There are two basic types of fisheye lenses, circular and full-frame. The full-frame lens covers the full 35mm or FX sensor size frame with image – no cut-off corners. The circular fisheye is designed to project a circular image slightly smaller than the height of a 35mm or FX sensor, with vignetted corners. The second type is now available for your Lensbaby Composer (or any of the other Lensbaby models that accept the optic swap system with a special adapter).

I recently obtained a Fisheye Optic from Lensbaby to use in my Lensbaby Composer. It installs like any other optic, and creates a whole new perspective on “wide angle” photography. The lens is complete with a set of apertures (the front element screws off for insertion of the aperture disks), a carry bubble which serves as a installation/removal wrench, and a nice soft cloth to dust off the front element.

(Read my 3 Part Review of Lensbaby Composer here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 : Read my review of Lensbaby Soft Focus)

When I first opened the package, I was immediately impressed with the build quality of the Fisheye Optic. It feels very solid in your hand when you are installing it. Nice construction and finish.

12mm is pretty wide. That’s how long the focal length of the Fisheye optic is… the coverage is 160 degrees in the field of view. That’s close to everything you can see (although with our peripheral vision, we can’t focus on anything close to that width). Focus is on the body of the Composer, and of course, shifting the lens to skew the image works just as well on the Fisheye optic as others. You can close-focus down to an amazing 1/2 inch! The f/4 speed of the lens without a disk in place is great for low-light shots. Use a supplied aperture to stop down to f/22 for everything from inches to infinity in focus.

Image tend to be very graphic. If your images aren’t graphic enough, you aren’t close enough. Filling the frame really means getting close if you are shooting, say, a flower. Think inches here.

So, why use a fisheye? Huge field of view, of course, so vistas with sunsets and landscape photos take on a whole new look. I know a photographer who used a fisheye lens to shoot airplane interiors – the inside was already circular, so the distortion of a circular fisheye was barely noticeable to the viewer. Need to shoot an environmental portrait of a person behind their desk with all their clutter around? Here’s a choice lens to do that shot. Want to make images that look like the IMAX theater? Use a fisheye. Portraits, like the dog shot mentioned earlier, can take on a very humorous look.

Here are some of my images from a recent trip to Mexico. I tried a few images wide open, but settled on f/8 for all the images published here.

If these fisheye lens shots inspire you, look up the Lensbaby Fisheye Optic at Lensbaby’s website and get one ordered for yourself today!

My 3 part review of the Lensbaby Composer can be found here… Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3. I tested this new Soft Focus lens element with the Lensbaby Composer that is always in my camera bag.

I got my first soft focus lens in the early 1980’s, a Sima Soft Focus 100mm f/2 lens. It came with three aperture disks (f/4, f/5.6 and f/8) that you could install as desired. I played with the idea of creating a Imagon-style aperture disk for the Sima, but I never got around to it. Craig Strong played with the idea, and built the Soft Focus element for the Lensbaby line. No “woulda, shoulda, coulda” for Craig… he just does it.

When I opened the box of the new Lensbaby Soft Focus, I was immediately struck by the weight of the element. That made me take a closer look. The fit and finish of this optic is beautiful, looking far more like its Rodenstock large format predecessor than a lens crafted for an SLR. Smooth black coating on the barrel, the name written clearly on the side of the lens barrel, and as always, a color coded band. The nicely made clear plastic storage case that houses the element looks like a smaller version of the lens storage case from Nikon some 30-40 years ago. The black plastic bottom of the clear plastic storage case acts as a wrench to change optics in the lens housing. You can carry a Lensbaby Composer and three elements in their cases in about the area required for a large zoom lens… not bad for the amazing range of imaging possible.

Technical specs are as follows… the Soft Focus optic is 50mm in focal length (read that as a short telephoto on a 2/3 frame digital SLR, or a “normal” lens on a full-frame DSLR or 35mm film camera). It is multicoated for best performance, and wide open (no aperture) it is a fast f/2. The Soft Focus element comes with a lot of apertures! There are three Imagon-style aperture disks… multiple holes surrounding a central hole. They are not marked, but are detailed in the manual as to their f/stop equivalents. A trick that I use on my Nikon D3 is to make a custom non-cpu lens setting with the aperture number… so that when I see the f/stop is f/4.8 (for example) in the image metadata, I know which aperture disk I was using. The optic also comes with a full set of apertures, allowing shooting at various amounts of softness down to f/22 (minimum aperture disk).

I think the photos speak for themselves. The multiple hole aperture disks produce a silky smooth image with enough detail to be interesting, but not so much as to distract. On a digital SLR, you can make portraits that look as nice as images shot with the Imagon… without lugging a view camera and shooting large format film in the field. To me, this is a no-brainer!

Visit Lensbaby.com to find out more, and order your own.

People of Blue-Green Water

Havasu Creek gets its name from the Native-American tribe that’s inhabited the land for hundreds of years. The word Havasu means ‘blue-green water’ and Havasupai means ‘people of blue-green water.’ The water gets its unique, tropical color from various minerals found in the water that are deposited much higher up before it heads into the canyon. Because of the amount of minerals found in the water, the creek erodes its surroundings much faster than traditional spring water. In its wake it leaves travertine deposits all along its path whether it borders pools or adds to the drama on the cliffs that the waterfalls pour over.

Turquoise Water & Red Canyon Walls

Havasu Falls is definitely the most recognizable and visited of the falls, achieving the status of being one of the most photographed waterfalls in the world, despite requiring a 10-mile backpacking trip in. It’s a 100-foot spectacle with cascading pools at its base, the turquoise water creating an unparalleled beauty contrasting against the red canyon walls. With the water at a year-round temperature in the upper 60s, it can be a bit chilly at first, but warm enough to get used to, which people are quick to take advantage of in this desert oasis.

Following the downstream from Havasu Falls is the Havasupai Campground. For roughly one mile along the creek is a primitive campground where you’re completely free to set up your tent anywhere. Whether you want to be right next to the water or up against the canyon cliffs, there’s always space available, even in the busiest time of the year — the spring season.

Mooney Falls

Just beyond the campground is Mooney Falls. While not as widely recognized as its counterpart just upstream, Mooney Falls is certainly just as, if not more dramatic than Havasu Falls. Mooney Falls pours over an immense 200-foot cliff into an even deeper part of the canyon. To reach the bottom, a hike down the cliff is required. This is definitely not a hike for anyone with a fear of heights. Mist from the falls dampens the cliffs that you’re scaling down adding to the intensity of climbing down. After climbing through a couple of steep tunnels, there are a couple of ladders that descend straight down before reaching the floor where you can stand in amazement at the turquoise waters falling 200 feet into a large pool at your feet.

An optional day trip involves going about three miles downstream from Mooney Falls to a small set of cascading falls called Beaver Falls. Beaver Falls cascades down 30 feet of smaller cliffs just outside the Grand Canyon National Park boundary. The hike there brings you through natural grapevines, up and down steep, sandstone cliffs and even through an almost tropical grove where you think almost for a few seconds, that you’ve accidentally stepped into Hawaii.

Changing Landscape

Photographing these amazing treasures in a new way can be difficult. Roughly every ten years a catastrophic flood winds up completely changing the landscape, so you could always wait for that and then be the first there afterward. That’s not very practical, however, and so you might want a better tactic. The waterfalls of Havasupai are very high on peoples’ bucket lists and thus, receive a lot of attention. They appear in magazines all the time, making photos of the falls with people in them in high demand as well. It’s very tempting when seeing a sight like this to get it in its purest and undisturbed form, leaving people out of every frame. The downside to this, though, is that it’s extremely difficult to accurately capture a sense of scale of the grandness of the falls. Having a person or a few people in there can help to capture the drama and scale of the falls.

Also keep in mind that while Havasu Falls may be one of the most photographed waterfalls in the world, easily 99% of those shots are taken in the middle of the day. Try a different time of day, or even not during the day at all! One of my most successful shots was capturing Havasu Falls after dark. It’s something nobody had ever seen, a fact I was just as surprised to discover.

Photographing the falls is a great reason to spend more than one night down there. It’s almost impossible to not want to get the pristine, natural shots upon first seeing the falls because of the impact of seeing them for the first time. Once you’ve let it all sink in though by the end of that second day, then your creativity can begin to flow. You start to see people as helping the scene out rather than interfering. You’ve most likely already captured the quintessential shots during the day, so you’re a bit more ambitious in capturing more unique shots. Both of my trips were for two nights and it was a perfect getaway to a land that still ranks as one of my favorite places on Earth. There’s literally nothing like it anywhere!

Mike Cavaroc shoots with a Canon 5d.

“I love (the 5D) but I’m also going to upgrade to a 7D soon.”

Have a little thing for the “Man in Red”? Wait no longer, die hard Marvel fans, with a little help from Zumobi, there’s an APP for that!

Although there are members of my household, dying to get their hands on this bad boy, I have not yet had the pleasure of testing it out. However, I was able to get a little sneak peak into the highly anticipated game and we are definitely looking forward to it’s release. Here’s what Zumobi has to say about it…

Marvel Launches Iron Man Central, the New iPhone and iPod Touch Application on The Zumobi Network

Zumobi, a leading mobile media company, and Marvel Entertainment recently announced the launch of Iron Man Central, the official Iron Man application for the iPhone and iPod touch. In anticipation of the biggest movie release of the year, IRON MAN 2, the Iron Man Central app provides fans new and old with an immersive experience into the world of the Super Hero everyone’s talking about.

“The first IRON MAN film was extremely successful due to the incredibly loyal and passionate fan base. In anticipation of IRON MAN 2, we wanted to bring additional content to Iron Man fans and moviegoers, and could think of no better way than to bring it to a mobile app,” said Ira Rubenstein, Executive Vice President of Marvel’s Global Digital Media Group. “We believe this app gives users an even more complete Iron Man experience by delivering news, videos and exclusive wallpapers, as well as special character profiles. And if you want to find show times for IRON MAN 2, this app will do that for you, as well.”

Using Iron Man Central, fans have access to all things Iron Man from his origin, to current news, exclusive wallpapers, video content, direct links to Iron Man content on iTunes and more. With a stunning user interface modeled after the hologram interface inside Iron Man’s suit, fans discovering Iron Man Central will be blown away by ease of use and navigation. The app also allows fans to purchase movie tickets through the app itself, so no fan misses a single showing of IRON MAN 2. The app also arrives with two free wallpapers and additional wallpapers are $.99.

Iron Man Central seamlessly integrates with users’ e-mail, Twitter and Facebook accounts, allowing them to share exciting new Iron Man content with friends and family.

“Marvel is a forward-looking organization that is well positioned to take advantage of the amazing new possibilities available in the mobile channel,” said Ken Willner, CEO of Zumobi. “By combining Marvel’s bold and unique visuals with the iconic character of Iron Man and Zumobi’s content-rich app format, we have the opportunity to offer moviegoers and fans an extension of the film experience. We’re thrilled to expand the Zumobi Network’s entertainment channel with this highly valuable property.”

Iron Man Central is available for free on Apple’s App Store and as a part of The Zumobi Network, the leading publishing partner for top media companies. It can be downloaded HERE.

First, this conversion by Isaac Szabo uses an excellent filter (the infrared filter replaces the high-pass filter over the sensor inside the camera). The infrared images are wonderful, far better than any I got with my previously converted SLR. There is more color in evident in some of the images. With Isaac’s provided Photoshop action, the red and blue channels are swapped making very interesting images that retain the infrared look, but with more conventional looking skies in many cases. The action also has provided an excellent black and white conversion as well, you just have to activate the layer.

Skin tones are rendered very nicely. I shot a lot of candid portraits that look great. I shot most of my images at ISO 200 and got hand-holdable exposures, where I almost always had to shoot at ISO 500 to ISO 800 on my old conversion. The D200 has great characteristics to start with, and its current price point on the used market makes it a perfect infrared conversion choice… 10 megapixels makes a great 13×19 or larger print!

I recommend Isaac’s conversion… look at my images, and the images on his website. Then, decide which camera you want to convert, and start making infrared images!

Want to see these images bigger?  Click here. Its worth the bandwidth…

Well, playing for the heart team, Evernote, has given you just one more reason the iPad can be handy for just about everyone. Here is what the iPad and Evernote, together, can to do keep your life organized on the go…

FEATURES

• View and access all your notes, even those created on desktop, web and phone
• Create text, camera roll, and voice notes. You can even type while recording audio
• Browse through your notes by tags, notebooks, and location
• Quickly find your notes by location using Evernote’s map view

SPECS

• Designed for the Apple iPad
• iPhone OS 3.1.3 or later

DOWNLOAD

ON A SIDE NOTE:

For those tweeters out there, you can now use your favorite social media soundboard to send notes to Evernote. Here’s more info from Evernote on how to get started…

Now you can send your tweets directly into Evernote. Why is this cool? Because Twitter is chock-full of great stuff. Your ideas, thoughts, and experiences mixed together with all of the content from the people you follow.

Thanks to the Evernote-Twitter integration, you can easily capture the tweets you like: your own or those showing up in your stream. Plus, as an added bonus, you can now send yourself a quick note right from Twitter –no need to do any of that pesky app switching. Here’s how…

Say ‘Hello’ to @myEN

Evernote now lets you send public Twitter messages, and private Direct Messages, right into your Evernote account for searchable, permanent safekeeping. It’s called myEN, and here’s how it works.

Setting up myEN

First, you’ll need an Evernote account. It’s free. Get yours now »

1. Follow myEN on Twitter (you will need a Twitter account)
2. myEN will follow you back, and send you a DM with a link
3. Click the link, sign into Evernote, and connect your Evernote and Twitter accounts

If you have a protected Twitter account, then do the following: follow myEN, accept myEN’s follow request, then send myEN a DM. After that, go to step 3 above.

How to use myEN

For Public tweets: Add @myEN to the body of any public tweet

For Direct Messages: Send a DM to myEN to create a new note in Evernote

Tip: Retweet something you like and add @myEN to save it into Evernote.

It usually takes under a minute for a message to show up in your Evernote account, depending on how Twitter is feeling.

SMS notes

Thanks to Twitter’s built-in SMS support, you will now be able to send notes into Evernote from any mobile phone, anywhere in the world. In the US, text message “d myEN [your note]” to 40404 (you will need a Twitter account to do this). Go here to see your country’s Twitter SMS number.

Tweets with Twitpics

A popular way to embed photos into Twitter messages is with Twitpic. If a tweet that you send to Evernote contains a Twitpic URL, a thumbnail of the photo will show up in Evernote along with a link to the original image. Nice.

API developers take note: This integration now adds Twitter to the, ever-growing, list of ways to interact with Evernote, and by extension your apps. Think about it. There are tons of great possibilities.

How fast is it?

The speed with which your notes get into Evernote depends on how you send them and how bogged down Twitter happens to be at the time. Direct messages (DM) to myEN will almost always get into your Evernote account in a minute or two, while public @myEN replies can sometimes take 30 minutes. Either way, don’t worry, the tweets will be there by the time you need to remember them again.”

Photoshop, Premiere, and Aftereffects are now 64 bit.  Snow Leopard users should see an improvement in performance as a result, especially in video preview and playback.

Photoshop junkies…the content awareness capability is actually “all that“.  I can’t wait to try it.  Of equal importance is the new Refine Edge command which will allow you to further tweak your Quick Selection Tool grabs.  The new overused graphic tool? Repousse.  It turns a selected 2d graphic into a 3d one.  Do not get me wrong, it’s nice.  But if not used properly, it is going to be the new lens flare.  Brushes now have a natural media Natural Media Bristle Tip along with a Mixer Brush tool.  This allows you to control the bristle size/shape/rotation of the brush tip.  The mixer gives a variance to multiple colors, transparency, and rotation.  To me, this looks like a challenge to Corel’s Painter, and it will be interesting to compare.  For photographers (although anyone who likes good file management should appreciate this) is the incorporation of a Mini Bridge palette.  An overly quick demo was made of Puppet Warp which looks like a more intelligent mesh warp.  General improvement tweaks were made to sharpness, noise reduction, and mosaic filters.

For Illustrator, of particular interest to myself was the Variable Width Stroke tool, which allows you to manipulate the width of a line by doing a pass over it.  This should be a hit among those in the comics community for digital inking.  InDesign now has an animation palette for Flash content and video (which can be scrubbed through.)  For web designers, Adobe has created a Browser Lab application which is a godsend.  It allows for a full preview in various browsers via a dropdown menu.  More than one window can be opened so you can compare a page generated in Safari v. one in Firefox.  You can also overlay them with an onion skin to see the minute differences.  Aftereffects has better compositing tools that take advantage of Photoshops content awareness and greatly simplifies rotoscoping.

Also announced was the purchase of Omniture which will integrate business tools into the CS5 suite which will make your management/sales section happy in generating some content analysis.  Of particular interest to DAJ’ers may be Business Catalyst which will provide some ecommerce capability for small businesses.

One thing to keep in mind when they talk about creating content for all “smart phone and media devices” is Apple’s recent iPhone SDK 3.3.1 announcement, which states that all apps for the iPhone must be written in C/C++/Objective-C.  This flies in the face of Flash development.  If you’ll notice there is no iPhone or iPad pictured or in use during the presentation.

