Since I have already sang their praises,  this is more of an introduction to Crossbrowsertesting.com than a review. Best described as a Browser Compatibility Lab, this online service offers a place to test a website on just about every browser- operating system combination. It offers two types of testing: interactive (to test ajax, javascript, and flash) and screenshots (which verifies layouts across all browsers).

The site offers three (3) pricing plans which all include access to their automated screenshot factories, interactive live testing and 1 hour free trial.  These pricing plans are  distinguished by the alloted monthly usage :

• Basic  150 minutes 19.95/Month (US$)
• Professional  600 minutes 49.95/Month (US$)
• Business 300 minutes 199.95/Month (US$)

One hundred fifty (150) minutes might seem inadequate for a web designer , and it would be, if the service was slow or unreliable. It isn’t. I managed to pull 14 screenshots in less than 10 minutes use (bumbling-around time included) and the website tracks your usage in your account section. This also makes the seeming paltry 1 hour free trial a more generous trial period than expected.

For that reason,  I chose the Basic Plan. It fulfills all of my browser-check needs and I suspect that most web designers would feel the same. Keep in mind that subscriptions are renewed automatically. Since my design work encompasses both print and web work, this might be a bad thing if the company wasn’t so customer-friendly.

When I emailed Kenneth Hamric, one of the founders of Crossbrowsertesting.com, about this, he responded:
“We have a 30 day, money back policy.  If you are not happy, you forgot to cancel, whatever the reason (or no reason at all)… and you ask for your money back, we give it back.  We are not trying to keep money from customers that do not like / want the service.  We like, and want, happy customers!“

I believe him. My recent experience with this company (described here) leads me to believe that  they will do anything to accommodate their customers’ needs, within reason. I doubt they will walk your dog for you.

I would definitely have the need to activate and cancel my subscription at will. Keeping my overhead low makes it possible to charge affordable rates. Last year, during the height of the “great recession”, I was booked solid, double-booked even, from May through November. December was dedicated to finishing some straggling details on projects and planning our holiday. So far, this January, I have booked 1 job and bid on 3 more. I suspect that is the story of most freelancers- the result being that we need flexible plans to accommodate our flexible schedules.

Automated Screenshots

The most straightforward part of the service is the automated screenshots. You check the appearance of your website by taking screenshots of a URL in just about any browser- operating system combination. The added bonus? Easily accessible list of recent screenshot tests. This is especially handy if you are checking more than one url.

Choosing which combinations can be as easy as choosing any of the default options:

• Popular browsers – default : offers 10 combinations which can be further refined by screen resolutions.
• All browsers :  offers 50 combinations which can be further refined by screen resolutions.
• Select the individual browsers and operating systems

Each option has a monitor resolution option and you can save your preferences for future use. You can organize screenshots by client, grab the link to resulting screenshot for reference, download a zip file of all the screenshots for a particular URL or create a slideshow of the screenshots- all great options when presenting the results to your clients.

Interactive Live Testing

Sometimes static shots are not enough. Interactivity errors are difficult to track if you cannot experience them through various browser/operating system combinations. While the monitor sizes are limited, the combinations are not. The list of combinations are comprehensive enough to instill confidence in the results.

Bookmarklet

One extremely handy amenity is the bookmarklet- simply drag the button marked “DRAG ME” to your toolbar. Visit a webpage that needs checking and clik on the CBT Launcher Button for a dialog box where you can choose either automated screenshots or an interactive live text with a list of options ready to go.

For those much smarter than me, there is also the option of accessing all this data through their API which is documented here.

The company policies are clearly delineated:

• No minimum contracts, signup fees, or cancellation fees.
• You can change packages at any time.
• Free trial limited to 1 hour usage, 1 per person.
• Usage of services is tracked to the second.
• No question asked 30 day refund policy.

I am a fan.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Browser Compatibility Testing Guide: The Best Tools And Services To Check How Others See Your Web Site (masternewmedia.org)
• How to Test Websites in Different/Multiple Resolutions Without Changing the PC Resolution (techie-buzz.com)

I gravitate towards that word “disciplined” because I am an analytical and systematic individual. My trusty Mac computer dictionary provided the following:

With that in mind, I have to add I also like insights into the actual step-by-step thoughts in the designing process for a photographer, and I look for good illustrations and well-written tutorials done by an enthusiastic photographer. All of these are well covered in Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach to Creativity. Add a DVD with additional images, 360 degree panoramas of studio shots in progress, some short videos of photographic sessions, references, and tutorials and you have a concise and worthwhile package.

Mr. Stern writes in an easy-going style that makes the reader feel that they are in the presence of an out-going teacher who enjoys sharing his techniques and learning experiences‚ both the good and the bad‚ and he is not ashamed to admit to mistakes made in that they provide part of the lessons learned that he would share with the student. It is no wonder that he has had a wide and varied teaching career in addition to his studio work. Among the places that he has taught are Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Art Center College of Design, Glendale Community College, Burbank Unified School District, Julia Dean Photographic Workshops, Studio Arts, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and Brooks Institute.

Mr. Stern’s professional career involves some seventeen years working for the Disney Studios, extensive architectural, product, and portrait photography. He cites a deeply committed relationship to Adobe Photoshop and its importance to the digital studio of today.

Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach To Creativity (ISBN: 978-1-933952-18-5, US $34.95 CAN $41.95) covers four major areas.

The first is environmental portraiture, and in it he delves deeply into the process of designing the portrait and how to load the image’s environment with telling clues that give insight to the depth of the personality of the subject. Along with that he gives serious tips about controlling and predicting color output. Workflows on the computer with an emphasis on organization (remember that word “Disciplined” in the book title?) are considered in depth as well.

The second major area that Mr. Stern discusses is involved in compositing techniques using the computer and Adobe Photoshop. How to light and shoot a myriad of different images and to bring them together in a final composite is painsakingly described with a variety of tutorial screen shots showing the multiple layers and layer masks necessary to produce the final image result.

The third area that is discussed gives lessons on using the scanner in place of the camera and takes a trip into personal style and creativity. It attempts to open up the student to looking at shape and form in the small world in order to sharpen the student’s design skills and to realize that not all images have to come via the camera lens.

The final section of the book looks at product photography and how to light a product in such a way that it is easy to vary background and key colors and to composite separate product images into final images.

Throughout the entire book several ideas continue to travel side by side with the craft and techniques of both photography and Adobe Photoshop as skills. One of those ideas is that the photographer must sell himself or herself continually to the client. This is necessary because there are many photographers who are skillful as photographers but who do not maintain a pleasant working relationship with the client. The job of the photographer is to satisfy the client with both the product and a pleasant personal working relationship. A photographer walks a thin line as he or she trys to promote their own ideas and creativity, and at the same time to deal with the preconceived ideas that the client may bring to the conference table. Satisfying the client in part means that the client must feel that they have contributed to the design concept greatly even if the photographer has promoted his or her own creative design successfully. Each photographer must know when to listen and when to speak (and how to do it tactfully) as the photographer and client come to terms with the final design.

Dealt with indirectly, but explained well, is the difficulty in dealing with the chain of command in large organizations. The filtering process between the ultimate client in the chain and the photographer is a delicate one because each individual in the chain of command feels the necessity of placing their own mark on the final product‚ else they cannot justify their own position in the hierachy. Putting it bluntly, this is hell on the creative process and can lead to difficulties.

I found Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach To Creativity a good read; it will provide a great deal of insight to the creative process and the day-to-day managerial skills and personality  necessary. Definitely a must read for the aspiring photographer who feels that mastering photographic and computer skills are all there is to the photography business.

His book has been published by Rocky Nook Press. Their books are printed on acid-free paper and the color in their books will survive long after the technical skills described in each volume will be replaced by the advances in our technology. Sometimes we get so caught up in the latest information that we forget how we receive that information. The “how” in this case is also important and should be acknowledged.

Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach To Creativity
by Michael E. Stern
ISBN: 978-1-933952-18-5
US $34.95 CAN $41.95

Michael Stern around the web:
His website CyberStern.com
His blog is  DigitalBeast.Wordpress.com
Find some excellent tutorials are at  SlideShare.net/Mr_Pixel
Michael Stern at The Brooks Insititute

Arthemis Premium Wordpress Theme

Some time last fall, i decided that i wanted to change the DigitalAppleJuice theme to Arthemis Premium wp theme by Colorlabs Project. I am still a huge fan of the Revolution- Studiopress themes- all my client themes are based on them including all previous Digitalapplejuice themes. for my clients, i have incorporated an auto thumbnailer code i culled from the web. that autothumbnailer code would not work for digitalapplejuice since we have been using dean’s fck editor plugin- bypassing the built-in wordpress image handler. The process of posting a new article used to be every story has to have an “articleimg” custom field containing the url of the 250×250px image and a “Thumbnail” custom field. I had heard wonderful things about the latest timthumb thumbnailer code which has recently been incorporated into a number of Studiopress themes – Agent and Magazine to name two. a recent install of the agent theme made me realize that i would be trading in 2 custom filed headaches for another one so i began looking for other themes with autothumbnailing capabilities when i ran across the Arthemis Premium wp theme.

The Arthemis’ top featured story section is an impressive alternative to the Featured Content Gallery slideshow  plugin incorporated in the Studiopress themes. The only real question for em was whether the integration of the timthumb code would make the Arthemis theme a viable choice for us. After I found a huge discount offer for the Arthemis Premium last fall,  I decide to make the purchase knowing that, if it didn’t work for DigitalAppleJuice,  I could at the very least use it on a client’s site and re-coup my investment. Then I got booked on 4 projects back to back and testing Arthemis on DigitalAppleJuice was quickly forgotten.  Months later, right after Xmas, I decided to tackle the Arthemis Theme tweaks and install when I realized I had no idea where I had placed the Arthemis Premium Theme zip. I emailed the designer and within hours had a response. I was very happy to find that the Arthemis Premium Theme  was able to render thumbnails and preview images from the first image within a post with very few exceptions. The choice was made.

My quick list of tweaks:

1. Ad Column: 125px ad bar to the right of the main body – normally an easy tweak: 2 additional DIVs and 6 lines in the style sheet. Add a thumbnail for the latest tao and desktop theatre
2. Author’s Page: change code author img
3. Change coding from Adsense to Adbrite.
4. SIngle.php:  widening of the single post to 600px so i wouldn’t have to resize every image in 700+ posts archive. Add tags, add link to author’s profile.
5. Footer.php: replacing the video in the footer gallery with the latest panel of The Tao Of IT Al, resized to fit

time to check the browsers

i have learned so much about CSS in the last year or so, embracing the doubling of margins in certain IE circumstances and tricking DIVs to expand without content. Even so, browser checks are a must.  Way back in 2008 before I knew anything, I wrote about the consequences of a non-conforming web and suggested Browsershots.org and NetRenderer as solid resources. I have been using Browsershots regularly these last 18 months – even signing up for priority service when booked on more than one job a month. So it was only natural that when it came time to check the Arthemis Premium tweaks I should turn to my old standby- Browsershots.org. I spent two days trying to get screenshots for IE 6, 7, 8 on any Windows platform with no joy. I thought I would have better luck if I signed up for priority service (at $29.95/month). Still no joy. I emailed Jack Zhao from Browsershots to ask if there was a problem with the renderers.

In the meantime, knowing that at any time one of my bids could turn into a solid job with a deadline, I googled for an alternative. I found Crossbrowsertesting.com I signed up for Crossbrowsertesting almost immediately as it  looked very attractive at $19.95/month with a 7 day trial. As luck would have it, the system was resistant to my  screenshot requests – implying that i would have to provide a url ending with .html. If .html extensions were required for an URL, then this service would incompatible for any wordpress sites (which are the bulk of my gigs). I cancelled my account and contacted crossbrowsertesting’s support to confirm that this was the case. I received a response from not one but two people- tom and kenneth- within hours.

The Polurnet Blacklist

In a flurry of emails  and checks and tests we determine that the Crossbrowsertesting.com and Browsershots.org  server IPs were blacklisted. Polurnet’s tech support kindly volunteered to remove them from the blacklisted. This was easy enough when it came to Crossbrowsertesting.com but Browsershots.org was unable to provide me with IP addresses since it has more than 100 factories around the world (most in US and Europe) taking screenshots which are then uploaded to a central server. They suggested we change webhost.

My issues with Browsershots were isolated to the Windoze IE renderers but I wasn’t going to push the point. I don’t know how and why these particular screenshot factories ended up on Polurnet’s blacklist. It could have been just a security response triggered by the number of screenshots I requested in such a short time, but I was NOT going to change webhosts.

Polurnet has set the webhost standard for me,  especially since not a single one of my clients hosted on Polurnet was hacked during the great wordpress 2.7 hacking season of 2008. All my clients hosted on Hostgator were infiltrated.

I decided to stick with Polurnet and asked for a refund from Browsershots. It was done immediately. No question asked. Thanks Mr. Zhao.

Customer Service In A Nutshell

crossbrowsertesting.com

• immediate response from support; answered questions quickly, took an honest appraisal of the situation and proposed ideas & solutions
• during discussion of my problem, offered to extend free trial due to issues and offered a refund in the event i was unable to cancel service in time

browsershots.org

• quick response to support request
• refunded fees without argument

polurnet.com

• I love these guys. I could go on and on about what great service Polurnet provides
• quick response to any email request for support
• i have yet had an instance where they told me “not our problem” as so many other web hosts have been known to do.
• not a single one of my clients have been hacked

arthemis wordpress theme

• their integration of timthumb code meant that i didn’t have to do anything to get most of the thumbnails for our articles to work.
• customer service is responsive and the theme is well documented and the forum is available for additional questions.

Disclaimer: Madbadcat and DigitalAppleJuice are in no way associated with Colorlabs Projects, Crossbrowsertesting.com or Browsershots.org, nor have we received consideration for this review. Madbadcat and DigitalAppleJuice are proud to be part of Polurnet’s affiliate marketing program and standby our endorsement of Polurnet.

UPDATE:

I received this note from Polurnet Tech Support offering a solution to issues described in this article:

“By the way, if you needed us to disable the firewall temporarily while you process your screenshots, that’s fine. Also, while Browsershots don’t need to provide the exact IP addresses they use, if they can tell us a range, we can whitelist it as well.

Hope that helps

Regards,
Administrative Representative
PolurNET Communications”

And that is why I love these guys.

Rocky Nook produces beautiful volumes printed on acid-free paper that reproduce the dynamic tonalities of the fine-art prints that they showcase, and the long-term viability of their volumes mean that they will be as visually dynamic a number of years from now as they are today. This is particularly valuable when examining Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style because the beauty of this book almost makes it a coffee-table volume as well as a thought-provoking intellectual examination of the mind of the creative photographer. This is a blending of art and technique in that the artistic concepts more often used in the discussion of paintings are combined with the technology and craft of the camera, lens, and printing processes.

Briot says it best:

"…you can control the colors in your photographs as if you were a painter in contol of your color palette rather than a photographer at the mercy of the camera."

It is the point where the photographer has added his style, viewpoint, and emotion to a photograph that the photograph moves from merely factual to artistic. An artistic photograph is actually more about the photographer and their viewpoint than it is about the actual subject of the photograph.

An examination of the way Briot has arranged the book will give you insight into his thought process and his philosophy of art.

He begins with the differences between what we see and what the camera sees. In order to understand how he produces art with his camera you first have to learn that the camera has limitations as a tool and it is the control of those limitations that separates forensic or scientific photography from Art photography. What the camera sees is a version of reality, not necessarily the exact reality. That reality is certainly not the emotional state that comes from the photographer who shapes reality into Art though the use of the camera as only one of their tools. The other tools are composition in both color and in shape; in other words the selective and designing eye that first "sees" and selects and then manipulates color and value to load the composition with emotion, and not simply to accept what the camera saw as a machine subject to the limitations of the sensor and lens.

Briot discusses the differences between composing with light, composing with color, and composing in black and white. He considers the elements of a strong composition and the creative process, and he gives us insight into finding inspiration. By examining a series of images he leads us through exercises in creativity and developing a unique vision for each individual photographer. That vision becomes a personal style.

A well-developed personal style is a saleable commodity if the photographer analyzes their audience and matches their style and the audience. How to deal with the practical aspects of print numbering, presenting images, and the art show circuit are considered.

[asa]1933952229[/asa]

Finally, Briot gives us a technical and creative checklist that will help develop a skill level that defines the difference between a good photographer and an Artist. This comes about when technical competence has reached a level that allows the photographer to devote most of their energy to design and creativy and the technical is merely a palette that the Artist draws upon to produce an emotional translation of what they saw when they first approached the subject of their photograph. The technical takes place in the field and should result in shooting to the photographer's hearts' content. Then, in the studio at the computer, comes the analytical time where images are selected, comtemplated and modified. Early on, Briot suggested that the photographer keep a written notebook with both technical, compositional, and emotional descriptions of the scenes being photographed. In the studio the photographer can then attempt to modify the image that the camera made within the limitations of lens and sensor to bring to life what the photographer "saw" at the moment the photograph was made.

I, personally, sometimes wonder when looking at files what it was that I saw when I shot an image? Written notes would alleviate that sense of negative wonderment that comes in the studio days or weeks after a particular exposure was made. Briot has explained some pithy things about color, camera sensors, the printing device, the human eye, and the creative process that have given me some serious thoughts on the creative process as it applies to myself. While the goal of every photographer is to get out and shoot images, simply shooting without thinking seriously about the technology limitations and the goal of the images is a waste of time. I consider the time spent reading Alain Briot's Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativy, and Personal Style as being time very well spent to improve a photographer's understanding of both themselves and their technology. It is this understanding that allows the development of the full potential of any image, and that full potential is the difference between mere representation and Art.

Alain Briot
Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style
Rocky Nook
ISBN: 978-1-933952-22-2
352 pages, paperback
US $44.95, CAN $ 53.95.
This volume was provided for review by Rocky Nook, Inc.
Read (PDF) Excerpts:
- TOC
- Sample Chapter
- Preface

In the last couple of years, I have cooled to Apple’s hip reputation for quality and innovation. My Intel iMac’s motherboard needed replacement just 13 months after I bought it. Since I forgot to renew my Applecare, the cost of replacing the motherboard was $900. Nine hundred dollars is a very hard bill to swallow when the problem was nothing more than a bad ethernet port.

A quick search on the web opened up a world of people complaining of defective this or that and, while I applaud Apple’s innovative designs, I have become increasingly concerned with Apple’s reliance on Chinese manufacturers for their products. At the risk of being called a jingoist, the last year in the news proves that quality control is not China’s strong suit.

Despite the recession, the time was quickly coming when I would have to upgrade but I hadn’t really considered what I was going to upgrade to. I just didn’t want to think about it. And I didn’t. This mac monster was a very generous gift / investment from a long-time mentor and collaborator.

I have fallen in love with Apple all over again. And its all because of this most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Quick like a bunny.

Fast? Oh is it fast. The once maddeningly-sluggish Firefox launch sequence now occurs in an instant. Photoshop loads so fast it makes me warm in places I don’t care to elucidate.

Bright Young Thing

I keep the lights off in my office, not for any other reason than I like my monitors very bright and my Imac just wasn’t bright enough with the lights on.  The 24-in LED Cinema Display is so crisp, so bright, i have had to dim the monitor a bit, and still, the colors are rich and the blacks deep and velvety.

Migration Assistant

My last computer purchase was a white Intel iMac but I don’t really remember the migration of my computer files to the new mac. I remember being afraid and putting off the migration for months because I knew it would interrupt my workflow. Always a bad thing.

I do remember that, when I finally upgraded from my eMac to my Intel iMac, I had to painstakingly  swap folders in the library so I could preserve my email archive. My desktop- which would frighten the most compulsive data spelunker- was difficult to recreate. If there was an easier way, I was not aware of it. My blood pressure rose, my workflow shriek to a stop.

After the first  Mac Pro tower’s startup sound, I was completely prepared for another messy move. I actually made the first transfer and was dumbfounded at thought that I would have to merge some folders and replace others. I was actually cursing Apple for my own stupidity.

Then I had a "Duh!" moment.

I used Migration Assistant to do the data transfer. When it was done, I gave the new User Account admin privileges. Then I logged out and logged back into the new admin account. At this time, you can either delete the old admin account or you can make the newly migrated  admin account the automatic login. (Some uber apple geeks suggest keeping a spare admin account for future troubleshooting.)

This method won’t work if you have been working on one admin account and import your old set-up into a new admin. I still don’t know of an easy way to merge two admin accounts and I am not sure how what i would have done if I had waited a week or more to migrate.

The Sleek and Pretty Keyboard.

The keyboard’s low, flat profile is a comfortable size and the angle of rise is just perfect to encourage a more ergonomic wrist bend. The con? It is one of the loudest keyboards I have had in the last few years. Oh Gawd, please help me adapt to the metallic clacking of the space bar.

What’s not to love?

A cynic by nature, I am looking for something to dislike about this machine. I haven’t found it yet. I have had some frustrating moments while setting up the mac pro tower. I can however, trace all these frustrations directly to Adobe. I am still pissed at Adobe for coercing an upgrade to CS3 when I bought my Intel Mac. At the time, I didn’t need the added expense or interruption in my workflow.

That frustration was revisited when I was now faced with the re-activate thing for my CS3 products. Add the now famous licensing error For CS4 products … ooof.

Even so, this machine, this magnificent machine is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Even more so ’cause its mine.

So here is one I tried DeNoise with; it was shot with a 3.1 megapixel point-and-shoot camera in Morocco in the summer of 2000. Look at the color artifacts in the shadow under the palm leaves and in the shadow on the floor on the right.

Going to Filter > Topaz > DeNoise we get the panel below.

The default in the Main>Noise Suppression is 1.0 when it opens.  You can use the Reset button on the bottom right to force Noise Suppression to open at 0 if you choose.  We’ll take a look at all the adjustments possible before we make corrections.

The Advanced panel allows us to make adjustments in (1) Color Noise, (2) JPEG Fixer, (3) Smoothness, and (4) Add Grain.  It opened with a default of 0.05 in Color Noise.

The third panel, Presets, gives us the options of settings for (1) SRAW Normal, (2) JEPG High Quality, (3) Large Grain Noise, and (4) Supersmooth. Choosing and Applying one of these presets will make adjustments in the Main and Advanced panels.

Finally, the About panel will allow us to reach (1) Tech Support, (2) On-Line Resources, (3) Check for an update, and (4) enter our registration Key if we have not already done so.

Now, we’ll go back to the original image and the noise in the shadow and brick areas.

In the following image the Noise Suppression was set at 2.88.  Remember, the default was 1.0.

A slight amount of curves was applied to lighten the shadow area.

Now, here’s the detail close-up so you can see the original grain in all its gruesome glory.

Here’s the example with the Noise Suppression at 2.88.

Now here is a completely different means of removing the Color Noise. 

Pretend you ignored all the steps under the Main  panel and went directly to the Advanced Panel and chose to make your corrections through the Color Noise and Smoothness adjustments. You will get results similar to the ones below, which are not identical to the answer you received working with the Main panel and Smoothness.  But this simply shows that there are more than one way to reach an acceptable answer to the noise problem.

On the left side we can see an area corrected only by Color Noise and Smoothness sliders.  The original, grainy, image is the right side of the image.

Here we have the image totally corrected by using the Advanced panel and the Color Noise and Smoothness sliders.

I think we have another winner here. I’m going to use Topaz BeNoise to save many of the photographs I took with the 3.1 Megapixel  point-and-shoot camera while we were traveling in Morocco.
 

Check out DeNoise at http://topazlabs.com where it is priced at US $79.95 as a download.  A CD with the program can be ordered at extra charge, but saving the download with a copy of the key which is emailed to you after purchase can be done in only a few minutes.  After all, the DMG file is only 5.2 megabytes and is a quick download even on dial-up.  DeNoise is another good additon to your toolkit and workflow.

I've always felt that there were two kinds of information that I find relevant.  One of those is information that I know so well that I can quote pages verbatim and live with everyday.  The second type is reference that I know where to find and I can refer to when needed, and that I have on hand for the moment I need it.  This second type is the sort of thing that interests me on occasion and I have need of for special moments.  I want it available, concise, coherent—and comprehensive. All of those requirements are met in PHOTOGRAPHIC MULTISHOT TECHNIQUES, and for long-term use without a loss of picture quality I love to see the notice that the book is printed on acid-free paper.  That means that the beautifully reproduced sample images will still look fine even a number of years from now.

Multiimage techniques are not new.  A number of photographers as early as Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901) and Oscar Rejlander (1813-1875) began to produce composite images in the 1850's made from several different images.  Rejlander's THE TWO WAYS OF LIFE" in 1857 combined over 30 negatives into one compositon with remarkable realism. The inability of daguerreotypes, wet plate processes, and early films to record the long dynamic range of both sky and subject produced the necessity of combing sky and subject images into one image until the 1930's. A multitude of photographers mastered this process.

However, it has been the advent of digital imaging and the computer's role in post processing the image(s) that has brought the possibilities of (relatively easily) using multishot techniques into everyday photograhy.  Though still requiring careful and meticulous work, it is not uncommon to daily see photographs that have been produced through multishot techniques.

The most common multishot techniques are:

1. high dynamic range images that produce detail in both the highlights and the shadows far beyond the range of common films,
2. super-resolution images consisting of thousands of megabytes—or even gigabytes–of data when contrasted to normal digital images that consist of perhaps 50 to 100 maximum megabytes of data,
3. extended depth of field which defys to laws of optics when compared to the results of normal photography, and finally
4. stitching images together to take pictures (often panoramas) that cannot be produced by conventional means.

Juergen Gulbins and Rainer Gulpins should be familiar to the readers of Rocky Nook books in that Juergen was the co-author with Uwe Steinmuller of FINE ART PRINTING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS, and the author of DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE GROUND UP. Rainer Gulpins is a well-known photographer whose work has ranged from the Sahara to the Canadian wilderness as he has illustrated his travels. He has translated photography books for German publishers and acts as a consultant for many photographic projects.

What we have with PHOTOGRAPHIC MULTISHOT TECHNIQUES is a careful explanation of the theories behind making miltishot images and the step-by-step processes by which we use the currently relevant software programs (both PC and Mac) that are available.  The step-by-step procedures contain settings that can only have been arrived at by copius amounts of hands-on experimentation.  There are lots of little asides and commentary that could only be produed by experience, and paying attention to them will help the photographer to avoid a world of inconvenience and frustration.

Some of the software described and given as step-by-step procedures are:

• Photoshop "Merge to HDR" and "PhotoMerge" commands;
• PhotoAcute;
• FDR Tools;
• Photomatix Pro;
• Combine ZM;
• Helicon Focus; and
• DOP Detail Extractor.

Following the tutorials (most of the software is available for download as free limited-time or limited-functionality versions which allow you to try them out) will make the photographer familiar with the strengths and limits of each software.

Super resolution and how to prepare to take and finally make the images is the first multishot technique that is described.  Focus Stacking is the next technique described.  This allows the photographer to produce an image with deeper depth of field than that which can be captured with conventional camera and lenses.  Stitching, which increases image coverage, is followed by HDRI, high-dynamic-range-imaging, where the finished images shows detail in both the highlight and shadow areas far beyond what can be captured with either conventional film or digital imaging sensors. Finally, Enhancing Microcontrast is defined and examined.

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Actually, there is one more aspect that follows Microcontrast; actually it is the post processing that follows all of the techniques previously given.

It's all together in one neat package: Juergen Gulbins and Rainer Gulpins, PHOTOGRAPHIC MULTISHOT TECHNIQUES, Rocky Nook, ISBN:978-1-933952-38-3, US $34.95 CAN $34.95.  Oh yes, it's paperback, 227 beautifully printed pages in a book that actually stays open when I'm following the techniques on my own computer in a step-by-step manner.  I highly recommend it to any photographers whether just beginning or experienced, who are interested in any of the forms of multishot photography.

Another improvement over my Lensbaby 2.0 is the lens cap – the 2.0 shipped with a nice, heavy solid metal lens cap that screwed in place… unfortunately, it was kind of slippery and difficult to get off sometimes. The Composer ships with a new squeeze-type lens cap (the style that lets your fingers get inside a lens hood, hmm, what a handy accessory that would be?). Easy on and easy off, but not so easy that you can lose it. In fact, the lens cap is flush with the front of the lens only when focused at the closest possible distance, so the style of the lens cap has something to do with getting the cap on and off when the lens is focused at a further distance and the front element is recessed into the front of the lens housing. The size is compact, about the same physical length as my Nikkor 50mm lens.

The Composer I received fit nicely on my Nikon, but you can also order Canon EF, Sony Alpha / Minolta Maxxum, Pentax K or Olympus 4/3. That covers most of the current digital SLR’s… of course, you could mount the Nikon version on your trusty Nikon F from 1965, and mount the Canon version on any autofocus Canon body ever made, including those that shoot (shudder), film. Pentax K mount may have had more bodies and lenses manufactured for it than all others combined. On my Nikon D3, I found that the website is essentially correct in that you need to shoot in manual mode and check your exposure via the histogram. I found it easy to get my exposure set for a scene, and then I set the bracketing to 3 shots (first exposure normal, 2nd exposure one stop underexposed, and the 3rd exposure is one stop overexposed). Most of the time, the normal or one stop underexposed produced the best images.

