First Image with new CFV back

[michaelhcothran]

Hey guys. I finally have an image I don't have to apologize for (too much), and wanted to share my first CFV picture with you.
After a week or so of messing with the back and Flexcolor, I feel much more comfortable. Flexcolor, for me, turns out to be fairly simple in operation. I adjust the white balance, exposure, set to RGB 16 bit, and save as a TIFF. From there it goes to CS3 for final prepping.
As others have also stated before me, I am amazed at the clarity of this back, and the quality prints I can produce (up to 24x24 with a 170 ppi file).
For the first image I am sharing, I exposed it for almost 32 seconds in total darkness, light-painting with a small flashlight, using the 100/3.5 CF lens on bulb @ f11. I found that using the enclosed cable to connect lens to back was by far the simplest way to go for long exposures. Even when I can get outdoors with the rig, I will use the cable when exposures are slower than 1/8 sec, rather than mess with changing it in the anals of the back's software.
Michael H. Cothran

 

[michaelhcothran]

Guys, I wanted to go ahead and post a second shot I finished last night. This one is the same technique of light painting, with the 100mm lens set to bulb @ f8 this time. Something you can't tell in this small jpeg, but there is a pebbled finish in the vase on the left. In the 24x24 print I made of the image, this texture is as accurate as it is in real life. Just amazing. Although I can produce images with 5 times the file size from film, the clarity and cleanliness of the CFV images is superb, with a 3D effect that I don't see in scanned film. Man, I'm hooked!
Michael H. Cothran

 

[polypal]

Hello Michael,

Great images. The way you "painted " them is interesting.

Makes me wonder what Rembrandt could have done with a 100 mm lens and a CFV back!

Paul

 

[jotloob]

Michael

Yes , really great images . Very interesting . But you will need some experience to paint that way . What do you mean by : using the 100/3,5CF lens on bulb@f11 . ? ? ?

Paul

I believe Rubens would have used a fisheye lens . Look at his nude studies .

Jürgen

 

[michaelhcothran]

Michael

What do you mean by : using the 100/3,5CF lens on bulb@f11 . ? ? ?

Jürgen

I lit the image with a small handheld flashlight. In order to light the whole scene, I had to constantly move the flashlight around, pointing it at each area I wanted to highlight, and then waving it around so to have some fill areas also. Since the back will only remain open for 32 seconds, I had to accomplish the entire exposure in that time frame. I attached the connecting PC cable from lens to back. I set the f-stop to f11. I set the lens shutter to "B" (bulb). Turned off the room lights so it was dark, locked open the camera shutter with a cable release, turned on the flashlight and began "painting" around the image. Once I finished the light painting, I turned off the flashlight, closed the camera shutter, and reaped the results. In Flexcolor, I chose a custom white balance of 2600K, and adjusted the exposure slide by +1 stop (1.00). In Photoshop, I added a Curves Adjustment Layer, locking down the midtones and highlights, then dragging the toe of the curve a little to the right to darken the edges some. I applied a "Cothran custom" sharpening technique, where I create an inverted line mask, slightly blurred, and apply a very strong USM to it (500%, Radius - 3.0 pixels, no threshold). I change the blending mode to Soft Light, and adjust the opacity slider. For final printing and web presentation, I add a little more "pop" by applying a second USM using 10% sharpening, Radius -25.0 pixels, no threshold, and converting to sRGB. That's about it. Probably more than you wanted to know!
Michael

 

[Swissblad]

Very impressive - I tried a similar approach when comet Haley-Bopp was visible in central European skies - using a massive flashlight to highlight a large pear tree in the foreground. My grainy 1600 iso film images cannot compare with your smooth digital ones, though. Have fun and keep posting, Sinuhe

 

[simonpg]

Well done Michael. It is a beautiful example and I especially like the lighting - beautiful!

 

[matt335]

Michael these are very beautiful. Thank you for sharing so openly your talents and creativity.

Matt