site: updated YouTube help vids

Check it out, ("send to print" procedures, updated for Leopard) more to come soon...

YouTube channel here.

site: A Little Tease

I've been working behind the scenes on a pretty remarkable new digital camera review site, and before you groan about "one more review site", let me just say this one is going to set some real benchmarks on quality of information, and ease of use. The part I'm going to be doing is a "pro-digital" blog, including the big DSLRs, professional workflow and even niche products like the venerable Betterlight scanning back, which is still alive and well... I really don't think there's anything out there that will be able to compare to this site!

We're going to be launching before Photokina, and maybe even having a roll-out party at the New York show, so check back here. In the meantime, check it out. This is a product matrix for the digital back market- Hassey, Phase, Leaf and even Sinar. There's an unbelievable pile of (very pricey) products out there...

Hasselblad
H3DII-22 Integrated 22 Mpix capture unit
H3DII-31 Integrated 31 Mpix capture unit
H3DII-39 Integrated 39 Mpix capture unit
H3DII-50 Integrated 50 Mpix capture unit
H3D-22 Integrated 22 Mpix capture unit (on H3D platform)
H3D-39 Integrated 39 Mpix capture unit (on H3D platform)

CF-22 Digital Back- Sensor size: 22 Mpixels
CF-22 MS Digital Back- Sensor size: 22 Mpixels Multi-Shot
CF-39 Digital Back- Sensor size: 39 Mpixels
CF-39 MS Digital Back- Sensor size: 39 Mpixels Multi-Shot

503CWD Based on the 503 CW body, Sensor size: 16 Mpixels
CFV II Digital Back - Sensor size: 16 Mpixels (V System)

Sinar
Sinarback 54 H Digital Back- 22MP Single Shot
Sinarback 54 H Digital Back- 22MP Mullti-Shot
Sinarback 54 MC Digital Back- 22MP Active cooled
eVolution 75H Digital Back- 33MP Active cooled Multi-shot
eMotion 22 Digital Back- 22MP Single Shot CF capable
eMotion75 Digital Back- 33MP Single Shot CF capable

PhaseOne
P20+ Digital Back- 16MP
P21+ Digital Back- 18MP
P25+ Digital Back- 22MP
P30+ Digital Back- 31.6MP
P45+ Digital Back- 39MP
P65+ Digital Back- 16MP

Leaf
Aptus 17 Digital Back- 17MP
Aptus 22 Digital Back- 22MP
Aptus 65 Digital Back- 28MP
Aptus 75 Digital Back- 33MP
Aptus 545 Digital Back- 22MP High speed
Aptus 655 Digital Back- 28MP High speed
Aptus 755 Digital Back- 33MP High speed
Afi5 Camera System- 22MP
AFi6 Camera System- 28MP
AFi7 Camera System- 33MP
AFi10 Camera System- 56MP

Shameless Self Promotion

damn!

I've been doing a lot lately on LinkedIn, it's a great resource, and even went so far as to find Ed Miller. (Ed Miller called me, back in around 1970 I think, when I was a high-school kid with a camera. He said he was starting up a newspaper in the small town of Harvard, where I lived, and needed a photographer.) Crazy stuff, and fun getting back in touch with a whole bunch of great people...

Jay Dunn (Brookstone, Ross Simonds and of late, Lane Bryant) left me this recommendation, and, well, I'm proud as hell, so here it is.

(It's my blog dammit, and if I can't toot my own horn here, where the hell can I?)

"When I reached out to my friend, Michael Oh, at Techsuperpowers, I was unaware of Ted Dillard.

What I needed was the insight of a professional photographer, fused with the knowledge of the digital and technological advances, to create a cost-effective, efficient, multi-user, multi-city, photography and asset management workflow. Ted far surpassed any expectations I had. He engineered a strategy that allowed photographers and color houses in seven different cities to align to standards and protocol that created speed-to-market and cost advantages worth large dollars to our organization.

If you are in need of relevant, business-focused, world-class insight and experience to revamp the way your company does photography, Ted will be the last guy you call.

In an industry where everyone knows "something" about digital photography, Ted is the only expert in the country that I've experienced who knows "everything" about digital photography. Hire him, or accept less. It's your choice."

Smart Objects Gone WILD

Here's a peek at the inner workings of my tortured soul.

I've been throwing ideas around for cover shots for the Smart Object Pipeline, and shot a few dozen images of this lightbulb. This image is the result of 4 files layered as Smart Objects. I think the final file is in the neighborhood of 300MB (so far...). ...and how about THEM apples, for dynamic range? (Take THAT, Mr. "HDR".)

site: stupid photographer

Love him or hate him, he discovered "Savage Chickens" and told the world. What more needs to be said?

