Photo editing now and then

There is a lot of controversy in the photographers community when it comes to post processing photographs. There are analog photo fanatics who claim that analog is the only real thing while most digital images go through digital post processing including heavy manipulation.

However, photo editing independent of the medium has been part of photographic handcraft ever since.

Today I found this interesting article from Michael Zhang (link to PetaPixel) on how iconic prints were edited in the darkroom. The article shows the original first development including markups for later manual editing in a new attempt of development side by side to the final result.

Muhammad Ali, captured by Thomas Hoepker in 1966

The techniques applied in the analog darkroom were not only cropping, cutting out, or adjusting the overall exposure. Having a look at the markups on the sample images of the referenced article a lot is around adjustment of local contrast, detail, background, and local exposure. All elements common to modern digital photo editing (link to Photocritic).

In today's digital world we can apply many steps of editing to one single image. We can easily play with variants, and we can use almost as much time as we want to get the desired result.

Pablo Inirio, darkroom printer at work

In analog technique this all has to happen during the final exposure process of the print in the darkroom by dodging and burning areas of the print and making sure that every area of the photograph gets the right amount of light. This process is a real manual handcraft requiring a lot of experience and a thorough understanding of exposure and development processes. An interesting "before there was Photoshop" 10 minutes video with explanations of these techniques can be found here (link to PetaPixel).

What was the job of a master darkroom printer became the job of an image retoucher in digital times. Techniques remained the same, tools and possibilities might have changed a bit.

World's first digital camera

First digital camera ever built.

The very first digital camera was developed at Kodak by Steve Sasson forty years ago. The first picture was taken in December 1975.

The image on the left is the camera developed at Eastman Kodak. - Pretty close to how digital cameras look like today ;-)

It used to be called a handheld camera. Quite bulky compared with what we call handheld today.
Interesting is the cassette tape as storage device for the images.

This camera was the result of a project run by Steve Sasson. The scope of this project was to come up with an application for the charge-coupled device, CCD. The result was a prototype camera with no moving parts as a first application of the 100x100 pixel CCD sensor. It took pictures in black and white.

Interestingly Kodak never managed to leverage this leadership in innovation of disruptive technology for the world of photography. Even decades later, Kodak still saw itself as a specialty chemicals and not as an image processing company.

“My prototype was big as a toaster, but the technical people loved it,” Mr. Sasson said. “But it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was, ‘that’s cute — but don’t tell anyone about it."

Watch the interview with Steve Sasson for some insights into the development of this first application of digital image sensors.

Landscape photography using a Hasselblad 500 c/m - the results

"Shooting film, time to result can be a bit longer than with modern digital technique. I am still waiting for developed and scanned films to arrive." - Referring to my earlier post - November 5th - waiting has an end.

Yesterday the developed and scanned pictures from my landscape photography experiments applying different types of film have arrived.

One first comment: Once more I notice the value of using a tripod even in good light conditions.
All the images were shot hand holding the Hasselblad 500 c/m camera using the waist level finder.

Kodak Ektar 100

Even when keeping an eye on shooting only at shutter speeds faster than 1/60 given the level of detail in the here explored scenics it is hard to reproduce photographs with a high level of detail sharpness.

The fall coloured trees (see the picture of a walnut tree on the left) in the landscape with their tiny details in the texture of colourful leafs are a challenge which only can be overcome using a stable support. In addition weather conditions such as wind might add quick movements to the leafs which results again in motion blur.

Fujichrome Velvia 100

Comparing to my recent  lavender field pictures - see post from August 16th (and sample picture on the right) - where I was shooting every picture using my tripod and fast shutter speeds, the current results are a bit disappointing. Shooting the lavender fields introduced the same, maybe even a bit higher, challenge to capture details in texture of these beautiful plants.

Fujichrome Velvia 50

Applying Fujichrome Velvia film as expected gives rather blueish results a bit less warm in color than the Kodak Ektar 100. The spectrum of the Fujichrome clearly exhibits more contribution at the blue side of the color spectrum, while the Kodak Ektar is more prominent at the yellow/red end of the spectrum.

