The Lightroom 3 beta program is available to the public, so that means anyone with an Internet connection can download it and start putting it to the test. You do not need to own (or have tried) a previous version of Lightroom. The version of Lightroom 3 beta software available for download is offered in English only. You can download the beta and use it until the product expires. The current Lightroom 3 public beta will expire on April 30, 2010.

And as always the guys over at NAPP have their Learning Center for Lightroom 3 up and running already.

The team behind the release itself has collected a list of resources aswell that can be found over at Lightroom Journal, and is well worth a look.

I use Lightroom daily and when I look at some of the new features listed below that are included in this new I know I’ll be running LR3 when it arrives, that’s for sure.

• Brand new performance architecture, building for the future of growing image libraries
• State-of-the-art noise reduction to help you perfect your high ISO shots
• Watermarking tool that helps you customize and protect your images with ease
• Portable sharable slideshows with audio—designed to give you more flexibility and impact on how you choose to share your images, you can now save and export your slideshows as videos and include audio
• Flexible customizable print package creation so your print package layouts are all your own
• Film grain simulation tool for enhancing your images to look as gritty as you want
• New import handling designed to make importing streamlined and easy
• More flexible online publishing options so you can post your images online to certain online photo sharing sites directly from inside Lightroom 3 beta (may require third-party plug-ins)*

So, head over to the Learning Center and get started, and don’t forget to grab a copy of the beta aswell.

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If you’re all new into this off-camera flash things have a look at one of the true masters of working with the lights in a very creative way in action, Joe McNally.

I know it’s a bit long, but it’s so worth looking at.

Don’t worry, if you can’t really afford these rather expensive PocketWizards there are cheaper alternatives of course, also known as PovertyWizards. I have used Opteka OP-4C 4 Channel Wireless Hot Shoe Flash Trigger for a rather long time and these have now arrived in a new version aswell, which really boosts its perfomance.

Other than a flash trigger, all you need is an off-camera flash, and these could be found quite cheap on eBay and in retail if lucky. All you really need is a flash with some manual settings, and these could be found from around $200.

So, why should you take the flash off camera then? If you think you’re images are looking flat and dull when using the popup-flash, have a look at some of these photos:

These shots are all done with pretty easy lighting setups, and ususally they consist of no more than one flash with some kind of diffusor triggered remotely. The most common things used should be a softbox or a shoot-thru umbrella of some kind so that the light don’t hit your subject hard. The last image above demonstrates that quite good.

Having to ability to use the flash in a few other ways than just right on top of the camera gives you a few more angles and lets ju get a bit more creative. Have a look at these shots I took a while back while experimenting with a Canon EX430 off camera.

So get that flash off camera now and start experimenting. If you need more inspiration you should really have a look at the Strobist Flickr Group because you could really get some great ideas and help from the community over there.

And when you’re done looking at all these images, head over to strobist.blogspot.com and dive into all the information collected over there. Just make sure you start with the series called Lighting 101.

Good luck.

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1. Featured Flickr Photographer #3 – Eli Zhushma
2. Learn 8 different ways to light a homestudio
3. How to take a photo in low light without flash

Photo: Leon Baas

Photo: Magdalena Wasiczek

Photo: Lord V

Photo: Jimmy Hoffman

Photo: Branislav Mamic

Photo: Eric Costa

Photo: Lord V

Photo: Bzox

Photo: Midas Photography

Photo: Lord V

Photo: ablok

Photo: Lord V

Photo: supertoasti

Photo: Roeselien Raimond

Photo: Magdalena Wasiczek

Photo: Mikesi

Photo: Ursula I Abresch

Photo: Ursula I Abresch

Photo: Th Block

Photo: Anna Ulmestrand

Photo: Lord V

Photo: Leon Baas

Photo: Marta Grzesiak

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This is the first images in the series and more will come, stay tuned.

And lets finish of this post by showing the models together with the MUA that made them look this faboulus.

We had the possibility to work with different kind of lighting and I’ve also tried a few new things in post.

I hope you like it, and please leave a comment telling me what you think and what to improve if you would be so kind. Thank you.

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This is what I brought along for the trip:

• Canon EOS 40D
• EF50/1,8 + EF70-200/4 + EF-S17-85 + Sigma 105mm/2,8 Macro
• 2x 110W Studiostrobes
• 1x white umbrella
• 1x softbox
• 1x Speedlite 430EX
• 3x tripods
• Cactus V4 remotes

This is how it looked when we had it all setup before we the models arrived. We did relocate some of the strobes during the day of course, and the big diffusor between the speedlites and the seamless paper are not really visible on the image, but it’s there.

Both me and Sebbe got a few strobes each because we just love standing behind the camera and working with light during our spare time, and when we had a MUA that needed some shots taken for a project of hers and was able to supply us with both models and clothing there wasn’t really anyting to argue about.

We all learned a lot and I personally learned a lot on talking to the models and having them pose differently.

Expect a lot of images in the near future but I’ll start it off with two shots here so you’ll know what to expect. And this is for the record, I just love the sharpness and the creative approach you’ll get with the Sigma 105/2,8.

Having the possibility to isolate on white is truly amazing!

Don’t forget to grab the RSS if you want to stay updated.

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As you already may know I just recently bought a new lens and I’m still really amazed at what it delivers. Have a look at the following photos I just took, all in ambient light. That’s kinda weird for being me, not using any kind of flashes that is.

These are the Christmas Edition of these famous Ballerina cookies in Sweden, and these ones are full of gingerbread and tastes really good actually.

In other news

This weekend I’m going to meet up with SebbeSula and a MUA for a photoshoot and I’m really exited. We’re having two models, one male and one female that are going to be styled and put infront of the cameras. Oh such joy!

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Convert your WordPress Blog into a full featured photoblog in virtually no time. Use the full range of WordPress functions and plugins: Benefit from the big community WordPress has to offer, and take advantage of this great plugin from J.P. Jarolim.

Features:

• A non invasive WordPress-plugin that converts wp into a easy useable photoblog system
• Easy image upload – All wordpress post-features can be used
• On the fly thumbnail generation – Use multiple thumbnail sizes where and when you need them: Thumbnail generation gets controlled from the template.
• EXIF data processing and output
• Self-learning EXIF filter – Your own cameras tags can be selected to be viewed.
• Full i18n-Support through gnutext mo/po files
• YAPB Plugin Infrastructure for extended functionality
• Ping additional update-service-sites when posting a photoblog entry.
• Nearly every WP-theme can become a photoblog in virtually no time.

This plugin is ideal when you don’t want to upload your images to a third party such as flickr, and the reasons for this are many if you read what the author of this plugin is writing about it.

Post your image on a foreign server and you’ll never be exactly sure what rights you have on your own images until you’re a better laywer than the one hired by your prefered photo community. One nice example: Flickr was sold to Yahoo AFTER they had tens of thousands users and hosted millions of images. If you’re posting images to flickr right now – Do you EXACTLY know, what rights Yahoo currently owns on YOUR images? – J.P. Jarolim

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/yet-another-photoblog.1.9.22.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://johannes.jarolim.com/blog/wordpress/yet-another-photoblog/

2. NextGEN Gallery

NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated image gallery plugin for Wordpress with a flash slideshow option, and if you’re looking for someting out of the ordinary to showcase your images this is something for you.

Having the possibility to group your images into different galleries is really neat if you haven’t tried it before.

Features:

• Templates : You can add custom templates for your theme.
• Media RSS feed : Add the Cooliris Effect to your gallery
• Role settings : Each gallery has a author
• AJAX based thumbnail generator : No more server limitation during the batch process
• Copy/Move : Copy or move images between galleries
• Sortable Albums : Create your own sets of images
• Upload or pictures via a zip-file (Not in Safe-mode)
• Watermark function : You can add a watermark image or text
• JavaScript Effect : Use any available popular image effect : Shutter, Thickbox, Lightbox or Highslide
• Multiple CSS Stylesheet : Use a nice shadow effect for your thumbnails with your own CSS file
• Slideshow : Full integrated flash slideshow
• TinyMCE : Button integration for easy adding the gallery tags
• Sidebar Widget : Show a slideshow, random or recent picture at your sidebar
• Language support : Translated in more than 30 languages
• Upload tab integration : You have access to all pictures via the upload tab
• Tag support for images : Append related images to your post, create a image tag-cloud
• Meta data support : Import EXIF, IPTC or XMP meta data
• Sort images feature
• Cool flash addons here : http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-flashviewer/

This is where to grab the plugin and read more about it:

• Demo: http://nextgen.boelinger.com/
• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/nextgen-gallery.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://alexrabe.boelinger.com/wordpress-plugins/nextgen-gallery/

3. Flickr Photo Album

This Flickr plugin for WordPress will allow you to pull in your Flickr photosets and display them as albums on your WordPress site. There is a pretty simple template provided which you can customize to 100% match the look and feel of your own site.

• Demo #1: Default Gallery Demo
• Demo #2: Popup Overlay Demo
• Admin Screencast: http://www.flickr.com/photos/miss604/2452244098/
• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/tantan-flickr.1.1.1.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit/photo-album/

4. SEO Friendly Images

One of my favorite Wordpress plugin-developers are Vladimir Prelovac (personal blog here) and once again he delivers a very usable plugin.

SEO Friendly Images is a Wordpress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Additionally this makes the post W3C/xHTML valid as well.

ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. It describes your image to search engine and when a user searches for a certain image this is a key determining factor for a match.

TITLE attribute play lesser role but is important for visitors as this text will automatically appear in the tooltip when mouse is over the image.

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/seo-image.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins/seo-friendly-images

5. Fotobook

Fotobook is a WordPress plugin that will link to your Facebook account(s) and import all of your photo albums for use in your WordPress installation. It uses the Facebook’s API so importing your photos is a breeze.

With this plugin you also get the option to pull images from different Facebook accounts which is perfect if you’re running a blog with multiple authors.

Features:

• Interfaces with Facebook’s API
• Displays photo albums on a WordPress page
• Import photos from mulitple Facebook accounts
• Sidebar widgets for displaying random or recent photos & albums
• Creates an album of photos that the user’s tagged in
• Insert individual photos into posts/pages
• Easy-to-use Ajax album management panel
• Frontend validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict
• Works with PHP5 & PHP4

This is where to find it:

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/fotobook.3.1.6.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://www.aaronharp.com/dev/wp-fotobook/

6. Flash Photo Gallery

Create a flash gallery to be used on your Wordpress blog without any hassle with this plugin.

Features:

• Compatible with Wordpress and Wordpress MU.
• Create and manage multiple Flash Photo Galleries.
• Customize galleries by specifying titles, colors, thumbnail size and a lot more options.
• Uses the wordpress built-in media uploader (media-upload.php) to add photos to.
• Multiple photo galleries can be added in any page or post using a simple short code.
• Uses SWFObject (http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/) for embedding swf

This is where to find it:

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/flash-photo-gallery.0.7.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://webdlabs.com/projects/flash-photo-gallery/ (with demo)

7. Page Flip Image Gallery

Do you need to show your photos to the best advantage and post them in a speedy manner, don’t you? You need to make a bright and memorable presentation, portfolio or image gallery?

This one is really creative, have a look.

• Demo: http://pageflipgallery.com/online-demo/
• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/page-flip-image-gallery.0.5.7.5.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://pageflipgallery.com/

8. Simple Post Thumbnails

With the Simple Post Thumbnails plugin, adding thumbnail images to your posts is as easy as uploading any image (no editing required) and clicking the “Update Post” button. Upon upload, the plugin will re-size and crop the selected image according to whatever parameters you specify within the plugin configuration. To view this process in action, check out the Simple Post Thumbnails screencast on the plugin homepage linked to below.

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/simple-post-thumbnails.1.5.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://www.press75.com/the-simple-post-thumbnails-wordpress-plugin/ (with demo)

9. Lightbox 2

One of the few plugins that really doesn’t need any presentation is Lightbox because I think you’ve all seen it in action once or twice before.

Lightbox 2 overlays the image on top of your site with a nifty little Javascript and makes your images really pop.

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/lightbox-2.2.8.2.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://stimuli.ca/lightbox/ (with demo)

10. Scissors

This plugin adds cropping, resizing, and rotating functionality to Wordpress’ image upload and management dialogs. Scissors also allows automatic resizing of images when they are uploaded and supports automatic and manual watermarking of images. Additionally, images that are resized in the post editor are automatically resampled to the requested size using bilinear filtering when a post is saved, which improves the perceived image quality while reducing the amount of data transferred at the same time.

• Direct Download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/scissors.1.2.2.zip
• Plugin Homepage: http://stephanreiter.info/2008/10/wordpress-plugin-scissors/

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They do have a mail-in rebate worth $20 valid until October 31st 2010, which would give you a price of no more than $79,99. That’s so worth it if you dont have a decent image editing software.

The full press-release of this new software can be found over at Imaginginsider, and Terry White wrote some about it aswell, together with a featured video you’ll find over at his blog. Go read it you haven’t already.

A hands on preview from cNet can be found here, where Lori Gunn talks about her experience with the program in a very good way. It seems like she has been trying a late Beta of the software though, as she is stating that:

I’m reserving judgment on performance, stability and quality of results (especially on Photoshop Elements’ tricky Recompose tool) until I have final versions of the software. Since it’s shipping now, that should be soon.

If you don’t want to order it directly from Adobe, but prefer to have it delivered from Amazon, you can pick it up from here. Over there you’ll find an extensive review and an overview of all the new features aswell. Go have a look.

Still not sure?

With the enhanced Organiser, Windows users of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 can easily manage media and find photo and video clips even faster than before. The new Auto-Analyser automatically analyses and tags media so users can quickly find the most interesting and highest quality content; and People Recognition identifies people in photos, becoming more intelligent over time, as it learns to associate names and faces. Also, consumers can now automatically synch all their media across multiple computers.

Photoshop Elements 8 brings editing capabilities and simplicity to a new level. With Adobe Photomerge Exposure, users can simply merge multiple shots of the same scene, with and without a flash, together to create a perfectly lit photo that shows every detail. Leveraging Photoshop CS4 technology, the new Recompose provides users with an easy way to automatically resize photos without distorting the most important parts. Additionally, Quick Fix previews allow users to visually choose the best colour, contrast and lighting adjustments from a series of previews. Once photo creations are ready to be shared, Photoshop Elements 8 offers new interactive Online Album templates that can showcase photos and videos together.

So for all of you out there that doesn’t have an editing software already, try the Trial version of this program found here. You’re going to love it!

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This is an image better seen large on black, right here.

Even though I’m not going to use this lens capturing bugs mainly there will certainly be some fo that aswell. I’m hoping to get a bit more creative both when it comes to product as in food photography.

The image above is a small bowl that’s about 2″ wide full of small vitaminpills. The image above isn’t cropped in post production so the detail on those small pills is amazing when you look at them up close.

I sliced up an orange and the closeups I got 1:1 on these were.. well.. quite interestnig. I didn’t feel lika having any orange after I watched the image anyway. But my daughter loved them. =)

When we got engaged I remembered I had a difficult time being able to capture the rings in a good way. I really couldn’t get up close enough, but as of now there is really no problem with that either. This shot was taken from quite some distance and if it would have been for a client, I wouldn’t have used a plain white paper as a background, that’s for sure. But for this demostration it turned out quite well.

After using my new Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG for no more than a day I must say that I’m impressed at what it delivers. Seriously, pick one up today.

I love the quality on this last image, taken with a SonyEricsson G502 which I use in work. Well, at least you’re able to see the setup at least. =)

Notice how I fire the strobes right up at the ceiling without any diffusors, at half power.

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1. Cookies on a plate

They give you the opportunity to print your own photographs on the back side of the business card and by that giving you a pocket sized portfolio that you can carry anywhere. Have a look at this quick promo video and it will all be clear.

Well, the Printfinity as they call it is really great and the there is really something spectacular in having the possibility to showcase your work for a possible client anywhere. You carry these cards with you anyway, so there’s really no extra work, right?

The best part about this is that you can try this out for free. They give you the possibility to order a Sample Pack of ten (10) Cards so that you can try it out for yourself. The only ‘downside’ with this is that these 10 cards will have the moo.com logo on them. No big deal actually, they are totally free. They even ship the cards for free, worldwide.

Another great feature is that you can have your cards printed on recycled paper an go really green, and if you really don’t want to showcase your own work on the cards, they have a gallery of premade designs you could choose from.

What I loved was that they gave me the possibility to use my images I had already uploaded to flickr, so I just had to drag and drop the images from my flickr account that I wanted to use for the business card backside.

Have a look at it, you won’t get disappointed and the free sample wont set you back a dime.

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