Yesterday was a pretty dull day around the office. My job mostly involves meetings and there's no one here to meet with, so I decided to download some content management software called Joomla and play around with it. This type of software is designed to make it easy to create and maintain small web sites and it works pretty well. I was able to download the software, install it and build a first iteration of a personal web site in about a day. The site wasn't pretty, but with another week or so of tweaking, it could be.
This morning, I checked out one of my favourite photography sites theonlinephotographer.com and Mike Johnston was blogging about Eric Meola's new book on India. From Mike's blog, I travelled to Eric's web site and was really blown away by both the quality of the photography and the quality of the web site. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of web sites written in Flash. People normally go overboard with animation and navigation really sucks, but whoever did Eric's site kept it really simple and elegant. The design is visually stunning and the colour photography is gorgeous.
I think I'm going to have to spend more time to build a really good website. When you see something like Eric's site, it really shows how top artists think through everything about their work in great detail, including the presentation.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Paths to Obsession
I spent a very nice day last Saturday relaxing in my cottage just outside the town of Haliburton. I had two good books that represented the ying and yang of current photography. On one hand, we had Mountain Light by Galen Rowell and on the other hand we had Photoshop CS4 Workflow: The Digital Phtographer's Guide by Tim Grey. These books could not have been more different if I'd selected them on purpose, but they both were Christmas gifts so it was serendipty at work.
Let me explain why these two books are polar opposites. On one hand, we have Galen Rowell, mountain photographer deluxe, who had a wonderful career as a mountain climber, traveller, National Geographic photographer and writer until he was tragically killed in an airplane crash at age 62. Rowell obsessed over the capture of the image and his book is full of details about how he followed the light and got the right exposure and depth of field to obtain the correct lighting and composition. He would be sent out in the field by National Geographic with dozens of rolls of slide film and would stalk light like a hunter stalks his prey. After capturing hundreds of shots of his subjects, he would send the exposed film to his publisher and wait months to see which shots (if any) had been selected for publication. Meanwhile, he would be on his way to his next assignment and would be enjoying himself out in the wilds taking pictures.
On the other hand, we have Tim Grey, photoshop expert deluxe, who makes his living writing about Adobe photoshop. Tim obsesses about the workflow involved in taking digital images from capture through to printing. His book is a wonderfully lucid explanation of all the parts of Photoshop that are useful to a photographer. He takes us through the basic image adjustments and all the way through advanced photo editing, including layers, masks and the fundamentals of non-destructive editing.
This brings me to the question of the day. If one's time is limited (and Galen Rowell's untimely departure suggests that the clock may even be ticking faster than we think), then where should we spend it? Should we spend it out in the field obsessing about the capture or should we spend it back in the photo studio obsessing about the digital developing and printing process?
Either activity could quite cheerfully occupy all the spare moments of my life that aren't spent working or hanging out with my family. Not only that, but both activities are enjoyable in their own way.
Let's take capturing images first. This is a set of pleasurable activities that can involve outdoor activities, travel, interesting gear and peace and quiet. Then there is the actual act of taking a picture. I don't know about you, but I get into a wonderful zone when I'm taking landscape pictures. My mind is at peace and I'm totally focused on the subject matter and the light.
However, there are barriers to the enjoyment of picture taking. First, there is the time element. You can't really get into the enjoyment of a good shoot without blocking off a few hours to drive or walk to a location, set up your gear and shoot. Second, there is the equipment issue. To do a decent job, you really have to anticipate conditions at the shoot and take the right cameras, lenses, filters, tripods etc. Rowell explains his selection of equipment at great length, so it was very important to him too. Finally, there's inertia. To get your butt out the door when weather conditions might be challenging or when it's dark and early before sunrise and everyone else is in a cozy bed is very difficult.
Developing and printing is a pleasure of a different sort. Taking a raw image and slowly and methodically building layer upon layer of adjustments to hone it to a final jewel and then printing it on beautiful paper is immensely satisfying. No wonder artists like Alain Briot spend hours and hours on each image. Briot, Grey and others have created this concept of a "master image" where you take a raw capture into Photoshop and build a pyramid of layers on top of it to refine it into a work of art. There are multiple curve layers, layers that adjust tonality in narrow ranges, dodging and burning layers, sharpening layers and masks on top of layers to narrow down the target of each adjustment. The artist can obsess over each individual pixel if necessary.
The beauty of this work is that it is done in the comfort of your home studio where it is cozy and warm. You can play tunes in the background. Just like any home workshop project, there is the satisfaction of seeing your work progress towards the finished product.
