Some of the pictures that Anne and Franz took on the recent Sierra to the Sea bicycle tour were published in a two page photo spread in the August Black and Blue Bottom newsletter. Here is a small section of one of the pages, with our own photo in it.
Three Approaches to Photo Sharing
There are basically three approaches to sharing your photos online. You can upload your photos to a online photo sharing service, you can create your own galleries to be loaded onto your own website, or you might sign up for a blogging service and create a photo blog.
For the first category there are many options, both free and fee based. One of the most popular photo service is Flickr, operated by Yahoo. It offers free, but limited accounts and is supported by many programs. My only comment about Flickr is that I find it to be difficult to view images on it and does not have the best user interface. Personally I prefer the offering from SmugMug, which charges an annual fee but offers unlimited photo uploads.
If you would rather post your photos on your own website there are many tools that allow you to create galleries of your photos. What tool you might use depends on how you manage your photos on your computer. This artile is written for those who use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. If you use a Mac and the iPhoto program, I will write about those options in a seperate article.
If you wish to create a photo blog then you have the option of either installing blogging software, such as WordPress, on your own webiste or sign up for a free blog account at a place such as blogspot, operated by Google. This article is created on my own website using the WordPress software. I will not be covering photo blogs futher in this article but will focus on the online photo sharing sites and creating your own photo gallery for hosting on your own site.
Previously I wrote about the Web feature in Lightroom and how easy it is to create a web gallery. I decided to also try a program that I had used previously, JAlbum, and compare those two approaches with what I usually use, SmugMug.
I should also note that I shoot all my photos in RAW. I previously wrote about why you should shoot in RAW. The reason I mentioned this aspect is that any photos that are placed on a website need to be converted to another format, such as JPEG, before they are posted. That step has some bearing on the effort required to build a web gallery using Lightroom with RAW images.
Let’s start with the common things. I use Lightroom to import the photos and do some post processing. Some things I use Adobe Photoshop CS3 for, but in all cases, I am also using Lightroom for managing my photo library. Lightroom has some nice features to help you sort out which photos you wan to use, including marking a photo as a pick, assigning a rating, or creating a quick set.
Once I have the group of photos I want to publish to a website, then the different methods I could use include the following.
Online Photo Gallery
The simplest approach is to upload your photos to one of the online photo services. There are several advantages of using an online photo gallery:
I have an account with SmugMug which allows me unlimitted uploads. There are also free services including the popular Flickr as well as many other services. There is a Lightroom plugin that works with SmugMug. So all I need to do in Lightroom is to exported my images directly to SmugMug. See the dialog box below on who that is done.
The process handles any temporary conversion to JPEG files, using my Lightroom post processing, before uploading. Inside the dialog box I can create the album where to put the photos. Like othere services such as Flickr, SmugMug handles all the gallery creation and menuing system. So in a matter of less than a minute I am finished and can go walk away while the images are uploaded.
You Own Hosted Photo Gallery
Some do not want to use a online photo sharing site and would prefer to host on thier own webstie. There are some advantages to this approach including:
But this approach also has many disadvantages:
Lightroom Generated Gallery
As I previously mentioned Ligthroom has a Web feature. This is also simple to use because once I have the photos selected, Ligthroom will create all the files needed for an online gallery, including JPEG files with the post processing, and the navigation for the website, and then upload them using FTP to my personal website.
There are limited templates to pick from and that galleries are rather straighforward. It takes a bit of extra effort compared with SmugMug, but when I am finished I have a stand alone gallery. It is not tied in with my other galleries so I would need to have my own index page I would need to edit so others can find my photos.
