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January 21, 2010

[REVIEW—NIK COLOR EFEX PRO 3.0]

Price: $400

Amazing Photoshop filters tool

The low-down: This image manipulation software installs itself under the Filters menu in Photoshop and provides an astonishing array of tools for conversion to black and white, enhancing warmth and brilliance, adding a glamour glow and softening skin detail, soft focus, adding film-like effects and grain, applying fog (both flat and graduated), adding a graduated colour filter, or graduated neutral density. It will add reflector effects, tones to black and white, remove colour casts, simulate a polariser and, as they say in the ads, many many more. The appearance of every effect is controlled with sliders for colour, contrast, brightness, strength and so on. There is a loupe section of the screen to show a small part of the original and the retouched image side by side.

Like: The effects are subtle and are added as a new layer in Photoshop so the intensity of the effect can be varied with the opacity slider. Parts of the effect can be erased if necessary before flattening the image. Since installing the software there has not been one photo of a female that has not had the skin softening filter applied. It takes away the relentless hardness of detail that is characteristic of a sharply focused digital image, leaving a softer, film-like final photo.

Dislike: At this stage there is no version for 64 bit Photoshop, although Nik promised on its web site that it would be available before Christmas.

Verdict: The price is going to be a major deterrent. This is not for the happy amateur snapper, but for the serious photographer -- particularly anyone interested in the art of portraiture -- this is a remarkably comprehensive Photoshop plug-in. Recommended without reservation.

 

[Go to www.niksoftware.com.au for more information about the Nik products.]

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Posted by terry at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)

[LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS]

Imaging's shelves groan under the weight of massive photographic books, but that hasn't stopped us adding a couple more since Christmas.

Books of photos by great photographers are an ambiguous inspiration. On the one hand they show what can be done and, in most cases, it is easy enough to work out how it has been done. On the other hand they are a temptation to be mere mimics of the masters. We fall for that temptation every time!

Photo Wisdom – master photographers on their art, compiled and edited by Lewis Blackwell (Hachette Australia www.hachette.com.au) is a massive collection of photographs and interviews with photographers in which they talk about their training, philosophy, inspiration and equipment.

Not surprisingly several of the photographers talk about the challenge of making something unique in a medium where billions of photos are being taken every day with the ubiquitous digital camera.

Jill Greenberg, who takes stunning portraits of animals and humans, says: "You have to work very hard, try to develop and hone your own vision, find something that is personal to you. With all the photographs that are being made daily, it may seem impossible to make something that stands out, but you have to do it."

Many of the photographers in the book still work with film. Joel Meyerowitz gives an interesting rationale. "With digital it is a negative asset that you can immediately see what you have got...When you only have film in the camera and you start to shoot something, a small event is transpiring in front of you. Well, you move closer and keep pushing...only focusing on the event. But with digital I have noticed so consistently that photographers take a picture and then look at the back to see what they've got, while the event is still going on."

Nude Photography–the art and the craft by Belgian photographer Pascal Baetens (Dorling Kindersley www.dk.com) delivers what the title promises -- a comprehensive guide to photographing the human body.

Baetens' introductory essay on the history of photographing nudes is a good guide to sorting out the various categories from the coyly allegorical works of the 19th century up to the explicitly erotic photography of Playboy and its ilk. In between there are categories of pictorial, surrealist, scientific, fashion and feminist.

Our preference is for the portrait category where the nudity is a secondary feature of a photograph that captures the personality of the subject. The August 1991 Vanity Fair cover photo of a naked and pregnant Demi Moore (by Annie Leibovitz) is a good example of portrait nudity.

The most helpful section of the book is the "Photographers' Gallery" where splendid examples of the art are illustrated with one particular picture, followed by a detailed photo essay on how the picture was made. This is accompanied by a selection of each photographer's works. Australian photographic partners Lyn Balzer and Tony Perkins are featured in this section.

Altogether two valuable additions to the photo book library.

