Journal

29/04/2023On Mastodon

My Black and White Workflow

Today I was asked about my black and white workflow. I thought I might answer it here as well:

I only shoot raw, both with my Leica and my Fuji cameras, so technically, there is always color information there. (Hence I was able to convert this image back to color.)

But usually, I never see my images in color, ever.

That is because I have set all of my cameras to black and white, using the “Monochrom” mode on the Leicas and the ACROS (Yellow) film simulation on the Fujis. That way I only see b/w images when looking through the EVF or at the display, both when shooting and also when I review the photos I have taken.

Photo Mechanic, which I use for editing, shows me monochrome photos too, as it uses the preview images generated by the cameras.

And finally, when I import my photos into Lightroom, I have it set up so that it applies a custom preset using a B&W profile (mostly Adobe Monochrome) to the images right away.

That’s it. 🙂

All that being said, I obviously shoot in color sometimes. I even have a whole project I shoot in color.

I also think it is important to note, that some photos do not work in b/w – and some don’t work in color. That is why I usually decide whether to shoot either b/w or color before going out/taking the first picture, because – at least for me – seeing works differently in both cases. I probably should elaborate on that in another post…

note29/04/2023 at 10:36On Mastodon

As the content types grow, I added some tabs to my Kirby Panel:

Kirby panel of my photoblog with tabs for blog, galleries, postcards and webmentions

I also love the way the last tab becomes this [… more] button, when the screen size is too small: 👌

Tabs in the Kirby panel are hidden under a more button, if the screen is not wide enough

Also I just found out I never clicked on that little pen icon (whereas I use the search all the time):

A little pen icon in the Kirby panel indicates unsaved changes

Turns out Kirby remembers when you forgot to save a change, even when it was months ago! 🙈🤯

note23/04/2023 at 14:10On Mastodon

📷 May I present to you, my photographic documentation of beyond tellerrand 2023 in Düsseldorf feat. @sophie @scott @quasimondo @michelle @cassiecodes @tobestobs and more.

I had an amazing time – as always! Thanks to all the speakers for your inspiring stories and @marcthiele for having me! 🙏

note22/04/2023 at 16:51On Mastodon

In the process of editing my #btconf images from earlier this week:

I did take 1,641 images in total. 805 were left after the first pass, 406 after the second. Now down to 219 photos. I usually aim for something in the range of 150 or so images. Getting rid of the last 50, is always the hardest part.

Final thing after that will be sequencing. I mostly go with chronological here, but sometimes, moving a couple of images around makes for a more interesting flow.

Stay tuned!

20/04/2023On Mastodon

Personal Picture Postcards

So I created this new feature into my photo blog where I can send a photograph and a personal note to someone in the form of a (digital) postcard.

This is probably not an original idea, but it was important to me, not to use an external service and that I have full control over how to present the photo and the note.

As I have written before, I am not a fan of sharing photography via social media, because it lacks personality and intentionality.

And while I love my photo blog for sharing my images, I was looking for a way to send a personal message to someone – that’s just for them, eg. to say thank you or send them an image, that is only meant for them.

It was also important to allow people to keep their postcards. That is why you can download them (it’s a simple HTML file) and look at them offline. (It should even work in Quick Look on a Mac!)

Here is an example postcard, if you want to check it out.

I will probably make it more accessible and also optimize the file size at bit (all assets are base64 encoded and embedded in the HTML file). Stuff might still break. (Please let me know!)

Oh and, I almost forgot to mention: You need a somewhat adequate screen (size) to see it, because mobile phones are way too small to look at photography. 😏

I’d love to hear what you think!

PS: I had this idea for a while and Sophie‘s talk at beyond tellerrand got me all fired up to tinker with my personal website again, so I made the first prototype back in the hotel that night. 🤘

12/04/2023On Mastodon

The Kirby Panel

I didn’t mention the panel in my last post about Kirby1. Although I initially thought, I would add new posts via text editor/FTP upload, the panel quickly won me over, as I find it a joy to use.

