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Hi Everyone,
First, let me thank everyone for their very kind remarks about our
newsletter. Here is what is happening in this issue. Our feature article
gives an update on Canon's 6400 ISO setting - give a read - you might not
believe your eyes. The second article is a little different - not quite
photography, not quite Photoshop - but a great way to stay informed. Next, I
discuss an issue that really ticks most of us off - SPAM. The subject is a
bit off topic for this newsletter but I thought our recent experience with
this annoying problem would be helpful to many of you.
I think you will also get a kick out of the Photoshop tutorial. It
discusses a technique that really can improve outdoor portrait and wedding
images. It's simple, easy, and fast - enjoy. Give a read to the "Customer
Service" piece - food for thought. The July newsletter will hit in late
July. See you then. Regards, David
Canon Mark III - ISO 6400 - Is It For Real?
The easy, quick answer is - "Heck Yeah!!!" At our recent Kentucky
Professional Photographers Association's summer meeting, I got my hands on
the Mark III a second time. I really wanted to check out the new, very high,
ISO rating of the camera. I asked Kelly, a recent Master Class model and up
and coming photographer in the area, if she would mind posing for a few
shots. She gladly obliged and here are the results.
The first example in this article shows an image of Kelly at ISO 6400. At
ISO 6400, the Mark III's noise looks like the Canon 5D or 30D at ISO 3200.
Not bad - the noise pattern looks a bit like film grain so I don't have a
big objection to it - frankly, its looks really good.
Now look at the second example - before and after with Noise Ninja. I
underexposed the image one full stop from the correct exposure - yep, I
essentially took the second photograph of Kelly at ISO 12800!!! Next, I
leveled up the image to its correct density. The noise is fairly evident
but, give it a quick hit of Noise Ninja and now check out the result. I
think the results are unbelievable!
With the new Canon Mark III a whole new world of photographic
possibilities opens up for us - more "available light" opportunities at the
wedding and reception and some very cool low light "on camera" directional
light possibilities. I know that was a mouthful, but more on that later.
David's Master Class images
and info
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Knowledge is Power! |
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I said at a workshop earlier this year that "Knowledge is Power" - we
have heard it before and it is true. The better we can stay up on the
latest industry trends, photography and Photoshop education, etc; the
further ahead of the competition we place ourselves.
But how in the world does someone do that efficiently. Sure, I was
one of those people who would sit at the computer and do my
Photo/Photoshop web surfing every week or so, but it was a time
consuming process just in navigating to the many different sites.
Then I found a very cool answer - Google Reader. Head over to Google
and navigate to "more" on the menu bar and then down to "reader". It's a
breeze to set up and puts all your favorite "Photo/Photoshop News" sites
all in one place for handy reference. Now I can easily check "all my
sources" once a day and stay well informed very efficiently - highly
recommended!
Google Reader Link »
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Studio Time Killer - SPAM |
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"I'm mad as heck and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!" This is not a
photography item but more of a studio production topic - and I think
very important. The Spam mail problem has gotten to be quite an issue
for many of us these days. Things were getting so out of hand here - I
personally was receiving over 200 Spam Mails a day. Spam rates increased
to well over 59% - that's 5.3 billion messages per week.
I was determined to do something about it. I started doing a little
research and eventually found that Network Solutions - one of the
largest ISP's offered something called Symantec Brightmail. Check and
see if your ISP has it. We switched and the spam was reduced 75% !!!
Wow! What a relief. We also use a nice little utility called Mail
Frontier which cut down the spam even more - and with very rare, to no,
false positives.
Finally, I was "cured"! I was no longer receiving emails telling me I
needed to lose weight. Nobody was telling I needed those little blue
pills anymore. And I guess I was not related to anyone from a foreign
country with lots of money to give away - I stopped receiving their
emails too - anyway, you get my drift.
We are all thrilled with the results here at the studio. Both items
highly recommended. Check out the link below for more info on Mail
Frontier. Network Solutions info can be found at
www.networksolutions.com
Mail Frontier Link »
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Rocky Mountain High - Photoshop Tutorial |
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Thanks to everyone for the very kind remarks about our Photoshop
tutorial section of the newsletter. Again, feel free to drop me
suggestions for future tutorials. And, please pass the word on to your
friends about our newsletter. They can easily sign up by going to
www.davidziser.com and hitting the "Newsletter" link.
How many times have you been in a situation when taking wedding
and/or family portraits where the location, lighting, exposure, and
background "wrestled" with each other in trying to get a good final
print? Getting the right exposure on the subject would lead to not
enough exposure on the background or some other areas of the image.
Of course, this happens frequently in the fast paced world of wedding
photography where we have little control over time of day and location
of the wedding. Being a JPEG shooter notches up the "degree of
difficulty" a bit too. Let's take a look at one of these dilemmas and
see how easy it was to rectify in Photoshop. By the way, this fix works
on all versions of Photoshop from PS7 through CS3.
Please click the link below to watch the tutorial. Remember, if your
internet speed is a bit slow, you may have to hit "pause", let the file
download, then hit play, and all should be fine. Enjoy!
Click here to play tutorial - Rocky Mountain High »
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Tough Customer - Food for Thought |
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How many times have you gotten the client that really wants to take you
"through the wringer"? Hopefully not very often, but we know it will
happen on that rare occasion. Many of us just want to avoid the issue
all together - we just want the problem to go away. But, I want you to
think about this situation a bit differently.
I learned something a long time ago - an easy customer is not the
best source for learning good "customer service". In fact they are a
lousy source for learning good "customer service". Don't be too shocked
about this. I say it because when we deliver are final product to the
client and everyone is all "happy and smiles", what have we learned -
nothing. We already knew, in this case, all that we needed to know to
have a satisfied and happy client.
It's the difficult, demanding clients that really challenge us to
explore new "customer service" options. What could we say that would be
a bit more disarming to the client, something that lets the client know
we are truly concerned about their issue with us and we really want to
solve it with them. Was it our mistake in how we handled the situation?
If it was, how can we fix it and still have our client be a repeat
client? Did we have a lack of communication that got us into this
situation - what do we need to do to fix it to avoid future
communication lapses?
I don't want to go off in a long discussion about each of these
points, but I do want each of you to see how a difficult client is one
of the few clients that can really help us enhance and improve our
"customer service" policies and procedures. We need to welcome these
situations that test wisdom, integrity, and patience. |
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Digital Master Class - Latest News |
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Well, the Fall Master Class is shaping up as an international event. We
have attendees traveling all the way from India this time around. That
is what makes the week so special - photographers come in from around
the country and the world - coming together for a fantastic week of
photography, business, and friendship. We still have seats available, so
give Susan a call at 800-292-2994 to reserve your space. It promises to
be a great week once again.
Fall 2007 Master Class info »
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What Will They Think of Next? |
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From our desk of Very Interesting New Technologies Department comes this
piece of news.
SK Telecom of Korea will be releasing new handsets that come with a
built-in Nano Projector, which is capable of throwing images of up to 20
inch size onto a screen or wall. Developed from an earlier iteration
shown last year by Iljin Display, the projector is set to get its first
commercial outing after mass production begins in September.
See you next time! David
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