The Photogaphy Show in Birmingam

I will be attending the show in Birmingam sometime between the dates 17-20 September 2022 at the NEC.

I will not be exhibiting but rather having a look around to see the latest technologies and guage the atmosphere of the photographic market and see if I can find any changes in how people enjoy and use their photography.

If you are a client attending or exhibiting let me know and I will stop for a chat, if you are not a client but would appreciate a short meeting then let me know also.

You can book tickets to the show here: https://www.photographyshow.com/

Alert: New QNAP ransomware threat

It has come to my attention that QNAP nases are under a new Deadbolt ransomware attack. It started on September 3rd and and affected one clients nas. I have taken precautionary measures on all other clients nases since.

Today I came across a QNAP notice (ostensably from yesterday) that pointed the finger to their Photo sharing app causing the vulnerability. I have updated this app on all client nases as part of my maintainance schedule.

You can read more here: https://www.qnap.com/la/security-news/2022/take-immediate-action-to-update-photo-station-to-the-latest-available-version

Screen redraw issues in Photoshop 23.5.0

A new version of Photoshop to download today. Not too busy so installed it to try out. Some useful speed improvements noted on painting masks etc but then came up against flickering images redraws and missing segments of images.
It would appear that Adobe are updating the drawing code to work better with multi core video cards. This is a pretty nice development but it looks to be an early version and Adobe themselves indicate that images may not display correctly.

Whilst they work it out I have gone into preferences (cmd or control K) and selected the Technology Previews tab and ticked the box named “Deactivate Native Canvas”. This fixed the redraw problem for me.

Im using a pretty serious mainstream graphics card (An RTX 3080Ti) so hopefully they will sort this quickly and so allow me to use the card more efficiently in future.

UPDATE: the earlier fix of unticking “Multithreaded compositing” in the Performance tab of Preferences also works but this new method fixes the problem and you can leave Multithreaded compositing ticked for extra performance.

Client Story: Disney Nature Polar Bears

Was a pleasure recently working on the stills (video and photo) for the newly launched Disney Nature production of “Polar Bears”.

One of my specialties is to grade and retouch video grabs in the same ethical way as stills images and there were some lovely images to work on for this project.

Of particular note is to keep the natural tones and definition in polar bear noses, sounds a little strange but its quite common for people to boost contrast and end up with black featureless noses when working on polar bear images. Perhaps a minor point to get picky about (!) but its best to represent nature in its glory rather than some compromised version (Im pleased to say the film colorist also retained natural detail also in the moving images)

You can read about the production here: https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/movie/polar-bear

The film is available to Disney+ subscribers to watch now.

(Fun fact: I started working stills for Disney Natures film “Bears” in 2012 (film released in 2014). This was a film about a grizzly bear family in Alaska. In that instance I got a mention in the film credits at the end as “Stills colorist”, not 100% certain but I cannot see any other stills colorists listed in any other film credits!)

(Update, apparently they credited me on their production of “Penguins” also – thanks Disney Nature!)

Remote photography and workflow review

1:1 remote workshops: Spend some time with me

I have many years of experience in professional photography and imaging workflow and have worked with many of the big names in wildlife photography. I have been entrusted with the ethical grading and retouching of the the stills of major BBC wildlife documentaries as well as the careful work needed to bring Wildlife Photographer of the Year images to print.  If you want to move on to the next level of your work I can help.

 

The screen share, zoom, skype or messenger sessions can be up to 2 hours long, enough time for me to see a good range of your images and an understanding of your image workflow. I can hear how you work and help you through the things that might be holding you back.

The topics we can cover will be up to you but they might include:

   Selecting images (input and output)
   Using simple (not complex!) Metadata
   Importing and exporting images in a consistent way
   Making choices on colour and tone in Lightroom and Photoshop
   A truly ethical photographic workflow and how to make it work
   Reducing time in front of a computer
   Getting the most from your photography with a consistent workflow
   Sorting problems in Lightroom and Photoshop
   Perhaps you have a difficult image that needs some care and attention?

Whether you are a beginner amateur, intermediary or long standing professional photographer I can draw on my 35 years of experience of working on my own and other peoples images.

These friendly and confidential 1:1 sessions will enable you to get the insights of an industry professional into your work and could help you reduce the stress of your imaging workflow and identify any potential paths to better results.


I’m flexible with timing so arranging a suitable time and date for you or the person you nominate is easy. There is no expiration date for these sessions, as an ethical business my main concern is that you or your nominated person get real value from the session.

Link: Purchase this experience in the shop

Holiday opening

Office shelf. Shot on a new 33mp Sony a7 iv fitted with an old Russian Helios 44M lens @f2

 

Im here for all established clients over the coming holiday periods otherwise I will be working Christmas eve with a break till Wednesday 29th December.

Just 1st January 2022 for the New Year period.

Wishing all past, current and future clients a good Christmas and a brilliant New Year.

Stephen

Copyrightimage and The Natural History Museum

I have been working closely with the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition run by the Natural History Museum for a number of years now but it’s always an exciting moment when the latest book of winning images is delivered!

As always some nice repro in the book and my work on the original images files to convert them with a specialist CMYK workflow has paid off. No surprises in terms of colour or tone from when the images were adjusted for print on my Imaging Workstation using a Fogra certified and calibrated Eizo monitor. The book is available at all good bookshops now and makes an ideal Christmas present for anyone interested in Nature or Photography (or both!).

Custom CMYK conversions are just one of the specialities of my work at Copyrightimage but If you are responsible for delivering premium books for your organisation and had disappointing results in the past with print quality then give me a call and I will help as best I can.

In with the new

After 13 years of sterling service I have replaced my old Epson 3800 A2 printer with its modern equivalent: an Epson SC-P900.

This allows me to make exhibition grade prints for clients as well as being a proofing station for my CMYK repro work. The new printer uses 10 inks and has a larger colour gamut than the old printer and indeed it is possible to see a visible improvement in the prints.

A new set of ink cartridges run to approx. £400 but quality never comes at a bargain price. By investing in the new printer I hope I can  continue to offer clients the best possible results.

Next up is to fire up the X-Rite spectrophotometer and build some custom colour profiles to ensure the best possible colour accuracy.

If anyone fancies a trip to Sheringham the old printer is available for pickup at no cost (free!), it just needs new ink and patience with its loading mechanism….