Kodak Ektar 100

As specified both films exhibit an equally fine granulation. However, the grain can only be observed in bright areas of the sky, as well as in extreme dark green areas of trees in the forest with adequate magnification.

To fully capture the impression of a autumn landscape on a sunny day I would prefer the Kodak Ektar 100 film given the better performance for yellow, brown, and red colors.

Fujichrome Velvia 50

The Fujichrome Velvia was a good choice for the purple lavender fields (compare to picture shown above) as well as for landscape shots where contrast matters, such as in the cloudy evening shot from the Lake Lucerne and Mount Pilatus (see picture on the left).
This picture was extremely difficult to take since there was the very localised, but blurred due to the sky coverage, bright direct light from the sun combined with the very dark south-east facing mountainside in almost true black, and the dramatic sky coverage almost turning the scene into a night shot. It was not very clear to me on choosing the right exposure.
What I wanted to get out of this picture was the dramatic sky combined with the reflection on the surface of the lake, and the band of fog at the bottom of the mountain.

Ilford HP5 400 b/w

Using the Ilford HP5 400 black and white film was a good choice for pictures in the forest where only little light was available in the late afternoon when the sun is low. Given the high contrast between direct sunlight falling on plants and extreme darkness in the shadow this was a real challenge for the Ilford film which is not known to be a high contrast film.

Ilford HP5 400 b/w

As the picture on the right shot through the trees directly into the setting sun shows, the film exhibits good detail a very fine grain but not much graduation between extreme bright and extreme dark.

The image on the left capturing a scene with less extreme lightning conditions shows the film is capable of representing a well balanced scenery in terms of light and color in black and white.

Comparing the two black and white images shows that the Ilford HP5 400 is good under low light conditions. However, the result is much better for a scenery with diffuse light than for one under high contrast conditions.

See more images from this series of analog film photography at my website.
- Rigi Kaltbad
- Autumn landscape

Sports photography - Swimming tournament

The annual swimming tournament of the Schwimmklub Kaiseraugst was a good opportunity to do some sports photography.
An afternoon of swimming. All kinds of disciplines and different age categories.

The event took place at the indoor swimming pool of the Liebrüti complex in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland.

What I knew from past experience was, that light conditions would be a challenge. The artificial light is rather low and in the afternoon the sun would shine in a flat angle directly in direction of the swimming lanes.

Taking pictures of competitive swimmers is difficult. First of all during a race they are underwater most of the time. It's a lot about timing, to find the right moment for an action packed, sharp and clear, but still well composed and exposed picture. Second, the light conditions. The water surface is reflecting a lot of light, while the room itself is not very well illuminated.

Choice of equipment:

Sports photography in difficult light conditions needs a camera which is fast, offers a sophisticated auto focus, and excellent low light performance. Given by the topography of a 4 lane 25 meter indoor pool it is also required to take pictures from a distance. 

The perfect choice for these requirements was my Nikon D4 at ISO 1'000 using the 70-200 mm f2.8 lens. For some of the pictures I was also using the flash.

Here is what I did to document the tournament.

The environment:
I took pictures of what was happening around the event. Viewers taking movies with their smart phones, viewers concentrated on the race, coaches talking to their athletes, swimmers taking a break or just enjoying the event.
And in the very end of the event the victory ceremonies.

The race:
Concentrated athletes, the dynamics of the start, water splashes, a swimmer taking a breath between two strokes. - For the first time I noticed the power of the D4's 3d tracking auto focus as well as the high speed image rate of 11 pictures per second. The tools to capture the very right moment. Once I would trust in the reliability of this technology I could entirely focus on the right timing. Which is already challenging enough. Since the moments interesting for photographs only last few fractions of a second.

Below the surface:
Most fun was taking pictures using my underwater camera setup. The stup consists of a Nikon D800 with 16 mm f2.8 fisheye lens in Hugyfot housing and twin Inon z240 type 4 strobes.

In order not to disturb themswimmers during their competition I only took underwater pictures during warm up but not during the actual race kneeling at the pool's edge and holding the camera into the water blindly shooting pictures whenever a swimmer was in reach.

It is a completely different perspective and opens a new - from above the surface completely hidden - dimension. I got some spectacular shots from swimmers diving below the surface when jumping in from the starting block. But also during the underwater floating phase when approaching the finish or a turn.

Using the fisheye lens as described above it is easy to shoot images which will contain the intended object without consulting the view finder. However, given the high speed of swimmers crossing and given the wide angle blind image composition becomes difficult.

Find the results at www.andreasrmueller.com.
- Above surface
- Below surface

Landscape photography using a Hasselblad 500 c/m

It needs patients. - There is no immediate feedback control. - The photographer relies sole on a light meter, the selection of a film with specific characteristics, and on his understanding of exposure. - This is analog film photography.

Two weeks ago, it happened to be perfect fall weather in Switzerland, I took my old 1976 Hasselblad 500 c/m camera and some rolls of film, and went for some outdoor activity.

During fall and winter the low sun leads to interesting ambient light conditions. Lot of contrast, and due to the clear atmosphere also clear and brilliant colours with plenty of contrast.
The vibrant colours of autumn leaves - yellow, red, brown, and green - were just amazing.

I decided to shoot the following different film rolls.

Kodak Professional Ektar 100
The technical data sheet claims: "... is the world's finest grain color negative film ... high saturation and ultra-vivid color..." and "... is recommended for applications such as nature, travel and outdoor photography, as well as for fashion and product photography."

Fujichrome Velvia 50 Professional, and 100 Professional
The Fujifilm product bulletin says: "... is a professional daylight color reversal film..." and "... the world's highest level of image color saturation and vibrancy, this film combines superb granularity with resolving power.", "It is especially suited to subjects that demand precision in reproduction and emphasis in colors."

Hence, for the color films I was dealing with the world's finest grain, the world's highest level of color saturation, and resolving power. Both types of film are recommended - among other applications - for outdoor photography.

Spectral density curves Fujichrome Velvia 50

Comparing the spectral sensitivity curves from the film's technical specifications for both types of film shows that both films exhibit similar spectral response in blue and green wavelength area. The red area covers approximately the same wavelength range for both films with the spectral density being narrower for Fujichrome Velvia compared to Kodak Ektar.

Kodak Ektar shows a broad peak between 600 and 660 nm while the Fujichrome Velvia spectrum has a narrow peak at 650 nm.
This explains the experienced difference in color of the two film. The Fujichrome Velvia gives rather blueish results, given the lack of red and the predominance of blue and green (see spectral density charts on the left).

Spectral density curves Kodak Ektar 100

While Fujichrome Velvia is known for its saturation and strong contrast, I  am curious to see the results of Kodak Ektar.















Ilford HP5 Plus - ISO 400 black and white professional film
The package insert speaks of a "...high speed, medium contrast film...", "...suitable for action and press photography..."  - Not necessarily the first choice for black and white landscape photography. If reading through other blog posts. This film is never recommended explicitly. Recommendations go rather for Kodak Tri-X, BW400CN, or Ilford XP2 Super film.
Nevertheless, Ilford HP5 is considered to be a good option since it is a very flexible film yielding "...outstanding sharpness and fine grain under all lighting conditions". It's a medium contrast film and hence probably a good choice to reflect the nuances of colorful autumn leaves and forests in black and white.

Shooting film, time to result can be a bit longer than with modern digital technique. I am still waiting for developed and scanned films to arrive.

The concept of raw perfection

Yesterday I heard an impressive talk by nature photographer Gregory Basco at the Digital Event in Baden, Switzerland. In his presentation Gregory showed a couple of very impressive and artistic images from the diverse nature of Costa Rica including explanations on how the pictures were captured.

Part of the talk covered Gregory's philosophy around the concept of "raw perfection" (refer to the linked blog post). The approach is around striving for perfection in raw files (no cropping, no cloning, no major post processing) and disclosing and sharing everything which has been done to a photograph.
The approach is around getting the exposure for the entire photograph as well as its composition right directly in camera using a variety of filters, setups of flash, and all kinds of other little tricks.

Some of the examples Gregory presented were astonishing.

One of his compositions involved a short flash exposure of an object in the foreground combined with a longtime exposure of the night sky as background. In order to get both parts of the scene perfectly in focus the focus was readjusted manually during the longtime exposure after the flash for the foreground had fired to the background scenery for sharp exposure of the background sky.

Another one involved the application of a very old technique from analog days called dodging. A beautiful landscape image of a rain forest scenery exhibiting that strong contrast that a perfect exposure within one shot would not have been possible. The foreground of the scenery, the bottom to left part, showed a beautiful greenish forest scenery while the top right part was a forest glade with sun shining in. Hence, the top right would have been heavily over exposed. The "raw perfection" solution was to choose a long exposure, to get the bottom left foreground right, and using a black card to block for some time of the exposure manually the light falling on the top left area of the image. The result is almost a one shot in camera HDR image perfectly exposed in all areas showing the depth and range in the forest scenery.

Many more examples were given. Some of them with creative and elaborate flash and trigger trap setups.

While not that sophisticated I noticed that I am applying a sort of "raw perfection" to my underwater photography for quite some time.
Taking pictures of wildlife in tropical coral reefs or underwaterscapes of mountain lakes is difficult for many reasons.
First of all you have to be a good scuba diver in order to survive the nonviable conditions. Breathing compressed air does not make your brain working more efficiently. And floating in three dimensions instead of moving in two on a stable surface is another challenge.
When it comes to photography techniques you are constantly dealing with low light conditions and with a limited color spectrum. Bringing powerful strobes helps a lot. However, optical conditions are also different for the setup and handling of flash.
My decision to take pictures which need minimal manipulation in post processing was less driven by ethical or artistic motivations. It was more a pragmatic consequence out of laziness. I did not invest into Photoshop but rather into image composition, diving, and camera handling skills.
If I review my underwater photography habits I see many parallels to the principles of Gregory Basco's elements of "raw perfection".

No cropping
My goal is always to control the framing of the image when taking the picture. For macro images this involves going as close as possible, applying diopters, and finding the right angle to have the subjects picture taken. All this without manipulations or destruction of the nature around. Taking the picture should be non invasive.


For wide angle images this is sometimes even more tricky. Wide angle images involve going really close to the subject and bringing in the right amount of light. If you want to capture a dynamic wildlife scene in a nice environment of the reef you are diving all happens within fractions of seconds. You need to get the exposure of the background, the setup of the strobes at the right power for the foreground, the framing and timing right. Usually you have not much more than a single chance since your time is much more limited by your air than on surface.


No cloning
Combining images for nice underwater sceneries is very tempting. It is much easier to take a perfectly exposed image of your non moving background and combine it with an animal you shot out in the blue water in front of a neutral background. I always wanted to capture nature from non obvious point of view. My goal was not to generate the non obvious as a digital artist, my goal is to find the non obvious physically in real and show it.
Imagine the image below with a fish swimming in from the dark in the bottom right! - When I positioned myself underneath this soft coral there was a fish standing just below, but by the time I was setup he decided to move. I waited for quite some time for this fish or some other underwater creature to come back but run eventually out of air, so I focused on this beautiful soft coral scenery backlit from the morning sun.


No major post processing
Apart from some minor adjustments to the white balancing and contrast, and in some cases removing some scattering particles, I preserve the raw image as shot in camera.
My experience is that underwater colours are most vibrant if correctly exposed using strobes at the right position and flash power. Every time I work on the colours in post processing I tend to get kitschy results. They are no less artistic but just not the way I experienced them under water.


Listening to Gregory Basco's techniques to achieve "raw perfection" I got new ideas what I could do in certain situations under water. I am looking forward to my next underwater photography trip to further work on my in camera skills.

See some examples of my recent work at: www.andreasrmueller.com