You had more than a couple of weeks to go out and buy, then photograph, some “fast food” for Contest Corner Challenge #77… I guess it’s a busy time of year (or you’re just sick of fast food?), because we got less than 10 entries for this contest. There are some pretty good ones, though - check them out in the Contest Corner Challenge #77: Fast Food Photo Gallery. You have until the wee hours of September 8th to cast your vote here in the voting thread.

The contest is being sponsored by our friends at MOO.com - a new kind of online printing business, born out of a love of beautiful, high-quality print. Handing out a business card is often the first impression people take of your business, so you need to get it right. Using your own photography to create custom business cards can help you stand out, and MOO makes the process easy with their simple online tools and templates. It’s often difficult to describe your work, so why not show it? When you meet a new contact, show them your work right there, and leave a photo business card with them as the perfect reminder. Using MOO’s Printfinity technology, you can print up to 50 different images in one pack of cards, allowing you to showcase your whole portfolio - the prefect Portfolio for your Pocket! For a limited time, MOO is giving every a totally free ‘trial pack’ of 10 Business Cards to members of PhotographyCorner (MOO will even pay for delivery) - no strings attached! Go get your free Business Cards trial pack now!

The winner, regardless of if they are a Premiere Member or not, will receive a MOO Pro-Photographer Pack: 1 × 200 Business Cards (classic or green stock), 1 × 100 MiniCards, 1 × 20 Postcards, 1 × 25 Greeting Cards and FREE Shipping!

Every vote counts - so take a couple of minutes, browse the entries, and cast your vote today! Read more »

It’s slowly approaching September… I have a couple of hours left in August (at least in this timezone). By now, you all should have received the August 2010 Corner Newsletter in your inbox. If for whatever reason you didn’t receive it, or have chosen not to receive it, you’re in luck, because you can actually read it online here in the Corner Newsletter Archives. If you don’t already have a FREE account at PhotographyCorner, why the heck not??! Sign up here already!

The newsletter was sponsored by FXhome. Green screen photography is proving increasingly popular as the technology becomes more affordable and accessible. FXhome has specialized in powerful green screen software for Mac and PC for almost a decade, with the new PhotoKey 3 series aimed specifically at photographers. More information can be found here.

The newsletter is full of photography contests, videos, cool blog posts, and even some little encouragement… so what are you waiting for? Grab a cup of coffee and take 10 minutes to read the August edition of the Corner newsletter before we get too far into September.  Read more »

For the past month and for the next several months, our ‘Photoshop Monday’ Video Corner’s are taking an in-depth look at a variety of features of Adobe Photoshop Extended. The tutorials, put together by Total Training Online, cover a variety of features, from non-destructive editing, to using various tools like the lasso tool (the video today looks at the precurser to the lasso tool: the marquee tool), to more complicated topics like using layers. While these short, weekly videos are packed full of great tips and tricks, if you want to get the most out of Adobe Photoshop Extended, you may want to check out the Total Training Online and DVD Software Training full packages (like photography classes, but you can do it all online on your own time). I’ve used Total Training myself, and I highly recommend them - check out their library of online classes today. Read more »

It’s been two weeks since our last SmugMug Corner, and 76 interviews in, it’s still one of the best ways to kick off the weekend. Starting next week, while the SmugMug Corner interviews will remain every other Friday, we’ll also add a similar series here on the Corner Blog called “Corner Member Close Up” where we’ll interview one of our own from the Corner Community on the alternate Fridays! Now we’ll have a photographer interview every Friday! But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves as this week we meet 55-year-old exec from the Boston area Ed Spadoni. Check out his great interview and 9 photos below - and enjoy your weekend!

Last week, in our continuing look at DIY Photography in our 'Photography Monday' Video Corner videos, we learned about monitors & calibration. This week we take a look at "Delta E Tolerance" - what it is and how to test your tolerance with the Pilot Color Tolerance Exercise. Obviously, unless you get very serious about printing your own photographs, this process is not necessary for you to go through. That being said, it's never a bad idea to know what goes on behind the scenes at your favorite printing lab, right?

August is coming to a close (I can’t believe it’s almost September already), and that means it’s time for us to cast our votes for the upcoming Photograph of the Month. Every month, during the last week of each month, the PhotographyCorner community gets together and the Premiere Members nominate photographs posted to the Corner from the past month (in the forums or galleries). I have the arduous job of narrowing down those nominations to 15 or so photographs. Then the community has 7 days to cast their vote. Around the first of each month, the winner is announced and is featured on the homepage of PhotographyCorner for the entire month.

