No Excuses Allowed

^{image (c) Jonathan Mak}
As the web weeps with it's tributes to Steve Jobs' passing this month, there have been some interesting items from business publications that have come back into the light. Of particular interest is Jobs' handling at Apple which may not be to everyone's tastes.

The (Apollo) Clones are Coming

The Westcott 28" Apollo softbox has been long admired for it's quality of light, but as with most things in life, quality costs. For a long time there were no other softboxes like the Apollos and it appeared that Westcott had survived the attack of the clones (unlike the Lastolite Ezybox), however recently there has been a number of umbrella style hotshoe softboxes appearing: the Westcott Apollo clones are coming.

Love that Magick

There is nothing like a good trick and ImageMagick (IM) has plenty of them - if you need a command line swiss knife image toolset then this is it.

White Balance Targets: WhiBal vs Digital Grey Kard

A colour correct image is important for the basis of any post processing: there are a number of white balance targets on the market (such as Xrite ColorChecker) but the 2 reasonably inexpensive options: the WhiBal vs Digital Grey Kard (aka DGK).

Look closer: The Man. that is older than AI

I don't shoot your traditional macros: I tend to shoot people although I do shoot products occasionally, but never enough to justify a dedicated macro lens. Not until a recent discovery, a Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI.

Embedded in RAW

One of the most common debates (ignoring brand wars) in the hobbyist/amateur camera world is whether one should shoot RAW or jpeg (or RAW/jpeg with varying degrees of jpeg quality). For me the decision is easy: shoot RAW.