DataMind Srl is delighted to announce Jade 1.2, their highly acclaimed digital image processing application for Mac OS X Leopard. Implementing state-of-the-art algorithms to enhance color, contrast and dynamic range, Jade is an easy-to-use image enhancement and batch processing tool that will automatically improve digital images. As DataMind's main product of a series of image processing and computer vision tools, Version 1.2 is a staff pick on Apple's download website.

Feature highlights include:

• One-Button Automatic Image Enhancement
• Batch Process large volumes of images at once
• Fine-tune Intensity Values, Contrast and Colour Correction for unbalanced images
• Upload to Flickr of enhanced images

Minimum Requirements:

• Mac OS X Version 10.5 (Leopard) or higher
• Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
• 10.4 MB Hard Drive space

Pricing and Availability:

Jade 1.2 is offered in both Home and Pro versions, and are available as a full-featured 30 day demo. Jade Home is €19.99 EUR, and Jade Pro is 49.99 EUR. An Apple Aperture Plugin that makes use of the same identical algorithms and parameters as Jade is also available. Owners of the Jade Aperture plug-in may take advantage of a big discount on both Home and Pro license.

Adam Merrifield

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Can you smell that? Can you smell the spring air, the wet grass, the warming days? You know what this means? Yup, it's time for me to dust of the camera gear and start prepping for a summer of weddings in the Kitchener area. My mind has far from staled over the winter though. I have been keeping up on a number of blogs to keep my gear on the up and up and my mind on new techniques.

I have been keeping my ear to the ground at both Photography Bay and Alpha Tracks to stay on top of what is going on with Sony gear (the system I have been entrenched in for more than 15 years). I am watching to see what new Sony bodies come out before I have to shoot my first wedding of the season. I don't know that I would upgrade but I am dying for a vertical grip so there is definitely a possibility.

I have also been steady checking out Leggnet Photography and Scott Kelbys Photo Insider for inspiration and the latest industry news and techniques.

I have also been happily listening to This Week In Photography with Scott Bourne, Alex Lindsay. Though it is a tad remedial for pro's, it is nice to sit and listen in on their conversations. They do, at times, have me jumping up and screaming at times, especially when they constantly insist that wedding photographers will someday shoot flashless weddings as the ISO ratings continue to climb... uhh... NO! We use flash for the quality of light, not the quantity. How I would love to shoot every wedding in the precious moments before dusk but the reality, most weddings occur when the sun is high in the sky casting deep dark shadows into the eye sockets. So no worries Alex, flashes are here to stay.

Now as you can see my winter was not a restful one. In addition to keeping abreast of the photography community my work with seyDoggy trudged on. New websites, new blogs, new articles... that is something I hope to continue here soon, writing articles. I have collected a number of topics that I think could use some clarification so look for at least a few new tidbits from me in the this coming wedding season.

Adam Merrifield

The holiday season is upon us and there is always plenty of family to take pictures of. Take the a moment to play with your family photography in ways you might not have thought of. Family dynamics can be very rewarding to photograph as I have written about here. All the best in over the holiday season and here is to a wonderful new year. Until then, take care.

Adam Merrifield

I've written a new, quick and simple Photoshop how-to that came to me while working through Scott Kelby's 7-Points book. It's not an earth shaking tip but it might have had you stumped just as I was. Read more here. In other Merrifield Photography news, I just finished a shoot this past weekend, a family shoot, that really illustrates the importance of having fun with your clients (more in this article). It was great to get the family laughing and enjoying themselves as much with each other as they were with me. I'll post pictures soon.

Adam Merrifield

So the other day I got my copy of Scott Kelby's 7-Point System as you probably already knew. I waisted no time cracking the spine and jumping right it. There are features in CS3 I never knew existed and Scott was sure to make use of them. Within minutes I had a marked improvement in my images, so much so that I had to share with all of you. The left side is before and the right side is after.

Adam Merrifield

Oh, I am so excited. I just got a package from Chapters.ca today... It's Scott Kelby's &-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3. I had heard an interview with Scott on The Digital Photography show and it all made so much sense.

I read into the book a bit today and honestly, as I expected, I come to the same conclusion about adjusting my images in post production that Scott points out here in his book but I had never identified a process or a method. I just kept farting around with my work until I got to the proverbial promised land of photo zen.

In Scott's book he lays a methodology for identifying what needs fixing and building a pattern for fixing those issues quickly and concisely. I am really looking forward to giving this book a full read and I hope it will drastically improve my work flow.

If you haven't already, listen to Scott's interview and check out his book.

Adam Merrifield

I am always quite amazed at how eager a couple is to book their photographers well in advance (in the Kitchener-Waterloo area at least). I no sooner finish one wedding season when I am already filling up spots for the next. I am in one of those fortunate positions that I can be selective about the number of weddings I take on and to a lessor degree, selective of the couples I choose to work with. More often then not I will be indirectly linked to the people I work with, like the friend of a friend who nows someone... that sort of connection So as I am booking up next years slots (despite telling myself this past season was my last) it occurred to me; how many other industries can boast having their schedule determined for the next 9 to 12 months? I know I don't have this luxury in web design where work is often determined on a month by month basis. I really ought to give wedding photography more love than I do. Perhaps when my girls are older and don't care to see me on weekends and my wife grows tired of having me around the house, I'll consider booking 25 to 30 weddings a year, but until then I'll stick to my half dozen. It would probably be much different if shooting weddings in the Kitchener-Waterloo area weren't pigeon holed into the same handful of locations; Victoria Park, Waterloo Park, Rockway Gardens, Woodside Park, West Mountrose... It's a small town with very little in the way of manicured parkland. I need to find some fresh locations that aren't overshot to spark my creativity and passion for the art.

