So it appears that we’ve been through it all when it comes to screen and printer calibration. At least, we’ve been through most of it. Now you know what your options are. You can go with a few of the manual screen calibration tools, or you can throw down $499 for an automated solution. As you are undoubtedly aware, I prefer the automatic route. But if you’re in a pinch, and you just don’t have the budget for a ColorMunki, you might want to try to manually calibrate your printer to your monitor.

Before You Even Begin, You Need To Calibrate Your Screen.

If you’ve just started reading this series, I’d highly suggest you read the second article on manually calibrating your screen. This is an absolutely necessary first step. Without it, you’ll have no legitimate way to test the color correspondence between your monitor and your printer. You’ll want to take care of that…

In the last article of this series, we looked at a few ways to get an accurate screen calibration. If you’ve tried any of them, you’ll immediately realize how much of a pain they are. You need to have perfectly clear vision, and you often find yourself staring at charts until you go bug-eyed. There has to be a better way, right? Thanks to the developers of products like the i1Xtreme, there is.

All three of these are automated color management tools that will save you time, and more importantly, frustration. They all work on the same basic premise. Your eye isn’t the most accurate judge when it comes to calibrating your screen, printer, or other devices, so why not use a separate device to measure the light more precisely? When you do this, the results are top notch. I can guarantee you that most photographers who…

In the last article of this series, we discussed the different methods of screen calibration, their benefits, and what you need to do to begin calibrating your own monitor. Now we’ll discuss a few of the popular manual screen calibration techniques, how they work, and what you need to do to get the best accuracy possible. Get your eyes ready. You’re about to take your own color perception to the limit!

There are a variety of manual monitor calibration methods out there. Some of them are more in-depth than others, so be aware that they aren’t all the same. You can take a quick trip to the web to calibrate your monitor in just a few minutes, or you can use your operating system’s native monitor calibration tools. It all depends on what you need to get the job done

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As creative professionals, nothing is more important than color accuracy. We can tweak our images as much as we want in Photoshop, but we won’t be making any real progress unless we have an accurate LCD to begin with. Screen calibration can either be an inexpensive 10 minute task, or it can be a highly involved and moderately expensive process. It all depends on your needs and budget as a photographer. In this series of tutorials, I’ll go over all of your monitor calibration options so you can pick a method that works the best for you.

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It is such an amazing time to be a creative person. These days, you can carry a full HD camera in your pocket, and you can edit video on your iPhone. Your digital SLR doesn’t just take great pictures. It produces the same HD quality you would get out of a top of the line video camera. What on Earth is happening? I don’t quite know, but it’s making the life of a creative so much easier than it ever was.

When you watch Chase Jarvis’ new video where he road tests the Nikon D7000, you get a clear sense of where the world is headed. Chase took a trip with a few friends out to the desert, capturing some jaw-dropping still photography and professional quality video – all on the same digital SLR camera. He had a blast enjoying complete and total creative freedom.

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This is originally shot at 720p at 60 fps.

Edited with Twixtor in After Effects.

Nicole and I ventured out on Saturday afternoon to check out what ACMI Screen Worlds. It was certainly an eye-opener as I discovered some of my childhood during the walk around. And of course I ended up looking at the games and new generation things such as the iPhone. But one thing that I really enjoyed was the old style arcade games from the old C64 with all its old parts such as the tape drive.

As I moved on further I noticed a very interesting large object that you could walk into. At first I didn’t know what it was all about. As we got closer it became apparent that the object was a photography booth. Not the typical booth though. It was more like a Matrix looking. A 3D look at the person or persons that were standing in the middle.

Without hesitation Nicole…

This afternoon I had decided to purchase not just one Drobo, but two. Yes two of the latest and greatest.

One as a direct attached FW800 connected device, the other was the Networked Attached Storage (NAS) device running over my gigabit ethernet network. That was the easy part. Parting with my cold hard earned cash was easy compared to what was install for me later on.

Drobo, for me, to date, was a fairly easy device to get running. The old trusty device which included a share was working fine. But the biggest complaint was the speed. And it was terrible. So slow in fact that some applications that I was using even timed out and through up errors. Terrible experience. This time around I was looking for speed to backup across my network.

Following the instructions was straight forward. Pop some disks into the slots and you are off and running. Well so I thought. That where it went…

What a blast this week was.

As part of the hype and success of Apple’s iPad launch here in Australia I was fortunate to have a chat with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell about the iPad.

But really, where does the iPad and photography fit in? My initial thoughts for the device is its great for impromptu meetings and being able to show people your portfolio of work. The screen size is perfect for that.

Secondly, being able to have a device that will take notes from meetings. Some may think that is fairly mundane, however, the goal is always to find the notes a few weeks/months later. Maybe there will be a Hypnotic Zoo are looking into that.

If you ever wanted an insight into the life and times of New York City residents consider this fine multimedia collection by the New York Times. The “One in 8 Million Project” combines black and white images of local residents with a voice over of their life.

The goal was to profile a different individual from New York’s 8 million residents during each week of 2009. And the collection of stories representing all of New York’s five boroughs is an incredible and colourful array of lifestyles, interests and struggle.

There’s a story about Joseph Cotton, the grandfather who frequently minds his four grand kids taking them on walks to appreciate nature and cooking good meals together. Joe Manniello came from a town near Naples in Italy and has been cutting hair inside the Port Authority Bus terminal for 36 years. He describes the customers he’s had; crazy people, prostitutes, a woman who urinated on the floor and another that…