When To Use A Pro Lab - 350 Reasons

The new digital photographer can be forgiven for being confused by any number of aspects of the sport - there seem to be so many to learn.

He or she used to be confronted only by which film to use, does the orange needle match the mark on the light meter, and is the Chemist open so that I can drop my film in? Then in two weeks it was should I buy another roll of film or a bag of barley sugar and box of bandaids?

Now it is white balances, tonal curves, video frame rates, colour spaces, and all the rest. No wonder they have started putting an " Automatic " setting on new cameras and dedicating a knob or lever to it. The relief for some shooters must be palpable.

It is nearly the same for the shooter who wants paper prints of their work. What do they do now that the chemist has gone out of photofinishing and reverted to selling overpriced vitamin supplements and something for the weekend? What are the alternatives with that card full of images?

a. Print it yourself at home on a multifunction printer from Officeworks. No, please - go ahead and do it. The printer will only cost you a hundred bucks and you'll be so disappointed with the results that you won't even have to buy expensive ink cartridges later to try again. The larger multifunctions make attractive pots for cactus.

b. Get Officeworks to print it for you on their big machine. This sometimes works to some extent if your file is perfect and your need is modest. Do not expect art. They are not going to correct your flaws. GIGO.

c. Get an Epson photo-quality printer and do it at home. This works. Start off with the Epson Surecolor SC-600 and move up to the SC-800 if you want larger prints and cheaper ink. Then cast your eyes at the even larger range of large format printers from the company. They will not be cheap but their quality of print is professional and you can be sure that the prints that emerge with K-3 ink on quality Epson, Ilford, Permajet, or Hahnemuhle paper will be be permanent and accurate.

But sad to relate, you are still going to have to be doing a good job with the files. You'll be telling the computer what you want, but you'll have to make sure your monitor is showing you the truth. ( Hint: Spyder colour calibrators, EIZO screens...) And you'll have to make sure that the computer tells the printer the right thing to do ( Hint: either, you, the computer, or the printer will have to manage the colour. Decide early.) And you'll have to make sure that the printer knows what paper you're using ( Hint: paper profiles.)

You will also need to ensure that you put the paper in the right side up. Do not ask this writer how he knows that. Take it for granted that he knows...

A little unsure about all the settings and alternatives? Then you need the Automatic solution...

d. Take the files on a hard drive, CD, or memory card to a professional photofinishing lab. They have not disappeared with the advent of digital - in fact the good ones are going strong because they are the good ones. And they are resourceful, technically skilled, and helpful.

A visit to a professional photofinisher like Fitzgerald Photo Labs at 350 Fitzgerald Street, North Perth
is almost as easy as it used to be to put your films into the chemist. There are real people there who can look at your files and advise you on the optimum sizes that they can be printed. They can suggest paper surfaces for larger works. They can frame the bigger prints - and there are so many options for modern display that you can never run out of a fresh decor idea.

They are able to handle film needs as well - lots of people still shoot on film - and converting the negatives and transparencies to digital files is easy these days. You can get your work back in dual form - digital as well as paper print.

Again you can be sure that the pictures you pay for will be permanent. The big labs use Epson K-3 ink on their big machines.

The joy of a big lab like Fitzie's is that the printing people are there to talk to you and they know what they are doing from long experience. It is not just machine minding in a large furniture or discount store for them. Their job is a profession and they produce professional quality - and that's why Camera Electronic depend on them for our advertising banners and promotional prints. These need to be right and they ARE right.

For those of you  point out that I have forgotten the discount store and the furniture shop...well I remember them when I need tee shirts or kitchen chairs. But not when I need good quality photofinishing.

Day 2 - Pro Graphics - Screen It Like You Mean It!

Thursday of the 2-Day sale concentrates on the Screens of Our Lives...the monitors that show us the images our cameras take.

Camera Electronics sells only the best - EIZO - and there are at least five of the darn things on the Thursday special advertisement. They carry some healthy cash-backs from the manufacturers to further reduce the price. All the more reason to finally do what you know is going to make your images look and print better.

BTW, there are also smaller items on screaming specials - Colormunki and Spyder Elite 5 screen calibrators, for instance. And the bargain of the day - the Datacolor Spydercheckr 24 small colour chart.

If you are currently editing your pictures on a 1965 Astor television salvaged from the tip, please come in and see the EIZOs and the ancillary equipment. We can promise you a better view of the world.

