The Friedman Archives Newsletter June, 2008

Hi, all!  Usually I only send out newsletters once every six months or so, but there are too many interesting things to share with you.  A summary: 

 

Gary Fong Flash Diffusers

 While conducting the seminar in California last February, one of the attendees turned me onto one of the most well-designed flash diffusers I have ever seen: It was called the “Whale Tale” and it was designed by former wedding photographer Gary Fong.  Recently I took a minute to peruse Gary’s site (www.GaryFong.com), and then spent several minutes reading his blog.  (A blog??  Wow.  He must have a lot of spare time on his hands! J ).  The more I read, the more I liked him as a person.  Then I realized that he and I had just a little too much in common: 

1)      We’re both photographers and love to write

2)      We both used to shoot weddings in a big way

3)      We’re both inventors (although he’s had better luck commercializing his patents than I      have)

4)      We’re both musicians and entrepreneurs

5)      We both work trade shows. J

6)      We both have great taste in first names

 Most of you know that I grew up using just a large piece of paper as my flash diffuser (as demonstrated in Chapter 7), which I think is the ultimate of portability and economy.  How does his unit compare to a white sheet of paper?  I hope to order one soon and do direct comparison shots.  Stay tuned!!  In the meantime check out The Other Gary’s blog at http://www.xanga.com/garyfong1. 

 

Capture One 4 – Wow!!

David Kilpatrick (publisher of PhotoWorld) has a wonderful article comparing no less than SEVEN 3rd-party RAW processing software (you can find it here: http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2008/02/21/a700-6400-iso-seven-raw-processors/ ), and I was rather surprised to learn that, according to his test results, the new Capture One version 4 software actually produced less noise from high-ISO shots than all the others, including Sony’s own IDC software.  What’s more, Capture One (produced by Phase One) had a free trial offer of their Version 4 software, available at http://www.phaseone.com/Content/Downloads/CO4.aspx. 

I wonder how it would do on older RAW files, specifically those shot with my trusty A2 (a great travel camera if you don’t need things like responsiveness or low-light shooting).  I pulled up a shot I took in Chicago at night, a shot where I completely forgot to set the camera to its lowest ISO to minimize noise, making the image unsellable.  (The sensor on this camera is so small that even shots taken at ISO 200, as this image was, can show considerable noise overall.)  The software is still kind of unstable – it hung a few times on my XP laptop but after several reboots I was able to get it to do amazing things with this difficult shot.

 Rather than include all sorts of images in this email (nobody like large emails with attachments!), I have set up a webpage showing comparison shots between what I was able to do to rescue the shot with Adobe Camera RAW and Capture One 4.  You can find the link here:  http://www.FriedmanArchives.com/newsletters/capture_one_examples.htm (for those of you typing in the URL, note that there are _’s where spaces appear: capture_one_examples.htm )

Summary: Capture One did a much better job, and once you get used to the user interface you can actually tweak any given image using fewer mouse clicks than any other software I’ve tried so far – a welcome change!

Readers of this newsletter can subscribe to PhotoWorld at a special rate, by the way.  It is a great magazine and David’s efforts often save me a great deal of time.  You can be the recipient of this outstanding publication by subscribing here: http://friedmanarchives.com/photoclubalpha.htm .

 

A350 Book is Finally Out

 I’m happy to report that, at long last, the e-book on the Sony A300/A350 is now available at www.FriedmanArchives.com/alpha350 !

I'm very proud of this book, and I went to great lengths to make sure that it wasn't just a recycled version of previous books.  There's a lot of new stuff in there - a whole chapter on Live View, more detail on flash operation, a more thorough explanation of the different metering modes (center-weighted, spot, and multi-segment), and of course lots of new pictures. 

I must say that Sony's implementation of Live View really is preferable to the way that Canon and Nikon implemented it -- the interface is more natural, the focusing is faster and you retain autofocusing between shots in continuous shooting mode, and of course there's a LCD screen that swings away from the body -- probably the most important feature of all! 

 

Advanced Topics 2 in the works

 I should take a breather from all this writing, but alas, this summer I’ll be working on another Advanced Topics e-booklet, and I’m soliciting input for the topics you’d like to see.  The table of contents so far includes:

 What more would you like to see?  Every so often I (as do most educators) suffer from the “College Professor” syndrome – that is, they know a subject so well that they’ve completely internalized it, and no longer know what’s obvious or what’s unintuitive.  Here’s where your feedback can be crucial!  Drop me an email with your suggestions to Gary@FriedmanArchives.com.

 

New video footage added to China blog

Ever since returning from my 6-month stay in China back in 2004, there was always this nagging feeling I had at the back of my mind – there was one more thing I wanted to share with my readers, but I never was able to do so.

What was it?  In Chapter 17 I talked about what REAL Chinese food was like, and I also talked about the only food I encountered while there that I could not bring myself to eat:   Chicken embryos – still in the eggshell – that you open up, dip in salt, and the put the whole thing in your mouth – feathers, beak, everything.  You could buy them from street food vendors everywhere.  And although I showed pictures of them on the blog (http://friedmanarchives.com/China/Web/Chapter17/Chapter17.htm), I really wanted to go one step further – to show a video of local citizens breaking the egg open, dipping them in salt, and then throwing the whole thing in their mouths.  Alas, I never got the opportunity to film it, but my desire to add the video persisted.

Over the years I kept in touch with some of my students by email, and have asked them periodically to supply me with such footage, and recently one such student finally came through!  So now, after more than 4 years of being home, I can finally say that my China blog is complete.  You can view the non-professional-quality, cellphone-acquired video at http://friedmanarchives.com/China/Web/Chapter17/Chapter17.htm, near the bottom of the page.  (And if you’d like to read the whole work free of charge, you can start here http://friedmanarchives.com/China/Web/TOC.HTM.). 

 

Special Offer for Latvia Participants

Thinking of coming to Latvia this July, but a little unsure if you can afford it right now?  Then this deal is for you!  Refer a friend and receive 10% off the price!  Photo expeditions are always more fun with another person, so why not share this once-in-a-lifetime experience with someone with whom you can reminisce about it for decades to come?  Email me at Gary@FriedmanArchives.com for details.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Latvia trip, it is one of many such Photo Expeditions I’m planning that is geared toward the unique needs of photographers.  You can read more about them at www.FriedmanArchives.com/expeditions .  The trips are brand-agnostic (anyone with any camera is welcome), and it will be an unforgettable trip which encourages you to explore, challenge your creative eye, and get all of your questions answered from someone who really loves to share his knowledge and experience.  Latvia is a beautiful country that has not been spoiled by tourism, and the trip will take place July 13-20, 2008.   And let me know if you’re even thinking of maybe perhaps there’s even a 10% chance of you participating.

 

Boston and Oregon Seminars

There’s still time to sign up for the Friedman Archives High-Impact Photography Seminar, taking place in Roseburg, OR the weekend of May 17-18, and also the Boston seminar October 18-19th 2008 (actually, there’s a LOT of time to sign up for Boston! J ).  I’m also thinking of squeezing one in up in San Francisco this year, so if this is of interest to you please sign your city up (this applies to everyone, in all cities) at http://friedmanarchives.com/seminars/ .

 

New Canon Camera Out Soon

This was actually an April Fool’s joke, but someone sent it to me and I really liked it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52964625@N00/2170695359/

 

Until next time, I hope you enjoy exploring your world and expanding your mind through the creative medium of photography!

 

Sincerely,

Gary Friedman

Next Newsletter - July 2008                Previous Newsletter - March 2008

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