The back story behind this most comes from one of the more common questions I get these days about Lightroom.  It comes in the Develop Module and confusion about the difference between the Exposure slider, the Fill Light slider, and the Brightness slider.

It’s easy to see how there could be confusion when you start pushing sliders to their extremes, because at the higher levels, the impact does seem the same.  However, when kept within their intended parameters, these adjustment sliders all impact different areas.  Specifically:

• The Exposure Slider adjusts the brighter tonal portions of an image
• The Fill Light Slider adjusts the shadows or darker tones in an image
• The Brightness adjusts the mid-tones of the image.

To better illustrate, take a look at the images below.  First up is the default in camera settings:

See how the shadow detail is completely lost?  Having exposed for the sky, the camera was unable to capture the shadow detail sufficiently to reveal anything.  When you see this, often the natural inclination is to increase the exposure to try and bring back the detail in the shadows.  So, let’s see what happens…

See how the only area really affected is the part by the setting sun?  I’ve increased the exposure by one half stop.  Since that’s not much of an adjustment let’s take a look when we dial things up a bit more.  Here’s the next image, with the exposure increased by a full stop:

Now it’s just starting to look a little garish, and the appeal of the image is nowhere near even what the defaults were.  I could further prove the point by showing another half stop increase in exposure, but I think you probably get the gist.  So, let’s take a look at the Fill Light slider and how adjustments there affect the image.

Here I’ve increased the Fill Light to +25.  See how the area around the setting sun hasn’t been affected?  We don’t see much of a change yet, but watch what happens when we increase the slider some more.  Here’s the same image at +50.

If you look at the mountain, see how we’re starting to see some separation from the lower one in front and the one behind it?  You can see the tree line now!  This actually (I think) adds some depth to the image that wasn’t there in the original.  This is a great example of how the Fill Light slider is bringing back shadow detail in the image.

So, now that we see difference in the shadow detail, let’s take a look at what the Brightness Slider does.  As I said above, it doesn’t address the lightest tones or the darkest tones in the image, but rather tries to pull out detail from the middle tonal parts of the image.  Let’s take a quick look at that too, just to illustrate the differences here.

It’s worth noting here that by default, Lightroom puts an image at +50 on the Brightness slider, so an increase to 75 here isn’t that much of a change, but we are still seeing some subtle changes in the cloudy part of the sky.  That makes sense as this is where the mid tones are for this image.  It’s even more evident though when we adjust the brightness up another notch to +100.

That sky is starting to look just about perfect for my tastes.  I could take it a notch further but again, hopefully by now you get the gist.  What’s important here to note though, is that there is no single slider adjustment for any given photo that will make it “perfect”.  Instead, it’s almost always a combination of post processing adjustments in not only the exposure, fill light, brightness, and even others that will take your snapshots and make them great shots.  For me, the end result here, is a combination of all three of these sliders, and a dash of some other adjustments to make it what you see below:

Here, I’ve done some adjustments to various sliders.  Can you tell which ones I’ve used and to what degree?  Hopefully after today’s post, it’ll be easier to tell in the final image – and in your own images!  Take some time and play with your own images inside of Lightroom and see what it can do for you!  Have a great weekend, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

Online resources like TinEye are becoming more common, and people often take extensive measures to protect their content, including watermarking both front and center, and placing a digital signature on the files that is not as easily stripped or removed (a popular method here is to use the services of Digimarc where the company will monitor usage for you).

The ultimate way that most photographers go though, is to utilize Flash as this really limits the accessibility of the image.  You can’t right-click and save, and it’s very hard to strip out without hosing things completely.  The biggest immediate downside is that Flash hasn’t historically worked well with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so your site information will not be read by the various search engine crawlers like Google, Yahoo, and Bing!

The other downside to using Flash is that many of us fall victim to the impulse to incorporate music in our presentations.  However, when incorporating music, you must be careful to ensure that you are not infringing on someone else’s copyright.    I made the mistake of using a snippet of some music from a major label as an intro to the podcast a few times, thinking it was an innocent usage.  As it turns out, such usage is not innocent – it’s in violation of the owners’ copyright.  (This is why some podcasts are no longer available, or have been re-published with what is called “pod-safe” music. )

There is a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo out there about the usage of snippets or “sampling”, and getting into all the nitty -gritty would really close your eyes quickly!  If you want to learn more about the legalities, start here.  Suffice to say, my awareness of the technicalities come from personal experience, and for me, it has been a lesson learned in not only  how to protect my own work, but also about respecting the copyrights of other artists.

So, armed with this insight, when photographers come and ask about how to protect their images, and then share with me a Flash gallery with what is clearly copyright protected music, I always feel obliged to reply with a little note.  While I have made it a policy never to call anyone out publicly on this (that’s just not cool in my book), there’s a lot of copyright infringement going on out there by photographers! It’s usually the usage of music in Flash gallery presentations, and often is done innocently enough, but with not so innocent results that are possible.

