By Michael Furtman
www.michaelfurtman.com

It used to be that you and your prospective client saw the same image. You sent an editor the transparency, and unless one of you was colorblind, you both saw the same thing.

Not anymore. Digital imaging (whether scanned from film or shot digitally) is here to stay, and maintaining color consistency throughout the chain is critical. While you can’t control your editor’s computer equipment, it is a safe bet that professional publishers use carefully color-calibrated equipment. But most of us photographers do not.

Every computer monitor displays images differently. If your monitor isn’t calibrated, you have no idea what an image looks like. Bring the image into Adobe Photoshop, tweak it and you may end up with something that looks good to you but appears bizarre to a publisher.

What to do? There’s only one real way to accurately calibrate a monitor, and that’s with a physical device that reads your monitor’s colors and resets them for you. Although several are on the market, the best ones I’ve seen are those manufactured by Colorvision – Spyder ($169), and Spyder2 Pro ($299).

As you might guess, these devices look like spiders and connect to your computer via USB port. Simply install its software, lower your office lights, hang the device over the front of your monitor and, in about five minutes, your monitor will be accurately calibrated. For consistency, monitors should be recalibrated monthly. I found Colorvision’s products easy to use, and when I had questions, their tech support was excellent.

Calibrating your monitor ensures that you’re seeing your images as they truly look. It is the first and critical step in preserving color management throughout the chain. If you don’t make prints, this is all you have to do. But what if you do make prints?

Next time, we look at further maintaining consistency by creating profiles for your printer that will confirm what you see is what you’ll print!

Jesse Nation-Ames

Serious digital photographers should visit www.robgalbraith.com.

The Web site, by Rob Galbraith, includes reviews and up-to-date information on professional digital photography cameras, software and equipment. The discussion forums are a good way to post a question and get answers from expert photographers. There's even a forum for nature and wildlife photography.

MS Word uses a formula based on words per sentence, sentences per paragraph and syllables per word to provide you with "Reading Ease" and "Grade Level" scores.

Your "Reading Ease" should be in the 60s. (On a scale of 100, zero denotes the most difficult reading, while 100 is the easiest.) "Grade Level" should be between 8 and 9 if you want to be understood by most people.

To perform this function, select Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar, then check the box next to "Show Readability Statistics." The next time you perform a spell check on a Word document, you'll see a box that shows your document’s readability.

Spencer E. Turner

Katie McKalip

Are you recycling your spent batteries? Rechargeable batteries are now being recycled near you. More than 30,000 retail and community collection locations participate in rechargeable battery recycling and cell phone recycling programs, thanks to the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC). The rechargeable power industry's commitment to reduce pollution, conserve natural resources and prevent rechargeable batteries from entering the solid waste stream has grown significantly because of RBRC.

Katie McKalip

What is Roadfood? According to the site’s creators, "It’s great regional meals along highways, in small towns and in city neighborhoods. Roadfood is almost always informal and inexpensive, and the best Roadfood restaurants are colorful places enjoyed by locals (and savvy travelers) for their character as well as their menu." RoadFood.com includes maps, recommendations and reviews of the best local eateries. Next time you’re planning a cross-country drive, take a moment to plan your lunch stops ahead of time.

Mike Walker
www.walkeragency.com

Recently, Bob Zaiglin e-mailed the Tech-E-Letter with a question about digital imaging:
"How do I obtain RAW images from my digital camera versus JPGs?"

Technology Committee Chair Michael Furtman responds:

Becher says:

"I have worked out this problem with the art director at Southwest Fly Fishing (SWFF) magazine.

"Using Photoshop CS (File > Automate > Contact Sheet), I create a contact sheet with file names, print it and include it with my submission. I also include a copy of the contact sheet files on the CD I send of the photos. The editor can simply look at the contact sheet (printed or digital) and see what's there and then open the files that interest him.

My last couple of assignments for SWFF have been shot digitally."

I recently moved my domain, FigApple.com, to a new Web host. I thought the move had gone smoothly, but a few people who I regularly e-mail called to say their e-mails to me were being returned – both replies and new ones. A couple people called to ask why I had not responded to their e-mails. This perplexes me because I've been successfully e-mailing many others after the move.

What is going on and what can I do?

Intermittently yours,
Ether Von Newton

Dear Etherial One,

I can relate. I too recently changed Web hosts and also thought all was well until I got a similar call from a friend – I should have known something was up, as she usually replies promptly. Of course, the same amount of spam still came through – oh, the injustice!

I immediately sent myself some test e-mails and received them promptly. I made sure to use an outside e-mail account like yahoo.com, because if I used the same account to both send and receive the e-mails, my computer would use the nearest DNS server and not really test anything.

"What is a DNS server?" you ask. Well, DNS stands for "Domain Name Server," so saying "DNS server" is like saying "ATM machine" or "Automatic Teller Machine machine," but almost everyone does it. Let's say you either try to browse owaa.org or e-mail someone there. The DNS your Internet provider uses will either know that owaa.org can be found at the IP (Internet Protocol) address of 65.61.4.115 or it will refer to a bigger DNS that knows this and then route and deliver the e-mail or display the Web site. For some geeky fun, try typing http://65.61.4.115 in your Web browser – the OWAA Web site should come up.

Every time a new domain name is created, deleted or modified – by changing Web hosts, for example – the latest domain name and IP address gets passed on to the tens of thousands of "bigger" DNSs out on the World Wide Web. Evidently, when I moved to a new Web host, some DNSs did not get the word and purge the memory cache of old information. So when my patient friend e-mailed me, a DNS with the old information sent it to my old Web host, which then sang the Internet version of "Return to sender, no such number, no such zone" and then "bounced" or returned the e-mail.

A couple of months later, the problem seemed to resolve itself. Looking back on this now, I should have asked my friend to "ping" my domain name from network-tools.com and see what IP address she got. If we needed to get fancy, we'd try the "trace" feature. In either case, her Internet Service Provider would have to be contacted.

Don't you love it?

All the best,
Dr. WoodKnot