Photoshop Lightroom Essential Training, by Chris Orwig, is a 6.5-hour self-paced video-based tutorial with exercise files.

You can watch the first 35 minutes for free at www.Lynda.com.

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Inside Digital Photo Special Edition with John Nack – Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers

John Nack the Senior Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop CS3 joins host Scott Sheppard in an exclusive interview on the latest features and highlights of the upcoming release of Adobe Photoshop CS3. Learn about the enhanced support for camera raw files, smart filters, seamless integration with Lightroom and more. John shares the details of how the latest enhancements and Intel support make the best image editing application even better with advanced workflow tools designed for photographers of any level. Find out more, preorder your copy, and sign up for final release notifications at: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/prophotographer/

Here is the iTunes link to the NEW April 11th Inside Digital Photo radio program -
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/subscribePodcast?id=203423898

Or listen to it NOW by clicking below.

These new versions add support for the Nikon D40 and Pentax K10D digital cameras to the more than 150 existing cameras. Get it at www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3585

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Although Canon’s new EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR camera costs $3,999, it has features that will likely trickle down to less expensive cameras over time. For example, its EOS Integrated Cleaning System vibrates the glass cover over its image sensor for 3.5 seconds when you turn the camera on, to help remove dust. You can remotely view what the camera is seeing from your computer, via USB cable. It can continuously shoot 10 frames per second, with bursts of 110 large JPEGs or 30 raw files at once. Raw files can be saved at 1/4 resolution rather than the full 10.1 megapixels, to conserve file size. It can add location information to each picture from an optional GPS (Global Positioning System) unit, and it can wirelessly transmit images with an optional transmitter. Its 10.1 megapixel sensor has an ISO range of 100 to 3200, and its 14-bit processor can capture up to 16,384 tones per pixel, compared to 4,096 tones from 12 bit images. There are plenty of other new features as well. Canon USA

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We’re amazing. We look around and instantly register the million reflections from the surfaces around us. Without thinking, our brains steer our eyeballs to the exact point of light that is the perfect balance between information we require for our survival (watching for danger) information we are actively seeking (current task) and pleasure (searching for beauty). In an instant shadows are compared, colours measured, distances calculated. Our eyes shift 8 degrees, adjust for light, refocus and do this again. All the while, we are witnessing the narrative of our lives unfold, finding metaphors and recognizing symbols of things already in our memories — making sense of some of the things we see, losing interest and moving on, resting for a brief blink, and starting over.

Cameras are dumb. They stare straight ahead, completely uninterested in your ideas. It’s up to you to turn their heads, tell them where to look, where to focus. Despite their disinterest, they are always trying to second-guess us, by adjusting the iris or adding gain when we least expect it. Cameras were designed to be directed by your creative eye. Sometimes it’s important to remind ourselves of that. Although we can’t train the camera to think critically, we can take steps to sharpen our own creative choices.

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Josie Nutter is no stranger to the world of modeling: this lovely veteran has 7 years of experience creating breathtaking, fresh imagery with talented photographers mostly on a TFCD basis. Josie was willing to talk to me about common mistakes made by photographers, what models really want out of a shoot, and tips to make sure your models want to come back for more.

How long have you been modeling?

I have been modeling off and on since 1999 or so. When I was a naive, impressionable teen, I got suckered into taking “classes” at John Casablanca’s. I didn’t realize at the time that my height and body shape would make mainstream modeling very unlikely/difficult for me, but they happily took my money without informing me of those things.

After doing a fashion show as a favor for a designer friend around a year after my so-called graduation, I was approached by a local photographer and have been actively modeling in the alternative fashion scene ever since.
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Mr. Smith, an urban landscape photographer who, after months of poor night shots, is after the perfect twilight photo. Glowing blue skies, lit buildings perfectly exposed and a balance of external and internal light. To capture the elusive scenic he must now enter a time that is neither day nor night. A fleeting moment that happens twice a day. Mr. Smith is about to enter the Twilight Zone. 

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