LightningSymphony

Worldwide Photo Walk

2008-08-22T13:28:00.001-06:00

The Worldwide Photo Walk is almost upon us! I really hope lots of people show up, even if they don't register. A couple of the other leaders are posting equipment and recommendations, so I figured I'd do something similar, here.

I will be taking a medium-sized photo bag with a short telezoom, a Lensbaby 3G, a flash, and my D100, with a spare card and batteries. For longer walks (think: day at the zoo), I typically only take the body and one telezoom lens to keep the weight down. But this is a short walk, so I don't mind lugging the extra pounds. I will also have a Slik monopod and micro ballhead for slower shutter speeds.

The local paper, the Los Alamos Monitor, was kind enough to do a special insert for me to support this walk. I'll scan in the article and post it here soon. Unfortunately, the article makes it a little difficult to actually get all the information you need without reading the whole thing. Still, they were kind enough to give me lots of room in the paper, so with any luck we'll see a good turnout.

Even though my chosen location is not as exciting as other cities', I think there's great potential for getting shooters to find a new way of looking at the world around them. This is one of my basic drivers for doing experimental photography - how to present the mundane in new ways. It's not just the challenge of the photographer to get a unique angle on something, but of the artist inside the photographer to get viewers to see something new in the subject. A picture of a coin may not be exciting, but a picture of a coin in a child's hand as they put it into a candy machine tells an entirely different story. Doing the same shot from the perspective of a smaller child watching big brother or big sister makes it even more complex still.

My real hope, then, is to get people who enjoy taking pictures to start to make pictures. What better way than to take them someplace familiar and let them watch how other people see their world.

Check back here in a couple of days - I plan to have a link up to the group flickr site for your enjoyment!

Nikon screws the pooch, fails to shower afterwards...

2008-08-08T13:15:00.001-06:00

Nikon makes some really great equipment. But counter to the glow of their technical genius, the business people are giant black holes of intellect. The much-anticipated P6000 advanced compact camera (no, I will not give the link - they won't see a link from me on this issue) uses a new raw format called NRW. Proprietary raw formats are a BAD, BAD thing. People want to choose the best combination of software and hardware they can, and locking them into one path or another ought to drive them away. Of course, there are the iPod lemmings who have no problem with iTunes and iWhatever because they don't want to bother thinking or making choices.

I digress...

Now, combine a proprietary file format for digital images with a single-path solution for viewing and editing those pictures, and you have a RETARDED situation. Do some reading to understand my ire.

It's not bad enough they pick a douche like Ashton Kutcher as a spokesperson, and ran those lame-ass advertisements. Now they have to pull this shit and just drive away folks who want flexibility. I hope to god they do not try this crap with the dSLR lines.

I've been shooting Nikon for almost 20 years, and this is the first time I've considered dumping them altogether. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't seem to be any more intelligent in this regard. As long as Adobe comes out with a workable DNG converter, I'll be ok. Or I won't ever buy another Nikon. I'm already done with Micro$oft.

New Photoshop Hall of Fame Inductees

2008-08-04T09:03:00.001-06:00

John Nack, senior product manager for Photoshop, and Martin Evening, photographer/instructor/author, will both be inducted into the NAPP's Photoshop Hall of Fame. More from Scott Kelby:

http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1773

I don't know Martin at all, and have only met John once in person (though I've known him for a couple of years via email). However, I am familiar with work from both of these gentlemen and am very happy for them. John especially has been instrumental in bringing Photoshop into a new frame of mind, and has pushed not only the capabilities of the application, but by proxy the capabilities of the communities who use Photoshop.

Photoshop users around the world have John and his team to thank for some very exciting changes in a very exciting piece of software.

Lightroom updated

2008-07-30T12:26:00.001-06:00

Lots of folks have already blogged this, but Adobe updated Lightroom to version 2, and added support for the Nikon D700 (unofficially, though). If anyone wants to send me a D700 for testing, just drop me a note and I'll make time in my schedule to accommodate you.

John Nack (linked above) lists some of the highlights in this release, so I'm going to ramble a bit about why I'm finally going to add LR to my imaging lineup.

First off, I'm doing more and more actual photography, where I want the image to be done right in the camera. And while I am writing a book on composite photographs using Photoshop, I want to keep my photography at the highest quality I can on its own. Yes, Photoshop has most everything I need, but I want to keep my brain on the images themselves for some projects, and LR has more flexibility in tweaking photographic images.

As a user group manager, I have been obligated to point out that Adobe has always meant for LR and PS to be used together, though either can stand alone for their own particular target audiences. Indeed, you can survive quite nicely as a photographer using only PS (the converse is not true for designers and LR). However, I never figured I needed to make the kinds of adjustments LR is capable of. That is changing, and it is mostly due to my changing perspective on photography alongside the availability of a more powerful image tool, LR.

If you are a PS user and a photographer, join me in adding LR to your lineup. It may take some getting used to, but I think it will be worth it to keep focused on a photography work flow that is distinct from an imaging or designing work flow.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinions on this.

AllExperts Answers - Photography Basics

2008-07-11T09:23:00.001-06:00

I am just posting a couple of TinURL links to answers I've given recently. Mostly, I just want to keep track of them, but some folks might find them useful for explaining a couple of basic photography concepts to their neophyte friends:

Explaining Depth of Field and Aperture

Explaining "accuracy" misconception in photographic images

As I get more, I'll create a little library of TinyURLs for quick reference :)

Complexity in Art (via Scott Kelby)

2008-07-10T08:19:00.003-06:00

Scott Kelby recently hosted guest blogger Stephen Johnson to talk about complexity in creating art:

Art seems rarely achieved through complex techniques, hidden features or secret workflows. This is particularly true in the digital era where the distraction of the software itself can make the creative process become stymied in menus and self-doubt regarding using the program to its fullest potential. Add to this a steep learning curve inherent in the current transition to digital photography and you have a situation where “tricks” can effect results more than vision.

This is a pretty good read, worth the few minutes and 1/2 cup of coffee to get through. Johnson speaks to some of the topics my partner and I will be writing about in our upcoming book, specifically about 'getting it right' in the camera.

Mac Pro setup?

2008-07-04T16:49:00.003-06:00

So, I recently bought a refurb Mac Pro. I am moving from Windows, and would like to get started the right way. And I'm asking for your help despite my better judgment.

I have heard that it's possible/recommended to partition the OS onto its own drive for easy reinstalls. Is it possible to do this across the board for other applications? Is it possible to mirror just the application drive so that I can clean out the entire OS if necessary?

Also, how would I go about having a distinct install (virtual?) drive for beta applications? You know... not that I currently do any beta testing... ahem. But, if I did, what would be the best way to set up a Mac Pro for this hypothetical arrangement?

Experimenting with Photoshop

2008-06-29T17:37:00.001-06:00

It sounds odd, but one of the most entertaining things I do with Photoshop is to improvise on a theme. That theme can be a compositional style, an effect, a genre, etc. Part of this experimentation relies on anchoring around some idea or look. For example, I recently posted a challenge on PhotoshopTechniques to come up with different ways to use noise in an image. Most folks use noise to simulate film grain, and this is where I started. The specific challenge was to get noise to behave in unusual ways.

Since I like to have the image do much of the work itself, I try to build effects that rely on color or brightness information. This allows for some custom looks, but also helps when building film simulations since much of the look of film is tied to how it handles tonal variations and exposure. Noise in film is actually grains of photosensitive material, with grain size being related to the sensitivity of the film.

Without getting into the technical details, here's the summary of film, and why it's important to this discussion... Color film is made up of layers, each sensitive to a different spectrum of light. Sometimes these layers react differently, or have different sensitivity to various frequencies of light. Noise in these layers comes from "improper" exposure, typically underexposure. So, to get good (or realistic) simulations of film grain, you have to apply noise in a way that mimics how the film reacts to being underexposed.

The best way to do this is to use channel information and blending modes. There are several approaches, some requiring more finesse than others. Here some things to try: create various noise layers and adjust the color with hue/saturation, then apply different blend modes and opacity changes; add noise to special selections, like highlights or mid tones; warp your noise layers using displacement maps created from edge masks.

These are fairly advanced techniques, so if you are not sure how to get started, check the links on the right and send me a question!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog!!

