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Fall
2004 Issue 9 |
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| Michael Hart's Road Notes: 1 2 3 4 5 Michael Hart’s Notes From The Road #5: The second of the two centers in France was completely different than the others, in that it is directly in the city center; in fact, the company took over two city blocks and rebuilt them, so while they own the buildings, the street which runs down the middle, and is now a pedestrian mall, is still owned by the City of Roubaix. All the other centers are outside of town to one degree or another.
And as it is August, a lot of the inhabitants are on holiday, having gone to the South of France (I'm in the very north). The centre had a good bit of traffic, especially once the weather cleared up Saturday afternoon, but my poor, tired old hotel, about a 10 minute walk away, has about 6 other inhabitants beside myself, and the restaurant is closed for the month, as are many in the neighborhood. Hey, if it were easy, anyone could do it, right? Speaking of easy...I mention how it's not getting any easier, especially for us "seasoned" veterans (read "old"). How prophetic. Walking to the center on Saturday I feel a twinge in my back under the camera backpack. It gets tighter and tighter during the day, and I medicate some that night. The next day, Sunday, is several hours drive to Charles DeGaulle and a flight to Rome. Now, people say "Oh, you're going to Rome! What a job!" Not exactly -- I'm going to the Rome Airport Hilton. Then I'm driving further outside of town to the Castel Milano Centre. Then back to the airport Hilton. Repeat. Then fly out. It's like staying at IAH and saying you went to Houston.
Anyway, Monday morning the back is very problematic, so much so that I break down and request a doctor. Very nice young fellow shows up, halting English, which is still better than my non-existent Italian. Anyway, I know what I really need is a chiropractic adjustment, but he does his best, gives me a shot (muscle relaxer/anti-inflammatory), and then a very good back massage to work out the knots which have developed in the back muscles. And he comes back and gives me another massage the next morning. It helps a lot, and I'm able to get the work done at what is ostensibly the prettiest center so far. Interesting how the medical disciplines are overlapped between our style (drugs, give me drugs) and a more holistic approach. Anyway, another tip: always bring more cash than you think you'll need! A word about workflow: As always, your results may vary, not available in all areas... On this trip, after I finish the shoot at a given center. I go through the downloaded photos and apply my camera profile to the whole lot. Just like monitors, digital cameras can be outside "the norm," and mine is. Bruce Fraser has a calibration procedure he posted on a web site: and I'm willing to bet that it's also in his new book, "Real World Camera Raw." The book has been garnishing praise from every quarter, and my copy will be waiting for me when I get home. There is another calibration procedure which I have used, and it was initially posted on the Imaging Revue website, which is a subscription site which I happen to think is very useful. It utilizes the MacBeth chart (as does Bruce Fraser's method), but uses hue and saturation readings of the red, green, and blue patches to tune the profile. I found an immediate difference, and I have that profile saved and, like I said, I apply it first. I have it in PDF form; e-mail me and I will gladly forward it to you. mhart@hartphoto.com When I start each shoot, I photograph the Mini MacBeth chart in my shooting light. When I open the files in Camera Raw, I open that shot, and the first thing I do is apply the profile for my 1Ds. Then I will white balance to the second lightest step in the chart, using the dropper in Camera Raw. Thomas Knoll, the guru behind Camera Raw, advises using this second patch as your balance reference with the dropper. I have found that my adjustment using the dropper is much more minimal if I have applied my camera profile first, it really usually gets me to within just a few points of a correct balance. In addition, it corrects the somewhat magenta bias my camera seems to err towards in some parts of the tonal curve. Then that master setting is applied to all images shot under similar circumstances. I can always tweak to my liking, but a good neutral is important; it's got all your ducks in a row, and you can make consistent adjustments or corrections as you see fit. Naturally, in the field I'm doing basic corrections, enough for the web gallery I generate for the client to view. But first, after all the shots are edited and adjusted, and my selects are flagged, I write a specific IPTC file for that shoot, and batch apply it to the take. Then I batch rename the shoot using the naming convention that I am following, then I take the flagged images and make a web gallery in Photoshop, and I upload that to my web site at the next stop, or wherever I can get internet access. So as I go, the designer in Texas and the clients, both at the headquarters in London and each of the specific centers I photographed can be reviewing the take and making their selection, and once I get back to Houston I will produce the finished files on the calibrated desktop system. In addition, after exporting the cache to the file folder along with the images, I back up each folder of RAW images to a LaCie 80gb pocket drive. And, since there is such a big amount on this trip, I burned backup CDs of the first 7 locations and FedExed them back to Houston when I was in Edinburgh, and had easy access to a FedEx location. I then felt easy about deleting them from the computer, as I was going to need all the space available for the rest of the shoot, and this way I would have two backups of everything. I do feel like I will probably add another pocket drive for double backup in the near future. At the same time, I am about at the limit of what one person can carry, with one camera backpack and a computer case both pretty full. OK, it's happy hour somewhere. As a matter of fact, it is here!
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