JOE vs. the RED SEA
- or How I Learned to Love a Camel
Joe Nicklo - February 3rd Program

IS THE RED SEA THE BEST DIVE IN THE WORLD?  YOU BE THE JUDGE!  Joe Nicklo, our February presenter, spent 10-days there in November 2002 where he dove and photographed 15-dive sites along with many land area visits.  While doing his best to ignore the distractions of a boatload of flight attendants, Joe managed to fill up roll after roll of film with underwater images and capture many digital shots of the Red Sea wonders above the water line.  All of this and more will be on display in both film and digital formats for your enjoyment.

Joe claims one particular dive required some rather unusual transportation, a unique experience that will be shared with us during his presentation.  Although this will be his first full-blown presentation to HUPS and despite claiming to be somewhat nervous in the presence of what he considers some of the world’s best underwater photographers, he is very excited to share his photographs.  For those that have been around Joe more than a few minutes, it will be no surprise when we experience a presentation that is well-crafted, filled with excellent photography, and spiced with liberal doses of humor.

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Joe Nicklo from previous column

The Red Sea through the eyes of Joe Nicklo will be an experience that you won’t want to miss.

As usual the meeting will be at the Bayland Community Center starting at 7:00 PM.  A map and directions are at the end of this newsletter.

HUPS’ SEASPACE 2003 Film Festival Presentation

In case you haven’t heard, HUPS has been invited to present a short 7-9 minute slide presentation at this year’s SEASPACE Film Festival.  The project will be headed up by Dennis Deavenport and a team of volunteers willing to spend long hours putting it together.  Currently, the team consists of James Wiseman and Lee Mixon but we can use more help.  If you are interested in helping, please contact Dennis.

Slides will be selected from monthly photo contest winners and slides or digital files submitted to the committee over the next 2 months.  Another group including Jackie Reid, John Ringrose and Frank Burek have volunteered to be on the image selection committee.

We are asking that anyone wishing to be represented in the show to take some time to pull together their very best slides and/or digital shots and get them to one of us as soon as possible.  If your images are selected for use in the show, they will be scanned and returned to you afterward.  The show will require somewhere in the neighborhood of 85-110 shots so there will be opportunities for a number of people to be part of the presentation, even those that have never entered the monthly photo contest.

Please help us make this a big success for HUPS.

President's Message

You have heard me say it before and you will hear it again. . .  HUPS has a lot going on in 2003. A quick look at this jam-packed newsletter will confirm my statement.  As far as I know this is the largest HUPS newsletter ever.

The January meeting included a great presentation by Jackie Reid and the official beginning of the HUPS digital photo contest.  A big thanks to James Wiseman for stepping forward and making this happen.  James has also volunteered to explore the potential for HUPS to hold an internet based international digital photo contest.  Stay tuned for more details on this one.

The HUPS digital and slide contest rules are now posted online.  The next digital contest will be at the April meeting.

The January HUPS Board of Directors meeting was a busy one.  We selected individuals to fill some important roles.

Gary Merritt was selected to be the SEASPACE Gallery Team Leader.  In this role Gary will head up efforts on the HUPS image gallery at SEASPACE 2003.  He is looking for individuals to join his team.  This team will be responsible for building display boards, gathering images from members and generally putting the whole thing together.  Should be a lot of fun.  If you want to pitch in, contact Gary.

Dennis Deavenport will be heading up the HUPS film festival show.  It was decided that the show will be entirely digital.  All projected images will be either scanned slides or images captured with digital camera.  See Dennis’ article on page 1 of this newsletter.

If the digital contest and SEASPACE weren’t enough we also came up with a new program.  Joe Nicklo had suggested we start a mentoring program.  The board liked his idea so, unknown to Joe, we elected him the Director of Educational Activities (DEA).  This program is just starting to be developed and will allow more experienced HUPS members to help newer members.  We plan for the program to include extra workshops and even pool practice sessions.  If you have ideas/suggestions for this program please contact Joe Nicklo.

Big thanks for all the individuals mentioned above.  Without people stepping forward to take on these jobs HUPS wouldn’t exist.  If you want to get more involved in HUPS now is the perfect time.  It doesn’t matter if you have been a member for ten years or ten days, just contact one of the individuals above to volunteer.

See You February 3rd,
David

Jackie Packs Them In for His Wakatobi Show

What does it take to get 50 HUPS members and guests to show up for a monthly meeting?  Simple answer: Invite Jackie Reid to give the presentation.  The last time HUPS had even close to this many people in the audience, we had to put food on the table.

Over the years, we’ve come to expect superb programs from Jackie and he certainly didn’t disappoint us.  The Wakatobi portion of the presentation gave ample proof of his ability to find and photograph just about anything that is worthwhile at any given dive site.  Wakatobi is a small dive resort out in the Indonesian backwaters off the southeast corner of Sulawesi in the Banda Sea.  For those that have been there, you will know that it is nearly impossible to capture even part of the incredible diversity of underwater life in these waters.  Well, Jackie certainly tried.  The show was loaded with superb slides of weird, wacky, and beautiful critters and some of the healthiest coral reefs in the world.  To be blunt about it, Jackie has a way with light and composition that few can match.  It was an experience that everyone enjoyed immensely.

To top off the evening, Jacking took some time to put together another show spiced liberally with a number of his images, in which he talked about the techniques he uses underwater.  In addition, he brought in a couple of his cameras and housings and spent time describing them and how he uses them.

In all respects, it was an outstanding show given by one of the premier underwater photographic talents in this part of the world.  Thanks for the memories, Jackie.

Nikon School Comes to Houston

The Nikon School of Photography is having photography courses, including digital courses, in the Houston area the weekend of February 1.  For more information see http://www.nikonschool.com.

TGCC Awards Banquet

The TGCC Annual Awards Banquet is scheduled for 6:00 PM Saturday, February 1st.  At this banquet most area dive clubs will present awards for Member of the Year, etc., for 2002.  HUPS will present awards for Novice and Advanced Photographer of the Year as well as Member of the Year.  Join other HUPS members for this fun, annual tradition.

I'm sad to say I have moved to Austin due to work, so I am going to miss the Monday night HUPS meetings.  I miss you already.  But I am going to stay a HUPS member, and I would like to continue doing the HUPS web pages (http://www.hups.org) if I may.  I will see you at SEASPACE 2003 the weekend of June 7 if not before.  I want to participate in the HUPS gallery and show at SEASPACE.

Austin has nothing to compare to HUPS, and as I said I am already missing seeing my old friends every month.  If I can help you with anything let me know, and give us a call if you come to Austin.  Maybe we can dive together someday.

Thanks, happy diving and shooting, Pat Miller

Airline Security and Film

Thanks to Jesse Cancelmo for submitting the following information from the Transportation Security Administration website.

WARNING: Equipment used for screening checked baggage will damage your undeveloped film.  You should remove all undeveloped film from your checked baggage and place it in your carry-on baggage.

At the passenger security checkpoint, you should remove the following types of film from your carry-on baggage and ask for a hand inspection:

• Film with an ASA/ISO 800 or higher
• Highly sensitive X-ray or scientific films
• Film of any speed which is subjected to X-ray surveillance more than 5 times (the effect of X-ray screening is cumulative)
• Film that is or will be underexposed
• Film that you intend to "push process"
• Sheet film
• Large format film
• Medical film
• Scientific film
• Motion picture film
• Professional grade film

You may request a hand-inspection of any undeveloped film.

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Airline Security from previous column

The X-ray machine at the passenger security checkpoint will not affect undeveloped film under ASA/ISO 800.  However, multiple X-ray inspections (more than 5 times) of the same roll of undeveloped film may cause damage.

The machines used to screen your checked baggage or carry-on baggage will not affect digital camera images or film that has already been processed, slides, photo compact discs, or picture discs.

