Kept Light » General

Photoshop Is a Girl’s Best Friend

A. Cemal Ekin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:05:46 +0000

You may or may not have made it to my presentation at the NECCC 2010 conference in Amherst. The presentation titled as this post’s title focused on a workflow to produce plausible and pleasing presentations of model and portraiture photography. The NECCC Speaker Notes contains a 4-page write up of the presentation, but due to space limitations much of the content and many of the photographs and other images had to be eliminated.

You can read elsewhere on this site in three separate blog posts a more detailed version of the presentation with content that serves as background material. If you like to have an easy to read, carefully formatted, richly illustrated version, you can purchase the electronic copy of the expanded and extended content. It contains 19 carefully laid out pages that are easy to read and many before-after photographs with explanations.

I will donate 25% of the proceeds to NECCC to support their ongoing operations.

Photoshop Is A Girl's Best Friend Extended Notes
The expanded notes of the presentation with the same title at NECCC 2010. A recommended workflow for editing model and portraiture photographs with examples. 25% of proceeds will be donated to NECCC
Price: $5.00

Munki See, Munki Do: Display Calibration

A. Cemal Ekin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:48:35 +0000

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.

I have been using a Monaco Optix-XR display calibration device that I acquired about 8-9 years ago; it was one of the better devices then. It served me well over the years until I upgraded my computer about a month ago, and its OS to Windows 7. The old software, which had not been updated for many years after X-Rite acquired Monaco, did not install on Windows 7 64-Bit OS. A replacement was clearly necessary, not for compatibility reasons only but also the availability of newer and better technology.

I sought advice from Brenda, the knowledgeable and helpful rep of X-Rite as to which one of their products would suit my needs the best. X-Rite makes close to 10 different models with a wide range of capabilities and prices and I considered i1Display series and the ColorMunki. She recommended X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (yes, it sounds a bit hokey to me too) and demoed one on my computer. I was sold on the spot. The process could not be simpler, it’s so simple a Munki can do it (sorry for the pun!)

Install the software first; it will probably take longer than the actual display calibration. Then plug in the CM (no more Munki-ing around with the long names) to an available USB port, which will trigger the installation of the hardware device driver. After it says your hardware is ready to use, start the Photo software. From this point on, it is a matter of following the on-screen instructions which even show a picture of the device with the correct dial setting and informs the user when it is set correctly or incorrectly. (There is one part that is not so foolproof as this fool was tripped by it. You need to open the sliding sensor cover at the bottom otherwise you will go through the entire process only to end up with an error message. I wish there was a hardware or software indicator that the cover was closed. But it is a very, very minor issue and I will most likely not make that mistake again.)

During the initial phases of the calibration process you will need access to the brightness and contrast controls of your display, acquaint yourself with those buttons; they are usually very hard to find and their labels are practically impossible to read. At least my monitor’s controls are. While making the adjustment on contrast or brightness as instructed by your loyal Munki software, go in small steps as it takes it a moment or two to read the new levels. After these are done, it will go through displaying and reading a series of colors on the screen and tell you that it is finished. At this point, you need to save the created profile. It suggests a name, which is fine to use. I prefer to add my monitor brand and the date of calibration to the file name so my profile names look like:

Ekin_Samsung_100704

but any name will do. I’m from the old school of computing and try to put as much information in to the file name as I can within reason. It’s a habit I developed in the days of CP/M and MS-DOS! (What do you mean you don’t know what they are?)

The next step is a visual comparison of Before-After with noticeably better After view. You will be pleased when you see the results. I have not yet even mentioned that it can profile substrates for printers with ease and is a color picker from any surface that you can touch with this Munki’s foot. Other utilities included in the package will be quite useful to people who need to decide on color combinations like on a Web site, or a magazine layout. On their Web site they offer training materials, brochures, and other information that will help the user get the most out of this product.

I love this Munki and highly recommend that you get one at your earliest convenience. They are easy to train, once you learn how to remove their “eye-patch!”

WSJ Saga Continues

A. Cemal Ekin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:42:08 +0000

In the previous post I explained how frustrated I was because of the unstoppable SPAM from the Wall Street Journal and speculated if it would be possible to stop this by changing my e-mail address to a bogus one. Well, I can tell you that WSJ must keep my e-mail address in a place inaccessible to me since I have changed any and all e-mail addresses I can see that belong to me to bogus ones. Yet, WSJ continues to send me their SPAM to my correct e-mail address. In every message I receive there is still instructions on how to unsubscribe directly which simply does not work.

I find the behavior of the Wall Street Journal reprehensible, and their customer service totally inept. There must be a way of combating big-name Web sites doing whatever they want. Shame on you Wall Street Journal.

No related posts.

Wall Street Journal Cannot Stop e-mail SPAM

A. Cemal Ekin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:48:10 +0000

Another mistake I made was to accept a free trial subscription from the Wall Street Journal. This, I did against my best judgment since in the past I had a serious problem stopping their SPAM. Well, we are all fallible. Then, the e-mails started coming in, more than I asked for. Every message had an “Unsubscribe” link for sure, but it seemed to work more like an e-mail confirmation device. I logged in to my account, and made sure that there were no newsletters selected, indeed there were none. As you might have guessed, the e-mails did not stop. So, I wrote to onlinejournal@wsj.com as suggested in the previous e-mails “for further assistance.” Here is the first response I got:

Dear Cemal Ekin,

Thank you for contacting The Wall Street Journal Online with your concern about the recent email you received from us. We apologize for causing you concern, and want to assure you that this email was from The Wall Street Journal Online and not a phishing attempt.

