Photo Club

Nikon today have announced a range of 7 new digital cameras. They range from the budget through to more expensive and feature rich models.

• Nikon Coolpix P90 – a super-zoom camera with a 24x optical zoom.
• Nikon Coolpix L100 (another super-zoom camera).
• Nikon Coolpix S630 – 12MP with a 7x optical zoom.
• Nikon Coolpix S620 – 12MP, 4x optical zoom.
• Nikon Coolpix S230 – 10MP with a 3x optical zoom lens.
• Nikon Coolpix S220 – 10MP with 3x optical zoom.
• Nikon Coolpix L19 and Nikon Coolpix L20 – 8 and 10MP respectively – both with 3.6x optical zoom – budget cameras.

All of these Nikon Coolpix cameras come with a range of scene modes and features including smile and blink detection and Motion detection.
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Vue 7 Infinite is one of the professional versions of E-on Software’s Vue 3D product line. Vue is the software product line which is used to create realistic 3D environments. In total, there are seven versions of Vue. Pioneer is the entry-level version for newcomers to 3D graphics. Esprit is designed for artists and illustrators. Pro Studio is geared for the advanced artist, and Complete is for the small studio. Vue Infinite is designed for the professional 3D animator and production studio. Finally, xStream is the integrated solution; this is a version of Infinite that can integrate directly into other 3D applications such as Maya, 3DS, Lightwave, and Cinema 4D. There is also a product called Ozone 3.0 which is an atmospheric plug-in that is used to create skies and atmospheres in a variety of 3D product. To see all of the differences, you can check out the comparative matrix from E-on Software.

Vue Infinite contains all of the features that the other product lines contain; the main difference between Vue 7 Infinite and xStream is that Vue 7 Infinite is meant to run as a standalone product and xStream is built to run in other products.  Other than that difference, the features are the same.

Vue 7 Infinite runs on Windows (2000 or greater), or Mac (OS X 10.4 or later) with 2 GHz or faster processor recommended, 1 GB RAM (2 GB or more recommended), an OpenGL enabled graphics card is not required but highly recommended with 1024×768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended), and 200 MB free hard-disk space. Multi-processor rendering is only available on all multi-processor OS X, 2000, XP Pro and Vista systems.

E-on Software was founded in 1997 with the release of Vue d'Esprit 2. Embraced initially by artists and animators, it has now become a staple in Hollywood and has been used to create scenes in such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean II and The Spiderwick Chronicles as well as for television shows produced by the Discovery Channel. It is also finding its way into advertising and the fine art industry.

So, what's new with Vue 7 Infinite?

• EcoSystem Generation III is the third generation of E-on's technology for creating landscape images. The creation of real world natural environments is extremely complex. With this latest incarnation of EcoSystem, Vue has made it even easier to populate your scenes with millions of plants, trees and other objects to achieve a new level of natural complexity and detail. With automated Smart Scattering and Dynamic Population, you get better detail along with a more natural look. The EcoSystem painter lets you paint over your objects with four different kinds of painting tools. What's more is that you can save your creations and build a whole library that can be used for other scenes and objects.

Over the last few weeks we’ve started to see a range of new cameras released. We’re updating many of those that capture our interest at the Digital Camera and Gear blog at Digital Photography School.

Here are a few new ones to hit the market:

• Canon Powershot A480 – 10MP, 3.3x Optical Zoom
• Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-G3 – 10.1MP, 4x Optical Zoom and with WiFi
• Olympus SP-590UZ – 12MP and with a 26x Optical Zoom
• Pentax Optio E70 and P70 – two compact digital cameras

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The problem begins with an image that's great, but because you shot it with your 3 megapixel camera, you can get a decent 4×6 inch print, but when you try to get an 8×10 or larger, it just doesn't look the same. Or you try to make an 8×10 from your digital camera file but it will only go to 8×12, or 7×10 because the sensor size on your camera is a different aspect ratio from the most common paper sizes. Well, that is where Genuine Fractals 6.0 comes in. It will do all the heavy lifting when it comes to creating crystal clear enlargements of your images.

