Seeing more

iPad, Photographs

Moving to strength

It’s never a bad idea to look at more photographs. I get ideas and enjoyment and education in equal measure and the iPad is just one more handy viewing tool, and a very capable one.

Publishers of magazines are proving their usual slow selves in getting with it and some still don’t understand that only a fool will pay $5 an eIssue when an annual paper subscription can be had for 20% of the cost but patience is called for. After all, the magazine publishing business has never been inundated with grey matter, and things take time. I may love trees, but I’m not that dumb.

The Zinio app for the iPad is a work in progress but I have found the maker responsive to problem reports and the app keeps moving to strength. Their magazine inventory grows daily and includes lots of European and Asian content. It’s never bad to broaden one’s views.

Here are my current subscriptions, all geared to good photography with the exception of Macworld, which is focused on great software and lousy hardware which they love without exception (can you say ‘conflict of interest’?):

National Geographic speaks for itself, containing some of the best photography on the planet (any decade now expect them to release all their back issues for the iPad) and if you have never seen Arizona Highways you are in for a landscape photography treat. US Vogue seems unaware of the iPad’s existence (duh!), Harper’s Bazaar seems to think that subscription pricing is not called for (double duh!) and Vanity Fair, which really should know better, is in the same camp. Rolling Stone gets it and contains great photography not to mention the only credible investigative reporting in the US (can you say recent exposés of the evil that is Goldman Sucks and a dumb-as-a-brick US Army general?). It’s where Annie Leibovitz got her start and she seems to have done OK.

Check Zinio out – it’s worth it.

Lightroom 3 distortion correction

Photographs

Better and better.

I mentioned the addition of vertical and horizontal distortion corrections when first taking a look at some of the new features in Lightroom 3.

I have been using these quite a bit recently and find that my round tripping to Photoshop is greatly reduced (hooray!), limted to only the most dramatic distortion correction needs.

Here’s a case in point. Taking the original I had no choice in the matter – the cafeteria’s sign could only be shown against the skyscraper’s backdrop withsome serious tilting of the camera and as I couldn’t even get in line with the sign the whole thing is off kilter to boot. Anticipating that I would want to make some pretty serious corrections when processing, I zoomed to a wider than required lens focal length, as corrections will cut off much peripheral details.

To correct this I first rotated the image a few degrees clockwise so that the keystone distortion was evenly distributed. Then I simply used the Lens Corrections->Manual->Vertical slider, adjusting it to -35 degrees. LR3 shows you a handy grid to preclude having to guess when your verticals are really vertical. A quick tweak on the Clarity and Saturation sliders and I was done.

G1, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 320, kit lens at 25mm

It takes far less time to do than to describe and is a feature which adds significant value to Lightroom 3, especially if you do not want to spend the large amount asked by Adobe for Photoshop or, if like me, you dislike Photoshop with a passion. (Part of that emotion, I confess, is an admission of incompetence!) A related benefit is that your Lightroom catalog suffers no data bloat if you avoid the PS roundtrip, as all the correction settings are stored in a small sidecar file, unlike the TIFF or PSD monster that PS will foist on you when you save it back into your LR catalog.

Bankster lawyers

Photographs

Plotting their next coup.

How do I know these people are lawyers?

Because their clients do not deign to carry their own papers whereas lawyers still have to. Plus, they get to charge for it.

G1, 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 320, kit lens at 17mm.

Spotted commandeering the sidewalk in San Francisco’s business district the other day.

The Tadich Grill

Photographs

165 years and counting.

San Francisco is blessed with several traditional eating places in the financial district which date from the days when men were men, drank two large Bloody Marys for lunch and women were not welcome.

The standout is the Tadich Grill on California Street which remains standing at its original location despite an earthquake or two, the Great Depression and Jimmy Carter. If you can survive that lot your future is likely assured.

As you can see, the city has grown up around it but the Tadich Grill remains stubbornly unchanged.

G1, some messing with perspective and processing in LR3

A lucky break in traffic and a mysterious absence of parked cars allowed me to snap this yesterday on a simply glorious, sunny San Francisco morning.

The regulars would have it that the place is not what it once was. After all, women are now not only admitted, they are now served as courteously as men.

So what if the market went to hell in a hand basket yesterday? Like a real man I was manfully short, if you get my drift.