Tag: learning digital photography

Podcast #35 is now live!

Jason1 Comment

The latest episode of Learning Digital Photography is now live and ready for your download and listening pleasure.  As always, there’s news, interviews, and listener questions and answers – and this time it’s a theme of Treats, Travel and Tips.  I had the pleasure of bringing Andie Smith back to the blog/podcast and we actually had a chance to sit down and really chew the fat on a lot of stuff.

  • News
    • Nikon Contest – $100,000 Giveaway!
    • Saturday Night Live recorded on a Canon
  • Techie Tips for Shooting at Holiday Events
  • Interview with Andie Smith
    • AndieSmithPhotography.net
    • Andie.Smith on Flickr
    • @AndieSmith on Twitter
  • Recommended Reading
  • Listener Questions and Answers
    • Gift Ideas
    • Monopod Recommendations
    • Why the 800×600 Aspect Ratio for Giveaways?

That’s it for today – make sure you go grab the podcast from either the folks at PLM or via the iTunes feed.  I’ve now added a page (check the top header) where you can go grab them if you forget… 🙂

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

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How Low Can You Go?

Jason1 Comment

In episode #34 of Learning Digital Photography, we  look at the subject of low light photography.  In these shooting circumstances, you often need to drop your shutter speed pretty low, while shooting with apertures that are relatively open, and high ISO’s in order to get the scene with enough light.  Whether you are shooting night photography, concert photography, or foggy weather, these are all things to look at and think about.

To help shed some light on the subject (get it? 🙂 ), we talked to Becky Thomas (aka BecThomasPhoto on Twitter) on the show.  A great conversation, and lots was covered so be sure you give it a listen.  Thanks to Bec for her time – it was a lot of fun.  Make sure you stop over to her site as well for a great dose of inspiration.

Photo News

  • Panasonic Sound System NW-10
  • Facebook Automated Photo Tagging (Face Detection)
  • Price Cuts on Photo Storage from Google ($4096 for 16 TB)

Photo Technical Tips

  • Pros and cons of increasing ISO
  • Pros and cons of opening your aperture
  • Pros and cons of slowing the shutter

Listener Questions and Answers

  • Camera Prices/Lines – What camera should you get?
  • Difference between a Lightroom catalog versus photo backups
  • Which stock agency to use?

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Creating Compelling Captures – the Podcast!

Jason6 Comments

Last week we looked at 5 different ways to create compelling captures here on the blog.  Well, today the latest podcast is available where we go into a little more granularity on the subject.  A little dash of some photo news and tidbits are thrown in too, but more importantly, the previously hyped and promoted conversation with David DuChemin is now live and ready for your listening enjoyment.  We look not only at how to create compelling captures, but also at how the idea of controversy fits into the picture.  Can controversial pictures make for more compelling images?  What defines controversy?  Is it the photographer, the conditions, the viewer, or something else altogether?

David and I also talk about his travels, share a few anecdotes, and look at the world of photography in new and exciting ways – coming at things creatively rather than technically.  Lots of great stuff for your listening enjoyment.  Here’s the show notes for Episode #33 of Learning Digital Photography:

News
Canon 7D gets firmware update
Image Analysis using 3-d Software
Toyota grabs images off Flickr

David DuChemin Interview
Within the Frame
Visionmongers
On-line E-books

Compelling Captures Summary and Contest Notes
Compelling Captures
November Contest

That’s it for today, make sure you get the podcast from either the download link over at PLM, or via iTunes and let me know what you think!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

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PODCAST ALERT!!!

The hosting folks are having some technical difficulties, so please bear with them as they sort things out – in the meantime, the ad-free podcast can be downloaded as an mp3 file here!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Don’t Touch that Dial

Jason7 Comments

This week we take a look at the dial on your DSLR – what do they do and is it worth it taking it off the Auto Mode?  Or even putting it into the auto mode?  What are the benefits?  Pros? Cons?  There’s thoughts both ways and I’ll look into each and give a few answers on this weeks show.  Also on this weeks show, I had the opportunity to talk with Matthew Bamberg, a well-known and respected photographer and author of digital photography books.  We had a great chat that you definitely are going to want to tune in to to get some tips tricks and places to go for great photography.  Check out the links in the sidebar for his books at Amazon and his website too, over at the hosted version of the podcast with the folks at Personal Life Media.

