The Ricoh GR files are amazing. Malleable and able to handle some heavy manipulation. Here’s a before and after processed with VSCO 04, the accompanying tool kit, and a few adjustment brushes. For street photography the Ricoh GR alongside VSCO 04 and the toolkit is simply a great combination. Notice the skin tones and how life like they look. This scene was exactly what I envisioned when I clicked the shutter.
Two months have gone by since I received my GR (pictured above) and a few thoughts come to mind. I’ll talk about the pros and cons of this wonderful small package. Let’s start of with the good and in no particular order just as they come mind. Folks, the sharpness of this lens is truly outstanding. I’m not an optical engineer and don’t know for sure but I would guess that lack of AA filter has something to do with end results. This puppy cranks out some amazing images. In the end, I think Ricoh did the right thing in debuting with the GR with out the AA filter. The way the GR handles is another point worth mentioning right of the bat. Its slightly bigger than the previous models and just the right size, you really have to hold it to know but trust me when you hold it you’ll probably feel the same way I did ― amazingly surprised. I wished Ricoh would have included a more heavy duty wrist strap and a …
“I love the people I photograph. I mean, they’re my friends. I’ve never met most of them or I don’t know them at all, yet through my images I live with them.” – Bruce Gilden All photographs by Jorge Ledesma
Choosing a color palette in photography is a very particular and individual task. In essence, a strictly subjective but what is not is the way that Really Nice Images and their family of presets emulates various films. I’ve used a few film presets in the past, including VSCO and a few others, and just recently discovered the “Iconic Film” presets for Lightroom and I’ve been blown away at the level of detail and fine tuning they have been able to achieve with their film emulations. As a curious person that I am, I immediately forked a few presets and made them my own. Like anything else in photography, I tell you to make it your own whether its presets or post processing. “Fork” them, play with them, move sliders, and play with the tonal curves until you get to a final look. Presets are meant to be used as a starting point or approximation towards an end vision. With that said, below is a gallery I’ve prepared and I’m quite happy with the results. For …
When it comes to color photography color can be quite subjective. I suppose you can say the same thing for black and white photography but color is just a lot more difficult. Recently, I went with Isabel to eat dinner at the coyest little restaurant you’ll ever find in Coral Gables called “La Casita“(zagat rating) at the intersection of Galiano Street and SW 8th Street. The food was spectacular, I wasn’t in the mood to digest a huge meal so I went with the famous “pan con bistec” which translates to “bread with skirt steak” wrapped around an in house baked French bread, romaine lettuce, and the best tasting tomatoes you’ll ever had, a real treat to one’s taste buds for sure. Now that you have the preamble to the food, let’s move on the technical stuff. I photographed all these in the GR’s macro mode and I always shoot RAW + Fine. In talking with my online friend, Robert Boyer, a seasoned professional photographer, I told him if he wanted to mess with some …
I’m pretty upset at WordPress.com right now, I just sharing this image with everyone and I’m all happy with the end result, I upload here and what you see right below is an exported jpeg straight form lightroom and it looks nothing like what I viewed on my deskop. So, I get to thinking and I tell myself, “let me do a screengrab,” which saves the images as a png and let’s compare. Oh my gosh, what a difference. Click here to view the original image and tell me if you don’t see an immediate difference. I don’t know why but WordPress.com is compressing the images like there is no tomorrow which totally sucks in my book. I mean we take the time to process an image to our liking and WP ruins it, not right guys, please fix this or are you guys getting too big already? Or better yet, develop another store addon that doesn’t compress the images and I’ll gladly pay $20/year for this service. I mean you sell photography themes and …
Two things worth noting are the fact that the images were not shot on a tripod but handheld. Also it’s worth noting that these were shot at 2.8 hence the thin depth of field of the images. In my opinion, the colors are simply outstanding. They were shot raw and are pretty much sooc. I love the bokeh of the 28mm lens as its not busy but very soothing and pleasing to watch. Overall, I think this lens is a clear winner. Some of my Favorite Ricoh GR articles Ricoh GR: Storytelling at its best Ricoh GR: Tribute to Daido Moriyama Ricoh GR: Love Letter to the GR Daido Moriyama uses the Ricoh GR Ricoh GR: My first gallery Ricoh GR: Street Photography Tutorial
As the consummate student of this great craft, I purchased Ming Thein’s Introduction to Photoshop Workflow DVD($60). A review is forthcoming. Some of you out there may have had the same expectations as I had, so I think its useful to share my opinion. In the meantime, I used some of the techniques I learned on the video to process this Ricoh GR image, but stay tuned for a more in depth review of this dvd this coming in August. On other news, I’m slowly setting up my portfolio and galleries with The Turning Gate software and you’ll soon get a screen grab on how its coming along.
Ledesma Photography 