I was thinking today about how incredible it would be to own a DSLR that was even 1/2 as good as our own human eyes are. Certainly cameras are just imitations of God’s wonderful creation and design, but have you ever really noticed how quick you can focus on any object? Talk about mind blowing; it’s practically instant. You don’t notice a delay, like you will on even the fastest digital cameras. They are getting better and better in time, but we can really appreciate how good we have it. Nature definitely did have it first.

A great video tutorial by Deke McClelland on how to use the reset and purge functions in Photoshop CS4 to increase the performance.  Clean out Photoshop’s plumbing when things get clogged up: Reset and purge.

This little Indian kid named Varun on youtube is a pretty smart guy.  I like this kid’s way of reasoning when it comes to mac vs pc.  I love macs, but I’m not going to lie… I think they’re definitely way overpriced for what you get.  I’m not taking sides, as I’ve worked with both for years.  I actually just ordered a brand new desktop pc with an i7.  It has more memory in the video card alone than my current (7 year old) computer has snapped into it’s motherboard DIMMs.  Savings? $1000-1500 over the new incredible iMac 27″.  That’s a lot of cheddar that can get redirected into new photo gear for me.  Anyway, I’ll be sure to post a full review of my new setup once it arrives.

Amazingly, a lot of graphic design jobs you might find won’t always have you on a mac.  Make sure you know how to use both – otherwise you’re going to have to educate yourself pretty quick once you land that first design gig straight out of college.  That means knowing what the heck you’re doing in Windows XP and the all new Windows 7, as well as knowing OSX.  Thankfully the Adobe programs are pretty much identical whether you’re on a mac or a pc, with the exception of the alt/option key on your keyboard (it’s not rocket science).

I thought I was pretty sure I was going to get the 7D as my next camera body.  Right now I shoot with an older Canon 20D which I love, but is starting to show its age.  I was originally decided on the 5D2, but when the 7D came out I was amazed my much of the response it was getting on the forums.  Here are the benefits of the 7D I’ve learned about from all of my hours of research:

- the AF is superior to the 5d2, more focus points, better servo mode than the 5d mkii

- it has pop-up flash (comes in handy once in a great while for fill or to trigger strobes) will mount EF-S lenses (I only own one, the rest in my kit at ED because I was planning on going full frame for a while now).

- it has wireless flash controls built in

- dual digic 4 processors (5d2 only has one)

- shoots video same as the 5d2

- very low noise up to iso 800, where the 5d2 then takes over

- a few more bells and whistles that the 5d2 doesn’t have like on-screen leveling

All of that is fine and dandy, but when it comes down to pixel peeping, I’ve been seeing a lot of softness from the 7D in the samples online.  Not just studio stuff – real world conditions.

This review scares me a little. http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-canon-7d/
I think we have to wait until Adobe updates ACR and Lightroom more the handle the Raw conversion a bit better, in order to come to the proper conclusions. Right now the 7D is looking softer than everything, at 100% native resolution. Sure, you can sharpen, but if there’s a little ISO 200 or 400 noise that low noise camera suddenly turns into worse noise than ISO 1600.

The 7D also out-resolves the glass you mount to it, much more than a 5d2.  That means softer images, seeing that the glass can’t provide enough.  There is a great explanation of what that means in this thread http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73591 by my friend David Rehner.

In the end, either camera bodies are a world of a difference over my old 20D.  I’m going to wait and see, at least until Spring of 2010, before I start whipping out my credit card. I’m waiting until I am absolutely 100% sure about this.  I think I just might have to rent one of each for a week to do my own tests.  I’m in the same boat as many other photographers, with the 20D or 30D.  No doubt the 7D is 1000 times better in more than one way, but if I can make my daily photo editing a few steps easier by spending the extra grand on the 5d2 I think it might be worth it.  Downsizing is fine, unless you shoot stock and want to utilize the maximum resolution that you possibly can, in order to make the most money from your images.  If I’m going to drop even $1700 on a camera, it had better produce good enough sharpness and clarity at 100% at the fullest resolution.  If not, I might as well spend the extra cash on the full frame.

The age old question that everyone asks… Umbrellas vs Softboxes – Digital Photography Tutorial

http://www.layersmagazine.com/comparing-umbrellas-and-softboxes.html/comment-page-1#comment-57050

Sure, you get different catch lights in the eyes with each.  Round ones with umbrellas, square or rectangle shapes reflections with softboxes.  But here the two are reviewed much more in depth by a real studio guru.  A great video by Jean Francois on the Layers Magazine website.

I’m so sick of editing dust out of my images, so today I remembered that I hadn’t blown the sensor off in a while.  I have a Canon 20D, so it doesn’t have the auto sensor cleaning option like the 40D, 50D, 7D and 5d mkii have.  You can get a nifty little rockey blower thingy off ebay or your favorite camera retailer ( Giotto’s Rocket Blower ) or you can be ghetto like me, and just use a brand new turkey baster (might even have more blowing power with the large bulb).

Just don’t use it on a turkey first!  Don’t be a dork – buy a brand new one and dedicate it to your DSLR.  If you damage your sensor, it’s because you’re an idiot, not because I told you to use the turkey baster out of your mom’s wet dishwasher strainer.  Cleaning the sensor the right way usually involves eclipse fluid and pec pads or something of that nature, but I’m still a little scared to delve that deep into it.  Afraid I might screw it up, so for now – this is good.  Check out how much dust I was able to remove in just the first round of blowing.  I set the aperture to F36 and shot the white ceiling so we could see the dust.

Results:

BEFORE

AFTER

I didn’t get it all, but at least I got rid of 50% of it.  Thanks to my friend Hon for suggesting that I mount my camera and point it downward first, so that when I blow the sensor the dust has the chance to fall out of the camera body, instead of just blowing around inside of it.  That was an excellent idea.

Striped ShadowsThe light shining in through the blinds, creating an interesting pattern on the textured wall.

I really liked these tips from the YouTheDesigner blog – hope you do to. 18 different ways to create a relaxing home office to enjoy while you work. 

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2009/09/29/18-ways-to-create-a-relaxing-home-office-experience/

Mine is a pigsty – I need to start applying a lot of them, personally I’m just too busy to clean! (Sure, that’s what they all say)

We’ve all heard the rave reviews about this full frame wonder – theCanon 5d mk2.  Here are some links I’ve collected with some impressivesamples to show you how well it performs.  I’ll add more here once Ifind samples that allow you to see the high resolution original imageand zoom in to view it at 100%.

ISO 1600:

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2128

dpreview.com Samples:

http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canoneos5dmarkii_samples/

More Canon samples:

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/eos5dm2/eos5dm2_sample-e.html

Image courtesy of Sam Cornwell http://www.archedroof.co.uk/

All of the ebay peddlers are going to love me today.  Ever wish your iphone 3g digital camera had just a little bit more reach?  I just discovered this from my buddy Sam after he posted it up on Facebook this morning.  A mini telephoto zoom lens for your iphone!  I even works with other camera phones, but you would probably have to hold the lens on with your hand, making it trickier to shoot with.  I wonder if it would work on my Samsung i760 smartphone…but how cool is this thing, though!?  A great gift for the photo and cell phone geek in you or any of your friends.  Check out Sam’s sample shots with the thing…

Images courtesy of Sam Cornwell http://www.archedroof.co.uk/

Aren’t you sick and tired of sticking your usb thumb drive in your computer to transfer files over to another machine?  Or are you sick of having to email attachments all of the time, or host files on sites like rapidshare, imageshack, or yousendit?  Then Dropbox is for you.

I wouldn’t host your entire stock photography portfolio on this service, or anything else that is private…but for quick transfers back and forth this seems pretty secure.

A fellow microstocker told me about this service, and I’m thankful for that – thanks Andres!  This is a really cool free service. 

Click here to sign up and give it a spin.