Lastly, the listener questions and answers, and some contest news rounds out the show too!

  • Daguerreotype
  • Best Scanners for photography
  • Windows 7 – is it for photographers?

Lots to talk about, and a great time all around, including the theme and announcement for the November giveaway!  Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to “Digg” the podcast over at PLM, or offer a review in iTunes, or even share your comments here on the blog.  Where do you put your dial?  What do you think of a DSLR in auto mode?  Is it good or bad?  Did I call it right?  Share your thoughts…the listening world wants to know! 🙂  Here’s the web links for stuff we talked about on the show:

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

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Show Notes for Episode #28

Jason3 Comments

No cheeky title today, just a straight up informational one because the podcast was a super long one with all the news, interview time, and listener Q&A so I’ll stick to the meat and potatoes.

  1. On the Photo News Beat
    1. Canon Announces Hybrid IS technology
    2. Stock Exchange joins Getty Images
    3. Think Tank Photo Announces a New Bag System
    4. OnOne Software expecting to release a Remote Capture update soon
  2. LDP/CB Notes
    1. The OnOne Software Plugin Suite Ends Friday – last chance to get your best image in the Numbers Contest
    2. The August Prize is announced:  A Bamboo Fun, courtesy from the folks at Wacom
    3. Exposure Denver Photo Club
  3. Interview With Matt Timmons – MTM Studios
  4. Listener Q&A
    1. The Sony A100 DO Range Optimizer – Bog Segrell from NJ
    2. Martini Memory Lighting Setup? – Alistair M from New Zealand
    3. Where do you get the EOS Digital Capture from Canon? – George Maskaly from Nevada

Here’s links, as promised for the show notes to for those coming over from either PLM or iTunes.  Please let me know if I missed any (it’s getting late here)…

A last little bit of blog news – closing in on 2 yrs, 500 posts, and 1000 feeds – I don’t know how this ever happened, but there’s definitely going to be some prizes coming soon in celebration and to say thanks to all the loyal, faithful readers and listeners!  I teased the date a few days ago on Twitter so if you’re not on Twitter, get there for extra added value too! Happy Shooting All, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

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Walk, listen, and ask…

Jason4 Comments

Lame blog post title segue alert – too late!  This week’s podcast is completed and available from the always generous hosting of the folks over at Personal Life Media, and over on iTunes, so download from your favorite option and enjoy!  Here’s the show notes:

I give a roundup review of the Scott Kelby Worldwide photowalk, along with a more detailed back story on the Canon Confession, which was outed yesterday here on the blog.

Rich Charpentier of The Airstream Chronicles also stops in for a really great interview with me – we probably could have talked for quite a while longer, but tried to keep things managable.  On our discussion we learn about his HDR work, his printing work, and his travels from within an Airstream.  He’s got some great stories including mountain lions, sock puppets, and much more.

A couple administrative notes and links from the show.

Here’s links to Rich’s website and his blog, as well as his book, The Digital RV

A couple other things we talked about included:

Arctic Butterfly sensor Cleaner

Bert Gildart’s Photography

Stuck in Customs

Also, don’t forget the OnOne Software Plugin Suite 4.5 Giveaway is coming to an end soon!  You could win this software suite, valued at $500 retail just by entering your “Numbers” themed photo (taken in July) over at the Flickr thread before July 31st.  Good luck and I expect a lot of entries will be coming soon as people reveal the fruits of their labor, and the results of their work over the month (especially given the photo walk from this last weekend)!   I could amuse you with more, but then would have nothing for tomorrow, so don’t forget to stop back in for another fun day of photography news, information and discussion.  Happy shooting everyone!

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Photo News, Interviews, and Contest News

Jason1 Comment

As you may have guessed, the podcast that was delayed Friday is now compiled and ready for your listening pleasure.  I would like to take another moment to thank Terry Reinert of TKR Photo for taking the time to participate in the interview series – not only is he full of useful information, but a great guy to boot.  We literally could have B.S.ed on Skype for another couple hours if time permitted.

This does mean the hardware review was supplanted for this week, due to the dentail fiasco from Friday.  On that note, I would also like to clarify that it ended up not being the crown, rather a filling next to it (my mouth is a mess – surprise surprise), that was hitting a nerve.  So, it looks like another root canal is headed my way.  Fun stuff!

So, without delay, here’s the show notes for this weeks episode of LDP, which you can listen or subscribe to from the PLM site here (it’s also linked in the header up top):

Photo News

Contest News

  • OnOne Software Contest currently underway (make sure you submit your images in the next couple weeks – time’s a’wastin’!)
  • Congrats to Fred for winning the discount coupon for Fotoquote Pro
  • Wacom Contest is coming up next month – details TBD

Interview with Terry Reinert

Listener Questions and Answers:  Exposure Triangles, Filters, and Hair Lights

Thanks for subscribing, and have a great day all.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

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And then there were three…

Jason5 Comments

First off, some software news that we all may want to stay abreast of – Adobe has released the latest updates for Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom.

The ACR update applies to CS4 users, Elements 7.0 users, and Premiere Elements 7.0 users, and includes raw conversion algorithms for the Canon 500D, the Powershot XS1 IS, the Nikon D5000 and several Hasselblads, as well as some other camera updates for Olympus, Sony, and Pentax.  It’s version 5.4 and is now out of beta and available for download.  The updates for Windows and Mac are available here:

Camera Raw

For Lightroom users, the update takes you to the latest stable release of version 2.4.  So, if you are running version 2.3 or earlier, this update is a recommended one for you.  It basically is the same as the ACR update for Photoshop and other programs, but since there’s no secondary GUI for the converter portion, it’s just built into the program update.  You should be able to over-install it on top of your current installation, but as with everything else, I always recommend backing up your system and important files prior to updating things like this that can have an impact on your entire library.   The downloads for Windows and Macintosh are available here:

Lightroom

Now, onto the more exciting news…speaking of Adobe and all, as you may recall, there was a contest held here at Canon Blogger on the Learning Digital Photography podcast a while back and the winner is slated to get their very own copy of Lightroom from the folks over at Adobe.  Well, I am happy to announce here today that The Adobe Lightroom Contest has entered it’s final phase here at Canon Blogger/Learning Digital Photography!.

As you  may recall, as alluded to above,  a few podcasts back, I had the honor of sitting down with Tom Hogarty and talking shop about Lightroom, it’s purpose, development, and lots of fun stuff about photography in general.  At the end of the show, Mr. Hogarty generously donated a copy of Lightroom to some lucky listener of the podcast.  We started a photography Flickr thread, and the entries started pouring in.

After 58 entries came in that met the criteria we were looking for, the contestants were narrwoed down to 10 finalists, which were then compiled and put on display here at the blog (and you can see all of them here).  We now have narrowed the field down to three possible contenders for the grand prize of the Lightroom software.  We’ll talk a little more amongst myself and Mr. Hogarty to see which is the “best of the best”, but the three that we are now in our final phase of considering are:

Blooming Orchid


Black-and-white Magnolia Blossom


The Foggy Lighthouse

Once we have the grand prize winner determined, one of these three people will have a copy of Photoshop Lightroom arriving on their doorstep soon.  Thanks again to all the entries – we’ve actually worked quite diligently on this to really get a sense of which image captures the essence of both photography, what Lightroom processing can do for your creativity, and also purely on the artistic merit.

Again, thanks to all the entries for the contest – the latest one is still going on for another week – the winner will get a 33% discount code to FotoQuote Pro – and to enter that all you have to do is make an entry here on the blog!  (Limit one entry per person per day).  Keep on shooting and sharing – happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Super Sigmas, photo walks and seminars!

Jason3 Comments

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

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