Free DVD Street Photography • GIMP Add-ons • Chromatic Aberrations • Image Databases inside DDiiggiittaall PPhhoottooggrraapphhyy The in-depth quarterly for the photo enthusiast Creative Corner Scanner Close-ups Cheaper than a macro lens! Street Photography Up close and personal Free DVD Six Video Tutorials Sample Images Full Version Software Extensive Tests Invisible Watermarks Discrete image identification High-end Camera Test Nikon D800 vs. Canon 5D Mark III plus Olympus OM-D, Nikon D4, Pentax K-01 Better Photos m Photoshop CS6 o c . New features, Our favorites o t o GIMP Add-ons h p i g RAW development with plug-ins and scripts di - t Eliminate Color Smears c . w Tools for removing chromatic aberrations w w 9 (2012) • $14.99 Organize Fall Issue Your Photos Sorting, Keywording, Geotagging, Face Recognition with Database Software Test: Aperture, Lightroom, Picasa, Cumulus, digiKam and more DISPLAY UNTIL DECEMBER 6 Rubrik | Schlagwort c Our cover model was slightly puzzled when she saw the custom filmstrips that our styling team had created for this issue’s shoot. They symbolize our title story on image database software, and we turned them into a spectacluar piece of headwear for the occasion. In the article itself, our test team gives you the low-down on Aperture, Lightroom, Picasa and others, and fills you in on some of the surprises they experienced when using them to organize complex collections of images. Have you ever spotted a street scene that you just have to capture, but you are not sure whether you will be allowed to publish the results? Where does street photography end and portrait photography begin? This issue’s workshop will get your documentary juices running and gives you important shooting tips and a series of step-by-step guided shoots to help you hone your technique. There is an enormous range of free and commercial image processing products available on today’s market, and it can be tricky to decide which to use. Some programs are indispensible, while others are better off in the trash. This issue’s chromatic aberration workshop tells you all about how these bothersome artifacts are caused and tests the best programs for removing them seamlessly and professionally. As always, open source fans get their money’s worth too, and we show you how to use free add-ons to extend GIMP’s capabilities and turn it into a full-blooded RAW converter and processor. Have fun with this issue of your favorite photo magazine. If you want to meet us in person, we will be at Photokina in Cologne, Germany (September 18-23, Hall 04.1, Booth G038) and at PhotoPlus in New York (October 24-27, Booth 4). See you there! Juergen Rink Camera Test 18 Street Photography 40 Portfolio Location Workshop Jason Lee takes photos of his kids that are different The job was to photograph a semi-acoustic guitar than other people’s – his daughters get up to things in a ’blues’-style setting. In this article, the author tells that are normally strictly off limits and the results are us how he pulled off this apparently simple but guaranteed to get you smiling challenging brief. 10 Jason Lee Portfolio 60 Guitar Location Shoot High-end Camera Test Eliminate Chromatic Aberrations We put Canon’s new 5D Mark III and Nikon’s Imperfections in optical systems cause color errors spectacular D800 through their paces, along with the in the photos they capture. We test a range of dedicated Nikon D4, the Olympus OM-D EM-5, the Pentax K-01, tools and plug-ins that are specially designed to correct the Sigma SD1 Merrill and Sony’s SLT-A57 these types of errors and artifacts. 18 Test Background and Details 66 Chromatic Aberration Overview 25 Individual Results 72 Lens Errors 76 Software Tool Test Light Field Photography Invisible Watermarks The Lytro is the world’s first consumer light field camera. This astonishing device lets you choose where you want to Invisible watermarks give us a discrete way to prove place focus after an image has been captured. ownership of digital material. Not many of the tools on today’s market are really up to the job, and we test the 34 All About the Lytro and Light Field Photography best of the bunch. 84 Protecting Your Images with Invisible Watermarks Street Photography 90 Software Tool Test The charm of street photography lies in its closeness to everyday life. We take you through the history of Photoshop CS6 the genre and provide tips and expert workshops to help you improve your own technique. The latest Photoshop release has been given a facelift and is packed full of new tools and functions. We fill you in on the 40 Street Photography Know-how details and list our ’top six’ favorite new features. 54 Shooting Tips and Workshops 96 What’s New in Photoshop CS6 4 c’t Digital Photography 9 (2012) Organize Your Photos 108 Eliminate Color Smears 66 GIMP Add-ons About Us Using plug-ins and custom scripts turns GIMP 3 Editorial into a complete digital darkroom. We take you 6 Reader Forum through some of the thousands of GIMP 138 Coming Up in Issue 10 add-ons available now. 138 Contact Info 102 RAW Development with GIMP Add-ons Free DVD Organizing Your Photos 8 Highlights 9 Contents Image database software helps you perform searches, geotag your photos and recognize faces within large image collections. We take a close look at eight very different image management tools. 108 Image Database Basics 114 Choosing the Right Software 118 All About Metadata 123 Software Test Scanner Close-ups We show you how to take spectacular macro photos using a cheap desktop scanner instead of an expensive camera. The results are often quite breathtaking. 134 How to Shoot Macro Photos without a Camera DVD Download An image of the free DVD provided with the magazine is available for download at www.ct-digiphoto.com/dvd092012 c’t Digital Photography 9 (2012) 5 Reader Forum Readers’ Letters Keep Up the Good Work c’t Digital Photography is available digitally in iPad and zinio formats, and the zinio Unlike many of the other printed media, your reader is available for various platforms, publication leaves no stone unturned and all including Android. Check out our website at information is supported with technical facts www.ct-digiphoto.com/subscription for more and dedicates as many pages as necessary to details. fulfilling the assignment. Complemented by the lack of pages of useless advertising, it is more of a manual/technical journal. Since discovering c’t Digital PhotographyI do not Disappointing Issue buy any other photography publication. The information will be valid for many years and We have just received issue 8 here and I must should form reference material for any serious say I’m disappointed. You seem to be going have discovered that using these lenses on a amateur or professional photographer. Keep the same as other magazines, with the modern DSL camera evokes strong memories up the good work! inclusion of how you do everything of my father. Not only is the article informative Photoshop. I do not use that product and if I Glen Ward and evocative, but Stefan Arand is also an did there are so many mags that cover it I excellent wordsmith. would buy one of them. Please stay with the Elliot B. Siegel way the first issues were, they were great. Robert Broadhead Comparable with We are sorry to hear that Issue 8 didn’t fulfill the Very Best your expectations, even though it included articles on the open source Gallery software Spring Issue is superb. Comparable in all package and a range of non-Adobe respects with the very best, if not better than slideshow and color management software many of the very top drawer photomags. products. It is an important part of our I particularly appreciated the cover – a philosophy to cover a wide range of breakaway from some in the past when some manufacturers and products. Our article on were downright hoakie, and the first to present GIMP plug-ins in this issue continues the an image of a mirrorless digital in a way that trend, and there’s plenty more open source makes it worthy of adult consideration. goodness in the pipeline –we hope you find something you like in the mix. Thanks for your Nathan Caplan comments and keep reading! Tremendous Value When I first read the magazine two quarters Manual Lens Adapters ago I was astounded by how every article was about something I was interested in. I would Issue 4 (2011) of c’t Digital Photography Tell us what say most magazines provide 30% relevant had an excellent article by Stefan Arand content, but practically every page of your you think: concerning manual lens adapters. I have three magazine has articles that I am deeply lenses, circa 1953, which my father used on his interested in and caters well to both Exacta camera. These are: a 135mm f/2.8 an amateur and professional audience. We are always happy to receive your Steinheil (Munich), a P. Angenieux (Paris) F35 Combined with the provided software, I think comments and suggestions in a letter, 1:2.5 and a Xenon 50mm f/1.9. It took me your magazine presents tremendous value. an e-mail to [email protected] almost a year to find an Exacta internal mount I’m so glad I’ve found such a great read. The or at www.facebook.com/ct-digiphoto. lens for my Four Thirds Olympus E3. The back issues were exactly what I was looking We reserve the right to abbreviate your photograph here was taken using the for. Please keep up the great work! Is there any input for publication. Our comments adapter and shows the 185-year-old Fort possibility of Android and/or PDF versions? are printed in italics. Snelling (on the Mississippi River) and an Alaskan Husky. I appreciate the article and Balraj Jassal 6 c’t Digital Photography 9 (2012) DVD | Highlights DVD Highlights Highlights of this issue’s free DVD include an exclusive set of Adobe CS6video tutorials, sample and test images from the articles and tests in the magazine and a free full version of the Inpaint 3 photo restoration software. Our free software selection also includes many of the GIMP add-ons described in the article on page 102. Using Flash Creatively Inpaint 3 Adobe CS6 Video Workshops Video tutorials:In this series of FotoTV Full version software:Tiny details can Video workshop:These videos show video tutorials, we show you how to ruin an otherwise successful photo. you how to make successful selections use accessory flash to produce Inpaint enables you to remove and create masks, give you tips on backgrounds for location portraits and unwanted objects, scratches and text cleaning