You see, most artistic endeavors, whether photographic in nature or through other mediums like musical expression (or painting, pottery, writing, or pretty much any sort of creative expression), are all instantly protected by copyright on creation.  If the artist has registered their work with the Copyright Office (and most commercial artists have), they also have additional legal and fiscal remedies they can pursue against infringers for unauthorized usage.

The point here is that musical usage is just like image usage – it is a licensed activity.  So, unless you specifically are using music that is in the public domain (a.k.a. free for all to use -often called “pod-safe” music), it is more common to be restricted by licensing.  This is why the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have endeavored to protect their clients licensing by preventing illegal usage of their music.

Also keep in mind that just because you own a single CD from an artist does not give you the right to re-publish that music.  You can listen to it, and you can even loan the CD to a friend.  But ripping a song off a CD and using it for a slideshow is not a great idea.  So, before you go and rip that CD from your favorite singer or band & convert to MP3 for inclusion in your Flash photo gallery – consider that you are using someone else’s content likely without their knowledge or consent.  This could spell trouble in a number of ways:

1.  Cease and Desist Notification

You may get one of those “Nasty Grams” saying you are using content illegally and must remove said content within 24 hours.

2.  DMCA Takedown Notification

Usually after 24 hours, they stop trying to contact you, and simply notify your Internet Service Provider.  At that point, your website will pretty much be shut down automatically as ISP’s do not want to be involved with the liability of a photographer who has used unauthorized music.  This is done by the infringed artist demonstrating to the ISP that one of their accounts is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA for short), and are requesting that pursuant to the DMCA provisions, that the infringing site be “taken down”.  It’s often referred to as a DMCA take-down notice – and if your host ever sends you an email notice using these words, it’s not a good sign.  You likely won’t get sued, because the infringement has effectively stopped, but that is another option that infringed parties have available to them, so don’t be too sure.

3.  Legal Remedy

You could get sued!  One of the big reasons photographers (and all artists0 are encouraged to register their works with the Copyright Office, is that it affords much larger restitution from parties that deliberately use your work without permission.  Music is no different.  If the artist is someone big, like Madonna, Aerosmith, or Dave Matthews Band, their pockets are pretty deep and they have attornies who wont even flinch as they file lawsuits against people who use their work without permission.

4.  Fiscal Restitution

Now, not only is your site taken down, but you have a legal judgment against you, and you will not only have to pay for the illegal usage, but also all the injured parties court costs.  These lawyers aren’t cheap – usually charging hundreds of dollars per hour!

There are two terms that are bandied about when these discussions come up and it does require just a teensy bit of legal mumbo-jumbo, but rest assured- I want to keep the legal portion of this short and sweet and easy to understand, so bear with me for a short paragraph or two here.  The terms people quote when it comes to using music for slide shows or podcasts are Fair Use and “The Thirty Second Rule”.  Let’s take each separately:

Fair Use

People like to bandy this term about but before you do, keep in mind that the term of “fair use” is not a law – it is a doctrine that can be used and applied (or not) to define whether or not infringement exists.  There are no hard and fast rules here – it’s all subjective and is typically applied on a case-by-case basis, which means there are already legal proceedings at play.  Courts are now involved and looking at things like purpose and character, nature of the work, and much more.  To see a full discussion on the term “fair use” go to this page on Stanford’s website (yes, THAT Stanford!).

Thirty Second Rule

The “thirty second rule” is really more a claim of minimal usage.  (It’s called a “De Minimis Test”, where there is simply not enough of a recognizable portion of the protected work used to really be eligible for infringement.)  There are two court cases that both support and contradict the defense, specifically Sandoval v. New Line Cinema Corp and Ringgold v. Black Entertainment Television, Inc, respectively.  One case held that the usage was minimal and did not constitute infringement, while the second showed that the infringement (a poster shown in a movie for 27 seconds) was valid because it was recognizable, and even a casual observer would be able to “discern the  imagery and colorful style”.  Again, more details are available on the Stanford page here.

Clearly, both of these claims are really more urban myth than reality, and such reliance is not a good idea if your web presence, financial stability, and reputation are at stake.  Wouldn’t you agree?  Remember, just because someone plays a lawyer in a forum (or on a blog!   ) does not make them one in reality.  To that end, while I do have post graduate studies that focus specifically on legal issues, I am not a lawyer and do not pretend to be one.  But, I would say that my own understanding of legal issues is probably better than the average laymans!

Rather than hounding on the legal precedents though (many of your eyes have glassed over already, I can tell!   ), I’d suggest that we all use a pretty generic rule that seems to work no matter what the situation is.  For me it’s always been called The Golden Rule:

“Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You!”

