O'Reilly Digital Media Blog - Photography

Things You Need to Know about iPhoto '09

2009-03-19T14:18:48Z

With the addition of geotagging and face recognition technologies, iPhoto '09 has rekindled the interest of many camera-toting Mac users. And for good reason. Even if iPhoto isn't your "one and only" photo management tool, it certainly qualifies as the world's best plug-in for Aperture, or as a secret weapon for Photoshop users.

Not everything about iPhoto is transparent. There are lots of goodies hidden beneath its attractive facades. For example, there's a recovery slider and clone stamp tool hidden in the editing tools. If you're using Faces, did you know that you can drag a face to the Library pane to create a Smart Album of that person? And because of Places, iPhoto can actually serve as your geotagging tool.

There are lots of things that Mac users need to know about iPhoto '09. Over the coming weeks I'll share some of those tips. Stay tuned.

Tone Poem

2009-02-18T17:30:46Z

Late in the afternoon of a bright autumn day I arrived in Yosemite Valley. The valley was already in shadow, with only the tops of the surrounding cliffs lit by the sun. I stopped along the banks of the Merced River. With my camera on my tripod, I snapped five exposures of the scene, all at the same aperture (f/7.1). My exposure time varied from 1/15 of a second to 1/125 of a second. The longer exposures captured the details in the shadows, but blew out the highlights on the cliff tops and the sky, while the shorter exposures rendered the sky acceptably, but lost all nuances in the reflections in the river to darkness. My plan was to combine the exposures to create one image with the best characteristics of each individual exposure. Yosemite Afternoon, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
HDR Combining multiple captures to create an image with an exposure range beyond that possible in a single capture is known as High Dynamic Range imaging, or HDR for short. The trick is to compress the extended range into a single image that is pleasing, will display on a monitor, and is reproducible. Note that the exposure latitude within a single RAW capture also gives rise to the possibility of using HDR techniques using different versions of the one RAW file as the input, a technique that I’ve dubbed multi-RAW processing. Hand HDR Whether combining different exposures, or different versions processed from a single exposure---or even both these techniques at once---my approach has been to work in Photoshop to use layers, masking, the Gradient tool, and the Paintbrush tool to combine the variants. You can see an example of the results of this hand-crafted approach to HDR in the six-exposure blend that I used to create Yosemite Morning, taken the day after I shot the series used to create the Yosemite image that accompanies this story. I'll be writing more about the details of my hand HDR process in an upcoming book---I also teach the technique in workshops---but for now let me mention some downsides: it is labor intensive, time consuming, can look funny if the layers aren't masked very carefully, and can be close to impossible to achieve in areas that involve complex interconnected details in mixed light. Photomatix Since we live in an age that tends to want instant results, most people try experimenting with software the does the HDR for them. I'm no exception, but I've been unimpressed with Photoshop's HDR automation. So I was excited recently to get to play with Photomatix, which is probably the leading HDR software. The Yosemite image above, and the floral close-up below were both created in part with Photomatix. As you'll see, the words *in part* are crucial to understanding Photomatix's place in my scheme of things. View this image larger. With Photomatix, HDR generation is a two-step process. You open the images in Photomatix, and the software generates an HDR composite. Then, in a process called "tone mapping", you tweak the settings used in the mathematical algorithms that reduce the tonal range in the combined image in order to generate a single attractive and reproducible version. Workflow As a practical matter, I found Photomatix's rendering of my RAW files unacceptable. So my workflow went like this: I opened the set of images in the Adobe Camera RAW plugin, applying the same settings to each (experimenting with different RAW conversion settings on each file included is also possible, of course, although it adds more variables and complexity). I opened the files that resulted from these conversions in Photoshop, and saved them in the TIFF format (because Photomatix doesn't read native Photoshop PSD files). Next, I opened the TIFF files in Photomatix and generated the HDR composite. As the documentation warns, the HDR image doesn't start out looking too good, so I worked to tone map it for more attractive characteristics. When I was satisified that the image was the best it could be, I saved it as another TIFF file. Combined Approach Some parts of the resulting HDR image were pretty wonderful (for example, the trees on the right). Others, not so good (the sky had a burnt, burnished quality, and the water was murky). I ended up layering-in versions in Photoshop to fix portions of the Photomatix generated image (the same general remarks are true of the floral image that also accompanies this story). If my workflow with Photomatix sounds like a lot of work, you are right, it was. Then again, I'm happy to work if it helps my work (if you catch my drift). Life is simpler but less rich Also, my life would have been simpler in Photomatx if I'd shot in-camera JPEGs. The truth is that the markets for my work often require extremely high resolution, and JPEGs just won't do. I'm almost never happy with JPEGs compared to my results when I do the RAW conversion. Conclusion Paradoxically, I'm left with an appreciation both for what Photomatix can do with HDR, and for the limitations of the software. I'm sure I'll be using this software to process some portions of my imagery, just as I'm sure that my final versions will require hand work and layer masking with other versions of the files. If you are an image creator who cares about your craft, the limitations in HDR software amounts to a good reason to learn hand HDR---combining many different versions shot at different exposure times, and processed individually from hand-tweaked RAW conversions, using layer masking---even if you expect to primarily be using automated HDR programs like Photomatix.

Tin Can Alley

2009-02-10T04:03:02Z

It's a long way from photographing wet cans in an alley to the abstraction you see here. The start was a recent rainy day and photography in the recycle bin in the alley next to our kitchen door. View this image larger. Before I get to the steps in the progression, let me say that I've noticed a pattern in my work of moving from a literal subject to an abstraction, with many variatins along the way. Some examples: Oakland of My Mind; From Architecture to Fantasy; Stove Top Abstractions; Masked Avenger; Changes; Cherry Medley; Weaving. An early version of my manifesto claiming new medium status for digital photography combined with post-processing is When is a Photo Not a Photo? Sometimes I want to show you the beginning and the process, other times I'd rather leave it mysterious. Please let me know which of these series works for you, and which doesn't. And whether you are interested in the process or would just like to see the beginning (the photo) or the end (the photo transmogrified). Also, I'm thinking of offering an intensive workshop in my post-processing techniques. Basic Photoshop skills would be a prerequisite. The location would be somewhere in the San Francisco area, with dates to be determined. Please drop me an email if you're interested, and let me know if you'd prefer a one day or weekend workshop. Anyhow, back to the story of the tin can progression, I went out the back door to photograph flowers in the rain. On the way I spotted luminous cans waiting to be recycled. By the way, both photos in this story are with my Nikon D300 on a tripod and my 200mm f/4 macro lens and 36mm extension tube, stopped all the way down for maximum depth-of-field. I used manual exposure metering, and erred on the side of under exposure by about 1/3 of a stop for a "proper creative exposure" and more saturated colors. I started with this interior lid, converted to monochrome in post-processing: View this image larger. Next, I photographed rain drops on this red can: View this image larger So much for photography! The green version comes from the red, and is an inversion of the A channel in LAB color mode. The blue version comes from the green version via the Hue & Saturation adjustment slider. With all three I had an RGB triad:

With the primary colors in place, it was a matter of repeated channel operations in LAB color space with conversions into RGB for Difference and Exclusion blend modes. Of course, all this could not be done without the latest Bruce Springsteen blaring on my headsets. Here's the sequence as it flowed: View this image larger. View this image larger. View this image larger. View this image larger.

