Smalltown rodeos are great for photography. Because they are smaller, you can get closer to the action more easily than at a larger rodeo. I went to a rodeo on a late August Sunday afternoon in St-Albert, a short drive outside Ottawa Ontario. This event was scheduled through the Rawhide Rodeo Company and was part of the St-Albert Curd Festival.

Although the shooting conditions looked less than ideal because it was a bit rainy.  The overcast sky actually provided good even lighting as opposed to the harsh/contrasty lighting conditions of a sunny day. Less light however means shooting at higher ISOs than on a sunny day. All photos were shot with a Canon 40D with a 100-300 5.6L lens. Most photos were shot at ISOs ranging between 400-800 in order to be able to shoot at acceptable shutter speeds for this slow lens. In order to help with stability, I used a monopod.  The monopod helps to get better panned shots as some of the included shots

In order to protect the camera and lens I made myself a protective cover using a large Ziploc bag and an elastic band. This worked well because the rain was quite light. As with any rain cover however, it works better when your lens is an internally focusing lens. In this case, the lens was not an internally focusing lens, so focusing caused the plastic bag to twist with focus which can prevent achieving the right focus…

One of the problems with shooting this type of event is getting a good backgroud. Using a fast shutter speed and freezing the action would mostly yield photos with a subject having very little definition with respect with the background.  The subject would blend in with the background.   In order to prevent having clear views of spectators as a background, I like to use a panning technique to get a relatively clear image with a blurred background.

Here are some examples.  The first three photos were shot using parallel panning where you follow the subject’s motion while using a slower shutter speed.  Because of the relatively fast speed of the running horses, a slow shutter speed in this case means 1/125 sec.

For more information on panning techniques refer to my article on ‘Slow shutter panning bike race photos‘

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I had the chance to spend a few days in PEI last weekend and took the opportunity to take a few photos. I was traveling light so I only brought my Canon PowerShot S90 point and shoot camera.

A few words on the PowerShot S90; I really like this little camera. While many photographers rave about the Canon Gxx series of cameras, I find that they are compact but not truly pocket cameras as the S90 is.

Here are some of the nice features of the Canon PowerShot S90:

Same over-sized low light sensitivity 10.0 Megapixel sensor coupled with Digic 4 image processor as the Canon G11!

Raw file support which is rare for such a small compact camera.

f/2.0-4.9 28-105mm equivalent Image Stabilized lens

Programmable Control ring which allows quick control of programmed feature which can allow you to control one of Aperture, ISO, Exposure Compensation, White Balance, Manual Focus, Lens zoom step

Advanced features such as: AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing), FEB (Flash Exposure Bracketing), Exposure Compensation, Flash Exposure Compensation,P + Tv + Av + M modes,

3.94 x 2.30 x 1.22 inches (100.0 x 58.4 x 30.9mm), Approx. 6.17 oz (175g) camera body only

Being a small compact camera it is expectedly not fast enough to shoot action, flash is not powerful, etc.

The only feature that I am disappointed with is the macro focusing abilities which keeps hunting for focus.

Overall I would highly recommend this camera for someone wanting a true pocket camera with advanced features. It won’t give you the photo quality of a DSLR, but because you can carry it in your pocket at all times, it will allow you to get some shots you would otherwise miss! This is the ideal bring everywhere pocket camera for times you are not bringing along your camera bag with DSLR and lenses with you.

Here are a few sample pictures taken with the PowerShot S90 and some Photoshop/ACR processing descriptions. Unless indicated otherwise all photos captured at ISO 80:
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NAPP is the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Become a member and you get access to Video Tutorials, Tips & Tricks to expand your Photoshop knowledge. You also get a yearly subscription to Photoshop User Magazine, published 8 times a year, which is packed with essential information related to Photoshop. Your membership also allows you to get discounts on a wide selection of Books, DVDs, Hardware, Software, Training and more.
These are just a few of the advantages of joining NAPP, to join or learn more visit www.photoshopuser.com Register now and get a 15% discount on Adobe products!  Just in time to save on a Photoshop CS5 upgrade.

Photoshop CS5 has officially been released today – April 12, 2010. It wasn’t a big secret, bits and pieces of the new features were available all over the web since the pre-announcement during the Orlando PhotoshopWorld in March.

According to many, this is one of the most significant Photoshop releases in terms of new and enhanced features in years.

