Playing Multi-Exposure

I was wondering what to write about this week. I looked through some pictures that I took using the multi-exposure feature in Program Mode. I wasn't really happy with the images so I thought what can I do with these? I decided to play with them in Adobe Photo Shop Elements. Here is what I came up with.

This is the original photo taken in my office featuring my Macbook Pro and its screen saver.

I first turned the picture into a black and white photo and raised the contrast by 50 percent.

Now it was time to go to the filter gallery and add glowing edges.

Finally I went to the filter gallery and added colored pencil and used the rendering filter to add the center lighting effect. So next time that you find that you have some pictures that don't measure up try playing with them and see what you come up with. I use these pictures for wallpaper and they look great.

Sky-Landscape-Close-up

This week I'm sharing some pictures that show the versatility of the Leica LX-4. Outdoor shots, indoor, low light, and close up. The first picture is a close up I took indoors in low light. The focus is sharp on the flowers center and there is a light boken effect (soft focus) on the background objects.
The next picture is another low light situation only outdoors. I took this picture of the early morning sky which is punctuated by the puffy white clouds on a bright blue sky.

The final picture was taken outside and highlights the cameras abilities in taking excellent landscape photographs.

Looking forward to sharing more of my experiences in up coming posts.

Comparison Photo's

This week I'm sharing some comparison pictures that outline the Exposure Compensation mode, the Aspect Mode and Manual Mode with and without the use of flash. First up is the exposure mode and the attached photos show three different exposure values taken with a single shutter release as seen below. The picture to the right was taken on a daily walk of interesting grasses with a strong blue sky as the background. Click on any image to see a larger view.

EV + 1

EV - 1

EV - 0

Next up is photo Aspect ratios that are demonstrated below:

16 x 9

3 x 2

4 x 3

Manual mode with the use of flash and no flash hand held with anti shake turned on.

Shot at: 125 - f 2.8 with flash ISO 200

Shot at: 1/5 - f 2.8 with anti shake turned on and no flash ISO 200

There is no doubt that the anti-shake option really does the trick of allowing you to use really slow shutter speeds without excessive blurring. None of the above photos were retouched for this demonstration.
Now this is just for fun a multi-exposure taken in my home office featuring a small fan.

3 exposures in one frame a interesting effect.

High Speed Burst Mode

High Speed Burst Mode the Video Demo:
In this installment I will be discussing the high speed burst mode feature of the Leica D-Lux 4.
The maximum frame rate 6 per second is under ideal conditions. In low light conditions the frame rate will be some what slower. The pictures are taken continuously while the shutter release button is held down for up to 35 exposures per burst using the cameras internal memory or up to 100 depending on the memory card you use in the camera.
The ISO is set automatically by the camera to 500 to 800 ISO depending on conditions. The quality setting is automatically set to 3 megapixels which equates to a 2048 x 1536 at a 4 x 3 picture ratio in a JPEG format. RAW is not available while using this mode.
How useful is this mode? It depends on how you use the camera. I have had fun taking shots of my grandson drinking from a glass and running around the pool with the dogs chasing the pool sweep. The close up shots were taken indoors at a close range and I was pleased with results. Here is a short 30 second video showing the shots and results.

Burst Mode Test from Ted Goth on Vimeo.

Here is another short video of outdoor shots taken at a longer range in strong sun and shade.

Burst Mode 2 from Ted Goth on Vimeo.

Next week I will be covering my exploration of the use of auto bracketing and the multi-aspect ratio options. Look forward to your comments and good shooting.