Blogcritics

Product Review: ExpoDisc: Professional Digital White Balance - From ExpoImaging

T. Michael Testi — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:28:48 EDT

The ExpoDisc was very easy to use and provided excellent results.
Have you ever tried to get good white balance from your camera, but the consistency was never good? I am sure that you tried some of those preset balance settings, but they did not always work as well as you expected them to. This is where the ExpoDisc comes in. Sure you can always use a light meter to get your correct readings. Once you have...

Video Training Review: The Fine Art Of Photoshop With Susi Lawson

T. Michael Testi — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:09:43 EDT

The Fine Art Of Photoshop will have you producing digital works of art in no time.
When seen in the light of the photography and art work of Susi Lawson, most everything else comes across as mundane and ordinary. Her work is fresh, invigorating, as well as instantly recognizable. Much in the way that you can tell a Norman Rockwell work of art as soon as you see it, you can recognize a Susi Lawson work of art as well. There is...

Product Review - Ray Flash: The Ring Flash Adapter from ExpoImaging

T. Michael Testi — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:27:47 EDT

If you are looking for a lightweight, easy-to-use ring flash, then you really need to check out Ray Flash.
The new Ray Flash from ExpoImaging is a unique adapter for your hot-shoe flash unit that is designed to replicate the lighting effect that produced by traditional and much more expensive studio ring flash units. The Ray Flash was built to be lightweight and to be powered by your existing hot-shoe unit, it contains no heavy electronics.What is a...

Book Review: The Art Of Black And White Photography - Techniques for Creating Superb Images in a Digital Workflow By Torsten Andreas Hoffmann

T. Michael Testi — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:47:38 EDT

The Art of Black and White Photography will give you new skills with working with black and white photographs.
After digital photography broke on to the scenes, it evolved at such a fast speed that it has literally replaced film photography as the default standard for imaging in less than a decade. The changeover created its fair share of difficulties as well as growing pains, but as technology evolves, so do the processes. But digital photography goes...

Book Review: Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Second Edition By Uwe Steinm�ller And J�rgen Gulbins

T. Michael Testi — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 15:36:44 EDT

This continues to be the best overall book on fine art printing.
As with the prior edition of Fine Art Printing for Photographers, this second edition is filled with the same useful and wonderfully clear descriptions about what is needed to create exhibition quality prints using inkjet printers. It continues to provide the necessary information and techniques to make the most of this rapidly growing area of...

Video Training Review: Drawing Fundamentals With Ron Lemen

T. Michael Testi — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 06:36:45 EDT

Drawing Fundamentals brings the basics of drawing home.
In Drawing Fundamentals with Ron Lemen, you will learn about the fundamentals of drawing and shading and their use in dry, wet, and digital media. Your instructor is Ron Lemen, an award-winning designer with a career focused on extreme sports. He has worked for a variety of skateboarding and snowboarding firms and industry publications. He has...

Video Training Review: Premier Pro CS3 Essential Training With Chad Perkins

T. Michael Testi — Wed, 2 Jul 2008 04:25:22 EDT

If you are interested in learning more about Premier Pro CS3, or more about video editing in general then I highly recommend this video.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 is a real-time, timeline-based video editing software application. It has gained acceptance within the film and video industry and has been used in part in such films as Dust to Glory by Dana Brown and Superman Returns for the video capture process and so, as the name implies, it is a professional-level editing package.In...

Book Review: How To Wow - Photoshop CS3 For Photographers By Jack Davis

T. Michael Testi — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:49:00 EDT

How To Wow: Photoshop CS3 For Photographers will show you how to take your images from ordinary to WOW.
With Photoshop, you have at your fingertips a tool of great power. And with that power comes the ability to create great experiences if you take the time and learn how. The goal of How To Wow: Photoshop CS3 For Photographers is to give you the techniques, tips, insights, and essential principles that will help you achieve the highest quality...

Software Review: Adobe Photoshop Plug-In FocalPoint From onOne Software

T. Michael Testi — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:31:09 EDT

If you have images that you want to have that selective focus feel, but cannot go back and re-shoot, then you need FocalPoint 1.0.
Have you ever wondered how professional photographers make their subjects stand out from the background? You may see an insect on a flower that is in focus and everything else is blurred. This is a standard trick used by the pros that is called selective focus. One method of doing this is to control depth of field in the camera by using a large...

Software Review: Strata Foto 3D 1.5

T. Michael Testi — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:28:35 EDT

This will be of great benefit to anyone who needs to put fully textured, photo realistic objects into any number of virtual environments.
Strata Foto 3D 1.5 is the part of the Strata 3D product line that lets users load a series of masked pictures into the Foto 3D interface and generate a real-time 3D object. This object can then be exported VRML, to 3DS, to a layer in Photoshop CS3 Extended, or used in one of Strata's other 3D products. The goal of Foto 3D is to allow a 3D model...