28 October 2008
TWIP Podcast #53 - Welcome Matte
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Scott under:
Audio Podcast
This Week in Photography - Episode 53 Welcome Matte
Download this week’s show at Pixelcorps.
Hosts:
-Alex Lindsay is back and reminds you that you are listening to TWIP
-Scott Bourne coming in from Gig Harbour
Guests:
-Aaron Mahler producer extradonnaire
-Ron Brinkmann from Seattle looking down on everybody from his perch high atop the Seattle skyline
Bandwidth provided by Cachefly.
Show is also sponsored by - Drobo.
HOUSEKEEPING
Reminder that the linking contest is going until October 30th. Link from your blog or website to TWiP Photo and you could win a great prize pack which includes:
-Vmware Fusion
- One copy Adobe Lightroom
- One paid JBL reference 220 earphones
- One Adobe ball cap
- One copy “88 Secrets to Selling & Publishing Your Photography” by Scott Bourne
- One copy “88 Secrets to Photoshop for Photographers” by Scott Bourne
- onOne Software Essentials (version 2) for Adobe Photoshop Elements
- One small Canon Camera gadget bag
- One RhinoSkin iPod case
- Aperture
- DV Matte
Aperture Nature Photography Workshop. Another round is underway with a chance to win a trip to Yosemite in the snow.
NEWS
Photo Plus Expo (formerly known as Photo East) is a big trade expo. This year, more than 10,000 people attended including Steve Simon and Frederick Van Johnson. It’s the biggest show on the east cost and includes classes, workshops, speakers, demonstrations, etc. The next big show is PMA which takes place this March in Las Vegas.
This update improves the printing quality of books ordered through the Aperture printing service. Aaron has had issues trying to print from Aperture. He got his first book back and wasn’t pleased with the finished product and he has read on several forums about other people having similar issues although it was his first attempt and he did send it out before installing the update. Alex uses iPhoto and has always been happy with the quality he gets from that service. Ron used to work at Apple and says that Aperture goes through a different printing bureau than iPhoto. Scott thinks that Aperture was okay for smaller prints but for books and larger and prints the compression factor results in poor image quality. Aaron will try another one with the newest version installed and compare the results to see if the updates in 2.1.2 have addressed the issue.
Lightroom 2.1 update adds support for many new cameras, adds new DNG profiles, improves interaction with Photoshop CS4 and provides support for Adobe Raw 5.1.
GPS Proximity Search plug-in for Lightroom
Locates other geo-tagged photos taken in the vicinity of the source photo.
This program lets you create great slideshows which you can export to people who don’t even have Fotomagico. The latest update allows you to import and work with your photos from Lightroom or Aperture.
An article says there are barrel distortion issues in the Panasonic LX3. The drama comes from the fact that Panasonic decided that the barrel distortion would be corrected automatically whether you are shooting JPEG or RAW. People using DC RAW to decode images coming off the sensor directly, discovered that the images came out looking a lot different than they did coming through the official Panasonic pipeline. This reveals that Panasonic is doing the corrections even in the RAW workflow to hide issues with the camera. Scott doesn’t think that Panasonic wasn’t trying to hide anything but would like to have the choice to remove the barrel distortion rather than Panasonic making the choice for him in RAW. Both Scott and Ron think the best thing would be for Panasonic to just be up front about what they are doing and that would solve the issue of people thinking there is some sort of consipracy theory happening here.
People are making assumptions that the glossy screen won’t work even if they haven’t seen it. Scott says that you do not see any glare when the computer is on because it is so bright. Scott wouldn’t use it as his main display anyway. The hardest thing to get used to us the button-less trackpad. Scott thinks that it boots very fast and loads programs like Photoshop and Aperture approximately 40% faster. If you don’t like glossy screens, you can get a matte sticker.
A post on ProLost talks about a rig with a follow-focus and other goodies for the Canon 5D Mark II. More details available on Red Rock’s Website. The rig is also being made for the D90.
