Monday, December 11, 2023

Old Mac OS vs New Camera RAW Format

Finally I hit the brick wall of old vs new. My ten-year-old 2013 Mac Pro laptop can only be updated to Mac OS 10.15 Catalina. At purchase, the laptop ran Mac OS 10.9 known as Mavericks. So it is stuck well below the newer versions of Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and, currently, Sonoma. 

Many of the applications I use on the laptop easily can save files to iCloud Drive to be opened on my newer Mac computer for final touchups. But this month I learned that NEF RAW images from my Nikon Zfc were not visible to any application including the Finder. 

Lesson #1 - When on a road trip with 2013 Mac Pro laptop, change Nikon settings to shoot RAW + JPEG. Then some images can be previewed, sorted and ranked - even shared. 

Lesson #2 - The Nikon Snapbridge iPhone app can come to the rescue and transfer a 2 megapixel, low resolution, image to iPhone or iPad for edits or sharing over an adhoc wifi connection. 

Lesson #3 - Consider budgeting for a new laptop after evaluating how an iPad Pro with USB-C port can power an SSD and the apps needed to edit Nikon's NEF files. Maybe begin budgeting for a new iPad Pro. 

SSD Failure Warning

It happened to me just last month. The on-screen warning popped up when I attached my Photo Vault external drive. And I have been putting off doing anything until I check my SSD backup drives. 

Message to you - Drive failures happen. Accidents happen. Fires happen. Build in backups to your backups. Keep an off-site backup of important digital (and analog) documents and images. 

Backstory - OK, back in 2015 I started using an external SSD (solid state drive) when using Lightroom for DSLR photo management. My image management process uses three Western Digital 2TB SSDs purchased at Costco. The primary drive is the one where new photos are added and photos are edited with apps on Mac. The second drive is also a 2TB SSD that stays in my home. The third 2TB SSD lives off-site and out-of-town. After downloading photos or a big editing session I use ChronoSync Express for macOS to manually sync the folders on the primary drive to the second drive. When visiting off-site, the primary drive travels with me along with a 2013 Mac Pro laptop and ChronoSync Express is used to sync the primary drive to the third drive. All of this in addition to a Time Machine backup of the Mac computer. 

Online Research - Reading Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac has a line that jumped out at me: "If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back up your data and replace the disk—you can’t repair it."  

I have been wanting to update the SSDs from USB3 to USB-C and will check at Costco for new drives in 2024. Now is the time to consider if 2TB is the best size going forward. In Summer 2021 I purchased a Nikon Zfc mirrorless camera. This retro device has the same size APS-C cropped sensor as my Nikon D7000 & D5000 cameras. RAW files are still about 25-29 MB in file size with 22 megapixels. This is the "right size" image for my camera work, and full-frame mirrorless gear was in my budget but not for easy carrying around. 

Another possibility is to buy new SSDs, copy the data to a primary drive and then retire the drive to a local safe deposit box. Ahh. Maybe a two-drive solution with one locked up and another around the house (for trips down memory lane). But I'm tempted to begin anew in 2024 -- storing new photos from Nikon and iPhone shoots with the same photo management process of three drives using new USB-C SSD drives.  Stay tuned. 


Sunday, October 29, 2023

Spring 2024 Catalog Description

iPhone Photographic Studio  

Past studio enrollees invite 8 new members to join our adventure. We endeavor to use our iPhones to their fullest capacity, so you know digital photography and you know the ins-and-outs of your iPhone and are willing to purchase $25 in apps and services. You must be available for our field trip on Feb 22, 2024.  Online shared albums are our critique and learning platform. Our public website continues to provide informative articles, demonstration videos, and examples of our artwork at https://rsiphonephotostudio.blogspot.com 

A draft ... for now. Submitting on 10/30/23 

  • Meet and Greet on Zoom 2/8

  1. Intro on Zoom 2/15
  2. Field trip 2/22   <<< required for all 
  3. Editing on Zoom 2/28 
  4. Styling and more editing on Zoom 3/7
  5. Styling and more editing on Zoom 3/14
  6. Styling and more editing on Zoom 3/21


Monday, October 16, 2023

Always Keep Learning

Must have been an iGeeksBlog email that tipped me off to Mrwhosetheboss on YouTube. Please, please, please checkout his How smartphone cameras ACTUALLY work! video. 

Watch this space for other discoveries.  

iPhone Photography School has posted short tips to improve your photography

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Back to Basics for Spring 2024

We have agreed on two fundamental changes for next semester: 1) continue with photography and stylizing and 2) let no more than EIGHT NEW photographers join our class. We will still use Apple Shared Photo Album to post our work, critiques, praise, questions and responses. The content could be original photos, stylized images, collages, animated sequences and videos. 

New photographers ... 

  • Must have an understanding of photography (to better appreciate why they will be buying apps for their iPhone and iPad) 
  • Be familiar with iOS 16-17 and how to organize apps on your device 
  • Be willing to share creativity in our safe place (Shared Photo Album) 
  • Be curious and willing to search online for information and inspiration
  • Be understanding of the frustrations of technology and working towards solutions 
Apps we will keep using: 

Cameras
  • Apple Camera
  • ProCamera with vividHDR in app purchase 
  • Camera+ with presets (Macro) 
  • Slow Shutter or Spectre 
Editing 
  • Apple Photos 
  • TouchRetouch 
  • Snapseed 
Styling 
  • Painnt
  • Prisma
  • Image Blender 
  • Pixelmator 
Collage
  • PicCollage
  • Diptic 
Utilities 
  • Screenshots
  • Markup
  • PhotInfo 
  • Metapho 
iOS - iPadOS features & apps 
  • Spotlight Search
  • Control Center
  • Settings app 
  • Files app 
  • Keynote & Pages 
  • Notes, Contacts & Calendar 
Favorite apps that still work in iOS 17: Leonardo, RAW Power, Waterlogue, Inkwork, Distressed FX, iColorama, Tangled FX, Percolator, Vintage Scene. 


Morning Lessons

Not sure what your morning routine is, but usually I am reading online. The comics, the newspaper and Apple News+ with a variety of sources. 

This morning I went straight to YouTube for lessons on my Nikon Zfc. So much to learn! So much to remember. 

This was stirred up by going on photo field trips with two other Nikon photographers. They have full-frame mirrorless camera and mine is a light-weight cropped sensor, DX model that uses my old lenses. 

But I have not been using this newer Nikon for all its improvements. There are menus to be discovered, settings to change and ... when all else fails ... factory settings to restore for starting over. 

Have you found iPhone camera, Photos hints or stylizing videos that inspire your creativity? Please share! 

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Photographer reviews iPhone 15 Pro Max

Derrick Story is a photographer in Santa Rosa and his writing and workshops have been of interest to me for 15+ years. He has just published Setting Up the iPhone 15 Pro for Photographers - Step-by-Step Guide for the Pro and Pro Max Camera Settings. Check it out. 

Mike recommended listening to the PhotoActive Podcast, episode #150 about iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.  Jeff Carlson and Kirk McElhearn are deep into the details of these devices. Listen once, play with your iPhone - any iPhone camera - and then listen again. In this episode they did not have the new iPhones but are reading into the specifications. Very enlightening. After getting hands-on they will review again. 
Notes from show
  • iPhone 15 Pro and ProMax use USB-C (officially USB 3.2 Gen 2) 
  • Example test for 48MP HEIF, 48MP JPEG and 12MP RAW @ 10:16  
  • Recording video to external SSD @ 15:15  
  • 5X tetra-prismatic lens on iPhone 15 Pro Max is 12MP sensor @ 16:30
PhotoActive links to the PetaPixel team video  The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max Review for Photographers on YouTube. Again, listen, look at the examples and then review your Camera settings. I found the hint to record video to an SD card interesting and worth experimenting. 

Carolyn offered another resource by Jonathan Casey iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Tips and Tricks You Need to Try. A few notes on this video: 
  • Fix shifting White Balance @ 0:20 
  • Change photo resolutions @ 1:06 
  • When to use different resolutions @ 2:42 
  • Shooting video in ProRes Log @ 4:38 
  • External recording to SSD @ 5:33 
  • Apply Portrait Mode to Regular Photo @ 8:45 - plus change when editing.
Charlene has found Blackmagic Camera App on iPhone 15 Pro that is Wow! in reviews by Michael Tobin posted to YouTube. Do read the show notes for links on his gear. 
A couple notes on Blackmagic Camera features: 
  • Hold camera vertically but record in landscape orientation
  • Recording video to external source @ 6:41 with Beastgrip Universal Cage 
  • Log Profile for video (this is news to me … pro possibilities) 

iOS 17 Highlights

Here is the original document from Apple New Features in iOS 17 

Highlights related to Studio work and discussions: 

Stickers. The new Stickers experience provides you with a single home for all your stickers including Live Stickers, Memoji, Animoji, emoji stickers, and any third-party sticker packs you've downloaded with the ability to react to a message with any sticker through the plus button or directly through the Tapback menu.2 


Location-sharing improvements. Share your location or request someone else's location directly from the plus button in Messages with the new Location app. Location continues to show inline as a bubble in the transcript until the location-sharing session is over.


Contact Posters. Create a customized poster to represent yourself when you give people a FaceTime Audio call. Choose from various treatments for photos, Memoji, and your name. 


Name and photo sharing. You can choose to share your poster automatically with your Contacts or always be asked before you share with anyone. When someone who isn't in your Contacts gives you a call and chooses to share their name and photo with you, you will only see their name. You can then choose to add them to your Contacts and their poster will appear automatically.


Interactive widgets. Take action right on a widget on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. Complete to-dos, play or pause your media, access your home controls, and much mor


Photos album widget. Select a specific album from the Photos app so photos from your favorite album appear in your Photos widget. 


NameDrop. Exchange contact information with someone new by simply bringing your iPhone near their iPhone or Apple Watch.4 Your name and Contact Poster are automatically included whenever you share, and you can easily select the phone number or email address you want to include along with it. 


New way to initiate AirDrop. Share content or start a SharePlay session over AirDrop by bringing your iPhone close to another. 


Continue over the internet. AirDrop transfers will continue over the internet when you step out of range. 


Inline predictive text. Get single and multi-word predictions directly in the text field based on what the keyboard predicts you're going to type, so you can complete what you're typing even faster by just tapping Space bar


Offline Maps. Download maps for use when your iPhone doesn't have a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. Get routes when driving, cycling, walking, or taking public transit. Even get an estimated time of arrival based on historical traffic. 


App Shortcuts in Top Hit. When you search for an app, Spotlight intelligently offers you App Shortcuts to your next action within the Top Hit, so if you search “Photos,” you can jump right to your Favorites album.


Video search. Search through the videos on your devices by scene, people, and activities. When you tap into a video result, a new scrubber interface will indicate where in the video your search appears. 


Enhanced visual results. Find what you are looking for faster with search results that pop with familiar colors and iconography. 


Data Detector quick actions. Phone numbers, email, dates, and times typed into the Spotlight search bar will now offer quick actions such as call number, create contacts, send email, and create calendar event. 


Settings in Top Hits. When you search for settings such as “Airplane Mode,” “Wi-Fi,” “Dark Mode,” and more, Spotlight will offer you a toggle for the setting in the Top Hit


Lift multiple subjects from background. Lift multiple subjects from the background of photos and videos and place them in apps like Messages


Visual Look Up in Video. Look up information about objects that appear in paused video frames.


Visual Look Up from subject lift. Look up information about objects you lift from photos directly from the callout bar.


Photos privacy prompt improvements. An embedded photo picker for apps lets you pick photos to share within the app's experience, without sharing your entire library. When an app does ask to access your entire library, you'll see details of how many and which photos will be 


Link tracking protection. Some websites add extra information to their URLs in order to track users across other websites. Now, this information will be removed from the links users share in Messages and Mail, and the links will still work as expected. This information will also be removed for links in Safari Private Browsing.


Open in Pages. Create a Pages document from your note with a quick selection from the Share menu.


Intelligent form detection. Fillable documents and forms can now be automatically identified across the system, like in Files, Mail, or scanned documents


Item Sharing. Up to five other people can share an AirTag or Find My network accessory. Everyone in the sharing group will be able to see the item's location, get directions to the item, and use Precision Finding and Play Sound to help pinpoint a shared AirTag's location when nearby


Pets in the People album. Individual pets are now surfaced in the People album just like friends or family members


Drag to reorder in a memory. Reorder photos and videos within a memory by dragging and dropping them into a new position in the timeline. 


Add content to a memory. Add any photo or video from your library to a memory


Smart copy and paste edits. Copied and pasted edits now intelligently match exposure and white balance between images.


Quick access to crop. Zoom in on a photo and instantly crop with a tap, or touch and hold to crop to a specific aspect ratio.


Convert file type when sharing. Choose to convert and share any photo as a JPG, or video as a MOV file.


Improvements to iCloud Photos syncing. iCloud Photos syncing will be paused less frequently, and when syncing is paused, a Sync Now control will appear.


Improved drawing. Freeform - Make eye-catching boards with new drawing tools like Variable Width Pen, Fountain Pen, Highlighter, Watercolor, Slicing Eraser, and Ruler; plus support for hover, tilt, and snap to shape.


Horizon level. Camera - A virtual horizon level provides haptic feedback when iPhone is level with the ground.


Lock White Balance. A new setting lets you keep white balance consistent while recording a video, so the color temperature stays constant even if the lighting changes.


Labeled timers. Name timers so you know what each is counting down for.


Contact Posters. Create a customized poster to represent yourself when you connect with others in places like Phone, FaceTime, and Messages. Choose from various treatments for photos, Memoji, and your name.


Name and photo sharing. Choose to share your Contact Poster with your Contacts automatically, or always be asked before you share it when you place a phone call, start a FaceTime call, or use iMessage.


Save screenshot as image. Choose whether to save a full-page screenshot in Safari, Pages, or Notes as an image or a PDF. 


Sticker drawer. Easily access all your stickers systemwide from the emoji keyboard in a consolidated sticker drawer that includes Live Stickers, Memoji, emoji stickers, and all your third-party sticker packs.


Live Stickers. Tap and hold on any person, animal, or object in photos to lift it away from the background and create a Live Sticker. Create animated Live Stickers from Live Photos, which are automatically added to your sticker drawer.


Sticker integration in Markup. Add stickers to photos, documents, screenshots, and more with Markup.