May 3^rd Meeting
The Big and Small of it All

By Leonard Cichowski

Last month, our April meeting was highlighted by a presentation on Diving in San Diego, by James Wiseman.  James took us through the various dive sites, via boat and shore, and made us keenly aware of what it took for cold water diving.  One could easily tell that this area of fantastic diving is very special to James, as it was his back yard before moving to Houston.  James also did a "Photoshop How To" on how to get the green water effect out of images shot in colder water.  I was wondering if that would help get the "green"out of some of my seasick friends?

This month, we will have the attraction of several presenters.  Sorta like a tag team match!  We are especially pleased that Dennis Deavenport and David Lenderman have offered to show their wares to HUPS.  If you aren’t familiar with these two gentlemen, let me tell you a little bit about them.  Currently, Dennis is HUPS President.  He also served as VP, Board of director member and numerous committees for the good of HUPS and SEASPACE.  David is the Newsletter editor and has served as HUPS president and VP and Board Member.  Also, both have won various membership awards, such as Member of the Year and Photographer of the Year.  So, as you can well see, these guys swing a heavy bat!

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May 3rd Meeting from previous column

David will start things out with a 10-minute program on "What Not to Do When Photographing Sharks."  This presentation did not receive an “ R “ rating due to violent depictions.  David does have all of his fingers, rest assured.  A short second sync-ed presentation will be employed; featuring shark shots by David and Jackie Reid on the recent November 2003 Stephen Frink Shark Shootout held in the Bahamas.

Dennis will give a digital, music sync-ed show entitled "Small, Strange Friends."  His description of this show is, "It’s all about macro and weird stuff from PNG, Wakatobi and Komodo."  This feature should invoke a few laughs and awe’s, as some of those cute critters we adore so much will be gracing the screen.

Next month’s presentation, our Post SEASPACE Meeting, will feature Marty Snyderman.  Marty is one of the foremost professional underwater photographers in the industry.  I wish I could clue you in on his presentation at the present time. . . but I guess he is still working on it.  Whatever the topic, Marty will do a fine job.  So be sure to put the June meeting on your calendar.  Monday, June 7th, is the date.

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.

Happy Diving,

Leonard

Shark image by David Lenderman ©2004

President's Message
Making Everyone Feel at Home

One of the things that I feel good about with HUPS is its friendly, helpful atmosphere.  Still, there is room for improvement.  During the last board meeting of 2003, the topic of "mentoring" new and prospective members was brought up for discussion.  As I recall, some of the people in that meeting felt that it had been a bit of a struggle to get accepted into the club by the membership.  I would not go as far as to suggest that HUPS is cliquish, but I think we all know that it’s a lot easier to yak it up with your friends than it is with strangers.  I think that a number of our members make an honest effort to include new people in our conversations and encourage them to take an active interest.  Still, there is always a tendency to pay more attention to your friends than someone you hardly know.  The most critical time for a new member is the first 2-3 meetings when they know virtually nobody and are clueless on just how we go about our business.  Some new members naturally have the type of outgoing personality that makes it easy for them to fit into new situations.  Others (probably the majority) are reluctant to push their way into conversations and establish new relationships.  Too many times, these are the ones that drift away and never return.  With a little effort by others to include them, this might not happen and HUPS could have another productive, motivated member for years to come.

Anyway, getting back to the topic... the outcome of this board discussion was that HUPS would form a "mentoring program" to help visitors and new members understanding of just what HUPS offers and does.  Chuck Jensen has agreed to take on this challenge and will chair the new "Mentor Program."  I’d say that based on his outstanding performance as Membership Chairperson over the past 4 months, we’ve selected exactly the right person.  For example, on his own initiative, Chuck started soliciting digital photos and biographical information from our members.  With the stuff he collected, he and David Lenderman have published profiles in the newsletter on Jesse Cancelmo, Craig Ruax, and Chuck.  What a great way to help us all get to know people better.  More recently, Chuck copied me on a note he sent to two guests (Mark and Teresa Leiserowitz) that had attended the April meeting.  It is so appropriate that I think that I’ll just let him do the talking.

