I have so many online portfolios I do not even know where my stuff is anymore and I have to say this is a bad thing. How do you balance time allotment vs. shooting? Is it more important to shoot or market yourself?

Where does this insanity end?

So for the quick list I know I have some kind of portfolio at the following places:

Definitely the longest one I have had is OneModelplace.com - Not free thou
Modelmayhem.com  - Free and liked by many photographers

Then I have to worry about my site and then my soon to open members site:

www.blackdiamondproductions.net
www.blackdiamondmodels.com
www.girlsofblackdiamond.com

I think I need a lot more people working for me than just me…… and that’s just to keep this stuff straight on a day to day basis.

How do you cope? Let me know!

I have see the PDF thing down many times…. How do you want to get your photos?

Sample: This is a ,pdf Sample

We will be offering multiple formats but I am more interested in what people want to download vs. what I think you should be downloading.

I think I finally found one that is pretty good… more intended for
the intermediate to advanced shooter - but they hit on all sorts of
items:

In the latest episode they talk about RAW - and the commentary by
Mikkel Aaland, author of Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the
Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge, I found
pretty useful…

Might be worth a read or if you like podcasts - its worth a listen…

http://twipphoto.com/index.php/archives/229#more-229

I would love to hear some discussion about RAW workflow here since
the release of Lightroom and now the latest beta of Lightroom 2.0 -
if people are using it etc…

http://twipphoto.com/archives/841

Nikon recently started shipping the D700. This is a direct competitor to Canon’s 5D. But how does it stack up against its older brother, the D3?
Having had the D3 for a few weeks I was very familiar with its capabilities and looked forward to the D700. I wasn’t disappointed.

We shall see…..

http://frederickvan.com/blog/2008/07/28/introducing-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-2/

I need to ask what happens to current Beta users and those who did help develop the product, are we out of luck will it continue to work?

Special Deal to Beta users and contributors?

I guess we will find out….

Excerpt of the release below….

Pricing is in the Adobe store:

299.99 Full - 99.00 Upgrade

Major Software Upgrade Further Simplifies Photography Workflows

Full Press release here - Click

SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 29, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

“A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. “We’ve considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate

The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/ .

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology

New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com ) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.

The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.

“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). “Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Finally – TWIP Steps up and solves some basic issues – Mainly the issue that no one deals with the basics anymore, they all assume everyone knows what all their equipment does right out of the box and knows how to set it all up….

Scott over at TWIP did a very good primer on basic studio lighting and basic setup…

http://twipphoto.com/index.php/archives/431

It is well worth a watch for the beginner to studio lighting……

He makes it easy to understand and also covers the basics that many just toss aside…..

Thanks goes to Scott and the folks at www.twipphoto.com for finally putting together a photo podcast that truly does not suck…

That all said it’s not what I am using currently but we can compare and contrast in later posts…

Here is a snip of the article - click the link at the bottom to get the full story and see the online deal they arranged….

It’s simply one of the most important subjects we can talk about. Backup. While photographers often think nothing of spending thousands of dollars on a lens, they’re typically tighter than the bark on a tree when it comes to spending money for backup.

While money is an issue, the other big problem has been ease-of-use. Most backup systems are hard to master or simply don’t work. Photographers often use this as an excuse not to back up their libraries.

That’s got to stop. And here to help is the Drobo, from Data Robotics

FULL STORY - CLICK HERE

May 26, 2008

New Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Soundbooth Betas Released on Labs

Beta releases of the next versions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Soundbooth are now available for download on Adobe Labs. Anyone can download and try the software for at least two days after installation while existing customers of Dreamweaver CS3 and Fireworks CS3 can request a serial number to activate the respective beta for the duration of the prerelease period. For those interested in the Soundbooth beta, we are allowing any customer with any CS3 product serial number (including but limited to Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.) request and receive a beta serial number and activate the Soundbooth beta.

For more information regarding each release, follow these links:

* Dreamweaver beta
* Fireworks beta
* Soundbooth beta