Welcome my new Hyperdrive 
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-UDMA-Casing-Only-p/hda-000.htm
I just received it today and let me tell you, i already like it more then my Epson.
Putting a hard drive in was easy, and getting my way around was as easy. But seriously that 4.8” screen is ….amazing
Here is the thumbnails view
and the info view
Don’t get fool by the pixelized look, it’s smooth as silk. I just took a quick pic to show you.
You’ve all heard about an 8bits image. Or maybe a 12 or 14 bits. You might wonder which one is best. Well before we go there, here’s what it really means.
An image is recorded in a matter of 0’s and 1’s(also refers to as binary). 0 would be black(no information recorded) and 1 would be white(one brightness level recorded).
So a 2bits image would record either 0,1,10 or 11 (any combination of 0’s and 1’s with up to 2 digits).
Therefore an 8bit image (i.e. a jpeg) would be made out of 256 possible brightness levels.(2^8 or 2×2x2×2x2×2x2×2).
By the same token a 12bits will use 4 096(2^12) and a 14 bits 16 384(2^14).
And to make things a bit less clear you will often hear people referring to a 24bits image. That is simply referring to the amount of information per channel. So Red, Green and Blue all carry 8bits for a total of 24bits.
So an 48bits image is actually a 16bits x all 3 channels.
If you remember i changed my DX body for a D300s to get video, and believe me i would never go back.
So here’s a link to a new website that will cover HDSLR
I’m working on a cool project with some friends. We re putting together an “online” studio. Basically you will select the elements you want (reflector, back light, etc) and you will see the end results.
That will allow people that are new to the studio to learn a bit before getting started.
I’ll keep you posted with some images as soon as i can.
Someone just emailed me and ask me about what does my work area looks like. So i thought I’d share.
As you can see i work on a Cintiq most of the time. I couldn’t live without a tablet. I also own a Bluetooth one to carry around.
My laptop is an HP EliteBook, and i love it. It’s small, doesn’t generate much heat and it’s darn fast and good on the battery.
You can see an APC in the right, everything is plug into it.
Some other hard drives are hidden behind the Cintiq. I use a lot of USB drive to carry around but everything get’s backed up on another hard drive. So i kindda have the backup of the backup 
Here’s a quick snapshot taken with a Kodak P&S while in vacation.
The composition is ok but the image could use a little bit more punch…. even to show our ant Suzy.
So will start by creating a new folder in Photoshop called Adjustments (this will allow us to easily make a before and after). Note that you can also use ALT + Click on the background layer.
Make sure you have the Background selected before proceeding
The first thing will do is to fix the Highlights. So go to the Select menu and choose Color Range
In the dialog box, select Highlights
Click OK.
Photoshop has now selected all the Highlights.
Press CTRL + J to place that selection on a new layer and rename that layer to Highlights
Create a new adjustment layer for Levels
Bring the sliders within the tonal range of our layer.
| Before adjustment | After adjustment |
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Now we need to make sure that this adjustment only affects the Highlights layer. With the adjustment layer still selected, click this icon
Note that you can also place your cursor between both layers and ALT + Click
Move both layers to our Adjustments group
Select the Background layer and repeat for Shadows and Midtones
| Before | After |
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Wow, it’s been a long time. Sorry.
I spent the last couple of months in the US and I’m finally back in Canada but …. i have a great news to share.
I’m leaving for a workshop with Jim Oltersdorf in August. Here’s some info:
Jim will personally take you to where his TV show on The Discovery Channel was filmed! This mentor class is restricted and will offer mentoring by Jim where you will camp and film the giant Alaskan Brown bear. It is typical to see between 20-30 individual bears daily!
No, this is not a park-like setting, it’s the real deal in the wilderness of Alaska! You will camp in a secured area for your safety and Jim will be your personal guide. Daily, we will trek down to the salmon-filled river and photograph these bears all day long! The nearest road is about 200 air miles away!
The second phase of the experience & photographic journey will be conducted in the magnificent Kenai National Fjords, a chartered boat trip of about 25 miles out to sea (Seward, Alaska) to the glaciers that you see pictures and covers of in many national magazines. You will camp right next to one of the most impressive glaciers in Alaska and as in all situations, experience it and film it as you wish. Jim will be right along side of you to offer expert instruction to improve your skills as a photographer and insight to the huge numbers of Alaskan wildlife that inhabits the areas which you will experience.
Jim is the executive producer/cameraman of a number of shows currently in production in Alaska. This is a once-in-a-lifetime offering to serious and qualified individuals and is open for only August 1 through August 7, 2009.
So obviously I’m excited. I’ve already started to gear up (getting my panoramic head today) and i will keep you posted of course.
I recently bought a P&S and of course went with the Nikon P6000. I wanted to get one to carry around (lots easier then the whole bag). So far i really love it. Its fast, reliable and not too bad for a P&S. Of course cramming 13.5 MP in such a tiny captor comes with noise. So past ISO 400 i need to use NoiseNinja but with amazing results.
Here’s a sample:
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Exif ISO: 400 f/: 3.9 speed: 1/55 |
One thing that might disappoint people is the fact that it’s using a different file format. The new file format is .NRW. I’ve been using the .DNG file format for a while now so it didn’t prove t be a big deal for me.
Note that they open fine on CS3 (CR 4.6) or CS4.
here’s some of the topics that should get the photographer excited
64-bit (Windows): If you’re running Windows on a 64-bit OS (officially Vista, XP64 possible but unsupported) you can now address ridiculously large amounts of memory.
GPU acceleration: No more jagged pixels at various zoom levels. Instead, what you see is what you get at any zoom ratio, from .07% all the way up to 3200% (and everywhere in between). This gives us previews of cloned/healed data clipped to the brush and faster performance from the color management engine, HDR preview adjustments, and much more!
Designed for multiple monitors: As many as 50% of professional photographers use more than one monitor, and CS4’s new interface is optimized for this. For example, palette/panel groups can float and be minimized/expanded across monitors (screenshot). With the new UI and workspace switcher, custom configurations have never been easier or more capable.
Camera Raw 5: The comprehensive raw conversion engine in Photoshop and Bridge leaps forward with the ability to edit individual regions–dodging, burning, painting saturation, applying graduated filters, and more. ACR supports more than 200 proprietary raw formats, plus JPEGs and TIFFs.
Dramatically improved Dodge, Burn and Sponge tools: More power, fidelity and control linked to the speed and flexibility of Photoshop’s fast and flexible pressure-sensitive paint engine. “Protect Tones” gives you dodging and burning where you need it (while preserving the areas you don’t) and the Sponge tool can now saturate or de-saturate with the intelligence of the Vibrance logic (from Camera Raw and Lightroom).
Adjustments Panel: The power of adjustment layers comes to a non-modal panel. That is, all of Photoshop is alive and available while you edit non-destructively. 22 new presets (all user-configurable, of course) and on-image controls for both Curves and Hue/Saturation. 89% less mouse travel than a menu-driven layers workflow. Faster, more powerful and no longer forcing you into a limited dialogue.
Masking Panel: Quick and powerful masks from selections in this new, live, re-editable panel. Whether you’re creating detailed masks from scratch (pixel or vector), using the powerful and much improved Color Range control, Feathering or adjusting Density of your masks or even Refining what you have, the Mask panel offers a live spot for powerful one-stop selective editing.
Vibrance adjustment layer: The intelligent preservation control that we know and love in both Lightroom and Camera Raw comes to Photoshop in the form of an adjustment layer. Skin tones, we can now see you!
Alignment: CS3 took the alignment of multiple images far, and CS4 goes even further. CS4 offers better results, more choices for projection, even built-in profiles for common wide angle lenses. CS4 can even remove vignetting and geometric distortion as it aligns.
Content-Aware Scaling: You may have seen the wild demo-candy of sand and surf flying in and out of images as they’re dramatically rescaled, but you’re a serious shooter and you want to know what’s in it for you. That full-frame 11×17, 8×12, 5×8 that needs to fit into the 11×14, 8×10 or 5×7 frame…Content-Aware Scaling. That wedding photo for the groom’s iPhone rescaled without cutting his head off?…yep, CAS. The fixed spot you have in the magazine layout that invariably loses an arm, a head or a loved one’s face – we have your feature!
Blending: CS3 made panoramas and composites smooth, and CS4 makes those even smoother while doing entirely new things like blending focus from multiple images! From the practical (multiple product shots with varying depth of field blended to “buy” more focus) to the surreal (shallow depth of field for a subject in the foreground and the background, with a smooth bokeh between!). There’s a new option called “Seamless Tones & Colors” as well, it blends exposure data – imagine two shots, one taken with a flash, the other without – you can now quickly enjoy the benefits of both in one image! As with Alignment, there’s no guesswork with the options, because Photoshop knows best, automatically, by default.
Print: With more resolution in still images than ever before, and panoramas being easier than ever, people are printing larger than ever – so is Photoshop! Co-developed alongside the major print manufacturers, Photoshop’s print engine continues to grow more powerful and stable with CS4. From gamut warnings to more powerful automation, we’ve been working hard to make printing work for you. If you’re running OSX.5 and have a supported printer, you now have the option of printing 16-bit data – fine-art photographers rejoice!
I had preorder her book on amazon and I was so excited to find it when I got back from Paris
It’s actually beyond my expectations. I was praying not to get a … “I use f/8 with ….. bla bla bla” thing.
Well I didn’t got that. What I got is a bit of a window in her world and I’m loving it. It’s great to read about the making of someone like her. She let us into what she thinks and how she felt and for that I thank her.
A must have in your library for sure. (Get it here)
