Recently I did an informal lens test, comparing a 15mm prime focal length lens with 17mm mirrorless camera prime lens while photographing the annual Chenango Car Show and was surprised, or maybe not so surprised, at the results shown below.

The lenses in question were the Rodney Dangerfield Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens (top image) that was mounted on my mother-of-pearl Panasonic Lumix GF3. This compact lens has an angle-of-view of 65 degrees and seems to have gotten expensive, like many Olympus products, under the new OM Systems banner. Used copies of the lens are available at mostly affordable prices.The concept of angle-of-view is often used interchangeably the field-of-view and refers to the angle over which the camera’s sensor )or film plane) seen through the lens and is usually given as the diagonal of the image or sometimes the vertical and horizontal directions.

The other lens was the Voigtländer super-wide Heliar 15mm lens (bottom image) that was mounted via an inexpensive ($24.95) Fotodiox adapter on my beloved Lumix Gx1. The Voightlander, on the other hand has an angle-of-view of 110 degrees, not quite double that of Oly’s 17mm lens.

Yet all the equivalents in the world tell you that one is really what amounts to a 34mm lens compared to a 30mm lens, which doesn’t sound like much either. Take a look at the above photo and decide for yourself.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), click here.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies are available from Amazon for $21.450 and used copies starting around six bucks.

Light is an interpretive tool in the hands of a photographer. He can make it harsh or soft, revealing or concealing, flattering or libelous. The more he knows about the versatility of light, the easier it is to cope with any picture-taking situation he encounters.”—Peter Gowland

Most of us think about daylight as the proper time for making photographic exposures when photo ops at night, later in the day as well as indoors are often overlooked. They shouldn’t be, but even all colors of daylight are not the same.

You may have heard me say that  “Light is light.” That may essentially be true but it’s not always the same color. The color temperature emitted by various light sources is measured in degrees on the Kelvin scale. I am constantly amazed at the misinformation I hear about the Kelvin scale. On the Internet, a power company states the “History of Kelvin temperature originally comes from the incandescent lamp.” Duh? Long before Edison and during the nineteenth century Lord Kelvin proposed a new temperature scale suitable for measuring low temperatures, suggesting that absolute zero temperature should be the basis for a new scale. His idea was to eliminate the use of negative values when using either Fahrenheit or Celsius scales. Thus the system is called the Kelvin scale and uses the unit “Kelvin” or sometime just “K.”

How I made this photo: Photographing in private collections and museums, such as the San Diego Automobile Museum, shown above, can be a challenge because of the kind of mixed lighting conditions that exist. The camera used was a Canon EOS 50D with the wonderfully useful (for photographing cars) EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens at 10mm. Exposure for this photograph of classic Chevy trucks was 1/25 sec at f/3.5 at ISO 400. Understanding the concept behind color temperature and the many options \available to digital photographers—starting with the color temperature options in your camera’s menus—make sure that this white Chevrolet truck is really white in the finished photograph.

The sun on a clear day at noon is 5500 degrees Kelvin. On an overcast day the color temperature rises to 6700 degrees K, while 9000 degrees K is what you will experience in open shade on a clear day. When we photograph that sunrise, its color temperature may be well down on the Kelvin scale, at about 1800 degrees. Tungsten lights have a temperature of 3200 degrees K, while incandescent light bulbs measure about 2600 degrees Kelvin.

Color Temperatures of Common Light Sources

• Skylight 12000˚to 18000˚K
• Overcast Sky 7000˚K
• Average Daylight 5500˚K
• Electronic Flash 5500˚K
• White-flame carbon arc 5000˚K
• 500-watt, 3400 K photo lamp  3400˚K
• 500-watt, 3200 K tungsten lamp 3200˚K
• 200-watt light bulb 2980˚K
• 100-watt light bulb 2900˚K
• 75-watt light bulb 2820˚K

Joe Farace is co-author along with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Barry Staver of  “Better Available Light Digital Photography” that includes more information on how some of these images were created. New copies are available from Amazon for $21.50m with used copies are starting around $7.00, as I write this.

Let me tell you a secret: You don’t always want or need tack sharp images, even for photographs of cars. Sometimes a soft focus image is just what the doctor or photographer ordered and the use of blur or selective blur can be used add a film noir touch to an otherwise ordinary photograph.

But first, the distinction between soft focus and creative blur are often confused, so let’s look at the differences:

When all or part of a photograph lacks sharpness, it can be blurry. Blur can be caused by camera or subject motion and it can be accidentally or deliberately created by an object moving while the camera’s shutter is open, by you moving the camera or both. Digital blurring is typically accomplished through software averaging of pixel values to soften edge detail but there are other ways to accomplish this, such as by using Photoshop’s Motion Blur.

A lens that isn’t corrected for spherical aberrations produces soft focus and creates a diffused look by bending light away from the subject so that parts of the photograph are defocused while the rest of it remains in focus. Highlights are dispersed onto adjacent areas and the image looks focused but some of its components are just enough out-of-focus so they’re softened. In addition, sharp lines and edges are slightly fuzzy and small details disappear.

How I made this shot: While many photographers, including myself, traditionally use soft focus techniques for portraiture, I also use if for vintage automobiles to add to that “old car look” as in the above photograph of a classic Chevrolet thata was made at San Diego’s Automotive Museum.

For this photograph I used a Canon EOS 50D with EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens at 14mm. Exposure was 1/40 sec at f/4 and ISO 400 for the original color JPEG file that was converted to monochrome using Silver Efex Pro with the Glamour Glow filter, that’s part of Color Efex Pro, added for the final soft focus effect.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat Joe to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.75, Starbucks raised the price of Earl Grey), click here.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photograph that’s now out-of-print but new copies are available from Amazon for $21.49 with used copies selling for four bucks. For some reason, the Kindle price is really high.

“Street rods have a Chevy in front and a can of wax in the back…Hot Rods have a flathead in front and a box of tools in the back”—Fred Offenhauser;

According to Wikipedia: A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates or exaggerates the style of hot rods of the 1940s, 1950s, and early-1960s. … Most rat rods appear unfinished, regardless of their status, as only the vehicle’s bare essentials are driven.

To die-hard rat rod aficionados this old Chevrolet may not be a classic “rat rod” but, to me, it has the proper vibe to be pne. This car was photographed in the city of Prospect, Colorado that has always been one of my favorite places to photograph because of its unique ambience and architecture.

How I made this shot: To get high angle “Hail Mary” shots in the past I would just hold the camera over my head and make a guess at where it was pointing. Then I would make a lot of shots until I, with lots of luck, got something close to what I wanted. Nowadays instead of guessing, it’s easier. The Panasonic Lumix G5 mirrorless camera that I used for this shot has a tilting-swiveling screen that lets me hold the camera over my head and see exactly what I was getting. Lens used was the Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 (at 17mm) along with an exposure of 1/400 sec at f/8 and ISO 400. The final image was tweaked in Analog Efex Pro using the Classic Camera filter.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And if you do, thank so very much.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s now out-of-print but new copies are available from Amazon for $21.88 and used copies at giveaway prices—around four bucks. The Kindle version is really expensive for some reason; not Barry or myself.

Because I never know what kind of situation that I’ll face when photographing an indoor car show, I prefer using a zoom lens. Zooms come in two varieties: fast or slow. Many slower zoom lenses have a floating maximum f/stop where that the maximum aperture changes within the zoom range of the lens. Take a 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens as an example: At the widest focal length of 24mm the maximum aperture is the f/3.5. As the lens is zoomed toward the telephoto end, that maximum aperture shifts to the f/5.6 opening.

How I made this shot: This Chevrolet HHR is suspended from a crane over the show floor at a previous Denver International Auto Show—catch the SAAB sign in the background. Camera used was a Four-thirds system DSLR, lens was the Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm f/2.0 SWD lens. The f/2 maximum aperture of the Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm f/2.0 SWD was a big help when working under the low light levels found at these kinds of venues. Exposure was 1/100 second at f/4, ISO 650, with the lens at 14mm.

The Zuiko Digital ED 14-35mm f/2.0 SWD uses two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements to minimize chromatic aberration and features rugged, high-quality construction and is dust and drip-proof. All Zuiko Digital lenses allow light to strike the image sensor at a near-perpendicular angle, minimizing degradation and light loss, even at the edge of the frame or when using a wide-angle lens.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea or maybe a cup of hot chocolate ($2.50), click here. And if you do, thanks so much.

Along with photographer Barry Staver, I’m co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s available from Amazon for $21.88 prices with used copies selling at giveaway prices—less than two bucks, as I write this.

The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray split window coupe is, I think, the most beautiful modern American car. It’s up there with the most beautiful British modern car, the Series 1 Jaguar E-type.

The 1963 Sting Ray production car’s lineage can be traced to two separate GM projects, the Q-Corvette, and more directly, Bill Mitchell’s racing Sting Ray.

In 1957, the Q-Corvette was envisioned as a smaller, more advanced Corvette that was designed as a coupe-only, boasting a rear transaxle, independent rear suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes, with the rear brakes mounted inboard Jaguar-style. Exterior styling was purposeful, with peaked fenders, a long nose, and a short, bobbed tail.

The first-ever production Corvette coupe sported an unusual styling element for its day— a split rear window—and only for that one model year. The rear window’s basic shape had been originally conceived by Bob McLean for the Q-model. Quad headlamps were retained but were hidden, the first American car so equipped since the 1942 DeSoto.

The above image was made at Cars & Coffee at The Vehicle Vault. It was shot using an Olympus E-M5 Mark I with the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R kit lens at 14mm and an exposure of 1/640 sec at f/19 and ISO 320.

In How I Photograph Cars, there’s also lots of information on photographing cars including motorsports from sports car racing to drag racing including safety tips when working around fast racecars. You’ll go behind the scenes as I photographs a small car collection for a client and look at not just the challenge of photographing a group of cars but the logistics involved in making the shot happen.

While I have been to Cuba a few times, this would be my first visit to the capital city of Havana. Almost as soon as we exited our 1955 Chevrolet taxi we were faced with a photo shoot as a young lady was celebrating her fifteenth birthday by modelling for a photographer with an assistant and stylist!

Within one block, the poor conditions of the local residents of Old Havana was apparent as many apartments and small shops did not have glass windows while classic cars scoured the streets.

Within a few more blocks the Plaza Vieja was a surprising sight as the buildings encompassing the perimeter have been refurbished as part of a significant UNESCO project.

Unexpectedly, a gallery overlooking the square hosted an exhibition of photos by National Geographic photographer, Steve McCurry, which we visited. The gallery had a balcony that provided an excellent vantage point to take a panoramic photo with my Fuji S1. As I walked down the stairs from the gallery the entrance to the “Laboratorio Fotografico” stared me in the face. It reminded me of the hours I used to spend in the darkroom…

As we exited old Havana to meet our awaiting Chevy taxi, the parking lot was filled with classic Cuban cars—this was the photo opportunity I had been waiting for! Most of these cars are not as mechanically original as expected. The Cubans have to make use of whatever they can obtain and, as such, most of these classic cars are powered by Russian and Chinese-built diesel engines. What the Cubans lack in resources they more than make up for with ingenuity. All photos were made with a Canon EOS 7D and EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens.

John Larsen is located in the Greater Toronto Area, whose PhotoGraffics website contains samples of motorsports and hot air balloon photography from numerous Canadian balloon festivals

Most people get their love of a particular car marque from their parents. My Dad was a Chevy man but I’ve always liked imports and for American cars, preferred Fords. I think it was because Dad was a strong union man and worked at Bethlehem Steel, which wasn’t far from Baltimore’s Fisher Body plant that produced Malibu’s and Chevelle‘s. While I’m not a bow-tie super fan, I still enjoyed Classic Chevrolet Muscle Cars: 1955-1974.

The book’s official title is Complete Book of Classic Chevrolet Muscle Cars: 1955-1974 and was written by Mike Mueller, who also wrote The Complete Book of Ford Mustang. Let me start by remarking on the book’s end-papers, which feature a clever photograph of a Nova nee Chevy II convertible, always one of my favorite GM cars. And it just gets better and better after that…

There are just five chapters: In “When Big was Best” looks at big block Impalas that’s illustrated with great-looking photographs along with some charts with enough technical specifications that will make even the most geeky reader happy.

In Chapter 2 we look at the Nova SS and legendary COPO cars. In addition to specifications for different models there are also informative sidebars which go into Nova variations, some of which, like the Rally Nova, I didn’t know existed. You also get to see how the Nova grew over the years and, to my taste, not always for the better. But while later models may lack style, they make up for it in performance, such as the 1968 COPO Novas. Yenko variants are here as well, such as the 1970 Deuce.

Chapter four takes a look at mid-sized cars, including Chevelle, El Camino and Monte Carlo, including the SS454 which I think is the best combination of style and performance for the money. Funny, this is considered a “mid-sized car” for the era but it probably wouldn’t even fit in my garage. How times change. This chapter also features the Camaro, which my wife totally loved especially the 1967 model. The chapter includes the COPO Camaros with theie impressive performance while the Z28 gets its own Chapter, deservedly so.

