Category: news

A long weekend…

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President’s Day has afforded many of us the pleasures of a long weekend.  I took advantage of the opportunity by catching up on some over-needed Z’s, visiting with family, and making strides on the back car-port-turned-screened-in-porch.   So, it’s now Monday afternoon and I am just now sitting down at the computer for some meaningful minutia to share.

One fun little tidbit I got came from the Red Bubble community where a lot of fine art photography can be found.  It seems many there are familiar with another community called EyeFetch.  I know, there’s tons of communities out there, but these seem to be different in that they are full of really positive energies, contests, and great sources of inspiration that is sometimes lacking in the more technical communities.  So, stop over at EyeFetch and see if it’s to your liking.  I could get hooked on these fine art communities.

The other is a couple videos from Joe McNally, who apparently has a dedicated channel on YouTube for some of his videography.  Pretty cool stuff – if you’re afraid of heights, then don’t watch the one on the Empire State Building.

That’s it for today – tutorial Tuesday is only 24 hours away, so stay tuned!

Another Wednesday Walk around the Web

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I mentioned it in the latest video podcast, but it also bears mentioning that Popular Photography’s annual Photo Wizard  contest is now underway.  Visit the contest page here for all the info and to download the images for compositing.  Good luck to all.  In other web news, did anyone else read about Apple’s latest update to Aperture 2.0?  Sounds like they are trying to compete with Adobe Lightroom – over 100 new features including one called Recover Slider…hmmm.

Other fun and inspiring sites I saw in the past few days:

  • Joe McNally’s blog – a little blurb about his book that is rocketing up the charts at Amazon.
  • Moose Peterson’s blog – always a great source of knowledge and inspiration
  • PhotoWalkPro – a great idea, and keep it in mind – they may take it on the road to a city near you!  Either that or schedule your own (Charleston SC did here)
  • JPG Magazine is always something I mean to get, read, and even submit work to.  Here’s a link to their site for more photography fun.

Don’t forget, the tutorial is still available, the poll is still going on, and I’m always excited about comments, feedback and ideas! 🙂

Selective Color, Part III

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The Tuesday tutorial for this week is the final installment in making selections based on a specific color, or range of colors. The first demonstrated how to use the Magic Wand and Lasso tools to copy an item onto it’s own layer, while preserving the rest of the image for editing.

Part II looked at using the history brush to bring back color in a specific part of an image for a unique way of identifying one colorful object of an image.

In this final installment, I use the Color Range method to demonstrate how you can make a selection based on the range of color.

The Quicktime version is up and ready for download via the link provided or in iTunes. The flash-based version is uploading right now, but will likely not be finished before the 7pm deadline. For those that prefer the flash web-based version, check back later this evening, as the linked path should be finalized by then. Tune in tomorrow for more web gems. In the meantime, I would like to give another round of thanks for all that are tuning in to the show and sharing their thoughts, comments and feedback with me both personally and in the comments area. That’s all for today. Happy shooting out there and watch your apertures:

ETA:  Flash-based version is up – thanks for the patience! 🙂

Selective Color, Part III

Weekend Wrapup (a.k.a. Monda Morning Minutia)

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So, over the weekend, I usually step away from the computer and pick up the camera. Well, this past weekend, I confess, I did not step away from the computer as much as I had planned, and did not pick up a camera as often as planned. Suffice to say, I did find some rather meaningless trivia out from my computer time.

A neighbor is starting a work-from-home type business where he makes signs and he is using some software called PXI. Asked if I could come over and install his fonts and clipart. After doing so, and poking around the software for a little bit, it looked very strikingly like Photoshop, although I didn’t get a chance to give it a full run. Neat little program.

The next little factoid is that I made some significant progress on the screened-in-porch. I got the light/fan up finally, and after getting successful power indications (whirring fan and lit lights), proceeded to enclose the rest of the paneling. But, before I closed it in, I snapped a few posterity shots off. Of particular note is my first corner wire pull success story in a pre-built environment for non-network purposes. I was giddy as a school boy for pulling this off with minimal assistance (just a big enough drill bit from my neighbor to bore out the center column), so naturally I had to include it in my Monday morning wrap-up! That’s a 2×4 on each side of a 6×6 support!

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Here’s another view, closer in on the corner wiring:

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Last but not least, apparently there are more than a few listeners. On Thursday, CB passsed the 10K listener mark (I didn’t realize it at the time). So thanks to those that are listening, or at least tuning in to read, skim, or listen!

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I also heard from a friend who I guess subscribes in iTunes, who saw that CB was listed on the New and Notable section for Technology How-To page 2:

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That prompted a little more digging on my part. Apparently from my last ten video podcasts, only one numbered fewer than triple-digit downloads.

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Talk about a shot in the arm! I was amazed that not only are some people listening, but that the numbers were that high! Totally blown away here, and I just wanted to say thanks to all 10K+ of you who have tuned in.

Weekly Web Walk

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As promised, here’s my weekly walk around the web…although I must admit the tune “Window on the World” as sung by Jimmy Buffet is running through my head now. Anyway, to get things started, the PMA show for 2008 was this last weekend. We’ve all heard the big news events, including the Canon XSi, the Nikon D60 and the new lenses each is adding to their market. But, what might be nice is a complete rundown of the new bodies released, and reviews of those new additions to the marketplace. Well, no fear, I found one such resource here: PMA Reviews

In related news, Scott Sherman and Michael Stein report back from their hotel room at PMA to bring us recent and exciting news from PMA, including an interview with Rudy Winston. Who’s Rudy you ask? One word should suffice – Canon! So, in keeping with the Canonite tradition of stopping to listen when Canon speaks, I encourage you all to tune in to their podcast over at The Digital Photography Show.

As always, Scott Kelby has some good resources listed over at his blog, The Photoshop Insider, so stop over there, although he’s taking the day off today. I guess even the best get sick from time to time. Of special interest was his recent reference and link to the annual contest that Popular Photography runs for Photoshop enthusiasts, but CB wasn’t around last year to report on it, so I’m adding my proverbial “report” to the fray.: the contest is underway! Be sure to visit the contest site for additional information and to download the images here. Download and start getting creative! 🙂

A really cool video was published just yesterday over at Strobist, about 7 minutes long that gives a short intro on the nuts and bolts of flash and camera lighting. Thanks to David Hobby for letting us know about it and to Paul Duncan for putting it together in the first place.

In other news (for me anyway), I came across a site called Red Bubble. This place is apparently quite well known for artwork, including photography. If you need a picture of a pencil or a frog, then yes, stock sites like iStock may be your answer. However, Red Bubble seems to fill a void for those looking to find some fine art imagery to cover a wall. Stop over and see what each artist has to offer – some of the work is quite inspiring and moving. Fair warning though, some of the work is definitely “out there” and even NSFW, so surf responsibly.

Also of note in the last week were Sigma’s announcements of their latest releases to accommodate the increasing interest in 3rd party lenses. Of particular interest may be the new 200-500! This could be the new “Bigma”! Stop over to their site to read all about it. Granted, it’s no Canon 800mm, but sufficiently impressive nonetheless. Thanks to 1001 Noisy Cameras for the heads up on their latest contributions.

Other fun video stuff is a Swedish journalist interviewing Canon’s Chuck Westfall on a range of subjects including the 5D, how Canon will respond to the Nikon D3 and other body and gear news. Definitely worth the snippets of Swedish that intersperse the interview , conducted in English (thankfully). My sister spent a year in Sweden, and I am not sure how much she can remember, but I have an email in to her to translate the Swedish portion of the broadcast.

Finally, as an admitted Canon-loyalist, here’s a rundown of the gear they introduced at PMA:

That should be enough to tide you over for the day. Happy shooting, and as always, watch your apertures!

Big Blue Bowl – Selective Color, Part 2

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The tutorial for this week is the second in what will hopefully be a three-part series showing the various ways that you can approach selective coloring in Photoshop. Last week, I went over the technique of using the lasso and selection tools to select your color component and then putting that on its own layer. This week, I look at the history brush. You can quickly see the differences between each and how each has its advantages and disadvantages.

I gave a shout-out to Scott Sherman and Michael Stein’s Digital Photography Show on the video, but you really do need to listen in. Rudy Winston from Canon is on this week and according to the show notes, gives some really good insights and dialog on the Canon line. Kudos to Scott and Michael for incorporating the info into their podcast – I can’t wait to listen to it tomorrow during the commute. Additionally, I spoke with Scott on the phone today too, so that was a neat experience to actually talk to one of the established regulars of the photography community – if you’re reading, thanks for taking the time to chat with me Scott!

For those that prefer the flash version, here it is: Selective Color, Part 2

For the others, the Quicktime version is linked as a media file, and is also available in iTunes. Here’s a sample image of the final product as a teaser:

Selective Color applied to a Blue Bowl

Don’t forget, you can now sign up for email notifications of new posts to the blog. No worries about spam or hokey solicitations from me, I don’t even see that stuff. It’s all automated, and this way you can save space on your toolbar and widget space. One more thing that is done for you, so sign up for it today! As a final note, thanks to all the listeners who have been downloading and watching the videos. I’ve received several kind emails with ideas for future tips, so plenty of creativity is on its way for 2008.

Well, that’s about all for today. Tune in tomorrow for my trip around the web, compiling all the news and reports trickling out of PMA. Happy shooting, and as always, watch those apertures!

Missed Mondays

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Egads, I am such a slacker – never posted yesterday. I was still feeling the effects of a rather tedious weekend spent on some home renovations and Super Bowl side effects. Suffice to say, I hit the sack at 8pm – a first for me in quite a while. However, I do have some tidbits to share – both Scott Kelby and David Hobby from Photoshop Insider and Strobist fame respectively give mention to Joe McNally’s recent book – The Moment it Clicks. I usually avoid promotional recommendations, but with the excerpts that I’ve read and the buzz about it, I may as well pull the trigger.

In other news, PMA is wrapped up and the blogs will surely light up with their recollections of the gear and trade show information they came away with from the event. Tomorrow I will endeavor to have a round-up of the web resources that cover the gamut. Today is tutorial Tuesday and I hope to have that up in time, but fair warning – it will be out fairly late tonight if I can make it.  Finally, thanks to the friendly folks at feedburner, I’ve added an email subscription link to the sidebar so you can add your email address to be notified every time I make a post.  The default code does not seem to like my custom stuff so things aren’t as pretty as I’d like, but if I waited on that kinda of minutia, I’d not even have a blog running yet!  Happy shooting all, and as always, watch those apertures! 😉

Printing your pictures online

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I know it’s unusual for me to make posts on the weekends, but I felt this subject warranted an extra post.  One of the things that’s always a hassle to deal with is taking your prints from not only the camera to the computer, but then from the computer to the printer.  Often times we are limited by the quality of our desktop printers.  To combat that, we turn to local printing outlets.  Even more so, in this day of technology, online printing has become much more consumer-oriented, with a lot of the mystique and confusion, (i.o.w. – hassle), alleviated.  Since this subject is certainly not a new one, rather than re-visit it completely, it always helps to refer to the works of others.  Why re-invent the wheel if it already works?  To that end – recently one of the online forms that I participate in raised a question of which online printers give the best results.  For about a year now, I’ve relied on a rating done by the folks over at Popular Photography.  I referred to it in the forums, and decided it would be a good idea to share that here.

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With those results from a little over a year ago, perhaps it is time to re-visit the subject once again.  If you would like to see another evaluation of online printers, feel free to give the folks at PopPhoto your thoughts.  I believe they have a contact email address on their website.  For the time being though, I would venture to guess that the results of the above have likely not changed all that much.   Tune in tomorrow for a wrap-up of the PMA show around the web.   Now, on to more important things – GO GIANTS!  🙂  For those attending parties, remember to party smartly – don’t drink and drive!

Selective Coloring: Method #1

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The task of selecting a single object in an image to highlight by means of leaving that color intact while altering the surrounding elements is nothing new to photography…and there are several ways to do this, with varying levels of success and usability for each. The tutorial for this week looks at the simplest of ways, by putting that object on its own layer. The nice thing here is that the technique is portable to multiple versions of Photoshop. Having recently upgraded myself to CS3 Extended, I am trying to keep tutorials cross-functional across multiple versions for usability. Enjoy, and see you next week, for the second method. Don’t forget to vote in the polls!

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Walking Wounded on Wednesday

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Well, it seems my wife’s illness was a little more contagious than anticipated. Suffice to say the bug bit me and with this lethargy the already belated Tuesday tutorial will have to wait another day. In the meantime, the usual Wednesday rounds seem appropriate. So, here’s my wounded walk around the web from Wednesday:

  • Check out The Online Photographer for a unique opportunity. It’s a call for photos on his companion site, www.photoborg.org
  • The Digital Photography show has their latest podcast available for download as they head out for the PMA show.
  • And of course, Photoshop User TV has their weekly video podcast up for viewing – and the ultimate question: “Who’s the Greatest Poobah?”

With PMA into full swing, Canon has announced it’s latest generation of camera bodies, the 450D, and Nikon has answered with its own D60. Other gear announcements are also filling the currents, but these are the two biggies for the last week. There’s a decent comparison analysis done on another blog, so feel free to read it here For the rest of the Photo Marketing Associations news, visit their news line online

Hopefully I’ll be back on my feet tomorrow (Thursday), or shall I say later today – since it’s almost midnight, to get out the tutorial. Until then, happy shooting and, as always, watch those apertures!