Friday, August 31, 2012

Trivia (LX) - Pro Advice



Just set up a new workstation with Windows 7 and the latest versions of Lightroom 4.1 and Silver Efex Pro 2. When I "Edit Photo in Silver Efex Pro 2" and choose a 16 bit TIFF as the export, I get these lines or bands in the image (see example attached to post). It seems particularly related to structure adjustments. This does not happen if I use 8 bit TIFFs, it functions normally. (I'm using sRGB color space and no compression.)
Also interesting is that I can see lines while processing the image, but when I save it back to Lightroom, the lines are in different places...
Has anyone else seen this? +Nik Software? Any ideas?
Michael Riffle, Google+
Jun 2, 2012

Thank you for contacting Nik Software. 
Silver Efex Pro 2 takes advantage of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of the computer system. The GPU is also sometimes referred to as the Display Adapter or Video Card, in any case they are all the same.Sometimes certain video cards will not handle this additional processing. You will note this when opening an image into Silver Efex Pro 2 and one or more of the following happens: 1.) Silver Efex Pro will crash right away, or 2.) If it opens the imported image will sometimes not be displayed correctly (solid gray, black or white image), or 3.) the buttons will not display correctly, or 4.) the responsiveness is simply very slow.
In order to resolve this, the first measure would be to update the Display Adapters or GPU driver.
[...] 
If after following the above steps, you are still experiencing the same issue, the next step will be to either disable the GPU (if possible) or force Silver Efex Pro 2 to not use the GPU (safe-mode). If Silver Efex Pro 2 states your GPU is not in use, the following steps may still be necessary to improve performance. In order to disable the GPU in Silver Efex PRO 2 please do the following:
If you are able to open Silver Efex Pro 2 and can see part of the interface, see if you can click on the"Settings" button in the lower left.
In Settings locate the section "GPU" and expand it, in this section you will see a check box "Enable GPU Processing", uncheck this so the GPU will be disabled, then close the settings window.
Close out of Silver Efex Pro 2 (click Cancel), quit out of any and all host applications (Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture), and then relaunch Silver Efex Pro 2 to see if this corrects this issue.
Nik Software Support, answering to Derek Greer
Jul 16, 2012

Definitely not in Porto (XVII)
(The Fashionistas)


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Docs (I) - Inside Photographer Robert Frank's The Americans




In 2009 the National Gallery of Art organized a comprehensive exhibit of Robert Frank's work (Images courtesy of: National Gallery of Art; Produced by: Diane Bolz and Brian Wolly)

Praça da Liberdade, 128
(The tight jeans)


Sunday, August 26, 2012

Jardim da Cordoaria
(The girl from near Seoul)


Trivia (LIX) - The birthday gift

Metz 24-AF1 Digital Flashgun for Olympus/PanasonicMetz 24-AF1 Digital Flashgun for Olympus/Panasonic
by Metz
RRP:£71.50
Price:£50.87
You Save:£20.63 (29%)
In stock


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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Trivia (LVIII) - The 100 Project

The little fella who runs thekamerakid.blogspot.com has just been selected to take part in The 100 Project!

http://the100.thinkplaymake.co/



From The 100 Project website:
«The 100 is a new collaborative photography project from the creators of the Disposable Memory Project. Over the course of 2012, we’re giving 100 disposable cameras to 100 people aged between 1 and 100, inviting each of them to capture one week in their life. Through this site, we’ll share the images and hopefully build up a picture of 100 different lives.»

Sounds like it will be a great week!




Rua do Loureiro, 28
(The 30th hour, 3)

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Books (VI)


The Americans

by Robert Frank





Hardcover: 180 pages
Publisher: Scalo Publishers;
3rd edition (February 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3931141802
ISBN-13: 978-3931141806
Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches


Amazon
Order Placed: n/a




'In a whole, Robert Frank shot 767 rolls of film yielding about 27,000 images. He edited all of that down to about 1,000 work prints, then he spread them across the floor of his studio and tacked them to the walls to figure out which ones to use and in what order. He reduced a year and a half worth of work to just 83 images.

The Americans was the work of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, and the National Gallery of Art is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the book's American debut with an exhibition. Curator Sarah Greenough says The Americans was actually reviled when it was first published in the United States.

"Popular Photography asked a number of writers to critique the book and almost all of them were very negative," Greenough says. "It was described as a sad poem by a very sick person".'

NPR National Public Radio, February 14, 2009


Praça da Batalha
(The battery radio)


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Rua de São João, 27
(The dutch symphonic metal band member)


Street Shooters (VI)

This is Curiosity, one of my favorite street photographers, from Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater, Mars.
I love fisheye lenses, especially for this type of photography.
You can find his work here and his facebook page here.

(by the way my little fella got his name on board)