How I Made These Photos: California's Central Coast in Springtime

June 2023

Introduction

I made these photos on a trip I led with Dave Wyman to California's Central Coast.

This was a real photo trip where we were outside from well before dawn until after dark shooting every day. These weren't nerd-a-thons locked in motel rooms fiddling on computers; we were outside all the time.

Shooting

I brought just my Nikon Z8 with my Z 14-30mm f/4 and Z 24-200mm VR lenses. All I needed was the one battery that came with the camera to have enough power for each very full day.

My Z 24-200mm VR does almost all of the work, covering almost every focal length with a twist of the wrist, and I had my Z 14-30mm f/4 for the occasional ultrawide shot.

Most consumers don't realize that the Z 24-200mm VR is just as sharp as the much larger Z 24-70/2.8 and Z 70-200/2.8 VR lenses because it's much slower (f/4~6.3). This lets the Z 24-200mm VR be far less expensive, smaller and cover a much larger zoom range with the same great sharpness as you can see. Making a lens a stop or two faster has always involved much more size, weight, expense and restricted zoom range.

My Z 24-200mm VR 's fantastic image stabilization gives me consistently superb results hand-held down to about 1/8 of a second at every focal length. I set Auto ISO Minimum Shutter Speed to 1/8 or 1/10, hold my breath and squeeze the shutter button slowly and smoothly, and I almost always get ultrasharp results at low ISOs, no tripod needed. Try it! Hint: if you're on the edge of being sharp or not due to camera motion, let off a few shots and pick the one that's sharpest later. Camera motion is random, so in iffy situations you'll usually get one perfectly sharp frame if you shoot several.

I also brought my Oben CT-2491 Carbon-Fibre Tripod with my Manfrotto 410 (née Bogen 3275) Geared Head in my trunk — which I never used.

I always shoot in P (program auto exposure), Auto ISO and Auto White Balance. I only come off of these Auto modes if for some reason the camera isn't setting itself the way I need. I use all these Auto settings because they almost always set the camera the way I need much faster than mucking around with manual settings, and this lets me concentrate on what's actually in my photo rather than camera settings.

I only shoot JPGs, specifically BASIC ★ JPGs, and I set my image size down to something reasonable, namely MEDIUM (26MP). I certainly don't need FINE or NORMAL JPGs or raw files — don't let bullies make you think you need to use card-choking raw files!

I shot a total of 2.8 GB of JPGs on my Z8, and 780 MB of JPGs on my iPhone 14 Pro Max! One trip, one card: done. I get everything I need with JPG and can edit everything about my JPG files if I need to, so there's no need to suffer the inconveniences of raw files. I'm only throwing away pixel bloat, Bayer interpolation and file size by doing this; my 26 MP BASIC ★ JPG images have more than enough depth and detail for everything I need, and due to pixel dumping you can't even see more than 8 MP at one time.

Hint: The Z8's MEDIUM (26 MP) setting has almost as much detail as the LARGE 45 MP setting because most of the 45 MP pixels are phony Bayer-interpolated ones, which do more to bloat file size than record detail. I encourage everyone to shoot the same thing at all the various image size and quality settings and look at the results for yourself. Ignore what you read from people who know math but have no portfolios; look at the images you shoot for yourself at the various settings and see what you see.

I shot my Z8 in VIVID Picture Control with Sharpening set to +9, Contrast set to -2 and Saturation set to +3. I was running firmware version 1.00.

Oddly my Z8 seems to have more contrast than my other Nikons, so instead of setting Contrast to AUTO often I set it down to -2. My blacks were getting too black.

Also oddly my Z8's exposure often required more positive exposure compensation than my other Nikons. Otherwise images often turned out darker than I would have expected.

Of course I brought my Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max. I used its native Camera app in its default HEIF format (Settings > Camera > Formats > High Efficiency), and converted these to JPG in my Mac later for editing, since my 2012 copy of Photoshop CS6 doesn't read HEIF. I read the EXIF exposure data later in Photo Mechanic for my JPG files; I most certainly didn't fiddle with manual exposure or any other camera apps. While it's also easy to read the iPhone's apertures, ISOs and shutter speeds in the Photos app (just tap the ⓘ photo info icon) so I can report them with my photos, I'm letting my iPhone set these all automatically. I had no idea what they were until after I returned to my studio.

I have the "look" of my iPhone set to WARM (Settings > Camera > Photographic Styles > Warm (Tone 0 and Warmth 50)). The iPhone doesn't simply have three or four "lenses," it actually has three complete cameras on its back, which is why I refer to its various cameras rather than a lens. Each camera has a different sensor optimized to its lens.

I brought my clothes and non-photo gear in my ThinkTank Retrospective Duffel 75, a good-sized duffel bag that matches my beloved Retrospective camera bags! It holds just the right amount of clothes, toiletries, computers and accessories for a week-long trip, like this one. It's super well-made of waterproof cotton canvas, cloth linings and leather trim just like the Retrospective camera bags; it's not the usual crummy nylon duffel bag. Perfect!

ThinkTank Retrospective Duffel 75. The left photo shows my Retrospective 5 bag, too. click any to enlarge.

The Ultimate Travel Set: Think Tank Retrospective Everyday EDC Backpack on top of my Retrospective Duffel 75 next to my Retrospective 7 Camera Bag. bigger.

I brought my computers and chargers in my Think Tank Retrospective Everyday EDC Backpack, so all three bags matched!

While out shooting I didn't bother with any bags; I left my Retrospective 7 camera bag in my trunk and carried my Z8 around my neck and popped the other lens in a pocket. Done!

Data Wrangling top

When I got home I copied the JPGs from my SD card into my Mac with the card reader slot in the front of my OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock. Easy!

To ingest from my iPhone 14 Pro Max I used Apple's standard Image Capture program to import its images into a new folder in my base-model 2017 13″ MacBook Pro. While I usually run Mac OS High Sierra to run the older Adobe software I prefer, for ingest I booted into Mac OS Monterey on a separate volume on my MacBook Pro's upgraded OWC Aura Pro NT internal 1TB SSD because Image Capture runs so much faster and better in Monterey.

Because my 2012 copy of Photoshop CS6 doesn't read the modern HEIF images shot on iPhone, I selected all the HEIF images apart from the PNGs and other JPGs saved from the Snapseed app and dragged the HEIF into a new folder. I selected them all again, right-clicked and selected Quick Actions > Convert Image. I selected Format: JPEG and Image Size: Actual Size and checked PRESERVE METADATA. I clicked "Convert to JPG" and it took a minute or so to convert the HEIF to a new set of JPG files in the same folder that previously had only HEIF.

Once created, the converted JPGs are now selected. Leaving them selected I dragged them back to the original folder with all the PNGs and other JPGs imported from my iPhone, and voilà, I now have a folder with all the images from my iPhone as PNG and JPG and another folder with all the HEIF. I deleted the HEIF folder; I always can pull these from my iPhone again if I need them.

I could shoot my iPhone in JPG (Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible) and save these conversion steps (or transfer in other ways that make them arrive as JPGs), however HEIF takes less file space on my iPhone and it's actually much easier to do the steps above than to read about it. Do whatever works best for you.

Selecting the Best Shots top

I sorted and picked the winners with Photo Mechanic. This is the fun part.

I code red (pressed 1) for deletion, yellow (pressed 2) as picks, and green (pressed 3) as super picks.

Editing top

Once selected, each pick received significant artistic input in Photoshop CS6 (2012), often with the Perfectly Clear (now sold as Radiant Photo) and/or HDR Merge (now in Luminar Neo) plugins until each completed work looked as I originally envisioned it. I'm not a fan of presets; I use this software as tools to get to the image I first saw in my mind faster, but skip the presets each offers.

I can't give you the exact steps I used for any particular image; it's a performance art for me. I just get into Photoshop and keep working with whatever it takes until the image looks as I first imagined it. Every step brings me closer and closer to my previsualized result; I use no presets.

Like all of Man's creations, each works first exists in my mind, and I do whatever it takes until the final result matches my vision. For instance, I often add deliberate burning and dodging (localized lightening and darkening), cropping, edge-burning (edge darkening or vignetting), strong levels and saturation changes, perspective corrections and/or split-toning. Photography is a creative art, not an application of rules; you have to know what the picture is going to say and how you want it to look before you take it. See also my articles at How to Take Great Pictures.

Many of the iPhone shots were optimized in the free Snapseed app on my iPhone first while I was still at the location just to pester my friends who didn't come with the just-shot images. Snapseed is a blast.

Once optimized in Photoshop CS6 and my plug-ins, I used a a one-click action I programmed decades ago to resize each image to 1,920 pixels wide, sharpened it to correct for resampling aperture correction and added my ©KenRockwell.com bug and Saved For Web at 40% (or 51% quality to preserve full chroma bandwidth). Please excuse the lingo; I've worked in digital image processing since the 1980s and haven't taken the time yet to explain the engineering lingo for things like "kernels" and resampling apertures.

I built and published these pages in my 2010 copy of Dreamweaver CS5. There is no template; this page is designed by hand. I tried the 2019 CC version of Dreamweaver and it was AWFUL, continuously crashing and often unable to complete basic copy-and-pastes, so I stick with CS5 and my old operating system, which work great so I can focus on making pictures rather than chasing new bugs and learning new versions of the same old software.

Viewing top

Turn up your screen brightness for best results.

Click or tap any image to make it fit your screen. On Mac Safari, command ⌘ and + or - on will change the size of the page or image, and command ⌘ and 0 brings it back to normal.

Everyone's screens, from iPhones held vertically to computers with squinty 16:9 monitors, have different shapes. I can't make my differently-shaped shots fill everyone's screen at the same time.

These are 1,920 pixel-wide images; the originals are much higher resolution, but only a few of those original files are shared. These images will fill your screen horizontally, up to 1,920 pixels wide (or 3,840 pixels wide on Mac Retina displays). The vertical size will vary with each image.

On iPhone and iPad, everything changes size when you rotate between vertical and horizontal.

Good luck and enjoy!