June 8th, 2010

Adobe today announced the release of Photoshop Lightroom 3, the company’s professional photo management and manipulation application. Lightroom has been one of the most popular photo management tools out there and we have covered many of the features in Lightroom on this site. Adobes main competitor in this field is Apple’s Aperture 3. Here is a little more info from Adobe about his release:

First released as a public beta in October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles growing image libraries and provides an unrivaled raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve the highest image quality. The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimize workflows and allow images to be shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.

The first beta version of Lightroom 3 was released in late October, with a second beta following in late March.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is available immediately and is priced at $299 for the full version and $99 for an upgrade version. You can get it on Amazon here: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Upgrade

You can view the full press release from Adobe here: Adobe releases Lightroom 3

To help us focus on the most relevant types of articles for everyone, we would love to know what type of photography you do. Please take a quick second to answer the question below, you can pick more than one but keep your answers to your primary photography sources.

Thanks!

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

I am so stoked to have my 3rd iPad app finished and waiting for apple to approve! I started writing a few mini books awhile back to help educate photographers wanting to start shooting weddings or portraits. There are so many questions I get from people that normally are the same questions people have when getting into photography. I also see so many people starting out that lack a certain creative element in their photography. Normally some of the more advanced things like Lighting are missed by most people starting out. So over the past year I have been working on putting down on paper some of the many things in my head that I can share from my 11 years of shooting professionally and years of Art school before that.

Baby photography 101 is now available in the app store here! Baby Photography for iPad

You can also get it in an iPhone version here: Baby Photography for iPhone

I wanted to create some guides that were really easy to learn, easy to understand and covered the technical parts of photography but in a not so technical way. As a photographer I am visual, after college I would still keep up with my photo education and read books, attended seminars and workshops and usually was pretty uninspired by the way the information was presented. Normally it was so technical that it lost my attention after a few minutes and I put the book on the shelf never to be picked up again. So I set out to create some tools for people to learn and be inspired and also wanted to create them at a very good price, really a no brainer. When the iPad was released I was excited, it really is a perfect medium to learn on . You have a nice large screen as well as something that feels great in your hand like a book but can be so interactive. So far I have created a Portrait 101 and a Wedding Photography 101 guide that right now are only $1.99! I wanted to create some very useful guides to help people get more creative with their photography and also have them be so inexpensive anyone can buy them. These also are available as iPhone (or iPod touch) version and for those of you who don’t have an iPhone or iPad going to be available as eBooks coming out in the next few months.

Here is a excerpt from the Baby Photography 101 app coming this week. Watch Twitter for an announcement when it’s live @digitalphotobuz

Tips on keeping them sleeping

Nothing is more beautiful than a peaceful sleeping baby. But sometimes no matter how tired they are when you are ready to shoot them sleeping they just don’t want to stay asleep. I don’t know how many times a mom has fed, burped and changed a baby then rocked them to sleep and once I start clicking the shutter they start to wake right up. There are a few tips that I have found very useful to keep a baby sleeping.

1- Swaddle them up nice and tight. Especially for newborns up to 2 months old the swaddle can be your best friend.

2 – Pacifier. Although it might not look perfect in the image a pacifier can really help settle a baby down and get them to fall asleep. And I do think it’s cute to have a few images of them with the pacifier in their mouth. Normally after a few minutes they will let go of it anyway and it will fall out of their mouth or you can try to gently pop it out.

3- Make sure the room is warm. Babies are used to being in the womb where its nice and soft and warm. Make sure the room is very warm, especially if you want a shot of the baby sleeping without clothes. Keep them surrounded by lots of soft warm blankets and snuggled up.

4- Have some background noise playing. You can bring a small CD player or use your iPhone and play a CD of soothing sounds. There are tons of soothing type CD’s out there for babies and they can really help put the baby at ease.

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

If you read my earlier post about the Apple iPad you will know one of the areas where I think this device will really shine is when it comes to the apps. There are already some very cool apps out for the iPad and companies have only had a very small amount of time to create these. I think in another year there is going to be just an abundance of apps to help you edit photos, organize your business and showcase your photos better than any other portable device out there.

