PhotoWalkPro

Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

jeff — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:03:39 +0000

It would have been easy to just re-hash the Lightroom 2 book and add in new features from Lightroom 3 but then that just wouldn’t be Scott Kelby, now would it? I’m always amazed at how each book series update he does seems like something brand new and this latest book is no exception. From the moment I first opened the cover until I turned the last page, I was pleasantly pleased to see so many new features in this book. So let’s talk about the real meat and potatoes of this book.

The book starts out just like you would work in Lightroom, by importing images. It’s hard to believe that there is so much to know about just getting your photos from your camera into Lightroom but everything is well covered in this Chapter. The Import function was completely overhauled for Lightroom 3 and the book uses a step-by-step approach to guide you through importing from camera, computer, even video. There’s also a great section on using the new tethered shooting section.

Next it’s on to the Import module. Once again, everything is laid out in a step-by-step fashion including how to create custom metadata templates for copyright, custom naming templates, and tips on navigating through your images. The next chapter is all about organization. There are tons of different strategies for organizing photos in Lightroom and Scott shares his personal methods for sorting, searching, and keeping all of your shoots organized.

The next chapter is very cool. It’s full of tips on how to customize Lightroom to get the most out of the program. In it, you will find things like setting up two monitors, customizing panels, setting the loupe magnification, and even adding your studio logo to the top of the program banner.

The rest of the book follows the same pattern of instruction, covering the Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web modules, each in great detail but with a simplicity that never leaves you feeling overwhelmed. If that was all there was to the book, it would be well worth the money but wait, there’s so much more. First of all, every chapter ends with a section of Lightroom Killer Tips. These are short little tips and hints that you probably won’t find in any other book.

The final chapter is by far my favorite because it really pulls everything together. In it, Scott has taken his 7-Point System and adapted it to Lightroom. There are four different projects where Scott walks you through his entire process for adjusting images, including a fashion shot, a landscape, a travel photo, and a sports shot. By following along you will discover just how easy it is to take your good shot and make it great by applying his 7-point system in the develop module. It’s this personal insight into Scott’s Lightroom workflow that really takes this book over the top and gives you the benefit of his vast knowledge of this powerful program.

The bottom line is that, even if you were pretty comfortable using Lightroom 2, version 3 is a whole new ballgame with lots of great new features and this book is the perfect guide. Not only will you learn all of the features and tools that Lightroom 3 has to offer but also Scott’s keen insight on how to leverage them all to your advantage. It’s definitely another winner for Scott and Lightroom users everywhere.

A Spot Removal Tip with Lightroom

jeff — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:05:51 +0000

Have you ever processed an image and then made a print only to find that you missed some dust spots and then you have to go back and do it all over again? I know I have but i have a little trick I use to find all those dust specks, even in hard to find locations. It’s not real complicated but it has saved me from having to go back and clean up hard to find spots.

Wednesday Notables

jeff — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:04:33 +0000

Here’s a few things I came across that you might find interesting and maybe inspiring -

Bigger is Better -

How many pixels were in your last image? If you are a select group of Hungarians, the answer just might be 70 billion. With sponsorshop from Epson, Sony, and Microsoft, a group of hungarians have created the largest 360° panorama in the world. I’ve always been fascinated by gigapixel images and this one really takes the cake. You can see the image in all it’s detailed glory here.

Long Distance Dedication -

If there’s one thing I like more than gigapixel images, it’s time-lapse videos. I just find the process of compressing time into a smaller space to be incredibly cool. I’ve been known to make a few time-lapse videos in my time but nothing compares to this incredible walk across America.

Now, if you thought that was cool, check out this “making of” video to see the incredible story of how this amazing project came to be.

Color in Motion -

You might know Julianne Kost as the Adobe Photoshop Evangelist but did you know that she is an incredibly talented photographer and artist? A couple of years ago she released a book called Window Seat, which featured landscape images made from her years of accumulating frequent flyer miles. Some of her recent work though is just downright fascinating. Her series is called Motion Color and after looking at the images, it’s hard not to believe that she didn’t fashion them in Photoshop. The reality is that all of these shots are straight from the camera (except for maybe a little color and exposure tweaking). You can spend a few quality minutes checking out all of her shots by clicking here.

Free Lightroom Learning for Photowalkers -

Did you participate in one of the 1100 photowalks this past weekend? If so then you should have received a personal invite to join Scott Kelby and his cohorts for a little live Lightroom session today. Just click on the link in your email and then log in with the username and password that you created when you registered for the photowalk. The session kicks off at 10:00 AM Eastern time and lasts for about an hour. When you get there, you will get to see Scott and the guys process their photowalk images using Adobe Lightroom. It should be a lot of fun.

That’s it for the day, now go do something inspiring!

Review – The SpiderPro Camera Holster System

jeff — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:05:51 +0000

Photo by Mike Palmer

This past weekend the folks on my photowalk saw me sporting a new piece of gear but it wasn’t a camera or a lens, or even a new bag. Nope, what I had resting on my hip was a SpiderPro Camera Holster and let me tell you, it’s pretty slick. The holster system is actually comprised of several components that, when combined, make for a camera carrying system that feels natural and keeps your camera handy when you need your hands free.

Here’s how it works, the key to the system is the Spider Holster. It’s all stainless steel and hardened aluminum and provides the resting place for the camera on your hip. There is a two position lock system on the side of the holster that requires you to lift slightly to remove the camera from the holster when it’s in the down position. When you move it to the top position you can freely slide the camera in and out of the holster without having to touch the holster.

The other key components to the system are the Spider Plate and Spider Pin. The plate mounts to the bottom of your camera using the tripod socket and a hex screw. One of the things I really liked about the plate was the thought that the engineers put into it. There are a lot of camera accessories that use hex screws and include the appropriate allen wrench but the folks at Spider went the extra step of creating a storage compartment for the wrench so it’s hidden right inside the plate and always handy. As someone who has lost more than my fair share of wrenches in the bottom of my camera bags, this is one feature I can really appreciate. There are also additional 1/4-20 holes in the bottom of the plate if you want to mount it to a tripod without having to take it off the camera. The only problem with the plate is that it might need to be removed to pull out the camera battery depending on what type of camera you are using. But having the wrench handy makes this a pretty quick operation.

The second component that pull it all together is the Spider Pin. This little piece of stainless steel is made with a small ball on one end and a 1/4-20 screw on the other. The pin screws into one of the threaded holes on the plate and serves as the mounting point between camera plate and holster. The ball portion of the pin slides easily into the groove of the holster and gravity and the locking system do the rest. The pin can also be screwed into a tripod mount on a lens foot if you are using a longer lens.

Those are the basic pieces to the system but if you want to go all out with the Pro system you will also get the Spider holster Belt. The belt has one feature that makes it different from most other belts in that it has a camera pad on one side to keep your camera from banging and rubbing your leg/hip. It also has a small elastic cord that slips over the bottom of the holster and holds it securely in place on the belt and keeps it from shifting. The thing I liked about this belt was the safety button on the clasp. Like many belts with plastic buckles, you need to squeeze in the sides to release the buckle but this one requires you to press a small button on the front before the sides can be squeezed in. Just another one of those little finishing touches that make this system so secure.

My Thoughts -

I wasn’t sure how I would like the system since I had never worn a belt system before, but after wearing it for a day I have to say that it felt completely natural. The belt fit securely around my hip and the velcro size adjustment made sure that it wasn’t too loose or too tight. The camera plate mounted securely to the bottom of my camera (I was shooting with a Canon T2i with a 15-85mm lens) and didn’t interfere at all with the way I held the camera. Fitting the camera into the holster was as easy as placing the pin in the groove of the holster and letting the camera drop down to my side. When I let go, it lay comfortably against the pad with the lens facing rearward. Removing the camera was almost as easy, just grab the camera and lift up slightly on the locking mechanism while sliding the pin back out of the holster slot. While it did take two hands to remove it, it was a fairly natural motion to grab the camera and release the lock.

As someone who doesn’t like using a camera strap that much, I really liked having the freedom of hanging the camera in the holster while I rummaged around in my bag for a filter or a bottle of water. When I was ready to shoot again, it was right there where I needed it. I also spent a little time just walking around with my camera hanging in the holster to see how it felt. The truth is that I hardly even noticed it was there. Everything was extremely well balanced and the belt and camera pad did an excellent job of keeping things where they belonged.

The Bottom Line -

I don’t know if this system would work in all shooting situations but if you find yourself constantly needing to use your hands between shooting, I think you will find that this is an excellent system for keeping your gear close at hand and ready to use at a moments notice. I can really see this being handy in a studio where you are constantly having to put your camera down to adjust lights. If you are a sport shooter who uses two cameras, this system will rock your world. Unlike a shoulder strap like the Rapid-R, the camera will not shift or slide as you bend down or kneel over.

