Opinion: Why Every Student and Adult Learner Needs an iPad

Jan 242012

iBooks Changes the Reading Experience

Let me get this out of the way from the start: if you haven’t figured it out by now, I love Apple gear. I’ve been using Macs for more than two decades and waited in a (relatively short) line the first day the iPad 2 was available, as my latest tribute to the platform. That said, I call Apple out for their mistakes; I’m no apologist or so-called “fan boy”. So I hope you won’t discount what I’m about to tell you as a case of me being an advertising shill for Apple (I have no affiliation with Apple at all – this is just something I feel strongly about).

You Need an iPad.

Clear enough for you? : ) There’s been a lot of talk lately about the iPad and Apple’s plans to revolutionize learning and academic text books, and I see no reason to doubt them. While the brand new iBooks Author application (used for authoring books of all kinds for the iPad) is a little rough around the edges — as an author who is actively developing for this platform I’d like to see better import/export for ePUB 3, as well as more WYSIWYG capability — iBooks 2 (the reader application) is a fantastic platform for readers of all types.

No Hassle Bookmarking

Every page you bookmark with a tap of your finger is automatically tagged with a small “red ribbon”, and is logged in a special section of the Table of Contents (which is one click away at all times). This section provides an organized list of the Chapter title or section names you marked, and their page number. All you have to do is tap a bookmarked item in the list and iBooks 2 zips you there in an instant. No flipping through pages, no dog-ears, just efficiency. There’s more… Continue reading »

Highlights: Key Features in Lightroom 4 (Beta)

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Jan 102012

[Updated 1-12-2012]
Some good news this week: Adobe released the public beta version of Lightroom 4! There’s a lot of ground to cover, and in the days ahead I will provide some detailed descriptions and free tutorials on Lightroom 4′s best features. The big question with each new release is: “What’s New?” Plenty! Below is the short list of the features in Lightroom 4 (there are several others I’ll be posting about that are really cool), which I believe will help photographers to streamline their workflow, and further improve the quality of photographs generated from their raw edits:

Enhanced Tone & Contrast Control

The Basic panel in Lightroom 4 has been improved in several ways. This new tone and contrast workflow (Called Process 2012), offers a more intuitive group of controls, an updated Histogram to go along with those, and more consistent behavior among the settings that define how bright or dark a photo is, and which tonal regions are accented as part of your overall contrast.

Instead of using Recovery and Fill Light, the controls have been re-organized into Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks. The idea is to use these sliders in order, and then go back and tweak the individual settings. Things are now set up so that changes to the brightest and darkest tones at the far ends of the histogram, are better “isolated” from the remaining highlight and shadow data. You can also work directly with these settings in Histogram, and instead of having arbitrary non-zero values as starting points for some of the sliders, they all start at zero and all follow the behavior of move right = lighter, move left = darker. Simple! Continue reading »

Photoshop Tutorial: Working with the Silver Efex Pro 2 Plugin

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Jul 012011

UPDATED:

(This version of my Silver Efex Pro 2 tutorial provides clarification on a couple Contrast settings, whose behavior don’t closely match the official documentation, and corrects an “audio typo” where I referred to the plugin as Color Efex. Oops! It’s also shorter by a minute or two than the original.)

Another guest tutorial posted at DanBaileyPhoto.com recently focused on Silver Efex Pro 2, Nik Software’s popular plugin for creating professional quality black and white photographs from your color originals. Launched from Lightroom and Photoshop, Silver Efex Pro 2 offers a large selection of toning and detail options that give you complete control over the look of your picture. This is just a quick overview, but more detailed information will be published soon, showing you all the great features of this plugin app and explaining some of the minor quirks as well.

Photoshop Tutorial: Working with the Color Efex Pro 3 Plugin

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Jun 162011

Last month I posted a Photoshop tutorial at DanBaileyPhoto.com, and wanted to share that with you here. Color Efex Pro 3 is a powerful plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture that helps you to stylize your digital photos in more traditional and subtle ways, as compared to the typical set of “creative filters” you’ll find in other photo editing apps. It provides a wide range of color and tonal styling presets to choose from, and a deep set of controls to modify those presets and create the precise look you’re going for.

Lightroom Tutorial: Using Stacks to Streamline Your Workflow

Posted by Dan Moughamian

May 202011

It’s a problem most photographers have faced more than once: you’ve got a subject or composition you’d like to focus on during a shoot, but because weather conditions and other variables change rapidly, you must continue to capture the subject until you get it just right. Sometimes you may have dozens or even hundreds of very similar shots, if you’re shooting “rapid fire”.

