Whats New

March 22nd, through April 1st 2012

BkkSteve — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:02:58 GMT

New firmware v1.20 for the Fuji x100, Lightroom v4.1rc upgrade, I photograph the local band Hot Slugs, and my grandson Landon is bornA!

February 4th through March 17th 2012

BkkSteve — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:09:23 GMT

We've had several ISP outages recently, Photo Fair 2012, new species discovered, Kings Among Men a submission, Velodyne Vpulse In-Ear Headphones review, Fuji Xpro1, Western Digital WD TV LIVE HUB repair facility experience, Dana submits more Thailand Photo Stories, Lightroom released Version 4, Adobe Camera Raw ACR 6.7rc is released, using content aware healing brush, work with a local band.

January 13th through January 30th, 2012

BkkSteve — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:28:44 GMT

Our site underwent a major platform upgrade and came through with flying colors, Big Joe gives us daily reports for this Trip Report Thailand, I review Klipsch S4 Image In Ear Headphones, and Dana writes another Thailand Photo Story titled "Pity The Poor Girl.." I visit the Krannert Center For The Performing Arts to photograph a friends band in low light, a great month all told.

January 9th through January 13th 2012

BkkSteve — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:33:10 GMT

BigJoe's start of his excellent Trip Report - Thailand, Canon announces their G1-X APS-C mirrorless, Fuji announces their latest X-Pro1 interchangeable lens APS-C powerhouse mirrorless, a sample processed from Anthropics Portrait Professional 10 Studio Edition, Adobe releases Photoshop Lightroom 4 Beta free to the public, NIK software and Topaz Lab's both submitted products for review, and enough snow finally comes to the midwest to try out the new snow blower!

November 23rd to December 13th 2011

BkkSteve — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:35:49 GMT

A running reivew of the Kindle Fire, Canon 5d or 5d Mark II the better deal, Thailand floods 2011, which memory card should I get and why, intersections, Adobe ACR 6.6 and LR 3.6 upgrades, and discussion on the current crop of mirrorless cameras.

October 25th through November 17th 2011

BkkSteve — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:21:20 GMT

Images from the train museum, Fuji Finepix x100 firmware upgrade 1.11, Midwest Landscapes, Allerton Park, fall color images, BigJoe's Krabi Thailand, the Psychology of Reconditioned, a great Day Trading PC Build, Rick asks about critical focus, Adobe updates ACR and Lightroom to 3.6RC, a USB 3.0 superspeed internal memory card reader review, and my running review and experienes with Amazon's new Kindle Fire Tablet PC.

October 10th through October 23rd

BkkSteve — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:55:49 GMT

Fall scenery images, a short piece on what piece camera should I choose, and Canon announces their EOS-1D X professional DSLR to replace both the 1D and 1DS.

September 29th through October 9th 2011

BkkSteve — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:13:17 GMT

Photoshop Meets an Unremarkable Image, Adobe upgrades Lightroom to version 3.5 and Adobe Camera Raw to version 6.5, Amazon announces their new Amazon Kindle Fire. Is it an Ipad killer? Fall colors at Allerton Park, Fixing a Macbookpro using www.ifixit.com, Seagates Expanson 3tb USB 3.0 external hard drive. Photography Fall!

September 17th through September 28th 2011

BkkSteve — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:13:12 GMT

My experience with NEC replacing my monitor, Bangkok Images builds custom workstations for Thailand based expatriates, Nikon announces their new mirrorless V1 and J1, Tom Tweedel reviews the Fuji x100 during a month in China, and Canon plans a major announcement for November 3rd.

August 24th through September 16th, 2011

BkkSteve — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:31:04 GMT

JTG sends in an image to share, Canon announces their new superzoom SX40-HS, fantastic deal on Amazon for Seagates External 3tb HDD for $119.00, Sandisk announces their new 100 year image vault, ACLU explains our photography rights as US citizens, Opportunity Costs of Being an Expatriate, Adobe updates Lightroom to 3.5 RC1 and ACR to 6.5 RC1, and our weekly columns features "Random Cambodia" and "The Temple Glow."

July 30th through August 20th, 2011

BkkSteve — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:49:40 GMT

In defence of L'Oreal, Whale Watching with Rod C, Balancing color in Photoshop CS5, JTG sends a pic from Chula, Free Concerts, Sony firmwre updates, new drivers for AMD/ATI video cards, Olympus E-P3, and a User Gallery Tutoral..

