PeterPE
4th July 2004, 01:58 PM
I've been bitten by the photography bug, bigtime!
A number of changes have occurred. Firstly I couldn't get back onto ATA because I'd changed my browser and lost my login info. Finally found it again. I'm now using Firefox 0.9.1. I changed to Firefox from Safari because Safari has too many conflicts with certain sites I visit a lot and it is otherwise quite buggy. But first I tried Camino 0.8 which was better at accessing my troublesome sites yet has it's own bugs. Firefox 0.9 has proven to be reasonably stable and also does a better job with awkward sites. So all in all, I rarely need to go back to Safari. Firefox is pretty damn good.
Photography: A renewed interest in photography has seen me inhabiting a new breed of forum altogether and it's all about digital photography. First let me list my camera roster. Oldest to newest:
Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, a 35mm SLR film camera. It's a beauty, still going strong.
Nikon F60, another 35mm SLR film camera. Haven't used it much but seems decent enough.
Nikon CoolPix 950 digital. Nice pix in TIFF but slow as a wet week.
Canon EOS 300D digital SLR. Absolutely great camera. Beaut pix, and fast.
There's one thing wrong with the Canon... As with all digital cameras, the 300D shoots soft images. This is because of the anti-aliasing filter over the image sensor, a necessary evil to minimise moiré and other patterning.
There is a solution to image softness. Photoshop has Unsharp Mask. If your digital camera can shoot in the RAW format then use Photoshop CS's RAW plugin. Photoshop's basic RAW processing works reasonably well and some decent sharpening can be done. But Photoshop's sharpening (Unsharp Mask) is nowhere near as good as it ought to be. In trying to achieve maximum benefit from Unsharp Mask it is all too easy in Photoshop to leave strong evidence that sharpening was done because this algorithm leaves plenty of debris in its wake. Photoshop's sharpening generally cannot go as tight as I would like.
Time to call on Phase One's Capture One, or as it is now called after improvements, C1. The C1 Pro version is preferred because it covers more cameras' RAW formats. C1 Pro does an extraordinary job of Unsharp Mask, or as they call it, Focus. Focus is the best sharpening algorithm on the planet. Capture your RAWs from the camera or from your memory card reader, address any cropping and rotation needs, exposure, white balance, colour concerns, FOCUS, save as 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF (or if you must, various jpeg options) and Bob's your uncle. Most of your settings can be made presets or defaults so that subsequent photos are processed automatically. AppleScripting is available. No need to start Photoshop. The end result is the sharpest most beautiful photos I have ever shot. There's one downside. C1 Pro costs US$599. Quite a cost for what is essentially a one-trick pony.
I wouldn't be without C1. Not ever. No regrets at all. I'm one of those people who must process all one's photos, film or digital, on the computer. If there is something in my photo that can be fixed digitally, I'll fix it. C1 makes it so much easier with the new digital stuff. C1 makes it so much quicker, and more efficient, especially as it can batch process a whole day's work. Photography has become for a me a really thrilling, a really satisfying hobby.
Yair... I'm back. Cheers :D
A number of changes have occurred. Firstly I couldn't get back onto ATA because I'd changed my browser and lost my login info. Finally found it again. I'm now using Firefox 0.9.1. I changed to Firefox from Safari because Safari has too many conflicts with certain sites I visit a lot and it is otherwise quite buggy. But first I tried Camino 0.8 which was better at accessing my troublesome sites yet has it's own bugs. Firefox 0.9 has proven to be reasonably stable and also does a better job with awkward sites. So all in all, I rarely need to go back to Safari. Firefox is pretty damn good.
Photography: A renewed interest in photography has seen me inhabiting a new breed of forum altogether and it's all about digital photography. First let me list my camera roster. Oldest to newest:
Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, a 35mm SLR film camera. It's a beauty, still going strong.
Nikon F60, another 35mm SLR film camera. Haven't used it much but seems decent enough.
Nikon CoolPix 950 digital. Nice pix in TIFF but slow as a wet week.
Canon EOS 300D digital SLR. Absolutely great camera. Beaut pix, and fast.
There's one thing wrong with the Canon... As with all digital cameras, the 300D shoots soft images. This is because of the anti-aliasing filter over the image sensor, a necessary evil to minimise moiré and other patterning.
There is a solution to image softness. Photoshop has Unsharp Mask. If your digital camera can shoot in the RAW format then use Photoshop CS's RAW plugin. Photoshop's basic RAW processing works reasonably well and some decent sharpening can be done. But Photoshop's sharpening (Unsharp Mask) is nowhere near as good as it ought to be. In trying to achieve maximum benefit from Unsharp Mask it is all too easy in Photoshop to leave strong evidence that sharpening was done because this algorithm leaves plenty of debris in its wake. Photoshop's sharpening generally cannot go as tight as I would like.
Time to call on Phase One's Capture One, or as it is now called after improvements, C1. The C1 Pro version is preferred because it covers more cameras' RAW formats. C1 Pro does an extraordinary job of Unsharp Mask, or as they call it, Focus. Focus is the best sharpening algorithm on the planet. Capture your RAWs from the camera or from your memory card reader, address any cropping and rotation needs, exposure, white balance, colour concerns, FOCUS, save as 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF (or if you must, various jpeg options) and Bob's your uncle. Most of your settings can be made presets or defaults so that subsequent photos are processed automatically. AppleScripting is available. No need to start Photoshop. The end result is the sharpest most beautiful photos I have ever shot. There's one downside. C1 Pro costs US$599. Quite a cost for what is essentially a one-trick pony.
I wouldn't be without C1. Not ever. No regrets at all. I'm one of those people who must process all one's photos, film or digital, on the computer. If there is something in my photo that can be fixed digitally, I'll fix it. C1 makes it so much easier with the new digital stuff. C1 makes it so much quicker, and more efficient, especially as it can batch process a whole day's work. Photography has become for a me a really thrilling, a really satisfying hobby.
Yair... I'm back. Cheers :D