I have another photoshop question

You guys are just gonna lovvvveeee me!

I'm trying to make my logo into a brush so I can put the entire logo on my pics as a watermark. Every time I try to do it, the colors or detail doesn't transfer over, so I just have this black and grey blah logo- I'm sure I'm doing the procedure completely wrong to begin with. :) Not sure what I am doing wrong, can you help me?

I hope you understand what I just said.

Thx
M

Video Blog

Can anyone tell me if there is a secret to uploading a video to my blog. I tried uploading an mpeg, but it didnt take. Is there a certain format I should use, or any size restrictions I should know about? Thanks.

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Ok I just received this e-mail and posted it on my blog and I will be honest, it was really hard. I'm not great at math to begin with. I think I had to try this about 4 times and finally got the correct answer- see if you can figure it out. You can post your comment with your number and I'll tell you if it's right!

Math Problem:
There are 7 girls on a bus (No Bus Driver).
Each girl is carrying 7 backpacks.
In each backpack, there are 7 big cats.
For every big cat there are 7 little cats.
Question: How many legs are there on the bus?

Good luck!- (it isn't a trick question)

Shooting Question

Alright. I have a technical question for everyone. When shooting in manual and selecting the focus point, assuming that the subject is still, are you using single shot or AI servo mode. I thought I remember Mike saying that he used AI servo mode while using the back button focus, but I can't remember. But that almost doesn't make sense if the subject is still? Do you guys remember or have a preference on which focusing mode you use for a still shot? Thanks for you help.

Steve

Making your own action..??????

Everyone knows Courtney and I are action freaks but I have no idea how to do my own. I'd like to make one to put a border around my images that I post on my blog. Right now I'm manually doing it and it's taking FOREVER!!!! Can someone volunteer to give me some guidance on how to do it? I'd like to do 2 colors, such as a small white border surrounded by a bigger black border.
Thanks a million!!

playing around with branding

I've been thinking about changing my branding around and wanted to get your feedback on a new logo that I developed. I tried to go with something simple, and a little different with the icon. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks.

Steve

Canon AF Options

O.k. now that I have my 5D I am working through some of the focusing options. I have been using the AF where you pick the square that needs to be focused. It is working great.

My question is:
After reading through the manual several times I am still a bit foggy.

To keep a person/bride in focus when they are walking towards you the setting should be Al Servo? and the middle red dot being used as your focus point? Then my camera should follow that person and keep focus on them?

I tried it a couple of times, and it seemed to work. Is this what ya'll do?

Alot of the meat and potatoes of camera settings were on location which leaves my memory as my soul source of reference as to what Mike had said.

2nd Question:
Do you all have your sharpening at 0 in camera. I have gone back and forth on this, as it adds an extra step in processing. If you do leave it at zero what do you use to sharpen? PS? does lightroom have a sharpening feature, couldn't find one, unless it is the "clarity" button?

Thanks guys and gallies.

Updated White Balance Info

Hey guys... I made this little cheat sheet from my D3 manual. Thought it may help to have as a reference for those practicing the manual white balance thing.

Aperture 2 launched in the US

Team, go check out the 100+ new features in Aperture 2 all for $99 upgrade or $199 new.

The retouch and vignette alone makes this  a Photoshop killer for post processing.

Album design etc remains the realm of Adobe but Aperture has once again delivered.

Aperture Evolved - click here

Now you three that are not on Apple this is gonna cost you. Meta tagged changes no more 34 meg files !!!! role on baby

Vegas Love Story

Hey guys! Are any of you planning on attending the Vegas Love Story workshop with Bob Davis? I'm going to be there and was wondering if anyone was going and if so if you'd be interested in sharing a room to help defer costs!! Let me know! Looking forward to going :-)

~Courtney

D3 - Not regretting the switch

Hey guys.. Got to play with the D3 a little this weekend.. Just posted about it on my blog.. Check out the results.. http://www.justinwesbrooks.net

The Branding Vid

Not sure if you guys have checked this out yet or not, but here is the video David took from the night of the branding, good times. Enjoy.

Gig Books

Hey everyone-
Just thought I would pass along some information on an office business management system. It's called GigBooks. If you haven't heard about it yet you can check it out at here
It's basically a website to hold all your clients info, packages, pricing, invoices and info. You can link it up to your Outlook e-mail as well as your accounting program. The greatest thing about it is it's on the web so you can access it from any computer.
I've been looking around for awhile and hate ones that are a software program for a computer. I work during the day at my 2nd job and want to be able to always have access all the time.
It's not out yet but they are hoping by mid to late March it will be.
And the best part is it's pretty reasonable. There is no start up fee or yearly fee. It's a small monthly fee.
Justin is who I talked to. He's really awesome and very helpful. If you are interested e-mail them or give him a call.
I'm going to be testing it for the next couple of weeks and give them some feedback. So hopefully all the kinks will be out before the launch.
Hope all is well with everyone! ;)

New Canon Stuff

OK, my 5D, 50mm 1.2 and 100mm macro arrived 2 hours ago. This is my first test shot with the 50...I am so hooked already. I am going to have to be so careful with the f/1.2. This workshop, was a little more expensive than I had planned =).

shooting manual questions

Still trying to shoot manual. I know it will take a while to get used to it.
This is what I remember but for some reason I don't have the info written down in notes so:
1. Shoot wide open aperture
2. Set the shutter speed
3. Select Kelvin temperature
4. ? was that ISO

I was shooting today and I was in the shade and I was trying to expose for faces, but it still seemed like it was missing something. Are those 4 above what I am controlling or is there something else. Does exposure just kick in where it needs to be or am I supposed to control that also.

Mark III Thoughts

So I've had the camera for a couple days. Here are my overall thoughts.

THE GOOD
- The speed (FPS) is amazing! It almost feels like too much speed, but I'm sure it will come in handy.
- The customization of the everything is pretty cool.. you can tweak just about anything... you can even calibrate individual lenses
- It feels good in my hands... and it's built like a tank
- I like the 2 slots for a CF card and an SD card. This will make doing a slideshow at a wedding a lot easier

THE BAD
- There are a lot of focusing problems in AI Servo mode. They were supposed to be fixed in a firmware release from Canon, but I'm still experiencing problems. I did a bunch of research online and it sounds like Canon is going to announce a hardware and software fix that really fixes the problem this time. They had officially revealed it this past weekend at the PMA show.
- It's a little on the heavy side, but I think I'll get used to that (keep in mind I'm coming from the 20D)

I'm going to wait another week or so to see if Canon has a clear plan of attack on fixing the AI Servo autofocus problem. If they don't, it may be in my best interest to send it back to Amazon and wait to get a new one that already has the new fix implemented. I don't have a wedding for a wile so I can definitely be patient for now.

Those are my thoughts for now on the Mark III

WPPI, as the sand flows through the hourglass

This is totally funny. Go to Joe Photo's blog and leave a comment and you will get signed up for some cool stuff, but watch this first!

It's here

Just got my camera today from Amazon. I'll play around with it this weekend and let everyone know how it goes. Have a great weekend everyone!

Steve