2016 : Resolutions for Creatives
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Every year at this time, folks make resolutions. Some are successful, some are not. Here are some you may choose to adopt as creatives. The choice dear reader, is yours entirely.
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Using Tethering For A Successful Shoot
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When you're working to a deadline, or with a client who needs to see the work quickly, tethering is a huge asset. No one is scrambling over a miniscule image on the camera, you aren't looking at some JPEG rendition, you see the converted RAW on a large screen in real time. Fortunately, most cameras can be tethered. Let's look at some options to make that work.
Read MoreA 12 Step Program : You Got a New Camera For Christmas! Now What?
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Hooray! You received a new camera for Christmas! Or you went out on Boxing Day and got yourself a new camera. Good for you! But now you have a box of stuff, you want to get started and aren't exactly sure where to start. You want to be making photographs, RIGHT FREAKING NOW, but are concerned about what could go wrong, what got missed, and what you forgot. Relax, I'm here to help!
Read MoreFocal Length Comparisons
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Let's say you are out shopping for Boxing Day, or are so crazy to be shopping today (the 24th) and just aren't quite sure which focal length prime or zoom range to choose. I was out doing some test work with Nikon's new 200mm-500mm today (more on that in it's own review) and put together this simple sequence to give you a sense of what different focal lengths will deliver with the same camera position.
Read MoreThe Podcast Will Return! 2016 will bring new topics and guests!
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I am very pleased to let folks know that the podcast model will return in 2016. It's going to be different from what I did years ago as there are more than enough newsfeeds in the photo and video marketplace and people don't really need another one.
This round, the audio podcast will focus on tips, tricks, problem solving and simple how tos that can be conveyed in audio format. I will also talk briefly about new gear I've seen and tried, while full reviews will appear as articles on the site.
Read MoreStop Apple Photos from Auto-Launching
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Look, I get it. Apple wants users to find it really easy to access images on memory cards from their cameras. Maybe the average user only has one card. Not I, he said, I have many and use them in different cameras, and always reformat each time I install one, so Photos ALWAYS thinks every card is brand new. The mode to stop the auto-launch has been to try to tell Photos not to launch for each card individually. Which only works so long as the card does not get reformatted. This is, a pile of crap, considering it used to be possible to tell the Image Capture function to never auto-launch. There are dozens of posts on Apple Support Communities since the inception of Photos and Apple has done NOTHING. I however, have an answer that works.
Read MoreBetter Light from Your Speedlight with the Rogue Flashbender
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Hotshoe flash is wonderful, except when shot direct from the hotshoe. There are myriad modifiers in the marketplace but many of them don't deliver the light that you really want. Rogue's Flashbender lineup is different so have a look and you'll see why.
Read MorePicking the Right Batteries for your Speed Lights
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Using the right batteries in your speedlights shouldn't be a hassle. In this video, I show you what to look for and share a couple of recommendations that I know work awesomely.
Read MoreSafari and Squarespace Not Working Well Together
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As many of you know, Squarespace is my platform of choice for web hosting and I typically use Safari as my default browser on all my Macs. Apple has continually enhanced Safari, and while they have a Safari Dev channel, sometimes other developers cannot always keep up, or a change is not clearly documented and this causes problems, hence the current issue between Safari and Squarespace.
Read MoreCorrect Microshake in your Images with Piccure+ (DEMO)
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I've written in the past about using Piccure+ to correct microshake and to correct for lens aberrations, two services it does wonderfully. I was recently finalizing some images of some High School football game shots to share with the coach when I discovered on zooming in that some of my selects weren't quite as clear as I had thought in the initial culling process. Sometimes, in excitement we might stab the shutter rather than squeezing, or even with the great tools in image stabilization be pushing things a bit in terms of focal length, shutter speed, physical location and weather effects.
Read MoreREVIEW : The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II - Power in your Hands
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Photographers are always looking for advantage, being it in sensor power, lens reach or scope and very often weight and size reduction. When Olympus released their OM-D E-M5, they really shook up the competition. The camera was fast, easy to handle and extremely usable. They followed up with the E-M1 and then the E-M10. Recently, Olympus released the second iteration of the E-M5 called the E-M5 Mark II and the good folks at Olympus sent me one to review, along with a pair of lenses, the 45/1.8 and 12/2.0. It's a very impressive camera and I wanted to share my findings with all of you.
Read MoreRemoving Sensor Dust Spots FAST
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If spots from sensor dust make your editing sessions tedious, check out this video on how to use Lightroom to fix them once, and then synchronize the correction across all the images from that session.
Read MoreQUICK LOOK : Sony a7R II
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With thanks to Bryan Weiss of Daytripper Photo, I got a short time hands-on with a variety of Sony products. Bryan in making a short film and Sony provided him a stack of gear to use and he has allowed me to do a quick look during his period of use. The camera I was most excited to try out is the new a7R II
Read MoreWhite Balance, Black and White Points with the Lastolite XPOBalance
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In this video I show how easy it is to use the XPOBalance and demonstrate using Lightroom how to make the settings once for an entire session and then sync them across all the images from the session.
Read MoreUsing the Color Checker Passport to make Camera Profiles
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Here's a quick video on the XRite Color Checker Passport explaining why you should use one and how to make camera profiles with it.
Read MoreHoliday Gift Guide
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It's that time of year again and time for my annual gift guide. You'll find great gift ideas for photographers and videographers of all levels and I've worked to ensure that I cover different budget sizes since we aren't all millionaires. Well maybe you are, me not at all.
Read MoreMaking Great Photographic Prints
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On Saturday November 20th 2015 I was invited by Henry's Newmarket to deliver a seminar on the theory and practice to make great photographic prints, whether you print yourself or prepare your images to be handled by a lab. I've done this video for those who wanted a reference and for those who could not attend.
Read MoreFirst Look : The Leica SL
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Regular readers know that I've looked at a lot of mirrorless cameras, always looking to see if this is a space to expand into. I've liked many of them, and hoped for more from others. I guess I'm already a mirrorless user, as I've been shooting Leicas for many years, starting with film, then a substantial gap in time to the M9 and now the M (240). They are wonderful cameras but different from the "standard" mirrorless in that they are manual focus rangefinders. The SL however, is something very different indeed.
Read MoreThe Perfect Monopod Kit
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I've been hearing questions from people in my programs as well as other folks about some confusion between using heads on monopods vs tripods. I've written a lot on tripod heads and it's probably time for a quick treatise on monopods and monopod heads.
Read MoreInstalling Drivers When the Manufacturer's Installer is Crapware
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I have a shoot coming up where I need to provide 4x6 prints to the client's guests nearly immediately after making the photographs so they can take the photo with them that evening. Research led me to the Canon CP100 printer, a dye sublimation system that puts paper and dye sub film into a single box. My MacBook Pro runs El Capitan, the current shipping operating system from Apple. As I have found in the past, Canon's installer is OS version specific, even when it makes no sense to do so. I would be stuck, except for Pacifist.
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