BOOSTING SATURATION OF DIGITAL IMAGES

You might have wondered many times about your digital images not having that amazing colors and the feel that a slide film would give you. People who have migrated from Provia or Velvia would feel this ever more than anyone else. One can try working on Photoshop or the raw processing software to get similar effects but that requires you to have excellent understanding of digital processing and the science involved and would still be prone to errors and sometimes harsh colors.

I saw such a question raised in a forum recently and there are a couple of solutions proposed. The question said "I have tried custom curves, hue changes, tone selection, color mode selection, but to no avail."

Of the several solutions proposed in the thread, notable is the Velvia Vision, a Photoshop plugin by fredmiranda.com. I have seen some sample images by others earlier, which had generated excellent saturation by using Velvia plugin. The sample images in the website are also inspiring enough. This does appear to be an excellent tool for improving saturation to match that of transparencies. Fredmiranda also has a Photoshop action - Digital Velvia for producing saturated images.

IMAGES FROM THE WILDERNESS

Here are a couple of images I made in the last few days. We went pretty deep in the wilderness the place was full of birds. And I had hardly managed to shoot any landscapes since the time I had gone digital. Am glad I could make a beginning on it last week.



Malabar Giant Squirrels
Exif: EOS 350D, 100-400L at 260mm, 1/125sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, handheld



Wire Tailed Bea Eater
Exif: EOS 350D, 100-400L at 400mm, 1/90sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, handheld




Sunset
Exif: EOS 350D, 17-40L at 35mm, 1/45sec, f/4.5, ISO 400, handheld

BIRDS IN FLIGHT

NPN features some nice images of birds in flight and an article on the same by Andy Rouse. Images of a Gull in flight with backlight are a treat to see, but I wish the images were published in bigger size. Shooting birds in flight is something that I fancy, but I havent been able to progress much on it so far. The best I have managed yet is an image of grey heron in flight.

Am off on a short trip to wilderness for three days and hope to come back with some good images. But weather here has not been very encouraging for photography. It has been raining in the last few days and I haven't managed to go out with the camera. I hope I encounter some good weather where I am headed. See you back on Sunday!

TO UPGRADE OR NOT TO UPGRADE?

This is about recent firmware upgrade posted by Canon for 350D. I had no thoughts about not upgrading earlier. So I downloaded the firmware upgrade file, read through the instructions and was almost ready to go for it. Then paranoia struck me. I am on a vacation for next few months to come and am travelling to lot of places. What if something goes wrong and I have to send it to Canon to get it repaired? What if getting it back from Canon involves long wait and I may have to do some journeys with out my digi SLR? The thought put me off completely and I immediately decided not to go for the upgrade. The upgrade is now scheduled to a time when I am done with my vacation!

FOTOLIA: ANOTHER ROYALTY FREE STOCK AGENCY AND A NEW BUSINESS MODEL

Selling royalty free images with shutterstock kind of business model seem to be getting very popular of late. Many sites have been launched with the same business model which has helped every digital photographer to sell their images.

I received an email via this blog from one such stock agency, Fotolia a couple of days. I almost passed it for spam and deleted it until but I noticed that they have a slightly different business model and may help in making a photographer earn more money. The email says -

A review process determines the sales potential of each image (designers can also post their work) and a ranking system that creates the basis for pricing. The more times an image is purchased the higher the ranking and in turn the opportunity to increase the selling price. Images that do not make the cut are hosted in a free section that will also earn the artists money through an advertising revenue share. These unique features create a social community and profitable marketplace for photographers and designers unlike any other image site available.

If the model works, I think digital photographers can get higher revenues than by selling to a simple royalty free stock agency.

REMOVING DUST AND SCRATCHES USING PHOTOSHOP

It would have happened to most dSLR owners. You come home after a shooting session, happy about getting some good images from your outing, but you see annoying dust marks on the image. It may be quite a job to go back and do a retake of all the images, especially so if you were coming back from a long trip. Photoshop offers many options for removing dust and scratches from your image. While some dust marks can be fixed in a moment, some may take a good lot of time depending on the complexity of the image. I have listed here some ways in which you can remove the dust. Choose the appropriate method based on the image and the dust in each case.