July 17th through July 30th, 2011

BkkSteve — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:48:49 GMT

Dr Bhokin's Suanpalm Farmnok, Pointing your Camera Parts One and Two, WD HD LIVE HUB review, The Storyteller, Microsot codecs, Akulka's Palauan Island of Peleliu, TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Wireless-N Gigabyte Router, 4 months in a nutshell, Tom Tweedels China Adventure, and some excellent User Galleries to check out.

July 11th through July 17th 2011

BkkSteve — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:58:45 GMT

HDRsoft updates Photmatix, a few internet speed test comparisons between Thailand's best and America's average, and some images from the Fuji x100 which show off it's high ISO and landscape capabilities.

June 25th through July 11th 2011

BkkSteve — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:03:04 GMT

Fuji releases the long awaited firmware update for it's popular x100, version 1.10, some images with the new Fuji x100 in Oregon and Hawaii, Congratulations to Yingluck Shinawatra and the Pheu THai party on their election wins, Canon things about releasing a mirrorless camera, and Tom Tweedel leaves for China with my x100 on an extended field trip.

June 9th through June 24th

BkkSteve — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 10:24:23 GMT

A few Fuji x100 samples, and the eaglets are finally flying! Check out their video feed.

May 24th through June 1st

BkkSteve — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:02:59 GMT

Images from Hawaii and my sons graduation, Fuji promised firmware release for x100, Canon updates availability on most popular lenses, and Canon updates their firmware for the 5d Mark II and 1d Mark IV.

May 12th through May 18th, 2011

BkkSteve — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:57:36 GMT

A ride down the memory lane of Hubbard Creek Road in Umpqua where I used to own a small ranch, a drive up to Diamond Lake Oregon which was still frozen over in mid-May, a Cobra at the end of a rainbow! Digital Photography Review releases a full review of the new Fuji Finepix x100 and you'll want to read this if you're considering this camera.

April 25th Through May 11th, 2011

BkkSteve — Sun, 22 May 2011 12:44:41 GMT

First images from our new Fuji X100, Adobe releases Lightroom 3.4 amd Camera Raw 6.4 updates, Lenovo X1, and Dell's new Precision Mobile Workstation.

April 15th through April 25th, 2011

BkkSteve — Sat, 14 May 2011 12:16:49 GMT

Expectations USA! Final Thailand attraction coverage, my last workshop, Nikon updates Capture NX 2.2.7 and Camera Control, and more..

April 13th through April 15th 2011

BkkSteve — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:10:00 GMT

Texas Longhorns are exotic? Canon T3/1100d previewed over at DPR, Lenovo announces their new W520, I review Artic Coolings Accelero XTREME VGA Cooler, and my Cobra was pulled from hibernation and is currently undergoing emergency treatment a Ford Service Department nearby.

March 31st through April 11th, 2011

BkkSteve — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:20:13 GMT

A review of the Canon T3i/600D, Bird Compositions, a review of the Asus PCE-N13 PCI-Express Wireless-N card, Nikon announces the D5100, Live Eagle Cam, retro Commodore C64 PC, several Thailand Photo stories and a big thank you to JTG for helping me in a huge way.

March 26th through March 31st, 2011

BkkSteve — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:25:19 GMT

Dana's "Happy or Sad" is very popular, cool weather in Bangkok, Canon EOS 60d 1.0.9 firmware upgrade, terns from Safari World, Lian-li CR-CF01 SATA CF Card Reader, and another week in Bangkok..

March 20th through March 25th 2011

BkkSteve — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:13:00 GMT

Married to a Thai lady and want to share relationship issues on a well moderated forum? The Thai/falang forum maybe be just right for you. Seagate updates thier Momentus XT Hybrid firmware, Firefox releases 4.0, and some shots of peacocks from Safari World..

March 11th through March 19th 2011

BkkSteve — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:54:21 GMT

Lightroon updates to 3.4rc and ACR to 6.4rc. Japanese Earthquake, Biggest Moon in 20 years, cold snap in Thailand, and Dana's "In Memoriam", another Thailand Photo Story.

March 5th through March 10th, 2011

BkkSteve — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:36:59 GMT

Kees and Dorothy win an award for their book Food From Northen Laos, Clustrmaps explained, volunteering your time, and black and white toning..

March 1st through March 5th 2011

BkkSteve — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:32:09 GMT

A few images from the docks in Bang Chang, OCZ Vertex 3 and Intel 510 reviews, NEC PA301w 30 inch monitor review,

February 19th through February 26th, 2011

BkkSteve — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:55:00 GMT

Google realigns their algorithms, Eric Clapton in Bangkok 2011, advertising campaign, Dana submits another Thailand Photo Story titled "Memory Pearls", and I wish my son a happy 18th.

February 9th through February 18th, 20111

BkkSteve — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:29:13 GMT

Sigma updates their popular 12-24mm ultra-wide, Microsoft releases Windows 7 SP1, AMD/ATI releases the latest video drivers, and Eric Clapton visits Bangkok 2011.

February 3rd through February 8th, 2011

BkkSteve — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:42:00 GMT

Images from the Railway Market at Maeklong Station, Fuji announces the release of their X100, Canon announces new super telephotos, flashes, and the new T3i, and we discuss cyanotype toning.

January 28th Through February 2nd, 2011

BkkSteve — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:44:03 GMT

ATI/AMD Catalyst 11.1 driver upgrade, Dana writes another Thailand Photo Story called "Camera Auctionds", and the Intel P67 chipset which supports the new Sandy Bridge CPU's is found to be defective costing Intel nearly 700 million to recall and repair the motherboards carrying their chipset.

January 18th through January 27th, 2011

BkkSteve — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:47:13 GMT

Hua Hin bicycling and kite surfing, Squid Row, Fuji Finepix x100 preview, Terrace 99 Mexican Food, Pranburi, selective saturation, and the weekly contents link to the Culture of Corruption, Asus Rampage III Gene motherboard review, Compositional Balance, and more.. check it out.

January 7th through January 16th 2011

BkkSteve — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:55:54 GMT

Thoughts on the Samsung BX2450 LCD, composition, old cameras, and POW 921 a new book by Mike Holt

December 31st through January 6th, 2011

BkkSteve — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:09:01 GMT

The explosion this year will be intense as we take this site and our weekly column in new directions hopefully offering more and more to the interested reader. My primary focus is still on the beginning hobbyist, but over the last three years many of you "beginning hobbyists" have progressed into keen and/or advanced photographers.

December 19th through December 25th, 2010

BkkSteve — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:00:51 GMT

Merry Christmas greeting, new computer build, Mae la,

December 14th to December 18th, 2010

BkkSteve — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:43:20 GMT

A fantastic expereince at the new Serenade Restaurant in Thong-lor, Canon Factory Service Center Upgrade for the 5d Mark II and 7d to replace the mode dial with a locking version, Canon 60d firmware upgrade, Fuji X100 information and images.

December 4th through December 13th, 2010

BkkSteve — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:22:09 GMT

Ugly Thai's, Disqus comment manager, social networking, Adobe updates, photos from Samut Songkram Boat Yards, TP-link TD-W8960n review, IP Barbie investigated by FBI, and my piece on Lolita Scourge.

November 27th Through December 4th, 2010

BkkSteve — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:57:49 GMT

Images from the boatyards in Samut Songkran and Safari World. A Canon 5d Mark II and 7d locking dial upgrade, and the weekly new content.

November 21st through November 27th, 2010

BkkSteve — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:43:46 GMT

The creep who hit and ran, selective saturation examples, TSA naked body scanners and genitalia groping, ERSI failed attempt to install V11 on my Nuvi 3790t, site crashes and more.

November 13th through November 20th

BkkSteve — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:56:00 GMT

A lot of naked scans and genitalia groping by the TSA this week, including nuns, the disabled, and anyone but terrorits, 900mm bird photos from a 300mm lens, and some ultra-wide shots.

November 9th through November 12th

BkkSteve — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:36:16 GMT

November 12th, 2230 ERSI Thailand Map Program (TSM) Version 11 is out. My older Nuvi 350 is updated with the new version and working fine. On this vintage model improvements are limited to the addition of more streets, roads, highways, and I'm sure POI's. Not much. When I asked ERSI to put the new TSM V11 on my new Nuvi 3790t they told me it would be a few months before this new version was 'tested' and available for English models. We talked a bit, and I agreed to do the testing for them. You see, the new version almost doubles the mapset in size and includes 3d Building View and terrian topo views (you can watch yourself being routed between mountains, valleys, going up/down hill, etc), and some new features unique to the new Nuvi 3700 series GPS. ERSI themselves will carry the new Nuvi 3770. What the testing period was all about, most likely, is this new map set is using Garmin's newest 'more robust' anti-piracy features which includes a MAP ID north of 2200 (exac ...

November 4th through November 8th

BkkSteve — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:59:02 GMT

November 8th, 1624 Have you been playing Angry Birds on your Android or Ipad and become frustrated because you're stuck on a certain level? This is one addictive game! No wonder it's currently the most popular game around. It's free, it's fun, and it can be frustrating. Watch the video below to learn how to use egg bombs, boomarang birds, and more. Watch the tutorial for free here. November 7th, 1830 Many people have pets and taking pet pictures is a great way to hone your photography skills. You can capture pets in all the standard ways you've capture humans. Different lighting too. In the photo below I'd actually set up a strobe and small softbox and practiced my skills at getting an uncooperative subject to tolerate flash and posing directions. I wasn't very successful with this shoot. He adopted his own "flash that light in my eyes again and you're going to make my day" look and I figured it was a good time to wrap things up ...

October 26th through November 2nd 2010

BkkSteve — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:57:29 GMT

November 2nd, 2215Anyone notice the weather is really nice this last week? I haven't turned on an air conditioner for almost a week now. A bit early in the season for such cool weather, but it's welcome nonetheless. November 2nd, 2200Work on the site continues. Please me patient. I need to find time for the site, and the column, and to get ready for an upcoming long trip all this week. The site is mostly done, but a few small things still need attending to and I'll get to them soon. November 1st, 2345We've went live with the new look and there are still a few issues to work out which we'll get to tomorrow. 99% of the site is functioning correctly so enjoy and please provide feedback. November 1st, 0130Am I the only one who tries to figure out what the animals are thinking when you photograph them? Look at the guy on the right. This is what I think was going through his mind: "Hey, do I come in your home and take pictures of you ...

October 18th through October4 25th

BkkSteve — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:31:00 GMT

October 25th, 2032 Some images haunt you long after you've made the capture. This little girls eyes and expressions have followed me from Mae La, to everywhere I've carried my camera since. Sometimes I have to blink a few times when looking through the viewfinder to make her go away. A hundred pairs of eyes in the room, only one pair followed me. I'm almost due for another visit to Mae Sot and the camps along the border and hopefully a chance to renew my friendships with some of these kids I've met. If they're still there. Some day I'm going to write about some of the great opportunities I've been given to help children like her, and the people who have been instrumental in helping me realize there were things I could do. Your biggest obstacle to helping, is feeling powerless. You feel like the problem is so huge there's nothing you can do.. so you walk away. But like any huge project, if you attack a small piece at a time, whatever you can handle, ...

October 7th through October 16th

BkkSteve — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:35:00 GMT

October 16th, 1150 Tonight at 1900 new content will go live. We'll have our Featured Photo "The Quintessential Road Shot", our Featured Destination "Lisou Village, Mae Hong Son", the news for the week, a great tutorial on "Gamuts, Color Profiling, and the Internet" which is a follow up to "Monitor Basics", then Rick gives us his first impressions of his new Sony NEX-5 and asks some questions about it, and finally my own Musings "For the Love of Work." I'd highly recommend the feature on "Gamuts, Color Profiling, and the Internet" and it's companion piece "Monitor Basics" as there's a lot of good information in those articles. Enjoy, and as always feedback of any type is really appreciated. October 13th, 2150 Have you found time to go out and make some captures lately? I've been a bit busy myself and realized its been a few months since I've visited one of the many wildlife parks or zoos I enjoy so much. Often I'd use the animals, especially the primat ...

September 30th Through October 6th

BkkSteve — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:42:00 GMT

October 6th, 2010 0530 Good morning! We just finished putting up a custom exchange rate display engine on our "Home" and "What's New" pages, right under our new Weather Information panels. There are eight currencies pegged to the Central European Bank and the rates are updated every ten minutes. If you don't see your favorite currency please ask. We'll get it up there. A personal aside: Coming home the other day the wife runs up all excited telling me something wonderful has happened. I asked "did we win a million dollars in the lottery?" She replied "better!" I knew I was in for something different now, there are few things I consider better than winning a million dollars. Like winning two million dollars. It turns out a dove built a nest on our balcony and deposited two eggs. She thinks she's going to be a mother. I was wondering why the parrots were taking on a new annoying language, we had balcony guests! I handed h ...

