Footnotes

Chapter 1

* The key also typically carries the label.

** This is also called the Command Key and also carries the symbol.

Chapter 2

* Naturally, this is not the case when shooting for focus stacking.

* Using bracketing varies one of the camera’s shooting parameters during a sequence of shots. Av bracketing varies the shutter speed for a fixed aperture, according to your AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) settings.

* At this stage you should only sharpen the image slightly, if at all. If the merging program automatically sharpens the image (as do PhotoAcute and most focus stacking programs) then it is better to leave sharpness unchanged.

* Some applications (such as Apple Aperture, Adobe Lightroom, Nikon Capture, or LightZone) allow you to apply the same procedure that is used for RAW files.

** Improving local contrast is described in detail in Chapter 6.

* This functionality is available in the Professional version of PhotoAcute.

** A decompressed JPEG image will never have as much detail as an image that has never been compressed.

* E.g., EXIF data and white balance settings.

** The 8- and 16-bit color depths mentioned are valid for each RGB color channel.

* “Open” in this context means not only that DNG is well documented, but that it allows the embedding of “private data”. “Private data” is data that is only interpreted by a specific program, but is ignored by all others.

** The Lightroom import dialog supports this functionality, for example.

* Although it’s inevitable that we will sometimes use some technical terminology for the sake of clarity.

** See www.rockynook.com/tools.php

* In CS4 “Photomerge” was enhanced again.

** Available as a free download from Adobe [20].

* The author plans to provide an updated version in the near future.

* You can download it from: www.adobe.com/products/dng/

* Remember to check if the add-ons still work in a new version of Photoshop.

Chapter 3

* EV = “Exposure Value”, i.e., the shutter speed or aperture value being used. In this case, we are referring to the shutter speed.
AEB = “Auto Exposure Bracketing”. Using this setting, the camera automatically varies the shutter speed up or down according to a preset interval value.

** Including the Nikon D200, D300, D700, and the Canon 1Ds Mark III.

* Leica cameras are some of the very few that support shooting in DNG format.

* For more information about the difference between HDR and LDR images, see chapter 6.

* You can find a list of the currently available camera and lens profiles at: www.PhotoAcute.com/studio/downloadwin.html#profiles_list

* Only, of course, if your input format is RAW and your output format is DNG.

Chapter 4

* The crop factor tells us the equivalent focal length of a lens used with a digital camera compared to the focal length the same lens has when used with a 24 × 36 mm full-frame 35mm camera (sensor). A typical DSLR with an APS-C sensor has a crop factor of 1.5 (for most Nikon APS-C DSLRs) or 1.6 (for Canon APS-C-DSLRs).

** A smaller aperture is indicated by a larger numerical aperture value (e.g. f/11 or f/16).

* See also the description of this workflow on page 61.

* Compact cameras can often zoom in to distances of 1 inch or less without using special accessories, although you might have to activate the camera’s macro function to achieve this.

* Blue light has a wavelength of about 465 nm, green light of about 540 nm, and red light of about 650 nm. A typical digital camera can register a spectrum ranging from approximately 450 to 680 nm.

* In most cases, this can be compensated for by using software.

* It would have been better to take the shots against a smooth background. This example shows that some preparation and careful consideration before shooting can save you a good deal of time and effort later on.

* This effect may also be due to the fact that we run CombineZM in a virtual Windows environment on a Mac Intel system with accordingly limited RAM capacity.

* A variation on this method involves not aligning the images using loading scripts, but instead loading the images first, then aligning them using the “Collage” command in the Edit ▸ Auto-Align Layers dialog.

* It usually makes no sense to edit EXIF data, as these include values such as the lens, shutter speed, and aperture that were used for the shot in question. Most image editors do not support EXIF data editing, with the exception, in some cases, of being able to change the date on which a shot was taken.