Think about it – if you are trying to protect your own copyright, why would you then use the works of others in your own presentation without permission?  Isn’t that just asking for trouble?  It seems rather presumptious – almost like the person is saying “The law applies to others who try to take my work, but not to me taking others work…that’s ok.”

The only other argument I’ve heard from some about using copyright protected work is that they are so small, what are the odds of a content creator coming after them.  The answer is “quite good”.  Don’t you remember the news a few years back when the RIAA went after infringement big time, and one of the infringers was a 12-year old girl?  They dug in, stuck to their guns, and the parents were liable.  The point here is that it can happen and it does happen…all the time!

So,  the question that most people ask me after I tell them about all this is: “What options are available?”  Answer:   Plenty!

Alternatives

1.  Podsafe Music

I’ve already referenced the “podsafe” option now a few times, but have only pointed you to the Wikipedia article that discusses some of the legalities of it.  There are podsafe resources out there where you can get often either free music or very low cost musical scores to use in your shows.

Here’s a list of just a few resources that I have used in the past myself to find material that is appropriate for what I am doing:

• PodSafe Audio
• Royalty-Free Music
• Music Alley
• Magnatude

Keep in mind, some of these are completely free, and some you do have to pay for, but the pricing is very cost effective compared to licensing from major artists like the ones mentioned above.  For instance, Magnatude you can use even for as little as $15 (in the form of subscription membership).  Take each for a test drive until you find one that fits your presentation or podcast need accordingly!

2.  Record your own music

Another option would be to record your own music!  Many photographers I know are also musicians, and are perfectly capable of recording something cool and original, for their own show.  I also know folks who are friends with people who are musically inclined, and have collaborated on short works to use in things like slideshows and podcasts.  This route is actually super cool because often the artist will tailor the style of the music being recorded to the specific needs for the slideshow or presentation, making the entire body quite unique, original, and thus much more appealing to listening and viewing audiences.  It also can help both artists gain a little visibility!

3.  Use what you already have

Last, but not least, would be to use some of the snippets that come with certain platforms.  For instance, Garage Band on the Mac has sound bites that I have used in my podcast a lot!  Other programs out there like ProShow Gold, Camtasia, and even Adobe Soundbooth offer short snippets for sound bites, teasers, and jingles that you can blend and mix together to create something usable.  It may require a little more work here, but as the old saying goes – nothing good ever comes easy!

Getting down to it though, it’s ultimately a matter of respect for others work.  If you want to protect your images by using a slideshow in Flash or some other medium, make sure you respect musicians works just like you want your own work untainted.  Remember, copyright law is there to protect us – and others.  It’s not just for photographers! Musicians, painters, sculptors, writers and more all are protected by copyright, and we as a collective group of creatives need to work together, and not divisively.

If you’ve got your own resources, ideas, tips, or suggestions on how to produce music safely and legally for things like photo slideshows and podcasts, feel free to chime in to the comments and share resources with the community!  I love to hear from others and always enjoy learning about new content outlets all the time, so insert your own thoughts below!  With that in mind, keep on shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

To start, I took an image and pulled it into Photoshop.  Realizing that I would need to do some virtually identical steps across several images, on the first one, I started the process of creating an action.  The action in essence, creates a duplicate layer of the image, converts it to black and white, then repeats the duplication for another 9 black and white layer copies.  So, ultimately your Layer panel has 11 layers to it – 10 black and white layers and one color layer (at the bottom).

Next, I went to each layer and adjusted the opacity down by 10%.  So, the top layer was at 100% opacity, then 90%, then 80%, etc, etc, all the way down to 10%.  At this point I stopped recording the action.  Now, it was a simple matter of saving each of the 11 total images to a folder.  I started with the full layer set visible and saved to web (Control+ALT=Shift+S).  I saved to a specific folder so that each subsequent image could easily be numbered sequentially for easier management later.  In the end, I had 11 images, numbered 1-11.

For the final step, I opened my video editor (Camtasia) and imported the media.  Here it now may take some trial and error to determine image length, transition length, and if you want titles included.  Next, I picked some audio from the native library and added to the time line.  After clipping and taking the last few seconds for a fade out, the slide show was done. All I had to do now was export and share.

In Camtasia, there are many options to choose from for sharing your work online, from Screencast.net (their host) to YouTube, exporting as Flash, .mov files, .avi files, and many other options.  Here you should choose the one that works best for you and your needs.

Last but not least, it’s just a matter of either exporting the video you created and uploading either to your own host through FTP, or using the native interface to export to any one of a number of video hosting services as mentioned above.

For those interested in giving it a whirl, here’s the action I put together in 10% increments.  Feel free to experiment and try your own settings and percentages to style and taste as needed.

Black and White Layers

Got your own ideas for how to create new effects and appearances with stills in videos?  What are your thoughts on this technique?  Share your thoughts, comments, and feedback below or with me via email.

