As we bring the curtain down on 2013 and as I look back on this year, one of the highlights for me was simply getting better at my photography hobby. One of the things that makes me really proud is to see my work in print with major lighting manufacturers. After all these are the folks actually selling gear to photographers and they are probably going to be pickiest about how their products are represented. I’ve had a good relationship with F.J. Westcott and I was thrilled to see my work represented once again in the Westcott Catalog. Check out their Late 2013 Edition here in PDF. Not only is my work in it, but it’s one heck of a catalog covering all of their gear. See more of my photography here. Also check out my Westcott Terry White Travel Portrait Lighting Kit Here.
One of my most popular videos right now is my How To Get Started with Lightroom 4 video. I figured it was time to make the Lightroom 5 version and here it is. In this episode of Adobe Creative Cloud TV I’ll show you how to get started using Lightroom 5. This is for beginners, first time Lightroom users, and folks who are self-taught and may be missing things. We’ll cover the 10 things beginners ask about the most. Definitely check out the last thing which is how to move your photos from one drive to another.
Are you missing out on my Bonus Content?
See more of my Adobe Creative Cloud Videos on my Adobe Creative Cloud TV and get the App below. It features EXCLUSIVE CONTENT that no one else gets to see. This episode has a BONUS CLIP that is available only in the App! My iOS App is a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I also have an Android version on the Amazon App Store:
This seems to be an annual thing for me as each new iOS version lets you do more with Siri and each year there are more and more new iPhone and iPad users. Siri lets you do so much with simple voice commands and most people have no clue what you can ask Siri to do. For quick reference here’s my original 25 Fun Things to Ask Siri post and the follow up 25 New Things To Ask Siri when iOS 6 came out. Well iOS 7 is here and of course you can Ask Siri even more things now. Here are a few of my favorites – 7 New Things You Can Ask Siri:
AirPlane Mode (you tell Siri to control your settings, Bluetooth on, make the screen brighter, etc.)
Play iTunes Radio
FaceTime My Sister
Post to Facebook (or write on my wall, or Tweet)
What’s trending on twitter?
Read my email
What planes are flying over me right now?
Now for a little fun
Siri definitely has a sense of humor. Ask Siri these 5 questions and see what she comes back with:
I just wanted to take this opportunity to not only wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season, but also to thank you for all your support and encouragement throughout the year! I wish you the best for 2014!
May all your tech and photographic Christmas wishes come true!
As a photographer I’m always looking at the latest and greatest lighting gear. Most of the lighting I buy is geared towards professional photographers and videographers. However, today I’m reviewing a product that is geared towards non-professionals. Just about everyone takes pictures and videos with their smartphones and point-and-shoot cameras. However, most amateurs rarely think about lighting until after the fact. Also most smartphones and small cameras don’t really do well in low light settings. Therefore, off camera lighting is nice to have, but rarely convenient or cheap. This is where the Kick LED Full Color Video Light comes in. Beyond being a nice, small, light-weight, bright, battery powered LED light, it has a built-in WiFi network. You can control it with the free Kick App for your iPhone and Android smartphone. Not only can you control the brightness, but you can also control the color too. There are even special effects such as strobe effects and effects that will continuously change the hue. You can even use the camera on your device to sample the color of the walls or lights around you to have the Kick automatically emit the same colors.
Rather than tell you more about it, I’d rather show you in this video:
Sample photo taken before adding the Kick lightSample photo taken after adding the Kick light
If you use your iPhone a lot during the day then chances are you’ll run out of battery before you run out of day. While at my desk I keep it plugged in and while in my car I use this car charger. However, when I’m on the road I tend to use my iPhone 5s quite a bit when I’m not near a power source. I also depend on it heavily and can’t afford to run out of juice. I’ve used a variety of external batteries before, but the one that is definitely the most convenient is the Mophie Juice Pack Air. The reason I like this one best is because it doubles as a case for iPhone 5/5s. This means that while your iPhone is in the Juice Pack Air it’s being charged and protected at the same time. Because it is a battery it does add a bit more bulk than a standard case, but not too much. It’s also very light and therefore doesn’t add a ton of weight. The Juice Pack Air charges via a micro USB cable (supplied). At first I was a bit disappointed in this because I had hoped for a Lightning connector pass-thru. However, on the plus side micro USB is more common and easier to share with non-iPhone users. You can charge just the Juice Pack or both the Juice Pack and iPhone at the same time. The Juice Pack Air has a physical switch to turn it on/off and an LED readout to let you know how much “juice” is left. The 1700mAh battery is designed to give you 100% more power effectively doubling your iPhone 5/5s battery life.
The Mophie Juice Pack Air comes in Black, White and PRODUCT (Red). I went with the PRODUCT (Red) one. I keep it charged and available for those “long days”. I’ve used previous models on previous iPhones and they have never let me down.
If you missed the Adobe Create Now World Tour or you just want to see the presentations again, here’s your chance to catch the replay. You can see all of the presentations below in this YouTube Playlist. The New York stop of the tour was professionally recorded/edited and you can watch Paul Trani, Jason Levine, and me deliver the presentations for Creative Cloud, Design, Web, Video, and Creating Interactive Content. Each segment is a separate video so you can watch them all or skip to the one you want to see the most.
One of my most popular videos right now (it’s getting the third most views daily) is my How To Get Started with Adobe InDesign CS6 video. I figured it was time to make the Adobe InDesign CC version and here it is. In this episode of Adobe Creative Cloud TV I’ll show you how to get started using InDesign CC. This is for beginners, first time InDesign users, and folks who are self-taught and may be missing things. We’ll cover the 10 things beginners ask about the most.
Are you missing out on my Bonus Content?
See more of my Adobe Creative Cloud Videos on my Adobe Creative Cloud TV and get the App below. It features EXCLUSIVE CONTENT that no one else gets to see. This episode has a BONUS CLIP that is available only in the App! My iOS App is a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I also have an Android version on the Amazon App Store:
I’m finally getting to my CamRanger Review. This is a product I saw several months ago and always wanted to do review of it. I get the question all the time: “Is there a way to wirelessly shoot to my iPad?” I’ve covered many ways that the iPad can fit into a digital photography workflow here and another wireless solution here, but at the time CamRanger wasn’t out yet. CamRanger offers a complete wireless camera control solution for your Nikon or Canon DSLR. It’s a small lightweight box about the size of a smartphone that plugs into your compatible DSLR via a supplied USB cable. It creates a wireless network on its own and therefore doesn’t need a computer or other wireless hotspot. You can connect to it with your iOS devices (such as an iPad or iPhone), Android devices, or a Mac or PC. For my testing I used an iPad Air. Set up was very easy and only required about a minute of reading the instructions. I tested it with my Nikon D600. Once it was set up I was able to work in either direction. I was able to use the iPad to control most aspects of my camera including picking focus points, ISO, shutter speed, f/stops, white balance, etc. and I was able to take shots using the camera and have them show up as I was taking them on the iPad. The latter mode is probably the one I’d use the most out in the field because I really don’t need the remote control functions as much as say a landscape or wildlife photographer would.
Rather than continue to write about it, I recorded this short video of how it works:
The Bottom Line
CamRanger works exactly as advertised. It has a range of 150 feet and a battery life of about 5-6 hours. It allows the most control over your DSLR than any other solution I’ve seen and it allows you to shoot directly to your mobile devices. Many of the newer Nikon and Canon DSLR are actually coming with optional wireless connectivity. So if you have a new camera you probably have more options to choose from. However, if you’re working with a slightly older model like the Nikon D700 or Canon 5D Mark II for example, then this may be your only option. CamRanger comes with all the cables, chargers, etc. necessary to get started including a pouch to easily put it on your camera strap or belt.
Lightroom 5.3 is now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the update mechanism in Lightroom 5. The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom.
Release Notes
Newly added support for Tethered Capture in Lightroom 5.3
Canon EOS Rebel T4i / EOS 650D / EOS Kiss X6i
New Camera Support in Lightroom 5.3
Canon EOS M2
Canon PowerShot S120
Casio EX-10
Fujifilm XQ1
Fujifilm X-E2
Nikon 1 AW1
Nikon Coolpix P7800
Nikon Df
Nikon D610
Nikon D5300
Nokia Lumia 1020
Olympus OM-D E-M1
Olympus STYLUS 1
Panasonic DMC-GM1
Pentax K-3
Phase One IQ260
Phase One IQ280
Sony A7 (ILCE-7)
Sony A7R (ILCE-7R)
Sony DSC-RX10
New Lens Profile Support in Lightroom 5.3
Mount
Name
Apple
Apple iPhone 5s
Canon
Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
Canon
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
Canon
TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD A011E
DJI
Phantom Vision FC200
Nikon
Nikon 1 NIKKOR AW 11-27.5mm f/3.5-5.6
Nikon
Nikon 1 NIKKOR AW 10mm f/2.8
Nikon
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G
Nikon
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
Nikon, Sigma
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM A013
Sony
Sony 16-35mm F2.8 ZA SSM
Sony
Sony 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM
Sony
Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G SSM II
Sony
Sony E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS
Sony
Sony E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS
Sony
Sony E 20mm F2.8
Sony
Sony FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
Sony
Sony FE 35mm F2.8 ZA
Sony
Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA
Bugs Corrected in Lightroom 5.3
Issues when upgrading catalog from previous versions of Lightroom.
Incorrect photos are displayed after switching away from a Publish Collection.
Catalog optimization did not finish, and was not optimizing the catalog
Feather of clone spots is set to 0 after upgrading catalog to Lightroom 5.
Auto White Balance settings are not saved to Snapshots.
Sony 18-55mm lens is detected as the Hasselblad 18-55mm lens for lens correction.
Increased Update Spot Removal history steps when in Before and After view.
Slideshows start playing automatically even when the Manual Slideshow option is enabled.
On certain images, red eye removal behaved incorrectly
Incorrect White Balance settings applied when synching Auto WB from source to targets
Video playback stops when dragging on the scrubber.
Errors when publishing photos to Flickr through the Publish Service.
Option + drag on Edit Pin behavior is functioning incorrectly.
Black border appears around the exported slideshow video.
Catalog containing images processed with PV2003 were adding a post-crop vignette when catalog upgraded to Lightroom 5.
Pressing the “Reset” button while holding down the Shift key caused Lightroom to exit abruptly.
Output Sharpening and Noise Reduction were not applied to exported images that were resized to less than 1/3 of the original image size.
The Esc key did not exit the slideshow after right clicking screen with mouse during slideshow playing.
Import dialog remained blank for folders that contain PNG files with XMP sidecars.
Metadata panel displayed incorrect information after modifying published photo. Please note that this only occurred when metadata was changed after the photo was published.
In the metadata of exported files, the application is listed as 5.0 instead of the actual Lightroom version (such as 5.2, etc.).
An Error Occurs When Playing a slideshow having an image Flipped Horizontally or Vertically.
Added Camera Matching color profiles (Natural, Muted, Portrait, Vivid) for the following Olympus cameras:
