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Recently I visited the Wildlife Rescue Center Of The Hamptons Inc. The rescue center is a great non-profit organization that is helping various wild animals and birds in Eastern Long Island.

They have both “show and tell” sessions for general public (up to 20 people) and photographers. They also have a dedicated photographers (4-5 photographers only) session that sounds like a great option. They will use natural perches and allow you up to 2 hours of photography with their owls.

I wish I had brought my 70-200mm or more extension tubes. From the front row, the 300mm was a bit too long (or rather my minimum focusing distance was too large).

Recently I did a photography job at the Stony Brook Staller center.  It was my first time doing a concert — along with the limitations and restrictions that you get along with doing a live event.   With not being able to move around too much I decided to do some creative shots.  Here is the end result:

This is a combination of two separate images, one done with a relatively slow shutter speed and one done normally.

Image #1: Canon EOS 50D, 100mm f/2.8 Macro – 0.5 second @ f/32, ISO 3200, + 1/3 EV

Image #1 - Master Layer

Image #2: EOS 50D, 100mm f/2.8 Macro – 1/400th second @ f/2.8, ISO 3200, + 1/3 EV

Now, to combine the two images, we’ll take them both into photoshop. There are a million ways of doing this, but this is how I usually do it:

1. The “master” is the image that more than 50% of we’ll keep. In this case, image #1 since we’ll keep everything but the violinist.
2. Duplicate the background layer, so that we have a duplicate copy of the background in the master. This is more of a precaution so that we always have an original layer that we can go back to.
3. Click on Image #2, double click on the “Background” layer so that it turns into a regular layer. Drag the layer across to on top of Image #1.
4. I renamed the new layer “Violinist”, and attach a mask to that layer.
5. I tried to use the “Auto-Align” feature of Photoshop at this point, but it didn’t work (and I really had no hope that it worked, just wanted to see if it could).
6. So I used the eraser tool and erased as much as I could on the layer. I really should have done this with a second mask but there was absolutely no information that I wanted to keep.
7. Now that I could see the layer underneath, I reduced the opacity of the layer to 30% and moved it so it roughly matched the original layer. The parquet floor pattern was very helpful in this case. (Zoom in as much as you can, it makes life easier).
8. Increase the opacity back to 100% on the “Violinist”. Now use the mask that we attached earlier with a very soft brush and erase the outline.
9. I also added a Levels adjustment to the “Violinist” layer (clipped it in fact) so that I could lighten up the floor a bit to match the “master”. This way I didn’t have to hide all of the floor.
10. Final result is posted above.

    

    Image #2 – Violinist

I’ve now lived on Long Island for 24 years.  When in High School, my friends and I used to go driving around just to get lost — yes, we had nothing better to do and because we had just gotten our license.   I thought I knew Suffolk Country, most of it anyway.  As I have gotten older I still seem to find new places that I have never been before.

Blydenburgh County Park is one of those places.  I knew of only one side of the Park, although admittedly I had never gone inside even that one entrance.  An entire section with an the old Blydenburgh home and walking area had been not known to me.  Well I have now visited the park twice in the winter, and I can’t wait for fall to come.  It will be an amazing scene with the colors and shapes, a large lake to get reflections, a high perch to be able to get the nice reflection, and I’m sure even more little treasures to find.

A update to Lightroom v2 is available from Adobe.

This is specifically a release to deal with:

• Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon PowerShot G11
• Canon PowerShot S90
• Nikon D3s

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.

1. Find a small image that you would like to test with.  Create a file in Photoshop that is the same, or slightly larger.  Use “White” as your background.  Please note the size of the “test” image.  We’ll assume 400 px X 400px.
   1. Open your image, and Copy its content.  Select All (CTRL+A), Copy (CTRL+C).
   2. Switch to your newly created empty file, and Paste (CTRL+V)
   3. Notice the smoothness of the image.
2. Edit -> Free Transform or CTRL + T
3. In the toolbar for the Transform change, change W: 100px, and H: 100px (25% of the original), and Click the Check Mark.
4. Now increase the size of the layer back by reversing the process.
5. Edit-> Free Transform or CTRL+T
6. In the toolbar for the transform tool, change W: 400px and H: 400px back to the original size of the image.
7. Notice how badly the image is pixilated. This is because the act of reducing the image is destructive.  All extra data after the change is lost.  So if you try to increase the size or get a color or part of the image back – it’s gone.

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?

• One or two person Studio Sessions
• Product Shots
• Short duration photography as they generate a lot more heat
• Where power is not a concern
• Distance is not great.
• You don’t have to try to over power local illumination or the sun.
• Different LEDs can be used to provide different color lights without the use of gels

What Continuous will not work for

• Mobile situations — such as speedlights
• Where you have limited power.  Even power packs only have so much voltage.
• Large group of people
• Strobes are easier to Gel most of the time.
• Strobes generate less heat
• Small flashes with AA batteries can be mounted/moved just about anywhere.
• A small external battery can give you several hours of shooting capability with a speedlight.

These are just what popped in my head.  I’m sure I missed some in both camps.

Camera

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.

Work environment

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

1. It is by far the cheapest tool in photography.
2. It is by far the most important tool in color management.
3. Get a unit that not only does calibration but generates a specific color profile for your monitor
4. The unit should also remain attached to your computer and continuing adjust the monitor based on the light in the room.  The colors on your monitor will not look the same when being viewed while a warm glow of a sunrise is lighting the room, vs. a cloudy day, vs. Halogen bulbs at night.  The unit should determine the color of the light in the room and do slight adjustments to the monitor.

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.

Outputs

The output of a photograph can be:

• Printed
• Projected

1. Viewed on another monitor

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.

Which camera?

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.

What SLR should I buy?

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.

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