Lumière d’Argent

Last year, Colin Jago talked on his blog of an interesting software for negative scanners: Colorneg.

I downloaded the trial version and gave it a go. It did indeed produce fine results but at that stage I was reluctant to add yet another software. Moreover, at the time, I was not really using film all that much.

Since then I have started again to use my Leica and so the question of B&W film scanning and processing became current for me too.

For digital processing, depending on my inconsistency among other things, I currently use Aperture, Photoshop CS3, Bibble Pro, QuadtoneRIP and some nice PhotoShop plugins.  Still reluctant to add yet another software piece, I tried different things. Clearly, VueScan is best at driving my Epson scanner. Its B&W output is adequate but not exactly great and the control it offers does not suit me. Besides, I like the idea of scanning to RAW. I find the curves to apply to VueScan RAW files quite steep and I produced unwanted effects that way.

I then noticed the DNG option in VueScan. It produces a DNG raw file, just ready for Adobe Camera Raw. That software was designed precisely to do what I need: correctly map a gamma 1 file to the more useful gamma 2.2 or 1.8 or whatever is in QTR Lab space. It works beautifully. The trick to invert the picture in ACR is to use the point curve, select the Linear setting and invert its slope. The controls in ACR allow to produce a very good starting point for further finishing in PhotoShop.

Stephane :: Oct.19.2008 :: Film, Scanning, Software :: No Comments »

Apple has disclosed their new laptops. In a word, this is rubbish.

The most annoying aspect is of course the glossy only screens. And not merely glossy like the previous Macbook was. No, this is glass, like the iMac. I just got a new iMac. The reflections are terrible. Since it is a desktop, I can tailor the environment and position the computer so that reflections do not appear. Not so with a laptop, contrarily to what an Apple executive said in an interview.

Apple also dropped all Firewire 400 ports from the new laptops. It means the Macbook has no Firewire and the Macbook Pro only has Firewire 800. Now, I don’t know, this saves what? $2 per machine to Apple? Let’s get crazy and make it $10 per machine. For the customers, this is a royal blunder. All the consumer video camera which use iLink (Firewire) to communicate with a computer are not impossible to connect to a Macbook. Nice move!

All the Firewire 400 peripherals will now need a special cable to connect to a MacBook Pro. This will also create inconvenience to people who wish to connect two Firewire devices to their Macbook Pro while on the road. Then I look at the Macbook Pro price and I wonder.

Who again brought Firewire to the market and explained everyone how superior it was? Apple. Go figure.

This is arrogance, complacency and, again, corporate stupidity.

Apple seems to think they don’t need the creative professional market anymore. The very market that kept them half afloat during their worst days. They choose to do so during the golden opportunity Microsoft gave them with the Vista disaster. Apple might find out, too late, that a large number of professionals will decide they can do without Apple. Especially if Windows 7 turns out to be half good.

Those glass screens are just a fashion thing. Apple is giving substance to arguments saying their product are all about looks.

The most immediate consequence for me is to make me feel uncomfortable to depend on Aperture. I might reconsider that.

Stephane :: Oct.18.2008 :: Gear, Software :: No Comments »