Nat Coalson's Photography Blog

Here’s a rundown of what I checked out at WPPI today:

LowePro Pro Roller x200 – a two-in one suitcase and camera backpack that splits into separate parts as needed for carryon vs. checked bags. The outer bag has an official TSA lock, plus a screw mount for a makeshift tripod or accessory in the extendable suitcase handle! (Clever, but maybe not entirely practical.) More details on the x200 >

Another camera bag I tried out was the Tamrac 5770 Velocity 10x. This is one of those “sling” type bags, that rides on your back, but unlike backpacks, has only one strap. This allows you to swing it around from front to back when you need to pull out your camera. I think of this like a hybrid car – not really perfect in all situations, but great in specific situations. After trying out this pack I still prefer a backpack for longer hikes and a shoulder bag for quick access. That said, I like what Tamrac is doing with their designs. Their part of the photo market – carrying camera gear – is really competitive, and new companies are competing head-to-head with established ones, because — at least in my mind — there really is no perfect camera pack for all situations. For what it does, I like the Tamrac 5770 Velocity a lot.

By far the most compelling backpack I tried on was the Think Tank Streetwalker Pro. It’s the right size, the right weight, the right design, at the right price. I like that it will hold my camera with my longest lens attached. And if needed, it will hold two bodies plus several lenses. This is the next camera backpack I will buy. But I admit that I — like many other photographers — am a compulsive camera bag buyer, so this will certainly not be the last.

Hahnemuhle papers has announced a new partnership with Harman papers, and the new product looks great. I’m always surprised and glad when inkjet paper takes big steps forward in quality, longevity and price. These new papers excel in all three areas. This partnership was just announced this week, so details are still sketchy online, but I’ve seen the product and it’s worth keeping up with.

I spent some time at the Tamron booth looking at their new lineup of AF lenses. Although my bag currently contains only Canon L-glass, mainly because I use full-frame dSLRs like the Canon 5D Mark II, I’ve used Tamron lenses for years and I like them a lot. In many ways, I believe they are the leading lens company in the business, but explaining that would take more effort than I can muster at the moment. After shooting with them just on the show floor, I can say the 17-50 and 28-270 VC (vibration control) lenses are great quality lenses, at great prices. I think these two lenses represent enormous potential on the road. They are fast, light and produce really sharp photos. I would like to pair these Tamron lenses with the Canon 50D or 7D. More work with them in the field would be necessary to confirm the performance, of course, and reading more reviews would help, but at this point I would have no hesitation buying either of these lenses for APS-C sensor cameras.

I next met with Ron Henry, the inventor and founder of Black Rapid. Like camera packs, I’ve tried all kinds of straps … and at this point, I believe Black Rapid is it for me. Not to get too geeky, but Black Rapid represents the best of innovative thinking and development (my words, not theirs). This is stuff that works. But… straps and products that you wear on your body are things you have to try for yourself to find out if you like the feel and function of them. And just for women – Black Rapid has developed a unique strap coming into the market very soon. Stay tuned!

Then I looked at music. Well, listened to music. And looked into buying some. Adding music to photo presentations is something that lots of wedding, portrait and event photographers have needed for a long time. But I’m a travel/scenic photographer, so what do I care about music? Well, since you asked these days I’m thinking a lot more about creating “experiences” with my photography. Slideshows with music present lots better than without. And my work has started to include video. Remember the term “multimedia”? This is where photography is headed. “Experiential” was a touch-word I heard a lot at this show. So, I’m thinking about how music can add to my visual art. The best solution I saw at this show was Triple Scoop Music. One of the owners and co-founders, and an accomplished musician, Ali Handal, explained it to me: basically, you find a song you like, you pay $60 to license it for life, and you can use it in any media except broadcast (for which you’d just need to call them to work out the fee). I listened to lots of their music, in all genres and from all kinds of artists, and it was really good. Definitely worth looking into.

After checking out all those products, I was ready for some real education. I got lucky and stopped by the Canon booth just in time for a great presentation by Bruce Dorn called “The Moving Portrait” about shooting video with modern dSLRs. Really great stuff. I also saw demos by Bruce and his Canon Explorers of Light fellow Hanson Fong about using Canon Speedlight flashes in studio lighting. This is the kind of learning experience that makes spending time on the trade show floor really worth it.