After using the iPad for over a month now here are some apps that
Here are 10 great apps that can help your photography business:

Pages
I am a big fan of Apple’s Pages desktop software. As a visual person I had always been aggravated by using most word type apps like Microsoft word, I always wanted to move a image a few centimeters to the side or do little graphic changes that could never be easily done. Then pages came out and it was amazing, now I could finally edit a word doc like I wanted to. With Pages for the iPad you have most of the same great features that Pages for your Mac has all in the iPad and its great touch screen. You can easily move photos around your word doc with a flick of your finger, its a must have for anyone who needs to create any type of docs.

LightTrac for iPad
A perfect app for photographers who shoot on location. Will show you the angle of the sun at any given time along with sunrise/sunset info. We reviewed this a few weeks ago, check out the review here:

Angry Birds HDLots of fun and great graphics. You always need a few fun games on your iPad and this is a definite must have. After a busy day of shooting what better fun that flicking Angry birds on your screen and having them knock over evil pigs It really is a fun and challenging game where you have lots of play time. With 135 levels it requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.

1Password for iPad
Keeps all of your passwords in sync with your desktop. This is another app I love for my computer, you can create strong passwords and it remembers them all for you and keeps them safe. The only downside with the iPad is that safari doesn’t allow plugs-in’s so you can just view the password or use their built in browswer. But still a very useful app.

Keynote
Another amazing mobile version of apples iWork productivity suite. Nice way to make presentations while on the go and a beautiful interface.

Moodboard
This is a cool app to put all of your ideas down on one Corkboard style board. It’s a great way to paste a photo and type up some quick notes to organize your ideas. There is a free version that lets you do most of the things the pro version does so you can try it out first. Mood boarding is a proven technique used to organize ideas and inspiration in the early stages of production. MoodPad will help you pin down the visual feeling and direction of your work, whether on the web, in your home, on a canvas, or within a community such as fashion or photography. Moodboard is built to serve many different mediums of creative expression!

Photogene for iPad
First off this is not Photoshop, but for 4 bucks a pretty cool app to crop, rotate, sharpen, do level and curve adjustments and more. If you want to be able to do some quick edits to your personal images this is a perfect little app.

CameraBag for iPad
For those of you who love your Photoshop and Lightroom actions this is your app. It gives you 11 different filters to apply to your images and includes some like “Helga” (to give you a Holga type effect) and “Lolo” for all you Lomo photographers out there. Check out some images people have edited with this app on flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/camerabagapp/

And I have to end the list with the 2 apps I have written; Portraits 101 and Wedding Photography 101. These guides walk you through some key concepts to improve your photos. Everything is explained in real life terms with beautiful large sample images. If you want to learn to improve your portrait or wedding photos check them out for some great tips and ideas.

Do you have a favorite iPad app? Let me know, I am always looking for some great apps to review so send a comment below.

Thanks everyone who entered our best mobile photo shot last week. We got some great shots as usual and it’s always interesting to see what everyone takes photos of their cell phone with. Next week another contest will be coming up, details announced soon but to give you a hint… think small We are also going to let everyone vote on their favorite so get ready for some good competition and fun.

This weeks winner is from Barbie Wilson and really shows why sometimes the best camera is the one in your pocket. Sunsets are always so quick and fleeting and most of the times I find myself admiring an amazing sunset with my camera nowhere close by. Out comes the iPhone and i’ll snap a few pictures away to remember and document that moment, its never as great as my 5d but still something to remember that moment by.

Thanks for the great image barbie and congrats! You win a $100 gift card from Black River Imaging!

View all of the entries on our facebook page here: Digital Photo Buzz Facebook

One of the accessories I have been waiting to get my hands on for the iPad is the camera connector kit. This adapter gives you the ability to plug in a SD card or a powered USB CF reader to your iPad and download the images. It’s $29.99 so not too bad to be able to transfer your images straight to your iPad to view, however does have some limitations. First i’ll review the process of transferring images over and then cover some of the limitations at the end.

The camera connection kit comes with 2 different adapters both which plug right into the 30-pin plug at the bottom of your iPad. One adapter is for SD cards and the other has a USB port so you can plug in any USB card reader. Once you plug in the adapter the photos app will open up with 3 new tabs at the top. On the left there is a delete all button. In the middle it adds a new camera button to show that you are connected to a “camera” and the right has a import all button. Each image on the card is shown below and you can tap on any image to select. Tap on multiples and tap import which will then give you the option to import selected or import all.

This adds the photos into a new Album in your Photo app on the iPad titled “Last Import” and also as a new Event with the title as the Date. From here you can treat them the same as any photos on your iPad, email them, do a slideshow, set one as wallpaper, etc…

Then when you sync your iPad with your computer iPhoto will show all of the images you have downloaded and give you the ability to transfer these images over to iPhoto.

A couple of limitation the adapter and iPad have right now that limit what you can do with it:

1) The ipad does not have enough power to power a card reader so you can only connect card readers to the USB port that have their own power. I have a reader that is powered by the USB and it turns on for a second but then shuts off and gives you a warning stating that “The attached accessory uses too much power”. This is really too bad since one of the best things about the iPad is how portable it is and plugging an adapter into the bottom, then a USB card reader into that which has to have another plug going into the wall is kind of a pain. It would be nice if they also had a CF card adapter as well.

2) If you shoot any video with your camera it will import the video clip but won’t play on the iPad. When you import these video clips to your computer they will play just fine in iPhoto however it would be really nice to be able to view the videos directly on the iPad. Maybe a software update for the photo app will come out that allows this?

3) There also isn’t many solid editing apps yet for the ipad so don’t expect to do anything major with the images once you download them. I am sure this will change with time. This really is a brand new type of device and has only been available to developers for a few months. Once companies start programming for the iPad I am sure some creative and useful apps will be coming out. The apps are one thing i think will really set this apart from other tablets out there, with such a nice display and multi-touch we are just seeing the start of a new way of interacting with your computer.

Although there are limitations to what the device can do right now if you shoot a lot in the field and need a way to quickly backup your images this is a great option. The iPad is so much more portable compared to a laptop and can really be a perfect portable solution for photographers. You can also use this as a way to quickly proof your images with your clients if needed. The screen has a very good resolution so if you have a client who needs to see a preview on location this would work great!

This post brought to you by AppEzzy – Creating iPhone and iPad apps for photographers

Adobe announced that it has begun shipping Creative Suite 5, which they introduced earlier this month.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 product family, the highly-anticipated release of the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. With more than 250 new product features, the Creative Suite 5 product line brings exciting full-version upgrades of flagship creative tools and workflow enhancements to designers and developers — enabling the creation, delivery and optimization of content across media for greater impact and results.

Adobe is now offering free trial downloads for Creative Suite 5 and its various components. You can get a 30 day trial of any of the CS5 full software versions to try out. CS5 is also available at Amazon for slight discounts here: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium Upgrade from CS4

To see some new features of Adobe CS5 check out our article “Adobe CS5 – whats new for photographers”

Thanks again to everyone who entered our last photo contest “Black and White Landscapes“. There was some really amazing work, you can check all the entries on our facebook wall. Also thanks to our sponsor Black River Imaging for providing $100 gift cards to the 3 winners.

It was hard to pick the top 3 but here are the winners.

Third place – “Untitled 2″ by Dave Ratliff, Flash 37 Studios.

Really strong composition here and wonderful contrast. There is so much detail in this shot it really engages you and makes you spend time looking all around the image.

Second place – “Vancouver, BC” by Carol-Ann Loeppky, Carol Ann Photography

I really loved the simplicity of this composition, it gives me a very serene and peaceful feeling and the gradation of the sky from dark to light frame in the tree very well. The part that really makes this shot go from good to great in my mind is the 2 benches underneath the tree. They give a sense of scale to the image and really add to the overall feel of the shot.

First place – “View from the jetty – Kennebunkport Maine” by Erin Gonzalez, Erin Gonzalez Photography

Just absolutely breaktaking! This is an image that I could stare into after a busy day and would put me right at peace. I love the panoramic crop to the image and the softness of the water and overall tone of the image just take your breath away!

Wonderful images everyone! For the winners please fill out a contact form at the top of the site with your address and i’ll mail your giftcards right out.

We got so many great entries for our Portrait contest I wanted to share a few more that I thought were really amazing. It was so difficult to only choose 3 images for the winners so here are a few more shots and some things that I think work well with the images.

This first shot is by Timothy Kou. The lighting in this shot really sets the mood of the image. That combined with the blank stare and pose of the man it makes you pause for a second and wonder what this person is thinking. It really grabs your attention like a good portrait should and the negative space off to the left of the image works really well with the composition. One thing I would like to see in this shot is a little more dramatic light, have the guys entire right side of his face fall into shadow instead of having that little piece of light on his cheek would make it much more powerful in my opinion.

This image is by Matt at Hinkley Photo. This is a great example of capturing the essence of a child without needing to have them look and smile at the camera. It captures the innocence and curiosity of a child. The tone and slight softness of the image I think do really add to the shot, its not applying a PS action just to do so but helps to bring this moment to life.

This shot is by Heidi at http://www.velvetowlphotography.com. A great example of a high contrast portrait that really just rocks! The contrast along with the tight composition and look of the child grab your attention right away. A really amazing portrait!

This photo is by Rhonda at Rhonda Mitchell Photography . Fun, creative, colorful just a few words that popped right into my mind when I saw it. This shot puts a smile right on your face and I am sure the client will absolutely love it! One small suggestion I would have is to burn in the edges of the image a bit (mainly some of the very light grass). Bring the viewers attention back to that cute smiley baby!

This image is by Tamandra of Heart Dog Studios. How can you not just love this face! Just an amazing shot, a perfect capture of a dog which I know isn’t easy to do. Love the light background it really brings out the eyes of the dog where they are reflecting the sky and the soft lines in the background also add an extra visual element to the shot that I really like.

Also don’t forget to enter our current contest with your best black and white landscape. It’s sponsored again by Black River Imaging and you can win one of 3 $100 giftcards for their servies!

Today Adobe has officially announced CS5 and is now taking pre-orders for the different suites and individual products. CS5 will be available in approximately 30 days. Adobe has updated each separate application’s page with more information: Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Premier Pro CS5, Dreamweaver CS5 and Flash Professional CS5.

Adobe will be offering a first look preview of the many new features starting at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern time today (Monday, April 12th). This is a live stream that you can view here:
Adobe releases CS5 live stream

You can also view a few videos of some of the new features here: Adobe Photoshop CS5 videos

Here is the official press release:

SAN JOSE, Calif., — April 12, 2010 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Creative Suite® 5, a breakthrough release of the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Focusing on interactivity, performance and maximizing the impact of digital content and marketing campaigns across media and devices, the Creative Suite 5 product line brings exciting full version upgrades of flagship creative tools while delivering significant workflow enhancements to designers and developers. Featuring integration with online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities for the first time, Creative Suite 5 products include access to signature Omniture technologies, to capture, store and analyze information generated by Web sites and other sources. Additionally, a brand new component, Adobe Flash® Catalyst™, joins the Creative Suite, ushering in the ability to design interactive content without writing code and improve the collaborative process between designer and developer.

The Adobe CS5 product family also enables the creation of content and applications for the much anticipated releases of Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR® 2, which are optimized for high performance on mobile screens and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for a richer, more immersive user experience.

