The Olympus "Dramatic Tone" art filter (in Stuttgart)

I've blathered on quite a bit about my new man-purse/bag, the new camera that fits in it, and filled other posts with night shots, macro shots, and pics from recent trips.

I'm starting to notice that with the Olympus E-PL2 I'm using the Dramatic Tone "art filter" a LOT.  (You've probably seen it in the posts, too.)  It just cranks out interesting results -- not realistic or Pulitzer Prize-worthy, but it adds some splash and fun to amateur photography and strengthens memories of the events that are captured.  Below are my "Top 12" favorite photos using this art filter, and some comments about using the E-PL2 and the resulting Dramatic Tone output.

The following photo was taken on a weekend trip to Stuttgart.  The specific location is called Schillerplatz, in the downtown area.  I'm actually standing next to the statue of Shiller but looking away towards a church on the edge of the square.  It's about 14:30 in the afternoon on a cloudy day.  A lot of this is luck:  the sun streaking throught those clouds at just the right time, and being able to frame the steeple's cross in the light a bit.  I do like what the filter does with brick and stone -- we'll see more of this in later photos.

The next photo is also from the weekend in Stuttgart, this time at the Porsche Museum.  I have a few shots of this Porsche 911 where I was standing closer, but after I'd walked away I looked back and saw that the floor had some interesting reflections from the flatter angle.  I am using the Panasonic 14-140mm (28-280mm equivalent) lens and zoomed out quite a bit to frame the car.  I like the intensity of the red too -- it's one of the colors that plays well with this filter, to my taste anyway.

Let's leave Stuttgart now.  Photo #3 is from our weekend in Vienna.  We were having champagne before seeing a broadway-type show and decided to pull out the camera, just for kicks.  This time, due to the low light, I had on the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens.  That's why there is some bokeh here.  In this setting the art filter = instant mood lighting.  This is one of the side benefits of the art filters - it's fun to just mess around a bit.

Photo #4 below is also from Vienna, this time looking out from the Schönbrunn Palace terrace onto its garden.  It was early afternoon.  The sun on the right was going into my face, so I framed it to the right and let it get blown out.  Again I got some light streaking through the clouds.  The filter took the sky farthest from the sun and gave it a little more blue, and the grass a darker green.  Works for me.  Although don't the people look like results from the diorama filter?

For the next photo I was standing in the same position, but pointed the camera straight at the building at the top of the hill and zoomed out almost to 140mm (280mm equivalent).  While none of the photos in this post are sharp, this is especially soft.  Plus, you can see I got some black-dot artifacts above and left of the building.  Not sure why this happened, and it hasn't occurred since.

Photo #6 is in a hotel bar on the same weekend in Vienna.  Again, we just pulled out the E-PL2 (with 20mm f1.7) for kicks.  Frau A put the camera on the table and got an interesting mirage-like reflection.  I like the overall golden glow that the filter came up with too.  As usual, the dynamic range is not broad enough and the lights are blown out, but small enough to not be too much of a distraction.  I'd photoshop out that guy's jacket if I could...

For picture #7 we're back to the Stuttgart weekend, this time on the observation deck of the television tower.  Somehow, again, I got the tendrils of light coming through the clouds.  The filter gave the metal fence a little to much light, but the telescope-thing on the right became a very "steely" color.  In general, I like the blues and reds resulting from the algorithm in the art filter, and the grenns are OK, but am not fully captivated by the browns.

Photo 8:  still in Stuttgart, but lookout out from the Mercedes museum onto another building in the Mercedes complex.  Interestingly, this time the glass/,etal building got the bluish treatment, and the sky became stormy.  This was taken about 18:00 in the afternoon/evening, and about 15 minutes later the sky was turning red from sunset (just in time for use to board the train - no opportunity to get a shot).

I mentioned that one of the side benefits of the art filters is just messin' around.  Now we're back in Munich.  In this case, it was maybe 21:30 and I just missed a train after work -- had to wait 15 minutes for the next one.  I'm able to carry my E-PL2 in the man-bag every day because of it's form factor, so I just stuck on the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 and clicked away.  Pic #9 was a simple as looking up the stairs to the platform, but the filter did nice things with the bricks, concrete, and handrail.  Once again, lights facing directly into the camera get blown out, but keeping them small controls the damage.

Photo #10 was also an exercise in passing the time, but waiting for the morning train.  Lots of clouds threatening to snow, but not much shape to them -- so the result is not nearly as "dramatic" as in other shots.  However, the red train and yellow sign/lights are cast pretty strongly against that background.  I should have put it in shutter priority mode and captured some motion, but wasn't fast enough.  No, it's not always overcast in Germany/Austria, although it might seem like it from the photos so far...