JAlbum Generated Gallery
The last method is the most time consuming and in many ways the one with the least desirable results. JAlubm is a free and excellent program. Because it is an open source program, developers have written many templates to choose from. I just picked one that came with the program. Starting with my selected photos in Ligthroom I had to first export the images to a JPEG file, saving them in a temporary location on my hard drive. I then needed to start JAlbum and import those same images. Creating the gallery is rather straightforward and once I am done the program will even FTP them to my website. But as was true with the Ligthroom created gallery, I end up with a stand alone gallery and it would be up to me to create some index page so people could find the gallery
Click on the links below to see how each gallery looks, all using the same group of photos.
|
Method
|
Ease of Use
|
Integrated Gallery
|
Photo Sharing Tools |
End Result
|
| SmugMug | Excellent | Yes, SmugMug handles all navigation | Excellent, using in blogs, slideshows, ligthbox | Excellent, well integrated with other galleries |
| Lightroom Gallery | Very Good | No, stand alone gallery | Limited | Very good, but limited templates |
| JAlbum | Good | No, stand alone gallery | Limited | Great selection of templates but many are quirky. |
So when I look at what SmugMug offers me the easiest path to publishing my photos and provides a lot of other support such as the menuing system and ways to share individual photos in things such as a blog. So that is what I will continue to use. For those occasions where I feel the need to place a gallery on my own website I will use the Web feature in Lightroom.
Crater Lake was formed by a volcano and is the deepest lake in the United States. It has not water inflow or outflow so the water in the lake is only from the local snow fall. It is one of the clearest water bodies anywhere and the deep blue from the depth of the water. The picture above is a merge of 3 photos. Click on it to see it enlarged.
This was our first time to visit this National Park. It was less than a two hour drive from Medford. We arrived in the morning and took some pictures from the area near the Crater Lake Lodge. Ann was shooting with her Nikon D70 with 18-70 mm Nikon lens and Franz with his Nikon D300, using both a 18-200 mm Nikor lens as well as some Nikkor prime lenses.
All the photographs were processed through Adobe Lightroom. Little changes were needed however. Only Photoshop CS3 was used for the photomerge at the top.
Nikon D300, 22 mm lens, ISO 200
Nikon D300, 24 mm prime lens, ISO 200
Nikon D300, 18 mm, ISO 200
Nikon D70, 70 mm, ISO 400
To see how well the Nikon 18-200 mm lens did compared with the 24 mm prime, I have added two photos of each into one image. Click on the image below to view enlarge so you can compare.
This may not be a good way to evaluate since the scene is different and each had a different post processing. In any case when I do a 1:1 image, the both look equally good. If you need a highly enlarged and identical images to see a difference, maybe that difference is not so important in the first place.
We then got on our bikes and started to bike around the lake. Franz carried the Nikon D70 on a backpack so we could take some photos from different locations. He started out trying to take it in a simple case but that did not work since it would swing to the front when leaning over to pedal so he returned to the car and took his LowePro Sling 200. That bag is a bit large to carry a single camera but it worked, but not ideally. To carry a DSLR on a bike, a back pack is best, preferable one made for biking such as the Camel Bak bags.
The LowePro Sling 200 has the stability strap (you can see hanging in the photo below) to keep it from swinging to the front but it was still too much on one side to cycle easily with.
We ended up going half way around the lake but had to turn back because the rim drive road was closed at some point due to snow. Can you believe, snow in July!
On the drive back to Medford we stopped at the Rouge gorge to take a few more pictures. It is hard to capture water falls. Franz put on a 24 mm prime lens that would stop down to f22 and he set the D300 to shoot at the lowest ISO setting. Setting the camera to shoot in Aperature Priority mode still resulted in a shutter speed that was too fast to blur the water. A neutral density filter would be needed. Also brining more than a table top tripod would certainly have helped. But since that was all he had, he proped the table top tripod on the top of the fence as you can see below.
Ann just balanced her Nikon D70 on the fence post.
We had a great time and hope to visit Crater Lake National Park again. You can see all our pictures at our SmugMug Gallery by clicking here .
I was reviewing this tutorial from the Digital Photography Connection about the Web pannel in Adobe Photoshop Ligthroom and wanted to give it a try. I had just taken about 15 shots of our new one week old grandchild and the other grandchildren and thought they would be some good photos to use to create a web gallery.
I usually post my photos to a SmugMug account I have and able to do that directly from Lightroom. But I liked the idea of creating my own web gallery. I first did some quick processing of the photos using Lightroom and then created a web gallery which I have posted here.
There are several templates you can select from. I picked a Flash based one. You can change all the titles, and the colors of the templates, saving those chagnes if you wish. This template allows you to view individual pictures or run a slide show.
This again shows the power of Lightroom. From the initial step of importing the photos from the camera, through post processing, to creating a web gallery, I was able to do all the steps right from within Lightroom.
I have used other software to create web galleries, such as the well done program JAlbum. Since I shoot in RAW and did some post processing. To use a program like JAlbum I would need to use Lightroom to export all the photos with the changes I had made to JPEG files first. I would then need to start up Jalbum and import those JPEG files.
By using Lightroom to create the web gallery, there was no need to export the photos as JPEG files and then reimport them. That was all handled by the Web feature in Lightroom. Looking at the files, I see it created various sizes of each photo, Large (980×650), Medium (780×520) and Small (678×450) along with thumbnails. It also created the index.html file, the javascript files and a flash file.
Nikon has released a new full frame (FX) digital SLR named the D700. In a simplified way you could think of it as a D3 sensor in a D300 body. Until the D3 was released, all Nikon digital SLR were based on a DX sensor size with a crop factor of abotu 1.5. The D700 is the second DSLR from Nikon that offers a sensor the same size as 35 mm film so that a lens will have the same field of view as it did on a film camera.
But where does this new model fit into the lineup. As you can see from this chart, it is significantly more expensive than the highly rated D300 while also being signficantly less expensive than the D3. As one would expect, the price point increases rapidly as the model moves toward the pro level. One could argue that the best camera, strictly from a price point, is the D300. Above that model, the price increases rapidly.
Ann and I stopped in Zion National Park for a 3 day adventure.
Equipment Used:
Software Used
I was shooting with my new Nikon D300 and Ann was shooting with the Nikon D70. I had purchased the LowePro bag before leaving home. That bag proved very valuable with all the hiking we did. Most of the pictures below are as shot from the camera, except where noted. Click on any image to see an enlarged view but not the original. The originals are all posted on our account at Smugmug.
On the first day we started out hiking up Angles Landing. We wanted to get a shot of the two of us together but there was no one around, so we took a picture of each other so I could later merge into this one.
I was wondering what she was taking a picture of until I later looked saw this image on the computer.
Hiking the upper portion of Angles Landing was difficult carrying the DSLRs since we had to use chains. But we managed and benefits from using the wide range zooms. I found I used the entire range of 18 to 200 mm during the day. Many pictures, as expected, were taken using 18 mm. At times I wish I had even a wider range. I was carrying a couple of prime lenses with me but frankly rarely used them. Since we were primarily hiking, taking photographs along the way, it just didn’t make sense to do a lot of lens swapping.
Our second day was biking so we only took a point and shoot Canon camera. We biked up Kolob Canyon, which has some beautiful views, with the road winding in and out of the national park. With the rain we ran into we didn’t take many pictures. Just getting back to the hotel with the rain and cold temperatures was all we could manage. Ann did take this one picture from the back of the tandem just before the rain started.
After drying out and warming up we drove up to see the Museum of Photography. I put on my fast 50 mm f1.4 manual focus lens before we entered. There we viewed some beautiful large prints of photographs. Many were taken by Michael Fatali using an 8×10 film camera and printed himself using the Cibachrome process. He takes pride in “No Filters, No Computers, Simply God’s Light”. I found myself dumbfounded viewing his images that he could capture such beauty with that approach. They didn’t let use take any pictures inside so I took these picture outside in the courtyard.
On our last and third day, we started out with a tandem ride, again carrying the Canon Powershot. Ann took this picture from the back of the tandem, while we were racing down the road from the Zion tunnel. Not bad for a point and shoot!
In the afternoon we hiked up Hidden Canyon and also Observation Point. With the sunny weather and beautiful clouds, along with the topography, made it an idea day to get some pictures
I took this one of Ann using the 120 mm setting on the lens (equivalent of 180 mm on a 35 mm film camera). The vibration reduction worked great.