Here is a list of new/enhanced features of interest to photographers compared Photoshop CS4.   All listed features are based on Photoshop CS5 (does not include Photoshop CS5 Extended features)

New in Photoshop CS5

• Additive grain in Adobe Camera Raw (Who knew we needed to add grain to our photos!  Give your photos the film look)
• Automatic lens correction (Will automatically make corrections based on some pre-defined Camera/Lens combinations that is extracted from your photo’s MetaData.)
• Straighten Image tool
• Truer Edge selection technology (You won’t have to pull your hair anymore when making selection that includes hair, fur or other fine details)
• Color decontamination for selections (Part of new selection tool, will de-fringe colors that can show up at the edges of objects once removed from their background)
• Selection and mask refinement tools
• Content-Aware Fill/Healing (Deleted foreground elements in a photo automatically filled based on background.  With the right type of photo can be a huge time saver.  Healing brush also has content-aware options which looks like a great improvement for healing around well defined edges)
• Puppet Warp (Allows movement of parts of a photo without having to worry about the background. Kind of allows a precise warp without distortions.)
• New Adobe Camera Raw processing engine.  (Get better results when converting your old Raw files.  Icon indicates when image can be re-processed with new 2010 engine)

Enhanced in Photoshop CS5

• Noise removal in Adobe Camera Raw (Looks like a major improvement in noise reduction.  Scott Kelby calls this enhancement, one of the biggest stars in CS5! )
• HDR imaging (No need for Photomatix Pro anymore!  Can I get my money back?  Also included is a single image HDR Toning feature.  No need for Topaz Adjust either!)
• B&W conversion
• Post-crop vignetting (Added options to protect Highlights or Color, and better overall control)

References:
As always, to get great information on Photoshop, head over to the NAPP website. They have 17 videos at their free CS5 Learning Center
www.photoshopuser.com/cs5

Get a list of What’s new in Photoshop CS5 for photographers at Adobe.com

Feature comparison chart between Photoshop CS3, CS4 and CS5 at Adobe.com

Videos from AdobeTV on Photoshop CS5

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I was out at a maple sugar farm last weekend and took a few pictures. Here are side by side comparisons before and after photos.
The photos were processed in Photoshop with the Topaz Adjust 4 plugin.
In both cases the Topaz Adjust filters were applied with Color blending options to fine tune and tone down the effects. Some curves adjustments were also used in processing the photos.

The Topaz Adjust filters will make for very saturated colors and they are often used in a final post-processing step for HDR images.

Factoid: It takes 40 liters of maple sap to make 1 liter of maple syrop!

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Did you know? Yes, Photoshop celebrated it’s 20th anniversary in 2010!

The software that helped revolutionize digital photography, and which no creative photographer can live without these days, is 20.

There was a 20th Anniversary celebration hosted by the guys at NAPP on Feb. 19 2010.
You can view the entire show HERE (120 min).

Or you can look at the best part of the celebration. A very entertaining presentation by Adobe’s Russell Brown which goes through the first 20 years of Photoshop, in a very creative video (20 min).

Russell Brown is Senior Creative Director at Adobe Systems. You can visit his website www.russellbrown.com

You can also see the Photoshop features timeline at Adobe’s own www.photoshop20anniversary.com.

Quote from: www.photoshop20anniversary.com

In the late 1980s, Thomas Knoll and John Knoll developed a pixel-imaging program — first called Display, then Image Pro, and finally Photoshop. They made a well-received presentation to Russell Brown at Adobe and then licensed Photoshop to Adobe in 1988. The rest is history.

Have a look at the The Evolution of the Photoshop Splash Screens page at photoshopnews.com

Get more than 100 free ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) and Adobe Lightroom presets from Jack Davis. Follow this link to OnOne Software. You can also visit Jack Davis’ Adventures In Photoshop website for other links.
Jack Davis is the 2003 winner of the NAPP Photoshop Hall Of Fame award.

Advantages of using RAW format instead of jpg for capturing images with your digital SLR. Presentation given to Orleans Photo Club – October 2008
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New features and resources for Adobe Photoshop CS4
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NAPP is the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Become a member and you get access to Video Tutorials, Tips & Tricks to expand your Photoshop knowledge. You also get a yearly subscription to Photoshop User Magazine, published 8 times a year, which is packed with essential information related to Photoshop. Your membership also allows you to get discounts on a wide selection of Books, DVDs, Hardware, Software, Training and more.
These are just a few of the advantages of joining NAPP, to join or learn more visit www.photoshopuser.com