Month: January 2010

Categories
HDR Photography Lightroom Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 Photomatix Pro

HOW TO: Setting up the Canon PowerShot S90 to Shoot HDR

Golden Gate Bridge - 2010

Order a Limited Edition print of this photo

[Update: These same techniques apply to the Canon PowerShot S100 and, I believe, to the Canon PowerShot S110 as well as the Canon PowerShot S95.]

A friend has asked how I’ve been setting up my Canon PowerShot S90 to take the HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos I’ve been sharing.

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

  1. Put the S90 into Aperture Priority mode by setting the mode dial to Av. By shooting in Av, you ensure that the camera isn’t adjusting the aperture (which could cause focus issues) but, rather, only shutter speed. 
  2. Select a fixed (not Auto) ISO (see p. 76 in the S90 manual). In daylight, choose 80 or 100. You want a fixed ISO so that the camera isn’t trying to adjust ISO between shots.
  3. Select Large format JPEG or RAW (see p. 72 in the S90 manual). (I find the Large JPEGs are the easiest to post-process while purists say to shoot in RAW. The S90 does a superb job of processing in-camera, so just choose Large JPEG when you’re getting started.)
  4. Turn on Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB mode – see p. 93 in the S90 manual). Chose the middle option – “Takes 3 different shots at different exposures”. While still in that setting, press the DISP button and turn the dial to select +/- 2 stops. This ensures that the camera takes 3 shots: one properly exposed, one underexposed by 2 stops, and one overexposed by 2 stops. These three photos are what Photomatix Pro then uses to create the HDR image.

Now, the S90 is ready to go.

For best results, mount the S90 on a tripod to prevent any movement as the three shots are being taken. If you don’t have a tripod, you can try handheld HDR – just try to brace your arm against a support to minimize any camera movement. When you hit the shutter button, the camera will take the 3 shots – about a shot per second. After 3 seconds or so, it’s done.

I post-process in Lightroom – using it to import the photos from the S90. I then use Photomatix Pro and just point it to the 3 shots in the file folder to begin generating the HDR image. Once the image has been generated and tone mapped, I save it back into the same folder and then import that image also into Lightroom – telling Lightroom to just add it to the catalog but not to copy it as the image is already in the folder.

For the best overall tutorial on HDR processing, be sure the see Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs HDR tutorial.

Categories
HDR Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90

Canon PowerShot S90 HDR – Continues to Amaze!

I’ve continued to be very pleased with the HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos I’ve taken using my relatively new Canon PowerShot S90 camera. See my Canon S90 HDR Flickr set for some recent examples of some of the photos that I’ve been shooting!

Golden Gate Bridge - 2010

Order a Limited Edition print of this photo

For my S90 HDR shooting, I’ve been using a lightweight Manfrotto tripod that, frankly, I was about to get rid of because it’s just not substantial enough to support my Canon 5D Mark II. But, as it turns out, this tripod is absolutely perfect for shooting with the Canon S90! I’ve been getting a bit of a kick out of walking around with this tripod – with this little tiny camera mounted on it!

If you’re looking for an entry-level digital camera that shoots RAW, includes auto-bracketing suitable for HDR, and almost disappears in your hands, be sure to checkout the S90 – it’s an awful lot of digital camera in a tiny package – and continues to amaze me!

Categories
Blogs/Weblogs Photography

A New Header Graphic Image

Once or twice a year, I change the header graphic image on my blog – to something new that I find fresher than the old image! Over the last couple of days, I’ve been playing with some new Photoshop plug-ins and learning how to use them on some older photos in my library.

Earlier this afternoon, I picked a shot of the Blue Angels over the Golden Gate Bridge from last November to play around with – and was pleased with the result. The original photo was shot with my Canon 5D Mark II shooting in RAW. The photo was tweaked using PhotoMatix Pro and then adjusted in PhotoShop CS4.

Hope you also enjoy it! You can see the complete history of my earlier header graphic images here. To view more of my photography, see my Flickr photostream here.

Categories
Books Current Affairs Living

A Passion for Nukes

For the last few weeks, I’ve been auditing a seminar titled “EE190: Nuclear Weapons, Risk and Hope” that Stanford Professor Emeritus Martin Hellman has been teaching this quarter.

This is a subject that Marty is most passionate about – see, among other references, his website on Defusing the Nuclear Threat. Coincidentally, Marty and I had lunch a couple of weeks ago on the day he was going to hold the first class in the seminar – so I tagged along. I had recently re-watched Thirteen Days – one of my all-time favorite movies – where the US and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. I’m glad I have attended these seminar sessions of Marty’s – in the process learning much more about both the history, the technology and the issues surrounding atomic weapons.

Earlier this month, an obituary in the New York Times caught my eye – Tsutomu Yamaguchi died on Monday, January 4, 2010, at age 93. According to the Times, Yamaguchi was “the only official survivor of both atomic blasts to hit Japan in World War II.” He was present both at Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the atomic bombs went off. Can you imagine? I couldn’t.

On Monday afternoon, I attended the lecture “Working Toward a World Without Nuclear Weapons: Sidney Drell and George Shultz in Conversation with Philip Taubman” held by CISAC at Stanford. It was especially interesting to me to hear George Shultz’s description of the meeting in Reykjavik between President Reagan and Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev in which they talked about eliminating nuclear weapons.

Yesterday, I happened across this NPR story about the book The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back by Charles Pellegrino. NPR included the first chapter from the book – which begins by describing in minute details what actually took place during the first few seconds following the Hiroshima detonation. It’s very powerful in its description of that day – but still is something very hard to imagine beyond the sheer devastation that resulted.

Let’s hope, for all of our sakes, that – through the work of Hellman, Pellegrino and so many more who are trying to get us back to a nuclear zero world – that this is not something we ever have to experience ever again.

Categories
Living

A Good Week

It’s late on Friday evening – after what turned out to be a very good – if long – week.

On Monday, my shoulder surgeon was pleased that, 12 weeks after rotator cuff surgery, my right arm had 170 degrees of movement – and cleared me to begin – slowly – physical therapy on the right shoulder.

Later that morning, my dermatologist inspected the results of the Mohs surgery I had just before Christmas to remove a relatively large basal cell skin cancer (2 x 2.5 inches) just under the surface of the skin in my right temple area. He (and I) are both pleased with how well that wound is healing. Amazingly, it seems that I’m almost to the point where folks may not notice it.

On Tuesday, I had an all-day client meeting over in the East Bay with a colleague. That session proved to be a lot a fun – in spite of the weather difficulties! Afterwards, I was able to combine my East Bay visits – meeting with a venture investor just across the street who was considering an investment in a good friend’s new startup.

Wednesday and Thursday were Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp days – always a lot of fun and especially with the group we had for this session.

And, today, I actually had my first physical therapy session for my shoulder – with much good news about how well things seem to be working already in spite of my 12 weeks of “downtime”.

That was followed by a working session with another payments-related startup that’s well on it’s way to closing an initial financing round – and then of to lunch with an old friend.

Mid-afternoon, I had my annual physical exam with my primary care physician – and came up with no new surprises. After 2009, I’m hoping 2010 will continue to be a year of no new medically-related surprises!

Capping the evening, we had a great dinner with good friends at Donato in Redwood City.

All in all, it was a great week!

Categories
Living

Re-Entry

Every couple of months, I’m involved in teaching one of our Glenbrook Payments Boot Camps as part of my “day job”. We always get a great group of folks from across the payments industry attending our Boot Camps – and teaching is always a lot of fun. Over 3,500 folks have attended one of these sessions since we started them over four years ago.

As anyone who has taught a subject knows, there’s nothing quite like teaching a subject to force you to stay current on what’s happening in a particular industry! My partner Carol Coye Benson leads our Payments Education efforts – and does a superb job at keeping out presentation material up to date!

This week’s Boot Camp was a particularly good group – very interactive, wanting to probe and better understand, and full of great questions. Ironically, we had no bankers in this session – just the innovators!

While I’m in “Boot Camp mode”, I tend to disconnect from the rest of the world – as teaching ends up becoming such a central focus of my attention. Emails get overlooked, I don’t return phone calls – you get the idea.

