Photoshop CS6, The low down on whats coming.

Adobe Photoshop CS6, the low down on what's coming and what to expect is creating a buzz.

Below is  video from Scott Kelby and guests Bryan Hughes and Zorana Gee from the Adobe Photoshop Team when they dropped by to discuss the developments coming in Photoshop CS6.

Here is a list of the JDI changes listed they mentioned during the show

Scott Kelby and his various productions are the definitive Photoshop benchmark for being up to date and informative.

Fashion Photography and Representation

Fashion photography and representation, who is with who?

Who represents a good chunk of the world's best fashion photographers, well the following list are represented by just one.

  

• Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
• Enrique Badulescu
• Cedric Buchet
• Anthony Cotsifas | Still Life
• Glen Luchford
• Alasdair McLellan
• Thomas Nutzl
• Terry Richardson
• David Sims
• Mario Sorrenti
• Dan Tobin Smith | Still Life
• Mario Testino

If you haven't clicked on one of the names already, it's..

 

A great number of these elite photographers also produce films for the same high end, high budgets clients.

This agency founded in 1992 now works on in excess of 1,000 projects per year at the highest level including both editorial and advertising .

Advertising clients include Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Benetton, Versace, Dior, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Shiseido, Miu Miu, Estee Lauder, Bulgari, D&G, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Revlon, Calvin Klein, GAP, Mango, Givenchy, L’OREAL, Zara...

Editorial clients include US Vogue, French Vogue, British Vogue, Italian Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue, German Vogue, Australian Vogue, V Magazine, W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, LOVE, Numero...

For those wanting to establish what the look being produced at this level right now simply view the examples by creative.

Mood Boards, creating the look.

Mood boards are an essential tool to help the creative team create the look.

Preparation before each shoot is key, most of the time clients I work with are after a very specific look.

Below is an example of the look one recording artist was after for her new promotion material.

When "the" email comes through it's always exciting to find out what's the look, how creative and demanding is the client.

This look is circulated to the rest of the team, Hair and the Make Up Artist (MUA)

Sometime the "look" is agreed by phone, it doesn't matter how its done, this is the base for the whole shoot, styling, backdrops, lighting, creating the look.

Finally it's over to the photographer to deliver on the above.

YouTube V's Vimeo: Which Video site is best for business?

YouTube V's Vimeo which video site do you choose if you’re interested in exposing your business or brand to a potentially huge audience, then you’ll want to have a presence on video-hosting websites like YouTube and Vimeo.

But which of these sites is best for your business? The answer depends on a number of factors, including the type of videos you produce, your target audience, and of course, your budget.

This article weighs the pros and cons of two of the most respected options to help you decide which video hosting platform is best for your business.

YouTube: Pros

With an estimated 450 million unique, monthly visitors worldwide, it’s almost impossible not to consider YouTube for your video-marketing campaign. This type of popularity makes YouTube one of the most visited sites on the web, and certainly the number one video hosting site in terms of traffic. YouTube has the added distinction of being owned by Google, so it probably doesn’t hurt to have video content that’s indexed by the world’s largest search engine. In other words, you’ll likely increase the odds of your video being seen if you host it on YouTube.

You can set up a YouTube account for free, and customize its look and feel to reflect your existing company brand. You can also upload an unlimited number of YouTube videos to your account. These points may be important considerations if you are concerned about budget, flexibility, and ease of use.

YouTube offers a number of advertising opportunities for your business, including display ads, in-video ads, and even promoted videos. You can pay to have your ads or videos appear when people use specific keywords to search for videos. Given the sheer volume of people visiting


YouTube on a daily basis, a strategically crafted ad campaign on YouTube can reap excellent results. Check out YouTube’s advertiser’s guide for more information about your advertising options.

YouTube: Cons

Precisely because of its popularity, the subject matter of YouTube videos run the gamut from high-definition masterpieces to low-end filler. Sometimes it can be hard for a viewer to find the diamonds in the rough. Any potential customer trying to find your video on YouTube will be inundated with video distractions — often of a very unprofessional nature.

While you are clearly not responsible for anyone else’s content, your audience may have to steer through a lot of clutter in order to see your message on YouTube.

Advertising may also be considered a negative attribute for YouTube. There’s always the potential for a competitor to advertise its own products and services within your videos or to display its ads when a customer is searching for you. Because advertising appears in every video on YouTube (to support the free application), customers may be distracted by these ads when they’re viewing your business videos.

Although YouTube offers a built-in analytics tool called Insight, some have suggested that the analytics data is too basic, or provides more of an executive summary than actionable data. On the other hand, others have suggested that the interface for Insight is cumbersome and difficult to use. Of course, in order to make a fair judgment, you should compare the analytics capabilities of YouTube with other video-hosting sites.

Vimeo: Pros

Vimeo bases its impressive reputation on quality and customization. For example, with a paid, “Pro” account, Vimeo offers what it calls “2-pass encoding.”According to Vimeo, this process makes videos much cleaner, requiring less bandwidth to view.

Priority uploading, also offered with Vimeo Pro, means that you can skip the queue and upload your business videos ahead of other unpaid accounts. This may be important to your business if you have timely videos which need to be uploaded without any delays.

Vimeo also offers “complete customization” of its video player, allowing you to embed your logo and branding into the player itself. This differs significantly from YouTube, where videos always carry the YouTube logo (potentially diluting your brand). In addition, we believe the analytics package offered by the Vimeo Pro account is superior to YouTube’s Insight application.

