Category: Technique & Workflow

  • The Online Photographer: Color Junkies

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    As everyone knows, black and white is better than color.*

    Check it out here.

  • Camera Hacks: Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera

    If you’re using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you’ve got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let’s transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware.

    Check it out here.

  • David Honl: USA Today does it Strobist style

    Strobist guru David Hobby was recently featured in a USA Today article, where he was photographed by USA Today staffer H. Darr Beiser (using SB800’s with 2 of my HonlPhoto 5″ Speed Snoots). There are also 2 very informative videos to go along with it, so if you have any interest in small lighting on-the-fly, start by watching David in action in the following 2 USA Today videos.

    Check it out here.

  • John Nack on Adobe: New Photoshop scripting tutorials

    If you know some JavaScript and have thought of applying your skills to Photoshop automation, you might check out Trevor Morris’s Intro to Scripting Photoshop and follow-up practical example.

    Check it out here.

  • Trade Secrets: A little help from my friends.

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    Photo by Jamie Squire / Getty Images

    Ryan Newman, driver of the #12 Alltel Dodge, celebrates in victory lane after winning the 50th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, 2008 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
    It is rare these days in the individualistic field of sports photography that photographers collaborate, rather than compete, to come up with exceptional images. While photographing this year’s Daytona 500, I was fortunate enough to come away with a truly magnificent image… with a little help from my friends.

    Check it out here.

  • Ask Sports Shooter: Demystifying Photo Mechanic's Code Replacement

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    At the recent Sports Shooter Academy V, one of the most discussed items during the Digital Workflow Class was the use of Photo Mechanic’s code replacement. Sports Shooter asked Camera Bit’s Kirk Baker to explain this cool, time-saving feature.

    Check it out here.

  • A great digital imaging project honors the fallen

    Photographer Peter Krogh (author of the excellent The DAM Book, the Rapid Fixer extension for Bridge, and more) recently completed an ambitious & enormous digital imaging project: photographing all 58,256 names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, enabling the creation of an interactive online version of the wall.  By stitching together some 1,494 digital images into a 400,000 pixel by 12,500 pixel monster, Peter & colleague Darren Higgins were able to help create a Flash-based presentation that enables you to search for names, read servicemen’s details, and add notes and photos to the wall.

    Check it out here.

  • Photoshop + Lightroom = Killer B&W

    Knowing my love for Black & White imagery, Nack pointed me towards some astonishing in-house talent, right here on W10. Yesterday I enjoyed an hour with Kelly Castro who gave me a glimpse into his very unique workflow. I’m not going to tell you everything about how Kelly gets his shots to jump off the screen, but I will showcase a few very cool steps. If you’re like me, the shots will inspire you far more than my words can.

    Check it out here.

  • Large monitor productivity…

    I’ve been pushing the concept of the two monitor *minimum* for a while now. At Mahalo the least amount of real estate you can have is two 24″ monitors, and we’re starting to push folks to three monitors (one 30 inch Dell and two 24 “wing men”).

    It’s so clear that three monitors makes people UBER productive

    Check it out here.

  • Global Chroma Noise Reduction in Photoshop

    As seen in digital photographs, noise manifests itself in two different forms, chroma noise and luma noise. While having no noise at all would be ideal, that is simply not possible at high ISO values. Luma noise tends to resemble the type of grain that would be seen in high speed film stock, while chroma noise characterizes itself as random color splotching across the image; especially in shadow areas. In general, people are not overly bothered by luma noise; however chroma noise has an unappealing effect on an image. Therefore while we can’t get rid of all noise from an image, removing the chroma noise improves things a great deal. The goal of this article is to present a quick and easy way to greatly reduce or eliminate chroma noise from an image using some simple layer techniques in Photoshop.

    Check it out here.

  • The F STOP » Professional Photographers Discuss Their Craft » Garry Simpson

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    restrictions abounded in the Nike shoot starring England striker Wayne Rooney. Garry Simpson and his crew shot from a nearby railyard and lit the shoot with the assistance of a production company, who helped set up a 40′ x 30′ lighting rig suspended to a crane and weighed down with four heavy sandbags. The rig held 16 Profoto 7a packs and heads, one pack per head, each with wide angle reflectors and a translucent glass cover over the flash tube. The lighting alternated between two power settings. The first used a minimum power setting to achieve the fastest flash duration while capturing action poses of Rooney. He shot these images at F/4 and 1/250th second on a Canon EOS 1V using Fuji Provia 400 RHP111 film and a 120mm image stabilized lens.

    Check it out here.

  • On deadline? No computer? No problem.

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    George Bridges:

    You’re shooting a big protest and you know you will be walking many miles and there will be clashes between the demonstrators and police. It’s no place for lugging a computer.

    So how do you get those images back to your office?

    One part of the answer would be with the wireless transmitters made for Canon and Nikon’s top cameras: The WFT-E2a for the Mark III and the WT-4 for the D3.

    Check it out here.

  • Breathe New Life Into Your Photos with the Vignette Tool – Inside Aperture

    One of my favorite new additions in Aperture 2.0 has to be the Vignette tool. Back in the days of darkroom printing I would always find myself burning down the corners of my prints to make them “pop” a little. You had to be careful not to over-do it, but it really made a big difference if done right.

    Check it out here.

  • Aperture 2.0: The free video tutorials – Inside Aperture

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    Without a doubt, the new official Apple Aperture 2.0 website is a truly excellent primary resource.

    My favorite section in the newly revamped site is the Tutorials. In this section, Apple presents more than 50 excellent compact video tutorials, that is somewhat similar to a lot of the fantastic iPhone tutorial videos. There are also about 10 text tutorials in the same page.

    Check it out here.

  • John Nack on Adobe: New Adobe Magazine available

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    Volume 2, Issue 1 of Adobe Magazine, the company’s quarterly design and technology mag, is available for download.  The new issue features Photoshop being used for concept art, architectural illustration, and scientific imaging.

    Check it out here.

  • John Nack on Adobe: A wealth of Lightroom tutorials

    Digital photography experts Rob Sheppard and Tim Grey have created a wide range of Lightroom tutorials for the Adobe Design Center.

    Check it out here.

  • They Shoot Presidential Candidates, Don't They? – PDNPulse

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    We are still not sure when photog John Harrington sleeps. Between last night and this morning, he managed to shoot John McCain’s victory speech in Virginia, interview other photogs about how they shoot and transmit their pix on the campaign trail, and turn that footage into an insightful seven-minute video.

    Check it out here.

  • Rob Galbraith DPI: Notes on Apple's Aperture 2

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    (Photo in screenshot by Rob Galbraith/Little Guy Media)

    A chat today with Apple’s Kirk Paulsen, Senior Director of Applications Product Marketing, and Joe Schorr, Senior Product Line Manager for Photo Applications, revealed a number of interesting things about Aperture 2, the most significant upgrade to Aperture since the fall of 2006.
      
    Here are notes from the call:

    Check it out here.

  • The Raw Deal on Aperture 2 – PDNPulse

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    While that all changes with Aperture 2 which can read RAW files from the Nikon D3, D300, Canon 1Ds Mark III, Hasselblad H3D-II and other cameras, some photographers may already be wondering about the future. Will Aperture 2 be ready for the coming wave of digital cameras or will photographers have to wait until the next version of OS X comes out first?
    We got a chance to talk to Kirk Paulsen, Apple’s senior director of Application Product Marketing, and Joe Schor, Apple’s senior product manager of Photo Applications; about this very issue. Read what they said after the jump.

    Check it out here.

  • Apple – Aperture – 100+ New Features

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    100+ New Features
    Now you have even more control from import to output.

    Check it out here.