I will confess that as much as I dislike Microsoft I really do like Outlook. It syncs with my BlackBerry, with Google Calendar and it does a serviceable job with IMAP email accounts.

Me and Outlook, we go way back. All the way back to Office 97. It was very much a love hate relationship back then but really there was no other option. Word and Excel did their job reasonably well and Outlook was there so I used it. I’ve always done at least one upgrade with each new version of Office until Office 2003 came out. As soon as that hit I bought upgrades for all 4 of my personal versions of Office and we bought upgrades for our 3 users of Office at the lab, leaving everyone else on Star Office or Open Office.

Office 2007 was one that I intended to pass on until one of my clients informed me that they would switch to Office 2007 on a hard date. I went through the sample spreadsheet that they included with Office 2003 using the 2007 converters and it just didn’t work well so I broke down and got an upgrade for one of my computers. Office 2007 is alright. The ribbon doesn’t bother me like I thought it would and it is a worthy enough upgrade. I’m thinking about doing the rest of my computers to get the attachment preview in messages in Outlook, but I digress.

Outlook has always been a great calendar and scheduling application. Even without Exchange it will handle invitations and responses better than anything else that I have tried. I had long contemplated using something like Studio+ to get some client and equipment scheduling features but didn’t want to spend the money for it. Instead I used methods like written notes on Post-Its or legal pads, notes in my Palm Pilot/Treo/BlackBerry or worse; my memory.

I became so sick of having to improvise, adapt and overcome a forgotten piece of equipment that I started loading up 2 Domke F2 bags with everything that I own to take on each and every job that I did. Back breaking and very risky to your business to have every piece of equipment that you own on one job site. No more.

Microsoft has released Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot for Outlook 2007 & 2003 (thankfully). It allows you to create a listing of all of your equipment so that with a click of a button you have a window that pops up where you can simply select the client and then fill out your equipment list by checking off what you need. Yes, I am aware that you can manually add these equipment items to the note field but I never did it because it was such a pain in the ass. Now it is rather trivial to get all of that data into the appointment.

When you use tools like Google Calendar to do over the air calendar sync your appointment with all of your equipment needs is uploaded to Google Calendar. From there, you can sync to other computers or more importantly to your BlackBerry and have the details with you always. Now my calendar is the only place that I go to see what I need to take with me. I have lightened my load, reduced my exposure to loss or theft of equipment and did if for no cost. All in all not a bad deal. You can get Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot at the links below.

Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot Product Page
Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot Outlook 2007 download
Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot Outlook 2003 download

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Technorati : Microsoft, Office, Outlook, Scheduling

Well, we are if you listen to what the Business Software Alliance is saying about illegal software usage in the world from this article. Here is the important part to me:

“We know, for instance, that new PCs going to consumers in the U.S. generally have eight pieces of software, four of which are free like Adobe Reader and the other four should be paid for,” said John Gatz, chief research officer at IDC. “So if you know how many pieces of hardware have software and how many pieces of software were paid for, the difference is the pirate.”

So I am a pirate. Not because I have illegal software, but because I don’t have 4 applications loaded on this computer that I paid for. Let’s look at my laptop for just a moment (my desktop has a few additional web browsers and a stone cold legal copy of Photoshop 7 along with a bunch of other free or open source software) as that is what I have with me just now to see what is installed.

1. ExpressDigital Darkroom Professional. Bought and paid for.
2. ExpressDigital Darkroom Web Edition. Freeware.
3. iTunes. Freeware. Loaded with my classic rock and classical CD’s.
4. Firefox web browser. Open source freeware.
5. Thunderbird email client. Open source freeware.
6. Notepad ++. Open source freeware.
7. Open Office 2. Open source freeware.
8. Google Talk. Freeware.
9. Pidgin Instant Messenger. Open source freeware.
10. Filezilla FTP client. Open source freeware.
11. X1 desktop search. Freeware.
12. Zoundry blog editor. Freeware.
13. UltraExplorer. Freeware.
14. Nero. Came with the computer.
15. ZipGenius. Freeware.
16. Picasa. Freeware.
17. Google Earth. Freeware.
18. FoxIt Reader. Freeware.
19. idImager Lite. Freeware.
20. How could I leave off Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Came with the pig.

