Digital photography introduces one to new challenges. These challenges existed with film as well, but depending on whether you processed your own negatives or let someone else, you could remain blissfully ignorant. The challenge every digital photographer faces is color management. Sure color varied between film; for example, Fuji versus Kodak produced different hues of blue, but depending on your preference you just chose a different film. With digital photography, color varies by make/model. Nikons have deficient green saturation. Canons have deficient red saturation. Each RAW converter (software used to manipulate the data captured by a digital SLR and some point-and-shoot cameras) and preview software renders colors, handles noise ( discussion on Adobe Forums regarding change in noise handling between Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 4.0 and ACR 4.1), and sharpens (or doesn’t sharpen) differently as well. (Some of the hassles arise from proprietary, undocumented Codecs--for example, Microso...

About a month ago, my backup drive (Western Digital MyBook 500GB) failed. Unfortunately it failed as the hard drive on my laptop reached capacity and I was transferring files back and forth. Luckily I had 90% of my Livewire photos backed up on one of two laptops, and luckily I (We Fix Macs in Palo Alto) was able to recover 95% of my personal photos. I've implemented a more rigorous backup process for all photos - it begins with the transfer of raw files from my camera's compact flash to my laptop and includes a DVD backup of the raw files, a copy on my laptop, and a copy on my primary external drive backup before I erase the images from the camera's compact flash. I have a similar process for edited files - another copy of the raw files with intelligent names applied, two DVD copies of edits and proofs, and copies on both my primary and secondary external drives. In the process of going through the recovered data - organized solely by file type, in no particular order - I d...

Image Services photobucket: A photo/video site where you can upload once and share everywhere - myspace, facebook, blogger, and more. (I don't personally use, but it looks cool.) Behind the scenes at Shutterfly's secret workshop : CNET article about what goes on behind the scenes at Shutterfly. Take a look at the production line for album assembly! PhotoShelter : While it's a great site for inspiration, it's actually a stock photography site. Photographers can upload and sell photos and designers (and others) can purchase images for their work. morgueFile - Where Photo Reference Lives : Site "provide[s] free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits." Anyone can upload photos. It's a great way to get feedback on your work. I have some of my stock images up there; look for images by ehensley. Photography in General Going to the mat for photo copyrights: CNET interview with photographer Lane Hartwell, a photographer whose image was used in...