Enticing the Light » Reviews

Review – Ricoh GXR + 28mm f/2.5 and 50mm f/2.5 Modules

Miserere — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:00:27 +0000

by Miserere

Back in November 2009 Ricoh introduced the GXR modular camera system, in which lenses and sensors come in a single block (module, but called “lensor” by Thom Hogan) and the body is a separate entity, as is the viewfinder, either optical or electronic. I predicted back then it would flop given the prices for each of the pieces. Well it hasn’t flopped, and it hasn’t surged, it’s just kept going quietly along, marching to the beat of its own drum.

Maybe because of my pessimism, or maybe due to greater sins, Amin Sabet, head honcho at SeriousCompacts.com, allowed me to review the GXR with the two APS-C modules currently available. Click through the link to read the review, and if you enjoy compact cameras, open an account and join the conversation.

Good light and good luck,

—Miserere

Image courtesy of B&H Photo.

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Review – Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best Exhibit (on TOP)

Miserere — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:23:13 +0000

by Miserere

If you wish to read my review of Elliott Erwitt’s exhibit at the International Center of Photography in NYC you can do so on Mike Johnston’s The Online Photographer:

The Elliott Erwitt ICP Show in New York

Good light and good luck,

—Miserere

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Review – Golden Nuggets from Zack Arias at creativeLIVE

Miserere — Wed, 11 May 2011 01:22:43 +0000

by Jeremy Corbin

As some of you may already know, I was privileged enough to be a live audience member for Zack Arias’s creativeLIVE event Foundations of a Working Photographer, which took place in Seattle during April 29^th – May 1^st. Last year Zack taught the very popular Studio Lighting with Zack Arias, so when he put his ear out to the web to find out what photographers wanted to learn this time, and received an overwhelming number of questions about Pricing and Client Relations, he knew exactly what his theme would be for this creativeLIVE event. Instead of having a 3-day class about pricing and how to get an agent, he talked about the REAL business of being a working photographer. That real business is what happens when you press the shutter button.

You see, without being able to technically operate your equipment, you have no hope of being able to please a client. Without being able to please a client, how can you charge them any money? Without charging the client money, how can you get an agent to represent your work to get more clients? Zack knew that these questions needed to be answered, but in the right order. As you get better at the technical part of photography your clients will place a higher demand on your work, and that will make agents want to jump in to help you get the ball rolling even faster. It’s all about gaining momentum, but that ball must start rolling with your own energy before anyone else will even notice that it’s moving. There were many areas that I recognized I need to work on in order to make that ball roll fast enough for people to notice, but the biggest three are what I’ve chosen to write about today.

Jeremy shoots a portrait to Zack's specifications. He had less than 5 minutes to get what Zack wanted. (Screen grab from creativeLIVE feed.)

Know the limits of your gear

Most of us (okay, all of us) lust after the next piece of gear before we fully realize the potential of the gear we already own. Some of us want that new 500MP body that just came out when we aren’t even making prints or cropping heavily. We even lust after lenses that we only use during one season, or even one event per year. We dream of a body that makes clean shots at ISO 25,600 when we never shoot in the low light conditions of a bear’s cave in the Yukon in December.

How do we get to know our gear? We test it. I know, it’s not the sexiest thing to say, but really: Body tests, lens tests, and gear tests in general can push the limits of our gear the best. I’m not talking about some website with numbers, figures, and pie charts, I’m talking about putting yourself in common and uncommon situations that you shoot in and just SHOOT. Look at your color calibrated monitor when you get home. Look at your prints. Did your lens not focus correctly? Did your ISO have to be bumped because you couldn’t shoot at 1/15th and now there is too much noise across the frame? Did you have to shoot outside and didn’t have enough power on your flash to overpower the sun? These are all real scenarios that we can find ourselves in while trying to serve our clients. If we don’t put our gear in those situations, we’d never know what they can handle. If you need to light your subject outside, you might need a more powerful strobe. If your lens doesn’t focus when you need it to, you might need a lens that is better in low light. If you have so much noise in your frame you can’t deliver a clean file, you need to look at a body better suited for that task.

One area that I struggle with is focus. Why? I only own one Auto Focus lens. Every other lens I have is manual focus; I have my only focus point in the center and I’ve been making sacrifices in my compositions to compensate. Focus-Recompose can change focus at f/2. I need to pony up the money for an AF lens in order to use the other AF points so that my compositions aren’t suffering.

Zack gives his students the low-down (literally) on being a professional photographer.

Networking

One area that I know that I lack in is networking. I don’t attend local networking events in attempt to find new clients and new avenues of business. Why? I’m introverted. I know that about myself, and I have to work really hard to run out and meet people. I struggle with introducing myself as a photographer. I don’t meet someone new and say, “Hey, my name is Jeremy and I’m a photographer.” I have a real problem doing it. Somehow, deep inside, it feels like I’m committing a crime by this shameless act of self promotion. It could be that the person I’m introducing myself to is another photographer and I’m worried about being judged. What I learned at creativeLIVE is that professional photographers don’t shun other photographers. Beginner level photographers do that. We might be in the same industry, but the chances are good our style is entirely different. We might even be in the same neighborhood in the same price bracket, but if our styles differ it means a completely different kind of clientele. The honest-to-God truth is that there is room for everyone: I simply can’t shoot 300 headshots, 25 editorial spreads, 15 portfolios, 10 weddings, and 5 boudoir sessions a year, nor would I want to. I’d like to take a vacation someday, and that means I’m not available for everything.

Zack sits in front of his selected works before the portfolio building segment.

Critique

This area hit me the hardest. Without the thoughtful critique of our work it’s impossible to grow as a photographer. Zack and Meghan Arias were the first people that I asked for feedback on my work that sat down and gave me their time. Before the critique, I honestly felt that I was on my way to being a pro. I knew that a multitude of photographers were ahead of me on this path, but that I was ahead of many others as well. Zack let me know, in front of tens of thousands, that I need a lot of help with my work. I have taken a few photos that are pretty interesting, but for the most part, I need to start over at the beginning. Without sitting down and hearing his honest commentary about my work I wouldn’t have seen my work through someone else’s TRAINED eyes. That training is important. Flickr is not a place for critique; it’s a place for glad-handling. My wife is not a good option for critique; she isn’t trained and probably loves me too much to tell me I suck as a photographer. Forums can be good or bad for critique. Zack is trained, and Meghan doesn’t know me from Adam. They unleashed on me, and I’ll be honest with you: It really hurt. My work wasn’t interpreted the way I intended when I pressed the shutter, which means I didn’t communicate my thoughts correctly. That is a huge problem. I must now review my notes from the critique (with tear drops and shaken handwriting included) and go back to the drawing board to work on my vision with a better understanding of what I want to achieve.

