Although it came as no surprise to anyone that saw Steve Jobs and knew of his illness in the last few years, his death still hit many very hard. Steve was an icon. He truly was this generation's Thomas Edison, or Henry Ford. And like Walt Disney, he was a true visionary. Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile, but he invented a way to produce it more efficiently, more affordable. And Steve Jobs didn't invent the computer, but he did make it better, making it simpler to use and more available to the masses. I don't have an ENIAC computer in my basement. But I still have an old Apple IIGS sitting in a box somewhere under my basement stairs next to the box of vinyl albums I can't seem to part with. I can remember beholding the beautiful beige box that was the first 128K Macintosh in 1985.    

Many of us in the graphic arts field owe our careers to the technological innovation that Steve Jobs and Apple have brought us over the last thirty five years. Who knows what this industry would look like if not for things like the WYSIWYG interface, the LaserWriter for PostScript, and system-level color management (ColorSync). Apple didn't invent things like the computer mouse (They got the idea from Xerox), or PostScript (Adobe). But Steve Jobs had the vision and know how to bring it to the market. And the primary market for Apple in the early days was the creative and graphic art market. A market that is still very loyal to Apple today. Apple, arguably more than any other company, enabled the desktop publishing revolution back in the 1980s.


An Amish friend of mine still owns the first Apple 1 computer (circa 1976) that came with a can Pledge and a box of nails to use for maintenance. He tells me that the CPU inside is an actual pine cone.  I keep telling him to upgrade, but... Okay, that's not true. I don't know any Amish people. I did calibrate my first monitor that was connected to this baby though. Okay, still not true...


What Steve Jobs has done with Apple computer is nothing short of amazing. Over the years, apple has transitioned from a small computer company with a tiny market share to a global consumer electronics empire. Innovative products like the iMac, iPod and iTunes, iPhone, and iPad have saved the company from the brink of irrelevance.

Apple almost didn't make it. I recall going to a Seybold conference in New York in 1997 where there was a session titled, "Can Apple Survive, or Should They?". It's hard to imaging that in 1997 people were already carving the headstone for Apple. But leadership from the likes of Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio who ran Apple during Jobs 12-year absence from Apple brought the company to that point. It was only after Jobs returned to Apple in late 1997 that Apple began to turn around.

Jobs killed the the OS licensing agreement with the companies making Mac clones and thinned out the entire bloated Apple product line. In 1998 Apple would show us what bodini blue looked like as they introduce us to the iMac. Eventually the bright, translucent, multi-hued plastic design found it's way into staplers and boom boxes as others copied Apple's innovative design.

That innovative design that we have all come to expect from Apple has largely come from the creative mind of Jonathan Ive, Apple's Senior VP of Industrial Design. It is because Jobs surrounded himself with people like Ives, Scott Forstall - Senior VP of iOS Software and Philip Schiller - Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, that I believe Apple will be just fine as they face the future without Steve Jobs. New CEO Tim Cook, while not nearly the dynamic icon that Steve was, will see that Apple stays the course and continues to be the leader and innovator.


The video above shows a creative way this guy has gone about repurposing some old Apple technology to showcase some new Apple technology. I'm actually using my old Apple Lisa computer from 1983 as a case for my new iPhone 4S. It's a little bulky in my pocket, but im never going to drop that phone...


Steve Jobs was known for demanding the absolute best from his employees. But it was also that attitude and gritty determination that lead all of us to demand the best from Apple.

RIP Steve. And thanks for thinking different… 


               

If you are a photographer, graphic artist, prepress service provider or color imaging professional that requires color accuracy on your monitor, there is a new solution for you. X-Rite last week released new color management products for calibrating monitors, projectors and laptops. The i1Display Pro is an advanced colorimeter bundled with completely new display and projector profiling software compatible with all modern display technologies including new LED backlight and wide gamut displays.

The i1Display Pro colorimeter features new optical technology and filter sets, and an integrated ambient measurement diffuser to take continuous measurements and compensate for the ambient lighting conditions around user's work environment. FlareCorrect measures the display surface flare and automatically compensates for on-screen glare.

Key features of the i1Display pro include:

• Five times faster measurement speed measures more color patches in less time
• The ability to use three different size patch sets
• Custom color patch sets derived from any image or Pantone colors
• Fully upgradeable for future display technologies
• Multiple monitor and work group matching
• Measurement, compensation and ongoing monitoring of ambient lighting conditions
• FlareCorrect for display surface flare measurement and compensation
• Display QA workflow feature provides display quality check and trending information
• See instant before and after calibration results using your own images
• Display uniformity test to show white point and luminance uniformity on display
• Automatic Display Control (ADC) technology automates the adjustment of your display’s hardware (brightness/backlight, contrast, and color temperature) to speed up the profiling process and eliminate manual adjustments

 
The X-Rite i1Display Pro sells for $269 and X-Rite is offering a $40 rebate until September 30, 2011 if you trade in your old colorimeter. 

X-Rite also released the ColorMunki Display aimed at designers for display calibration using software with a more simplified wizard interface for $189.

In the world of catalog production services, one of the most challenging product lines to reproduce is jewelry. 
It all begins at digital asset inception, photography. Our skilled photographers must find a creative way to capture small, reflective, shiny shapes. Think of gold and silver jewelry as a bunch of tiny perfect mirrors stretched around different odd shapes reflecting lights and darks at varying angles. Brilliantly colored gem stones possessing subtle hues, metal pieces with extremely detailed contours with exotic textures and subtle "drawing" in the faceted shapes; all need to be captured with amazing precision. The dynamic range, acuity, and technology required is staggering. Camera's such as the new Hasselblad H4D-200MS with 200 megapixels of resolution, let me say that again, 200 megapixels of resolution are paving the way for color and details we have never seen before! Coupled with cutting edge software like Phocus 2.6x yields true 16 bit image quality with results, that only one year ago, were unobtainable.  In the hands of a talented photographer, the creative potential is limitless.




The digital post production artist must become a master illusionist finding a way to make the right mix of R - G - B pixel values look like shiny metallic golds, silvers, and brilliant specular diamonds. Every nuance, detail, and subtle tone captured in the photographic stage, brought to life by the digital pen of our skilled artisans, with many years of high end work under their belt. Our artists have the talents, creative vision, and strong channels of communication and client understanding, creating masterpieces that our customers expect, all in a timely and profitable manner. 
Photo Composition - Many of the color technicians at Widen have spent over 20 years mastering the art of manipulating photographs, merging multiple images, and creating a breathtaking array of special effects for unforgettable visual results. Often this is the case when composing jewelry into alternate backgrounds and creative direction changes. The digital asset may be used in a small size, such as an online article or e-commerce site, or as large as a billboard. The staggering amount of post processing skills and color management knowledge required for such attention to detail and various media options is just another day at the office for the team.
Color Manipulation - Using the latest equipment and proven color management techniques, our experienced color staff can retouch digital images to your exacting standards. Our dedicated Quality Control department will ensure that your standards are maintained throughout the color production process. Golds and silvers printed in last years catalog will be consistent and accurate with catalogs printed this year, and next. Using expert artisan technicians and advanced premedia technologies, Widen helps clients maintain accurate product representation of quality and craftsmanship with horsepower to quickly respond to color-critical client objectives. Our talents are leveraged in every medium, at every opportunity, wherever and whenever consumers work with us, even with finicky products such as jewelry. We create things, we design things, we retouch things, we color correct things. We have masterminded the process, the experience, and provide immeasurable value to our clients and their brands.

Have you been crashing quite frequently, and your using Apple's Mac OS X 10.6.4 system software with Adobe Photoshop CS4 or CS5?

Apparently Apple introduced updated video graphics - card drivers with the 10.6.4 update. This update may have bugs that lead to display artifacts like fractal looking patterns, intermittent flashes, scrolling, and random vertical or horizontal black lines.

There are a couple of proposed solutions that seem to help.

One, is to run photoshop in 32 bit mode. Select the application, get info and select open in 32 bit mode. (CS5) The good part is, your third party filters will run in this mode as well. The bad news is you just lost a fair amount of speed increase. (If your memory is decent +4Gb or more)

Last year, I published a blog called, Surround yourself with color. As long as it's gray! In the blog, I discussed how important viewing conditions were when evaluating color, and how surrounding colors affect how we see color.

Recently I came across a great website from the laboratory of Dale Purves, M.D. in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. There are many interesting optical illusions that deal with color constancy, chromatic adaptation, color contrast, brightness contrast and other illusions that play tricks on the eye. All the illusions are interactive, allowing the viewer to mask off or adjust brightness on different parts of the image.

                 

These exercises underscore the importance of maintaining proper viewing conditions when making critical color decisions. Give it a look. You won't believe your eyes!

Does the Canon 5D Mark II have banding issues at or near base ISO?
The RAW converter of files sometimes makes all the difference in the world.

What I have seen is a problem with RAW converters interpreting the data correctly.
IMHO the demosaicing of the 5D2 files is a finicky task.

It's a double edge sword extracting every last bit of data, adding sharpness, and avoiding the demosaicing artifacts associated with the bayer pattern and sensor read noise.
 

Enlarged version and cropped to fit the dang 600 pixel maximum.




You can download the original .cr2 RAW file here ...

In summary be carefull of your settings and RAW converter of choice. Sometimes the manufactures know best...

A third in a series of iPhone digital imaging app reviews...

Mill Colour by The Mill - Price: FREE

If all you want in a photo editor on the iPhone is simply a way to edit color - saturation, gamma, exposure, etc.. Then this app is for you. It offers an extremely precise way of adjusting color via a fine tuning dial. Think of a fine tuning knob on an old tube TV set...


              

Pros:

• Allows Very fine tuning of an image to edit color of a photograph via a scaled dial at the bottom of the screen.
• Edit control includes Lift, Gamma, Gain and Saturation
• A number of pre-defined image "looks" including, Golden, Print, Cross-processed, Chocolate, Noir (a dark, contrasty black and white), Instant, 70's (a washed-out warm look), Milky, Promo, and Bleached
• Easy to use interface
• It's FREE!

Cons:

• Lacks many traditional editing tools like clone, crop, sharpen/blur, noise reduction, painting tools, etc... But then again, this is designed as a color correction app only.
• No ability to share photos with social media sites like Twitter or Facebook (can only save to iPhone photo library)
• No ability to continue previous session if an image was not saved before closing app
• They spelled "color" wrong :)

A second in a series of iPhone digital imaging app reviews...

Photogene by Omer Shoor - Price: $1.99

Much like Photoforge that I discussed in yesterday's post, Photogene is a good all purpose image editor for the iPhone. Photogene includes a number of nice preset border treatments, but lacks painting tools like Photoforge.



                 

Pros:

• Very fast, responsive, immediate editing
• Interface is well designed, navigation is quick and easy
• Menus can disappear with a tap for full screen view
• Includes a number of nice preset frame treatments with a lot of custom control for images.
• Nice drop shadows and reflection.
• 8 special effects include sepia, black and white, pencil, and night vision.
• Ability to work in portrait of landscape mode.
• Ability to add text balloons.
• Share photos with Facebook, Twitter, or "Hall of Fame" online gallery

Cons:

• Lacks clone tool.
• Lacks any painting tools
• Lacks noise reduction feature.
• Lacks layering function.

This July will mark three years since Apple released the iPhone, forever changing the things we can do with a phone. I still find it difficult to call the iPhone a phone, because making a phone call is somewhere down the list of things I use my iPhone for. Reviewing and writing emails, surfing the Web, listening to or creating music, watching TV shows or movies on the plane, playing a game, checking a map/GPS, calculating a tip, catching up on the news, sports and weather are among the many things I use my iPhone for. With well over 100,000 applications for the iPhone, there is something for everyone. My iPhone even pops popcorn and pours beer (well, digitally, anyway).

The iPhone, especially the iPhone 3GS, is also a handy camera. Yes, I know, all cell phones have cameras in them now, nothing new there. And the iPhone still lacks a flash for low light situations to go along with the 3.0 megapixel camera. But when used in conjunction with many of the photographic editing apps, the iPhone becomes a nice little mobile digital imaging workstation. And with the ability to share the image in an email, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr you can instantly publish your masterpiece for the world to see. I subscribe to the theory that the best camera you have is the one that's with you when you see a great photo in front of your eyes.

So being the shutterbug and pixel junkie that I am, I thought I would do a few quick reviews of some of my favorite image editing apps for the iPhone. These will be applications that excel at one thing or another - color correction, image enhancement, painting, special effects, illustration, etc... To make this a quicker read, I will break them up into separate blog entries, so check back here to The Color Space daily for new reviews.  

Up first:

PhotoForge by Ghost Bird Software - Price: $2.99

If I could have only one app on my iPhone for image editing (I have many - duh), it might be this one. This app contains most of the common tools you need in a photo editor.




                    

Pros:

• It is one of the only editors that lets you adjust levels AND curves, and lets you do so in RGB, CMYK or Lab. Note that It does not actually change the color space of the image.
• It has a good assortment of filters and special effects, including posterize, sepia, dreamy, black and white, pencil, emboss, television, tilt shift generator and more
• It combines a nice brush tool with 8 different brush strokes and other painting functions like smudge
• You have the ability to begin with a blank canvas to create an illustration from scratch
• It is one of the only editors that has a clone stamp tool
• Unlimited undo and redo

Cons:

• Instructions claim you can edit in portrait or landscape, however, I haven't found that to be true
• No instructions or help (although it's pretty simple to figure everything out)
• No layering ability
• Lacks creative border treatments (if you're into that sort of thing)

NAPP is in Orlando
I'm in Madison, but thats ok cause I've got twitter! Here is the top news so far.

