I have finally caved in and purchase a Hoodman Loupe – and like a lot of people I want to know why I waited so long to buy one. Maybe it is because what it does is so simple and the price seems pretty dang pricey. The Hoodman Loupe is placed over the LCD screen of your digital camera so you can see the screen if you are outside in bright sunlight.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the Hoodman Loupe to focus properly. You twist the eyepiece till things come into focus. At first the twisting felt like I was going to break it – it was so tight. But once I got it going focusing was easy. And I won’t have to focus again, unless my vision changes.

$79 sounds like a lot of money – but I imagine you could do this with an empty toilet paper cardboard roll. And with how often I photograph outdoors this will definitely make things easier to know when things are exposed properly and if focus is sharp.

I found this video on some of the new masking and refining mask features in Adobe Photoshop CS5. This alone would be worth the price of the upgrade – imagine the time you save when you have to mask out someone with hair or soft edges. Mid May can’t arrive soon enough.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 available on amazon.com

Adobe has announce the new Photoshop CS5 (for those who are counting this is version 12 of Photoshop). I have been using Photoshop since version 4 back in the mid 1990s. And this is one of the first times I will be buying the software the day it is available.

Typically I like to wait a few months so that the software can be broken in by the general population. Software often times is buggy right out of the box and you want to wait till they have a bug patch. However, Adobe Photoshop and the other software is pretty dang stable – rarely have I had the software crash on me – ever.

And so why do I want to buy it right away? Some features such as HDR Pro, Content Aware fill, better mask selections, and other magical features that will help me work faster and create even better images.

Here is a cool video that goes through some of the top videos.

And I will be purchasing the full Adobe CS5 Design Premium Suite. Because I do use Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Acrobat, and of course Photoshop. So I need to save about $599 – ugh. Expensive.

Meet the latest addition to my very big camera bag (ok, I have several camera bags to hold this stuff). I bought the Lensbabies Soft Focus Optic. I will be creating some photographs with this optic in the next few days to show off what it does. But if you don’t have a Lensbaby – you really should get one. It is a unique creative tool that will challenge you – because you will be photographing in manual mode and manual focus. But you will also find that you create photographs that are truly unique and creative.

Practice makes perfect.

I have the whole set of Lensbaby optics – and they are the opposite to the quality of a Canon L series lens or to a Nikon high end lens. These are full of imperfections – that is what makes them appealing. It is my way of creating vintage photographs with digital tools. And without spending hours and hours in Photoshop.

The following photograph was taken with my Canon Lensbaby and the double glass optic.

Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic

Over the weekend I have ordered some lens hoods for my new Canon lenses. In my adoption of Canon cameras and lenses I have been noticing the differences between Nikon and Canon. And there are some things that are just glaring differences. Almost all the Nikon lenses I have ever purchased came with a lens hood. Of the 3 Canon lenses I have purchased only one came with a lens hood. Maybe Canon only ships lens hoods with their L series lenses. If that is true that is just stupid.

Well, amazon.com has a huge selection of Canon lens hoods.

Why would I suggest you use lens hoods? Two main reasons. First the lens hood helps cut down flare and improves contrast in a photograph. If you have bright lights shining at the lens then it does wash out an image. If you want to test this use your hand to shield light from the sun or bright lights. And you will hopefully see the contrast difference. Second, I use lens hoods as protection for my lenses. I don’t believe in using UV filters on the front of my lenses for protection. And (knock on wood) lens hoods have acted as perfect protection for the front glass element of my lenses.

Why would I spend $300-$1500 on a nice lens with excellent glass and precision optics and then place a piece of plastic or a cheap piece of glass in front of the lens?

The only filter that I would use is a circular polarizers. The circular polarizer helps make blue skies bluer and clouds more contrasty and bold. It also helps make colors more saturated. Polarizers also help reduce reflections on water, green plants and even objects. They are the one filter Photoshop can’t imitate.

So there is my mini-soap box on lens hoods and circular polarizers.