Better Noise Reduction with Darktable

In a previous post, I wrote about Darktable's profiled noise reduction with a set of sample images to compare the results. And while the basic profiled denoise algorithm still gets great results in Darktable, I have found another method that yields even better results (that incidentally, still utilizes the profiled denoise, but to a lesser extent). It may not show as much as I had hoped in the images below, but I have found this method especially attractive when dealing with photos of people. Steps and samples below:

First step is of course to import your images to Darktable. Next, we will run the Raw Denoise module. In most instances (especially with people) I have found .003 to be a good starting point. Typically the default .010 threshold can make images too soft. For the compared images of the kiddo toys, I used .014 for this setting.

Next step is to apply the profiled denoise option. The default strength of 1.000 is typically overkill after applying the raw denoise first. For my images I have found a value of less than .300 is a good balance to retain detail, typically I use .289. For the sample image, the value used was about .400.

Composition for Comparision

 

No noise Reduction (Imported and then Exported in Darktable)

Profile Denoise Only

Raw denoise & Profiled denoise used together

For additional comparison I have added a new image to the original Flickr set that shows the processing done with my refined noise reduction routine.

Blessings,

Jesse

Heron, Osprey, Yellow Jacket & Ducks - Photos from the Lake Vacation

As I wrote in my last post, I love vacationing at my mom's family's lake property in Eastern Washington. Quiet, peaceful and when we are there in the summer nice and hot. Of course when you are lake side, hot weather is always welcome as the coolness of the lake beckons to cool you down when the need arises.

Nature and Wildlife are my favorite subjects (outside of my kids) to photograph. While on vacation at the lake, I had several opportunities for photography while relaxing on vacation. We saw several Heron's and a few Osprey either looking for fish on the docks, or perched in the evergreen trees along the shore.

The Heron's were fun to watch, slowing walking along portions of the dock looking for fish. My 3 year old son and I got to see one take a stab at one, didn't have my camera with me for that one though. With the Osprey, I stood there watching him for quite a while – just waiting for him to take off to attempt to get a wing spreading take off photo. Well, as luck would have it, when I wasn't aiming up waiting my mom made a whistle or some other noise just to see if the bird would react. And at the sound, took off – missed opportunity!

On the Hunt for Fish

Taking off, the next shot in the series was not in focus

Yellow Jacket

Osprey Preening

Looking for food, waddled all the way up to the cabin

Till next time, hopefully I will get some of the take off shots I really wanted to get this go around!

Blessings,

Jesse

Lake Vacation, one of the best parts: Cell reception stinks!

One of my favorite places in all of God's creation is the lake property belonging to my mom's family on the shores of Lake Spokane in Eastern Washington. This was our yearly vacation spot growing up and I look forward to every moment I am blessed to be able to spend there with my family. The peace and quiet of the lake, looking out at the glass smooth surface of the blue/green water in the cool of an August morning – to me this is a small taste of heaven on earth. A blessing from God to be able to enjoy something so beautiful in His creation, away from all the hustle and bustle of modern life.

Aside from the natural beauty of the lake, the quiet atmosphere and relaxation of being on vacation, the lake has another huge benefit that as an adult I absolutely love: The cellular reception is virtually non-existent! Best thing to do is simply leave it off since its going to drain the battery in a hurry while constantly searching for service and rarely ever connecting. Having the phone off means enjoying the outdoors and family without a stupid phone constantly squawking at you, begging you foor your attention and focus on a barrage of worthless drivel and distractions from the life that is actually happening in front of you at the moment. With the poor reception, people won't be continually checking their Facebook feed or responding to every chirp and beep of the phone while you are trying to have an enjoyable visit with them. Everyone's attention is solely on the people and activities around them, instead of constantly zoning out to stare at a cold and lifeless digital screen. I love it.

In today's “connected” world, we have lost the art of meaningful communication, lost the ability to be intentional and personal about communication. Everything is secondary, incidental as its randomly displayed in a feed of other random information. Its time to learn to live life again and unplug, and rediscover the richness of our surroundings instead of experiencing everything through a digital display.

Next up, photos from my trip to the lake in August.

Blessings,

Jesse

An October Flood Sunset

With all the natural beauty God has created here on this earth, it is amazing how beautiful a negative natural event can be - such as the picture below taken during the flooding of the Skagit River in October of 2003.  This shot is still one of my favorite sunset pictures I have taken to date, the colors are vibrant and I love how they reflect on the flood waters.  In the bottom portion of the picture you may be able to make out the yellow caution tape strung across the parking lot by the police department, and more visible in the lower right is the public parking sign.  This is where I would park virtually every day when I worked in down town Mount Vernon.

This photo was taken 12 years ago today.

Blessings,

Jesse

Hand Held Long Exposures of Multnomah Falls

Depending on your definition of long exposures, the title may be more accurate to read: hand held slow shutter speed photos of Multnomah Falls. On a recent trip to Hood River Oregon, we had one day where the plan was to take the family to Multnomah Falls. My two year old son absolutely loved it, as he was very excited to see the big waterfall - especially as we had been telling him about it for several weeks leading up to the trip. Our one day available to take the trip to the falls turned out to be an absolutely perfect day for it. The day included some cloud cover that kept temperatures comfortable and the light nice and even.

Now with no tripod and no filters to aid in achieving slower shutter speeds for the shot I was going for, my only option was to ratchet down the aperture as small as possible and brace the camera on a railing (OK, so not 100% hand held after all). I was actually very happy with the results.

All of Multnomah Falls

Lower Multnomah Falls

I was especially happy with how vibrant the colors were with the late spring foilage in a brilliant green.

Blessings,

Jesse

A Bald Eagle and His Rabbit Dinner

To set the stage for tonight's photos, we will rewind a month and a half ago or so to a return trip from my in-laws. We had just recently exited the freeway and were on the home stretch to arriving at home and on the side of the road not 20 feet from the pavement is a mature bald eagle standing there, likely eating some small animal. Returning from a weekend trip we had the camera in the car and everything, but as the kids have already been in the car for a good two hours I didn't think it fair to them to stop and prolong the impending arrival at home. Looking back I wish I would have stopped as, at the very least, I would have been able to jump out for a minute and a half and taken a couple quick photos of the lovely bird.

Now, fast forward to last Friday when I am on my way home after making two quick stops after work. My wife and our two kids are already at her parent's house and I would be heading out after work to join them for the weekend. I was actually thinking on my way home how sweet it would be to see another eagle on my way out of town as I will have the camera and no kiddos to worry about, making it quite convenient to stop for photos. Turns out I didn't have to wait until my way out of town to see one. Driving home I see what looks to be the unmistakable white tail feathers of a bald eagle flying away toward the foot hills and also nearby I can see two juvenile eagles circling around above the field. As I was passing the house adjacent to this particular field I look over just in time to see another eagle descending near the home toward the field. With time to spare before leaving town (my way of avoiding traffic, leave later and miss it all!) and an empty house, there is no way I am passing up this potential opportunity for eagle watching! I get home, change shoes, grab the camera bag, attach the 55-300mm lens, jump back in the car and head back out to see if the large raptor is still nearby.

As I near the field I can see that no more than about 50 yards from the side of the road the sight I was looking forward to seeing was right there: a beautiful mature bald eagle, picking at a dead rabbit. I pull off the road, get out of my car and start my evenings adventure of avian photography. The photo session begins with me taking pictures of the bird while he consumes his rabbit dinner, not a lot of movement, but nonetheless I am enjoying every moment.

At one point while I was crouching there watching the eagle eat, I hear the loud blast of a passing vehicle's horn. Slightly startled, I instinctively glance back at the road seeking the source of the disturbance. The loud, and brief, outpouring of sound also gave a slight start to our feasting feathered friend. As I shift my focus once again to the field and the subject of my evening's fascination, I am refocusing just in time to see his wings close up and his feet settle back down onto the valley's floor. My first thought was oh no, I missed it! Why did I turn and look away?! But this little disturbance would prove to be a God sent blessing as it would lead to my favorite and best photo of the day. Moments after my attention was once again fixated on the magnificent eagle, he took one little hop then spread out his wings to make the short jaunt of several feet back over to his momentarily neglected meal. Once settled back down to his evening's sustanence I checked my LCD screen to see that I had in fact captured his little hop and flap movement in focus with wings fully spread!

