Photography

This is the Canon G3. I used this from April 2002 through to October 2005. This is a great camera though there are much better ones these days. All pictures of New Zealand and England were taken with the G3.

 However, as the price came down for the 8Meg Pro1 I could not resist it and purchased one. I have found it easier to use than the G3 as the controls are better placed and all settings can be seen in the viewfinder. Also the lens is better and the detail in the pictures is nothing short of amazing.

Digital photography has many advantages over film.

1.    You can take as many pictures as you like at no extra cost and just pick out the ones that you want.

2.    With the right software and knowledge the photographs can be improved (detail in shadows, for example).

3.    By and large the quality is better than prints produced by the chemists' machines. There is always a lot of extra detail in the negatives not seen with "standard" prints.

I go through the following process with my pictures (My Workflow):-

1.    Download (Upload?) the images into the computer (Breeze systems, Downloader Pro). Pictures are taken as RAW to maximise detail from the camera.

2.    Cull out pictures not wanted (Breezebrowser). This software shows the pictures in fine detail to aid the selection process. Usually download and viewing software is provided by the vendor of the camera.

3.    Add pictures to archive folder, as taken - these are masters. Incidentally my computer is networked to a back up computer that updates every file saved in real time. This way I always have the pictures on a second HD on a different computer. Thus the original images are saved and provide for re-editing as knowledge of the editing software is gained or the picture needs to be adjusted in some way. It is vital the images are bagged up on a separate facility such as another computer, an external Hard Drive of even DVD (not recommended, as finding images can be tricky and DVDs do not last forever (we are informed)). I find it best to retain the numbering system set for the download so that images can be quickly located.

4.    Edit each picture as required with  Paintshop Pro X2. The usual actions (as required) are straighten, crop, white point for colour correction, curves, clarify. Any sharpening required, and it always is required, takes place at printing time, viewing time and EMail time. Never at saving into albums time.

5.    After each photo is edited it is added to a folder according to its type (e.g Dogs, England, Kyogle, Birds, Flowers and so on). No cataloging software is used. . My pictures are organised into albums (equivalent to a folder). Tagging pictures just takes too much time and has not been found helpful to me in the past.

6.    For printing and preparing Email and internet size pictures QImage is used. A fantastic piece of software that interpolates cleverly with any size of image change, then sharpens as set. The colour profile (as established for each paper/ink combination) is used for printing. QImage software has many other useful features.

7.    ProfilePrism is used for colour Management purposes and the generation of Profiles for each paper/ink combination.

I also have Spyder three Elite to profile my Monitors, Three Dell S-IPS panel LCD's and a Dell 24", that despite its price I have been unable to colour correct. All images are over saturated.

Links

Steve's digicams   forums and other material such as Mike Chaney's technical tips - he wrote the software for QImage and profile prism.

DP Review forums

Vuescan the BEST scanning software

QImage - the BEST printing software, home of ProfilePrism

Norman Koren for lots of colour management information.

Scantips for scanning information

Photo-i for excellent reviews and tutorials

And, of course, use Google to find out want you want to know.