Category Archives: Photo

M8, a missed opportunity

Last Saturday, I became the proud owner of a Leica M8. Then, a not-so-proud owner. As of yesterday, an ex-owner… I returned it and sprung for an Epson R-D1 instead, saving almost 50% in the process. I had already previewed … Continue reading

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Spare the strap, spoil the camera

There are many ways to carry a camera. Most are supplied with a neck strap (and there is a non-slip shoulder equivalent, the UPstrap). Wearing a camera around the neck gets tiresome really quickly, makes you look like a goofy … Continue reading

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Trimming the fat from JPEGs

I use Adobe Photoshop CS2 on my Mac as my primary photo editor. Adobe recently announced that the Intel native port of Photoshop would have to wait for the next release CS3, tentatively scheduled for Spring 2007. This ridiculously long … Continue reading

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Another one bites the dust

After a brief period of 100% digital shooting in 1999–2001, I went back to primarily shooting with film, both black & white and color slides. I process my B&W film at home but my apartment is too small for a darkroom to … Continue reading

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Shoebox review

For a very long time, the only reason I still used a Windows PC at home (apart from games, of course) was my reliance on IMatch. IMatch is a very powerful image cataloguing database program (a software category also known … Continue reading

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Aperture: first impressions

First in a series: First impressions Asset management Under the hood: file format internals Cost and hardware requirements The first thing you notice about Aperture, even before you buy it, is its hefty hardware requirements. I had to upgrade the … Continue reading

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Aperture internals

Last in a series: First impressions Asset management Under the hood: file format internals This article was never completed because I switched to Lightroom and lost interest. What was done may be of interest to Aperture users, although the data … Continue reading

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Opening up Aperture

Apple introduced Aperture, its professional workflow management application at the Photo Plus trade show in New York on 2005-10-19. Initial speculation was that Apple had finally decided to bring its deteriorating relationship with Adobe to a head and release a … Continue reading

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Resisting camera bloat

I recently upgraded my DSLR from a Canon EOS 10D to a Digital Rebel XT. Thanks to the universal consumer electronics upgrade plan, the final cost ended up quite minimal. Some may object, how can an entry-level $800 camera be … Continue reading

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Traveling with film

X-rays can fog photographic film. The damage is cumulative, repeated passes will have an effect even on low-sensitivity film that would not suffer too much from a single pass. Most of the films I use are specialized professional emulsions not … Continue reading

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