#11 is back at Schönbrunn palace in Vienna.  The sky gets a similar treatment by the art filter algorithm, but this time the stone gets an exaggerated yellow that I like.  I do wish the statue to the left of Frau A's head had more detail and wasn't so washed out - perhaps I could recover some highlights (if I were talented enough in post processing).  Also the sky is boring because the cloulds had no texture - this art filter likes texture.  Notice too that this is the first "dramatic tone" shot without the "border" effect thrown in.  In fact, it was used, but because of the shot I wanted to crop heavily.  Lesson learned:  use the "border" effect if you can frame the shot well, otherwise don't bother if you're going to crop.

Last photograph, #12.  Yet again, making the daily work commute more interesting.  I got one of the newer U-Bahn trains that are "open" along the entire length (cars aren't closed, but connected with the "accordion"-type thing).  It's late (23:00) so only two people boarded with me -- giving clear line of sight.  I pulled out the camera and at the second stop, jumped up and shot before we started moving again.  The image is extra soft because I was zoomed out quite a bit.  I was probably 3 cars back!

Well, that's it - just some examples and a mind-dump about the Olympus "Dramatic Tone" art filter on the E-PL2.  I find it thoroughally enjoyable and given the right subject and conditions it produces some unique and satisfying results.  When the sun (finally) comes out this Spring, maybe I'll do a similar post using "Pop Art" or "Diorama" - check out initial results with those filters here.

Olympus "Art Filters" (in Vienna and Stuttgart)

One of the fun features of my new camera, the Olympus E-PL2, is its "art filters".  The Olympus art filters are basically a set of pre-packaged algorithms that apply Photoshop-like processing to a JPEG file, inside the camera.  There are six "art filters" available on my camera model:

- Pop Art
- Soft Focus
- Grainy Film
- Pin Hole
- Diorama
- Dramatic tone

Frau A and I played around with a few of them over the last couple of weekends.  First, here is a "regular" photo, taken in a bar on our first evening in Vienna. 

Now here is a photo a few seconds later using the "dramatic tone" art filter.  It appears that this filter pushes the contrast pretty high, probably the saturation also, and maybe a few other tricks too.  It's my favorite filter so far, and I'll probably do a dedicated post on it later.

 

You can also get neat "mirage" like effects from reflections with the dramatic tone art filter.  We just set the camera on the table (marble and polished) and pointed it at the hotel entrance.  This has a warm golden glow, and the table looks pretty cool.  In this case, I'm glad we didn't have a mini tripod with us and tried the table.  Frau A did the creative work here.

A different example:  here we're at the Schönbrunn Palace gardens in Vienna, and taking a "normal" (unprocessed JPEG) photo of an arch.  The sky is slightly blue, the arch green, background buildings brick/reddish, and Frau A in front.

This is the result with the "pop art" art filter.  It cranks up the color saturation.  You can see how yellow the small part of the building through the second arch (in the background) comes through.  That I like.  The green is more intense too, and the brick colors richer.  And look how the gloves on Frau A stand out!  It's an interesting effect, but has its downsides.  For instance, the grass on the right starts out as a dirty green and becomes reddish/rusty with this filter.  That's not to my taste.

Here is one example on the streets of Vienna where the effect was OK -- probably because it was more localized.  The "regular photo" would have been a lot more subdued, because the sky was gray.  The filter took the yellow from the rental bikes and brought the color forward (it's unrealistic, but photography is art, right?).  The red car and pale yellow taxi behind it stand out a bit more too than they would without the art filter.  Because the graytone street was not affected too much, it's not too overwhelming.  The photo itself, of course, is not going to hang in the Met, but that's part of the process of getting to know a new camera and limitations of the photographers!

The "diorama" filter makes things look like a small model of the scene.  Here is a shot from the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, about one story above the cars in the exhibit (the effect works better the higher you are above the subject).  Some whites are a bit blown out (overexposed) and it's a bit grainy because the E-PL2 likes to crank the ISO in low light, but works for this test.

 Now here's a similar photo using the "diorama" art filter.

The cars definitely get a shiny, plasticy/metallic look to them -- not bad.  The downside is that this filter takes a tremendous amount of processing.  The camera literally locks up for maybe 20 seconds while the algorithm works on the JPEG.  Also, I've noticed that it makes a lot of the photo out-of-focus.  Look at the front tire on the red car... it goes from OK to just plain blurry.  I'm guessing this is part of the goal of this filter, rather than an error, in effect trying to create bokeh?

From greater elevation, you get something like this (shot from the television tower in Stuttgart).  Again, you see some significant blurring of subjects not in the middle of the frame, which is not evident with in processed shots.  Interesting.  I'm not sure about this art filter yet.

Perhaps I'll break down the others in another post, but I was not initially excited by the output from the other filters.

For casual photographs, the art filters are actually a lot of fun and much better than using Photoshop.  Pros will prefer to use more powerful tools that give them complete control, but for weekend getaways you can get some nice surprises and turn a dreary day into something really cool.