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This video shows you how to take your image from Lightroom to Photoshop and back again. In the video, I mentioned that there’s a plain English post here on the blog about understanding bit depth. You can {click here} for that post. Note: if you’re viewing this post in your email inbox, the video may not show up. Click through to the post on my site to view.
I had an amazing question from a reader this week. She asked about using Lightroom’s ‘edit in Photoshop’ tool. If you don’t know about how to do this, check out that video here. What she was wondering was about the bit depth difference between Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. You see, Lightroom edits in 16 bit but Elements can only handle 8 bit. So if you want to use Lightroom’s ‘edit in Photoshop’ function to open your image in Elements, there will be a problem with the big depth. But first, let’s talk about what bit depth is. {About Bit Depth}Ok so I’m going to explain this as basically as possible. We all know about pixels, right? Little dots that make up your image. Each pixel has color information within it. Bits are units of color information which represent mathematical patterns. For example, a 1 bit image can either be 1 or 0 – black or white. A pixel with 8 bit depth has a greater depth of color information to display. Naturally, a 16 bit image has even more color information within each bit. You can get higher than 16 bits, as well – for example, 48 bits. How does this affect your image? The greater the bit depth, the greater the colors, tones and details. But mainly, this has to do with colors. In this brilliant article from Big Swing, the author makes the following statement: “Think of it this way: 8 bits can hold a gallon’s worth of color and 16 bits can hold more than one million gallons!” I love this explanation and the whole article is fab – I don’t feel the need to repeat it all since it was put so well. Be sure to click over and read that post. This is a great plain English video I found on YouTube showing some great visual explanations for RAW vs JPEG, color space and bit depth. And this is my video showing how to work with 16 bit images. {From Lightroom to Elements}So back to my reader’s question: what to do when you move from a 16 bit Lightroom image to Elements which will convert your image to 8 bit? This is an excellent visualization of what happens in that case:  Image on the left edited in 8bit, Image on the right in 16bit.Image courtesy of Juan Trujillo Tarradas So what options do you have? When opening from Lightroom to Elements with the ‘edit it’ function, I don’t think there are options for running the image in 16bit. However, when opening a raw file in Elements, you can open in 16bit as in this video I found on YouTube. However, not all of the editing options are available in Elements when working in 16bit. So I’m not too sure what the point is. {further reading}This is a brilliant post from Cambridge Color about bit depth. There’s a great visualization to show you the difference between 8, 16 and 24 bit depth. 8-bit vs 16-bit in Photoshop (or how I learned to stop worrying and love pictures with smooth skies)
I get asked about packaging quite a bit. Believe me, I know how hard it is to find fashionable photography packaging that matches your branding. Thankfully, I found out about H-B Photo Packaging from another photographer and have had a couple of pretty sizable shipments from them since. Even with the extra cost of shipping overseas and paying for import taxes, I still get my packaging from them. There’s definitely nothing better in this country and as for America, I haven’t found anything better, either. {My packaging} My disk packaging Personally, I use the aqua 11×14, 8×10 and 5×7 boxes with brown paper inside and these colors match my branding perfectly. I also have the smaller boxes for my disks and even smaller for flash drives. I use their matching polkadot fabric ribbon and the wraphia for the smaller packaging. I even have the folders with stretchy brown bows which I love to use for my school marketing packs and complementary prints. I get my sticker printed with Vista Print. {Pros + Cons}Some things I love about H-B Packaging are:
My 8x10 folder for prints + my schools marketing pack Only one con:
Overall, I love H-B Photo Packaging and will be using them for a long time. They make the drudgery of order fulfillment a joy and I love the response I get from my clients who don’t expect their products to arrive in such lovely trimmings.
Even for the most secure photographer, getting inquiries who say ‘thanks but no thanks’ can make you question your prices. And this post will be short and sweet because I have only one think to say about that: it’s the same as folks who browse a store and leave with nothing. Except they have to talk to you on the phone first and this makes it harder when they choose not to shop with you. Don’t take it personally – it’s just part of business and you’re lucky to even have inquiries. It means people are seeing your business as an option and that is a very good thing. I highly suggest reading this post from Psychology for Photographers about ‘anchoring bias’ which is how people decide what is and isn’t ‘too expensive’. It’s helped me tremendously!
