Vincent Versace was a Gerber baby

Did that get your attention? If you follow my blog, you know that Vincent Versace has a great influence on my photography. Both while out shooting and in the digital darkroom. I have watched his DVDs and followed his blog, but today's post on Scott Kelby's blog is absolutely amazing. (Post dated May 26, 2010)

The first part of the post is an autobiographical walk down memory lane, including the part about appearing on a Gerber Baby Foods jar label. (Don't miss the part about Marilyn Chambers). It's interesting but read on and get to the really good part. He gives some wonderful bits of psychology for us simple photographers to think about. I can't recommend this and all of his work more.

CS5 - some really cool upgrades

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I'm still having some issues with my CS5 install but I really haven't taking the time to look into a fix. There's nothing major just annoying little things.

The good news is that some of the features are wonderful. The quick selection upgrade with the "Refine Edge" tool" is great. "Content Aware" is remarkable. I've tried the "HDR Pro" but I'm not quite sure about it. I've used Photomatix for so long that HDR Pro seems slow. I'll give it some time and more testing before making my final decision.

The guys from NAPP did a week long series of Webinars showing all the new features in CS5. They explain them better then I can. Watch it here.

Friends for the Marsh Juried Show

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The Friends for the Marsh provide a unique educational experience for central New Jersey. Each year they sponsor a juried photographic show. This year it was titled "Ebb and Flow- Voices of the Marsh". I was fortunate to have 2 pieces accepted. I hope you like them.

I installed CS5

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I installed the disk and it all went well. I have a 64bit Dell machine and there in lies the problem. I was prompted to check a box to load the 64bit version and/or the 32bit version. I check both and in fact, both versions were installed. Great. I clicked on the 64bit version and CS5 opened. I did the same for the 32bit version and got a error message that the application failed to start. I had to clicked "OK" 3 or 4 times and that version opened. OK, so no problem, I'll just use the 64bit version. I went into my files and transferred all my "plug-ins" from CS4 to CS5. Checked my work and open CS5 64bit version. No "plug-ins" appear in the filter menu or anywhere else. So I go back and transfer all the plug-ins into the 32 bit version and open that. Get the error message, click 4 time, the program opens and all the plug-ins are there. It hits me that my 64 bit Dell does not support any of the plug-ins.

It should be interesting later today when I call Adobe tech support to try to straighten this out. Stay tuned.

CS5 is shipping

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I just order CS5 and I've been watching the CS5 classes that Kelby Training has put up on their site. I must say that they do a great job. I usually just download the program but this time I decided to get the disk. Just trying something new. I'll let you know how the installation goes. The new features look interesting. There are new selection options, new brush tip designs that will help when painting and even an HDR Pro dialog section that has a great looking deghosting capability.

I know that I haven't been posting much lately, but I think I'm back in the game.

Have fun shooting and let me see some of your work.

By the way, the above image is from a recent trip to Maine. What a great place to shoot. I'll post some more pictures soon.

Moose Peterson is one of my favorites

I was out of town for a while visiting family in Portland Maine. My son, grand children and I did a photowalk out to the Portland Head Lighthouse. We had a great time. Of course, they have been there many times since moving to Maine, but anything to humor grandpa.

As I was processing the above image (click on the image to view in a larger size), I remembered that I saw a shot of this lighthouse on Moose Peterson's blog. I do follow his blog but it's been a while since I looked through the links around the different menu items. I checked out the "Landscape" folder under the "Photography" Menu. It hit me, Moose is one of my favorites.

CS5 introduction on Monday April 12

Adobe will introduce CS5 and you can watch it all here.

Also for you NAPP members, NAPP is planning a week long introduction of CS5 with a Learning Center, tutorials, webinars and a ton of other stuff.

I can't wait to see what the new version of Photoshop holds. I suggest you be there.

Evan Gearing has a wonderful blog

As you know, I'm a frequent contributor to HDR Spotting. For those of you who don't know what that is, I suggest you take a look at the site. I like to look at other photographers submissions. All those HDR images in one place, it's a great way to learn. I don't try to copy any one particular style but every once in a while I ask myself, "how does he/she do that?".

Evan Gearing is one of those photographers. His compositions are excellent and there's something about his processing style that, for me, is intriguing. I found his blog where he tells something about each capture and his precessing method.

It's a great place to visit, see great images and get some good ideas for HDR processing. He uses some filters that I have never seen mentioned before, and they work. Give it a look.

Evan's Expo

Let me know what you think.

Single image HDR

Before


After
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Single image HDR processing can be very successful. At the point of capture there are a few things to consider.

Shoot in RAW to capture as much information as possible.

Capture the light avoiding, as best you can, clipping in both the shadows and highlights. Use your histogram.

Low to medium contrast subjects have the best chance to be successful. (But as you can see from the images above, you never know.)

Process the single image in Photomatix, Topaz Adjust 4 or both. Use all the tricks you know.

As always, if I can help, you can email questions.

" I'm just an amateur, but. . . "

I have posted a few articles by one of my favorite photographers and writers, David duChemin. In his latest masterpiece, he discusses the amateur and professional photographer titles. It is well worth a few minutes of your time. All I have to say about it is "AMEN".