Montly archives
17 September 2008
Trying my hardest to think of something worth your reading while this month, cross my heart. But every time I come up with something I bounce the idea off a friend and only get confirmation that, yeah, no. My idea, well, it sucks. Ideas to date:
- A What's-In-My-Photography-Bag round-up
- Photoshop tips 'n tricks, although this could get tricky because I could go on for days. Anything from black and white conversion, to toning, to JPG vs RAW, to helpful actions, to blah blah blah ... see the dilemma? I could quite literally go on about this for a month SOLID.
- A big ol' post with a lot of photos you haven't seen in the photoblog -- more babies, more state fair, more animals, more everything I normally try to do a fair of amount of reigning in on.
- The reason I'm all stitched up across my abdomen (trying to keep the gross around here to a minimum for your maximum satisfaction) (hi mom, DON'T PANIC)
- What's on my playlist
- Inspiration, lots of it
- Review of some of the vidgames I'm messing with *cough* Warhammer
- Why everyone should own the NVIDIA Geforce 280 GTX
Love you guys, now what's your flavor?
22 September 2008
It's not the sexiest subject but fundamentally this is a bigg'un. Big enough that I get asked about it A.L.L. the time, usually precluded by something along the lines of "I know this is a dumb question but ... ." Totes not a dumb question, may as well kickoff the Phuntography Redux™ by showing color who's boss around here.
[That's US!]
The question usually goes something like this: I take a photo and it looks great on my camera. But sometimes colors look a little different when I get the photo on my computer, and then when I upload it to flickr the colors sometimes change again (*explitive explitive explitive*). Help!!
Ah yes, ye old color switcheroo. And it's never a huge color shift right? Just enough to be annoyingly annoying and, well, all wrong. Getting a solid, working colorspace process in place isn't the most glamorous part of the photography gig but it can certainly be the most fun if you accompany each step of the process with a delicious, pink martini. (Or import beer, whatever you flavor, cuz that's cool.) Let's get this problem solved in as easy as 1-2-3.
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1) CAMERA COLORSPACE. My digital camera has some color saving options and your (digital slr) probably does too --- your manual will tell you one way or the other. Basically I snoop around the camera's advanced menu until I find the part where I get to choose to save my photos in the Adobe RGB colorspace or the sRGB colorspace. Neither one is wrong but for consistency, and also because my primary means of photocommunicating is via teh interwebz, we're going with what's behind door number two: the sRGB colorspace. Set it and forget it.
- 2) MONITOR COLORSPACE. You're probably going to have to do some exploring on your computer to make sure this setting is up to snuff, but if you have an Apple it will be under something like Settings >> Display >> Color and on your PC, right click on your desktop and select Settings / Personalize. It's usually lurking there under your advanced monitor settings as "Color". Hopefully you've already taken my advice and done step number one which will make step number two that much more satisfying cuz winning is fun!! Once again choose the sRGB profile. Find it, set it, forget it. And don't forget about that drink.
- 3) PHOTOSHOP COLORSPACE. After successfully tackling the recommended course of action thus far (and getting a refill or three if needed) I hope you know we're on the hunt for for some serious sRGB'ing in photoshop. Open up Photoshop, and on an Apple it's usually under something like Menu >> Color Settings, while on a PC it's probably under Edit >> Color Settings. Make sure RGB is set to "sRGB", and that under Color Management Policies you have "Ask when opening" checked next to 'Profile mismatches'.
Basically we just want to make sure you're always using the same color profile -- from your camera all the way to the web -- since each color profile has its own way of storing and displaying information about color. The less you have to switch between color profiles the less chance certain colors may slightly change, kind of like how each person has their own, unique set of morals you know? Yeah, just like morals and I'm converting you all to the Church of sRGB. Wheee!!!
Now go take some photos of what's left of your delicious cocktails and watch the color translate perfectly from your camera to your website. Like magic!