29th Manila International Book Fair

Yesterday, I went with Cris to visit possibly the nerdiest place I could ever fathom going to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the 3rd time I’ve gone to one.

I’m not in a position to make fun of nerds. After all, my girlfriend is one of them. Plus, I’m a geek; so that just makes us even. Still, I was amused at how much “excitement” books could generate – maybe because I don’t like reading in general (I prefer listening to audiobooks, etc.)

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Noise profiles for Lumix LX3

I’ve taken the liberty of making NoiseNinja noise profiles for the Lumix LX3. Here are the setup details:

  • Tripod (anti-shake turned off)
  • f/4.0
  • Telephoto to minimize barrel distortion
  • In-camera Noise Reduction set to -2 (lowest)
  • Everything else was set to the defaults.
  • 7 ISO settings (80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200)
  • 4 MP variations – each with 3 individual aspect ratios.
    • RAW (approx 10MP)
      • 4:3 – 10MP
      • 3:2 – 9.5MP
      • 16:9 – 9MP
    • JPG – maximum resolution (same as RAW)
      • 4:3 – 10MP
      • 3:2 – 9.5MP
      • 16:9 – 9MP
    • JPG – next biggest resolution (approx 6MP)
      • 4:3 – 7MP
      • 3:2 – 6.5MP
      • 16:9 – 6MP
    • JPG – biggest possible resolution which allows maximum digital zoom (approx 3MP)
      • 4:3 – 3MP
      • 3:2 – 3MP
      • 16:9 – 2.5MP

So that’s 7 ISO increments available to each of the 3 aspect ratios; Which in turn, gives us 21 profiles for each of the 4 megapixel choices I’ve profiled. That’s a total of 84 profiles! Download links for the profiles are available at the end of the post.

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Lightroom > Aperture

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Adobe Lightroom, and how it has surpassed 1 Admittedly, after a rocky start. Apple’s Aperture; so I went on ahead and installed it to see for myself.

I’m sure avid fans of both brands will probably revert to fanboy-ism, especially when they’re so much entrenched into a specific workflow. Having said that, I’ll avoid detailed comparisons. Sufficed to say, I’m uninstalling Aperture 😉

I will however, mention 3 absolute facts that I can stand behind and defend if push came to shove. If you have questions/violent reactions with regards to these points, feel free to IM me.

  1. If you’re working with files on a NAS (i.e. not directly attached to the computer), use Lightroom… period.
  2. Lightroom manages libraries better. It’s almost like iTunes the way it manages folders/files (which ironically, Aperture fails at). Again, there are so many aspects to this argument but trust me, Lightroom kicks Aperture’s ass in this area.
  3. While you’re mileage may vary on the effects/algorithms/features; personally, I’d have to say the only thing Aperture has that’s better than Lightroom is its vignetting algorithm.

It’s a shame really, since Apple started with one hell of a head-start in this arena. I guess it’s just one of those things where you drop the ball and never get it back.

Plus really, how can you compete with the likes of the makers of Photoshop when it comes to photography stuff?

Notes

Notes
1 Admittedly, after a rocky start.

My New Toy: Panasonic Lumix LX3

NOTICE
New Developments

Noise profiles for PictureCode’s Noise Ninja
are now available for download here



Classy Retro Feel!

I just got my Lumix LX3 a few days ago and I’m lovin’ it! Having just purchased a Sony W120 a few weeks before, I’m sure you can think of a bunch of questions; Why upgrade? Why Panasonic? etc. etc. I’ll be discussing that as well as talk about my experience with the LX3 thus far. Read More

Color Management in Firefox

Firefox disables color management by default. This means it won’t honor a color profile embedded in a digital image – which annoys photographers who post pictures online to no end.

Here’s how to fix it; in Firefox’s addressbar, type in: about:config

Then search/scroll the list of options till you see the following option:

gfx.color_management.enabled         user set        boolean      false

Double click on it to toggle its state to true then restart Firefox 😉

There you have it OSX users, no more reason to stick with Safari for the sole purpose of “proper color management”