Adam Merrifield

In traditional communities there was always that culture where elders passed their wisdom down from generation to generation. In the days of yore this was done by song and story telling, then by scrolls and tablets, then by books, then by radio, then by television... Now it's by blog. What's most troubling today is the relatively short span between one who considers himself new and one who considers himself experienced.

This is painfully true in photography. Since the digital age, unimaginable technical advancements have made fine photography more accessible to the masses. There are now more people wielding SLR's today than in any other period of time in history. SLR photography was once the territory of those who had to know what they were doing with a single lens reflex camera, but with the massive growth of the SLR's popularity an interesting phenomenon has occurred; most people behind a digital SLR today have never used a film SLR and have learned everything the know about photography from someone else who has also never used a film SLR.

So why would this matter? Because most of the marketing, product information, specifications and terminology are all derived from the film world. You see, back when Digital SLR's were first working their way into the market place there was probably this perception that the resistance would be great. Lens focal lengths were given relative to 35 mm frame formats to help the film photographers better relate, sensor sizes were compared to film formats like APS-C and "Full frame" (35mm), and "D" or "digital" was affixed every product as though these two varying lines might coexist side by side for generations to come. I don't think anyone really expected digital to take of quite as fast as it did.

This rapid expansion on the SLR industry left us with a virtual knowledge vacuum, which is not only devoid of any informed wisdom about the art and science of photography, but is continually sucking in misconceptions and inaccuracies from all over the webiverse. There just aren't enough of those old school photographers around to teach the masses that have populated this new and exciting age of digital photography. No one benefits more from this black hole of photographic know-how more than equipment manufacturers. After a few short years of digital dominance the market is ripe for the picking. It's not enough to get an SLR body in the hands of unsuspecting consumers, whether they actually need one or not. Now that they have the body they'll need lenses...

If I had a dollar for every time I have heard the words "prime lens" thrown around by people who really have no idea what it is, I could have bought a new one myself. And this is where so much of the trouble lies. Right now it's all the rage to buy a "prime lens" or a "normal lens" and the prices of these lenses is getting to be outrageous! I am here to tell you that the market for a prime lens was all but dead prior to the digital boom for all the opposite reasons that get thrown out as arguments to buy them today. The science behind zoom lenses today is incredible, making a zoom lens today comparable to any prime lens; many are equally sharp, equally fast and equally light, but best of all, zoom lenses are and always will be more versatile. These arguments are going on a quarter century by now and all the newbies are dragging them up from the dusty depths of redundant argument vaults as though zoom lens technology hasn't improved in the last few decades.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good prime lens. I have boxes of them that I dust off once every few years to remind myself that a camera bag slung over my shoulder containing two or three fast, premium zooms sure beats the days of carrying three camera bags holding 20 to 30 lbs. of glass in each. People are getting duped into buying over-priced gear just because that's what their flickr friends say they need or because Scott Bourne said "such-and-such a lens has a gorgeous bokeh". If I read one more time about some Joe Blow getting a 50 mm, f 1.4 for their Cannon Rebel because they wanted a "normal" lens I am going to SCREAM (true photographers will know why, everyone else will have to do their research). Trust me, the conversion to digital has given me an overabundance of "normal" lenses that I paid a great deal of money for (the price differential between wide and normal, again, true photographers will know what I mean) over the years and none of them say 50 mm on the barrel. On the flip side I now have a killer collection of super telephoto lenses.

The digital aspect of this new era in photography is still too young to be looking solely to other digital photographers for your knowledge. If the people you are learning from have never been in the drivers seat of a 35 mm SLR or a 6x6 or 4x6 medium format then you are possible missing out on the some of the finer details of the art and science behind photography. There are a great many exceptions to every rule but the truth of the matter is the entire digital platform is built on the wisdom of an earlier generation that understood light because they had to, gave conscious thought to composition because it was a rule, knew the science behind exposure because cameras didn't, used aperture settings for specific effects and shutter speeds for others... There is a generation of photographers who knew, more than anything else, that the camera that captures the light, but it's the photographer that takes the picture.

Adam Merrifield

There is a pretty neat phenomenon that occurs when you start using one of Gary Fongs flash diffusers. It's not the fact that you notice how many others in your industry use them. It's not the fact that your flash images become quite amazing with greater control. And it's not the act that you are overwhelmed with the desire to buy the entire collection once you've tried just one.

No, it's not any of these. It's the fact that if you blog about Gary Fongs products you will become acutely aware of the fact that you are now being visited by a familiar and recurring ip address as a result of the same set of key words. That's right; you become a regular stop in Gary Fongs vanity search. Gary Fong himself has laid eyes on my site, which is really cool even if it is only to see what we (photographers) are saying about the whale tail or light sphere. How do I know it's him? I didn't until he wrote about it on his blog a while back (the actual post escapes me now), admitting that he does such searches to see what the views and reviews are saying. So that's when I went back and checked the ip's of all hits on my site that had to do with Gary Fong related searches, and sure enough about 99% of them were the same. Hey we all do it, right?

So what about that WhaleTale review I have been promising for so long? It's coming. It's taking a while because I shoot with it on all the time (yes, even my recent outdoor weddings) and can't bring myself to remove it for comparative studies. And now that LightSphere Universal and The Origami are due out soon I would love to get my hands on those so I can compare all three! Gary, if you are reading this, I would LOVE to get my hands on these two new products... ;)

Adam Merrifield

Some of the best shots in wedding photography are the ones where something silly is happening or when people are just busting a gut laughing. The trick is being able to make that happen at will, so I've written an article to help you get the most out of the people you are working with. Go and have a read.

Adam Merrifield