Keith's Photography Stuff

Datacolor have just announced a new hardware product to help measure the autofocus performance of your camera.

The SpyderLensCal allows you to measure how well the AF is working on your camera, and with cameras that allow it, store individual lens correction data.

We’ve a collection of Camera AF Microadjustment techniques on the site and will be adding a detailed review of just what you can do with the SpyderLensCal, once we’ve tested one.

More info from Datacolor

SpyderLensCal from Datacolor

The SpyderLensCalTM includes:

• SpyderLensCal
• Quick Start Guide

System Requirements:

• DSLR or other camera with capability to store lens auto-focus corrections
• Auto-focus lenses capable of being driven by this camera
• No OS requirements, as the tool works entirely within the camera’s menu.

We’ve used ImageNest for a while, both on our printers here at Northlight, and on many of those that we’ve reviewed, such as the most recent of Canon iPF6300.

It’s a great way of making use of the printing capacity of large printers to lay out images onto the paper. In fact I used it when reviewing the Epson 3880, to print up a whole load of pictures from my wedding in March…

Multiple prints on a sheet of A2 paper

That was with Version 2 of the software (review of V2.1). Version 3 (a free upgrade) is now available (Currently Mac OSX only)

It’s worth pointing out that a demo version is available for download, and the software can be used with any number of printers.

New features include:

• Rotate in Layout: Users can now rotate in all situations. Rotate works with all layout methods and in our new manual layout mode.
• Snap to Grid: A custom size grid feature allows users to “Snap To” guidelines. The layout grid can be custom sized both vertically and horizontally in any units of measure.
• Grid spacing control: Set custom sizes for grid lines
• Snap to Image Edges: Snap to Image Edges automatically detects the dimensions of other images in the layout and provides guidelines and a “Snap To” alignment feature.
• Additional cut Marks: Based on user feedback, new options for cut marks have been added.
• Copy and paste: Copy and Paste images in the layout with Control C and Control V hotkeys.
• Ability to drag images between pages: Users can now drag images from one page to another with ease both quickly and easily.
• Image Overlap: Images can be set to overlap for collages or an image can be trimmed simply by moving it beneath another image.
• Image Editor: Built in image editor now contains additional information about resolution and pixel dimensions.
• Manually add/delete pages: In addition to automatic page creation, users can now add or delete pages manually.

It works very well, and all the new features make it even easier to use.

More varied layout tools in ImageNest 3

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Lost your Canon CD?

Some time ago I needed to install my Canon EOS software onto a new computer. As is the way of these things, I couldn’t find the CD.

No problem I thought, I’ll just download the software from Canon…

One minor problem – Canon only has software updaters available. In other words, you need to have the software already installed to update it.

Just why Canon adopts this approach is beyond me – If I want the software it’s because I already have one of their cameras. The software is supplied at no additional cost, so why just post updaters?

Anyway, over the years I’ve been sent several ways round the ‘update only’ policy that I’ve collected on a page on this site – hopefully to be of interest to Canon camera users.

Article Link: Canon software without a CD?

To be fair, people I’ve asked at Canon UK and US have agreed that the ‘update only’ policy seems bizarre, but it’s not their doing. They also pointed out that Canon will supply CDs if you contact them and ask.

I’ve just updated info about the process on the Mac, and information relevant to Window users.

During our recent testing of the Canon iPF6300 I was able to try out the True Black and White printer driver software from BowHaus.
Review Link: True Black and White
It works very well and should be able to deliver extremely good quality B/W prints from the Canon large format printers.

In the first of what I hope will be of a collection of short articles, I’ve decided to look at a particular aspect of photographic composition in detail, with some example photos.
First up are vertical lines – an important part of my architectural and interior photography.
Article Link: Vertical lines and movement in photographic composition
If getting correct verticals [...]

Mounting your canvas prints on a ‘pizza box’ – sounds a pretty odd idea?
Review Link: JetMaster canvas mounting
I was pretty sceptical when I first saw the JetMaster print mounting kit in use at a trade show, but after trying out several different size canvas prints, I have to say that on the wall it looks [...]

We’ve had a Canon iPF6300 printer on loan from Canon UK for a while and have just published a review.
It’s one of our longer reviews to date, but there’s a lot you can do with a printer like this.
Review Link: Canon iPF6300 Review
The short version is, that barring a few minor gripes, this is one [...]

Free guide to choosing a professional commercial photographer. Questions that you should consider asking your commercial photographer

I was recently asked about my current approach to black and white printing, in connection with an upcoming magazine feature.
This short article is an extended version of my comments, which includes links to relevant articles and reviews I’ve written for the Northlight Images site.
Digital B/W printing is still evolving quite rapidly and we’re always [...]

Some time ago I put together a page on this site about ‘Choosing your first digital camera‘  I keep it updated every so often and add new resources I find.
This came about after being asked by so many people about what camera they should buy, particularly since I used to teach some introductory courses at [...]