Articles from Jaron Schneider

Though we all are pretty familiar with how Photoshop has helped make us better photographers and digital artists, what we don't often think about is how the program has affected non-artistic segments of society. Today, in honor of National Police Week, Adobe has decided to show how law enforcement uses Adobe Photoshop to help combat crime. It's the kind of thing we all have seen on the television series CSI for years, but never really believed was real.

Instead of hiring a photographer to shoot original images, Samsung has recently been caught in the act of "artfully" (read: shamelessly) replacing an iPhone with a Galaxy S4 in an advertising campaign. It's not that they can't do this kind of thing as it's not illegal, but more the fact that they did it at all, and that it was over an original image featuring their main competitor. Really Samsung?

Think Tank fans, rejoice! The Santa Rosa, CA-based bag manufacturer has just announced the Logistics Manager 30, a high capacity roller bag with a lage, roomy internal dimensions of 13.75”W x 27.5”H x 8.25 – 10”D (35 x 70 x 21 – 25.5cm) that will allow it to hold multiple combinations of cameras and lenses, lighting gear such as strobes and reflectors and accessories of all kinds.

Monopods, once really only useful in a handful of situations, have evolved into irreplaceable members of our creative arsenals due to the advent of high quality video being produced in DSLRs. The idea of a “video monopod” might frighten video purists, but there are those such as Patrick Hall and myself who swear by them. Manfrotto’s version was a fantastic foray into the medium, but slightly pricey. Benro recently released their more affordable versions, and I was more than ready to see if they were able to hold their own.

UPDATED 05/14/13 9:50 AM PT: I have received word from a source that the reason these original totems were made were effectively replacements for the box imagery that Adobe will no longer be producing since... well... there are no more boxes. If you recall, CS6 had a lot of imagery surrounding faces (just look at the cover of Adobe Photoshop CS6). Moving to Adobe CC, the team wanted to try a different angle that was more expressive, abstract and fun.

Canon has announced their answer to Nikon's 200-400mm with their new 200-400mm f/4 L USM. It boasts a built-in 1.4x extender which, with the flip of a switch, extends the lens to a 280-560mm f/5.6. Measuring in at 5.0 x 14.4 inches and 127.7 oz, the specs on this beast look amazing, but the price tag is a little surprising. It's expected to retail for $11,800, nearly twice what Nikon's is selling for.

Of course many of us want to always nail a shot in camera, but sometimes things happen. Maybe it looked great on your camera's LCD, but entirely different once you got it on your computer. Maybe your sensor is too small and shallow DOF is hard to nail. It's for these cases that Aaron Nace at PHLEARN does tutorials like this one, where he shows how to adjust depth of field in post.

This is one of those projects that is almost beyond words. Astronaut Chris Hadfield shot this music video to express his feelings of leaving the International Space Station, and it's basically the coolest possible way to go out. If you haven't yet seen this (which you probably have but heck, it's so amazing I just had to share), quit reading and hit the play button. Your life needs this music video.

Olympus is following up their hugely successful PEN line with an all new member: the PEN E-P5, a digital update of a classic film camera designed new tech and performance advancements. Designed for photographers looking for superior image quality in a portable body, the PEN E-P5 delivers a unique shooting experience for photographers looking to keep things compact, including offering a shutter speed of 1/8000th of a second, a first for the compact camera market.

We learned a lot about Adobe at Adobe MAX earlier this week. We learned that they are moving to a cloud-based system that will remove support for perpetual licenses. We learned about new features that are really something special. And we also learned just a little bit about Project Mighty and Project Napoleon, Adobe's push into hardware through a pen and ruler that link to the digital world.

Sometimes you want a portrait that just screams drama and emotion. Sometimes that emotion might be joy, other times you may want to portray a sort of dark, brooding atmosphere. In this tutorial by PHLEARN, Aaron Nace walks you through a method he chose to turn a daytime portrait into something much darker.

Ok, so we've covered why you should love the Creative Cloud: it gives you access to everything Adobe everywhere you go. It gives you all the outstanding programs at your fingertips. It is taking connectivity to a whole new level for creative collaboration. Updates are instantaneous. But all that aside, it's a stifling, expensive system that might be forcing you into something you don't want.

Adobe Creative Cloud, in lieu of Adobe Creative Suite 7, has some great new features but also some hotly contested issues including the loss of disc support and move to a monthly payment feature for all future software. Mike Kelley, Rebecca Britt and I (Jaron Schneider) discuss what this means for creatives and why it may not be the big deal some are trying to make it out to be.

When we first discussed Adobe’s acquisition of Behance earlier this year, there was speculation that the purpose was to add social to the Creative Cloud. Adobe has proved that speculation correct, as Behance plays a pivotal role in Adobe’s new CC-branded software with live feeds to your Behance buddies.

Adobe Photoshop’s new feature “Camera Shake Reduction” has been has been carrying a ton of hype, likely due to the publicity Adobe has been putting behind it since last year (and more recently just a couple weeks ago). However, what it actually is and how it works is somewhat misunderstood. Many were prepared to hate the program, thinking it a panacea for all bad, blurry images. It’s not the all-healing-blur-fixing-magic-of-the-gods some of you might think it is, but it’s still really flipping amazing.

Adobe has announced that in lieu of continuing with the "Creative Suite" naming convention, they have instead changed the outlook of the popular suite of creative software to "Creative Cloud," a move that should not surprise those of you who have followed Adobe over the course of the last year.

Photoshop has become a powerhouse in terms of editing software, easily the number one choice in the industry. They haven’t gotten there by being complacent, and Photoshop CC introduces new and awesome features that expand the power of the biggest name in post production such as Camera Shake Reduction, Camera RAW as a filter, and their new Smart Sharpen.

Rebecca, Mike and I are all at Adobe MAX, ready to bring you the news as it breaks. To follow the story, either watch the live stream at Adobe.com and Fstoppers on Twitter to hear our thoughts on what Adobe is bringing to the table this year.

Adobe MAX, recently rebranded and refocused away from a developers conference into a full-on creatives conference, kicks off on Monday and we are expecting a big news out of Adobe during the Keynote at 9:30 AM Pacific Time. Mike Kelley and I will be there live reporting everything as it is announced, but you can watch the live stream online along with us.

Lowepro has been quiet for a few months, but recently announced their new Photo Sport Pro 30L AW bag, inspired by the original Photo Sport Pro AW series. The latest back-packin' pal is set to offer the active, outdoor photographer a lightweight, comfortable, supportive and flexible daypack that fits pro-sized gear plus lots of extras.

Rounding out the batch of lenses announced in January, Sigma has released the pricing and availability of the 60mm f/2.8 DN Art lens for mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs). It's coming in mid-May and is expected to retail for only $239.

This is the kind of story that just boggles my mind. IBM just released a Guinness World Record-setting movie called "A Boy and His Atom," made by moving atoms using an IBM-invented scanning tunneling microscope. It weighs two tons, operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times. IBM researchers used the microscope to control a super-sharp needle along a copper surface to “feel” atoms.

Samsung has been pushing all angles lately. They're putting pressure on Apple, their TVs rock (I have one) and their cameras are nothing to shake a stick at (that means they're pretty good). They're at it again, this time with expanding their line with the NX2000, a 20.3 megapixel APS-C interchangeable lens pocket camera mini monster that is stacked with everything Samsung could throw into it.

While browsing the Twitterverse today, I noticed a quick and to the point tweet from Fotodiox that introduced me to a constant LED light fixture that would accept my Bowens mount light fixtures. It promises serious power mixed with the modular adeptness that I just love. Meet the Fotodiox LED100WA.

Wacom today announced the Cintiq 22HD touch, a new addition to its interactive pen display portfolio, now featuring multi-touch. Combining multi-touch with Wacom’s pen technology, the new Cintiq 22HD touch offers an on-screen experience and a more intuitive and natural way to work. The new Cintiq is expected to retail for $2,499.

Aaron Nace from PHLEARN wanted to make an image that was based on the idea of a future where the sun had become so bright that humans would be forced to see the world through technologically-advanced glasses. Watch how they went from concept drawing to finished photo in their most recent tutorial.

Black Magic unveiled their crazy small Pocket Camera at NAB earlier this year, and some of the first footage recorded on the camera has appeared online from director of photography John Brawley. Unsurprisingly, it looks pretty darn good.

Sigma sent out word this morning that the delayed 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM lens slated originally for release in February 2013 will finally be coming to market in early May for $3,599. Released along with that lens is the much anticipated USB Dock that can be used to fine tune new Sigma lenses will be available $59.

There is fierce competition among the top digital imaging companies, fighting for several billion in dollars worldwide. I have examined Olympus and Sony in the past, and this year I wanted to bring in Canon and Nikon to see how their last fiscal year treated them. Though the publicly filed information tends to be pretty vague in specific company categories (instead opting to give general aggregated sales), I was able to get some approximate final sales numbers in digital imaging for these four companies. Let’s answer the big question: who came out on top?

When we announced the new 18-35mm f/1.8 lens from Sigma, the excited and joy-filled response from you all was nearly instantaneous (which was rather impressive since it was confirmed at just past 1 in the morning eastern time). I too was particularly excited because of what this lens means to the industry and the future of lens design. I want to share with you my first impressions of the lens, which arrived in my studio just a few minutes ago.

Two weeks ago we asked you to submit your best "Featured Image" and the top three submissions would win a year of SquareSpace. We wanted to see what images you would use to entice visitors to your website. We got hundreds of entries, but after careful deliberation we narrowed them down to the top ten images we thought really brought a "pow" to the party. Now we leave it in your hands: vote for your favorite!

Yahoo's new weather app that was released today just replaced my Apple weather app, and probably for good. Why? Because it's outstandingly beautiful thanks to Flickr image integration. Rather than just showing bland vectors of sun and clouds, Yahoo has backed up their accurate weather forecasting with geolocated imagery from Flickr users. So pretty...

There is that popular phrase that goes "the best camera you have is the one on you." That phrase has never been more true in this day and age with considerably powered cell phone cameras living in the pockets of nearly every person you might come across. Even as professionals with thousands of dollars in gear, sometimes we will find ourselves in a situation we shoot on our mobile cameras, whether by choice or by circumstance. I spoke to the product manager of Lightroom to get his take on the best ways to bring the most out of your iPhone images.

You might have heard the rumors about a new wide angle zoom lens with a crazy open aperture of f/1.8. Those rumors have just been confirmed to us by Sigma: it's real and it's the first zoom lens to maintain an f/1.8 aperture over the entire length of the zoom range. Now that is exciting. Meet the 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Art lens.

Pentax/Ricoh has released a new 16 megapixel APS-C camera called the GR (the last GR was released in 2011) that looks to compete directly with the popular FUJI X Pro1, the Canon G1X and the Sony RX100. This is a market that Nikon recently entered with their Coolpix A, and one that is likely to continue to grow. In what I have seen in the new GR shows Ricoh's intent to go straight at this market with a camera that performs better than you might expect, for only $800.