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Jon Canfield  |  Aug 30, 2005  |  0 comments

As the price of wide format photo printers like the ones offered by Epson,
Canon, and HP continues to come down, more and more digital photo enthusiasts
are adding them to their digital darkrooms. For less than $400, you can now
print photo quality 11x14" images (actually, up to 13x19), saving money
and time without sending these prints out to a photo lab.

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Jon Canfield  |  Aug 30, 2005  |  0 comments

All Photos © 2004, Jon Canfield, All Rights Reserved

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Shutterbug Staff  |  Jul 26, 2005  |  0 comments

Corel Corporation has kicked off the "Summer of Painter" with two announcements
regarding Corel Painter IX. The Corel Painter IX 9.1 update is now available as
a free download for all Painter IX customers. The update provides customers with
new features and enhancements including:



Dual Monitor Support for Windows Customers running Windows 2000 and Windows XP
can now also experience the same level of dual monitor support enjoyed by Mac
OS X customers. Palettes, toolbars, and the toolbox can now be moved outside the
application window and dialog boxes appear on the same monitor as the active canvas.




New Art Pen Brushes Following the introduction of the Corel Painter IX Art Pen
Brush Pack this spring, Corel has introduced five additional brushes to take advantage
of the powerful realism and control of the Wacom 6D Art Pen. Customers who download
the 9.1 update will receive 10 brushes in total, which include the five brushes
previously introduced in the Art Pen Brush Pack.



Enhanced Dab Type Support for 'Rotation' Expression In addition to adding new
brushes to take advantage of the Wacom 6D Art Pen, Corel Painter IX 9.1 offers
rotation expression with the following Dab types: Circular, Captured Dab, Artists'
Oils, Camel Hair, Flat, Liquid Ink Camel Hair, Liquid Ink Flat, Watercolor Camel
Hair, Watercolor Flat, Palette Knife, Liquid Ink Palette Knife, and Watercolor
Palette Knife.



Enhanced Support for Mac OS X Tiger Corel Painter IX 9.1 now provides even better
overall performance when running on Tiger. This enhancement complements the Corel
Painter IX Spotlight plugin introduced earlier this spring that enables customers
to take full advantage of Tiger's advanced searching capabilities with their Painter
files.



To download the Corel Painter IX 9.1 update and to access a full list of included
enhancements, please visit www.corel.com/painterix/91update.



Corel has also introduced the Corel Painter Open Upgrade Program for customers
in North America and the United Kingdom. Until August 31, 2005, the Corel Painter
IX upgrade policy has been broadened to include any graphics or imaging software
package from the following companies: Adobe, Macromedia, ACD Systems, Corel (including
Corel Painter Classic, Painter Essentials, and any previous version of Painter),
Microsoft, and Apple. For a limited time, Corel Painter IX is available through
Corel and participating resellers at the upgrade suggested retail price of $229
a savings of $200 off the full suggested retail price of $429. Resellers may sell
for less. For more details, please visit www.corel.com/painter/openupgrade.
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Howard Millard  |  Jul 26, 2005  |  0 comments


The
original photo, shot in the studio with Paul C. Buff electronic
flash on Fujichrome Sensia slide film, is sharp throughout.
Model: Heidi McAllister.

Photos 2002, Howard Millard, All Rights Reserved

In ads, book covers and magazines,
you've seen pictures where part of the subject jumps out at you
because it's sharp, but most of the image is way out of focus. The
technique really directs your attention to the part of the subject that's
sharp, and it adds a contemporary flair and sense of style. Traditionally,
this effect was achieved by using extremely shallow depth of field with
a medium format or large view camera. Today, however, you can create it
digitally in a few minutes and apply it to any existing photo made with
any camera, or to any print that you can scan into your computer.



I
selected the area I want to keep sharp with the Elliptical
Marquee selection tool.

Remember, once you've drawn the selection, you can
reposition it by dragging inside the selected area. Next,
feather the selection.

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Howard Millard  |  Jul 26, 2005  |  0 comments

1.

It was the swinging `60s,
I was in college, and many wore a rainbow of tie-dyed colors. What had
been "normal" was being challenged on every front, and that
included photography. The bulging, startling perspective of the fisheye
lens added an otherworldly look to album covers for rock musicians like
Jimi Hendrix and Cream. Now, decades later, just as bell bottom pants
recently returned for yet another cycle, fisheye images have again reared
their heads in both print and television ads. A fisheye lens, of course,
is one that takes in an extremely wide angle of view, often 180º,
and appears as a circle within the black image frame. Yes, there are rectilinear
full frame fisheyes (which give a rectangular, not round image), but to
my mind, they're merely ultra-wide angle lenses. A true fisheye,
on the other hand, is a unique special effects tool which renders a unique
circular perspective of the world.



When I was a student, fisheye lenses cost a small fortune (some still
do). What to do? I drilled a hole in the center of a lens cap and glued
a brass door peephole from a hardware store to it. Snapping the lens cap/fisheye
lens over a 50mm or wider angle standard lens, I got a small 180º
circular fisheye image in the center of the black frame. Quality was not
great, but the effect was spectacular.

