Panasonic FZ200 Image Thread

[grebeman]

Ferry from France

These two shots show my fast becoming favourite local location, Mount Batten Pier on the east side of Plymouth Sound, with in the background the flagship of Brittany Ferries, Pont Aven, with a 16:00 hour arrival from Roscoff in Brittany. It's due to sail at 22:00 hours this evening (about 30 minutes time) for Santander in northern Spain.

The second shot shows it beginning to swing round so that it can go astern (reverse for you land lubbers ) into the ferry terminal at Millbay.

Barrie

 

[Jock Elliott]

These two shots show my fast becoming favourite local location, Mount Batten Pier on the east side of Plymouth Sound, with in the background the flagship of Brittany Ferries, Pont Aven, with a 16:00 hour arrival from Roscoff in Brittany. It's due to sail at 22:00 hours this evening (about 30 minutes time) for Santander in northern Spain.

The second shot shows it beginning to swing round so that it can go astern (reverse for you land lubbers ) into the ferry terminal at Millbay.

Barrie

I particularly like the top one. The contrast between the rocks in the foreground and the sky at the top, and, of course, the leading line of the jetty.

Cheers, Jock

 

[grebeman]

Mackerel sky

I will be the first to admit that my DP1M would have done a much better job at capturing this wonderful mackerel sky that suddenly formed yesterday afternoon after the clearance of some torrential morning rain, however it wasn't to be since I didn't have it with me. At least the FZ200 has preserved some of the impression of the afternoon, a sudden brilliant period of sunshine with considerable glare off the water and this fantastic cloud formation. Also being able to run the raw file through photo ninja has enabled me to recover some of the otherwise blown highlights and to correct the vertical perspective which had counter leaning verticals with a wide angle shot being taken with the camera pointing up to some extent, so a case of better something than nothing.

Barrie

 

[Jock Elliott]

Barrie, I think you have put your finger on something really important . . .

During my film days of many years ago one of the over riding considerations in my images was image quality, hence my favourite cameras were 120 roll film types capable of shooting 8 on 120 sized negatives.

The FZ200 will never compete on image quality with the results that could be obtained with such cameras, and they needn't have been expensive, top of the range models, my first was an old folding roll film Voigtlander Bessa 1.

However I can't help wondering if image quality is the be all and end all when it comes to judging a photograph. The subject, the emotion generated by the image, the artistic merits of the image and indeed the wow factor all play a part. Also photography is an art form, and above all it's subjective.

To that end I think that the FZ200 with it's at times slightly noisy files is capable of producing moody black and white images, particularly in the weather conditions I'm currently experiencing in my area of the UK. Couple that with it's relatively small size and the fact that beyond a spare battery you don't need to be carrying any other equipment it can comfortably accompany your outings that aren't being made purely for photographic purposes enabling a capture of unexpected opportunities to be made resulting of a record of the event, even if it has some technical shortcomings.

Barrie

In particular: "However I can't help wondering if image quality is the be all and end all when it comes to judging a photograph. The subject, the emotion generated by the image, the artistic merits of the image and indeed the wow factor all play a part. "

Darn right. Think of all the impactful news shots that, while having perhaps technical flaws, changed the way we saw the world.

I put together a small free book that combines my Christian faith with my love for sky photography. (It can be downloaded here: Airguns of Arizona Blog » About Jock Elliott ). At the end of it, I said the following as an encouragement to other wannabe sky photographers:

1. Take a camera with you everywhere.
2. Remember, the best camera is the one you have with you.
3. Take the picture that moves you.

I would rather see a "technically challenged" photo that moves me than a technically perfect picture that leaves me cold.

Having said that, it's always nice to see a photo that grabs me inside and has great technical merit. Still, I am NOT going to take a full frame DSLR and a trunk full of lenses everywhere . . .

Cheers, Jock

 

[grebeman]

Spoonbill

Cross posted from the bird thread.

FZ200


Barrie

 

[bartjeej]

Borrowed my father's FZ200 on our annual trip to the Le Mans 24 Hour race. This is one of the few angles that gives an idea of the forested environment while still being legally accessible (gendarmes don't seem to like people strolling through the forest up to the racetrack). However, it does require good reach (600mm equivalent: check!) and a fast shutter speed (I'm at 1/800 here, and the cars - doing near 300kph at this point - are just about sharp). Thanks to the FZ200's remarkable lens, using full tele and a very fast shutter speed, I still only need to use ISO 250!

I've known about this spot for a few years now, but never had the equipment to get away with a decent shot. Oh, since you can't really see the cars coming through the forest untill they're about 5m from this gap in the trees (you need to guesstimate their position by the sound), the 12fps continuous shooting comes in VERY handy, too!

Le Mans 2013 - Corvette 60th anniversary by bartjeej, on Flickr

Le Mans 2013 - Audi R18 #2 by bartjeej, on Flickr

 

[Jock Elliott]

Borrowed my father's FZ200 on our annual trip to the Le Mans 24 Hour race. This is one of the few angles that gives an idea of the forested environment while still being legally accessible (gendarmes don't seem to like people strolling through the forest up to the racetrack). However, it does require good reach (600mm equivalent: check!) and a fast shutter speed (I'm at 1/800 here, and the cars - doing near 300kph at this point - are just about sharp). Thanks to the FZ200's remarkable lens, using full tele and a very fast shutter speed, I still only need to use ISO 250!

