Lighting Mods

eBook: The Art of Boudoir Photography with Speedlights

2012-01-13T21:59:00.001Z

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?

2012-01-11T03:28:00.000Z

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.

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

2012-01-01T16:49:00.000Z

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.

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

2011-12-31T19:27:00.002Z

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

2011-12-31T18:59:00.002Z

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

2011-12-24T17:57:00.000Z

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

2011-12-19T21:51:00.000Z

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

2011-09-30T23:10:00.000+01:00

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

2011-09-30T18:35:00.002+01:00

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

2011-08-12T19:44:00.004+01:00

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

2011-08-06T21:29:00.007+01:00

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.

PhotoPress Production a Worskhop FRAUD

2011-07-27T03:01:00.014+01:00

I realized that two months quickly have passed since I wrote anything here on the blog. Lots of crazy things been happening and along with work time would not let me have a couple of moments to spare with the blog.

Besides having to update Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and now Google+ there is also the blog running. Not saying that the blog will turn into some old stuff but I believe more and more that times are changing and blogging will turn to be a thing from the past, sooner than we think. Also great things are buried under the hood on the LightingMods blog that people sometimes do not have time to dig them up.

I'm talking about the great articles I have written about off camera lighting and gizmos that some of you never read or ear about them. Things evolve so do people.

Enough talk already about this, let's cut to the chase ;)

I decided after a long period of waiting, along with the agreement of photographer David Tejada, to bring this case public has I feel this matter is something we all need to take in account and pay attention when going or looking for a photography Workshop. This is a real story and it happen to me along with a couple of people around some cities in Europe... but let's start from the beginning.

Well it all started at the end of last year 2010 when fellow photographer David Tejada announced a couple of Workshops around Europe where Lisbon was scheduled.

Called Small Strobes Big Results workshops and if you know what I'm talking about you also know that is something you will not want to miss when it passes by your door step. Reputation precedes David Tejada on this matter along with names as David Hobby from Strobist and Joe McNally just to name the most important ones on the matter of Small Strobe lighting.

As soon has the registration opened I logged on to their account at www.photopress-production.com (no longer working) and made a pre-registration for the event.

Made the pre-registration on 10th October 2010 and received an email on the same day with the confirmation

Things were looking good has I had no problems with paying things with PayPal has done before for the David Hobby Strobist workshops in London. On 13th January 2011 I sent an email to the PhotoPress Production team asking if everything was going has I had no more contacts since 2 months.

Got a reply a couple days later.

PayPal payment was issued for the Workshop.

I also add PhotoPress Production to my Skype account in order to verify if they were serious about this going on in Portugal or if it would be any kind of flop. They reply to me saying they have received the transfer.

Then when everything seems to be rolling out I received an email from Daniel Lugosi, a couple of days before the workshop, saying that the workshop has been postponed.

Well I asked for the refund as promised during the next 30 days and got a reply back.

Not the answer I was expecting from a professional workshop organizer but as I know by experience everything has a timing and I thought that was the problem. So I waited a couple days more and asked again...

Well I decided to wait a couple more days for the refund but things were not meant to be. And got another excuse email.

And another one now with a "real" excuse to the problem and saying that there were some other people involved in the story.

And by the end of May got another excuse.

By the end of May and after getting this email I decided to contact David Tejada directly to see if he knew about this situation and got a very interesting email from him.

Then Daniel reply us back with more waiting time for the refund that was supposed to 30 days after the cancellation of the workshop and so far nothing except waiting time...

Tried to get some more info over skype but no mic and more excuses.

That's when I tried over Skype to talk him to refund me but the answer kept the same all over again.

And again.

As up till today no refund was issued. I also noticed that this company keep giving Workshops in Hungary with some students.

David Tejada also published some replies at his blog concerning this situation and will be issuing, soon, a blog post about this all embarrassing situation.

Photographer Ugo Cei is another of the subscribed photographers that, until today, did not received any refund for the money he has paid for this Workshop. He also blogged about it here in an attempt to stop this situation to grow and affect some more people.

There is also a Discussion on Strobist.com Flickr about this all situation where names like David Hobby from Strobist condemned this kind of actions "Oh, criminy.
This sucks. I have written to Mr. Lugosi, trying to get to the bottom of this. This is way not cool, really needs to get fixed ASAP. ".

Some more information about these people:

Daniel Lugosi

Daniel Lugosi his facebook page

Also his account at Linkedin page

Contacts:
PhotoPress Production
info@photopress-production.com
info@photopress.hu
press@photopress.hu
+36 36205433320

Take a look at all the workshops he and his company been making without having the decency of refunding people first. And some of these Workshops were made after the cancellation of David Tejada workshop.

They also got another page over Hungary server called PhotoPress Hungary.

And another place more for their acclaimed workshops.

Budapeste PhotoWorkshop facebook page

Here are some photos of their workshops and workspace.

If you call it a FRAUD or not I leave that thoughts up to you. My intention here was to warn you about these guys and also warn potential instructors that could have their career's affected by these kind of people.
They promised me the refund for 6 months now and so far nothing. I do believe it will never come and that this kind of photography FRAUD must be stopped for the sake of all us photographers.

I will let my thoughts about this sided has much could be said against Daniel Lugosi and his companies for not fulfilling their refund policies nor having any concerns with their students. Where did the money went, maybe for the new office or a camera or a lens or to some other place that should not been.

If you are one of the affected by this matter please leave a comment here and also contact Daniel Lugosi directly has I have posted here all his contact information. And if by any chance you go into one of these workshops pay attention to the refund policies.

Warned and out!!

--- 2011-07-27 Update ---

- I received a contact by another Portuguese photographer in the same situation Luciano Reis and also had another email from photographer Ugo Cei that is still waiting for the refund.

- Daniel Lugosi sent me an email with a confirmation of the money transfer to my account, let's see what will happen in the next couple of days.

---//---

--- 2011-07-28 Update ---

- Photographer David Tejada posted some more information concerning this matter in his blog, just check it out here.

- I also decided to hide the faces of the photographers that are visible on the photos I posted as a matter of courtesy to them as this has nothing to do with them personally.

---//---

--- 2011-07-29 Update ---

- Finally and after almost 6 months waiting I received only the refund.

Thank you all for the great help and hope you will get yours too. Will leave this page as a warning to all people making business with these guys.

---//---

--- 2011-07-30 Update ---

- David Tejada got some more information concerning this case. I think you should check it out as I think it's an AWESOME offer from he's part and in respect to all those of you who are still waiting for the refund from Photo Press Production!!!

Read "I Want To Hear From You" at his blog page as it starts like this...

For those of you who did not receive refunds from PhotoPress Production, I want to hear from you. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I cancelled my tour before I ever received a contract for the workshops from PhotoPress Productions. I feel absolutely terrible about this situation, even though I had no responsibility regarding bookings and refunds... I want to make this right...

Sounds interesting don't you think... SO GO READ IT RIGHT NOW!!!

---//---

Stolen Camera Finder, Helps You Find Your Camera

2011-04-28T17:17:00.003+01:00

Just came in touch with this great new webpage Stolen Camera Finder, it's a very interesting idea done by the programmer Matt Burns on a two-year project that has just seen the light.
If you ever lost your camera or you have it stolen you will know that retrieving it becomes little short of a miracle. This online service aims to help you somehow to try to locate it.

The idea is to use the serial number that many cameras embedded in the EXIF data of pictures. You just need to drag a photo from your computer into the browser to automatically search the web for the serial number. It only works if the photo you are dragging is originally taken from the camera and not one you already altered.

There are two search engines, one uses the API to Flickr to crawl the site and a database of images that will appear to grow as volunteers help create the plugin for Chrome, which records all that information in the background without interfering with your navigation.

The idea is very good but it has some drawbacks. We must use a JPEG straight from the camera, unprocessed, to keep the EXIF data (and the person using our camera has uploaded a photo in the same conditions). You can consult the list of compatible cameras but I hope that you never feel in the need to find a camera lost or stolen.

Hope this would help ou out on finding our stolen cameras.

LR Preset: Pro Styled - Herb Ritts

2011-03-17T15:57:00.000Z

Black and White were never my strong. Even on the film days I tried the the best I can but color was always more appealing to me.

A lot of you been asking for LR Presets for the Black and White and I found that X-Equals got, this week, an excellent Herb Ritts simulation so I decided to share it with you.

Hope you like them.

Herb Ritts – Pro Styled

The first and most impost step in emulating any photographer’s style is to study their work. You can start by viewing the gallery presented on Herb Ritts’ website. Further studies can be carried out by viewing his books such as Pictures, Duo, Africa and his other works.

Study the poses, look at how light and dark interplay with the human form. Note his use of lines and curves, and how they are used to guide the eye. Look at how he uses both balance and imbalance in his images. Try to unlock how all these come together to create the image. Spend some time exploring Ritts’ body of work and get a feel for his photographic eye.

Once you are comfortable with your understanding of his works, start thinking about how you would recreate the effects on your own.

Do note, most of Herb Ritts’ style is produced in camera, as with many other great photographers. You really need to focus on getting your images as close to the desired goal at time of capture, you simply cannot rely on post processing to accomplish the feat of simulating his unique style.

A few tips you may want to consider:

* Use a yellow filter to view your subject before shooting. Visualizing your shot through a yellow filter helps you see the difference in tones in your subject, eliminating much of the color.
* When shooting outdoors, go ahead and put that yellow filter on your lens. Since our target image will be a black and white image, the yellow filter will help by eliminating excess blue light, which will level out skies and bring a better balance to your image.
* Shoot both High Key and Low Key images, but be sure to have good contrast when doing so. Especially with abstract shots of parts of the body, you will want to consider a bright overall image with deep darks in the subject or vice versa. Use your environment and subject to your advantage.
* When shooting with your full dynamic or even high dynamic range, focus on a good balance of dark and light with good, but not extreme contrast. Look for emotion in your subject for these shots and pose for either strength or vulnerability depending on your specific goal.
* When shooting with natural lighting, think outside the norms of photography. Put the sun at your subject’s back, or shoot at high noon, and kick up the contrast wih filters or post processing.
* When using studio lighting or strobes, use some extra lights on a light back ground for High Key images. Or shoot on a dark background and focus more light on your subject, enhancing contrast.

These tips are just the tip of the iceberg, and you will have to experiment with them and your own ideas to find what works right for you. But to help you along, here are some presets we designed to help you get the final look a bit quicker.

These presets are designed to allow you to quickly take your image to one approximating the style of Herb Ritts. Be warned, these presets can be a bit heavy handed, so don’t be afraid to make some fine adjustments to what they generate. The presets included in the download are as follows:

* PS Ritts Curve 1 – This preset contains a fairly conservative Tone Curve, designed to enhance contrast, while maintaining the general brightness of the image. It has a moderate increase in Clarity to get a bit more pop.
* PS Ritts Curve 2 - Another custom curve, this time shifting the Tone Curve much darker, while retaining a high level of contrast. Also maxes out Clarity to enhance fine detail in darker images.
* PS Ritts Curve 3 - Again, a custom Tone Curve, dramatically brightening the image, with a minor kick to Clarity, creating an overall high-key and soft effect.
* PS Ritts Mix HIE - A customized version of the Cold Storage Kodak HIE infrared preset, providing a palette suitable for Ritts type work.
* PS Ritts Mix Pan-X - Another customized film emulation, using Kodak Panatomic X as its base.
* PS Ritts Mix Plus-X – Customized Kodak Plus-X preset for a more natural appearance.
* PS Ritts Mix Tech Pan – Kodak Technical Pan emulation tweaked for Ritts style use.
* PS Ritts Mix Tri-X - Tri-X as well, of course.
* PS Ritts Punch – A preset that endows a bit of surreal realism to your image. Brings out detail using Recovery and Fill Light and brings it back to Earth with a hit of Blacks adjustment.
* PS Ritts Yellow Filter – A preset that adjusts White Balance to emulate a yellow filter being used. Not for every photo, but can drastically lighten many.

As with all our X-Equals presets, these are designed to be used in unison to create the desired effect. Also, be sure to try other black and white color mixes, such as the Curve presets from our own Cold Storage to open up a world of new B&W effects. After you get the effect about where you want it, adjust Exposure or Brightness to balance out your image.

Thank you X-Equals for having made this wonderful set.

Adobe Lightroom 3.4 & Camera Raw 6.4 RC versions are here

2011-03-11T16:07:00.001Z

Adobe put up today 2 new release candidates for Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 are now available as Release Candidates on Adobe Labs.
The final releases of Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 may have additional corrections or camera support.

New Camera Support in Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 Release Candidates

* Canon EOS 600D (Rebel T3i / Kiss X5)
* Canon EOS 1100D (Rebel T3 / Kiss X50)
* Hasselblad H4D-40
* Olympus E-PL1s
* Olympus E-PL2
* Olympus XZ-1
* Samsung NX11

New Lens Profile Support in Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 Release Candidates

Canon Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM
Canon Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 L USM
Canon SIGMA 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM**
Canon TAMRON 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3DiII VC PZD B008E
Nikon Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
Nikon Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED
Nikon Nikon AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED
Nikon Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR
Nikon SIGMA 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM
Nikon TAMRON 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3DiII VC PZD B008N
Nikon Leica APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/120mm
Nikon Leica SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/35mm ASPH.
Nikon Leica SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/70 mm ASPH.

**These lens profiles were in the previous release but have been updated to address quality concerns.

Bugs Corrected in the Lightroom 3.4 Release Candidate

The following bugs that were part of previous Lightroom 3 releases have been corrected. The team appreciates the very detailed feedback the community has provided on Lightroom 3 and we’re excited to correct a number of issues experienced by our customers. These issues have been FIXED

* Lightroom encountered issues presenting double-byte character metadata after the image was edited on Photoshop.com.
* Publish collections did not work properly if the sort order is set to descending. (“Z to A”).
* Using the up/down arrow keys or the mouse wheel to adjust a parameter while the graduated filter is activated caused increments of plus or minus 100 instead of 1.
* Interlacing artifacts, and a slight magenta cast in the deepest shadows could have appeared on some high-contrast edges of Canon mRaw files.
* A magenta color cast could have appeared on Nikon D7000 images if the multi-exposure feature was used with raw capture.
* Video files were allowed to be added to a SmugMug publish collection not capable of supporting video uploads.
* Folder creation caused an expanded folder hierarchy to close unexpectedly in the Library Module.
* Please provide feedback on your experience with the Lightroom 3.4 Release Candidate Bug Report Form.

Camera Raw 6.4 Release Notes

* Camera Raw did not allow write-back capability for the EXIF GPS properties
* The DNG File format did not support XMP Media Management
* A JPEG file with a specific characteristic was found to have a pink cast
* The undo command (Command Z) was failing to undo crop adjustments
* Single images marked for deletion were not moved to the trash
* A magenta color cast could have appeared on Nikon D7000 images if the multi-exposure feature was used with raw capture
* Please provide feedback on your experience with the Camera Raw 6.4 plug-in and the DNG Converter on the Camera Raw User to User forum.

Direct Downloads:

Adobe Lightroom 3.4 Release Candidate information

(Win - Mac)

Adobe Camera Raw 6.4 Release Candidate information

(Win - Mac)

2nd Strobist WS in Luxembourg - SOLD OUT

2011-03-03T14:05:00.000Z

THANK YOU to everyone who will participate.

Both days are now SOLD OUT.

Just a reminder that the Workshop will take place on the 5th/6th March 2011 at Espace H2O in Rue Rattem - ‪Differdange‬.

This will be a full day with lot's of information about the gear you can use and also 8 models per day to photograph under 4 setups.

In the morning you can count with a more in-depth review of the gear and in the afternoon some setups would be build so participants can practice different lighting situations.

Also included are Lunch, coffee, soft drinks and some snacks so you won't miss anything.

For more information's you can contact me directly.

See you there.

Take a look at what happened last time.

Luxembourg 1st Strobist Workshop - 8 Jan. 2011

And a BTS video.

LR Preset: William Petruzzo Pack

2011-02-26T23:01:00.001Z

Today I bring you a free Collection Pack from photographer William Petruzzo from Petruzzo Photography.

How many times you wonder, on your Adobe Lightoom photos, how an increment in Exposure or Fill Light would look like without having to move the slider up and down every time?

And how about the Blacks and Noise Reduction? Wouldn't it be good to have some presets that could help you visualize that, on the preview window, without having to move the sliders all the time?

Well maybe you have already thought about that but were too lazy to create them in Adobe Lightroom... well wait no more as William Petruzzo makes you life much easier on this subject.

Just take a look at this awesome pack I got for you today...

With this presets you can find some very useful tools, the Pack is a 3 folder content and you will find, on the first folder, a Common Basic Adjustments presets for the Blacks, Exposure, Fill Light, Noise Reduction and Recovery in increments. This could be a lot of help for those quick fine tunings you need on your images.

Next one is an HDR Effect from a Very Light state to a more Heavy and contrasty look.

And the 3rd folder gives a Split Tone look with 3 different effects.

A BIG thanks to William Petruzzo for sharing this with us, also say thanks by paying a visit to his webpage.

2nd Strobist WS in Luxembourg - Registrations Opened

2011-02-17T00:42:00.008Z

I would like to let everyone knows that due to the heavy demand for a new workshop I decided to pull another, out in Luxembourg, to talk about some of the techniques and gear for Strobist flash photography.

It will take place on the 5th/6th March 2011 at Espace H2O in Rue Rattem - ‪Differdange‬.

This will be a full day with lot's of information about the gear you can use with also a couple of great models.

In the morning you can count with a more in-depth review of the gear and in the afternoon some setups would be build so participants can practice different lighting situations.

I also have included Lunch, coffee, soft drinks and some snacks so you won't miss anything.

--- Update 2011-03-03 ---

Day 5 - Saturday SOLD OUT
Day 6 - Sunday SOLD OUT

---//---

Use the links for download the Subscription PDF files and complete Program as well as information on how to register. For more information you can contact me directly.

Hope to see you there.

Take a look at what happened last time.

Luxembourg 1st Strobist Workshop - 8 Jan. 2011

And a BTS video.

LR Preset: Sara-Ji Collection Pack

2011-02-14T19:55:00.002Z

As many of you been aware, Adobe Lightroom as became a very powerful tool for the photographer if not one you cannot live without it, at least this is my case.

Although I still go to Photoshop for some fine and precise tuning of the images a lot of my base work is done in Lightroom. When you need a fast editing RAW system I rely more and more on tools that make my life easier and would put on the field faster to capture more images instead of siting down at the computer for long periods of time.

Well enough of this... let me tell that today I will bring you an excellent pack of presets for Adobe Lightroom created by photographer Sarah-Li from Chicago and I hope you enjoy them.

Sarah-Ji NE Presets

Sarah-Ji Night Owl

Sarah-Ji Autumn

Sarah-Ji LE

Sarah-Ji Vol.1

Sarah-Ji THANK YOU for sharing this brilliant presets with us.

The Sounds of Hard Drive Failures

2011-02-11T16:11:00.001Z

Nowadays that hard drives are getting bigger and bigger and more of our photos and information becomes vulnerable to hard drive failures it's important to know what are the symptoms of the hard drive when it start to show signs of heavy use.

Datacent - Professional Hard Drive and Flash Data Recovery Services created a very interesting list of sounds they hear in their data centers of failing drives.

From Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi/IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Quantum you can hear the sounds of the hard drives with bad heads, degraded media, stuck spindle and failing heads.

This is a MUST listen database so you know when you're hard drive is starting to fail. If your hard drive makes noises like these and you are still able to access your files - BACKUP immediately.

Here is the link to the sound files.

Understanding Shutter/Flash Synchronization

2011-02-05T18:43:00.003Z

Just when you thought you know everything about Shutter and Flash Synchronizations Paul Duncan gets out this magnificent video explaining how this all process work.

From Shutter curtains to Flash synchronization, all with great detail and in a 9 minute video.

Also take a moment to visit Paul Duncan blog with also lot's of good photographic information.

Do You Think Your Gear is Safe When Travelling??... Think Again!!

2011-02-01T01:02:00.004Z

How many times you have traveled with your bags full of locks and locker systems.

Well let me tell you that with all that security measures your stuff is not really safe inside even with all those sliders locked up.

This video shows how easy it is to break into a zippered bag without leaving any kind trace tampering.
This is why you should try and keep your gear in sight at all times and no matter what.

Have a safe trip...

LR Preset: OnOne Collection, Collage Templates & Film Emulations Pack

2011-01-27T19:44:00.001Z

Today with the LR Preset article I want to bring you 2 collections of presets and an excellent templates collage for your Print module in Lightroom.

I'm pretty sure this would be something you would love to try out as this can create different configuration to your printer output so that you can present your photos to your friends, family or even clients in a different way and created by the wedding and portrait photographer Halina Veratsennik.

The other two packages are the well known OnOne Collection that I bring a direct link to download from their web page or you can click the download button here on Lighting Mods to get the 3 packages direct download.

Last but not least I've gather in a single folder 335 Film Emulations created by fellow photographer Michael W. Gray. These are also well known as LIDF (Life In Digital Film) because of he's blog and it's where he shares is thoughts about each of the Film Emulations he creates.

I've also created BIG download buttons instead of the links that were not so visible. Hope you like them ;)

I would like to pay a BIG THANK YOU to the participants for sending this Presets in.

If you have some interesting ones you would like to share feel free to send them over with some sample examples.

The Master Wizards have Cast a Spell, Check it Out!!!

2011-01-26T23:58:00.001Z

This is what you get when you join two of the best guys in the world making extraordinary images with just small strobes.

Mornings by David Hobby and afternoons by Joe McNally what a wonderful day this must be and they also promise to be bilingual either Manual mode (Mr. Hobby) or TTL (Mr. McNally) they promise to cover it all just for you.

What they will be covering with this BIG Flash Bus Tour:

Announcing: 'The Flash Bus' Tour

By the numbers:

Number of cities: 29

Number of days on the road: 42

Length of the bus, in feet: 55

Miles to be covered on the Mother of All Road Trips: Over 13,000

Chipotle restaurants to be visited: Probably all of them.

Combined experience, in years, both instructors: Over 60

Average maturity level, in years, both instructors: About 13.

Read all about it at David Hobby's Strobist Blog and Joe McNally's page and also take a moment to subscribe to "The Flash Bus" blog and follow the guys around.

Also check their Flickr page for photos from the Bus, Tour and some other interesting things happening along the way.

Praying the Gods that this would come to Europe very soon!!!!

I've already started praying how about you??

Tip: Using Export Actions in Adobe Lightroom

2011-01-25T23:52:00.001Z

Fellow Photographer Jared Platt shares with us in his regular podcasts lots of great useful information concerning Adobe Lightroom.

This one came into my attention as it's something you don't ear much about it and I did not want it to pass over my hands without sharing it with all of you...

In this video you can see how helpful this Export Action can be to our workflow, either to make it fast or to complement it with other applications we need to run after the images are exported from Adobe Lightroom.

Enjoy the How to Video.

Thank you Jared Platt for sharing this with all of us, also don't miss his Workshops and Lectures page.