There is an amazing amount of  hand-wringing going on these days about the 4 billion cell-phone cameras out there in the world. “It’s going to ruin photography.” “We’re doomed.” “Nobody appreciates quality anymore.” High-end camera sales are going in the tank!” Get a grip people. 170 years ago, only a few people had cameras; then […]

The show opened Friday, July 19, and was a success, with several hundred people showing up.  Here are a few snapshots my wife took. (Thanks to my readers for your interest !  🙂               I’m pleased to say that the red image on the left, above, is now in […]

NOTE: this is NOT about cheating and canceling CC, but keeping the software. It’s about reverting to your legal, legit paid-for copy of Photoshop CS6. If you don’t do this, and merely cancel Creative Cloud, what you’ll likely get when you try to run your legal, legit paid-for copy of Photoshop CS6 is some kind of […]

What do I use to sign photographs? Well, if you’re printing on matte paper, you already know that you can use pretty much whatever you like: pencil, pen, markers… …but if you’ve tried signing on the “resin coated” papers (glossy, luster, satin, semi-matte) you know that none of those work at all well. The solution […]

Hi folks I’ve spent some personal time over the years looking into how to identify a piece of art to a gallery. That is, what is the “correct” or “expected” way to identify a piece. Now if you look all over the internet, you’ll find answers that contradict what conclusions I’ve come to (and are […]

  My friend has a new 27″ iMac and he is perfectly happy with the colors he’s seeing on-screen. So, when I advised that he might be happier with a Dell U2410, which shows 96% of the AdobeRGB (ARGB) color space (instead of the iMac’s approximately 80%) he wasn’t so sure.  He also wasn’t too […]

You’ve got one of those nice Dell U2410 monitors for your photo work. You’ve got a puck, like the i1Profile, to drop across the screen to calibrate it. And you’ve got the profiler software, with lots of options… just like the monitor has lots of options. So, conscientious photographer that you are, you head off […]

I’m recently back from my contribution to The Center for Photographic Art’s annual Exposure Weekend. The event is 3 days of lectures, workshops, field-trips and portfolio reviews. This year I was again asked to do photographic critiques. The CPA calls them “portfolio reviews” but I find that term confusing since for me a portfolio review […]

Can a photograph be fine art? If by “fine” you mean in some sense “good” or “better” then of course.* In fact, the question betrays an ignorance of art per se , since that’s actually a question about the medium. Would the “Pieta” not be art if it were made of bronze instead of marble? […]

So you decide that you want to use the gradient tool to make some adjustments, say a bit of darkening in the sky, for example. Fine… but only do it once! If you do it and decide it’s not dark enough, do not go back and layer another gradient on top of the one you […]