Also, Edmund Ronald reviews Bruce Fraser's book on Camera Raw and Photoshop and takes a look at the black-and-white photography magazine Inked.
Hi folks. The powers that be at Publish.com have decided that the capsule reviews of "photo stuff" that were formerly crammed into the nooks and crannies of my opinion pieces will now get a weekly performance of their own. I will mention equipment, retouching utilities, Raw converters, tutorials and anything else that appeals to my signature lack of focus. There is just one rule: If I'm writing about it, that means I've seen it and like it, or people I know say something good about it—this column is based on positive experience reports, not on company press releases. And if I'm covering software, I'll try to make sure a functional demo is available so my readers can have some fun experimenting with it. Now let's move on to the fun stuff.
There are three items covered in this installment, the Epson P-2000 Photoviewer, Bruce Fraser's Raw Conversion book, and Inked, a black-and-white art-photo magazine.
First on my list this week, the Epson P-2000 photo viewer. This is a battery-driven gadget for people who shoot in the field or go on long trips. It's basically a 40GByte hard disk with a screen and a battery —you copy your CompactFlash or Secure Digital memory cards to the disk, and then you reformat your cards and reuse them. You can also view the pix on the unit's screen and print. When you get home you empty the hard drive onto your computer via the P-2000's USB2 link. The P-2000 will cost you about $499 at Adorama or B&H.
Click here to read Edmund Ronald's interview with beauty photographer Stephen Eastwood.
I have actual experience with the P-2000. I fill about one 4GB card per day when traveling. I purchased the unit in New York because I hadn't taken my laptop. Does it work? Yes. It's very intuitive. It's also slow. And my battery charge ran out after 3 4GB disks had been copied. On the other hand, it delivered —it can display full-screen thumbnails of most Raw formats, and it can zoom in on JPEG files. When I got home, my PowerMac recognized it flawlessly. It took about one minute to figure out how the thing works.
The 3.8" LCD is beautiful. The only problem so far: Once the battery ran out during a copy operation, it failed to copy all the files. Maybe I expected a warning of "operation not completed" when I charged it up again. The P-2000 comes with a stand —which I promptly threw away —and various features such as playing MPEG4 movie and MP3 files. It can also connect to a TV.
However, as a photographer, I like this unit's single-minded, no-fuss, photo-oriented interface and the nice screen. I just wish it copied faster, had a larger battery and disk, and maybe an even a larger screen. Those who can schlep a small PC or 12-inch PowerBook will rightly think the P-2000 is expensive; however many a pro with an overburdened gear bag will trade the cost for the convenience of this miniature device, whether as a primary way to save images on the go, or even as a secondary safety backup. Oh, and did I say it's real easy to use?
Next Page: A Photoshop guru pens a tome on using the Raw format
Item two this week is a book by Bruce Fraser titled Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2." It's subtitled "Industrial-Strength Production Techniques." Every photographer with a digital SLR should buy this book. You could stop reading here and press the order button at Amazon.com right now. But there is a tradition that a book reviewer is paid to say some good and some cutting things about a book, and I'll oblige.
So, here are the positive things about this book. Bruce Fraser is a color management guru, a Photoshop sensei and a capo of the Pixel Mafia. He knows everything there is to know about ACR, and holds nothing back. Fraser's book teaches you how to convert Raw files to images with the best possible results, according to your aesthetics. The book is about 300 pages long and is well written, well organized and clear. It includes a chapter about Photoshop automation, and an uber-geeky section about XMP metadata sidecar files. It's all there. You won't find a book that's more complete or accessible.
Now for some blunt talk. Bruce doesn't quite address this workflow thing, how it's all about speed. For him, it's more about quality. To be fair, Adobe doesn't quite get this workflow thing — at least not yet —and that's why Capture One, Bibble, Breeze Browser and Photo Mechanic sell so well. Many pros I know combine Photoshop with a third-party browser or cataloguing tool in order to sift through their production; maybe Bruce was excessively timid in not mentioning such Photoshop relationships. But then, there is that Adobe logo on the spine of the book!
I also have a quibble with the example imagery. People shots are where the most subtle nuances of color and light are immediately apparent, and every disparity immediately jumps out. Bruce tends to use landscape shots and objects as examples. On the page these images are tiny, they don't really speak to me. This may be a personal quibble, but for the next edition I'd request larger people shots with before/after adjustment screenshots. Plus I'd like a greater attention to workflow under time pressure. Now, do yourself a favor and order Bruce's text. Right now it's the best there you can get, and it costs less than a lens filter !
Next Page: A look inside black and white photography magazine Inked.
Item three this week is a new magazine called Inked, which is dedicated solely to showcasing B&W art. Advertisements are often the best feature of glossy magazines, and so it is with Inked —various galleries publicize their artists, and the reproduction of the photographic work is superb, so good you want to frame the pages.
I'd like to point my readers to the flash-enabled version of Inked's Web site, which has a beautiful animation of turning pages. Readers can leaf through a sample article about photographer Thomas Barbey. To see the animation at work, click on the tabs at the top. You can also roll your mouse around the corners of the imitation magazine that will display on your screen, click to turn a page.
But wait, there's more! The Web site may be a pretty design in itself, but it links to the breathtaking work featured in the gallery. Most samples can be accessed by clicking the Gallery tab at the top of the magazine, but my favorite is one I found by accident. Of course, some of us may prefer the colorful art of Stephen Eastwood, but that's another story.