Other Precautions

• If you plan to request a hand inspection of your film, you should consider carrying your film in clear canisters, or taking the film out of solid colored canisters and putting it into clear plastic bags, to expedite the screening process.
If you are going to be traveling through multiple X-ray examinations with the same rolls of undeveloped film, you may want to request a hand-inspection of your film.  However, non-U.S. airports may not honor this request.
If you plan to hand-carry undeveloped film on an airplane at an international airport, contact the airport security office at that airport to request a manual inspection.
Consider having your exposed film processed locally before passing through airport security on your return trip.
We recommend that you do not place your film in lead-lined bags since the lead bag will have to be hand-inspected.  If you have concerns about the impact of the X-ray machine on your undeveloped film, you can request a hand inspection.
You may still consider bringing a lead-lined bag if you are traveling through airports in other countries as their policies may vary.  Check with your airline or travel agent for more information on foreign airports.

For complete guidelines and rules concerning airline baggage take a look at the TSA website.

1st Place Novice - James Wood ©2003

Renew Before it’s Too Late

It’s about time to print the 2003 HUPS Membership Directory.  If you haven’t renewed your membership please use the attached form to do so.  If you have questions about your membership standing or renewal you can contact our Membership Chairperson Jean Himes.

Here’s Your Chance

We are in need of a person to act as the HUPS SEAPSPACE Booth Coordinator.  No prior experience required.  On the job training available.  This person will be responsible for scheduling the volunteers to man the HUPS booth at SEASPACE June 6-8.  This year the booth will be located next to the Image Gallery.  We expect to have tremendous traffic at the booth.  We should have tons of new members sign up.

The 2003 booth coordinator will be given written instructions and will be helped along by past booth coordinators.  It’s easy.  Just say, "I‘ll do it."  Contact David Lenderman or Dennis Deavenport.

Photo Contest

The topic for the February contest is "Pairs."  Not Pears but Pairs.  So if you have a photo of a pair of fish, crabs, eels, divers or whatever bring it to the meeting.  Remember, you can’t win if you don’t enter.  Complete contest rules are now available online.

1st Place Digital - Ken Knezick ©2003

For traditional film photographers, switching over from a film SLR to a digital SLR (DSLR) won’t present much of a change.  The same can be said for beginners switching from an amphibious camera like a MMII or a Nikonos to a housed point-and-shoot digicam.  Both systems should behave pretty much the same as their film cousins underwater – the big difference will present itself after the dive.  Instead of taking film to a lab and getting negatives and prints – underwater digital photographers will take home digital files on a memory card or laptop.  This column will describe the process of storing, cataloguing, organizing, and sharing these digital photos – a process called "digital workflow."

Transfer to PC: When you return from a trip you will probably have your photos on a laptop, memory card, or in some cases on a portable hard disk (see the September column Traveling With your Digital Setup for details).  Probably the easiest way to transfer images to your home computer is using a manufacturer-supplied cable and software that came with your camera.  Next easiest is to use a USB or Firewire card reader plugged into your computer.  This is usually recognized by your computer just like a floppy or zip disk drive.  Transferring from a laptop will require either a network connection, or a 2-step transfer back to the memory card, then onto the home PC.  The fastest way to transfer files is the new USB2.0 or Firewire (IEEE-1394).

Backup: The next and most important step in your digital workflow will be to back up your images.  It’s very important to have a "clean copy" of exactly what you came home with, in case you accidentally erase or write over a file, or in case your computer’s hard disk crashes.  I back up all of my unedited images to CD-RW as well as to a second hard disk on my home PC.  There are various backup programs that will enable you to "span" more than one CD if your images take up more than the maximum 700 megabytes that fit on a CD.

RAW Conversion: Newer consumer cameras and DSLR's have the ability to capture the image data directly from the camera’s sensor, without any "in-camera processing."  The advantage of RAW shooting is that the files are smaller than a TIFF of the same quality, and no information is lost due to in-camera sharpening or color/contrast manipulation.  However – the RAW image format cannot be viewed on a computer without being processed first.

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Digital Workflow from 2nd column page 4

If your camera shoots RAW format, then chances are that it came with conversion software, or a 3rd party conversion program is available.  At this step in your digital workflow it may be necessary to convert ALL of your photos into TIFF’s or JPEG’s from the camera RAW files.  I usually create a separate RAW folder for my trip, and a corresponding TIFF folder where the converted images go.  Sometimes the default settings on the conversion software can be used for a quick "batch" conversion of all the files, but some of the better shots may merit special attention where exposure is corrected during the process.

