Home   Donate   New   Search   Gallery   How-To   Books   Links   Workshops   About   Contact

Lahaina, Maui
13 May 2010, Tuesday

07   08    09    10    11   12    13    14 May 2010          Tech Details

Today we went to Lahaina. The babies loved it all!

 

Ryan checking out the sliding doors, Wailea, Maui. 10:00 AM.

Ryan checking out the sliding doors, Wailea, Maui. 10:00 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4.5 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

This is a perfectly swell photo as shot. The fill-flash made the colors look great.

There's just one problem: what's the point of this picture? It's Ryan's attention being focused on the doors. This shot shows way too much, which dilutes this into a weak picture.

Let's crop it a little to show what we're trying to show:

 

Ryan checking out the sliding doors, Wailea, Maui. 10:00 AM.

Ryan checking out the sliding doors, Wailea, Maui. 10:00 AM.

Much better. This is simply cropped from the shot above.

Now it also shows more clearly Ryan's reflection looking back at him. With today's cameras, there is unlimited potential to crop-in. As usual, this is shot at the 5D Mark II's lowest quality and resolution setting, and still has loads of margin for cropping.

 

The wonders of the Internet, Wailea, Maui. 10:11 AM.

The wonders of the Internet, Wailea, Maui. 10:11 AM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 200, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose 1/30 at f/2.5, no flash.

I dodged (lightened) Ryan's face a bit so it catches your attention first.

 

Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 1:44 PM.

Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 1:44 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 200, Canon 28mm f/1.8, shifted Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/10 at 1/6 of a second, no flash.

I made many shots and picked the sharpest at this slow speed. I wanted a smaller aperture to get it all in focus.

To get the warm look even though this is lit by the sky shining through the windows, I set shade white balance. My WB TRIM was left at !5 (more amber) as it is for all of these shots.

It took me a while to compose this, shooting from my place at the table at lunch. I put everything towards the edges and corners quite deliberately. Everything gets close, but I don't let anything break the frame.

 

Doo-Dah Truck, Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 2:25 PM.

Doo-Dah Truck, Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 2:25 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4.5 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

 

Ryan the Engineer, Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 2:29 PM.

Ryan the Engineer, Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 2:29 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4.5 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

 

YAY! Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 2:29 PM.

YAY! Bubba Gump Shrimp, Lahaina, Maui. 2:29 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/5.6 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

The other shots were a bit hot (too bright and I thus darkened them a bit with a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop), so I made this one with 1/3 stop exposure compensation. The Canon 5D Mark II is easily mislead by the black background.

After lunch, mom went shopping for grandma Rockwell's birthday present. Katie helped.

 

Katie and Jewelry. Lahaina, Maui. 3:39 PM.

Oh oh. Lahaina, Maui. 3:39 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/5.6 at 1/125, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

This is a swell photo (if Katie had smiled), but the space on the right is wasted. It's not helping our image, so crop-off the junk on the right:

 

Katie and jewlery

Bigger trouble for Dada, Lahaina, Maui. 3:39 PM.

Same shot, simply cropped closer. When you remove the garbage, what matters gets bigger in the frame.

 

Lahaina, Maui. 3:59 PM.

Lahaina, Maui. 3:59 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 50, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/9 at 1/400, no flash, -2/3 exposure compensation.

 

Lahaina, Maui. 3:59 PM.

Ryan and the elevator, Kihei, Maui. 4:52 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 400 (flash), Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4 at 1/60, Canon 220EX flash on-camera with 1/4 CTO gel.

Since the flash is the main source of light, my 1/4 CTO gel and A5 WB TRIM are too orange.

What's the magenta on the bottom? What's the half a Braille plaque on the top? These aren't helping show Ryan and the elevator, so remove them:

 

Ryan and the Elevator

Ryan and the elevator, Kihei, Maui. 4:52 PM.

This is the same negative, with the junk cropped-off. When you do that, what matters gets bigger.

 

Palms, Mana Kai, Kihei, Maui. 5:41 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 50, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/10 at 1/100, no flash, -2/3 exposure compensation.

This shot would have been much better as the sun went down, but tough.

I lightened all of it, I then lightened the palm fronds using a curves adjustment layer mask, and I didn't lighten the trunk that comes in from the lower left since it was pretty hot (bright) at the start.

To see the image as shot, roll your mouse over the image.

 

Mana Kai, Kihei, Maui. 5:45 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 50, Canon 28mm f/1.8, shifted Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/10 at 1/125, no flash, -2/3 exposure compensation.

This shot again would have been a zillion times better as the sun went down, but tough again.

I lightened the palm fronds using a curves adjustment layer mask, and I also lightened some of the ground to try to add some sort of interest in this mediocre light.

To see the image as shot, roll your mouse over the image.

 

The Yellow Force, The Mana Kai, Maui. 5:48 PM.

The Yellow Force, The Mana Kai, Maui. 5:48 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 50, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/5.6 at 1/160, no flash, -1 1/3 exposure compensation.

The 5D Mark II is nowhere near as smart as Nikon meters. The 5D Mark II sees all that dark, and lightens everything, blind to the the brilliant yellow band on the right. Thus I had to shoot at -1 1/3 instead of my usual -2/3 stops exposure compensation.

I also straightened this a little in Photoshop's Lens Distortion Filter.

 

Ho'olei, Maui. 7:41 PM.

Ho'olei, Maui. 7:41 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 3,200, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/1.8 at 1/10 of a second, no flash.

I had to add +2/3 of a stop exposure compensation, otherwise the 5D Mark II made the light parts too dark.

This is exactly as shot. White balance was my usual Auto WB + A5 trim.

I didn't bother bringing any tripods on this trip. Why would I bother? I simply made use of the fast f/1.8 for which I paid, and the incredible high ISO performance of the 5D Mark II, and mad enough shots in continuous shutter mode so I could pick the sharpest later. Peripheral illumination correction is ON in the 5D Mark II.

 

Ryan lives the good life, Wailea, Maui. 7:41 PM.

Ryan lives the good life, Wailea, Maui. 7:41 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 1,600, Canon 28mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/4.5 at 1/80, no flash.

Ryan not only has his icy baba right by him, he's playing in an Assh-le of G-d bathtub. The rich folk we were visiting are something else: the water for the tub comes through a sphincter valve from the ceiling! (I have no idea what these people are thinking, but Ryan loved it.

The mixture of real (incandescent) and crappy (florescent) lighting required some fiddling and looking at the 5D Mark II's excellent LCD. I shot this at 2,500K white balance, and set A5 and Magenta 5 WB TRIM, otherwise it was way too green.

I used a curves layer to lighten everything in Photoshop, in addition to the +2/3 exposure compensation when shot.

 

Ryan enjoying the good life, Wailea, Maui. 9:48 PM.

Ryan enjoying the good life, Wailea, Maui. 9:48 PM.

Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 800, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Professional exposure (P) mode chose f/2 at 1/40, no flash.

Since the light was about the same crappy mixture of real and crappy lighting as the bathroom, I used the same 2,500K white balance with A5 and Magenta 5 WB TRIM.

Ryan loved these pillows and sheets.

 

NEXT DAY > >

 

07   08    09    10    11   12    13    14 May 2010          Tech Details

 

Home   Donate   New   Search   Gallery   How-To   Books   Links   Workshops   About   Contact