Should You Choose to Accept

2009-02-05T18:45:41Z

On Photo.net recently Hannah Thiem conducted an interview with me. I think it's the best exposition about my work to date. (Suprada Urval's excellent interview with me covered very different ground.) As part of the interview, Hannah and I proposed an assignment: Photograph a flower in a unique way—in a way that nobody’s seen before. The top three submissions are to be chosen by me and the Photo.net staff, and will get special recognition. I'm extending an invitation to participate in this "assignment" to you. The deadline is February 23, 2009. If you are not already a member, you do need to register with Photo.net, but registration is free. Once you've set up a Photo.net account, you can add your assignment submission as follows: Your flower photo series must be uploaded to your Photo.net gallery in a folder titled "Harold Davis Flower Project" and your best single photo added to the comments section in the Harold Davis interview. Note that when you post a comment, you are given an option to add a photo. The image added should be no wider than 700 pixels. The photo must also be in your Photo.net gallery for consideration. Further discussion about your assignment (should you choose to accept it) below. View this image larger. Here are some of my thoughts about the assignment: Please bear in mind that one of the key requirements for this assignment is "originality"; that is, this is a flower as it has not been seen before. I'd like to see images that are technically imperfect but very experimental. One can always perfect technique. Flowers are a good subject for experimentation because they are not as demanding as human models and because they are often presented as perfect (and so are less often experimented or played with). This is an "assignment." My request is that you go out and shoot for it rather than posting an image from your stock files. In an interesting side discussion thread about the assignment, there are a number of good comments and the complaint that winter is not the best time to photograph flowers: "So, this assignment is really only for those that are in the Southern Hemisphere or have access to a green house or conservatory?" Here's my response in part: True, I live in California where there are flowers in my garden most of the year...BUT some of my best flower photos involve inexpensive flowers from Trader Joe's, available all year round. Here's a recent Trader Joe's special. Also, winter frost creates great effects on flowers like this thistle. Part of the point of a challenge like this assignment is that it should be a challenge, and should spur out-of-the-box thinking. Who said the flower needed to be living? Who even said the flower needed to be floral? Crystal flower shapes on a frosted window would work well for me. So there are many ways to render unusual flower images even if you live in territory buried under whiteness, and without a florist. Think expansively, and don't be too literal about things! Logic is the enemy of the creative unconscious. At the same time, as poet Randall Jarrell put it, "Art being bartender is never drunk." View this image larger.

Cherry Blossoms

2009-02-03T17:27:36Z

Every year the cherry trees flower in the cultivated areas of the hills of California's coastal range, and of course I am impelled to photograph the blossoms. This season the cherry trees are flowering a tad early, like everything else in California in 2009. My thought was to create a simple image of cherry blossoms against a white background. The elegance of the composition would be determined by the intersecting lines of two cherry branches. View this image larger. I went out with camera, tripod, and pruning sheers, and ended up creating the effect you see indoors on a light box. Here's a luminance channel inversion of the image in the LAB color space: View this image larger. Here are some cherry blossom images of d'année passées: 2006: Cherry Blossom Special; just getting to know cherry blossoms with digital: 2007: Cherry; playing with turning a photo of a cherry blossom into a "watercolor": 2008: Sunburst; experimenting with sensitivity (ISO) and cherry blossoms: It's sometimes instructive to look back through one's work, particularly when there's such a strong (and seasonal) annual affinity for a particular subject like these cherries. I don't think photographing cherry blossoms will ever bore me!

Got Tablet?

2009-02-01T22:53:23Z

As a Photoshop instructor and author, I need to be skilled at using both Mac and Windows machines. And like most of my Photoshop instructor friends, I use a stylus and a tablet for maximum brush control. For my Mac, I use a Mac Book Pro, and I tote my WACOM table everywhere I go. For my Windows machine, I use the Lenovo W700 Think Pad. What's especially cool about this machine is that is has a built-in tablet and stylus. How cool is that. What? You say you'd like a table in a Mac. Well check out Axiotron to see a tablet not in a Mac but on a Mac :-) If you have never used a stylus and tablet, I suggest you check out one - maybe at Photoshop World which is coming up in Boston in March. Once you use a stylus (which offers control like pressure sensitivity), I think you'll never go back to clicking with a mouse. You can check out some of my tablet/stylus retouching examples in my O/Reilly book, Face to Face. Take care, Rick

