HP B9180 printer.

I finally did it. I ordered a new photo printer that is actually a "pro"ish model. I have been relying on POD companies to do most of my printing and realized that I'm not printing a large portion of the shots I take that I like. I just got back into photography last year and only have one framed and matted photo of mine in my house. Now granted other people have them, but I don't. So I did some research and came up with the HP B9180. I looked at a few models and this one seemed to come out in the price range and functions that I was looking for. Pigment, 13x19, good results, ink usage, cost, and a few other things. Speed is not a big deal to me right now being that this is a hobby. If I ever go full pro, then I'll reconsider. The new Epson 1900 was tempting but the extremely small ink cartridges is what threw me off. The Cannon 9500 was a bit out of my price range but I did like it. I read of a few issues people had with the B9180 but most of those were after its release.

It should be here on Friday in time for me to spend all weekend screwing around with it.

Damn you Nikon!!!

I'll admit it. I'm in photography because I love taking pictures. I love capturing moments, grabbing shots of abstract things and recording natures beauty. But I'm also a total gear dork. Today Nikon racheted up the Techno-desire with 4 announcements. All of which I have a desire for.

The D700 is a new Full Frame digital camera that fits between the D300 which I own, and the D3 which I want. It's tempting because of some nice new features especially the FX sensor that will allow higher ISOs with lower noise. But the $3,000.oo price tag will probably keep this out of my range for a while. Plus that money is probably better spent on new glass as my D300 is really nice.

That doesn't change the gear geek want factor. Not even a little.

Next is the new SB900 flash. This is something I'll probably pick up this year. I've been looking at getting another SB800 and now that the SB900 is announced and all the nice features there's no question on which one to get.

The two new PC lenses look cool. Nikon now offers 4 PC lenses covering a range from 24mm to 85mm. I'm not sure which one(s) of these I would use the most but I am interested in getting one for sure.

Oh well. More stuff I can't afford.

My Digital Workflow

This is a work in progress. I've been trying to get a good work-flow taking a photo from Lens to Print (or at least to final file). I've gone through a number of iterations of this but at this point in my sophomoric place as a photographer, I'm here. Granted, I know this is not the most efficient flow by a long stretch, but I think I'm utilizing the best of each of the steps.... or at least as far as I know.

1. I take the photo in my D300 as a 14 bit RAW. I figure might as well get the most information I can at the time of the shot. I have a few custom picture controls set up in the D300 but I tend to take most of my Landscape shots in Vivid mode at +3. I'll drop that to +2 sometimes. I've just uploaded the D2x controls to the D300 so I haven't used them yet, but will be messing around with them. I also have a custom set up for shooting people (something I really have room for improvement) that is Standard with saturation at +2.
2. I download all of the RAW files into Adobe Lightroom 1.4 so that I can organize them. Once I get them in I go through and start flagging the ones I want to work on.
   
3. I open each of the files in Capture NX 1.3 because I think that it does a better job at the raw conversion that Lightroom or ACR, at least for my Nikon NEF files. Plus It will use the picture controls from the camera which the adobe products strips out.
4. I'll do some color, Black and white points and contrast plus a few other adjustments in CaNX and then save the file as a 16 bit Tiff back into the same folder that I saved the original NEF file appending a _NX.tiff to the file.
5. Next I synch the folder in Lightroom and then tell it to open for edit in Photoshop CS3.
6. In photoshop it really varies with the file but typically there are some or all of these adjustments, all in layers of course
   
1. Crop
2. Multiple exposure blending
   
3. curves plus and minus with masking layers if needed and brush tool to bring out highlights or darken areas
4. dust specks removal
   
5. color saturation
6. color adjustment with Color Effect plug in
   
7. Sharpen using unsharp mask
8. Noise Reduction with Noise ninja (though i sometimes find this causes some issues)
9. any other number of adjustments
   
7. Save the file as a PSD back in the folder with other files.

Ok so I know that is not efficient but it's where I am. I'm frightened at trying batch processing but I need to give it a shot.

If I'm working on an HDR I'll take the raw files directly into Photomatrix Pro and adjust then save off as a .tiff. Then open it in Photoshop CS3. I haven't tried taking each raw into Capture NX first then bringing the .tiffs into Photomatrix but I'll probably give it a shot.

As far as printing goes, I currently do not have a decent printer so I upload photos to my ImageKind account and have been pleased with their result over all so far.