Photoshop CS5 out April 12 2010!
They are not giving out much info but here is a sneek peak at the Content Aware Fill



"One of the biggest requests we get of Photoshop is to make adding, removing, moving or repairing items faster and more seamless. From retouching to completely reimagining an image, heres an early glimpse of what could happen in the future when you press the delete key. How might you use this new capability in your workflow?"

Sweet! Now if your like me and didn't get a chance to make it to Photoshop World in Orlando you can follow along on Twitter #PSW or #NAPP_News. Still want more? Check out www.photoshopworld.com/

xx joy

So last night I was perusing the 12,000 channels that DirecTV beams into my home trying to find something - ANYTHING to watch that wasn't called something like, "Dancing with the Biggest Bachelor Star Looser Next Top Model Celebrity Apprentice Big Brother Housewives of American Idol Survivor Marry my Top Chef Dad in Hell's Kitchen Plus 8".... sigh...

Anyway, while somehow successfully avoiding "reality" TV, I came across a commercial for the new Sharp Aquos LED LCD TV with QuadPixel technology. Introduced at the giant Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January and hitting the market this spring, the engineers at Sharp have added a yellow pixel to the familiar red, green and blue pixels.

Apparently the yellow that is created when red and green pixels hook up at full power was not saturated enough for Sharp, so they are giving yellow it's very own pixel living right there in between the blue and red pixels. According to Sharp, this expands the gamut from millions of colors to over a trillion. They expect RGBY technology to become the standard in the HDTV industry.



There is a lot of debate as to how many colors the human eye can see. It is generally believed to be under 10 million colors. But every human eye is different, and the truth is, nobody really knows how many colors we can see. The 24-bit computer monitor you are reading this on right now is capable of displaying 16,777,216 colors. I know this because I counted them while you were sleeping last night. And by the way, you should really clean up those dirty dishes piling up in your kitchen sink.

So if humans can only discern between a few million colors, why should our HDTVs show us more than a trillion colors? Isn't that overkill? Well, Sharp claims that the addition of the yellow pixel gives you better yellow and gold tones along with better Caribbean blue hues as well. This is important if you are watching a movie about a treasure chest of gold coins that washes up along a Jamaican beach.

Gillette didn't stop at three blades in their razors, and Sharp says it's not stopping at four pixels in their TVs. They are working on technology that will bring the two subtractive colors left out in the cold, cyan and magenta, to the big screen as well. Rest assured that Sharp is not the only company working on expanded gamut HDTVs. Manufacturers like Mitsubishi and Samsung are also working to perfect 48-bit RGBCMY screens as well.

I wonder what all this R&D in the television world means to computer displays and ultimately digital imaging. With the emergence of tablet computers like Apple's iPad, the entire concept of the desktop computer is being turned upside down. No matter how you slice it, we are on the verge of a technological revolution. Combine all these extra pixels with the emerging 3D TVs that are hitting the market, and we are in for a truly immersive viewing experience.

Now I ask you, do you REALLY need to see CBS's Big Brother 19 in high-gamut 48 bit 3-D color? Of course I would argue that I don't need to see pretentious, back stabbing, twenty-somethings living together in any color, in any dimension.

Music and Premedia For me music and art go hand in hand. Music facilitates the creative process. So why would that be any different in premedia services? In my daily gig as a pixel pusher, color manipulation and retouching are my creative outlets and music helps my stylus dance across the tablet. Ok maybe that is taking it a bit far... enjoy the show xx joy

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Photo Selection
The key to successful faux tilt shift in Photoshop is photo selection. A shot that is looking down onto a street scene is going to give you the most realistic look and feel. Keep in mind that tilt shift photography is used to give the impression of a miniature model so the vantage point of your shot is key. You can use this in a photo composition or as a fun stand alone image. The posibilities are endless.





The Moves
In quick mask mode (Q) using your gradient tool (G) set to Reflected, drag a vertical line in an area that you want to keep the main focus of the image. We will use this mask to create our lens blur.

Now exit quick mask and go to Filter - Blur - Lens Blur. The default settings usually give you just what you need, but if you're like me then you'll want to play around and see what else it can do, so go ahead and play. When you've got a blur that you are happy with click ok.

A little bit of Color Manipulation
Now deselect and lets make a few color moves to really bring it home.






A miniature model is painted and plastic so adding a hue/sat move and a contrast curve will help to make your faux shot more believable.

The Result
A new take on a plain old street shot! Now go make one and have some fun!



xx joy

"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir

All About Curves
Using curves in Photoshop CS4 for prepress production can be intimidating to newbies so here are a few tips to help make color manipulation with curves a more enjoyable experience.

Display Options for Curves
If a Curves Adjustment layer is targeted in the Layers panel, selecting the flyout on the Adjustments panel reveals the "Curves Display Options". Here, you can choose to show your numeric values on a scale from 0-255 (light) or 0-100% (ink), Channel Overlays, Histogram, Baseline and Intersection Line.

Adding a Point on a Curve
With the On-image tool selected on the Curves Adjustments panel (that's the one that looks like the hand with the up/down arrow), hovering the cursor in the image area will display a preview circle (bouncing ball) over the corresponding value on the curve.
• Click in the image area to add a point to the curve.
• Click and drag up/down in the image area to add a point on the curve to lighten/darken the targeted value or
• Use the up / down or left/right arrows to move the selected point. (Add the shift key to move it in larger increments.)

Selecting Points on a Curve
With the On-image tool selected on the Curves Adjustments panel, Shift + (plus) will select the next point on the curve and Shift + (minus) will select the previous point.  Shift -click multiple points on the curve to select more than one and move them all at once. Command + D will deselect all selected points.



Deleting Points on a Curve
To delete a point on a curve, select the point and do any of the following:
• Press Delete/Backspace
• Command + click on point (on the panel or from the image area)
• Click and drag the point off of the grid

Curves Grid Preference
In the Adjustments Panel, Option-click in the grid area to toggle more/less grid lines. (10% vs quarter-tone increment)

Adding Color Samplers in Curves
When the Curves Adjustments panel is active, shift-click in the image area to set a Color Sampler. Shift -drag to reposition the Color sampler. Option + Shift-click on sampler to delete it.

Hope these tips help you to gain photoshop enlightenment. Using curves for color manipulation is one of the best ways to control color in your images. An even better way is with camera raws non-destructive color manipulation! Does it get better than this? I think not.

xxjoy

It might not be headline news anymore and the light of the cameras has started to fade, but the need for help is still a reality. A few weeks back everyone at Widen received an email from Reed Widen, our President and Chairman of the Board for Widen Enterprises. The email was about the relief efforts that the What If? Foundation was undertaking to make sure that the people and children of Haiti were getting the help they needed in a time of disaster. They still need help.  Below is an excerpt from the What If? Foundation website.

Earthquake Relief from What If? Foundation

For ten years, we’ve been in partnership with members of the St. Clare’s community in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to provide desperately needed meals to children (and adults whenever possible). Over the years, through incredibly difficult times – an economic embargo, coup d’etat, and hurricanes – the meals have kept flowing.  We received word on Friday, January 15th, that the courageous and devoted cooks and community leaders we work with are safe and that the rectory building where the food program takes place did not collapse.

LATEST UPDATE

Posted on Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to share with you a link to some extraordinary photos.  They were taken by photojournalist René Merino during his recent trip to Port-au-Prince.  René visited the food program at St. Clare’s, so be sure to look for these pictures towards the bottom of the page.  Click here to go to his photo website.

It’s hard to believe the month of March has arrived and that seven weeks have passed since the January 12th earthquake in Haiti.

I am excited to let you know that our partners at St. Clare’s just launched a special education program for children that takes place every afternoon before the food program meals are served.  With schools closed in Port-au-Prince and no date set for their reopening, this two-hour gathering is treasured by the hundreds of kids who attend.  Members of the education staff are teaching the children songs, providing materials for arts and crafts, and leading group discussions.  Lavarice Gaudin, our earthquake relief coordinator, told me the teachers choose one subject a day to explore with the children.  Topics have included the earthquake and related fears, courage, service to others, life skills and values.  The history of the food program is also shared as Lavarice feels it’s important for the children to know where the meals come from and who is involved in making them happen.  That includes all of you who provide the funding through the What If? Foundation and the extraordinary cooks who work many hours/day in the rectory kitchen.

I continue to be inspired by the vision, resilience, and faith of our partners in Port-au-Prince.  With everything they’ve been through since the earthquake, they have doubled the size of the food program, created educational opportunities to keep students engaged, and have provided an environment of healing, hope, and progress.

Piti piti na rive!  Little by little we will arrive,

Margaret Trost

If you would like more information on the What If? Foundation and their efforts please visit http://whatiffoundation.org/

xx joy

What happends when a production artist has down time? Well, we have fun with Photoshop of course! Enjoy this little movie I made just for the heck of it!




xx joy