Most Nikon DSLR’s allow, through the use of Nikon Camera Control, to upload a custom curve into the camera. Unfortunately once the curve IS or ISNT embedded into your NEF file there is no way a changing that curve in Nikon Capture.

Curve Surgery allows you to extract/create/edit/embed curves to and from the NEF files.

So what?

The image that is displayed in Nikon Capture is AFTER the default curve or your in-camera curve has been applied. If your curve clips highlights badly, or you under/overexpose there is little way of reversing this effect. All other curves and levels edits in Nikon Capture are applied over the top of the default/user-defined curve.

And?

With Curve Surgery you can adjust these curves to your liking and then embed them back into a file. This means you are able to do some impressive post-editing at the most basic level of the RAW data.

Check it out here:

http://www.rawmagick.com/

GREYCstoration is based on state-of-the-art image processing methods using nonlinear multi-valued diffusion PDE’s (Partial Differential Equations). This kind of method generally outperforms basic image filtering techniques (such as convolution, median filtering, etc.), classically encountered in image painting programs. Other comparable image denoising techniques are available (for instance, Noise Ninja, Neat Image ) but are not open-source, and the corresponding algorithms are kept secret.

On the contrary, the source code of GREYCstoration is freely available and distributed under the CeCILL License (compatible with the well-known GPL). It gives similar results (not to say better) to existing closed-source denoising filters, and is absolutely free to use. Compared to other PDE-based regularization methods, our approach has several advantages : It performs very fast and is able to preserve thin image details since it works at a sub-pixel accuracy.

The tool is still a little bit hard to use (command-line based), but I hope the simple C++ API will ease the integration of the algorithm in more user-friendly interfaces. Previous versions of GREYCstoration are already available in Digikam and Krita.

There is a GIMP plug-in version available now which makes it a lot easier, I hope to see a Photoshop version soon.

There are a couple of GUI version here and here too.

You can download it here:

GREYCstoration-2.5.2.1.zip

Important note : You will need to install the ImageMagick’s package in order to be able to read compressed image formats (JPG,PNG,etc…). On Unix systems, this package is often installed by default, on Windows, you can get it here. Please download one of the static package only.

You can read more here.

2. To make the © using a PC, hold down the Alt key and type 0169. On a Mac, press Option + G. Then type in a copyright notice (your name, your company, etc.) as you want it to appear. Pick a font you like — you’ll be stuck with it.

3. Now hide the Background layer. Do this by clicking the eye icon to the left of the Background layer’s name on the Layers Palette. Make sure your Type layer is still selected (click on it if not). Then select your text: Go to Select > Color Range, move the Fuzziness slider all the way to 200, and click OK.

4. Then make your custom brush: Choose Edit > Define Brush Preset. Enter a descriptive name for the brush (like MyCopyright), and click OK.

5. To test your new brush, open an image you’d like to stamp. Grab the Brush tool (type B). Then, from the Options bar at the top of your screen, pull down the Brush menu and scroll to the bottom. The one you just made is the last on your list. Click on it to select it, then click the spot in your image where you want to stamp your copyright. If it’s too small to see, increase your brush size.

You can find the artists site here (Nico Di Mattia):

http://www.speed-painting.com/

And grab the wallpaper version of John Locke here.

Creating your own Planet style pictures from Panorama shots. Most compact cams have a panorama mode and even the newer phone cameras have the feature which allows you to easily stitch a few shots together.

Our pal Dirk wrote up a tutorial that shows you how to turn any panorama or landscape photograph into a full-fledged planet!

Best of all, once you’ve selected an image to work with, the process takes only 5 minutes. (Launching your new planet into solar orbit may take a bit longer.)

360 degree shot of San Francisco taken from the Coit Tower made into a planet.

Pretty neat eh?

You can find the full tutorial and examples here:

How to Create Your Own Planets Using Your Panoramas

There is also a big Flickr set of examples and a Flickr Group dedicated to this.

RSE (Raw Shooter Essentials) is a pretty good RAW file manipulator for all brands of RAW files (most importantly Canon, Nikon and the DNG or Digital Negative format).

Adobe Systems Inc has acquired the assets of Pixmantec (RawShooter). RawShooter Essentials will no longer be updated but will be available for download until shortly after Adobe Lightroom 1.0 is released as a shipping product.

RawShooter Essentials 2006, is a RAW workflow software tool that sets new standards for digital photography. It is a fully functional RAW converter which allows any level of user to get excellent results with the minimum of effort and knowledge. It provides the highest quality output and fastest conversion time for any RAW converter on the market today.

Now supports 15 additional DSLR cameras including Nikon D200 and Canon 5D!

RawShooter Essentials 2006 contains core functionality such as:

• Powerful File Browser: Full support for drag & drop, shortcuts, cursor sensitive hints and tips, scalable thumbnails, customizable background color and directory management including creation / rename / deletion and defining favorites
• Image Priority: Assignment of priorities to individual or group of images
• Slideshow: Full screen slideshow of RAW images. During the editing process, individual files can be assigned priorities via the slideshow, or consigned to the recycle bin
• Dynamic Preview: True to life representation of how your converted image will look. Unlike, other previews, the dynamic preview instantly shows the effects of any changes that you make to the RAW iage, even at high magnifications
• Powerful Image Correction Tools: Image adjustment tools are provided for white balance, exposure compensation, dynamic range (fill light), shadow and highlight contrast, hue & saturation, sharpness, detail extraction, noise supression (both low frequency and color). Effects of slider based adjustments will be shown on the Dynamic Preview, no matter what the magnification
• Snapshot: Several variations of the same RAW file, all with different levels of correction applied
• Integral Color Database: Fully color managed. No direct changes are made to RAW files. Any color changes made are stored externally from the product
• Multi-threaded Batch Processing: Options such as output format (TIFF/JPEG) and automatic tagging of ICC profiles. Converts huge files in seconds with images queued for conversion in the background. Supports dual processors for maximum conversion speed

Full info here.

You can download RSE here:

RawShooter Essentials 1.2

The neck extension part is the one that freaks me out..

It just shows the power of creative lighting, good makeup and hair, a good clean photograph and a LOT of post processing.

The girl looks just about average to begin with, but so striking on the billboard.

I can recognise most of the moves, quite a lot of perspective transformation, can you see them all?

I’ve mastered some of these techniques, but certainly not to this degree of expertise.

Lose this:

And end up with this:

Pictures from: earthboundlight.com

This stupid software installs a plugin to Photoshop without your permission and overides the default RAW handling.

You can find the Nikon NEF plugin at

Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-ins\Adobe Photoshop Only\File Formats

There you can delete it, after that you may get an error message such as:

could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document

After you can go to the Adobe Camera RAW site and download the latest version (3.6 at this time).

Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter for Windows

After you’ve download this plugin put it in:

Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS\Plug-Ins\File Formats

And all should be well!

Before manipulation

After manipulation

This brings me to the thoughts where photographs can be altered for various reasons. I am not posting this to start a debate on what is right and what is not but you can feel free to share with us your thoughts on this.

Since the dawn of photography, some photographers have strived to change reality pre and post exposure. Salon photographers pay cyclists to cycle in the sunset to capture their silhouttes and they also pay old men to dress up as monks so that they could be interesting subjects. Today, in the digital realm, the manipulation of reality is more prevalent with tools like Adobe PS being ubiquitous and graphics artists use such tools as tool to create fantastical creations.

The only stance I take firmly is if a photograph, used for purposes of documentation, is altered. I do not agree to this.