D300 is back and working

I got the D300 and everything is working great. I've been out a little so some shots coming up. I've got a bunch of places I want to hit this weekend so there should be a flood coming up.

D300 repair updated.

Well I spoke with Nikon yesterday. They received the camera on the 19th and it has been in "estimate accepted" status since then. I called yesterday to find out what was going on. The cust serv. representative said he'd look into it and make sure they got the camera in shop asap.

I called back today to see what had happened and another rep said that it was fixed and should be shipping out today. The page still says estimate accepted, but the rep assures me that it sometimes takes a little bit for it to be updated.

If I get it back by the weekend that will be a two week (ten working days) day turn around. Not too bad really. I had heard horror stories of months from Nikon with some repairs. This is assuming that I actually get it by Friday.

I think I'll send the D70s off for a cleaning and a repair on the remote cord port next. Then the d70s is being converted to Infrared.

What to do while the D300 is being repaired?

Since the main camera is off getting fixed for the next 3-6 weeks I need something to so. Yes i'll still be going out with the D70s but it just doesn't feel right. I know I know, I should be tied to my equipment but damn, I was having fun with the new D300.

So in light of that i decided to sign up for the Monthly subscription at Kelby Training and take some Photoshop classes online. I'm pretty much self taught in Photoshop so i know there is a lot to learn. Figured with was as good a time as any. I'm not sure at the quality of the classes but it looks liek a good deal. All the classes you can take for 19.95 a month. There are all of the Adobe products (well most all), some general photography classes, lighting, and others. Hopefully it will be worth it. I can't really see that it won't.

Nikon D300 auto focus dead

Well today sucks. I picked up my relatively new Nikon D300 and went to take some shots and boom, no auto focus. At all. I tried all my lenses and all combinations of settings, reset the entire camera and still no dice. On top of that it appears to not be changing metering modes or how many AF sensors it uses when I change the lever. I have my old D70s but it is nothing like shooting with the D300. I looked on the internet at various Nikon user forums and it seems to be a problem at least some other people are having. It's still under warranty but Nikon is telling me there is a 3 week turnaround.

Ugh. Needless to say, I'm furious.

First shots with Camera Control

Click the photo for a better rendering (I promise to get some shots sized for blogger correctly soon)
Blue Jay dropping his lunch
© Robert Donovan

My first attempt at remote triggering my D300. I installed Nikon Camera Control Pro on a laptop. Connected the D300 to the laptop and set it up in the yard with a clear shot of the feeder. Set the focus and locked it in. I then VNC'd into the laptop from a computer inside the house over the Wi-Fi network and kept an eye on the feeders. When birds came in i triggered the shot. Camera Control allows full control of the camera so I could set fstops, shutter speed and ISO no problem. Most of the shots came out with too shallow of a depth of field and parts of the birds were out of focus (this one included). Next time I'm going to have to get out when there is more light.

D300 through a Nikkor 300mm f/ 1:4 ED lens, 1/640 sec, f/4.0. ISO 800. Tripod Mounted and remote controlled through Nikon Camera Control. Some RAW processing in Lightroom and then Curves, Levels, Noise Reduction and Sharpening in Photoshop CS3.


I'll be trying it with a shorter lens and the tripod closer but I don't want the birds using the camera as a sitting and releasing station. This was also late afternoon and the sun was behind the birds. Early morning / Midday sun should bring the light on this side of them. I'm pretty sure a flash would just scare them away but I'll give it a shot.

Nikon Camera Control 2.0

I just downloaded and installed Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.0 on one of my laptops. I also did a quick test of connecting to the laptop using realvnc and running the software. It works like a charm. There's a woodpecker that comes to my bird feeder I'll be testing this setup out on soon.

I should be able to set up a tripod/blind in the yard and remote trigger the D300 using the Tripod Live View over the Wi-Fi connection to the laptop.

Now if i can get some hummingbirds to come to our feeders....

Infrared Photography

I have a Nikon d70s sitting in the closet that no longer gets used due to my D300 and I'm thinking of converting it to a Infrared only camera. It looks easy enough to do and not overly expensive to get a new tool to use. Considering that I haven't picked up the D70s once since I got the D300, it seems like a cool idea. I'm pretty mechanically inclined over all so I think I can swing the actually conversion.

We'll see.