ImageTeach

Well it is that time again to pull the data, compile it into information and extract it for Knowledge. FritzImages Intelligence is a quick snapshot into the back office stuff going on behind the scence.  What is back office, well all those internet clicks are all being logged by Google, Yahoo, Alexia and Stat Counter for trends

No one collects who you are, you are transparent, but rather where you are from, what search engine do you use, are you a mac or Win user, what key words did you search on, how long are you viewing a page, which page….and on and on…me, I just think it’s neat that we have people from all over the world checking in to read up on camera gear and look at some Images.

The most interesting trend since Jan. 2010, (when this site stated), is that we have high mix of new visitors, that is a good thing…but a goal is to have those visitors stay a bit longer on the site, look around and make a comment or two…

Thanks to everyone, I hope this site information helps you in any capacity to improve your craft.

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I’ve been snookered in my attempts to find a decent, repeatable way to get my new 24mm to shoot some technically difficult shots by not having the ability to preset the lens up to take advange of hyperfocal distance. Prez laughs at this because all the ‘old school’ gear that he has, all have quite detailed and wonderful crafted scales on the aperture ring. But ever since NIKON guilded that ring to go to the G series(guilded) and incorporate electronics for automation … the capability has to be figured out another way for the shooter, who wants more than automation.. and wants to craft his/her images….

The setup,

Lense is 24mm @ f/16, near distance ~2 feet, far distance: infinity…formula results is to manually set lens focus at 4′….. (see below app screenshots)

The problem, there is no 4′ marking on lens…(the max marking on the feet scale is 2.5′) and there is no focus target available at the four foot length.

The Solution:

It dawned on me this weekend while coming across this problem again…..  This time when I checked my cameras scale, I noticed that the meter scale ended at 1 meter, (where as the foot scale ended at 2.5′). Knowing that a meter is ~3.3, I manually set my lens so that the 1 meter lined up, just to left of the lens scale marking. I took the shot and wallah, the Image was sharp from 2′ to infinity……

Just wanted to pass it along, I’ll be checking this out on some more over time and will also see if this idea is useful on other lenses……

As you can see from the information, if you can set your lens focus lenght at  4 feet @ f/16, you’ll be able to go to go for just about any near to far limit situation and have your Image sharp thouought, not wickedsharp…because you do loose some crispness relying on HFD…….

Nothing is more frustrating and time wasting than trying to recreate your software customizations once you have migrated your software to another computer after a fresh OS install.  In my case, both my Photo Mechanic preferences were highly customized for my workflow optimization and my PhotoShop Actions (really a fancy macro executions) were just very complicated.

Going off to Google land, ended up with a lot of funky feedback, so I then went direct to experts.

Photomechanic: ….. Thank you for contacting Camera Bits.

Export the Photo Mechanic settings to your computer. Open the Photo Mechanic Preferences and click on the Export button, then save the file to your local machine. Give the file any name that you will remember. Once the file has been saved, copy or move the preference file over to the new computer.

Import the preference file. Open Photo Mechanic’s Preferences on the new computer and click Import. Choose the file that you exported on the old machine and import the settings.

Well, that was easy enough ! The one area that will need your attention is to set your cache folder location and colorspace (ProPhoto-nothing else recommended as an alternative due to its hugh color space).

CS5

My resource for migrating CS4 ACTIONS to CS5 ACTIONS, was a concern to me.  To the rescue was a small how to video that Moose Peterson did on preparing your computer for CS5 migration.  It was another very simple tip and worked for me flawlessly.

Simple open up your PS4 Actions,

1) Highlight the Action Folder to Export

2) In the upper right hand corners are some small arrows that once you press will display a drop down list, Select Save Actions

3) Open up CS5, goto ACTIONS, and Load Actions.

Very simple…very easy….

I also read that you should keep a copy of  your Actions backup in case of a Hard Drive failure..So making the process above part of your backup routine might be something you’d want to consider.

Having just spent a week in the Lone Pine in the Owens Valley area of the Eastern Sierra does not make me a travel gear expert, but there are some definite things that I did learn that perhaps may be useful for your traveling plans to area during the spring.

Most of the time you will be walking close to your subjects, we visited Death Valley, Laws Museum, Alabama Hills, Town of Keeler, BristleCone @ INYO National Forest during the morning 3;30 am thru sunrise/sunset.

Ninety percent of what I shot was between 14 to 85 mm. I brought a 200mm V2 but it had very limited use..my favorite three lens were the 16mm (fish), 45mm pce and the 85mm.

For clothing you could go all morning and day with the clothing tips below, really hugh for me , was bringing the fingerless Black Diamond gloves and Outer Shell jacket and PANTS for (sand,cold,wind).

Do not leave behind your GPS, Iphone do not work for tracking , no or little service throughout the entire range of trip, (ATT has the worst coverage in CA). Let people know in advance that you will not be avoiding them because you can’t text 90% of the time.

You’ll need your GPS in Alabama hills because it is a maze of dirt roads and turnoffs. Keep track of your headings for setting up for startrails and the Big Dipper, Milky way.

If you have any questions or need any advise on some of the particulars of my stay, I would love to share or clarify, so feel free to leave a comment…..

Gear

1. Body – Nikon D3_
2. Lens
   1. Top Six Lens
      1. 14-24mm f/2,8g (ulta wide angle & startrails)
      2. 16mm (fish)-Alabama Hills oh my !
      3. 16-35mm f/4 V2 (walkabout Alabama hills)
      4. 45mm f/2.8 PCE (pano, startrails, sunrise, Whitney)
      5. 24-70mm (walkabout wide angle thru low telephoto)
      6. 85mm f/1/4 – cream machine – people & Whitney
   2. Wish I had
      1. 105mm f/2.8G – when you may need just a bit of extra length or 1:1 plants
      2. 70-200mm f/2.8 VR2 – you don’t really get to use anything above 100mm, but this can be used for 70-100 range
3. Accessories
   1. Tripod
   2. lens and sensor cleaning kit (mandatory)  ref: Sensor Cleaning
   3. MC-36 for startrails – learn how to use it.
   4. .6 & .9 ND soft grad
   5. C-POL
   6. Hoodman V3
   7. headlight/mag lite (startrails)
   8. GPS
4. Clothing
   1. low hiking boots
   2. smart wool sock & inner socks
   3. long sleeve first layer
   4. ExOfficio long sleeve shirt
   5. Mountain hardware convertible short/pants
   6. Head Hat, neck gator (OR)
   7. Gloves, mountain climber fingerless (Black diamond) and buy a light finger liner
   8. Outer Jacket shell -
   9. Outer Pants shell – dark gray – The best thing I brought – keeps sand, wind, cold out !
5. Back at the Hotel
   1. Laptop
   2. External Hard Drive
   3. Card Reader
   4. Mouse
   5. Chargers for NIKON batteries, laptop, iphone
   6. Ablution-teeth,hair,shave, ect

It is interesting to see what part of the world you come from.  For the most part, gear related information is the initial search/attraction, then perhaps the Images and other site information is a draw to return.  I would like to thank each of you for your support, visits, views and comments.  It is quite an undertaking, for you to keep returning and for my part to keep this Blog current and meaningful to the level that is moderately credible..

The ‘intelligence’ journey is primarily mine, as I learn more about all the aspects of this wonderful craft. Rick Sammon noted at Photoshop world, there are four levels of learning,

1. Unconscious Incompetence (We don’t know that we are not good)
2. Conscious Incompetence (We know we need help)
3. Conscious Competence (We know we are good)
4. Unconscious Competence (The level we all want to reach in the things we care passionately about).

I took the step back in late October ’09 to go to Step 2 by attending a Moose Peterson workshop in Maine.  I have not looked back.

The  backoffice passion that goes into this requires homework, study, reading, note-taking…my analogy is slither, crawl, walk, run, fly.  You need to learn and relearn the basics.  I missed the film days, the black and white, the manual focus, dof and I am sure that there are a good deal of folks out there who are also in this same position.

With Digital, you need to understand that you have a computer in your hands, and that it has the basics designed into it.  However this computer can only manage within its bandwidth, its tolerance for exposure error  aka ‘blinkies’  is high ( Humans see 11 stops of light, DSLR only 5), its inability to focus in low contrast is high, minuet movements cause Images to display shake and wobble, then there is color balance….the list goes on and on……

So why do it…Passion…..

When you can frame up that unique Image, that will take 1/60 second or less to shoot, and behind that moment, is hours of preparation, knowledge, travel and thoughtfulness, it is an exhilarating moment.  You have those chills, the oxygen seems richer, your environment greener, warmer , cooler.. you have witnessed a bit of unique time that you can now define as collected and to which you can share with others….then later on.. Image taking starts again, how to improve ?, did you learn from your errors ?, what did Prez say, what did Moose say, what do you think and see ?…and you keep thinking one day you will move past slithering to crawl….

On a similar thread, one of those Photoshop world magic moments, was when I was able to see Jay Maisel, display 10 minutes of daily Images of New York City taken over the last six months. Each one, simple but structured and lit wonderfully.  All the attendees for the evening (~600), sat quite as Jay punctuated his presentation with whimsical insight…. Moose writes about the event over at his blog.

What Moose doesn’t tell, is that his show followed Jays. His show was all recent Black and White Landscape Images of his ‘BackYard’.  The sweeping vistas, snow covered peaks, sky, clouds and environment had the 600 attendees mesmerized.  Moose did not talk about gear, process, soundtrack, stories..nope..he just let it Rip…the imagery was 10 minutes of wanderlust, you had chills, the oxygen seemed richer, he had witnessed so many special moments and was sharing  that passion…

Photo by Moose Peterson

I tagged along from the PSW convention center back to the hotel with Moose, his wife Sharon and his assistance Stephanie, to grab a quick late nite pizza slice.  There I was standing in line when another PSW attendee, (a mid-west High School Photography instructor) asked me if I saw the Moose show. After a little small talk about the evening, she confided that she could not help herself from going into tears while watching the Images from Moose’s presentation… You really can not explain, the visible passion thru Unconscious Competence, in B&W in ‘Simple-Clicks’……

As I work thru this site visitor information, you can see where others with similar interests are connected in this minuet but passionate PhotoCentric watering hole…….thanks once more for the visits !

I have been working at perfecting a process to take all those Images that have been uploaded and Ingested off-location (meaning away from my home base) and how to get them Ingested and Uploaded when on-location (meaning back at home).

This secret is trying to keep things simple, use the simplest software available, and have the simplest hardware. In all cases your software needs to be the same on both your off/on location computer, and your hard drive enclosures can benefit by having multiple connectivity capabilities to use as USB, firewire or Esata.  I will walk you thru the process, software, software settings and hardware

Here is the work Flow:

Off location:

1. Insert CF card (My preference: PhotoFast) into MacBook Pro with either USB, Firewire or Esata Express 34 Card Reader. (My preference Sonnet Esta 34)
2. Use Photo Mechanic software as your Ingest tool. Add field keyname metadata, setfile name to date of shoot,reset sequence to zero, set file location transfer and begin Ingest.
   1. Transfer files to MacBookPro HDD partitioned as ‘FritzImages1′ (My preference: MacBook Pro 17″, 2.8Ghz,6GB,500gb)
   2. Transfer files to External enclosure with HDD partitioned as ‘MBP Achieve’ (My preference: OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini, Quad Interface)
   3. This allows me to have two sets of my files for redundancy.
3. Erase & Reformat CF cards (in camera with D3s or Image Rescue 3 SW by Lexar)

On location

1. Use external enclosure (OWC mercury Elite) from step 2.2 above. Connect via Esata to MacPro
2. Use software program BackupList+ to identify files to transfer and upload.
   1. Upload files to 2 separate locations 3.1 & 3.2
3. Upload files to MacPro from external HDD partition “MBP Archive”
   1. Transfer files from external HDD partition MBP Archives to MacPro partitioned ‘FritzImages1′
      1. Note: 86 GB took 20 minutes using Firewire 800
   2. Transfer files from external HDD partition MBP Archives to External HDD 2xT2 Raid 0 partitioned MSTR Data
      1. Note: 86 GB  took 12 minutes using ESATA
4. This allows me to have two sets of files for redundancy
   1. 1 set of ‘working’ files on MP FritzImages
      1. This will be backed up later for redundancy as part of standard backup workflow
   2. 1 set of MSTR Files on External HDD using RAID 1
5. Erase files on external HDD MBP Archive

Okay, so there you have it…it has taken a while to nail down the process, software and hardware.  You should be able to follow this, or make modifications as you see fit.  The off location Ingest workflow is fairly straightforward and routine. The On location Ingest is made possible with the quad Mercury Elite, the FirmTek Card for the MacPro, the Newer Technology Raid-1, and the last piece which came together for me last night was the BackupList+ software.

All of the hardware was recommended by Llyod Chambers and the hardware can all be found at OWC.

And by the way all 3 1/2 HDD in this system are 2.0TB Hitachi Deskstar™ 7K2000

I have been meaning to post this. This table is DISTANCE based and is useful for getting your Hyper focal settings.  I am not sure where I came across it, it was another photographers web site as reference material.

Here is how you use it:

1. Double you distance of nearest object you want in focus,
2. Next on the left hand vertical side of the chart look up your lens length.
3. Then scan across horizontally to the right to select your ‘doubled distance’
4. Next look up vertically then put that f-stop setting into your camera.

very simple. (of coarse Prez, will tell you to just to just set it up by looking at your lens markings, but the markings went the way of the dodo bird, with these new digital lenses)

.. I’m going to give this a go..and post some pics later.

