Happy Holidays!
The year is almost over and I’ve been working on a variety of projects up until yesterday. It seems things will be a little slower in the next two weeks and I look forward to spending time with family and enjoying the Christmas season.
Best wishes and I’ll see you in the new year.
Happy Holidays!
A few shots added to the website
I’ve done a bit of house cleaning on the portfolio images and have added a couple from recent shoots. There’s a couple of shots I’ll be adding in the next couple of days so more to come soon.
Lightroom 3 Beta
Yes, it’s been busy the last couple of weeks around here and although there is a lot of stuff I will post about soon, this news needed to be shared. Adobe has released Lightroom 3 Beta to the general public. This means that you can download a copy right now and start testing it and sending feedback directly to Adobe. Some of the new features that stand out for me from the brief overview I did are the following:
The import window is totally redone. It’s more “workflow-ish” than the previous version (yes I just created that word and I like it). You get a column on the left for your source of images you would like to import, a center area where the images will preview and a right column that shows the possible destinations for your imported images.
At the top of the import window you get all the possible ways your images can be imported (copied, moved or converted to DNG). The new window also has a minimize mode where you just see the basic options and no previews which works great with another new feature which allows you to save presets of how you import images. More on that on a future post.
The slideshow module now allows you to save your slideshows as video files. A simple menu allows you to select the size of the video that you want and it takes 1 click to save. I’m glad to see an iPhone optimized option as a default since I’ve been planning on creating a video portfolio for my iPhone and this will make it super easy to update it with new content.
The last one that intrigued me just by looking at a couple of demo movies online is the concept of Publishing that has been introduced. I’m not clear on exactly how this works but it seems that you can publish (export?) collections of photos to a folder (or iPhone / device) and keep track of what has been sent to that destination. It sounds to me like a versioning system but will have to dig deeper to see what it does.
Now I’m off to explore some more options and also to send feedback to Adobe. And that specifically is worth mentioning. Adobe’s policy of opening their beta program to the public is something I feel is greatly appreciated by their customers. The feedback is really taken into account to perfect the final version of Lightroom. It’s something I don’t feel Apple does as well and that I believe Apple should learn from Adobe.
“Best Camera” by Chase Jarvis & Ubermind
Fans of Chase Jarvis found a nice surprise this morning when they checked his blog for the latest news. It seems Chase has been working on an iPhone App for a while and it has finally seen the light of day this morning.
The App is called Best Camera and the name comes from the popular phrase “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You”. This App gives you a bunch of filters and tweaks you can apply to the photos taken with your iPhone and is similar to other Apps on the iPhone (Camera Bag comes to mind) where you can get creative with your shots. The big advantege Best Camera has is that it has included a social aspect to the process. Any images you create you can then share with all the popular social networks from within the App.
You give the App permission to access your Facebook, Twitter, etc. and then using the Share button your photos get sent to all those sites at once. This really is a reflection of the whole philosophy that Chase has promoted for a long time. He is one of the most, if not the most open and generous photographers out there when it comes to sharing his knowledge and experiences.
Here’s a couple of images from the App in action:
The icon for Best Camera
This is the startup screen. A nice simple interface. I really appreciate good design and this just works.
Here are the main sections explained
I first went into the Settings and approved all the logins for my social media sites (Facebook, Tweeter etc.)
Then it was time to try things out. I loaded an image into the App by tapping on the second icon at the bottom. This takes you to the Camera Roll on your phone. You can also take a shot with the camera. I selected an image and I was ready to start checking some effects.
The first effect I tried was Candy. It gave the shot a nice saturated and contrasty look. I really like the intense orange colour of the beer.
I applied the changes and was brought back to the main screen.
I tried the Vignette icon and this is what I got. Cool.
If at any point in the creative process you want to remove a filter or go back to where you were a few steps back, you just press the icon with the two circles in the upper right hand side of the main screen (looks like 2 filters one on top of each other) and you are taken to this screen where you can tap on the “x” above each filter. It’s like having an “undo” command.
Finally when you are happy with your image you click on the big arrow at the bottom of the main screen and you select which social media sites you want your shot to appear in. It’s that simple.
Overall I really like this App. It is super simple to use, the interface is perfectly designed and it runs great. I think the social aspect is what’s going to make it a bit more popular with users than the other Apps that do similar things.
There are a couple of filters that I wish Best Camera would offer that you can find in it’s direct competitor Camera Bag but that’s a minor thing and I’m guessing that future versions of this one may offer more filters and effects. My ideal App would be Best Camera and PhotoGene (the other App I use on every shot I take) rolled into one. That would be iPhone camera heaven.
This is a great App and at 3 dollars it’s a must buy in my book.
scenes from california
As I slowly start going through the shots I have from my recent trip to California I find that post processing gives me the chance to create something that looks like the scenes I saw during those days. My opinion is that the image you see in your mind when you take a photograph is what you should try to show others afterwards so here’s a couple of exaples I’m working on. Very tough this thing about converting feelings into images but why else would you shoot then right?
Controling Flash (the internet kind)
Flash. In photography it’s an amazing tool that lets you have light wherever you go. It allows you to simulate sunlight and create cool special effects. You should learn to use and control flash if you want to expand your lighting knowoledge (unless you plan on shooting only during bright sunny days and even then you should use it!).
Today though, I will give you a little tip on the internet kind of Flash. The Adobe kind. I’m a fan of Flash. From the beginning it allowed me to create cool animations and interfaces and my current photography website is in Flash (here). But Flash has a couple of trade offs and yesterday I found a cool solution for some of those trade offs.
As a tool to create internet ads Flash just bugs me. Flash is known for being “crashy” and taking up heavy resources from your computer. Advertisers use it to create bright, jumpy animations that can get pretty annoying. And here’s where my recommendation comes to the rescue.
It’s called ClickToFlash and it’s a Mac only option (let me know if there’s a similar product for Windows out there). You download it and run the installer and in a couple of seconds an invisible shield has been raised against Flash on the internet.
From that moment on when you are browsing the internet all Flash content will be blocked automatically. You decide which animation you want to see and which you don’t need your computer to waste resources on. To show you how this looks here’s a screen capture of the New York Times with the plugin installed.
See that huge gray rectangle on the right? Yep, Flash.
Here’s the page without the plugin and all Flash content loading from the internet:
As you can see I didn’t need to download that big ad on the right when I arrived at the New York Times. It’s not that bad (although it did have a distracting animation) but I do prefer not to see if I can.
Ok so what are the downsides? Well, check out the page for the Space channel without Flash:
And here’s the site with everything loaded. Funny, in this case the ad is a normal html banner but the content of the page is Flash:
Another nice thing about ClickToFlash is that there is a preference you can set that tells it to offer you a higher quality videoclip when you visit sites like YouTube (it’s called H.264 but that’s just for the geeks). With this option turned on you can now visit YouTube and if there is a better quality version in H.264 of your video it will show it to you instead of the Flash (lower quality) version.
Here’s where you can get the plugin…and I did say it was free right?
iPhone Apps I use for photography
Since I got an iPhone the App store has become a very cool place to find interesting little programs. After downloading the obligatory utilities and a couple of fun games I started looking at the photography section of the store. Could this little phone do anything with the images it can take? The answer to this is yes, it can do quite a few things actually.
With the new iPhone 3GS you actually have a decent camera that also takes video. I’m really jealous of this new camera on the phone but my upgrade will not be happening any time soon since the new hardware would cost too much. I mean it is only a camera on a phone right? Well, even with my “old” iPhone 3GS there are 2 Apps that I’ve found indispensable for my iPhone camera enjoyment.
First off what I consider the Photoshop of the iPhone, Photogene by Omer Shoor. This application has gotten more amazement from friends and family than any other. They just can’t believe you can do all this on the phone. Crop, rotate, adjust levels, correct white balance and more….on the phone!
Almost every shot I take on my iPhone goes through Photogene. I’m a crop fanatic (not sure if that’s good or bad) and this App lets me do so much I don’t think I could live without it. $3.00 for photo bliss is not bad.
The next app I use almost always is CameraBag from Nevercenter Ltd. Co. This App is sort of a filter application it applies effects to your photos (usually after I run them through Photogene) and saves the copy to your camera roll.
I has a variety of effects that look like a Holga shot or a faded Polaroid for example. With one swipe of the finger you can see each effect rendered on your selected photo and once you are happy with the results you save it as a copy. I’ve actually applied effects multiple times on some abstract images to create a double intensity result. It works great.
I highly recommend both these Apps if you are into photography and use an iPhone. They take your images to a new creative place. Your friends and family will not believe they came out of your phone.
Canon announces the 7D
When I read this today I thought “is Canon crazy? didn’t the 5D Mark II just come out?” Well, my panic went away when I saw that this camera is a prosumer crop sensor model. I wouldn’t have named it the 7D though. Maybe the 70D would have been a better name? oh the joy of “naming logic” of some companies. So it’s not a competitor to the 5D Mk II (even though from the front, this camera has the curvy top of the Pro models).
It looks like it’s a great prosumer model and I would love to have that new dual axis digital level on my camera.
It has a bunch of cool features and the now obligatory video recording. Nice camera overall. Check out the specs at dpreview.com
Snow Leopard – Features I’m digging
Here’s a couple of things I’m really enjoying about the new OS:
Yes, this is something that should have been done ages ago but now that it’s an official Apple setting I don’t have to mess with installing third party utilities to have the date appear on my menu bar all the time. You can’t configure it at all but this is enough for me.
The Dock now has a cleaner interface for the pop-up effect when you click on a folder or applications….
…and now you can drill down inside any folder until you get to where you want. A slider appears on the right when there are too many items in the folder. Nice.
Another cool new setting in the Finder is the ability to see your icons at up to 512 pixels in size. That is gigantic when it comes to icons and you might think it’s not that useful but when you are looking for photographs or PDF’s this is great. You can see your images clearly and check the differences between the versions you have saved.
With PDF’s you can actually see the pages and make sure which document you want to open. This also applies to Pages documents and Numbers documents.
This are just a few of my favourites up to now. More to come as I keep exploring.
Snow Leopard this Friday
The rumors were true and Apple is releasing it’s system update named Snow Leopard this Friday August 28th.
Lots of cool things are included even though Apple is selling it as a small $30 upgrade.
The Finder has been rewritten to make it faster and completely compatible with all the new technologies. It also allows for huge icon sizes which is good to look through a folder full of photographs.
Sometimes Mac OS X prevents you from ejecting a disk, but you don’t always know why. In Snow Leopard you’ll see exactly which application is using the drive, so you can quit it and eject the drive properly. (Finally!)
Adobe has stated that CS4 is compatible with Snow Leopard but a firestorm erupted this week when they didn’t commit to completely supporting Leopard. We’ll have to see what Adobe does. I for one will be upgrading to Snow Leopard this Friday and will post anything of interest here.
My new venture. Learn photography with me.