As a final reminder for the week, there’s limited time left on a couple of fronts:

1. The contest for July is about wrapped up – you still have a chance to enter to win a copy of Lightroom 3 from the folks over at Adobe, so don’t forget to sign up today!  Just submit your photo in the Flickr thread.
2. The Lightroom Workshop Series kicks off in a little over a week in Anaheim CA, with Denver following shortly thereafter.  We’ve also added some webinars for those who can’t attend an entire day, and more info coming on that.  We’d love to see you in on a workshop day though, so sign up soon as time and space are limited!  Signups are being handled over at Lightroom Dudes
3. Last but not least, the eBook is out of the gates and initial response has been overwhelming!  Thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts and feedback on the sequel for 49 Photo Tips.   The 20% savings window is almost over too, so be sure to get your digital download before the end of the month.  After that, it’s regular price of $4.99

1.  Download the script from the link above (I downloaded to my desktop on Windows XP)

2.  Copy the script from your desktop (or whatever download location you configured for your browser) to your Photoshop folder, as indicated in the screen shot.

3.  Open Photoshop (if it was already open, you should probably close PS and restart it)

4.  Open the picture you want to apply the script to (I started with the largest size desktop I wanted to configure it for, in this case 1600 x 1200.

5.  Navigate to the Presets option in Photoshop and open the script

6.  The interface lets you select certain information such as the month it will run for, when the week starts, etc.

7.  Special mention here to include certain holidays – if you have custom days (say birthdays, anniversaries, etc) to add, create a text file for reference and point the script to that txt file location.  If you don’t want certain days highlighted,you can leave this option un-checked and proceed with the script.

8.  It may take the script some time to run (it took me about 58-61 seconds to run it on my computer, but I was multitasking with other things at the time…).  When it’d done, you’ll get a stack of a lot of layers that looks like this, with the default layer selected of “Picture Mask”.  Note:  I’d also recommend checking the option to rasterize most text layers otherwise you’ll have up to 30 additional layers of text (one for each day of the month)! The layers underneath this are where all the really cool stuff is, and the other layers are dates and effects that you can change to suit your own tastes.

9.  Once you have tailored the layers to suit your needs, simply flatten, save as a jpg and configure your desktop to use that image!  Since I typically will save to multiple desktop dimensions, I start with the original and re-size to each output, from largest to smallest saving each as a jpg then letting the script use that to create the desktop calendar.

There you have it!  The nitty gritty details on how to create a really slick looking desktop calendar for you and your clients.  Simply print as pictures through your favorite venue if you like and watch the sales come in!

One final little news note that is time sensitive – DIY Photography has a very creative approach to contests and the prize package is worthy of a nod (don’t know how he/she/they managed to come up with this big bag of goodies!), so stop over here and throw your hats in the ring:  http://bit.ly/aRQa9l

See you back here tomorrow for the latest in photo goodness!  I’ll also bring up a couple tips on how to tweak the layers to your own ends, but feel free to begin exploring your own creative approaches!

Well, when I recently twittered with excitement over the newly released calendar of some of my favorite images for 2010, someone asked me about the template I used to create those images.  I honestly answered that I didn’t really use a template as the website www.lulu.com just let me upload the images and they handled the rest.  On realizing that they were talking about the images on my Photography Website, I recalled that a template was used for those images.  I could have done a written post about this, but those take a lot of time to put together (lots of screen grabs, lots of writing, and lots of uploading), so I instead decided to put together a new video on how to create a template for your photos inside of Photoshop.  The video may take some time to load, so please be patient as this is a self-hosted video production!

Keep in mind – this is just one way – in Photoshop there are always many ways to reach similar results, and as the old adage says, there’s more than one way to skin a cat!  Anyway, this is for you @mitz!  Enjoy, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!  Oh, and lest we forget, there are very few days left in the January giveaway!  For your chance to win a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft, get your Circle-themed photos in the Flickr Contest Thread by midnight on Friday (Mountain Time – GMT-7).

P.S.  For those that like my videos and want to see the archives, check out the Learning Resource Page from the sidebar for more materials.  And as an additional side note, this is post #600.  No fuss, no muss, no fanfare, but yet somehow I landed back on video tutorials – which is kind of how it all started!  Somehow, ,ind of poetic, eh?

• Podcast Episode #61 (Wednesday)
• Weekly What’s This? (Wednesday)
• Holiday Photography article (Thursday)
• Mystery Post to be named soon (Friday)

So, thanks for keeping Canon Blogger in your feeds and tweets, hearts and minds, and all that jazz.  If you’re not a feeder or a tweeter, go pick up the feed or twitter link on the side panel and follow me there.  There’s also the poll for the season, so please share your opinion there too!  Lots going on so talk back to me and let me know what you think of all this photo and social activity!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you here tomorrow with a cornucopia of content!