However, once you’re in the Lightroom 3 Library module, viewing dozens of thumbnails that all display the same composition can make scanning your collection of compositions more difficult. Enter Stacks! Stacks can be used for multiple photographic workflows (such as gathering shots for HDR or Panoramic photographs), so it’s definitely a trick worth knowing.

For this Lightroom 3 tutorial, I demonstrate how to collapse dozens of shots into a small space, so that the overall collection of subjects is more apparent, making an evaluation of your overall shoot more simple.

Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Bezier Selections (Pen Tool)

Posted by Dan Moughamian

May 132011

One of the Photoshop tools that scares people the most is using the Pen Tool to create Bezier paths, that you then convert into precise, contoured selections. But, it’s really pretty easy once you try it! Confusion often stems from the somewhat non-intuitive process of placing points along your subject’s edge, and then dragging the handle around to shape the connecting segments. But hopefully after watching this brief video tutorial, you’ll see how easy it can be!

Lightroom Tutorial: Vignette Controls in Lightroom 3

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Feb 072011

Here’s another Lightroom tutorial I recorded recently for TipSquirrel.com. This technique demonstrates how Lightroom 3′s upgraded vignette controls can help you to add a bit of style to your images, while focusing attention on the most important areas of a the shot.

Lightroom Week Tutorial: Adjustment Brush Tips for Lightroom 3

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Sep 192010

This video tutorial for Lightroom 3, which was originally presented as part of Lightroom Week over at TipSquirrel.com, enables you to make truly localized raw edits to your photograph, saving you time and improving the quality of your photo output. This is a Lightroom technique that every photographer should know!

Lightroom Week Tutorial: Comparing Photos in Detail

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Sep 102010

This week, our friends at TipSquirrel.com launched a special two week Lightroom event, providing numerous tips and techniques for enhancing your digital workflow. As good fortune has it, I will be able to bring you a special Lightroom tip each of the next two weeks! The first Lightroom tutorial focuses on one of the most important techniques you can use, which is the ability to compare the composition of two similar pictures side-by-side. This is accomplished using the Lightroom Compare View in the Library module. This not only helps you to work on the best images, but also saves you a lot of time!

New Photoshop and Lightroom Tutorials from macProVideo!

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Jul 192010

It’s been a busy spring and summer! Since March, I’ve been working to produce a new series of Adobe tutorials for macProVideo.com; two have been released so far, with a third title right around the corner! If you haven’t worked with macProVideo before, I recommend you head over there and take a quick look. Every tutorial has free sample videos so you can experience their powerful streaming and subscription system, as well as the ability to view tutorials on any device, including iPhone and iPad! There are some seriously talented trainers there, including authors of Apple’s famous courseware, Emmy winning audio professionals and more. It’s a great group of people, who are dedicated to bringing you some excellent training titles at a very reasonable price.

A few words about my new Adobe video tutorials:

Photoshop CS5: Image Retouching & Adjustment provides 4 hours of detailed techniques for getting the most from Photoshop CS5′s image adjustments and new photo editing features. Content-Aware tools, key image adjustments, retouching tips, creative effects… if it’s a core part of the Photoshop photo editing workflow, it’s in there!

Just released, Core Lightroom 3 training provides nearly 3 hours of focused instruction on the latest advancements, including core raw editing techniques. Learn how to get organized quickly and start making precise raw edits with the Tone Curve, HSL, Lens Corrections and more. Even get some pointers on working with Slideshows, Contact Sheets, and more!

Finally, Mastering Adobe Camera Raw 6 is right around the corner, providing 2 hours of detailed tips for getting the most out of your raw edits with this popular Photoshop “plugin”. As the summer continues we’ll be bringing you more announcements for great Adobe tutorials as well as other titles, so I hope you’ll keep an eye out! -Dan (@Colortrails)

Iceland Volcano: Disruptive but Beautiful

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Apr 192010

There’s no denying that the Iceland Volcano which has been erupting and spreading a cloud of airliner-unfriendly ash over Europe, has caused some serious headaches for travelers of all stripes across the continent. However there’s also no denying the inherent beauty and sense of power that comes with volcanic eruptions on Iceland. Because of its unique geography and history, even Hawaii can’t quite match some of the pictures and videos we’ve seen.

Yahoo Editorial has put together a Flikr Gallery of some of their favorite shots.

