In this chapter we start by using Nik Color Efex Pro for skin softening and then back to Lightroom briefly for cropping and rotation. Finally we get into Nik Silver Efex Pro to start the black and white high key portrait conversion. We begin with presets that get us quite a long way towards where we want to go.

In this tutorial we'll take a nicely lit studio portrait and turn it into a dreamy high key image fit for a magazine cover. We'll start off using Lightroom 4 in this first chapter to fix some levels and colour issues and produce a rather nice colour version of the picture. Then in chapters 2 and 3 we'll use Nik Silver Efex to turn that into a bright, clean high key black and white image.

This tutorial was recorded in 2012 but not released until 2013. When it was recorded Lightroom 4 was still pretty new and Google hadn't bought Nik Software yet.

“We strongly believe that users should be able to choose how they would like to purchase their software,” said Nick Davies, EVP & GM Graphics, Digital Media & Productivity Software at Corel

So if you're one of the many upset Photoshop users looking for a product to switch to you might be wondering how Paintshop Pro holds up? I'm happy to report that it's a pretty smooth switch over. Paintshop Pro emulates much of the way Photoshop works with layers and most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same. Best of all Paintshop Pro has 16-bit per channel colour support so there's no need to compromise the quality of your images like you would with Photoshop Elements. 

I'd say Paintshop Pro is well worth a look. Check out their page for CS users looking to switch. You can see the prices and download a free trial there. Paintshop Pro is Windows only. 

So in that vein I've re-released Tutorial 14 in improved quality and stripped down to just the meat of the shows. It was a long one - 8 chapters but there's a TON of good photoshop tips in there and darn near all of it is still relevant to CS6 today.  So go and check it out. Here's links to the YouTube pages or you can find Tutorial 14 in the Video Tutorials section of the site here.

• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 1 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 2 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 3 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 4 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 5 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 6 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 7 - Ophelia's Mother
• PhotoWalkthrough Tutorial 14, Chapter 8 - Ophelia's Mother

I this single chapter tutorial I'll show you how to manually stitch a panorama using Photoshop CS6 and select which parts of each image you want to appear in the final result. This is also a pretty impressive demo of what Photoshop can do. We stitch 4 hand-held photographs taken with the camera held above my head at a concert. Nearly everything moved between each shot but Photoshop still manages to stitch them. 

So the other shoe has dropped. Adobe have just announced that they won't be selling boxed copies of their creative suite products any more. That includes Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign and so on. This is because they want you to use their new purchasing model, the Creative Cloud, which was launched less than a year ago. With Creative Cloud you can buy either the entire Creative Suite for £47/month or a single application for £17.49/month. Some reports are saying that Adobe have reduced the price for a single app from $20/month to $10/month but I'm not seeing any UK prices yet. Presumably they'll also drop UK prices by 50% as well making it somewhere around £9/month.

Based on the currently advertised £17.49 price you'd pay £630 over the next 3 years, which is about how often most people seem to upgrade. Under the old model you'd pay about £200 for an upgrade if you already owned a full copy of Photoshop. If Adobe do halve the single app price that'll be £315 over 3 years - still way more than the old upgrade price. And if you want more than one application from the creative suite there's no option for you besides buying everything.

[Update: the 50% off thing looks like being a limited time for existing owners that lasts just for the first year]

So what are the pros and cons of this change? Well first of all, once you get on board with the new scheme you'll have to keep paying every month forever because when you stop paying the software stops working. Not so good for those people who only use Photoshop occasionally. But on the upside you get all upgrades as soon as they're released. And as we know every version of Photoshop has included *must have* improvements that we could never live without. Right? In fact, doesn't a subscription model like this remove any incentive for Adobe to develop Photoshop at all? Right now they have to come up with new headline features to tempt people to upgrade every 3 years. But once they're collecting your cash every month - why bother?

I'm a Photoshop trainer so I talk to a lot of Photoshop users. I'd guess that about 50% of the people I talk to are using a pirated copy. Why is that? Because they feel that have to have it but they can't afford it. I answer endless questions from people about ways to get a discount like using the student version. It's clear to me that Photoshop is already way over priced. Quite out of reach of most amateur photographers. And it's also clear that with the rise of Lightroom and other, quicker processing tools Photoshop is being used less and less. So when does the price and the usefulness equation stop people wanting Photoshop at all? I'm guessing right about now - the same moment that Adobe forces everyone onto a software rental model. Adobe is killing its own sacred cow.

