Tips and Tricks

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From Digital to Print

August 25, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Tips and Tricks / No Comments

Artisan 810

Artisan 810 ink

Recently picked up the Epson Artisan 810 to take care of some basic home document printing, copying and photo printing. However what I didn’t expect was just how good the photo printing would be. Not only is the quality outstanding but the speed at which it prints is also impressive. The Epson Artisan 810 uses Claria Hi-Definition Ink thats dye-based for high quality prints and immediate handling (no smudging).

Along with great photos you also get get all the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect from today’s all-in-one print, like Scanning, Copying, Document feeder, Fax, Duel tray photo feeder, CD/DVD print feeder, Touch screen, memory card reader , two sided document printing and Wi-Fi/Ethernet connectivity. One of my favorite is the dual-tray photo feeder, a very useful feature indeed. This means you don’t have to stop in the middle of printing to switch photo sizes. Nice. So if you’re in the market for a new photo/everything printer check out the Artisan line up of Epson printers. To find a full breakdown of what this printer can do visit epson.com

Speed test.

For my home speed test I printed a full color 8×10 Photo over WI-FI using Aperture 3. From the final “Click Print” it took the Printer 32.2 seconds over WI-FI to receive and begin printing. From there the print was done and ready to show 66.1 seconds later. My total time from “click” to print over WI-FI 98.4 seconds. My iPod touch was used as the stop watch. By the way, realize this is by no stretch a proper and fair test. This is simply my real world time for my particular setup.

On a side note. If you use this printer as a photo printer turn the “Fix Photo” option off . You’ll find it under the Photo adjustments menu. Let your photo program do this for you, just my opinion.

What your new digital camera doesn’t have in the box

August 24, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Tips and Tricks / No Comments

Memory Card

While most cameras do include some type of starter card or internal memory this usually only gets you a few dozen pictures. So before you leave the store go ahead and pick up a decent sized card. A 2-4GB card will work fine for picture only shooting and a 4GB or more card will serve you well if you’ll also be taking video clips on your camera. Cards are cheap, much cheaper in fact than film. Remember you’ll use a $20 card for the life of camera so do yourself a favor and pick one up.

Extra Battery

Do not leave yourself hanging with a dead camera because your battery’s used up. An extra battery may seem like an expensive add-on but I’m willing to bet that price pales in comparison to what you’d pay to recapture a missed memory. An extra battery will run you around $25-$50 dollars.

Camera Case

Believe it or not you will find no camera case in the box. You may find a protective sleeve but that’s about it. Cameras do not like sliding around in your glove compartment or fighting off purse clutter. Do your Camera a solid and get it a case. It should go with out saying, but a case will keep your extra battery, memory card and camera cable in a safe place as well.

Memory card reader

Yes, Cameras do include a some type of USB cable in the box and yes, most computers now do come with memory card readers built-in but hear me out…What if you lose your camera cable? What if your computer does not have a memory card reader? Memory card readers do a couple of things you may like. For one thing, a card reader is relatively cheap at around $10-$20 bucks. Not to mention they’re available just about anywhere you can buy cameras, making them a quick fix if you misplace your proprietary camera cable. This is the case for Point and Shoot Cameras like Panasonic, Olympus, Sony, Nikon and Samsung. Also, if your computer is for whatever reason not recognizing your camera, most all computers will recognize the card reader. To a computer they look like a thumb drive. Making it very easy to add or remove pictures from your card.

Intense Black and White Preset for Aperture 3

Before Preset

After Preset

Download
Intense Black and White.AdjustmentPresets
To install this preset open Aperture 3 and select the adjustments tab. In the Presets drop down menu, select “edit Presets”. From her you will see a new window that has a small gear icon in the lower left corner. Clicking on this will give you the option needed to import this preset.

Blue Night Landscape Preset for Aperture 3

August 5, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Aperture Presets, Tips and Tricks / No Comments

Blue Night Landscape before preset

Blue Night Landscape after preset

Download
Blue Night landscape.AdjustmentPresets
To install this preset open Aperture 3 and select the adjustments tab. In the Presets drop down menu, select “edit Presets”. From her you will see a new window that has a small gear icon in the lower left corner. Clicking on this will give you the option needed to import this preset.

