Copyrightimage

Nikon ups the ante with 36MP Dslr

2012-02-07T12:41:00.001Z

Exciting times in Nikon land with a new record for 35mm Dslr resolution of 36MP.

The Nikon D800 has a maximum resolution of 7360 x 4912 pixels meaning an uncompressed 8 bit tiff size of over 103mb!

Read about it here:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikond800/page2.asp

Link to sample images: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d800/sample01.htm

Image quality looks to be somewhere between current best 35mm Dslr and Medium Format digital, so not quite Hasselblad quality but not that far off and a lot cheaper/easier to use.

Some samples with a wide angle zoom show that the limiting factor is the lens resolution itself.
Perhaps this has occurred to Canon who may bring something out to match it, they have started to revise their lens designs to improve performance: http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/02/07/Canon_24-70mm_F2p8_II_24mm_f2p8_IS_28mm_f2p8_IS

Clearly Nikon are on the front foot with this especially at the price point of £2,400 for the version with an anti alias filter, (for some reason the one without the filter is more expensive)

Compared to 21MP cameras like the Canon 1ds MKIII these files will require an extra 70% more disk space for raws and master tiff files. Working with the 103mb file is interesting, it takes quite a few stokes with a wacom pen to move around the canvas even on a very high res 30" Eizo screen, its like going back to 8MP images on an old 1024x768 screen.

Interesting, what do you think Canon?

Client Story: Doug Allan

2012-01-19T15:23:00.000Z

The cameraman Doug Allan is a well known name in the world of wildlife documentaries and I help Doug with the stills side of his business.
Doug asked me to get involved in the preparation of the images for his first book "Freeze Frame" that is just about to be released.
Some of the images date back to the early part of his career so care was needed to reduce grain and get the images looking as fresh as the day they were taken, CMYK files were prepared for the books designer Simon Bishop.

Simon has just let me know that the printing at Butler Tanner and Dennis in Somerset went well and he is very pleased with the results of the two days of printing on the new Heidelberg press there.

Copyrightimage Ltd will also be handling book distribution so Jennie will be sorting on-line orders for the book.

Book details:
"Multi-award winning wildlife photographer and cameraman Doug Allan, of the BBC’s Frozen Planet now turns the focus on himself in his first book “Freeze Frame”!

Having worked on Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Human Planet, Life, the recent Ocean Giants and the sensational Frozen Planet, Doug brings together a collection of astounding anecdotes and breathtakingly beautiful photographs from the remotest places on Earth.

Have you ever been watching one of the BBC’s groundbreaking wildlife documentaries and thought “How did he get that shot?!” – well now you can find out the incredible stories behind the images in Doug Allan’s début book.

Braving the elements and depths of the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans, Doug has produced a fascinating 240 page book filled with exceptional photographs and secrets of life behind the lens, giving you a peek into the often hostile yet inspiring world of a wildlife cameraman

This book is so much more than a collection of superb images. Doug started life as a research diver in 1976 at Signy Island, Antarctica. Now with 35 years of experience in the Antarctic and Arctic, the stories that accompany every picture in this book tell of Doug’s astonishing adventures and encounters, his insights and emotions, his deep understanding of the biology of the animals and the psychology of film-makers.

Following a foreword from friend, Sir David Attenborough, the book is split into six sections; with many stories from Doug’s unique polar experiences and Arctic field craft, highlighting the challenges - and frustrations - of filming the animals themselves.

The book contains 70 long and short stories under the following themes:
• Camerawork
• Polar Heavens
• Ice & Snow, Cold and Colder
• Shots to Remember
• Near Misses
• Characters I Have Known
• Turning Up the Heat

From being pulled under water by a walrus, to the cunning and predatory Orca whale’s hunting skills. Doug invites you to learn about and discover the awe-inspiring nature hidden within the polar wastelands. Often exciting, sometimes humorous and always revealing and refreshingly honest, this is a uniquely personal portrait of the polar environments and the animals that live there, written by the man who’s spent more time there with a camera than anyone else.

“Every picture tells a story. I’ve just given the ones in this book a chance to tell theirs.”
- Doug Allan

Doug has won four Emmy and four BAFTA awards, as well as several Wildscreen Pandas. With Freeze Frame Doug gives the public a chance to step into his frozen world – without the frostbite!

Freeze Frame will be available from February 2012 pre-order here or at www.dougallan.com

You can pre-order Doug Allan's new book "Freeze Frame" in hardback here (for buyers in the UK):
£25 + £6 P&P

Getty upload site tip

2012-01-14T11:38:00.001Z

Quick tip if you upload images to the Getty site-
I'm uploading clients images to the Getty upload portal, and as usual its like wading through treacle.
Multiple text fields with only a selection needed to be filled in and an irregular acceptance of text in each field means lots of extra work to get the data to stick.

The solution - Use the tab key starting at the top field, just tab through the fields you don't need to fill in, the data sticks each time doh!

Backup Compact Camera (updated)

2012-01-10T13:23:00.002Z

I know several clients who use Canon G10/11/12 cameras as a lightweight addition to their dSLRs. Very handy for capturing pictures adhoc when taking the usual kit out would be a pain or draw unwanted attention.

It has been possible to get the best of these images through Getty quality control but a lot of the time image quality can be an issue.

Canon have announced a possible solution. Its a little larger than the older G series (only a bit), but the sensor inside is 6x bigger. This will mean less noise on the 14MP sensor. Its on pre order at the moment and will cost approx £700 inc VAT.

DP have a review here

No sample images as yet but if your about to buy a G12 you may want to wait and see.

Update
Things are looking good, early pre production sample images are available here:
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/albums/canon-powershot-g1-x-preview-samples

Not quite Canon 1Ds MkIII / 5D MkII quality but pretty impressive for a small 14mp compact, particularly at high iso. Nice.

The HD video samples look very fragile with quite bad moire, lets hope this improves on the production model, less important than the stills quality though...

Lightroom 4 Public Beta

2012-01-10T11:50:00.000Z

Looks like Lightroom 4 will be a worthwhile upgrade when it appears later this year.

You can preview the new functionality yourself by downloading the beta from Adobe.

For me the biggest changes are the new develop settings layout, soft proofing for your different printer profiles and the map function will become of interest when more cameras contain gps circuitry.

On a more "Ed Reardon" note Adobe have "kindly encouraged their programmers to get their fingers out" and burning images to DVD is now supported in the 64bit version of Windows 7, something they should fix in Lightroom 3 but have not.

UK upgrade price will no doubt be the same price as the US plus a special supplement to pay for a new Adobe executive aircraft.

Ed

Adobe create problems for their users

2011-12-17T11:43:00.002Z

It has been brought to my attention that there are some problems with creating ePUB documents with Adobe Indesign 5.0.

Apparently Adobe have fixed the problems but rather than allow users to receive an update they are telling them to upgrade to 5.5 to get the fix.

Is that a fair thing to do? Im sure there are people who happily pay for new products when the ones they have are faulty but it doesn't seem right to me.

More to come
Adobe also plans to radically change the system where users of their software could upgrade to the latest version of the program for an upgrade fee. In the past you would have paid something like £160 ($248.00 US) for an upgrade from say Photoshop CS2 to CS5. Now the planned upgrade version to CS6 is only available if you own the previous release meaning that if you have missed out on the upgrade to CS5 but wanted to upgrade your CS4 ,3 or 2 to CS6 you will need to pay the full price of the program again.

This will mean that someone moving to Photoshop CS6 will have to pay the same as someone who hasn't paid Adobe in the past. Currently Photoshop CS5 sells on the Adobe store for £548 excluding sales tax (VAT) - that is $851 US.

Clients who are not VAT registered will need to pay £657 or its equivalent for the upgrade (that's over $1,000.00 US) when moving to Photoshop CS6 and assuming the price remains the same as current.

Adobe have offered a time limited plan for users of CS2,3,4 to upgrade to CS5 at 20% less then pay the separate upgrade to CS6 when it comes out, very generous of them to offer this?

Clearly we are in an unhealthy situation where Adobe are feeling strong enough to milk their customers. Once dominant companies such as Quark have in the past also gone through such a stage.

In a competitive market this does not happen, market failure is causing Adobe to move to a place it should not be. In the future we need to be cautious with dealing with this ugly aspect of the company, this means expecting the software to function as specified, if we are to pay (much) more then we need to demand more.

Here is the statement from a serious user of Adobe software who was kind enough to write to me detailing her story:

I was using InDesign CS5 to create an ePub of my new book, The Global Indie Author: How anyone can self-publish in the U.S. and worldwide markets. (I am both a writer and a photographer.) The export to ePub utility in CS5 is full of bugs that are program-specific, meaning they are not the result of unforeseen issues with your OS or in conflict with another program. It was clear InDesign CS5 had been released prematurely: there was no way the programmers didn’t know about these bugs. To add insult to injury, Adobe didn’t release any patches; they simply “fixed” the problems for CS5.5 and told consumers to upgrade. It was outrageous. The analogy I made was to a car with a manufacturing defect: the company is forced by law to perform a recall; they can’t just say, “Oh, we fixed that problem in the next model; just go buy a new car.” Yet this was precisely what Adobe was doing. So I complained both publicly and directly to Adobe and they offered me a free upgrade to CS5.5. I have no illusions it was to neutralize the threat I posed, and fair enough. But I hope others will realise that Adobe is not so big that they are impervious to consumer ill-will.

Michelle Demers

Client Story: Random House / BBC Books / Frozen Planet

2011-10-24T16:27:00.001Z

With the exciting BBC Frozen Planet series due to be aired on TV this month I'm pleased to reveal my work on the accompanying book of the series.

I was asked to prepare all the images for the book. I worked closely with the designer supplying colour managed and exactingly sharpened CMYK images from supplied RGB originals.

The most important part of the work was to ensure tonal and colour consistency between series of shots. As often happens sequences were filmed with multiple cameras and bringing together their disparate shots can reveal quite major exposure differences that spoil the consistency of the scenes portrayed, it was my job to provide a better visual match whilst retaining accuracy and the integrity of the shots. Such as sequence in the book is in chapter 5 covering the hunting of bison by wolves.

There was a variety of sources for the images from high quality RAW files to HD screen grabs that needed careful interpolation and sharpening to work on the printed page.

In TV and Film production the process of colour balancing images in sequence is called "grading", what I offered was the stills equivalent and was very pleased to receive an email from the authors Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz thanking me for doing the work. This meant a lot to me as is so often the case I found myself immersed in the subject matter and wanted to get the best possible results.

If you have an important book project and want the very best results from the images then please feel free to contact me, its not a costly process given the difference that good grading and preparation can make.

The Frozen Planet book is now available and can be purchased on-line, here is Amazons page of the book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frozen-Planet-Alastair-Fothergill/dp/1846079624/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319471881&sr=8-3

Client Story: Hard Rain Project

2011-07-23T16:28:00.002Z

HARD RAIN: What'll You Do Now?
at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew till 25th September 2011

Mark Edwards has used his original Hard Rain Project set of images as the core element of a new project that considers how we can as individuals and as a society can move towards a sustainable future for the Planet.

This powerful exhibition is currently on show at Kew Gardens in London, you can read all about the project and the exhibition here:
http://www.hardrainproject.com/

Kudos to the management of Kew Gardens for allowing some "difficult" images amongst the beauty of the gardens, in my opinion this raises their profile as a conservationist organisation and the garden location is exactly the right place for thousands of people each day to consider the issues raised.

Photography is at its best when it combines passion with meaningful subject matter and this exhibition has plenty of both. I recommend you visit the site or exhibition as it travels the world.

My involvement
I have worked with Mark to help prepare the images for printing for both this outdoor exhibition as well as for the book and Audio Visual uses.

Careful colour grading and consideration of Marks preferences for tonality means that the exhibition has a consistency of vision in the printed results.

Image restoration was part of the work undertaken to allow for the enlargement of low resolution images to 1 meter or more, I was always careful to keep the veracity of the underlying image and keep the image pure whilst reducing noise, chromatic aberration and other artifacts that would have impeded the message or meaning of the image coming through.

If you are planning a book or exhibition and have material from multiple sources it will always pay you to have me look at the material and quote on preparing the files for greater clarity and consistency and give greater readability to the work.

Stephen

x-rite do the right thing for potential OSX Lion users

2011-07-19T11:38:00.000Z

It looks like x-rite have decided to include support for their older hardware (such as the i1 display 2) in i1profiler software (specifically i1Basic) which is designed to run on OSX 10.7 (Lion).

They have done this after an outcry from users and suppliers who have rightly pointed out to them that not supporting their recent hardware is not the behaviour of a company that cares about its users.

So all very positive, though according the the table in the following link there will be a "nominal" fee if you bought your i1 display 2 before 2011, lets hope they drop the fee and just do the right thing.

http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=264

September is still some way off so don't update to Lion till they release this, - a calibrated screen is far more important than sliding icons and App store jiggery pokery.

Stephen

Higher capacity Image Storage from Synology

2011-07-13T09:35:00.007Z

For people who need greater digital image storage capacity than the current affordable 10.9TB Thecus then you may want to have a look at the following solution:

http://www.storagereview.com/synology_targets_photographers_new_ds2411_nas

I would estimate that filled with 3TB drives this should provide between 24-30TB of usable Raid 5 space (36TB unformatted). To put this in perspective thats enough for over 1/2 million uncompressed A3+ Tiffs or over 1 million camera raw images.

Synology have a good reputation for building solid kit so this look like a viable way to accommodate image collections. The 165mb/sec writing and 195mb/sec reading in raid 5 mode means that access to images is not going to be a problem.

As always - this is not a backup solution in itself, copies of all files must exist in some form as the device is a single point of failure (theft etc). What it does provide is fast and simple access to a large image collection.

Alert:Windows ATI Radeon 4870 video card / CS5 / CMYK / Problem

2011-06-27T18:16:00.006Z

A bit of an obscure one this as I know clients with the above graphics card either don't use Photoshop CS5 or never work in CMYK but I'm putting this information out there for people who may see the same problem.

With current and recent drivers switching screen mode in Photoshop (the F key) causes the display of a CMYK image to go saturated/incorrect.

I always advise clients the F key is a great way to view your images against black or white as well as the default grey surround. The display of the image against black allows you to spot weak / grey shadows and against white allows you to check highlight areas as they would print on paper.

Unfortunately with recent Windows ATI drivers and Photoshop CS5 *and* CMYK images the colours within the image distort in the different display modes. This does not happen with an RGB image!

Because I prepare images for rerpo I do need to have accurate CMYK previews so have invested in a Nvidea GTX 550Ti card with 2GB of memory, this card does not have the same problem and its extra memory is a real bonus when opening lots of images in Open GL mode. It also has the advantage that I can use the Graphics card processors (Cuda cores) to help calculate and apply noise suppression using the latest version of Neat Image noise reduction.

When I first started using Neat image it took up to 60 seconds to process an A3/300dpi image, now with the help of the new video card this is reduced to a few seconds.

Reading round the edges it would appear that Adobe engineers are using HP workstations with Nvidea graphics cards when developing Photoshop, the card I have bought is quite modest (approx £100) but is sufficient for Photoshop, clients using Adobe Premier will benefit from a faster Nvidea card that will aid real time video rendering.

All a little sad really as I was more than happy with my ATI card till now, but its more important that I can trust my screen and that's why I made the change.

Stephen

i1 display 2 support under Lion

2011-06-27T15:05:00.002Z

There wont be any.

Well that's the short version. Since i1match software relies on the software transition layer called "Rosetta" to run on Intel Macs and "Rosetta" is dropped from OSX 10.7 (Lion) it is not possible to directly run the program on a machine running Lion without some very faffy workarounds.

The new i1Publish software does not support the older hardware but it does (surprise) support the new Xrite monitor calibrators they have just released.

Since there really is no compelling imaging reason to upgrade to Lion then I strongly advise that you don't, you will save money and be able to easily calibrate your screen for a colour correct workflow.

However! at some point an upgrade will become important (newly released software/patches etc) that need Lion or one of its successors; I will therefore be testing out the new screen calibrators in the near future and report back.

In the meantime you can read some detail here from Rob Griffith with a very kind offer if you bought your i1 display 2 from them recently:

<http://nativedigital.co.uk/site/2011/06/mac-os-lion-and-i1-match/?utm_source=Colour+Management&utm_campaign=77d2008833-June_2011_new_X_Rite_i1_Display_Pro6_27_2011&utm_medium=email>

Xrite are not kind, they could easily have supported the older hardware on the new i1 software if they wanted to, its the kind of rough behaviour that comes from dominating the market by buying your biggest competitor (Gretag Mackbeth)....

OSX Lion

2011-06-09T09:58:00.002Z

Because of the way the new Apple operating system will work there are problems with older legacy programs including colour management programs from xrite such as i1match many of you use to profile your screens.

Until I have tested work arounds and solutions I don't recommend that clients upgrade to Lion just yet.

To be honest the upgrade looks to be less than compelling so you wont be missing much in the meantime.

Stephen

Advice: 2.0.9 Firmware update for Canon 5D Mk II

2011-06-01T09:17:00.002Z

Canon have just released this update which when applied to the camera will improve performance with UDMA 7 type cards. There are other bug fixes too so its worth doing.

You can download the new firmware from here:

http://www.canon.co.uk/Support/Consumer_Products/products/cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_5D_Mark_II.aspx?type=download&page=1

(select the firmware button then click on either the OSX or Windows link that shows up)

Be sure to follow the advice given to the letter to install this, if in doubt add it to the list of items to do when I'm next onsite with you.

Stephen

Thecus N7700 Pro for Image Storage

2011-05-27T13:28:00.006Z

I have used many NAS (network attached storage) devices over the years but I'm very pleased with the latest one to join the network here at Copyrightimage.

Like many of my clients I have a need to keep an archive of many thousands of images available for instant use and access. The major differences between this device and the more usual NAS devices are speed and capacity.

The N7700 Pro I have here is fitted with 7 x 2TB hard disks in RAID 5 formation which gives a single volume of 10.9TB of disk space, this means that I can hold large collections of images in one place which aids indexing and workflow.
The speed comes from its dual core processor which drives the controller and gigabit Ethernet to its full speed and so I can get real world transfer figures of 65mb/sec writes and even faster reads. This is over twice the speed of a USB2 drive connected directly to a host computer so its very impressive.

When dealing with large amounts of high res images this device would seem to be able to delivery speedy storage with the safety net of RAID 5 which means that if a disk fails I just need to swap it out for a new one (the image above shows the access door closed (left) and open (right) each disk is in a separate caddy.

The power supply to the device is a single point of failure however so its important I have at least one copy of every file on the device backed up somewhere else, as always, redundancy is the safety net.

Improved colour management software at Copyrightimage

2011-05-05T22:04:00.002Z

I'm currently building some test print profiles using the new i1 Publish software from x-rite in Germany. This is intended to replace i1Match that I have used up till now with my i1 Photospectrometer.

The advantages are starting to show after a very dodgy start when the program crashed on Windows 7 when building profiles and trouble reading dense strips from my Epson 3800 printer. I'm happy to report I have been working via a contact at x-rite to beta test changes to the software and they have been very helpful in sorting things out.

Its still early days and I'm not trusting the software with mission critical work just yet but I have been building some very usable and improved profiles for the papers I use. These early profiles show an improvement in gamut (wider range of saturated colours) and greater smoothness of gradients, much less cloggyness in the shadows also - closer to a high end RIP than you would expect a print driver to achive. Im particularly looking forward to building profiles to suit the lighting that the prints will be displayed in, something that was not possible with i1match.

The plot above shows my old Permajet 240 Matt profile in solid colour with the new i1 Publish profile overlaid in grid view, the projected gamut lines at the bottom show the larger colour space of the new profile.

I'm hoping the investment benefit all my clients who need the occasional print profile building or use my printing services for exhibition quality prints.

Stephen

Client Story: Look and Learn

2011-05-04T11:02:00.007Z

Delighted to receive a book in the post this morning from Laurence Heyworth the managing director of Look and Learn.

Laurence through his http://art.lookandlearn.com website runs one of the largest online children's art competitions in the world. This is a sister site to the main http://www.lookandlearn.com site which mainly licenses images from classic children's publications from the 1960s and 1970s.

The book reproduces the winning images from a recent competition to create an image to celebrate the Queens 85th Birthday. Rather wonderfully Laurence has sent a digital photo frame containing all 14,928 entries from 64 countries to the Queen.

All credit to Laurence for giving children encouragment to produce artwork and giving them a solid platform to display their work to the world.

I helped develop imaging workflow at Look and Learn and have written custom Photoshop actions to make a variety of files from submitted work. It is the automation of file creation combined with tight network and web development by my colleague Edward Leigh that makes projects like this possible with minimal costs and effort compared to having to do things manually.

Client Advisory: Adobe release CS5.5

2011-04-13T10:33:00.003Z

Adobe have decided to change the way they release products. Historically they operated a system of 18 months between major releases of the Creative Suite products but have now decided to change this to 24 months with a minor 0.5 release every 12 months.

Its all part of a plan to extract more money of course and Adobe have also decided to offer the option of a software rental scheme at the same time that enables you to pay for products on a monthly basis (no pay - no work).

There is no change to Photoshop software compared to 5.0 so no real reason to upgrade at present though the default Photoshop included in Suites is now the extended rather than the standard version which will be useful when CS6 is released in 12 months time (Update : Applies to the subscription version of the premium only - dash!)

Adobe had better get their pricing right on this, they have a reputation for being expensive, if they push too hard then it will be worthwhile for another developer to challenge Adobes monopoly. I'm not keen on monopolies and Adobe have a real monopoly on image editing software.

Client Story: Sue Flood

2011-04-04T15:34:00.008Z

Congratulations to Sue Flood on her exhibition at the Getty Gallery in central London.

"Cold Places" Pole to Pole is a collection of Sue's work from the polar regions. Its sponsored by Canon and has attracted a lot of attention from the national media and I was particularly surprised to hear Sue talk about her work on "Woman's hour" on radio 4 which kind of gives away my listening habits! The exhibition was launched in the middle of March and runs till the 9th of April. Sue took the opportunity to launch her book "Cold Places" to coincide with the exhibition.

Gallery details are here: http://www.gettyimagesgallery.com/

Her book is available online from the usual suspects but you can get yourself a copy directly from Sue from her website: http://www.sueflood.com/

Sue was away for a large part of the time involved in producing both the book and the exhibitions so I helped out with the production. Because I keep high res copies of Sue's files I was able to prepare press ready CMYK sharpened files optimised for the print size of each image to pass onto the books designer Simon Bishop. I worked closely with Simon and the books printers to ensure that we got the best possible colour and tone on paper. I also prepared RGB print files to size and sharpened for print to Canon for them to make the exhibition prints. Mark Bennet at Canon converted the files to the printers colour space and the result was some very pleasing large format prints, nice to see Epson have some competition in the photographic quality printer stakes.

I also prepared and sent files for PR uses and serviced requests from the national newspapers.

The whole process involved a lot of intense work over a short period but I was pleased to help get Sue's work in front of a larger audience and help raise her profile.

In the past I have helped Sue with equipment choices and training as well as editing and retouching , Sue is an example of a client who uses my services is a holistic way which would normally require full time staff and the associated costs and responsibilities. By offering my services as a freelance I enable clients to tackle work projects to a set quality and budget.

Stephen

Client Story - Round the Island Race 80th Anniversary Exhibition

2011-03-03T22:31:00.005Z

Congratulations are in order for Karren May who with herculean effort and dedication has managed to mount a major exhibition on behalf of J P Morgan Asset management.

The exhibition covers the 80 years of the Isle of Wright race from some pioneering yacht photography captured with specially made large format plate glass cameras all the way to digital capture.

Karren asked me to help with "digital restoration" of a variety of images from aged plate glass to more modern images, my brief was to overcome any artefacts and present the images at their best.

It was important that the retouching was sensitive to the documentary requirements and ensure that only distracting artefacts were removed and to respect the underlying image. Careful tonal and colour adjustments were made to bring out the true image from the raw stock.

I was pleased to complete the work on time and within budget.

You can read about the exhibition here: http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?map=rir11&ui=rir2&style=std&override=&section=event&page=exhibition

Karren kept a diary of her work and its an interesting read here:

http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?map=rir11&ui=rir2&style=std&override=&section=event&page=exhibitiondiary

Karren owned and ran the Bluegreen marine stock photography agency, since selling the agency she has been helping a variety of organizations to present their work through a variety of projects from publications to exhibitions. I am happy to introduce Karren as part of a team of creative professionals who can handle a wide variety of image based tasks and projects.

Stephen

2011-02-24T10:49:00.003Z

Microsoft have today released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7.

This is a mixture of all previous updates and bug fixes together with some new ones.

I will be testing the update this week to see if it has any impact on Photoshop/Lightroom/Exiftool etc use. If your PC is mission critical then you may wish to accept just normal updates and hold back on SP1 till I have tested here.

UPDATE:

Well its been a week now and there is nothing bad to report from my experiences of the SP1 update. I have noticed a few small improvements in responsiveness so I would suggest that if you run Windows 7 you give the service patch a go.

Stephen

Pen click animations in Windows 7

2011-02-02T14:31:00.003Z

If you are getting the annoying "bloop" animations in Windows 7 when using a Wacom tablet pen then the following may be of use.

To turn these animations off:

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor (Start:Run:gpedit.msc)
2. Navigate to User Configuration: Administrative Templates: Windows Components: Tablet PC: Cursor
3. Enable the Turn off pen feedback setting.

Retouching in Photoshop is much smoother without these animated cursors, I had got rid of them some time ago but they came back recently (possible after a service patch). I confirmed that the Microsoft tablet controls service had been switched off but obviously this associated setting was still in place.

vatcalc 2.0 Free vat calculator for Windows

2011-01-10T23:37:00.001Z

I mainly write custom windows programs to help automate imaging workflow for clients but occasionally I write the odd useful utility program.

vatcalc 2.0 allows you to change any of the values in the boxes (just press the tab key to the box you require and enter a value) vatcalc will then update the other variables allowing you for instance to work out the exclusive and vat values when entering a retail vat inclusive price - handy for those vat returns.

You can read more and get the program from the downloads section of this site.

Photoshop CS5 update 12.0.3 (windows only)

2010-12-18T10:47:00.000Z

Adobe have historically released a 0.1 release of most versions of Photoshop over the years so it was unusual to see a 0.2 release some time ago. Today Adobe release a 0.3 update bringing the total to 3.

To be fair most of the bugs look pretty obscure and I have not noticed many of them myself. All the fixes seem to be platform dependant (fonts etc) so this release is just for Windows systems.

If you dont get updated automatically then select from the "Help" menu the subitem "Updates..."
You can check your version of Photoshop by selecting the "Help" menu and choosing "About Photoshop..."

Lightroom tethered shooting

2010-11-29T11:14:00.000Z

Just a quick update to say that when using the latest version of Lightroom 3.2 and Canon capture software I had no problems on recent shoots so it looks like the update has helped.
I'm still getting Lightroom 3.2 crashes when opening catalogues occasionally but it is less ropey than in the past.(not exactly high praise, lets just say its workable.)

Stephen

New Eizo CG303W monitor at Copyrightimage

2010-11-22T13:25:00.001Z

I have recently invested some £2,500 in the business by purchasing a high end 30" Eizo CG303W wide gamut display. The primary purpose of upgrading my older Eizo CG211 monitor was to get better pre press softproofing of greens and blues and therefore make better CMYK separations for some upcoming client book projects. I can do this as the new monitor covers some 98% of the Adobe 1998 gamut against the (approx) 70% coverage of the CG211 it replaces.

The new screen also allows for faster editing and retouching as I can see more images in Lightroom or Bridge and more of a single image at one time (the image above shows 100% 1:1 views of the same photo).

Colour evenness across the screen is extremely good (no visible difference), there is a slight left to right brightness gradient of approx 13 cd/m2 when set to 80cd/m2 but this is within quoted tolerances.

Some 19 years ago when setting up the imaging department at Tony Stone Images I had to return a 30" Barco Graphics Color Reference monitor for a 20" replacement because there was a HUGE colour difference between the left and right hand sides of the monitor. The fact that the 30" Barco CRT monitor cost £12,000 in 1990 would indicate that things have progressed significantly since then and almost (but not quite!) makes the price of the Eizo seem reasonable.

By investing in the new monitor I can continue to work to the very highest industry standards and at the same time keep my production work flow operating efficiently and enabling me to offer very competitive retouching rates.

A monitor such as this one would be overkill for most clients to purchase, an Eizo 24" would suit most needs but contact me if you need help in choosing.

Stephen

Dell alert

2010-09-07T14:54:00.001Z

Well, Dell have been in my bad and then good books for so long now that I'm used to their flakiness but this recent story takes the biscuit.

Dell recently persuaded a new client that its a good idea for them to buy a Dell tower running Windows Server 2008, not bad in itself, what was not right was to tell the client that they could set it up themselves (with no previous experience) and that it would not need any significant maintenance and it could be run without a third party IT contract.

I'm not in the market to offer IT support for Windows server as I know the complexity of the product, what we have here is a salesman who thinks its OK to sell enterprise level computing to someone who has no concept of the complexity involved in setting up and managing a domain.

In actual fact the clients needs were incredibly modest and I have configured their 3 pc network to take advantage of a superb Google Apps account at a fraction of the cost of Windows 2008 server.

If your planning a major IT purchase then please get in touch for a quick chat about your requirements I may be able to save you thousands of pounds.

And...don't expect suppliers like Dell to act in your interest.

Laptop accessories for shoots

2010-09-06T16:48:00.000Z

I have been using some laptop digital capture accessories for a while now and thought it was the right time to share my thoughts.

Laptop Shade
When working outdoors it can be very difficult to judge an image because of screen glare and the fact that screen backlights tend to be a bit dim to preserve battery life.
I bought a Compushade fold down plastic hood to see if it would improve the image outdoors, the good news is that it did. It doesn't remove the problem entirely of course, bright direct sunlight still needs a secondary cloth or shade over the shoulders to exclude light but for cloudy or shaded light it is easier to see the screen.
Its also useful indoors when working near windows or other light sources.
When not in use it folds down flat over the top of the laptop, it becomes part of the laptop and the combination will still slide into a laptop bag. Despite earlier concerns that it would be a bit flimsy I can report that the opposite is true and its quite hard wearing. Worth the £20 asking price.

http://www.compushade.co.uk

Laptop Stand
Trying to hand hold a laptop when it is tethered to a camera can be very difficult, when possible a nearby table or chair can be used to rest the thing down flat but sometimes these things are not around, step forward a dedicated laptop stand.

There are two models available from instand, I chose the smaller/cheaper/lighter CR3 shown here that can easily be transported by public transport, the stand folds down to about 16" and the plate can be carried in the side pocket of my laptop bag. The price is a bit cheeky at nearly £100 but it does do the job reasonably well, a bit shaky when fully extended but I have not had any bad experiences so far, in actual fact the soft rubbery top surface keeps the laptop from sliding very well.
If you always travel by car then the much more rugged looking CR5 may be the one to go for (and it looks prettier too).
Check out the instruction sheet for some very witty remarks about tightening the plate correctly...

http://www.instand.com/eu/UK-stock.cfm?loc=UK+-+MAINLAND&crn=UK

Apple have condescended to update their tired Mac Pros

2010-07-27T14:52:00.000Z

No USB3 support, a bit so so, but at least they now have some current standard processors:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/07/27macpro.html

Its been a long long time since Apple thought of Creative professionals as an important market, guess making billions of dollars from the general public can turn your head like that.

Bitter? not at all :-) - just to confirm that in the Mac/PC wars I take the side of a disinterested party, they are both a pain!

Client Story: Fogdenphotos

2010-07-25T16:18:00.004Z

Here is a recent shot from Michael Fogden of a rare Sword-billed Hummingbird. Michael took the shot after standing patiently for 7 hours, Patricia Fogden was on hand to signal when the bird was approaching. Its of course one thing to be dedicated but to match that dedication with superb ability makes Micheal an exceptional photographer.
This and lots of other new material will be appearing on Michael's site http://www.fogdenphotos.co.uk/

I updated this site recently for Susan Fogden to bring it up to the latest version of Imagefolio image database software. New functionality such as better metadata integration, lightbox control and many other new features that are very useful for picture researchers and picture buyers (our favourite people!)

Stephen

New Mac Pro rumours

2010-07-16T22:40:00.001Z

So disappointing that the new generation Mac Pro is still not available yet as the current Mac Pro is looking very long in the tooth. Rumours suggest the Autumn as now being the likely time for this to be rectified.

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/07/16/rumour-some-little-tidbits-on-the-macpro-and-the-imac

Photoshop CS5 0.1 Update now out

2010-07-01T08:23:00.001Z

As expected Adobe have cleaned up a few bugs from the code of Photoshop CS5. It looks like most of the serious ones are in the 64bit Mac version but this update also addresses PC issues.

The most annoying one for me was inconsistent performance when using keyboard shortcuts for zooming etc.

I recommend you install this update asap by selecting "updates..." under the help menu in Photoshop.

BBC pays Getty for photo of own building

2010-07-01T07:54:00.004Z

Whilst sending a tea boy out to take a snap doesn't sound particularly right (do tea boys exist?) it does show how the large libraries have successfully setup the mindset of picture buyers.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/29/bbc_snap/

Of course its not quite as simple as this, the BBC could well have a fixed deal where they pay a set fee to Getty and so sending someone outside would just add to costs, are you old enough to remember when things were a bit more simple?

Stephen

Field trial of Lightroom 3 tethered shooting

2010-06-24T13:41:00.000Z

Just back from a very pleasant if hard working 2 day shoot with Clive Nichols.

I thought this would be a good trial of Lightroom 3 tethered capture.

It was.

Tethered capture is a real necessity with art directors and clients on a shoot as each shot needs checking and changes made before each setup is signed off and we can move onto the next one.

We abandoned Lightroom 3's built in camera control straight away as although we could trigger the shutter we only had a readout of aperture and shutter speed so could not make exposure adjustments from the laptop, this was important as when the camera is high up or in a tight corner it is difficult to adjust the camera itself.

We reverted to the Canon software for controlling the camera and setup Lightroom 3 to auto import images from the capture folder. This did work most of the time but we had a few glitches where the images did not make it through. As soon as I realised this was slowing the shoot down I reverted to Lightroom 2.7 which performed the same functions perfectly.

Lesson: Always keep the last good version of software on your computer till you are sure the new version is ok.

It could be that any forthcoming update (3.1?) will sort this problem and perhaps Adobe could spend some of that money they make in extending the functionality to camera control at some point. Until then I'm sticking to 2.7 for tethered shooting.

Client Advisory: Silver TeraStation owners

2010-06-12T09:59:00.010Z

The silver boxed Buffalo Terastation was released in 2005. With its 1TB capacity (~700GB as raid 5) it was a welcomed device to many photographers who needed secure storage for their images.

I advised purchase of these devices to many people and I know that there are dozens of them still working fine today. There have been a few devices that have developed problems prematurely but as long as the data was backed up to other devices before replacing a faulty hard disk there should have been no problems.

However, we may be approaching the 5th anniversary for many of these devices and in my experience 5 years is a significant time for hard disks to be running continuously.

This advisory is to say, be prepared!, make sure that you have the devices backed up in at least one other separate place and consider migrating files to another device within the next 12 months.

For the same cash that bought the 1tb silver device you can now purchase a much faster 4tb device and many clients have already done this. I now use my own silver terastation (pictured above) as an ftp server, it no longer houses copies of master images but is very happy serving copies of retouched files to clients, a pleasant retirement for this old horse.

Lightroom 3 released

2010-06-08T09:35:00.010Z

I'm not a keen fan of Lightroom for productive imaging workflow but do think its a great way to manage collections of images (search, re purposing etc). Its ideal for small to medium sized businesses who don't have custom programmed image databases but need some of that functionality.
Its also my preferred platform for auto importing when shooting tethered when its important for art directors to see the shot asap after the shutter is released (though via the canon capture software rather than the built in tethered options). I have been using the Beta of 3 for a while, the release code is on order and I will let you know if there are any changes.

More details from Adobe here: http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshoplightroom/?promoid=DTEWE

GPS Location data panel for Photoshop CS5

2010-06-07T12:18:00.013Z

For clients who like as rich a metadata set as possible there is nothing like having the location you took an image embedded in it. This has been possible for a while in supported cameras (or via GPS attachments) and now Adobe are supporting the resulting GPS data via a new plug in panel. It's a manual download and install from here:

for windows
for mac

Just follow the install advice you find there. (What is not mentioned is that if you still don't see the GPS panel when installed you may need to click on preferences in the file info dialog and select "Restore default dialog")

Be aware that having rich metadata in your Master collection is a good thing for you but you may want to consider erasing such metadata from versions of the files going out to clients if the images contain subjects such as endangered species or private gardens where its best not to reveal the exact location.
Contact me if you need assistance in automating the stripping out of metadata from retail files, this can be done field by field right down to retaining only essential metadata such as copyright, contact, caption and keyword information.

Sue Flood gets into the RPS International Print Exhibition

2010-06-02T13:31:00.008Z

Congratulations to Sue Flood for getting one of her images accepted into the Royal Photographic Societies International Print Exhibition of 2010. Her image entitles “Boundaries” was one of only 124 selected from over 3,000 entries.

I made the high quality print for Sue on my profiled Epson 3800 A2 printer. The image was shot on a Canon 1ds mkIII and was carefully converted from RAW to ensure that highlight detail in the snow and shadow detail in the water was retained.

Sue like many of my clients allow me to maintain an off site backup of Master files for them, not only does this provide for security in case of disaster it also allows me to fulfil client requests to supply files to their customers when the photographer is away from base for extended periods.

Purchasing a Mac Pro workstation?

2010-06-01T12:15:00.003Z

You may want to hold back a while as a refresh is long overdue and there are rumblings that something new in this line could be launched at the WWDC conference June 7- 11.

The current quad core Mac Pros are getting a little long in the tooth and the rumored new 6 core processors would improve Photoshop performance...

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro

Upcoming Canon 1ds MKIV to be 32mp?