Classic Chevrolet Muscle Cars: 1955-1974 represents a love fest for these cars celebrating a time when cars were created for style and performance without government regulations turning them into identical jelly bean shaped blobs, slaves to aerodynamics, full economy and safety. These cars were probably unsafe at any speed but for pure visceral enjoyment, we will never see their likes again. Author Mueller has delivered a valentine to this era of Chevy performance cars. Bow tie fans will want to have this lushly produced coffee table book on their coffee table.

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks (May 12, 2017)
• ISBN-10: 076035233X
• ISBN-13: 978-0760352335
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 0.8 x 11.2 inches
• Price: $25.47

The 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona will run on January 30-31, 2016

caption: Canon EOS 30D, 70-200 EF 2.8 L Series lens @ 200mm.  Exposure:  1/250th sec. at f/7.1  and ISO 100

After recovering from a stroke, my motorsports friend, Larry, and my brother, Allan, and I decided to finally cross one of the major international races from our bucket list and go to the annual Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2007. While they were enthused about spectating, I was more interested in taking photos. Having been a contributor to a number of Canadian motorsports magazines previously, I contacted the Toronto Star and learned that there would be a local team competing in the top class in the 24 hour event. I mentioned this in my email, along with a link to my website and tear sheets of previously published motorsports photos. The next day I received a favorable response asking if I required any assistance in obtaining press credentials!

caption: Canon EOS 30D, 17-55mm EFS lens at 38mm. Exposure:  1/6th sec. at f/5.0  and ISO 400

I was late in converting to digital as I had been shooting with Olympus 35mm gear for many years and had been holding out for a digital Olympus body that would allow me to use my assortment of Zuiko lenses without adapters but I could not wait any longer. With the potential for coverage in a national publication I purchased a Canon digital SLR with the kit lens, an EF 70-200 f/2.8 L series lens and a speedlite, along with some memory cards. I managed to try the new gear a few times before our trip but could not practice any motorsports photography.

caption: Canon EOS 30D, 17-55mm EFS lens at 18mm. Exposure:  0.4 sec. at f/6.3 and ISO 400, with Canon EX 430 speedlight and second shutter firing.

Due to delays with our flight and sorting out our rental car, I missed obtaining my press credentials the first day at the Daytona International Speedway. However, the three of us stood on a small grandstand in the infield and took in the sights, smells and sounds of our first visit to this classic event as night practice was in progress under the lights of the famed Speedway. After taking it all in for a few minutes I grabbed my camera and took my first photo of the action on the track. As soon as I looked at the image I realized that I had to change a number of settings to get the result I was after and almost deleted this blurred image. Thankfully I did not as it truly replicates the speeds and lighting that we witnessed that January evening in Florida. Surprisingly, it has become my most successful image in my stock photo portfolio!

John Larsen is located in the Greater Toronto Area, whose PhotoGraffics website contains samples of motorsports and hot air balloon photography from numerous Canadian balloon festivals.

However, the Copyright Office declined to provide the exemption to third parties who diagnose, repair or modify a vehicle on behalf of the vehicle owner. The Copyright Office concluded that extending the reach of an exemption to cover third-parties requires a legislative amendment undertaken by Congress. Access to a vehicle’s telematics or entertainment system was also specifically excluded from the exemption.

Earlier this year, in support of the industry and consumers, SEMA provided comments to the Copyright Office seeking an exemption from the DMCA for circumvention of controls on vehicle software for the purpose of vehicle diagnosis, repair or modification by the vehicle owner. “The issue of copyright affecting the ability to diagnose, repair and modify vehicles has come up recently due to the proliferation of advanced vehicle technology, specifically software, in modern vehicles,” said SEMA CEO and President Chris Kersting.  “SEMA has always maintained that the right to access vehicle systems to utilize, maintain and upgrade vehicles is legal as fair use under copyright law, as are activities undertaken to achieve interoperability with aftermarket products.”

The DMCA was enacted in 1998 and prohibits the circumvention of measures put in place by a copyright owner to protect copyrighted works. The law also includes a provision allowing the Copyright Office to grant exemptions from this anti-circumvention provision, and the exemption for vehicle repair, diagnosis or modification was granted under this provision.

A copy of the SEMA comments is available on the Copyright Office website.