Andrew Darlow Images Intl.

Hello! Since my last newsletter, much has happened in the world of technology. In this edition, I offer links to many articles, and I take a look back at the Macworld Expo from January, 2006 (seems like a long time ago, but the info is still current since virtually all of the products announced at the show and featured below are still being sold. But first, here are a few photos from a recent trip to Barcelona and the South of France. I was honored to be asked to give a lecture at the Arles Photo Festival in France in July, where I described the features of about 10 different pro-level inkjet printers from Canon, Epson and HP.

If you haven't visited The Imaging Buffet online magazine yet, there are many announcements there about art shows, links to tips and tutorials, events, etc.

News & Articles Galore

There are a number of articles links that I'd like to share:

First, I was just sent a release that the Scool of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City will offer a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography beginning in the fall of 2007. This was of particular interest to me largely because the program will be chaired by Katrin Eismann, who I’ve known for many years and who I'm sure many of the readers of this newsletter also know through her books, videos and live seminars. My overview about the announcement is here, and the link to the official release is on the same page.

The first was written by me for Digital Imaging Techniques magazine. It described how to use some of the features of Russell Brown's Place-A-Matic, followed by my suggestions for preserving highlight data in Camera Raw: http://tinyurl.com/a9nn2. Next is a link to a very informative article about lenses for digital photography by photographer David Saffir: http://tinyurl.com/9qa2k. Also, here is a link to an article I wrote for Studio Photography magazine about podcasting: http://tinyurl.com/kr3w9. And here's a link to my review of the Canon 5D DSLR: http://tinyurl.com/bwa4z (three photos from the test shoot I did with the camera are below). For more reviews and pricing at Amazon.com on the 5D and other cameras, visit this page.

Lens: Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM Zoom

Macworld Expo 2006

The Macworld Expo 2006 was held in January, 2006 in San Francisco, CA. It was fantastic! It was my first Macworld SF and I was amazed at the number of people, sessions, parties and other good stuff that was going on for 4-5 days. I met a lot of great people and caught up with others whom I've known for years. Here is an overview with some of the coolest things I saw:

I had a great seat at the Keynote on Tuesday morning, which was like watching a Broadway show. At one point in the presentation, Phil Schiller, Apple Computer's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing and Steve Jobs were showing off the new MacBook Pro's built-in iSight camera and iChat AV 3 video conferencing. I happened to be sitting in just the right place, with just the right lens (Canon's EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM Zoom) to capture this moment:

I looked at most of the iLife apps with Apple representatives and I was really impressed by the new GarageBand 3 with the new Podcast Radio Engineer features, iWeb with blog and web publishing capabilities, and iMovie HD with great new themes that can make still images or clips come to life. In addition, I liked the new features in iPhoto, which has a great new full screen interface with thumbnails that show up across the top, and a compare mode, which lets you look at up to 8 images at one time. The number of photos in each user's catalog has also been raised to 250,000. It's not as full-featured as Apple Aperture or my current favorite digital asset management tool, iView Media Pro, but it is definitely worth a look for many users. Apple also has a number of new book templates which are really nice, easy to use with iPhoto and very inexpensive.

The new MacBook Pro and new iMac were both sporting the new Intel Core Duo chips and I really liked the integration of Front Row into the MacBook Pro. A remote allows you to cycle through your iTunes library, movies and more. The MacBook Pro's screen is extremely sharp and vibrant and my quick test of the machine showed that it was very responsive regardless of what apps I tested on it (including Photoshop CS2). That being said, I prefer my 17" PowerBook G4's extra screen real estate, and the 17" MacBook Pro is a super-fast machine, with an even brighter screen than the PowerBook G4.

Apple's massive booth with a large presentation area and Apple Aperture showcase area (left) MacBook Pros and New iMacs (both with Intel processors) on display at Apple's Booth.

The show floor at Macworld 2006 was pretty huge, but I got through most of it. There was also a lot of Apple Aperture and Photoshop CS2 training on the show floor.

Aperture is a very powerful product for doing all kinds of things with images, including editing and comparing images, converting Raw files, laying out books, making web galleries and much more. Adobe's Lightroom was formally unveiled at Macworld which is software for organizing, editing and processing Raw files. This is a great source for info on Aperture with a lot of advice from two people I respect in the industry: Scott Bourne and Derrick Story: www.aperturetricks.com/index. For a good overview of Adobe's Lightroom, you can download the public beta and see a video here. I've been using Lightroom a lot and I think it is very promising.

One of the most interesting things that both programs allow you to do is batch adjust JPEGs, which you couldn't do before. Any adjustments are applied upon export, which is another plus.

