November 2005 Archives

John Nack posted an entry on Photoshop weblogs, podcasts, and more.

I thought I'd point out a couple more Photoshop related podcasts:

The guys over at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) have created a new half-hour video podcast called "Photoshop TV." The show includes step-by-step techniques, tips and the latest Photoshop news.

David Biedny has a podcast called "Attention Photoshoppers!" Recent episodes include an interview with Katrin Eismann, the benefits of 16-bit and HDR, and a look at what Aperture is, and isn't.

Check 'em out.

I admit it. I created a monster. A Photoshop monster.

My father-in-law retired from being a professor of limnology at the University of Minnesota a year or so ago. He begged me for a copy of Photoshop. So like any good son-in-law looking to score points with the 'rents, I obliged.

That's where it all started. Now it's grown into a small cottage industry.

I think the original intent was to work with photomicrographs. (see my post about Photoshop @ Work: Scientists and healthcare professionals)

Seeing the power of his new 'toy,' he thought it'd be fun to restore old photographs. He's got drawers and drawers of old film and slides, some of it 35mm, some medium format, some even on glass slides. OK, we need to get him a slide scanner. Say $500. No, he needs one that does medium format. It's gotta be Nikon. (Did I mention he's a Nikon zealot?) Make that $3000.

Now that he's working with larger files, the old PC just isn't up to the task. No problem. New Mac, new Cinema display. Roughly $3000.

This is so much fun! It'd be great to replace the old Nikon SLR with a brand new DSLR. Throw in some new lenses and other gadgets. Let's call it $4500.

Whoop-dee-doo. Now he wants to print some of these images out. Enter a new Epson printer and reams of paper. Now we need more ink!

At this point: father-in-law = happy, mother-in-law = what's the opposite of happy?

Actually she's not really mad, but she does give me a little grief. But hey, it keeps him off the streets, right?

To his credit, he's really doing a lot with the application. He's restoring beautiful pictures he took with his Rollie on a scientific expedition to Iran in the early 60's. He also has amazing photos from Glacier State Park in Montana he took in the 50s. Many of the slides were awash in yellow. Seeing the old guy work with the tools to pull color out of these ancient images nearly brought a tear to my eye.

He's also uses his new digital camera voraciously during his winter long stay in Mexico.

Did I mention he takes a lot of pictures?

Excuse me, I have to order some bigger hard-drives...

It's been a busy past two weeks for me, but I did have time to meet with some interesting customers.

We all know Photoshop is used by artists and graphic designers, but some of the most interesting uses of Photoshop are in health and science. Think CSI and ER.

I visited a state forensic lab's latent print department. Forensic professionals use Photoshop to enhance images of fingerprints, namely improving sharpness/contrast, and isolating fingerprints from patterned or color backgrounds. Each operation, adjustment, and the settings for that adjustment, needs to be logged and submitted with the evidence.

In the past, users needed to do this by hand. With Photoshop CS and CS2, user can have Photoshop log all the changes to the file. Those changes can be stored in the file as metadata and/or in a separate text log file.

Try it for yourself:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Win) or Photoshop > Preferences > General (Mac)
2. Check the "History Log" option
3. Choose one of three ways to "Save Log Items To": As Metadata embedded in the file. As an external text file or as both Metadata and a text file.
4. Choose one of three options for "Edit Log Items": Sessions Only (only open and save operations), Concise (just the title of the operation), or Detailed (the title of the operation and all the settings).
5. Click OK.

To view the history log as metadata, choose File > File Info... Then choose "History" from the left-hand column to display the history.

I also met Robbie Halvorson, who works for Guidant, and also leads the Minnesota Maya User Group. He uses Photoshop along with Maya to visualize and design new medical products. The new HDR features in Photoshop CS2 are especially useful for 3-D. HDR images can be used to realistically illuminate scenes and objects. We're working on a demo to show off at a joint Minnesota Maya/Twin Cities Photoshop User Group meeting in the near future.

Here are some tutorials, white papers and other resources for scientists and health care professionals.

I also learned a couple of television misnomers which I found interesting:

Contrary to what is seen in popular TV shows, people never 'overlay' two fingerprints to match them up because it actually makes it more difficult to analyze and compare the two prints.

This is because finger prints get distorted due to different pressure and angles. For example, file prints are made by rolling the finger, which is hardly every the case with latent prints from a crime scene.

Finger prints are most often compared side by side.

Additionally, when people go to use a heart defibrillator on TV, the ECG usually shows a flat line. The ECG would actually show ventricular fibrillation, which is an irregular, fast heartbeat.

A defibrillator will not 're-start' a heart which has stopped.