GIMP, Ubuntu Linux, and Canon Raw
I am currently experimenting with Ubuntu Linux on a very outdated IBM Thinkpad T30 Laptop. So far, I have successfully installed Ubuntu in a double-boot configuration with Windows 2000 as the other operating system. I’ve set up one of the partitions so that it is shared as storage between Ubuntu and Windows, and Ubuntu is able to read virtually anything and everything.
However, I’ve got one major difficulty facing me – how to get Canon RAW files through this system. I can use GIMP all day long, but I can’t convert RAW yet.
My current direction is to try Canon DPP with WINE.
I’ll keep y’all up to date.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today and tomorrow will provide a little adventure in food photography, since DPC has a speed challenge up for pics of the meal…
I’ll pop up a little bit about that later tonight, hopefully.
THANKS for reading!
Quick Borders in GIMP
- Set the background color to the desired border color.
- Click Image, Canvas Size.
- Select “pixels” and enter the appropriate size for one dimension. For instance, if you have a 640×480 image and you want to add a 5 pixel border to each side, enter 650 and 490. For a more proportional look, enter 650 and then click the “lock” and the other dimension will be automatically calculated.
- Click the “Center” button.
- Click the “Resize” button.
- Click Layer, Layer to Image Size.
- Voila.
Off-Camera Bounce and Shooting thru a Window
I have a neat little flash stand that is actually made from the floor stand for a small halogen worklight. I added a 1/4-20 bolt and voila, my poverty wizard and Nikon SB-24 flash are really portable, but still stable.
Tonight, I perched it on the kitchen table, hidden behind my wife’s laptop, then went outside and popped off an exposure through the French doors.
I’ll add the pic at a later time, possibly, but suffice to say that it was a very effective bouncing technique. The light filled the room pretty well, and the door added some framing.
Karma wants to use this technique next week at a shoot of her family, and so there’s more experimentation to be done.
Further experimentation convinced me that bouncing off the ceiling from off camera is a very valid portrait technique, as well, and I bet that popping a little hair light from the opposite side would make for some awesome stuff. At least, that’s what I think.
I’ve got to remember to set white balance to “flash” when I do these, as the combination of flash and bounce is adding some color that I don’t like.
In other news, Karma received her new (to her) Canon 30D today and that learning process has begun… I’m amazed at the difference in focus speed. Even the 50mm f/1.8 is QUICK. That’s impressive and worthwhile. The L glass will be lightning.
Backpack Organization
I’ve recently swapped backpacks with my wife, who is REALLY the photog in the family. For a work related trip to Washington, DC, a few months back, she had purchased a nice Tamrac camera backpack with a laptop slot.
Then, she bought a 70-200mm f4L, and that piece of glass doesn’t fit.
There are also a couple of smaller backpack cases around here, one of which had been my mainstay, and another laptop backpack that was “mine”.
With the advent of the “L glass” the duffel bag that I had once converted to be a camera case for all my junk – I have more stuff, she does more real work – became “hers”.
So, we worked out a trade. I gave her the laptop backpack I had been using, and she gave me the laptop / camera combo backpack that she had NOT been using.
I loaded and arranged. It weighs a ton with the laptop in, but such is life.
Today, out romping around, I came upon a chance to take a shot of a full rainbow. Full arc.
Pull over. Grab camera. Ooops, 28-135 is too tight. Need my “kit” lens, the 18-55. Grab it. Remove the Tamron 28-135. Aw, man, this is the 75-200 (the old junky one from WAY before the “L”)… Find the kit lens, replace the 75-200, mount the kit, remove the lens cap, turn on the camera…
Daggone, the rainbow is gone.
Always know which lens is where.
Always.
GIMP Good and Bad
Some things I like about GIMP, so far…
- It starts up much quicker than the older versions.
- It even runs on my Windows 2000 laptop.
- It has a healing brush.
- It has curves and levels, which my old version of Photoshop Elements really didn’t.
- The “resize” tool allows locking of the aspect ratio, as does the “crop” tool.
Some things I don’t like about GIMP, so far…
- It doesn’t do adjustment layers.
- It runs kinda slow on my Windows 2000 laptop. Of course, so does everything else.
SB24
Tonight, I neutered my SB24.
Somehow, in the process, I apparently repaired the malfunction. My only guess is that there were small gaps between critical pieces of metal somewhere in the foot that had been compromised by handling, age, or even heat.
Taking the foot off was a matter of seven screws total. I removed the TTL pins, taped them up and stowed them inside the plug compartment, and reassembled. It took two tries, because the first time, I failed to properly tighten the three internal screws.
There’s a nice little tutorial over on Sean’s site for removing the unnecessary TTL pins. Maybe it helped with my problem, but I bet it was the dis-assembly and reassembly process that made it happen.
GIMP
Five minutes with the latest version of GIMP for Windows has STRONGLY turned me in that direction. There are some awesome things there that I’ve been missing with Paint Shop Pro 7 (I can’t afford Photoshop, sorry…)
A little change…
Okay, so a week after I “start” this “bounceflash” blog, I’ve decided to change it a little bit…
Since I do want to experiment and explore off-camera flash just like I do bounce flash, I’m going to make this just be a “photography blog” named BOUNCEFLASH. Thus, the whole “rebellion” idea is kind of going away, but there will be lots of stuff about bounce flash on here as well.
Bounce Flash Experimental Headshots 1
An old post from my other blog, bernardshuford.com.
One thing I want to learn how to do as a
photographer is to make a decent “headshot portrait” without having to
lug a bunch of equipment around. I want to know how to do this
consistently and without ado.
There are other things I want to learn too, but this is one for now.
These photos were shot with on-camera flash, which was bounced off a
white wall to camera left. The subjects are kids, so they are close to
the ground, which means that the white ceiling was “high”. The wall
was about four feet away from both the subjects and the camera.
The camera is a Canon 300D and the flash is a Nikon SB-24, both in
full manual mode. There’s no “communication” between them, but they
work fine.
There are some slight differences, it appears, in the exact subject location relative to the wall.
