New York Photography Blog

You have to love this OS. I turn the pc on and it says: the following file is missing or corrupt.

It doest show a file but a path to syst32.

You can attempt to repair by loading the original Os disk and pressing ‘r’ for repair.

Now that’s not a good way to start the day.

Typed on the wonderful iPhone.

Of course I don’t think I have a bootable HD but maybe I can find some way of booting.

Now as bad as this sounds. If the C drive was kaput I don’t think I’d lose any data. Stuff is backed up on drives as well as DVDs.

But to get it all working again. I know. Go out and start afresh with a mac book.

Maybe I’ll be smart this time.

The good news is that I have the original CDs for XP and for Vista and I have the netbook with a good wifi signal.

But it is annoying to lose your C drive.
I bought a great chess app for iPhone. I think I’ll play a game before figuring out what next step is.

At this point, with all peripherals removed, if I boot from original cd and select either repair or setup I get BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH with remark about protecting me by boy writing in an area with PAGE FAULT.

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Keeping in mind that most of my current system is built around peripherals:

six external drives (pc format) with data files; two printers; two scanners; large flat screen; external keyboard… -

Lightroom, Photoshop, Dreamweaver I own and can make a deal with Adobe, I think to get Mac versions.

My inclination is to go for a previous years tower with at least 4gb.  What processor to look for?

A reasonable price?

I think the tower has more expandability, internal bays, firewire/usb plugs etc.

Any advice – go for it.

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Now – more fun.  Remember I bought a little netbook about a year ago and I haven’t done much with it.  Yeah, you guessed it.  Just to give me some time to figure out which mac… I’ve hooked it up and most of the peripherals are working, printers, scanners and all but one of the external drives.  Now to download and install the programs I need, and I can at least get the orders out that I have to get to.  Really a crazy system… full-sized keyboard and large flatscreen monitor running off the netbook.

The thing doesn’t even have a built in CD / DVD.  That’s running off usb also.

Now can I / should I see if I can get the Dell laptop fixed?  Is it the hard drive… or something else?  Dunno.

DB

The best thing (for me) that came out of the hdr experiments, was the tonemapping tool in Photomatix.  I have created a monochrome preset that seems to work very well for converting raw images to b&w.  The shot above is an old one – done with the Rebel something or other in 2004.  If I were making corrections in Lightroom, there would be a bunch of gradients, and other techniques for dodge / burning areas.

This comes straight out of the tonemapping program.  Yes, you could then use it as a starting point and fine-tune this and that in Lightroom or Photoshop.  But essentially, the tonemapping (and I did two prints for customers today using it) gives this excellent control over both overall contrast and tonality, as well as “micro” areas of the image.

You can setup presets to give different effects depending on the source image and what you want to do with it.

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Original “flat” version “zeroed out”

Default Settings in Tonemap (Photomatix)

Let me try this again because I wasn’t clear about the whole workflow to do this shot.

1. In Lightroom, I have a preset.  It sets the curve to linear.  It zeros out all the attributes.  And it uses the calibration that I like, which is faithful.  This produces a very flat image.  Next to no contrast.  Nothing dropping off the edges of the histogram.

2. Then I created a preset for this type of input image in Tonemapping.  It brings up different areas at different contrast levels etc.  I call it Monochrome 1.  I have two other presets, one for images that are coming in too contrasty, and one for images that are just too flat.  But I am not fusing three images together, though the preset will work as well with them.  And I am not creating two virtual images.  It is one image.

The problem that I have with multiple images is that if anything is moving – tree branches, ducks, etc. the result is not pleasing to me, i.e. not the normal blur you get from using one image.  On the other hand – if the initial scene really is contrasty, and nothing much is moving, or your shutter speed is fast enough, then fine – combine them and then tonemap them.

Here are the tonemapping settings for this monochrome image.

I’m not saying that this will work for all images, or that I will always use it as is, but it is a good start for both my 5d raw images that I want to go to monochrome with, and my 40D and whatever the early Rebel was called.  The idea is to try and give the tonemapping program all the data you can.  You may be able to make all the changes you need with tonemapping, or it may be an intermediate step and you’ll import it back into Lightroom or Photoshop.  But the point is, it surprised me how well the program works for dealing with both flat, and high contrast images.  And of course – it’s another reason why you always want to shoot raw if you care about what you’re shooting.  It’s just that you never know what piece of software is in the pipeline, or how a new converter may be able to pull more detail from the highlights than your current one.

Anyway, I don’t mean to do a commercial for Photomatix.  I haven’t compared it with other programs as it works.  And you can download it and like most software try it for free.  Tonemapping is just one part of the program.  Obviously the main parts are for creating HDR images.

Okay, so here are the issues I’m trying to resolve with this idea:

1) Feedburner / Buzzboost points to a javascript file at feedburner.  I know that Wordpress.com sites can’t (or at least the last time I looked) include the javascript tag.  Is there a way around this?

2) If I do the Buzzboost as FULL HTML, and the embedded blog uses images that are too large for your blog – it will mess up your design.  One workaround is to offer a choice of two flavors of the blog to be embedded, FULL HTML (has pictures) and PLAIN HTML (which will have links and such but won’t have images).  The member can choose which one they want to use.

Now, if there is a way to resize images with CSS, and CSS can be included as part of the code, then that would prevent large images from messing up the other members’ blogs.

What about blogger.com  Can someone tell me if you can include javascript tag?

But basically that’s it.  I guess nothing is as simple as it seems once you get into it.

Also, there will have to be a limit on the number of members, otherwise our blogs will be featuring content from other members every day

HERE’S THE PAGE WITH THE “Society of PhotoBloggers” application form.

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TEST THE CODE IN YOUR PHOTOBLOG

also contains code for a Photoblogger Society Badge.

THE ORIGINAL POST

Here’s the idea. Apply to the YOUR PHOTOBLOG DAY group for admission. For now, you can just add your photoblog url, your site title, and your RSS feed as a comment to this post.

Imagine that one day you go browsing to your favorite photoblog and there’s a post which shows a few images from another photoblogger. You don’t think much of it, but later you go to another site and see the same images linking to photographer x. And before you know it, you find that wherever you go, photobloggers have linked to photographer x en masse. I think that would be cool, productive, and not that hard to organize.

ONE ISSUE I SEE is that not everyone’s BUZZBOOST (that’s how this is done) is going to fit into your site. Matt’s is an example that will blow your columns apart. However, BUZZBOOST will also supply a TEXT VERSION which shouldn’t hurt anything on your blog. So that’s really up to you. I’d rather have the html version with pictures etc. but if the photoblogger is using images that are too large to fit your site, you can use the TEXT version.

It works on the honor system, since I’m not going to check sites to see if you are doing this, but if you don’t, you’ll be kicked out.

Once accepted (and not everyone will be accepted since you don’t want to publicize junk) you’d be added to a mailing list and when it’s time for A MEMBER to have his moment in the sun, an email goes out with the Feedburner Code HTML code and you just post the html code into a new post, with the suggested post title.

You couldn’t have more than 365 members… and in fact I expect it would be maybe 50 members for a long time — but still to get a bump from 50 sites, all on the same day, I think that would be helpful and could only help your search engine rating.

Oh, and here’s an example in this blog of what a post might look like.  This is live, and will change as Matt Weber adds more images to his blog (really big images at that)

MATT WEBER PHOTOBLOGGER SOCIETY POST

DB

This is what it’s looked like outside my house for the last few months.  Second avenue and side streets around 83rd (where I live) have been torn up.  People have been kicked out of buildings (the one next to mine is going to be some sort of air ventilation system) and every day 83rd street is a different width.  You don’t care about that – I’ll be you’re wondering about the 5D.  But that camera has been around so long, and there’s nothing new I have to say about it other than that it’s interesting how it handles highlights.  I was worried because it didn’t have that Highlight Priority setting they put on the 40D but for some reason, the 5D does fine with highlights (as you can see with the sky) without it.

As far as handling goes, it feels just about exactly like the 40D but it doesn’t have the dedicated AF lock on the back (you have to assign it to the AE lock on the back).  And of course since it is full frame you get the feeling of wide angle with good lenses like the 28mm – used here.  I’ll be able to do shooting with it over the weekend.

The 5d and the 28 f1.8 are mine.  I just picked them up from my friend at Grand Central, and spent about a half hour shooting there at 1600 and f1.8.

Results of 1600 compared to 1600 on 40D – night and day.  1600 is 100% usable.  Will post pictures later.  On my way to do my usual duty – dropping off packages at Fedex.  I’m very happy looking through the viewfinder, and the camera seems quieter than the 40D.  A lower-pitched click.  Smoooth, shutter.  Nice to see things back at full frame, though I had gotten used to the cropped view.

Also nice, my batteries for the 40D work with the 5D as does my cable release.  All in all – a great deal for me.  I even had a chance to stick the camera on a tripod for a few moments at Grand Central at do some hdr.  That classic shot with the windows on the other side always being blown out – should be interesting to see what hdr can do since I have one of the bracketed shots at 1.5 stops under.

We’ll see…

I was presented with an opportunity to buy a used Canon 5D (version 1) at a very good price from a photographer friend, along with a Canon 28mm f1.8 which will serve as the 35mm used to for full frame.  Canon doesn’t really make a good 35mm lens – unless you are willing to shell out a bundle for the f1.4 which is beyond my budget, and the 28mm is by all accounts an excellent lens.  I did use the Canon 35mm f2.0 for a long time when I was shooting full frame (film) but thought it was a mediocre lens unless stopped down to f5.6.  Never felt I had to do that with the Sigma 30mm f1.4.

After all my experimenting with getting large prints from the 40D,  I figure I’ll be just fine with the 5D which also has exceptional image quality at higher ISO.  Definitely better than what the 40D can do.

On top of that – I just don’t want to deal with 21 mp.  Don’t think I need them.  I’m just not that crazy about the processing of squeezing so many pixels into the same physical space.  Anyone can argue this point – and it is argued ad nauseum on the web, but I’ve done very well with the 10mp 40D and should do even better with the 12mp 5D.

I’ll have the camera on Thursday.

I’m also going to sell off the 40D and the 30mm Sigma.  I have a buyer (you know who you are) for the 40D body – so for not very much money, I’m moving back into full frame.

Can’t wait.  And perfect for the type of work I’ve been doing.

Now that orders are coming in again – I have a few that I’m going to try at DSI.  I spoke this morning with Eric at DSI and it was just a straight foward conversation and what I learned was that they use two common profiles: Adobe98 (which is what I’ve been using for years for b&w) and hmmm PhotoPro?  I forget.  Anyway, the fiber paper is the same Ilford Gallerie Fiber that I was using for years in the darkroom.  Can you imagine that?

I’d better calibrate my screen again – haven’t done it in a few months.  And just as I was speaking – a fourth order came through.  So it’s starting again.  I’m planning to do these orders through DSI, and send a physical proof from the inkjet along as a guide.

WCI would still be necessary for the really big prints – even if this works out (which I expect it will).

Things are turning around.  I found a place RediMat that has 12 x 16 Museum Rag with 12 x 8 openings at a reasonable price, if you buy enough (which I did).

And the next step is to prepare the files for DSI and see how it goes.  As I say, I’m hopeful that this works out.  Since these really are silver gelatin prints – and since that still means something to some collectors – well that may make it easier to sell at the higher prices.  We’ll see; but what I like is: they just do black and white prints (well they do scans and infrared conversions etc.) but basically they are doing b&w.  The idea of combining digital workflow with silver fiber prints – that is something that I thought about a long time ago.  And they are fairly small – again something I like.  Usually customer service is good at this sort of place that is essentially working with artists.

