By Jack Reznicki

Mid-number software upgrades rarely impress me. When Adobe’s Creative Suite had an inter-number upgrade, from 5.0 to 5.5, I was expecting just the usual bug fixes and minor adjustments. But buried in After Effects is a real “WOW!!” feature I would expect in a whole-point release. This new feature should really amaze and wow video shooters and the vast army of still shooters venturing into the video realm. The name for this feature, Warp Stabilization sounds like a feature you’d hear in an old Star Trek episode. “Captain, the Wrap Stabilization has seized up! She can't hold on much longer!”

Warp Stabilization is just Adobe’s name for a feature that takes shaky video footage and, well, stabilizes it to look like you used a Steadicam or shot the scene with your camera mounted on a dolly. It really doesn’t sound like much until you see it in action. Then your jaw drops. To me this feature alone is worth the total price of After Effects. The first video here is the raw footage, and the video embedded below it is the stabilized version.

What really blows my mind is not just what it does, which is amazing and magical, but the fact that it’s so automatic and simple. It’s drag and drop. There have been ways to stabilize shaky sequences before, but you had to know what you were doing, you had to find a fixed point, play with the parameters, input numbers. It took a lot of time, skill and praying. With CS 5.5, you drag and drop Warp Stabilization adjustment into the video sequence and After Effects does it all in a shockingly easy and fast way. No entering numbers, moving sliders, or looking up complex steps in the manual. It analyzes the footage on its own, and then processes the clip in the computer’s background, so you can continue working on something else, like more photo editing, web surfing, or solitaire. No waiting for spinning beach balls or slow status bars.

While it’s at it, fixing your shaky take behind the curtain, it also fixes another inherent problem prevalent with DSLR footage—the cursed rolling shutter artifacts. 

By Joan Sherwood

I prefer camera bags designed for a moderate amount gear that you can carry and maneuver around with without knocking lamps off the furniture every time you turn around. The Lowepro Pro Messenger 180 AW and the Chrome Niko fit that bill, and provide a lot of features that are important when you want to travel or explore a city while carrying lean, and when you have a shoot that doesn't require a suitcase full of gear. My big requirements are comfort, security and light weight.

At first glance, I thought the Chrome Niko was going to be one of those bags that only guys and chicly flat-chested women could wear comfortably, and that it would never even look right on me, but I was wrong. I found out that by lengthening the seat-belt style sling strap, it hangs rather nicely. Much better than other sling bag styles I’ve tried. It sits comfortably, low on my back, with the padded section of the strap hanging across my shoulder where it should, and the metal buckle components falling just below my clavicle. It weighs 2.3 pounds, compared to the Lowepro’s 3.4 pounds, and it feels like half of that is in the buckle. For security, the Niko has buckles that cross over the main zipper to foil theft while you’re wearing it in crowded spaces, and a waterproof main zipper to keep out rain, though it also makes it a little more difficult to unzip.

The Niko has the smaller capacity of the two. By my own measurement, the main compartment is 11x8x5. You could carry a DSLR with lens, an extra lens and a speedlight flash comfortably with no problem. The top compartment could hold an extra flash, water bottle, or modern necessities like a phone or backup drive. The top compartment is the only easy-access exterior pocket. There is a flat, water-protected pocket on the main interior for memory cards. The Velcro placement on the side straps makes them suitable for only the slimmest of tripods, better for holding a light rain jacket really.

The Niko construction is a bit stiff and the shell padding is formidable. It comes with the standard, Velcro-attach padded dividers that most camera bags have.

By Ellis Vener

“Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash”
By Joe Mc Nally
Part of the series, “Voices That Matter,” published by New Riders Press

Read an excerpt from “Sketching Light"

Every well-known successful photographer you can think of knows how to use light to tell stories. By “well known” and “successful,” I don’t mean someone with thousands of friends and followers on social networking sites, I mean photographers who make their living and reputation by working for real-world clients. You likely have your favorites; mine are Dan Winters, Gregory Heisler, Matthew Jordan Smith, Nick Knight and Joe McNally. Perhaps no one on my list is as broadly influential as Joe McNally, mostly because he has successfully taken on the challenge of using social networks and teaching what he knows through seminars, workshops and books.

Fortune has favored McNally with resilience and a great sense of self-deprecating humor. He seems to approach assignments big and small with equally intense levels of preparation, energy and flexibility. Fortunately for us, he brings these traits to his fourth how-to book, “Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash” (New Riders Press).

In this lighting cookbook, McNally provides abundant recipes and results, complete with copious notes, diagrams and “war stories.” These are not the kind of lighting formulas that mandate placing Light A with Modifier X at a 32-degree angle to the left, slightly above and 6 feet from the subject, and placing Light B with Modifier Y here or there with specific key-to-fill-to-accent ratios—you get the point. Instead, McNally gets you to thinking about how to generate and use light to help the story you want the photograph to tell, and to make that story engage with the viewer’s imagination. Even if you think you already know a lot about lighting, I bet you’ll pick up more than a few good ideas from “Sketching Light.”

And really, the book really isn’t so much about how to make nice with light, but how to live. In the first lines in the introduction, he writes:

The key word on the cover of this book is not “flash,” or even “light.” It’s the word “possibilities.” Because that is, at its core, what this book is about. It isn’t about pictures that already exist. It’s about what might be possible to create, in terms of pictures, if you experiment with light.

By Betsy Finn

The Wacom Inkling is a real pen that captures your pen strokes on any paper. When you’re done drawing or writing, just plug the receiver into your computer, access the image, and edit as desired in Photoshop or other image-editing application. 

The Wacom Inkling pen and receiver (clipped onto paper).

While it may have more appeal for graphic and illustration artists, I immediately thought of ways the Inkling could be used practically in a photographer's business, too. I could use it to take notes during client consultations, marking areas of a proof the client wants fixed or sketching notes for a wall collage, all of which could be stored digitally with the client's other information and image files. On the client side, I thought the Inkling would be a great tool for personalizing portraits. For instance, I could have my clients sign their name for their wallet-size portraits, or write a note to put into their wedding album. It all sounds good in theory. My next step was to put it into practice and see how well the Inkling would work for my ideas.

To begin, clip the receiver to your paper, and push the power button. Every time you clip/unclip the receiver, it starts a new drawing. There’s also a button on the receiver you can push to start a new layer while you are drawing. These layers are saved into the image and can be exported to Photoshop as layers. When you first turn on the receiver, it displays a red light that switches to green once the pen is active.

By Stan Sholik

Perfect Layers from onOne Software is destined to be as much of a workflow game-changer for photographers at all levels as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has turned out to be. Installed as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in for Lightroom or Apple Aperture, Perfect Layers provides much of the layer and masking functionality for which Photoshop or Photoshop Elements was needed in the past.

I count myself among the many photographers who resisted using Lightroom when it was first released, and now I find myself using Lightroom for most of my editing and raw conversion. I have come to regret the times I must leave Lightroom and open Photoshop in order to blend in a better sky in a landscape photo or swap a head in a group shot. With Perfect Layers, these changes and many more are possible within Lightroom and Aperture, and within Perfect Layers itself when you open it as a stand-alone application.

While Perfect Layers performs many layer and masking functions, it is not a total replacement for Photoshop. Perfect Layers can’t create text layers, vector masks, layer styles (darn, no drop shadow), adjustment layers, paths, alpha channels, Smart Objects, layer groups or clipping paths. And if you created a file in Photoshop with any of these attributes and tried to open it in Perfect Layers, Perfect Layers opens a flattened copy of the file. Otherwise, Perfect Layers opens layered PSD files. It also saves the layers you create while using Perfect Layers in the native Photoshop PSD file format that you can open in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or again in Perfect Layers.

For photographers who don’t own or have sworn off of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you can use all of the capabilities of Perfect Layers as a stand-alone app or through Lightroom or Aperture, and save the finished image as a flattened TIFF or JPEG file rather than a PSD. You will lose all of the layer information of course.

Creating toned images with a texture overlay from a color capture only takes a couple of minutes in Perfect Layers. I selected a color image and created a virtual copy in Lightroom. I converted the virtual copy to a contrasty monochrome image in Lightroom and exported it to Perfect Layers. Then I added a color fill layer for toning and imported a texture. After adjusting both to my liking I saved the image back to Lightroom. In Lightroom I added a vignette and exported the image. ©Stan Sholik

By Ellis Vener

Do you need gaffer’s tape at all? Yes you do. Unlike duct tape, gaffer’s tape leaves almost no sticky residue, is waterproof, and is easy to cut and deliberately tear. At the same time it is strong and reasonably heat resistant. You might even need different colors of it.

We use gaffer tape for a wide variety of jobs, not only for taping down cables and identifying bits of gear, but also for holding props in place, marking where people need to stand, locking down focus rings (useful for aerial, macro and stitched panoramic photography) and de-linting subjects’ dark clothes. It’s also useful for making minor repairs. But, until recently, the problem with gaffer tape has been that it mostly came in long three-inch wide heavy rolls and only in black, gray, and white. We use gaffer’s tape a lot, but a single full-size roll of the stuff will last me a couple of years at least as mostly we only need small short lengths, unless we're taping down power cords. Rather than buy and carry around full-size rolls of different colors Visual Departure’s microGAFFER packages solve both the space, weight and price problem. It’s also an advantage that it comes in a range of colors.

For starters, the microGAFFER rolls are small—only 1 inch wide and 8 yards long—and come on small cores. A roll is small enough to fit a couple of them in your jeans pocket or in a small camera bag compartment. A package of four rolls is roughly the size of a 50mm Canon or Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens and hood.

Beyond securing cables, gaffer’s tape in different colors works great to create quickly identifiable markers for different tools. You use it to know this power cord goes to this light or this remote goes with this camera, this lens hood goes with this lens, etcetera. Even if you don’t have a lot of gear, this makes for a more efficient way of working and packing up before and after a shoot.

MicroGAFFER tape kits come in four-roll packs and in two options. The monochrome packs contain two black, one gray and one white roll. The microGAFFER Fluorescent tape kits each contain one roll of really bright orange, green, pink and yellow tape. The street price for either kit is $19.95.

Background: So what the heck is a gaffer and why do they have a need for a special type of tape? On a movie or television set, gaffer is the official title for the chief electrician. This means that the gaffer (and the gaffer’s assistant, known as the best boy) and the rest of the electrical department are responsible for all of the lighting instruments, a job that includes making sure all of the electrical cables stay safely and securely connected. Grips, on the other hand, are the people responsible for setting up and rigging the lights and modifiers. The worlds of cinematography and still photography have always borrowed from each other—some tools, like collapsible softboxes, have migrated from the world of still photography to film photography, while other tools—like gaffer’s tape and C-Stands—have migrated the other way. 

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

While working in the studio, I've become very fond of my studio camera stand. Using a camera stand lets me focus on interacting with my clients, and allows me to set where the camera will be for a series of frames. If need be, I can leave the camera to adjust my client's pose without losing the in-camera composition that I had set up. The one shortcoming to working this way is what to do when you decide to shoot tethered to your computer. While many studio camera stands come with two mounting arms, it's not often you find one pre-equipped with a laptop table. So, after a little research, I found two companies that sell portable laptop stands, or tables. Both of the products I'll be discussing are designed to be installed on your tripod, camera stand, or even a light stand (depending on thread size).

The first table I tested was manufactured by Tether Tools (tethertools.com). Based on my laptop's dimensions, I opted for the Tether Table Aero Traveler (it comes in black or silver). I also received some other optional accessories, including a Secure Strap for securing the laptop to the table, an XDC Solo (external hard drive shelf), cupholder, an Aero ProPad (cushiony pad for on top of the table), and some Jerk Stoppers (tools for keeping your tethered cord securely attached to your camera and computer ports). In the image below, you'll see all these items, including an upside down view of the Aero Tether Table.

The Tether Table comes with three different mounting methods (see below). The knob at upper left is for securing the table to a lightstand (biggest hole). The other two threaded holes are for the standard tripod threads.

I found that the various accessories sold with the Tether Table were helpful in making sure my laptop wouldn't just work its way off the stand. In the image below, you can see the laptop sitting on the non-slip Areo ProPad; it is also secured by the Secure Strap (an elastic strap with hooks at the ends that hold the laptop in place). Additionally, both the front and back edges of the Tether Table have a raised lip, so if you do use this out in the field, you can use it at an angle without having to worry about losing your laptop.

By Stan Sholik

When you need to do a presentation, bigger is better for the screen that you'll use to show your work, but smaller is better for the equipment you need to bring with you. On a location assignment, showing your portfolio to an ad agency, or selling your services to a couple looking for a wedding photographer—the less you need to carry, the happier you’ll be.

An active HDMI cable lets you show a wedding portfolio
on your iPad 2 to an engaged couple in their own home
without toting a bulky cable. ©Stan Sholik

RedMere cables are roughly 1/4 of the diameter of standard HDMI cables and will coil into a diameter of less than one inch. Yet the cables are guaranteed to deliver full 1080p HD picture quality while you control the show from as far away as 10 feet. Most 10-foot HDMI cables are heavy and bulky and won’t coil comfortably in your pocket, camera bag or iPad case. That is the problem that RedMere has solved with their RedMere HDMI cables.

©Stan Sholik

The availability of an HDMI output on most digital SLRs gives traveling photographers the option to leave the laptop at home and take along a compatible HDMI cable to preview photos and videos in any hotel room with an HDTV that has an HDMI input. For photographers showing their portfolio to prospective clients, the iPad 2 is becoming the device of choice. With a Digital AV Adapter and an HDMI cable, you can connect an iPad to an HDTV and make the presentation even more impressive. 

RedMere’s technology is based on a tiny, self-powered chip built into the HDMI cable connector. The RedMere chip boosts the signal so that the cable can be even thinner than an iPad USB cable and still handle the 10.2 GB/s data rate. Cables with RedMere technology, also known as “active” cables, are the world’s thinnest, lightest, and most flexible cables for products that connect using HDMI technology, according to the company.

By Robyn L. Pollman

Bad Sass Backdrops are printed on quality 100% canvas by Pixel2Canvas. Bad Sass Backdrops offer “split” and “tri-split” backdrop options, which allows the customer to decide how they want to split an 8-foot or 10-foot canvas backdrop. Photographers can select a background design for one half of the canvas, and a faux-flooring option for the other half using the “split” option. Or with the “tri-split” option, use a background design on both ends of the canvas, and a faux-flooring option in the center. By turning the 10-foot canvas around, photographers have two background options in one. 

 ©Robyn L. Pollman

Professional Photographer readers can take advantage of the following promotion: 30% off any backdrop order using code PPA30 (code not valid on Sassafrass Magnetic Moulding). The coupon code is valid until October 31, 2011.

See more from Robyn L. Pollman at paperieboutique.com and buttonsandbowsphotography.com.

By Stan Sholik

For five years, Carl Zeiss has produced single focal length, manual focus lenses for camera bodies that accept Nikon, Canon, Sony, K-mount, and M-42 screw-mount lenses. These lenses are highly regarded by landscape, closeup and portrait still photographers, for both film and digital cameras. Videographers have also become a major market.

The latest in the series is the Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4, presently available with Nikon and Canon mounts. I tested the Nikon ZF.2 model.

The Zeiss lens (left) is larger and heavier than my older 35mm f/1.4 Nikkor (right). Image quality of the Zeiss is also greater. The Zeiss ZF.2 series of lenses for Nikon don’t include the metering prong of classic Nikkors and of the Zeiss ZF lenses, but do include Nikon’s auto-indexing (AI) ring and tiny secondary aperture scale. Zeiss ZF.2 lenses include an internal CPU and external contacts that transmit EXIF information to the camera body as well as allow the use of all metering functions. ©Stan Sholik

Zeiss incorporates an improved T* anti-reflection coating and a nine-blade aperture for a nearly circular diaphragm. If you’ve ever wondered about the pleasing bokeh effect, you’ll instantly know it when you view images shot at f/1.4 with this lens.

I needed a high shutter speed to capture this model making jewelry lit only by window light. Shot at f/1.4, vignetting is visible at the edges of the frame, but more important to me is the beautiful soft look of the out-of-focus model in the background. ©Stan Sholik

This assignment photo for a dog-friendly vintage clothing store was a perfect opportunity to use the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4. I needed to use available light in a dark area of the store to stop the action of the dogs and show the models enjoying the shopping experience. Shooting wide open also allowed me to focus attention on the model. ©Stan Sholik

The silky smooth focusing ring on the 35mm f/1.4 rotates through about 150 degrees from minimum focusing distance to infinity, for extremely accurate focusing. At an aperture of f/1.4, the image is four times brighter than one shot with an f/2.8 lens, making focusing easy, even with the viewfinder screens in modern digital SLR cameras. The focusing ring stops when you turn it to infinity or the minimum focusing distance, so you always know where those points are. These attributes are what endear Zeiss lenses to videographers.

The aperture ring includes half-stop detents that click firmly into place between the marked aperture settings. The extensive use of metal in the lens construction gives it the look, feel and weight of classic Nikkors. The 35mm f/1.4 is a monster compared to my 35mm f/1.4 Nikkor. The Zeiss weighs more than twice as much, is twice the length, and requires 72mm filters rather than the Nikkor’s 52mm filters. Having tested other Zeiss lenses, I wasn’t surprised to find the 35mm f/1.4 superior to my old Nikkor 35mm f/1.4, but it’s surprising how far more superior it is.

