Photography by Randy Hanna

While discussing image storage and management the other day with a past safari client, I mentioned that I am tossing fewer and fewer images into the electronic abyss these days.   If fact, I frequently find myself returning to Lightroom (LR)  to process some of those shots that dropped out on the first cut.  With the ability of LR to often effectively recover overexposed images with ease, I am often surprised what I can pull out of the trash can (you can also do this recovery in Photoshop however, LR seems just a little more intuitive to me).  The image below is a screen shot of the develop module showing the results of before and after processing.  Normally I would have simply made a terminal pass of this image due to an accidental setting in my camera.  With LR I can recover images such as these with ease.  Even more powerful is LR3; with impressive improvements from LR2, it is my mainstay for processing my digital images.  Setting the white and black points with a brightness correction results in a totally usable image.  Additional enhancements included a gentle “S” curve and other minor tweaks.  Total processing time on this image was less than 2 minutes.  Once I am happy with the final image, I export to PS CS5 for sharpening and  final print preparation.

The finished image ready for web is below.  BTW, I have never seen skies as blue as those in Namibia (no enhancement to the skies).

May 2009, Nikon D300, 17-55mm @ 55mm, ISO 200, f/10 at 1/160 sec

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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As noted in my previous posting, I had an opportunity last Friday to participate in a Nik Software webinar previewing their new HDR solution.  Nik representatives were also on hand at the Glazers Camera Shore Street Fair (Seattle) this past weekend, so I have plenty of time to pick the brains of the Nik folks.  What did I learn?  They are very busy reworking their entire software line to support the 64bit Photoshop CS4 and CS5 (no real surprise here, but it was refreshing to know they are working it hard).  They know they are behind in this effort and are really pushing to reset their software (currently all of their products work in the Lightroom  (LR) and Photoshop (PS) environment however only Viveza is currently available in the 64bit PS environment) .  Back to Nik HDR – This new software will be available for PS and LR and will be offered in both 32 and 64 bit plug-in applications vs. a stand alone program.  The interface carries the classic user interface that Nik users have come to love, especially the U-point control technology which allows for pin-point controls across the image.  The HDR program carries an effects preview pane in the LR Navigator window very similar to Silver Effects or Color Effects, allowing the photographer to visually see the proposed enhancement before actually committing to the change.  While Nik’s approach is wonderful for those wanting to put their foot into the HDR pond without having to learn all about tone-mapping, it’s power really lies in using the U-point control technology to ‘get at’ the changes  you need to make without getting into complicated selective masking in PS.  Another real sweet feature is the effort-less manner in which images are selected for inclusion into the HDR solution (using the LR interface).   Along with Lucas Art and Photomatix, Nik HDR will be a welcomed addition to my HDR kit bag.  Look for a late July release (estimated) for the NIK HDR product.  No pricing information available. 

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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As many of you know, I use all of the NIK products (usually) in much of my digital photo development.  I also use a number of products in my High Dynamic Range work, so I am always on the lookout for the lastest and greatest developments in these areas.  You can imagine my excitment when I ran across this annoucement while I was crusing the net late last night: ‘Nik Software about to release their own version of HDR software’.  I am hopeful that it will be a plug-in for Lightroom as well as PS4/5.  Based on my previous experiance with the Nik product line, it is sure to be a hit for those of us that play in the HDR zone.  For now, sign up for additional information on their advanced release notice over at Nik Software.  As soon as I get my hands on this, I will be sure to review it along with my two cents worth.

http://niksoftware.com/index/sneakpeek/HDR.php

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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Not very often does one run across an application that makes your life simple when it comes to taking photographs.  In this case TPE  is free, available for Mac, PC, was well as the the iPhone.   While there are many applications for the computer and iPhone which annotate sunrise and sunset for a given location, this little beauty stands apart from the crowd as a true interactive planning tool.  The Photographer’s Ephemeris  can depict  sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset PLUS it will show the actual sun angle at any give hour from any given location, all with the Google Earth / Google Maps in the background. TPE is fairly simple in concept: 1) display a Google Map 2) choose a date 3) calculate and display a bunch of astronomical data.  The tricky part comes from the connection between 1 and 2. Most similar programs and web-sites have you select from a pre-defined list of locations, where, presumably, things such as the relevant time zone are already saved – not much help if you are in the middle of BFE and it is not on the pre-defined list.  I love it as a planning tool and will use it in planning my outdoor shoots.  As an example, the screen shots below indicate the sun angle by the thin yellow line, while the thicker yellow/orange lines indicate sunrise and sunset direction.  Lots of detailed explanations are on the site so give it a look.

