If you see me on a shoot these days, you will notice I have a little black piece of plastic hanging from a lanyard around my neck. This recent release on the market place is one which I would now never be without, the X-Rite Colour Checker Passport, which opens up to reveal a series of colour charts and white balance tools.

These charts are used by the devices software (Mac or PC) to create a colour profile specific to your very own camera. If you use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw for Photoshop when converting your Raw files, you have the choice of using either the standard Adobe Standard colour profile, or a generic profile they have created for your make and model of camera. But every camera is different, and the colour profiles they give you are not exactly accurate.

The Colour Checker Passport is quick to use, you  can create a generic profile to use in any shot, or create a specific profile for a specific shoot, optimised for the given lighting conditions.

Simply take a photo containing the colour chart, then load it into the software (or use the export plugin for Lightroom) and the software will look at the photo, automatically locate the chart, and crunch the numbers to create a colour profile ensuring the colour values of each chip on the chart are correct. Then you apply that colour profile to the rest of the photos from that shoot.  Too easy!

Here is the chart, with the Adobe Standard profile applied.

Now lets have a look at the profile for the Canon 5D MkII as supplied by Adobe. This is the “Camera Standard” profile.

And here we go with the custom profile.

As you can see, there are a few differences in the colours. The actual chart it uses for the profile is in the bottom half of the card. The top gives a grey scale, the basic colours that you can adjust in ACR or Lightroom and the middle two rows are for sampling for white balance, giving neutral white balancing, as well as options to warm or cool the image.

So how does it work in the real world?

Check out these pics, the first of each pair is with Adobe Camera Standard profile, and the second is with the custom colour profile created specifically for the job. I am sure you will agree the work in making the colour profile is well worth it.

The difference is subtle, but still makes a big difference. Of course, the photos will look best if you are viewing them on a properly calibrated monitor. Colours look more natural and consistent, and provide a better base from which to do more creative stuff with the photos like film effects and the like when required.

All client shoots with Nigel Honey Photos are now properly colour profiled with the X-Rite Colour Checker Passport at no extra charge.

Filters that provide a tint, well thats easy too.

Digital cameras are not sensitive to UV light so a UV filter does nothing, but they do provide cheap protection for your lens’s front element.  Better to damage a cheap filter than your lens.

But one filter that really can not be replicated is the Polarizer filter. If your camera is an auto focus one, you will need a Circular Polarizer or else the AF will not work.  Most commonly they are a screw on filter. The filter screws onto the lens and then can spin, so you can adjust the angle of the polarization against the sunlight. If the filter is 90 degrees off it will have no polarization effect (though it will still knock about 1.5 stops of light out, which can also be handy). When you turn the filter around you will see the magic happen.

When using the filter, you just turn it until it looks good. Note it will really work best in bright sunlight or with a direct light source, it has less effect on a cloudy day.

Firstly the filter will reduce haze, increase contrast and the saturation of colours. Greens of trees will be enhanced, and it will really bring up and darken the blue of the sky, which can often appear pale and washed out. Compare these two photos…

This shot has EXACTLY the same shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focal length, white balance and colour profile setting, but the polarizer was turned around to effect…

But wait, theres more. As well as enhancing colour, the Circular Polarizer will also help get rid of or reduce reflections from non metallic objects. It will get rid of glare and reflections from water, windows, and its even good at getting rid of reflections in the paintwork of cars, though since they have complex shapes you may need to blend multiple exposures with different polarizer settings to get a great effect.

Check out these quick demo shots I took some time ago in Liverpool St, Hobart. Excuse the ordinary pictures, they are just snaps to be used for example…

Firstly without polarization..

And with…

Now THAT is something you simply can not do in Photoshop.

I also use the Circular Polarizer Filter a lot when shooting motorsport, as it allows me to slow down my shutter speed a bit to get a better motion blur in the background when panning, and you can also tweak the polarization to remove the glare from the car windows, so you can see inside the car, and of course the driver.

Circular Polarizers are expensive. Very expensive. My 82mm filter for my ultra wide angle lens nearly required the sale of some internal organs, but they are a very worthwhile investment, and really are an essential part of anyones gear bag if into landscape, architectural, or automotive photography.

Cremorne Beach, just out of Hobart

I love the soft dreamy, surreal look of the images from the crummy plastic lens on cameras like this and my Holga 120CFN.  The randomness of focus, composition and exposure -these cameras have no light meter and only basic exposure settings, though the Diana is somewhat more sophisticated than the Holga – the vignetting and the light leaks all add to the fun.

My little photography assistant, Lucas, at the West Hobart Train Park

I can run regular 35mm though the cameras but they are designed to use medium format film. If you use 35mm film,, you miss out on the wonderful vignetting and softness around the corners of the lens.

Bathurst St, Hobart

However the cost of this film and its associated developing and scanning mean using these cameras with this film can be a fairly expensive.  Each shot can work out to cost about $4 or $5, and you have to think twice about taking a shot, where as ideally you wouldn’t think about shooting with such a camera. Still, these cameras are great fun and a nice bit of relief from the seriousness of modern DSLR photography.

Last night I joined the panel on episode 4 of the OzPhotoWrap podcast, grab it here in iTunes if you want to have a listen.

Anyhow, I ran upstairs to grab the camera so I could get some unboxing photos. Why? Because I am a nerd, OK??

5D MkII Unboxing - The Box

5D MkII Unboxing - Whats Inside? Oooh!

5D MkII Unboxing - The Packaging

5D MkII Unboxing - Inside

5D MkII Unboxing - There it is!

5D MkII Unboxing - There we have it folks!

5D MkII Unboxing - The end I see most

5D MkII Unboxing - Top view

5D MkII Unboxing - The contents of the whole box

For those interested I will be writing a little review on the camera as soon as possible.
I am really looking forward to giving this a work out in weddings and portraiture work. It has incredible low light performance which will come in very very handy in dark churches and the like, and with 21.1 megapixels, we will be able to create mega-sized prints. Anyone need an image for the side of a truck?? Oh, and did I mention the 1080p high definition video??

Also the Canon EF 24mm f1.4L II was announced.

Canon today released the new EOS 50D, replacement to the 40D.  Check out the preview on dpreview for all the details but to sum it up…

Almost exactly a year after the arrival of the EOS 40D, Canon has announced the 50D, which we’re assured will be a sister-model, rather than a replacement. Recent history has seen Canon release new models every 18 months-or-so but it’s been a busy year with newcomers such as the Nikon D300 getting a lot of attention in the 40D’s keen amateur/professional segment. The 50D puts essentially a 40D body wrapped around a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor that finally rectifies the situation in which Canon’s x0D range trailed the company’s entry-level line, in pixel terms. Canon is claiming that the new sensor’s design (new manufacturing processes, redesigned photo diodes and micro lenses) mean that despite the higher resolution the noise is actually lower than the 40D, something we’ll obviously be putting to the test when we get our hands on a production model.

The other big change is the inclusion of a new, high-resolution LCD screen. 920,000 dots mean that it can convey 640 x 480 RGB pixels, making it effectively a VGA standard monitor. Three anti-reflection layers built into the screen do their best to keep it useable in bright conditions, too.

There are various other changes and added features, with many of them stemming from the first appearance of the Canon’s Digic 4 processor.

This looks great, and bodes well for the new full frame body, the 5D Mk2, 3D, 7D or whatever it will be called!

I will be posting up a few images taken with this lens, but for now here is a shot of Zakk, who works for Alan Moyle at Photobat. We were messing about taking photos on Sunday night after the AIPP seminar, before dinner, and this photo gives a good indication of the Lensbaby effect. No photoshop filters here people!