The Price -

The Spider Pro Camera Holster system runs $109 US and includes the belt, holster, plate, and one pin. You can also purchase the components separately. This means that, If you already own a belt system like the LowePro Street & Field Belt, ThinkTank Pro-Speed Belt, or even the ThinkTank Steroid Belt, you can buy an adapter for the holster for about $19.99 and then just but the plate, pin and holster.

You can find out more information about the SpiderPro Camera Holster system including instructional videos at the Spider Holster website.

A Hot Time at the Georgetown Photowalk

jeff — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:05:02 +0000

The temperature at 9:00 AM was already close to 90° F (it actually hit 102° later in the day) but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the crew that gathered in Georgetown for this year’s Worldwide Photowalk. We kicked things off with our group shot and then headed out to photograph the sites around the C&O Canal and then up to the sidewalk of legendary M St. We finished things off by gathering in the food court of The Shops of Georgetown, where the air conditioning and cool drinks were eagerly received.

I set up a Flickr group for all of my photowalkers to show off their images and they have already started coming in. You can check out the pool of images by clicking on this link. If you want to get a look at more photowalk images from the day, from all over the World, head over to the Worldwide Photowalk Pool where walkers from the four corners of the globe have been uploading images since early yesterday. If you participated in a photowalk yourself, make sure you join the group and add your images.

If you are planning on entering one of your photowalk images into the official contest, please check out the post by Brad Moore on the official Worldwide Photowalk site. Brad did an excellent job of explaining just how to upload your image (only one per customer) so that your photowalk leader can pick a winner. Just remember that you only have until July 31 to get your photo submitted.

I want to thank my buddy Scott Kelby and his staff for organizing another fantastic event and all the great people that joined me yesterday for another great photowalk. I’m already thinking about where to go next year.

Photowalk Friday

jeff — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:04:07 +0000

It seems like such a long time ago since the 3rd Annual Worldwide Photowalk was announced but here we are, on the eve of the big event. I thought that I would just throw out a couple of suggestions to help make the day more enjoyable.

#1 – Show up early There’s just no way of knowing what might delay your arrival, traffic, parking, a herd of rogue sheep. The point is that you want to make sure that you get to the starting point with enough time to feel comfortable and relaxed instead of trying to catch up with the pack.

#2 – Make sure you bring ground support By that I mean bring some water, maybe a little sunscreen, some comfortable shoes. What ever it takes to keep you comfortable and focused on shooting.

#3 – Charge up Don’t wait until Saturday morning to discover that your camera batteries are low or even dead. Put your batteries on charge tonight so you will be ready to roll tomorrow morning/afternoon. Helpful hint: put your batteries on charge next to your camera so you don’t accidentally grab your camera without the battery.

#4 – Think about how much equipment you want to bring and then think again I know it’s nice to be prepared but really, lugging camera gear around can really start to wear on you, especially as the temperature goes up, or down for that matter. Try to focus on simplicity instead of carrying the kitchen sink.

#5 – Check the weather forecast I know that sounds like a no-brainer but I have heard it time and again, “I didn’t know it was going to be so hot/rainy/cold.” A quick peek at the Weather Channel will make sure that you are dressed apporpriately for the day.

#6 – Leave the tripod at home Yes, you would undoubtedly get some tack-sharp images by using your tripod but it will also tend to get in the way more than it will be a help. If you must, go for a monopod instead. You can make it double up as a walking stick and you won’t have people tripping over it while you shoot.

#7 – Safety first And second and third It’s so easy to become glued to your viewfinder and forget about everything going on around you and this is when accidents happen. Just a couple of weeks ago I was walking with my family down a street in Antigua Guatemala, shooting, walking, and having a ball. The problem was that I paid more attention to what i wanted to take a photo of instead of the hole in the sidewalk in front of me. Needless to say, my foot went in the hole, my knees hit the ground, followed by my hands. My camera and I escaped with only minor scratches but it could have been worse. Take care to know where you are standing when you shoot and don’t go walking backwards off a curb and into the path of a car. Also, keep an eye out for your fellow walkers and help to keep them safe as well.

So there you go, just a few helpful tips to keep in mind as you and 31131 other photowalkers hit the streets across the world. It’s going to be a blast!

Upgrading to a Full Frame Camera? You May Have to Leave Your Old Lenses Behind

jeff — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:03:52 +0000

I received a question the other day from a reader asking me about lens compatibility for his Canon 50D. Basically his question was if a EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens would be compatible with his camera. The good news is yes, it is compatible. The bad news is that if he purchased any EF-S series lenses, they would not be compatible if he ever moved up to a full frame camera. That’s because the EF-S lenses are made specifically for the smaller APS-C sized sensors in cameras such as the 50D, 7D, and all of the digital Rebel models.

