A update to Lightroom v2 is available from Adobe.
This is specifically a release to deal with:
RAW files, but Adobe also included some fixes for a greenish tint issues as well.
You can read and download the full install package from adobe.
Smart Objects was introduced back in CS2. At the time, I did not find much use for it, but recognized that it can come in handy in some occasions. They do make certain types of changes harder, some functions are not available when using Smart Objects, but they are an excellent tool for non-destructive changes. Here is a case where they came in extremely handy:
I have started doing a lot more with Photobooks lately. The first “real” wedding book that I did, took about 12 hours total from scratch (no templates). If I had not started with objects that time would have been doubled or even tripled. The time savings comes from being able to move images around, resize, and reposition them easily and without having to go back to the source.
What is a smart object?
A smart object is a “copy” of an image, be it a photograph, vector art, or just about anything that can be its own file and layer. The object is inserted, as is, into a layer which can be acted upon without modifying the source.
Why use Smart Objects?
The easiest way to tell you is to show you.
Now repeat the process, except:
Instead of 1a, 1b, 1c … use File -> Place, and insert the “test” insert as a smart Object. Also instead of using “px” as the size you can use 10% as the scale option. When you go back to try to increase the size of the layer again, it knows that it is at 10% and you can use 100% to go back to the original size.
If you have already a Canon camera registered, you can get $20 or $50 back on a second camera.
Download the rebate from Canon’s website.
Previous versions that MUST have been already registered with Canon are:
“This upgrade offer is for current registered owners of Canon EOS Digital Rebel, Digital Rebel XT, Digital Rebel XTi, Digital Rebel XSi, Digital Rebel XS, Digital Rebel T1i, 1D, 10D, 20D, 20DA, 30D, 40D, 50D, 7D, 5D Mark II, 5D, 1DS, 1D Mark II, 1DS Mark II, 1D Mark II N, 1D Mark III, 1DS Mark III, PowerShot PRO 90 IS , PRO 1, G11, G10, G9, G7, G6, G5, G3, G2, G1, TX1, SX1 IS, SX20 IS, SX10 IS, SX200 IS, SX120 IS, SX110 IS,
SX100 IS, S5 IS, S3 IS, S2 IS, S1 IS, S90, S80, S70, S60, S50, S45, S40, S30, S20, S10, D10, SD1200 IS, SD1100 IS, SD1000, SD990 IS, SD980 IS, SD970 IS, SD960 IS, SD950 IS, SD940 IS, SD900, SD890 IS, SD880 IS, SD870 IS, SD850 IS, SD800 IS, SD790 IS, SD780 IS, SD770 IS, SD750, SD700 IS, SD630, SD600, SD550, SD500, SD450, SD430, SD400, SD300, SD200, SD110, SD100, SD40, SD30, SD20, SD10, S500, S410, S400, S330, S300, S230, S200, S110, S100, E1, A2100 IS, A2000 IS, A1100 IS, A1000 IS, A720 IS, A710 IS, A700, A650 IS, A640, A630, A620, A610, A590 IS, A580, A570IS, A560, A550, A540, A530, A520, A510, A480, A470, A460, A430, A420, A410, A400, A310, A300, A200, A100, A95, A85, A80, A75, A70, A60, A50, A40, A20, and A10 cameras (“Qualified Product”) who have registered their product before October 12, 2009.”
The new models that you can get a rebate on, are:
“Purchase and register a new Canon EOS Rebel XS, Rebel XSi, Rebel T1i, 50D, 7D, 5D Mark II, PowerShot G11, G10, S90, SX1 IS, SX20 IS, SX200 IS, SX120 IS, D10, SD970 IS, SD980 IS, SD960 IS, SD940 IS, SD780 IS, SD1200 IS, A1100 IS, and A480 camera (“Qualified New Product”) anytime from October 12, 2009 through December 31, 2009. Must enter valid serial number at time of registration to qualify.”
I’ll take this opportunity to tell you about the Canon PowerShot S90 — the only powershot or G class camera with f/2 Lens. I’m very surprised both at it’s lens, and it’s output. I think the next open lens is a f/3.5. Only if it could be easily converted to IR, it would have been the perfect camera for me. I’m still keeping my eye on a used G10 or G11 to convert. Well after ordering a Mark IV, it’s going to be a while before I can buy another body, but I’ll keep an eye open nonetheless.
I’ve been seeing a lot more Continuous light modules and from what I hear they were all over PDN this year.
I can honestly say that I never thought they would catch on, but I can also see why they would. Just like not having to worry about learning a Darkroom helped more people use Digital, I can see how someone may not want to learn lighting to use external lights.
You shoot what you see, you don’t have to worry about ratios blindly. It’s Shoot what you see photography, which is good for some occasions but not all.
What is Continuous Light good for?
What Continuous will not work for
These are just what popped in my head. I’m sure I missed some in both camps.
Let’s start with the source, since as always GIGO applies (Garbage in, garbage out)
The camera’s color management is fairly easy to control. You have two questions, “Color Space” and “White Balance Kelvin”. Color balance refers to the range of colors that will be available, and how they will be defined. Adobe RGB has more colors (wider gamut) than sRGB. However, Adobe RGB is usually used for commercial printing and if you’re not going to a lab, you will need to do more post processing to bring out the colors of your image. In camera they will look washed out and subdue.
The second question White Balance is the color of light. There are various pre-defined settings such as Auto, Sun, Shade, Cloudy, etc… but the best setting is Custom White Balance.
To combat white balance, the best option is to use a 18% gray shot and set your custom white balance several times during a shoot (unless the light does not change, i.e. Studio, short session).
One caveat, shooting in RAW would defer the entire argument above. With RAW all data is kept at 16-bit data points as the sensor captures it, so no matter what you have set for your color space or white balance, they can be changed without loss of data in Camera Raw Converter.
Recommendations: Use sRGB in Camera, use a 18% gray target and set your custom white balance and always shoot in RAW.
In your work environment your monitor and video card are the most essential parts as this is how you see your image. You are going to make decisions on color, contrast, vibrancy. Sadly most environments are not a true representation of what your image looks like. The “profile” of your monitor maybe (or I should say “is”) giving you a distorted color variation of what the photo actually looks like.
A “Color Profile” is simply a lookup table that tells reads in the color values of the most saturated colors available. This means that it knows what the highest blue, red and green are where as if something is green, the question is always “how green?” The profile defines the maximum and the rest fall below that as needed.
The best option is to use an external caliber to not only calibrate your monitor but build a specific profile for your monitor and your environment.
The following are important points to remember
Recommendations: I, personally use the Spyder3 Pro from DataColor to calibrate, profile and keep an eye on the room ambient light. It works for me, but your mileage as always will vary. Please do a full due diligence before any purchase to make sure it’s the right tool.
The output of a photograph can be:
However, we’ll discuss only printers for now. Projectors and other monitors although important would take a lot longer.
With printers, and I’ll only discuss higher end printers, as with low end printers the color is going to shift no matter what you do. Higher end printers, and even commercial printers, will always have a Printer Profile that you can use.
Just like with a monitor, a printer profile defines the most the most saturated R, G, B (or CMYK) color the printer can provide. The rest of the colors are below those numbers as they need to be.
The profile for your commercial printers can usually be downloaded from them directly. With most professional printers, they either provide updated profiles (every month or so), or they calibrated their printers back to a specific profile themselves so that they’re consistent even though the profile may have changed.
There are various tutorials on the web on how to do soft proofing and print matching and I will not go into that here. If you have any questions please follow up in email or comments.
Let’s start with what color management is not. Color Management is not proper color, adjusted color, or anything to do with how an image looks in reality.
Color management refers to the transfer of a specific color from one device, to another. What does this mean? Let’s take an example of a head shot. Color management gives you the best shot at making sure that the color of the eye in the portrait in camera, on the monitor, printed, or displayed on a projected are all the same hue and luminosity (it’s the same color). That’s it. Now the question becomes why wouldn’t it the same? The answer is that there is very little chance (almost none) that two devices will produce the same color even close to each other.
I’ll try to make further posts on this subject and what you can do to make sure that you’re images are handled exactly as you want them to.
Right up there with “Why are we here?” and “Who am I?” are “What computer should I buy?” and “What camera should I get?”
There is no right answer, but the typical answer is: “The one that is right for what you want to use it for that fits in your budget.” Here are some pointers to help you make that decision.
The initial question is Point and Shoot (P&S) or Single Reflective Lens (SLR). Both camera types can give you fantastic images, and both are capable of producing absolutely trash worthy images. The SLR camera just gives you more rope to hang yourself with. So the range of the good and bad is even greater. The first question you have to ask yourself is: “If I buy a SLR, will I use the Manual mode?” If the answer is “Yes”, than an SLR is probably the right choice. If the answer is “No, I rather use the automatic or pre-programmed modes” — than the P&S is the right camera for you. An SLR on automatic mode is really just a fancy, expensive P&S – for the most part. The second question is, “If I buy an SLR, will I spend more money on different lenses? If the answer is: “Yes, I want better and different type lenses,” than SLR is probably a good choice. Otherwise, P&S have gotten very good with the variety of lenses and modes that can go from 17mm to 300mm — both Landscape and Macro modes.
