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Unchain your GIMP links

(Thursday, September 2nd, 2010)

02_gimp

This month, it’s time for a new round of GIMP links. Of course, the Linux-based photographers are the primary target of this list. But, remember that GIMP is also available as a valuable option for the money-sensitive user of Windows, too.

ACR 6.2 and LR 3.2 love Sony

(Tuesday, August 31st, 2010)

Lightroom v3.2Yes! Adobe loves Sony.

The final releases of DNG Converter 6.2, Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 includes RAW file conversion for the Sony Alpha 33, Alpha 55, Alpha 290, Alpha 390, NEX-5 and NEX-3. Those were included in the Release Candidate versions, but they become official/final now.

Of course, other cameras are also taken into account like the all new Canon EOS 60D, the Samsung NX10, the Panasonic Lumix LX5 and the Pentax 645D.

But Sony love is still very visible here.

Download the new Adobe files (updates).

Dave Mead

(Tuesday, August 31st, 2010)

Sometimes, the work of a photographer attracts my attention for reasons even more personal than usually. This is exactly the case here with the pictures of Dave Mead on facial hair. I loved it.

Copyright (C) Dave Mead

Copyright (C) Dave Mead

In May of 2009, photographer Dave Mead traveled to Anchorage, Alaska to photograph the contestants of the 2009 World Beard & Mustache Championships. On the day of the contest, over the course of eleven hours, Mead captured the portraits of 130 bearded/mustached subjects. This Summer, 54 of his portraits were on display at Chelsea Market in New York City. The exhibit, titled “Magnificent Specimens“, has since ended but prints can be purchased online by visiting http://davemead.bigcartel.com/.

Canon EOS 550D User Manual

(Sunday, August 29th, 2010)

I is often quite difficult to find the user manual of a good SLR camera like the Canon EOS 550D (aka Canon T2i or Kiss X4). This is the reason why I decided to share with you the result of my searches. You will become able to evaluate correctly the features of the this nice SLR camera, the Canon EOS 550D.

You can download them freely.

Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, there’s all

(Tuesday, August 24th, 2010)

After some little cleaning and tidying, here are the places where social communication is centered around YLovePhoto and its readers:

Small programs for big ISO

(Friday, August 20th, 2010)

Many French-speaking lovers of the Sony (ex-Minolta) photo cameras know about the excellent web site of Alpha Numérique which is providing a wealth of varied informations (often appearing in the link lists I publish monthly in relation with photo software programs).

Eiffel Tower, by night - Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

Eiffel Tower, by night – Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

Now, I would like to underline the quality of a full series of posts, published by Patrick Moll on Alpha Numérique, and dedicated to comparing as precisely as possible the various offers now on the market to develop and improve as much as possible the pictures that -sometimes- we must shoot using very high levels of ISO sensitivity (with the troubling levels of digital noise that come with big ISO levels).

The list of the software programs taken into account is quite respectable:

  • Image Data Converter 3
  • Lightroom 3 / Camera Raw 6
  • DxO Optics Pro 6
  • Aperture 3
  • Bibble Pro 5
  • Capture One Pro 5
  • ACDSee Pro 3
  • Silkypix 4
  • Lightzone 3
  • Raw Developer 1 (dcraw)

Not bad, eh!

Even if the comparisons done here are not only for Sony photo cameras, Patrick Moll applied its tests to a quite appreciable list of cameras too:

Even if you are not reading French, I highly recommend checking these (most of the posts are made of image comparisons using the yellow buttons to select the software program results you want to see). Even if you are equipped with Pentax, Canon or Nikon gear, the lessons you will draw from this are applicable on all the photo camera brands, concerning strengths and weaknesses of each of these software tools.

To understand the review process and the methodology, I would recommend the reading of (here, all in French):

With the tests, body by body, you will immediately recognize the excellent results of Lightroom 3/Camera Raw 6 (these two Adobe software programs share a single common RAW file management core). Just behind, comes DxO Optics Pro 6 which is a bit more violent (or more accentuation prone) and the (not famous enough) Bibble Pro 5.

From this point, you will always be able to get the best from the photos you were forced into shooting in poor lighting conditions which required big ISO figures.

Nikon Coolpix S1100pj with video projector

(Friday, August 20th, 2010)

The 2nd Nikon digital point-and-shoot photo camera with an integrated video-projector.


YouTube link

Infrared (IR) photograhy

(Tuesday, August 17th, 2010)

During the analog years of photography, it was possible to photograph pictures taken in the Infrared part of the light spectrum. Quite often, it led to a images that were simultaneously eerie looking (for the shift in colors) and slightly blurred by a reduced quality/resolution. It was only a matter of buying an IR filter and some IR-sensitive film. Then, you had to experiment.

Today, in the Digital Age of the Pixel, infrared photo became a little more difficult because, while the digital photo sensor is by nature very sensitive to infrared light, this is counteracted by filter removing this sensitivity (most sensors as so sensitive that they would produce bizarre-looking pictures if left untamed). Now, this is even more true for DSLR cameras which are nearly systematically closed to Infrared light (mostly, the only solution is a conversion involving replacing parts in the SLR camera and a lot of trial and error).

However, the images may be worth the effort if you look at some pictures produced by patient photographers.

Copyright (C) Charles Platt

Copyright (C) Charles Platt

Copyright (C) Joe Farace - All Rights Reserved

Copyright (C) Joe Farace - All Rights Reserved

ir_3-trees

ir_landscape

More amazing tree infrared pictures at http://surfwithberserk.com/infrared-trees.

Stages of a photographer

(Sunday, August 15th, 2010)

Found at RobertBenson.com, here is probably the best description of how a photographer evolves in time (from larva to beautiful butterfly, one would say). You may be any location on this evolution chart, but it’s good to recognize that you still have the possibility to move forward to the right of the graph.

photographer-graph-1024x858

Stages of a photographer

  • Knowledge
  • Quality of Photos
  • How good you think you are

Where are you located? Please, use the comments below.

Photograph a lightning

(Monday, August 9th, 2010)

During the warmest days of the Northern hemisphere, it is more pleasant to go and photograph the stars or even the storm coming at the end of a day too hot.

The PhotoArgus web site will tell you all about it: Lightning, a photography primer.

acb-lightning-cool

Flickr group for the friends of YLovePhoto

(Friday, August 6th, 2010)

Flickr logoI just started a small experimentation. For those of you who may be interested, I opened a Flickr group under the name of YLovePhoto. Instead of making a sort of closed beta test upon invitation only, I chose to open the doors widely. The operation may still be a bit imprecise during a few weeks (there is a learning curve here). So, don’t be too harsh.

In the future, it should ease the exchanges between the YLovePhoto readers in an environment that is very photo-friendly and open to picture sharing. All ideas will be welcome of course.

Since it seems that a relative majority of the readers here are French-speaking, the language of most people in the group will clearly be French. Try and use French, if you can. However, we will not complain if you have not a perfect grammar and French is not your mother language (French people are supposed to try and do better).

If you cannot speak/read/write French, as a courtesy to all people, let’s try to split different conversations for French and English (or other languages). If it is really needed, I may open another group later. Let me know.

The basic rule here will be: Let’s be polite to the others. YLovePhoto already exists both in French and in English.

Christian Del Rosario

(Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010)

It has been a long time since my last portfolio about a pure landscape photographer. When I found Christian Del Rosario, I immediately decided I wanted to give him a space here, because his pictures exploit light at its best. “An overcast sky is the friend of the landscape photographer” seems to be his motto.

IMG_6164 grandcanyon_attreostudio_christian del rosario

IMG_6089 grandcanyon_attreostudio_christian del rosario

Christian Del Rosario: Visit the many picture galleries of his web site.

A batch of Lightroom links

(Tuesday, July 27th, 2010)

In this fire storm of Lightroom special links, you will find a lot of articles coming from the excellent Digital Photography School web site whose tutorials are definitely on my best-of list.

New firmware for Canon 7D

(Friday, July 23rd, 2010)

Canon just announced the availability of a new firmware (v1.2.2) for the Canon EOS 7D.

Main features:

  • Fixes a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
  • Fixes the AF point-selection behavior of the C.Fn III-7 (Manual AF pt. selec. pattern) custom function when set to [1].
  • Fixes the AF point display for the viewfinder electronic level when shooting in the vertical position.
  • Corrects misspellings in the Spanish and Thai menus for applicable products.

Firmware Downloads from the Canon (Japan) web site: Canon EOS 7D firmware.

New firmware for Canon EOS 550D & EOS 1D Mark-IV

(Thursday, July 22nd, 2010)

Canon 5D Mark II Firmware Update from 1.0.6 to 1.0.7
Creative Commons License photo credit: eirikso

Canon launches two new firmwares (surprisingly, both hold the same version number v1.0.8, but they are really two different firmwares split at birth for two different cameras).

For the Canon EOS 1D Mk-IV, this is the correction of a bug around the aperture management in video mode.
For the Canon EOS 550D, menus have to be corrected/updated.

As usual, the downloads will take place from the Canon Japanese web site:

An iPhone for fashion photography

(Tuesday, July 13th, 2010)

After that, don’t tell me that the iPhone 3GS is not really a camera.


Vimeo link

Of course, the final photos have been edited in Photoshop afterwards, but isn’t it the case for all studio work?

Emyr Pugh

(Tuesday, July 6th, 2010)

Emyr Pugh is both linguist and photographer, an unusual association which visibly gives him a tight link to people he meets, all the more in Mongolia where he lives.

His web site, www.dogfen.com (‘dogfen’ is the Welsh word for ‘documentary’) is a window on Peoples and Humanity. Moreover, the great generosity of Emyr leads him to offer his pictures in very large format: Admire his web site in full screen; Image loading may be somewhat slow, but it’s well worth being a little patient.

Copyright (C) Emyr R. E. Pugh

Copyright (C) Emyr R. E. Pugh


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