Kia ora tatou:

Things you might want to know…

1. The brave among you might want to know that a final release candidate ( geekspeak for somewhere between Beta and Final release) of Lightroom 2.0 is now available. Lightroom 2.1 is supposed to address issues with performance and cataloguing ( ie no cool new features. Think of it as an engine tune-up. It needed one!). You can download it here.
2. Those of you who shoot portraits and have major issues with skin tones and complexions might want to check out this piece of software. By all accounts, it does a pretty remarkable job!
3. You saw it here first… I had a chat with Brad Malcolm at Athentech in Calgary last week. He was off to Photokina to demonstrate Perfectly Clear this week. Apparently we can expect to see a live version later this year (and yes, a Mac version is coming). He sent me down this screenshot. He is really interested in knowing what you think of it and how he might improve it. You might want to also chip in your pet hates and loves about the software you use and what could make it better (interface-wise). How often do you ever get the chance to have a say in the design of a piece of software? O BTW, The images (butterflies) are placeholders, not actual images.
4. Users of Proshow ( Gold or Producer) will be interested to know that version 3.5 is now out. Amongst other things, it supports writing to Blu-Ray. Now I have a reason for that 96″ HD TV…
5. Nikon users (both of you) will be positively slavering over the thought of a medium-format Nikon digital camera with a 48 x 48mm sensor. If the rumours are true...
6. Lastly, if you thought the convergence between moving image and still image was a bad dream, then you need to read this and this.

Kia ora tatou:

Well, it is finally here. The replacement for the 5D. Creatively named the 5D Mk II ( NOT!), it has a lot of very cool features that Canon users will appreciate, including:

• New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
• New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
• High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
• Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
• 3.0” VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
• ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
• 9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points

It is the 1080p video function that has me excited. It takes me back to the days when I first saw digital ( PhotoShop 1) and realised the winds of change had come to photography.

It is happening again. Moving and still image are drawing together and the implications for we p[photographers are huge.

Post to follow.

O, and they have also released a new 24/1.4L lens.

Now what will Nikon bring out?

Kia ora tatou:

Over the last few weeks, I have been getting to know Lightroom 2.0. As  I do so, I become more and more impressed. For those of you sitting on the fence, here are 10 reasons (in no particular order) to make the jump.

1. The graduated filter Let’s face it, adding a gradient to simulate a grad filter in CS3 is a chore and one which takes time. In LR it is a breeze. What is more, you can add multiple gradient masks to selectively grad the image. All non-destructive, of course.
2. The adjustment brush. You choose the size, specify the feathering and go to work. Dodge and burn? no problem. O, and did I mention you can adjust saturation, sharpening, contrast and a few other things as well, using this tool? (more…)
   

Kia ora tatou:

If I told you your trusty Canon Powershot ( i.e. like my G7) could be made to shoot RAW, do HDR, motion detect, display the histogram and shoot from 64s to 1/32 000s, you wouldn’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me either!

Well, apparently you can. Read here and here.

And no, It isn’t April 1.

For those of you shooting Sony, the Big Boy’s Toy has arrived in the form of the Alpha 900, with a 24.5 Mp sensor, 100% viewfinder, ” newly-developed, body-integrated SteadyShot Inside unit which achieves an anti-shake effect equivalent to shutter speeds faster by 2.5 to 4 stops. This new unit provides stabilization for Sony, Minolta and Konica-Minolta wide angle, large-aperture lenses, which is difficult for lens-integrated systems.” O, and let’s not forget those gorgeous Carl Zeiss lenses! Read more…

All this for around $US3000. Kind of makes the $$$ they charge for a 1DS III look a bit inflated!

The way to Art is through Craft, not around it

-Ansel Adams

There’s nothing worse than the technically brilliant execution of a fuzzy concept

-Edward Weston

Dear Reader (Just indulging myself. Hey, it worked for Charles Dickens):

The last post threw up questions from a couple of you that I wanted to talk about in a full post, rather than hide in the comments section. It is a bit of a ramble with disparate elements that won’t appear to hang together at first.

I will say it again:

I am pedantic about image quality. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:
I know I bang on about this, but the fact is:
I am analpedantic about image quality.
Once again I have been reminded that quality matters.
Every time I make an image that blows my trumpet, I want to make it BIG, or rather to make it BIG if I should choose to so so at some time in the future. In fact my explorations of picture space over the last ten years or so  have been to do with the structuring and arrangement of dense amounts of information. A major picture-making issue for me has been a concern with finding the order in complex picture structures, in defining the balance point between not enough and too much information.

It still is. (more…)

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Kia ora tatou:
Lightroom 2.0. I love it!
The list of cool things goes on, and while it is slower than 1.4.1, the new features justify the slight slowdown. I have converted to using .dng, ie importing and converting my .cr2 files to dng. After a conversation with Adobe Ambassador John Doogan (look for some joint workshops in the future), all my doubts have been allayed. And the main reason? The new dng 1.2 standard, which allows you to import the picture styles in your camera-specific software and use them inside LR2.0 and finally have a reason for using the calibration tab in the Develop module. Not only that, you can create custom camera profiles. It is so damn good, it was worth the upgrade price just to get this. I am not going to explain it; others have done it sooner and better. Have a look here and here and here. Then go and download it. Awesome!

If you are wondering what the future of photography of photography looks like, then there are 2 words you need to get to know; RED and Scarlet. The movie industry already know about them. We will need to do so as well. Read about it here and here