Pete Askew
Admin
Well, by the look of those, it suits you well - super set. They do have a special look don't they?
anyone using Sigma DP Merrill?
- Thread starter Steve Boykin
- Start date
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
Off to Austin to visit my old friend Fellini. Here one I took this AM with the DP. I have some more didn't have time to look at them. This is the first one I took. The dogs walked me into a big field of these purple things. Not a great place to be if you are wearing shorts... 
Also this is an interesting viewfinder idea for the DP. I think I am going to try it out:
http://www.brettsimison.com/blog/2013/08/15/do-it-yourself-viewfinder-for-the-sigma-dp2-merrill/
It is a very unique look Pete. I need to figure out what it works best on.
Also this is an interesting viewfinder idea for the DP. I think I am going to try it out:
http://www.brettsimison.com/blog/2013/08/15/do-it-yourself-viewfinder-for-the-sigma-dp2-merrill/
It is a very unique look Pete. I need to figure out what it works best on.
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Pete Askew
Admin
Now that is nice and the background treatment is lovely. Soft and sharp.
I'd seen someone else do something similar. I'd been put off that idea as it makes the camera much larger but in practice it doesn't fit in most pockets anyway and I either hold it or stick it in back. I might give it a try. Thanks.
I'd seen someone else do something similar. I'd been put off that idea as it makes the camera much larger but in practice it doesn't fit in most pockets anyway and I either hold it or stick it in back. I might give it a try. Thanks.
Julian de'Courcy
Well-Known Member
Late to the party here. Steve by the looks of things from the images you have a good idea of what you are doing. The bright light you have there as it appears will help a lot. I have been busy photographing a Macmillan charity swim, it was running beyond 80.30 pm so shooting colour at iso 1600 so I used the Olympus OM-D which has not seen the light of day since getting the Dp Merrill's.
Steve the only initial advise I'd give for someone new to the Merrill sensors is to be patient in SSP to get the WB correct and the colour fringing, then if exporting in 16 bit tiff you still have a good file that if fairly pliable . I advise to always shoot Raw to get the best from the camera. I take them from SSP into LR or Cs6. Like your pics a lot and like you I am in no hurry and quite like the slower pace of these camera's.
Steve the only initial advise I'd give for someone new to the Merrill sensors is to be patient in SSP to get the WB correct and the colour fringing, then if exporting in 16 bit tiff you still have a good file that if fairly pliable . I advise to always shoot Raw to get the best from the camera. I take them from SSP into LR or Cs6. Like your pics a lot and like you I am in no hurry and quite like the slower pace of these camera's.
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure I am going to get the 2 and then the 3 at some point. Do you do any exposure, shadow, ext adjustments in SPP or do you do them in Adobe, et al. It would seem like that it would be better to do those in SPP but I'm not much of a computer person. Also is it saving the files somewhere on the computer every time I open SPP? Or are they just staying on the little card? For some reason I'm thinking it's downloading every time I open up SPP. Does that make sense?
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
I just ordered the viewfinder thingy. It should be here on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it works. I wasn't sure what size shock cord to get (actually I had no idea what shock cord was until I watched that video). I got 1/8 inch so I hope that works. What the heck is a "lifestyle photographer?"
I didn't really get to shoot anything in Austin today. It's so upper middle class white that it's kind of boring. Nice print of 8 1/2, but it had the white subtitles which was a bit annoying. I also was taken to a restaurant that had meatloaf and potatoes for $16.95 a plate? Seriously. I could make three whole meat loafs for that price. The hamburgers were were $15.95 and I didn't even know what half the things they put on them were. It was a bit fancy for me. But my company picked out the place so I kept my mouth shut. It was an OK meatloaf. I mean you can't really ruin meatloaf unless you just can't cook.
I call this "Waiting for the parking lot attendant come back from peeing to open the gate."
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Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
Also do you sharpen the files? I am using XF3 button on the top of the panel. It doesn't look like they need any sharpening. But I'm not real picky so maybe it's me?
Julian de'Courcy
Well-Known Member
Steve what ever camera I use when I return home the SD or Flash card goes into my card reader which has been set for Adobe bridge to automatically download the files to the designated hard drive. The Merrills are far to slow attaching the usb cable to the camera to download and the camera does get quite hot and it is very slow. A USB 3 will download via a card reader the Sigma 45MB file in about 2 seconds from a fast card. I then work from the files on the hard drive. Not sure if I read this correctly but it appears you have the card in the computer and maybe working from that? Which would slow things down a lot.
It is the one big bugbear I have with SSP and that is the shadow recovery is for my liking awful. While raising the shadows it loses all contrast in those areas, or far to much from what I experience. It seems to just make the area milky black and lose detail. So first of I try to use the X3 fill light adjuster, which will pull down the highlights and at the same time pull up the shadows, it looks as if it is doing a HDR thing. Most times the result for me is too stark and too HDR for the look, other files it can work if used gently. Sometimes that stark look can be mellowed in CS6 or Light room by layers or pulling back on the clarity giving some blur. Most times though I use a negative number in the X3 Fill light which for me softens the image, softening the light and for me giving a more fine grain film like look if a low iso has been used. Yes some detail is lost but the overall quality can be more pleasing. Yet you will lose detail in the shadows so it is not always suitable to use. The best is to treat each image on its content and play around. Now I sound like an expert which I am not, but I do play around with files a lot and some work some dont in SSP. I always bare in mind that most people taking photo's only get a handful a year if lucky that they are very pleased with, so even though it is worth trying on all images the vast majority are a compromise.
I do use ''Fast Stone Image Viewer'', which reads the embedded jpeg thumbnail in the X3 Raw files, it is a quick way of sorting the ok raw files, a lot faster than doing so through SSP which blacks out and reloads each time a file is deleted. But that program is only available for windows the last time I looked.
Julian de'Courcy
Well-Known Member
Steve I dont usually sharpen any files or use Noise reduction. You may know that to get the greatest detail in SSP from the raw files you set the Chroma noise , luminance and banding noise to zero. For portraits a setting of 3 or 4 for luminance helps with the skin and the have Chroma to zero, the chroma noise reduction can be harsh to skin if use . Although the Merrill's in general out the studio with controlled lighting are not kind to skin tones, such as being blotchy and not real at all. The luminance wont achieve that plastic look but helps to produce a more normal looking skin.
This site often has some good tips.
http://x3magazine.com/2013/03/smoother-portraits/
http://x3magazine.com/
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
That is fantastic info. I have been messing around with it this AM. We are off for Labor Day. Here are two B/W's I am working on, but I do think they might be better in color. I'm in complete agreement on the HDR look. I like things a bit less...er...refined and cartoony. I do like the look of film a lot. It's probably just a generational preference with me. The same way I dislike digitized effects in films or prefer hand drawn animation.
Thanks again for the advice and info. Any other suggestions, ect will be greatly appreciated.
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Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Nice shots, Steve. Love the hair in the portrait! Wyndham Hill is also the name of a record company, famous for fingerpicking guitar players. Are you aware of them?
Julian de'Courcy
Well-Known Member
Steve those images are gorgeous, just love the tone range you are getting across the image.
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
No I'm not but I am going to look it up. THANKS!!! SB
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
Thanks Julian!!!!
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Slightly different spelling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windham_Hill_Records
Steve Boykin
Well-Known Member
Got it THANKS!!!
