All Entries in the "Hardware" Category
Computer for Photography: Fall 2009 Recommendations
Lot’s of folks ask us for advice on purchasing the “right computer” for a serious digital photographer. Here are my fall 2009 recommendations for laptops and desktop systems. I tried to keep the cost reasonable and to emphasize only the parts that really matter for photographers.
Cleaning a Digital SLR Camera
Dust spots on the sensor are annoying. Fixing spots in Photoshop or in Lightroom is time consuming. Most modern digital SLR cameras feature an internal cleaning feature that works up to a certain point. Sadly, even the best internal cleaning system is no match for this dusty, dirty world. Sooner or later, you are going to need to clean the camera yourself. Read on to learn about my favorite sensor cleaning equipment.
Firewire Connectors: A Profusion of Plugs
What to do if you have a Firewire 400 drive and need to connect it to a Mac that only has a Firewire 800 port? Or, say you have a Firewire 400 6-pin full size plug but need to connect to a PC laptop’s mini Firewire port?
Answer: Get the right cable or plug adapter!
My Photo Storage System: Two External Hard Drives
As a professional digital photographer, I work with Adobe Photoshop and with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom every day. After eight years in the business of digital photography, I have shot about 30,000 images. I need a cost-effective, and scalable way, to store all of these images, but I also need a way to access any of these files from either my laptop or from my desktop.
Recommended External Hard Drives
I am about to put up a post about how I store and protect my digital images. In this article, I am going to stress the importance of maintaining an up-to-date backup copy of everything so that you are not completely screwed if your computer’s main hard drive fails. Before I launch into my backup routine though, I figured that I had better send out this post on which external hard drives I trust for both my main photo storage and for my backup.
Apple Updates Professional and Consumer Desktop Line
Today, Apple announced updates to its professional and consumer desktop computer line with new Mac Pros, iMacs, and Mac Minis. This is great news for photographers. As David mentioned in a recent article, our favorite desktop photography machine is the Mac Pro, and this upgrade makes it even better!
Read on for more details about the new machines.
Computer For Digital Photography Recommendations: Spring 2009
Feeling the need for a new computer? Today, I am throwing my full support behind the Mac. I am convinced that there are significant stability and usability advantages to the Mac system for the serious digital photographer who is not already a Windows IT expert.
Archives and Backup Copies
Most digital photographers are not taking the time to properly protect their precious digital images. As a professional photographer, the idea of losing a single important image scares me, but losing everything that I have ever shot because my computer crashes horrifies me. Ask yourself, “What would I lose if my computer died right now?”
Let me say this to you in bold for maximum impact: If you have neglected to prepare for total system failure, then you should expect to lose everything when disaster inevitably strikes.
How to Format an External Hard Drive – Updated
Regardless of brand or model, the very first thing that you must do when you buy a brand new external hard drive is to format it properly for your system. Format your new disk immediately, before you start using it for backup or for additional file storage. It is essential that you do this right away, before you start using the drive, because the formatting process erases everything on the external disk.
Read on for more information about properly formatting an external hard drive.
Calibrating a Monitor using the X-Rite EyeOne Display2 System
Monitor calibration is an essential first step in digital photography. For this post, I made two tutorial movies which demonstrate how I use my X-Rite EyeOne Display 2 monitor calibration system.
Monitors and Calibration Systems for Photography
Digital photography is painful and messy without a trustworthy calibrated monitor. I urge you to spend the extra money and get yourself an accurate professional grade monitor right away. The money that you spend here will save you so much time and frustration in the long run.
Check out this article for some great suggestions and resources.
David’s Holiday Gift Guide for Digital Photographers
I set out to write a simple holiday gift guide like the one that my buddy Scott Rouse posted recently. I started out trying to make a list of goodies that any serious digital photographer might want, but my own desires kept creeping in.
Without further ado, here’s my own personal holiday wish list.
New Apple Laptops – Finding the Ideal Photographer’s Laptop
Apple has updated its laptop line in a much-anticipated announcement. Check out this article for a review of the new MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. Find the ideal machine for a photographer.
Using a Tablet with Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is already a very efficient software program. It has greatly increased my productivity, especially when dealing with large numbers of images from a single shoot. One of the ways to increase this productivity is through the use of a tablet.
In this article, we’ll review some of the popular Wacom tablet models and talk about some tips and tricks for using a tablet in Lightroom.
My favorite tablet for the job is the Wacom Intuos 6×8. Read on for more information.
