1.  In packing for your recent trip to China, what gear choices did you make for such an excursion?

I took two rigs:

(1) One for when I felt like just walking around with one camera, one lens, and no camera bag. That was a Nikon D300s (which is NOT a full frame camera), with an 18-200mm lens. That way I could go wide to tele without ever changing lenses. It’s really my all around favorite travel lens, but not quite as sharp as some of my other lenses. It’s a DX lens, so it doesn’t work with full frame cameras.

(2) In case I went someplace important (Forbidden City, great wall, temple of heaven, etc.), I took my D3 with my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens, and a 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. I had to carry a camera bag along with me (and I’d SO rather not). I’d rather focus on the photos, and not the gear, but sometimes you just have to lug the stuff. I also took a Gitzo tripod and ballhead.

2.  The latest season of D-town looks to have expanded coverage to pretty much all of photography, so it’s not just Nikon anymore is it?

When Nikon was the main sponsor, we only covered Nikon gear, and the whole show was very gear specific (this button does this—this dial does that), but in our second season we switched to be more a generally focused show, and more about taking great photos, and less on the switches and dials. We also do more lighting and on location stuff now, so for Matt and I, it’s really a lot of fun, and the viewership has literally gone through the roof, now surpassing Photoshop User TV.

3.  How do you get those cool highlights over camera button features in the D-Town videos?

That comes from Daniel in our video department. D-Town is not an easy show to edit, but I think he really does a kick-butt job with it, and he creates the graphics for everything we do, which is not an easy job. He’s a great editor, and a really great person as well. He’s made two trips to Haiti so far, delivering clothes, shoes, and toys for the children there.

4.  Other than Photoshop, what program in the Creative Suite is the most useful for your own creative endeavors?

To me it’s InDesign. I use it everyday (I’ve already used it today, and it’s just 9:10 am in the morning). I do a lot of my layout stuff there, and I’m in and out of it all the time, so I’ve actually gotten pretty decent at it (in fact, I co-authored an “InDesign Killer Tips” book a few years back, with Adobe’s own Terry White as my co-author. Of course, I did all the easy chapters.

Thanks so much to Dave, Matt, and of course, Scott for taking the time out from their busy schedules to sit down for a little Q&A with us here on the blog.  In case you don’t know the resources already, here are the various outlets for Scott and his work online:

• Photoshop Insider
• NAPP
• D-Town TV

That’s a wrap on the Q&A with the Photoshop Guys!  Tune in tomorrow for the latest LDP podcast – we hit the half century mark and talk about all the latest in photography news and tidbits, including listener Q&A, so be sure to stop in for that!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

1.  I’ve often heard that in LR post production the top-down and left-to-right approach is good, but also that setting camera profiles is a good first step, which is on the bottom right.  What’s your approach?

Once Adobe added the camera profiles, it messed up my whole top-down approach. So now I have to go all the way to the bottom to set the camera profile, then back up to the top to start developing a photo   One work around I have for it is to create a preset of the camera profiles and apply it during import. So it’s already set by the time I get to working on a photo. I have a few favorites and I usually know which ones will work (Landscape for landscapes, Portrait for portraits, etc…).

2.  Since PSU TV is more Photoshop, can viewers expect to see any Lightroom tips coming into D-Town (esp since it seems like software that is geared toward photographers)?

Actually there will probably be more Lightroom in PSU TV. Lightroom is technically “Photoshop Lightroom” and from our research most PSU TV viewers are into photography so it makes sense to cover it there. I touch on post-processing once in a while on DTown TV when I see an opening but we’re pretty packed with camera-related stuff there.

3.  Since you are asking others about keywording all the time (you can find his LR PRo questions over at www.lightroomkillertips.com ), let’s do a 180 – how often do you keyword?

Very rarely. If some generic keywords happen to work during import I’ll apply them there but if they don’t it’s rare that I come back and actually keyword after that. That said, my main areas of photography are landscapes and portraits so I don’t miss them much there. If I want a photo from Moab, I just click my Moab collection and they’re there. Same with the portraits. I very rarely have an editor call me and say “Can I get a photo of a waterfall, with a woman wearing red standing near it, during the summer, on a Thursday?”. I always teach people that if you constantly find yourself looking through for your photos based on some collection of descriptive wording then by all means they should keyword. I fully believe in it for some photographers – just not me

4.  Other than Photoshop, what program in the Creative Suite is the most useful for your own creative endeavors?

I’ve always loved Illustrator. From an artistic standpoint, Illustration is probably one of my favorites. I just really dig crisp clean vector illustrations so Illustrator is probably top on the list for me.

Special thanks to Matt for taking the time to stop in and share his thoughts and insights with the LDP crowd.  You can find Matt in several places online:

• Lightroom Killer Tips
• Photoshop User TV
• Dtown TV
• Twitter

Don’t forget, tomorrow is the grand finale – when Scott Kelby comes in for a few of his own questions with the LDP crowd!  We’ll see you then!

