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Monday, December 30, 2013

a nocklebeast retrospective 2013

Hey! It's time for the best of the best of photos of 2013, and there's some few non-roller derby stuff too.

alt_cropping_L2072092
bench coaching the Santa Cruz Harbor Hellcats team photo shoot

Do you know the way to San Jose?  I didn't get over the hill this year as often as other years for Silicon Valley Roller Girls

svrg_bytes_vs_sfv_omgs_L7027093

I would have liked to have made it to more Bay Area bouts as well.

this duel was just awesome to see
this duel was just awesome to see

badg_shevil_vs_belles_L2073592

Santa Cruz has a new stadium, and sometimes the Santa Cruz Warriors (Golden State's developmental team) play basketball there.

Here is the world's most enthusiastic turtle, Mav'riks.  He's about a 100 on the enthusiasm Richter scale.  Here he is pretending to deliver pizza, but he's really spying on Reno's chalk talk.  He's a very mischievous turtle.

Mav'Riks, the world's most enthusiastic turtle, spies on Reno's chalk talk during a team timeout.
Mav'Riks, the world's most enthusiastic turtle, spies on Reno's chalk talk during a team timeout.

Of course the real reason why Santa Cruz has a new stadium is, that's right, roller derby!

a little offense and defense from Shamrock N. Roller #8, Queen Litigious #41 and Ginger Brute #7343
 a little offense and defense from Shamrock N. Roller #8, Queen Litigious #41 and Ginger Brute #7343

 The color of the light in the new stadium sometimes gives me difficulties, but there is no shortage of light (typical exposure:  f2.8, 1/1000 ISO 1250)

groms_sugarskulls_vs_bumperscars_L2074277

1scdg_groms_sassies_vs_humboldt_saplings_L7030756

hellaluna!

every which way
every which way

At the Oakland Convention Center...
letting the color be what it is
letting the color be what it is

signing bout posters
 signing bout posters

I got a new black and white camera this year.
perched
perched 

 bifurcation
 bifurcation

 1scdg_bombshells_vs_pikes_peak_L1001523

 1SCDG_Bombshells_vs_SacredCity_L1002438

 ICE
ICE

 penny and banana
penny and banana

 pt_L1011317

 glass
glass

 2scdg_hellcats_vs_ccad_L1012192

Pippi Hardsocking #45 breaks out of the pack wearing skull kneepads
Pippi Hardsocking #45 breaks out of the pack wearing skull knee-pads

 I visited Kalamazoo, MI where Chickenman is from.

kzoo1__L2084226

Coaching staff and referees review the score just after the last jam in regulation
Coaching staff and referees review the score just after the last jam in regulation

1kzoo_04_killamazoo_vs_queens_L1013198

Kapowski!
1_07_kzoo_Suburbia_vs_Carolina_L2084688

The jammers (Too Short of Sac City and Pippi Hardsocking of Santa Cruz) make their way throught the pack.
The jammers (Too Short of Sac City and Pippi Hardsocking of Santa Cruz) make their way throught the pack

 2kzoo_day3__L2091151

some times it pays off to get a sneak preview of the halftime show before the doors open.

 THE EXCELSIOR
THE EXCELSIOR

 I'm going to NSO the crap out of this bout
I'm going to NSO the crap out of this bout

 1santacruz_vs_bayarea_L1031456

 1akademie_C1_L1031898

 1London_vs_Atlanta_L1032078

 1Philly_vs_Windy_L1033419

 1BayArea_vs_WindyCity_L1034752

 2BayArea_vs_GothamGirls_L1035627

1BayArea_vs_Denver_L1036905

 Getting high off the smell of magic markers, thanks  Texas fans!
1gotham_vs_texas_L1037341


Bay Area has the right stuff!
Bay Area has the right stuff!

 derby fans!
gettin' the shot!
gettin' the shot!

 Another example of letting the color be what it is.
turkey_bowl_L3010096

there's a present on your head
there's a present on your head

 penny
 penny

A got another new camera that shoots video.  The goofy thing is that I don't use the "live view" or the electronic viewfinder.  I do what I do when shooting stills with a rangefinder.  I frame and focus using the rangefinder window, and imagine what the video looks like as a rack the lens out of focus and move the aperture ring of the lens.

taken to christmastown. will they get there? will they come back?

