Category Archives: Photography

Lightroom 2.0

Lightroom

Beta testing is the way to go.

Adobe has just released Lightroom 2.0 Beta allowing all and sundry to bang away at it in a sort of group grope-wiki software development approach which I can only applaud.

Localized corrections in the Develop module and multiple monitor use seem to be the most useful enhancements – this is enough to call it 2.0 or are earnings hurting? Still, Adobe is adopting the right development approach.

There’s no soft proofing support yet, but read this for a workaround.

Interestingly, the ‘10,000 pixels a side’ import file size limit (meaning files cannot be over 10k pixels on either dimension or more than 100mB in total) has been increased to 30,000. I actually ran into the 10,000 pixel limit when migrating from Aperture to Lightroom on some big scans of 4″x5″ originals, so this is not as odd as it at first sounds.

Anyone can use the 2.0 Beta but to extend the trial past 30 days you either have to be a registered 1.x user or ask Adobe nicely. There’s a neat tutorial here. In a related tutorial an easy way of exporting, say, multiple images to Photoshop, such as in HDR photography is explained. The enhancements allowing multiple image printing on one page are nothing short of superb – some 5 minutes into this tutorial.

Is Adobe trying too hard? With 2.0 Beta newly out and 1.4.1 still in need of repair, is Adobe unnecessarily rushing things?

While I have no access to current data, assuming that PC users outnumber Mac zealots by 4:1, it’s not like Aperture is a competitor. Add the fact that Aperture 2.0 seems to require the costliest Mac to run half decently (if then), whereas Lightroom potters along nicely on an ancient G4 Mac, I somehow doubt there are going to be too many users switching from Lightroom to Aperture. In fact, I would guess they are about as common as people looking for permanent resident status in North Korea. Trust me, Abobe, I only want to go through this hell once, so there’s no way you are about to lose me as a user unless something better comes along and it uses LR’s catalogs without need for conversion.

However, given how few people use Macs, I wonder whether Adobe would be better off canning half the Lightroom development team and spending the savings on properly marketing 1.4. Lightroom 2.0 is nice but, let’s face it, it can wait and you are not going to dump Aperture just because of this Lightroom Beta upgrade which isn’t even ready for prime time.

And, please, no comments about how photographers are disproportionately users of Macs. The sole reason you visit this blog is to read about photography and 80% of you, according to my statistics, use Internet Explorer. Last I checked, that piece of garbage doesn’t even run on a Mac …. and anyone using IE with Parallels on a Mac truly needs a lobotomy. And I’ll bet that of the 20% using Safari, some are running it on Windows and many don’t use Aperture in any case. So the 4:1 LR:Aperture user ratio is probably understated.

Sure, all the toadies, sycophants, commercial flacks and those otherwise in the pay of Adobe will extol the virtues of 2.0 and praise Adobe for its community spirit. Utter nonsense. Adobe is a stockholder-owned public company. It’s primary duty, as with any public company, it to maximize the wealth of its shareholders, not tell us about its great good heart and wonderful social policies.

So, Abode, fire a dozen developers (starting with the fellow who approved 1.4.1 for release) – $1-2mm saved – and roll something like this out.

“Aperture users! Make Lightroom run twice as fast. On your ten year old Mac. Invest the hardware savings in a new Nikon D3 instead”.

And let’s face it, Adobe, your stock is nothing to write home about.

Or, better still Adobe, write a proper converter for Aperture to Lightroom catalogs and sell Lightroom at 50% of retail to anyone downloading it and sending in the box top from their Aperture software. Now that’s something that might make me show some interest in your stock and it would pay for itself with the first few conversions. It might even preclude an imminent hostile takeover though I’m conflicted here as I would far rather own the stock is someone wants to acquire you for a premium to the quoted price.

Latest Canon 5D firmware

Canon 5D

Time to update.

Canon has released firmware 1.1.1 for the 5D.

Download is free and installation instructions are included.

Here are the changes:

Here’s the installation in progress:

For me the significant feature is that high capacity 8gB and 16gB cards are now supported. I’m not rushing out to buy these but it’s nice to know I can use them when Vogue calls for that special photo session with Elle McPherson.

The ‘new lenses’ referred to are these:

I somehow doubt any of these exotics will be darkening my gadget bag any time soon. And at the wide end, the Canon Fish-eye beats the pants off their 14mm ‘L’ lens at a fraction of the price and bulk – all you need is ImageAlign and Photoshop.

As for enhanced compatibility with DPP, I don’t use that so it adds no value in my case.

By the way, if you are contemplating purchase of a new camera, most manufacturers now make instruction manuals available on line and it is a good way of learning about features and limitations.

Secular thinking

Panasonic

Some neat editing.


Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/1000, f/3.6, IS 100

Snapped in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The editor of this little comedy had even gone to the trouble of trying to match the paint color, and while I may not agree with the result, it is every bit as tedious to be constantly reminded of the purported existence of a supreme being (it’s even on the currency, for heaven’s sake!) in what is averred to be a secular society. In America, it seems, there’s more religion involved in running for elected office than even the next Pope has to contend with. Bizarre.

Technical note: The widescreen format of the Panasonic LX-1 is a welcome feature here. The small sensor and stretched lens design needs quite a bit of sharpening and chromatic aberration correction – here are my default import setting in Lightroom – bear in mind that I use the camera at its widest lens setting almost all the time. That means 6.3mm, equivalent to 28mm on a full frame. Chromatic aberration falls as the lens is zoomed.


Lightroom import setting for the LX-1

While the LX-1 has been obsoleted by the current LX-2, I would guess things did not change in this regard as the lens on the LX-2 is the same. You can read about automatically applying these corrections in Lightroom here. If anything, I would guess that more sharpening is called for with the LX-2, owing to the overcrowding caused by all those extra pixels on a miniscule sensor, each competing for every photon of light.

There’s a significant amount of barrel distortion at 6.3mm/28mm, too, and when it matters I use the ImageAlign plugin to correct that, round-tripping the file through Photoshop CS2. I believe ImageAlign has been discontinued but similar native functionality exists somewhere deep in the bowels of Photoshop CS3. Unless your subject is one dictating straight lines, it’s generally not an issue.

The Panasonic LX-1 revisited

Panasonic

A fine, unobtrusive street snapper.

I bought the Panasonic LX-1 a couple of years ago with but one purpose in mind. It was to be an unobtrusive street snapper, both smaller and more capable than the Leica M2 it replaced.

You can see my various ramblings on the subject by clicking here.

Since then Panasonic has ‘upgraded’ the camera to the LX-2 adding a bigger LCD screen. Neat idea. The one on my LX-1 is miles ahead when it comes to use in bright sun over the horror in the Canon 5D. They also squeezed in more pixels on that miniscule sensor. Not so neat an idea, as the original is noisy enough and more pixels will not help in that department.

Most importantly, I glued a 28mm Voigtlander optical viewfinder on the top plate, and its field of view matches the widest (default) setting of the zoom lens in the LX-1 nicely. Because depth of field is huge (the lens is but 6.3mm in focal length at its widest) I switch off the auto-focus with the handy slider on the lens barrel and bang away merrily on the street. Response time? Almost as fast as that old M2 with its antiquated film and processing needs. Optical quality? Add a bit of sharpening and chromatic aberration correction and 13″ x 19″ prints are fine. At that size sensor noise starts to intrude, much as film grain did with the M2. You might think that the LX-1 lacks the M2’s low light capability as the lens is not fast but the built in IS is good for two shutter speeds, so the lens’s f/2.8 becomes an effective f/1.4. The whole experiment has been a resounding success. The auto-exposure adds immensely to speed of use. And I console myself that I’m still using a Leica lens when I suspend disbelief and buy in to the engraving on the lens rim.

I’m hoping that the Sigma DP1, with its large sensor and fixed focus lens, will further improve matters, but one thing it will not beat is the tiny size of the LX-1. I was reminded of this when wandering about San Francisco the other day. As usual, I was cradling the LX-1 in the palm of my hand, ready for instant action. Handled thus the camera is invisible until raised to the eye. It was amusing to see a few other snappers either using point-and-shoot digitals and squinting at the ridiculous LCD screens at arm’s length (hard to be more visible, really) or using giant DSLRs and big zoom lenses which simply scream for the subject to disappear.

Me? Happily unobtrusive, courtesy of the fine engineers at Panasonic, greatly enjoying the native widescreen format of the sensor.

The snaps from one day’s fun follow.

* * * * *

Quite what this lady was thinking of with a WASP mannequin selling Chinese clothing I don’t know, but it works for me.


Chinatown vendor. Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/200, f/3.6, ISO 100

This pipe bender was far too busy to worry about photographers:


Pipe bender. Panasonic LX-1, 105mm (LCD finder used), 1/800, f/4.5, ISO 100

The little pop-up flash unit in the LX-1 is not to be sneezed at – it adds that bit of contrast in a shady location, such as that where this beautiful gate was placed:


Beautiful gate. Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/30, f/3.6, built-in flash, ISO 100, ImageAlign used to remove barrel distrotion

These workers were doing what white American labor specializes at, in the shade of the Transamerica pyramid:


American labor. Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/200, f/3.6, ISO 100

There’s nothing wrong with the color rendition of this little gem.


Chinatown silks. Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/100, f/3.6, ISO 100

Throw a great Renaissance name at me and you have my interest. Suspend a pizza pie over a passer-by’s head and you have a picture. By the way, the menu at lower left is perfectly distinguishable in the original, so no excuses need be made for the lens once color fringing is removed in Lightroom.


Flying Pizza. Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/125, f/3.6, ISO 100


Detail of the picture above.

Finally, add one of life’s little incongruities and you have a perfect end to a perfect picture taking day in the gorgeous city of San Francisco.


Precarious perch. Panasonic LX-1, 28mm, 1/30, f/3.6, built-in flash, ISO 100

Because the shutter in the LX-1 is almost dead silent, I have the ‘clack’ sound switched on otherwise it’s hard to know when you have taken the picture on a noisy street. As is typical with modern cameras, there is no progressive resistance in the shutter release button to clue you in. No matter – you get used to what it takes after a few exposures. The wonderful shutter release ‘feel’ of the old rangefinder film Leica is just one more over-hyped piece of nonsense.

Needless to add, the built-in IS adds immeasurably to good definition in the original snaps and 54 RAW snaps on a 1gB SD card is just right for a day’s fun. Sure, you have to adjust for red color fringing and sharpening when processing, but as I can do that with a preset for automatic import into Lightroom, I have no problem with what I call the modern idiom of lens design – meaning poor lenses and great software.


Chinatown medley. Panasonic LX-1, RAW, ISO 100

All pictures taken on March 23, 2008, RAW, processed in Lightroom.