Personal Life Media

So, you got a digital camera for the holidays? Now what?

On today's show we tell you everything you need to know about your new digital camera. Is it the right camera for you? If not, what should you do? How do you to learn to use it? What accessories do you need right now, and what can you hold off on? What are the least expensive software options to get you started and where should you go from there?

We answer these questions - and more! - in this Very Special Episode of Digital Photography Life.

Please see scottsphotoblog.com for links to all the products and services we mention in this week's show.

At the end of the show, we spoke about Springs of Hope, the charity being championed by Scott Kelby's Blog. Please see scottsphotoblog.com for my personal comments about why this is such an important cause, and for links to where you can contribute.

We're still running our first photo contest, The Joy of Photography. Please see scottsphotoblog.com for full rules. You can check out the current entrants at dplife.smugmug.com.

Thanks to SmugMug for their sponsorship of this episode. Visit ScottsPhotoBlog.com to get the code for the 50% off coupon for SmugMug services, and for your link to a free photo strap.

Thanks for listening!

Craig Strong comes on to tell us all about the Lensbaby, one of the most-affordable tools out there for taking your photography to the next level. For extended notes and show links, please visit Scott's Photo Blog: www.scottsphotoblog.com.

Lenbabies are selective focus tools that can make your photos look as straightforward or surrealistic as you want. By putting the focus where you want it, Lensbabies let you direct your viewer's eyes to the most important part of your picture.

Their latest little wonder is the Composer. It's my favorite Lensbaby so far; it's certainly the easiest to use for repeatable results. But you might also want to look at their entry-level Muse, which can be faster - and more fun - to play with. It's the best $99 you'll spend if you want to explore more creative uses for your DSLR

You can check out my totally-amateur-having-fun-with-it-first-Composer-shots here on our SmugMug site: dplife.smugmug.com

Popular Photography just raved about Lensbaby line: "The new Lensbabies aren't ever going to replace your supersharp autofocus prime or zoom lenses for day-to-day shooting (for most photographers, at least). But they offer a whole lot of fun, with more control than ever -- which means maybe even more people will catch the bending bug!"

If you want to enter our drawing for a free Lensbaby Composer, complete this descriptive phrase from the product's homepage "Smooth and __________." (You can find a link to page on www.scottsphotoblog.com)

Here are the rules for our photo contest

Title: The Joy of Photography

Theme: A subject demonstrating the theme of the joy of photography.

Technique: It's up to you.

1. Make a photo. The photo must be one that you created. Please include the original exif info within the image.

2. You may enter up to three photographs. If more than three photographs are entered, only the first three received shall be entered.

3. Images must be JPG, PNG, or GIF images, less than 24MB.

4. Email a jpg image to dplife@email.smugmug.com

5. Attach only one photo per email. Please send one email per entry.

6. In the Subject, enter: dplife (Must be all lower case)

7. In the Body, enter: Your name AND email address AND your caption.

8. Make SURE you send the email in PLAIN TEXT (not HTML or Rich Text or it won't be accepted)

9. We need to approve each photo that you upload, so please have patience for your photo to show up in this gallery.

10. Only one image per entrant can be eligible as a finalist.

11. Photos shal be accepted through Friday, 23 January, 2009.

12. Enjoy Being Creative!

You can see your photos - as well as ours - on our SmugMug site for the show: DPLife.SmugMug.com.

If you want to read about the tiny-but-unwanted black spots in some photos taken with Canon's new 5D Mark II, check out the full blog posting for this episode on Scott's Photo Blog.

As always, thanks for joining us! And Happy Holidays! 

How do you get the best shots at your Christmas and Chanukah celebrations (not to mention those gatherings for Kwanza and the Winter Solstice)? How do you capture the action without ruining the
moment? What equipment should you have at your side, and what should
you have it in? Just in time for the holidays, we go over our best suggestions for improving your party pictures.

We also go over the process for submitting photos for our first photo contest. The theme is The Joy of Photography. Here are the rules:

Title:  The Joy of Photography

Theme:  A subject demonstrating the theme of the joy of photography.

Technique:  It's up to you.

1.  Make a photo.  The photo must be one that you created. Please include the original exif info within the image.

2.  You may enter up to three photographs. If more than three photographs are entered, only the first three received shall be entered.