   "Mark and Teresa,

   "I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for coming to the monthly HUPS Meeting last Monday!  I hope you enjoyed yourself and were able to go away with a bit of what we are all about.  We have a great camaraderie and all take interest in the fascinating world of Underwater Photography.

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President's Message from previous column

   "There is a different show every month.  Each of which, I still am in awe.... We have many members that are very knowledgeable and will take pleasure in assisting you with any questions you may have.  Please feel free to contact me at anytime.  I will add you to the email list and hope to add your name to our family roster :-)

   "Our dues are payable annually.  $30.00 for an individual membership or $35.00 for the family.  Hope to see you at the next meeting!

   "Let's Dive ><)))'>
   "Chuck"

Soon after Chuck sent out the message, Mark replied back that the "check was in the mail."  Now if that isn’t the earmarks of a true mentor, I don’t know what is.

In the next several months, Chuck will be assembling his team of mentors, hammering out a plan of action, and putting it all in motion.  The last I heard, we already had several volunteers that said that they would like to be involved: Joe Nicklo, Tammy Allyn, John Anderson, and James Wiseman.

There it is.  If you see Chuck or a member of his team coming up to talk with you about becoming a mentor or asking for support in some way, give them your full attention.  The future of HUPS is dependent on signing up new members, cementing them into the organization, and giving them the type of friendly, helpful environment that we have all come to love over the years.

Dennis

HUPS Shootout $$$ Due

This is a reminder, that if you have not paid your monies for the HUPS Bonaire shootout scheduled for July 10-17, we need the funds pronto.  Henry will need to have all monies in to Island Dreams Travel no later than May 11th.  That means in their hands, not ours on or before May 11th.  If you have forgotten, the land/scuba package is $877 and airfare is $696.40.  Or a total of $1573.40 minus a $200 deposit = $1373.40.  If you have any questions, contact Leonard Cichowski.

Send funds to Henry Ragland:
    HUPS Shootout
    c/o Henry Ragland
    P.O. Box 270056
    Houston, TX 77277

Or pay Henry at the May meeting, because after the meeting it will be too late, as we need to get the funds to Island Dreams.

Volunteers Still Needed for our SEASPACE Booth

Our Super-Dooper SEASPACE Duo Jack Andrews and Joe Nicklo are still looking for fresh meat, uh, I mean willing volunteers.  We still need people to help with set up/tear down, working the booth, helping to set up the LAUPS Gallery and tons more stuff.

This is a great opportunity to become more active in the club and get to know your fellow members.  New members are encouraged to volunteer.  This is the way you go from being a new member to a HUPS insider.  Just ask Jack Andrews.  Last year he was a first time volunteer, and this year he is heading up our effort.

To volunteer, contact Jack or Joe.

 

Monthly Contest Winners
April 2004 - People

Jesse’s Image in Time

No, I am not referring to any pressing deadline.  I am referring to Time Magazine.  Jesse Cancelmo had an image from the Flower Gardens appear in a Shell ad in this month’s Time Magazine.  To see more of Jesse’s work, check out his website: http://www.cancelmophoto.com.

UpComing Meetings & Events

May 3, 2004 - HUPS Meeting
Dennis Deavenport – Small, Strange Friends & David Lenderman – Shark Photography Tips

June 5-6, 2004 – SEASPACE http://www.seaspace.org

June 7, 2004 – HUPS Meeting
Special post-SEASPACE meeting – Marty Snyderman

June 12, 2004 – Workshop
James Wiseman – Digital Workflow

FOR SALE

Ikelite SLR housing for Cannon AE1, w/ flat port, focus & zoom controls & rings, Ikelite Substrobe M, Ikelite strobe arm, Sync cord and Fitted plastic carrying case

Canon AE1 35mm film SLR camera, Canon lens FD 50mm 1: 1.8, Canon zoom lens FD 35-70mm 1: 3.5-4.5, Canon zoom lens FD 70-120mm 1:4, Vivitar tilt/bounce flash unit zoom thyristor 3500 w/colored diffusers, Hanimex close up lens set +1, +3

Make an offer to Lee Mixon.

