Proshow Producer Demo

I have been playing with new releases of Proshow Producer as a member of the Photodex beta testing team. Some friends who heard that a new release is offered to the public wanted to see what it could do that the earlier version did not. Earlier, during the testing stage I was not at liberty to discuss the details, but since the new public release includes the two big features, “Wizards” and “Transitions” I decided to post a sample that was created 95% using the new wizard interface and allowing it to make the choices with my specified content. I would like to make it clear that I am not stylistically recommending these features. It is simply a demo of what the wizards can do and what kinds of transitions can be embedded in the new version of the software. There are some parts I like and may decide to incorporate to my manually created shows, and some parts I would not have used in a show like this. After the wizard interface finishes the work, I could have manually tweaked it but I left it mostly alone aside from changing some image sequences, and titles slides.

If you don’t mind small image quality degradation, you may want to click on the full screen icon on the player control bar to see the effects better.

The demo

Munki See, Munki Do: Display Calibration

X-Rite ColorMunki Photo

X-Rite ColorMunki Photo

I am amazed that many photographers, far too many of them work on a monitor with no calibration, no profiling and get surprised when they do not achieve the expected colors from their prints. I have made quite a few presentations on digital workflow, and have been preaching the importance of color management starting with the display monitor calibration and profiling. The importance of a calibrated and properly profiled display monitor cannot be overemphasized.  It is a must, period. The rest of the color-manged workflow depends on it.

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A New Computer

CyberPower built computer

CyberPower built computer interior

Having had my computer for close to 4 years, I decided that the summer time was a good time to replace it. I wanted the new one to have the latest Intel 6-core CPU, 12 GB RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7. While searching for options and trying to make build or buy decisions I came across a great deal on the HP site. They had a computer with everything I wanted and with a $400 instant rebate. The price of the computer came lower than the parts I could purchase. So, I bought one. Mistake number 1! Shipping was a disaster, I specifically wanted to receive it after a certain date as I would be out of town and not be able to receive the product. The sales person assured me that they were not that ahead of schedule. So, I believed him. Mistake number 2. [Read more...]

Free Software

One of the leading add-on software makers, onOne Software, has made some of their products available at no charge. If you want to download a copy of these, which have fewer presets than the paid versions, point your browser to onOne Software Web site page. The price is right!

Adobe Air and Application Install Problems

I have written several posts on Adobe CS4 installation problems and how I finally managed to install the parts that I needed. At that time, the problem always happened as the installation software attempted to install Adobe Air and/or an Air application. One part of my solution was to skip installing Adobe Air. Since then, on multiple occasions I tried installing Air applications which always, without exception, ended up my computer being rebooted. Every so often I would get curious enough and would have enough time to spend on this issue and search, experiment, and fail again.

Today on Adobe forums I stumbled upon several posts that mentioned the application “Folder Lock” being a problem. I had that installed at one time on my computer, I had uninstalled it way before the CS4 installation problems. But I was able to find the file mentioned in the forums and removed it. That did not solve the problem. Then, I reinstalled Folder Lock and uninstalled it using its specific method once more. Lo and behold! I could install Air applications! Not that they are earth shatteringly necessary or useful, but it brought a sense of closure, at least at a personal level, to my ongoing battle with the Adobe installation problems.

Now, clearly Folder Lock appears to be an obstacle for Air applications to install. Shame on Folder Lock. That said, why on earth Air application installers, or Air program itself not designed, or corrected to trap this problem and give a meaningful error message instead of crashing the computer. Another point that is still very problematic is the advice given by Adobe tech support. They insisted that I should uninstall all Adobe products. Had I listened to them,uninstalling Adobe software would not help my problem. As guilty as Folder Lock, or similar software may be, Adobe and its tech support provide good company to it.