up your images and explain give you the low-down on Photoshop using just a few simple clicks. how to integrate Adobe Bridge into Actions and file formats. your everyday digital photo workflow. Portrait photos are all about people, and the Many photos would be a lot better if it In this workshop, video2brain trainer Tim Grey background should only play a secondary wasn’t for that pesky trash can, street dedicates more than two hours to three role. It is simple to select an appropriate lamp, power line or tourist that got in the way! specific areas of image management and background in a studio environment, but things Inpaint offers a quick, easy solution that invisibly processing using Adobe’s Creative Suite 6. get more tricky on location, where you often blends erased areas with their surroundings Image processing in Photoshop often have no choice in the matter. Dirk Waechter using intelligently generated textures pulled requires you to make precision selections shows you how to use bounce flash, wide from the surrounding image data. The program before you can begin to make adjustments apertures and color filters to produce defocused makes fiddling around with clone tools a thing to selected image areas. The first part of this backgrounds that remain unobtrusive and keep of the past. three-part workshop is dedicated to selections the viewer’s attention pinned to the subject. All you have to do is mark the area you want and layer masks. Grey shows you how flexible Following on from the 'backgrounds’ to get rid of using a brush or a magic wand like the Color Range tool can be when making tutorial, Kate Breuer uses two separate videos the one found in Photoshop. The software selections and how to make quick selections to explain how to use Photoshop Actions to reinterpolates the image without the unwanted using the individual color channels. automate processing steps that you use object and uses pixels from the surrounding The second part of this series goes into detail regularly. She uses the insertion of watermarks areas to create new image areas in the resulting on the tools you can use to correct various as an example to demonstrate how much time 'hole’. The results are astonishingly good, image errors. In addition to specific tasks, such you can saves using Actions, and goes on to especially in images with evenly colored as removing unwanted artifacts or brightening explain how to use complex Actions to perform backgrounds – for example, a beach scene can teeth in a portrait, Tim Grey also shows you how color shifts. be easily relieved of an unwanted umbrella. The to combine tools and how to reduce the effects In the final section of this series of FotoTV program only begins to reach its limits when of chromatic aberrations. tutorials, Karsten Franke introduces the various removing large objects or multiple details. The final section introduces image file formats used by Photoshop. He discusses To use the software’s full functionality, you management and simple editing using Adobe the attributes of standard image file formats have to register your copy from within the user Bridge, covering important topics such as such as TIFF, PSD and JPG, as well as more interface. You will then receive an e-mail keywording,image optimization and file export. specialized EPS and PDF printing formats. He newsletter and a special offer giving you a 25 The full versions of all these videos are also provides a short introduction to vector percent discount on version 4 of the program. available for purchase at www.video2brain.com and Web formats. (tho) (tho) for US$34.99 each. (tho) 8 c’t Digital Photography 9 (2012) DVD | Contents DVD Contents Image Processing Tools GREYC’s Magic Image Converter (G’MIC) 1.5.1.6 Photo Tools for Snow Leopard Windows Windows Photivo ChromAcute Exifer 2.1.5 Photomatix Pro 4.2.3 Chromagic 1.1 ExifTool 8.97 RawTherapee 3.0.0 Fix-CA 3.0.2 Plug-In Switch 1.3 Fotomatic 1.4 Linux TSR Watermark Image Software 2.1.5.1 GIMP 2.6.11 GREYC’s Magic Image Converter (G’MIC) 1.5.1.6 waterMark 1.9.8 GIMP 2.8.0 RawTherapee 2.4.1 GIMP Portable 2.6.11 Mac OS GIMP Portable 2.8.0 Plug-ins: ExifTool 8.97 GREYC’s Magic Image Converter (G’MIC) 1.5.1.6 Photoshop: Harry’s Filters 4.0 Linux SmartCurve 2.2 Inpaint 3.0 full version ExifTool 8.97 The Works 3.2 Liquid Rescale 0.7.1 Wire Worm 6.1 Liquid Rescale Portable 0.7.1 Sample Images GIMP: Normalmap 1.2.3 Camera Test Sample Images Photivo Contrast Fix Image Database Software Test Images Photobie 7.2.10 EvenTone Invisible Watermarks Sample Images Photomatix Pro 4.2.3 Photo Effects RawTherapee 3.0.1 The El Samuko Collection 0.22 Videos PSPI 1.0.5 Mac OS Background Effects Using Flash ChromAcute 1.1 PSPI 1.0.7 Creative Suite 6 Video Workshops GIMP 2.6.11 Separate+ 0.5.8 Photoshop File Formats GIMP 2.8.0 UFRaw 0.18 Photoshop Actions I GREYC’s Magic Image Converter (G’MIC) 1.5.1.6 Wavelet Decompose 0.1.2 Photoshop Actions II for Lion Wavelet Denoise 0.3.1 Lytro Light Field Camera Introductory Video c’t Digital Photography 9 (2012) 9 Portfolio Jason Lee Children often come up with really creative ideas, so when Dad is a professional photographer who can turn those ideas into images, the results are guaranteed to get everyone smiling. 10