Their trip was relatively immediate because it was wireless and no runners were needed (other than a camera swap of course). seated in endzone) took a very different trip to the trailer. The photos from the fixed-position photographers (e.g. Good enough for the newspaper rag apparently. These were definitely “digital quality” which had a bad reputation back then. But you have to get it right, and this would eliminate the chance of any NC2000e photo slipping into the system claiming to be “film” quality. Howard wasn’t upset that I called it the Elway Release (even though he was rooting for Green Bay), it was the last minute changes. Project Manager Howard Gros was not too happy to have to install the Elway Release on all of the computers in the trailer, and especially the laptops that were ready to leave for the stadium seats and end-zone to accompany the fixed-position photographers. So I jokingly called it the “Elway Release” because I was rooting for Denver. Jim proceeded to test this build, but I had to give it a new version number and I was at 0.99. It was an easy-enough fix (what us nerds call a “one-liner”), so I agreed and made a new build in the trailer on my laptop. Story continues after photo, Photo © 1998 Dennis Walker But since AP’s Super Bowl coverage was all digital by then, Jim asked me to just “rubber stamp” every photo that PM processed with this IPTC field indicating a digital source. I frankly think it was a “be prepared” warning to AP’s members (newspapers) because the images from the 1.3 MP NC2000e camera were a bit low resolution, especially when the editors did a tight crop. Back then it was important for AP to include the words “DIGITAL PHOTO” in some IPTC field (I can’t remember which one) if the photo was taken by a digital camera versus film. Making a new build of PM on game day sounded crazy to me, but Jim explained why it wasn’t such a big deal, and that he had faith in me. Normally everything is all setup and locked down by Saturday, and Sunday is to just get the job done. I laughed at him because this is definitely not standard protocol. So I was a bit surprised when Jim Dietz, my technology contact at AP, asked me to make just one last minute change to PM. AP was willing to give Photo Mechanic its first real exercise to cover this big game even though PM wasn’t for sale quite yet. Perfect! This was a big day for me and my fledgling company, Camera Bits (which was just me doing business as). Last minute preparations were underway for coverage of Super Bowl XXXII between the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos – Favre vs Elway. It was Sunday morning January 25th, 1998, and I was in The Associated Press’ trailer in the parking lot at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego. For over 20 years and counting, Photo Mechanic remains the go-to software for professional photographers around the world.Update: Flash Anniversary Sale on Photo Mechanic is on now! Photo Mechanic isn’t just for photojournalists its speed and organizational tools now help all professional photographers work faster and more efficiently. Because everyone in the photojournalism business used IPTC standards, Dennis also became an accidental expert on metadata, incorporating tools like batch captioning and variables in Photo Mechanic to simplify and expand the application and usage of metadata in photography. Taking all that he had learned, assisting photo editors in the tense environment of major global sporting events, Dennis released the first version of Photo Mechanic in February 1998. Interestingly, he implemented RAW exposure compensation before Kodak did for their own cameras, earning him an award from the NPPA for his contributions. Dennis initially focused on image quality issues such as color artifacts and high ISO noise-reduction, creating Photoshop filter plug-ins to solve these difficult problems.Īfter attending several photojournalism workshops and seeing the woes of workflow at professional football’s biggest game, Dennis realized that the biggest contribution he could make to digital photography besides image quality was to improve the selection and editing process, which at the time was (to use a technical term) rather “clunky.”ĭennis continued to create Photoshop plug-ins that improved image quality by using new RAW processing algorithms and advanced image filtering techniques. He then started working with digital pioneers, Kodak and Minolta, to vastly accelerate the RAW processing and image quality of their early attempts at digital cameras for working professionals. Prior to founding Camera Bits, Dennis worked in the field of neural networks and was co-author of the award winning game Dungeon Master. He started the company in 1996 after his initial exposure to digital photography at his previous job showed him a need for improved image quality and workflow solutions. Dennis Walker is the President and Founder of Camera Bits.
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