Digital Cameras

[John Boggiano]

Thanks, Ken,
Yes - it arrived on Friday. In the end, I chose the Canon G3. I have a natural tendency to ignore advice []

Been playing with it a bit and... what do you know - the sun is out!

All I need now is a PC to put the pics on! That should arrive tomorrow.

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: John Boggiano

Been playing with it a bit and... what do you know - the sun is out!

What find amazing using my digital camera, is how little light is required to take a picture.

Enjoy your new toy.
Regards Ken

Picture taken without flash!

 

[John Boggiano]

Ken,

You look so like Murray Walker in that shot!

Edit: Interesting, though (with regard to what we were saying about reds) - the red coat looks rather oversaturated, though I know the conditions are hardly ideal for a good shot.

Mind you, I AM looking at this in green! []

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: John Boggiano

Edit: Interesting, though (with regard to what we were saying about reds) - the red coat looks rather oversaturated, though I know the conditions are hardly ideal for a good shot.

John,
A shot of Cornbury House, in mixed lighting, the reds look well balanced to me, what do you think?
More pics on my site.

Regards
Ken

 

[John Boggiano]

Hmm...

I' ll reserve judgement until I can view it without this green wash over everything!

 

[Guest]

more pictures of Cornbury House and the cars in there at www.porschepictures.net

 

[John Boggiano]

Ken,

My computer has arrived and I' ve got it 95% set up.
The old hard drive is on its way to Kevin to have some files burned to CD.
I believe you have the same monitor (Dell flat screen 17" ) that I have, so a word of advice please...

The instruction manual (I never use those!) is buried somewhere under an enormous pile of Dell boxes, but the screen just needs the edge taking off the brightness. I can call up the brightness/contrast menu, but can' t find how to adjust it. I' ve tried the mouse wheel, plus and minus, cursor control keys...

The ' brightness' menu button on the monitor has a plus (or is it minus?) under it and the adjacent one has the other symbol, but how do you activate these? I presume you have to press and hold another button while you jab at these?

TIA

 

[Guest]

Press ' menu' scroll to ' brightness' AND PRESS MENU AGAIN - this activates the choice and you can then use the arrow keys to move the brightness level.

BTW - if you are planning to use this for digital photography you really DO NEED to calibrate your monitor - if you are interested I can let you have some info on this - let me know

 

[Guest]

Hi John,
I have deleted the pic of the adjustment buttons on my Dell as it' s not required any more. Unfortunately I have deleted your super new photo as well. Please post it again.

Apologies,
Ken[]

 

[John Boggiano]

Mad with power! []

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Admin

BTW - if you are planning to use this for digital photography you really DO NEED to calibrate your monitor - if you are interested I can let you have some info on this - let me know

Hi Jeff,
Sounds useful, then we can all look at the same colour balance on our pictures?

Is it very complicated to do, I' m not too clever at adjusting PCs

Ken

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Admin

<snip>
if you are planning to use this for digital photography you really DO NEED to calibrate your monitor - if you are interested I can let you have some info on this - let me know

Jeff, I would be interested in knowing how you calibrate your monitor.

If you don' t mind posting some info, perhaps you could send it direct rather than on the forum.

Bob

 

[John Boggiano]

and me!

 

[Guest]

OK, here goes with a potted summary of colour profiling (URLs at the end of this post point to better sources of info: both are Pro Photo sites but seem to tolerate enthusiastic amateurs!!)

All digital image devices convert colour in different ways; even though a camera and a monitor might use r.g.b 123,123,123 for particular colour, it will not necessarily show on the screen as the camera captured it. This is because the camera and the monitor (and the printer etc) use a different ' gamut' or colour space (being the range or scope of colours that can be captured/seen).

Some cameras let you choose a colour space. I use a Nikon D1X and can select sRGB or AdobeRGB; I use the latter (it gives richer colours) but always convert web pix back to sRGB (standard for browsers).

To display an image in the original colours it is necessary to map between the different gamuts of the devices - it is the colour profile that does this and can ensure that a colur seen on a monitor looks the same as the original.

I got a profile for my camera but it was such a minimal change that I dont use it (this seems to be the case with the D1X but it might be more relevant for other cameras). Note: with the D1X I can also adjsut white balance, tone and exposure (+/- 3 stops) after the picture is transferred to my PC.

The monitors are a different story (three of my seven are profiled and only these are used for digital imaging). The ' simplest' way to profile a monitor is to use the built-in Gamma Utility in Photoshop (unfortunatley almost all Pros use PS so it availabilty tends to be assumed - whilst its a great product for image manipulation, its too expensive -£500- just for profiling).

I use a hardware profiler called a Spyder - its a sort of spider shaped devcie that sits on the monitor (CRT or LCD) and plugs into a USB port; the software puts colour swatches on the screen and the device measures - from this it produces a good profile. It costs about £300.

There are some shareware profilers around but I have no experience of using them (search on Google or other search engine). There are also other visual methods using colour calibration charts (such as the MacBeth - this costs about £60 and needs only eyeballs after that). Instructions for manual calibration can be found at http://desktoppub.miningco.com/cs/visualmonitor/index.htm

The software with my Spyder also calibrates printers; this is done by printing a colour swatch and then scanning it back in for analysis - but then the scanner needs calibrating...

I don' t do much of my own colour printing - I prefer to email to a specialist lab because 1. I get good qulaity photo prints (not inkjet) and 2. they provide a profile.

So, where does that leave you? Just knowing that monitor profiling is necessary is a good start since you will no longer assume that the on-screen picture is correct or as it will print; if you are really serious you will need a hardware calibrator; otherwise you can use a MacBeth chart OR (cheapest of all) get some form of colour swatch (paint catalogue?), photgraph it then adjust your monitor to the closest match (obviously use as many colours as poss and read the advice in the above link).

For much more detailed advice you could try some of the Pro Camera Forums; both of the following will help enthusiastic amateurs (where I am, BTW):

http://www.nikondigital.org/discuss/ubbthreads.php

http://216.197.110.125/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

hope this is of some value - please let me knwo if there are any other questions that I might be able to answer

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jeff, I' ve used Adobe Gamma, Praxisoft WiziWYG and lcms to profile my monitor. These 3 software profilers haven' t, IMO, given a profile that I thought was very accurate.

So, I' ve been thinking of going the hardware route. What spyder and software do you use? Does the spyder result in a discernably better profile than the software utilities and Mk1 eyeball?

ColorVision have a CRT spyder and OptiCal available for 204 euros and a CRT/LCD spyder with OptiCal for 499 euros. At 140GBP the CRT version seems like good value. However, one review said that this system ' gets you at least 80% of the way to a well calibrated display' . Is that enough?

A colour managed workflow has been the bane of my life for months now and, while I can get prints and scans - flatbed and 35mm film scanner - to give a reasonable match to the monitor, it seems fairly pointless given the monitor doesn' t have a good profile.

Would appreciate your thoughts.

Regards

Bob
Nikonuserbutnotdigital...yet...

 

[Guest]

Bob
I have the (Pantone) Spyder with ColorVison (I think this is similar to OptiCal) for both CRT adn LCD; my workflow has improved considerably since profiling my monitors. Posts on various Pro disussion groups suggest that this is a good value solution - significant improvement needs a step chagne in cost (I' ve seen figures in excess of $5000 quoted...).
All my work is digital but my daughter (a professional photographer) uses only film; she scans only about 20% of her work but uses a profiled LCD and seems satisfied with the results.
hope this helps

 

[Guest]

John I see, that you have quickly aspired to becoming a four star Porsche Fanatic.
Congratulations !

Dare I ask how is the new DELL Computer shaping up. I always feel a little uneasy when I make a recommendation to someone. Hopefully you are as satisfied as I have been with mine.

A few more pics with you new digital camera would be appreciated, also your views on the choice of the Canon G3 ?

Regards,
Ken

 

[John Boggiano]

Ken,

The Dell is simply superb. The flat 17" screen is a joy. The PC is nice and quiet. I' ve just about got it all set up just as I like it, now. Very happy with the choice, you' ll be pleased to know. I

Camera-wise, it' s early days yet. It is, of course, certainly a huge step up over my original Kodak 215 camera. The Canon came with Photoshop, which has saved me the trouble of getting it! I' m using that to improve a lot of my early pics, which Kevin has kindly transfered to CD for me from my old hard-drive. If the weather improves, I might get some more 964 pics. Until then, here' s one of me at the Dell taken at this very moment by Paula!

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Admin
<snip>

my workflow has improved considerably since profiling my monitors.
<snip>

hope this helps

Well, I think you' ve convinced me to do something [] &nbspI am on several image related lists (scanner/Photoshop/colortheory/Nikon/DigitalSilver) and know the pros spend $ or £ at the level you quoted. I can' t justify spending that amount of money. Others say Adobe Gamma is fine.

I' m going to have one last session trying, with lcms, to get a decent profile. If that doesn' t work, I' ll get the ColorVision spyder and software.

Thanks for your comments.

Bob

 

[Guest]

Ken,
Until then, here' s one of me at the Dell taken at this very moment by Paula!

Ken,

You look so like Murray Walker in that shot!

Ha, but you are wearing his shirt !

Joking apart, pleased that you like your set up, I agee these new flat screens are superb.

Ken