Even at maximum aperture, the Zeiss shows superb sharpness in the center of the lens. Sharpness falls off somewhat to the edges of the frame if you ever place the subject near the edge of the frame when shooting wide open. By f/2, sharpness is excellent everywhere. There’s a hint of barrel distortion at f/1.4 on a full-frame camera, but that too disappears by f/2. Distortion is non-existent on a DX-format camera.

Sharpness is superb at the center of the image at all apertures and also at the edges by f/2. In this image shot at f/8, the tiny hairs on the stem of the weed are perfectly sharp against the sky. ©Stan Sholik

In image after image with this lens I am impressed with its sharpness and its ability to render color so accurately. Despite it being moderately wide angle, there is no hint of distortion. ©Stan Sholik

By Stan Sholik

When most photographers think of a sound blimp it’s usually in connection with shooting on a movie or television set when sound is being recorded. A sound blimp with a lens tube connected effectively silences the sound of a SLR anywhere beyond a couple of feet from it.

Using a sound blimp isn’t limited to shooting film or television stills. I have used a sound blimp for more than 20 years and have never been on a movie or TV set. I use a sound blimp to photograph symphonic, choral and dance productions, as well as theatrical plays. Other photographers use a sound blimp for surveillance, courtroom, wildlife and even sports, such as golf, photography. Sound blimps also provide environmental protection in harsh sand and dust environments.

After 20 years, the foam in my blimp has had it, and I was ready to send it to the manufacturer for refitting when I discovered a new source for sound blimps, AquaTech, located in Orange County, Calif. AquaTech is best known for their waterproof sport and surf housings and their line of environmental shields for cameras and lenses. I contacted AquaTech and received a sound blimp for a Nikon D3X/D3S/D3 to test. Other models are available for Nikon D700, D300s/D300 and Canon 5D Mark II cameras.

The external controls straddle the viewfinder eyepiece. The ribbed soft rubber pads on the hand grips and the shape of the body make holding the AquaTech blimp with both hands solid and comfortable. There are D-rings on the hand grips for attaching an accessory shoulder strap.

The AquaTech sound blimp is a far cry from the Jacobson blimp that I own. Rather than a squarish box, the AquaTech looks more like an underwater housing. And although it is less than 1/2-pound lighter, the ribbed rubber hand straps and the contoured grip built into the body make it far easier to carry and hold. The entire back surface of the AquaTech blimp is hard clear plastic, covered on the inside with sound-deadening foam. A window cut into the foam allows you to see the LCD screen and through the viewfinder.

But the biggest advantage to the AquaTech is borrowed from their sport and surf housings. There are three controls on the back of the blimp (see above) that mate with controls on the rear of the camera. Pressing one allows you to review the last image. Pressing another allows you to activate the autoexposure/autofocus (AE-L/AF-L) lock button on the camera to perform whatever function you have programmed for it in the Custom settings.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

A fun and educational package recently arrived in my mailbox for review—a pair of instructional DVDs by Don Chick, M.Photog.,Cr., CPP, from his The Confident Photographer instructional series:

• Studio Lighting (with a 4x6 soft box)
• Studio Portraiture (Basic – Intermediate)

Being familiar with Chick’s lighting and teaching styles, I was looking forward to watching these DVDs, and I think you will be, too. While there is some crossover content, I didn’t find it to be too overdone, and considered it more like a review, or introduction, before the meat of the lesson. I think it will be rare that someone will plan to watch both back to back, as I did.  It’s more likely that you’ll refer to one or the other at a given point, and in that situation, the brief review will be helpful.

The Studio Lighting DVD covered white balancing methods, lens selection (distortion), and two basic light setups. In contrast, the Studio Portraiture DVD focused on the different light setups that Chick relies on— three-light and six-light setups, and the use of accent lighting. In the second DVD, Chick also discusses how he creates his signature character study portraits (lighting, clothing, accessories, etc).

On both DVDs, Chick talks you through the lighting setup, explains why he does things a specific way, and then lets you watch him interact with his subject as he creates a series of images. Final images are also shown throughout the DVD, where appropriate. While not a new concept to me, I appreciated that Chick took the time to show the effects of his lights by using each unit’s modeling lamp. This is a particularly useful teaching tool for those who are new to studio lighting.

Some of the techniques that Chick teaches are basic building blocks of studio photography, such as broad vs. short light, but he also includes more advanced techniques. I enjoyed seeing how he uses a handheld reflector to add a little something extra to the lighting setup, and appreciated his discussion of gobos and when they can be effectively used for a studio portrait (your clients with thinning hair or bald spots will thank you).

By Kim Larson

In 2009 we wrote about using Kubota RPG Speedkeys as a tool to speed up the Lightroom workflow process. Kubota RPG Speedkeys is a small wireless keyboard that is pre-programmed to run time-saving adjustments and shortcuts in Lightroom such as increasing or decreasing exposure and picking/rejecting photos. The original review of Kubota RBG Speedkeys is still accurate—it's still important that you remove the USB receiver when restarting your computer, it still comes with Kubota's handy lightroom presets, and it’s still a great workflow tool. But with Kubota RGB Speedkeys 2 for Adobe Lightroom, there are noteworthy updates to the original version that have now taken this workflow tool from good to great, and it’s available to all present and new users of the Speedkeys keyboard.

The original version of RPG Speedkeys provided you with Kubota's Lightroom Presets, but you were limited to only being able to run the Kubota presets from the keyboard. This is no longer the case. Now you can run any preset installed in Lightroom from the Speedkeys keyboard. You’re no longer confined to the original shortcuts provided by Kubota Image Tools either; they now provide a multitude of shortcuts to choose from. And instead of having the key positions set for you, you can customize the shortcuts and presets to any key you choose.

The upgrade starts with a new version of the Kubota RPG Speedkeys software. The software is intuitive enough that you probably will not need to read any instructions. The interface shows a graphical keyboard, and you simply drag and drop keys onto it. Selecting a key will allow you to pick a preset that the key should apply. Once you have your keyboard setup in the software, you can match your physical keyboard to it by matching the keys.

Setting up the physical keyboard is simple, but If you’re the type of person who doesn’t usually read instructions, this is where you’ll need to pay attention. The new keys that come with the upgraded keyboard look like they are complete panels that should be put into the keyboard. But don’t go taking apart the keyboard yet. They are not meant to be used as complete panels, but as as individual keys. There is a small pick included to pop the keys off both the original keyboard and the replacement key panels. (Don't worry, it’s completely safe, and once you pop a few keys off, you’ll find it’s pretty fun!) Replace the keys on the Speedkeys keyboard one-by-one to match your software setup, and you are ready to go!

If you own the original version of Kubota RPG Speedkeys, this upgrade is available to you by contacting Kubota Image Tools at kubotaimagetools.com. If you're looking for a complete tool to speed up your Lightroom workflow, the Kubota RPG Speedkeys for Lightroom retails for $349 and can be purchased at kubotaimagetools.com.

By Marianne Drenthe

DxO Labs recently came out with updates to its award-winning optical correction and raw conversion software, DxO Optics Pro v6.6. DxO Optics Pro functions like a digital photo lab, improving the quality of straight out of camera (SOOC) raw or SOOC jpeg images. It's image enhancement addresses optical corrections, noise removal, exposure optimization, keystoning correctionn, color control and dust removal.

In this review I opted to use the standalone version of DxO Optics Pro v6.6. The program is easy to use within recent editions of Photoshop and Lightroom or as a standalone appplication.

When I first opened DxO Optics Pro, a pop up window appeared with tips on how to utilize the program. I found it helpful, and you can turn it off once you’ve learned the ins and outs of the program. The wizard took me step by step through the image correction process. You can select one or many images to work on at one time, and when you make corrections, you can have them apply all at once to a batch of images—a real time saver.

When you first open original images from your camera, the software will detect its EXIF metadata. If it detects that an Optics Module exists for your camera and lens combination, the software will automatically download camera profiles from the DxO website for your camera. There is no guesswork, no worrying about where to install these profiles—the software does it automatically. I like that my computer isn’t storing useless profiles camera and lens combos that I will never use. The ease of use is much appreciated in that regard.

For automated processing and speeding workflow, professionals and advanced amateurs are likely find DxO Optics Pro preferable to usual go-to options simply because of the personalized Optics Modules and presets. What might take hours converting and adjusting takes mere minutes in DxO Optics Pro v6.6, which is an impressive feat. The processing automation enabled by the camera/lens-specific modules is amazing, though, as you’ll see after the jump, it’s not a miracle worker in every case.

By Stan Sholik

From fashion to high-performance sports cars, Italian companies create some of the most beautifully designed and skillfully manufactured products in the world. CPtech of Bologna brings Italian design and manufacturing to photography with the introduction of the b-grip EVO camera belt grip system.

The b-grip EVO system rides comfortably and securely at belt
level without hindering your movements. Image ©Stan Sholik

The b-grip system consists of a belt worn at the waist. The belt threads through the b-grip base plate, and a quick-release plate connects the base plate to the camera tripod socket. The b-grip securely supports still or video equipment up to 17.6 pounds. This frees you from neckstraps with cameras banging against your body and from aching shoulders at the end of the day. It also frees you from reaching into your camera bag, backpack or beltpack to retrieve your camera, lens, flash, or your video equipment.

The b-grip EVO system consists of the b-grip camera plate, base plate and belt. ©Stan Sholik

The b-grip base plate removed from the belt with the camera plate attached and locked. ©Stan Sholik

The b-grip base plate removed from the belt with the camera plate removed. ©Stan Sholik

The two b-grip plates are high-tech injection-molded plastic resin that is impregnated with fiberglass fibers and glass microspheres. The woven belt is heavy duty enough for the SWAT team, yet the complete system is light and comfortable to wear. And not only is the system functional, its style is unobtrusive, and it incorporates several well-designed features that add to its usefulness.

One security feature is a rubber stopper in the quick-release plate. You must remove it to attach the plate to the camera’s tripod socket. Once you've reinstalled it, it locks the screw to prevent the screw from loosening. And if your tripod head accepts the square German DIN plate (Velbon, Bilora, Cullman and other heads), you never need to remove the b-grip camera plate. My Arca-Swiss head holds the b-grip camera plate securely, but there is a little play in it.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

When I first spotted Artsy Couture Gallery Blocks on a tradeshow floor, I was intrigued and asked the salesperson how the product was created. They have a depth like canvas wraps, but with sharp, neat edges. It’s a three-dimensional presentation of multiple blocks layered on one piece, too. The salesperson showed me that the pieces have a wood substructure and explained that the prints are metallic with a laminate-type coating over the top.

For the purposes of this review, I tested out three different products:

• 6x6 Gallery Block Set (3 single blocks with no backboard)
• The Top of the Line (7x10 floating gallery block on a 15x20 backboard)
• The Show Off (four 9.5x7.5 floating gallery blocks on a 21x21 backboard)

The Gallery Block set was very straightforward to order and lay out using ROES. The hardest part was selecting which designer template I wanted to use. Rather than having my images wrap around the edge, by selecting a designer template my 6”x6” gallery blocks ended up having a nice decorative fleur-de-lis pattern on the edges of each block. This turned out quite nicely!

Next, I designed The Show Off. While using ROES was no problem, I did spend more time figuring out the best layout option. Again, by selecting a designer template, I was able to have a pattern element on the edges to tie all the floating blocks together. The backboard also displayed the same pattern element. In the screenshot below, you’ll see how the layout is shown in upper left, and the four floating images (and wraps) as well as the backboard can be edited individually.

For my final sample piece, I designed The Top of the Line. This one was a little more complicated, because while I was happy with the layout, I wanted a horizontal orientation rather than vertical. By reading the directions, I discovered this was no problem—you just have to let Artsy Couture know in the ROES notes which way is “up” so the piece will hang properly.

By Marianne Drenthe

With 10 years in the digital image calibration business, DxO Labs has a strong reputation for quality image processing. This reputation is furthered with the updated release of their FilmPack 3. New in this version of FilmPack is a redesigned user interface and the ability to use the program as a standalone option or as a plug in within Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and Apple's Aperture software programs.

What is the DxO FilmPack?

Sometimes we yearn for the nostalgic charm of fine black and white film photography and the incredible grain and vivid colors of analog color photography, but with the practical ease of digital imaging. There are tens if not hundreds of Photoshop actions that attempt to emulate that magical film feel. While we can come close to replicating film colors, contrast and luminosity within layers of levels, curves and contrast adjustments in Photoshop, we often fall short of achieving true film emulation. With improved noise reduction in the newest digital sensors comes a loss of realism and depth. Less noise equals smoother and buttery imagery, but that same combination of qualities produces images with decreased depth. When chemicals react with film and light you end up with photos that are filled with depth and grain, something modern digital photo sensors can't quite emulate.

With FilmPack 3, the authenticity of film grain is once again within reach. The FilmPack offers the beauty of various film grains to apply to images both black and white as well as being integrated within individual film presets. For instance you may long for the smooth neutral tonality, highlight and shadow detail and film grain of Kodak 400CN or maybe your desire is the vividness and contrast of film in a more realistic interpretation of the scene than you can achieve within the confines of the curves tool in Photoshop. The FilmPack serves both these purposes. With the click of the preview button after import, your images are displayed in the array of dozens of film choices: color negative, color positive, black and white and cross processed film options are at your disposal. There is no need to open multiple windows or run additional actions, the FilmPack allows you to preview and spot edit your images to taste with no more effort than clicking on a few options.

Figure 1: DxO FilmPack 3's emulation of the smooth neutral tonality, highlight and shadow detail and film grain of Kodak 400CN.

Figure 2: You can achieve the vividness and contrast of film in a more realistic interpretation of the scene than you can within the confines of the curves tool in Photoshop.

Figure 3: With the click of the preview button after import, your images are displayed in an array of dozens of film choices: color negative, color positive, black and white and cross processed film options are at your disposal.

By Joan T. Sherwood, Senior Editor

The POV.HD from V.I.O captures HD video from a camera head about the size of a half-roll of quarters, which is tethered to a TV-remote-sized controller by a 1.5-meter cable. The controller itself has a small wireless remote control, and the head has several mounting options, including helmet and goggle mounts, a magnetic system and strap options. The camera head and controller are also durable (IP67 certified) and water proof (to 1 meter), so it can take the punishment of most sports to get an exciting POV video. 

There is some very exciting potential for a POV video camera like this in conjunction with kids sports or senior portrait fusion (still and video) slideshows. Video clips captured with the POV.HD are saved in mp4 format to an SD card in the controller (4GB card included). The unit is not SDXC compatible. You can choose either 1920x1080 or 1280x720-pixel resolution and various progressive scan rates (1080p30, 1080p25, 1080p24, 720p60, 720p30). 

It does include a small built-in microphone attached to the cable, but its capability is limited. If you can secure it to your subject in a way that keeps it stationary and not brushing against anything, you could feasibly get functional ambient audio to overlay on a soundtrack.

The best features of the POV.HD are the versatile camera head that does a decent job even in some difficult lighting situations, the video resolution, the durable construction, the LCD screen on the controller that lets you monitor what the camera head sees, and the tiny wireless remote control that works up to 15 feet away from the main controller. The drawbacks are the need for a tether; the 328 gram (11.56 ounces, with 4 AA batteries) weight of the controller, plus 186 additional grams (6.56 ounces) of camera head and cable; and the barrel distortion of the wide f/2 lens, particularly in full HD. It can also chew through some AA batteries, so have spares on hand. 

With a controller that has to stay tethered to the camera head, you'll have to find a spot to secure it to the person or thing that the camera is mounted to. Does anyone still have a fanny pack? Cargo shorts pockets would work as well. Luckily, you can lock the buttons, so you can stow it inside anything without the recording settings getting inadvertantly changed. Still, some sort of sports holster would come in handy. The system does come with a nice carrying case, but it's larger than what you would want to attach to a skateboarder.

The camera body has a 6-element glass lens and, according to V.I.O., offers the widest field of view on the market at 142° in 1080p30 format. The camera body is 1.5 inches in diameter on the lens face, and approximately .875 inches wide on the smaller end. The CMOS sensor is native 1080p, and the controller offers quite a bit of flexibility over exposure and processing, including exposure compensation and metering, as well as sharpening, noise control, in-field editing and other features.

By Robyn L. Pollman

Loktah, a natural media products company, has introduced their new LifeStyle line of bags. These bags feature warm earth tones textured by handmade hemp fabric. They are refined by champagne toned edges and waterproof lining. They can be used with or without the padded shoulder strap.

The CaseBag is designed for the iPad with up to a 23-inch strap drop and features a speaker opening with power opening and volume opening, a back magnetic pocket, and two magnetic closures. Public pricing: $75.00.

The LaptopBag is designed for laptops up to 17 inches with a 20.5-inch strap drop, two zippered pockets inside the front closure, a 13-inch back pocket on the outside, and is secured by magnetic closures. Public pricing: $132.00.

Both bags are creatively timeless in design.

Loktah, founded in 2008, creates natural packaging for the photographic and videography industries. They offer world-wide shipping via UPS and USPS. Volume discounts are available on large orders. Loktah Pro is exclusively for Professionals, with accounts processed within 24 to 48 hours.

See more from Robyn L. Pollman at paperieboutique.com and buttonsandbowsphotography.com.

By David Saffir

I recently received two products for testing—the Lexar 8GB 600X UDMA CF Card, and the new Lexar Professional Dual-Slot USB 3.0 Card Reader. Together, they deliver the fastest download times to a host computer I’ve seen to date.