The full best of 2013 flickr set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/sets/72157639162242104/


And all the derby faves and best of's are here and here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/collections/72157605150301972/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocklebeast/collections/72157620817057583/















Saturday, December 28, 2013

Who would win in fight? Lightroom 4.4 versus Capture One 7.1.5*? (some semi-coherent notes on post processing black and white photos)



I spent the first weekend of November in San Francisco for LHSA's annual meeting and a Leica Akadamie North America workshop on the Leica Monochrom.

I've been using Capture One since 2008, when it shipped with the Leica M8.  The Monochrom ships with Lightroom.  About ten months ago, Capture One could not process the files from the Monochrom. Only since around version 7.1 could the program render the files.  And even now, there is no special Monochrom settings or presets as there are for other Leica cameras or cameras by other manufacturers.

Since Capture One is what I've been using for the last seven years, it's pretty much what I know (and I didn't get the Monochrom until Phase One announced support for the Monochrom).  I'd thought I'd take a little time to compare a few shots in each program.

Here is a shot "straight from the camera" as rendered by Capture One (that is to say no adjustments)

outofcamera_C1_L1031898
straight out of the camera as rendered by Capture One

and here is the same "straight out of the camera" shot as rendered by Lightroom.

outofthecamera_LR_L1031898
straight out of the camera as rendered by Lightroom

In Capture One, I made some small adjustments to the level curves, exposure and burned the highlights a little bit for the final image.

1akademie_C1_L1031898
processed in Capture One

and from Lightroom where I tried to replicate the same adjustments.

1akademie_C1_L1031898
processed in Lightroom

Here's one that's quite underexposed rendered by each program "straight out of the camera" in Capture One and Lightroom

outofcamera_C1_L1031926
straight out of the camera as rendered by Capture One
 
and 

outofcamera_LR_L1031926
straight out of the camera as rendered by Lightroom

And the finished image in both programs...

akademie_C1_L1031926
processed in Capture One

LR_L1031926
processed in Lightroom

It appears that there might be a little bit more shadow detail straight out of the camera in Lightroom than Capture one.  And for my purposes, it appears that anything Capture One can do, Lightroom can do.  I am envious of Lightroom's graduated filter tool that is absent in Capture One.  And in addition to the "highlights" and "shadows" sliders, Lightroom has "lights" and "darks" sliders which I haven't figured out what they do that is different from "highlights" and "shadows."  I suppose I should experiment with them or read the friendly manual.


In any case, what is remarkable about the Monochrom, after processing shots from the M8 over several years, is how much you can recover from the shadows and underexposed shots.  You can not push 2-3 stops in post with the M8 and get decent shots, when you can do that with the Monochrom.

After some examples of processing Monochrom shots in Lightroom, Justin Stailey covered some basics of converting photos from a color camera to black and white in Lightroom.  I was surprised to learn that Lightroom's default behavior is to mix the color channels a little bit, instead of having them set to "zero."

Here are a few examples from some color photos I took in the last month or so (I didn't really believe this was happening until experimenting with this).

Here's a shot from a recent London vs Atlanta bout, processed to my liking in Capture One,
2London_vs_Atlanta_L3000923

Here's the same shot (processed in Lightroom to look like the shot processed in Capture One, minus the slight crop) and then converted to black and white

bw_LR_L3000923

Lightroom's default color mixing for that shot:
bw_conversion_rollerderby

The user can then zero out the color mixing if they like
bw_zeroed_colormixing_LR_L3000923

Here's one from Santa Cruz's recent holiday parade, processed in Capture One

there's a present on your head

and converted to black and white in Capture One
bw_adjusted_C1_L3010200

And the same shot converted in Lightroom
bw_LR_L3010200

Adobe's clever engineers have chosen this color mixing as the "auto" setting for this photo.

bw_conversion_parade

One more example. Processed in Lightroom and then converted to black and white

LR_L3010386

bw_LR_L3010386

And Lightroom's default color mixing for this photo...
bw_conversion_rail

And what the conversion looks like in Capture One

bw_adjusted_C1_L3010386 (1)

Capture One's default for color mixing is the same every time.

capture_one_black_and_white_checkbox

I think I prefer Capture One's approach (can Adobe's engineers really be that clever to know the appropriate auto mixing every time? Or do they simply prefer to always make the reds darker?)




*That's a really silly title for a blog post. It's like  Superman or Batman? Xena or Susan Ivanova?