Featured Stories
February Wallpaper Calendar Now Available
I'm trying out something new here on the blog. As a way of saying thankyou to all my readers I am giving… [more]
How do you Say Exposure in French?
I have to admit that I didn't know until last week. That's when I got a copy of my book, Exposure - Snapshots… [more]
Adobe Improves the Already Great Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 4
I have been doing a lot of work with the beta version of Lightroom 4 as I prepare to write my next book… [more]
Create Cool Logos and Buttons in a Snap
I popped in to my son's room the other night to see what he was up to and he called me over to his computer… [more]
Building Hierarchal Keyword Lists for Lightroom
One of the things that I really love about Photoshop Elements is its ability to build heirarchal keyword… [more]
Featured Stories
February Wallpaper Calendar Now Available
I'm trying out something new here on the blog. As a way of saying thankyou to all my readers I am giving away computer desktop wallpapers made from my images - free of charge. I have uploaded the first image that is available in various sizes and all I ask is that you don't use it for anything but a wallpaper. To access the February wallpaper calendar just click this link (WALLPAPER) or click on the Desktop Wallpaper link in the menu at the top of the page. Thanks and have a great February! … [Read More...]
Image Processing
Adobe Improves the Already Great Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 4
I have been doing a lot of work with the beta version of Lightroom 4 as I prepare to write my next book and at first glance, you might think that there really isn't much change between versions 3 and 4. But the more that I use version 4, the more I am noticing that Adobe has really taken the time to refine and improve a lot of the existing features. Just the other day, my buddy Scott Kelby wrote … [Read More...]
Check out the CameraBag 2 Beta
Have you seen those stylized photos all over the web that come from camera phones. You know which ones I'm talking about, the ones that look like they came from Holgas and toy cameras. They are the product of such phone apps as Hipster, Camera +, Instagram, and others. The beauty of these programs is that you just open a photo in the app and then start clicking on different presets until you … [Read More...]
Camera Gear
What I Want In a DSLR
I saw a lot of cameras while I was at CES last week. Two of the biggies were the Canon 1Dx and the just announced Nikon D4. Both cameras are excellent and push pixel capturing to the edge. But as great as these cameras are, I'm wondering why they seem to be missing some stuff. Sometimes it's not about the pixels but the additional technology that should/could be built in and the way you interface … [Read More...]
Gorillapod Saves the Day
I didn't want to take a tripod with me to Las Vegas because I didn't think I would be doing that much shooting. I did however think to bring my Joby Gorillapod. If you aren't familiar with the Gorillapod, it's a small camera support with three flexible legs that can wrap and grip around just about anything. The great thing is that it's small enough to fit in my backpack but has enough stability … [Read More...]
Photography
Reviewing my 2011 Photos
I was looking through some posts on Google Plus and I saw a lot of folks posting their favorite shots from the past year. It got me thinking so I opened up Lightroom and clicked on my 2011 folder to review just what I had done this year. One thing I noticed right away is that I didn't shoot nearly as much as I wanted to. I always have great plans to shoot more but life usually gets in the way and … [Read More...]
At National Geographic – Sometimes You Need More Than Just a Camera
National Geographic Photographers are known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to capturing great images. Just spend a little time listening to Joe McNally talk about climbing radio antennas atop New York skyscrapers and you'll know what I mean. One piece of advice Joe gives budding photographers is to put your camera in interesting places. Seeing an image from a vantage point that is … [Read More...]
HDR
Single Image Tonemapping in Photoshop CS5
The other day I was processing some bracketed HDR images that I had recently shot. My typical workflow is to take the images from Lightroom into HDR Pro in Photoshop. I don't typically tonemap in Photoshop, just create the HDR file and save it as a 32-bit radiance file. Then I open the newly created file in Photomatix Pro for tonemapping and then save it back into Lightroom. There's an option in … [Read More...]
Is In-Camera HDR In My Future???
One of the things that really intrigued me about the Sony a77 was its built-in HDR capture. There are a lot of cameras, including the a77 that have something like the Active D-Lighting function that lives in Nikon DSLRs. This feature uses the information in a single frame to boost the brightness of the shadow areas in an image, which gives the look of expanded dynamic range. This is not the same … [Read More...]