3.  Images must be JPG, PNG, or GIF images, less than 24MB.

4.  Email a jpg image to dplife@email.smugmug.com

5.  Attach only one photo per email.  Please send one email per entry.

6.  In the Subject, enter:  dplife (Must be all lower case)

7.  In the Body, enter: Your name AND email address AND your caption.

8.  Make SURE you send the email in PLAIN TEXT (not HTML or Rich Text or it won't be accepted)

9.  We need to approve each photo that you upload, so please have patience for your photo to show up in this gallery.

10.  Only one image per entrant can be eligible as a finalist.

11.  Photos shal be accepted through Friday, 23 January, 2009.

12. Enjoy Being Creative!

You can see your photos - as well as our - on our SmugMug site for the show: DPLife.SmugMug.com.

That's all for this week - make sure you check Scott's Photo Blog (www.scottsphotoblog.com) for additional notes, as well as for the SmugMug 1/2 off coupon code and your link to a free camera bag!

Thanks for listening.

Whether you're looking to improve your photography or get the best possible deal on photo equipments, this episode of  Digital Photography Life is for you. See www.scottsphotoblog.com for complete notes on today's show.

What are the three basic elements of a successful photograph? That's the question we answer on today's show, based on principles taught by the New York Institute of Photography.

It's back to photo basics as we discuss how to emphasize your subject through composition, relative size, selective lighting and focus, and other photographic techniques.

You might want to use some of those methods if you're going to enter our first photo contest on Digital Photography Life. The theme of the contest is "The Joy of Photography." We're looking for shots that best capture this concept, and on the show, we discuss some examples of what they might look like. Feel free to use our ideas, but be creative, too.

The Grand Prize Winner of our Joy of Photography contest will receive a camera bag from ThinkTankPhoto: You get to pick which one fits your needs. See www.scottsphotoblog.com for details.

Next week we'll tell you how to submit your contest entries and the deadline for submission. (It will be sometime in mid-January). You'll be limited to three entries, so start planning now. Placing as a finalist or actually winning a photo contest is a great accomplishment, and we'd love you to do it with us.

Today's interview is with Ron Risman, founder of the wonderful resource Cameratown.com.  Cameratown is the best place on the web to find the latest photo news, reviews and deals. It's an invaluable resource, and you'll only have yourself to blame if you spend too much money because you didn't subscribe to Cameratown's terrific newsletter, which brings the biggest  photo stories and the best sales to your inbox twice a week.

Ron is a former camera retailer, and he tells you the secrets of how physical and online stores try to make the most money off you. He'll also share how you can turn the game around and score the best and fairest prices for your photo needs.

Does an online price sound a little too good to be true?  Ron explains how you can avoid the scammers and determine the trustworthiness of a retailer with which you might not be familiar.

Check out Cameratown today, not just for the great information it offers, but to sign up for the newsletter and to enter their terrific fifth anniversary contest with a sweet grand prize: A Pentax K20D Digital SLR Outfit with DA 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 AL II Lens and Slingbag. I've entered fifty times already under different aliases - just kidding!

On Digital Photography Life, Ron gives away an M-Rock Grand Canyon. This $80 value is described by the good people of M-Rock as follows: "slim and handsome Grand Canyon SLR camera bag comes with many adjustable dividers and a padded U shaped lens cradle to offer the photographer two distinctive ways to carry their photo gear."

Send the correct answer to the question we ask in the show to us at dplcontests@gmail.com. Our Queen of All Contests, the lovely and talented Laurel Housden http://thephotoenthusiast.com/, will pick a correct answer at random on January 1, 2009.

As I said earlier, we based some of our shooting advice today on the excellent instruction we've received from The New York Institute of Photography. NYIP is an amazing resource. In their words:

Whether you want to become a professional photographer or simply enhance your basic skills, New York Institute of Photography, the world’s largest photography school can help you. Instruction by respected real-life photographers combined with our online magazine and featured tips provide an unparalleled level of support to guide you through the amazing landscape of traditional or digital photography.

If you're ready to make a serious commitment to improving your skills, visit NYIP and be tempted by their excellent courses.

Thanks as always for listening.

All About Adobe Photoshop CS4

We learn all about Adobe Photoshop CS4 this week, as we are joined by
Bryan O’Neil Hughes from Adobe. He tells us what some of the coolest
new features in CS4 are, whether or not it truly is a more user-
friendly interface, and why it costs so darn much.

But one lucky listener will get the full version for free, just by
entering this week's contest. It's the biggest prize we've ever
offered on Digital Photography Life (or on any other podcast, for that
matter). It come to you courtesy of the good folks at Adobe, and we
greatly appreciate their generosity.

We also appreciate the support of Digital Photography Life's inaugural
sponsor, SmugMug. SmugMug is our favorite site for sharing and -
should you chose to accept this assignment - selling your photos.
SmugMug has two fantastic offers just for our listeners:

50% off your SmugMug service at any level (enter code "Flickr" at
checkout). This is a fantastic discount and you should take advantage
of it in time to share your holiday photos!

A free camera strap to any listener of Digital Photography Life: This
one is just crazy. A high-quality camera strap that replaces the neck-
slicing piece of canvas that your camera's manufacturer condescended
to include with your DSLR. Get your freebie over at www.scottsphotoblog.com
.

As usual, Michael and I also go over the digital photography new of
the day, including Red cameras, Sony's latest, Canon's rebate-less
rebates and the sad tale of Susan and her cheatin' husband's magic
iPhone. Head over to www.scottsphotoblog.com for all the links.

On today's show, we talk about the Nikon D90 and the Canon 50D with uberenthusiast Jeff Revell and we feature a fifty percent discount to SmugMug and a free camera strap to every listener of Digital Photography Life.

Then, it is our great pleasure to welcome SmugMug. SmugMug did us - and we think you, too - a huge favor by making Digital Photography Life possible by signing on as our inaugural sponsor. On today's show, they come on to tell you all about what makes SmugMug so great, and the perfect fit for the digital enthusiast like you. Even better, they extend a special, limited-time offer exclusively to our audience: They're talking 50% off the first year of service, at any of their three tiers, to anyone who hears them on Digital Photography Life.

The coupon code you should enter is "Flickr." 50% off for typing six characters? It works for us.

And if a 50% discount isn't enough for you, how about an out-and-out freebie. SmugMug is giving away a free camera strap to any Digital Photography Life listeners who asks for one.

Visit www.scottsphotoblog.com for the link to your free camera bag, as well as links to all the other items we discussed on the show, including the list of closing Circuit City Stores, a free camera giveaway from Target and (almost) indisputable proof that we'll be hearing from aliens in the next couple of years.

All that and more at www.scottsphotoblog.com.

Thanks for listening!  

On today's show, Scott Kelby tells you everything you need to know if you're interested in buying Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, or if you already have the program and want to make the most of it.

What does Lightroom  2 do? How is it better than Lightroom 1 and Adobe Bridge? If you can only afford to buy either Photoshop CS4 or Lightroom, which one should you get? What the fastest way to sort through hundreds of photos to find the best shots? You'll learn all this and more when the Kelbinator joins us on Digital Photography Life.

Scott also gives away a copy of his new book, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers and a free year's membership to the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (a $99 value!).

Before our chat with Scott, Michael and I talk about our vision for Digital Photography Life. We want to bring you the best digital photography news, reviews and tips and tricks out there.

On this episode, we boil down for you the pretty-good but less-than-earthshaking reviews of the new Canon 50D, and the apparent awesomeness of the Canon 5D Mark II.

We also want you to be part of the fun. Send us a note at digitalphotographylife@gmail.com and tell us about you - what you shoot with, what equipment you have, and what you'd like to hear on the show. You can also ask us questions - we love questions! We'll answer you in email or maybe on the show.

You can find full show notes for this episode on ScottsPhotoBlog.com.

As always, thanks for listening!

Welcome to Episode Zero of  Digital Photography Life!

We're calling this the Official Trailer for Digital Photography Life. Why not just begin with Episode One? Well, the truth is, we couldn't wait to start spreading the word about our new show!  But we couldn't give you an option to subscribe until we obtained a feed in iTunes and other podcast aggregators. That required us to prime the pump with an audio file. Hence, Episode Zero.

But we're really happy things worked out like this. Michael and I couldn't wait to get back on air.

For those of you who don't know us, for two and half years, Michael and I hosted The Digital Photography Show, one of the world's most popular podcasts on digital photography. We had a great time doing that show and we were lucky enough to build a terrific audience of digital photo enthusiasts.

But now we're moving on. Our new show, Digital Photography Life, is all about celebrating and enhancing your life as a digital photographer. In the coming weeks, we'll have great interviews with industry pros,  reviews of digital photography products, helpful tips and tricks and lots of fun giveaways. 

We're very excited about this fresh start and about our partnership with the Personal Life Media network. PLM has a great team, and we're confident that they'll help make Digital Photography Life bigger and better than ever.

Thank you for joining us here. WIll you help us spread the word? For more digital photography news, and for the backstage stories behind Digital Photography Life, please be sure to visit http://www.scottsphotoblog.com.

And while you're here, make sure you hit the subscribe button! Our (real) first show is coming any day now, and its going to be sweeeeeet!