1. USING THE DUST AND SCRATCHES FILTER

This is a very primitive means of removing dust and can be useful only if the area surrounding the dust does not have much details(for example - cloudless sky, background of an image such as a wall, or see the example below). Perform the following steps:

1. Select the area having dust. This is important. If you apply the filter on the entire image, you will end up with a very degraded image. Make a close selection.



2. Open dust and scratch filter from the Menu Filter >> Noise >> Dust & Scratches.



3. Keep the threshold to zero and drag the radius slowly until the noise disappears and merges smoothly with the background. It is that simple, and the job is done!

The threshold value indicates how much variation should the pixels have with neighboring pixels to be considered as dust. A smaller threshold value means small variations would be considered as dust, and higher threshold means small variations are not assumed to be dust and will not be corrected. The value of radius indicates how much fixing must be applied. To understand more about how the threshold and radius values are used, see my article on sharpening images using photoshop.

For the image in example, since the variation between dust and the background is very distinct, smallest threshold is ideal and hence set to zero. With a given value of threshold, move the radius to find an ideal value where the dust disappears.

The Dust and Scratch filter can be used only with simple images like the example. This is not recommended for more complex images.


2. USING THE HEALING BRUSH

The healing brush gives some more control over removing dust. The idea here is to choose an area very similar to how the area with dust should have looked like, then sample it using the healing brush, and paint with the brush on the area with dust. Photoshop will turn the painted area into a region similar to sampled area. You get more control here than the Dust & Scratches filter because you fix only the area that you are painting and not a selection, and you can get fine results by controlling the size of the healing brush.

1. Select the healing brush too from Tools palette.



2. From the toolbar that appears on the top, set the appropriate brush size depending on the size of the dust. Set mode to normal and opacity to 100%. Change the opacity if that could be useful.



3. First sample an area. This is the area which is similar to how the dusty area should have actually appeared. To make a sample, point to that area, hold "Alt" key and click. The areas is now sampled. When you paint with the brush on the area with dust, Photoshop changes it to appear similar to sampled area.

4. Use the brush carefully on the area with dust to remove it.

The healing brush is suitable for use in areas which are more complex than the first example, but it is still not suitable in areas where there is lot of color and tone variations.

3. USING THE PACTH TOOL

Use this for dust in areas with lot of color and tonal variations. It may not replace the dust exactly as it should, but does an excellent job in hiding it.



1. Select the Patch Tool from the tool palette.



2. Select destination in the tool bar on the top. Drag the mouse pointer around an area similar to the area with dust. Make sure the selected area has almost the same size as the area with dust. This area will be used for patching the dust.



3. After selection, simply drag the selected area over the dust. Photoshop will mask the area with dust to look like the sampled area as seen below.




These are the easiest ways for removing the dust. For more complex specks of dust, working more carefully with smaller healing brush or using the patch tool with small selections many times over may help. But that requires some time, effort and patience.

IMAGE OF A WATERFALL

I went for a quick visit to a waterfall today. Photographing the fall was not primarily on the agenda, so I did not carry a tripod. But thanks to the IS, I could do some experiments and got some interesting images of strands of water. Here is one of them.



Exif Data:

Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 250mm, 1/4sec, f/13, ISO 100

IMAGE GALLERY UP AND RUNNING

Update: Broken links in this post are fixed, thanks to Ashwin for pointing out.

Finally I have set up coppermine as I mentioned in earlier post. I have added one album and uploaded a few images so far. See them here. I will use coppermine gallery for only those albums that are likely to keep growing over time. For the image set that are likely to be static, I will be generating them offline and uploading them similar to my earlier photo albums on auli ski trip and Hampi Utsava.

UNFORTUNATELY..

