Lighting Mods

How to Educate Yourself about Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Photography is a very enjoyable and rewarding activity.

You can capture a moment in time and share it with others.
You can use your creative energy to produce something of emotion, beauty and inspiration. You can bring out the detail in subjects and events that you might not otherwise notice in real time.

Many people think that taking photographs is just a simple procedure of point and click. While this is obviously part of the process, it takes a lot more to take a quality photograph that is both moving and memorable.

Below are some guidelines for educating yourself about photography. If you are interested in pursuing a career in photography, find out more information on photography degree programs.

Guidelines

Learn Basic Visual Composition – For learning visual composition, this involves such principles as the "rule of thirds," using leading lines and simplicity. These techniques help improve the quality of your photo. It is important to not to just point and click at scenes of interest, but also take the time to look through the viewfinder in the camera and assess the scene. Put in the time and practice taking hundreds of photos using the basic visual techniques and compare the differences in the photos.

Learn Camera Settings and Functions – As you are learning to take photographs, it is crucial to become familiar with all of the buttons and controls of a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. A SLR camera is preferable to an automatic camera as it will enable you learn photography more quickly and it gives you much more control in taking a shot. The controls on the camera that are especially important to know pertain to exposure. This includes shutter speed, aperture, and ISO (International Organization of Standardization). These controls affect how much light is let into the camera. Incorrect use of these features lead to overexposed or underexposed shots. Once you become more proficient with these controls, you can be more creative with your photography.

Look at Professional Photographs – Closely observe the features in these photographs and compare them with your own. There are also many how "how-to" photography books that show examples of photographs and the techniques used to take them.

Formal Education – While not all professional photographers are formally educated, it would be helpful to enroll in a photography degree program or take classes at an art school. For more information, see www.onlineclasses.net.

Sources

PhotoTechniques (2012)
Benjam (2012)

RAW vs JPEG what's the best for you...

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:37:00 +0000

A lot of talk has been made about this 2 formats. Since the Digital era started to arise a couple years ago many would say that JPEG was the killer but many defended the RAW as the true pure film equivalent.

What is what and what the advantages and disadvantages of each one?

Well SLR Louge created this great in-depth visual guide so you can decided for yourself what will go and what will not fit on your photographic profile.

Excellent read is all I have to say, take a look at their page link here.

Enjoy

Nero triggers DSLR by Light, Sound and Motion

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:59:00 +0000

Ever thought of how they do it to trigger the lightnings that occur in Nature or even how that make those crazy dynamic photos of exploding balloons?

Well, think no more... Nero multi trigger will make that and much more into your photographs.

Such a small device that you can attach to your camera via hot-shoe mount and capture all those great moments.

The device is powered by 2 AAA batteries and will last a couple of ours until it drains out, it also have an intervalometer with time lapse features, built in audio, optical and laser sensors so you could easily use it under any situation.

You can get them for Nikon and Canon at the manufacturer page here.

If you like to shoot this kind of scenarios you would not want to miss one of these babies.

GalleryPro, Show Your Work Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Scott Forman and Don Giannatti has joined forces to create a ultimate online gallery manager.

Scott Forman is the guy behind the 2008 project called ShutterVoice (mentioned here at LightingMods and Don Giannatti does not need too much introduction as he's been giving us a lot of photography information at his page.
If you do not know his go check out his page it has awesome information to share and called Lighting Essentials.

About this GalleryPro it is a one-stop solution for online portfolio management which allows for easy integration with a photographer's website, blog, facebook page, etc.

Essentially it allows a person to very easily manage their portfolio and include it on as many of their various web sites and social networking sites as they would like with only a tiny bit of code. It is cross platform and the same gallery works on desktop as well as mobile and tablets.

Aside from the online control panel to easily manage your portfolio, the intention was to make it very easy for a person to quickly view a photographer's body of work all at once so they could quickly decide if they want to see more rather than having to chase scrolling thumbnails with their mouse or look through pages of thumbnails.

Here is a short presentation video about it

You can Visit the GalleryPro page for more information and how to subscribe it.

TriPad holds your Computer for You

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:07:00 +0000

Ingenious is what I can say about this TriPad thing...

It came into my attention this great accessory named TriPad, you may ask what is this all about and let me tell you you won't regret it.

If you are the kind of shooter who continuously use your computer tethered to your camera and using long cables to make it happen then your suffer is over... I know it sounds kind of a commercial add but this accessory comes to your help by attaching your computer close to your camera and helping you out on the field or in the studio.

Just take a look at their webpage for more information.

Color Accuracy Test

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:57:00 +0000

How is your color accuracy today?

With this fun game you can check if you are color blinded or if you can measure correctly the colors.

Click HERE to play the game,

Have fun and a great photographic week.

1D MarkIV firmware update to version 1.1.1

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:23:00 +0000

It's time to grab the 1D MarkIV and make another firmware update.

This time Canon just addressed a couple of things that has to do with the new lenses that will be released sometime in June 2012. During this updates I just wish Canon would give us some more feedback on what was really corrected and not just a few hints on what they thing is major for the update firmware.

Canon how about give us the shutter release counter permanently visible so we can manage our trips to Canon repair center like we do with our cars?

Download link (14Mb).

Here is what's corrected with this 1.1.1 firmware update:

Changes

Firmware Version 1.1.1 incorporates the following change.
1. Optimizes the camera’s exposure accuracy when using EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM and EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM lenses, which are scheduled for release in June 2012.
If these lenses are used with an EOS-1D Mark IV camera that has not been updated with the new firmware, the image may be overexposed depending on the subject and shooting scene.

Firmware Version 1.1.1 is for cameras with Firmware up to Version 1.1.0. If the camera's firmware is already Version 1.1.1, it is not necessary to update the firmware.

Cameras with Firmware Version 1.1.1 cannot be restored to a previous Firmware Version (such as Version 1.1.0 or earlier).

(Previous) Version 1.1.0 improvements:
1. Improves writing/reading speeds when using UDMA 7-compatible CF cards.
2. Fixes a phenomenon where the ability to shoot movies may be stopped under the following conditions:
* When using high-capacity (32 GB or greater) CF cards with little available space remaining and the user attempts to start shooting movies; or
* When the camera’s battery is removed and reinserted into the camera and the user immediately attempts to start shooting movies.
3. Corrects misspellings in the menu screens displayed in Arabic and Portuguese languages (applies to models outside of the Japanese market only).

(Previous) Version 1.0.8 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves unexpectedly when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
Supplemental Information:
This phenomenon involves the aperture of the lens moving unexpectedly when the focusing ring moves (during focusing). Please note that aperture values also change when operating the zoom ring of a zoom lens that has variable maximum aperture values; however, this is a normal operation because the camera controls aperture values properly depending on the focal length (zoom position).
2. Corrects misspellings in the French and Spanish menus for applicable products.

(Previous) Version 1.0.6 improvements:
1. Enhances the AF tracking performance.
AF performance has been enhanced for receding subjects and for subjects that are approaching at a low speed.

Copyright In Europe: Protecting Your Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:22:00 +0000

In an age of digital photography and the internet, it has never been easier to copy, steal and take somebody else photographs.

With a click of a mouse, a user can take any image from any website and make an exact copy, using the photograph for whatever purpose they like.
However, this doesn’t make it right nor does it make it legal, and to prevent pictures from being stolen, it is important for photographers to understand how copyright works and how it protects their rights Copyright theft is rife.

Many photographers have found themselves aghast to see their work reproduced on blogs and websites without their knowledge, often resulting in a loss of much-needed income.
This makes some professional photographers think it necessary to get some kind of professional indemnity insurance to protect against these losses. However, you don’t have to put up with copyright theft.
Any photograph you take belongs to you, and you have every right to expect payment or some form of accreditation for its use.

Copyright of Pictures

A lot of photographers believe that to attain copyright for photographs you have to go through some form of registration process or application, but this isn’t true. The moment you take a picture, you become the copyright owner. In Europe, all countries have their own copyright law, such as the UK’s 1988 Copyright Act, but the Copyright Law of the European Union also protects a photographer’s copyright.

These laws ensure that every photograph you take, whether it’s at somebody’s wedding or is a commissioned work for a newspaper or magazine, is automatically copyrighted to you.

There are a few occasions when the photographer doesn’t own rights to copyright. If you are an employee of a company and your job is to take photographs, such as if you work for a press agency or newspaper, the copyright reverts to the employer, but freelancers, even those paid a commission, retain the rights to any picture unless it is signed away in a formal contract.

Registration, such as through the UK Copyright Service, is unnecessary, although it can help prove ownership when the rights of a photograph are disputed. Generally though, proving you took the picture is relatively simple as the first usage of any publication, such as on your own website, would be proof enough. In Europe, you retain copyright for your entire life, and your estate keeps copyright for a further 70 years after you die, by which time, copyright is lifted and the photographs become freely available.

Your Rights

Copyright remains with the photographer even when you sell a photograph for publication. By purchasing a picture from you, a magazine, website or newspaper is acquiring a license to use the image. Licensing comes in various forms. Usually it is to use your work once, such as in one issue of a newspaper or magazine and in one particular territory (such as Britain).

This is called “First Serial Rights” or “First Electronic Rights” if it’s for a web-based publication. These rights mean you can’t sell the picture to anybody else, or indeed publish it yourself, until it has appeared in the publication or website to which it has been sold. Sometimes an organization may wish to acquire “All Rights”.

This essentially means you are selling the copyright and the image would belong to them. If somebody asks for this, make sure you are prepared to lose all rights to the picture and are being properly compensated for it.

While it is common practice for photographers to receive accreditation on a picture, often declaring your copyright, not all publications do this, especially newspapers, but is always worthwhile asking, as having your name followed by a copyright symbol helps to deter others from reproducing the image.

Defending your Rights

You can take measures to prevent unauthorized usage of your images, such as including a digital watermark on any portfolio pictures, which in effect marks the image, or by including a minor alteration to the picture to help provide proof of ownership, but in the digital age, image theft is virtually unavoidable. However, if you find that an image has been reproduced without your permission, there are steps you can take.

Firstly, simply contact the publication, website or blog that has reproduced the image and explain that it is your picture. It may well be that they were unaware the picture was copyrighted; they may even agree to pay you for its usage. If that doesn’t work, send a “Cease and Desist” letter. This is just a formal letter telling them they are in breach of copyright law and that if they refuse to remove the offending image in a certain time frame (usually 28 days), or pay you for the work, you will take them to court. Often, this letter is enough to scare most people into removing the image.

Finally, if all else fails, you can begin legal proceedings for copyright infringement and apply for damages and/or royalties to a court. To do this, you will of course need a solicitor, but specialist copyright lawyers are easy to find. While the costs of legal assistance will be awarded to you if your case is successful, you need to bear in mind that if you are prosecuting an individual, such as a blogger, they may not have any money, and you could be left with a large legal bill.

While understanding copyright won’t stop it from happening, at least by knowing your rights you can now take steps to prevent people from taking advantage of all your hard work.

Credit: Imogen Reed

Hands On: 5D MarkIII, 24-70 2.8 USM L II and Flash 600 EX-RT (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Canon 5D MarkIII

Welcome to the second part of the post now entirely dedicated to the hands on the Canon 5D MarkIII.

Although I do not own the camera I was allowed, for quite sometime, to play with it during an event I attended last week.

I was also able to shoot a couple of cards with it and also some testing over the Lisbon Fashion Show runaway.

First, and before all the writing, I would like to THANK Canon Portugal via CPS System for letting me put my hands for the first time on this, still prototype and beta, camera.

I will begin by saying that the first time you grab it it feels a completely new camera to the hand, well you may say that it's just talk but I can tell you from my almost 4 years with the 5D MarkII that this new one feels much different at touch. Well to start the camera grip is a little bit more extended so my pinky does not stay under it and by that it feels much more comfortable to shoot.

The camera is now much more rounded and still with no pop-up flash, the top dial comes now more secure with a button that you have to push to move the wheel (this is something that you could already get it done on the older 5D MarkII but you will need to pay at least 150,00 euros for the change... baaahhh!!!).

Another thing you will notice right away are the buttons that have been redesign from a roundish kind to a more flatten one. The ISO button at the top has also a different feel so you can Identify it with your finger without leaving your eye from the camera. The top LCD screen has also suffered some minor and improved modifications to accommodate the new features of the camera such as the dual slot card and the 3 stop exposure compensation indicator. There is also, near the front wheel dial, a new C.Fn button that can be programed and very accessible.

