Mac Create Network

Wired.com: Playbook Blog Hosts Weird Sports Photog Sol Neelman

Thomas Boyd — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:10:56 +0000

MacCreate’s favorite weird sports photographer Sol Neelman is now a contributor blogger for Wire.com’s Playbook sports blog.

Here’s a link to Sol Neelman’s first post.

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/01/wired-weird-sports-beard-growing/

Canon G1 X Hands On Video

Thomas Boyd — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:08:00 +0000

Here’s a quick, poorly produced video that shows the new Canon G1 X.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2TPcm03Vuo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[youtube][/youtube]

Adobe Releases Lightroom 4 Public Beta to be More Like Aperture 3

Thomas Boyd — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:50:50 +0000

Adobe releases Lightroom 4 Public Beta today with several features that Aperture 3 has had for some time. Most notably, a photo book creation module with templates. Other features they added that Aperture 3 already has are highlight and shadow recovery, location-based organization, additional local editing controls, extended video support, easy video publishing, soft proofing, and emailing directly from the app.

Of course, they added a few things I would love to see in Aperture as well like White Balance brushing. I’ve wanted that forever. I really hope this also inspires the Aperture team to add some beloved Lightroom features like lens correction.

This is all good for photographers regardless of what app you use. It’s very much like the Nikon v. Canon competition.

Here’s a link to the Adobe download page: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/

Rob Galbraith: Larger sensor at the heart of 14.20 million image pixel Canon Powershot G1 X

Thomas Boyd — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:34:34 +0000

Rob Galbraith has a nice write-up on the new Canon Powershot G1X. It looks like an intriguing camera.

Here’s a link to his post: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11673-12227

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11673-12227

PCMag.com: Nikon D4 First Camera to Support XQD Memory

Thomas Boyd — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:01:24 +0000

I have to admit I had no idea what XQD memory was when I was reading the specifications on the Nikon D4, or who fast it was, or who made it or anything at all. Luckily, PCMag.com wrote a quick post about it.

Here’s a link to the article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398508,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398508,00.asp

Pros Blog About Working With the Nikon D4 Prototypes

Thomas Boyd — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:36:48 +0000

Respected pros Joe McNally and Bill Frakes had a chance to use the Nikon D4 before anyone else and they’ve finally had a chance to blog about it.

Here’s a link to Joe McNally’s blog post about it: http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2012/01/06/shooting-the-d4/

Here’s a link to Bill Frakes blog post about it: http://www.strawhatvisuals.com/blog/equipment/2012/01/06/nikon-d4-is-here/

http://www.strawhatvisuals.com/blog/equipment/2012/01/06/nikon-d4-is-here/

VIDEO from CNET Asia: Nikon D4 Burst Mode

Thomas Boyd — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:01:22 +0000

CNET Asia has posted a video that shows the depth of the buffer on the D4 shooting RAW. It seemingly goes forever.

Here’s a link their facebook page with the video: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150468693938174

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150468693938174

UPDATED: Nikon Posts Detailed Information on D4

Thomas Boyd — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:38:49 +0000

Nikon just posted information on the new D4, their flagship camera.

Among many other improvements, it looks like they vastly improved the video capabilities. The D4 can record 1080p Full HD video at 30/25 or 24p in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format.

Of particular note is an external headphone connector that enables use of headphones to monitor and control audio in isolation. The indicators offer visual confirmation of audio level and the microphone sensitivity can be precisely controlled in 20 incremental steps.

Here’s are some Nikon Links:

Press Release: http://press.nikonusa.com/

Nikon D4 Photo Gallery: http://press.nikonusa.com/photogallery/?gid=180

Luminous Landscape: Photo Industry “Fails of the Year”

Thomas Boyd — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:52:02 +0000

Luminous Landscape has a nice list of photo industry fails of the year on their page. I don’t disagree with any of the things they listed and no one was spared.

Here’s a link to their article.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/2010_lulas.shtml

Tutorial: Setting a Custom Key Command for a Brush in Aperture 3

Thomas Boyd — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:33:36 +0000

I’ve recently taken a liking to the Sharpen Quick Brush. I could be wrong about this, but for some reason it seems to more effective than using the Edge Sharpen adjustment brick. Nevertheless, I am quite sure I like brushing Sharpen much better than Sharpening as a local adjustment.

Since I’ve been using the Sharpen brush so much, I decided it would be worth my time to create a custom command to activate the brush much faster than navigating to it with mouse.

For instance, I thought it would make sense to set it up so when I hit the "S" key would bring up the Sharpen brush.

Give the Sharpen Quick Brush a try, and if you decide you like it as much as I do, make a custom command.

Here’s how: (and these instructions apply to make a custom command for any function in Aperture.)

Aperture -> Commands -> Customize

Open the Customize window.

Click in "Main Menu Commands" then scroll down in the Command list and select "Add Sharpen Quick Brush". Type the letter "S", or whatever key command you want to use to activate a command. Click Save and then test your key command.

BJP: Post-processing in the digital age: Photojournalists and 10b Photography

Thomas Boyd — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:43:09 +0000

This is a really interesting interesting article about how Time magazine photographer Yuri Kozyrev handles his post-processing. The answer is he doesn’t. He sends it to Claudio Palmisano in Rome who does all the toning and sends it directly to his clients.

I always love to see before and after post processing photos. In some cases the results can dramitically different. In Kozyrev’s case, they are very subtle but important changes in the toning. As a news photojournalist, Kozyreve is very careful to not alter anything in the image other than subtle changes in dynamic range, color, sharpness, and crop.

Here’s a link the article in the British Journal of Photography.

http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/feature/2133918/post-processing-digital-age-photojournalists-10b-photography?WT.rss_f=All+the+latest+articles+from+BJP&WT.rss_a=Post-processing+in+the+digital+age%3A+Photojournalists+and+10b+Photography

Keynote Updated to 5.1.1.

David Schloss — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:39:50 +0000

Not sure how we missed this, but Apple updated Keynote to 5.1.1 on December 2nd. You can get this update from Software Update.

Here is the tech note about the update.

About Keynote 5.1.1

This update addresses issues that occur when working with large Keynote presentations on OS X Lion. It also includes improvements in stability and accessibility for Keynote.

System Requirements

Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 and later
OS X Lion

Installing the Keynote 5.1.1 update

To update to Keynote 5.1.1, use one of the following methods:

Mac App Store
Use this method if you originally purchased Keynote, from the Mac App Store.

Open the Mac App Store.
Click the Updates tab to update the iWork applications you purchased.

Software Update
Use this method if you originally purchased iWork in a box or downloaded and then activated a trial version of iWork. (Software Update might have linked you to this article to learn more about this update).

Choose Software Update from the Apple () menu.
Install any iWork-related updates. An update’s size may vary from computer to computer when it is installed using Software Update.

Note: If your computer is not up to date, other software updates available for your computer may appear.Since some updates must be installed prior to others, you should run Software Update more than once to make sure you have all available updates.

Standalone installer
Use this method if you originally purchased iWork in a box or downloaded and then activated a trial version of iWork. This is an alternative method to the Software Update method above, and is a useful option when you need to update multiple computers but only want to download the update once.

Download the update installer from the Apple Support Downloads page.
Open the downloaded installer file to run it manually.

Mind Numbingly Wrong Opinions on Aperture from Kevin Kubota

David Schloss — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:38:53 +0000

I’ve been reading Kevin Kubota’s new Lighting Notebook for a review of it on the digital photo site and I just found a section on Aperture that’s so incorrect it makes my brain hurt.

Kubota, who makes part of his living selling his Photoshop tools, dedicates a good portion of the book to techniques for improving an image—basic things like adjusting curves and selectively applying them and adding dark edges to an image.

And then there’s a single page on Aperture, which reads (in part)

Digital Lighting in Apple Aperture

If you are an Aperture user, you can accomplish selective lighting using the Dodge and Burn tools. Unfortunately those tools are not nearly as powerful or natural looking as the pervious tools applied in Lightroom or Photoshop, but they will work for simple and minor adjustments or if Aperture is the only editing program you have. If you have Aperture and Photoshop I’d suggest using ACR, through Bridge, or the Photoshop method previously described for best results.

… he then explains how to use Dodge and Burn with three bullet point steps and then ends with.

Due to the limited range of the brush sizing, working on large areas is difficult or impossible because the transitional edges are not soft enough, making them very obvious. For this reason, instead of darkening edges with the Burn tool, you could use the Vignette adjustment tool to do basic edge darkening.