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Posted by terry at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2010

[REVIEW—CANON IXUS 120 IS]

Price: $500

Competent compact

The low-down: This 12.1 megapixel compact camera is fitted with an image stabilised 28–112mm (film equivalent) lens. It is very small with a face area about the same as a credit card and a mere 20mm deep with the lens retracted. It will fit in any pocket. Construction quality is good. The Function control set is a small variation on the classic Canon layout, giving reasonable user control in P mode. There is face recognition and Blink detection that warns when the subject’s eyes are closed. (This gets Imaging’s Most Useless Doodad Award). High definition movies (720 lines) are promised, but it depends on your definition of definition. The 6.75cm LCD is the camera’s weak point.

Like: The images from the camera are generally good, although there is a tendency to over-expose low contrast subjects and the under-expose those in brighter light. Resolution and focus sharpness are excellent with very fine detail preserved and no worrying noise reduction effects, at least a ISO speeds up to 200. Macro performance is very good.

Dislike: The LCD is a poor affair, giving only an approximate review of the captured image. Fortunately the image that appears on the computer monitor or in print is much better than the LCD would lead us to expect. Flash performance is poor with weak illumination and weird colour casts. Dynamic range (the ability to keep detail in shadows and highlights) is not great, no doubt due to the excessive number of pixels.

Verdict: The little Canon can take good pictures, but the poor flash performance means it is no party camera. The lens and the image processing are good, but the user experience leaves something to be desired because of the LCD. The 28mm wide angle end of the zoom is a boon for tourists.

 

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Posted by terry at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)

[THE WAY OF THE FUTURE?]

Last week Samsung at last unveiled the long-awaited NX-10. The company has shoe-horned most of the internal workings of a digital single lens reflex into a compact(ish) body, going down the path pioneered by Panasonic in replacing the reflex viewfinder with an electronic affair.

We had a chance to handle a pre-production model before Christmas, but release of information was embargoed until last week. As the general concept and shape of the camera was already well known the point of the embargo was moot.

2009 will be remembered as the year in which the camera companies tried something new – better images from less bulk. First came Panasonic with their G1 and GH1 (the G1 with movie mode added) Micro Four Thirds pseudo-SLRs. These well made, slim twins were an immediate success, although we felt that the electronic viewfinders left something to be desired and were certainly no match for the traditional mirror and prism.

Later in the year Olympus launched the E-P1, the cute retro styled camera, again built around the Micro Four Thirds sensor the company shares with Panasonic and uses in its DSLRs. This time the only viewfinder is the LCD.

Panasonic followed with the GF1 which can be bought with an add-on EVF; not to be outdone Olympus followed with the E-P2 – essentially an E-P1 with an add-on EVF.

Then in November Ricoh launched their clever version of the compact interchangeable lens camera with the GXR. Ricoh’s solution to the fully competent camera in the compact body is to incorporate the lens and sensor into an interchangeable unit. This means they can offer either a full APS-C sized sensor, as used in most consumer DSLRs, or the smaller compact camera sensor, to be used in one body.

Samsung’s approach has been to create a compact pseudo-SLR, about the same size as Panasonic’s twins, but with the larger APS-C sensor. The advantage of this system is in potential image quality. The disadvantage, compared with the Micro Four Thirds cameras, is that the lenses must be larger.

This flurry of innovation and size reduction by the camera companies is spurred on by the belief that there is a potential customer in the shops looking for single lens reflex image quality in a compact body. This customer is deterred from buying a traditional DSLR by its bulk, its mass, its ostentation and its perceived complexity. The putative customer is moving up from a compact into something better, but not as grand and excessive as a Canon 1d MkIII.

The Samsung NX-10 could be the camera they are looking for. It can be set to auto-everything and left to its own devices, just like a compact, or the user can keep complete control. It is rugged and well made, so it is not light, and that is good – unless you want to carry it in a pocket. We are impressed by what we have seen. We will do a review of the camera soon.

