PPA Today

What happens when your SD card fails?

ESS Data Recovery overviews the data recovery process for flash medium.

Most photographers by now are using some form of flash medium. Tagged as more reliable and efficient, flash memory is a sensible solution for professional photographers.  Being at the forefront of storage technology, many PPA members are taking full advantage of compact flash, SD and “thumbdrive” devices.

But what do you do when that SD card fails?

“Like anything else electronic, flash media will eventually go down,” says ESS Data Recovery President Ben Carmitchel “Whether due to a static charge from your pocket or a dunk in your morning cup of coffee, that flash card will eventually stop functioning normally”.  ESS Data Recovery sees between 120 to nearly 300 flash drives per month.  For data recovery experts, who typically deal with magnetic medium such as hard drives, a new set of data recovery problems have arisen—while flash drives may be more reliable than hard drives, the data recovery procedures used are completely different.

Drive-Imaging: Beyond Backup

Your image files may be backed up, are your applications? What about your system software? How long will it take you to locate all of your install disks, serial numbers, and activation codes to re-install your software?

If you cannot afford that kind of down-time, consider drive-imaging to create a virtual image of your entire hard drive.   With a drive image back-up, you'll save not only your data but your programs, drivers, and all the settings that make your machine yours.

Read Edward Mendelson's article on pcmag.com and see how he rates 5 popular drive-imaging software packages.

O’Reilly Digital Media

Best known for their computer “how-to” books, O’Reilly also has a handy blog with author interviews and digital imaging tips. Recent posts include a podcast interview with Joe Schorr, discussing advanced organizing tips for Aperture power users, and a tutorial on using Lightroom’s Develop module for tonal control of your images. For the latest from O’Reilly, go to http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/.

Photoshop Tutorial: Create pen-and-ink drawings from your photos

Photographer Sara Frances, of Photo Mirage Imaging, in Denver, Colorado gives an easy to follow Photoshop tutorial that will turn your photos into realistic pen-and-ink drawings. Read "Photoshop How-To: Brushstroke Bonanza"  on Creative Pro.com

Finding the Right Photographer

Whether you are looking for someone to capture your wedding memories or illustrate your products, choosing the right photographer has never been easy…until now. The Find-a-Photographer search engines on www.PPA.com, www.SEPsociety.com, and www.MyCPI.com allow you to find professional photographers who match your criteria. And you can now view samples of their work at the search sites!

Powered by Portfolios.com, the Find-a-Photographer search engines increase the power consumers wield by helping them be better informed. Seeing actual images is one of the most essential factors in a customer’s buying decision, so we are even in the process of ranking those photographers who have uploaded image samples ahead of those who have not.

Protecting Your Digital Event Images

PPA member Rick Williams of Four Season Photography in Mobile, Alabama offered us the following advice for protecting your image files when shooting a wedding or event:

1. Dump your card during the event to a laptop or other device. This will give you an instant backup copy.
2. Keep the backup device separate from the camera/camera case. If your camera or case is stolen, you will still have one backup.
3. Never leave cards in the camera. Rick keeps them in his pocket to prevent loss in case of camera theft.
4. On return to the studio, dump everything onto a computer there and immediately burn a DVD of the event images.
5. Take the DVD to another secure location.

 

New AOL IM Worm Making the Rounds

A new threat to AOL instant messaging users is making the rounds.  IM users will get a message with a misleading link. When they click the link, a malicious file will be executed on their windows system, allowing the computer to be taken over remotely.

ZDNet News reports that ,"Pipeline initially appears as an instant message from a familiar contact, according to FaceTime security. A message appears asking users to click on a link to upload a picture of themselves; instead, a command file, image18.com, is downloaded and disguised as a JPEG, according to FaceTime."

You can read the full FaceTime Security Labs report here.

Microsoft releases fixes for 21 vulnerabilities

Computer World reports that in one of the largest security updates since moving to a monthly patch release cycle, Microsoft Corp. today issued 12 bulletins detailing fixes for 21 separate vulnerabilities in a wide range of products.

Eight of the bulletins and 12 of the vulnerabilities were rated "critical" by the company. Three bulletins detailed fixes for "important" flaws, while one described a flaw of moderate severity. The vulnerabilities disclosed today affect several Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer (IE), Windows Media Player, Microsoft Outlook and PowerPoint.

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/596488/352685/22605/0/

Dr. Phil for Photoshop on Creativepro.com

Creativepro.com has a new article called "Dr. Phil for Photoshop" that you may want to check out! In this article, Julieanne Kost and Daniel Brown explain the complex differences in the relationships between megapixels, file size, image size, and print size and advise you on the best sizes for scanning, printing (for both a desktop printer and a press), slideshows, and Web sites. Click here to download Creativepro.com's article as a PDF.

New "Photoshop Killer Tips" Daily Video Podcast Launched by NAPP

Straight from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), comes "Photoshop Killer Tips, an exciting new daily video Podcast featuring Photoshop® Guru Matt Klowkowski, one of the co-hosts of the top-rated weekly Adobe® Photoshop show "Photoshop TV" (http://www.photoshoptv.com).

This new video Podcast is short and sweet, with each daily segment only one to two minutes in length, but each episode is packed with nothing but the coolest Photoshop tips, tricks, timesaving shortcuts, and easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorials. Subscribe (for free) to Photoshop Killer Tips at http://www.photoshopkillertips.com .