However, all is not wine and roses in the home studio. Every time you go on a digital shoot, you generate hundreds or even thousands of images. Sorting them, keywording them, trying to decide which ones to spend time on -- all these tasks are time-consuming and take you away from the pleasures of print-making. There is no editor waiting back at National Geographic to do all this for you - you are your own editor! Procrastination is futile as well. The work will just pile up and make you feel pressured. And this pastime is supposed to be fun!
I've been thinking about this for a few days and I think I've come up with a few guidelines to extract as much fun out of photography as possible as well as produce some very good work that, hopefully, others might enjoy and purchase from you:
Let me explain why these two books are polar opposites. On one hand, we have Galen Rowell, mountain photographer deluxe, who had a wonderful career as a mountain climber, traveller, National Geographic photographer and writer until he was tragically killed in an airplane crash at age 62. Rowell obsessed over the capture of the image and his book is full of details about how he followed the light and got the right exposure and depth of field to obtain the correct lighting and composition. He would be sent out in the field by National Geographic with dozens of rolls of slide film and would stalk light like a hunter stalks his prey. After capturing hundreds of shots of his subjects, he would send the exposed film to his publisher and wait months to see which shots (if any) had been selected for publication. Meanwhile, he would be on his way to his next assignment and would be enjoying himself out in the wilds taking pictures.
On the other hand, we have Tim Grey, photoshop expert deluxe, who makes his living writing about Adobe photoshop. Tim obsesses about the workflow involved in taking digital images from capture through to printing. His book is a wonderfully lucid explanation of all the parts of Photoshop that are useful to a photographer. He takes us through the basic image adjustments and all the way through advanced photo editing, including layers, masks and the fundamentals of non-destructive editing.
This brings me to the question of the day. If one's time is limited (and Galen Rowell's untimely departure suggests that the clock may even be ticking faster than we think), then where should we spend it? Should we spend it out in the field obsessing about the capture or should we spend it back in the photo studio obsessing about the digital developing and printing process?
Either activity could quite cheerfully occupy all the spare moments of my life that aren't spent working or hanging out with my family. Not only that, but both activities are enjoyable in their own way.
Let's take capturing images first. This is a set of pleasurable activities that can involve outdoor activities, travel, interesting gear and peace and quiet. Then there is the actual act of taking a picture. I don't know about you, but I get into a wonderful zone when I'm taking landscape pictures. My mind is at peace and I'm totally focused on the subject matter and the light.
However, there are barriers to the enjoyment of picture taking. First, there is the time element. You can't really get into the enjoyment of a good shoot without blocking off a few hours to drive or walk to a location, set up your gear and shoot. Second, there is the equipment issue. To do a decent job, you really have to anticipate conditions at the shoot and take the right cameras, lenses, filters, tripods etc. Rowell explains his selection of equipment at great length, so it was very important to him too. Finally, there's inertia. To get your butt out the door when weather conditions might be challenging or when it's dark and early before sunrise and everyone else is in a cozy bed is very difficult.
Developing and printing is a pleasure of a different sort. Taking a raw image and slowly and methodically building layer upon layer of adjustments to hone it to a final jewel and then printing it on beautiful paper is immensely satisfying. No wonder artists like Alain Briot spend hours and hours on each image. Briot, Grey and others have created this concept of a "master image" where you take a raw capture into Photoshop and build a pyramid of layers on top of it to refine it into a work of art. There are multiple curve layers, layers that adjust tonality in narrow ranges, dodging and burning layers, sharpening layers and masks on top of layers to narrow down the target of each adjustment. The artist can obsess over each individual pixel if necessary.
The beauty of this work is that it is done in the comfort of your home studio where it is cozy and warm. You can play tunes in the background. Just like any home workshop project, there is the satisfaction of seeing your work progress towards the finished product.
However, all is not wine and roses in the home studio. Every time you go on a digital shoot, you generate hundreds or even thousands of images. Sorting them, keywording them, trying to decide which ones to spend time on -- all these tasks are time-consuming and take you away from the pleasures of print-making. There is no editor waiting back at National Geographic to do all this for you - you are your own editor! Procrastination is futile as well. The work will just pile up and make you feel pressured. And this pastime is supposed to be fun!
I've been thinking about this for a few days and I think I've come up with a few guidelines to extract as much fun out of photography as possible as well as produce some very good work that, hopefully, others might enjoy and purchase from you:
- Guideline #1: Take time for photography. People make time for golf, fishing, tennis and other activities, so why not photography? Book a half day away from your family and take off to a favourite location for a shoot. Prepare for your shoot just like you would prepare for a fishing trip - get your gear set up beforehand, get the car gassed up and leave early in the morning to capture that golden light at your location. If you'd enjoy some company, find some photography buddies that will come along with you. Take a picnic. Enjoy!
- Guideline #2: Use the best tools to sort and categorize your photos. This job is a chore and you want to get over it quickly. Once your photos have been rated, sorted and keyworded, you can quickly focus on the keepers and not stress out about the other 90% of your images that didn't really work out. I've found Lightroom to be a wonderful tool for this job. I touched on the magic of Smart Collections in a previous post and find them to be a really good way of collecting your keepers by subject and organizing your workflow. The beauty of Lightroom smart collections is you can refine your workflow without having to go back and move images around - it is all done dynamically based on keywords and meta data.
- Guideline #3: Know when to draw the line in the studio. There is a 90/10 rule at work here. If you're lucky enough to capture a really good image, chances are that you can get it print-ready with a minimal amount of development work. Not only that, but 90% of the changes needed can be obtained with 10% of the effort. Quick, accurate adjustments to exposure, white balance and contrast (using curves) can be all that's needed to make a good image work as a print. If you find yourself building a layer cake of hundreds of adjustment layers and masks, maybe your time would be better spent with an image that was a better capture in the first place!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Update to the Lightroom Sharing Saga
Last week, I wrote a post about using the DOS SUBST command to fool Lightroom into thinking that a network drive was actually a local drive so that the catalog could be stored on a network drive.
Alas, although the technique worked inasmuch as I could access my catalog from both my computers (although not at the same time), the speed was agonizingly sloooooow. Lightroom took long pauses between any type of library or developing function. I guess the Adobe guys really made the application very chatty with the database.
My wired network is 100 Mbps (about 10 MBps in theory). USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, nearly 5 times faster, so the solution seems to be to a) upgrade my wired network to gigabit (sounds expensive!) or b) go back to sharing the catalog via a USB hard drive. I'm going to use option b) until I have a better solution.
Alas, although the technique worked inasmuch as I could access my catalog from both my computers (although not at the same time), the speed was agonizingly sloooooow. Lightroom took long pauses between any type of library or developing function. I guess the Adobe guys really made the application very chatty with the database.
My wired network is 100 Mbps (about 10 MBps in theory). USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, nearly 5 times faster, so the solution seems to be to a) upgrade my wired network to gigabit (sounds expensive!) or b) go back to sharing the catalog via a USB hard drive. I'm going to use option b) until I have a better solution.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Calendars for Fallen Soldiers
I must admit to being conflicted over the war in Afghanistan. On one hand, I deplore violence and war in any and all forms. On the other hand, I oppose religious extremism, especially when it attempts to suppress the freedoms of other people. In Afghanistan, we have soldiers from North America fighting against the religious zealotry of the Taliban, so what is one to do? My view changes with the tides.
However, there is no arguing with the courage of the individual men and women of the American and Canadian armed forces who believe in the fight against the Taliban and who have put their lives on the line. As Canadians, we are saddened by the losses to the families whose loved ones fought and died in Afghanistan.
One man has decided to do something about it. His name is Shane Keating. His nephew died while serving in Afghanistan and Shane Sr. has devoted his life savings to publishing a memorial calendar to many of the Canadian fallen soldiers in honour of his nephew. You can read all about it here.
The calendar can be viewed at the www.firmm.ca (firmm stands for families in remembrance of military members) website. Like any other calendar, this one is full of photographs, but these are very special photographs, images of the soldiers that served their country and died doing it. Whether you share their cause, you must respect that they believed that what they were doing was right and just.
I was listening to a radio program about Shane Keating and they interviewed a mother of one of the soldiers featured in the calendar. She said that the photo in the calendar is her favourite one of her son, the one she carries around in her purse at all times.
How many calendars can you buy this year where the images are so precious as these?
However, there is no arguing with the courage of the individual men and women of the American and Canadian armed forces who believe in the fight against the Taliban and who have put their lives on the line. As Canadians, we are saddened by the losses to the families whose loved ones fought and died in Afghanistan.
One man has decided to do something about it. His name is Shane Keating. His nephew died while serving in Afghanistan and Shane Sr. has devoted his life savings to publishing a memorial calendar to many of the Canadian fallen soldiers in honour of his nephew. You can read all about it here.
The calendar can be viewed at the www.firmm.ca (firmm stands for families in remembrance of military members) website. Like any other calendar, this one is full of photographs, but these are very special photographs, images of the soldiers that served their country and died doing it. Whether you share their cause, you must respect that they believed that what they were doing was right and just.
I was listening to a radio program about Shane Keating and they interviewed a mother of one of the soldiers featured in the calendar. She said that the photo in the calendar is her favourite one of her son, the one she carries around in her purse at all times.
How many calendars can you buy this year where the images are so precious as these?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Update on Sharing Lightroom on Two Computers
I recently wrote a post on my plans to share Lightroom on two computers, my primary editing machine in the family room and my primary printing machine in my studio. After much reading, I decided to place the catalog on a portable disk drive and schlep it between the two machines. This seems to work quite well - my files are spread between the two computers, but the catalog sees all the network files on both machines. However, there are three issues with this solution. Carrying the catalog up and down the stairs (not to mention connecting it and disconnecting it) is a pain in the butt. The portable disk is noticeably slower than a local disk. And, there is a bug somewhere in the Adobe code base that takes my network down whenever I try to edit a Lightroom file in Photoshop on my studio machine. The other computer blue screens.
The first two problems I can live with. The latter one is more troubling and I was looking for a solution when I found this article by Lightroom guru Denis Pagé.
He points out that you can get around the issue where Lightroom is programmed not to open a catalog on a network drive by using the DOS shell command SUBST to create a disk letter that is assigned to a network share. Lightroom will be fooled into thinking that the disk is local and will open the catalog. Denis warns against using this technique to support more than one person editing a catalog at a time and I intend to ensure that only one version of Lightroom is open at the same time. I will restrict the number of people who can share the catalog directory at the same time to 1.
I'll implement this over the holidays and let you know how it goes.
The first two problems I can live with. The latter one is more troubling and I was looking for a solution when I found this article by Lightroom guru Denis Pagé.
He points out that you can get around the issue where Lightroom is programmed not to open a catalog on a network drive by using the DOS shell command SUBST to create a disk letter that is assigned to a network share. Lightroom will be fooled into thinking that the disk is local and will open the catalog. Denis warns against using this technique to support more than one person editing a catalog at a time and I intend to ensure that only one version of Lightroom is open at the same time. I will restrict the number of people who can share the catalog directory at the same time to 1.
I'll implement this over the holidays and let you know how it goes.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Online Editing
I've committed to teaching a photography class to about a dozen ten year-old kids next month at Art City, an organization that teaches underprivileged kids how to draw and paint. In preparing for this class, I've been wrestling with several issues:
As far as the second point goes, there is good news there too. Adobe has a very good online editing system at Photoshop.com. You have to have an Adobe ID to use the site, but I don't think that will be an issue. There are two things that make the Photoshop Express site really terrific for young photographers:
It should be a fun day!
- How can I equip them all with cameras so they can have a meaningful hands-on learning experience?
- How can I teach them to develop their digital photos after their shoot without all the complexity of Photoshop and/or Lightroom?
- What will the enjoy as their first photo assignment?
As far as the second point goes, there is good news there too. Adobe has a very good online editing system at Photoshop.com. You have to have an Adobe ID to use the site, but I don't think that will be an issue. There are two things that make the Photoshop Express site really terrific for young photographers:
- To use it, you only need a decent Internet connection. Art City has an arrangement with a nearby cooperative housing development who have a nice facility with a small network of computers hooked up to a high-speed line, so this will work nicely. The rest of the time, the kids can book a computer at the local library.
- The user interface on Photoshop Express is BRILLIANT for non-expert users. Kudos to the gang at Adobe for totally re-thinking the problem and breaking the mold completely. If you haven't tried this yourself, check it out. Here's an example: suppose you want to change the exposure on your photograph. Using a tool like photoshop or lightroom, you'd change exposure using a slider and see the impact on your photo by looking at both the image itself and the histogram. This is wonderful if you know what a histogram is used for. With Photoshop Express, you get a series of thumbnails all representing a different exposure of the image. As you click on each one, you see the results in the image itself. You can very quickly try them all out and pick the one that looks the most pleasing. This technique is used for all the major image adjustments. Very clever!
It should be a fun day!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Winter is Here!
Winter Sunset - (c) Huw Morgan
Winter is here. There is a blizzard raging outside our office windows and it looks like we'll get 15-20 centimeters of snow. How nice! I just talked to the HR Director and we agreed it would be a good idea to send everyone home at noon.
Winter provides lots of opportunities for photography and I'm looking forward to spending some time in Haliburton where the winter countryside is very photogenic. I really do feel so sorry for you if you live in the sunny south :-)
Wetland in Winter - (c) Huw Morgan
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