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:-

1.    Download the images into the computer (Breeze systems, Downloader Pro). Pictures are taken as best quality JPEGS. Did use RAW for a while but considered that the quality improvement ( the difference seemed minimal, if any at all to my eye) did not justify the extra processing required.

2.    Cull out pictures not wanted (Breezebrowser)

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.

4.    Edit each picture as required with  Paintshop Pro X2. The usual actions (as required) are straighten, crop, white point, 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.

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

7.    ProfilePrism is used for colour Management purposes and the generation of Profiles.

I also have Spyder two to profile my Monitor, a 20 inch Viewsonic CRT. CRT's are no longer available so it's LCD next. I have tried to profile LCDs, but with little success. Ultimately I will need to invest in an S-IPS panel as this type of panels shows correct colours. They are expensive.

When scanning pictures taken prior to the digital camera the software used is Vuescan. I have a flatbed scanner and a dedicated slide and negative scanner.

Links

Steve's digicams   forums

DP Review forums

Vuescan the BEST scanning software

QImage - the BEST printing software, home of ProfilePrism