Changes

2009-02-01T17:06:47Z

Since the world is always changing, photography is largely about capturing states of things---scenes, objects, or people---in the process of change. A single image can intimate the before, and the after, and resonate with events to come. This sense of time is what gives many photographic images their power. My process of working on photos after they've been taken is an intentional effort to up the ante on this kind of visual metamorphosis. One sequence started with this White Hellebore: Starting with this straight photo, I began the process of transformation:
Green Variation, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

After taking the first photo, I let the hellebore flower soak for a couple of days in a sushi dish. The petals became extremely transparent, and I photographed the wet ensemble on a light box. The green variation (above) and the blue variation (below) are further changes of state using Photoshop. These are LAB color space inversions with channels applied to the inversions in a variety of blending modes. The blue version strikes me as very psychedelic, almost an emphatic presence in the flower, while the green variation is more concerned with textures. In the green transmogrification, the flower has become a textile.
Blue Variation, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Check out the recent Hannah Thiem interview with me on Photo.net and related discussion.

Some other post-hoc metamorphoses: Alstromedia Medley; From Architecture to Fantasy; Leaf Civilization; Oakland of My Mind.

From Architecture to Fantasy

2009-01-22T16:56:07Z

Between committments at Macworld at the Moscone Center I wandered over and indulged my dome photography habit by photographing the dome in the Westfield shopping mall in downtown San Francisco. I believe the dome itself is antique, but it's placed in an entirely modern shopping mall.
Cameo, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
It's easy with most domes to capture the entire inside of the structure. The architecture of this one, with the modern shopping mall only a few floors below the mall, made it impossible, even with my fisheye, to capture the full extent of the thing (I may share a fisheye view later). So I got down on the center of the floor under the dome, and used a 12mm wide-angle lens instead to create a jewel-like effect. Both Macworld and the Westfield shopping mall seemed to me examples of extreme consumption, with tech gadgets the theme at Macworld and shopping-until-you-drop the raison d'être at Westfield. Both the computer show and the shopping mall seemed to be in a bubble of denial (Westfield more so than Macworld). I tend towards feelings of alienation at times anyhow. But there's nothing like pulling out the tripod and getting down on the floor in the midst of glitzy stores, carts hawking cosmetics, and glazed shoppers to make one feel like a stranger in a very strange land. In some even stranger way, this dome from a palace of consumptive capitalism became grist for my creative mill. I'm never sure what drives these things, it is kind of a compulsive emotional doodling. But I know that when my inner Photoshop doodler calls I need to listen. Starting with my photo of the Westfield Mall dome, I stayed up most of the night and worked the image in Photoshop. My first step was to convert the image of the dome to LAB color. Then I experimented with inverting and equalizing the LAB color channels. Here's one of the studies that resulted: I piled the studies on top of one another as layers. I combined the layers, using primarily Difference and Exclusion blending modes. These blending modes often produce striking colors when you wouldn't expect it. I layer masked the results and hand painted in the colors, coming up with something that looks more like a cameo jewel, or pschedelic watch, than architecture. Too much is not enough for me when I'm under the spell of Photoshop. It was also hard to stop when I was on a sleep deprivation and good food binge fueled by Macworld, taking care of the kids, and my birthday weekend, so why not invert the inversions? When does it ever end? To take the image further I resized it several times, changed the shape of inner bands using Transform commands, and combined the resized and transformed versions together. For more intermediate steps and variations, check out Watchmaker's Dial. Related story: Oakland of My Mind also shows my progression from relatively straight photos to fantastic imagery. From top to bottom: Cameo, Dome Study 2, Watchmaker Dial A.

Flickr, Blurb, and Multiple Sclerosis

2009-01-18T23:09:42Z

What do Flickr, Blurb, and multiple sclerosis have in common? How can the combination contribute to the fight against MS, and maybe change the face of publishing at the same time? Several months ago I was contacted on Flickr by Sophie Addison, and asked to share my image Spirals in a book Sophie was creating titled It's a Beautiful World. All proceeds were to support the MS cause. The book is a bestseller on Blurb, and Sophie has repackaged it in a second edition. Obviously, this project financially benefits MS---to the tune Sophie informs me of between $10 and $20 per copy of the book sold. It's also clear that the book never would have been possible before POD (Publication on Demand). These books are produced as they are purchased. No one would ever have fronted the vast costs of producing a print run of thousands of these color books (as would have been required before POD). When she was putting together her book, Sophie did not have to worry about upfront production costs. There's also something that may presage the future of publishing in the use of Web 2.0 tools, the collaborative nature of the venture, and the mixed professional-amateur origin of the work in the book. Besides the Blurb POD service, Sophie used Flickr groups and sets to organize photographers and the pages in her book. Contributors to the book ran the gamut from professional to enthusiastic amateur. Sophie used Flickr's mail service to contact photographers and keep them posted about the project. Sophie herself has no background in design, book publishing, or photo editing. She writes, "I started with a theme---our world---and went about finding captivating photos that would fit into that simple concept. It was a rather selfish process as I was able to choose whichever photos I liked best. Browsing through Flickr photostreams and discovering wonderful artists was a real pleasure." I asked Sophie to tell me a bit about herself, and she wrote back: I’m a person living with MS. I’m a wife, a daughter, a friend, a volunteer and I’d like to do more to help fellow MSers educate themselves about this disease. I believe that within all of its tragedy, Multiple Sclerosis doesn’t have to be a hardship alone. It can also be a tool and a reason to be a better person. Even though I have faced the emotional roller coaster that most people living with MS are familiar with, my relationship with the disease goes beyond my personal story. This diagnosis made me who I am today and although I would like to think that we do not need such hardship to learn from life, I wouldn’t change my past experience for anything in the world. I believe in education and I’m a big fan of optimism. My hope for the future is that we will see treatments able to stop the progression of the disease as well as better life quality standards for those suffering from the progressive forms of MS. Throughout the world, multiple sclerosis organizations are funding some of the most innovative research initiatives. But that's not all they do! What people don’t always realize is that a significant part of the funds raised goes to provide support and services to people living with MS, their families and caregivers. Your money makes a difference TODAY. Some related links: It's a Beautiful World (First Edition, Page layouts on Flickr) It's a Beautiful Word (First Edition, in the Blurb bookstore) It's a Beautiful World (Second Edition, Page layouts on Flickr) It's a Beautiful Word (Second Edition, in the Blurb bookstore)

Networked Printers and Speakers with AirPort WiFi

2009-01-14T22:16:37Z

Home networks continue to become easier to set up and more powerful once running. Last spring I wrote about using a Drobo Robotic Disk Array and AirPort Extreme for archiving files over a WiFi network. I've also documented my network printing setup in my studio. Since then, I've relocated my photography studio to a two-story townhouse, and basically had to start all over again. But that's OK, because in this latest installment of WiFi wonderfulness, I've incorporated audio into the equation.

The Goal: To Have Printing and Music Throughout the Premises

I have one work area downstairs, and a recording studio upstairs. I get lots of exercise jogging up and down the steps between the two work areas. I wanted printing capability and access to my iTunes library in both spaces. Plus, since my printers are so big (all print up to 13"x19"), I needed to spread them around the studio so I didn't end up with a wall of printers in one room.

I was also tired of having one type of music system in one room, and another in the next. I have my entire iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to my main computer. So why not just pipe the tunes where I need them?

Required Equipment

My equipment list looks fairly extensive, but remember, I rarely get rid of something that still works. Instead, I just find a way to incorporate it into my workflow. Much of this older equipment is now serving me in this network configuration.

HP B8350 document printer downstairs networked via and AirPort Extreme 802.11g access point. I use this for plain paper printing and color layout comps. (Sunleaf2)
Epson R2400 photo printer upstairs networked via an AirPort Express 802.11n access point. I also have a compact Sony SRS-T77 4 watt speaker system plugged into the Express for piped in music. (Sunleaf 3)
HP Photosmart A626 compact printer plugged into my main WiFi access point, an AirPort Extreme 802.11n. The cable modem is plugged into this AirPort. (Sunleaf1)
HP B8850 Fine Art printer plugged directly into the main computer via USB 2.0
Various hard drives and a Drobo connected to MacBook Pro 17" with 4 GBs Ram and a Cinema Display.

When I open up my AirPort Utility, I see this (the top illustration).

Sunleaf1 is connected to the cable modem and creates the WiFi network. Sunleaf2 and Sunleaf 3 are set in "Join a wireless network" mode and serve as printing and music nodes. The network is encrypted with WPA/WPA2 Personal security. I administer the network (including initial set up) with the AirPort Utility included with Mac OS X 10.5.6.

Setting Up the Printers

Once the network was up and running, I added the printers by plugging them into the USB port on each of the AirPort access points, turning them on, then configuring via the Print & Fax pane in System Preferences. Each printer was added by clicking on the "+" button and choosing it from the list of Bonjour devices. Keep in mind that you have to have the printer driver software loaded on your computer for proper configuration. I also like to create a descriptive title, such as "HP A620 WiFi" so I can tell the networked printers from those plugged directly into a USB port on the computer.

Once all the printers are connected and configured, I can send a print job to any one of them from any computer that has access to the network.

Adding Music to the Environment

iTunes makes this next step very easy. My entire music library is on an external drive connected to the main computer. I have speakers connected to Sunleaf 3 upstairs (the Sony SRS-T77), and directly to the Mac downstairs (Logitech Z-10). I open iTunes, choose Multiple Speakers from the speakers popup menu, and hit the play button. Music is streamed to every connected set of speakers.

If I'm upstairs working and I want to adjust the volume or change the track, I use the free "Remote" application for my iPhone. Plus, the iPhone displays the album cover and metadata for the song in case I forget who the artist is or the album it's from. The iPhone Remote was really the missing piece of the equation. Without it, I did have music streaming throughout the studio, but no way to control it unless I went back to the main computer.

Final Thoughts

Once the WiFi network is set up, you can do just about anything you want with it. If I want to play music from another Mac or the Apple TV, I can do so with just a few menu changes. By the same token, I can easily add or remove printers from any of the networked nodes.

I had kept my AirPort Extreme base station 802.11g when I upgraded to the more powerful 802.11n version. I was happy to have it stashed neatly in a box in the closet when it came time to set up this network. It works great for the document printer node that mainly handles text documents.

Black and White for the Digital Era

2009-01-08T17:34:01Z

What is the appeal of black and white photography? After all, we see the world in color, and a gray day is emotionally perceived as depressing and monotonous. Historically, black and white is easy to understand. Monochrome photographic processes were invented long before color. Even once color arrived on the scene, it was largely "yellow box": you snapped the photo, sent the film cartridge off to Kodak, and got slides or prints back. If you wanted to do artisan quality work and control the processing and printing you pretty much had to work in black and white. Today, color offers pretty much the same level of control as black and white. Most images start out life as digital captures. Then they can be post-processed on a computer using the software of your choice (mine is Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Photoshop). So the reasons for choosing black and white are aesthetic:

Reducing the image to monochrome shows its compositional "bones"
Black and white can produce a wonderful emotional response in the viewer that is either dreamy and contemplative or else exalted

As I've noted, simply dropping greyscale information doesn't produce satisfactory results. But there are a number of established techniques that give you a great deal of control over the actual conversion of an image to monochrome. These include using the Channel Mixer (here's a story explaining the "Ansel Adams" Channel Mixer settings), B&W Adjustment layers, and the conversion filters that Nik Software provides. One of these techniques is necessary for black and white conversion but not sufficient. You also need to understand the following general ideas:

Don't use your camera's black & white shooting mode. This just discards the color information. The only reason to use an in-camera b&w mode is to get a preview of what a monochrome image would roughly look like: then switch back to normal mode to actually make the capture.
Don't just discard the color information in your computer. Grey channel data by itself will be flat and boring.
Do work with your image in color to get it to where you want before converting it to black and white.
Do understand that you can use layers to apply different conversion settings to different portions of an image. This is the single most important issue in artisan-quality black and white imagery.
Do work to enhance a black and white image after conversion.
Do leave your image in RGB or CMYK rather than converting to greyscale (unless a single channel is needed for a physical printing process). Once your image is black and white collapsing the channel won't change its appearance, and there is no benefit other than saving a bit of disk space.

Here's my Flickr monochrome set. From top to bottom, the images in this story:

A Closer Look at iPhoto '09

2009-01-07T07:16:41Z

The Macworld keynote today focused on three basic new products: iLife '09, iWork '09, and an updated MacBook Pro 17". Within the iLife suite resides the new iPhoto. It has some refreshing technologies, such as Faces and Places, and has added a new twist or two to the Adjust panel. Here's a closer look at those features.

Adjust Panel Improvements

Improving the Adjust panel was definitely in order. By most standards, iPhoto '08 wasn't providing the editing control that even some novices wanted. And unfortunately, the iPhoto '09 additions are still rather fairly modest.

A new Definition slider that allows us to bump up midtone contrast with a dash of sharpening is indeed welcome. It's one of my favorite sliders in Aperture, as well as its Adobe cousin, "Clarity" in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. I'm not sure people will understand exactly what is going on with Definition, but I think they will like the results they see in their photos.

Instead of adding a Vibrancy slider, as we have in Aperture, iPhoto '09 instead gives us a checkbox labeled "avoid saturating the skin tones" for the Saturation slider. This is a user-friendly way to introduce the functionality that is essentially Vibrancy in Aperture. What remains to be seen, however, is the underlying algorithm in the iPhoto Saturation slider. Is it the old style "saturate everything evenly" or the more modern "increase the saturation more for less saturated hues" that we find in Vibrancy? If we get the new technology with the simplified slider adjustment, then this is definitely an improvement.

Finally, adding "detect edges" to the Retouch Brush is another nice feature that makes it easier to make corrections with a round brush tip in an angular world. Much thanks!

Faces to Help Us Organize Our People Shots

The new Faces feature will create a lot of smiles. iPhoto uses face detection and face recognition technologies to help us organize our collections by people. It's similar to Events that lets us group by timestamp. We have to help iPhoto by providing confirmation when it groups a series of photos together. As we provide more feedback, it returns more possibilities, and becomes more precise. We can then use these collections in a variety of ways.

This feature looks smart and well thought out. I can't wait to try it to see if it lives up to its potential.

Places Brings Ease to Geotagging

Places is the feature that I'm most excited about. Basically, it lets us organize our shots, and find them, based on location. If you have a GPS-enabled camera, such as an iPhone 3G, then iPhoto will use the coordinates added to the EXIF data to automatically assign the photo to a location. If you don't have such a camera, then you can instruct iPhoto to add the location data after the picture is loaded into the library.

What's nice about Places is that you can easily find images based on their location. You can type an area you're searching for, and all of the corresponding photos appear. Or you can use the new column browser to narrow your search quickly, such as US, California, SF, Moscone Center. Once you see Places in action, I think you'll agree this is truly a useful tool.

A Little Frosting on the Cake

You can now upload directly to Facebook and Flickr from iPhoto, but you really could before via third party tools. So this is nice, but not ground breaking. The Themed Slideshows are also attractive. And the fact that you can create them in iPhoto and play them on your iPhone is a great idea. And I like the Travel Books feature too, that lets you show your trip on a map using the Places information.

To Upgrade or Not?

iPhoto is part of iLife '09, and you can buy the entire upgrade suite for $79. That's one of the best deals in software. You will need Leopard to run these applications however. Apple is easing that upgrade pain by offering the Mac Box Set for $229 (Family Pack) or $169 for Single User, and it includes the new iLife, new iWork, and Leopard Mac OS X. That's 40 percent off the price of them bought individually.

I think iPhoto '09 will be a crowd pleaser. Personally, I would upgrade for Places alone, with the other goodies adding to the fun. Apple will begin shipping iLife '09 later this month.