Cambridge in Color is the site of the week and comes to us from Aaron. Aaron found it a couple of years ago when searching for calculations on doing panoramas. The site is nicely laid out and is a good source of information on a variety of photography related topics.
FLICKR CHALLENGE & POLL
It’s the last week for the current assignment topic: Yellow. Reminder that only one photo per person.
The Prize is a Drobo.
POLL RESULTS
Last week’s poll - What percentage of your shots are successful (intended) compositions vs. accidental masterpieces? The majority selected 75% intended and 25% accidental masterpieces. Runner-up was 50% intended and 50% accidental. This week’s poll - How many photos do you take on an average week? None. 1-50. 51-100. 101-200. 200 or more.
If you have an idea for a poll question, send your suggestions to Scott at twipphoto@gmail.com
DROBO - PREMIERE SPONSOR OF TWiP
Ron is now feeling 100% drooby. Nothing is drooby until you have it on your drobo so visit http://www.drobo.com/twip to receive a $25 off coupon on either model of the Drobo. Announced this week was the Drobo Developer Community. Developers are creating applications that will run on the Drobo.
LISTENER QUESTIONS
First question is from Scott. Would it be feasible to create a light meter application for the iPhone using the built-in camera to calculate the exposure after inputting your ISO and aperture? Ron thinks it boils down to how much access Apple will give you to what is coming off the sensor vs. some intermediate API that doesn’t tell you anything. Aaron says there is an ambient light sensor in the iPhone but probably isn’t as sensitive as a what you’d need for a light meter.
Next question is from Hamish Carpenter. He has a Rebel XTi and a MacBook Pro with only iPhoto. He purchased some reflector lights and is looking for a program so that he can tether his camera to the laptop and shoot directly. Aperture does not support tethering with the Rebel XTi. Go here for a list of cameras currently supported in Aperture. Canon does supply software with the camera that you can use for this purpose. Lightroom will follow a hot-folder. Using Automator you can find a number of actions for Aperture that will let you get images directly from your camera. Alex is still suprised that there aren’t more programs out there that offer good camera controls.
Alan Gabrielle has a D70 and is considering the D300 but Nikon does not have a 50mm DX series lens for the cropped sensors. He is wondering if he gets the 50mm 1.4 will it behave like a 70mm. If he buys a 35 1.2 it will be closer to the 50mm but slower. What is their preference? Alex says it comes down to the APS Sensor vs. 35mm. Ron says that a 50mm isn’t magic but it is approximately what the human eye sees in the field of view. Ron would prefer a slightly wider lens. Alex’s walk-around lens is an 8mm Sigma. Scott’s is the lug-around Sigma 300-800mm lens :). All kidding aside, Scott likes the Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 as his walk-around lens.
NEXT WEEK
Feedback from Steve & Fred on PhotoPlus. Scott and Alex are working on videos so keep your eye on www.twipphoto.com Alex just bought the Kata D467 bag and once he gets settled in he will do a video. Scott is getting a new photo bag from a company that doesn’t exist yet so Scott will be putting up a video soon.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Another tip from a listener. Ron Reid says a a fellow named Phil Harvey has a Perl script that will scan all of your photos and export all of the EXIF data to a CSV file. Why would you care? If you are on a limited budget and want to upgrade your lenses and not sure what focal lengths you shoot - this script can tell you. Ron says you can do the same thing in Aperture and Lightroom and sort based on the EXIF data. Automator has ways of doing this as well.
WRAP UP
Ron Brinkmann - www.digitalcomposting.com or www.twitter.com/ronbrinkmann
Alex Lindsay - Pixelcorps.com or www.twitter.com/alexlindsay
Scott Bourne - www.scottbourne.com or www.twitter.com/scottbourne or www.f64.com
Aaron Mahler (Producer) - www.halfpress.com or www.twitter.com/halfpress
Visit the blog at www.twipphoto.com and the Flickr critique group.
Show notes by Bruce Clarke at www.momentsindigital.com or www.twitter.com/bruceclarke
18 Comments so far...
Jason Says:
28 October 2008 at 10:37 pm.
Great show again today (as always). On the tethering using Canon software, you do have camera controls from the computer interface. it’s a little clunky, but it’s there. I had installed it on the MBP a while back to do a little tethered testing and while it was interesting to see how it all worked, I didn’t like the interface as it was kind of messy.
