Dr. Ellen's Digital Photography Tips
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Part II of III: Computers, Software, Digital Devices,
Know Your Computer You don't need a particular type of computer, just one that has upgradable RAM, a fast processor or coprocessor, and room (ie., a port) to allow for at least one external harddrive. RAM is cheap these days and, if you are working with digital images of 6.2 megs or more in size, then you need all the RAM you can get. Better yet, max your CPU out in Ram. Co-processors also count in the digital world. Photoshop CS2 is especially optimized for high speed co-processor CPU's, so keep that in mind when you next purchase a computer. Why an additional external harddrive? The more the merrier. My Mac G5 desktop CPU has two internal harddrives with a total of 600 gigs and then I have seven external harddrives which I use for image STORAGE. External harddrives are also comparatively cheap today. I use all firewire-ported LaCie drives and have been very happy with them. For in the field I like their rugged All-Terrain drives with both Firewire and USB ports for maximum connectivity. I also like and use the drives by F.A. Porsche and have 5 or 6 daisey-chained via firewire cables. What I especially like is that these drives are all Bus-powered (uses your CPU for power) so an A/C adapter is not required.
CompactFlash Cards and other Memory Cards The CF/SD performance database at Galbraith Digital Photography Insights is a must for you to review before purchasing new cards. It introduces you to the technology and shares the test results of all industry-wide cards from fastest to slowest (based on JPEG write speed). Select your particular camera body at the upper right-hand corner of page 2 to access the right information for you. NOTE: Nikon pro digital bodies are optimized for the WRITE ACCELERATION (Wa) technology available from the Lexar Pro Series of CF cards. Check your Nikon literature for information about your particular digital body. A note about the size of CF cards: until the recent evolution of 8-12+ megapixel digital bodies, I always recommended CF cards no larger than 1 gig. I still think that is an optimal size if you think about how many images you will be happy to loose if the card is lost or becomes glitched. If you are shooting for clients, loosing images this way can be a crisis of major proportions. To give you an example, the new Nikon D200 eats up CF card space like no other camera body I have had. Shooting in RAW format, for me, now means that a 1 gig card can now hold fewer than 50 images -- even fewer than that if I shoot both RAW & JPG simultaneously! (which I don't). The industry is increasingly forcing us to sacrifice common sense judgement for hefty CF card space! So now is the time, more than ever before, to make judicious in-camera deletes as we are shooting.
Digital Storage Devices The SAFEST way to date to offload digital files is to download them to a reliable laptop. I use an APPLE 12-inch powerbook for this purpose, which is lightweight and easy to carry. Armed with a backup A/C cord or a second battery, this is nirvana to the photographer who wishes to know FOR SURE what has been successfully downloaded, and what the images look like closeup. The latest device to burst upon the scene, unveiled at PMA 2006 in Orlando, is JOBO's Giga Vu Pro which has a 3.7 inch LCD, RAW file decoding, large gig models, and a rugged framework. It is supposed to be the answer to carrying a laptop computer. I'll let you be the judge... The problem with all such storage devices on the market today is the S-L-O-W speed of transfer from the memory card. A good laptop maxed out in RAM and a fast processor is still hard to beat. Plus, this is a tried and tested method; some of the storage devices on the market are frankly NOT that reliable.
Batteries and Chargers I prefer their FC501 Fast Smart Charger which is especially designed for digital assets. It is a 3-in-1 charger (for AA, AAA or fast charge capable 9V batteries). And it uses the newest smart charging technology which is capable of charging your batteries to their fullest capacity.
Not all chargers do that, and your charger needs to indiate 'smart charger' for it to have this capacity. Some chargers have a limit on how much they will charge. A good "smart charger" is designed to switch to trickle mode once it detects that your batteries have been fully charged. If you find yourself with batteries that have been left idle for 30-to-60 days or more, they will become almost completely drained. First recharge them or, better yet, you need to cycle them three to five times before they reach their peak performance: (1) charge them fully, (2) allow them to cool before use, (3) use them until they are fully discharged, (4) then recharge. This constitutes one complete cycle. Do this 3 or 4 more times.
Adobe Camera Raw? A suggestion: While you are at that page, you might also download the new beta software for professional photographers -- called Lightroom. Sorry, it is currently only for MACS in the beta format. Why shoot in RAW format? If your camera offers it, the RAW format gives you the next best thing to an original transparency. Even a fine JPEG file cannot compare to the flexibility that the RAW image file offers you. While there are several raw converters available today, they all behave differently, and only the Adobe plugin uses a common user interface with generic camera profiles for each supported camera. If you are shooting in tricky exposure situations then the RAW format is perfect, because it allows you to effect changes in white balance, exposure and shadows, brightness and contrast, saturation, sharpness, and more -- plus you can save and reuse settings. It also offers you batch naming and conversion capabilities as well as the option to convert a file to 16-bit mode vs. 8-bit.
