So, I know there are a bunch of programs available on the Mac for doing photo work and what not, but I’d like to ask everyone what they use on a daily basis. I have for the most part made due with iPhoto, but the organization capabilities of it suck, and I end up with directories full of photos without any real means to identify them. Unfortunately, I also need something with a relatively quick workflow (photoshop is too slow to use for me except in extreme cases).
Any recommendations? ...
So this afternoon I headed down to a little church in east Vancouver to shoot some photos for Vancouver fashion week. Thanks to Urban Vancouver I have been able to acquire a media pass so that I basically have full access at all these events (something that I didn’t realize until today, since the pass I received today was exactly the same as the one I had on Thursday night).
Today was a mix of dresses and lingerie, and I had a really great time hanging out with some of the people I had met at the opening night gala the other day. And to be honest, while I have seen some amazing fashion and some ...
One of the main advantages of digital photography over film photography, at least in my mind, is the ability to view the histogram shortly after taking the shot. While viewing the image on the LCD is obviously an advantage as well, it’s difficult to tell if the shot actually turned out based on a small image on a 2-3″ LCD.
An example histogram from Luminous Landscape
A histogram shows you how many pixels in the image (shown on the vertical axis) are at each intensity level (0-255 typically, shown on the horizontal axis). If the histogram is bunched to the left, that typically means the image ...
Yesterday, after dropping Boris off at his place so that he could get ready to go to Spain, I went down to Broadway Camera to see if I could play around with a Canon EOS 40D camera. I had called the day before to see if I could actually purchase one, but unfortunately they said they were already completely sold out.
So imagine my surprise when, after asking if they had any in stock (which was basically a rhetorical question for me), they said “yeah, we have one here.” Unfortunately for me it was the box that contained the kit-lens, when I really wanted to just purchase the body only. The lens ...
So, I called around this morning, and the first trickle of the Canon 40Ds are hitting stores. Unfortunately, Canon is behind on manufacturing them, and there are tons of pre-orders, so the average Joe won’t be able to buy one for some time. I have my name on a wait list, and I’m pretty sure I’ll get mine on Tuesday, should I still want it. But since today was payday, and I have money sitting aside for it, I think I’ll probably get it. ...
I got a call from Canon today about my lens with water vapour in it. They verdict: completely unfixable.
To be honest, I’m a bit pissed off. When I shipped it out to them, I followed it up with a call telling them it was rather urgent, and they needed to get to it first since it concerned water damage. The lady on the phone told me they were 5 days behind, and there was nothing she could do. Anyways, when they finally get to it, it was corroded inside and not worth fixing.
The replacement cost of the new lens is around $1600, so I’m going to be submitting my first ever insurance claim. The ...
I purchased my current digital SLR in December of 2004. It is a pretty decent 8.2MP SLR from Canon’s prosumer line, which is sort of the cross over from the consumer to the professional lines. It’s a really awesome camera, and it’s been great to learn on. That being said, technology has continued to improve over the last few years, and my camera is becoming more and more out of date.
The main problem (if you can call it that), is that my camera has a 1.6X crop factor. What that means is that the CMOS sensor inside is smaller that the size of a 35mm film, so part of the image falls on the ...
So I just checked, and 17 people have joined my photo of the day flickr group, which is totally awesome. If you know of anyone else, please invite them, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to get some prizes going, and it’s a great way to have fun and learn off each other.
I did a bit more work on the site tonight, so check out the photo of the day website to see what has changed. Today’s photo of the day is below, and it’s by Keira. Keep those photos coming everyone. If you have a blog and want to throw some link love to the photo of the day site, that would be awesome. I actually have ...
I stumbled across an article tonight about a student who was trying to take a photo of a building and ended up on the group being harassed by some rogue security guard. Obviously the security guard claimed that the building could not be photographed and took it upon himself to intervene.
I read about stuff like this all the time, and as a photographer I occasionally run into things like that too. I was in Pacific Center a while ago playing with a lens when a security guard came up to me and threatened to take my camera way unless I stopped taking photos. While at Harvard a few years ago, I had ...