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Posted by terry at 07:22 AM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2010

[REVIEW—NIKON D3000 DSLR]

Price: $1000

Good camera, pity about the penny pinching

The low-down: This 10.2 megapixel camera is Nikon’s new entry model, supplied with an 18–55mm (27–82 film equivalent) lens with vibration reduction. Sensor dust reduction is by sensor vibration. The medium resolution 75mm LCD doubles as the camera status screen. The body is small and construction is good with no squeaks from the plastic casing. The kit lens is smooth enough, but cost-cutting is seen in things like the plastic base plate. Controls are well laid out in the familiar Nikon configuration, but there is no secondary adjustment wheel. There is no live view, movie mode or automatic exposure bracketing. The inbuilt low-light focus assist lamp is a model of its kind.

Like: The images from the camera are consistently well exposed. Colour is generally good, except under incandescent light where auto white balance fails. Ergonomics are excellent and the noises – shutter and mirror slap – are amazingly refined. It does not feel cheap.

Dislike: Nikon pinch the pennies on their low end models – no auto bracketing, a limited range of auto-focus lenses (there is no focus drive in the body), poor LCD resolution and no live view. You wouldn’t buy this camera without looking at the Pentax K-x which is better featured, including movie mode, fast burst mode and in-camera high dynamic range image creation.

Verdict: We used the D3000, together with the Nikon SB600 Speedlight (flash) on Christmas Day to record the Imaging family knees-up. After nearly 400 shots the battery was still going strong. The camera is responsive – a Nikon characteristic – so we never missed a grimace of disappointment when the “just what I wanted” gifts were opened. We were impressed with the consistency of the photos. It is a good entry into the Nikon system.

 

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Posted by terry at 07:20 AM | Comments (1)

[THE SOFTWARE OF OUGHT NINE]

The famous 19th century “green” philosopher, H D Thoreau, writes in Walden that “We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.”

Well, he may scoff, but news of royal chest infections is infinitely more interesting than anything that my “friends” have posted on their Facebook pages this year. What would Thoreau have made of “OMG only 3 days to Xmas and I haven’t done any shopping LOL ):”?

Having resisted the Facebook phenomenon as an enemy of human discourse and sensible reticence, in ’09 we yielded. Under pressure. We said to ourselves: “Well, why not? It can’t hurt. We will put up some amusing photos and an occasional witty review of book, concert, opera or film. Our ‘friends’ will be delighted and will tick the ‘X likes this’ box.”

As it turned out we would have been better off with “OMG IMHO the Princess has a cold LOL.” Does anyone respond to our photographic mini-masterpieces? Nope. But do they respond to the Christmas shopping cri de coeur? By the hundreds!

So, put Facebook down as our dud PC tool of the year.

For sharing photos we use Jalbum and in ‘09 we moved up from the cheapskate free service (30MB) and started paying real money ($26) for 1GB of space. We know that there are plenty of free on-line photo sharing sites but we like the cut of Jalbum with its many customisable interfaces (skins). And it is Swedish, which is a refreshing change from the all-pervasive American offerings. You can have a look at one of our Jalbums at tinyurl.com/yjx2hmd

The new software that has had the most use since we installed it late last year is the black and white conversion tool from Nik Software, called Silver Efex Pro. This is the most versatile B&W converter we have tried but sadly it is fiendishly expensive at $280 from www.niksoftware.com.au (There is a time-limited trial version for download).

Silver Efex Pro will simulate different film types, filters and developer as well as adding effects such as sepia, aged photo, pinhole and so on. It is superbly conceived and developed software, just a pity about the price.

In 2009 PhotoAcute was added to our software suite. This image manipulation program performs several specialised functions. It will merge a set of images into a single high dynamic range photograph, extending the detail visible in shadows and highlights; it will merge a set of photos taken at different focus points to produce one image that is sharp, front to back; and it will merge four or more identical images to produce one with double the resolution of the camera sensor. You can find it at www.photoacute.com -- $134 for the full version. Well worth downloading the trial version which is watermarked.

Happy digital new year.

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Posted by terry at 07:16 AM | Comments (1)