Rawing Still Life

This almost painterly image came about as a the comparing the processing of some of my RAW files using different software. One of te packages i was “testing” was a trial version of the latest Photoshop Elements. There beside the image on the right hand side is a filter dialogue box and it is set to Artistic (the alphabetically first option) and there is a nice looking apple  and if you move your mouse pointer over it you see it called paint daubs. To temping for me and the image above is the result.

Ok back to the actual comparison, well to be honest there is very little in it. The original photo, artificial flowers taken with strong natural light backlighting, in the top left is the version my camera also creates when I take a RAW image (because I told it too). I liked the lighting and think is is a good image for a comparison of RAW capabilities. The next three are the results you get when you run each piece of software using it auto process or fix option. All three RAW converts have less distinct noise in the background and from there the differences are subtle. Raw Therapee is by far the simplest and fastest to use. The Pentax Lab result is still the one I like best but the Photoshop Elements version is pretty much the same, just slower and a two step process to reach (and the luminosity noise fix is not part of the default).

I am still not totally convinced the extra load for “processing or converting” RAW version is really all that justified in routine snap shot stuff. For difficult exposure, like low light or really special subjects and fleeting moments I now usually hit the RAW button but for the rest of the time I am still likely to be taking JPEG, getting a lot more photos on my memory card and I doubt most folk will even notice.

Red Sky at Night

Warning or Delight it is still always worth a photo (or two)

Reflections

 

Flower Power

 
 
Some Winter Blossums

Fungal Friday

 
More Mushroom, close up and personal

Almost Origami

Shooting RAW images and using a higher megapixel camera, means I have ended up having a large and rapidly increasing collection of “backup” disks. Also I tend to buy the “Barrel of Disks” stacked on the spindle variety (they are cheaper than the individually boxed version)

I have already discovered that using the spindle and drum as a storage is a big no no! The Disks are stacked one on each other and the recorded surface can become quickly scratched as the drum is repeatedly handled.

So I have lots of “precious” disks without a secure home. For a while I was using old floppy diskette envelopes. These envelopes worked just fine and are very compact to store in a common storage boxes (yes even shoe boxes). Then I got the idea of making my own origami envelopes. A google search will find 100s of origami folding designs for CD or DVD covers , including this amazing spiral one. However I have something much simpler and easy to do. First you need to get a blank page on your favourite word processor. Then using Tables or its draw tool, create a square box 12.5cm by 12.5cm. Align it horizontally in the center of the page but slightly below the center vertically. As long as the page is big enough it doesn’t matter if it is A4, 8” by 11.5” or quarto, it is the size of the square that matches the size of a CD/DVD that is important. You can type a label in the box and have fun with the wordprocessor’s features if you want. Print this. Then follow the pictures below. Fold along the vertical edges of your box first. Turn the sheet over and fold these two sides back on the the back. Then fold the lower flap ontop of this. Next slide in your CD or DVD and finally fold down the top flap. If you press down on you folds you do not need to stick or tape anything down. The envelope will hold its shape nicely, and it is nice and thin to store. If you wish to use recycled (previously printed) scrap paper it is very important to have a blank side for the inside of the envelope, to minimize ink contamination inside the envelope (this is particularly important if you are using laser printer or copier scrap). A final warning, not all copy papers, and especially recycled papers are acid free, which is required for long archival life of your precious photos.

Thanks to my wife who took these photos of the process

The Full 360

This 130 megapixel photosynth is based on 37 photo. It was taken handheld just south of Beach One at venus bay and illustrates the recent erosion at the back of the beach. The photosythyn was created by Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor).

Working on Raw Colour

 

Whilst I haven’t blogged about RAW format lately. Its not that I haven’t been taking lots of RAW photos. Its more that I haven’t a really  found productive way to handle processing my RAW photos. I have a pentax camera and their default RAW format is PEF version of RAW is currently ignored by picasa at the upload phase. Thats ok I can read the card a second time in the Pentax Browser. However that inevitably involves a lot of tweaking and slider adjustments for each photo individually. Then I discovered if I copied these PEF files into a folder that picasa is monitoring the file is visualized, with a set of automatic “adjustments”, just what those adjustments are and how to turn them off is a mystery. The good news is picasa doesn’t modify the file at all. I Have noticed that in lower light the jpeg from the Camera and the Picasa interpreted RAW version are often quiet different. If the image showed promise I’d usually end up fiddling in the Pentax Browser and end up with something different again. When using RAW I usually focus most on getting realistic colours from the images greater colourspace depth.

I’d heard good things about RAW Therapee but only got around to downloading it today.There is a lot of good stuff to discuss. more for later posts, but what I immediately loved was its default process, such as white balance and brightness and that are easily modified and customized profiles easily stored. You see a preview and can still adjust it further is required. If you like the preview you can save it as a JPEG, TIFF & PNG File. If you use picasa you’ll have the original jpeg, the picasa version and the RAW therapee version all side by side (like above) so you can compare and export the version you want.

Removing A Colour Cast

Having been inspired by a couple of pizza recipes on MasterChef, the results were worth a photo but alas under the halogen downlights (2,700–3,300 K) there was a strong orange colour cast. These downlights have a much lower colour temperature (those K numbers) than daylight (5,500–6,000 K). You can of course use the white balance setting in your camera and set it to artificial or tungsten. However I was hungry and just took the photos as they were. Not to worry most photo editing software will have the ability to make an adjustment for such colour bias as a post process. In picasa there is the nifty Neutral Colour Picker tool under the tuning tab. Click on the little eye dropper and them click on something in your images that you want to be white or a neutral grey tone. There is part of a cook book on the left hand side so I use that, and instantly the colour bias is removed although I also used both the fill light and highlight sliders to lighten the image a bit. An appetizing pizza bianca recorded for posterity!

