My Little Corner on the Web
Archive for August, 2009
A Picture A Day – 08/31/09
Aug 31st
Picture for today:
Writing with light. Taken with 1Ds2 and 24-70L.
No time to go shooting recently. So much shit to do… last minute change in plans I’m going to Hawaii first thing tomorrow morning.
Till next time…
SuperWASP
Aug 29th
Found this really cool and wanted to share with everyone. I actually read about it when the project first started but never really thought anything of it till now after reading this article: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/08/new-planet-hints-were-very-luckyor-our-models-are-wrong.ars
Anyway, the SuperWASP project uses relatively wide angle “telescopes” to image the sky each night, generating about 50 GBs of data a night, and uses an array of Canon 200mm f/1.8L lenses. Technical details about the project is here: http://www.superwasp.org/technical.htm
Just a FYI, SuperWASP stands for Super Wide Angle Search for Planets.
Shooting Hires JPG vs Lowres JPG
Aug 27th
Recently my youngest sister complained that the laptop that she’s using is running out of space because of the amount of pictures she takes. She told me that she’s been shooting in “Small JPEG” because of this. Her decision to do so brought up something that would be of interest for those that read this blog. I told her to stop shooting in “Small JPEG” and to go back to shooting “Large JPEG”. Her response was that it didn’t really matter because most of the pictures she will be uploading to her blog or facebook. Shooting “Small JPEG” made it easier because it was already the right size and small enough to upload easily. Prior to this discussion, she complained about the noise in the images and what she can do to reduce the noise in-camera. This brings me the topic of this post, simple noise reduction with downsampling.
What is downsampling? Basically, reducing the resolution/dimension of the file. Let’s assuming for the sake of this post that the largest you need the image to be is 800 x 533. And let’s say that we will never need or want to use the picture any bigger than that. In my youngest sister’s point of view, it would be more practical (the laptop she uses doesn’t have Photoshop) to just shoot “Small JPEG” because it’s dimensions are 640 x 480 which is perfect for uploading to facebook or her blog. What benefits would there be if she shot in “Large JPEG” and then downres to something smaller? As with all my posts, I’ll keep things simple and leave out the technicalities. By starting from a higher resolution image and downressing to a smaller image has the benefit of slightly reducing digital noise. Really?! Yes… and in some cases will even make the image look sharper too!
Below are two JPEGs shot with my 1Ds2 using “Large JPEG” and “Small JPEG” respectively and downressed to 800 x 533.
This image is downressed from the full 16.7 MP JPEG.
This image is from the "Small JPEG" setting on the 1Ds2 downressed to 800 x 533.
Click the images to see them at 800 x 533. If you look really closely, especially in the shadows, you will see that the image from the “Large JPEG” has slightly less noise. The difference isn’t night and day but it’s there if you look closely. If these images were take with a point and shoot, the difference would be even greater. Try it out for yourself if you don’t believe me. As for my claim about sharpness it can’t really be seen from these images. I shot these handheld in Manual mode at 1/60th of a second, f/2.0, ISO 3200. If you look closely, I focused on slightly different places between the two images. If I had use a tripod, it would have been a different story… but I didn’t. Again you can try this out for yourself and the difference in sharpness would be more noticeable from point and shoot cameras too. Anyway, just thought I would share this. Till next time…
A Picture A Day – 08/26/09
Aug 26th
Picture for today:
Smoke from the fires in Azusa and the setting sun. Taken with Rebel XT and 18-55 II.
Sister's cat chilling on our roof... yes roof. Taken with Rebel XT and 18-55 II.
Till next time…
A Picture A Day – 08/24/09
Aug 24th
Extremely busy lately. I keep saying that new articles and other things are coming but the current economic situation is forcing my hand. School is about to start soon so I definitely will be putting greater effort into getting everything I’ve planned to do before summer break ends. Stay tuned my friends…
Picture for today:
RHS field during band practice. Taken with 1Ds2 and 17-40L.
Till next time…
A Picture A Day – 08/22/09
Aug 22nd
Picture for today:
Bird chilling on the sidewalk outside Hotel del Corono (sic). Taken with 1Ds2 and 28-135 IS.
Till next time…
A Picture A Day – 08/21/09
Aug 21st
Been quite busy these few days. I’ll be updating soon… hopefully.
Picture for today:
Exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography after a lecture by LA Times photographer Michael Chavez. Taken with 1Ds2 and 50mm f/1.4 @ f/3.2.
Till next time…
A Picture A Day – 08/20/09
Aug 20th
Picture for today:
Our beauty model for the commercial shoot, Joyce! Taken with 40D and 24-70L.
Till next time…
A Picture A Day – 08/18/09
Aug 18th
Picture for today:
A behind the scenes pic from a commercial shoot yesterday. The beautiful model is Joyce. Taken with 40D and 24-70L.
Till next time…
Canon Fail
Aug 17th
My camera has been at Canon for pretty much a week now. It’s been freezing up on me and so I dropped it off at Canon Irvine on the way back from San Diego. Got it back the next day and the techs at Canon didn’t do shit because they couldn’t find the problem. The damn thing froze up on me again the very next morning (Wednesday) and I call Canon’s tech support to tell them this happened again. Basically I wanted them to take note that it was happening and what the symptoms are as it was happening. Left the camera frozen and drove to Canon Irvine again but the camera powered off by itself before I got there.
The Canon rep ask me to see if I could replicate the problem again when I got there. Obviously, the camera worked fine. Didn’t know what else to say so just told him to check it out again and do it more carefully. Gave the rep my CPS card and specifically requested the 3-day rush (CPS members get 3-day rush repair). Next day, I get a call from the rep telling me the techs couldn’t find anything wrong. Big surprise… told them under what conditions it happens, symptoms, etc. Then I realized that it seemed to only happened under extended use. Like two hours outside shooting. Called Canon and told them to tell the tech this new piece of info.
Today is Monday… my camera has been at Canon now for 3 days since I dropped it off. Had a photo shoot to do today so didn’t really care enough to check my repair status or wonder why the fuck Canon hadn’t called yet. Finished the shoot and look at the clock. It’s 5:15pm! No call from Canon?! Got out my repair order paper and call the number. Asked what the status of my repair is and guess what… it’s “still on the techs workbench”. The following is basically the convo I had with the rep on the phone:
Me: Uh ok, does that mean I’ll be getting the camera tomorrow?
Rep: I can’t tell you. They haven’t finished the repairs and I don’t have access to info regarding the repair until they’re completed.
Me: Uh… I’m a CPS member and I requested 3-day rush.
Rep: Oh, really? Uh…. what’s your CPS number?
Me: Hang on… *fumble around backpack looking for membership card* It’s **********
Rep: Ok, it’s *********
Me: Yes
Rep: When did you join?
Me: [Date]
Rep: Ok, it seems that they didn’t attach your CPS tag to the repair order. I’ll do that for you right now.
Me: What?!
Rep: They didn’t put the gold rush on your repair.
Me: …. *in my mind: WTF?! I SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED IT AND EVEN HANDED THE REP MY CARD!* ok… thanks
WTF CANON, SERIOUSLY
This is starting to really piss me off. Out of all my DSLRs, all have had some problem except for my cheapest, the Rebel XT. My 40D had similar problems with it freezing up. Just like this time around with my 1Ds2, the tech couldn’t find anything wrong the first time I sent it in. Happened again and I sent it in again. This time they found the problem and had to replace the main PCB assembly and the CF card reader/writer. The 5D I had suffered from the mirror problem which Canon acknowledged as a manufacturing problem and had a recall. That was a minor thing, I needed the camera cleaned anyway. Now this problem with my 1Ds2… and the Canon rep somehow managed to fuck up the repair order. *sigh*
I just want my camera back in full working order ASAP.
