Like everyone who has a TV, we’ve been seeing the “public service announcements” concerning the coming change from analog to digital for “Over The Air” (OTA), “Digital Television” (DTV). We got our coupons recently so I decided to make the switch.
As the title of this post suggests, this is a rant. There has been and is a lot of misinformation being handed the public about the switch and it seems to me that both our government and the industry that benefits from our public airwaves are at fault. My opinion is based on my experience buying and setting up the service in our home. It may not be the experience you will have, but I hope at least it will inform some other people about what they could find as they try to switch to digital TV reception.
As a bit of background, I should say we don’t watch a lot of television. We live in an urban area, although it has a suburban feel. We are only three miles away from the city center. We had cable for a while and just found it was too expensive for the actual time we spent watching services other than the local channels we could watch without cable. We watch news in the evenings, a Spanish language station, public television, and the major networks for the most part.
So, when the $40 off coupons became available, we signed up for two (the most you can have). Several months later, we got them and they sat on the desk for a while. And so the first thing to understand – the coupons are only good for 90 days after they were issued (no matter when you received them). There are a lot of industry “pundits” saying you should hold off using your coupon because better converters will be coming out “real soon now.” From what I have seen I have to say – I seriously doubt it. My suggestion, get your coupons and use them.
When I decided to use mine, I first looked on line for reviews and consumer experience on which might be worth getting. The list of “eligible converter boxes” is quite large. There must be some that are better than others I thought. I found a lot of variance among the few reviews I could find, but I found fairly good results for the RCA model. Walmart lists at least two brands on their website, if you can find the listing. The RCA model I was interested in was among them.
I went down to Walmart and after looking for several minutes, I found a display model sitting on the shelf. I asked a sales person where the boxes of converters were to take to the register. “Oh,” he said, “we don’t have those in stock very often. All the TVs we have include digital tuners.”
Yes, it is true, I have been lax in posting fotos. I have excuses as always, but behind the curtain, things are changing. I’ve been upgrading my software and equipment as time and budget allow – working towards a goal I have had for a long time. One of the things I have wanted for quite a while is a better photo editing system. I have used Photoshop for as long as I can remember and although I am fairly competent using it – it is time consuming and not intuitive for someone trained in traditional photography.
Recently I came across LightZone and decided to take it for the 30 day trial that is offered. Right now, my digital camera isn’t what I would like, but it does a reasonable job. I recently upgraded my external storage to handle my needs and looking forward to when I upgrade my camera. Now was a good time to try several of the applications and see what works for me.
I tried Aperture, Lightroom, and LightZone. Photoshop goes without saying since it is my current “photographic darkroom.” Without getting into too much detail I found that while Aperture and Lightroom are good, they are centered on being “digital asset managers” more than on being a creative tool. I already have a way to save my photos that works for me. What I want is an application for photo editing. Aperture is making some interesting changes by allowing outside developers to develop tools for the platform, but it is still a new effort and I don’t want to have to deal with several different tools, methods, and vendors more than I have to.
LightZone provides a set of tools that operate in ways that are fairly easy to understand because they are derived from standard photo techniques. It also has styles that provide an easy way to understand what is “under the hood” and to apply your own standard changes to a group of photos. It is best suited to someone who has an idea what they are trying to accomplish – especially if it is something beyond a simple interpretation of the scene.
I took some photos I captured in Mexico a few years ago and put them back through LightZone to “reinterpret” them using the tools. The results were good, although you have to keep in mind they are compressed for the web and not from a digital SLR.
Original 1
Edited Version 1
Original 2
Edited 2
Original 3
Edited 3
I have to say at this point that reinterpretation is exactly what this is and what I was looking for. This is a strong tool for interpretive photographers, not necessarily for literalists. You may see a different interpretation you would like better and with LightZone, that would be easy to do. What doing this gave me was a better idea of what is possible. The original is preserved in each case. The modifications to the original are preserved in the edit. You can go back and redit from where you left off rather than trying to recreate the edit (however, if you re-edit in Photoshop for some reason, which I did with the second photo in this series to see what a general exposure edit would do, you must save it as a separate version. Photoshop does not preserve the LightZone edit history). You can turn off and turn on various tools to see their effects on the final. And in fact, this could have been done in Photoshop. But, for me it would not have been so easy to make the changes and vary the effects. It isn’t a tool for those that want to put a person’s head on another’s body or develop images for web development. It is however, a serious tool for a working photographer who wants to be able to produce professional results in production or experiment and produce interesting results and variations.
