I just love gadgets. That’s why it’s nice to find that I bought a Garmin eTrex a long time ago. Haven’t used it in years, but then when Apple released the latest version of iLife 09 with the map function in iPhoto I realized that it is very cool to have all the images geo tagged. So I found a program called GPSPhotoLinker, a program that downloads GPS data and pictures and by the date/time on the pictures manages to add longitude and latitude information in the picture info. When you import pictures with this information iPhoto can use that to show it on maps and make it searchable. And when you upload pictures to Flickr, it also uses the location information place your picture on a map. Very cool.
The software is free to download here. If you have an old GPS receiver like me, you need a serial cable (I made my own because of the very high prices for ready made cables), just check eBay. You also need a USB to serial converter, like the “Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter.
To start tagging, just power on your GPS receiver when you start (I just put it in my shirt pocket) and then photo away). Set the clock in your camera (check the GPS clock, it’s VERY exact ) because this is information that is used to sync position information.
Download all your pictures in a folder, connect the GPS, start GPSPhotoLinker and download data from the GPS, and then select the folder with pictures you took. Press “batch” and your done!
iPhoto 09 map showing my short walk today
Map with my pictures in flickr
Over a year ago this guy contacted me to get permission to use this picture for an album cover. I sent him a high res copy and told him that he could use the picture but that he had to send me a copy of the album when it was finished. My guess was I would never hear from him again. But to my surprise I got an email from him yesterday asking for my address and if I wanted the album signed by the artist! Things like this makes me believe in the human being again. I just assumed he would forget to send the album, which is what I probably would do.
There’s been a lot of discussions about the MacHeist bundle. And I must agree with some of the critique on how to share the loot between the MacHeist gang and the Independent developers. But one thing is for sure, If I had not bought the bundle, I would never have discovered an amazing piece of software called FotoMagico. The kind of quality it gives you when making a photo presentation is mind blowing. And the interface is so easy to use, it’s almost spooky. Recommended.
So I have tried Apples new photo managing software called Aperture. I uploaded some pictures into it to have something to work with. I also downloaded pictures
that I had taken during the day. The next time I started Aperture, I got a message that the project I had downloaded needed to be repaired. But when it was finished, there where two folders with the same name. One is empty and the other one had all the pictures. So I delete the empty project. And now I couldn’t open the pictures in the first folder. Thankfully I found the missing pictures in the trash, I guess the deleted folder really wasn’t empty after all. So this program has the same basic design flaw that iPhoto has. One central database with all the pictures in it. One thing you really have to be able to do is to trust your photo managing software, and so far I’m not impressed.
The rest of the program is very nice. If you have a fast machine. Unfortunately the RAW conversion is really bad. And you can’t make Aperture open the raw file in Photoshop CS2 that has a superior importer. That’s plane stupid. I can understand Apple for wanting to use CoreImage for all the processing, but you really need sharpening filters like NIK Sharpener 2, but without a plug-in architecture that’s something that won’t happen.
I realize that this is a 1.0 version of a program and is certainly going to get better. But the idea of using a database for storing pictures seems fundamental for Apples design, and so far I got burned by both iPhoto (twice) and now Aperture. So I guess I’ll go back to Adobe Bridge for manage my photos.
It’s been a long time since I looked forward to a program as much as I do with Apples Aperture. I’ve tested C1 Pro and Raw processing with Adobe Photoshop, but none of them feels like they fit in to my workflow habits. The only thing that worries me is that it doesn’t look like Aperture supports plug-ins, so I will not be able to use NIK Sharpener Pro 2.0. And to output anything to print has to go trough NIK Sharpener Pro, trust me.
My normal workflow now is to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 to color correct and to touch up the image. I then use NIK Sharpener Pro 2 to do a raw pre-sharpening. Then I save the image in Photoshop format. This is my finished image. I have stopped printing my pictures on an ink jet printer because of the price per print and all the problems, so I now send all the prints to a processing lab instead. It’s incredibly cheap. There’s a great preset in NIK Sharpener Pro 2 where you select the output to print lab and select the dpi of their service (information that’s not always easy to get hold of). On screen it looks horrible, but the output is perfect. The plug in adapts using the image size and the output media. So make sure you select the output size before using the plug-in. With this you get razor sharp images. For me, the NIK Sharpener Pro 2.0 is the perfect plug-in. It focuses on a specific task, and performs it to perfection.
So hopefully my workflow will be Apples Aperture for selecting, organizing and doing backup and Adobe Photoshop for touching up and make the print ready for printing.
Update coming when I get my greedy hands on the program.
I started to try out the tethered function of C1 Pro v3.7 with my Canon 20d, but couldn’t get it to work. Had to roam the support board to find out that this does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger yet. There’s an update coming.
So what’s tethered? You can connect your digital camera (at least the supported once) with a Firewire or USB cable and have the camera dump the pictures you take immediately to the computer where you can check sharpness and exposure with a high resolution screen. I’m going to use this when photographing stilleben, food and portraits in a studio environment. First you have all the storage space in the portable computer, and then all the ability to do measure for whitebalance and such.
I’ll give you a rundown on how it went when they release the update.
Macworld: News: Epson hits another ink cartridge maker:
For the second time this week a manufacturer of Epson-compatible ink cartridges is taking its products off the market as a result of legal action by Seiko Epson Corp., the Japanese company said Friday.
The popularity of digital photography has gone trough the roof, and people are printing out pictures like there’s no tomorrow. The quality of the printers has increased as well. But the prices of ink cartridges are insane. Change the cartridges two or three times and that costs more than the printer. In fact, isn’t the ink now more expensive than perfume per cc? Manufacturer like Epson now put small chips inside the cartridges that both makes difficult for others to make cartridges that work with Epson printers, and also makes it harder to refill them. And the cartridge stops working with more than 10-15% of the ink remaining, because of Epsons calculation of how much there is left. And don’t get me started on the waste of ink when declogging the print heads.
My next printer will be a Canon instead. The ink is at least a bit less expensive.
Check out a great photographer here.
It is important to me that my personal pictures don’t have to do anything, they don’t have to sell in a gallery or sit well beside the Ads in a magazine. I don’t have to make pictures that are easily categorised, they are not reportage, there is no subject, they are not art, there is no great technical craft or aesthetic beauty, they are just pictures about life. For these reasons, Picture Editors, Art Directors and Curators don’t know what to do with them, where to put them. I like that….
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