So, where should you really go to shop for holiday presents this year?  Your nearest photo store naturally!  Here are a few of my top picks for Christmas gadgets that will likely please just about any photo enthusiast.  Fair warning, all the product links here are to B&H Photo, where I do 99% of my own shopping, but you are free to choose a retailer or e-tailer of your own preference.

1. More memory!  We all could use more memory in our cameras, but be sure you get the right kind.  Most Point-and-shoot cameras will take the Secure Digital (or SD) type whereas most SLR cameras will take the CompactFlash variety.  I like the 8GB as it can store a lot of images, but doesn’t necessarily put all your eggs in one basket.  The respective B&H links are here and here.
2. Another cool little gadget is the Gorilla Pod.  My brother got one of these for his P&S a year or two ago anda loves it.  They do have P&S and SLR grade versions for a quick little setup while on the go.  Also under $50 (each), they are viewable here and here for P&S and SLR cameras respectively.
3. Pictures!  That’s right, family, friends and loved ones are those who really thought you had what it takes to go into photography in the first place, so you know they love your work.  Tis the season to give, so give them some nice large prints.  Mpix is a great online printer and here I am deviating from my B&H heavy references to say do all your printing at MPix!

There’s 23 more days so I’ll likely pepper a few more suggestions in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, keep that camera at the ready!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

“By entering the Contest, all entrants grant to Authorized Parties (National Geographic Society and its licensees) a royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable perpetual, nonexclusive license to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in whole or in part, without further review or participation from the entrant, in any medium now existing or subsequently developed, in editorial, commercial, promotional and trade uses in connection with NGS Products”

Surprise surprise…these types of restrictions and conditions for entering what otherwise appears to be free contests are commonly referred to by those who take care to reading the rules as “Rights Grabs”.  Basically, a magazine or other entity is looking to get a large collection of images for free, and by promoting the possible payout of prizes, many unwittingly enter, win nothing, and yet by entering surrendur their images for use by the magazine or other entity.  Moral of the story:  Be Careful With Contests

While the concept is not new to me, the fact that what would normally be considered an admirable publication like National Geographic would approach things in such a manner is rather unsettling.  To Photojojo’s credit, there were several that seemed to be worth considering, so for those of you with nothing to do after the turkey and football, feel free to head over to Photojojo and peruse the offerings.  From my perspective here’s the scuttlebutt on the rest of the contests they are showcasing over at Photojojo:

• PDN Student Contest – Entry Fees, and must be an enrolled student
• Center for Fine Art – Entry fees, no info on copyright prior to submission
• M.I.L.K – No entry fee, all copyrights retained by Photographer!  Good one!
• Sony World Photography Awards – No entry fee, photographer retains all copyrights – another good one!
• Communication Arts Awards – Entry fees, no prizes (only recognition)…did not search for copyright info
• JPG Magazine – No entry fees, cash prizes, photographer retains copyright – Another good one!
• Million Places – Several contests, some are free, others require purchasing “credits”.  Seems photographer retains copyrights, and singular publication in a book is done per Rules and Guidelines.
• Photoburst – Free, photographer appears to retain copyright – another good one ($100 B&H gift card)

Terms and conditions, rules and restrictions may change and/or vary, so always double-check before entering.  Happy shooting, have a great rest of the weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday!  Leaving on a high note, enjoy the weekly editions of What the Duck, by clicking the link below which goes to my favorite:

We took a week off last week from the mystical photo posting of “What’s This?”, but I am happy to say it’s back again today.  Here’s a slow pitch one for everyone as we stop thinking about photography and start thinking about Thanksgiving.  WHat’s the image above?  The winner, as always wins thousands of dollars in cash and prizes, a lifetime membership in all photo associations, a new car, their own private island, and of course, bragging rights here on CB.

Yeah, okay, pretty much nothing but the last one can be taken seriously.  Anyway, in light of the upcoming holiday, I would like to say thanks to all who have supported the blog and who have shared their thoughtful comments and feedback, as well as all those who have participated.  Tomorrow will be a “No Blog” day, but I’ll be back on Friday to wrap up the week.  Happy Thanksgiving to all the US readers, and to those outside the US, have a great Thursday.  Happy shoot, and as always, I hope all your shots are good ones!

After a rather exciting weekend photographically I thought today might be a fun way to share my experiences with the readership in the form of an audio podcast!  That’s right, I am going to try and get established again with a weekly podcast you can listen to.  Today, I talk about my experiences with the Colorado Strobist group over on Flickr.  Also, I hit on the subject of learning on your own versus in a community.  It’s kind of an interesting mix of two related schools of thought, and hopefully will get me back on the band wagon for audio podcasts on a regular basis.  You’ll recognize the theme music, and that should stay consistent, but it will likely stay in audio format for the forseeable future.