Sorting/Trashing: Just like with slides, not all shots will come out as winners.  I usually set up three folders within my trip folder called: Keepers, So-So, and Trash.  I browse through the photos and drag-and-drop them into the appropriate file folder.  I also realize that some of the So-So shots that have good composition and focus, can be "saved" so I drop them into the Keepers.  At the end of this process, I delete the Trash folder.  If I ever need one of those shots I can always pull it off the backup CD.

Create TIFF’s from JPEG’s: Now I focus all of my attention on that Keepers folder.  Realizing that I may want to work on some of the shots in Photoshop, I convert any JPEG’s over to the TIFF format.  That way, I can save them multiple times without the fear that software compression will result in loss of quality.

Adjust Exposure, Color, Sharpness: In this step, I open each of the Keeper TIFF’s and look at the image and the histogram.  I use Levels or Curves to adjust exposure and color, then use Unsharp Mask to remove any "aliasing" also known as blurriness.

Resize for Web – Resharpen: Since I want to share my photos with others on the internet, I need to "shrink" my shots down from 6 megapixel TIFFS to web-sized JPEG’s.  I do a "batch resize" to make 150-pixel wide thumbnails and 600-pixel wide gallery images of my photos.  I save all these file in another folder inside my trip folder, called Web.  After resizing from 3,000 pixels wide to just 600, the shots need to be sharpened again, using the Unsharp Mask tool.

Catalog: Since all of my photos are stored on my computer, I need some way to catalog them so that I can find the shot I need in the future.  Since I create a lot of photos, and the camera gives them a generic name like DSCF5402.jpg – I use a database system to manage my catalog.  Don’t worry, it sounds a LOT more complicated than it is.  There are software packages out there made specifically for managing digital catalogs.  The two most popular (and most powerful) are Canto’s "Cumulus" and Extensis Corp’s "Portfolio."  Basically, you use the catalog program to assign attributes to each shot.  For example, January’s first prize winner could be assigned the attributes: "Indonesia" and "Wire Coral" and "Underwater," etc.

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Digital Workflow from previous column

The program takes this information and embeds it in the file (in a way – it really stores it in a database) so that you can do a search on "Wire Coral" later and find that shot.

Upload and Print: The final step in the digital workflow process is to make a "product."  For me, this product is an online gallery and a set of prints.  Some people may wish to make proof sheets as well.  I’m going to go through a step-by-step explanation of how to make online photo galleries and share them on the web next month, so I won’t cover this in detail.  Please refer to last month and the month before, where I covered the different printing options.

The Digital Workflow process may seem complicated but feel free to streamline it and adopt one that suits you.  Remember there is no "one size fits all" workflow - this example is only my technique and won’t serve everyone.  But, hopefully this column has explained some of the "after the dive" side of digital underwater photography a bit for you.

Photo Contest Winners
January 2003 - "Coral"

Novice
1st	James Wood
2nd Tie	Joe Nicklo, Sue Watson
3rd	Drew Trent
Advanced
1st	Mary Lou Reid
2nd	Dennis Deavenport
3rd	David Lenderman
Digital
1st	Ken Knezick
2nd	James Wiseman/td>
3rd	James Wiseman

2nd Place Digital - James Wiseman ©2003

Digital and Computer Photography Primer
by Pat Miller

I'm excited by the explosion in digital photography.  But as a computer professional (read "geek"), I ask myself how does the digital technology affect the pictures?  And how can I educate my fellow photo enthusiasts while inflicting the minimum amount of crossed eyes and hair pulling?

I intend to explore here what I see as some essential tech specs.  I'll try to keep it very basic, but I warn you – I'm going to be tossing about a few computer terms and doing some arithmetic.  Pretty scary stuff.

First, do you know what a pixel is?  It's short for picture element, a computer term used by geeks who want to confuse the uninitiated.  A digital image is a rectangular array, hundreds and thousands of rows and columns of lots of tiny little dots, the pixels.  Each pixel is just a single dot of color.  Each pixel is just one color.

You’ve looked close at a picture in a newspaper and seen the individual dots of ink that make up the picture, right?

