APOGEE PHOTO MAGAZINE: Photofinishing with Photoshop: Introduction to Contrast & Color by John Watts

Photo Product Reviews

by Michael Fulks

GoodSync

As photographers, we know the importance of backing up our images to avoid accidental erasure or loss due to hard drive failure. Some of the editing programs available offer backup; fewer still, such as ACDSee Pro 2.5, have the ability to sync your folders on one drive to another location. GoodSync by Siber Systems can help you with both routines.

Back-up vs. Sync: How are these processes different?

File Synchronization (or 'synching') is the process of making sure that two or more locations contain the same up-to-date files. If you add, change, or delete a file from one location, the synchronization process will add, change, or delete the same file at the other location. File synchronization maintains the same version of files on multiple locations, such as directories on a computer, or removable storage devices such as flash drives. When two locations are synchronized, the most current version of a file is available at all locations, no matter where it was last modified. Even though you can synchronize directories manually, dragging and dropping files from one location to another, using a software tool is faster and less error prone.

Backup refers to the copying of data from one location to another. Backing up your data is a necessity, so that when important images, spreadsheets, MP3s, financial documents, and emails are lost, you are able to easily restore them with your backup copy. When files are backed up, copies of the data are always sent in one direction, to a location where it can be safely stored. Whether you need to completely restore a computer following a crash, or to restore small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted, backing up your files is important. Backups are your last line of defense against data loss.

With photography as with other ventures, both processes have a place. With GoodSync you have a software package that offers both. With backup, most other software option involve "Recovery" because the data is compressed and packaged into large files, often in a proprietary way. Restoring a file that has been backed up requires launching the backup software and going through the recovery process. This can be very time consuming, and in my experience, less than acceptable. With GoodSync you are copying the files from one location to another, so the files are always "live." Sure, that process takes up much more space than creating a compressed backup file, but with hard drives getting cheaper each month, disk space is not the issue it was in the past. And the time that can be saved by avoiding "Restore" more than makes up for the additional cost of more disk space.

In the Sync mode, Good Sync not only backs up, but insures that the available files are the same on all locations even after you have worked on one. Any changes you make will automatically synchronize to multiple locations. For example, let's say in your normal workflow you normally download your photos directly from the camera to your My Pictures folder and then backup those files to a external hard drive. But what if you are shooting somewhere without your computer and you decide to download your files from your camera to your portable hard drive. With GoodSync you can keep all your image locations in sync automatically. You would not have to keep track of your latest files and move them to each different location.

According to GoodSync's Andrea Lawn, GoodSync's software is also more sophisticated than other options, such as Vista's Total Backup or Mac's Time Machine. For example, GoodSync synchronizes the files bit-by-bit, so that if you experience a power outage or any other interruption due to software or hardware glitches in the middle of your sync, the program will pickup just where you left off (in other programs you will likely lose files.) GoodSync synchronizes files to multiple locations and can synchronize starting from any location. And many automatic synchronization options are available, such as times synchronizations and synchronizing automatically when a new device is present. So for example, you can plug in your camera to the computer and GoodSync can automatically synchronize the files from the camera to the computer (or multiple locations).

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The Good Sync interface is intuitive and easy to use. "Jobs" are easily created and saved so there is no need to recreate your desired process. By clicking on "Analyze" you can quickly see the status of the files at both locations. If there are conflicts, that is, differences from one location to another, they are noted and you are prompted in ways to remedy the problem.

Jobs can also be setup to run automatically and at the time intervals you specify. This makes it even easier to make sure your files are up to date and harder to make excuses as to why you haven't backed up or synced your files.

Good sync is available 32-bit Windows 2000, XP, 2003, & Vista as well as 64-bit Windows XP & Vista. A trial version can be downloaded here.

Purchase price is just $29.95 and includes free web and toll-free phone support and a 30-day Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee.

Siber Systems is a privately-held company, incorporated in 1995 in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with offices in Germany, Japan, and Russia.

