O.T. Vacation pictures

[Ray]

I better be! My boss will be sending me on a training trip either to Toronto (French is almost
absent there) or Las Vegas, or San Francisco... ALONE! So, if I am to blend in with the locals to,
at least, have a bit of a conversation (to finally get my ham salad sandwich!), I better start to
catch up on the rest of English I'm unaware of ;-)

Ray

[Ray]

Chuck, thanks a lot! I will advise you when I get to Japan, in two years... You always seem to find
the perfect website for my linguistic needs :)

Ray

[Ray]

Thanks a lot Barbara!

You know, we should do an Element get together in New Brunswick! Beaches are just as warm as they
are in Florida (summer time). And the cost of living is way cheaper than anywhere else in North
America.

Ray

[Ray]

I was tempted to do that, but it wouldn't be true to the original, in the sens that this was what
was recorded (more or less, with -1/2 stop).
I will redo them within the following weeks (for printing purposes) and will post the best.

What I did this morning was to resize / sharpen (with PS7, in the Lab color mode) and remove a few
stains I discovered in my camera's sensor once I got back home. I've only posted a few of the 333
pictures I had to correct. I also did some color correction, but very briefly (boost contrast and
brightness, +5 to +8).

Ray

[Stephen C. Smith]

Ray,

What parameter settings were you using? I've been experimenting with +1 contrast, +1 saturation and +1 sharpen. (Large, fine Jpegs.) The images I get look a bit more like the beautifully saturated photos I used to take with my Kodak DC290, but not yet there.

Yours were wonderful.

Some of mine are at:

<http://homepage.mac.com/scsmith>

Steve

[Ray]

Hi Steve,

All is default, except sharpness which is +2. I just realized (late yesterday evening) that my
pictures are not well balanced as I tried to print some and they were not ok. I have a LCD monitor
and when I compared the results with my friend's CRT monitor, it's totally different. I will need
to invest money in an LCD calibration tool, I feel.

Ray

[Leen Koper]

Ray, I'm using a Photocal Spyder to calibrate my monitor.
These things aren't cheap, but the savings on expenses of wasted paper and ink have paid for it.

Leen

[Vicky Bilaniuk]

*sniff* I miss NB and PEI. My dad is from Richibucto (geeze I hope I
remembered how to spell that) and I used to visit a lot as a kid. I
haven't been there in years, now. The last time was for my
grandmother's funeral. Anyway, I really miss the place. Everyone there
was always so FRIENDLY.

BTW, did you drive? Did you pass through the place that has what I
think is the best name ever? St. Louis du Ha Ha! (for those who have
never been to Quebec, there seriously is a place there with this name.
Google it and you'll find all sorts of things on it)

Thanks for sharing those pics.

[Ray]

Vicky,

Yes we did go to St-Louis du Ha! Ha! ;-) On our way back.

You're right, NB citizens are all very friendly (well, the ones whom we met!)

Ray

[Vicky Bilaniuk]

Jodi, when I was a kid we always made little ponds and canals in the
beaches for the chubs. Did you guys do that?

And yeah we thought the jelly fish were monsters, too. ;-) It was a
game to smash to smithereens the ones that got beached. (i wasn't
afraid of the beached ones, but man did I high tail it out of the water
every time someone said that they saw one swimming around)

My uncle was a fisherman and he used to take us out in his boat all the
time. We went whale sighting and would often go to island beaches and
eat fresh clams. Oh man, I need to go back there some day! (truth is,
I really miss the ocean and all things related to it)

[Vicky Bilaniuk]

Ray wrote:

> The Acadians of Canada now speak both French and English in the same time,

You got *that* right!! From my father to my grandmother, one day:

"Mom, ta show est on, la!"

[Ray]

Leen,

Thanks for the info. It's expensive, but not that much. Once I've spent 2500$ on a camera, I think
I should afford a device like that :)

Do you have a LCD monitor yourself (guess so since you've suggested this link...)? Was it hard to
calibrate? How close does the calibration comes with real printing (95%... 100%... 80%.. ?)
Actually, I'd say I'm roughly at 70%.

I have a Viewsonic VG500 monitor. Any tips would be appreciated :)

Ray

[Chuck Snyder]

Ray, can LCD monitors even be calibrated? I remember some discussions of
that before that were not too confident about LCD's in their current state.

Might be cheaper to invest in a good CRT-based monitor....seems like a step
backward in technology, but for color rendition they're apparently still
superior...?

Chuck

[Ray]

Vicky, don't talk about that.. ;-) I ordered a ham salad sandwich on white bread and received a
turkey salad on big hard whole wheat bread! A chicken noodle soup and a coffee, on top of that!
Couldn't understand the lady, both in French, English or Acadian. It was good, but that wasn't
exactly what I ordered.

.... as long as it wasn't more seafood, I was a happy camper!

Ray

[Ray]

Chuck, I wish I could, but I can't. I've spent too much time in front of CRTs and now my eyes are
aching when I work on them for more than my day's work. Even then, I need to take regular short
breaks (5 minutes per hour). LCD is the only way for me.

I'm confident a LCD can be calibrated, although I don't fully understand calibration, I believe you
tell Windows what to display instead of calibrating the monitor itself to display what Windows
sees... (a pure guess!)

Ray

[JodiFrye]

Vicky, geeze, the canal idea sounded really cool. No, I'm afraid we didn't do that. We were real little. I think I was no older than 12 the last time we swam like hell away from the ignoramasses. Aint it great to have parents that let ya 'live and learn ' ? I remember body surfing in title waves that crashed on the shore...what a blast to get pounded that way ;) Thanks mom :)

[Leen Koper]

Chuck and Ray,

Actually I do have a CRT monitor. It takes a lot of space, but in my opinion it is easier to work with a CRT than a LCD monitor.
The Photocal Spyder (BTW, the price has fallen considerably as I payed about 3x the present price) can be used for both LCD and CRT monitors as there is a clever device enabling you to hang it in front of a LCD screen.
You attach the spyder to the CRT screen with suction cups or hang it in front of a LCD screen. The best way to do this -I experienced- is to calibrate when it is completely dark as there is always some light leakage.

You can find this device at: <http://www.colorvision.ch/beta/productssolutions/withphotocal/>
The "success rate" with a calibrated monitor in a well profiled system is hard to estimate, but about 90-95% of my images are as predicted, provided you are used to comparing a light emitting image to a print and check it in correct light conditions.

I have it calibrate my monitor each two weeks. This way I suppose I saved considerably on paper and inks.

Leen

[Leen Koper]

Ray, don't worry. Calibration with this piece of equipment is a piece of cake.
The only thing you got to do is folow the on screen instructions for a few minutes. Then it will take over and it will calibrate your monitor and you can sit back, have your coffee and watch the little thing work for you. It is always nice to see things being done for you whilst having coffee. ;-)

Leen

[Ray]

I've e-mailed them to locate a Canadian distributor. I wish they have on around here. Thanks
again, "the finance minister" here has already aproved of this spending.. ;-)

Ray

[RobertHJones]

Ray,

You may wish to look at the US site instead of the European site.
[url]http://www.colorvision.com/home.html[/url]

Here's the link to the Canadian resellers:
[url]http://www.colorvision.com/resellers_nam-can.html[/url]

Bob