Blog, posts for Category 'photo'

Multicolr Search Lab - Idée Inc.:

We extracted the colours from 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr. Using our visual similarity technology you can navigate the collection by colour

Now this is a brilliant idea...

(Via kottke.org.)

YES!
The 10.5.3 update to OSX finally fixes the problem where the Aperture Library would get backed up from scratch multiple times.
In previous versions of OSX, if you had Aperture open while a backup started, Time Machine would skip the Aperture Library until you closed Aperture. Then, the next backup would do a complete copy of your Aperture Library. yes, the WHOLE Library, not just the changed files... like I explained in this post (and as Apple explained in a KBase post).

So, yesterday, after reading that the 10.5.3 update "Addresses compatibility issues with Aperture 2." I decided to give it a go: I removed my Aperture Library from Time Machine's exclusion list and let it get backed-up (that's about 37GB). As soon as the first backup was done, I launched Aperture and let it open until the next backup started. After the second backup was complete, I quit Aperture and had a look at the backupd logs for the third backup... and voila! it only backed up a couple new pictures I had added to Aperture.

Thanks Apple, it took you an awfully long time to fix this (and why the bug was there in the first place, when they control the whole OS/apps/hardware???) but finally it is fixed.

About the Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update:

Addresses compatibility issues with Aperture 2.

If it indeed fixes the problem where Time Machine would do a complete backup of your Aperture Library if you had Aperture open the last time Time Machine backed-up your system, then I'd be happy... this was really a pain... too bad Apple isn't more explicit.

As Apple states in the update's KBase page:

About the Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update:

Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.

Well, it would be nice to know which ones.

[UPDATE]
Well, hot on the heels of the 10.5.3 update, here's the Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.1 that brings RAW support for the following cameras:

• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/Kiss Digital x2/450D
• Epson R-D1
• Leaf AFi 7
• Leaf AFi 6
• Leaf AFi 5
• Pentax K200D
• Pentax K20D

Note that this update is available for MacOSX up from 10.4.11, which is nice seing Apple continue to bring out updates for the previous version of OSX.

So,
I was going back to some of my pictures I imported using Aperture 1.x and, since I'm using Aperture 2 now, I wanted to try the 2.0 RAW developer on some "old" pictures.
See, I didn't convert my whole photo library from RAW 1.1 to RAW 2.0, because I noticed it tends to change the color balance quite a lot, which means that, if I have painstakingly tweaked and adjusted a photo, it can turn out bad if I change the RAW format but leave the adjustments made with the previous RAW developer. Like, try a photo with loads of yellow in it, polish it using RAW 1.1 and then convert it to 2.0. Yeah, yuck!

But there's something I just noticed going over a night shot: the 2.0 RAW developper gives MUCH better results when reducing ISO noise than what the 1.0 and 1.1 did.

In the example below, which is a crop of the same image processed using (top to bottom) RAW 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0, we clearly see the differences in the three engines: 1.0 generated a lot of sharp color noise, 1.1 gave smoother results which ended up blotched, but 2.0 seems to hit a sweet spot between the two: no big blurred areas as in 1.1 but no really visible noise as in 1.0

Now, if you look at a 400% enlarged crop of the above image, you can see what happens in details:

(yes, the colors are off, but that's because I took a screenshot of the 400% image in Photoshop.)

So, overall, a BIG step in the right direction.