jlewis

<p>First off, thanks to all who contributed to this discussion. I went with the NEX-7 and am having a great time with it. <img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdx_photoman/8365725193/in/photostream/lightbox/" alt="" />I've been thinking about using an adapter for my Canon lenses, but given the fact that weight is such a big part of my decision to make a move, I'm going to trade them in and get some basic lenses for the Sony, trusting that the availability of E-lenses will catch up to the camera technology. </p>

<p>I don't post very often, but really need some help with this. I've been a Canon user for years and now have a 7d, eight lenses -- four zooms (two of them Ls), three primes, and a prime macro, and two speedlites. I recently had an accident, tore my rotator cuff, and at nearly age 70, have decided I need to lighten the load, particularly since I do a lot of hiking with my gear. <br /> I do landscape, street, and contemplative photography -- no sports action and only portrait work for friends -- so I don't see that I'm going to lose any functionality by moving from a DSLR. In fact, I may gain a few things, given the fat that I like to remain unobtrusive during much of my shooting. <br /> I am torn between the Sony NEX-7 and the Fuji X-Pro1 and am leaning toward the former due to its slightly lower bulk. My friends at Pro Photo Supply are directing me toward the Fuji line. I'm in a bit of a quandary here, because this is a long-term investment, and I would deeply appreciate any learned guidance from others on this forum.</p>

<p>Tom,<br>

I'm using Lightroom to generate galleries, and Microsoft Expression Web to create a standards compliant home page and several linked pages. I'm not delighted with it, but it is fairly flexible. I am not tryint to sell images online, and need to move into this. So I'm interested in the other responses we get here. </p>

<p>I am doing a photo shoot for an NGO in rural Tanzania in September. The purposes are to build their library of photos for donor presentations and print and web marketing and to create a photo book that they can use in their marketing and fundraising efforts. (This is a press book, not POD. We expect to have the actual print run sponsored.)<br>

I am donating my services, but will retain rights to all the images and may have some stock opportunities once the project is complete.<br>

I will be photographing a lot of villagers, including children--and we're talking about hundreds of images across more than a week on site. What concerns does this raise about model releases, etc.</p>

<p>Bruce,<br>

Thanks for the response. I think the real issue for me is that I need a notebook computer whose HDD capacity matches what I intend to use it for. 40GB doesn't get you very far these days. Then, the existing Wolverine and enough CF cards will provide double protection.<br>

Jim</p>

<p>Related question for a forthcoming trip to Tanzania. Has anyone used Lightroom on a small notebook computer with something like the Western Digital My Passport for backup? Have you ever used Lightroom to organize photos that exist on an external USB power drive?<br>

My goal here is to be able to organize the shoot and select the winners during my return flight from Dar, transfer the images and catalogue to my desktop machine for color correction, contrast adjustments, etc. and, when necessary, go into Photoshop for final edits, and get the project packaged for a website and book relatively quickly.<br>

I will be in very primitive conditions when outside of Dar. I have plenty of CF cards and a Wolverine for backup, but would like to use the two days back in Dar and the flight itself to separate final candidates from outtakes.</p>

<p>Related question for a forthcoming trip to Tanzania. Has anyone used Lightroom on a small notebook computer with something like the Western Digital My Passport for backup? Have you ever used Lightroom to organize photos that exist on an external USB power drive?<br>

My goal here is to be able to organize the shoot and select the winners during my return flight from Dar, transfer the images and catalogue to my desktop machine for color correction, contrast adjustments, etc. and, when necessary, go into Photoshop for final edits, and get the project packaged for a website and book relatively quickly.<br>

I will be in very primitive conditions when outside of Dar. I have plenty of CF cards and a Wolverine for backup, but would like to use the two days back in Dar and the flight itself to separate final candidates from outtakes.</p>

As someone suggested earlier, this is most likely too much cleaning fluid. I've done it myself.

At this time, Lightroom appears to be a single monitor application. It's on the suggestion list, along with ability to merge databases from separate computers.

I am looking at a used Sekonic Digilite F Light Meter L-328. Can

anyone tell me when it was introduced, when it was discontinued, and

give me any sense of what it should be worth? I have read some on-

line reviews, and it seems to be a great meter for measuring

incident light in studio settings. Correct? Thanks for any feedback.

Good friend Margie Boulé has the bit between her teeth on this story.

 

http://tinyurl.com/2qbrm

Roger, thanks for alerting everyone on this. I just signed in to post the same link. Incidentally, everyone, here's an easier way to get there:

http://tinyurl.com/3fv25

I back up all my unedited RAW images on CD-Rom. I back up master images as TIFFs separately.

Jerry,

 

I own both. For the price, you can't beat the FM actions.

 

Incidentally, I know exactly what's happened to you. You went to Fred's site to buy his stair interpolation action and fell in love with all the other toys you saw there. Don't look to me to talk you out of it. I did the same thing. (Try his digital Velvia. Nothing there you can't do on your own--it's an action, after all--but it's pretty nice.)

One more trick using the Duplicate Image techniques in Ian's tutorial that helps get around the fact that you can't use adjustment layers in 16-bit mode: you can write curves in an 8-bit copy of the image, save the curves, then apply them to the 16-bit image once you are satisfied with them. Since you can even do this in an adjustment layer on the 8-bit image, you can perform a good deal of experimentation without worrying about accidentally making a destructive change to your image. Once you apply the curves and save the 16-bit image, of course, the change is permanent (unless your 16-bit version is also a copy), but it's a handy trick.

I agree with Beau that Photoshop has all the tools you need to resize your image, but I want to suggest an alternative method of achieving it. Instead of performing your operation in one step, break it into a series of smaller steps. This method, called "Stair Interpolation", has been shown to permit increases in image size with less image degradation. In some tests, it produces better results than using a third-party solution.

 

Here's how to go about it:

 

Step #1 � Change printing resolution without changing actual pixels.

 

With your image open, go to Image|Image Size. Make sure that �Constrain Proportions" is checked and that �Resample Image� utilizes Bicubic interpolation. Ignore the Pixel Dimensions panel entirely. For Document Size, enter a Width of 100, and change the measurement box from inches (or whatever) to �Percent�. On the next line, leave Height unchanged. �Constrain Proportions� will automatically calculate this--very important if you are going to save this as an action. Enter your desired printing resolution: e.g., 240, 300, 360, etc.--and click OK. What you have done is to change your print resolution settings without actually affecting the pixels within the image. (This can be recorded as an action if you are going to do it frequently.)

 

Step #2 � Perform a Stair Interpolation.

 

Perform exactly the same steps as above, but instead of 100% under width, enter 110%. Press Okay. What you have done is to increase your image size by 10%. (This can be recorded as an action if you are going to do it frequently.)

 

Step #3 � Check the new dimensions of your image. If you need to resize, repeat Step #2. Do this as many times as you need to get ALMOST to your final desired output. (If you commonly resize images by a given number of stairs, you can copy the action you made under #2 the required number of times, producing one action that takes all the stairs in progression.)

 

Step #4 � When almost at your final desired dimension, either perform one last resize or do your final reinterpolation through the crop tool, setting the final desired dimensions in the dialogue box. Be careful to leave your resolution where you set it in step #1. Either way, you can make this part of the master action you created in Step #3.

 

The resulting image takes a bit more time than resizing in one massive operation, but I think you'll find the results worth it.

 

Good luck!

Walter,

 

I think there are two things to worry about: (1) the display size of your image and (2) the file size. Worry about #1 first, using image, resize to get the image the size you want it on the viewer's screen (1 " equal 72 pixels.) Save this as a TIFF file under a new name. (Every time you open and resave a JPEG file, you lose detail due to JPEG compression, so use it only as the last step.)

 

Now open Save For Web, reassign the file type as JPEG in the righthand box, and follow the instructions the others have given you. My guess is that your image may come in well under the 150 kb you specified, but if not, you can reduce the quality using the sliders until you get the file size you need (it displays at the bottom on the work area.)

 

Jim Lewis

For Melanie, 501©3 is the tax-exempt status of a non-profit organization. Since consulting to organizations in this field is my business, I'm available if the site wants to do that ... though I don't see why it would be necessary. I have no objection to someone owning this. As for other contributions, I could help manage editorial and edit, something with which I'm familiar. A couple of hours a week during this period would be about it, however.