I love my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I’ve been shooting with Canon digital SLRs since the breakthrough EOS D30 in 1990. Along the way, I’ve shot with lots of other digital SLRs, and a huge assortment of point-and-shoot cameras. Point-and-shoots have always been frustrating due to their lack of flexibility and mediocre quality, so I’ve always loved having a quality SLR to fall back on. But, to be honest, the 5D ain’t light. Especially if you want to carry some extra lenses. Micro Four Thirds cameras are a perfect in-between, offering great quality and the flexibility of an SLR, but with weight that’s closer to a point-and-shoot than to my 5D. If you’re new to the Micro Four Thirds spec, and what it means, then this overview will get you up to speed quickly.
Pixelmator 1.6 – Inexpensive Image Editing
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Photoshop’s a great image editor, and all, but you need a lot of money to get it. If you’re a Mac-based photographer who’s been looking for a more affordable alternative, and iPhoto is not for you, then you might want to consider Pixelmator, an incredibly speedy Photoshop alternative that offers a fair amount of power at a reasonable price. Read the full review here. |
Alien Skin Exposure 3
A photographer friend recently sent me this extraordinary collection of color images shot during the Depression. One of the things that’s fascinating about looking at them is that we simply are not accustomed to this subject matter being in color. It’s a fine example of McCluhan’s “medium is the message” idea. Your choices of black and white or color, grungy or sharp, saturated or muted – all of these have a huge impact on the reaction the viewer will have. For film photographers, many of these decisions are determined by film choice, and the ability to choose specific films to achieve a particular look or feel is one of the great advantages of film shooting. Alien Skin Exposure, a sophisticated film-simulating Photoshop plug-in, gives this same power to digital photographers.
When Should You Shoot Raw?
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A lot of beginning shooters think that raw format photography is a high-end technology that only professionals need. They fear that it’s complicated, and a different way to shoot, and generally something that beginners should stay away from. But it’s not! In fact, the safety nets provided by raw format shooting are a boon to beginners! With raw format, you can correct overexposure and white balance problems that are impossible to tackle with non-raw formats. This article will walk you through a basic understanding of what raw is, and why you might want to consider giving it a try. (And if you want to know more, take a look at my Getting Started With Camera Raw– a complete discussion of all things raw.) |
What Will You Shoot On Your Summer Vacation
We’re well into summer now, and as you head out on vacation, you’re probably packing your camera. Or, if you’re like me, you’re packing four or five camera. Whether you’re just getting started in photography, or you’ve been shooting for a long time and have a closet full of gear, planning what to take, and what to plan for can be complicated. In this article, I offer some tips and advice on how to plan your summer vacation shooting.
Photoshop CS5 for Landscape Photographers
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If you’re interested in landscape photography, then you might want to check out my new Photoshop CS5 for Landscape Photographers course at Lynda.com. This six-and-a-half hour video training course takes you from shooting through post-production, with thorough discussions of all of the landscape-related technical and aesthetic issues that you’ll face along the way. For more info, take a look at the preview, after the jump. |
Editing and Printing iPhone Images
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Only a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have spent any time talking about shooting with a cell phone camera. It’s not that I have anything against lo-fi imagery, it’s just that for years, cell phone cameras were more akin to no-fi photography. The iPhone offers a very good camera (for a cell phone) as well as the ability to edit images on the device, and print. (If you haven’t seen this, it’s worth a look to see an extremely serious application of the iPhone camera.) If you’ve been wondering about editing your iPhone images, this article will help you get started, while this will walk you through printing – both from the phone, and from your computer. |
Portable Printing with the Polaroid PoGo Printer
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I just spent the last week motorcycling from San Francisco to Oklahoma, (to teach at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute) camping and motelling along the way. As is usual on a motorcycle, I tried to stay on the smallest roads possible, and so ended up in some fairly interesting locations. I was probably supposed to be blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking my exploits as I went, (Karaoke night in Roswell, NM will definitely make you believe in alien visitations) but to be honest, one of the nice things about such a trip is to be out of the media bubble, not engaging in it further. So rather than trying to provide heavy coverage of my trip, I decided to simply enjoy myself. But also, I have a penchant for mail – the physical kind made from crushed wood pulp. Sitting in a forest or remote desert at night, writing letters and postcards, is a pretty nice way to spend an evening, but just because I’m using analog communications doesn’t mean I have to scrimp on imagery. Thanks to the amazing Polaroid PoGo printer, I was able to print images in the middle of nowhere! |
White Balance 101
Understanding white balance is an essential part of getting consistently good color. And while the auto white balance features on today’s cameras are very good, there will still be times when you need to take more control, and override your camera’s automatic white balance mechanism. This article walks you through the basics of white balance, to help you get better color in more situations.
CS5 Optional Plug-ins now available from Adobe
As mentioned earlier, CS5 doesn’t ship with the optional plug-ins that were bundled with CS4. But now, Adobe has posted CS5-compatible versions for free download. Picture Package (formerly ContactSheet II), PatternMaker, PhotomergeUI, Web Photo Gallery, Script for Layer Comps to Web Photo Gallery, Texture presets for Texturizer, TWAIN, a few additional formats and some other odds and ends. You can download the whole package here.