(Color) Space ... The Final Frontier ~

There are few subjects in photography less well-understood by the average shooter. Color Space. Or Gamut. It's an understanding of the range of colors a given device, like a camera, can "see" and record, or what a printer may be able to produce. Obviously you don't need to be an expert on color (I certainly don't claim to be) to be a good photographer, but since our digital cameras want us to make a decision on which color space to shoot in, we should try to distill down a few of the essentials here to better understand what we're doing.

In other words, what on earth is the difference between using sRGB and Adobe RGB??

Most of what we shoot will be viewed on a monitor, either as we share our photos or post them to a website. This world sees in sRGB; shooting in this mode generally reproduces better saturation, particularly in the reds (at one end of the spectrum) and the deep violets (at the other). But why? Isn't Adobe RGB a larger color space?
Technically yes, it is, but it doesn't actually make more colors, it spreads those colors over a wider area. Since our monitor "sees" these colors in the smaller, more compressed sRGB space, those reds and violets get "cut off" and the program we're viewing the image in has to figure out on its own what those colors are. As a result, you end up with images that, by comparison, looked a bit washed-out. The reds don't pop, everything can look a little flat.

Alright, so when do we use Adobe RGB? I have usually recommended this to dentists who were shooting for high-quality shade matching, and working with labs that were using software which took advantage of this color gamut. It's also preferred when you're making custom prints and likewise are familiar with the imaging and printing software involved; typically you'd be shooting RAW files to fully take advantage of this. (A topic for a new blog post!). So, as I've always said, there's no more effective tool than communication. Work with your lab to see how they would prefer the image files you send them.

Are you getting the color quality you want in all your shots? You might not be, and maybe it's because you're not shooting in the appropriate color space. Check it out.

And let me know. I'd love to hear what's been working for you!

later, amigos!         Dave                      dhutt@dmddigitalphoto.com

Keeping Your Photos Safe, Safer, Safest ~

As a photographer, I know of one particularly scary horror story: a crashed hard drive, photos not backed up anywhere, photos gone...forever. In the past, we had been meticulous to the point of obsession about the care and archiving of our negatives. We had to be; they were our bread and butter. We don't use negatives much any more, but instead we have digital files. And I'm afraid too many of us have become complacent about how we consider their long-term care. Any good computer you buy these days will have at least a half-terabyte (500 Gb) of hard drive space, so it's easy to save our photos there with little concern to running out of room for them. But room isn't the issue. Just ask anyone who has lived through that crashed hard drive horror story.

So, let's talk about some good digital archiving strategies. In the not-so-distant past, we commonly burned our files to CD's (and later, DVD's) to store them. They stacked pretty easily on our bookshelves. But even back in the day there were suspicions about the long-term stability of this media. And -- have you looked at new computers these days? Solid-state is the state-of-the-art, due to greater speed and efficiency; this means no more optical drives for CD's (unless you buy additional hardware. Blech!) So I don't look at this media as a good solution any more. 

Besides, they don't have a lot of capacity. A CD only holds around 750 Mb of data, a DVD around 3Gb. Your typical thumb drive? Easily 8, 16, 32 Gb's. I recently saw a 64Gb thumb drive on Amazon for around $30! I use these all the time to upload everything from entire folders to my Keynote programs. They're especially good if you need to share those files, too, since the USB port is universal. So yes, these are good solutions. But.....

They are not the best alternative, mainly because the very quality that makes them so convenient also makes them vulnerable: if they're easy to carry around, they're easy to lose. What you'll find every photographer relying on are external hard drives. They're stable, have high capacity, and can easily be transported. Plus, they're fairly inexpensive. I use several. As a Mac guy, I have a large (1Tb) external HD dedicated to Time Machine, which keeps my computer's entire content continually backed up. Additionally, I use portable HD's to upload all my photos, Keynote programs, Word documents and other data in a way that makes it easy for me to retrieve them later on when I need to work with them. Since I know that all my important data is redundantly stored (on thumb drives, on Time Machine, and on portable HD's) I can confidently delete them off of my computer's hard drive and not take up space there. 

Yeah, it would definitely be a drag if my computer hard drive crashed. Those are never inexpensive events. But losing my data? Never. I sleep well at night.

Your thoughts? Let's archive them here!

dhutt@dmddigitalphoto.com

Accurate Color ~

As a commercial photographer and printer, I have always taken color very, very seriously. Capturing it on film, in a print, or in a digital image requires precision on many levels.
This is all the more critical in shade-matching, where we convey color information to the dental lab. Using digital technology, this task is much more reliable and accessible. Quality camera equipment -- a good digital SLR camera, macro lens, twin-light flash source  -- makes this possible. Other essential tools are the grey neutralizing tab and a reliable shade tab.

Dr. Dave and I normally shoot RAW files, and this totally unposed (!) picture shows the software we use to process them. But since most labs require jpeg images (they're a lot easier to email and work with) it's good to know that critical color accuracy is just as reliable with these.

Are you getting the color results you need? I might not be rosy, but I'm all ears!

Later!

dhutt@dmddigitalphoto.com

Progress On The New Video ~

Here's one of the wonderful and unexpected things that gets to happen to us photographers from time to time: my exterior shot of the Dentus Dental Clinic (shown below) was made into a blanket which they give to some selected clients. In 40 years of commercial shooting, I think that's a first! The good folks at Dentus had offered their beautiful facilities to Dave and me to produce some working shots for our video, and I shot the exterior of their Vancouver WA clinic for their use.

Work on the video is progressing as planned, and should be available early this summer. Right now I'm polishing the voice-over work on the slides. It's based upon the program I've given to clinics and dental labs all across the country, and stays close to my number one priority: photography is a completely accessible skill that can be used -- and enjoyed! -- by everyone.

When I get back from NY at the end of the month, we'll start filming our "cut-aways", which are the live talking intros to the different sections of the video. That ought to be fun; Dr Dave (pictured here, practicing "the look") and I are looking forward to our stint as movie stars!
...actually, I'm sure no one in Hollywood will feel overly threatened....

I'll keep you informed as work progresses and the video is available. It's certainly a lot of work, but also some of the most fun I've had as a photographer.

Later, friends!             Dave:  dhutt@dmddigitalphoto.com

setting up portraits ~

This is one of those rare but happy occasions when my core training business, teaching digital imaging in dental clinics and labs, intersects with my studio photography interests. I was invited to make portraits for the Clark County (Washington) Dental Association to use on their Members website. I've worked with dental professionals all around the country for several years now, and alway have fun with projects like this.

The set-up is pretty straight forward, and one that I sometimes set up for clinics to use for their own client portraits, something pretty common with the higher-end family and cosmetic practices. Good clinical intra-oral photos are a standard in any practice, but a really well made portrait that shows the beautiful results of cosmetic or restorative dentistry really sets a successful practice apart from others. There's real artistry in both endeavors.

Making a good head-and-shoulders portrait for business & web is a common project, but one that still needs your creative chops. When I teach studio lighting, I try to convey that it's an important fundamental, and the starting point from which to let your imagination take off.
Isn't that what it's all about?

How are you making portraits in your practice? Or if you're having problems with this, let me know and we'll find solutions together.

Later!    Dave

Macro Lens = Portrait Lens ~

I had an interesting conversation with a client recently who was wondering why her full-face portrait shots were always a little disappointing.  It wasn't anything dramatic, and was hard to pin-point just what exactly was the problem; they just "never looked right".

But the problem turned out to be a common one: she believed her 100mm Macro lens was usable only for intraoral shots, and nothing else. Her Canon Rebel, as is often the case, came with an 18-55mm general-purpose zoom lens, and she was using this for her portrait shots. This is a good lens for a lot of things, but portraits is not among them. The reason? This zoom lens is very "short" (i.e., wide-angle) and while scenics are great, portraits are distorted, and it was this distortion that caused the images to look disappointing. Let's look closely at this:

This is how a full-face shot will look when you use that zoom lens (or any similar lens that comes with your camera). In this case, the zoom focal length was set on 18mm, its widest setting. Notice how greatly distorted it looks. In fact, to get the face to fully fill the frame, I had to shoot about 2 or 3 inches away from her nose. Obviously un-usable.



For this next one, I set that zoom lens to its 35mm focal length, so I wouldn't have to stand so close to her. It's an improvement, but not by very much. It still looks much too distorted.

When the lens is set at 55mm focal length, its longest, the image starts to look more appealing. Although there is much less  distortion, it's still there.

But here, with the 100mm Macro lens, the portrait looks excellent. There's none of the distortion caused by using the shorter zoom lens. In fact, outside the opertory, this very same Macro lens is an excellent one for many kinds of photographic projects. It's wonderfully sharp and fast. So take it outside and have fun with it. After all, of all the tools you use in your practice, your camera is the only one you can say that about!

Being an Informed Consumer ~

This topic is near and dear to my heart: how to be an informed consumer when shopping for your camera gear, whether in a retail store or website. It's one of the most common subjects of the emails and phone calls I receive. There are so many pro-quality digital camera systems out there, and most salespeople won't really have a clear idea of your dental imaging needs.

There are a couple of big misconceptions about digital cameras that the consumer (& even some salespeople!) can fall prey to: First, the more expensive the camera, the better pictures it takes, and Second (usually related to this), higher mega-pixels = better pictures. Neither of these is inherently true.

So what are the things you'd find on a camera like this $7000 Canon 1Ds Mk III? It's a wonderful camera with the kinds of features needed by the professional shooter: a huge 21 mp sensor for the commercial photographer, a fast 5 frames-per-second burst rate for the sports shooter, a full-frame sensor for the outdoor scenic shooter. Crucial for them, yes, but none of which applies to your imaging needs in the opertory.

What you do need is a light-weight, simple to operate camera that will produce blazingly sharp, color-accurate images every time you shoot. Fortunately, there's a lot of great ones to choose; from Canon, the Digital Rebels: T3, T2i & T3i, ranging from around $550 to $900 for the body. From Nikon: the D3100, D5100, & D90, in the same price range.  Even though moderately priced, they still have very sophisticated sensors ranging from around 12 to 18 mega-pixels. No slouches these!

So, you can put together a complete system -- camera, macro lens, & ringflash -- for a fraction of what just a high-end pro camera body would cost. Read back on some of my earlier posts here about those components. Remember, a quality lens has much more to do with making a superb image than the number of light-gathering pixels on the sensor!
There are excellent photo retailers and reputable on-line suppliers out there; email me if you'd like to know more about some of them. Need some hands-on guidance to learn how best to use them? Let me  know ~ we'll get together!  
                                                   dhutt@dmddigitalphoto.com