Why Shooting RAW files

Camera manufacturers continue to boost the megapixel output of their digital SLRs, enabling them to capture more information and more detail with every new model release. It only makes sense then that you would want to preserve all of that information and detail, right? If you always shoot JPEG files instead of RAW then you may not be realizing your camera’s true potential.
JPEG images emerge from a camera considerably smaller in file size than RAW captures. For many uses JPEGs are convenient and offer fine quality. RAW files are larger and must be processed in software before they can be utilized and shared. So why shoot RAW and have to deal with an extra step when the JPEGs may look just fine? There are a few good reasons that professionals and serious amateurs choose RAW.
Think of your camera as performing two distinctly different functions at exposure. In one step the camera captures an image and in the next step it processes the image into a usable format. If your camera is set to RAW then it performs only the first operation and stores the RAW capture data. If it is set to JPEG then the camera also converts the RAW data into JPEG (a compressed but easier to share) format using camera settings you’ve preselected (white balance, image size, amount of JPEG compression).
What if one of your settings was less than ideal? Say your white balance was set incorrectly, to daylight white balance when you were shooting indoors. The image will be very yellow and need correction. Yes, if the image is an already-processed JPEG it can be corrected in software but that may take some serious fiddling. It also will not be as accurate as if the camera settings were correct in the first place. There will most likely be odd bits of color showing up in highlights and shadows, still.
Now imagine the same photograph had been shot with the camera set to RAW capture. Since the file was not processed in the camera we simply move the file into our processing software, select the correct white balance and it will emerge with accurate color. One simple step has created an image with accurate color and little effort.

Okay, it’s extreme time. Click over to http://reviews.photographyreview.com/blog/why-shoot-raw/ and read the full article by Jim Talkington / prophotolife.com

Picture of the day:

Mediterranean Cuisine

Dried Octopus

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Essentials 2 Imaging Software for iPhoto

onOne Software Announces Availability of Essentials 2 Imaging Software for iPhoto

iPhoto version features four easy-to-use tools for color correction, creative image blurring, frame and border effects and resizing for high quality large prints

Portland, OR - May 12, 2008 - onOne Software, Inc., announces today the availability of Essentials 2 software for iPhoto users. Essentials 2 for iPhoto is a collection of four easy-to-use software tools to help correct color, creatively blur a photo for dramatic visual impact, add creative borders and resize digital images for high quality large prints. The software tools included within Essentials 2 for iPhoto are based on technology used in the professional level onOne Software Photoshop® plug-ins PhotoTune 2.2, FocalPoint 1.0, PhotoFrame 3.1 and Genuine Fractals 5.
The Essentials 2 for iPhoto software suite provides users of the popular iPhoto image editing and organizing software with four important plug-in solutions to solve common digital imaging problems. With Essentials for iPhoto, users can easily correct the color of their photos using technology from PhotoTune, simulate the effect of selective focus or tilt-shift lenses, helping photographers selectively blur and/or vignette an image to focus the viewers attention using technology from FocalPoint 1.0, add unique borders and edges around their photos using technology from PhotoFrame and increase the size and resolution of their photos to get larger print sizes by using technology from Genuine Fractals, the industry standard for resizing digital photos.
"Make it Better! Blur It! Frame It! and Enlarge It! These are the four important tools incorporated in onOne Software's new Essentials 2 for iPhoto," said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. "These tools are designed to allow amateur and advanced amateur photographers to quickly and easily correct color, creatively add blur effects to images, add realistic frame and borders and enlarge digital images to transform even ordinary snapshots into extraordinary images without having to spend hours in front of a computer."
Make It Better
With the Make It Better tool, users simply compare color, contrast and brightness adjustments side-by-side and pick the best looking images to adjust an image. This module combines the power of several image adjustment steps that would be found in more expensive image editing applications into a single interface. This allows users to make complex image adjustments without the need to understand complex image controls.
Blur It
The Blur It tool provides photographers with a way to create realistic depth of field control, plane of focus control and selective focus to any digital image after it is photographed allowing for more control and precision. The focus bug control in Blur It has a tangible, hardware feel much like using a lens. Photographer can quickly define the "sweet spot" either in a round shape or a plane and then control how much and what kind of blur they would like to add to the image.
Frame It
The Frame It tool makes it easy to add realistic film and darkroom edge and border effects to images. Users can also add artistic edges like torn paper, brush strokes or even realistic frames and mats. Frame It allows users to stack multiple edges and frames to create unique designs. This tool features more than 500 edges and frames to choose from. The creative possibilities are limitless with the Frame It tool.
Enlarge It
The Enlarge It tool increases the size of an image without the loss of sharpness and detail that would normally be expected. It can resize images up to 400% and still maintain sharp edges and minute details. It's equivalent to taking a 4x6 print and making it as big as a poster size. It is a must have for any photo enthusiast who makes big prints or needs to crop a section out of an image to get just the right composition.

