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Some Upcoming Workshops and Cyber Monday 2013 Specials Worth A Look

I recently sent out a “Top 5” Newsletter to my subscribers (it’s free to sign up via the link at the bottom of this post, or on this page). I send it out about once a month, and it usually includes Lightroom, Photoshop and/or printing tips, information about upcoming workshops, books, etc., and links to special offers or other items of interest. With today, 12/2/2013 being Cyber Monday, I thought I’d share some special offers that have come across my e-mail in-box, and that I personally am offering. I receive no commission on any of these offers, except of course for my own offers (#5 and #6).

1. Adobe’s very special offer of Photoshop and Lightroom for $9.99/month (even if you don’t own any version of any Adobe product).

This is a great offer from Adobe that expires Mon. 12/2/2013. For the last few months, anyone who owned Photoshop CS3 or later could sign up for a new “Photoshop Photography Program” for $9.99/month that includes access to current versions and updates of Photoshop and Lightroom, plus 20GB of online storage and an online portfolio on Behance.com. Now, Adobe is extending that offer to anyone. For more information or to sign up (an annual commitment is required), visit this page. This is for Mac and Windows users.

2. Peak Design Black Friday/Cyber Monday Special

Peak Design makes some innovative products that I use and highly recommend. I’ve purchased their PROpad, Leash, CapturePRO with DUALplate (that one plate works with Arca-Swiss style and Manfrotto RC-2 quick release plates (Manfrotto calls it the “Rapid Connect System”), and an extra DUALplate so that I use multiple cameras with their CapturePRO.

The company is having a very good Black Friday/Cyber Monday special that you can find here:
https://peakdesignltd.com/store/black-friday-bundle

Below is a photo and caption from Peak Design’s recent Kickstarter update that shows the products they are offering for the bundle:

3. Kolo.com’s 12 Days of Special Offers

For the next 12 days, Kolo.com is having a number of different special offers. If you don’t know their products, you should definitely take a look at their site. Their books, albums, boxes and other products are very high-end and elegant, but affordable.

The main site, which contains information about the 12 days of special offers is https://www.kolo.com

4. Athentech Imaging’s 50% off Black Friday/Cyber Monday Special Offer

If you like the idea of a “one-click” improvement solution, Athentech Imaging’s Perfectly Clear Plug-Ins are definitely worth a look. They even have a 30 day Money Back Guarantee, and you can download a 30 day trial as well.

My recommendation is to just purchase the Photoshop Plug-in if you own Lightroom and Photoshop. Then, for images you want to correct using the Plug-in, export your files from Lightroom, and then process them inside of Photoshop with the Plug-in. Then import the edited images you want to import into a Lightroom catalog. That will allow you to close Lightroom while you are working in Photoshop on your images. It’s a bit more time consuming, but you can more easily track your images, and it’s easier to give them unique names that way. Here’s the link to take advantage of the offer:

https://www.athentech.com/products/black-friday-plug-ins/

5. UPCOMING LIGHTROOM & FINE ART PAPER WORKSHOP

I’m very excited to be offering a three hour inkjet printing with Lightroom workshop in New York City on December 7, 2013. Anyone who mentioned this post and who signs up for the workshop by Wed. 12/4 will receive a free follow-up private 30 minute phone consultation with me ($100 value). I can also view your screen as we chat so that I can see exactly what you are seeing. It’s almost as good as working together in person.

I think the best part of the workshop will be seeing prints on a wide variety of fine-art papers from a number of manufacturers, including:

o Canson Infinity

o Hahnemühle

o HARMAN by Hahnemühle

o Moab Paper

o Museo Fine Art

o Premier Imaging Products, and

o Red River Paper

For more information or to register, please visit:

https://lightroom127.eventbrite.com

6. SPECIAL BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY CONSULTING OFFER

I have a special offer for those who would like to reserve a 3 hour session (or two 90 minute sessions) with me via phone. Instead of my normal rate of $199/hr, your investment is just $99/hr. This special offer is only available if you send me an e-mail through this page and mention this offer. We will then determine a day or two for the sessions, and payment will be due after each session (as long as you are very happy with the services I provide). Some common items that I’ve helped others with recently include: system and file setup, retouching and workflow using Lightroom, and screen to print matching with little effort. I look forward to working with you!

This special offer expires on 12/2/2013 at 11:59pm EST.

Here is the page to send me an e-mail to take advantage of this special offer:

https://imagingbuffet.com/contact-us/

And below is a form to sign up for the newsletter, which includes a link to a free one hour Lightroom and photo tips video.

First Name:
Email:

We respect your privacy. Your e-mail will never be shared or sold.

All the best, thanks for stopping by, and Happy Holidays!