RAW VS JPEG

July 26, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Tips and Tricks / No Comments

Recently, I’ve been wondering if always shooting in RAW is necessary. The mind set for me has been one of “I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it”. There’s only one problem with this, space. I’m simply running out of hard drive space. My current 50D will trade you about 400 RAW images for roughly 8GB of storage. Not to mention that a RAW image on its own is not ready for print or the web without being converted into a JPEG or TIFF. To put it another way, a RAW image is just an unfinished image. So why not trust the camera a little more and the let in camera processor do the work from time to time? I’m kind of enjoying letting the camera work for me, even though I’m losing some post editing power. In result, I find myself paying more attention to each shot.

Now it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, if you’re going to do a lot of post editing, or someone’s paying you, go ahead and do yourself a favor and stick with RAW. If not, take a step away from the obsessive compulsive approach of always shooting in RAW (you know who you are). After all, RAW is not the best, its just unprocessed.

tomatillo canon 50D picture style standard sharp image

Sample picture at 100% using a canon 50D and 50mm 1.8 lens picture style standard with manually boosted sharpening (+6) in camera

tomatillo canon 50D picture style natural

Sample picture at 100% using a canon 50D and 50mm 1.8 lens picture style natural setting as is

Before you take this on take some time to optimize your camera (ie. RTFM) for compressed shooting and don’t always rely on the camera presets. For example, the Canon 50D Picture Style settings are a little soft in my opinion in terms of sharpness. Bosting them has given my JPEG’s a very pleasing result. You can also customize the camera’s color tone, saturation and contrast. While you’re at it, save your custom styles as user presets. This is not just for Canon, other camera manufacturers have similar customizable settings. Doing this does take a little time, but for casual shooting the amount of time and space I’ve been saving has been well worth it.

There, I said it. I don’t always shoot in RAW.

Remove Metadata in Photoshop CS4

March 25, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Metadata, Tips and Tricks / 4 Comments

CS4 Save to Web and Devices

CS4 Metadata None

Here’s a quick tip for removing metadata in Photoshop. When you get your image ready for export click on File in the top menu and select Save for Web & Devices…. From here a new dialog box will open giving you options on the type of file you’d like to export, quality settings, color profile and yes, a metadata removal option. After you get the setting you like, Click save and your done.

Using the Export feature In Aperture 3 To Remove Metadata

March 21, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Aperture Presets, Metadata, Tips and Tricks / No Comments

Select edit at the bottom of the drop down menu.

The Include Metadata box should be un-checked.

If you’re using Aperture 3 and would like to remove metadata from your images you’ll need to change your Export settings. To do this, use the export tab in the preference window. Under Aperture in the top menu bar select preferences. Then click on the Export tab. Where it lists “Email Photo Export presets” you will find a drop down menu. At the bottom of that menu you’ll select “edit”. From here a new dialog box will open with your Image Export settings. Choose the type of file format and settings you wish to Export with but make sure the “Include Metadata” box is un-cheched. Now when you right click over an image or group of images you’ve selected for Export, you can get a copy of the file minus the detailed metadata.

Enter GPS Coordinates Into iPhoto ’09

March 14, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Metadata, Tips and Tricks / No Comments

This is a work around for importing GPS and waypoint data so you can geo-tag your photos.

Open this picture in Preview and use the Show Inspector under tools to find it has the GPS Coordinates for B.D. RILEY'S Irish Pub.

