If you are one of my happy clients that ordered a KISS wedding album, you can be sure that your book will ship safely from the US to Switzerland or the rest of the world. Check out how Kevin, famous wedding photographer and co-founder of KISS Wedding Books, is testing the awesome new packaging. Enjoy :-)
Monthly Archives: February 2009
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Is What You See Really What You Get?
Thursday, February 19, 2009 – 23:02
If you are interested in photography you might also have heard about color management, color spaces and ICC profiles. The sRGB color space (read more about all the technical stuff here) was developed 1996 as the standard default color space for the internet. Later it was found that a standardization for all the devices in a color managed workflow would be very helpful: digital cameras, scanners, computers, monitors, printers and editing software like photoshop and of course web browsers should be set to the same color space (of course advanced users can convert to the right color space, but that might be tricky). The idea was that the sRGB color space should be the standard for all these devices and software. Using the same color space on all these devices and software is already a good step toward seeing the same color on all theses devices (that every device itself has to be calibrated is another complicated story, but you get the point).
So now comes the truth. After so many years that the sRGB color space and profile is used worldwide, it is still not sure that your web browser like Internet Explorer (hopefully not!), Safari or Firefox will support ICC profiles and show sRGB pictures correctly.
Test yourself. Are the three words Green, Blue and Red in the above picture written in the corresponding color? If not, you have a problem. It means that your web browser does NOT support ICC profiles.
With Safari you should be OK, Internet Explorer maybe not and Firefox? Firefox 3.x can support ICC profiles, but you have to be an advanced user to activate the support in the preferences.
Read more about how to change the settings of Firefox in THIS ARTICLE on the website of color control specialist Datacolor, the creater of the Spyder calibration tools. By the way, Datacolor is a swiss company :-)
Ever wondered why your photos get a slight color shift when you first view them in Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom and later in your web browser on your blog or website? This might be the reason. That your web browser doesn’t support ICC profiles (or that you have to enable the ICC color profile support in Firefox).
Another mystery of color management solved. Don’t worry, there are still a lot of stumbling blocks left.
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[UPDATE] You can find a quick introduction to color management here. If you are a photographer and want to dive deeper into the subject, I recommend that you visit the website of the European Color Initiative ECI. The best thing I ever read about color management is the Digipix brochure on their download section. You can download the PDF here in English or German. Also don’t miss to download the calibration wallpapers for your monitor for PC or Mac. They give you a quick daily check if the calibration of your monitor is OK.
Facebook And Random Thoughts
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 – 19:12
I’m the owner of this image. So what’s all the fuss about copyright?
Readers of my blog noticed that it was quite calm here lately. The reason is that I started using Facebook and Twitter and was more active on these social networking platforms than on my blog. As I found out they were good tools for networking and sharing with photographers, clients and friends. If you didn’t want to be a member of several different social networking platforms, I thought it was best to just join Facebook. It’s free, so everybody is there and it’s not just business or not just private like other platforms. Facebook gave me a good mixture between business and private life.
Now if you are my friend on Facebook you might have wondered that I am not in your friend’s list anymore. Do I hate you? Did I cancel our friendship?
No, not at all. I just left Facebook. That’s it.
The reason: Recently it was in the news that Facebook doesn’t make enough money and that they were thinking about selling the personal data of its users.
Wait. Whaaat?
That was some time ago. Now it got worse. Facebook already did change their Terms of Service (TOS) at the beginning of February this year. Without telling their users. What if you don’t agree with the new TOS? Don’t worry. You don’t have an option. And it’s already too late anyway.
As a professional photographer you just can’t agree to Facebook’s new Terms of Service. As a photographer you always did care about your copyright. You have to protect your work, that’s what you live of. And of course you want to protect your personal data. But from now on everything belongs to Facebook. Right. Everything. All your personal data. All your pictures, images, videos. Everything. And the best: FOREVER!
If you were a facebook member and didn’t leave before February you’re lost. You belong to Facebook. Even if you decide to quit now and delete your profile, Facebook won’t delete your profile and your personal data. With the new Terms of Service they keep the right to sell everything now and in the future.
Actually I am not that much affected by the new Terms of Service than others. I’m used to read the fineprint and I am always aware of what it means to share personal data on the internet. So I didn’t have much on Facebook that was not public on my blog or website anyway.
More on the subject on today’s news program “10 vor 10″ on the Swiss National Television:
The good point about the Facebook desaster: My blog is going to get a revival. Instead of investing a lot of time into Facebook I will post more regularly on my own platforms, my blog and my website. Everything is under my control, on my servers. And for connecting with my friends, I just call them more often. Good times to come :-)
[UPDATE] After all the worldwide protests Facebook returned to their old Terms of Service. Now they will take a bit more time to carefully develop new terms and also include member feedback in the process. Read more about it in these two blog posts by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg:
On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information
I think that’s the right way to do it and I am confident about the outcome. Lesson learned.