The most damaging thing for Adobe, I think, is discussions like this one that remind people they don't actually need Photoshop. There are lots of other, cheaper tools on the market these days that can replace Photoshop for the few remaining things we do with it. Corel's Paintshop Pro is a pretty good facsimile of Photoshop and it's got 16-bit colour support, which is the feature Photoshop Elements lacks that prevents me using it. OnOne Software's Perfect Photo Suite offers a lot of creative options including layers and it integrates with Lightroom beautifully. And there are a ton of other very affordable products coming onto the market that do one or two things really well, like SnapHeal which replicates Photoshop's spot healing and content aware features plus more. 

If you're looking at this situation and wondering what to do now I would recommend waiting. It's not clear what the future holds for Lightroom. Lightroom 5 beta just became available but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to buy it without a Creative Cloud subscription. I'll try and find out. As for Photoshop - I'm really not sure I'll bother teaching it any more. I don't want to rent it. Not at these prices. And I'm not at all convinced there'll be much demand for Photoshop courses in the future.

[Update: Although Lightroom 5 has been included in the creative suite in the past it will continue to be available separately as a one-time purchase outside the creative cloud]

Part 2 of our tutorial on shooting smoke pictures shows you how to edit the pictures once you've taken them. I'm using Lightroom 4 for this tutorial but the same techniques could be applied in just about any photo editing package. I'll show you how to improve contrast and tonality, how to get a clean background and then invert the image and add vibrant colours. After that it's all down to your own creativity to see the possibilities within the picture and bring them out.

How to take smoke pictures! It's really simple. You probably already have the stuff you need and it's fun. It makes the house smell, though. In this episode I'll show you how to shoot 'them. Then check out Chapter 2 where I'll show you how to process em.

[Friday April 26th 2013] I just got home dusty, tired and happy. Tonight I've been at a Welshot event where we've been shooting BMX Bikers. It was hosted by the very talented motor sports photographer, John Evans . On the journey there I'd encountered some horrible traffic and arrived in a foul mood; I hate being late for anything. But the whole situation with young guys racing around on their bikes, jumping them and skidding in the gravel was so damn joyful my bad mood was very quickly gone and I got down to the business of catching some action shots. I started out with the 24-70 on the 5Dmk2. 

The light was good and there were signs of a promising sky so once I'd got my eye in I started playing around with off-camera flash. I set the 580EX on a remote trigger and put that on top of the little stand that comes with the flash. I put those beside the track and started playing with numbers until I'd got a nice balance between ambient and flash. 60 minutes and a few different positions later we were all ready for a hot drink. It was kinda windy and cold, especially for those of us lying on the lymestone gravel and concrete track. I hadn't really chosen the most appropriate attire and when I tried to lay down on one sloping part of the track I found myself sliding backwards downhill, covering every inch of myself with a thick coating of grey white dust.

After our drinks the sky was looking fabulous so I grabbed a few silhouettes of the kids against it until the light dropped to near darkness and it was back to the off-camera flash again. This time, for a bit of fun I decided to use the X100 so I put the remote trigger on top of the little camera and spent a very happy 30 minutes discovering that the Fuji really can hold its own against much bigger cameras.

Overall I had a fantastic evening. The politeness and good humour of the photographers and bikers combined with the pleasure of seeing young people racing around doing jumps and tricks on their bikes made my bad mood vanish instantly. Both cameras handled wonderfully and my love affair with my X100 has been cemented even further. See the whole collection here.

Why has nobody thought of this before? Giottos have just brought out a really neat new range of tripods called "Silk Road Series" that have a Y-shaped centre column. This reduces the size while folded down and increases the likelihood that you'll actually carry the thing with you. Simple but extremely effective.

The Rogue Flashbenders are a product I've found extremely useful in the past for controlling flash light in a very small portable way. Now Rogue have launched a new version of their Flashbender with some new tricks up its sleve. Check out the video to see what's new.

Lowepro picked Focus On Imaging 2013 to launch their newest range of camera bags, the Lowepro Flipside Sport 20. These new bags are perfect for outdoor trekking with your camera and come in a couple of very attractive colours.

Joby have previously brought us the neato Gorillapod tripods and now they've introduced a novel take on the glide strap. Their UltraFit Sling Strap holds the camera close to the body so that it doesn't swing around when not in use while still allowing the strap to loosen when you need to take a shot. Check out the video above for a demo.

The new Harman Obscura camera is a low cost, high quality single shot 4x5 inch pinhole camera with an innovative new design that uses magnets to keep everything light tight. It retains the high quality etched pinhole of its big brother the Titan and even comes complete with 10 sheets each of Ilford Delta 100 film, Ilford Multigrade IV paper and Harman Direct Positive paper.

From Focus On Imaging 2013 show in March. Harman Technology's Steven Brierley shows off the larger 8x10 inch version of their popular Titan pinhole camera. This monster of a camera boasts a precision etched pinhole for sharp, beautiful quality pinhole photographs and solid, high quality construction.

The shoot was setup for a weekday evening at 8:30pm. Normally we shoot from my "studio" which is actually the stock room at my little company's offices. Today, however, that was clearly not going to work out. I opened the stock room and flicked the light switch. Nothing. So I bravely flicked on my handy dandy flashlight - the flash on my mobile phone - and headed inside to look for a fuse box. I found one way at the back. No dice there, though, so I headed inside the main office to look for a fusebox there and this time I found one with a breaker tripped to "off". Aha said I and flicked it back on before heading back into the stock room. Click.. light! And then immediately darkness again. Bugger. A couple more tries and trips confirmed that the studio was going to remain dark for the rest of the evening.

So this was one of those occasions that having Ashe along was a godsend. He was kind enough to help me lug all my gear - backdrop, lights, reflectors, stands.. everything, into the main office and into the print room. Not as big as the studio but the biggest room available with power. So we pushed some printers out of the way and set everything up. It was an interesting location to work in. The lack of space meant my lights were closer than I would have liked and as a result there are some hot spots I'm not fond of in the final images. A little creativity with a reflector helped later in the shoot. But by the time we'd messed with the power, moved all the gear and finally got shooting time was slipping by and we didn't have all that long. We shot for maybe an hour and a half and then stopped. 

It was a short shoot but a great outfit that inspired some quirky poses from Samii and some off-kilter stylings in my post processing. We wanted to make sure all the outfit parts were on display, especially the company name, which meant dedicating some time to the "booty shot". I had this idea of Samii dangling a hand behind her back just above the latex pants just to give it a little something. In retrospect I now wish I'd asked her to cross her fingers as though she was telling a lie. I think that would have made a fantastic shot with the latex pants and the name. I wanted these shots to be all about attitude and I think we captured some of that despite the very limited time and space we had.

We ended up with 5 finished processed photos out of 196 shot on the night. There are still a few in there that I might go back and work on. Take a look and let me know what you think. And you can count on me re-using that crossed fingers idea in a future shot!

[Update 17/2/2012: Modified the script slightly to fix a path capitalisation bug]

[Update 22/3/2013: Re-recorded the video to explain the process better]

I've been shooting a lot of model sessions lately and one of the things I always need to do after these sessions is put the processed pictures into my dropbox where the model can see them. These pictures are for a variety of different uses including Facebook, 500px, Google+, various modelling sites and, of course, print publication. 

These sites often have different size limits and requirements so I usually need to export versions with and without watermarks and at various different pixel dimensions. So it's always been a pain in Lightroom that I can only export images at one size. Here's what I export by default: 

• full-size clean
• full-size watermarked
• 2000px watermarked
• 1000px watermarked

That's 4 separate exports and of course I have a preset for each. It's not a *lot* of work but all those clicks bug me so I set about finding a way to export multiple different sized versions in one step. I tried a number of different approaches but the one I settled on was to write an application. Steady-on, it's not as scary as it sounds. My plan was to set up an export preset to save a full sized watermarked version then my application, called automatically from Lightroom, would take that full sized version as input and create 2 more smaller versions and save them in the same folder. The problem now, was writing the application. 

