Few of my newest images.

[kev_is_soaked]

Hi. Just thought I should introduce myself here too. Here's a few of my latest from my web blog. You can check out more HERE (http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery)

http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery/images/20060408203459_dsc_6619.jpg

http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery/images/20060408195305_dsc_6473.jpg

http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery/images/20060408200516_dsc_6497.jpg

http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery/images/20060406203656_dsc_6195.jpg

http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery/images/20060406203525_dsc_6239.jpg

http://www.silicon-north.com/gallery/images/20060406202928_dsc_6005.jpg

k, that's enough :) Let me know what you guys think, I want to progress as a photographer so be cruel if you have to :)

p.s. I know about the dust on the images. Dust stays until I get a chance to remove the Exif data from the template.... if I remove the dust in PS the Nikon ISO entry in the Exif get's lost :(

[GeoS]

One thing - pictures which size is above 200KB are too heavy for internet!!

Please remember that now everyone have at home or office 10 Mbps i-net connection!!

[kev_is_soaked]

That's getting fixed too. Once I take out the Exif data from the page I'm compressing everything.

[GeoS]

But still you can have EXIF data and compressed images!! Use good software i.e. Photoshop CS/CS2 and other (i.e. free GIMP).

[kev_is_soaked]

Not with the Nikon I can't :)

Nikon puts the ISO data in the MakerNotes section of the Exif. When you open a Nikon RAW (NEF) file with Photoshop the data is there, but if you save it, the makernotes are stripped while the regular Exif is all there :( Sucks to be me (along with all the other Nikonians out there)

Currently I use Nikon Capture to get my photo's toned and looking like I want them, then I save as Jpeg. I've hacked the PixelPost Exif portion to work properly to grab the ISO out of the makernotes.... but now that I'm seeing more of my dust issues I'm tempted to just use Photoshop and forget about Exif all together. Sucks, because I did pull more than a few hairs out getting the Exif to work properly with a Nikon created image :(

p.s. No matter what you do in Photoshop, it WILL strip the ISO. I've tried all the solutions out there and the only remaining option is to save the NEF as a jpeg, use a program to "Fix" the ISO and move the field into the proper Exif field instead of the maker-note section. But too much work really.... besides that ISO Fix program doesn't seem to work at all here :(

I'll be upgrading to PP1.5 soon, when I do that I'm forgetting about Exif altogether.

[GeoS]

There is addon storing EXIF to DB. After storing you can replace image with compressed by Photoshop :)

[kev_is_soaked]

oh? Now THAT.... I did not know :) Here comes the sun! :>

[GeoS]

I would say that sun is shining all the time :)

[Hippo]

Would it be possible to compress these a bit? I left my room for about 10 minutes and only 2 images loaded.

[darkphoenix]

I shoot with a Nikon D100 in both RAW and JPEG and I make sure I shrink the image size in photoshop to 72dpi and for my blog 700pixels wide. And then I SAVE AS JPEG (not optimized for web) and the file sizes are under 200K. And it still shows EXIF info. Hope that's helpful.

[kev_is_soaked]

No matter what I do, when saving as a Jpeg (not for web) in Photoshop it strips the ISO. It's an inherant problem with the D50 and some D70s models as well.

Good call on the 72dpi..... wondering if I can change that via Nikon Capture. No worries though, next weekend I'm stripping all Exif details off the site and just using Photoshop for all my imaging needs. Proprietery stuff just sucks.... sad though, it NC does a remarkable job on these photo's.... just can't save em worth a crap!

[oklein]

I like all of these images. The waterfall and the railroad in perticular. I notice with all of your pictures that there is some sort of angle on them. None of the pictures are "straight-on". I like that because it makes you look at the pictures differently. Overall, great work!

[RobbieMc]

We have a Nikon D70, and do a lot of post processing in Photoshop (layers, levels, profile change, crop, compression, etc.) and have never had any ISO values stripped. Mind you we use C1 Pro for managing the original RAW file, then create TIF files in C1 for processing in PShop. I don't know if that has any effect on where and how the ISO is stored?

Rob

[kev_is_soaked]

Great tip Robbie. I will have to try C1Pro and see where that leads. Nikon Capture creates TIFFS, JPEGS etc with the ISO stored only in the makernotes. Maybe C1Pro moves it to the proper Exif area... certainly something to try because this workflow is just too much work and the output too big :(

I'll post results when I get a change to try it.

[RobbieMc]

In fact, if no PShop like post-processing is required (eg. cloning, Velvia processing, etc. which we do on a hi-res TIF file), then the compressed jpeg files for posting are done right in C1 Pro. It has basic post-processing tools (WB, crop, resampling, levels, etc) built-in and in fact a very good batch processing system, such that file sizes and compression settings are saved as setting and creating files destined for PP is simply one-click.

Good luck.
Rob

[kvdv]

uh about the photos ... critique was the purpose in the first place right?... :-)
I like photo 3 and 5, nice tone, not too much info, good composition...

/Kris
http://photoblog.krisvdv.net

[kev_is_soaked]

Thanks for the info Kvdv. I'm glad I'm obviously learning now :)

p.s. I tried Capture 1 Pro. It and Bibble are light-years behind Nikon Capture in terms of processing. I can't even get my photo's close to what NC allows me to achieve when I use either of those programs. Not exactly knocking the software or anything, it's just not for me.

Personally being a Photoshop man, I would rather just do all my processing there. However even the Photoshop Raw import feature doesn't let me get as good results as NC does.

So for now I'll stick with NC. I have found an ISO fix for the jpegs that NC creates. I can then open and manipulate these in photoshop till the cows comes home.... Time for a workflow change. I won't be redoing all of the existing entries in my photoblog... too much work to get them all converted.... but from now on all posts will be of better size with the Exif intact :)

[kvdv]

I hadn't heard about Nikon Capture before. Looked it up and it seems very promising. Must check it out soon! :-)

[kev_is_soaked]

Oh I use it exclusively. Well.... I mean I used to until I found a way to get the jpegs to be ISO compliant so I can do some photoshopping.

But in terms of getting the photo looking good enough to work with in the first place, nothing beats Nikon Capture. It's almost like it knows what I want out the each image and gives me it.

Some of the automated features really work well.

[RobbieMc]

Kev, did you find the small software "ISOFix"? Here is a discussion of it:

http://www.pixelpost.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3307

Rob

[kev_is_soaked]

Yeah I had tried both of the ISOFix programs (the Java and the .NET versions). Neither one would work for me.

I did eventually find a solution though. There is a program called Exif2 which seems to be working just fine and dandy. So now my workflow is as follows.

Shoot
Nikon Capture - get photo looking right, export as Jpeg.
Exif2 - Convert Jpeg to use the Exif standard.
Photoshop - Enhance photo or play with it
Post.

Easy peasy :)