EF-S lenses are made to have a shorter back-focus, meaning they sit back further in the camera than a standard EF lens. This helps the lens provide better coverage for the smaller sensors, especially for wide angle lenses. So while the short back focusing EF-S lenses are great on APS-C cameras, they can’t be used at all on full frame cameras such as the 5D Mark II. Knowing this, you might want to give consideration to which lenses you plan on buying in the future. If you don’t think you will ever move up to a full frame camera then you can pretty much buy whatever lens you desire without fear of it becoming obsolete. If, however, you think that a full frame is in your future you might want to consider only investing in EF lenses.

And you Nikon shooters have the same problem only not quite as severe as Canon. If you are shooting with one of the non-full frame cameras such as the D3000, D5000, D90, or D300s, you have the option of buying standard lenses or the DX style lenses. The DX lenses are the equivalent to the Canon EF-S lens and are also short back focusing lenses. The good news for Nikon shooters is that the DX lenses will still work on full frame bodies…sort of. So here’s the deal, if you put a DX lens on a D700, D3s, or D3X the camera will automatically enter into what Nikon calls DX mode. This means that, due to the reduced lens coverage, the sensor is cropped down to a smaller size to accommodate the DX lens. So the lens will work on the camera but with a reduced image resolution.

Any way you slice it, it pays to do some forward thinking when purchasing lenses, especially if you own a camera with an APS-C or DX sensor. Because camera bodies can come and go but a good lens can last you decades.

Why I don’t want a mirrorless camera

jeff — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:04:33 +0000

The latest buzz is that Canon is going to be bringing a high quality, small camera to the market to compete with the mirrorless competitors from Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony. While I understand why they need to compete in this area, they can probably count me out as a consumer, along with all the other manufacturers.

Sony NEX-5

It’s not that I am opposed to a camera without a mirror, in fact I own one from Panasonic. It’s a point and shoot called the LX-3 and it really works for me in those situations where I just need a quick snap and don’t feel like lugging around my DSLR. But you won’t soon find me trading away the benefits of the DSLR for a smaller mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. There’s several reasons for this, and the first has to do with how you will frame your scene. See, mirrorless cameras don’t have a viewfinder, at least not in the sense that a DSLR does. Your main source for viewing what you will photograph is the rear LCD. This means that looking at the screen outdoors on a sunny day will be difficult at best.

Olympus E-PL1

Also, it’s hard to estimate things like depth of field because there aren’t any depth of field preview buttons on the cameras (although I think this would be easily solved). But the biggest problem for me would be viewing distance. My eyes aren’t getting any younger and I already find that I need to hold the camera further away to even see the rear LCD with any clarity. This has nothing to do with how good the screen or how much resolution it has. It’s simply a matter of not being able to see anything closer than 20″ from my nose with any clarity.

Panasonic Lumix GF1

Poor vision isn’t a problem with my DSLR since all I have to do is adjust the diopter and I see things with crystal clarity. Besides, there’s just something great about looking directly through the optics of the camera that seems to make it more personal and connected. If you own one of the new mirrorless cameras, drop me a comment and share your experience with it.

Going Big with the CS5 PhotoMerge

jeff — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:03:19 +0000

I am usually content to create simple pano images using a series of 5 or so overlapping shots all in a straight line. I have always had confidence that the Photomerge function in Photoshop would do a pretty good job of pulling everything together into one seamless image (at least since CS3). But as I was standing at the Cerro de la Cruz above the city of La Antigua, I just didn’t think that I could capture all the detail I wanted by simply shooting a straight pan of images. The problem is that I would have to use a focal length that was pretty wide to capture everything I wanted, from the top of the volcano to the front edge of the city sprawled out below. This meant that I might get some distortion from the lens as well as lesser detail in the final image.

What I decided to do instead was to shoot two series of images panning across the scene; one across the upper portion of the scene to capture the sky, mountains, and volcano, and the other series across the bottom for the city. I also used my 50mm f/1.4 lens on a Nikon D80 so I was getting less coverage (it’s about the equivalent of an 80mm on the DX camera), which meant more shots. In fact I ended up shooting 18 images in total. I was a little fearful that Photoshop would not be able to assemble everything into one seamless image but I threw caution to the wind and made my corrections to the original images in Lightroom 3 and then selected them all and sent them to Photoshop using the Merge to Panorama command.

After Lightroom had processed all of the images, the standard Pano dialog box opened in CS5 and I selected the Auto layout and let it go to town. It took a little while to assemble and merge the 18 RAW image files and then blend them together but when it was done, I was simply amazed with the results. With the exception of some ragged edges, it had pulled all of the images together into one beautiful pano. I simply cropped out most of the uneven edges and then used the Content Aware Fill to fix some of the spots in the sky that were missed by me during shooting and cropping. The result is the image you see below. You can click on it to see a larger version but the actual file is about 440MB, which works out to be about 20×70 inches at 240dpi.

Also, the detail in the final image is fantastic. Here is a small section of the image at 100%.

So the next time you are presented with a wide vista and are thinking of trying your hand at a panorama, don’t necessarily just twist your lens to the wide angle option to get 3 or 4 overlapping shots. Try and push things a little by adding a bunch of narrower angle images and then let Photoshop do it’s thing to really get the detail and size out of your final image.

Back in the Saddle

jeff — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:04:58 +0000

Sorry for the short hiatus the past few days but I took a little side trip to Texas before returning home to visit my family. But now I’m back and I have a ton of things to write about this week so I thought I would start off by catching up with some things I wasn’t able to get to over the past couple of weeks. We’ll call this Catch-Up Monday.

6 Days Until the Worldwide Photowalk -

We’ve got less than a week to go until the 3rd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk and I am getting pretty excited. There are now 1099 registered photowalks scheduled to take place next Saturday with over 27,000 participants. I will be sending out emails to all of my walkers during the week but here’s something that I wanted to share with everyone. If you have registered for a photowalk and won’t be able to attend, make sure that you visit the official page for that photowalk and remove yourself to make room for someone that might be on the waiting list. Only officially registered walkers will be eligible to upload images and possibly win a prize so if you have had a change of plans, please don’t forget to remove your name from the list. The walk leaders can’t do it for you so you have to take care of this one on your own.

Speaking of Photowalk Prizes -

The winning photograper from each photowalk will receive either a copy of Scott Kelby’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers or The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers. I happily had my copy of the Lightroom 3 book waiting for me when I got home from my trip and I am about a third of the way through it already. It’s a great read and, as always, Scott does a fantastic job of walking the reader through every aspect of Lightroom 3. The Lightroom book is available now and the CS5 book should be available soon. I can’t wait!

Not sure what to shoot?

I get this question a lot from people that are venturing out on their first photowalk. Sure, you could just take photos of the obvious stuff you see on the street but if you want to try something different, try shooting a theme. There’s a fairly new iPhone App called Photo Walk Ideas that can help you with this. Just pick a them from the scroll wheel like Abstracts, People, Nature, Urban, etc. and then pick a difficulty level and the app will give you a checklist of different subjects to check off. It’s a pretty neat idea. You can read more about it here.

Let’s say that you are already in the location but you are stuck for subject matter and need a little inspiration. Once again, you can reach for your trusty iPhone and check out the Photo Walk app. This little program will locate your current position and then pull up a map with pins that link to photos on Flickr that were taken in the same area. You can actually select the ones that you like the best and the app will plot a course for you so you don’t miss out on any photo opportunities. This is especially handy if you are shooting in an unfamiliar location. You can find out more info at the developers website.

On a more personal note -

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Matt Brandon of The Digital Trekker as part of his Depth of Field series. We chatted for over an hour about photography, photowalking, and my photography career in general. The series is sponsored by my publisher, Peachpit Press, and Matt has interviewed some of the hottest photogs in the business, including Jasmine Star, Zach Arias, Ami Vitale, Chris Orwig, David duChemin, Trey Ratcliff, Nevada Weir, and more, which still leaves me wondering why he would want to interview me. I really did enjoy speaking with Matt. He is a true gentleman and I had a lot of fun doing the interview.

On a more geeky note, you might be interested to know that I did the entire interview using nothing but my Apple iPad and the Skype app. Matt conducts most of his interviews over Skype because he is based in Malaysia (he shoots a lot for NGO’s and non-profits). So while Matt was using his computer with a fancy Blue Snowball Microphone, I was sitting in my easy chair using a pair of headphones and the built-in mic on the iPad and the quality was pretty darn good. You can hear the interview by clicking here and make sure that you check out the rest of Matt’s Digital Trekker blog while you are there. He has some really great stuff going on.