Foto Tech

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Many projects I work on are benefited by my single file philosophy. It’s a simple guiding principle which is often missed in digital imaging workflow. Multiple files are unnecessary when the project can be contained in a single file. I much prefer to have a multiple layer single file open in Adobe Photoshop for may projects. I also prefer a multi-page Word Document for a single project in Microsoft Word.

Using multi-page and multi-image files requires some rethinking of computing technique. Outputting Photoshop layers as individual directive files is necessary. Also, jumping to pages via links is necessary in Word. Most necessary program processes are very close to one of these two techniques. Once you have these two skills mastered then you’re ready to start using the single philosophy.

The use of multiple files comes from a day when programs could not open and operate on large files at once. That day is over and very large files are very accessible. Sometimes it’s just helpful to gang things up into one large file.  If you want to see it all at once and work on it all simultaneously, then get it all into one file.

The fewer files you have to mange the better off you are…that’s a fact.  However, there are many reasons to keep multiple files!  Be smart about when you use multiple files VS a single file with layers or a multi-page Word Document.

Think about the way you can delete previous e-mails and save one if all the copy has been included.  This is the bases of the single file philosophy of digital asset management.  Fewer files are rapidly becoming the workflow for digital imaging.  At the forefront of this movement in digital imaging is the DNG file format which is incorporating multiple versions of the imag rendering instructions.  That’s right there’s’ all kinds of ways to interpret the original camera data and rapidly there are more and more ways to save that data in a single file.

I expect there to be more ways to navigate through the mass data in larger files in the future.  When doubling computer resources, why not double file size?  And wile we are all doubling things, think about doubling viewing space.  Our eyes have incredible ability to send tuns of data to our brains, so generally looking at more data at once is a good thing.  I can’t live without two high resolution 30 inch monitors.

Edward Tufte can explain viewing realestate far better than I can.  His books on visual information are amazing and his lectures are equally charming;  a must see for creative professionals.

Please consider the single-file philosophy of digital asset management and workflow whenever you working with similar files.  I think you will find  it useful in many cases.

Here are three Top drives for mainstream digital imaging workstations.  Non of these come as standard equipment in off the shelf systems, but replacing drives in older machines with these will breath new life into them.

OCZ Z_Drive P84 and M84  PCI-E  SSD RAID

I love the speed and ability to migrate a PCI-E Raid Card to another machine.
I like SSD for Boot, Program, and Cache files, but the cost is overwhelming for storage of large file archives.

OCZ’s Site

Check Price at My Digital Discount

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WD Velociraptor SATA 6.0 10,000 RPM Drive

It’s currently the fastest SATA spinning disk drive.  I’ve been successfully running Raptors and Velociraptors in SATA Raids for many years.  I use  Velociraptor drives  for large collections of working files.  I keep the images that I’m currently accessing on a Velociraptor RAID 0.  This dangerous but fast RAID is backed up  automatically nightly and periodically manually.

Check Price at Newegg

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WD Caviar Black SATA 6.0 Dual Processor 32GB Cache Drive

These drives come in 500 GB, 640 GB, 1T and 2T.

I like the WD Black drives for a number of digital imagining tasks; primarily storage of large groups of files that are worked on periodically.

These are good get SATA 6.0 drives for the price.   SATA 6.0 isn’t generally necessary, but does  offer  small advantages for building raids.  SATA 6.0 is backward compatable and the current prices at NewEgg are the same for WD Black SATA 6.0 OR SATA 3.0 drives.

Bench Tests at Toms Hardware

Check Price at Newegg

The latest incarnation of Adobe’s Creative Suite, CS5, has been shipped, and is available for purchase.  A main point of interest for us at Foto Tech is the new HDR Pro feature of Photoshop CS5.  HDR Pro is an new tool that allows the user to create HDR (High Dynamic Range) images within photoshop itself.  Having not tested it personally, it seems to have potential, though tests show that HDR Pro may not be as refined as existing HDR software.  Nevertheless, HDR Pro will make a welcome addition to the feature set of Photoshop CS5.

With the new software release comes a new batch of resources to help you learn how to use it.  These include a number of  books, as well as online resources, such as the video tutorials from Lynda.com and Adobe TV.

I’m frequently asked to deliver IPIX files for real estate virtual tours.  IPIX previously had a very unfriendly licensing structure for their Interactive Studio.  There was a “Project License” that lasted a month or a yearly subscription.  After some lengthy discussions, they offered me a license in perpetuity and are now selling the software for a one time price.

The IPIX Real Estate Wizard is a very inexpensive and easy and  to use system that combines two circular fisheye images.  You can purchase a set of 5 Keys for $20 which will unlock the software for five images.  A fair price in my opinion.  However this did not work for me because I use a much more complex system to create a better virtual tour.

My system for creating IPIX VR tours combines 25  full frame fisheye images for each view.  The images are made vertically on a Really Right Stuff nodal point tripod head. The head  wasn’t “really right”  for a Sigma 15mm fisheye, so I cut off the front with a hack saw.  There are five stops in my sequence and each

Today, there are numerous ways to stich and deliver 360 virtual tours, but if you need to make an ipx file for real estate clients who use iPix, Interactive Studio or the Real Estate Wizard are your only options.

HDR and Photoshop

HDR (High  Dynamic  Range Imaging) can be daunting to start with, but once you start you’ll never stop.  There are very few times when I don’t shoot an exposure bracket  so that I have HDR options; even handheld.  I don’t always merge the images into a 32bit file, but I usually combine bracketed exposures in some manner to expand and manipulate dynamic range.

Digital Imaging author and trainer, Colin Smith, has a number of tutorial videos out that are a good place to start your HDR training.  He did the tutorial videos for Photomatix, which is a must have application for HDR.  Colin’s PhotoshopCAFE website has lots of other useful digital imaging videos.