Author: James Vornov

I'm an MD, PhD Neurologist who left a successful academic career on the Faculty of The Johns Hopkins Medical School to develop new treatments in Biotech and Pharma. I became fascinated with how people actually make decisions based on the science of decision theory and emerging understanding of how the brain works to make decisions. My passion now is this deep explanation of what has been the realm of philosophy, psychology and self help but is now understood as brain function. By understanding our brains, I believe we can become happier, more successful people.

Green Corner Fix



Sand Pile, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

This morning, Sigma support suggested that I use a preset white balance rather than Auto as I have been using.

Since the time I started with the Olympus E-1 and now with the Nikon D300 I’ve always used Auto WB and corrected/manipulated later. This approach won’t work with the current algorithms in SPP for me and the presets seem to minimize the problem. The Oly had an external sensor that seemed to nail WB and NIkon does better than I could ever guess at.

It seems to be a complex interaction between colors in the image and brightness that leads to the software rendering the dimmer edges with a green bias. I’m more confident that Sigma will be able to improve this in SPP. Even if they never got it any better, this image once again shows the potential of this compact.

Sigma DP1 Speed



Way of Pebbles, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

This image had the green corner syndrome. I repaired it in Photoshop, but it was troubling to have to fix what was one of the better photos I captured yesterday.

While I think the online community has been impressed with the DP1’s image quality, everyone remains interested in the camera’s operating speed. Despite it’s image quality, the electronics are those of a typical compact digital camera. Autofocus is typical, being fast enough in good light and slow when it’s dim, but without the quick “snick” of a DSLR. Once focus is locked or if set to manual, the shutter lag is not really noticeable.

I need to do a better job of watching ISO and shutter speed when I shoot aperture priority. With the D300, Auto ISO lets me set a maximum shutter speed and quickly ramps up. With the DP1, there’s no indication of the ISO that the camera has set and no way to control minimum shutter speed. The manual doesn’t provide any real detail on how auto ISO works, so for now, I’m trying to watch shutter speed. Choosing ISO may be a better way to go.

Back to the D300



Good Fences, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

This afternoon the clouds cleared some and we had some nice light near sunset. Even though I’m in the process of learning the DP1, I used the D300 with my favorite lens, the 24mm f/2.8.

At this point, I can use the D300 without thinking much, shifting here to manual exposure and spot metering too place exposure values just where I wanted them to maximize the contrast of the light and shadow on the fence.

For me, the D300 images are transformational with the Capture NX conversions. The result is far from reality, but is still, as Versace says, believable. I don’t yet know how to get the Sigma DP1 to do this yet unless I shift to black and white.

Sigma DP1 Monochrome



Backs Turned Looking Down the Path, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

With this image, I’m more willing to entertain the idea that this DP1 could replace my Leica with C41 process black and white film. ISO 800 seems to be as clean and sharp as the film scans which I tend to shoot at ISO 320 to control grain. I’m giving up two stops of aperture- f/2.0 for the Summicron and f/4.0 for the DP1, so it’s overall a wash.

I’m sold on the sensor now as it’s rendering of detail can be exquisite as it is here on these wet bricks. The lack of decent light continued today, so I decided to try this in black and white.

I still struggle with Vincent Versace’s channel based conversion method, so I decided to try something different. I used the monochrome conversion in Nik Color Efex filters to produce two versions that rendered selected areas with the best light and contrast. One was red, for the bricks, and one was greenish, for the plants to the left of the walk. I stacked the images, played with their opacity and selectively masked the layers to emphasize the two areas.

Adding some gaussian blur to the asphalt of the drive was another key to making the image work for me. The texture of the asphalt was competing with the bricks and I wanted the eye to stop at the end of the walk where the pot sits. I tried to create the pot and bright leaves at left as second and third areas of visual interest in this image which is, admittedly, devoid of any content of note.

Sigma DP1 Monochrome



Backs Turned Looking Down the Path, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

With this image, I’m more willing to entertain the idea that this DP1 could replace my Leica with C41 process black and white film. ISO 800 seems to be as clean and sharp as the film scans which I tend to shoot at ISO 320 to control grain. I’m giving up two stops of aperture- f/2.0 for the Summicron and f/4.0 for the DP1, so it’s overall a wash.

I’m sold on the sensor now as it’s rendering of detail can be exquisite as it is here on these wet bricks. The lack of decent light continued today, so I decided to try this in black and white.

I still struggle with Vincent Versace’s channel based conversion method, so I decided to try something different. I used the monochrome conversion in Nik Color Efex filters to produce two versions that rendered selected areas with the best light and contrast. One was red, for the bricks, and one was greenish, for the plants to the left of the walk. I stacked the images, played with their opacity and selectively masked the layers to emphasize the two areas.

Adding some gaussian blur to the asphalt of the drive was another key to making the image work for me. The texture of the asphalt was competing with the bricks and I wanted the eye to stop at the end of the walk where the pot sits. I tried to create the pot and bright leaves at left as second and third areas of visual interest in this image which is, admittedly, devoid of any content of note.

Aperture Takes the Next Step

The release of Aperture 2.1 with support for editing plug-ins is exciting. They’re working with NIK which means that we’ll have some U-point technology for Aperture. If we end up with Nikon RAW conversion, that will be even better. However, I think it’s more likely that we’ll see support for roundtripping RAW masters out to alternate converters which is what I do anyway.

