My Custom Software introducing Imagefix

his week is going to be unusual, in that I am heading a different direction, entirely.

As an old computer geek, I realized the other day, I have been working with or playing with computers for 40 years, about the same amount of time, I have been playing with cameras. Since I have spent much of that time, programming computers, when I can’t find the appropriate tool, I write one. This usually starts as a sketch in code, that is quick, dirty and ugly from a code perspective. Then I clean that up and turn it into a proper program.

Such was the issue a few years ago, I wanted a tool that would do a few things, in a manner that would be consistent, in other words if I wanted a certain tone, I wanted to just indicate it, rather then needing to remember how I did it the last time. There were also things like adding a watermark, I want it to be the same each time, tools like Gimp and Photoshop are great, but you need to keep notes, if you want things applied in a consistent manner, especially when other features may not be consistent each time.

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So, because of this desire, I wrote a program to do this. I called it Imagefix, eventually I hope to make it publicly available, but alas not yet. I am not quite sure how I want to have the finished product, right now it’s a collection of command line parameters, but I might switch to using a windowed system, where there is a dialog box that you select the options with and it poops out the results in another file.
Realistically I would like it to be both, which could be one program, that if you pass it command line options, it assumes you want text mode, and if you don’t you want graphical mode. This is all stuff I need to decide in the next month or so. Eventually it will also need to be more platform agnostic, either it will need to be rewritten in a language like Python or Java, most likely Python, or will need a generic build process, for the current C++ version, other then the Gnu Make that I use right now. I expect a Linux only Beta by summer, and possibly something that is packaged ready for the public in a year.

This weeks image is from some woods in 2007, don't remember anything about it.

Why I use a Linux Computer

I originally built my computer in 2007, using what then were decent reasonably up to date components. However I didn’t want to pay for Microsoft Windows, a platform that I had been working with off an on since Version 3.0 some 27 years ago. As a computer geek, and not wanting to spend several hundred dollars for an operating environment I didn’t particularly like, since it would have been Windows XP anyway….. That would have required several large hardware upgrades along the way.

I remembered using Linux before, when operating systems came on a whole series of diskettes, I at one time had the 10 or so disks for Windows 3.1 and the 20 or so for OS/2 and I think Slackware which came in at 15 or so. So in building my computer I downloaded a couple of new Linux versions, Ubuntu and Fedora. I later settled on Fedora, most likely Fedora 8 (Werewolf), it’s currently running Fedora 27, which is the latest release, and still runs fine on my decade old hardware. Yes it has had a memory upgrade from 2GB to 4GB, the original on-board video chip was updated to a more modern video card, and it’s originally 150GB hard drive, was upgraded to a 512GB and then a 1TB drive. It had some case fans added, and an upgrade to the CPU cooler.

So why not a Mac? There is nothing a Mac can do, that this machine can’t, except maybe run some Microsoft software, where there are just as good, if not better alternatives. For photography there are some heavyweights, like GIMP. There are also for old computer guys like me amazing visual libraries like ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick, for programmers to be able to build software modules, while these modules are often available for Mac and Windows, the software that ties them together is more complex and harder to use. Where Linux which is a variation on the theme of Unix makes these tools much easier to use.

In the early days, there was a lot of hardware that would not work, and many of the installers were horrible, but this has all changed in the 20 years or so, since I first saw Linux. Most hardware works out of the box, even a Microsoft Webcam that I have worked out of the box. Installers are much nicer now, with much of the installation process being automatic, it’s not uncommon for a machine to boot into the installer, then install everything and reboot into the completed OS at the end. If you have an older computer, and Windows will not run on it anymore, try Linux; you might like it.

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This weeks image is a cropped version of one from 2014 of a Red Wing Blackbird, this was actually taken in High Park in Toronto, during the Cherry Blossom time, so June. I often save crops, and assign them a letter after the usual number, such as this one.

To quote the words of the mighty Porky Pig:

That's all folks

W.

Camera Filters and Accessories.

Once upon a time, photographers had dozens of filters, for black and white, the most common were Red, orange and yellow, for colour we often had filters that allowed daylight film to be used in indoors (80A a blue fliter) and the 85 or 85B (orange), which allowed Tungsten film to be used outside. Then there were filters that could be used with both, such as the 1A, UV, ND filters, graduated ND and there were even FL-D and FL-W which could be used with fluorescent light, to take away it’s greenish tinge.
Many of those filters are not needed anymore, digital cameras can be setup to use white-balance, where the camera can work around colour casts. Cameras can automatically adjust “film speed” to negate the need for ND filters, and HDR (High Dynamic Range) has replaced the graduated ND. Cameras and software can replicate all kinds of effects.

There are a few we still use, the Polarizing filter can remove glare from an water or a window, to allow the camera to see through shiny surfaces. A Skylight (1A) filter can still remove the haze you see in some telephoto images. It can also be handy, as a lens protector, it’s much better to scratch the front of a $30 filter, then a $300 or $3,000 lens. You do need to check them once in a while, to make sure that you haven’t damaged the filter, and they should probably not be tight on the lens at all times.

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Filters were one of those accessories we all had, and while you need a lot fewer now, some of the other accessories can still be handy. If you like using big telephoto lenses, then a tripod can be critical, if you like really sharp images, the tripod can work there too. For compact use, nothing beats a monopod, which is basically a 1 legged tripod, you attach the camera, and use your own body as the other two legs.

An accessory that goes well with the tripod, is a remote release, this allows you to trip the shutter without touching the camera, in the old days this was either a cable release that threaded onto the shutter release. There were also pneumatic versions, where you had a similar screw on unit, attached to a cylinder with an air line and a squeeze bulb on the end. Many cameras still have a B shutter speed, where holding the release allows for, the shutter remaining open until you release it. With modern electronic cameras there is often an accessory socket, that takes a electronic release. Some of these have a “hold” option. I recently added one of these for my T5.

The one best accessory for any camera that uses specialized batteries, is a spare battery, name brand batteries can be expensive, third party work-a-likes can be much cheaper and work just as well.

Shooting in snow.

Snow can be both a blessing and a curse. It can be a blessing, because it covers a multitude of dirt, garbage, dog poop and other sins that make your image look messy and complicated. It can be a curse, when your exposure is off and most of your image is a white blob.

The reason you get a white blob, is that you have part of your image that is too bright, typically the snow. This is usually referred to as a blown highlight, by the same token if it’s on the dark parts of the image it’s a blocked shadow. If you want some texture in your snow, you can intentionally under expose the image, which on most newer DSLR cameras can be done by setting the exposure to be 1 stop under. You need to be careful though that by underexposing the highlights, you don’t block up the shadows. If that is the case, you can always bracket your exposure taking one two stops under exposed, one at proper exposure and one over exposed, then use an HDR technique called tone mapping to combine the 3 images, the software that does this, needs a lot of computer horsepower, so you don’t want to do it on every image, with an older computer. Some cameras can be set to automatically bracket the exposure.

Few images need that much alteration, and often just taking the exposure and dropping a stop, will give the snow some detail, without affecting other parts of your image too much. Focus has some to do with it, if your depth of field leaves the snow out of focus, your going to get a white blob anyway, so you might just let it go.

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Since most of my stuff is B&W, and there is a decided lack of colour, I sometimes add a little to make things interesting, through the use of toning. This is digitally simulated these days, for a specific look. If you want an image to look warm you apply a brownish tone, like the sepia tone of 19^th and early 20^th century images. If you want a cold feel, you use a bluish tone. This weeks image has a very light bluish tone, intended to make it’s snow appear colder then it normally would. Different metals can be used, including iron, copper and gold, the colour of the metalic image doesn’t appear to be similar to the colour of the polished metal. This weeks image has a slight blue tone, to make it feel colder then it would as a standard black and white image.