Why Are Some K's OK And Some K's Are Not OK?

Because not all K's are created equal. OK?

You all know about the Kelvin scale of colour temperature measurement - named after Lord Kelvin - that measures the relative redness, orangeness, yellowness, blueness, and  eventual whiteness of light and strings it out on a numerical scale. The scale starts at 1, which is the colour and intensity of a mechanic's fingernails and goes to 10,000 which is he whiteness of sunlight as you come off a three-day bender and someone throws the window blinds open. I suspect Kelvin also had a scale for the screams as well.

Well, a lot of cameras skirt around this question by having automatic white balance programs in their software that measures the light, quantifies it on the Kelvin scale, and then gives you whatever the heck it wants to. If you include a dominant colour in your composition, it sometimes agrees with you and renders it accurately and sometimes argues the case by tipping the white balance over the other way to compensate for what it thinks is your error. If you are easily persuaded, you go along with it. Hey, it may not be science but it might be art...

If you are pedantic and scientific and people have started to get wise to your pictures of snowdrifts that look like a sort of a dirty peach colour*, you override the manufacturer's opinion and set the white balance yourself...by following the manufacturer's preset WB options. Now you can get a light blue or green snow drift. If you snow drift is lit by a fluorescent tube you can get just anything...

Determination is the thing. Your camera probably has a custom setting for the white balance in graded steps of Kelvin degrees. Find it in the menu next to the pet smile option and dial in 5000ºK. If you are out in fictitious sunlight at 11:00 in the morning with the sun to your back and a chocolate-box landscape stretched out in front of you you will probably get a reasonable balance. Likewise if you are in a studio with a studio flash popping away at a X-Rite colour card held by someone who is a neutral colour themselves...you'll get something recognisable.

But - modify that old sunlight with cloud, haze, chemtrails**, or advancing hours and it will get red or blue or orange or whatever - also if you are shooting in the studio you may discover that your beloved strobe units don't fire at 5000ºK.

I know - My studio lights fire at 5300ºK. Not a big difference, but enough to throw off some grey backdrops and some delicate colours. When I noted this happening I conducted a long test and look day and finally got the right number. I have it dialled in on a custom setting on the Fujifilm cameras and the whole thing now works a treat.

If you can't afford a big X-rite or an old McBeth chart get a Spyder ColorCheckr24 and make that do - you'll be glad you did in the end.

* Note peach coloured snow was common as winter wore on in Alberta. And there were worse colours as well...

** When I was a kid our chemtrails were maple syrup...

The Copy Camera

Copy cameras used to be a very special thing. The term referred to a camera that was used to...well...copy things. It was intended for use in libraries and other institutions that needed to record flat plane images and store them on film. There were special models that looked like photographic enlargers in reverse that could reproduce whatever was on the enlarger baseboard onto Polaroid pack film. You can draw your own conclusions as to whether the reproduction was colour accurate, but at least it was quick.

Nowadays there is nothing quicker than digital, with the exception of a cat escaping a bathtub...you get to see what you captured as soon as you can see the LCD screen. For those people who still wish to use a camera to capture flat copy we have some advice:

1. Use a copy stand. Promaster make good ones that are derived from enlarger stands with additional lights on arms either side of the stand. They don't cost a fortune. and they make it efficient - trying to make a stand out of a tripod and two stacks of old text books is a royal pain.

2. Use a digital camera that lets you put a macro lens on. Really. Even if you are not going to use it at close-up distances, the flat plane it renders will be a pleasure.

3. Use one that has a flip-up or flip-out LCD screen. You can position it so that you see the preview image right in front of your eyes - very comfortable working.

4. Match your capture to your intended storage volume and final usage. No need to have a 50 megapixel camera if you are photographing matchbook covers for small jpeg images.

5. Light the material with two tungsten, fluorescent curly, or halogen lamps. Get two bulbs the exact same and if you blow one get two more new ones and replace L and R at the same time. Assess your WB with a Datacolor SpyderChecker 24 and micro adjust your white balance to suit. Saves hours later.

6. Get the subject material as flat as possible. You can cover a wrinkled surface with a clear acrylic or glass sheet if you are careful with reflections. You can put a half-sticky piece of heavy card down and press a recalcitrant piece of paper onto it. If you are ambitious you can make a vacuum box and suck paper flat. Books are a problem.

7. Use a yellow or red filter if you are copying old smudged grotty paper as it will disguise the blotches and improve the contrast.

8. Be careful of reflections and stray light sources on the subject plane and on the camera lens. Use a lens hood. Wear a black tee shirt if you stand near the front of the copy stand.

9. Use a cable release.

10. Make sure the camera is squarely mounted on the stand and looks directly down - no skewed angles.

If you want to see an ingenious solution to the business of keeping a book flat for copying without breaking its spine, google up Linhof book copying holder. They don't make it any more and you can't afford it anyway but it was very clever.

The Newest Player On The Stage - Panasonic Lumix GX8

Here'tis. The long-promised successor to the Panasonic Lumix GX7 camera - the panasonic Lumix GX8.

The family resemblance is striking - Panasonic fans will recognise the tilting viewfinder  immediately, as well as the GX8's ability to take all the Panasonic Micro 4/3 lenses in its stride. The one you se on the heading image is a big piece of glass on a system camera - it's the Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f:1.2 which would be wonderful for street shots in really bad light.

It's a big lens and heavy, as befits the metal barrel and enormous amount of glass inside, but remember that Panasonic make a whole range of other lenses that would make the system a smaller prospect - just choose the focal length that works best for you.

There are new capabilities added to the mix - the swinging LCD screen for one. I noted that the hinge and axle that it turns upon feels a great deal more solid than some of the ones used by other manufacturers. Of course it parks screen-in for secure carriage.

The screen is touch control as well -love this or hate it, at least you can turn it off if it confuses you. Studio shooters who have the camera on a tripod or stand might find it invaluable. It is particularly fun to scroll though the art and special help programs that Panasonic include in the camera - some of them are a puzzle as to when you might use them but some are absolutely perfect for a quick reaction to a photo opportunity - the ability to access them quickly is a real bonus.

You'll note on the deck view that there are three active compensation and command dials as well as the basic mode wheel. Leave the basic exposure compo set for what you are encountering and set the blue/amber compo on the back screen and go for your life. Five minutes spent with a Datacolor Spyder ColorChecker 24 card and you can eliminate literally hours spent in front of a computer later - this will leave you more time to drink wine, eat cheese, and read Victorian novels.

The hand grip has changed a little from the GX7 - formerly it was a little wider and more rounded - the designers have now curled the grip in a la Leica T and you can depend the assembly on three fingers without thumb if you are that way inclined. The thumb grip on the back is perfectly angled. If you are left handed you are still ignored by the camera manufacturers but then that is what it has been all your life so you might as well be bitter about it...

Ah, well, come in and try the new GX8 for yourself. A worthy contender in the market.

Rainy Weekend

Either you are or you aren't. You'll know for certain and the people around you will have a pretty fair suspicion, but either way you'll need to come in and see us here at the shop to spend money.

Well, that's what we are here for, isn't it.

In this case you are either going to be a person who stands outside in the rain with a camera or a person who stands inside out of the rain with a camera.

For the former, we recommend that you get yourself a packet of Op/Tec Rainsleeves for your camera and lens before you go out. You can get drenched as much as you like but have a little pity on the expensive electronics. For $ 9.95 you get two sleeves and you can cope with the wet.

For the latter, we recommend a Datacolor SpyderCheckr 24 card and a set of LEDGO LED lights. Armed with the card you can balance out whatever light exists inside the home with the soft light of the LEDGO panels and do wonderful portraits and tabletop shots inside in the dry. Boil the tea kettle, break out the chocolate biscuits, and stand at the window laughing as the outdoor photographer trudges down the street.

Pictures At An Exhibition - Or How To Be Modest

As photographers we are rarely encouraged to take pictures of someones else's photographs when they are exhibited. It is considered naff in some cases and criminal in others - particularly if we then whack them on our websites and claim them as our own.

It's a little different if we go to see pictures that have been done by other means - or sculptures or artefacts and manufactured articles. Sure, there can still be a degree of  taboo, but many public galleries are okay with it - as long as you do not use flash or tripods.

This is fine - I love wandering the art galleries of Victoria and New South Wales to see famous works of art - and new, obscure things. I have learned to cope with the light conditions of the places and to get a clear result.

The illumination can be problematical, though good galleries will have directed lighting that shows the art to good advantage. But the colour temperature of it may be all over the shop. I've taken to recording the art with RAW and a small jpeg - the little one as a sighting rifle for he more detailed capture. I have also considered one of the tiny Spyder Checkr 24 colour cards for my travelling bag so that I can reference back to a neutral result later on my computer.

Flash is out - the galleries do not want to subject the works of art to the danger of fading or the cleaning staff to the danger of discovery...put your camera up to the highest ISO that will deliver a clean image for your purposes, and turn the image stabilisation on. Consider attaching a Steadepod to the bottom of the camera and stepping on the footplate whenever you need utmost stability.

Lens choice? Well, if you have a lens that has very little distortion in the first place - like the 23mm f:2 on my Fujifilm X 100 - you need not worry. If you are using a zoom, do a little investigation beforehand to find out the focal length that will have the least barrel or pincushion to it - somewhere in the middle of the range.

Stop it down one stop from wide open if the lighting permits. Nearly every lens gains something from this.

Try to stand square to a flat work of art, or at the most attractive angle to a 3-D object. If the thing is big and you are standing on the floor you are likely be tilted up and getting some keystoning - correct it later with DxO or Photoshop. If you find that you can capture the image you want from further away in the gallery wit a longer focal length the keystoning will be less evident.

Be prepared to experiment. Circular polarisers can sometimes help with the view through a glass cover - sometimes not. Painters who have decided to express the grace and beauty of life with a trowel and mortar board are likely to have left a problem, as the surfaces of their works reflect light everywhere. You are allowed to curse them quietly.

You are also allowed to quietly abominate the crowds of people who will surge in front of you just as you press the shutter button. Patience - they will drift onwards eventually and if you  wait you will get a clear shot. It is the same at a car show - the gawkers and strollers sometimes work in tag teams but eventually they tire.

Final note. When you bring someone else's vision home to look at you are free to look and free to admire but you are not free to publish it out. There are still laws for this. The artist might be dead but you can bet their lawyers are alive.

Some Flashy Deals With Elinchrom

I love writing advertising copy for this place. I get to use all the corny old tabloid headlines as they are appropriate to the products advertised. As yet, I have not been able to incorporate WAR ENDS! in 100-point black bold at the top of the sheet, but I am still hopeful...

Coming away from that, here's good news for anyone contemplating some studio or portable flash to give them a little more oomph than speedlights...Elinchrom has a series of deals for January and February that will put money back in you pocket and new gear in your hands.

We've just gotten the tear sheet for the following:

1. Purchase any Ranger Quadra Lithium-ion 2-head set and get a $ 500 cashback from Elinchrom.

2. Purchase any Ranger Quadra Lithium -ion 1-head set and get $ 300 cashback from Elinchrom.

3. Purchase a bundle offer with ELC 500 or 1000 set and get a free 44cm beauty dish with dedicated grid.

4. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX 4 To Go set and get a free Spyder 4 Pro.

5. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX 4 To Go set and get a free SpyderCheckr 24 and a SpyderLensCal.

6. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX One To Go 3-head set and get a free Spyder 4 Pro.

7. Purchase a bundle offer with the D-Lite RX One To Go 3-head set and get a free SpyderCheckr 24 and SpyderLensCal.

8. Purchase a bundle offer with the BRX 500/500 To Go set and get a free Spyder 4 pro.

9. Purchase a bundle offer with the BRX 500/500 To Go set and get a free SpyderCheckr 24 and a SpyderLensCal.

All of these things work good in themselves and the combinations of them is even better. Hop in for your chop.

Repainting The Shirley - Or Why You Need A Spyder Checkr 24

We're very lucky down here at 230 Stirling Street - someone built us a test target across the street years ago and we have been using it to compare and contrast cameras, lenses, and filters ever since.

It has a broad face of different coloured panels and thin lines placed both in the center and at the margins - you can determine resolution, distortion, and chromatic aberration easily. It is front-lit in the morning and back-lit in the afternoon.

Sometimes there are human figures displayed to enable you to check portrait bokeh - and occasionally a drunk starts kicking in the phone box in front of it so you can practise your street photography skills as well...

Well, we are going to have to recalibrate it - as you can see the painters are in and there may be changes to the reflectance and chroma of the surfaces. This may take some time, and in the interim we may have to resort to that Datacolor Spyder Checkr 24 targets to do the same thing.

Actually, the Checker 24 is a good thing to take everywhere you go when you shoot. Pop it into the lighting that you are going to use and snap a shot at the start of your photography. Then when you are done, snap another. At home, when you are looking at the files you can tell whether the lighting changed and whether you are going to have to make changes to the balance of the files somewhere in the middle.