This card reader accepts CF UDMA cards, SDXC, and SD UHS-I (SD 3.0) card formats. The reader is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices, and standard CF, SD, and SDHC cards.

The card reader can perform downloads of single cards, concurrent downloads of a CF and SD card, and transfer data from one card to another.

It is robust and well made, and should hold up well in studio or field use. The card reader follows along in the design of its USB 2.0 predecessor, a clamshell setup that snaps shut when not in use. We all know that a piece of dirt or debris in the wrong place can damage or ruin a card reader or card.

Of course, a USB 3.0 cable is provided; the card reader end of the cable is unique to 3.0, and the host connection end will fit either a 3.0 or 2.0 port. The host connection part of the cable is marked in blue to differentiate it from USB 2.0.

This USB 3.0 card reader can reportedly reach speeds of up to 500MB per second. This is blazing fast—obviously much faster than USB 2.0. But what happens when you try to download your images to your computer?

I tried a half-dozen PCs, all running Windows 7 (there are USB 3.0 drivers available for Mac, but I did not have one available to me). Test machines included desktops and laptops, all equipped with USB 3.0 ports. 

By Ellis Vener

If you regularly use a tripod you know the value of a good quick-release system that speeds up connecting and disconnecting a camera or lens from the tripod head and very securely holds the mass of the camera and lens combination to the tripod head. There are two common QR designs used today, Arca-Swiss’ open ended design and the various fixed cavity shape Manfrotto designs. The Manfrotto design features clamps and plates of various shapes. Arca-Swiss’ mechanically simpler, more ergonomically hand friendly designhas been copied by a broad range of manufacturers.

The newest addition to the Arca-Swiss based QR system comes from the Switzerland-based Sinar Broncolor Foba coalition, the Bron Imaging Group. Designed for photographers and videographers who regularly work with a camera tethered to a computer, the Foba BALTE plate’s unique feature is a pair of channels in the body of the plate that can carry either a USB, Firewire 400 or 800 (and presumably soon an Intel “Thunderbolt”) cables. The body of the camera (or perhaps a lens with a tripod mount foot) is the channels’ ceiling.

The design works well whether the camera is tripod mounted or hand held. It removes the stress and tension of a cable’s weight from the port on the camera and keeps the cable gathered neatly directly under the main part of the camera’s body. The body of the plate is hard black anodized black aluminum. To tighten the plate to a camera body requires a simple flat blade screwdriver or in a pinch, a thin coin like a U.S. dime. The plate is no thicker than a current standard QR plate from Really Right Stuff, In fact it has a lower profile than the base of a Really Right Stuff "L" plate.

By Stan Sholik

Since I was first introduced to ACDSee Pro when it was in version 2.5, I have recommended the program to casual users who didn’t want to learn, or didn’t need, the complexities of Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom. These users included friends, advanced amateurs and my wife. With the introduction of version ACDSee Pro version 3, I began using it to manage my own casual photography.

Version 3 impressed me with its speed on our not-so-advanced Windows machine at home, and the fact that it combined the digital asset management functions of Bridge with the global adjustment abilities of Lightroom, all in one program. Version 3 cleaned up the look of the interface and introduced the concept of modes, allowing users to easily move between browsing, viewing, processing their images, and then uploading them to ACDSee Online for sharing with others. The raw file processor of version 2.5 became the Develop sub-mode of the Process mode in version 3, with the capability to make non-destructive edits to RAW, TIFF, JPEG and other file formats. Version 2.5’s Edit mode for non-destructive pixel-level edits became the Edit sub-menu in version 3.

The shortcomings in version 3 were few, but some would be important to me if I wanted to migrate to the program for my commercial work. While version 3 included raw processing, it lacked chromatic aberration and color fringing correction tools, and the results were too contrasty for my taste. I’m also in the habit of applying full IPTC metadata to my images, and support for IPTC wasn’t quite there in version 3.

With the release of ACDSee Pro 4 for Windows, these shortcomings are eliminated and a few new features are added. I’m not convinced there are enough new and upgraded features to warrant a new version number or the $167.99 upgrade price, but version 4 does offer incremental and useful improvements in areas that interest me.

Raw file processing is one of these areas. ACDSee now includes both color aberration and color fringing correction tools. But perhaps more significantly, processing raw files is now accomplished in the ProPhoto RGB color space rather than Adobe RGB color space. This allows for adjustments to be done using a larger color gamut and therefore greater precision. ACDSee writes their own raw file processing algorithms, and the algorithms are revised in the latest version to provide smoother and more accurate adjustments to color, contrast, and exposure. The differences between the same image processed in the two versions are obvious with version 4 being the clear winner. One downside continues to exist as a result of ACDSee writing the raw processing algorithms—it takes a while for support for new cameras to become available. My Nikon P7000 is still not supported.

By Curtis Walker

Square first launched their service a year ago, since then they’ve grown into a valuable credit card processing resource for individuals and small businesses. Invented by Jack Dorsey after a friend lost a $2,000 art sale due to a cash-only operation. Dorsey (@jack) is also the guy who invented Twitter.

Unlike every other credit card solution, Square charges no upfront costs and skims a mere 2.75% off transactions. Unlike PayPal, which is also inexpensive, Square requires no setup on the part of the customer.

Available now for Apple iOS and Google Android, the Square app is free. It works in conjunction with a free credit card reader that plugs into the plain old headphone slot. The best experience comes from using the iPad app. Users can enter individual prices or use set up items in advance. Sales tax and tips can also be collected.

Once items have been added to the cart, swiping the card takes the user to a confirmation page where they sign and confirm the purchase. Receipts are delivered via SMS or e-mail and include all sorts of useful information for the customer. An internet connection is required in order to make any purchases.

The only restriction on charges is a limit of $1,000 per week to be deposited for new users. Transactions above that amount are held for 30 days.

Square is ideal for any business that wants to accept credit cards while avoiding the majority of fees involved.

New users can sign up for Square online or at any Apple Store.

Top-of-the-line technology and a bit less brawn makes the Nikon SB-700 an excellent flash in its class.

By Ellis Vener

The Nikon SB-700 AF Speedlight is the newest addition to Nikon’s family of iTTL battery powered electronic flashes. It’s smaller and less powerful than the slightly older SB-900 AF, yet it’s more capable than the SB-600 AF Speedlight it replaces. It has the same electronic “brains” as the SB-900, with a better GUI and communication with Nikon DSLR cameras and other accessories, and some of the same mechanics. The SB-700 has a set of hard plastic color filters rather than the gelatin type, and the refined Thermal Cut-Out Protection System to slow recycling when the flash tube needs protection from high heat.

The SB-700 retails for about $325, the SB-900 for about $495. Is this product worth the $170 savings? Depends on how you use small flash. If you constantly use an SB-900 at maximum output or if you need the ultra-short recycle time and increased capacity of an external high-voltage battery like a Quantum Turbo, the SB-700 is not for you. But if you’re in the market for a second flash to use on or off camera, or if you dislike the bulk and weight of the SB-900, rarely use an SB-900 or 800 at full output—in other words, you rarely see the recycle light blink —then by all means, look at the SB-700.

With small lights, I follow a more-is-more philosophy; it’s easier to get a flash to produce much less light than its full capacity than it is to get a low-energy flash to exceed its capability. Even with the ever-improving ratio of noise to high ISO of digital cameras, real-world measurement of maximum energy is a useful baseline for measuring performance.

To compare an SB-700 to a 900, I set up a simple test in a dark-walled studio. I measured output at the various zoom settings with a Sekonic L-758DR meter that was mounted on a stand 10 feet from the stand-mounted Speedlights. I shot five frames at each of the flashes’ zoom settings to evaluate consistency. Both flashes were powered by freshly charged Sanyo Eneloop batteries. To calculate the guide numbers, I used the formula, GN=distance X ƒ-number at ISO 100.

The results were a little surprising, in a good way: The SB-700 is more powerful than Nikon’s published numbers, but not evenly across the settings. When both flashes were set up for wide-angle coverage of 14-35mm, the SB-900 was only 4/10-steps brighter than the SB-700; at the 50-70mm zoom settings, the difference widened to 6/10-steps; and at 85-120mm the gap again widened slightly to 7/10-steps.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

The CollageWall by Bay Photo has a patent-pending hanging system that makes it easy to hang pictures in a grid system. I was intrigued to see how the system works, and to see if the installation was as easy and fool-proof as promoted. So, I downloaded Bay Photo’s ROES software, and experimented with different image combinations and layouts. This step of the process was easy. You simply choose the type of CollageWall you’d like—photographic prints or metal prints. I first designed a 16-image piece, but decided it looked a little busy. My final design included six images over a 2x3-foot wall space.

My CollageWall order arrived in a timely manner, complete with hanging materials and printed instructions.

The hanging materials included a set of silver push pins, painter’s tape (for hanging the template), and a drill bit for predrilling the pin holes if you have plaster walls.

While installation seemed pretty self-explanatory—put the pins in the circles on the hanging template—I figured it couldn’t hurt to watch the instructional video before getting started. The video actually helped clarify a few things for me, like the fact that after placing the template on the wall, you should make pin prick marks at each of the hanging sites rather than pushing the hanging pin in all the way. That way you can save the template for later use if needed.

The video also explained how to separate my CollageWall elements, which arrived mounted to black cardboard as you’ll see below.

The mounting bracket is made out of this cardboard, as are little foldable easel stands. Should you choose to swap out a new picture in your CollageWall, simply attach the folded easel stand to the back mounting bracket, and you have a self-standing display piece. This is a great feature to point out to clients to let them know they can keep their CollageWall updated with recent images and still display the earlier photos however they would like.

By Robyn L. Pollman

WARNING: This column can be dangerous to your wallet. For those who have not discovered Etsy, prepare to lose a great deal of your time (and money) by having a look around. Etsy’s motto is, “Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.” They combine the products of an outdoor market or craft fair with the ease of online purchasing. Etsy features several hundreds of thousands of sellers in over 150 countries. If you can think of it, chances are you can buy it there! 

Stash Bags 
Stash Bags makes stylish and useful camera bags for men and women in three sizes, including a large size suitable for professional use. The store also sells messenger bags for laptops, the MacBook Air, iPads, e-readers, iPods and iPhones. Bags are handmade and designed with vintage fabrics, using leather and metal elements as hardware with a modern function.

Baby P Designs  
Baby P Designs offers cute, stylish made-to-order newborn hats and photography props including hand-knit baby cocoons, wraps, slings, blankets and diaper covers. Their Handspun Luxe Collection includes custom handspun spun wool. The store also features a "Ready to Ship" line which ships immediately with purchase, and custom designs are available.

Hairbows Lady  
Don't let the name fool you - this Etsy shop is a packaging addict's dream. The Ribbon Center contains over 350 different varieties of ribbon in every color scheme, pattern, and size imaginable. They also sell holiday themed ribbon and package embellishments. 

Shimrit'a Cupcakes 
These faux-cupcakes and treats are perfect for birthday sessions. They look amazingly real and good enough to eat, but eliminate the risk of icing and grease stains from tiny little fingers. They also guarantee that the icing will not melt and slide off the cake before you've had a chance to take the shot. Props are available in sizes from mini to regular and jumbo cupcakes, and the store sells full-size cakes as well.

Fuzzy Lumpkin Crochet  
This Etsy store carries baby hats, headbands, baby wraps and cocoons, baby booties, photo props, jewelry, accessories, warm winter items, crocheted flowers, doilies, bags and more. If it can be crocheted, it is for sale here. Custom pieces available upon request. Their "Softest Ever Hat" (shown) is a parents-favorite for holiday and winter newborns.

It's Written on the Wall  
It's Written on the Wall carries over 300 quote designs to decorate your office or studio. They will design custom quotes as well, and offer over 60 color choices and 9 quote categories. Application instructions are included to adhere vinyl lettering to walls. Removal is quick and easy.

See more from Robyn L. Pollman at paperieboutique.com and buttonsandbowsphotography.com. 

By Stan Sholik

Professional photographers using Windows-based computers have a variety of imaging software applications at all price points available to them. Mac-based photographers have only a few options available from Adobe and Apple. The release of ACDSee Pro (Mac) provides a new and worthy option for Mac users.

After nearly two years in beta testing with professional photographers, ACDSee Pro (Mac) is now available in version 1.8. While not as feature rich as the Windows version, now in version 4, ACDSee Pro (Mac) is a solid offering with the potential of becoming an essential part of many Mac photographers’ workflows.

To categorize ACDSee Pro (Mac) as a digital asset management (DAM) application is to ignore many of its strengths. It isn’t simply an alternative to Adobe Bridge, although it performs many of the same functions. You can import images directly from your camera or camera card, browse images, videos and other assets anywhere on your computer or network without importing them, add IPTC and EXIF metadata and keywords, and perform file management functions. One of the greatest strengths of the Mac version, as well as the Windows versions that preceded it, is the speed with which it displays thumbnails.

It isn’t simply an alternative to Adobe Lightroom either, although ACDSee Pro (Mac) allows non-destructive global image editing and RAW file conversion, leaving only complex pixel-level editing, masking and layering tasks to Photoshop or similar software. ACDSee Pro (Mac) can view and process JPEG and TIFF files, and the RAW file formats supported by the Mac operating system.

In fact, it is difficult to fit ACDSee Pro (Mac) into any one category because it is capable of doing so much. It may be easiest to think of it as software that will do virtually anything that a professional photographer would need to do with a large image library, from importing digital captures to exporting final files to the lab or your client.

By Curtis Walker

Back in December, 2010, onOne Software released a new version of Genuine Fractals, now renamed Perfect Resize 7. The new name makes it much simpler for consumers to understand the purpose, focusing on the what more than the how.

Perfect Resize 7 is a long-lived super-sizing application that uses a complex re-sampling algorithm, enabling digital image enlargement without the undesirable effects of pixelization. Miraculous things  are possible, like pixel-free gallery art prints from a 10-megapixel Nikon D80. The fractal-based interpolating algorithm does not invent detail that never existed, and it performs upscaling far more elegantly than crude bicubic resampling.

For anyone who’s already familiar with the product, a few important new features make it a worthy upgrade: Apple Aperture- and Adobe Lightroom-native plug-in support, and gallery wrap features top the list. The native plug-in support is great because you don’t have to launch into Photoshop first, killing RAM. As part of a workflow, it’s great. Once the master edits are complete, the user simply sends the final image through Perfect Resize to generate a digital master for final proofing or delivery. If you edit primarily in Photoshop, there's a new onOne panel available to give you fast access to any of the applications in the Perfect Photo Suite. To bring up the panel, just go to Window > Extensions and select onOne. Then you can nest the panel wherever you'd like for your workflow. Watch this video from onOne for Lightroom, Aperture, and other application workflow information.

The gallery wrap function is a nice bit of efficiency built into the new workflow as well. It gives you a fast, easy way to create side panels for a gallery wrap. You can choose a reflection of your image—a mirror of the portion of your image closest to the sides—or a stretch, which samples a section of pixels along the border and stretches them out to fill the side panels. 

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Photographers looking to refine their retouching skills should consider adding Bodyshop: The Photoshop Retouching Guide for the Face and Body, by Birgit Nitzsche and Karsten Rose, to their library. Bodyshop focuses on practical ways to refine and improve on the human body in Photoshop, after the image has been captured by the camera. The book contains many walk-through demonstrations with straightforward before and after comparison images, as well as a bullet-point summary of what changes will be made and explained. For each topic, the authors go through a detailed step-by-step explanation of how to accomplish the retouching technique.

The layout of the book makes the examples easy to follow, or even to skip ahead in the retouch process if you already understand how to do several steps. I found myself skimming through some portions of the explanation that already made sense to me so that I could get to the techniques I needed to learn. If you are someone who learns by doing rather than simply reading about a new technique, you can download work files either from the book’s website or from the included resource DVD. The DVD contains:

• Before and after versions of the images
• Setting files
• Trial version of Nik Software

There are two ways to study the techniques in Bodyshop—you can either read through, cover to cover, or jump to the section you need the most help with by consulting the table of contents. Each of the demonstration sections is listed in the TOC, so you can effectively use this book as a reference guide when retouching. Here’s a sampling of what’s in each chapter:

• Chapter 1: Body Contours (slim legs, reduce belly, replace missing body parts)
• Chapter 2: Facial Contours (reduce laugh lines, refine nose, change facial proportions)
• Chapter 3: Eyes (adapt eye size, remove glasses reflections, opening blinking eyes)
• Chapter 4: Mouth (correct teeth, emphasize lips, add lip gloss)
• Chapter 5: Skin (improve skin texture/tone, reduce skin glare)
• Chapter 6: Hair (isolate hair from background, bring out texture, remove stubble)
• Chapter 7: Hands and Feet (emphasize age, get fingernails into shape)

At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a basic overview section to help increase your understanding of: workflow, layers, paths, blend modes, special layer techniques, sharpening and paths. Like all the demonstrations, you can quickly access these segments of the book.

Whether you choose to use “Bodyshop” as a reference guide or more of a hands-on tutorial, the techniques demonstrated are done so in a clear and concise manner, followed by an in-depth walk-through on the subject. I appreciated the detailed instructions when learning about unfamiliar techniques, and the ability to quickly review the before and after versions was helpful as a reminder of the purpose of each exercise. This book will be a great addition to any retoucher’s library.  “Bodyshop: The Photoshop Retouching Guide for the Face and Body,” by Birgit Nitzsche and Karsten Rose, is available for $49.99 from wiley.com/go/bodyshop or from Amazon for $31.49. 

Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP, has a portrait studio in Dexter, Michigan (BPhotoArt.com); she shares tips and ideas for photographers at LearnWithBetsy.com.

By David Saffir

Almost any photographer who owns an iPad enjoys its form factor, usability, and overall coolness. But color on the iPad is something of a mystery that raises a few questions—does it use the sRGB color space? (no) Something else? (yes) Can it be calibrated? (finally: yes, it can!).

A new product from Datacolor, SpyderGallery, makes it dead easy to calibrate your iPad—versions 1 or 2—and the results are noticeably better: image quality, color accuracy, saturation, shadow detail, and detail in highly saturated areas are improved, within the constraints of the iPad color range of course. It uses an existing screen calibration instrument from Datacolor, the Spyder3, and some new, and unique, software applications.

By Ron Dawson    

There once was a time when launching a video production business took thousands of dollars in startup capital for the professional equipment alone. Then came the Canon EOS Rebel T2i camera, priced at $800, offering video quality on par with the EOS 7D, quality surpassing that of professional camcorders of just a few years ago that sold for five times more. Now, less than a year after the release of the T2i, Canon has released an upgraded model, the Rebel T3i, selling for about $850. Here, we look at the new model as a video production tool, and at some key differences between it and other popular Canon HD DSLRs.

Unlike almost all earlier Canon HD DSLRs except the 60D, the T3i has a flip-out view screen with 270 degrees of rotation. That’s an important feature to event film makers, who frequently need to shoot high or low. Having a flip-out view screen and being able to angle it to get those shots is a fantastic benefit—so often it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. 

The second major physical difference between the T3i and other models is the absence of a topside digital display. It does sport the traditional Rebel dial to set the camera modes, the power switch, the ISO button, and the adjustment dial. Turning the dial alone adjusts the shutter speed, and turning the dial while holding down the aperture/exposure compensation (Av) button on the backside adjusts the aperture. You can easily adjust other settings on the fly from the Quick Control button on the back.

The camera has a dedicated movie mode, and A/V-out and HDMI-out ports on the side for linking the camera with external monitors. There’s also a port for a mic connection with a 1/8inch mini-jack. The T3i is smaller and lighter than the 7D, and it uses SD cards, including SDXC extended capacity cards. As you’d expect of a camera in this price range, it feels much less rugged than the 7D and larger cameras, and lacks the weather proofing as well.

But let’s get to the meat and potatoes of its use for video production. It does not have the feature set you’d want for professional still photography, but it packs a powerful punch for video production. The key aspects:

FOCAL LENGTH: The T3i has an APSC sensor, which makes the 35mm-equivalent focal length about 1.6X. A good focal length range for shooting traveling shots on devices like a glide-cam is 16 to 24mm. Divide by 1.6 to determine which focal length lens to use. I prefer the 12 to 16mm range with a 1.6 lens factor. For weddings and other events where you can’t get that close, slap a 70-200mm lens on this baby and your reach extends to 320mm. That comes in handy.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

X-keys Professional, from P.I. Engineering, is a 58-key customizable keyboard; straight out of the box, it might look unassuming. But that's the beauty of it—you can customize X-keys to your heart's content. Imagine how 58 custom keys could help streamline your workflow. I have to admit, once my X-keys unit was set up and operational, it really helped increase my editing efficiency in Photoshop, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First to explain how it works.

The X-keys unit ships with a set of key labels, the software disc, and three double-sized keys that you can install if you choose. I opted to keep all 58 keys, since I knew I would use them! You can download (or order) legend sheets to create customized key labels. I found it most useful to make my own key labels, along with a layout chart of which shortcuts I wanted to associate with certain keys (download templates).

My process began with making a list of all the shortcuts I use most frequently—whether in Photoshop, Bridge, or just general computer actions. Here's a picture of my worksheet—I wrote down the desired label, whether the shortcut would be a global command (or program-specific), and what keystrokes to program.

Then, I created a rough draft of my layout (using my worksheet). As I wrote down where to program each action/keystroke, I also made note of any existing keyboard shortcuts on the worksheet. For example, I created Undo and Redo buttons—which are global keystrokes, but also Photoshop-specific. When Photoshop is open, the Undo/Redo buttons perform the Step Forward/Backward function. For some of my desired buttons, I did not have any keyboard shortcuts assigned in Photoshop. So, rather than programming keystroke by keystroke within the X-keys software, I simply created an action in Photoshop, and then assigned a keyboard shortcut (e.g. Shift+F7) to the action.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Ellen and Josh Anon, a mother-son photographer team, have partnered to write “Photoshop CS5 for Nature Photographers.” The book is written specifically for nature photographers who want to fully utilize features in Adobe Photoshop CS 5. The authors focus mainly on techniques using the standard version of Photoshop, but also include sidebars in each chapter on how to do particular tasks using Photoshop Elements.

“Photoshop CS5 for Nature Photographers” is subtitled “A Workshop in a Book” for good reason. As each chapter progresses, you'll find sections titled Try It. These sections are helpful if you learn by doing, allowing you to download the appropriate image file from the companion website and practice the techniques you've learned. In addition to the working files, there are also video tutorials available to give you a better understanding of certain techniques.  I found the section on how to adjust color temperature without relying on visual techniques particularly interesting. This process would be invaluable for any photographer who suffers from color blindness or who has to work on a non-calibrated or improperly calibrated monitor.

The goal of this book is to provide photographers with an easy and efficient workflow. With that in mind, the Anons discus workflow, exposure, color, adjustments, composites, output techniques, and more. They present two workflow options (traditional and flexible) for you to choose from, as fits best into your working style.

By Kurt Robertson 

Backgrounds are a major expense for a photography studio. Over the years, I have worked with countless canvas, muslin, and various other backgrounds. One of the things I always longed for was the ability to change the background to match the theme or subject at will without taking so much time to arrange and light the new background choice.

One of the big developments in the digital imaging world is chroma-key technology. Chroma-key software has the ability to drop out specific colors, usually bright green or sometimes bright blue. Chroma-key in video has been around for many years, but does this technology now have a place in portrait photography as well?

I combined a chroma-key portrait with this background from EZ Backgrounds using PhotoKey4. I retouched blemishes and other minor details in Photoshop CS5 and then processed it with Imagenomic Portraiture, adjusted the contrast, and used Nik Color Efex Pro 3 to warm up the image and darken the corners. I sharpened the image with Nik Sharpener Pro and finally added a cement wall texture in the overlay blending mode of CS5. Overall processing took about 20 minutes.  ©Kurt Robertson

Just as film photographers didn't switch to digital SLR cameras without experiencing workflow consequences, adding digital backgrounds to your studio will create new issues. How will you extract the subject from your images? How will you put the backgrounds into your images, and how good will the quality be? How much time can you afford to prepare your images? Most important, how will you present and sell the images?

With that in mind, let’s take a look at two contenders, Green Screen Wizard Pro 5.0 and PhotoKey 4 Pro.

Green Screen Wizard is a PC-only application with several versions available. Green Screen Wizard Pro 5.0 has many useful features for event photography, but our primary focus for this article is image presentation, green screen removal and image output.

Image courtesy Green Screen Wizard 

Green Screen Wizard Pro 5.0 has a simple workflow for portrait studios. You click Load Foreground to load in your green screen photo and Load Background to preview your image. The Pick button allows you to preview the photo on multiple backgrounds at the same time (below), which will be valuable if you want to let clients choose their favorite background. It’s also useful for studio staff to be able to look at several options. You can also output just the subject with a transparent background as a .png file. Once you combine the subject with a background, the file will output with the background and subject combined (flattened).

Images ©Kurt Robertson

By Stan Sholik

There is no “magic bullet” software for post production of raw and JPEG image files. Each program comes with an upside and a downside. The upside with DxO Optics Pro is its automatic adjustment presets; the downside has always been its speed of operation, especially on a Mac. Version 6 showed some speed improvements and now version 6.5 (actually 6.5.5 as of a few days ago) shows greater improvement still, making it worth looking at in detail.

With many advanced and professional photographers comfortably settled into either a Lightroom, Aperture, or Bridge/Photoshop workflow, it may be a tough sell for DxO to convince them to investigate another application. But Optics Pro has much to offer, chiefly its processing automation and camera/lens-specific DxO Optics Modules, although neither of these are new to version 6.5.

Image correction with little or no human intervention lies at the core of Optics Pro’s processing automation. In addition, there is a series of tools that allow you to fine-tune the automatic corrections. 

DxO revised the Optics Pro interface in version 6.0 and has kept the same clean, contemporary look in version 6.5. Four tabs at the top, Select, Customize, Process and View take you to different windows as you move through the workflow. In the Select tab, the browser pane is to the left, a Preview pane where the images in the selected folder appear is to the right, and a Project pane at the bottom hold selected images for processing. In the “First Steps” mode, information to guide you through the process appears onscreen.

The automation is built around workspaces and presets. Three workspaces are found in Optics Pro: First Steps, Essentials and Advanced User. The First Steps workspace includes the basic corrections and a wizard to walk you through the workflow if you are new to the program. Additional tools are added in the Essentials workspace and even more in the Advanced User. Tools with corrections that DxO has made automatically are indicated with an “Auto” in the tools header. These automatic corrections could be based on image content or camera, camera/lens calibration for the parameters that Optics Pro finds in the image EXIF information and the corresponding DxO Optic Module that you have downloaded. 

The Customize tab is the most complex, even in the First Steps workspace shown. Visualization tools are on the left, a preview of the adjusted image is in the center, adjustment palettes are on the right, and the Project pane from the Select tab, is below. The First Steps workspace has minimal adjustments available. 

The Essentials workspace adds a histogram to the Visualization tools and more adjustments are available in the adjustment palette.  

The Advanced User workspace adds a small amount of EXIF information to the Visualization tools and all of the available adjustments are listed in the adjustment palette. 

From my experience while testing, this part of the automation works extremely well, particularly so if you have the appropriate Optics Module loaded. While there are more than 3,000 Optics Modules available, I seemed to have the wrong combination of Nikon camera and Nikkor or Sigma lens to make use of them most of the time, but when I did, there was an noticeable, though slight, improvement in image quality. Where I did notice an amazing improvement in image quality was in images from my Nikon P7000, which was recently added to the Optics Modules. For a compact camera, the P7000 is excellent, but with Optics Pro the images are superb. I saw the same high degree of improvement in images from a Canon G12.

If Optics Pro detects EXIF metadata that indicates you are adding images to a project for which an Optics Module is available, it will prompt you to download the module. 

By Ron Dawson

If you decide to take up the craft of DSLR filmmaking, one of the things you will quickly realize is that shooting video is very different from shooting photos. One of the key differences is that unless you are extremely experienced, hand-held video shot with a DSLR will look terrible. It’ll be too shaky, resulting in significantly lower production quality than stabilized footage. The other thing you’ll notice is that trying to focus with an LCD screen is extremely difficult, especially at the wider apertures where depth of field is very shallow. These cameras were just not ergonomically designed to shoot video. As usual, Mother Necessity has led the way to a whole sub-industry dedicated to providing gear that helps the DSLR filmmaker shoot proper video.

Zacuto, based in Chicago, Ill., is one of the leaders in that industry. Created by veteran Emmy-award-winning film and video producers Steve Weiss and Jens Bogehegn, one of the reasons their gear has become so well known is because they bring more than 50 combined years of industry experience. I had the opportunity to try out three of their most popular DSLR accessories: the Z-Finder Pro, the Target Shooter, and the Striker.

The Z-Finder Pro: The Z-Finder Pro is perhaps Zacuto’s number-one DSLR accessory. It is an optical viewfinder that connects to the back of the DSLR, magnifiying the LCD live view image. If you’re using manual focus, this allows you to dial-in focus and keep it there as you shoot. It also blocks out glare from additional light sources like the sun. It also serves as an additional point of contact to get steadier shots. The more points of contact you can have, the more stability you have. When you hold a DSLR up to and against your eye with the Z-Finder Pro, you now have three POCs: two hands and your face. 

When the Z-Finder first came out, you had to physically glue it to the back of your DSLR. It could be detached, but it was an awkward setup. Now they’ve designed it with a mounting frame and base plate that screws into to your tripod mount socket. You can adjust the Z-Finder to the left or right depending on the camera, and you can even add plastic extenders to push the Z-Finder farther out from the back of the camera, allowing you to adjust the focus on the Z-Finder itself to match your eyesight.

I found it very easy to use and extremely effective at monitoring focus. Of all the optical viewfinders on the market, it is the one chosen by high-profile DSLR filmmakers such as Vincent Laforet and Philip Bloom. If you’re doing a lot of moving around, it will be a key accessory in your tool kit.

By Kim Larson

Today there are many items available for you to speed up your workflow. Just look at all the great keyboards that come pre-programmed with shortcuts to your favorite software programs such as Motobodo, X-Keys, and RPG Keys. If you own an iPad, you might already have one of these great time-saving keyboards in your hand. The KeyPad Pro app ($4.99 in the iTunes App Store) allows you to turn your iPad into an extra keyboard with your own customized buttons. It allows you to make your own “keypads” for any software program, with each keypad having its own set of custom shortcut buttons. KeyPad Pro communicates with your computer via your local wi-fi network.

Part of the power of KeyPad Pro is the ability to customize and share your keypads. You’re free to create your own keypads from scratch, and the developers of KeyPad Pro provide some pre-made keypads for $0.99 each. I highly recommend purchasing the Photoshop keypad, not only because it’s a great starting point for customizing your own Photoshop keypad, but it’s also a great way to learn advanced ways to setup keypads for other software programs. I purchased the Photoshop keypad as a starting point and added buttons to run my favorite actions. Any keypads you make can be shared on the KeyPad Pro forum, where you can also download keypads from others. Or e-mail your favorite keypad directly to a friend—it can all be done from within the KeyPad Pro app itself.

There are so many options for creating your own keypad, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The help menus within the app itself are a must-read—they will explain each type of button and how it functions. There are buttons for sliders (great for managing Photoshop brush sizes), buttons that will perform a bunch of steps (great for Photoshop Actions with multiple steps!), and buttons that will display a menu. Each button can have multiple keystrokes assigned to it as well: one for tapping the button once, one for holding down the button, and one for double-tapping the button. The possibilities are endless!

By Betsy Finn

As portrait and wedding photographers, it's important we understand how to retouch our subjects’ skin in a realistic manner, and that we understand the concepts behind achieving believable skin tone. "Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies," by Lee Varis, is a book that sets out to help photographers achieve this goal.

While Varis covers the techniques he uses to achieve a color balanced workflow (and how to get realistic color), he does note that “accurate color is often boring color … most people say they want ‘accurate’ color, but what they prefer (and what clients buy) is ‘pretty’ color.”

While the writing was somewhat technical, I stayed interested and followed along easily. If you’re the type who learns best by doing rather than just reading about something, you will find Varis’ companion website resources to be invaluable. Varis has graciously made available a number of image files that he uses as examples in the book, so you can experiment with the techniques yourself after reading how Varis achieves a particular look. Varis’ website also offers video and PDF tutorials, which may be helpful if you need further instruction.

The book includes a review of the basics in order to set a good foundation for Varis’ theories on color managing skin tones, but unlike some other books I’ve read, this book was able to do so without losing my interest.

I appreciated Varis’ discussion of the digital zone system, managing skin tones via RGB and CMYK, and how he uses the eyedropper tool to gauge what specific adjustments need to be made to an image. As he notes in the text, the eyes tend to compensate for adjacent colors, so relying on hard numbers in addition to your intuition is the best way to achieve the desired color.

By Ron Dawson

Currently, the two most wide spread “flavors” of SD cards are plain SD and SDHC. SD cards can hold up to 2GB of data, whereas SDHC cards can hold 4GB to 32GB of data. They are based on the FAT32 file system. FAT stands for File Allocation Table and it is a computer architecture structure upon which most computer operating systems and smaller memory devices are based. It is the FAT32 system that limits video clips captured on SD and CF cards to just 4GB each (approximately 12 minutes of time for most cameras).

A couple of years ago, the SDXC (secure digital extended capacity) format was introduced. This new system was based on the SD Association’s 3.0 specification and created an entirely new structure that is based on exFAT file system (also known as FAT64). These cards are NOT backwards compatible with older SD host devices. The benefit of this new format is extended data capacity and transfer buffer speeds.

Lexar has come out with its Professional SDXC card that is 64GB and 128GB with bus transfer speed of 133x, or 20MB/s. (To put this in perspective, the cards I normally shoot my gigs on are 16GB SDHC cards with 30MB/s speeds). The SDXC format is designed to hold up to 2TB of data!

By Curtis Joe Walker

Creating a digital portfolio on the iPad should be on the front burner of any studio’s marketing plan. Mediapad Pro (Version 1.2, $11.99) aims to streamline that process while balancing it between clean and flashy to remain appealing as possible today’s discerning clients.

The design comes from Craig Orsini who wanted the app to be the ultimate portfolio tool. Setup appears as a screen full of pre-designated slots within a template to fill in. Backgrounds can be customized, existing brand logos can be used and there’s even a spot for a scanned business card.

The galleries can support video, photos, audio and external web content through the built-in browser, giving photographers the most flexibility in the presentation of their work. Unfortunately, music is not yet incorporated as a soundtrack to the portfolio, but this feature will come soon. In the meantime, it’s possible to play music through the iPod app.

The app works best with specific image sizes and formats, working from within this template should not add too much time to one’s workflow and allows for additional page design through manually composited images (diptychs, triptychs and so forth). For photographers who have already designed printed books, importing the pages as JPGs becomes an easy option. This is similarly useful with tearsheets, often a cumbersome media to present.