Now, I do have some things not listed there like Adobe Reader and a few free applications for listening to Sirius and XM online. I also have a free Internet radio application that I never use and a trial copy of ACDSee Pro that expired some time ago and is awaiting an uninstall. A free application for reading the online version of the PMA show daily magazine and other free little goodies like Google Video Player and Winamp. There is also the standard Windows stuff like Outlook Express and IE along with Windows Media Player and some other Microsoft junk. That’s it.

You can see a trend developing from my list. I am a heavy user of open source and free software. Why? Well, for much the same reason that I don’t buy very many music CD’s any more. The music sucks. A lot of commercial software sucks.

The BSA has been playing this thief game for a lot longer than RIAA has. In the past they just assumed that everyone using a pirated copy of some application would have actually bought it if they hadn’t stolen it. Alright. I don’t agree with that, but let them have it. It is their product that is being stolen. Now they have pushed the envelope even further to state that if you don’t have four applications on your computer that are bought and paid for commercial applications then “that is the pirate”. Please.

If I couldn’t do my job without some commercial application I would not hesitate to buy it today. The one application that you don’t see on my list that might stand out is Photoshop. I have it on my desktop workstation, but not my laptop because I just don’t need it here. I am sure that the BSA assumes that I stole CS2 because the last version that I bought was Photoshop 7. No, I didn’t steal it. I took a pass because CS and CS2 both suck to me. CS2 is a memory hog that offers me no advantage over Photoshop 7. If I “needed” CS2 I would “have” CS2 in a bought and paid for >legal< manner.

The simple fact of the matter is that there are open source or free versions of most anything that you want. You aren’t stealing it. You aren’t a pirate. Even if the BSA (Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and all the other big software companies) wants to lump me in with the thieves that is fine. They know better, and more importantly I know better.

The one sure way to drive your customers to find free and open source alternatives to your product (music or software) is to assume that they are all thieves and then do everything in your power to make things as difficult for them as you can. Activations that don’t stick and require another attempt when you don’t have an Internet connection, DRM that says you didn’t actually buy that song even though you are trying to listen to it seconds after you paid for and downloaded the track, rootkits installed by ordinary music CD’s, software that attempts to dial home every time you run it to verify whatever it verifies and any other method of back handed restrictions that you force on your paying customers that gets in the way of work to be done will drive people from you.

Then after they drive you away they will call you a thief. Nice.

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First, some commentary. I am a one trick pony in my businesses in terms of software. I know what I like, I have what I like and I fairly well know why I don’t like the things that I have passed on. This space is mine to say what I want (within reason it seems) and to explore areas that I want to explore. My last post that I did where I simply copied a comment from Michael at PhotoLynx caused a bit of email to roll in. I don’t know why, but it was meant to show another option as well as detail some features of the new Fuji S5 camera. Here is another one. Comment post that is.

<disclaimer>I am not in any way advocating one product over another. I am simply showing people options that exist in terms of software. This post is not my opinion and should be seen as Michael stating his case for his product. (As Michael pointed out, I misstated his intentions with the comment. I still think it is important to be exposed to as many differing views as possible.) No one product is right for everyone and it can be a valuable use of time to know what is available if your mind isn’t made up. Simple really. If you want my biased opinion contact me using the contact form or simply read this blog and you will see my side. </end disclaimer>

MichaelStevens Says:
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 pm

Let me start out by making it clear that I am the General Manager of Photo L y n x, so my opinions will be biased. But, I am a firm believer that their is plenty of room in the sandbox for all of the different digital software to play well together. In almost every case when I am visiting with a client or have remotely logged in to help them with a problem, I see multiple (competing) software loaded on their computers. Every software has it’s strong suits. Express Digital has a ton of printer interfaces and has a great studio workflow, TimeStone has a very good composite program, School Days+ has a user interface that is easy to use, Photo L y n x has a ton of exports to format data and images to create CDs for just about any school administrative and yearbook company.

I personally spent over 20 years as a VP for a mid-sized school photography company. About 8 years ago, I shopped them all. I had certain goals in mind as to what I needed the software to do. Every software has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Pricing was a big issue for my company. Paying an annual fee just didn’t sit well with me or my boss. But, we finally choose Photo L y n x, because quite honestly (at the time) they were the only ones that returned my phone calls. I never heard of Express Digital at the time. After using the Photo L y n x for several years, I believed in them so much, I went to work for them.

All software out there should give you a free trial to see if it works for you. Photo L y n x will allow you as much time as you need to evaluate the software, before you purchase it. They will also be there 12 hours a day, 5 days a week to help you as much you need by phone, to reduce the learning curve. We want to make sure our software is a good fit for your workflow.

I know it takes time to sit down and try out different software packages. Usually the more powerful they are, the harder they are to use. Setting them up for your workflow is usually the hardest part. But, remember, this is all supposed to save you time and money for the long haul. It’s worth taking the extra time up front to make sure that you have made the correct choice.

Coming from a biased view, I think that the Photo L y n x software is good for both the beginner and the more advanced users. Our tech support team will hold the hand for a user who doesn’t know much about how to use a computer or digital camera, while at the same time, the software is very powerful and flexible to meet the demands of “power users”.

Technorati : ExpressDigital, Fuji, Fuji S5, Photolynx, Timestone

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One topic that simply won’t die? This would be it. All of the questions are kind of like this:

“If I don’t want to use ExpressDigital software what else is available?”

I covered this topic about 4 months ago and am going to post this as a link to it. It isn’t a review of anything, it is a list of the applications that I am aware of along with links to as many as I could come up with from my bookmarks. I did recently update it so it has changed a little bit. Here it is:

Workflow Software Listing

Edit: As you read the list at the link above keep in mind that IWS software was purchased by Photo_lynx. I can’t update those links to the new website because Word Press sees the word L Y N X as some kind of harmful PHP command. Google PhotoL Y N X without the stray spaces and you will be there in no time.

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This was posted as a comment by Michael Stephens from PhotoL_ynx about the upcoming Fuji S5 and the PL software. Thought it deserved it’s own spot.

Move this to where you feel appropriate….

Today at SPAC (School Photographers Association of California), I met with the guys from Fuji. Particularly, Darren Pepple, who has been in the forefront of desigining the accessories for the upcoming Fuji S5 SLR. Through a Nikon MC 35 GPS cable one can hook up a serial barcode scanner. With the scanner, data can be input directly into the image Exif information. This will associate a positive ID directly with the image.

Also, the camera will can be passworded, so that the settings can be locked, preventing them from being changed. This is useful for larger studios, who have photographers who want to tinker with the camera and change it to other settings that may make it not function with the studio’s workflow.

What I thought was most impressive, is that, rather then trying to use the controls to pan in on a face within a photograph on the back LCD of the camera to check to see if it is in focus and exposed correctly, it will automatically recognize faces and center them in the frame.

Coordinates can be recorded into the Exif data, that can then be used for centering images and sizing heads in outside software.

Phot__ynx can already extract exif information from jpg images and relate it in quantity to images. The Fuji S5 would be an aswesome tool for a school photographer to have in conjuction with Photo__nx software for matching student data to images and outputting products & picture packages for schools.

In addition, in speaking with Darren from Fuji, Photo__nx will be able to get the necessary information from Fuji to enable it’s software to use the facial recognition data to center and headsize the images automatically as the images load into the software.

The Fuji S5 is due out for release mid February…. Stay tuned!

Technorati : Fuji, PhotoLynx

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And Word files and spreadsheets and every other type of document. It used to be a real problem for me. Before desktop search applications came along I had a very complicated system in place for filing documents away. Folders inside of folders inside of folders. For the effort that I put in to filing documents away I could still never find anything. Then came desktop search and my single folder method of filing documents.

