Nik Software Suite Offer

It's rare you get a bargain in photography, where a 20 inch metal pan costs $100 to ship across the Atlantic, but following the acquisition of Nik Software by Google, the entire suite of plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom is currently available for $149. Given the previous price being asked for the individual components I wouldn't hesitate. In fact  I didn't and snapped them up earlier in the week. I promise to use them wisely.

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Despite the defeat of Clause 43 of the Digital Economy Bill proposed under the last government, the threat to the viability of professional photography in the UK has returned in almost the same form, tucked away inside the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill.

More information in this blog post by Eddie Mulholland:

http://thebppa.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/the-copyright-fight

If at First You Don't Succeed

Hot on the heels of firmware update 1.03, stated to improve the D4's autofocus, comes firmware update 1.04 released today. To improve the autofocus.

The Last Roll of Kodachrome

This very interesting film tells the story of photographer Steve McCurry shooting the last roll of Kodachrome 64.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUL6MBVKVLI

Feeding Swans, Bosham Harbour

© Tom Parkes

While we wait for the promised snow, the Sunday afternoon tradition of a bracing walk goes on.

This image also marks a move from making raw conversions in Nikon Capture NX2 to the Adobe raw converter in Photoshop CS6. I've long preferred the conversions in NX2 over those offered by Adobe's converter built into Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge, while at the same time admiring the workflow offered by those applications. I'm currently evaluating CS6 and while I can see some areas where NX2 offers a smother rendering, Camera Raw has moved ahead in others, notably sharpening.

The acid test will be the quality of Adobe's rendering of images created in mixed lighting.

Nikon D4 Firmware update 1.03

Nikon recently (and quietly) updated the D4's A firmware to 1.03.

Stated to improve autofocus with lenses having a maximum aperture of F8 it also seems to reduce the focussing system's tendency to jitter backwards and forwards when using faster lenses in conjunction with AF-C and a non-moving subject. Winter light levels in the UK prevent any investigation of whether the performance in very bright sunlight has also improved (the latter being a long-term problem - the D3 series focussing system was never at its best in brighter conditions).

Also worth mentioning, the battery charger for my personal D4 has been dogged by an irritating problem since new, namely it will routinely reject an inserted battery and cease charging within a few minutes of commencing a charge. The charger alternately flashes the CAL light and the charging light and according to the manual this indicates a fault in the battery itself. Since this happens with every battery I have for the D4 I've always considered this unlikely but have never been able to find time to take the charger in for repair. The short term fix incidentally is to remove and reinsert the battery, whereupon normal charging will resume. I've now found a better solution, which is to plug the charger in to the mains a few minutes before it is needed. Having done that, everything works as intended.

Elinchrom Quadra Head Caps

©Tom Parkes - Wilson head cap for Quadra

When they were first introduced, the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra heads shipped with no protection for the flash tube when packed in a bag or case beyond that afforded by the standard reflector. These caps, designed by photographer Les Wilson neatly fill the gap in the market. The design is similar to that of Elinchrom's own head covers as supplied with the larger heads with the addition of a nice textured finish for extra grip when removing the cover.