2008-06-28T13:02:00.001-06:00

What do you get when you mix Joss Whedon, Doogie Howser, and That Guy From Waitress in with a slumped Hollywood economy?

You get more awesome awesomness than has ever previously been awesome on this blog. And that, my friend, is an awful lot of awesomeness.

If you have a myspace account, go get Dr. Horrible to add you as a friend. If you don't have myspace, go get an account and go get Dr. Horrible to add you as a friend.

But first, watch this.

What does this have to do with Photoshop? Not a gorram thing. But it's good, and you should support it. You should at least be aware of it.

Twitter!

2008-06-25T14:37:00.001-06:00

I've been on Twitter for a few weeks, since the Adobe Community Summit in San Jose, Ca. I will be using it to post little snippets from the upcoming book, and you may just get some tasty little bits you won't hear from anyone else. Or not.

Follow me: sjv

101 Photoshop Tips in Five Minutes

2008-06-24T11:54:00.001-06:00

Deke McClelland has a spiffy little video for you; 101 tips for Photoshop, delivered via podcast in about 5 minutes. Watch. Learn. Enjoy!

Top 10 Apps for Adobe AIR (via Lifehacker)

2008-06-19T09:15:00.001-06:00

Found a neat list of 10 applications worth trying out. I haven't installed them, yet, but plan to as soon as I get an opportunity:

Lifehacker's Top Ten Apps for AIR

The connection to Photoshop isn't clear yet, but stick around. Head over to Adobe Labs and check out something called SwitchBoard on Adobe Labs.

Starting to get the ...uh... picture?

Book news - We're on!

2008-06-17T23:26:00.001-06:00

My writing partner, Dan Moughamian and I are waiting for a contract to show up. We talked with Peachpit and have agreed to terms and schedule for a book on Photoshop, due some time this winter.

So, help me buzz the living snot out of this sucker! Get our names out there, refer folks to our blogs and articles whenever you can. We'll try to make it easy for you by continuing to write online as we go. Some lucky folks might even get to proof some sections (we have to clear that up for non-disclosure reasons - but there's hope!)

What will the book cover? Well, the target audience will be intermediate to advanced users, mostly photographic manipulations. I can't give any more detail than that, but I can guarantee you've not seen anything like what we are presenting.

You can subscribe to our blogs to get news on Photoshop and the visual communication world, and keep tabs on our forthcoming book. There may be some rewards for those who are diligent and responsive, so write to us!

Ask me directly about Photoshop or Digital Photography questions on AllExperts.com.

Acrobat.com goes live

2008-06-02T09:04:00.001-06:00

I've been waiting to announce this for some time, and finally here it is. However, I don't have time right now to go into detail, so I'll save that for another post:

http://blogs.adobe.com/acom/2008/06/welcome_to_acrobatcom_work_tog_1.html

If you work collaboratively, or think you may need to, go take a look. There are some great services being developed. I'm using some of these to collaborate on a book, and will be setting up client accounts as the service matures. This will make document handling online much easier, though the current offerings lack enough formality to be much beyond the 'convenience' level right now.

Still, get signed up!

SkyPlay group on flickr

2008-05-02T11:01:00.001-06:00

David Anders (on Photoshoptechniques.com) posted this fun flickr group. I really enjoy seeing people do low-tech stuff that pushes creativity. This kind of approach opens one's eyes, and hopefully helps people get more enjoyment out of otherwise mundane activities.

Adobe launches Open Screen Project

2008-05-01T09:15:00.001-06:00

From Adobe:

"The Open Screen Project is dedicated to driving consistent rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. The Open Screen Project is supported by technology leaders, including Adobe, ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to deliver rich Web and video experiences, live and on-demand across a variety of devices."

The announcement goes on to discuss using the Adobe Flash Player and AIR as rich, but thin, content solutions. And there has been considerable motion to bring AIR even more light as a distributed application frame. The Adobe Media Player, which I tested in prerelease, is another great solution that gives providers very nice control over advertising and targeting of video content.

Way cool, junior.

Grid layout for web design

2008-05-01T07:49:00.001-06:00

960 Grid System is a layout tool for web pages, based on a width of 960 pixels. While not a very flexible tool, it is a great template to help folks get into grid-based design.

http://960.gs/

Candle Cannon??

2008-04-29T15:56:00.001-06:00

Have you ever seen those "magic" ball-of-air cannons? You know, the ones that have a rubber diaphragm on the back of a largish conical tube - guaranteed to jam dirt and debris in your eyes at 20+ feet?

Here's a Much Bigger one.

This one was built to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of a sandwich shop, of course. What... you were expecting something relevant?

GoLive GoneDead

2008-04-28T10:14:00.001-06:00

It appears that Adobe finally decided GoLive will no longer be developed, as of today. IMHO, GoLive was a tragedy from the start. Having used it only a few times, I never got the impression is was anything more than FrontPage by Adobe.

Folks who want to move to Dreamweaver, and have a current license for GoLive, will be offered a $199 upgrade path.

Expect a real press release from Adobe very soon.

FWIW, I'm glad they are rid of GoLive. Adobe is doing a great job at refining their tools and there is no need to have multiple tiers of web development applications, unless they choose to follow in Photoshop's footsteps and provide a light version for the hobby crowd. I would also expect them to leverage AIR/Flex to develop something similar to Photoshop Express, allowing online page development.

Wouldn't that be cool? Dreamweaver Express... it's not a leap to imagine something like this really giving Google's Pages suite a run.

You Suck at Photoshop - Behind the ...mask?

2008-04-25T23:06:00.001-06:00

Time.com has an exposé on the guys behind YSAP.

So, it turns out to be an accidental viral marketing success story, and who can complain about that? I have to say that I didn't find the series interesting enough to watch beyond the first episode, but I did watch the blogsphere at large just go nuts over these videos.

It's like the Photoshop world also took great pride in being part of a sparkling meme that didn't involve journalists lying yet again, or counterfeiters (or counter-counterfeiters, ftm), or the office of the President, or instruments of graphic doom.

That aspect reminds me somewhat of the great Flash debates, where everlasting ass-wad and general fuqtard Jakob Nielsen claimed Flash was 99% bad. Anyway...

I suppose I owe it to myself to go watch the other nine episodes. If for no other reason than I can chat with other PS geeks at various gatherings.

Damn...

2008-04-25T11:17:00.001-06:00

This kid is 17 or 18, has been shooting with a dSLR about 2 years, and has an amazing style and body of work. Meet Joey Lawrence.

Not only does he show an incredible eye for solid photography, he also apparently has a pretty darned good grip on using Photoshop. He's even got a DVD out, for $300, in which he expounds on his approach and technique. A little steep for my wallet, but I might be persuaded to go in with someone... hint...

The Lighting Journey

2008-04-25T10:49:00.001-06:00

Here is an older entry from Strobist on finding your place on the lighting journey. The article talks about how photographers use light, and relates the amount of awareness and control to various levels of skill and creativity. It's a long article, but if you are interested in photography beyond the basics, this is a good bit of insight and metric to figure out where you are and where you want to go.

I'm somewhere between 4 (Experimentation) and 5(Bag of Tricks). While I do know what works for many situations, and if I am shooting for a client I can nail the essentials, I really do rely on experimentation when getting started. Plus, it's just fun.

Collection of Photoshop tutorials for eyes

2008-04-25T10:44:00.001-06:00

This guy has a neat little collection of 8 tutorials for enhancing eyes in Photoshop. Some are kind of drawn out, but they are handy none-the-less.

Good blog entry on designing within limits

2008-04-25T10:37:00.001-06:00

Sean Hodge has a nice article on working within limits for designers. Creatives sometimes have trouble narrowing down all the great ideas they have, which can be stifling, oddly enough. With too much freedom, it becomes difficult to choose quickly or effectively. Imposing some restrictions, like following a design methodology, can really speed up the process which can lead to some great results.

Book Cutting as Art...

2008-04-17T13:19:00.000-06:00

Book cutting? Yep.

I've seen similar stuff done with paper sheets or even some stacks, and this seems like a logical step. I imagine this takes a lot of patience, and a little perversity to cut into a book (which I very nearly revere). Some of the works relate to the title directly, but others are just cool sculptures.

Be sure to follow some of the links around to find other galleries.

Don't Try This At Home

Some of my favorites: