Stephen Johnson

Monitor brightness with ATi video cards on a PC

Something strange happened a few days ago that I have now tracked down and corrected.
I use a ATi XTX1950X 512mb video card on my Vista workstation with the Catalyst control center software to configure it.

One day I noticed that my monitor didn’t look right and when I checked it read 85 candelas instead of 100. I re calibrated but 2 sets of calibration software couldn’t achieve a brightness level higher than 85. This is the kind of behaviour to expect from a 5 year old CRT monitor and not a CG211 LCD panel less than one year old.

When I attached my Mac to the screen however I found the brightness back to expected levels so it wasn’t the screen.

I knew therefore it was the PC setup at fault and proceeded to check everything, including uninstalling and reinstalling the ATI drivers and Catalyst program.

Eventually I traced the problem to an obscure setting in the color panel of the Catalyst control center. It was set on “PC standard black and white levels” which sounds fine to me but when I changed it to “Microsoft MCE black and white levels” I got my display brightness back. I have no recollection of even seeing this setting before so I’m unclear as to how the change happened.

I’m mentioning it here so anyone else who comes across this problem knows how to fix it. I seem to get a lot of hits from Google searches from people with imaging related problems, nice to know I’m helping!

Stephen

Camera Raw 4.1

Having already described the hard headed business types at Adobe and their desire to be as popular as the convicted monopolist Microsoft with their lousy pricing policy, it would appear that the good guys at Adobe have come to their rescue and put something in Photoshop CS3 that makes the upgrade worthwhile.

Camera raw 4.1 includes some very useful new tools:

Hue/Saturation/luminance tab which allows these adjustments with full access to the raw data. This results in much smoother tones and colours than if you perform the same operations on the image in Photoshop. For people who like to get their colour ‘just so’ this is a real improvement.

Defringe control (in the lens corrections tab) This is a great way to get rid of the colour fringing caused by affordable lenses (cheap ones). Its a one step control that doesn’t need picture-picture tweaking like the chromatic aberration sliders (though I still recommend their use – especially on wide angle shots that show it the most.)

Clarity control, this improves the contrast in the mid tones and can work very well.

All in all I’m finding the images I’m getting from recent raw conversions to be quite a bit better than the conversions in the past. It means less work in Photoshop and that’s got to be a good thing for your sanity and workflow.

The other lesson is that new technology and software algorithms improve over time and that’s a compelling argument never to delete RAW files, even the marginal ones.

If you upgrade to CS3 you will need to download ACR 4. from here:

Mac Windows

Im available for telephone/remote desktop and email support for training in the transition to CS3 for existing clients. New clients can email me in the first instance to arrange a workshop or onsite visit.

Stephen

Smoother zooming and scrolling in Photoshop

If you have at least 1GB or ram on your machine you may want to consider enabling the Bigger Tiles plugin.

I have found that by enabling this moving the image around the screen is much smoother and easier on the eyes. To enable the plugin go to where you have installed Photoshop on your system then navigate to:

Plug-InsAdobe Photoshop OnlyExtensionsBigger Tiles

In the Bigger Tiles folder remove the ~ character from Bigger Tiles.8BX and restart Photoshop.
(Just put the ~ back if you want to revert back)

Stephen

Managing multiple monitor profiles in Windows XP and Vista

If you have a Gretag Macbeth product registered with the company then you can obtain a useful utilitiy:

DisplayProfile freeware for Windows

DisplayProfile allows you to store multiple monitor profiles for your PC and have a way to easily switch between them. By moving the window to any connected monitor you can dynamically update the profile for that monitor. You can download the software here: http://gretagmacbeth.com/getfile?send=1&id=8712 (requires login)

This is a useful utility to have whilst we wait for Gretag Macbeth to release a calibration loader that works fully with Vista, possibly in the next release of i1Match. I will inform you here just as soon as I know….

Stephen

Vista networking shares to a Buffalo terastation

Vistas increased security can cause problems with network shares on Buffalo terastations.

These cheap raid 5 storage solutions are ideal for backing up images so if you would like to use them from a Vista workstation do the following:

select: start menu > programs > administrative tools > Security and configuration management

Select > Local policies > security options > Network Security: LAN Manager Authenticating Level

Set it to “Send LM & NLTM, use NTMLv2 session if negotiated”

You should now have no problems connecting and accessing shares on the terastation.

Stephen

Adobe becoming aggressive

The prices Adobe are charging for the new suits to customers outside the USA and Canada is really quite something. Looks like they are confident that they command the market and with CS3 are prepared to milk it.

Some healthy competition for Adobe would be a good thing all round and perhaps with these new higher prices it will encourage someone to have a go.

Adobe takes UK price hikes to new level with CS3

I will be upgrading myself because I have to, others must look at the (small) new features list and decide if they want to. There is a sting with this though as Adobe are tightening up on how old products count in upgrades and you may find yourself missing out on the upgrade price on CS4 or CS5 if they do contain useful additions.

Stephen

Purchasing PCs

My older clients will know that I have been generally recommending Dell computers when new imaging PCs are required, I can generally build a recommended system online on the clients behalf.
However Dells customer service has been going from bad to worse, a very bad experience by a new client has persuaded me to withdraw my recommendation. Please contact me directly if you wish to source any new machines, but for now:

Don’t buy Dell

Stephen

Wacom tablets and Vista

Its Vista month here at Copyrightimage!

Here are some tips for Wacom usage under Vista:
Although retouching is fine with the Wacom driver for Vista there are occasions where the naitive pen support in Vista can fight the Wacom driver for attention and occasionally cause a litte stuttering when cloning or healing, here is what to do:

In the control panel select “Pen and input devices” and untick all the boxes.

If you still have any problems then some people have found the solution to be:

Uninstall the wacom driver
Download this driver to your desktop:
ftp://ftp.wacom-europe.com/pub/WINDOWS/pro496-8_int.exe
right click on the downloaded file, choose the compatibility tab and select Windows XP SP2
(don’t run it yet!)
Reboot
Run the downloaded file

This should return you to XP speeds of retouching. Any other questions?
I’m in the middle of a big retouching job at the moment, will update the site next time I come up for air!