The Digital Photography Show #66: Win a Lensbaby and Should You Shoot Your Friend’s Wedding? (20Mb, 58 mins)
The Digital Photography Show #66: Win a Lensbaby and Should You Shoot Your Friend’s Wedding? (20Mb, 58 mins)
September 4, 2007: Welcome to the sixty sixth episode of The Digital Photography Show!
Today, Michael and I are joined by Craig Strong of Lenbabies.
We’re thrilled to welcome Lensbabies aboard as our newest sponsor. In honor of their coming into the circle of love that we like to call “The Digital Photography Show,” Craig is giving away a free Lensbaby 3G. You can win it by sending us the answer to the trivia question we ask during his interview. Send it to us at TheDigitalPhotographyShow@gmail.com by September, 20, 2007. We’ll pick a correct response at random.
To whet your appetite for a Lensbaby, here are a few words from their webpage.
Lensbabies are selective Focus SLR lenses. Lensbaby photos have one area in sharp focus, with that “sweet spot” surrounded by gradually increasing blur. You can move the sweet spot to any part of your photo by bending the lens.
Lensbabies™ are perhaps the simplest way to add a completely new dimension to your photography. Try a Lensbaby when you need a creative edge or just want to have fun with your camera.
Michael and I also answer the age old question: What should you do if a friend asks you to shoot their wedding? To organize our conversation, we rely heavily on this article by Antony Hands. (http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Wedding101-page1.html) Antony’s article is a great reference, and if you’ve ever considered shooting a friend’s wedding – or any important event – you’ll want to check it out.
Please remember to sign up for email notifications from our show! We will pick one subscriber at random to win either a copy of onOne’s Plug-In Suite 3 for Adobe Photoshop, Alien Skin’s Snap Art or Rick Sammon’s DVD “Rick Sammon Live.” You get to choose.
Click here to Subscribe to TPN :: The Digital Photography Show by Email.
We’d love to hear what you thought of the show either here on the blog or at TheDigitalPhotographyShow@gmail.com.
Thanks to our advertiser DXO (www.dxo.com) for the 20% discount they are only offering to listeners of this show. Try the program for free, and when you’re ready to buy, use the code DPSSHOW.
And don’t forget the fifty buck discount on Alien Skin’s Snap Art (http://www.alienskin.com/snapart/index.html) and the 50% discount on Exposure (http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/index.html) . Just call and tell them you heard about it on The Digital Photography Show.
We also appreciate the sponsorship of Wacom and Lensbabies, two great products for when you want to get creative with your photography.
Thanks for joining us here, in the Circle of Love
Scott
September 6th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!
I have only read the blog links and this is an awesome resource for someone who has shot a couple of weddings and getting ready to do the first ones for real!!!!
I cannot wait to hear the show later.
Scott & Michael, you are the greatest hosts of all time!
September 6th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Wow - that’s some nice feedback — and before you’ve even listened to the show.
No backsies.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:38 am
Great Show!! I love the article about shooting weddings. It was extremely helpful! Craig from The Radiant visita did a video tutorial on his experience with the lensbaby. It is really good and explains about the various focus tricks you can do in real life situations.
http://www.radiantvista.com/archive/video_tutorials/23/
Cheers,
Laurel
September 6th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
You asked for some feedback on products which I purchased because of their having been on your show.
Mpix.com: I ordered three statuettes from them of my granddaughter, niece and nephew playing tee-ball and soccer and I could not be more pleased. The quality of the images and the work in trimming the plastic make it as though the kids were seven inches tall and standing on my desk.
ProShow Gold: I have used both the i-life Mac apps and Windows Movie Maker in the past to make multi-media slide show disks of the kids and their teams sports seasons. ProShow Gold was so much easier to use, more feature laden and most importantly so much less crash prone (Movie Maker in particular slowed way down or crashed after adding 80 to 100 images) that it made it worth every cent of the $75 I spent on it. As a matter of fact many of the other kids parents (we gave everyone a copy of the finished disks) asked what I used and where they could get it.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I was invited to a wedding for next month. I am reluctant to bring my Nikon gear, as I am guessing professionals have been hired by the couple-to-be. However, weddings do seem to lend themselves nicely to cameras. While I agree with the comments on the show that a “kit” style lens does not really seem adequately specked out for it, mainly in the speed department, I think a lot of that is dependent on the lighting of the church/hall itself. While some of them can be rather dark, it seems to me as though the last few I attended were lit rather brightly. This may have to do with the time of the year as well.
Michael had mentioned a couple of shows ago that he was not happy with the Nikon 18-200 VRII, with regards to sharpness, if I recall, and pictures being out of focus. While I have not found this to be the case with this lens, I did really push it and shoot with a very low shutter speed. At that point, I did run into those issues. However, I may check out the wedding venue in advance to get a feel for the man-made and ambient lighting. If adequate, I think that would be a great lens to use.
