Negative Clarity in C1 5.1
February 22, 2010 | Doug, Tips & Tech
Capture One 5.1 allows for a negative clarity value.
One major application of this image enhancement tool is for portraits. The best way to see the effect is, of course, by applying it to your own work. However, below is a basic primer that demonstrates what positive and negative clarity does for a portrait, along with how you might adjust an image after a large clarity change. You can view the small summary below or Download this as a layered Photoshop Document for a closer examination.
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Aperture 3 Release hints at 1Ds IV
By Doug Peterson Head of Technical Services
Apple released Aperture 3 today. Under the Raw File Support List is the Canon 1Ds IV.
Granted this doesn’t really say anything about release dates, specifications, or usability. But it’s interesting to see a company obsessed with secrecy about unreleased products slip up on a partner’s unreleased product.
Also supported is most of the Leaf line of digital backs. With Leaf raw files now supported in Capture One, Aperture, Lightroom, Photoshop (ACR), Raw Developer, Silky Pix, as well as Leaf Capture the openness of Leaf’s platform under Phase One’s ownership is a clear benefit to it’s users.
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Oregon Panoramics
February 9, 2010 | Doug
By Doug Peterson, Head of Technical Services
On the eve of GetDPI’s upcoming workshop in Salton Sea I thought I’d revisit the images that I took on GetDPI’s last workshop in Oregon.
One of the nicest parts of working with high resolution systems like the backs/bodies/lenses in the Phase One ecosystem is that it is so versatile if your intended output is panoramic. The shots below were taken with a range of bodies and techniques to accomplish a 2:1 or 3:1 aspect ratio with enough resolution to print many feet wide.
Panoramic images, by their nature, need a larger width when printed in order to maintain the visual impact of the image. While a 20″ x 24″ image may feel immersive a 8″x24″ does not (my opinion only of course). To get a 4 foot wide print of a panoramic evens the game again, providing an immersive and engaging viewing experience, but this requires a lot of resolution.
For a dSLR a single 22 megapixel frame may end up being 10-12 megapixels by the time you make a substantial crop. With the large starting resolution of a P45+, P40+, or P65+ however large crops still leave loads of pixels to print. Moreover on a technical camera you can stitch a higher resolution panoramic out of one continuous image circle (a much nicer process than panning-and-stitching as used with a dSLR).
I hope you enjoy these images. They are nothing too special, and the others on the GetDPI trip captured far finer imagery. But I hope they do give you a bit of inspiration to go out and capture the world in a panoramic format if it’s been a while since you’ve done so. There is something magic about the 3:1 aspect ratio.
A huge thank you to Dave Gallagher the owner of this highly specialized motley company to whom everything I do on the job is owed. These images were captured with equipment he bought, maintains, and pays for me learn. It’s a great job and I am lucky to have it.
Click images below for technical details and a larger view.
See the rest of the panoramics
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Happy New Year
To see a timelapse by our Head of Technical Services click below.
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Two Arca Swiss Cubes
November 24, 2009 | Doug
The Arca Swiss Cube is the world’s finest (and most expensive) photographic tripod head. Only those truly dedicated to their art/passion/work would invest in one. So why would you need two??
Well, I wrote an article, mostly for fun, over at getdpi.com (read the article) about why you would need two.
Big thanks to Charles Brown, one of our very talented customers, and a forum member of getdpi.com for the photo of the setup below.
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Zacuto Audio
November 24, 2009 | Doug
Capture Integration recently became a dealer for Zacuto products, a company specializing in audio/video accessories for doing motion work with dSLRs. We are extremely interested in the trend towards dual-purposing cameras like the Canon 5D mark II as both still and video systems.
As such we’ve been doing our homework. In the course of which Chris Lawery came across this great video.
Advanced Sound for DSLR’s from Zacuto USA, Steve Weiss on Vimeo.
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Blogging From Oregon
Dave and I are in Oregon this week with GetDPI.com.
Once we are home we will be posting all sorts of wonderful images and stories. Until then here is a sneak preview.
We stopped on the way from San Francisco to Bandon Oregon to shoot in the Redwood Forests. These were with a P65+ with a Phase One AF body and Phase One 75-150 D and Phase One 28mm. Processing was done in Capture One 5 beta.