For a few of my shots from the outing, stop over at the Flickr pool and look at the contributions from CB_Jason.  It’s always fun to get feedback, and I do listen to what everyone has to say.  I thought the lighting was good, but my post processing left a little to be desired (in retrospect).  Comes from having not the best monitor to work with in my 5 year old Dell 19″!

Anyway, give a listen, it’s much more portable now, and I only ramble on for about 5 minutes or so.  Let me know what you think and if there are any subjects you would like to see discussed in future episodes!  Happy shooting, and I’ll have another new topic for your reading pleasure back here again tomorrow!

[podcast]http://www.canonblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/CBPodcast54.mp3[/podcast]

As the day starts to fade into the last few hours, I realized nothing had been prepared for posting today.  At times like this, I either decide to make it a “no blog” day, or put together a few brief thoughts, that are tied to photography.  The latter won over today, so for the readers who continue to visit on a regular basis, you are in for a treat (or a trick, since we are getting kind of close to Halloween!).  So, here’s my three thoughtful tips for the day:

1. If you’ve got some blown highlights or high contrast pictures that just aren’t working – try a black and white conversion.  Add a vignette and you may actually have a shot worth keeping.
2. In a pinch, your on camera flash is still a flash…granted not the best one, but with even a piece of regular copy paper in front of it, you can diffuse it and spread the light a little more.  It may not be ideal, but better than the glaring brightness of direct flash light.
3. In tough lighting and no gray card?  Stick your hand out.  Yup, it may not be the best metering source, but your skin can be used to neutrally balance a shot.  From there you can find the rest in post process…

Got any other ideas off the cuff?  Share them in the comments!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

If you post it, they will guess…that’s the theory I’m going with this week.  Anyone have any ideas?  I took a different approach to it this go around, hopefully a little more abstract…  Good luck, and Happy Shooting!

I was driving home from work yesterday with my camera bag in the seat next to me when I saw this on the opposite side of the road.  So, I swung around, popped out of the car, set up and used the roof of the car for stability and snapped off a few shots wide open and about 800 ISO.  As a full-size image it is a bit noisy, but here it looks pretty good.  To me, that’s proof positive that it always pays to have your camera with you.  That’s the “Tuesday Tip” for this week.  Enjoy and Happy Shooting!  We’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Orange

Jason Moore has his bi-monthly Photographic Compostion posted today, so be sure to stop over there and see the others (I am sure they were more creative than the one I came up with at the last minute yesterday…)

Rather than record a tip or trick for this Tuesday, I thought I’d share a few ideas and suggestions I’ve picked up from various magazines, forums, and photo communities for managing and handling your gear in the field.  These things have become almost second nature to me now and I can’t tell you how helpful these tips and tricks have become in helping me keep everything organized.  So without further ado, here’s my Tuesday tricks:

1. Pack a large plastic ziploc or other sealable bag in with your camera gear.  When it’s windy or there’s lots of dust around, you can change your lenses from inside these bags to minimize dust.  Additionally, it serves as an additional layer of protection should mother nature decide to dump a deluge of water on you with little warning.  (I keep several sandwich bags in my pack for protecting things like CF cards, wide angle lenses, TC’s and other items.
2. If you must change lenses in the field, keep the body of the camera pointed down so as to prevent dust from falling into the opening (dust won’t wall up…).
3. Keep a notepad and pen in your pack, in case you find a location that you want to remember, meet someone and want an email or phone number, or to get an address to send prints or perhaps a resume to!  On the same note, having some business cards and model releases handy for handing out and in case you have a willing model…
4. Turn your CF cards around backwards when full, so you always know which ones are used versus unused.
5. Buy a car converter for AC to DC.  This way you can charge your batteries while en route to a shoot.  They’re only like $20 at Wal-Mart or Radio Shack and can add a certain peace of mind that you are going into your shoot with as much of a charge on your portables as you can get.  (Just make sure you add the battery chargers to your packing list…)
6. Speaking of packing lists – make one!  This can help ensure you leave with everything you brought to a shoot.  I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s been a while, so bears mentioning again.
7. Pack a micro fiber cloth for wiping off lenses in a pinch.  (Better a microfiber cloth than your shirt!)  These can be begged off any eyeglasses store (try Wal-Mart, they are pretty liberal with handing these things out..)
8. Need a better way to store your gear at home?  Try shoe boxes.  You can get them for a buck a piece from a dolalr store – makes a great way to compartmentalize short lenses from long lenses, accessories, flash equipment, battery chargers, CD media, gray cards, lens cloths, etc.  A few labels from a Dymo label maker and everything is neat, and easy to find in your bedroom closet!
9. Dress in layers – weather can change, especially if you are shooting at sunrise or sunet.  It can change from cool to warm or warm to cool very quickly and having a layer to take off (or put on) can extend your shoot time before you start getting uncomfortably warm (or cold).
10. Take a bottle of water and a granola bar in your pack!  You’d be surprised how quickly you can dehydrate and how hungry you can get while shooting.  I’ve been on shoots where there is so much creativity and so many shooting opportunities, I can often forget to eat or drink.  When things finally end you can be very hungry and or dehydrated where even a bottle of water or a granola bar (or both) can give you the needed boost until you can get to Starbucks or the house for more healthy refreshments!