Digital Silver Imaging

Well, last night I added mats as an option (at suggestion of Ken) and what do you know – next day three orders comes in.  One wanted mats, and the other two are non-matted.  There seems to be something magical about offering mats, but I don’t really get it.  Maybe I should offer other things that no one is going to actually purchase – to see what effect it has on sales.

For example, I might offer framing but set it at such a high price that no one would actually get it framed, but seeing how much they can save by not getting it framed makes the other prices seem like a bargain.

Actually, if you bring the larger prints to a decent framer, it will cost as much as the print itself.  Frankly, framing is where the real money is.  It has to be, since we have framing shops on practically every block on the upper east side.  What they do is buy inexpensive posters – do custom framing – and the profit margin must be incredible.  While all these other stores have gone out of business – we have more framers than any other place in the world per square mile.  And they’re not all tiny either.

There’s a huge framing store on third and 83rd.  I remember when they opened a few years ago and although I never saw anyone in the store, they are still in business.  That I don’t get.

Then on second avenue, there’s a small framing store near 84th street that has been here for at least 15 years, and one on second / 83rd which has been here for about 10 years.

Along time ago, when I was just getting started, my father convinced me to try and sell my prints through one of these framing stores.  I knew (slightly) the guy on 84th and he took three prints on consignment, and put one in the window.

It stayed in the window for a few weeks, and then one day I noticed it was gone.  I asked the guy if he had sold it, and if he’d put one of my other prints in the window and he pretended not to know anything about it.  He claimed that he had never seen me before and didn’t know anything about the prints.

Of course, I was outraged and we got into a shouting match, until finally he admitted that he did get the prints from me, but that they were now in another framing store in Yonkers, and that they hadn’t sold yet.

When I managed to borrow a car – I went to see if they were in the Yonkers store – but the address he gave me didn’t exist.  It actually turned out to be a Kosher Deli.

I returned to him with this information and he looked at the address and said that he must’ve given me the wrong address.  He went into the back of the store, and came back with what he claimed was the correct address.  Time went by and I didn’t have a chance to get the car – and eventually I just decided (I was in that Zen sort of mood) to just let it go.  I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him.  It’s true, I had a signed receipt for the prints and I suppose I could’ve taken him to small claims court – but I was working at the time and it just didn’t seem worth it.

Are they all crooks.  No – of course not – though that would explain their ability to survive any recession.  I know – I should’ve pursued this – but you know – frankly – back then when I was just starting – I was pretty much of a chicken.  The idea of going to small claims court – I just let it go.  My personality must’ve changed over the last few years because similar incidents have happened – and I pursued them to the ends of the earth until I got my money back.

In the never ending search to produce high quality black and white prints from digital files, I have been looking into SilverDigitalImaging.com which offers Ilford Fiber Prints (similar paper as the Ilford Graded Paper I used for years) in both fiber and RC.  Prints are exposed via a 3-color rgb laser and then go through the usual (or what was once usual) chemical baths.

Here’s a PDF that explains the process.

PDF about Silver Digital Imaging.

And here’s a price list for the fiber printing.

I have a bunch of questions for them – which should be answered on Monday when I’ll speak with the owner (I think) Eric.  I really only have a few basic questions, such as what profile to use; and what the turnaround time is.  Just for the record, I haven’t received a print order since raising the prices to accomodate the WCI prices; but it’s early in the game, and one thing that you know about me if you’ve been reading this blog for a while is that I keep searching for solutions until I find something that works.

The benefit of this type of system is that you still get to do all your Photoshop / Lightroom / Whatever tweaking in the digital world, but the prints are true silver gelatin prints; they’ve just been exposed differently than with an enlarger.  At least on their site, sizes don’t go up as large as what WCI offers, so I suspect that even if this turns out to be the “answer” I’ll still be tied to WCI for really large prints.

Many years ago, before Lambda and all that sort of thing appeared on the scene – I had the same idea.  I was still in the corporate world, but I remember sketching out a sort of print head that could take a digital scan and print it on darkroom paper.  Turns out, that at a very crude level, I was actually onto something.  Not being an engineer, I had no idea of how to do this sort of thing but even back then (this is about 12 years back) I thought it should be possible.

Anyway – should be an interesting week.  Their smaller prints (esp. if you do more than one at a time) are fairly inexpensive – and so I put back the 5 x 7 prints on the site, though at a higher price than before.  I’m really into this idea of outsourcing my printing and I’m starting to see that there are options that might actually work.

Website: www.SilverDigitalImaging.com

After the week from hell, and six months of packaging and printing, I bought myself a treat.  I canceled my account with Verizon / Blackberry and bought an iPhone / AT&T.  I’ve only made a few calls – but at least the numbers are BIG and it makes nice noises and in my apartment I get all the bars.  So looks good.  There are wi-fi connections all over the place, but I’ll set my own up again… need to look for that router / wi-fi thing.

Once again, they say a big snow storm is coming.  I’ve gotten out the last of the prints that had to be done quickly; I’ve had a nice chat with WCI and we’ll see what comes from that in terms of turnaround time, but frankly, you really can’t spit out art the way you can spit out run-of-the-mill prints no matter who you are.  And it’s no accident that I inform, or try to inform customers to expect a two week turnaround, and WCI lets you know that for inkjet printing it will be 10 business days, though it can be less than that depending on the work load, and that’s exactly what I say.

Other than going back to the darkroom, there really isn’t any magical way to produce reasonably priced b&w prints.  None of the Chromogenic (sp?) processes are going to do the trick.  And Lambda on Fiber Paper – which really will be as good as any darkroom fiber print, maybe better, is very expensive.  In fact, it may cost more than hiring a darkroom worker.  Over the years, I have had people say that such and such a paper with Chromogenics works well, and even had samples sent to me, and it just isn’t the same as a good b&w inkjet or darkroom print.  Color is a whole different story, or at least that’s what I’ve been told.

I recently followed a huge thread somewhere about what the meaning of a C Print was.  It used to mean this, then it meant that – and now people use it to mean a color print.

The one thing I did learn is that you can define a Lambda print, because it was done on a Durst Lambda machine.  Though they can also be churning out RC prints as opposed to fiber prints (Ilfobroom).  I switched from RC to Fiber about 20 years ago, and I don’t expect to go back.

Okay, now as you get into outsourcing fine art photography, you’ve got some issues to deal with:

1. Signing the print.  If the print is going to be drop / shipped to the customer to improve turnaround time, you obviously can’t sign it.  You can put a digital signature in the border and you can send a certificate of authenticity for the prints through regular postal mail… but frankly, it’s not the way to go.

2. If you are going to buy several prints at one time, you can’t have that drop / shipped to the customer.  So again – drop / ship doesn’t make sense.

WCI does a fantastic packaging job, and you really want to re-use that packaging to send it to the customer.  It saves you time and packaging costs.  The more I think about it, the less sense drop / ship makes.

What makes sense, in terms of saving money, is to order more than one of your most popular prints.  I don’t remember the exact number of prints – I think when you hit 10 of the same the price really goes down.

And finally – you really do want to see what is going out to the customer.  So have it shipped to yourself so you can inspect it, add your certificate of authenticity, sign the print, add promotional material etc. (I put a business card, a photo card and framing instructions) and then re-use the packaging to ship to the customer. Yeah, that’s the way I’m going to do this.  I already have two prints in the queue at WCI and it is a pleasure to think that I won’t print or package them anymore.  That is living large.

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Feb. 8, 2010

Following up with West Coast Imaging – I had a nice conversation with M. who then went on to talk with the production staff, and they are going to give me a better turnaround time when I need it.  What a great bunch of people to work with.  And frankly, I totally understand their turnaround time for inkjets as they can have the same issues that I have.

So let’s see how it goes.  The first thing I’m going to do is prepare a bunch of my most popular files to do in quantity with WCI.  Then as orders come in I’ll have them shipped back to me so I can a) check them and b) add my promotional material and sign them etc.  I’m feeling very hopeful about this arrangement.