I'm on a Mac so I started looking at Automator and when that proved too limited I looked at Applescript and when that proved too hard to debug I did what any reasonable, right thinking person would do and started whining on Twitter. I have a background in programming so surely I could accomplish this apparently simple task but no, I'd wasted a whole day on this so finally I asked for help. And to my great joy a couple of people did try. I posted my broken Applescript on pastebin in a huff and the next morning John Day (@johneday on twitter) had completely rewritten and simplified it for me. Thank you so much John - you're a superstar. Here's the script he wrote for me:

on open of myFiles
	set newSizes to {1000, 2000}
	
	repeat with aFile in myFiles
		set filePath to aFile's POSIX path
		set bPath to (do shell script "dirname " & quoted form of filePath)
		tell application "System Events" to set fileName to aFile's name
		repeat with newSize in newSizes
			do shell script "sips " & quoted form of aFile's POSIX path & " -Z " & newSize & " --out " & quoted form of (bPath & "/" & rename(fileName, newSize) as text)
		end repeat
	end repeat
end open

on rename(fName, fSize)
	do shell script "sed 's/fullsize/" & fSize & "/' <<< " & quoted form of fName
end rename

If you'd like to use this yourself run "Applescript editor" on your mac, create a new script and paste the above code into the code window. Then from the file menu choose save and be sure to save this as an Application, not a script. There's a drop-down box in the save window that lets you choose to save as Application. Save it in a folder somewhere and that's it, you're done. You just wrote an application. Congratulations - you're a programmer now. :)

Finally create your Lightroom export preset to save a full sized version, watermarked or not as you prefer. Then look at the bottom of the export dialog. You can choose post-processing actions. One of those is "Open in other application..". Pick that and then just below you can choose which application to use. Simple. Set your new application as the post-processing action and you're done. If you want other sizes instead of my 1000px and 2000px versions you can just modify the numbers in the line near the top of the script where it says, "set newSizes to {1000, 2000}". Add as many sizes in there as you like, comma separated.

So this solution is not mine at all. This is all down to John Day. If you find this useful please follow John on twitter (@johneday) and check out his website at https://www.johneday.com/. 

This is obviously a mac only solution but writing something similar should be quite easy on Windows. SIP, the Scilab Image Processing toolkit, is pre-installed on the Mac but it's free and available for windows too. So is ImageMagick, which does similar stuff. All that's needed is a little code to wrap that up written in C#, Python or even a DOS batch file. Let me know if you do something like that and I'll be delighted to add links to it from here.

1. Shock and denial

Comment on Nik's post: This is terrifying. You make the best plug-ins in the business. I am scared.

2. Pain and guilt

Comment on Nik's post: You just ruined my day. Sorry to see this happen to a good product line :-(

3. Anger and bargaining

Comment on Nik's post: It would be helpful to have a statement from you or Google or GooNik or Nikoogle as to what this means for your products.

4. Depression, reflection, loneliness

Comment on Nik's post: I guess this is the beginning of the end, after 12 years of using your plug-ins, probably time to move on.

5. The upward turn

Comment on Nik's post: I was planning on upgrading my complete collection, but I’m glad I haven’t done so yet. Time to look for a replacement.

6. Reconstruction and working through

Comment on Nik's post: Oh well. Snapseed was great while it lasted. Time to find an alternative app I guess.

7. Acceptance and hope

On Twitter @chrismarquardt: I see it as an opportunity to do more education around how to get great b/w conversions without the help of NIK

Ok so that's all very entertaining but seriously, should we be worried? Well I'd say yes - worried. But not necessarily in despair, yet. So far we've not seen a response from Google or Nik describing what will happen to Nik's existing product line. All we have to go on is Google's previous track record. Sadly that  hasn't been so good. The recent google acquisition, Sparrow, immediately ceased development. And before that Picnik, the web based photo editing software - was also closed down. Certainly the future looks very bleak for Nik's IOS products.

No doubt we'll see improved photo editing tools in Google's own products like Android and Google+ but what about Nik's existing product line? At the very least it seems likely that talent within Nik will be at least partially distracted into Google products. It seems like Google likes to acquire companies for the talent rather than the products. If that's the case here I believe it'll be the end of the very best plug-in products on the market - products I use very regularly. But perhaps part of the deal with Google is that the Nik plugins will go on. Or perhaps I'm just in stage 1 myself.

Those of you looking for good alternatives should look at Topaz Labs and OnOne Software. This is a huge opportunity for those guys and if they're smart they'll think about offering discounts or cross-grade deals.

