You shouldn’t see too much difference, but I do.
New host, new IP, old site.

Enjoy!

I really like this one, but am quite anxious to find out how the change is being perceived. Tell me all about it!

So I did.
I grabbed myself a Samsung 160GB 2.5″ HDD, and the cheapest 2.5″ enclosure I could possibly find, and found out that both the HDD and the enclosure are unimaginably cheap. At €8,- the enclosure is like stealing from the poor!

Luckily, there are some nice people on the internet, and some of those give away their software for off-line bit-for-bit HDD copying for free! It even supports USB-connected HDD’s and runs on a minute Linux Live CD; it even has a wizard on it for easy copying. Nais.

Let’s see the geotagging happen!

Here’s a bunny for you to look at.

Pisen EN-EL3e+

Hoya PRO1 Digital Circulair PL filter 67mm (1x)

Hoya PRO1 Digital UV filter 67mm (2x)

If you are anything like me, then you have spent all too long wondering a couple of things about lightroom (I use version 2.6) regarding importing RAW files and the default settings that Lightroom applies to them before you begin working on editing them.

Firstly, I wondered how to change those default settings that Lightroom applies – for example, it always applies certain values to the Basic settings as follows:

Note that the white balance is always defaulted to “As Shot” meaning it takes the setting from the RAW file each time.

Due to previous encounters with Lightroom’s messing with the white balance, I’ve found that the “As Shot” usually gives me the best result, as the camera itself does a better job (or even me) at figuring out the white balance than Lightroom does.

Camera Calibration:

Now the second thing that I have been wondering is about camera calibration. Since I’ve seen my pictures having much more vivid colors after applying a camera-setting instead of the Adobe default, the regular setting is a camera standard for me. This setting gives you the opportunity to start off your editing with a particular colour/camera profile that is designed to look somewhat like what your camera would produce if you were using a picture style, such as Landscape or Portrait.

Lightroom automatically knows which camera your RAW file was generated in (and even the serial number!) and will give you the available options based on that. I believe you can download profiles from the Adobe web site, but for now I have stuck with the ones Lightroom already has.

The menu looks a little like this:

By selecting a camera profile for your image you are assigning it a new starting point from which you can perform any post production you wish. Note that this is not changing any of the Develop settings like Brightness, Contrast, Exposure etc. In fact I don’t really understand exactly what it is doing, but I do know that it produces a much more attractive image straight from the get-go.

Now the problem is that if you want to apply a camera profile to your images as you import them, you may have to think about creating a preset that can be applied on import… Something which is not exactly seamless…

So…

How to change your default develop settings and apply a camera profile automatically

Starting with a freshly imported RAW file, choose a camera calibration profile of your liking. I went with a standard one as I’ve found out it gives me the best starting-point, and it only needs changing after careful examination of the picture itself. Next, make any adjustments to the develop module settings which you want to become the new default settings to be applied to all newly imported RAW files (and the settings to which the “Reset” option will revert back to).

Once you are happy with your settings, (here comes the lightbulb “aaaaahhhh” moment!!), press the ALT key and the reset button will turn into a “Set Default” button. Wow! Hidden feature!

On clicking “Set Default” you will be presented with a popup like this:

Next you should click “Update to Current Settings”, then confirm your selection – and Voila!! Every RAW file you import from that camera from now on will have these new defaults. Magic!
Lightroom even understands the fact that you have two separate bodies, or even two bodies of the same type! My D40 and D90 both have associated default settings, which differ and are applied to the appripriate imports. More magic!

The thing is, I have seen this last popup before but never really understood what it was doing. You can find it in the menus but just by opening it in the way I have described it’s context somehow just makes more sense.

As this specific information is only traceable if you know about the fact that a standard setting can be applied upon import, I thought I’d share the info with you guys. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Original post can be found here.

And it can now be done, mobile blogging from your Android-enabled phone.

Just check the Official WordPress App, released today by the guys over at Automattic. Thanks!

It even has the ability to upload pictures to this blog!

Anyway: here’s some info and pics of my new toy:

I’m obviously talking about a browser.
On your work it probably still is IE6 (at teast at my place!) while you’ve been upgraded to IE8 on your home-machines. Your mobile browser could be anything, from Opera to Safari to anything that’s out there.

I’ve been a happy Fx-user (Firefox) ever since the 0.9-series and am happy to see there’s been great improvements since.
To day, 3.5.7 is the main version of Fx, and it has some issues.
It starts slowly, is very resources-hungry and can be quite cumbersome around JS.
There’s hope on the horizon!

Just upgrade to the 3.6RC1 3.6RC2-version, and the problems described above should be gone. The only thing is that not all of your favorite plugins still work, but it’s a minor price to pay for a fa better browsing experience.
Try out all new stuff, and see the world slightly faster and slightly better.

UPDATE: Oh well, there’s even an RC2 out. HOT!
UPDATE2: The final is there!