On the first point, Aperture’s tools are every bit as powerful as Lightroom’s for adjusting tonality, in fact they can do things that Lightroom can’t, as we’ve pointed out before. For instance, you can create multiple curve layers and brush individual elements of that curve selectively in Aperture. Personally I’d probably use the more selective and precise Curve tool with the adjustment brushed in rather than use Dodge or Burn, but all of the tools that Kubota shows for Lightroom are available in Aperture. And then some.

The suggestion to use Aperture and Adobe Camera Raw along with Photoshop makes little sense and makes me wonder if he’s used Aperture. Since Aperture serves as the raw conversion tool your can’t really use Aperture and ACR, as images passed to a helper app are passed as TIFF files. (There are exceptions to that, but that’s really outside the scope of his book.)

In terms though of the limited range of brush sizing, here is the Dodge tool in Aperture with a 1000 pixel brush that’s mostly a feathered edge.

Finally, the suggestion to use the Vignetting tool instead of the Burn tool—well yes. That’s what the Vignette tool does. I think that Kubota doesn’t realize that your can paint the Vignette tool in and out, so he probably thinks you can’t be that selective with it.

I’m not a big Lightroom user, but I’m not going to say that professional photographer can’t use it to burn the edges of an image. Certainly when he gets to overlaying a texture onto a photo in Photoshop he’s in an arena of steps that are outside the workflow of either Aperture or Lightroom, but to say it can’t do selective lighting in Aperture? Come on.

Aperture 3.2.2 Addresses Hidden PhotoStream Issue

David Schloss — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:31:10 +0000

Apple has released an update to Aperture to address a bug introduced with 3.2.1. That bug would cause images from the photo stream to be hidden if the total number of images in the stream exceeded 1,000 pictures. While it was thought that the images were being erased, they were simply being hidden. 3.2.2 addresses this issue and is recommended for all users.

Aperture 3.2.2 can be downloaded from the Software Update menu.

Aperture 3.2.2 Software Update Available

Thomas Boyd — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 06:51:13 +0000

I love when I check the Software Update and it I see that it’s for Aperture. That always makes me happy because I know it’s going to be better.

Here’s a link to the to the Apple document detailing the update.

About Aperture 3.2.2

This update resolves an issue that could prevent auto-imported Photo Stream images from being displayed in the library after your Photo Stream hits 1,000 images.
For more information about this update see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4144

Included in Aperture 3.2
    ▪    Addresses compatibility with iCloud and iOS 5
    ▪    Resolves an issue that could cause the "Loading" indicator to reappear in the Viewer when cropping a photo
    ▪    Aperture now automatically relaunches into Full Screen mode if the application was in Full Screen mode when last quit
    ▪    Pinch-to-zoom gesture now automatically activates Zoom mode in the Viewer
    ▪    Left and right swipe gestures can now be used to navigate between photos in the Viewer
    ▪    Microsoft Outlook can now be chosen in Preferences as the application used by Aperture for emailing photos
    ▪    Fixes a problem that could cause Aperture, running on OS X Lion, to quit unexpectedly when using brushes to apply adjustments
    ▪    Loupe now correctly displays magnification levels between 50-100%
    ▪    Fixes an issue that could cause Aperture, running on OS X Lion, to display the incorrect color profile on externally edited images
    ▪    Import window now includes an option to delete photos from iPhone and iPad after they have been imported into Aperture
    ▪    The Lift Stamp tool now displays the correct cursor icons when being used in Split View and Viewer only modes
The update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.

Here’s a link to the Apple downloads page for Aperture: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1463

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4144

The Year in Pictures – 2011

Thomas Boyd — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:50:59 +0000

It’s that time of year when publications start posting their "Year in Pictures". Typically, they go through their archives and/or the wire services they subscribe to and build galleries. They often choose photos of historical significance. This year you will see photos from the Arab Summer, Libya, and Occupy Wall Street.

My favorite galleries though, are ones that just show staff generated work. They are often at newspapers and usually end up showing a wide variety of work that gives a good look at that community.

I discovered a few photos I hadn’t already seen. Keep an eye out of the leopard attacking a park ranger. There’s also the "Pepper Spraying Cop". I can’t see too many versions of that. There’s a also a photo in several of the galleries from my own newspaper (The Oregonian) shot by Randy Rasmussen of a cop pepper spraying an Occupy Portland protestor.

If any of you loyal readers see another gallery we might like, please post it in the comments.

And a Happy New Year!

Links to "Year in Pictures" galleries:

Time:
http://lightbox.time.com/2011/12/07/time-picks-the-top-10-photos-of-the-year/#1

Life:
http://www.life.com/gallery/67641/image/ugc1393781/2011-pictures-of-the-year#index/0

Newsweek:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/2011/pictures-of-the-year.html

The Denver Post Year in Photos:
http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2011/12/photos-2011-year-in-photos-by-the-denver-post-photographers/25883/

The Atlantic (Part 1 of 3)
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/2011-the-year-in-photos-part-1-of-3/100203/

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/2011-the-year-in-photos-part-2-of-3/100204/

The Atlantic (Part 3 of 3):
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/2011-the-year-in-photos-part-3-of-3/100205/

International Business Times:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/262499/20111206/year-pictures-2011-25-powerful-images-photos.htm

Reuters:
http://blogs.reuters.com/fullfocus/2011/11/21/best-photos-of-the-year-2011/#a=1

Buzzfeed:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011

Massive Discount on Framing at ImageKinds – MacCreate Approved Vendor

David Schloss — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:34:16 +0000

Around the offices and all over my house are framed photos that were produced by Imagekind.com. We don’t have any types of affiliate deals or kickbacks, we just trust their framing services. We just got an email saying they’re doing 40 percent off of all orders now.

The image (below) isn’t clickable (it’s a screenshot) but you can just visit imagekind.com and use the promo code sleighbell40.

We just placed an order for a half-dozen prints we’ve been wanting to hang.

PHOTOSHELTER: Offers Free 2012 Photo Business Plan Workbook

Thomas Boyd — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:58:44 +0000

Not only does PhotoShelter have the most robust photo management and portfolio website, they provide free valuable information to photographers with regard to growing their business. They are at it again with the 2012 Photo Business Plan Workbook.

Just enter your email address and It’s a free download here.

http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/photo-business-plan-workbook

Joe McNally’s Sketching Light

David Schloss — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:21:21 +0000

Whenever we see an announcement of a new book from photographic master Joe McNally, we get happy. Joe knows his stuff and he’s spent decades helping other photographers learn how to master lightning techniques. His new book Sketching Light is a new look at how to design, shape and create with light. We’ve already pre-ordered our copy.

Here is the description of the book from the publisher.

Following up on the great success of The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes, legendary magazine photographer Joe McNally takes us on another memorable ride with Sketching Light, another trip into the land of light–but this time running the gamut from small flash to big flash, and everywhere in between. Of course, Joe includes coverage of Nikon Speedlights, but he also covers big flash, as well as “in-between” lights as the Elinchrom Quadra. The exploration of new technology, as well as the explanation of older technology. No matter what equipment Joe uses and discusses, the most important element of Joe’s instruction is that it is straightforward, complete, and honest. No secrets are held back, and the principles he talks about apply generally to the shaping and quality of light, not just to an individual model or brand of flash.

He tells readers what works and what doesn’t via his let’s-see-what-happens approach, he shows how he sets up his shots with plentiful sketches and behind-the-scenes production shots, and he does it all with the intelligence, clarity, and wisdom that can only come from shooting in the field for 30 years for the likes of National Geographic, Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated–not to mention the wit and humor of a clearly warped (if gifted) mind.

Robert Beck Sports Photography Webinar

David Schloss — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:09:40 +0000

Noted sports photographer Robert Black will be holding a free online webinar on Monday December 12th, 2011. The webinar, sponsored by Lowepro will cover his techniques for camera settings, lighting technique and composition.

The event’s registration form is below.

Robert Beck Shares His Secrets to Sports Photography

Monday, December 12, 2011 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST

- Show in my Time Zone

Webinar Registration

Robert Beck’s introduction to sports photography came as a staff photographer for Surfer Magazine. His images have regularly graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and taken him to some of the greatest sporting events in the world: the Olympic Games, World Cup, World Series, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, The Masters, NBA finals and more. He has photographed celebrity sports figures, including: Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Pelé, Shaquille O’Neal, Tony Hawk, Brandi Chastain, Emmet Smith, Michelle Kwan, Shaun White, Rod Laver, Monica Seles and Kelly Slater.
Robert Beck has been shooting for Sports Illustrated since 1986. His dramatic images make regular appearances on the cover.

Please join us as Robert covers in this exclusive Lowepro webinar what it takes to improve your sports shooting, including:
Equipment set-ups, scenarios and how get it to the event
Best techniques for:
White balance
Raw versus jpg formats
Auto versus manual settings
Aperture and shutter speeds
Tips on lighting, composition and backgrounds
The art and instinct of shooting athletes and events from different vantage points

Don’t miss this webinar featuring one of the most prolific and successful sports photographers of our day.

* First Name:

* Last Name:

* Email Address:

* Country:
Choose one… United States Canada Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia-Herzegowina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Cayman Islands Chad Chile China Christmas Island Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Samoa (Independent) Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka St. Helena Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Viet Nam Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Other

* Indicates a required field

By clicking the “Register Now” button you submit your information to the Webinar organizer, who will use it to communicate with you regarding this event and their other services.

View system requirements

Photo Dazzle Provides One-Click Effects

David Schloss — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:29:18 +0000

Like the look of HIpstamatic and Instagram and want to be able to give a stylized look to images on your Mac? Check out Photo Dazzle, which is available in the Mac App Store for $4.99.

Here’s the press release.

Arizona based Empoc, LLC today introduces Photo Dazzle 1.0, their innovative new Mac app that makes it easy to add effects to photos. Many of the effects are simple one-click effects that can be applied immediately and can instantly transform photos. All of the effects are stacked so you can combine them in many different ways and come up with an infinite amount of effect styles to apply to photos. Photo Dazzle also remembers your settings to make it easy for you to edit multiple photos.

Prescott, Arizona – Empoc, LLC today is thrilled to announce the release of Photo Dazzle, a new application for Mac OS X. Photo Dazzle is an application made specifically for OS X and provides a quick and efficient way to add effects to photos.

Photo Dazzle comes feature packed with filters and effects that is sure to keep you busy for hours. All of the effects that come with Photo Dazzle are stacked so you can combine them in many different ways and come up with an infinite amount of effect styles to apply to photos.

Let the features speak for themselves

With Photo Dazzle you can:
* Add awesome 3D perspective by just adjusting 2 sliders for the rotation and elevation
* Add a beautiful reflection with the click of a button and then adjust the length, opacity and gap
* Round the corners of your photo
* Give your photo a border with a solid color or a pattern that you choose
* Blur your photo by applying any of the included Blur filters
* Adjust the color of your photo
* Apply Color Effects to your photo
* Stylize your photo
* Share your creation with your friends on FaceBook
* Save your photo
* Print your photo

Photo Dazzle includes the following filters and effects
* Gaussian Blur
* Motion Blur
* Zoom Blur
* Noise Reduction
* Line Draw
* Saturation
* Brightness
* Contrast
* Exposure
* Gamma
* Hue
* Vibrance
* Posterize
* Invert Colors
* Sepia Tone
* Monochrome
* False Color
* Pixellation
* Comic Effect
* Crystallize
* Edges
* Edgework
* Pointillize
* Bloom
* Gloom
* Color Pencil Sketch

Photo Dazzle couldn’t be easier to use. Simply drag and drop a photo into Photo Dazzle’s main user interface and you can start applying filters and effects. Photo Dazzle also remembers your settings to make it easy for you to edit multiple photos. When you have all the settings the way you want them simply drag in another photo and watch as all of your settings are instantly applied.

Minimum Requirements:
* Mac OS X Version 10.6.6 Snow Leopard or higher
* Intel Only
* 64-Bit Processor Only
* 1.0 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Photo Dazzle 1.0 is $9.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Photography category.

Empoc: http://empoc.com
Photo Dazzle 1.0: http://photodazzle.empoc.com
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-dazzle/id483948844?mt=12
Screenshots: http://photodazzle.empoc.com
App Icon: http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/083/Purple/e2/96/0c/mzi.rdklidgo.175×175-75.png

iPresentee Updates 145 Themes

David Schloss — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:06:07 +0000

From their press release: iPresentee has updated their iWeb themes with a total of 145 across their collections. Bundles are $29.99.

iPresentee today announces ten new themes for Apple’s Web site building application, extending the company’s themes collection up to 145 themes. This update adds ten gorgeous themes, including Artificial Intelligence, Photos Fan, RC Cars, Country, Pilot Bear, Graffiti, Charity Center, Hotel, Church and Family Clinic. Each theme has a unique design, look and feel. Users can change the theme design within minutes and adapt the site design according their needs.

Vilnius, Lithuania – iPresentee today is pleased to announce ten new themes for Apple’s Web site building application, extending the company’s themes collection up to 145 themes. The following release adds ten gorgeous themes: Artificial Intelligence, Photos Fan, RC Cars, Country, Pilot Bear, Graffiti, Charity Center, Hotel, Church and Family Clinic. Each theme has a unique design, look and feel. Moreover users can change the theme design within minutes and adapt the site design according their needs. iPresentee offers so many themes to choose from, there’s something here for everyone.

A first impression means a lot, therefore iPresentee aims to create the best design solutions for iWeb users. Designed for both casual and business use, this new package offers much more creativity options for iWeb users building their web site. A unique aspect of these hand-crafted themes is they incorporate a series of layered images which are customizable, replaceable, or removable within seconds. All themes incorporate endless background, therefore website can be filled with different amount of information.

It is imperative in an ever changing environment to be ready to change the website content and design to reflect what is happening in the world or personal life. Therefore iPresentee makes themes easily changeable within minutes to keep the site content fresh. To get started just download, install and pick the perfect theme. Choose a well-designed theme and you will end up with a website that people will remember, bookmark, revisit and recommend to all their friends.

Minimum Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger and later
* iWeb 2.0 or later installed

Pricing and Availability:
iWeb Themes requires any Macintosh computer running Mac OS X with iWeb 2.0 or later version installed. iWeb Themes or iWeb Themes for Business bundle may be purchased for $29.99 (USD). Each iWeb theme is available for $9.99. Samples and more information about iWeb themes are available immediately at the iPresentee website.

iPresentee: http://www.ipresentee.com/
iWeb Themes: http://www.ipresentee.com/?page_id=35
iWeb Themes for Business: http://www.ipresentee.com/?page_id=2038
iWeb Suite: http://www.ipresentee.com/?page_id=2034

DFT reFine Performs Nearly Magical Sharpening

David Schloss — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:37:24 +0000

Digital Film Tools (DFT) has taken the wraps off of reFine a “selective sharpening tool” that can significantly enhance the detail in your images. Check out this sample image of a piece of kiwi, sharpened with reFine. While I personally wouldn’t have sharpened the image quite that much, it’s pretty remarkable the amount of detail recovered. The $50 plugin works with all the usual image-editing suspects including Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture.

Using high-quality edge preserving filtering of still and moving images, there are considerable speedups and memory savings over existing methods. Our approach decomposes the image into three detail layers: course, medium and fine. Each of the detail layers can be manipulated separately in various ways, for instance, sharpening or smoothing. Add to that sophisticated, but easy to use masking and you have quick isolation of image features for selective filtering.

“reFine brings a whole new dimension to sharpening and smoothing,” comments Marco Paolini, Founder and President, Digital Film Tools. “Images take on a hyper realistic, almost 3D look when adjusted to the extreme. More subtle adjustments will sharpen soft photos or at the other end of the spectrum, smooth fine details like skin blemishes. We hope photographers, editors and visual effects artists enjoy enhancing their images with reFine as much as we have.”

reFine Feature Highlights

Sharpening and Detail Enhancement
Edge aware smoothing–useful for removing skin blemishes
Hyper realistic sharpening and smoothing effects
Course, Medium and Fine detail adjustments
Cartoon, pencil and pastel effects
Layering system for multiple filter application *
Sophisticated but easy to use masking tools
8/16/32 bit image processing
Multi-processor acceleration

* Photo plug-in versions

Availability and Pricing

The reFine Photo plug-in is available now for $50 USD. Compatible with the following applications: Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe Photoshop® Elements, Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom, Apple® Aperture®.

Discounts on Doug Gordon DVDs

David Schloss — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:14:44 +0000

Doug Gordon is a well known and successful wedding and portrait photographer and he produces an excellent series of DVD training videos. The next round of videos is just coming out of production so Doug’s offering a massive discount of 60% off of any of his current titles of videos or how-to “decks” (flip book guides to poses and lighting.)

Simply visit his store and add a video to your cart and use the coupon “new” at checkout.

Face Tagging and Facebook Integration

David Schloss — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:56:42 +0000

While performing Faces tagging shots from a wedding I came across a great integration between Aperture and Facebook that I haven’t noticed before.

I’m friends on Facebook with the bride from a recent wedding and with some people in her family. When typing her name into Aperture, I get her name (as listed on Facebook) and a Facebook icon to show me that the info’s from the social media site.

Obviously I’ve blurred out the name here, but that’s a killer feature for someone who posts a lot of their Facebook friends.

A Skin Smoothing Preset For Weddings and Portraits

David Schloss — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:36:44 +0000

One of my favorite features in Aperture 3 is the Skin Smoothing tool (available under Presets in the Adjustment Pane.) With a single tool it’s a snap to take out minor wrinkles and blemishes with a quick flick of the wrist. And I’m going to share that with you via a preset.

I have a bit of a technique for using the tool which doesn’t involve the brush and I use it often with wedding shots where I don’t want to make the bride look glossy or over-produced but I want to help reduce the shadows in facial features that can come from different light sources. No one wants to go through an hour of makeup to have an overhead tungsten light make them look old, but I also don’t want to have them look like they’ve been Photoshopped either.

The trick is this—since the skin softening tool works primarily on skin (hence the name) and tends to leave non-skin-toned sections alone, I apply it to the whole image. This is possible with any of the brushable adjustments from the floating palette with their sliders.

This smooths out the whole look, but it also modifies the exposure and the contrast a bit. That’s easily fixed with a bit of adjustment to the Exposure slider and the Black Point slider.

Usually after a shoot I’ll judge the relative exposure levels of the shots (outside, in the hall, during the ceremony) and make a series of presets for each condition.

This sometimes works well enough that it’s the only edit I do to a photo, and even when the image needs more work it’s enough for me to show it to the client to see if it’s a photo they’d like to use and then I can go back and tweak it some more.

But, and here’s the nice thing—you don’t have to do any of this work.

Download this preset (unzip it by double clicking on it) and import it to your adjustment presets using these steps.

1. Bring up the Adjustment panel by pressing Control-A.

2. From the Presets drop down, select Edit Preset

3. Click the Action menu (it’s shaped like a gear) on the lower left of Adjustment Presets window.

4. Select Import…

and point the dialog box at the file you’ve just downloaded.

Now when you go to your Presets menu you’ll see the new preset and can apply it to your images. This particular one has a bit more than a stop of exposure adjustment (because it was made for a specific lighting environment I had) but you can tweak it as you want and then just save a new version.

As a final note, often when I’m using this (especially in sunlit shots) the detail on the dress can blow out along with the exposure adjustment, so I’ll often make a version of this preset with some Recovery added.

Portable Design and Production Space

David Schloss — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:57:14 +0000

Here’s an incredibly beautiful portable work space that just blows us away. It’s the Tetrashed, a tetrahedron that’s been designed to be a “modern garden office.”

Scheduled to be available in January of 2012, the Tetrashed can be combined into clusters of up to six modules and was designed to function as a classroom, workspace, popup store and more.

We’d love to put one of these in a park and do our design from inside the wood-clad space.

No pricing has been announced.

The Perfect Gift for the Leica Fan In Your Life

David Schloss — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:40:25 +0000

Looking for something for the Leica lover in your life this holiday season? Look no further than the new Leica 2012 calendar, now available on Leica’s German site.

The calendar features work from a dozen famous Leica photographers and was produced in partnership with Magnum.

Even though the link (above) is in English, you might need some Deutche to purchase this.

Nikon Announces New SB-910 Speedlight

David Schloss — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:09:40 +0000

As has been rumored for some time, Nikon today announced the SB-910 speed light.

This new top-of-the-line model for Nikon model has more efficient battery use, and a Thermal Cut Out function that’s been enhanced to prevent damage to the light tube in multiple-shot situations.

The menu system on the SB-910 has been refined to enable users to jump to frequently used custom settings. (Translation—less hunting and pecking for the right settings.)

Expect this speed light to ship in Mid December. We’ll get one to review and let you know our thoughts.

The price is set at $549 for the U.S. market.

The full press release is below.

THE NEW NIKON SB-910 SPEEDLIGHT HARNESSES POWERFUL FLEXIBILITY AND CONTROL FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY CREATIVE LIGHTING SYSTEM

New Nikon SB-910 Speedlight Offers Advanced Flash Technology and Intelligent Features

MELVILLE, N.Y. (November 29, 2011) – Today, Nikon Inc. announced the addition of a new flagship speedlight, the powerful and capable SB-910 speedlight. Building on the versatility of Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (CLS), the SB-910 incorporates an enhanced intuitive operating system and graphic user interface (GUI). The SB-910 speedlight comes equipped with a wide zoom range covering the most popular focal lengths as well as FX/DX-format identification that optimizes zoom settings based on the camera body. This new speedlight also provides more efficient battery usage as well as an enhanced Thermal Cut-Out function.

“As Nikon’s new flagship speedlight, the SB-910 provides exceptional high performance and versatility that users have come to value in Nikon’s Creative Lighting System,” said Lisa Osorio, general manager of marketing at Nikon Inc. “By addressing the needs of photographers that work in challenging lighting scenarios, the SB-910 delivers a new level of portable lighting functionality, with performance and intelligent features that adapt to a wide range of lighting challenges.”

The SB-910 speedlight is designed to provide easy operation and menu navigation, with its enhanced operating system featuring illuminated function buttons, a dedicated Menu button with quick access to custom settings and an improved LCD screen graphic user interface. Whether the unit is used as an on-camera flash, wireless commander or remote, the SB-910 speedlight will provide dependable and consistent flash exposure. Engineered to address the creative lighting challenges faced by today’s photographers, the SB-910 speedlight includes quick on-demand performance and the ability to adapt seamlessly to nearly any possible lighting scenario.

Additionally, the new SB-910 incorporates a new Thermal Cut-Out function, which offers protection against damage to the flash panel and body from overheating during continuous flash use. Now, the flash recycling time is automatically delayed if a significant rise in temperature is detected, rather than ceasing operation to protect the unit. For additional durability, heat-resistance and ease-of-use, the SB-910 uses new hard-type color compensation filters for fluorescent and incandescent color temperature balancing. When using these filters, the flash automatically recognizes which filter is being used and adjusts white balance accordingly on the connected Nikon D-SLR camera. Additionally, the AF-assist illuminator of the SB-910 is compatible with the complete line of AF systems used in Nikon D-SLR cameras.

The SB-910 speedlight features three illumination patterns (standard, center-weighted and even) which are designed to match almost any shooting situation when utilizing the speedlight. The “standard” pattern will cover all conventional, standard flash coverage. The “center-weighted” pattern provides larger guide numbers than other light distribution types at the same focal lengths. This illumination pattern is ideal for subjects such as portraits, in which the light falloff at the image edges can be disregarded. When “even” is selected, the light from the flash will cover a subject from the center to the edges without light falloff. This pattern is applicable for shooting group photographs indoors. For coverage with a variety of lenses, the SB-910 speedlight incorporates a multi-step power zoom range that covers a wide 17-200mm angle of view, and can automatically detect Nikon FX and Nikon DX formats to help select suitable light distribution.

The SB-910 speedlight includes support for Nikon’s advanced wireless TTL operation and can function as a wireless commander with control over three separate groups of speedlights or as a remote speedlight triggered by other SB-910 speedlights, SB-700 speedlights, SU-800 Wireless Commander or the built-in speedlight set to Commander Mode on compatible Nikon D-SLR cameras. The SB-910 incorporates a high-speed recycling time of approximately 2.5 seconds for full power with NiMH batteries, and approximately 3.0 seconds with AA Alkaline batteries.

Optional water guards will be available for select cameras to protect the connection between the flash and camera, allowing users to utilize the flash when weather conditions are less than ideal. The SJ-4 Color Filter set provides a Warming, Red, Yellow or Blue filter for adding color to the background, foreground or just to accent the scene. The SB-910 will come equipped with the AS-21 Speedlight Stand, SW-13H Diffusion Dome, SZ-2FL and SZ-2TN hard type Color Compensation Filters and SS-910 soft case.