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Extreme Macro Techniques / Gear
August 25, 2009 | Doug, Tech Features, Tips & Tech
Reposted from my personal blog www.doug-peterson.com.
Are you a Hard-Core Photo Nerd?
This article is a followup to the Extreme Macro Results post I made. It is only meant for those readers who are very technically oriented.
Nerd Out With All the Technical Details
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Extreme Macro Results
August 24, 2009 | Doug
![P65_Schnd80mm_f11 - FlySide [15-inch-Ex] - 10 pixel radius](http://www.doug-peterson.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/P65_Schnd80mm_f11-FlySide-15-inch-Ex-10-pixel-radius.jpg "P65_Schnd80mm_f11 - FlySide [15-inch-Ex] - 10 pixel radius"){kind=tracking}
This post is the culmination of six months worth of research, experimentation, and refinement into high-magnification macro photography. Taking pictures of extremely small objects with extremely high resolution systems is an incredibly technical endeavor with great challenges and even greater rewards.
I’ll be posting an article for my readers interested in the nitty-gritty of the techniques and equipment used for this work.
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Random Selection
August 18, 2009 | Doug
We’ve started doing random drawings for some pretty expensive prizes. This means I had to come up with a way to do random drawings which are fully transparent and fair. Honesty is very important to us.
On the day of random drawings I check http://finance.yahoo.com/gainers?e=us. I take the ticker symbol with the fifth largest % gain at the closing bell for the NYSE. The winners of the random drawing are the email addresses which falls directly after that ticker symbol in alphabetical order*
Not 100% true-and-random. Mr. Spahn, my high school AP Stats teacher, would be a bit disappointed. But it is fully transparent and easy to do. Plus it gives me an excuse to check my stocks at work.
*If an email address starts with something other than a letter then I start with the first letter in the email address.
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GetDPI Arizona Workshop: Vertical Stitches
June 24, 2009 | Doug
Cambo Wide RS, Phase One P40+, 70 megapixel 2-image stitch (15mm fall, 25mm rise).
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GetDPI Arizona Workshop: Balance Rocks
June 24, 2009 | Doug
One of my photographic philosophies is “don’t miss a shot to get a shot”. While driving for hours in the Great American West to get to a particular pre-scheduled shot our fearless leader Guy Mancuso stopped on several occasions at unmarked, undocumented spots to shoot. This was one of my favorites.
Viewing these balanced rocks makes you wonder at the amazing
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GetDPI Arizona Workshop: Pinhole Landscapes
June 24, 2009 | Doug
I took these shots while on the workshop using our Phase One 645 Body, Phase One P45+, and a self-made pinhole lens (body cap + coke can+ jewler’s drill + gaffe tape).
More high-resolution (and just as soft) pinhole images.
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GetDPI Arizona Workshop: Antelope Canyon
June 23, 2009 | Doug
The GetDPI 2009 Arizona Workshop just ended. As with the 2009 Moab Workshop and the 2008 Lighting Workshop before that I was an instructor of software/workflow while the very talented co-owner of GetDPI.com Guy Mancuso (Jack Flesher, the other owner was unable to make this workshop) taught the composition and capture side.
I’ll post more of my images from the trip as soon as I get some rest. Until then enjoy these images from Antelope Canyon.
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Technical Support Breakdown
June 8, 2009 | Doug, Tips & Tech
Capture Integration receives several dozen calls to our two locations for tech support. Because the digital back is the most expensive part of the camera system it is generally the first target of blame whenever something is “not right”. So you might be surprised by the breakdown of the solutions to tech support calls that I, as Head of Technical Services, answered in 2008.
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Optimizing a Computer for Capture One
May 20, 2009 | Doug, Tips & Tech
There are many types of upgrades available for Mac laptops and desktop, and each effects computer performance in different ways. Capture Integration is a leading expert at customizing computers for photographic applications, especially for tethered and untethered use of Capture One. This article is meant to to help identify what upgrades will have what effect on the speed of Capture One.
Capture Integration a Professional Value Added Reseller and offers both standard and highly customized Apple laptops and desktops. Call 877-217-9870 to discuss your needs.
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Highly Customized MacBookPro
May 20, 2009 | Doug, Tips & Tech
Capture Integration was recently asked to research the fastest possible MacBookPro for on-location Capture One work.
With some dramatic customizations we were able to come up with a system that would be blazing fast, even compared to the fastest system available from Apple.com.
We remove the DVD Drive from the MacBookPro (we give you an external DVD burner which runs off of USB power to replace it) and put in two of the fastest laptop hard drives in the world and RAID them together for 3.3 times the speed of the standard Apple hard drive. For backing up during the shoot we provide an external 7200 rpm hard drive with both USB and firewire interface. We package it together with a HyperMac battery which will run the hard drive and computer for up to 27 hours. At your request we will install, configure, and optimize Capture One.
Modifications for Photography
Capture Integration’s Price is less than Apple.com
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Why Buy From Capture Integration
- Expertise: We are a Value Added Professional Photography Apple Reseller
- Price: In most cases we are able to beat the price from Apple.com
- Tax: If you live outside Florida/Georgia you will not pay sales tax
- Support: We stand behind our sales and offer top-notch support
- Customization: We take pride in eking out every ounce of performance
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10.5.7 released. USB camera bug fixed.
May 12, 2009 | Doug, Tech Features, Tips & Tech
When Apple released 10.5.6 it contained a major bug which made tethering with USB cameras (e.g. Canon 1Ds III, Canon 5D II) unstable in any capture program. In Capture One this manifested itself as an application-freeze after about 110 raw frames, rendering 10.5.6 useless for those tethering USB cameras.. This bug *appears* to be fixed with 10.5.7. Our Head of Technical Services, Doug Peterson, has just fired off 500 shots on a Canon 5D mark II and is still going.
We will do complete testing, and post a side-by-side speed comparison soon which will include the incredibly fast P40+ digital back as soon as time allows.
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The Best Part of iPhone 3.0
March 18, 2009 | Doug
Apple just anounced their new iPhone OS 3.0 software will be available this summer as a free update to all iPhone users.
One small but awseome feature has gotten barely a whisper.
MacRumors.com reports: “Find my iPhone/iPod Touch” option available under MobileMe, which presumably allows you to locate your iPhone from Me.com
Let’s speculate on three uses:
I lose my phone all the time. Sometimes I left it at home. Sometimes I left it at the office. Sometimes I left it at the neighborhood bar. So the moment this feature is available I would enable it. The next time I lose my phone I could just log on to me.com and ask it to access my phone’s GPS and tell me on a map exactly where it is.
Parents could force the feature on and track where their kids are without the need for any 3rd party software. All Apple would have to do is lock that option to the rest of the Parental Controls. Sorry kids!
A “Play Music Until Located” which turns the volume on the phone to max and plays a version of “O Where O Where Could My Baby Be” until someone pics it up. They will see a dialogue that says “This iPhone has been lost. Are you the owner?” If the user taps yes then the user will be prompted for the 4 digit pincode for security. If the user taps no then the dialogue will switch to display the programmed contact information of the user with the option to call the “call when lost” phone number but no other options. Apple already does something vaguely similar with enterprise users, but I for one do not need my unit remotely “wiped” so much as returned to me! Going one step further it would be neat if I as the owner could set up a “reward if found” option. When the phone is found the finder is informed of the “reward if found of X dollars in iTunes credit” and is asked to enter their iTunes account email address and then is allowed to call the “call when lost” phone number to arrange return of the phone. If the phone is returned the owner can enter their pin to unlock the phone at which point the “lost if found” credit is automatically transfered to the finder. The process is transparent and everyone wins.
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iPhone Apps
March 6, 2009 | Doug, Tech Features, Tips & Tech
ProCamera
This nifty capture program displays a tiltmeter in real time as you tak your picture to ensure your horizon is strait. You can also set it to delay capture of an image until the accelometer detects the phone is nearly motionless, leading to sharper hand-held pictures.
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aPhoto GPS Marker
This program does more than just insert GPS coordinates. It can super impose a full suite of labels ontop of photos including latitude/longitude/altitude, copyright, distance to a known point, and caption. We can think of a hundred uses for this, but here is just one: if you’re a nature photographer you can do an initial walk-through of a park with your phone in hand and take quick snapshots of areas you’d like to return to.
