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Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

A Professional Photo Workflow for OpenSolaris

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

I am not a professional by any means, but I like to know I can get the most out of my tools if the need arises. That means shooting in RAW along side JPEG so I can take control of image processing settings or correct little mistakes such as under-exposure or incorrect white balance. RAW files contain raw sensor data from the camera (duh) and must be processed by special programs before they can be printed or shared. My camera came with the Canon Digital Photo Professional software which I’ve heard is pretty good. There are other (expensive) commercial options such as Adobe Lightroom. Obviously none of these work in Solaris (though they might work in Wine), so I decided to explore the open-source offerings.

Fortunately, this is a good time in the open-source world for RAW processing. Tools like UFRaw and LensFun are maturing rapidly and beginning to give their commercial counterparts a run for their money. I spent the past week porting them, and the color management software, Argyll, to OpenSolaris.

Argyll

Argyll is a suite of color management tools for Unix and Windows. It can be used to calibrate displays, cameras, scanners, and printers. When all of your equipment is properly calibrated, then colors should appear the same on all devices. So if I were to photograph a stop sign, it would appear to be the same red on my monitor as in real life.

Color calibration requires special equipment. For your monitor, you need a colorimeter. I already had an X-rite i1Display to calibrate my TVs, and it works just fine with Argyll and Solaris (using libusb). Following these instructions I was able to calibrate my monitors in a few minutes. It was so easy I did my work monitors and laptop too!

Camera calibration was just as easy following Pascal de Bruijn’s instructions. I picked up a very affordable IT8.7 target from Wolf Faust. It arrived from Germany in about a week.

Argyll can be installed from my software repository by typing pfexec pkg install SFEargyll.

UFRaw

UFRaw with lens correction support using LensFun can be installed from my repository by typing pfexec pkg install ufraw. I went through hell trying to port this and its dependencies. LensFun was particularly terrible with its crazy Makefiles (please use Autotools!) and non-standard C++ which Sun Studio choked on.

I don’t have much else to say about this yet, I’m still playing around with it.

Tags: argyll, opensolaris, raw, ufraw
Posted in Desktop, Photography | 7 Comments »

Building a Photography Light Box

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Light boxes (or light tents) provide a scene with even lighting and a seemingly no background, great for product photography. You can make one yourself with stuff you probably already have lying around. You will need:

A cardboard box
White poster board
White tissue paper
Scissors
Ruler or tape measure (for straight lines)
Pen (to mark lines)
Clamp lamps
100 watt light bulbs. I use GE “Reveal” bulbs which supposedly approach the color temperature of the sun.
Tape such as Scotch tape or masking tape.

Start by cutting a window on the left and right sides of the box, leaving about a one inch border for structural support. You may find it easiest to start in the middle of the window and cut out small sections at a time.

Next, erect the box and line it with the white poster board. Make sure you put the matte side of the poster board facing out to avoid any unwanted reflections. Also create a small curve in the poster board toward the back of the box to give the illusion that it goes on forever.

Then line the open sides of the box with tissue paper. This diffuses the light evenly over the inside of the box. You will have to experiment with how many layers of tissue paper is required. I’ve started with two.

Now you’re ready to attach the lamps. I’m using clamp lamps which I picked up from Home Depot for $5 each. They attach firmly to the box sides and can be repositioned very easily. You can use desk lamps if you don’t have these.

Please have a fire extinguisher rated for paper and electrical fires handy. 200 watts of very hot lamps and and tissue paper don’t mix.

You will have to reposition the lamps to get the best possible lighting. Here I’ve held the lamps close to the windows using masking tape. You will have to experiment with this.

Before you begin, make sure you set a custom white balance. This is different for every camera, but typically you will take a photo of just the white background and the camera can figure it out from that. Then choose an object and try it out.