Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Blog Blog

KEN POSNEY: DAILY POST

10 QUICK and EASY Ways to Improve Your Photography
RIGHT NOW!

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10 QUICK and EASY Ways to Improve Your Photography
RIGHT NOW!

What's Inside:
  1. Read “Fast Track Photographer” by Dane Sanders: A summary of Dane's book is on our Training Site
  2. Promote and Network
  3. Constantly improve your portfolio
  4. Biography
  5. Survey, Listen and ask for Referrals
  6. Attend Workshops
  7. Professional Web Site
  8. Network and Promote your sites on Facebook
  9. Be a Professional and Set the Standard
  10. Promoting YOU and Customer Service

BLACK STAR RISING
A Photo Credit Doesn’t Pay the Rent
In the belt-tightening world of editorial photography, many media outlets now offer a photo credit, rather than monetary compensation, for the use of your photo. “It will be great advertising for your work,” they tell you, “and getting published by us will help you professionally.” (more…)

DANE SANDERS
Custom Tasty Treats Sweet and Saucy Shop

KEN ROCKWELL
NEW: Nikon 28mm f/2.8 AF-D Review

MIKE LARSON
Ireland... The story begins...
After flying out of New Orleans, through ORD to LHR, I Just arrived in Ireland, its 45 degrees out & rainy, I rented (hired, as they say here) a car and was traveling and exploring down Irish roads that reminded me of the chronicles of Narnia, as when they were in the forests along winding narrow roads with walls of green trees at dusk as the wind blew. Outside I could smell fires as the houses looked so warm inside! The farther I got away from Dublin, the more country-esq the landscape looked. As the sun faded the green grass turned to grey and after praying to find the house, no number address out here, just a ranch name on a street in a town. If found it!

Now we sit by the fireplace warming up over some tea as I get to know the family and we chat about the wedding tomorrow. Its amazing to hear the culture of the Irish, how they do things and what they talk about. I'm excited for tomorrow! Castles churches and green countryside's!
I know some of these people, they know me from a Wedding I shot in Italy last year, Martina, the beautiful bride had some friends who wanted the images for their wedding, just what she had. It makes such a difference to have my couples already know they are in for a big treat, and a great experience. There's no icebreaker needed! Just fun, and an amazingly beautiful day. I'll totally be posting amazing shots tomorrow!...


Photo of the Day


PHOTOFOCUS
Podcast: Special guest host – David DuChemin, author of Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision.


Funny Face Photo Invites: Two-Faced, In a Good Way


STYLE ME PRETTY
Inspiration Board for Brides


TIM GREY (Digital Darkroom Questions)
Today's Question:
I’ve run into a problem recently when changing image profiles from Adobe RGB (1998) to sRGB for Web site or book (Blurb) publication. In the past when I would assign (and, yes, I use Assign Profile, not Convert to Profile) the sRGB profile in Photoshop CS4 there would be little discernible change in the display. But within the past few weeks the images seem to get noticeably muddier looking when the profile changes. If I do the conversion when exporting from Lightroom 2.0 I don’t seem to get this shift. I’m using a 24-inch iMac that’s profiled by Monaco Optix. I just re-profiled the monitor (today) to see if that made any difference, and it didn’t. My color settings in Photoshop are for Adobe RGB (1998) to be the working space.

Tim's Answer:
The problem you're experiencing has everything to do with the fact that you're using the Assign Profile command rather than the Convert to Profile command (both of which are found on the Edit menu in Photoshop). The difference between Assign Profile and Convert to Profile may seem trivial, but the difference can actually be huge. Depending on the specific circumstances the final result may not be particularly significant, but in many cases the differences can be extreme.

The Assign to Profile command actually changes the meaning of the color values in the image (without changing the actual RGB numbers), which will change the color appearance of the image. For example, assigning a given profile might cause any pixels that are "red-orange" in color to be translated into "red-magenta" pixels. I realize this might sound like a silly thing to do. The reason it sounds like a silly thing to do is that in the context of an image that already looks good, it is a silly thing to do. But the Assign Profile command is actually very important. It is used when you need to correct the colors in an image based on an "input" profile. A common example would be a scanner profile. If you create a custom profile of your scanner, that profile is really there to describe the behavior of the scanner. That way, if the scanner doesn't "see" colors accurately, you can correct the color to an accurate appearance by assigning the scanner profile (in other words, providing a new interpretation of the RGB values in the image file that resulted from the film scan). The same situation would exist for photographers using a custom profile for their digital camera (though most photographers really don't need custom profiles for their digital cameras).

The Convert to Profile will actually change the color values in your image, in an effort to preserve the appearance of the pixel values after the conversion. For example, in one color space particular values might result in a red-orange color, but in another color space those same numbers result in a red-magenta color. When you convert from one profile to another, the numbers associated with the color values for each pixel are changed so they translate to the same actual color. The key here is that the process, to the extent it is possible, retains the appearance of colors while using a different color space profile to describe the colors in the image. Of course, a different color space does mean that a different range of colors (color gamut) will be available, so there is the possibility that some colors can't be retained, and will instead be represented by the closest matching color. But overall Convert to Profile will retain the color appearance of your image quite accurately.

The reason you're not experiencing the problem in Lightroom, by the way, is that Lightroom is converting to the destination profile, not assigning the profile.