Foto Tech

Welcome

Version 4.0 of the Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines was recently released. I serve as the Tech Editor of UPDIG, and also worked on branding and design aspects of Version 4.0.

A QUOTE FROM THE SITE:
The UPDIG guidelines aim to clarify issues affecting accurate reproduction and management of digital images. These guidelines were created to establish photographic standards and practices for photographers, designers, printers, and image distributors. The guidelines cover Digital Asset Management, Color Profiling, Metadata, and Photography Workflow.

Version 4.0 of the guidelines represents the industry consensus as of Sept 22, 2008. The guidelines were prepared by the UPDIG Coalition, with the help of many digital imaging professionals, software vendors, and hardware manufacturers. The UPDIG Coalition is dedicated to promoting standards for photographic digital imaging.
END QUOTE

UPDIG 4.0 had many many contributors. I would like to thank the Coalition Member Groups who came together to support this set of best practices for photographic digital imaging. I would also like to personally thank and recognize the great people I worked with directly. Many others contributed, but I worked directly with those listed below:
Richard Anderson- He served UPDIG very well for years. Richard stepped down as managing editor, but continues to collaborate and support UPDIG coalition efforts.
Greg Smith- The Copy Editor who actually knows grammar, spelling, AND photography.
Jon Heal- The web designer who gave the website and guidelines some style.
Michael Voigt- The Flash designer who put the 21 Coalition member groups into a Flash banner that will actually fit on a web page.
Peter Dyson- ASMP’s technology “Jack of All Trades” who got this thing to the web.
Rick McCleary- and the CMYK Working Group (A.K.A. the CMYK Mafia) a group of dedicated prepress guys and printers, who will take your head off if you’re not EXACTLY correct.
Peter Krogh- This DAM guy has offered his expertise to UPDIG from the beginning.
There are way too many dedicated contributors to list who work tirelessly for UPDIG and I know I’m leaving many of you out: Eugene Mopsik, Susan Carr, Judy Herrmann, Jeff Sedlik, Betsy Reid, David Riecks,….. the list goes on and on….GOOD JOB EVERYONE! Read more…

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Adobe will announce the CS4 release date and a show a preview of CS4 on the 23 of Sept, 2008. You can register for the braoadcast by following the link below.

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________http://adobe.istreamplanet.com/

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Eye-Fi makes 2GB SD cards that transmit images to a wireless router or an Internet hot spot. The Explore model will also tag images with GPS information from the wireless connection point, though I haven’t gotten this to work on my router. The cards also save images just like a regular SD card.
All this is set up through a very simple online application called the Eye-Fi Manager. Images can be saved locally and posted automatically on sharing sites like Flickr and SmugMug. The system is simple to use for anyone adept at using wireless connections (SSID & Key). The size of this wireless transmitter is a miracle of miniaturization.

At first I was unsure of how this would benefit my operation, as I shoot RAW files which are large and don’t transmit quickly. The system is really designed to work with JPEG files and it transmits them at acceptable speeds. Because my pro Canon cameras have two card slots that can be set to record different file types, I’ve found Eye-Fi to be exceptionally useful. I have my first card set to record RAW and the Eye-Fi set to record and transmit compressed small JPEG. I’m simultaneously getting a large preview on my computer and in a SmugMug gallery without doing anything.

I recently made a series of abstract images in Corning NY. When I was in range of a wireless connection, I simply left the camera on and let Eye-Fi upload Small JPEGs to SmugMug . I was then able to show my days’ images online in a SmugMug gallery without ever taking time to download, RAW process, and upload. Later, I downloaded the RAW images all at once.

I plan to set up a projector at a party and have the images project instantly as I make them. I’m sure you can think of other interesting things to do with Eye-Fi. Feel free to post your ideas and comments here. There’s just nothing like instant gratification!

The editors of PDN found the Foto-Tech blog and asked me to contribute a few articles for their July Gear Guide. I’m honored to have my content included with the excellent articles by previous guest contributes including: John Paul Caponigro, Andrew Darlow, and Michael Reichmann-The Luminous Landscape.

My first article for the PDN Gear Guide is here: