PhotoWalkPro

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As the days headed toward the DC Photowalk, the forecast grew quite ominous as forecasters were calling for heavy rains, wind, and cold temperatures. Even as I drove to the airport through light rain to pick up my special guest walkers, I wondered if we might be walking through the streets of Adams Morgan on our own. But as chance would have it, the weather gods were smiling upon us and the faithful that showed up were treated to mild temperatures, overcast to partly sunny skies, and an afternoon of shooting with none other than the Photoshop Guys themselves, Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski. For those that had been reading my updates, I had been hinting of a little surprise for the day and having Matt and Scott on hand just really topped off a very fun shoot with some great folks.

Our day started out at the Metro station on Connecticut Ave. where we hooked up with everyone that was brave enough to discount the weather reports and the messed up Metro system (there were closures on the Red and Yellow lines that really added some challenges to getting to the starting point). We had one brief downpour before we headed off to Adams Morgan and it never rained on us again. The group ended up being small but what a great bunch of folks. A special thanks goes out to Ina, our local neighborhood expert, who not only showed us some great shooting spots, but also was a wealth of information on the history of the area.

Near the end of the photowalk we found a great alley and sent everyone in to get some shots. As you can see from the photo above, there was quite an exuberance displayed by all the photowalkers, especially my buddy Mike. I’m not sure if he was shooting or throwing his camera but whatever he was doing, he was certainly having fun doing it. I have been looking at the numerous images uploaded to the Flickr group from all the photowalkers and I am really amazed at the variations that came from so many people standing in the same place. This is one of the great things about a photowalk, the fact that you get to experience something that you photographed through someone elses eyes.

Group Shot courtesy of Lenny “the Lensman” Lind

We finished off the day at Chipotle with some tasty burritos, some good conversation, and a lot of chimping. So even though I started the day fearing the worst, I can honestly say that I couldn’t imaging the day turning out any better than it did. What a great way to kick off the inaugural PhotoWalkPro photowalk series. I can hardly wait for the next one. And for everyone that boldly faced the elements to show up, I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as I enjoyed spending the afternoon shooting and chatting with you. I look forward to seeing all of you at the next event.

I want to give a special shout out to my friend Mike “Inner Circle” Meyer, and my good buddies Scott and Matt for showing up and supporting this effort. Thanks guys, it meant the world to me to have you there.

Be sure to head on over to the DC Photowalk Flickr Group and check out all of the images from the day.

My profound apologies to Lenny  Lind for failing to give credit for the group shot.  Sorry for the over site Lenny and thanks for being a part of our day.

There are certain areas of Photoshop that require books unto themselves. Channels was expertly covered by my buddy Scott Kelby, Lab Color was demystified by Dan Margulis, and now Layers will no longer perplex the masses thanks to Matt Kloskowski’s newest book, Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature. The book begins by explaining what layers are. Matt does this in a creative sort of way. It’s actually the way that I have described it to people for years because they just seem to get it. Matt uses transparency material over a photograph and draws on it with a pen. No damage to the original and if you used erasable marker, you can change what you drew. Ok, so the book isn’t all on this simplistic level, in fact it gets into some fairly complex layer techniques. But the nice part is that it builds from the simple to the complex in a logical progression that will have even the most novice of Photoshop users doing enhancements and retouching using blend modes and layer styles in no time. All of the chapters are laid out very well with excellent photographs to guide you through the step-by-step lessons. This really isn’t a book about layers, it’s a book about how to effectively use layers to achieve the desired effect you want/need.

The book is divided into nine chapters and covers all the layers bases and including: Layers Basics, Blending, Adjustment, Masks, Type and Shape, Enhancing With Layers, Retouching With Layers, Layer Styles, and Smart Layers. Each chapter goes step-by-step to demonstrate the layer tool or effect. All of the images used in the lessons are ready to download. I love this feature because sometimes it is difficult to find one of my own images that work as well as the ones being used in the book. As a little bonus, each chapter ends with a page of “How do I” questions and answers that relate to the chapter material. The questions are ones that Matt has been asked during his numerous live teaching engagements for Kelby Training.

So if you haven’t been using layers for more than copy and paste operations, you should place this book high on your list of must purchase items. It will definitely take your Photoshop skills to a whole new level.

