Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Do you shoot with the Nikon D5100?


We had a new book dropped on our doorstep last night, Peachpit Press was kind enough to send us the just published "Nikon D5100: From Snapshots to Great Shots" by Rob Sylvan.

I could review it myself but I don't shoot the Nikon D5100 and think a better, more thorough review would be done by someone who actually shoots with that camera.

So if you shoot with the D5100 and would be interested in reviewing "Nikon D5100: From Snapshots to Great Shots" on Weekly Photo Tips please drop us an email. I will put all the names of those who email us into a hat and randomly select one person to send the book to.

If you are the "lucky winner" the book will be yours to keep and the only thing we ask is that you follow our review policy.

If the name of the author seems familiar it should, he's a NAPP help desk specialist, an instructor for the Perfect picture School of Photography, and the host of Peachpit’s Lightroom Resource Center.

Rob has also been on Weekly Photo Tips in the past, I had the pleasure of reviewing his book "Taking Stock" (which was excellent) and he was the featured speaker this past May at the Maine Photographers Coalition.

So send us an email if you shoot the Nikon D5100 and good luck to everyone who enters.

One half million people...

A few days ago Weekly Photo Tips pushed past a very significant milestone (at least to me).

We have had over one half a million unique visitors stop by and spend some time at our photography blog (another big number is our 750,000 page views).

What Weekly Photo Tips has become rests on you... is because of you... your loyalty and your support has made us the photography blog we have become.

And though these two little words seem so inadequate in expressing my appreciation, please know they are truly heartfelt, THANK YOU!

Monday, July 25, 2011

It's over... Finally!!

And (probably) only for now.

Like much of the rest of the country we have had some record setting heat here in Maine. Luckily we've had it (only) for days, there are some places (like Dallas Texas) that have had temps of over 100 degrees every single day for over three weeks!

This was downtown Biddeford on Thursday...


And on Friday...


And this was the temp when we got into the car (that was parked in the shade) right after the ceremony we were shooting on Saturday.


Nope, the church did not have air conditioning, thanks goodness the reception did!


It was not long ago that this was our complaint, it looks real attractive now though, doesn't it. Aaaahhhhhh, my kingdom for some snow.


Friday, July 22, 2011

The one, the only, Mr. Dave Hill...

I was made aware of this video via Strobist and was so blown away I wanted to make sure you folks saw it.

From Dave - "All 11 images of the Adventure Series are deconstructed. I had to flatten a lot of the layers, but at least you can get an idea of what goes into each image."

Check this out:


Here is a link to our post on creating the "faux" Dave Hill look.

(subscribers will need to follow this link to see the video on Dave's Vimeo channel)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Bad Photoshop...



There has been another round of badly Photoshopped images in the news the last few days.

This image was released from the North Korean (state run) news agency showing victims walking through a "flood".

Two things wrong with this image, the water does not wick up their pants, they remain absolutely dry right to the water line AND the blending of the people to the water is HORRIBLE.

It is theorized that they (North Korea) released the image as "news" hoping for different flood, one of international aid.

If you follow this link you can read the story (and see the image) that cost an Associated Press freelance photographer his job (and credibility). What did he do? He used Photoshop to (badly) remove his shadow from an image he took of children playing soccer.

It seems that folks get caught because they do such a bad job of using Photoshop, which makes you wonder how many "good" edits never get caught.

Don't get me wrong, I use Photoshop, but I don't pass my images off as news, nor do I claim them to be unaltered.

Making lemonade out of lemons...

Many people would agree, if you want to learn how to take pictures, one of the best books to do it with would be Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure".

Bryan is an outstanding photographer and equally as good as a photography teacher.

Below is a 3 minute video, in it Bryan uses 5 very simple things combined in one of the unlikeliest of places to make a very good photograph.

If you find this video interesting (and you will), you'll want to check out this video using strawberries, or this one with cooking oil.


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Lightroom 3 training - 3rd time is still a charm...

(this is a repeat of the most popular blog post in the history of Weekly Photo Tips, and as folks often write in with Lightroom questions I thought it would be worth posting again)


Ever go to a movie sequel with high expectations because the original was so good, but when it was over you left shaking your head?

The Kevin Kubota Lightroom training trilogy does not fall into this category, his is more like the Toy Story trilogy, where it builds beautifully on what came before it.


Over the weekend I watched Kevin's e:Class "Update Your Workflow with New Lightroom 3 Features" and as is his teaching style Kevin walks you through new features, tips, and tricks in an easy to follow, easy to understand method.

We have reviewed his previous Lightroom training DVD's in the past (Lightroom 1 here and Lightroom 2 here) and LOVED them both so the bar had been set pretty high and this Update Your Workflow e:Class measured up to it predecessors.

One of the things I like about Kevin is that he throws in some extremely useful information that is unrelated to Lightroom, but adds value to my life as a photographer.

Two examples:

1. He suggested that you put your name, telephone number, and (in big letters) "Reward if Found" on your memory cards. As soon as I heard it I sat up in my chair and thought (out loud) "Brilliant".

2. The file and folder structure (how he stores images on his hard drive) has been revised and improved. I have used his technique as part of my workflow since version 1 and in this latest offering Kevin shares with us what's new, different, and how it's setup so that it can easily (and should be) incorporated into your workflow.

The Update Your Workflow e:Class is just that, an update where Kevin demonstrates how to use the the important new features in Lightroom 3, it is NOT a complete Lightroom workflow instructional class from soup to nuts (more on that later).

The things you will learn are how to import your images with some of the new options available in Lightroom 3 that will speedup and automate your workflow.

You will see how to use the tethered capture feature in a photo booth scenario when shooting events that will increase your sales opportunities.

With so many of the new cameras allowing us to shoot with a higher ISO setting you will learn how to setup smart collections to separate and categorize your images based on their shot ISO so that you can then apply automated standardized noise reduction appropriate for the images ISO.

You will learn how to best use the Watermark tool and the secret you need to know if your watermark includes a graphic.

And there's more, much more, in this 1 hour and 15 minute download but I think you're getting the point.

Here's your choices - you can spend endless hours editing your clients images, struggling with features you are unfamiliar with (or miss them because they are unknown to you) or you can give your clients the best images possible photo while spending less time sitting in front of your computer (and more time watching Toy Story).

As I mentioned before this is an update for Lightroom 3, if you own the Kubota Lightroom 2 training DVD this is all you will need to get up to speed (and master) the new features in Lightroom 3 and it can be yours for just $39.

If you are starting from ground zero and really want to master Lightroom 3 you can get the complete workflow training DVD AND the Kubota Lightroom preset collection for just $99.

And if you own either the Lightroom 1 or the Lightroom 2 workflow DVD's you can upgrade to the Lightroom 3 Workflow DVD with presets for $49 and $39 (respectively).