Hello readers,

Here is another thrilling installment of Lightroom Magazine...I have now moved to a sort of blog format for the magazine, which will be archived on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. This allows me to add interesting stories as they arise.

Voice-activated keywording?

30 Jan 2008

Digital pundits reckon that 2008 may spell the end of the keyboard for many.

With voice-recognition software now becoming much more soophisticated and practical, the keyboard's days may be numbered for many of us and perhaps it's friend the mouse too.

Which leads me to think if anyone is building this sort of technology into our editing software. Enetering keywords by speaking them would surely be more efficient and less tiresome than typing them and could help to do it better, as say "cow" and "bovine, cattle, etc" are entered automatically would make image editing a lot easier.

Of course, you may need to lock your assistant in a cupboard - as it may be maddening to sit next to someone in an office while they mumble keywords all day! Though it certainly would speed up production of stock photos.

How stable is digital media?

30 Jan 2008

As we all mostly now have a digital archive of some description - be it film scans or digital files - the question of how to store it becomes of primary importance.

While super-duper gold-plated DVD and CD discs claim to hold data for centuries, there is not much evidence to back up this claim.

Here in Nepal, keeping data stable is a problem, a hot, sweaty humid Monsoon season rots anything not protected and so it is a good case in point.

Recently, trying to access some TIFF files on some DVDs burnt less than a year ago, several files were corrupt and could not be accessed. No great shakes, as I was then backing up as Comp 12 JPEG though a bit worrying.

Basically, archival digital media specialists reckon that data is inherently unstable, so it makes sense to "migrate" your data onto newer methods or even backup on a hard drive and store on DVD or whatever emerges as it's replacement. Especially if you are based somewhere that gold-plated archival DVD media is hard to come by - like Nepal.

It is also not a bad idea to send copies off to a different address from your office, there are many companies who store data in safe areas for a small fee per disc or drive.

Doing this on a monthly basis is not a bad idea, as if your house burns down, you will not loose your original data. Many of us of course, do backup automatically by sending files to photo libraries.


Nikon Announce D60 DSLR

30 Jan 2008

Imagine the sound of trumpets at a product launch and then them fading, off-key.

This would have been apt for the launch of the new, much-rumoured Nikon D60. It looks much like it's predecessor, the D40x and guess what? Also has a 10.2MP chip.

It sells for around the same price, though there are two subtle, but important differences between the D40x and the new D60.

This is - horrah! - a dust-off facility, combined with a method of keeping dust off the CCD in the first place. Better late than never, as they say...

Secondly, while the camera looks identical on the outside, it appears there is another change on the inside which is EXPEED image processing. Difficult to say from the Net reviews so far, though it is likely that this may solve the high-noise issues which are a problem with the D40x at higher ISO settings.

For those without lenses, the kit includes a reasonably-priced VR (Vibration Reduction) 18-55mm lens.

Many may be surprised that the new D60 lacks a 12MP chip, though this is surely to turn up on the D80x. It appears that Nikon are simply confirming the identity of their new low-end DSLR, by adding some useful features to separate it in consumers minds from the still-in-production 6MP D40.

Nikon also always been slower to up the size of sensors compared to other manufacturers, as was the case with the Nikon D70s - which retained it's predecessor's 6MP chip.

For professionals, the sensor size is less important these days as RAW processing software can knock out beautiful 6000 pixel plus images. Still, it would be nice to use the original res and this is more or less 16MP.

So while the D60 is not much to write home about, it does at least include some improved features on the D40x at no extra price.

Interesting though, what Nikon will bring out next in the DSLR market - my tip being a much improved D80, probably called a D80x with a 12.4MP chip and a few more bells and whistles. Though we will probably have to wait until the spring to find out. This will help them compete with the new Canon 450D, which has a 12.4MP chip.

Also interesting to see how their RAW development pans out, some other manufacturers are already adopting Adobe DNG (a standardized version of the RAW file from Adobe - to make it more like JPEG) as their RAW format. Nikon appear to be going the other way and forcing less choice of RAW processing, which may be a costly gamble with the consumer.

Above: Capa's stunning picture essay from the Spanish Civil War was one of the first reportages which showed the reality of conflict. Published in the British magazine Picture Post - edited by the also legendary Stefan Lorant - on the 3rd December, 1938

"The full story of how the negatives made their way to Mexico might never be known but Capa apparently asked his darkroom manager, a Hungarian photographer named Imre Weisz, to save his negatives in 1939 or 1940, when Capa was in New York and feared his work would be destroyed," Brian Wallis, the chief curator of the ICP told the London Guardian.

It may have been the case that Mr Weisz could have handed them to the Mexican diplomat for safe-keeping, though it is odd that he never handed them over to the ICP or the agency that Capa helped to found, Magnum Photos.

While Capa was one of the first celebrity photojournalists - there are few these days - he also suffered a lot. His girfriend, Gerda Taro tragically was killed in a traffic accident in the Spanish Civil War in July 1937 as she covered the battle of Brunete.

He also suffered great bouts of poverty throughout his life (no change there then!) and was forever in financial difficulties between great bursts of success. When he arrived in New York, he became very poor and was only saved by a letter from LIFE Magazine which popped through his door in 1940 with news that he was to become one of their WW2 correspondents.

Many times though, he was forced to avoid the landlady at a guesthouse and sell equipment to eat. Often he says in his biography "Slightly Out of Focus" that he would spend all-day in bed to avoid working up any sensation of hunger and to save money!

Sadly, this appears to have also set a trend - aside from his innovative use of a 35mm Contax cameras, when most press photographers used 5x4 Speed Graphics.

Though through his coverage of the Second World War, when picture magazines were the CNN of their day, Capa's fame continued to grow. Actually, he arrived in the European Theatre quite late, though did noteable reportages from Italy in 1943 and later covered the Allied Invasion of Normandy in 1944.

He then followed the Allied troops all the way to Berlin and claimed to have taken a picture of the "last German soldier killed" - though this was probably dramatic license.

Controversy surrounds his famous picture of the falling Republican soldier, though this is probably incorrect and it is doubtful the picture was staged.

Above: A spread from a French news magazine (probably Vu) showing one of his most famous pictures - that of a Republican soldier at the moment of being shot in the Spanish Civil War (top left)

Infamously, the darkroom technician at LIFE Magazine's office in London - a 15 year-old called Dennis Banks - left them in the dryer too long and melted most of the emulsion from the 106 frames - leaving only a handful - just eight surviving.

However, what was left were hailed as some of the best pictures from D-Day and the slightly melted emulsion gives them a more gritty counternance.

Following the Allied invasion he also photographed the liberation of Paris and also Leipzig.

After the war ended, in 1947, along with David Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger (all also legendary in their own right) established Magnum Photos.

This agency had it's ups and downs in the first few years and Capa famously took all the profits one day from the bank and gambled them on a horse - which won and saved the agency.

His death came during the lesser-known French conflict in Vietnam - before the Americans were involved. This was out covering South Vietnamese troops as they patrolled a paddy field which was mined. Capa ran ahead to photograph them and stepped on one and died.

His legacy is massive though and his contribution to photojournalism is undeniable. The quick candid snapshot style influences war photographers to this very day and indeed many film-makers. While not regarded as a great photographer in terms of composition, he certainly had the content and his photographs also show many touching, human moments of war, in all it's sadness and granduer.

Also, his character was special. One friend said of him; "Capa speaks several languages, all of them badly..." and there is another well-known quote from William Saroyan who said; "Capa is a poker player whose sideline in picture-taking." Capa also often played poker with the editors of magazines (good old days for sure, try to find a picture editor who still goes to the pub, never mind gambles on the politically-correct desks of today!).

For Capa life was a gamble, and he often bet and won. Though one wonders if he bet that his missing Paris films would turn up 70 years later and find their way into the hands of his brother?

A treasure of photojournalism it surely is and photojournalism lovers world-wide will surely wait with baited breath to see this new aspect of Capa's work which has now come to light.