Big Huge Labs has some useful Flickr tools, one of them is the ability to show a Flickr photo large on black background. This is a fine way to present your Flickr visitors a quick link to a large detailed version.
If you want your visitors to view a large version on black, you have to provide a large enough version :) But how large should it be, or to phrase the sentence better: how small can it be, and still be viewed large on black?
Here comes the weird part: I have seen images as small as 1024*768 px that show up fine in "View large on black", but others in 1280x1024 px that don't...?
I have no idea why this is so, but to be on the safe side, you have to upload an image that is big enough to get a native "large" version and a bigger "original" version.
The sweet spot for Flickr to create that large version is 1281 px on the largest side, this is the versions that will be created if the image is 1280 px on the largest side.
So if you want to be sure that your "View large on black" link on your Flickr photos work as intended, the longest side has to be at least 1281 px :)
Photographers have always tried to take advantage of the huge dynamic range that we see around us. The process to bring out that dynamic range in a photograph have been going on since the camera was invented. One of the pioneers in this high dynamic range field is Ansel Adams.
William Turnage describes Adams this way: "He manipulated the work tremendously in the darkroom. He always said that the negative is the equivalent of the composer's score and the print is the equivalent of the conductor's performance, and the same piece of Mozart is conducted differently, performed differently, by different orchestras, different conductors, and Ansel performed his own negatives differently."
Canon only implemented 3 shots in Auto Exposure Bracketing mode (AEB) on the 40D/50D. Even the 5D mk. II has only 3 shots in AEB. The rumors says that the 60D will have 9 shots in AEB, we'll see...
But 3 exposures is not enough if you shot scenes with a lot of dynamic range and want to create HDR/Tone Mapped images. In normal situations it is enough with 6 exposures ranging from -3 ev to +2ev with a 1ev interval. That can be achieved fairly easy using the exposure compensation dial. Here's how:
Use a tripod!
Use manual ISO, as low as possible.
Use 1/2-stop increments on the exposure compensation dial, not 1/3.
Set the AEB to -1 0 +1. You'll now see three markers in the display that shows the AEB value, to begin with it will show -1 0 +1.
Set the drive to 2 second (self timer).
Use aperture program (A). If your shooting landscape you'll properly want to use a small aperture like f/16 or f/22, maybe even smaller like f/32.
Frame and focus the shot.
Switch on manual focus so that the focus is the same in all 6 shots.
Turn the exposure compensation all the way to the left to get three underexposed shots, -3 -2 -1. The display will now show one marker on -1 and one blinking marker on -2 telling you that the third marker is on -3 :)
Press the shutter, wait those 2 seconds and let the camera shoot 3 exposures.
Quickly turn the rear dial to control the exposure compensation up to 0 +1 +2. That will be 4 ticks if you use 1/2-stop increments on the exposure compensation dial.
Press the shutter, wait those 2 seconds and let the camera shoot 3 exposures.
You now have 6 exposures at -3ev -2ev -1ev 0ev +1ev +2ev.
OK that will be sufficient for most situations, but if you shoot directly into the sun, you'll want more underexposed images. If you add another little procedure to the one above, it is possible to shot 3 more exposures fairly quickly:
Follow step 1-9.
Press the shutter half way down to read aperture and shutter speed for the -3 settings. That could be f/22 and 1/180 sec.
Switch to manual mode (M) and set the aperture to the same value that you used in aperture mode (f/22). Set the shutter speed -2 stops lower, that would be 1/750 sec. With a little practice this is done very quickly by turning the dial for the shutter speed four ticks (2 stops) to the left.
Press the shutter, wait those 2 seconds and let the camera shoot 3 exposures.
Switch back to aperture mode (A).
Proceed with step 10-13.
This will give you 9 exposures ranging from -6ev - +2ev, enough exposures to shoot directly into the sun :)
What you do with those 9 exposures is a whole different story, but they make the perfect starting point for some nice into-the-sun-hdr-shots :))
Landscape photographers love to shoot in the hour around sunset and sunrise. But how do you know when an where the sun will show up or disappear?
There is several iPhone applications that helps you to calculate the movement of the sun and the moon. I have tried several free applications, but these two applications is all I need to know when the sun & moon will be where :)
Sunrise (1$) is a simple utility to calculate sunrise, solar noon, and sunset times, as well as the phase of the moon. By default, it shows the information for the current day at the current location, but Sunrise can calculate any day in the past or future for locations around the world.
Sunrise uses iPhone and iPod touch’s ability to locate itself to determine the latitude and longitude for its calculations, so you don’t have to pick a city or location — it’s automatic.
In addition to using the current location, Sunrise has a self-contained list of locations from around the world for displaying times for other locations, or for iPod touch users who cannot use location services.
When using locations from the database, Sunrise can operate without a WiFi, cellular or GPS signal.
The Focalware iPhone Application Helps Photographers and Filmmakers Know the Position of the Sun and Moon - Anywhere, Any Time Focalware is a photography application that calculates the position of the sun and moon anywhere in the world and at any time by utilizing GPS location and date information.
Focalware helps photographers and filmmakers around the globe plan optimal shots with accuracy and maximize their shooting schedules. For example, if a photographer has an assignment for a shoot in New York City on March 15, 2009 and the building in the shot faces 195 degrees but the photographer prefers raking light at an angle of 130 degrees, Focalware instantly computes a time of 10:28 a.m. with a sun elevation of 35 degrees as the time for the desired conditions.
I use Firefox on all my machines and I use many of the same GreaseMonkey scripts across my machines too. I modify some of the GreaseMonkey scripts on a regular basis, but there is no synchronization functionality built into GreaseMonkey. I therefore end up with different GreaseMonkey scripts on my different machines.
I have solved this problem with Windows Live Sync. I create a one personal folder in Windows Live Sync and add all those GreaseMonkey scripts that should be synchronized.
In Windows Live Sync I specify the computers I want to synchronize and the folders I would like to synchronize on each computer.
All I need to do is keep sure that Windows Live Sync is running on the computers I want to be synchronized.
I just can't live without Firefox. It's not because it's faster than Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome or Safari, but because there is so many cool extensions for Firefox.
One extension is Ad-Block that removes those anouing adds, another is No-Script that increases the security when I'm surfing the Internests :)
But the best extension is GreaseMonkey, that lets you insert JavaScript code into any webside like GMail or Youtube.
Userscripts Userscripts is a common description for those small code snippets that is loaded into web pages. You can develop you own userscripts, or choose from thousands of free userscripts, made available in the very active Grease Monkey community. You'll find most userscripts on userscripts.org.
GreaseFire is a specialized extension for Firefox that finds suitable userscripts for any given webpage.
I'm using userscripts on many different websites like GMail, Facebook, YouTube, but it is on Flickr I find the most useful GreaseMonkey userscripts like:
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