O'REILLY AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

I interviewed a number of authors who have books published by O'Reilly, including Julianne Kost who has a beautiful book named Window Seat showing dozens of photos shot from a plane, with info on her cameras (film and digital) and a number of Photoshop techniques. I also met with Peter Krogh, author of The DAM Book, an excellent book on Digital Asset Management which I highly recommend for anyone with digital files to organize. I then sat with Deke McClelland, who has multiple books published by O'Reilly (see below) on Photoshop, Elements and InDesign. Deke's One-On-One series books are huge, with excellent step-by-step instructions, and they come with Video CDs that introduce the chapters. I also met with Jennifer Alspach, author of Adobe Creative Suite 2 Workflow, a book with a number of helpful suggestions, tips and shortcuts for doing hundreds of things within Adobe's Creative Suite 2. Another O'Reilly book worth mentioning is Derrick Story's Digital Photography Pocket Guide, Third Edition.

You can find all of those books at the Amazon links above. They can also be found at www.oreilly.com

The Macworld All-Stars at the RED DEVIL LOUNGE

I had a great time at the party sponsored by The Mac Observer and BackBeat Media on Wed. Jan 11- the band, named the Macworld All-Stars, is made up of a number of the guys from The Mac Observer, as well as some other Mac luminaries. Band members include Dave Hamilton and Bryan Chaffin from The Mac Observer, Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus (Noted Author), Chris Breen (Editor of Playlist magazine and Senior Editor of Macworld magazine), Paul Kent (VP of IDG World Expo, and longtime Conference Chairperson of Macworld's conference program), Chuck La Tournous (from RandomMaccess), and Duane Straub. The band sounded awesome and the place was packed. I sent The Mac Observer staff some photos which they added to a gallery from the party. You can see the gallery here. Below is a photo of Chris Breen on keyboards (who can sing Elvis songs in a way that would make the King himself proud), along with Bryan Chaffin and Paul Kent on guitar, with the rest of the band behind the cool chandeliers:

MACWORLD PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS & INSIDE MAC RADIO

There were so many great products announced and shown at Macworld. I mentioned some of the following items on an appearance on the Inside Mac Radio Program . I had a great time hanging with the Inside Mac crew and look forward to contributing to the show again in the future.

-I'm currently typing with the new Rasfox Keyboard Skin over my 17" PowerBook G4. It is a thin rubber material form fitted perfectly to the keyboard and I highly recommend it. It's not available just yet, but look for its release at the Rasfox website.

-Targus showed some nice new notebook cases in a new line named Radius, plus they have the first iPod locks called the iPod security system (below), which attach through the dock connector. They also introduced RemoteTunes Wireless Remote (Compatible with iPod and iPod nano, as well as iPod mini, 4G, and iPod Photo), as well as RemoteTunes TX for iPod nano, which cleverly allows for the remote to be stored in the back of the case (shown below).

Targus' new iPod Security System locks for iPods (left); RemoteTunes TX for iPod with Dock Connector (Model #AER04US) (center and right).

Many of Targus' iPod-related products can be found here.

-The Macworld 2006 Auto Show was a very cool area of the show floor, filled with cars sporting all kinds of modifications to make one's driving experience more enjoyable. One car stood out with an in-dash touch screen display running a hidden Mac mini-It had a great track pad under the screen (circled in green below)–the left side of the trackpad allowed for selections and the right side was for scrolling. Plus, a stainless steel jog dial was located between the seats (circled in red), to be used for scrolling through a playlist or song catalog. The company who did the customization is www.2point5.com . The company also has a very cool product called spec.dock which allows you to easily dock an iPod in your cupholder without any visible wires.

Yes, that's iTunes on the screen! Customized car interior by www.2point5.com with a touch-screen display powered by a Mac Mini (see above for description).

Just a small section of XtremeMac's extreme booth (left), with a number of iPod cases on display. The high-tech products at (center and right) are from Rain. I thought all of their products were both elegant and functional. I highly recommend the iLap lap desk (pictured far right). It is especially good for home use, since it is rather bulky. The soft padding is very comfortable and your laptop will stay super-cool while you work. They also have a few round speaker products called the iWoofer and the iWoofer Nano.

-XtremeMac had a huge booth, with a lot of great custom skins from the world of entertainment and sports. The company also unveiled its new MicroMemo Digital Voice Recorder which allows you to record 44 KHz/16 Bit digital audio right into the new iPod with Video. It comes with a flexible, detachable microphone and is iPod Powered - Cost is $79.95.

-BlueLounge, makers of the Cableyoyo showed a new cord winder called POP, which lets you wind your headphone cables around a thin plastic square housing. POP attaches to the back of an ipod with suction cups, or to a case with adhesive strips. It comes with a belt clip for a belt, armband, shirt pocket or bag, and costs $9.95. They also come with 10 decals to personalize your ipod.

