Quicky Newsy Stuff
Hi Gang: I have just 12 minutes this morning to write this news and stuff. Here goes:
Tampa Love (vague reference to Tupac)
Thanks to the 500+ photographers who came out to my Photoshop seminar in Tampa yesterday. What a fantastic group to present. Even had Manuel Obordo (one of the two guys who originally taught me Photoshop) stop by and say hi. It was an awesome day and a great way to wrap up the tour for this year.
Catch my interview on TechTock Radio
I did an in-depth interview Jack Howard on Adorama’s Tech Talk radio show, and we covered everything from Photoshop ethics to retouching ethics to…well…you name it, because we covered a lot of ground. Here’s the link to check it out.
Lightroom on Alltop
I didn’t know this until this week, but Alltop.com now has a page dedicated to Lightroom blogs, and you can check it out right here.
Lightroom Collections Questions Answer Man
Thanks to TrevJ (one of my readers) for helping field Lightroom questions here on the blog yesterday while I was teaching my seminar. I’m a bit underwater today, but I’ll try and catch any others today when I come up for air. That’s again TrevJ!
Made the Top 20 Gift List
Thanks to Camera 47 for including my “Digital Photography Book Volume 3″ in their 2nd annual holiday “20 photography gifts under $100 list.” Here’s the list (Lots of great stuff on their list).
Scott Bourne on Social Media Marketing for Photographers
I just got my copy of PPA’s excellent “Professional Photographer” magazine, and in this issue is a fantastic article on Social Media Magnate Scott Bourne, and in the article, Scott shares some amazing insights on building and working social media for photographers. You can download a PDF of the article here (even if you’re not into the marketing aspects of this—download the article just to see some of his great images!).
Taping an Online Class Today on Getting Killer Prints From Your Epson Printers
Dan “Dano” Steinhard is at the Kelby Training Studio today as Dano and I are filming an online class for Kelby Training on how to get the best possible prints from your Epson printers. Dano was at my Tampa Seminar yesterday and we had a chance to catch up at lunch, and he has a really brilliant class outline, and it’s really going to help a lot of photographers big time! I’ll let you know when it goes live (it’ll still be a few weeks in production after taping).
Good on Getty!
I just got word that Getty Images is once again funding two major grants for photographers in the coming year. Here’s how they describe them, “Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography was established in 2004 to enable emerging and established photojournalists to pursue projects of personal and editorial merit. Getty Images will again award five professional photojournalism grants of $20,00 each and four student grants of $5,000 each, annually.” The 2nd reads, “Getty Images Grants for Good was launched in 2009 to involve the creative and nonprofit communities. In the program’s first year, the participation of a creative agency was optional, but is now a requirement in the application process in 2010. This change ensures that all grant proposals will benefit from an agency’s strategic guidance as to how the imagery will be used by the nonprofit.” For more details, click here.
That’s it for today.
Gotta run. Have a good one!
-Scott
Scott,
The article on Scott Bourne is interesting as is anything that Scott has to offer, but I believe they are mistaken when they accredit the “This Week in Photography” podcast to him. TWIP is the work of Frederick Van Johnson, Scott Bourne hosts the PhotoFocus podcast.
Actually TWIP was started by Alex Lindsay, Scott and Steve Simon. Frederick came on as the perm. host once he left Adobe and time on his has. I give Alex and Scott full credit for making that Podcast what it is.
Thanks for the clarification, Aharon ;->
Jaw drops – You typed and linked all of that in 12 minutes?!!! What, do you film your life at 24 frames/second and play it back at 60? How do you do these things…?
Thanx for the links. I’ve had Lightroom for a while but just recently began to use it. It seems to be a faster tool for my workflow. I still find my self using bridge when I know I’m going to use photoshop on an image.
How did you possibly do that much in 12 minutes? Wow!
Hey Scott,
Any word on the results of the “So, You Think You Can Teach Photoshop?!” contest? The results were supposed to be announced yesterday on PhotoshopUser.com, right?
Just anxious to find out one way or the other.
Thanks!
Jason
if you were able to produce this post under 12 minutes you have 8 arms, 2 brains and extraordinary eye-to-hand-capabilities! call Guinness!
Scott,
You’re very welcome! Glad I could help out.
Two thoughts crossed my mind yesterday when I looked back and realized I had just posted 10 times on your blog:
1. “Man, I sure hope I understood Scott’s Lightroom book as well as I thought I did,” and…
2. “I pray to God I didn’t step on Mr. Kelby’s toes, ’cause I sure don’t want a visit from any of his brutal NAPP BOYZ.”
Hang on, someone’s at the door…
Have a great day!
Trevor Johnston
Scott,
I hope your Epson printing video will address monitor issues, and not just the standard calibration. Many of us Epson users are extremely frustrated by the “dark prints” problem. Not all of us can afford $2,000 professional Eizo-like monitors – what are our options?
The best results I have been able to achieve thus far is to work at night (as I cannot completely blackout my office), turn the lights off, and dim the brightness of my monitors all the way down.
It would be wonderful to have a permanent photo setup, but my main profession is graphic design for both print and web. I spent $1200 on two monitors, and another $500 for an Epson R1800. How can I have the best of both worlds without going broke?
I know Danno is fully aware of the “prints too dark” issues as he had me discuss them in both track 1 & 2 in the Epson Print Academy. Its really simple too. You need to calibrate the luminance of the display to match the luminance of the viewing booth next to the display to result in a visual match. If the LCD is much brighter (and they are very bright compared to CRTs), but the viewing conditions are dim(er), the print will look darker. So either lower the luminance of the display (lower the cd/m2 target) and or raise if possible, the viewing booth to produce a visual match. Some booths have such controls. The bottom line is, the correct calibration target for a display isn’t some fixed value but rather, the value that produces a visual match.
This visual may help:
http://digitaldog.net/files/Print_to_Screen_Matching.jpg
Note that with the Solux lamp (which is an awesome way to view prints), you have to control the luminance by moving it farther or closer to the print since dimming them alters the color. Hope this helps.
Andrew,
I got the same dark print issue and the only way around for me was to manually create a color setting in the printer dialog box. I tried to calibrate my monitor with a Spider3 but the new iMac monitors can’t go dark enough.
My biggest frustration is that 5 years ago with my old Silicon graphics uncalibrated screen and old epson 1270, I would get dead on color matched prints … love the technology !
By the way, my new printer is the Stylus photo 1390.
Cheers
Andrew,
Thank you for responding! I saw your “presentation” in track one of the February 2009 SF EPA. Honestly, I did not find the presentation that informative or helpful. I think you might have spent all of 10 minutes in the entire track one session.
I think the biggest frustration is the lack of communication. End users, especially advanced amateurs or prosumers (such as myself), are constantly bombarded with, “You, too, can get professional looking prints!” The high-end consumer line of printers (Epson 1200, 1400, 1800, and 1900 series) are aimed right at us. We don’t have the money for the professional printers (3800, 4800 series), but no one is mentioning the specific monitor capabilities (low cd/m2), necessity of a viewing booth, specific color calibrators (I have the Spyder3 Elite calibrator), and a specific room (your Print to Screen matching photo shows little, if any, ambient light).
We end users have bombarded Epson, Adobe, and NAPP forums, crying for help. At best we get, “You need to color calibrate your monitor.” Good advice, but I’m not having color issues, I’m having dark print issues. We heard plenty on letting Photoshop/Lightroom do the color conversion, and that helped with some people’s issues, but not this one.
Finally someone mentioned darkening the monitor, as the brightness of the screen is many times greater than paper. Great, but I’ve already spent $600 each for my two monitors. I can’t afford to buy new ones, and these don’t go low enough.
Again, succinctly tell us what is needed. From my research:
- Color calibration (and not the low-end $100 devices)
- Monitor that can reach “X” cd/m2
- Monitor that has “X” percentage of at least Adobe RGB (1998), but preferably ProPhoto RGB color space
- Photoshop/Lightroom workflow (already well documented)
- Solex viewing light(s)
- Viewing booth (what kind, what size, what capabilities???)
- Office/room that has “X” characteristics (no window/door that allows ambient/outside/uncontrolled light, painted 50% gray, …)
- Don’t buy an iMac or laptop (Mac or otherwise) unless you have the ability to purchase and hook-up the above monitor to the iMac or laptop
- To provide all the above, $XXX.xx will be required.
I know no one in the photography market wants to go this route, as it might hurt sales when people just getting into photography might see this and think they will never be able to acquire all this equipment. However, I think the alternative backlash that has been going on for years now, is just as damaging, not only to the brand names involved, but to the industry in general.
From going through the forums, Apple has been blamed because their OS screwed something up; Epson has been blamed because new or old drivers (some have even suggested switching over to the European Epson drivers); Adobe has been blamed for screwing up Photoshop/Lightroom; color calibration companies have been blamed (”Well, I use brand X and don’t have problems. You should switch.); industry professionals have suggested that multiple test prints have to be done for each and every print, costing hundreds of dollars in paper and ink (which most of us do not have).
