Quick Hit Monday: Hot New CS5 and LR3 Features; Heading To D-Town TV; and More

Good Morning Everybody,

We had a little time to catch our breath over the weekend and are ready to go full-speed-ahead this week. That means that life at the studio and at DPT get pretty much back to normal. That's a relief for me too.  Trying to jam 5 blog posts in during Photoshop World, our busiest convention, is always a time crunching challenge.

Fellow blogger, Terry White, was doing a demo at the Manfrotto booth right next to our booth and I asked him, "Terry, how are you keeping up with at least two blogs now. How do you do it?"  His quick answer; "That's why I was up to 1:00 a.m. this morning."  Many of us have talked about joining "Blogger's Anonymous." ;~)

Anyway, we should be pretty much back on track for the week, so sit back, relax and enjoy.  Now on with Quick Hit Monday.

"Captured By The Light - Encore Presentation" Brings Down The Servers At Viddler!

Well, not exactly, but the bandwidth usage - over 8,000 downloads of my 2+ hour webcasts - sure raised eyebrows at Viddler.  That's almost 3 Tera-bytes of bandwidth!!!  Viddler hosts most of my Technique Tuesdays.  I have a few a Vimeo, but Viddler is so easy to use and accepts so many video file formats, I just kind of settled in with them a few years ago.

Anyway, with my posting of my two lengthy webinars, I received a call, not an email, from the vice president of the company. I tried to return the call on Saturday.  No luck, so I'll try again today.  I'll keep you posted on the outcome of the call.  I suspect nothing will change except that they may want to boot me up to a "business" account.  At that bandwidth, that could be as much as $1000/mo charge - YIKES!!! - we'll see.  I'm sure things will work out.

Heading To D-Town Today

That's right.  I incorrectly said I was heading over to NAPP World Headquarters today to shoot a few Photoshop TV episodes.  Actually Matt Kloskowski told me they were going to be recording D-Town TV episodes.  Either way, it should be fun. 

I've spent a little time over the weekend preparing some topics both on Camera techniques and some on flash techniques. I'll keep you posted as to when they will air.

The Hottest News At The Convention - NEW Lightroom 3 & CS5 Features

I mentioned it on Wednesday but I wanted to give you a bit more info on the topic today.  During the Opening ceremonies at Photoshop World. Tom Hogarty, showed three new "sizzling" features coming down the road for Lightroom 3.  These new components brought down the house. 

The first was shooting tethered - very cool.  The second was the ability to import and organize videos from our DSLR cameras - wow.  And the third, was Lightroom's brand new ability to almost completely vanish noise from our DSLR images - look out 1,000,000 ISO - here I come;~)

I sure wish I would have video-ed that part of the presentation, but I did not.  You can check out USA Today's Jackson Graham's write up of the new LR3 B2 features right here.  Want to have even more fun - watch Terry White demonstrate the new features right here. DAZNOTE: this is a MP4 download, but no big deal - still fun to watch.

You can download the latest Lightroom3 beta through Adobe Labs. Through the grapevine, I hear that this latest Beta is more like Lightroom 2.9 which means it's pretty darn close to the upcoming release version. Check it out - looks pretty cool to me!

The other super cool announcement at the show was the brand new feature in CS5 called "Content Aware Fill".  This was simply "jaw-dropping" when you saw it in action.  I don't want to say any more. 

Why, because I want to point you to the video demo of "Content Aware Scaling" right here.  It's a short little YouTube video that's already raised over 1,700,000 eyebrows - you've got to check it out - AMAZING!!!

This new CS5 feature is simply magical and will make CS5 easily worth the upgrade. Pssst!  I hear it's being released April 12, 2010 [link] - less that two weeks from now.  I suspect Lightroom 3 will follow close behind it.

One More For The Road - A Site Worth Checking Out

While walking the show you get a chance to talk with lots of people - always a good thing.  In one of my conversations, someone mentioned Planet Neil run by Neil van Niekerk - a great site they said.  I checked it out over the weekend and it does look very content rich, as they said.  Definitely worth the peek right here. 

Neil also has a book, "On-Camera Flash Techniques" it’s receiving lots of great reviews at Amazon.com. Check it out right here.

__________________________________________________________

Hey gang, I got to get moving and head over to NAPP World Headquarters.  How about I see everyone back here tomorrow.  We head home tomorrow.  My plan is to post Wednesday's post, "The Case Against FAST Glass" on Tuesday and my Technique Tuesday on Wednesday.  And I said we were getting back to normal  - well, almost;~)

See ya' tomorrow,  -David

Quick Hit Monday: Big Day At B&H; Another Seagate Hard Drive DOA; Brand New Mini Z-Ray; and Imaging Insider Podcasts

Good Morning Everybody,
Well, as I type this morning, the snow is coming down like crazy, all NYC schools are closed for the first time since 2004, and all flights have been canceled out of LaGuardia Airport till noon. Things look like they're are going to clear up by the time our flight leaves later this afternoon. It is amazing being in this city during one of their famous Northeast storms. Nothing stops New Yorkers though - still lots of activity on the streets, albeit with 8 inches of snow on the ground in mid-town and over a foot of snow in Long Island.

Another kind of cool thing is the view from our hotel room - we are looking out onto the Hudson River right beyond the Javits Center where the miracle flight US Air Flight 1549 landed. It's amazing to me to try and imagine how the onlookers must have felt as they witnessed the "Miracle on the Hudson" that day. Anyway, everyday is a blessing - let's get to Quick Hit Monday.

Big Day At B&H Yesterday!
WOW! What a great time we had in NYC at B&H. We pulled up to the front door and people were lined up down the block - I wish I would have taken a quick photo. We reached their "Event Space" room, got set up and the crowd started pouring in - yep, it was a big crowd in a small room but everybody found a place and the show went off without a hitch.

These programs typically last 2 hours, but I was scheduled for 5 hours since I wanted to do a run through for my Digital WakeUp Call tour kicking off March 30 right after Photoshop World. Well, 5 hours wasn't long enough so B&H let me extend the program 1 more hour. Nearly everyone stayed to the end and I got some good feed back from the crowd. My personal thanks to all who came by to see the program and to Triple Scoop Music for a few door prizes. A good time was had by all.

New Yorkers are pretty darn lucky!! B&H hosts programs in their "Event Space" approximately 30 times a month - and they are FREE. Check out the link right here for upcoming programs.

Another Seagate Drive Bites The Dust
That's right, my second 1.5 tera byte Seagate Extreme hard drive bit the dust on Friday. Hey, at least I got 3 mores days of use out of that one. Here's the BAD news on this drive - it seems there is about a 30-40% FAILURE rate with the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives. Check out the link right here for the full story. Thanks to DPT reader "amycham" who pointed to the problem when I last reported the first drive's failure.

Just Google "Barracuda 7200.11 problems" and a whole slew of posts come up about this drive. Check out the "horror stories" right here too. I would avoid these drives at all cost - don't play poker with your data!

NEW Mini Z-Ray
Thanks to Phil Walker from the UK who pointed me to a very cool mini Z-Ray device. Actually it's another one of those little LED flash lights, but this one is the "cat's meow" of all LED flash lights. It's one of the most powerful on the market and even has a "zoom" feature built in. Here is the link to the Model P-7, the one that caught my eye.

The babies are designed for the military, police, and the fire fighters. Their rock solid build, water proof design make then a bit "overkill" for photographers, but I loved the zoom feature and picked one up. Unfortunately it's no cheap little flash light, but I still can't wait to give it a try.

Imaging Insider And Podcasting
I got a note about a week ago from my buddies at Imaging Insider. It seems they have a series of podcasts with tons of information. Here is a link to one of their latest with Terence Tay, Product Architect for Bokeh from Alien Skin, a lens simulator plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. I wanted to point you in their direction because they have several more podcasts where that one came from too. Just head to their site right here and search for "podcasts" lots of them pop. Then have some fun on your next rainy afternoon.

Hey gang, that's it for me today - I hope we have a plane to catch. See you tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday. See ya' then, -David

Quick Hit Monday: The World Of Off-Camera Flash; A Digital PhotoBook For Your Customers; 2 Tera-Byte SD Card, and More

Good Morning Everybody,
We arrived home safe and sound last evening to a brisk 24 degrees, ahhhh, the great Midwest in February. Actually, I never care too much what the weather is like as long as the sun comes up in the morning. Regardless of the weather, it's always good to get back home.

We had a great week in Las Vegas, and the few days off after the convention gave me a little time to polish up the DWC tour presentation which is shaping up really well. We head up to B&H next weekend where I'll get a chance to test drive most of the presentation. My book needs to wrap this week too - just pulling the final images for it. I get to peek at cover designs later today, so I'm stoked about that.

Anyway, their seems to be lots of stuff to report on today - I've picked a few of my favs. Hit the "Read More..." link below for all the news you need to know!

The World Of Off-Camera Flash; A Digital PhotoBook For Your Customers; 2 Tera-Byte SD Card, and More

The World Of Off-Camera Flash
I have to tell ya' the WPPI convention seemed to be the year for off-camera flash. Three, count them, three manufacturers were showing off gear to fire remote flashes. My buddies at Quantum were showing off their new Trio units [link] with their built in radios and high speed flash capabilities. The sent me 3 of them to "play with" right before we left for the show. I only had time to read the manuals and am looking forward to trying them in the next week or two.

What I like about the Quantum is the amount of "juice" - light they get on the scene. As a wedding shooter, an off-camera 580EX II is just a bit too underpowered for me. I love my 200 w.s. fast recycling Quantums on the job. With the Trios now supporting high speed sync, I think the outdoor shooting options definitely get more interesting.

I mentioned, last week that Kevin King of Radio Popper [link] fame is letting me try a few of his new units too. I want to see how/if they work with the Quantums too.

Now on to player #3 of the off-camera flash arena - Pocket Wizard, has what I think may be the most interesting product of all. Their MiniTT1 [link] fits neatly between the camera and the flash. The remote unit, the Flex TT5 [link], mounts to the remote flash's hot shoe. With the units attached, you have complete Master/Slave and high speed flash functionality now operating with very reliable radio signals - way cool.

I'm making a call to them today to see if I can get a couple to test. Mr. Hobbie over at the Strobist.com had a super in depth review of the new units - definitely worth the peek [link]. Hopefully, I'll have all three solutions in house and can see how they best work in a wedding/event situation. There's lots of wonderful new products and solutions in the off-camera flash department - no reason to be shooting like Uncle Harry any more. I'll keep you posted.

A Digital PhotoBook For Your Customers
I caught this post by fellow blogger, Eric over at Photography Bay. It talked about the new Digital Foci Photo Book [link]. This new electronic "proof book" offers some interesting features - here are a few:
8” digital LCD with 800 x 600 resolution.
Large 4 GB internal memory holds thousands of digital photos.
Built-in memory card slots provide native support for: CF, SD/HC card, MMC, xD-Picture Card, MS/MS PRO (Supports mini-SD, RS-MMC, MS Duo with adapter).
USB host capability - supports USB flash drives.
Copy albums directly from memory cards for USB flash drives to internal memory without needing a computer.
Run automatic Full-Screen or Photo Book photo Slide-shows with adjustable time intervals.

Heck, for only $189 it looks like another alternative for the wedding photographer to me.

Here are a few of quick ideas:
1 - Give it to the B&G as an electronic honeymoon album to preview their wedding.
2 - It could serve as a electronic proof book.
3 - Maybe it could be included with the wedding album after a certain minimum order.
4 - How about using it as a portable electronic portfolio?
5 - Let the B&G's parents pass it around at the wedding reception.

Hey, those are just a few ideas dancin' in my brain for this cool little gizmo.

2 Tera-Byte SD Card
OK, what's 24x32mm and 2.1mm thick? How about a 2 tera-byte SD card for your Canon Sure Shot? Yep, you heard right - 2 TERA-BYTES. That's an estimated 100 HD movies or 480 hours of HD recording or 136,000 fine-grade photos, or 4000 RAW images. Man, one of these little puppy's would cover me for an entire wedding! The SD Association is releasing the "specification" for the new SDXC cards. Their press release - you can read it over at Ephotozine right here [link] - The SD Association points to 64 gig cards being first to be offered.

Think how this will impact all of us - not just photographers, but anyone requiring lots of storage in small places. I can see it now - new laptops with "instant on" capabilities and storage to spare! All sounds pretty cool to me!

A Few More For The Road
Impact Protection For Your Camera
When LaDawn and I were picking out her new cell phone a week ago, one of the “up-sells” was the neoprene protective cover for her new Verizon "Dare". Well, it turns out you can get the same thing for your camera too. I found the post about it over at the Imaging Insider, a blog always packed with insider information and worth the visit. It’s made by the Camera Armor Company and does exactly the same thing for your camera that the protective cover does for La Dawn’s phone – worth a peek [link ].

PMA Predictions
With the Photo Marketing Association [link] PMA show happening in Las Vegas next week, Photography Bay has some predictions for you. The PMA show is another one of those venues where the camera, lens, and equipment manufacturer latest and greatest goodies and make announcements about what’s down the pike. Hey, it always kind of fun to see how many of these guesses turn out to be true. Anyway, check out Eric’s best guesses [link] and tune in next week to see how many he guessed correctly.

Hey gang, that’s it for me today. It’s the first day back after a week long trip and my desk is heaped pretty high – time to start digging in. See everybody tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday. See ya’ then, -David