In the podcast, you’ll hear how we try to get a waterfall named after Neil, and Roger talks about minimum viable products. It turns out that episode 0 of Dynamic Range was such a thing.

There’s also a special video to accompany the podcast.

McShane Falls

In case you are wondering where the as yet unnamed waterfall is, here is its location:

As part of the pre-production planning for the filming of episode 2 of Dynamic Range, we're using software to figure out the best times to be at our chosen locations

Blatant plug for our wares

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.

Peter's Silver Strand image from the location scouting © Peter Cox 2012

And here’s the reaction to the picture at the time of taking:

The boys get all excited © Roger Overall 2012

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.

We have since heard from Enda. While it was in no way our intention, we have insulted him. For this, we would like to extend him our sincere and heartfelt apologies.

Having listened back to the segment, we understand completely that it could easily be taken as insulting, and we take full responsibility for that.

Upon hearing from Enda himself, our first thought was to pull the episode. However, this being the internet, once something is published, even if we pull it now, it it is out there forever. With that in view, we have decided to leave it in place because we don’t want to appear to be trying to hide the issue.

We regret greatly that we have insulted Enda and have offered him our sincere an unreserved apologies. We acknowledge that this has damaged our relationship with Enda and it is our hope that we are able to set things right with him.

Addendum (13/2/2012): Enda has graciously accepted our apologies.

We are able to move on from this unhappy incident, more experienced and wiser. We shall in future be more sensitive in our podcasting. We regret that this lesson had to come at Enda’s expense.

Episode 18

In this week’s episode of The Circle of Confusion, Neil admits to having his head turned by the Nikon D800 and Roger admits to having his stomach turned by HDR photographs.

Meanwhile, Peter suspects that Canon has taken a step backwards with the design of its new 24-70mm f/2.8 II lens, but everyone likes the new IS 24mm f/2.8 and 28mm f/2.8 lenses.

We discuss how to self-publish a calendar and we start to turn our attention to the recording of episode 2 of Dynamic Range.

Manipulated images

In the podcast we discuss the wrong and rights of the use of HDR and image manipulation in documentary photography.

Here’s the front page of The Washington Post that we refer to:

The front page of The Washington Post with the HDR photograph of a bridge at the top

Incidentally, there is a discussion relating to this on DPReview that is worth reading: HDR Used Properly Is Appropriate For Photojournalism.

We contrast the use of HDR with this story of a single image made up of two separate ones from The Sacramento Bee, which ultimately cost photographer Bryan Patrick his job:

Two photographs were combined to create a single image, which cost the photographer his job

You can find out more about this story on The Sacramento Bee‘s website here and here.

Nikon vs Canon

Having recorded the podcast a day before Olympus dropped its OM-D E-M5, we don’t discuss it at all. Even though it could be the perfect camera for one of us. Make sure you come back to listen next week.

In the meantime, we do discuss the three new lenses announced by Canon.

Canon's three new lenses

And we discuss Nikon’s hot new body.

Nikon's new D800

Calendars

If you would like a copy of Neil’s calendar, just hit the link here: Neil’s free cute kitty fearsome beasts calendar.

Blatant attempt to get you to buy something

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.

Neil McShane and Peter Cox during the filming of Dynamic Range Episode 1 © The Circle of Confusion Ltd

We don’t hide much round here. We’re pretty honest and open about the fact that we’ve found the transition from stills photography to video to be, erm, challenging. Don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t. We’ve been on a vertical ascent learning curve. And sometimes, you know, things go wrong.

Still, that’s not all bad. After all, you learn from your mistakes. Seen that way, the production of episode 1 was practically an entire curriculum of tuition for us, a university almost**. If you want to know just how much we tripped up, Peter wrote a warts-’n'-all article over on the Luminous Landscape website. Rather than repeat the article here, why not go and have a read of Learning Video Production the Hard Way? Just make sure you come back. Oh – and just be prepared for the headline photograph on the other side of the link. Just sayin’.

You Muppets

One of the great things about the internet is the easy interaction with others.

Having read Peter’s Luminous Landscape article, writer/producer Rick Bauer sent us this great email:

Name: Rick Bauer

Email: XXXXXXXX

Message: I enjoyed your article on producing a video the hard way. It was so very honest.

I’ve just begun to study amateur photography and read a lot. I’ve spent over 30 years in advertising, much of it in film and video production. I also have a degree in production.

As a writer/producer I had a very good chuckle when I read that you had no script. Well, you know what happens then.

As photographers you have a wonderful asset within yourselves to create storyboards. You need storyboards. No, you really need storyboards. You can capture locations on location scouts and use those to help your storyboards. But you need storyboards. They help you see things you might miss, and they help communicate to all involved.

A Director/Cameraman works. But only if you have at least a sound man/woman or a producer. In a small company a producer and sound person can be the same person. Why? I think it has to do with something involving sense of time. As a producer, time is money, and why aren’t you done yet? Producers make sure everyone is there on time, all the equipment is there, and things move along well — and cheaply.

Pre-production meetings are mandatory, and should include an enhanced script and storyboard listing all equipment required and locations needed. You need contingency plans as well. Once in production, daily pre-production meetings are suggested before you start.

Video production is team work, usually involving much larger teams than still work. So planning is essential.

Your honesty in your Luminous Landscape article was well received, which is why I felt like writing.

Have a great day, and better productions.

Rick Bauer

Episode 2 planning is underway – follow us

We’ve learned from our experiences, and we’re taking Rick’s advice to heart. Particularly the bit about storyboards. This weekend, the three of us are off to the northwest of Ireland to scout locations for and storyboard episode 2. We’re filming next month and hope to have the episode ready for download by 20th April.

We’re going to blog in depth about the process of planning, shooting and editing episode 2 over the next couple of months. We reckon there will be a lot of people who would find the information useful. If you want to make sure don’t miss any of this, why not sign up as an email or rss subscriber by using the buttons at the top right of the page?

Meanwhile, thanks again to everyone whose supported us so far, either by downloading the video or by sending useful critique and encouragement.

-Roger-

* Irony Alert

** And we produced a programme that we’re really pleased with, regardless of the hiccoughs. Adversity doesn’t necessarily mean failure.

We also take a look at Apple’s latest effort with Final Cut Pro X to win back some of the video editors who bolted to Adobe’s Premiere over the last few months.

L’Oreal called a liar

The UK Advertising Standards Authority ordered cosmetics manufacturer L’Oreal to pull ads showing Rachel Weisz looking gorgeous. We don’t know if they will be replaced with ones using photographs making her look ugly. Meanwhile, her husband, a low-ranking civil servant in the security services, is rumoured to have gone rogue in protest, apparently muttering something about the verdict being an over reaction. “It’s not like the sky is falling down,” he said.

Naturally beautiful? The product of a cream? Or simply the work of a retoucher? In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority has decided Rachel Weisz doesn't look this good because she uses a L'Oreal product.

Public speaking

Public speaking can be tricky. Yet if you want to earn extra income from presenting photography seminars and workshops, it’s something you need to master.

This video will help you.

Or it may scare the bejayzus out of you and put you off altogether.

Shameless plug (one of our children’s birthdays is coming up soon)

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.

If you enjoyed that, then please do consider buying the entire episode. Fifty-five more minutes of landscape photography education and humour await! Click on one of the links below to purchase.

In this episode we discuss the troubles at Kodak and make comparisons between the failing film giant and Apple. This sparks a lively debate between the two digital photographers about the merits of digital vs. film.

Yet another new camera is discussed along with yet more copyright talk – this time about a SOPA-like law that’s threatening to come into effect in Ireland. We also discuss a landmark plagiarism case in England.

To cap things off, we talk about the recent auroral displays in the north of Ireland.

Olympus OM-1 - what might the OM-D be like?

We talk about SOPA and PIPA, and copyright legislation – but try to be helpful rather than boring. We also discuss gear and seminars.

And Roger wrote about the concept of dynamic range in an article that gave Neil brain freeze.

To hear the podcast, just click on the player below. By the way, the podcast is available via iTunes as well. And if you have feedback or comments, do let us know.

SOPA/PIPA

In the podcast we talk about the SOPA and PIPA legislation being drafted by the US House of Representatives and Senate respectively. Here is one take on what PIPA could mean for the internet.

Neil and Peter have both joined the pool of professional photographers sponsored by bag manufacturer F-stop. Consequently, they go all dewy-eyed about them.

In case you’re wondering, Roger was asked as well, but decided he wasn’t a good fit for the company. Mind you, F-stop probably dodged a bullet there given his recent review of the Vanguard Skyborne 51.

Seminars

Peter recently launched a fresh set of seminars. You can find out more here: Peter’s Gear Porn 101 And Composition Seminars.

Roger is delivering his first day-long documentary wedding photography seminar in Dublin this coming Sunday. He has one space left. You can find out more here: Roger’s Take A Proper Documentary Photograph At A Wedding Seminar.

Shameless plug (we have to put shoes on our children’s feet, you know)

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.

The simple definition of dynamic range is this: the ratio between the largest and the smallest possible values of a changeable quantity, such as light.

That’s the easy bit. Thing is, in photography, what light are we talking about? The light in the scene? The light the human eye can see? The light your camera can record? The light it can convert into a file? The light your monitor can show you? The tonal range of the final print you produce?

For now, let’s stick to the human eye and your camera.

The human eye is a big fat liar

We all know that the human eye is able to cope with a much wider range of highlights and shadows than our digital cameras are. That’s a nailed on certainty, we all have that experience first hand.

On the face of it, our eyes can handle 20-24 stops of dynamic range. Your DSLR can’t hope to compete. You’d be lucky to get half that.

Except, it’s not that simple. Your eyes cheat. Big time.

For a start, your eyes aren’t static devices. Your pupils dilate or constrict to suit varying light levels. They do so rapidly, so that when you sweep your gaze across a scene, they are adapting to the changing light levels it contains instantaneously, giving the impression that you can see a wider range at any one time than you actually can.

In addition, your eyes adapt chemically to the amount of light available to them. Just think of how your eyes adjust in the dark, which in itself is dependent on a number of factors, including how efficiently your blood circulates. Alcohol and tobacco consumption are known to affect eyesight because they can impair circulation.

As if that weren’t enough variables, the ability of our pupils to dilate reduces as we get older, affecting our perceived dynamic range.

So, all in all, it’s tough to put a distinct value on the dynamic range of the human eye. Estimates range between 6.5 and 14 stops, depending on your source. Not exactly a narrow band.

Nevertheless, that brings our eyes closer to what DSLRs can manage.

Or does it?

Buckets and golf balls

Brace yourself. This is where your brain might start to hurt a bit.

Let’s start simple and go from there.

Digital imaging sensors are made up of individual cavities (photosites) that catch particles of light (photons) during an exposure. We commonly refer to the photosites on a sensor as pixels, which is short for picture element.

Now, remember that dynamic range is the ratio between the largest and the smallest values of a measurable quantity. Well, the smallest number of photons that a bucket can hold is one.

You might think that number should be zero, but bear in mind that dynamic range is a ratio. A ratio of x:0 isn’t possible. The only thing x:0 is good for is an interesting emoticon, but that’s about it. Ratios need to be x:y. Equally, we’re not going to entertain the notion of a fraction of a photon. As a result, the dynamic range of your digital camera sensor is going to be x:1.

The dynamic range of a sensor is determined by how many photons it takes to fill a photosite. A full photosite translates into white as far as the sensor is concerned.

Think of of a photosite as a bucket into which you pour golf balls – the golf balls being individual photons. Once the bucket is full (saturated), adding more balls isn’t going to make it any fuller. They will simply bounce off. The same goes for photons when they reach a saturated photosite.

The advantage of a bigger bucket (photosite) is that it can hold more golf balls (photons). In the case of a sensor photosite, that means the bigger it is, the wider its dynamic range range at the highlight end, and thus overall. In the case of an actual bucket, the more golf balls it can hold the longer you can go at the driving range before you have go for a refill, or steal some from your neighbour's bucket.

If the photosites on a sensor can hold a maximum of 1,000 photons and a minimum of 1 photon, its dynamic range ratio is going to be 1,000:1.

As photographers, we’re used to expressing that ratio differently, speaking instead of stops of exposure. If each stop is twice as bright as the preceding one, a dynamic range ratio of 1,000:1 is roughly the same as 10 stop increments (1 : 2 : 4 : 8 : 16 : 32 : 64 : 128 : 256 : 512 : 1024). That’s why we tend to talk of 10 stops of dynamic range*.

But wait, it’s not that simple

You know that often quoted statement about bigger photosites being better than smaller ones? Well, here’s the reason. Bigger photosites can hold more photons before they are full. That means they are capable of reproducing more shades of white than smaller sensors. What a small photosite sees as white, a big one sees as off-white. It’s capacity hasn’t been reached, so it won’t show up as quite white yet. In other words, a small photosite will report white at a lower level of light than a bigger one.

Because a big photosite can catch more photons, the dynamic range of a sensor with bigger photosites is going to be wider. If instead of being full at 1,000 photons (10 stops of dynamic range) a photosite that can take, say, 4,000 photons, it is going to have two stops more dynamic range (1,000 : 2,000 : 4,000).

So far, so good.

However, that’s only part of the story. Equally important is how well your camera converts the photons captured in its photosites into an image. A sloppy conversion will reduce the dynamic range. The reduction can be quite dramatic. Even a camera with a sensor capable of 10 to 14 stops of dynamic range could end up with an output equal to only five to nine stops. Bummer.

Does it matter?

In the end, the dynamic range of your camera depends on how big its photosites are and how well it can convert only a few photons in to a shade of grey and lots of photons into not-quite-white.

Even then, that could mean nothing when it comes to your final image.

You need to get your exposure bang on to make the most of the camera sensor’s dynamic range. Then you need process it sympathetically in your preferred post-production software, making sure you lose nothing along the way (sRGB anyone?). Finally, your display medium has to be able to cope with the dynamic range you want to show.

None of which is going to be at all relevant if the photograph is eyeball-combustingly bad to begin with. A great photograph with limited dynamic range will always trump a pitiful attempt with wide dynamic range.

*Not that photographers know what they are talking about. In optical science and in ISO standards, a stop is the actual physical aperture. What photographers call a stop of exposure is really a step, which could be a step too far for many of your reading this, so we’ll stop.

Sources:

http://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dynamic-range.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value
http://www.telescope-optics.net/terms_and_conventions.htm

Shameless plug (we have to eat, you know)

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.

Don’t forget, you can purchase the first episode of our landscape photography video series Dynamic Range for just €9.95, and as a bonus, the pilot episode is just €4.95! You’ll receive the download link via email as soon as you’ve completed the purchase.