Gimping right along...

Here are three video tutorials that will give you a "hands on" look at the GIMP interface and some of the (basic) features.

The more I learn about GIMP the more impressed I am, this is one powerful program.

Have a great weekend!

More about GIMP (a Photoshop alternative)...

Back in May I wrote about some free Photoshop alternatives, today I want to give you more information about the most popular of those, GIMP.

I have never used GIMP, but many of you who have took the time to email me to tell me just how powerful it is and how much you love it.

So here are two reviews done by those in the know, they are in depth and will certainly help you in your decision making process.

Here is what KillerSites.com had to say:

"GIMP is incredibly customizable... In fact, this is where it may actually surpass Photoshop... Definitely try GIMP if you’re looking for something new (or something free) to edit your photos. The functionality and customization options are great for a free program although the multiple-window interface could take some getting used to."

You can read the full KillerSites.com review here.

And this is from the review done by the tech site Ars Technica:

"It's clear that GIMP has a long, solid future ahead of it, and is already really impressive. If you don't have the budget for Photoshop and don't want to settle for a dumbed-down app, then bring out GIMP. It won't let you down."

The full (and extensive) review done by Ars Technica can be found here.

If you are familiar with the Photoshop interface, you can make GIMP emulate the look of Photoshop with GIMPshop.

And just a couple more resources to throw at you before calling it a day, you can find GIMP documentation here, and tutorials here, here, and here.

Here are a few screen shots, click on any to view larger and in a new window.

Jo Alldredge Photography...

I want to start year three of this blog by immediately attacking the "to do" list from our birthday posting, this is number three from the list "feature the work of fellow photographers".

This other photographer is Jo Alldredge.

Jo is one of the many people I have had the pleasure of meeting while writing Weekly Photo Tips, and while I was perusing her website recently I came across these images and was blown away with how good they are.

I really like everything about them - the setup, the lighting, the processing - everything.

When I asked Jo about the lighting she said "I don't use a light meter, I use the guess and then check method. I had my husband turning the power up and down and moving the soft box depending on where Cindy was standing and how I wanted the lighting".

Guess and then check is my favorite technique as well.

She did use an Alien B800, an Alien Bee Foldable Large Octabox (47"), and a Vagabond II Portable Power System.

Jo did these images for musician Cindy Standage (you can see more of Jo's work throughout Cindy's website).

Jo processed these images in Lightroom.

Be sure to check out Jo's blog and her website.

(click on any image to view larger in a new window)

Camera: Canon 30d
Focal length: 50mm
ISO: 250
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f/2.8

Camera: Canon 30d
Focal length: 18mm ISO: 320
Exposure: 1/60 sec at f/5.6
(There was only one star in the sky. I cloned in a couple more.)

And the settings for the image at the beginning of the post are:

Camera: Canon 30d
Focal length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f/2.8

How to photograph fireworks...

Funny, but the older I get the more importance this holiday takes on.

Here's 6 minute (in depth) video showing how to setup your camera to capture the best possible images of a fireworks display.

Have a safe and happy 4th.

It's Weekly Photo Tips second birthday!...

"Happy birthday Weekly Photo Tips... happy birthday to you"

When I wrote the first entry two 2 years ago today I had no idea where it would lead and in my wildest dreams I never thought it would be this much fun... I have you good people to thank. So, thank You, seriously.

The comments you leave and the emails you send are the best part, so please, keep 'em coming.

Here are some of the numbers from our second year:

The past 12 months have seen 61,107 visitors with 81,921 Page Views.

1,203 people have subscribed to Weekly Photo Tips.

Our very first month we had 117 visitors (and I thought that was amazing!), this past month we had 6,992.

You've come from 137 different countries.

The top 5 Countries are:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Netherlands

And the bottom 5:

133. Niger
134. Swaziland
135. Uganda
136. Iraq
137. Ethiopia

How cool is it that people from Ethiopia and Swaziland have stopped by!

These are the 5 most viewed posts from the past year:

1. Review of Kevin Kubota's Lightroom 2 Training DVD
2. The Gritty Dave Hill Look
3. Get Your Free Lightroom Presets Here
4. A Bazillion Free Photoshop Actions
5. The Best Black & White Conversions You'll See

A few of the stats surprised me, like only 30% of the folks coming to the blog use Internet Explorer (thought IE dominated the browser world, but I thought wrong), and 2% of you actually get here via a dialup connection (I'll keep the images as small as possible!).

While year one averaged 2.6 posts per week, this year has seen an average of 4 posts weekly. I did not realize I had written (or bored you) quite so much.

Looking forward, these are the top 5 things I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year:

1. Redesign the blog for a more "professional" look (including a logo)
2. Establish a Weekly Photo Tips Flickr group and begin our photography assignments
3. Each month feature the work of fellow photographers (come back Monday for the first installment)
4. Begin a "Guest Blogger" segment
5. Publish more interviews from "prominent" photographers

If there are any whiz bang html/web type folks who would like to help tackle #1 please email me.I can promise you this, as much fun as this has been so far, the best is still out there waiting for us to catch up to it!

Here is the (simple) setup for the birthday cake, a Litepanels Micro on one side of the cake (more on the Litepanels Micro next week) and a home made white paper "kicker" on the other (printer paper taped to a cardboard foot), my camera was set on shutter priority @ 1/125th.

A great resource for photographers, Rangefinder...

One of my favorite photography magazines is Rangefinder.

When it arrives in the mail it never leaves my hand, I pull it from the mailbox and immediately head off to find a nice quiet spot and start reading.

If you don't subscribe (and you should) you can still take advantage of their wealth of information by visiting their website, it has many of the magazine articles available plus videos and podcasts.

If you are looking for marketing tips, then you need to check out their regular feature "Marketingmojo".

Rangefinder has been kind enough to make these short (2-3 page) informative marketing gems available online as pdf's for all to view (print out, refer to, and make notes on).

Here are four "Marketingmojo's" to get you started:

Pro Bono Work: Just Do It!

5 Ways to Build & Maintain Client Ties

Targeted, One-on-One Marketing: Smart Strategies for Tough Times

Faces, Spaces, Links, Tweets & Dots: How Social Networking Sites Help Promote Your Studio

So there's your primer, when you finish these be sure to head on over to Rangefinder and get on your Marketing Mojo.

Details of the Mike Palmer shoot...

I received a few comments (and even more emails) asking for more details regarding how I shot the images in yesterdays post, so here goes.

There were 4 flashes used, all set on manual, and all fired by Pocket Wizards.

#1 - This flash was setup at (about) the 8 o'clock position, was mounted on the table top stand that came with it so it sat directly on the street about 3-4 feet away, was "bare bulb" and was set at 1/32 power. It was tilted high to provided fill light on Mike & Julia's face. You can see the shadow on the wall behind them that was cast by this flash.

#2 - This flash was at (about) the 4 o'clock position, was hand held at about face level of the children was 2 feet away, was also "bare bulb" and set at 1/32 power. This flash was positioned to provide full head to toe light on the children. You can see their shadow on the curb is sharper than the one on the wall behind their parents because of the closeness of the flash.

#3 - This flash is on a paint pole using a Kacey Pole Adapter (you can get it @ Midwest Photo for $18.99), had a snoot on it (the only flash with a light modifier), set at 1/8 power, and was held about 2 feet overhead and slightly to the front of Mike. I wanted this flash to have an effect of looking like a street light. You can see the sharp shadow on the sidewalk under Mike and Julia that was cast by this light.

#4 - This flash was literally in Mike's back pocket pointing directly back at the wall and was set @ 1/64 power. I wanted this light to throw just a "whisper" of light on the wall that would "rim" Mike and Julia provided separation and depth.

There was no magic formula for the settings, I have been using my flashes in manual since watching the Strobist DVD's last December, after awhile you start getting a "feel" for what the power settings should be. Take a practice shot, then move (or adjust) the flash until you get the lighting effect you are looking for. That's why I have the shot of Mike alone, it was a shot to test the setup.

Regarding the Strobist DVD's, they are also available @ Midwest Photo for $139 and should be considered an educational must.

I marked up the images below to provide visual cues to go with the text above (click on either image to view larger and in a new windows).

All of the images were processed in Lightroom, with the exception of the one below, I used Topaz Adjust to give that gritty "Dave Hill" look.

Lastly, I want say "thanks" to Mike for letting me use his family portraits on the blog,

Photographer Mike Palmer was in town...

My friend (fellow photographer and blogger) Mike Palmer was in Maine on vacation with his family all of last week.

While he was here Mike asked if I would do a family portrait for him. I really hate taking pictures for friends, what if they hate it? And to make it worse, a friend who is a photographer, they'll surely find out I really suck!

Mike gave me just two bits of instruction, he wanted the portrait to be done in front of a brick wall, and he wanted it "edgy". I would consider myself a "traditional" kinda photographer, so "edgy" was taking me a bit out of my comfort zone.

So I took him to main street here in Biddeford and shot in front of one of the (many) old factory buildings.

I used 4 Nikon SB800's, two sitting on the street, one held on a boom with a snoot (similar to this) to make it look like they were standing under a streetlight (even though it was broad daylight), and the final flash was in Mike's back pocket pointing towards the brick wall (to give some depth to the image and separation from the wall).

So there was the Palmer family, my lighting setup (two of which were actually in the street), and my two to "VAL's" (voice activated light stands - AKA assistants) on one side of main street and me shooting from the other side, you can just imagine how traffic slowed down to "rubber neck".

It was fun, Mike was very happy with the results (or because he is a good friend he lied to me), and I was happy to have been taken out of my comfort zone to shoot something different.

The shot above was a "practice shot" to check the lighting (my wife thought it looked like and album cover).

Lightroom & Camera RAW updates released...

Adobe has release updates for both Lightroom and Camera RAW.

You can download the Lightroom 2.4 update for Windows here, and the MAC update is here.

The Adobe Camera RAW 5.4 download for Windows is available here, and the MAC can be found here.

Have a great weekend folks!

Weekly Photo Tips Update...

During the last two years we have done a bunch of product reviews, over 35 so far, and we have a bunch more in the pipeline.

To make the blog a bit more user friendly, and so folks did not have to search through 2 years of blog posts looking for a review, we have listed them all on the menu bar to the right.

As we do (and post) new reviews they will be added to the "Our Product Reviews" menu.

Subscribers will need to actually visit the blog to view the list as the reviews (and other menu options) do not get "pushed" through to subscribers.

Sorry about that, but actually stopping by the blog isn't like getting poked in the eye with a stick, or having to eat a bug.

What format do you shoot?...

Here are the results of the reader poll we have been running, "what format do you shoot?".

I was a little surprised at how few people shoot JPG.

It would interesting to hear from the folks who took the time to participate in the poll why they shoot the format they do.

Engagement Shoot...

Here are some images from an engagement shoot done on the lone sunny day last week.

This is Carolyn and Zack, a wonderful couple who are getting married next month.

They wanted their engagement portraits shot at the beach and whenever I shoot there I try to do so during the "golden hour", because the light is phenomenal, eliminating the need to drag supplemental lighting (and other equipment) to the beach.

Which is a good thing, because as much as I like shooting at the beach, I do not like the effect sand has on photography gear (I try to NEVER change lenses at the beach).

I was happy with the images, but more importantly Carolyn and Zack were happy with them.

My only problem was there was obviously a problem with my assistants camera, because there is just no way that I am that gray, or that wide!

;)

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)

From lemons to lemonade...

Or, how rainy weather turned into a lens review.

Here in Maine the last 2 weeks have seen some very wet weather, during one 24 hour period last week we had 4 inches of rain, and in total we've received over 8 inches.

And it's supposed to keep raining for at least 4 more days!

Once I finish this post I'm going to put the finishing touches on the materials list for my ark.

;)

But enough about the weather.

During a lull in the (rain) action I grabbed a new lens I bought a few months back but hadn't used all that much, it's a Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S Micro.

You can get this lens at places like Adorama for just over $500.

I bought it for a few reasons, it's highly rated quality glass, it's fast, and it's a macro lens (what Nikon calls "Micro"). Being a macro lens was a big factor as I did not have a macro in my bag.

So I put it on my camera and headed out I go to grab some shots of water droplets. While I was shooting I was surprised at how quiet it was (important when shooting events like weddings and you don't want to be intrusive), and just how close I could get to my subject, within a few inches.

Now I could bore you with technical blah, blah, blah about this lens, but the most important thing to most photographers is, "what do the images look like?"

The five samples below are straight out of the camera, no filter was on the lens while I shot, no post-processing of any kind was done, the only thing I did to these images was reduce their size for posting.

I am extremely happy with the quality of the images and looking forward to using this lens more in the future.

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)

I love Fathers Day...

Not because of the gifts, doo dads, and trinkets, but because it's one of a handful of days each year that I spend reflecting on just how fortunate I am (well, reflecting, eating, napping, and then eating again).

Though it doesn't suck that they got me an iPod Touch this year.

;)

If I had to share just one thing I have learned about being a dad it would be:

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."

Not only does it teach my daughters how to treat other people, it teaches them how a man should treat them.

I hope all you dads out there have a great fathers day.

More on the movie UP...

I'll warn you, you may want to go get the tissues before you read any further.

Okay, all set?

Three weeks ago I posted about the new Pixar movie Up, well yesterday the movie was in the news again and for all the right reasons.

Colby, a terminally ill 10 year old girl really wanted to see the movie but was just too sick to go to the theater, well Pixar got wind of this and showed up the very next day with a DVD of Up for her to watch.

Sadly, Colby died just a few hours after seeing the movie.

I don't share this with you because it's sad, I share it because it's such a pleasure to see a big company like Pixar doing the right thing. You go Pixar!

Too bad it's the exception, I long for the day when it's the norm.

You can read the story here.