PhotoWalkPro

Well folks, were are just two short weeks from the epic 2009 Worldwide Photowalk.  I know that everyone has been a little curious about how the photo uploading will be accomplished after the walk is done.  And while the exact process is not quite ready for prime-time, some of the details are now available.  To help get you prepared, watch the video below from my buddy RC so can be ready to roll when the big day comes.

Speaking of photowalks, I got some bad news today from one of my registered photowalkers, Danny Douglas.  It seems that the one of the major Chinatown landmarks and the starting point for my photowalk, the Friendship Archway, has been completely covered up as part of a renovation project that won’t be complete until sometime in August.  Figures!  I’ll still start the photowalk from this location but it is a little disappointing to have this great landmark removed from the shooting menu.

The Archway as it normally appears

A current view of the Friendship Archway - Photo by Danny Douglas

I’ll be heading down to DC sometime this weekend to make sure there aren’t any other surprises in store for us before we get together in a couple of weeks.  This also means that I should have the final route for everyone by next week.  Make sure you check out the city page sometime before the 18th to get all the details.

Finally today, I would like to thank everyone for participating in yesterday’s poll.  I am going to leave it open for voting for the next few days so if you haven’t gotten a chance, head to yesterday’s post and let your preference be known.  By the way, I was given a heads-up that the poll is not visible inside of RSS readers like Google Reader.  In fact all you will see is the html code for the poll interface.  I’m not sure how to work that out yet but I will be looking for a solution.  In the meantime, if you read my blog via RSS feed, and there are about 3200 of you that do, simply head to the actual webpage if you would like to cast your vote.

That’s it for today.  If you are going to be celebrating the 4th of July this weekend, make it a safe and fun day and don’t forget to take your camera and tripod out to your local fireworks display and capture the fun (try using the bulb setting so you can capture just the bursts that you want).  See you next week.

As most of you probably know, I have recently turned author and am working on new books for the D5000 and the T1i.  To help me better focus the information that I am including in the books I wanted to get an idea of how you use your camera, what your favorite features are, and other such questions.  To help me figure out where you stand on these things, I have created a poll.  Every so often I will put up a new one but I figured I would start things off with a simple question, “What is your favorite camera mode?”  I really appreciate your participation with this project.  Down the road I will try to expand into other areas like Photoshop, and camera gear, and more.

You’ve probably heard me talk about the Hoodman HoodLoupe in the past and what a great tool it is for shooting outdoors.  By sealing the LCD into a light tight environment, the LCD screen can then be easily seen even in the bright sun of the beach.  It’s something that I try not to leave at home if I know I am going to be shooting outdoors.  Now I have an even greater incentive for keeping it close by, in any shooting situation.  It helps me see the screen with my old eyes.

Just the other day I was shooting on a tripod and the camera was up pretty high, shooting straight down.  I was only able to get about 6 inches above the camera to review my screen when I had one of those defining moments that can truly be depressing…  I couldn’t see the screen clearly!  Yes, my eyes are starting to change and I now need reading glasses to see very small text and objects that are closer than about 12″ from my nose.  It sucks when you realize you are getting old but it was even worse to realize it and not be able to overcome it at the time.  That’s when I dug out my Hoodman HoodLoupe and pressed it to the rear LCD and hit the playback button.  At first I was worried that everything would look soft but then I remembered that the loupe has a diopter adjustment which made it perfect for close inspection of the screen.  Sure enough, a little fine tuning of the top eyepiece on the loupe and my LCD screen was tack sharp from only 2 inches away.  The loupe doesn’t magnify the screen, it simply refocuses so the eye can see it sharply and, just as important, without glare.  I might just have to go as far as attaching it to my camera strap so I can’t ever leave it behind by accident.

Adjusting your Camera -

And while I am speaking of diopter adjustments, I got a great tip on correctly adjusting the diopter on my Nikon DSLR from some very smart Nikon Tech Reps the other day.  You probably know that the diopter adjustment is that small knob or slider switch on the side of the camera viewfinder that adjusts the focus of the viewfinder to accommodate folks that wear glasses.  It’s also helpful for those of us whose close-up vision is starting to get a little weak.  What you might not know is that the best way to adjust the diopter setting is without a lens on the camera.  Here’s how it works, take your lens off the camera, turn the camera on (some models do funky things in the viewfinder until they are turned on), point your camera at a white wall, look through the viewfinder and then adjust the diopter until the focus points look sharp.  That’s it, you are all set to replace the lens and take some photos. Apparently having the lens attached when changing the diopter can slightly fool the eye into thinking the screen is sharper than it is.  Removing the lens means that you are only adjusting for the focus screen.   Granted, this isn’t as important if you only use the autofocus but if you ever plan on manually focusing your lens, it can make a huge difference.

That’s a wrap for this Wednesday.  I hope to see you here tomorrow. 

I was reading my buddy Scott Kelby’s blog yesterday and enjoying all the great images he took of the red Cadillac in Savannah  when something he wrote kind of struck me as funny.  When discussing the post processing of the images, Scott wrote, “I didn’t even need to run a noise reduction filter. In fact, there are no effects filters or HDR used on any of these shots—-just Lightroom”.  I completely understand what it is that Scott was saying but the thought that crossed my mind was that these days, you can process the heck out of an image using just Lightroom.  So much so that you can completely change the look and feel of an image to the point that it appears that plug-ins and special filters were applied.

I think most people believe that Lightroom is a scalpel that lightly touches their image, but with the coming of Lightroom 2 and the Adjustment Brushes, there is more possibility for drastic or over the top processing than most individuals are even aware of.  A perfect example of this can be found by checking out all of the Lightroom presets that are available from my buddy Matt Kloskowski at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips.  Matt has amassed dozens of presets over at his blog that range from a slight enhancement of your image to a complete overhaul.  Then take into consideration that you can create great looking black and white images with complete control over the luminance values of separate color tones within the image.  This is black and white that is beyond what Photoshop used to be able to produce.  Of course Photoshop has caught up to Lightroom with the changes in Camera Raw but who needs to go into Photoshop for that?

Finally, there is the ability to adjust specific features of your image with the adjustment brush so that you can effect any number of characteristics (color, saturation, exposure, clarity, etc) all in a localized adjustment.  So, gone are the “global only” adjustments that made Lightroom a lesser processing tool than Photoshop.  Now when someone says that “the only processing I did was in Lightroom”, I have to wonder what that means.

Here is an original image, right out of the camera with no processing applied in Lightroom.

Here is the same image after processing in Lightroom.