** A follow-up version of CombineZM called “CombineZP” is now available. We have not tested this version yet. It can be downloaded from: www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZP/News.htm

Chapter 5

* Autofocus is also easily confused by foreground objects, which are then often (falsely) recognized as being the actual subject.

* The vertical angle of view for a 3:2-format camera (such as a Canon 40D or a Nikon D200) is – on average –66% of the angle listed in this table. For cameras with a 4:3 aspect ratio this value increases to 75% of the listed angle.

* In our example, 18 mm and 55 mm respectively.

** See the description of PhotoAcute in section 3.5 on page 46.

* Reasons for this are listed in section 2.3.

** See the description of how to do this in section 2.1 on page 16.

*** See figure 2-8 on page 16.

* We activated this option for our first run using option in the dialog box shown in figure 5-17.

* The Photoshop CS3 online help guide (search for “Vanishing Point”) includes a good explanation of the concept, and a video tutorial.

* This can, as usual, be done using the and keystrokes, or, in the case of a Mac, and .

* “pmg” stands for Photomerge.

* Which some of you will recognize as an established cartographic projection.

** Photoshop CS4 even supports spherical panoramas.

* PanoTools can be downloaded as source code or as a binary file for Windows, Mac OS X, and several different flavors of Linux.

* LDR = Low Dynamic Range. These images no longer have extended tonal range and can be processed using most standard image editing programs.

* For examples see www.autopano.net/forum/ for Auotopan Pro, http://groups.google.com/group/ptgui/forPTGui, or http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/ for Pano Tools.

Chapter 6

* This represents a dynamic range of about 16-17 f-stops (2¹⁶ = 65,536:1).

* OpenEXR, for example, can save image data as 16-bit or 32-bit floating point pixels, or as 32-bit integer pixels.

* If you activate this option (for example, using a Canon 40D), the camera will mark overexposed areas using a blinking pattern in the image preview on the camera’s monitor.

* This is described in detail on page 16.

** If you are using Photoshop CS3 or CS4, you can also load and align your images using File ▸ Scripts ▸ Load Files into Stack, as described on page 62.

* We will describe a variation of this process using Photomatix Pro on page 170.

* Actually, the current versions of PhotoAcute could also produce HDR images. The program does not, however, offer tone mapping functionality. You can, therefore, only save your image to an HDRI formatand perform tone mapping using another program.

* Depending on the input format used, Photoshop may also resort to an output format other than “.pfm”.

* These settings were first introduced in Photoshop CS3

* Other stand-alone programs.

* No new 32-bit features have been added in CS4.

* See the description in section 2.1 on page 16.

* As explained in section 7.1 on page 204

* A Photoshop CS4-compatibel version will be available soon – quite possibly by the time this book is printed.

* If you want to avoid the “grunge” look, use moderate “Strength” values. Values below50 will usually result in “normal” looking images.

* The Gamma slider is located in the Tone tab (see figure 6-57 on page 167).

* We haven’t included the xDOF method here because it was still under development at the time of writing.

* Obviously some format parameters (e.g., the white point) are interpreted differently by various programs.

* It would be useful if the program had a feature (like the one in the Photoshop Curves dialog), which displays potential clipping if you hold down the or key while making adjustments.

* We were using a beta version of the program.

* The sticker price of the Photoshop tone mapping plug-in is about $65 (including taxes)

* Equal to an increment of 1.5 EV.

Chapter 7

* An enhancement run for a 10-megapixel (16-bit) image can take as long as 20 or 30 seconds, even when using a fast computer.

* DOP stands for “Digital Outback Photo”, the name of Uwe Steinmueller’s company.

* I.e., with hardness set to between 0-20%.

** The Black & White command first became available in Photoshop CS3. It can be found under Layer ▸ New Adjustment Layer ▸ Black and White or under Image ▸ Adjustments ▸ Black and White.

* You can switch the Layers palette on and off using Window ▸ Layer or by pressing .

* The shift key.

* This preview layer allows programs which do not support Photoshop’s layer format to display an accurate preview image.