You can check out the 15 photographs up for the honors here in the September 2010 Photograph of the Month Photo Gallery, then head on over to the voting thread to make your decision. The contest is sponsored by M-Rock, a leading manufacturer of high quality camera, camcorder, lens bags, sling-backpacks and travel cases for professional photographers and enthusiasts. If the winner is a Premiere Member, they will receive a M-Rock Yellowstone 651 Holster Camera Bag (read the newly posted review of it here). If the winner is not a Premiere Member, they will receive a M-Rock Mesa Verde 644 Compact Camera Bag (read the newly posted review of it here).

There are some fantastic photographs up for the September 2010 Photograph of the Month, including two by Scott111184, Eric Diller and cup4tml. So make sure to swing by the award thread before the end of the month to cast your vote. On September 1st, we’ll announce the winner and award them with a new M-Rock camera bag and Photograph of the Month honors! Read more »

It’s probably one of the most commen questions asked in the photography forums - “I’m just becoming interested in photography, and my point-and-shoot camera/camera phone/other camera just isn’t cutting it anymore… So what’s the best beginner dSLR?” It’s the gateway question into the wonderful world of photography. The answer the budding photographer receives could shape their photographic purchases for years, even decades, to come. For those of us that participate regularly in photography forums like the Corner, it’s a question we come across frequently, and one we (hopefully, at least) answer with some thought.

For many, it usually comes down to choosing the (usually) newest and cheapest dSLR that’s made by _____ or _____ (fill in whatever company names you want - but it’s almost always Nikon and Canon these days). Several times a year, the answer will change - the Canon Digital Rebel, the Nikon D50, the Canon 550D, the Nikon D40, the Nikon D5000, and the list goes on. I asked on Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page, and almost every response I received was different - literally dozens of different answers with no real clear winner.

What it really comes down to is personal preference. If you’re in the market for a good, beginner dSLR, there are several to choose from, but before you make up your mind, head down to your local camera shop and hold them in your hand. Some cameras simply “feel right” in your hands, and that may be enough of a tie-breaker to pick one. Sure ‘camera X’ has slightly different features than ‘camera Y’, and ‘camera Z’ has more megapixels than ‘camera X’, but a smaller LCD screen - they all are a little different. But when it comes down to it, a good learner camera for me could be different from a good learner camera for you - we may have different photographic tastes and expectations, different sized hands, different subjects, different feature requirements. So the answer to the question “What is the best beginner dSLR?” is “whatever one seems to fit your photographic needs.” Read more »

For the next several months, our ‘Photoshop Monday’ Video Corner’s are taking an in-depth look at a variety of features of Adobe Photoshop Extended. The tutorials, put together by Total Training Online, cover a variety of features, from non-destructive editing, to using various tools like the lasso tool (the video today introduces the selection process and tools), to more complicated topics like using layers. While these short, weekly videos are packed full of great tips and tricks, if you want to get the most out of Adobe Photoshop Extended, you may want to check out the Total Training Online and DVD Software Training full packages (like photography classes, but you can do it all online on your own time). I’ve used Total Training myself, and I highly recommend them - check out their library of online classes today. Read more »

Today we continue our look at DIY Photography in our ‘Photography Monday’ Video Corner’s by learning about some of the equipment we could use to print our own photographs - specifically looking at monitors (EIZO Monitors discussed specifically in the video) and how to apply the 18% grey test to your monitor. A lot of the equipment and printing concepts discussed in these videos are probably beyond what most of us will attempt ourselves with our own photography, but it’s always neat to see how it could be done.  Read more »

For the next several months, our ‘Photoshop Monday’ Video Corner’s are taking an in-depth look at a variety of features of Adobe Photoshop Extended. The tutorials, put together by Total Training Online, cover a variety of features, from non-destructive editing (the video today), to using various tools like the lasso tool, to more complicated topics like using layers. While these short, weekly videos are packed full of great tips and tricks, if you want to get the most out of Adobe Photoshop Extended, you may want to check out the Total Training Online and DVD Software Training full packages (like photography classes, but you can do it all online on your own time). I’ve used Total Training myself, and I highly recommend them - check out their library of online classes today. Read more »

It’s usually not that good for us (our wallets or our physique), but most of us, probably on a more regular basis than we’d like to admit, eat at fast food restaurants (or pick something up via drive-through). The latest Contest Corner Challenge CCC#77: Fast Food asks you to photograph some of that “fast food” before you scarf it down. Try to make it look “appetizing” like they do in commercials (if you can). Think of it almost like a product shoot for your fast food meal of choice.

