Nikon D80 Firmware Update

From Nikon's website:

"This firmware resolves an issue which, in rare cases, causes the battery indicator to blink whilst shooting regardless of the level of charge in the battery."

Click here to download Nikon D80 firmware update for Macintosh.
Click here to download Nikon D80 firmware update for Windows.

Behind-The-Scenes: Laforet's Canon 5D Movie

How did Vincent Laforet shoot his short film, "Reverie", using Canon's new 5D Mark II camera? You can find an interesting "behind-the-scenes" video posted here.

Vincent Laforet Takes Canon 5D For A Spin

If you've been wondering what Canon's new 5D Mark II is capable of -- especially the high definition 1080p video the camera can shoot -- Vincent Laforet has created a video called "Reverie" that takes the camera for a spin. Of special note is how high the ISO is set on these images (1600 and higher!) and the mouth-watering, feature film-look depth-of-field effects Laforet is getting from the lenses he is using. Canon's 5D outguns Nikon's D90, which also has the ability to shoot high definition video (albeit only 720p, not 1080p). But the 5D costs $1700.00 more -- $2700.00, versus $1000.00.

Click here to view a short movie.

Click here to see some sample images.

Click here to visit Vincent Laforet's blog.

Canon's 5D Mark II Home Page.

Nikon's D90 Home Page.

FrederickVan Interviews Matt Kloskowski

FrederickVan Writes:

At the recent Photoshop World Expo in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit down with Matt Kloskowski from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

Along with Scott Kelby, Matt produces a weekly online video containing great Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom tips and tricks. Matt is also a highly sought-after educator, and has authored several books on the topic of photography — his latest being “Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature“.

In this interview, Matt and I sit down to chat about his photography, Lightroom, and more. Matt shares some tips on how to manage photos in Lightroom, features he’d like to see in future versions, and what his favorite new feature in Lightroom 2 is.

Original Link

Adobe TV

Click here to watch many "free" Adobe tutorials, including several that describe new features found in Photoshop CS4.

Photoshop CS4: Content Aware Scale

An amazing new feature in Photoshop CS4. Original Link

How To Copy DVDs

There are several different pieces of software you can use to copy your DVDs. They number literally in the dozens, and most of them are commercial software offerings that will set you back anywhere from $20 to $100 and up. This wiki describes the process and contains links to the best software programs (for both Mac and PC) for the job.

Inteview With John Nack From Adobe

Interesting interview with John Nack from Adobe discussing Photoshop CS4, and Photoshop development in general.

Inteview with John Nack from Adobe

Adobe CS4 Learning Center

Adobe is preparing to ship Photoshop CS4. I just purchased my upgrade and the receipt indicates that October 14th is the estimated ship date. In the meantime, the folks at NAPP have put together some mouth-watering tutorials that illustrate some of the new features in CS4. Here are the links:

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Learning Center
More Photoshop CS4 Video Tutorials
Adobe Photoshop CS4

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Excerpt from Rob Galbraith's website:

"Canon has announced the EOS 5D Mark II, an update of the oldest camera in its digital SLR lineup and one that the company promises will deliver the best image quality and lowest noise of any EOS model to date. Headlining the 5D Mark II is a 21.03 million image pixel full-frame CMOS sensor that is derived from the sensor in the EOS-1Ds Mark III, but with several improvements meant to improve shadow rendering and noise levels at all ISO settings.

"The refined sensor is also at the heart of Canon's first foray into digital SLR video: the 5D Mark II can record clips at 1920 x 1080 pixel (1080p) resolution, with sound (captured via either a built-in mono mic or through an external mic connected to the camera's stereo mic jack).

"The remainder of the 5D Mark II is largely an amalgam of the original 5D, including its viewfinder, AF system and various mechanical components (all with slight refinements), and the recently-introduced EOS 50D, with which the new camera shares a similar control layout, 3.0 inch (diagonal), 920,000 dot rear LCD and DIGIC 4 processor.

"The EOS 5D Mark II is slated to ship towards the end of November 2008 at an expected street price of US$2699 in the U.S. Here's a look at what could be a powerhouse new digital SLR for those who need lots of pixels and HD video in one body."

Canon 5D Mark II Home Page

Lightroom 2.1 'Release Candidate'

Lightroom 2.1
From Adobe Labs

"Welcome to the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.1 release candidate on Adobe Labs. The 'release candidate' label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers. The Lightroom team would like the community to help verify the quality of this update through normal usage as this will ensure that the application is tested on a diversity of hardware and software configurations not available internally at Adobe. If you do experience an issue with this release candidate please report it to the Lightroom User to User forum..."

Lightroom 2.1 Release Candidate for Macintosh and Windows.

Update: Animoto Mojo

While we are on the subject of using programs like cooliris to dazzle family, friends, and clients, I wanted to remind all of you about Animoto, a slick "web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos... [in] a widescreen format... [that] have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer." They are out of beta now (after one full year of development). A few quick stats pulled from their blog:

- 4 million videos have been made on the Animoto platform

- More than 250,000 users in 200-some countries have registered on Animoto.com

- Animoto vids have been watched over 50 million times on Animoto.com, blogs, social networks, video sharing sites and web sites around the world!

Finally, here's an excerpt about Animoto from a blog I wrote in January:

Now here's an online service to get excited about. It's called Animoto and it creates MTV-style movies out of your photographs, music, and video clips. Writes EMorton, G4TV:

"It's like tossing a bunch of steel, glass and leather into a box, shaking it up and then opening the box to find a brand new Ferrari."

I agree. It's beautiful, well-designed, and exceptionally user-friendly. And your finished video can be posted all over the Net -- on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Blogger, and gobs of other websites that support embedded videos...

50+ Photoshop Body Enhancement Tips

The folks at DesignReviver just posted a series of great Photoshop tutorials. Take a look: 50+ Excellent Body Enhancement Photoshop Tutorials.

View SmugMug on cooliris

Turns out that SmugMug, which is one of the online photo services I use to showcase and sell my photography, is natively programmed so it can use cooliris to display images in stunning 3D format. To see what I am talking about, do this:

1. Install the cooliris plugin in your browser (they currently support Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari).

2. Go to one of my wedding galleries on SmugMug.

3. Now look in the upper right hand corner of your browser window. You'll notice that the cooliris icon is lit up in color. That means the website you are visiting has been programmed so cooliris can display it. Click on the icon and cooliris will show you how dazzling your work can look in a 3D environment.

I wish I could claim that I did the fancy programming that enabled my SmugMug galleries to be able to be displayed in cooliris. But I didn't. In fact, I only discovered this marriage made in heaven when the cooliris folks dropped me a note thanking me for mentioning their cool program and mentioning how good my wedding photos looked in it!

Two more things:

1. If you want to create a stand alone gallery of select images that can be displayed by cooliris, the cooliris folks have created PicLens Publisher to automate the process for you. Go here to find out more.

2. For a quick overview of how cooliris works, go here.

cooliris

Looking for a way to dazzle your clients, create fantastic websites, or browse the web in a 3D environment. Check out cooliris. Thanks to my brother, Wes, for letting me know about this beauty!

Award-Winning Short Film Shot With Still Camera

Award-winning short film shot with still camera. Over 2000 photographs were stitched together to form movement.

Between You and Me
Written, Shot, Directed, Edited by Patryk Rebisz

"Rio" (With The Vanguard Band)

Here's a fun, creative video that suggests, again, the happy marriage of photography and video.

"Rio" (With The Vanguard Band)
Shot & Directed by Patryk Rebisz
Edited By Erinnisse Heuer