Quick Hit Friday With A Little Inspiration Thrown In

Good afternoon everybody,
Today's posts are a little different than in the past "Inspiration" posts, but the news is still very inspirational to me. Did you see Nikon's announcement about their new D90 [link] - it been all over the Internet - 12.3 mega-pixels, 4.5 fps or 24 fps! But, folks, you need to read the fine print because we are looking at a gender-bending new camera here.

Here is the part of the camera's description that tickled my creative brain cells by hitting me up the side of the head, "Fusing 12.3-mega-pixel image quality and a cinematic 24fps D-Movie Mode" Yep, this camera also does video - and I mean really good video. Check out the link to the Nikon videos right here. It's only five minutes of video. Why, because, get this - the sensor has to cool down. What's going on inside that little puppy anyway? Actually, you can get up to 20 minutes at a lower resolution video, but on the slightly down side, it's manual focus for the video.

I wonder how many out of focus videos will be made on a camera that's normally always set to auto focus. David Hobbie aka "The Strobist" is even speculating that because of this capability , it may be one of those high native sync cameras like the Nikon D70. Anyway, it's still way cool.

OK, so your thinking, so what? What? - Can you see the opportunities for weddings, family portraits, senior portraits? The creativity and possibilities are endless. OK, let me explain more. I see myself shooting the wedding, click, click, click, getting great images. Now as part of the shoot, just getting the bride and groom to "ham it up" a bit with their friends and capturing these moments on video.

Or how about not just grabbing that quick candid image, but capturing the whole candid moment - Wow! Or capturing the laughs and giggles, the children's horseplay as the family members come together for their formal portraits. OK, where am I going here? Folks, we deliver albums to our wedding and portrait clients, many of us also deliver DVD's. Who cares which is your chosen final delivery product? These little snippets of movies can now be used to really enhance the entire image viewing experience for the client if cut into the regular presentation of images in an exciting way.

All I'm saying is that we have a wonderful opportunity to become a Cecil B. DeMille - cinematographer and photographer! Well, I'm very excited and think it will enhance our creativity and bottom line in the coming years with these new features being built into our equipment.

Hey gang, it doesn't stop here. Now we can easily grab some quick footage for our web sites that will blow the competition away. I mentioned last week, that we spent some time with my buddy, David Jay. DJ was introducing this new line of cool websites - Showit Sites - that are super easy to set up and they include the addition of video to the site presentation. Check out Jasmine Star's site to see how she incorporated some exciting video into her Showit Site web site - it's way cool! Using the new Nikon D90 would be a great way to get some of these video clips.

Also, think of the possibilities on the type of video you could get - long telephotos to fisheye lens, to night video with a super wide aperture lenses. I'm sorry my brain is flying with ideas and possibilities. I think this new coupling of the technologies, image capture + video, is not just a new gimmick to sell cameras, but can possibly become the borderline earth-shattering feature that will change how we approach and manage our photographic assignments.

How much for the new Nikon D90 - only $999 MSP - the video is worth the price of admission alone. If you couldn't tell....I'm stoked!!

Maybe I Don't Speak the Language

But I can still read the price - and the price was $68,868.61 - sure that's pesos, but that still translates into $6,376.66 USD!!! While in Cabo a few weeks back, my buddy Kent and I hit the Sam's Club just to see how they compare to our US store versions. They are pretty much the same except for these camera prices. The same Nikon D2X sells at B&H for $2000 less than in Cabo at $4299 last time I checked. Maybe our dollar isn't so strong right now in the international scheme of things but our camera prices sure are a lot better :~)

Not Too Noisy Here Anymore - More on Camera Speed

And the new low noise winner is... Take a peek at these two links over at Imaging-Resource. They recently posted images from Nikon's D3 showing ISO's up to 6400 right here, and Canon's 1Ds Mark III with ISO's up to 3200 right here. I have to say, I was blown away by the Nikon's extremely low noise at that "monster" ISO setting.

I downloaded both high res files and brought them into Photoshop for closer inspection - the Nikon image was amazing. That is not to say that the Canon image at ISO 3200 was bad, but it just was not as noise free. I ran both through one of my favorite noise reduction software tools - Noise Ninja because it shows a relative "noise index" of the image after being profiled. I like to guess what the "noise index" will be before I profile the image. (I know, simple minds, simple pleasures.)

I ran the Nikon ISO 6400 image through first, it's noise index showed 36 - a little noisy but not to bad, and remember, we are at ISO 6400!!! Next, I ran the Canon ISO 3200 image through - noise index 50 - pretty darn high, and the Canon image was half the Nikon ISO 6400 image. Canon has been the "low noise, high ISO" leader for quite a while, but the baton now clearly goes to Nikon.

The Best of the Best

Our friends over at Luminous-Landscape.com have two "First Impression" articles on the two top of the line cameras from Canon and Nikon. Anybody reading Luminous-Landscape knows there articles are goods hands on, anti fluff pieces of information. So whether you are a Nikon or Canon "hottie", check out their articles. Here is the Canon 1Ds Mark III link here. And, here is the Nikon D3 link right here.

That's it for today, gang. Got to get back to the real world, check my emails, and head to Tampa. See you tomorrow for Technique Tuesday. Adios, --David

It's Sooo.. Quiet Around Here - No Noise at All!?

You said what?? - ISO 25600!! The big news this past week has been the "extremely low noise" of the new Nikon D3 camera. Our buddy and Master Photoshop Prestidigitator, Scott Kelby, over at Photoshop Insider, raised the issue last week in his posts. He was amazed at the extremely low noise at ISO 6400. Head over to his site right here to read his remarks. 1001 Noisy Cameras found "very low noise - high ISO" Nikon images that were amazing to see as well. I have to admit, they look unbelievable for ISO 6400. Here is the "Low Noise" link. But wait, there's more - check out this link over at IshootShows.com and look at the Nikon samples with ISO's 1600 - 25600!! Please sit down before you hit this link, or at least hold your hand firmly under you chin as you don't want it to get bruised should it accidentally hit the keyboard once the images pop up.

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Good Morning World,

Boy, that's kind of how I feel this morning. I just checked the stats on the site and - drum roll please - Digital ProTalk is being read in 69 countries (or territories) in 35 languages around the world!

Canon and Nikon Follow-up:
This is going to be less of a "News" day and more of an "Info" day. The dust has yet to settle on all Canon's and Nikon's news last week. If you've been on safari in Kenya, hiking the outback in Australia, or stranded on a remote desert island all last week, you can check out all the news over at dpreview or Rob Galbraith sites. Both sites have posted follow up stories and images to the announcements.

Adobe Lightroom Tip:
I'm kind of new to Adobe's Lightroom (intro and feature set here) but I am always looking for good info on how to get the most out of it. We are currently investigating how to best incorporate it into my wedding/portrait business. More to follow here in future posts. But in the mean time, here is a nice little video tutorial on how to get the best black and white conversions out of Lightroom using the Auto-Adjust Grayscale button in conjunction with the White Balance sliders. The video takes a few minutes to download, but worth the wait. Click here for video link.

Developing Greatness: The Origins of American Photography:
If you are a photographer and live close to Kansas City - like within 250 miles, then head over to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and check out this exhibit running from June 9 through December 30. Here is an excerpt... "A groundbreaking exploration of the first generation of American photography. The exhibition presents classic works from this pivotal era, as well as many newly discovered images that have never before been exhibited or published. " The exhibit is featuring Daguerreotypes and paper prints. Here is the link to the Museum's site. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on their links to get a sampling of the images - fascinating!

So What's a Pixel Look Like?
That has been a burning question in my mind ever since I went "digital" in 2000. Well, you can say you saw it here first - unless you saw it somewhere else first. Click here and behold a Pixel. My life is now complete.

News Alert - Keywording Scam:
I receive the Professional Photographers of America's e-newsletter and caught a very interesting article in it. They were discussing a new scam on how some studios are using "keywording" to drive google searches to the sites. Some photographers will add a competitor’s studio name to their own website in order to appear when a search is done for that competitor. This way it is possible that a competitor will also appear on a list of search results even if your studio name was the one searched. Just a "heads up. You can sign up for the PPA e-newsletter here.

Pretty Cool Video:
I have always been fascinated by "time-lapse" photography - you know, one picture taken every minute or so. Maybe it goes back to those good old days watching Walt Disney World on TV when I was a kid. Every now and then, they would show the flowers opening , the sun setting, etc. Anyway, I just came across the "time-lapse" video where the photographer made it with his Canon 20D camera. Check out the separate post following this one to view the video - pretty cool.

That's about it for today - have a great Monday. --David