any sort; being one of the M4/3 consortium members, Voigtlander stepped in to fill the gap. However, not having AF technology, Cosina had to make do with a manual-focus only design, but with a native M4/3 mount. The lens feels nothing like the M4/3 lenses from Panasonic, Olympus or Sigma; it’s a hefty lump of metal, built with the same solid feel as the more premium modern manual focus lenses. It’s not a small lens, especially once you attach the supplied hood – it’s actually about the same size (and much heavier) than the Voigtlander 75/1.8 for M mount. This lens rates very highly on the tactility scale; the focus ring is well-damped but turns smoothly without much effort; there’s no backlash and this makes focusing a very pleasing experience. The aperture ring has neat half-click detents, but I would prefer the stops to be a bit more decisive and less easy to turn.

Cinnamon. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

Let’s talk a bit about focusing – because one of the most frequently asked questions I’ve had with this lens. I would say it’s easier than expected, but not as easy as I would like – especially when using the lens stopped down. Since there’s no electronic linkage between the lens and camera, aperture is entirely mechanical; this means that you’re always seeing the stopped down view through the finder or on the LCD. The trick is to shoot raw, and turn focusing on your jpeg settings up to the maximum – this actually creates a little bit of a shimmery halo in the finder. (These settings of course do not affect the raw file). It also accentuates sharpness of the image, which makes it easier to tell when things are in focus – as you turn the focusing ring past then point of focus and back again, there’s a slight shimmer in the live preview. The focusing ring is also well-spaced – the normal range from about ~0.4m to infinity is easily covered by a turn of the wrist without having to reposition your hand; the near range – down to just 0.17cm – is more widely spaced, and allows for precise placement of the focal plane.

The whole frame at the near limit and f1.4. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

One doesn’t buy this lens with the intention to use it at any other aperture than wide open, at least most of the time. There’s simply no point in paying so much (it’s considerably more expensive than the Panasonic-Leica, which of course has autofocus and is about one stop slower) and carrying around so much extra weight if you’re going to use it at f2. In fact, you might as well get the Panasonic 20/1.7 – it’s cheaper, much smaller and focuses itself. The good news is that the center produces acceptable sharpness, even wide open – providing you focus it accurately. (The shallow depth of field transition profile of a 25mm focal length lens means that that finding the optimum plane isn’t always easy, either.)

Satay. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

There’s a considerable improvement in acuity at f1.4 in the center, and again at f2; however, the corners don’t reach anywhere near central levels of sharpness until f2.8 and beyond. Note that I use the term ‘acceptable’: it’s not great at f0.95, and there’s a distinct softness that’s probably caused by internal flare; I suspect that if the internal surfaces of the barrel were better coated against reflection, we’d see a corresponding improvement in contrast and sharpness. Microcontrast is simply nonexistent until f2, and macro contrast is generally quite flat, too – making it good for retaining dynamic range under extreme lighting situations, but poor for fine texture reproduction.

The hills are made of rice. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

What about the other common lens shortcomings, like vignetting, chromatic aberration, flare and distortion? The 25 has all of them, and in quite generous amounts, too. It will vignette wide open, but this is easily corrected and gone by f2.8. Chromatic aberration is a bit more problematic; we see that and purple fringing against high-contrast backgrounds, especially when subjects are backlit. If you get a bright point light source in the wrong part of the frame, you’re going to have fun with flare, lowering already low contrast even further – and the hood isn’t going to help you much. I didn’t actively look for distortion, so I can’t comment on it; the types of subjects this lens is suited to probably wouldn’t show it anyway.

Family corner, at f0.95. Due to the short real focal length, f0.95 doesn’t have as shallow depth of field as you might have otherwise imagined. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

After all of that, you might have come to the conclusion that this lens is pretty bad – optically, it’s definitely not the best I’ve used. But, what other lens offers a true f0.95 aperture (and T stop that’s not far off, either) at US$1200? I can see some uses for the 25 – portraiture, mostly – but it just doesn’t suit what I do. Even though the optics at f4-5.6 are excellent, and the 17cm near focus distance makes it quite useful for food photography, there just isn’t enough reason for me to keep the lens around since it replicates the performance of the Panasonic 20/1.7.

Untitled. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

As much as I love using the lens simply because it feels like a real lens, not a plastic shell – I just can’t recommend it for the kind of photography I do; it’s not sharp enough wide open to be used as an available-light lens, and is further hampered by the difficulty of focusing it under low light conditions; it’s big enough to defeat the point of the compact M4/3 system, and expensive enough that I think having the 20/1.7 and 45/1.8 lenses instead makes much more sense.

Burger time. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

If you’re an object shooter, as tempting as the close focus capability is, you can’t really use it wide open without dealing with rendering that’s best described as ‘impressionist’; you’re better served by the Panasonic-Leica 45/2.8 Macro, or the forthcoming Olympus 60/2.8. If you’re an available light shooter, and don’t mind the occasional softness due to focusing misses, then go ahead; if sharpness bothers you, then go for the Panasonic Leica 25/1.4 Summilux. However, I can see a very narrow niche of portrait photographers for whom pictorial style takes precedence over sharpness; this is your lens, and it offers a look previously limited to larger format systems.

If you must still have one, get it here from B&H or Amazon.

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Crash test portrait dummy. Olympus OM-D, 25/0.95

Filed Under: Gearhead: Reviews Tagged With: 25/0.95, gearhead, micro 4/3, micro four thirds, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, nokton, review, thein, voigtlander

I’m jealous.

August 16, 2012 by Ming Thein

It really seems that sometimes, we get the short end of the stick on consumer deals in Asia – perhaps because there’s always somebody a bit lower down the consumer food chain than us who’ll happily pay a bit less for a slightly older model.

Backstory: I’ve been thinking about a waterproof compact to muck around with at the beach for some time, and then I come upon this on Amazon:

Panasonic Lumix TS20 Waterproof Digital Camera – US$137. It’s half the price of what I’d pay locally…except, they frustratingly don’t ship to Malaysia. Sigh. Anyway, I thought I’d post it for the benefit of readers living in the US who might be wanting to pick up one of these for the holidays.

On a better note, memory cards are on sale, too – these I will be picking up a few of. One can never have too much storage, especially with the D800E’s enormous raw files.

Sandisk Extreme 45mb/s 32GB SDHC UHS-1 – $33.60, reduced from $79.99 (again, we pay about $90 locally). Good for OM-D, D800 etc – I’ve got faster cards but don’t notice that much of a speed difference.

Transcend 32GB Class 10 SDHC – $17.99, reduced from $32.99. Normally I wouldn’t recommend a slower, older card, but these are the only ones I’ve used so far that don’t give me write errors in the Leica M9. The above Sandisk Extreme is NOT recommended at all for the M9, I’ve seen failures, corruptions and lockups on four different M9s and M9-Ps. There’s also a 16GB version here for about $10, but you might as well pay $8 more and get double the storage.

Full disclosure: It doesn’t cost you any more, but using these links to Amazon do give me a small percentage of your order value as a referral fee – which I hope will eventually contribute to running this site. (Last month was all of $65.00, so we’ve got a long, long way to go yet). For now and the future, I will only share interesting stuff that I myself will order. Thanks! MT

Filed Under: Off topic