Quick Hit Monday: Free Video Education; Cheap Flash Triggers; Bridge or LR3; Easy HDR; and Matrix Madness

Good Morning Everybody,

It’s starting to look like Christmas at the Ziser  household. The trees are up and the gifts are wrapped. Yep, LaDawn is pretty well ahead of the game. Me, I think I should probably get a start on my gift shopping this week ;~)

Hey, all joking aside, I’ve been looking forward to this week. Most Photography orders and albums are wrapped up (not just gifts) and delivered to our clients and I am looking forward to having a light week around here enjoying the run-up to Christmas weekend. I hope you get a chance to do the same.

I’m pleased to say that I spent most of the weekend working on my two new programs for Photoshop World coming up in March 2011. The deadline for turning in the articles is today and I’m putting the finishing touches on the last one as we speak.

After I finish, that pretty much clears my calendar for the week – whew!

Hey gang, I’ve got a pretty wide ranging group of quick hits this Monday so I hope you enjoy them. Let’s get right to them. Here we go…

How To Videos: and How To Do Even More

I received an e-mail not too long ago from one of our DigitalProTalk readers telling me that he had put one of my Technique Tuesday videos into a Vimeo wedding album group. I headed over to Vimeo to just see who I was hanging with.

It turns out that I was in good company. There were ten other videos in the group that covered everything from a pre-wedding shoot, promo videos, and even a fashion shoot in the penthouse of a Las Vegas hotel. Why not head on over and check them out I think you'll find some fun stuff there. Here is the link.

Model Releases On Your iPhone

OK, I thought this was pretty cool – a model release on your iPhone AND your model can sign it with their finger tip.  It’s called ID Release [link]. I caught the post at Luminous-Landscape right here. They have a nice write up about it too. Oh, did I forget to say the price?  Good news - it’s FREE! I just picked up my copy.

Flash Triggers On The Cheap

If your a regular Digital ProTalk reader you know that I talk a lot about off-camera flash. My off-camera flash choice has always been my Quantum T5d.  This flash puts out 150 W seconds of power. Well, I know it’s kind of a pricey flash but I still think it’s worth every penny. When you use off-camera flash as often as I do and in as many varied situations, I need something that's reliable and powerful. The Quantum fills the bill. I fire the Quantum with my Quantum FreeWire radios. The FreeWire radios add another couple hundred dollars to my lighting set up but I still thinks it the best off-camera flash set-up going.

Several of our DigitalProTalk readers might not want to make that kind of a $$$ investment at this time but would still like to give off-camera flash a try. A few months ago Ace number one assistant, Nicholas Viltrakis, did a guest blog post illustrating how he uses inexpensive slave triggers to create some really nice off-camera flash images. Here is the link to his post.

While cruising the web over the weekend, and then checking in with fellow blogger Kerry Garrison at Cameradojo.com, I found that he did a piece on what appears to be the same inexpensive flash triggers. Here is the link to that post.

Kerry also has a short video showing how to hook the strobe triggers up to your flash and your camera. Kerry also has the them available at this site which really makes it convenient for anyone wanting. You may want to give these inexpensive triggers a try. Anyway, why not check it out and see what you think.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/id-release.shtml

Adobe versus Bridge – Which Way To Go?

I had a chance to meet A.J. Wood a couple years ago during our Digital WakeUp Call tour in 2009. We've since bumped into each other many times at various conventions and trade shows and continue to stay in touch.

A.J. has a very handy blog [link] which I featured recently on DigitalProTalk. His blogs covers many, many tips and techniques about Photoshop and Lightroom. In a recent post he discussed the burning question on several photographers mind. Why use Lightroom when I can use Bridge?

A.J. has completed an entire post on the subject. If you want to get the lowdown on what the big differences are in workflow in using Bridge versus Lightroom 3, check it out right here.

Way Cool, Way Easy, Way HDR

Another one of my favorite sites to visit is Jeff Revell's, PhotowalkPro.com site. Many times Jeff will do a review of one of the new pieces of software just recently introduced. His reviews are always concise, in-depth, and very informational.

Recently Jeff did a review of Nik Software's new HDR Efex Pro. Once again it's a great tutorial and really give you a good peek under the hood of Nik's new software product. Here is the link right here.

HDR Efex Pro has been getting rave reviews everywhere on the net. Sure, there's been the old standby, Photomadix, but Nik’s HDR Efex Pro software seems to make the process that much easier. I personally never really dabbled in HDR mostly because of a lack of time but, after seeing Jeff tutorial I think I might have to roll up my sleeves and give HDR Efex Pro a try myself

By the way, I think our Captured by the Light tour special Nik discount code might still be active. If you're planning to slip a Nik software product under the Christmas tree this weekend, head over to Nik software.com and check out all their products. If you use our DZISER discount code, you might just find yourself getting an additional 15% - 20% off of your purchase. Not a bad boost to your wallet savings in this year's holiday shopping season.

Matrix Revisited: Stopping Bullets In Mid Air

You know, I really enjoy checking in with some of my favorite websites during my Internet cruise over the weekend. It's always cool to check-in and just see if I can find some gold nuggets for posting on Quick Hit Monday.

One of the cool sites I enjoy visiting is DYI photography.net. It's always featuring the latest gadget or explaining a very cool way to do something yourself. In a recent post the topic was how to stop bullets in midair. Since I was a kid I have been a fan of stop-action photography. I still remember being amazed when I first saw the stop-action photographs of Harold Edgerton. I always thought it would be cool if I could take those kinds of photographs too.

Anyway, now you can by just following easy steps outlined in this post right here.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. Please plan on stopping back tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday. I'll try to sneak a new episode in this week in between all my last-minute shopping.

Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Adios, David