With Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski, as its hosts, D-Town TV is a fresh approach to teaching camera tips and photographic techniques to today’s digital photographers. No matter what skill level or interest, each episode covers a wide range of topics.

About Scott Kelby:

Scott Kelby was just named the #1 best-selling computer book author for the 5th year in a row.

Scott is also the President of NAPP, the publisher of Photoshop User and Layers magazine, and chief “Photoshop Guy” on the popular podcast, PhotoshopUser TV. He also writes the wildly popular blog, Photoshop Insider, and is the creator of Photoshop World – the world’s only Photoshop and digital photography conference and expo. Furthermore, Scott also heads up Kelby Training, which teaches Photoshop and digital photography techniques to millions every day via online classes and live seminars…

About Matt Kloskowski:

Matt’s business card says, “Photoshop Guy” because best-selling author, Photoshop instructor (for conferences, seminars, workshops, online training, DVDs, etc.), photographer, co-host of PhotoshopUser TV, blogger and podcaster for Photoshop Killer Tips and Lightroom Killer Tips (the web’s #1 Lightroom resource), Photoshop User magazine contributor, and Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) doesn’t fit.

In an affidavit to the court Marc Weinsweig, appointed as Chief Restructuring Office and COO as part of the Chapter 11 process, describes his actions as be aimed at ‘maintaining the day-to-day operations of the company’s business with minimal disruption’ in what he characterizes as ‘daunting economic times.’

Court papers suggest that Ritz Cameras owes over $40 million to its two largest creditors: Nikon Inc. and Canon USA, with a further $8.4 million owed to Fujifilm USA, a subsidiary of which owns around a third of the company. To put the $26.6 million owed to Nikon Inc. into perspective, it would represent somewhere in the region of 20% of Nikon Inc’s expected annual operating income.

Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code provides companies with protection from their creditors while they attempt to restructure. However, US retailer Circuit City, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2008 announced the closure of all its stores and the liquidation of its assets on January 16th.

Reason 1 – sensor quality

Due to the larger size of image sensors in DSLRs, pixels have larger area on sensors compared to digital compact cameras, which leads to a better sensitivity. DSLRs generally give better pictures that Point and Shoot cameras at larger ISOs, i.e. shooting at 1600 ISO on most DSLRs will give less noise than shooting at 1600 on a Point and Shoot.

Also DSLRs usually have larger range of ISO speed settings (in some models up to 6400 ISO) that leads to ability to shoot in low-light conditions.

Reason 2 – optics quality

DSLR’s feature of interchanging lenses opens up to photographers a whole world of possibilities. While my compact digital camera has a nice little 3x Optical Zoom (and many today have greater ones), my DSLR can be fitted with many high quality lenses ranging from wide angle to super long focal lengths depending upon what I’m going to shoot.

DSLR lenses are larger than digital compact cameras have, and many of them have many hours of time put into their manufacturing (especially when you get into high end lenses), but even cheap lenses give you more quality in pictures than most Point and Shoot cameras lenses do. I’d strongly advise DSLR owners to buy the best quality lenses that they could afford.

Reason 3 – more creativity through manual control and depth of field

While many point and shoots come with the ability to shoot in manual mode, DSLRs are designed in such a way that it is assumed that the photographer will want to use their own settings. While they do come with very good auto modes, the manual controls are generally built in such way, that it is very easy and natural to use them.

One of the things I love about my DSLR is the versatility that it gives me in many areas, especially depth of field. I guess this is really an extension of its manual controls and ability to use a variety of lenses, but a DSLR can give you depth of field that puts everything from foreground to background in focus through to nice blurry backgrounds.

Reason 4 – operation speed

DSLRs are generally pretty fast pieces of electronics when it comes to things like start up, focusing and shutter lag. You should not miss a great shot because, for example startup of shutter lag takes a millennium.

Reason 5 – retaining value

DSLR models do not get updated quite as often as point and shoot models (which can be updated twice a year at times). The other factor in favor of DSLRs is that the lenses you buy for them are compatible with other camera bodies if you do choose to upgrade later on (as long as you stay with your brand, or lens mount). This means your investment in lenses will not waste over the years.

• The + (plus) and - (minus) keys will zoom in or out around the center of the window.The ← and → keys will move you left or right to a neighboring photo, while u or j will move you up or down.
• You can use the spacebar to go to the next photo in the tour, or Shift-spacebar to go to the previous photo.  It can also be pretty revealing to go through the photos in alphabetical order by filename – which is usually the order in which the photos were shot.  Use the period (.) to go to the next photo in alphabetical order, and the comma (,) to go to the previous one.
• Small z will go to the last image you were on, much like using the back button in a Web browser, while capital Z is like using the forward button.

Links

• Photosynth Tutorial Part 1
• Photosynth Tutorial Part 2

Creating the best synth starts with the right photos. This small tutorial will help you understand how to take photos that Photosynth can use to best advantage. Reading it could save you from taking a few hundred pictures only to find out later that Photosynth won‘t put them together the way you imagined.

• Start small. Pick a simple subject first, such as a piece of furniture or a single painting. You should be able to make a great 10-photo synth in just a few minutes if you follow the tips below. Then move on to something more ambitious.
• “The Rule of 3″. Each part of the scene you‘re shooting should appear in at least three separate
  photos taken from different locations. This rule means that you are going to shoot a lot more photos for a synth than you would for any other purpose.
• Panorama first, then move around. Start by taking a panorama of your scene, then move around and take more photos from different angles and positions. If you just do a panorama you won‘t end up with a good 3-D experience.
• Lots of overlap when shooting panoramas. You should try for 50% overlap on average between photos.
• Limit the angles between photos. When moving around objects, try to get one photo every 25 degrees or so. That will make the synth work better. Larger angle differences on a subject won‘t match up.
• Shoot scenes with lots of detail and texture. The visual texture in the photos is what ties them together. A blank wall won‘t synth. One with lots of art or posters will work well.
• Don’t crop images. It confuses Photosynth.
• Shoot wide shots. Photos taken from farther away, or with your camera‘s lens zoomed all the way out, reconstruct more reliably than closer shots. It‘s good to have close-ups, too, but you‘ll want to
  have good coverage of your subject with lots of nice overlapping wide shots.
• Orientation. Make sure your photos are all right-side-up before you start synthing

I hope this will help you a bit.

Links

• Photosynth Tutorial Part 1
• Photosynth Tutorial Part 2