By Stan Sholik

With the release of Capture One 6, Phase One continues to add value to the software for commercial, portrait and wedding photographers, while adding a new feature for architectural photographers.

Like earlier releases, Capture One 6 (C1-6) comes in three versions: Capture One Express 6, DB 6 and PRO 6. Express 6 is the basic version, with only the essential raw processing and image adjustment tools. DB 6 is for digital camera backs from Phase One, Mamiya and Leaf. The PRO 6 version integrates a full-featured raw file converter with image editing, browsing and output features.

Besides the wealth of new features, all of these new versions share several operational upgrades. The software is now a native 64-bit application for both Mac and Windows computers, and 32-bit Windows operating systems as well. The OpenCL/GPU acceleration feature transfers some of the image processing from the CPU to a compatible graphics card, allowing additional features such as a new full-screen mode. These upgrades result in a noticeable boost of speed, plus access to additional RAM to process large image files.

Here, we’ll concentrate on the other major changes in the PRO version that relate to professional photographers. Some of them are unavailable in the other versions; for a comparison of the features in the Pro and Express programs, go to phaseone.com/comparison.

Architectural photographers are a principal beneficiary of the new keystone correction feature (below). You can make the processing semi-automatic by selecting the keystone correction icon from the Tools menu and adjusting the overlay lines. You can also access the tool for semi-automatic or manual correction in the Crop tab.

In semi-automatic mode, the verticals are taken 80 percent of the way to perfectly vertical; Phase One finds that this slight under-correction is more natural than a full 100-percent correction. The results look good to me. You can correct vertical keystoning, horizontal convergence or both by selecting the appropriate keystone correction tool.

Keystone correction is a simple matter of aligning guides with the principal lines of the subject then clicking the Apply button in the center of the screen. The resulting image refreshes with a suggested crop. The correction is available for horizontal as well as vertical keystoning and for a combination of both. ©Stan Sholik

All users will benefit from other new features, including non-destructive local adjustments, black-and-white conversion plus toning, sophisticated token-based image naming, the Capture Pilot iPod/iPad app, and more.

By Allison Earnest

I’m a huge fan of small speedlights. Used properly with the right light modifier, speedlights rival most traditional studio lights. I spent almost two years testing virtually every small hot shoe flash modifier on the market for my second book, “Light Modifiers: A Digital Guide to Sculpting with Light” (Amherst Media), so I looked forward to testing the new ExpoImaging Rogue FlashBenders, which promised to be a groundbreaking innovation.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Rogue kit comes with three FlashBender modifiers, small, medium and large. I typically use at least three Nikon Speedlights for location portraits, so that’s a big plus for me. These little gems have several unique features:

• A convenient built-in strap that fits around the hot shoe flash eliminates the need for auxiliary Velcro. That’s a benefit: Like many photographers, I’ve been living with permanently affixed Velcro on my flashes and other modifiers won’t fit over it.
• The repositionable internal rods allow you to shape the modifier to create the desired lighting pattern.
• The modifiers are both durable and flexible, and lie flat for easy storage. The Velcro strap won’t stick to the side of your camera case, either. 

I put the Rogue FlashBenders to the test in three separate location shoots. You can see the results in the images here, which I captured with a Nikon D300 or D700 with professional Nikkor lenses and Nikon SB800 and SB900 Speedlights. I’m old-school, so I use Photoshop only minimally—the light should speak for itself.

Shooting headshots for an aspiring Los Angeles model, Vance Garcia, proved to be an ideal test for the Rogue. The setting was a shaded area next to a graffiti-covered metal wall, with little reflective light or contrast. The main illumination, placed camera right, was an off-camera Nikon Speedlight with the small FlashBender. I shaped the large FlashBender modifier to mimic a snoot, and placed it behind the model, creating nice texture on the wall and separating the subject from the background. I used the sparse reflective ambient light as edge light on the model’s right cheek, and controlled it with my shutter speed. The FlashBender modification of the speedlights produced a bright light quality and with great color rendition (above).

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

The Kubota Creative Tools Lensbaby Pak, a set of Actions for Photoshop offered by Kubota Image Tools, offers photographers an easy way to enhance images created with the Lensbaby lens system. The effects were designed by Kevin Kubota specifically to complement the soft focus effects captured by various Lensbaby Optics.

The Lensbaby Pak comes with 15 different actions, or effects, that you can apply to your images. You’ll also get Kubota Dashboard 3, a floating toolbar palette that makes it extremely simple to select and apply various action effects. The palette features a search bar that allows you to quickly find your actions (particularly helpful if you own more than one Kubota Action Pak).

The Kubota Action Paks make adding and removing filters very simple. Rather than running the action on your base layer in Photoshop, it creates a new layer (usually an adjustment layer) for each action or filter that you choose to apply. Then you can fade out the opacity at will, or even remove a particular effect from the image entirely, just by deleting the layer. I appreciated this design feature, as I am all for non-destructive image editing.

While not a Lensbaby lens owner myself, I was able to get my hands on a few lenses long enough to create some test images for this review. I started out by creating a few images using the soft focus lens, and then with the fisheye lens.

For this first image, I just applied one action: Fisheye Lens - Spectacle. In the before/after comparison, you’ll see that the action added nice contrast, and the image gained overall sharpness, but it does not do any favors for close-up skin tones and texture.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

If you’re like most photographers, you prefer to rely on Adobe Photoshop for the bulk of your image retouching and album design workflow. But you may have noticed that Adobe Photoshop doesn’t exactly make your workflow all that efficient—at least on its own. Fundy Software has designed several products that work within Photoshop to help you streamline your retouching and design workflow. In this review, I’m going to look at two products available within Fundy’s Pro Studio Pack that can enable you to speed up your editing, and also your album designing.

Both Workflow and Album Builder run as palettes within Adobe Photoshop, and work harmoniously with other Adobe applications such as Bridge. Let’s take a peek at Workflow first . 

The Workflow panel, once installed, can be placed anywhere you would dock a typical Photoshop Palette. The panel has several sections: Get Started, Image Navigation, Action Control, Recently Used Actions, and Personal Action Buttons. To get started using Workflow, you first click the folder setup button. A setup window will open (see below) that allows you to customize how Workflow will operate.

While you can simply select a folder to process, I found it easier to select my files in Bridge and process from there. You can specify how the files will be saved (e.g. 4x6 proofs, web copies, full sized PSDs), and even run an action when each file is opened and again before each file is closed. I have an action that creates a retouching layer on every file I retouch, so Workflow was the perfect way to automatically perform this action on every image. Once you click the Process button, Workflow will begin loading the selected images sequentially for you as you click the Save and Next button. Depending on what settings you enabled during the setup screen, various sized copies of the file will be created in the appropriate subfolder as the edited image is saved.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

It’s a photographer’s worst nightmare—the dreaded “ERR–” message. And it only happens after you’ve wrapped up that once-in-a-lifetime photoshoot. At one point or another, we’ve all scrambled to find a way to recover those images that would otherwise be lost forever. And that’s where Photorecovery Professional 2010 can help.

In addition to restoring many different types of files from your memory cards, the professional version of Photorecovery includes Digital Media Doctor, which you can use to test the performance of a specific memory card (i.e. how well it reads/writes).

Now, that sounds great in theory, but how well does Photorecovery actually work? I ran several tests with different media cards to find out. My first test involved a CompactFlash card that had malfunctioned during a studio shoot. The camera gave me an “ERR–” message, and the card was unable to be loaded or recognized when inserted normally into my computer’s card reader (inserting this card into my computer has even caused the system to freeze up). Using Photorecovery, I started a sector scan of the 4GB card at 11 a.m. It completed, with errors, around 6 p.m. that evening, and Photorecovery failed to recover any data. I then ran Digital Media Doctor on the 4GB card, which unsurprisingly, did not pass any of the tests. While it might be inferred from these results that the software is to blame, I’m more prone to lay the guilt on the card being completely corrupted. I have sent it out to the manufacturer to confirm this, and I’ll update this report if I hear otherwise.

Screen capture of Digital Media Doctor while running diagnostics on the corrupted 4GB compact flash card.

Since my first test only proved what happens when Photorecovery is unable to recover data, this next test shows what Photorecovery can recover. This time, I used an 8GB CompactFlash card that has been in use at my studio for numerous years. Photorecovery completed diagnostics on the 8GB card without any problems. When initially viewed using my computer’s file browser, the 8GB card did not show any files present, but Photorecovery was able to recover image files (both .jpg and .nef, Nikon’s raw format). I started the scan at 9:26 p.m., and it finished at 9:44 p.m., recovering 760 files.

Screen capture of Photorecovery scan at 85-percent completion, 655 files recovered so far.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

On the recommendation of a friend, I recently ordered a copy of the newly released book, “Marketing for Solos,” by Jeanna Pool. After reading the book cover to cover in a single weekend, I thought to myself: “this book could be really helpful to photographers!” As small business owners, we often find ourselves overwhelmed with various facets of running our business (usually a one-person show). In her book, Jeanna Pool cuts through the philosophical jibber jabber of marketing, and offers real world advice and practical suggestions for the solo business owner.

The tenets of marketing aren’t new to me. I came away from college with a degree in both Studio Art and Business Management, so I know the theories of marketing. I know what we all, as small business owners, should be doing to market our businesses. But I also know that, too often, we get caught up in the day-to-day operations of running our studios and forget to devote time to our marketing tactics.

That’s where Pool’s book comes in. More than just a book to read once and add to your library, “Marketing for Solos” is designed to help you work through some of the important cornerstones of your marketing plan. Pool walks you through how to determine or find your niche market, why you need to focus your marketing efforts on prospects with specific traits, and how to develop effective marketing pieces that will yield results. Additionally, the book focuses on strategically diversifying your marketing efforts so that you don’t end up with all your eggs in one basket.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Pool about how this book could be particularly useful for photographers. Pool said, “It's one of the only books of its kind that teaches the solo photographer how to market their business successfully. It can be really hard to market your business when you can't be in two places at once … [‘Marketing For Solos’] makes marketing manageable.” I also asked Pool what one most useful tidbit of information photographers might take away from her book. She said, “The biggest thing photographers need to do is pick a focused niche. It separates the successful photographers from those who are just ‘getting by.’”

I really took to heart one of Pool’s comments from the book: “Most small businesses struggle, fumble, and ultimately fail for one simple reason—lack of clients. And a lack of clients is a result of one thing—a lack of marketing” (p. 20). There are many artistically competent photographers whose businesses are walking a fine line between failure and survival simply because they don’t know how to market. Waiting for clients to fall into your lap is not an effective way to stay in business. You may be the one “doing it all” at your studio, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice when it comes to marketing. “Marketing for Solos” will help you to market yourself, and your business, in a way that is sustainable for the one-person small business.

“Marketing For Solos” is available at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Solos-Ultimate-How-Successfully/dp/0976996278) for $19.95. For more information about the book, visit Jeanna Pool’s website: marketingforsolos.com.

Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP, has a portrait studio in Dexter, Michigan (BPhotoArt.com); she shares tips and ideas for photographers at LearnWithBetsy.com.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

On first glance, the FireFly sensor cleaner might not look different from any other device that shoots puffs of air onto your sensor. But don’t let that fool you. NRD, the company that designed this product, specializes in static elimination. In theory, the FireFly works much like those ionizing air purifiers that you can buy at the gadget store in your mall. When you have the FireFly unit turned on, any air that passes through the device will be ionized. And when you use the ionized air to clean your sensor, it’s basically neutralizes the static charge, allowing dust particles to “fall” off your sensor.

The FireFly sensor cleaner ships in two pieces, which I found allows for more convenient storage. The air chamber portion comes with a yellow rubber cap, which you can see is still on in the image below. It goes without saying that before assembling the FireFly, you’ll want to remove the cap.

To assemble the FireFly, simply insert the air chamber unit’s connector piece into the appropriate receptacle on the other half of the FireFly, and then twist to lock into place. Once assembled, the FireFly looks something like a stage two rocket ready for takeoff.

To use the FireFly, you will need to lock up the mirror in your camera, and place the camera body in a face-down position. This will allow gravity to take care of any dust that is dislodged when you begin cleaning your sensor. The directions that come with the FireFly recommend mounting your camera body on a tripod, but if you’re out in the field, you could always have your assistant hold it for you. Once the camera is in position, you simply depress (and hold) the power button on the air ionization device, and then squeeze the air chamber several times to send a few puffs of air onto the sensor.

By Stan Sholik

When my recent article “Two Paths to Retouching” went live in Professional Photographer magazine and online, photographers called, sent me e-mails and posted comments regarding other retouching software options. One of the most intriguing contacts came from Craig Minielly.

Minielly is a Vancouver-based photographer and author of Craig’s Actions. Craig asked me if I was familiar with his actions, because, using them, he was able to accomplish in less than five minutes what had taken me 22 minutes in Portrait Professional and 48 minutes in Adobe Photoshop CS5.

I hadn't tried them, so Craig sent me a link to download Craig’s Actions Toolkit and Craig’s Beauty Bar to test. Here’s what I found.

After I downloaded and opened the zip files I was confronted with a bunch of files and folders, so I went back to the Craig’s Actions website to the Tutorials ‘n Tips drop-down list in the menu bar to watch a video about installation. All you have to do to get started is find the actions (*.atn) files and double-clickon them. They then load automatically into the Actions palette of Photoshop CS2 to CS5 on both the Mac and Windows platforms.

I watched the tutorials to decrease the slope of my learning curve, and they are very well done with a nice sense of humor. They helped immensely in getting me started quickly.

I opened a copy of my original file and ran a number of actions that Craig thought I might use and some others that I was curious about. There are many actions to choose from, and some are duplicated in both the Toolkit and Beauty Bar sets. I settled on using BlemishBuster, which is found in both sets but with more options in Beauty Bar; ColorGenie Warm, Tinted Contacts Blue, and PowderPuff from the Toolkit; and Eye Color/Whites & Teeth, Lip Gloss and Lipstick from Beauty Bar.

I started with the BlemishBuster Strong from the Beauty Bar set. When you run any of the Craig’s Actions, the action flattens previous steps, sets up your Layers palette and blending modes, selects brushes, creates adjustment layers and masks if needed, and stops to instruct you how to proceed.

This screen capture shows the steps in the BlemishBuster Strong action from the blue highlight to the bottom of the Actions palette. However, the only thing I needed to do was to brush over first the dark blemishes, then the light blemishes and press the action Play button a couple of times. The action handles all the rest automatically. Image ©Stan Sholik

A Perfect Film for the Hybrid Workflow

By Marianne Drenthe

Film is not dead. Brilliant technical advances in the forum of film creation have brought about Kodak Professional’s newest film, Portra 400. Kodak touts it as having the “world finest grain at 400 speed,” and I do believe that claim to be true.

I trialed the Portra 400 film in the 35mm format. Kodak has always been known for their consistent and smooth reproduction of all skin tones, and I couldn’t wait to use this film in my comfort zone—children’s photography. I trialed several rolls of the brand new Portra 400 film using my trusty Canon EOS Elan 7 and a variety of Canon L glass, using manual settings for all my exposures. I shot with my favorite Canon lenses: the 50mm 1.2L, the 135mm 2.0L and the 24-70mm 2.8L. I hoped the combination of the L lenses with Kodak’s track record for smooth skin tones would prove to be a winner. It was.

The wait and see nature of film sort of forces you to finish the process of taking the photos—not to stop and check the back of the camera LCD after taking a shot and second guess yourself. I took photos of a variety of child subjects utilizing natural light. I took some photos outdoors (no easy feat in the Midwest December cold!), on location in my home and indoors at a client’s home. Once I finished shooting came the patience part. I sent my rolls off to Burrell Colour Imaging in Crown Point, Ind. (one of my pro labs of choice), and waited. Patiently. Their turn around was pretty good; I had proof images and scans in about a week.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Photodex, the creator of ProShow Gold and Proshow Producer, has released a new option for photographers wanting to create custom slideshows—ProShow Web. A subscription-based service, ProShow Web allows you to pick a slideshow theme, upload your content (both photo and video), choose music (or upload your own), and even watermark your slideshow.

In order to use ProShow Web, the first thing you have to do is create an account. There are free and paid user options. In brief, the free account allows you to create mini-slideshows, while the paid options offer more features, flexibility, and download options. Once you have an account, it’s really easy to make your first slideshow. Clicking on the Create button will take you to the slideshow creation interface. There are five tabs: Theme, Imagery, Music, Details, and Watch.

In the Theme tab, you’ll get to select the style of slideshow you’d like to create. There are almost 40 different themes to choose from, and they range from classic and simple to wedding and baby themed designs.

The next step is at the Imagery tab, where you’ll upload your images and even videos. You can also add text frames if you'd like. Once your content has been uploaded, you can drag and drop to rearrange, shuffle all slides, or even create duplicate slides. During this step, you can add optional special effects to various images in your show. Just click on the Creative Palette to display a variety of effects you can drag and drop on a particular slide.

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP

Images ©Don Chick

Imagine one pair of glasses that enabled you to eliminate every other pair of glasses you own! One pair that lets you see through the entire lens, not just a slice on the bottom or a slice in the middle, but the entire lens in the prescription you need at that moment. Enter Superfocus, the glasses that have a revolutionary lens design incorporating every prescription you need into one adjustable lens. With the Superfocus design the entire lens is clear, not just a portion of it.

