Monthly Archives: March 2008
Creating Web Galleries using Lightroom
As Photoshop World is starting tomorrow, I imagine most are watching the pros blogs to see what news, events, and info is forthcoming from that semi-annual event. Something tells me I will be ponying up the $500 to go to the September one in Vegas. (Benefits of NAPP membership notwithstanding…) In looking at the classes that they are offering for this Spring I guess two things caught me as surprising – first that there are so MANY classes to choose from. In a way a lot of options is a good thing, but it also has downsides. The upside is … Continue reading
Here we go again…another round of web galleries!
It’s Monday again, and I’ve been working on the first round of revisions to my set of articles on creating a web gallery. As the age old saying goes, if you really wanna learn the nitty gritty of how to do something – try teaching it! To take that to the next level, try teaching it without an audience! After sharing my first rough draft of the Introductiion and Chapter 1, I saw some areas where improvement was (and possibly is still needed.) I tapped away at that over the weekend, since the weather turned out to be such a … Continue reading
The Nitty Gritty on Photoshop Express
I was going to wait until Monday to make this post, but in light of all the hubub, decided to go ahead and make an exception this go around and do a weekend post. So…without further ado: Adobe on Thursday unveiled it’s latest incarnation of photo editing software, an online editor it’s calling Photoshop Express. In the aftermath of the online communities reviews, first looks, tutorials and grabbing the headlines, some salient questions are coming to the fore on the value that PE will bring to the marketplace. What is Photoshop Express? First and foremost, even heavyweights from NAPP are … Continue reading
Another Top Ten
When the blog started to take off, it was partly due to a “Top Ten” list I did that included some notable sites, including the likes of Photoshop Insider (Scott Kelby), the Digital Photography Show (Scott Sherman & Michael Stein), Strobist (David Hobby), and others. Since then, I’ve done some other “Top Ten” lists all with a photo-theme to them. Well, I hadn’t done one in a while, so figured today is as good as any. But… with it being a Friday, which I typically reserve for humorous anecdotes, here’s a Top Ten to make you laugh (and intentionally not … Continue reading
Adobe Creative Suite 4?
There have been a couple of references in the past few weeks to the next iteration of the Creative Suite for Adobe. Now in its third edition, recent web searches have seen a few alleged leaks of a beta called Stonehenge on various torrent sites. Since no public beta has been released by Adobe thus far – the recommendation is to stay clear of these “leaked” versions. With the extensive proliferation of spyware, malicious viruses, rootkits and all other sorts of destructive code commonly referred to as “malware”, this practice does make sense. However, rest assured, a CS4 is going … Continue reading
Creating Web Galleries
In keeping with my latest project of putting together instructional materials on how to create web galleries, I took advantage of the video tutorial this week to go through some of the basics of how to do the task in Photoshop. It’s not as smooth as Lightroom as some of the CSS doesn’t work right in Firefox (Firefox 2.x is not W3C compliant.) Nevertheless, it does get you through the bare bones of it, and addresses some of the issues that you should consider while putting together a set of images for displaying in a web gallery. It’s a little … Continue reading
Bright and Early Tuesday News for Canon Blogger
Changes are underway here at Canon Blogger. When traffic started to ramp up a bit after getting a mention on a couple of other popular blogs like Photoshop Insider, The Digital Photography Show, and Tips from The Top Floor, someone mentioned to me that I really should be monetizing the site. Monetizing the site? What the heck is that? They told me about banner ads, Pay-per-clicks, and referral profit sharing through companies like Google, Amazon, and even B&H. I love these companies! So, after looking into the programs, thought I’d give it a go. Well, after a month or so … Continue reading
Monday Mental Challenge
This week I am taking a different tack on my blogging for two reasons. First, I’d like to start featuring more articles, both as individual segments that can stand on their own, but that also could become part of a larger work. Based on feedback I’ve received from family and friends, it seems I do sometimes have a knack for the written word. I’d like to share some of these articles with the blogging community i the hopes of receiving more critical and objective feedback on their usefulness. Second, the thrust behind this initial thrust of articles is based on … Continue reading
At long last…
Well, the tooth ache is aching for a reason – apparently I am about to join the millions of Americans who must experience a root canal first hand. While I can take pain, a pain in the mouth is much more difficult for me to deal with than a pain anywhere else. Having had my share of broken bones, back aches, hang nails, migraines, hang overs, sprains, burns, scrapes, scars, and all that other stuff – for some reason oral vulnerabilities seem to cut me to the quick. My guess is on that day, there will be no post. But…until … Continue reading
Thursday’s Thought – HDR photography
After Scott Sherman and Michael Stein’s most recent show from DPS, where they bring in Jeff Revell and talk about HDR photography, I am reminded of the attention that HDR got when CS2 first came out. I had tried some HDR back then and it really didn’t come out too well, likely because of the tone mapping that Jeff referred to. So…now armed with CS3, and the recovery slider, I decided to re-visit some shots that were good candidates for HDR. As it turned out, with the recovery slider and a little bit of attention in Photoshop with normal layering, … Continue reading
Wow – Wednesday went fast!
