Nikon D4, D800, and D600 comparisons...

I recently read three posts comparing the Nikon D4, D800, and D600 that I want to share with you.

The first, "Nikon D4 vs D800 vs D600 full-frame low-light showdown" is from Pocket Lint and does a very nice job comparing noise between the three cameras.

The Second is from my photography man crush Ken Rockwell and his post is "The Nikon D600, D800 and D4 are the same camera inside!" in it he gives you his side by side comparison of all three (along with links to his in-depth reviews of each) and explains why the D600 is the smartest financial move.

Third, is a lively discussion covering "D800 High ISO" with Shun Cheung at Photo.net, lot's of visual evidence, lots of reader input.

Considering price, the Nikon D4 is $5996 (or $4899 refurbished) , the D800 is $2796, and the D600 is $1996 so (unless you are a sports photographer and need high frames per second rate) the choice is rather obvious.

Cooling down with Flickr...

It has been so darn hot, I mean like Africa hot. Even here in Maine where breaking 90 is not all that common in the summer we have been doing it on a pretty regular basis.

And as they say, it's not the heat, it's the humidity... it has been like walking in water.

I know it has been worse, much worse, in other areas around the country.

So here are a few images from our Flickr group to help cool you off.

Click on any one of them to view larger.

And just in case those didn't help cool you down enough, these may help even more:

If you are not already part of our Flickr group we would love for you to join us, you can get all the details on how to join right here.

Here are several hundred free Photoshop actions...

You can't be too rich, too smart, or have too many Photoshop actions, so here are some that just might fit your editing needs.

1. We had mentioned this one several weeks ago, but it's well worth mentioning again, the free Kubota DASHBOARD 4 Pro for Photoshop that comes with 50 (free) actions.

2. Here are 20+ Useful and Free Photoshop Actions For Photographers from MediaNovak.

3. 50 Free Photoshop actions for amazing photo effects from The D Photo.

4. I love the stuff over at MCP Actions, you can can get these 12 free actions from them.

5. Another great resource is photo tuts+ and you can get instructions on how to create your own actions, how to install actions, and 100 free actions.

6. Creative Blog has another 50 actions.

7. 35 Fresh and Free Photoshop Actions from Vandelay Design, they also have another 50 actions here.

8. 40 Free Photoshop Actions For Vintage Effect from 1st Web Design.

9. Noupe is offering 80+ Time Saving and Free Photoshop Action Sets To Enhance your Photos.

10. 70 Useful and Free Photoshop Actions Packs For Photographers from I can Be Creative.

11.  50 more actions for portrait photographers from Digital Camera World.

12. And lastly, 60+ Useful Photoshop Actions For Photo Enhancements

If my calculator does not fail me, that's that's well over 600 free Photoshop actions.

Enjoy.

Here are hundreds of free Lightroom presets...

This post goes well with our post on Lightroom educational resources from last week, so once you finished all the tutorials you can get to work using some of these free presets.

There's a lot, so lets get at it:

1. From f/stop spot - Free Lightroom Workflow Presets for Portrait Photographers

2. Free Lightroom Presets for Your Portrait Shots

3. Fine art photographer Andrew S. Gibson - Using Lightroom Presets for Portraits

4. Presets Heaven - TOP 5 most downloaded Lightroom Presets

5. Nicole S. Young (one of my favorite people) - Free Lightroom Presets

6.  Matt Kloskowski (another of my favorites) - Lightroom Presets – Wedding Fairytale Glow

7. Matt Kloskowski II - You'll find all of his free presets here

8. You have just one guess at what you'll find at FreePresets.com

9. Tonja Petrella has put together an extensive list of free and almost free presets on Pinterest

10. Free Lightroom Presets for weddings from Dror Eyal

11. Here's a list of presets, tutorials, and more from Digital Photo Buzz

12. Gavin Seim - The Ultimate Free Presets List (pretty darn extensive)

13. A big pack of free Lightroom presets from William

14. Lightroom Presets from onOne Software

15. photo tut+ - 100 Free Lightroom Presets (And How to Make Your Own)

16. 14 free presets from Wonderland Adobe Lightroom Presets

17.  Inside Lightroom - Black & White presets (be sure to click on all the categories under "Lightroom Presets" so see all of the free presets available)

18. Another Pinterest list of Free Lightroom Presets from Genevieve Winters

A bag full of Lightroom 5 resources...

