Posted in Computer, Philosophical, Places on February 14, 2020| Leave a Comment »
The seemingly unending inversion has departed and sunshine is abundant! I feel my spirits lifting. With Palisade Peach jam on my toast this morning, I eagerly await spring blossoms. Both the cats and myself are happy today as Fay has returned after a week in Nebraska. With the gray days behind, the cameras are awakening too. A recent foray to Moab resulted in many new images. I have been working more with Luminar 4 software lately and finding it very useful.
Posted in Computer, Philosophical on July 9, 2013| 2 Comments »
The last few weeks I have embarked on a major push to edit my photo library down to a
more reasonable size. I currently have something over 200,000 images although some of those are from when I shot dual RAW + JPEG and there are a lot of HDR image sets too. But I would guess I have 150,000 unique images! My goal is to get that down to about 15% of the total. So I started at the beginning (2001) and just completed 2004. As I complete a month, I import them into Lightroom and then I tag the very best ones with a “5”. My ultimate desire would be to have a “top 1000” folder.
I have gotten really good at being ruthless! If it is not wonderful, it gets deleted. It is often said the difference between a pro and an amateur is editing. The pro shows you only the good stuff; the amateur shows you everything, including the junk!
Anyway, the interesting (educational, frustrating, ???) aspect has been seeing how I took photos nearly 10 years ago. I can’t believe all the dumb mistakes I made. And I seemed to make them over and over. Very slow learner!
I think a part of it was coming from film, I had certain rules in mind. For instance, I almost never moved my digital SLR off ISO 100. Even though I was getting blurred photos and the camera was fine at ISO 200 and 400, I stubbornly stuck to 100.
Another disappointing trait was the almost constant underexposure. With slide film, we often did underexpose a bit. And with digital, we were so paranoid of blowing out highlights that we underexposed routinely. Had I not heard of a Histogram? The problem now, of course, is how noisy those images are. If I try to make an enlargement, I often get “banding” artifacts in the sky.
Third was how seldom I shot RAW in those early days. I think the high cost of memory cards was partly to blame but I sure wish I had shot RAW all the time. And PLEASE, don’t ever let me shoot dual RAW + JPEG again. Talk about a mess on my hard drive.
Lastly, my compositions often sucked. I think I was so in love with the new technology that any artistic sense I might have had was Sleepless in Grand Junction.
I am working on 2005 editing now and I am starting to see some improvement.
Better late than never, I guess!
Posted in Computer, Services on November 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Several items today.
Kochevar Exhibit
First, I just returned a really wonderful print exhibit by our friend Jeff Kochevar. By day, he is Grand Junction’s finest inkjet and giclee printer. But on his own time, he isalso an outstanding photographer.
The exhibit is at the Great Frame Up, next to Albertsons on the Redlands. On display are a variety of large canvas prints, triptychs and even a pentaptych. The exhibit runs thru November. Their phone is 970-242-7672
The Great Frame Up is also a great place to get your treasured art framed. They have done most of my art pieces for my new Blue Pig Gallery display. Also, Jeff is offering some wonderful 8×10 canvas wraps of your photos for just $12. Great holiday presents. He can do your holiday gift card printing as well.
Next, I wanted to share a cool action for creating a snow storm on your photo. The action is free and has a soft snow, as well as a blizzard. To check it out, visit this Website and scroll toward the bottom for the Snow Action. There are several others on the page, many of which are free. You will need some version of Photoshop CS to be able to use these actions.
I still have some cool photo items for sale:
Posted in Computer on February 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I took this info from the ZD Net website today. I think it is important info for all Facebook users.
Facebook’s ‘instant personalization’ feature is to be switched on today, allowing the walls between the social network and the world to be broken through for a seamless experience for all.
While many have not been able to access the instant personalisation feature yet, it turns on today. More worryingly, it is turned on by default so many will be entirely unaware the feature even exists. However, this raises serious privacy concerns amongst the 500 million and growing population of the social network, with the potential for better targeted adverts and more of your data handed out to other websites. Information that is set or has been set to ‘Everyone’ may have already been copied elsewhere.
Provided you are logged into Facebook, certain websites like Pandora and Bing can ‘personalise’ their sites with data provided from your account. Any information which is set to ‘Everyone’, like your name or your birthday can be used to make the website appear more friendly and tuned in. However, to be on the safe side, it is better simply to turn it off completely.
1. Log into Facebook. In the top right hand corner, click Account, and then Privacy Settings.
2. Under the heading Apps and websites, select Edit your settings.
3. Under the heading Instant personalization, select Edit settings. You may see a popup called ‘Understanding instant personalization’. Just hit Close.
4. At the very bottom of the page, simply untick the box labeled Enable instant personalization on partner websites. This will instantly turn off partner websites accessing your data.
If, however, the option is greyed out but still ticked, this means that Facebook has not yet activated instant personalization just yet. It takes time. Check back in a few hours, or the next day.
From there, it is also advised that you check out the latest revision of the Definitive Facebook Lockdown Guide (shameless plug, I know) to ensure that as much information on your profile is restricted, allowing nobody outside of your friends list can access your information.
Posted in Classes, Computer, Places on January 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Wow! I was just playing around tonight with ProShow software from Photodex. This is the amazing tool that lets you make media rich presentations. Their latest version, 4.5, continues with lots of new features. Rather than repeat everything, just visit their website.
The reason I said “wow” earlier is I just uploaded my first YouTube video! I did it right from inside ProShow. So now I have another way to share photography with other folks. The cool thing about sharing via YouTube is that folks anywhere, can watch the video, with either Mac or PC. Here is my first show:
It was taken in September along Kebler Pass in Colorado. It is some experimental work that I thought turned out well. Let me know what you think.
As a side note, I teach classes in ProShow Gold. Our next class is Saturday, Feb. 12. Full Details at my Classes Page.
Ain’t technology grand!
Posted in Computer, Equipment on January 12, 2011| 1 Comment »
If you have six minutes, you have to watch this YouTube video from inside the Lexar memory card factory in Utah. It pretty much boggled my mind to see the manufacturing process.
The only American made memory chips. I have long used Sandisk cards but maybe I’ll change?
Posted in Computer on December 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Just a note to remind you that HDR Photomatix Pro software was recently updated to version 4. This is a free update for most users and represents a major improvement to both the functionality and interface aspects. They have improved the algorithms for motion as well as others. It also has a lot of new presets that let you quickly look at a variety of interpretations. My HDR classes in 2011 will feature version 4 and I will also update my training materials. Don’t forget you can save 15% off the purchase of Photomatix if you use my code: SteveTraudt (no spaces; note capital letters). HDR is really changing the way photographers think about certain lighting situations. And remember, you can go for any “look” from mild to wild. See more examples in my HDR Gallery.
Bicycling Thru Colors
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | ||||
Pixels on Piazza 