Month: December 2005

Support calls via video conference / VoIP telephony

Anyone needing immediate help is free to call me on the usual number but for clients who like to dabble in technology there is another way to contact me for help and advice.
I have the video enabled Skype 2 set up here in my office in Norfolk so feel free to contact me via this method my Skype address is copyrightimage.

I have a web cam set up so you can see me, you dont need a web cam to contact me though. You can download Skype 2 from here:

Windows users:
Windows download page

Mac users:
Mac OSX download page (no video as yet)

If you have broadband these call are free and they will impact BT’s profits so all the more reason to give it a go!

New firmaware for Canon 5D and 1D Mk2n (not 1Ds Mk2)

Clients with these cameras may wish to download the updates. The updates involve minor fixes as well as improving the brightness of the preview display. You can read more and download the firmware by following these links:

Version 1.0.3 for the Canon 5D
http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/eos5d/eos5d_firmware-e.html

Version 1.0.2 for the Canon 1D Mk2n
http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/eos1dm2n/eos1dmk2n_firmware-e.html

Read the instructions for using the updater very carefully, especialy about having a fresh battery or the mains adapter attached, you dont want to have the power on the camera shut down in the course of the update. If you wish I can perform the update whilst next on site.

Bigger files from your digital camera

Thomas Knoll the lead programmer on Photoshop has released a nice little utility to extract all sensor data from digital camera RAW files. Normally the edge of a cameras sensor is excluded from the creation of the file because of possible colour errors when demosaicing etc. However! if you have a particularly tight crop and would really appreciate the extra pixels then download the utility from http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ You will need to convert your raw file to DNG before using this utility. A free DNG converter is available from http://www.adobe.com/.
The image here is a crop from the extreme right hand corner of a file that shows the recovered pixels that were not in the normal RAW conversion (hand coloured in brown to illustrate the area recovered).

New Gretag Macbeth Software

Gretag have released version 3.4 of i1 match.
This new version includes support for the automatic reading table and finer steps in the profile editor. It also contains ‘minor bug fixes’ so I would recommend clients to download it.

After install dont forget to remove the i1 profile loader from your startup folder if you are using the Microsoft color applet to load dual monitor profiles.

If you are not using the color applet then leave the i1 profile loader alone!

http://intl.i1color.com/ (you will need to log in)

Colour management services

 

Over the next few weeks I will be building some sets of camera profiles for the Canon 1ds. The purpose of this is to judge the usability and usefulness of camera profiles in studio conditions using controlled lighting. I hope to report back on the results here in the near future so keep checking back.

VAT Calculator

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.
You can buy vatcalc from the shop section of this website.

Christmas and New Year working

Apart from the three days over Christmas and New years day Im available to help out as usual so feel to call or email your requirements

Happy Christmas!
Stephen

Welcome

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the new look site containing some exciting changes in order to help keep my many and varied customers up to date with the latest developments in digital photography and electronic imaging with a slant towards the Stock Photo industry.

Keep this site bookmarked and check back soon.

Stephen Johnson
Copyrightimage Ltd