ADOBE BUYS RAWSHOOTER FROM PIXMANTEC

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Now there is some action happening in RAW processing! The behemoth of photo processing - Adobe has bought RawShooter, the RAW processing software from Pixmantec. You can already see Adobe logo on Pixmantec's website. The press release says that RawShooter Premium is going to be discontinued, but it is still available for purchase on Pixmantec's website as of writing this. But the free version of the same software, RawShooter essential will still be available for some time before it is eventually discontinued. So if you wanted one of these software, hurry and download them right away!

For the photographer who shoot's raw, this means that there is one less option of software to choose from, especially one less free software option! On the good side, future versions of Adobe's camera raw may probably see some improvements borrowed from RawShooter.

SOME UPDATES TO PREVIOUS IMAGE

Monday, June 26, 2006

I made some changes to the image I posted yesterday based on some comments on Travel Photographer's Network, where I had posted the same image. I cropped the image, and removed some clutter on the wall just right to the eyes using the healing brush. Here is the result. I think it looks a lot better, what do you think?

A GIRL FROM ARUNACHAL PRADESH

Sunday, June 25, 2006

We gave her and a bunch of her friends a lift on the way to Tawatng, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Like in any typical Buddhist country, they were friendly and smiling a lot.



Click on the image to see a bigger version.

Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 100mm, f/4.5, 1/15sec, ISO 100

MAKING THE GREENS LOOK GREENER WITH SELECTIVE COLORS

Friday, June 23, 2006

I always had problems getting good green colors in my images. It was the same story when I was shooting slides(Sensia), and when I moved to digital. Whenever I saw saturated images shot with Velvia, I used to look at them with awe. And I had seen similar images made with digital cameras, enhanced beautifully using Velvia Vision or other Photoshop plugins. Photoshop's color saturation tool never managed to get such rich colors, since applying too much saturation introduces unbearable noise. I was playing around with the image of forest colors I posted yesterday, when I considered trying out selective colors. I got some positive results, and tried on a few more images with good outcome. Here is an example.



This image is already slightly color enhanced using Hue/Saturation tool(Image >> Adjustments >> Hue/Saturation). Increasing the saturation any further would have added noise and make the image look artificial.

Then open selective colors tool(Image >> Adjustments >> Selective Colors). In the drop-down menu for colors, choose green. Choosing green ensures that any changes you make in the sliders affects only the green colors in the image, and leaver everything unaffected.



Magenta is the color opposing green. So reducing magenta in green has the same effect as increasing green color in green areas of the image. Move the magenta slider all the way to -100% and see how it affects the greens in the image. Now adjust the slider until you get the desired level of saturation. See the resulting image below.



See the difference. Selective colors has enhanced only the green portion of the image and left everything else untouched.

COLORS OF THE FOREST

Thursday, June 22, 2006

At Arunachal Pradesh, North Eastern parts of India in March 2005. It is one of the few places left in India that can boast of pristine forests with little human activity and disturbance. I walked these forests for 6 days looking for birds. While we did see rare variety of birds, we also discovered the beauty of the forest.



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 190mm, 1/180sec, f/4.5, ISO 100

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND LAYERS

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Surprising as it may seem, I have avoided using layers in Photoshop so far. I know layers have their benefits - like helping to accomplish some complex tasks or making adjustments without changing the original image. But so far I had just been fine with making most of my adjustments in single layer, and did not bother to explore layers in Photoshop.

I was recently looking for better ways to sharpen the image than the unsharp mask. I did see a few options like this one on sharpening, but the method used layers. I could blindly use the process without knowing much about it, but doing that does not let me make the best out of the process. Besides this, I also recalled going through a few processing tutorials earlier, which I could not read completely because they involved using layers. So I was getting a feeling that I can do some good to my image by knowing about layers, and decided to look for a comprehensive tutorial. Now that I haven't been able to find anything beyond the basics, I have started going through Photoshop help. I guess that's where I should have looked in the beginning. I intend to get a good hand of layers and start using them in my processing within next 5-6 weeks. And if I find that it has made a noticeable in my images, I shall write about it here.

MY DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKFLOW

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Here is my typical workflow process, including preparation for shooting, shooting, post processing and image management.

PREPARATION

1. Charge the batteries well in advance and ensure that it is full.
2. Make sure the camera and lens settings are set to default or required values. See my checklist.
3. Ensure that all the images in the CF card are already transferred to the computer, and all images can be deleted or are already deleted.

SHOOTING

I usually shoot my images raw unless I feel that I don't need to worry about the quality of the image I am shooting.