So a digital image on a computer and in your digital camera is made up of a lot of these pixels, tiny dots of color.  Today’s computer technology can display a maximum of 16,777,216 different colors.

Here comes the scary arithmetic and computer jargon: Computer memory is simply a big array of on-and-off switches, arranged in rows and columns.  Each tiny little switch is called a bit, and it’s either Off, which represents the number 0 (zero), or it’s On, which represents 1 (one).  If you look at a row of eight bits together – called a byte – and look at all the different combinations of zeros and ones that can occur, you’ll see that a byte can represent 256 different numbers.  Rather than count all the combinations of 1s and 0s, here is the arithmetic: 2 raised to the power of 8 is 256.  2⁸ = 256. (An exponent!  Thought you’d never see one again after 8th grade math?)

Your computer uses 3 different primary colors, red, green, and blue, that add together at varying intensities to make all the other colors.  Each color (red, green, and blue) is referred to as a channel, and each channel gets 8 bits (1 byte) of video memory.  They call this 8-bit color per channel, or just 8-bit color for short.  But remember, you get 3 channels for a total of 24 bits (3 bytes) of color per pixel.

What this means is that for each and every pixel on your computer screen, there are 24 bits (3 bytes) of video memory that tell the computer what color to paint that pixel.  So your computer can display a total of 16,777,216 different colors (2²⁴ = 16,777,216).

If I pick a pixel and write the number 0 to it's 24 bits of video memory, that tells the computer to paint the pixel black.  And if I write the largest number that will fit into those 24 bits, 16,777,215, that tells the computer to paint it white.

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Digital Primer from previous column

I can hear some wannabe geek saying, "My digital camera/scanner does 12 or 16-bit color per channel (36 or 48-bit color)!"  That may be, but once you see it on any computer screen or any other display, all you get is 8-bit color per channel (24-bit color)!  Don’t get upset though, because 16,777,216 different colors is probably more than your naked eye can distinguish.  Most of us mere mortals can’t tell the difference in "pure" white (16,777,215) and "almost pure" white (16,777,214).

Digital camera makers brag about how many megapixels their cameras feature.  A megapixel is 1 million pixels.  But see, the number of megapixels quoted for a camera is the total number of pixels that you get from the computer chip ("CCD" or "CMOS") in the camera, but you don’t get all those pixels in the image.  For example, the Nikon Coolpix 5700 is advertised with a 5.0 Megapixel CCD and a maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,920 pixels.  But 2,560 multiplied by 1,920 gives you 4,915,200 pixels, not 5 million.  They’re keeping 84,800 pixels for themselves!

By the way, "CCD" is short for Charge Coupled Device, and "CMOS" stands for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, but that bit of trivia won’t do you any good anywhere, except to impress your geeky friends.

To make a photo realistic image you see you need gadzillions of pixels, each one so small that you can’t see it individually.  How many pixels is a gadzillion – how many pixels do you really need?

How many pixels you need depends on what you intend to do with the picture, how you intend to display it.  And it also depends on your individual tastes, what you’re willing to accept.

These days the typical computer screen and digital projector displays 640 by 480 pixels – that’s 640 pixels in each row across the screen and 480 rows of pixels down the screen – or 800 by 600, or 1,024 by 768 pixels, or maybe 1,280 by 1,024.  There are other screen resolutions available, but these are probably the most common.  The output of the projector HUPS is planning to use in the digital photo contest is 1,024 by 768 pixels. Now:

• 640 by 480 pixels is less than one-third of a megapixel (640 multiplied by 480 equals 307,200 total pixels, and divide that by 1 million pixels per megapixel and you get 0.307 megapixels)
• 800 by 600 pixels is less than half a megapixel (0.480 megapixels)
• 1,024 by 768 pixels is a little more than three quarters of a megapixel (0.786 megapixels)
• 1,280 by 1,024 pixels is a little over a megapixel (1.31 megapixels)

So based on megapixels alone, if you’re only intending to show your digital images on your computer, on a web page or e-mail to friends, or enter in the HUPS digital contest, you don’t need an expensive digital camera with lots of megapixel power.  You don’t need much more than one megapixel!  Don’t waste your money!  (You may have to spend money to get the features you want such as a interchangeable lenses and shorter shutter release lag, but I’m only talking digital image size here.)