With that in mind, I told Zack Arias and Chase Jarvis (who popped in from time to time) that this time next year I would be mailing them my book with a fat, red marker included. The title of the book will be,”Did I take a step forward this year?” and I’ll have them unleash on my photos. I want to get better, and that means that I need to put my work out there. They’re looking to get better too, and they put their work in front of people up the food chain as well. We’re all trying to be better photographers.

Zack works with Daphne Chan during Student Testing on Sunday Morning.

A final word

I told Zack that I had been shooting since I was 15 years old. He said that experience didn’t mean anything because you don’t begin to become a photographer until you put yourself out there to try to make a life from it, and even then, it will take TEN YEARS to become a photographer. Zack has been laying the hammer down for nearly ten years (on this attempt) and he just now feels that he has become a photographer. Before you hang your sign outside that you’re a photographer, you’re at Level Zero regardless of the number of years behind it. Before you get a serious critique on your work, you stay there. You think you’re growing and learning, but getting a serious critique on your work is like growing pains when you’re a kid: They hurt, but you have to get through them to be an adult. The ultimate fountain of youth must be never being critiqued on your work. I urge you to go out and get some feedback on your work from your peers, from those with less experience, and ultimately those with much greater experience in photography than you.

Zack congratulates Jeremy on a job well done. (Screen grab from creativeLIVE feed.)

Jeremy Corbin is a portrait photographer based in Denver, CO. Telling stories through blending photos with music, dance, and other artworks is one of his greatest aspirations. Follow him on his blog.

All images: ©Jeremy Corbin, unless otherwise noted.

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Ian Wilkinson Reviews the Fuji X100, Part 2: Real World Use Shooting Children

Miserere — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:22:43 +0000

Fuji X100, f/4, 1/150s, ISO 200.

by Ian Wilkinson

Editors’ Note: Ian Wilkinson, a wedding photographer from Brisbane, posted his first impressions of the Fuji X100 in part 1 of this review series on EtL: Real World Use Shooting a Wedding.

Further Thoughts on the Fuji X100

Having used my new X100 for a few more days and on various different occasions I have some more things to say about it. Once focus is achieved there isn’t any shutter lag. I spent quite a bit of the day in manual focus but used the AE/FL button to make it AF temporarily then took my finger off the AE/FL button leaving the lens focussed on the subject and the camera ready to fire with pretty much no lag.

ISO 800 prints superbly, there’s no sharpening here at all but I did apply a little sharpening to the A4 print I made.

I took the camera to my daughter’s friend’s birthday party and it makes me very sad to say the AF struggles with moving kids. I’d say the success rate at f/2.8 was less than 50%, maybe even 30%. I tried a mixture of single shot and continuous drive, and whilst continuous does do continuous AF to a degree, you would never use this camera to track a bride and groom moving down the aisle. I’m sure you get the occasional shot in focus but other than using zone focusing there are going to be times on a wedding this camera isn’t going to cut it. Shooting at f/5.6 was enough to noticeably increase the success rate.

Focus is not slower than the Panasonic GF1, it just doesn’t seem to be able to bite on moving subjects. I had the GF1 for a year and the AF was pretty darn cool on that camera, probably a bit more snap to it but it’s not faster. The X100 AF is just a little more wishy-washy.

Shooting Children with the Fuji X100

Fuji X100, f/2, 1/60s, ISO 6400.

Fuji X100 100% crop.

I thought I’d see how the files held up when not treated so well. Above is a tungsten lit shot (plasma TV screen), 1/20s, f/2 at ISO 6400, so you can tell it’s pretty dark. I shot it at 1/60s (to purposely underexpose it to see what happened) and used Silky Pix to push the exposure to the equivalent of 1/20s, then converted to B&W using Jeff Ascough’s ISO 800 B&W action and then used a basic action of mine at about 60% to add a little tone. That action does include a bit of sharpening with the high pass filter which doesn’t like reproducing in small pics, but I’m too lazy to do it manually; sorry! So what you see here is a worst case scenario, and there isn’t any noise reduction done. I could live with this for family stuff, but wouldn’t be impressed if I had to use it in a client’s wedding album though! But I’m sure I could reduce the banding somewhat if I had to, and the high pass filter has definitely hurt a bit, so if you really tried I think you could do better, but I haven’t tried. I just thought some of you may also like to see what happens when it’s pushed. 1/55s at f/2.8 ISO 800, looks like there’s a little movement but still looks pretty good. I’m a bit dodgy with the rangefinder as you can see by my composition.

My daughter’s friend McKenzie was sitting with the sun on her back blowing gum bubbles so I thought “let’s see how the X100 handles the tonal range here” (see photo at the top of the article). I chose ISO 200, and it’s the first time I’ve shot it below ISO 400. How sharp is this lens, hey! The shutter speed was only 1/80s so there could be a bit of movement in there, but it looks fabulous, looks just like it was shot on a DSLR. Check out that 100% crop above-right, with no sharpening yet!

Fuji X100, f/2.8, 1/1000s, ISO 200, strobbed.

My daughter was jumping on the trampoline after a swim so I raced inside, grabbed the Quadra strobes and the skyport and took a few quick shots. The power for the lights is up a little high and clearly overpowering the ambient, but it shows how the camera fires studio flash at 1/1000s, even through a wireless skyport. My Nikon D3s can’t do that—I am loving this little camera!

Can you believe a parent at my son’s school (that knows I’m a photographer) saw me this afternoon with the X100 and asked if I was going back to film again?

The Fuji X100 is currently available for order or preorder at the following EtL affiliate stores:

Purchasing through any of the above links will garner EtL a small commission at no extra cost to you.

