So to all of you, have a wonderful Christmas! Veselé vánoce!
Here's a demonstration of how easily the finest photographic equipment can be rendered useless.
Merry Christmas!
As most of you likely know, I'm a Czech thoroughbred, so naturally when spending Christmas with my family, we do it the Czech way. I don't want to go into the details about the Christmas carp and the bathtub, but one significant thing we do differently is that we celebrate Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas Day. We have a traditional meal, maybe have a drink or two, and open gifts in the evening. Since St. Nick had already delivered his gifts on Dec. 6th, the presents received on this day are from none other than baby Jesus. (If you don't believe me, read about it here!) Anyway, all this means is that little boys and girls get their goodies and play with them until they get tired, and when you crazy North Americans are getting up early, I'll be snoozing away :)
So to all of you, have a wonderful Christmas! Veselé vánoce!
Here's a demonstration of how easily the finest photographic equipment can be rendered useless.
So to all of you, have a wonderful Christmas! Veselé vánoce!
Here's a demonstration of how easily the finest photographic equipment can be rendered useless.
UW revisited
Having dwelled in the photographic doldrums for quite some time now, Ryan and I decided to recharge our batteries and take some early-morning snaps. The idea, in theory, was wonderful, but it turns out that overcast early-morning light is no better than overcast late-morning light... and more importantly, winter is cold. We drove to Waterloo Park and took a few shots there before walking over to our old haunt - the University of Waterloo. The Davis Centre (DC) - a spectacular mess of garishly coloured pipes and glass - seemed like a good place to stop and take some indoor photographs. Results are below, along with photos from the adjoining - and visually uninspiring - Mathematics and Computing building (MC).
One of a few crazy people we saw that morning. It was probably -20C, and the man is wearing little more than tights!
A plant in Waterloo Park. I desaturated this photograph to highlight the form of the plant against the stark snowscape. It looks a bit pixelated here, but I think it looks better in actual size.
Appropriate sticker, considering the temperature. At first glance I only saw "Freeze Now!"
A pair of benches in the Davis Centre. I used to study on these benches because there was nobody else around usually... the benches are quite uncomfortable :)
The ghost in the halls. Here is Ryan taking a photograph.
A fountain in the Davis Centre.
A locker in MC. CS 130 was my first computer science course. We learned about robots!
One of the classrooms in MC. Can you read what's written on the board? Maybe I should have sat closer...
One of a few crazy people we saw that morning. It was probably -20C, and the man is wearing little more than tights!
A plant in Waterloo Park. I desaturated this photograph to highlight the form of the plant against the stark snowscape. It looks a bit pixelated here, but I think it looks better in actual size.
Appropriate sticker, considering the temperature. At first glance I only saw "Freeze Now!"
A pair of benches in the Davis Centre. I used to study on these benches because there was nobody else around usually... the benches are quite uncomfortable :)
The ghost in the halls. Here is Ryan taking a photograph.
A fountain in the Davis Centre.
A locker in MC. CS 130 was my first computer science course. We learned about robots!
One of the classrooms in MC. Can you read what's written on the board? Maybe I should have sat closer...
Sweep and be healed!
Well, doing spot-healing in post-processing is all well and good, but I'm the kind of guy that avoids post-processing as much as possible. I want my best picture to be the one created when I trip my shutter, not when I dress it up in Photoshop (not that there's anything wrong with that). So you can imagine that I hate having to use Photoshop just to make pictures viewable.
I need a solution.
I found it.
It is... the Arctic Butterfly!
This little baby has bristles that can be electrostaticlly charged so that when you sweep the sensor - technically, the low-pass filter in front of the sensor - it attracts dust. And, as the Golden Compass has shown us, Dust is evil!!! So yay for the Arctic Butterfly!
Here are some sample shots:
Before
After the Arctic Butterfly!
So, as you can see, it's quite effective! I will now be able to save myself my yearly trip to the Nikon repair centre in Mississauga, the $80 fee, and the heartache of having to wait until next year to get the darned dust off again! You'll notice there is still residue, but this is likely water or oil stain that requires a wet solution (in the chemical sense of the term "solution"). I'll be posting the results once I buy the required materials. But for now, I can kiss dust goodbye!
I need a solution.
I found it.
It is... the Arctic Butterfly!
This little baby has bristles that can be electrostaticlly charged so that when you sweep the sensor - technically, the low-pass filter in front of the sensor - it attracts dust. And, as the Golden Compass has shown us, Dust is evil!!! So yay for the Arctic Butterfly!
Here are some sample shots:
Before
After the Arctic Butterfly!
So, as you can see, it's quite effective! I will now be able to save myself my yearly trip to the Nikon repair centre in Mississauga, the $80 fee, and the heartache of having to wait until next year to get the darned dust off again! You'll notice there is still residue, but this is likely water or oil stain that requires a wet solution (in the chemical sense of the term "solution"). I'll be posting the results once I buy the required materials. But for now, I can kiss dust goodbye!
Click and be healed!
I found a magic feature in my photo editing program (Elements 5.0... I can't afford Photoshop). It's called "Spot Healing Tool Brush". You paint an area of your image that you want eliminated and it automagically removes all evidence of its existence. This is fantastic for me since I have lots of photos defaced by ugly sensor dust particles.
Here are two images from my trip with Carolyn to Saskatoon. I liked the images but the originals had horrendous black smudges on them. Now that I have this handy tool, I plan to upload more photos that have been collecting dust (pun intended).
Here are two images from my trip with Carolyn to Saskatoon. I liked the images but the originals had horrendous black smudges on them. Now that I have this handy tool, I plan to upload more photos that have been collecting dust (pun intended).
