Finish the Sentence...with Bob & Dawn Davis

"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... Bob & Dawn Davis.

Bob & Dawn, please Finish the Sentence..."

My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is
I would not not go on a shoot without my Radio Popper PX flash triggers. They have freed me from the limitation of line of sight while using multiple wireless Canon strobes.

I’ve learned the most from...
My days as a working photojournalist at the Chicago Sun-Times. Shooting daily and presented with different photographic challenges forces you to think on your feet. My first photo editor said "We can't publish an excuse." I live by this motto on every shoot.

If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because….
Moldova, a small country in Eastern Europe. This is the country Dawn and I adopted our two beautiful children, Bobby and Alli. I would love to use my photographic skills by contributing to a non profit organization to help the many orphans there find forever families. Currently Moldova is the poorest country in Europe.

My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is
This is a question for Dawn, my post production princess. She makes my images sing. Her favorite action set is from Kevin Kubota and her favorite action is Magic Sharp. Her other favorite action set is from Totally Rad and her favorite action is Pro Retouch.

If I could turn back the clock 10 years
I would have started learning more about business and marketing and putting that knowledge to use long before I left the newspaper industry.

In 10 years
I see Dawn and I creating a foundation to help loving families who can not afford the cost of adoption and do more pro bono work for charitable organizations. I see us traveling the world getting to know other cultures and using our cameras as passports. At some point, I see us creating a local photography education center where we can share our passion for education and sharing our knowledge.

If I could give one piece of advice it would be
Life life with passion, follow your dreams, and practice, practice, practice. Photography is an art, but it is also a craft and by practicing and knowing the craft you'll know what to do when the technology at hand is not giving you the results you want.

Your readers can find out more about me
Our photography site is www.bobanddawndavis.com and our photographers site is www.davisworkshops.com

Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for Bob & Dawn Davis!!
Bob Davis is proud to be a member of the CANON family and the Canon Explorers of Light, a program created by Canon for the purpose of educating photographers. This is an elite group of 60 of the USA's best EOS photographers united in their love and passion for photographic excellence. He is also a proud member of the APPLE Aperture Advisory Board.

Bob is not a newcomer to the photographic industry. He's been a professional photographer for over 25 years. It was obvious to him at an early age that being a photographer was what he wanted to do with his life.

His passion for photography began back in high school when he became the editor of his newspaper. He then went on to Columbia College in Chicago and was named College Photographer of the Year. With this came a full time job at a daily newspaper and then on to a full time position for 14 years at the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

Bob's cameras have always been like a passport into history. He is continually honored when doors open and people invite him in to document their life. While at the paper, he had covered countless amazing events, such as presidential elections, Michael Jordan's entire career with the Chicago Bulls, every religious faith, and many tent revivals. He's traveled around the world to places such as El Salvador, Taiwan, Lithuania, Romania, Moldova, and Kenya for human interest stories. He will be heading to Tanzania, Africa to work on a documentary video in October 2009 for Thirst Relief (www.thirstrelief.org). He's even had the pleasure of riding to South Dakota on a Harley with the Hells Henchmen for the 50th Anniversary of Sturgis.

Bob have since moved on from the newspaper industry. Today, he has the privilege of photographing the most important events in his client's lives and he couldn't be more happy to have this honor.

Finish the Sentence...with Tara Whitney

"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... Tara Whitney.

Tara, please Finish the Sentence..."

My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is
my Canon 24-70L 2.8 lens. That sucker is a workhorse and I love him. Her?

I’ve learned the most from...
experience. In photography and what little I know in Photoshop. I used to go until I would get stuck, then ask a friend for help, then keep going.

If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because….
Hawaii with a nanny because then I could be in one of my favorite places WITH the kids but also kind of WITHOUT the kids. I don't have a nanny so this is likely not going to happen. Okay - you can take the nanny off the list, just get me to Hawaii please.

My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is
the actions I have created using my own basic steps. I use purchased actions, plugins, add-ons very sparingly. They are fun but I like my work to look like I did it, so even when I do use them I tweak quite a bit.

I love the fact that Photoshop
was invented.

I hate the fact that Photoshop
is so in depth and layered that I don't think I can ever fully get to know him. Her?

If I could turn back the clock 10 years
I would be 23. I would tell myself not to worry so much about everything, because in ten years things will be pretty darn good. And to make sure and get more photos of myself as a mother of three under the age of five. Many more photos of all of us together.

In 10 years
I will be 43. I hope the people I love now are still the people I love then. And I hope we are all healthy, happy, and experiencing a satisfying life.

If I could give one piece of advice it would be
"You have your way. I have my way. As far as the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." -Frederich Neitzsche

Your readers can find out more about me
on my website: www.tarawhitney.com or my blog www.tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged

Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for Tara Whitney!!
I see something in people. I see something in families. It is the same something that I want to capture in my own family, in my own children. I strive to capture it for you too.

Photography is more than my job, it is my goose-bumps-tears-jump up-and-down-on-my-bed-passion. I have an eye for family photography that goes way beyond the traditional white shirts and jeans. I am not out to create the "flawless traditional portrait". Life isn't flawless. I am looking to capture authentic connections. And have a lot of fun doing it.

My work has been described as spontaneous and real. I think of it as quirky, emotional, and happy. I am a young mother of four and I have been photographing the big and little people in my life for the last nine years.

Finish the Sentence...with David Bergman

"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... David Bergman.

David, please Finish the Sentence..."

My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is
Gaffer tape. I have at least one roll of black gaff in every one of my cases. It can do anything.

I’ve learned the most from...
The internet. It's a bit of a time suck, but there is so much great information out there. Just consider the source first.

If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because….
Sydney, Australia. I spent three weeks there in 2000 while covering the Olympics. Amazing place, incredible people. If it wasn't 10,000 miles away from everyone I know and love, I'd move there in a second.

My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is
Nik Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro. Great software and way more powerful than most people realize. I use it in both Aperture and Photoshop.

I love the fact that Photoshop
...allows me to use a non-destructive workflow. I used to damage pixels regularly until I learned about the power of layers. Now I can always revert back to my original without having multiple copies of my images all over the place.

I hate the fact that Photoshop
...tries to be everything to everyone. I probably only use 10% of the program for my imaging needs and it's still incredibly powerful. There is a lot of other things that it can do, but I find those things sometimes create more confusion.

If I could turn back the clock 10 years
I'd go back 20 years and take more business classes in college. I've learned a lot over the years by trial and error, but a solid foundation in business fundamentals will take you a long way as a photographer.

In 10 years
I want to help other photographers make a living shooting concerts on tour for my company TourPhotographer.com. My dream is to grow the company to the point where tour photography is a lucrative, sustainable business.

If I could give one piece of advice it would be
It's called the "photo business:" half photo, half business. Both halves should get equal attention.

Your readers can find out more about me
At my website, of course: www.DavidBergman.net

Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for David Bergman!!
New York based editorial and commercial photographer David Bergman specializes in making portraits and action images. He has worked and toured with celebrity clients including the Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, Joss Stone, Gloria Estefan, Evanescence, and Drew Carey. As a contributing photographer for Sports Illustrated, his photographs been on the cover seven times and have been featured in SI's "Pictures of the Decade" and "Year in Pictures" issues.

David's panoramic GigaPan from President Obama's inauguration was viewed online over eleven million times. Photo District News named another one of his images an "Icon of the 21st Century, and his photos have been published in Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, People, Entertainment Weekly, Blender, USA Today, and The New York Times. Before moving to Manhattan in 2001, David spent eight years as a staff photographer at the Miami Herald, where he covered national and international news, sports, and politics.

David is a charter member of Apple's elite Aperture Advisory Board and is the founder and president of TourPhotographer.com, a company that sells prints to music fans after each show on a tour.

Twutorial: InDesign Contact Sheets

Before CS4 there was a wonderful script in Bridge to make contact sheets using InDesign. By creating a template in InDesign it was easy to create customized contact sheets, complete with backgrounds, logos, etc. Unfortunately in CS4, that option went away, replaced by the Bridge Output feature. I must say, I love using the Output options in Bridge to create Contact sheets - it's w-a-a-a-ay better than the old Contact Sheet II automation in Photoshop. But, I miss the option of creating my own custom layout in InDesign.

Motivated by a question on Twitter, I came up with a workable solution. phil_cb asked "How can i do contact sheet with Bridge and InDesign CS4.... Like your method on photoshopusertv...."

So here's a solution:

First, make a layout in InDesign. I went with a letter-sized document in portrait orientation and placed a textured photo on the Master Page. I also made the right margin 2 inches, to give myself room to add a logo, contact info, etc.

Then in Bridge I selected my first set of photos and went to the Output module. In the options I chose the same size and orientation of paper, and also set the right margin to 2 inches. One of the advantages of Bridge Output is that you can experiment with different settings and press Refresh Preview, to make sure everything looks the way you want.


Finally I saved the PDF into a specific folder and named it photos.pdf.

Back in InDesign I placed the pdf into my layout. It came in the perfect size, and with a transparent background. Nice!


I also added an embellishment....because I could.


Here's the important part: I saved the InDesign document twice: first as the contact sheet that I would print and give to my client. Second, I saved it as a "template", giving it a generic name and putting the document in the same folder as the photos.pdf file. (I still saved it as an .indd document rather than a template - I'm just treating it as a template)

Now it's easy to create a new contact sheet:
1. Select new photos in Bridge and use the same settings to create a new contact sheet


2. Save it using the same name (Photos.pdf) and replace the original


3. Open the "template" version of the InDesign document and use the Links panel to update the placed pdf.



4. Save as a new document using the new client's name.

This assumes that you're creating the contact sheet just long enough to print it, since you'll be replacing the photos.pdf file each time. If you want to keep each contact sheet, then simply save the pdf contact sheet (from Bridge) using a different name each time and then replace the placed pdf file in InDesign rather than updating it.

Not quite as easy as the "old" InDesign Contact Sheet script, but pretty close.

The power of Twitter

Happy Labor Day Holiday for those of you who are off today!

Say what you want about Twitter - some people just have no interest in using Twitter, and that's fine - I've definitely benefited from being a reasonably active Twitter user. First let me say that I don't tweet about what I had for breakfast or how late my flight is, but try to share things that I think people would be interested in. Last time I posted my thoughts on Twitter I got a few comments like "you don't get it" and "that's not what Twitter is for". But I've continued posting on Twitter once or twice a day *(sometimes a few more if something important comes up) and have followed people who post things that I find interesting. That's how I use Twitter, and I've come across some very interesting things.

Here's a few examples of the kind of things I found out about that I probably wouldn't otherwise.

Events, giveaways and contests: Twitter has become a marketing tool for some people & companies, so you'll often hear first about upcoming events, seminars, webinars etc as a tweet. I've seen a couple of events that sold out almost exclusively through an announcement on Twitter. A number of Twitter-only contests have given away some pretty bad-ass prizes to promote their company or event. Hey, NAPP even gave away some Photoshop World Prizes.

People's work: I've been introduced to the photography, design skills, videos and animations of some very talented people that I don't know how else I would have found. For example, just last Friday @extensis tweeted about an amazing animation artist, Pascal Campion. His work is amazing!

Misc cool stuff: I'm normally not one to spend hours digging through youtube for the latest cool video, but thankfully some people find amazing things and tweet about them. Here's an example that I heard about from @leolaporte (that he passed on from another tweet)

For me, Twitter has become another interesting tool to broaden my horizons, both in spreading the word about NAPP, Photoshop World, seminars, etc, and to see some pretty great stuff I might not otherwise have seen. I don't spend every waking minute there but I do check in a couple of times a day, and have been rewarded with some very interesting things.

Finish the Sentence...with Chris Spooner

"It's time once again to ask a well-known photographer, instructor or otherwise interesting person the same 10 questions and ask them to Finish the Sentence! This time, the sentences are finished by.... Chris Spooner.

Chris, please Finish the Sentence..."

My favorite photography accessory (lights, modifier, bag, tripod) is
my Polarizing Filter. I love the richness and black gradient it adds to the sky.

I’ve learned the most from...
reading stacks of blogs online. I have an RSS reader full of subscriptions to various design blogs.

If I could go anywhere in the world it would be_____ because….
the United States because myself and Laura have long fancied a trip around the country to check out the lifestyle and famous sights

My most-used Photoshop add-on, plugin, action set (etc) is
a simple (and pretty boring) action I often create to resize large numbers of images.

I love the fact that Photoshop
opens up doorways to all kinds of creative outlets, from photography, web design, illustration and even print design to some extent.

I hate the fact that Photoshop
doesn't have a recovery feature for when it occasionally crashes.

If I could turn back the clock 10 years
I'd scream at the level of web design there was back then. It sure has progressed fast!

In 10 years
my hair is likely to be almost completely grey :-(

If I could give one piece of advice it would be
work hard and find a way of making a living out of something you love.

Your readers can find out more about me
at my design blogs over at Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk, Line25.com and my personal blog at ChrisSpooner.com. Oh, and I'm also on Twitter (Twitter.com/chrisspooner)

Ladies & Gentlemen, let's hear it for Chris Spooner!!
I'm Chris Spooner, a UK designer who has a love for creativity and enjoys experimenting with various techniques in both print and web. I spend my days working as a full time blogger slash designer.

Today's Photoshop assignment

My blog post on How to improve your Photoshop skills in 9 seconds has gotten a lot of views and responses. It seems that I struck a chord with many people, "reminding" them of the value of quick little experiments as a way of learning new things.

Let's take this a step further, inspired by a presentation by Joe Glyda at Photoshop World. Joe talked about how he tries to keep his photography (and creativity) fresh through self-assignments. He chooses a theme and runs with it, for example "circles" or "shadows". His slide show of the results of his assignment was really interesting and got me thinking.

First, I've tried to do the same thing with my photography. So far I gave myself a relatively easy assignment: textures. I ended up with a card full of really cool textures that have come in really useful in Photoshop. Then when I did the Worldwide Photowalk I decided to bring only a prime/fixed lens. Boy, when you're used to zooming in and and out whenever you want, it's a real eye opener to shoot with a fixed lens - and makes you look at things differently.

What does this have to do with Photoshop? Well, why not apply the same theory of self-assignments to Photoshop? Along with those 9 second experiments, if you find yourself with a little time on your hands, give yourself an assignment such as "the Pen tool" or "design a logo in 2 minutes", or find an old photo and give yourself a set amount of time to fix it as best you can in the alloted time.

So, what are you going to give yourself for your first Photoshop assignment?