The Photo Library

Your “Photo Library” is your permanent collection of photographic works from various sources. You’ll want to differentiate these images from your “Working” images, those images that are in a kind of “limbo”, awaiting rating, sorting and/or further processing. They may be stored in a special folder, or  on a special volume, or even on a series of optical disks or other media.

As you begin building your photo library, you’ll want to incorporate some structure and guidelines to assure that things will be easy to find.

Separate your work from the work of others.
As you collect images, you’ll undoubtedly acquire photos from friends and family, images that you have downloaded from the internet, images you may have manipulated, etc. Building an image reference library is one of the greatest advantages of the internet. You can easily download images (with the permission of their owners, of course) but you wouldn’t want them to get mixed up with your images. For example, you may have the right to download the image for reference (Actually, all the images you browse are downloaded temporarily into you image cache folder, whether you have the owner’s permission or not) but you may not have permission to post it to your blog. So the first level of organization should be by usage rights. Possible categories might include:

• Client Work
• Downloads
• My Work
• Stock Photography

Organize images into broad, logical categories.
Avoid having too many subfolders. It can make it difficult to spot duplicates and to find images in general. Instead of using a subfolder, use keywords to differentiate images within broad categories. These categories will vary widely depending on the type of work you do. As a consumer, you might organize images by date or by event. As an amateur, you might develop categories for the genres of images you take, such as portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. As a professional, you might use folders name by client and job number. And it’s very possible you might use all three systems.

For example:

• Client Work
• Braunschweiger
• New York Times
• Pirelli Tires
• Starbucks Coffee
• Time Inc.
• Vogue Magazine
• Downloads
• Cameras
• Celebrities
• Works
• My Work
• Abstract
• Landscapes
• Portraits
• Still Life
• Street
• Stock Photography
• Corbis
• Getty Images
• iStock Photo

Back up your images regularly.
Employ a separate drive and use back software, not the file copy function in your operating system. Backup software copies only modified versions, saving time and wear and tear on your backup hard drive. It can also preserve previous versions, so if you made a change last week, you can still recover the previous version from last month. And if you’ve accidentally deleted image files from the folders that are being backed up, they’ll still be there in you backup.

Archive your images to optical disk and catalog them.
No matter how large your hard disk, it will eventually fill up. And the greater your “online” storage space, the larger your backup volume will need to be. The solution is to archive your images to removable media and catalog them for easy retrieval. At the present time, the optical disk (Recordable or re-writable CD or DVD) is the most cost-effective, compatible and durable media.

Previously, re-writable MO disks and tape were used, but these were slow to record, and in the case of tape, even slower to retrieve. They also required special hardware. Recordable DVD and CD media are recognized by practically ever computer, and to a somewhat lesser extent, rewritable media as well. Flash memory is by far the most convenient, but it’s also prone to degradation, so it’s not a wise choice for long-term storage. Rewritable optical disk is also more prone to failure. But write-once disks are quite stable, and quite inexpensive.

A good rule to follow is once a category folder reaches the capacity of the volume you plan to archive to (4.6 GB for a single-layer DVD for example), archive its contents to optical disk and catalog it with a disk cataloging application. Store these catalogs on your hard drive for easy retrieval.

Develop logical, unique names for image files and volumes.
Naming volumes sequentially does not guarantee that duplicates won’t happen, but naming them chronologically does. For example, naming archive volumes “DVD20100531” and “DVD20110823” ensures that they’ll each have a unique name, they’ll be sorted chronologically, you’ll know what media you used, and you’ll know when they were archived. Plus, there’s no need to look to see what the last volume name was.

Different cameras use different naming conventions. You can use them as is, or you can develop your own. But whichever method you choose, make sure that each image’s name is unique. If you create a variation of an image, keep the same image number but append it with a version number. One of the reasons for this is that you can save the Camera Raw settings for a specific image as an .xmp file with the same name as the image, rather than save a second copy of the file itself. If the .xmp settings and the image file become separated, you can then re-import them.

Prepare images beforehand for archiving.
Because you’ll likely be archiving to JPEG, which is a lossy format, you’ll want to make sure your images are in a good state prior to the compression process employed in saving to the JPEG format. This means removing dust and scratches and cleaning up the image in general. However, it’s wise to avoid over-processing the image. If the image requires a white balance adjustment, that’s fine. But sharpening the image is a no-no. The additional contrast between adjacent pixels will actually increase the file size, and there may be better sharpening algorithms in the future.

Don’t be afraid to leave yourself notes.
Life is busy. It’s easy to forget the “standard operating procedures” you have established. Creating “readme” files directly in your folders, like those that often come with your operating system, will help to ensure consistency.

Porch Spider

NIKKOR AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G + Kenko Auto Extension Tube DG 20mm; 1/60, f/11, ISO 200

Photographer’s Toolkit

Many essential photographer’s tools cannot be bought in your local camera supply shop. Here’s an ongoing list of handy items you can find around the house, or at your local hardware store:

• Roll of black duct tape (Gaffer’s Tape)
• Soft cloth in a zip lock bag (for general equipment cleaning)
• Glass cleaner (to clean windows you’ll be shooting out of)
• Opaque black cloth (for focusing, changing film, blocking reflections in glass)
• Rubber lid gripper (for removing stubborn filters and rings)
• Corrugated cardboard (for snoots or homemade grid spots)
• Cardboard tubes (for snoots, or to raise objects in the background for studio shooting)

Nikon Boldy Takes Two Steps Back…

Nikon’s first new system camera since 1959 features a 13.2mm x 8.8mm sensor with a 2.7x crop factor. Huh?

Nikon had the opportunity to develop a new camera system with the first new lens mount since 1959, and what did they do?…

Read more >




Phase One Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro is a professional grade RAW processing and image editing application geared toward studio and high-volume work.

Originally intended as a supporting application for Phase One’s medium format digital cameras and backs used with tethered shooting, Capture One Pro has evolved into a full-featured, non-destructive image editing application with full JPEG support.

This powerful application boasts sophisticated batch-processing tools, and features “Sessions”, a means of storing raw files, settings files, library files and output files in a single location for portability.

Apple Aperture

Aperture is Apple’s upscale version of iPhoto featuring full, non-destructive image editing and Raw import capability for around $199.00.

Like iPhoto and Lightroom, images are imported into a library, and you have the option of storing them in the library along with the application’s database (all of which exist in a self-contained “package” file) or in their original locations within the file structure.

Aperture can process RAW, JPEG or TIFF files, and stores all adjustments as metadata within the application’s database, so images remain unchanged. Multiple images are handled as a “project” rather than on an individual basis as they are in Photoshop. This makes processing in Aperture extremely efficient.

The interface design is clean, yet sophisticated and robust.

You can apply 22 different adjustments which include the following: retouch, red eye correction, spot & patch, straighten, crop, flip, chromatic aberration, devignette, noise reduction, white balance, exposure, enhance, curves, highlights & shadows, levels, color, black & white, color monochrome, sepia tone, sharpen, edge sharpen and vignette. These are located in a pane to the left of the image preview, and can be added and removed at will, similar to Photoshop’s layers. Additional “layers” can be added for most adjustments, and the effect “painted in”.

In addition to these, there are also 14 “Quick Brushes” adjustments that are be painted in by default. These include: skin smoothing, dodge, burn, polarize, intensify contrast, tint, contrast, saturation, definition, vibrancy, blur, sharpen, halo reduction and noise reduction.

Adjustments can be “lifted” and “stamped” to apply to other images, or presets can be made that can be applied to multiple images.

Apple Mac OS X

If you're a Mac user, you already have many of the applications necessary to manage your photo library at your disposal.

Integrated into the Operating System is a means of viewing high-resolution thumbnails, creating contact sheets on the fly, displaying preview images, creating slide shows, reading metadata, and advanced searching. There are also two important apps that come bundled with the OS that allow you to edit images.

Preview Even the Mac OS's native image file viewer, Preview, has the capability of adjusting levels, exposure, contrast, saturation, white balance and sharpness. You can even create sepia-toned images. Perhaps the most important feature is the ability to view an image's histogram in color.

A simple panel provides sliders for adjustment. You open the original, make the necessary adjustments, and save the image as a copy. It is indeed rudimentary, but the algorithms are quite good, and it works in a pinch. Preview can be extremely handy for repairing image files. On some occasions, Photoshop will not open a file, but Preview will, and will allow you to re-save the image, clearing any errors that prevent Photoshop from opening the file.

iPhoto For non-destructive editing, iPhoto allows you to save changes as metadata leaving the original images in space-saving JPEG format unchanged.

Here the tools are quite sophisticated, with the inclusion of definition, shadow and highlight dynamic range adjustments, sharpening and noise reduction. Point and click white balance with manual trim are also included. You can edit the images in the library itself, or enter a full-screen mode that minimizes the interface elements.

I find myself using these features seamlessly along with my dedicated apps. Since I'm already using Aperture, I use iPhoto solely to manage slide presentations on my iPhone, iPad and iPod, all of which I use to present portfolio work to clients and colleagues. But I find it's features and performance fine for all but the most demanding work.

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge is a media management application that comes bundled with various Adobe standalone applications (Adobe Photoshop CS5, CS5 Extended, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5.5, Flash Professional CS5.5, Premiere Pro CS5.5, After Effects CS5.5, InCopy CS5.5) and Creative Suite editions (Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium, Standard, Web Premium, Production Premium and Master Collection)

Bridge’s robust and flexible interface is perfect for sorting, rating and keywording digital image files, as well as any other kind of media file on your workstation. Bridge builds a “contact sheet” on the fly simply by dragging a volume, folder, or image file onto the application icon. It then allows you to navigate from this location with sophisticated browsing capabilities. Keeping track of and assigning keywords is one of its greatest and most intuitive features.

Bridge integrates seamlessly with the Mac OS. You can batch-rename thousands of files at a time, saving hours of work, and rate and label them for further processing. Its ability to resolve duplicate filenames prevents valuable data from being overwritten.

You can set up “favorites” of folders specific to you photographic workflow. This frees you to set up your OS in a way that meets your general needs.

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is essentially a self-contained, standalone version of Adobe Camera Raw. Like Apple iPhoto and Aperture, images are imported into a library, but the image files themselves remain in their original locations. Adjustments are stored as metadata within the application’s database, while the files themselves remain unchanged. Multiple images are handled as a “project” rather than on an individual basis as they are in Photoshop. This makes processing in Lightroom extremely efficient.

Adjusted images can be “published” (exported with changes permanently applied) to Flickr, Facebook and SmugMug as well your hard drive or other media. You can print directly from ACR, and you can also build web pages and upload them to your own website.

Overall adjustments can be made to white balance, exposure, recovery, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast clarity, vibrance, tone curve, HSL/Color/B&W, split toning, detail, lens corrections, vignetting, grain, and camera calibration. Images can be cropped, straightened, and retouched. Retouching includes spot removal and redeye correction. You can also apply a graduated filter

Some adjustments can also be brushed in, and these include exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity sharpness and color.

ACR is ideal for the photographer who does not need to combine images or perform pixel-level retouching.

Adobe Camera Raw

Initially a means to allow Camera Raw images to be opened in Photoshop, The Camera Raw plugin has extended Adobe Photoshop to provide non-destructive post-processing of RAW, TIFF, and JPEG images.

ACR is used in the “Image Capture” phase of RAW processing as an extension of the camera itself, allowing the photographer to make adjustments that may have been made in the camera if time and circumstances allowed. Processing is applied in a similar fashion to working with film in order to prepare the image for further work in Photoshop. In a way, it’s a sort of pre post-processing, often resulting in optical exposure and color balance which likely needs no further processing. These tools are so powerful, that they’ve been adapted for use with JPEG and TIFF images as well.

