I have been coming to Vegas for years and have seen the fountain show at the Bellagio numerous times but I had never actually taken any photos. So while I had a free spot in my schedule I figured it was time. I got there around 6:00 PM and watched one of the shows but it was still a little brigt outside and the waterjets from the fountain were getting lost in the shadows of the hotel. I ended up hanging around until the 7:30 show and was rewarded with great light, Frank Sinatra, and some great shots of the fountain doing it’s thing,
I finished off the night hanging out with friends at the TweetUp at the Mandalay Bay. Lot’s of fun and a few Vanelli stories to boot. Not a bad way to kick off Photoshop World.
I get lots of great questions sent to me through the blog and Twitter and Facebook. Many times they are the inspiration for my blog posts. Recently I received one from a friend on Facebook about preparing images for iStock. Since more and more people are starting to send their images to micro-stock agencies I thought I would share some of the advice with you that I gave to my Facebook friend. The main concern was with image quality. They are shooting in the JPEG format and then using Lightroom, Photoshop, and OnOne products for post-processing but…
“It seems that some of my photos are over processed and I loose quality when they try to blow them up.”
iStock and other stock agencies love to sell photos at different resolutions to satisfy a wide range of customer needs so it’s always best to send them the largest photo possible. Of course you will need to send them JPEGs but don’t reduce the physical image size. The full-size images that come from your digital SLR should be more than sufficient to satisfy most size requests. Just make sure that when you export your images in Lightroom that the Resize to Fit check-box does not have a check-mark in it.
Another thing that I would avoid is shooting in JPEG. If you are going to be selling your images, you need to move up to RAW. I have given a lot of arguments in my books and previous blog articles as to why you should shoot RAW and since the person who asked the question is using Lightroom, they should definitely be using it.
One last piece of advice is to watch how much you are sharpening your images. Depending on how they will be used, they could look too sharp. Images that are viewed on a computer screen don’t require nearly as much sharpening as printed images. If you are shooting RAW images and processing them in Lightroom or Camera Raw, you will be able to control how much sharpening is applied.
When I am working in the Details panel, I typically typically start with settings of: Amount – 85, Radius – 1.0, Detail – 25, and Masking – 50. These are just starting points and each one needs to be tweaked for the individual image.
The second place for sharpening is in the Export dialog box. Under the Output Sharpening section there is a drop-down allowing you to choose different levels of sharpening. You should choose the setting for Screen with the Amount set to Standard. If I was going to be using the images myself I might choose a different setting but since the images are for stock use, you never know just where they will end up. By using a low setting you are giving the end-user the ability to add more sharpening if they choose, but if it’s too sharp, there’s no way to undo it.
If anyone else out there shoots for stock, I would love to have you share some of your tips and tricks on post processing. Please feel free to add a comment.
Hey everyone, I’m getting ready to head to Las Vegas for Photoshop World but I wanted to give you a little taste of the new Bokeh 2 plug-in from Alien Skin. I apologize for the small size of the video but I will be posting a few more higher res videos with some other Bokeh 2 features in the days to come. Until then, check out the video and take a look at some of the great features that make this one of my favorite new plug-ins. You can find out more about Bokeh 2 and download a trial version at the Alien Skin website.
The rumors had been swirling around the ether for quite a while and now it’s official, Canon has launched the new 60D into it’s family of DSLR cameras. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was working on my first book on the 50D. It was a very successful camera for Canon and for good reason; it was a solid camera that took great images. Now it seems that the 60D will be poised to carry on that tradition by bringing some great features to the table.
Of course it’s almost a foregone conclusion that the 60D would have video. 1080P comes standard with manual camera control, sound recording level adjustment, and an external mic jack. Other goodies include an 18MP sensor with a DIGIC 4 processor, in-camera RAW to JPEG conversion, expandable ISO to 12,800, 5.3 frame per second shooting speed, and a cool variable angle LCD screen that packs over 1,000,000 pixels.
Retail price for the camera is listed at $1,100.00 for the body only. You can read more about the 60D over at the Canon EOS website. And while you are there, be sure to check out the new L-series lenses that were also announced yesterday.
Alien Skin releases 64-bit Bokeh 2 Software -
I just downloaded my copy of the new Bokeh 2 software and I have to tell you that the folks at Alien Skin have really taken this great plug-in up a few notches. I don’t want to say too much because I am going to post a review next week but here’s a video from Alien Skin that will give you a little insight into some of the new features.
How to “shoot” people -
I saw this video over at PixBoomBa, the photography blog run by Nat Geo photographers Bob Caputo and Cary Wolinski. I just couldn’t help but laugh when I saw their short video on how to shoot strangers. It’s pretty darn funny and a good way to kick off your weekend. Click this link to watch the video.
Photo Workshops in the DC area -
If you live in the Washington DC metropolitan area and are looking for some workshops to improve your photo skills you should definitely check out Penn Camera. The folks at Penn offer a full slate of opportunities to learn with Photo Safaris, free mini-seminars like the one next week on portrait photography, camera specific instruction with factory reps, and more. The fees are very reasonable and there are a host of locations to choose from in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Check out the Class & Events page on the Penn Camera website.
Nik Software enters the world of HDR-
I just saw that Nik, makers of all sorts of excellent Photoshop plug-ins like Viveza 2 and Silver Efex Pro, has jumped into the HDR pool with the announcement of their latest product, HDR Efex Pro. I have not had a chance to use it yet but if it’s like Nik’s other plug-ins, it will be something you want to try. Speaking of trying it out, the product will be shipping in October and there will be a 15-day, fully functioning trial available for you to test out. You can read more about HDR Efex Pro at the Nik website.
That’s it for this week. I’m off to Vegas on Monday for some business and then it’s time to jump in to Photoshop World. I hope I see you there!
Are you a photographer? Have you been thinking about creating a photo blog to show off your stuff or just increase your presence on the web? Are you going to be in Las Vegas next week? If you scored a three out of three on the YES meter then you need to get yourself to Photoshop World next Thursday so you can sit in on the Blogging for Photographers class hosted by Scott Kelby. This isn’t necessarily going to be a “how-to” class. It’s actually going to be more of a panel discussion featuring Scott, Matt Kloskowski, some other cool photo bloggers, oh yeah, and me.
This class is part of a new track of classes this year at Photoshop World called Social Media and Business. This is a one-day only track with classes that focus on being successful on-line with classes like: Selling Photos (And Yourself) Online, Tweeting with Authority, Why Should I Be On Facebook?, and my class, Blogging for Photographers. There are also two classes by the legal/copyright duo of Ed Greenberg and Jack Reznicki called The Copyright Zone and Model, Minor & Property Releases. You can read more about the Social Media/Business track by clicking here.
Don’t forget that you can now, for the first time ever, buy a one-day pass for any of the three days of the conference (more info here). So if you can’t make it to the entire conference, maybe you can still squeeze in one or two days of PSW goodness. And if that one day happens to be Thursday, I hope I’ll see you at the photo blogging class. It should be a lot of fun.
Entries (RSS)