Azrieli in Tel Aviv

[vic vic]

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ah then cool ilan.

play with the photoshop and u will get used to it. it is great software. just as advise - in adjustment options, there is a specific order in which the various adjusting functions appear. follow this order untill u get a deeper understanding of softwaree and the process.

if any questions, feel free to ask :-)

also, since u have mac, make sure your monitor is calibrated at least with the osx built-in calibration (system preferances -> display -> color -> expert mode of calibration, and then follow the instructions, it will be good for the basic).

if u want to use images mainly for web, it is better u will put your monitor on gamma 2.2 all the time (in calibration system). otherwise, u can use 1.8, which is the best for high quality printing and work. and for web, u can use the "image ready" software that comes with photoshop, and then u have the option of conversion to gamma 2.2 (option: convert macintosh->windows) and sRGB profile (dont use "adobe rgb1998" apple rgb, or "pro-photo", "generic rgb" or your monitor profile name for web images).

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[hm1912]

Thanks for that Victor. I'll try to do some playing with photoshop later on in the week (possibly tomorrow). I did a brief check on my monitor callibration and it got complicated fast! I use a Powerbook G4 so my options are a bit limited. The default setting it's on at the moment, however, seemed better than what I was getting from playing around. I could make the colours deeper, but then they start to look a bit over-saturated....

[vic vic]

mine is powerbook g4 too - the last one before the macbook pro. unless u have an older version (the last powerbook has better monitor) then there should be no problem at all from what i know. i will writ eu later on some more detiled infol how it should be done confidently. it works very well. of course not like optical devise, but much closer thann the default "color lcd" prpfile.

[etanguero]

strong geometrics, in great contradiction.

I do like this kind of playing with the forms!

b/w supporting the message.

thanks!

eT

[hm1912]

Looking forward to those tips Victor.

 

And thanks eT!

[vic vic]

for bets results:

 

1. set your desktop pic to plain black. if no black in the desktop pics then prepare one with photoshop or keynte in 1440x960 pix or bigger if u have 17". place that pic in the desktop pics folder (path: hd-library-desktop pictures-solid colors).

2. from here, work in the dimly lit room, of course, no light falling on your monitor from any lamp.

3. got into sys-prefs - display - color, and click calb, and then click down there on the "expert mode"

4. place all the sliders exactly in the center, go to the next step and again, place all of them in the center. place the white point to native, and next choose your prefered gamma - either 1.8 or 2.2. u can make two calibrated profiles if u want later, one with gamma 1.8 and one with 2.2.

5. do not continue. go back to the first step now, u have "back button and use it untill u reach the first step.

6. now start calibrating.... take a little distance from your monitor, so that u still can use your track pad comfortably. of course, tilt the monitor to correct viewing angle.

move the left slider untill u see that the apple logo is least viewable as u can reach. when done, now move the right slider untill u see the closest color matching of apple logo and the surrounding squere. on the first step u will not get the most correct result, but no worries, there are next steps for it.

7. repeat this procedure with the next steps. now it is going to be much eassier to much the logo with the squere. but still, it needs a little practice.

8. white point should be native, gamma of your choice.

9. call this profile some name, i usually use date as name.

example: 0108-g-1.8 (0108 is date, and g-1.8 indicates gamma). if u use optical device then u just write some indication like m (for monaco device). if u make varius calibrations for various lighting conditions u can indicate it as well in the name, like tung (for hot light) etc. otherwise, working in dim light for foto editing is a normal condition, and it is here that u need a well calibrated monitor.

 

u can do it a couple of times untill u get more comfortable with those sliders. generally, u should get good results. most of the powerbooks has a monitor with some purple like tint to them. no check out and u gonna see that the tint is removed. set the desktop pic to solid grey, and then togle between the monitor profiles. u will see it clearly. of course, if u made gamma 2.2 u will have slightly darker, but then u will have more comfort with pics for web, since most of the users and graphic designers too use gamma 2.2 as normal.

if u get back to the aqua desktop, u will see how the blue/sky color is dramatically improved and got clean of color tints.

 

ah, no worries if u get too much monitor profiles, u can delete them of course. they r located in : hd-library-colorsync-profiles-display. u can remove those u dont need anymore.

[hm1912]

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Thanks for the instructions Victor. I'll try it sometime this evening and let you know how it goes!

[hm1912]

By the way, are you actually doing a thesis in epistemology? I'm doing my thesis in political philosophy -- I always found epistemology to be very difficult. Seems like we've got some related interests. I'll let you know how the monitor profiling goes.

 

Best,

[vic vic]

ya ilan, thesis with phd ahead, called "mental mechanism" (although my professor doesnt like the word mechanism that i use in my work:-))) )

my first degree was in politics (with IR accent) and philosophy. i was about to keep on with politics, either international relatioons or new public management studies, but choosed to keep on with pholosophy. droped the formal logics in favor of what really interests me - epistemology :-)))

 

so u do yours in wales, tat is cool, it is amazingly beautiful coutry. what is your theme/thesis there???

 

by the way, i was also about to study in uk. in oxford univ. but my sposership was failed. it was my mothers cusin, who is a kind of russian oligarch (from the oponent gruop of famous abramovich). he wanted me to go with politics, economy and law. but them we had some family issues (georgian families "fight" with each other sometimes or at least call it - behave strangely :-))) ). i was in good personal relations with him, he really liked me and vis versa, so he tryed it again when i finished myu 1st degree. almost everything was arranged but then canceled again :-)))

but doesnt matter... now i do epistemology and photography with free mind, without any obligations. i still have strong enthusiasm to politics, but commercial field is great too :-))

 

where are u from.. originally (i mean israel)?

[hm1912]

Oxford is a beautiful place but very stuck up (lots of pretensious twits running around). But I am sorry you weren't able to go there. I did my BA in Canada (University of Victoria) in political science (specialising in political philosophy) and history. I then did an MSc in International Relations at the LSE, and now I'm in the International Politics dept. at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (I also applied to Oxford for PhD but I got accepted here with funding and I don't know what happened to the Oxford application). I assume I didn' get any funding (if I was even offered a place I don't know). My thesis is on political obligation, and specifically the obligation to die for the sovereign (as in a state, or its equivalent). Zionist thought also comes into my thesis, but I'll leave the description at that for now. I'm hoping to get some funding to go to Hebrew U next year, at which time I should be finishing my thesis.

 

I'm actually not from Israel, my mother is, although somehow I manage to go to Israel every 3 or 4 years. A lot of my family lives there. I was born in Canada. Part of the reason I want to go to Hebrew U is to seriously improve my Hebrew skills.

 

I'm curious, how is your photographing "business" going? I've tried to get into selling photographs, but I find that I just don't have the time for developing, printing, and especially mounting photos to sell, which is a pity because a store here is willing to try to sell some of them for me.

[vic vic]

hebrew univ is great.

personally, i prefer to be in haifa and telaviv, and i have here in haifa my proffessor who is a great person, and dont need anything else from university at this stage. but i can say for sure - hebrew univ is the best we have in israel in those feilds.

 

about photo busneses...

im freelancer. assignments. i have "a few faces" in this feild. one is photographer. other is commerc and marketing concpet and strategy developer.

in photography, im real snob,so to speack. and it is part of my "image" im developing. for example, art directors have a very hard life sometimes - u cannot really ask me what to do - i mean descriptions about what and how i should photograph, and even then some limitations. for example, a good excuse is needed to crop my photos, or a good excuse to write inside the photos. only for the matter of page layout those things can be justified :-)))

i dont make too many asignments, but every work i do should be respectible in my view. of course the price is accordingly to the work.

about art works - again, there are some works that are not for sale at all. those which i do, in smaller quantities -limited ed. almost all are darkroom b/w works that i do myslef. silver gelatin as well as lith prints.

i feel fully comfortable with this way of work at the moment.

 

i think this year already (after finishing my academic work) i plan to develop and estabilish myslef as iternational level photog. later, next year, i plan to develop a full multimedia and marketing/lebeling studio and office (international intentions as well). step by step, it is a matter of serious investugations of the market, finding the rite people from different fields, as well as serious investments. the starting point is very good of course by now, but international intentions make it more difficult and time consuming to achieve. doing serious studies of those issues at the moment (being freelancer and developing a powerful studio/office is a different story as u know). hope that the luck will be on my side from the biggining as well :-))))

 

and ya, im very intrested in your thesis, so i will be happy to see or even discuss when possible :-)

[hm1912]

We can talk PhD off post -- message me. That's interesting what you say about the photography career. I hope it works out for you. For me, since my career interests remain academic, I'd just be happy if I could sell a few photos here and there to help pay for my photography hobby. I hope, however, that people/clients are respective of your artistic integrity (better way to call it artistic integrity than snobbish!). Incidentaly, there was an interesting thread here about cropping some time back. I don't know if you saw it.

 

I still haven't done the monitor thing, but will do it once I get a chance (I'm busy trying to finish a chapter at the moment).

[davephoto]

ilan, lovely shot with a great perspective on these towering structures. btw, i'm more than a bit interested to hear what you have to say, pros and cons, about the 28-90. thanks!

[vic vic]

how do i messege u?? in yoru profile? i will ceck out. anyway - u too, feel free to email or messege or even ichat me.

 

about the career, well - i dont know, i love photography, and ive been around the comercial and marketing work and production - so u know, things happen, and then u start to push it intentionally as well. later u even build plans and strategies to develop the career :-)))

as about photographers as hobby, i know one thing: many hobby photographers are far superior and talanted than many well paid pro photographers. if u love it - great - just do it, and if u want it to be career or it happens to be a career than ok too :-)))

u know, we r educated people from academy, so wether photo or not, academy is great in itslef :-)))

 

about artistic integrity - ya sure i agree with u - it is just that in deepest sense. but u know, some peple see it as snobish, so i have no problem with it, especially if it comes as a kind of spyci advatage for me sometimes:-))))

 

about the cropping - no i dont know of this thread here. im relativly new here. signed cause we r in war here - and sometimes nothing much to do - a week and two ago we were running to shelter alomst every hour, so u cannot concetrate on work properly, and u just go to here and there. we couldnt go far from safe buildings anyway - better stay home :-))))

anyway - the cropping issue come strong to me when i was annoyed by cropping here and there. i just decided that i dont know to feel framing well enough. so i improved it - and now i just have that sense to frame (without even rising camera to my eye). so it refelcts what i wanted to photograph in real time - hence i dont crop any more :-)

[hm1912]

Dave: thanks. I really like the 28-90 lens. I believe there was a thread on this topic some time back. It is the only lens I have. My only critical comment is that if you are prepared to get it, keep in mind that is a bit heavy. Otherwise I love it and because of its large aperture on the wider angles, I think it's probably the best zoom of its kind. Some people don't like that the largest aperture at 90 is 4.5, but that hasn't seriously bothered me. Basically, it's the issue of preferring a zoom over a fixed lens. In my case, I wanted a zoom so I don't have to change lenses all the time, and to keep my gear to a minimum.

 

Victor: I've sent you a message.