So, that’s my ten tips/tricks for the day.  Got any of your own to share?  Sound off in the comments – I’d love to hear what others have to say about shooting preparations.  In the meantime, happy shooting, watch those apertures and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow for the Week 13 episode of “What’s This?”

Here’s one for everyone…what’s this?

I had to go through some archives to find one that fit what I was looking for this week, but I found it.  This is a crop of a larger image.  The only thing I did was a little levels adjusting, the crop, and then some sharpening.  Can you identify this?  Share your thoughts in the comments!  The winner – wins!

As always, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

So, for those who want the early bird news, here’s a hint of what Adobe will be talking about later this morning:

1. Better scrolling with less jaggies as you zoom in and out of images.
2. The Adjusment Panel – Adobe has added a dedicated panel for your layers adjustments
3. On-screen image adjustments – you can now control hue/saturation, Curves and Black and White adjustments directly on your image
4. Camera Raw saw some significant upgrades because now you can apparently do post-crop vignettes, apply gradient filters, and yes, that’s right, also the very-Lightroom like adjustment brush!
5. Addition of the vibrance slider to CS4 – this previously was in LR and camera raw, but not as a layer adjustment in CS3 – they’ve ported that element over to the inside of CS4! Yay!
6. Tools improvements for the eyedropper, dodging, burning, the brush engine is more responsive, and the clone and heal now allow for vanishing points
7. Customizable GUI – that’s right, you can now customize your own panels in CS4! The Configurator 1.0 feature (flash-based) allows you to create and use your own customized panels! Truly amazing.

Kudos to the NAPP staff for taking the time to put all this together – 17 video tutorials in all – (and this is just proof positive that membership has its privileges…because by learning from those on the cutting edge means you are getting cutting edge technology too! I am not sure if it’s publicly viewable, or if it’s a members-only thing, so will refrain from providing the links to the CS4 features they talk about, but I must admit, this does have me more buzzed about the announcement than I was before. Make sure you stop in to Adobe to watch it as I am sure there will be much excitement across the blogosphere about this!

Anyway, back to the regular blogging – I’ve got some announcements of my own to share, but they kinda pale in comparison…

Thanks to the folks over at Blubrry, I have been successfully able to implement a new alternative to embed podcasts into the native feed that already exists for CanonBlogger.  So, in the interests of getting the content posted to iTunes and to those feeds that had not been updated from web references, I am going to spend the next few days providing some video content updates.  The expanding ease of the .mov format not only in this interface, but also for portability purposes also seems to suggest that I am going to stick to that format exclusively for the foreseeable future.

For those that had been coming to the blog for their content, you will already have seen this video, but for those who have been waiting on the feed for new multimedia, this will be new material.  Today, I am re-publishing the tutorial on reducing noise in your images. Enjoy!  For the rest of you, see if you can tell the differences between some clouds shot with and without a circular polarizer.  Share your thoughts in the comments on which one is with and which is without.

Image A:

Image B:

To start, I’d like to call out for thanks fellow NAPP member Erik Bernskiold.  Not only is he a talented Photoshopper, but he knows quite a bit about web design too (and he’s like 1/3rd my age!).  Anyway, I was quite flattered when he asked me if I would be willing to participate in a short interview for his blog/website.  Needless to say, I accepted.  You can see the Q&A on his blog here.  Talk about tutorials – he crosses outside of Photoshop and does a lot of Adobe tutorials, so definitely a good guy to watch.  (Plus, he’s super-nice and always helpful.)

Next up, I’d like to also send out some thanks to Michael Johnston over at The Online Photographer who linked back to the blog here on his discussion of the Canon 5D.  For anyone who has read CB for any length of time, you know that TOP is where I go for my daily read of insightful, educational and theoretical musings on the industry of photography.  Always a cool thing to get a nod from one of the elite, so thanks Michael.

Finally, since yesterday I skipped over the “What’s This?”, there’s no better time than the present to insert another photo opportunity.  It should be fairly easy, but you never know…so, what’s this:

That’s it for today.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you here tomorrow.

