For the purposes of my 365 project, I’ve decided to utilize my Canon SL1 as much as possible – something I think I’ve mentioned here already – due to the ease of carrying it around. To make things even easier, I keep my pancake lens attached to the SL1 at all times, so I can literally just pick it up and snap away. I’ve put it in a small case along with my little old 430-EX Speedlite and so far, that’s working out fairly well (keeping in mind that I’m only on Day Three). I rather like working within these limitations, as I think it will force me to be even more creative and push me outside my comfort zone, and man, if I was ever uncomfortable using the 40mm before, I sure won’t be after using it every day for a year (although I reserve the right to whip out the 7D when I deem it necessary – I never follow my own rules too closely).

This has also forced me to finally figure out a problem I’ve had with the SL1 since beginning to use it a few months ago. When pulling up my RAW files into PhotoNinja, they all look fine in the viewer, but when I pull a file into the editor to work with it, the color goes all wonky – everything is very pink, and the color corrector doesn’t work as it usually does to fix poor color balance. This never happens when working with files from my 7D, and I’ve been baffled as to what could be going on.

This happens to me frequently – I have a problem that I cannot articulate well enough to get proper answers. I’d tried all sorts of Google searches that pulled up nothing useful, so I knew it was once again a matter of me not having the proper terminology at my disposal to find a solution to my problem. This has happened to me often enough at this point to know that I just have to continue to struggle with the problem until I finally hit upon some word or phrase that starts me on the path to getting answers; this time, the phrase was “color profile.” I don’t even quite know how I hit on it, but hit on it I did, and tonight I went a-Googling and discovered that because my little Rebel is so new, Photo Ninja does not actually support it yet. In other words, it doesn’t have a color profile for RAW files taken with the SL1, so the color information just isn’t there. Hence, wonky color that is difficult to correct.

I tried opening the RAW files in Photoshop instead, but CS5 couldn’t even see them – again, not a problem with RAW files from my 7D (which makes sense, because that’s on old model camera). So after more searching, I discovered a new type of RAW file – the DNG. I found a free Adobe RAW converter that can take files and convert them into DNG ones, which can not only be seen in Photoshop, but can be better dealt with in Photo Ninja also (when I pulled a DNG file from the SL1 into the editor, the color was much more true to the file SOOC). So now I know, whenever I download files to my computer from my SL1, I must take the extra step of converting them to DNG – at least until Photo Ninja has an update that includes a profile for it, and who knows if that will ever happen.

So who knew – a whole new snafu to grapple with when buying a camera that’s new to the market. I tell ya, it’s always something with this digital camera stuff. Anyway, here’s Day Three’s photo. Allow me to explain:

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went up to the school Saturday to clear out my old office so when the new counselor shows up, it does not appear to be occupied by someone else. While I was there, I checked out the progress on my new classroom for the first time, and I must admit I got a bit excited. Because our school is small and the student body has outgrown it, a room had to be created for the learning program I am going to help facilitate as the classroom teacher this year. A large meeting area was cut in half and this wall was put up to create our space, and well, here I am celebrating it.

I used my SL1’s ten-second timer to get the shot, and as a bonus I unknowingly color-coordinated my outfit to the unpainted walls, which gave the shot a much more professional look than I expected. The floor was very sawdust-y and slippery so I did not attempt a jump shot – plus I’ve not tested out the SL1 for jumps all that much and wasn’t sure how to pull one off; I had a lot to do that day so I didn’t have the time or inclination to get all sweaty taking 50 jump shots while trying to figure the settings out. I’ve already figured out enough for one day anyway!