When you’re in the flow and really gelling with your subjects, it can be easy to lose track of what you’re doing and forget about what’s in the background. I often kick myself over trees growing out of someone’s head or a horizon that slices right through a subject’s ears. Being that I’m such a wide open shooter, I often rely on the fact that the background will be so blurred that it won’t be so obvious. This is a pretty good example of the difference shooting wide open makes in removing distracting background activity:
Check out these videos to help you remember to always be aware of what’s going on in your frame:
So being the helpey-helper I am, I want to get a review out ASAP because I’m sure there are so many others out there looking for the information I was hoping to see just a couple weeks ago when trying to make my own decision. Bear in mind, I only just started shooting with this camera today so our relationship is hardly an established one. Watch this space as I get to know the G1 X better. {Why a new camera?}One of my readers asked why on earth I would feel I needed this camera when I already have two fantastic cameras. Now, don’t expect this review to be a G1 X vs. 5DmkII type of thing because that’s just comparing apples to oranges. Those cameras of mine are completely necessary for me in my business, but let’s face it…it’s pretty ridiculous to march around on a girly night out with a full frame body and L series lens, right? And the playground? Forget about it. Not only are my cameras capable of giving my kids a concussion whenever I bend over, I had to constantly be aware of where they were or if they were safe or being manhandled by a gang of sticky-fingered toddlers. So while my cameras are a blessing, not having a compact camera was becoming difficult. The past 3 or 4 years has become more and more un-documented as I’ve lost the willingness to wear a full-frame around my neck like a ball and chain. So the answer is simple: I wanted a little go-to camera to take pictures of everyday life. {Where did I get it?}This is the exciting part because I’ve been on the pre-order waiting list for an online photography megastore here in the UK. The website is still saying that they’re waiting for a ‘late February’ shipment of cameras. But I happened to click through to DigitalRev for the first time the other night and -bam- there it was on the front page: “IN STOCK NOW”. And I didn’t waste any time ordering. Within 2 days, it was in my hot little hand. The price was £625, however today I see that it’s now just £599. What’s up with that?! {Technical Details}So if you’ve been looking at info about this camera online, you’re well versed in all the mumbojumbo I’m sure. Just go here and you can find all the juicy nerd details your heart desires. But I will break down a few items here in my own plain English way:
The Aspect Ratio – different sensors give different aspect ratios. So while my DSLRs give me a lovely 3:2 ratio, the G1 X produces images in a 4:3 aspect ratio. However, in the menu there’s an option if you want to switch to 3:2 and so I’ve done just that. You can see an example of the difference below:
Lens – The 15.1mm-60.4mm lens is equivalent to 28mm-112mm on a full-frame camera. And then there’s the added digital zoom capabilities which take it even further.
{Impressions}So from playing with the camera last night and a little bit today, I have the following first impressions. I am keeping in mind, however, that it takes time to get used to any camera. I had a hard time getting to know even my 5D and initially thought it was a bit crappy. All cameras take time to get used to so these are just my first impressions.
{Pictures}Some of the test shots I took today: I took this in aperture mode. Bokeh is ok - just as you'd expect from f/2.8. Nothing to go nuts about though. The pop up isn't too bad, really. I might actually use it! This shows the difference in sharpness between full-auto and non-auto. I chose my focus point and the camera said it had grabbed focus, but clearly shooting in auto was better for sharpness. I saw this over and over again in my shots today. So overall, I’m really excited to start using this camera more. And keep an eye out because my videos will be filmed with this camera from now on, too!
Includes an interview with Jamie Swanson of The Modern Tog. This is the first webisode in a series of four produced especially for Rock the Shot. The next three episodes will be about:
…and those will be available exclusively on Rock the Shot. |
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