The Vimeo community is also a marketing aspect that Vimeo uses to promote its service. Paid-account holders can choose to disable in-video advertising in order to focus on the content of the videos they’re watching. Members can create their own channels, start groups, and organize all of their videos into different albums. In general, this makes for a much more engaged audience than on other video-hosting sites.

Vimeo: Cons

At just under 17 million unique, monthly visitors worldwide, Vimeo has significantly less traffic, and is less well known than YouTube. With less overall traffic to the site, your business videos may see fewer views on a platform like Vimeo

Videos with higher views, hosted on sites with higher traffic, tend to be treated more favorably by search engines. It’s possible that videos hosted on Vimeo will appear lower in search engine results when compared with similar videos hosted on a more popular platform.

Some of Vimeo’s best features are available only with a premium, paid account. In fact, Vimeo’s Terms of Service document states that if you intend to host commercial videos promoting your product or service, then you must purchase a Vimeo Pro account.

Pro accounts also come with restrictions. With a Pro account you are limited to a maximum of 50 GB of upload space per year, with a cap of 5 GB per uploaded video. Video views are also capped at 250,000.

If you want to upload additional videos or allow additional views beyond the specified caps, you have to purchase upgrades from the Vimeo “Store.” If budget is a concern for your video marketing campaign, you’ll have to pay close attention to the fine print with Vimeo.

Which is Best?

Online video has become synonymous with YouTube. Its size and high profile make it an obvious consideration for hosting your business videos — and of course, it’s free. On the other hand, Vimeo has built its reputation on providing a professional platform with advanced features and a more engaged audience.

When choosing the best platform to host your business videos, consider the goal of your campaign (views vs. engagement), your budget, and your brand itself. YouTube may be more suitable if high volume and high exposure are key considerations for your videos. If brand reputation and detailed analytics are more important, then Vimeo may be the better choice. In either case, your business will benefit from being part of the vastly popular, online video movement.


I use YouTube and cannot see me ever switching to "the other side".

Original Post by http://sproutsocial.com Published on August 31, 2011 by Don Power

Video workout series with Lukas Gabris International Bodybuilder

The video workout series with Lukas Gabris an international bodybuilder was a project that was captured over a period of months.

The reason Lukas created this video series was to give an insight into the extreme regime required to compete in body building competitions at world level.

The secondary objective of the video's was to raise Lukas profile to possible brands or new sponsors.

The video series ran in advance of his major competition last year, they helped build a larger fan base and guide those with an interest in body development to get better returns for their efforts in the gym.

Rather than edit the content dynamically the videos were kept to a more documentary approach, capturing Lukas going about his pre-contest training routine.

Lukas was working with John Hodgson who had competed at the very highest International level for a number of years, retiring last year. John competed in the fiercely competitive 202 (body weight) class and his training methods employing HIT training are highly respected.

The video below is a Lukas completing a leg workout, I tease Lukas a little at the end, pushing him to give me a few words when clearly he was not up for that.

This video series Journey to the Universe has attracted over 35,000 worldwide views to date.

Lukas this year placed second in the NABBA World's, in Class 1.

Photography Business : Investing in Equipment v Training

The photography business is without doubt fiercely competitive, how to invest is not an easy or straight forward decision. 

Photography can be for you a hobby or for the more serious as a business, I have been on both sides.

It's always been part of my own personal character always to do better, better than I was yesterday and so on.

Be resigned that your growth as a photographer will be similar to a baby's development, it goes at a certain pace, and simply evolves.

Granted you may have immediate successes, I wish you many but being able to sustain this and knowing the pitfalls will come in time.

In order to be progressive, not falter or take you on certain unwanted deviations I suggest you observe a small group of people at the top level and maybe some breaking out, over time do they make it or drop off, did they deviate and back track?

Workshops with good professionals are popular, workshops cover all aspects including systems and business which is not an area to be over looked. Booking direct with established professionals in your area of interest or through pro stores I would recommend.

The rush to buy heaps of expensive gear should be avoided, rather explore and get a better understanding of how the equipment has been sold to you and the possibilities it has to offer.

Yes you need to understand the different modes of shooting and how the pro's use it which will be different that the format it has been sold to you, this applies more to the camera body.

Accept it has been sold in a mode that will for most users produce acceptable images, but go deeper into the camera function's and this is where the pro's are.

So if you wish to be more balanced and move forward progressively invest in areas other than just the "gear" this includes training. I have done it, some workshops weren't for me leaving somewhat disappointed, but never without taking away some extra knowledge I didn't have at the beginning of the day.

Studio Shooting, creating the set.

Studio photography, often with a setup similar to that shown below.

The light boom and C stands are the heavy items to set up, this is where having an assistant really is a great help.

Each space you shoot in has it own +/-

The way light reflects and so on.

Creating a closed off setup reduces the amount of problems.

The picture above is from a basic setup at Studio4.

Booms help you work more freely, getting light up and over the subject better. The only thing to remember is to set everything up properly, check the important bits are tight and balanced correctly. This is a big piece of kit you don't want to come crashing down.

Everything is kept low while the boom is set up, settings dialed in, model bulbs checked through, when all of this is done the whole deal needs lifting up, better only to do this once.

The C stand can take a lot more weight than consumer stands that tend to bend and their balance isn't as good from my experience.

This kit is worth investing in early on, it's another expense but you need it to work better unless you have a willing assistant to stand over the client holding a light for you.

Again try renting before you buy.