I found that the best way to use the fill flash was to put my 430EX II flash into manual mode and set it to 1/4 to 1/8 full power. I tried using Aperture-Priority mode, which is supposed to automatically use fill flash with E-TTL, but I just didn’t like it as much. Here’s an example of a picture of Julia that used some fill flash:

The flash helped lighten the shadows on her face, without becoming too overpowering. Here’s another example:

Contrast that with a picture of her that doesn’t have any fill flash, just natural light:

I also had fun with some Lightroom presets for special effects. This photo of a sign and bridge has an old-fashioned, grainy look:

This one is almost, but not quite, like a toned black-and-white print:

Both fill flash and presets can come in very handy. I’ll definitely play with them some more in the future.

• Current Mood: End of vacation
• Currently Listening To: "Tea For One", Led Zeppelin

1. Using a card reader, transfer the RAW files from the CF card to my 750 GB hard drive.
2. Geotag the RAW files using GeoSetter.
3. Import the RAW files into Adobe Lightroom.
4. Go through the photos and flag the obvious rejects.
5. Develop the RAW files, changing exposure, white balance, etc.
6. Label and caption the keepers in Lightroom.
7. Export the RAW files to JPG.
8. If necessary, make edits in GIMP, although this is a rarity these days.
9. Upload to my SmugMug site.

Last night I geotagged the files, so now I’m importing and making the first pass through them. Hopefully, before too long, I’ll have them up.

• Current Mood: Busy
• Currently Listening To: "Atom Heart Mother", Pink Floyd

I’ve been running Windows XP Pro x64 edition on my home computer for over three years now. (Side note: I’ve never had any compatibility problems with 64-bit computing, such as not getting Adobe products to run, and I hope that the day will soon come when there is no 32-bit computing anymore.) XP has served me quite well, being more than stable enough, especially in my current config (a Phenom II X4 920 with 8GB of memory and a Radeon HD 4870 video card). When Vista came out, I played around with it briefly and decided that there was no way that I would upgrade to Vista, and the feedback I got from people who had done so did nothing to change my mind.

Windows 7, however, does seem to be slimmer and less irritating than Vista, and so far the reviews have generally been positive. Will I upgrade? I’m not sure; it depends on how much it’s going to cost. The only thing I’m really missing in XP right now is DirectX 10, and since I’m not a gamer that doesn’t matter very much. Other things coming up on the tech horizon, like USB 3.0, may not be supported by XP and that could prompt an upgrade. For now, though, I’m content to wait.

…What about Linux, you may ask? I’ve used Linux a fair bit, mainly on a couple fileservers I’ve set up in the past. I’m definitely pro-open source and pro-free software. Unfortunately, although there are lots of alternatives to Windows programs on Linux (a good list is here), noticeably missing is Adobe Lightroom. I also use Quicken for my finances, but the quality of Quicken software has degraded so much with its latest releases that I have just above given up on it, even if it entails a painful migration. Lightroom, however, is still the biggie, and so until Adobe ports it to Linux, I’m sticking with Windows. The next laptop I get, though, will probably be a netbook, and if so, it will run Linux.