I recently discovered that Nikon now has a software product called View NX. It appears they added this product in October, and in my opinion it fills a major gap in the consumer level RAW workflow. At least for Nikon shooters. If you shoot RAW the most painful part of the workflow is the conversion from RAW to some other format. And if you have to adjust anything - say, white balance - it can become really painful. If you use Photoshop Elements, it becomes really daunting because you have to view and edit each image, one by one. There may be some short cuts, but they only lessen the pain a little.
Enter ViewNX. It is a RAW viewer and a companion product to CaptureNX. Best of all, it is a free download from Nikon's site. They have a Mac and PC version. (I just checked the new version of their site and it is not easy to find the download now, so you need the link above.) ViewNX lets you view your .NEF files in thumbnail format. It has basic controls that let you adjust white-balance and exposure compensation while viewing the thumbnail, or you can launch a utility to do some fine tuning.
What makes this so great is that you can see all of your .NEF files at once and make basic compensations right there. You can select more than one image, make an adjustment and it is applied to all selected. Then, when you are satisfied with your files, you can select multiple files and convert them to .jpg or .tiff format. That's right, you can batch process your RAW files and you don't have to spend a dime to do it.
Now this product won't compete with Lightroom and the likes. But it beats the other free RAW processors that I've run across hands down and definitely a time saver for any basic Nikon workflow.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
About My Hawk Photos
NOTE: I thought I'd cover some of my favorite hawk photos and how I got the shots. This first one is not the earliest encounter, but it was the first in a series I've gotten in the same section of woods in a Columbus MetroPark.
I ran across this hawk while I was walking a trail in a nearby MetroPark. I saw movement across the trail ahead of me and immediately realized it was a hawk. I could tell it was carrying something. The most amazing thing was that it landed on a branch nearby, hardly taking any notice of me at all! I had to move a bit to get a decent view of him and while I was carefully moving over, he ate his lunch, probably a garter snake.
Since he was sitting still and so close by, I decided to try to get my flash out, and grab a few shots with some decent lighting. Before I could really get set up though, he had taken off to another location that was still visible to me. While I kept an eye on him, I finished setting up my lighting gear. I had my Vivitar 285HV on a light stand, triggered by my "eBay" slaves. The hawk's new location was atop a thin, dead tree at the bottom of a ravine. I made a fairly easy decent halfway down the hillside to a location that was somewhat shielded by trees. I set the light stand against a tree and aimed it at the hawk.
The day was overcast enough that the flash did make a difference. I fired a few shots from this location and then decided to venture further down the ravine. The Red-Tailed Hawk kept an eye on me, but didn't seem to mind my presence too much. I probably had a good fifteen minutes of shooting, moving further down, shooting some more. Finally I decided that if I was going to get a better shot, I was going to have to go back up the hill to get my light stand and move it closer, back down the hill. I did just that and even managed to get a few more shots before the hawk took off for a remote section of the woods.
You can see more of my hawk photos at PatterPhotography.com
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Monstrosity Discovered in Granville
The small-town community of Granville is aghast at the discovery of a two-headed man living amongst them. One unnamed source said, "We're in shock. He seemed like a normal sort of guy. I'm really not sure how we never noticed this before."
If you think this is a Photoshop trick, you are wrong (this time). It would be easy enough to accomplish this in Photoshop, but this is one of those cases where the image can be created fairly easily in camera. So how did I do it? Click on the image - you can read the details on my Flickr page.
If you think this is a Photoshop trick, you are wrong (this time). It would be easy enough to accomplish this in Photoshop, but this is one of those cases where the image can be created fairly easily in camera. So how did I do it? Click on the image - you can read the details on my Flickr page.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Barn at Infirmary Mound Park
A couple of weekends back I went out shooting while my family relaxed around the house. With the bad weather that week, I was itching to get outside and shoot.
Naturally, the day before I had seen several Red-Tailed Hawks in various locations. So of course there were none to be seen that whole afternoon while I was out. My search ended up at Infirmary Mound park. I figured if I couldn't spot a hawk, at least I could hike at the park and get some shots of the ice.
What I ended up shooting (among other things) was this great old barn. You could tell it used to be painted red, but the weathered wood was showing through. And I was there as the sun was getting low on the horizon, so I had great light to work with.
The photo was just the type of shot I have been thinking about lately. I saw an article on a sort of pseudo HDR technique, so I gave it a try. I like the result and in the process I picked up several good Photoshop tips.
So how did I do it? Well, I found the link to the technique at David Ziser's DigitalProTalk blog. To read about this technique and the free plugin, follow the link to Enigma Studios. I will say that I expanded on the technique a bit to produce this image. Give it a try and don't be afraid to experiment!
Naturally, the day before I had seen several Red-Tailed Hawks in various locations. So of course there were none to be seen that whole afternoon while I was out. My search ended up at Infirmary Mound park. I figured if I couldn't spot a hawk, at least I could hike at the park and get some shots of the ice.
What I ended up shooting (among other things) was this great old barn. You could tell it used to be painted red, but the weathered wood was showing through. And I was there as the sun was getting low on the horizon, so I had great light to work with.
The photo was just the type of shot I have been thinking about lately. I saw an article on a sort of pseudo HDR technique, so I gave it a try. I like the result and in the process I picked up several good Photoshop tips.
So how did I do it? Well, I found the link to the technique at David Ziser's DigitalProTalk blog. To read about this technique and the free plugin, follow the link to Enigma Studios. I will say that I expanded on the technique a bit to produce this image. Give it a try and don't be afraid to experiment!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Macro Primer Pt II - Reversing a Lens
In my first article, I wrote about close up filters, an inexpensive way to get into macro photography. In this article, I will be talking about another way to "create" a macro lens. Depending on your situation, this may also be an inexpensive endeavor.
Let's say you just walked your old 50mm lens out to the curb for trash man to pick up. You used it with the old 35mm film camera, but maybe the mount is different than your DSLR or you switched camps and have no use for the old lens.
WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS?!?! YOU JUST THREW AWAY A FREE MACRO LENS! Get back out to the curb NOW!
That's right, if you have an old lens laying around, you don't have to pay another cent. The really great thing about this is that it doesn't matter what brand of lens you reverse. Canon, Nikon, whatever you have on hand
When I bought my Nikon, I thought my old lenses would fit the D50. Turns out most of my lenses are just a little too old. Too bad because I had quite a few. Then I discovered that if you have a lens and mount it to the camera backwards, voila, you have a macro lens.
There are two ways to use your lens backwards. One is an adapter that will let you mount the lens backwards on the camera. I've even seen a DIY adapter, though personally I would not use it since it is constructed of plastic and epoxy. Probably not a big deal, but the adapter will probably run you about $15 so DIY will not yield a big savings here.
The second method, which I use, requires two lenses. It turns out that the 80-200mm zoom lens that I had for my old Nikon F does fit the D50. It's not a fast lens and I probably wouldn't use it for much else anyway. I also have a 50mm f1.4 that does not fit my D50. Both lenses happen to take a 52mm filter, meaning the front of each lens is the same diameter.
To create my macro lens, I put the two lenses together, as shown in the picture below.
When I first read about this, I was eager to find out how well this would work, and I couldn't locate a macro coupler. So I improvised and used a piece of electrical tape to hold the lenses together. Since I consider this a dedicated macro lens, this works great. The original piece of tape is still holding the lenses in place a year later. I know I dismissed the DIY adapter a minute ago as risky, but really, the tape does work well.
If you want to find the macro couplers, check here.
What you need to know about this technique is that you have to be extremely close to your subject. Here is why: under normal circumstances, the lens element is designed to focus on the film plane. When you reverse the lens, that distance doesn't change - but instead of the film plane, your macro subject is in that location.
Another important fact, the faster the lens, the better. Unless you are going for a vignette effect, you want the reversed lens to be set to its widest aperture. Also, depth of field is extremely shallow with this technique.
In the previous article, I showed samples of how close you can get with the close up filters. As a reference, here are two shots from last time, and below that two shots with the reversed lens technique.
Obviously your results will vary, depending on what lenses are used to comprise your macro lens. Ready for some real world examples? Here are some critters who were cooperative enough to let me get close to them. For reference, the spider descending toward my face was approximately a quarter of an inch in diameter.
Click on the fly to see a high res version.
Let's say you just walked your old 50mm lens out to the curb for trash man to pick up. You used it with the old 35mm film camera, but maybe the mount is different than your DSLR or you switched camps and have no use for the old lens.
WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS?!?! YOU JUST THREW AWAY A FREE MACRO LENS! Get back out to the curb NOW!
That's right, if you have an old lens laying around, you don't have to pay another cent. The really great thing about this is that it doesn't matter what brand of lens you reverse. Canon, Nikon, whatever you have on hand
When I bought my Nikon, I thought my old lenses would fit the D50. Turns out most of my lenses are just a little too old. Too bad because I had quite a few. Then I discovered that if you have a lens and mount it to the camera backwards, voila, you have a macro lens.
There are two ways to use your lens backwards. One is an adapter that will let you mount the lens backwards on the camera. I've even seen a DIY adapter, though personally I would not use it since it is constructed of plastic and epoxy. Probably not a big deal, but the adapter will probably run you about $15 so DIY will not yield a big savings here.
The second method, which I use, requires two lenses. It turns out that the 80-200mm zoom lens that I had for my old Nikon F does fit the D50. It's not a fast lens and I probably wouldn't use it for much else anyway. I also have a 50mm f1.4 that does not fit my D50. Both lenses happen to take a 52mm filter, meaning the front of each lens is the same diameter.
To create my macro lens, I put the two lenses together, as shown in the picture below.
When I first read about this, I was eager to find out how well this would work, and I couldn't locate a macro coupler. So I improvised and used a piece of electrical tape to hold the lenses together. Since I consider this a dedicated macro lens, this works great. The original piece of tape is still holding the lenses in place a year later. I know I dismissed the DIY adapter a minute ago as risky, but really, the tape does work well.
If you want to find the macro couplers, check here.
What you need to know about this technique is that you have to be extremely close to your subject. Here is why: under normal circumstances, the lens element is designed to focus on the film plane. When you reverse the lens, that distance doesn't change - but instead of the film plane, your macro subject is in that location.
Another important fact, the faster the lens, the better. Unless you are going for a vignette effect, you want the reversed lens to be set to its widest aperture. Also, depth of field is extremely shallow with this technique.
In the previous article, I showed samples of how close you can get with the close up filters. As a reference, here are two shots from last time, and below that two shots with the reversed lens technique.
 300mm, no close up filter |  300mm, +7 close up |
 70mm zoom w/ 50 mm reversed |  200mm zoom w/ 50 mm reversed |
Obviously your results will vary, depending on what lenses are used to comprise your macro lens. Ready for some real world examples? Here are some critters who were cooperative enough to let me get close to them. For reference, the spider descending toward my face was approximately a quarter of an inch in diameter.
Click on the fly to see a high res version.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Drive By - Frosty Morning
This is a good example of why I carry my camera everywhere. It had rained an icy rain the night before and then turned to a very light snow in the morning. On my way to work, I noticed that the ice coated weeds now had snowflakes stuck to them. The sun was still rising, which gave me the really cool background to work with.
This particular field, by the way, has been a real treasure trove of photo ideas. I've stopped numerous times on my drive in to work. I've shot sunrises, the ubiquitous 'farm' tree, and various deer over the last few years from the edge of the road.
This particular field, by the way, has been a real treasure trove of photo ideas. I've stopped numerous times on my drive in to work. I've shot sunrises, the ubiquitous 'farm' tree, and various deer over the last few years from the edge of the road.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
What Does It Take to Create a Christmas Photo?
As we have in years past, we shot our own Christmas photo of the children to send out with our Christmas Cards. Here is the shot:
So you may be wondering, "What kind of fool would do this to himself?" Or perhaps you have had too much eggnog and instead are wondering, "What does it take to get a shot like that so close to Christmas with four over-excited children?" Well, let me just say that you are very well spoken given the eggnog factor. But the answer to the first question is 'ME'. To answer the second, I offer this little slide show of the 'rejected' photos. As an added bonus, I've included the alternate, second choice photo at the end of the show.
So you may be wondering, "What kind of fool would do this to himself?" Or perhaps you have had too much eggnog and instead are wondering, "What does it take to get a shot like that so close to Christmas with four over-excited children?" Well, let me just say that you are very well spoken given the eggnog factor. But the answer to the first question is 'ME'. To answer the second, I offer this little slide show of the 'rejected' photos. As an added bonus, I've included the alternate, second choice photo at the end of the show.
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