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Catawba Valley Camera Club Newsletter

The View Finder

October 2017

2

Volume 6, Issue 10 October, 2017

Monitor calibration might seem complex. Perhaps it is, but you’ll soon be comfy with

it if you can grasp some of the basic principles. It’s just a question of breaking the

subject down. In this article, we’ll look at six aspects of a seemingly dark art, and how

to calibrate your monitor.

1) Luminance / Brightness Level

One thing to know about monitor luminance (or brightness, in simple terms) is that

it’s typically the only genuine hardware adjustment you can make to an LCD monitor.

You are basically altering the backlighting with a dimmer switch.

The above is only untrue if you select a luminance setting that is lower than your

monitor can naturally reach, in which case a software adjustment comes into play.

Ideally, you don’t want this, since it eats into the monitor’s gamut (the range of colors

it produces) and leaves it open to problems such as banding.

Always use software that tells you how bright the monitor is and lets you adjust it in-

teractively.

Software versus hardware

SIX IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF MONITOR CALIBRATION YOU NEED TO KNOW

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15,16,17,18

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INTO THE WOODS QUIZ ANSWERS ON PAGE 18

4

WEB SITES TO TRY 4

ASK TIM GREY CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

4

JOEL SARTORE PRESENTATION 5

VIDEO LINKS YOU MAY LIKE 19

APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP 21

LEARNING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAHY MAY HAVE MORE BENEFITS THAN YOU THINK

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12,13,14

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS 3

CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL 6

CATALOOCHEE FIELD TRIP PHOTOS

7,8,9,10,11

CLUB OFFICERS, PRESIDENTS REPORT

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Inside this issue:

C a t a w b a Va l l e y C a m e r a C l u b

Six Important Aspects of Monitor Calibration You Need to Know

by Glenn Harper

Continued on page 15

https://digital-photography-school.com/author/glenn-harper/

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I have watched one of my family members pursue digital photography well into his 90s. I always thought there was something about this activity and the creative process that was keeping him active and on track. But I never put much thought into it until I read this study from the University of Texas on digital photography and aging.

Calendar of Events

Oct 4 Competition - Projection - Sports Action Randy Knauf

Oct 14 Special Event - Joel Sartore - Lecture/Slideshow Joel Sartore

Oct 18 Competition - Projection - Make Me Laugh Randy Knauf

Oct 26 Field Trip - Outer Banks - Thurs-Sun Oct 26-29 Steven Gold

Nov 1 Competition - Projection - Field Trip Images Randy Knauf

Nov 15 Favorite Image Projection, Discussion Randy Knauf

Nov 18 Field Trip - HMONG New Year Festival Judy Young

Dec 6 Business Meeting - Image Critique (3 Images) Randy Knauf


Learning Digital Photography May Have More Benefits Than You Think

by Holly Higbee-Jansen


Many people struggle with the different elements of learning photography. Mastering

the technical aspects of your camera, on top of applying all of the creative and tech-

nical concepts, can make it a daunting pursuit for many. Now, with digital photography

the norm for most photographers, there is also the added element of learning post-

processing if you are really going to become successful as a photographic artist.

https://digital-photography-school.com/author/holly-higbee-jansen/

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Into the Woods Quiz

Thousands of acres of state forests and wilderness areas protect the natural beauty that we North Carolinians hold so dear.

1. In 1984, the NC Wilderness Act set aside about 68,750 acres of our state as wilderness and another 25,816 acres for wilderness study. What U.S. presi-dent signed this legislation into law?

A. Ronald Reagan

B. Jimmy Carter

C. Gerald Ford

2. The 11,700-acre Linville Gorge Wilderness Area fea-tures a rugged landscape and the famous Linville Falls. This well-known hiking spot is located near what other popular tourist attraction?

A. Biltmore Estate

B. Chimney Rock

C. Grandfather Mountain

3. Named for the shimmering white-quartz rock face within its boundaries, Shining Rock Wilderness is the largest in our state at more than 18,000 acres. This mountains area is located in what county, whose seat is Waynesville?

A Haywood

B. Macon

C. Ashe

4. The Southern Nantahala Wilderness contains about 23,000 acres, with half in North Carolina and the rest in Georgia. Nantahala is a Cherokee word meaning what?

A Land of Plenty

B. Land of Noonday Sun

C. Land of the Bear

5. DuPont State Recreational Forest is a popular hiking area situated between Hendersonville and Brevard. The forest has four major waterfalls and four lakes, and comprises how many acres?

A. 104

B. 1,040

C. 10,400 Answers on page 18

http://500px.com/popular

http://digital-photography-school.com/

http://photonaturalist.net/

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/

http://www.steeletraining.com/

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/

Click on the links above

Web Sites to try

Ask Tim Grey

Do you see any reason for me to keep my original RAW (Nikon D810 NEF) image files after I've con-verted them to DNG using Adobe's DNG Converter application and have backed up the DNGs?

Tim's Quick Answer:

If I'm being completely honest, in most cases it is per-fectly reasonable to discard the original proprietary RAW capture files if you've chosen to convert those captures to the Adobe DNG format, and you have en-sured the DNG files are safely backed up. This isn't something I'm entirely comfortable with on principle, but I do have to admit it is a reasonable approach in most cases.

More Detail:

As the image sensors used in digital cameras have got-ten more advanced, new features have been made available. In many cases, those specific features can only be accessed by using the proprietary RAW cap-ture format for the particular camera model, along with the software provided by the camera manufacturer.

For example, many Nikon cameras (including the D810 mentioned in today's question) include support for an Active D-Lighting feature. This feature helps to balance out overall tonal values Continued on page 19

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Joel Sartore Presentation

Joel Sartore is an award-winning photographer, speaker, author, teacher, conservationist, Na-tional Geographic fellow, and regular contribu-tor to National Geographic magazine. His hall-marks are a sense of humor and a Midwestern work ethic.

Joel specializes in documenting endangered spe-cies and landscapes around the world. He is the founder of the Photo Ark, a 25-year documen-tary project to save species and habitat.

“It is folly to think that we can destroy one spe-cies and ecosystem after another and not affect humanity,” he says. “When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves.”

Joel and the Photo Ark will be the subjects of RARE, a three-part series airing this summer on PBS. The show—”powered by Joel’s ability to capture indelible images and by his uncanny eye and dry wit”—follows Joel as he travels the world to document some of the most endangered and rarest crea-tures left on Earth.

In addition to National Geographic, Joel contributes to Audubon, Geo, the New York Times, and Smithson-ian. He has several books, including Photo Ark: A World Worth Saving, RARE: Portraits of America’s En-dangered Species, and Photographing Your Family. He and his work have been the subject of many national broadcasts, including National Geographic’s Explorer, NBC Nightly News, NPR’s Weekend Edition and Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and the Today Show. He is also a contributor on CBS Sunday Morning and a lec-turer for the Great Courses series.

Joel is always happy to return from his travels around the world to his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he lives with his wife, Kathy, and their three children.

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Chinese Lantern Festival

Chinese Lantern Festival Opens Soon!

September 7 - October 29, Wednesday - Sunday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now! The Garden invites you to explore Asian culture during the Chi-nese Lantern Festival opening this September. Large hand-made animal-themed lanterns

from Zigong, China will illuminate the Garden and guests will enjoy Kung Fu shows, Shadow Plays, authentic Chinese folk arts, and more! Follow the Garden on Facebook for

sneak-peek photos!

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden 6500 South New Hope Road, Belmont, NC 28012

P: (704) 825-4490, F: (704) 829-1240

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Photographs by Paul Van Breemen


Cataloochee Field Trip Photos

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Photographs by Doreen Sugierski



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Photographs by Doreen Sugierski



10


Photograph by Donny Teague



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Mouse Creek Falls on Big Creek In the Great Smoky Mountains Park

Photographs by Donny Teague



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Learning Photography and Aging

As you scratch your head trying to put all the piec-

es together, you may not have realized that you are

exercising many aspects of your brain. Studies have

found that digital photography keeps your brain

sharp and your mind in good shape.

I have watched one of my family members pursue

digital photography well into his 90s. I always

thought there was something about this activity and

the creative process that was keeping him active

and on track. But I never put much thought into it

until I read this study from the University of Texas

on digital photography and aging.

The study shows . . .

During the University of Texas study, six groups of indi-

viduals aged 60–90 were studied over a 10 week period.

Each group was engrossed in a specific activity for 15

hours a week. The primary activities under observation


Continued from page 3 Learning Digital Photography May Have More Benefits Than You Think

included digital photography, digital quilting, and

a variety of activities like playing cards and so-

cializing. Only the groups doing quilting and pho-

tography improved their memory abilities when

confronted with these continuous and prolonged

mental challenges.

The results of the University of Texas study

showed that digital photography is the best activi-

ty to participate in for aging baby boomers inter-

ested in maintaining their cognitive health and

development.

Benefits of learning digital photography

What were the benefits? The most significant improve-

ment was found in their use Continued on page 13

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Continued on Page 14



of words and phrases as well as their recognition of con-

ceptual and visual imagery. The reason digital photog-

raphy came up so high in this cognitive study is that it

uses many parts of the brain to be successful.

It affects the creative and technical sides of your brain in

both the shooting and post-processing. It also uses

memory to make all of the functions work together.

These benefits apply to someone who is shooting in full

manual or partially automatic programs on their camera

and are using advanced Photoshop or similar post-

processing programs.

How it works

Here’s an example of some of the brain functions that are

used when you create an image: When you are out on a

photo shoot, and you want to create a compelling image, it

takes some time to think about how to creatively compose

the scene. Then, you need to choose the aperture and shut-

ter speed settings based on the best creative application for

the image, applying your memory of how the camera

works.

Some of the high-end cameras these days will give you a

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decent point and shoot shot, but if you are intentionally

going to create something of value, you need to put some

technical thought into the image. At the same time, when

you are setting up a shot, it helps to think through what

you might do for post-processing the image once you get

home.

Now that you have conquered the technical aspects of

operating the camera, you need to bring the image into

post-processing. Whether or not you are using Photoshop

or Lightroom, you still need to have some technical abil-

ity on the computer and knowledge of how the program

works. All of these activities together require memory,

creativity, and cognitive abilities to perform these tasks

correctly. This is all good exercise for your brain.

What does all of this mean for you?

The process of creating a digital image is fun, creative

and clinically proven to be good for your mind. Just like

we need to keep our heart healthy with diet and exercise,

we also need to keep our brain active as we age. It’s not

just the activity, but learning new and mentally challeng-

ing subjects that is the important part of this puzzle.

If you continue to pursue and learn digital photography

well into your later years, it will serve as a good way to

keep your brain and memory functions sharp.

Does that sound like a good plan for you to continue prac-

ticing the craft of digital photography as you age?

The post Learning Digital Photography May Have More

Benefits Than You Think by Holly Higbee-Jansen ap-

peared first on Digital Photography School.

*** Back to Page 3

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Continued from page 2 Six Important Aspects of Monitor Calibration You Need to know

Software adjustments are the ones that go through the graphics processor, while hardware adjustments are those that bypass the GPU and address the monitor directly. The former may cause problems in some cases, which is useful to bear in mind. Expensive monitors tend to allow more in the way of hardware calibration, enabling a high-er image quality.

What setting to use? Monitor luminance is measured in candelas per square meter (cd/m2), sometimes referred to as “nits”. A new LCD monitor is usually far too bright (e.g. over 200 cd/m2). Aside from making screen-to-print matching hard, this reduces the monitor lifespan. You need a calibration device to measure the luminance of your monitor and always return it to the same level, as the backlighting slowly degrades. The trouble with using onscreen monitor settings to do this (e.g. 50% brightness) is that their meaning changes over time.

X-rite i1Display Pro

The arbitrary setting Although arbitrary, the 120 cd/m2 setting that most soft-ware defaults to is a fair place to start. Most monitors can reach that level using the OSD brightness control alone, without resorting to reducing RGB levels and gamut. The

setting you use is not critical unless you are explicitly try-ing to match the screen to a print or print-viewing area.

Dictated by ambient light Ideally, you should control the ambient lighting in your editing area so you’re free to set the luminance you want. The monitor should be the brightest object in your line of vision. If you’re forced to edit in a bright setting, lumi-nance must be raised so that your eyes are able to see shadow detail in your images. Some calibrators will read ambient light and set parameters accordingly. In con-trolled situations, this feature is needless and even unhelp-ful.

The paper-matching method Many printers set their monitor luminance very low. By this, I mean between 80-100 cd/m2. The idea is to hold a blank piece of printing paper up next to your screen and lower the luminance until it matches the paper, or just set a low level so that this is more likely. Potential downsides include a degraded monitor image since not all monitors can achieve this low luminance lev-el without ill effect. Still, you could try it. This is about finding what works for you and your gear. Matching the print-viewing area Another way printers set monitor luminance is to match it to the lighting of a dedicated print-viewing booth or area. Although the light in this area may differ to that of the final print destination, it’s useful to note that monitor cali-bration is never quite an exact science. As well, print dis-play lighting is always adjustable in its intensity. Using this method, the monitor luminance might be as high as 140-150 cd/m2. This setting should be natively achievable by any monitor.

2) Color Temperature / White Point Most calibration programs will default to a 6500K white point setting, which is a cool “daylight” white light. This is usually close to the native white point of the monitor, so it’s not a bad setting, but you needn’t accept the software defaults.

Back

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Continued from page 15 Six Important Aspects of Monitor Calibration You Need to Know

By Bhutajata (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wiki-media Commons

Gentle calibration – native white point If you own a cheap consumer-level monitor or a laptop with low-bit color (that’s most laptops), it’s a good idea to choose a “native white point” setting. This is only typi-cally available with more advanced calibration programs, including the open source program DisplayCAL. When you choose a native white point or anything “native” in calibration, you are leaving the monitor un-touched. Because this means there are no software adjust-ments being made, the display is less likely to suffer from issues such as banding.

Correlated color temperature In Physics, a Kelvin color temperature is an exact color of light that is determined by the physical temperature of the black body light source. As you probably know, the greater the heat, the cooler or bluer the light becomes. Monitors don’t work like this since their light source—LED or fluorescent—doesn’t come from heat. They use a “correlated color temperature” (CCT). One thing to know about correlated color temperature is that it’s not an exact color. It’s a range of colors. This ambiguity is not ideal when trying to match two or more screens. This illustration, above, of the CIE 1931 color space plots Kelvin color temperatures along a curved path known as the “Planckian locus”. Correlated color temperatures are shown as the lines that cross the locus, so for instance, a 6000K CCT may sit anywhere along a green to a magenta axis. A genuine 6000K color temperature would rest di

By en:User:PAR (en:User:PAR) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons rectly on the Planckian locus at the point where the line crosses, so its color is always the same. Though color temperatures might not mean the same thing from one monitor to the next, calibration software should be more precise. It’ll use x and y chromaticity coordinates (seen in the graph above) to precisely plot any color tem-perature. Thus, theoretically, you should be able to match the white point of two different monitors during calibra-tion. Even if you manage that, gamut differences are still likely to complicate things. It’s often easier to forget about matching screens and just use the better of them for edit-ing.

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Matching print output Your chosen white point won’t always match the light under which you display or judge prints. For that reason, you might want to experiment with settings. Remember you’ll harm image quality if you bend the white point far from its native setting. In calibration, you’re often seek-ing a compromise and/or testing the boundaries of your monitor’s performance. Once you know these changes may cause problems, you can reverse them easily.

3) Gamma / Tonal Response Curve (TRC) Digital images are always gamma-encoded after capture. In other words, they’re encoded in a way that corresponds to human eyesight and its non-linear perception of light. Our vision is sensitive to changes in dark tones and less so with bright tones. Although digital images are stored thus, they are too bright at this point to represent what we saw. They must be decoded or “corrected” by the moni-tor.

By I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: (Own work) [Public do-main], via Wikimedia Commons A digital camera has a linear perception of light, whereby twice as much light is twice as bright. Gamma encoding

and correction alters the tonal range in line with the hu-man vision, which is more sensitive to changes in shaded light than in highlights. By the way, the gradients in the above image are smooth. Any color or banding you see is caused by your monitor, and harsh calibration will make it worse. This is where the monitor’s gamma setting (or tonal re-sponse curve) comes in. It corrects the gamma-encoded image so that it looks normal. The gamma setting needed to achieve this is 2.2, which is also the default gamma set-ting in calibration programs. However, this is another set-ting that you may stray from if your software allows it. Gentle calibration – native gamma setting Like the white point setting, the gamma setting is a soft-ware adjustment that might degrade the monitor image. If you calibrate with a native gamma setting, you are less likely to harm monitor performance. The only trade-off is that images outside of color-managed programs might look lighter or darker. However, inside color-managed programs, images will display normally.

4) The Look-Up Table (LUT) Once you’ve dialed your settings into the calibration soft-ware, what happens to them next? They’re attached to the ICC profile (created after calibration) in the form of a “vcgt tag”. This then loads into the video card LUT (look-up table) on startup, at which point the screen changes in appearance. Having said the above, if you’ve chosen only native cali-bration settings, you’ll see no change to your screen at startup. The Windows desktop may look different under a native gamma setting since it is not color aware. A Mac desktop will remain unchanged. With expensive monitors, the LUT is often stored in the monitor itself (known as a hardware LUT), bypassing the GPU. One benefit of this is that you can create many cali-bration profiles and switch easily between them. This is not possible with most lower-end monitors.

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Into the Woods Quiz Answers

1. A. Ronald Reagan

2. C. Grandfather Mountain

3. A. Haywood

4. B. Land of Noonday Sun

5. C. 10,400

Back to Page 4



5) Third-party calibration programs High-end monitors come with software that allows all sorts of tricks, but most monitors and programs are less flexible. It’s worth noting, though, that some calibrators work with third-party programs, no matter what software they came with. Conversely, some tie you down to pro-prietary software, so this is worth checking when you buy a calibrator. Ironically, one of the things more advanced programs let you do is nothing. In other words, they let you choose “native” calibration settings. Look at DisplayCAL or basICColor programs if you want more flexibility, but check for compatibility with your device first.

6) Calibration versus Profiling The word “calibration” is an umbrella term that often re-fers to the process of calibrating and profiling a monitor. However, it’s useful to note that these are two separate actions. You calibrate a monitor to return it to a known state. Once it’s in that state, you then create a profile for the monitor that describes its current output. This allows it to communicate with other programs and devices and enables a color-managed workflow. DisplayCAL info at the end of calibration and profiling. Gamut coverage is the proportion of a color space the

monitor covers. Gamut volume includes coverage beyond that color space. If you can’t afford a calibration device, it’s better to cali-brate it using online tools than to do nothing at all. You’ll still need to get the luminance down from its factory level. Check things like black and white level on a website such as this.

You can’t create a proper profile for your monitor using

software alone. Any software that claims to do this is us-

ing either a generic profile or the sRGB color space.

***

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Continued from page 4 Ask Tim Grey

in the image, helping to provide greater detail in the dark shadows, for example. However, you can only retain the advantages of the Active D-Lighting feature if you use the Nikon software to process the original RAW captures.

There are other camera manufacturers with other special features that require software from that manufacturer to take advantage of the feature. Processing the images with Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom won't provide access to those features. In addition, converting to Adobe DNG would cause you to lose access to those fea-tures.

In theory there might also be other capabilities that are only available by using the proprietary RAW capture files. The idea is that since the camera manufacturer has the most knowledge of the specific image sensor technology employed in a given camera, they can best exploit the information contained in the proprietary RAW capture.

Many of these potential benefits aren't critical to most photographers. So unless you're taking advantage of special advanced features of your camera (such as the Active D-Lighting feature on many Nikon cameras, or the relatively new Dual Pixel technology from Canon, among other features with various camera makes), it is probably perfectly safe to convert your proprietary RAW captures to Adobe DNG and then discard the origi-nal captures.

Again, this isn't something I'm particularly comfortable with, but that's mostly a matter of being a bit more paranoid than I really need to be.

I'll also add that converting to the Adobe DNG format creates a workflow slowdown if you have adopted my preferred approach of using a synchronization approach to backing up your photos. Metadata updates to DNG files require a full backup of the (rather large) source image file. By contrast, with proprietary RAW captures your metadata updates will be written to a much smaller (and therefore faster to backup) XMP sidecar file.


Back to Page 4

Video Links You May Like

h ps://www.instagram.com/p/BZtM1hcA2F2/

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Hello all,

Well fall is here. The program committee has been working hard to get the new program in the books. We

had a good field trip to Cataloochee. The timing was perfect. There were elk in the fog as ordered. I think the

rut has just begun there and anyone wanting to get in of the action should get up there in the next two

weeks. There was just the slightest color starting to show. Our next competition is sports. See you on Oct 1,

at 7:00 pm.

Dean

President’s Report

We’re on the Web

http://cvcameraclub.org/

Club Officers

President: Dean Powell [email protected] Vice President: John Setzler [email protected]

Secretary: Cindy Martin [email protected] Treasurer: Stan Bolton [email protected] Image Coordinator: Randy Knauf [email protected] Webmaster: Ed Lane [email protected]

Programs: Doreen Sugierski [email protected]


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Application for Membership

NAME_____________________________________________________DATE__________________

ADDRESS_________________________________________________________________________

CITY_____________________________________STATE________________ZIP_______________

PHONE: HOME (____)____________WORK (____)___________CELL (____)_______________

E-

MAIL___________________________________________________________________________

Dues are $35 per year. Meetings are the first and third Wednesday of each month. Students: $15 per year.

New Member ____ Renewal ____ CLUB USE ONLY: Date Received______________ Cash_______ Check______

Please indicate your preference for committee membership on which you would serve if asked.

Program ____ Field Trip Leader ____ Working on Website ____ Newsletter ____ Mentoring ____ Social Events ____

Publicity ____ External Judging ____ Club Website: www.cvcameraclub.org

Photography Mentoring available by request:

Please print clearly as our club correspondence is conducted via e-mail.

Occupation:____________________________________________________________________________

Website:_______________________________________________________________________________

My skill level in Photography would best be described as: Beginner ___ Intermediate ___ Advanced____ Professional ____

Do you have accounts with: Facebook ____ Google+ ____ Twitter ____ Other ___________________________________

Shoot Mostly: Film ____ Digital ____ Both ____

Camera Make: Canon ____ Nikon ____ Sony ____ Other _____________________________________________________

Photography Interest: (Check All that Apply)

Architecture ____ Eclectic ____ Events ____ Family ____ Landscapes ____ Macro ____ Nature ____

Photojournalism ____ Portraiture ____ Sports ____ Travel ____ Underwater ____ Waterfalls ____

Wild Flowers ____ Wildlife ____ Other ____________________________________________________________________

Computer System: Mac ____ Windows ____

Photo Editing Software: Aperture ____ Elements ____ Lightroom ____ Photoshop ____

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