Photo Editor

The best photo-editing software in the market is Adobe Photoshop. It can do everything a photo editor can ever be conceived to do ... well almost everything.

Every other tool is a subset of Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop, however, costs $600. For that price a novice can buy a computer or a nice new lens.

There are several cheaper alternative. Each has its good points. One contender for someone who wants to work with 16bit colors is Picture Window Pro offered by Digital Light and Color.

The real strengths of the program are its ability to handle masks. There are masks that can be made geometrically, based on color and luminosity. The masking feature is nicely coupled with the ability to perform all actions related to color/saturation/brightness.

PWPro has the feature to incorporate filter effects based on the actual filters that photographers are familiar with, like 81A/B/C for warming effects.

It has a basic noise reduction feature that can be useful for mild NR actions prior to performing sharpening. Effects of sharpening can be previewed at 1:1 magnification allowing for fine control over the amount of sharpening or the unsharp mask radius to be used.

PWPro allows for a fully color managed workflow by letting the user assign working color-space, warnings in case the color spaces don't match and it can set custom monitor color profile. However its "print preview" with custom printer profile is not the greatest.

It would be perfect if PWPro could allow layers and store their full history. Even in it absence, it is an excellent tool and can help a competent user work and learn for a long time before feeling that Adobe Photoshop is really necessary.

The Right Lens

At various times I have owned lenses that I have used and later found that they were unsuitable. In chronological order the lenses that found most use on my camera have been:

50mm f/1.7

28-105 f/3.5-4.5

24-70 f/2.8

24-105 f/4

28mm f/2.8

50mm f/1.4

Except for the last two, I have sold the rest on that wonderful site called craigslist.

The first conclusion one can draw is that there is no "right" lens.

The second conclusion is that I am still not sure about what I want to create with my camera and lenses.

The third conclusion is that different lenses support different styles of photography. I now find that with my 50mm lens I can shoot people and indoors very well. I seem to be doing a lot of it. The portraits look very nice, low light is not a problem and the lens is small and light and my aging wrists allow me to work for much longer periods. When I am outdoors, I just wrap the neck strap around my wrist, and hold the camera in my hands. This way, I have the camera ready to shoot all the time.

My current lens lineup consists of the 28/2.8, 50/1.4 and 105/2.8 Macro. Other than the very wide angle field of view (on the Canon 20D) these lenses cover almost all my needs. Most of my pictures undergo at least some cropping. So as long as the technical quality (sharpness, exposure) is correct, these lenses allow a wide range of shooting at a relatively low weight barrier and produce very high quality pictures.

Canon 20D and E-TTL II Flash

In modern photography, the camera is not the cleverest piece of equipment. It still remains a light-tight box that allows a lens to be attached to itself and lets the user set aperture and shutter speed. In many ways, modern digital cameras are no better than the old Rolleis.

However, the flash technology is the most fascinating development. It is amazing what the modern flashes (strobes or speedlights) actually do to almost entirely eliminate the user's input.

On the Canon 20D this is how you use the flash:

Set the camera in Evaluative metering mode.
Attach and EX rated flash (this allows E-TTL metering to take over)
Use the various focussing points to focus on the subject (do not focus-and-recompose)
Fire away at will

If you don't like the flash light coming straight into the face of the subject, try bouncing it off the walls. Various effects can be achieved by bouncing it off side walls or ceilings.

Shoot a grey-card from time to time to get your white-balance right during post-processing.

What the flash actually does:
Once you set the focussing point on the subject, the flash pre-fires a small burst of light. Based on the reflected light in the various metering zones, it figures out the total light needed with the actual firing. Now the curtain opens, the flash fires and the curtain closes. This technique makes sure that the subject is properly lit.

The one drawback to this technique is that some people have very fast reaction time and might blink on the prefire. Cest la vie...