Raw Conversion: The RAW Facts Uwe's entire series of digital eBOOKS are outstanding but I particularly recommend this one for those new to the RAW format option: Adobe Camera Raw: Manage the Raw File Workflow.
Watch Your Histogram The LCD on your camera gives you a huge advantage over film shooting by allowing you to check the exposure of each image. This means, however, that you have to actually custom set the LCD to display your image immediately after clicking the shutter button. Yes, this uses up a little battery time but the advantages far outweight the disadvanges, as you will see. Then, set it to display a histogram for you when you call up an image.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 You can download the latest version of Elements for both Mac and Windows here. The products listed on this page are offered as tryouts, unless otherwise specified as betas. You will first need to establish an ADOBE ID and password, not a problem.
sRGB Color Space for the Web This is of primary concern for photographers who display their image portfolios on the web. When you reformat images for the web, then, assign them the sRGB color space for the best viewing by browsers.
Wacom Tablets Rock! However, a tablet and pen also helps considerably in making fine adjustments in Photoshop. You can set its many preferences to suit your work flow.
I use the Intuos series and find that a 6x8 tablet size is optimal without taking up too much desktop real estate.
Archival DVDs - NOT! The latest and greatest CD-R today is the Delkin '300 Year' Archival Gold CD-R with Scratch Armor. You can read more about it here. The patented dye formula claims a storage life of 300 years. Worth thinking about. On the other hand, who knows what new storage media will burst upon the scene tomorrow!? It could well be the case that today's CD's and DVD's won't be readable at some point in the near future. In that case, some folks suggest that archiving important image collections to external harddrives is the only way to go.
Fragmented Harddrives - OUCH! How fragmentation actually occurs is explained here. Take Note! A fragmented disc results in harddrive performance degradation, particularly when working with image files. The fragmented files reduce the READ speed of your CPU as it has to look for all the data bits and reassemble them in order for you to open and read a particular file on your desktop. You should 'de-frag' your harddrives on a regular basis; usually once a week or no less than once a month depending upon your particular work flow. To do this I use TechTool PRO which is specially built for Mac OS X (Tiger). There are other options on the market like Norton Systems Works for Windows. Norton Utilities is part of Norton Systems Works and it has de-frag capabilities.
Flash Techniques and Flash Diffusion I recommend that you get a proprietary speedlight for your particular digital body. For my Nikon digital bodies I use the Nikon SB-800 Speedlight which is Nikon's absolute best flash yet. Canon and Minolta and others also make excellent proprietary speedlights. Don't waste your money on a third-party flash. You can bounce flash to augment available light. You can use multiple flashes to light up a room. You can diffuse flash to project a more flattering light into faces. Flash will saturate the colors in your image. And it will stop action. And that's just for starters. Most speedlights today give you several built-in diffusion options like a bounce-card and the ability to tilt the head to various positions. Diffuser cups (ie., Stofen omnibounce) are commonly seen in camera stores but they don't really soften light per se, they only scatter light which may or may not be effective for your purposes. I don't particularly like them. To get softer light you need a larger light source in relation to your subject and your distance from it. Shooting directly without diffusion will generally give you harsh light. A diffusion domes, on the other hand, gives you the best possible light. And because of that I am an ardent fan of Gary Fong's Lightsphere II, which is an excellent inverted dome diffusion system. Four different models fit a wide variety of flashes. This is what it looks like:
Sensor Dust You can see the effects of sensor dust in photos taken with small aperatures (such as f16, f22 etc.) The dust is less noticeable in images shot wide-open (at f2.8 for example). This dust is cumulative! Meaning, the problem will only get worse...you can always have the manufacturer clean your camera, but this is costly and often time-consuming; although if you are new to digital photography than this is probably the safest method for you to use at the moment. What to do about dust in general? Well, in Photoshop CS you can use the healing brush to stamp out the dust in a particular image, but this will surely drive you crazy if you are dealing with huge volumes of images at at given sitting. Using compressed air is NOT a good option, so don't even think about it. A do-it-yourself method that I prefer, of the several available, is the sensor brushing method, the most notable of which is the Sensor Brush by Visible Dust.