You can visit Ian on the web at his blog and his web site. Ian lives in Brisbane, Australia, and has been shooting weddings for 23 years now; he has picked up more than 60 national and international awards in the last 5 years alone. He enjoys the photojournalistic style of wedding photography, and strikes a refreshing balance between timeless imagery, the romance, the family values and traditions, and the fun and integral events of the day. He just loves people-watching and photography. As he says: What better way to live those two passions than wedding photography?

All images: ©Ian Wilkinson.

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The Best Retirement Gift Ever: Julian Evans Reviews the Fuji X100

Miserere — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:00:39 +0000

Fuji X100 in macro mode, f/2.8, 1/150s, ISO 200. Shot in RAW, converted with Silkypix to TIFF then processed in Photoshop CS3 to JPEG.

by Julian Evans

Editors’ Note: Julian Evans recently retired from commercial photography to concentrate on his graphic design business. He is one of the first people in the United Kingdom to have received the Fuji X100. Read on to find out what he thinks of it.

Introduction

My hands were shaking as I carefully removed the outer garments. There it was: The slinky, shiny, jet black box. Once inside I ran my fingers across the ruffled silk. My heart raced, beating against the inside of my chest like Keith Moon in a frenzy. Finally I touched it…a choir of angels sang out in celestial rapture as the….er, wait a minute. It’s just a camera, right?

Actually, I have to be honest here. That moment when I opened the box was sexual. In fact I’m really glad I was on my own at the time. When you were a kid, the best presents were always the little heavy ones. They felt exciting, mysterious, expensive. The X100 is just like that. Yes, the silk is a bit tacky (is it actually silk…? Naah) and the box is pretty non-functional, it’s just designed to impress. However, when you first see the camera you can tell it’s going to become a friend. You pick it up, all the controls feel familiar, tactile, positive and responsive. Yes, my first impression was a good one. Fuji have created something very lovely indeed.

Fuji X100, f/2, 1/75s, ISO 200. JPEG.

Over the years I’ve owned many cameras, by Nikon, Canon, Fuji (two of those), Olympus, Contax, Rollei etc. When I decided to get out of commercial photography I thought I would sell everything and invest in one, small, go-anywhere camera. Something that didn’t need a vehicle of its own to be transported around; that was well built and delivered superb images with a minimum of fuss. I figured a Leica M9 was going to be my choice. However, I’m English—we’re tight. I have seven kids to look after and I don’t have thousands to spend on what is destined to be a retirement camera.

Fuji X100, f/2.8, 1/150s, ISO 200. JPEG.

After fiscal reality had set in I started to look carefully at the Leica X1 instead, but somehow I never actually added one to my shopping cart. The images are great but there’s no viewfinder, it doesn’t feel like a real Leica and I get the feeling that, despite an early toe in the digital water with the M8, Leica are making a cheapo M9 look-a-like simply to keep aspiring Leica folk from going elsewhere.

I’d sort of given up when, at Photokina in September 2010, Fuji announced the X100. Initial reports were very favourable and some great looking images with pre-production units started to appear on the net. I was smitten early on…and look at the name of it… The X100; a curious designation, so close to ‘X1′ that people like me were left in no doubt that this new camera was aimed at potential, low end Leica buyers. Fuji is managing the trick of naming its direct competitor and attracting customers away from it by adding the things that are missing from the X1: The hybrid viewfinder, better LCD, movie recording (even if it’s only 720p video), f/2 lens, ND filter, excellent ISO performance, etc.

After several months of waiting I am now in possession of an X100. And here are a few observations of how the camera handles in real situations, how easy or difficult it is to get the right exposure, to focus and take shots that turn out the way you see them in your head.

The Beginning

I charged up the battery, read as much of the owner manual as my brain could take in, squeezed the camera into its leather bondage outfit (yes, I fell for the complete package deal) and headed off down the half mile track that leads to chez Jules.

It’s springtime in the UK and there are lambs leaping about, kicking each other in the teeth and generally having a good time of things. There’s a lot to have a go at with my new toy. I set the aperture and shutter speed dials to A and A… the P (Program) appears in the viewfinder, I’m totally ‘auto’. Let’s see what it can do.

Fuji X100, f/3.6, 1/210s, ISO 200, EV +0.7. JPEG.

It’s not many shots before I discover one of the very best things about the X100: The exposure compensation dial. If the shadows look too dark or the highlights look too bight I simply move the exposure compensation dial with my thumb to see the resulting change in shadow/highlight density on the screen or through the viewfinder…and without taking my eye away from the shot. The EV comp. dial is in the right place and it’s extremely easy to use. What’s more, the values are displayed in the viewfinder as you change them. I love this dial!

Then I discover the macro setting. Using the command dial, click to the left to get to macro. Select it, focus, take the image, then it reverts back to normal shooting mode. Wonderful! And if you’re taking a picture with macro on and move away to focus on something more distant, it refocuses as normal and then, after taking the picture, reverts to macro for the next shot.

Focusing is quick and easy, though the lens does sometimes hunt. This is easily worked around and I’ve had lenses that cost more than this camera that do the same thing. Manual focus is slow. It takes a good few turns to get what you want, although this is helped by pressing the command control, which enlarges the focus area and puts a handy distance scale in the viewfinder.

The fully auto settings are very accurate and, with the exposure compensation dial, most general shots require nothing else. However, to get the lovely bokeh and shallow depth of field you will need to open the lens up to f/2. Turn the aperture ring to to f/2, leave the shutter dial at ‘A’ and the camera changes to Av (aperture priority), displaying the shutter speed in the viewfinder. Tv (shutter priority) is just as easy to achieve.

Fuji X100, f/3.2, 1/180s, ISO 200. JPEG converted to B&W in Photoshop CS3.

The Ending

All in all the camera is very easy to use. But for those that like fiddling, there’s a great deal of fiddling that can be done with it: Film type simulation, B&W, neutral density filter, white balance etc. The menus are easy to navigate and all the buttons and dials are positive, extremely well made and assembled and you get the feeling that designers of this camera didn’t compromise in any way.

The quality of the images from the lens/sensor combination is wonderful for a camera of this type. They’re easily as good as images from the Leica X1 and I truly believe that it’s this quality that will ultimately sell the camera in shedloads. It’s two thirds of the price, it has better features, it’s easier to use, and is easily lost in the crowd…which can be very useful indeed in the right circumstances.

Fuji X100, f/5, 1/320s, ISO 200. JPEG.

My only gripe so far is with the size of the ‘OK’ button in the middle of the command dial. It’s too small for me. Pressing it with my thumb just doesn’t work, I have to purposely use a fingertip. However, this is no biggie and I’ll get used to it.

The X100 is a great walkabout camera and, once you’ve found your way around the layout, the settings are simple to manipulate and it’s easy to get the image you’re after. So long as the build quality holds up, I can see myself using this camera for many years to come. And what’s most important for me is that I will enjoy using it. It’s light, uncomplicated and delivers wonderful results.

Thank you, Fuji!

The Fuji X100 is currently available for order or preorder at the following EtL affiliate stores:

Purchasing through any of the above links will garner EtL a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Born in Birmingham, UK, Julian “Jules” Evans attended Shrewsbury School of Art and obtained a BA Honours Degree in Graphic Design from Coventry in the 70′s. He started shooting weddings and parties as a way of supplementing income at college, eventually going into freelance design and photography; he worked mainly in the agricultural and arts sectors (a weird mixture, he agrees, but that’s just the way it happened). He lives in Shropshire, UK, with his partner Steph, and the 7 children they have between them, not to mention chickens, ducks and cats. Jules’s first serious camera was a Pentax K1000; he has shot with Olympus OM, Contax, Rollei, Ricoh, Nikon (film and digital) and Canon digital. The Fuji X100 is his latest purchase, bought as a self-present as he leaves commercial photography to focus on his graphic design business. You can view some of his stock photography here.

All images: ©Julian Evans.

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

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Ian Wilkinson Reviews the Fuji X100: Real World Use Shooting a Wedding

Peter Zack — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:25:20 +0000

Fuji X100, f/2.8, 1/55s, ISO 800.

by Ian Wilkinson

Editors’ Note: Ian Wilkinson, a wedding photographer from Brisbane, has always been an early adopter of new technology, and is one of the first Australians to have received the much anticipated Fuji X100. Read on to discover Ian’s evaluation—the good, the bad, and his overall view of the latest compact APS-C camera to hit the market.

The Good

I know I’m not alone in my excitement for this little camera. I like traveling light and rarely take a DSLR kit with me to social events or holidays. Hence, I’ve tried numerous compacts, the latest of which was the Panasonic GF1, before that the Panasonic LX3, before that the Canon G10 and G9, and the list goes on. The X100 was definitely going to be next! I picked it up on Thursday, so luckily I had a day to give it a bit of a whirl before taking it along to a wedding I was shooting. First thoughts were that it was smaller and lighter than I expected, so that’s a good thing! It really is a great looking camera; even if it were no better than my GF1 I would love it for the build quality and looks alone. I guess a few of you will be disappointed with that, but that’s life.

Today’s wedding was unfortunately very wet and wasn’t going to be anything like a typical wedding for me. When they moved the start time an hour later I pretty much wrote off being able to use the X100 at all. The ceremony was dark, and the reception very, very dark—1/30s, f/2.8 at ISO 6400 kind of dark, with low lights! There’s was no real formal shoot after the ceremony to speak of so I can’t show you anything of that kind; maybe next week’s wedding. As I was shooting a real wedding my priority had to be to the wedding itself, and just work the X100 in where I could, shooting it along side my Nikon D3s when I had an opportunity.

The first shot certainly made an impression, it sure is quiet—I tried silent mode but went back to normal mode and it’s still super quiet. As the day progressed, the more I used it the more I liked it. Seeing the action while you shoot is brilliant! I can see why people love their M series Leicas. The viewfinder accuracy is a bit off though, centre the shot in the frame and it will have more space on the bottom and the right side than the viewfinder showed, but I can live with that.

I was very surprised when it fired my Quadra lights at 1/1,000s with perfect results, I’m sure there’ll be users that love that feature.

The image quality is superb, and not just for a compact. I know there are a few people online saying the lens isn’t sharp, but it is; it’s definitely a match for the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8, which we all know is a superb lens. Also the battery life has copped a hammering online with some claiming just 150 shots before you need to recharge it. That’s rubbish, I shot 600 shots today and the battery symbol still says full charge. I reckon that’s pretty good and I expect it to hit at least 1,000 before it packs it in. The battery is still going after the birthday party today where I shot nearly 200 images.The colour is pretty good except skin is too saturated and I haven’t found a way in Silkypix to pull just that back, like I can in LightRoom or ACR. I’m sure once Adobe gets their finger out and supports this camera we’ll be fine.

I also found the AF to be reasonably good in low light, for a compact. The operating speed is pretty fast too. The Nikon D3s wipes it easily, but it’s faster than my Nikon F90 was all those years ago and I shot fine with it then. Unfortunately it was a bit like shooting the 1DmkIII, shoot 5 shots and 3 will be sharp and 2 a little off. It’s hard to tell at ISO 6400 whether there’s a bit of movement or if the image is out of focus. Given the lighting, I was forced to shoot at ISO 6400, which doesn’t help fine detail. I was really pleased to see all the focus points appear to work equally well. I also had no worries firing off multiple shots in quick succession. I hit the buffer a couple of times but I was also trying to—I wanted to see how long it took to write the images; but in normal day to day wedding shooting it will keep up no worries.

Fuji X100, f/2.8, 1/80s, ISO 1600.

The Bad

The centre OK button is too small, I found myself trying to hit OK but moving down a menu option instead; quite annoying really. All the rear buttons around the main dial need to be bigger or spaced further apart. I really wish it had an electronic external release instead of a mechanical one—cute idea, and the mechanical one fits in with the retro theme, but I’d rather have an electronic release. A little crazy thing I noticed is you can put the battery in the wrong way around; it took me a few seconds to work out why it wouldn’t work initially. Last gripe would be the lack of half stops on the aperture ring, full stop changes just doesn’t cut it. It was OK given the latitude of film, but for digital it just adds a little more post work given it’s sometimes impossible to get the correct exposure in-camera. When I read that on a couple of forums I thought they were just whining for whining’s sake, but in the real world it matters. [Ed. note: You can set 1/2 or 1/3 aperture stops using the rear dial-lever.]

The bundled RAW conversion software by Silkypix really sucks, it’s possibly the worst RAW software I’ve ever seen. I’ll probably just convert all my wedding images to B&W using Jeff Ascough’s actions and skip the colour for now; Silky Pix is that bad.

Fuji X100, f/2, 1/60s, ISO 6400.

Here’s an example shot wide open at 1/60s and ISO 6400. Pretty much straight from the camera, but reduced for web publishing. Noise reduction in camera was turned right down, and I’m sure I’ll be reasonably happy with ISO 6400 with just colour noise reduction done in ACR.

The Conclusion

Could you use it at a wedding? For sure—it does most things well, but keep in mind it’s just not as responsive as a DSLR, I did miss a few shots, not from shutter lag but just general day to day use. If there’s a preview on the screen it takes a second or two to go back to camera mode, if the auto power off cuts in it takes a second or two to ready itself as well. I shoot fast—capturing fleeting expressions is my thing and I was surprised I could still do that most of the time. I found the best way was to choose manual focus and use the AE/FL button to focus while in MF mode; that’s a very clever feature Fuji has given us there. Doing this the camera fires instantly. The biggest disappointment so far has been the files don’t have much latitude for post work. I’d guess there is already considerable trickery going on with the files so they don’t like being pushed too far. Some of my favourite Photoshop actions bring out a bit of banding in the ISO 6400 files, so for work where quality matters I’d say ISO 3200 is the limit for this camera. I’d be happy to shoot family stuff at ISO 6400 but if I had to run an image across a full spread in an album, ISO 3200 would be the top end of my comfort zone. This is pretty darn impressive for an APS-C compact; ISO 800 was my limit on the Panasonic GF1.

Checkout my blog in the upcoming days as I should have some more images to show.

Part 2: Real World Use Shooting Children ⇒

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Purchasing through any of the above links will garner EtL a small commission at no extra cost to you.

All images: ©Ian Wilkinson.

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Pier 24 – Another Reason to Visit San Francisco

Peter Zack — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:44:48 +0000

by Peter Zack

Photo Gallery Pier 24 on San Francisco Bay

Located almost at the foot of the Bay Bridge is Pier 24, a privately owned, 28,000 sq.ft. photo gallery. The Pilara Photographic Collection is housed in this renovated waterfront warehouse that was formerly a space used for cargo ships docking in San Francisco. The space has been extensively renovated, retaining its original character and making it perfectly suitable to exhibit the more than 2,000 images from the private collection of Andy Pilara, the site’s owner.

Andy Pilara began collecting photographs in 2003 and has collected images from very early masters, such as Eadweard Muybridge (1830 – 1904), right up to contemporary photographers. The most recent exhibit (Sept 16, 2010 – March 10, 2011) is from the collection of Randi and Bob Fisher which includes works from Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Hilla and Bernd Becher, Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, William Eggleston and others. If the name Fisher sounds familiar, you may know that Mr Fisher is the son of Gap Inc. founder Don Fisher.

An example of some of the 28,000 sq.ft. of display space

The space is unique in a number of ways. From the web site: Born out of the desire to reinvent the ways in which photography and photographic ideas are presented, Pier 24 is a distinctive environment where art has the freedom to be seen and thought about differently. It is large and considered the biggest art space in the United States devoted to only photography. “I have not seen anything like it,” says SFMOMA (San Francisco museum of Modern Art) curator of photography Sandra Phillips, who has seen every major photography repository in the Western world. “There are photography museums, but nothing so spectacular and so personal and so giving to the experience of looking at a photograph. The whole thing is truly unique.”†

It’s open to the public but with several restrictions. You must book online to get an appointment, only 20 people per visit (2 hours) are allowed in and that only after your invitation has been confirmed at the door. The gallery is not in it for the money. There is no admission fee to visit the space and promotion has been very low-key, unlike the blockbuster ‘events’ that happen at other museum and gallery spaces. The photos on exhibit do not have any descriptive information cards and many do not even indicate the artist. The only information available is a photocopied page that indicates the photographers’ names and location of various photos within the space. Gallery hours are also restricted between 10 AM till 5:15 PM, Monday to Thursday.

The idea is to have a quiet space and remove any distractions allowing the viewer to have time to make their own connections or contemplate the works on display. My impression is that you don’t find this gallery by accident, you make it a point of getting in and being there. Given what the gallery has to offer and the limited viewing times available, if you’re going to San Francisco, book your time well in advance.

On a final note, I think the Pier 24 Facebook Page is well worth a visit. They provide information on photography exhibits at numerous venues and have a spot to subscribe to upcoming events on the extended info page.

Cheers and good shooting
-Peter Zack

Footnote:
†SFGate

References:
Art Practical
Pier 24
The Wall Street Journal

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Review – Olympus Pen E-PL1, Part 3: Image Quality & Conclusion

Miserere — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:05:49 +0000

by Miserere

⇐ Part 2: Using the Camera

Note: The camera and accessories tested in this review were loaned to EtL by B&H Photo & Video store. To thank them for their generosity and allow us to receive more products for review, please consider purchasing your camera equipment through our affiliate B&H link (also found on the right sidebar). Thanks!
Further note: The new Olympus E-PL2 is the successor of the camera in this review and is an improvement in many ways. If you read the review and like the E-PL1, you can confidently purchase the E-PL2 knowing it is an even better camera.

As I’ve stated elsewhere, analysing image quality of modern large-sensor digital cameras is mostly useless, hair-splitting drivel. The only clear differences are at high ISO, and even then I doubt many would be able to declare a clear winner if viewing 8×10 or A4 prints from these cameras. With this in mind, let us proceed.

Olympus E-PL1 + 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 42mm, f/11, 1/400s, ISO 200. JPEG.

Low ISO Image Quality

The base ISO of the E-PL1′s sensor is 200 and Olympus recommends you use this ISO as your standard for optimum quality (when ISO 100 is set the image is taken at ISO 200 and pulled down to 100). I disobeyed them and used ISO 100 a lot; I saw no appreciable difference in dynamic range between it and ISO 200.

Images up to ISO 800 are of the best quality when pixel-peeped and lend themselves well to RAW massaging. They are sharp and the colours are vibrant without being garish. Standard settings on ACR are all you need, or simply shoot JPEG directly. A fine example of what I’m saying is the flower image above; it is a JPEG straight from camera with no further adjustments save for some sharpening after size reduction. Bearing in mind the kit lens is being stressed (shot at its longest focal length and closest focusing distance), I find the image quality outstanding. Some more examples below. Note the dynamic range in the tall building shot against a bright blue sky; the Sun, peeping over the building is washed out, but the sky still retains strong colour while the building façade, in shadow, retains plenty of detail.

