Understanding the Histogram

The full article is here

This post is mostly for my students; but anyone can benefit from this excellent explanation of reading and understanding a histogram. After teaching students how to understand and use their cameras histogram from a couple of textbooks I think that this is as easy of an explanation as I have ever seen. This article simply, yet truly, "explains" in a way that the average photographer can understand, what is going on with a histogram.

If you are not 100% solid on how to use and understand your cameras histogram give this article a read.

Lightroom 3

Adobe announces a Beta of Photoshop Lightroom 3

You can read more about it and download it here.

It looks to have promise. I'll have more to share about it after I get to play with it a bit more.

Yellowstone, October 18th - 19th

PHOTOS ONLINE

I made another two day trip to the park and yet again my main goal was to spend time with Owls. Many of you who know me know that I do not give up on a goal once I get it into my head. I have the vision of a shot I want and I am going to keep going back until I get it, heck even when I don't get it I come home with quite a few nice images of Owls, so I'll keep going back.

The 7D got to go on its first trip to Yellowstone. The camera proved its worth after shooting lots of test shots, a football game, and volleyball match. It did a great job proving itself and did not let down in Yellowstone. Now my disclaimer is that Lightroom, the software I use to edit, only has beta support for the 7D's RAW files. The images I have online and my impressions are based on what I have been able to dial in via Lightroom myself without full support. I will keep these saved in Lightroom and edit them again when there is support for the camera; but as that could be a month or two I decided not to make you all wait to see the images.

The park has warmed back up and most of the snow has melted. Dunraven pass opened back up; but the bears were not to be found. The Canyon group was way out from Alum Creek. The Owls were active and put on a nice show. The Tundra Swans are moving through, I'll ask that if you are going to try to photograph them you do so without scaring them off as some of us go and sit for hours so that they will come in near to the shore and when visitors come running down to the shore the birds move away. Thanks :)

Oh you want to know my thoughts on the 7D, well the AF is significantly better than the 50D. The speed... 8 frames per second speaks for itself. From what I am seeing with noise and noise reduction from the beta support in Lightroom I will say that the camera is 1/3 to 2/3's of a stop better than the 50D. ISO1000 made some very nice files and made it possible to photograph Great Grey Owls in flight while it was raining and quite dark. The metering is something that many have not talked about; but I found much better than any of the non "1" series DSLR's have been. The new sealing made me feel much more comfortable shooting with the 500/4.0L IS in the rain. The camera is a great upgrade from the 50D.

My new full gimbal head from Induro (GHB2) is very nice. It has things dialed in very nicely, and does so for less than the Wimberly II. I was also able to fully test out a custom machined version of the RRS long lens stabilized that I have spoken of a few times. It is nice and I would say adds 5% to 10% to sharpness overall. Thanks Pete.

I had a good trip and all of the new gear worked out as well as I had hoped it would.

Take a look at the photos on my site and as always feel free to leave comments, questions, and criticisms there… oh and give your favorites a thumbs up too.

Thanks, and enjoy.

1DIV video

The video has made its way to YouTube

Vincent Laforet made a leap to web startdom with his 5DII video and he has done it again with a pre-production 1DIV. The video is shot with only available light on the streets of LA. This is very impreve to have such incredible results with a DSLR and availible light, a year ago many felt that this was simply not ever going to be possible.

Vincent has more details and some great information online so take a look at the video then read away on his blog

As the video is most likely not supposed to be on YouTube I would watch it quick before it goes away.

Enjoy

Yellowstone, October 11th - 12th

PHOTOS ONLINE

A quick two day trip to the park was planned to be spent in the Madison area; but with the lack of "big" bull Elk and lots of falling snow sent me over the pass and toward the Canyon area.

I am glad I made my move over the pass when I did because it closed shortly after getting through.

The 11th was a bust as far as photos were concerned; but the 12th made up for it. A few hours with a mature Great Grey Owl and then an hour with a pair of Coyotes made up for just about all of the photos that I have online from this trip.

It was cold and snowy, our early winters last stand before the fall warm up. I know that sounds odd; but that is what it was.

Take a look, I hope you enjoy.

The Nikon D3s does Norway and Finland

The video (by Vincent Munier) is here

An interesting merge of video, rapid photos, and single photos edited together very well. I felt that it was worth sharing with you, so I hope you enjoy.

I have been slowly adding video clips shot from the 5DII and soon to be shot from the 7D to my site; but I have yet to take the time to edit together a real video from the clips.

For my ART280 students here is something you could have done on the trip you planned into the area.

New high quality EVF in production

Here is the full release

Epson announces their mass production of high-quality EVF panels.

What does this mean? It could start to bring in the end of using mirrors in high end cameras. With better quality Electronic Viewfinders we can merge DSLR's and high end video gear easier and really change the face of how we shoot both professional photos and video.

Yellowstone, October 2nd - 5th...

PHOTOS ONLINE

Snow, snow, snow...

Saturday started off with a low of 13 degrees, and that was a sign of things to come.

A much needed 4 days in Yellowstone that started a little off. Because of some delays I did not get into the park until mid afternoon on Friday; but that worked out well because I got into the park as the news of Dunraven opening up again got to the gates, and I was able to race right up. The bears are out in a big way on the pass, if the pass is open for you to see them. There are owls in the Canyon area. The Elk are busy maintaining their harems, and all of the other little fall gems are really getting into full fall glory.

I have plenty of new photos online and a video teaser too.

I hope you enjoy, and keep checking back for more fall trips to YNP to follow basically each week of October.