Webinars

The Web is full of useful information and many of the photography equipment and software companies provide extensive programs as Webinars. One of our sponsors, X-Rite has a series of them coming in February, take a look at their programs and catch the ones that catch your interest.

PocketWizard has been a brand name associated with remote flash triggers. Their new series of devices are quite interesting indeed, compact to boot. Their Web site has a bunch of videos that inform the viewer about their line of products and how to use them. They also have a Webinar coming on February 7, 2012. If you are interested in remote triggering flash gear you may enjoy the presentation.

Thanks Mike DiStefano for bringing these to my attention.

A New Magazine …

… and, it is free! Published by the Nielsen Photo Group (publishers of PDN and Rangefinder) has introduced PIX, The Photographer’s Field Guide, and online magazine. The premier issue is available for viewing and for the time being it is free. There is plenty of gear information along with some interesting photography. Take a look at it, the price is right.

A Day With Joe McNally

Kelby Training is hosting a 3-hour live Webcast program “A Day With Joe McNally” today, November 16, 2011 at 6:00 PM. It is free to anyone who wants to watch it as it unfolds. Afterwards, it will only be available to the subscribers of KelbyTraining.com. From the announcement, the following section explains the event in more detail. Click on the link at the bottom to find out more about, register for, and watch the event. It should be very interesting.

During this live event, you will watch the premiere of A Day with Joe McNally along with Scott and Joe, in its entirety, absolutely free. In between segments, Joe will answer your questions live via the liveblog or on Twitter with the #AskJoeM hashtag. Don’t miss your chance to spend the day with someone who American Photo magazine lists as one of the 100 Most Important People in Photography and described as “perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today”. This is a rare opportunity to learn the photography secrets and insights from one of the world’s premier photographers

Plus, there will be some very special deals available only during the broadcast. So, if you’ve ever thought about joining KelbyTraining.com or renewing your subscription, this might be the time to do it.

Register for the event.

Hunt’s Seminars

Provided by Hunt’s Photo and Video

The annual Hunt’s show is approaching November 4-6, 2011and we are offering three days of great educational seminars! For more information and to register for classes please visit link below or call 781.662.8822 to speak to any of our highly trained sales associates. Hope to see you there!

Learn more about Hunt’s Seminars on their Web site with full program information.

 

Music and Canon 60D (250 of them)

A Japanese group created an interesting music video using 250 Canon 60D cameras and hot-shoe mounted flash units as their animation engine. Each unit acted as a “pixel” so to speak, and using a computer program the group created innovative light show with no computer animation. They explain the concept on their site as follows:

When we listened to the “Bright Siren”,
we envisioned bright lights flickering in the darkness,
and the lyrics ‘not to make it a memory’ has struck in our minds.
From these inspirations, we came up with the idea of using camera strobes
as pixels to create an animation out of light.
We actually lined up 250 cameras
and controlled each strobes [sic] through a computer program.
All the lights in the film are real, and no CG were used.

Enjoy their music video, then watch the behind the scenes video below showing the prep that went into this creation.

Making of the above video

Hunt’s Show Deals

I was at Hunt’s Melrose store today, my first trip there. It was jammed with people who all seemed to have a grand time. After making my presentation I wondered around a little and visited a few booths. Many interesting products, samples, reps, …

They were running very strong sales, but I have just received a new e-mail with better deals yet. In case you do not get their e-mail newsletters, I thought I would share the e-flyer with you. The discounts I see on it are better than what people told me there today. For instance, there was a 10% discount I believe on ColorMunki on the floor, now I see $65 discount. On X-Rite ColorChecker Passport they were offering 10% or $10 I am not sure, but in the flyer the discount is $18. There are other goodies to test-drool over too!

Hunt’s Show Deals

It all ends on 11/07/2010, 11:59PM. Worth a look.

Splash – The Video

We all know what our friend Mike “Splash” Marceau can do in his basement with plenty of patience and tons of experience; recently Deb and Holly have also entered this magic domain. There are others who seek the same kind of beauty that may exist only for a split second. One of them is Martin Waugh and his collaboration with the Discovery Channel has recorded the dance of the droplets in motion.

Watch!

Yet another white balance tool

SpiderCube

SpiderCube

White balance has become a well-known issue and benefit to digital photographers. There are several different products in the market from simple to more complex. I have come across yet another one of these tools, this time from Datacolor, the makers of Spider series of monitor calibration, printer profiling devices. The new tool, SpyderCube, lives up to its name. It is indeed a cube with different tones on its surfaces with one side having a circular opening into a black-painted cavity. Its base allows it to stand on flat surfaces or, using the threaded mount, it can be mounted on a light stand or a tripod. The loop at the top will hook on other suitable objects to appear in the scene. It even has a chrome ball at its apex to evaluate the specular highlights. At $59 MSP it may deserve a look. These tools can be extremely useful to get an accurate white balance setting under diverse conditions. For more information visit the Datacolor Web site.

A new color tool

Color Checker Passport

Color Checker Passport

Designed to be portable and used anywhere, X-Rite ColorChecker® Passport and the included Adobe Lightroom Plugin promises to make color correction, neutral white balance, or creative white balance adjustments extremely easy. Based on the larger Macbeth Color Checker, the new tool is about the size of a passport (see the name!) Read more about this interesting tool at the X-Rite Web site.

Poor Man’s Lighting

PSRI had a couple of guests who shared their knowledge and experience on lighting on a small budget. Small budget does not mean the results have to suffer, as long as one learns the qualities of light and uses them to her or his advantage the results can be very satisfying. See the Poor Man’s Lighting document as a refresher if you like.

Thanks Paul, Jim.