Despite the fact that I have used PC's for something like 15 years, God doesn't time fly, I have to say that Apple have finally tempted me!

The new iMac looks, sounds and performs superbly and now with the new Intel Core Duo processor sounds, to me, like the perfect computer.

In our new house we have turned one of the bedrooms into an office/study where we have installed our main desktop PC. This is the PC that I use for my photography and as such I have to admit that this room has pretty much become my domain as all my camera stuff, software, dual monitors, graphics tablets etc does tend to cover just about every spare surface. Understandably my wife no longer really wants to use this PC and so last week she decided to buy herself a new laptop to use on our home network.

In June 2006 I wrote here how I wanted one of the new Intel iMac's, well some 8 months later I have finally ordered one! At the time of writing this part of this blog entry I have yet to receive it but have just been told that it should arrive on or before the 20th February so I have been getting myself prepared for the big switch over.

Digital cameras are more popular than ever and if you own one the chances are that you will have used or at least read about the RAW format especially as most new digital cameras now support this format along with more traditional formats like JPEG or TIFF. Much has been written about the advantages of RAW and so I won't spend any time explaining these benefits or how RAW works and instead will just summarise with the fact that with RAW you can unleash the full potential of your camera and retain maximum control over your photos from adjusting exposure and white balance etc after you have taken the photo to working with vastly greater tonal ranges and greater creative control over colour balances and the like.

Back in March 2007 I wrote this article where I compared the RAW processing of Photoshop, Lightroom 1.0, Aperture 1.5 and Capture One 3.7. The results of that test was that Aperture produced the best results but that overall Capture One was the best RAW editor. The disadvantage of Capture One of course is the fact that it has no file management capabilities which led to the conclusion that, if you had a Mac, Aperture was the best choice if you needed file management as well as RAW processing.

If you use Lightroom to organise and edit your photos, the chances are you will also use Presets. Presets not only allow you to get instant results but also allow you to instantly try your photo in different styles such as Black & White, Sepia, Punchy Colours, Cross Processed, Vignettes etc. In fact the possibilities are almost endless and they are all accessed at the click of a mouse. It's no wonder therefore that Presets are incredibly popular with both professional and amateur photographers alike. Following the success of my Black & White Presets I have also produced a new set of Presets which create a wide range of Split Tone effects.