This new version of Genuine Fractals 6.0 represents a significant update of onOne's award-winning plug-in software. This version, while retaining the same powerful scaling capabilities, has enhanced its scaling engine and added more end user control for even more fine range image management than ever before. While there are two versions of Genuine Fractals 6.0 – standard and professional – I will be looking at the professional version.

Genuine Fractals 6.0 is an Adobe Photoshop plug-in that will allow you to enlarge your images over 1000% with no loss in quality or detail. It also allows you to crop and resize your image in a single step. By using the plug-in, all that you have to do is open the image in workspace, select the size of print that you want to produce, select the resolution best for your printer, and Genuine Fractals does the rest.

What's New in Genuine Fractals 6.0

• Gallery wrap now gives you the ability to easily create gallery wrap enlargements. When making a gallery wrap for canvas, it is common to wrap a portion around the wooden stretcher bars. The problem is that important detail can be lost near the edges. This version of Genuine Fractals automatically extends the margins by reflecting or stretching the areas near the edge of the image without sacrificing any of the original image.

• Tiling now allows you to print large format images from a small format printer. This automatically divides your enlargement into smaller pieces so that you can print the individual sections. You just specify the paper size and overlap and Genuine Fractals will create the individual tiles.

The Kubota Pro Pak is a bundled package of products that contains six of the most popular tools from Kevin Kubota’s professional image enhancing tools for Adobe Photoshop. This package includes the four Artistic Series of actions, his Production Tools, as well as his Formula Book which contains 42 separate recipes to get just the look you want.

Who is Kevin Kubota and what makes his actions so special? Well first off he was named one of the top ten wedding photographers of 2007 by Popular Photography Magazine for giving his customers more than they expect by capturing fresh, expressive images. He has now taken that philosophy to Photoshop processing by providing the same techniques to you via his image tools.

Today I will look at the four actions sets known as the Artistic Tools. In case you are not familiar, a Photoshop action is an automated series of steps that have been recorded to provide an effect or series of effects. Some of these actions are totally automated, while others have stopping points that request you to perform some action, usually to paint in where you want some sharpening to occur. In all cases there is a pop-up window that tells you what you need to do.

Artistic Tools Vol. One: The “Classic Film Effects” Pak
In this pak you will find a variety of Black & White Actions, organic film grain, cross-processing effects, sepia effects, and monochrome toning. This set contains over 40 Actions and it includes Skin Cream, Fuji Snappit, Vignette, as well as Eye and Teeth Enhancer.

The black and white effects include conversions that give nice film grain effects without introducing digital noise. In this way they look much more organic and have a better feel. There is not a loss of sharpness and in fact many times the sharpness appears enhanced. There are actions that smooth skin, add glow to the image, add a Hollywood effect, as well as other creative effects for a vignette, giving a romantic feel, and adding vibrancy to the image.

There are color actions that can add a bright sunny effect, a cross processed look, and a contrasty Fugi Velvia film look. There are also image correction actions that raise the shadow values, lower contrasts and saturations, adding warming gel filters to add mood to an image, as well as a mid-tone brightener. There are even actions that will attempt to fix images shot with the wrong white balance. There are examples of “Classic Film Effects” Pak on the Kubota Image Site.

This is the third of a series of reviews that will cover what is contained in the Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) Master Collection. When Adobe released CS4 this fall, they not only released single version products, but also six separate suites of products. They are Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, and Master Collection. You can go online to compare what is contained in each version. The goal of this series it to define what each product does and provide information of what the new version brings to the table.

What do you need to run Adobe Premiere Pro CS4? On a PC you need a 2GHz or faster processor, Windows XP SP2 or Vista; on Mac, PowerPC G4 or G5 or multicore Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.4.11 – 10.5.4 (Leopard), 512MB RAM, 1024×768 display (1280×800 recommended) with 16-bit video card, 10GB hard drive space for installation and DVD-ROM Drive.

