I spend a lot of time reading on the Internet and I've found some
very interesting information. Every so often I'll add a new link
pointing to something that I've found fascinating or useful.
April 29, 2014
Yes, it's been that long since I've updated this site. Just
testing out some new web editing software as I've now migraged to a Mac.
Check out the CamRanger remote for your camera (Canon or Nikon).
November 21
Want to dress up your camera? Lots of smaller point and shoots could
use a little extra grip. How about that old SLR where the leather (or
faux leather) is worn out. Check out Camera Leather!
May 13 (2010)
One of my favorite comic strips - What the Duck - has just announced
their own camera strap. Turns out the vendor will also make a custom
strap for you! Check out HiKEY
Camera Straps.
July 8
Some of the newer cameras allow the user to micro adjust the automatic
focusing in the camera. There are even several products out there
to help you amoung them the LensAlign
from RawWorkflow.com. If you don't want to spend the $79 to $179
for this solution, there are several free methods discussed in an article from Northlight Images.
May 27
George
DeWolfe
George DeWolfe has been a photographer since 1964 and holds an MFA in
Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He studied with
Ansel Adams and Minor White in the 1970s, and studied Perception with
Dr. Richard Zakia. George has released a new plugin for use with black
& white photographs dubbed "PercepTool". Said to be based on
some 30 years of research and development, PercepTool is designed to
adjust the look of images, mimicking the processing of the human brain.
The idea behind the tool originated in a 1978 essay published by Dr.
Edwin H. Land, co-founder of the company which later became Polaroid
Corp.
February 18
I've often thought that it would be fun to play with a view camera but
all that film developing would be a problem. How about attaching a DSLR to the back of a view camera?
January 18, 2009
Looking for manual for that old camera? Mike Butkus Jr. has made a
hobby out of collecting, scanning and then posting them! At last count
he had over 2,500 manuals online. All he asks is a $3 donation per manual.
November 19
Ning - social
networking or just creating your own web page. Very easy and free.
October 24
Not photo related but timely: FactCheck.org
Real information and all sides of the story.
September 25
Dispair,
Inc. - dedicated to the relentless pursuit of dejection. If you've ever
seen the motivational posters, then these are the opposite. As they say
on the site - motivational posters don't work and our demotivational
posters don't work even better. And if you don't like their posters
then you can create your own. Also check out the t-shirts.
January 14
Ever want to calibrate the color on your monitor but didn't want to buy
a colorimeter? Check out Calibrize - a free program to do just that.
It's similar to the Adobe gamma program in how it operates but is
very easy to use and doesn't require a background driver. Far
better than nothing at all but not as good as a hardware system.
Also on the Calibrize site is a very nice primer
on color, color spaces and color management.
December 10
If you like interesting fonts for Photoshop check out dafont.com. Free and
easy to install.
December 3
This has nothing whatsoever to do with photography other than the fact
that I know the person that runs this site and they are a part-time
photographer. If you are dating or have ever had horrible dating
experiences, then check out ManSpam. Meant for the ladies but a good
place for the guys to see where the competition is missing the boat.
Hopefully you won't recognize yourself anywhere on the site!
October 13
MaxMax - these
guys remove anti-alias and infrared filters from cameras. Amazing
sharpness and color with the anti-alias filter removed but you'll get
moire patterns in some cases.
August 30
1 this one isn't photography related but when I watched it I was
laughing so hard I was crying. Called Animator vs. Animation it's a bit of animation
that's worth your time to watch. Be sure to press 'Play' twice.
August 29
Welcome back! Another good one via TOP -
Livelygrey.com
- "Trying to make sense of color..." Enjoy the color 'games'
as well.
May 6
If you shoot anything that's at somewhat of a wide angle, then check
out PTLens.
Good and very inexpensive software to correct distortions in the lens
and image.
May 2
As part of the photography
club I'm in we have monthly competitions and I need to mount and
mat a lot of prints. I've developed a spreadsheet to help me calculate
the settings on my mat cutter but Giorgio Trucco has developed a free
application to do the same: Matworks!
April 22
I've been know to shoot a few houses and only recently did I run across
a great site devoted to Real Estate Photography: Photography
For Real Estate
April 21
A friend
recently sent me a link to an image that he was submitting for review.
I liked the image but what really grabbed me was where it was -
up on JPG Magazine.
I liked it so much I've subscribed the the print version and the
first issue is wonderful. Mostly images and very little
advertising (and no 'blow') there are also a couple of good articles.
Good stuff for inspiration and learning.
January 19
From Photoshop Insider - Christiane Beaulieu shows after and before shots.
It's nice to see what some of the really good stuff looked like
straight out of the camera.
January 9
The Strobist strikes again: Photographer Scott
Smith has a neat website that takes the idea of the typical web
portfolio and kicks it up a notch by adding lighting diagrams
and how-to blurbs to many of the photos. It's well worth clicking
around a little.
January 7, 2007
The US government has comissioned a lot of photography over the years
and some of it is available to the general public from the Library of
Congress website - specifically the Prints
and Photography Reading Room. How would you like to download a .tif
file of a high resolution scan (55Mbytes) of Dorothea
Lange's "Migrant Mother"? Amazing stuff up there.
December 29
Via T.O.P. - National Geographic has a great article
on "Five ways to use the Web—the world's largest photo
gallery—to help you become a better photographer." A very good read
and lots of resources some of which are my favorites. I think that I
might have found a few new ones!
December 20
The Strobist
- an interesting blog for useres of dedicated flash units with lots of
good stuff. They even have the way to tighten
up the loose hotshoe on a Canon 20D. Wish I'd have found this site
before I had to figure that one out on my own.
I just found out about this site, went there last night, I have to say--it's a really nice resource (and community) for users of dedicated flash units. Lots of good info, nice articles, and tips on using flash. Definitely worth visiting if you're into flash and want tips on getting better results.Copyright 2006 Scott Kelby
December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day
If you check down the list you'll find a link to a giga-pixel picture.
As these things go there are now larger pictures out there. How about
3.8G? Check out xRez
for some amazing pictures and more importantly a viewer to look at them!
December 4
Lightroom from Adobe is becoming very popular. If you'd like some
assistance learning more about it check out Adobe
Lightroom Killer Tips.
November 15
Found an interesint site that's all about computer hardware and
included is an interesting performance benchmark using Photoshop as the
test application. See how fast your computer runs PS at DriverHeaven.net
October 15
Not exactly photography, but you have to be a
photographer of sorts to understand What The Duck.
Artist Aaron Johnson, who bills himself as "40% photographer, 60%
Photoshopper," has developed a Dilbert-style comic strip with a
photography focus. Called What the Duck, the first strip was posted in
July 2006 and follows the exploits of, well, picture-taking ducks.
A related sit to What the Duck is That's My Monkey - a place for digital photographers of all skill levels to hang out and share ideas about shooting better and
smarter. The monkey has been working hard to bring you handy
Photoshop actions, informative articles and lots of other stuff.
September 8
Last night at the Photo Venture Camera Club meeting we had a
presentation on depth of field. I enjoyed the presentation and resolved
to see if there was a program out there for my PDA (Windows version)
that I could use in the field to calculate DOF. What I found was
not only a DOF calculator, but a sun and moon position calculator, a
multi-step timer and an exposure guide all written by Jonathan Sachs.
Better yet, the applications are free! I've seen
another vendor selling the sun and moon position program for $400.
You can find them here.
September 2
I just found the Fine
Art Photography Gallery & Forum. Wonderful examples of
the masters works. You'll need a high speed connection, however.
March 25
There is a proposed change to the copyright laws that will severely
impact professional photographers. Please check it out at:
http://www.asmp.org/news/spec2006/orphan_faxcall.php
http://www.photoattorney.com/2006/03/proposed-change-to-copyright-law-may.html
March 16
One of the limitations of using dual monitors with Windows is that you
could only apply a color calibration profile to one monitor. That has
now changed as Microsoft has released the Color Control Applet for Windows XP. This is a
free download from the Professional Photography area of Microsoft.
Finally I can calibrate both of my monitors!
March 14
I've been taking an introductory B&W photography class to learn
darkroom techniques and got to thinking about making an 8x10 negative
on transparency film with my inkjet printer from a digital file to use
for a contact print in the darkroom. This would give me a
traditional silver print from a digital file. After looking
around I discovered Dan Burkholder's site specializing in just this
process! The information for digital negatives has it's own section. - Update -
It turns out that my instructor for Intro to B&W Photography
instructor - Mike Bowman - is a good friend of Dan's! - Update - I've
since discovered another site for digital negatives: Precision
Digital Negatives
January 2, 2006
Happy New Year! No link this 'week' but I've added a new page to
the menues for Photoshop
goodies.
December 7 - Remember Pearl Harbor!
The photography club is experimenting with Holga cameras. Holgamods is a
great place for more information.
December 1
A fellow club member told me tonight about a new site full of
interesting information - Radiant Vista. Looks good - check it
out.
November 30
A recent topic of discussion on a printer bulletin board was the
differences that people experience when viewing different colors.
One member pointed to a shareware program that will test a
persons color accuracy! It's from littlebitsmultimedia
and is called Visual Acuity and Color Vision Testing Software v1.01.
Shareware at $10. I tried the color test and only got
one wrong - but it was tough. See how well you can do.
November 19
Professional photographers, as well as serious amateurs, are always
looking for guidance on digital workflow and most appropriate
practices. UPDIG Working Group, an ad-hoc industry consortium
consisting of members such as ASMP, APA, NPPA and CAPIC has now
published a series of guidelines which will be found to be
very informative and useful. This includes a section on tools
and methods and another on workflow. There
is also a press ready PDF
of the information.
October 26
The Gigapxl Project
If you think you've seen a high resolution photo, check out this
site and you may have to change your definition. Incredible
stuff.
