Nik Software Upgrades Color Efex Pro
Posted on October 25, 2007 - Filed Under News, Photo | Leave a Comment
Nik Software has announced a new version of its Color Efex Pro software filter plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Color Efex Pro 3.0 includes new and updated photo enhancements and effects, features a redesigned interface, and integrates Nik’s U Point technology for applying filters to precisely selected areas of an image and adjusting filter opacity locally.
Other notable features in the new version include a filter list organized by photography styles, a resizable window for accommodating large monitor sizes, large before-and-after image previews, a Navigator Loupe, and the ability to save favorite filter sets. The software supports Photoshop’s layer masks, and is optimized for pressure-sensitive devices such as Wacom pen tablets.
Color Efex Pro 3.0 will be available in December 2007, in Windows and Mac versions. The $299.95 Complete Edition includes more than 50 filters. The $159.95 Select Edition and $99.95 Standard Edition offer the same tools and functions as the Complete Edition, but include fewer filters. To see a comparative list of filters included in each edition, go to Nik’s Web site. Registered users of Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 and earlier can upgrade at a discounted price. Customers who purchase Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 after October 18, 2007 will be able to upgrade to version 3.0 for free.
SanDisk cards recognized for speed, performance and versatility
Posted on October 25, 2007 - Filed Under Digital, Photo | Leave a Comment
SanDisk Corporation today announced that the SanDisk 16-gigabyte Extreme III CompactFlash card has won an Editor’s Choice Award from American Photo magazine. This is one of the photographic publishing industry’s most authoritative honors, with judging criteria based on quality and performance. The announcement was made during PhotoPlus 2007 International Conference & Expo, where SanDisk is exhibiting through Saturday in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
“Each year, the editors of American PHOTO select from hundreds of new products for photographers,
Camera Test: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS
Posted on October 25, 2007 - Filed Under Cameras, Photo, Reviews | Leave a Comment
Looking at Canon’s new 8.0 megapixel 10x (36-360mm f/2.8-4.3 35mm equivalent) optically stabilized zoom PowerShot SX100 IS (street: $299), one can’t help but recall the old Sure Shot Owl 35mm camera. Sure, the Owl was a fixed focal length film camera, but look at the silhouette. There’s certainly a powerful family resemblance in function and focus, even if the guts are now digital, the lens zooms, and that big owl-eye inspired viewfinder has been replaced by a biggish 2.5-inch, wide viewing angle, 172,000-dot LCD.
Like the Sure Shot Owl of yesteryear, the SX100 is first and foremost an easy to use camera with few bells and whistles. It doesn’t do party tricks. There’s no canned music piped into the obligatory slideshow playback mode. There are no in-camera Photoshop-style image adjustments: resize and redeye fix, sound memo, and some DPOF printer settings are the only “bells” on the playback side. You won’t get lost in submenus trying to review an image; this is a camera for people who primarily use their camera for making photos.
Software Review – Plug-In Exposure 2 From Alien Skin Software
Posted on October 24, 2007 - Filed Under Culture, Photo | Leave a Comment
Exposure 2 is the latest version of Alien Skin's stock simulator, and effects package. Exposure 2 is meant to allow digital photographers, and graphic artists to create images that mimic the look of film in their digital photos. It does this by emulating the grain, and color differences that different films produced.
Exposure 2 has over 300 presets that emulate the different characteristics of the different films. Some of the films include Kodachrome, Ektachrome, GAF 500, TRI-X, Illford, and even Polaroid films. It is installed as a plug-in, and will work with, Adobe Photoshop CS2 and greater, Photoshop Elements version 4 and greater, Fireworks CS3, and Corel Paintshop Pro version IX and greater. You will need a Pentium 4 processor with Windows XP or later, or a Mac using either a PowerPC, or Intel processor. You will also need a 1024×768 resolution monitor or greater.
Once installed, Exposure is listed on the filters menu with two options. One is for Black and White film and can be used on RGB, or Grayscale images. The other is for Color film and works on RGB images. Both can work with 8 or 16 bit/channel images. They can be used with Photoshop Actions to modify multiple images at once. They can function as a Smart Filter which means that you can apply them in a non-destructive manner on Smart Object Layers in Photoshop CS3.
As can be seen in the image at left, the interface is broken down in to several functional areas. On the left you have the set up area where, depending on the tab that you are on is where you will manipulate the settings. At the top of the left panel are the tabs. This is where you access the advanced controls for each filter. These include basic settings, color, tone, focus, and grain.
On the right, the main part of the screen is the analysis window. Here is where you see the effects to the image that your choices on left result in. On the top is the navigational thumbnail where you can maneuver what you want to display in the main window. You can also, as in the image above, split the window to see side by side what the effects are; there are a number of ways to split the screen.
You can totally customize your settings, use a formulated preset, or a combination of both. If you find one that you create useful, you can create a customized preset, and save it for later use. You can export, or email a user setting if you need to share.
Exposure has five tabs. The first is "Settings" and is the most basic of all of all. Here you choose a film style and it is applied to the preview. You can then stop there, and you will have the Alien Skins rendition of that type of film. It would appear that there are many hours of work that went into matching these film types, and as such, would be a perfectly good place to stop as well.
On the other hand, if you are like me, good enough is, well, never good enough. So the other tabs were made for people like me. The "Color" tab for color film covers color casts and saturation. You have a set of sliders that manipulate the overall intensity, filter density and saturation. For Black and White, this controls the conversion of color images to Black and White.
On the Black and White Film filter, you also have an Infrared Tab that controls special effects that simulate infrared film. This of course is only a close approximation, since there is no infrared information contained in your image.
The Tone Tab controls items like contrast, brightness, shadows, and highlights. There is a curve editor that displays how input brightness is converted to output brightness. You can manipulate the full spectrum with RGB, or you can manipulate a channel at a time.
The Focus Tab contains controls for sharpening and blurring an image. You control the amount, the radius, and threshold when sharpening, and the Opacity and radius when blurring.
The Grain Tab adds realistic grain to selected tonal ranges of your photo. Keep in mind that grain is not noise, and unlike noise, it appears in selected tonal ranges. It is not square like a pixel, and it has subtle color variations. In this tab, you can control shadows, midtones, highlights, roughness, color variation, push processing, and grain size.
I found that Exposure 2 is incredibly easy to use. It is amazing on how accurate; at least based on my memory of some of these films, is. I like the fact that you can save your own presets, as well share preset with others on the online forum where you can also get help from other users.
You might say, why would any one want to put grain, and other effects in to digital images in the first place? Obviously the easy answer is for artistic creativity, and that is a good one. Another is to match a portfolio. That is, you have some film that you have shot, and some digital. You are working a layout, and you want all of the images to appear similar. You can now simulate your film. Exposure 2 is a very mature product and as such, very easy to use. It provides the user with an almost limitless set of variations that one can use to create effects
Snap Art is available at the Alien Skin online store for $249.00 new, or $149.00 for an upgrade.
Canon SD870 IS Review at DP Review
Posted on October 24, 2007 - Filed Under Photo | Leave a Comment
DP Review has posted their review of the Canon SD870 IS and writes – ‘Like other cameras in this range what makes the SD870 IS so appealing – aside from the high quality design and construction – is the ‘point and shoot’ reliability, which produces good, sharp, well exposed results in a wide range of shooting conditions, something you simply can’t say about a lot of competitors. We were also very impressed with the lens; a wide lens usually results in a compromise between the really useful ability to ‘zoom out’ and a degree of chromatic aberration and corner softness that can dent image quality. Our tests and experiences of real-world shooting show very little evidence of these expected shortcomings, helping the 870 IS stand out from competing wideangle ultra compact cameras.’
Epson PictureMate Dash Review at CNET
Posted on October 23, 2007 - Filed Under Art, News, Photo | Leave a Comment
CNET have reviewed the Epson PictureMate Dash (also known as the PM 260) compact photo printer, which can produce a 10x15cm borderless lab-quality photo in just 37 seconds.
“As we played with the printer, we had really high hopes: It’s jam-packed with great features, it’s easy to use, and it blew away the $100 competition in CNET Labs’ speed test. But (and it’s a big but), the picture quality was very disappointing. If you’re after the most features in a snapshot printer, this is the one you should get–just go into it knowing you won’t get the best prints available.”
Website: CNET – Epson PictureMate Dash Review
Young photojournalists supported by Nikon
Posted on October 23, 2007 - Filed Under Digital | Leave a Comment
Young photojournalists supported by Nikon : From October 5-8, Nikon will sponsor 100 of the worlds most promising young photojournalists who will gather in rural upstate New York for the 20th annual Eddie Adams workshop, also known as “Barnstorm
Better Tomorrows for Rwanda
Posted on October 23, 2007 - Filed Under News, Photo | Leave a Comment
While traveling in Africa with then Newsweek Health Editor Geoffrey Cowley in February of 2006, Newsweek contract photographer Jonathan Torgovnik sat through what he described as the most horrifying interview of his entire career. The journalists met with Margaret, an HIV-positive survivor of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 who recounted the murder of her entire family and her brutal rape.
“We heard what she went through during the genocide and we were all in tears,” Torgovnik said. “She told us the consequences of what she was left with, 12 years after the genocide at the time — with HIV and a child. I thought to myself, wow, this is a crazy story, I wonder how many kids like this are in Rwanda.”
After learning that there were roughly 20,000 children of rape living in Rwanda, Torgovnik decided he needed to give a voice to these women and their offspring.
“I think they suffered the most of anyone that went through the genocide, because not only do they need to live with the memories of their families being slaughtered in front of them, but they went through the horrible humiliation of being raped many times,” Torgovnik said. “Sixty percent of the women I photographed so far are HIV positive from these rapes.”
How You Can Help
Donations to Foundation Rwanda, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, are tax deductible, and can change the life of a child forever. It costs only $150 to send a child to boarding school for one year, covering room, board, and educational fees. This may not sound like much, but many parents in Rwanda can’t afford to send their children to school. Visit www.foundationrwanda.org for more information or to make a tax-deductible donation.
After completing his assignment for Newsweek, Torgovnik returned to Rwanda and began photographing portraits of rape victims with their children throughout the country. Moved by Margaret’s story, Torgovnik also decided to interview and record the women and children he photographed, many of whom were telling their stories in great detail for the first time.
“They want their stories to be told, but not in Rwanda because they are ashamed of what happened and they don’t want their story to be exposed, but they want the world to know,” Torgovnik said. “I want to try and give a voice to these women and create more awareness about this.”
Torgovnik is collaborating with social workers from AVEGA and Survivors Fund, two NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that provide psychological support to the genocide survivors, to locate women willing to tell their story. He said he’s photographed 30 women so far and hopes to photograph a total of 50 before his project is complete.
Generally, the children of the rape victims Torgovnik has interviewed are not aware of the circumstances surrounding their births. Still, some community members ridicule these children, accusing them of being children of the enemy, but for their protection their mothers deny it, he said.
Many of the women he spoke to say they had wanted to commit suicide when they found out they were pregnant, and some had planned on killing their children when they were born but could not follow through with infanticide. Torgovnik said that most of the mothers feel ambivalent towards their children.
“They wake up every morning and see these children and it brings back the memories of the genocide,” Torgovnik said. “Most of the women I photographed were very very young when this happened; they were 14 and 15 years old. They were just little girls so the trauma is very much connected to these children.”
When asked what future they see for their children, Torgovnik said the women were never optimistic because they deal with extreme poverty. If they had the means, all the women said they’d pay for their children to go to school so they can eventually provide for themselves and have a chance at becoming successful.
Primary school in Rwanda is free up to 6th grade, but parents need to provide their uniforms and textbooks, which some are unable to do. Once a child reaches 12 years of age, the cost of a secondary education at a boarding school is about $150 per year, and none of the women Torgovnik spoke to are able to afford tuition. Moved by their dilemma, Torgovnik created Foundation Rwanda to raise the funds required to send these kids to school.
Not only would schooling be beneficial for the children, Torgovnik said it would also enable the women to possibly start a new life without spending all their time caring for the children they never planned to have in the first place.
As a result of some of Torgovnik’s early images being published in Stern magazine in Germany, the magazine’s readers donated over $130,000 dollars for the education initiative he started.
“I was really touched by how the public in Germany was responding,” he said. “It is essential that we try to put as many of these kids in secondary school this year before they fall out of the system.”
Because Torgovnik is a working photographer, he’s enlisted the help of others to organize fundraising efforts. Foundation Rwanda, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was created in response to the unexpected generosity of Stern readers. Foundation Rwanda plans to use the funds collected to pay for education fees for the next school year with donations to be given directly to the schools.
Although several European publications have already published some of Torgovnik’s portraits, they have not yet appeared in the United States. Torgovnik is currently working with New York City based MediaStorm, an online multimedia publication, on producing a multimedia project featuring his portraits and interviews from Rwanda in addition to video captured by a colleague on a recent visit.
MediaStorm founder Brian Storm, the project’s executive producer, said Torgovnik’s project should be used as a model for similar projects.
“There are a hundred stories like that that we need to execute as a profession in this way, to get people to act, to care, to understand,” he said.
Storm said that Torgovnik has played a vital role in the production process.
“He’s probably the most organized photographer that I’ve worked with, just in terms of being very clear about his vision for what the project is, and also having his assets organized in a way that makes sense,” Storm said. “There’s a very clear presentation layer that’s going to evolve out of this project. He’s got a very strong vision about what he wants this to be. His vision and his input have been critical all along the way and that will continue until it’s done.”
Storm isn’t the only one recognizing Torgovnik’s skill and hard work. The photographer recently received recognition by Getty Images, in the form of a $20,000 grant to continue working on his project in Rwanda. He’s also in the running for the National Portrait Gallery (UK) Photographic Portrait Prize. The winner of the £12,000 award will be announced on November 6.
Storm said Torgovnik’s ambition is what has led to what can only be described as a successful outcome from his work in Rwanda.
“Here’s a guy who basically went off, believed in his own ability to use his skills as a photographer to create awareness and to create change, and he did it,” Storm said. “That’s the pinnacle of what a photographer can do with their skills, and Jonathan’s done it.”
Torgovnik will return to Rwanda in December to continue photographing and interviewing rape victims. After completing his project, he hopes to publish a book, feature images and multimedia in a traveling exhibition, and publish images in publications in the United States and abroad. Torgovnik has partnered with Amnesty International to develop education guides featuring his images and testimonies from the rape victims he interviewed. He also hopes to arrange panel discussions and lectures to help raise awareness for Foundation Rwanda.
Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3 Review at Lets Go Digital
Posted on October 22, 2007 - Filed Under Digital, Ratings, Reviews, Tips | Leave a Comment
Lets Go Digital reviews the Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3 and writes – ‘For myself I must say that I enjoyed using the Panasonic Lumix TZ3 in practice. The improvements compared with its predecessor are obvious. The most striking feature being the 28mm wide angle of course. The compact size, the MEGA O.I.S. image stabilizer and the large optical range together form an ideal combination for this camera carrying the title of Traveler Zoom. The Panasonic TZ3 offers a lot of ease and adds to effortless picture taking which is just what you expect and want from a handy compact camera. The camera is not perfect; the high ISO is still an obstacle for many manufactures and Panasonic is one of them. But in general there are so many plusses that the high ISO may be considered a minor detail. The Panasonic Lumix TZ3 is a winner among the Megazoom cameras and obviously entitled to carry the name of Traveler Zoom! ‘
Lens Test: Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 EF-S IS USM
Posted on October 21, 2007 - Filed Under Cameras, Photo, Reviews | Leave a Comment
This digital-only, 27-88mm equivalent ($1,000, street) is a pro-caliber upgrade of Canon’s popular 17-85mm amateur Image Stabilizer lens ($515, street). It has the hallmarks of Canon’s professional, full-frame L-series (solid construction, aspheric elements, UD glass). But it couldn’t be labeled “L” because it won’t work on all EOS bodies.
HANDS ON: About an inch longer and half a pound heavier than comparable Sigma and Tamron high-speed digital-only zooms, it has a solid feel, with smooth-turning zoom and focusing rings. AF action is fast, accurate, and — thanks to the Ultrasonic Motor — almost silent.
IN THE LAB: SQF tests found Excellent sharpness and contrast at all tested focal lengths. Our DxO Analyzer 2.0 tests uncovered Slight barrel distortion at 17mm (0.29%), and Slight pincushion distortion at 35mm (0.22%) and 55mm (0.21%). This is equal to or better than the comparable Nikon, Sigma, and Tamron f/2.8 lenses, and a dramatic improvement over Canon’s amateur 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS lens.
Light falloff left the corners by f/5.6 at 17mm and by f/4 at 35mm and 55mm — again a step above Canon’s 17-85mm IS. Magnifying power was okay, with maximum magnification ratios at the uniform close-focusing distance of 13 inches ranging from 1:14.3 at 17mm to 1:5 at 55mm. Lab tests of the IS system based on DxO blur factor readings for exposures made at 55mm by three different shooters showed between 1 and 3 stops of extra handheld sharpness when IS is engaged. Sounds low, but it’s not surprising since IS shows its most dramatic gains at long focal lengths.
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