Adobe Lightroom 3.2 & Camera RAW 6.2 are here – Smugmug users rejoice!
You might remember last week when I posted my video showing how to publish your photos to Facebook directly from Lightroom 3.2, well now that Lightroom 3.2 is officially out I can also tell you the same exact publishing feature is there for Smugmug users too! That's right if you're on Flickr, Facebook or Smugmug you can now publish your photos directly to any of these popular services directly from Lightroom. Even if you shot in RAW, Lightroom will make JPGs and upload them for you all in the background.
It adds camera support for:
- Casio EXILIM EX-FH100 (DNG*)
- Leica S2 (DNG*)
- Panasonic DMC-FZ100
- Panasonic DMC-FZ40 (FZ45)
- Panasonic DMC-LX5
- Pentax 645D
- Samsung NX10
- Samsung TL500 (EX1)
- Sony A290
- Sony A390
- Sony Alpha NEX-3
- Sony Alpha NEX-5
This update also adds support for a ton of new Lens Profiles and several bug fixes.
Download Lightroom 3.2 update (Mac | Win}
Download the Camera RAW 6.2 update for CS5 & Photoshop Elements 8 (Mac | Win)
August 31st, 2010
3:05
Getting Started with HTML 5 Video
Adobe's Worldwide Web Evangelist, Greg Rewis returns to give us his 3rd installment on Creating HTML 5 and this time it's how to Get Started with HTML 5 Video. Greg shows how to use the HTML 5 Pack for Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 to create HTML 5 video that reaches the largest audience of viewers.
August 30th, 2010
12:57
It’s Time For Photoshop World!
It's that time of year again and I'm looking forward to heading out to Adobe Photoshop World this week in Las Vegas! I'll be teaching my usual two InDesign classes, but this year I'm also teaching a Lightroom class and even a Social Network – Facebook class.
In addition to the conference track classes I've got something up my sleeve for the keynote as well as a couple of lighting demos (Bogen – 2:15 on Wednesday and Westcott 1:30 on Thursday) on the tradeshow floor. Lastly I'll be doing a quick demo of the Wacom Intuos 4 in the Wacom booth (4:00 on Thursday) too. Yep, it's going to be a busy week and I'm excited to go and see many of you there!
Don't forget to download the Photoshop World App
It's FREE! Learn more about it and get it here.
See you in class!
August 27th, 2010
5:28
Thanks Joburg for an Amazing Week!
I have to say that this was definitely one of the BEST events I've ever presented at. The Johannesburg crowd was fun, engaging and inspiring! A full house with standing room only. You guys rock!
Thank you for a great day and I'm looking forward to coming back to Johannesburg and also going to Cape Town and Durban again.
The line to get in was around the building!
Ask a CS Pro Session via Facebook
One thing that I was really delighted by was the Live "Ask a CS Pro" session via Facebook on Friday morning. This was a great way to answer questions from South Africa and around the world LIVE. We'll definitely look at doing more of these going forward.
August 24th, 2010
3:28
Nikon’s NEW Lenses! I want one or two of these :)
The NEW highly anticipated 85mm f/1.4 lens is here. I have the older model and it is definitely one of my favorite lenses. The depth of field is amazing! I LOVE IT! So what's new with this updated model? For one it's nano coated and everyone that I've talked to that has a nano coated lens swears by the difference it can make in cutting down glare and getting sharper shots. I have the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with nano coating and it's very nice. The other thing that this lens supports AF-S autofocusing on some of the consumer/prosumer bodies like the D5000. Although I'd love to have this new lens, I can't really justify the upgrade unless I sell the one I have (hint, hint). My current lens works great, so I may have to sit this one out for now.
You can pre-order the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 here for $1,649.95.
The New Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens
When I travel and I can only take one lens, it's usually going to be my Nikon 18-200mm lens. However, that's a DX lens and therefore isn't really designed for full-frame cameras like my D700. This new 28-300mm changes all that. This would be the ONE lens I'd want to carry if I could only carry one lens for my D700 or my D5000! It's also a VRII lens and has the nano coating. Papa needs a new travel lens baby, and I think this is it!
You can pre-order the New Nikon 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 lens here for $1,049.95.
Two more lenses
Although the first two lenses I mentioned above are the ones that I'm currently drooling over, Nikon did announce two more lenses:
The AF-S Nikkor 24-120m f/4G ED VR and AF-S Nikkor 55-300 f/4.5-5.6 ED VR.
August 23rd, 2010
12:14
Nikon Breaks Out with a D3100 and it’s So Close To What I Want!
In case you missed it, Nikon introduced their New D3100 DSLR body just this past Thursday. This camera was rumored for quite a while and the rumored specs were pretty accurate. So it wasn't a shocker to see it, but there was one feature that I was hoping to see that didn't seem to make the cut. My current travel camera is a Nikon D5000 and I like the size and weight of the D5000 for travel, plus the ability to shoot video. The one thing that would have made me upgrade (or downgrade) to the D3100 in a heartbeat would have been audio in. Sigh…. While the D3100 steps up to 14.2 MP, adds 1080p video (Yay! and about freaking time), continuous auto focus in Live View (we'll have to see if it really works or not) and 12,800 ISO (equivalent), the audio for video recording is still limited to the built in Mono mic.