No wanting to miss anything, I stayed and watched the eagle until he took off and flew out my 300mm zoom lenses usable range for detailed photos of my subject. I did manage to capture a photo of him moments after take off, still clutching in his talons what was left of the rabbit meal just before he dropped it. Unfortunately, this photo wasn't focused perfectly though it is acceptable for viewing and might still look alright as maybe a 5x7 print. On my way out of town, I glanced over at the field to see if there would be reason to stop for an encore show. There wouldn't be this trip. The  two juveniles were still lingering around the field, but not close enough to make for any compelling photos with the gear I have. There's my story, now for the photos!

Picking at his rabbit dinner

Looking up from the rabbit

Spreading his wings with a hop-flight back to his dinner

Almost back to his dinner

Taking off with his rabbit dinner

I sure hope this isn't my last time being blessed with a similar scene to photograph along this road. With any luck I will either have a longer lens or a closer bird for a target! This sure felt like a small gift from God, as the thought was on my mind as I was leaving work and the timing was incredible given the travel plans of the weekend (no kids waiting at home).

Blessings,

Jesse

Fiery Sunset

One of my favorite things about photography is capturing moments in time that are unique and will not exist as seen again. The sunset photo featured tonight is one of those type of moments on two accounts. The first is the combination of the clouds and the intensity of the colors of the sunset. The other and less obvious is the silhouetted tree line. Since this photo was taken, one of the trees that is in this photo has been cut down.


One aspect of this photo I really like is how the trees form a visual valley that leads down to the setting sun behind the distant hills. It will be interesting to revisit another photo from the same spot and see how the picture may change with the tree no longer there.

Blessings,

Jesse

First Visit to Rasar State Park

As a photographer it's tough to beat state parks for scenery to photograph, bonus for lesser known or visited parks that present photo ops that aren't as cliché.

Here in Washington, our state parks are accessible with a yearly pass (called the Discover Pass) or a daily use fee. However, they do offer a handful of Discover Pass free days. Two of the free days for 2015 happen over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (which I had off from work). Taking advantage of the free day, I took my two year old son and my camera to the park hoping to do some eagle watching. As January also happens to be part of the peak season for migratory eagles in the Skagit Valley, I came sporting my 55-300mm lens hoping for some eagles and wildlife photos.

Well, the eagles weren't around while we were there and the only Raptor I saw was a hawk making a landing on a phone pole during the drive there. Wildlife viewing was minimal at the park as well, all we saw were a few small birds (probably finches) and some half eaten dead salmon. We even had some light rain at the park, even though it was dry and nice when we left home, so my little one didn't get any playground time as it was soaked.

View from the river's edge

On this trip I was sporting the wrong lens for the type of photos I would end up looking for. Times like this I can really start to see the appeal of all-in-one zoom lens like Nikon's 18-200/18-300 or Tamron's new 16-300mm, would have come in handy this trip!

Blessings,

Jesse

Revisitng and Re-Developing Old Photos

I'll have to admit, this post was indirectly inspired by my brother and one of his panoramic photos of Crater Lake in Oregon. For Christmas I helped my mom get his photo printed on a 16x48 canvas from Costco and seeing the print really got my wheels turning about some of the panoramic photos I have taken in the past. While I liked the photos in my archives, there were different flaws in them to where I wouldn't be happy with how they would look printed out (tilted horizons or the colors turned out flatter from the camera than how the scene looked in person).

Fast forward a few years and now I have more experience with editing software and I was able to correct the shortcomings of my old photos. Now I can look at the digital image and picture how it would look on a printed canvas and be excited about getting the print made.

For comparison, below are two versions of a panoramic photo taken on New Year's day several years ago at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. The first photo is the original panorama I had created, followed by the newly re-created and developed version.

Original from 2011, no edits - simply stitched

Newly re-done image. Re-stitched and further developed

All stitching was done with the Hugin Panorama Photo Stitcher and the image developing was done with The Gimp.