Price and Availability

Nikon’s new flagship speedlight, the SB-910, will be available in mid-December 2011 for a SRP*of $549.95. For more information, please visit www.nikonusa.com.

Free Web Fonts Webcast from Extensis

David Schloss — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:14:32 +0000

Extensis is sponsoring a free webinar on December 6th at 11am Pacific on new techniques and trends in web font use. You can use their registration, below, to sign up for the webinar.

Implementing Web Fonts
On Your Websites

Learn how to implement web fonts
on your websites.

December 6, 2011
11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern
Duration: 1 hour, incl. Q&A

A recorded webcast will be emailed to you
if you register but can’t attend.

Have you always wanted to get away from boring, default fonts on your websites? Web fonts can allow you to use your favorite typefaces on the web, without saving them out as an image, or using other hacks.

Join typography expert Jim Kidwell for this informative session where you will learn how to:

Craft solid CSS to integrate web fonts in your site
Use the Web Font Plug-in to mock-up your sites using WebINK and Google Web Fonts
Find suitable font pairings for your site
Test web fonts on existing sites without writing any code

We hope that you will join us.

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Tucia.com Does Great Image Editing

David Schloss — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:41:46 +0000

The other day I went on an evening shoot to capture the light falling onto a building for a client’s wedding album. When the sun was setting during the wedding I had a choice to shoot the couple and the bridal party and I went with the people.

Still, the couple loves the location (and so do I, it’s the Tarrytown House) and so I decided to go back on a clear day and shoot the building a bit as a pickup.

Shooting nearly fully stopped down I noticed when I got back that my sensor was filthy. Not “oh I’ll spend a few minutes retouching it,” filthy but “oh my god, what have I done?” filthy.

With a good dozen shots needing cleaning there was no way I could spend the few hours fixing the spots, even using Aperture’s great spot healing tools and stamping.

I’d heard of Tucia.com before, a site that connects photographers with image editor. I’m sure that I’ve participated in off-shore job sourcing, but there’s no way that having a local retoucher do the few dozen shots would have been affordable.

I uploaded a sample shot, one with the most dust that I could find.

You might have to crank up the brightness to see that, but that corner is a mess.

I uploaded a TIFF file to Tucia.com, paid $2.99 and this morning (less than 12 hours later) received not only a shot with all of the image perfectly cleaned.

but a second shot (I hadn’t asked for) with the colors corrected—something I would have done on the returned image myself.

Next I’ll send them the actual shots (which have less visible dust) and some images I’d like to see color corrected to see how they do, but I’m incredibly pleased with the results of this service.

Leica Sponsors Conservation Workshop

David Schloss — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:44:37 +0000

Leica has announced that they’re working with Seedlight Workshops to sponsor a photo documentarian workshop to support the Patagonia Sur Foundation, a group that works to protect natural resources in Patagonia.

The week-long workshop in Chilean Patagonia will teach the foundations of documenting a story and using photo and video skills to bring life to that story.

Full details on the workshop are below.

LEICA CAMERA AND SEEDLIGHT WORKSHOPS HOST “PRESERVING PATAGONIA” CONSERVATION AND TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Conservation Photojournalist Bridget Besaw leads weeklong experience in Chilean Patagonia

Allendale, NJ (November 29, 2011) – Leica Camera, Inc., the legendary German camera manufacturer, is collaborating with Seedlight Workshops, developer of environmental photography workshops, to host “Preserving Patagonia: Conservation Photography with the Patagonia Sur Foundation.” Taking place March 3-10, 2012 in Chilean Patagonia, this experiential workshop is led by Conservation Photojournalist Bridget Besaw. Throughout the week, participants learn documentary and travel photography techniques and capture all aspects of the story of Patagonia conservation in breathtaking quality with Leica Camera’s flagship M9 and M9-P digital rangefinder cameras as well as the entire portfolio of lenses.

“We are very excited to partner with Bridget Besaw for this incomparable travel experience,” said Christian Erhardt, Vice President of Marketing at Leica Camera, Inc. “A Leica in hand, participants interpret and capture fleeting moments to document the planet’s natural resources and the people who work, play and steward Patagonia’s impressive and irreplaceable landscape.”

Workshop participants spend the week with Bridget Besaw amidst her six month project of documenting the preservation and stewardship of the Aysén region of Patagonia in conjunction with the Patagonia Sur Foundation. After learning relevant photographic techniques during informative lectures, participants put them into practice in the field. The result is a final portfolio that includes stunning imagery of the vast, pristine wilderness region, one of the last of its kind in the world. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains and crystalline lakes near the banks of the El Tigre River and abutting Lago Palena National Reserve, Patagonia Sur Nature Reserve’s “La Estrella” serves as home base for the week.

Designed for both professional and amateur photographers with an interest in travel photography as well as environmental issues, workshop participants have the opportunity to utilize the latest additions to Leica’s storied M-System, the Leica M9 and M9-P. The entire portfolio of M lenses is also available throughout the workshop, including the latest Super-Elmar-M 21 mm f/3.4 ASPH, an amazingly compact super-wide-angle lens.

Workshop leader Bridget Besaw’s work is inspired primarily by her passion for environmental protection. Her projects have tackled issues such as development threats to northern Maine’s wilderness, loss of working farmland in New England and climate change research and prevention in South American and Indonesian forests. As a newspaper and magazine photographer, Ms. Besaw has won numerous national press awards for her work in publications such as Newsweek, Time, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times,Business Week, Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure and Nature Conservancy Magazine. She now produces imagery, multimedia, exhibits and books for environmental organizations and teaches photography workshops. She has also published two books, Wildness Within, Wildness Without and From the Land, in partnership with environmental organizations.

Class size is limited to 12 students. The 8-day/7-night workshop costs $5,800 per person and includes transport between Puerto Montt, Chile and La Estrella and all food, beverage and lodging. Transportation from origin city to Puerto Montt, Chile is not included.

For additional information and to register, please click here or email Reservations@PatagoniaSur.com.

About Leica Camera:

Leica represents a union of craftsmanship, technology and experience. It is at once an extension of art, knowledge and philosophy, providing a state-of-the-art optical experience in a precision, hand-made photographic instrument. Leica Camera has a simple mission: to provide users with an incomparable experience, an instrument that defines an unsurpassed heritage and sets a standard of excellence for the industry to meet.

About Seedlight Workshops:

Seedlight workshops use advocacy photojournalism to elevate environmental awareness through the creation of powerful imagery that reminds the viewer of the importance of protecting the planet. Seedlight workshops connect photographers with a passion for the environment to environmental organizations with urgent, compelling stories that need telling. Photographers are partnered with local andglobal environmental organizations working at the heart of the story. Each workshop focuses on creating effective visual media projects while helping environmental organizations to better utilize visual storytelling in their work.

About Patagonia Sur:

Patagonia Sur is a for-profit conservation venture that invests in, protects, and enhances scenically remarkable and ecologically valuable properties in Chilean Patagonia. An innovative blend of conservation + capitalism, Patagonia Sur seeks to deliver competitive financial returns to investors by preserving pristine ecosystems and the traditional culture of Patagonia in perpetuity by developing and nurturing a diverse portfolio of self-sustaining and environmentally sensitive businesses. www.PatagoniaSur.com

Jumsoft Launches High-Quality Clip Art

David Schloss — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:24:05 +0000

Jumsoft has just released a collection of high-end clip art, designed to ease the creation of application icons, presentations and more.

Illustrative in style, these icons have a really nice design to them—they’re much nicer than some of the clip art sites on the web. At $18.99 for 100 pieces of clip art it’s best to check first to see if they have images you need for a project (not everyone needs a refrigerator with fruit, for example, but if you do—they’ve got it.)

See below for the full press release.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jumsoft today introduces Clipart Prime 1.0, their new clipart library for Mac OSX. Clipart Prime features an impressive collection of 100 clipart images of the highest quality available on the market. The versatile, meticulously rendered images are perfect for creating icons or illustrating Web pages, slide presentations, invitations, newsletters, and various other types of content. Themes vary from business and science symbols to food, with ten subject categories included in the debut version.

Vilnius, Lithuania – Jumsoft, a developer of high-quality applications for Mac OS X, now provides an additional source of excitement for Apple fans. This week, the company launched Clipart Prime, an impressive collection of 100 clipart images of the highest quality available on the market. The versatile, meticulously rendered images are perfect for creating icons or illustrating Web pages, slide presentations, invitations, newsletters, and various other types of content.

Clipart Prime themes vary from business and science symbols to food, with ten subject categories included in the debut version. The product was designed for winning over and keeping the attention of various target audiences, whether in the classroom, the boardroom, or browsing the Web.

All Clipart Prime images have transparent backgrounds to allow users to place them on existing images with different colors and patterns. The PNG format enables changing brightness, contrast, and other image properties. In addition, images are available in two resolutions – 75 dpi for the Web and 300 dpi for quality printing. Clipart Prime is compatible with Apple’s Pages and Keynote applications, as well as with MS Word, PowerPoint, and various graphic editors.

“Clipart Prime is definitely the most advanced clipart product we have ever offered,” said Algirdas Unguvaitis, the general manager of Jumsoft. “Each image is evidence of a remarkable amount of skill and attention to detail. They can make beautiful, eye-catching icons or enhance any sort of Web or iWork content.”

Jumsoft’s Clipart Prime can be viewed and downloaded directly at the company’s Web site. Once downloaded, the package can be immediately opened to select and insert images into documents for creative and fun customization. Alternately, users can download Clipart Prime via the Mac App Store.

System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.6 or later
* 264 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Clipart Prime 1.0 is only $18.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Graphics & Design category.

Jumsoft: http://www.jumsoft.com
Clipart Prime 1.0: http://www.jumsoft.com/prime/
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clipart-prime/id479510018?mt=12
Screenshot: http://a1563.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/113/Purple/eb/d6/07/mzl.zgvghpzg.jpg?downloadKey=1322044845_c25c8c05e369bc1399bb4b58af83d93b
App Icon: http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/109/Purple/f9/01/61/mzi.iavllhar.175×175-75.png

Digital Film Tools Updates to 64 Bit

David Schloss — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:03:34 +0000

We got word today that DFT for Avid is now fully 64-bit, great news for people working on Avid systems with Composite Suite Pro, PhotoCopy, Rays and zMatte.

The full release is below.

Digital Film Tools Releases 64-bit Plug-ins for Avid
Digital Film Tools plug-in product line supports Media Composer v6, Symphony v6 and NewsCutter v10; Free update for existing customers

Los Angeles, CA – November 15, 2011 – Digital Film Tools, developer of visual effects software, today announced that all of the company’s Avid® plug-in product offerings – Composite Suite Pro, PhotoCopy, Rays and zMatte – are now 64-bit and compatible with Media Composer® and Symphony™ version 6.0 as well as NewsCutter® version 10.0. “Releasing 64-bit support for Media Composer v6, Symphony v6 and NewsCutter v10 is a no brainer for us,” comments Marco Paolini, Founder and President, Digital Film Tools. “We have a fairly large Avid user base, many of whom keep pace with the new technology releases. Our 64-bit DFT plug-ins will provide them with speed and memory advantages that streamline the entire visual effects process.” Existing Digital Film Tools customers can update to 64-bit by visiting http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/avidprods.htm*

ABOUT DIGITAL FILM TOOLS PLUG-INS FOR AVID

DFT Composite Suite Pro
Composite Suite Pro features a well-rounded collection of visual effects plug-ins that were previously only available in-house at a Hollywood based feature film effects facility. Tested in the rigors of everyday production, Composite Suite Pro provides all that is needed to combine multiple images by utilizing compositing tricks and techniques, color correction, blur, grain, matte manipulation, lens distortion, lighting effects and edge blending.

DFT PhotoCopy
Copy the brightness, color, tone, detail, grain and texture from one image and apply them to another. Or, pick a preset look from 94 movies, 72 paintings, 40 photographs or 30 historical photographic processes.

DFT Rays
Create stunning and realistic light ray effects quickly and easily. Add shafts of light streaming through clouds, rays filtering through a forest canopy, beams of light on a foggy night or rays shooting out from text.

DFT zMatte
Intelligent blue and green screen keying that is easy to use, yet provides the tools you need when presented with a challenging shot–including DV and HD de-artifacting, color suppression, matte manipulation, color correction, edge treatment and light wrapping.

Availability and Pricing
Avid AVX2 64-bit versions of Composite Suite Pro, PhotoCopy, Rays and zMatte are available now at the Digital Film Tools store >http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/buy/home.php – prices range from $99 to $395 USD.

In addition, Digital Film Tools plug-ins are available through the Avid Marketplace which offers in-system access to available video plugins.

*The free 64-bit update must be installed on the same system as the existing DFT plug-ins.

Leica Firmware Upgrades SD Card Support

David Schloss — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:27:03 +0000

We just received word from Leica that they’ve updated the firmware for the M9 and M9-P, which some SD card issues. Here is their full release.

LEICA CAMERA OFFERS FIRMWARE UPDATE 1.174 FOR THE LEICA M9 AND M9-P

Allendale, NJ (November 14, 2011) - Leica Camera, Inc. is pleased to announce the latest firmware update, 1.174, for the Leica M9 and M9-P, the world’s smallest, full-frame digital system cameras. Users wishing to benefit from the new offerings can now download the firmware update from the Leica Camera website and take advantage of new, improved features.

Firmware update 1.174 features an update of the SD card driver, fixing a bug that led to faulty behavior and allowing for a more stable general performance with most SD card types. Supporting Leica’s commitment to an uncompromised customer experience, these latest improvements come as the result of feedback from M9 and M9-P users who served as beta testers in a broad based field test.

At this time, Leica does not recommend utilizing the San Disk Extreme Pro UHS-1 (all card sizes) and San Disk Extreme HD Video SDHC 1 (all card sizes) as a 100% error free status has not been achieved. Support for these cards continues to be developed by Leica’s dedicated technical team and will be made available after successful testing compatibility.

For installation instructions and to download firmware update 1.174, please visit: http://en.leica-camera.com/service/downloads/software-_firmwareupdates/m9/index.html.

Photographers vs. Videographers Epic Battle: Episode IV

Thomas Boyd — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:54:08 +0000

The production values in this short film are amazing Very funny…especially to a bunch of photo dorks like me.

Here’s a link to the youtube video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o9pKc-iFoQ&hd=1&t=2m47s[/youtube]

Vincent Laforet Behind-the-Scenes with the Canon C300

Thomas Boyd — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:16:45 +0000

Vincent Laforet invited Vimeo out to film the behind the scenes of his new short film, Mobius, which was shot entirely on the new C300. In the video you can see the C300 and the new 30-300 f2.9-3.7 being handled:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31526888[/vimeo]

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31525127[/vimeo]

Canon Unveils Stunning “Cinema EOS”

David Schloss — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:53:01 +0000

With the success of the Canon 5D Mark II in the video world, people have been wondering why Canon hasn’t released a new version of that body. Looks like it’s because Canon’s been focusing their efforts on a new cinema camera, the EOS C300, which will be released in January.

It looks like the new C300 will come in two flavors, one with standard EF mount and one with a PL mount.

The camera will be (wait for it) $16,000 and will feature a 8.3 megapixel sensor at 4K resolution.

What’s yet to be seen is how the market will react to this—part of the beauty of the 5D Mark II in cinema production is that the camera is not as expensive as other systems. The C300 is shooting at the Red market and has the price tag to boot.

However, Canon also mentioned—but did not elaborate—that they’re developing a “new-concept EOS-series digital single-lens reflex cameras.” There’s no news on what that will look like (we’re guessing it will be based on a similar chassis) or what the features will be, but this is closely aligned with the rumors we’ve seen that Canon plans a new top-end SLR that may not use the EF standard lens.

Compact Flash Price Wars? CF Prices Drop

David Schloss — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:03:33 +0000

A few days ago we got a tip from a retailer that SanDisk Compact Flash prices were starting to drop significantly.

Sure enough, we checked out B&H and the highest-level cards have seen huge differences from a few days ago. This 32GB San Disk Extreme Pro card, for example, was about $250 at most retailers a few days ago (Google shows that some retailers still haven’t caught up) but is now $99. A 64GB Extreme Pro Card was about $500 and is now $221.95.

Lexar prices haven’t seemed to match (yet?), but they were a bit lower to begin with. The 32GB Lexar Professional 600x card is still about $203 after rebate.

We’re not sure if these are permanent price drops, but our guess is that they’re staying for a while. The price of flash memory historically tends to go down, not up.

Our guess is that there’s a glut of memory on the market—manufacturers tend to ramp up production based on what they think that the market will be like months out—and prices have dropped accordingly. However with the volatility of the weather in Asia, we’re going to stock up on a few cards at these prices just to be sure.

Pixiq: Is Apple Turning its Back on Photographers?

Thomas Boyd — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:39:48 +0000

Articles like this have tapered off in recent months, but it seems Hae Jan Kamps felt compelled to chime in with one more ill-conceived argument that Apple is abandoning the professional photographer. I guess I choose to observe what Apple has actually done with the development of Aperture since Version 1 instead jumping to conclusions based on what they’ve done with other applications. Like most articles like this, they are usually written, not by pro photographers, but people who write about photography or technology.

Here’s a link to the Pixiq article.

Here’s the comment I left in the comments section below his article:

I would rather you got into specifics about features and capabilities than trying to read the minds of Apple executives and engineers.

I don’t think you have a leg to stand on with your argument. Everything you mention is pure speculation. You don’t really know what Apple’s intentions are with regard to Aperture and the evidence you cite is based on what they’ve done with Final Cut Pro X (which they’ve already addressed in part).

So, there’s the challenge: Get specific with the features you think are more useful to professional photographers in Lightroom and which features you think fall short in Aperture. Tell us something more useful than "I prefer the workflow tools offered up by Lightroom over those built into Aperture".

Your basic thesis is that Apple is going to make Aperture less professional by making it more simplistic, when in reality, they have systematically added professional features in every update. Version 1.0 could not brush adjustments or reference files. Version 3.2.1 just released yesterday is loaded with pro features including more brush-able adjustments than Lightroom and is vastly more integrated with OS X and iOS than any Adobe product ever will be.

I think there are a few valid reasons why some photographers would choose Lightroom over Aperture. You just haven’t figured out what they are.

http://www.pixiq.com/article/aperture-or-lightroom#comment-54532

Insanely Touching Eulogy for Steve Jobs

David Schloss — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:54:02 +0000

The New York Times has run the eulogy for Steve Jobs delivered by his birth sister, Mona Simpson.

It’s the most beautiful eulogy I’ve ever read.

You should read this.

Aperture Update 3.2.1 Available

Thomas Boyd — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 05:45:51 +0000

Here’s what we get:

About Aperture 3.2.1
What’s New in Aperture 3.2.1
    •    Resolves an issue that could cause Aperture to quit unexpectedly at launch on Macs with Core Duo processors
    •    Addresses problems that could cause the Crop tool to switch to the incorrect orientation or resize incorrectly
    •    Resolves rendering issues when cropping images with Onscreen Proofing enabled
    •    Location menus are now displayed correctly on the map in the Places view when "Photos" is selected in the Library Inspector
Included in Aperture 3.2
    •    Addresses compatibility with iCloud and iOS 5
    •    Resolves an issue that could cause the "Loading" indicator to reappear in the Viewer when cropping a photo
    •    Aperture now automatically relaunches into Full Screen mode if the application was in Full Screen mode when last quit
    •    Pinch-to-zoom gesture now automatically activates Zoom mode in the Viewer
    •    Left and right swipe gestures can now be used to navigate between photos in the Viewer
    •    Microsoft Outlook can now be chosen in Preferences as the application used by Aperture for emailing photos
    •    Fixes a problem that could cause Aperture, running on OS X Lion, to quit unexpectedly when using brushes to apply adjustments
    •    Loupe now correctly displays magnification levels between 50-100%
    •    Fixes an issue that could cause Aperture, running on OS X Lion, to display the incorrect color profile on externally edited images
    •    Import window now includes an option to delete photos from iPhone and iPad after they have been imported into Aperture
    •    The Lift & Stamp tool now displays the correct cursor icons when being used in Split View and Viewer only modes
The update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2518

Pixelmator 2.0 Has Arrived

David Schloss — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:09:46 +0000

Pixelmator 2.0, the long-awaited upgrade to our favorite image-editing program has arrived.

Pixelmator is a Mac-based alternative to programs like Photoshop and has grown from a small nearly-shareware tool into a fantastically powerful application.

Version 2.0, which was originally due months ago, was postponed while the team finished putting the final touches on the application. That work is done and Pixelmator 2 is now available on the Mac App Store.

If you took advantage of Pixelmator’s upgrade deal (buy 1.x on the app store and get 2.0 for free) you can upgrade with no added cost.

The new version ads a new look, new illustration tools, new image editing tools (like sponge, context-aware fill and more) and complete Lion support.

There are also new sharing tools, connecting the app to Flickr, PIcassa, Facebook, iPhoto, Aperture and email.

Eric Kim: 35 Magnum Photographers Give Their Advice to Aspiring Photographers

Thomas Boyd — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:33:20 +0000

Some of this advice is nonsense and some of them contradict each other, but there’s also some great nuggets in there not only for young photographers, but old cranky ones like myself. Plus it has links to all the photographer’s galleries.

Here’s a link to Eric Kim’s blog that has the Magnum post.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/09/35-magnum-photographers-give-their-advice-to-aspiring-photographers/

LA Times: Wedding Photographer Gets 510 Days in Jail for Cheating Newlyweds

Thomas Boyd — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:52:13 +0000

It seems a week doesn’t pass where I hear of a photographer cheating brides out of their money and/or photos. With the proliferation of amateurs jumping in the wedding photography business there seems to be a proportionate number that get in over their heads and can’t deliver. Many of these "wedding photographers" advertise on craigslist with below market rates undercutting established photographers. This drives down prices for all photographers.

Running a wedding photography business is more than shooting a wedding…there’s the business part of it and some photographers seem to forget about.

The consequences of not delivering are severe. Alan Brent Carruth is finding that out now. He was sentenced to 510 days in jail.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/wedding-photographer-who-ripped-off-brides-and-grooms-get-510-days-jail-.html

DPReview: Canon EOS-1D X Professional DSLR Announcement and Overview

Thomas Boyd — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 06:14:01 +0000

DP Review doesn’t have one in their hands, but Canon USA’s Technical Advisor Chuck Westfall gave them a detailed brief.

Here’s a link to the dpreview.com post on the Canon EOS-1D X announcement.

Pricing and Availability
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE: The Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera is scheduled for March 2012 availability and will be sold in a body-only configuration at an estimated retail price of $6,800.00. The compact, lightweight WFT-E6A Wireless File Transmitter is scheduled to be available in March 2012 and have an estimated retail price of $600. Availability for the GP-E1 GPS receiver is expected in April 2012 with an estimated retail price of $300.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1110/11101810canoneos1dx.asp

CanonRumors.com: Canon EOS 1D X Press Release

Thomas Boyd — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:45:50 +0000

I never know what to believe, but this sounds legit. No word on price, except for a guess that it will be in the $7000 range. I hope that’s a bit high.

Here’s a link to the canonrumors post on the 1D X.

TOKYO, October 18, 2011—Canon Inc. and Canon Marketing Japan Inc. today announced the introduction in Japan of the new EOS-1D X digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera offering a high level of performance to satisfy the demands of professionals in such fields as sports photography, photojournalism and studio photography.
To date, Canon has developed its top-of-the-line digital SLR cameras through the 1Ds series, which delivers exceptionally high image quality, and the 1D series, which achieves superlative high-speed performance. Integrating the strengths of these two series, Canon’s new professional flagship model, the EOS-1D X, brings together the highest levels of image quality and speed performance.

The new Canon EOS-1D X incorporates a newly developed approximately 18.1-megapixel 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor which, in addition to achieving an optimal sensor size and pixel count balance, effectively makes use of Canon’s proprietary semiconductor technologies to ensure low-noise performance. Featuring Dual DIGIC 5+, which comprises two new high-performance DIGIC 5+ image processors—each realizing approximately 17 times the processing power of DIGIC 4—the camera delivers exemplary image quality and speed performance, in addition to data processing power that has been greatly enhanced compared with the EOS-1D Mark IV, released in December 2009. Compared with the EOS-1D Mark IV’s sensitivity range of ISO100–12800, the EOS-1D X offers a range that has been expanded by two steps, to 100–51200,* for outstanding imaging results with reduced noise, even when shooting indoors and other dimly lit settings.

Combining a 100,000-pixel RGB metering sensor and DIGIC 4 processor, the Canon EOS-1D X’s new AE system, the EOS iSA (Intelligent Subject Analysis) System, is capable of determining not only brightness levels, but also a subject’s face and target color, making possible high-precision exposure control. The newly developed AF system incorporates an AF sensor with a total of 61 autofocus points for improved high-precision subject capture. The sensor includes 21 f/5.6 cross-type sensors, 20 f/4.0 cross-type sensors, and 5 f/2.8 dual cross-type sensors. Equipped with 20 f/4.0 AF points, the new camera offers the same level of precision as the EOS-1D Mark IV at f/2.8. Additionally, working in tandem with the new AE system, the camera’s EOS iTR AF (Intelligent Tracking and Recognition Auto Focus) function is capable of tracking a subject’s face or target color to maintain focus on a moving subject.

The Canon EOS-1D X’s new Dual DIGIC 5+ image processors make possible high-speed continuous shooting of up to approximately 12 frames per second with high-precision AE and AF performance. In the ultra-fast continuous shooting mode, the camera realizes a continuous shooting speed of up to approximately 14 frames per second (mirror remains raised during shooting, JPEG images only).
The Canon EOS-1D X delivers high reliability even in harsh shooting conditions. The rugged shutter unit boasts a lifespan of over 400,000 cycles while the camera’s exterior covers and operation panels employ a dust- and moisture-resistant design. Furthermore, the camera features a new dust-removing system incorporating two vibrating elements, a first for the EOS series, improving on the earlier cleaning system.

The new EOS-1D X comes equipped with a Gigabit-Ethernet connection that, when shooting in locations equipped with a wired LAN connection such as large sporting arenas, enables data to be transferred to editing desks quickly and reliably. Inheriting the same basic operating design as previous models, which focused on offering instantaneous operation, such aspects of the new camera as its button and control layout and GUI were reviewed and redesigned, with great attention given to operability when held vertically, during blind-touch operation, and when confirming images.

Featuring advanced video-capture capabilities, the Canon EOS-1D X’s upgraded imaging system and Dual DIGIC 5+ deliver greatly enhanced movie quality. In particular, the camera minimizes the occurrence of color artifacts and moiré, and enables the shooting of low-noise video even in dark conditions.
The Canon EOS-1D X will be available in Japan from late March 2012 at an open price. Canon has set initial production at 7,000 units per month.

http://www.canonrumors.com/2011/10/canon-eos-1d-x-possible-press-release/

New Import Items Dialog Box in Aperture 3.2

David Schloss — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:42:28 +0000

After six years of the same dialog box in Aperture after images are imported, there’s been a change in version 3.2 that made me stop and think for a second.

Here’s the new box that’s presented after a card is imported.

At first I couldn’t figure out how this was an improvement over the previous box, but this allows for a card to be ejected after keeping or deleting images. Previously the choices were to delete the card (which would leave the card mounted) or eject it, which would not allow you to to delete the images.

Nice improvement, but habits sure die hard.

My First Impression of Photo Stream in Aperture 3.2

Thomas Boyd — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:50:40 +0000

I’m really looking forward to experimenting and learning about Photo Stream. This is going to be a very useful feature. Here are my initial thoughts:

1. For a professional photographer, it will be very important to turn off Automatic Import and Automatic Upload. The volume of images professionals generate would overwhelm the system. Plus, who wants to see 2200 raw football images on their phone?

2. This will make sharing a shoot with clients very fast and fun when an iPad is involved. I can’t wait to make that happen.

3. The opposite will be true as well. Our digital techs will be able to share the selects with us as we are working in the field. In my line of work I sometimes use assistants to deliver memory cards to digital techs who are going through the take, making selects and adjustments. I may not get back to see my work until the end of the day. This way, the digital tech could add the selects to the Photo Stream and I’d be able to see them on my phone out in the field. This kind of feedback is very important when you are shooting thousands of images all day long. It’s very easy to lose track what you’ve shot and, more importantly, what works.

4. This will make mobile work very easy. I haven’t nailed down a workflow yet, but I’m already seeing the possibilities. One problem I run into is the easy sharing of work between machines. For instance, I’ll import images and make adjustments on my iMac at home and then realize I need to take the unfinished work with me on my laptop. Aperture already has a great feature for doing that by exporting, adding and merging Projects. I do it all the the time. With Photo Stream I could add, say a dozen selects, and have them available on my Mac Book Pro much faster…or even my phone or iPad. If I need to spend more time working on captions, I can do it remotely without having to export the project.

5. I’m a little curious about the 30-day limit. I just added some kids photos to the Photo Stream. The way I understand it, they will automatically be removed after 30-days. I can add those images to my camera roll app on my phone or download them on any device so they are there forever, but I can see the 30-day thing causing issues…or not. We’ll see.

6. It’s also possible to email, message, assign to contact, use as wallpaper, tweet, print and save to camera roll from the Photo Stream. This makes sharing images from an iDevice about as easy as it could be. Let’s say you are working on project at home but have to leave and are concerned a client might call for the images before you can get back and deal with it from the office. You could put in the Photo Stream before heading out and have access to them on your phone. That is a game changer.

7. I could see the limitations of uploading RAW images causing some concern for other photographers. It won’t bother me, but here’s the thing: You can only upload RAW images if there are NO adjustments applied. If you make adjustments in Aperture and send it to the Photo Stream it will be uploaded as a JPEG. If it a RAW+JPEG pair, the import settings will determine what gets uploaded. I understand why this works this way, but I’ll bet money there will be someone out there who wants to upload RAW images with adjustments.

We’ll be reporting more on this important feature in the coming days so stay tuned and please leave comments about your experiences with this feature.

Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center Premieres in Los Angeles

Thomas Boyd — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:52:41 +0000

In a move that shows Canon is very serious about video, they have opened a Hollywood location to serve as a western hub for education, service and training operations.

Her’s a link to the press release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/canon-hollywood-professional-technology-and-support-center-premieres-in-los-angeles-2011-10-12

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Oct 12, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the opening of the Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center to better serve its film and television production clients. The office, located on the historic Sunset Gower Studio lot at 6060 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, will provide a local site to foster support, research, service and training for Hollywood’s thriving entertainment industry.

"We want to offer a one-stop shop where our clients can come to ask questions and explore our various products with the help of our highly qualified technical and engineering staff members. The Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center provides a well-equipped venue for working with professionals in a range of imaging industries, from film and television production to still imaging and professional output," stated Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies and Communications Group, Canon U.S.A.

Comprehensive product repair services for Canon professional products will be available in the new Hollywood facility starting in late 2011. On-site repair operations will include two state-of-the-art camera body and lens adjustment rooms, Canon’s most advanced adjustment and calibration equipment, local spare parts inventory, and an experienced professional repair staff that will look to quickly return Canon’s professional products to their original factory condition and operation.
The Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center will also serve as a field extension of Canon’s Research and Solution Engineering Department, dedicated to ensuring that current and future products meet or exceed the demands of our clientele.

As a local research and development center, staff will assess market demands and expectations for new professional imaging technology and look to build them into future product generations and customer support provisions. This represents only one of many initiatives and investments that Canon has planned to solidify its commitment to the film and television production community.
The facility will also support business opportunities by offering 1:1 meetings with major clients (studios, production houses, television networks, rental facilities, and others) to further build relationships and assess their needs. The new facility and local Canon staff will also offer hands-on education to current and potential clients on the latest Canon professional products. Courtesy visits by both existing and potential clients in the industry can be arranged to explore opportunities and assess Canon’s full capabilities. Guilds, unions or organizations affiliated with film and television production are encouraged to inquire about hosting seminars, events and industry gatherings at Canon’s Hollywood center as well.

The Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center will also host Canon Live Learning (CLL) workshops — fee-based seminars for professionals and enthusiasts looking to further their imaging education. In addition, the Hollywood center will offer other industry-related events covering a wide range of technical and creative topics within the professional production segment.
In addition to the business and Hollywood industry support mentioned above, the service and support facility located in the Canon’s new Hollywood center will also be part of Canon’s industry-leading nationwide customer service and support network. Canon’s customer service and support network includes Factory Service Centers in Irvine (Calif.), Jamesburg (N.J.) and Newport News (Va.) as well as five broadcast lens service centers located strategically throughout the United States. Canon service centers’ reputation for excellence is based on industry-leading repair turnaround times, high-quality repair services, personalized service and 100 percent US-based call center support operations, all based on Canon factory standards and processes and designed to provide complete customer satisfaction.