*************

Two Ikelite SubStrobe 200 (orange) with batteries, quick charger and 2 diffusers -- $900. All work great and one just serviced by Ikelite

Ikelite 4200 Digital underwater light meter. $275 Sekonic MMII with bracket and UltraLight mount. Extra batteries. $125

Ikelite flat port for 50 Micro Nikkor (#5502 for lenses < 3.5" max extension). $25

Photos of these items are viewable at http://www.seabelow.com/uwphoto4sale.  All prices OR BEST OFFER.  Contact Dave Van Rooy at dvanrooy@seabelow.com.  Dave has been a member of HUPS for over 15 years and currently resides in Bali.  All equipment is in good working order, and he will guarantee money back if not satisfied.  Equipment is located in and will be shipped from Austin, TX.

First Place Advanced – Ken Knezick ©2004

This month, we have a guest column by Wetpixel Co-Administrator Craig Jones who shoots the Nikon D100 in a Nexus housing.  Craig comes from a computer science background – so who better to talk to us about using all of the features in the Adobe Photoshop RAW converter called Adobe Camera Raw (v2.1).  This is an "advanced" article with a limited audience, but is becoming more and more applicable as digital photographers start to use the wonderful features of the RAW format.

The following screenshot shows the dialog box that pops up when you click to open a RAW file in Photoshop CS.  There are 4 tabs to choose from to make changes that will be applied when the RAW file is converted to a TIFF.  They are: Adjust, Detail, Lens, and Calibrate.  Craig goes into particular detail about the Lens tab – this is a new and amazing feature that lets the photographer correct chromatic aberration, aka "CA."  Chromatic aberration happens when light passes through an air/water interface, and to a lesser extent through a lens.  It is essentially preferential "splitting" of the light beam in the same way as when it passes through a prism, but to a lesser degree.  In practical terms, what it means is that blue light won’t land in the same place as red light – something that is especially important for digital cameras which have red, green, and blue pixels arrayed in a Bayer pattern on the sensor.  The corrections in Adobe CS allow the user to compensate for CA and essentially bring the spread-out colors back into line – a tremendous advantage for both digital and film shooters, especially for macro - photography through a flat port.

The following are Craig’s Photoshop CS RAW processing steps:

"(0) Select Adobe RGB, 16 bit, and the desired resolution.  I've been up-scaling my images in ACR, but I'd like to hear other opinions on that.  I set resolution to 300 dpi (remember that that's only embedded metadata).  You shouldn't need to do this every time, though you should set your camera defaults.

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RAW Conversion from previous column

Set brightness, exposure, and saturation at 0, shadows at 5, and contrast to 50 or 75.

"(1) Use the exposure and contrast sliders to adjust the image to appear roughly exposed properly.  This is only necessary for underexposed images (or in the case of Kodak deliberately overexposed ones).  It's important during the adjustments not to clip any of the channels, so you may need to return to this control from time to time.  The 'exposure' slider is the overall brightness control while contrast limits dynamic range.

"(2) Set white balance.  I frequently use the eyedropper for this.  For macro with your camera, lenses, and strobes, the proper white balance will lie within a normal range of settings, so you will eventually know where to set it.  Don't be afraid to change it, though, if it doesn't look right.  For wide angle, settings vary, so the eyedropper is more valuable.  If you are using filters, keep that in mind too.  Make sure the histograms don't clip on the right while doing this.  If they do, make some adjustments in step 1.

"(3) Now for the hard part.  You need to decide how much dynamic range the final image should contain.  I frequently limit dynamic range because most images just don't have it, but this is specific to each images.  High dynamic range images require low contrast settings and vice versa.  Adjust the contrast slider in combination with the exposure slider to set the proper exposure and dynamic range to your liking.  Don't worry yet about brightness (the image may seem too dark at this point).  Hold down the ALT key while adjusting brightness.  This allows you to see precisely when clipping occurs and in which channels.  Clipping a pixel is sometimes OK, but you should clip few if any dots when doing this.

"(4) Adjust the black threshold using the Shadows slider.  Occasionally the default value of 5 will be too high, but generally (for my D100) its not nearly enough.  Hold down the ALT key while adjusting this control, and you will see which pixels are getting truncated to 0.  As long as the image is all white, your Shadow setting is too low.  For images with a lot of backscatter, raising the Shadow level will seriously improve matters but at the cost of lost shadow detail.  Don't be afraid to raise this value, but make sure you err on the low side.

"(5) Use the brightness control to adjust the overall brightness of the image if necessary.  I generally leave this set at 0 and increase it only when necessary.  Doing so may require you to adjust the exposure slider downward.

"(6) Adjust saturation to taste.  I'm always using at least +10 saturation, and sometimes more (or much more).  I've used +100 often enough, so don't worry about it.  Adjusting this slider will probably dictate adjustments in steps 3, 4 and 5.

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RAW Conversion from page 4

"In reality, all these controls are interrelated, so you have set them all together.  I generally start with the one furthest out first, and set saturation fairly early on.

"You should now have an image that has its basic adjustments done. Proceed now to the 'Detail' tab.  I don't personally adjust this from image to image, but simply set sharpness and luminance smoothing to 0 and color noise reduction to 25 (probably the ACR default).  Differnt cameras are different, and when I switch to Kodak I expect to have to adjust these values for each image.

"Proceed to the Lens tab and do the following:

"(1) Look in the corners (or as far away from the image center as possible) and find an area of high monochrome contrast.  Using the zoom tool select a small portion of the image that displays some detail.

"(2) Adjust the two chromatic aberration sliders while carefully observing the effect on the zoomed area.  If you are adjusting an image shot using a good wide angle lens and a dome port, this step may be unnecessary, but macro shots with flat ports will receive a noticeable benefit from this.  The two sliders adjust the Red and the Blue relative to the Green, so study the effect carefully to determine what is going on, then adjust with the goal of converging all three colors.  On my D100 high magnification macro shots, settings around +80 are common for both sliders.  For the 5050/PT-015 and macro, the sliders are usually pegged at +100 (need about +125 for this setup).  CA on the PT-015 is massive.

"(3) I don't personally have a need for the vignetting control, so I've never used it.  I wouldn't hesitate if I thought it were a problem though.  I'd take a test shot of an all-white subject for that.

"That's it.  Once converted, I generally only make fine exposure/gamma adjustments using levels, set my blacks using levels or channel mixer, then make fine color balance adjustments.  A common adjustment is using the cyan range of the hue/saturation control to improve blues, and I occasionally do selective adjustments (either through dodge/burn, selection tools, or adjustment layers and the eraser).  I don't use curves.  The rest of my adjustments are mostly backscatter removal and sharpening."

Global Warming to Doom a Million Species By 2050
By Pat Miller

According to a study published in the January 8th edition of the science journal Nature, by the year 2050, global warming made worse by humankind's releases of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could make more than a million of Earth's plants and animals extinct.

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Golobal Warming from previous column

I read about it on National Geographic News:

"The authors include 18 scientists from around the world, making this the largest collaboration of its type. . . The researchers worked independently in six biodiversity-rich regions around the world, from Australia to South Africa, plugging field data on species distribution and regional climate into computer models that simulated the ways species' ranges are expected to move in response to temperature and climate changes. . .

"In agreement with the study authors, [writers of an accompanying commentary to the study in Nature] say taking immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is imperative to constrain global warming to the minimum predicted levels and thus prevent many of the extinctions from occurring.  'The threat to life on Earth is not just a problem for the future. It is part of the here and now,' they write. . .

"'The only conservation action that really makes sense, at a global scale, is for the international community to minimize warming through reduced emissions and the potential establishment of carbon-sequestration programs,' said [one of the study authors]."

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC), a non-profit environmental organization, President Bush's administation's record on global warming is poor.  For example, on November 14, 2003, the NDRC wrote, "At a recent international conference on the Montreal Protocol in Nairobi, Kenya, the Bush administration forced a deadlock in discussion by pushing for an exemption that would allow the United States to increase its use of the ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide by one-third. . ." On September 21, 2003, the NDRC wrote, "The Bush administration conspired with industry to undermine the government's own research on global warming, according to an investigation by The Observer. . ." On August 28, 2003, the NDRC wrote, "In yet another instance of the Bush administration refusing to let science get in the way of its business-friendly policies, the Environmental Protection Agency has decided that it lacks the authority to require automakers and oil companies to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases from vehicles. . ."

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!