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Holiday Gift Ideas for the Photographers on Your List
By Paul W. Faust | Products |
Nov 10, 2008
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It's almost that time of year again when we start making those holiday gift lists, so why not get started here? There are nine great photo and digital items listed here that any photographer would love to get, and in case you are that photographer, then you could always add one of them to someone else’s list when they are not looking. After all, that’s not really cheating. You’re just helping them out (or at least that’s what you can say if you get caught).
Woolrich Men’s Guide Vest is a very nice item for the outdoor guy in your life. If he needs to carry a lot of large and small items in the field, this vest will do it for him. It is designed for hiking, fishing, bird watching, and of course, photographers. I counted 13 pockets in the front, 2 inside, and even one in the back. (I must have missed a few because their ad says that it has 18 pockets.) The vest is 100% cotton and the mesh liner wicks away moisture. It is light and comfortable, and unlike many on the market, this one looks great.
This guide vest retails for just $89-US and can be ordered from http://www.woolrich.com
The Lowepro Slingshot 350 AW camera bag is far beyond your ordinary camera case. It is a shoulder sling bag designed for easy access to all of your gear, but for size and carrying capability, you would think that it was a full backpack. The 350 is a pro size and quality bag that will hold one SLR camera with a long lens attached, and it has pockets in the main compartment for six more lenses, and a seventh pocket for a flash unit, all with individual padded dividers. Its smaller pockets will hold memory cards, batteries, filters, cleaning items, and more. The bag also comes with a weather cover stored away in its own pocket, and since this bag is on the large side, it also has a padded waist belt. Just behind the camera section is yet another pocket large enough to hold a 15” notebook. This would make one great holiday gift for your favorite photographer!
The Slingshot 350 AW retails for $179.99-US and can be ordered from www.lowepro.com
Kensington Technology has created several items that have made my workstation a pleasure to use, such as their Expert Mouse Trackball, which I can't do without. Use one and you will never even want to see another regular mouse again. This model has four buttons that can be customized for their own keystroke commands, plus you can set it up so that, by pressing two buttons at the same time, you get yet another keystroke command. With just one click there at my fingertips I have mine set up to: Click, Save, Undo, Select All, Double Click, Find and Copy—all without having to find certain keys, or a menu window with those commands. This model also comes with a scroll ring. A circular ring around the track ball spins to allow you to scroll up and down, also right at your fingertips. Try that with your regular mouse! The unit even comes with a wrist rest pad to make using it more comfortable. This item is one great time-saver!
The Expert Mouse Trackball is made by Kensington Tech. and retails for just $99.99 so check it out at www.kensington.com
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is the perfect workflow program for digital photographers. This is the newest version of Lightroom, and without a doubt, the best program of its kind you will find. You could even call it a supercharged version of Adobe Bridge. Lightroom is the fourth workflow program that I have tested, and it is definitely one that I would consider purchasing. Lightroom will correct white balance in your images, and will also correct for black point, clipping, color temperature and cast, fill light, and much more. All of the corrections that you make on one image can also be used to “batch” correct entire groups of additional images. Lightroom was designed to work “with” Photoshop, not in place of it. You can consider it this way—Photoshop is best utilized to make major changes to single images, while Lightroom was designed to make normal changes to many images. This is one product that you should buy for yourself first, and then maybe for someone else who could use it.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 retails for $299-US and can be ordered at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
Fluid Mask 3 from Vertus Tech is one super time-saver that will also give you about the best image masks that you could ever want. That’s probably why it is the professionals’ choice. Fluid Mask will make the finest of selections to even mask down to human hair. It does all of this with new sampling tools that are easy to learn, and if for some reason you still have a hard time catching on, Vertus has “live” online training class 5 days a week, as well as advanced classes 2 days a week, and it’s all FREE. The only thing you must do is sign up for the classes, because they are interactive with a teacher you actually talk to.
Fluid Mask retails for $239-US and can be ordered at http://www.vertustech.com/fm_overview.htm Be sure to check it out at this link to really see what all this program can do. You will be glad you did!
Sharpener Pro 3 is from NIK Software. The Nik web site states, “Sharpener Pro 3.0 is the most advanced and powerful sharpening solution eliminating the guesswork typically required for achieving superior and consistent results.” I found after a few of my own simple tests that I would agree with that statement 100%. After you make all of the corrections and changes to your image, the final necessary step is to sharpen the image just before you print it. Sharpener 3 uses NIKs’ U-Point technology, which allows you to sharpen, or soften, selected areas of an image for professional results every time. There is no longer a need to make different adjustments to separate layers in order to get a complete result. With Sharpener 3, everyone can get their images to look like the ones you see in the top photo magazines that look like they were photographed with a view camera.
Sharpener 3 retails for $199.95-US and can be ordered from www.niksoftware.com
XEN2FEX from Alien Skin is a package of 14 Photoshop special effects filters that will give you endless hours of creative images. You can add Burnt Edges or Lightning to an image, turn any shot into a Puzzle, add Cracks for an antique look, or—believe it or not—you can use one of the filters to fill an empty sky with Fluffy Clouds. The possibilities are endless with this great product that is as easy to use as making a few settings in a real-time preview window. Check out the Alien Skin “example” page to see all of the possibilities.
XEN2FEX retails for $129-US and can be ordered from http://www.alienskin.com/xenofex/index.aspx
Sketch from AKVIS is a Photoshop plug-in that converts photos into pencil sketches and watercolor drawings. The 3 sketch effects include watercolor, charcoal, and coloration, and within those effects you can adjust the stroke, size, length, and even the texture of the surface that you want to show it on, all done in one preview window using simple sliders. Use this on family photos and they will never know that you didn’t actually draw the picture. I cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, but with Sketch, I could pass for a trained graphic artist, and so can you.
Sketch retails for only $72-US and can be ordered at http://akvis.com/en/sketch/
LightZone from Light Crafts is one of the best image-editing programs I have seen in a long time. You can correct images in an easy and natural way, unlike the way you may be accustomed to. LightZone is 100% non-destructible and every operation is a “smart” operation. Some of the 16 instant styles include, HDR–High Dynamic Range, B&W Toning, HDR Sunsets, and Palladium Look, and a few of the 13 tools are, Relight, ZoneMapper, Noise Reduction, and White Balance. You can do very detailed editing because working areas are linked to individual tools as you work on them. The Before and After sample images on their site will amaze you, especially when you see how easy they are to do.
LightZone retails for $199.95-US and can be ordered at www.lightcrafts.com/products
Have a Happy holiday season!
View Paul W. Faust's images at http://impressions_of_light.photoworkshop.com/
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Last Updated: Mar 20th, 2010 - 13:51:17
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