I have been on the hunt for some great photography blogs to follow.
Why?
Why not…
They are actually called ‘photoblogs’ I found out today.
Don’t get me wrong, I love reading a good hard cover book or magazine that will inspire me to take better images.  It just seems that time just seems to hide itself away from me these days. So reading blogs for inspiration and new techniques is a good way to go.  Most of the time the posts are 200 words long so I can always find time to read my favourite posts (well if they arrive in my inbox and catch my eye).

One photographer that I follow is called Neil van Niekerk. He is a great teacher. He writes loads of posts sharing great detail about how he has photographed models using flash set ups.  Click here to check out his blog.

So here is my exploration list for you to look through in your own time.  Click below follow the links, that include many inspiring blogs to browse.

I Love Photo Blogs – This is their list of 20 awesome photography blogs.

Photography Blogger – This is a must see blog page, simply stunning in itself! It also includes lots of great tips.

50 Inspiring photoblogs – Be sure to browse through this list put together by Smashing Magazine

If you feel like sharing your favourite photoblogs with us, we’d love you to comment below.

‘Beyond the Point and Shoot’ Digital Photography Course

The Beyond the Point and Shoot, Digital Photography Course was highly praised last year when advanced Camberwell Camera Club members ran two successful intakes of students.

Course co-ordinator, Deborah Mullins planned the 7 session evening course to entice local amateur photographers to go beyond the point and shoot with their cameras.  Two half day workshops also encouraged course participants to put the theory into practice.

Facilitators of the course share knowledge on the following topics:
Effective composition
Cameras and lenses
Light: Natural and Artificial
Using Imaging Software
Landscape and Urban Photography
Portrait Photography
Exhibiting work, mounting and framing images

The two workshops offer practical applications for photographing
Landscape scenes
People outdoors
Still life set ups

Rebecca Nicolandos, president of Camberwell Camera Club commented
“This course is perfect for people who know how to use their camera in a general sense, but want to take their images to the next level!  We are very proud to have received such great feedback and look forward to running two more courses in 2012.”

The course participants enjoy hearing from a range of presenters and their experiences.    Evening sessions run for two hours and start at 7:30pm giving participants plenty of time to take part if they work full time.  The evening sessions are held at the RSL Hall on Camberwell rd in Camberwell, Melbourne.

Course participants are provided with a 6 month membership which allows them to see what happens at a local camera club.

Camberwell Camera Club is made up of a wonderful group of friendly, knowledgeable photographers who all share a common interest.  The club is very proud of the wide range of photographers who come and critique their photography work at monthly meetings.  Camberwell Camera Club also holds mid-week and weekend photography outings for its members and offers evening meetings related to post processing techniques and audio visual creation.

The next course intake for the Beyond the Point and Shoot – Digital Photography Course begins on Thursday the 8th of March 2012.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 18,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Competition was fierce, judge Fred Everett LAPS made valuable comments and selected a stunning set of winning images from a field of great entries. Please see a complete list of winning images in each category below.

Aggregate Awards – 2011

Aggregate Large Prints ‘A’ Division – Donald M Inchley Memorial Trophy.

1 Evan Thomas

2 Don Weston

3 Ken Spence

Aggregate Large Prints ‘B’ Division

1 Colin Hunter

2 Bob Way

3 Robert Shanks

Aggregate Projected Images ‘A’ Division – A. Edmund Stevens Memorial Trophy.

1 Don Weston

2 Barney Meyer

3 Sue Welsh

Aggregate Projected Images ‘B’ Division

1 Anna K Janiak

2 Bob Way

3 Mather Mason / Graeme Pretty Snr.

Aggregate Small Prints (‘B’ Division only)

1 Dennis Hill

2 Colin Hunter

3 Graeme Pretty Snr.

Annual Competitions – 2011. Judge: Fred Everett

The Wilfred Broadhead Memorial Trophy. Best Projected Image

1 Ken Spence – Still Standing

2 Ruth Goldwasser – Along the Shore

The Gordon Hankin Memorial Trophy. Best Large Print

1 Don Weston – Rowers

2 Ruth Goldwasser – The Graduate

The George Rosedale Memorial Trophy. Best Large Architectural Print

1 Barney Meyer – Cathedral

2 Don Weston – Parliament Library

The Viola Boice Memorial Trophy. Best Landscape Projected Image

1 Don Weston – Misty Lake

2 Ken Spence – Avenue of Blossoms

The Nell & Viv Bennett Perpetual Trophy. Best Colour Print (as defined)

1 Barney Meyer – Cape Schanck

2 Phillip Hankin – Wye Sunset

The Monochrome Print Perpetual Trophy.

1 Evan Thomas – Old World, New World

2 Ruth Goldwasser – Tiger Eyes

The Barbara Symonds Memorial Trophy. Best Small Print

1 Sue Welsh – Flamingo

2 Ruth Goldwasser – Colobus

Steward’s Award – 2011

Winner Bob Way

This discussion is about suitable monitors for photographic work.

Higher end monitors such as NEC and EIZO are recommended and used by professionals and these monitors are really excellent as they have very little drift with time, have consistent quality across the screen area, have 10 bit LUTs (LookUp Tables)(a cheap monitor may have purely analogue control and only 8 bit screens – some have 6 bit screens) etc etc – you get what you pay for. As written previously – notebook screens are diabolically bad for photographic editing – don’t even try. If you use a notebook, buy a good external monitor and a calibrator like a Spyder or Munki or i1 (or borrow the club’s i1) and calibrate your monitor, monthly!

For those who are doing digital photography as a hobby, YOU CAN’T AVOID THIS! What’s the point of spending good money on a great camera, then producing rubbish because what you see is not what you get? There are some lower cost options which are pretty good.

Avoid cheap business monitors or gaming monitors. They are overly bright, cannot be calibrated, have a very small colour gamut.

Absolutely avoid monitors with TN screens (twisted nematic).

IPS technology (In Plane Switching) is used in top monitors and the technology has come down in cost, you can find it in mid-range monitors.

This technology has good viewing angles (without changing colour).

But you also need good internal electronics to drive the IPS screen.

I would recommend the DELL U2410 monitors for a mid-range solution – please read the full discussion below.

As promised, here is the result of the $700 Dell U2410 monitor calibration:

The two monitors are almost exactly the same and have a colour gamut only slightly smaller than AdobeRGB.

Here is an example of the monitor correction curves

The curved blue graph is the target for RG&B

The correction curves for RG&B are shown in Red, Green and Blue, they are nice and linear, which shows that the behaviour is very good.

The final corrected RG&B lie exactly on the Target curve.

When I try the same on a notebook monitor, the correction curves are horribly kinky and when I tried it on a good office monitor like the Samsung LS22A450 (generally regarded as the best colour monitors in the $200 price bracket) I am unable to get a calibration.

Factory calibration is good on the Dell, but not perfect.

I’ll see how they drift with time.

Best regards, Barney

Monday, 5 December 2011 10:05 AM
Subject: ASUS PA246Q vs DELL U2410 monitor

I have ordered two of the Dell U2410 monitors for my new office workstation, where I do occasional graphic work with Adobe products and have found the normal cheap business monitors to be extremely poor in terms of colour capability.

You can find the Dell monitors at http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs&sku=230-11017&redirect=1

I’ll be setting up the new workstation this week and will calibrate the monitors and report to you.

In the meantime, to confuse your choices even further, I came across this ASUS monitor which also speaks the right language:

http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/40569-pa246q/

ASUS PA246Q IPS panel, 98% of Adobe RGB, 12 bit LUT, factory calibrated, $579

See comparison review:

http://www.digitalversus.com/duels-battle-of-five-star-products-a966/asus-pa246q-vs-dell-u2410-ap653.html

But read this review and comments by Goodbytes

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=218924

But please be aware that neither is a top-end photographic monitor, for that you have to pay a premium:

Also valuable comments by Pookeyhead:

“The reason why ASUS has been ignored here, is because it not worth it. Review shows the monitor to be OK, and have report of issues form I think 2 people here got (same issue), and they got an abysmal service (impossible to reach anyone for RMA or question) form ASUS Monitor section. So they returned it. A common problem is the monitor producing a high pitch noise if the back light isn’t at 100% (which is very bright). Another issue, is that back light is too clearly uneven. It is to be expected to get uneven backlight on all sub-1500$+ US/Can monitors (for a 24inch range), but this one, for 500$ monitor is too much.”

With monitors like the U2410, when you calibrate them, because you can’t load a profile into the monitors LUT you are doing it at the GPU level instead. The problem with this is it’s at a 8bit level. 8bit output is not a problem normally, until you come to adjust your GPUs settings like gamma, etc. As this is exactly what the .icm or .icc profile will be doing, it can result in banding and poor gradients… plus it’s less accurate.

The other differences is the quality of backlighting. Not only are professional screens wide gamut (not the big deal it used to be), but they are usually designed for uniformity and accuracy instead of the usual consumer game of chasing higher numbers to attract the average buyer. ("Wow… look how bright this one is.. this one is 400mcd/m2… whatever that means"). 120mcd/m2 is an ideal brightness for a moderately lit working environment, so making screens that can sear your eyeballs is pointless.

And lastly, panels are cherry picked for accuracy, uniformity and performance.

In terms of accuracy, a decent U2410 when calibrated properly is actually very good, but one thing I notice with proper high end screens is the way they calibrate. They are consistent at hitting the other important targets, which are colour temperature (white point) and gamma. Correct colour is only one third of the story for an image professional, and this is where a high end screen will score.

Here’s a monitor report for my Eizo created by LaCie Blue Eye Pro.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 634×1010 and weights 161KB.

While the delta E figures are superb as you would expect once calibrated, they don’t beat the U2410 by any amount that would be visible to the eye. What is impressive is the accuracy achieved with white point, luminance and gamma. It hits these targets with this level of accuracy time and time again. This is because it’s being calibrated at hardware level, not at the GPU.

Accurate white point, gamma and luminance are just as important as colour for an image professional, so this is what you’re paying a premium for.

The OP mentions the ZR24W… a great screen, but be aware it is only sRGB gamut, and not wide gamut.

@ the OP… are you aware of the drawbacks with a wide gamut screen in everyday use?

You have a decent calibrator at least, so whatever screen you get you are off to a good start.

at 24"…proper high end stuff I’d go for would be the Eizo CG243W or NEC PA241W

Here are some more nice 5star comparisons of goodies for XMAS

http://www.digitalversus.com/duels-battle-of-five-star-products-a966.html

Posted by Barney

Here is an online review of monitor technology Http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/?p=343

The language is colourful but technically correct.

All will be revealed by reading the link below.  This would be great for all of the Audio Visual makers out there!

Click here to view a written tutorial about creating your own time lapse images using your DSLR.

The most obvious way to share favourite images is by creating a calender. Some great online places to create and order calenders are Snap Fish, Printer Studio and even places like Harvey Norman and Big W.  Members of our club often use Blurb or Momento to create photo books too.

Another unique Christmas present idea is to go out and photograph the child who you would like to make a present for. Then you can use your images in frames for the family or in fun books for kids to read.  Harvey Norman sell great personalized story books that could be good for Christmas pressies.  You simply use their software to put the child’s face onto the bodies of characters like superman or a mermaid!  Identity Direct sells books like this also, but they use mainstream characters including Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob Square Pants.  Mooo also has some great personalised cartoon storybooks for sale. You can insert the child’s name into cartoon stories, the design work is incredible. So fun! While that doesn’t include photos, it’s a hit with kids.

If a family member owns a 4WD you might like to have one of your images placed onto your spare tyre cover. Then everyone on the road will see your latest work!  Outback signs allows you to custom make a spare tyre cover using your photograph.

I’ve decided after making that list, that I should approach those places and ask for commission!  Have fun thinking of ways to give a photograph as a gift this Christmas!  The links to the mentioned stores above will be on our blog page on our club’s website.

Merry Christmas,

Rebecca

SNAPFISH CALENDERS

PERSONALISED WALL CALENDER

CARTOON BOOKS FOR KIDS

PERSONALISED STORY BOOKS

PHOTO STORY BOOKS

OUTBACK SIGNS - WHEEL TYRE COVER WITH PHOTO

http://www.andrewbmyers.com/

Andrew B Myers is such a photographer. I hope that you enjoy his work as much as I do.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/11/09/gurksy-photo-of-rhine-sells-for-4-3m-becomes-worlds-most-expensive-pic/

Would this win our monthly competition at the CCC? I don’t know, but it did sell for a whopping price.