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Thursday News Stuff

By Scott on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 1:16 am | News.

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First, a big thanks to my special guest blogger yesterday, the amazing Dave Cross, whose message really resonated with so many of you out there. Very cool stuff, my friend!
Now, onto the News:

  • One of my readers, Nicholas Van Staten, pointed out this AP article (which I’m pointing to in the Miami Herald), about how New York City has now adopted a clear set of rules for photographers and filmmakers about when they need to obtain permits to shoot on the sidewalks and streets of New York. Here’s a link to the Herald (thanks Nicholas!).
  • Great news: Since I posted those two copyright interviews with attorney Ed Greenberg and photographer’s rights advocate Jack Reznicki, you all have posted loads of comments and follow-up questions, and Ed and Jack have heard ya. In fact, tomorrow I’ll have a post directly from them answering some of your most pressing copyright and legal questions, so make sure you’re back here tomorrow for this special follow-up from Ed and Jack (I love these guys)!
  • Yesterday, Mattias (one of my readers here on the blog) suggested that I create a category for all the Guest Blog posts, so it would be easy to find all the guest blog posts with just one click. Well, Fred (my in-house Web guru) already added this new feature, and now when I have a guest blogger, right up in the title area (to the immediate right of where it shows how many comments have been posted), you’ll see the category “Guest Blogger.” Click on that, and you’ll get nothing but all the guest blog posts here on the Photoshop Insider. We’re going to expand that so all the posts are sorted into categories (so they’ll be one-click away, too) and these categories will appear listed on the right side of my blog (but it’s going to take a little time to go back and recategorize them, which sounds like a wonderful job for our summer intern, dontchathink?). Anyway, thanks again to Mattias for the suggestion, and thanks to Fred for getting it up and running so quickly.
  • Another blog thing: earlier this week a reader asked why his comment here said “Awaiting Moderation”, and I assured him I don’t moderate my comments (I just delete the really means ones after the fact), so I was stumped. But then, when I was working on this category thing, I found that my blog’s Spam filter had more than 264 posts it thought were spam, but it was waiting for me to tell it “yes it is” or “no it isn’t,” for each of those comments. Well, as it turns out, 231 of those were indeed spam posts (you’ll be glad it caught them—trust me), but 33 of them were actual comments from readers that it might be spam because the reader put a link in their post. Now, plenty of readers put links in their comments that get right through, but something in the software flagged these 33 real posts for some reason (unknown to me). Anyway, I approved all the real comments (and deleted all the spam), and now that I know where to look, I’ll keep an eye out so this doesn’t happen again. Sorry to everyone whose posts were delayed, but the good news is; they’re there now.
  • I had a number of people who watched my tutorial on how to create a calendar template for photos, ask how to create the bottom of the calendar (where the days of the month are listed). I did a search and found literally dozens of free downloadable calendar templates, and a site that creates these on-the-fly. Here’s the link to “My Free Calendar Maker” (but again, just do a Google Search and you’ll find loads more).
  • My reader Joe Gass sent this my way, and if you’re a photographer, just take 20-seconds and take a look at these photos—it will crack you up (well, it cracked me up anyway)!
  • Two more online classes went up this week on KelbyTraining.com; (1) Photoshop World Instructor Taz Tally’s “Professional Scanning Secrets” (here’s the link) and (2) Graphic’s Guru Lesa Snider King’s “Practical Photoshop Elements” (here’s that link). Check ‘em out if you get a chance.
  • Our buddy Scott Sherman, over at “The Digital Photography Show” podcast has launched his own photo blog. He’s already got some very good stuff there, so take a few secs and check it out right here!
  • Don’t forget, only 10 days left to take advantage of the Photoshop World Conference & Expo Early Bird “$100 off” special. Here’s the link. (make sure you watch the little movies while you’re at the site). Also, all the staff and instructors are staying at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino so, if you want to stay there with us (and join Matt and I for our traditional late night In/Out Burger run, followed by shooting craps), make sure you snag your hotel room now (use the Travel link on the Photoshop World site for special deals for attendees).
  • One last thing: Just my humble thanks to everyone who posted such wonderful comments on Monday. You guys are the best, and you really make it so much fun for me to do this blog. :)

Have a really great Thursday, and make it a point to do something nice for somebody you work with today. Hey, it couldn’t hurt.

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    1. #1

      New York (and others) are always adding more rules. It’s disturbing.

      Those are some great shots pf photographers taking shots. Fun stuff.

      All the stuff about legal issue is great. On the not of categories, maybe you could have a legal category. Or at least a link that directed to the legal related video and articles you’ve been posting.

      Keep it up… Gav

      SeimEffects.com
      ProPhotoShow.net

      Seim Effects on July 17th, 2008 at 2:16 am
    2. #2

      Hi Scott,

      An excellent post by this week’s guest blogger Dave Cross. Dave suggested checking out the work of photographer James Quantz Jr. It’s hard to believe how creative some people can be. Who would think elephants at a car wash would make such extraordinary photographs? His photography and Photoshop work is amazing.

      Also, I wanted to compliment you on the Kelby Training online classes. The quality is great, but I was a little worried that you would be slow in getting out new class. This isn’t the case. I have continued for another month. It’s really an exceptional value. I’m going to check out the new Lesa Snider King class on Photoshop Elements next.

      Thanks,

      Robert
      http://www.photographyandthemac.com

      Robert Lachman on July 17th, 2008 at 2:25 am
    3. #3

      Whohoo! Finaly my comment on your “Shooting with Permits”-post (from may) was approved :-) It did include two links so I figured it was blocked by a spamfilter somewhere.

      Roger Madsen on July 17th, 2008 at 3:42 am
    4. #4

      Scott, check out this article, where is the world coming to *sigh* http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1035315/Father-branded-pervert–photographing-children-public-park.html

      By the way, anyway other than manually noting or checking your blog (which one does anyway) to find out the latest KelbyTraining updates, you know I like to keep a post each week about those new ones.

      Erik Bernskiold on July 17th, 2008 at 3:52 am
    5. #5

      If you liked those cracking-up pictures in the link you added, you might like these also… Some of them are also shown in the page you suggested, but here are even more!
      You don’t even have to be able to read Russian to have a good laugh at those pics!

      http://legko.be/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6053&Itemid=1

      Yours sincerely,

      Mijke Jonkman, The Netherlands

      (And about silly rules: in Holland we are not alowed to take or publish pictures containing a famous bridge in Rotterdam… Strikes me as utterly strange… )

      Mijke Jonkman on July 17th, 2008 at 7:23 am
    6. #6

      Scott, as long as you already have a Guest Blogger category, could you get Fred to put a link on the Sidebar? That way if someone wants to find them, they don’t have to go looking for the past blog posts to find one from the Guest Bloggers to then get the category link. It will already be sitting there on the sidebar, ready to find.

      Just a thought,
      Jeff

      Jeff on July 17th, 2008 at 7:28 am
    7. #7

      HI Scott,
      The NYC info was great. I also found additional information here.
      Link - http://www.pdnpulse.com/2008/07/nyc-adopts-impr.html

      The pics of photographers were hilarious - some of us get quite carried away with gear, huh ?

      Arun on July 17th, 2008 at 8:00 am
    8. #8

      To Jeff:
      I think Fred’s working on that next, so keep an eye on that sidebar. :)

      Thanks,

      -Scott

      Scott on July 17th, 2008 at 8:56 am
    9. #9

      No Your The Best

      David Hopkins on July 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
    10. #10

      Hey Scott,

      I think the reason why some of the comments get put into “awaiting moderation” maybe that the comment has more than one link in it. A common characteristic of comment spam is a large number of hyperlinks.

      Your Spam filter might consider that some one is trying to inundate your blog with outside links and flags it for you to approve.

      If you are using wordpress, then you also may have Comment Moderation set to intercept comments with two many links.

      Peter

      Peter M on July 17th, 2008 at 8:57 am
    11. #11

      Thanks for the “Guest Blogger” category. I really look forward to Wednesday these days. Not only have you had terrific bloggers, I think that they have shared with us things that they would really like to communicate. When you only have one shot, your thinking tends to be somewhat more focused. Whatever the reality, the Guest Blogs have been outstanding! My hunch is that as time goes by, we will be introduced to photographers whose names aren’t quite so familiar; I look forward to that.

      John on July 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
    12. #12

      Hello Scott,

      About the permit think in NYC. I am a boomer, age 62 and 2 years active in Professional Photography, and most of my work sucks, though I am making progress.

      I really need the younger guys and ladies to inspire and help me, the way your business does. I sort of think my generation is akin to a phrase I call “The Sons of Gehazi” . The good news however, Gehazi was later shown mercy.

      We were rebels with many causes who started out with good intentions, resulting with dubious results. One of those results is draconian rules and regulations to control, hinder, and extricate freedom of expression. My perception is; as a reaction to my generations foolishness to promote anarchy under the guise of freedom. Please forgive my generation for our part in the erosion of personal freedom

      Ken

      Ken on July 17th, 2008 at 9:49 am
    13. #13

      Hi Scott,

      As Peter M said above, most spam filters can be set to the number of links in a comment to flag it as spam. Most are set to 2 or more links per comment. My guess it that you are using Askimet as the spam filter since it is the one that WordPress pretty much recommends. If you go into your admin panel, go to the Plugin’s page, and click the edit link next to the Askimet entry, you’ll see where to set the number of links to flag as a spam post. Be careful changing it through as the number of links is a solid way of checking for spam and Askimet does rely on this to some degree. A good way to test if this is the case is to have someone post a comment with 2 links, then another with 3, and so forth until you find the magic number (that is, if you’re not using Askimet and cannot find the threshold for the one you are using). Hope this helps!

      On the “tri-podding” note… I will be going to Atlanta in mid-August and want to shoot some of the buildings in down town. I really won’t know what time of day or location I will want to use until I get there so getting a permit before hand will be kind of tough. But then it would be an interesting experiment to see what kind of reactions I get from Atlanta officials… I’d just hate to stir up the pot and make it harder for other photographers to shoot in the future.

      Terry Reinert on July 17th, 2008 at 10:21 am
    14. #14

      Thanks for the shout-out, Scott.

      We have the same issue with our spam filter on The Digital Photography Show. Some legitimate posts do get flagged, but it would be hard to live without the filtering, which catches hundreds of spam comments a day.

      Some blog hosts, instead of using a spam filter like ours, employ CAPTCHAs, which require you to type the letters and numbers shown in a graphic that a computer couldn’t decipher. That cuts down on the number of false positives, but I always have a hard time figuring out what the heck I’m supposed to be typing. Those distorted and often overlapping letters look like gibberish to me. Maybe I’m a replicant.

      Scott Sherman on July 17th, 2008 at 10:26 am
    15. #15

      Thanks again Scott for the updates.

      The Practical Elements training went live last week actually not this week.

      I am curious if you have a time frame for the training you mentioned in one of your sessions about a Wacom training class from Corey and when that might be going live.

      Thanks and appeciate your ever sharing of knowledge you ‘give’ us.

      Steve Beck on July 17th, 2008 at 10:51 am
    16. #16

      Hi Scott,

      I checked out the link to Taz Tally’s scanning course, but from the description couldn’t tell whether or not this covered Film Scanning (Color Negatives, Chromes, Black & White film).

      Could you confirm whether or not this is covered? If not, I would really love to see Kelby Training put a course together on Film Scanning.

      Thank you,

      Alessandro

      Alessandro Rosa on July 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am
    17. #17

      So i guess this means tripods are once again legal in NYC???

      Jeff Tamagini on July 17th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
    18. #18

      Scott, thanks for this blog & all you do. Been a fan for a loooong time–the first book of yours I purchased was Photoshop 7 Down & Dirty Tricks & I even have your Macintosh..The Naked Truth book.
      Anyway, have you ever thought of holding a contest to allow one of your readers/fans to write Guest Blog Wednesday? I think that’d be a popular competition….

      Chris on July 17th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
    19. #19

      What I like about the NYC rules is that it finally seems to clarify that it is legal to take pictures using a tripod without permits or insurance. Now if they would only explain the rules to the police.

      deSelby on July 18th, 2008 at 5:37 am
    20. #20

      I’m not even sure if this is the right place to even mention it, but it might be cool for the next Thursday News Stuff. We all have used Photomatix for creating HDR images and apply tonemapping to them. This week a new company, called Imaging Luminary, LCC, released the final version of Essential HDR Standard Edition. In my humble believe this program shows much promise and produces more natural tonemapped HDR images than the current version of Photomatix. At least it is great to actually have a choice.

      You can find more info over at: http://www.imagingluminary.com/

      Dennis on July 22nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm

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