The first weekend I had the Composer, I visited my mother and grandmother. I got my mom interested in photography in the early 1980’s, and she has shot Nikon film bodies for 25 years now. At my gentle prodding, this year she upgraded to a Nikon D200, which she is never without. I showed her the Composer, and let her put it on her body… I almost didn’t get it back. I had to promise to order her one that very night to get it off her camera.

My shooting was sporadic over the time I had the Composer, but I did get to try it on a variety of subjects. Things, landscapes, people. I shot over 1,000 images with the lens… in other words, I barely scratched the creative surface. Having used many of the possible configurations, I have a starting suggestion for you: start with the Composer. It is not a huge investment by the standards of lenses made by camera manufacturers. Please check the Lensbaby website for current pricing at   http://www.Lensbaby.com/shop/  — there are some special pricing options there if you buy the Composer and Optic Kit and/or Accessory Kit at the same time. All told, you can get the entire system for the Composer and all the optics and accessories for well under $500.

A new feature I noticed as this article goes to press is the photo gallery on the Lensbaby website. There are many images to view with captions to tell you which lens optic made the image  http://www.lensbaby.com/gallery-photo.php . Every time you refresh the page, new images come up.

But Britt, surely there has to be something not perfect with the Lensbaby? Are you selling out? Well, no, I am not selling out. There are a couple of picky little things. When Craig Strong first developed the Lensbaby, my understanding is that he did it to fill a niche for his digital SLR. When he was first doing this, there weren’t too many full-frame digital SLR’s in the world. Certainly, I didn’t have one. So my original Lensbaby 2.0 looked and felt like a 75mm lens on my Nikon D2X (still half the focal length of the Sima, which translated to a 150mm). Now I have the D3… with the Composer (I have not tested the Muse or Control Freak), it is possible to skew the image to the point of cutting off or vignetting the image circle. Once I saw this and realized what was happening, it was no big deal. There is plenty of movement available without vignetting. I didn’t see vignetting with the D200 or D2X, which are both 2/3 frame sensors. Second, I wish the directions for removing and replacing lens elements were a little more detailed. Maybe I’m just not too bright. Are either of my minor gripes deal breakers? Not even close. One accessory I would like to see is a lens hood made to screw into the lens threads, although it would be funny shaped or maybe not possible because of the way the lens optic group moves into the body as you focus to infinity.

So, the bottom-line? Get one. I didn’t test the Muse, but it is essentially the Lensbaby 2.0 upgraded to use the interchangeable optics. In my opinion the Muse is best for fast, on-the-go photography.  Or, step up to the Composer (my recommendation). To me this is the most versatile lens in the series. If you shoot little toy soldiers in dioramas or architectural elements and want the ultimate in precision control, go for the Control Freak. Get more detail on all of these lenses and accessories at  http://www.Lensbaby.com/ . Any prices noted are current as of the time this article goes to the webmistress, but check the website for current pricing and availability… the Composer is currently in stock and shipping in about 3 weeks. The one that I ordered for my mom arrived in about four weeks, which was early by two weeks of the estimated shipping time on the website at the time it was ordered.

Remember our fun with the Sima? The Lensbaby Composer (and all the Lensbaby line, since they use interchangeable elements) is 50mm in focal length compared with the Sima’s 100mm. That gets into the usable range for many landscape opportunities, and makes a decent average focal length for portraits and details. Need wider? They can do that… it’s that system concept I love so much. Offered as additional accessories are a 0.6x Wide Angle lens adapter and a 1.6x Telephoto lens adapter (in a set). That makes the 50mm equate to a 30mm or a 80mm lens via the front-threaded lenses. Yep, there is a macro kit as well, which would be really handy for those of us who shoot close details of things.

Instead of being happy with f/2, f/4 and f/5.6 with the Sima lens, we can now get down to f/22. Why would you want to shoot a "soft focus" image at f/22? Well, what the Sima didn’t do was skew the plane of focus… the Lensbaby skews the "sweet spot" of focus to the point you choose. Want the whole left side of the image to go completely out of focus? We can do that.

When the folks at Lensbaby shipped me the demo unit, I was very excited to open the box and find (first) a Lensbaby Composer (yes!) and a thoughtfully included set of lens elements. The Composer shipped with the double glass element in it, with the f/4 aperture. That seemed like a good starting point, so for the first several hundred shots I did with it, I left this configuration in place.

As I first handled the Composer, I was satisfied with the obvious build quality… it isn’t heavy, but feels solid. It is made of metal and composite materials, with a metal lens mount. The lens has a locking collar at the rear – if you want to lock the lens in position, simply turn the locking collar to lock it in place… since the lens doesn’t move easily on its own, I would think that most people would use the locking ring when on a tripod. Inside the lens optic, there is a magnetic arrangement that holds the f/stop apertures in place. With a little practice it is easy to drop the f/stop aperture in to the front of the lens, but if you have trouble, you can always use the handy magnetic tool provided for the task.

