This was the result of 5 images blended in photomatix 3.2 and then tweaked in photoshop. I don’t know why I use this program as I like to crunch the blacks and that goes against what photomatix does, to give you detail in those blacks. I think this program must work better with higher contrast scenes. Still it is fun mucking around with it. If anyone out there has some brilliant tips on how best to use this program share it with us all. Lets see some of your best pics produced with it.
I am slowly getting my life back after some of the workshops and big jobs are finishing up. I have decided to go back to processing images from my trip to the Eastern States. This one of Magnetic Island was run through Photomatix 3.2 and ended up ok. I had some serious issues with some weird pixels in the highlights. Had to pull out all my photoshop tricks to put this one through to the next level. I used Noise Ninja, Gaussian blurs, motion blurs, lots of layer adjustments, mid tone contrast tricks the whole lot. Probably the hardest I have worked for a long time. Still some issues to sort out but that will have to be for another day.
Off to Port Hedland tomorrow to run a 2 day photoshop workshop. If it goes well I might do a similar workshop in Perth or some other exotic location.
Don’t forget the pizza night at Marks place on Friday the 6th. If you want to come you need to email him mark@northstarcruises.com.au. He has a special announcement to make you won’t want to miss. It may already be full, he will let you know.
From Ryan Epstein
A Brand new Nikon D5000 with 18-55mm VR kit, I’m asking for $1100. Box hasn’t even been opened and camera has not been used. Call Ryan on 0430013503 or email ryan@ryanepstein.com SOLD, SOLD, SOLD
From the Mighty Tommy Putt, the man/girl in the pink feather boa
Epson 3800 A2 plus colour inkjet printer for sale. Hard used. Comes with pack of quality paper also. Pick up only – Brighton, Victoria. Investment $1500 (RRP $1995).
Call Tom on 0419 138 298 or email tom@tomputt.com
From James Knight Smith
I am selling my Canon 24-70 lens. I have had this lens for a couple of years and its in very good condition. I have the original box (not in the photo) for the lens and I’m also including the lens hood and soft lens case. I’m asking $1450.00.
Email me at jknightsmith@gmail.com if you are interested.
This is one of the images from a recent shoot with Mark, David and Greggie. We all went in different directions and all have a different spin on the same subject. I only did this up as I am working on a new tutorial for the photoshop workshop I am running in Port Hedland this weekend. It would be pretty cool to have a land yacht on this lake as it is huge.
I just wanted to thank the guys who came to my gallery last night to be a part of the workflow workshop. It was a great night and managed to stagger into bed around 1am this morning. It was a great bunch, probably the best group yet!! (notice I say that about all the courses) Thanks for putting up with my rants and hope you got something to think about when next out taking photos or sitting in front of photoshop.
As we got a little stuck on the whole colour management subject I thought I would add a few notes to help ease the pain.
The aim of colour management is to maintain the same colour on all devices even though each device has a different colour gamut and the same set of numbers refer to a different colour.
In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a monitor, scanner, camera, printer, or a color space, according to standards set by the International Color Consortium (ICC). Profiles describe the color attributes of a particular device. A colour managed workflow uses these profiles to control colour reproduction between all the devices in the workflow. That is, they tell each device this is the colour we are looking at and they all understand each other.
A color space simply describes the range of colors, or gamut, that a camera can see, a printer can print, or a monitor can display. Editing color spaces, on the other hand, such as Adobe RGB, Dcam 3 or sRGB, are device-independent. They also determine a color range you can work in. Their design allows you to edit images in a controlled, consistent manner. I use Dcam 3 as my working colour space as it has a larger colour gamut than Adobe RGB 1998. You set your rgb colour space in photoshop, go to edit> colour settings> working spaces> RGB. This is important. I also make sure when I convert my raw files in camera raw I assign the colour space Pro Photo, then when opened in photoshop and prompted, I convert that file to the Dcam 3 colour space. Pro photo has a massive colour gamut so going from that to DCam 3 is fine even though Dcam 3 has a smaller gamut.
Easy peasy hey!!!
You never know when a shot will present itself. At the beginning of this week Michael and I had to go to present work in Perth to a company we have been dealing with. We had a quick tour of their new premises in the city. I thought how can people do this every day. How can they live in a totally manmade, cold, concrete nightmare. Looking out of the window I spotted an interesting view. I love shooting down on a subject and cities do make great subject matter. Still would you want to be this guy. Where is he going, what is his life like, is he a good bloke or a mongrel. Is he happy with his life. Most of all, has he seen Merv’s latest windmill pic??? I think I have my first “fine art” piece. So many questions, so much emotion, so much wonder, does anyone really know Merv??? Find out at the pizza night!!
Well it arrived last week, my new Epson 9900. It was delivered by 4 burly blokes and they were kind enough to carry it upstairs for me. The following day Benny from Team Digital came down to help me get it running. He made some icc profiles for me and we tweaked the settings to get the best out of the machine. I must say it is bloody good, in fact it is bloody sensational. The other week I did a workshop with Les Walkling and he was raving about this machine. He showed us the colour gamut compared to the Canon and it is able to reproduce so many more colours than the ipf range. Still the old Canon has done me well but out with the old in with the new. Will do a proper review of the machine once we get it in the dedicated printing room and start using it properly.
I want to thank Epson in conjunction with Team Digital for helping me get into this machine. It has been fantastic to have the support of two great companies and I intend to wear the Epson badge with pride. Thanks again guys.
Hi all
I guess you have heard about the pizza night Mark and I are putting on at his place. Free Pizza, byo beer and other drinks. We have only 50 spots available to the general blogging community, all are welcome but get in early. I think 30 spots are gone already. It is just an idea to get everyone together and meet the faces behind the names. Imagine meeting Merv, that is worth every bit of free pizza you can eat. Send an email to mark@northstarcruises.com.au to let him know you want to come. The date is the 6th of November, a friday night at 7pm. He might have an extra special thing to talk about too and believe me you won’t want to miss the announcement. It is still secret squirrel stuff so don’t tell anyone else.
Cheers
CF
Sydney, 20 October 2009: Canon Australia has given advance notice of an upgrade to the movie-related firmware for the EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera <http://canon.com.au/products/visual/cameras/digital_slr/eos5dmkII.aspx> in response to user requirements for additional frame rates.
“We understand that EOS 5D Mark II users desire additional frame rates and we’re preparing a firmware update to allow the camera to shoot at both 24P and 25P,” said Chris Macleod, Brand Manager – EOS, Canon Australia. “The upgrade to 24P and 25P will broaden the usage scope for this popular camera to include cinema and broadcast and applications, respectively.”
Canon expects the firmware update to be available in the first half of 2010 and will release more details as they become available.
Speak to Ben @ Team Digital for all the goss on this update.
Denis Glennon, a great Perth based photographer, has just given me the scoop on a photo comp that would be worth entering. It is called “icon Photo 09″. Have a look at the pdf for more details, it is open to amateurs and has some fantastic prizes, wish I could enter. Thanks Denis for the heads up on this one. You can see Denis’s work here at his website
iconPHOTO 09 Launched on 5 Oct 09
Well Canon didn’t waste any time getting this new puppy out straight after the release of the hot Nikon D3s. I guess these two bad boys are competing with each other for the wedding/ sports market. I will have to have a good read of this pdf to see what it hasto offer but the initial signs are good. HD 1080p video, 16mp, and awesome hi iso performance. Don’t know about cost or anything but if you give Ben a call at Team Digital he will have all the relevant info. He things it is a “ball tearer”, I guess that means it is good, not bad in a vasectomy sense! He promised we will have one in December to try out and review so keep an eye on this blog! Check all the details on this pdf. Canon_EOS_release_201009
Just in, some of the frame rates in video mode -
1080p: 1920 x 1080 pixels at 30fps (actually 29.97fps)
1080p: 1920 x 1080 pixels at 25fps
1080p: 1920 x 1080 pixels at 24fps (actually 23.976fps)
720p: 1280 x 720 pixels at 60fps (actually 59.94fps)
720p: 1280 x 720 pixels at 50fps
SD: 640 x 480 pixels at 60fps (actually 59.94fps)
SD: 640 x 480 pixels at 50fps
Thanks everyone for checking out the blog, just had a look at my stats and found I had ticked over the 300 mark. I thought I would post some of the other stats from my site;
Busiest day – 11,658
Posts – 418
Comments – 6,156
The top 4 clicks from my site to another (in order) – Stakky, Jamie Paterson, Dylan Fox and Spool photography
Top post – Hot Nikon News 12,747 views
Funniest Search Term – Tom Putt poof, Fletchers make stuff, Porn star Peter Lik
Clicks from my blog to Mervs – 380
All interesting stuff, and funny Stakky came out on top of links clicked on from my blog, must be the generation Y that no how to do all this internet stuff. I think when he turns 18 he owes me a beer, actually Stakky senior I’ll have a carton of Redback please, and not the mild either, don’t get cheap on me. I need the real deal!
Thanks for continuing to come to my blog, it has been a hoot and I have made some pretty cool friendships from it. Sounds pretty sad doesn’t it, …..how did you meet that guy?, ah off the internet!!! Yeah ok, ahh, great weather today,………
Mark Stothard has suggested we all get together for a massive pizza night at his place sometime soon to celebrate blogdom and all the cool things we love about photography, will keep you posted on that one. The poor bugger is currently in Miami, heading to Trinidad putting together a massive boat order for Austal. The guy gets around. He says he can make 45 pizzas an hour in his pizza oven. Going on his track record you would have to believe it.
Also it has only taken just over 3 months to go from 200,000 hits to 300,000 hits. Not that I’m counting!!!
Took this the other week at the Monties. This was the second eagle we saw pluck a fish out of the ocean. In the full res version you can see the blood of the fish dripping off it’s lifeless body, well I hope it was dead. I was getting into my wildlife photography. Shot with the trusty 400mm, love that lens.
Even in the ugliest industrial wasteland there is beauty. I’m not talking about Karratha either, that is still ugly!! These salt ponds from the air are breathtaking.
This is the latest, just announced today, new beaut Nikon. It is basically an improved D3 with video mode. Ok it isn’t 1080p like the Canon 5D2 but these days in the world of youtube and vimeo, do we really need it?? The iso has now at a staggering 102,400, holly crap, that is for photographing inside of the womb!!! Team Digital will be getting us one of these to try out in November so keep an eye on this space. We are also getting a 7D in the next couple of weeks to try out the video and stills and compare to the 5D2.
Will post more info soon but get over to see Benny at Team Digital for more details.
Below is the press release, check it out and make up your mind if it is for you.
Nikon D3S Press Release Oct 09
Hi all I am running one of my workflow courses in a couple of weeks time. I know there are a lot of people wanting to do one and this is probably my first in about 6 months. It has been a crazy time and being away so much hasn’t helped. So if you can make this date let me know. It is my usual workshop that I held all last year. I cover my workflow from capture to fine art printing. You get a workshop manual, free wine and desert and 19 years of experience. Will short track you to taking better photographs. Cost is $250 and starts at 7.30pm at my gallery. Goes for 4 to 5 hours and is relaxed and fun, well I think it is!!! Check my blog for comments regarding the courses if you are unsure about the value of attending.
Mark and I found this old shed in New Norcia. Had nice light coming down from skylights above.
Whilst I’m on the theme of religion and since we were at New Norcia, a town that seems to have religion at its core I thought I would work up a composite image (thanks Stakky for the inspiration).
All the elements in this image were shot hand held with the 50mm and put together and blended. I love doing this sort of stuff because it really makes you think about how to achieve the results you want. This is for fun, just toying with religion, I think I might become a monk, I hear they are brewing beer these days!! This statue was of a particularly grim looking dude, anyone know who he is??? Doesn’t look friendly. New Norcia is great for photography but if the walls could talk there must be some horror stories that have come out of that place.
Hi all
Stakky is in a photo comp. The winner is the person who gets the most votes, I think?? Anyway have a look here. If you think he deserves it give him your vote. He is a talented little bugger.
Photographs
America and Canada
Archives
Black and White
Canvas 6 image Compilation
Christian's Favourites
Compilation Photographs
Exclusive One of One
Great Southern W.A.
.jpg)
Limited Edition
New Zealand
North Western Australia
Other Format
Papua New Guinea
Personal Work
Perth & Rottnest
Rest Of Australia
South Western Australia
.jpg)