Entries are due in by Monday, August 30th, 2010, and make sure to read the Contest Corner Rules & Regulations before taking and entering a photograph (we hate sending out rejection letters to those photographs that don’t meet all the guidelines).

The contest is being sponsored by our friends at MOO.com - a new kind of online printing business, born out of a love of beautiful, high-quality print. Handing out a business card is often the first impression people take of your business, so you need to get it right. Using your own photography to create custom business cards can help you stand out, and MOO makes the process easy with their simple online tools and templates. It’s often difficult to describe your work, so why not show it? When you meet a new contact, show them your work right there, and leave a photo business card with them as the perfect reminder. Using MOO’s Printfinity technology, you can print up to 50 different images in one pack of cards, allowing you to showcase your whole portfolio - the prefect Portfolio for your Pocket! For a limited time, MOO is giving every a totally free ‘trial pack’ of 10 Business Cards to members of PhotographyCorner (MOO will even pay for delivery) - no strings attached! Go get your free Business Cards trial pack now!

The winner, regardless of if they are a Premiere Member or not, will receive a MOO Pro-Photographer Pack: 1 × 200 Business Cards (classic or green stock), 1 × 100 MiniCards, 1 × 20 Postcards, 1 × 25 Greeting Cards and FREE Shipping!

So go read through the contest thread to make sure you’ve got all the details, and go buy yourself some fast food and photograph it! Read more »

While most of our Contest Corner Challenge contests are ‘photography-theme’ based (ie - take a photograph of _______), every once and a while we like to do a contest for those that love the digital manipulation side of the art of photography. About once a year we try to do a “Digital Darkroom” Contest Corner Challenge where we supply a dozen or so photographs, and then ask the community to take at least 3 of those photograph (or all of them), and meld them together to create a new “digital creation.” The entry period came to a close last week, and yesterday we finished voting (see the final voting results here). The photo creation at the top of the pile was “Green Giantess” by divmiller - a very creative combination of several of the supplied photographs.

You can browse through the entries and original photographs to see who put together each “digital darkroom creation” here in the CCC#76: Digital Darkroom #4 Photo Gallery, then head on over to the award thread to congratulate Diana on her first Contest Corner Challenge victory!

The contest was sponsored by Amazon.com - find and discover anything you might want to buy online at the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as beauty, health and personal care, jewelry and gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics (cameras & photography equipment!), office, toys and baby, and home and garden. In addition, a portion of the cost of every product purchased through this link goes to support PhotographyCorner.com (what are you waiting for, go buy some stuff!!)!

Since Diana was not a Premiere Member, she has received a Lifetime, Level I Premiere Membership. Way to show off those Photoshop skills, Diana! Congratulations on your win! Read more »

Every other Friday we have the opportunity meet a new photographer in a series we call "SmugMug Corner" (because each of the photographers we feature is also a member of the SmugMug community). We've recently just renewed the series for another year, so for the next year, we'll continue to meet new photographers every other week! In addition, starting in September, we'll also be interviewing members of the PhotographyCorner community on opposite Fridays, so we'll be treated to a photographer interview every week!

This week, in our 75th SmugMug Corner Photographer Interview, we meet Colorado-based John Dwyer - a professional historian and self-taught landscape and wildlife photographer (with an itch to travel - a great combo for an endless supply of fantastic photographs!).

In the ‘Photography Thursday’ Video Corner last week we looked at the “insides” of a canvas print - the variety of canvas stretcher bars that hold a gallery wraped photograph in place (click on Video Corner #111: Canvas Stretcher Bars to watch the video). This week, we take a closer look at actually printing photographs on the canvas, and specifically, the types of coatings to apply to the print and the best ways to spray or roll on these coatings. Read more »

For the next several months, our ‘Photoshop Monday’ Video Corner’s are going to take an in-depth look at a variety of features of Adobe Photoshop Extended. The tutorials, put together by Total Training Online, cover a variety of features, from simply using color correction (the video today), to using various tools like the lasso tool, to more complicated topics like using layers. While these short, weekly videos are packed full of great tips and tricks, if you want to get the most out of Adobe Photoshop Extended, you may want to check out the Total Training Online and DVD Software Training full packages (like photography classes, but you can do it all online on your own time). I’ve used Total Training myself, and I highly recommend them - check out their library of online classes today. Read more »

This week, the ‘Photography Thursday’ edition of our semi-weekly series “Video Corner” looks at a popular printing option known as “gallery wraps,” where the photograph is printed on canvas, and the canvas is wrapped around a wooden frame. The video today looks at the various wooden frames used for gallery wraps, and specifically at adjustable and strainer stretcher bars. Obviously not everyone will print their photographs on gallery wraps, and many that do will end up ordering from places like Mpix.com or Posterjack.ca instead of making the wraps themselves. Either way, thougn, it’s always interesting to see how these photography products are assembled. Read more »

While most of our Contest Corner Challenge contests are ‘photography-theme’ based (ie - take a photograph of _______), every once and a while we like to do a contest for those that love the digital manipulation side of the art of photography. About once a year we try to do a “Digital Darkroom” Contest Corner Challenge where we supply a dozen or so photographs, and then ask the community to take at least 3 of those photograph (or all of them), and meld them together to create a new “digital creation.” The entry period came to a close a couple of days ago, and 18 people stepped up to the plate and merged the photographs together, and now it’s time to vote on who did the best job.

You can browse through the entries, as well as the original photographs here in the CCC#76: Digital Darkroom #4 Photo Gallery, then head on over to the voting thread to cast your vote.

The contest sponsor is none other than Amazon.com - find and discover anything you might want to buy online at the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as beauty, health and personal care, jewelry and gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics (cameras & photography equipment!), office, toys and baby, and home and garden. In addition, a portion of the cost of every product purchased through this link goes to support PhotographyCorner.com (what are you waiting for, go buy some stuff!!)! If the winner is a Premiere Member, they will receive a Slik Monopod 350. If the winner is not a Premiere Member, they will receive a Lifetime, Level I Premiere Membership.

We’ve got until approximately 2:15am EST (6:15am GMT) on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 to cast your vote, so decide who did the best job, and cast your vote here. Read more »

From dozens of nominations by Premiere Members, down to 15 photographs (check the voting results here), Parabol’s Australia Seascape garnered over a quarter of the votes to win the August 2010 Photograph of the Month contest.

The contest was sponsored by Amazon.com - find and discover anything you might want to buy online at the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as beauty, health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics (cameras & photography equipment!), office, toys and baby, and home and garden. In addition, a portion of the cost of every product purchased through this link goes to support PhotographyCorner.com!

Since Kieran was not a Premiere Member, he received a Lifetime, Level I Premiere Membership. Don’t forward to drop by the award thread to congratulate Kieran on his first Photograph of the Month win! Read more »

The ‘Photoshop Monday’ Video Corner this week continues with our look at the Adobe Bridge (part of the Adobe Creative Suite) as we look at the Image Processor in Adobe Photoshop - what it does, and how to us it within Adobe Bridge.

 Read more »

I know it’s August already, but if you’re a member of the Corner, you should have at least received the July newsletter while it was still July. Maybe you didn’t read it or open it in July, but I did send it out in July. That counts for something, right? For those that may have missed it, don’t subscribe to it, or prefer to read it online, you can read the July 2010 Corner Newsletter here in the Corner Newsletter Archives.

The newsletter was sponsored by Tamron and their new SP AF10-24mm Di II lens, a high performance ultra-wideangle zoom which features an unprecedented 2.4X zoom ratio—the best in its class. This innovative lens is designed for Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony DSLRs with APS-C sized sensors and offers a 35mm-equivalent range of 16-37mm in a lightweight and compact design. With this versatile zoom, photographers can capture magnificent vistas and extraordinary close-ups, bold compositions and unique perspectives, creating imagery impossible with a standard wideangle. The advanced optical system features large-aperture, glass-molded aspherical elements, hybrid aspherical elements, and elements made of special low-dispersion glass, all of which combine to deliver high-quality imagery and performance. The lens uses a new optical system designed to confine the changing angles of incidences of light rays reaching the imager within a certain scope over the entire image field from center to periphery, addressing the effects of variances caused by zooming. Peripheral light fall-off that becomes an image-degrading factor in wideangle photography is minimized to ensure high optical quality across the image plane. Newly developed multiple-layer coatings and internal surface coatings to reduce image degradation caused by the reflection of light rays entering the lens front are incorporated. Because close-focusing capability is essential in wideangle photography, Tamron engineered a 9.4” minimum focus distance throughout the zoom range. This capability gives you freedom to create images with an exaggerated perspective at the 10mm ultra-wideangle end and shoot with a maximum magnification ratio of 1:5 at the 24mm setting, the best magnification ratio in its class.

Pretty cool, huh? Now go on and read the rest of the newsletter… Read more »