Welcome to my technology blog!
If you have a Nikon D7000 (Yippie!), Canon EOS 60D or 550D and you're a Lightroom user you'll be happy to know that the 3.4 update is here and provides built-in Tethering support for your camera.
Grab your update here:
Continue reading “Adobe Lightroom 3.4 is here with Nikon D7000 Tethering Support”
photo by Brad Moore
First off I want to thank everyone that participated online in yesterday's The Grid LIVE show! The response was amazing! We mentioned quite a few products yesterday and I've gotten questions from people as to what they where so here's my list:
FlilterStorm Pro
The App that Scott showed that gives you Photoshop Like editing capabilities on your iPad
Get it here from the 
The Eye-Fi Pro X2 Card (the one that handles RAW)
Get it here for $92.99 (was $149)
The Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card (the cheaper one that doesn't do RAW)
Get it here for $79.99
The Nikon 4T-4A Wireless Transmitter
The one that looked like a walkie-talkie (or C4 detonator) that has the 500 foot range and was used during the Olympics.
Get it here for $699
The Cameras I Used
Nikon D7000 (the body with TWO SD Card Slots)
Nikon D700 (Full frame DSLR with CF Card Slot)
Shuttersnitch
The App that Terry was using on the iPad to import images wirelessly as he was shooting with either the Eye-Fi card or the Nikon WT-4a
See my review here
Get it from the
The FREE Eye-Fi App for both iOS and Android
Although I prefer Shuttersnitch, the Eye-Fi App is FREE and does import your shots
See my review here
Get it from the
Get it here for Android
The NEW Photosmith App (Lightroom features on the iPad)
This is the App that Scott mentioned that will let you rate, sort, manage Collections, add metadata to images on your iPad and then SYNC via WiFi back to your Lightroom Catalog on your computer!
Just came out Today! Get it here from the
If you missed yesterday's LIVE broadcast you'll be able to catch the replay that should be posted later today on the site as well as on iTunes as a downloadable podcast to watch offline here:
Hey guys, today I'll be LIVE on The Grid at 12 Noon EDT (GMT -4). We have a couple of fun topics to discuss and I'm really looking forward to it. Be sure to tune in LIVE if you can!
Check it out here
I’m liking Eye-Fi on a whole new level these days. This company and their products have come a long way since I tested/reviewed the first card back in 2007. They’ve delivered on their promise to enable Direct Mode transfers from their X2 cards and they’ve released Mobile Apps for both iOS and Android platforms. This is great news for photographers as it gives you a way to shoot wirelessly from your camera to your tablet device or even your smartphone. Although I was quite content with the testing I had done thus far with the Pro X2 card going through my MiFi mobile hotspot, I’m even happier that I wont need it (the MiFi) anymore to shoot to my iPad 2.
The first thing you’ll need to do is download the new Eye-Fi Center Application from their site and upgrade the Firmware of your Eye-Fi X2 card. I and others had problems doing the upgrade as it would immediately fail no matter what. The work around seems to be delete your existing Eye-Fi account (back up your photos first of course) and then create a new account and you should then be able to successfully upgrade your card.
Once your firmware is up to date you should then be able to Enable Direct Mode on your X2 card. You will see the SSID (network name) of the card as well as the password for the card’s network. To save time you can turn on Direct Mode while the card is in your computer and then connect your devices to its network. This is what I did with my iPad 2 to enable me to easily see the password while I was keying it in on the iPad.
If you have an iOS or Android device you can download their FREE App for your device and log into your Eye-Fi Account. Once you log in you can then enable your card to transfer to the App directly.
By default your images will just import and show in the grid. I want to see my images full screen and have them auto advance as i shoot. This is not really called out in the preferences. However if you go to Application Preferences and turn on “Full Screen”, your images will not only go to full screen as they come in, but they will also auto advance! YAY!
I did a more complete review of the Eye-Fi App here.
In my testing I used my Nikon D7000 (a 16.2 MP Camera) and I used the first card slot to shoot RAW to my regular 16GB SD card and I put the Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card in the second slot. I set the camera to shoot BASIC JPG to the second slot. This means that it’s transferring a 16.2 MP Basic JPG image to the iPad.
See the speed for yourself here:
Before you can say it, yes I wish there was a Compact Flash option (adapters aren’t supported with the X2 cards). However, if you’ve got a camera that shoots to an SD card, this solution totally rocks! If you got a camera with two card slots, then it gets even better as you’ll be able to shoot RAW to one card and your smallest JPG to the Eye-Fi card. I’m loving my D7000 even more now!
You can get the NEW 8GB Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card here for $79
You can get the 8GB Pro X2 Card (which handles RAW) NEW LOWER PRICE here for $99
You can get the Nikon D7000 here 🙂
You can get the FREE Eye-Fi iOS App here:
You can get the FREE Eye-Fi Android App here
If you want MORE OPTIONS check out the Shuttersnitch App here. Yes it works with Direct Mode too!
Join me, Jason Levine (Video Evangelist), Greg Rewis (Web Evangelist) and Paul Trani (Flash Evangelist) for a LIVE Creative Suite Q&A session Today!
Date: Today, Thursday, April 21, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Where: Online in our Connect Room
Cost: Free
Registration: Here
Will there be demos?: Yep
Will there be prizes?: Yes!
What questions can I ask?: Pretty much anything you want, but let's keep it Creative Suite related 🙂
I love my MiFi 3G hotspot! I use it all the time. The only thing that can be a bit of a drag is when it runs out of battery power. If I’m near an outlet I can just plug in the supplied USB adapter and run it all day. However, if I’m in a seminar or other setting where I don’t have immediate access to an outlet the battery can only last about 4 hours tops. That all changed when I “super sized” my MiFi Battery.
As long as I have a good 3G signal, my MiFi will now last me all day with this battery. It’s designed to replace the stock battery and battery cover. This way it charges internally and as far as your MiFi is concerned it doesn’t see any difference. The good folks over at The 3G Store sell both Verizon MiFi 2200 and Novatel GSM MiFi 2352/2372 Extended Batteries for $90.
Yes it makes the MiFi about twice as thick, but it’s worth it if you need to be mobile and connected for several hours throughout the day.
By the way, you can get an unlocked MiFi GSM 2372 Mobile Hotspot here On Sale for $226.
I was walking the Photoshop World show floor with Jason Lykins and he asked me “do you use one of those?” We had just passed by an X-rite ColorChecker Passport on display and I said “nah.” Although I’m sure I’ve seen this product in passing before as well as magazine ads for it, I never paid any attention to it because I thought it was just another color chart. Man was I wrong! Fellow photographer, Photoshop World Instructor and good friend David Cuerdon was in the break room and it just so happened that he had one and said “you want to see a demo?” (this is what we do in our spare time). I thought, yeah sure. The missing piece for me that this thing integrates directly into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. He showed me how it works and I didn’t even let him finish talking. I got up, went back to the show floor and bought one on the spot.
I shoot in RAW probably 99% of the time. While I’m quite comfortable achieving the end result that I want, it can be a challenge while shooting tethered and having the model/client seeing the images as you take them. If you’ve ever noticed this, as your image come in you see a great looking shot for a split second and then you see one that’s not as “colorful”. For that split second you were seeing the JPG preview. That’s the one where your camera made decisions for you on color, sharpness, etc. You can achieve these results by either manually tweaking a color profile in Lightroom or picking one of the default ones to more closely mimic the JPG preview. There’s even a better way!
Take one shot under the same lighting conditions that you plan to do the rest of the shoot in with your subject holding the ColorChecker Passport (or simply place it in the shot). Bring that one shot into Lightroom and Export it to the ColorChecker Passport Lightroom Module. It will automatically and in the background process the RAW file (after it converts it to .DNG) and upon successful processing it will create a Custom Color Profile for you to use in Lightroom. Although it even automatically installs this Profile you’ll need to relaunch Lightroom before Lightroom sees it. Once Lightroom offers the profile as a choice you can then choose that Profile for this shot. Once you have the Profile chosen you can then save it as a Develop Preset. Now that you have this perfect preset, you can use it to AUTOMATICALLY ADJUST ALL INCOMING SHOTS whether you’re shooting tethered or just importing from a card.
The card even has White Balance Squares for both Portraits and Landscapes. Rather than just giving you Neutral White Balance you can (optionally) adjust to warmer or cooler by just clicking on the next square in the row. You can also add it to the Develop Preset to auto adjust as you bring the shots in.
See it in action here:
The software brilliantly identifies the color swatches AUTOMATICALLY and adjusts for what they should be as they are known values:
My life just got a little easier with this great tool! It’s now a part of my ever evolving workflow.
You can get the ColorChecker Passport for $99 here from Amazon or here from B&H Photo.
Oh happy day! I'm pleased to announce that my "Learn The Adobe Creative Suite with Terry White" App has just been updated to be a Universal iOS App, which means that you now get to see the videos in all the iPad 10" glory without having to screen double them. The App is now available on the App Store and is of course a FREE update to anyone who already had it.
If you're new to the App, the advantage here my regular podcast is that many of the episodes have Exclusive Bonus Clips. These clips can only be seen in the App and aren't published anywhere else. Often the Bonus Content includes additional tips and techniques or expands in an area where the regular episode left off. On the iPad these Bonus Clips are highlighted right below the regular episode so you'll more easily be able to identify the episodes that have Bonus Content.
There are literally hundreds of videos available on the various Creative Suite Apps all the way back to CS2. Thankfully the App has a built-in Search feature as well as the ability to Star your favorite episodes and download the ones you want to be able to watch offline.
I want to personally thank you for your support in my podcast as well as my App!
See more of my Adobe Creative Suite Videos on my Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and get the App here for $1.99:
Continue reading “Learn the Adobe Creative Suite with Terry White on your iPad”
In case you haven't been following me on this story you can start with my "Shoot Tethered (wirelessly) to an iPad" from a couple of weeks ago here. Back then I decided to try out the Eye-Fi Pro X2 Card in my D7000 shooting wirelessly to an iPad 2 via my MiFi mobile hotspot and I was pleased with the overall workflow. Today Eye-Fi just announced a new card (yeah that happens in technology, deal with it!), the Eye-Fi Mobile X2 which is a cheaper card that offers Direct to iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) and Android mobile device shooting WITHOUT the need for a WiFi hotspot. Removing the WiFi hotspot requirement and going direct in an AdHoc fashion makes this solution even better. However, don't fret if you bought the Pro X2 card like I did. They are going to release a firmware update to the existing cards next week. Keep in mind that the Pro X2 card does handle RAW and Geotagging. The new card does not.
This should open up a whole new world for people that want to shoot with a decent camera and share those images even with some minor retouching/adjustments, from a tablet device directly. I'll be shooting RAW to my regular SD card in slot 1 and BASIC JPG to my Eye-Fi card in Slot 2 on my D7000. Life just got a little more fun.
If you don't have an Eye-Fi card yet, you can get the NEW Mobile X2 8GB card with the Direct Mode love built-in here.
Sorry, still not Compact Flash joy.
As soon as I have the yet to be released iOS App and an updated card you expect a review here.
Promo Video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN8ZRzXLG_I
Adobe InDesign CS 5.5 improves in the areas of Digital Publishing to devices. It addresses the number one request from our ePUB authors and that is the ability to embed video in your exported ePUBs and yes those videos play on the iPad (or any other ePUB 3.0 standards compatible device). We've also made some improvements on allowing you to layout your publications for print, but also dictate the order in which elements are exported to ePUB using the new Articles Panel. Another major improvement is the ability to either have InDesign generate your ePUB cover from the 1st page of your document or linking to a specific image that is optimized for a small size "bookshelf" on a device such as the iPad's iBooks App. Here's a video on how some of these features work:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bBNrMoKz0Q
The video below walks you through some of the enhancements to the Digital Publishing Suite in InDesign CS5.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HR_LdlM31s
See Greg Rewis' post on what's new in Dreamweaver CS5.5 for HTML 5 and Mobile Authoring here.
See Jason Levine's post on what's new in Production Premium CS5.5 here.
See Paul Trani's post on what's new in Flash Professional and Mobile App development here.
Learn more about Creative Suite 5.5 including a New Subscription pricing option for those that don't want to or need to "buy" Creative Suite Products here.
Also see more CS 5.5 videos on Adobe TV. In case you missed it, Adobe TV can now be viewed on your iPad.
As you know Creative Suite apps have typically reved every 18-24 months. The world is moving faster than that and many of our publishing customers need solutions for publishing to new devices and in new formats sooner. Now you will see Adobe introduce a major milestone release ever 24 months and a mid-cycle release every 12 months. Johnny L is here to tell us all about it:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niE9VT8Yjbo
We will be hosting a live Q&A Today (4/11/2011) on Facebook at 12:00 noon EDT (GMT -4). Join me and the other Adobe Creative Suite Evangelists, Jason Levine, Greg Rewis, Paul Trani for an hour to answer your Creative Suite questions.
Here's the link for the live Q&A
I'm about to head off on the CS5 Evolution Tour with my Adobe Evangelist colleagues!
Details here.
Schedule: