Photoshop TV’s Matt Kloskowski highlighted a great tip for soft focus, based on a sharpening technique.

Basic idea looks like:

1. Create a copy into a new layer
2. Apply the High Pass filter (use more radius than usual for sharpening)
3. Inverse the layer
4. Set the blend mode to Soft Light
5. Adjust the layer opacity to taste

Without step 3, the photo is sharpened. With step 3, you get a lovely soft focus effect. The advantage to this approach is the effect can be selectively removed by painting on the layer with 50% grey.

This was an a ha! moment for me. I use high pass filter sharpening, but it simply never occurred that it would also work for soft focus.

After a year or two of watching Photoshop User TV, I’m still learning heaps. Thanks guys!

From On Being a Photographer:

These basic principles are:

1. Photographers are not primarily interested in photography. They have a focused energy and enthusiasm which is directed at an outside, physically present, other. They bring to this subject an exaggerated sense of curiosity, backed up by knowledge gleaned from reading, writing, talking, note-taking.
2. The photographer transmits this passion in “the thing itself” by making pictures, therefore the subject must lend itself to a visual medium, as opposed to, say, writing about it.
3. The photographer must assiduously practice his/her craft so that there is no technical impediment between realizing the idea and transmitting it through the final print.
4. The photographer must have the ability to analyze the components of the subject-idea so that a set of images not only reflects the basic categories but also displays visual variety. Intense clear thinking is a prerequisite for fine photography
5. The photographer is aware that, like all difficult endeavors, to be good at photography requires an unusual capacity for continuous hard work and …

Good luck.

Brilliant book. One that I was drawn to by the sample chapter (pdf), and one I will read again.

If the discussion between David Hurn and Bill Jay was held today, it would be published as a seven part podcast. I’m glad that it comes as a book. This means it stays in my house for years rather than days.

From the Adobe(r) Lightroom podcast with Catherine Hall:

Pose by asking the participants to role play. For instance, imagine you are in Paris …

This approach has worked really well for Catherine in her shooting of weddings. Especially as the models are usually not professionals, but rather everyday people. By asking them to role play, they can be enticed into interesting poses to match desired composition, without the stiffness associated with directing specific poses.

George Jardine’s interview technique is simply sublime. This is one podcast series where I do not miss an episode. I went back and listened to the early shows. There is much to learn about photography in these interviews.

From the LightSource podcast with David Tobie from Data Color:

The in-camera highlight clipping is based on the color space that is set.

This is apparently true even if you are shooting RAW.

The implications of this are that you can no longer trust the clipping information. It will clip earlier, as RAW typically captures a wider gamut than say sRGB.

This episode is worth a listen if you are starting to reach the point where colour is important. Especially how colour looks on screen as compared to in print.

Deciding on a new lens is hard. There are many options and many factors to consider, such as your photographic style, cost, and build quality.

My approach is to look at times when there are photos I have missed due to not having a particular capability in my kit. The area that I’ve noticed this of late has been at the wide end of the spectrum. I own a wide angle lens, but as it is the kit lens, it doesn’t spend much time on the camera. Time for an upgrade.

The lens I selected is the 17-40mm f/4 Canon. I used this web site to compare the different capabilities of the lenses I was considering, and used amazon in the US for a rough guide to prices.

Once I decided on the lens, purchasing it becomes tricky. The cost of buying glass in Melbourne is not small if you walk into a camera store. I was lucky enough to be flying through Hong Kong and Canada, so had some more options.

Here is a comparison of prices I found when hunting, to give you an idea of the differences:

• $1,439.00 Canon recommended retail price
• $955 + shipping, photobuff, Australian online retailer
• $918 Don’s photo, downtown Winnipeg
• $900.00 Hong Kong shops, Stanley Street in Central
• $851.00 + shipping + maybe import tax, mpex.com, US online retailer
• $799 + $80 shipping + maybe import tax, ebay.com.au, via HK online retailer

There is also the fun of calculating various taxes, and considering the risk associated with returns and warranty claims. In the past, I bought my 70-200 f/4 from mpex.com and had no problems with shipping.

This time, I collected the lens from Don’s Photo in Winnipeg as there were a few other bits I also wanted to grab. They ended up doing me a good deal on the whole sale, and I’m confident that I can return it to them should there be a need.

The process is simply too hard. Unfortunately, due to the cost of glass in Australia, I’m likely to have to revisit this process on my next purchase.

If you know any other places to get reliable and cheap sales of Canon lenses, let me know in the comments.

I was lucky enough to have a Canon 1D mkIII on loan to play with for a few weeks, along with the wireless kit and a 24-70mm f2.8. The purpose of the loan was to demonstrate it to a customer of ours. To do that, I spent some time with the camera. These are my impressions.

It is rather heavy. Compared to my 350d, it is actually very heavy. Add on the 24-70mm lens, a 580ex flash, the wireless kit and you start to feel like a serious photographer. The sort that would go chasing celebs around for fun.

The downside to all that seriousness is my 50mm f1.8 looks ridiculous on it.

The speed of this camera is just brilliant. If I was shooting sports I’d be incredibly excited by it. Add in the low noise and high iso and you’ll find yourself getting shots you wouldn’t have before. The live view is fun to play with, but unless you’re doing lots of studio or product work, I’m not that sold on it. The viewfinder is so crisp, I was more than happy to use that.

The wireless kit is something of a strange beast. If you need wireless, then it has enough features to suit most needs. It can FTP to a server, or shoot to a USB hard drive, or allow remote shooting with live view over wireless, or act as a web server with camera controls active from a browser.

Enabling wireless tended to make the camera a bit flakey during the configuration process. It was usually okay once things were working. For the purposes of our demonstration, it worked flawlessly. Using the camera in the audience to shoot pictures that turned up on the main projector added a touch of immediacy and wow.

The bit that kills me is the price. The wireless adaptor just isn’t that cheap for what it is. It is a feature you would really need to have to justify the expenditure. And I’m not so sure you’d really need it. Again, product photographers or studio photographers seem to be the main purpose. Showing off at tradeshows would be the other use. I’m still hoping we can have one in the office for that.

I was sad to give it back, but ultimately it is too much camera for the level I’m shooting at. The features I liked are available on the 40d, so like the rest of the planet, I’m waiting for the next revision of the 5d. The full frame is going to work nicely with my fisheye and the reduced weight means it will spend more time at the snow.

Photos from the 1D.