Books from the Master: Ansel Adams

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Ansel Adams: Half Dome, Blowing Snow

Ansel Adams: Half Dome, Blowing Snow. © Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

I have no idea when I was first entranced by the photos of Ansel Adams.   There is a wonderful, luminous quality to his work. Small wonder he is America’s best known landscape photographer.  Collections of his work would make a worthy addition to any photographer’s library.  This is also the time of year that Ansel Adams calendars pop up like snowstorms.

The best advice I can give you is not to buy any collection of Adam’s work, either book or calendar unless it is published by Little, Brown and Company, or by NYGS (New York Graphic Society, which is also published by Little, Brown).

Why?

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VERIFY or ELSE!

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Brainard Lake, damaged file. Photo copyright Jim Doty Jr.

Brainard Lake, Damaged File

After I work on a group of photos,  I back them up by burning them to DVDs and transfer them to external hard drives.  I always set the DVD burning software (by NERO) to “verify” the contents of the DVD.  It takes more time but it is well worth it.

After burning some photos to a DVD today, NERO told me the verification process had failed because some of the files were “different” from the originals, and provided a list.  I opened the photo folder on the DVD and all of the thumbnails looked fine.  So I tried to open one of the “different” files in Photoshop and received this ominous message.

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Great Books by Jeff Wignall

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I’ve been reading Jeff Wignall’s books for over 20 years.  When I grow up, I want to write like Jeff!  His books are clear, fun to read, and helpful. He did a lot of writing for Kodak and he was involved in the Joy of Photography series which was both inspirational and practical, and many of the Kodak photo guides.

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Q&A: Canon T2i vs T1i

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Canon EOS Rebel T2i (550D, Kiss X4)

Every once in a while, I post my answer to a question that I receive by email. This one has to do with choosing between two camera bodies: the Canon T1i and T2i. When I am thinking about buying a camera, the first thing I do is to check out some trusted online sources. These are sites that do this kind of comparative thing all the time. I checked two of my favorite sources before answering the question below. Although the question is about choosing one camera or the other, I also cover the issue of upgrading from the T1i to the T2i.

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The Best Camera Quick Release System

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Arca-Swiss compatible "L-bracket" and tripod head

Mounting a camera onto the screw on top of a tripod head is time consuming. Doing it in the dark when your hands are cold is annoying. Once the camera is mounted, if you flop the camera over to the side to take a vertical photo, the camera tries to rotate on the screw. To provide a solution, all kinds of “quick release systems” have been created. Some of them work quite well, some not so well.  Most systems have a weakness of one kind or another.

One system has become the defacto standard for serious photographers. It is arguably the best. If you are tired of the nuisance of screwing your camera onto your tripod head, or if you’ve grown weary with the problems created by an inferior quick release system, it is time for a change. Go here.

TRIPOD RECOMMENDATIONS – SOME OF THE BEST – 2010

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Looking for a tripod? This is the place to find information, recommended models, and links to more information.

It is best to buy your tripod legs and tripod head separately. The best brands are interchangeable so you can match the legs you want with the tripod head that you want.

For years I have been recommending Bogen/Manfrotto and Gitzo tripods. . . .

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MASTERING PHOTOSHOP SERIES

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If you want to master Photoshop, a complete course can be found in the books in the posts below.

FOUNDATIONS

Begin with one or two of the basic to intermediate books in the next post. After that, jump into the list of advanced books in the posts below.

ADVANCED SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES

Your image processing begins with how you process your RAW files with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). One of your best guides is Bruce Fraser and co-author Jeff Schewe. What you do with your RAW files determines how much or how little you can do with the file later on in Photoshop. You maximize your possibilities later on by making the right choices in ACR. Make the wrong choices, and you have limited what you can do later on.

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MASTERING PHOTOSHOP: RETOUCHING, PART TWO

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Two essential and challenging Photoshop skills are Masking and Compositing. Fortunately for all of us out in Photoshop land, Katrin Eismann has written a masterful book on developing these skills, Photoshop Masking & Compositing.

You will learn about selection tools and techniques, how to use masks and layers, advanced selection techniques for difficult subjects like human hair, and how to do flawless composites.

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MASTERING PHOTOSHOP: RETOUCHING, PART ONE

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Katrin Eismann is a world class expert on photo retouching. She is one of the best of the best. In 2005 she was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame. Anything she writes should be high on your reading list if you are serious about making the most of your Photoshop skills.

Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (3rd Edition) has become a classic and it is is now in its third edition. You would be hard put to find a better book on Restoring and Retouching photos with Photoshop. Once you’ve learned the basics of Photoshop, this book is a must read. Just look at all the 5 star ratings at amazon.com and read the glowing reviews.

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MASTERING PHOTOSHOP: ADVANCED COLOR CORRECTION, PART ONE

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If you want to master color in Photoshop, Dan Margulis is the best of the best. He is one of the first three persons to be named as a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. And the book to get is Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition). What Margulis teaches you to do with color is amazing. The before and after images will make your jaw drop.

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GETTING THE BEST RESULTS FROM THE BEST ONLINE PHOTO LABS

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Online Labs Rated

How do you pick a good online photo lab? How do you get the best results from your lab? What color space should you use for your digital files and how do you convert your files to the right color space? How big a print can you make from your digital files?

It’s the time of year that people think about making prints for family and friends, and more and more people send their files off to an online digital photo lab to have those prints made. So which are the best labs, and what can you do to get the best results? That’s what this article is all about. This article is revised and significantly enlarged from the version posted a year ago.

My short answer: Use Mpix and Shutterfly for prints of all sizes, plus a host of specialty items. Use EZPrints for panoramas. Why these three labs? Keep reading. For maximum color accuracy, convert the files to the sRGB color space before sending them to the lab, and turn auto enhance off at the online photo lab. Stick with the 300 pixel per inch guidelines. More about color space and auto enhance and resizing files later on in this article. First, let’s look at some online labs.

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MY NEW PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK

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Pt Iroquois Lighthouse, Michigan. © Jim Doty Jr.

UPDATE, NOVEMBER 4: My book is now in stock at Amazon.com. Just in time for holiday gift giving. Use the link below to order. It is available in both paperback and Kindle editions.

My new “how-to” photography book, Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies, will be out in a couple of months. It is part of the new, full-color, Photography for Dummies series, so it is loaded with full color photographs.

Is this book for you? That’s what this post is all about. After reading what follows, you should have a good idea if this book will be helpful to you and your photography. Keep in mind that this book would be an excellent gift for the avid photographer in your life.

In a few words, this book is about taking your photography to the next level. Even if you are a beginner, this book will show you how to take control of both the technical and artistic sides of exposure, setting you free to create eye-catching images. If you are well past the beginner stage, this book will take you through some advanced exposure concepts and techniques that most books don’t cover.

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3 MILLION PAGE VIEWS

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Jim Doty.com

Sometime early in the morning of July 11, 2010, my Web site at JimDoty.com rolled past 3 million page views.  I never imagined that would happen when I launched the site 10 years ago.

My thanks to all of you who visit any of my sites. I hope you enjoy what you read and see, and that you find it helpful to you in your own photographic explorations.

SEA TURTLE TAKES VIDEO WITH LOST CAMERA

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It all started when a diver near Aruba lost his Nikon Coolpix camera that was inside an underwater housing. It turned up several months later on a Florida beach, 1100 miles from where it was lost. The camera was just fine so a Coast Guard investigator used the photos on the camera to try and track down the camera’s owner.

Photos were posted on several Web sites and someone recognized the photos and the owner was located.

During the 1100 mile journey, the strap on the camera housing got tangled with a sea turtle. In the thrashing about, the video was turned on and the sea turtle unwittingly recorded 5 minutes of video.

The whole story is here, photos from the camera are here, and the video is here.

If the story link goes away, you can read it after the break.

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