bioneural.net » workflow

Personal productivity on Mac and iPhone

Bruce — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:36:58 +0000

As mentioned in an earlier post on using faux Contacts for collecting, managing, and synching tasks offline on the iPhone, I've been reading Getting things done (GTD) by David Allen. I have to say I found the book a difficult, overly repetitive and non-engaging read, despite my motivation to learn from it. If you could get a lot of things done in the time it takes to read 267 anecdote-heavy pages, here's my somewhat condensed take on the bits worth sharing, along with a few Mac-specific embellishments. This is Part two of a two-part series exploring GTD using a Mac and iPhone. It may make more sense if you review Part one first. Introduction I've been hooked on task lists since I first installed Claris Organizer 1.0 from floppy disk (remember those?) onto my PowerBook 100. Organizer incorporated Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Tasks into a single interface—and I do appreciate integration. That app evolved into Palm Desktop and when I bought a Palm V in 1999 my obsessive list-keeping became mobile and subsequently synchronised via various apps including Entourage, iCal, iSync, and Missing Sync. While recent apps like OmniFocus and Things are rather pretty and more GTD-savvy, I'd prefer to rely the Apple-supplied tools I already have. Doing so is simpler (the less tools involved the better—that's one of Allen's recommendations), less costly, and makes use of the typically well-executed integration between Apple apps and devices. Reconciling task and time management Notice I said "typically" well-executed integration. Sadly integration of calendars, tasks, and notes between ...

Using faux Contacts for GTD on the iPhone

Bruce — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:16:28 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Despite strong indications of an imminent second generation 3G iPhone, the recent £100 price drop on the 8GB iPhone proved too tempting. I had hesitated because the iPhone failed to meet my minimum requirements for basic PDA functionality. With 1Password mostly overcoming the secure data exchange obstacle, the remaining challenge was to find a network-independent way of managing and synchronising tasks ("to do" items). I've also been wading through David Allen's book Getting Things Done in a search for ways to improve my personal productivity. Could I cherry-pick the key principles of the GTD religion and apply them on the iPhone using only the built-in apps? This is Part one of a two-part series exploring GTD using a Mac and iPhone. Part two is here. The essence of GTD The OmniFocus Basics Video does a good job of distilling the core ideas in the GTD method. It outlines three concepts: Actions are something you can physically do in a single step; Projects are activities that require more than one physical action to complete; Contexts are physical requirements for carrying out actions (e.g. being at work, at home, connected to the Internet, etc.) The video also summarizes three workflow steps to getting things done: Capture all outstanding individual ("atomic") actions; Organize those actions by grouping them into projects and/ or context; Do the outstanding actions. Let's put that graphically (adding horizontal reorganization as part of ongoing review): I'm not being strict about contexts being a physical place, person or thing: in my world a context can be a frame of mind, or an ...

Bridge v Lightroom v Aperture

Bruce — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:30:52 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Ben Long nicely summarises the capabilities of Bridge (included with Photoshop CS3) in the context of dedicated workflow applications like Abobe's Lightroom and Apple's Aperture. The last word? "No piece of software will make you a better photographer... Instead, go out and shoot!". Perhaps too much efficiency could mean missing valuable lessons if not enough time is spent analysing individual images in order to improve capture, composition, and processing technique?

In the shadow of Mt. Doom

Bruce — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 08:38:13 +0000

From bioneural.net:

We end this month in New Zealand with a sense of achievement: we walked the Tongariro Crossing without significant pain nor injury. We had good weather and got some great photos of the beautiful volcanic landscape. Our 18.6 km walk began early morning in the shadow of Mt. Doom, as Ngauruhoe is now popularly known following its role in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. In the bright sunlight at altitude, capturing well-exposed images of the dark landscape required extra care to avoid blown highlights. Click thumbnail to enlarge image Mt. Ngauruhoe (a.k.a Mt. Doom) Getting good exposure I have the AE-L/AF-L button on my Nikon D70 set to AE Lock only, meaning exposure locks while the button is pressed but focus is unaffected. The default locks both exposure and focus: AE-L/AF-L settings (© Nikon) I've ignored this button until recently, perhaps because using it requires some dexterity and coordination: Zoom in and focus on a highlight—usually horizon sky (half-depress the trigger); Depress the AE-L/AF-L button; Keeping my thumb on the AE-L/AF-L button, release the trigger; Zoom in on the subject and half-depress the trigger to lock focus; Zoom out and recompose; Press the trigger; Release the AE-L/AF-L button! Fingers and thumbs (© Nikon) I recently tried this routine repeatedly on the Crossing and it soon became automatic, but granted it does seem cumbersome. Is there a better way to do this? After taking the shot I always check for over-exposed areas on the LCD, which I keep on Highlights display (the brightest areas flash; the less the better). Raw material The idea is to get ...

An Automator workflow for batch resizing

Bruce — Sun, 28 May 2006 09:09:48 +0000

From bioneural.net:

In the pre-Intel era I used the PhotoToolCM contextual menu plugin to take a selection of JPEG images in the Finder from our digital cameras and quickly resize them to send as e-mail attachments. Here's a way to do the same with Automator. One of the great things about having your photos in iPhoto is the Email button that lets you choose a selection to resize and send as e-mail attachments: Unfortunately it takes some time for my photos to get into iPhoto, since I sort them using Adobe Bridge (part of CS2) and import them to iPhoto after processing. But, as when you've just got back from a holiday, there are times when you want to quickly fire off a few (unprocessed) snaps to friends and/or family. Here is a basic Automator workflow for batch duplicating, renaming, and resizing a selection of JPEG images in a Finder folder (or selected directly on the CF/SD/XD/whatever card mounted on the desktop), ready to be sent as e-mail attachments. Output to the desktop at 25% of the original dimensions is my personal preference: If you choose Save As Plug-in in Automator you can right-click on your image selection to perform the resize action: If you want to use or customize this workflow, you can download it here. Open it, choose Save As Plug-in, name it, choose Plug-in for: Finder then Save.

Re-purposing photos for e-mail and web display

Bruce — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 17:00:46 +0000

From bioneural.net:

If you produce high-quality images (e.g. by means of a raw conversion workflow), you may find that they are unsuitable for e-mailing or display on the web as JPEGs in their present form. They may be of a large dimension, high-resolution (e.g. 300 dpi), high bit-depth (i.e. 16 bits/ channel), with an unsafe colour profile (e.g. ProPhoto), not enough compression, and be a bit fuzzy after re-sizing. You could open each individual image that you want to re-purpose in Photoshop and change the pixel dimensions, the resolution (to 72 dpi), the bit depth (to 8 bits), the colour space (to sRGB), the quality (e.g. to 8 cf. 12), and apply sharpening. But there is a much easier way using Photoshop Actions and Automator... Generic automation The Fotogenetic Photoshop Actions by Alex Mabini automate the above processes. Stop reading here—unless you have Mac OS X Tiger. Under Tiger Mabini's "Save for Web" Action can be combined with the "Do Action" (and other) Photoshop Automator Actions by Ben Long (available here): The resulting Automator workflow can be saved as a Finder plug-in so that it is available whenever you right-click on an image in the Finder: Alternatively, it can be saved as a stand-alone application that sits on your Desktop (or in your OS X Dock) onto which you can drop one or more files: It really works! What about iPhoto? iPhoto includes an "Email" button. Let's throw a 34.5 MB TIFF at it (16 bits/ channel, 300 dpi, 3008 x 2000 pixels, ProPhoto colour space). clearly, not something you ...

A raw and CS2 workflow for dummies

Bruce — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:44:40 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Well, not for dummies—but for non-professional photographers, amateurs, or prosumers (as you like). This article represents my evolving understanding of the options you have during raw conversion with ACR 3.1, and during post-processing in Photoshop CS2 (following nearly 3 years of shooting JPEG, ignoring colour management, and tinkering with Photoshop 7). I like a "one product does it all" solution. I descibe a workflow that will hopefully make sense for most images—assuming that like me you want to work on one at a time, to edit once, and your interest is in capturing what's there and not "faking it". I'll make changes as I discover what does or doesn't work, and acquire new knowledge (maybe even skill?). Your feedback and suggestions would be much appreciated. This is a fairly long article, but there's a graphic summary at the end! Capture and camera settings I decided on a Nikon D70 set to raw + JPEG basic, a SanDisk 1GB Extreme III Compact Flash card, and an iPod photo 60GB with iPod Camera Connector for in-the-field storage (also works with my wife's Olympus C-70Z and my old Sony DSC-F717). As with my previous camera, the only "rule" I try to adhere to when shooting is this one: ...correct exposure means keeping the highlights as close as possible to blowing out, without actually doing so. Some photographers refer to this concept as "Expose to the Right" because you want to make sure that your highlights fall as close to the right side of the histogram as ...

Photoshop CS2 vs. Nikon Capture 4.2

Bruce — Mon, 23 May 2005 07:06:52 +0000

From bioneural.net:

I've already looked at raw ability in Photoshop CS2, together with image editing features for post-processing. The question is should I upgrade to CS2 (from Photoshop 7 and Elements 3) when my Nikon D70 arrives, or spend similar money on Nikon Capture instead. How do they broadly compare in terms of features? At this point I'm not interested in technical subtleties, just a broad feature run-down for Joe Average. Photoshop CS2 The full Photoshop CS2 package costs a whopping £523 from the European Adobe online store; to upgrade from Photoshop 7 costs £140 (including VAT) or £144 if you download it (yes, more , but missing media, printed manual, and Stock Art!). The same upgrade costs $US150 in the States—about £80. It looks like Adobe set their own exchange rate: remember to smile as you get ripped off... but honestly, a rather perplexing approach to pricing for a company concerned about software piracy. I sent a polite letter to Adobe (then an e-mail) asking them to explain the price difference, but they didn't even have the decency to reply to either. However, non-US upgrade price aside, CS2 has some great features for digital photographers: More options in the raw converter (compared to PSE3; see here); Filter for lens correction. As well as removing barrel distortion, there are controls for fixing chromatic aberration and vignetting (also for non-raw files), and perspective; Filter for noise reduction (also reduced JPEG artifacts; also in PSE3); Filter for smart sharpening, apparently more advanced than unsharp mask and can be selectively applied to ...

Image post-processing: the bit depth issue

Bruce — Sun, 22 May 2005 09:59:47 +0000

From bioneural.net:

Up to this point, because I didn't know better, I've done my image post-processing in 8-bit mode. What does this mean, and how does it affect the quality of the image? What software do I need to edit in a 16-bit workspace? Here are the results of my investigation of these questions... Bit depth Apparently most digital cameras (and scanners) use 12-bit analog to digital converters, giving you the potential of 12-bits per channel raw (various proprietary formats e.g. NEF), 8-bit JPEG, or 8 or 12-bit TIFF as a starting point. Software for image editing, like Photoshop, can work in 8-bit or 16-bit mode. You print or save for online viewing as JPEG using 8 bits per channel (24-bit colour). More bits equals more image data: 8 bits produce 256 tones; 3 channels = 24-bit image 12 bits produce 4096 tones; 3 channels = 36-bit image 16 bits produce 65,536 tones; 3 channels = 48-bit image Bottom line: We want to start out with as much image data as possible, so shoot raw if possible. Raw conversion Adobe Camera raw gives you the option of opening your converter image in an 8-bit or 16-bit workspace. More details here. Bottom line: We want to minimise image degradation during the editing process, so open images a 16-bit workspace. Editing in a 16-bit workspace Opening a 12-bit raw file in an 8-bit workspace involves some loss of data as there are fewer bits to contain data describing tones etc, as the data are effectively rounded to fit into a smaller space. This also ...

Basic image adjustment with Photoshop 7

Bruce — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 05:58:41 +0000

From bioneural.net:

I'm curious; as a fellow amateur photographer, how do you use Photoshop to improve the images from your digital camera? Or do you not need to? Here is a workflow of the basic image adjustments that I will often try, based on tips gleaned from sites like TrekEarth and from reading a (heavy-going) book by Martin Evening... Click thumbnail to enlarge image