Category: Digital Photography

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Lightroom 3 Public Beta 2: What’s New?

Today Adobe has released the Lightroom 3 Public Beta 2. You can download your copy right here for free. The Lightroom 3 Public Beta 1 was downloaded by over 350,000 photographers and you guys gave us valuable feedback. Much of that feedback went into making Lightroom 3 even better. This new beta incorporates many new features and tweaks. Rather than list them all (you can get the list on the Adobe Labs site), I'd rather show you!

Check out this video:

 

If you missed my first video going over LR3 Public Beta 1, you can check it out here.

More of my videos are available at CreativeSuitePodcast.com

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A real tripod mount for your iPhone

More and more I'm seeing the iPhone being used for some serious photography applications and workflows. Don't laugh, it's true. Chase Jarvis published an entire book of photos captured with nothing but an iPhone. Now that the iPhone 3GS does video, I'm even seeing Steadicam rigs. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not all that impressed with the iPhone as a camera. It's OK! It's fine for the occasional snapshot and of course in the words of Chase, the best camera is the one you have with you. A while back I reviewed an iPhone App by Joby called Gorillacam that allowed you to do timed captures. Here's another App that tries to be the only photography app that you'll need and even adds video capture to the iPhone 3G. With these apps that can do video capture and time lapse photography, the next thing you're going to want is a way of mounting your camera on a tripod. While I love the Gorillapod series, the only way of using one with the iPhone is using their specific Gorillapod Mobile. Well not anymore! The good folks at G Design have come up with the perfect solution. The U+3G is a holder for your iPhone 2G or 3G/3GS that has a standard tripod mount on the bottom. This of course will allow you to mount your iPhone on ANY standard tripod that you already have. 

On its side

Continue reading “A real tripod mount for your iPhone”

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I’m teaching at Photoshop World Orlando

As many of you already know Adobe Photoshop World East is next week in Orlando and I'll be there presenting and teaching a couple of classes on the Conference Track as well as doing presentations on the show floor.
 

Wednesday, March 24th

I'm in the Adobe Booth on the tradeshow floor
2:15-3:00 PM – Cool Photoshop CS4 Features for Designers – In this session I'll show some Photoshop CS4 techniques for graphic designers including some integration tips with InDesign and Illustrator

4:15-5:00 PM – Design Across Digital Media with Adobe CS4 Design Premium – In this session I'll show tips and techniques that allow you to take your design products beyond print. Create interactive content and use video more effectively.
Continue reading “I’m teaching at Photoshop World Orlando”

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Hey! I’m in the 2010 Westcott Pro Lighting Catalog

I just had a chance to check out the NEW 2010 F.J. Westcott Pro Lighting Product Catalog and once again I'm honored to have not one but two of my photos in this year's issue. The first is a beauty image of the lovely Gina on page 8 and the second is of the beautiful Lauren on page  27. I took the Lauren photo at the Mary DuPrie Workshop, so Mary gets the credit for lighting that particular shot.

Nothing thrills a photographer more than seeing his/her work in commercial print jobs (well nothing besides paid work that is 🙂 )

Thanks again Westcott! Now I have to go do some shooting in hopes of making the 2011 catalog. Darn! LOL

Download your copy of the catalog here.


 

 

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We celebrate Photoshop’s 20th Birthday on Thursday!

 

Photoshop 20th Anniversary Celebration


It's not often that a software application celebrates 20 years of existence. However, tomorrow (Thursday, February 18th, 2010) we will celebrateAdobe Photoshop's 20th Anniversary! I'm very excited to be a part of the festivities and looking forward to seeing some of the folks that have helped Photoshop be the success that it is over the years.


My friends over at NAPP are hosting the Live Event

The Live Event takes place at 7:30 PM PST (19:30 GMT-8, 10:30 PM EST) in San Francisco, California. 

I'll be on stage with Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, RC Concepcion, Corey Barker, Julieanne Kost, Russell Preston Brown, and Adobe's SVP Johnny L.

There will be a LIVE Webcast and LIVE Blog

If you miss the Live webcast, it will be posted later for viewing.

More details here.

While I'm sure I'll grab some shots from the event and maybe even do a blog post about it, the easiest fastest way to keep up with me at this event is to follow me on Twitter. 