Other alternatives and discussions on Hyperfocal on this site

Here is a large file without any markings:

The Basics of any HDD work flow should be a)partition system files from work files 2) 3 way redundancy. either by clone, synch or archive:

1. Clone = exact copy of Host Drive, I’ll use this on my system files & work files, example #3; s/w Carbon copy clone
2. Synch=two way match of Host and Remote Drive, I’ll use this on my ‘working photos’; example #2; s/w Chronosynch
3. Archive=Historic backup of Host, this is were time machine shines, I’ll TM my system & work files;example #4 (I’ve had issue with TM and don’t trust with Photos):s/w Apple
4. Clone=exact copy of Host Drive, I store MSTR of all photos (untouched) and have RAID 1 setup; Hardware solution; G-Safe*,

The piece that continues to be been missing in my work flow is Offsite Storage in red above. , because I don’t have a solution I Mirror RAID 1 #5/#6

I recently tried a relatively new service for MAC users at BackBlaze.com

After grabbing a user name and password, my 15 day trial began,  the upload speed is very very slow and in my case 2Tb of Photos calculated out to be an upload time of 365 days !

So this is not an option for me, so I’m still looking for that off site or on line storage.  My images just can’t fit in some paper folders ala Prez.

Mirror 1 RAID

Note on G-Safe:

Early this week, this 14 month old solution, had a system failure of one of its 1T HDD. Because the system was Raid1 mirrored and is hot swappable. No real issue with data loss. However, I’m intending to upgrade both drives to 2X2T. I was lucky that the other drive did not go down and because there was no three way redundancy, I would have been in trouble. I like Gsafes, out of the box solution. I have a few other of there storage systems, but I have had three returns in the past two years, so there reliability is not that good in my experience.  I would venture to building your own system for a lot less if your mechanically inclined. ref: Llyod Chambers.

Build your own

I decided that with 1/2 of my Mirror Raid1, hot swappable 1T out for repair at G-Technologies, that I just wasn’t comfortable with only one HDD holding all my photos for the last year with no backup so I purchased from OWC,

1. 2 X 2.0 TB Hitachi 7K2000 7200RPM SATA I/II HD with 32MB Cache and an
2. A special enclosure made by Newer Technology the Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 External eSATA/FireWire 800/400+USB 2.0 Dual Hard Drive Enclosure Kit. Supports 2 x SATA HDDs! Quad Interface, Oxford 936 SATA chipset.

The description gives it away, the enclosure will hold 2 X2T HDD and with a Quad interface anything can hook up to it !

The price tag for this setup is around $485 and a comparable GSafe is $700. The G-safe has removable hot swappable drives and a few more bells and whistles, but I’m looking for a lean system, and here it is.

The assembly was very easy, you are provided a nice instruction manual, and quick visual screen shots on how to initialize the system using your MAC disk utility application.

I decided to run the HDD with the e-sata port thru my MAc-Pro, and the speeds are great, considering that my write time is slowed due to the redundancy factory of the mirror drive.

The fan noise is louder than normal, but peering over to see the blue light steady state is reassuring that the data work flow is back on line !

I thought I would pass along a few tips over the next few weeks of small but important things that have caught my attention when talking or reading about the Pro’s in regard to their equipment tweaks.

On the outside some of these don’t seem that significant but as I have implemented them into my own Image taking, I know that they are worth consideration to benefit your work flow.

For instance, based on a Pro tip, a year ago I refitted my D3 with the Nikon Focusing Screen Type E .  I have never thought anything of how much I used it or the advantages that it has given me until when I received my D3s.  The standard D3d comes with the plain factory furnished screen, yuck, it just doesn’t cut in for my brand of photography. So it was the first D3s accessory that I ordered to get me back in a comfortable place.

The installation process is a bit touchy, and I recommend you wear a pair of latex gloves to  keep oils and dust from straying onto the screen while you hold and position the thin grid screen into place.

What this inexpensive screen ($34) does is give you a few grid lines (Horizontal & vertical) to assist in aligning the camera especial in hand holding situations, which is an excellent feature if you are shooting coastal shots and need a horizon line, or for posts when you need vertical reference, or for diagonal planes.  The grid lines do not ‘light-up’, they are there more for reference but the auto focus area still lights up your red focus point.

Keeping on the theme of proper alignment of your Image, I also use custom settings f4 to assign my function button to virtual horizon so I can reference within my viewfinder that status of my camera to parallel,

Then finally, for tripod situations I have programmed from the Setup menu the Virtual Horizon into MY Menu rank#2 or I use LiveView grids.  Why? When you have your camera mounted to the tripod, you can skip all the leveling if your  in a hurry, and when you press OK in your main menu and your rear display will give you a very cool, internal leveling graphic and it works great !

Why the fastidiousness with leveling ? Well, I really get upset with myself if I come back into the DD and see my shots off of alignment, it is a basic and simple thing to take care of in the field.  I remember reading that our hunter gather human eye have evolved with a very low tolerance for being off parallel.  Going into post and then when you start off using your alignment software it essentially crops something out to put something in, and you’d be surprised what you might loose in the process.  It’s just better to get it right the first time.