Joe Farace

"When sorrows come they come not single spies, but in battalions."--Shakespeare

Like many Microsoft Windows users, I spend far too much time keeping my computer healthy. In the April 2005 issue, I introduced you to browser options other than Internet Explorer and while those programs are less prone to security problems, spyware continues to plague...

There is a popular misconception that digital imaging is limited to color photography. That's simply not true. Digital imaging embraces all the same aspects of color--or lack of color--that conventional photography does. Part of this lack of...

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
--Douglas Adams

Like a lot of photographers, I take some things for granted. When inserting a CompactFlash card into a camera and capturing lots of images, I assume that I'll be able to transfer...

“Lighting is really common sense and personal observation. This is applied to a few rules of photography which cannot be broken and to others which I tend to bend a little.”—Paul Beeson

A monolight or monobloc to our European friends is a self-contained studio flash that is typically, but not always, powered by an AC power source and allows for different light modification devices, including reflectors, light banks, or umbrellas. The key phrase in that last sentence is self-contained. To my way of thinking the biggest advantage monolights possess is just that—if you’re shooting on location or for that matter anywhere and the power pack in a pack and head system stops working, so do you. If you have a couple of monolights and one of them fails, you can still shoot.