Breeze System’s Downloader Pro does only one thing, but it does it extremely well: Downloading your images to your PC. Whether running multiple download sessions in parallel, converting RAW images to DNG (Digital Negative Format), renaming all images, adding metadata or creating backups during downloads, Downloader Pro delivers — fast and prodictably! Initial setup takes a bit, but once done, importing images is a snap. We have been using it for years and miss it dearly ever since we converted to our Mac, since all of Breeze’s software is Windows only.
Highly recommended!
Price: $29.95
Lenpens have been around for a while and we have been carrying them in our bags for years. It’s a very simple way to clean your lenses — use the retractable brush to brush off dust or use the non-liquid cleaning tip to clean smudges from your lenses. Easy, reliable and fast – it’s a non-brainer to have it in your bag!
Price: $14.95, Amazon: $8.49
When it comes to photo bags, preferences vary. But no matter what bag I’ve tried so far, my main shoulder bag has remained the same over the last four years: The Domke F-4AF. It’s very versatile, extremely well put together and in typical Domke-style, it shows that attention was paid to every single aspect of the bag.
Don’t be fooled by it looking rather small; let me assure you that this bag holds more than you would expect. Its interior consists of one bigger and two smaller departments. To illustrate what you can store in the bag, let’s just look at what’s in mine:
In the bigger department, the Canon Speedlite EX420 flash is placed on the bottom, followed by my Canon EOS 5D with the 24-105/f4L mounted on it. This way, I can just grab the camera by the lens, pull it out and be ready for action.
One of the two smaller compartments holds my Canon 50/1.8 as well as the 70-300/f4.5-5.6 DO IS, whereas the other one houses the 70-200/f4L. Except for the 50mm on the bottom, all lenses are in the bag with their lens hoods mounted!
In addition, I fitted one of the two side pockets with a padded insert, so it now offers enough space for my Canon 1.4 TC, my 85/1.8 and the 100/f2.8 macro. The other side pocket holds batteries, chargers, plates and other accessories, whereas filters and adapters go into the front pocket.
Overall, this bag is a winner. Highly recommended!
Price: $204.99, Amazon: $114.95
While it does not really look like it could make a big difference, this one does. Lightsphere is a flash diffuser that looks dorky, but delivers beautiful results. Designed by renowned wedding photographer Gary Fong, it is an add-on to your existing flash that diffuses the light in its cylindrical dome (similar to a lamp shade) to eliminate the typical direct flash or bounce flash shadows. It does so with excellent results that have to be seen to be believed!
Despite their cheesy-looking website that looks like it’s overselling what the Lightshere delivers (hey, the man is from L.A. 
, this one not only works, but it far exceeded my expectations. Try it out and I bet you will not go back to on-camera flash again. Definitely worth the $50 investment!
Amazon Price: $49.00
Certainly a mouthful for such a small accessory, but this one deserves the praise.
Question: If you mount a leveling base on a tripod and level it, then your tripod head on the leveling base and the camera on your tripod head, is the camera level? Perhaps, but more likely than not, it isn’t. That’s why I slip the Bubble Level into the flash hot shoe and level my camera with the help of this gadget, just to make certain. Of course, I could straighten my images in Photoshop, but why go through the hassle, if you can keep your camera level in the first place?
The Manfrotto 2-Axis Hot Shoe Double Bubble Level might not look like a lot, but it certainly is worth the money!
Recommended!
List Price: $36.00, Amazon: $29.25
Here are my three favorite photo/imaging tools, all for free:
1. Irfanview
If you try out just one free tool, this is the one. It’s the best free image viewing tool in the world. Period. Viewing images, printing, converting them between different formats, slide shows, minor adjustments, thumbnails, image organizing – all of these can be done fast and easily. There’s hardly an image format that is not supported by Irfanview. It’s not an image editor, though.
I’ve been using Irfanview since the mid 1990’s and it’s my default application for file extensions such as JPG and TIF. It’s one of the first applications that get installed whenever I get a new PC. Try it out and I bet it will stick. Sorry, Windows only. Available in many languages.
2. Pixmantec Raw Shooter Essentials
Although Pixmantec was bought by Adobe least year and its Raw Shooter engine is now part of the new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom product, you can still google it to find copies on the net. If you bought a Digital SLR in 2006, chances are that Raw Shooter Essentials (RSE) supports its RAW format. In short, RSE is a full-featured software package to convert RAW images to TIFFs or JPEGs and it does a great job of doing so. Intuitive interface, easy adjustment capabilities and superb image processing make this a great value. Personally, I use the Premium (RSP) version, but I used RSE before RSP came out. It’s by far the best free RAW converter. Again, Windows only.
3. GIMP
Not ready to shell out hundreds of dollars for Adobe Photoshop, but still want Photoshop-like functionality? Try the GIMP, an open-source image editor. While its functionality is a bit short of Photoshop’s, it still offers way more than most other free “image editors”. Plus, it’s available on Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix. It would be my image editor of choice, if I would go the free route!
How do you know that any of the White Balance settings in your camera actually capture a scene the way you see it? You don’t! But don’t despair – WhiBal is one tool that will definitely help you overcoming this issue.
Rather than setting the in-camera white balance based on a test shot, here’s how I use it in the field: For regular shots, I take a shot with the WhiBal held in front of my camera first (this typically works only, if I use a tripod) and then I take the actual image. Back in my digital darkroom, I adjust the white balance based on the WhiBal shot in Photoshop. For panorama shots, I take the test shot with the camera pointing where I take my meter readings before taking the actual panoramic images. On my computer, I stitch the panorama first before applying the WhiBal white balance readings. While there’s a chance that the stitching software adjusts my some of settings in my stitched image, this has worked for almost all of my panoramas so far. If it does not, I manually apply the WhiBal reading to all my images before stitching.
While the use of WhiBal seems cumbersome, I spend much more time setting up for a shot, so the extra WhiBal shot causes hardly any overhead, while at the same time allowing me to capture very accurate white balance readings. This is one gadget that’s always in my bag.
Highly recommended!
Price: $36.95, Amazon: $36.95
Digital Outback Photo posted the first in a four part series about my experience with Lightroom. Called “Veit’s Personal Lightroom Workflow Experience”, I will examine certain aspects of my photographic workflow and how Lightroom might or might not help me to improve them. Interested? Check it out!
Whenever I go on a trip, the Silver Portable External series hard drive from IOmega goes with me. I use my 100 GB version to back up all my data while I’m away (actually, I carry two in case one fails, which has not happened so far). It draws its power from its USB port, so I don’t have to lug an extra power supply. And while its disk spins only at 4300 rpm and the internal buffer is small, speed and access speed are not that important when traveling. Low weight, reliability and easy handling are and this line of hard drives excels at all of them. The only thing missing, but not really that much: a Firewire connection, preferably Firewire 800!
Recommended!
Amazon Price: $99.95