Inspired by Bruce and his explanation of camera support for shooting video, I went over to the Induro booth. I’ve been using the Induro CX114 for several years and really like it. It’s sturdy, light and well-made. I think Induro tripods are a very good value. I was interested in a monopod for shooting video and found out about the CM25. Along with a fluid pan head, I think this will make a good mount for mobile video shooting.

Later in the Canon booth, I watched a fun and inspiring presentation by Photoshop Hall of Famer recipient Eddie Tapp. He demonstrated all kinds of creative photo editing techniques in Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw.

Finally, to round out the day, I met and chatted with Jeff Payne, a regional Hasselblad rep I met at the booth for Pictureline, a camera and imaging retailer in Salt Lake City. Jeff invited me to demo the new Hasselblad H4D40 medium format digital camera system, which I did shortly thereafter. I’ll write about that exciting experience in a separate post.

Stay tuned!

In Vegas at WPPI and glad I came; it’s the biggest photo trade show I’ve ever been to! Unlike other shows lately, everyone is here… all the major companies are present and hawking their wares.

So far the biggest thing is printing; lots of top labs doing great work on new papers, films, metal etc.

I found a new canvas for my Epson 9800: Premier Art Generations Satin Canvas.

In the Canon booth I saw a demo of the new Canon 1D Mark IV. Sweet!

More updates tomorrow!

For quite a while I’ve been recommending WordPress as the all-in-one web platform for photographers. I recently came across an example of why WordPress is becoming a solid platform for not only blogs but complete web sites. Check out the ePhoto theme from Elegant themes.

One risk I see here is that everyone will just install it and use it as-is. This would be tempting, because it’s a very professional, beautifully designed theme. However, I’d recommend that if you use ePhoto you customize if to make it unique…. colors, fonts, logo etc. It would be a shame if everybody’s web site turned out to look the same…

Bret Edge and I are leading another workshop together, this one in Wyoming June 10-13, 2010. Click here for info.

The City of Lone Tree, Colorado is holding its 8th annual photography show and sale. Deadline for entry is coming up fast so get your submsissions in soon! All the details are at the City of Lone Tree web site.

I’ve been very happy with my LaCie 321 for the past few years but now am lusting for a monitor with full Adobe RGB coverage. Here’s one from NEC that looks really nice and I think is very reasonably priced:

http://bit.ly/d2zn5X

I’m providing Lightroom training info, news and announcements at my new site: LightroomClasses.com

The next workshop is March 20-21 in Denver, will you join us?

I’m teaching a Lightroom class in Denver March 20-21 (Sat-Sun; 4 hours each day).

Details and registration are at www.LightroomClasses.com

Hope to see you there!

Since Apple released Aperture 3 a few weeks ago lots of folks are debating the pros and cons of Lightroom vs. Aperture. It’s natural for folks to want to take sides, and pick one program over the other. It’s equally unlikley that most people will be able to effectively use both products, which supports the need to choose one.

I’ve casually used and kept up with Aperture updates since it was first released. After all, I’m a huge Mac fan. For twenty years I have passionately preferred all things Mac to anything Windows.

When Aperture 1 came out, it was a time of dramatic change in photography, when digital cameras were starting to become more popular than film. Clearly, new software was needed to support the new digital photo workflow. Though other software had been produced in attempts to deal with this (Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge, Capture One, iView Media Pro etc.) Aperture really represented a significant improvement in the photographer’s workflow. (And this was before Lightroom came out.)

I still love most Apple products and always stay current with what they are up to. In several ways, Apple is well poised to change computing as we know it – as they have done several times in the past. So I never count Apple out – even in the case of Lightroom vs. Aperture.

When it comes to the important and difficult choice, then, of what software to use to process our digital photographs, when clients, students and people in the general public ask me why I prefer Lightroom over Aperture, here’s what I say:

1. Platform independence: true, I believe OS X is a superior operating system to all flavors of Windows (even 7, which doesn’t suck). That said, I think it’s a big mistake to limit your work to using Macs only… and Aperture currently will only run on a Mac (and a new, fast one at that). I myself use both Mac and Windows every day in my work, and being able to use Lightroom on both platforms is a huge advantage. Maybe someday, the majority of people will be using Macs (we can only hope) but until that day, platform independence is essential.

2. Company focus: Adobe is the undisputed champion in digital imaging software. I trust their products completely and they have led the way for two decades. Though there will always be little things that we wish Adobe would add or improve, there is no doubt that the people working for Adobe are the best and brightest in the business. Conversely, Apple contunues to show it is really a hardware company. That happens to have some really kick-ass operating systems, oh, and the industry leading video editing program

3. Workflow: there are some really crazy, frustrating things about working with Aperture. One example is the Image Vault concept. This is very much like the approach taken by the horrible iPhoto, and serves no purpose other than to ensure it will be difficult to migrate away from Aperture in the future. I myself have helped a number of people through the extremely painful and nervewracking process of moving from Aperture to Lightroom. On the other hand, Lightroom’s handling of files is simple and unobtrusive. You could safely use Lightroom for all your photos for the next few years, then switch to something else, essentially without a hitch. Not so with Aperture.

These three points illustrate the main reasons why I believe Lightroom is still the way to go. The list could go on and on; other folks have already talked about Lightroom’s superior noise reduction, processing algorithms etc.

One way that I agree Aperture outshines Lightroom is the interface itself. Lightroom is designed to let you easily get the interface “out of the way” while you’re working; there are lots of cool tools to work directly on your photo, with only the photo showing on the screen. However, Aperture’s interface is clean, elegant and beautiful, providing the kind of experience where you might not want to get the interface out of the way.

Unfortunately, for me (and I believe the vast majority of photographers) the interface itself is not a good enough reason to choose one product over another.

I hope this article helps you understand why Lightroom is the better choice. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and questions on this topic.

Thanks for reading!

Recently, a reader of my Lightroom 2 book wrote to ask me about how to integrate Topaz DeNoise into an automated Lightroom workflow.

DeNoise is a Photoshop plug-in that requires its processing to be done within Photoshop (not Lightroom).

This case study illustrates one very pwerful method of integrating Lightroom’s capabilities with processing files inside Photoshop. Here’s my reply to the reader:

Re: integrating DeNoise in your workflow: since DeNoise is a Photoshop plug-in, you would automate the batch process using a combination of Lightroom Export and Photoshop Actions. (In my book, there is some info in the Export chapter about this; I’m adding more to it for my next version on Lightroom 3.)

You’d set up the Photoshop action first. With a file open, create a new action and give it a meaningful name. Then, while recording the action, launch DeNoise and apply auto settings for noise reduction. (You can set up another action that will allow you to manually adjust, too… I’ll explain this in a bit.) Click OK to apply the DeNoise adjustment. Then, with the action still recording, save and close the file. Then stop recording.

If you want to be able to selectively apply manual adjustments during the batch process, all you need to do is activate the Menu option at the DeNoise part of the script. The window will stay open for you to make your manual adjustments, then when you click OK, the Action will resume.

Next, create a droplet from the action. Depending on your version of Photoshop, it will be somewhere under the File menu; probably under Scripts or Automate. With the Create Droplet dialog box open, select your new action, and save the droplet to your desktop. You can move it somewhere else if you want, but put it somewhere it can remain.

Back in Lightroom, in the Export dialog box, select a sample file and click Export to set up all the criteria for your exported files. I’d recommend you keep them in the same folder as the Originals, enable Add to This Catalog and use TIF as the file format. You can use whatever bit depth and color space you prefer.

Next, select the droplet as a Post Processing action in the bottom section of the Export window. (If you move the droplet later, this link will need to be re-established.)

Finally, make sure to save your new settings as an Export Preset.

To process a batch, select all the files you want to run through DeNoise, and export them using that preset. Lightroom will render the files to disk, then one by one open them in Photoshop, run DeNoise, save and close the files.

(The Droplet containing your action will open and process all the photos for you; you won’t need to do it yourself. All you will see are the windows quickly opening and then closing. That’s the “batch process” in operation in Photoshop.)

A key point here is that Photoshop can only apply settings to one image at a time. And each image has to be open in a Photoshop document window for it to be processed by Photoshop or DeNoise. That’s what we use actions and droplets for.

After Photoshop is done processing and saving your photos, they will be automatically added back into your catalog.

I recognize that this is a somewhat compressed explanation; I hope it presents a clear solution. This method is useful for anything you want to automate between Lightroom and Photoshop, especially plug-ins.