For more information, reviews, or to just order it, head on over to Amazon (just click here to go right to the book)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my buddy, Scott Kelby, as well as Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, the Scriv, and all my friends over at Kelby Training/NAPP for having me on this week’s episode of PhotoshopUser TV.  I had a great time seeing the studio and NAPP offices as well as all of the fine, fine folks down in Tampa.  If you aren’t tuning in to PhotoshopUser TV, you don’t know what you are missing (like me getting to debut the new blog name).  Seriously, it is a fantastic resource that is full of tips, information, and just the right amount of jocularity.   To view the current and past episodes, you can go straight to the PhotoshopUserTV website or you can do as I do and download the episodes on iTunes.

Hey, Did I happen to mention I was on PhotoshopUser Tv this week?  Thanks again, Scott.  It was a hoot!

And now for something I was playing with over the weekend.  You may have seen some of my IR shots in earlier postings or over in my Gallery page.  I decided to take my IR to the next level by doing some channel swapping in Photoshop.  Basically after taking the image with an IR camera, I set the white balance for an area that would normally be green.  Then when I opened the image in Photoshop, I used the Channel Mixer to swap the red and blue channels.  Finally after a little levels work, I used a hue and saturation adjustment layer to balance out the colors in the image.  After all that, I got this -

I really wanted to make some changes to my gallery site so I fired up the Dreamweaver and proceeded to stare at the user interface without much of a clue of what to do next.  I have had Dreamweaver for sometime but have never really had any resource for learning how to use it.  Thanks to the new Kelby Online Training, that’s no longer the case.

When I was looking through the roster of online classes the other day, I noticed that Rafael “RC” Concepcion has posted 2 classes, Dreamweaver Level 1 and Photoshop and Dreamweaver Integration.  Since I didn’t really know too much about Dreamweaver to begin with, I thought maybe I should start with the Level 1 class.

The lessons were extremely well laid out starting with the user interface, then moving on to creating new documents, and on and on from there.  To help with the learning process, there were downloadable files that went along with each lesson so I could follow along.  The only problem I had was trying to overcome the desire to buy dual screen monitors so I could watch on one and follow along on the other.  It can be a little hard to watch the lessons while trying to follow in the program but I managed to hop back and forth by pausing the lessons and then hopping over to the program to apply what I just saw.  As I got more accustomed to the program it was easier to let the lessons run and then go back and try on my own.

After some trial and error with the lesson files, I felt confident to apply what I had learned to my gallery site.  While it isn’t the most professionally laid out site, it isn’t half-bad if I do say so myself.  So my hats off to RC for his fine instruction.  I can’t wait for his next installments so I can really get this thing cranked up.  To see what I did using my new mad skillz, click here.

What I really liked most about this show is that it was all about the photographer.  It is smaller than PMA and PhotoPlus but it had a nice feel to it.  It wasn’t about selling to the suits where the back meeting rooms are more important than what is on the show floor.  This is a show put on by photographers, for photographers and it shows.  Having said that, most of the exhibitors at the show were not showing anything that was brand new.  There were no unveilings going on.  Most of those are going to happen at PMA or, in the case of Sony, Casio, and Samsung, at CES.  So here are just a couple of things that caught my eye:

Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper – This stuff is just amazing.  I had certainly seen the press releases and heard others talk about it but this was my first chance to actually see it and touch it in person. Let me tell you, the buzz is definitely worthy of this great product.  I’m definitely going to buy some for my own stuff.  The only downfall for me is that there is no custom profiles for my older model 2200 printer.   As for the printers, the R1800 and R2400 printers are both great but for me, it is still the 3800 that still makes me giddy.  This thing just rocks, and it isn’t much larger than my 2200.

Nikon –  Nikon was of course showing off their newest DSLR cameras, the D3 and D300.  I won’t go into great detail on these because there are quite a few great reviews floating around the web.  What I will say is that these two cameras are amazing and make me feel like my D2Xs is a lesser camera (I never thought I would think that).  Along with the new bodies, Nikon was showcasing their new lenses.  The 14-24 and the 24-70.  Both lenses are f2.8 and are some of the smoothest focusing and sharpest lenses turned out by Nikon in some time.  They also had the new big boy lenses, the 400, 500, and 600, up for display.  Very sweet!

Canon of course also had their newbies out for display.  The 1DS Mark III which, although I am not a Canon guy, is a very impressive rig.  There is also the 40D which I have had a little time playing with and is a great option for the prosumer.  The Canon G9 is also making some noise as one of the best point-n-shoots that is definitely professional grade.  A very nice camera indeed.

Wacom – I had a chance to stop buy and see the new Cintiq 12WX.  I don’t even know how to describe this other that WOW!  It takes the pen tablet to a whole new level.  You don’t have to give up your monitor either.  It splits the video signal so that you can see it on the Cintiq as well as your monitor.  Wacom has definitely hit one out of the park with this one. 

Lumedyne - was showing off their new shoot-thru ring flash.  This is one of those hot portrait lighting techniques that will be made much easier with this new flash system. 

Hoodman – From the people that brought you the camera ldc loupe, Hoodman was showing off a new UDMA Firewire card reader.  It doesn’t sound like much but if you are going to be using ultra-fast UDMA memory cards, you are going to want a reader that will take advantage of that speed when downloading. 

Gallery Wrap Prints – This seems to be the big rage for large format printing.  I saw at least a dozen vendors that were offering this type or large format printing option on canvas and I have to say that it is pretty cool.  If you are offering your customers large format canvas, you will really want to look into this. 

Tons of Book Binders – I spent some time talking to renowned wedding photographer and all around great guy David Ziser at the show and we both agreed that the album/book market is exploding.  Wedding photographers are getting away from those traditional albums and moving towards the printed books that were made popular by Apples iPhoto.  There are now so many options for delivering your images that it almost makes me want to get back into the wedding business (I said almost). 

Kelby Training – The folks over at Kelby Training set up their first booth for the promotion of their new online training subscriptions and it was a great success.  That was due largely in part to having all those great Photoshop instructors on-hand to give a taste of what would be received with a subscription to the new service.  The entire Photoshop User TV crew was there (Scott, Dave, and Matt) as well as RC and Corey from Layers TV.  If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new training sessions, you should do yourself a favor and get on over to KelbyTraining.com.  It’s like going to Photoshop World without having to find a hotel room.

On a personal note, I was very psyched to visit the Kelby Training headquarters as well as the set for Photoshop User TV.  Yes, I got a peek behind the curtain to see how all the magic was made.  It was definitely a blast and was also nice to put some faces to the NAPP and Kelby Training folks that I have talked to on the phone but never previously met.

That’s all from sunny Tampa and the imagingUSA Expo.  I’m back on a plane home later today and back to work tomorrow.  See you then.

Just a few odds and ends to wrap up this first week of 2008.

Last week over at David Ziser’s Digital ProTalk blog, David hooked up his readers with a link to a free copy of SnagIt,  the screen capture utility.  Many of us photo bloggers have need to capture an image from our screen from time to time and this is a great, easy to use, program for doing just that.  The only downfall is that it is a Windows-only program.  The good news is that if you are a Mac user, you already have a capture utility built right into OS X.  To use this little hidden feature, just press CMD+SHFT+3 for a full screen grab or CMD+SHFT+4 to pull up a cursor that lets you select what part of your screen you want.  It’s a simple, fast solution for Mac users.  David also pointed his readers to a free download version of Camtasia.  Camtasia is a screen capture utility for creating video.  It records all of your screen activity as a movie file that can be used for training and is widely used by folks that create online tutorials.  Once again, this is a Windows application.  I don’t believe that OS X has a solution for this yet but there is an inexpensive application that will do the same thing.  For $65, you can download Screen Mimic.  This screen recording program not only records your screen and audio, but will convert it to Flash or QuickTime.  If that’s a little steep for your wallet, for a mere $20 you can download iShowU.  This is a great capture utility with lots of presets to satisfy your online video needs plus other great features.  Definitely worth the money to get you up and running in the online tutorial business.

Ben Goes Big -  Legendary Photoshop author and instructor Ben Wilmore has released a new website to feature his photography.  Much of what Ben shoots is processed using his HDR techniques and so Ben created this site that can fill a 30″ display with his images.  Ben says that they look best when they are big.  I wonder if this is justification to go out and buy that new Apple Cinema HD display?  To see Ben’s new site, click here.

And finally, this weekend I am heading down to Tampa to the Imaging USA show.  I will be checking out all the new photo technology being released this year at the 500+ vendor tradeshow.  While I am there I will be stopping by Kelby Training to see Scott Kelby, Dave Moser, Kathy, Matt, Dave, and anyone else that will let me get close enough to annoy them.  Hopefully in my downtime I will get to go shoot a little with Scott and Dave.  I haven’t had a chance to shoot anything this year and I am dying to get snapping.  If I get anything decent or find any great new gear at the show I will be sure to throw it up in a post.  Until then, I will close out this post with a shot from my trip to Page AZ last year.  Have a great weekend!  GO SKINS!!!