mikemorrellNL

Another PP challenge (posted a bit late this week). There are no rules for how you PP this photo. Just use your imagination and your skills. Feel free to post your own PP challenge photo in the 'Digital Darkroom' forum. Next week or any other week. I won't be posting any new challenges over the Christmas/New Year period (Mike).

Thanks! And very reassuring. I have a small stock of (Canon) paper for my occasional prints. If 'auto' prints look OK, that's enough for me. If they don't, I try something else. Good to know that I don't need to worry too much about 'rendering intents.😊

@rodeo_joe1The only photos I (very occasionally) print are just 1-off birthday cards for friends. I print them in 'high quality' but the quality doesn't have to be that great. Usually, I just print photos using the default setting 'printer manages colors'. But I noticed that if I select "Photoshop manages colors' I can select from 8-10 printer profiles for my printer. TBH, I've never compared the results. Any opinion on which option you would recommend? The 'perceptual' rendering intent seems to be the best one for most purposes. Thanks, Mike

Good choice IMHO! From the interviews with professional photographers that I've watched/read over the years, they all say that their 'social skills' in developing and maintaining good personal relationships with their 'clients' and 'subjects' is at least as (if not more) important than any technical or creative skills they may have. Three additional thoughts: It's always been true that the most valuable 'marketing activity' for any organization is that done by satisfied clients. Recommendations through word of mouth (for example, your friend) have always been and are still important. These days, client recommendations via websites and social media are perhaps just as important. They build confidence for prospective clients. Some organizations (for example restaurants) have been accused of 'hacking' positive scores. But detailed, specific reviews are hard to hack. I don't know how your website is set up or whether this is appropriate but if you're unable/unwilling to add photos from this photoshoot to your portfolio, an alternative 'payoff' might be to ask your friend whether she might give you a (hopefully positive) recommendation on your website. Even anonymously. Something along the lines of 'I've worked with @TanV on a couple of (non-commercial) photoshoots and I've found that ..... What I like about @TanV's approach is ...'. What I like about the final selection of photos - that we made together - is ...' This photoshoot was for your friend's benefit (her photos). Would she (or someone she or you know) be prepared to act as a 'model' for photos that you would like to take for your portfolio? You could pay some expenses (since it's in your interests) and the 'model' should have the option of anonymity, if he/she so desires. Since a 2nd photoshoot would be at your initiative and in 'your interests', you would be in a stronger position to agree terms and conditions with any 'model'. FWIW, I recommend that - for any photoshoot - you (as the photographer) always make an initial limited selection of (post-processed) photos for further review with your client/subject. In this case my guess is 5-10. For weddings, etc. the selection might be much larger. Just as an amateur (voluntary) photographer, this is the way I've come to work. In my experience, an initial (limited selection) based on a 'photographer's eye' (with cropping, corrections. enhancements) helps clients/subjects make a final selection from a small number of (photographically 'good') alternatives. Sure, I have personal preferences and I sometimes express and justify these. But I'm happy for my my clients/subjects to make the final decisions in the knowledge that I can (photographically) 'stand by' all the photos in my initial selection. Just some thoughts. As a last point: Friendship is Friendship. Personal and unconditional and definitely not 'transaction-based'. And personal friendship has nothing to do with the 'business interests' of friends. Mixing these can harm the friendship. On the other hand, my personal experience is that friends help each other out (without compromising their personal values or integrity). So, without compromising your personal friendship, it doesn't seem to me to me to be an unreasonable request to ask "hey, we've just done a photoshoot together, would you - as a friend - just add a comment on my website?" Mike

Another PP challenge. There are no rules for how you PP this photo. Just use your imagination and your skills. Feel free to post your own PP challenge photo in the 'Digital Darkroom' forum. Next week or any other week. With temperatures now below freezing in NL, people are hoping that canals and small lakes will get enough ice to get their skates out. This (old) photo shows an improvised 'refreshment point' for skaters (and waiting parents) on a frozen canal. Traaditionally with Hot Chocolate and biscuits.

Like Dustin, I'd watched Ted Forbes's video (Nobody cares ...) years ago and I initially thought this one (Why no one needs..,) was the same one. Both indeed have YouTube channels stuffed with video's on 'how to take more awesome photo's'. I'd like to see a video on "Why no one cares about your YouTube video's' 😉

I have very little experience in 'close-up' photography as you describe it but IMHO a lot depends on a) the distance from which you need (or want to) take photos and b) the quality of the photos you want/need to take. A secondary factor is how often you want/need to take these kinds of photos. My very limited experience in 'close-up' photography has been divergent. You could (in principle) use a tele-lens to 'zoom in' on small details (small insects) but these photos would appear relatively 'flat' with no 'depth of field'. Pretty much all 'close-up' photographers use a macro lens (and or lens modifiers). Hard as it might sound, I suggest you take some time (via internet articles) to delve into the world of 'close-up' (macro) photography before making any fast decisions. I'm not a macro photographer so I can't give any real advice. Maybe you should post your question in the PN macro forum too. As far as I understand it, dedicated macro lenses give a better ( for example 1:1) representation of details than a 'general purpose lens'. As I understand it, the focal length of macro lenses are designed to photograph details from different distances to the subject. In general, 'short' macro lenses are cheaper than 'long' macro lenses. The Canon brand macro lenses are relatively expensive ($1000+). Thankfully, other Canon-compatible third-party brands are more affordable. Check out the Canon-compatible macro lenses from Tamron, Sigma and Tokina. The Tokina atx-i 100mm F2.8 FF MACRO PLUS is the cheapest I've found but has good reviews. I'd also suggest looking around (Adorama, ....) for used Canon-compatible macro lenses. My guess is that macro lenses are less subject to the (outdoor) 'wear and tear' of other lenses. It's also possible that photographers (like me) once bought macro-lenses and discovered that they seldom used them.

Totally agree that you can't copy Windows to a new machine. If you order a 'custom-configured' desktop, this will almost certainly come with a pre-installed version of Windows + the usual crud anyway. On the question of transferring programs, I just want to mention that there are Windows 'migration tools' available. On iMacs, migration tools are built in to MacOS. As far as I know, these kinds of tools are not built in to Windows. When I recently migrated from my 'old' W10 laptop to my new W10 one, I bought 'Laplink PC mover' on-line for about $50. Basically, just to 'automate' the migration via my WIFI rather than spending hours trying to transfer everything manually. I found that Laplink PC mover did a surprisingly good job of migrating not only my (selected) data files but also almost all of my software, accounts and preferences from my old PC to my new one. Sure, I had to log in again to some accounts on my new PC but I never had to re-install any programs. One of the benefits I found is that I could select which drives/folders on my old PC I wanted to move to which drives/folders on my new PC. I decided to move all my photos and video files out to an external SSD on my new PC. 'Laplink PC mover' also gave me a detailed report on the migration 'success'. 95% was successful but the report also flagged up any programs for which the migration had failed. This report made it much easier for me to decide whether I wanted to re-install any of the 'failed' migrations. In my case, these were all 'old' or seldom-used programs so I did no immediate re-installations. If I ever need them again, I can re-install them. There are of course alternatives to' Laplink PC mover'. I chose 'Laplink' primarily because it's a brand I recognised from many years ago and 'PC mover' had good reviews. This is just one more🙂 I consider my $50 well spent just in terms of the time saved. But also in terms of the 'migration reliability'. Just a couple of examples: Laplink PC mover transferred all my Office 365 programs (including all my Outlook e-mail accounts) and all my Adobe programs (including plug-ins). My Google and Hotmail accounts were also set up in my browser. Looking back, I'm still amazed about how how 'deep' the migration was and how easy it was! Based on my personal experience I would recommend looking into the benefits/costs of 'migration tools' vs. 'manual migration'. FWIW, I later upgraded from W10 to W11 and - although W11 took a bit of getting used to - I had no problems resulting from the W10 migration.

I don't know either camera but - out of interest - I looked up a couple of comparisons. Given their 5 year release date difference, the functional differences (apart from APC vs FF sensor) seem relatively small. One thing I note is that the form, ergonomics and sensor of the a7ii are much closer to your a7iv than the a6400. So you son might appreciate getting a functionally close and similar camera to yours (which he's used to) rather than the a6400 which looks and feels very different. Also, if you share lenses, the fact that both the a7ii and a7iv are FF may be important.

Whoa, @rodeo_joe1! At my age (68), I still still consider myself reasonably 'tech savvy' in a general way. But you're way ahead! I'd never heard of NVME/M2 until now. In fact, the whole idea that are different SSD technologies (including NVME/M2) was an eye-opener for me. Thanks for this! FWIW I think that your comments and suggestions about the pitfalls of upgrading C drives - especially w.r.t. SSD - are very informative. For me too.

FWIW, I bought a 2nd hand 6D way back in 2015 as a FF upgrade for my (at that time) trusty but getting definitely old 40D. That upgrade improved image quality and doubled image resolution. For the kinds of (amateur) photography that I do, the way I do it and that the ways that I publish any photos, I've had no complaints about the 6D since then. I've occasionally considered 'upgrading' to a 2nd hand 5D. Now the 5D mk IV. But whenever I've weighed up how an upgrade would add any real benefit to my photography or the quality of my (digitally published) photos, I've never seen many. Even an upgrade to the Canon 6D mk ii didn't seem to offer many real benefits. Looking back 10 years, I still consider the 6D a 'breakthrough' camera in making a FF digital camera available at consumer prices. FWIW, on any 'photoshoot' I always carry a spare battery and cards so power consumption has for me never been a real issue. I just switch batteries. It's also never been necessary but - just to be sure - I can usually recharge my first 'empty' battery while using my second battery. I completely accept that - depending on the types of photography that you (want to) do - the 6D is now an 'old camera' and that there are are - 10 years later - much better and more technologically advanced digital cameras available. But - as with all 'technological advancements' - I always ask myself: 'Would this new, improved tool fundamentally change my process or the quality of my photos?". Perhaps I should experiment more 🙂.

There's lots of stuff about the photo rights of photographers and 'models' on internet. Both in cases where photographers 'hire' and model and in cases where a 'model' hires a photographer. In NL, the law distinguishes between the 'portrait rights' of anyone portrayed in a photo and the "authorship rights" of anyone who creates a portrait (photo). Browsing a couple of articles, the law in the US seems to be similar in that: - the photographer always retains (image) copyrights; so no-one - even the 'model' - is legally permitted to publish or share images 'created by' a photographer without his/her permission - a 'model' can object to an image of her/himself being published to promote any product or service without her/his permission. But I agree with @samstevens: "...I would be thinking more about the friendship than my rights". I also agree with his suggestions for trying to 'summarize/clarify' your previous verbal agreement on paper or in an e-mail. To me, it sounds reasonable to ask your friend if she would consent to you publishing 4 previously selected photos that best illustrate your skills as a portrait photographer. This is a different purpose than she has. In an e-mail (or on paper), you could also - in a friendly way - point out that any of the 500 RAW photos should not be shared or published (with or without her post-processing in Lightroom) without your consent. Because - as the photographer, especially as a professional one - you need to be in control of the selection and quality of your photos that are used/published/distributed. Hopefully - as a friend who has gone the extra mile to produce photos that she likes - she will also understand and respect your 'professional photography interests'. I hope things turn out well and that you stay friends! Mike

The connection between PN and the Fiverr (and Creative Live) organizations is IMHO at best remote and unsurprisingly so. Fiverr is a global on-line marketplace that connects Freelancers with Businesses. It provides a lot of support to (potential) freelancers, including training videos. A year ago, Fiverr acquired Creative Live (including PN). Creative Live is an on-line Learning organization and it's easy to see how on-Line Learning would fit in well with Fiverr's on-line support to freelancers and businesses. How PN fits in with either organization's business portfolio or investment plans is at the moment hard (for me) to see. As @Sandy Vongries says, working with what we have now until something changes is certainly preferable to a shutdown and nothing.

As an ordinary PN member, I have no insight into the plans or status of the migration from the 'old' PN platform to the 'new' (Invision community) platform. My impression (as @Sandy Vongries has mentioned) is the migration is as yet incomplete. I would personally add that it's 'stalled'. It's a big concern that the initial frequent and responsive communication over the migration process has dried up over the past 6-8 weeks. I and other members have repeatedly attempted to contact @mjensen via PMs on PN with offers of (voluntary) support for the PN migration. As yet with no response. We are investigating other communication channels. The current status - as I see it - is that only Fiverr employees have 'Admin' privileges for configuring the Invision platform for PN. And they - for past 6-8 weeks - have had no time for this. No blame or recriminations from me. I completely understand how changing business priorities and opportunities affect the allocation of resources to projects. But some kind of communication - even if it's 'don't expect any enhancements for the next x months' would have been welcome. The 'normal' Invision community subscription model is that: - there is an administrative 'owner' (who signs off on the subscription and ensures that the bills are paid) - there are appointed community 'Admins' who set up and maintain the community on the 'Invision platform' - there are appointed 'moderators' who approve new members and keep the posted content within 'guidelines' On the PN 'Invision community' platform, only one or two Fiverr employees have Administrator privileges on PN. And they have no time to spend on completing the migration (=configuration) of PN to the Invision platform. That's the reason that I - and some other members - are doing all we can to gain 'Admin' privileges to PN. Not to make any radical changes but to make few tweaks that would improve the user experience of PN members. I firmly believe that PN member representatives should 'manage' the PN forum to a much higher degree that has been done up until now

I've been browsing some Invision community Admin boards (mainly at https://invisioncommunity.com/). As far as I can tell, the maximum resolution and file size for uploaded - or as attachment posted - photos in pixels is configurable (by Admins) on the Invision platform. There's even an option to set the upload resolution to 'unlimited'. These options obviously need to be in line with the amount of storage available (paid for) and with the community's purpose. As on all websites, a balance needs to struck between the 'image size' and the page load times. The Invision platform was IHMO never intended to provide a 'digital file archiving service'. Rather it supports photo sharing between members. So photo upload resolutions, file sizes - and yes even compression are normally tailored towards (digital) photo sharing between forum members. On any forum/website, photos are (responsively) resized to fit a display area on any device. I saw a comment on a forum that indicates that all photos go through 'resizing/compression' before being displayed. The level of compression is - again - configurable but is typically 25%-30%. But 0% )or 5% or 10%) is also possible although even with this setting, it seems that photos still go through the 'resizing/compression' process. It's possible that the 'compression process/algorithm' on the (standard) Invision platform causes problems. It's also IMHO probable that the current photo size upload limit (1600px long side, max. file size unknown) is not compatible with a further 'decompression ratio' of 25% - 30%. IMHO, the main problem for us members is not the Invision platform itself (which is highly configurable in terms of image size and quality) but the lack of Admin attention to these - and many more - platform configuration details. Basically, the PN migration to Invision, as @Sandy Vongries mentions, is still incomplete. I would personally add 'stalled'. I was enthusiastic about the initial communication - both on the 'old' and 'new' PN sites - about the frequency, honesty and responsiveness of communications by @mjensen. It's very disappointing that these have dried up during the past 6-8 weeks or so. I and other PN members have tried to PM Matt via PN to offer support for the migration. So far without response. FWIW, I don't blame Matt (Fiverr Team Lead - Digital Community Engagement Programs) personally. In all organizations, people get reassigned to other things as priorities change and new opportunities arise. But some kind of 'status update' by Matt or one of his Fiverr colleagues would be very welcome. Even if it's just 'don't count on any updates for the next x months'. So we're left with the situation that Matt and/or his team are the only 'Admins' for PN but have no time to act as Admins to complete the migration. Mike

Your specs look good. Essentially, I suspect that your choice of 'C-drive' SSD capacity depends on your file storage strategy. I'm very lazy so when I recently upgraded my Laptop, I moved all my 'document' files that used to be stored on my (physical) D (data )'hard drive' onto my new SSD C drive under a "D folder' . Photos took up the most space on my old D drive so I moved these out to an external SSD drive. If the bulk of your photos are on external drives, then almost all of your (SSD) C drive is available for programs. In that case, 256 GB should be plenty for now. But depending on your needs, I humbly suggest that (looking forward) you should perhaps be looking for 512 GB (perhaps expandable from 256 GB ) of built-in SSD storage rather than 256 GB. My previous 3-4 year old Laptop with 128 GB 'C drive' (SSD) capacity continually ran out of space to install programs. I now have a laptop which (according to internet) has 512 GB SSD. My C drive properties give the storage space as 1024 GB. Whatever, I still have more than enough SSD ('C') space to install (temporary) programs and data that I often use. I must admit that I can't be bothered to clean up unless necessary 🙂. Expanding RAM from 16 MB to 32 or even 64 MB is relatively easy because RAM doesn't store any long-term programs or data. I have no idea of how easy or difficult it is to expand an SSD 'C drive' containing installed programs and data. I hope that others can provide more advice. My gut feeling is that an SSD 'C-drive' with 512 GB capacity would give you more 'future-proof' space than 256 GB. Though 512 GB may be much more than you need now. It's just a fact that Windows and other programs continue to slurp up more disk space for installation and more processing power (especially RAM) to run efficiently. Personally, I try to buy hardware that will last me at least 4-5 years. FWIW, I do voluntary work to help (mostly elderly) people sort out computer problems. TBH for people with 8 (or 10 or 12) year-old computers, there's not a whole lot that I can do except to advise an 'upgrade'. With current web technologies, their performance is slow and they can't upgrade to newer versions of operating systems. In many cases their operating systems are no longer supported. So well done for deciding to upgrade! Mike

One thing to be aware of in PS Elements is that it includes ever more 'fun' effects in the 'Quick Edit' and 'Guided Edit' options. Also the Elements blurb and video's on Adobe.com seem to promote all the 'fun' 'effects' that users can applyBut don't let these put you off. You'll find most of the editing tools you'll probably work with in the "Expert Edit" option which looks pretty much like the Photoshop workspace and has most of the Photoshop tools you'll ever need. I wasn't too impressed by the 'tutorial videos' on the Adobe site so I Google 'Photoshop Elements' to find out whether there were better ones. I came across Steve Grisetti who has a playlist of 8 short YouTube videos that IHMO give a better impression of PS Elements than Adobe does. Here's the first one.

Having just watched the soccer match between the Netherlands and the USA, I feel that this photo might be appropriate for this week's challenge (from the Netherlands P.O.V.). Apologies for the low resolution. Mike

Good question! Unfortunately I have little experience in recovering film & chemical dependent photos. But I do have some experience in restoring damaged and color-distorted photos, including through water damage. IMHO photo-editing 'solutions' offer (to a greater or lesser extent} - cataloging/reviewing/rating/selection functions for numerous photos - editing one (for example in Photoshop) or more (for example in Lightroom) individual photos I completely agree with @paddler4 that your choice of photo-editing software depends mainly on a) what you you want to do and b) your budget Based on my (limited) experience on restoring digitized photos (exposure, levels, colors, spots, etc.), I suspect that your main priority will be to restore individual photos one at a time, including: - adjusting exposure/contrast in different areas of photos - correcting color balance and color casts in different areas of photos - removing spots & scratches Photoshop Elements is a relatively low-cost ($100) stand-alone program that provides both cataloging functions and most Photoshop functions (that amateur photographers would use). There are a number of good, cheaper programs than Photoshop Elements (at half the price) that provide pretty much the same functions. Gimp is a freeware program that is a good a good alternative for Photoshop. I tried it a couple of years ago but I found the user-interface a bit clunky. But it works. Personally, I decided a couple of years ago that I would pay a $10 subscription per month to always have the latest versions of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

I bow to @digitaldog on all things digital 🙂. You're right that AI components use up a lot of processing power. That's why I use them (as plug-in filters in Lightroom/Photoshop) sparingly! How much RAM does your Surface Pro have? I don't know much about hardware but my experience is: - my RAW files are 20-30 MB (JPEGS - with no resizing and at the highest quality - are about 50% of this) - I have a newish Laptop with an Intel i7 processor, 16MB RAM and 512 GB SSD, which is generally enough for my needs. My photos are on an external 2TB SSD - How much RAM is used doesn't only depend on Photo-editing but also on what other programs you use at the same time (Browser tabs, e-mail client, etc.) - When I run a photoshop AI plugin filter with Lightroom and Google Chrome with 12 tabs open, my 16 MB RAM is 80%-90% utilized; at 90% it looks like Windows 11 starts swapping stuff out to SSD to prevent 'overload'; if I close most of the open tabs in Chrome then RAM usage drops to 70% So, with larger files than I have, 16GB is IMHO the minimum RAM you'd need but 32 GB might be safer and future-proof. Expandability of RAM at a later date is also important.

Many thanks @PapaTango! My compliments for the content and tone of your e-mail! I'll PM you on the initiatives that I and at least 1 other member have taken taken to contact @matt_jensen. Not that they're in any way 'secret' or 'confidential' but - in principle - I don't believe that 'private messages' should be shared publicly. What I will share (from my own PM) is the following: - Invision community sites normally have an (administrative) 'owner' = someone who takes out a subscription to the Invision platform and ensures that subscription fees are paid - the (administrative) 'owner' normally appoints one or more forum 'administrators' who configure the Invision platform to meet both the owner's and members' requirements/wishes - Although PN has some experienced 'forum administrators' (for whom Invision is not rocket science), none are involved as administrator of PN - The forum administrators (or 'owner') normally appoint one or more forum 'moderators' Anybody who has ever managed a (necessary) 'platform migration' will know that: - each platform has its relative strengths and weaknesses - there's never a 'perfect fit', just the 'best fit' - there are features on the new platform that members enjoy and there are always features on the 'old platform' that members really miss on the 'new platform'; some members' wishes (based on the 'old PN') won't be possible on the standard Invision Platform unless some (expensive) customization is done My offer to Matt was to recruit (via myself) a couple of 'voluntary PN administrators' who could help out during the migration. Even if this only involves investigating member requests. As yet, I've had no response. Mike

I like everything about this photo: - interesting form of the spiral staircase (echoed by the shadow on the wall) - the dame goes for the 'mesh' shadow repeated on the walls and ceilings - the 'dark and moody' atmosphere - the warm, rich, brown/organe colors offset by contrasting blues - sense of looking 'upwards' towards the ceiling while wondering 'what does the staircase lead down to?' Opening the photo in a new tab (for me in Chrome) shows it against a black background which IMHO looks better. Set against black, you can really see how the edges in parts of the photo merge into the background. Congrats!

I have no general opinion on whether current 'mirrorless' cameras are better (or worse) than traditional DSLR's. I note that Canon's 2022 financial statement included the statement: "The camera market has largely bottomed out at its current size. Going forward, we expect the professional and advanced amateur segment to expand further and those products will because more highly developed. Accordingly, we expect the overall market to grow from now on. As for DSLR cameras, we will continue to supply products as long as there is demand”. My takeaway is that Canon will supply current DSLRs as long as there is still demand (= no further investment). So, at least for Canon (and I suspect most other suppliers) investments will be targeted towards 'mirrorless' technology. Personally, I'm pretty sure that there will come a time where DSLRs become outdated. In my lifetime, I'm sticking with DSLRs 🙂