Dried Flowers at Cantigny, Wheaton Illinois Over the weekend, most of us in North America, Europe, and a few other areas of the world received a gift of an extra hour of time as a result of falling back from Daily Savings Time to Standard Time. So, did we really get an extra hour of time? And just exactly where did we get it - e.g. staying up an extra hour on Saturday night, getting an extra hour of sleep, or having an extra hour to do things on Sunday? Come Monday morning, did we still benefit from that extra hour, or are we just as confused as my dogs are about what time it really is? My personal opinion is that the hour is more psychological than real, in that I know I have an extra hour so I will use it well. I did stay up Saturday night longer than I normally would have, and I did get up on Sunday morning earlier than normal; but most importantly I was determined to make the best use of that extra hour. So the time switch was a mental booster to get organized and get things done. Ripping through my To Do List, here are some of the things I accomplished:
While it is possible that the extra hour was taken up by changing all the clocks back, I prefer to think I used it to get organized, be more productive, and renew my energy to focus on my photography. Now if only I can figure out what happened to October... What about the rest of you - how did you spend your extra hour?
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Before continuing on about post-processing activities, I want to make a distinction between JPEG images and Raw images. The smartphone cameras and point-and-shoots typically generate images in JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format, an industry-wide standard that compresses the data, thereby reducing file size (good) but also reducing overall image quality (not so good). Without getting too technical, when you select the JPEG format in your camera, the camera makes decisions about how the image should look, including color saturation, white balance, contrast and sharpening. For everyday photos, sharing with family and friends, this is usually acceptable. The problem is that those decisions cannot be undone because certain data is thrown away. If you like to have control over your images, Raw is the way to go. Some point and shoots have the ability to capture in Raw format. As far as I know, all DSLR’s can capture in Raw. Each manufacturer has its own format. You can tell what brand of camera was used to take an image just by the file extension. For example, Canon uses .CR2; Nikon uses .NEF; Panasonic uses .RW2, and so on. The first time I shot in Raw, I chose the option JPEG+Raw, meaning that each image would be saved in two versions. That way, I would have the best of both worlds. To my surprise, when I looked at the set of images, the JPEG images looked better than the Raw. That is because the camera had already made the adjustments mentioned above to the JPEG version. It was up to me to make the adjustments to the Raw image, according to my style and vision. There are Raw Converters (software) specific to each manufacturer, but I prefer to use Adobe’s Lightroom software, once I have imported, tagged, and rated the images. The same functionality is included in Photoshop as Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), with a slightly different user interface. To help illustrate the difference between JPEG and Raw, the following two images were taken from a single shot with the JPEG+Raw setting turned on. The camera was a Canon Rebel XTi. The original file size of the JPEG (on the left) was 3.8 MB, and the file size of the Raw image on the right was 12.3 MB. I brought each image into Photoshop and made a small selection in roughly the same area of each image. I did not make any adjustments to either image. Photographers make conscious decisions about whether to shoot in JPEG or Raw, and those decisions may vary depending upon the circumstances and intended use for the images. Typically it comes down to speed (JPEG is faster), file size (JPEG is smaller), quality, and flexibility in post-processing (Raw provides more control, more flexibility, and more options). For comparison purposes, most cameras record up to 4,096 levels of color in each channel, whereas a JPEG file has been reduced down to 256. Think of it in terms of Crayola crayons. They come in boxes of 8, 16, 24, 48, 64, 96, and 120. Which one would YOU rather have?
Ask any photographer why he or she wants/needs another camera and he or she will come up with a laundry list of reasons: bigger, faster, better, more features, easier to use, and other excuses. If all else fails, the reason is “just because.” In my case, it was all part of a larger plan to step up my game. As new camera models are released, older models come down in price. The timing was right for me to move up from my entry level Canon XTi to a professional model full-framed 5D Mark II. I wanted better resolution, especially in low-light situations. The gauges are larger and easier to read, both to see the settings and for playback mode. The video capability was enticing. I wanted more features, more power, more, more, more. And then the fun began. I was used to the buttons and dials on my old camera, now how do I make the new camera do the same things? Read manual, try pushing buttons and spin dials, read book, push different buttons and spin different dials; repeat as needed. The learning curve was a little steeper than I had anticipated. No buying this camera and dashing off for an important photo shoot the next day. My first glitch was when I took the camera outside in the sun for some test shots. Full manual settings, in-camera metering, and the images were coming out overexposed. To compensate, I was shooting underexposed by a full stop, letting in half the amount of light the camera indicated that I needed. Although that worked, it wasn’t the ‘right’ solution, and it was getting to be more annoying. Oh, did I neglect to mention that I bought the camera second-hand? It turns out that the previous owner had some unique settings and custom configurations. Once I set everything to the factory defaults, the exposure settings worked much better. The second glitch is not so easily fixed: the lens situation. When I was buying lenses for my XTi, I was aware that there were different series of lenses, not all of which could be mounted on a full-frame camera. When I selected my wide-angle zoom (10-24mm) and my ‘go-to’ 18-200 zoom, I went with Tamron lenses. Good quality, lower prices. Unlike the ‘EFS’ lenses (think S for small), these are EF series lenses that are made to work on cameras with full-frame sensors. Great - I would be able to use these lenses on both my crop-sensor XTi and my full-frame sensor camera of the future.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. When I mounted these lenses on the new camera, there was significant vignetting that occurred at one end of the focal length range. The series of photos accompanying this blog were taken with the Tamron 10-24 mm wide-angle zoom lens, at focal lengths of 10mm, 14mm, and 24mm. The image itself shows what was left after a storm blew through yesterday and took a major branch off one of my oak trees. The vignetting appears at the most zoomed-out settings, between 10 mm and 15 mm on the wide-angle. So, my solutions are: a) shoot at whatever setting I need to get the image I want, then crop in post-production, b) don’t shoot at the ranges that produce vignetting, or c) replace them with Canon brand lenses. None of the solutions are optimum, but a) and b) will have to do for now. Could I have foreseen these issues? On the surface, everything looked good. A little more digging might have revealed what I now know. Sometimes it just boils down to not knowing what questions to ask, or the need to pay attention to terminology. For example, “will mount on...” is not the same as “fully functional with...” When I bought the lenses a couple of years ago, I knew there would be a full-frame camera in my future. I just didn’t know which one. Looking back, it would have been a good idea to ‘test drive’ the lens on any full-frame model that was available in-store; and yes, I bought in-store, not over the internet. New camera gear - a part of the learning equation that is the life of photography. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I normally make it a rule to not make New Year's Resolutions. That way I won't be disappointed in myself when I break them. However, this year I did make one or two. My first one was to take at least one picture every day. Since I was given a new iPhone 4s for Christmas, I figured that would be pretty simple. Between that and my 'walking around' camera (Lumix DMC-ZS3), it should be a safe bet. So far, I'm doing well, but this little nutcracker ornament doesn't look so sure about the future. Or, maybe it was the 'in your face' flash that I hit him with. Reminder to self: don't do this to portrait clients. |
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