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Digital Primer from 2nd column page 6

If you want print quality, now we start talking mucho megapixels.  Magazine quality printed images are supposed to run around 250 to 300 dots per inch.  You don't need to worry about a printer's dots per inch (dpi) setting, but you do control how big your image will print on paper by setting your pixel per inch (ppi) setting.  For maximum print quality at 250 to 300 ppi:

• 3 by 5-inch print needs 937,500 to 1,350,000 pixels which is equal to 0.938 to 1.35 megapixels
• 4 by 6-inch print needs 1,500,000 to 2,160,000 pixels (1.50 to 2.16 megapixels)
• 8 by 10-inch print needs 5,000,000 to 7,200,000 pixels (5.00 to 7.20 megapixels)
• 11 by 17-inch print needs 11,687,500 to 16,830,00 pixels = 11.7 to 16.8 megapixels

So if you want nice prints, you may be able to get as large as 8 by 10 inches with a 5 or 6-megapixel digital camera.  If you want larger prints, you’re waiting for a digital camera that doesn’t exist yet!

Okay, you can settle for less than 250 or 300 pixels per inch if you find the quality acceptable.  Computer pixels are not the same thing as printed dots.  A nice photographic printer prints at greater than 250-300 dots per inch – my li’l Epson Stylus Photo 870 color printer prints at a maximum 1,440 by 720 dots per inch.  They print a pixel across more than one dot on the paper.

Nikon advertises the aforementioned Coolpix 5700 with, "Print images as large as 16 inches x 20 inches and beyond with outstanding image quality."  But after all, they lied about the 5 megapixels, do you trust them about "outstanding image quality" from this camera for a 16 by 20-inch print?!

Personally, if I want to make a print, I try to make sure my digital image has 250-300 pixels per inch.  If you care about how many pixels and how many pixels per inch you have in your pictures, you’re going to have to use a computer graphics program such as Adobe PhotoShop or Jasc Paint Shop Pro or CorelDraw or something.  Typically most digital images are going to need some kind of brightening and tweaking in the computer anyway to really look good.  This computer image editing costs money for the computer and software, and it costs you in practice time to get good at it.

In summary:

• If you’re only intending to show your digital images on your computer screen, on a web page or e-mail to friends, or enter in the HUPS digital contest, you don’t need a camera with a lot of megapixels.
• If you want to make prints out of your digital images, you do need a lot of megapixels.  If you want big prints and you’re real picky about quality, you may not find a camera big enough yet.
• For best results, big or little digital images, you can look forward to hours in front of your computer!
  

UpComing Meetings and Events

February 1, 2003 - TGCC Awards Banquet

February 3, 2003 - HUPS meeting
Joe Nicklo - Red Sea

February 8, 2003 - Coral Reef Biology Seminar
Dick Zingula

March 3, 2003 – HUPS meeting
James Wiseman – digital manipulation of images/website design

April 7, 2003 – HUPS meeting
Drew Trent - British Virgin Islands

May 5, 2003 – HUPS meeting
Jesse Cancelmo – Wide-angle Workshop

Scuba Challenge

Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine and Bay Islands Beach Resort have joined forces to bring an exciting new facet to SEASPACE 2003, namely the SCUBA CHALLENGE.

SCUBA CHALLENGE will be a "Jeopardy" style event, with the questions pertaining to our favorite sport, diving.  As part of SEASPACE 2003, teams of three or four people will compete, with some great prizes to sweeten the deal.  I certainly hope that the divers and dive clubs of Texas will be well represented.

Please find more information on Rodale's website.

SEASPACE is June 7 & 8 at the Reliant Arena.  Anyone interested in a HUPS team entering the SCUBA CHALLENGE?

The Houston Underwater Photographic Society (HUPS) meets the first Monday of every month at 7:00PM at the Bayland Community Center, 6400 Bissonet, near Hillcroft.

Social time begins at 7:00PM for members and visitors to get acquainted. Visitors are always welcome to join us. So, stop by and see what we are all about!