2010-06-01T12:01:00.005Z

Progrear look like they have jumped the gun a little in their recent site update, still waiting for Canon to announce anything.

http://progear.co.nz/catalog.aspx?c=3022

Important update to Photoshop CS4

2010-06-01T11:49:00.004Z

Adobe have been busy! They have released Version 11.0.2 which plugs some security holes in Photoshop CS4. The security issues look pretty obscure and unlikely but its a good idea to install it anyway.
Open Photoshop CS4 and select the menu item: Help:Updates and follow instructions from there.

Photoshop CS5 in not affected by this bug.

You can read more about the issues here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-13.html

Important updates to Photoshop CS5

2010-06-01T11:38:00.000Z

Adobe have today released two updates:

An update to Bridge (bugfixes)
Camera Raw 6.1 - now includes built in lens distortion correction, a bug fix for Mac users and better interface performance for both platforms.

If you have Photoshop CS5 installed then close Bridge, open Photoshop and select the menu item: Help:Updates...

2TB drive for £76+vat

2010-05-29T10:53:00.006Z

Clients running a little low on internal storage space may want to consider an offer thats good for this weekend only at scan.co.uk.

This eco disk costs that less than 0.00005 pence per megabyte (my first 32mb hard disk cost £150 some £4.68/mb which is 93,000x more expensive!).

It is only a 5,400rpm drive rather than the faster 7,200rpm type but for holding large collections of images it will be fine.

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

Stephen

Download available: Default Photoshop CS5 settings action

2010-05-28T17:28:00.004Z

Because Adobe need to please as many people as possible Photoshop doesn't come setup with the best defaults for working on large photographic images.

After many years of working with Photoshop I have honed down a series of settings that make using Photoshop quicker and more accurate.

Normally I do this work on client machines and leave them with a archival copy to ensure they can reset their system if they need to such as when reinstalling Photoshop etc.

I have now produced a generic version of this action for free download to help the community. It is available from the Downloads section

Naturally my paying clients actions are better tied into their machines/workflow but I do hope this action will make a good starting point for you.

Stephen

New firmware for Canon 5d MKII

2010-05-25T12:49:00.002Z

Version 2.0.7 is now available (the last released one was 2.0.4)
This fixes a few bugs including one I noticed myself (strange aperture movement in movie mode when using a macro lens).

Get it here:
http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html

New functionality for CliveNichols.com

2010-05-11T17:52:00.005Z

I integrated a full searchable image database on http://www.clivenichols.com/ some years ago now but just this week I was asked to add the feature of a screen resolution popout when mousing over thumbnails.
Javascript is outside my remit but I was very pleased to introduce Edward Leigh of Excogitate (http://excogitate.co.uk/) to Clive and and help him to add the function.

You can see the results here: http://www.clivenichols.com/cgi-bin/stephen_johnson/database/imageFolio.cgi?&bool=or&search=48k

Edward and I have a small network of specialists who can help out on various projects and allow us to take on larger consultancies whilst providing backup for each other.

contact update

2010-05-11T17:17:00.004Z

Most clients know to phone me first on my landline number but as from now you can also contact me on my mobile if you wish. Having been told off for not using my mobile when in the office I'm now switched on all day.
I'm on a pretty comprehensive tarrif so don't be shy to ask for a callback
The number is 07776 448621

Stephen Johnson
Copyrightimage Ltd
Tel 01263 825277
Mob 07776 448621
http://www.copyrightimage.com/

Photoshop CS5 part 2

2010-05-03T11:36:00.003Z

1. Workplace layouts are crisper and less liable to move about than in CS4, selecting a preset or custom made workspace layout switches the workspace instantly - unlike CS4 that took ages.

2. Working in CS5 is definitely snappier than in CS4 on the same setup, things seem a little more solid. Having said that there are a few none critical bugs to do with selecting images to copy then paste over other images, sometimes when this is attempted it doesn't work (or pastes another image from earlier working and not the last one selected and copied). This is the kind of bugette that is removed by a 0.1 release within a few months.

3. CS5 now supports the IPTC extension standard which are extra metadata fields for things like model/property releases. Not too sure if Getty or anyone else support metadata in these new fields yet but I would imagine they could in the future (and simplify their upload process which is very tedious).
You can read more about the metadata extensions here:

http://iptc.cms.apa.at/cms/site/index.html?channel=CH0099

Stephen

Photoshop CS5 initial impresions with release code

2010-04-30T21:34:00.004Z

Installed and running today here are some initial thoughts on CS5

1. content aware fill works great on low res images but needs more effort to work on high res images

2. Speed of opening images / moving around images seems improved, this is not what usually happens with a new Photoshop release so very pleasantly surprised.

3. Resizing and brush softness controls with Wacom tablets has been subtly altered so that the same shortcut key changes size when the pen is moved left/right and softness changes with up/down pen movement. An improvement in some regards but will take getting used too as arching the pen away from these axis stops the change.

4. Zooming using keyboard shortcuts and either the mouse or Wacom tablet has changed dramatically. Instead of a bounding box to define the area to be enlarged the image zooms in dynamically by mouse or pen movement. It has the potential to be quicker/more flexible than the older method but it will take some getting used too! Update: This new way of zooming is called "scrubby zoom" If you dont want to use it then you can go back to the older method by pressing Z for zoom and unchecking the Scrubby Zoom box.

Not had too much time to play with Bridge yet but sad to report that Adobe still don't allow the appending of text to existing unique descriptions when applying metadata to images. This is a little sad as Adobe have done the code for Lightroom which has the capability...

Overall though I'm intrigued by the new release.

I suspect many more subtle changes will surface with further play / real work, will update any facts relevant to the Photoshop retouching methods I promote for Photographic use.

More on Photoshop CS5

2010-04-16T22:18:00.001Z

I have just ordered an update to my Adobe design standard suite (CS4) to CS5.

I noticed that the receipt given at the end mentions an availability date of 30th April, not too clear if this is a shipping date or a delivery date.

As in the past I will be up to speed on the new Photoshop within a week or two and will be ready to support it amongst my clients. I will also continue to support fully the last 2 releases (CS3 and CS4).

I can of course offer advice and guidance on CS2 and earlier to clients but will not be running these systems myself.

The stage is set for Apple to refresh the MacPro line of workstations which are currently looking a little long in the tooth, I know lots of people waiting for 64bit Photoshop CS5 to use with a new 6 or 12 core 64 bit Mac.

There is no love lost between Adobe and Apple at the moment however and I wouldnt put it past Apple to cut off their noses and not play along with the game, its been a while since Apple needed Adobe to sell their kit and make a profit, Apple have lots of money from consumers at the moment and thats where they are focusing their attention.
Stephen

Photoshop CS5

2010-04-13T20:45:00.003Z

Adobe are after your cash again, a new updated photoshop will be available on the 21st/22nd of this month.
You can check out some of the improvements here:

http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

As with the last 3 versions there are worthwhile improvements for high end creative retouching with smaller improvements for the kind of minimal retouching regime of say wildlife photographers.

Content aware fill will reduce the retouching time on creative work whilst the improved camera raw will be more generally useful.

CS5 is 64bit on Apple Macs for the first time so if you are running a recent Mac this may tip you over into making the purchase.

Prices are up on last time, I think Adobe assume everyone will gladdly pay even more, I will be updating because I need to (teaching/retouching work). If your happy with what you have then dont worry about the upgrade.

Stephen

Update

2010-02-15T08:30:00.002Z

Back at home now.

Alice is out of hospital and recovering well, many thanks for your support.

This week is going to be busy, a couple of private workshops, one larger and one smaller retouching jobs and an interesting job cleaning up metadata on 120,000+ images.

Be aware that I service a wide range of clients from advanced amateur photographers whom I can help with training and market advice to large institutions where I can help standardise and raise the quality of image collections.

I will be away on a shoot next week but things free up a little after that so feel free to get in touch if I can help you with any training, retouching or imaging workflow needs.
Stephen

Update on availablility

2010-01-11T13:51:00.000Z

My daughters operation went well and she is now recovering, however a minor setback means that we will not be able to return home this week as planned.

I have wi-fi access in the hospital and am able to work so please feel free to continue to email queries / work as normal.

Mobile phone use is very intermittent so please email in the first instance and I will call back if thats required.

Many thanks for your support.

Stephen

Photoshop CS4 Windows 7 dragging an image to the Photoshop icon

2009-12-06T13:30:00.002Z

Windows 7 now treats files dragged to application icons in the new apps bar as files to be "pinned" to menu of the application.

This can be useful for files you open regularly but a bit of a spoiler if your used to dragging image files to the Photoshop icon to open them.

The good news is that this fuctionality is still available - you just need to make sure you press the shift key whilst dragging the file to the icon and they will then open in the usual way.

Stephen

Interesting technology under consideration for Photoshop

2009-10-21T10:39:00.002Z

Its not usual for Adobe to tell people about new things they are considering for future Photoshop releases so its interesting to see this (and also its pretty amazing):

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/10/video_new_from_adobe_labs_content-aware_fill.html

Its a natural progression for the healing and patch tools and will certainly help reduce retouching costs...

Stephen

Improved video on Canon 5D MKII

2009-10-20T17:59:00.006Z

Canon have said that they will release an update for the 5D MKII next year so that it can be switched to 24 and 25 frames per second as well as the current 30 fps. This will make it easier to convert to different system standards and is good news, their statement can be seen here:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09102003eos5dfirmware.asp

However, dont wait for the new firmware, if you are in the field and think there may be a salable sequence in front of you then go ahead and capture it.

Stephen

Power saving on imaging workstations

2009-10-08T12:47:00.005Z

In the past I have advised (for good reason!) not to use sleep and hibernate modes on machines used for retouching.

However, considering the price of electricity these days together with the fact that LCD screens reach a stable state much faster I think there is some room to use these power saving states.

Use with care, if your going to lunch then hibernating the machine is fine, if you know that you will be doing some critical colour work on images in a short while then dont sleep the machine.

Clients who run large batch processes overnight are advised not to use power saving as this will compromise the process.

Stephen

Colorchecker passport part 3

2009-10-06T20:39:00.002Z

I couldnt quite understand why building profiles with the colorchecker passport was leading to reds (especially) being a little oversaturated.
I got out my (more expensive) Gretagmackbeth SG chart and suddenly all was clear.
The colours on my SG chart are much richer, specifically the colours in the center which should share common values with the passport.
Now my SG chart is a few years old and should if anything have faded, the colour should not be richer!
I can only conclude that the nice matt finish on the passport that makes it easier to light and photograph has the side effect of not being as rich in colour as it should due to light scatter.
However the profile calcualtions must be based on the colour values from the reference chart, becasue the passport colours are weaker the profile is pushing the colours up too far.

I can still work with the passport but I will need to tweak the resulting profile with the Adobe DNG profile editor, less than ideal though maybe a better path if lighting the SG chart is problematic.

Oh well..

(Photograph shows SG chart and passport under the same lighting, the white rectangle shows the colours that are common to the charts and used to build profiles)

X-rite colorchecker passport update

2009-09-25T15:06:00.009Z

Im still experimenting with this camera profiling kit and have done some work on the strong reds.

My initial analysis was that some saturation was increased using the profile I built and in the case of reds was causing some clipping. All files were coverted to 16 bit and the Adobe 1998 colour space.

When I tried the conversion into the larger pro photo colour space I got a big surprise, it looks like the profile has found a lot of colour detail outside the Adobe 1998 colour space (see the diagram above, the dots represent colour in the file and the solid object is the Adobe 1998 colour space).

In the Pro Photo Colour space there is no clipping, just extended colour...

When I use the standard Adobe camera profile and convert to Pro Photo the colour just about creeps out of the Adobe 1998 colour space so it looks like the custom profile really is getting some extra range out of the camera.

In order to get the advantage of this extended range it looks like I may need to convert and retouch in the Pro Photo colour space, I can always convert to Aobe 1998 with perceptual rendering if clients request.

This could be very useful for me helping clients who do copy work, will need to experiment some more...

X-rite colorchecker passport

2009-09-25T11:06:00.006Z

Very excited today to get my hands on one of the new products from x-rite called the colorchecker passport.

This allows you to build custom colour profiles for cameras. Its simple to use - just shoot a frame with the checker in and then use this to build a custom profile that can then be used in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.
Initial test look good, blues are more accurate (see the blue pot above), as are other colours like the teracotta pots, though reds look a little high. (Click on the image above to see a larger version).

I have given up on camera profiles in the past as the chart I used (a previous x-rite product called the SG) had a sheen on the colour tiles that made lighting/positioning the chart very difficult. The matt surface of the new product makes placement and readings much easier.

The charts are encased in a hard plastic shell that acts as its own stand and looks to be very well made, a bit of a bargin for about £80 inc VAT.

More testing to be done but Im happy with the initial results and look forward to using it on a commercial shoot next month.

You can read more here:
http://shop.colourconfidence.com/product.php?xProd=2686"

(Ellie the cat muscled in on the shot without prompting)
Stephen

remote access to Lacie BIG5 devices

2009-08-25T11:58:00.002Z

Clients who are using LaCie BIG5 devices may have noticed that security updates to Internet Explorer may have blocked their ability to download files using the HTTPS facility (secure web browser).

I will need to look into how to sort this but in the meantime just use Firefox instead, if you dont have it its a free download here:

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

(Its also a very good web browser for general use).

Stephen

New firmware update for Canon 5d MKII

2009-06-03T09:15:00.005Z

I have just updated my camera to the latest version of the firmware available from Canon (as of yesterday).

Its version 1.1.0 and the main improvements are in the movie mode, basicaly you now have control over asa, aperture and shutter speed.

This was a much requested feature (the camera was auto everything before this - with no easy way to control any variable).

Previously the popular way to control aperture in movie mode was to use Nikon lenses on an adapter, this may have been noticed by Canon.....

If you do shoot short movie clips when on location (a good idea) then consider the upgrade, if not then read about the changes first then decide if you want to update, you can read and download from here:

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html

Fire resistant digital media safe

2009-06-02T08:58:00.004Z

Andrew Jackson at ACTPIX has a large fire resistant data safe for sale.

I know many of my clients have amassed a large collection of images that in some cases are of significant scientific interest. Protecting these images from damage is not an insignificant task and something that needs careful consideration.

You can view the safe model here:

http://www.thesafeshop.co.uk/products/4623.html

(Andrew has the full set of drawers and shelves)

Andrew can be contacted via his website http://www.actpix.com

Stephen

Update

2009-05-26T22:33:00.002Z

I have been working on some interesting projects recently, unfortunatly client confidentiality means that I cannot mention them here, this blog would be much more interesting if I could talk about my work a little more :-)

The photolibrary business is going through one of its crisis of confidence at the moment but there is no general trend, some parts remain viable and its no surprise to see that the high quality/original thinking end is doing well, keeps us on our toes anyway...

CS4 has bedded in nicely here, the Bridge has a nice solid feel and the Wacom brush size control saves me a few seconds each time I use it - which is often.
Im running Photoshop and Lightroom in full 64bit mode with 6GB of ram on a new self built quad core Intel i7 process running Vista 64. Nice and smooth though not the big hike in processing power that previous generations have given, looks to me like performance is hitting a plateu since most of Photoshop seems single threaded.

Middle to late June is quite busy with client visits so let me know if I can help over the next few weeks.

Stephen

Update

2009-03-03T13:42:00.003Z

Its been a while since I posted here last so I thought I would make a short note.

I have been travelling helping with shoots and onsite client visits for various jobs and projects. A relatively quiet period of retouching is next.

As always if you or your organisation needs help with imaging related matters, whether workflow or training related then please feel free to get in touch.

Stephen

Quality printing and framing service

2008-12-16T09:36:00.004Z

Andrew Jackson over at ACTPIX will be known to many of my clients for his professional drum scanning / high volume scanning services and his wide format printing services (http://www.actpix.co.uk/)

Andrew has recently launched a new consumer site that makes uploading pictures and purchasing framed prints from these pictures very easy and offers very good value. Have a look here:http://www.mypix-framed.co.uk/

If your looking for a last minute gift for your family or clients then give him a go.

Stephen

Adding real value

2008-12-02T16:23:00.002Z

Retouching services.

Many clients rely on me to do the more difficult retouching on their images and some hand over quite a number files for production retouching.

Naturally I keep copies here until I hear back from the client that they have recieved the files and are able to read them before I delete them.

From this month onwards and for regular clients I will offer to keep the RAW files (converted to DNG for longevity) + retouched files - if the client request it.

There is no charge for storage (disk space is cheap enough), consider it part of the service, if after a few years a client has lost their copies they can request the backup copies for a nominal handling charge.

If the North sea rises 100m or some other incident occurs and my copies are lost then a full refund will be given (£0.00).

Copies can be deleted at any time at the clients request (also no cost).

Stephen

Thoughts on Lightroom 2

2008-11-17T13:26:00.002Z

As many of you may know, I was not a fan of lightroom 1.0

My main concerns were of complexity and preformance/reliability it just seemed seemed a little too flakey.

I still beleive that for handling the workflow for production retouching Lightroom still lacks the simplicity of Bridge/Photoshop that is central to my workflow recommendations.

However, for keeping track of the "Master Collection" once created I now beleive Lightroom 2.0 has a place.

I am currently looking into how Lightroom may find a place within a small photolibrary/photographer situation and how it would impact the needs of different users.

Lightroom 2 holds promise, Im keeping an open mind.

Stephen

Photoshop CS4

2008-09-23T12:48:00.004Z

I have been beta testing Photoshop/Bridge CS4 over the last few months and I'm pleased to say there are some real improvements to the stability, speed and usability of the programs.

Most of the improvements benefit high end rather than production retouching (rotating canvas, content aware scale etc), I have used these tools for real retouching jobs and been suitably impressed.

On the downside metadata handling has not been improved (The same "Multiple values" bug when appending keywords and captions as per CS3) and there is still no central configuration system for all the varied settings.

As far as I can see all my client CS3 actions run without modification on CS4 - will check this when I recieve the retail code.

I will contine to support CS3 for the forseable future so dont feel you will be left behind if you don't upgrade. Workflow and retouching workshops can be held with either CS3 or CS4.

Stephen

Free VAT Calculator (updated)

2008-09-22T16:15:00.008Z

I originally posted this in 2005 but noticed recently from the log files that the original file was moved some time ago in a reorganisation.

I have restored the file so the link works now:

As some of you know, I use Visual Basic to make custom windows programs. Most of these programs are highly specialized and written to fit into a specific workflow. Occasionally I write something a bit more general. VAT-calc is a tiny application that presents just three fields. You can enter a number into any of these fields and the other fields update to provide the missing figures. So for instance if you know the price including vat then just enter this figure in the inc field and the program will show you the VAT exclusive price and the VAT value. All very useful stuff if you are VAT registered.The program is presented free and 'as is' with no implied warrantee. Just click here to download the zip file. Unzip this to your desktop. Inside is a single vat.exe file that you can put anywhere. Just double click on the vat.exe icon to run. Note: The VAT rate is set to 17.5%. If I get enough requests I may make this adjustable.

Image investment

2008-09-17T08:39:00.003Z

One of the main problems in delivering high technical quality images to the market has been the cost of suitable digital cameras.

Affordability has been pretty poor in the last few years but with the resourgence of competition between Nikon and Canon nobody should be very far away from at least 12megapixel bodies which I consider to be the minimum requirement for high end stock.

Canon today released details of the 5D MKII which with 21mp and a price of £2300 means that anyone earning a reasonable amount from stock can up the quality of their shots and potentially get sales from bigger (and better) repro uses.

It goes without saying that technical quality isnt the end of the story, but I have retouched too many fantastic images that were too small for even full page use....

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091705canon_5dmarkII.asp

Beta Canon 1ds mkII Profile for UK Garden Photographers

2008-08-08T10:01:00.003Z

Part of my clientel are a number of garden photographers and as is known amongst this group that Canon cameras (unlike Nikon) tend to make green garden foliage a little too yellow.

Thankfully Adobe have released ACR 4.5 with better support for external camera profiles. If you have Photoshop CS3 and its fully up to date then download this beta profile I have made and put it in one of the following locations:

On Mac OS X:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

On Windows 2000 / XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Support\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

On Windows Vista:
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

The profile gives more accurate garden greens for the UK.
Download the profile here

Once the profile is copied, restart Photoshop and open a raw image taken on a mkII. Select the camera icon on the raw converter tab, then from the NAME dropdown select the profile.

Let me have any comments.
Stephen

Processing large quantities of images for output levels

2008-08-01T12:02:00.002Z

As some of you know Im not too keen on Image Libraries such as Getty and Corbis asking for attenuated output levels on submissions (Getty ask for 3-252 for instance).

Continue to use the full bandwidth if needed in your Master files, with proper colour management any CMYK you make for your own projects will handle the range through colour management.

Given that libraries ask for these compromised files however I have been developing a windows program that can sort large collections of images and automatically place them into 4 folders for processing to required output levels. This pre selection process allows images that are already in the legal range to be left alone and images that have just illegal highlights or shadows put into separate directories with the last directory being for images with illegal values at both ends of the range. Files in these folders can them be processed though my special "legal levels" actions that acheive the required levels without compromising mid tone contrast.

I will be mainly using this program to process clients images when they request files for agency submission, I am however prepared to sell the program for your own use at a cost of £60+VAT. More details to follow.

Getty Upload Portal

2008-06-20T11:56:00.002Z

The Getty upload portal is alive and working now.
I have been very impressed with the quality of the thought and functionality in the interface, there is no doubt that the team at Getty have done a good job.

A few related notes:

1. Clients can use Quality 12 Jpegs derived from the Getty tiffs workflow to upload to the portal instead of burning them to CD/DVD.

2. You will need to place a short caption in the headline field. In general this is usually the first sentence of the main caption.

As you know Im keen that your Master Tiffs collection use only Industry Standard IPTC so with this in mind I would advise that you change the keywords on the Getty tiff/Jpegs to reflect their need for up to 5 conceptual keywords but retain the full keywords in your Master Tiff files.

Retain you Master Tiffs but delete the Getty tiffs/jpegs once you have had the result of the edit.

Any questions? - get in touch

Imaging Workflow workshops

2008-05-12T06:55:00.002Z

Im looking into the possibility of holding larger workshops to pass on my advice and tips on imaging workflow.

These workshops would be held in slightly more convinient places to get to than the North Norfolk Coast and would of course be cheaper for each individual as the costs would be spread over a number of attenddees. If you would be interested in such workshops then please let me know via emails so I could get an idea of numbers.

If you require a more 1:1 workshop in which I can review your pictures and offer more tailored advice then please get in touch to discuss requirements, I offer places for 1-3 attenddess in Sheringham so you can either come by yourself or bring some freinds and collegues and spread the cost between you.

Stephen

Connecting to UNIX shares from Vista

2008-04-24T11:36:00.002Z

I have covered this before but because of recent changes to Vista (sp1) I have had to redo my LAN security to connect to shares on a local Buffalo Teratation. It looks like its these older devices only that are affected as my new Linux server and a new Terastation Pro 2 dont have this problem.

SO: If you have difficulty logging onto an older terastation with Vista try the following:

Click "Start -> Run." Then, type in the Run field: "secpol.msc." That will bring you to Vista's security policy system. Once there, use "Go to: Local Policies > Security Options" and then find "Network Security: LAN Manager" authentication level. Once there, change the Setting from "Send NTLMv2 response only" to "Send LM & NTLM -- use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated."

Stephen

Website

2008-04-16T17:52:00.003Z

A rare break between jobs at the moment so:

Im reconfiguring a server here in the office over the next few days, this may impact website availability for short periods of time.
When finished I will have better ftp availability and disk space will increase for image database trials. Just got to sort out my bandwidth bill and I will be finished!

Stephen

Adobe colour settings file for European Stock Photography (CS2/3)

2008-03-19T09:52:00.017Z

This colour settings file will help you manage your colour workflow. It sets Adobe 1998 as your working space and if you ever need to supply a CMYK file for a generic European press using coated paper this will also set your default CMYK to a Fogra standard.

Download the zip file here (save it to your desktop then extract the settings file from the zip)

The colour policies are set to respect the colour tags of files not in Adobe 1998 (thus ensuring they display correctly though don't forget to convert to Adobe 1998 if your agency requires it).

To load into Photo shop:
Start Photoshop and select EDIT:COLOUR SETTINGS. Click on the load button and navigate and select the downloaded file.

To synchronise colour settings throughout Adobe Creative Suit (If you have it!):
Do the same as for Photoshop above then:
Start Bridge and select EDIT:CREATIVE SUIT COLOUR SETTINGS.
And select European Stock Photography from the list.

Stephen

Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1

2008-03-19T09:38:00.002Z

I have installed sp1 on my main retouching machine and have encountered no problems so far.
Improvements in network responsivness and file copying are certainly welcome.
The service pack is not in general distribution yet but may be available in the next few days. If I notice any problems I will report them here. Having said that your system will be in a different configuration than mine so dont assume that sp1 would do the same for you. Best to let the update mature for a few weeks so Microsoft can tune it.

As ever I need to be on the bleeding edge!

Stephen

Update Advisory - Outlook 2007

2008-03-14T09:28:00.005Z

Unlike previous Outlook mail clients the new one in Office 2007 uses the dpi of an image when displaying it if it is embedded (rather than attached to) an email (Menu:Insert Picture).

Older versions used to just display across the pixel width of the image. If when using web/email sized images produced by my actions you find the image being displayed too small in an email then as a temporary measure use the handles to resize the image.

If I have written actions for you in the past and you have this problem then please email me your action file and I will update it at no cost to you.

Stephen

Monitor calibration advisory - Pantone Spyder products

2008-02-27T11:06:00.005Z

The first monitor calibration device I owned was the original Optical Spyder, I think I had a "good" one as it did a reasonable job though I did hear there was variability in build quality and accuracy.
For some years now I have advised people to buy Gretag Macbeth calibrators as the results and consistancy were much better. For clients who already owned a Spyder I was happy to see if it produced a reasonable calibration (Im very sensitive to how my test images should look on a monitor).
However I have recently visited a few clients were the calibration was way out even though the correct perameters were used and the profiling process went without a hitch. Im taking here about a white point that was no where near 6500K and incorrect display of shadow detail. Pantone sell a range of Spyders from cheap to expensive - presumably the cheap ones are not as good as their expensive ones?

If you use a Pantone Spyder and you are getting poor calibrated repro/proof mismatches have a look at replacing it with a Gretag Macbeth Eye-one display 2.

http://shop.colourconfidence.com/product.php?xProd=1187&xSec=10210

(I have no connection with colour confidence so try a search on Google to check prices)

Getty Images sold

2008-02-26T07:55:00.003Z

Well it looks like its finished thinking about its self and decided that a sale to a private equity firm Hellman and Friedman is the way forward. (Hell and Fried - man!), £1.2 billion is the price paid.

To be fair the firm does have an understanding of internet properties so it will be interesting to see what happens.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7263856.stm

Stephen

Getty workflow improvements

2008-02-03T21:46:00.000Z

Teriffic news for all clients using my custom actions to prepare Getty legal files from their Master tiffs. As of the first of this month you no longer have to process the resulting Getty tiffs to Submission Jpegs using the Prelight tool.

This change means that I can now edit your actions to create Submission Jpegs directly and therby eliminate the last manual step.

There is a new version of Prefilght you can download which just checks that certain aspects of the submission files conform to Getty requirements, feel free to download this from Getty.

Until I get round to you please carry on with the current workflow (this is still ok with Getty).

Hooray!

Getty exploring strategic alternatives

2008-01-23T12:16:00.000Z

According to PDN, Getty is having a think about itself:
PDN
I wonder what it is thinking? It is a profitable business and it does provide an income for myself and other photographers so lets hope its thinking happy thoughts.

With the cold season still upon us and the banking industry admitting its hopeless at handling money (again)its not a good tiime to make rash descisions.

Stephen

Slides

2008-01-15T16:08:00.001Z

A few times in the last month I have been editing film collections from clients, slides - on a light box!.
Goodness its strange how quickly film has become so "odd" to deal with, my lightbox is built onto a wooden trolley that I have been using to sit my Epson A2 printer so first thing to do was clear the printer off and fire up the tubes.

I only mention this because I can sense that the window to digitize old images is closing a little each day. Many of the services to digitize film to Getty standard have closed or diversified into other areas. Of course there are still scanners made such as the Flextight and Nikon scanners - but for how long?

If you have a large collection of film images then consider digitizing the core valuable images soon.

A few of my clients have been using the services offered by Andrew Jackson at ACTPIX in Wales www.actpix.com. The quality of his drum scanned images is really very good and he is an accredited scanning service for Getty.

Just in case your wondering - my clients deal directly with Andrew and I don't receive commission.

