I finally got around to purchasing a couple of rolls of seamless paper to use as photography backgrounds. Let me just say that getting them delivered to Fairbanks was painful (mostly due to the cost!). After shopping around and finding the prices from all vendors very comparable, I ordered from B & H. The paper comes in a large roll—9 feet wide—with a length of 36 feet. The cost is $43.99 per roll, and shipping it to Fairbanks is $40 per roll (no significant discount for purchasing more than one roll and shipping them together).
In response to the sticker shock for shipping, I opted to build a homemade stand rather than purchasing one.
Here are my first results:
I should mention that even with the white background paper and good lighting it still takes me about 30 minutes in Photoshop to create a perfectly isolated image.
Catching up on my reading today, I found a couple of useful links from Brandon on the JavaJive blog. (I first began following Brandon’s photoblog because he posts wonderful photos like this one…but I digress…)
Every photographer I know has had moments when they kicked themselves for leaving the tripod at home. This short video on metacafe offers an ingenious do-it-yourself design for an image stabilizer using nothing more than a screw, a string, and a washer. MacGyver couldn’t do better! At least it looks ingenious. For less than $1, I’ll definitely try it. What an amazingly simple idea!
And since you’ll be taking photos with your new image stabilizer later into the evening, you’ll need to get the most from your coffee. (I know. It was a weak, cheesy segue!)
For all you coffee connoisseurs, a guide for getting optimum effects from caffeine. Backed by scientific studies, no less.
As the digital camera market continues to expand and manufacturers release new models in rapid succession, Adobe is working hard to keep pace. In August, Canon released it’s sixth prosumer-level digital SLR: the EOS 40D. Canon fans who purchased in the first wave quickly discovered an incompatibility between the version of camera raw used by their shiny new camera and the camera raw converter in Photoshop CS3.
Adobe responded pretty quickly. Last week they released an updated version of the camera raw plugin for Photoshop, as well as an updated version of Adobe Lightroom. In addition to the EOS 40D, the update supports 13 other new camera releases.
Digital Photography Review provides details, including links for downloading the updates. I have my updates installed. I think it’s time to buy a new camera!