Has I mention before the mode dial has now a lock mechanism button that you have to push in to be able to choose the modes of the camera, after you choose the one you like it will stay in that position locked. On that button you also noticed they removed the CA mode and the Green square has now a A inside as it represents better the Auto mode.

The On/Off switch was moved from the bottom part of the camera to the top giving this a much better way, or not, to turn the camera on/off (let just hope this switch will not turn itself on/off while getting in and out of the bag, only use will tell about this).

On the port connections they finally added the so much asked Phone Jack port, the rest of them are exactly the same but they are in different positions regarding to the 5D MarkII. Although I feel that they should have made possible to have the Phone and Mic jack connections on the same slot as it would avoid having the 2 slots open each time you need to record and monitor at the same time. This could be a good thing as not always you need to have the USB port while using the Phone input, also would protect from environment the other connectors that could stay in closed doors.

Anyway this is a plus for many people buying this camera for video, now that you can monitor also the audio that will go inside.

On the back of the camera things start to be a little bit different from the previous model. The lock mechanism for the wheel is now a separated on, the wheel itself is much, much, much smoother and with no click/click feel to it (this is a great feature for video has you will not ear it turning while recording). You have a Q button right next to the joystick that enables the quick modes very fast by the way. The grip for the thumb is a much better one has it leaves you holding the camera with only one hand and feel more secure and comfortable. There is a new button Start/Stop right next to the thumb that changes the mode from Stills to Video and enables to start and stop video recordings (In my opinion the button is a great thing but it turns out to be a little bit difficult to turn it from one mode to the other with your thumb, from my first impression I feel that it could have been made in a different angle position instead of pointing up should been pointing right at your thumb).

The screen has also a different feel and the size is more suitable to video than to photos itself. It has that kind of 16:9 feel and when you are previewing an image take in portrait mode it would become even smaller on landscape mode, but the resolution is excellent and the reflections are even better than the ones you get from a 1D MarkIV screen, very accurate and clear.

The left side buttons ave also suffered some changes, the Menu and Info buttons are now at top left. First on the row you have the Picture Style and Direct Printing, then comes one that I found excellent it's the Rate button (this would give you the opportunity to rate your images from 1 to 5 stars right on the screen.
This maybe something that many would say it's a no go thing but I can tell you that from the moment I started to rate the images I was getting from this camera my workflow seemed to improved by a million. This is very interesting if you shooting sports or assignments that needs sending images right away. With this button you can rate them on the field and the editor will know what your choosings or you can rate them in the field while the match is still on and when you go review them you just pick the ones you choose on Photo Mechanic, Lightroom, Photoshop or any other software that use this rating system AWESOME!!!)

The you will have the Zoom button. This one has also came with a new way to view the images, you no longer use the two buttons on the back right side of the camera to zoom the image in and out :( the new button has a learning curve has it turn out to be a different way to zoom in/out, you press the zoom button and with the joystick you choose the point where you want to zoom then with the front wheel you zoom. It took me awhile o figure things out as none of my cameras at the moment has this new system, so this will take a bit of time to get use to but in the end it would be much faster to look at the images... practice, practice, practice ;)

And last but not least we have the Trash button that does exactly what you've been used to in the past... delete your photos.

The viewfinder is also bigger and more roundish making your eye feel much more comfortable and letting you really see what's inside the screen

Now you have 2 slots for cards. One for the normal Compact Flash and the other one for an SD card. This is something that the 1D series been having for quite sometime and could be useful for some of you. Well for me is a really great feature has sometimes I tend to write CR2 raw files in one card and JPG, now thCanon 5D MarkIII allows this.

Now is where things get a little bit complicated at first impression. The inside menus and lettering are completely new... yes you heard me right COMPLETELY NEW!!

It's divided into 6 top menus and subdivided into more menus, small little dots under it on the left side of each one, (will not get into much detail on this matter has I was also a little bit confused about this system and with any previous reading of the manual I would not attempt on jumping in to this any further), you also get to view what option you have chosen for each section of the menu on the right side of the highlighted item.

Here is a picture of one of the Live View menu functions.

Has you can see this is still a beta version camera with the firmware 4.9.2 67 (2c) ;)

Here is a quick look of the screen while recording a video. You can notice that now you will have the sound recording live on screen and with the Q button you can change the settings without any sound on the camera (great if you are recording with no external mic). Also the wheel is kind of touch and feel where you can just move your finger around it to change setting without even changing and moving the wheel itself (I could not believe this when I started to use it, you really can't send any noise to the camera while making adjustments, nice feature for videographers).

I recorded some short clips to test things out and the focus system looked to me the same although a little bit faster to acquire focus on subjects while recording but I did not notice much improvement over the previous 5D MarkII, maybe it was my first impressions but I do not see it lighting fast on this matter. Better but not perfect and still sluggish for my taste, although I do not use video a lot, I confess, it looked just the same but a little faster.

Since I do not pretend to make this a complete review of the camera with all the whistles and bolts I also took some pictures with High ISO and some of the features I was waiting for quite sometime on Canon equipment.

First was the double exposure, I used to make some great stuff with this thing on film day where you would grab your film camera and took several exposures without advancing the film. This would produce a multiple exposure on the same frame and if it was done with accuracy you would get great and different things from it.

So I started from there, the 5D MarkIII is the first Canon digital camera to produce this kind of images (along with the 1DX but that's another story), and created a 3 exposure image on the same frame. You can chose the camera to have the 3 independent frames as pictures and a combined JPG at the end with the resulting image, you can also have the option to choose different ways to make it such as Additive, Average,Bright, Dark on a menu option.

Here is an example I took with the 5D MarkIII as test (Don't mind the composition, exposure or whatever technical aspect you seen on the images, these are just test images for the purpose to illustrate this option).

All 3 images are CR2 files that the camera write and the last one is a combined JPG of the 3 of them that the camera creates. Although the images are not very good aligned (my mistake) I think the camera does a very good job on this matter. I needed a little bit more time to experiment with this but time was not on my side :(

Next came the much talked HDR feature. I wanted to test out what the camera can do with this mode.

Well first you can only get 3EV maximum for the exposures, you will get 5 modes of Effects you want to add on the final JPG (Natural, Art Standard, Art Vivid, Art Bold and Art Emboss), then you can choose on the menu to Auto Align images and also be able to save them all or only the composite. So let's take a look of some examples I did while I tested it.

I used 3EV not taking account the room or the exposures. I just took the maximum out of the EV so I can see how much Dynamic range I could get from the files.

Here is the resulting image with the Effect Natural

And the same setting only changed the Effects to Art Emboss.

I feel it does a pretty good job although sometimes you will need a couple more exposures to get more detail out of the dynamic range. This mode will not make you a Trey Ratcliff HDR expert put is something to start from. I liked the feature and the tones it produced, maybe with a little bit more time I could get some better images out of this 2 new modes.

Another thing that you immediately get to see is the new AF points. They grown bigger and larger and inside each square you will also get a point focus. Not getting into much detail in this matter either but it's way faster than the one on the 5D MarkII. Did I say faster... man it's really fast acquiring focus even under bad light conditions. Also you get a wider focus points that allows us to have one point on the persons head while doing Portrait mode. No more focus recomposing on this one, thank GOD or Canon...

The burst frame has also been much improved has it gets more or less 5/6 frames burst on CR2+JPG files that I tested on. This can hold up to a Football game or even some models on the Catwalk, no more closed eyes at the receptions photos and no more loosing your kids play games. I think they go it right this time.

Let me show you a runway test for the burst mode. ( I was using AI Servo mode as testing base and only using one hand has my other one was on the 1D MarkIV so I could have photos to send to my editor for the assignment so this may have some soft and unfocused images, but the point here was to check if the camera was capable to follow the model on the runway and for how long before it stop to buffer).

It can be capable of getting more images than the number they announced and I was using full CR2 raw mode + JPG fine these are the original jpg files reduced for the blog and logo purposes only.

You can see that there is completely missed focus on the 3rd frame but the camera was able to recover on the next shot. I do not recall what was my focus settings has this camera has so many that maybe this was the problem, also the fact that I was single handling it with the new 24-70 USM L II could be an issue but the camera recovered quick enough. I was amazed how fast the camera can shoot and acquire focus.

The metering system is completely new and this time I can meter what is really on spot, not like it's brother the 5D MarkII that you never know when the camera is metering correctly or what is metering. This is a plus factor for me as now I can really know how much light is hitting an object if I use the spot metering option.

Something that you will notice is that the 5D MarkIII is a little bit more quiet than the 5D MakrII and also a plus is that you can turn the silent mode (only 1 shot at a time) to get even quieter. Great feature for when you want to go unnoticed, you will love this new sound.

And what more can I tell you about this sweat??

Ah!!, yes the High ISO that turns night into day without too much noise LOL, let's check some samples.

Canon 5D MarkIII ISO 3200

Canon 5D MarkIII ISO 6400

Canon 5D MarkIII ISO 12800

Canon 5D MarkIII ISO 25600

As you can see the native ISO of the camera has been much improved, I noticed a slight change of WB color during manual exposure but on the other modes it tends to be well balanced. Do not know if this has anything to do with the beta firmware and if it will be corrected in the final version (hope so). You may also know that Canon has always had a little bit of tendency to go to warmer tones when you go to high ISO so this is no exception.

You can download the CR2 original files here in a one zip file (123Mb file) or here and here as a 4 single CR2 files so you can view them at your please and evaluate in detail.

Just bear in mind that for the moment Adobe Lightroom 4.0 does not support the CR2 raw files from this camera but you can go to Adobe Labs and download the Camera Raw 6.7 Release Candidate and play with them on Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1 and Bridge after the update.

And with this I conclude my hands on this great Camera. I think Canon will hit a lot of pockets and will be a lot of people moving on just because of the new Auto Focus and Video, this would be also a great time to buy a Canon 5D MarkII with a great price as canon decided not to remove the support from this camera nor discontinue it.

I feel that this new camera is a brand new, I could be killed just by saying that, but it does feel a completely different camera either on your hands, the menus and focus system. A lot of you may think that maybe they do not need to upgrade and that Canon would gave us another minor update but from what I saw and tested today this is going to be a great revolution.

Bottom line, from all the photos I took with this camera I could not find one single image that was not sharp enough I do think that the files that comes out of it are much better than the ones we get from the 1D MarkIV series, the focus is very precise and fast and can grab focus almost in the most dark situations. I do need to get my hands for a quick play under awful stage lights but that another scenario.

For the moment it's APPROVED for replacement!!!

Here are the official technical specifications for the Canon 5D MarkIII:

Specifications

Type
Digital, AF/AE single-lens reflex, camera
Recording Media
CF Cards (Type I); Compatible with UDMA CF cards; SD, SDHC, and SDXC Memory Cards
Image Format
Approx. 36 mm x 24mm (35mm Full-frame)
Compatible Lenses
Canon EF Lenses (excluding EF-S Lenses)
Lens Mount
Canon EF mount

Image Sensor

Type
High-sensitivity, high-resolution, large single-plate CMOS sensor
Pixels
Effective pixels: Approx. 22.3 megapixels
Total Pixels
Total pixels: 23.4 megapixels
Aspect Ratio
3:2 (Horizontal: Vertical)
Color Filter System
RGB primary color filters
Low Pass Filter
Fixed position in front of the image sensor
Dust Deletion Feature
(1) Self Cleaning Sensor Unit

·Automatic Sensor Cleaning

·Removes dust adhering to the infrared- and ultraviolet-blocking glass.

·Self-cleaning executed automatically when power is turned on or off. Manual execution also possible.

·Low-pass filter has a fluorine coating.

(2) Dust Delete Data acquisition and appending

·The coordinates of the dust adhering to the infrared- and ultraviolet-blocking glass are detected by a test shot and appended to subsequent images.

·The dust coordinate data appended to the image is used by the provided software to automatically erase the dust spots.

