March 8, 2008

4

Canon, Gavin Seim, news, Nikon, PPS Photography Tips, ProPhotoShow

The Future Of ISO & Noise

Nikon D3By Gavin Seim — Will the need for flash start to fade and noiseless high ISO cameras surface? Will sensors become so sensitive that they can actually make a scene clearer than what it is, such as removing fog when desired? Will they soon be able to see through objects, and interpret what’s on the other side?

We digital photographers live in an ISO sensitive world. It used to be that ISO 800 was high, 1600 was really noisy, and 3200… Well, could you even shoot that high?

The megapixel race is no longer a huge factor in a pro camera purchase, and now the attention has rightly turned to ISO and noise. In the early digital days a high ISO, or long exposure would quickly get filled with noise. Today we have two major brands. Canon, who though they are getting better noise to ISO ratio’s, their ISO settings have seriously fallen behind of their biggest competition Nikon.

With a Canon you can shoot at ISO 1600, and expand out to 3200, and on the 1D MK III you can go up to 6400. Nikon’s latest on the other hand goes to 6400 and well beyond. On the Nikon D3 there’s even an ISO 25,600. No that’s not a typo, and though there’s certainly a fair bit of noise at that level it’s clear that Nikon has taken a step ahead in terms of ISO. This article is really not about who’s better however since this is simply a race of brands that will ultimately benefit all consumers. The real item of note is these advancements could change the way we do photography.

Pretty soon we may not have to worry about noise, and we can start changing the ISO level to change exposure instead of shutter or aperture. Here’s an article comparing the noise on the 5d, and the D3. Also heres a post on beckers blog where he run the D3 through the paces.

Now the battle of brands will rage on, but the question is with noise getting lower and lower, and ISO getting higher and higher where is it all going? Noise levels are getting so high that the cameras have almost night vision capabilities! All I know is this. I love the flexibility of high ISO, and the fact that we have heavy competition in the field means we’ll be getting better technolighy sooner.

What do you think? Your comments below!

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March 8, 2008

2

Gavin Seim, lightroom, news, ProPhotoShow

Power Workflow now RAW & JPEG compatible

Theres a never ending debate about which is better or more practical. Though many pro’s shoot in RAW there are also a lot of great JPEG shooters.

I want a quick easy workflow no matter what I’m editing. The problem with presets, is that a preset made for RAW (and most are) will work lousy on a JPEG file. Most of the time this is not even addressed when presets are given away or sold, so a user may find presets that work lousy and not know why.

Today we want to plug our sister site Seim Effects. They’ve been selling photographers Lightroom presets to speed up their RAW workflow. Today marked the launch of the latest Power Workflow set that’s entirely RAW & JPEG compatible. This requires two completely different sets that are each modified for the file format their to be used with.

The good news is they both come in the collection so now whether you shoot RAW or JPEG you can have great presets, and speedy workflow.

Check Out Power Workflow

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March 4, 2008

16

Gavin Seim

Viveza from Nik. Straight Dope Review!

The Hot…

  • Finally a new and easier way to control various parts of your image independently. This is part of the future, and Adobe should have done it two years ago!
  • The Interface is simple, the previews are good.
  • Though the things you can adjust are basic they can do a lot of good for an image.
  • Can apply the changed to a smart filter or layer mask.
  • There’s a free trial.
  • It Works Good.

The Not…

  • It costs twice as much as it should. Typical of Nik products. Pretty cool, but at 249.00 a lot of potential buyers are going to pass it up.
  • It runs a bit slow compared to the same tools running by PS.
  • It lacks tools. Ya we can do a lot with what’s there but this thing should be a total image control interface with curves, filter, and effects.
  • Not a speedy workflow tool.Viveza is good for fine tuning that great image, but don;t expect tobe bating hundreds of images, or making actions with it because it very individual photo based.
  • Annoying and LONG registration number at install. Not really a big deal but cmon Nik get a clue. When people pay they don’t want a hassle. DRM is no longer cool so be one of the first to get rid of it.

Viveza Review

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March 4, 2008

1

Gavin Seim, PPS Photography Tips, ProPhotoShow

Dragging the Shutter

Dragging the shutter is a technique that has been discussed on PPS episodes many a times, and can be a vital tool in getting flash images to look great. It’s a technique with which you maintain a more evenly exposed image (subject vs background) by manipulating settings like shutter speed in relation to your flash.

Neil Van Nekirk a past PPS guest on Episode #9 is an expert in the art of manipulating his light in active situations, and has done a nice article revisiting the idea of dragging the shutter. Even if your an experienced shutter dragger it still a worthwhile read…

Check It Out

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February 26, 2008

4

Aperture, Gavin Seim, lightroom, news, ProPhotoShow

Cnet Aperture vs Lightroom Poll Bogus? (updated)

Update…
Cnet Reporter Stephen Shankland Contacted PPS (as well as left a comment) in regards to the poll. He says the the poll is absolutely not gamed, and that Apple in no way dictates his reporting.

“the poll is not faked or some church-and-state-violating, undisclosed advertising scheme that Apple or CNET cooked up. Also, I’d note that online polls shouldn’t be trusted to be a statistically valid representation of “approval rating” or some other form of market or public preference. Finally, our software blocks multiple votes from the same IP address”

Stephen feel that the poll probably just got voted on a lot by Apple fans, and naturally once Apple linked to it the apple fans would be all over it. I can say that I myself get a lot of info from Cnet, and have never felt their reporters have a lack of journalistic integrity. It’s good to see their proactive about responding to this rumor.

As to which one is actually better. I’ll leave that up to you!

aperture vs lightroom fake poll?Theres been quite a bit of attention given to a poll over on Cnet that claims Apertures approval rating is around 65% while Lightroom only has about 36% Apple was so happy about this that they were actually bragging about the poll results on their site.

Now we think Cnet is usually pretty good about these things, but it really looks like this poll may be at least woefully wrong.

We’re not here to put down a poll simply because Aperture is winning. The poll percentages however don’t change more than a tiny fraction over time, even though the number of votes does. Mainly however we know there are FAR more LR users than Aperture users and these poll results make no sense with what we see in the industry. Apple is bragging about these results likes it’s a victory, but what we see in the poll just doesn’t jive with what we see in the real world. You can also see this LR news article for more info.

Something defiantly seems bogus here. We’ll keep our eye on this and see where it goes. Could Apple be so desperate that their getting Cnet to skew polls just to get noticed? Is there an error? Or is this actually be accurate? We’ve added our own Lightroom vs Aperture poll below. We’ll see what comes of it.

[poll=9]

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