A recent question from a colleague:
I have a client who wants an image that needs some significant noise reduction. I’m trying to decide if I should purchase Noise Ninja for this little project or whether I should wait for LR 3 to be released. What do you suggest?

My answer:

Lightroom 3 Beta has greatly improved noise reduction over previous versions.

But currently, I think the best noise reduction software out there is Topaz DeNoise. I think its only drawback is that it only comes as a PS plugin.

Other really good programs:
Noise Ninja
Noiseware
Neat Image
Nik Dfine

All of these will allow you to integrate advanced NR within an automated LR/PS workflow. All of them produce excellent (and similar) results. The major differences between them are the software interfaces and controls.

One advantage of programs that are available as standalone apps (separate programs that don’t require Photoshop) is that you can set them up in Lightroom as External Editors, allowing you to use the Edit In… command to send the file to the outside editor, do your work, save and close and return to LR where the processed file is updated automatically. In this way, a standalone app offers more direct LR interoperability than a PS plugin.

To automate noise reduction between LR and plug-ins within Photoshop, you need to use Actions/Droplets and Lightroom Export post-processing.

There are lots of comparisons online; Google “noise reduction software” if you want to read reviews.

Hope this helps; let me know if you have any other questions about this.

I’m partnering with Professional Photographers of Colorado to present a full day class detailing all the essential aspects of the modern photography workflow.

We’ll cover everything from editing shoots in Lightroom to advanced image processing with Photoshop. We’ll also talk a lot about using metadata and other best-practices for pro or aspiring photographers.

The class is in downtown Denver, all day Sunday Feb 21. PPC is offering special pricing for the event. For more info and registration click here.

Today’s photo for critique was sent in by Joe Saladino of Sarasota, Florida:

Here are my thoughts:

This image has great impact. On first glance it is very striking. Though tiny frogs are a popular subject, and I’ve seen lots of photos of them, this one is unique and visually interesting to me.

The exposure looks spot on; you did a good job processing this photo for both tone and color. And it’s very sharp, at least at the resolution I received it.

I’m torn about the depth of field you chose. On one hand, I like that the sharpness falling off towards the back of the frog helps really emphasize the face and eyes, which to me is clearly the center of interest.

On the other hand, the bumps (warts?) on the back do represent some potentially interesting detail that helps tell more of the “story”.

So I would have liked to see a version with more depth of field.

Now for the composition. I think the comp would be stronger with more room on the right side of the frame, for a couple of reasons. First, The Eyeball. Clearly, the frog’s right eye, in the center of the frame, is the main focal point of the shot. However, notice how the fact that it is nearly dead-center creates a “bullseye” effect that attracts the viewer’s eye and makes it somewhat difficult to scan the rest of the frame.

Second, notice the (invisible) directional lines created by the way the frog is looking to one side. When you have a subject that appears to be “pointing” one direction, you generally should leave room to balance the composition and allow the viewer’s eye to move around. In this comp, the directional lines may take the viewers eye toward the right side of the frame too quickly, which becomes a distraction. You’ll find that careful inclusion of negative or empty space can really balance a composition and give it a more “solid” feel.

One thing I really like about the comp is how the curve of the leaf mimics the much smaller curves inside the frogs eye. Incorporating graphic elements of similar characteristics like this can really strengthen a composition, as it does here. The downward curve, and the space at the bottom, adds some very nice visual weight that anchors the comp at the bottom.

Toward the top, a little more space between the hind end of the frog and the frame edge would also be nice. See how the large, bright triangular shape of the frog’s back looks like an arrow, pointing up to the frame edge? This is another example of directional cues that the viewer’s eye will follow, and in this case it draws too much attention to the top edge ofe the frame. The combination of the frog’s back and legs create a “pinching” effect that also draw the eye upward.

Overall, I think the shot works. The lighting is really nice and the color is fantastic. Your careful approach to getting the shot and processing it well shows.

Thank you for submitting your photo. Keep up the good work!

Next Thursday I’m teaching a class titled “Websites for Photographers” here in Denver; if you’re contemplating a new site this is essential stuff.
http://illuminateworkshops.com/workshops/websites.html

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first release of the now-ubiquitous Photoshop.

Robert Scoble recently did an interesting video interview with John Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop http://scobleizer.com/