Film SLR cameraCamera bodyPhotos on this website taken before 2002 are from slides made with a Contax 139 Quartz 35 mm manual focus single lens reflex camera body bought in 1986. As from July 2002 photos were made with another camera body: the Contax Aria. The Aria is a 35 mm compact manual focus, lightweight, multi-mode automatic exposure single lens reflex camera. It is a perfect camera for travel and wilderness exploration.Under the brand name Contax, Kyocera (Kyoto Ceramics) has launched excellent cameras with Carl Zeiss lenses on the market for many years. Many Contax owners regret that Kyocera had decided not to continue these since April 2005. Camera lensesMost slides were photographed through a Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 standard lens while others were taken with a Tokina AT-X M 90mm f/2.5 macro lens also used as a short tele or a Yashica ML 28mm f/2.8 moderate wide angle lens.FiltersFor corrections and special effects Cokin filters were applied of which a polariser filter was the one most used. To have total control on the depth of field and on the effect with some of the Cokin filters, the cameras were almost always used in the aperture-priority auto exposure mode.Film materialAll the slides were exposed on Fuji RD 100 and later on Fuji Sensia II (100 ASA) film.Film scannerThe slides were digitised with an Acer ScanWit 2720S Film Scanner (later taken over by and rebranded as Benq) in combination with the multi-vendor scanner software VueScan from Hamrick Software for better quality scans and more scanning flexibility than with the original supplied MiraPhoto software. The scanner was profiled with an IT 8.7 scanner calibration slide from Wolf Faust for optimal colour reproduction.Scanning technique"A few scanning tips" by Wayne Fulton is recommended for those who are interested in improving their own scanning technique.Digital SLR cameraCamera bodyIn July 2007 the "Myanmar (Burma) - Photo Gallery" finally made the switch to a complete digital photography workflow with the purchase of a Canon EOS 5D digital single lens reflex camera. This camera (the plane old 5D, not the latest 5D MARK IV) has a 12.8 Megapixel full-frame sensor with the same size as 35 mm film.Camera lensesThe Canon EOS 5D camera body is used in combination with a Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM moderate wide angle lens, a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM standard lens and a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens which is used as a medium tele lens for portraits most of the time.FiltersThe only filters used on the digital camera are B+W Clear UV Haze MRC filters for front lens protection and a B+W Slim Käsemann Circular Polariser MRC filter. The polariser filter effect cannot truly be imitated by digital software filters like all other effect filters.Digital camera techniqueNo matter what your knowledge level there will be plenty to learn from the interactive electronic book "The 123 of digital imaging Interactive Learning Suite" by Vincent Bockaert. It's a digital photography tutorial and reference for beginners to professionals.Flatbed scannerThe title on the top of this page (and also the old title used before which you can see on the Old and new names page) is from a painting on cotton made by Ko Kyaw Kyaw Lin from Myothit (New Bagan). These paintings, the one kyat banknote and the U San Kyaw painting were scanned with an inexpensive DEXXA Flatbedscanner 4800. DEXXA no longer exists. In reality the scanner was an Artec AS6E under a different brand name, but Artec also no longer exists.Photo editorAfter scanning the slides, paintings and banknote or retrieving the raw images from the digital camera a photo editor was used to retouch (mainly removing dust and scratches on the slide scans), correct colour, gamma, brightness and contrast and resize most photos to a normal (720 x 480 pixels) and a thumbnail size (180 x 120 pixels) image. The final images are a bit sharpened.Paint Shop Pro from Jasc Software (version 9 was the latest) was used as an image and photo editor. Jasc Software was sold in 2005 to Corel which changed the later versions of Paint Shop Pro in a (with all due respect) "one click does all" photo editor which in the opinion of the "Myanmar (Burma) - Photo Gallery" is not very suitable for professional image editing. Therefore, at the same time when switching to a digital camera, the "Myanmar (Burma) - Photo Gallery" also switched to Adobe Photoshop with the Adobe Camera Raw Plug-in for digital camera raw file support. For compatibility with the existing Paint Shop Pro files the Paint Shop Pro Format file plug-in from Telegraphics was used to open them in Adobe Photoshop. The favicon  is made with Adobe Photoshop and the ICO (Windows Icon) Format file plug-in also from Telegraphics. See for more information about this favicon the Monitor and internet browser adjustment page.Monitor calibrationThe photos were edited on an EIZO FlexScan F56 17" CRT monitor until January 2011. This monitor was replaced by an EIZO FlexScan SX2462W. It has a 24" wide colour gamut IPS LCD display. Both monitors were calibrated and profiled with an Eye One Display 2 colour calibrator from GretagMacbeth (now X-Rite). From March 2012 the LCD monitor was calibrated and profiled with a Spyder4Pro colour calibrator from Datacolor. The Spyder4Pro colour calibrator in its turn was replaced by the Spyder5PRO since July 2016.A calibrated monitor is critical for any photographer and creative imaging professional who needs accurate and predictable images. It is imperative that the monitor is correctly reproducing shades and colours while processing digital photographs. In August 2024 the FlexScan display backlight had failed after 13 years and 33 thousand hours of usage time and was replaced by an EIZO ColorEdge CS2731 27" with a wide colour gamut IPS LCD display. It is exclusively hardware calibrated with the Spyder5PRO in combination with the ColorNavigator 7 calibration software from EIZO. Profiling (software calibration) changes the colour lookup table (LUT) in the graphics card of the computer, while hardware calibration changes the LUT in the monitor. Because the latter uses more bits per colour for the calibration translation and the graphics card in the computer is able to use its full colour range before sending the video information to the monitor, the colours displayed are more accurate. Both EIZO LCD monitors offer high performance for digital photography and graphics applications. Web design toolThe website is created with Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is excellent in creating HTML code and maintaining the links in a website. It makes publishing to the webspace on the World Wide Web an easy task.Website hostingThe website is hosted by NederHost in The Netherlands on the Unix/Apache platform and is accessible with IPv4 as well as with IPv6.SSL/TLS secure connectionSecure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol for enabling data encryption on the internet and for helping website users confirm the owner of the website. SSL/TLS is most commonly used to protect communications between web browsers and servers. The URL or web address begins with "https:" and a closed padlock is visible in the address bar.This website uses a Let’s Encrypt certificate. Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority. The main reason for using a secure connection on this website is that Google rewards encripted websites with a bit higher ranking in internet searches. Website uptime and performance monitoringThe availability and behaviour of this website on the World Wide Web is checked with Uptime Doctor website uptime and performance monitoring.Web page hit countersStatCounter is a free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable web page hit counter and measures real-time detailed web stats. It is able to analyse and monitor all the visits to this website in real-time.Online paymentsDonations or license fees can be paid with any major credit or debit card by using the PayPal secure website. PayPal is one of the easiest ways for websites to accept payments online.WeTransferLicensed photos may be transfered by WeTransfer: "The easy way to send big files".GPS receiverThe degree confluences on the Degree Confluence Visits pages were located and visited with the assistance of a handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. Until July 2006 a Magellan SporTrak Pro GPS receiver was used. The track on the Map of Mt. Phon Kan Razi Trek was also recorded with this GPS receiver.Since July 2006 a Garmin GPSMAP® 60Cx handheld GPS receiver had replaced the Magellan. The 60Cx was replaced by its successor the Garmin GPSMAP® 62s in July 2010. The 62s is replaced by a Garmin GPSMAP® 64s in March 2014, which in its turn had to make way for the Garmin GPSMAP® 66s in October 2018. The degree confluences and the track of the Mt. Phon Kan Razi Trek were projected on the NASA Landsat 7 circa 2000 MrSID satellite images with OziExplorer GPS Mapping Software. |
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