Availability & Pricing
onOne Software's Essentials 2 for iPhoto is available direct from onOne Software (http://www.ononesoftware.com/) and from authorized retailers including select Apple Stores. The MSRP for Essentials 2 for iPhoto is $59.95.

About onOne Software
onOne Software develops time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers in the digital photography and graphic design industries. onOne Software solutions have been created to help photographers spend more of their time behind the camera taking pictures instead of the computer workstation. Such solutions include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-in enhancements for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and QuarkXPress®.

More at
Cameratown.com Digital Imaging News

Image of the day:

Architectural Details

Inside St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland

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Adobe Releases Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 Updates

Adobe has released new updates for their applications Lightroom and Camera Raw. The Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 fixes problems found in Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4.

Lightroom

• Lightroom 1.4 incorrectly modified the EXIF time date field of images that had a metadata update applied. This incorrect modification does not appear in Lightroom or Bridge and is only viewable through third party EXIF tools. This error has been corrected in Lightroom 1.4.1 and all files in a Lightroom catalog that have been incorrectly modified will be corrected on their next metadata update. (Metadata can be updated by selecting the files in the Library grid view and choosing Command or Control+S to save and update the metadata.)

• Olympus JPEG files could render incorrectly in Lightroom 1.4, displaying an artifact in the exported file.

• Any conversion to DNG in Lightroom 1.4 (Windows Only) would cause the DNG file to become unreadable by Lightroom's Develop Module or Camera Raw 4.4 in Photoshop. The issue has been corrected and files can be converted to DNG again in order to resolve the issue for existing files. Returning to the original native raw files is not necessary. The affected DNG files can be selected and converted again using the DNG Converter 4.4.1 available at www.adobe.com/dng/. This process is not required but recommended to ensure that a correct validation value is stored within the DNG files.

• Lightroom 1.4 provided degraded import performance relative to Lightroom 1.3.Camera Raw

• Camera Raw 4.4 incorrectly modified the EXIF time date field of images that were saved as TIFF or JPEG files from the Camera Raw dialog. This has been corrected in Camera Raw 4.4.1

• Olympus JPEG files could render incorrectly in Camera Raw 4.4, displaying an artifact in the exported file.

Downloads
The Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 updates are available at http://www.adobe.com/downloads

Credits: Tanya Palta at digitalcamerainfo.com

Photo of the day:

Domestic Animals and Pets

Border Collies The perfect Babysitter

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Significant Savings on NIK Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Fluid Mask 3

San Diego, CA & London, England – March 26, 2008 – Nik Software, Inc. and Vertus announced, today, a new software bundle which offers photographers and creative professionals superior solutions for image extractions and creative enhancements. By combining the features and capabilities of Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete Edition from Nik Software and Vertus’ Fluid Mask 3, the leading tools in their respective categories, photographers, graphic designers, and image editors receive increased creative flexibility at a significant cost savings.

Available on both companies’ websites as electronic download files, the products are being offered together at $429.95, representing a savings of $110, or 20%. The bundle offer is good through June 1, 2008. In addition, current Color Efex Pro 3.0 owners can get Fluid Mask 3 directly from Nik Software at a 15% discount. For download and discount information please visit www.niksoftware.com/vertus or www.vertustech.com/bundles/nik.htm

Nik Software, Inc. is a privately held company that develops software solutions for the growing digital imaging and photography markets. Established in 1995, Nik Software has become the recognized leader in digital photographic filter development and produces award-winning technology and software products for digital photography and imaging professionals including U Point® technology, Dfine®, Viveza™, Color Efex Pro™, and Nik Sharpener Pro™ software. For more information, visit http://www.niksoftware.com/.

“We are extremely enthusiastic about joining with Nik Software to offer this valuable image editing package,” said James Carr-Jones, president & CEO of Vertus. “Using the unmatched masking capabilities of Fluid Mask 3 and the unique image enhancements and effects available with Nik’s Color Efex Pro, image editing will not only be fast and accurate, but more creative. Users who take advantage of this limited time offer will truly be acquiring some of the best image editing products on the market.”

About Color Efex Pro 3.0 - Photoshop Plug-In
Color Efex Pro 3.0 from Nik Software are the leading photographic filters for digital photography, widely used by many of today's professional photographers around the world to save time and get professional level results. The Complete Edition contains fifty-two filters and over 250 effects enabling photographers to quickly perform high quality retouching, color correction, traditional filtering, and endless creative enhancements to their photographs.
Using Nik Software’s patented U Point® technology found within Color Efex Pro 3.0, users are provided the ultimate control to selectively apply enhancements without the need for any complicated selections or layer masks. Using Control Points, users can determine where to apply any filter within Color Efex Pro selectively to their image, further enhancing their creativity.
“The new digital darkroom that creative professionals live in needs powerful software to take full advantage of technology and help them push the limits,” said Michael J. Slater, president and CEO of Nik Software. “Fluid Mask and Color Efex Pro work great together and will help professionals create stunning results with a photographic style all their own,” he concluded.