I’ve been meaning to write a post like this for a long time, so here goes. I’ve been into digital photography for around seven years now, but I would only really say I have taken it seriously since acquiring my digital SLR approximately three years ago. Years ago I would say digital photography is a hobby of mine, today I would say that it’s my passion.
Truth is, I love taking photos. I love the challenge associated with finding a subject, figuring out how to best represent that subject, framing the subject, and then ultimately spending time on my computer later re-factoring the shot ...
Today after work I dropped off my first roll of film to be developed. It was a 36 shot roll of Ilford XP2, and it’s probably the only black and white roll I’ve ever shot in my entire life, now that I think about it. The neat thing about this roll is that you can develop it in C41 chemistry (used for colour print film), which means you can basically get it developed anywhere in the city for next to nothing. I also have a few rolls of pure black and white to shoot, so I think it will be a useful comparison. I asked the ladies down at Custom Colour if the XP2 was noticeably different than the ...
Tonight I did something that I’ve been thinking of doing for a few weeks now — I picked up a film SLR body so that I could once again shoot film. And to even write that statement down now seems a bit weird, since I left the world of film years ago, thinking I would never ever shoot a roll of film again in my life.
However, a lot of friends of mine who are into photography have started dabbling once again in the forbidden art, and it has caused me to take it seriously once again. I have no idea if it will last long with me, but it’s definitely cool enough to keep me entertained for a ...
Back in December of 2000, while home in Chilliwack visiting my family for Christmas, I made the digital plunge. I was in London Drugs, looking around the electronics section for something bright and shiny to make me happy, and my eyes settled on the first real section of digital cameras ever to hit the market.
For the most part, most of those cameras were nothing more than glorified webcams — they took grainy photos, and really didn’t have any options. However, one in particular stood out above the rest. It was the Nikon Coolpix 880, and it became my first digital camera.
I shot all my photos ...
So, I gotta hand it to my pal Kris — he’s managed to get me interested in something I never thought I’d be interested in again — film photography. Kris is a really awesome fashion photographer here in Vancouver, and his stuff never ceases to amaze me.
What’s interesting about Kris, and a variety of the local photographers I’ve met recently, is that they have started shooting film again. Which is sort of surprising, given the focus local photography shops seem to place on digital nowadays (I called several local stores recently to talk about film, and most of them didn’t even have ...
I’ve been messing around a bit more with photoshop in the evenings, and one day soon I’ll read the huge 1000 page book I have on it as well. Here’s something I was messing with a bit last night. It’s a shot from my patio looking easy towards Yaletown. The bridge is the Granville Street Bridge.
The whole image involved work on about 5 different layers in photoshop. The rain was a bit trickier than I imagined, and it’s not entirely convincing, but it’s a good start. ...
I’ve been experimenting with high dynamic range (HDR) images for a few months now, and so far I really love the effect that you can get with photos. At least in my eyes, HDR images generally seem to look a bit more natural than a typical shot that doesn’t have a large dynamic range. Unfortunately, this whole field is more of an art than a science currently, so getting the perfect HDR shot is a bit of trial and error (and in a lot of cases, the end result isn’t always appealing).
My tool of choice right now is undoubtedly Photomatix, and I use it almost exclusively when generating HDR shots. ...
Did a quick HDR off my patio before bed. And before I drop off, here’s one more bit of info — my dad and step-mom are getting on a plane at 7am to spend a week near Cancun relaxing. They usually spend most vacations every year in the RV camping somewhere, and this is the first trip that they’ve taken to a far-away place (except of course when they came to visit me out in Ottawa). So, I hope they have a really awesome time down there.
Also, Jari and Seppo should be stepping off a plane any time soon to spend the week up here in Vancouver. These are the two Finnish guys I got loaded with ...
So as the sun went down over downtown this evening, I thought it might be a neat idea to try and make a HDR panorama. I’ve done this a few times using my PC, but never using my new Macbook Pro. I took a series of 20 shots and merged them together using the Mac panorama software DoubleTake. Afterwards, I created the final HDR using Photomatix.
Here’s the end result.
The HDR process went smoothly, but DoubleTake did a rather poor job of aligning the images. Part of the reason may have been that it thought the focal length of my lens was 26mm, even though it actually was a 17mm lens. However, ...