If left to their own devices, modern cameras generally do a reasonable job of metering automatically - so much so that many photographers never learn to meter manually for situations where they want to take full control of exposure. Those who do try often stop at simplistic techniques requiring the use of a gray card that may work well in theory but rarely do in practice, at least not for shooting landscapes. Here are some tips on making manual metering work in the outdoors....
The term "gamut" describes the range of colors possible for a given device or color space. So if your document contains colors not within the gamut of your printer, where do the leftover colors end up, and does it matter that not everything says it will fit?....
Converting an image from 16-bit to 8-bits per channel necessarily loses a lot of information and this loss of precision can never be recovered. Its a commonly held belief that once you do this, converting back to 16-bit is pointless. But is that really true?....
Anyone who has hung out here much knows that Im an advocate of working in 16-bits per channel to avoid degradation. So when it comes to printing, does the same advice apply?....
Ive written about Lytro before, the revolutionary company seeking to commercialize the light field camera that allows you to focus after the fact. But for some odd reason they are supporting only OS X users initially, promising only that Windows software will be available "sometime in 2012." Being a Windows user who pre-ordered a Lytro, Im disappointed....
Most cameras that allow you to shoot raw also have numerous other options including the choice of color space between sRGB and Adobe RGB. But if you use raw, does the color space really matter?....
In order to work on images in Adobe Lightroom, you first have to import them. But for many new users, its not entirely clear just what "importing" does....
The Eastman Kodak company revolutionized photography starting in 1888 with the motto "you press the button, we do the rest." In more recent years, theyve fallen on hard times as the market moved from film to digital. But rumors are that they are poised to revolutionize photography once again with their new secret weapon, a camera that takes that original motto to new heights....
Adobe Labs this week released a public beta version of the upcoming Photoshop CS6. Not long ago, the retail version of Lightroom 4 was also released. After taking a look at the Photoshop beta, Im less impressed than I have been with previous Photoshop upgrades....
You go out and shoot some images. Sometime later, you do it again. And again and again. Many of us do. Clearly, theres something in this that keeps us coming back....
