The Digital Photo Guy

Questioning Conventional Wisdom

We all know that for maximum post-processing flexibility, we should shoot in RAW. Unfortunately, there are circumstances that force us to shoot in JPEG. For example, a Canon T2i is limited to 6 RAW files in Continuous Mode before the buffer is full and the camera stops to digest the data. At 3.7 fps, that’s just 1.6 seconds of action. If you’re trying to capture lots of action, the camera may not be ready for the next burst. In this situation, it might be better to use JPEG.

Conventional wisdom says, with JPEG, the trick is to nail white balance in-camera because it’s messier to make corrections once the in-camera processor has mucked with the data. Besides, who wants to adjust WB for dozens of photos.

This week, I tested conventional wisdom by scrounging around for some old jpegs with bad WB. I used 3 different techniques for adjusting WB and I think you might be surprised at the results.

Photoshop World in Las Vegas

PSW is just around the corner so I’m making last minute preparations. The actual conference is Thu, Oct 1 thru Sat, Oct 3 but there’s a day of Pre-Conference Workshops on Wednesday and a NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) Meet & Greet on Wed night. If you plan to be at PSW, let me know and we can make plans to grab lunch.

On Sunday, after the conference, there’s a VW show, Bugorama at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway that I hope to walk around for a while. There should be lots of photo ops at that show.

Afterwards, I’ll be driving up to Bishop, CA to photograph bristlecone pines in the Eastern Sierras with Rob Sheppard.

Photoshop CS4 for Photographers with Ben Wilmore

On Monday, Oct 19, at the San Diego Convention Center, Kelby Training will be offering Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers with Ben Wilmore. I’ve never taken a class with Ben but he’s said to be an excellent instructor. Ben drives around the country in a converted bus RV to take photos and teach Photoshop. This class is a fast-paced, lecture in a room for 875 people so don’t expect a lot of hand-holding. Also, CS4 concepts don’t always translate to Photoshop Elements (PSE) and there won’t be any help for that.

Photoshop Elements Webinar with Rob Sheppard

There are still a few seats left for the November 14 Photoshop Elements webinar with Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine and author of dozens of photography books. Rob is working on a book about the newest version of PSE so, if you’re thinking of upgrading, you’ll want to view this webinar before buying PSE.

Someone asked me to describe a webinar. A webinar is like watching TV where you can interact with the people on screen. If you’ve ever watched Jeopardy and shouted the answer at the screen, you’ve experienced half of a webinar. In a full webinar, Alex Trebeck looks at you and says, “Sh-h-h, no help for the webinar audience.”

Anyone who still thinks of PSE is the ugly duckling step-sister of Photoshop needs to take a look at the new PSE. For most digital photographers, scrappers and busy people, PSE will do 90% of what PS CS4 can do. What can’t be done in PSE can be done through low-cost “plug-ins”, handy little tools that plug-in to PSE and acts like an original feature of PSE.

Future Photoshoot Workshops

Planning has started for Desert Wildflowers at Joshua Tree National Park and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the March-April 2010 timeframe. As always, each workshop will be limited to just 4 students so eveyone gets maximum assistance.

In November, I’ll be going to Salton Sea to photograph burrowing owls. This is a planning trip for future burrowing owl workshops so there won’t be instruction as such but past students are welcome to join me. Watch this site for details.

I’ll be going back to the Deer Park Winery in Escondido, CA for more scouting and planning in the next few weeks. Again, this isn’t a workshop as such but you’re welcome to join me and watch how I set up and devise lessons for my workshops.

Monday Morning Tip

Today’s MMT is a video of my workflow. Workflow is just a fancy way of saying how I do things. The video is about 15 minutes because I’m explaining each step but, in reality, I usually go through this in about 3-5 minutes after I download photos until the first image is done. After that, each image takes as little as 30-90 seconds.

During the Photoshop Elements portion of my Wild Animal Park Hands-On Photoshoot yesterday, one subject that seemed to intrigue the students was the ability to simply fix one RAW photo in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) then drag & drop the same fixes to all the other photos taken under the same conditions. This is a real time-saver that I’ll address in a future video MMT.

Unlike regular MMTs that are behind a password and only available to registered readers, this MMT is open to all viewers.

Rob Sheppard to Teach Photoshop Elements

On Saturday, November 14 from 9AM until 1PM, Rob Sheppard will teach a 4-hour Photoshop Elements class jam-packed with tricks, tips and shortcuts used by professional photographers. Whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced PSE user, you will learn more about Photoshop Elements than you ever imagined possible. After this class you will be able to enhance and edit digital photos faster, easier and more precisely than ever before. Most of the material from this class also applies to Photoshop CSx.

If that’s not enough, you’ll receive 60 days of e-mail support after the class. That’s right, for 60 days, if you encounter a problem and just can’t figure out how to apply Rob’s tips, send me an e-mail and I’ll get you an answer. What class have you ever taken that offers that kind of help?

Anyone with the slightest interest in photography knows the name Rob Sheppard. He’s the editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine and editor/founder of PCPhoto as well as author of over a dozen books on photography.

I literally ran into Rob at the NANPA (North American Nature Photographer’s Association) summit earlier this year and asked him to teach a Photoshop Elements class for my readers. He was enthusiastic but, understandably, his schedule was filled.

Rob is now available to teach that class on November 14 via webinar. Even better, the cost is just $59.95 ($49.95 early bird special until Sept 30). If you had attended Rob’s class at NANPA, you would have paid $155 plus hotel, meals & travel to Albuquerque so this is a screaming deal!

Click below to register today. Seating is limited.

Monday Morning Tip

When I first converted to digital in 1998, almost everyone used JPEG. This was reinforced for me because I was a sports photographer who came home from events with upwards of 1000-1200 frames. All the frames except total disasters were quickly processed for levels and sharpness before resizing and uploading to my web site for people to order. As orders came in, I reprocessed each photo for printing but, during the initial rush, there wasn’t time for messing about with RAW files.

 

Today, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, “Should I shoot in RAW or JPEG?” Even rank newbies are pressured into thinking they should be shooting RAW because “that produces better photos.” Let’s set the record straight. It’s just as easy to capture crappy RAW photos as it is to capture crappy JPEGs.

 

Today’s MMT addresses this question head-on for newbies. This MMT will answer this age-old question once and for all. As always, the MMT is in the Tips & News page of this site.

Quick Tip

One of the trickiest things to do in Photoshop or PSE is selecting hair when you’re trying to knock out a person’s head from a photo. Let’s say you took a family photo at the reunion but Cousin Ernie couldn’t attend. You try to paste Cousin Ernie’s photo from last year into this year’s photo but it’s nearly impossible to get a good selection of Cousin Ernie’s curly blonde hair which was photographed against a white wall.

Whenever you have friends and family together, take several head shots against a contrasting wall. Cousin Ernie’s blonde locks will stand out nicely against a dark wall while Aunt Ruthie’s mousey brown hair contrasts with the standard Navajo White found on most interior walls.

Next time you want to knock out Cousin Ernie from a busy background, use hair from the easy photo. You don’t want to use too much because the light and angle probably won’t match but little wisps here and there will help fill out areas where his hair blends into a white object in the background.

(Added Photoshoot info at the bottom)

Monday Morning Tip

OK, I know you’re probably sick and tired of ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) so this is the last one for a while. We’ve really only begun to scratch the surface but there’s a limit to how much time I can spend playing with and writing about ACR and I’m sure there’s a limit to how much you want to read.

Today, we cover the Histogram in ACR and, in passing, mention the Exif data and RGB values below the Histogram. BTW, per Japan Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA), the keeper of Exif standards, the proper terminology is Exif with a capital “E” and the rest in lower case and it is an ancronym for Exchangeable image file format.

As always, the full MMT is in the Tips & News section and requires a password that is e-mailed to you upon registeration. Registration is simply a means of preserving the value of the MMTs for readers. Without registration, there would bots slurping down all the MMTs and who knows where they would end up.

Quick Tip

When using an external flash, did you know that there is a modeling light feature? A modeling light puts out a low power, pulsed light so you see what the scene will look like when the flash fires. It’s great for detecting where the light and shadow will fall. In the old days, photographers often used Polaroids to get a sense of the lighting and pose but a modeling light is more convenient. Like a Polaroid, it won’t give you a completely accurate view of the final image but it gets you in the ballpark.

To activate the Canon modeling light, press the Depth of Field Preview button on your Canon camera. On current Nikon flashes, only the SB800 and SB900 have modeling lights. They are triggered by a separate Modeling Light button on the back of the flashhead. Check your manual for specific details.

A cool use for modeling lights on strobes is Light Painting. By pressing and holding the button, the flash can be moved around an object to “paint” it with light. This handy when you want a photo of a small object with absolutely no shadows. With Canon flashes, I use the High Speed Sync function to do the same thing but it’s a bit more effort to set up. You can do the same with a Nikon but the modeling light is quicker to set up.

Photoshoot

On Sunday, June 21 (yeah, I know it’s Father’s Day), I’ll be at the Torrey Pines Glider Port with the San Diego Photography Meetup Group. The group is meeting at 10AM but I’ll be there in my RV by about 8AM. If there’s nothing happening that early, you can have a fresh cup of coffee from my RV. I’ve lived in San Diego for nearly half my life and have never been there so it’s about time. You don’t have to join the Group, just show up.

If you’re using Canon, you’re welcome to try my 300/2.8 or 100-400 to see if a long lens is in your future.

Today’s MMT starts to delve into the real “meat” of ACR. We start with brief overviews of the 5 Basic panels on the right side of the ACR interface. Here, we can tweak and enhance most digital photos that are reasonably good to start. In other words, the exposure just needs a little adjustment, color temperature is pretty close and sharpness is good. If the photo is a train wreck to start with, there’s not much that can be done in any program. Bottom line, ACR can turn good photos into great photos but lousy photos are forever lousy with a single exception. Very bad photos are often good examples of bad examples.

As always, go to the Tips and New section and click on Monday Morning Tips. Register for this site to have a password e-mailed to you. Remember to set up an RSS feed so you don’t need to wait for my e-mails to know when the site has been updated.

Quick Tips

If you have an old flash lying around from your film SLR days, resist the temptation to mount it on your new digital SLR. Most older film SLRs used a mechanical switch to trigger the flash so they could withstand trigger voltages up to the hundreds of volts. The new dSLRs are almost all restricted to trigger voltages below about 12v max. It doesn’ t take rocket science to figure out what can happen if your blast 250v through a circuit designed for 6v. When I was a young engineer, we used to call this a “smoke test”. To avoid smoke testing your dSLR, you can check the voltage with a digital volmeter or look for your flash on this site.

So, if your old flash is incompatible with your dSLR, what are the options? Wein to the rescue! Wein has been producing several products for many years to help in just this sort of situation. The first is Wein SafeSync, a device that reduces the trigger voltage to a safe 6v. This device mounts to your camera’s hot shoe and has a hot shoe on top for your flash. All it does is intercept the high voltage trigger and reduces it to about 6v. You can continue to use that old flash with your new cameras. The SafeSync goes for about US$50.

An even better solution is a Wein Peanut Slave, a US$20 device that turns your old flash into a slave flash triggered by the light from your main flash. Be aware that your old flash needs a PC sync socket for the Wein to plug into. A PC sync socket was a common connector on most older 35mm SLRs and most older flashes had one.

Using either a dedicated flash on your camera or the little integrated, pop-up flash, a slave flash fires when it detects the main flash has fired. As many of you have discovered, the little pop-up flash leaves a lot to be desired but by adding a second, slave flash, interesting effects can be added to your flash photography. For example, if you want a more interesting background than the standard Navajo White most houses are painted, you can cover the slave with a piece of colored plastic, aim it at the background and, “Voila!”, instant colored BG.

Of course, if you think this is too much trouble or not your cup of tea, send that old flash to me. ;-) I’m sure I can figure out a use for it. In fact, I’ve been thinking of a 6 flash project for capturing hummingbirds.

Photoshoots

Our remodel is almost done. Anyone who has ever lived through a remodel knows that it’s a bit like waterboarding. You feel as if you’re drowning in a sea of contractors, appliances, materials and, most of all, dust. There’s dust everywhere including your toothpaste and ice cubes. We were dumb enough to remodel both our home in Escondido as well as a new place we bought in Arizona at the same time. I’ve been driving back and forth to Wickenburg, AZ to check on that house so the RV has been racking up the miles.

We’ve decided to rent the place in AZ to friends and family as a short-term vacation rental so if anyone wants to check out the Southwest for 1-3 months, let me know. The house has 4 bedrooms/2 baths in 1900 square feet on 2/3 acre on top of a hill. It also has partial RV hookups (no dump connection) so someone with an RV who wants to explore the southwest will find it perfect. Wickenburg is a day’s drive from most southwest destinations including national parks, wildlife refuges, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and parts of New Mexico.

Anyway, I’m hoping to get back to some serious shooting as soon as all this is done. My first plans are acorn woodpeckers at Live Oak Park in Fallbrook. I’ve been meaning to get up there for months now but just haven’t had time. If anyone is interested in joining me, shoot me an e-mail. I’m also hoping to get out to Oceanside Pier for some surfing action. Let me know if that interests you.