miscellaneous must-have items

Flashlights for Light Painting
People are always asking me what my favorite flashlights are for night photography. The incandescent Stinger and UltraStinger flashlights are my main lightpainting tools. Their warm color juxtaposes nicely with moonlight and their universal charging stations are available for wall and car outlets.

Solux Light Bulbs
Excellent lighting is often the missing component to high quality work environments and excellent print to screen matching. Solux bulbs are the highest quality, high CRI light bulbs for critical print viewing. Solux bulbs work in any screw-in E26 or plug-in MR-16 light fixtures and are more accurate than fluorescent bulbs. I recommend the 4100K, 50 watt 36 degree MR16 bulbs for MR 16 fixtures and the 75-90 watt 50 degree diffused PAR bulbs for screw-in E26 fixtures.

i1Profiler
Professional calibration and profiling solutions. You can choose the $250 i1DisplayPro package for display calibration only, or the $1995 i1PublishPro2 package with RGB and CMYK printer profiling as well. I encourage all my clients to get an i1DisplayPro package and do their own display calibration as needed. FWIW, the Onsight remote profiling service is a great, cost effective way to get excellent printer profiles for those that simply need a few printer profiles every now and then.

ColorChecker Passport
The ColorChecker Passport is something no photographer should be without. It’s small (passport sized) and can be used for camera profiling, white balance adjustment and serve as a color reference for copy work.

MacFrame
MacFrame is a simple solution that eliminates glare on Apple’s glossy displays. Apple’s current iMac and Cinema Displays have a sheet of glass that’s held on by magnets that covers a perfectly nice, matte surface LCD. The glass can be removed in seconds and replaced by this simple “MacFrame” bezel that is glassless over the LCD area. Why Apple doesn’t offer this is beyond me. Kudos to Max McCarty for bringing this to market.

LRTimelapse
LRTimelapse is an incredible Lightroom plug-in for Time Lapse workflows. It allows you to continuously change Lightroom development parameters over the time which enables key-frame animations like in video-processing. Among other things, this deflickers and smooths out your time lapse movies. The great advantage over post processing your time lapse sequences in video production software is the much better video quality gained from the preprocessing of the original camera files. Highly recommended for those getting into time lapse work.

Proofing Paper
Epson Proofing Paper White Semimatte is the proofing paper I recommend the most often. It’s available in rolls from 13″ to 60″ wide and in 13×19″ sheets. Setting up in-house proofing systems in design agencies and relying less on print vendor proofs is the growing trend. Email me if you’d like to setup SWOP and/or GRACoL certifiable proofing systems in your environment. Also email me if you’d like recommendations for vendors that you can purchase this paper from.

MAM-A Archival Gold DVD-Rs and Delkin’s eFILM Archival Gold DVD-Rs
These DVD-Rs are the longest lasting DVD-Rs made today. Expected lifespan is in excess of 75 years.

Archival CD-Safe Pens and Markers
Water-resistant and fade-resistant. Dries quickly. Acid-free and non-toxic. Writes safely on any surface, including plastics, glass, ceramics, wood, metal or paper as well as CDs. Ditch your Sharpies (which are not archival) and start using these!

Klear Screen Products
Makers of the “Worlds Finest Polishing Cloth” and antistatic LCD screen cleaner. Used by NASA on their instruments and optics. Recommended by Apple, Dell and others for LCD displays and electronics.

Mighty Magnets
These magnets are really usefull when looking at prints in lightboxes, refriderators and on any metal surface. They are surprisingly strong and can hold big prints. Geek out on the whole family of magnets.

websites of note

DPReview
The definitive site for digital camera news, reviews and comparisons

CompactFlash Performance Database
Compilation of write and read speed test results designed to aid the professional photographer in selecting camera storage media for a digital SLR. Select your camera from the popup menu in the upper right hand corner.

Dan Burkholder
Dan Burkholder’s platinum palladium photography has influenced my fine art work for over 15 years. Dan also pioneered the process by which artists digitally create enlarged negatives for contact printing.

Precision Digital Negatives
Mark Nelson expands upon the digital negative process that Dan Burkholder pioneered. Mark’s Precision Digital Negative system matches the dynamic range of a negative to the dynamic range of the printing process and is then linearized with measurement data.

Lance Keimig
Lance and his eye for night imagery has been a big mentor for my own fine art work in recent years. He’s been teaching Night Photography workshops for over 15 years and has a great book called Night Photography: Finding your way in the dark.

Martin Evening
Martin is a photographer and author of Photoshop for Photographers and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book. They are the only books I can recommend for these topics.

Bruce Lindbloom
Color science, calculators etc.

S.K. Grimes
SK Grimes is a photography machinist that performs custom camera and lens modifications, providing unique solutions for demanding photographers.

JPG Magazine
A refreshing, grass roots photo blog and printed magazine. Although anyone can submit images the quality and poeple participating are surprisingly good. RAW shooters can ignore the name. Worth a look.

Wilhelm Research
The experts on preservation and permanence statistics for various digital imaging printing processes.

Web Browser ICC Compliancy Check
A simple test to see if your web browser is fully ICC complaint supporting spec 4 profiles.

speciality products

The Turning Gate
Matthew Campagna at The Turning Gate is a prolific creator of fantastic Lightroom Web Engines that are available for download. Highly recommended for all Lightroom users! I also have a short article about how I created my web galleries using two of his engines.

ImageNest
Fantastic Mac based nesting and layout software. If you are a nesting or a volume printing geek – this is your application!

Profile Menu
A simple free utility that adds a pull down menu to the menu bar allowing for a quick way to swtich between display profiles. Recommended especially for MacBook owners that swich between different profiles for different lighting situations. Mac OS X only.

Imatest
Imatest allow you to measure the performance of cameras, lenses, scanners, and printers. Imatest scientifically quantifies things like lens and camera sharpness, chromatic aberration, color response, noise, dynamic range, etc. Windows only.

Fourier Transform plug-in
This simple and free, Photoshop plug-in is exceptionally good at removing screens and moire patterns while maintaining image content. Windows only.

G7 Calibration Kits
These SWOP and GRACoL G7 calibration kits contain a measurement data set, a visual reference proof, targets and complete instructions for calibrating, printing and proofing by the G7™ Method.

XRite G7 Toolkits
Data files and instructions for calibrating by the G7™ Method with all XRite pressroom devices.

G7
G7 is a proof-to-print process developed by the IDEAlliance that’s quickly gaining acceptance and adoption. Download the “Calibrating, Printing and Proofing by the G7 Method” PDF for some excellent reading on this process.

ColorBurst RIP
ColorBurst is a simple, affordable, yet powerful RIP capable of making incredibly accurate, and SWOP certifiable proofs. Mac and Windows compatible.

D Roller
A simple tool that takes the curl out of papers. A must have for users of roll paper. Available in 24 and 50 inch widths.

PremierArt Eco Print Shield
This liquid laminate is a favorite with Epson and a number of my fine art printmaking clients. Water based and environmentally friendly. Available in glossy, satin or matte finishes. Can be applied by brush, rollers or HVLP spray systems. It is not available in a hand held spray can. Epson approved and Wilhelm tested.

Tensador 2 Canvas Stretcher
An excellent and afforadble tool for stretching canvas. A must-have item for photo labs and fine art prtmaking faciities that work with canvas.