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Efcubed Photography bio picture

Welcome to the Efcubed Photography Blog!

Roger A. Dallman Jr.    Roger started in photography in 1979, as a secondary job in the Army.  He shot "grip and grins" and Army events.  He began shooting portraits and weddings on the side for extra camera gear money.  He won several photo contests and an Army journalism award.  After career assignment changes, he put the cameras aside and sold his darkroom equipment. In 2006, he bought his first digital camera before a trip to Europe and was hooked again. 

Today he is a dedicated Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop user-advocate and NAPP member.  He is active in photography groups and teaches digital darkroom techniques.  He prefers to shoot portaits away from seamless paper and static lighting.  He is also a photo retoucher and restores old photos - a handy skill when working on his genealogy hobby.

Mark B. Segal.    Mark started shooting when he was 13 and has done it off and on since then.  As a Navy brat and then Naval Officer, I got to go to interesting places.  I wish I had taken my camera more often.  I love the way the camera allows you to dissect the world and shape what people see of it.  Photoshop and Lightroom are great tools to help capture what you thought you saw from behind the lens. 

I love helping people salvage and restore their photographic memories as links to their past.  The patience and dedication needed are usually far beyond what the images are worth, except to the person who owns the picture.  Seeing the smile or tears from when you've brought back an image from the cracked, torn and faded pile is a reward in and of itself. 

Ditch the Plans

Friday, January 27, 2012 at 1:32am Posted in Miscellaneous, Rambling

I’m always talk about planning your photography before you shoot, but never believe that works all the time.  I just have a short note tonight about plans that went awry.

I just got back from Alaska, and it was cold!  It was -48 when we stepped off the plane.  I had lots of plans for the trip.  They didn’t pan out.

Cold in Fairbanks

Why would anyone go to Fairbanks in January?  I really wanted to get some shots of the aurora borealis.  I’ve seen the northern lights many times when we lived in Alaska, but I never had a camera with me in those days.  You need a nice clear night, a night without ice fog.  I hoped  to get lucky while we were there.

The ice fog obliterated the sky for five of our seven nights; the other two, the lights weren’t out.  Yes, I’m quite aware that a big solar storm lit up the night sky right after we left.  Like I said, my plans didn’t pan out.  Here is the ice fog thinning out at 3:30 pm one day.  Notice how low the sun is?  We got less than five hours of daylight each day.

Ice fog in Fairbanks, Alaska

The real reason to travel north in the middle of winter was the arrival of our most recent grandchild.  We scheduled our trip two weeks after the due date, but he decided to come a couple of days after we arrived.  We just hung around the house and waited with the dogs.

Bored dog

When he finally arrived home, I just took a few snapshots and held the boy (when I could get him away from my wife).  It was a wonderful, relaxing week with the family, which just grew by one more.  Doesn’t get better than that.

The boy goes by the nickname of Dodge.  I may sprinkle some shots of him into the blog now and then.  We sure were glad to see him.

Baby blanket

Our plans to get home didn’t pan out, either.  But the re-routed flights and misplaced bags came with a silver lining – airline dollars to return in the spring when the weather will be warmer and the boy crawling.  Anyone want to travel north in May?  It’ll be fun….

Army brat

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by Roger

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iPad Mania

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 8:19pm Posted in Miscellaneous

Roger and I have both fallen victim to the addiction sweeping the nation and now have iPads. They really are great tools and the display can really show off your portfolio.  It can also induce mind-numbing brain death if you have every photo you ever took and insist on showing them.  As a photographer, it is very important to self-edit.  With the ease of use in most cameras and the instant availability of the cameras in phones and in the iPad itself, there is the temptation to share way too much.

There are an increasing number of really useful apps available to work with the pictures.  It is important to remember that the iPad is not nearly powerful enough to do serious photo editing, but Photoshop Express will let you perform basic adjustments and has some special effects features.http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-photoshop-express/id331975235?mt=8 

Looking at other photographers’ work can help improve your own skills.  Both Flickr and 500Px have apps which let you browse and even upload.  For those not familiar with 500px, it is a site by photographers for photographers.  You can get it from the iTunes store here. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/500px/id471965292?mt=8

Flickr is more “Hey I got a camera for Xmas too”, even if there is a lot of really good stuff there.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flickr/id328407587?mt=8

There are lots more apps out there and we would love to hear what you are using.

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by Mark

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Busy Week

Friday, January 13, 2012 at 12:32am Posted in Opinions

It’s been quite a busy week for photographers.  The Photo Marketing Association and Consumer Electronics Show opened a joint conference, going on right now in Las Vegas.  There have been countless new products announced.

Mark told you that the Nikon D4 was finally announced, but they also announced an 85mm f1.8 lens at $500.  A lens that will give you lots of speed and creamy bokeh for relatively few dollars.

Canon announced their high-end compact, the G1x.  It shoots RAW; 1080p video; and has a 28-112mm zoom.  It will compete with Nikon’s 1 (although the Canon doesn’t have inter-changeable lenses) and the Fuju X100 (also fixed lens).  Go read Google News about all the photo gadgets that are being introduced in Vegas this week.

But the photo world wasn’t just buzzing over the neat new hardware….  Adobe announced the public beta of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.  There are some major changes, including a revamped Develop panel; a Map panel that connects to Google Earth and let’s you geo-tag any image; and a Book panel to create your own Blurb photobooks.  You can download it here; there is no cost to try it.

I’ve been playing with it all week on some recent photos, and I’m already hooked on the improvements.  It is still a Beta, so you only want to use it on copies of your photographs.  You will probably experience some slowness and crashes, but this is normal in a Beta.  They’ll have that taken care of in the final release.  When does the final release come out?   They haven’t announced that, but the Beta expires on 31 March.  (Isn’t that less than a week after Photoshop World?  Hmmmm.)