Here is a collection of incredible lightning-in-cloud shots from National Geographic.

Iceland Volcano Pictures: Lightning Adds Flash to Ash.

And below I’ve also included a video link from photographer and videographer Bryce Lowry.

Amazing Surf Clip (Cortes Bank)

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Apr 182010

I am posting this for no other reason than a recent twitter post reminded me of it, and some of the photography and video is amazing. This is Mike Parsons surfing some of the largest waves ever recorded, off the Cortes Bank, about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. A huge underwater sea mount causes the swells to rise up and create monster waves. By far the coolest surf video I’ve ever seen.

This video gives an excellent explanation from Parsons and another surf / ocean expert, of how the swells are created and what it’s like to surf there. Seriously extreme environment.

Cool Time-Lapse Video

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Mar 022010

Yesterday I found (via retweet) a site called Timescapes.org, which is run by an independent filmmaker, Tom Lowe. He has posted some samples on his web site, and has announced on his that he’s just hit the road for some extended shooting opportunities for his first film “Southwest Light”.

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Stirring Concept Video from Ayrton Orio

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Feb 232010

Saw this on Twitter from MoGraph TV linking up to it. This is a real-world video that blends perfectly suited music into a series of landscape video clips, most presumably from South America. This is further motivation to find a way to get down to Chile and explore the region of Patagonia one day. Before I kick the proverbial photo bucket! Enjoy.

Impressive High ISO D3s Wildlife Video

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Feb 082010

I haven’t had much time to look into it but the Nikon D3s has in recent weeks finally become available from some retailers. It’s a very similar camera to the original D3, however it has a newer sensor with a higher ISO capability (comments I’ve read on noise performance are promising), and new HD 24fps video capabilities.

There is some vignetting (to be expected in such low light situations and likely very long lenses being used) but this video is really pretty remarkable when you consider how clean it looks. Makes me think twice about ever springing for a new video rig from Sony when it is so much more natural and convenient to shoot video with the same camera you use for stills….

The Story Behind the Still (Canon Contest)

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Jan 192010

Canon has opened up a fun contest for photographers and video enthusiasts. The idea is to show an interesting still image, and then capture with video the story behind it. At least that’s how I’m interpreting it! Vincent LaForet shows us how it’s done, though he likely used some type of production crew, cast and lighting setup for this demo. Many won’t have that luxury but still this is a great chance to show what you can do if you’re into story telling and cinematography. Grab your gear (or borrow some), get your friends and go for it!

Compositing… The Organic Way

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Dec 162009

I thought this Google Chrome series from Motionographer was kind of cool. A completely manual / retro way to create composite effects, using nothing but a studio and a camera. And some funky harp music. Just goes to show that the idea is often more powerful than mere effects or technology.

DSLR Video vs. Camcorder HD

Posted by Dan Moughamian

Dec 022009

The folks over at DP Review -a place I heartily recommend for product reviews and articles, but not so much for informed forum discussion (low signal:noise ratio)- have put together a nice overview of shooting HD video from a DSLR vs. traditional camcorders. The obvious ones are better low light performance (due to larger sensors on a DSLR) and more creativity with wide open apertures but there are other factors you’ll want to consider. There are pluses and minuses on both sides of the equation, so which type of camera is best for you will depend on what you’re shooting, where and which mediums your final output is destined for.

Colortrails

Opinion: Why Every Student and Adult Learner Needs an iPad

You Need an iPad.

No Hassle Bookmarking

Highlights: Key Features in Lightroom 4 (Beta)

Enhanced Tone & Contrast Control

Photoshop Tutorial: Working with the Silver Efex Pro 2 Plugin

Photoshop Tutorial: Working with the Color Efex Pro 3 Plugin

Lightroom Tutorial: Using Stacks to Streamline Your Workflow

Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Bezier Selections (Pen Tool)

Lightroom Tutorial: Vignette Controls in Lightroom 3

Lightroom Week Tutorial: Adjustment Brush Tips for Lightroom 3

Lightroom Week Tutorial: Comparing Photos in Detail

New Photoshop and Lightroom Tutorials from macProVideo!

Iceland Volcano: Disruptive but Beautiful

Amazing Surf Clip (Cortes Bank)

Cool Time-Lapse Video

Stirring Concept Video from Ayrton Orio

Impressive High ISO D3s Wildlife Video

The Story Behind the Still (Canon Contest)

Compositing… The Organic Way

DSLR Video vs. Camcorder HD

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