photography – Page 15

Problems with Triggers

May 28, 2010 Jason6 Comments

As mentioned yesterday, the example self-portrait I took had some misleading EXIF data. The thrust of the post was that EXIF data isn’t always right, and if you read through the comments, you’ll find out most of what was wrong (this is one sharp reading audience – y’all don’t miss a beat! 🙂 ).

What was most glaring though was that the radio trigger didn’t report itself to the EXIF data. I’d noticed this in the past from the Cactus triggers when I first purchased them. It could be due to the economical nature of the cirtuitry (i.e. they weren’t very expensive). Or it could be due to the very nature of the devices themselves. I’m not sure as I’ve not had a chance yet to test the heftier devices like Radio Poppers, Cybersyncs, and of course, the mecca Pocketwizards!

Here’s the part where the reading audience is more than welcome to chime in! Do you own any of the above devices? If so, which ones? And of course, do they report to the EXIF data in your photos? Last, but not least – how regularly do they report? Because one of the things that is very useful in reproducing images (the very mark of a professional) is looking at flash data from one shot so you can repeat those settings again if needed. So, in this vein, I am not happy with the Cactus Infinity triggers. Yes, I got what I paid for, and they work well enough for their purpose…but I feel I am starting to outgrow them even more. Guess it’s time to pony up, eh? Only question is – to what?

Already, some questions are coming in about what kind of lighting was used, what the lighting EXIF was, and several have also asked about the background – some things I had a feeling would come up, so thanks to all sending in email asking for more details…much more is coming! I promise!

In the meantime, take a break (or a photo) and enjoy the weekend. For those of us in the U.S., remember, Memorial Day isn’t just a day of baseball, hot dogs and beer – it’s also a day to remember the fallen heroes that died defending our country…

Can you trust your meta data?

May 27, 2010 Jason13 Comments

We all talk about tags, and flags and meta data whenever we are importing our photos into Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, or whatever program you use. While there are discussions ad infinitum about the value of adding extra tags to your photos like “2010” or “Canon” or “family vacation” or whatever labels you like, there is an underlying set of “fixed” data that contains HUGE amounts of information about your picture, and that is the EXIF data. Continue reading “Can you trust your meta data?” →

Putting Your Best Photo Forward

May 26, 2010 Jason3 Comments

Yesterday I talked about resources available to find buyers for your work and talked about a great guide, The Photographers Market. In the post, I mentioned briefly the idea of a query letter, and today, I’d like to take a closer look at that aspect of selling your work, because it’s just as important as the work itself.

You see, the age old adage of putting your best foot forward is a good one, and when submitting work to potential buyers, the same holds true. Of course it goes without saying that you are also putting your best photo forward, but the photography isn’t all that you are showing. When submitting work to buyers, whether it be magazines, galleries, or other publishers, what should often be included is a query letter.

This is a tough situation because just like anything else, putting together a query letter takes some time. You want the query letter to be well-written, and writing is a skill, just like anything else that must be honed. A query letter should have a couple key facets:

1. Short and to the point – Editors, reviewers, and gallery owners get lots of requests, so respect their time by getting right to your point. While you don’t want to just say “Here’s my work, buy it”, you also don’t want to submit a query letter detailing your growth, develoopment, your sources of inspiration, or other tangential information. It might be nice for an “Artist Bio” or “Artist Statement“, but it really doesn’t belong in a query letter.

2. Accurate – One thing that is something of a pet peeve of mine is spelling and grammar. I’ve seen a lot of just lazy spelling and grammar errors in the online community, running the gamut from forums to blogs, and even articles at major publications like USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and others where someone couldn’t take the ten seconds to run a spell check on their work. It’s very easy, and most writing resources out there today even have built-in spell checking – including your browsers! So, check your work, and make sure it’s accurate. If you know you are a bad speller, then have someone proof-read your work.

3. Include your work! – So many people tell me they are concerned about people stealing their images, even buyers and publishers, but you are not going to get anyone to buy your work sight unseen, so simply get it out there. If it’s a series of themed images, include low-resolution copies. If it’s an article idea – submit the article! While some unscrupulous publishers may take the idea and have someone else write a version that is similar, this is more the exception than the norm.

There’s more of course, and while I could go on with many more facets, sometimes it’s just easier to see it rather than explain it. So, here’s a few articles I’ve read on the subject of writing a query letter that hit on some of the points I’ve discussed, and also include sample letters:

As you can see, this whole idea is nothing new, and the practice of writing a query letter accompanying your work is of utmost importance. Writing a good one will make you stand out, and writing a bad one (or not even writing one) can land your email or letter in their trash bin. So do you want to stand out or be thrown out? Take the time to write a good letter, and when possible, have someone proofread it.

There you have it – that’s the nuts and bolts of query letter writing. For the other photographers out there who have practice or experience with this – what would you include or add to the conversation? Did I miss anything? Extra tips or suggestions? I’d love to hear others thoughts, so feel free to sound off via the comments or email. Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Five Best Kept Secrets of Photoshop CS5

May 19, 2010 Jason8 Comments

By now you should know all about the latest and greatest features of Photoshop CS5. People have been talking until the cows come home about Content Aware Fill, Puppet Warp, and the other “sexy” features of CS5 (and they are pretty awesome, sure). Heck, you may even know about some of the JDI (just do it) features, but there is still so much under the hood of CS5 that the gurus and pros haven’t even discussed yet. After taking some time and tinkering around inside CS5, here are five features that I am surprised are not getting more “air time”…I am calling them:

The 5 Best Kept Secrets of Photoshop CS5

1. Sharing Your Monitor – In Cs5, the feature has been added where you can share your monitor with others so you can show people exactly what you are looking at. I can totally see this as a feasible solution for clients that are remote to your location, and travel costs need to be kept down. Even training seminars could be conducted this way…imagine sitting at your computer at work (or home) and watching an instructor teaching you live from their own desktop! Very cool!

2. Refine Edge Backgrounds – I know, refine edge has been around for a while, and we are used to seeing the “marching ants” around our selections…but now Adobe has gone and added different backgrounds to help you better make refinements to selections. The options are the traditional Marching Ants, and several new options like Overlay, Black, White, and Layers (my favorite). This is a huge time saver when trying to make selections from within a photo!

3. Paste in Place – Another godsend! After making selection refinements and masking off your layer selection, it’s now super easy to take another image from your clipboard and paste it directly into the active document. Done with a simple keyboard shortcut: Shift+CTRL+V (Shift+Command+V on the Mac)

4. Cache Settings – are now adjustable to your own library preferences. If you have mostly smaller sized images in your library, you can tweak the cache to Tall and Thin to accommodate your particular editing and library needs. Likewise, if you are used to working with larger files, then you can customize Photoshop to Big and Flat for those purposes as well.

5. Stroke Settings – I cannot remember if this was in CS4, primarily because I didn’t have much interest in CS4, but now having used CS5 to a pretty decent degree, I am so glad this is now black instead of read by default, so I am including it here.

There’s my five “best kept secrets” of Cs5! It takes some time to kick the tires and check out everything that new programs have to offer, so be sure you download a trial copy from Adobe. It’s free! Have you downloaded your trial yet? What are your favorite “under the hood” features? Any that you feel aren’t getting enough press or coverage in the photo circles? Sound off in the comments! In the meantime, don’t forget to step away from the computer periodically and take pictures! 🙂 Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Migrating Photoshop to a New Computer

May 18, 2010 Jason3 Comments

Over the past three years or so, I’ve had several people ask me about what’s involved in migrating from one installation of Photoshop to another, or what’s involved in moving from an old system to a new system. With Photoshop, it’s just not as easy as it is with other applications for a number of reasons:

1. Dependencies – While Photoshop is insanely popular, this popularity has spawned an entire industry of third party applications called plug-ins that get installed into Photoshop. If you simply remove Photoshop without considering these 3rd party “apps”, you could lose their functionality. There are also other things that become part of your work flow in Photoshop that you may want to save too, including actions, scripts, font folders, brushes, and much more.

2. Licensing – Because it’s not a cheap application, Adobe has to carefully manage licensing, which means that any serial number can only be activated twice before it gets “locked”. This allows you to have an installation on a desktop and a laptop, or a work computer and a home computer. Well, if you go an just un-install or delete the files for Photoshop, you may find yourself unable to activate again should you re-install on a new computer. The way to avoid this is to ensure you de-authorize (or deactivate) before uninstalling. This will free up the license for use again.

3. Other add-ons – Photoshop also has other add-in elements like automation tasks you may have added over time. I have a few from On One, Topaz Labs, and a few others that I’ve gathered over time. Make sure you check to make sure these don’t have installers with licensing too, because that can also be problematic for a software migration.

4. System settings – Unlike e-mail, some settings and preferences don’t stay with you during the course of a migration. So, it’s often helpful to grab screen captures of various setup windows so that you can get things configured just right once you get in your new digs! Here are the 11 screens you may want to capture before un-installing off any computer:

As you can tell, there’s a lot to consider. And, given the length of this post already with the included screen captures, to make things easier in terms of reference information, I’ve put together a step-by-step procedure to migrate Photoshop from one computer to another that you can download for free! Enjoy!

Migrating Photoshop

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

Beautiful Bokeh

May 17, 2010 Jason1 Comment

Over the weekend, I was taking some time to review some new hardware (not done testing yet, so gotta wait there) and I was testing in various types of lighting conditions, and at various burst rates. During the course of the testing, I remembered how beautiful the bokeh is on the Sigma 70mm Macro lens. Continue reading “Beautiful Bokeh” →

Keep on Shootin'!

May 12, 2010 Jason1 Comment

It’s been a while since an episode of LDP ran, but as we keep on shootin’ our way through life, so to does LDP continue on albeit not as frequently as any of us would like! Nevertheless, I get caught up somewhat on the photo news beat with some of the top stories over the past three weeks, have a great conversation with Tyler Stableford, a recent addition to the distinguished annals of the Canon Explorers of Light group. He’s been featured in photo magazines including Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and many more. A recent series on the Colorado F-16 fighter pilots is what caught my eye about him and we recently had a chance to chew the fat…on this show! Continue reading “Keep on Shootin'!” →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Creating a Monthly Desktop Calendar

May 4, 2010 Jason1 Comment

I alluded to it yesterday, and have already had several people inquire about the procedure to create this desktop calendar. It’s really quite clever, and kudos go out to Jeffrey Friedl over on his site for the script: http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/calendar He does a decent job at the basic explanation, but since we are a visual world, here are some step-by-step instructions on how to run things from beginning to end! Fair warning – this does require Photoshop as the script (I don’t believe anyway) will run in Lightroom because it uses layers…

1. Download the script from the link above (I downloaded to my desktop on Windows XP)

2. Copy the script from your desktop (or whatever download location you configured for your browser) to your Photoshop folder, as indicated in the screen shot.

3. Open Photoshop (if it was already open, you should probably close PS and restart it)

4. Open the picture you want to apply the script to (I started with the largest size desktop I wanted to configure it for, in this case 1600 x 1200.

5. Navigate to the Presets option in Photoshop and open the script

6. The interface lets you select certain information such as the month it will run for, when the week starts, etc.

7. Special mention here to include certain holidays – if you have custom days (say birthdays, anniversaries, etc) to add, create a text file for reference and point the script to that txt file location. If you don’t want certain days highlighted,you can leave this option un-checked and proceed with the script.

8. It may take the script some time to run (it took me about 58-61 seconds to run it on my computer, but I was multitasking with other things at the time…). When it’d done, you’ll get a stack of a lot of layers that looks like this, with the default layer selected of “Picture Mask”. Note: I’d also recommend checking the option to rasterize most text layers otherwise you’ll have up to 30 additional layers of text (one for each day of the month)! The layers underneath this are where all the really cool stuff is, and the other layers are dates and effects that you can change to suit your own tastes.

9. Once you have tailored the layers to suit your needs, simply flatten, save as a jpg and configure your desktop to use that image! Since I typically will save to multiple desktop dimensions, I start with the original and re-size to each output, from largest to smallest saving each as a jpg then letting the script use that to create the desktop calendar.

There you have it! The nitty gritty details on how to create a really slick looking desktop calendar for you and your clients. Simply print as pictures through your favorite venue if you like and watch the sales come in!

One final little news note that is time sensitive – DIY Photography has a very creative approach to contests and the prize package is worthy of a nod (don’t know how he/she/they managed to come up with this big bag of goodies!), so stop over here and throw your hats in the ring: http://bit.ly/aRQa9l

See you back here tomorrow for the latest in photo goodness! I’ll also bring up a couple tips on how to tweak the layers to your own ends, but feel free to begin exploring your own creative approaches! 🙂

What makes you a professional?

April 29, 2010 Jason5 Comments

Photography has become a huge industry, within a very short period of time relative to the presence of the field. Think about it – the technology to capture images has been around since the 1800’s with the first pinhole cameras, and metal plates of silver halide that were then reversed onto copper to produce an image. Even when film became a more cost effective method of producing images, we still have not seen such an explosion of interest in photography as we have in the past 5-10 years. With the growing interest, many have hung out shingles, offering their photography services, trying to make a living at it.

Now, while I grant you that some are more talented than others, and even have vision that others lack, there is a disctinction that exists around photographers – lines in the sand, so to speak. And these lines pretty much have divided us into one of the following categories:

Professional
Enthusiast/Hobbyist
Amateur

Here, the ‘amateur” or beginner is pretty much evident by recency or lack of experience, but it’s the other two where there has been a blurring of the lines. Traditionally, the difference between a professional and an enthusiast is the former made a living at it. But then, enthusiasts and hobbyists decided to throw their hats in the ring and earn a buck or two. So, the definition became more strict – a pro is someone who earns more than 50% of their income from it. While that still exists in many cases (and I think fits for tax purposes), the quality of the results is much more blurred than before.

With the advancement in gear, things like image stabilization (vibration reduction for Nikonians), and some just astounding increases in ISO handling, shutter speeds, and everything else, including cleaning things up in post production, some not very good photographers have been able to maintain a living at it. Meanwhile, “enthusiasts” are out there pouring their heart and soul into work but are tossed aside, simply because they don’t make money (or enough money from a percentage perspective) at it.

Clearly, enthusiasts can produce professional results, and equally, there are professionals that have produced, well…less than professional results. So, with that in mind, I would submit that the definition of a professional (for me) really is defined by the quality of the product. Consistency, reliability, knowledgeable, and high quality is what I look for when hiring someone to do anything. And if someone can do that, regardless of how others classify them, to me that is the very definition of professionalism.

So, where did this come from? Well, after the success of the article I put out for people in Shutters and Apertures Explained, I decided to start assembling all the articles I had previously written in various capacities with the idea of putting them out as a collective bundle for people to enjoy. Once I got everything assembled, I was astonished to find that I have produced over 20 articles on photography alone, and countless others on various computer topics, including Helpdesk documentation, Service level Agreements, Helpdesk and Desktop support documentation, along with many other types of technical content.

All told, I have over 150 publications under my belt in the writing world. Yet prior to “Shutters and Apertures“, I had not earned a single dime. Does that mean I am not a professional writer? While my earnings have been a mere pittance compared to many in the field, the quality of content is something I am proud of. Even this blog has been a huge commitment of time and energy which requires research, editing, proof-reading, and much more, way before I ever press the “Submit” button!

So, with over 150 articles and writing credits, and over 6 years of writing experience in various capacities, why do I not consider myself a professional writer? I think the answer lies in how you perceive yourself. Where you think your strengths are, and where your ambition and passion lie. When does one become a professional anything? I’ve got my own reasons for choosing IT as a career path, (and photography and writing as secondary income sources), and while most define me by my predominant income source – I would classify myself as a professional in all of them.

Quite an extensive narrative, eh? But, it does bring up an interesting question of “What makes anyone a professional?“! So, with that in mind, let’s turn the question outward and see what answers we can find! What makes you a professional? Is it your income ratio, the quality of your work, or something else? What defines you? Sound off in the comments – I’d love to hear what others think on this topic!

Adobe CS5 FAQ

April 28, 2010 Jason6 Comments

Ever since Adobe announced the impending release of the latest Creative Suite 5, there have been many questions circulating in various online communities and outlets. Although I was not one of the beta testers, I’ve been following the developments rather closely, and have seen a lot of questions repeated over and over. Many of the answers to these questions I’ve put together from reading various reliable outlets, including Adobe web pages, reading content from Adobe folks blogs, and from the fountain of information available to me as a NAPP member (and if you’re not a NAPP member, you should consider becoming one – it’s probably one of the best deals out there, including educational materials, discounts, and a ton of other member benefits)!

So, without further ado – here’s the most common questions I’ve seen on Adobe Creative Suite 5:

1. I own ***** – can I upgrade to CS5?

Pick your product, it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s a single product upgrade (not part of a suite). If you want to upgrade to Photoshop, CS5, here’s the list of products that are eligible for the upgrade path to CS5, courtesy of Adobe (I added the product to my shopping cart, and got this list of eligible products and the pricing path (upsell versus an upgrade):

Photoshop Elements 6, 7, or 8 on Windows – (upsell = $599)
Photoshop Elements 4, 6, or 8 on Mac – (upsell = $599)
Photoshop CS4, CS3, or CS2 (Regular or Extended) – upgrade = $199

2. What if I purchased CS4 recently – do I have to pay for the upgrade to CS5 now too?

While there is no official “window” from Adobe, all indicators suggest that if you have recently purchased CS4, you may be able to get an upgrade. Some sites claim the window is between certain dates such as April 12th and August 10th, but I’ve not been able to verify this information independently so the site is not linked here

3. What about Lightroom – can I upgrade to Cs5 from that since it’s part of the Adobe Photoshop family?

No. Although there are similarities, Lightroom is a different software path than the Creative Suite, and you cannot upgrade from LR to CS5 anymore than you could upgrade a Dell to a Mac

4. Speaking of Macs, can I upgrade my Windows software to a Mac equivalent or vice versa?

Adobe does allow for this in what is called a “cross-grade”. You must sign a release that states you have destroyed the other media, and pay a small fee (I think it’s something like $20) to do this.

5. What about converting from one Suite of products to another, or converting to a single product?

While I don’t have the space to cover extensive details on the many options, and this is not official Adobe policy (I could not find anything specifically addressing all the possible conversions), I think it’s a safe assumption that you can downgrade from a more expensive suite to a lesser expensive suite or product, but not vice versa. So, say for instance you had the Master collection. It is likely that you could downgrade that to a web collection or a design premium. It is also likely that if you had a suite of products, you could downgrade to a single product within that suite. However, adding additional products to your existing ownership for free is not likely. As the old saying goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

6. Are there any discounts available?

Of course there are – and if you are an eligible member of any one of a number of communities, you are eligible for discounts on products from Adobe. The most common ones I know of include educational discounts, governmental agencies, and NAPP. The other question that usually arises from the “discount” one is whether you can apply multiple discounts, and the answer here is no…Adobe does restrict you to one discount per purchase, so if you are a NAPP member and also a teacher or college student, you cannot apply both discounts. Pick the one that gives you the best savings, and be happy to are eligible – many people are not.

7. So, where do I purchase CS5?

You can’t yet – the announcement that Adobe made was kind of a teaser, to build excitement and to sort of “ramp up” for the eventual release date. It’s all part of the marketing, hype, and advertising of upcoming products. Also, keep in mind that Adobe, like any other software developer, has approved channels for distribution. So, when it does become available, make sure you find a reseller in your area through their partner page.

8. When will it be available for purchase?

Well, you can pre-order it any time you want. But if you want an official release date, take a seat with everyone else outside of Adobe headquarters, because that information is not available (that I can find anyway). There are several indicators that suggest the release will be in early to mid-May based on their history (Adobe usually does product releases on about an 18 month cycle, or ever year and a half) with the Creative Suite of products.

9. What are the differences in all the packages?

Excellent question! This is the one that vexes a lot of people, but thankfully, Adobe has put together a comparision page that not only show syou the products that go into each package, but the retail cost of each. Rather than regurgitate all that information here in some confusing chart, simply bookmark this link: Adobe Product Comparison Chart

10. Are you going to upgrade?

Yes I am. I will probably not be an early adopter, primarily because I have a couple other purchases to make first (hardware, a lens, and some lighting gear), but the advancements in CS5 are probably among the most significant of any version in the last 7 years! I may also need to upgrade my computers to handle the processing requirements.

That’s it – the top ten questions I’ve seen (and been asked) about Creative Suite 5! Got your own questions? I may not have the answers, but I can either give you my best guess, or pass the question on to someone who may know the answer, so feel free to sound off in the comments. Also, if I got anything wrong, or if you can shed additional light, all contributions are welcome!

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