gossip: Sony a900 25-Megapixel DSLR?

from a Gizmodo post.

...just me, spreading rumors.

diversions: the scooter and the frog

We got the scooter running this weekend. It's name is Crazy Frog. Here's why, it sounds like this:

Tricks and Tips, and windsurfing

A brief word about “Tricks and Tips”. I hate ‘em. No, seriously.

Tricks and tips are more about “see what I can do” than creating a solid, professional working process. (I’m even having issues with the word “workflow” lately, because it’s become such a catchphrase.)

There is a place for learning little things that can, integrated into a coherent process, speed that and simplify it, and this is what we need to focus on. Start by building a framework for your process, and, as you’ve probably figured out, the framework I’ve decided is the best for me is the “Layers/Masks” strategy. I am getting fairly strident about it now, because, as the Smart Object workflow shows, it is a basic structure which is not destructive, as “archival” as is possible, and is so flexible and powerful I have yet to find an application where I can’t use it.

Now, show me a tip, or a trick, (like, for example, copying Smart Filter layers perhaps. or setting up Keyboard Shortcuts) that speeds and amps my processing within that framework and I’m listening, but so often the “Tips and Tricks” approach does just the opposite- it sends you down a rabbit hole that forces you to abandon a good, well thought-out and proven strategy for the sake of, well, what feels like a gimmick. The best examples I can give you are some of the sharpening processes that people tout with almost religious fervor.

I remember this surfer/windsurfer who was just incredible, Doug Peacock. His favorite spot was “The Zone”, a crosshatch of currents and winds in Buzzards Bay that looked more like the churn in a washing machine than the ocean. (“…I didn’t see you in The Zone on Saturday, Doug.” “You weren’t looking UP!”, says Doug.) This guy who thought he was a lot better than he really was had a new move, and Doug’s comment was, “Tricks are for kids”, and folks, I think of that comment every time I go to one of those seminars, or read one of those books.

Show me a professional structure, and then give me something that can make it better. Tricks are for kids.

Copying Smart Filter Layers

We’ve seen a few examples where we need to make a filter on another layer, pretty much the same as one we’ve already made. The good news is we can just copy existing Smart Filters in much the same way we copy other things in Layers. But, like in other little features of Smart Objects, there are a few new twists you have to watch out for. Here’s an example.

I’m going to open a file, and run through my usual procedure of building my working Smart Object layers.



Let’s keep it simple. I’m going to “burn” down the iris, and the eyelashes a bit here, so I’ve gone in and made the adjustment and masked it for just those parts.

Now I want to get it ready to print, so I size it and do my Unsharp Masking adjustments remembering to turn the images above the “source” image off.



Next, I have my problem. There are some areas of the Smart Filter I made that are going to get covered up by the “burn” layer above it. The "burn" layer isn't going to get sharpened by the layer below it, so I need to make another Unsharp Masking layer, probably just like the one I just did, to plug into that "burn" layer. Here’s how I can do it. This is what I’m starting with- a “burn” layer with the Unsharp Mask Smart Filter turned off (the “eye” on the Unsharp Mask is clicked, to de-activate it, thus not showing the “eye” anymore.)



Go back to the “source” layer and click on the Unsharp Mask Smart Filter. Hold down “Option”, click that baby and drag it to the “burn” layer, and drop it right on he (de-activated) Smart Filter. Snap! You’ve added a copied Smart Filter layer, exactly the same, from your “source” layer.



Note that there are two “Unsharp Mask” layers, and one is de-activated (no “eye”). You can actually go ahead and delete that to keep things neat if you want.

One important, really small detail. Make sure, when you start, the thing you’ve turned off (in your target layer) is the filter itself, NOT the thing that says “Smart Filters”. Look again at the figure. The “eye” is there, next to the “Smart Filters”, but not next to the Unsharp Mask. This will help keep things straight, because it adds a new filter that has the eye, and shows the old one that is turned off. (If you turn off the “eye” next to the Smart Filters thing, then it will add the filter, but activate ALL the layers. Just a bit confusing.)

The only thing left to do is to go back and check your sharpening levels. Remember the Rosenholtz-Sanchez effect! You’ve applied the same filter twice, on two layers, so the effect will be compounded. You can quickly check it simply by toggling the new filter on and off, and see if it’s objectionable, or, you can go in and re-open that filter and give it a poke. (If it’s a problem, Rosenholtz and I have pretty much decided it’s Sanchez’s fault. But that’s another story.)

Combining images pixel-for-pixel

This is an old trick, but one that now gives you another method of adding Smart Objects as Layers. It's the old Shift+Move move.

Open two images as Smart Objects. Grab one. Hold down Shift, and, with the Move Tool slam that baby on to the other Object. Bingo. Pixel-for-pixel registration.

This is especially useful if you're trying to get to high dynamic range images (HDR) using Smart Objects and masking. Grab two exposures in Bridge, open them and process them in Camera RAW, one for the highlights, one for the shadows, bring 'em into Photoshop and Shift+Move.

badda-BING.

