The more you use Photoshop, the more you find little issues with the software. For example, Photoshop lets you set the default unit of measurement for almost everything:
Almost everything.
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The not so deep freeze
Today in Toronto, it was about -8˚C. A normal winter day. My cameras worked just fine outdoors. My flashes worked as normal. After less than an hour outside, I reached into an inside coat pocket to retrieve my cell phone and my iPhone 5 said:
Of course, it probably meant to say that it needed to warm up. The phone was completely useless. Thank goodness it wasn’t an emergency.
It turns out that an iPhone doesn’t like to work below 0˚C. Not even this will help.
I know that cold weather affects all batteries and can freeze LCDs. But I don’t recall having any previous cell phone freeze on me. My digital cameras have never failed even at -20˚C. The iPhone seems to be my only electronic device that fails when the temperature is less than ideal.
Perhaps today’s smartphones are wimps or maybe they’re just turning us into wimps.
In The Bag
When shopping for a decent light stand bag, you might find that most stand bags are too small, don’t have wheels or are very expensive.
If you carry just a couple of stands and umbrellas, this may not be an issue for you. But if you need to carry a trunkful of stands, an armful of softboxes or umbrellas, a few rolls of 52″ background paper and more, there is a solution.
Go to a golf store or sporting goods store and check out golf travel bags. These bags are designed to transport a golf bag full of clubs and, in some cases, even a small golf cart. They often have big outside pockets to hold various golf accessories.
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Memory Lane
Remember the old days when soft drinks came in glass bottles? After the drink was gone, you could return the bottle to the store and get a few cents back. When you were young, you might have collected a handful of bottles and returned them to a store to get your “reward”: three bottles returned = one free Popsicle; five bottles returned = one free chocolate bar.
What do you do with old compact flash memory cards – 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, etc?
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A bit of noise
It’s common to shoot business portraits against seamless background paper. It’s also common practice for a photographer to create a tonal gradient on that background rather than having a flat tone. A gradient adds a bit of depth to the photo by separating the subject from the background.
The problem with a tonal gradient is that when the finished photo is saved as a jpeg, the file compression can cause the gradient to posterize. The amount of posterization also depends on how “steep” the gradient is.
A small amount of posterization won’t be noticed by most customers nor will it be visible in print or online. But many photographers want to deliver the best possible image to the customer.
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Replacing Quantum Battery cells
There are several web sites that show how to replace the battery cells inside a Quantum Battery, (note: in contrast to what some sites say, there’s no need to break the case or any rivets). Over the past 12 years, I’ve replaced the cells in my Quantum Battery 1 and Quantum Turbo a few times with no problems whatsoever. I have no experience with any other model of Quantum Battery.
Replacing the cells takes about 15 minutes and requires only a Phillips screwdriver. Having the cells replaced by the Canadian distributor takes a week and costs three or four times more. To be fair, the factory technicians check and repair/replace other parts, if required.
For Canadian photographers looking for replacement cells, BBM Battery sells, (you guessed it), all types of batteries.
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Colour Vision
Many photographer web sites tend to be black, white or grey. For those who want to add some colour to their site’s design, the usual go-to sites for colour inspiration are Colour Lovers and Color Combinations.
A site that makes colour swatches almost fun is Color.Hailpixel.
To help you understand colour harmony for web sites, photo shoots and portrait photography, there are two similar sites: Color Calculator and Adobe’s Color Wheel.
