Tuesday News Nuggets
Greetings from New York City, where I’m doing my “Photoshop CS3 Power Tour” seminar for a record-breaking 1,300 people today at the Javits Center. I hope I get to see you today (if you’re there and you read my blog, make sure you say “hi”). Now, onto the news:
- Congratulations to our own Matt Kloskowski whose book “The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book” was chosen by ShutterBug Magazine as one of the top digital photography books of 2007 (Vincent Versace’s “Welcome to Oz” and my “Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers” were also among their picks).
- On Monday I got to see B&H Photo’s newly expanded (read as: incredibly huge and amazing) photography dept. They took over the entire 2nd floor (not just the area where the used gear was—I mean, “The entire second floor!”) and I’ve never seen more photo gear in one place in my life. It was staggering. I blacked out several times and my buddy Dave Moser had to revive me several times with his Visa card. If you get to New York any time soon, head upstairs—you will lose your mind!
- David Ziser’s Digital Pro Blog mentioned this very cool tutorial on removing Moiré patterns from jackets and shirts, and if you’ve ever run across this problem; they’ve got a great solution (here’s the link).
- If you didn’t see last week’s episode of Layers TV, go check it all. That’s all I’m sayin’
- Thanks to everybody who posted comments yesterday about my Bucs on-field shoot and because so many of you had questions, here’s some answers:
- Q. Did I shoot in raw?
- A. You betcha. The whole time. The main reason was I wanted the flexibility to recover any clipped highlights from shooting out in the direct sun, and with all the white on the players jerseys (on both teams), it really, really worked out well.
- Q. Why did you shoot at 200 ISO
- A. The Buc’s official Team photographer, Paul Abell posted an answer to this yesterday before I could, but it was to make sure we had enough shutter speed to get to around 1/2000 of a second. Paul’s shooting Canon so the ISO noise issue isn’t a big deal, especially between 100 and 200 (where the noise is barely perceptible), and so when faced with a decision; he could perhaps get a tiny amount of less noise, he (we’d) have to give up shutter speed and stopping power. Read Paul’s comment yesterday for more details. Thanks Paul for jumping in and posting your comments yesterday. It’s much appreciated.
- Q. What did you think of the Canon 1D Mark III?
- A. Remember when I talked about shooting the Canon 5D, and how I had two big gripes: (1) The shutter felt funky—almost a bit too digital, and (2) the LCD didn’t have full screen highlights warnings? Well, both of my gripes have been addressed in the Mark III, and it was an absolute joy. I don’t have a single complaint—it absolutely rocked (and the battery life is just incredible. I shot with it today at a studio in Manhattan for four hours, and I still haven’t recharged since before Sunday’s shoot).
- Q. Did you use your “Photoshop Seven Point System” on those shots?
- A. Absolutely. I use the Seven Point System on all my own photos (it’s based on my own exact workflow), so if you see one of my shots, it went through “The System,” but luckily not every shot needed all seven points. There are two images where I also applied a variation of the “Hollywood Effect.”
- Q. Do you prefer shooting on Lexar?
- A. I hope I’m not jinxing myself, but I’ve never had one go bad, and at the end of the day, reliability is king.
- Q. Did you ditch your Nikon gear?
- A. I still have all my Nikon gear, but it’s the old stuff (D200, D2xs, etc.). I haven’ t decided what I’m going to do yet, but I can tell you this, right now I’m really loving that Mark III. I love the way it renders fleshtone, and the way it handles things that are red (like the Buc’s jerseys), is really wonderful. I wish I felt a little more comfortable with all the controls, but it’s getting more comfortable every day.
- Q. What’s the Loupe around your neck?
- A. That’s the Hoodman Loupe, and for outdoor events like that, it’s absolutely invaluable. You can either use it, or turn off your LCD and save your battery, cause you can’t see a dang thing on it in that direct mid-day sun. Other photographers on the sidelines kept asking me about it all day. Now that I’ve been using it, I don’t know how I got along without it.
Well, that’s it for today. It’s 2:33 am, and I should probably hit the sack. Ya know, since I’ve got a class in the morning, and didn’t get any sleep last night either. I’m gonna sleep like a rock on my flight home tonight, though.
Have a great Tuesday and I hope to see you today at the Javits! 
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