(3) Manual cleaning

Recording System

Recording Format
Design Rule for Camera File System 2.0 and EXIF 2.3
Image Format
Still Image: JPEG, RAW (14-bit Canon Original), M-RAW, S-RAW, RAW+JPEG, M-RAW+JPEG, S-RAW+JPEG

Video: MOV (Image data: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC; Audio: Linear PCM)
File Size
(1) Large: Approx. 22.10 Megapixels (5760 x 3840)

(2) Medium: Approx. 9.80 Megapixels (3840 x 2560)

(3) S1 (Small 1): Approx. 5.50 Megapixels (2880 x 1920)

(4) S2 (Small 2): Approx. 2.50 Megapixels (1920 x 1280)

(5) S3 (Small 3): Approx. 350,000 Pixels (720 x 480)

(6) RAW: Approx. 22.10 Megapixels (5760 x 3840)

(7) M-RAW: Approx. 10.50 Megapixels (3960 x 2640)

(8) S-RAW: Approx. 5.50 Megapixels (2880 x 1920) Exact file sizes depend on the subject, ISO speed, Picture Style, etc.
Recording Functions
1. Standard

* Records to either the CF card or SD card.

2. Auto switch card

* When the current card becomes full, the camera switches to the other card automatically.

3. Record separately

* The CF card and SD card record the same image at a different image recording quality (L, M, S1, S2, S3, RAW, M-RAW, S-RAW)

4. Record to multiple

* Both the CF card and SD card record the same image at the same image recording quality. (Also applies to RAW+JPEG, M+JPEG, and SRAW+JPEG)
Backup Recording
Images recorded in a card can be copied to the other card
File Numbering
The following three types of file numbers can be set:

(1) Continuous numbering

* The continuous numbering of captured images will continue even after you replace the camera's card. (The numbering continues even when the folder changes.)

(2) Auto reset

* When you replace the camera's card, the numbering will be reset to start from 0001. If the new card already contains images, the numbering will continue from the last recorded image in the card.

(3) Manual reset

* Resets the file number to 0001, and creates a new folder automatically.
RAW + JPEG Simultaneous Recording
The image-recording quality can be selected in any combination of the three RAW and eight JPEG recording quality settings.
Color Space
Selectable between sRGB and Adobe RGB
Picture Style
Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User Defined 1-3

* Scene Intelligent Auto will set [Auto] automatically.

* [Standard] is the default setting for [User Def. 1-3]

White Balance

Settings
(1) Auto (AWB)

(2) Daylight

(3) Shade

(4) Cloudy

(5) Tungsten light

(6) White fluorescent light

(7) Flash

(8) Custom (Custom WB)

(9) Color temperature

* With an EX-series Speedlite having the color temperature information transmission feature, the color temperature setting changes to match the color temperature when the flash is fired. Set to approx. 6000K if the flash unit does not have the color temperature communication feature.
Auto White Balance
Auto white balance with the image sensor
Color Temperature Compensation
Blue/amber bias: ±9 levels

· Magenta/green bias: ±9 levels

* Corrected in reference to the current WB mode's color temperature.
Color Temperature Information Transmission
Provided

Viewfinder

Type
Eye-level pentaprism
Coverage
Approx. 100% vertically and horizontally (At approx. 21mm eyepoint)
Magnification
Approx. 0.71x / Angle of view 34.1° (with 50mm lens at infinity, -1 m^-1 (dpt))
Eye Point
Approx. 21mm (At -1m^-1 from the eyepiece lens center)
Dioptric Adjustment Correction
-3.0 to +1.0m^-1 (diopter)
Focusing Screen
Fixed
Mirror
Quick-return half mirror (transmission: reflectance ratio of 40:60)
Viewfinder Information
·AF information

AF point, focus confirmation, AF status indicator

·Exposure information

Shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed (always displayed), AE lock, exposure level, exposure warning

·Flash information

Flash ready, flash exposure compensation, high-speed sync, FE lock, red-eye reduction light

·Image information

Highlight tone priority (D+), maximum burst (2-digit display), card information

·Battery check

·Composition information

Grid, electronic level

·Warning symbol

Displayed if any of the following is set: Monochrome, white balance correction, One-touch recording quality switch, expanded ISO speed, or spot metering.
Depth Of Field Preview
Enabled with Depth-of-field preview button

Autofocus

Type
TTL secondary image - registration, phase detection
AF Points
61-point (up to 41 cross-type points)

* One to five cross-type AF points at f/2.8, 10 to 20 cross-type AF points at f/4, and 15 to 21 cross-type AF points at f/5.6. (The number of cross-type AF points will differ depending on the lens.)
AF Working Range
EV -2 - 18 (at 73°F/23°C and ISO 100)
Focusing Modes
(1) Autofocus

·One-Shot AF

·Predictive AI Servo AF

   -For automatic AF point selection, the AF point to start the AI Servo AF operation can be selected.

   -For automatic AF point selection, the active AF point can be displayed.

·AI Focus AF

   -(Switches between One-Shot AF and AI SERVO AF automatically)

   -Automatically set in A+ Auto Mode

(2) Manual focus (MF)
AF Point Selection
1. Single-point AF (Manual selection)

2. Auto selection 61-Point AF

3. Single-point Spot AF (Manual selection)

4. AF point expansion (Manual selection, 4 points: Up, down, left, and right)

5. AF point expansion (Manual selection, surrounding 8 points)

6. Zone AF (Manual zone selection)
Selected AF Point Display
Displayed in viewfinder with transparent LCD and on LCD panel
Active AF Point Indicator
AF area used in horizontal/vertical (grip up or down) shooting and the manually-selected AF point position can be set separately
AF Assist Beam
(1) Enable

With an EOS-dedicated Speedlite, AF-assist beam is emitted automatically when necessary.

(2) Disable

(3) IR AF assist beam only

* No AF-assist beam with flash bursts.

Exposure Control

Metering Modes
Max. aperture TTL metering with 63-zone SPC with the following selectable modes:

(1) Evaluative metering (linked to all AF points)

(2) Partial metering (center, approx. 7.2% of viewfinder)

(3) Spot metering (center, approx. 1.5% of viewfinder)

·AF point-linked spot metering not provided.

(4) Center-weighted average metering

a. The selectable metering modes can be limited with a Custom Function.
Metering Range
EV 1-20 (at 73°F / 23°C with 50mm f/1.4 lens at ISO 100)
Exposure Control Systems
(1) Scene Intelligent Auto

(2) Program AE (shiftable)

(3) Shutter-priority AE (Safety shift possible)

(4) Aperture-priority AE (Safety shift possible)

(5) Manual exposure

* The metering mode can be specified with a Custom Function.

(6) Bulb

(7) E-TTL II autoflash program AE

* Evaluative metering, Averaged metering
ISO Speed Range
For Stills:

ISO 100-25600 (in 1/3-stop or whole-stop increments)

·ISO speed expansion possible to ISO 50, 51200, and 102400.

·For [Highlight tone priority], the settable ISO speed range will be 200-25600.

·ISO speed safety shift possible with Custom Function.

Shooting Mode	ISO Settings
A+	100-12800
P/Tv/Av/M	100-25600
B	ISO 400 fixed
With Flash	ISO 400 fixed∗

∗If fill flash will result in overexposure, minimum ISO 100 is set.
∗For bounce flash, ISO 400-1600 is set automatically depending on the light level.

ISO Speed upper and lower limits:

(1) Manual setting range

* ISO speed expansion is set with this option.

(2) Auto ISO range

* ISO speed expansion not settable.

Shutter speed and automatic ISO speed control in P and Av Modes:

In the P and Av shooting modes with Auto ISO set, the ISO speed is set automatically so that a shutter speed slower than the one set with [Minimum shutter speed] (1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 0"5, 1") is not set. Exposure Compensation
Manual: ±5 stops in 1/3 or 1/2-stop increments

AEB: ±3 stops in 1/3 or 1/2-stop increments

* Indicated up to ±3 stops on the LCD panel and in the viewfinder.
AE Lock
(1) Auto AE lock

·In the One-Shot AF mode with evaluative metering, AE lock takes effect when focus is achieved.

(2) Manual AE lock

·With AE lock button. (AE lock is updated each time you press the button.) Enabled in all metering modes.

Shutter

Type
Vertical-travel, mechanical, focal-plane shutter with all speeds electronically-controlled
Shutter Speeds
1/8000 to 1/60 sec., X-sync at 1/200 sec.

1/8000 to 30 sec., bulb (Total shutter speed range. Available range varies by shooting mode.)

* Shutter speed's control range can be set with a Custom Function.
Shutter Release
Soft-touch electromagnetic release
Self Timer
10-sec. or 2-sec. delay

External Speedlite

EOS Dedicated Speedlite
E-TTL II autoflash with all EX Series Speedlites
Zooming to Match Focal Length
Provided
Flash Exposure Compensation
±3 stops in 1/3- or 1/2-stop increments
FE Lock
Provided
External Flash Settings
The camera can set the following with Speedlite 600EX-RT, 580EX II, 430EX II, 320EX, 270EX II, or 270EX:

(1) External flash control

* Flash mode, sync setting, FEB (not possible with 270EX II/270EX), flash exposure compensation, E-TTL II, zoom, wireless master flash (not possible with 430EX II/ 270EX), and clear settings.

* With the Speedlite 600EX-RT, radio wireless control is possible.

(2) Flash Custom Function setting
PC Terminal
Provided (no polarity)

Drive System

Drive Modes
Single, High-speed continuous, Low-speed continuous, Silent Single Shooting and Self-timer (10 sec. self-timer/remote control, or 2-sec. self-timer/remote control)
Continuous Shooting Speed
High-speed: Maximum approx. 6 shots/sec.

Low-speed: Maximum approx. 3 shots/sec.

Silent continuous shooting: Maximum approx. 3 shots/sec.
Maximum Burst
·JPEG Large/Fine: Approx. 65 shots (approx. 16270 shots)

·RAW: Approx. 13 shots (approx. 18 shots)

·RAW+JPEG Large/Fine: Approx. 7 shots (approx. 7 shots)

*Figures are based on Canon's testing standards (ISO 100 and Standard Picture Style) and a 8 GB card.

*Figures in parentheses apply to an UDMA mode 7, 128 GB card based on Canon's testing standards.

Live View Functions

Shooting Modes
Still photo and video recording
Focusing
(1) Autofocus (One-Shot AF)

·Live mode

·One-point, contrast AF. Switching to another AF point possible.

·Face detection Live mode

·Face detection, contrast AF. Face selectable.

·Quick mode

61-point, phase-difference AF, same as normal shooting.

(2) Manual focus

* Magnify the image by 5x or 10x and focus manually.
Metering Modes
Real-time Evaluative metering with the image sensor
Metering Range
Real-time evaluative metering with image sensor:

·Metering range: EV 0 - EV 20 (At 73°F/23°C, 50mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 100)

·AE lock possible

·The active metering time can be changed.
Grid Display
Three grid display provided
Exposure Simulation
Provided
Silent Shooting
Provided (Mode 1 and 2)

Video Shooting

File Format
MPEG-4 AVC / H.264

Variable (averaged) bit rate
File Size
Recording Sizes:

1920 x 1080 (Full HD), 1280 x 720 and 640 x 480
Frame Rates
[1920 x 1080]: 30 fps / 25 fps / 24 fps

[1280 x 720]: 60 fps / 50 fps

[640 x 480]: 30 fps / 25 fps
Continuous Shooting Time
Based on 8GB Card:

[1920 x 1080]

30 fps ALL-I: 11 min. (685 MB/min.) / IPB: 32 min (235 MB/min.)

25 fps ALL-I: 11 min (685 MB/min.) / IPB: 32 min. (235 MB/min.)

24 fps ALL-I: 11 min. (685 MB/min.) / IPB: 32 min. (235 MB/min.)

[1280 x 720]

60 fps ALL-I: 12 min. (610 MB/min.) / IPB: 37 min. (205 MB/min.)

50 fps ALL-I: 12 min. (610 MB/min.) / IPB: 37 min. (205 MB/min.)

[640 x 480]

30 fps IPB: 97 min. (78 MB/min.)

25 fps IPB: 97 min. (78 MB/min.)

* If the recording time reaches 29 min. 59 sec., the movie shooting stops automatically.

* Movie shooting does not stop when the file size reaches 4GB.
Focusing
Same as focusing with Live View shooting

* During movie shooting or if movie cropping has been set, the image cannot be magnified for manual focusing.
Range
ISO Range

·P, Av, and Bulb: Automatically set within ISO 100 - 12800, expandable to H (equivalent to ISO 25600)

·A+ and Tv: Automatically set within ISO 100 - 12800

·M: Auto ISO (automatically set within ISO 100 - 12800), ISO 100 - 12800 set manually (in 1/3- or whole-stop increments), expandable to H (equivalent to ISO 16000/20000/25600)

* If Highlight tone priority is set to enable, the settable ISO speed range will be ISO 200 - 12800.
Exposure Control
(1) Program AE for movie shooting

* For shooting modes other than manual exposure and bulb.

* Shutter speed (1/30 - 1/4000 sec., signal accumulation time), aperture, and ISO speed automatically set.

(2) Manual exposure

* For manual exposure.

* Shutter speed (signal accumulation time), aperture, and ISO speed (auto/manual) manually set. The shutter speed (signal accumulation time) is limited to 1/4000 sec. at the maximum and to 1/30 sec. at the minimum for 24/25/30 fps or 1/60 sec. or higher for 50/60 fps.
Exposure Compensation
Up to ±3 stops in 1/3-stop increments

* For movies, even if exposure compensation has been set beyond ±3 stops, exposure compensation up to only ±3 stops will be applied.

* For still photos, exposure compensation up to ±5 stops can be applied.

LCD Monitor

Type
TFT color, liquid-crystal monitor
Monitor Size
3.2-inches
Pixels
Approx. 1.04 million dots
Coverage
Approx. 100%

Approx. 170° vertically and horizontally
Brightness Control
Auto: Brightness adjusted automatically by the light sensor

* Adjustable to one of three levels: Darker, Standard, Brighter

Manual: Adjustable to one of seven brightness levels
Interface Languages
25 (English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Ukraine, Turkish, Arabic, Thai, Simplified/Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese)

Playback

Display Format
Single image, Single image + Image-recording quality/shooting information, histogram, 4- or 9-image index, magnified view (approx. 1.5x-10x), rotated image (auto/manual), image jump (by 10/100 images, index screen, by shooting date, by folder), two-image comparative display, slide show (all images/selected by date/folder), star rating
Highlight Alert
With single-image display (Info.) and single-image display, overexposed highlight areas will blink

Image Protection and Erase

Protection
Erase protection can be applied or canceled for a single image, all images in a folder or all images in the card
Erase
Erase a single image, selected images, all images in a folder, all images in a card or erase only unprotected images

Direct Printing

Compatible Printers
PictBridge-compatible printers
Printable Images
RAW and JPEG images complying to Design rule for Camera File System

·Movies cannot be printed

DPOF: Digital Print Order Format

DPOF
Version 1.1 compatible

Direct Image Transfer

Compatible Images
JPEG and RAW images and movie

For RAW+JPEG, only the RAW or JPEG image or both images can be transferred

Customization

Custom Functions
13 Custom Functions settable with the camera
Camera User Settings
Current camera settings can be registered to C1, C2 and C3 on the Mode Dial (Automatic registration update is possible)
My Menu Registration
Up to six top-tier menu options and Custom Function settings can be registered

Power Source

Battery
One Battery Pack LP-E6

AC power can be supplied with the AC Adapter Kit ACK-E6
Battery Life
1) Camera body only:

Shooting Method	Temperature	Possible Shots
Viewfinder Shooting	At 73°F/ 23°C	Approx. 950
Viewfinder Shooting	At 32°F/ 0°C	Approx. 850
Live View shooting	At 73°F/23°C	Approx. 200
Live View shooting	At 32°FF/ 0°C	Approx. 180

2) With Battery Grip BG-E11:

Shooting Method	Battery	Temperature	Possible Shots
Viewfinder Shooting	LP-E6 x 1	Same as (1)
	LP-E6 x 2	At 73°F/ 23°C	Approx. 1900
	LP-E6 x 2	At 32°F/ 0°C	Approx. 1700
	Size AA/LR6 alkaline batteries	At 73°F/ 23°C	Approx. TBA
	Size AA/LR6 alkaline batteries	At 32°F/ 0°C	Approx. TBA
Live View shooting	LP-E6 x 1	Same as (1)
	LP-E6 x2	At 73°F/ 23°C	Approx. TBA
	LP-E6 x2	At 32°F/ 0°C	Approx. TBA
	Size AA/LR6 alkaline batteries	At 73°F/ 23°C	-
	Size AA/LR6 alkaline batteries	At 32°F/ 0°C	-

∗Based on CIPA testing standards Battery Check
Automatic battery check when the power switch is turned on:

Displayed in 6 levels:

·Battery level displayed on LCD panel and in viewfinder.

·Battery information can be checked with the [Battery info.] menu

·If Battery Grip BG-E11 is used with size AA/LR6 batteries; the battery level is displayed in four levels instead.
Power Saving
Power turns off after the set time (1, 2, 4, 8, 15 or 30 minutes) of non-operation elapses.
Date/Time Battery
CR1616 lithium battery
Start-up Time
Approx. 0.1 sec

Dimensions and Weight

Dimensions (W x H x D)
Approx. 6.0 x 4.6 x 3.0 in. (152.0 x 116.4 x 76.4 mm )
Weight
Approx. 33.5 oz. / 950g (Based on CIPA standards)

Approx. 30.3 oz./ 860g (Body only)

Operating Environment

Working Temperature Range
32-104°F/0-40°C
Working Humidity Range
85% or less

You can get the Instructions Manual for the ST-E3 here.

You can get the Instructions Manual for the Flash 600EX & 600EX-RT here.

You can get the instructions Manual for the 5D MarkIII here or here.

I Also got access to the 1DX Auto Focus Setting Guide that is also the same for the 5D MarkIII in case you want to have a look. Download it from here.

Hope you have enjoyed the Hands On for the Canon 5D MarkIII, please read part 1 for the other Canon goodies.

Hands On: 5D MarkIII, 24-70 2.8 USM L II and Flash 560 EX-RT (Part 1)

Selling Your Photos Online

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:03:00 +0000

Using a stock image agent

This is by far the most popular method for the sale of photographs nowadays. The bulk of images purchased are for use in some sort of marketing or electronic production. For the people who use images for publication via print or on the web they use stock image agents to ensure they do not fall foul of copyright infringements. So if you are looking to be able to sit back on your sofa and watch your pictures roll out and the profits roll in, this may be the method for you.

How does it work?

The stock image agents use photographers to amass a database of images which they allow the public to select and purchase. The images are generally watermarked and secured to prevent illegal downloading. In the majority of cases this sale is for the rights to use the image rather than exclusivity. This means the client can use the image but it remains available for resale to anyone else who might wish to use it.

For each of the images sold the photographer is paid a commission and the image agent will get paid a handling fee. The prices and allocated percentage differ greatly from one agent to the next. There are a number of variables involved in the set up of each stocking agent. The amount of images, and space available for storage is a consideration and differs depending on the provider. The length of time you are allowed to have images stored without any sales can also vary. There are also different approaches to how the images are promoted with some agents using a range of direct marketing techniques to ensure they promote business.

Which agent is best for me?

All of the various strategies are important to consider before you commit to using any one stock image provider. Subscription to a stock image agent is usually free, all you will need is an email address. Payment is generally arranged via PayPal, but there are alternative methods. Fast payment like this can shore up your cash-flow and avoid the need for a credit card balance transfer. Each agent will insist on exclusive use of your images, so you cannot enroll with five different agencies to ensure the widest dispersal of your material. There is no fail-safe method of ensuring this does not happen, but it is considered best practice to choose one which is tailored to how you want to work.

Can I change my agent?

There is no contract, just terms and conditions, with the agents and you can generally control your stock of images by adding and removing images from your own personal directory. It is worth checking this facility first. You can do this by making a small test folder of images and check how easy it is to add or delete pictures. If you feel as though you are not getting the best service then you can stop using one agent and start using another. Generally there is no fixed length of contract, but you should check this out when you are going through your subscription process. If you have already sold a photo through one agent you will usually not be able to remove this picture from their archive. You will also not be able to sell the same picture with a different agent as that is usually a breach of the terms and conditions of the website.

How do I know if it will work?

There is no sure fire way of guaranteeing you will sell your photography via a stock agent. The market for photographs and the quantity of pictures on the web is intensely competitive. Often it is as much down to luck as anything else that your photograph is selected for use. The stock agents are a global 24hour a day business and they thrive on having the largest number of photographers regularly updating their files. It is worthwhile if you have a regular customer asking their opinion on the services provided and get some genuine honest feedback. If you are just starting out then your best bet is to choose the one that has the right set up for the type of business that you want to develop.

If I use an agent will I need my own website as well?

It is possible to manage this sort of a business without having your own website, but if you really want to create a portfolio of work that reflects how you operate as a photographer there is no substitute for your own bespoke website. Be careful not to use a Facebook page for your work as the process of protecting your pictures via Facebook is notoriously tricky.

Which stockists should I use?

The most popular ones on the web at the moment are; iStockphotos, Photo Biz, Instaproofs, Photobox, Shutterpoint, PicProofs. These are some of the main agencies (in order of preference) but there are other smaller operations out there which might be more in tune with your business needs.

Credit: Imogen Reed

Hands On: 5D MarkIII, 24-70 2.8 USM L II and Flash 600 EX-RT (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:45:00 +0000

Today I got the opportunity to try out, for a couple of minutes, the new Canon 5D MarkIII with an attached brand new Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 USM L II and also the new flash series and flagship the Canon 600EX-RT with radio trans-receiver built in.

Although I do not pretend to make a complete detailed and analytic review of any of these items, I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of people making it as soon as the camera will be available in the market and they will be making them much better than I will, but I just want to show you some quick hands on for this Canon items and give you my personal opinion about it while a regular user of Canon products for sometime.

This would be my evaluation of the camera during the period I had with it as all the items are still in sample mode and maybe it would come out with some late minute refinements.
I will also post some images I took with my powershot G12 of the items as well as some sample images (raw+jpg) so you can download and review them if you want to. (For the moment Adobe Lightroom 4.0 does not support the CR2 raw files from this camera but for the moment you can go to Adobe Labs and download the Camera Raw 6.7 Release Candidate and play with them on Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1 and Bridge after the update)

I will make this article in 2 parts has it will be much easier to read and also comment on the images taken with the camera, the news lens and flash.

Canon lens 24-70 f/2.8 USM L II

I'll start out with the new 24-70 f/2.8 USM L II, this lens is completely new. Feels like the 100mm Macro lens as the coating and touch feelings are very similar to it. The filter thread now gets a bigger version up to 82mm and this would bring another level to the lens as the filter for it would be more expensive and if you use polarizer filter it's time to upgrade them as well to fit the new threat. Canon has already made this when they upgraded the 16-35 f/2.8 L USM to the same filter thread so if you own one of these you may already bought a polarizer to fit. It's a good thing to have most of the lens on the same thread as you do not have to carry a lot of stuff when you go outside taking pictures with filters.

In the above picture you can see the 2 lenses side-by-side. Indeed the older version of the 24-70 feels more heavy and bulky but when you put then on both hands to weight them they kinda feel the same although I did find the new one a little lighter and when zoomed into 70mm it comes out of the body less than the older version.
The lens wood it's much smaller (very similar to the one the 24-105 f/4 has) and it's attached on the far end of the lens. This is one thing that made me scratch my head for a while... the older version the lens wood would give a little more protection to the inner part of the lens when it is extended and the new version let's the inner part be visible and you need to have more caution when using it on dusty and water environments as it may enter inside the body of the lens now that it's completely exposed when zoomed to 70mm. (This was my only complain on this lens and for the price it would come out in April Canon should have had a little bit more attention to this).

This lens also do not have Image Stabilization and I think it has more to do with the design of the lens and to the fact that it could created it also more bulky. The lens also have a lock switch for storage and carrying around has this would prevent the lens front extend when you put it in your bag. (This is a normal feature that occurs to the older version when used extensively and for a long period of time as it would become loose after a while). This version, has I mentioned before, is a sample version used by many people already in the event I was in today and I can tell you that the front part had already become a little bit loosen just by using it so count for it in the field and if you're planning to buy it take that also in consideration.

This is an exceptional lens producing a very clean and crispy sharp images from edge to edge and with no chromatic aberrations visible and noticeable so far. Canon did manage to correct all the soft image problems with previous version but I think the price is a little bit to high for this piece of glass considering it is almost 1000,00 euros more than it's previous brother.

The Canon flash 600EX-RT

As you may all be aware that I'm a BIG aficionado of David Hobby techniques at the Strobist when I hear the good of the Radio triggering system coming to this new flash I started to hear bells and whistles all over so I wanted to check this ASAP as it was a long time promise from Canon, and we all know how Canon was getting a little behind on portable flash over the dark side ;)

Unfortunately Canon CPS Portugal only had one 600EX-RT and I could not perform any sample tests with 2 units and the time I had was too short to make the review for the %d MarkIII an also get some sample shots from the camera with the flash. Also the new flash comes with a very... when I say very it's VERY different menu that at least need to read the manual a couple of times before I could even adventure on it for the real deal.

Anyway I manage to grab a couple of shots of the flash and the menu system and played with it a little bit, although was not enough... more people on the queue line waiting to see it than I've ever seen before on a previous Canon stuff release.

Syde-by-syde they are much alike. Here in this picture they are not very align with each other but they are pretty much the same height. First thing noticed is that the old Stofen for the 580EXII will not fit on this one... so count on buying a new one.

This flash is a little bit thicker than it's older brother because it now has 2 color temperature caps that you can put on it. As you can see on the above image it has some kind of edges at the middle of the head that is where the dedicated gels and gel holder will hold onto (The caps were not available at the event, sorry no photos of them).

On it's front side you can also see, on the top head, where the dedicated gels and gel holder would make connection with the flash.

On the side of the flash you have the connectors for the CP-E4 Battery Pack, PC Terminal and the SR-N3 remote terminal connector, there is another 1/3 connector at the top but for the moment Canon representatives could not give me a straight answer what was it for as the flash is still very new and a sample unit without any instructions manual.

On the back part you have four buttons that now play a different role on the menu.They are now the one's in charge of selection things on the menu. Also there is a dedicated radio trigger button on the left side with it's own symbol that would help to get into the radio functions in a snap.

The LCD is much better to read out things and it feels a lot more easier to use. The hot-shoe is still the same difficult thing they gave us last time with the 580EXII so do not expect much on this one.

The LCD comes with 3 colors the green one for normal operations, a amber/orange style for when you put the flash in remote mode (this way you will always know which one is what) and a red one that would only be visible when the flash has reach the hot temperature, during my tests never appear ;)

The New On/Off switch is much better this way as you can lock the features directly or in a custom function leave it to sleep as on previous versions.

Also new is a Link blinking led that will blink when you have the flash connected wirelessly to others in a group.

For the few images I took with it I felt it more consistent in exposure and also in WB in a mixed ambient. On top of the 5D MarkIII is a sweet I can tell you, never missed a frame while on burst mode and all seem pretty consistent with each other... needed more time to test this baby out... (Some sample images at the bottom of the page)

Basically that's it for the first impressions... not much but the time I had to test the Sample unit was not much and also with no instructions manual at hand it come difficult to know what this powerful flash can really do or what menus it hides inside.

But If you also want a great and excellent in depth First Impression take a look at Syl Arena page.

Another great feature expected, for quite sometime, was the confirmation Beep when the flashes would be ready to fire again well Canon finally gave us the confirmation Beep Beep ;)

More on this at the Syl Arena page, go check it out, meanwhile here is a quote from his page about the Beep.

-- Quoted from Syl Arena page --

4. Beep, beep, we want a beep. BETTER—Canonistas have long lusted after Nikon’s humble beep as an indicator that a Speedlite has recycled. Canon has designed far better functionality. Thanks to the 2-way radio in the new Canon gear, each slave actually reports to the master when it has recycled. Then, when all the slaves in a group have recycled, the master displays a ready-icon for that group. Then, when all the slaves have checked in as recycled, the master sound the long-awaited beep! So, even when there’s a wall or window between you and your slaved Speedlites, you’ll know when they are ready to go. And yes, the beep can be turned off for quiet places like churches.

-- End of quote --

These are the official specifications for the flash:

Speedlite 600EX-RT specifications

Product Specification

POWER
Guide No. (ISO100).meters	60 (200mm)

ZOOM
Zoom head	Yes
Focal length coverage	20-200mm
Coverage with wide panel	14mm
Auto zoom for sensor size	Yes

FLASH MODES
Auto exposure control	E-TTLII/E-TTL/TTL
High speed sync (FP)	Yes
Manual / output settings	Yes - 1/1-1/128
Manual steps	1/3 step
Strobe / output settings	Yes - 1/4-1/128
Frequency	1-500Hz (199Hz using optical slave function)

FLASH-RELATED FUNCTION
FE lock	Yes
Flash exposure compensation	Yes
Flash exposure bracketing	Yes
Second-curtain flash sync	Yes
Modelling flash	Yes
Colour temperature info communication	Yes

WIRELESS FLASH
Transmitter	Yes
Transmission type	Infra-red / Radio
Transmitter Max range approx.	Indoors: 12-15m / 30m Outdoors: 8-10m / 30m
Slave	Yes
No. of groups	3 / 5¹
No. of channels	4 / 15
Remote Shutter Release	Yes

FLASH HEAD MOVEMENT
Up	45, 60, 75 and 90 °
Down	7 °
Left	60, 75, 90, 120, 150 and 180 °
Right	60, 75, 90, 120, 150 and 180 °

AF ASSIST
AF-assist beam	Yes
Number of AF points supported	1 - 61
AF-assist beam type	Infra-red

POWER SOURCE
Battery	4 x AA batteries
Minimum recycling time*	Approx. 3.3 sec
External power supply	Yes - CP-E4

CONSTRUCTION
Dust and water resistance	Yes
Mounting foot material	Metal

MISC.
Custom function	18 (7 personal functions)
Flash settings from camera menus**	Yes
External flash exposure sensor	Yes
PC terminal	Yes
Compatible accessories	Off-camera shoe cord OC-E3 Compact battery Pack CP-E4 Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT EX Series Speedlite with Slave function SR-N3 cable Color filter holder SCH-E1 Color filter SCF-E1
Dedicated flash bracket	SB-E2

DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT
Size (W x H x D), mm	79.7x 142.9x 125.4¹
Weight (Excluding batteries), grams	425g

This flash will also be available without the RT (Radio Transmitter) and it's simply called Canon 600EX and will be available on those countries that do not use the 2.4 GHz band unlicensed wireless devices.

Here are some direct sample JPG images taken with the 5D MarkIII, the 24-70 f/2.8 USM L II and the 600EX-RT on a heavy mixed temperature atmosphere so you get a feeling out of it.

Hope you have enjoyed the first part of the Hands On... stay tuned for the second part all about the new Canon 5D MarkIII with some sample images.

Hands On: 5D MarkIII, 24-70 2.8 USM L II and Flash 600 EX-RT (Part 2)

Adobe Lightroom 4 is out, with a new price tag

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:10:00 +0000

Today Adobe just officially released Lightroom 4 and some changes have been made since the public beta version.

The full version costs $149.00,

Upgrade $79,

Student and Teacher Edition $79.

Downloads available at adobe.com.

Changes since the public beta:

Reverse geocoding now available in the Map Module
Revamped and improved auto tone in Develop based on new controls
Increased range of local white balance controls (temperature and tint)
Updated Develop presets plus added new presets for video
Maximum Blurb book size is now 240 pages
Over 800 bugs found and fixed! (Thank you Lightroom 4 beta customers!)

Important Release Notes

We found a late bug in the Lightroom 4 book module that would cause text errors if Courier New or Times is the selected font. Please preview your books as a PDF before submitting to blurb when using those fonts
Norton Antivirus 2012 incorrectly flags video related program files in Lightroom 4 as possible threats. Please instruct Norton Antivirus 2012 to exclude Lightroom 4 files from its scan.
McAfee Virus Scan prevents emails from being sent from Lightroom 4. Please instruct McAfee Virus Scan to exclude Lightroom 4 files from its scan.
AVCHD support is limited to MTS and M2TS video files. Dedicated video editors (such as Premiere Pro) may need the AVCHD file structure to process the files.
Lightroom can sometimes crash when printing to PDF in Windows 7. Lowering the resolution of the PDF in the print driver can help mitigate this.

New Camera Support in Lightroom 4.0

Canon EOS 1D X
Canon PowerShot G1 X
Canon PowerShot S100V
Fuji FinePix F505EXR
Fuji FinePix F605EXR
Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
Fuji FinePix X-S1
Nikon D4
Nikon D800
Nikon D800E

New Lens Profiles Supported in Lightroom 4.0

Lens Mount	Lens Name
Canon	Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Canon	Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX II 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Canon	Tokina AT-X 165 PRO DX 16-50mm f/2.8 (IF) ASPHERICAL
Canon	Tokina AT-X 535 PRO DX 50-135mm f/2.8 (IF)
Canon	Tokina AT-X M35 PRO DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon	Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon	Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Nikon	Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Nikon	Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX II 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
Nikon	Tokina AT-X 165 PRO DX 16-50mm f/2.8 (IF) ASPHERICAL
Nikon	Tokina AT-X 535 PRO DX 50-135mm f/2.8 (IF)
Nikon	Tokina AT-X M35 PRO DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro
Nikon	Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Nikon	Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Nikon	Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G
Nikon	Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM
Leica	LEICA APO-SUMMICRON-M 75 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA APO-SUMMICRON-M 90 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA APO-TELYT-M 135 mm f/3.4 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA ELMAR-M 24 mm f/3.8 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA ELMARIT-M 28 mm f/2.8 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA ELMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.8
Leica	LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
Leica	LEICA NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUMMARIT-M 35 mm f/2.5
Leica	LEICA SUMMARIT-M 50 mm f/2.5
Leica	LEICA SUMMARIT-M 75 mm f/2.5
Leica	LEICA SUMMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.5
Leica	LEICA SUMMICRON-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUMMICRON-M 35 mm f/2 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUMMICRON-M 50 mm f/2
Leica	LEICA SUMMILUX-M 21 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUMMILUX-M 24 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUMMILUX-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 18 mm f/3.8 ASPH.
Leica	LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21 mm f/3.4 ASPH.
Pentax	Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM
Pentax	Sigma 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC HSM
Sony	Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
Sony	Tamron 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC B011
Sony	Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM
Sony	Sigma 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC HSM
Sigma	Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM

Press release:

Innovative Shadow and Highlight Recovery and Enhanced Digital Photography Workflows Mark A Milestone Release
SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 6, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 software for Mac OS and Windows. Lightroom is the essential digital photography workflow solution helping amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase their images.

First released as a public beta in January 2012, the final version of Lightroom 4 is now available for US$149 for the full version and US$79 for the upgrade, providing an incredible value for photographers. Lightroom 4 introduces refined technology for superior shadow and highlight processing, ability to create photo books, additional local adjustment controls, and enhanced video support.
“Feedback from our customers is invaluable in developing Lightroom and the real trick to a great release is to combine these insights with Adobe’s unrivalled image processing innovation,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “Lightroom 4 is a stunning new release that will enhance photography workflows and help photographs stand out from the crowd.”

New Features in Lightroom 4
Lightroom 4 is a major release, adding significant new capabilities and innovations. New adjustment controls maximize dynamic range from cameras, recovering exceptional shadow details and highlights. The software features new and improved auto adjustments to dynamically set values for exposure and contrast, and additional local adjustment controls including Noise Reduction, Moire and White Balance.

Lightroom 4 provides photographers the tools to create beautiful photo books with text controls and a variety of easy-to-use templates, as well as a direct link for photo book creation from within the new Book module. A new intuitive Map module displays images already assigned a location, provides location tagging and reverse geo-tagging controls and saved locations for easy assignment of a photographer’s common locations.

Now, native video support gives photographers the capability to play, trim and extract frames from video clips shot on DSLRs, point-and-shoot cameras and smartphones. Video-specific presets and many standard Lightroom image adjustment controls can be applied to video clips, and adjusted videos can be exported as a H.264 file or published directly to Facebook or Flickr*.

In the Develop module, presets fully utilize new processing technology and the addition of soft proofing helps photographers tune images in a destination color space to ensure content looks its best. In addition, customers can now email images directly from Lightroom using an email account of their choice.

Canon EOS 5D MarkII Firmware update 2.1.2

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Canon just released a minor update to their EOS 5D MarkII. Althought nothing special has been identified it's always a good thing to have the latest update for compatibility issues with new fast CF cards already on the market.

You can download it from here (9.73Mb with English instructions).

Details

Changes:
Firmware Version 2.1.2 incorporates the following change.
1. Optimizes the camera’s performance when using certain UDMA 7-compatible CF cards released in February 2012 or later.

The Version 2.1.2 firmware being released this time is for cameras with firmware up to Version 2.1.1. If the camera's firmware is already Version 2.1.2, it is not necessary to update the firmware.

Q&A Section:
Preparations for the Firmware Update:

ALWAYS HAVE A COMPLETELY CHARGE BATTERY BEFORE BEGIN THE UPDATE.

After the downloaded compressed file (.zip) is extracted, a firmware folder is created.
*Extracting the downloaded file:
Right-click the zip file, and then select Extract All to extract the file. The extracted folder contains the firmware (file name: 5D200212.FIR, file size: 9,754,668 bytes) and instructions on the firmware update procedures (a PDF file in English).

Before starting the firmware update operations, please confirm the contents of the download, and carefully read through the firmware update procedures.

Q: What are some changes of Firmware Version 2.1.2?
A: The following change has been incorporated.
1. Optimizes the camera’s performance when using certain UDMA 7-compatible CF cards released in February 2012 or later.

Q: Are the previous versions of firmware included in version 2.1.2?
A: Yes, the following improvements from the previous versions are included:.

(Previous) Version 2.1.1 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon where shooting stops after capturing one image when in continuous shooting or the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) continuous shooting setting.
2. Corrects wording in the Dutch language menu screen.

(Previous) Version 2.0.9 improvements:
1. Improves writing/reading speeds when using UDMA 7-compatible CF cards.
2. Fixes a phenomenon where the IS function will not work when custom function C.Fn III-2 is set to [5: IS start] and the lens attached does not have an AF stop button. This is because custom function C.Fn III-2 allows users to assign IS start to the AF stop button on the lens.
3. Corrects misspellings in the menu screens displayed in Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai languages.

(Previous) Version 2.0.8 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon *1) in which movies are not taken at the shooting mode registered in the user's settings if a shooting mode Aperture priority (or Shutter priority) is registered in any of the camera's user settings (C1, C2, C3) and the user attempts to shoot a movie.
*1) This phenomenon occurs with cameras that have the Version 2.0.3 / 2.0.4 / 2.0.7 firmware.
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the shutter will not release when pressing the shutter button when the auto power off function is set to "on". It occurs due to the communication between the camera and the lens or the flash or due to the CF card.
3. Fixes a phenomenon *2) in which overexposure occurs when shooting a Live View shooting simulation with the ISO speed set to L.
*2) This phenomenon only occurs when the EF 2x extender is used, the camera's ISO speed is set to L (Low), and the shooting mode is set to P (Program AE).
4. Fixes a phenomenon in which the settings of the Speedlite transmitter ST-E2 revert to the default settings when both the camera and the ST-E2 are set to auto power off.
5. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX, MT-24EX) and slave flash do not sync while shooting wirelessly.

(Previous) Version 2.0.7 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon in which the aperture exhibits abnormal movement when shooting movies in manual exposure mode and Aperture Priority AE (Av mode) using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
Supplemental Information:
This phenomenon involves the aperture of the lens exhibiting abnormal movement when the focusing ring moves (during focusing). For zoom lenses with variable maximum apertures, the aperture changes when the zoom ring is operated (during zooming), but this is normal
behavior, where the effective aperture changes according to the focal length (the zoom position).
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the exposure level shown in the LCD panel differs from what is shown in the viewfinder when shooting still images in manual exposure mode.
3. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Wireless File Transmitter (WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II) may not automatically power off when used for FTP transfers.

(Previous) Version 2.0.4 improvements:
Firmware Version 2.0.4 incorporates five enhancements to the movie function and a fix to the manual sensor cleaning function of the EOS 5D Mark II camera.
1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.
- NTSC frame rate (fps)
. Firmware Version 2.0.4 or later
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 30 / 29.97
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 24 / 23.976
. . . 640 X 480 / 30 / 29.97
. Firmware Version 1.2.4 or earlier
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 30 / 30.00
. . . 1920 X 1080 / - / -
. . . 640 X 480 / 30 / 30.00
- PAL frame rate (fps)
. Firmware Version 2.0.4 or later
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 25 / 25.00
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 24 / 23.976
. . . 640 X 480 / 25 / 25.00
. Firmware Version 1.2.4 or earlier
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 30 / 30.00
. . . 1920 X 1080 / - / -
. . . 640 X 480 / 30 / 30.00
2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

(Previous) Version 1.2.4 improvements:
1. Supports the WFT-E4 II wireless file transmitter that was released in December 2009.
After the firmware is updated, if the WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II wireless file transmitter is used with the camera, the indications that appear under [Communication mode] on the [WFT settings] menu are changed as follows:
FTP -> FTP trans
PTP(PC) -> EOSUtility
HTTP -> WFTserver
HTTP account -> WFT account
2. Corrects a phenomenon in which visible noise may appear in images taken by continuous Bulb shooting.
This firmware update corrects a phenomenon that if the [C.Fn II-1 Long exposure noise reduction] setting is set to [2: On], noise may appear in images that are captured while the previous image is still being generated.

(Previous) Version 1.1.0 improvements:
1. Includes a function to enable the manual exposure setting when shooting movies.
*When shooting movies in manual (M) mode, the shutter speed *1, the lens aperture value *2, and the ISO speed *3 can be freely set to allow a greater flexibility.
Notes:
*1 Shutter speed range: 1/30 sec. to 1/4000 sec.
*2 Lens aperture range: maximum to minimum aperture value of the lens used
*3 ISO speed range:
Auto: ISO 100 to 6400 set automatically
Manual: ISO 100 to 6400, H1
2. Disables the function of the depth-of-field preview button when images are played back or when the menu screen is displayed on the LCD panel.
*There are indications that images being reviewed or the menu screen may suddenly disappear from the LCD panel. As this phenomenon may be caused by accidentally pressing the depth-of-field preview button, this firmware update disables the function of the depth of field preview to address this issue.
3. Fixes a phenomenon where the peripheral illumination of images cannot be properly corrected, even if the images were captured with the lens Peripheral Illumination Correction function set to Enable.
*Firmware Version 1.1.0 fixes a phenomenon where peripheral illumination may not be properly corrected due the type of lens used and shooting conditions.
4. Fixes the algorithms of the Auto Lighting Optimizer function when Custom Function C.Fn II-3 Highlight tone priority is enabled.
5. Fixes incorrect indications on the Arabic, Romanian, Spanish, and Ukrainian menu screens.
6. Changes the battery information displayed on the camera when using the optional Battery Grip BG-E6.
*If only one LP-E6 battery pack is installed in the Battery Grip BG-E6, the battery information for the empty battery slot shows the error message, Cannot communicate with battery. However, with this firmware update, this error message no longer appears, even if only one LP-E6 battery pack is installed.

(Previous) Version 1.0.7 improvements:
1. "Black dot" phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100% or greater on a monitor or if extremely large prints of the images are made.
This firmware improves and mitigates this phenomenon.
2. Vertical banding noise
If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background. The firmware improves and mitigates this phenomenon

Notes:
When updating to Firmware Version 1.0.7, please also update the Digital Photo Professional and Picture Style Editor software *4 to the following versions or later. These software updates can be downloaded from our Web site.

*4 Digital Photo Professional: Version 3.5.2 or later (for Windows and Macintosh)
Picture Style Editor: Version 1.4.2 or later (for Windows and Macintosh)
If the existing software applications are used to display sRAW1 and sRAW2 images that were captured by a camera with Firmware Version 1.0.7, dark, low-contrast areas in the images may appear slightly magenta. If the updated software applications are used to display sRAW1 and sRAW2 images, the color of the images will appear normal, regardless of the camera firmware version.

What ISO means ?

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:29:00 +0000

Just would like to share with you all this great explanatory YouTube video of what ISO means, as per request by some of the readers.

Enjoy

A Simple Explanation of ISO for Digital Photography and Video

eBook: The Art of Boudoir Photography with Speedlights

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:59:00 +0000

Today I bring you another great eBook written by boudoir and fellow photographer Michael Zelbel.

The ebook got some great features and examples to use your small strobes in the Art of Boudoir photography. It's more of a Cookbook for improving Your Boudoir photography that you can download right here, is 74 pages full of recipes.

Awesome photography in any bedroom

- use simple and absolutely reliable lighting setups
- return from your shoot with posh professional photos
- make your boudoir models really proud

Over the years photographer Michael Zelbel developed a method to shoot wonderful beauty photos with a set of lighting gear, that is so small, it fits into my hand luggage when traveling. It's easy to use and enabled him to walk into any bedroom and turn it into a stage for breathtaking boudoir photos within minutes.

Packed with actionable tips and tricks
In the eBook he walks you through the way he performs his boudoir photo shoots.

All you need to do is follow the 6-step approach that he is providing you with:

1. basics like the right lighting gear and lenses for a bedroom
2. lingerie and clothes which work vs. things that do not work
3. the lighting setups which deliver the best results
4. poses for every model, from standard to creative
5. how to find the best camera angle
6. the common mistakes to avoid

This is all you need to put a big happy smile onto the face of your client or model.

However, he don't want you to stop there. he'd like you to develop your photography much further.

That's why he added a final chapter which motivates you to create new shooting ideas and add new highlights to your portfolio on a regular basis. Sure, the shooting ideas, lighting setups, poses, techniques and tricks in the first chapters are a lot of fun, but the real satisfaction will come once you put the last chapter into practice.

Start now!

Why this ebook is different

Too many tutorials on beauty photography feature examples photos which are a selection of the top photos from the portfolio of the author.

The lucky photos that he was able to shoot when everything came together and light and pose turned out ideal for the featured model. In some cases he even shows example photos for specific lighting setups, which obviously had been taken with a different setups then the ones presented in the book he have also noticed that when discussing lighting setups, authors often used example photos which were obviously taken with slightly different setups.

This ebook is an extremely honest book. Michael used ONE SINGLE photo shoot to demonstrate all his lighting setups, all poses, clothes and techniques discussed in the book.

He did not hire a model for the shoot, he simply asked his wife to demonstrate everything for you. He also did not rent the presidential suite, simply executed the shoot in his home bedroom.

Are all poses and clothes ideal for his wife? No. Not at all, not even the majority. Are all lighting setups ideal for tiny bedrooms? Of course not. But instead of selecting perfect examples from his portfolio, he simply used the photos from this one shoot and he refrained from doing extensive Photoshop that usually would give the photos the perfect touch.

When you pick your techniques from this book, then you see what you will get. Nothing more, nothing less.

Free Bonus: Posing Cheat Sheet

As a practical help for shooting boudoir photos, he also made a quick little posing cheat sheet with 60 great examples for posing and framing your boudoir photos.

You can use this sheet as inspiration, or for aligning on ideas and poses with your client or model.

If you buy the ebook right here and now, the boudoir cheat sheet is free.

You can download it right with the eBook itself, so what are you waiting for grab this opportunity now if you are into Boudoir Photography or planning to start it out!!!

Here are a quick overview of what you will get inside the eBook:

About Michael Zelbel

Michael is a fantastic German fellow photographer with studio in Dusseldorf that started is passion for Boudoir with his Chinese wife (the one you can contemplate in this eBook).

He started in 2005 and since then he been growing as a photographer and a passionate into Boudoir and Fashion photography. He is also a share and writer photographer about it's experiences with small portable flashes in his great blog SMOKING STROBES where you can learn some great tips and how to videos about his lighting and compositions.

Take a look at his work and follow him over the below links:

Personal Webpage (Michael Zelbel)
Smoking Strobes
Facebook
Twitter
How to Videos
YouTube Channel

Do not let pass this opportunity to get this awesome eBook. Click on any link on this page or use the right side bar banner to download it.

Adobe Lightroom 4.0 Beta 1 is Out, What's Inside?

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:28:00 +0000

Adobe just made it again and gave us a version 4.0 to test just before the final version, due to be release around March 2012. Although this is just a beta version you can count with a bunch of new features and free to try them out.

Those of you going to accredited online colleges for photography will be glad to know this.

Pay attention that this is just a beta and some functions are not complete but you are always welcome to report to Adobe bugs and other errors you find so they can fine tune it and correct them in time for the final release.

You also have no problem installing it if you are a user of any other versions has this one will install side-by-side with your older version and will create a new Lightroom 4 Catalog.lrcat library on the same folder as the old on. I never too much to say DO NOT MERGE YOUR LIBRARIES the old one and the new one as you may never return back. Instead just use a new one with copies of some of you raw and movies.

I will not go in to much depth about this matter has there are a lot of good people more expert than me doing what they do best, but I will point here some new things you may not notice when you got the beta version and open it for the first time.

Some of them are pretty obvious while others... not so much.

Although it doesn't "look" much different than version 3 when you fire it up what comes to your attention is the fact that they now have 2 more tabs on the top right side Map and Book and these are 2 of the new features that you notice right up.

They have also included an option (right click on top of it with the mouse to hide/show some you want or not to be visible) just in case you want to keep it as on previous versions.

Adobe Lightroom 3.xx Modules

Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1 Modules

On the Develop module they moved things a little bit in order for us to get more control over our images.

The WB stays the same but the Tone sliders they are now much better and improved over the last version. You had Exposure/Recovery/Fill Light/Blacks Brightness/Contrast and they tweak it to Exposure/Contrast now in another group Highlights/Shadows/Whites/Blacks.

They also changed the names so they can fit better in the new approach Adobe is creating for their Tone sliders.

All sliders in this section can now have negative values which increase the possibilities for your creative process.

Adobe Lightroom 3.xx Basic/Tone sliders

Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1 Basic/Tone sliders

The Lens Corrections has also suffered some changes has you now have only a choose option to Remove Chromatic Aberration as opposed to a slider on the version 3.

Only time will tell if this was the right move on this matter...

Adobe Lightroom 3.xx Lens Corrections sliders

Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1 Lens Corrections sliders

Camera Calibration is another aspect that has changed. Now that have upgraded it to version 2012 and the previous on Adobe Lightroom 3.xx was 2010.

Here you have to pay much attention as to use live raw files with this beta version has if you use the new 2012 process you will not see any changes over any of the 3.xx old version. Again take extreme caution when using live raw photos to process has a lot of colors have changed with this new process and if you use presets a lot you will also see them changing what they look like in the past versions.

Adobe Lightroom 3.xx Camera Calibration sliders

Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1 Camera Calibration sliders

The Graduated Filter button has improved it's option sliders as on version 4 beta 1 you now have the option to control the color temperature independently has the sliders became separated from the main ones and divided into Temp and Tint just like the normal WB sliders in Lightroom.

This would make things a lot easier to use and visualize. They added another separation for Sharpness, Noise and Moiré those last two were new welcomed addictions.

On the other group of Sliders they have removed the Brightness in exchange for the newly renamed Highlights and they added anew one called Shadows.

I think the Graduated Filter tool now have improved a lot and gain a new value with this new features. Kudos for this.

Adobe Lightroom 3.xx Graduated Filter button

Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1 Graduated Filter button

Also much improved is the welcomed Brush tool. Although I find that sometimes this brush is a little bit sluggish we will see how it will respond, in time, with the new features that were added.

First the sliders were divided into 3 groups for a better visualization of each of the features they intend to be related to. Again Kudos for this feature has it will make reading things a lot more easier.
As on previous button (Graduated Filter) the WB is now possible to adjust in Temp and Tint sliders and are in a single and individual group.

They added another group with Sharpness/Noise/Moiré and also has on previous button they got to move in Highlights and Shadows and left the Brightness concept out of it.

Adobe Lightroom 3.xx Brush button

Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1 Brush button

Another requested feature people were asking about was Soft Proofing (This is the ability to simulate different types of printers and media, by loading in their profiles and then accurately displaying them on screen) so it would be easier to match your print profile with the photo showed on your screen.

This can be achieved at the Develop module at the bottom there's a tick to enable that feature menu.

And while we are still talking about printing capabilities Adobe created at the bottom of the PRINT module sliders a new possibility for you to adjust your prints in relation to your monitor (i.e. if your prints come out a little bit darker/brighter on your printer and you see them on the monitor differently) now you have 2 sliders you can tweak and you can find them at bottom of the PRINT module they are Brightness and Contrast.

If you do not have any calibration on your monitor and printer and always had problems with darker/lighter prints coming out this is a good option for adjusting your prints to match your monitor, well at least is something not seen on previous versions.

For Video lovers now is much easier to see the content of your imported videos as they now show what content they have inside just by sliding the mouse over them in the Library module.

You can also apply a certain preset to the video, change the White Balance, Tone Control like Exposure, Contrast the Whites and Blacks well it's a nice touch for a quick edit but do not expect to get the option to edit a full composite video with it or make some home movies.

Although the options to trim the video and choose the poster frame (i.e. the image that will be displayed on screen when you browse the video folder) are available you will not be able to compose and edit each part of the video... well at least in this beta version.

You can also double click the video to play it right inside Lightroom and there is also a possibility to grab a shot of a particular frame of that video as it will be saved in your library as a jpg file.

New things that they added to the modules:

MAP module

This was a feature that was much requested by many and with some of the new digital cameras coming with GPS integrated this is a PLUS for Lightroom.
Althought Aperture has this feature almost from the beginning Adobe never really cared much about this feature up until now.

So what will you get with this new module is a possibility to grab your photos and start geo tagging them even if you do not have them already with GPS coordinates.
You need to be connected to the internet to use this feature has it uses Google maps to geo tag your photos. This is a neat feature has it will embedded the GPS coordinates right into your photos, if you ever used Flickr this is something similar to the feature they have.

BOOK module

Book is another great feature that many of us were waiting for. Either for creating our own books and publish them or to manage portfolios for clients.

Book has Blurb account associated with it (and that you can download their publishing service (Here) to use on the Library module) and with all the great features that have in the market for customizations or you can simply create a pdf file to share. This is BRILLIANT!!!

This is basically the features that are in the Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta 1.

I was hopping that they will included this time the Face Detection engine as it would been very useful for the cases when you take lot of pictures in conference rooms and this could help identify and tag a lot of people with ease. Let's hope this would be an hidden feature for the final version.

Noticed that the sliders are a little bit sluggish even with only one folder with 288 raw images and 2 videos imported they do not respond quick enough when you slide them left/right quickly to see the effects change.

I've also included, at the end of this post, the full release features sent by Adobe.

Enjoy the new software free beta version and post some of your opinions here.

Download link directly form Adobe web servers:

Download Adobe Lightroom 4 beta 1

You can also watch some videos about it in their YouTube channel here, or you can watch the complete walktrough at Scott Kelby NAPP in here. Both of these links will show you what cool features you can find and also some tips on how to use them well.

The Adobe Forum for some help and reporting errors and bugs found in version 4 in here.

--//--

ADOBE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

IMPORTANT NOTES, PLEASE READ

Primary Known Issues

Lightroom 4 beta is not complete but please provide feedback on the available enhancements.
Lightroom 4 beta will not upgrade Lightroom 1.x, Lightroom 2.x or Lightroom 3.x catalogs. The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4 beta libraries will be able to be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom 4.
While data loss is not expected, this is an early ‘beta’ quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up.
Lightroom 4 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3 installed.
Develop settings applied in Lightroom 4 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of Lightroom 4
The Lightroom 4 beta will expire after Lightroom 4.0 is available
Additional known issues are listed below.

Minimum system requirements

Macintosh

Multicore Intel® processor with 64-bit support
Mac OS X v10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or v10.7 (Lion)
2GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space
1,024×768 display
DVD-ROM drive
Internet connection required for Internet-based services

Windows

Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
Microsoft® Windows Vista® with Service Pack 2 or Windows 7 with Service Pack 1
2GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space
1,024×768 display
DVD-ROM drive
Internet connection required for Internet-based services

Install Lightroom 4 beta

Download the beta http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/
Mac
1. Download Lightroom 4 beta from labs.adobe.com
2. Unzip the download then open the disk image and double-click the Lightroom Beta 4 package in the resulting window then follow the on-screen instructions
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
1. If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows Vista, we recommend downloading the 64-bit version of Lightroom.
2. To find out if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, do the following:
a. Open System by clicking the Start button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.
b. Under System, you can view the system type.
c. If your version of Windows is not 64-bit, or if you are not sure, download the 32-bit version.
3. Unzip the download then double-click the Lightroom 4 beta installer then follow the on-screen instructions

Serial Numbers

Anyone can download and work with the Lightroom 4 beta for the duration of the beta program. There is no serial number requirement.

Supported File Formats

• JPEG
• TIFF (8 bit, 16 bit)
• PSD (8 bit, 16 bit)
• DNG
• Raw (Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html for a full list of raw file support. File support for Lightroom 4 beta, aligns with Lightroom 3.6 and Camera Raw 6.6)

Important File Format Support Exceptions (Formats not supported)

• PSD files saved without a composite image. (Saved without “Maximize Compatibility” setting)
• Files with dimensions greater than 65,000 pixels per side

High Level Summary of What’s New

Robust Video Support
Manage images by location with the Map Module
Simplified Basic Adjustments
Powerful new Shadow & Highlight controls
Additional local adjustments including Noise Reduction and White Balance
Soft Proofing Reinvented
Elegant Photo Book creation
Email from directly within Lightroom
Publish videos directly to Facebook or Flickr
Enhanced DNG workflows
Adobe Revel export workflow

Lightroom 4 beta Enhancements

Video Support
Lightroom 3 added the ability to import, manage and tag video files but as the popularity of video capture increases it’s important to provide a single, robust workflow solution that can support all of your imaging needs regardless if they’re still images or video captures. Lightroom 4 adds native playback for a wide variety of formats from mobile phones to high end DSLRs. Photographers can also apply common image adjustments to their video clips in real time. Additional video details:

Video playback directly within Lightroom
Video trimming (In and Out points)
Set Video poster frame. (This is the thumbnail that appears in the grid view)
Extract a single frame from a video as a JPEG file
Most popular DSLR, compact camera and smart phone video formats supported including AVCHD (AVCHD is the native format for Sony DSLRs and many new Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens, MIL, cameras)
Videos can be adjusted with a subset of the same controls we use for images.

White Balance (JPEG Equivalent)
Basic Tone
Exposure
Contrast
White Clipping
Black Clipping
Saturation
Vibrance
Tone Curve
Color Treatment (HSL)
Black and White
Split Toning
Process Version and Calibration

Map Module

It’s great that digital cameras automatically record a date/time stamp so that when it comes time find that image from New Years 2003, it’s easy to filter your image collection based on the information recorded by the camera. However, the “when” of an image is only half of the equation. What about the “where?” As an increasing number of cameras, smart phones leading the pack with compact cameras following closely behind, the “where” is also being recorded at the time of capture. Even Sony’s high-end a77 and a65 DSLR cameras have an option to automatically record the GPS coordinates of where you captured an image. But for those of us who don’t speak fluid latitude and longitude coordinates, we need a visual map interface to find the images by location. Lightroom 4 adds a dedicated map module that loads Google Maps to present your images in a clear and concise view. If your camera doesn’t automatically record the coordinates of your images you can easily drag and drop images to a location, use GPX tracklog files to link images based on date/time stamps or define saved locations that can be quickly associated with a set of images. (Not surprisingly, this link to Google Maps will only work when you are connected to the World Wide Web.) Additional Map details:

Tag images with a location using drag and drop or saved location assignment
Search for locations
Create Saved Locations
Managed privacy settings for saved locations
Load GPX tracklogs and auto tag images based on date/time stamps

Develop Module (Updated 2012 Process Version)

Ever wonder why there was both an Exposure control and a Brightness control in Lightroom’s Develop module? Why the Black setting defaulted to 5 and Brightness/Contrast to 50 and 25 respectively? When the Camera Raw plug-in was introduced in 2003 these concepts weren’t overwhelming for those intrepid photographers willing to switch their camera’s capture format to “RAW.” (It’s not an acronym so I have no idea why folks continue to capitalize that word…) When Lightroom and the Camera Raw plug-in started supporting JPEG and TIFF files, the visual appearance of the settings and preset behavior was never truly optimized for the additional formats. Lightroom 4 rationalizes the controls and addresses a fundamental photographic problem of balancing highlight and shadow detail. Please give the new tone controls a try on your most challenging images as well as the additional controls listed below:

Simplified controls in the Basic panel

Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks

Powerful, content aware, shadow and highlight controls to extract all of the dynamic range in a single capture
Updated Clarity adjustment for superior results without the artifacts
Updated Chromatic Aberration correction solution
New local adjustment parameters

Noise Reduction
Temperature and Tint
Shadows
Highlights
Moire

Per channel curves adjustments
Soft proofing
Paper and ink simulation
Choose between perceptual and relative intent
Intuitive virtual copy creation for profile-specific adjustments
Profile and Monitor gamut warnings
Print module brightness/contrast option to address differences between monitor and paper characteristics

Direct Email from within Lightroom

I realize that this feature has 1998 written all over it but it’s still a very common request to be able to email from directly within Lightroom.

Configure your desktop mail client or AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail webmail accounts to send email from Lightroom
Convenient size presets appropriate for email
Address book to store commonly used email addresses

Elegant Photo Book Creation

Photo books have grown in popularity and quality over the past few years and we’re proud to introduce a module dedicated to this workflow.

Flexible auto-layout tool with preset-based customization
Over 180 professionally designed page layouts
Intuitive drag and drop behaviors for reordering pages or swapping image locations
Helpful layout guides and page bleed information
Incredible flexibility through cell padding for text and photo cells
Dynamically located photo captions based on existing metadata or manual entry
Powerful type tools based on industry leading type technology found in Photoshop and Illustrator
Customizable background color
Elegant background graphics to enhance the style of travel or wedding books
Tight integration with Blurb book printing service

Set size, cover, paper quality directly within Lightroom
Price estimate dynamically provided during book creation

PDF Export options include size, resolution, color profile and output sharpening

Enhanced DNG options

These enhancements will be represented in the next DNG Specification update.(Version 1.4)

Embed Fast Load Data options dramatically improves image loading performance in the Develop module
Lossy compression option provides significant file savings with minimal quality impact. (Ideal for archiving outtakes or reducing the size of time lapse projects without losing the flexibility of raw)
Resolution reduction via export provides the ability to share lower resolution versions of the original raw file without losing the capabilities offered by raw.
Metadata and filter options available for DNG file types

Lightroom 4 Additional Features and JDIs

Publish Collections can now include rendered video publishing
Export to Adobe Revel functionality
Enhanced output model for saving/storing settings applied in Web, Slideshow, Print and Book. Efforts are now clearly visible in Collections panel.
New Zoom ratios (1:8 and 1:16)
Mac version now includes a language selection option via preferences
Move multiple folders from volume to volume (Previously only single folder workflow was enabled)
White balance sample area is now zoom-level dependent
Noise reduction adjustment is always displayed regardless of zoom level
Collapse the tether toolbar down to the shutter button by Option or Alt clicking the close button
Module picker can be customized via right-click option
Filter and search images by a saved or unsaved metadata property
Hierarchical Develop Preset display in Quick Develop
Layout overlay for tethered shooting workflow when attempting to match a specific layout template
Photos in publish collections that have been modified can be set to not re-publish
Additional Metadata controls on export
Disk burning now available on Windows 64-bit systems
Flag status is now ‘global’ (One setting per image regardless of location in folder or collection)
Stacking is now possible in collections
Flash galleries are now color managed
Per module walkthrough tips

Additional Notes:

An important correction was made to the Lightroom credits. There’s a great tradition in the Photoshop family of listing babies born to team members during each cycle. We’ve previously omitted references to the fertility of the Lightroom team but have corrected that omission with Lightroom 4.
“Adobe plans to change the name of Adobe Carousel to Adobe Revel. We originally chose the name Adobe Carousel because it was descriptive of core functionality in the product, in that photographs were viewed in a circular manner, like a carousel. However, we now plan to offer additional photography solutions on this platform, including but not limited to the ‘carousel’ feature. Our rapidly expanding charter for this new platform requires a name that is less narrowly descriptive of the current product features.” – Chris Quek, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Revel

Additional Known Issues

General

Multiple exports of the same photo to Adobe Revel will create duplicate

assets within Revel

Import from iPhone can sometimes take a longer than expected

Wrong photo is displayed after round tripping between library and print.

If Tethered Capture Settings dialog is left open for very long periods of time, Lightroom

will hang when attempting to dismiss the dialog

Tethered capture can fail after computer wakes from sleep.

Books Module

Blurb books created through Lightroom are limited to 160 pages

Blurb only supports a subset of the languages that Adobe supports

Undoing one-click photo captions works sporadically and can cause

Lightroom to lag

Photos may be removed from layout pages when using the color and rating

filter in the Book Module on Windows only.

Updating metadata in Library does not automatically propagate the change

in metadata-based text in Book.

Adding captions to multiple photos at once causes Lightroom to lag.

Text on spine in Hard Cover books is not centered

Video

Black line can appear on right and bottom of videos when viewed in Loupe on Windows

Video frames are occasionally played out of order on certain AVCHD video files

There could be a memory leak when exporting over 500 videos at once

Map Module

Lightroom can crash if you try to assign too many 15,000+ photos to a Saved Location at the same time in Map (Mac only)

Having over 1,000 tagged photos in the Map Module causes a performance lag.

Reverse geocoding is not available in the public beta

Develop Module

The Auto Tone algorithm is still a work in progress. In some instances, Auto Tone in PV2010 will produce better results than Auto Tone in PV2012

CameraTrace finds your Stolen Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Hello 2012!!! We start this new year with the right foot first and above all wishing you a good start and great things and news will be coming your way during this year.

Nothing better to start than this great new web page to help you find your lost or stolen cameras named CameraTrace.

Although I already wrote in the past, here at the Lighting Mods page, about another similar page (Stolen Camera Finder) I believe all good pages should be referred endless counts as our gear is our precious way to show the world what our eyes sees or at least try to.

The CameraTrace is a paid service page with $10 fee per camera, the service will actively monitor the Internet for your camera’s serial number. If it ever pops up in a photo uploaded to popular photo sharing services, you’ll get an email notification. I believe is worth every penny when you can get your gear back after lost or stolen somewhere in the world.

Especially if you are a poor photography student taking classes, you can't afford to lose any gear.

They claim that a photographer got his $9.000,00 gear worth over another service buy the same company called GadgetTrak and this is also available for computer, cell phones and other devices.

If you are an apple fan-boy like me you can find this at the Apps Store here at a $2,99 price tag.

This is also very helpful to track your copyright photos all over the web, more info about CameraTrace can be found here.

Hope this could help you out in case you need.

Have a great 2012 with lot's of good pictures.

Wish You All a Happy New 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:27:00 +0000

The Year 2011 has passed so fast like a lighting strike. The blog has been left a little behind has a lot of photography business came buy, but that' life.

In 2012 I will bring you a lot of new stuff and some great info tips meanwhile have a great day and don't drink and drive as they are out there waiting for you.

Keep on Shooting great stuff!!!!!

All the best to you all SALUT!!!!

Rui M. Leal

https://www.facebook.com/ruimlealphotography

eBook: Rabari – Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Just before the closing of the this year I would like to mention a great Ebook I received from my friend photographer and author Mitchell Kanashkevich who's been traveling for quite some time now and decided to write these instructive books about his journeys as well as to teach some of his experiences.

I confess that I've read it and it is a great book in deed as I now keep it on my iPad as a learning tool since it's on a pdf format and it's much easier to carry around when traveling.

What you can get from this book? just take a quick look at the pic of the Contents page below.

And if you are too curious about it just check some content at the below photo.

Who is This Book Good For? If you have ever thought “I wish I knew how they did that” when you saw a professional travel magazine shot, then you will love the exact, detailed explanations of every part of the process of getting these award winning shots.

This guide lays open the whole playbook of a professional travel photographer in minute detail. Nothing is held back. If you want to know more of the real basics of travel documentary photography (like actually communicating with the locals in another language for example) then there will be plenty in this practical guide for you too.

More about the Author,

Mitchell Kanashkevich is a professional travel and documentary photographer whose work is used by Getty and Corbis and has been seen on the cover of Geographical magazine and Digital SLR Photographer as well as in many other magazines.
He has visited exotic locations such as Indonesia, India and Ethiopia to further his photographic experience and travel photography portfolio.

Mitchell has also written several other hugely successful guides with our friends over at Digital Photography School and Craft and Vision.

You can get more information's or buy it clicking on each of the above photos or click here. Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:57:00 +0000

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Drive safe and get a lot of good pictures to share.

PhotoWhoa Daily Deals for Photographers

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:51:00 +0000

Got an interesting link (PhotoWhoa) that my friend Kevin Tang sent over a couple of days ago that I would like to share with all of you.

This is a webpage for photographers about photographers, just subscribe to get a lot of interesting discounts and promote your stuff here.

Every month users will get a few highly-discounted deals on photography goods, usually at 50% or more off the retail price. We’re not a typical daily deals site because we try to offer our users real insights on the product they are buying. We provide in-depth coverage and review on every product we sell, and we focus on only one deal at a time.

The current deal we have is a lighting product, so I really think your audience will especially enjoy this one. A bit about the team: Kevin Tang is the head photographer for digital entertainment magazine AmpedAsia, and he's partnering with Eric Yang, co-founder of Photoshop plug-in developer Topaz Labs. They now devoting themselves to Photo Whoa to bring great deals to photographers.

Go make them a visit one of these Christmas Days.

Canon Rumors interviewed

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:10:00 +0000

If you are like me, a BIG follower of canonrumours.com, then you should not miss the interview Craig Blair (the guy behind the mask) gave to James Beltz at PhotoTips.biz.

First you will get to know the person behind the blog as he share the all story about Canon Rumors, he also shares some great stuff... if you are not yet into the blog then you should get it right away.

I leave you the video so you can check all the good juice.

"PhotoTips" Episode 108 - Behind the lens with Craig Blair from James Beltz on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

Xume Quick Release Filter Adapters

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:35:00 +0000

What if suddenly you could take of filter off your lens without having to unscrew them? Wouldn't that big a great help when you're out on the field having that great camera moment or even when you want to quick change that Polarize Filter from one lens to the other in a snap?

Fear no more... Xume got this great idea when they created the Quick Release Filter Adapters.

They are nothing more than a couple of magnetic adapters that you could screw in to your filters and your lens and BAM!! You got an instant filter exchange for your setup.

The adapters are a little pricey and they are available, for the moment, only on 77mm threads, let's hope they will make them on some other threats soon. You also need to pay attention if they will not produce some vignetting on your lens corners because of the extra height but they look pretty thin to me.

Filter Holder

And the Lens Adapter

Just take a look at their video for more info and their web page for online orders.

New Book: Photoshop Compositing Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:44:00 +0000

The well known Photographer and Photoshop guru Matt Kloskowski for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) got another Excellent book. This time he decided to show us what we can create with Photoshop Compositing of our photos.

About Matt

Matt Kloskowski lives in Tampa, FL and is a full-time Photoshop Guy for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). He’s a best selling author of books and DVDs, a professional photographer, and Photoshop instructor at seminars and conferences around the world. Matt co-hosts two top-rated video podcasts, Photoshop User TV and Dtown TV. He also hosts the Lightroom Killer Tips blog and podcast.

Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections and Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites

Compositing is one of the hottest trends in Photoshop and photography today for portrait photographers, designers of all walks of life, and even retouchers. Everywhere you look, from group photos, to school graduation portraits or sports portraits, to magazines, movie posters, and DVD covers, chances are, you’ve seen compositing.

In Photoshop Composting Secrets, Matt Kloskowski takes you through the entire process behind creating convincing, well-executed, and captivating composites. You’ll see how to create images that run the gamut from real-world portraits for corporate, graduation, or group photos to sports portraits, templates and collages, and even the surreal dramatic composites that clients clamor for.

You’ll learn:

- One of the most important secrets to compositing: how to master selections in Photoshop (yes, even wispy hair)
- What background color, and camera lighting setups work best for compositing
- How to move a subject from one background to another, and the Photoshop lighting and shadowing techniques to make it look real
- And all of the Photoshop tips, tricks, and special effects you need to pull off a convincing, professional composite.

No matter if you’re a professional, an aspiring professional, or a hobbyist, Photoshop Compositing Secrets will sharpen your skills and open up a whole new avenue of photographic expression in an easy-to-understand way that will have you creating your own composites in no time.

If you like Compositing or if you are trying to start it this is a great book for you.

You can order it at Lighting Mods Amazon Store here.

LR Preset: Holga-a-like by Dustin Leader

noreply@blogger.com (Rui M Leal) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:29:00 +0000

This weekend I bring you a new free preset shared by Wedding photographer Dustin Leader.

If you are a big fan of Holga cameras and the images they self produce then you will appreciate this 10 presets...

You can get more information about it's author at his page Dustin Leader and start following him over his blog as well as download some more free actions he got there.

Here is a sample image of what you could accomplish with these ones.

Enjoy and have a great weekend.