The magic behind this amazing lens design is accomplished via a liquid sandwiched inside the lens. The wearer makes adjustments with a tiny slider built into the connecting piece over the bridge of the nose (below). By moving this slider to one side or the other, you adjust the lenses to match your prescription to whatever you need at that moment. For example, when I need to focus up close to read, I adjust the slider to the right until my subject is in perfect focus. If I then want to see something in the distance, I adjust the slider to the left and I have perfect focus for subjects far away.

The Superfocus lenses can incorporate a range of prescriptions because the lens is actually made up of several key components. Your distance prescription is in a removable lens on the front, held on with a set of powerful magnets. Removing this front lens exposes a transparent distensible membrane that, along with the rear lens, actually holds an optically clear liquid inside the chamber. The adjustment of the slider serves to compress the back lens into the liquid which changes the magnification and enables you to see clearly at different distances.

In a conversation with company CEO Adrian Koppes, I was told that idea of using a flexible membrane and a liquid to achieve a range of prescriptions from a single pair of glasses is actually over one hundred years old. The current Superfocus glasses are actually the 14th generation in the making and 20 years in development. It has taken a lot of research and prototypes to make this design commercially available.

By David Saffir

You’ll get the best image quality from your inkjet printer using a color-managed workflow. This includes a calibrated and profiled display, correct software setup, and image-editing software that can handle application-managed color when printing. (In this article I’m referring to color, RGB-oriented workflow.)

This might sound like a lot of work, but once you get your color locked down and you’ve had a chance to practice a bit, you’ll find that color managed workflow requires little time in execution. And the results are worth it!

I have been working with a demo unit of the new Epson Stylus Pro 4900 printer at the Santa Clarita Valley Center for Photography near Los Angeles, and so far it has been a positive experience.

Out of the box, setup is logical and relatively easy. Image quality on photographic-style and fine-art media, in color and black and white, has been very good. Paper handling has improved from earlier models; the roll paper feeder, paper tray, the upper single sheet feeder, and the lower single sheet feeder all work well. The roll feeder accepts both 2- and 3-inch cores. The Stylus Pro 4900 can handle cut sheet media up to 17x22, and 1.5mm thickness.

The Stylus Pro 4900 has eleven 200ml ink cartridges using the Epson UltraChrome HDR Ink; this includes both photo and matte black. A switch from photo black to matte black ink requires the operator to push a button on the printer control panel. Switching takes a couple of minutes, and seems to use a small amount of ink.

The instructions regarding the hands-on operation of the printer are straightforward and clearly illustrated. Overall, a flexible, pro-level machine.

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP

Wireless downloading from your digital camera to computer for under $150 sounds unimaginable, right? Then you haven’t seen the Eye-Fi Pro X2 (SDHC) card. This card, which has the transmitter device built in will enable you to connect to your wireless network and do just that—download from your digital camera directly to your computer! There are limitations, however, as the card will not work using a CF adaptor in a camera that has only CompactFlash (CF) slots.

I recently had the opportunity to check out the Eye-Fi Pro X2 card in a Canon G11 and was quite impressed with the speed and ease of use. After following a few simple directions for installing the software on my laptop, I was ready to connect to my wireless network. When prompted during the installation, I provided the network information and password and it connected. I then inserted the card into the G11 and began taking pictures. As long as the camera was on and within range of the laptop it would automatically download the images to a user-specified directory. I did have to lengthen the standby time setting on the camera so that the camera wouldn’t go to “sleep” before completing a download. It was simply amazing that the transfer occurred whenever there were images on the camera that hadn’t been downloaded and the camera was on!

Eye-Fi has several models of media cards that are compatible with many makes and models of compact cameras. The best thing to do is check their website for compatibility. If you don't capture raw files, or you can use the card in a second media slot to which you save only jpg files, then you may be able to use a model other than the Pro X2 version and save some money. If, however, you want to transfer raw files, then you’ll need the Pro X2 as it is the only card that will transfer raw files.You may also want to keep a spare charged battery on hand because extended use may affect the battery life. While I didn’t test the range limit of the card, the company publishes that indoors the card should have range of approximately 45 feet, with a 90 foot range outside.

If your camera has an SD slot, check out the Eye-Fi website for compatibility. It’s possible that you could be shooting and downloading wirelessly in the very near future!

Editor's note: Eye-Fi announced their new Direct Mode on Jan. 4, which enables users to send their digital images directly to a smart phone or tablet using the card and a free Eye-Fi app. Look for a review of this new technology in an upcoming post here in Web Exclusives.

By Stan Sholik

Is portrait retouching software worth the investment or should you stick with what you have? We compared the process, advantages and limitations, comparing Anthropics Portrait Professional and Adobe Photoshop CS5 (and a subsequent comparison using Craig's Actions).

Portrait retouching is far more art than science. Even with a firm intent in your mind for the final form of a project, there are many paths to that end. This article will explore two popular portrait retouching paths, Anthropics Portrait Professional v9 and Adobe Photoshop CS5. I hope when we are finished that you will see the advantages and disadvantages of each technique and maybe learn a few tricks along the way.

The image I have chosen is a capture I made in the studio of a high school student. She’s a California girl with freckles and skin issues that will make the retouching interesting. My intent is not to produce a poreless high-fashion portrait, but rather one that is faithful to reality while minimizing any skin issues. Admittedly, once I was into it, I did take liberties to tweak reality. My goal was to complete the retouching using Portrait Professional and Photoshop in the same amount of time, though I doubted it could be done. I’ll start with Portrait Professional.

But before we get started I want to have the original image correctly color balanced. I had the model hold an X-Rite ColorChecker Passport for one of the captures (above, click image for large view). After importing the RAW files into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, I used the eyedropper to select a neutral balance with one of the gray patches. Then using the exposure slider I adjusted the lightest patch (red circle) to 95%/95%/95% and the darkest patch (blue circle) to 10%/10%/10%. But neutral color balance is always too cool for a portrait in my opinion, so I selected the eyedropper again and clicked on one of the warming patches (orange circle) for my final color balance. I then processed the portrait to an 8-bit RGB TIFF.

By Ron Dawson

In the fall of 2008, the world of professional photography was introduced to the world of professional video in a way that it never had been before. Nikon released the very first DSLR capable of shooting high definition video, the D90. It was a camera that had the potential to revolutionize the pro photo world. There was one problem: a pre-production camera in the works by another little Japanese company by the name of Canon. That camera was the EOS 5D Mark II. There was also this award-winning photojournalist by the name of Vincent Laforet who was in the right place at the right time and got access to the aforementioned pre-produciton camera. Vincent spent $5,000 of his own money to make a short film called “Reverie.” From that moment on, Canon was the hands down winner in the video DSLR world, a full six months before the camera would even be available for purchase. Today the 5D is synonymous with video DSLR filmmaking. So much so that there are video forums about DSLR filmmaking named after the 5D (e.g. Planet5D.com, cinema5D.com, and 5DFilmmaking.com).

So what went wrong? Why didn’t the D90 become the defacto winner despite the fact that it was out first, and had the backing and video work of another well-known, heavily followed photographer by the name of Chase Jarvis? I think the most commonly accepted answer is twofold. First, the D90 used an inferior video compression scheme (Motion JPEG vs. Apple’s h.264). Second, and perhaps even a bigger deal, it only shot 1,280x720p, as opposed to full sized HD at 1,920x1,080p.

Since the release of the 5D Mark II, Canon has come out with four more amazing video-capable DSLRs—the 1D Mark IV, the 7D, the 550D/T2i and now the 60D). People have wondered what Nikon would do to play catch-up. Nikon has finally answered that call and released the Nikon D7000: a mid-level prosumer camera that finally shoots 1080p and uses the h.264 codec. But is it enough to give the Canon line of video DSLRs a run for their money? Let’s see.

By Kirk R. Darling

I’ve been conducting sales sessions in my clients’ homes for four years using a tabletop digital projector. There are significant advantages to in-home sales sessions, but the disadvantage is that my “sales room” is like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: I never know what I’m going to get.

That demands great flexibility, which until recently for me has meant being prepared to show images on my laptop, on my clients’ own home theater screens, or with my projector. Using the projector usually meant projecting on the client’s wall with the projector on a tripod-mounted platform, but I also kept a collapsible 50-inch tabletop screen handy. It took more set-up time than I liked, but compared to showing paper proofs, the time and trouble had been worth it.

That was the past. Now I have a new tool that has eliminated the set-up, reduced my gear load, and improved sales. I replaced my tabletop projector with a pocket-sized pico projector a few months ago, and the reception from my clients has been enthusiastic—and profitable.

My new projector is the Optoma PK201 Pico Pocket Projector ($270-$300 street price), a battery-powered projector more compact than an exposure meter. 

Image ©Kirk Darling

I like using this pocket projector, but I’ll tell you the bad news first. The Optoma PK201 is rather dim (20 lumens output from its 20,000-hour LED light source), it has harsh contrast (2000:1), and its color accuracy can be slightly off. In addition, the fixed focal length lens has a “throw ratio” of 1:2.2, which means that I sometimes have to stand farther than I’d like from the wall.

By Ellis Vener

In general I haven’t been a fan of the sling type camera bags I’ve tried so far. Either there is trouble with accessibility, feeling comfortable, or both. One issue is that all of the ones I’ve tried before were designed to be carried all of the time over only just one shoulder. The Think Tank Photo Sling-O-Matic bags differ because they're more of a case-like design instead of being based on the messenger bag design, and you can switch the load from the left to right shoulder with no fuss. When you’re carrying a heavy load over just one shoulder, you want to be able to switch sides periodically to balance out the wear and tear on your body.

This is essentially a rigidly framed top-loading, rectangular dual-compartment camera and laptop case with a single permanently attached body sling strap. The front, sides and bottom are rigid with a little padding; the top is padded but soft. It's equally suitable for electronics or small lighting and grip gear. On the outside there are two large flat document compartments, one on the front and one on the back, and a narrower one on the top of the main compartment. On the inside of the top flap there is a fourth flat zippered compartment with a clear window. There are are two handles as well. A bag this compact should fit with no problems in the overhead bin of a puddle jumper commuter jet, but I haven't actually tried it.

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP

Controlling the areas of an image which are in focus and out of focus is a powerful aesthetic tool in the hands of a skilled artist. There are times, however, when it’s not always possible to obtain the exact amount of focus while capturing the image (in camera) due to the limitations of your equipment. That’s where Alien Skin Bokeh 2 Photoshop plug-in may come in handy. As defined in Alien Skin’s manual, “bokeh (derived from the Japanese ボケ味) refers to the visually distinctive character of the out-of-focus areas of a photograph. Alien Skin’s Bokeh plug-in is a realistic lens simulator that allows you to alter the focus characteristics of a photograph after it has been taken. It also lets you creatively focus the viewer’s attention to any part of your photograph by applying a combination of blurring and vignettes.”

The Bokeh interface is laid out in an easy to understand, easy to navigate way. It is so easy, in fact, that I was able to launch the software and begin applying it to images without reviewing the manual. Figure 1, below, shows the settings tab with many of the factory settings displayed. For the image of Erica, I’ve chosen to apply the effect of a Canon 50mm f/1.8. There are many, many looks available, including fast lenses such as the popular Canon 85mm f/1.2 and the Nikon 300mm f/2.8. In addition to traditional lens blurring, there are a whole host of creative blur possibilities. The Setting tab also includes creative apertures that produce heart-shaped highlights. If hearts are not your fancy, you can choose from diamonds, triangles or stars. Several motion blurs, grains and vignettes are also possible.

Figure 1. (click for large view)

 By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

If you have trouble keeping on top of all the new software developments as they roll out, you may want to consider video training. Last month, I reviewed an Adobe Press training video on Photoshop CS5, and in this review, I’m going to evaluate their training video on Lightroom 3.

Learn Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 by Video contains 10 hours of high-quality training, as well as a printed reference book. Together, these resources cover the fundamentals of using Lightroom, as well as highlight what’s new since Lightroom 2.

When you insert the DVD into your computer, you’ll see an easy-to-understand welcome interface:

This welcome page of the DVD provides you with easy access to the table of contents, a shortcut to “play all” videos, an introduction video featuring your instructors (Tim Grey and Mikkel Aaland), and even links to the “extras” contained on the DVD.

By Ron Dawson

If you want to be a serious DSLR filmmaker, it’s imperative that you capture high-quality audio to a separate device, like the Zoom H4N, one of the most widely used digital audio recorders by DSLR filmmakers.

The H4N records to the popular SD/SDHC card format and comes with a 1GB card. It can record up to four separate channels of audio in formats from low-quality .mp3 or high-quality 96k, 24-bit .wav files for true audiophiles. If you’re using it for video, record at the 48k/16-bit setting. That is the sample rate and bit-depth of digital video, and a 1 GB SD card can hold just under 90 minutes of audio at that setting.

The Zoom is not a device you can just pick up and start using. I am pretty adept at gizmos and gadgets, but even I had to pick up the manual to figure out how to access and use the various menus. Give yourself 30 minutes to an hour to peruse the main parts of the manual and get familiar with the H4N. Once you’ve done that, using it will be a breeze.

The H4N has built-in mics at its top and is designed to take two XLR audio inputs at the bottom for higher quality microphones. It also has a mini-jack mic connection. I use the Sennheiser Evolution G2 (or G3) series microphone. It’s rugged, with a metal casing, and a favorite among my colleagues.

What’s great about the H4N is that you can connect headphones to monitor sound. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Always monitor your audio to make sure everything sounds okay. Sometimes mics short out, or the recording level dips in and out, and you need to hear that. Also, you have to hit the H4N record button twice: once to get it in standby mode (the red record button will blink and you’ll be able to hear audio) and once again to actually start recording. If you’re not hearing anything in your headphones, it could be you forgot to hit the record button. Once you do start recording, double check the screen to make sure you see the time counter progressing and that you are actually in record mode and not just standby mode.

The H4N has a great form, too. At 6 inches long and just under 2.5 inches wide, it's easy to handle and is compact enough to attach to your DSLR shooting rig. It’s powered by either two AA batteries, or with the AC adaptor that comes with it. WARNING: if you are using the device to capture a long, uninterrupted event like a bar/bat mitzvah, corporate speech, or seminar, make sure you have plenty of power. If the power runs out before you stop recording, the audio file won’t write to the card. For lengthy recording, use the AC adapter if at all possible. If you must use batteries, use fresh ones.

I absolutely love my Zoom H4N and won’t go to a gig without it. At just under $300, it’s a great investment.

By Ron Dawson

Have you ever seen “The Greatest American Hero?” It was an ’80s television show in which a mild-mannered teacher is visited by aliens and given a suit that gives him super-human powers, but he doesn’t know how to use it. Instead of looking heroic when he flies, he flops and flails as he zooms through the air.

As a filmmaker who does quite a bit of work in the professional photography industry, I get to see a lot of videos shot by aspiring photographers-cum-filmmakers. But like the hero, they have this powerful filmmaking tool in their hands, but they aren’t quite “flying right.”

With the flood of HD DSLR cameras, many of you have taken on the role of capturing video segments to enhance your artistry. This article will help you with one of the most crucial aspects of video production: audio acquisition.

AUDIO CAPTURE: Perhaps the single most prevalent issue I’ve seen with HD DSLR videos by newbies is poor audio acquisition—the audio recorded and used in the final production. Many photographers are using only the on-camera microphone for audio acquisition. The resulting end product sounds echo-y, or there’s significant obtrusive ambient noise (air conditioners, traffic noise, extraneous conversations). Even if you use a directional microphone like the Rode (a popular choice), you don’t always get the best results.

The reason is that the audio captured by DSLR cameras is highly compressed, and in many models there is no way to control the audio recording level. Many DSLRs are set to auto-gain, which means the volume of audio you record will go up and down depending on how loud the source is. If the source is very soft, the camera will automatically boost the levels and you get a hissing background sound, which is to audio what visual noise is to a high ISO setting. Some of the cameras (like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II) have released firmware updates that at least allow you to set your audio levels. But even so, you still get the compressed audio issue and that echo-y sound.

The Zoom H4N is a popular video recorder choice
for filmmakers and videographers.

By Stan Sholik

Equipment and software suppliers are continually providing photographers with a wide array of tools. The best photographic tools can point us in new directions by opening our minds to possibilities we had never considered before. Nik HDR Efex Pro is such a tool.

Nik is late in entering the HDR arena. There are a number of HDR programs with varying capabilities already available.

But not being first has allowed Nik to overcome many of the shortcomings of these early programs. HDR Efex Pro incorporates a number of tone mapping algorithms where most other HDR programs include only one. It offers a wide range of presets and quickly produces thumbnail previews of the presets using the image on which you are working. It includes a wide range of user adjustments to the built-in presets including the ability to save custom presets. And it incorporates Nik Software’s proprietary U Point technology that allows you to target HDR options to specific areas of the image. These features plus responsive operation, an elegant interface and more, make HDR Efex Pro the most powerful yet most user friendly HDR software currently available.

HDR Efex Pro incorporates Nik’s U Point tool that allows you to target adjustments to particular areas of the image. Here I used it to add additional structure to the clouds and to decrease the warmth of the clouds that was added by my choice of preset. Image ©Stan Sholik

Nik recommends installing HDR Efex Pro as a plug-in for 64-bit Adobe Photoshop and Bridge CS4 through CS5, or as a 32-bit or 64-bit plug-in for Lightroom 2.6 (or later) or Apple Aperture 2.1.4 (or later). While it will open as a stand-alone application, this is not recommended.

