June Contest is Closed!
June 30, 2009
Well yet another contest comes to a close! This June’s contest was great, got a ton of great entries and quite a large number of people participated. Thanks to everyone who contributed! I am planning on announcing the winners a little later on today, at that point there will be another blog posting about that with the three winning entries.
Thanks guys!
Shoot: Sharp Washed Photo Effect with Camera RAW only
June 29, 2009
A short while ago I did a photo shoot with rapper/musician Andrew Vazquez of Alpha Boy Productions right out of Philadelphia-an up and coming production company-and today I have this photo I shot late afternoon underneath an overpass. All things considered it was a fast-paced photo shoot as we had the setting sun and intense traffic through the city on a Friday evening to deal with. Below I will run over some of what I did as well as a couple other shots from the shoot.
Equipment:
This shot-as mentioned-was shot late in the afternoon on a gorgeous day (we actually caught a big break in the weather). For the better part of the day I was using my Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5(which incidentally is a great lens for the price. Great focusing, sharpness, and Bokeh is really great, and it can be used for macro photography very easily) and a few off camera Canon 580EX II Speedlite Flashes. For those of you that don’t know I do the bulk of my shooting with my lowly (yet dearly loved and somewhat small) Canon Rebel XT which actually works great, my only two gripes are the relatively low mega pixel count (8) and 800 ISO is pretty much all you can get away with before Noise Ninja becomes necessary, anyway since it was released a number of years ago I have been using it. Go ahead blow me away with what kind of camera you use…make me jealous 
Shot Settings:
For this shot I did not use a tripod as I was moving pretty fast and trying to get multiple shots done before nightfall (this included a cross city trek… on foot) and I actually did not even use the one light stand I had on my back I just placed the flash on the camera with a diffuser and dialed the power down about -2 stops. I shot this photo at 1/200 sec and F6.3 with an ISO of 400 again with the Speedlite (Canon 580 EX II) mounted directly on the hot shoe as mentioned before.
Getting Out:
Getting out of Philly was almost as tough as the afternoon of shooting(albeit my ankles prefer sitting in the car over walking for a few hours) and it was definitely helpful to have all of my equipment bagged and organized so after the last location we could get the heck outta there.
WorkFlow:
Typically the first thing I will do when I get back from a shoot is plug my card into my computer and fire up the Bridge and go File>Get Photos from Camera and just choose the card and bring all of the images over, convert them to DNG, and back them up to an external drive all in one fell swoop. While that is churning I unload the car and put everything away and charge up batteries and clean my camera gear and lenses. Typically by the time I do that (and grab a bite etc… etc…) the images are typically transferred. After that its camera RAW time and I make my first round of editing. This is where we move into a mini-tutorial of sorts on how I got the muted/high contrasty look of that first photo.
Camera RAW:
I shoot everything in Camera RAW and the more I use it (and Adobe updates it) the more I love it. I used Lightroom once and did not really like it, but so many photographer friends tell me about how great it is so I may give it a shot (hey Adobe how about including it in the Suite?!). For now The Camera RAW does the trick. Basically for this image I adjust the exposure and fill light, maybe pump a little black into the image and boost the brightness and contrast a little each. After that I pushed the Clarity way up and cut the Vibrance by about 35%. I then added a bit of sharpening and a post-crop vignette. Used the adjustment brush on the eyes and the watch and the image you see was before I took it into Photoshop and did any extra sharpening, cloning, smoothing etc… etc…
Final Image (After Camera RAW):
A big thanks to Andrew Vazquez for being such a great dude to hang with that afternoon and shoot and of course for allowing me to use the images of him on the site! Best of wishes man!
Photoshop CS4: Simple Movie Poster Pt.1 & Pt.2
June 29, 2009
Photoshop CS4: Simple Movie Poster Pt.1 & Pt.2
This is one of the tutorials found in the May-June 2009 Tutvid.com newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter here: http://tutvid.com/newsletter/index.php Check out the May-June newsletter here: http://tutvid.com/newsletter/issues/tutvidMayJune09.pdf
Bumpy Start & Smooth Sailing
June 26, 2009
Well this year the summer has started kind of slow for me, but I believe I am finally at the point where I can push this thing into high(er) gear and start cranking out some great stuff and as I have mention may times now I have a couple of courses on the way as well that I would like to get done much before the end of summer.
First and foremost my deepest condolences to the Jackson family in reference to the passing of Michael Jackson. I got the news as I was driving through NYC Thursday afternoon and was quite shocked, actually did not believe it until I heard it on the radio officially announced. He has left a 50+ stop tour which he never had the opportunity to even start, which I believe, was a world-wide tour that was to start in Europe.
Anyway enough with the late news (oxymoron?) on to the regular post. I have a couple of quick websites I think you guys would enjoy checking out. To keep things interesting I have chosen nice Clean, Flash, and Dark style websites. Check them out, what do YOU like/dis-like about them?
found via web design ledger
http://www.nokia.co.uk/find-products/all-phones/evolve-microsite-nokia-3110-evolve
found via best web gallery
I also have a very nicely transcribed version coming on one of the flash tutorials, I will give you all the details once I am ready to launch it.
Have a great weekend folks!
Up and Running! May-June Newsletter for the Masses
June 23, 2009
First off I would like to thank everybody for their well-wishes on my move, everything went very well and Comcast was super cool and got me setup nice and early (like 3 days early!) and as the dust settles, tutorials get post-processed and email after email gets looked at-many of which do get answered-life slowly resumes it’s normal pace and Tutvid will begin to . So to cut through all that needless jargon I just wrote I am thanking everyone that wrote with well wishes!
I am actually running off to New York for a few days to take care of a few little things and when I get back I promise you guys I have at least two video that will be up by weeks end, maybe more.
With all the traveling and moving stuff out of the way I am pleased to announce that I am releasing the May/June Newsletter for all to view even those of you that were not subscribed and my plan is that everytime I release a new newsletter the month before will be posted on the blog.
Click here to view the May-June Tutvid.com Newsletter!
Why should you read the newsletter?
It is filled with tutorials on Photoshop, Dreamwever, and Flash and also has contest recaps, tutvid.com news and other stuff I only mention in the newsletter as well as inspiring web designs, and a brush and font of the month. Lots of cool stuff and as always your feedback is apprciated (just remember a bunch of things that you may see as errors in this newsletter have been corrected and I have taken many suggestions).
Shooting Babies and Busy Days
June 15, 2009
….Photographing is probably a better term, but shooting babies sounded “cooler”.
Just a quick blog post for today guys as I am running around all day, I actually got back this morning form a little on-location shoot with two very young kids (Twins 7 months old), and as per-usual kids are… well, kids but they can be a whole lot of fun to shoot! … Again photographically speaking. I got some really nice images this morning, maybe will end up using a few in a tutorial or two in the future. I am also running around all over the place in preparation of moving. I am moving to a new place the middle of this week and SOMEHOW have to keep up with work which has slowly been falling behind, but the new place will infuse me with a ton of “creative juice” and we will get everything all caught up. Meanwhile I just wanted find out from you all, all 6 of you that read my blog what your favorite subject matter is for photographing?
I also have to say I just got the first stuck in customs newsletter, looks awesome! Check out www.stuckincustoms.com for a great photography blog and be sure to sign up for the newsletter!
It’s a Wrap!
June 12, 2009
Wow, this week was quite an eventful one, certainly a week I will remember forever. Sadly I cannot reveal what these event are, but they will both help Tutvid as a site grow larger, give me more opportunities to make training material, and continue my “trek” toward being able to speak at live Photoshop events much more often. I always love it when stuff falls into place nicely.
-New Tutorials
Now that the “vague” news is out of the way I just want to let everybody know that I do have a bunch of tutorials I have actually recorded, but have not uploaded yet, so please don’t lose patience with me! I have them on the way! Really I do!
-New Website
I am pretty well 100% sure I will be changing Tutvid over to using the WordPress backend/CMS to assist me in keeping up with the site as well as making it a breeze for you guys to add comments etc…
Let me leave you guys to enjoy your weekend of web designing, photography, chilling out, and watching baseball with a little tip on Photoshop.
This is a pretty cool little color changing trick, it can really work well with certain images! Here goes:
- Open an image and go Image>Mode>Lab Color
- Go Window>Channels and hit Ctrl+4 (Cmd+4 on the Mac)
- Hit Ctrl + I (Cmd + I on the Mac)
- Hit Crtl + 2 (Cmd +2 on the Mac)
- Nice, quick color change and for a different color try hitting Ctrl + 5 (Cmd +4)in step 2 instead of Ctrl +4.
Have a great weekend guys!
New Philly Photoshop Group & Apple Stuff
June 10, 2009
-Photoshop Philadelphia
Let me start off this week of blogging by announcing the Adobe Photoshop User Group of Philadelphia Pennsylvania! I am super excited that this group is finally online! The group is entitled “Photoshop Philadelphia” and you can check it out right here. I have some plans for the group, but have not really set anything is stone as far as some of the things I want to do with the group, but if you use Photoshop for anything and reside in or around Philadelphia this will be a group you want to join.
The Adobe Groups cost nothing to sign up and join and if you have an Adobe ID you can just log into the site with that ID and join the group. Here is the link again: http://groups.adobe.com/groups/020002a345/summary stay tuned for news, tips, and monthly meetings! Right now the group sits there in its default appearance, but I will get it all cleaned up and looking sharp! Hope to see you around!
-Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC)
Well first my apologies for being a day late on this one, but I have finished re-watching the keynote. The keynote is always cool, I am not even a Mac guy, matter of fact I have only even had an iPhone for a few months and I have never owned a Mac computer. Someday I will drop the cash and switch all of my machines over to Mac and all that, but until then you can consider me an “outsider”, but hey I’ve gotten this far without one so I can’t complain. Wow, let me run over a few things I really liked, but you will have to watch the keynote to get the true facts (I may ):
-FireWire 800 and the SD Card slot on the MacBook(s): This is so great every notebook circa 2007 and on-ward on should have had Firewire. The SD cards these days are incredible so the SD card slot on makes sense.
-The integrated battery looks really cool, both the extra life Apple promises and the resilience (i.e the number of recharges) is great!
-Safari 4 & Quicktime X: Safari has always been my favorite Apple web browser! Seriously though, Safari 4 looks to have some pretty cool features. Quictime X looks so awesome! It is so minimal now (I always have thought it was a little clunky, maybe WMP-ish) and the way it showcases video is great!
-MMS messaging. (AT&T better get their act together on this one!)
-iPhone to Computer Tethering (Both Mac & PC): This basically allows you to use your iPhones interenet connection for your computer, very, very cool and super useful! Oh, and you can do it via USB or just Bluetooth.
-HTTP Streaming Audio and Video… need I say more?
-Find my iPhone: This is so cool, you do need MobileMe, but this is such a useful thing for some of use. You are going to have to watch the keynote to get the scoop on this, it is very, very cool though (starts at 1:04:28).
-ZipCar’s App is sick, I have my own vehicle, but this is so sweet! Find the car you want, figure the daily cost, and then find it with the iPhone is as easy as honking the horn…. Via the iPhone.
I could get into the 64-bit and OpenCL technologies for the Mac as well as the Macro focusing and video taking and sharing options on the iPhone and so much more. Apple, as usual, has their stuff together, Kudos guys!
Thursday Blogging and a Question For You
June 5, 2009
Everyday when I sit down and begin my work typically it begins with me filing through tons of industry news, blogs, links I receive from the great Tutvid.com users, tweets, re-tweets, tutorials, and a fair share of “inspirational” lists. Everyday I also try to spread some of what I have found or received to my Twitter followers and then talk a little more in depth about a few things I like, or have recently tried here on the blog.
With all of that in mind I am still kind of wondering what YOU, the reader, would like to see in a blog like this. What kind of posts would you like to see? My thoughts on the blog are as follows:
-About What? Your Suggestions Appreciated!
I like to keep it strictly design/photographic/development related without getting too “formal”. I also do not want to turn into one of these cliché sites that post list after list. Despite their popularity I just feel like there are too many already; everyday I must see a few dozen “50 Sites that inspire”, or “10 Cool rounded edges for Print”, and while I do think there is place for that I want to be different, yet appealing.
I love writing on tech news and that kind of thing.
I also need to get back to sharing a tip or trick a few times a week.
If you have any ideas, maybe something I am missing, drop me a comment and I we see if I can share some knowledge or provide some kind of insight!
Great, with that out of the way we can move onto a few little tidbits.
-Adobe Group
The Adobe Group for Philadelphia is so close to getting finished it is ridiculous! I have a few things to tweak and I will have the link posted pretty soon. I hope to see you guys around!
-Contest & Newsletter
The Contest is going great and the Twitter contest is getting great response! Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far! June 15th the Twitter contest ends so be sure you are following me @tutvid and I post the contest link a couple times a day so you will have problem getting it and you enter by simply Re-Tweeting the contest link! The newsletter this month is pulling together very nicely and in a couple of days I will upload the other newsletter for all of the non-subscribers to get a look at and I am also going to be recording all of the tutorials I made in the newsletter and putting them on YouTube!
-Finished Files with Purchased Videos
When I first started selling videos I had this thing about not including the finished files with the video that was purchased. It really is kind of stupid and I see the error in my ways and I am going back and am in the process of adding the finished files to the video for sale. Thanks for the suggestions on this one guys!
-Can You Write for Me?
As pre-usual more videos and tutorials coming soon! I would also like to know if anybody would be willing to transcribe tutorials for me, basically take video I have recorded and make a written version. I am thinking at the very least I will place a link to you site at the top and bottom of each tutorial you transcribe and maybe we can even work out some kind of payment options. If there is any interest let me know.
-Adobe’s New BrowserLab:
This looks so very cool, but sadly I could not get my paws on it to check it out due to the fact that I waited almost 24 hours to try signing up after I first heard about it. From where I stand, looking in from the “outside”, BrowserLab is web application Adobe has created for web developers. BrowserLab allows you to quickly preview what your web design would look like in many different browsers. As a design you can compare different browsers side-by-side or even use an “onion-skin” overlay view. BrowserLab is compatible with both Mac and PC and as of right now it is in a free preview state, but Adobe does pan on charging at some point.
I am super excited about this BrowseLab idea as testing in a bunch of different browsers can be a pain in the neck and you can have a ton of applications open and running and it can get messy, BrowserLab looks like the perfect solution! It also is going to have integration with Dreamweaver CS4 which looks very promising!
-Google Wave
Google Wave is very, very new; matter of fact it is not even available for general use yet. Google Wave is-as Google themselves put it- a tool for communication and collaboration across the web. I watched the whole video on the Google Wave demo and it looks absolutely killer! I cannot wait until it comes out! I do not use a huge amount of Google’s technologies; I do have a gmail account but have never sent a single email from it. I do however use Adsense, Adwords, Analytics, Maps, and a few other things Google has to offer. Anyway go watch that video and let me know what you like most about what you see from Google Wave, here are a couple of the things I am loving:
It is open source and very developer friendly including an API so developers can make extensions both for inside of Wave and extensions that work with Wave and other “things” such as (they show in the demo) Twitter, so cool.
The live updating idea looks crazy cool.
Being able to show so much while still have private conversations within larger conversations is awesome.
Spell checker using context is insane.
Updating comments etc… even to the web is a big time saver.
Photo Sharing is ridiculous.
Multiple people editing the same document is very neat.
Let me know what you think you will like most about Wave, or maybe if you are even excited about it, I would love to know!
You really need to watch the hour and a half long demo video to see this awesome up-and-coming technology
Check out Google Wave and Watch the Video
-Opera 10 Beta
Well Opera has launched Opera 10 Beta. I got the news and downloaded it as soon as I could and took it for a test run. While I do not pretend to be some great browser aficionado or tester guru dude, I can tell you that it runs really smooth and fast on my systems and if there ever was a browser to tear me from FireFox Opera 10 is that browser. I have not fully compared everything, but it was a love-at-first-use feeling. Just a great job by the boys at Opera!
-Jing (My new favorite free screenshot program)
I was not planning on blogging about this, but I figured I would throw it out there for any and all Vista users. Screen Capture in Vista stinks. I always have issues with the PrtScn and Ctrl+PrtScn etc… and the new Snipping Tool is great but the fact that you need to enable all the tablet stuff and have all the little floating tablet icon stuff constantly popping up is bad enough, but the Snipping Tool itself seems to be hit or miss with me. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it will not. Jing is made by the same folks who make the world famous screen capture software Camtasia Studio, but Jing is just for screenshots and it is a nice polished, easy-to-use program and it is free. If you take a lot of screenshots, go download it.
-Free CSS Menu Builder
Lastly, I have a little site sent to me by a very kind fan of Tutvid. Sadly I cannot even remember your name due to the coolness of the 10 minutes I spent playing with the CSS menu builder after you sent me the link. Thanks for sending the link and hopefully some of you guys will benefit form this builder, which, by the way, is also free.
Check out the Free CSS Menu Builder!
That’s all for today! Stay safe!
