PW98 – Decorating a Netbook

In this stand-alone tutorial we have a little fun decorating a netbook using our own photograph printed on moo stickers. We cover how to create the stickers in Photoshop using guides and slices then we have a quick timelapse of sticking them on the netbook. As a bonus Moo.com have given us a promo code to get 10% discount on the stickers used so you can try this yourself. Use promo code pwtmoo09 at the checkout.

• moo.com – use promo code pwtmoo09 to get 10% discount on moo stickers!
• Geoff Smith

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PW97 – Photoshop CS4 Quicktip 3

Today we introduce the new CS4 tabbed windows interface and show you how to wrestle under control the tool palettes. We’ve also got a brand new composition segment showing you how to shoot panning shots with all the basics plus some advanced tips. There’s a new assignment and we review the entries to our last assignment, Pencil, to the music of Matthew Ebel.

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Canon 5D mk2 to get video exposure control

In a move that addresses the main customer complaint about the 5D mk2’s otherwise excellent video recording mode Canon has announced that a new firmware patch for the Canon 5D mk2 will be released June 2nd. The new firmware will enable manual exposure control in video recording mode including full aperture selection, ISO and shutter speed control. Selectable ISOs will be Auto, 100-6400 and H1. Shutter speeds will be selectable between 1/30th and 1/4000th of a second.

Feedburner is malicious now?

This is more of a complaint than anything else but it affects the show so I hope you’ll bear with me. PhotoWalkthrough uses Feedburner for the RSS feed that makes the podcast work. I’ve recently been made aware of a problem with Feedburner’s servers.

One of my viewers got in touch to say that he couldn’t download my shows in iTunes. After some diagnosis back and forth between me and him we discovered it was because he’s been downloading a HOSTS file that contains lists of “undesirable” domains and links them back to localhost. This essentially makes it impossible for his machine (and anyone else that uses this HOSTS file) to make contact with those domains. The intention is to stop companies like doubleclick and other ad/spam sites from tracking you and from sending you ads. Sadly feeds.feedburner.com is on that list. The hosts file in question is available from http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/ but the maintainer of the list pointed out that feeds.feedburner.com is also on many other similar lists. He pointed me at this URL to prove the point:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22127.0.0.1++feeds.feedburner.com%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

So sadly it seems that feedburner is now considered a malicious site. This is obviously a big problem for those of us that have feed URLs that have traditionally gone through feedburner. To our viewers and listeners it simply looks like our show has died and stopped being served. iTunes gives an error saying it can’t contact the server. Most people wouldn’t even bother to get in touch with us – they’d just assume that the podcast was no more.

So I’m faced with a dilemma. On the one hand I don’t want to have to change my feed URL. That seems significantly risky to me. I say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. My first instinct is to fight the inclusion of feedburner on these HOSTS file lists. But if that’s lots of lists – that’s a huge battle that I can’t win. On the other hand if there are a number of people out there that can’t get my show then perhaps feedburner *is* broke so I’ll have to change it and face the attendant risk.

Either way it seems that someone just dropped a huge pile of extra work in my lap. And that someone is GOOGLE. First they bought DoubleClick. Then they bought feedburner and broke it by putting doubleclick style tracking code in the pages. That hurts ALL the podcasters and bloggers that were using Feedburner who have now gone dark to part of their audience.

“Don’t be evil” my ass.

PW96 – ColorMunki Video Review

Lately I’ve been playing with the ColorMunki, a new colour calibration tool that lets you profile not just your monitor but also your printer for a completely colour managed workflow. Find out how I got on with it in today’s show.

PW7 – Tutorial 1 Chapter 7 – Weston at Low Tide

In this final chapter of Tutorial 1 we finish off our image of Weston-super-mare with a vignette, some extra steps to even up the light in the sky and add some final brightness and contrast adjustments.

• Tutorial 1 – Weston at Low Tide – Tutorial page
• Marillion

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PW6 – Tutorial 1 Chapter 6 – Weston at Low Tide

In today’s episode we get down to the fun part of dodging and burning our image to add shape and direct the eye of the viewer. So far we’ve been giving ourselves the solid foundation we need to bring the image together. Now we add expression by painting with light.

• Tutorial 1 – Weston at Low Tide – Tutorial page
• Marillion

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PW5 – Tutorial 1 Chapter 5 – Weston at Low Tide

This time on Tutorial 1 we take the same approach we did to the ground portion and apply it to the sky. Once again we’re bringing the levels closer together by using lightening and darkening layers with layer masks.

• Tutorial 1 – Weston at Low Tide – Tutorial page
• Marillion

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PW4 – Tutorial 1 Chapter 4 – Weston at Low Tide

In chapter 4 of Tutorial 1 we take a look at how the ground portion of the image was edited to bring the tones together with the sky and add focus and detail using darkening and lightening layers with layer masks.

• Tutorial 1 – Weston at Low Tide – Tutorial page
• Marillion

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PW3 – Tutorial 1 Chapter 3 – Weston at Low Tide

Chapter 3 of our re-encoded and re-released Tutorial 1. This episode covers black and white conversion with a number of techniques for bringing out the details in your picture then finishes up with the best B&W conversion technique (at the time), the channel mixer. Please remember this tutorial was recorded when Photoshop CS2 was the latest version. This was before Lightroom and Photoshop’s black and white adjustment filter existed.

• Tutorial 1 – Weston at Low Tide – Tutorial page
• Marillion

Save money on domains and web hosting by using our GoDaddy promo codes walk1, walk2, walk3 or walk30. Save 25% on an Angie’s List subscription by using our angieslist promo code PHOTO at www.angieslist.com. Find more great discounts at meviooffers.com.