The Checkr 24 is small enough that you can dump it into any camera bag - if it saves having a client howl that you did not get the red right, it is a lifesaver.

PS: Aren't the portable cherry-pickers a great idea for painters? I want one of the ones on crawler tracks and I don't even like to do painting!

Legless Lou And The Spyder Checkr

I have just added the Silkypix 6 program to my system and decided to take the opportunity to test out the correlation between the Elinchrom studio flash, Fujifilm speed light, and the Fujifilm cameras. It is not that I mistrust or misunderstand what they do - but I am aware that flash tubes and soft box diffusers change with time, and that sometimes the white balance results can be off enough to make later processing a nuisance.

Of course, like all RAW process programs, the Silkypix will allow a considerable degree of white balance change in the file - but the fewer changes needed, the faster the operation. Plus, if I wish to take advantage of the gorgeous jpeg images out of he Fujifilm X cameras, it is as well to be spot-on.

Okay, Legless Lou is there to ensure that I am looking a a standard two-light portrait setup: Elinchrom 500 EL on the right with a standard reflector and a similar head feeding a giant Redwing softbox on the left. ( Note: we have one of these giant softboxes left for sale but you need to be foolhardy and vicious to put it together. I put mine together...) The grey backdrop is there to remove weird reflections.

The Macbeth colour card is there to give accurate repeatable flat colours plus a grey scale. Mine is an old card, but we sell new ones made by Datacolor and X-rite here in the shop. Buy one, even if you don't take pictures - they look pretty and it's good for business.

Any rate, I carefully set it up, made exposure trials, and then lettered a series of paper slips to let me identify which white balance setting was used for each shot. I ranged it from 4200ºK to 6000ºK in the steps that the menu allows in the Fujifilm cameras. Then I shot a series of test exposures plus one at Auto WB.

Clever readers will realise that I was not thinking - the EXIF data tagged onto each exposure had all the detail I needed to differentiate the shots...the pink slips were just extra work.

Okay - shots from the X-E2 and X-100 were taken with the Elinchrom setup and the Fujifilm EF 42 speed light and loaded into the computer. I set up the Macbeth card next to the monitor with my standardised print assessment light on it so that I could see screen and card equally - and ran the series of shots through the Silkypix 6.

I was deliberately trying to find the most accurate of the settings to yield exactly the same balance all the way through. It turned out - for me on my system, mind - to be:

Silkypix 6 "Faithful", standard colour, a little strong contrast...

X-E2 and X-100 plus Elinchrom studio monoblocks...5600ºK

X-E2 and X-100 plus Fujifilm EF 42 speed light.........5900ºK

Note as well that this was done cold sober and before 10:00 at night. If I were to alter either or both of those two conditions, I should not warrant the accuracy of my judgement.

Now, I know the accurate colour base for my shots. Now I can do this:

Play A Game Of Checkrs With Datacolor

I love my colour reference board. I use it in my studio when I am trying to get an exact reproduction of the colours of  model cars. Then I distort the heck out of them with Photoshop Elements, but that is beside the point - I start out clean and clear.

Mine's an old model made by a respected old manufacturer. It was made while Elvis was alive but is still going strong - as it gets stored carefully in the dark between uses*. It cost me a surprising amount of money back then and I am glad it is still going strong - I like to get value for money.

Well, if you would like to get better value than that right now in a colour/B&W reference card may we suggest the Datacolor Spyder Checkr 24. It is made in a lot sturdier material than my old one and in a more convenient size - 5 x 7. You can haul it in any camera bag for a quick ref shot in every new situation.

There is also a downloadable SpyderCheckr camera calibration software and support materials note on the sleeve that protects the panel. Not sure what they expect you to do but all I have ever done is look carefully at the results on the Polaroid/print/screen image and then take appropriate measures. Call it chromatic blundering into the furniture, if you will, but so far it has worked.

$ 65 means you CAN afford this.

* If they had stored Elvis in the dark between uses he might still be going strong too.

Oh Myyyy....I FInd Out

Well, that'll teach me.

And isn't it always the case - the things that you find out for yourself are the ones that stick with you.

I have been using an iMac and a Macbook Pro for several years, resetting the colour video cards inside the computers with a Datacolor Spyder 2 Express each month, and printing out on Ilford and Epson paper. All good and I've been happy.

