Archive for July, 2008

Posted on July 31, 2008 - by Patrick

Nikon D90 features GPS, 3″ LCD

Ok, follow me people.

Thom’s website:

It appears that Nikon is making a concerted effort to embrace GPS and WiFi across their product line (hint: this won’t be the last time you see me mention GPS support on an upcoming product you might not expect to have it).

And Thom on the forums regarding the D90:

…No, (in response to another poster’s guess about full frame) but it does have one surprise ;~).

Yes, on the same day.

Nikon D90 has GPS. Also confirmed a 3″ LCD (fixed). In addition Nikon will also release a new DX lens with the D90.

Geotagging heaven. (We’ll of course just assume this all absolutely written in stone)

(But please don’t be thrown in because otherwise the D90 turns out to be a minor upgrade)

Posted on July 31, 2008 - by Patrick

Brad Cockrell

It’s a slow newsday, so kill the time by going now to Brad Cockrell’s excellent photo journal. Cockrell’s quality is just unbelievably consistant. He shoots everything, and excels regardless of the subject matter (which are somehow always very interesting) I don’t know how he does it, but Brad Cockrell’s Photo Journal is a definite bookmark.

Posted on July 31, 2008 - by Patrick

Future of photoshop

One of the best things about workflow programs such as Lightroom and Aperture is the ease of use for the photographer to make a series of adjustments to an image in a methodical way. Both feature develop, or adjustment panels that quite prominently feature the key issues addressing the image you work on. Image too dark? Adjust exposure. Need a little punch to your photograph? Adjust vibrancy. That’s the way most of us are used to working now, and for the most part, we like it.

Then there’s photoshop.

Open an image in photoshop and the user is faced with the unknown. Your image sits in an open desert of neutral gray waiting for you to decide where to take it. You have to think of all the options, and going back and forth between those options isn’t an easy task.

But imagine if you could put your favorite controls togeather, a “develop panel” of your own making, into Photoshop. Well, good news. That’s where we’re headed.

Over at Nack’s blog via Underexposed the product for manager for photoshop talks about:

To achieve that goal, Photoshop’s interface will become more open-ended and even programmable, he said.

“You’ll see some of the things we’ve learned about Lightroom–making things browsable and less modal–come into Photoshop,” Nack said. In other words, it’ll be easier to shift Photoshop from one task to another.

Using the Flash that’s built into the creative suite users will be able to:

create and share their own Photoshop control panels written in Adobe’s Flash programming language, Nack added. “Our goal is to make it possible for expert users to reconfigure the environment on a task-by-task basis and share those workspaces with other people. You don’t have to write code. You can knock together an interface and make it sharable.”

Photoshop is many things to many people, but it would be nice to make it specifically a “photographers tool” for photographers when so desired. Also think about how cool it would be to be able to download Photographer “X” ’s workspace and plug in your own additions. This is definitely a step in an exciting direction.

Posted on July 30, 2008 - by Patrick

Lightroom Grad Filter presets

Very cool.

Sean McCormack has released a set of 70 (!) grad presets for Lightroom 2.0. The filters cover landscape and portrait work in hard and soft variations. In additition they come in 3 colors ND, blue, and tobacco, in 1, 2, and 3 stops.  They aren’t free, but for €5.00 ($7.98 as of today) you’ll:

• save yourself alot of time
• have excellent starting points
• be able to scroll over presets to see instant results in the preview

Worth it in my book. You can get Sean’s grad filter presets here.

Posted on July 30, 2008 - by Patrick

Derek Henderson

Something very appealing about Henderson’s photographs. The above from his series “The Terrible Boredom of Paradise”. Henderson said of the series (via lensculture):

I intentionally went to places that you don’t read about or see so much about. Those rural areas where there is a small pocket of urban.

I especially love the photos with the sense of desolation in them, daytime, but nobody around. Definitely a keen eye.

more here at McNamara Gallery in addition to Henderson’s website.

Posted on July 30, 2008 - by Patrick

Lightroom 2.0 review

Ian Lyons from LightroomNews has his review (more of an overview of the new features) up of Lightroom 2.0.

And for those fortunate enought to have Nikon’s D700, Adobe’s John Nack points out that Lightroom 2.0 does have some beta support for the camera:

Good news: they already do–unofficially–in Lightroom 2.0/Camera Raw 4.5.  Unofficial support simply means that you can view and edit D700-generated NEF files normally, but because the camera is so new, Adobe QE folks haven’t tested it to the point that they feel comfortable declaring official support.  The DNG Converter can convert D700 NEFs so that they can be used in LR 1.4, Photoshop CS2, and other DNG-enabled tools.

Also Martin Evening’s book on 2.0 is available:
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

Question: What will Aperture do?

Posted on July 30, 2008 - by Patrick

Lightroom 2.0 upgrade complete

Well, there goes $99.

But really it’s money well spent. Lightroom 1.x saved us loads of time, and 2.0 only adds to the time saving with the adjustment brush and welcome features like the export to panorama, layers, smart object or hdr. And incredibly the vignette now works post-crop (seriously though, was that no-crop vignette annoying or what?).

Also I’d be remiss not to point out that Adobe is also offering camera profiles and DNG editor to create your own profiles for free download here (h/t Thom).

Two caveats though:

• these are beta
• the included Nikon profiles aren’t the exact profiles but attempts at copies of them.

I don’t see huge differences if at all when comparing the profiles in Lightroom 2.0 (via the calibration panel) versus Capture NX2 (which one would assume, exactly emulate the on camera profiles), but others may. Either way, very cool of Adobe to offer these up, and at the very least it should help blur the discrepancy between what you see on camera and what you see on screen.

Well, back to Lightroom 2.0

Posted on July 29, 2008 - by Patrick

Nikon D700 against Nikon D300, Full Frame matters

If you’ve been trying to convince yourself that full frame isn’t that big of a deal, well you’ve been lying to yourself. As I said before, that bigger sensor makes a difference and most of that is evident in a little something called “image quality” (imporant to quite a few photograhers I hear). Full frame provides better, crisper, clearer, cleaner images.  There’s a terrific example of this advantage at  Japanese site DC Watch with excellent comparison shots of the D700, D3, and D300. As expected the D700 and D3 look quite similar. And while removed from this context the D300 looks very good, it just can’t compete with its siblings in overall IQ. When the ISO gets cranked up it falls even further behind.  This has been repeated ad nauseum, but the D3 (and D700) have just utterly ridiculous noise management at high ISO. This amazes me because 6400 ISO looks like 400 ISO on my D80. True, the D300 is infinitely better performing than the D80, but the D700 gives even more detail, and even less noise, at a $2000 discount to the D3 (for right now).

In short full frame matters.

Posted on July 29, 2008 - by Patrick

Kelby does a Lightroom 2.0 rundown

Loads to like. Kelby takes you through the good and bad (not so much bad).

Note for beta 2 users: There are some differences and some sound very cool. Off the top of my head the gradient filter sounds very useful, Scott says:

The Gradient Filter is one of my personal favorite new features, and again; what we wanted was something that would let us replicate a traditional Neutral Density Gradient filter; what we got was something much more powerful, and goes far beyond a simple filter replacement. Very smartly done.

In addition, the adjustment brush not contains additional effects which is very cool and apparently it’s capabilities have been improved as well.

And of course he’s got a book too. And some video courses.

Posted on July 29, 2008 - by Patrick

adobe releases Lightroom 2.0

Lightroom 2.0 available now.

Priced at $299 or $99 for the upgrade.

the lightroom team’s blog has all the details here.