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Photo Calc
We love this application’s Sunrise and Sunset calculator which automatically detects your current location and tells you what time the sun will rise and set. The depth of field calculator, reference material, and other features are interesting but not as compelling, and the developer said he is eager to add more features.
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CameraBag
This program is all about filters. You can style your photos on your phone to Polaroid, Holga, Lolo, Mono, Infrared, and Fisheye look. We’re particularly found of the Holga look (called “Helga” in the program, presumably for copyright reasons).
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Moab Black and White
February 12, 2009 | Doug
Here are some of the images I captured at the Moab, Utah workshop run by GetDPI at which I was a guest instructor for Capture One processing. These were shot with a Phase One P21 digital back which has been modified for infrared capture. The raw files were processed (of course) in Capture One, and enhanced in Photoshop.
Capture Integration is the leading expert in the world on modifying medium format digital backs for infrared photography. If you are interested in purchasing a used or new infrared digital back or if you would like to have your digital back modified for infrared please contact us. Having shot everything from Kodak 35mm HIE to 120 Ilford SFx and 120 Macophot 820IR (halo and non-halo variants) and a modified Canon 20D, modified Olympus E-10, I can say definitively that this medium format digital is SEVERAL steps more awesome than any film or dSLR infrared option.
Thanks to GetDPI.com (see more pictures from the workshop participants at their forum thread on the topic) for inviting me to participate. Also thanks to Carol Highsmith who was able to loan me this digital back (our infrared backs were not available for those dates). You can see more of her amazing body of work at CarolHighsmithAmerica.com.
After the Jump More of my B+W Images from this Workshop
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Losing my Leica Virginity
February 12, 2009 | Doug
Leica is a treasured and storied name in photography, having an illustrious past and a following akin to religious fanatical or Apple fans. I made it over a decade in photography without holding a single Leica camera in my hands. During this trip to Moab I had the privilege of shooting a Leica M8 Mark II which was a loan arranged by Guy Mancuso compliments of Leica itself. Let’s be clear: my usual shooting kit consists of gear totaling around $60,000, so I am no stranger to high-end gear, but shooting the M8 still felt like I was stealing breath from the devil. The prestige and aura surrounding the name “Leica” would be difficult for any non-photographer to understand.
I loved losing my Leica virginity and look forward to the private indoctrination ceremony whereby masked Leicaphiles brand you with a Red dot (the Leica trademark). Here are some of the images I took from around of only four natural double-arches in the world (where one arch ends with the beginning of another arch).
More of My Leica Images from the M8
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What the Font on the iPhone
February 11, 2009 | Doug
What the Font is a website that lets you take a screen grab of text and identify the font used.
They now have an iPhone app you can use to take a picture of a magazine, book, etc and identify the font used.
If this doesn’t excite you then you are not as big a design geek as I am.
http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2009/02/11/whatthefont-comes-to-iphone/
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Digital Presidential Portrait
January 15, 2009 | Doug
Pete Souza, the new official presidential photographer has released the official presidential portrait of Barack Obama.
EXIF data shows it is a Canon 5D II with a 105 lens.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/14/president-obamas-official-portrait-the-first-ever-taken-with-a/
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Pentagon Uses Phase One
December 29, 2008 | Doug
The Pentagon 3D aerial mapping system using a Phase One back and Contax camera body.
Granted, I’m not positive the Pentagon’s use of a particular brand should be automatically considered a ringing endorsement given that they once used frozen bats as a method of bomb delivery. However, it’s still neat to see our product on a system on which I’m sure millions of dollars and hundreds of hours were spent.
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My Newphew
July 30, 2008 | Doug
New + Nephew = Newphew
I visited my sister and brother-in-law in Virgina this month.
Yes, he is the cutest baby ever.
Yes that includes your baby.
Check out large images after the jump.
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Custom Function List: Phase One 645
July 17, 2008 | Doug, Tips & Tech
The Phase One 645 Kit has a great set of Quick Cards; easily the 2nd best in the world (next to our own of course). These cards contain an list of the custom function sof the camera, but not a list of what each setting of the custom function represents. For that information you’ll want to download the following PDF: Phase One 645 Custom Function List.
