For the past several years I’ve used Adobe’s DNG file format to store the raw image data captured by my digital cameras. I convert my Canon CR2 raw files to DNG early in my workflow and don’t keep the original raw captures. I’ve had great success with a DNG workflow and since DNG files contains the original raw image data, I’ve seen no need to retain the native files.

In every class and workshop I teach, the subject of DNG inevitably comes up. There’s a lot of confusion and uncertainty about DNG. So when researching subject matter for my next book, I thought I’d polish up my knowledge of this essential image file format.

In doing so, I reached out to one of today’s leading imaging software developers, Eric Chan, Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe. Following is a [very minimally edited] transcript of our email conversation. Read more…

This holiday season, B&H Photo is offering special sale pricing on a range of photo, video and computer gear. I buy from B&H all the time and they have never let me down! Click here to shop.

My next Lightroom class is Level 2: Intermediate, in Denver on Saturday, October 15. Details at www.LightroomClasses.com

Photographer Thomas Hawk posted a good discussion about using watermarks and signatures on photos http://bit.ly/iR0h5y

A question from a colleague: I have a question with Lightroom plug-ins. I’ve downloaded and installed several (MobileMe, PhotoShelter, Facebook, etc.) and they show up OK in the Plug-In Manager, but fail to show up in the Export dialog?

My Answer: look in the Export To: menu at the top of the Export window. You must choose the web service as the destination first. Then the options for the plug-in become available.

I’m writing a new book on Nature Photography as part of Wiley’s Photo Workshop series…. printed copies should hit the streets in early 2011.

You can have a cheat sheet of Lightroom shortcuts that I think are the most useful… this is a PDF made from my Lightroom 3 book, published by Wiley. Download the shortcuts PDF here: Nat-Coalson-Lightroom-3-Shortcuts

My buddy Jesse Speer and I were recently discussing the issue of online image theft and strategies for attempting to reduce the threat.

Jesse and I are both in the midst of major redesigns of our web sites, and we’re using very large images for display. This increases the potential for theft: an unscrupulous person might want to lift a photo for their own purposes, and larger images provide more potential for reproduction. Since Jesse and I both make our living from our photos, this is a serious concern. The question is how to deal with it.

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:

Jesse: OK, I’m REALLY posting big web images. Much larger than I ever have before. What are you doing for watermarking/copyright? I think I may need to plaster a copyright line on these.

Nat: I’ll also be using much larger images than ever before. These could definitely be printed with “decent” quality at 8×10 etc. It’s probably more likely that some folks would take them to use as screen savers/desktop wallpapers.

I think our shared fear is that someone would take an image and claim it as their own, say, in a contest or something.

In these cases, I don’t think that a larger watermark would really be much of a deterrent. To watermark a photo in such a way that nobody would want to take it would also make it horrible to look at.

In the end I think we need to serve our true customers first, and give them an exemplary experience. I like the way Photoshelter deals with it. With the Image Security on, there’s a single pixel gif in a layer above the photo, so people can’t get it with right-click or drag and drop. Of course, somebody could always do a screen capture.

Although we should take SOME measures against theft, it can’t be something we obsess about, and certainly our efforts should not get in the way of the customer experience.

So I’m against large watermarks.

This is a good reminder for me to get my next submission in to the copyright office, though. If someone steals an image and uses it for a commercial purpose at least we can [attempt to] recoup monetary damages.

I’ll do my copyright submission before the public launch of my site.

—

As photographers, we need to protect our property. But we shouldn’t do this in a way that inhibits our customers from engaging with our products. I will be placing my watermark on every full-size photo, but in a way that doesn’t detract from the viewing experience.

Devious thieves will remain as such; on the internet, there’s no way to completely ensure that somebody won’t steal our stuff. Registering our work at copyright.gov provides some peace of mind, and though it won’t stop somebody from taking a photo, it allows us to sue for monetary damages if we find out about it.

What do you think?

I’ll be in Las Vegas Aug 31-Sep 4 for Photoshop World (which runs Sep 1-3, with some pre-conference events).

I will provide more details in the coming weeks and will be blogging from the event.

For details and registration go to http://photoshopworld.com/

Hope to see you all there!

In the last few weeks I’ve had the great pleasure of attending and presenting at two superb photography events: Vermont Professional Photographers annual convention (http://vtprophoto.org/) and the Moab Photo Symposium (http://www.moabphotosym.com).

In Vermont I was on the jury panel of the PPA competition at the state level, and presented a full day workshop on workflow with Lightroom and Photoshop. In Moab, I did two small, hands-on digital printing workshops; one using Photoshop and on with Lightroom; plus a presentation to the full group about the overall digital photo workflows based on Lightroom with a bit of Photoshop.

While I was traveling between these trade shows I had little time to blog, tweet, chat etc but now that I’m back home in Colorado I wanted to thank the wonderful people who invited me to these important events promoting the art and craft of photography.

If you’re in the area (or OK with travel) I can recommend both of these events to any photographer serious about developing their skills and professional connections within the industry.

Driving home this afternoon I had the great pleasure to witness some of the most amazing light I’ve ever seen. Though I kicked myself several times for not having my camera with me, this regret was quickly replaced with a feeling of gratitude, and awe. Around every corner, the combination of light and shadow, cool and warm hues, soft, fuzzy areas against extreme detail was nothing less than enchanting. Hillsides covered with rippled, undulating snow blazed both orange in the sunlight and shocking blue in the shade of the open sky. Fingerling icicles, hanging from every pine bough, were backlit by the huge orb of the setting sun. The meandering curve of the road intertwined with snowy tracks made by people, machines and animals alike. And though I took no photographs, this experience reminded me why I practice photography: it’s not an art or a science, a career or a hobby — photography is a way of life, a way of seeing, and a way of being in this world. I’m very thankful for the experience.

Bret Edge and I are leading another workshop together, this one in Wyoming June 10-13, 2010. Click here for info.

I’ve been very happy with my LaCie 321 for the past few years but now am lusting for a monitor with full Adobe RGB coverage. Here’s one from NEC that looks really nice and I think is very reasonably priced:

http://bit.ly/d2zn5X

Since Apple released Aperture 3 a few weeks ago lots of folks are debating the pros and cons of Lightroom vs. Aperture. It’s natural for folks to want to take sides, and pick one program over the other. It’s equally unlikley that most people will be able to effectively use both products, which supports the need to choose one.

I’ve casually used and kept up with Aperture updates since it was first released. After all, I’m a huge Mac fan. For twenty years I have passionately preferred all things Mac to anything Windows.

When Aperture 1 came out, it was a time of dramatic change in photography, when digital cameras were starting to become more popular than film. Clearly, new software was needed to support the new digital photo workflow. Though other software had been produced in attempts to deal with this (Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge, Capture One, iView Media Pro etc.) Aperture really represented a significant improvement in the photographer’s workflow. (And this was before Lightroom came out.)

I still love most Apple products and always stay current with what they are up to. In several ways, Apple is well poised to change computing as we know it – as they have done several times in the past. So I never count Apple out – even in the case of Lightroom vs. Aperture.

When it comes to the important and difficult choice, then, of what software to use to process our digital photographs, when clients, students and people in the general public ask me why I prefer Lightroom over Aperture, here’s what I say:

1. Platform independence: true, I believe OS X is a superior operating system to all flavors of Windows (even 7, which doesn’t suck). That said, I think it’s a big mistake to limit your work to using Macs only… and Aperture currently will only run on a Mac (and a new, fast one at that). I myself use both Mac and Windows every day in my work, and being able to use Lightroom on both platforms is a huge advantage. Maybe someday, the majority of people will be using Macs (we can only hope) but until that day, platform independence is essential.

2. Company focus: Adobe is the undisputed champion in digital imaging software. I trust their products completely and they have led the way for two decades. Though there will always be little things that we wish Adobe would add or improve, there is no doubt that the people working for Adobe are the best and brightest in the business. Conversely, Apple contunues to show it is really a hardware company. That happens to have some really kick-ass operating systems, oh, and the industry leading video editing program

3. Workflow: there are some really crazy, frustrating things about working with Aperture. One example is the Image Vault concept. This is very much like the approach taken by the horrible iPhoto, and serves no purpose other than to ensure it will be difficult to migrate away from Aperture in the future. I myself have helped a number of people through the extremely painful and nervewracking process of moving from Aperture to Lightroom. On the other hand, Lightroom’s handling of files is simple and unobtrusive. You could safely use Lightroom for all your photos for the next few years, then switch to something else, essentially without a hitch. Not so with Aperture.

These three points illustrate the main reasons why I believe Lightroom is still the way to go. The list could go on and on; other folks have already talked about Lightroom’s superior noise reduction, processing algorithms etc.

One way that I agree Aperture outshines Lightroom is the interface itself. Lightroom is designed to let you easily get the interface “out of the way” while you’re working; there are lots of cool tools to work directly on your photo, with only the photo showing on the screen. However, Aperture’s interface is clean, elegant and beautiful, providing the kind of experience where you might not want to get the interface out of the way.

Unfortunately, for me (and I believe the vast majority of photographers) the interface itself is not a good enough reason to choose one product over another.

I hope this article helps you understand why Lightroom is the better choice. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and questions on this topic.

Thanks for reading!

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and all the best in 2010! Cheers!