Nikon D3100–Latest Impressions Of This Photographer’s Main Camera

Nikon D3100, an reliable camera that takes great photos and provides an alternative to more expensive cameras like the D4 and the D800

The Venerable Nikon D3100

With all the buzz about Nikon’s latest FX offerings, the D4 and the almost affordable D800, and rumors flying about the D3200, I thought it might be a good time to review my old standby, the Nikon D3100, which I’ve been using for almost two years. I’m a firm believer in doing the research, making good decisions about gear buys, and then getting the most out of my purchases, so you can bet that this photographer won’t denigrate himself by drooling over Nikon’s latest and greatest releases.

OK, I’m lying. I fawn just like every other camera junky when a new model like the D800 comes out, especially when and it has features like a 36.3MP FX-format CMOS sensor, full HD 1080p video at 30/25/24p with stereo sound, an ISO range from 100-6400, a 4 fps burst rate and the Advanced Scene Recognition System with a 91,000-pixel RGB sensor. But the realities of my income keep to keep my desires in check. Continue reading →

Best Free Online Photo Editing Software

Amateur Website Developer Seeks Free Online Photo Editor For Simple Projects

Budding website developers–have you ever been overwhelmed by an onslaught of simple image edits and dreaded the thought of opening more cumbersome digital photography software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop? Small photographs and design elements play a crucial role in pretty much every blog post, website header, and front page slider featured image, but opening up one of the beasts can bring even the smoothest workflow to a screeching halt.

A lightweight editor would be nice, but what I really needed was photo editing that worked for website development. My search for an app to edit photos with usable tools and an intuitive user interface, but without an overwhelming array of cheesy photo effects, brought me to what I believe are the five best free online photo editors: Adobe Express, Sumo Paint, Picnik (often misspelled “Piknic”–another internet tongue twister like Flickr, I guess), Aviary, and Pixlr. Most of these free image editors are integrated with popular online photo hosting services, and some even allow you to store your pictures online. If you don’t need to keep images online and already know how to edit a picture using Adobe’s Photoshop, Gimp, or some other stand alone image editing tool, these lightweight apps might seem a bit fluffy. But don’t be so quick to judge–these free online editors come in very handy in a pinch. Continue reading →

Dana Neibert–From Art Director To Commercial Photographer

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/dana-neibert

Photo By Dana Neibert

One of my favorite websites, The Digital Photography School, just published a great interview with art director turned commercial photographer Dana Neibert (you can find Dana’s impressive web portfolio here). Interviews like this usually pack in more insight per paragraph than a photography tutorial, but the amount of good advice for up-and-coming professional photographers found in this article is immense.

Neibert’s commercial photography speaks for itself, but his insights into the business side of commercial photography are money. For me the coolest things about this conversation with Neibert was the fact that I found it right after receiving a game changing critique from a friend–a friend with extensive experience working as an art director and web developer. Continue reading →

Manage Your Photo Obsession–Tips and Tools For Creating Efficient Photography Workflows

Is the monkey on your back taking over your photography?

I’m addicted to photography, and judging by the incredible response to Valerie Jardin’s post, Can Photography Become an Addiction? at the Digital Photography School, many of you are too. But there’s a cure. By organizing your image collection, streamlining your in camera editing (by this I mean checking photos while you shoot and then deleting any images that don’t make the grade), and using efficient image editing workflows, you can reduce the time spent messing around with your photos and create more time to get out and take pictures! If you’re thinking, “That sounds like a vicious cycle,” you’re starting to get the picture. My goal here isn’t so much to cure you of your addiction to photography, but rather to help you produce better pictures so that the time you spend with your obsession will pay off.

In an earlier post to PhotoHow2 I discussed some of the secrets of organizing your photo collection. I spent years using Adobe Bridge as my photo file browser, and I loved its easy integration with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. Continue reading →

App Review–Use A Better Finder Rename To Batch Process Image Folders For Mac

After watching Julieanne Kost’s tutorial LR – Be Organized on AdobeTV, I’ve decided to go through all of my image folders and rename the whole lot in preparation for my first import into Lightroom (you can read my “how-to” on getting started right with Lightroom here). A quick Google search found a few apps for Mac that specialized in renaming image files, but there was very little in the way of apps that can handle folder names. I’m OK with cryptic image names for now, but I want to get rid of the date convention that I used to use to mark my individual shoots (my old structure looked like: “20080916_B’s Birthday Party,” but I just want the “B’s Birthday Party”).

I gave A Better Finder Rename a try and it worked great. It’s a small app, with easy to use options for adding or removing text and numbers to files and folders. In a matter of minutes I’d removed all the clutter, and now I’m looking forward to my file names fitting better in Lightroom 3′s left hand panel. A Better Finder Rename costs $19.95, is Lion compatible, and offers a free trial, which limits folder name conversions to ten at a time, with no overall limits.