For a long time sub $800 LCDs have been frowned upon for photographic work, many pros preferring CRTs despite their shortcomings with color stability and calibration creep. Low-end TN type panels found in the cheapher LCDs are certainly inadequate for accurate color reproduction and can show strong banding problems (low-bit), but in the last couple years I’ve seen some wide-gamut (large color space reproduction) sub $700 models with S-PVA panels (better quality for photo work) getting pretty decent reviews. I had been using CRTs up to now, enjoying the color fidelity but desperately needing more working real estate (had a 19″ Mitsubishi Diamondtron CRT). I decided to take the plunge and get the DELL 2408WFP 24″ LCD monitor. First impressions were that it was a very bright, contrasty and sharp monitor, showing rich and deep colors. I calibrated the screen using the Spyder 2 and got excellent results. (more…)

About a month and half ago I stumbled upon lulu.com, a self-publishing service that offers on-demand personalized photo book (and other types of books) publishing and some potential e-Commerce extensions to sell your publications online. And all this at a very reasonable price since you can order 1 or 500 copies of your publication, starting at $25 for my full bleed hard cover 8.5″ x 11″ 20-page photo book. I decided to try Lulu after test driving their amazing web 2.0 interface. (more…)

A few months ago, I wrote a post on the nightmares with non-color managed web browsers that ignore your images’ sRGB color profile. The only browser that really shows you (out-of-the-box) what you see in Photoshop/Lightroom is Safari, it has built in support for color management and that’s great but it accounts for a very small percentage of web browsers out there. (more…)