I am not sure if any of you actually shot RAW images and process them using software. When I am away I usually bring more than two cameras and two of them are able to shoot uncompressed RAW format. I have an EOS Canon which produces .CR2 files, and my NEX produces .ARW files. The first generation of Canon RAW was called .CRW (short for Canon RaW). The 2nd generation of EOS changed to .CRW (Canon Raw2), and the Sony stands for Alpha RaW. I also still have my old Nikon D80 and it produces .NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) and I also have Nikon NX. By shooting images in RAW format give you a much better chance of recovering your image under less than ideal conditions and I usually shoot RAW for those important images that I may wish to make enlargements from
Anyway with windows explorer when you click on a folder you are able to view little thumbnails of your .jpg images. If you shoot in a format other than .jpg, the thumbnails do not display and it is a pain to have to load each one into propriety software from Canon or Sony to view each image. Manufactures are aware of this and they usually supply a RAW image viewer which works with Windows Explorer so your images can be displayed. I also updated the Canon DPP: Digital Photo Professional software to the latest version.
What does all this mean you ask ? It means that after I did all of this updating I could not access my Network Drive on Sunday morning. This means that all of my photos since last November were not accessible. I was in a panic. I checked the router, I powered down the network drive. I checked the router settings. It was beyond me that the Seagate Goflex drive was shown as "connected" when you check the router status but I could not "see" the drives on the network. I even re-booted my system and NOTHING.
All I could think was to uninstall the Sony RAW viewer. I did, and the Network Drive suddenly appeared as folders in Windows Explorer, so I was back in business. However not everything is back to normal. My Windows Picture Viewer is flaky and doesn't seem to work correctly. So if you are running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and you download the latest Sony RAW viewer, it will not work. (Martha, are you listening?)
Before I bought my network drive I used to download photos to various pocket external hard drives. I was looking at some photos from Oregon taken last September some of which you have not seen
Here is the beach where we were staying in Lincoln City. Our motel is on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We were sitting by the fire on Friday night and we noticed some cars on the beach below and their headlights. Many cars drive on the beach down there and thought that they were just having a bit of fun making donuts in the sand. The next morning we looked down at the beach and we saw
Those two cars where the headlights were the night before. The white car near the top had been there overnight
It seemed obvious that this car had been stuck in the sand and couldn't get out. We were to meet that fellow on the left shortly and he was the one who towed that car out
His name is John and I thought he was friends with the guy holding the shovel, but he wasn't. Here he is checking the tow rope and moving some sand by hand . Before long they hooked the tow rope up to John's red 4x4 truck
and he towed that white car back to the ramp. John is from Eastern Washington and here on Vacation for a few days, and staying at the same hotel as we were
Meet John and Jackie, on their Honeymoon in Lincoln City, Oregon. We did a quick impromptu photo shoot on the beach and I was happy to give them a few memories of this weekend. He has a photography friend back home so I shot .jpg and Raw format and gave them all the photos
They were willing models as I was shouting out commands to stand here, or stand over there. We were lucky to have the early morning sun and that the fog had already burned off. While we were only together for a short few hours, we left as friends. John also rides a Shadow so you may bump into him somewhere in the Yakima area
Congratulations to John & Jackie and may you have a good life together. Hope to see you on the road one day soon
Of course we also had to get a few photos of ourselves
We were so lucky to get such good weather and see the coast without fog
Being part of the Apple Collective, I use Aperture for post processing my NEF images. Fortunately, they changed their pricing model allowing me to install the software on multiple laptops. I keep the picture vault on a portable HD which I usually carry with the camera so I always have it when needed.
ReplyDeleteI really like the color in the last image, especially the water and the beach.
Richard:
DeleteI have an UWA Sigma 10-20mm lens which I barely use and I brought it with me on this trip. Due to distortion you have to start at around 12mm, which is a true 18mm (35mm perspective) and it gives great contrast and is very sharp too. I have two of these lens'; one for Nikon AiS and one for EOS. It really brings out the colour.
When I am away, I always bring an external HD for photos
I've heard that Sigma makes some pretty good lenses. Here ia a wonderful example.
DeleteI may have asked you before, but do you use Lightroom for photo management and post processing? Using the Nikon provided software a couple of times was sufficient incentive for me to get Aperture. Then you wouldn't have to deal with all of the manufactuers sometimes flaky software products.
Richard:
DeleteI actually shoot more .CR2 (EOS) than .ARW (Sony), so I use CPP: Canon Photo Professional which is considered better than the alternatives, plus it's free. For Sony I just their RAW converter software, seems to work okay. Aperture is only for Apple. There was a sale recently for Lightroom but I decided not to buy it. I am using an older version of Photoshop CS for Levels and contrast. For what I do I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, 9 and 7 versions.
Well if your aren't that smart then I must be a neanderthal .. I understood about half of what you said ... not too bad I thought.
ReplyDeleteYou always post such wonderful photos tho so I dont mind if I dont understand what you are saying .. thanks Bob :)
Lovely when you can make freinds like that :)
Brenda:
DeleteDon't worry, I don't understand half of what I babble about either. I know that if you are a serious photographer, you will buy a camera which can produce RAW: uncompressed images and then "process" (tweak) them using software such as Photoshop, DPP, NX etc. I only use RAW for those photos I may print an enlargement, or for group photos.
.JPGs are compressed when they are saved by your camera. Your camera also applies certain parameters to this file, such as; white balance, sharpening, contrast etc. once saved, these .jpgs are difficult to "enhance". .jpg files are typically around 5 mp.
RAW files are uncompressed. which means that no pixels are discarded. your files contain every pixel that your sensor has produced. RAW files from my camera are around 25 MP but they you are free to manually apply your own; sharpening, contrast etc, but the main operation would be to correct your white balance and exposure, up to +/- 2 stops. You have full control over your image, rather than having your camera decide everything for you automatically.
that being said, mostly all of the photos I post are unprocessed .jpgs
I'm going to simply be satisfied with those images you photographers share with us.
ReplyDeleteAs Richard mentioned, as 'satisfied' as I am with all of the photos here, that last one really sings. Was it from a tripod or should we be listening to Mrs. Skoot's Photography Tips??
Thank you for it either way.
Coop:
DeleteThe last photo was taken with the Sigma 10-20mm UWA lens. It has great contrast and the colours really pop, especially the blue. I seldom use this lens but I really like it. Also it is much wider angle than normal, around 18mm.
I set up all my photos. This was on a tripod and triggered by remote control. I visualize the scene then step into it. This was taken with my Canon T2i. I have two types of remote controls. The one from Canon is IR: InfraRed but only good for short distances, perhaps 12-15 feet max. I have a radio frequency remote which is good up to 300 feet.
Bob your photos are just gorgeous. You're too modest. You're a killer combo: smart, and knowledgeable.
ReplyDeleteBUT... be smarter, struggle less, dump your PCs, switch to Apple. There's all manner and kind of terribly smart difficult things I needed to remember and do when we were a PC household that I haven't bothered with since we switched to Apple stuff. Plus we enjoy photos and music more than ever before, and we have all that fussy time freed up for more important stuff.
All the best from another Neanderthal to one smart guy.
David
I think Apple anything is against Bob's religion...
DeleteI agree with David Masse about the Mac, with OS X, the computer became just a tool to be used as opposed to something that needed to be mastered. Plus the BSD unix underpinnings comes with a lot of the tools I used to have to search for, install, test, uninstall and continue searching...
For the handful of things that only run under Windows (now just one remote control for a science instrument and one website that still uses ActiveX controls), I just have XP running on a VM and only have to mess with it for those couple of apps.
David:
DeleteI have a mental block against using Apple, although I have an iPhone and bought an Ipad Mini. We had a GMac at the office and no one knew how to use it, so after about a year we got rid of it. I think it's the learning curve of how to use it. I'm too old to change systems now. I only know how to use PC's and no one I know has one. My friend is a computer consultant and if I ever have problems with my PC based laptops, he just fixes it for me.
I also like Adobe products even though they are not customer friendly. On their forums, their programs do not work correctly on MACs. They are only translated over from their PC versions. I know Apples are reliable, and they work ! but . . .
Bob - the photos are, as usual, well thought out and beautiful. I love the ocean ...
ReplyDeleteKaren:
DeleteMany times the Oregon Coast is shrouded in Fog. It is rare to come across a sunny, clear day. A bit cool for a September morning but I like to feel the sand as I walk along the beach. I like Lincoln City and this is the third time we have been here in recent years.
Mark your calendar for 2014 and consider riding "down" the coast all the way down to CA
I tried RAW before. It took lots of memory and the processing was a bit much for me. Maybe one day when I fewer hobbies. I would have just said more time, but here lately it's the hobbies keeping me busy. But that's actually a good thing. I loved all of your coast shots.
ReplyDeleteKathy:
Deletethe RAW converter usually comes with the camera (except Nikon). I usually shoot RAW+jpg and it is around 35 megs per photo, but I only do this for photos I want, or groups. I doesn't take that long if you only do levels and curves and perhaps some contrast adjustments
This is a nice fun. The beach drive is challenging but good. I like the photos. What can one do to avoid getting stuck in the sand?
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