I've known about this spot for a few years now, but never had the equipment to get away with a decent shot. Oh, since you can't really see the cars coming through the forest untill they're about 5m from this gap in the trees (you need to guesstimate their position by the sound), the 12fps continuous shooting comes in VERY handy, too!

Le Mans 2013 - Corvette 60th anniversary by bartjeej, on Flickr

Le Mans 2013 - Audi R18 #2 by bartjeej, on Flickr

Nice shots. Just this AM I was writing a note to the editor of Outdoor Photographer chiding them for their lack of coverage of superzoom cameras, arguably among the most versatile cameras on the planet. I'll call you as a witness for the defense.

Cheers, Jock

 

[pniev]

Really cool, bart.
It does not only require adrenaline to drive these cars but also to make the shot at the right moment.
Beautiful.
Peter

 

[grebeman]

Discharging the cargo

FZ200


Barrie

 

[Jock Elliott]

FZ200


Barrie

That is a striking image. Did you do any post-processing to it?

Cheers, Jock

 

[grebeman]

Jock, in Silver Epex Pro 2 I've amplified the blacks and whites which has given more emphasis to the clouds, the sky was not quite this dramatic in real life, although there was a relatively dark and threatening layer of cloud above a much whiter layer. It's the type of artistic license that I feel is acceptable in black and white rendition.

Barrie

 

[Jock Elliott]

Jock, in Silver Epex Pro 2 I've amplified the blacks and whites which has given more emphasis to the clouds, the sky was not quite this dramatic in real life, although there was a relatively dark and threatening layer of cloud above a much whiter layer. It's the type of artistic license that I feel is acceptable in black and white rendition.

Barrie

Is Silver Epex Pro 2 a standalone application or does it run as a module in something?

I sure do like the results.

Cheers, Jock

 

[grebeman]

Jock, Silver Efex is normally used as a plug in in some other photo editor such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom or Aperture. In Photoshop for example SEP is opened by using the filter drop down menu where it appears at the bottom. Following manipulation in SEP the save action adds a layer to the tiff image back in Photoshop.

I have found that it can also be added as an external photo editor in After Shot Pro which I use to process my raw files, in that instance the save action adds a new tiff file with the file sufffix -edit. I have no experience with other photo editors that offer to save to an external editor.

I also have a desktop shortcut to SEP and if you drag a tiff file to it it will open that file and following manipulation the save action writes back to the original tiff file, so in effect it can operate stand alone, although that's not how it's really designed to be used, and as far as I can tell the only way to use SEP stand alone is to drag a tiff file to the shortcut, if you open SEP like a normal application there is then no way within its menu to open a file.

Barrie

 

[grebeman]

Plymouth Sound, in colour and black and white

I thought I'd post the same shot twice, one in colour and then a black and white version run through Silver Efex Pro 2 with adjustments to the "Amplify Black" and "Amplify White" sliders and then an adjustment to "Soft Contrast" to produce a more dramatic treatment in the black and white version, but hopefully still retaining the rather soft early morning light of the actual scene. In both instances the image has been sharpened in Photoshop using Lab mode, deselecting the a and b channels in the channels palette with the sharpening applied to the lightness channel only using unsharp mask, Amount 50%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 0, these settings being applied three times in succession, then the image is converted back to RGB or greyscale as appropriate.

Barrie

 

[Jock Elliott]

I thought I'd post the same shot twice, one in colour and then a black and white version run through Silver Efex Pro 2 with adjustments to the "Amplify Black" and "Amplify White" sliders and then an adjustment to "Soft Contrast" to produce a more dramatic treatment in the black and white version, but hopefully still retaining the rather soft early morning light of the actual scene. In both instances the image has been sharpened in Photoshop using Lab mode, deselecting the a and b channels in the channels palette with the sharpening applied to the lightness channel only using unsharp mask, Amount 50%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 0, these settings being applied three times in succession, then the image is converted back to RGB or greyscale as appropriate.

Barrie

Waaaay cool! (And the heck of it is, I like them both.)

Cheers, Jock

 

[Ripleysbaby]

P1000824 by sucofni, on Flickr

 

[grebeman]

Some from a recent Plymouth walk round

A corner of the Royal Navy War Memorial

Francis Drake gazing south over Plymouth Sound (looking out for the Spanish fleet?)

Smeaton's Tower, the top two thirds of the third Eddystone lighthouse re-erected on Plymouth Hoe as a memorial to John Smeaton, the designer

Modern sculpture on Plymouth Barbican near the Mayflower steps


Barrie

 

[Jock Elliott]

And now for two things completely different . . .

Fall foliage at Prospect Park.

Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Sunrise just outside my front door.

Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Cheers, Jock

 

[kyteflyer]

Barrie

Oh Barrie I just love this version! Moody, dramatic, its got the goods!

 

[G'kar]

I put together a small free book that combines my Christian faith with my love for sky photography. (It can be downloaded here: Airguns of Arizona Blog » About Jock Elliott ). At the end of it, I said the following as an encouragement to other wannabe sky photographers:

1. Take a camera with you everywhere.
2. Remember, the best camera is the one you have with you.
3. Take the picture that moves you.

I would rather see a "technically challenged" photo that moves me than a technically perfect picture that leaves me cold.

Having said that, it's always nice to see a photo that grabs me inside and has great technical merit. Still, I am NOT going to take a full frame DSLR and a trunk full of lenses everywhere . . .

Cheers, Jock

Thank you for sharing the link. I share the same faith as you.

Cheers, Richard