For some time, I’ve been using CHDK with my Canon SD1000 to shoot RAW. I like the advantages of RAW so this made sense for me. The IQ of the SD1000 doesn’t get any better, it’s just easier to deal with processing. One disadvantage is that the format- CRW – isn’t supported by Adobe. So, you need a program to convert.

I had been using dng4ps, a free program but somewhat unreliable – not to mention slow. I recently came across Raw Photo Processor. After some testing, I find it to be much better than dng4ps. The only real drawback is that it produces tiff files instead of dngs. But it is much faster and free also. Check it out.

My “recent work” gallery has been updated.  Took a trip to Marin, yet again, and went to Dawn Falls.  I thought there would be more water since we’ve had several days of rain but it wasn’t spectacular – just nice.  Finished up at the Marin Garden Center in Ross.  Nice Color there.

It’s that time of year again and my 2010 Calendar is now available. The theme this time is the Sierra Nevada featuring Yosemite, Mono Lake and Lake Tahoe. You can preview and order the calendar here.
Because of the continuing hard times, I’ve dropped the price again this year to a rock-bottom $14.99.

Ever so often, I run across an idea that really works for me. One such idea is this article by Ray Maxwell on how to set your camera for more accurate histograms. Explained some things I had wondered about.

There’s an interesting interview in Lenswork No. 84 about printing. Richard Benson, Professor of Photography and author of a book, The Printed Picture has many interesting things to say about printing and photography. The interview is not available on-line, you’ll have to purchase a copy but here’s a quote I found interesting:
“The digital revolution makes all that old stuff[platinum printing, etc] just garbage. You can make an inkjet print that beats any platinum hands down.” Later he says that he is referring to matte papers and that semi-gloss/gloss papers still need work. Both he and the interview(Brooks Jensen) seem to believe that Hahnemühle Photo Rag papers are the best.

Interesting stuff.

This bike race is just down the hill from me so I took my 70-200mm lens over and took a few dozen shots. Here’s one. You can see some others at my seldom used Flickr account.

I came across this recently.  Hope it helps.

Tomorrow, the pictures come down.  I want to thank everyone who went to the Cafe to view the pictures.  It has been an exhilarating experience for me.  And a very special thank you to those folks who purchased a picture.  You more than made my day.

Dec. 30th update: A ballot measure is being proposed to protect the State Parks. Here’s a quote from the press release: The ballot measure would protect state parks and conserve wildlife by establishing the State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund in the state treasury where, by law, it could only be spent on state parks, urban river parkways, wildlife, natural lands and ocean conservation programs. Funding for the Trust Fund would come from an $18 annual State Park Access Pass surcharge on all California vehicles, including motorcycles and recreational vehicles. Larger commercial vehicles, mobile homes and permanent trailers would be exempt. Vehicles subject to the surcharge would receive free, year round admission to all state parks throughout the year. Californians will no longer pay day-use fees at any state parks. In comparison, park visitors currently pay up to $125 for an annual pass or $10-$15 per day at most parks. Out-of-state vehicles would continue to pay full entrance fees at parks. You can learn more here. Continue reading California State Parks in Trouble

There’s an interesting article on the Luminous-Landscape website about profiles, monitors and printers. It’s really a review of a high-end monitor. I thought it would be interesting to try some of the same comparisons with my somewhat lower cost monitor and see how it looks given the same tests but with parameters close to what I do.  You should read the above article first so you understand what’s going on here.

My current monitor is an HP – the LP2475w – and, yes, I’m using a Macintosh. My previous monitor was the Apple Cinema 23 inch Display. The HP monitor price on Amazon a few minutes ago was $527. The Apple monitor is no longer available but sold for around $900.

First, let’s compare the two monitors. Both monitors were calibrated using the Monoco EZColor software/hardware. Here is the profile of the two monitors. You can see at a glance the HP has a far greater gamut than the Apple.

But the article really was comparing monitors and paper profiles to Adobe RGB. Here’s the HP vs Adobe RGB.

You can see in most, but not all, colors, the HP gamut is larger than Adobe RGB. What about, then HP vs. my favorite paper; Ilford Gold Fiber Silk? Here’s that comparison.

In this case, I rotated the axis so you can see where the GFS paper has a larger gamut than the HP monitor. Admittedly, I was surprised by this. I didn’t think an inkjet printer would have a larger gamut than my monitor.

The article mentioned above is comparing a $5000 monitor and a $6000 printer. My $700 (Not counting all the ink!) Epson 2200, now near the end of its life, and my new $500 monitor seem relatively well matched.

I think it can also be concluded that, while certainly not up to the $5000 monitor, the HP monitor does a very good job at 1/10 the cost.