Andrew

 

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PhotoPlusExpo 2013 Booth Highlights and Observations

I had a great day yesterday at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York City. As usual, I had photo gear and photo print overload! Below are 14 booths that really impressed me (there were many more, and I will share more in the upcoming days). I want to get these out quickly for those who are visiting the show on Saturday, so I will add more web links in about a day. For now, I’ve listed the company name and their booth number. If you won’t be there for the last day of the show, you can visit other trade shows where these companies are exhibiting or you can visit the show next year if the companies return to exhibit at the show. You may also want to refer to my previous articles here and here on ImagingBuffet.com for more booth suggestions and tips for getting the most from the show.

There are also a number of photo exhibitions on the show floor that should not be missed. Two that are in the same location (near booth #176) are: “My Favorite People and Places,” sponsored by Canon, and another show sponsored by Sony and printed by Bay Photo that showcases many stunning glossy metal prints related to the Space Shuttle and NASA.

1. American Photography/Pro Photo Daily/DART (Booth #266)

I’ve been reading DART and Pro Photo Daily for as long as both have been available. They are outstanding resources with a lot of news and insight from people who have a very long history in the photo and art world. The company also publishes books of Illustration and Photography from contests that they run each year. If you can visit their booth, you can see many of their booths, and I promise that you won’t be disappointed! The range of work and print/binding quality of the books are truly spectacular.

The site to subscribe to their free publications is https://www.ai-ap.com/register/.

2. AcrylicPress.com (Booth #176)

I was extremely impressed by this company’s face-mounted plexi prints. If you know anything about the process, it is very difficult to do right, and the print quality (prints are made with Canon pigment printers) and edges are outstanding. I highly recommend taking a look. They also have 1″ thick plexi products available which are pretty amazing. They are giving away cards at the show with a 50% off special offer code.

3. Black River Imaging (Booth #443)

Black River Imaging has many interesting products, but three that stood out in my mind were their LOFT line of cards and ornaments (these are printed or mounted to a super-thick board material…think paper coaster (and they make those too)), their books, and their new “Folio Collection” of print boxes and mounted prints. The cover options they have for their boxes and books are absolutely beautiful.

4. Canson (Booth #437)

The print samples on the walls of Canson’s booth are truly stunning. As with most companies who make photo papers, the primarily reason to stop by Canson’s booth is to see their fine-art papers on the walls of their booth to better help you decide which paper might be right for your work.

5. Datacolor (Booth #162)

If you are interested in learning more about color management (it can be a bit complicated if you don’t “see it in action”), or if you’d like to see some powerful tools for color balancing your camera, I recommend stopping by the Datacolor booth. One of my favorite products for getting the right color balance in any light is a simple but ingenious item called the Datacolor SpyderCUBE. They also have a product called the Datacolor SpyderLENSCAL that helps you to determine if your camera/lens autofocus is accurate at different focal lengths (some cameras have a micro adjustment capability built in). If you see a real problem with your autofocus and if your camera does not have the micro adjustment, you can speak with your camera/lens manufacturer about possibly fixing the issue. The folks at Datacolor can also give you more advice about this at the booth.

6. Epson (Booth #701)

As usual, Epson has a great booth with many prints on the walls, and a display rack filled with papers that really helps to compare different prints without glass or other glazing in front of them. What I really like is how they’ve displayed groups of the same image, printed on different papers in a few different areas of the show floor. They also just introduced a new paper called Exhibition Watercolor Paper that has a strong texture and a very nice overall look and feel. It’s Mould Made and contains no OBAs (Optical Brighteners).

7. FLORIcolor USA (Booth #1169)

The quality of this company’s boxes and albums are absolutely amazing. They have cards on the display tables with a 50% off studio sample special if you’d like to produce some samples for your studio, or do testing for a fine art project.

8. Fotodiox Pro (Booth #345)

Fotodiox Pro has many products at the show, but their LED products impressed me most. Some are really innovative because they contain white and amber LEDs for good color balance in different lighting conditions. Two products that blew me away were their LED studio lights (Fotodiox Pro LED100WA-56 Daylight Studio LED and the Fotodiox Pro LED100WA-32 Tungsten Studio LED). At full power, the Daylight model appeared to me to be brighter than the sun 🙂 (I’m kidding, but it had a lot of intensity)! Truly incredible. Just ask them to turn up the brightness to full power to see what I experienced. As I indicated, there is a daylight and tungsten-balanced model available. If I were going to purchase one, I’d get the daylight version and use gels to correct for other color temperatures.

9. Innova Art (Booth #1149)

Innova Art always has impressive paper samples (they make a range of fine-art papers), and this year they had a few items worth mentioning. First, they have a beautiful new fiber inkjet paper called FibaPrint® Warm Cotton Gloss 335gsm. The thickness of this paper is truly impressive, and the overall look and feel of the ink on paper is beautiful. They also have a new easy to use system that allows you to easily mount any print on either a 5×7, 8×10 or 11×14 thick block with a series of holes on the back for easy hanging or display on a table. Their inkjet-printable cards are also worth a look.