How you access HDR Efex Pro varies slightly depending on the host application you are using and whether you want to merge a series of images or work with a single image. In Photoshop, when merging single or multiple images, the best path is from the File>Automate menu. In other host software you can find the program in Aperture’s Photos>Edit with Plug-in menu, in Bridge it is found in the Tools menu and in Lightroom in the File>Export with Preset menu. The HDR Efex Pro multiple image Merge dialog is compatible with all 8- or 16-bit or RAW file formats supported by Photoshop. You can apply HDR Efex Pro to a single 8-, 16-, or 32-bit image from the File>Automate menu.

There are a number of ways to access HDR Efex Pro to merge images. I recommend right/Option-clicking on the series of exposures in Bridge and selecting “Merge to HDR Efex Pro” from the Nik Software dropdown menu. Selecting Nik Software>Merge to HDR Efex Pro from the Tools menu in Bridge accomplishes the same thing.

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP

The name Exposure doesn’t seem to adequately describe all the capabilities of Alien Skin’s Exposure 3 Photoshop plug-in. When I think of exposure, what comes to my mind is whether an image is properly exposed and if any adjustment, such as color saturation, brightness and contrast is needed. Alien Skin Exposure3, however, is all that and much more!

Figure 1

Looking at the upper left of Figure 1 (click for large view) you can see that there are six tabs for the Color Films interface. In Figure 2 you can see that the separate Black and White interface has seven tabs. The extra tab in the B&W interface is for infrared adjustments. Looking again at Figure 1, you can see that the user interface is laid out in a logical manner with a minimalist approach. Don’t let the simplicity of the interface fool you; Exposure 3 has many powerful adjustments available to the user.

I appreciate the option to divide the viewing screen so that one portion of the screen shows the original while the other shows the enhancement applied. This allows me to see exactly what results my adjustments will yield. I also enjoyed how easy it is to engage the various settings. Selecting one of the + symbols on the list expands the tree, revealing the many film effect options.

I was amazed at the quantity of factory settings. On the Alien Skin website they claim that this software has more than 500 analog techniques! That combined with the ability to make custom adjustments offers the user a tremendous amount of variety. And being in business to make a profit and not just take pretty pictures, you know that the more variety you can offer your client, the more potential sales you have!

By Kirk R. Darling

I’ve had a longstanding love-hate relationship with Photodex ProShow Gold. I love the degree of control it gives me over the slideshows I create as sales tools and final products; I hate the time and effort it takes to create even simple slideshows. I tried Animoto, which is quite quick and easy, but those slide shows always left me with a desire to tweak them just a bit here and there. I wished for something that would give me push-button ease with as little or as as much control as I wanted.

Photodex has released version 4.5 of ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer with a great deal of hoopla over their new Instant Show wizard. (If you're not familiar with the term, a wizard is software application feature that guides you through a process.) So I downloaded the upgrades and was off to see if Photodex's wizard could grant my wish.

The wizard operates the same way in both Gold and Producer. It opens with a default dialog box providing a choice of the Instant Show wizard, opening an existing show, or creating a new show manually (Figure 1).

Figure 1 

Creating a new show with the wizard is a four-step process. The first step is to add the images to the show. If you want a text-only title slide, click first on the Text button and type the text you want. You cannot format the text; the wizard will select a text format and style according to the show theme you'll select later. Press Add, and a navigator window opens to search for images. In the wizard window, you can drag images to the sequence you want or click the "Randomize button to let the wizard decide the order. The Rotate button allows you to rotate an image.

By Joan Sherwood, Senior Editor
Images ©Cheryl Pearson

This supplement includes additional interface illustrations along with the iPad portfolio app review published in the November 2010 issue of Professional Photographer magazine.

The clear, gorgeous display screen of the Apple iPad makes it an ideal mobile presentation device for photographers—it can really draw a crowd. The iPad’s native Photos app, though, with only a simple slideshow function, doesn’t offer much for professional branding, utility and customization.

The iPad was released in April, so apps designed for it are relatively new as well. Because new apps tend to be updated frequently, we contacted the developers of the four reviewed here to get the scoop on what features to expect in upgrades planned for release before November.

With all four, you have to add images one at a time from a photo picker to the app’s library; a tap on the thumbnail loads the image. The current iPad OS doesn’t support a select-all function to import a folder of images from your iPad photo albums. The new iOS4 might have improvements, but it will be awhile before it’s available for iPad. The iPad also has a RAM fragmentation problem. If you’ve been using it with lots of different apps, any crashes you get are likely due to the iPad, not one of these apps. Just restart.

It’s best to downsize your photos before transferring them to the iPad. Syncing a folder of full-res photos takes its own sweet time, and large images will likely clog the system’s memory anyway. Find out if your portfolio app has a recommended image resolution; you’ll probably be safe with 1,024 pixels on the long side.

FLEXFOLIOS

Flexfolios v 1.33 has a simple interface and a helpful reference manual accessible from the home menu. The app can be used to transfer documents between iPad and computer (music, video, pdfs, text files). You can “associate” one or more of these files with any image in your portfolio, but, for instance, you cannot play a single music file while you display a slideshow.

You can touch-and-drag up to 36 images in each portfolio. The most efficient way to build a portfolio is bottom-up, so start with the images you want to appear last. As you build, you’ll see only four images at a time; the rest are pushed offscreen to the right. To rearrange images, move them back to the picture library, slide the portfolio images to the new insertion spot, then move the image back in. You could also move the four images in view. Reordering images in the picture library is easy.

There’s currently no auto-play slideshow option; instead, you advance the images by swiping left or right. You can select a background color or custom image. You can choose to view vertical images side-by-side when they’re next to each other in the collection. You can also set up 700x400- pixel e-cards to send out to prospects. 

In the works: a slideshow mode and VGA compatibility to connect the iPad to a projector or display.

Price: $9.99. flexfolios.com

Flexfolios Info setup interface

Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Being a female photographer has its disadvantages when carrying things over your shoulder. Before trying out Black Rapid's new Women's strap (RS WS-1), I would sling my "normal" strap over my head and shoulder with the strap crossing my body diagonally. This presented a few challenges. Aside from having to struggle to get my camera up from my hip to shooting position, I also struggled with the strap smashing me uncomfortably across the bustline.

The Black Rapid’s WS-1 strap has eliminated both of these problems for me. I can sling the camera to my side easily now, and the unique design of the WS-1 (compared to the RS4, for example) allows the strap to be worn comfortably without squishing my bust. If you take a peek at the image below, you'll see what I mean. There's a little curve on the padded part of the strap that guides the strap to fall comfortably around a woman's curves rather than traveling directly over them (which can cause discomfort!).

As an added bonus, if you are pregnant and need to find a strap that doesn't have your camera rest on your ever-growing belly, the WS-1 is great for that as well!

If you're not familiar with how the Black Rapid strap system works, basically, you have a strap worn over the shoulder, and the camera is free to slide up and down the strap so you can let it hang at your hip, or quickly pull it up to shooting position. The strap has a D ring that screws shut and attaches either to the included camera mount ring, or simply clips onto the ring of the mounting plate for your tripod. I chose the latter method, as it makes it easy to switch between tripod work and on-the-go shooting.

I did find one caveat: the unique curve that makes this strap what it is also restricts which shoulder you can wear your camera on. Meaning the strap will work if you want your camera to fall at your right hip, but not so well for left hip. Obviously most photographers will want the camera on their right side, but just in case you're one of the minority, this is your fair warning. It's not a flaw, just something to be aware of!

The Women's Black Rapid strap can be ordered directly from Black Rapid's website and retails for $59. A great deal if you ask me.

Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP, has a portrait studio in Dexter, Michigan (BPhotoArt.com); she shares tips and ideas for photographers at LearnWithBetsy.com.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

I am a fan of learning how to use software to its fullest extent.  By learning shortcuts and efficiency tricks, you can speed up your workflow and reduce the time you spend in front of a computer.

With that goal in mind, I decided to see what I could learn by watching the Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learn By Video DVD offered by Adobe Press. The video is the only approved video courseware for those individuals looking to become an Adobe Certified Associate, and packs in 21 hours of visual training. It is packaged with a printed book that contains supplemental information such as the DVD table of contents, what’s new in CS5, keyboard shortcuts, a glossary and more.

The DVD contents greet you with an easy-to-understand interface:

The welcome page of the DVD is divided into three sections. On the left is an overview of the DVD contents. You can choose to play all videos, or navigate to specific sections and watch videos based on your learning needs. The center area introduces you to your instructors (Kelly McCathran, Scott Citron and Ted LoCascio), while the right sidebar informs you that the DVD also comes equipped with extra content:

• Tutorials to Go: videos formatted for viewing on your mobile device. If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll want to copy the .mov files to your device; if you’re an Android user, copy the .3gp files to your device.
• Assets: various files are provided in case you want to work alongside the instructors using the same images they are using. This can be helpful if you are someone who learns by doing.

By Curtis Joe Walker

Joby Gorillapods are a weird animal. They’re short, ungainly, weird looking and often impractical. At the same time, they’re expertly designed for those specialized, rare instances when a regular tripod won’t do. For the last three years or so, I’ve struggled to figure out what one might be. After spending a week with this one, I know what it is: macro photography.

Having just spent some time with a normal tripod, trying to get good angles, I learned that hovering over a black widow spider in the middle of the night is hard enough without having to worry about tripod legs and balance. The Gorillapod Focus really proved itself in this situation. Its legs are short, but tall enough to get my camera above the arachnid. They’re flexible enough to let me get the camera as close to the ground as I want, but stiff enough to eliminate camera shake. With an overall height of 11.4 inches, it’s not going to work for everything, but for this, it’s a champ.

By Stan Sholik

Interest in high dynamic range (HDR) imaging has spawned a number of new and innovative software products for photographers, including Unified Color’s HDR Expose software, reviewed here earlier this summer. But these HDR solutions are all standalone programs, and many photographers are so comfortable with the available tools in Adobe Photoshop that they are reluctant to purchase software that requires them to leave Photoshop and open another program. For casual HDR users this may be especially true now that Merge to HDR PRO is included as part of Photoshop CS5.

For these photographers, Unified Color’s introduction of the 32 Float plug-in for Photoshop offers a solution. 32 Float expands the limited Photoshop 32-bit toolset and allows the user to perform advanced image editing in the 32-bit workspace. While the tools in 32 Float are identical to those in HDR Expose, 32 Float lacks the ability to merge captures into a 32-bit HDR image—Photoshop Merge to HDR or another HDR program must be used for this task.

Once you open a 32-bit file in Photoshop, you open 32 Float from the Filter>Unified Color drop-down menu (above). Your image reopens in a separate window. The interface is virtually identical to that of HDR Expose but with a smaller toolset since it does not need to handle the image merging functions.

The Preferences dialog box allows you to select the option of saving your result as a separate layer in your original image. This is useful for many HDR images.

The HDR Brightness Histogram show the full range of values in the 32-bit image. The lighter gray section of the histogram shows the range of values that would be present in the lower bit image with the current settings. For this image, some shadow values at the tail of the curve and lots of highlight values at the right of the curve will be clipped. Note the valley where midtones should be that make this a particularly difficult image to correct.

The top of the tool panel on the right is dominated by the interactive HDR histogram (above). This visual aid shows the full range of values in the 32-bit image with a lighter gray area representing the subset of these values that would be present in an 8-bit or 16-bit (lower bit range) image. 32 Float gives you the tools to adjust your image so that the values you want to reproduce in a lower bit value image lie within the lighter gray range of the histogram. The zoomable preview image that dominates the center of the interface allows you to preview the visual effect of your adjustments.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Photographers often turn to presets and actions to help them save time during the editing phase of their workflow, but sticking to the same effects job after job can be stifling.  Vintage Delish is the latest Lightroom preset bundle from Kubota Imaging Tools. This set of 42 presets provides you with a variety of options to enhance your images, ranging from subtle aged image effects and warming tones to cross-processing and strong vignettes.

If you are tired of ordinary image effects, then look into these Vintage Delish effects as a way to spice things up. I tested these presets out on some of my portraits and discovered that, while I’m not a fan of every last preset in the set, there are definitely some that I enjoy, and they add a subtle enhancement to the image. Some of the more dramatic and drastic preset effects may be useful for particular types of images, so I understand the necessity for a range of presets.

It would be impractical to show you examples of all 42 presets, so I’ve chosen four effects that I think work well. Take a peek at the before and after versions I created using Lightroom 3 and the Kubota Vintage Delish presets.

The first preset is called “Zero it Out.” It adds contrast, pop, and color saturation to help an average image transform into something with a little more oomph.

©Betsy Finn

This post shows additional product illustrations for Stan Sholik's review of the Mamiya RZ33 Kit, published in the October issue of Professional Photographer magazine.

By Stan Sholik

All images ©Stan Sholik

Professional photographers want reliable equipment they can count on long-term, that won’t be rendered obsolete by the next new thing. PhaseOne (through its Mamiya and Leaf operations) has stepped in to help provide that for owners of Mamiya RB67 and RZ67, as well as newcomers to mediumformat digital photography.

The RZ33 digital camera kit upgrades those cameras for cordless digital operation. RZ67 users can still use all their existing accessories, including the film backs and power winder, on the upgraded body. RB67 owners can use the kit to upgrade to a digital system that will feel totally familiar, although they’ll need to get RZ lenses. And the newcomers get yet another digital camera option that includes a broad range of superb leaf-shutter-equipped lenses.

The RZ33 kit comprises an updated Mamiya RZ67 Pro IID body and Mamiya DM33 digital back. All you need do is attach a lens, load a CF card, charge the DM33 battery, and start shooting. The RZ33 body looks identical to the RZ67, but the body in the RZ33 kit has updated communications boards and a new digital integration plate between the body and the back. These enable the body and back to communicate without external cables, thus making setup simpler and operation more reliable. 

The RZ33 kit with the bellows slightly extended.

By Ellis Vener

1. The Content Aware Spot Healing Brush. It works great on faces and makes many of the retouching techniques I used prior to PsCS5 obsolete. On the down side, while it’s a marked improvement over the Spot Healing Brush in  Photoshop CS4, it doesn’t always do a perfect job, especially if your output is going to be large in size and high resolution. You still sometimes need to do some basic area selection or masking to limit the active area and prevent edge explosions when the spot you're retouching is up against a well defined area of different tone and color. And you still need to do a little cleanup work for a more invisible blend of the area you’ve spot healed with its surroundings. 

2. Content Aware Fill. I do a lot of stitched panoramic work where the edges of the composite are an irregular shape. For the foreground, I generally just crop, but boy, oh, boy does this work like magic for filling in the missing areas at the top and sometimes along the sides. Here’s how you do it: Shoot your over lapping frames (50-60% overlap works best, but sometimes 25-30% works, depending on the subject content) and then stitch them using your favorite stitching program. You may notice that some areas around the edges are empty. Rather than crop into the composite, try this: Select the Wand tool, click on an empty area to select it, and hit Delete. A dialog box (see below) will pop up and ask if you want to fill in the area using Content Aware Fill (yes). As with Content Aware Spot Healing, it’s not perfect yet  but it's getting there.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

While I love creating images for my clients, I admit that the retouching phase of my workflow can be a little tedious. The key to turning a profit is minimizing the time you spend behind the computer. But you also want to turn out an amazing final product. We all struggle with finding that a fine line between perfection and “good enough no one else will notice but you.” Fortunately, Digital Anarchy has developed Beauty Box to help you accomplish practical retouching without spending hours fine tuning things for minimal improvement.

After using Beauty Box on a few images, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this Photoshop Plug-in was able to approximate the skin smoothing techniques I desired, while maintaining adequate detail for my taste. Prior to Beauty Box, all the automation techniques I’d tried made my subjects appear to have plastic skin (due to the loss of detail).

The Beauty Box plug-in operates within Photoshop (see interface below): 

I appreciated the simplicity of the interface layout, as well as the easy access to all controls (and any presets you choose to save). The plug-in starts with a default smoothing control, but you can tweak three variables to achieve your personal preference for smoothness: smoothing amount, smoothing radius, and skin detail amount.

Below the smoothing controls you'll find the masking controls. When you have “auto mask” selected, Beauty Box will automatically mask every image you open. I found it did a decent job of isolating the skin tonal ranges, but you can easily select “show mask” to confirm whether it has rendered the mask properly for a given image. Everything masked in white will have the Beauty Box filter applied to it; shades of gray will have the filter partially applied, and anything masked in black will remain untouched by the filter.

By Ellis Vener

Shortly after turning in my review of the PocketWizard ControlTL system, I took delivery of a PocketWizard PowerST4 receiver and had a chance to try it out with an Elinchrom Style RX300 monolight, courtesy of the rental department at Professional Photographic Resources in Atlanta.

Before we proceed, I want to quickly recap the difference is between the two ISO standards for flash duration measurement and why these numbers are important to you, especially if you want to use a high-power flash at settings faster than your camera’s X-Sync limit.

An electronic flash works by releasing stored electrical energy into light and heat during a very brief period of time, but unless it is an IGBT-controlled flash (most hot-shoe-mounted speedlights are IGBT controlled, as is the Paul C. Buff Einstein 640, the Photogenic Solaires, and the Broncolor Grafit and Scoro pack and head systems),  the light intensity varies varies during the time the flash is firing. The rise and dropoff of the energy release resembles the cross section of a powerful wave: there’s a near vertical upward slope rising to the peak output level, followed by a trailing tail of declining force. With IGBT-controlled lights at any setting below full power, the light cuts off sharply, depending on the flash's programming.

When a flash manufacturer advertises or provides specs for its lights, they can use either of two ISO standards for measuring the flash duration. The most commonly used standard is t0.5, which measures the length of time the flash is producing light at or above 50 percent of peak intensity at a given power setting. The other standard is t0.1, and it tells you how long the flash is emitting light at or above 10 percent of peak intensity. Another way to think about this is to think of the t0.1 measurement as being equivalent to a shutter speed setting’s ability to freeze motion. If you want to know how well a flash can freeze motion, unless t0.1 is specified, multiply the advertised F.D. by 3.  In other words if the advertised F.D. is 1/900, the t0.1 will be close to 1/300.

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP 

The new Sigma APO 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM lens with its 10X zoom range is one impressive lens. Sigma pitches this lens as the “all-in-one” dream lens, especially for nature photographers. It’s also suitable for landscape photography and has enough zoom for photographing wildlife. I have to agree with Sigma.

This lens is designed for full-frame DSLRs, but also functions with cameras with APSC- size sensors. Using the 50mm setting (a 35mm focal-length equivalent to 80mm on my Canon 40D), I photographed a nuthatch in a tree (Figure 1). As you would expect, it’s tough to even find the bird in the image. Zooming to the telephoto end of the range, 500mm (the equivalent of 800mm on my Canon 40D), I was able to capture the nuthatch in great detail (Figure 2).

By Marianne Drenthe

Educational materials for children’s photographers are a common sight these days and with good reason … there seems to be big business in showcasing the in’s and out’s of this specialty in photography. With so many photographers opening up shop, an equal number of established pros are getting in on the teaching game. It can be tough to know where to turn for good, solid, usable information.

I’ve seen some good, some bad (ok, awful) and some overpriced educational materials. I have heard horror stories about poorly produced DVDs and instructional materials. I admit I may be particularly picky as I do some teaching as well, and I'm particular when it comes to my business and the art and skill involved with photographing children. When you adheres to stringent rules about your own work and what you produce, you tend to be equally hard on others.

“Inside Contemporary Children's Photography” with Tamara Lackey displays impressive quality. Once you begin, you are immediately sucked into Tamara’s world. Her speaking style is effervescent, friendly and instructional. This DVD is unique, in my opinion, because it’s filmed in an infomercial-like style; it’s the very why of how this DVD pulls you in and keeps you watching. Who can resist a good infomercial? Not me!

Though I was a bit leery to review a photo-education DVD because there’s so much out there that falls short, I’ve only heard good things about Tamara Lackey’s presentations, so I was excited to see what she had to share. Being confident in my own business and experience children’s photography, I was doubtful that I’d get anything new out of watching it. On this point, I was wrong because she gave some great tips.

By Stan Sholik

Photographers actively involved in high dynamic range (HDR) imaging often use different HDR programs for different images since each program has its own algorithm for tone mapping the multiple exposures into an image. Many of these programs are complex and non-intuitive and don’t accurately portray the final image until processing is complete.

HDR PhotoStudio from Unified Color Technologies, LLC, was different, offering a more intuitive and user-friendly approach. Unified Color has replaced that program with a much-improved one, HDR Expose, which is suitable for HDR beginners and advanced users alike.

The user interface in Expose has undergone major revisions from the PhotoStudio version, and all for the better. It now boasts the visual styling of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture and other imaging programs, although the keyboard shortcuts are generally different. HDR Expose allows the export of source images from Lightroom and Aperture directly to the program. And when you have completed your HDR composite, Expose exports the image back to whichever program you used to send them for processing.

But the biggest change and the greatest improvement lies in the addition of a Brightness Histogram at the top of the Tool Panel. The Brightness Histogram displays not only the tonal distribution of the entire 32-bit image, but also, with a lighter toned gray region, the section of the curve that will display in the final image.

This is the final result of combining five exposures in HDR Expose and going for a “natural” look. The exposures were bracketed one stop apart. No exposure even came close to having the balance of foreground and sky exposure that is present in this final image. ©Stan Sholik

A custom viewfinder mask to save time and money

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP

Every now and then you encounter a product that falls into the category of “nice to have,” but for one reason or another, it just doesn’t make your priority list. Initially for me, a custom viewfinder mask was such a product. I could see the reason to own one and the potential value, but higher priorities and price kept me from making the investment of $195. Boy, was I wrong to delay!

Now that I have a custom viewfinder mask from ViewfinderMasks in my camera, I am convinced that it is one of those must-have products that will make your post-production life easier and pay for itself in both time and money.

A custom viewfinder mask helps because a DSLR, or 35mm camera creates a 3:2 ratio image area, which translates to 4x6 or 8x12 image formats, while most professional portrait photographers print 4x5 or 8x10 images using a 4:5 ratio. The composition and cropping problem happens when you fill the frame with your 8x12 subject (Figure 1) and attempt to print the image on 8x10 media.

Figure 1: Composing your image without a viewfinder mask,
you tend to fill the frame with your subject …

Part of the image must be cropped off at one or both ends (Figure 2). It is especially difficult to create a pleasing portrait when some of the head and body has to be cropped and the frame is filled mostly with the subject’s face.

Figure 2: … but when you print, you have to crop one or both ends. Images ©Don Chick

 By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

You might be familiar with SimpleViewer already. The SimpleViewer product family is the brainchild of web developer Felix Turner of Airtight Interactive and offers user-friendly Flash galleries that you can download and use for free (or upgrade to the Pro version for more features). I'm familiar with the free versions, and I wanted to find out if the added Pro Features, or svManager, might be worth it in the long run.

First off, let me do a run through of all the SimpleViewer products. Then I’ll discuss the benefits of the Pro options and dig a little deeper into using svManager.

SimpleViewer, TiltViewer, AutoViewer, and PostcardViewer are all Flash image-viewing galleries (templates of a kind). Each one has a slightly different feel and look, but all are designed with simplicity in mind. svManager is an interface that allows you to easily create galleries with any of the four gallery templates. 

SimpleViewer

By Stan Sholik

An efficient workflow is only a dream for most portrait and wedding photographers. Too little time is spent behind the camera relative to the time spent in front of a computer monitor. Preparing proofs for client review, creating albums, taking and fulfilling print orders and making online web galleries are far more time intensive than the photography itself, yet are not billable hours.

So it wasn’t surprising that, at the PMA trade show this year, the largest category of products I saw were offerings designed to create an efficient workflow for photographers, labs and retail outlets. One of the foremost among these offerings is DigiLabs Pro software.

DigiLabs is a market leader in creating online front-end ordering systems for photo labs. Several of the leading labs are using DigiLabs software, but with the lab’s own branding so that you are unaware of the actual origin of the software.

DigiLabs Pro software is a combination and major upgrade of their previous My Photo Books and My Photo Calendar & Cards software that were licensed to private-label partners and the previous DigiLab application used by professional photographers.

Using DigiLabs Pro software, photographers can create studio-branded web galleries and a wide range of photo products. The web galleries allow studio customers to view and order photo products online from their computer or iPhone. Available photo products include flush mount albums, coffee table books, proof books, calendars, greeting cards, and canvas gallery wraps, as well as photo prints and enlargements.

Digilabs offers a a number of calendar options, including custom design; a range of products including greeting cards, event cards and announcements; and photo books are available in a range of sizes and cover treatments, printed on digital presses on heavy paper stock. Photos courtesy of DigiLabs.

What sets DigiLabs Pro apart from other competing software is how fast and easy it is to use. With a common, clean interface for all available products and wizards included to guide you through the more complicated products such as photo books, it is quick to learn and easy to navigate.

DigiLabs has created an iPhone app that is available at no charge from the Apple iTunes store. This allows your clients to view their web gallery and order prints on their iPhone. Images courtesy of DigiLabs.

By Bob Zimmerlich, CPP

A few days after picking up the new iPad with 3G service at a local Apple store here in Phoenix, I was on my way to New York unexpectedly for a funeral of a close family friend. Since I was packing light, I thought this would be a good test to see if the iPad could replace my heavier MacBook Pro on a short trip since I wasn't planning on any photography related work.

Just after I arrived at JFK my sister asked if I could do a headshot of her for her new startup business. My judgment must have been thrown off by the red-eye flight, because I said, “Sure, absolutely,” without a second thought. Problem was, I didn't have any of my gear, not even a camera. That's OK she said, she had a Canon Elph point-and-shoot. Now I'm thinking, oh, golly, gee whiz, sis—that will be swell (thinking in 1950s terms being the more civil alternative to cussing).

Since I wanted to use natural light, I downloaded an app called PhotoCalc onto the iPad to see when sunset on Long Island would be, then checked the local radar with the WeatherBug app's visible satellite radar loop. Seeing that clouds would be rolling in from the west by 5 p.m., and knowing the limitations of her camera, I knew we would want to finish the shoot inside with window light before then. With some proper positioning, a sheet of white foam board as a reflector and a rigged tripod, the shoot went well considering the situation.

Now for a little post processing, but without my trusty MacBook Pro what could I do? I thought, let's put this iPad to a real test.

By Cheryl Pearson

Photographers today are always looking for products that will provide them with a quicker, more efficient way of streamlining certain tasks. I recently tried out onOne Software’s Genuine Fractals 6 plug-in, which is designed to resize and enlarge images up to 1,000 percent without losing sharpness or detail.

A lot of photographers use Adobe Photoshop’s Bicubic Interpolation method in the Image Size dialogue box to resize images, but there can be a noticeable loss of fine detail or sharpness. Some use an incremental upsizing process that is reported to produce a better result than enlarging with a single step. You can create an action that will enlarge the image in 5-percent increments until the desired size is achieved. Although this approach may work, I’d prefer a tool that does it for me, to any size I need, and produces a great result. Genuine Fractals does that by enlarging and optimizing images for high resolution output, and has a few additional tools that make it worth looking into.

I re-scaled a 5x7 image to 25x35 using Image Size dialogue in Photoshop, set to Bicubic Smoother. I engarged the same 5x7 image using Genuine Fractals. I viewed both at 100 percent and focused in on one aspect of the image. While the difference is more difficult to see in this screenshot, the image on the right was re-scaled in Photoshop and the image on the left was upsized in Genuine Fractals. Photoshop’s Bicubic Interpolation method produced acceptable results, but I felt the image resized in Genuine Fractals was slightly sharper with more crisp detail and less noise. (Click image for large view.)

Genuine Fractals can be accessed in Photoshop in two ways: from Photoshop via File > Automate or from the onOne drop-down, next to Help, in Photoshop’s menu bar. With Photoshop CS5 you can have the onOne plug-ins in a floating menu palette that can be docked in with the other Photoshop palettes.

Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to test out three Tenba camera bags in the field. 

• Messenger Camera Bag
• Shootout Ultralight Photo Backpack
• Messenger Photo Daypack

Each has its own advantages, and best uses.  

Tenba’s Messenger Camera Bag is a typical over-the-shoulder bag with plenty of pockets and lots of organization. I found this bag fit best with my everyday working habits. I was able to pack two camera bodies, three lenses (including telephoto), and three speedlights, with plenty of room to spare for my light meter, keys, and even some other gadgets. I found one of the end pockets to be just the right size to hold my three speedlights (though not padded, this pocket allowed for easy access and stowing).

The top flap has a quick-access zipper, as well as a “silent mode” flap that you can use to cover the Velcro closure. If you ever work in environments where being quiet is a necessity, you’ll really enjoy not having to worry about the invasive sound of Velcro pulling apart when you go into this bag. The bag has a front organizer with six compartments, as well as more organization for memory cards, keys, etc in the zippered pocket on the flap.

Finally, if you need to pick up this bag and don’t want to use the shoulder strap, there is a hand-carry strap as well. I have no complaints about my time spent using the Tenba Messenger Camera Bag – my camera may well have found a new “everyday” home!

The Tenba Messenger Camera Bag (above) retails for $129.95.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

The time finally came this year for me to replace both hard drives on my PC. No, I didn’t experience a data loss, and there was no catastrophe … It’s just that after five years of wear and tear, I could tell that my hard drives were no longer up to speed with the latest technology. Plus, I was running out of storage room.

So, my Tech Department (a.k.a. my husband) ordered the new parts for my computer, and I began the tedious process of backing up my data onto my external hard drives.

Now, when you’re working with a blank drive, it’s easy to copy all the files from the old location to the new location. But in this case, I already had some of the data backed up onto the external hard drive and needed to make sure that when my copying spree was over, I hadn’t missed anything in the process.

The tedious way of doing this involves manually opening each folder, counting the number of files, and cross-checking creation/modification dates. With 900+ GB of data, I knew there had to be a better, more efficient way.

Enter ExamDiff Pro. A friend had recommended the program to me, so I decided to check it out. And I can tell you, this program was a huge time saver!

In the June issue of Professional Photographer magazine, Ellis Vener reviewed the Einstein 640 monolight from Paul C. Buff. In this test, Ellis pushed the limits of the Einstein’s recycle speed. He captured 145 frames at 10 frames per second with the Einstein set to 18.7 watt-seconds. The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV exposures were set for 1/250 second at f/8, ISO 400, capturing large JPEGS recorded to a Lexar Professional 600X CompactFlash card. Ellis compiled the frame animation using Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended.

By Don Chick, M.Photog.Cr., CPP

The impressive Nissin Di866 flash is an economical flash option that deserves serious consideration from pro photographers. I tried it out at our annual NHPPA Conference in April and am excited to say that I was more than pleased with the results. I also found the backlit menu was easy to read in low-light conditions and, as a whole, the flash unit menu was easy to navigate while making any necessary changes on the fly.

©Don Chick

I spoke with photographer Steve Sedman about his experience with the Nissin flash on a recent job. Using fast lenses and the appropriate ISO settings, Steve was able to get several hundred flashes from the unit during the course of his event. He also found the ETTL wireless feature worked very smoothly. Comparing notes from our experiences, Steve and I agreed on many reasons photographers may want to purchase this flash. Our only notable negative comment was about the level of noise the flash makes as you adjust zoom settings.

On top of good performance, the reasonable $299 street price makes the Di866 a great buy. That’s nearly 40 percent less expensive than the street price of a Canon Speedlite 580EX II at $475.

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

I recently had the chance to try out The Polester, created by Longshot Camera Systems. It’s a “camera-on-a-stick” device that allows you to photograph things from a drastically different angle than you could achieve with your own reach (unless, of course, you are Stretch Armstrong).

The rig consists of a camera mount, triggering device with a retractable string (like an extendable dog leash) that extends down to the base of the pole. As you extend the pole, the triggering string remains slightly taut. When I received my review unit, I got a crash course on assembly. In short, you want the vertical portion of the trigger to hug the camera body as closely as possible. The little arm at the top of the trigger is meant to hover over the shutter, and by pulling on the string lightly, you can focus before pulling harder to take the shot.

The camera mount portion of the setup attaches to a double-action locking telescoping pole, which is very nifty. The pole has a handle with a release button, and it allows you to swiftly and easily extend the pole to the height you need.

Components of the Polester assembly. 

Here’s what it looks like when you have everything assembled. I have to say, the trigger mechanism is a very clever invention. ©Betsy Finn

By Betsy Finn, Cr.Photog., CPP

Finding the perfect camera strap is no easy feat. A number of elements go into this decision, including comfort, capability, and of course, style. Usually, you can find a strap with one or maybe two of these qualities, but it’s rare to find one that has all three. If you’re tired of sacrificing your fashion sense for comfort, or are ready for a camera strap that is comfortable to wear during long shoots, you may want to give Abie Camera Straps a chance.

Abie Camera Straps are both practical and fashionable. When you first hold one of these straps in your hand, you can feel the difference—I was impressed with the amount of padding in the strap, as well as the suppleness of the material. I fell in love with two designs in particular: subtle brown suede with an embossed motif, and a lighthearted yellow floral woven design.

By Stan Sholik

Since the introduction of the Phase One camera in 2009, the company has promised us leaf shutter lenses so that we can sync our strobes at shutter speeds higher than 1/125 sec. Their follow-up announcement later last year of a strategic alliance with famed optics manufacturer Schneider Kreuznach confirmed that the promised lenses would be soon forthcoming.

The new lenses are now here or on their way and along with them is a new camera body, the Phase One DF. Apparently the Phase One/Mamiya/Schneider group decided that the venerable Mamiya 645 body needed an update to efficiently incorporate the latest technology, and so the Phase One 645DF and its sister camera, the Mamiya 645DF, were born. While the two bodies are identical in nearly every way, the Phase One version is the one to have if you are a Phase One P40+ or P60+ user, as we shall see.

While the Phase One 645DF (DF) offers significant improvements over any previous 645 generation, one major loss is the inability to mount a film back on the camera. It’s always good to have a backup camera around anyway, so that could be any older Mamiya 645 body that would also take a film backs. Unfortunately, you couldn’t use the new leaf shutter lenses with this body.

While compatibility with film backs is lost, compatibility in other areas is improved. Unlike the latest Hasselblad cameras, the Phase One 645DF remains an open platform. This means that should there be a problem with the DF body, you can send it off for service and use your backup body or a rental until it returns. It also means that you can mount any Phase One or Leaf digital back that is compatible with a Mamiya body on the DF. As an aside, because Leaf is now a Phase One company, you can even use Capture One software with the Leaf backs.

At first glance the Phase One 645DF looks identical to the previous Phase One 645 body, but numerous changes have been made, some of them significant for professional photographers. ©Stan Sholik