1411 - The Way You Look Tonight

Nikon 50/1.2 1 Response »
Aug 252010

Nightfall in a town, a ball of chrome, some lights. This is one more image with the 50/1.2. There may be something sharp in this image, but at the nearest focus distance and at f1.2 it can’t be that much :)

The Song of the Day is an unusual version of “The Way You Look Tonight“. Kevin Rowland and Dexy’s Midnight Runners on their third and last album “Don’t Stand Me Down”. You may like it or not, I love everything they did. This is a bonus track on a re-issue of the album, thus you have to look carefully. The one that I link to has it, and so has YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 11:07 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

1404 - Time Passes

Sigma 28/1.8 No Responses »
Aug 192010

OK, this is a strange format for a post, but it’s a strange format for an image as well ;)

Yesterday morning I took the tram for work. It was one of those old trains that I sometimes take images of, and while I was in there and wondered at which station to get out, I took some images from the same position. Some were not sharp, but some were, and they were easily aligned in Photoshop. At first I wanted to do some trick with masks, but when I tried simply arranging them vertically, I liked the result.

The other image is a night shot. I stayed at work until 8pm and, regardless of the temperatures, had this winter feeling while walking home :)

The Song of the Day is “Time Passes” from Paul Weller’s great 1995 album “Stanley Road”. Hear a live version on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 7:45 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

1304 – Pink Noise Waltz II

Nikon 50/1.8, Sigma 20/1.8 3 Responses »
May 112010

As promised, here’s more about Topaz Denoise 4, the new version of the noise reduction plugin, that Topaz claims gives you four additional stops. Again I compare to Noise Ninja, but now I not only use auto-profiling, now I use camera noise profiles as well.

Paul Butzi’s comment to yesterday’s post caused me to download and install Noise Ninja noise profiles for the D200 and the D300. Of course I have tried them before, at least for the D200, and all I could remember, was that I had not been overly impressed. Now I know why.

This is a detail that I have also shown in yesterday’s post. I have omitted RAW and instead added the profiled Noise Ninja. Yes, there is more detail, but in order to deliver detail, Noise Ninja leaves much coarse noise in the image. In fact, the result does not look much better than the RAW file without noise reduction.

The next detail is from yesterday’s train image. This is from the bright part with some kind of word or number scribbled on the side of the wagon. Topaz Denoise almost completely smudges it away, and the profiled Noise Ninja actually does a marvelous job.

Unfortunately this is over as soon as we get into the dark parts. The profiled Noise Ninja is really bad at removing color noise.

The next image is quite old and it was taken with the D200, a Nikon 50/1.8 at f4, 1/40s, -0.33EV and ISO 1600. The effective ISO is somewhere around 2000. The image is interesting, because it has a lot of architectural detail, combined with a still blue sky.


The first detail from this image is of one of the most difficult areas. The dark, low-contrast upper part of the remote building is easily smudged away into kind of a dark cloud. In fact that’s exactly what happens when you use any of Topaz Denoise’s presets.


In the second detail Noise Ninja shows mottled sky again.


And here is a final look at the sky. Again the low-frequency color noise is Noise Ninja’s major weakness.

I will conclude today’s post (that actually counts not for today, but for yesterday, Sunday) with two details from the Image of the Day. This was taken from the escalator of a shopping center, but actually I have no idea what it really is that we’re seeing here.


I have taken this image with the Nikon D300, my Sigma 20/1.8 at f8, 1/200s and ISO 6400. This is a correctly exposed, well-lit image, more or less a best case scenario.


It’s not that Noise Ninja were bad, not at all, but again Topaz Denoise 4 delivers the best results. Just look at the texture of the white fur on the right side of the first detail, and then look at the two lamps in the next detail.

The conclusion so far is clear: Topaz Denoise 4 wins over Noise Ninja, regardless of camera profiles.

The Song of the Day is still “Pink Noise Waltz” from the Diablo Swing Orchestra’s 2006 album “The Butcher’s Ballroom”. Just as yesterday, it can be heard on on YouTube :)

Posted by andreas at 3:13 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1279 - Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

Sigma 70/2.8 Macro No Responses »
Apr 162010

I had evening dates for two consecutive days, returned late and got nothing done.