The demo today was fast and furious, and I recommend researching further online for details as they come up.  Watch it yourself and draw your own conclusions at http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

I yawned and went on with my life.

Nearly a month ago I walked in to our local Apple store with my family. We weren’t looking for anything in particular, just letting my kids fawn over the Mac hardware as we thought about buying a MacBook for my son before he heads off to college. I asked one of the Apple store employees if they had an iPad I could take a look at. He handed me an 8 x 6 inch card with a picture of one on it. The device was far thinner and lighter than I expected.

He then asked if I would like to reserve one.

Me: “No thanks”

Apple Employee: “There’s no commitment. It just means that we’ll have one here for you in case they sell out. That way you can come in on launch day and be assured you will have one.”

Me: “Uh, nah, thanks”

Wife: “Well, maybe you should sign up in case you really want it.”

My wife is usually the uber-frugal one when it comes to technology purchases. I’m the good cop, she’s the bad cop. She is the voice of reason when the “I WANT IT” klaxon sounds off. When she flashes the green light—which she clearly was doing—I jump before she reconsiders.

Seconds later I had a 16GB iPad reserved for April 3, 2010. Besides, there was no obligation, right?

Launch Day

The morning of April 3, 2010 passed without incident. I didn’t find myself in a line outside the Apple store, nor did I feel this overwhelming need to run out and buy an iPad. The impulse of signing up to reserve one didn’t translate into the action required to go out and get one. I read my news feeds, saw people writing about it and was mildly interested.

I was driving by my local Apple store—really, just happened to be in the area—when I decided to pull in and actually see an iPad in person. I walked past the abandoned rope line and cart full of water and cookies the Apple staff had put out to cater to line standers.

Inside the place was mobbed. There were people queued up to see the demo iPads several layers deep. I looked over people’s shoulders and watched them play with the iPad for a short while before I became impatient, went to the back of the store and asked that they sell me my reserved iPad. Within 10 minutes I was walking outside with my new iPad and an Apple case for it.

It all happened a lot faster than I expected. I blame my wife for not talking me out of getting one.

Using the iPad

There are hundreds—likely thousands—of reviews on the iPad already. I’ve found the vast majority of them very accurate and reasonably consistent on features and functionality. The bigger issue to me is, what role does the iPad really fill? Is it something you would find useful?

I’m on my computing devices all day. I have a large, dual monitor Mac Pro for software development. When I’m on the road I carry along a 15″ MacBook Pro. I also carry a 3GS iPhone. Between these three devices I had pretty much every need covered.

All of three days into owning an iPad I’ve found a niche for it that works great for me: information consumption. Here is how I’m using the iPad:

In the morning I flip open the case on the iPad, set it up at a slightly elevated angle and fire up e-mail while I eat breakfast. I rarely respond first thing in the morning; I just delete the useless e-mail and file away the informational stuff, which the e-mail client on the iPad is perfect for. When I’m in the office is when I actually respond unless it’s very trivial. I then fire up my iPad based Twitter client, currently Twitterrific. Since I follow lots of news oriented feeds I’m able to quickly scroll through items and catch up on the news. If I find a link to a story that I want to read I tap it and Twitterrific displays it in a windowed browser.

This is where the screen on the iPad comes in handy; it doesn’t feel at all cramped. Though I always marveled at my iPhone’s screen resolution, it suddenly feels highly constrained next to the iPad:

Could I use my MacBook Pro for this? Sure, I could. It just feels so bulky. Could I use my iPhone for this? Yep, sure can, though I trade in supreme portability for a tiny little screen.

The iPad has a super long battery life from what I can tell so far. I charged it to capacity on the initial sync and have been using it pretty heavily for the last 3 days, yet as of this moment it’s sitting at 25% capacity. It means that I’ve been treating it more like a book, leaving it out to be grabbed as I need it, not constantly tethered to a power supply like my MacBook Pro is.

As a result, I kept the iPad handy throughout the day, grabbing it when I wanted to quickly scan sports updates or read through news feeds. This is the ultimate lazy Sunday, information appliance I’ve ever seen.

I even fired up the iBooks application and—after playing around with some of the ancient free books available—bought a new title (The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose). Using the iPad as an e-book reader is very nice; the text is far more readable than on a Kindle, though I have only tried using it in shaded areas. I don’t see sitting on a sunny beach and reading on the iPad unless you have a large umbrella handy. Way too much glare.

Summing It Up

Whether an iPad is right for someone is obviously a very personal decision; will you use it enough to make it worth the investment from a cash and time perspective? On the want versus need scale an iPad falls far more into the want category. It is far easier to justify a laptop or smartphone than an iPad since they are accepted tools of modern information workers. Will the iPad become a tool of the modern information professional? Perhaps, though it’s not likely to happen with this initial version.

My experience three days in is that I am really enjoying my iPad and see that it has added a quality to some parts of my daily routine that were missing. I’m looking forward in the coming months to exploring the various applications available for the iPad as well; the few that I have played with have been very useable and take full advantage of the iPad user experience.

I’m really glad my wife talked me into getting one.

Thinking of getting an iPad? Not sure if it will work for what you want to do? Got one and using it in a unique way? Please add a comment below!

Visit DavidAlison.com

An initially unintended consequence of the digital photography revolution was that many digital sensors were very sensitive to infrared, to the point manufacturers put a filter over the sensor to block infrared light. With that filter removed and an infrared-passing filter put in its place, a new world was opened to digital photographers.

One of the main problems with doing infrared film photography was that there was no way to meter the level of infrared in a given scene. Exposure was a series of trials and errors (mostly errors for me). Many photographers bracketed exposures heavily, over and under exposing frames around what they thought was the proper exposure. There were a lot of other problems with infrared film that just made it difficult to work with. Handling was only in total darkness, the film was very heat sensitive, and it was very easy to fog the film.

I first became aware of digital infrared around the year 2000, at a workshop on Photoshop. The lecturer displayed a few images in their presentation that had been shot with a Minolta DiMage 7 camera. I was intrigued. I immediately bought a DiMage 7 and a deep infrared filter, and started on the road to digital infrared. One thing that immediately struck me was that I could see the infrared image – no more guessing if I got the exposure right. No more shooting six stop brackets to insure a good exposure. No more wondering how the scene will look – if the model’s clothing will render the way the eye sees it or not. Wow!

Fast forward 10 years. I’ve been shooting a converted Nikon D100 for over 5 years now. I had a showing in 2008 of my infrared work at Angelina College. The infrared world has been very good… but now, I wanted more. More megapixels, and with the now greater selection of infrared filters available for camera conversions, greater variance on infrared vs. visible light captured, and more color.

Yep, color. The only way previous to digital to do color, or “false color” infrared, was to shoot one of Kodak’s emulsions like Kodak EIR Ektachrome Infrared. Green plants turn shades of red, and Caucasian skin tones turn shades of yellow. Images with this film were stunning… but you still had the problems of difficulty in handling and exposure. With the current crop of sensors and filters, some rendering of color is found in the images captured.

I recently had a second camera converted to infrared by Isaac Szabo, a Fayetteville, Arkansas photographer (http://www.isaacszabophotography.com/). Isaac shoots a wide variety of photographic subjects, and does all of them well. His infrared work is great. I found him while doing an eBay search for “infrared conversion” – I was pleasantly surprised to see his price for a conversion. So after thinking about it for a few moments, I clicked “buy it now” and shipped Isaac my Nikon D200 body.

Not only did the camera get converted, but Isaac set the focus for the lens I supplied with the body. Infrared light focuses at a slightly different distance from the lens than visible light, so this can make some real difference.

My D200 came back converted in about 10 days. I opened the package and immediately shot an image through the window of my office. I was pleasantly surprised to find that at ISO 100, I was able to get a hand-holdable shutter speed. Surprised because my converted D100 would have had to be on ISO 400 or ISO 800 to get the same image. I took the camera to lunch that day (it didn’t eat much…) and shot a palm tree in front of a restaurant… and was again pleasantly surprised. There were shades of color in the obviously infrared image. Back at the studio, I opened the image in Photoshop, and ran Isaac’s action (I forgot to mention that Isaac provides this action and instructions to customers who purchase a conversion) to switch the red and blue channels. The result was stunning… blue sky in an infrared image.

If this sounds like it is for you, check out eBay… do a search for “infrared conversion” and look for the infrared photo of the lone tree  – the auction will be titled “Infrared IR Conversion Service for Digital Cameras” and is currently priced at $200.  (or click on the image of the ebay listing)

And, look for a follow-up article in a few weeks – I plan on shooting my newly converted D200 heavily on an upcoming trip to Mexico.

I gravitate towards that word “disciplined” because I am an analytical and systematic individual. My trusty Mac computer dictionary provided the following:

With that in mind, I have to add I also like insights into the actual step-by-step thoughts in the designing process for a photographer, and I look for good illustrations and well-written tutorials done by an enthusiastic photographer. All of these are well covered in Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach to Creativity. Add a DVD with additional images, 360 degree panoramas of studio shots in progress, some short videos of photographic sessions, references, and tutorials and you have a concise and worthwhile package.

Mr. Stern writes in an easy-going style that makes the reader feel that they are in the presence of an out-going teacher who enjoys sharing his techniques and learning experiences‚ both the good and the bad‚ and he is not ashamed to admit to mistakes made in that they provide part of the lessons learned that he would share with the student. It is no wonder that he has had a wide and varied teaching career in addition to his studio work. Among the places that he has taught are Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Art Center College of Design, Glendale Community College, Burbank Unified School District, Julia Dean Photographic Workshops, Studio Arts, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and Brooks Institute.

Mr. Stern’s professional career involves some seventeen years working for the Disney Studios, extensive architectural, product, and portrait photography. He cites a deeply committed relationship to Adobe Photoshop and its importance to the digital studio of today.

Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach To Creativity (ISBN: 978-1-933952-18-5, US $34.95 CAN $41.95) covers four major areas.

The first is environmental portraiture, and in it he delves deeply into the process of designing the portrait and how to load the image’s environment with telling clues that give insight to the depth of the personality of the subject. Along with that he gives serious tips about controlling and predicting color output. Workflows on the computer with an emphasis on organization (remember that word “Disciplined” in the book title?) are considered in depth as well.

The second major area that Mr. Stern discusses is involved in compositing techniques using the computer and Adobe Photoshop. How to light and shoot a myriad of different images and to bring them together in a final composite is painsakingly described with a variety of tutorial screen shots showing the multiple layers and layer masks necessary to produce the final image result.

The third area that is discussed gives lessons on using the scanner in place of the camera and takes a trip into personal style and creativity. It attempts to open up the student to looking at shape and form in the small world in order to sharpen the student’s design skills and to realize that not all images have to come via the camera lens.

The final section of the book looks at product photography and how to light a product in such a way that it is easy to vary background and key colors and to composite separate product images into final images.

Throughout the entire book several ideas continue to travel side by side with the craft and techniques of both photography and Adobe Photoshop as skills. One of those ideas is that the photographer must sell himself or herself continually to the client. This is necessary because there are many photographers who are skillful as photographers but who do not maintain a pleasant working relationship with the client. The job of the photographer is to satisfy the client with both the product and a pleasant personal working relationship. A photographer walks a thin line as he or she trys to promote their own ideas and creativity, and at the same time to deal with the preconceived ideas that the client may bring to the conference table. Satisfying the client in part means that the client must feel that they have contributed to the design concept greatly even if the photographer has promoted his or her own creative design successfully. Each photographer must know when to listen and when to speak (and how to do it tactfully) as the photographer and client come to terms with the final design.

Dealt with indirectly, but explained well, is the difficulty in dealing with the chain of command in large organizations. The filtering process between the ultimate client in the chain and the photographer is a delicate one because each individual in the chain of command feels the necessity of placing their own mark on the final product‚ else they cannot justify their own position in the hierachy. Putting it bluntly, this is hell on the creative process and can lead to difficulties.

I found Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach To Creativity a good read; it will provide a great deal of insight to the creative process and the day-to-day managerial skills and personality  necessary. Definitely a must read for the aspiring photographer who feels that mastering photographic and computer skills are all there is to the photography business.

His book has been published by Rocky Nook Press. Their books are printed on acid-free paper and the color in their books will survive long after the technical skills described in each volume will be replaced by the advances in our technology. Sometimes we get so caught up in the latest information that we forget how we receive that information. The “how” in this case is also important and should be acknowledged.

Build A Better Photograph: A Disciplined Approach To Creativity
by Michael E. Stern
ISBN: 978-1-933952-18-5
US $34.95 CAN $41.95

Michael Stern around the web:
His website CyberStern.com
His blog is  DigitalBeast.Wordpress.com
Find some excellent tutorials are at  SlideShare.net/Mr_Pixel
Michael Stern at The Brooks Insititute