I tried a number of them. Yahoo Desktop Search (based on X1), X1, Google Desktop Search, Ask Desktop Search and Copernic Desktop Search. For overall features, accuracy and style I chose Copernic Desktop Search.

I get a LOT of files sent to me on a daily basis. Word, Excel and PDF files make up the largest percentage but I also get a lot of documents in OpenOffice formats. We standardized on OpenOffice for all of our computer systems because for most of our employees their office suite is a minor need and OO.org only costs us the donation that we make once a year. OpenOffice file formats are usually significantly smaller than their MS Office counterparts and smaller is always better when it comes to Office files.

This is the main window of CDS where I have done a generic search for all PDF files. This is my newest computer and I don't have many files on it, but as you can see I have dropped 154 PDF files on this disk in just under 4 days.

Even with a number as small as 154 (my home server has over 4,000 PDF files alone) I would have a very difficult time finding information that I need from a stack that large.

As color management is the hot topic on my list right now I chose to search here for this term. By enclosing the words in quotations CDS will only search for documents that contain those two words together. It not only looks in the title of the document itself, but it also searches for folder names and it searches through the content of each file. When searching for a single document with more obscure absolute terms among thousands of files it is a real time saver to not have to open folders and files looking for that one item. This search popped 6 PDF files as well as 169 emails that relate to "color management". It also highlights your search terms so that you can see how relevant your search results are.

I found CDS to be more accurate, faster to index and faster to search than any of the other options. Further, it indexes more file types with content indexing than any of the others. OpenOffice files, Firefox and Thunderbird being my big ones that aren't covered by some. The program looks good, works VERY well and is very light on system resources. I now file all of my new PDF files in one folder. All of my MS Office files in one folder and all of my OO.org files in one folder. This makes it much easier to archive documents and searching is spot on.

Tags: Desktop Search, X1, Copernic Desktop Search, Yahoo! Desktop Search, Google Desktop Search, Ask Desktop Search

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Every week I get at least five phone calls or emails that all ask the same question. Why don’t my prints from you match my monitor? Every one of them is a very time consuming conversation because there isn’t a simple answer. Volumes as thick as a dictionary are written on the subject, but the photographer doesn’t need this level of understanding. I am going to post a few links here to some useful color management documents to hopefully help in understanding this subject. X-Rite makes available their Complete Guide to Color Management.

This PDF file is an excellent over view of what color management is all about. What the problem is, how to solve it and making color management work for you. There is even a glossary and a section about soft proofing as well. The PDF file is free of charge, all that you have to do is register with your name and email address. Use a throw away if you are leery of spam and you will be richly rewarded.

The next guide is done by Scott Martin at On-Sight.

Really I don’t know a lot about Scott, but I do know that he consults with ExpressDigital and teaches their color management class at their Austin facility. Scott has done an excellent PDF file for setting up color in the ExpressDigital software. His site says that:

These files on this page are intended for onsight customers and curious wanderers. Customers and soon-to-be customers are welcome to contact me about these files.

Be a wanderer and go download Scott’s guide to setting up ExpressDigital for color management.

Lastly if your monitor is calibrated and profiled, or if you think it is there is a quickie test that you can run online.

Go to MonitorSetup.com and follow the instructions there to test the overall calibration of your system. This is a visual check, but if you download the PDF file from the top right of the page it will instruct you as to what you should be seeing when you view the image file in your browser.

Technorati : Color Management, ExpressDigital

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I gave idImager a look several years ago when I trying to decide on a move from ACDSee 4. I don't use a photo browser for many tasks, but the ones that I use I really do need. For sorting and rating images as well as assigning keywords for searching and editing IPTC info I do rely on a good photo browser every day. I had used CompuPic but hated the missing features that I needed as well as a total lack of RAW file support. The fact that Photodex abandoned the product didn't help matters for me.