Camera Raw’s Adjustment Brush

In Photoshop, every adjustment and retouch is done as s layer. There are no overall adjustments as such, so simple moves are often more complex than necessary. ACR approaches things differently by providing a set of tools to make overall adjustments, and three tools to make selective adjustments; Spot Removal, Graduated Filter, and Adjustment Brush. Instead of creating layers for these adjustments, they place anchors in the image area itself called “pins“. Each of these pins carry the adjustment settings and a mask which can be freely edited at will. If the adjustment is no longer needed it can be deleted simply by selecting the pin and pressing the delete key.

There are also “Targeted Adjustments” which allow you to select a color or tonal region within the image area and simply drag the cursor to adjust hue, saturation, luminosity, a parametric curve, or black and white conversion.

RAW, JPEG or TIFF images edited with Camera Raw do not need to be imported into a library. The adjustments are stored as metadata either in the Camera Raw database, or as a “sidecar” .xmp file. This file can also be exported for archival purposes. In this way, you can store as many versions as you want as XMP data instead of several versions of the image file itself.

Adobe Camera Raw comes bundled with Photoshop, and integrates tightly with it. If you have this combination, you have the world at your fingertips and don’t need to purchase Adobe Lightroom.

Three Classes of Photographers

Photographers fall into three basic classes; consumer, amateur, and professional.

Consumers are recreational photographers who take pictures to document events and to share with friends and family. They use mostly compact or super zoom digital cameras and disposable film cameras. Consumers do not concern themselves with the technical details of photography, and are more interested in fully automatic, “point and shoot” cameras. The digital camera is ideal for this group of users, as it makes photography so accessible.

The term “Amateur” is somewhat of a misnomer, for this class is anything but. The amateur photographer is a devoted hobbyist who take the practice of making photographs very seriously. Considerably more advanced than the consumer, they are often the most knowledgeable of the three classes. Amateurs tend to use mid-line “prosumer”, “bridge” and vintage cameras, and are very likely to use film, often developing and printing it themselves.

Professional photographers take photos in order to make a living. They need to work quickly and cost-effectively and so the digital camera is ideal for this group as well. With experience comes knowledge, and a pro knows how to get the shot that clients will pay for. They often don’t have time for experimentation, and often rely on the amateur photographer to spawn creativity.

So, which class are you? Where do you plan on taking your interest in photography?

Cameras are wonderful devices for documenting our lives. If you live to take snapshots of your family and friends, and document the places you visit, you’re existing in the consumer world. You don’t need to learn all the techno babble, you just need to take pictures, display them, and share them with friends and family.

If on the other hand, you find the world of photography itself fascinating, and feel compelled to learn more, you are on your way to becoming an amateur. You find yourself interested in the works of others, and how you can improve your own work. You don’t just snap away, but you give your photos some thought so that they may stand out above the crowd.

At some point, you may discover that there is a demand for your work, that it is marketable. At this point, you may find that you have the ability to earn a living (or at least supplement your income) by taking photographs. Many people people taking part in an event don’t wish to be behind a camera, and will rely on your skill and experience to document it for all time. You may be seeking to make photography a paying career. And like any career as a commercial artist, you face competition.

The Camera RAW Workflow

Although the Adobe Camera Raw application can be used to adjust RAW, JPEG and TIFF images, a true RAW workflow involves shooting images in the RAW format, and processing them in ACR, Capture One, Aperture or similar RAW post-processing applications.

RAW images are similar to the latent images stored on an exposed film negative, except that they are visible and positive. Like film, they store a great deal more tonal information than will fit on either digital or print media. The image you see when you first open a RAW file does not reflect the actual content of the capture. It is necessary to process the image first in order to bring out the desired level of exposure, contrast and color saturation.

Camera RAW is a photographer’s tool, and a kind of blank slate. The photographer who develops his own film has complete control over the process, with the ability to adjust chemistry and times to suit the nature of the images captured on each roll or sheet of film. As such, the Camera RAW user has the ability to apply digital algorithms to process each image one at a time, or as a batch. However, once film is processed, its characteristics are locked in. In contrast, RAW images can be continually reprocessed as necessary for any media type that they are to be used with. It’s like the ability to return the negative to its latent state, and develop it all over again.

Camera Raw workflows are very accessible, but require a lot of work. For this reason, many cameras allow you to shoot both RAW images and JPEG or TIFF images simultaneously. In this way, only images which require further processing will need to be handled in RAW, and you will always have a target image that has been processed in-camera to refer to.

One of the more sophisticated applications designed specifically for use with only RAW images is Capture One. It’s function is centered more on exposure adjustment and batch processing than color.

Capture One Interface

The folder structure can be browsed in real time as in Adobe Bridge. The Adjustment parameters are fixed and reside in a pane to the left under six tabbed panels. Capture one has feature extensive control over batch processing, but has less control over color, being more exposure-centric.

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements is a budget-priced consumer-grade version of Photoshop with an abbreviated feature set and an entirely different user interface. At $99.99, it’s a great way to get started with Camera Raw if you’re on a budget, and comes bundled with many scanners.

Two major features missing from Elements is the L*a*b* color space, and Smart Filters. However, Elements incorporates an interesting feature that Photoshop does not; three different types of editing modes, Full, Quick and Guided.

• The Full mode uses adjustment and pixel layers similar to the full version of Photoshop. 

• The Quick mode is a panel of tools which include “Smart Fix”, Red Eye Fix, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Lighten Shadows, Darken Contrast, Midtone Contrast, Auto Color, Saturation, Hue, Temperature, Tine Auto Sharpen, and Manual Sharpen. 

• The Guided mode is essentially a tutorial that asks you what you want to do, and presents you with the appropriate tools. Interestingly, these tools include manual control for brightness and contrast which are missing from the “Quick” mode.

In the Quick and Guided modes, the interface allows you to see a before and after version before committing to the changes. Unfortunately, unlike adjustment layers the changes are applied “destructively” to the selected pixel layer. However, this can be a duplicate pixel layer and image saved as a layered Photoshop or TIFF image file. Changes made in Camera Raw however are non-destructive, and are stored as metadata in the Camera Raw database.

Elements’ greatest forte is that it’s an excellent way for those unfamiliar with Photoshop to learn its many tools and the general concept of a layered image file.

The JPEG Workflow

With the ability to store adjustments as metadata without un-compressing, modifying and re-compressing lossy JPEG data, The JPEG workflow has become one of the most popular.

Using Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture and others, you can perform sophisticated adjustments to your JPEG images and store them within a database, or as sidecar XMP files attached to the images. The capabilities of these applications are so robust that unless you need to work in alternative color spaces such as L*a*b*, or need to modify the pixels themselves for combining images or extensive retouching, they will more than likely meet your post-processing needs.

Unlike Photoshop, which requires you to know the effects of each of its sophisticated tools, the ACR interface features sliders which address each issue; white balance, exposure, recovery, fill light, black level, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. And that’s only in the first of eight panels!

Adobe Camera Raw Interface

Multiple image files can be opened at once, and appear in the pane to the left. File browsing is accomplished using the standalone application Adobe Bridge. ACR behaves as a preliminary step to opening the image files in Photoshop. Adjustment parameters are fixed and arranged in a non-scrolling pane to the right under eight separate tabbed panels

For example, to adjust exposure image in Photoshop, you could use Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure, Multiply, or Screen. And some functions, like White Balance, are simply not available in Photoshop. With ACR and Apertture, it’s simply a matter of adjusting the sliders until the image’s exposure, color and contrast characteristics fall into place.

Through the use of Smart Objects, you can open an image adjusted in ACR as an editable layer within the Photoshop document. Double-clicking on this layer will open the ACR interface and allow you to fine-tune adjustments, which will then update any subsequently applied Photoshop adjustments.

Aperture by Apple allows you to treat a series of images as a single project, and store them in a self-contained file for easy archiving. It combines the functions of Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge into a single application for complete image project management.

Apple Aperture 3 Interface

Files are imported into the Aperture library, which does include its own file brower. Files can be stored within the library, or remain in their original location. Adjustment parameters can be added, removed, enabled and disabled at will and reside in a single scrolling pane to the left. These include, Retouch, Red Eye Correction, Spot & Patch, Straighten, Crop, Flip, Chromatic Aberration, Devignette, Noise Reduction, White Balance, Exposure, Enhance, Curve, Highlights & Shadows, Levels, Color, Black and White, Color Monochrome, Sepia Tone, Sharpen, Edge Sharpen, and Vignette.

Capture One Interface

The folder structure can be browsed in real time as in Adobe Bridge. The Adjustment parameters are fixed and reside in a pane to the left under six tabbed panels.

Adobe Photoshop

This application is such a presence in the world of retouching that the world “photoshopped” has become a commonplace adjective to describe images that have been manipulated to the point of deception.

Ironically, Photoshop is not a photographers tool, but rather a universal, pixel-based image editing application. It’s used for many purposes, including illustration, animation, web design and preparation of web graphics. Because of its powerful tools however, Photoshop is easily capable of handling just about any photo retouching or color correction task.

This versatility however comes at a price. Photoshop is not an easy application to learn and master. It takes years to learn, and even then there are so many ways to accomplish the same goal that working with it can be daunting and inefficient. Fortunately, applications geared specifically to photographers needs have given healthy competition, and with the addition of the Camera Raw plugin, Bridge image browser and some photography-centric tools, Photoshop has evolved into the ultimate photographer’s tool.

With Photoshop, you can perform both non-destructive color adjustment and intensive layer-based pixel-level retouching and manipulation. The Adobe Camera Raw plugin works in a unique way to store its adjustments as metadata, and integrates tightly with Photoshop itself. Through the use of Smart Objects, filters, a once destructive process requiring duplicate “version” layers, can now be applied non-destructively. In fact, the Camera Raw settings themselves can be stored within a layered Photoshop file as a Smart Object layer, and additional filters applied to it non-destructively.

The highly flexible interface is built around a collection of tabbed panels which can be turned on or off, arranged and grouped at will. The Layers panel organizes and stores adjustment and pixel layers, which can be turned on or off at will, and combined using various blend modes. To make a simple change to the luminosity of an image you can use one of four different layers, Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves or Exposure. In addition, there are 15 different blend modes which will also effect luminosity. There are virtually infinite ways to manipulate an image, many of which are yet undocumented.

Photoshop also features a powerful scripting language, so that once you do find a combination of tools that gives you the results you’re looking for, you can turn turn them into an “action” that can be applied at the click of a button or touch of a key.

Bundled with the Bridge file browser, you can search, rate, sort, label, batch rename, and assign keywords to image files for complete control over your image library and workflow. There is no need to import images into a Library file as Bridge integrates tightly with you operating system and allows you to view your files in real time.

Photoshop is not for the faint of heart and the price of admission is high. But its power and flexibility are unmatched in the industry.

How to Gain to One to Two Stop Exposure Advantage

If you’re working with a slower lens or lower ISO, you may find yourself shooting at shutter speeds that may introduce motion blur. Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilization will help with camera movement, but not subject movement.

To gain a one to two stop advantage in speed (the equivalent of using a faster shutter speed or lower ISO) try using the dynamic range enhancement feature on your camera. Nikon calls this “Active D-Lighting” and Canon calls it “iContrast”. It dynamically lightens shadow areas and fills in lost highlight detail.

Set it at maximum if possible, and use exposure compensation to select a shutter speed one to two stops faster than normal. If the shutter speed and aperture are adequate but the ISO is high enough to cause excessive noise, set the exposure compensation as above, but also lower the ISO by the same amount of stops.

The resulting image will be brighter and sharper.

Dynamic Range Enhancement

I had to come up with my own name for this, because there are so many buzzwords out there to describe this function, which is so commonplace in digital photography, and yet apparently so misunderstood. I was reading a thread the other day, and couldn’t believe how misunderstood it is. So hopefully, I can shed some light on the subject.

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(Soon to Be) Fried Green Tomatoes

NIKKOR AF 20mm f/2.8 D; 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 400

You can’t really sharpen a blurry image, since there are no edges to work from. But what you can do is apply “Hiraloam” sharpening (High radius lo amount) to enhance the definition and help it along. Unsharp Mask at a 10 pixel radius, but at a low amount will do the trick. In this case, it was applied through a mask to affect only the top an bottom of the image, not the center which is already sharp and would look nasty sharpened further.

“A shutter working at a speed of one-fourth to one-twenty-fifth of a second will answer all purposes. A little blur in a moving subject will often aid to giving the impression of action and motion.”

— Alfred Stieglitz - The Hand Camera, 1897

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More Radical DSLR Designs

Olympus Evolt E-330 Four Thirds Format DSLR

While I’m on the subject of early DSLRs, Here’s another design that didn’t follow the traditional paradigm…

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The Workflow

Whether you’re a casual snapshooter, an aspiring amateur or a busy professional, you’ll need to develop a workflow to process and store your images.

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Five Years Ago Today: The Leica Digilux 3 DSLR

Leica Diglux 3: Looks like a rangefinder, shoots like a DSLR

It was five years ago today that Leica introduced The Digilux 3…

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Retouching vs. Post-Processing

Retouching is a broad term used to describe the practice of preparing images for printing, traditionally known as prepress. It encompasses color correction, blemish removal, the combining of images and just about anything else that can be done to manipulate photographs to the client’s satisfaction in a way that will meet press requirements.

However, the term “prepress” is quickly becoming obsolete, replaced by the term “premedia”, and likewise the term “retouching” is being replaced by the term “Post-Processing”.

Just like film images, all digital images require processing. Most of the time, this is performed by the camera as the image is saved to flash memory. However, processing can also be performed outside of the camera in a “lightroom”, the digital equivalent to the traditional darkroom. And even if the image has been processed by the camera, additional processing can be applied to further enhance it.

In the past, chromes, negatives and even prints would be manipulated with dyes and bleach and adjusted using filters to arrive at a final photographic print. This print would then be photographed with a process camera in order to create four-color separations for printing. Subsequent retouching could then be performed through dot etching. With the advent of the drum scanner, 32-bit digital scanning replaced the process camera, producing CMYK separations directly from film or prints that could be adjusted through computer software.

Until recently, all of these operations have existed in the “prepress” domain. With the advent of the digital camera, digital image manipulation has begun to break free from this paradigm.

With the post-processing capabilities afforded by the digital medium, one seems almost compelled to manipulate images digitally. As a result, many of the creative and lighting decisions that were traditionally made behind the camera are now deferred to the digital lightroom. This revellation has made post-processing a very real part of Photography in the digital age.

Post-processing can also be seen as the natural progression of printing. Much of the art behind traditional photography was performed in the darkroom during the printing process. Dodging and burning were used to extend the dynamic range of the image, and alternate papers, chemistry and filters used to control contrast and color. Today, these processes are all all handled in the lightroom.

A Farewell to Ken…

I’ve decided to remove Ken Rockwell’s blog from by blogroll.

When I was reading his recent post about the Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8G, I came across this text, listed under specifications:

Depth-of-Field Scale 

Not really, just two little tits for f/16.

Besides that, his information is often inaccurate, overly opinionated, and his blog is no longer dedicated solely to photography. It’s a mash-up of whatever Ken feels is important at that moment, more of a general blog than a photography-centric one.

So Ken, I bid you farewell, and wish you the best of luck.

“If I wait for something here, I may lose something better over there.”

— Edward Weston

And Now for the Latest MFT Contender…

Olympus PEN E-P3 now has a built-in flash, but still no viewfinder.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the latest addition to the Olympus PEN lineup…

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The Future of the Fujifilm Finepix X100

Fujifilm Finepix X100 Hybrid Viewfinder, in OVF mode.

So, we have two opposing forces in the mirrorless market; the APS-C Three (Fujifilm, Samsung, Sony) and the MFT Two (Lumix, Olympus).

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Sony Alpha NEX-7: Now We’re Talkin’

Sony NEX-7 Mirrorless APS-C EVIL Camera

Something else for makers of MFT cameras to worry about…

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