The Digital Photo Guy

Sorry for the Wrong Date on MMT

Normally, I don’t correct minor typos on MMT posts because that causes everyone to receive a new notification e-mail but, in egregious cases like when the date is off by a month, I feel it’s important to correct it. Sorry for the double notice, everyone.

Serious Case of Writer’s Block Today

For some reason, I couldn’t organize my thoughts today. The MMT was written and I had ideas about photos I took at the Barona Indian Pow Wow in Lakeside, CA but my mind wouldn’t cooperate.

Few Spaces Left for the Photoshop Elements Webinar with Rob Sheppard

Click HERE to read how you can learn Photoshop Elements in just 4 hours from Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine. Don’t let the magazine title scare you, the class covers all aspects of PSE, not just outdoor or nature photography. Most of what this class covers also applies to Photoshop CSx. Best of all, you get 60 days of e-mail support in case you have problems applying what Rob’s tricks, tips and shortcuts.

To sweeten the pot, I’ll be giving a copy of the 2009 Photoshop World Workbook (1000 pages) to one lucky student after the class. We’ll also give away, to a 2nd lucky student, a copy of 1-2-3 of Digital Imaging, the award-winning program that teaches you Photoshop and Photoshop Elements via DVD .

Monday Morning Tip

Today, we extend our previous discussion about lenses for new dSLR owners. We started with the Essential 3-Lens Kit (in the MMT archives) but owners quickly find that they want a longer lens. We have some good news and some bad news. First, the good news. Canon and Nikon have some really nice 400mm lenses but they’re in the US$1000 range. Others such as Sigma and Tamron have 400mm and 500mm lenses but they have severe limitations such as lack of autofocus. Now, the bad news, really good long lenses typically start at US$4000 and go up from there.

To read about your choices before you lay out your hard-earned cash, read this week’s MMT to understand your options. As always, MMTs are behind the password protected area on the Tips & News page.

Barona Indian Pow Wow

The Barona Pow Wow was this weekend and I went hoping to get more portraits of participants. Unlike the Pala Pow Wow, this one was held on a ball field and the background sucked (that’s a technical term). I had to practically lie on my back so I could shoot up high enough to miss the bleachers and fence.

I also got an object lesson in the term “Indian Time”. Unlike the Pala Pow Wow, much of the festivities started at 6PM. Since I was really interested in the Grand Entry, I took only my 17-40/4L and 70-200/4L. I didn’t take my 50/1.4 or 85/1.8 assuming the Grand Entry would be over before the light faded. Bad mistake. I was told about “Indian Time” at Pala but Barona practices that concept much more rigorously than Pala, probably because Pala was a smaller event. In short, “Indian Time” means nothing starts or stays on schedule.

By the time the Grand Entry started, light was fading fast and I was 150 yards from my RV where my fast lenses were. I had to crank up ISO and hope for the best. Here’s an example of what could have been a “money shot” if I had’t been at ISO 1600.

It’s OK as a snapshot but certainly won’t make the cut as a  high quality print. Bottom line, when you need a fast lens, nothing else will do. Don’t depend on high ISO to bail you out of a situation like this. Had I used my Canon 50/1.8, I could have regained 2 1/2 stops over my 70-200/4. Those 2 1/2 stops would have let me drop to ISO 400 and bumped up shutter speed from 125 to 180.

On a positive note, I got some really cool cloud formations for my cloud collection. In case you don’t do this, always try to capture nice clouds so you can replace a bland sky in an otherwise great photo.

Rob Sheppard to Teach Photoshop Elements

On Saturday, November 14 from 9AM until 1PM, Rob Sheppard will teach a 4-hour Photoshop Elements class jam-packed with tricks, tips and shortcuts used by professional photographers. Whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced PSE user, you will learn more about Photoshop Elements than you ever imagined possible. After this class you will be able to enhance and edit digital photos faster, easier and more precisely than ever before. Most of the material from this class also applies to Photoshop CSx.

If that’s not enough, you’ll receive 60 days of e-mail support after the class. That’s right, for 60 days, if you encounter a problem and just can’t figure out how to apply Rob’s tips, send me an e-mail and I’ll get you an answer. What class have you ever taken that offers that kind of help?

Anyone with the slightest interest in photography knows the name Rob Sheppard. He’s the editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine and editor/founder of PCPhoto as well as author of over a dozen books on photography.

I literally ran into Rob at the NANPA (North American Nature Photographer’s Association) summit earlier this year and asked him to teach a Photoshop Elements class for my readers. He was enthusiastic but, understandably, his schedule was filled.

Rob is now available to teach that class on November 14 via webinar. Even better, the cost is just $59.95 ($49.95 early bird special until Sept 30). If you had attended Rob’s class at NANPA, you would have paid $155 plus hotel, meals & travel to Albuquerque so this is a screaming deal!

Click below to register today. Seating is limited.

Monday Morning Tip

When I first converted to digital in 1998, almost everyone used JPEG. This was reinforced for me because I was a sports photographer who came home from events with upwards of 1000-1200 frames. All the frames except total disasters were quickly processed for levels and sharpness before resizing and uploading to my web site for people to order. As orders came in, I reprocessed each photo for printing but, during the initial rush, there wasn’t time for messing about with RAW files.

 

Today, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, “Should I shoot in RAW or JPEG?” Even rank newbies are pressured into thinking they should be shooting RAW because “that produces better photos.” Let’s set the record straight. It’s just as easy to capture crappy RAW photos as it is to capture crappy JPEGs.