Here’s the nuts and bolts of all the specs:

• HD Video @ 1920×1080 and 30 fps
• SD Video @ 640×480 and 30 fps
• video capture up to 4 GB or 29min, 59 sec
• Video recorded in .MOV format
• Input terminal for microphones
• HDMI output
• 3 Live View Modes
• Peripheral Illumination Correction
• Two Small raw formats
• Silent shooting in Live View
• Integrated Cleaning System
• 21.1 MP
• ISO from 50-25,600 (not a typo!)
• 3.9 fps
• UDMA card compliant
• 15 point auto-focus
• 3″ LCD (920,000 dot resolution VGA)
• 150,000 shutter count cycle
• Price: $2699!!!!!

I guess the only thing that surprises me is the frames per second for still captures.  Yeah okay, it’s capturing 21.1 megapixels and at a full frame, but it is also able to capture 30 fps in HD video!  Why is the still frame rate so slow comparatively speaking (at 3.9 fps)?

That being said, the video features are astonishing, as is the low price point!  I would expect the older Canon 5D’s to drop into the $1000 range shortly…start checking the auction sites!  For the full story that gives all the hype and glamour of Canon news announcements, check out the press release here with all the above shots also in high resolution:

Canon Announces 5D Mark II

Anyone else want to salivate over it with me?  What are your thoughts on this new release?  Will this answer the gauntlet of the D3 that Nikon threw down a short while ago?  I would tentatively say yes – but only time will tell!

Video clips:

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop01.html

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop02.html

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop03.html

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop04.html

Today is the latest installment of the Geographic Composition series from Jason Moore, noted photographer and Photoshop Pro over on his blog.  I had the privilege of being a contributing participant again, so in lieu of the typical tutorial that is associated with Tuesday postings, here is the shot that I shared in the Geographic Composition series.  The theme for this most recent series is Big and Small.

Be sure to stop over at Jason’s blog to view the rest of the images (it’s an excellent resource to for creative juices and to see the latest trends in the industry.  He’s in my blogroll to the right, but it bears sharing a link here as well:  Jason D. Moore Photography

On to other news, I was doing some research and writing this last weekend on The Online Photography Testing Center (the Advanced test is done by the way, and the final [expert] exam is also underway!), and in doing a lot of reading and surfing, I came across a few sites that are worth mentioning.

• 1001 Noisy Cameras had a facelift, so update your feeders.  (Looks great guys!)  Don’t forget to check out their top 25 camera buys (Canon has 8 of the top ten and 14 of the top 25)…
• What Is Noise – After a week of talking about grain and noise, I got an email from a reader that said I should check this site out.  Very cool design, and I like how he reports on news and events that are out in the real world.  Just goes to show you that “noise” is itself a subjective term.  In photography it means one thing, in current events, another thing entirely.   It means we’re thinking outside the box!
• Your Photo Tips – I’d seen it before when an inbound link came through and had tagged it on my old Windows install before I crashed, re-imaged and migrated to Mac.  Saw it again on Flickr, and thought “I remember that!”  Very cool site and I learned something interesting about Google’s browser, Chrome there too!
• Finally, while I don’t like to perpetuate rumors, with the 50D becoming official, it does seem that the only Ace-in-the-hole that Canon has left is the successor to the 5D for Photokina.  That, when combined with the teaser they have on their site (note the lack of an in-camera flash on top) suggests that it is likely to happen.  Go figure…and I just bought the 40D three months ago!

And last but not least, I must admit that I forgot my own anniversary date!  I had thought that since I began recording site visitors in September of 2007 that the blog had “officially” started back then.  However, the blog technically had some posts in August of last year, so my anniversary date blew by and I didn’t even notice.  Suffice to say, it means I’ve now spent over a year on this blog.  I’d give out prizes, but after the move, funds have diminished sufficiently that I must hold off on such excesses until things are a little more stable!  So, at the risk of a little shameless self-promotion:

Canon Blogger has been blogging along now for over a year!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed and encouraged me, and stopped in to share their thoughts, comments, and feedback to keep me motivated.

Today I thought it might be fun to share a few links to fun Photoshop resources – reasons to laugh and just take a break from it all.  Here’s 3 of my favorites:

Photoshop Disasters

You Suck at Photoshop

What The Duck

Fair warning, the second one could be considered “not safe for work”.   Do you have any fun Photoshop resources or web sites that you visit just for laughs?  Share them in the comments.  Have a good weekend all, and, as always, happy shooting!

To give you an idea of how images can benefit from noise, take a look at the following two shots.  First the color:

And how the black and white:

See how the grain from the image really accentuates his facial features?  That’s one way in which noise/grain can enhance an image.

So, what about noise in your images?  Do you like it or not?  Got ideas for how noise can enhance your creativity?  Sound off in the comments!  Until tomorrow, happy shooting, and as always, keep watching those apertures!

Nothing fancy today – just something to whet your creativity – can you guess what this is?  It took me a while to dig through my archive of images to find one that I could crop this way and effectively not give it away.  The winner….well, wins!  Good luck to all, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote in the poll – how much time do you spend shooting for your own projects each month?