Setting up Camera RAW for Smart Objects

We need to get to Adobe Camera RAW to set that up to open files as Smart Objects rather than standard rasterized images. To do this, just get to a RAW file and open it (preferably using Bridge). Here’s the familiar Camera RAW window. At the very bottom in the middle is what looks like a link on a website. Here’s what mine looks like:



Click it. This brings you to the Camera RAW “Workflow Options”.



Here you can specify some of the key processing preferences, specifically, the Working Color Space you’re asking Camera RAW to process to, the bit depth, pixel dimensions and resolution of your processed files. There’s also a little checkbox: “Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects”. We want to check that little guy.



You’ll notice, after you hit OK, that the “Open …” button now has changed from “Open Image” to “Open Object”. After you make your basic adjustments in the Camera RAW menus, hit this button and you’ll kick into Photoshop.

Here’s your happy workspace, with your image (now temporarily named “'filename' as Smart Object”) and your Layers Palette that you’ve set up, and the background layer with this funny little icon on the layer. THAT, my friend, is your Smart Object.



Now, whenever you open a RAW file it will go into Photoshop as a Smart Object Layer. The enormous power of this is revealed when you go and double-click that funny little icon. Go ahead. Try it. You know you want to. Bingo! What happens is you get right back to that Adobe Camera RAW window. All we really have done is set it up so we can go and edit the RAW file, and re-edit it, without having to get back out of Photoshop and start again with the original file. We now have a RAW file embedded into our Photoshop file as a layer.

Seems simple enough, this is the “nut” of the process, but, as the saying goes, “Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow”.

Lets see what this lets us do. More to come...

having nothing to do with anything photo

new toy. uh, location vehicle for high gas prices? whatever, I think it's cute.

(1977 Honda NC50 "Express")

UPDATE: it RUNS!

Turning Image Capture off

I really don't like automating the transfer of files from my camera cards, for a whole bunch of reasons. One very simple one is that I want to make sure it's done, and done right, and you know... "if you want something done right...".

Anyway, Image Capture is an automatic (Apple) program that starts up and wants to help you with the ominous task of copying your files from your card to the computer. Seriously. I can't do this myself? jeesh.

Turn it off. Make it stop.

Find "Image Capture" in your Applications folder. Start it up. Go to Preferences, and select "No Application". Close it.



Now, when you plug a card in, you'll just get your happy card image on the desktop.

Yay.

preview: the Color "Path"

...here's a little tease for you. The Color Pipeline is built around a revelation I had one day in the wee hours of the morning... colors follow a "path" through the process of capturing, editing and printing a photograph, and if we could track that path we maybe could understand it a little better, and control the colors a little more, well, effectively.

From that idea grew the Color Pipeline... and credit is due to Joe Holmes, Nick Wheeler and Michael Oh in patiently holding my hand along the way.

This diagram grew from my original chart, pretty much scribbled on a napkin. It shows the track of colors, what happens in each step, and how the colors "connect" from one phase to the next. Kara is adding captions, and it will be a little clearer, but this is the core idea. (We're talking about making a board game of it... remember "Candyland"? ..."Colorland", maybe? stop me before I kill again!)

Click on the image for a bigger version... and check back for the game show!

Color Pipeline first draft ready!

Thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate the Raw Pipeline release! It was a great evening, and heralded some other exciting news... Color Pipeline is in it's first draft, and is a few weeks away from heading to the printer! We actually had a printed copy at the reception, thanks to the hard work of Kara Helmkamp, my editor at Lark Books (I'm a man who needs an editor).

We decided on a new cover, and this book is looking like everything I hoped it would be... a guide to "Life after Color Management", showing the "path" of color through the system, from subject, through capture and processing to the final print, showing what can be done, and how, to control the colors in a digital photograph.

Come back soon for some previews... and, of course, this means it's time to start on the next project: Smart Object Pipeline!

more diversion: Apple vs PC

this show was AWEsome

diversion: Ted Airlines closes...

"Ted was never anything other than a different paint job"...

...that's harsh.


(thank god I can still get the ted earflap beanie!!)

Don' Forget! June 9th Reception

Don't forget, next Monday night, a Book Release Reception and a Closing for Bill Lyons' "Convergence" at the Panopticon Galllery in Kenmore Square!

Come to the Panopticon Gallery on Monday night, June 9th from 6-8 to join me in celebrating the new book! (AND the Color Pipeline... and well, a few more to come!)

Wine, cheese... good friends, AND the closing of my longtime friend Bill Lyons' show "Convergence"!

Look for Hunt Photo, just down the street a few doors, joining us too with Raw Pipeline books on hand.

Here are the deets:
June 9th (NOT a Sox night) 6-8pm
Panopticon Gallery
Inside the Hotel Commonwealth
617-267-8929
502c Commonwealth Ave,
Boston

Bills show is here, and his main site is here. The Panopticon main site is here.

I want to thank Tony Decaneas of Panopticon for his help and support of, not only this, but the whole Boston Photo community!

RSVP to ted@teddillard.com

See you there!

-Ted