As previously noted, the Composer does away with the hard but flexible rubber bellows of the Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0. A composite ball-and-socket allows the front of the lens to move independently of the rear, creating changes in the plane of focus that the lens throws. This shifting of the plane of focus is what gives the Lensbaby its signature look.

Examples- Pt. 2

Soon after receiving my first 35mm camera, I found that photography was a little more difficult than it had first looked. Ok, it was a lot more difficult. After mastering the learning curve on how make a sharp, well-exposed photo, I saw some photography by David Hamilton and Robert Farber. I was back to square one. Suddenly, I wanted to shoot soft focus images. But, how to do it?

Shortly after graduating college, I got my first dedicated soft focus lens. I had tried all different ways of getting that beautiful soft focus look… shooting through cigarette package cellophane, smearing petroleum jelly on the filter, shooting through other materials like hose, netting, window screen, almost anything you can think of. Then came the Sima soft focus lens… 100mm at f/2 wide open, a simple single lens plastic element, push and pull focusing, it made beautiful images. It worked great… as long as you had your subject perfectly centered. The lens was sharper in the center than at the edges, so if you put your subject off center it would suffer degradation beyond the intent of soft focus. You could manipulate it slightly with an f/4 and an f/5.6 disk, plus there was a neutral density disk in the box that I never really used. The other limitation I immediately realized was the focal length; it was too long to use for most landscape situations. I moved on and tried other specialty lenses, mostly with less success than the Sima.

Then something wonderful happened… a guy like me who liked soft focus made a lens with an integral hard rubber-ish bellows to focus and bend all over the place to skew the plane of focus. Let me be clear – I experimented but never really built anything. I was content to use what others had made before me. Not so for photographer Craig Strong. He too had been unhappy with the soft focus options available to him, so he decided to do something about it, and the first Lensbaby was born. That was 2004; I found it in 2005 at PhotoExpo in New York City… when I saw the booth I went in and bought a Lensbaby 2.0.

The Lensbaby 2.0 creates beautiful images, but it has limitations for me. First, if I wanted to shoot a bracketed exposure, sometimes I found it difficult to hold the lens exactly on the focus point with the skew for a 3 or 5 shot bracket. I also had some difficulty focusing and bending the lens exactly the right way to throw the focus off a certain way. Using it on a tripod gave similar results. Forget trying to do a perfect long bracket for rendering an HDR scene… the original and version 2.0 Lensbabies were great for quick, on the move photography, but not for more studied compositions.

Jump forward to 2008. Apparently nobody mentioned to Craig Strong that he had created a great product and that he should rest on his laurels. He continued to improve the Lensbaby design, and introduced the new Lensbaby Composer. Instead of a bellows, it has a rotating ball-n-socket joint. Focus is achieved in a much more conventional fashion (to us old-school folks who were already used to focusing the lens themselves) with a rotating collar that moves the element assembly closer or farther from the sensor plane. But lo and behold, this wasn’t just an improvement on a single lens… the Lensbaby Composer had crossed over to… the system side. I remember one of the early literature pieces I saw from Nikon – it was titled the "Nikon System". Need a right angle viewer that magnifies? Got it. How about a high-point action/sports finder? Ditto. Motor drive with 250-exposure cassette (yeah, film was somewhat precious, but what was really precious was time… like the time spent reloading your camera while the shot gets away). They can do that. Not to mention little things like the Noct Nikkor (look it up if you don’t know).

The Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0 had some attachments, but weren’t what I would call a system. The Lensbaby Optic Swap System is the heart of a new system of lenses that cover the spectrum of soft focus possibilities. Start with the sharpest, a double element glass lens. Second, a single glass element, followed by a single plastic element (if you have experience with a Diana or Holga, you’ll know this look). Apertures… we have apertures! Wide open the Composer is pretty soft with any of the lens optics. In the compact storage case/aperture tool housing (Lensbaby calls this the "Magnetic Aperture Set" and is included in with your first Lensbaby), you will find apertures from f/2.8 to f/22. If you are looking for f/4 in there, it is probably already in the lens. Finally, there is a fourth (and fifth?) element that thoughtfully combines a pinhole and zone plate in one housing. But wait… there’s more! All of these lens elements fit neatly into the newly redesigned Lensbaby Muse (replacing the Lensbaby original and 2.0 lenses), Control Freak (if precision soft focus, which seems something of an oxymoron, is your gig, this is the lens for you), and the Composer.

Ok, let’s do our math now. 5 lens types (double glass, single glass, plastic, zone plate and pinhole), 9 possible apertures including those in the creative aperture kit (without making your own), wide angle and telephoto converters, macro close-up kit… Without creating your own apertures from the blanks in the creative kit, there are well over one hundred different possible system configurations. Of course, you can also get there 3 different ways – the Muse, Composer or Control Freak. For those artsy readers that aren’t system oriented, don’t be alarmed… on the Lensbaby website you can preview the effects of many of the combinations… just browse to  http://www.Lensbaby.com/optic-comparison.php and use your mouse to create the combinations. This handy preview tool will get you started toward the look you desire.

Examples