Single-Serving Photo

Archive for January, 2010

To DNG or Not to DNG

Friday, January 29th, 2010

DNG (tm)

That is the question.

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to wrangle the proprietary formats of your camera manufacturer, or to take arms against a sea of sidecar files, and by opposing, end them…

But enough pseudo-Shakespeare for one post.

There has been some chatter on the Interwebs lately concerning the DNG format: there are quality and archival concerns, whether it’s worth converting one’s entire library to the format, what the benefits might be, and whether one ought to care. Today, I weigh in. For what it’s worth.

Coincidentally, I’ve used the same post title as Matt Kloskowski did in his take on the subject on Lightroom Killer Tips. Matt didn’t add a pseudo-Hamlet line, though, so I feel like I’ve done the headline proud.

After the break, a complete rundown on DNG; trust me, it’s going to be technical and editorial. (more…)

Come Learn with Me, Get a Discount

Monday, January 25th, 2010

You already know that I teach photography workshops, right? My buddy Chris and I have been teaching workshops for almost four years now, and although things were pretty slow in 2009, we are pushing ahead with a packed workshop schedule for 2010.

When you come on a workshop with Chris and I, you get to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a total of 20 years of photography experience, heckle us with questions, meet people, and generally have a good time. Two instructors, awesome locations, and, here’s the sweet part… I’m giving you a discount.

Because you are still reading my humble blog after months of silence and because I value your loyalty and participation, I am offering you a great deal on my workshops this year. If you register for any workshop before March 1st, I’ll give you 10% off the price, just by mentioning this blog article when you sign up.

I’ll tell you what else. Just because I’m in such a good mood and excited to teach this year, if you want to register for more than one, I’ll give you 20% off of each of them. All you have to do is mention that I said so in the comments when you’re signing up on my website.

Look at this great lineup of workshops we have coming up this year!

2010 Workshop Schedule

I hope you have a couple of days to spend with us, I promise that our workshops will push your skills to the next level!

The Megapixel Marketing Lie

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

I generally post articles when I have something very useful to say, which is why my posts have been so sporadic. There are a myriad of sources for photography industry news and I always feel I am doing my readers a disservice by parroting every new equipment release or software upgrade here.

This time, though, a piece of “news” hit my screen that I had to share, and I hope that by reading it here you will receive the whole story and not just 1/3 of it as some people did when they got the information from digg, reddit, or similar.

We’re talking about megapixels, and we’re talking about marketing, and we’re talking about lies. Lies perpetrated by the manufacturers of point-and-shoot cameras with tiny little CCD sensors who keep increasing the megapixel count and marketing it like it’s the end-all be-all of imaging performance.

Not so! Read on… (more…)