In searching for a replacement or an upgrade I did download and try idImager back in 2004 but took a pass on it for IMatch instead. I liked IMatch at the start, but abandoned it after a year and went to ACDSee 5. A week or so ago I got an email from idImager announcing their new FREE Lite version of their software. I didn't go and get it for several days because I just didn't think I would care. I have been mostly happy with XnView and ACDSee though I have again had the itch to look. Finally I went and got the Lite version and was sadly let down. Slow, buggy and disappointing. Then another email arrived in the middle of the week that announced another new version. What a difference a few weeks make. I installed the Lite version on all of my workstations and set about giving it a ring. Here are some of the highlights that I like.

 Looks just like a typical photo browser. Tasks panes to the left, basic tools on top and images in the middle. The main browser window can be customized to display custom thumb sizes and caption data as well as to change the background color and the thumb frame style and color. The main screen has a file info section along the bottom task bar that gives you location, resolution and creator info from EXIF. No real surprises here, but the default setup uses colored tabs on the info panes and has a very annoying large up folder icon in the browser window. Once I made it look OK I started looking at some of my key needs in a browser.

Sadly it is not as fast at loading thumbs as either ACDSee or XnView. It is not painfully slow, but it is also not "instant" as the other two at least feel to me. It is color management aware and is quite good with rendering color, even in Kodak .dcr files which are notoriously horrible for browsers to display. In this regard, idImager is the best that I have used. Fair trade for me in terms of thumb loading vs. thumb quality.

As you can see on the middle thumb idImager uses a dual rating system. In the green bar to the left is a yellow dot for the 5 color rating system and it also has a 5 star system. You can use one or the other, or use both for two different rating systems. Though really difficult to see here, along the bottom of each thumb there are quick tools to describe the image, change it's catalog assignment and to show a quick preview. The nice thing about the preview feature is that it opens both a full preview as well as a 100% crop.

The task panes seemed odd to me at first, but I adjusted to the change very quickly. I am very used to window tabs being located at the bottom. It does contain both a full EXIF window as well as an EXIF Summary tab. Very nice feature for me. By clicking on the image details tab you open up the IPTC editor window. You can individually caption your images in this window, or make a selection of images in the browser window and edit the details there. The Lite version allows XMP read and write but is not extensible. You can add or remove tabs from the main window, but I haven't yet found an easy way to change the order of the tabs. Still looking for that one, though not very hard. Here is a screen of the IPTC editor for the single image mode:

And here is the screen of the multi image IPTC editor:

These two items are big on my hit list. If you don't need them I understand, but if you do need these features and use them regularly idImager has the best free IPTC editor that I have ever seen. I'm going to stop with the big screen captures and continue with other likes thus far.

• Integrated CD/DVD burner worked very well for the few disks that I needed to make.
• Search feature was right on the money. I was able to quickly locate several images that I needed.
• Email images, while low on my list, is very well done.
• While thumb loading is slowish, it worked very quickly compared to others at browsing network drives.
• As just noted, network aware. Very nice (must have) feature.
• Integrated downloader is a very nice touch and worked very well for me. I haven't used downloaders because I just never found one that I liked. This one might win me over.
• Calendar view, while kind of a gimmick to me is actually a nice added touch.
• Integrated image editor provides a fairly quick full view and has all of the usual suspects in terms of tools. The full view window also has an editor for image details. No real opinion here yet as I haven't had a chance to make use of the tools.

Dislikes thus far.

• Slow thumbnail creation. Not the slowest I have ever seen, but much slower than ACDSee and XnView as well as my very old copy of CompuPic Pro. Not a show stopper for me, but something that I would like to see improve.
• Somewhat heavy on the RAM. Again, not the worst that I have seen, but far from the best.
• Slow startup time can be an issue. I wouldn't let something like that stop me from using it but it might just annoy you to no end.
• Inability to customize the main title bar above the image browser window.
• Inability to edit the tool bar. They might say that all of the available tools are included which is fine, but I would like to reorder the tool bar a bit. Again, far from a show stopper.
• Light table in the free version is limited to two images. If you want more, buy one of the paid versions.
• Slide show tool, while nice, is slow.

idImager won me over with this Lite version. So much so that I am trying their Professional version and will buy it when my 21 day trial expires in a week or so. I have long wanted something better than I had and while idImager Lite doesn't fill the void totally it certainly comes much closer than many I have tried in the past. It is clearly better than the free browsers that I have tried and also beats many paid options as well. To me it is better than ACDSee 8 (my last), Breeze Browser, CompuPic (not a real contest) IMatch and ACDSee Pro. As an avid and heavy user of the ExpressDigital software my needs for an image browser are fairly limited. Until something better comes along this free version of idImager will take over my daily needs.