[The attached picture, by the way, is one of my old black and whites which I just recently re-processed from the original RAW using Silver Efex Pro and got a very pleasing result in a fraction of the time it originally took me with Photoshop]

Pre-visualisation can be a straight jacket

But sometimes, if you can make the time to go back to those pictures 1 month, maybe 2 months later you'll find gems in there that you didn't see before. You'll look at the pictures with different eyes. You won't have that pre-vis straightjacket on any more and hopefully you'll be able to look at the pictures with a clear head - seeing what's good and bad in each on its own merits. Once you can do that you're free to take those RAWs in directions you didn't intend and a whole new kind of art can appear. Some art is made, some is discovered. Most is a little of each.

Above is an example from my recent work. I've been getting as much practice in as I can with portraiture and studio lighting. I attended (rather than taught - for a change) a lighting academy run by Will Cheung, editor of Advanced Photographer magazine, and run by the company that organises my own workshops, Welshot Imaging. We shot 4 different models during those two days - you can see my "keepers" from this workshop in the Gallery - and this shot above was one where we were set up for a dramatic type of light. On the day I saw it as black and white without realising quite what I had in mind. I processed the images from the workshop during the following week and published all the winners. This shot never made the publishing cut because it just didn't look right and I didn't know why.

I've shot a few more model sessions since then and on a whim I was looking back through previous shoots and suddenly it struck me what was wrong here. This was clearly a film noir shot and I'd missed out some of the glow and lighting emphasis needed to make that work. A little tweak in Nik Color Efex Pro and Lightroom and voila - a shot I couldn't see before is now something I'm pretty proud of.

I've noticed a flurry of similar products appearing lately that turn an iPhone into a shutter release for your SLR. Here are links to a couple of them. The first, ioShutter, is being promoted by the excellent Photojojo which I encourage you to subscribe to. The second is a recent Kickstarter project by the name of Trigger Happy Camera Remote. But let's back up a moment. The equivalent Canon product is the TC-80N3 which allows you to not only remote trigger your camera but also program a number of shots to be taken on a timer and set the duration of bulb exposures - it's sometimes called an intervalometer. Useful stuff but the typical price here in the UK is £120 or $135 in the states. Honestly that's *way* over priced for what it is.

So the prospect of turning a camera phone into an intervalometer is intriguing, first because the "brains" of the gadget can be provided by the phone which should make construction much simpler and cheaper but also because the phone should make the interface easier, prettier and allow it to do more. I first saw the Kickstarter project and I was impressed by what a good idea it is but when I saw the price they were asking my first thought was that the creators were smoking crack. They want $70 for the Trigger Happy Camera Remote when it launches (or $50 if you get in on the Kickstarter funding). ioShutter is even worse - they want $70 just for the cable and another $10 for the app.

But hold on a minute - wasn't this idea meant to replace the complex bit of this gadget, making it simpler and cheaper? See the thing is, I've already bought an intervalometer and I didn't pay £120 for it. I didn't even pay £50 for it. I paid about £20 for it on Amazon. Just try searching for "TC-80N3" on Amazon and you'll see a load of extremely affordable alternatives to the Canon version. There are Nikon equivalents. Mine was made by a Chinese company called Yongnuo and yes it's a cheap knock-off but it's pretty solidly made. It works reliably and it's a *fraction* of the price. I've been delighted with it. Here's one for just $15 on the US Amazon store - it's identical to mine, clearly a rebadged Yongnuo.

The ioShutter and Trigger Happy Camera Remote guys think Canon and Nikon are their competition but they're wrong. Their real competition are these cheap knock offs. So tell me, how much do you want to pay? $70 or $15? I don't care how much prettier the iPhone version is, that's a no-brainer.

But that's not all!

Triggertrap Mobile cable+dongleThere is another option - Triggertrap Mobile costs $10 for the app and then $20 for the cable+dongle, so $30 for the lot. Still more than the Yongnuo but when you see what you get it's *really* worth it. The Triggertrap app does all the intervalometer stuff plus you can trigger your camera for time-lapse, distance-lapse, motion detection, sound, magnetism, vibration and even facial recognition. For $30. Sign me up - I already placed my order.

I love Kickstarter and entrepreneurs. I usually want to support them and I've backed quite a number of Kickstarter projects but I am getting mightily sick of the price gouging that goes on with photography gear. I've not used any of these products yet but on what I've seen so far the Triggertrap leads the pack by a country mile. Hurrah for sensible pricing.

