Digitalopia

I do enjoy the near instant feedback that photographing when tethered provides. However, it is not always convenient to have your camera right next to your computer. During my current build of a DIY light tent (you will have to wait for a few more days for that article), I found the ideal place to set up the light tent was a few meters away from my computer (iMac rather than a laptop so not that portable.) Rather than shoot to the CF card and then process the photos later in Aperture, I decided to tether the camera with the help of a 5 meter USB (16.4 feet) extension cable. I found a cable that was compatible with USB 2 that gave nearly 6 meters extension when the Nikon cable was included.

The photo above (of a toy pencil sharpener) was taken with 2 desk lamps (100 Watts each) on a blue card background. The setup is shown below. No prizes for the lighting, but I am still in the process of building my DIY light tent (letting the glue dry!)

I have not noticed any slowdown or any other issues when using the longer cable. It should be noted that 5 meters is the maximum specified length for USB, but this should be more than enough to allow you to shoot anywhere in the same room as your computer.

Nik Software recently updated their Color Efex Pro 3.0 software to provide support for Aperture 2.1+ though the addition of an edit plug-in. Note that the Aperture plug-in is not available with the Standard Edition of Color Efex Pro 3.0, only the Select and Complete Editions.

Color Efex Pro 3.0 provides a set of digital filters for colour correction, retouching and creative enhancements. They are analogous to traditional photographic filters, and some of the filter names will be familiar, such as Graduated Neutral Density and Skylight Filter.

Color Efex Pro 3.0 is available in three different versions at different price points and number of included filters. A 15 day free trial version is also available.

• Standard Edition - 15 Filters - $99.95 (Aperture plug-in not included)
• Select Edition - 35 Filters - $159.95
• Complete Edition - 52 Filters - $299.95

The filters provided with each edition are listed here.

After opening the plug-in with a selected photo, the plug-in interface is opened. The Complete Edition is shown in the screen shot below after the B/W Conversion plug-in has been applied.

The left side of the plug-in lists the available filters, grouped into a number of tabs; All, Traditional, Stylizing, Landscape or Portrait. Filters can also be added to a dedicated Favorites tab.

The center of the plug-in shows the selected photo. A number of different display modes are available.

• A single image is shown with the filter applied (a check-box can remove the preview, simply showing the image before the filter is applied.)
• Before and after photos are shown side-by-side (as shown in the screen shot above.) This is my preferred display mode, allowing to see the filter effects upon all parts of the photo.
• A single photo is shown split in two, the left side showing before and the right side showing after.

The right side of the plug-in shows the available options for the currently selected filter. A loupe is also provided that shows the before and after effects of the filter at the pixel level. The loupe displays the photo detail at the current mouse pointer location.

I will be adding some subsequent follow-up articles taking an example image and passing it through a number of the available filters to show the their effect and the filters available options.

Overall, Color Efex Pro 3.0 is a great Aperture plug-in and a valuable addition to your digital kit-bag. However, as the Aperture plug-in is only available with the Select and Complete Editions, which at $160 and $300 (minus that 5 cents!) respectively are quite expensive, it will only be popular with a select group of Aperture users. However, if you have not invested in Photoshop, a couple of Aperture plug-ins may be all you need to complete your digital workflow. I would definitely recommend using the free trial version to see if it offers enough features for the cost.

It seems that Amazon is currently offering Apple Aperture 2.0 for only $159.99, saving over $39 off the price it is available from other retailers, including the Apple store.

This offer is direct from Amazon and includes free shipping (Super Saver Shipping). Click here to head on over to Amazon.

PictureCode have announced the availability of the popular Noise Ninja noise and grain removal application as a Aperture Plug-in.

Noise Ninja has a wide following among professional photographers, and is popular when shooting in low light or fast moving conditions, as it can help to remove unwanted noise associated with shooting at a high ISO.

You can download the plug-in from from the Apple Web site. A license for the Noise Ninja plug-in costs $79.95 (Pro Bundle). Until the licence has been purchased, the plug-in will operate in trial mode, displaying a grid patterned watermark on all images processed.

Not a major feature release for Aperture, but version 2.1.1 resolves general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

As with the previous updates to Apple iLife, support for the MobileMe service has been added.