Slideshow actions

2007-12-06T23:25:00.005Z

I have developed some Photoshop actions that prepare and format image files for digital projection.
These actions take a lot of the work and hassle out of the slideshow creation process producing files that can be dropped directly into Microsoft Powerpoint and Apple Keynote software (and others) without the need to resize them etc.
There is a little bit of magic sauce in them that overcomes the "flattening" that commonly occurs with digital projectors.
From these actions you can create droplets and drop any number of images (both horizontal and vertical at the same time) and the files will be processed and placed in an output folder.

The actions currently work with the following data projector resolutions:

800 x 600
1024 x 768
1400 x 1050
1920 x 1200

The actions are free to existing customers or people who have attended my workshops in the past. If you would like a copy of the actions and are not currently a client you can purchase the actions for £20 (incl VAT).

Existing clients click here to request actions or purchase them using the button below (I will email you the actions as soon as I receive the payment).

Business as usual

2007-11-09T11:24:00.001Z

Apart from the high winds blowing out a fence panel we have escaped any effects of the recent surge and are working normally. Many thanks for the calls and emails from concerned clients.

Wildphotos presentation online

2007-11-01T18:43:00.000Z

I have now created an online version so If anyone would like to review the presentation I made at Wildphotos 2007 then please send an email with the subject line Imaging show request. (Click on the blue text to do it automatically).

Stephen

Leopard results (updated)

2007-10-29T12:38:00.000Z

Well, I have done some limited tests and so far, not too bad:

The Good
Photoshop runs (that's a good sign!)
My disk heavy Photoshop action runs faster under Leopard:

(average of 3 runs)
Tiger = 143 seconds
Leopard = 110 seconds

Thats quite snappy.

The Bad
I cannot print to my Epson 3800 printer until sometime in November when Epson will release an updated driver (thank heavens I can print using my Vista PC!). Other Epson printers are effected including the 2400 more details here: Epson

The Annoying
You will need to re profile your monitor after you install Leopard

If you use bootcamp to dual boot windows don't forget to go into windows and load the latest drivers from the DVD.

Conclusion
From my limited tests it would appear that Photoshop runs a little faster when running Photoshop tasks that are disk bound (swap,loading,saving) so that's a plus point.

Other potential reasons to upgrade? well, to be honest not many, look at the new features and see if your convinced.

Visually things seem less clean and lack the old Mac "purity" it looks more cluttered and busy like Windows Vista.

If you need to make prints in the next month on an Epson inkjet then don't upgrade just yet. There may be other problems, I will report back if I find them. In the meantime check out other reports on Leopard on the internet.

Stephen

Reporting from the bleeding edge.

Monday Update

2007-10-29T09:49:00.000Z

Im benchmarking Photoshop under Tiger now using a custom made action that I will then re run under Leopard when I install it in about an hours time. I will post the results asap.

To anyone from Saturdays Wildphotos conference:

Later this week I will be producing a version of my slide show with some notes and this will be available free - just email me with the text Imaging show request in the subject line (feel free to put something about yourself in the body of the email).

Email me here

Stephen

OS X 10.5 Leopard

2007-10-17T09:58:00.000Z

I have pre ordered the new operating system from Apple and will be installing it as soon as it arrives.

I will then be able to tell if it messes up anything Photoshop related and let you know.

Any existing clients may wish to resist the tempatation to upgrade until then. Its not likely to impact productivity much but I will benchmark Photoshop CS3 before and after upgrading to see if there are any speed changes.

Stephen

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=7FD5D34F&fnode=home&nplm=MB021

Major revamp of PC drivers for current Epson printers

2007-10-03T22:38:00.000Z

In a move that has taken me by surprise and given me quite a shock, Epson have released some new printer drivers that are really quite nicely done: More logical layout! You can now save all relevant settings under a preset! It makes sense!
Whats happened? has the lead programmer at Epson retired and been replaced? Were the old drivers written by Canon? Did Epson think the joke had gone on long enough?
In any case the new drivers are a BIG improvement. They are available for the pc to drive all current printers here (sorry 2100 users):

http://esupport.epson-europe.com/

Its the 6.5a drivers that you will need.

Boot note: these drivers work on one Vista PC that the engineer said was incapable of network printing because of some vague compatibility problem with my switch, it sounded a load of tosh when he said it and these drivers prove it - the fault lay with Epsons programming.

Thought for the day

2007-09-25T08:43:00.000Z

Yesterday I was finishing off a large poster job in Photoshop, I had just started Photoshop when I was met by an onscreen dialogue I hadn't seen before.
I didn't write it down but it was something along the lines of "cannot verify license, Photoshop is quitting" It then quit. I was in a bit of a flap because I needed to get the job finished to a deadline and I know my license for Photoshop is rock solid. Fortunately restarting Photoshop a few times made the warning go away and I was able to complete the retouch.

Perhaps next time it wont let me restart? there is now doubt and uncertainty that my Photoshop will now start up as expected. Its clear from this that the inbuilt digital rights management is a bit flakey. Of course if I had purchased a copy for £5 at a computer fair this wouldn't have happened, it seems its only legitimate users that suffer from the Adobe DRM. Its not as if its effective anyway (otherwise it wouldn't be possible to buy copies for £5).

First they milk their market then they provide flakey DRM. The sooner Adobe get some real competition the better for everybody.

OK rant over! I guess this could be useful to clients just in case they get the same problem, looks like a busy machine can stop Photoshop checking its license properly and a few restarts will solve it. You wont hear this message from other Photoshop consultants who are in Adobe's pockets! Im happy to be independant.

Wild Photos Conference

2007-09-05T16:27:00.001Z

I will be speaking on imaging related matters at the Wild Photos conference again this year on Saturday 27th October.

The conference was held in Bristol last year and was a very enjoyable occassion and a great place to meet some very talented photographers as well as some very passionate people who are active in preserving the nature around us.

I can really recommend a visit. Details are here: http://www.wildphotos.org.uk/.

Although I will be doing the talk on Saturday I also plan to be around all day Friday to catch up with some friends and attend the other talks so please feel free to say hello and introduce yourself.

Stephen

The amateur spirit

2007-09-05T15:27:00.000Z

Following some recent enquiries I'm happy to confirm that my workshops are open to anybody, not just professional photographers or Imaging staff.

I started in photography as an enthusiastic amateur and have always supported and encouraged people to get the most from their photography. Some very important imaging related programs were written by enthusiastic amateurs (I'm thinking noise reduction here) as well as team members of initiatives like ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick.

So you don't need to be a professional to come to on my courses, just the desire to learn. All workshops are charged on a fixed hourly rate and if you wish you can bring a friend to share the cost with you. If you would like to take your photography and imaging to the next level then contact me now.

Stephen

New resource

2007-09-05T15:13:00.003Z

I have installed an Epson 3800 printer in the office for use in workshops. The original reason behind the purchase was so I could make some A2 proofs for a local client.

Not too much call for A2 prints otherwise but Im hoping the economy of the larger ink cartridges will make running this printer cheaper than my A3 Epson 2100.

Clients attending a workshop are free to make use of this resouce at cost, ink and paper. Bring your own paper if you prefer, Im currently experimenting with Permajet papers.

Im looking to make a set of my own profiles for the printer as Im keen to get a good one so that I can get some accurate press proofing ability.

Having just spend £700 on an A3 viewing box Im not too keen on finding out how much A2 ones are, oh well...

Website availability

2007-09-02T13:10:00.000Z

Many appologies for the website being unavaiable on a few occassions recently. Easily.co.uk who host the site are normally quite solid but seem to be having problems.
If the stability problems continue I will move hosting elsewhere.

Stephen

Capture

2007-08-30T21:50:00.003Z

I recently purchased a 10 megapixel Canon 400D camera for home use. This camera cost less than 1/10th the price of my 11 mp 1Ds body and is just 1/3 the weight of the 1Ds.

I didnt expect too much of it but it has certainly surprised me with its quality, the ease of use and weight means I take it out with me much more often than if I had to lug the 1Ds.

On the way home from the Cromer carnival recently I wanted to capture a shot of the sea and fair in the dim evening light, it meant hand holding at 1600 asa. The resulting image is sharp and detailed. If I had tried to do the same shot with film the quality would have been much worse with a heavy overlay of grain, to acheive the same quality I would have had to use a slow film and tripod with a long exposure, what a pain!

I think digital makes photography fun again.

Stephen

Nikon decides that full frame sensors are not silly after all

2007-08-23T10:14:00.000Z

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikond3/

Canon 1Ds MkIII (updated)

2007-08-21T12:41:00.001Z

Well it had to happen didn't it?

Canon have released details of a new flagship camera that can produce a native file size of 60mb with its 21.1mp sensor. The 1Ds MkIII will be available later this year, (read: early next year).

To make your images suitable for submission to Getty from this camera you would have to reduce the image size to conform to the 48-52mb limit. It does however open up the possibility of cropping images slightly and still hitting the required file size.

I'm not expecting a 1Ds MkIV anytime soon after as a 21mp sensor means even the expensive L series lenses are not going to give the detail the sensor could capture. There are not many image samples out at the moment , the only one I could find was a studio portrait shot at f1.8 and can be found here:

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/eos1dsm3/downloads/portrait.jpg

The image looks to be a bit noisier than an equivalent medium format shot would be so I think Hasselbad are still safe, though at 1/4 the price of a H3D they will feel the chill from this camera.

It looks like Canon have weakened the AntiAlias filter slightly (notice the moire on the tip of the dress), I wonder if there are no more samples because they show moire and Canon are still working on the camera, there is speculation that the details were released now as a spoiler for the upcomming Nikon D3x....

You can read about the MkIII here:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/canon3-2007.shtml