Photography

As a new owner of a Digital SLR I have been very excited about learning new digital photography skills. I have talked to a number of friends and commit to posting about all the cool free software I have found useful in my new endeavour. Here is my caveat: these are all free, and in a sense you get what you pay for. All of the software I am suggesting is good, and in my mind, fairly polished. However, all of these programs have less documentation and require a little more effort to learn to use then comparable marketed products. That statement is in no way an indication that they are inherently less functional but they may not be quite as easy to use or learn. In any case, they can't be too difficult as I have more or less figured them out.

GIMP

First and foremost is the GIMP. For those that don't want to spend $600 on Photoshop get the GIMP. Gimp is an open source photoshop alternative. There is little I have found that cannot be accomplished with the GIMP. From the GIMP webpage:

"GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages."

GIMP is probably the most powerful free computer art program available. There are a few big differences when compared to Photoshop with respect to commercial printing, RAW image management, and vector drawing. But for my, and I believe almost every casual users, purpose it is far more then I could ever use. However, the enormous amount of power under the hood of the GIMP comes at a cost; it is not simple to use. However there is a rapidly improving manual as well as a wonderful set of videos that teach the GIMP available on the web. The videos from www.meetthegimp.org will teach you much of what you need to know for fairly complicated image editing as well computer art creation. The Gimp is definitely worth checking out.

RAW Therapee

Many people have no use for using the RAW picture format. However, if you are new to Digital SLRs or really want to get as much as possible out of your images you should consider it. In brief a RAW format image is the information directly out of your cameras image sensor. It contains quite a lot more data than even high quality JPEGs. This additional informationo often contains details that have been lost in shadows or appear white in brightness. By using the RAW format you can often recover some of this detail that would otherwise get lost in the JPEG. The catch with RAW formatted images is that the files are proprietary and generally not accessible to programs like GIMP. This is where Raw Therapee comes in. Raw Therapee is a program used to import and enhance RAW photos prior to converting them to a standard format. RAW Therapee will import the generic data from your camera and then allow you to enhance it by modifying the exposure, brightness, contrast, color saturation and many other. As you may have guessed when you take a picture that is underexposed and increase the exposure it will cause any properly exposed regions of the image to become over exposed. To solve this problem RAW Therapee has a number of shadow and highlight filters that will only affect dark or light regions respectively, thereby allowing you to fix only what is broken. Lastly, if you have tried doing exposure adjustment on any of your pictures in other programs you may have found that your images become noisy and blotchy. Raw Therapee has a suite of tools used to sharpen soft edges as well as blur or smooth noisy regions. All of these features take a while to master but you can quickly become capable of producing outstanding images as well as fixing your poorly exposed shots. This is a very slick tool and certainly worth checking out. You can download the RAW Therapee Website There is a great manual that explains how each each of the settings works and makes recommendations for initial values. I will post more on this topic and will include the default settings I use for my Nikon D40.

Autostitch

Any of you who have owned a Canon Point and Shoot camera may have used the Canon Photostitch tool to make panorama images. Autostitch is a free, and it my mind much better, image stitching tool. In Photostitch the user had to position the images and indicate overlapping regions so the software could build the panorama. Autostitch does all of the work for you. You need to take a series of images that overlap enough to leave no voids. Autostitch will then take the images align them, distort them as necessary to create smooth transitions, adjust exposure and stitch the images into a single file. No muss, no fuss, just a series in and single large image out. It is perhaps the single most amazing single purpose program I have ever used. I highly recommend it and make a posting showing a few of the images I have created. The download is a demo version but is not limited in any way.

FDR Tools

I am sure many of you have had the experience of taking a picture of a beautiful high contrast scene like a sunset only to find that any one exposure does not capture what your eyes saw. This is a fundemental problem with current digital camera sensors. However, digital software has created a means to solve this problem. High Dynamic Range or HDR images utilize different exposures of the same scene in an effort take the best of each and create a single image that more accurately represents the original scene. FDR Tools is a program that does the combination process to create HDR images. There is a learning curve as it is very easy to create exagerated images that look ridiculous. With a little practice you can create some really great effects. Go here to read about and download the latest free basic version.

I hope you enjoy these programs. I know that I have enjoyed learning them as well as the results they have created for me. I will post a few images that demonstrate the features of each program.

How many people are looking for a cheap wedding photographer. I got married 5 years ago. We looked cheap and not so cheap and landed in the middle and I think we paid $1500 and got about 15 great pictures; makes for expensive pictures, eh? By the way, we did not get a clear picture of our wedding party, no solo groom shot and no good family photos.
I have boiled down the problems with wedding photographers into three issues:

1. They just aren't good photographers, they are focused on fancy cameras or gadgetry and end up with blurry pictures
2. They don't like wedding photography, they don't want to shoot the classic wedding shoots rather they want to be "photojournalistic", "capturing the moment". As if somehow by neglecting the basics they will catch the once in lifetime picture to rocket themselves into "real" photography.
3. They don't listen to the bride and groom. I suppose this is closely tied to #2, the artist sometimes overrules the brain and results in large differences between what was ask for versus what was delivered.

It is very easy to critize. Perhap it is time to test my metal. Since I found out I will be unemployed in January I have been looking into all sorts of new possible income streams. As some may have read in previous posts I recently graduated to a big kid camera. I have been into digital photography for quite a while and finally mustered up the courage to buy a real camera. So I figured maybe I ought to put that camera to work. There are many bad wedding photographers out there and even more people that don't have the money to spend $1000 or more getting a photographer. While not experienced I am not a bad photographer nor am I lazy. Perhaps I should give it a shot. Check out my Gallery. If you are local to Seattle, preferably north Seattle, don't have a much money and are willing to take a risk drop me an email via the contact form or leave a comment with some kind of contact info. I can't promise anything but a good price and a willing attitude.

So I mentioned recently that I bought a new camera, a Nikon D40 to be specific. I also bought a Nikon 18 to 105 lens to go with it. Tonight I bought a 67mm Hoya UV filter for my lens. It seemed like a good idea to be cleaning my $18.00 filter rather than my $200 lens.

Wait, Wait.. Did I say 200 lens. Indeed, thanks to MSN live search I paid $200 for a $280 lens ($350 most places). So I heard about MSN Live Search cashback a while ago. Basically it is a deal where if you log in to your MSN Live account and go through MSN Live Search links you can get a percentage of your purchase as cashback. In most cases this works out to be between 2-6% back. Well, it turns out that Items purchased through Ebay "Buy It Now" and paid for with Paypal are eligible for much larger cashback. When I bought my lens MSN was offering 30% cash back. Yes 1/3 of the purchase price I get back by check from MSN. I have no idea how this works or what happens but it has been working for several months. Today I bought my UV filter for 18.00 with 25% cash back. This is huge. So again to my loyal readers I pass on the bliss of bargain hunting.

Here are a few details to get you underway with MSN Live Cashback.

1. You need to create an MSN Live account. You can do this easily by googling MSN live click the "sign in" link then click "sign up"
2. You need to create an Ebay account. Go to Ebay and follow the instructions.
3. You need to create a Paypal account. Again, go to Paypal and follow the instructions.

For Ebay purchases

1. You need to create an MSN Live account. You can do this easily by googling MSN live click the "sign in" link then click "sign up"
2. Go to the MSN Live search make sure you are signed in with your live account.
3. Type in a few key words associated with the product you want to purchase. Being general is good. I search "Hoya 67 UV" at the top of the search list a box of related advertisers will appear. If Ebay is listed it should have a "you may be eligible for 25% cashback". Click this ebay link.
4. Once you are in Ebay verify there is a "you may be eligible for 25% cashback" banner at the top of the screen. 
5. Refine your search and find a reputable "Buy It Now" seller.
6. Choose "Buy It Now" and Pay with Paypal. There should be some indications throughout the process indicating this is eligible for MSN Live Cash back.
7. Go and look in your Ebay mailbox to verify the cashback worked. (I have never had a problem)

One disclaimer, read the fine print cashback is not available on all purchases (cars for instance). I have heard some people have had problems on larger purchases (greater than $1000). So... Be reasonable and save some money.

For those that are not sure about using Ebay you can get the normal 2-6% (maybe even up to 10-15% in some stores) you can go to the Live Search Cashback page and simply search the item you are interested in. It will give back a list of stores with prices and the amount of cashback. Do be aware some of the store on the search are a little shady. If the price seems too good to be true it probably is. Make sure you Google search the store name to check the reseller rating.

As with all bargain hunting you good judgement.  I cannot state strongly enough If it looks too good to be true. It probably is.

So I decided on the Nikon D40. It is a lower end DSLR but it still has outstanding performance in low light and in general takes great pictures. I originally looked at the Canon XTi vs XSi vs Nikon D40 vs D60. Here the rationale of my choice:

1. Cheap, I paid $400 for the body and an 18-55 lens.
2. It gets great reviews, see ken rockwell's review as well as dpreview
3. Nikon has a wide variety of excellent very flexible lens particularly the 18-105VR (Vibration reduction) and 18-200 VR
4. Great low light performance, see dpreview above.
5. Super lightweight, even with my new bigger 18-105 lens
6. Nikon also makes the D90 which is in the Canon 40D 50D range that has video. I have a clear upgrade path.

The only real drawbacks this camera has I did think were that important name a CCD rather than CMOS sensor and slower continuous shooting 2.5FPS versus 3.5FPS. So far this is a great camera.

I originally got into the digital SLR market because I was tired of waiting seconds, like 5-10 or more with flash,  for my point and shooter to turn on. I also don't like the shutter lag that has caused me to miss so many shots of my kids. I originally really liked the idea of the Pentax, because the Vibration reduction is in the body it works with every lens Pentax has made for the last 30 years. However, when I tried out the camera it felt too big and the lens was really slow compared to the Nikons and Canons. I did a lot more research and changed my finalists to the Canon XTi and the Nikon D40. When Nikon released the D90 w/18-105 lens it kind of pushed me over the line for Nikon. The new 18-105 lens was pretty affordable (much less than the Canon equivalent) and there was an upgrade path to video.

 I bought my camera from PCConnection for $400 shipped and a few weeks later bought the Nikon 18-105 lens from an authorized reseller on Ebay for $200 shipped after Microsoft cashback. In retrospect I may have done a little better on the body but $600 for both body and lens is about the same as the Canon with kit lens.

Well, now I have owned the camera for a couple weeks, was it worth it? Absolutely! It is so fast, focusing and charging the flash and has almost no shutter lag. It also has this cool feature that will automatically increase the ISO to allow for faster shutter speeds in low light. (You can set the speed at which it steps as well as the max sensitivity). As the camera has pretty good performance at high iso this is a great feature it has allowed us to take a lot of pictures we never would have gotten with our point and shooter. The new lens is also amazing. It gives that extra reach you so often want and the VR lets me take much slower shots then I ever would have been able to with a normal lens.  At the end of the day this is a great camera, we get great pictures and miss so much less. What a pleasure.