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Shooting LCC frames

sc_john

Active member
When shooting LCC's, do I have to shoot at specific aperture used? For example, if I shoot an LCC with SK 35xl at f/8, rise of 10mm and no shift, will this also be appropriate for f/ 5.6, f/11, etc? Or, do I need to shoot separate LCC at f/5.6, f/11, etc? Also what about varying focusing distances. If this has been previously discussed, my apologies. I did a search and didn't find anything specific. Thanks.

John
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
You really need to shoot you LCC at the same aperture, focus and movements applied . Your dealing with color offset and that will move around at diffrent settings. Really the best way to go is get your final image. Than shoot your LCC after it and just use your shutter speed and open up around 2 stops or better yet get the LCC histo right of center as much as you can short of blowing highlights.

Some folks like to shoot a library of LCC with diffrent settings and that will work but really to be exactly precise your better off right after your final. Also it's helpfully in post knowing you see the LCC and usually the image just before it was your final as anything before that on same scene was just getting your focus and movements down.

I treat tech cams like polariods just keeping shooting to get to the final image than shoot my LCC before moving on. I really feel this is the best practice in the field.
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
When shooting LCC's, do I have to shoot at specific aperture used? For example, if I shoot an LCC with SK 35xl at f/8, rise of 10mm and no shift, will this also be appropriate for f/ 5.6, f/11, etc? Or, do I need to shoot separate LCC at f/5.6, f/11, etc? Also what about varying focusing distances. If this has been previously discussed, my apologies. I did a search and didn't find anything specific. Thanks.

John
LCC corrects color shift, dust, and light falloff.

In short:
COLOR shift: aperture matters some
DUST: aperture matters some
LIGHT FALL Off: aperture matters a LOT with many lenses

COLOR
Color shift varies a little with aperture, but for the most part the difference in color shift of a change of a stop or even two of aperture is pretty small. This does vary somewhat from one lens to the next. The wider the lens the more each aperture will matter.

DUST
The location and size of dust does not change with aperture, but the sharpness of it's rendering does. The dust algorithm seems to rely mostly on the location and size than the sharpness, but sharpness does seem to matter. So the difference between 5.6 and 11 can make some meaningful, though not huge difference in dust removal.

LIGHT FALLOFF
The fall off of many lenses however changes drastically by aperture. From f/5.6 to f/11 you may see a change of upwards of 2 stops in the amount of lens fall off. If you apply the LCC of a f/5.6 frame on a lens which vignettes heavily to an f/11 scene you will way over-brighten the corners of the frame.

Generally I don't bother reshooting an LCC for a difference of half a stop, and if I'm in a rush or the lens is one that generally doesn't need much correction (e.g. a 120mm XL) then I don't bother within a stop. But between f/5.6 and f/11 I'd recommend always reshooting the LCC.

There are two schools of thought:
- shoot one LCC for every final composition (time consuming and fills up your card but by far the least mental energy is required and allows any arbitrary combination of movements, aperture, lens, and back)
- shoot a library (requires that you stick to a specific set of settings, e.g. you could shoot 5mm, 10mm, and 15mm of rise, but it would be impractical to have a library setting for 7.5mm of rise)

Generally I enjoy shooting tech cameras with only 2 or 3 lenses, with only a handful of total setting-combinations (e.g. 47XL, 1 degree of tilt, f/11.5, left/right 20mm, pre-established hyperfocal setting assuming tripod height around my chest). That is a very personal statement; I am just letting you know my personal preference. With that method of shooting I only have to have a handful of LCCs, never have to worry about focus (other than not placing important elements in the known-too-close zone which is usually measured by my arm span), and can learn to "see" in terms of the final image aspect-ratio and width even before I set up the tripod (I'm not smart enough to keep mental track of the final-width-with-2-shot-stitch of more than a 2-3 lenses, many others I'm sure would have no problem doing so). This preset heavy experience-based approach makes shooting a tech camera - FOR ME - an exercise in relaxing, enjoyable, tactile, hands-on bliss (rather than the somewhat arduous, complex, mentally taxing requirements of making every decision on every shot from scratch). I can start with a particular set of gear in the morning, do 15-20 minutes of testing/familiarization and preset-setting and be ready to shoot the rest of the week without having to think through the technicals of every shot.

Part of my personal preference for that mindset/workflow is because as part of my job I deal with several tech cameras, many lenses, and many digital backs every month. There is always a learning curve with a particular set of gear - even for those of us who make it our job to learn every combo. So if you own only one back, tech camera body, and only a small number of lenses it would be far easier for you to become intimately familiar with it than I can.

Enjoy your shooting and be sure to post some of your work in the dedicated Fun with Tech Camera thread!
 

sc_john

Active member
Guy and Doug,

Many thanks for your quick and complete replies. I will try approach of shooting LCC immediately after the capture. That way, I will always know where to look for the LCC image. If I find that I am always shooting repeat combinations of f/stop, rise/fall and shift, then I can experiment with library of LCC's.

Thanks. I love this place!!!

John
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yea in the end John for me at least when I am looking at a whole series of images i just know the one before the LCC it is my final and I don't rename them as i know in my head its a one frame difference which kind of helps me. Now some folks may take a Final like CF10025 for the final and than rename the LCC CF10025A so that could also be helpful. The thing is whatever you do make it a religion. Its like Cf cards and how you deal with them. I do it one way only and its boring but I don't make dumb mistakes.
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
Many thanks for your quick and complete replies. I will try approach of shooting LCC immediately after the capture. That way, I will always know where to look for the LCC image. If I find that I am always shooting repeat combinations of f/stop, rise/fall and shift, then I can experiment with library of LCC's.
That's a very reasonable approach.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
...

Generally I enjoy shooting tech cameras with only 2 or 3 lenses, with only a handful of total setting-combinations (e.g. 47XL, 1 degree of tilt, f/11.5, left/right 20mm, pre-established hyperfocal setting assuming tripod height around my chest). That is a very personal statement; I am just letting you know my personal preference. With that method of shooting I only have to have a handful of LCCs, never have to worry about focus (other than not placing important elements in the known-too-close zone which is usually measured by my arm span), and can learn to "see" in terms of the final image aspect-ratio and width even before I set up the tripod (I'm not smart enough to keep mental track of the final-width-with-2-shot-stitch of more than a 2-3 lenses, many others I'm sure would have no problem doing so). This preset heavy experience-based approach makes shooting a tech camera - FOR ME - an exercise in relaxing, enjoyable, tactile, hands-on bliss (rather than the somewhat arduous, complex, mentally taxing requirements of making every decision on every shot from scratch). I can start with a particular set of gear in the morning, do 15-20 minutes of testing/familiarization and preset-setting and be ready to shoot the rest of the week without having to think through the technicals of every shot.
Doug,

It's refreshing to read this as I actually tend to adopt a very similar workflow, seldom shooting more than a couple of lenses during the day and actually find myself more often than not using the same basic settings other than perhaps exposure. I could almost superglue my aperture ring at f/11 or f/11.3 and I may as well also have 3 or 4 reference click stops on the focus helicoid because that's where I end up too.

I haven't quite hit the std tilt setting with my 90mm but interestingly I'm getting close given most landscape situations unless either high up or low to the ground.

:thumbup:

/cont Lazy Tech Shooters Forum ... :D
 

jlm

Workshop Member
one thing: even though the LCC shot will be right next to the image it relates to, the final LCC files end up in a separate location, not within any particular session folder. what this means is you have to correlate them with the image to be corrected by image file name proximity. it also means you will end up with a big list after a while. it is manageable, but some of us have clamored to have the LCC locations be within the session
 

sc_john

Active member
John,

Thanks for the info. I read another post that gave file path to find LCC's so I will be able to maintain, as appropriate.

John
 
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