Also related: Phase One 645 User Manual.
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Backup Solutions for During and Before your Shoot
July 9, 2008 | Doug, Tips & Tech
Capture Integration takes dozens of tech support calls a week. Lately we’ve received a lot of calls about backup options during a shoot. So by popular demand we have drafted a 2 page PDF entitled “Backups Before and During a Shoot to Prevent Downtime or Losing Photos“.
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Apple Laptop Batteries
June 18, 2008 | Doug, Tips & Tech
Disclaimer
We are not chemists, electrical engineers, or any other form of battery experts. This post is a direct response to requests for information. We’ve researched the questions we most commonly receive about Apple Laptop Batteries and condensed the results into a short post. With that in mind, we lead with our sources, to encourage further research. This information is only applicable to Lithium Ion batteries used in all current and recent Apple laptops.
Sources
- Battery Universe Guide, by Cadex, a manufacturer of batteries & chargers
- Apple’s official recommendations
- Wikipedia’s Li-Ion article
- Coconut Battery Program for Analyzing your Batteries
- How Stuff Works Article on Li-Ion
- SMC Fan Control 1.2 (we’ve tested this version on our 17″ MacBookPro running Tiger and Leopard)
- SMC Fan Control 2.1 (newer version we have not tested)
Conclusions
Go through at least one discharge cycle per month.
It does not matter if this is one full cycle at one time, or multiple partial cycles spread out throughout the month.
Calibrate the battery once a month.
This will improve the accuracy of the power meter in the menu bar, not the capacity of the battery. Calibration instructions.
Avoid storing batteries that are fully discharged.
If at all possible change to another battery before it is fully discharged.
Avoid storing fully-charged batteries in a hot place.
Leaving a fully charged battery in a hot car will reduce its capacity. This includes a fully charged battery in your computer. Removing the battery from a plugged-in computer is one option, but has severe drawbacks (imagine working on an important file when your mag-safe power adapter is pulled loose). Though not found in the sources, we note that a less extreme option is to raise the minimum speed of your internal fan using SMC Fan Control (Intel-Based Laptops only). This will keep your laptop cooler and should reduce the effect of heat on the maximum capacity of the battery. The effect of this program on the longevity of the internal fan is not known, but it has been running on one of our 17″ MacBookPros for two years.
For long term storage charge the battery to about half charge.
Apple recommends 50%, Cadex recommends 40%. The universal agreement is that storing batteries fully charged or fully depleted is a bad idea. Storage temperatures between room temperature and refrigerator temperature are acceptable. Freezing is not recommended.
Your battery should hold 80% of its original capacity for 300 charge cycles, but will drop quickly thereafter.
The drop in capacity is much faster after 300 cycles than before (capacity vs time is a downward curve). You can find the number of cycles by Apple > About-This-Mac > Power. You can also use Coconut Battery for a more user-friendly readout.
If your battery is dying prematurely Apple may replace it under warranty.
If your capacity is shot and you are not yet to 300 cycles take your computer to the Apple Store and ask if they can replace your battery. According to forum discussions the resulting compensation will vary from nothing to a free on-the-spot replacement.
Li-Ion Batteries have a shelf life regardless of storage method.
Cadex references 3 years as a normal shelf life but confirmation could not be found in other sources.
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Infrared Modified P45 plus
Capture Integration is pleased to announce immediate availability of a P45+ Infrared digital back for demonstration during the months of July and August. At the end of August we’ll be selling it at a discount (because it will have been used for demos), so if you’d like to try the best infrared digital back made, don’t delay.
At 39 megapixels this digital back is the highest resolution infrared camera on the market and creates absolutely stunning IR images. Our technician Doug Peterson, a long time fan of infrared films such as Macophot 820IR and SFX200, has been putting the camera through its paces. Below is a low resolution version of a shot taken by Doug this past weekend. You can also download a watermarked full-resolution JPG.
Update: Here are tests with various filters can be found.
Tech info on the shot after the jump.
Further discussion can be found on the GetDPI forum.
Continue reading Infrared Modified P45 plus…
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