Olympus E-PL1 + 17mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/1000s, ISO 100. JPEG.	Olympus E-PL1 + 17mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO 100. JPEG.
Olympus E-PL1 + 17mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 320. RAW.	Olympus E-PL1 + 17mm f/2.8 @ f/4, 1/1250, ISO 100. RAW.

High ISO Image Quality

The 4/3 sensor is smaller than APS-C by 40%, a fact that many use to automatically disqualify it from being used at high ISO. In Real Life™, that’s not necessarily the case. The E-PL1 only goes up to ISO 3200, which I suspect is a marketing move to devalue it versus its more expensive siblings, the E-P1 and E-P2, which both reach ISO 6400 (UPDATE: The new E-PL2 now goes up to ISO 6400). I say this because ISO 3200 is eminently usable and I had no hesitation shooting with it when the need arose. Colour saturation was pretty good and chroma noise was very controlled; when present, it appeared as fine speckles, not blotches. Needless to say, B&W conversions at high ISO looked very nice (for those that like the monochrome film look). Even high ISO JPEGs out of camera look good; see below, only sharpening after downsizing has been applied.

Olympus E-PL1 + 17mm f/2.8 @ f/4.5, 1/80s, ISO 2000. JPEG.	Olympus E-PL1 + 17mm f/2.8 @ f/5.6, 1/40s, ISO 3200. JPEG.

I could go on and on and show a gazillion 100% crops, but you can find that elsewhere on the internet if you really want. I’ll just tell you that, in my opinion, high ISO image quality is very good, even with the kit lens. Is there room for improvement? Of course! But high ISO IQ is good enough for most Real World™ uses.

Glorious JPEGs

Olympus cameras have a reputation for producing great JPEGs straight out of the box. I can’t agree more. So much so that I’m giving this topic its own section. I don’t know how Olympus have done it or what gods they’ve sacrificed Zuiko lenses to, but the Oly JPEGs are by far the best looking I’ve seen. No matter what settings you choose, your photos will look fantastic—friends will be stunned into silence, gallery owners will fight over representing you, and yes, you will get the girl…or guy, whatever tickles your fancy. But seriously, this camera could be the one that would convert me to shooting JPEG for colour (B&W is a different beast).

Conclusion

Olympus have built a beautiful-image maker with this E-PL1; if you like shooting JPEGs, you’ll love this camera. It is also a camera that is simple to operate, yet can be customised in hundreds of ways, thus appealing to both the newbie and the experienced shooter. Thanks to its menu system, both will feel at home setting it up. The one drawback to this camera is the lack of external dials (wheels) to change settings, but this has been addressed with the E-PL2, which now has a rotating rear wheel. The E-PL2 also addresses the maximum ISO issue (by now reaching to 6400), which cripples the E-PL1 slightly; 3200 is the maximum ISO of advanced P&Ss nowadays and a large-sensor camera deserves more.

Given the current low price, I would recommend the E-PL1 to photographers owning manual focus legacy lenses. Whatever brand those lenses may be, there is an adapter for them; if you don’t mind the 2x crop factor, using legacy lenses allows you to shoot in Av (using the lens’s aperture ring) and the manual focus aids provided by the E-PL1 are top-notch. You can even get the VF-2 EVF if you hate focusing on the rear LCD. I would also recommend this camera to any neophytes wanting an easy-to-use mirrorless camera that they can set to full auto and just snap away with, knowing they’ll get great looking photos. Having said all the above, I will point out that autofocus with the two lenses I used (kit zoom and superb 17mm f/2.8 pancake) was very good for my needs, so don’t think I’m endorsing manual focus lenses because AF is bad.

Now, if a higher price doesn’t intimidate you, the new E-PL2 takes all the good stuff from the E-PL1 and adds a better LCD, higher ISO and rear control wheel (and a few other things) making it much better value for everyone, and probably pissing off owners of the E-P2.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Compact size (camera plus a couple of lenses can be carried in coat pockets).
Onboard flash can be used for bounce.
Auto ISO available in M mode.
Beautiful JPEGs out of camera.
Surprisingly good kit lens.
Surprisingly good ISO 3200.
Very customisable.
Many options for live view (multiple grids, histogram, shadow/highlight overlay, etc.).
Despite DxO Marks poor score for dynamic range, I find it performs very well in this respect.
Focusing direction of the lens focus ring can be customised (clockwise or counter clockwise).

Cons:

Cannot assign ISO to one of the two customisable buttons.
Auto ISO in M mode not smart enough to compensate overexposure if light gets too bright for ISO 100.
ISO tops at 3200.
No orientation sensor for vertical shots.
No IR/cable remote capability.
Won’t display picture until it’s been moved to the memory card.
No hood for the lens.
Low resolution LCD display.

Niggles:

SD card is difficult to take out because it’s almost flush with the battery/SD-card compartment door.
No AF assist light.
Plasticky body (though it feels solid).

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Review – Pentax K-5, Part 2

Miserere — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:05:51 +0000

by Miserere

⇐ Pentax K-5 Review, Part 1

Note: The camera tested in this review was loaned to EtL by B&H Photo & Video store. To thank them for their generosity and allow us to receive more products for review, please consider purchasing your camera equipment through our affiliate B&H link (also found on the right sidebar). Thanks!

Index

Introduction
Low ISO Image Quality
High ISO Image Quality
Bits and Pieces
Pros and Cons
Conclusion

Introduction

Writing or discussing image quality of digital cameras in 2011 is comparable to discussing how white clouds are on a warm Spring day. You can do it, and it will keep you entertained, but there are much better things you could be doing instead. Like taking photos, for example.

Nevertheless, words must be written and images shown, and far be it from me to deprive the internet of pixels to discuss, so here are some photos showing that, like just about every camera on the market right now, IQ is damn good.

Note: All photos were shot in RAW and processed through ACR 5.7; downsized images have been sharpened for web viewing in Photoshop CS4.

Low ISO Image Quality

100% crop.