Using Inspector in OSX preview to show GPS Metadata

Many cameras still do not have standard, a GPS feature that allows you to record the latitude and longitude coordinates along side the rest of the metadata in-camera. However, you can use software like Places in iPhoto ’09 to input this information in a nice, clean, some what straight forward interface. For example, in iPhoto 09 when you hover the mouse over any picture or event you may notice a small “i” in the lower right corner of the image. This is where you can enter title, description and location information. Location or geotagging can be done by entering either a name of a place, address or GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken. iPhoto will then search for possible matches and give you a selection to choose from. After a location is picked or GPS coordinates are entered, you can export your picture and have the GPS data added to the image file so the picture can be moved to other devices or programs. GPS data will still be added to the metadata even if you only enter the name of the place (provided iPhoto recognizes it). iPhoto will automatically enter the GPS coordinates for you.

Exporting your pictures.

You do this by selecting File…….Export, use JPEG or TIFF and make sure the “Include location” box is checked. Once you’ve exported the picture, open the picture with OSX Preview and select Tools…….Show Inspector, and you’ll find a new meta box that has your GPS metadata in it. This can also be done to multiple pictures at the same time by selecting a group or an event and clicking the “i” in the lower right hand corner. However doing this iPhoto will assume all pictures in said group or event are from the same location.

Location information check box iPhoto 09 gps metadata

After you enter a location for your picture in iPhoto 09, make sure this box is checked. This will place embedded GPS coordinates of the location entered in the metadata.

Common, Easily Fixed Digital Camera Problems

March 4, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Featured, Tips and Tricks / No Comments

Before you think you have a lame excuse for a digital camera, here are a few things to check before sending it off to be service or replacing it. The following is a short list of issues you may be dealing with on your Compact Point and Shoot or SLR that can be fixed with out much fuss.

Everything is blurry

Although blurry images can be caused by faulty cameras and camera lenses. One or a combination of the following can also cause your pictures to turn out blurry or appear blurry and should be looked at first.

Dirty lens

Even if the lens may look clean it never hurts to give your lens a good once over just to make sure. Lens cleaning kits are inexpensive and easy to come by. Some kits are made just for small cameras. Your local electronics/camera store should have them on hand.

Make sure your camera is not set to macro mode

This setting looks like a flower for most cameras and if this mode is engaged you will only have focus for the first 1-3 feet in front of your lens, blurring everything else.

Image resolution

This may be true if the image looks great on the camera but pixelated on the computer screen. Make sure your camera is set to the highest resolution then give it a try.

Motion or Movement

Motion or movement by ether the person taking the pictures or people or objects moving while the picture is being taken. To fix this we need to speed up the shutter. however doing that can lead to an under exposed picture. Flash, Aperture and ISO can help. Check out my ISO or Aperture post for more info. The Flash will be covered later on in this post.

Optical Zoom or Digital Zoom

Make sure digital zoom is turned off. This is, in my opinion, a worthless feature. It’s only cropping the image and not actually zooming anything. This can result in a very pixelated image. If you still need more zoom, it may be time to step up to an SLR with a telephoto lens or a super zoom point and shoot that has a 10x or more optical zoom.

Memory Card Problems

Memory cards in general don’t go bad. If one does, it’s usually a DOA issue or some type of physical damage…..”usually”.

Format

Your digital camera is like a computer and the memory card is like the hard drive. Remember to format, not delete before you use the card for the first time. Always format the card in camera and never format it using your computer. Formatting before taking pictures is a good habit to get into. Remember formatting will erase all pictures, so make sure you save to your computer first. Formatting can fix things like loading speed, images not being stored, Error messages and other strange behavior.

Card Locked

Common to SD. SD cards have a small tab on the side of them that you can lock or accidentally lock. If your camera suddenly tells you it can’t record make sure the tab is in the unlocked position

Short Battery Life

Your camera dies after only a few pictures.

Check your camera’s user guide and make sure you’re using the right kind of batteries.

Many entry level point & shoot cameras will use AA’s, but not all AA’s are created equal. Rechargeable Nickel-cadmium battery (NiCd or NiCad) or one time use Lithium AA’s that have a 2000 mAh (Ampere hour) or higher rating will give you improved picture counts before needing to be replaced or recharged. Compare this to a typical AA that has only a few hundred mAh. If your camera came with it’s own proprietary rechargeable battery, remember most only have an average life of about 1-2 years. So it may be time to replace it.