In the Apple press release was this quote from John Stanmeyer:

Apple Releases Aperture 2.1 with Powerful Image Editing Plug-In Architecture: “%u201CTo date, maybe two percent of my photographs needed to be touched up outside Aperture,%u201D said John Stanmeyer, founding member of the VII Photo Agency and contributing photographer for Time and National Geographic magazines. %u201CNow that I can dodge and burn right within Aperture%u2019s new plug-in, I can%u2019t imagine when I%u2019ll have to open any other application to tone my images.%u201D “

It’s interesting that he feels the vast majority of his images only require the kind of global changes that have been available in Aperture until now. In an Apple video he talked about using the retouch for some local changes, but here is a photographer who is interacting with the real scene and the real light (whether natural or strobe) so that the image is mostly done in camera. Something to aspire to or at least to be inspired by.

Standings



Standings, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

There were a few hours of sun today, then back to the overcast. I stopped in at a parking lot that I’ve photographed a few times over the last few years and captured some Sigma DP1 images.

This image was run through most of my usual workflow. Clearly the image quality is good enough to fit with much of my other recent work. I knew that I would be unhappy about the workflow problem with Aperture not being able to display the DP1 RAW files. At this point, I think that my strategy will be to transfer the RAW files to disk, mass convert with default settings in Sigma Photo Pro, the move all images into the Aperture library.

I can easily round trip into Photoshop (or even, as in this case, Capture NX then Photoshop) and back into Aperture. If an image needs real exposure compensation at the RAW stage, I can take care of that by a special run through SPP with customized settings.

DP1 Green Corners

Sigma DP1 Street

As the Sigma DP1 moves into users hands, it seems that it’s engineering compromise may be becoming clear- a tendency to produce green tinted vignetting, especially wide open and close focused. This image seems to show the problem pretty well. All four corners, but in this image, more at the lower two corners, there’s a shift toward green.

In the straight conversion from the camera it’s not very noticable, but this image processed through Sigma Photo Pro 3.1 on the Mac and then adusted in Aperture emphasizes the flaw. The bump in saturation and the contrast in the affect areas make it more obvious. As a few early adopters have shown, you can fix this in Photoshop pretty easily with the gradient tool. Carl Rytterfalk has posted a video on the basic method.

The suggestion on the DPReview message boards is that this is a result of the exit pupil of the lens being so close to the sensor. It might be why we have a lens with an f/4 aperture as well. I’m reminded of the Leica M8 release and the discovery of it’s infrared sensitivies. These issues must have been well known to the design teams, but these cameras have been so critical to the companies that they are released presumably pending further fixes.

On the other hand, I think of Olympus who designed the 4/3rds system for digital to avoid engineering compromises but ended up at a disadvantage to companies that made bigger compromises to incorporate larger sensors.

Sigma DP1 First Image



Sigma DP1 First Image, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

After seeing the first images online from the Sigma DP1, I decided I had to at least try it out as a substitute for the film Leica. It’s a landmark camera, being the first APS-C sensor in a compact form. The Foveon chip makes it interesting, but I’d rather have the sensor from my D300 in this form factor. The f/4 lens makes light gathering capability less than ideal. The need for yet another RAW workflow really had me doubting whether I should even bother. In the end, a small, sealed APS-C sensor package was something I couldn’t pass up. None of the compact cameras I’ve tried up until now seemed to be substitutes for the DSLR or Leica/film tools.

This is one of the first images I captured with the camera. It’s an in camera generated JPEG with the flat default settings from the factory.

So far, I like the controls as speed is adequate for my purposes. The LCD suffers by comparison to the D300’s bright, high rez LCD.

I think that once I get the Sigma software loaded and work in some better light I should be able to better take the measure of the camera as a tool for my work.

Work Capacity

Vern Gambetta:

Functional Path Training: Connections: “You will find if you grasp the idea that you will need to do less %u201Cfitness%u201D oriented training when you realize the cumulative effect of all the components of training.”

This was my first week of what I’m thinking of as my second Base period for the cycling year but is really the start of longer rides on the road. The weather here in Baltimore is finally holding above 40 and rain has been no more than intermittent.

For the last month and a half, I’ve taken a few shorter rides out of doors that were generally no more than 45 mintutes at high intensity. I’ve been doing 20 minute high intensity interval sessions (8 sec hard, 12 sec recovery) on the bike on the trainer. It seemed from testing that my VO2max was possibly higher than in late fall. So I was hopeful that I was starting at a higher level of fitness this year than I ended last year.

So, what’s it like to suddenly transition to a 2 hour ride on rolling terrain followed the next day by a similar 90 minute ride? I felt strong both from the perspective of the power I was able to deliver to keep the pedals turning an hills and I was able to place my heart rate where I wanted it pretty easily.

On the other hand I could see that what I lacked was work capacity. I was tired and the level of effort did create a good bit of leg ache on day 3. Not so much that I wasn’t eager to do another 90 minutes on day 4 after some rest. I’m hoping that the winter preparation will allow me to work somewhat harder during these longer rides through the early spring, bringing the whole effort up a notch from last year. Since I expect to be maintaining the power gains I might have made while extending the efforts, I would expect new effort to add. We’ll see how this plays out over the next few months.

At this point, I’m planning to increase intensity again in May and June, using July and August as a chance to increase volume further as the summer schedule allows.