Excellent. That’s the top, middle and bottom line. I already discussed in Part 1 the flexibility of the K-5′s RAW files, so I’ll just say that the low readout noise of the Sony sensor provides extremely clean shadows, and its dynamic range allows shooting many high-contrast scenes without wishing for, or resorting to, HDR shenanigans. Thanks to its 16 megapixels, you get plenty of resolution too. Check out my friend the iguana at the top of this article to see what I’m talking about: Both the dynamic range and the resolution are there. In case you’re wondering, it was shot with the Pentax 77mm f/1.8 Ltd at f/5, 1/160s, ISO 80.

This image has plenty of detail in the shadow cast by the iguana’s head while none of the light spikes under its jaw are blown out; that’s the sensor’s dynamic range in action. As for resolution, click on the 100% crop to the right and see for yourself. I didn’t do any special sharpening for the web, it only has my default RAW sharpening in ACR. Note that it was shot at ISO 80, which is available in the ISO expanded range. Despite it being a pulled ISO (meaning the camera actually shoots at its base ISO and then pulls the exposure down, as you might do with the Exposure slider in ACR or Lightroom) I have not seen any loss of quality or dynamic range. Sure, ISO 80 is only 1/3 stop slower than ISO 100, but I’m sure there’s a waterfall photographer somewhere who’s happy about it. And who knows? Maybe we’ll get ISO 50 in the next camera.

Pentax K-5 + Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 at 35mm, f/6.3, 1/80, ISO 640.

100% crop.

Let’s look now at another image (see above), this time shot at ISO 640, which for this camera is still considered low. To the right is a 100% crop (click to enlarge) that shows good resolution, despite the crappy light and low contrast image. Again, no extra sharpening has been applied; had I been planning to use this image on the web, I would have sharpened it a bit to make it look better. I’m happy with how it looks.

As shot: f/5.6, 1/125s, ISO 640.	Adjusted: +1.85 EV, 35 fill light.

The images above show how malleable the K-5 RAW files are. This isn’t an extreme case induced for the sake of testing, like I showed in Part 1, but rather a Real Life™ scenario that could be presented to any photographer, as it was to me. The photo was taken with the subjects in deep shadow and the camera’s multi-meter mode was tricked by the bright backlight, which rendered the subjects darker than I would have wanted (this, by the way, is why I prefer using center-weighted metering). The photo on the left is how the image was exposed by the camera. The photo on the right is what it looks like after I “fixed” it by applying +1.85 exposure, 35 fill light and bringing the blacks down from 5 to 0 in ACR. The result is very good to my eyes, showing no disagreeable noise in the dark areas that have been brought up in exposure. Knowing that you have such an effective safety net takes away much of the anxiety you might feel about not getting the exposure you wanted.

High ISO Image Quality

DxO mark has given the K-5 an impressive score for high ISO performance, ranked as the 2^nd best APS-C sensor in low light after the Nikon D7000. This agrees with my experience using the camera in low light—I found it eminently usable for my needs up to ISO 6400, and I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot up to 25,600 if converting to B&W. Beyond that, IQ degrades quickly, but the images can still be used in a pinch for when a really grainy picture is better than no picture at all. Below are a few examples at various very high ISO values; click to enlarge.

ISO 6400, f/4, 1/200s.	ISO 4000, f/4, 1/160s. ISO 16,000, F/6.3, 1/125s.
ISO 51,200, f/7, 1/800s.	ISO 51,200, 100% crop.

The ISO 16,000 sample isn’t the most artistic, but it’s good enough for you to tell that the chroma noise isn’t rampant while luminance noise is very well controlled; colour saturation is quite good too. At ISO 51,200, chroma noise is rampant and luminance noise is apparent (click on the 100% crop to see what I mean), but nevertheless, the image would be OK for web use, and might even make a passable 8×10 print (if sharpness and saturated colour aren’t required) after some judicious noise removal with the appropriate software. A result like this from an APS-C sensor was unimaginable just 2 years ago, and Sony must be congratulated for their outstanding work.

Bits and Pieces

Here is an assortment of comments that seemed too short to deserve their own section:

Firmware Glitch: Every now and then I’ll press the play button to review an image and nothing will happen, and any other buttons on the rear of the camera will also be unresponsive. Strangely enough, the ISO will be set to “AUTO’, when the camera had previously been in manual ISO. The only ways I’ve found of fixing this is by turning the camera off and on, or using the DoF preview feature (in which case I have to then turn AUTO ISO off). I’d like to hear if this has happened to anyone else or if it’s just my test unit.
Dust Alert: The idea seems good, you select the ‘dust alert’ feature, click on the shutter release and the camera shows you a white image with black specs marking where dust is located; it even saves it as a JPEG that you can open up on your computer to help you clean the sensor. In practice, I found that if I ran it 5 times it gave me 5 different dust distributions. I’ll stick to the trusted ‘shoot a blank sky at small apertures’ method for now.
Slow Processing: It might sound obvious, but it’s worth saying: 16MP images are large, especially when shooting RAW (25MB per file on average), so if you want the camera to be snappy while shooting, invest in a fast card. I found replay of images to be very slow with a Class 6 card.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Small size for an advanced DSLR.
Good ergonomics despite its small size.
Excellent IQ.
Excellent high ISO performance for an APS-C sensor.
Extremely low noise in shadows.
Very malleable RAW files.
Nice viewfinder (for an APS-C camera).
Weather sealing.
Dual-axis electronic level: Tilt (up/down) and Roll (side to side).
5 USER shooting modes.
Quick menu navigation.
In movie mode, aperture control can be set to fixed or automatic.
In movie mode, shake reduction can be set on/off independently of how it’s set for stills shooting.

Cons:

Histogram in live view is not that of the final image when shooting in Manual or using EV comp.
The electronic level turns off when you half-press the shutter release button.
No tilt indicator in the viewfinder, only roll.
High release price of $1,600 in the US (especially when the similarly spec’d Nikon D7000 is $1,200).

Niggles:

Buttons on back are a bit cramped (because you can’t have your cake and eat it).
AF in live view is only average in speed.
Catch-in focus doesn’t work in live view.
SD card is hard to pull out—it’s like the camera doesn’t want to let go of it.
No AF in movie mode.

