Light L16 and the rise of computational photography

I was thinking of people walking –*typical street photography scenes.

However, using a camera in situations well-suited to its strengths is wise advice.
 
You got me thinking as to why the L16, and indeed all smartphone cameras, are never any good at photographs of things in motion. I think one element is that it's quite difficult to target and hold a focus zone. With the iPhone 6 and up, you can tell it where to focus and lock it there. With the L16, you can do the same thing by using the touch screen and defining the focus point, following photos will re-used that focus point. But with both cameras, that touch operation is somewhat clumsy, prone to error, and the cameras are slow in responding to it.

Then, with the L16, there's a matter of DoF. At shorter focal length settings this is not a problem, but as the focal length grows out to 150mm eFOV, DoF decreases and the post-capture processing capabilities are insufficient to retarget the critical focus adequately. You have no direct control over aperture setting either, in either camera (on the iPhone, at least with the standard camera software) so you can't just zone focus and snap away like you do with {pick your choice of favorite standard camera}.

And of course, with both the shot to shot responsiveness is lacking.

This paints a grim picture for true action/subject-in-motion work .. but eh? no camera does everything perfectly, or even well for that matter. I apply the L16 to everything, and as I use it more I find that it can do more than I thought, but there are always some limits. :)
 
I think average "people walking; street scenes" should be doable. The responsiveness with current firmware is the challenge there, but I've done that kind of stuff with similarly unresponsive cameras.

Actually, I count this kind of photo as being in that category..



.. although they weren't walking per se; they were talking and gesticulating, but definitely in motion. It's always a matter of the photographer's timing in these situations, not the camera so much.

I'll do more at the next opportunity. :)
 
Continuing to study and practice with the L16, I carry it all the time now. It proves handy and unobtrusive...


Light L16
ISO 915 @ f/15 @ 1/40 @ 150mm​

enjoy!
G
 
Another shot of my Moto Guzzi V7III Racer, this time fitted with the seat I plan to use for touring, the Gel Comfort Saddle:


Light L16
ISO500 @ f/3.8 @ 1/60 @ 55mm​

The focus zone in this one was narrowed; I used the "match depth" function to shape where I wanted the sharpness to be.

enjoy! G
 
Racer again ... Now a front 3/4 view:


Light L16
ISO 500 @ f/4.7 @ 1/40 @ 47mm
Reduced and shaped focus zone.​

enjoy!
G
 
This morning at the cafe ...


Light L16
ISO 132 @ f/8.7 @ 1/60 @ 150mm​

I was trying to capture more "people in motion" and caught my friend as he entered the cafe.

enjoy, G
 
I've been attending the Cinequest 2018 film festival since last Wednesday, taking the bus and walking to those events that are located in downtown San Jose and taking the train for those events located in Redwood City. Walking a lot, carrying a very minimal bag with me that has nothing but my Cinequest passes, wallet, keys, iPad, L16, et al in it. And shooting quite a bit for me ... I've made about 300+ exposures with the L16.

Some comments regards shooting with it:

  • I think it's one of the most invisible cameras I've worked with in street situations these days. Most people seem to perceive it as just a big smart phone, a very few actually notice that it's pointing at them, and then they're curious rather than defensive about it.
  • A couple of the latest L16 firmware features make it much more responsive and quick to work with (like the one that now allows a quick tap of the power button to put it to sleep and wake it back up without having to go through the lengthy boot-up). The new focusing algorithms are hugely improved on speed, shutter responsiveness is worlds better. That said, it's not in the class of something like the Leica M on shot to shot responsiveness (nor do I expect it to be). It's just a little laggier than the iPhone 6 in my perception, but its ergonomics are so much better it's hard to see the difference.
  • Power consumption seems fairly economical in every day use: I didn't charge it up specifically when the film festival began and I've only charged it up once since but that was when it was still showing over 50% power remaining. Two days of being on, making photos, being used to review photos, or in sleep mode, and it still shows more than 70% power remaining. That's not bad for a device running 16 cameras, display, and Android OS with WiFi turned on.
  • Taking photos at all kinds of focal length settings and in all kinds of light, of static and dynamic subjects, I'm pretty amazed at the L16's versatility for such a small device, and I'm occasionally quite amused by its foibles and failures. For instance, a simple static shot of the light rail train moving past at 1/140 sec produced some of the wonderful old "tilted rectilinear distortion" that large focal plane shutters produce on moving rectilinear-sensitive subjects (like racing car wheels at speed), probably to do with read speed from all the cameras or something similar. The L16 shutter lag has its usual downsides when shooting people and expressions, although setting it to 3 frame or 6 frame sequence capture helps on that a little bit (at the expense of a lot of additional data collection). All of these negatives can be turned into positives creatively, or worked around. The ability to lock and hold focus now is very useful when doing street photography!
  • One interesting 'failure' was a long shot at 150mm setting in the dimness of the theater during a Q&A with some high school student short films. The young people were all standing in a row and I turned on the flash. Well, between the long focal length setting, the dimness, the noise, and the flash being on, all of them have a particularly ghoulish appearance as the flash being in the center of the lenses reflected straight back off their retinas giving all of their faces and evil lighted eyes look. It's kind of funny, because the situation was very upbeat and these kids were really very exuberant and happy with all the praise and applause being thrown their way, trying to look thoughtful and respond seriously, but they look like a little row of zombie vampires considering their next attack. :)
  • The photos the L16 makes can be beautifully textured and detailed, but it is quite variable in that regard depending upon the scene, the illumination, the focal length, and how its various software processes integrate all those individual cameras. If you hover around using 28-35mm or 70mm focal lengths most of the time, you get the most pixels and the best shot at premium quality.
  • I haven't seen too much of a problem with chromatic aberration or flare, but it does occur occasionally. Like with any other camera, avoid situations that cause it, turn on CA removal in your image processing, etc. One problem I find with the L16 that seems to be exaggerated compared to other cameras is simply that it's difficult to hold level and square on to a subject to minimize distortion on the viewfinder LCD. I workaround this by shooting a little loose and using the Lightroom 'Lens Correction' and 'Transform' menus to correct things when the scene requires that.

My workflow so far:
  1. Capture as best I can with focal length, exposure, and focus where I want them.
  2. Start Lumen, transfer images to computer.
  3. Make quick gross corrections where needed with.
  4. Select all and export to DNGs.
  5. Import DNGs into Lightroom and render final.

Once I have the images in LR, if I see an opportunity where making the focus zone shallower or whatever makes sense, I reopen the original .LRI files in Lumen and make adjustments, export those files again to a "b" version DNG, and import those into Lightroom for rendering.

Lumen is the weakest part of the picture taking and processing workflow at present, for me. Not because it doesn't work or is so terrible at what it does, but because what it does is somewhat limited and it is pretty slow in its operations ... particularly exporting. It's just clumsy, which is why I minimize my time using it by using batch exporting, only doing further rendering adjustments when needed, etc. I'm sure it will improve.

Overall, however, using the Light L16 is a pleasure once you get past the initial learning point of how to hold it properly, what the controls do and how they are significant, etc. It's so small and light for its capabilities, I tend to be grabbing for it rather than my other cameras at present: My photography, right now, is a second fiddle to the film festival, or the bicycle ride, or the motorcycle ride. That doesn't mean I don't take it seriously, it just means that I'll trade off some things so that it's not in the way of my enjoying the other things I'm doing.

When I switch modes and put the photography work first ... Well, then it depends on what I'm after as to what equipment I'm going to grab and deal with. The Light L16 presents a different set of capabilities and image rendering compared to my Leicas, or my instant film, or my medium format film, or my pinhole cameras, or ... well, you get the idea I'm sure. :)

With luck, I'll have time to post some photos again by the end of the week. :D

usw,
G
 
Another important day on the road ... I've gone 1400 miles on Sumo today. I asked the one of the men working at the bicycle shop if they would take a picture of me and the bike.


Light L16
ISO 341 @ f/3 @ 1/60 @ 35mm​

He did a pretty good job! :)

enjoy
G
 
I should learn to use a tripod for stuff like this. Not super sharp... But I like the photo anyway.


Light L16
ISO 188 @ f/4 @ 1/60 @ 65mm​

Light issued another new firmware update yesterday, and a matching update to the Lumen app as well. Some nice new capabilities: shutter and ISO priority exposure modes, histogram in the camera, image adjustment in the camera, and a few other things. All good stuff.

enjoy,
G
 
I was setting the table as dawn was bursting onto the scene this morning. As I turned to look out the patio door, I saw the sky as the sun was just getting over Mount Hamilton to the southeast. Ran into my office, grabbed the Light, set it to 70mm, opened the patio door and screen, and nabbed this shot:


Light L16
ISO 100 @ f/15 @ 1/640 @ 70mm

Full resolution image: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/799/27501362828_65c5896c5f_o.jpg​

Damn, the sky was beautiful!

The full rez image is exactly what Lumen output as a full resolution JPEG.

enjoy,
G
 
doitashimash1te said:
Wow. That is a beautiful shot.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I'm enjoying the L16 quite a lot. It's very handy and produces very nice results. It's a little sad that there's so little activity or discussion of it. I think it's an excellent and innovative piece of equipment.

G
 
The more I use this camera, the more I respect it and admire the efforts of its development engineers. It's certainly not perfect, and its image processing app is still just a beta, but darn does it make some amazing photos for me!

—
Yesterday's bicycle ride took me up and over one of the busiest freeway interchanges in the area, the I-280 complex where the eight lanes of Interstate 280 pass under the junction of Interstate 880 and Highway 17, and all the feeder entry and exit ramps route traffic onto the freeways as well as local streets.



full rez: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/831/26869086767_51c94df2fc_o.jpg
Light L16
ISO 100 @ f/15 @ 1/2000 @ 28mm




full rez: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/962/40837954795_ae0d15c6af_o.jpg
Light L16
ISO 100 @ f/15 @ 1/2700 @ 70mm​

The pedestrian/bicycle flyover I took from the north to the south side of this junction starts with a tight, three-story spiral ramp that ends in a bridge flying high over the lanes of traffic. This arc across the span of half the highways below, then zigzags down and under into a tunnel to pass underneath the last two lanes of ramps before letting you out onto a small path leading to the major frontage road on the south side.

It's kinda wild and fun to ride up, over, down, and through but I couldn't think of a decent way to capture it in still photos in toto. ... So the next time I ride it, I'll have my 360 action cam fitted to the bike so I can do a little movie of the transit. :)

enjoy, G
 
Godfrey said:
Thanks, seen it already. He makes what I consider to be the usual mistakes about the Light L16 now ... but eh? everyone's entitled to their opinion. I have my own.

I make photographs with it. :D

---
I owned one of these cars when they were nearly new, bought it for $1800 in 1972 when I graduated High School. Mine was Forest Green with a Tan interior ... four speed manual transmission, cheap Blaupunkt AM/FM stereo, no AC or power accessories at all. It was a glorious thing to drive: light, agile and trim, quick enough... But oh my was it expensive for an 18 year old to service and maintain! Loved it anyway, lots of fun...



​
Click to expand...


Fabulous cars. The ‘73 I drove through college was even more basic - 4 speed, no air, no power windows, no radio, and no sunroof. It had a crappy solex carb that I had to blow out with an air compressor about every third fill-up, beyond tat it was rock solid. Mine was a beautiful Atlantic Blue. This was mid-70’s and I could drive on a 300 mile trip and maybe pass 1 or 2 other bimmers, and the owners always flashed their lights; then came the 320i and it all went down hill...​
 
gdi said:
Fabulous cars. The ‘73 I drove through college was even more basic - 4 speed, no air, no power windows, no radio, and no sunroof. It had a crappy solex carb that I had to blow out with an air compressor about every third fill-up, beyond tat it was rock solid. Mine was a beautiful Atlantic Blue. This was mid-70’s and I could drive on a 300 mile trip and maybe pass 1 or 2 other bimmers, and the owners always flashed their lights; then came the 320i and it all went down hill...
Click to expand...

Sounds like mine except for the radio. :)

I did hop mine up a bit at some point ... I imported the airbox and carbs, distributor, and exhaust manifold from the TIZA Alpina model in Germany, and fitted an Abarth tail section to the exhaust as well as alloy wheels and tires.

I agree: When the 320i came out, BMW seemed to head in a different direction and the BMW audience shifted a lot. The 320i seemed a big 'softening down' of the marque's distinctiveness, to me. Driving one was never as fun as the 2002.

G
 
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