A random Weblog


Nikon D3s – RAW support?
November 30, 2009, 7:46 pm
Filed under: Photography, Technology | Tags: , , , , ,

So, um, like well you upgrade from a Nikon D3 to a D3s – going from one pro camera to another – and find you can’t open images in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, or Apple Aperture.

I know, I know, NEF / RAW support is coming – but jeez this is a pro camera, Nikon should work more closely with the software vendors to get these updates to market in sync with the body release.  Total FAIL…

UPDATE

Adobe does have a Beta of the next release of Camera Raw, and this will work with the D3S files (thanks Adobe!)  It’s a timed Beta so will expire, but no worries as the expiration date is likely no earlier than the release of a final version.  Hard to know when Apple will be ready though.

Of course if Nikon didn’t encrypt MY photos and used something like DNG, then this would not be a problem…

UPDATE 2 (Dec 18th 2009)

OK, Apple have now released an update so I can use Aperture again. Thank you…

UPDATE 3 (Dec 19th 2009)

Adobe’s update is out too – job’s done. Back in business.

From receiving the camera to full software support took three weeks. Probably not bad, but then again for a pro camera not good either.  Having sync’d releases (or a more open standard such as DNG) sure would help…

Others seem to have similar views

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/12/finally-digital-camera-raw-compatibility-update-2-7-for-mac/#more-372747



In reflection
November 15, 2009, 8:36 pm
Filed under: Media, Photography | Tags: , ,

BeforeAfter2

The idea was to photograph a series of pet-food packs. This seemed easy enough, but it wasn’t as simple as it might seem…

The plastic packs proved highly reflective (as seen on the left image), so a few tricks were required.  Firstly I used a polarizing filter over the lens, then I experimented with polarizing gel over the flashes.  This helped a lot, but the final tweak came via a simple trick – namely to take one photo, move the lights and take another.  The two images were then overlaid in Photoshop, and using selective masking I could paint over most of the reflections showing a non-highlighted part of the pack in the layer below (I left some reflections on purpose to communicate the surface feel)

So far so good…



You suck at Photoshop
January 6, 2008, 3:18 pm
Filed under: Photography | Tags: ,

With tongue firmly in cheek, this is fine comedy…

And here’s “lesson two” from this pixel genius.