 

Today’s MMT addresses this question head-on for newbies. This MMT will answer this age-old question once and for all. As always, the MMT is in the Tips & News page of this site.

Quick Tip

One of the trickiest things to do in Photoshop or PSE is selecting hair when you’re trying to knock out a person’s head from a photo. Let’s say you took a family photo at the reunion but Cousin Ernie couldn’t attend. You try to paste Cousin Ernie’s photo from last year into this year’s photo but it’s nearly impossible to get a good selection of Cousin Ernie’s curly blonde hair which was photographed against a white wall.

Whenever you have friends and family together, take several head shots against a contrasting wall. Cousin Ernie’s blonde locks will stand out nicely against a dark wall while Aunt Ruthie’s mousey brown hair contrasts with the standard Navajo White found on most interior walls.

Next time you want to knock out Cousin Ernie from a busy background, use hair from the easy photo. You don’t want to use too much because the light and angle probably won’t match but little wisps here and there will help fill out areas where his hair blends into a white object in the background.

This week’s MMT continues with raw files. Specifically, converting raw files to a format that can be editing in PS, PSE or any other photo editing program. As you may recall, raw is not an acronym but simply means the image data is the original, unprocessed (raw) information straight off the camer’s sensor. (That’s not 100% accurate but close enough for our purposes) Raw is not a standard, every company has their own implementation of raw. This makes means the file has to first be converted to a standard.

For PS and PSE, the standard is PSD (Photoshop Data). Many other photo editing programs can also read PSD with some level of compatibility. However, every program can read and write JPEG and TIFF so those have become de facto standards. A few years ago, Adobe introduced DNG (digital negative) as a standard and, hopefully, other photo editing programs will begin to incorporate that into their repertoire.

If you don’t have PS or PSE, you can use one of the free raw converters. Read the full MMT on the Tips & News page under MMTs. You’ll need a password to access that area which you can get by registering.

Quick Tips

These days, buying off the Internet is pretty much a given. However, as anyone with half a clue knows, it’s dangerous out there. Tales of scams and outright fraud abound so how does one protect themselves when buying pricey items like camera gear. The Number 1 rule is to always do your research. Here are two sites that will help you with research.

ResellerRatings.com has a good reputation as a reputable place to check on companys. They have a fairly robust system to catch cheats who post their own “atta-boys” or knock their competitiors. Be careful of other sites that resemble ResellerRatings because they can be set up by a scammer just to lull you into a sense of security.

You can check Don Wiss’ pictures of actual Brooklyn camera stores to determine if they’re legit. If it’s a Mailboxes Etc or UPS store, you might want to dig further. Don also has photos of Manhattan camera stores. Some of these photos are downright scary.

New Video Uploaded

Part 3 of the Restoring Old Photos series has been uploaded. This covers sharpening using both Unsharp Mask (USM) and Adjust Sharpness in PSE7. If you have PSE4 or prior, you wan’t have Adjust Sharpness.

Photoshop Elements class with Award-winning Photographer/Author set for August 15, 2009

The instructor has photographed and written for numerous magazines including National Geographic. However, his main commitment has always been to teaching photography.

There will be 2 sessions. The first will be from 8AM-11AM with a second session from 1PM-4PM. These information packed, 3-hour sessions will get you up-to-speed with Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CSx. Everything will apply to both PSE and PS CSx.

The session will be recorded so you can review the recordings for free as often as you want for 60 days. DVDs of the sessions will also be available. But wait, there’s more. If you preregister before July 1, 2009, you’ll be eligible for free e-mail support from The Digital Photo Guy for 60 days. So, if you still don’t get it after sitting through the webinar and reviewing the recording, you can send me an e-mail and I’ll explain it to you again.

To preregister, send me an e-mail at this time and I’ll notify you as soon as price is set. At this time, the price will definitely be less than $50. Stay tuned for more details.

Monday Morning Tip

Today’s MMT was inspired by a reader who wanted to batch convert Nikon NEF files to JPEG. She had borrowed a D90 and taken over 500 photos in NEF without knowing how the camera was set. Her friend then tried to read the NEF files with Photoshop Elements 7 but that didn’t work either. My regular readers would have immediately known how to fix the problem but she was totally lost.

Don’t be lost. Today’s MMT covers the advantages of camera raw regardless of whether you use a Canon or Nikon or Olympus or any other dSLR. Next week, we’ll cover the specific steps for converting raw files to JPEG or some other standard format. By the way, raw is not an acronym like JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) or TIFF (Tagged Image File Format or GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). Raw simply means it’s the raw data directly from the camera sensor without being mangled and manipulated inside the camera.

As always, the full MMT is in the MMT area under Tips and News. Register for this site to get the password for that area. You’ll have access to nearly 100 MMTs when you register.

Palomar Classes are now Online

You can register for my classes at Palomar College here. The 2 webinar classes are open to anyone, you don’t have to be in San Diego to take these classes. The “Hands-On” Photoshoot class is a good excuse for out-of-towners to take a vacation in San Diego.

I’m back from Bosque del Apache and I have a pile of stuff on my desk so I thought I’d first goof off. Here’s a photo I took at BdA on Saturday, 2/21 before Artie Morris’ IPT started on Sunday. This is the quintessential BdA photo of a snow geese blast-off. Unfortunately, all those cars and people in the frame make it less than ideal.

Playing around a bit with Photoshop CS4, I created this photo.

Let me know what you think. BTW, this isn’t one of my masterpieces so I didn’t put a lot of effort into ehnancing the actual photo to remove all the reflected legs in the water. This is essentially a POC (proof of concept) as it were.