Holiday Cactus lit by the sun for about five minutes. In another few days, the mountains will block all direct sunlight at the house for about six weeks. This picture was inspired by my friend, Jim Nichols, who passed away recently, and was a fierce advocate of the Olympus E-1. Photo taken with the Olympus E-1 and ZD 14-54 lens.
Chugach Mountains. Eagle River Nature Center. Alaska. Photo taken with the Olympus E-1 and 12-60 SWD lens. 5-image HDR processed in Adobe Lightroom.
I shoot Olympus
Got nothing in my brains
That's what people say, mm, mm
That's what people say, mm, mm
Shake it off, I shake it off
I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off
I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off
I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off (Whoo-hoo-hoo)
(Haters gonna hate, Taylor Swift - modified)
Olympus OM-4T with 35-80/2.8 zoom, MD2, and T45 flash. Photographed with the Olympus E-1 and 14-54 lens. Lit with LED panels.
Setting Sun and Falling Snow. Chugach Mountains. Eagle River, Alaska. Olympus E-1 with 50-200 SWD Lens. "They say" the E-1 just isn't very good. ISO 100, F5.6, 1/60, 200mm, monopod. Processed in Adobe Lightroom. Keen observers will note that this is like the previous picture, but was taken the following evening. These two pictures also illustrate a little bit how the E-1 renders tonalities and highlights as compared to CMOS-based cameras.
One of the questions about the OM Zuiko series of lenses is whether or not the more common and affordable 50mm F3.5 Macro lens is sharp. I'm of the opinion that this lens is actually one of the sharpest lenses of any form in the OM Zuiko line. This picture illustrates the sharpness and the contrast this lens is known for. It was taken with the Olympus E-1 5MP crop-sensor camera, so it's just the middle portion (100mm equivalent focal length) of the image area. The image was converted and processed in Adobe Lightroom.
The Olympus E-1 has an absolutely wonderful Kodak CCD sensor that has three major flaws: Not enough pixels, noisy pixels, and supposed lack of dynamic range. However, in fairness, the noisy pixels are generally not an issue if you can shoot at base-ISO. The lack of dynamic range is sometimes a challenge, but usually not a problem because the images require less bending in the computer to achieve desired output. But the lack of pixels is definitely a weakness and forces a restriction on maximum print sizes and cropping.
But the colors, oh, the colors! And the mid-tone contrasts. The typical digital camera has a much flatter response curve and requires more gain adjustment to form the desired output curve. The E-1 raw images have a much steeper response cure and a significant "toe" in the shadows. Not really any shoulder, but the toe is major. Because of this, as well as a more intense color profile, it requires less bit-bending and saturation to be added later in the process. The E-1's Kodak CCD sensor is effectively closer to the final output and requires less computational adjustment later on.
When it comes to color saturation, most cameras allow for the images to be "saturated" through the edit process, but rarely are those saturated colors "rich colors". It's similar to cooking where butter can provide a richness in flavor that a vegetable oil cannot.
The following images are from 2005 and were taken in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I've revisited these images and processed them with the latest/greatest version of Adobe CC in Lightroom Classic. While an argument can be made that I've turned the volume up to 11 on most of these, the results satisfied my current aesthetic and just shows what is possible. These are quick edits. No detail work performed, no spotting or edge-definition work.
The actual settings in Lightroom Classic are mostly about half to a third of what I have to do with Canon 6D and Panasonic DMC-GX85 images. The natural color intensity and mid-tone curve requires little adjustment and in some cases (although, not shown here) require significant subtraction rather than addition.
Lake Superior Sunrise - Porcupine Mountains State Park. Olympus E-1 with 14-54 lens.
Flowing Water - Bond Falls. Olympus E-1 with OM Zuiko 300/4.5 lens.
Red Water - Bond Falls at Sunset. Olympus E-1 with 14-54 lens.
There are innumerable ways these images can be processed. I've personally processed these images many different ways over the past 15 years and next time will be sure to handle them differently again. But these are how I wanted to process them this time. And the raw files support it. Absolutely no heroics were applied, nor gradients or local adjustments. All adjustments were global. Other than minor cropping and rotation, these are as-is. No spot editing, nor corrections. Just color and contrast adjustments. Final print versions have different edits and adjustments made for display.
Ken
The Golden Child. The OM-3Ti was the final pro-grade camera Olympus made for the OM line. The 35-80/2.8 zoom lens was one of the final lenses too. This kit was quite pricy when new - especially for a manual camera with mechanical shutter. The lens is also exceptionally sharp and has amazing bokeh characteristics.
This photograph was taken with the Olympus E-1 with 14-42 lens.
Mountains and Reflections. Albert Loop Trail. Eagle River Nature Center. Multi-image panorama. Olympus E-1 with 14-42 lens. 16 images merged together. (Updated version to correct color cast and dynamics).
Summer Solstice in Alaska. It was as good of an excuse as any to get the Olympus E-1 out. Eagle River and Chugach Mountains. Alaska. Olympus E-1 with 14-45 lens. Processed in Adobe Lightroom.
Flowing water on an ice cold day. Olympus E-1 with 14-42 lens.