POST PROCESSING

1. Convert the image from RAW to jpeg. I set the ICC profile to Adobe RGB. I try to do maximum processing here and less after conversion.
2. If the image was shot at ISO 400 or above, run neatimage and remove the noise.
3. Open the image for processing in Photoshop.
4. Remove dust or scratches if any. I usually don't get them since I clean the sensor often. But it can still happen at small apertures.
5. If the image is skewed, rotate the canvas to correct the image.
6. Adjust levels to improve contrast.
7. If I am not happy with the result of levels, I try the curves.
8. Remove chromatic aberrations, if any. I normally discard images with CA, but occasionally try to remove them if it is worth it.
9. Although I rarely do it, I sometimes use the eyedroppers in levels or curves for color correction. I normally prefer to discard images with too much color shift.
10. If the image needs it, use shadows and highlights tool to lighten the shadows or darken the highlights.
11. Saturate the colors slightly if the image can do with it. Especially for landscapes.
12. If the image is to be posted on the web, resize the image as needed.
13. Convert the image to sRGB
14. Sharpen the image. I do not sharpen the image at the time of processing the large image. I save it for later when the image needs to be displayed or delivered for specific purpose.
15. Save the resized image in the directory structure


IMAGE MANAGEMENT

1. Save the full size jpg image at 100% in the directory structure
2. Open Picassa, and enter the image details for future searching.

That's it. It sounds like a long process, but usually takes about 5 minutes per image. Note that not all images go through all the post processing stpes. And since I scrap most of the images that I shoot, it is does not really take a long time.

SUNDAY MORNING AT THE PARK

Thursday, June 15, 2006

I was out trying to photograph white breasted water hens. I wasn't much successful at it, but these tourists who had just walked into the park made my day.



Click on the image to see a larger version.

Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 400mm, f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 200

UPGRADING FIRMWARE

Monday, June 12, 2006

When Canon announced last firmware upgrade for 350D in last October, I was not ready to risk upgrading. I was about to go on a long holiday soon. It would be my first attempt for firmware upgrade and I was uneasy, just did not want to do anything that would make my camera end up in a Canon service center. It is now more than a month since I am back from the holiday, and I remembered of the upgrade. With all the warnings that Canon gives about upgrade, I felt a bit scary about doing the upgrade.



I sat down last weekend, downloaded the latest formware, and went over the upgrade procedure 2-3 times to ensure that I know everything well and can't do much wrong. As instructed, I removed the lens, charged up the battery and went on with upgrading procedure. The upgrade, it turned out is a simple, smooth and trouble free activity. I had the new firmware up and running in 10 minutes without any trouble. I could also see that a glaring issue with scrolling of images was also fixed. I guess I was uneasy about an upgrade for no good reason!

SONY DSLR: ALPHA DSLR-A100 TO BE OUT IN AUGUST

Friday, June 09, 2006

I have been tracking developments of Sony's DSLR plans keenly for sometime. It is always good to have another serious competitor in a market where there are just two important players. Sony can help - they might help accelerate research in the industry, and bring out better technologies, more useful features and eventually better cameras. And they can also help drive the prices down.



The latest news is that Sony has revealed the first of their new Alpha range of DSLRs coming out using Minolta's technology. dpreview has a sneak peek as usual.

The 10MP camera is going to be in the market starting August and Amazon listing says it is priced at a decent, if not inexpensive $900 for body only. I hope this will eventually lead to some reduction in the prices of Canon EOS 30D and Nikon D200. For that to happen, A100 will have to meet the quality benchmark set by the SLR market leaders.

I had a look at the features of the camera, and here are a few things I liked about it:

1. The price($899.95) for the 10MP camera
2. In camera image stabilization - this is something new, but need to see how effective is it. It basically reduces vibrations due to shutter release
3. Static free sensor to reduce dust pile up - neat!

Also see - A100 on Sony website

PRINTING BY MAIL IN INDIA

Saturday, June 03, 2006

I was wondering for sometime if there are any options for getting digital images printed and sent home by email in India. I had not known any so far, and it turns out that they do exist. I just happen to read an email at a photo-group I subscribe where someone had mentioned about such services from Kodak and another company - picsquare. No surprises that Kodak happens to be more expensive option, but I don't know the print quality of either. I am thinking of trying them out sometime, and shall write about the quality part once I have the prints. Here are the links to the websites:

1. Kodak India
2. Picsquare

DIFFICULTY OF PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

Thursday, June 01, 2006

To sum it up - Royalty Free images are eating into the share of professional photographers.

Naturally so, when you can source a photograph for less than a tenth of the price that a professional photographer would charge. Wired.com has a long, interesting and insightful story on this - they call it crowdsourcing! The story gives an account of how someone found cheaper an alternative at istockpho instead of having to hire a pro.

There was a time I was hoping to become a professional photographer and spend most of my time taking pictures. I gave up the idea a year or two ago when I realized that the competition is too much and I need to work real hard to make the cut. I have not yet made an attempt at selling photos Royalty Free, but I don't see why not.

May be, the cream of the professional photographers will continue to thrive, as royalty free photos may never manage to live up to the quality that the best photographers can offer. May be, assignments will still fetch money for the pros, but still pros will surely have to face tougher times ahead.