September 5
Ah the digital age. It used to be with film that when you
wanted to make a larger image of a negative you just moved the enlarger
farther away from the paper. Now you have to upsize your
digital image to avoid pixelation or other nasties that can
happen. Enter InterpolateTHIS.com. Dedicated
to: "making this site an open forum for all photographers, graphics
specialists, DTP, and even programmers to share their know-how,
information and tips. We want to enable everyone worldwide to get the
most out their digital images" it's very much worth a visit.
July 14
From Canon a site for beginners and their DSLR's: Enjoy Digital SLR Cameras
July 10
Hoodman -
Interesting accessories for cameras including a power grip for a D70,
hoods for the LCD on the back of you camera so you can see the screen
in bright light, hoods for your desktop and laptop monitors and more.
July 7
Ever wanted to shoot infrared with your DSLR? There are
several that will convert your camera to IR by removing the
filters. IRDIGITAL.NET is one of them.
April 7
For those of you that use Photoshop a lot you've probably started to
use the keyboard shortcuts. Here's
a page with printable pdf files of all of them. Thanks
to d. l. for this one.
March 3
I keep getting asked "How do I clean the sensor on my
DSLR?". There are a few good methods and one involves
actually touching the insides and cleaning it, not just blowing off the
dust. There is a very good tutorial
up on PBase that shows nice pictures and is the generally accepted
process to clean the sensor. There is more good information
on cleaning your sensor on Luminous Landscape.
February 26
I'm starting to use a new way to view my galleries - Simple
Viewer from Airtight. Best of all - it's
free. Currently the only picture gallery that I'm using
Simple View for is my Favorites.
There's a bug in GD v2 that prevents SV from automatically
generating thumbnails of the pictures but I expect that they'll
eventually fix it.
February 21
Time flies by... Ever been stopped and questioned while
photographing? I've run into this link in the past and just
ran into it again today in a discussion of the photographers rights in
photographing people in public places. Bert P. Kraggs is an
attourney and has published The
Photographer's Right - A Downloadable Flyer (Your Rights When Stopped
or Confronted for Photography) in both pdf and Palm Books
format. A very worthwhile read. Some have even
commented that they print it off and keep a copy in their camera
bag. I've never had the need for this but it's still good
stuff to know.
January 23
Action Central
For those Photoshop addicts out there check out this
site. Too many actions to contemplate. Have fun!
January 20
Think
Tank Photo
This should probably be under the Toys section, but I'm putting it here
instead. This is a new company that makes bags, belt and
waist systems. Founded by a former Lowepro designer their
stuff looks interesting.
January 14, 2005
Check out digitaltruth
photo source. Good source of all kinds of both film
and digital information. Thanks to Kathy Miller for finding
this one.
December 30
Along the lines of TS lenses, check out Lensbabies.
If this little gizmo doesn't get your creative juices going you
need help.
December 24
If you've ever thought about a tilt-shift lens for your camera, look at
Zork as
well. Very innovative alternatives to dedicated TS lenses.
December 22
I ran across this person's site as a tag line from one of his posts on
Rob Galbraith's Forums. Check out Neil Turner's site, specifically his techniques
section.
December 16
OK, it's not been a week yet but this one was too good to wait. From
and article in today's Indy Star Newspaper is Artistrunway.com
- a site dedicated to local Indianapolis artists. Please check them out
and sign up for their newsletter.
December 12
Shameless plug this week for one of my own sites: www.Clairich.com
A photographer friend of mine Claire Middleton and I have teamed up to start
shooting weddings. No content yet on the site but stay tuned. We have
images to show but are working on the presentation.
June 9
One of the first site I found several years ago was by Wayne Fulton
titled A few
scanning tips. What an understatement. I ended up purchasing his
printed copy of the information and learned a lot.
May 21
The topic this week is panoramic images (see the Toy of the Week). A
great place to start is Panoguide.com. There a lots of places to learn
this technique but this is a good place to get started.
May 10
Back to the basics. Luminous Landscape has a wonderful column by Alain
Briot on determining the proper exposure. This is
part six in his series on Aesthetics and Photography.
May 3
Adobe
Studio Exchange - Sponsored by Adobe this is a place where
you can find actions, plug-ins, extensions and tutorials for Photoshop
and other Adobe products.
April 26
The Art
of Photography from Phil Douglis. Absorb, enjoy and see if
you don't think about 'taking pictures' in a new way.
April 19
"Understanding Histograms"
One of the hardest parts of photography is getting the exposure just
right. With film we use light meters and then wait for the processed
film to examine how we did. With digital you can get immediate feedback
on just how well the image was exposed by using the histogram. One of
the best articles on the explanation of what the histogram is, how to
read it and how to apply these principals to properly exposing shots is
contained on the Luminous Landscape site in the "Understanding series..." called "Understanding Histograms". A good follow up
article is "Expose to the Right" also from this site. OK...
that's four links, but all of them are really good! I probably should
have saved some for future weeks.
April 12
The FBI has an interesting article on the comparison between
film and digital as well as photographic techniques for various
applications in crimimal justice.