-WiebeTech makes a lot of high quality drive-related products. So many things impressed me, including some cool DriveDocks for hard drives which allow standard IDE or SATA 3.5" drives to be booted up and used without an enclosure. In one case, the DriveDock can be attached and powered by the internal bus (Super DriveDock+), but the company cautions that a laptop used with it should be plugged into a wall, unlike with the smaller 2.5" portable drives. These are great for digital techs and for photographers/video professionals who are constantly moving large files around. The company also has a hard drive enclosure which is almost the same size as the Mac mini (up to 500GB capacity) called Maxelerate. It can also be used as a boot drive for increased speed. Check Wiebetech's website for more info.

(from left to right) WiebeTech's assortment of DriveDock , WiebeTech's Maxelerate under a Mac mini, Doctopus, from Startly technologies on an Apple Cinema Display, and iPod/phone holders at ProClip's booth.

-I took a quick look at Doctopus from Startly Technologies. This is a great utility that allows you to more with your dock icons. You can have folders in your dock report how many items are in them and you can also have it report on the size of all the files in the folder. iTunes can be controlled easily and there are other unique tools. ProClip had a great display with iPod and phone holders that clip into car air vents or other areas of a car's dashboard. They are super-strong and do not require any adhesives. I now have one in my Nissan Altima for my iPod and can highly recommend their products. The one I purchased will hold a 1st through 5th Generation iPod.

-I also spoke with Larry O'Connor, founder, president and CEO of Other World Computing. The company also has a newly designed external USB 2 or Firewire Mac mini-size case called the miniStack, with multiple Firewire and USB inputs, as well as a built-in fan (up to 500GB drives are available, and it is sold with or without a drive). It can also be used as a boot drive for increased speed. The company also launched a 160GB pocket-sized Mercury-On-The-Go 5400RPM 2.5" hard drive with FW400/800 and USB 2.0 connectivity. For more info, visit this page.

As I've mentioned before, I specialize in on-location monitor and printer calibration in the NY/NJ region, and I use custom profiling whenever appropriate. I also have conducted many classes and presentations for groups of 2-200 photographers, at schools including the International Center of Photography, School of Visual Arts, and groups including APA/Atlanta & APA/NY (Advertising Photographers of America) and NY and NJ chapters and conventions affiliated with the PPA (Professional Photographers of America).

I often do consulting over the phone and I help people in some of the following ways:
Improve overall inkjet output by making paper, ink & printer suggestions;
Set up color management systems (Mac and Windows);
Help install and use Mac OSX and other software, including iView MediaPro 3, Adobe Photoshop CS2, and Adobe Lightroom;
Help with Photoshop questions and digital camera workflows;
and much more (just ask and I'll let you know if I think I'm right for the job).

For no extra fee, I can record any phone training session and send a link to it when completed.

For newsletter subscribers, I am offering the following consulting specials until 1/31/2007:

With any three hour in-person consultation ($450), an additional 30 minutes is free ($75 value).
With any two hour phone consultation ($300), a follow-up 30 minute consultation is free ($75 value).
I accept all major credit cards and I guarantee my services (additional travel fees may apply).

To read testimonials from many of my consulting clients and seminar participants, please visit this page: (Testimonials).

Please call me on my cell phone at 732-742-0123, or send e-mail if you have questions about consulting or to schedule a session.

How to Help Keep the Buffet's Lights On

If you'd like to help support our publishing efforts at The Imaging Buffet and for The Inkjet & Imaging Tips Newsletter, there are a few ways to do that. All the links in this newsletter that point to Amazon.com are affiliate links, which means that we will receive a small percentage if readers make a purchase after clicking through to Amazon.com . If you'd prefer not to use the links, just type Amazon.com directly into a web browser and do your search for the item from their home page. Either way, your cost when you purchase is the same.

The Next Podcast is Coming

I began podcasting a few months ago. Podcasting is essentially an on-demand radio show. If you are interested in learning about sponsoring the Podcast, please contact me at 732-742-0123 or send me an e-mail. Topics of the shows are related to inkjet printing and tips for photographers and others in the graphic arts community. Some of the people I've interviewed have been author Harald Johnson and the self-proclaimed "Photoshop Widow" Ruth Knoll. Now I just need to work on my radio voice! To subscribe to The Imaging Buffet Podcast on iTunes, select this link, or visit The Imaging Buffet. For one of the podcasts I did a review of the Apple Store in NYC as well using a very cool piece of software. The direct link to that audio slide show is here.

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