We then make our way up the long hike to Observation Point. We came upon a slotted canyon that was most fascinating.
We took some more photos from high above Zion Canyon, but I don’t consider these to be that good because they try to cover too much from afar. Here is one example.
After returning to the canyon floor, we took a few more pictures. I particularly like this one and later made a 11×17 in print to frame. Here is the image as taken.
Here is the same image after I enhanced for printing. For this one I used Nikon Capture NX. It reads the “Vivid” setting I had used in the Nikon D300 and also I enhanced using Active D-Light. Notice how it brighted up the rocky mountain.
Ann got her first SLR camera in 1979 (see picture to the left) but turned her attention to raising her four children. She is now moving back into photography. She and Franz were recently featured in the local newspaper for their plan to take pictures from a tandem bicycle during a 100 bicycle event. One of those pictures that Ann took will be published on the front page of ACTC club newsletter. Several other pictures will be published on an inside spread.
This photo was taken by the Gilroy Dispatch staff photographer for the feature article.
Above is a draft of the front page article to be published soon (click to enlarge). Although credit was given to both Franz and Ann, Ann was the one who took this particular photo, while moving at 20 mph on the back of the tandem bicycle.
It has been sometime since I have been able to use my old manual focus lenses. On my prior digital SLR there was no support for either focusing or metering. With the new Nikon D300, I am once again able to use them. I did simple test inside the house this evening using my 50 mm 1.4 AI lens. With the D300 you tell it the focal length and maximum aperture of the manual lens you have attached and it works fine from that point. Focusing is not as easy as with the older cameras that had screens geared for manual focus, but there is a rangefinder indicator that works. Here is a shot I took wide open, at f1.4, 1/125 sec, ISO of 400. Lighting is all ambient. Notice the very shallow dept of field.
As an experiment I took a second shot changing it to f2.0, 1/60 second, also ISO 400.
I expected a more shallow dept of field at f1.4 compared with f2.0 but it looked about the same.
I had a chance to experiment further using the Nikon D300 with my old Nikon PB-6 bellows. Due to the grip on the camera, you first need to rotate the mount on the bellows 90 degrees. After the camera body is mounted, you can rotate it back. I put my old 55 mm Nikon macro lens (Nikon calls them micro lenses). This is what the setup looks like.
I used the LiveView feature on the D300 to focus. LiveView is the ability to use the 3 in. LCD screen and lets you zoom way in on the image. This is probably more accurate than using the viewfinder. I set the camera to Aperture Priority and stopped the lens down to F8. I let the D300 handle the exposure and color balance. I pointed the entire rig outside for lighting. Here is an example of a picture I took of a 20 year old slide.
When I first moved from film SLRs to a Nikon digital SLR, the D70, I would spend time at the online forums learning a lot about the digital world. Since I recently bought a D300 I have again been spending time on the D200/300 forum. It seems that one thing has not changed, one of the favorite topics is still which lens is sharper.
Recently my wife and I rode our tandem bicycle in a 100 mile event taking pictures from the bike of the participants. I had my D70 in a harness on my chest and would shoot one handed as I was controlling the bike. My wife used a Canon P&S from the rear. Guess what, her pictures turned about better than mine. How could that be. It made me think about what makes for a good picture.
Although all the following attributes are important, I came to the conclusion that the ones towards the artistic side are more important than those toward the technical side. I t have broken these into three areas ranging from the more artistic aspect to the more technical.
While all of these are important I believe that too many focus on the Technical area because anybody who has money can buy the top quality equipment and with their expensive lens they can go out and take pictures of walls to show everyone how sharp it is. Does that make them a good photographer? Because it is a subjective matter, it may not be obvious. Can a super sharp picture win over one that has much more of the artistic attributes?
I think that answers why my wife’s pictures from the back of the tandem were better. She could take pictures as we were passing people, up close and personal with much better framing and interaction with the subject. I had to shoot from the hip because I still need one hand to control things traveling at upwards of 30 mph.
I am not saying a sharp lens is not important, but what I am saying is that is not enough.
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