The Light : Place and Time
Last week I was in Chicago downtown, in front the iconic landmark , “Cloud Gate”. Clear day the Sun just went under the horizon, the western sky is pale blue, the eastern sky is dark. The reflection on “The Bean” is even darker blue. The lights are “on” on many of building. Perfect Blue Hour, the light looked magical.
Almost everything is available freely in the internet, there are so many photography blogs, web sites, videos, podcasts etc…, still I think there are sites worth paying for.
I always wondered why there is regular ISO and then there is low. Most of the time I found that there is no difference and the low iso produced cleaner image. That’s what I thought, then I took series of images to find the difference. ISO low can be used to get clean image as long its there is no need for blown out details in highlight.
It’s been a mild winter in Chicago so far but was cloudy most of January, so was waiting for clear day to try out E-M1 ii. The first clear night turned out to be a cold night with the temperature in the low 20F’s (-7C) and the windchill is supposed to be in low single digits (-15C). But felt much cooler near the lake out in the open.
I like the default settings in E-M1, These are mine fine tunings. Though I do it and change, if I want to go back it’s like a maze, go through every level and find out where it is. Here’s the cheat sheet for my most commonly used.
I always wondered is it worth upgrading a lens. I know an expensive lens has an advantage in low light or taking action photos. What about photos taken in good light at each lens’ best aperture. Used the same white balance,same aperture almost no variation in lighting.
With an Epson P800 printer and Epson Ultra Premium Photo paper tried different print sizes. The main purpose is for me to understand how the different sharpening, color matching works and also to know the limits of sensor ISO.
Prints obviously can be evaluated only by looking at the real paper, I’ll try my best to
I tested the high ISO to compare with E-M5 using tripod, still most of the time high ISO is needed when using handheld.
So I choose the same subject with an indoor harsh lighting of an incandescent bulb. Continue reading
With E-M1 Mark ii, I started shooting my usual indoor images with the f/2.8 zooms. With 25% larger image size I was not expecting much difference in low light. But to my surprise the indoor images started looking much better and no blinking low exposure warning sign. When I looked at the details the default high limit is ISO 6400, which was increased from ISO 1600. And they do indeed produce much nicer image.
This is the first of series of tests that I plan to do with the new Mark II. One thing image 
quality result might not tell you is that the handling of ‘E-M1 mark ii’ is way much better than E-M5 (Btw.. who started this “Mark” naming convention, I don’t like saying it and not easy to type as well, why can’t they just use 1,2,3.. or A, B, C.. ). The immediate feedback after shooting the image, has easier navigation to get to the setting, responsive dials, etc… Continue reading
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