Digital Photography

[bpribadi 0]

Let's contribute anything we know about digital imaging. From basic knowledge, software, image editing tips & tricks, etc.

 

Hopefully it will be a useful thread for all of us

[bpribadi 0]

FastStone Image Viewer

Software

 

I found a very good freeware for foto browsing:

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

 

They also have other nice freewares:

http://www.faststone.org/index.htm

 

I've been using the FastStone viewer since last year, and I'm very happy with it. Not only free, the support is very responsive. Just last February, they launched 2 beta version for us to test it. I wrote to them (him) a few time, and they always reply my email the next day, whether it is about suggestion or bug report. Excellent support !!!

 

I'm using the latest beta version, it can browse .RAW and .NEF very fast!!! Kudos FastStone!!!

Edited March 3, 2005 by bpribadi

[bpribadi 0]

White Balance

Knowledge & Tips

 

Not much discussed when we were (are) using film, but now become very important in digital photography. With film it is simply too troublesome to have a few films for every light/color temperature. And film also has a very wide 'white balance tolerance' compare to digital. Not like film, in digital, to get right color, it is very critical to adjust the white balance to the correct color temperature.

 

So, what is white balance. Some good expalanations:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase...ion/source.html

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/colortemperature/

 

So white is not always looks white to our eyes, it is depend on the color temperature. Our eyes is used to 5500 Kelvin color temperature (noon sunlight). So white will looks white under 5500K light source. Below 5500K the white will looks yellowish (warmer), above 5500K white will looks bluish (cooler).

 

Enough theory...

 

Some tips to get the right WB:

1. Shoot RAW. So you can adjust the WB later in your PC.

2. Try other camera setting (sunny, cloudy, tungsten, etc.) before using the auto WB (last option).

3. If you have custom WB in your camera, set it first to get the best color before actual shot.

 

To set the custom WB, you can try to use white paper or foam cup. Cover the lens with white paper or the white foam cup, point the lens to the light source (the strongest light source if many), set the WB (or shoot a pic for WB reference - DSLR).

 

Most of the camera manuals said, to search for a white object for custom WB setting. But from my experience it is much easier to get proper WB by covering the lens with white paper or white foam cup, and point the lens to the light source to set the WB.

 

Happy shooting!

[tropicalrips 0]

i downloaded the Faststone viewer and resizer, both very useful thanks Bram

the viewer is faster then the Nikon software for RAW files

[kenshinz 0]

Rough Guide for Printing Size

 

Megapixel / Optimal Print Size

3.2MP = Up to 8R (roughly A4 paper)

4.0MP = Up to 10R (roughly B4 paper)

5.0MP = Up to 12â€x18†(roughly A3 paper)

6.0MP = Up to 20â€x30†posters

 

Hope it's useful

 

[N@Z 0]

The faststone viewer is faster & has a similar look & feel to ACDSee 7. On my PC I can see the thumbnails in colour but when viewing full size images it's in monochrome.

[tropicalrips 0]

The faststone viewer is faster & has a similar look & feel to ACDSee 7. On my PC I can see the thumbnails in colour but when viewing full size images it's in monochrome.

i did not hav the color problem on my PC, but i found when i view the RAW files at full screen the color, details and focus were all out, at first i thought it was the pic that i shot, but when i view the same pic in Nikon capture editor, it was ok

 

with Jpeg everthing was ok even at full screen

[bpribadi 0]

FastStone is not a good RAW viewer. It is meant for fast browsing only. To see real quality of the RAW pics, no choice must use better software

[kenshinz 0]

This seems weird, but I found Irfanview to be faster on my laptop (Centrino 1.4Ghz w/ 512mb ram)

[kenshinz 0]

virtualPhotographer

 

Quoted from the site:

 

"Free Photoshop plug-in that lets you instantly apply high quality, professional photographic styles to your digital images, with just one click.

 

Includes over 50 presets that automatically apply combinations of film grain, color modification, B/W, soft focus, high contrast and many artistic effects"

 

I've tried it, its not bad, can get some interesting and nice effects with minimum fuss.

 

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

[bpribadi 0]

Very nice plug-in! Thanks!

[bpribadi 0]

Correcting White Balance From JPEG Image

Tips

 

I found so far, the easiest way to correct the white balance from a JPEG image is to use Photoshop Level Adjustment.

 

Choose 'set gray point' (as pointed by the cursor) and then select any part from the image that supposed to be gray (have same value of RGB). You can select white or black also, just keep clicking until you get the color balance as you want

 

[tropicalrips 0]

thought i post some site to find info on digicams

 

i actually learn to use the more advance settings of my C8080 from here, cause its easier then reading then the manual

steve's digicam

 

another good place to find info on digicams

digital camera resource page

digital camera reviews

 

a place to post your shots for people around the world to comment

trekEarth

trekLens

 

links for some interesting fonts for your "watermark"

cool fonts

godzilla fonts

Edited March 14, 2005 by tropicalrips

[bpribadi 0]

Post Processing

Philosophy

 

Some people don't like digital post processing, because they said, it is not original, it is faking, or the best pic is the one that come out from the camera. Well, that's partly true for documentational fotos, but not for art.

 

So they try to be faithfull to show the original object from the picture.

If we take foto of the same object with different cameras, we will get different result. So which one is faithfull to the real object? Unfortunately none of them So even original file/pic came out from the camera is not faithfully representing the original object, so that's why we need to post process them, to make it as close as the original. That's reason for post processing documentational fotos.

 

How about art? Well, I don't have a camera that can give me the result that I want, straight out of the camera. I want the picture to shows, what I want to express. That's another reason for post processinging digital image. So camera and image editing software is just like a tool for me to express art.

 

To me, post processing is simply to bring out or add the "WoW" factor from/to the picture.

 

Some people do a very heavy post processing, completely manipulate the pic into a different pic, that's fine for art

[Q00 0]

Guide to making your own passport sized photos!

 

 

Link here!

 

Quite useful as i had everything i needed to make one just didnt have the know how. Quite useful and the printout was quite good. Hope it works out for somebody here!