Last week has been eventful. After shooting various type of photos for over 7 years I’ve decided I want to practice and grow my portfolio of modeling, fashion and headshots. Not an easy task, I might add. If shooting nature, landscapes, city and architecture requires only camera, fashion and modeling requires… right – models.
In order to add some items into my portfolio I’ve signed up for Model Mayhem account, signed up with local photography group and placed an add on Craigslist. Some of that stuff started to pay off. I had one shoot with Craigslist inquiry, one MeetUp with Vancouver Photo group and have at least of dozen, maybe more, photos that I can include in my portfolio.
As I started to work on those photos, I came across interesting problem (or challenge) in Photoshop – it will open JPEG images as RAW files… hmmm…
A bit about my workflow: currently I am working with Aperture, DxO Optics Pro and Photoshop (I tried Camera Raw 7 that came with Photoshop CS6, but it does not work with my workflow):
- I first import RAW files into Aperture, sort through ‘bad’ shots – over exposed, closed eyes and any other photos that are plain and simple – garbage. Usually I end up with 60%-70% of originally taken photos. I delete those RAW files and load rest into DxO.
- Here I go through all of them and adjust lens correction, color rendering, sharpness and fine details. Maybe a bit of exposure correction, but not too much. Once that is done, images are exported as JPEGs to a separate folder – now that are ready for second pass within Aperture.
- One step that is optional, and depends on the type of shooting I’ve done, is panorama sticking or HDR rendering. For that I use either Photoshop’s Photomerge, AutopanoGiga and HDR Efex Pro.
- During second pass, I select best shots of each pose, sometimes select best pose and end up with maybe 5%-10% of original photos.
- Now, at final step, I adjust each image and make it just right – either within Aperture or in Photoshop. I must add I use Nik’s plugins such as Color Efex Pro, Viveza etc and Topaz Labs filters.
- Once all is done, export to Flickr, CD or email.
Recently I came across Brenizer Method of shooting shallow depth of field at wide angle, which requires Photoshop Photomerge. As I was playing with some photos from my last weeks’ photoshoot in Camera Raw, Photoshop started picking up those files as Camera Raw files and opening them as though thew are RAW format. With that, Photoshop overexposes them, adds some other adjustments, that I might have played with while testing Camera Raw, and merged image was coming up all wrong.
At first, I thought that maybe DxO exported JPEG as a RAW, or something wonky went with that file. But after exporting two images, which were shot one after another, and trying to open them in Photoshop, one appeared as JPEG and another as RAW. This didn’t make sense to me at all!
After searching online for similar problem, I came across article which shows how to open JPEG in Camera Raw! Well, that’s exact opposite of what I want to do! But following those steps and changing setting to the opposite of what that article suggested, fixed my problem. Now, when I open those JPEGs or try to merge them into panorama, they behave as expected.
Head out to my article section to find out.
Tags: Adobe, Blogging, CS6, IT Solutions, Photography, Photos, Photoshop
Two members of our team were heading oversees, Russia to be exact, for couple of weeks and it was my responsibility to come up with solution for cheaper roaming. One of them was on Telus with World Blackberry while other had personal Fido phone. Telus roams fine in Russia, but bills are outrageous. Telus charges near $5 per minute.
After shooting Anthony Sedlak at Eat! Vancouver show Friday night, I’ve imported footage from my Sanyo Xacti HD1010 into iMovie 09. I was so happy that by converting .mp4 files into .mov it actually reduces size by 50%. The truth was – it only imported half of the clip.
Saturday, Oct 25th - I just had to order extra shot in my Americano from Starbucks. Even though it wasn’t bad hangover, coming to office at 8am on Saturday is not what I’m used to. I’ve met my friend Igor at Starbucks, two triple Americano with extra shot and we are heading to the office.
Last weekend (Oct 25,26) I’ve decided to fix our network setup that was done by some outside contractors. I don’t know why people would do something improperly and then overload it with patches, workarounds etc. But wait a second, there is a company that does exactly that – MS.
