Working with Custom Sets

Micro Four-Thirds

A useful feature in the Panasonic G1

Given the myriad of adjustments which can be made to the Panasonic G1’s custom settings, it’s nice that Panny has provided the option of saving up to three custom sets in the Custom Menu.

After banging away for a while and getting generally familiar with the camera over the past month, I have pretty much settled on a set of street snapper settings whose goal is to have a camera that is as responsive and fast to use as possible, while at the same time having a minimum of clutter on the EVF screen to get in the way of seeing pictures.

To save these setting, I start the camera in Aperture priority mode to which I apply the usual defaults, such as iISO (intelligent selection of ISO by the camera’s CPU), RAW picture quality (I have no use for RAW + JPG) and, of course, shake reduction. The EVF display is set to minimal display by toggling the ‘Display’ button on the rear, so that only Aperture, Shutter Speed and over/under exposure adjustment is shown, the latter set to 2/3rd stops under-exposed. I do not use the LCD screen on the rear and have it turned face in, as LCD settings are irrelevant to street snapper mode.

Custom Sets allow no fewer than ten additional settings to be saved, so with the camera still set on ‘A’ on the mode dial (for Aperture priority), I set the remaining variables as follows:

AFL/AE: AE. I want the rear panel button to lock exposure only, when depressed and held. I prefer to lock focus with a first press on the shutter button, when needed.

AFL/AEL Hold: Off. The problem with this setting is that the ‘hold’ remains in place after the picture is taken, which is exactly wrong. So ‘Off’ it is.

AF + MF: On. This allows for fine tuning focus, even though the camera is set to auto focus, by turning the focus collar on the lens. Very handy if you are shooting through a window or a wire fence, for example, as the camera can get confused and focus on the obstacle rather than on the subject.

Focus: Off. This allows the shutter button to work even if the image is not in focus. Better a slightly unsharp picture than none at all.

AF*: Off. This makes sure the bright red auto focus ‘assist’ light stays off in dim light. The very last thing you want for unobtrusive snapping is for a bright red LED to broadcast your presence.

P-AF: Off. This disables continuous pre-focusing before the shutter button is released. A waste of battery power and you need all you can get.

Fn: Set to Aspect Ratio. This dictates the action of the small Fn button on the rear panel. I have it set to allow choice of aspect ratio (4:3, 3:2, 16:9) as the other choices (RAW or JPG, Metering mode, iExposure or Guidelines) are of no use on the street. For that matter, setting the aspect ratio is of little use to me as I always use 3:2. You can take the man from his Leica but you cannot take the Leica from the man, and film Leicas are 3:2.

Auto Review: Off. The last thing you want is to be presented with an Auto Review of the last snap when you are desperate for the camera to free up for the next picture. Anyone who complains about the picture-to-picture times of the G1 being too slow is ignorant of this setting option. Unfortunately, Panny ships it with Auto Review set to ‘On’ which hardly helps matters.

NR: On. Reduces noise in long exposures. Why not?

Shoot without lens: Off. This allows adapted lenses to be used but, for now, I have all I need with the 14-45mm kit lens.

To save these, all you have to do, with the camera still in ‘A’ on the top mode dial, is to go to the Custom Menu->Cust.Set.Men (the very first choice), right arrow, hit Menu ->Yes and your settings are now saved to Custom Set 1.

Then rotate the mode dial to ‘CUST’ and the first Custom Set, the one you just saved, is in effect. If you create other Custom Sets, then you have to depress the Menu button and choose the one you want. For example, you may want an auto-bracketing set for HDR photography, or a ‘100 ISO’ only set for highest quality images, and so on. However, at my time of life, when I’m happy just getting the right leg in the right half of my pants, one custom set is just fine, thank you.


G1 – Custom Set 1 at work

Bugr!

Photographs

Viva Italia!

This site is completely non-commercial. I only mention what I like and, when it comes to hardware, mostly use. But it would be churlish to deny one of the classic motorbike shops in America its due. That store, Munroe Motors on Valencia Street in San Francisco, has been around for over fifty years which says all you need to know. Actually, there’s just one more thing, as Inspector Columbo might say.


G1, 29mm, 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 100

Is it the cavernous interior, the near total lack of lighting or the whispered tones of the worshippers inside, or is it simply the overpowering and glorious smell of oil and grease as you enter?

You see, Munroe Motors sells and repairs Ducatis. A Ducati is to motorcycles what a Ferrrari is to cars and Sophia Loren is to women. No more need be said.

My ride is a tad more staid, but in keeping with my modest skills.

BUGR indeed!

Fighting for dynamic range

Micro Four-Thirds, Photographs

Lightroom 2 to the rescue

Sometimes there’s no alternative but to restore dynamic range using some manipulation at the processing stage. The Panasonic G1’s smallish sensor does not help in the dynamic range department – the Canon 5D’s, almost four times the area, is better in this regard.

The following is a case in point – I exposed for the brick wall, which is in bright sun, knowing the fire truck would be lost in gloom. Exposing for the fire truck would have burned out the wall and foreground.

After round-tripping the image from Lightroom 2 into PS CS2 to correct leaning verticals (Image->Transform) I saved back into Lightroom and used the Brush with AutoMask switched on to outline the garage bay, first hitting Option-O (this toggles mask visibility) to see exactly what I was masking. Then a quick tweak of exposure and an overall increase in red saturation and the picture was finished.

Here’s the ‘before’ and ‘after’ in Lightroom 2:


Shadow recovery – before and after

As the shape I was outlining had straight edges, I reduced the ‘feather’ setting to zero for a hard edged mask.


Fire truck. G1, 31mm.1/200, f/9, ISO 160

When God gives you lemons, make lemonade ….

Meet my new view camera

Photographs, Technique

A Panasonic G1? Are you crazy?

I have absolutely no reservations about cropping and manipulating an original picture if it results in a better result.

Never does this apply more than in architectural photography.

The other day, making my way through the horrors of the UCSF-Mission campus in south east San Francisco, I was struck yet again by how ugly much modern architecture is. Given the incredible cost of land, bribes to officials and unions, the cost of design and materials, how much more would it take to make something beautiful rather than just another precast, soulless box? And this is on a campus of higher learning, for goodness sake, where you are meant to encourage open communication, sharing and ample leisurely exchange to help brains grow. How do you do that surrounded by architecture seemingly inspired by concrete makers and designed by structural engineers?

Gazing at the horrors around me I was reminded how Prince Charles has been pilloried over the years for his stance on keeping British architecture beautiful. Whereas he was written off as a privileged nutter with nothing better to do but gripe about buildings and talk to his daffodils, we now increasingly see him as a voice of wisdom in an ugly urban world and a pioneer of the green movement. UCSF-Mission needs him.

Back to the topic at hand, architectural photography. When I know I cannot but have leaning verticals, I make a point of leaving plenty of space around the subject as it will be needed when correcting these at the processing stage, if correction is needed.


Before and after. G1, 41mm, 1/250, f/8, ISO 100

Here the G1’s kit lens was almost fully extended to bridge a building lot in front. I knew that what I wanted was a borderless image of the multi-colored glass (a movement originated by Cesar Pelli in New York, if I am not mistaken). The lamp standard lower right was simply icing on the cake. Here’s an example of the use of modern materials in a lovely, refreshing manner, providing visual interest and harmony in an otherwise uninspiring box shape. And some of the windows actually open! Nice work.

Once the RAW original was in Lightroom 2, I exported it to PS CS2, set up a background layer and used the Edit->Transform->Perspective function with the Grid turned on (Command-Apostrophe) to aid in aligning the verticals. This corrects leaning verticals but shortens the image, squashing it vertically, so to return the correct aspect ratio to the windows I switched to Edit->Transform->Distort and simply stretched the picture vertically until the windows looked right. Finally, before saving (PS integrates with LR so the ‘Save’ creates a second stacked image in LR – nice) I go to Layer->Flatten to keep the file size small – no need for the bloat of layers in the LR catalog of images. I use a lossless TIFF format to save the PS-processed image.

So there you have the G1 as a compact view camera! Here’s the final image. It will make for a nice 30″ square print.

Wishful thinking

Photographs

Hopes dashed

While the young woman searches for something in her purse and her pup gazes into the distance, the old guy ponders on what might have been.


G1, 14mm, 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 100

No time to even think about this one. Just an instinctive press of the button. At 17th and Hampshire in the Potrero district of San Francisco.

The hand strap shown here is ideal for this sort of thing, though the vendor has seen fit to put a big rivet through the strap half way up – unlike what the picture shows – which limits the extent to which it can be shortened. As it is, the strap is an inch or two too long at it’s shortest setting. I need to find something a photographer designed.

Another snap:


G1, 20mm, 1/200, f/11, ISO 100

And a third:


G1, 24mm, 1/100, f/11, ISO100