Holiday Deals From Peak Design

A handful of years ago, I was connected to the squad at Peak Design* and they’ve been quite supportive of lil’ ol’ me ever since. I’ve had the opportunity to try out their backpacks, straps and tripods over the years. I flat out love their Everyday backpack. Especially since it saved my gear SEVERAL TIMES from rain and ocean water.

New Affiliation

I’ve mentioned, tweeted and shared my thoughts on Peak Design over the years because I believed in the gear. I didn’t get any commissions. I just dig the gear. Well now, I’ve been added to the Peak Design affiliate program, so yeah, I’ll be able to earn a small commission on my sharing love of Peak Design*. So if you order through my link, I’ll earn a few dollars in commission.

Image: Peak Design

Holiday Sale

From December 8th through 11th, the team is offering 10% all items via my affiliate link. Personally, I’d suggest the Cuff* to attach to your on-the-go street photography camera. And I’d also recommend the Travel Backpack* with Camera Cubes*. I recently used the Travel Backpack and Camera Cube for a weekend trip to Oregon. Packed my stills camera, my cinema camera, some batteries and a weekend’s worth of clothes in it with EASE.

Image: Ant Pruitt all rights reserved

So head over to the site using my link* and start shopping around, all while helping to support me and my creative works. Get yourself a camera strap, a capture clip or one of the badass backpacks. I appreciate ya checking it out and also spreading the word to help support me. And thank you Peak Design for your support over the years.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

First Look at KRK GoAux Studio Monitors

I was sent some KRK GoAux speakers* to try out, recently. These are studio monitors designed to be ultra-portable allowing content creators the option to work on video and music projects wherever they go. The speakers feel nice and sound. . .well, just watch the video below to learn more about the GoAux 3* speakers.

Image: Ant Pruitt all rights reserved

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Holiday Deals From Lensrentals

Lensrentals* has shared its holiday deal with me. This is just a general discount on orders arriving by February 24, 2023. Have your order delivered by then, you’ll save 20%. Just use code LRBF2022. In addition to this discount, Lensrentals* is also offering a 15% discount on all used gear sales. Just use code KPRBF22.

I’m pretty sure a Cyber Monday deal is on the way, but I don’t have details on that just yet.

Image: Lensrentals

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Boris FX Black Friday Discount For Creators

Boris FX offers some pretty amazing special effects tools for photography and video. Even some FREE tools. From now until midnight PST November 27th Boris FX is offering a 25% discount on its tools.

Image: Boris FX

I’ve not used all of their tools (yet). I’ve only used the Particle Illusion. The free standalone plugin you can use with Adobe Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro. It has a fairly intuitive interface and creates beautiful particles for your videos. It took very little time to create the particles I applied to the end of this video I created.

I’d like to try out the Continuum + Sapphire package one of these days. Could be fun to play with.

Black Friday Photography and Creator Deals from Datacolor

It’s that time of the year. Holiday shopping and holiday deals are rolling into everyone’s inbox. Over the coming days and weeks, I’ll be sure to share some of the deals I’ve seen just in case you’re interested in some new gear or software for your content creation endeavors. First up, Datacolor.

Color Checker and Color Matching Tools

Datacolor’s Spyder Checkr Photo is marked down from $99 to $79*. Use this tool to make sure your colors in your photos and videos are accurate. You can snap a photo of it and apply the profile most photo or video editors used today.

Image: Datacolor

Datacolor has also discounted its ColorReader EZ tool. Use this tool to scan flat surfaces and identify the closest color match for Savage Universal backgrounds as well as well as match up color schemes when working on design projects. It’s discounted from $59 to $39*.

Image: Datacolor

Noteworthy Mention

The SpyderX Pro is a must have for creatives. At the time of this post, it’s not discounted, but I HIGHLY recommend getting your hands on a screen calibration tool. I currently own the older Spyder5* model, but the latest SpyderX Pro is available for $169*.

If you see any other deals out there, feel free to share with me so I can share with others. Thanks, everyone.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Adobe Announce New Partnerships and Key Collaboration Tools at Adobe Max 2022

Adobe Max 2022 kicks off in Los Angeles with many expectations in this world of content creations with AI becoming more of a norm in the creative space. Adobe is set to announce improvements to its Adobe Sensei AI with several new tools built into it’s Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro tools and more. AI has been controversial in the creative space recently, but as I’ve said many times before, AI can be GREAT for content creators in an effort to speed up repetitive tasks. Here are some of the tools of note coming from Adobe.

Image: Adobe

Even Better Masking and Selections in Photoshop and Lightroom

Better AI for creating masks and selections in the photography tools will be a big hit. Selections and masks allow creators to work even better with compositing images or get into fine details of the retouching processing. Object selection in the 2021 release of Photoshop was pretty dadgum good. It’s now been optimized even further for better performance. This selection performance will also be available in Lightroom. In addition to the selection updates, Lightroom will also see a performance boost in healing brush and content-aware fill. More information on the Lightroom updates are available here on the Adobe blog, and here for the Photoshop updates.

Image: Adobe

Adobe Video Updates

On the video side of things, Premiere Pro and After Effects will see a performance boost in renders as well as faster performance on motion graphics templates (.mogrt files). I dig Premiere Pro, but found the .mogrt files included with the subscription to be PAINFULLY slow at times. So slow that whenever I found a graphic, I’d just try to build it myself from scratch because it rendered on the timeline faster. Native H.264 encoding will now be available in After Effects directly from the render queue instead of having to jump into the Adobe Media Encoder (AME) app. After Effects will also have some public beta announcements regarding track mattes, and animation presets as mentioned in the video below as well as on the Adobe blog here.

Cloud Collaboration Rules

Adobe previously announced it’s Frame.IO integration and it’s a big hit for video creators collaborating with other creators, as well as speeding up the review process with clients. Now, Adobe is partnering up with RED and Fujifilm for even more Camera-to-Cloud integration. It’s no secret that RED cameras are found on many sets of some of the biggest television series and movies on the market. Adobe has now certified Red and Fujifilm as partners in Camera-to-Cloud (C2C). What does this mean? Proxy and RAW assets captured on the likes of a Red V-Raptor can be uploaded to the FrameIO service allowing collaborators access to assets needed for the post-production process. A great demo is in the video below.

Adobe Max is available for free as a virtual event if you’re interested in checking it out. I wasn’t able to go this year, but I’m registered and look forward to checking out more from the team including some of their sneak peak projects.

Adobe Announces Updates to Get Beginners into Photo and Video Editing

Ahead of the forth-coming Adobe Max creative artist conference, Adobe announces new updates for its photo and video editing applications that are catering more towards the beginner or entry-level content creator. Today, Adobe announces updates to its Photoshop Elements and Premiere Pro Elements packages. Ease of use and AI is all the rave for content creators getting started. Adobe dives in.

Image: Adobe

Step-by-step assistance

The elements apps are marketed towards users that aren’t professional creators or pro-sumer creators. These apps are more for the person that wants a quick and easy way to spruce up some of their snapshots and quick videos for sharing with family and friends. The apps will offer a guided tutorial for creating cool effects in Photoshop Elements. Want to create a .gif out of a waterfall photo you’ve captured on vacation? The Sensei AI will help you with that.

There’s also tools to make photo composites much easier than what one would do inside Photoshop working with layers. Again, the AI guides new users through the process.

Premiere Elements received similar updates in an effort to make those short video clips captured even more artful. