I recent ran across someone who didn’t understand what a raw file is, and had it confused with an image file. So, let’s take a quick look at it. Perhaps you’re old enough to remember the Weston Lightmeter: It had a “photovoltaic cell” (don’t panic) which is simply some goop which when exposed to light […]
Printing a correct color target for custom profiling Here is how to print a target of patches, for use in creating a custom color profile. (Note: this requires that you either have your own spectrophotometer, or are printing a target sent to you by someone you hired to create the custom profile for you.) A […]
While dark environments, such as Apple’s Mojave, or the default settings for Photoshop & Pixelmator Pro, may look fashionable, they are terrible for editing photos. Why? Because they screw up your ability to see tones properly. Using a dark background will trick your mind into producing a print that has clogged up shadows, and is […]
When “good enough” isn’t: canned paper profiles In my business (making prints for museums and galleries) the usual prebuilt paper/ink profile, often described as “good enough” really isn’t. Instead I make my own profiles using X-Rite’s i1Publish Pro 3. If that applies to you as well, here are some tips: Printing on expensive paper […]
Let’s say you’ve just made a print of your latest image, but how do you know what it -really- looks like? You would not take a flashlight and cover the end with blue cellophane, and shine it on the print, because it would trash all the other colors. To get a more rational view, you […]
The usual thing you find if you search the web looking for a way to keep Alexa from constantly saying “OK” to your commands, is “Oh, that’s easy: just turn on Brief Mode.” Thing is, that only works (ahem) briefly, for one or two commands, and then the syrupy “OK” comes back. What we […]
Being brief and cursory introduction to Smart Device plugs and switches. ! Here are some useful things you can do with them: 1. Turn lights or appliances on and off from anywhere using your smartphone or if you have a smart assistant like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple HomeKit, you can control your […]
When “good enough” isn’t: canned paper profiles In my business (making prints for museums and galleries) the usual prebuilt paper/ink profile, often described as “good enough” really isn’t. Instead I make my own profiles using X-Rite’s i1Publish Pro 3. If that applies to you as well, here are some tips: Printing on expensive paper is, […]
Well, I have good news, bad news and sorta between. The good news is that now I know why some user-saved custom printer presets fail spectacularly in MacOS Ventura and Sonoma. (Failure: user saves a paper type, print speed, sheet size, feed type and so on under a special name as a new preset. However […]
Sometimes I’ll get a new application, drag it into the Applications folder, and launch it… or try to launch it anyway. It seems to be starting, but then nothing happens. No windows; no complaints – just nothing. Sometimes I’ll run an application, and ask it to check for updates, and instead I’ll get a notice […]