Featured Stories
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]
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… [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… [more]
Announcing My Next Snapshots to Great Shots Book for Lightroom
You may have heard that Adobe recently released their public beta for the next version of Lightroom.… [more]
Featured Stories
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 to see something cool that one of his friends showed him. Usually when he says this I am expecting to see some Mind Craft or Modern Warefare 3 video that he has seen on YouTube. But this time I was really surprised at what he was playing with. It was a website called CoolText.com and it really is cool. On the surface, the site seems pretty simplistic, just pick a logo style, type in the text you want to appear, and hit the render button to create your own custom logo. What is really … [Read More...]
Image Processing
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...]
The Misunderstood Brightness Slider
A long time ago in an old version of Photoshop, you could find the Brightness slider. It was paired with the Contrast slider and was without question one of the worst adjustment tools around. It was also the go-to tool for the Photoshop novice who just wanted to make their photos lighter or darker. The big problem with the the Brightness slider was that it was a very destructive tool. It would … [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...]