1.  I’ve not seen much of you on D-Town, but you’ve got your own new podcast, “Ask Dave” up and running.  Can you tell the readers a little more about it?

It’s a pretty simple concept: I encourage people to send in Photoshop questions via Twitter or the Kelby TV web site and I try to answer as many as I can, one a week. Typically the questions are in the form of “how do I…” and “what’s the quickest way to…”

2.  As the “token” Bridge fan of the PS Guys, what is your favorite new feature of Bridge and why?

I like the fact that I can quickly and easily choose images and apply batch actions, create a web site (with the Bridge Output option) and apply Camera Raw settings to multiple images. And in Photoshop CS5 I LOVE the fact that Bridge can be accessed directly inside Photoshop using Mini Bridge.

3.  With the Canadian background, I’ve always wanted to know:  What are your thoughts on Colorado stealing the Quebec Nordiques?  *Editor Note* This move happened quite a while ago, so it’s not “new” news, but given the opportunity to ask, I had to throw it in there…

At the time I was a Montreal Canadiens fan, so the move to Colorado took away one of the hottest rivalries in all of sport. The passion in those Nordiques vs Habs games was unbelievable. Having said that, Montreal fans got a good laugh when the Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup, much to the dismay of Quebec fans.

4.  Other than Photoshop, what program in the Creative Suite is the most useful for your own creative endeavors?

I use Illustrator quite a bit for logo creation and things like that and I really like the integration between Illustrator and Photoshop. I also spend a lot of time in InDesign, laying out workbooks and personal projects and really like the way I can import native layered Photoshop documents (with Layer Comps) into InDesign.

Thanks so much to Dave for taking the time out to tackle a few of the burning questions we’ve had! It wasn’t all Photoshop or photography, but it sure was fun!  You can find Dave on the web at:

• Photoshop User TV
• Dave Cross Online
• D-town TV

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next in the Photoshop Guys Series – Matt Kloskowski!

Photo News

1. 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk has been announced by Scott Kelby, and details are here.
2. Lightroom 3 was announced last week Monday – and is available to purchase and download…you can also download a 30 day trial for free from Adobe here (or buy via the sponsored link in the sidebar!)
3. New Plugins available for LR – Pro Show Gold, a popular slideshow and movie creation software set.  Info here

Martin Bailey

1. Photography and Culture in Japan: Laws or hassles shooting in public?
2. Workshops and your development in photography

• Workshops
• Development/Inspiration

3. X-Rite Colorati
4. Martin on the web

Links: http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/
Blog: http://blog.martinbaileyphotography.com/
Podcast: http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php
Workshops: http://www.mbpworkshops.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MartinBailey
Folio: Martin Baily Photography

Q&A

• Professional Critique
• Cost of Printing
• Starting Camera Suggestions

Martin was also kind enough to share a sample selection of his portfolio with us here on the show.  These are the low res versions, to see things super nice, head on over to his folio link provided above.  In the meantime, enjoy the photos, the show, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the latest in photography reviews!

1. What was my best photo?
2. What was my biggest accomplishment?
3. What software/hardware really stood out above the rest for me?
4. What was my favorite book of the year that I read?
5. What new blog became a staple in my reading?

So, rather than me telling you, this year you have an opportunity to tell me what your favorites are!  Feel free to sound off in the comments or via email…the address as always is jason<at>canonblogger<dot>com

In the blog notes for the week – the latest podcast is up, and lots of blog/podcast news to share.  I also took a more detailed look at photography and the law, and some of the resources I rely on.  Lastly, as always were the listener questions and answers.  Enjoy the show, and here’s the links/show notes:

Blog/Podcast Notes and News

• Canon Blogger Fan Page
• December Giveaway (theme is “Giving”)
• DIY Photography Article – Astrophotography
• Photofocus Article

Photograhy Legal Resources

• Photographers Rights
• The Photo Attorney
• Jack Resnicki and Ed Greenburg in Photoshop User Magazine

Listener Questions and Answers

Enjoy the show – as an added bonus I added another link in the show notes that wasn’t actually IN the show.  Anyone know which one it is?  Winner is the first person who guesses right in the comments!  Oh yeah, and here’s a link to the show on PLM and iTunes!

So, that’s it for this week – looking forward to hearing people’s thoughts of the year!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again on Monday, have a great weekend!

I give a roundup review of the Scott Kelby Worldwide photowalk, along with a more detailed back story on the Canon Confession, which was outed yesterday here on the blog.

Rich Charpentier of The Airstream Chronicles also stops in for a really great interview with me – we probably could have talked for quite a while longer, but tried to keep things managable.  On our discussion we learn about his HDR work, his printing work, and his travels from within an Airstream.  He’s got some great stories including mountain lions, sock puppets, and much more.

A couple administrative notes and links from the show.

Here’s links to Rich’s website and his blog, as well as his book, The Digital RV

A couple other things we talked about included:

Arctic Butterfly sensor Cleaner

Bert Gildart’s Photography

Stuck in Customs

Also, don’t forget the OnOne Software Plugin Suite 4.5 Giveaway is coming to an end soon!  You could win this software suite, valued at $500 retail just by entering your “Numbers” themed photo (taken in July) over at the Flickr thread before July 31st.  Good luck and I expect a lot of entries will be coming soon as people reveal the fruits of their labor, and the results of their work over the month (especially given the photo walk from this last weekend)!   I could amuse you with more, but then would have nothing for tomorrow, so don’t forget to stop back in for another fun day of photography news, information and discussion.  Happy shooting everyone!

Grab the Feed

1. What color space should I shoot in with my camera, Adobe RGB or sRGB?

A. Neither, shoot in Raw! Since defining a color space is only applicable if you are shooting in jpg rather than raw, if you shoot in raw, color space won’t matter. However, if you absolutely must shoot in jpg (or if you prefer to due to massive amounts of images for easier mass processing), use the widest possible gamut when you start for maximum flexibility. In this case, that means Adobe RGB. If your camera offers the Pro Photo color space, that is even wider so choose that if available. However, the best answer is to shoot in raw, and then specify your color space during post production.

2. What is the difference between full frame sensors and cropped sensors?

A: Full frame are built to mirror the traditional size of 35mm film, so the mirror is 24x36mm

3. What does “Bulb” mode mean on your camera dial?

A: The term “bulb” is a carryover from days of film when flashbulbs would have to be triggered manually after the shutter was opened but before it was closed. The process was to open the shutter, fire the flash, then close the shutter. Since advances in technology now allow us to fire flashes automatically as the shutter is also tripped, we no longer need to manually actuate the shutter in order to allow a flash to fire. However, we still may want to manually control how long the shutter stays open, so that feature persists.

4. What’s the difference between Lightroom and Photoshop?

A: I get this question a lot. At a fundamental level, Photoshop could be considered a pixel-based image editor where you have the ability to alter or edit the actual pixels of the image. Lightroom, on the other hand, is a vector-based editor where the information does not alter or edit the actual pixels. Lightroom would be considered more of a photo management software tool. While the latest developments have incorporated more features of photo editing in addition to the management tools, at its basic level, Lightroom is still a vector-based program, where changes are not made to the actual image, but to how vector based criteria are applied to the image.

5. What’s the difference between metadata and exif data?

A: Not much. When we talk about one set of data in this capacity the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, if you want to get technical, exif data refers to information about the shot such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO settings, camera body, etc. while meta data is more about other information like photographer name, location of photo, image editor used, tags that are applied for searchability, copyright information and other information that can be inserted into the tag fields for images.

6. What is geo-tagging?

A: Geo-tagging refers to adding the geographic location information to your photos, usually as a set of meta data tags. This practice has become more commonplace as GPS (global positioning system) units have come down in price and both hardware and software have seen developments where the information can be applied to images either directly in camera (from a GPs unit that is attached to the camera), or where it can be added afterward via special software programs.

7. What is sync-speed?

A:  Sync speed refers to the fast shutter speed you can set your camera to and not get the typical black bars from the shutter closing before the flash is finished firing. Typically the sync speed is 1/250^th of a second, but with the development of high-speed sync, this traditional rule of thumb will likely become rapidly obsolete.

8. What color space should I save to?

A:  Another very common question – and the answer does depend on how you will be outputting your images. Because most web browsers are not color-space aware, they will default to the web norm of sRGB as it has the narrowest color space. So, if your output is to the web, sRGB is your best bet. If you are outputting to a printed version though, Adobe RGB is the best option. More and more though, as printers are able to print to wider gamuts, Pro Photo is becoming more feasible as well. However you plan to output your images though, it’s always best to work in a color-calibrated environment, so make sure you calibrate your monitors and printer profiles for consistency!

9. Which is better, APS-C, CMOS or full-frame sensors?

A:  None of these sensor types are inherently better than any other – but they serve different purposes. The full frame sensor is the digital equivalent of a single frame of 35mm film (although technically it is just a smidge smaller). An APS-C sensor is often referred to as a crop-sensor and generally has a crop factor ratio of either 1.5 or 1.6 depending on the vendor. APS-C stands for Advanced Photo System, type C and is just one of several different ways of building crop factor sensors. Other ways include the CMOS sensor and the CCD sensors (which mean Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor and Charge Coupled Device, respectively). The differences here are more in the manufacturing process, and really are technical considerations that most photographers shouldn’t even worry about. The only difference that 99% of photographers need to concern themselves with is whether they want to shoot full frame (where one substantial benefit is that due to the lack of a crop factor on their lenses, so wide angle lenses are really that wide) or on a cropped sensor (where one benefit is that zooms have an effectively longer zoom). Analyzing past this level is really something beyond the scope of most photography. With the differences explained you can hopefully see that one is not inherently better or worse than another – just that there are pros and cons for each, and those must be weighed against your needs.

If anyone has any questions that are not covered here, feel free to email or comment.  Thanks for all your continued support.  As always, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!