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Photosave DVD by Verbatim

OK, your grandmother has thrown away her old film point and shoot and entered the digital age. Try as hard as you might, you can't seem to convince her to backup her images. It was much easier just putting the negatives in a shoebox-- she always knew where to find them. Also, she really doesn't want to learn complicated software. All she wants, she tells you, is to take her pictures and save them to her shoebox.

Enter Verbatim's PhotoSave DVD. When her memory card is full, Grandma plugs in her camera or her card in the card reader, pops in the DVD (the shoebox) and the software already loaded on the DVD launches, finds her camera or card and automatically saves the images onto the DVD. She can repeat this process until the DVD is full and then she can start a new shoebox, whoops, I mean DVD! When the DVD is done writing, it ejects and grandma can label it and put it someplace safe. She loves it. She doesn't even have to get your grandfather involved.

Of course there are also more manual options available and those are the one Grandpa uses, but the bottom line is that the Verbatim PhotoSave DVD makes it easy for everyone to stay on top of saving their images. And whenever they need or want prints, they can just take the DVD to the corner drugstore and make their own prints.

PhotoSave is by Verbatim and costs about $10 for 3 DVD with those cute little jewel cases. And they are available for all ages! You can find out more from Verbatim's website.

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Etre Touchy Gloves

Allright, I'll admit it. When I opened the package from Ireland and looked inside, I laughed. I am sorry, they looked really goofy. I saw the literature, understood the purpose, and then I set them aside. Besides I didn't have an iPod, so what was the point?

Two weeks passed and the heat went out in my office. My fingers were so cold I couldn't even type. And then I remembered the goofy pair of gloves. The next day I brought them into the office and put them on. They were soft and comfortable. The missing finger and thumb made it very easy to pick things up, such as a pen to write with. The exposed forefinger gave me the dexterity I needed for my table's pen and my mouse, and, surprise, the gloves were lightweight enough to type with on my desktop keyboard.

My colleagues, already amused by my Guinness stocking cap and muffler, did double takes when they saw my hands. Needless to say the gloves now have a permanent home in my desk drawer and I wear them frequently.

As photographers we often have the need to have our trigger finger exposed and an opposable thumb as well, because that is, after all, what makes us human. Etre Touchy gloves are perfect for those chilly mornings when we are out shooting and we have to pickup that aluminum tripod. They also protect our hands as we are shooting, because we don't have to take them off to work our cameras like so many other gloves.

But if you are into texting, playing with your iPhone, or any other device that requires considerable dexterity and finger sensitivity, you are really going to love these. Etre Touchy gloves seek to fill the gap left between normal pairs of gloves and fingerless pairs of gloves. While normal pairs of gloves keep your hands warm and dry, you can't use them with modern touch-screen devices, which only respond to skin-on-screen contact. Their bulkiness and general lack of sensitivity also leads to “fat-fingering” misery when using the tiny keypads of some mobile devices.

We've all seen those fingerless gloves sold in sporting goods stores, but with them the opposite set of problems exists. Their missing fingertips allow you to operate modern touch-screen devices and provide the dexterity necessary to avoid pressing multiple keys at the same time when using other gadgets. But they don’t keep your hands warm and dry, which defeats the purpose of wearing a pair of gloves in the first place.

Etre Touchy gloves provide the best of both worlds, giving you the warmth and dryness of a normal pair of gloves combined with the gadget-compatibility of a pair of fingerless gloves. That’s because they are “part normal pair of gloves, part fingerless pair of gloves”. They cover your middle, ring and little fingers completely, keeping your hands cozy, clean and dry; while exposing only the tips of your thumbs and index fingers.

At the present time, Etre Touchy gloves are available in sizes medium and large and the one color combination of charcoal with turquoise trim. However, Etre hopes to add new colors, sizes and customization options in the near future.

The gloves cost £14.99 GBP including P&H and can be ordered directly from www.etretouchy.com

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