I want good audio too
Most video cameras have crappy built-in mics. However, most video cameras also let you plug in a better mic via a stereo audio input. To make matters worse is that the built-in audio on Nikon DSLRs is only 11hz. A bad mic with bad compression, equals really really bad audio. Giving this camera 1080p, auto focusing video is AWESOME, but the limitation for many is definitely going to be the audio. Now if you plan to shoot video with your great lenses in all of the D3100's 1080p glory and then add your own sound track or music later, then this won't be a big deal, but if you need the source audio from the event you're recording, then you're going to either have to record the audio on a different device and merge them later in post or have sub par audio to go with your great video.
I would upgrade to a D300s at this point, but I'll continue to wait and see what comes next since the D300s was last year's model. It DOES have audio in, but it's only 720p video and if I'm going to spend the bucks, I'd rather wait since I don't think Nikon is done for 2010 just yet 
What to do?
If I didn't already have the D5000, and was looking for a small Nikon DSLR with some pretty cool features, then I wouldn't hesitate to get this one. The price won't break the bank and it has a few features that even the higher end models don't have yet. I may still sell my D5000 (since my D5000 doesn't have audio in either) to get this if I get a good price on the D5000. For now, personally I'm in wait and see mode.
You can get the D3100 here for a great price of $699.95 with a 18-55mm VR lens
Also be sure to check out the NEW Nikon Coolpix S1100PJ Camera with a Built-in Projector!
August 20th, 2010
3:16
Facebook Adds Places: Time to Update Your Privacy Settings Again!
You might remember my recent post "Are you sharing too much on Facebook?" in that post I gave you some tips on how to control your privacy settings so that only the people that you want to see your status updates and photos are the ones that actually see them. It's time to revisit this again now that Facebook has added "Places".
What's Places?
Places is a new feature on Facebook that allows mobile users to "check in" to the different places they may visit. This is not a new concept as sites like Gowalla and Foursquare have been doing this for a while. It's a social networking thing amongst "close friends" and "family" and of course Facebook wants in on it (I'm sure there's money in knowing the establishments that your customers frequent the most). The concept is pretty simple. You visit a location, business, park, etc. and with a mobile device like a smartphone you either use the Facebook app or the Facebook mobile site to check in. That "check in" is then posted to your wall/news feed for all of your "friends" to see. If you don't want your friends to know where you are every minute of the day then don't use it. It's pretty simple to not tap or click on it. Problem solved. However, there's a little more to it than that with Facebook at least for now. The problem is that your "friends" can tag YOU when they check in to a location. This is a plus from a convenience standpoint when a group of friends are hanging out and a big minus for those that don't want to play! Your friends don't need your consent to check you in! I can already hear the privacy groups screaming about this and luckily although it's ENABLED BY DEFAULT, you can turn it off (see below).
Here's another Privacy gotcha according to Macworld.com:
Another problem is that, while new places users create are private by default, they can become public if enough users check into them. Even if such a place is your house or apartment, Facebook will automatically promote the place to being public after an unspecified number of check-ins. For now, there is no way to prevent your home address from becoming a public location on Facebook aside from asking your friends to not check in at your next party. If a sensitive location becomes public, the only way to attempt to remove it is to flag it for Facebook to review, and ask others to do the same.
So the obvious thing not to do here is DON'T use Places to check in to your private residence. I never saw the need to do this on Gowalla, will definitely NOT be doing it on Facebook Places.
Changing your privacy settings – NOW!
Whether you plan to use Places or not, you should adjust your Privacy settings NOW! I already use Gowalla, but unlike Facebook I only have less than 10 Gowalla friends! These are the few people that are close to me that I would want to know my current location at any given time. So the same goes for Facebook! If I do use the Places feature, I don't want my 1,500+ "Friends" to necessarily know where I am. I want those "Close Friends", "Family" and "People I actually know" to know where I am. Again, this is where the Facebook Lists Feature pays off again. You can designate a List of the people that you would want to see your Places' Check Ins.
The default for Places is set to "Friends".
Also don't forget to DISABLE the ability for Friends to check you in to Places if you don't want that:
If you don't want ANYONE to see where you are even if you're tagged, change the setting to "Only Me" and you should be OK for now.
August 19th, 2010
3:00
Great Portable Speaker 2 Go
As a frequent traveler I'm always on the look out for a portable (smallest I can find with decent sound) speaker system for my iPod/iPhone. My main interest is personal listening in a hotel room. Although there are lots of small speakers out there, the problem is if you make it too small it sounds like crap! I'm a fan of the AirCurve acoustic speaker by Griffin, but I also like powered speakers too. My continuous search led me to the iMainGo 2 Handheld Speaker Case for iPhone and iPod. First off, there is nothing really iPhone/iPod specific about this case. It should work fine with just about any phone or MP3 player. There's a standard mini plug that goes in your device's headphone/line out jack so it should work with just about anything including your laptop or iPad.
