Information

 

 

 

Introduction

All photographs presented on this website were made during my “free time”, just for non-professional fun. In my professional life I am a geographer specialised in GIS and remote sensing (a very expensive type of photography). You can find more about my work and background in the work section of this website.

I am active in photography since 1990 but became really active since the purchase of a Canon Eos 300 SLR in 1999, which I am still using. However during the last years I made quite some investments in accessories, high quality lenses and (finally) a digital SLR… My equipment is described below.

I like nature photography: macro photographs, landscape panoramas and “frog perspective” wide angle photographs (using my favourite tool: the angle finder…), however buildings and people can be fun too…

Of course I like travelling to take all my pictures, but some nice light in the surroundings of Utrecht, the Netherlands, where I am living, or the combination of frogs and a macro lens in an ordinary garden pond can deliver “jungle pictures" too… (Just check the special themes section).

Until April 2006 I used positive and negative film, which is a quite expensive habit. In my opinion the colour reproduction and characteristics of film(cameras) are difficult to match by digital cameras. However, when I returned from Tasmania in March 2006 with 26 rolls of (difficult to obtain professional) film, I decided to invest in a "full frame" 12.8 Megapixel Canon Eos 5D. In August 2008 I purchased a Panasonic Lumix LX-3 digital compact camera, in my opinion the first digital compact camera with acceptable quality.

My film workflow is entirely digital: after processing I scan the photographs using a high quality film scanner and do some additional adjustments in Adobe Photoshop. I limit these adjustments to exposure optimisation, “horizon rotation”, limited retouching and cropping.

My digital photographs are made in the "RAW" format. The RAW images are converted to .jpg or .tif using the Adobe Photoshop RAW plugin giving optimal control over exposure, detail & colour balance. Additionally I do some minor edits in Adobe Camera Raw: “horizon rotation”, limited retouching and cropping.

My photographs are “manipulation free” (except one...) and represent the real world as some of the “making of” pictures below try to show…
If you are interested in my photographs or want to use them in any publication, please contact me at:

r.sluiter “at” gmail.com

Mauritius 2004 Mauritius 2004

Equipment

Most photographs were made using:

Canon EOS 300 (05-1999)
Canon EOS 30 (03-2006)
Canon EOS 5D (04-2006)
+
Tamron 28-200 mm /f3.5-5.6 (05/1999 - 03/2005)
Tamron SP AF 90 mm macro (1:1)/f2.8 (03/2001)
Tokina 17 mm /f3.5 (05/2001 - 10/2004)
Canon 17-40 L/f4 (10-2004)
Canon 70-200 L/f4 (03-2005)
Canon 24-105 L/f4 IS (07-2006)
+
Circular Polariser (10-1999)
Canon Speedlight 420 EX (01-2003)
Canon Angle Finder B (05-2003)

In August 2008 I purchased a Panasonic Lumix LX-3 digital compact camera for situations when I don't want to carry much equipment.

Photographs older than May 1999 are made with a Ricoh FF9, 35 mm. camera.

Film

Photographs before May 2003 are made on Fuji Superia or Kodak Gold film (negative film, iso 200, iso 400) . From May 2003 I used Kodak Professional Royal Supra (negative film, iso 200, iso 400), its successor Kodak Professional UC (iso 200, iso 400), Fuji Reala (negative film, iso 100), Kodak Elite Chrome EBX (positive film, iso 100), Fuji Velvia (positive film, iso 50), Fuji Sensia (positive film, iso 100) and Fuji Provia (positive fim, iso 100).

Scanning

In 2003 I started to use dedicated film scanners: Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED and Nikon Coolscan V (50 ED), with resolutions up to 4000 dpi. At present, all photographs taken on film are scanned by a dedicated film scanner. Additional editing was done with Adobe Photoshop. Panoramas were stitched using the Trial Edition of MGI PhotoVista and Panorama Maker 4.