The update is available here. The update is recommended to all users and is available as a 48MB download.

Nik Software have today released the Viveze Plug-in for Aperture 2.1. The plug-in was one of the original plug-ins listed by Apple as being in development upon the release of the Aperture Edit Plug-In SDK.

I will be interested in looking further at the features of the plug-in, and to be honest, the descriptions do not really tell me how the plug-in differentiates itself from the features already available in Aperture.

A 15 day trial is available to allow you to try out the plug-in and it is available for purchase direct from the Nik Software Web site at $249.95. Yes, this is another Aperture plug-in that is more expensive than Aperture itself, as the Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter plug-in costs $299.95.

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It seems that since Apple released Aperture 2, there have been ongoing debates on photography forums regarding Aperture’s tethered shooting support of the newer camera models from Nikon and Canon.

As a Nikon user, I was oblivious to the debate when I first wrote about the new tethering features in Aperture. However, after hearing about the lack of support for many Canon models, I decided to do a brief exercise looking at their support. What amazed me was the lack of support of not just the most recent Canon models such as the 1Ds III, but also models that were released over 2 years ago like the 30D.

I started to dig a bit deeper and found 2 sides to the story. I have not yet received a formal statement from either Apple or Canon (see below), but I thought I would share both sides of the arguments. Most comments are from various forums, and obviously give bias, so should be taken lightly.

What Evidence Supports Apple

The issue lies with Canon… I’ve heard different reasoning for this (Canon putting some proprietary blocks in the way or Canon’s SDK having some bugs that still need to be corrected). Hopefully, it’s the SDK issue or a firmware issue that can be updated or corrected.

The next comment was made from an Apple spokesman at a trade event.

… each camera needs to be reverse engineered for tethering because Canon is not willing to let go of the coding.

The Macworld review of Aperture 2 states the following.

Tethered shooting in Aperture works using a standard called Picture Transport Protocol (PTP), and as such, it requires supported cameras.

What Evidence Supports Canon

This comment was received from Canon’s customer support.

… while the transfer protocols for the camera and the image files are available to the software designers.

The Bibble software seems to support most, if not all of the Canon models. I guess the question here is that if Bibble can, why cannot Apple ?

The Follow Up

This is obviously not a closed case, so I have subsequently written to both Apple and Canon asking if they would be able to supply a comment that I can share with my readers. Fingers crossed they will respond.

For a more comprehensive list of supported cameras, take a look at this site. As you can see, Canon is very poorly supported by Aperture.

If you read my previous article on Aperture Tethered Shooting Tutorial, then you will know how much I enjoy using the new tethering features of Aperture 2.

However, one thing that I get asked often is how well supported are the newer camera models. In this article I will look at the support for the latest Nikon and Canon camera models, namely the Nikon D300 and D3, and the Canon 450D (Rebel XSi), 40D and 1DsIII.

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There is something pure and simple about a black and white photograph. Perhaps it is its common use among the classic photographers such a Ansel Adams and its adoption in fine art photography. It may be that to create a ‘good’ black and white photo is harder than a ‘good’ colour photo; reason being the lack of colour information forces you to focus more on the image content, detail and contrast.

Most image editing applications support the conversion of an image to black and white. However, not all are created equal and some simply support a ‘convert to greyscale’ option that does not give you the flexibility to adjust the image further. Both iPhoto and the software bundled with most cameras do a reasonable job of converting an image to black and white, but the greyscale images they produce can be quite flat and it can be hard to get the effects you desire.

New Zealand - Milford Sound

Aperture provides a set of adjustments for black and white conversion that will be common to photographers that use filters to achieve their black and white effects.

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The recently released version 1.1 of the BorderFX plug-in provides compatibility with Aperture 2 and includes a number of new features. To quote the plug-in author,

An Aperture export plug-in that allows you to add borders to images when you export them.

This statement simplifies the BorderFX plug-in, which offers a powerful and flexible environment in which to add borders during the image export process. The BorderFX plugin is available for download from the Aperture Downloads page. For further details, head over to the plug-in authors site.

For the remainder of this article I will be covering the installation and configuration of the plug-in, and include a number of examples of the plug-in in action.

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