About Vertus
Vertus is the graphics and imaging software division of Heligon, a technology business specializing in image data interpretation. Heligon's groundbreaking technology uses complex algorithms to mimic the way the eye and brain perform visual processing so that complex shapes and colors can be recognized within images. Heligon licenses its technology to market leaders in industries including design and graphics, printing and video. More information on Vertus can be found at: http://www.vertustech.com/.

About Fluid Mask 3 - Photoshop Plug-In
Fluid Mask 3 offers the most powerful and accurate image extraction on the market. The product offers a “Smart Blending” capability unique to the software, an effective edge detection system, and intuitive workflow resources. The award winning Fluid Mask 3 is currently available for both Windows and Mac based operating systems, and will continue to function as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 & Elements, while also working in stand alone mode. The program has been deployed by image editors at the National Magazine Company, producers of such titles as Elle, Men’s Health, Glamour and Bazaar, and recently became the first image editing program added to the Getty Images Preferred Supplier Program. The newest version of Fluid Mask is available for download through the Vertus website at: http://www.vertustech.com/.

credits: cameratown.com

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Wildflowers

Dandelion Parachute Leaving Home

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techsoup and flickr offer free online photo accounts to nonprofits

One of the most popular online photo sharing services, Flickr, is partnering with TechSoup, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits use technology, to offer 10,000 free premium Flickr accounts to nonprofit organizations. Flickr is also starting a new program, Flickr for Good, whereby it will highlight photos of "good works" depicted on Flickr.
Techsoup's suggestions for how nonprofits can use Flickr:
"Uses for Outreach and Community Building: Flickr is a new way for organizations to tell their story. With a Flickr account, individuals can showcase and chronicle their organization's work through their own photography. For example, by creating a group photo pool and encouraging discussions, Flickr members can build awareness of an organization's work. Members can also provide a link to their organization's Web site in their Flickr profiles. Conversely, the organization's Web site can stream Flickr photos...
Uses Within Organizations: Flickr members can store all their photographs of their organization's work in one place if they have the legal right to do so. Account holders can upload photos to Flickr from anywhere in the world. The photos can be organized into sets and collections, and they can be tagged for easy searching. Another tool that organizations can use internally is a Flickr group. In a private group, only group members and those who have been invited can view the group page. Groups can also be completely public or public by invitation only."
Find out how to apply for a free Flickr account here at TechSoup.
nonprofits, nota bene: While you're checking out the free Flickr accounts at TechSoup, take a look at the many other services and products TechSoup offers, including drastically discounted software and other technology products.

Read on at inprogress.typepad - studio501c

Photo of the day:

Flowers:

A pile of Oxeye Daisies tells us that spring is in the air

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Eye-Fi Card

Wireless gadgets, USB gadgets, and wireless USB gadgets generally don’t warrant a second thought, but the Eye-Fi Card is a new wireless product for casual photographers that automates the process of downloading pictures to your computer and uploading them to your photo sharing service. You shoot, it does the rest.

The Eye-Fi Card comes in SD (Secure Digital) format and is aimed at those people who don’t want to mess with cords or bother with using a card reader. In addition, the automation handles resizing the images for online use while also saving them to your computer as well.
Once you set up your Eye-Fi to work with your home wireless network and a service like Flickr (it takes about two minutes), the Eye-Fi will automatically detect and transfer JPEG files to your online account and/or your home computer whenever it’s powered on.
That’s pretty much it, but don’t forget to leave the camera on and turn off its auto-power saving function (the Eye-Fi draws its power from your camera battery). It’s that simple.
The great thing is that the software and hardware is smart enough to accommodate real-world glitches like powering down the camera during a transfer or losing your wireless signal. Both of these happened to me while testing the Eye-Fi and it simply picked up where it left off before the interruptions.
You will still have to download pictures the old-fashioned wired way if you have RAW format files or if you have movies shot with your camera on the card. Eye-Fi simply ignores these file formats. I could not test TIFFs.
The card conveniently comes with a card reader and the setup is handled by simply plugging the card and card reader into your computer’s USB slot. On my Mac, the Eye-Fi Manager application launched Firefox (you have to set Firefox or IE as your default browser, a hassle if you use something else like Safari or Camino) and started the process. Each step was well documented and you are told what is happening.

Read all about it at reviews.photographyreview.com and
check it out: Eye-Fi’s website is here at www.eye.fi.

Photo of the day:
Canadian Forest - The woods are lovely dark and deep

© CT-Graphics - Christine Till

Order your "Canadian Forest - The woods are lovely dark and deep" Print at Fine Art America
or Download the royalty-free digital photo 'Canadian Forest - The woods are lovely dark and deep' directly from: CT-Graphics.com - Royalty Free Photographs for Print and Web - Image Customization - Old or Damaged or Polaroid Photo Restoration - Conversion of Slides and Paper Pictures to Digital (CD/DVD) - Picture Postcards - Calendars - Greeting Cards

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