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George Schaub  |  Jul 26, 2005  |  0 comments

If you have Photoshop Elements or the full version of Photoshop
you can also use a tool called "Save for Web" to resize your images.
(Note that other programs might also have this feature under a different name.)
This is an automated way to get your images the right size for sharing. To get
to this toolbox just go to File>Save for Web, with the image already open
on your desktop.

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Peter K. Burian  |  Jun 21, 2005  |  0 comments

In
certain lighting conditions, images can exhibit a strong
overall "color cast" or tint, as in this
image, made near sunset on a hazy day with a high air
pollution level. (Auto white balance.)

Photos © 2003, Peter K. Burian, All Rights Reserved

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George Schaub  |  Jun 21, 2005  |  0 comments

Now I know how stagecoach drivers felt when they saw those first rail lines
being laid over their routes. The recent announcement that Kodak would be discontinuing
their silver black and white papers didn't come as much as a shock as
an inevitability that one always hopes will not be manifest. With inventories
expected to last a few months, we're now witnessing the disappearance
of venerable brands such as Polycontrast IV, Azo and Polymax Fine Art, Kodabrome
II and Portra, even their "Digital Black and White" paper, which
was used for digital printers. According to a Kodak spokesperson, Kodak has
seen a cumulative drop in black and white paper buying of 25% per year over
the past few years and could no longer justify being in the market. We also
learned, by the way, that Kodak black and white papers had of late been produced
in Brazil, being packaged from rolls in Rochester. The spokesperson did stress,
however, that Kodak black and white film and chemistry was not on the chopping
block and that Kodak sees silver photography as still extremely viable.

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Jon Canfield  |  Jun 21, 2005  |  0 comments

One of the main problem areas for many digital photographers is getting a print
that is reasonably close to what you see on screen. Assuming that you have a
calibrated display (and if you don't, stop reading this article and profile
your monitor!) the problem may lie in your printer settings. It's all
too common to find that someone having problems is actually managing the printer
settings twice - once in the print driver and once in their image editing software.

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George Schaub  |  Jun 07, 2005  |  0 comments

The digital darkroom has made it simple to accomplish print and image effects
that would have taken hours in the chemical darkroom environment. While the
learning curve can be steep (as it certainly was for the chemical darkroom,
at least if you wanted good results) the ease with which some tasks can be accomplished
is almost...well, embarrassing, at least to those who once labored in the
amber-lit confines of the darkroom.

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Peter K. Burian  |  Jun 07, 2005  |  0 comments

Until recently, few digital camera owners were able to make true wide angle
images because a 38mm focal length was the shortest available in built-in zooms.
(All focal lengths are discussed in 35mm format equivalent.) Today, an increasing
number of digicams include zooms that start at 28mm or even 24mm. Many of the
high-end cameras also accept 0.7x adapters, ideal for ultra wide angle photography.
And SLR system lens manufacturers have also started making incredibly short
zooms, such as 12-24mm, for a very wide angle of view. All of this is great
news for creative shooters who want to expand their visual horizons.


Most camera owners think of a wide angle lens as something that's
useful for including an entire landscape vista, street scene,
or a large group of people, in a single image. While that is one
valid reason for owning a wide angle lens, or a wide angle adapter
accessory, there are many others as discussed in the text. (28mm
equivalent.) Photo © 2005 Peter K. Burian.

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Howard Millard  |  Jun 07, 2005  |  0 comments


#1. Starting with an original single image photo shot
in the studio, I selected the subject with the Magic Wand
tool. (Model: Tanya Perez.)

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Peter K. Burian  |  May 24, 2005  |  0 comments

As recently as 18 months ago, a built-in image stabilizer was a rarity in digital
cameras. It was available only in a couple of Panasonic models and one Konica
Minolta DiMAGE camera. Today, an increasing number of digicams -- from four
manufacturers -- employ some form of camera shake compensating device. And there's
even a digital SLR with a built-in Anti-Shake mechanism, the Maxxum 7D. We expect
this trend to continue with other manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon. "Sounds
great if you're into high-tech gizmos," you may be thinking, "but
is this feature really necessary?"

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George Schaub  |  May 24, 2005  |  0 comments

While the usual photographic rules, such as using shutter speed to portray motion
(slow to blur, fast to freeze) and using focal length, aperture and camera-to-subject
distance to create a certain depth of field apply to both film and digital photography,
digital offers some intriguing options for making camera settings. In some cases
these settings relate to film photography settings, or choosing a specific film
for its "personality", but with digital you can alter these settings
on every frame you shoot and not be restricted to the attributes of a particular
film you might have loaded in the camera.

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Howard Millard  |  May 10, 2005  |  0 comments

Want to take one of your photos into the future? In a few steps, you can add
a cutting edge high tech look to your images with the Mosaic filter in Adobe
Photoshop or Elements. Whether you want to add this futuristic dynamism and
drama to a portrait or an object, simply follow the steps outlined here. I've
chosen to add it to a profile portrait of a young woman, but the technique can
be equally effective with objects such as a cell phone or even a shot of your
digital camera. The steps shown here are those I used in Photoshop CS, but Elements
has the same filter, as may some other image editors, perhaps with a different
name.

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