On a side note - Photrade seems to be down…noticed this has happened a couple times over the past few days. Any word on your end of what might be going on behind the scenes (I keep getting database/application errors)…
[Reply]
Fred Says:
29 October 2008 at 10:23 am.
Regarding RAW support for the LX3 in ACR/Lightroom: oops, your “just speculation” comment about the reason for lack of support by Adobe was incoorect, Scott. Eric Chan form Adobe has commented on it in this thread:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b62677/13
[Reply]
Scott Says:
29 October 2008 at 10:47 am.
@Fred not sure what you’re referring to but in any event, if I say I am just speculating it’s a clue that I am, in other words “guessing.” Most of my guesses will be wrong. By the way; OOPS, you spelled “incorrect” incorrectly.
PS: I don’t see anything in the comment from Chan that indicates my guess was wrong in any event.
[Reply]
Ron Brinkmann Says:
29 October 2008 at 10:56 am.
Scott’s point (keep in mind that the shownote transcriptions are, of necessity, a simplification of what was said) was that he didn’t think there was significant intention to DECEIVE on Panasonic’s part, but rather that they were just trying to provide a turnkey solution to raw conversion that includes various corrections automatically. And both Scott and I agreed that this was probably a rather naive position for Panny to take.
[Reply]
Jason Says:
29 October 2008 at 11:24 am.
On this barrel distortion in the Lumix - I think it was Aaron that referred to it as “D-barrel distortion”. I had never heard of the letter designation before, so did a little online searching and one source said that the D variable refers to the linear scaling. Not sure what that means. Maybe you could take this as a listener question for a future show? Thx.
[Reply]
Ron Reid Says:
29 October 2008 at 2:07 pm.
As always, I really enjoyed the show! My tip about the focal length is not easily duplicated in Lightroom (not sure about Aperture). Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but Lightroom only allows you to sort by lens.(?) What I was trying to find out was… what FOCAL length do I shoot most of the time, not what lens. Geek alert: Phil Harvey’s tool requires the use of Terminal or cmd, but it’s really easy. Link to Phil’s tool:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
If you need help, or a quick overview of the process, go here:
http://thatpixelgeek.com/2008/10/using-exiftool-to-find-your-most-used-focal-length/
[Reply]
Fred Says:
29 October 2008 at 3:32 pm.
Scott,
What I heard seemed a bit stronger. You said “there’s no basis in fact in that statement it’s just a guess”. Anyway, what I was pointing out was that Eric, and indirectly Thomas Knoll, are implying that this issue is indeed the reason they don’t yet have support for the LX3. Eric said:
“No need to tell us that other raw converters already support the LX3. Believe me, we are fully aware of it. There is a very specific reason that CR / LR doesn’t yet support the LX3. If you would like an explanation, please ask Panasonic.”
I didn’t mean to imply that Panasonic was trying to deceive anyone. Sorry if it sounded that way. As for my spelling, I can spell pretty well, but my typing is not so good.
[Reply]
Scott Says:
29 October 2008 at 3:34 pm.
@Fred you still don’t point to any evidence that Panasonic intended to deceive anyone and as Ron tried to explain to you - that was the point we’re making. I assume we’ve covered this well enough now.
[Reply]
Alex - hotelyankeefoxtrot Says:
29 October 2008 at 6:25 pm.
@Jason - I took it to mean in context to be “De-barrel-distortion”, as in, to get rid of barrel distortion. But maybe I’m wrong…I think it was Ron that mentioned it…:-)
[Reply]
Amin Says:
29 October 2008 at 7:25 pm.
Hey everybody,
I wrote the article at SeriousCompacts.com regarding the LX3 drama. Thanks for mentioning it on the show. Although I raised the question of a cover-up and provided the evidence for that possibility, I’d like to clarify the fact that I did not overtly accuse Panasonic of deceptive practices. In fact, Panasonic has been open about the fact they correct barrel distortion in camera and have been officially doing so since Venus II (the LX3 uses Venus IV). As an example, there’s simply no way that the FZ18 could have had an 18x wide angle distortion-free zoom lens, as anyone who knows anything about optics would understand. I think it’s great that they use software to address lens flaws. Such compromises were probably necessary to fit a wide angle f/2-2.8 lens in a camera this small, something which has never been done before.
The main issue, as I see it, is that the LX3 and D-LUX 4 each ship with RAW converters that don’t give the photographer the option of leaving color fringing and barrel distortion intact (Silkypix and C1, respectively). This matters for three reasons: 1) One may want to keep the distortion for artistic reasons; 2) One may want the extra wide angle of view. The corrected versions have the 24mm equivalent angle of view, whereas the uncorrected versions are significantly wider than that; and 3) The process of correcting the barrel distortion and color fringing discards some of the captured detail since it involves upsampling the periphery (or downsampling the center). If you take an LX3 RAW and process it using Raw Therapee (PC or Linux) or Raw Developer (Mac), you will see detail that has been thrown away in the in-camera JPEGs and Silkypix conversions. The difference is enough to surprise you if pixel peeping, and I can tell the difference in an A4 print.
The LX3 is a great camera. I’m very much enjoying mine! The G10 and P6000 also look like excellent choices IMO.
Thanks again for mentioning our blog.
[Reply]
Bruce Horn Says:
29 October 2008 at 10:24 pm.
Regarding the automatic removal of the barrel distortion in the LX3, I believe that this is Panasonic testing the waters for something which may be built in to many digital cameras in the future, especially consumer level cameras.
Think about the fact that people will spend good money for DXO software to remove a wide variety of types of lens distortion. If the people actually designing lenses and cameras could build that same sort of software into the camera itself, they could design faster, smaller, lighter lenses with longer zoom ranges which on a film camera would be completely unusable because of the amount of distortion they would have.
I believe that this sort of distortion removal plus many other things which used to be solely addressed in lens designs will be more and more built in to software or more accurately built into a very closely integrated lens/software combination.
Think about the experiments that have been done with the single pixel camera, basically taking everything which used to be accomplished with really good lenses and large imaging areas and moving it into software.
Yes, some artists and pros may want to retain control over those variables but the vast majority of camera consumers just want to be able to get a good picture of the entire inside of a cathedral or their daughter’s soccer goal 300 feet away from a camera they can slip into their pocket. They don’t care how the camera does it.
[Reply]
Gary S Says:
31 October 2008 at 1:46 pm.
Scott, during this podcast you mentioned a place for some great automator actions, but I don’t see a link to it in the show notes. Would you mind posting a link of it for us? Thanks!
[Reply]
Benjamin C. Mooney Says:
31 October 2008 at 3:14 pm.
Fotomagico is mac only, how iterating is that. arrrrrr I hate this mac vs pc thing can’t we all just get along?
PS. truly the best podcast out their.
[Reply]
Gus Raya Says:
6 November 2008 at 11:19 pm.
Is there a good slideshow program for the PC? Im like Ben. I have a PC. I’ve been using Picasa3 which is only PC, but is there a better slideshow program than that?
[Reply]
Mike K Says:
11 December 2008 at 4:31 pm.
Getting caught up on shows; sorry for the delay relative to the release date of this episode….
For remote control and tethering, I have used a product called DSLR Remote Pro from BreezeSys.com. It gives control over the camera and settings as well as HDR (15 shot bracketing).
http://breezesys.com/DSLRRemotePro/index.htm
They also have an intriguing Multicamera version, but I have not used that product.
http://breezesys.com/MultiCamera/index.htm
[Reply]
Aperture Photo Ordering « François Schiettecatte’s Blog Says:
22 December 2008 at 12:43 pm.
[...] François Schiettecatte @ 1:43 pm This morning I ordered some photo prints through Aperture. TWIP reported that the quality of the prints had improved since the 2.1.2 [...]
