Okay, so the last thing with Photoshop CS2 before losing it last weekend was to spend a whole day revising the vast majority of my JPG's. Gonna start uploading them in a few minutes (despite massive browser clunkiness) so that I have something productive to show for this weekend.

Spent most of it either a) recovering from errands in the heat outdoors, or b) struggling to polish off Wishful Thinking/Try As You Might, but am convinced it's not yet looking anywhere nearly so good as it could be. Dramtic, yes, but not gleaming, which I hope to pull off. So, no new work, but at least a fresh look at a bunch of old work.

The (long-planning, long-desired) idea behind revising the JPGs is twofold:

1. To use CS2's Bicubic Sharper algorithm to make snappier small versions - I work big and they've always tend to lose something in translation. Bicubic Sharper should help restore some of the snap/depth that my big versions have.

Wrote a Photoshop action that would reduce each image to seven different sizes (basically to prepare for any anticipated purpose), with both the Sharper and "Unsharper" versions to choose from for decision on a case-by-case basis, often deciding to set the Unsharper version on Darken over the Sharper for the best net result. (I.e., sharper edge shadows with minimized brighter-side halos.) Time-consuming?, yes, but the Action made it a lot easier (espec. since CS2's Actions allow one to save and USE History States in the progress of the Action, which was indispensably useful.)

2. To bring them "up to date" with all I've learned about color profiling in the last three years.

Most of my older images have appeared dark here not just for the obvious reason - made on a Mac with 1.8 gamma - but also for an inobvious one (that affected my prints too). Even when I seemed to have everything figured out and doing my workflow right, somehow a 2.2 gamma seemed to be entering into the equation where I couldn't find it.

Turns out (I discovered last year), color spaces (not just profiles) have inherit gammas of their own. That is, my color space of choice, AdobeRGB 1998, is based on a 2.2 gamma! Ack! (AppleRGB and ColorMatch RGB are based on 1.8g, and sRGB, naturally, is also based on 2.2g.) So, since preferring the more rich color of AdobeRGB, built my own custom variant (last summer) hinged on a 1.8 gamma instead. And that's improved things much since then (effectively solving my print problem completely).

So, last weekend, opened up all those old ones built in AdobeRGB, and Applied the new custom profile, and then, for everyone else's sake on the web, Converted the new JPGs to sRGB. That is, Applying doesn't change any data, it just changes how the existing data is interpret - in effect making them match my monitor in hindsight - and then Converting does change data, based on exactly how that data is interpret by the Profile assigned to it, but ideally to a better fit for the vast majority of profile-indifferent browsers. (Far as I know, only Safari takes profiles seriously.)

Just sharing all that in case anyone else has been frustrate by similar issues, I'd be glad to offer further advice if anyone needs it. (Replying Notes, however, is easier than replying Comments in my non-DA-compliant browser, however.)

So, anyway, DevWatches beware... (It'll be a process of hours though...)

And then, next weekend, will prolly tackle updating all those old print files too. Many of them were proofed to perfection already (though the trial-and-error was laborious without understanding what was wrong), but at least a dozen of them will benefit anew (all the Shae shots in particular, from when I "knew enough to be dangerous.")

Also, many more pieces are "coming out of hiding" from last year, but mostly "also-rans" or revised-in-2004 originals now destined for Scraps (including my two DTF's from way back in the day). Four pieces are remaining under wraps, though, pending spectacular new revisions, so that they'll be fresh surprises for those that don't remember them from before. (For those that do remember, those pieces are Seasons Come and Go, Height of the Summer, Untitled, and Mission from God.)

One strange bit of bad news. It seems one source file was lost in my drive crash of 2005, but only last week became evident. That was The Message Is Clear. But that one will be a joy to revise/rebuild someday - it was made during a transitional period in my technique anyway - so if source files had gone missing, that was about the ideal one to lose. (I was scared to death - for a while - that I had lost the source files for Untitled. That would have been a disaster, a labor-intensive fifteen-shot stitch that I'm dying to finish for print with my new techniques, but they thankfully did turn up on my other archive drive.)

One last bit of good news. My main external drive (with my archived body of work) that locks up my old CPU via Firewire seems fine by USB 1.1. Just proved that today when bringing the new JPGs over to the old system. Obviously, not terribly practical, but for lower-meg tasks, but a lot more practical that swapping the drive into my limited IDE bus (and having to remove my Photoshop scratch disk to make room for it).

Anyway, just wanted to give you all fair warning. And I do think some of the images will shine bright with new life, if you're inclined to zoom in on any of your old favorites you see come around again. If I'm uploading them, it's because there should be a substantial difference.





ps - yes, limited and obsolete internet DOES suck. But trying to make the best of it. Basically, if Photoshop's busy, then the net's a risk I can't take. So sorry if comments go unusually unreplied, rest assured I'm reading them when I check in every day or two. Can't tell you how much they mean to me.



UPDATE

Okay, so I understand my new JPGs won't flood your devWatches after all...

So here they are, if anyone's interested... Updated to be brighter and crisper, I'll be interested if anyone things I've "gone too far."