Entries Tagged 'Photography' ↓

Professional photographers need an effective, portable way to display digital images. The current methods, web sites, flash drives stuffed with jpegs, CD-ROM’s burned full of hard work universally suck.

The Part Where I Miss the Good Old Days

As a 4×5 shooter I spent 20 years lugging around portfolios of my work as mounted transparencies. Submissions were FedEx boxes sent at considerable expense. We, photographers and editors, all used magnifying loops and light tables to view the images. There was stooping and lifting and racing to the nearest FedEx drop point but I knew that the editor that received the work would see exactly it exactly as I did. All the clerical work and shipping costs bought a level playing field.

Things are different with digital and different does not imply better. Displaying my digital imagery is mostly out of my control. I fuss with images on a color calibrated LCD display in a room painted neutral gray. My display, mostly because it plugs into the wall and cares not at all about battery life, is forgiving of my viewing angle. Clients view these carefully tuned images on anything and everything. The commercial clients that I visit have cramped, uncalibrated LCD displays or, worse still, laptops with heavily polarized displays. The web images are viewed in Internet Explorer X – so any color management is ignored so I don’t bother.

The Horror. Viewing Images on Portable Devices

Current laptop computers, no matter the size or the manufacturer, are pitifully bad at displaying photographs. A laptop screens restricted viewing angle makes proper viewing of images an exercise in precision head holding. Gadgets like the Acratech Viewing Angle Gauge are only a small help. Netbooks, which are built to a low price, aren’t yet even awful at displaying color images – the manufacturers of netbooks strive to reach the lofty peak that is awfulness. I wish them well.

Worse than any laptop is the LCD on the back of any camera. No matter how good, a 3″ LCD is, it is far to small. Contemporary camera LCDs, though better than laptops, also suffer from color shifts and falloff as you move off axis. The “too small to be useful” argument also applies to the way-to-expensive-for-what-they-do dedicated field storage and photo viewers. They are over priced and underwhelming.

The iPad – A Possible Solution

In Apple’s soon to be released iPad may finally be a portable device suitable for the proper display of digital images. I say this, of course, without actually having ever seen one.

The iPhone / iPod Touch are already capable, portable image viewers. High resolution, less fussy screens and multitouch together combine for the best portable viewing experience. They are too small, but the ability to easily selectively zoom helps. The photo display app is complete if simple.

The iPad evolves the iPhone / iPod Touch into a bigger and far more capable device. Specific to photography it uses an LED-Backlit IPS Display. The IPS tech is the key here. In both videos of the unveiling and still images posted by Apple and others, the iPad’s LCD screen appears to ignore viewing angle. This is not the case in other battery powered displays which, I’ll mention again, are unusable for critically viewing images.

Again, relying on demo footage, the iPad’s include Photo app seems first rate and built to take advantage of the devices multitouch control. And, not incidentally, it appears to be really fast.

As a web device, the iPad will run the Safari Browser and Safari honors color management. A properly configured web site can ID the device and send Color Managed content with some genuine confidence that client and photographer are looking at substantially the same thing.

The Inevitable iPad Postscript

The hype, generated not by Apple so much as the interwebs, surrounding the iPad / Apple Tablet may be unprecedented. Without actually using one, I refuse to participate in pronouncing it either the end of computing as we know it or, conversely, just a big iPod Touch with no discernible purpose. I will however provide you with opinions by people that have touched it, however briefly, and who are known to me as thoughtful writers about things tech. First would be John Gruber of Daring Fireball. Gruber has written extensively on the Apple Tablet that became the iPad. Also, beneath the roar and above it all is is a very reasoned consideration of the iPad by Frasier Speirs.

(Early the next day…)

Two more links that explore the iPad and the future of computing (with thanks to John Gruber for the original links.) First an essay on old vs. new computing. Finally, a thoughtful “pre-review” of the iPad by Andy Ihnatko.

There will never be a perfect, do everything, carry everything camera pack. So it came as no surprise that the Guru Gear Kiboko fell short of the universal way to transport my gear. What was surprising is just how close it came to being good enough.

About the Kiboko

The Kiboko carries cameras, lenses and accessories and does so in a package that can be carried into the cabin of most airlines (by size, you can certainly exceed the in cabin weight limits of airlines with a fully loaded pack.) It carries well by hand and, when you arrive, it has an above average back pack style harness system suitable for a day long carry. Unlike a traditional panel loading pack, the Kiboko has to smaller panels attached lengthwise at the center of the pack. As a result, the top opens onto it’s self, one half at a time. The “butterfly” openings run the length of the pack so long lenses easily fit.

Construction is solid with a clear emphasis on building a light weight pack that still adequately protects the contents. Nice touches include large, glove friendly, zipper pulls, integrated rain cover, a side luggage handle and a pile of extra padded dividers.

(An Aside) A Very Short History of Backpacks

While it can sometimes be hard to see past the blizzard of fasteners, straps and zippers, a contemporary backpack’s advantage over packs of yore lies in their suspension. While there are variations on the theme, any pack designed to carry 20-25 pounds (9-11.3 kg) or more distributes the load primarily on the hips and secondarily on the shoulders. The pack is drawn into the body by the tension of the shoulder straps, the tension of the sternum strap (which runs between the front shoulder straps at chest level) and in some sophisticated harness systems, by tension straps connecting the top of the pack to the top of the shoulder straps. Ideally, as the top straps leave the pack and travel over your shoulders they stay, more or less, flat. On the other end, the padded waste belt of a properly sized pack sits on a part of the bony pelvis called the Ilium. To locate the ilium just run your hand down either side beginning above the waist. The substantial bone, just beneath the skin at waist level, is the ilium and you are feeling the part of the ilium called the iliac crest.

Because people come in vastly different sizes and therefore have vastly different torso lengths, backpacks come in two or most often three lengths. Additionally backpacks often have vertically adjustable waist belts to fine tune fit. Because boys are shaped differently than girls, many manufactures make pack lines tuned to fit (mainly in the engineering of the waste belt) the different sexes.

Carrying Cameras and Lenses on Your Back

The suspension on Kiboko pack has the torso length fixed. It is too long a pack for some and, at as I stand 6′2″, too short for me. With the waste belt properly placed, the shoulder straps plunge 4 to 5 inches (10-12.7 cm) off my shoulders and down my back to the pack. This mis-fit results in a pack that is difficult (impossible?) to fit tightly to the back without transferring excess weight to the shoulders. Secondarily, even though it adjusts over a wide range, the sternum strap is higher than I prefer as I wore the pack.

Shorter photographers will have a different but equally problematic fit with the Kiboko. A shorter torso will result in shoulder straps that leave the shoulder and angle up to the pack. This results in almost no weight being transferred to the shoulders and a pack that will be difficult to control if packed with some weight.

With my travel kit loaded, the Kiboko weighed in at 26 pounds (11.8 kg.) Add some extra clothing, a snack or two, a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and a Acratech Ultimate ball head and the weight of the full loaded, ready to hit-the-trail and get-that-view-at-sunset pack weighs in at about 32 pounds (14.5 kg.) I certainly could leave some stuff behind. But leaving equipment behind in a US National Park or other popular area for photographers makes me queasy – especially if I’ve been shooting for a few days in one location. I’d rather haul the bulk of my gear with me than worry about baddies breaking into my vehicle.

If your in the sweet spot, fit wise, for the Kiboko I’d guess that 30 pounds (13.6 kg) would be about the comfort limit for the pack. You can likely stuff more pro level gear in the Kiboko but you’ll be straining the limits of the suspension.

Missed It By That Much

Other than the fit, which is a deal killer and the pack has been sent back, there is little to complain about with the Kiboko. Since the dual butterfly wing opening is fixed to the center of the pack, it squanders some room. The divided vertically down the center layout also limits the width of contents. I found it hard to fit my lenses with hoods mounted in the pack without staggering them. Rather than run a wide velcro strip down the center of each compartment, the pack has a single patch at the center of each side. This requires that any dividers that need to be anchored on three sides be at the center of the pack – an arbitrary limitation.

At $399 US, the Kiboko is fairly priced. A airline sized pack that carries well on the ground is a grand idea. Andy Biggs came close to making my travel life a little easier but he missed it “by this much.”

If asked about my photography I instinctively use the words landscape or exterior to describe what I do. While that was once accurate, lately it is less so. With the construction of commercial buildings in my part of California pretty much stopped this past year I’ve found my commercial work moving indoors.

My commercial exterior skill set was borrowed from years of shooting the West’s landscapes. Decisive framing, knowing good light from lesser light, and shooting fairly quickly are some of the skills that work just as well while shooting in a National Park or a squeaky new Office Building. Also, photographing the exterior of an office building, like shooting landscapes, is (most often) a solo activity.

In contrast, interior work is far less spontaneous and far more about staging and fussiness. While not necessarily more technical, indoor work definitely uses different set of tools. Unlike exterior work, interior photography is almost always collaborative. While I’m happy looking through a view finder for composition, most interior designers and other interested parties are not.

The solution, and there are several variations depending on the species of camera, involves either tethering the camera to a nearby laptop or talking to the laptop wirelessly. Either way images show up on a nearby laptop and crowds gather. While tethering is cheap and reliable, stringing cables between things that don’t drop or fall without suffering greatly, is an invitation to a bad day. Tethering is for the studio.

I shoot Canon Digital and Canon has a wireless solution, the WFT-E2A Wireless File Transmitter, by all accounts it works well. It is pricey and does lots of things that I don’t much care about. Enter the Eye-Fi Pro Wi-Fi / Airport enabled SD card. The Eye-Fi Pro lets most any camera that has an SD slot (my main shooting camera a Canon 1Ds III has both CF and SD slots) to transfer files via a wireless network. Most importantly it allows for an Ad hoc, aka direct camera to laptop, network setup.

I’ve tested it with my MackBook sitting a full 25 feet away and it pretty much just works… well after the obligatory “new thing not working at all” phase.

Setting Up an Ad hoc Network

The folks at Eye-Fi central have a far more grand vision for this little card than simply transferring files from here to there. While the Eye-Fi is plugged into the computer’s USB port, all these features are enabled and managed in a browser based application. This all goes well until it’s time to set up the Ad hoc network feature. To configure the card you have to be on a network. Let’s pretend you are on a wireless network as I was. To configure the Ad hoc network you have to leave the network and create the computer to Eye-Fi link. This is unfortunate. If you try and do this wirelessly… well I couldn’t. The Eye-Fi browser application complained that it could not talk to Eye-Fi central every time I left the Airport network to configure the Ad hoc feature.

After a couple of rounds of this sort of behavior it became clear that the computer is being used to configure the card needs to be hard wired to the internet. After dusting off a spare ethernet cable and finding a spare port to plug it into, my MacBook and Eye-Fi were properly configured. The MacBook was able to talk via ethernet to Eye-Fi central while the wireless chatter between the MacBook and the Eye-Fi card set up the direct wireless link.

The Eye-Fi Pro allows for RAW files to be transferred. Saving (this is a slow, small capacity card) and sending big RAW seems unnecessary for this purpose. The 1Ds III allows for different files to be written to each of the two internal cards. I set up with RAW going to the fast CF card and a medium JPEG file is sent to the Eye-Fi. From click to transfer time seems strangely variable with maximum time of roughly one minute with less than 20 seconds more typical.

Fun With Folder Actions

While transferring a JPEG from camera to laptop using the Eye-Fi qualifies as a good trick, a real solution would display the resulting JPEG for the gathered crowds. Again, some solutions do this natively and others are home made. Follows is the latter.

As part of the Ad hoc network setup, the Eye-Fi application asks for a folder to load with the transferred JPEGs. Using the Automator application that ships with OS X I wrote a (very) simple action that automatically checks to see if anything has been added to the target folder and, when something arrives, to display it in the OS X native Preview application.

The workflow: Compose, worry about staging and lighting, and fire the shutter. The file is sent to the Eye-Fi Pro and from their to the anointed folder on the MacBook. The crowd stares at as the JPEG appears in Preview. Fault is found in the framing or the staging. Something is fixed, the shutter is tripped again…

The title says it all. Steven Frisching, who really likes flying on commercial airlines¹ , has posted a very handy table that gives the dimensions and weight limits for economy class carry-on baggage for 68 of the worlds Airlines.

There is no standard size or weight for in cabin luggage. As a result the allowed weight varies from a low of 11lbs (5kg) on Alitalia to “none” (perhaps better stated as “none specified…”) on several domestic carriers. Adding to the chaos… some Airlines ignore their own regulations while others are know sticklers.

Icelandair is missing. So here, as of this date, are the specs:

IcelandAir: Size: total of the 3 dimensions (L+W+H) does not exceed 115cm (45in) – Weight 13lbs (5.9kg.)

As always, these may change so check with your airline before you head to the airport…

¹ And I don’t.

I have rented lens’ from Lens Rentals.com and nothing but good things to say about them.

As I wondered through all the exotic glass, I apparently missed a series of well written and wide ranging articles that date back to September of last year.

With topics ranging from the mundane, “Purchasing a Ballhead”, to the sublime, “Canon’s Error 99: the Man the Myth”, and the important “Lens Repair Data 3.0″ this is a growing collection of well written information that stands out from the opinionated but mostly fact-free crowd. These folks actually buy, test and have folks like me abuse rent a huge number and collection of lenses by all the major manufacturers.

Highly reccommended.