The resources below will provide you with (about) fifty different resources that will help bring you up to speed with whats new and get the most out of Lightroom 5.

1. OnOne Software not only has a learning center, but has free presets as well.

2. The Lightroom Blog has an extensive list of Lightroom resources.

3. Adobe's Lightroom Journal has it's list of resources dedicated to educating Lightroom 5 users.

4. CreativePro has its own list of top 5 resources for the latest version of Lightroom.

5. Photoshop Cafe has a series of videos demonstrating many of the new features.

6. Be sure to add Matt Kloskowski's blog, Lightroom Killer Tips to your favorites.

7. Of course no list would be complete without the Lightroom 5 Learning Center from Scott Kelby.

These will keep you busy for quite some time.

It all started on this day in 2007...

July 2, 2007 was the day of the very first post here on Weekly Photo Tips.

Since then we have penned over 1,300 more blog posts, had a million (yup, a million) visits from folks living in 203 different countries!!!!

And it blows me away that there are over 100,000 links back to this blog... wowzer.

I have received too many kind emails and cards in the mail to count. I even received a beautiful lens on my birthday from Ray Sanford.

Things I never would have dared to dream way back on day one.

These things were made possible only because we have the most outstanding audience in the world.

There was a rather significant announcement originally planned for today (hence the countdown clock being at zero), but we will need to push that off for just a few more days.

For now, the only words that come to mind are THANK YOU.

Clearly inadequate for all you have done for me, but know that those two little words are truly heartfelt.

Review & Demonstration of Adobe Lightroom 5...

Stan Sholik over at Professional Photographer has written a really well done review of Adobe Lightroom 5 new features that you should seriously check out.

Of course I should warn you that if you do you are going to feel the great urge to upgrade yourself.

;)

Here's the link to Stan's review.

If you have a student or teacher in your house you can get the full version of Adobe Lightroom 5 for just $79 over at JourneyED.com.

Should your home have neither you can get the upgrade for $79.95, or the full version for $149.95 over at Adorama.

Laura Shoe has put together an informative  series of videos walking you through many of the different features you will now find Lightroom 5.

You can also check out Terry Whites video of his 5 favorite features in Lightroom 5.

Below is Laura's video review/over view of Lightroom 5, enjoy.


For those who received this post view email, you'll need to return to Weekly Photo Tips to watch the video as they are not pushed thought via email, sorry.

Our last Flickr Wednesday...

We will be "retiring" our "Flickr Wednesdays", at least for awhile. That does not mean we are retiring our Flickr group, oh contraire.

Our Flickr group will forever be a part of Weekly Photo Tips, and a big "THANK YOU" to all of you photographers who have been kind enough to share your work with the group.

Please enjoy this last Wednesday group, click on any any of them to view larger.

If you are going to upload images, be sure to put your name (and if you'd like, your website URL) on them, it will make it easier for folks to find you (and see more of your work).

If you are not already part of our Flickr group we would love for you to join us, you can get all the details on how to join right here.

Tiffen Dfx Essentials Filter Software...

For under $10 ($7.95 to be exact) you can get a full version of Tiffen Dfx Essentials Digital Filter Software for Win/Mac!

Here's some of the features:

* 37 individual filters and effects
* Hundreds of built-in presets
* Create multiple layers
* Color, clone, red-eye removal and paint tools
* Preview effects before applying
* Create and save custom setups
* Import most file formats (camera raw, Kodak Cineon, dpx, tif and jpg)

So if you have a spare $7.95 (it comes with free shipping) you'll have some robust editing at your fingertips.

Next assignment, Portland Maine...

This is a second in a series of self assignments to "shoot local", today it's Portland Maine.

Portland really is a pretty cool city, it has a small, warm, welcoming feeling while at the same time it has great diversity, restaurants, and entertainment.

I hope if you are ever visiting New England you make Portland Maine one of your stops.

Click on any image to view larger.

There are lots and lots of shops.

Cobble stone streets.

You'll find more mural covered walls than any other city.

Lobsters, yup, more lobster shops than you can shake a stick at.

And of course there are the boats, small ones and big ones.

I think it's about the only city I know that can successfully combine pirates and ice cream.

So, I'm not sure if they don't want you to dump anything, or just those pesky lobsters.  :)

I also hope that you have accepted my challenge to photograph the areas close to you and if you have, please share them on our our Flickr group.

If you are not already part of our Flickr group please join us, you can get all the details on how to join right here.

More free Photoshop actions...

I am a big fan of Kevin Kubota and the tools his company provides photographers, especially his Photoshop Action Dashboard.

Well, you can now get the Dashboard AND 50 Photoshop actions for free, Nada, zip, nothing!

Follow this link to learn more about, then download your Dashboard and free Photoshop actions.

Once you have your Dashboard installed head over and watch the videos on batch processing with the Kubota Dashboard.

The list of things to do "Before I die"...

I thought this subject dovetailed nicely with yesterdays post, it's a world wide project called "Before I Die", which invites everyone to stand before "the wall" and think... think about their lives, think about their hopes, think about their dreams... and then write at least one of them down for the entire world to see.

Before I Die was the brainchild of artist Candy Chang who created the first one on an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood after losing someone she loved.

As there is a "wall of hopes and dreams" here in Portland (Maine) I decided to head over yesterday and grab a few photographs.

It was really pretty cool to see and hear peoples reaction, so even after I was done "clicking away" I just sat on the bench and did some people watching.

And speaking of clicking, you can click on any one of these images to view larger.

Didn't we just talk about this yesterday, living without regrets?

Building a treehouse really would be pretty darn cool!

And so would hugging Taylor Swift!

You know what they say, if you write it down it becomes more real, less of a dream and more of an attainable goal. With that in mind I encourage you (please, please, please) to head over to the Before I Die website and see if there is an installation close to you, and if there is, sure grab a photograph or two but more importantly, write down one thing that you are going to do before you die.

If you live here in Southern Maine you can head over to Flatbread Company in Portland to write down your dream (and have some really good food too).

Regrets, sadly we all have them...

Yesterday I was reading a story over at Money Talk News, "Top 6 Regrets of the Dying", and for me it was an eye opener. Some of those regrets hit just a little too close to home.

Here is the list:

1. ”I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

2. “I wish I didn’t work so hard.”

3. “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”

4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

I am 57 and have been going through some unexpected and unpleasant life changes, all the more reason I do not, no... will not tolerate these regrets.

So I printed out the list and pinned it to the wall right next to the bathroom mirror, then I walked down stairs, grabbed the phone and started calling some friends that I haven't talked to in far too long and started making some "reconnection" lunch dates.

It is my hope that reading the list will spark something in you as well, that if you carry some of these regrets that you'll cast them off and move forward as a happier person, living a fuller life, a life that has fewer regrets.

Because we deserve it.

To read the entire story (and find out what number 6 on the regrets list is), you can head over to Money Talk News.

Free templates, free actions, free presets, & free money...

Okay, there is no free money, it was just a shameless ploy on my part to get you to continue reading.

;)

But seriously, here are resources that will provide you some very cool, very useful free tools that will help you do the things you do even better.

We have five resources for you today, each with multiple resources and tools, so it may take you a while to work your way through all of them, and as you do know that they all have the Weekly Photo Tips "wicked good" stamp of approval.


1. The CoffeeShop Blog. You'll find actions, presets, templates, textures and a whole lot more.

2. Pioneer Woman. Get yourself a copy of  "The Pioneer Woman Actions".

3. Heather Green. Heather is giving away a Google plus template, a Flickr cover template, a re-size and sharpen for Facebook Photoshop action, along with Nik Silver Efex preset.

4. MCP Actions. Not only will you find free actions and free presets, you'll also have access to some pretty cool tutorials.

5. Amy McMaster. Like the previous four resources you'll find some good stuff here as well, like Sharpen This!, Facebook & Blog resize and sharpen actions, and Basic Clean Edit (and more).

You will surely like what you find on these sites, so crank up the bandwidth, you've got some downloading to do!

I usually don't "forecast" upcoming blog posts, but... as most of you know if we post on weekends it's usually (way) off the topic of photography and I have two posts planned for this weekend that I think you'll enjoy, at the very least it will cause you to pause... and think (I hope).

See you tomorrow.