The new lineup is headlined by Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, which includes, in a single package, all of Adobe’s renowned Creative Suite tools, such as Photoshop® CS5 (see separate release), Illustrator® CS5, InDesign® CS5 (see separate release), Flash Catalyst CS5 (see separate release), Flash Professional CS5, Dreamweaver® CS5, Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS5 (see separate release) and After Effects® CS5. These tools are also available separately or in one of the five Creative Suite editions. The complete Creative Suite 5 lineup includes Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5 Web Premium, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Creative Suite 5 Design Standard, as well as 15 point products, associated technologies and integration with new Adobe CS Live Services (CS Live Services are complimentary for a limited time).*

“While Creative Suite 5 continues Adobe’s storied history of delivering astonishing new creative features, this release first and foremost addresses the challenges facing publishers and creatives worldwide—how to build profitable businesses around digital content,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. “By coupling sophisticated online business analytics with dazzling creative tools, we’re ensuring that publishers, designers and marketers can create, deliver and optimize beautiful, high-impact digital experiences across media and devices.”

Design Without Boundaries
More than 250 new features have been integrated into the Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection. InDesign CS5 is powering the transition to digital publishing with new interactive documents and enhanced electronic reader device support. Image creation and editing get a boost in Photoshop CS5 with Refine Edge, which offers better edge detecting technology and masking results in less time. Photoshop CS5 also includes the ability to remove an image element and immediately replace the missing pixels with Content-Aware Fill. New stroke options allow Adobe Illustrator CS5 users to create strokes of variable widths and precisely adjust the width at any point along the stroke.

Work Faster with Greater Precision
Engineering breakthroughs throughout Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection work together to dramatically improve performance. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects are now native 64-bit applications on both Mac and Windows®, allowing users to work more fluidly when working on high-resolution projects. The highly anticipated NVIDIA® GPU-accelerated Adobe Mercury Playback Engine allows Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 users to open projects faster, refine effects-rich HD sequences in real time and play back complex projects without rendering. The revolutionary time-saving Roto Brush tool in After Effects helps users isolate moving foreground elements in a fraction of the normal time. In addition, Dreamweaver CS5 now supports popular content management systems Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress, allowing designers to get accurate views of dynamic Web content from within the product.

Accelerate and Optimize Creative Workflows
Adobe Creative Suite 5 products integrate with new Adobe CS Live*, a set of five online services that accelerate key aspects of the creative workflow and enable designers to focus on creating their best work. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time and currently include Adobe BrowserLab, Adobe CS Review, Acrobat.com, Adobe Story and SiteCatalyst® NetAverages™ from Omniture. Adobe CS Review enables online design reviews directly from Creative Suite 5 applications, while Adobe BrowserLab is an indispensable tool for testing Web site content across different browsers and operating systems. NetAverages provides Web usage data that helps reduce the guesswork early in the creative process when designing for Web and mobile. Adobe Story is a collaborative scriptwriting tool that improves production and post-production workflows in CS5 Production Premium. Access to Acrobat.com services, such as Adobe ConnectNow Web conferencing, is also included to enhance discussion and information exchange with colleagues and clients around the globe.

Create and Deliver to More Mobile Platforms
Using Flash Professional CS5, designers and developers can create, test and deliver Web content across a wide range of mobile platforms and devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, smartbooks and other consumer electronics. Users can look forward to deploying content in the browser with Flash Player 10.1 and as a standalone application with AIR 2 when those planned products become available. In addition, users can now build AIR applications using the new Packager for iPhone tool preview, a component of Flash Professional CS5, which can be deployed on the iPhone and iPad (subject to Apple’s requirements and approval) with future device support planned for Android, BlackBerry and Palm webOS.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 5 products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for the suites is expected to be US$2599 for Master Collection CS5, US$1899 for CS5 Design Premium, US$1799 for CS5 Web Premium, US$1699 for CS5 Production Premium and US$1299 for CS5 Design Standard. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available. Adobe CS5 products integrate with Adobe CS Live Services, which are complimentary for a limited time.* For more detailed information about features, OS support, upgrade policies, pricing and international versions please visit: www.adobe.com/go/creativesuitemaster.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Here is also a video showing the new warp feature in Photoshop CS5