dSLR Dad

I must admit, this is a great service that I hope every manufacturer adopts.  Canon USA has made available 16 tutorial videos (at the time of this post) on the new Canon EOS 7D.  These instructional videos can be watched on the website, or downloaded to your iPod, iPhone, and even your Camera.  That’s right, all a dSLR Dad has to do is copy these videos to your CompactFlash Card and then you can watch them on the Canon 7D’s 3-inch LCD screen when out in the field.  The following EOS 7D On-Camera Tutorial Videos are available:

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Flickr has now integrated Flickr2Twitter support. You can now share your Flickr content either via “upload by email” or by Twittering your content directly from your Flickr page. The following are the how-to instructions for dSLR Dads to Twitter their photographs directly from your Flickr page: (more…)

After releasing firmware 1.1.0, Canon has published more information regarding the manual video exposure of the EOS 5D Mark II dSLR Camera:

Once installed, EOS 5D Mark II users will be able to utilize the ‘M’ mode setting to manually set shutter speed, lens aperture, and ISO when in Movie Mode. Previously, regardless of where the Mode Dial was physically set, video recording was always in the Program AE setting with no practical method to manually set a pre-determined exposure value. We’ll explain the procedure to manually set exposure during video recording in a moment — the important thing here is to note that users now have a choice during video recording, once firmware version 1.1.0 is installed: they can continue to let the camera set exposure completely automatically, as it has up to now, or they can manually set exposure themselves.

What this firmware does NOT do, at least at this time, is add or change features like the camera’s 30 frames per second framing rate, its fully automatic audio gain control, or add in-camera time code capability.

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Now that PMA is over, and we’ve all digested the new gear, it’s now time to actually photograph something. So what I want to know from all of you dSLR Dads is a list of topics that you want covered over the coming weeks.  Just add your own comment below.

What to include:

• Do you have a dSLR?
• How long have you been using it?
• What do you like to photograph?
• What are your Top 5 requests for dSLR Dad?

A Scott Kelby Retrospective

Scott Kelby, the Photoshop master, has written a new year’s retrospective on all things Photoshop for the year 2007.

For my last post of the year, I thought I’d take a quick look back at what has just been an amazing year of change, innovation, and growth for our industry. I’m going to focus on what’s happened in the Photoshop arena, in photography, what’s happened here in my Photoshop Insider blog, and how it’s impacted our lives (and my own work), throughout this year (which seems like it literally just flew by).

You can read the entire article here. You can also view all of Scott Kelby’s Books at Amazon here.

 What is a histogram and what does it tell us about a photograph?

Ellis Vener over at the Professional Photographer has written an excellent article on reading and understanding the histogram on the back of your camera.  This week’s Must Read.

A histogram is nothing more than a bar graph. It shows how the luminance values in a digital or digitized photograph are distributed. The linear scale in a histogram runs from black at one end to white at the opposite end. With the exception of a scanned negative, the scale runs from left (black) to right (white). About 99 percent of the histograms we use in photography today have 256 increments, corresponding to 8-bit data depth. The histogram maps the distribution of the luminance values either as a composite of the red, green, and blue channels or in each channel, as you may have seen in the histogram display on some cameras and as option in Photoshop. (more…)

The following is part of a much larger dSLR Dad Holiday Gift Guide:

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs presents the full spectrum Adams’ greatest work in a single volume for the first time, offering an entirely new perspective on his monumental career. The photographs are arranged chronologically into five major periods in order to convey Adams’ development as an artist-from his first photographs made in Yosemite and the High Sierra in 1916 to his work in the National Parks in the 1940s up to his last important photographs from the 1960s. You can order this wonderful book at the dSLR Dad Amazon Book Store.

Best wishes to all those dSLR Dad’s in the United States.  For all of you dSLR Dad’s in other parts of the world taking the time to read my blog, make today “Big Family Meal Thursday.”

Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday.  It’s a time to create a large and wonderful meal to share with your Family and Friends. Let today be the day that you take a little extra time and appreciate those around you.  And while you’re at it, snap a few photographs of those around you.

Today’s Holiday Photography Tip:  When you look through the viewfinder, look at what’s behind your Loved One.  If you don’t like the background, change your angle or move to the side.  This is one way to move from a snapshot to a photograph.  This will not only make the background clearer, but also help eliminate the akward piece of furniture sticking out the side of someone’s head.

For all of you dSLR Dads who can’t get enough information about Nikon’s upcoming D3 and D300 dSLRs (and you know who you are), Nikon USA has posted the manuals.

The D3 manual is available here (pdf link). You can find the D300 here (pdf link).

Update:  This does give weight to the rumors that the D300 will ship within the week.

xTrain.com has posted a page of free Classes that are available to those who sign up. Of particutalr note to you dSLR Dad’s:

• Exposure Modes
• Black and White Experiments in Photoshop
• Learn the Good, the Bad and yes, even the Ugly of photo retouching in Photoshop CS3 (more…)