Digital Darkroom
Article: 10 Top Imaging Applications
The last year has been a big one for photo software, with several of the top applications getting significant updates and the introduction of new software alternatives for photographers. The big news most recently is the latest update to Photoshop,...
Article: Buyer's Guide 2024: Inkjet Papers
The final look of your print has everything to do with the paper you place in your printer. Beyond size, the weight, whiteness and surface of a paper all make a dramatic difference in the appearance of color and tone, especially whites and blacks. By...
Article: Buyer's Guide 2024: Monitor Calibration
If you've ever been frustrated with prints that don't match what you see on your monitor, you understand the importance of color management. Having a calibrated monitor allows you to make changes to an image with confidence because the colors...
Article: Buyer's Guide 2024: Printers
While looking at a photograph on a camera's LCD or a large computer monitor is exciting, neither replaces the satisfaction of holding a quality print. Improvements in the stability of inks have led to inkjet printers producing archival-quality prints...
Article: Buyer's Guide 2024: Speedy, Spacious Storage
Space—the final frontier or a simple necessity? Because digital imaging has picked up speed in the past few years, the need for extensive amounts of digital storage space has intensified. Replacing the temperature-controlled closets that film shooters...
Article: Buyer's Guide 2024: External Storage And Backup
Recent advancements in storage technology make it easier than ever for photographers to back up and preserve precious image files. The most reliable systems are automated and leave little to chance, but good work habits also play an important role....
Article: Buyer's Guide 2024: Ultimate Systems
If progress bars and spinning hourglasses are choking the fun out of your digital darkroom work, it may be time to upgrade your system. You can usually get a significant increase in performance by adding more RAM and a faster hard drive, but sometimes...
Article: Cool Gear: Designer Hard Drives
Mundane tasks like data backup and image archiving aren't as exciting as working with your images on the computer. It may be essential to protect our irreplaceable photos, and the time and creative effort we put into perfecting them, but as I write...
Article: Cool Gear: LightScribe
LightScribe is an exciting new technology that employs the combination of a specially modified CD or DVD writer, dedicated media and specialized label-authoring software to burn graphics or text labels directly onto the surface of a disk. The results...
Article: Cool Gear: Ultramobile Computers
The future of computing is looking very portable. In March, Microsoft, Intel and some other high-profile consumer electronics companies announced a new platform for portable computing, the "Ultra Mobile PC," or UMPC for acronym enthusiasts. A handheld...
Article: Digital Darkroom: Windows On Your Mac?
Apple recently made a rather mind-blowing announcement: Intel-based Macs now permit loading and running Windows XP natively via Boot Camp software. Apple released a public beta version of the Boot Camp software and announced that its upcoming update...
Article: Printing Pleasures
I was 12 years old when I created my first print. The small darkroom was filled with the red glow of the safelight and the strong chemical scent of fixer. I looked down at the developing tray, the liquid sloshing back and forth over the submersed...
Article: Short Report: Epson Stylus Photo R1800
Printing on CDs with the Epson Stylus Photo R300 was quite satisfying. I enjoyed creating CDs for slideshows or a DVD of video footage and then printing a professional-looking label directly on the disc. The photo prints looked great, too, but the...
Article: Short Report: Epson Stylus Photo R200
I can't help but be amazed at what Epson has managed to put into a $99 (estimated street price) printer. The Stylus Photo R200 features excellent six-color printing, including tiny three-picoliter droplets, individual ink tanks, borderless printing...
Article: Short Report: Epson Stylus Photo RX620
Not too many years ago, the all-in-one printer and scanner was handy, but not particularly useful for the photo enthusiast. How that has changed! The Epson Stylus Photo RX620 is designed for some serious photo usage. Right from the start, the specs...
Article: Short Report: Maxtor One-Touch Drives
Everyone knows to back up, right? But does everyone do it? The Maxtor OneTouch external hard drives offer an excellent solution. These units are big, with 80 GB or more of storage, so you easily can back up a couple of standard hard drives. They come...
Article: Short Report: Mirra Personal Server
Backup is a little like flossing. We all know we should do it, but it just isn't a particularly fun part of photography. We'd all rather be out taking photos or working on them in our image-processing program than dealing with the details of files and...
Article: Short Reports: Canon PIXMA Pro9000
Here's a large-format inkjet photo printer (up to 13x19 inches) that offers excellent image quality, lots of control when you want it and simple operation. Producing dynamite digital photo prints quickly, the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 uses 6144 nozzles to...
Article: Short Reports: Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator
Though enhancing my images can be fun, especially when I'm working with a great photograph, it also can be incredibly time consuming. I like making my photos look better, but increasingly, I much prefer to be outside just making images rather than...
Article: Think BIG!
If you're tired of squinting to view menu items on your digital camera's LCD or feeling cramped by all of the palettes in Photoshop, maybe it's time to think outside the confines of tiny monitors. Even if you have perfect vision, there's no comparison...
Article: Think Ink: Buyer's Guide To Inkjet Inks
When shopping for a photo printer, you'll probably consider physical dimensions, print speeds, resolution and droplet size, plus extra bells and whistles such as a built-in card reader and LCD, all of which are important. Some of these features...
Article: Toolbox: Archival Storage
Although professional photographers are always searching for and approaching new clients, a large percentage of their income often comes from images they have shot in the past. Whether measured in months or years, a photographer's body of work is...
Article: Toolbox: Inkjet Printers
For more than a decade, inkjet printers have provided photographers with a relatively inexpensive way to produce high-quality prints at home. The speed and convenience of being able to print your own images at your desktop, whenever you want, along...
Article: Toolbox: Networks & Storage For Photographers
With the growth of file sizes and the sheer number of archives created in digital photography, transferring and storing files has leaped from a simple home-computing environment to something resembling more of a business scheme (albeit on a smaller...
Article: Toolbox: Sports Video Gear
There's no time to fumble with a camera when scaling steep mountains or cycling through deep canyons. With action sports attracting more devotees every year, the gear for capturing these athletic feats on camera is becoming more affordable. Of course,...
Article: Trade Tricks: Easy Color Management
When your goal is to create a beautiful print, understanding basic color management is a key component in the digital darkroom. Because monitors and papers are two completely different media, it's important to realize your print isn't going to be an...
Article: Trade Tricks: In The Dark
Digital noise is perhaps the Achilles heel of digital photography, but it doesn't have to be. Noise happens when not enough light reaches the image sensor. The less light that falls on the sensor, the more noise will be found in your photos; higher...
Article: Trade Tricks: Life With A Digital Projector
The old slideshow was a venerable tradition at my house while I was growing up, and I suspect it was part of many PCPhoto readers' youth as well. While the slide projector is rapidly disappearing, taking its place is the digital projector, with...
Article: True Colors
The joy of digital photography can be quickly diffused when the photograph we've printed doesn't resemble what we saw on our monitors. Dramatic differences in brightness, contrast and especially color make using a digital darkroom an exercise in...
Article: WiFi Basics
I despise wires, but I love the devices they connect. On or around my desk, there are no less than a dozen peripherals, tools and gadgets, each of which requires at least one wire, and some, two or more. I despise wires, but I love the devices they...
