Photonotes.org has a really comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions for Canon EOS Beginners. If you are just buying your first D-SLR camera from Canon, or you are thinking of buying one, you will find a ton of information there.

This morning I was reading thru Part 3 that has to do with lenses. I got to one part that I thought would be useful to repost here. I’ve heard a lot of beginning photographers ask the question, “What are these numbers on my lens?”. Here is his answer:

Lenses have bits of text printed on the barrel or around the front element which convey a lot of important information about their properties. Be really careful when shopping for lenses. Two lenses may have very similar-looking names, but may actually be completely different one from the other.

Here are two examples. Note that all the technical terms used here are described later on in this FAQ.

CANON LENS EF 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6. Ø58mm.

EF means that the lens is of the Canon EF type. EF lenses fit Canon EOS cameras and virtually no others.

28-80mm refers to the focal length of the lens. In this case there are two values since the lens is a zoom lens which can go from 28mm at its widest to 80mm at its longest. These numeric values in millimetres essentially indicate the coverage area of the lens.

1:3.5-5.6 refers to the widest aperture of which the lens is capable. The 1: is there since f/stops are, technically speaking, ratios. Since the lens is a zoom there are two aperture values – f/3.5 and f/5.6. This particular lens is an inexpensive amateur lens which can be opened up to f/3.5 at the widest end (28mm) but only f/5.6 at the longest end (80mm). This means it’s a fairly slow lens – it can’t let in much light, even its aperture diaphragm is when fully open.

Note that the autofocus motor type is not indicated, which means that the lens uses either an AFD (arc-form drive) or micromotor drive. Both types are slow and noisy compared to ultrasonic (USM) motors.

Ø58mm refers to the filter ring diameter. In other words, screw-on filters 58mm in diameter will fit this lens.

You can read more at Part III: Lenses.

One of my favorite Flickr groups is the Technique Group. There are so many talented people there that offer up their tips.

One of the great discussions is one called “Tutorial: Make Your Colors Pop.” The flickr user macaddict offers a great tutorial on bringing out the colors of your photo. It basically consists of changing the mode to “Lab Color”, making some changes for the a, b, and Lightness channels, then switching the mode back to RGB. It sounds simple, but there are some great results. To see the tutorial and see some examples, head to the Flickr Discussion.

After playing with it for a while, I finally determined just the right settings for my photos. I then created a Photoshop Action for me to use in the future. Just in case some of you would like to give it a try, I’ll make it available for you too. Just download it and install the action from your Actions pallette in Photoshop. You can download it here.

Here is one example. First is original, second is “popped”.

In a week from now, Canon Australia will be hosting the Canon Find Your Shot photo competition. I wasn’t able to find a lot about the competition itself, but the prizes are clearly shown. They are giving away 500 random cash prizes, 8 of the new 400D (Rebel XTi), 8 “photography kits”, and a trip for two anywhere in the world. On this trip, you’ll be accompanied by pro photographer Tim Clayton.

But the grand prize will be a “dream trip” valued at $25,000.

I signed up to be alerted when the contest starts. Might as well throw a few shots in there. Anyone can enter.

Read More: Canon Find Your Shot photo competition

I love San Francisco. I lived there for a couple years and now that I’m in Vegas, I still visit every couple months. I keep a running list of “New Things To See and Do In San Francisco.” I just added something to that list today.

At 1337 Mission St (yes, the address is 1337) there is a place called Shine Dance Lounge. In that joint, they have a photo booth that is hooked up to the web. It uploads the shots automatically to Flickr.com.

I remember reading about this a few months ago, but it was when they just barely got it installed. But, now they have a Flickr account with thousands of pictures uploaded. It’s kind of fun to browse thru them.

If you’ve ever been to this place, or have pictures of the booth, I’d love to know what it looks like.

Here are the next batch of Photo Booth Photos. This one only has three. We’ve been getting a ton of photos for the iPod Shuffle contest, but all the Jay Leno impressions just aren’t going to make the cut. Shake up those creative juices. Bring your laptop outside. Bring it to the pool. Gather your family. Uncommon is good.

I dropped in on PhosthopWorld, but I must have missed the sneak peek that was given of Photoshop CS3. According to this AppleInsider post:

“During the Photoshop World keynote, Adobe’s Sr. Vice President of Creative Solutions provided a quick look at Photoshop CS3, apparently running on an Intel-based Mac,” PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients on Monday.

“While the presentation did not reveal any of the CS3 features, it provided evidence that the company has already successfully moved this core application to the Intel-Mac platform.”

CS3 isn’t set for release until Spring 2007. That’s a bummer. CS2 runs alright on my Intel machines, but I’d sure love to have a Universal Binary version.

Here are the best of the shots from the last couple days. There were about 100 shots that came in yesterday, but most were similar to each other. Don’ be discouraged, if you don’t see your image here than get your thinking cap on and send in a couple more.

Macworld is reporting that Apple will indeed have a special event the day before Photokina begins. The invitation they received reads, “Start photokina a little early this year.” It will take place on Sept. 25th.

Photokina is one of the largest photography conventions around. This convention really isn’t the place for huge hardware announcements, but I’ll be excited to see what goodies they have for Mac photographers. Even if they add a little to Aperture, that will be fun.

Source: Macworld

Here are this morning’s batch of photos for the iPod Shuffle Contest. I have some more to put up later today, but I just wanted to post all of these that Zachery sent in. Because there are five, I thought it deserved it’s own post.

All I have to say about these is “Wow.”

Crab

Elephant

Jelly Fish

Octopus

Monkey climbing a tree.

These are really good, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be beat. Keep them coming in!

A while back, the good folks at CompleteDigitalPhotography.com offered some very useful Automator Actions For Photoshop. Well, now they’ve added to the collection with some Automator Actions For Photoshop Elements.

These are quite useful for Photoshop Elements. From the Developer’s Site:

As all Photoshop Elements users know, the Actions Palette is one of the things that separates Elements from Photoshop CS2. Or rather, the lack of an Actions palette is what separates Elements from CS2. Photoshop Elements has no scripting facilities of any kind – no Actions palette within the program, and no scripting support for AppleScript or JavaScript. However, now with Automator and the Photoshop Elements Action Pack, you can finally automate Elements, to batch process your images.