Technology
Jan. 25th, 2011 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningI have been given a new pocket camera by my brother and sister-in-law, combining my last birthday and Christmas presents. (It was a big birthday.) This was very generous, and I am very grateful.
But it has also made me think about technology, and how we use it.
Using the camera itself has required me to change the way I think about using a camera: it does things differently to my dSLRs. But that isn't really what I was going to write about: that is just learning curve, working out how to get the best from a new piece of kit.
No, what has really got me thinking is the constant upgrading of standards and technology.
I like to take photographs is a very malleable file type, "raw". The letters don't stand for anything. Raw is a very basic image format, unchanged by the built-in algorhythms that are applied by the camera's software which create a JPG file. Instead, I take the raw file and edit it in Photoshop Elements, and save the result as a JPG myself.
This is very much like an analogue darkroom workflow: the raw file is, for me, the equivalent of a digital negative, the JPG the equivalent of print. I might work the same image - the same RAW file - several times, creating different versions.
There is no standard raw format: every camera producer uses its own proprietorial format. My Nikon dSLRs RAW files are .NEF ("Nikon something format", I think); Canon uses .CR2, Olympus ORF ("Olympus Raw Format"), and so on.
When I last got a new camera, two years ago, the precise format of NEF files had changed - premusably for the better. As a result, the version of Photoshop I use couldn't read them; I had to download a plug-in or something so that Photoshop could work with the new format NEF. This was easily done, and worked perfectly.
Things have moved on. The new camera uses NRW raw format (I think that stands for "Nikon Raw"). I wasn't surprised that Photoshop couldn't read NRW. What did surprise me was that Adobe didn't have a plug-in for my version of Photoshop which would let me use NRW: they only have one for the latest version of Photoshop Elements. This seems barmy: to use NRW with Photoshop, I would need to buy the new version. Thanks, but no thanks.
Instead, I thought I would use Nikon's own software supplied with the camera, which includes tools for manipulating NRW files. Except that it crashed repeatedly without doing anything.
I see that I have two alternative: I could buy the latest version of Photoshop (confident that this would probably end up requiring me to buy a whole new PC, something I see no other need to do, other than the fact that it is several years old); or I could use JPG.
I have decided to do the latter. The Nikon software has just converted the NRW files to JPGs - it took 90 minutes to do 89 files, and I'll work with JPGs, though I'll still create NRWs so I can go back at some other time (the camera can create JPGs and NRWs simultaneously); I might change this to JPGs only - not sure yet.
I fully understand technology providers wanting to update their products, but even Microsoft allow you to save files in an old format. Together, I feel as if Nikon and Adobe (makers of Photoshop) have acted against my interests: in circumstances when I know I'll want to use raw images, I'll have to use my old cameras. It reduces the utility of the nice new camera.
And that seems a shame.
But it has also made me think about technology, and how we use it.
Using the camera itself has required me to change the way I think about using a camera: it does things differently to my dSLRs. But that isn't really what I was going to write about: that is just learning curve, working out how to get the best from a new piece of kit.
No, what has really got me thinking is the constant upgrading of standards and technology.
I like to take photographs is a very malleable file type, "raw". The letters don't stand for anything. Raw is a very basic image format, unchanged by the built-in algorhythms that are applied by the camera's software which create a JPG file. Instead, I take the raw file and edit it in Photoshop Elements, and save the result as a JPG myself.
This is very much like an analogue darkroom workflow: the raw file is, for me, the equivalent of a digital negative, the JPG the equivalent of print. I might work the same image - the same RAW file - several times, creating different versions.
There is no standard raw format: every camera producer uses its own proprietorial format. My Nikon dSLRs RAW files are .NEF ("Nikon something format", I think); Canon uses .CR2, Olympus ORF ("Olympus Raw Format"), and so on.
When I last got a new camera, two years ago, the precise format of NEF files had changed - premusably for the better. As a result, the version of Photoshop I use couldn't read them; I had to download a plug-in or something so that Photoshop could work with the new format NEF. This was easily done, and worked perfectly.
Things have moved on. The new camera uses NRW raw format (I think that stands for "Nikon Raw"). I wasn't surprised that Photoshop couldn't read NRW. What did surprise me was that Adobe didn't have a plug-in for my version of Photoshop which would let me use NRW: they only have one for the latest version of Photoshop Elements. This seems barmy: to use NRW with Photoshop, I would need to buy the new version. Thanks, but no thanks.
Instead, I thought I would use Nikon's own software supplied with the camera, which includes tools for manipulating NRW files. Except that it crashed repeatedly without doing anything.
I see that I have two alternative: I could buy the latest version of Photoshop (confident that this would probably end up requiring me to buy a whole new PC, something I see no other need to do, other than the fact that it is several years old); or I could use JPG.
I have decided to do the latter. The Nikon software has just converted the NRW files to JPGs - it took 90 minutes to do 89 files, and I'll work with JPGs, though I'll still create NRWs so I can go back at some other time (the camera can create JPGs and NRWs simultaneously); I might change this to JPGs only - not sure yet.
I fully understand technology providers wanting to update their products, but even Microsoft allow you to save files in an old format. Together, I feel as if Nikon and Adobe (makers of Photoshop) have acted against my interests: in circumstances when I know I'll want to use raw images, I'll have to use my old cameras. It reduces the utility of the nice new camera.
And that seems a shame.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 05:50 pm (UTC)