I was pretty excited about going to upcoming photography workshop at Light and Life academy on Nature Photography on Location. Unfortunately I got a call from them today saying the workshop was cancelled due to heavy rains in the area which caused landslides at the places where they were planning to take us. I was actually pretty excited about going to the workshop and was looking forward to it for two reasons - the learning involved and a chance to photograph at the scenic location where the academy is situated. Now unfortunately, I will have to wait till the next session is announced.

DO YOU HESITATE TO CHANGE DSLR LENS IN THE FIELD?

There was a time when I used to be extra careful and do my best to avoid changing lenses when I am out. Scare of dust was always there, and I might have even missed out a few images I would have shot if not for the fact that I had to change the lens.

Yesterday, I was reading a thread on this topic in a photography forum which made me recall this again. Despite taking enough care, I still ended up with some dust on the my DSLR sensor and some stupid things I did later made it all worse for me. But now I am out of all that and never think twice before changing the lenses, thanks to my sensor cleaning kit.

I now feel just as safe to change the lenses as I would do in a film SLR. And I am fairly convinced that until the manufacturers find a permanent solution for dust, every DSLR owner must keep a sensor cleaning kit handy. And since you will end up with dust anyway despite being very careful, there is no point missing out on shooting something rather than skipping it. I would not hesitate to say that a sensor cleaning kit is as much essential as a battery charger in digital photography!

FEATURES IN AN ALBUM GENERATOR

I am trying to install coppermine photo gallery software in my website, but haven’t been able to do it in last couple of days due to some technical hitch in uploading it. So in the meanwhile, let me rant a bit about what am I looking up to in a gallery software. Some of these features are not available in coppermine and it will be great if someone can suggest anything better. Here is the list.

1. Images must be stored in a database. This provides a lot of flexibility in generating the galleries(coppermine supports this).
2. The web pages must be statically rendered. That is, I should be able to generate the thumbnails and images of all sizes and the html pages and store it in the file system. I should be able to generate or re-generate these files by click of a button. This is similar to what you get in Blogger. Data will be in the database but files are generated and exported using this data. The database itself is not needed at the time of viewing the files. This enables fast rendering and reduces the dependency on database. This also means I can install, create and store the gallery information and database in my home computer and export only the generated files to the web server(coppermine does not support).
3. Must permit changing an album to add/remove images(coppermine supports this).
4. Must allow me to change template at will(coppermine supports this).
5. Must be an integrated, easy to install software. Coppermine is pretty clumsy in this regard. You need a whole lot of applications for coppermine to work, which includes imagemagik, php and mysql.
6. A stand alone software is better. This is like a continuation to feature 2. Coppermine requires a web browser to run it.
7. Other frills like commenting, rating the images, emailing the image and such interactive features would be nice and should be administrable. But I can do without them.
8. Must allow configuring image sizes for thumbnails and other sizes

I am pretty much fine with coppermine except for feature 2. I would prefer a software that allows me to generate the pages and images at my home computer and export it to the web server host(An in built ftp client that can only export the diff each time I edit the Album will be really nice). I would not mind foregoing features like commenting and rating the image for this.

I am beginning to feel that blogging and any such online activity will be much easier if you have control over the software you use. Am thinking of learning the relevent technologies so that I can change open source software like coppermine photo gallery to suit my purpose, but time has to permit this.

HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE

It is a concept that helps you get the best depth of field with landscape pictures. Vividlight has this article about finding the best place to focus when taking landscape pictures so that you get maximum depth of field and most of the frame is in focus.

SOME BIRD IMAGES

A long lens means more bird images. I went out looking for rose ringed parakeets yesterday and came back with quite a few shots. I also missed getting some really close shots of the bird since I goofed up. Anyway here are some bird images.



Rose Ringed Parakeet

Exif Data:
100-400L lens at 400mm
1/125 sec
f/5.6
ISO 200



Purple Rumped Sunbird Female

Exif Data:
100-400L lens at 400mm
1/750 sec
f/8
ISO 200

I think I would have done better in shooting this one at ISO 100 an exposure compensation of +1/2EV

MOTHER OF ALL ENTRY LEVEL DSLR COMPARISON?

Those who are new to digital photography and looking to buy a new entry level dSLR may soon have their answer and no longer have to juggle in many discussion forums on D70 and 350D and come out more confused than they started. Or at least, I am hoping they will have their answer. "Digital Photography Now", a digital photography website has initiated an interactive group test of 5 entry level dSLRS - Canon EOS 350D(Rebel XT), Konica Minolta Dynax 5D (Maxxum), Nikon D50, Olympus E-500 (EVolt) and Pentax *istDL.

The testing idea is unique in the sense that anyone can participate and suggest features to be tested. You can register in a forum and make a comment or request and they will try to evaluate the cameras based on this. I did not see a lot of inputs yet in the forum, but if it picks up and the cameras get reviewd thoroughly, will hopefully be a good help for a new dSLR buyer.

THE NIKON - CANON BATTLE

I try hard not to get into this kind of topic, but I am tempted. Photography-on-the.net is full of Canon fans, which obviously means that people take sides very easily. But in one such thread pitching the big two against each other, a senior member - Kenny A. Chaffin wrote something that I found interesting.

"My advice as always is to look at it as an investment. Which "system" has more to offer, which offers the features you want and which one is going to continue to do so in the future? Don't even look so much at a particular camera, but at the lenses offered, the reputation, the quality and research put into them. When you do, I think your answer will be the same as mine was early this year -- Canon."

I own a Canon and love it. So I naturally have my prejudices and will obviously fall in line with this opinion. But I have a slight hesitation here. To be fair, Nikon does deserve some credits in technologies related to dSLR bodies(I know, he says don’t even look at the body). It is Nikon who first came up with instant start, minimal shutter lag bodies. Canon still has not matched Nikon bodies in maximum number of frames(more than a 100) in continuous shooting. But again, seeing how 350D/Rebel XT managed to catch up quickly against D70 Canon is pretty good even when they are catching up.

THE NIKON D200

Every one seems to be mighty pleased about Nikon's new SLR - D200 released a week ago. Nikon seems to have got their features right in this camera. The features look good, especially in areas that are Nikon's strong points, such as a rugged body and continuous shooting. Also available are some things that were sorely missed in the lower end models like ISO 100 and 11 point AF. And 10.2mp looks just good enough. Many people seem to be happy with the pricing too($1700). It is difficult to say if it can be a good match for 5D, since one of the popular features of Canon EOS 5D is its full frame sensor where as D100 still has a crop factor of 1.5, but D200 is priced much less than 5D.

As usual see dpreview for technicals, but Ken Rockwell has a good user review of the camera.

The dSLR race between Canon and Nikon seem to be continuing. Nikon always makes the good beginning but Canon follows up very soon with something much superior. When the D70 was launched, it was a much superior dSLR that left the 300D far behind. But Canon had a winner in 350D. A replacement for 20D is now long due. Is something coming up from Canon's stable?

SOME MORE ATTEMPTS AT BLACK AND WHITES

I am continuing my efforts in understanding post processing for making digital black and white images. The images I bought back from my Hampi had a few rock shapes which made an ideal subject for black and white conversion. Here is an image I was working on today:



Exif Data:

Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L lens at 100mm, ISO 100, 1/2000sec, f/4.5
No post processing applied.

Here is the black and white image processed with following steps:

1. Channel mixer to convert the image to black and white, RGB values 46, 66, -12
2. Unsharp mask, values 14, 50, 0

After applying unsharp mask, I converted the image to sRGB and used save for web option to save the image for uploading.



For my reference, I had an old image taken during my last trip to Hampi. This was taken using Ilford Pan 100 Black and White film. But you can see that the lighting conditions were different between the two images.

BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE GOES ONLINE

It was quite surprising to me that none of the photography magazines in India had a website of their own so far. Finally, Better Photography has taken the initiative and have launched their website. It looks primitive yet, but I hope they improve on it over time and fill it up with valuable content.

FLOWER...

An image made using the 100-400L. Levels adjusted and slightly sharpened to highlight the water droplets.

I seem to have deleted the raw file accidentally(!!) so I am unable to post the exif information.