Ok so assuming you have made the choice to buy an SLR, which camera is the right one for what you want to do? The first question is which manufacturer. Canon, Nikon, Pantex and SONY are all good manufacturers. Nobody can say that SONY does not make a good camera. They’re all good and have a great line up. The tricky part about the SLR world is lenses and accessories. Canon and Nikon easily become the front runners because of their lens and accessory line of equipment. They both have 20-50 lenses available for any specific type of photography you want to do. For me the choice was an easy one. The Canon lenses, in my opinion, are superior to the Nikon ones so far. Nikon has taken the lead in the “body” category, but as anyone in photography will tell you, it’s all about the “glass”. If you already have an investment with a company, go with that one, it’s far too costly to switch and the lead will switch back and forth. DO NOT get caught up in the media wars. If you have friends with good lenses go with whatever manufacturer they use, so you can “borrow” or “trade” lenses.
For me the choice was rather easy, my father was a Canon user, I had a Canon myself and the canon lenses have always impressed me. Here are my recommendations of bodies + primary lenses for Canon. These are not restrictive, almost any body and any lens can do anything, and these are my personal recommendations on what I would do if I were in that situation. These are the minimums that I would start with. A second body never hurts.
| Walk around, general photography | 50D (or 7D) + 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM |
| Wedding Photography | 5D Mark II + 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM and 1Ds Mark III + 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM + 580EX II Flash w/External Battery |
| Portrait/Studio type Photography | 50D + 70-200mm f/4L USM + Tripod |
| Portrait/Studio type Photography (for fine print media) | 1Ds Mark III + 70-200mm f/4L USM + Tripod |
| Product/Commercial Photography | 7D or 1Ds Mark II + 100mm f/2.8 Macro or the new 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS + Tripod |
| Landscape Photography | 5D Mark II + 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM + Tripod |
| Wildlife Photography (birds/large animals) | 7D or 1D Mark III + 500mm f/4 L IS USM + 580EX II Flash + Carbon Fiber Tripod |
| Wildlife/Nature Photography (small) | 7D + 100mm f2.8L IS Macro + Tripod |
| Anything up to High School Sports Photography | 7D + 300mm f/4 L IS USM + 430EX II Flash + Monopod |
| College Sports Photography | 1D Mark IIN or 1D Mark III + 300mm f/2.8 IS or 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM + Monopod |
| Division I/Pro Sports Photography | 1D Mark III + 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM + Monopod |
If you’re a fan of lightroom there are some absolutely great features, updates and add-ons to Lightroom 3. It’ll continue to work until April 2010 which is a good time to check it out if you are not a fan. Why would you be?!?
On the top of my list:
These are just the ones that I had been hoping for, there are various new speed enhancements as well to deal with the ever growing file and catalog sizes.
Head over to Adobe Labs for your own copy of Lightroom 3 Beta.
Well once again this little gem has come up, so I thought I would write do a short blog on it.
Should you have a UV(0) filter on your lens?
The two sites are:
Here are my thoughts on the subject:
Both statements are true. You just paid $500-$1200 for a nice lens on your SLR to get the absolutely best image you can. Why introduce something that is going to take away from your image quality? But also, you just paid $500-$1200 for a nice lens, do you really want to scratch the front element when a small piece of debris get blown into it? Or while you’re cleaning it, you scratch it?
So what’s the answer? The answer is to use a filter, but use the best filter possible to reduce the amount of disruption to an absolute minimum. Multi-coated filters, good name brand filters are the best option.
I personally use Sunpack filters as they are actually made by the same manufacturers as other “name brand” filters but cost half. When I get a new lens, after testing it and within the first 12 hours I have a sunpack UV(0) filter on there and it doesn’t come off until spring cleaning. I do my very best not to have to remove the filter. I have heard of “What about sunflares?” USE your hood, that’s what it is for. Also, you can use a GND filter on top of the UV filter. Most non-ultra-wide filtes (< 14mm) will not notice the extra lens. You should check this on your lens before trying it though. My Canon EF 24-105mm L f/4 is my main walk around lens and it has had UV(0), and 2 GND (-3 stop) filters on it without it doing any vignetting — so it depends on the lens.
Final word…. I rather break and chuck s $60 filter than have to send in my lens to Canon for a $400 repair anyday of the week.
Well as all know one of the most useful tools when editing is to see how much you’ve changed. Sometimes you find it you’ve gone over the deep end on something and need to back off because whatever was, would work better.
In Lightroom, while under the “Developer” modeule (D) 2 has the (\) can be used to switch back and forth to the before and after image of your shot. With or without any edits.
What is going on is that the image is shown as it stands, compared to the “Import” usually the initial view. What if you had 12 changes, but only wanted to see the last 6 changes to a customer as before and after and not all of the other corrections?
The trick is to move the “before” stamp to a new spot on the history. Select the step you want to be “before” and on the History item, right click and select “Copy History Step Settings to Before”. Remember, that whatever history item you have selected is the “After”. So select the next point of comparison and use the backslash key.