A splendid film it might be, Stefan, but I would never go to see a movie where they thought 5 was the same as S. It isn't. A friend has a licence number (was going to repeat it here but decided against it because this is the internet) with a 6 that he pretends in an O. He's sick of me pointing out the error in his thinking. Dumbing down can go only so far before proper folk stand up and say "No more".

Welcome, DaftPunk. You've come to the right place.

Al

I've used the various versions of Serif PhotoPlus for many years in preference to PS 7, which I still have. The current version is £69 - reasonable enough, but Serif offers excellent upgrade prices once you've bought your first package.

PhotoPlus has very much the same interface as PS and uses the same terminology. I can't think of any useful post-processing function it doesn't have. Others may have more arcane needs, however. I use Silkypix for developing raw files so any PhotoPlus shortcomings in this area are irrelevant to me.

A couple of professionals I know who use PS, Lightroom and their like can't believe the capabilities of PhotoPlus. The main drawback for some could be its lack of a file-management system. If you do handle this yourself, as I do, it's not a problem.


Al

I use +1 on sharpness and contrast and leave everything else well alone. I'm not convinced the contrast adjustment is worth making. If you shoot raw, of course, these settings are ignored. The colour adjustments can take you into a hell that's best avoided unless you have lots of time on your hands and enjoy endless fiddling with an unpredictable outcome. The standard settings seem to do the job.

Enjoy your GX20. It's a very fine camera.

Al

7 Day Shop must be particularly proud of these LED lights -- they just sent me three identical emails touting them. They might be worth a go, for anyone interested in experimenting with this sort of lighting. link

Al

In fairness to Nikon, the eccentric, space-age LCD display on the F70 is an experiment that most people say didn't quite work and never reappeared on later models. Some loved it, though, and it would be interesting to hear how you get on with it. I doubt Pentax will be trying anything similar. On the bright side, the F70 was capable of taking good pictures, by all accounts.

Al

I ran this past my mate Andy the birdman and he said: "Max Whittington is correct - a juvenile Black-headed Gull calling for food from a parent and the others look like bog-standard Mallard silhouettes."

Mind you, Andy also claims to be able to tell the difference between the multitude of "real ales" that Camra has forced pubs to foist on their unwary customers, so I tend to take his opinions with a pinch of salt -- the same stuff Canadian loggers used to put into their lager. Now there's a proper drink.

Al

The company's name is Morrisons, so the apostrophe goes after the s. Technically, you could say Morrisons's, but you'd run the risk of people thinking you were daft.

Al

They've got some slightly cheaper ones here: link

Al

Mattmatic produced a fairly comprehensive guide to Silkypix here: link

I use the version that came bundled with my Samsung GX-20 to tweak the image until I'm happy and then produce a Tiff for any further work in Serif PhotoPlus. Having said that, JPegs do the job for me 90% of the time. I remain unconvinced that you need a separate program to work on raw files directly.

Al

As Flossie says, a press card is just a form of identification to prove you're associated with a legitimate news-gathering organisation or are an accredited freelance.

There is no "official" press card, as far as I am aware, but organisations such as the National Union of Journalists in the UK, news organisations and various freelance bodies provide them. A "student" press card is a contradiction in terms. I would be very wary of paying anyone €60 a year or any other significant sum for one. Sounds like a scam. You'd be as well designing and printing one yourself.

Outside of the major population centres, the police generally take you at your word if you tell them you're with a specific newspaper, TV station or whatever and are carrying more than a point-and-shoot. The amount of access you get can depend on your employer's relationship with the police, fire service etc. If your newspaper consistently portrays the police in a bad light, you're unlikely to get much co-operation, even with a press card.

Al