Buyers’ guide
Workbetter, work smarter Making a photograph is a journey – from capturing an instant in time through to the final print or on-screen image, with stepping stones along the way. Here, we look at different products to improve your workflow
A clean start
cameracal.co.uk
TAKING PICTURES IS the sharp end of photography and where the glamour and excitement lies, but tomake sure the results live up to expectations, there needs to be a solid and organised workflow Our guide starts with the camera and ends with themedia ( for those who print) and monitor options ( for those who don’t). How deep you want to get into the subject of workflow is up to you, but even just making sure your camera sensor and lenses are clean and that themonitor is calibrated canmake amassive difference. If your interest in photography is deeper, or perhaps even professional, having a colour-managed workflow saves time andmoney and, once you’ve got yourself organised, it doesn’t demand much work in the way of upkeep.
Whatever level of photographer you are, it can’t be overstressed: how you store your files is really very important. This means not just having your best shots only on your computer’s internal hard drive. A simple -to-implement, effective and easy- to-remember backup plan is the 3-2-1 strategy. This means having three copies of your files/data, two of which are local but on separate external drives stored in different places, and one copy that is off-site, whichmight be in your cloud or on a drive that is stored at a different address. It’s not a perfect backup plan and does demand some effort, but it’s a very good start and theminimumyou should aim for. Given that making perfect copies is so simple, there is no real excuse to lose important data anymore.
box with test shots taken after each key stage and, finally, dust catcher disks (CameraCal’s own design, which will be on sale soon) are fitted to the body and lens cap. Sensor cleaning is performed with non-moulting swabs and fast-evaporating cleaning fluid. CameraCal sells the tools it uses for sensor cleaning and offers a ‘how to clean’ workshop, which costs £79 per person. Cleaning Micro Four Thirds and APS-C format cameras costs £36 and full-frame/medium format cameras is £56.
Regardless of how effective a camera’s sensor cleaning system is, a regular professional sensor clean is recommended. CameraCal is a lens calibration and sensor cleaning specialist. All the tools used have been tested over the eight years that CameraCal has been cleaning sensors and its service is available via courier or in person by appointment. It follows a 13- step cleaning procedure, from identifying dust spots to dry and wet cleaning of the sensor, cleaning of the sensor chamber and mirror
Go forth and edit
Print it out
canon.co.uk / epson.co.uk
Digital photographers need software to process, catalogue and enhance their digital pictures and there is a huge range to choose, from free to expensive and for all operating systems. Each has its own characteristics and skill set and most creatives will have a selection of softwares and plug-ins at their disposal depending on their needs, budget and preferences. The hugely popular Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom are probably the most widely used and are available on monthly subscription, but there are plenty of powerful alternatives out there. Affinity Photo is available for iPad and Mac/Windows, priced at £19.99 and £48.99 respectively, and it meshes seamlessly with Designer and Publisher from the same stable. Among its many features are Raw editing, HDR merge, focus stacking and all the
The print is the final workflow step, and one that deserves serious consideration, whether you decide to use an online printing service or print at home. We have a test of a leading printing service, DS Colour Labs, in this issue of PN , but here we focus on the latest inkjet printers from Epson. The SureColor SC-P700 and SC-P900 are great-looking printers with small footprints, so perfect for home use, but the really big improvements are in printing performance compared with the previous models. There’s the addition of a new violet ink, giving a wider blue colour gamut for even more lifelike results, and improved black performance with Black Enhanced Overcoat from the Light Grey cartridge, Carbon Black and Gloss Optimiser features. Another huge benefit is that matte and photo blacks are constantly available so no time or ink is wasted switching between them.
The SC-P700 is an A3+printer and accepts 13in roll paper as standard and is priced at £679, while the larger SC-P900 costs £1086 and takes A2 sheets, with roll paper accepted using the £213 roll paper unit. Apart from Epson, Canon is the other big player in the home photographic printing market and its imagePrograf Pro-300 is its latest introduction. It’s an A3+ printer with the potential for borderless printing and uses ten Lucia Pro high-longevity inks. It’s on the market for £699.
plug-ins are available as free demo versions so try before buying. Photoshop, Photoshop Elements Lightroom: adobe.com Affinity Photo: affinity.serif.com Capture One: captureone.com DxO Photo Lab: dxo.com Paint Shop Pro: paintshoppro.com Luminar: skylum.com
editing tools you’d expect. Plus, it is compatible with Photoshop PSD files and supports the Nik Collection 2.5 by DxO processing plug-ins. It is a great photo editing software and available as an outright purchase rather than on subscription. Most softwares and
28 Photography News | Issue 82
photographynews.co.uk
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