Please test drive my new gallery

[Pekka]

Hi all,

Happy new year to all you, my good friends!

I have now online the new gallery system, and added there some new photos, too. There are two online galleries there, one D30, and the other one you surely know, too! Feel free to comment all artistical or technical aspects of the whole pudding.

I'd like to hear your feelings about how easy it's to browse and search photos, and generally 'how do you feel?'

http://www.photography-on-the.net/gallery/

There's still a lot of things to do, but as it is now it works for the visitor quite fluently. I hope.

The system supports also hidden exhibitions, you can see one test one at http://www.photography-on-the.net/ga...n=3&pass=getin
Basically you can share hidden galleries just by giving an URL like I just did. Pass can be any string up to 256 characters (so hackers get bored). There is absolutely no possibility to reach a hidden gallery without pass, the pass is tied to the SQL system.

About the engine:
http://www.photography-on-the.net/ee/

Now I'll start writing some photo captions...

[beach512]

Pekka -
Nice job with your new gallery. Very easy to navigate and fast loading. Nice new pictures too. Great!

Question on "Gestures":

I noticed that it was shot in available light at ISO 800, but there is no noise at all. It said retouch "None", but did you run any noise reduction actions on this ?

I was shooting indoor available light photos for some concerts on New Year's Eve and had to shoot at ISO 800. but I got a good amount of noise.
Any tips on how to shoot indoor available light at ISO 800 ?

I will post some of them for the Critique board soon as this was my first (non-paying, but great experience) photo assignment.

thanks,
Dave

[Pekka]

beach512 wrote:
Question on "Gestures":

I noticed that it was shot in available light at ISO 800, but there is no noise at all. It said retouch "None", but did you run any noise reduction actions on this ?

I was shooting indoor available light photos for some concerts on New Year's Eve and had to shoot at ISO 800. but I got a good amount of noise.
Any tips on how to shoot indoor available light at ISO 800 ?

Hi Dave,

Thanks for comments.

The noise in ISO 800 is most clearly seen on darker areas, and it's almost unvisibile in brightly lit areas. On this photo you can see the noise on a sleeve of the conductor, but the rest has big contrast and not flat surfaces so the noise is almost unnoticeable. I always try to expose the subjects to bright side in ISO 800 (normally way over what you see in real life) which brings colors up and noise down on subjects.

Also, black and white conversion from Lab lightness channel has color components removed, and there's a lot of chroma and luma noise there.

I think I'm going to run a few high ISO shots though "Neat Image" and have a choice of noisereduced and normal in the size selection menu.

[gandini]

Pekka:
I love the new gallery--the software works very well indeed. Congratulations!
The new images are also wonderful--I particularly like the black and white called Gestures. A lovely composition and interesting content.

In the new year I wish that the Canon Digital Photography Forum continues the glorious traditions from last year, but grows and develops to include all the marvelous things that will surely occur in the world of digital photography this year.

cheers,

[reddawn]

Pekka wrote:
Hi Dave,

Thanks for comments.

The noise in ISO 800 is most clearly seen on darker areas, and it's almost unvisibile in brightly lit areas. On this photo you can see the noise on a sleeve of the conductor, but the rest has big contrast and not flat surfaces so the noise is almost unnoticeable. I always try to expose the subjects to bright side in ISO 800 (normally way over what you see in real life) which brings colors up and noise down on subjects.

Also, black and white conversion from Lab lightness channel has color components removed, and there's a lot of chroma and luma noise there.

I think I'm going to run a few high ISO shots though "Neat Image" and have a choice of noisereduced and normal in the size selection menu.

Hi Pekka,

can you share with us your workflow for converting images to black and white?

Also, i noticed most of the new photos are shot at ISOs lower than 800.....which probably works better with linearSharpen....... my qn is how do you deal with sharpening with high ISO images? i have found Linearsharpen to be too strong for high iso images...

thanks!

[Barry]

Hi Pekka,

Vey fast loading and as usual superb images. No criticisms whatsoever.

Cheers,
Barry

[Pekka]

reddawn wrote:
can you share with us your workflow for converting images to black and white?

If the Lab color mode's lightness channel looks good, I use that and convert to grayscale. But many times you need more control. Channel mixer is quite powerful there.

First I set R,G and B to zero. Then I raise each in turn to 100% and see what kind of content those channels can bring out from the photo. Usually (for people shots) G is least noisy and quite useful, B brings out contrast and detail but is noisy in high ISO, and R brings brightness and soft filter type mood. As I have the components sorted, I mix them together (ratio decided by their 'function') so that pure white highlights are at tiny bit less than maximum (so that there is no pure white).

Also, i noticed most of the new photos are shot at ISOs lower than 800.....which probably works better with linearSharpen....... my qn is how do you deal with sharpening with high ISO images? i have found Linearsharpen to be too strong for high iso images...

I don't select photos to the gallery by ISO or shutter speed.

I do ISO 800's too with LS. I use LS vr2 setting for most, but LS vr's 3 and 4 are meant for high ISO shots. To make things clearer I did 1.02, see http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...hp?t=1712#6787

In high ISO photos, you should set the _first_ curves _top_ slider down a bit so that you don't select all the noise for sharpening.

[reddawn]

Hi

thanks for the swift reply!
i will take another look at linearsharpen for high ISO images.......

Pekka wrote:
If the Lab color mode's lightness channel looks good, I use that and convert to grayscale. But many times you need more control. Channel mixer is quite powerful there.

First I set R,G and B to zero. Then I raise each in turn to 100% and see what kind of content those channels can bring out from the photo. Usually (for people shots) G is least noisy and quite useful, B brings out contrast and detail but is noisy in high ISO, and R brings brightness and soft filter type mood. As I have the components sorted, I mix them together (ratio decided by their 'function') so that pure white highlights are at tiny bit less than maximum (so that there is no pure white).

I don't select photos to the gallery by ISO or shutter speed.

I do ISO 800's too with LS. I use LS vr2 setting for most, but LS vr's 3 and 4 are meant for high ISO shots. To make things clearer I did 1.02, see http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...hp?t=1712#6787

In high ISO photos, you should set the _first_ curves _top_ slider down a bit so that you don't select all the noise for sharpening.