Liverpool Apple Store

First of all I booked a genius bar appointment at my nearest store which is not all that near to be honest, in the Trafford centre in Manchester. I drove up there (40 mins drive) and they confirmed what I already knew - SMART was reporting that the disk was failing. They told me they didn't have the part in stock and that it would take 5-7 days to get the work done. Not good - I have customers waiting on me to deliver. So we called around and found that the Liverpool One store had the part in stock. Ok I say, let's go. It's another long drive and Liverpool traffic is a bitch but finally I get there and I'm politely dealt with - even being taken up to the inconveniently located genius bar in the staff lift because I'm carrying an extremely heavy and sharp edged 27" iMac. No surprises - they can't fix it there and then. 3-5 days I'm told.  Disappointing when you consider they have the part, the tools and my computer all in the same place. It crosses my mind that if they'd give me some desk space I could just do it myself. But no, I am well behaved and I go home. Another long drive in heavy traffic - nearly 2 hours. I hate to think how much I've spent in petrol up to his point. Nearly as much as the cost of a new hard drive. Considerably more if you factor in the cost to the environment and a whole day of my time. 

I leave the Apple guys alone for the whole of the next day, Tuesday, only occasionally looking at my empty desk and fretting about the lost work time. But on Wednesday the lack of productivity and a weird sense of responsibility towards my customers forces me to call Liverpool to ask where they're up to with my machine. You have.. 5.. calls ahead of you in the queue. The girl who eventually answers is polite but resolute in her unwillingness to give me any idea when the work will be complete. Her best estimate is the same 3-5 days I was originally told. Here's the thing, though. When I was told that, I was hoping Apple liked to under promise and over deliver. I needed my computer and I needed it NOW. I literally had nothing I could do without it except hassle the Apple store folks. So that's what I did. After being cut off and calling again (you have.. 4.. calls ahead of you in the queue) I speak to the same lady and she tells me that she's spoken to the staff the back and my computer will be fixed today. Great! I tell her I'm driving up and I'll wait in the store until it's done. Yes I know that's going to put pressure on the store staff. That's the idea.

So I make the long drive to Liverpool again.. More petrol, another lost day of productivity, more high blood pressure. And I deal with the guys in the store. The chap running the genius bar is annoyed with me but keeps his cool and after some cajoling he nudges the guys in the back.  They promise they're now working on it. I drink coffee in Starbucks - getting out of his hair for 30 mins is my little reward to him for his compliance. Eventually I go back to the store and almost another hour later my computer is brought out. I force a smile, thank the staff for putting up with me and head home. It's another long drive and I arrive only just in time to pick up the kids from nursery. Another day is lost and all of that night and half of the next day will be taken up reinstalling but at least my destiny is back in my own hands. I resolve never to give away that control again. 

So here's the problem. Apple are rightly proud of their customer service. The staff interpersonal skills are superb. That makes dealing with Apple a very smooth ride but where the rubber meets the road is getting the damn computer fixed. Apple performs very poorly indeed on this point. What matters to me as a business when my computer has failed, especially when I've paid extra for AppleCare (my colleague jokingly suggested that perhaps I'd inadvertently purchased AppleDontCare) is that my computer is fixed fast so I can get back to work. 

I lost most of Sunday, all of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday to this failure and it was only that quick because I bothered and cajoled the Apple staff. If I'd not done so I would have waited even longer. I also paid a crap ton of money in petrol and invested a lot of my own time driving around. Compare this experience with how I would have handled this failure in a PC. All I would have done there is driven to PC World, overpaid for a new SATA drive and then replaced it myself. Total lost time - 1 day tops. Even with AppleCare paying for the drive and the manpower this was much more expensive than simply swapping a drive in a PC. 

Consider that business proposition again - if I had a PC I would have paid less for the computer, less for the drive, less for the petrol and I would have been back to work in 1 day instead of 4. Tell me again how great your premium price Apple solution is?

What I've described here isn't extraordinary - a disk died, they replaced it. Nothing went wrong particularly aside from the disk itself. If anything they went faster than they typically would - because I nagged them. And yet I still consider their performance apalling. Apple don't seem to be aware of what matters to business. Paying extra for AppleCare gets you no special treatment. They don't appear to have anything like the necessary infrastructure for repairing stuff quickly and getting businesses back to work. As a result I'm considering switching away from Final Cut and onto to Premiere so that I can use PCs again. Premiere is way too expensive but the overall risk to my business is considerably less than sticking with Apple.