So back to my original post.
- Do I need to buy a 3rd monitor, just for printing photos? (If so, what characteristics/brands are recommended?)
- Do I really need to have a viewing booth? (Again, what brand/characteristics?) (If I print and sell my photos, I have no control over where they hang/view them. What good does it to have a viewing booth with a special light, if that same setup isn’t available to my clients (hanging my photo in their dark hallway with incandescent lighting)?
- Why, when I design something for 4-color process on a traditional printing press, does the color and brightness match my monitors; but if I printed that same document to my Epson R1800 it is dark?
>I think you might have spent all of 10 minutes in the entire track one session.
Yes, that’s all track 1 gets (I work in track 2, you got a guest appearance only )
Again, succinctly tell us what is needed. From my research:
-> Color calibration (and not the low-end $100 devices)
Yes, you must use hardware to calibrate and profile the display on a regular basis (at least once a month). A huey is better than nothing but I’d move up to at least an EyeOne Display.
-> Monitor that can reach “X” cd/m2
Not really an issue, nearly any display made in the last 5 years should hit the minimum (which again is based no the viewing conditions by the display).
-> Monitor that has “X” percentage of at least Adobe RGB (1998), but preferably ProPhoto RGB color space
Not necessary. An sRGB display will do the job although if you want an extended gamut display, by all means.
- Photoshop/Lightroom workflow (already well documented)
- Solex viewing light(s)
->Viewing booth (what kind, what size, what capabilities???)
You can build your own with Solux or buy off the shelf. At least 8×11.
-> Office/room that has “X” characteristics (no window/door that allows ambient/outside/uncontrolled light, painted 50% gray, …)
Not totally necessary but you do need control over all ambient light.
-> Don’t buy an iMac or laptop (Mac or otherwise) unless you have the ability to purchase and hook-up the above monitor to the iMac or laptop
- To provide all the above, $XXX.xx will be required.
Good idea.
>Finally someone mentioned darkening the monitor, as the brightness of the screen is many times greater than paper.
The idea is to get a match by adjusting either display or viewing booth. That’s the bottom line.
>Do I need to buy a 3rd monitor, just for printing photos? (If so, what characteristics/brands are recommended?)
If you end up getting a new display, one that’s built from the group up for calibration and image work (NEC SpectraView II with their software driving it).
>Do I really need to have a viewing booth?
Yes. You need something that is controllable that is next to the display to view the print and the soft proof (with paper and ink simulation on, in full screen mode) at the same time.
KC,
The ColorMunki calibration system has a step that measures the ambient light by your monitor and adjusts your monitor brightness automatically. This has fixed the “too dark” problem for me. The Munki was the best money I’ve spent on printing yet.
Jo, one of the problems is the iMac which as you point out, doesn’t go low enough (there’s virtually no control to do this). That’s why I don’t recommend them or at least without an external display. There’s a “hack” out there called “Shades” which some say works but it takes effect after the display profile path so its not recommended. The other fix is to raise the viewing conditions of the print “booth” next to the display to result in a match.
I agree on colormunki, it made 100% difference in my prints. The thing is unless you have rip software and an expensive monitor you’ll never get close to what one of the oline print companys can do. You can do a print profile and profile your monitor. You need to make sure you hve these settings right in your print dialoge box from photoshop.
Loved the day in Tampa yesterday……how about Lightroom 3 in Orlando soon?….I live in Titusville, on the right coast.
Joe
Awesome class in Tampa yesterday. I enjoyed the day and it was very informative. I learned several new things I just can’t wait to try out. By the way Scott, did anyone ever tell you that when you try to talk with an ink pen in your mouth you sound just like Humphrey Bogart?
Regards,
Dennis
All that in 12 min? Whoa! you would have a made a good secretary.(jks) lol
Thanks for mentioning the PPA article Scott. Also thanks for the compliments on my images. @Richard I was the co-founder of TWIP and hosted the show for one year before Fred took over. I am also a fairly regular guest on the show.
this is only a little bit off topic — but I was looking at your posts yesterday and today hoping to find some tips on getting some shots of the Leonid meteor showers over the USA early this morning. I happened to be in FL and was out in the darkest area I could find on the Gulf coast between 2:30am and 4:30am — played around with various settings (on a tripod, for sure) — interesting effort — results, not so much!
Hi Scott,
No news on PSU TV??? When’s it gonna start? Can’t wait for the relaunch, you guys are great!
All the best,
Fred from FMPB
Wonderful illustrated information. I thank you about that. No doubt it will be very useful for my future projects. Would like to see some other posts on the same subject!