Stupid Photographer's blog here.

PhotoPlus Expo and 'kina season

Starting to make some plans for the Fall shows... It looks like a trip to PhotoPlus is going to be required, what with all the big chips there and all. Still haven't got anybody to foot the bill for a jaunt to PhotoKina, dammit.

Drop a line if you're planning to head to the show! Maybe we can have a paaaahty!

Unsharp Mask settings

OK look. Sharpening, and Unsharp Mask in particular, seems to spark intensely complex and heated debates. My strategies are really simple, and I think plenty effective, and are very much specific to digital photography, not necessarily for scanned images. Here are my settings, a bit about why, and that’s pretty much all I have to say about it. As my friend Paul says, let’s pay our respects and move on.

First, it’s absolutely crucial that you have sized your image to it’s final size and resolution. You must apply Unsharp Mask as a very last step in your process, just before you print. (On that point I think we all agree.)



Here I’m going for a print for an 8 ½ x 11” sheet of paper.

Next, do yourself a favor and turn your Rulers on. (View>Rulers, make sure it’s checked, or simply Command R.)

Now, and this is a point of contention, view the image at “Print Size”, NOT “100%”. (Zoom Tool, the button for Print Size is in the toolbar, to the right.)



This lets you look at the image at roughly the size it will be printed by your printer. Viewing at this size insures you will not over, or under-sharpen for the print size you’re making. (That said, mostly I zoom in one or two clicks from the “Print Size” setting to actually get the thing to display at the right size. That’s why I like the Rulers visible, so I can match up one inch on the display with an actual inch. “Print Size” uses your screen resolution to take a stab at the right size, and if your screen is a high res display you’re going to get an image that shows up as too small.)

Now you can hit Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.



Preview is selected. Do not look at the Preview screen in the Unsharp Mask window, look at the main image that Photoshop is showing. Now you can make your adjustments intelligently.

Step one is to lock the Radius setting to .5 pixels. This departs from the standard 1 pixel setting Photoshop defaults to, and means you have to compensate by increasing the amount. That is why my Amount seems high, at anywhere from 150 to 350%. The Threshold setting feathers the effect back, by adding more “levels” to the increase in local contrast (the contrast between pixel neighbors, which is what makes the image appear sharper). I run this between 2 and 7.

These settings correspond to the size of the image. A bigger image needs more “Amount”. A smaller image, smaller Amount. The Radius is always, always at .5 pixels. The rationale behind this is simply that this produces a nicer sharpening effect with digital capture files than other settings I’ve tried. It gives you a subtle, crisp edge, and avoids the dreaded halo of a nasty sharpening job.

Here’s a particularly hideous example of that halo effect. Note the black line, and the areas that are lighter bordering that line. They taper off to the normal tone, a fair distance away from that line.



This is what we’d prefer it look like. Nice even tones leading up to some hard edges.



In case that’s not enough to spark a nice heated exchange on a digital photo forum, I have one more thing to add. I very rarely apply sharpening over the entire image anymore. It really seems that there are very few instances where you want to sharpen everything. In the first place, Unsharp Mask needs an edge, and if there is no edge it won’t have anything to work with. Areas that are out of focus, or areas of tone or color without an edge may get some unpleasant effects, most often an undesired enhanced noise or “grain”. In the second place, it’s just something that, well, isn’t what I want in every area of the image. In a portrait, for example, I’ll only sharpen the eyes and the hair to give the image some snap. I will almost never sharpen the skin or background.

Of course, I use my masks to control this, but you saw that coming, right?

The BIG Chips

OK, now, there's been a lot of hoo-haa about the worlds first, biggest, baddest chips coming out. Heres a piece of a piece I'm writing for a soon-to-be-named digital camera review site. Let's start with specs, then actual physical dimensions.

Leaf AFi10:
Manufacturer: Dalsa
CCD Size: 56mm x 36mm
Pixel Size (micron) 6 x 6
Active Pixels: 9288 x 6000
Resolution 56 MP

Phase P65:
Manufacturer: Dalsa
CCD Size: 53.9mm x 40.4mm
Pixel Size (micron) 6 x 6
Active Pixels : 8984 x 6732
Resolution: 60.5 MP

Hasselblad H3DII-50:
Manufacturer: Kodak (KAF-50100) 4-Channel output CCD
CCD Size: 49.1mm x 36.8mm
Pixel Size (micron) 6 x 6
Active Pixels : 8176mm x 6132
Resolution: 50.13 MP

Physical size- Leaf is green, Phase is blue, Hassey is gold... the light yellow, well, that's 645 film.