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Australian Photographers and Photographs | Pentax Resources
General Photography Resources | Classic and Vintage Cameras | Free Software
Australian Photographers and Photographs
Australian Photography 1850s - 2000
This two-part exhibition held between 2003 and 2005 was the first to extensively explore the National Library of Australia's massive photography holdings in the Pictures Collection, now numbering more than 600 000 images. Some of the photographs from the exhibitions can be seen online:
Charles Bayliss (1850-1897)
Charles Bayliss was one of Australia's earliest photographers. A Modern Vision - Charles Bayliss, Photographer is an exhibition of his work at the National Library of Australia. His panoramas of Sydney (360o) and Stawell (180o) are particularly worth a look, considering that they were photographed in the 1870s. The full catalogue of the exhibition is available for download from the exhibition's website.
William Henry Corkhill (1846-1936)
The William Henry Corkhill Collection is a series of over 800 images documenting the people and buildings of the Tilba Tilba region on the south coast of New South Wales in the late 1800s.
Harold Cazneaux (1878 - 1953)
Max Dupain once called Harold Cazneaux "the father of modern Australian photography." Harold Cazneaux - Australian Observer is an online exhibition of some of his work, based on an exhibition at the National Library of Australia.
Peter Dombrovskis (1945-1996)
Peter Dombrovskis was a protége of Oleagas Truchanas (see below) and, like Truchanas, his work features the remote wilderness of south-west Tasmania. His image 'Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend, Franklin River' is regarded as having an influential impact on the 1983 Federal Election where Bob Hawke's victory was due, in part, to the Labor Party's opposition to the construction of the Gordon-Below-Franklin Dam. This selection of images at the National Library of Australia includes the Rock Island Bend photograph. Peter Dombrovskis was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in 2003.
Max Dupain (1911-1992)
Max Dupain is one of the best known of Australian photographers. Max Dupain on Assignment is a selection of images from the exhibition held at the National Archives in Canberra in 2008 featuring Dupain's work for the Commonwealth Government and for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited.
Frank Hurley (1885-1962)
Frank Hurley is arguably Australia's most famous photographer having made his name on Antarctic exploration with Mawson and Shackleton and as an official photographer in both world wars. The Frank Hurley Archive at the National Library of Australia features thousands of his images and two other online resources which feature Hurley's Antarctic work are:
Ricky Maynard (1953-)
Ricky Maynard is a photographer based on Flinders Island in Bass Strait. His photographs aim to keep Aboriginal culture alive and document Aboriginal social and political realities. He is a graduate of The International Centre of Photography in New York, and has won many Australian and international photography awards. A major exhibition is 'Portrait of a Distant Land', comprising sixty images selected from his work of the last 20 years. His photography featured in a 2 part film on ABC TV's 'Message Stick Program:
David Moore (1927-2003)
David Moore began his career in the studio of Max Dupain. Some of the most familiar images of Australian life are his, although most people would probably not know the name of the photographer. One of his images, 'The Grape Picker' was sent into deep space aboard the 1967 Voyager spacecrafts.
The Spread of Time: Photography of David Moore features notes and images from the exhibition that opened at the National Gallery on the Australia Day long weekend in 2003. David Moore died on 23 January 2003, two days before the opening of the exhibition.
Olegas Truchanas (1923-1972)
Olegas Truchanas arrived in Australia as a displaced person after World War II. He was a key figure in the attempt to stop the damming of wild rivers in south-west Tasmania by raising public awareness of the issue through his audio visual presentations. The 105 slides that comprised the Olegas Truchanas Lake Pedder Audiovisual Collection are held by the National Library of Australia.
Wildness
Wildness is a documentary film that features over 300 photographs by Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis and tells their stories. Both men died tragically in the Tasmanian south-west wilderness.
Richard Woldenthorp (1927-)
Dutch-born photographer Ricard Woldenthorp is a landscape photographer who specialises in photographing the Australian landscape from a light aircraft flying at about 1,500 metres. He has authored numerous books, the most recent being 'Abstract Earth', which is also the title of a recent exhibition. He lives in Western Australia and was made a State Living Treasure for his contribution to the Arts.
Picture Australia
Use Picture Australia to locate images from the collections of Australia's libraries, museums, galleries and archives.
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Pentax Resources
Pentax Discuss Mailing List (PDML)
The place for discussion of all things Pentax. Ask for advice, post images for comment or just hang out.
- PDML Archives - If you just want to 'lurk' without joining until you get the feel of the list, this is the place to go. The archives are updated almost as soon as a new message is posted to the list.
- PDML FAQ
- PUG (Pentax User's Gallery) is a monthly themed gallery displaying work by PDML members.
- The PDML Photo Annual 2011
Edited by Mark Roberts, the Annual features work by 73 members of PDML from 17 countries: United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Israel, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, the Philippines, Italy, Iceland, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Spain and India. The book encompases a wide range of photographic styles - "gritty urban documentary shots, expansive landscapes, expressive portraits, sports, macro, abstract, fashion, travel, wildlife and combinations of many of the above. Some defy categorization".
For a preview and/or to order a copy, go to The PDML Photo Annual on Mark Roberts' web site. Once there, click on the image of the book's cover to preview and/or order. The Annual also has its own Facebook page, which also includes details of publications by PDML members.
All net profits are donated to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Pediatric Oncology Global Outreach program.
- PDML Member's Web Sites
Many PDML members maintain their own online portfolios. This link leads to a list of these sites on Mark Roberts' website which, in itself, is a great resource.
- PDML Map
Frapper map of PDML members' locations. Not complete, but it shows an interesting geographical spread.
Asahi Optical Historical Club
A great resource for information on Pentax equipment from the early Asahiflex to the latest digital cameras.
Pentax Blogs
Pentax Classics
- Brief History of Early Pentax Cameras
An outline of the early models from the Asahiflex to the ESII.
- Pentax Auto 110 System
Pentax's Auto 110 system of the late 1970s and 1980s was the smallest interchangeable-lens SLR system ever created and used Kodak's 110 film cartridge. The cameras and lenses were tiny (the camera fits in the palm of a hand easily). The information on this site is truly extensive.
- Pentax Collector Home Page
Fred Sherfy's web site contains a number of interesting articles and other data on early Pentax cameras, especially the Asahiflex series and the early M42 screw mount models.
PentaxForums.com
A forum dedicated purely to Pentax photography. It includes a discussion forum, a user photo gallery, lens review database, articles database. All forum members can upload photos to the photo gallery for free and take part in monthly photo competitions and other photographic challenges and events.
Pentax K-Mount Page
Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page has all the information you can possibly need about Pentax K (bayonet) mount cameras, lenses and accessories. It covers film (35 mm and medium format) and digital camera systems.
Pentax Manuals
This is the place to obtain free, high quality manuals of many Pentax cameras, including screw-mount and bayonet-mount SLRs, compact cameras and accessories. If you can't find what you want here, try Pentax Imaging, but the quality won't be as good for older models.
Pentax Photo Gallery
An online gallery featuring the work of Pentax users worldwide. It's Flash-based and can be slow to load - but certainly worth the wait!
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General Photography Resources
BBC Photography Masterclasses
A series of downloadable PDFs on the art of wildlife and nature photography (landscapes, mammals, birds and lots more) presented by expert photographers in specific fields.
Digital Photography Tutorials
An excellent series of articles on photographic techniques, image processing, colour management and much more by Sean McHugh (Cambridge in Colour).
The Luminous Landscape
Michael Reichmann's "....comprehensive site devoted to the art of landscape, nature and documentary photography
using digital as well as traditional image processing techniques. This site currently has more than 3,500 pages containing articles, tutorials, product reviews and photographs."
The Monitor Calibration and Gamma Assessment Page
Without some basic monitor calibration, obtaining prints that match the on-screen image is near impossible. Calibration using hardware is best but expensive. This page describes on-screen methods that can give acceptable results and includes some useful test patterns.
The Online Photographer
Mike Johnston's "all-purpose time-wasting website for photo-dawgs of every stripe, age, sex, color, nationality, description, economic stratum, and media preference. No need for brandname tribalism or fat-wallet one-upsmanship here; just a relentless cascade of cool crap about this fascinating lifetime hobby. Just try to keep up." The weblog is usually updated daily.
Photography BB
Free, monthly online photography magazine. You need to register but it is free and it is excellent!
Sensor Cleaning for Digital Cameras
Dust accumulation in the image sensors of digital SLRs is a fact of life and even though most DSLRs now include sensor cleaning, the systems aren't perfect. The odd dust spot can be removed by image editing software but sooner or later dust accumulation will need to be addressed. This can be done professionally but if you want to do-it-yourself, the following links will help.
- Demystifying D-SLR Sensor Cleaning
This site covers virtually everything there is to know about sensor cleaning as well as methods to avoid. It includes detailed instructions - check out particularly the 'DIY Projects' and 'The Cleaning' sections.
- The Pixel Sweeper
Selecting and using a brush for dry cleaning of a sensor.
- "Copperhill" sensor cleaning method
This is not one of the best designed web sites on the planet but there is a lot of useful information - sometimes it's just not that easy to find!. Particularly useful is the table which lists the correct 'Eclipse' fluid to be used on the sensors of different DSLR models (there are two different Eclipse fluids and you need to select the correct one for your camera). The table can be found here.
SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month)
SoFoBoMo is an idea that was initiated by Paul Butzi in 2008. It is a group event where photographers all make electronic photo books from start to finish, in 31 days. All of the books completed since 2008 can be downloaded from the SoFoBoMo website.
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Classic and Vintage Cameras
For classic Pentax cameras, see links under Pentax Resources above.
Captain Jack's Contax/Pentacon SLR Cameras
The Contax S of 1949 was the camera that most influenced subsequent SLR design. It was the first 35 mm SLR with a fixed pentaprism and introduced the 42 mm "screw mount", later adopted by many other manufacturers including Pentax. 'Captain Jack' also has interesting pages on Exakta and Praktina (yes, Praktina - not Praktica!).
The Classic Camera
Information on 100 or so cameras from the classic era.
Matt's Classic Camera Collection
A vintage camera site done with style!
Photoethnography.com
There are many sites featuring classic camera collections. Karen Nakamura's Photoethnography site is one of the better ones.
Something Zeiss to Say
Classic and collectable Zeiss Ikon cameras.
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Free Software
Focus Stacking
Focus stacking is an image processing method to combine several images of the same subject into a single image. The individual images are captured with different points of focus so that the final combined image has a greater depth of field than would be possible otherwise.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) Processing
HDR software takes a series of bracketed images and combines them to produce a single image comprising the best exposed parts of each. In this way, an image can be produced that includes a range of tones the could not be captured by a camera in a single exposure. The term 'HDR' has come to be associated with tone mapping techniques which can produce images with 'unreal' contrast for artistic effect. The best known HDR software is the commercial package Photomatix.
- Luminance HDR - Previously known as Qtpfsgui, Luminance HDR is an open source workflow for HDR Imaging. The program currently does not have any built-in help features and can be incomprehensible at first sight. This tutorial for an earlier version of Qtpfsgui is recommended as a starting point. Linux, Windows. MacOS.
- Picturenaut - Pictutrenaut doesn't produced the 'unreal' results that some of the better known HDR processing software produces but it does an excellent job of producing realistic images. Windows only.
Image Editors
- Gimp - Love it or hate it (and there are plenty of people on each side of that fence), Gimp is a powerful image editing application which rivals Photoshop in its features. But.... it doesn't support 16 bit images and the interface is unusual if you're familiar with Windows applications. Processing of RAW files is handled by the UFRaw plugin (see below). Windows, MacOS, Linux.
- Serif Photo Plus - Serif often releases older versions of their products as freeware (I've used their Page Plus DTP application for many years and it's excellent). This free version of Photo Plus is not as feature packed as Photoshop or even Photoshop Elements but it still handles many photo editing tasks and includes support for layers and masks. The only downside - you need to register with Serif and you will get 'special offers' emailed to you from time to time, but they aren't excessive. Windows only.
Image Management
- Studioline Photo Basic - This is an application for managing image collections. You can add descriptions and keywords to your images then search and sort to find images matching specific criteria. You can also apply ratings to images and carry out basic image editing such as white balance and exposure adjustment. The program reads most raw formats. I liked the program so much I paid for the upgrade to Studioline Photo Classic. Windows only.
- Zoner Photo Studio Free - Like Studioline Photo Basic, this program's main purpose is to manage image collections but it also includes basic image editing features. Windows only.
Image Viewers
- FastStone Image Viewer - Top quality image browser, converter and editor. One of the best viewers available, supporting all major graphics formats (including RAW) and, at a pinch, it could be used for basic image editing. Windows only.
- IrfanView - This program is basically an image viewer but it also converts image files from one format to another and has support for a large number of graphics formats. It can also resize, rotate and crop, apply exposure adjustments and much more. Windows only.
- XnView - Similar in many ways to IrfanView, this graphics viewer also converts image files from one format to another and has support for more than 400 graphics formats. Like IrfanView, it can also resize, rotate and crop, apply exposure adjustments etc. Windows, MacOS, Linux.
Miscellaneous
- Slimbox - Slimbox is a nifty piece of Javascript for displaying images as overlays on the current browser page. I use it on this website. Try it out in the Gallery links at the top of this page. Windows, MacOS, Linux.
Noise Reduction
- Absolute Denoiser Free - There are a number of specialist software applications for treatment of digital 'noise' in images. I've found this free application does an excellent job. The interface is a bit idiosyncratic and the free version works only on images in 'png' format. This is a only minor inconvenience as most image editors, such as Photoshop Elements, can read and write png files - just load your image in your image editor, save it as a png file, import it into Absolute Denioser, work on it to reduce noise, re-save it as a png file and re-import it into your editor. If you paste the new png file as a new layer on your original image and apply a layer mask you can restrict the de-noising to just the part of the image that needs it. Windows, MacOS, Linux. (Note, this program has now been replaced by NDNoise, available from the same author and still free).
On-line Image Storage and Web Space
- JAlbum - Top class, free Web Album software that allows creation of albums on your computer. Albums can then be uploaded to jalbum.net (or to your own web space) to allow online viewing of images. Each account gets 30 MB of free storage on jalbum.net. A vast range of "skins" are available to customise albums. I use JAlbum for several Online Albums documenting different locations and events. Windows, MacOS, Linux.
- Dropbox - Want 2 GB of free storage for your web galleries or personal website? Dropbox is basically an online file storage / file sharing service but it can also be used to host photo galleries and websites. You install the Dropbox software on your computer and during the installation the software creates a special "My Dropbox" folder. Anything placed in that folder gets automatically uploaded in the background to the Dropbox storage. If, say, you create a web gallery with JAlbum or Lightroom and you copy that gallery into the Dropbox public folder, it gets uploaded and becomes publicly available for viewing. There are paid options to access greater storage but you can develop very large galleries and websites with 2 GB! Here's an example of one of my JAlbum galleries hosted on Dropbox. Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Picasa - Impressive free application from Google for managing and editing digital photo collections. The software integrates with Picasa Web Albums which allow users to set up private or public online galleries for viewing images, but the two applications can be used independently. Each web album account gets 1GB of free storage and the system operates via a standard web browser. Windows, MacOS, Linux.
Panorama Stitching
- Autostitch - Although labelled a 'Demo", the download version of this free panorama maker is fully usable with the restriction that it will only work on JPG files. The program works automatically - just point it at a folder of images and it assembles the panorama automatically. The demo becomes obsolete eventually but a new demo can be downloaded from the website. Hugin (see below) may be a better option now that it can also produce panoramas automatically. Windows only.
- Hugin - Free panorama maker for stitching a series of images into a single panorama. Until the latest version, using this program was complex, involving manual selection of control points to allow overlapping areas of the individual images to be matched. Now, using the "Assistant", stitching can be as automatic as with Autostitch, with the added advantage of being able to input and output TIF files. Manual selection of control points is still available as an option. Windows, Mac, Linux.
- Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) - A competent panorama maker with a simple and easy to follow interface. Windows only.
- Serif Panorama Plus - This is basically a graphical front end to Autostitch (see above) and like Autostitch it is limited to JPG output. Unlike Autostitch it will load TIF files but you can't specify the output JPG quality or size. Windows only.
Photoshop Resources
- Black and White Variations - A script that produces 20 different black and white conversions, so you can select the best looking one (or even mix parts of one conversion with different parts of another). Photoshop CS and later.
- The Light's Right Studio - Free Photoshop actions/scripts as well as comprehensive tips and tutorials.
- Save for Web Script - This script converts a document color profile to sRGB, launches Save For Web, and then resets the color profile. Photoshop CS and later.
RAW Image Processors
- RawHide - RawHide is a free program to read and manipulate RAW images from most digital cameras. It also includes a dark frame subtraction feature for astrophotography. Fully featured and looks like one to watch as it develops. Windows only.
- Raw Studio - Rawstudio is an open-source program to read and manipulate RAW images from most digital cameras. It has a graphical user interface which is quite easy to use. Linux only.
- Raw Therapee - This has developed into a fully featured raw image processor with most of the features of high-priced commercial programs. It can be a little slow in operation if the image preview is set to full size (1:1) - editing is best done with the preview set at about 1:4. Windows, Linux (a Mac version is under development).
- Stepok's Raw Importer - Stepok's Raw Importer is a fairly basic raw importing and converting tool, compatible with most camera models. It doesn't have the range of features of Raw Therapee but does provide a powerful batch processing option. Windows only.
- UFRaw - UFRaw is a stand alone or Gimp plugin for decoding raw files. Windows, MacOS, Linux.
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