Then recently the Spyder 2 Express started to go weird and I replaced it with a Spyder 4 Express. Slightly different routine for the operation, but equally simple to do. I tuned up the home and the work computers last week and carried on blithely.

Today Dom handed me some files that were taken at last night's shop party. I banged them into the Macbook Pro and then out to the shop Epson R3000 so that some of the reps could have  paper prints. Ilford Smooth Pearl 6 x 4 paper.

Wow. Better than before. Accurate colours and NO colour cast. I think the Spyder 4 Express has done something really good for the system. What, exactly, I cannot say. And this on a standard paper.

Note: I also brought back some Fujifilm printing paper from Japan to test it. Only one print so far on what amounts to a super-quality glossy but again it looks as if printing has gotten to a whole new level of accuracy...with no especial efforts on my part.

These are standard goods straight off the shelf here in the shop - with the exception of the Fujifilm paper. I know the business of colour management and printing is said to be hard but this seems easy. Perhaps it is all just hear-say...?

Time To Upgrade With Datacolor

The first time a horse kicks you in the shin you notice it. If it goes on long enough you get used to it and dodge as best you can and then just tend to limp about. But the thing still rankles - and eventually you tire of the sport - generally before the gee does. At this point some citizens haul out a large betsey and old Dobbin is consigned to the glue factory.

So it is with electronic gear. The first glitch is frightening and causes concern but after you discover that you can "cure" it by turning the thing off and on again or banging the side of he box, you tend to just carry on and let it happen.

So it was with my old Datacolor Spyder 2 Express program in the iMac and Macbook Pro. It worked fine for 5 years and then occasionally it would hang up at the last part of the calibrations sequence - the screen would go sort of pinkish and I would have to run it again to get it to go straight through. One day the second run did not cure it and I needed a third one...kick, kick, kick...

Out with the electronic roscoe. Removed the Spyder 2 Express and installed a Spyder 4 Express in its place. All has become better. The new program works efficiently and already recognises what it must do without having to be repeatedly told.

One can only assume that there is a finite life to software, as there is to horses.

I Pressed The Print Button, But Why Does It Look Like That?

It looks like that for any number of reasons:

a. It is an autochrome. Made up of dyed grains of starch bound onto a glass plate. With an autochrome any image is a good image and if it has survived the last 100 years without cracking or fungus you have a museum piece.

b. Your print heads are clogged. Run a nozzle check on your epson printer. if the little pattern of checking squares has missing segments, run a head clean cycle. Check again and repeat if necessary. Eventually you will have a full checking pattern and a clean print.

c. You have got a massive imbalance between what you see on your computer screen and what your printer is being instructed to do. Have you calibrated the monitor screen lately? if not, try one of the Datacolor Spyder range of monitor calibrators. Do it regularly.

d. Is your printer confused as to who is in control? Have you given it double instructions with your image programming fighting with the in-built printer control. Choose one. Turn the other off.

e. Is your printer aware what sort of paper you've dropped in it?  You could probably print on sultana bread toast if you set the printer head high enough, but would it make a baby portrait look good? Be sensible with your paper choice and load the appropriate profile into the printer before you start. If in doubt, stick to the manufacturer's own paper.

f. It's your eyes. Visine in each one and a night's sleep. If your image in the mirror in the morning looks as bad as the print, see your opthalmic specialist. If he looks as bad as the print, you may have to be content with life as it is.

Cube Of No Colour - Eat Your Heart Out Rubik

The littlest things can often be the most important. If you are searching for a way to increase the colour and exposure accuracy of your photos, Datacolor have a neat solution to start doing this in the field or studio.

Lots of people start their shooting sessions with a shot of a grey card. This may not sound as much fun as starting them with a shot of rye whiskey, but in the end it delivers a better result. They carry the image of that grey card through the entire capture and computer stage and then look at it on the screen. When they can manage to see the same colour on the screen as in their hand they are on target. If they can carry that through to a finished file or print they are home safe.

I am afraid that this is an over simplification, but it is better than just setting the camera to Auto white balance and hoping for the best. Hope delivers sometimes but never when you are home to sign for it...

Datacolor have made a small cube that has black, white, and grey panels on all six sides. It has a tripod socket on the bottom and a cord to hang it from a Christmas tree on the top. You capture it in your first picture and then look at it in the final computer image, just like the flat grey card - but in this case it is bathed in the scene light from 6 different angles.

There are two extra features that are unique - a silver ball on the top that will capture and display the brightest of the specular highlights that the lighting affords. You'll know what your white-out point is.

Like a Highlander on guard duty, you will also know where the black-out point is - there is a hole on one face of the cube that allows light in but never lets it out again. Like the ATO and your tax money...

In store right now, and the best bet for quick post-production time that I know.

Is It Just Me Or Does It Seem Purple In Here?

The Macbook Pro that this blog is written on has a program inside it from the Datacolor people to help it keep the colours accurate. Every month it pops up a little window to tell me that it is time to reset the laptop. If I ignore it, it keeps reminding me - every time I turn on the laptop. It is like the still small voice of conscience. As we have been busy at home I have not bothered...

Looking at the heading image, I am starting to think I might make time...

For those of you who suspect that you might be in the same boat - you know; the one with the water coming over the gunwales and the sharks gnawing at the stern - perhaps you should come in and get a Datacolor Spyder for yourselves.

They do three models and they are not expensive - the top models calibrate all sorts of computers and monitors in all sorts of situations.

A Day With My Scaley Mates

Did goe to the Reptile Expo yesterdaye and was greatley entertained.

It was held at Bogan Central - otherwise known as the Cannington Agricultural Hall. The reason for the nickname is instantly evident, but so many fun things happen at this venue - the toy car expo next weekend and the collector's fairs, etc. - that the occasional flannel shirt and uggs is a small price to pay for the pleasures. Even if you are the one wearing them...

So - yesterday was reptiles, and it was a typical Perth experience - and eye-opener as to just how many people are interested in a subject, how sophisticated their knowledge is, and how much trade and commerce there is out there to support it. It is the same with quilt sewing, hot rods, iron ore mining, and Lithuanian ferret racing - give them a day out and there are a million people there.

We took a stand of goodies that might interest a reptilian - DGK grey cards, Adobe image programs, Datacolor Spyder - and a some magic Nikon cameras and a coupla Cullmann products.

Well, the 10:00 lecture from me on wildlife photography was attended by me. And after ten minutes even I left. Everyone was having too much fun with the rest of the snakes to want to listen. In the event, they did come and ask sensible questions at the stand.

They ran a photographic competition that was won by three suitable shooters - first and second prize were a father and son team and son beat father. I should advise him to guard his prize - a Cullmann 525 tripod and big carrying bag - well as there was a predatory gleam in Dad's eye...reptiles do that to you.

One thing was impressive - everyone from the pure enthusiast all the way up to the two wandering officers from the Conservation Department had the interests of the animals at heart - none of the reptiles were ill-housed or ill-treated. Some of the pythons seemed to be exercising a wicked sense of humour when they were allowed to climb over pretty girls. The frogs looked nonplussed and none of them elected to turn back into princesses no matter who kissed them. The bobtail goanna in the terrarium next to our table was prosperous - his keeper obviously knew exactly the right diet for him.

The day was a success - next Sunday is toy cars and I am looking out my tracky daks and Jackie Howe shirt in preparation. I wonder if I have time to grow a mullet before then...

Ten Days In October - Missile Crisis Sale

My fellow Australians, we have just received photographs and information that have alerted us to the fact that there is more stock on the Camera Electronic shelves than strictly required. This equipment must go. To this end we have considered two courses of action: a naval blockade or a ten-day sale. As most of us get seasick, we will pursue the second choice.


To this end, email messages have gone out to the subscribers of Camera Electronic's newsletter informing them of severe price reductions on items noted in the labels of this posting - Canon, Nikon, Manfrotto,Datacolor, Elinchrom, etc.etc. These will continue in force until the end of trading on the 31st of October, 2012.

Our terms are not negotiable. Stock must be in-store. Payment in full - cash or card. First come-first served. No online sales of these special items.

We will  maintain visual surveillance of the camera sites until the stock is gone. Until that is done, units of  SAC ( the Shop Assistants Command ) will orbit at predetermined stations ready for a sudden swoop upon designated customers. This is a case of Mutual Assured Satisfaction.

Thank you. I will now retire to my armoured command bunker.

Ten O'Clock At Night

Ten o'clock at night. Remember that time. It is important for photographers - it was in the analog days and is even more so now that we use digital.


10:00 PM is the dividing point between success and failure - between reputation and disgrace. In some cases it is the determining factor in life or death. Let me explain.

If you are a wedding photographer or someone who covers social events like corporate balls, 10:00 PM is the point of time when you must either leave in a calm and professional manner, or stay and eventually help shovel the corpses into the truck. The booze will have been turned on at 6:00 and four hours is more than enough time to fuel the company. If you leave at 10:00 you avoid having to protect your gear from flying drunks and/or rescue your assistant from amorous embraces. You can drive home safely without going to sleep and ending upside-down in a ditch.

And of course you remember the primary rule of event photographers - do not download your cards or try to do any processing after 10:00. Never mind the phrase " deadline ". The only thing that will be dead is you if you inadvertently erase or damage the information on that card through inattention. The bride and groom and the ship's company are not going to disappear if you don't hand them an entire job completed next morning. They want the pictures and they will be back to get them.

Likewise, do not attempt to do professional colour work on files after 10:00 PM even if it is next day. Your eyes tire and your colour perception may well lead you astray after this time. I accept that if you have calibrated your camera, screen, and printer with the appropriate Datacolor or X-rite products - and I do - that you are starting with a level playing surface. I accept the fact that EIZO monitors are the best on the market. But after 10:00 YOU are tilting and are likely to make the wrong decision about what you see.

At this point users of  Lightroom, Aperture and a number of other editing programs point out that they can batch-process any number of images and if they got one looking good earlier in the evening, all they would have to do is press the button and their work would be done. Never - even with the assistance of this feature they still need to tweak here and there and as soon as they do it with tired eyes the whole job is a patchwork quilt again.

This was also the case in the analog days - I lost an entire costume ball through to trying to mix chemistry and process the film after returning to the darkroom late at night. Wrong recipe, flat black negatives...

Please note that it is also a bad idea to clean firearms, purchase real estate in Queensland, or contract marriage after 10:00 at night.

Good Night.

An Eye Opener in A4

My birthday rolled around and my friends wanted to get me a present. Passing up the hints I sent them - the advertising flyers for the Nikon D4, the Maserati, and the weekly special at Dan Murphy's - they chose a gift voucher for an online photo book publisher. It has turned out to be the best present yet, and a real learning tool.

Prior to this, like many analog photographers, I had tried my hand at calendars, posters, and self-printed photo books, and like many had found a basket of problems. Difficult to incorporate text or tables, difficult to position images, difficult to get consistent results. The cost of printing paper and chemistry made it comical rather than economical.

All changed. This latest experience was easy, seamless, and far more successful than ever before. I elected to make a book of my "Hot Rod Honeys" in 300mm x 300mm form, and downloaded the free software from the publisher to do it. Fortunately the firm that does it realizes that most people are duffers when it comes to this so they also set up a couple of instructional videos. I looked and learned.

First problem was the format that they advocated was square, not rectangular. I had to revise the cropping on some images though fortunately I tend to leave enough air around my main subject when I compose. In future I will probably opt for a different format so that I can do the landscape stuff - it is do-able but you have to do your own positioning.

Second problem - if you want a full bleed you have to get your margins out a decent way past the on-screen guide lines. No trying to squeeze that last millimeter into the square - you'll end up with a white flash at the edge of the page. See, I am learning.

Third problem: Printing is good but the paper seems thin - particularly compared to the double-sided matte or lustre paper we get for our inkjet printers. We'll have to see how well it holds up with time.

But here is where the good part starts. You choose your pictures in jpeg or tiff form, position and crop them as you will - then put on drop shadows or other frippery, and start to review your work. Look very carefully, as you get tired and miss things on the first run. I proof-read, if that is the word for a non-verbal book, at least 4 times before I picked up my obvious mistakes.

Uploading it to the firm is easy - the 60 page book with 260 Mb of info tootled off in 15 minutes and 10 days later a well-wrapped parcel dropped at the door.

I am thrilled - the pictures from my Nikon D300 that I have really only seen on screen or through my Epson printer are far more detailed than I imagined when spread out on a printed page. Even better is the realization that the screen image and the commercially printed image are the same - that time spent calibrating the screen with the little Spyder Express is well spent. The choice of colour space - Abobe RGB 1998 is also fortuitous.

Next experiment will be to search out files and images for further photo books - perhaps exotic dancers or railway locomotives - and try out two different on-line publishers. The birthday gift was a credit with a firm that operates in Melbourne so it will be interesting to see how their product compares to printing from the USA or China.

Conclusion: I thoroughly recommend that you try some of your own images in book form. You will be thrilled and you can bore the socks off your friends and family without needing to carry a laptop!