The Digital Photo Guy

Are “They” Seeing What You’re Seeing?

By now, serious readers know there’s monitor calibration, printer profiling, projector profiling and, if you want to get picky, even, camera profiling. Well, do you know about web browser profiling? Say, whaaa???

You perfect your photos by color correcting, adjusting levels, setting black point, adjusting Hue/Saturation, tweaking Vibrance, etc until it’s just the way you want it. But you have no control over how they’re displayed on your viewers’ monitors. They could be viewing your photos on a $12000 Eizo calibrated monitor or a $79 Walmart “We don’t need no steenkin’ calibration” special. Throw in a non-color managed web browser and who knows what they’re actually seeing.

I had planned to embed screen captures from various browsers using photos with and without profiles but decided that was too much trouble. Instead, go to this web site and roll your cursor over the test images. The take away is that you have no control over someone who is cluelessly using a non-color managed web browser but you have some modicum of control over those who are, at least, using an up-to-date browser. In any case, be sure to tag your photos before uploading them.

Captain Ed Freeman, USA (ret), Medal of Honor recipient

I received the following from a former manager, friend and fellow Vietnam veteran
(upon further research, Major Ed W. Freeman died August 20, 2008, this is another bit of Internet flotsam, sorry)

You’re a 19 year old kid. You’re critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.

It’s November 14, 1965, LZ X-ray, Ia Drang Valley.

Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away that your CO has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is halfway around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then  - over the machine gun fire – you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see a Huey coming in. But… It doesn’t seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.

He’s not MedEvac so it’s not his job but he heard the radio call and decided he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He’s coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load 3 of you at a time on board. Then he  flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.

And, he kept coming  back, 13 more times, until all the wounded were out. No one knew until after the mission that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm. He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Army, died August 20, 2008 at the age of 81, in Boise, Idaho. May God Bless and Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn’t hear about this hero’s passing but we’ve sure seen a whole bunch about Lindsay Lohan, Herman Cain and the bickerings of congress.

Medal of Honor Recipient Captain Ed Freeman

Shame on the American media!

New Video Posted

I’m swamped so I repurposed one of my old videos and posted it below. It’s hosted on a free account so only about 35 more people can view this video before it exceeds the bandwidth. If you prefer videos to webinars, please leave a comment on the video page.

Retouch Eyes Part 1

What Can I Say? I’m a Little Slow!

I never understood the fervor over tablets. Who the heck wants to pay $500 to play games or watch videos on a tiny screen? What advantage does a soft keyboard offer over real keyboards? How can I run Lightroom on such anemic hardware?

Nevertheless, I knew my target audience was buying them so I had to understand their appeal. When Costco reduced the Vizio VTAB1008 tablet to $189, I rolled the dice. After playing with it for a few weeks, I finally understand the tablet’s role. This is the new TV, stereo, newspaper, map, GPS, Yellow Pages and Post Office, all rolled up into one device. In other words, it’s strictly for entertainment and info lookup. Instead of looking in TV Guide, use the tablet. Instead of watching TV, watch YouTube on the ’net. No more Yellow Pages, order take out Chinese on-line.

If you want to do serious work such as enhancing and editing photos in LR, PS or PSE, you still need a real PC. Analyzing the genetic makeup of a killer rhinovirus outbreak in Hong Kong ain’t gonna be on a tablet! The catchy phrase of the day for tablets is “information consumption.” The whole idea is to sell you more “stuff,” ie, e-books, videos, music, games, anything to entertain. Bottom line, tablets aren’t really computers.

I found the tablet useful during a recent roadtrip for checking diesel prices, reading e-mail and, in general, entertaining myself. But, when it came time to download, review, rate, enhance, optimize and store nearly 200 photos of bighorn sheep, my big honkin’ laptop was, and still is, the tool of choice. Writing even simple e-mails is a chore on a soft keyboard. Teens with overly developed thumbs, typing in pidgin Textglish, might like it but if you type in complete sentences with proper grammar, soft keyboards are abysmal.

I have, however, discovered tablets are wonderful portfolios. My print portfolio weighs about 10 pounds while the Vizio weighs 1.2 lbs. Of course, an 8″ screen doesn’t have near the impact of a 17″ x 25″ print from an Epson 3880. A tablet is essentially a toy, albeit a fun toy, and there’s no way it’s worth over $250.

Photos from Pt Loma Lighthouse

After all, this is a photography blog so here are some rcent photos. The San Diego Photography Collective had a Meetup at the Pt Loma Lighthouse during its 156th anniversary celebration. The very top of the lighthouse, which is normally closed, was open to the public. I used Topaz Labs Adjust and B&W Effects because those were prizes for a photo contest we concocted for this Meetup.

Given the age of the lighthouse and the docents in period costumes, it seemed appropriate to process these in B&W. The left photo above is Jimmy and a docent. Jimmy is from Quebec and he flew down to San Diego for this event! He had never been to California and thought it might be fun. He’s a great guy and a talented photographer. This was a first for us, no has ever flown in from a foreign country for one of our Meetups.

The middle photo is a docent and the right photo is the spiral staircase inside the lighthouse. Notice the ghost on the landing below! All three were processed in Topaz Labs B&W Effects. The first is an antique sepia preset while the middle is an opalotype preset. I don’t remember what I used for the right photo but I believe it was a classic B&W effect.

On the Snake Oil Salesman, I cranked up the grain and simulated an old daguerreotype. Topaz has a daguerreotype preset but it was too refined for my taste. I wanted this to look like one of the old west posters processed in chemicals long past their useful life. The last one of a gargoyle on the lighthouse roof was processed in Topaz Labs Adjust 5. Afte applying a preset, I pushed it over the top to create a photo appropriate for slasher movies. TA5 was just released and has over 130 presets to get you started.

If you’ve never used Topaz plug-ins, click this LINK and download the fully functional trials. Best of all, Topaz offers FREE upgrades. I bought the entire Topaz suite about 3 years ago and have upgraded most of the plug-ins at least once and some have been upgraded 2 or 3 times.

Last Pin-Up Model Shoots

Since the Monday Morning Tip about the reader who unsubscribed due to, “Too many under-dressed female models…” I’ve had a huge spike in hits on this site. Today is the last of the series for a while because one can only photograph underdressed female models so many times.

The 2012 Cuties for a Cause Calendar launch party is Friday, October 14 at the Lafayette Hotel in San Diego. It’s only $10 so I encourage all my readers to attend if you can and, at least, buy a calendar. Proceeds go to the San Diego Animal Support Foundation, helping to improve the welfare of animals.

The following photos were made at the Lafayette Hotel which was featured in the movie Top Gun. The famous clamshell stage will be the backdrop for a fashion/swim suit show.

I also did a Cuties shoot at a private residential pool in Escondido, surrounded by tropical palms and ferns. Here are some of the best. The last photo is Melissa, the 2nd shooter/assistant at both shoots. Her photo of Tina number 7 (ignore my signature.)

Computers as Modern Necessary Evils

I started my life in computer engineering. This was back before geek was chic. Geeks wore white shirts, black ties, crew cuts and carried slide rules. In case you’ve never heard of a slide rule, here’s my original student slide rule (top) and my “professional” slide rule.

Last week, my HDR Webinar crashed and burned when the Screen Sharing plug-in died. For the first time in a long time, I had to cancel a webinar due to technical issues. The webinar service shrugged and said, “Stuff happens.” Just as there are no ex-Marines, there are no ex-geeks. I discovered a workaround but that wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to fix the problem, not just add a patch like an old British sports car.

In the process, I found a tool that appealed to my inner geek. TweakNow PowerPack (TNPP) is like the Swiss Army Knife of PC utilities. Like a Swiss Army Knife, it is small and elegantly designed. Like a Swiss Army Knife, it is full of surprisingly useful tools and accessories. Like a Swiss Army Knife, you can hurt yourself if you’re not careful.

The main tools I needed were a registry scanner/cleaner and a temporary Internet files remover. Think of registry files as recipe cards. As you use them, they become splattered with tomato paste, Worcestshire sauce and canola oil. It becomes harder to decipher and errors creep in. Eventually, the cards need to be cleaned or replaced. In a PC, the registry becomes cluttered with info about old programs that you’ve removed, upgraded or somehow changed. In most cases, you never even realized the registry was modified. Eventually, the registry is too damaged and something fails.

Repairing the registry is not for the faint of heart. One slip of the keys and your PC can be rendered deader than the proverbial doorknob. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of registry cleaners that claim to make your PC well again. Some are outright scams while others are ineffective. Good ones tend to be expensive for a tool that does just one thing. TNPP is amazingly effective (based on my short tests) and, best of all, it’s free. I thought it was good enough that I donated $50 via the donate button on the TNPP site.

TNPP will clear out all sorts of accumulated junk and, in general, help make your PC run faster using fewer resources. But (you knew there had to be a catch,) I seriously recommend users stick with the default settings. DO NOT adjust settings like you might increase or decrease amounts in a recipe. If removing 10GB of junk is good, don’t assume removing 20GB is twice as good.

If your PC is more than 2-3 years old and your grandmother can add 2 + 2 faster, it might be useful to download TNPP and give it a whirl. After all, it’s free and can’t hurt as long as you don’t get stupid.

HDR is Hot!

The first photo above is the metered exposure, the second is a true HDR and the third is a pseudo-HDR (pHDR) using just the original metered exposure. The pHDR image is “overcooked” to make it easier to see the effect that even a single frame can produce.

I’ve dabbled with HDR for several years. Being a contrarian, I didn’t want to follow the crowd and jump on the Photomatix bandwagon. I wanted software that gave me greater control over my HDR. In my quest, I found Dynamic Photo – HDR published by Mediachance.com.

Originally, HDR was made popular by a few popular photographers who took it to extremes and turned out garish, cartoon-like results. While the effect was interesting, I didn’t feel it had legs. Who wants to turn their carefully crafted photos into cartoons? I wanted something that let me enhance my photos to portray a wider dynamic range than my camera was capable of capturing but still retained a natural look.

Here’s another HDR, this time, from Deer Park Winery, just down the road from me. This is a typical application where the camera isn’t able to capture details in both the dark areas and the lights. To maximize and balance the image, I used Digital Photo – HDR to combine three frames into one, then tone map the image to squeeze everything into an image that can be displayed on normal monitor or printed on a regular printer.

 Recently, I found this Flickr page containing a whole slew of HDR photos processed with Dynamic Photo – HDR.

If you’d like to know more about Digital Photo – HDR, register for my 30-Minute Webinar on HDR this Wednesday, August 24 at 7PM Pacific Time.