The Wall Street Journal Online uses email to communicate occasionally with subscribers about WSJ.com features and tools in order to help you make the most of your subscription. We call these “WSJ Advantage” messages, and each one contains a link that you may use to opt out of receiving further Advantage messages. If you want to opt out and you no longer have the email, you may send an email with REMOVE in the subject line to advantage@wsj1.com.

We sent the email to let you know about a new feature. As part of our continued focus on improving our subscribers’ experiences, we have added a tool that allows WSJ.com subscribers to access their Personal Page. Your Personal Page includes a few key site features and real-time headlines to complement the website, plus all of the personalization components available at the site, including My Journal.

Please be assured that we take our subscribers’ security very seriously and would in no way jeopardize our subscribers’ email addresses, as described in our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed in its entirety at the bottom of all WSJ.com pages. Simply access the “Privacy Policy” link located under the About heading.

If you have questions about any future emails from The Wall Street Journal Online or you think that you’ve received a message from someone pretending to be us, please contact Customer Service at onlinejournal@wsj.com or by phone at 1-800-369-2834 from 7am – 10 pm ET, Monday-Friday, and Saturday 8 am – 3 pm ET.

We value and appreciate your business.

Best regards,

Customer Service
The Wall Street Journal.Digital Network

But, the e-mails did not stop. I wonder if they even read what I wrote judging by the line “each one contains a link that you may use to opt out of receiving further Advantage messages.” Here I am telling them that this method did not work, they are recommending me more of the same. “I forwarded more messages to the same address as I got them; after all, they signed their mail as “Customer Service!” Not only this did not stop the SPAM sent out by the Wall Street Journal, they replied in an amazingly nonchalant way. Read it for yourself:

Dear Cemal Ekin,

Thank you for contacting The Wall Street Journal Online regarding the emails that you are receiving.

We apologized for the inconvenience that this may have caused you. The Wall Street Journal is sending you those emails for you to be aware about the latest offers. We would like to inform you that we are unable to remove your email address because this is system generated; however, if you have spam blocker, you can block all the emails comes from The Wall Street Journal.

If you need further assistance, please contact us back.

Best regards,

Customer Service
The Wall Street Journal.Digital Network

You see, they think if they apologized they can keep sending SPAM to me and it becomes my problem and I should deal with it. They also had the gall to say “if you need further assistance, please contact us back.” Why would I do that? So, I if the following method would work to deal with the problem with WSJ or other SPAMers

Log in to your account and change your e-mail to anything@mailinator.com, “anything” can really be anything you like and you do not need to apply for any account beforehand
Since WSJ validates the new e-mail (so that they can continue sending SPAM) go to mailinator.com and check the mail for the mail ID you used, and follow the instructions
Then, change your name to whatever you like, pet names, fictional characters, anything you want; have fun. You will have to validate this change too in all likelihood using your temporary mailinator.com account
Now, your “official e-mail” is a black hole on the Internet, and the account now has your pet’s name, if you want, you can delete the mailinator.com account to be nice to the good folks at mailinator.com who bring us this amazing service. But wait, there’s more…
WSJ newsletters can be sent to a different e-mail address which does not need to be authenticated, Oh! Goody!!
Change that to a dummy e-mail address (plenty of room for creativity here !)
Then, subscribe to every newsletter and alert they have

Now, your information is probably as useful to WSJ as this week’s trash you are about to put out.

I am smiling even as I think about this!

No related posts.

Photographs From The Polaroid Collection

A. Cemal Ekin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:55:35 +0000

I have been following Sotheby’s, and other auction houses for photography auctions. They give me a chance to see photographs that I have no chance of seeing and after the auction I get a chance to buy the exhibit catalog on ebay for $10-15. They are printed at very high quality with all the relevant information about the photograph and the photographer. I have accumulated about 30 such catalogs and expect to add more as new auctions take place.

I registered at Sotheby’s and when there is a new photo auction coming up they alert me with the links to the auction information. There I can see the photographs online, and lately see a PDF catalog and even save it. The latest auction is a significant one, Photographs From The Polaroid Collection, in two respects. First, the collection itself is very rich with may unique Polaroid photographs by the icons of the art form. Second, it comes from the past of a company which played a very significant role in photography and photographic art. (Regrettably, the auction is a bankruptcy auction.) I have viewed hundreds of photographs from Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, William Wegman, Imogene Cunningham, and many many more. I highly recommend a visit to the auction site, you will not be disappointed.

Photographs From The Polaroid Collection landing page gives a brief explanation about the auction. Towards the bottom of the page there is a link to a video which you may want to watch before starting to view the “E-Catalogue” which will show the photographs in variety of ways. The zoom view displays a large version of the photograph in a clean background. I captured many of these for future viewing and studying. Below is a small collection of the photographs I have seen and saved. To view them as large as possible, press F11 to maximize your browser viewport which will hide the menu and toolbars leaving you with a large browser window. You can navigate from one to the next image by using the right and left arrow keys on your keyboard. Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]