Sandy Puc

If you missed her Bellies and Babies seminar, you really missed out on a great learning opportunity from Sandy Puc of Expressions Photography in Colorado. But not to worry, because she's back in 2009 with her Tots 2 Teens seminar in which she'll cover all aspects of shooting (not literally, of course) 18 month olds up to young teens. Registration is only $79. Sandy is a great speaker and a great inspiration for any budding photographer. Read her story here.

Dodge and Burn Tutorial

Dodge & Burn - nope, it's not a kids playground game but rather a technique used in Photoshop to lighten and add dimension to your photos. Jodi at MCP Actions just posted a video tutorial for a "better way" to dodge and burn using Photoshop. Jodi always does a fantastic job with her blog and video tutorials. So, click here and go check it out!

5D Mark II

As if announcing that the 50D will be available in October, Canon has now announced that the 5D will have a big brother ... the 5D Mark II. This is an AWESOME camera! I've had my eye on the 5D as a "wish list" item, but this camera rocks. I found the info on MCP Action's blog with the press release from Canon that it will be available at the end of November. And don't worry, it's less than the cost of a used car ($2699)...

You can go to Jodi's post to read the press release, but here's the basics (which is anything but basic).

Key Specifications:

• New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
• New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
• High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
• Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
• 3.0” VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
• ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
• 9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points

Canon 5D Mark II

How to get natural smiles in children’s portraiture

This was a great post over at MCP Actions' blog. A guest photographer, Erin Bell, actually made this post. She specializes in children's photography.

**Click here to view post at MCP Actions**

Metering for Ambient Tutorial

Canon 50D

Just as I was about to look for the receipt for my XTi to send it in for potential service (just isn't taking the sharpest photos that I think it should), I came across this email from B&H announcing Canon's newest camera body: the Canon 50D. Here's an exert from B&H's summary...

Canon's newest entry into the fall season Olympics is the EOS 50D, which sports an impressive 15.1-megapixel APS-C format CMOS sensor that takes full advantage of Canon's new DIGIC 4 image processor.

The EOS 50D can knock out up to 90 Large/Fine JPEGS or 16 RAW images at burst-rates of up to 6.3 f/p/s. If you often find yourself shooting under low-light conditions, the new camera can be set for ISO ratings up to 12800, which means you can not only photograph people standing in near darkness, you can also photograph what they're thinking about. (Just joking folks… don't get alarmed)

To keep noise under control and maintain optimum image quality at higher ISO ratings the EOS 50D allows you to choose from four levels of noise reduction – Standard, Weak, Strong, and None. The camera's DIGIC 4 image processor also features in-camera peripheral illumination correction, which can automatically smooth-over uneven blue skies and other large areas within an image that can benefit from smoother tonality. This feature, along with other image enhancing tools such as Auto Lighting Optimizer can also be performed post-exposure using Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DDP) software, which is included with every camera.

Image viewing has also been improved via a greatly enhanced 3" LCD that employs 920,000 pixels for breathtaking clarity. Canon also tweaked the Live View function by incorporating a 'Quick Mode AF', 'Live Mode AF', and 'Face Detection Live Mode AF' that can detect up to 35 individual faces within the camera's frame.

Other features of the Canon EOS 50D include an Integrated Cleaning System for preventing dust and other forms of airborne schmutz from gathering on the sensor's low-pass filter and a choice of two smaller RAW formats (sRAW1 and sRAW2) in addition to the 50D's standard RAW mode.

The Canon EOS 50D will be available in October as a body only, or in kit form with a Canon EF 28-135/3.5~5.6 IS USM zoom lens, which covers the field of view of a 44.8-216mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera.

I checked B&H's website and found that they are listing it at $1,399 for just the body. Sighhhh, so many things I would like to buy.