So, I’m happy with LightZone and have added it to my toolbox. Now, all I need to do is find more excuses to take fotos!
April 7th, 2008 by Mike
Tagged as No Tags |No Comments »
This started out as a simple idea, but then all projects do I suppose. I wanted to try putting together a slide show using some of the tools I have now. I have lots of tools, lots of ideas, but time? Well…
The photos were edited in LightZone. It is a photo editor that has methods and tools that are at least recognizable to people who have had some darkroom or traditional film and photo experience. I find the workflow for normal manipulation tasks faster and more intuitive for me, but for now, I haven’t used it for the type of photos where it would really shine.
But, the point of this entry is the little slideshow. I started out trying Apple’s Keynote to make it. I found though that while I could put music behind the slides, I couldn’t set the timing unless I recorded an audio, which then removes the music. Without recording a narration, I was limited to one timing choice for all slides and one transition method. That works for simple projects, but it wasn’t what I wanted to try for this one. I played with iDVD but it is very focused on producing DVDs and not on the type of video I needed for YouTube. In the end, I used iMovie. That would have been fine, but to put music on the internet, it needs to be “copyright safe” meaning it has to be available for this type of use. I searched around on the Internet Archive and found a concert with music I could use, but it was part of a longer performance. So, I loaded up GarageBand and edited it down to what I wanted. After several tries at getting the timing right, I finally succeeded in producing a reasonable video for YouTube.
The good thing, I guess, is I learned some simple things about the tools, although the tools were not as simple as they could be. Next time, I’ll be able to spend more time on the “experience” than the mechanics so it will be easier.
Bebe inspects the new arrivals as Chiquita gives them their first meal.
This past Saturday, June 23, the new puppies finally arrived. Chiquita gave birth to two beautiful little ones, one male and one female. They are growing like weeds on Mama’s milk and a lot of attention on the part of Bebe. It wasn’t without some problems. There were three but we lost the first one in the process – he came feet first and got stuck in the birth canal. We were very sad to lose him, but we are happy with our new family.
We really didn’t know how Bebe would react to the puppies. We had never seen a male dog with a family. We kind of expected he would just ignore them. We kept him outside while the event was happening and he whined and scratched at the door the whole time. He was not pleased by his exclusion. When we finally opened the door and let him in, he immediately went to the box we used during the births, got up on the side and just looked with what I can only describe as amazement. When Chiquita got up for a few minutes to get a drink of water and take a break, he looked very intently at them, and then, slowly and carefully reached out his paw to touch them. Chiquita didn’t seem to mind, although she has made it clear to him he doesn’t belong in the basket with them.
Throughout the rest of the day, and all of Sunday, he didn’t want to leave them. He sits near the basket we use as their bed and comes over every time one of them whimpers to respond with some little noises of his own. He grabs a bite to eat on occasion, but mainly, he is there with his new family. It is a real change in his behavior. Last night, two days after the birth, he was still conflicted about leaving them. He wants to spend some time with us and do his usual routine, but when it came time to go to bed (which is a travel box inside the house) he wouldn’t settle down until he had another chance to see them. This morning, it was the same – he got up, went outside and immediately went to the garage to see the family. Much later he reappeared at the backdoor for his breakfast routine, but afterwards he was ready to go out and back to the family. I really don’t know how to describe it other than to say he is one extremely proud papa.
So, enjoy this little comic which says it all. There are some fotos in the gallery if you want to see some better shots and I am quite sure there will be more in the future.
Swan in the Canal - Morelia Zoo
