I was reading today on DPS (Digital Photography School) a post that was titled Finding Your Camera’s Current Shutter Actuations. I have always want to know exactly how many clicks had actually committed my camera to doing.
I Can't Believe it (55247)
In order to find out how many actuations you camera has taken you need to look in the EXIF data. Now I currently am shooting with a Nikon D70s and I have been shooting with this camera since June, 2006. Last night I had my camera with me while my wife and I were baby sitting her brothers kids. We took them to the park and had a good time chasing them around. The last image I shot last night was shutter click #55247. I figure that when my 4 year anniversary with this camera come this June, I will be up to at least 60,000 camera actuations. That is an average of 15,000 clicks a year.
Here is the link to the web site MyShutterCount that allowed my to grab this information for my Nikon camera. If you have a Canon or another brand go to the article on DPS to find your Shutter Actuations.
Adobe released Lightroom 2.7, Camera Raw and DNG Converter 5.7. According to Adobe version 2.6 was the final update to Lightroom 2.0. Adobe Lightroom 3.0 was going to be the next release but I guess they either miss calculated the release of Lightroom 3.0 or the need for bug fixes couldn’t wait.
Known Issues
• Burning exported images to disc is not available for the Lightroom 64-bit Windows application. • Upgrading a Lightroom 1 catalog during a catalog import can create multiple temporary copies of the
catalog while upgrading • Lightroom performance can be impacted when the Window’s Recycle Bin contains thousands of files • Lightroom may not automatically launch an import dialog when a memory card is attached to a Windows Vista computer. Please select the Import button in the Library and select the attached card reader to begin the import. • Lightroom 2.7 will not automatically migrate plug-ins located in the following directory: C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Modules\. Any plug-ins in this folder should be moved to: o XP: C:/Documents and Settings/{your_username}/Application Data/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/ o Vista: C:/Users/{your_username}/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/
Supported File Formats:
• JPEG
• TIFF (8 bit, 16 bit)
• PSD (8 bit, 16 bit)
• DNG • Proprietary raw formats (Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html for afull list of raw file support. File support for Lightroom 2.7 aligns with Camera Raw 5.7)
New in Lightroom 2.7
The goal of this release is to address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom 2 and provide additional camera raw support. A comprehensive list of issues fixed in this release is included below:
Lightroom 2.7 and Camera Raw 5.7 are now available as final releases on Adobe.comand through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. These updates include camera support for the following models:
Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
Kodak Z981
Leaf Aptus-II 8
Leaf Aptus-II 10R
Mamiya DM40
Olympus E-PL1
Panasonic G2
Panasonic G10
Sony A450
Release Notes:
Camera Raw 5.7 includes an updated demosaic algorithm designed to provide compatibility with settings applied in Lightroom 3 beta 2.
Lightroom 2.7 also includes the same updated demosaic algorithm. The updated demosaic algorithm will appear as a subtle shift in noise characteristics at default values.
By default Camera Raw will display the image adjustments exactly as performed in the Lightroom 3 beta 2 develop module. However, at this time Camera Raw 5.7 is unable to support further adjustments to the following settings or tools:
Highlight Priority and Color Priority post-crop vignette
Enhanced Luminance and Color Noise Reduction
Grain effects
Process Version
There’s more to this update than I saw at first. According to Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty, Lightroom 2.7 and version 5.7 of the Photoshop plug-in adds Lightroom 3 beta 2′s new “demosaicing” technology for processing raw images.
Specifically, Hogarty said:
• Camera Raw 5.7 includes an updated demosaic algorithm designed to provide compatibility with settings applied in Lightroom 3 beta 2.
• Lightroom 2.7 also includes the same updated demosaic algorithm. The updated demosaic algorithm will appear as a subtle shift in noise characteristics at default values.
• By default, Camera Raw will display the image adjustments exactly as performed in the Lightroom 3 beta 2 develop module. However, at this time Camera Raw 5.7 is unable to support further adjustments to the following settings or tools: Highlight Priority and Color Priority post-crop vignette; Enhanced Luminance and Color Noise Reduction; Grain effects; [and] Process Version.
Here is a creative suite 5 video of the new content aware functions offered by Adobe. The author goes through several examples of how content aware feature will really speed up your daily workflow.
Tomorrow is the official coming out Party for the New Adobe CS5. It is been something I have looked forward to foe a few weeks now. I have posted on a blog few times Countdown to Abobe Creative Suite 5 Releaseand Adobe Creative Suite 5 Rumor. Now, tomorrow is the release date and all hell will break loose in the photo and graphic blogoshpers.
I imagine that everyone that has the opportunity to have a sneak peak will be giving the pros and con’s of the newest Creative Suite. I know that NAPP and Scott Kelby will be blogging and setting up new training at Kelby Media and Kelby Training as soon as the announcement has been made.
One blogger and Photographer has already taken a look under the hood and likes what he sees. Thomas Hawk, friend and former co-worker of mine, posted on his blog a little bit of what he likes and some new features that he has played with. Take a look here and see what Thomas Hawk says about what he saw. Here is the link to his post ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS5 BOLDLY EMPOWERS THE DIGITAL ARTIST
5 Free iPhone Apps and Services For Your Photography Business
By now, you’ve likely seen those clever Apple commercials which present a variety of situations before boasting, “There’s an app for that.” With over 100,000 options to choose from, their claim is remarkably accurate. As a small business owner, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to maximize my productivity with cutting edge technology. Over the past year, these are the apps that I’ve relied upon heavily. Each one is available as a free download from the App store with the exception of “My Writing Nook” which sells for $1.99.
1. My Writing Nook
I’m writing this article while riding a train to New York City. Instead of carrying a laptop, I’ve opted for an iPhone app called “My Writing Nook”. Besides the ability to work in landscape or portrait mode, this simple program allows users to sync content with a desktop computer. After my train arrives at the station I’ll be able to access the material from an office computer by logging into my account at www.mywritingnook.com. Some other convenient features include an integrated thesaurus, dictionary, and word count. For those of you who forget to hit save, the Writing Nook has you covered. It auto-saves every two minutes so you’ll never lose another masterpiece again. You can also email your written pieces directly from the app.
2. Evernote
Do you have important information scattered across a collection of yellow sticky notes and scraps of loose paper? Have you ever jotted down a great idea and ended up washing it in your jeans? I constantly find myself trying to maintain a streamlined solution for my creative, and business ideas. Yet, when inspiration strikes unexpectedly, I inevitably end up with valuable notes scribbled on a napkin or business card. I was in desperate need of a new system and did some research. I came across a website called “Evernote” and created a free account. I’m pleased to report that it has totally revolutionized the way I keep track of things.
Here’s how it works: You can log into your account from any computer or phone with an Internet connection. Then, create a few different “notebooks”. I set up areas for client management, photography techniques, inspiration, and more. You can make as many notebooks as you’d like. Anytime you need to remember something, just log in, enter and save it. When perspective clients call, my first step is to create a file about them in Evernote. This will include their contact information, details about the job, and any other information I feel is relevant. I can then access this data later using the Evernote app, or a desktop computer. This is the equivalent to having a large file cabinet with me at all times. The content automatically syncs between your phone and any desktop computer.Continue reading »
Are you a PocketWizard user? I am a PocketWizad user. I have investigated several different types of wireless triggers for when I purchased my first studio equipment. I currently use three PocketWizard Plus II and a MultiMax for more specific needs and time-lapse photography on my Canon G10.
I use Calumet Geneses 200 gear for my home studio. However, since my camera gear wasn’t set up with a PC link (Nikon D70s and Nikon SB600) I decided to go wireless. My choice is the PocketWizard Plus II. It was not the cheapest wireless system on the market, however it filled my needs, with the ability to expand and grow as my needs grew.
When I found out last year that PocketWizard released the Flex TT5, Flex TT5 Mini for Canon equipment, I couldn’t wait for the release of the Flex TT5 for Nikon. However, PocketWizard ran into several issues with the Flex TT5 for Canon. These issues delayed the development of the Nikon gear until the worked all the kinks out of the Canon Flex TT5.
Now it looks like they have figured it out and hopefully they have worked all the bugs out, and corrected them for the release of the Flex TT5 for Nikon.
Mark Wallace of Mark Wallace Photography and SanpFactory has put of a short video on his test of the Flex TT5 for Nikon at WPPI last week. Mark Wallace is a Canon shooter, but he is using Nikon equipment for this test.
Is the tag on the top of my twitter page. I am doing some home matiance on my blog and web site, while watching the Olympic Men’s Bronez Metal match between Finland and Slovakia. Slovakia has just scored and the score is now FIN 1 – SVK 1, half way through the second period.
Anyways, one of the thing that I have been working on is my tweets for twitter. I installed two WordPress plug-ins the past few days. The first is Tweetmeme. Tweetmeme is the little twitter retweet button you see at the bottom of each post. After reading a few blogs and articles that I found on Social Networking, I figured that I would get a little more active on Twitter. this is a good way for other blog readers, fans or whatever to tweet my blog post.
I also added another Twitter plug-in for WordPress that will tweet my post to my Twitter account with a Bit.ly URL. This is for those that aren’t reders of FishEye Studio blog, but are my Twitter Followers they too can enjoy what I have to say… right!
Does anyone have any news when Adobe will release their Creative Suite 5. I started looking across the web to find a release date for the CS5. I have come across a blog called CS5.org. According to CS5.org they had an unconfirmed release date of October 2009. Well obviously they were a little off on their release date.
I did find another date that seemed be a little more realistic. This date has been repeated form web site to blog. The date of the suspected release will be April 2010.
3. Adobe Creative Suite 5
Rumor has it that the new versions of Photoshop, Flash et. al should be with us around April. It’ll be a new era for the design suite because the Mac version has been completely rebuilt in Cocoa, and will no longer run on PowerPC chips. Judging by the sneaky peeks we’ve seen here and from what was announced at Adobe MAX 2009, designers will be whimpering with delight when CS5 finally becomes available. New goodies you can expect from the suite include ‘wet look’ 3D Photoshop paint brushes, native iPhone game compiling in Flash, and a ‘Smart Paste’ tool for Dreamweaver that makes it easier to integrate vector graphics and Illustrator-created content into your web sites. Ref: Top Software for 2010
I am really interested in the release of CS5, because I am thinking of buying the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium and I don’t want to throw my money into a product that will be out dated in two months. I learned my lesson in the past. I have purchased products and spent a great deal of money on them, when a month or two later they release a new item. Then it’s to late to return the item and it cost another chunk of change to upgrade. That happened to me on my DSLR.
I guess that is one of the questions I can ask when I head into San Francisco for the Photoshop 20th Anniversary bash.
I you have any information on a release date of any Adobe CS5 products put them in the comments.
I am sure I am not the First, and I know I won’t be the last. Apple today revealed in San Francisco, in their grand fashion the new long anticipated iPad. About six months ago word was out that Apple Inc. was going to come out with a new device. And today was that day to see what the iPad would look like and how much it would cost. It seems to be a large version of the iTouch.
The size seem to be about the same as the MacBook Air just without the clam shell. The screen is 9.7 inches, measured diagonally. So overall, it’s slightly smaller than a magazine. And at just 1.5 lbs and 0.5 inches thin, it’s easy to carry and use anywhere. The high-resolution, 9.7 inch LED-backlit, IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. It uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle.
iPad uses the same revolutionary technology that’s in an iPhone multi-Touch. To maximize battery life, Apple engineers took the same lithium polymer battery technology they developed for our notebook computers and applied it to the iPad. As a result, you can use iPad for up to 10 hours while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music.
The iPad will be released in March with wireless, and in April Apple plans on releasing the 3G version. The iPad will start at $499 pirce tag. And iPad is available with a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB flash storage. I don’t think that will be enough storage. I have a feeling that will be a limiting factor for those of us that will be using this as a substitue when we don’t want to us our MacBooks.
Here is the link to the video if your would like to learn more. iPad
Several months back I posted on my blog Safety First about the importance of backing up your files and data, especially photo files. As you may have gathered I am a photographer. No matter what you may think of my photography it does not really matter. The point is I spend an good amount of personal time behind my lens trying to capture that perfect photo in a moment of time. So I can afford to lose any of my images no matter how bad they are. If I choose to delete them at least I made the choice and not a hardware or software failure doing it for me.
I brought this up because one of my Terabyte HD’s was filling up with all my system backups. I only had 50 gigabytes left on my primary backup HD. So I decided to delete all my backups up to November 1, 2009. It was simple, all I needed to do is find the folder and files under the Backup main folder a delete the folder I wanted.
I moved the no-longer needed folder to the trash. What I didn’t realize is how long it would take to actually empty my system trash once the deleted folders were in the trash. For the record it took just over 5 hours for the entire trash can to be emptied. That just over half a terabyte of free space has now been recovered. I am sure that in my obsession of backing up my system that it will only be a matter of month and I will be deleting a 1/2 terabyte of re-storable files and folders.
If you feel so inclined to read my previous post here is the link Safety First.
Rumor has it that the new versions of Photoshop, Flash et. al should be with us around April. It’ll be a new era for the design suite because the Mac version has been completely rebuilt in Cocoa, and will no longer run on PowerPC chips. Judging by the sneaky peeks we’ve seen 