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This is the link to IWS SEC filing relating to the sale.

Just to save you the detail work, PL paid $400,000 to IWS for all PDI software. $400,000? Seems to me like a fire sale price. $25,000 down and $50,000 yearly (minimum) until paid in full. Seems like a can’t miss for PL.

One interesting note on the PL website about the purchase:

Under the terms of the contract, PL will use the intellectual property and technology assets to enhance its current digital imaging offerings and expand into the professional digital imaging market to further improve workflow performance for professional photographers and digital imaging labs. In addition, key personnel from ImageWare will be joining PL.

“Our goal is to combine best-of-breed features from both product lines while maintaining ease-of-use and the simplicity of our current product flow,” said Chris Burton, president of PL. “We are continually advancing our products to exceed industry expectations and through this acquisition, we’ll be able to deliver robust solutions that combine industry-leading PL level of support and upgrades to the PDI products, providing the professional photographer with new creative, useful tools and capabilities.”

Expand into the professional digital imaging market? I kind of thought that was the business that PL was in before they did this deal.

Whatever. You can read that statement one of two ways. It either means that PL is “enhancing” their product line with the PDI addition, or they intend to rework everything and incorporate the best features of PDI software into their current offerings. The SEC filing does state the following: (Changed company name to PL to avoid “security features”)

PL will pay IWS, in quarterly installments, 12.5% of all newly acquired sales and license revenues of PDI and PL products (collectively “the Percentage Payments”). Newly acquired sales and license revenues shall include only sales and licenses acquired from clients who were not existing PL clients as of the Effective Date; and shall not include renewals of existing licenses from clients that were PL clients as of the Effective Date. If, at the end of any 12-month period, beginning with the Effective Date, the Percentage Payments do not equal or exceed $50,000 (Fifty Thousand Dollars) then PL shall pay IWS the difference between $50,000 and the Percentage Payments, such difference to be paid together with any Percentage Payments due in each final quarter.

So, PL will pay IWS 12.5% of all new PDI AND PL software sales. Seems a bit odd to me. Why pay a royalty to IWS for sales of your existing products if you don’t intend to roll PDI applications up into your own products over time? Nobody knows what the future holds for PDI software except for IWS and PL. I would find it hard to believe that PL would pay $400,000 for an application that is essentially on life support (some dealers earlier this year were offering healthy trade in promotions to hand in your PDI dongle and buy new Darkroom software) just to kill it off. I don’t think PL has deep enough pockets for that.

Stay tuned ImageWare users. Perhaps your software is about to change. For the better.

Technorati : ImageWare, PhotoLynx

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Sorry about spelling PhotoL ynx with the space. WordPress sees that as a PHP command (l ynx) and won’t let the post publish. Security concerns.

Another edit: It is true. On the front page of the their website. I can’t link to it here for “security reasons”, but it’s easy enough to figure out.

If you are going to believe this comment it has been:

http://www.bbcolorlabs.com/blog/?p=63#comments

It is from Michael Stevens who says that he is the General Manager for PhotoL ynx. Here is the comment:

I don’t know anyone at PhotoL ynx, so I can’t say that this is legit. I certainly can’t imagine someone registering with a PhotoL ynx address to spread rumor and FUD on a blog with less than 300 visitors a day. Doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I am going to follow up with an email to Michael to see if he can verify his identity.

Assuming that this is indeed true, PhotoL ynx is a good company. This can’t be anything but good news for School Days+ users.

Technorati : ImageWare, PhotoLynx

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