Promising Glimpse of Thursday Night's Apple Store Panel

2009-01-06T01:11:31Z

The intelligent, engaged crowd at fabulous old-school bookstore Book Passage in Corte Madera (Marin County) got a preview Sunday of an upcoming Macworld event. Derrick Story moderated a panel of our digital imaging experts, Lisa Snider-King (Photoshop CS4 Missing Manual), Mikkel Aaland (Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure) and Deke McClelland (Adobe Photoshop One-on-One and Photoshop Channels & Masks One-on-One.) Hot topics this year centered around what's new in CS4 and how best to apply sharpening. If you missed it, there's a reprise as part of the Macworld festivities at the Apple Store at One Stockton (Stockton & Market) on Thursday night (Jan 8th) at 7pm. Such a lively warm up bodes for a rollicking and informative time on Thursday!

O'Reilly Media Events at Macworld SF 09

2009-01-03T20:08:57Z

We won't see Steve on stage at this year's Macworld, but we have a pretty decent army of authors to the rescue. O'Reilly is sponsoring a lineup of speakers and events that you can attend just by getting in the Expo Hall.

Ask the Experts A Digital Photography Panel Discussion

Actually, the fun begins on Sunday evening at Book Passage in Corte Madera. Our Ask the Experts: A Digital Photography Panel Discussion features Deke McClelland; Lesa Snider King, Mikkel Aaland, and moderated by me. The event begins at 7pm and is free. We'll sign books afterward.

Author Presentations in the O'Reilly Booth

Tuesday, Jan. 6, Beginning at 11:30 am

J.D. Biersdorfer, David McFarland, Lesa Snider-King, David Pogue, Chris Grover

Wednesday, Jan. 7, Beginning at 11:30 am

Nancy Duarte, Mikkel Aaland, Lesa Snider-King, David Pogue, Nancy Duarte

Thursday, Jan. 8, Beginning at 11:30 am

J.D. Biersdorfer, Derrick Story, Deke McClelland, Mikkel Aaland

Friday, Jan. 9, Beginning at 11:00 am

David McFarland, Derrick Story, Deke McClelland

Each speaker will provide inside tips and be available to answer questions about their books, and of course sign copies of their work.

Expert Photo Tips from Real Experts at the Apple Store

Curious about digital photography? Want some post-production tricks? Wondering what camera is right for you? Join expert photographers and O'Reilly authors Derrick Story, Mikkel Aaland, and Deke McClelland for an inside perspective on the world of digital photography and learn to get the most out of your digital images.

Apple Store, San Francisco (One Stockton Street San Francisco, CA 94108 415-392-0202). 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM. Free.

Great Books at a Great Price

While you're visiting the O'Reilly Booth on the Expo floor, you'll also be able to browse our extensive library of Missing Manuals, iPhone guides, digital photography titles, graphics, programming, and much more -- all available for sale at 30 percent off.

Derrick Story's Schedule

I have a busy week planned as part of the Macworld Conference too. You can read all about it in my post titled, Derrick Story Speaking Schedule at Macworld Expo 2009 and by checking my Event Calendar. And don't forget to follow me on Twitter. I'll be posting live from the show all week.

Hope to see you in San Francisco!

Oakland of my mind

2009-01-01T17:06:33Z

Pity poor Oakland. Playing Newark to San Francisco's New York across the water, Oakland definitely gets no respect. This is the city that gave the "no there" to there, a gritty and high crime urban wasteland. In real life, Oakland is a vibrant place of great variety, from beautiful hills to wildlife to sleek downtown skyscrapers to a controversial new cathedral and a busy port. (View my Flickr Oakland set.) Sure Oakland has its barrios, but these slums don't remotely touch the grimness of those of the eastern cities. But none of this really matters to me, because I'm only really interested in the Oakland of my mind. These images are what I really saw at the time I took them, but then again I was high on acid. Or not. LOL. Results here have a very different aesthetic purpose than my impossible images. This story shows initial reality (whatever that is) as used as grist for my creative mill to create compositions that have intentionally lost believability. At the end, these are closer to paintings than photographs. From top to bottom: