virtualPhotographer by optikVerve Labs

I was browsing around on the interwebs recently looking for some good plug-ins for Photoshop CS3 when I stumbled upon a really great set of plug-ins from optikVerve labs. Their tool is called virtualPhotographer and it is a great plug-in that allows you to apply a variety of effects to your photographs with just a few clicks. Some of the filters include film grain, soft blur, night scope, b/w, etc. Here is a photo I took of my wife playing Rock Band. The original image is on the left. I applied the soft blur filter to the photo on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The set includes over 50 custom styles. The best part about these plug-ins? They are completely free and from what I can tell there are no strings attached. I have installed them on my Vista machine in Photoshop CS3 and I haven't had any issues. I can't say this for some of the other "free" plug-ins I've tried which have ended up crashing Photoshop on me.

You can download these great free plug-ins here:

del.icio.us Tags: Photoshop,Plug-ins,Software

Photography Podcasts

If you own an iPod, chances are that you know about Podcasts and probably have already subscribed to some of your favorites. There are several great photography podcasts out there and I thought I would share some of my personal favorites.

TWiP - This week in Photography is a relatively new podcast that started around January of this year. Produced by Pixelcorps and hosted by Scott Bourne and Alex Lindsay, this weekly podcast includes news, reviews, tips, techniques, and discussions on everything related to photography. TWiP also has a blog at www.twipphoto.com as well as a Flickr group where members can contribute photographs, participate in assignments, and post images to be critiqued and discussed.

Tips from the Top Floor - Hosted by Chris Marquardt, this short podcast offers tips and advice for novice photographers to pro photographers. Chris also appears as a regular on Leo Laporte's radio show "The Tech Guy" which is also available on iTunes in a weekly podcast format. Chris's website can be found at www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com

Photography 101 hosted by Scott Wittenberg, is a video podcast which covers a wide range of techniques and tips on cameras, composition, and exposure as well as step-by-step instructions on how to manipulate images in Photoshop.

These are just a few of the podcasts that I listen to a regular basis that are related to photography. I also subscribe to several blogs on photography and Photoshop which provide me with some great tips and advice as well as information on new software and hardware. In a future blog post I'll write about some of my favorite photography blogs.

David Foster Foundation

I was honoured to be selected as the official photographer for the David Foster Foundation gala event which will be held in Edmonton this September. The David Foster Foundation was started by David in 1986 to help families and their children in need of major organ transplants. Many of these families lives are turned completely upside down when they find out that their child needs a major organ transplant. According to their website, the David Foster Foundation is dedicated to two primary goals:

To provide financial assistance for non-medical expenses, which are not otherwise covered by governmental agencies, to families in Canada with children who are in need of major organ transplants, and to raise public awareness regarding organ donation.

To promote the event, David visited Edmonton on Friday, February 29th for a media event to launch this year's gala which will be held at the Winspear on September 13th. More details about the foundation and the event can be found by visiting the following websites:

• http://www.davidfosterfoundation.org/index.html
• http://www.davidfosteredmonton.ca/?q=node/1

Following the media event, I accompanied David over to the Stollery Children's Hospital at the University of Alberta. David and his girlfriend Yolanda spent about an hour at the hospital visiting with children who had received or were waiting for major organ transplants. The photos from that event will be published on the David Foster Foundation website in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is just a sample of one of the images that I took during the visit: