Regularly updated details of Windows Vista compatible colour management products can now be found on the Colour Confidence website. At the moment, only the PANTONE huey is suitable for use with the new operating system. “Until we can offer full, official verification of solution compatibility, our advice is not to use Windows Vista for colour critical work”, commented Geoffrey Clements, Managing Director of Colour Confidence.

Luminous Landscape have a great article on how to free yourself from the tyranny of the standard digital image aspect ratios, and creatively use cropping to improve your photos.

“When looking at a new raw file of my own the first thing I ask myself is that question – What is this image about, and what do I want it to say about the subject? Only when I have a satisfactory answer to this can I proceed to crop and otherwise interpret the image. When this is in hand I then find it easy to arrive at a cropping, because as with Michelangelo’s David, I simply remove everything that isn’t relevant to my conceptualization.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Understanding Aspect Ratios and The Art of Cropping

CameraLabs have published Part 2 of their guide to backing-up your digital photos using RAID.

“To find out how best to protect your data, simply take a leaf from the techniques long-employed by mission-critical corporate and web servers to keep them running 24-7. One of the most popular and effective technologies they use to combat disk failure is called RAID and the latest affordable versions mean homes and small businesses can enjoy the same kind of protection as the largest corporate web servers.”

Website: CameraLabs - Backup your digital photos part 2 - it’s a RAID!

Team Nik is a newly formed group of professional photographers who will work with Nik Software to develop educational programs related to Nik Software products. Members include Suzette Allen, Doug Box and Carl Caylor. You can find out more about Team Nik at www.niksoftware.com/teamnik

Luminous Landscape have published a guide to assessing your technical and aesthetic level as a photographer.

“Photographers go through stages of development, and while we don’t all follow the same path, an understanding of our current level of skill, creativity and artisty is, I think, an important exercise. If we know where we are and we have an idea of where we want to be, it becomes a lot easier to determine the path from here to there and to take steps to get us there.  Most of us have never given much thought to where we are in terms of skill, creativity and artistry, and even if we did, are not necessarily good judges of our own skills and levels so this is not a trivial process. While gradually and continuously striving to improve does in the end result in progress, I propose that we find a better and perhaps more direct route to becoming better photographic artists.”

Website: Luminous Landscape

Blue Pixel Press Release

Blue Pixel’s Pro Digital Workflow Seminars are the Perfect Complement to Digital SLR Holiday Gifts - Professional Photographers and High-Level Amateurs Will Learn to Maximize Digital Workflow with the Fewest Steps

Annapolis, MD – January 2, 2007 – Excited to use your new digital SLR camera, but confused about where to start? Learn how to get the most out of your digital workflow as talented teacher and professional photographer Kevin Ames kicks off the 2007 leg of Blue Pixel’s popular Pro Digital Workflow seminar series in Chicago on January 7. With just five cities left on this nation-wide tour, Ames continues to teach professional and advanced amateur photographers how to get the most out of their digital photography workflow using the fewest steps for the least amount of work.

Luminous Landscape contributor Alain Briot has a very interesting new article called “Just Say Yes”, all about fine art photography and the thorny issue of digital manipulation.

” There is a certain percentage of the public who believes that fine art photographs must represent reality.  There are people who do not know that there are differences between what they see and what the camera captures.  Finally, there are individuals who do not understand that a photograph is a two dimensional representation of reality and not reality itself because reality is far more complex, three-dimensional and perceived by us through five senses and not just one. Some people are willing to change their minds when these things are explained to them.  Others have their minds made up and do not want to be bothered by the facts.  Those are the ones that I am referring to in this essay.  “

Website: Luminous Landscape - Just Say Yes

O’Reilly Press Release

Photoshop CS3 Comes to Town—Just in Time for the Holidays O’Reilly Photoshop Trainer Deke McClelland Explains What You Need to Know

Sebastopol, CA—The holidays arrived early for Photoshop users. Late last week digital shooters enthusiastically buzzed with news of Adobe’s public beta release of Photoshop CS3. Free (http://labs.adobe.com) to anyone with a valid CS2 serial number, the unexpected gift provides everyone (including Mac users who can take advantage of the Universal Binary-ness of CS3) a chance to buff and polish their holiday photos with up-to-the-nanosecond software. That is, if they know how to use it. Fortunately, the bestselling author of “Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One” (O’Reilly, $39.95) and Photoshop trainer extraordinaire, Deke McClelland, stands ready with a training video that covers CS3’s terrific new features. Called “Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview,” this large-format 90-minute video series is available for free from Deke’s online media partner, lynda.com (http://www.lynda.com).

Adobe’s John Nack (the Senior Product Manager for Photoshop no less) has rounded-up a number of in-depth guides about digital photography that Adobe has recently published. Preparing Images for Delivery by Jeff Schewe and State of the Art by R. Mac Holbert look particularly interesting. John’s helpful posting has links to all 11 guides.

Website: PopPhoto - Pentax K10D Review

O’Reilly Press Release

Sebastopol, CA—It makes total sense—with prices of digital cameras rapidly shrinking—that more folks than ever will be wrapping and unwrapping these fervently craved devices in the weeks to come. Yes, such pixel-packed stocking stuffers possess seductive new features—yet trying to create artful and arresting images straight out-of-the box can be frustrating. Happily, next month digital camera enthusiasts traveling to and in northern California can cure the digital blues and get their photography questions answered at a pre-Macworld bookstore reading and Macworld events: oreilly.com/go/macworld2007

US3 Media Press Release

Want to learn how to take better digital photographs, get the most from your equipment, and retouch images on a PC? Doug Harman’s Guide to Digital Photography DVD is an easy to follow visual guide that walks beginners and photo hobbyists through the key steps. A range of digital cameras and digital photo techniques blend with inspirational images to illustrate the basics of digital photography. Beginning with an examination of the types of digital cameras available, the ‘hands on’ programme takes the viewer outdoors to capture a winning shot, then moves into the digital darkroom, where the basics of connecting your camera to a computer, using a printer and image editing are expertly explored.

Fujifilm USA Press Release

Valhalla, NY, November 9, 2006 - More than 73 percent of women and almost 50 percent of men feel uneasy in front of a camera. So says the surprising results of a survey conducted recently by FUJIFILM U.S.A., Inc., which commissioned the study to learn why so many folks are apprehensive when asked to smile for a picture. According to survey respondents, weight and hair style concerns are the main reasons for their “picture phobia.” In fact, 44% surveyed preferred to do laundry, 34% would rather pay bills and 18% would rather visit the dentist than pose for a picture. While some would prefer to steer clear of a photographer altogether, many survey respondents cited factors that would make the picture-taking experience – even the most casual one – more pleasurable. Feeling better about appearance (52.9%), help with hair and make-up (35.9%), having the right clothes (26.3%) and/or including family and friends in the picture (27.1%) topped the list. *

NEW YORK (November 2, 2006)—The Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines have been updated and revised. The new version 2.0 is available to the public at http://www.UPDIG.org . A free, downloadable PDF version is also available on the UPDIG site.

The 12 Guidelines are organized into a Quick Guide (executive summary) and a Complete Guide. The aim is to clarify the issues affecting accurate reproduction and management of digital image files. Although the guidelines were created from a photographer’s perspective, the UPDIG group has worked hard to incorporate the concerns of everyone involved in the process of reproducing digital images. Anyone working with digital images should find them useful.

DPNow have a very interesting article that considers how we should be appreciating our digital photography.

“I agree with many of your points - but I think the question has to be asked - if we are only going to print at a certain size or view at a certain size on screen then what is the purpose of 10mp - especially if the quality of the image when one crops or views the full 10mp worth of image at 100% is not very good. Surely we should slate *all* manufacturers that take this route in the hope they might channel their features and future efforts towards actual tangible and useful improvements – at the end of the day I don’t think anyone wants resolution that can’t be used.”

Website: DPNow - How you appreciate your digital photography?

The blog Daily Pete has an in-depth guide to High Dynamic Range photography, which is combining several shots of the same subject with differing exposures, to create one image with more detail in the highlights and shadows.

“There is a lot of talk on the Web about true HDR images. Lots of people argue that a HDRI from 1 RAW file isn’t a true HDRI. I personally believe that the end result is all that matters. If you sell a print in a gallery is the buyer really going to care if its a true HDR image or a “HDR” image? Are they really that bothered about how many bits of colour there are or just how much data there really is in the image? Probably not. They may ask how you created it out of a passing interest but are they really truely going to care? I doubt they will.”

Website: Daily Pete - HDR Tutorial: How to create ‘High Dynamic Range’ images using Photomatix

ASMP Press Release

ASMP will present a seminar series by 18 extraordinary member photographers this fall and winter. The talks, to be held at the Apple Stores in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are part of Apple Computer’s Pro Sessions event series. Mark your calendars, coordinate your schedules! On September 25, the first three in the series will take place.

Luminous Landscape contributor Alain Briot has a very interesting new article called “Of Cameras and Art” - well worth reading…

“I hear it regularly at art shows: “Your photographs are beautiful.  You must have a very good camera.”  I also hear, “Your colors are beautiful, you must use filters.” And finally I also hear, “Your images are fantastic, you must use Photoshop.”  This statement comes in different variations, but the message is essentially the same: for a certain audience, the reason why my work is beautiful is not due to my artistic skills but to the equipment I use. At first I was dumfounded.  Later on I was insulted.  After talking to other photographers and learning that they received the same comments, I started wondering why people thought this.  I now believe I have an answer.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Of Cameras and Art

Luminous Landscape’s latest article focuses on how an image is moulded into the final print; what size, tone and colour it should be.

“The process of cropping the image to its final aspect ratio may also be influenced by the removal of unwanted elements. We all crop in the field when we choose where to stand, what lens to use, and how to frame the picture. These are all acts of cropping. But physical realities like fences, walls, tree branches and the like can not always be circumvented on location. Therefore the cropping tool becomes just another method for reducing the image down to its essence – what you want it to show. Nothing more, and nothing less.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Listening to the Print Inside the Image

A great article over on The Online Photographer blog addresses the idea of truth in photography, particularly poignant given the recent Reuters scandal in which one of their photographers was fired for doctoring an image.

“Our problem as photographers today is even worse. There are no demarcation lines anywhere. Some pictures are true, and some merely pretty, and many of each look more or less the same as the other: it’s up to the viewer to sort out which is which, and the task is seldom easy. A picture with all the cues of truth might be merely propaganda, and a picture which looks standard-pretty might in fact be true. And of course there is no way to know which is which…”

Website: The Online Photographer - Truth is Elusive

CameraLabs have a guide to backing-up your digital photos - why you should do it and how.

“This is the big problem with digital photography. We go out, stuff our cards with images, then wipe them clean once they’ve been copied onto the ‘safety’ of our hard disks at home. In many cases this hard disk could contain the only copy we have of certain images – and if we’re being honest, this is probably the case for the vast majority of our collections. Most of us are putting a great deal of faith into a single electro-mechanical device, which will fail at some point in the future. “

Website: CameraLabs - Protecting your digital photos

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