Christoph Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 As many here know, the SIgma Foveon sensor makes it possible to get a Full spectrum look which is reminiscent of the old Aerochome films. Two methods have been promoted and explored already: 1. "Rich" Full spectrum: Remove the Hot mirror, get a custom white balance on grey/white card, almost no post-processing is needed. This will get you a wide variety of red/yellow and magenta hues in the vegetation and blue skies.2. With additional green filter, for example Hoya X1 Green: Remove hot mirror, choose light bulb as WB preset, install the filter and shoot. This will get you magenta tones and more accentuated, cyanish skies. I always had my problems with both these methods: 1. The "Rich Full spectrum" method just lacks the magic and mood of old Aerochrome. It's hard to pinpoint to a specific trait. For me, it lacks the stark contrasts, the dark skies and the surreal lighting of scenery. It just looks too natural/normal for my taste. 2. The Green filter method gives you more of that Aerochrome charm, but it has greenish/cyanish skies, and the magenta tones are quite uniform and too pinkish for my taste. So yesterday, I spent an afternoon in my atelier and just tried out different filters with my SD1, in the hopes of achieving other ways to a more authentic Aerochrome-style emulation. I was trying to get good custom white balance, which is soo difficult with Sigma cameras. I tried a classic Red Filter from Tiffen, the 25... Custom white balance whitout filter on, because I just couldn't get a CWB with the filter on the camera. I got a very yellowish image with red trees in it. I thought that this would never work out in post-processing. But I was wrong. So here's what I did in SPP and the final result with additional WB optimization in Photoshop Raw Converter: I also tried a combination of filters: Red and Green (Hoya X1). Unfortunately the lighting conditions were very poor. But in post, I also came up with a very good solution. So now I will try to test both methods in clear sunlight, hoping to see if these methods produce more "Aerochrome" like dark skies and colorations. Recommendations, Comments are very welcome.. Link to comment
OlDoinyo Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 There is, of course, the venerable two-exposure method with a Sigma: In this case I used an SD14. The internal hot-mirror was taken out and the IR frame was shot with a black-IR filter. Rather than bothering to put the camera's own hot-mirror back in, I just slapped a deconverting filter on the lens for the visible exposure. The workup to a final IRG image is simple and presumably self-evident; this method produces fairly accurate IRG images although it is on the clunky side. Link to comment
colinbm Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 All good & interesting ChristophGlad to see you experimenting.I gave the term "Rich" Full spectrum to describe when a CPL is added to the full spectrum Sigma camera with the hot mirror removed.Different brands of CPL give varying results too.CheersCol Link to comment
Andrea B. Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Good experiments, Christoph. Thanks for posting. Let's see what you get with good sunlight, OK? Link to comment
Christoph Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Here are some test shots with the red filter (on SD1), with CWB on white card (without filter on) and the settings in SPP which produce this result: Link to comment
Christoph Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 "Rich" Full spectrum (above) vs Red filter: Link to comment
Christoph Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 "Rich" Full spectrum (above, cloudy) vs red filter (full sunlight): Link to comment
colinbm Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Are you using a CPL with these ? Link to comment
Christoph Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 Ok, so here are some more... the thing is: WB/Color adjustments are tricky... one way to really get blue skies is to go into the "red" areas of your color matrix... how to get there? Trying. I know it sounds silly... Choose very dark green areas... if someone knows how to export the profile, I'll be happy to share it here... there must be a repeatable workflow that does make sense... any suggestions are welcome... Link to comment
colinbm Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I got one of my favorite CPL's out today for a play, after having a rest from photography for the past few years & found that it has started to de-laminate....:-( Link to comment
Christoph Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Red filter also allows yellow vegetation via channel mixer in Photoshop Link to comment
dabateman Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 I really like those yellows. I will have to play around with my SD14 more. Link to comment
Christoph Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 These are shots from today (around noon) which were processed via the method described above. The only difference: I used a Hoya Red 25A instead of a Tiffen Red 25A. The results are (in my opinion) exactly the same. I also used a Hoya CPL. Please note that no additional color optimization was done, just the raw SPP workflow plus further white balancing in Photoshop raw converter. I'm very happy with the result. I really achieved what I wanted: pure red vegetation and dark blueish skies... Link to comment
Andy Perrin Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 Yes, I love the skies here. Link to comment
Christoph Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 White vegetation, the classic (720nm) look is absolutely possible with a Sigma Foveon sensor. Here's the proof. I used a red filter, processed the image in SPP, then channel mix in Photoshop... Link to comment
Christoph Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 Here's another one with sky... Link to comment
Christoph Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 Here's an interesting filter combination: Hoya Green X1 and Tiffen Yellow 8 - will give you blue skies, some great contrasts and a wide palette of red/magenta/yellow tones... Link to comment
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