This is the Wednesday image, part of a fountain in front of Austria’s Parliament. I used the Sigma 70/2.8 at that day. It’s not stabilized and I don’t use it below 1/100s, thus I had to look for well-lit things. Oh how I miss my Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC! It’s not only stabilization, it’s the useful range as well.

The Song of the Day is the old CCR hit “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?“, this time from the soundtrack to “Philadelphia”, interpreted by The Spin Doctors. YouTube has it.

Posted by andreas at 4:48 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1231 - Twisted II

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 1 Response »
Feb 262010

This is an image of yesterday evening. It’s 17mm, ISO 2000, f4 and 1/15s. I’ve used Noise Ninja against the noise and Topaz Detail to accentuate local contrast, mostly in the foreground.

Other than that I have made a change to my buying habits that was long due. My last three music purchases were digital downloads. Funnily enough this came totally by chance. While I installed software on my laptop (the one that I just use while being on the train to Carinthia), I wanted to download the latest version of JetAudio. JetAudio is the proprietary music player of Cowon, the company that produces the excellent iAudio players. I own one of them, because Cowon is one of the few companies who care to support the free OGG music format, and because I have originally started to rip my CDs to OGG, I currently have about 30.000 tracks in this format. OGG was originally superior to MP3, and it is a format designed and implemented as open source. Unfortunately Apple obstinately refused to support the format in their players. Well, so did I buying their hardware. I even filed a bug report and wrote them one or two mails, but of course I got no reply and nothing has changed.

Anyway. JetAudio was my preferred software player so far. It’s pretty OK but nothing special. Think of WinAmp or similar programs. Now, as I installed software recently, the download server for JetAudio was unbearably slow, so I decided to look for an alternative. I found Songbird, a Mozilla-based iTunes look-alike with similar functionality and all the usual Mozilla features like plugins and skins. I had looked into it at least two years ago, then it had not really impressed me, but in the time since it has really grown up.

Well, here I was with a new player, and like iTunes is linked to the iTunes store, Songbird has plugins for music stores. Here in Austria it offers integration with 7digital, a UK-based service and of course Jamendo.com and Magnatune.com. Integration of Jamendo does not even need a plugin, and in fact I currently hear the album “The Green Waltz” by “The Dada Weatherman“, an album released under Creative Commons, an album that I have downloaded from Jamendo for free. For 10€ I could also buy the album in WMV format, i.e. uncompressed full CD quality. I have no idea how many people do that, but I seriously consider it. It’s excellent music.

The three purchases from 7digital were Ella’s “Twelve Nights in Hollywood”, on CD available at around 50€, as 320kBit MP3 offered for about half of it, a Greatest Hits compilation by Blondie and the debut album of Melody Gardot. Well, it looks like my plastic buying times are over :)

Regardless of the music that I’ve talked about so far, the Song of the Day is “Twisted“. Not the Annie Ross classic that we had in “578 – Twisted“, not Joni Mitchell’s respectable version from “Court and Spark”, but instead the completely unrelated song from Annie Lennox’ 2003 album “Bare”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 5:43 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

1227 - Church On Sunday

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 4 Responses »
Feb 212010

Today Michael and I have again worked in his apartment. This consumed most of the day, which was quite unfortunate, because it was sunny and beautiful, almost like Spring beginning. On the other hand we progressed nicely, so I really shouldn’t complain :)

I’ve taken the two daylight images in the morning. The obelisk is a monument for Dr. Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna around 1900 and anti-Semite extraordinaire. But that’s the way it is in Austria. I suppose the only reason why we don’t idolize Hitler is, that it would be bad for our image. But of course I may be wrong.

The other image is of a “Würstelstand”, one typically Viennese institution where you can eat hot sausages, Leberkäse and, as a concession to our internationality, Hot Dogs. They are hard pressed by McDonalds and all those Turkish Döner kebab stands, but so far they have survived. It’s probably not the most healthy diet, but the same could be said of McDonalds :)

The Image of the Day was taken at night when I went home. The church is the same that you see in the background of the image with the obelisk.

The Song of the Day is “Church On Sunday” from Green Day’s 2000 album “Warning”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 9:58 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

1226 - It's Saturday Night

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Feb 212010

Hard to come up with a good image when you have none, huh? Well, this weekend I am in Vienna to help Michael with his apartment. Yup, still things to be done. In fact I’ve had no time to take photos all day, and when I went home at night, I was not overly inspired either. Let’s all just ignore this image, can we? I wouldn’t have thought it, but it’s the antithesis to my long-standing conviction that there is a good square in every bad image. I have to get out and to Michael’s again, I can’t afford to search any longer. Here’s a crop that’s not worse than any other :)

The Song of the Day is “It’s Saturday Night” from the 1988 Proclaimers album “Sunshine on Leith”. They were a two album band from Scotland, probably not well known in the US, but both of their albums were real good and this one was even real, real good :)

I can only direct you to Amazon’s sound sample, but just to not leave you without a video, let me recommend “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” from the same album.

Posted by andreas at 8:42 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

1214 - Ordinary People

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 1 Response »
Feb 092010

These are the images for Monday. Obviously I’m back in Vienna. Regarding posting blog entries, being late turns into a bad habit again. Sorry for that :)

The bicycle image was taken in the morning. We had light snowfall, and due to the cold, the snow would have stayed, but this time it was not even a centimeter.

I like the postures of the two bikes, I like the tight crop with the car approaching, and normally this would have been it for today, but then, in the evening, while I crossed a road, passing a man, a tramway train in the background, out of a whim I decided to take a shot from the hip and … what can I say? I liked it. It is not focused, it is not sharp, it is garbage in a way, but I still like it.

What you see here is a square crop from the bottom and a conversion to B&W. The noise has been added in Photoshop :D

The Song of the Day is “Ordinary People” from Conner Reeves’ 1997 album “Earthbound”. Never heard of the guy? Well, at the time it came out, I found the album by chance while being in a MediaMarkt store. I can’t remember why I decided to hear it or if I just bought it without hearing, for whatever reason. Fact is, that this album is not only excellent, it’s also strong evidence for the theory that being the most talented person sometimes is not enough for a big career. Hear the song on YouTube, and while you’re there, why don’t you also hear into “Something Beautiful” or “My Father’s Son“?

Done? And now please tell me that guy’s not good :)

Posted by andreas at 7:06 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

1208 - Night Falls

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 4 Responses »
Feb 032010

It’s Wednesday morning, surprisingly you find me on the train back to Carinthia. Our computer there has failed yesterday, and while I only use it for image processing and gaming, other work done on it pays the bills, thus I travel down to fix the damn thing.

From what I’ve heard, it seems like the system disk has crashed, and if that is the case and the operating system is gone anyway, I will use the opportunity to upgrade from 32 bit XP to 64 bit Windows 7. But of course I’ll need to re-install all software. This should keep me busy for the next two days :)

The image is from yesterday evening. You’ve seen that street a few times, but I really love the curved line of the street lights. As to the technical data, I have really done what I wrote in the last post, I have set the limit for when auto ISO sets in down to 1/4s. This is f4 at 40mm, ISO 360 and 1/4s. And it’s sharp.

Conventional wisdom says that for a sharp image you need one over the effective focal length, and that would be 1/60s. That are four stops! Sure, although this was sharp at the first attempt, it is not always so. I am clearly on or even over the limit, but nevertheless it is possible. Let’s have a look: One stop would be ISO 720, two stops are ISO 1440, with three stops and at ISO 2880 we already scratch at the limit of what this camera can possibly do in color, and with four stops, with ISO 5760 we are clearly in a range where only black and white is feasible.

The net effect of image stabilization being ISO 360 vs ISO 3200+, I don’t know how you see it, but for me that is a clear indication that stabilization is useful even in those focal ranges where so many people deny its usefulness.

The Song of the Day is “Night Falls” from the late Willy DeVille’s 2003 album “Live in Berlin”. Hear it on YouTube. I’m not sure if it is really the version from this very album, but I believe so. Beautiful!

Posted by andreas at 10:25 am Tagged with: , , , , ,

1195 - This City Never Sleeps

Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC 2 Responses »
Jan 222010

Here’s another series of updates, posted while I’m on the train. It’s Friday by now, this is an image from Wednesday. Not my best image, but as I had been working for 11 hours, there was not much to choose from :)

The Song of the Day is “This City Never Sleeps” from the 1983 Eurythmics album “Sweet Dreams”. Hear it on YouTube.

Posted by andreas at 6:31 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Older Entries
© 2010 Andreas Manessinger Suffusion WordPress theme by Sayontan Sinha