The iPod Touch Unboxing!

That’s right, my replacement podcast resources is finally here, and I share the unboxing with the viewers here tonight via YouTube:

Initial thoughts?  It’s pretty sweet – love the App Store, the WiFi, email access, twitter access, youtube, and so much more!  A few downsides though – no built in camera, and no microphone – I know it’s not for phone, but recording audio snippets would be ideal.  There are apps you can download but need a mic and with just the audio jack, not sure I am gonna be able to do one of the things I had been dying to do after getting this.  There may still be a way so Googling and researching to see.  In the meantime, we shall wait and see!  Look for a more detailed review of this in upcoming weeks!  Until then, just a couple reminders for everyone:

The Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk is this Saturday in cities all over the world.  There are still openings and it’s free to join.  You could win prizes too, so check for a city near you at www.worldwidephotowalk.com to see.  You can still join the fun if the group leader is okay with it, but if you are not registered, then you can’t contribute images or be eligible to win!

The OnOne Software Plugin Suite 4.5 Giveaway is going on for the entire month of July, but time is starting to tick against you as we are halfway through the month.  This is a $500 retail value and some lucky winner will walk away with this package for free!  Details and rules for participation are at the Flickr thread. If you own the software already, tell a friend as it’s an NFR copy.  If not, then chime in as the deadline will be here before you know it!

Charge!

The time has come to say goodbye – that’s right, the time has come.   You knew this day would happen – we all did.  It was inevitable.  It was a good run while it lasted, but there is no avoiding it.  No tears please… No cries, no weeping, no condolences, regrets, or farewell parties are needed.  As the old saying goes – all good things must come to an end.  For better or for worse, it was a tough decision to come to, but I have decided that it is time to say goodbye – there’s just not enough time left.  It’s time to charge forward into the future.

Goodbye.

There are those among you that are wondering where I am going, and what is going to happen next.  There is good news and bad news in this.  The good news is that I actually am not going anywhere.  The bad news?  I’m not going anywhere!   So, why the heartfelt goodbye?  Because my Macbook battery has finally bitten the bullet and died on me.  It’s not all the way gone, but I can barely hold a charge for more than 30 minutes before needing to plug in.  I am going with the replacement option from Apple direct, though the $129 price has me cringing.  Thank goodness for NAPP discounts!  It also has me looking at other options though for external power that is also portable.  A friend in the NAPP forums linked me to a product called the Hyperdrive, and it looks like a pretty cool option.  Here’s the link for it in case you are interested:  Hyperdrive Website

So, why is this in the hardware review section?  It’s not for lack of products to review, rather because of the timeliness of it.  As I encounter roadblocks or problems, I like to share them with you – so that we can learn and develop and grow from the shared experiences.  My lesson this time?  To always use an AC source when available.  Just because your laptop is capable of being cord-free doesn’t mean you simply must be cord-free.  If you have an AC source, use it!  As I learned, replacement batteries are expensive, and having to get a new one in under 3 years is not an easy pill to swallow. Since batteries are finite in the number of recharge cycles they can take, you don’t want to deplete your battery when not necessary, so plug in when you can!  Make sure you charge!

Here’s a couple resources from the Apple website on batteries, their conditioning, and maintenance (yes, batteries need maintenance too – perhaps I should write a maintenance schedule for batteries! 🙂 ):

So, make sure you charge, discharge, and calibrate your batteries.  I’ve done so with batteries in other devices, like my camera, flash batteries and all, but had never thought to do so for the laptop.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Grab the Feed

Creative Composition – Vignetting Photos

In general we learn that placing your subject dead center in the frame is something to avoid – creatively speaking it can kill a picture.  While this holds true as a general rule, I was walking into work yesterday morning and the sky was a brilliant blue, with the capitol bulding of Denver right dead center in front of me, and I thought that might make an interesting attempt at breaking the rules if only I had my camera….and then it dawned on me, I did have a camera.  Granted, not my trusty 40D, but the smaller Powershot As500 IS.  So, on a whim out it came and I snapped off a few frames of it.  The vertical came out the best compositionally speaking, but it still lacked something to bring it into what I would consider the “creative” realm.  After all, it is a rather mundane shot, and something you would expect the typical tourist to capture.  So, how could I create interest…and then it dawned on me:  vignette!  That would bring the eye in more, focus attention where I want it to go. So, into Lightroom I went, and sure enough it did create a little more visual interest.  I thought I’d share that view with you here today:

vignette

Granted this is still something that I would probaby personally consider a snapshot from my library of countless snapshots, but it does serve to illustrate that post processing in software can create more visual appeal and vignetting is one way to achieve those ends.  So, the next time you are about to toss a shot, ask yourself:  Could I improve this with a little vignette?  Give it a whirl – you never know whegn a little vignette might surprise you!

On that note, it’s always helpful to remember that post production work can make or break a shot.  Yes, the better your images are to start with, the less work you have to do in post, but that is not to say that post processing is a bad thing…so regardless of whether it’s a little dodging here, burning there, perhaps a litle vignette, or even applying some plugin processing from your OnOne Plugin Suite 4.5, always be willing to explore!

Oh wait – you don’t have the OnOne Plugin Suite 4.5?  Well, go figure, just the luck – today starts the July photo contest here on the blog, and entries are now being accepted in the Flickr thread here for some lucky reader to win their very own copy of the Plugin Suite from OnOne!  Pretty cool as this is a retail value of $500 for this package, so you can imagine the creative possibilities!  Feel free to capture away, and share your favorite shot in the contest.  You can find all the rules from the announcement post yesterday, but get out and shoot for your chance to wina free copy of this great software suite!

For those of you expecting the podcast today – year-end in state work means processing financials so we were working late today to get a lot of T’s crossed and I’s dotted before the clock struck midnight – so the podcast did not roll out today, but I promise it will roll out tomorrow and I’l be talking more about the photo contest then too, as well as answering viewer and reader questions, so if you have any to throw out in the mix, now’s your last chance to get questions in before the show goes live tomorrow!  Got a questio about photography, gear, software, tips, tricks, techniques?  Share it in the comments or with me via email.  Happy shooting for now and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the podcast.

Grab the RSS Feed

Wacom Bamboo Fun: Hardware Review

The good folks at Wacom were kind enough to donate a Bamboo Fun to me for review on the blog a while back.  In order to really get a full handle on it though, I wanted to use it within the context of my at-home work flow.  You see, I’m not a newcomer to tablets, as at work and through  previous experience, I’ve grown quite accustomed to their usage.  I’ve had to instruct people on how to use, configure the basics, and such on their computers. as well as used them in many of their varying sizes (most recently being the Cintiq).  Having said that, I’ve never really had the need to incorporate a tablet in my home work environment for a number of reasons.  Before I get into the reasons though, let go over some of the basics…and rather than a listing of pros and cons, I am following a slightly different format this time. I should also give fair warning that there are a LOT of pictures coming, so for the graphic avoiders in feeds, you may want to visit the site…

Installation

Installing this product can’t get much easier.  Regardless of whether you are running a Windows or Macintosh environment  (it really doesn’t matter a whole heck of a lot) the system will auto-detect the drivers for your Bamboo fun.  Still, it never hurts to go through the CD installation on their provided media, so I thought I’d share with you the process (and a few bonuses) of installation.  It’s pretty much identical, but I am showing the screen shots from Windows:

Here’s the main splash screen where you can choose what to do, ranging from installation to viewing video tutorials, or browsing the CD contents…

install1

I opted to do the driver installation first, and got this following message…

install2

Then the notice that the pen drivers were being installed…

install3

Then notification that installation was complete…

install4

After finishing that, I was offered the video tutorials on how to do different things.  For first-time users, a very useful resource…

install5

And finally the extras that are included on the CD.  I am not sure about files with an extension of x32, but believe this is a carry-over from Macromedia software like Flash.  Since I do not own Flash, I can only guess based on my own research…

install6

Ad additional CD also gives you a copy of Photoshop Elements 5, Nik Color Efex Pro 2, and Corel Painter Essentials 3.0, which also help to offset the cost the the product.  I didn’t want to open this and negate the serials or licenses of the products contained, but did scan the front side so you can see what you get in the companion CD:

bamboofun0021

Configuration

The added buttons at the top of the tablet make for some very intuitive advancements in its usability and properties.  Rather than cover each of these in detail, screen views of each tab (there are four total) should be indicative enough of the control and customization you can get:

config1

config2

config3

Pop Up Configuration

The pop-up tab is probably the only tab that isn’t completely self-explanatory, so let me delve into a little more detail here. The reason why is because you can program common keyboard combinations (like the ones I referenced in my post last Friday) to be controlled from the tablet (provided you have “Pop-up menu” selected as on option on the tablet tab (seen next)…

Here’s how you do it:

First, click the drop-down to indicate what it is you want to program on the tablet.  For me, the biggest advantage would be in incorporating keyboard keystroke combos so I have to switch less between kb and tablet.

popup1

You’ll get a window now where you can define the keystrokes you want simply by typing that keystroke set in the blank space…

popup2

The tablet will detect your keystrokes and populate the fields

popup3

Then, give your keystroke set a name…

popup4

and Click OK.  You can see the ones I programmed below…

popup5

Last but not least, you can also include special keystroke combinations that are unique to your system (like Printscreen on Windows), as shown next:

popup6

So, you can see how having the pop-up tab configured with your most commonly used keyboard combinations, as you can reduce the swapping between inputs even more!  Very cool!  And here’s what the right-click menu looks like once inside Photoshop:

popup7

But, make sure you have a button set on the tablet to “drop down” (as shown next…)

config41

Mechanics

Here is where your specific work flow may have an impact.  On my Windows desktop environment, I have a 19″ and a 17″ LCD, so that’s roughly 36″ of real estate that this tablet (which measures roughly 6×4″) has to cover.  What this means is that movements on a scale that size makes everything larger proportionally speaking.  You can adjust the tablet settings under the pen mode details screen to manipulate for just one monitor instead of all screens, but if I am going to use a tablet, Idon’t want to jump between that, a keyboard AND a mouse…two inputs is all I really would want to switch between, but that’s just personal preference.  But, for those that are interested, here’s how you make that adjustment in the pen settings tab of the tablet properties.  Click on the pen tab of the tablet properties, then the details button to get this screen:

config5

From here, change the button from “All Screens” to “Monitor”.  It will default to the monitor you have set ot #1:

config6

But you can use the arrows to set it to monitor two if you prefer:

config7

On my Macbook Pro, since I only had the one monitor, the experience was quite different as I had less real estate for the tablet to cover – with only a 15″  LCD of screen space to cover.  So the pen was much less sensitive to location on the touch pad given that less than half the real estate was needed to cover the range of the screen (and I noticed greater position control even when I did just the 19″ monitor versus the 15″ LCD of the MBP – it’s just a happenstance of the tablet size, and the only way to do that would be to increase the tablet size – at the expense of desk real estate space…pick your poison, ya know?)

Usage

Tablets rock!  Let’s just get that bias out of the way right off.  If you want the ultimate in cursor control (and when I say cursor I mean movement of your tool, whether it be a brush, a pencil, an eraser, clone stamp, whatever, it’s just amazing).  The first major difference between a mouse and a tablet is touch sensitivity.  No matter how you tap a mouse, it delivers the same intensity or strength when it paints in Photoshop.  With a tablet, this is not the case at all.  How hard you press determines the strength of the brush.  This is truly remarkable as now you can apply just a touch, or go full hog on anything you want from painting, to clone stamping, and anything you want.  To demonstrate, I created a blank document and selected some brush settings to illustrate what I am talking about.  Take a look:  from left to right are light touches to hard pressing with the pen…followed by dots of the same strength top to bottom.

use1

So now you can control things like jitter, hardness, and a whole myriad of options that you didn’t have before (well, at least not to the same degree anyway) with just a mouse.  I know what you’re thinking now – “Great, for graphic design that’s super cool, but how can I use this as a photographer?”  Excellent question!   Ever catch a picture where the eyes are darker and you want to brighten them up?  Well, now you can with greater ease and control both of area, intensity of the lightening (or darkening) by using the pen tool for the Bamboo Fun.  Take a look at the sample below, where I took an underexposed picture of the dog and selectively lightened the eyes and teeth, here’s the before:

use5

and after:

use4

One of the best parts is that this functionality is there in whatever application you use that incorporates brushes.  I tried it in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Corel Painter Pro (I installed a demo version of the last one for this review).  The Bamboo Fun can also expand your ability to clone things out, say a stray light pole or some telephone wires, or even the nasty -ex that you want out of that super cool shot of you in Hawaii!  The possibilities are limitless both for graphic designers and photographers.

So, this now begets the question of why I don’t have one in my home environment.  The main reason is because I’ve never had the need at home.  Most of the time I am at work, and if I need to work that requires that level of control, the work hardware has always been there for me.  Granted I’ve also gotten used to the Wacom Cintiq which has a much larger surface area, so I have even a greater degree of control over the desktop, cross-hairs, and all brushes, so it’s also a matter of being spoiled – I just can’t afford a Cintiq at home, or justify its need – I am just not that much of a re-toucher either with photos or in graphics design creation.

Additionally, for me, the use is only really there in graphic design, because I am also of the mentality of “getting it right in camera”, so I don’t like to do a lot of edits in photos.  Of course no one is perfect so I do occasionally need to do some fine tuning that requires a tablet.  In cases when I do, I just take the photo in to work and do the retouching there as the tablet does give a much greater amount of control than any mouse or trackball will.

When I’ve not been successful in camera, it’s not that my home work flow is good enough, it’s just that the tools are already there for me if needed at work, so the financial justification really hasn’t been there.   As my personal usage has been increasing lately though, I must admit that I am thinking more and more about adding a tablet to my home work flow.   So, would I would recommend this?

Yes!  This would make a great tablet for anyone who does not have access to a tablet elsewhere, or if you are looking to enter the tablet market – the Bamboo Fun is a great entry level tablet, that takes up minimal desk space while offering a maximum range of precision and control.  I think for my own personal usage, I would probably prefer a larger tablet because I do have the desk space, and have been accustomed (as I said) to the Cintiq, so perhaps the Intuous 4 would be more easily incorporated…but only time will tell!)

Finally, as prone as we are to repetitive motions, and with conditions like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome becoming much more common, the tablet does offer a much less repeated motion tendency than a mouse or a tablet.  So, if you make the move to a tablet, you are only decreasing your chances of things like Carpal Tunnel and repetitive motion problems in your wrists.

Two thumbs up (in Siskel and Ebert style) for the Bamboo Fun from the good folks at Wacom.  Many thanks for the demo product, and I am sure the listening/reading audience appreicates their generosity as well.  Happy shooting everyone, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for an exciting software review that includes the announcement of our latest contest, which is starting in July!).

Finally some good news – it’s Friday!

Well, there’s some other good news too.  Wacom delivered the something to me door yesterday to review here on the blog.  I’ll be doing a more detailed write-up for both Windows and Mac in the near future, but thought y’all might be interested in the unboxing – seeing what you get from the good folks at Wacom when you order a:

BAMBOO FUN!

So, here’s a little teaser video for those that are interested:

This might be fodder for an upcoming contest or giveaway, but only time will tell, so keep your fingers crossed.   In the meantime, here’s the rest of the Friday news:

Okay all, that’s it – been a crazy busy week, and I am tired, but also geared up for the weekend.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here next week for hopefully a little more of an uplifting series of content!

Grab the Feed

Write it down!

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday folks – for those of you that Twitter and have me on follow, you’ll know that we had our cars taken out from under our noses (literally while we slept) early Tuesday morning.  By the time I woke up and got dressed for work (at 6) they were gone…

Suffice to say, the wind has kind of been taken out of my sails here, and after an entire day of dealing with police reports, insurance claims, DNA testing (yes, they took DNA from us), finger printing, and pretty much feeling like our private living space was totally disrespected and violated, I didn’t have much of a mood to put anything together for Wednesday.  With another weekend looming large and trying to resurrect some excitement for Tracy’s pending birthday, I am afraid today’s post will be no picnic either, as this is more of a lecture on security.  To make it photo-related, let’s look at it form an inventory perspective.

Say you were the victim of a crime – all your photo gear was taken from you.  Could you produce the records needed to replace everything?  With cars it’s easy, as insurance is in place, titles are held, and banks have documents as well that you can fall back on – but what about other items?  It took some digging through the Mac, but I was able to find the serial number for my iPod.  Do you know your serial numbers?  What about that expensive zoom lens?  What about your SLR serial number?  When was it purchased?  What was the purchase price?  What about the computers?  Software licenses?  Think about it – you’ve invested some serious money into this, whether it’s a hobby or a profession.  Do you have the records to produce in that worse case scenario?  If not, take my experience with the cars and apply it to your gear – write info down!  Update your inventories, and keep records of everything!  Finally, don’t tempt fate – lock things up.  Get a lock box or some kind of safe – and don’t leave things out in the open – it’s just an invitation waiting to be seen and responded to, so take precautions now to avoid lots of heartache and headaches later.  Here’s a sample spreadsheet to get you started:

Inventory Spreadsheet (right-click, and select download or Save as and the file name is “inventory.xls”)

That’s it for today folks – so, sorry for the “downer” of a post, but felt there was something there that could be learned by all of us – so enough of the doldrums now – forget the past and move into the future with positivity – so get out shooting, and be careful out there!  (Hello Hill Street Blues! 🙂 )  We’ll see you back here tomorrow, and hopefully the podcast that I’ve been meaning to finish will go up early next week.  Until then, keep on shootin’ (photos)!

A dash of splash

First up – another web gallery of water drops – this time with a neutral black background that I developed in Lightroom.  I am tellin’ ya – this product is just too cool!  Photo management, editing, tagging, and gallery production all in one – what’s not to love?

Also up today, a little shout out to Dave Zarzacki, who owns a like new Canon XSi in mint condition, but just doesn’t need it in his gear bag (he’s trying to round out his collection with an SLR that will take all his current lenses).  It’s a great deal which includes the following:

  • XSi body (black) – $640 value from B&H
  • Canon 18-55 IS lens – $60 value as part of above kit from B&H
  • Tiffen UV filter – $7 value from B&H
  • 2 4GB SDHC cards – $25 value from Amazon
  • Gary Fong Puffer flash diffuser – $20 value from B&H
  • M-Rock Yellowstone bag ($54 value)

Individually, this would sell for over $800 easily, and Dave is only asking for $650 plus shipping.  I know the guy personally and can say that he knows how to take care of gear – this stuff will not have a scratch or scuff and will work as though new.  A great deal for someone starting out!  Any takers?  Drop me a line to get his email address and information.

Finally, for today, the Sigma lenses are in, and I can’t wait to start the review process on these this weekend!  Already found a few features that are just too cool for school!  Some other gear review items are on deck too – but I want to hear from you!  What do you want to learn more about in the way of products, gear, accessories, and such?  Sound off in the comments or with me via email!

Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Grab the feed

Super Sigmas, photo walks and seminars!

Lame teaser alert, but that’s the title for the podcast over at Learning Digital Photography.  Make sure to stop over to the podcast and download the show today!  Here’s the show notes (I may add to these as I remember link references – if any are missing, let me know in the comments so I can be sure to add them…)

  • The last day to enter your photos for the Lightroom giveaway is super close – so get your shots in the Flickr thread here pretty soon!
  • Adobe updated the ACR to 5.4 (still in beta), and is downloadable here
  • Canon announced some firmware updates and break/fix news on some of its SLR lines.  Tune into the podcast for details.
  • My Pick of the Week:  Photoshop Insider
  • Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk
  • Chuck Conder’s Flickr Thread (listen to find out why…)
  • Wireless USB Dongle from Engadget

Seriously folks, don’t miss out on your chance for a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom!  Get your photos in today!  A $30o retail value and free from the folks over at Adobe – in this economy we could all use a little help and Adobe is being very generous here.

Well, that’s about all for this week.  Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you back here on Monday – as we head out for the weekend, don’t forget to have fun out there.  With that in mind, here’s my favorite WTD from this past week – so fitting for my job in IT!

denial

Happy Shooting!

ETA:  Thanks to reader Don for reminding me about the link to the PhotographyBB magazine article.  You can download the full magazine here

Grab the feed

Steady as She Goes…

This first day after a long Memorial weekend, things are a little slow out of the starting gate, but as luck would have it, slow and steady is the theme for today, because my gear review that I postponed from yesterday is none other than the trusty tripod!

The tripod is probably one of the most basic and easy-to-understand pieces of equipment in a photographer’s gear bag – yet likely one of the least used.  I can’t tell you the number of times (myself included) I have heard someone utter “Argh!  I left my tripod back in my car!”  We’ve all done it, so the question becomes one of how to ensure you take the tripod with you.  The answer lies in making the right investment the first time.

FOr me, the first investment (because we all invariably try this route first), was a cheap an economical one from Wal-Mart for roughly $20.  I was quickly disavowed of its ability to support even a Canon XT with a 70-200 lens on it.  I went so far as to weigh down the plastic center column with my gear bag to little avail.  It was just not built for my gear.  Perhaps such a tripod would be good for the P&S crowd, because I would rather not disparage any gear intended to provide an increase in stability.

Anyone who goes to any length to increase their camera stability recognizes the benefit of a tripod.  So many pictures out there can benefit from increased stability – yet they continue to pepper the internet in perpetuity.  So, if you really are strapped for cash – something is better than nothing.  But, if you would like to invest a little in “some legs” (parlance for a tripod among photog-types apparently), then take a look at Bogen/Manfrotto.

Bogen/Manfrotto gear is recognized as one of the industry leaders in tripods, monopods, and camera equipment.  Another serious name in the game is Gitzo, and I’ve heard good things about them too – but for my money, I went with Bogen a few years back in my pursuit of stability.  My choice?  The Bogen 3021BPro:

tripod

This set is really sturdy – made of aluminum and an extended eight of nearly 70″ (69.29 technically), this was a great investment for me.  I stand at 6’1″ (73″)  so the height appeal was a major contributing factor.  Cost-wise, it also came in within my range at roughly $150-$200 new.  With quick-clamp leg extensions, and the ability to set up at varying ranges of 25°,  43°, 73° and  90° it was a great investment for me.

With the stability and low price though, came a downside – weight.  The legs themselves weigh in at a little over 5 lbs, but I did not plan on being very mobile with the set.  So, it was a great starter set for me.  The reason why I said “set” though is because any good tripod also needs a good head.  You’ll notice from the inserted image that the legs have a lonely screwmount at the top.  This does not give you much mobility for the camera when attached, so you really need to also invest in a head.

The head attaches to the tripod, and then in turn attaches to your camera and allows you a little more flexibility in moving the camera position around to get the right angle on your shot.  There are many types of heads including trigger mounts, ball heads, and pan-and-tilt heads.  Rather than get into an extensive discussion of the various heads as well, here it’s sufficient to say I chose the ballhead route.  Specifically, I went with the Bogen 488RC2.

ballhead

This is super nice because it allows you to pivot your camera around very easy and go from landscape to portrait mode in a snap.  Also nice is the fact that the head comes with a quick-release plate, basically allowing you to go mobile from your stationary tripod in a snap.  I’ll go into the various heads and how they work in some future post.  For here though, I got the ehad at about $120, so for less than $300 total, I had a pretty decent workhorse for a tripod/head set.   Here again, the only downside I can think of is weight.  The head also weighs in at 1.5 lbs so I am getting near 7 lbs of tripod weight total.  It doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve tried lugging a tripod/head combo around on a photowalk, it can get pretty heavy pretty quick if you don’t have some strapped method for carrying it while walking or traveling.  For the most part though, it’s lasted me well and worked gloriously – when I remember to take it out of my car!

Eventually I will probably either upgrade this set of legs to the more lightweight, yet also sturdy, carbon fiber material that is becoming more cost effective.  At the time when I got this set, carbon fiber was very new on the scene, and thus very expensive.  As we see the presence of carbon fiber increase in the market place, the price has also come down some.  Not a lot, but enough for me to start considering it.  In all likelihood, I could see myself hanging on to this set for studio or location work while also adding to the gear bag with the more lightweight carbon fiber legs for on-the-go types of photography.

All in all though – if you don’t have a set of legs, this would be an excellent starter set.  For under $300 your pictures will undoubtedly see marked improvement – that’s assuming of course you don’t forget the gear in your car!  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!