Capture User Magazine

Snapshot with Jody Dole

A pro's Perspective

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of talking with Jody Dole , one of the photography world's rising stars, whose work has been profiled in numerous photo and design publications. In addition to winning international awards for his photography and TV commercial direction, Jody is known worldwide for exceptional digital image capture and as an originator of fine-art digital printing techniques with rich prepress color control. [If you'd like more information or to see more of Jody's work, go to www.jodydole.com.]

Jody's perspective on Nikon's new system suite is worth sharing. First he's not new to digital photography; in fact, he's been using digital cameras and Photoshop since version 1! Until recently, Jody's take on digital photography has been shooting JPEGs and working within the confines of Photoshop. Then, along came the Nikon Electronic Format (NEF), which Jody said at the time, "just looked way to complicated and besides, the Nikon applications were painfully slow."

A new working solution

The release of Apple's G5 and Photoshop CS brought home to Jody the "Why aren't you shooting NEF" issue all over again. This time, he borrowed a G5 from a friend and installed Photoshop CS and the latest version of Nikon's software (Capture 4.1 and Nikon View). Jody says, "I was blown away, I hadn't planned to buy a G5, but ordered on the very same day."

Jody says he's so sure of this new working solution and shooting with NEF that he'll never go back. Now, he's shooting NEF images entirely, using the combined workflow solution of Nikon's View and Capture, and running Photoshop CS on a G5 installed with Mac OS X Panther.

Here's Jody's message to those of you thinking about your current "workflow solution" or about going digital: "This solution is available today. And the net result for you is more time shooting or with clients--instead of in front of a screen”.

Tips from a pro

Here's a tip from Jody that I've already put to use. If you're shooting landscapes, try this: When you finally find the perfect spot, mark your position (tripod feet), then take the shot, but, return at three different times during the day to capture all the lighting conditions and assemble in photshop.

This "time-shifting" technique lets you capture or combine images for the perfect lighting computation. It's especially useful in shooting on or at new locations.