StrongMocha

Click on the picture above to see a sneak preview of the new PhotoMocha web site which is currently being redesigned and will become available to the public in April 2008. On PhotoMocha you can see all the different photographs we did shoot or will produce in the future.

PhotoMocha’s Photo pool includes:

• Country Photography
  • India
  • Sri Lanka
  • France
  • Italy
  • Germany
  • Namibia
  • South Africa
  • Morocco
• Food Photography
• Landscape Photography
• People Photography

Click this text to see the PhotoMocha sneak preview

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Apple® today introduced Aperture^TM 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone^TM, iPod® touch and Apple TV®.

Featuring a new, easier user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Aperture 2 now lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command. Screen real estate is maximized for images with an all-in-one heads up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector. The All Projects view, modeled after iPhoto’s Events view, provides a poster photo for every project and the ability to quickly skim through the photos inside, and the integrated iPhoto® Browser offers direct access to all the events and images in the iPhoto library.

Performance has been enhanced in Aperture 2 so it’s faster to import, browse and search large volumes of images. Embedded previews let photographers caption, keyword and rate images as they are being imported, and with the ability to export images in the background, photographers can continue working while images are processed to JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD file formats. Quick Preview allows users to browse RAW images in rapid succession without having to wait for files to load, and the Aperture library database has been re-architected to provide fast project switching and near instantaneous search results, even when working with extremely large libraries of 500,000 images or more.

Aperture 2 delivers powerful new imaging tools for getting the most out of each photograph. Apple’s next-generation RAW image processing is at the core of Aperture 2 offering uncompromising image quality and precision controls that let users fine-tune the image profile for each of their cameras. New tools for improving and enhancing images include Recovery for pulling back “blown” highlights, Vibrancy for selectively boosting saturation without adversely affecting skin tones, Definition, which offers local contrast for adding clarity to images, Vignette & Devignette filters for providing professional visual effects and a true soft-edged Repair and Retouch brush for quickly and easily removing blemishes, cleaning up sensor dust and cloning away problem areas.

Aperture 2 works seamlessly with Mac OS® X, iLife®, iWork^TM, .Mac and Apple print products, so any image in the Aperture library can be accessed directly from within other applications, such as iMovie®, Keynote® and Pages®, and even from within Leopard^TM Mail. Now with .Mac Web Gallery support, Aperture users can publish their photos once to view them on the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Books in Aperture 2 feature new theme designs, layout tools, customized dust jackets (including full-bleed) and foil stamped covers.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 2 is available immediately through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Owners of previous versions of Aperture can upgrade to Aperture 2. Full system requirements and more information on Aperture 2 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

* The .Mac service is available to persons aged 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.

Phase One has released versions 3.7.8 and 4.0.1. These releases add new cameras to the compatibility list and fix bugs in previous versions. Full details in the release notes Capture One 4.0.1 release notes, Capture One PRO 3.7.8 for Windows release notes and Capture One DB 3.7.8 for Windows release notes.

A number of new cameras are supported in this new version of Capture One (PRO only):

New camera support

• Canon 1D Mark III, 1Ds Mark III, 40D, G9
• Nikon D3, D40X, D300
• Olympus E-3, E-410, E-510

Solved issues in 3.7.8

• Improved dual output calibration for P series digital backs
• Enhanced pattern noise suppression
• Fixed Live Preview column mapping errors for Phase One digital backs
• Lens Cast Calibration improvements for preview for Phase One digital backs

Capture One 4 includes a number of features

• New user interface offers maximum space for the images. Images, not sliders and ontrols, are the focus. A darker background permits easier image viewing and nhancements. As with previous generations of Capture One, a guided workflow is vailable to assist the photographer in the image enhancement processView and work with up to 12 images simultaneously at full resolution;
• Powerful new shortcut architecture allows faster image import, adjustment androcessing;
• Multiple Variants of a single RAW image can be made with virtually no disk and erformance overhead;
• Recover details in highlights and shadows with High Dynamic Range tool;
• Share or showcase your images with the stylish Web Contact Sheet feature;
• Fine-tune your images with responsive sharpness and noise controls Achieve consistency with a single touch: combine settings (e.g. within white balance) in tool Presets for easy reuse Import and export images in DNG format, for more options to share and archive;
• Manage and transfer license codes, enabling operation of Capture One on one computer ne day and on another computer the next.
• Many more features are included in Capture One 4, be sure to try them out!

What’s new in Capture One 4 (4.0.1)

• Support for Canon G9 and Sony DSLR-A700 cameras
• A number of issues found in previous versions of Capture One 4 have been solved.

Viewing printed images and photos in your office, at home or anywhere else can come with undesirable surprises. Depending on the time of day, if it is sunny or raining cats and dogs, you windows is facing north, south, west or east, you indoor light is cold or warm, it is cloudy outside or not, it is winter or summer, your office lightning is blueish or yellowish. Every time you look at the same picture in a different environment the image will look different. Even when you think you have the perfect image that you printed late last night when you wake up next morning the picture looks like it has a green cast and does differ from last night and you need to redo it all again.

Depending on the light you have available colors will look differently, white will be not white as the white of our paper will be different. To make your photographer live even more complicated some paper do re-emit the absorbed UV light as blue light, some paper are shipped with a color cast already and the white of the paper is not really white.

The light temperature around you which you consider to be a warm color tone or a cold color tone can be measured.

Here some examples on which light temperature you use to decide if your prints are all right or need to be reprinted.

• A low color temperature (you may think of it as a warm color) would be around 2800K, like a yellowish light bulb
• Day light facing north, a cloudy sky might be close to 6000K, but your window may face south and it is sunny outside
• Light with no direct sun light with a clear sky is around 10000K

Daylight (5000°k or D50) is the industry standard for viewing prints.

If you are happy with you current prints and you think they are perfect I would recommend to leave it that way and stop reading now and be happy.

For the ones that are unhappy or have a very good sense for color your only choice beside a fully calibrated system and using color management every time you work with images is to buy a proof lamp which did become available at a very Inexpensive price.

Colour Confidence GrafiLite features:

• Specially formulated natural lighting - see details clearly and assess colour differences accurately
• Powerful and portable with space-saving design
• Neutral, mid-grey viewing unit and mat for unbiased viewing
• Optimum 2000 Lux illumination brightness
• Energy efficient natural light simulation tube

GrafiLite is available direct from Colour Confidence priced around 97 Euro inc. VAT (always check latest pricing in the shop). For more information on GrafiLite, please visit their website.

A sneak preview on the upcoming Pictures from India on PhotoMocha.com

One Pixel, more pixels and even more pixels. Sony did announce a new 35mm full size CMOS sensor with 24.81 million effective pixels. The new CMOS image sensor is designed to meet the increasing requirement for rapid image capture and advanced picture quality within (professional) digital SLR cameras.

From the press announcement:

1. High picture quality in 35mm full size image sensor with 24.81M effective pixels
2. “Column-Parallel A/D Conversion method” achieves high S/N and high-speed imaging
   CDS/PGA(24dB)Circuit (PGA: Programmable Gain Amplifier)
   12bit-AD Converter on chip
   Diversified readout mode
   All-pixel scan mode 6.3 frame/s (12bit)
   Window readout
3. High-speed digital output (12 channel parallel LVDS output)

Reviews of the new Nikon D300 become available now.

• Nikon D300 Review on photographyblog.com
• Nikon D300 Review on photo.net
• Nikon D300 Preview on dpreview

I stay food and await the new release of the Canon 5Dmk2/3D/7D which is rumored since several months.