My name is Tom Nolle, and I’m the president of CIMI Corporation and the author of the electronic books and digital products shown on this website. I’m what could be called a “semiprofessional photographer”, which means that I can sell stuff but I can’t make a living at it. That’s why I’m titling this section the way it is. If you are a professional photographer who doesn’t need the advice or comments of a semi-pro (or semi-amateur, depending on your perspective), don’t bother reading this section!
Well, who should read it then? Primarily those who are more than just dabbling with pictures, but aren’t completely comfortable. Especially the subset of that group who are embarking on the use of digital photography or digital image processing. I’m not going to provide stylistic tutorials; photography, like art, is a personal thing. What I will be doing is sharing some of the experiences I’ve had, and learned from.
To start this process, let me describe my own equipment. Today I do all my photography with a Fujifilm S2 Pro digital camera. I purchased this model in September of 2002, after taking a 3-week trip to
The S2 is based on the Nikon N80 camera, and so all the newer Nikon lenses (D and G mounts, at least) will work. The camera has an additional inch-and-a-half section on the bottom to hold the digital works, so the result is bigger and heavier than the N80, about like a Nikon with an attached motor drive. The digital features of the S2 work somewhat incrementally to the camera’s original feature set, which means that if you’re used to the N80 (which I was) the procedures for the S2 are almost exactly the same…but there are some really great digital benefits.
Benefit one is that the ASA setting can be changed on a shot-by-shot basis, from a minimum of ASA100 to a maximum of ASA1600. Benefit two is that the S2 captures a greater exposure range in its RAW digital format than is needed to create the color space for the output. When you convert the image from the RAW format to a normal graphic format (TIF), you can adjust the exposure setting from about -1 to +3 stops! This opens the door to fixing a lot of blown shots created when major lighting differences in a scene trick the meter (or you just mess up). There are other uses too, which I’ll cover in other tips. The Yellowstone pictures, British Columbia pictures, and the latest pictures of polar bears in Churchill on this site are taken with the S2. All of these shots are uncropped, converted to JPG. The original TIF is 4256x2848 pixels.
I’ve now ordered a Nikon D2X camera, but it won’t be released until some time in early 2005. The new D2X has much higher resolution, better autofocus, and better metering. I’ve loved the S2 and remain convinced it was a camera way ahead of its time, but it’s not as good a wildlife action camera as I’d like. If you shoot RAW images, the S2 buffer fills up in 7 shots and you wait 30 seconds till you can shoot again. I’ve cursed that limitation a number of times in my photography. At equal resolution, the D2X will shoot a frame a second till the card fills up.
Right now I’m using four lenses and two teleconverters with the camera. They’re all Sigma, which I’ve found give great results a lot cheaper than the Nikon glass (don’t bother to email me to disagree, purists, we’ve all got to decide for ourselves). They are the 24-70 f2.8 EX, the 70-200 f2.8 EX HSM, the 180mm f3.5 EX HSM Macro, and the 500mm f4.5 EX HSM, plus the 1.4 and 2x teleconverters. I use a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod (the 1227) and an Acratech ball head, and I’ve recently added a Bogen 328B monopod (the one with the little stabilizing legs). My flash pictures are either done with the internal S2 flash or with a new Nikon SB800.
For image processing, I use Photoshop CS and Pictographics ICorrect EditLab 4 filter. For noise reduction I use the Kodak Digital GEM filter. I have a number of Fred Miranda’s actions as well as Genuine Fractals, but I find myself using them less over time. For the S2 RAW format conversion, I now rely on Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS, but I also use
Got all that? OK, then here’s how this portion of the site is going to work. Periodically, but especially after a trip or after an image processing section, I’ll add a link here to another page that will outline what I learned and think might be valuable to others. Feel free to read them, print them out, or whatever, for your own use. Commercial use of this material requires our explicit consent. This section, and all the tips, are Copyright © CIMI Corporation. Publications: We’ll develop expanded versions of any of our tips as articles for publication, providing that we retain full rights to continue to offer the tips in original form here!
Tip Number One: Photographing in the Wild in Winter. (updated 12/04)
Tip Number Two: Understanding and Manipulating Resolution. (updated 12/04)
Tip Number Three: Digital Storage Options
Tip Number Five: The Special Zen of Lenses on Digital Cameras
Tip Number Six: Dealing with Dynamic Range (updated 12/04)
Tip Number Seven: Photo-Travel versus Recreational Travel
Tip Number Eight: Focusing and You
Tip Number Nine: Digital Video
Tip Number Ten: Picking a Digital Camera (updated 12/04)
Tip Number Eleven: A Beginner's Guide to Photo Editing
Tip Number Twelve: End the Shakes with Camera Supports (updated 12/04)
Tip Number Thirteen: Macrophotography!
Check back often for new tips