You can bet we’ll blog about all the features when it comes out, but let me show you a couple of examples of the new Develop panel.  I really love the changes here.

York Minster, blah photo

Here is the York Minster.  A blah sky provides enough light to create a common problem – the camera meter averages the scene, and my sky is too bright and the church is too dark.

In Lightroom 3, I would globally lighten the church and then use the adjustment brush to bring down the brightness of the sky.  This isn’t difficult, but it will take a few minutes of brushing to get the sky the way I want it.

In Lightroom 4, I moved few sliders to give much better results in seconds.  The corrections were so fast, I used the lens correction to minimize the image distortion and still had a much better image in less than one minute.

York Minster, with Lightroom 4

The clouds have more definition; you can see details in the towers; and the exposure is fixed.  The transformation is really something to watch as you move the sliders.  Of course, I could do this in Photoshop, but that would take even longer.

I had to try it one more time.

Cocoa Beach, FL, sunrise

 

Cocoa Beach, FL, repaired in Lightroom 4

Wow!  I really like the way shadow detail can be revealed.  You should download the program and give it a try.  This new Lightroom is going to be fun.

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by Roger

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To Upgrade or Not?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 8:55pm Posted in Business, Camera, Opinions

This past week marked a critical milestone for Nikon lovers everywhere. As Roger pointed out, the long awaited, much anticipated, Nikon D4 has finally been announced.  He has already pre-ordered his.  As their press release says, ”The D4 is equipped with a new Nikon FX-format CMOS image sensor (imaging size of 36.0 x 23.9 mm) and EXPEED 3, the latest image-processing engine specifically optimized for digital-SLR cameras, making it the next-generation flagship Nikon digital-SLR camera with the ultimate in versatility and functionality that offers superior image quality rich in detail along with excellent high-speed performance. It has an effective pixel count of 16.2-million pixels, and offers superior image quality under a broad range of lighting conditions with its image sensor supporting an incredible range of sensitivities from ISO 50 to ISO 204800.” http://nikon.com/news/2012/0106_flagship_01.htm

Yes, you read that right, up to ISO 204800—that is practically shooting in the dark.

Now my current camera is definitely out of date. I shoot with a D300, which was outstanding 5 years ago, but when the ISO goes above 800 gets really, really grainy.  It is also only a ¾ frame, which means I don’t get the full advantage from the lenses I like to shoot best.  All this leads you to believe that I am ready to sign up for the D4 as well.  Well, not so fast—I actually am not planning on buying it because I don’t believe my photography skills will make use of it.  I never have been one to go out and purchase the latest technology just because it is the latest, and that is especially true with camera equipment. When I get to the point where the equipment gets in the way of what I want to do, it is time to get new equipment.  I have reached that point with my current camera body so, don’t get me wrong, I am going to get a new camera, and soon, but am waiting for the D800.

The D800 shares a lot of the technology found in the D4, but things like a solid, nearly watertight magnesium frame are not that big a deal for me.  I don’t shoot a lot of pro sports events so the ability to shoot a sustained 11 frames per second is interesting, but not what I need.  The low light capability is something I want, and guess what?  The D800 will have close to that. Besides with the money I save, I can also buy that 14-24 lens I still want for shooting more landscapes.

Cameras are an extremely personal choice, and there is no right answer.  It is a tool, albeit a powerful one, which helps you hopefully capture the vision you have in your head. Don’t be swayed by hype, but match your needs versus the range of capabilities the manufacturers are building.

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by Mark

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The Ice Bar

Friday, January 6, 2012 at 12:29am Posted in Travel

Last week’s blog about cold weather photography reminded me of one of the fun places I traveled to in 2011 – the Aurora Ice Bar.

The Aurora Ice Bar is located in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska.  It is just a little bit south of the Arctic Circle.  The resort is open year round for your vacationing pleasure.  They say it’s a great place to see the Aurora Borealis.

The Aurora Ice Bar is kept at about 20 degrees inside a specially designed building, so you can even enjoy it in the summer time.  We were there in August, but the nasty warm weather never bothered us.

Aurora Ice Bar, Chena Springs, Alaska

The entire bar and stools are made of ice.

Aurora Ice Bar, Chena Springs, Alaska

The bar is open during the tours, and many of the tourists tried their Apple-tinis.  You can see the glasses – they’re also carved from ice – lined up on the shelves behind the bartender.

Aurora Ice Bar, Chena Springs, Alaska

The building is filled with ice sculptures.  They have a xylophone made of ice that is playable.  There is a workshop at one end of the building where you can watch current sculptures being made.  The artists there have sculpted jousting knights, ice fish, and the Coca-Cola polar bears.  They never seem to run out of ice up there.

We were only there for an hour because we had lots of other things to see, but we did look around at the two ice bedrooms, complete with an ice outhouse.  (No, the outhouse isn’t ever actually used.)

On the ice bed in Chena Springs, Alaska

Ice outhouse in Chena Springs, Alaska

As you can see from these photos, I was in snapshot mode.  The bar wasn’t on our original schedule, so I was just carrying the camera and one lens.  I was really set back because I didn’t have my flash.  I hope to get back there someday with better preparation.

Rose at the Aurora Ice Bar, Chena Springs, Alaska

So, if you’re ever up near the Arctic Circle, looking for a drink, stop by for lots of fun.  Tell them I sent you….

Aurora Ice Bar, Chena Springs, Alaska

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by Roger

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