Shutter lag

You’re taking pictures and you always miss the action.

Slow Cameras

Some cameras can take 2-3 seconds to actually take the shot once the shutter button is pressed. If this sounds like your camera, my condolences go out to you, this is simply unacceptable. What you can do is prep the camera before the shot by holding the shutter button down half way. This will give the camera time to set up and focus. then press the button all the way down when action is right. For SLR’s you may want to try manual focus to give you more speed.

Over Exposed or Washed Out Faces

You don’t like using the flash but everything blurs if it’s not used.

Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation does just that. It lowers the exposure of your picture to compensate for lack of or too much light. Next time you need the flash try lowering the exposure value (EV) by -.5 to -1 but be carful not to under expose too much as this can add an unacceptable amount of grain/noise on lower end cameras.

White Balance

Sometimes the auto white balance is not all that precise. Turn your WB setting to flash.

My Camera just sucks, I want a new one!

Can’t fault you there. Some cameras just can’t cut it. When you’re shopping for a new one keep the above information in mind and remember the following.

How to take pictures of the Moon

February 26, 2010 / Anthony Marino posted in Featured, Tips and Tricks / 1 Comment

If you have attempted to take pictures of the moon in the past with little luck, here are a few tips that will help you improve your results.

This picture of the Moon was taken with the Canon 40D using the 28-135 EF lens zoomed in to 135mm and then cropped at about 40% later. ISO was set very low at 100 and the shutter speed was set to 1/200

First is to use a tripod. I don’t really care what kind so long as it keeps the camera secure and steady. I’ve said it many times before but a good tripod is your best friend in the world of photography. This will eliminate any image blur that may be introduced into the picture by movement on your part. Even if you’re able to use a relatively fast shutter, the Moon in general is very unforgiving when it comes to camera movement. Also get into the habit of turning OFF Image Stabilization when you have your camera mounted to a tripod. Ironically if your camera is perfectly still the Image Stabilization or vibration reduction can actually introduce blur. Second, you will need a good zoom lens. However, you may be surprised to know that a super zoom lens is not always needed to capture a good looking Moon image. The Moon picture I took on this page was done with a 28-135mm lens zoomed at the 135mm focal length or 216mm when you account for the crop factor.*

Now that we have the camera mounted, the IS turned off and we’re zoomed in, we need to start adjusting the camera settings and fine tuning the focus. Manual focus should be used. If your camera has live view, this is a good time to use it. Live view is a great way to focus in and make sure you have it just right. Live View helps you do this by allowing you to digitally zoom in on the fly to facilitate fine tune focus adjustments. It’s not a game changer if your camera doesn’t have this feature, it’s just useful. As for the shutter, believe it or not you will need to speed it up some. 1/100 – 1/300 is a good range to start with. Given that the Moon is so far away don’t worry too much about the depth of field and use the lower aperture settings around f/3 – f/6. At this distance our primary concern for the aperture is to simply let in as much light as we can. If your telephoto lens will not go that low, just use the lowest available and adjust the shutter a little longer to compensate. Because the Moon is a bit brighter than we sometimes give it credit for, the ISO will need to be set to it’s lower settings, around 100-200. This will take some trial and error so experiment. To sum it up: Zoom in, Keep your ISO low, your aperture low, your shutter high and your camera still. Have fun.

*On a side note, It’s important to know what type of image sensor your camera uses. In my case i’m using a Canon 40D that uses a cropped frame sensor with about a 1.6x crop factor compared to a full frame sensor like the one in the Canon 5D. To determine your cameras crop factor, compare it’s sensor size listed in your camera specification sheet to 36mm x 24mm (full frame). My camera has a sensor size of 22.2 x 14.8mm so it’s crop factor is about 1.6x. To make a long story short, If you’re using a cropped frame camera body multiply your lens focal length by the respected crop factor of the camera you’re using it on to find out what the focal length will be compered to a 35mm film equivalent of full frame camera.

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