It’s official folks. The Pro Photo Minute (UPDATE, now called Photo Couch) has arrived. Based on your votes in the poll I decided to give Pro Photo Minute it’s own feed. You can find it here on iTunes as well as in it’s category here on the site. I’ll also be adding occasional PPM episodes into the main Pro Photo Show feed, but to get them all you’ll need to subscribe to the new feed.. Your feedback and ideas for the new show are welcome.
With that, here’s the latest episode, talking about leveraging the power of slideshows. Enjoy… Gav.
by Gavin Seim: Triggering flashes wirelessly is becoming a popular creative lighting tool. Popular flashes from Canon and Nikon often have built in wireless, but its basically working with old infrared technology making it essentially a line of sight tool with limited reliability.
To resolve this, various third part products have come to the market. Pocket Wizards have been a popular choice and their early units, though larger and only providing manual control, seem to have a good reputation. More recently we’ve seen products that offer not only manual, but full auto control.
So, on to my straight dope review. First I purchased PW’s new Flex Control TL series which have full TTL functionality and high speed sync (Canon only for now, but Nikon coming soon). Sadly I was disappointed with almost useless results (for me at least). Range was claimed to be hundreds of feet and actual tests would not even produce consistent results at fifty.
Pro Photo Minute is like quick version of Pro Photo Show recorded on the go from iPhone using Audio Boo. I think this is really neat and has so much potential. Just short simple informative podcasts a few minutes long and recorded on the go.
I’ve been on shoots many times and thought “I wish I was recording now” because while in the heat of the session something was inspiring or just made sense. This is my answer to that. Simple, no editing and amazing audio quality.
You can follow my Pro Photo Minute on AudioBoo and they’ll be posted to twitter when they go live as well. There will also be a category here on the site and I’m looking at how best to introduce it to the podcast feed.
Let me know what you think and we’ll see where it goes. Enjoy, Gavin Seim
The Panel... Gavin Seim – Tom Hogarty (LR product manager) – Dennis Zerwas – Ralph Barret
This week we talk about the E-P1, Lightroom, video becoming more than a weekend warrior and selling quality.
by Gavin Seim updated 10.18.09:
I like quick bursts of information and chat frequently as @gavinseim on twitter. I’ve made this list of my favorite tips and ideas. I plan to update it throughout the year. You can add your favorite photo tweets and tips in the comments with your twitter name. I might even RT them myself.
I give credit when I can, using names in parenthesis. Some of these are my own little musings based on what I’ve learned, so I’ve indicated myself with an (S). If there’s no name then I probably don’t know the source. Remember that these are not always exact quotes, but ideas I’ve re-formed to fit in under 140 characters. Feel free to tweet them yourself. You can RT @gavinseim or link to this post with http://bit.ly/phototip.
Things to think on:
Don’t wait for the photography establishment to try and stand out, because if you do, you won’t (S)
I’m not afraid to change my opinion, but I am afraid of not having one. (S)
It seems that by giving away knowledge we only get more of it. (S)
Competition. A powerful tool that makes you stronger. Complaints about it are often cop outs from photographers not motivated enough to excel (S)
Art is not about money. But it really really helps. (S)
In photography rules mean conformity, and to conform is the opposite of creativity. (Whitmire)
I’m tired of the industry telling photographers what a standard size is. My print size will be what I decide to make it. (S)
Photography is painting with light. So if light is paint, why do we spend more time pressing buttons than mixing our paint? (S)
I want to take a moment to plug a few new products over at my Seim Effects store, since these are what help keep this all going. I just released Hollywood Effects 2, the follow up to my first special effects actions for Photoshop. Also in a separate collection a brand new set of cool actions called Portraitist.
HE2 is filled with some pretty amazing effects. I love Lightroom, but it’s not a solo runner. These are the effects that simply can’t be done in LR and really make my best images shine. When you get HE2, it includes the Portraitist actions, which are my new skin retouching tools that perform tasks similar to expensive plugins, but right from an action and for a lot less money. They even include skin smoothing that retains detail in critical areas like eyes.
Anyways I’m stoked about how good they work. It’s the best actions I’ve ever made and has been a very successful release thanks to many of you. Of course I still love Lightroom. You can find my presets there as well. If you want to learn more head over to Seim Effects. Other than that, have a great weekend… Gavin Seim