ARranged ART

The final tonemapped HDRI image

This collage is a tapestry of the many bracketed photos sets used to test of my current HDRI tools. I used picturenaut in the end.. For no particular reason I arranged some stones on the weathered deck as my subject, still the collected images themselves have arranged themselves into a deeper pattern.

For PhotoFriday's topic Arranged

Tripper Map App

If you like and use flickr, why not have a look through their APP Garden, Its a place you'll find home grown applications created by Flickr members (like you!) using the Flickr API. The garden continues to flourish so go forth and frolic amongst the apps! Like Iphone apps there is a lot to waste your time on but there are some great creations and it worth an occasional wander around.

If you follow my geotagging threads you will know I don’t really like Yahoo maps and prefer to work off google earth. Well Mark Zemen (a kiwi traveller) has produce a wonderful app called Trippermap, which basically lets you geotag in flickr using google earth. Yet it does a lot more. including showing your trips in flash maps for your website or blog (see example below and the small side map & slideshow down under geotagging on the right) or browse you photos from with google earth. This is a really great tool for travellers.

Cropping & Composition

I was happy with this photo, it did achieve what I had seen. The break in the clouds the pools of light on the beach and the billowing dark clouds above. So I figure it is a good example to demonstrate how cropping can help improve composition and what Features I wanted to enhance. The Center of interest is slightly off-set to the right, something i did deliberately in the viewfinder. It has has two distinct focal points, firstly the dark against light tones in the clouds, above the brightly lit waves below. There were three distinct lines/shapes for the eye to follow already. So I concentrated on was keeping the center of interest close to the vertical line that divides the composition into two thirds and one third (the rule thirds) That just left the option of vertical cropping to more a more panoramic format, keeping the lower focal points in the golden ratio from the top & bottom. The lower cropping also accentuates the strong diagonal of the reflection on the wet sand.

The Coast (Hoody Beach)

 
For Photo Friday’s Challenge the coast
I thought this panorama of the Hooded Plover nesting areas on the Venus Bay beach would give me a great comparison between autostitch and microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor). I had taken a set of very conventional overlapping photos as I panned along the beach, starting on the right and going to left (this upsets a lot of panorama joiners by the way). Both dutifully stitched the image without complaint. The Autostitched version (below and also straighten & cropped above) is nice and seamless. It also has that “true to what I saw” perspective that wide angle camera shots don’t give. The ICE version wasn’t bad either but it does have a few little jagging joins when you look in detail. I experimented with the perspective projection and  found it gave a wonderful deep view of the beach (it is a beautiful long sweeping part of the coast). This is really enhanced if you have a look at this panorama as a photosynth (at the bottom of this post)
Autostitch
Microsoft ICE
Photosynth created by Microsoft ICE
Sorry only those with microsoft windows will be able to view this synth and get the live 3D modelling effect. [Correction Mac users should be able to view this via silverlight please leave a comment if you find that works]

So much noise

That grainy speckle that often infects digital photos taken in low light, is normally called noise, (maybe it is called dark noise, heat noise or salt & pepper noise). It happens when exposures are longer and/or the ISO setting are higher because adjacent receptors on the sensor are charged up longer or more to become more sensitive. That allows heat or current leaks onto the adjacent receptor which interprets it as more light. There are a whole range of methods and algorithms to detect and try to remove this noise. Many such methods are now being built into cameras. They seek to work out what is an artifact of the noise versus real detail in the photo. Some methods look at variation in brightness or luminance (Lumina) other look are variation in hue (chroma), the little specs usually appear variable colours (see below). I find with my camera the chroma noise reduction leaves a better quality filtered image and removes the “digital camera grain” best. However all noise reduction will lead to a slight loss of detail and quality in the final results, typically a smoothing effect.

BEFORE

AFTER

From my perspective noise reduction is the one remaining obvious thing missing in picasa’s simple photo editing tool kit. Unfortunately the best NR (that's Noise Reduction) Software is still relatively expensive and mainly available only as plug in for Photoshop & Lightroom. Don’t despair, a free download trail of noiseware (either as a plug in or standalone) will give you decent results before you need to fork out big bucks. The above example was created with the Noiseware Community Standalone version (free and no trial period). Good Noise filters are available for Gimp.
There is a lot of hype written on the net about NR tools and most are actually much of a muchness, but without testing it is difficult to appreciate subtle differences. Pro Photography Show gives a decent review of leading NR software by way of a number of downloadable high resolution before & after images so you can see for yourself.

It is wise to have at least one such NR filter method available to help you recover an occasional dark photo or even a whole series from your party when the photographer may not have be concentrating.

Softly Softly

 
Using the Focal B&W filter in Picasa to take attention away from the inevitable truncated leaves and buds on the edge of the photo

After the rain II

 
Things around my garden have been enjoying the recent rains, and the lighting this morning was perfect.

I still prefer to use manual focus when taking macro (close up) photos of plants, their intricate shadows and patterns can often fool the autofocus into blurring your subject while bringing a leaf or twig off to the side into sharp focus. Autofocus can be particularly difficult when you subject is light (a white flower) and your background dark (in shadow)