dave_powell2

Interesting test Andy! I second Doug's suggestion about shooting at a smaller aperture than was used to set the DOF...for extra insurance. As your tests show, hyperfocal focusing is a way to produce "acceptible sharpness" throughout a selected DOF, at a normal print-viewing distance. It doesn't magically make everything "tack-sharp" throughout the DOF!

Sincerely,

Dave

A couple decades ago, AAA magazine published a trip that my wife and I took. It could be a nice piece of your itinerary. It was basically a 1000-mile circuit around the "four-corners" area of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. It was quite lovely...including Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly ("Shay"), and Monument Valley. Here's one of the area's links:

http://www.fourcornerssw.com/

I also think one of the best decisions we made was to stay at Gouldings Lodge, which is right smack in the middle of Monument Valley. Nothing like waking up to sunrise over "the Mittens"! Here's the lodge's link:

http://www.gouldings.com/

Have a great time!

Sincerely,

Dave

Thanks, Mike, for the heads-up! I'll also mention that I had an equally positive and fast experience this week, when I create a photo book for Christmas gifting through www.mypublisher.com. It took just two hours to build a 20-page 7x5 paperback (double-sided on heavy glossy stock) containing about 60 images (with one showing through a cover cutout). And I received four lovely copies in the mail two days later...at a total cost of about $50. (They also do larger hardbound books (with cover cutouts), but I stuck with their $10 paperbacks for my first outing.)

Their website also contains links for purchasing additional copies, and for letting friends view one's books online...but my file hasn't yet been posted, due to heavy holiday traffic. Also, their site is still promising to ship books by Christmas, if they are created by 12/17.

Anyway, I thought I'd pass along a similar testimonial (from someone who isn't involved with the supplier).

Next year...Calendars!

Sincerely,

Dave

I think you need this vehicle!:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00J9Gl&unified_p=1

Dave

Nice...So many interesting ways to capture images!

Perhaps the Medium Format forum would also like to see this.

Dave

And some Boston-area photographers I have met claim a slightly different type of "devaluation"...a growing perception among potential buyers of prints that anyone who owns a digital camera can make the same kinds of images on their own. "So why buy someone else's print?"

This argues (in a way) for even more expert manipulation...to make images that are so jaw-droppingly unique and unusual that even other pros ask "How the heck was that done?"

Two people I know (who had specialized in "straight" prints of landscapes and flower/bird closeups) said that this perception has moved the bulk of their sales activity to small prints and note cards at craft fairs.

Just another angle, for what it's worth...

Sincerely,

Dave

Elements does support Layers and some types of masks. It doesn't, however, have native support for Curves or Color Channels...but plugins have been created to add these full-Photoshop features.

Another full-Photoshop function that Elements does not completely support is the processing of 16-bit files. This is extremely valuable when one is doing anything that alters colors or tones...and when upscaling images in size. Elements 2 does not support any 16-bit processing, while Elements 3 and up will work with a file that is already in 16-bit mode. So since I use Elements 3, I must first convert my camera's RAW files to 16-bit JPEGs using the Elements RAW window, or convert my camera's 8-bit JPEGs to 16-bit files in full Photoshop.

Still...has been said in many similar threads...Elements can handle perhaps 95% of most users' need! And (to return to the original question) I have used both versions 2 and 3 to create montages. There are many ways to use available Elements tools (including blurred edges and drop-shadows on images in separate layers). And a good way to start might be to just try to montage two images together!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Xavier,

I don't have an ME Super, so I can only suggest two "longshots" that have (on occasion) helped me with "locked up" cameras in the past. One would be to turn the camera on, remove any lens cap, and switch the shutter speed to Bulb and then back to another setting. The other would be to open up the camera back and try to turn the film sprocket wheel. On a few RARE occasions, these have unlocked stuck SLRs for me!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Chris,

Pico is right... Mirror lenses are very prone to temperature-induced expansion and contraction. And I can see the bluring results of going beyond infinity in my SLR viewfinder. So just focus as normal, and be happy!

(P.S. And don't try to hand-hold or even monopod these lenses... A tripod is pretty much mandatory!)

Sincerely,

Dave

Who knows, it might even be like a "fantastic plastic" "Weston" camera that I once found, which actually had lead blocks glued inside the body...to give it more "professional" heft!

Dave

Hi again, Lauren!

Just wanted to followup again that the books that I created and ordered through mypublisher.com two nights ago arrived this morning. They are great.

The confirmation email that I received also includes links for reoprdering a book and for sharing it online with friends. Unfortunately, I tried the latter and the link seems to be broken...but it may be working in the future, if that feature is of interest.

Just wanted to let you know, in case you were interested.

Sincerely,

Dave

Another great retro camera...I've always been intrigued by the "garage door" Anscoflex. And what a viewfinder! If it can do that with film of that age, well...

Thanks again, Gene. I second the call for a book...maybe through Focal Press or Amphoto!

Sincerely,

Dave

Dave Dube is correct, but it is definitely a point that escapes many people! One of my old astronomy professors ran afoul of it by opening, processing, and saving one of his night shots many, many times for a research paper he was preparing. When I visited him last spring (on my first return to Denison in 37 years) he showed me the result...which was nightmarish! JPEG artifacts had turned the night sky into a checkerboard, and you couldn't see any detail in the grainy, moonlit snow on the ground.

We then called up his original JPEG file, saved it as a TIFF working file, and I showed him how to reset the black, white, and midtone points in Photoshop (which is all then he really needed to do in the first place). And the difference was amazing...we could see the stars that he wanted to see in the sky, and could even see his own footsteps in the midnight snow.

I'm also glad that we saved the file as a TIFF, because he's continued to manipulate and save it for different publishing projects. Wonder what it looks like now!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Antonio,

It may be getting harder to sell prints at any level, partly due to digital. With their own digital cameras and inexpensive (but good) home printers, people believe that that can create the same great images that they are seeing in the galleries, on the web, and even filling the empty frames for sale in department stores. And in many cases, they can. This may be one reason why one sees an increasing number of highly "manipulated" images in print and on the web...the kind that often make even other pros ask "How'd they DO that?"

I recently asked a well-known local photographer here in town how business has been. He specializes in shooting very nice (but "straight") scenics and close-ups of flowers and birds. And he said "not good," for the reasons mentioned above. Thanks to the "I can do that too," aspect of digital, this photographer now sells mostly note cards (in book stores) and small prints (at craft fairs).

So it might also help if your images are also jaw-droppingly unusual and very obviously hard to replicate!

Sincerely,

Dave

Abd to add to Robert's exccellent advice, when you cock the shutter, so so smoothly and gently...not fast or forcibly!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Alan,

I forgot to mention that one of the absolute BEST single-element lenses that I've ever used was the front element that I removed from a badly damaged Vivitar zoom lens that I found at the dump. Removing the front element was pretty easy, and that piece of glass took very nice macros when mounted onto other lenses...images that also had no noticeable softness away from the center. I'll have to see how it does with portraits, when mounted on a longer lens.

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Fred,

Jean-Marc's suggestion about soaking it with distilled water reminded me that when I worked at Radio Shack, this was the very first thing that their repair people said to do IMMEDIATELY, if one dropped one's cell phone in water. And drying came next. But electronics corrode very fast (especially from salt and chlorine), and by this point, the potential benefits of thoroughly drenching the camera again probably won't outweigh the risk!

Good luck with it!

A friend gave me Tom Ang's Dorling Kindersley book about digital photography, which would fill the bill nicely! Here are a couple links to possibly the latest version of this book. (I'm not sure which one it is, since the covers have changed and the content descriptions are somewhat sketchy). But I think my friend bought mine at Borders:

http://us.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780756623555,00.html

http://us.dk.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780756603465,00.html

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Joe,

The idea of adapting an M42 lens to an Olympus OM body may not work without an optical element in the adapter. I believe that the lens-registration distance for the Olympus is greater than for M42 lenses (since the Olympus distance is almost as large as Nikon's).

So one of the M42 screwmount bodies already mentioned would be good. Also, you can use M42 lenses on Pentax K-mount bodies, if you obtain the almost-paper-thin screw-to-bayonet adapter ring from KEH, eBay, or from a better pro camera store. (I got mine at Hunts Photo and Video in Melrose, MA, about 2 years ago.)

The Pentax bayonet-mount bodies are newer and easier to find, and my MG's body actually seems a tad smaller than my Olympus OM-1's!

Hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Dave

There are two of them near me in Winchester, MA, and they use a large Fuji machine to output film and digital prints at up to 16x20 inches.

But the declining film market may be impacting them too. A year ago, the lab that I use charged $8 to develop and print a 24-exposure roll of C-41 print film. This year, it's up to $13 per roll. The store still has a small base of Leica users in town (mostly doctors and lawyers)...which may be helping!

Oh, and they also do image restoration and media-transfer services...anything to keep the cash flowing in!

Sincerely,

Dave

Another old antiquers trick that may work is to dab a little mayonaise on the sticker residue, let it sit for about 5 minutes, and then try to wipe it off. If you need to do it again...then go ahead.

This has worked quite well for me on everything from hardbound book covers to rubber, glass, plastic, metal, and wood. And it has never etched any surface that I've cleaned (though I wouldn't leave it on overnight).

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi again, Lauren!

A follow-up to yesterday's post. Last night, I used MyPublisher to create and order four gift copies of a 20-page, 7x5-inch paperback book (containing around 60 photos, with one photo/title showing through a cutout window in the front cover). My total was about $50 ($10 per book, plus about $10 for FedEx shipping).

Once I figured out how to use the interface to define each page's format, creating the book went quickly. You first drag all of the photos that you intend to use for the book into a bar across the top of the application screen. For each page, you then select how many photos you want on the page, and select a specific page layout from a drop-down list. You then drag photos down into the layout spots on the page. You can drag them back up to the bar, or from one page location to another (and the software does a good job of putting an image back up to the top bar if you drag another onto their spot). You don't have to use all of the page layout spots...but if you don't, when you go to finalize the book, the system will warn you that a "page is empty." Perhaps not the best wording, since only a spot on the page is empty! But you can press on anyway.

You can also enhance, crop, rotate, and move photos around within their layout locations. Another nice feature is that if you click on a photo (in page-creation mode) and a red line appears around it, the photo's resolution isn't optimum for the print job. That happened with two images that I had already cropped rather strongly. But "zooming out" of them very slightly made them only a little bit smaller on the page, and brought them back to an acceptable print resolution.

I encountered only two problems, but the company's 24x7 email Help link resolved one of them within 20 minutes. That problem occurred while I was ordering the finished book. That's also when you select a color/texture for the cover, and at the moment I picked a color, the application window closed. Their advice was to go to Start > Programs to restart it. And when it reopened, my book was back in the window...it wasn't lost.

The second problem was similar. Just after I entered my Billing Info, the application screen went white. And closing/reopening it didn't help...it was like the system was in some kind of loop that I couldn't break. But I did eventually break it by doing a Save As and saving my book file under a different name. THAT interrupted my first ordering session, and allowed me to start again with the "new" book.

Bottom line, though, was that I created and ordered four photo books in two hours, and they'll be delivered by Friday, printed on heavy 100-lb stock. I think the company's web page said that books ordered before 12/17 could be printed and shipped before Christmas.

Just wanted to share my experience with this particular tool! Though I'm not an Apple user, and can't compare the Apple product, I do agree wiith the Wall Street Journal's assessment of MyPublisher. It is fast and easy to use, though the page layouts offered may be a bit more limited than the Apple tools provide. But they were fine for my little job!

Sincerely,

Dave

I think I saw a question about this same photo in an earlier posting, and someone said that it was one of those cheap "plastic fantastic" cameras (like a Flash Diana). I can't make anything out either...just remembered that thread.

Dave