Tonight, I’m in “re-entry” mode – trying to catch back up with what I’ve missed – and struggling to do so. Fortunately, tomorrow is Friday – and a weekend awaits around the corner! It can’t come soon enough! See you on the other side!

Categories
HDR Photography Photography

Really Enjoying Photography Podcasts

Twice a week, I ferry the family dog to a session of “doggie day care”. The round trip gives me about 45 minutes in the car to listen to anything I want. I could just listen to the news on the radio – but that often puts me in a cranky mood. So, I look for something better.

Increasingly, of late, I’ve been using that travel time to listen to photography-related podcasts on my iPhone (plugged into the Aux input in my Honda Civic Hybrid). These podcasts have proven to be quite interesting – and have introduced me to some things I otherwise might not have learned about. They are MUCH more fun than listening to the often depressing news of the day!

Today, for example, I listened to two podcasts by Frederick Van Johnson. He’s the host of the ”This Week in Photography” podcast – which I sometimes listen to – but I am finding his individual podcast interviews to, frankly, be more focused and interesting than the group chat that takes place on TWIP.

On today’s drive, I really enjoyed his podcast interview with Michael Corsentino – who, as it turns out, is a master at marketing his wedding and portrait photography simply by his choices about client presentation.

Coming home from our Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp in Santa Clara tonight, Frederick’s interview with Trey Ratcliff of StuckInCustoms.com was especially great! Trey is one of the great HDR (High Dynamic Range) photographers – a technique that I’m also enjoying a lot. If you’re into HDR, you’ve got to listen to this podcast!

Yesterday, while driving over to Oakland for a client meeting, I was fascinated by Dave Warner’s LensFlare35.com interview of Jasmine Star. Dave knows how to ask the right questions – his 1:1 photography podcasts are another favorite of mine!

If you’re into photography like I am – and have the time to listen – be sure to check out the rich treasure trove of great photography podcasts available on iTunes!

Categories
HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 San Francisco/California

A Bit of HDR – Canon S90 HDR

Yesterday, a day with some dramatic clouds here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I took the opportunity to head up to San Francisco and shoot a few HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos using my Canon PowerShot S90 – here’s a link to the slideshow – and below is one of my favorites taken at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Palace of Fine Arts - San Francisco

Categories
San Francisco/California

The San Francisco Chronicle

Today, the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle print edition arrived on our doorstep – as it does every morning.

But today, on the front page – and a few other section front pages – the Chronicle highlighted stories/columns that were only available in either the print edition that we had received – or in the so-called e-edition.

According to the Chronicle print edition, those stories/columns would be added to the SFGate.com edition in a few days – but they’re not available there today. Ironically, one of the front page articles behind the new “print wall” was by Benny Evangelista about how companies are listening and responding to complaints from their customers on Twitter!

Since we’re subscribers – and have been for years – to the print edition, I thought there would be an obvious option for us to get the corresponding e-edition for free.

No, no, no! The folks at the Chronicle have decided that we should actually pay extra for that privilege – near as I can figure. You’d think they’d offer an easy way for current print subscribers to also get the e-edition. But, it looks like they’ve outsourced the e-edition to a third party – who complicates the whole process significantly.

Frankly, after being treated this way, I’m tempted to just cancel the print subscription and walk away! After all, all we really want to read on Sunday is Willy Brown! One of these days, he’ll have a blog and will ditch that “old media” column of his!

Categories
Living

A Deadly Day

Today was one of those days you hear about as you grow older – but that you never want to experience.

I heard today that two good friends of mine – one exactly my age (my best high school friend) and one about 3 years younger (a long-time colleague) – had passed away over the last two weeks.

As often happens, I had drifted apart from these two good friends over the last few years. One of their deaths was quite sudden, the other apparently a prolonged affair over the last several months.

Hearing about both, on the same day, was particularly poignant for me – especially given the proximity of their ages to mine.

I remember looking up a life expectancy chart a few years ago and seeing a stunning 20 or so years in the column for me. I remarked to several friends at the time that the male life expectancy chart should be posted over the men’s urinal in every bathroom as a reminder to just how fleeting life is – after all.

Hearing today about my good friends’ passing brought all of that back into focus – once again.