What I like best about this speaker is that it's powered by standard AAA batteries that last about 30 hours on one set/charge. It would be nice if it were AC powered and had a dock connector to charge your iDevice, but I can live without that for portability, battery power and price. It's already hard enough finding enough plugs in a hotel room. Not having to plug in the speaker to use it is actually a good thing.
It sounds good too
One of the things I was most impressed with is the sound of this speaker in comparison to other portable systems I've tried that cost more and are bigger.
If you're looking for something small that sounds good and works with just about any device you carry, this is it.
You can get the iMainGo 2 for about $39 here.
August 18th, 2010
3:06
What’s Your Offsite Backup Strategy?
Yes, believe it or not there are people still out there that don't backup their computers on a regular basis and I suppose there always will be those people. It typically only takes one hard drive crash and the loss of important files and time to make someone backup their computer. As I've always said, "there are those who have lost data or those who are about to lose data – backup!" With all the digital photos and video you're taking, it's even more important than ever. With film cameras, you could at least go back to the negatives (to a point). Now with everything being digital, the file you import from your camera/card IS THE NEGATIVE! That's all you have. So let's say you do backup regularly. There are still some other considerations. Let's start off with the various categories of data storage and my workflow.
My working copy – There is always "current" data on my computer. My main, everyday computer is a Macbook Pro and whatever I'm currently working on is usually on the internal drive of that computer (if it's an intense video project, then it's on my Mac Pro). For the sake of example, let's say I just did a photo shoot at the studio. This means that I shot directly to my computer via tethering into Lightroom 3. The RAW .NEF files are sitting on my internal drive. Before I leave the studio, I plug in an external Firewire 800 drive and copy the folder for that shoot. This is just a temporary backup for the trip home. Yes, I'm that paranoid and don't want to lose the whole day due to a weird problem or crash between point A & B. Once I get home, I convert the .NEF files into .DNG files right in Lightroom and pitch the .NEFs. I also begin my Selection and Rejection process. The rejects go to the trash too. At this point I have a gallery for the client that I post online and they make their selections. This process can take a few days before they get back to me, and usually within an hour my MacBook Pro is backed up over my network via Time Machine. So now I have a 3rd copy of the photos. I do whatever is necessary (retouching in Photoshop CS5) to get the final images ready and they are delivered. Once everyone is happy. I move the images to the next location.
My network file server – this is a dedicated Mac mini (running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server) with a Drobo connected to it for mass storage. I'm using just under 1.5TB's of space on my Drobo and therefore it can be backed up onto an external 1.5 TB Firewire 800 hard drive. Yes, I backup my Drobo because while the Drobo is great at protecting you from drive failure, it does nothing to protect you against data corruption or accidental file deletion. My Drobo is backed up every night automatically via SuperDuper! to the external drive.
Archiving – this is the grey area for me. My idea of a archive is a set of files that you're done with. The client is happy, you've been paid and are under no contractual obligation (or the date has past) to hang on to these files. You don't really need them, but you just don't want to delete them "just in case." For me, I put these kinds of files on misc. external hard drives that may be lying around and I don't worry about them (no I don't trust/like DVDs for long term storage). The reason is, in over 20 years I've yet to have to load up a file from an archive. So I'm not too worried about these files and I'm keeping them just because I have the extra drives around the office. I've had a couple of archive drives die on me and I didn't flinch. I couldn't even remember what was on them and really didn't care. Of course your needs may be different and you may need to hold on to this data. I guess for me if it's important, then it's still on my file server above.
Off Site Storage – Now we get to the point of the post and that is "what's your offsite backup strategy?" For me, it's rotating those 1.5TB drives (I have two identical backup drives) that backup my server, to my safe deposit box at the bank. Most people just don't believe that a disaster will strike their perfect homes/offices. You'll never be robbed because of where you live and the tornado, flood, fire, hurricane, etc. always happens to the other guy. Um, ok! So be it! Then do me a favor. Have an offsite backup if for no other reason, than to have more than one backup of your "important" files. While it's rare that both your main drive AND your backup drive will fail at the same time, it's not too rare that a virus or other malware can infect them both. After all they are all connected to the same computer right?
What about online storage? I think the online backup services are good. I don't really use one for the simple reason that it would take forever to backup and restore 1.5TB's of data online. It takes about a day to do it via Firewire. How many days would it take to do it over the internet? What I look to online storage and backup for is to backup smaller "in progress" projects.
So what's your offsite backup strategy?
I will cover the technology, gadgets, events and cool toys that have affected me in some way. I will also give recommendations on the products that I have actually used.
September 1st, 2010
12:02