Adobe Premiere Pro is a real-time, timeline-based video editing software application. It has gained acceptance within the film and video industry and has been used in part in such films as Dust to Glory by Dana Brown and Superman Returns for the video capture process and so, as the name implies, it is a professional-level editing package.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 attempts to reduce the complex process that is video production. It does this by including copies of the products Adobe OnLocation CS4 and Adobe Encore CS4 to try to make each step of the video production more efficient and giving you more time to work your story.

So what is new with Premiere Pro CS4?

• End-to-End metadata workflow – will let you add metadata to clips both on set with Adobe OnLocation, and while editing via Premiere. This will give your workflow greater project intelligence as you can use the new speech recognition technology to create text-based metadata that you can use to organize your assets.

• Speech Search – this technology offers you the ability to turn the spoken dialog in your clips into text-based metadata which will make your video searchable. No more hand entering key words. Now through voice analysis, keywords can be automatically added, allowing you jump directly to the frame that you are after.

A Celebration of Art – Weddings, Portraits, and Faces with Fay Sirkis is the new video training DVD for those who want to take their digital paint to the next level. Building off the instructor's prior DVD, Paint Like A Master this video continues your education in the use of Painter X and Adobe Photoshop for creating digital artwork. It is hosted by Fay Sirkis, an internationally recognized portrait artist, photographer, and instructor. The video is published by National Association of Photoshop Professionals, or NAPP. If you are not familiar with NAPP, please read my review on Photoshop User magazine to gain more insight on what NAPP is all about and why you might want to join.

Weddings, Portraits, and Faces is contained on two DVDs that run 397 minutes (6.6 hours) and are for use on a computer. It is aimed at users who want to take their digital painting to the next level. The author goes over the material in 51 lessons divided into eight sections.

Section 1 — "Retouching Eyes" (12 lessons) — begins, as in her previous DVD, by using Photoshop to prepare the image. There is a lot of information contained in these lessons with regard to retouching eyes. As they say, the eyes are the gateway to the soul, and so they are just as important to your portrait. In these lessons, your instructor goes over, in very fine detail, everything you will need to know about making the eyes the centerpiece of your work. The techniques covered here deal with all types of situations such as where the eyes are bland, how to fix small pupils, catch lights, and how to work with brown eyes.

It begins with a sketch of the parts of the eyes and how these relate to real eyes. Throughout these lessons you will learn how best to work with the pupils, moon, iris, and catch light. You begin with working the eyes of a groom. You move on to a little girl with where you work with her brown eyes. Then you see how to work with the whites and eyelashes. In each scenario, the instructor shows you how to take on new challenges with respect to the eye area. Keep in mind that this is not done from a photographer's perspective, rather from a painter's viewpoint and the techniques can be very different.

Infrared Photography is the practice of recording that part of the light spectrum that is referred to as infrared. Infrared light is outside the range of what the human eye can see, but with the digital camera we are now able to not only block the visible part of light, but see the invisible, infrared, part of the light spectrum. Artists have been using infrared film and filter techniques since back in the 1960s, but now with the digital innovations available to us in our new technologies, we have many more opportunities to experiment with this medium.

The goal of Digital Infrared Photography is to not only show you the beauty of infrared photography, but teach you how to shoot this type of photography with your digital camera. Digital Infrared Photography is 112 pages in length and covers five sections.

Section 1, "Theory," examines some of the history of infrared photography and takes a look at how it has been greatly simplified since the introduction of digital cameras. Then you will look at some of the basic principles of infrared and what uses there are for this style of photography.

Section 2, "Equipment," next takes a look at what kind of camera one needs for infrared and what other equipment is necessary. In this section you will learn how to perform a test to determine your camera's suitability for infrared and then you will see what other items are necessary or desirable for pursuing this type of photography.

Section 3, "Specialty Cameras," looks at the aspect of what can be used beyond production cameras. That is, a camera that has had its infrared blocker removed. Canon owners also have the option of using a clip filter system which can also be used for astrophotography. Also discussed are the pros and cons of various optimized infrared cameras.

Section 4, "Practical Aspects," now examines the technical aspects of digital infrared photography. This includes the file types, ISO settings, white balance, aperture and shutter speeds, and hotspots. Also examined is a comparison of infrared filters.

Section 5, "The Digital Darkroom," shows that in just about all cases post processing needs to be done when working in infrared. Here you will work with Black and White conversion, grayscale conversion, color levels, and how to optimize your pictures by using levels. There is even an examination of color infrared photography.

Digital Infrared Photography makes for a very good introduction to the subject of infrared photography. It nicely transitions from the technical topics of what infrared photography is, through what equipment you need, to the last third of the book focusing on the digital darkroom.

Digital Infrared Photography also has a lot of beautifully done images as well. These images serve as examples of what can be accomplished. Is this a complete book of infrared photography? No, this book will only give you an introduction into the field. If you are new to infrared, and are looking for a book that will give you a start into this type of photography, then I can easily recommend this book.

In an earlier review, I looked at X-Rite's new product called the ColorMunki which really blew me away with the quality and performance of this product. Over the course of several articles, I will now look at X-Rite's all new i1 product line.

There are two fundamental paths that you can take with the i1 line: i1 Basic and the i1 XTreme. The i1 Basic, which is marketed as an affordable, upgradeable, professional spectral color measurement solution and monitor profiler. Once you own the i1 Basic, you own the capabilities of the other modules, you only need to purchase an access code to activate them. Here I will look at the ease of use of the i1 RGB Output Module Upgrade. This is printer profiler module that will allow you to accurately match the colors on your screen with the colors on the printer output. This module comes standard comes as a part of the i1 XTreme.

Once you are ready, you need to print a test chart. When you do this you want to make sure, through your printer dialog, that the color management is turned off. You don't want anything affecting the output or trying to make some adjustment. Then you print your chart. Now the thing is, once you print it, you will need to wait. How long? That depends on your printer, your ink, and your paper. You might get away with 30-60 minutes, but for best results, 24 hours would be best. Sometimes the colors change as they dry and this would affect your calibration.

Photojournalism: The Professional's Approach is a large book in more ways than one. Sure, it's a hefty book at 512 pages, but it also has another kind of weight: the weight of responsibility. Photojournalism as a practice has an accountability that goes beyond judgment and values; the photojournalist becomes our eyes to the world, and must try and capture only the truth and not impose his or her own judgment on an event.

Photojournalism, now in its sixth edition, features interviews with leading professionals along with many examples of fine photojournalism. This latest edition has been revised to include international pictures and stories as well. This book contains everything from hard news to sports to features in its eighteen chapters.

Chapter 1, "Assignment," examines where most dramatic news stories come from. No, it's not from the city desk of some newspaper, but rather from the vigilant photographers who monitor the emergency scanners waiting for the next breaking situation. These photographers may just sit in their cars near a crossroads monitoring multiple scanners, hoping to be leaving the scene already by the time everyone else is just arriving. Also discussed in this chapter are other resources that can be used to track down news stories, including PR departments, websites, TV, and a good contact list.

Chapter 5, "Portraits," concerns the journalistic portrait. These are photographic essays that tell the story of a person. In this chapter, you see what it takes to put a person at ease so that his or her real personalities can emerge in front of the camera. Some of the tips offered include knowing when to talk and knowing when to listen, and even knowing when to bore the subject so that he or she stops posing and starts relaxing.

Chapter 7, "Photo Editing," takes the stance that when someone examines multiple images, he or she spends less than three-quarters of a second looking at an individual photo. The challenge becomes finding the right image out of hundreds – possibly thousands – of images that will communicate a story in a meaningful way. In this chapter you learn about theories of picture selection, research on reader preference, how to work with images, effects of cropping, working with space in an image, the size of image, and how to work with captions.

Chapter 11, "Photo Story," is about telling a story using pictures. This is the ultimate professional experience for many photojournalists. Some stories can take minutes to develop and others can take years. Here you learn how to communicate a story with pictures and words, including the different formats of photo stories, and the equipment that you will need to do things right. Also included in this chapter are a number of professional photo stories as examples.