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Solmeta N2 GPS for Nikon DSLR’s Review

After writing my most recent review of the NEW di-GPS Pro and Mini GPS' a few readers suggested that I check out the Solmeta N2 GPS. which offered a couple of advantages over the di-GPS models and being the GPS freak that I am, I couldn't resist.
 

What makes Solmeta different?

solmeta

Aside from all the things you would expect and that I've covered before with the other units, the Someta offers a couple more bells and whistles. The big one for me and probably the reason I was anxious to try it was that instead of having to buy one model or another for either a Nikon DSLR with a 10 pin terminal (like my D700) or one that has a specific GPS port (like my D5000), this one comes with BOTH cables. This way the user can buy one GPS unit and use it with every Nikon DSLR that supports GPS units. Although that was a big plus for me having two bodies, the average user is probably only going to use one cable or the other as they will likely only have one kind of body. The only other feature that got my attention was that this one has the ability to know your heading. Definitely nice when you want to know what direction you were facing when you took the shot.
 

How well did it work?

solmeta-inuse

Luckily the unit arrived (after what seemed like forever!), the day before I was headed out on a business trip. So I was able to pack it for some real world testing. I still brought my other GPS as a backup since I hadn't had even a moment to make sure the Solmeta was going to work.
I connected the appropriate cable for my D5000 and stood outside my hotel to grab a GPS signal. I gotta say that it seems to take a lot longer to acquire the satellite than I'm used to. Not too long, just longer. So plan ahead!

HamburgGermany-Solmeta
Once it locked on, the light went from rapidly flashing green, to a slow flashing green to a steady green meaning that it had acquired multiple satellites. I started shooting and the information was captured as expected.

Lightroom 2

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom brought the GPS metadata in with the shot. You can click the GPS coordinates above to take you to this location on Google maps.
 

One major design flaw – see UPDATE 2 below

Continue reading “Solmeta N2 GPS for Nikon DSLR’s Review”

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Kodak Zi8 HD Video Camera: Great for travel & video blogging

 

Kodak_Zi8_raspberry

A few days ago I wrote a post called "Are camera phones the new point and shoot cameras" and I guess the same thing could be applied to video cameras as well. I have a big older 3CCD Sony VX2000 Mini-DV camera as well as a newer Canon VIXIA HF10 HD camera that I LOVE! However, unless I'm specifically doing an event recording I'll probably just capture something quick on my iPhone 3GS and share it. The Canon is small but it's not pocket small. So this time I really do have a need for something in between. While the Canon is great, I don't always have it with me. While I do always have my iPhone with me the video is not the best. First off it's only VGA (640×480) and not widescreen. Everything I do nowadays is widescreen or HD unless it's something personal and fun just to share with friends/family. 

I was leaning towards the Flip camera until I ran it by my buddy Dave Helmly (guru of all things video) and he has both cameras and said hands down the Kodak was better. Since they're the same price, I didn't look any further and I bought the Kodak Zi8. I gotta say, I'm blown away by what this little thing does. First off it supports video at full 1080p HD! My HF10 only does 1080i. It has a built-in SDHC slot so I just stuck in one of my Transcend 16GB Class 6 SDHC cards and started shooting. My use for this camera will be mostly for video podcasting/blogging and a few interviews here and there. Speaking of interviews it has a stereo mic input. Another huge plus as I can plug in any mic I want. I'm starting with this one. The Zi8 is about the same footprint as my iPhone 3GS and maybe 1.5 times as thick.

I recorded my first video in 720p mode with it here. This is using the built-in Mic. (Don't forget to switch the YouTube playback to 720p to see the maximum quality):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7JNZNctUk

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Choosing a Fisheye lens: Nikon 10.5mm vs 16mm

Ford Field shot by Scott Kelby using a Nikon 10.5mm on a D3

Above photo of Ford Field shot by Scott Kelby using a Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 lens on a D3 body

 

During a recent visit by my buddy Scott Kelby who came up to shoot the Lions vs. the Bears game, he showed me this shot that he took with his Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 lens on his Nikon D3. Honestly, I was never really a fan of fisheye shots before but there was something about this one that made me say "cool!"

 

My search for a fisheye lens began

Now keep in mind that for me a fisheye lens is something that I would use on occasion at best. It's not something that I would use every day and even Scott said, "you will probably use it the least" when I was asking "what should be my next lens?" Keeping that in mind I was debating between the Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 DX fisheye lens and the Nikon 16mm f/2.8 EX fisheye lens. The difference is that the 16mm Fisheye lens is designed for full frame bodies like my D700. The 10.5mm Fisheye is a DX lens for Bodies with a cropped sensor like a D300s. There is about a $300 price difference between the two and I figured since I wouldn't be using it that often and when I do it will probably be on my D5000, so I decided to go the 10.5mm.

note: click on any of the shots in this post to see them larger

 

The Sigma 15mm f/2.8 detour

When I went to order my Nikon 10.5mm lens (still debating the 16mm), it wasn't in stock. So as an alternative it was suggested that I try the Sigma 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens. Since they had no problem taking it back if I didn't like it, I decided to give it a shot (get it, "give it shot", c'mon these are the jokes people).

A serious WTF moment:

I got the lens and put it on my D700 and fired. Here's what I got:

Sigma 15mm F/2.8 EX DG Fisheye Lens

Umm, What? I felt like I was shooting through a hole. Granted, this may be cool for somethings, but I can do that in Photoshop. What makes matters worse it wouldn't work with my D5000 at all. The camera wouldn't even come on with that lens attached. So back in the box it went. Thanks, but not quite what I had in mind. Now I know that there is probably software out there designed to correct these images and make them look, um right. However, I don't feel that I should have to process every single image that comes out of my camera using special software and the fact that it wouldn't work at all on the D5000 was a deal breaker anyway.

Continue reading “Choosing a Fisheye lens: Nikon 10.5mm vs 16mm”

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GorillaMobile 3G/3GS holds your iPhone

gorillamobile3g3gs

I remember when I first saw the GorillaMobile when it was announced and I kinda mentally dismissed it. Don't get me wrong, I love the GorillaPod line of products. It's just that this wasn't what I was looking for in terms of a "holder" for my iPhone to watch videos on the plane. I was looking for something smaller. I never really found the "right" solution. Most were either too bulky to travel with or didn't allow me to lean the iPhone back far enough for a comfortable viewing angle. 

 

I see the light now

I didn't look at the GorillaMobile again until Joby released their FREE Gorillacam App (which I've reviewed here today). I'm very excited about what the app offers in terms of features and of course many of the features can only be realized if you have a way of holding your iPhone still long enough. For example, doing time lapse photography isn't going to be very exciting holding it by hand. This is when I wanted to look at the GorillaMobile again. So I got one and had a ball using it to take pictures. Once I was done playing with the app for the day I started just playing with the positioning of the GorillaMobile itself and realized that THIS IS the holder I've been looking for! It ships with a case for your iPhone 3G/3GS that has a cutout on the back to place it right on the GorillaMobile. This way you don't have "stick" anything on the back of your iPhone.

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Time to Say Goodbye – to those photos

It’s a New Year and therefore I tend to look for ways to do house cleaning. I look for ways to improve my workflow and I look for ways to not make the same mistakes as the year before. I recently looked at one of my Lightroom Catalogs. It’s my Portrait/Model catalog. I started doing serious portrait photography back in in 2006 and my current catalog has over 30,000 photos in it!

30000catalog

 

How I ended up with 30,000+ Photos?

When I do a photo shoot I can shoot anywhere from 100 to 800 photos. My average is around 300. So here’s what happens in my current workflow: Let’s say I shoot 500 shots. I then go home and eliminate 200 right off the bat. Those 200 go in the trash immediately. They are the eyes closed, flash didn’t fire, bad expression kinda shots. Now I go through and pick out a few of my favorites. Next I export a web gallery, post it and send the URL to the client/model. He/she picks out the agreed upon number of shots (let’s say 10) that I then retouch and deliver the final shots to them. That leaves 280-290 shots that I didn’t want and that the client/model didn’t want. Multiply this number times all my shoots in the past three years and you arrive at the 30,000+ number.

 

But what if?

The reason it’s so hard to hit the delete button on these shots is because we say “but what if the client wants them later?” You know how many times this has happened in 3 years? ZERO! Not one time has a client/model come back and say “hey, you know those shots that were just OK? Yeah the ones that I didn’t choose the first time. I’d like those now.” It hasn’t happened one single time in all of my shooting. My theory is that when they picked their shots, they picked the best ones and anything left would be second best at best. How often do you go back and ask for the second best of anything once you have the best.

Continue reading “Time to Say Goodbye – to those photos”