Welcome to Monday Photo Finds, a feature where we point you to some of the best photography around the web.

This week on Photo Finds, it’s all about Dubai – more specifically, about the Gulf Photo Pro expo in Dubai, where some of the industry’s biggest names congregate for a week of education, networking, and fun in what is quickly being referred to as the “City of Gold.”

David Hobby writes about the GPP shoutout

The Shootout

Each year, GPP ends with a photo shootout between three photographers. Three photographers have 20 minutes to come up with an idea for a shot, then shoot it and process it into a final image. The photo is based on a subject provided by the conference organizers.

David Hobby, of Strobist fame, has been a regular at these shootouts, and photographers Joey L and Zack Arias have also been past shootout participants. Last year, one of the titans of the industry, Gregory Heisler, went from being the official heckler in the audience, to doing an impromptu shoot. This year, he participated in the shootout as one of the three photographers. David Hobby and Martin Prihoda completed the triumvirate. (more…)

Every week, we post a photography-related tip on our blog. These tips are typically inspired by questions we get from our customers. Sometimes we might feature a technique tip, and sometimes a gear recommendation. If there’s something specific you’d like to see in this section, let us know. Email us at [email protected]

This week, we bring out our favorite lighting videos. Whether it’s about small flashes or studio strobes, lighting is something we get an awful lot of questions about. So, we decided to put together a short list of our favorite lighting-related video tutorials to help you get going. These are paid videos, but are worth every penny, since the instructors are some of the best in the business.

1. Joe McNally’s “Language of Light”: Joe is easily one of the best lighting instructors in the world, and his “Language of Light” DVD set is pure genius. Whether it’s shooting a family portrait, or hanging off the back of a truck to capture speeding downhill skaters, Joe does it all and does it incredibly well. He’s funny, engaging and eloquent, and while he doesn’t make it look easy, he does help you understand his methods and techniques, letting you learn a lot in the process.
2. David Hobby’s “Lighting in Layers”: David Hobby became famous for starting what is now considered to be the bible of small flash photography websites. Strobist.com has become the go-to site for folks looking to learn about lighting with small flash, and to his credit, David pretty-much gives away a ton of information for free there. His “Lighting in Layers” DVD, however, ratchets things up to a whole new level. Six full shoots span nine hours of video, replete with lighting diagrams, commentary and on-the-job demos. For lighting enthusiasts and aficionados, this is definitely worth checking out.
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3. Scott Kelby’s “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it!”: This one requires a subscription to KelbyTraining.com, but is totally worth it. Scott takes you through a complete shoot, from lighting setup, to shooting, to the retouching process. Throughout the entire tutorial – which is actually broken into three parts – he describes all the gear, software and techniques he uses in great detail, leaving few, if any, questions in the minds of the audience. Scott’s class got so popular, it spawned a book and a nationwide teaching tour of the same name.  If you don’t have a subscription to KelbyTraining, they do have a free trial so you can check out the class during that. Get the subscription, however, because it also gets you access to another video on this list.
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4. 

   Zack Arias teaching studio lighting at creativeLIVE.com

   Zack Arias’ “Studio Lighting.”: This is easily THE go-to course if you’re just starting out and want an immersive, extensive course. Shot over three days, this workshop form creativeLIVE is absolutely stunning in the amount of instruction it provides. From learning how to setup a shoot to why you start with, say, a soft box to what that does versus an umbrella or a beauty dish, to measuring exposure, this workshop has it all.

   Zack is a fantastic instructor; he’s humble, self-deprecating and brutally honest. This is a guy who’s not afraid to let his mistakes be a teaching tool, and you’ll see that in this video workshop. Moreover, he doesn’t assume you know something about lighting already, so he explains things very thoroughly. Even experienced folks will get something out of this workshop, so don’t pass it up.
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5. Syl Arena’s “Working with Speedlites”: This two-part course, also available from KelbyTraining.com (the same place you can find Scott Kelby’s class, mentioned above) is a nod to the Canonistas out there. Since David Hobby and Joe McNally are Nikon users, their classes invariably involve heavy use of Nikon cameras and flashes. Syl’s class, on the other hand, is all about Canon flash photography.What’s really cool about this class is that it does what your Canon flash’s manual should have done, but didn’t. Syl breaks down Speedlites and explains everything in detail – but he doesn’t stop there. There’s plenty of technical information to give you lots of “Aha!” moments, but then he shows you just how to use those flashes in actual shooting situations. The class is broken into two parts, one for working with single Speedlites, and the other for working with multiple Speedlites. If you’re a Canon shooter and want to get into the world of small flash photography, this is your go-to class.

So that’s the list of our favorite lighting videos. Got a recommendation of your own? Leave us a comment, and let us know!

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• 

  The "Blue Marble" shot of the earth, from NASA

  When one of the world’s best shooters dips his toes into video, you sit up and take notice. Joe McNally takes the Nikon D4′s video capabilities out for a spin.

• Issue 5 of the Kelby Media Group’s lighting-specific magazine, Light It! is out now. Some great stuff in there from Frank Doorhof, Tom Bol, and others.
• From the “You don’t need a $10,000 camera” department, comes another awesome slo-mo video, shot on a T2i, via fstoppers.com.
  
  Slow It Down from Sacha Powell on Vimeo.
• Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Senior Photoshop Project Manager, shows off some new features in Camera RAW 7, as well as a very brief tweak to Photoshop CS6 too, via Scott Kelby.
• Bird photographers, beware. That hummingbird you’re taking pictures of might just be taking pictures of you, too.
• This is one honking large image. NASA has released an updated version of that famous “Blue Marble” photo of the earth. Here’s the link to the full-sized one in all its 8000-pixel glory: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/sizes/o/in/photostream/.
• This is every wedding photographer’s dream come true: a calm, reasoned approach to explaining why prices for wedding shooters can be as high as they are, in response to a very irate bride-to-be.
• I’ll admit it – I’m a bit envious. I wish I’d thought of this, but Pixiq has a great list of 25 awesome time-lapse videos.
• Nikon afficionados, rejoice once more. The D700 has officially been declared end-of-life. PetaPixel is reporting a potential Feb 7 launch date for the D800.
• And speaking of new cameras, we end this list with a comparison of video from the Nikon D4 vs the Canon 1Dx. Since neither camera is really out there yet, this is still subject to change, but here it is, via Colby Brown.

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. If you have something you think should be included, let us know! Email us at [email protected]

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more. Things have been quiet over the holidays, but there’s still a bunch of neat things around the web.

• We’re gonna start things off by quoting Popular Photography magazine here: “If you think your eyeballs are on fire after a marathon session editing in Photoshop, consider sorting through 1,200 rolls of film with slides, a loop, and a light box.” Check out the video below – and yes, that IS Joe McNally in a mustache.
• Speaking about a blast from the past, here’s how spy satellite photography worked in the days before digital imaging. Hint: They used film. Really.
• Now here’s an interesting twist on things. The folks over in New Hampshire have proposed a law that would lead to criminal charges against TSA screeners if they tried to prevent you from recording them at airport checkpoints. Yes, you heard that right. It’s a law aimed at increasing traveller freedoms, not decreasing them. Go New Hampshire!
• They may be down, but they’re not out – yet. Olympus is besotted with legal and financial issues, but that doesn’t mean it’s not working on new stuff. According to TechRadar, they’re working on a revolutionary new camera with an “epoch-making” viewfinder.
• Of course, Olympus will have competition from Fuji, which is still working on its interchangeable lens camera. Petapixel has the latest leaked image on their website.
• From the “he did that how…?” department, photography Anthony Chang made an awesome image of a liquid rose.
• Remember that awesome time-lapse of the planet from the International Space Station we showed you a while back? Here’s how it was made.
• Look, we pack heavy when we go on photographic trips – we admit it. But what would we carry if we had to go into a war zone? Well, here’s what one Reuters photographer decided to lug along.
• If you followed our FaceBook page, you saw this mentioned, but here it is again: The winners of National Geographic’s 2011 photo contest.
• We leave you with a warm, feel-good story. An AP photographer tracked down a wounded Marine to give him a memento of the battle that led to their meeting.

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. If you have something you think should be included, let us know! Email us at [email protected]

If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you already have bookmarks or RSS feeds for some of the leading photographer blogs out there like Joe McNally, Scott Kelby and Chase Jarvis.

But as engaging as they are (and as much as we tend to read them every day), there are other, less-famous photographers who are nonetheless doing a stellar job in their fields and whose blogs are incredibly stimulating and interesting. In this piece, we introduce you to five of them. (more…)

Every Thursday, we post a photography-related tip on our blog. These tips are typically inspired by questions we get from our customers. Sometimes we might feature a technique tip, and sometimes a gear recommendation. If there’s something specific you’d like to see in this section, let us know. Email us at [email protected]

Visuals, by Vincent Laforet

This week’s tip is a list of recommendations for iPad owners. Since it was released, the iPad has been used by many photographers as a mobile portfolio, a reference tool, and even as – yes, we’re serious – a light source for photography. Some enterprising photographers have released their own apps for instructional purposes and one National Geographic photographer even gave up his website in favor of an iPad app.

Clearly, the iPad has a lot to offer to photographers. (more…)