Wow…a long day at work, a short dinner, and a few diversions, now it’s 9:30 and the only “news” that I know of is that Canon released a firmware update for 2 cameras in the line – the 5D and the 30D. News hit the wire yesterday, and there’s a pretty good synopsis of it at the Adorama site, along with links to grab the updates. Check it out here: Canon Firmware Updates In other news, today it seems Macworld got the bead on a new X-Rite product, called the Colormunki Photo I am sure other news is out there … Continue reading
Adding Blur – and some more Photo Walk News
Sometimes, no matter how careful you are with your setup, the in-camera limitations simply cannot compensate for a vision you have, whether it be the color range of an image, its tonal range, or even the depth of field you want to achieve. A perfect example of this was posted in our regional clubs photo site www.scphotogs.com last week. I shared a technique for adding blur to an image. While normally you wouldn’t think blur is something you want to add, as intuitively we are trained to think of images as sharp and crisp subject matter that is in focus. … Continue reading
Monday Morning Meltdown
As a part of our daily routine, my wife and I take our dog for a walk every day of the week. Usually we both go, but if I am busy, or she is, the other will take the dog out so she gets her daily exercise. (The vet told us the dog was a tad on the heavy side – we just think she’s curvy!) Well, due to the time change, the sun was just coming down to the golden hours, so I couldn’t help but grab the camera and take it along in case some chance opportunity came … Continue reading
The Canon ST-E2
As a follow-up to my post from yesterday, let me back up a little and set the stage for a multi-faceted question, in the hope that perhaps someone will know some of (or ideally all of) the answers. Recently I purchased an ST-E2 from Canon which allows you to trigger a flash without cables or wires. It uses a radio signal an infra-red signal and when mounted on your camera, pressing the shutter, trips the sensor in the ST-E2 which in turn fires the flash. This ST-E2 uses a fairly common battery type, the 2CR5, and is readily available through … Continue reading
Thursday Thoughts
Well, I am still not back to 100% but am heading to bead early tonight. Just a short thought on rechargeable batteries. I bought some Energizer 2500 NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA’s for my 550 EX last fall when I bought the flash. Having recently acquired an ST-E2, I was excited to put it to use. It worked for a while, and then died rather quickly. Thinking it was the batteries, I recharged them last night and tried again this evening with very little success (one flash then kaput.)
Wednesday Woes
Okay all, a tutorial just isn’t gonna happen this week…feeling really exhausted today…I think I am coming down with something. I’ve got a few things going on tomorrow, Friday is booked up as is Saturday, so it’s really unlikely I’ll get that tutorial out I’ve been promising. So, for the interim, I’ve bumped up the schedule on some articles I’ve been throwing together. Today, it’s a short essay on a trend I saw for a while in lost of photo communities and forums debating the validity of high res LCD screens on SLR’s. What happened in the photo world today? … Continue reading
Tuesday Troubles
Sorry all, the trip out west must have done a number on me because I was out as soon as I got home from work today. In trying to muster up the energy to record, produce, and output a tutorial today, I just could not find it in me. So, rather than deliver less than meaningful content, I’ll call this a no blog Tuesday and hopefully come out firing on all cylinders tomorrow. Happy shooting and keep them apertures in check!
Monday Evening Musings
The routine and time change caught me ff guard this morning so I didn’t get a chance to poke my head online and make a post for the day. So, a little late, here’s an article I had put together on the basics of shutter speeds and apertures a short time ago. Hopefully a fresh spin on the basics of how they work. More tomorrow. Keep on clicking those shutters, and watch the apertures (how appropos!)!
Westward Ho!
On this last full day of our travels through Colorado and Arizona, I must say there is something about the South and Southwest. In Denver the mountains were as breath-taking as I remembered. The sunshine, the skyline, and everything about it was just amazing. The same could also be said of Arizona with its clean fresh air, the beauty of the landscape, and the sheer vastness of the scenery. It revealed to me that the West has been and always will be in my blood. As we endeavor to find career paths that take us to our goal of Colorado, … Continue reading
Wednesday news and info – lots about light
Back into the cockpit today for the typical Wednesday news and information… In the interests of full disclosure, and sharing news across the photography spectrum, there is a full review out for the Nikon D60, which is the Nikon equivalent of the Canon Rebel XTi – the entry level SLR for each vendor. They seem pretty happy with it overall. Check the review out here, and thanks to the Digital Photography Show for pointing me there. Strobist offers some sage advise today on it’s most recent post, where David reminds us to not think of lighting as the be-all, end-all, … Continue reading
March Mystery…nothing happened yesterday!
Okay, well, that’s not true, but as predicted, I was not able to put a tutorial together for Tuesday, and it’s unlikely I will have one out this week simply due to time constraints and the fact that I have been spending most of my time recreating and spending some quality time with my wife, We’ve been enjoying our vacation immensely, and I shall return tomorrow with hopefully a little more info to share. I would expect that next week will see two tutorials to make up for the downtime this week. So, with that in mind, enjoy the rest … Continue reading
Monday Morning Travel Recap
Well, the weekend was a cornucopa of Denver tourism. We left SC at the not-so-bright hour of 5am and arrived in Denver by 10. That gave us time to make the last tour of Invesco Field. As a dyed-in-the-wool Bronco fan since pretty much as long as I can remember, this was the epitome of the entire 7 day trip. Needless to say, my camera pretty much clicked non-stop for the entire visit. I’ll share some shots later this week when I can get some time to work a few up. Yesterday we visited the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. After … Continue reading