September 21st through September 29th

BkkSteve — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:45:00 GMT

September 29th, 2010 0355This was taken about 50km's outside of Pai on the top of a mountain range where the Lisou people were selling their products. This was a very beautiful view and I took several fun landscapes from this location (not in this direction, behind me.. :).. Canon 5d Mark II, 24-70mm F2.8L USM @F8 1/125th 24mm ISO 100 September 29th, 2010 0350 I'm very pleased to announce our Site Galleries are now working as originally planned. This took a lot of hard work but now our galleries are in the right order, sorted as I wanted the images to be presented, and several other things. If the galleries were originally installed properly and if the gallery software was originally bug free, we'd never have had these issues. They weren't easy to fix. But when it comes to web development, photography, or any profession, what separates the hacks from the professionals is resisting throwing up your ...

September 15th Through September 20th

BkkSteve — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:50:00 GMT

September 20th, 2010 1910 I've been busy cleaning lenses, recharging batteries, and getting all my gear back into shape. One of the nice things about Thailand is that you can take your vehicle into a rural environment for a week or so, bring it back covered top to bottom with mud and water, and the local carwash guys will bring it back to like new condition for a small charge. They had my truck most of the day, steam cleaned the undercarriage and engine bay, steam cleaned the carpets and floor mats, treated the leather seats, applied two coats of wax, and detailed the rest. The charge was 900 baht! Yes, I tip them well. I still have 1000+ images to sort. Hopefully I'll find enough to process to make a few galleries. I'll conitnue to share images here as I see something I like. I'm entranced by the hills and shadows mixed in with the clouds and rain. Canon 5d Mark II, 24-70mm F2.8L USM @F8 1/250th 70mm ISO 100 Septemb ...

September 5th Through September 11th

BkkSteve — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 15:55:00 GMT

September 11th, 2010 2110 Today we had a workshop where the client wanted to learn a bit about photographing people and using flash. I can't help but feel he was successful! Canon 5d Mark II, 85mm F1.2L USM @F1.2 1/160th ISO 400 September 10th, 2010 2130 Some of you might have noticed our What's New and Article Pages were down most of the day. We were effecting some upgrades which include some great new features including social bookmarking (for all the popular social sites), easier navigation, and a list of related articles at the end of every article. Thank you for your patience. The gallery upgrade is next! September 10th, 2010 0045 A few years ago I had a request from a client to help him color profile his Imac and introduce him to Lightroom 2.xx. He didn't request hands on instruction with the camera and after requesting and receiving several of his images I understood why. This man kne ...

August 29th Through September 4th

BkkSteve — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:59:00 GMT

September 4th, 2010 2100 This weeks content just went live. A primer on the Sanctuary of Truth, a 3 way keyboard Shootout, Charles asks about a back up image, our feature photograph demonstrating improving an old image with newer software, a lot of new announcements from Sony and Canon in the news section, and finally my blog entry about being Momentarily Satisfied.. How about a peek at next weeks Feature Photograph? Canon 1ds Mark II, 70-200mm F2.8L IS, @F4 1/200th 95mm ISO 800 September 3rd, 2010 2345 All the auto generated emails from Bangok Images are now working properly. They haven't been for some time, often returning an error message after registration even if the registration was valid and verficiation codes were sent. Now everything works 100% as it should, no error messages, verification messages are immediately sent upon registering, and it's smooth as silk. A fairly simple matter of understanding SMTP protocols. We ...

August 19th Through August 28th

BkkSteve — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:03:00 GMT

August 28th, 2010 1900 This weeks new content is coming online as I type. We have a "Profound Subtleties" as a feature photograph talking about a captivating image of a young girl in a market, a look at "Adult Daughters and Mothers" captured at a local floating market, the "news for the week of August 28th" featuring many Nikon announcements, a review of a very useful shipment forwarding service "www.shipito.com", a question from Charles about "tripod selection", and a Musing about "How Things Change" which is really food for thought. Please enjoy the new content and leave feedback if you'd like, it's always appreciated. August 27th, 2010 1400 Do you enjoy reading? Do you enjoy the ebook format? Do you enjoy the classics? Would you like to get FREE classics in ebook format? Yep, really. Huck Finn, Shakespeare, Moby Dick, The Koran, Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, and even the Bible in many different versions are all available for free (out ...

August 9th Through August 17th

BkkSteve — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:08:00 GMT

August 17th, 2010 0030 Recently my wife asked if I could make one of her snapshots of her 'wolf' (a 50/50 wolf/shepard hybrid) look a bit better for printing. Earlier in the day someone made the remark "I don't need or want to learn Photoshop because I see no real benefit." So I thought I'd share the original snapshot and the result after two minutes of cleaning it up a bit and let you decide if some basic Photoshop skills would be useful. If you think so, tell me what you'd like to do and I'll work up a series of small tutorials to cover what you'd like to know. Before: After: What do you think? August 15th, 2010 1245 Don't forget JTG will take on all cultural questions in our Cultural Corner. Do you have a question about language, how to take a Thai's photo, how to approach a girl to pose for you, any cultural question.. she's ready and willing to answer. ASK THE PROFESSOR!!! What an opportunity! August 15th, 2010&nbs ...

August 1st Through August 8th

BkkSteve — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:13:00 GMT

August 8th, 2330 A member contacted me today, mostly tongue in cheek, letting me know it's "easy" to post good images of good captures.. but what can "processing" to do an image you'd normally cull. Fair question. I maintain that skill level of the ididividal has 'everything' to do with the results.. and not only the skill, but the experieince. The image below was the absolute worst in the bunch when using the Sony NEX-5 and 16mm F2.8. I wouldn't post it as a "good imge" to save my life, thereby making it the perfect image for this experience. Lets take a look at it: Sony NEX-5, 16mm F2.8 @F5.6 1/400th ISO 200 Obiously the image sucks on many fronts. The tonal ranges are way too compressed,. the sky is blown, and the structure has all sort of perspective issues that will take forever in CS5 to straighten out. More, it's not properly focused, the DOF (depth of field) wasn't sufficient, and it's a waste. We should cull it! B ...

July 19th Through July 22nd..

BkkSteve — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:18:00 GMT

July 22nd, 2010 0205 Recently I took delivery of an Xrite Color Checker Passport and I must confess, I own probably every such device ever hawked by the camera con men.. always searching for something that really helps not only get the proper on-site white balance, but the proper balance of colors as well. Most people.. when you talk "correct White Balance" they focus on skin tones, and indeed correct skin tones are indeed the most obvious and easy way to tell if someone got the colors close.. assuming there's a person with skin in the composition. However, it's entirely possible ane even most common, to get the skin tones close but still have your color balance totally off. This is especially true in mixed light. Unprocessed image (other than xrite color adjustment), straight from RAW to a jpeg conversion There is nothing so "right" about an image then the proper balance of color throughout the entire exposure and tonal range. We've all seen them, and they almost ...

July 14th Through July 19th. .

BkkSteve — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:22:00 GMT

July 19th, 2010 0158 I've spent most of the day and most of the evening experimenting Xrite's Color Checker Passport. So far I've very impressed with this tool and I'll be using it in all my potrait and landscape workshops in the future. It will make getting the correct skin tones simple and fast and very easy for everybody. In the past I've used and taught similiar tools, Kodak grey and white and black cards, and more depending on if we were outdoors or in the studio. The Passport excels in all envirornments. I'm damn impressed! I hope in the future I'll be bringing you a solid tutorial with models and examples. I've also received my NEC SVII wide-gamut calibrated Xrite puck. It 'looks' identical to my tried and true Xrite 1di2 I've used for years, and if you've been through one of my workshops you know which device I'm taking about and how to use it. NEC's SVII software manual says both are "certified" for use with their wide-gamut displays and I' ...

July 12th Through July 14th..

BkkSteve — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:25:00 GMT

July 14, 2010 0808 I FINALLY found an extra battery and the 16mm F2.8 pancake lens for my Sony NEX-5. I've been looking since I received the camera and these items weren't available in Thailand and no camera shop could even give me an expected date for delivery. B&H my favorite on-line camera store couldn't give me a date either. It turns out www.adorama.com my second favorite long time on-line camer store had both the battery and the lens in stock and they're now on their way to my forwarding addresss. That's right, I'm using a shipping forwarding company for on-line retailers who will not ship direct to Thailand. You ship it to one of their addresses they provide, they'll even consolidate your boxes into a single box to save on shipping, allow you to fill our the customs labels on-line, and then forward it to you via USPS Airmail or any carrier you wish. My last shipment, four items weighing about 3 pounds cost me a total of $40.45. Not bad if you have no ...

July 10th Through July 12th..

BkkSteve — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:27:00 GMT

July 12th, 2010 0240 There is entertainment, and there is ENTERTAINMENT! Tonight my son and I were invited guests to the Thai Youth Choirs latest performance before heading to China for an international competition. It was an enjoyable time for all and I had the additional pleasure of sitting next to Thailand's most accomplished Conducter Dr. Pawasut Piriyapongrat who was able to help educate me on the finer points of choral performances. No photography was allowed, but unfortunately no one respected this request and all around me 1000's of point and shoot cameras were beeping, buzzing, and worst of all flashing. I had my new Sony NEX-5 with me and I discreetly disabled the AF beep, turned off the AF illuminator, disabled the flash, and tried to make a few captures at higher ISO's without flash, both to test the capabilitites of this new and fun camera and t have some remembrances of a fine night out. The camera didn't perform bad for the conditions.. but not great either. ...

June 22nd Through July 6th. .

BkkSteve — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:31:00 GMT

July 6th, 2010 0235 The galleries have been repaired and are operational again. Thank you for staying with us through our growing pains. Our experience with the new Sony NEX-5 and 18-55mm OS lens continues and we're very pleased with the image quality. We hope to bring you a thorough user report soon. July 4th, 2010 2209 Happy 4th of July! I hope your holiday back home is going well and you're enjoying the long weekend. The forums were adjusted and I was able to remove the spam.. so the forums are back up. You've gotta wonder just how funny someone thinks they are to put up such garbage. I'm sorry for the brief outage. Remember, this is a family orientated site and we want to keep our content appropriate and welcoming to everyone. If you see inappropriate spam or any inappropriate content, please don't be afraid to let me know. Email me at info@bangkokimages.com and we'll get it taken care of asap. June 29th, 2010 &nbs ...

June 13th Through June 21st..

BkkSteve — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:33:00 GMT

June 21st, 2010 1530 I just uninstalled Carbonite from my workstation. I feel they 'bait and switched' me and I'm tired of this sort of game. They advertise "unlimited backup" but now I learn they throttle your backup to 2mbps which equates to less than 2gb per day. At that rate it would take 3-5 years to back up all my data! When I called and asked them about it they referred me to their "Carbonitepro.com" website which conviently wasn't listed on mentioned on their other site. For my amount of data (2tb) the charge would be close to $1000 MONTHLY. A far cry from $54 annually they were touting on the other site. This sort of bait and switch tactic leaves me with a very bad taste in my mouth and frankly is disgusting from a company fo this caliber. They should have made the bandwidth throttling very clear from the beginning, or at least has a disclaimer to their "unlimited data storage" claim. Shame on them! June 20th, 2010 2212 M ...

June 2nd Through June 12th..

BkkSteve — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:36:00 GMT

June 12th 2010 0700 There will be no column or new content this week. I had a lot planned but the workstation rebuild and Lightroom re-indexing and preview building is still going on as I write this. All eight threads of my CPU have been hovering around 90% for over 48 hours building previews for over 166,xxx images. As of this moment we're about halfway done. Without access to my images I couldn't write a decent column. Also, my son came in last night and I'm having a great time visiting with him. He's 17 and has a lot to talk about..:) Next week we'll have two reviews. One review is going to center around the new features of Lightroom 3. There are some fairly significant changes and we'll take a look at each one. Next, is a cloud syncing program I've been test driving for a month now that syncs your Outlook, iTunes, docments, or any folders you want across as many laptops and computers as you buy licenses for. These computers need not ...

May 23rd Through May 31st..

BkkSteve — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:40:00 GMT

May 31st, 2010 MEMORIAL DAY In America today is Memorial Day. A day when we remember those, both civilian and military, who have died in the service of our country. Most are Soldiers, Sailors, or Marines who gave the ultimate sacrifice but there are indeed a significant number of Merchant Marines, Red Cross Volunteers, and many more civilians who also gave just as much. Historically and traditionally our nations President, no matter the party, would attend and preside over somber ceremonies out of duty and respect for those who served. Not this year. It appears a family weekend holiday is the priority for our current President. It saddens me. When most Americans use this national holiday as a chance to take a long weekend vacation, at least in the past the millions of veterans could count on our President to keep the holiday in perspective and show the proper respect and reverence to those who have made our American way of life possible. Not any more.&nbs ...