Strategic Developer | Martin Heller » TAG: Digital Photography

August 20, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Xara Xtreme 4

TAGS: Dev Tools, Digital Photography, Technologies, Web

Back in April, Nova Fisher at Xara sent me a CD of Xara Xtreme Version 4 (see the figure at left; click on it for a full-size view). I installed it, thought it was quite nice, and put it on my pile of things to discuss in my blog. Today, Nova nicely reminded me that I hadn't yet reviewed it. Oops.

Abashed, I dug it out of the pile and looked at it again, and it was even nicer than I remembered. So what is this Xara Xtreme? According to the Xara Website, "Xara Xtreme is quite simply the world's fastest graphics software, with truly flexible illustration tools and revolutionary photo handling. It will form an integral part of your creative workflow, whether it's vector drawings, DTP designs, photo compositions or Flash animations for your website."

I haven't tested every graphics software package in the world, so I can't verify that part of the company's claims. It is quite fast at tasks that feel much slower on other graphics packages I've used. As for the rest of the claims: yes, it really is that versatile. It may even be more versatile than described, since it now has integrated the 3D-extrusion and Website creation tools that used to be sold separately.

The best part is the low price. It does cost money, unlike The Gimp, but it doesn't cost much money: Xara Xtreme is $89 and Xara Xtreme Pro is $249.

Don't take my word for it: I'm more of a programmer than I am an artist, even though I've done some painting and photography. Instead, try it yourself: there are 30-day trials at the Xara Web site.

Posted by Martin Heller on August 20, 2008 11:40 AM

July 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)

What happens when a digital camera gets wet?

TAGS: Digital Photography, Observations

Daughter #3 took her pocket digital camera (a Kodak EasyShare that replaced the defective one she got for Christmas last year) with her on her class trip to Québec City last May. It worked well for her until she decided to take a picture in a waterfall. The picture came out fine; the camera didn't.

I'm fairly sure she knew that the camera was not especially water-resistant. Apparently that knowledge wasn't deeply enough ingrained to overcome her temptation to catch a good shot.

The symptom when she got the camera home was that it wouldn't turn on and wouldn't charge. Long telephone calls with Kodak support somewhere in India confirmed that it was damaged, and that the damage wasn't covered by warranty. Kodak suggested either sending it to their service provider in Illinois, or buying a new one from them at a replacement discount. She chose to pay $60 for the repair plus shipping both ways to get this camera fixed.

She sent the camera and battery off at the beginning of June. It finally came back yesterday. After 6 six weeks of letting it sit in the repair queue in Illinois, they replaced the MCU PCB and cleaned and tested the camera.

Daughter #3 put it back together, and... nothing. It wouldn't turn on and wouldn't charge. Tears, yelling, screaming... and call Dad.

I was on my way home anyway, but I had work to do there. Her problem was more important, at least according to her. She gave me the camera. I verified that it wouldn't turn on. I took out the memory card and battery. The memory card could only go in one way, and did that with a satisfying click.

I couldn't tell how the battery went in. She impatiently told me to follow the arrows. It didn't click when it went in, and we talked about that, but she insisted that the arrows meant it was correct. The camera still wouldn't turn on. I asked for the USB cable, and verified that the LED wouldn't light when I plugged it in.

I asked my daughter to call Kodak or the repair facility for tech support, but she was too upset. Instead, she fired off an email to the repair outfit while I did my paying work. Then she disappeared to a friend's house for a sleep-over.

Everything is usually clearer for me in the morning. Yesterday I read Tim Bray's tale of putting a replacement hard disk into his Mac upside down, and being laughed at by the "Genius" at the Apple store. Over my quiet solo breakfast, I mused that I'd never seen the actual directions for installing the battery in the EasyShare, and that the battery was more or less rectangular. Could the battery design allow it to go in the wrong way, like Tim's disk?

I found the camera, pulled out the battery, and looked down in the slot. There was no way that the contacts were lining up, so I turned the battery around and pushed it in again. This time, it went in with a satisfying click, and the camera turned on as soon as I pushed the button.

Daughter #3 has an apologetic email to write when she gets home.

Posted by Martin Heller on July 29, 2008 08:23 AM

June 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Light and exposure for digital photographers

TAGS: Books, Digital Photography

Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers

By Harold Davis
First Edition  April 2008 
Pages: 176
ISBN 10: 0-596-52988-0 | ISBN 13: 9780596529888

I started my serious exploration of photography as a teenager in the 1960s, using a WW II-era Leica borrowed from an Uncle. I shot B&W film, since the old Leitz Wetzlar lenses weren't designed for color. If I needed a light measurement more accurate than my eyeballs, I'd pull out a separate light meter, since the old Leica didn't have one.

While a graduate student in the 1970s, I invested in an Olympus OM-1 SLR, a breakthrough at the time for size and weight in a 35mm SLR, but definitely a manual camera: its only electronic doodads are a match needle light meter and a synchronized hot shoe for an external flash. I still shoot with that camera, but not often: I finally succumbed to the digital photography bug when my artist sister upgraded to a digital SLR and gave me her old Nikon Coolpix 5700. While most of my photographic skills apply to the new medium, a few things required adjustments to my thinking, such as the concept of a digital ISO setting and the multitude of shooting options in a digital camera. As you might expect from a die-hard manual photographer, I'm less than satisfied with the Coolpix' fully automatic default mode.

I'm finding Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers very helpful for making that shift. It's a beautiful collection of images as well as an education. I find Davis's explanations of the fundamentals clear and easy to understand, but I'm learning even more from his notes about the thinking and process that went into each image.

Davis also blogs, at http://www.digitalfieldguide.com/blog/. His blog entries are similar to the images in the book: he combines each image with some notes about what he was interested in emphasizing, and how he got there.

Posted by Martin Heller on June 15, 2008 08:42 AM