PHOTOGRAPHY POST PRODUCTION 

Part 1

Introduction

Post processing is an integral part of digital photography. It's not used to manipulate the image but to correct it to match the real scene. Our camera sensors are not perfect .. actually far from perfect. It can never capture what you can see with your eyes.  In good old analog days, most of the good photographers had their own processing dark rooms where they would painstakingly process the images. It required lot of technical knowledge including chemistry. Thus this was limited to only few people and it was quite secretive knowledge. In digital era, with Digital Cameras and Post-processing software almost anyone can start immediately. The term "post-production" seems new or something of taboo to many thinking it is kind of cheating and hence we should only rely on what's come out of camera as authentic image. Problem is our camera sensors cannot capture what you see hence all camera does the post-processing "in-camera" so that it may closely match with real scene. So what ever you see coming out of camera is already post processed. This is actually true, if your camera output is JPEG file format. Problem is you camera does not know what you are capturing and what that should exactly look like. Thus, in-camera post production never give excellent or amazing outputs. 

File Format

When you are shooting images in JPEG file format, your camera is already doing the post processing in-Camera. Most of the time this will not give you correct result since end-of-the-day the camera uses some set of algorithms based on your settings to process final image. And .. it's not a human. Most DSLR has setting to set default contrast, brightness, vibrance, clarity. Point-and-shoot or semi-professional DSLRs have settings such as "Portrait", "Night Time", "Scenery" modes. Based on these settings the camera would apply appropriate "post-production" pre-set values before giving out final output. The LCD preview that we see on a DSLR is actually a JPEG version of the image after applying "post production" settings no matter which format (JPEG/RAW) you shoot in. 

The only way you can have images that makes people "wooow" is to post-process it by yourself. So, you need to use an image format that does not have any processing but has all the camera settings parameters intact when the picture was snapped. RAW image format is one such format. Each camera vendor has their own RAW image format but they all serve the same purpose.  

Getting it Right

Just remember, it is really really hard to  post-process a bad picture into a good picture.  On the contrary, it is really easy to make a good picture into a "wooow" picture using correct post-processing. So getting it right "in-camera" is critical to have beautiful images. 

It is possible to apply post-processing to any Image format including JPEG. Problem is, the chroma and luminance values are already fixed based on a defined color dynamic range in such formats. If you change anything, the whole image would degrade in quality.  

Software to use

Adobe "Lightroom" is industry de'facto for post processing. I have used Apple "Aperture" for quite sometime and have recently moved to "Lightroom". "CaptureOne Pro" is also used by many fashion photographers. Both Nikon and Canon provides their own software that allows some level of post-processing. These software allow you complete work-flow from importing images from camera to cataloging to touch-up to final output. Photoshop could also be used to achieve the post-processing it cannot catalog and manage images. However, Photoshop allows you to further enhance your capabilities in advanced photography that involves focus stacking, Image stitching, exposure blending, composites etc. although there are other software that could do these tasks but if you are using Lightroom, it is better to use photoshop since the work-flow is integrated. 

POST PRODUCTION PARAMETERS

There some key areas that you could change in Post-production. I will lay them out in sequence of importance. 

Bangladesh is now holds highest Facebook CPC in the world

Thats right! Cost Per Click (CPC) for putting an advertisement on Facebook related to Bangladesh is now highest in the world. This is something I noticed about a month ago when I was running an Ad campaign on Facebook targeting Bangladesh ethnic groups living in USA.  Cost per click at that time was really high compared to other Keywords related to other countries. I just noticed an article that confirms this. 

Fist let me try to explain whats CPC is for those who do know how Internet advertisement works. 

“Pay per click (PPC) (also called Cost per click, CPC) is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. ” Source: Wikipedia

What does this mean?  This means when you run an Ad campaign on Facebook or Google, you define Keywords which is used to determine whom to show the Advertisement. Example, you gave a keyword "Bangladesh". Now anyone searching anything related to Bangladesh will be presented with the Advertisement. You could also provide demography etc. So anyone browsing from Bangladesh will be presented with the Ad. Facebook allows you to set, Country, Network groups, Language and Keywords. This means, you can say, Those who lives in USA, participating Bangladesh Group/Network, speaks Bangla Language and interested in searching anything related to Bangladesh should be shown your Advertisement. Thats how you target your audience. Facebook or Google could charge you in two mechanism.

1. Cost Per 1000 Impression: You are charged a fixed amount for showing your Advert per 1000 times.

2. Cost Per Click: You pay only when someone click on your advert.

Now how does to Facebook or Google set the cost? Well, you have to understand that there might be other Advertisers that want to put Advert with the same criteria. Then who gets higher priority in Search ranking or who's Advert is given more priority to be shown first. Simple Answer: who ever pays more. 

Currently the on going cost to have an Advert on Facebook based on Bangladesh is $1.12. Whereas this is $0.77 for USA. The Cost Per Thousand Impression for Bangladesh is also the highest which is $0.48 !

Now why this might be happening? This could be due to fact that too many people are trying to put Advert on Facebook targeting Bangladesh. So the competition is too high hence the cost is higher. I am sure you noticed all those Bangladesh related Advertisement on Facebook these days. Having you been clicking on them? 

Its quite interesting: Cost living is soaring in Bangladesh everyday. Now cost of Facebook advert has surpluses the word ranking! Bravo!

Source: Check daily Online Advertisement Ranking on Facebook on socialbakers.com, Orignal posting on thenextweb.com 

Nokia Lumia 800 : Probably first Windows Phone done right

Nokia has just announced their first 2 new Windows Phone. According to CEO, Stephen Elop, these are the first real Windows phone. Although HTC might not agree with him. Two phone are Lumia 710 and Lumia 800. This, I believe, is Nokia's bet on Microsoft to keep-up with its straggling market. And I sure hope it would work. I always felt Windows Mobile OS is a great implementation with game changing ideas but it lacked the hardware that could advertise it. May be Nokia might be able to do it. 

Nokia N9

Lumia 800 is actually Nokia N9 MeeGo phone ported to WinMo with some small changes. I happen to had the chance to get my hands on a N9. And I loved phone for the craftsmanship that Nokia put to it. There is no doubt Nokia is still the best Phone Maker when it comes to hardware design. The phone's unibody felt solid in your hand with curved gorilla touch screen. Meego felt really well done and worked flawlessly. It was a smooth experience. After a long time since 2009, when I changed my long time companion Nokia E90, I felt that this a Phone that I could buy. Well, I even went to a Nokia store only to find its still not available in Bangladesh! The phone is expected to be available in November. 

Now going back to Lumia 800. Here are the differences between N9 and 800

	Nokia Lumia 800	Nokia N9
Operating system	Windows Phone 7.5 Mango	MeeGo 1.2
Display	3.7-inch curved AMOLED	3.9-inch curved AMOLED
Dimensions	4.59 inches (116.5mm) by 2.4 inches (61.2mm) by 0.47 inch (12.1mm)	4.59 inches (116.5mm) by 2.4 inches (61.2mm) by 0.47 inch (12.1mm)
Weight	5.01 oz (142 grams)	4.76 oz (135 grams)
Processor	1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255	1GHz TI OMAP3860
RAM	512MB	1GB
Storage	16GB	16GB or 64GB
Rear camera	8-megapixel camera	8-megapixel camera
Front camera	None	VGA
NFC	No	Yes

Source: http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20126162-85/nokia-lumia-800-vs-nokia-n9/#ixzz1bvzkNazQ

The noticeable differences are the minor smaller screen size, higher processor, little bit weightier, no front facing camera, no SD card slot and no Gyro!

Initially Nokia announced that, they would have greater control over the Phone's software and Hardware choices when Microsoft is maintaining strict guideline with other vendors. However, we can see that, thats not the case here. Hardware choice seems to follow Microsoft Guideline and there is not customization of the OS: Its plain vanilla Window Mango!

The 800 has unibody design results in a streamlined look from head to toe, with flat tops and bottoms and rounded sides. Its elegant in design. 

Lumia 800

Judging from the form-factor and resemblance with N9, I could easily presume that Lumia 800 is a great hardware. Check this detailed review at: Arstechnica and CNet

I always loved Nokia and I believe their phones still provide best telephony experiences than any other phone in the market. I have been using Nokia's Smart phones (?) from the days of 6600. Then E61, E71, E72, E90. After using E90 for almost 2 years I felt I need to change to something else. Also note that while using all those Nokia phones I also carried phones from Samsung or other brands. My phone changing ride was an wild one. I kept on changing phone after phone for almost a year or so. HTC, Sony, Samsung.. Android, WinMo6.5... Then I went back to Nokia 97mini! Really, I did that. It was better than original N97. However, this time I felt the issue with Symbian since all the other Phones had either Android or WinMo. However, none of the OS could function as stably and as predictably as Symbian used to do.  Moreover, Android and WinMo is build as Generic Multimedia Mobile OS where one of the functionality is Telephony. Whereas, Nokia was always about telephony and rest were bells and whistles. Probably this is why it is called "Feature" phone. However, this gave excellent telephony experience on Symbian. But Symbian was not something I wanted, its a wonderful OS done exactly "right" for Mobile devices but its outdated and was dying. Nokia continuously failed to revive one of my favorite OS. 

I only wish Nokia do it right this time with Windows Mobile. I would seriously advice N9 or Lumia 800 for consideration. Let me know your thoughts.

Extending FancyBox to give BlockUI JQuery Plugin functionalities

Fancybox is an excellent plugin that provides Lightbox type functionality on your website using JQuery. I love this Plugin since it provides greater control than any other similar tools. You can display almost anything in lightbox fashion yet have excellent control on how everything is done.

However, sometime you just need to block UI while you are doing something showing a Progress animation or just need to show simple prompt. BlockUI is one such great JQuery plugin that does exact this. Although you could use this to show simple Text messages but main goal here is to block the screen with an overlay while you are doing something in the background or you need a feedback from user.

I wanted to use Fancybox but have the BlockUI functionality on it. This can be easily achieved by using onStart, onClose callbacks. Fancybox already comes with an default progress animation that could be used as well. Having Fancybox doing the BlockUI functionalities  allows not to load an extra javascript. Moreover both Plugin adds extra HTML code on the page as well for almost same purpose which seems to be overkill to me. So, I have written a simple Plugin that extends the functionality of Fancybox with two new functions blockUI and unlockUI.

How to Load:


I have tested the plugin on fancybox v1.3.4. Load the plugin after Fancybox. example:


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.4/jquery.min.js"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.pack.js"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.fancybox.blockui_1.1.0.js"/>

Default Usage:


$fancybox.blockUI();


Blocks the UI with gray overlay. Default behavior to hide the UI overlay is to click on the overlay. Use fancybox param to override this behavior.




$fancybox.unblockUI();


hides the Blocked overlay




Extended usage with parameters:


$fancybox.blockUI(param)


'param' is optional. this is a key/value object. You can also pass all existing fancybox parameters to override the default behaviors on this plugin. For example, to disable the click functionality that hides the overlay UI pass {hideOnOverlayClick: false} as parameter.




All standard fancy box parameters could be passed to override the defaul values and behaviors.




Three new Key/value has been introduced to give some new behavior related to blockUI

Key	Default value	Description
scrollToTop	false	scroll the window to top before showing the overlay. This is exactly same as window.parent.scroll(0,0);
timeout	false	hides the overlay after given time in milliseconds.
hideProgressImage	false	hides the default progress animation

Plugins mentioned


1. Fancybox : http://fancybox.net
2. BlockUI : http://jquery.malsup.com/block


Download fancybox.blockui plugin from github


https://github.com/rezaulkabir/fancybox.blockui

MS Excel easy keyboard shortcuts on Mac OSX to match with Windows

I have moved to OSX from Windows world. So, I look for similar functionalities that I always enjoyed on Windows platform on Mac. I am using Microsoft Office 2011 on Mac OSX and finding some problem with keyboard shortcuts that I was accustomed on Windows but missing in Mac.

A. in-Place Cell Edit:

One of the feature that I was really used and liked on Windows Excel was the in-place cell edit. It was quick and easy. Just press F2 on a Cell and you can immediately start editing the cell formula or content. This was very convenient and easy. However, I could not find this on Mac! You have to click on the Formula bar to edit the content! This I found really annoying. However, I found that there is in fact a keyboard shortcut to this on Mac. Press Control+U


B. Delete content of a Cell:

On Windows Excel, you could just select a Cell or group of Cell and press Delete. Simple.. everything gone. However, this is not the case with Excel on Mac! If you press Delete it just Deletes the content of the Cell and goes to in-place edit mode. Press return to exit the edit mode. Unless you need to delete and edit, this methods is cumbersome since it requires 2 key press. This gets problematic when you have several Cells and wants them all the deleted with single key. Here is how you do it: Press Fn+Delete

If you know more tricks like this, please post of the comment.

Having Battery life issue after OSX Lion update? Here is a fix

After I updated to OSX Lion on my Macbook Pro (Mid 2010), I noticed that the Battery life has been significantly reduced. No more 5+ hours of Battery life rather it shows 2 to 3 hours of less. However, it was found to be lower than that when you actually started to use the MBP on battery. I checked and found that nothing specific is running that is taking extra resources. After some digging through the console system logs, I noticed that Lion is always using high end NVIDIA GeForce graphics card rather than the internal Intel HD Graphics! This is happening despite "Automatic  graphics switching" is enabled!

How to Identify which Graphics card Lion is using:

1. Run  Terminal. Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.
2. type system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType | grep 'GeForce' -A 20 | grep Online
3. Lion is using GeForce card if the output is, Online: Yes

If you find that Lion is always using the power hungry GeForce then obviously you have an issue unless your "automatic graphics switching" is disabled in "Energy Saver Pref"

Solution:

There is nifty tool called gfxCardStatus that can show and change the video card. Download  from codykrieger.com and install. It remains in the Menu bar and allows you to change Video card.