December 2008

February 2009

Rod Barbee Photography Newsletter

Greetings

Hi all. Hope you're weathering the weather and the economy. I've been busily trying to figure out an efficient workflow for submitting digital images to magazines, agencies, calendar companies and others. It used to be so easy. Just put the slides in a page, protect them with sheets of cardboard, include a delivery memo, and drop it in the mail. No more. Seems each magazine or calendar company has different digital requirements. That means I often have to process each image to size and resolution specifications. But I think I've figured it out. I have now created a digital submission workflow/checklist document that will hopefully streamline the process for me.
I wonder where I saved it.

Arches and Canyonlands Workshop

Don Mammoser and I still have a few openings in our April 14-19 Arches/Canyonlands workshop. The spring is a great time to be in this part of the country. Temperatures are comfortable, the weather usually cooperates and the landscape is amazing.
This trip includes a jeep tour into Canyonlands National Park.
Jeep tours are fun. On last July's Colorado trip we spent a whole day in the high country. There was still snow in places and Don, being Don, tossed snowballs from the lead jeep, splattering those of us in the trailing jeep with icy snow. Yep, Jeep tours are fun.

For more details, click here

Yosemite workshop

We also have a few remaining spots in our Yosemite National Park workshop this May 18-22. Come see and photograph the park that Ansel Adams made famous.

For my complete workshop listing, visit my workshops page

Fighting the economic blues

And don't forget that Dick Badger and I are offering our 2nd annual Photographic Tour of Oregon's Willamette Valley Wineries this October 19-23. If the economy isn't improving by then, come along and we'll commiserate over some great photo opportunities and some even greater wine. And if the economy is starting to rebound, we'll celebrate over the same. It's a win-win!

Visit the Winery tour page

PAW site

In one of my recent newsletters I told you about a new workshop company: The Photographer's Alliance Workshops. Well, a lot has been added lately. There are new articles, details and pricing have been added to workshop pages, and new workshops have been added for 2009 and 2010.

learn more

Lens Align Lite

Well, I can't resist new gadgets that promise to improve the quality of my photography. Usually these are well worth it. Some of the good ones include the Kirk Enterprises Long Rail Plate that I use on just about every close up shot I take. Best $120 or so I ever spent on photo gear.
The latest product from Rawworkflow.com has all the makings of being another such product. Lens Align Pro and Lens Align Lite are tools for evaluating and fine tuning autofocus systems. Using Lens Align, you'll be able to tell if your autofocusing system is focusing correctly or if it's back- or front-focusing (meaning the camera is actually focusing in front of, or in back of, where it's supposed to focus). If you own one of the newer cameras that allow for AF micro-adjustment fine tuning of your autofocus system, you can then dial in compensation.
Even if you don't have one of these cameras, you can use the results of your Lens Align tests to document any back or front focusing issues your lenses or camera body may have. This comes in handy if you want to send a lens or body in for adjustment/repair.

I recently received the Lens Align Lite ($79 plus shipping) and tested some of my lenses. I only played with my D300 for this test. I'll get around to testing my lenses on my D200 as well. The D200 doesn't have the Fine Focus Adjust feature of the D300 but at least I'll know how accurately my lenses autofocus with that body.
What I found in my initial tests was that my Nikon 24-120 f/4-5.6 AF-S VR at about 100mm front focuses slightly, requiring an AF fine tuning adjustment of +6. My 28-70mm f/2.8 AF-S required no adjustment. My 300 f/4 AF-S required a +4 adjustment. The really interesting results were with my 80-200 f/2.8 AF-D. At 105mm there was some front focusing, requiring a setting of +9. But at 200mm there is significant back focusing, which might explain all those just ever-so-slightly out of focus images from Triple "D". That required a setting of -20. Since I can only dial in one setting for the lens I'm not sure yet how I'll use this information. I may try a setting that's biased toward the need for the -20 setting at 200mm figuring that for subjects shot from the same distance, I'll have more depth of field (dof) available at the 80mm end of the lens than the 200mm end, and that dof might bring in the focus I need.
If you do a lot of wildlife or if you rely on autofocus, this tool is well worth the price. And if you happen to be attending one of my workshops this year, I'll have my Lens Align Lite along and we'll see if we can carve out some time to test some lenses.

You can learn all about both Lens Align Pro Lite at the Raw workflow.com website. There are video tutorials and a helpful forum to answer any questions you may have.

BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest

A friend of mine has been haranguing me to enter the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest. In the past I haven't entered too many contests. Too much fine print to read, the time and effort of pulling and packaging images, the long odds in there being any real payoff (though I once did ok in a Nature's Best contest). Anyway, since entries can be made online and it didn't look to labor intensive I thought I'd give this one a try. Until I read the fine print. The contest rules state that all images have to have been made in the last five years. This disqualifies nearly all my slides, which contain a lot of my best images. But ok, I can live with that. I've shot quite a bit digitally in the last five years. Then I get to this rule:
1. If an image reaches the final round of judging you must supply the following:
RAW file (e.g. *.NEF, *.CR2, *.CRW), or original JPEG as captured by the camera. DNG files are only permitted if DNG is the native RAW format of the camera.

Part of my workflow includes converting all my Nikon NEF images to the Adobe DNG format. I then delete the original NEF. This means any digital image I'd want to enter is immediately disqualified. That bites. I wrote to the Powers That Be (PTB) at the contest and this is the reply I received:
"The rule regarding DNG files was introduced as we cannot currently check if these files have been altered outside of the competition rules as with standard RAW file formats. However we will pass your comments onto the competition manager for consideration for 2010."

Huh? DNG are still raw files. I can't do any more to them (other than embed metadata) than I can with my Nikon NEF files. And if I can, no one has told me the good news. In fact, if I was using the Nikon raw software I may be able to do more with the NEFs than I can with the DNGs. This seems silly. I wrote back pointing out that DNG files are raw files and asked them to talk with experts in the field as well as Adobe engineers. I don't know if it did any good or not.
It is a pretty prestigious contest so if you're interested in entering, visit the website here.
And if you feel the DNG rule is as ridiculous as I do, click on the Help link and then click "email the competition office" link and let them know what you think.
Ok, rant mode off.