Archive for the 'news' Category
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Fun exploring EXIF data with Tableau!
Woke up this morning to a tweet from Vanya Tucherov about extracting the EXIF data from photographs and plugging into the information visualisation software Tableau. Worth a try! An hour later, we had the following charts up on the web, currently just using a sample of 450 photos:
How to
We use Bibble as our RAW convertor/DAM, and a peek inside their image library files shows that it’s all stored in SQLite, a portable/flat file database format. That’s good – it means it should be easy to transform it into a format Tableau understands. For this purpose I’m using Tableau Public rather than Desktop, and Public is happy working with Excel, Access and CSV files.
First up I used the SQLite Browser to get into the library files, and exported the Exif table from the base file into CSV format. I also exported the Master tables as I’d hoped there were some datestamps in there, but as I was working from a JPEG library on my laptop they correspond to the date the JPEGs were output, rather than the capture date of the shot.
I imported the CSV into Excel and did some manipulation – the Exif data is all stored inside a simple XML record, so it’d be neater to set up a script that parses the records and outputs a more strongly structured CSV file, but for this test we just throw some formulae at it (messy but it worked: to start at the right place, =MID($C2,FIND(D$1,$C2)+2+LEN(D$1),100), where C2 is the record, and D1 is the label you’re looking for, and the following to stop the output after the double quotes in the previous cell =MID(D2,1,FIND(“”"”,D2,1)-1)). Thanks to FlyingBinary‘s quick thinking, I was able to convert the unfamiliar aperture (39/8) and focal length (300/1) values into decimal format using =VALUE(LEFT(J2,FIND(“/”,J2)-1))/VALUE(MID(J2,FIND(“/”,J2)+1,LEN(J2))).
Just about ready for Tableau – we now have an Excel file which gives us camera Make, Model, ImageWidth, ImageHeight, ISO, Exposure Bias/Compensation, Aperture, Focal Length, and Shutter Speed. I downloaded Tableau Public, installed and opened up the Excel workbook as a data source. After a bit of playing around and excluding null/invalid values, I came up with the above. It’s clear that most shots are taken at the minimum or maximum extent of the lenses we’ve used over the years: 18-55, 70-300, 100-400.
Later, I’ll run the same process over all our RAW files and extract some more data, particularly the datestamps, to see what – if anything – has changed over time.
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Photo of the week: Red Square, Moscow
I have chosen this image as my photo of the week, because it reminds me of a great moment when you discover something new in photography, something which alters your perspective and photographic style.
Heavy rain had fallen that afternoon, so several puddles were strewn across Red Square.
Now Red Square is a place we adore – one of our most favourite cityscapes. We have spent many an hour oggling the square and its amazing architecture, morning, noon and night. On this particular visit we were with family and were reveling in the experience of people seeing Red Square for the first time at night. Having the square to ourselves late at night meant we could take time to get the perfect shot. Tutoring our family on photography, we stooped to ground level to shoot up towards the rooftops of the National History Museum. It’s then we noticed the refections in the puddles – glorious, still and a perfect replication. We embraced the moment and lay the cameras on the ground, shooting into the puddles. Within 10 mins, we had passers by, tourists and strangers stopping to ask what we were doing and to copy- all discovering a new way / new ideas / new experiences with photography. The result – a great chance to share a new discovery with like-mined photographers from across the world. That’s why this is my photo of the week.
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Photo of the week: escaping this weather and heading to the desert
Given the weather we’re having these last few weeks, I have chosen an image that takes us back to sunny and far off shores. This is Wadi Rum in Jordan, home to Lawrence of Arabia and wandering nomads. Its a place we expected to like, but instantly fell in love with. Free to explore the deserts, we wandered for hours on end, climbing rocks and exploring caves. This picture was taken from a natural stone bridge, looking out across the peaceful desert vista. In the centre left of the image is a lone woman, exploring the desert in her own time, just as we did. It’s a shot that takes me back to the moment – and for that reason its my photo of the week.
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Antarctica – with the benefit of hindsight
Antarctica, the trip of a lifetime and the chance for us to snap some memories that would last forever. We embarked on our trip to Antarctica as novices with a relatively new inventory of photography and video equipment. We had all the technology we needed, but it’s fair to say that we had not yet fully developed our ‘eye’ and photography styles.
On a small boat in the Antarctic Peninsula, there was very few people on our trip – just 40 passengers in total. What this meant was that we had lots of time to take photographs in solitude, choosing the composition to suit, taking blissful landscapes uninterrupted by human presence. This is where the benefit of hindsight comes in – the vastness of the polar landscapes is such that without the occasional human in shot it becomes difficult to ascertain any sense of scale. We put a lot of effort into ensuring no humans were in shot, but for those occasional pictures where we included an expedition leader, a zodiac pilot or a fellow passenger, it really helped to bring the landscape alive and give a sense of dimension to what is an alien but beautiful landscape. This is a valuable lesson and one which we’ll certainly be taking into consideration on our pending trip to the Arctic.
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Comparing notes
We recently had the privilege of spending the day at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park – a great location for photography. Its open and walk through enclosures mean you’re rarely shooting through glass or wires, which gives you a real opportunity to get up close and personal with the animals.
We went along with family and friends and spent an enjoyable few hours with the lemurs, lions and birds of prey. There’s something that fascinates us so about the birds of prey. Their expressions can flit from quizzical to murderous in a glance. Their speed in flight and their considered poses when motionless gives the photographer a real chance to capture the true beauty of these birds.
Having the opportunity to spend the day with a wee two year old at the zoo inspired many a photo from ground level, seeking to obtain a bird’s eye view of the animals from the ground upwards. None of these pictures have made it into the final cut –exposure and depth of field was a considerable challenge when taking pictures of basking black and white lemurs in the sunny grass or taking birds of prey swooping down to ground level in a dark forest, but it was a worthwhile experiment that we’ll no doubt continue to trial. Watch this space for further attempts……
What we really enjoyed was the chance to return home with guests and critique our shots. We discussed what we should and should not have done, how we altered exposure, depth of field and ISO – learning more from each other over a glass of wine than we might have done out in the field that day. A worthwhile and rare chance to share lessons learned with fellow photographers and one we hope to repeat one day. Volunteers welcome!