Head on over to The Photographer’s Ephemeris and run the tutorials, download the application.  If you like it be sure to come back and toss the author some coins for his efforts.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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In the previous entry about hyperfocal distance, I introduced several mathematical  relationships that make all of this work.  Simply put, using the hyperfocal distance (HFD) at any given aperture, will produce the greatest depth of field (*).  By looking at some examples across different sensors (full frame and 1.5 crop factor) you can get an ideal of just how beneficial this information can be and how you can use it to your advantage.

Let’s quickly contrast the impact of  a full frame vs a 1.5 crop factor sensor across two focus settings to see the relationship.  Using a Nikon D3, 14mm focal length, f4 aperture, and object focus distances of 5 and 15 feet will return a zone of focus of 2.6ft (near) to 66.2 ft (far) and 3-9ft (near) to infinity (far), respectively.

The same settings on a Nikon D300 will yield a zone of focus of 3ft to 13 ft and 5.25 to infinity for focus points of 5 and 15 ft respectively.  Comparing the closer focus points across the two sensors, the full frame sensor will generate a greater depth of field.

A practical use of the HFD is to determine where to set your focus point to achieve the maximum depth of field.  Photographing in the sand dunes of Namibia, I wanted as much DOF as possible.  Using the HFD tables, I determined that a 14mm lens set f8 with a focus point of 5ft would return a depth of field of 1.76 ft to infinity.  Armed with this data, I simply manually set the focus at 5 ft and fired away, never touching the focus again (as long as I did not change the focal length).

I have found that using HFD information on wide angle lenses returns more images that are in focus than before.  Having said this, HFD is not something I use all the time, so learn when to use it and it will make a difference.

In the next and final entry on HFD, I will explore the HFD tables in more detail and several iPOD applications that make all of this easy.

* New York School of Photography

Cheers, Happy Holidays and happy photo’ing

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Hyperfocal distance is a function of focal length, f-number,  and the circle of confusion (or most correctly, the circle of least confusion).  Simply put, using the hyperfocal distance setting at any given aperture will result in the greatest depth of field (New York Institute of Photography).  At the heart of the hyperfocal equation is a value known as the circle of confusion (CoC).  The CoC is, without a doubt, the most misunderstood and controversial variable among imaging experts.  The basis for the CoC has invoked a debate that has been raging for some 70 plus years and will certainly continue into the future as the purists refine the resolving power of imaging devices.  Boiled down to the most basic level, the CoC is the reciprocal of resolution and is directly related to the sensor size of the digital camera.  The CoC describes the smallest image element that retains identifiable details.  Obviously, this would vary based on the distance from the object in primary focus.

Although I will further explain and provide examples of how to use hyperfocal distance in the next update, if you have an iPod or an iPhone, you are in luck  because there are two good applications to assist you.  Rather than carrying around a number of tables, simply let Mr. Apple do the math for you.  In coming postings, I will review the hyperfocal distance applications as well as demonstrate several applications of hyperfocal focusing and the benefits of such, so come on back for parts II and III.  ‘Til then,

Happy photo’ing

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I am frequently ask, ‘how do you manage your images while on safari’?  Although we have power at our camps in the bush, I always make incremental backups of my cards while actually out on the game drives during the day.  Unlike most safaris which offer only morning and

Colorspace UDMA Storage Solution

afternoon game drives, we are out for the entire day.  Being out for the entire day results in the need to make frequent backups as a safety measure.  I have been relying on Hyperdrive products for the past four years, and have yet to report a failure.  If you don’t generate jpg thumbs, you can download an 8 GB UDMA CF card in four minutes with FULL data verification.  Turning off all data verification (not sure why you would want to do this) one can achieve download rates as fast as 40MBs per second.  Dude, that makes Hyperdrive one of the fastest download and storage devices on the market.

Sync Adapter

With the release of the latest software for the UDMA series, you can backup to or from the Hyperdrive, or mirror / synchronize to a second USB drive with the optional USB OTG (on the go) Adapter.

This latest development, now calls a big into question into play for me.  With USB OTG, do I really need to take a laptop on safari?  I’ll let you know what I do for the next safari.  Meanwhile, you can check out all of the Hyperdrive options by visiting the HYPERSHOP.  I should note that a variety of resellers now offer the Hyperdrive.

Hyperdrive Sync Connection Diagram

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