Look at this beauty: Minimal, no clutter, everything I need – and nothing more. Opening the panel actually makes we want to post something!

Screenshot of the Kirby panel I use in my photo blog
Creating a new post on my photo blog with the Kirby panel

It is also quite simple to set up, once you have familiarized yourself with Kirby’s blueprints. You can configure the layout of the panel however you like, ordering fields in columns or tabs and so much more.

This is the code I use to layout my panel:

title: Default Page
num: '{{ page.published.toDate("Ymd") }}'
columns:
  - width: 1/2
    sections:
      info:
        type: fields
        fields:
          published:
            type: date
            time: true
            default: now
          text:
            type: textarea
          collections:
            type: tags
          mood:
            type: text
          audio:
            label: Audio
            type: files
            uploads: 
              template: audio
            multiple: false
  - width: 1/2
    sections:
      gallery:
        type: files
        template: default
        layout: cards
        info: "{{ file.alt }}"
        size: medium
        image:
          ration: 3/2

As I said in the other post, I only scratched the surface of what is possible. But this has been working incredibly well for me. (For a couple of years now, actually!)

I might share more of my setup in the future. Recently I was even asked to share my whole theme. (Is it “theme”? Sorry, still not completely at home in the Kirby terminology, coming from WordPress.)

Before I am comfortable doing that, I would need to do some polishing first, though. Kind of like, not letting anyone into my home, before having done at least a little amount of cleaning. 🙂

  1. I forgot I had written this post a couple of years ago, right after I published my post about switching my photo blog to Kirby. Just found it in my drafts. 🤷‍♂️↩︎
note11/04/2023 at 12:21

I am currently reading Austin Kleon‘s “Show your work!” I love the format of the book and it is a quick and entertaining read so far.

Once you make sharing part of your daily routine, you’ll notice themes and trends emerging in what you share. You’ll find patterns in your flow.

This bit especially resonated with me. As I am in the process of (making and) sharing photos daily on my photo blog, I find patterns all the time, certain repeating themes, subjects I am drawn to. This was also the main reason for creating “collections” on the blog – not for others, but to make these patterns more obvious for myself.

note10/04/2023 at 09:13On Mastodon

I didn’t get CSS to run doom or anything, but I’m still delighted that I made this work using only HTML, CSS, and a little weasy black magic.

Ian G McDowell on “Laying Out a Print Book With CSS“

Very interesting – and entertaining – read.

via Claudio

08/04/2023On Mastodon

File Handling: Leica M vs. Fuji

Something I never read about anywhere is how incredibly well the (digital) Leica M handles SD cards and files.

Example from earlier today:

After importing images and then putting the SD card back into my Fujifilm X-E4, it complained with a “card failure” error.

To its defense: The card was pretty much full and I used Photo Mechanic to select images and add some meta data directly on the card, which they (Camera Bits) explicitly, repeatedly tell you to never do. (What can I say… 🤷‍♂️)

The Fuji was basically crashing. Couldn’t even format the card.

So, I popped it into the Leica, formatted it without issues. Back into the Fuji, which now showed no card error.

Another thing that I run into constantly is that the Fuji cannot display the images after I added meta data to them with Photo Mechanic (again, directly onto the card, yes, I know…), whereas the Leica does not have any issues whatsoever.

Maybe it’s because of the file format – Fuji’s proprietary RAW vs. Leica using DNG?

Anyway, I just found that interesting.

note08/04/2023 at 12:25

I watched the Boris Becker Documentary on Apple TV+ last night. I remember being on this balcony as a kid when he came home after he won Wimbledon in 1985:

He was such a big deal when I was a child, growing up in Leimen, where he is from also. I remember watching many matches and with my dad or my grandparents, featuring Boris’ epic rivalries with Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and later Michael Stich.

I am glad that the documentary spent more time (about 2/3) on the tennis rather than his financial/business-related issues.

(Side note: How stupid is it, that Apple, Netflix & co. prevent you from taking screenshots? Yeah, pretty stupid!)