I also have a 50mm f/1.8D, which would be very nice for the more portrait style shots.
Or, maybe I will make life easier, and not have people ask me about my gear, and if I am a “pro”, and just bring my point and shoot, and blend in!
Arthur
September 7th, 2007 at 4:28 am
This is one of my favorite podcasts on the net.
Thanks for doing it, guys. The best part of each
show is when Scott inevitably asks a question which
takes him 3 - 4 minutes to ask and Michael answers
with a “Yup” or “U’huh”. Priceless!
September 7th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Hey guys,
Was just listening to #65 with Michaels out of focus issues with the 18-200 vr. My guess is that he was using the VR in bright conditions where it is not needed and the VR was fighting itself. I only use VR on low light conditions.
Hope it helps and keep us updated.
Warm regards,
Steve
September 7th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Great show guys. Just a quick tip for those doing a friends wedding and a real confidence booster on the day. I did this before the first couple of weddings I shot. If you can, go down to the wedding location a few days before but at the same time of day as the wedding. You will be able to scout the best locations and run through the shots with the bride and groom IN THE SAME LIGHT as you will hopefully get on the day. Apart from any differences in metering caused by the dress you can go to shoot the wedding confident that you know where and more importantly how you will be shooting the pictures. I found that this made everything go much smoother and quicker as all of the important people knew exactly what they were doing. Also the most confident you appear, the more respect you will get from the guests and the easier your job will be. Oh, and have fun!!
J
September 8th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Steve,
you could be correct about the VR. I don’t think I switched it off, although my wife used it with great success with her D40 on bright days. I will certainly keep this in mind and make a point of switching it off unless I have longer exposures.
Thanks!
–Michael
September 8th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Hi Michael,
Thanks for mentioning me on the podcast! It’s cool that we finally got back in touch almost a year after the Shelburne Farms shoot and both had pictures in competition at the fair. Hopefully we can get some more award-winning photos at the next moonrise! Great show!
Steve
September 8th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Great Show…….love the stuff on wedding photography, and have now put a lenbabies lens on my wish list!
BTW I gave Mpix.com a try and loved the results, Thanks for having them on the show and Thank You Mpix.com for a great service!
September 8th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Here is a link to the site of my absolute favorite wedding photographer:
http://www.jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?postID=172
September 9th, 2007 at 12:54 am
I’ve got a digital camera question, and I figured I would ask all of you experts for help. I have a DSLR which works great. However, my Sony DSC P92 point and shoot (which worked great for the last three years or so) has started taking lots of pictures with a bluish tint. Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks very much for the help & Scott and Michael, thanks for the great shows.
Clint Wolf
September 9th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Clint; The very first thing to check would be the white balance setting. If all else is good, but they all have a blue tint, that’s the most likely suspect by far.
September 10th, 2007 at 3:11 am
Andrew…Thanks very much. I will check it out.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Great show as always and congratulations on the new sponsor. I begs the question though, will DXO Optics Pro and Lens Baby go together to develop a plugin to correct the Lens Baby lack of sharpness and barrel distortions? :-) Also, Scott, you indicated you wouldn’t have a nuclear weapon maker as an advertiser. But you never know. Nuclear weapons might be like a Lens Baby, you might have to try one to before liking them.
Seriously: I really like all the products you guys bring to us. I have been sold on CS3, Alien Skin and Phanfare after hearing you talk to those about them. And I’m anxious to try a Lens Baby and ProShow, right after the D-300.
September 10th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I’d like to throw-out a question to the audience.
I shoot with an olympus E300, I have just acquired a Canon speedlight 420EZ flash.
It doesn’t appear to be communicating with the camera very well, which I expected. I’d like to maximise the communication it does have such as the focus-assist lamp and TTL metering.
If anyone knows anything about achieving this I’d love to hear about it.
Mark.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Hey guys…just started listening to your podcasts and am very impressed with the show. I’m starting at the beginning and have gone through episode 4 as of right now. My father was a photographer before he became a Presbyterian minister and I guess its in the genes, cause I’ve caught the bug now. I have been shooting with my canon 20d for about year now. I absolutely love it, but like Michael I get the bug to wanna buy the newest and greatest equipment…oh well. I’m looking forward to catching up on all the shows and will write again, cause I know I’ll have questions. Keep up the good work.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Anyone else have trouble finding the answer to the trivia question to win a lensbaby? Listened to the show; cannot for the life of me find the answer.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Hello Scott and Michael, My comment doesn’t pertain to the latest show, but I hope by posting it here it will catch your attention. I recently purchased a Canon 40D and was having a blast with it until I tried to import the RAW files into Lightroom. Won’t happen. I searched the net to see if there was any information on this and I discovered (apparently with many other pissed off Canon/Adobe consumers) that it will probably be months until Adobe products can import D40 CR2 files. It don’t know who to be most angry at…Canon for stubbornly refusing to work with other software vendors (I can’t see ANY reason for it) or Adobe for being unwilling to adjust their upgrade/fix schedule to accomodate a camera release this significant. I don’t know anything about the engineering involved, but it’s not as if they are re-inventing the process. I would think that since they have already had to create “profiles” for all of the various RAW file types that they could have tried to get a little bit ahead of the curve on this one. I’m really pissed…especially since I sold my other camera to make this purchase. I think you should alert your listeners to this problem. thanks
September 11th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Yes Landya, I looked around for a few minutes but couldn’t find the answer anywhere :o(
September 11th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I had a hard time as well but eventually found it. You can find the “About Us” information by clicking on the image of Craig Strong holding a Lensbaby. His image is in the flash player box with five other images of his products. This assumes that your flash payer is working in your web browser. It would be helpful if this site had a “Site Index” link at the top with all the information in the flash player in case the flash player does not work for some people.
Good Luck.
Brian
September 11th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Landya, I couldn’t find it either and I spent about 30 minutes combing the website. I’m pretty sure Scott said it was on the “about us” page and I don’t think an “about us” PAGE exists. Seems kind of sour to complain about the chance to get something for free, but what was my 30 minutes worth? Left me not wanting to have to look at the lensbaby website ever again.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Keep looking! It’s there, but you just have to kind of search the site.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I had a heck of a time locating it as well. I understand that the purpose was probably to get people to navigate around a bit to explore the site, but I really can’t spend all day clicking every possible pixel that might reveal the “secret door”. Much as I enjoy the show–it was a really poorly thought out promotion.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:55 am
Thanks for your contributions, everyone.
Regarding your comments about the difficulty of finding the information on the Lensbabies home page - sorry! I didn’t mean for it to be so difficult, and if anyone was having trouble they were welcome to ask for a hint. I was trying to come up with something fun and a little challenging, not something that would drive you all crazy.
I can say that hundreds of people did find the right phrase and submitted the answer within a day or two of the show posting. I guess it’s one of those things that are either immediately obvious, or that you never find. Me, I’m still looking for Waldo.
I have to give major props to Brian for giving you all the answer in his comment above. Not everyone would have shared that with his fellow listeners: After all, the fewer of you who can find it, the less competition there is for him.
Brian, you are da man!
We just finished the most recent episode and the next contest is easier - I promise!
I will share your feedback with Lensbabies, too.
September 12th, 2007 at 5:01 am
Hey Matt - I just read your comment about 40D files not working with Adobe products for several months - WHAT???!!
I just got my 40D and figured the update is imminent.
Where did you hear this and how reliable is the source? This is the most recent thread I found on DP Review and it doesn’t appear there’s any big problem:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=24771983
September 12th, 2007 at 8:12 am
I’m speaking about the Canon/Adobe situation from personal experience. The Raw files from my new 40D were not recognizable by Lightroom. I finally found some information on Adobe’s Lightroom forum. Apparently Canon won’t share any information with the Adobe Raw people prior to the release of a new camera so they are unable to do whatever kind of testing/evaluation of the sensor etc. that is necessary to provide a “profile” so that the information can be used by Adobe Camera Raw. I didn’t see any indication that Adobe will be doing anything to expedite compatibility. The impression I got from people on the Adobe forum (who seemed to be on a first name basis with the Lightroom/Camera Raw teams) is that they will stick to their traditional release schedule which is 3 or 4 times a year and somebody on the forum guess that the 40D files will be compatible around Thanksgiving. Scott, if you still have access to the gentleman you spoke to from Canon a few shows back I would love to find out what they think the advantage is to NOT cooperating with software vendors prior to a camera release. Or at least not doing anything to speed things up afterwards. I can’t see any reason at all for it. If anything it will discourage people from purchasing their cameras. If I had known about this I wouldn’t have bought the 40D–especially considering I sold another camera to afford the purchase. Maybe if enough people start bitching about it something will happen sooner. I have already written emails to Canon and Adobe although I don’t have much hope that anybody will read them that has any power to do anything about it. If you can think of a better means to try and get a response I would certainly join in.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Sorry, I should have included a link to the thread…
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc80b07?14
September 12th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Thank you Brian!!!!
Yowsa. Now that was obscure. He did not look clickable at all!
Amy, I am glad I was not alone on this one. Are we total losers? Not if we win a lensbaby!
September 12th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Landya, I’ve met Craig twice in person - he’s very clickable. It’s one of his best traits!