Here are a few articles that you should read about sensor dusting before you attempt to do it yourself: Sensor Brush, Sensor Clean help keep your pictures dust-free
Downloading Habits First and foremost: don't wait to download your files. Do it immediately upon return to your desktop from the field. Otherwise you may inadvertantly use the card again, thereby writing over your previous files in the process. Set up a standard download routine for yourself. For example, I download each CF card in turn and label each download by shooting date. Then I open a card collection of images in BRIDGE (you can use other applications for this as well), and I categorize them further by subject: animals, flowers, people, patterns, etc. And I save these categorized files in separate folders within the main collection folder. I should note that I shoot in RAW format and I do not open and convert these RAW files at this point. That comes later. Once I have done this with each downloaded collection I then save a copy to CD-ROM(s) and a second copy to another storage device such as an external harddrive. This leaves me with the original RAW files on the CF card, a copy on CD-ROM(s), and a third copy on an external harddrive. Once I am certain that the above files copied over correctly then I return the CF card to my camera and reformat it in-camera, and store it back in my CF card case for future use. A further word about that: I use a hard-cover CompactFlash card case which has molded inserts for the card to rest in. My cases hold 4 cards each. A reformatted card is inserted FACE SIDE up, which immediately tells me that the card is clean and ready for use. In the field, however, I insert the used CF card FACE DOWN in the case, which tells me that the card is full and has files to be downloaded.
CompactFlash Card Corruption Problems Always turn you camera off first, then remove the card. The end result of corruption is that your card may be rendered un-readable. In that case there is still a good chance that you can recover your images if you take the following steps: (1) do not immediately reformat the card, and do not try to use the card by writing new images to it; (2) download or open PhotoRescue and run it while your corrupted card is still in your card reader. This is software that no digital shooter should be without and it is available for both MAC OS X and Windows operating systems. PhotoRescue is a risk-free recovery solution in that it does not write to the damaged or erased media and will show you accurate and reliable previews of what is recoverable. There are other rescue applications on the market but buyer beware; (3) only after you have been successful in rescuing your images from the corrupted card should you then RE-FORMAT your card in-camera; and finally (4) carefully test the card before relying on it for future storage needs. Shoot an entire cardful of throw-away images and open them, several times or more. If they open successfully each time, your card is probably still good. Keep in mind that CF cards, or any digital media for that matter, do not last forever. Handle this media carefully, and keep note of when they were purchased. On the back of each CF flash card I write 'ELLEN' and the purchase date. For precious images (ie., for clients or publishers) I always use my newest cards first.
Use the FILE INFO option in Photoshop The trick is to use the following steps to make it easy to copy and paste the information for your first image into all succeeding inmages: Step I: Assuming you have a large collection of images to input data into, open your first converted raw (or .tiff or .jpg) image in the collection. Step 2: Click on the FILE INFO option under Photoshop's FILE MENU. And in the opening description page, type in your data as you see fit -- then go down to the advanced option and click on that after you have finished typing all the data.
Step 3: When the advanced page comes up, click on the SAVE button at the bottom...
Step 4: ...which sends you to your hard drive for you to navigate to where you would like to save this .xmp file with all of your data. If my image is a part of my Cape Hatteras Collection of raw files, I first rename the .xmp file to something descriptive like hatteras.xmp and navigate to that folder to save the file.
Step 5: Now, when I open all other images in that folder and click FILE INFO under Photoshop's FILE MENU, I need only navigate down to the REPLACE button...instead of the SAVE button...
Step 6: ...which sends me back to the original saved .xmp file...click LOAD at the bottom right corner of the page...
Step 7: ...and then click OK...and you are done! You IPTC data has been successfully entered into the new image without your having to re-type any of it! You could, of course, ADD some data for a particular picture if you wish. I try to title my image collections globally, and then add a subtitle as needed to include more specific location information or scientific names, etc.
How to Put the © Symbol on Your Digital Photographs You will note that three methods are offered, depending upon your computer operating system and whether or not you have a separate numeric pad on your keyboard (applicable only to WINDOWS). Adding your © symbol is something that you should get in the habit of doing for any photograph that you send out to others via email or that you put on the web. The presence of your copyright symbol along with the embedded IPTC data (explained above) gives others clear upfront information as to copyright ownership of a photo. An excellent new book about copyright came out in January 2006 by Lee Wilson entitled: Fair Use, Free Use, and Use by Permission: How to Handle Copyrights in All Media
Camera Repair Tools A product is that very helpful in restoring used (black) camera bodies and lenses is their Aluminum Black Metal Touch up solvent, product # 15125F. It's fun to look around their site |
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