Conclusion

If you think 4 is a small number of cons for a DSLR, it should tell you something about this camera. Pentax has finally brought out a camera that photographers can trust in many situations, be it low light, birding, hiking, street shooting… The body is exceptionally well built with traditional Pentax ergonomics; it’s comfortable to hold and use. I might be biased because I’m a Pentax shooter (though not of this body type), so bear this in mind when I talk about ergonomics, but I’ve held many cameras and I’m not ashamed to claim Pentax DSLRs are some of the most comfortable.

I started talking about ergonomics because the camera works so well one has the luxury of being able to pay attention to non-technical details. The K-5 is intuitive, easy to navigate menus, and plenty of buttons to avoid having to dive into them during regular use. Sony have built the holy grail of sensors, which coupled with Pentax’s excellent image processing engine provide excellent IQ in just about any lighting situation. At high ISO Pentax controls luminance noise very well and chroma noise doesn’t rear its ugly, colourful head until 25,600 or so; this is great news for B&W lovers as this approach creates pleasing film-like grain rather than high ISO jaggies. Last of all, I’ll remind you one last time of how easy to manipulate the RAW files are, and how superb the results; by far the best RAW files I’ve ever dealt with.

The appearance of stains on the sensors of some units has been addressed and Pentax USA tells me the problem has been resolved. Recent buyers appear to confirm this. I expect many prospective buyers who were reluctant to make a purchase will do so now. Another issue that’s been reported is that of front-focusing in low light and/or tungsten light. I have not encountered any such issues, and I have certainly shot in bad light. If this problem is real, there is a bright side: It should be fixable in firmware.

As a Pentax shooter, I would have no qualms recommending this camera to anybody looking for a high-end DSLR; my only hesitation concerns the current price, which is keeping me from upgrading to the K-5. Pentax USA president, Ned Bunnell, believes the K-5 is worth $1,600; is it? Only you can answer that question. One thing is for sure, you’re likely to forget your credit card bill once you start using the K-5 with some of Pentax’s excellent prime lenses.

PS: If you want to get the most out of your K-5, you’d do well to get Yvon Bourque’s e-book K-5, Everything you need to know…and then some. It goes well beyond the camera’s manual and actually explains what each setting does and why you’d want to use it, illustrating this with sample images when necessary. EtL doesn’t make any commission from sales of this book, I recommend it simply because I think it’s a good, useful and affordable product. EtL isn’t affiliated with Mr Bourque, although I used to write a weekly article for his Pentax blog back in 2008.

Please consider purchasing the Pentax K-5 from B&H. We’ll get a small commission (at no extra cost to you) and you’ll get our eternal gratitude. It’s one of the ways we keep this site running!

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Richard Avedon Exhibit at Boston’s MFA – A Review

Miserere — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:00:47 +0000

by Miserere

A couple weeks ago I visited the Richard Avedon exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA): Avedon Fashion 1944-2000, which ran from August 10, 2010 to January 17, 2011. It’s the first retrospective of his fashion work since 1978. A tip for those in the area: On Wednesdays, the entrance fee into the MFA is by donation, meaning you can get in for free…or for whatever you think is an appropriate donation amount.

Let me start off by saying that I’ve always like Richard Avedon. He’s famous for being a fashion photographer, but I feel like he was an artist who was lucky enough to have Harper’s Bazaar finance his models, clothing, lighting and travel. In that respect, he’s my hero!

With this in mind, I went into the exhibit with high hopes and looking forward to enjoying myself, and if you’re bored with this article already, I’ll let you know that I wasn’t disappointed. The exhibit was divided into sections, each for a different decade of Avedon’s career. There was plenty of space to step back and examine prints as a group, which the curators had clearly planned for given how similar themed images were placed adjacent to each other. This worked well, because many of Avedon’s photos aren’t particularly strong by themselves, but they become greater than their sum when seen as a whole. Nevertheless, I did enjoy stopping in front of some photos trying to work out the particulars of the lighting. I was accompanied by two fellow photographer friends and we all wondered whether Avedon had poses in mind or if he just turned the music on and let the models do what they wanted. Some of the extremely tight framing in certain photos seemed to suggest that, if there had been planning, it hadn’t extended to pointing the camera at the right spot!

One particular room was dark, with black walls, and the only light came from lights shining on the prints, one per photo. Very interesting approach, that had everyone wondering whether the photos popped because of the light, or whether they would have popped anyway. The lights had a small, hot central point that was pointed at a precise location in the print, so we suspect the “pop” was combination of Avedon’s artistry and that of the lighting designer. Great use of light by both parties in this case.

Speaking of lighting, one group of photos highlighted (ahem) Avedon’s love for backlighting his leading ladies. In some images this had the effect of making the subjects appear as if photoshopped into the background, but most of the time it worked to Avedon’s advantage, giving his lovely models a bright aura. Incidentally, all these photos were taken in ballrooms, bars, casinos and similar places, always seeking an image of glamour. Tuxedos and pearl necklaces abound.

One interesting section showed a set of test prints with comments written on them in pencil by Avedon himself. Some were instructions on how to reshoot the scene, while others indicated how to crop. I found one image of a couple leaving a night-life establishment particularly interesting: It had been shot in vertical format, including a lot of the building’s brick façade, so Avedon decided to cut most of the building out and make the image horizontal. This seems like a major cockup to me, not shooting the appropriate orientation in the first place, but it prove that Avedon was indeed human.

Richard Avedon - Dovima with the Elephants

My favourite Avedon photo of all time is Dovima with the Elephants (learn more about Dovima). I was hoping the curators wouldn’t have dared leave that photo out, and boy did they not! In one of the last sections (the photo was taken in 1955) I found the print, and it was huge, by far the largest in the exhibit. I stood in front of it in silence, admiring those repeated curves, that elephant profile following the Dovima’s own contour… Seeing this print alone made the entrance fee worthwhile. To get an idea of its size, see this photo somebody took at another exhibit.

I should also mention that there were a few colour photos on display, but they lacked the impact of Avedon’s B&W work. How do I know this? Because I can’t remember even one of them, while I can remember many of the B&W prints I saw, even though it was the first time I was seeing them. And that’s all I’ve got to say about Avedon’s foray into colour.

In closing, I enjoyed the exhibit, as much for its quality and diversity, as for the effective placement of the prints by the curators, which in my view catalogued Avedon’s techniques and styles and allowed me to better appreciate what he was about as a photographer—a fake fashion photographer.

If this exhibit comes your way, don’t miss it!

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