10. Josephine Herrick Project (Booth #1067)

This organization has been helping others through photography for over 70 years. They are also featuring a new Benefit Photo Contest that’s running on Phoozl.com, and that’s juried by acclaimed photographer and author Robert Farber. The contest will help raise money for the organization, and you can read about the contest on their site here: https://jhproject.org/2013/10/phoozl-announces-photo-contest-benefiting-the-josephine-herrick-project/

11. Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd. (Booth #1127)

Kenko Tokina has a wide range of products that you can try out on the camera bodies that they provide, or on your own camera. I was very impressed by the look and feel of their two newest wide angle autofocus lenses, the Tokina 11‑16mm F/2.8 ATX Pro DX, and the Tokina AT-X 12-28 PRO DX (available for a number of different camera bodies). If you’ve been thinking of purchasing a teleconverter, they have some nice ones under the Kenko brand name. The Kenko-brand variable NDX Neutral Density Filters are also impressive. Their Zéta brand filters are also very interesting, and they claim to have “zero reflection,” which can be an issue with filters, especially when shooting at longer focal lengths.

12. Red River Paper (Booth #255)

Red River Paper has many impressive paper samples at their booth, and what really stood out in my mind were three new surfaces: San Gabriel SemiGloss Fiber paper (300 gsm), 80lb. Polar Pearl Metallic, and Blanco Matte Inkjet Printable Canvas. They also have many inkjet-printable cards on display that helps to compare the different options. They are participating in a free print program with Canon, and they have cards at the show to learn more about how you can get a free print of your image printed on one of their papers.

13. ShootProof (Booth #443)

ShootProof provides websites geared primarily toward the wedding/portrait/event markets. I was very impressed by the look and feel of the sites (the bottom left of the galleries allows you to switch views easily), and I like their pricing model. Since they charge based on the number of images that are “live” at any time, you can save by “archiving” previously posted galleries for a very small fee per gigabyte.

14. White House Custom Color (WHCC) (Booth #147)

White House Custom Color had a number of books and some small accordion books on display that are really spectacular. I especially liked their press printed books with hinged bindings. They are very elegant and sturdy. I also liked going through the 30+ printed samples on the table at their booth. They also have a very useful print sample pack with many examples of their prints (photo, inkjet and press printed).

 

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PhotoPlus Expo 2013 Selected Booth Presentation Schedules and Tips for Getting the Most from the Show

As I mentioned in my recent article about the 2013 PhotoPlus International Expo + Conference, being held in New York City this week (10/23-26), there are many opportunities to learn about almost any photo-related topic right on the show floor at exhibitor booths. Here are three specific booth schedules, some links to read more about them, with a few other suggested booths to visit that usually have good presentations:

1. Adorama (Booth #1037) Adorama’s booth serves as a store as well as a place for presentations, and their lineup this year, which you can see below, is very impressive.

2. Canon (Booth #121) Canon’s booth is always huge, and I always enjoy their lineup of speakers. Below is a chart with the schedule of their speaker presentations for the 2013 show.

This year, Canon will be screening movies made with different Canon camera models. In addition to this content, I read this on the press release for the show: “…on Friday, October 25th and Saturday, October 26th the Canon Theater will also feature select films and behind-the-scenes footage from the Canon’s “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival. Canon U.S.A., Inc. partnered with two-time Academy Award® winner Ron Howard for the “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival, which will kick off with the global premiere of ten short films at Lincoln Center in New York City on October 24, 2013. For more information visit: https://www.longliveimagination.com“

To read the whole release, which includes some excellent information about perks for CPS (Canon Professional Services) members, visit this page.

3. Moab by Legion Paper (Booth #750)

I believe this is the first year that Moab by Legion Paper (makers of many papers, including Entrada Rag and Slickrock Metallic) is having presentations in their booth. Here’s a quick look at the speaker schedule, and you can read the full descriptions in the press release linked below.

Link to a full press release from Moab Paper, which includes descriptions of what each of the speakers will be covering.

4. Unique Photo (Booth #547) Unique Photo’s booth is often filled with people thanks in part to their body-painted models, booth presentations and “trade show store” filled with gear for sale.

Quick Tips for Getting the Most from Booth Presentations at the PhotoPlus Expo

1. Take a photo of the schedule that’s usually posted at exhibitors’ booths with your phone or camera so that you can do some research on the speakers and better schedule your time.

2. If an interesting link or other information comes up on the screen, take a picture of it instead of writing it down.

3. Get to the booth a few minutes early. Many have seating set up, which can make the presentation 10 times better!

Additional Suggested Companies Who Often Have Excellent Booth Presentations

• GraphiStudio (Booth #905)
• Midwest Photo Exchange (Booth #155).
(Last year, Datacolor did a number of good presentations in the Midwest Photo Booth. Check Datacolor’s booth this year (Booth #162) if you are interested in their color management product line.)
• Nikon (Booth #401)
• Sigma (Booth #537)
• Sony (Booth #519)
• Topaz Labs (Booth #267)