Revisiting older photos is something I would definitely recommend. Looking over older photos with a time removed eye, might just uncover a new favorite. Throw in a sharper skill set for digital developing and you just might find some new shots for your profile.

Blessings,

Jesse

Renting a Lens with BorrowLenses

There are two major camera gear rental companies in the US, LensRentals and BorrowLenses. They offer high end equipment that might be out of budget for many of us hobbyists, giving us an opportunity to try out the coveted gear or even try something that may be in our price range before purchasing to see first hand how it stacks up.

Knowing about these companies, I have been interested in giving it a shot and renting a lens that would be a step up from the kit lenses that came with my Nikon D5100. Well, as my wife was nearing her due date for our daughter we wanted to do maternity photos but didn't have the extra money for a professional shoot so I had the idea that we could rent the same lens the photographer used to do our son's one year photos (Nikon 50mm f/1.4). After thinking a little more about it I thought we could go with the 50mm f/1.8 instead. Going that route, if we really liked the lens and the results we achieved with it, it would be more feasible for us to save up the $216 the f/1.8 sells for over the $425 price tag of the f/1.4.

We wanted to have the lens through the weekend as well as the coming Tuesday (Veteran's day) that I had off from work so we could take some maternity photos. So on Monday I placed the order with the desired delivery date of Thursday. The seven day rental was $19 plus $24.95 to cover round trip shipping. The lens arrived at a perfect time Thursday morning and came with a lens hood and UV filter as well. When the next Thursday rolled around, thankfully the last FedEx ground pickup time at the local drop FedEx store was 6:00pm, so I wouldn't be frantic trying to get it post marked on time after work.

From start to finish the entire process went off without a hitch and BorrowLenses was easy to work with. A nicely designed site, simple rental procedure and no hassles made the experience a pleasant one and I would not hesitate to recommend their services or rent from them again - especially given that there are plenty more lenses I would love to try out. What I will likely not do again is rent the 50mm f/1.8 simply because a second rental would mean almost half the purchase price of the lens was spent on renting it, which seems a poor financial decision to me.

Blessings,

Jesse

Hummingbird on a Cold November Morning

I always enjoy watching (and listening) to the hummingbirds that frequent the feeder we have hanging on our front porch. Their little chirp is a pleasant sound and the hum/whoosh sound of their wings is really enjoyable to hear buzz by you. We recently had a week long cold snap, colder than we usually experience in late November in Western Washington, that froze the feeder contents solid as the temperature dipped into the high teens over night.

On the cold Sunday morning while getting ready for Church and the rest of the day, I noticed one of the resident hummingbirds was frequently perching on one of our hanging baskets waiting for the frozen food to thaw out. I of course thought photo opportunity and hitched up the 55-300mm and waited for him to come by. Once I saw the little bird, I slowly cracked open the front door (with the camera settings all set - zoom, focus etc...) aimed and took a few shots. Below are my favorites: one of him sitting and looking about and one just moments before he flew away.

Perched on a hanging basket, waiting for food to thaw

Spreading his wings to take flight

I typically see what looks to be the same bird sitting in nearly the same spot when I get up for work during the week. So hopefully I'll grab a few more shots of him in some different lighting, or even more fun shots of him spreading his wings out.

Blessings,

Jesse

The Moon Rise and Other Night Photos

Now that I have a camera where I have full control over the settings, I have been enjoying doing some night photography. Another bonus of exploring night photography in the Pacific Northwest: come winter time its dark at 5:00pm so you are limited to when you can take photos unless your exploring long-exposure night shots!

Tonight I have two photos of the nearly full moon rising over the Skagit Valley the night before the July 12th, 2014 full moon. While I was outside taking the moon photos, I noticed my wife's hanging plant sitting near some of our solar lights that were actually lit. Thought the light patterns and reflections could make an interesting photo(s).

The Moon Rises Over the Valley

The Rising Moon Over the Valley

Solar Light

Solar Light #2

With the sun retreating beyond the horizon sooner and sooner every night, it will be time to explore some more long exposure photography as our daylight hours will be minimal if any once I am off work during the week.

Blessings,

Jesse

Red Wolves, Bald Eagle and a Shark: Photos from the Point Defiance Zoo

Zoo's make great places to practice photography. The scenery is great and there is a variety of animals, lighting and situations to practice. They also make great family days with small kiddoes. Over Memorial Day weekend this year, my family and I spent an afternoon at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington. And while we had more photos of our son and his cousins, I did manage to get a few good shots of the animals that I have below to share:

Red Wolf looking on from his resting spot

Red Wolf Looking on from his perch

Red Wolf resting, he looks so sad here...

A Bald Eagle at the Zoo

One of the Aquarium Sharks

The indoor exhibits can be challenging with low light so don't be afraid to boost the ISO a bit to snag a shot you would otherwise miss. The Photo of the Shark above was taken at ISO3200.

Blessings,

Jesse

Old Glory's Reflection

One of my favorite places for vacation is my mom's families lake property in Spokane. For the 4th of July one of my aunts put up an American Flag at the end of the dock and it has stayed since. On a warm August morning while on vacation I took this picture of Old Glory's reflection on the glassy water.  This was my favorite of the few I took, with barely any distortion of the reflection and some of the underwater weeds visible in the shot.

A Summer Day's Reflection

I tried looking at this image rotated so it would appear that the flag is in a normal orientation, but the effect was almost disorientating and didn't look right to the eyes. Anyway, this was one from the archives and a fitting image with the 4th of July right around the corner!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July everyone.

Blessings,

Jesse

The Shutterfly Experience

In today's age of digital photos virtually any digital device manufactured has a camera (or two) built in. Even with the proliferation of digital cameras riding on millions of devices, the reality is that a vast majority of photos are never destined to actually be printed. Of course, many of these photos would likely not even be taken in the first place prior to the rise of the mobile camera, but thats a whole different topic and/or debate.

For those photos that are destined for an existence outside of digital bits, there are plenty of establishments (local and on-line) that compete for your photo printing dollar. Shutterfly being a large and well known one. So how is the Shutterfly experience? Worth the time or not?

User experience is typical of on-line sites that offer uploading for prints: logically organized to get where you want to be. When you log in, your dashboard/control panel/home page (or whatever else you prefer to label it) will show you a brief over-view of all your saved work (photo albums, projects etc...) and a place to view your account and order settings. In addition to photo albums and projects such as baby books and greeting cards, Shutterfly offers a Share Site option where you can configure a personal site (within their templates of course) where you can share your photo albums and projects so family members (or say, family members of a little league team if one was created for the team) can view and order photos you have uploaded and projects you have created within Shutterfly. I think this is a pretty nice option, though admittedly I have not done more than simply create one.

To date we have claimed our 50 free print promotion given when you first create an account, created a free baby book (received from registering at target for baby gifts I believe) and created a birth announcement card with pictures of our first born son. The quality is what you would expect from a commercial printing outfit (great quality, no complaints!) and the shipping is reasonably priced and arrives in an acceptable time frame.

The best part of the whole Shutterfly experience is the vast amount of promotions and discounts (provided you don't mind regular Shutterfly e-mails in your in-box). They even start you off with 50 free prints when you first register and fairly frequently I have seen other free print promotional e-mails, in addition to 40% (or better) promotional e-mails. Predictably, many promotions show up in time for yearly events such as Mother's & Father's day.

When it comes to full priced items and typical prints, the shipping costs are going to put your total out of pocket costs higher than a local photo lab (such as Costco). But when you get a batch of free prints or a discount such as a free 8x8 photo book, your total costs come in at a more competitive price with the local lab and may actually total in a little less expensive (and you don't have to go pick them up).

Shutterfly is definitely worth a look when your looking for photo prints or other projects. Sure there may be some downsides to an on-line, non local outfit, but overall it is not a bad option.

Blessings,


Jesse

Converting an Image to Black and White with Darktable

When converting an image to black and white, there are different ways to go about it with different programs. From a basic desaturate command to a more involved process where you are manipulating multiple channels to adjust the final look. In this post we will be exploring two different ways to convert an image to black and white with Darktable.

First step after importing our image into Darktable is to make our adjustments as if we were developing the image in color (noise reduction, white balance etc...) Below is a screen shot of my initial development and and the adjustments used (sharpen and base curve are automatically applied upon import).

Imported and Developed as if for a color image final

Next, we will use the monochrome module in Darktable to do our first conversion. For this module, simply drag the circle around the color pallet until you have the desired look. You can also make the target circle smaller or larger (using the mouse wheel or two finger scrolling on a laptop track pad) which will change the final look of the image. Below is my screen shot of my monochrome conversion with this module (I had shrunk the circle slightly and moved it away from center).

Monochrome module settings

Now for the channel mixer module, which is my preference and that in my opinion,  is the option with the best results.  With the channel mixer selected, we will choose gray as the destination and then simply adjust the three (red, green & blue) channels till we have our desired results. In the screen shot below, you can see the values for my adjustments.

Channel Mixer module settings

Now that we have gone through the steps taken, below I have the resulting images for viewing and comparison. First the photo converted using the monochrome module followed by the channel mixer module.

Monochrome Module conversion

Channel Mixer Conversion

Your thoughts? Do you have a favorite way to convert to black and white or other methods that have great results not discussed here?


Blessings,

Jesse

He is Risen!

Spring is the time of new life, and with today being Easter Sunday we get to celebrate the Eternal New Life God has given us through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you do not know Him, may His Grace find you this during this Easter Celebration. And if you do know Him, may his love and grace be ever more present in your life today and always.

Blessings,

Jesse

The Downtown Burlington Artwalk 2014

Spring is officially under way and April is upon us and in the Skagit Valley April means the annual Tulip Festival. The Festival includes many art exhibits in the mix of official events for the month. This year for the Downtown Burlington Art Walk, I will have two of my photos framed and displayed at the Spruced-Up Thrift Shop for the duration of this festival as a participant in this year's event.

I entered two, an 11x14 print of my Honeybee and Hibiscus Flower photo and a cropped 8x10 of one of the photos I took of a Northern Goshawk. The Hawk photo won an Honorable Mention award in the photography category for the juried contest portion of the Art Walk.

If you are around Downtown Burlington during the month of April, you'll have to stop by and see my photos. They'll be placed on Tuesday by the end of the day and ready for viewing.

Blessings,

Jesse

Photos of Local Trumpeter Swans

Here in the Skagit Valley we are blessed to have large groups of Trumpeter Swans that winter in the fields every year. These beautiful birds are the largest of waterfowl and typically range between 54 and 65 inches in length. Living in the valley, I am blessed to see the wintering swans in local fields on any given drive away from home. Most of the time I don't have my camera, but one day fairly recently my lovely bride gave me a call to let me know the Swans were in a field close by and could make a good photo opportunity.  The two photos below are my favorites of the few I took on a quick photo trip.

Trumpeter Swan Stretching His Wings

A Group of Trumpeter Swans

I still want to get some more photos of the birds before they leave the valley for the season, especially a few photos of them coming in for a landing - or even taking off.

Blessings,

Jesse

ISO and Exposure

Of the three components of exposure (Shutter Speed, Aperture & ISO), ISO is the one that feels the most ambiguous. Shutter Speed is the easiest to understand: how long the shutter is actually open. And even though the math used to figure out the f number to describe the aperture is beyond most of us, the concept of smaller number equals a bigger opening and double the amount of light let in makes enough sense to grasp.

ISO on the other hand describes how sensitive the camera's sensor is to the light that it is exposed to. Uh, say what? With no other real explanation of how this works we are simply left with the information that each value doubles (higher value) or halves (lower value) the sensitivity.

So to get a good visual of how the ISO setting effects the final image, I set my camera on manual (after meeting on Program AE) and took a series of photos at the same Shutter Speed/Aperture combination and simply changed the ISO after each shot. I had originally metered the scene @ ISO 400 so there was room on either side to see the differences. Below is a composite with all six of the images (sized down to fit in one image) set in two rows to see how the exposure changes with just the ISO being different.

1/5 second @ f/8

Looking back, I wish I would have taken one more on ISO 6400 to see the difference next to  ISO 3200. But with the ISO 3200 image already starting to overexpose I decided not too.

Blessings,

Jesse