Rounding second… a quick painter tutorial

howdy folks,

a couple of days ago I posted a picture of my son playing baseball – his way.

I liked the idea enough that I turned it into a painting (using corel painter 10).

"Playing Baseball" Painting

 First, I made a quick clone of the original and turned off the tracing paper feature to show a white canvas.  Then I selected the Acrylics Captured Bristle from the Smart Stroke Brushes category.  I used the Auto-Paint feature using that brush.  When the Auto-Paint had finished, I selected the Opaque Bristle Spray brush in the Oils category. I set the opacity somewhere between 6% to 20% and painted back the detail in my son by following the natural contours of the image. 

It took roughly 20-30 minutes from the time I opened painter to the time I saved the final image.

a one, two punch for marketing.

howdy folks,

I have a couple of stories for you that might give you inspiration for simple effective marketing ideas.

Yesterday I read a blog post from David Ziser about a guerrilla marketing technique where you send a couple of pen’s with your brand name on them every time you send correspondence.  It is a little long but worth the read.

 Here is the link to Mr. Ziser article:http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2009/08/business-day-thursday-bunny-rabbit.html

Earlier today I was on alltop.com .  It’s a website that lets you pick a selection of blogs from the largest blogs out there (on whatever topic you’re interested in) and display the collection and their 5 most recent articles.  I’ll post my page in a few days.  Anyway, I was looking in the marketing section and found a great article on the true value of banner ads.  It reminded me lot (in a lateral thinking kind of way…) of Mr. Ziser’s article about the ink pens.

here’s the link: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/college-banner-ads.htm

Finally, here is a link to a similar but different strategy.  It doesn’t flood an individual with name recognition. It flood’s a region.  It’s a great article from Photography for Real Estate titled- “tap into neighbor interest in new listings”.  The article discussed techniques for pulling in additional clients from people familiar with current customers.

here’s the link: http://photographyforrealestate.net/2009/08/25/tap-into-neighbor-interest-in-new-listings/

adobe photoshop cs5 and new canon dslr release dates as far as I know… (posted aug 28)

Howdy folks,

here are the best estimates for release dates that I have found so far…

 

Adobe photoshop cs5 (and the rest of the suite as well)  -  April 2010

this is based on the current 18 month product release cycle that Adobe has stuck with for the last few years.

 

Canon 7D announcement – September 1st, 2009

Canon 60D announcement – February 2010 (based on 18-month product release cycle

the 7D announcement date is based on a recent post found on canonrumors.com - A roadmap: odds and ends

the 60D product release cycle  is also discussed in that post.

 

Microsoft Windows 7 operating system – October 22, 2009

already announced.  Just waiting for the release date…  by the way, some computers bought between now and then qualify for a free Win7 upgrade.  Check with the seller before buying.

 

Playing Ball…

howdy folks,

Alot of the posts give links or opinions or ideas.  I thought I might as well share a pic or two also (since this blog is mostly about photography).

Earlier this year, I took my son to the ballpark to play some baseball.  I think he misunderstood…

I think he misunderstood...

Photoshop Heroes (they’re not what you think)

howdy folks,

man have I been busy,  lots of great stuff on the internet these days and no time for new posts.  Last night I ran across a great t-shirt.  It is a bunch of superheroes based on photoshop filters. 

 here is the link: http://www.chopshopstore.com/product.php?productid=16245#det_images

Turning the Page – from photography to Animation and video

Howdy folks, 

Over the last four or five months I’ve mostly written about photography or photoshop.  As I’ve watched the technology change over the years, there has been a trend for “regular” digital cameras to also shoot video.  After a lot of investigating (randomly searching whatever caught my fancy on search engines and blogs),  I have decided to include info about video editing, software, equipment and techniques.  (It also doesn’t hurt that it gives me alot more content to draw inspiration from). 

Anyway,  I will still post my thoughts and discoveries about photography, but I wanted to share some of the “cooler” stuff that I run across from time to time.

I am so disappointed (no new canon DSLR today)

Howdy folks – (I am sad tonight)  

I checked digg, I checked google, I checked canonrumors.com, I checked the official canon website, I checked everywhere I could think of today (and more than once).  I guess the dream of a new DSLR (60d or 7d) announcement from canon was not meant to be.  I still have a faint hope that there will be another announcement on the 25th, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.

Radio Popper JrX review link

Howdy Folks!

This morning I was pleasantly surprized that David Hobby a.k.a. the Strobist already has a great comprehensive review of the new Radio Popper JrX transmitters and receivers.  I am always on the lookout for new and better triggering systems and this set looks pretty slick.  I may have to pick up a set myself (after recently taking the plunge to invest in the elinchrom skyport system).  This looks like a great system for those looking to trigger lighting for a diy photo booth situation.

I’d also like to add my two cents and mention that I carry a guitar pick to adjust dip switches (for me, they are a little easier to keep handy than an ink  pen)

Topaz Labs “Detail” – (The Lucis Killer) a new photoshop plug-in

Howdy folks….

Sometimes there is a lot of news going on, sometimes theres not… 

A couple of days ago I received an email from Topaz Labs.  The email stated that they had released a new Photoshop plug-in called “Detail” that is supposed to manipulate image detail and sharpness without increasing noise.  After trying out the fully functional 30-day trial version, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the best product they have released yet to create the effects also rendered by LucisArt.  The software only costs $39.99 instead of  the $250 or more you would pay for Lucis!  Even better – you can pick up this amazing piece of software for $20 if you buy the product before August 31st and use the product code: “SODETAILED“.  

In a couple of previous posts, I mentioned a couple of Topaz Labs other products.  Here are the links:

One of the Must Have Plug-ins

The Best HDR Tutorial I Have Found

Canon 60d to be announced on August 19th or 25th

Howdy folks,

I’ve been away in San Fransisco for the last week or so.  I picked up a wide angle lens while I was there and managed to shoot over 3,000 images - that’s almost 19 gigs (I think my wife will forgive me in another week or so).  I used two different cameras (one dslr and one point and shoot), three lenses (on the dslr), 6 memory cards (one 8 gig, two 4 gig, one 2 and one 1 gig compact flash as well as a 4 gig sd card) and a partridge in a pear tree (just kidding). I’ve been pretty busy catching up with everything that went on while I was out (including processing, tagging and editing all those files).  I wanted to pass along a couple of blog posts I saw that give some info on the upcoming Canon 60d!

link number one: CanonRumors.com : Rumors, Rumors, Rumors

link number two: CanonRumors.com : Announcement Day! August 19th, 2009

p.s. mpix.com is currently running a 15% off promotion on their gallery wraps (use the promo code gwraps09)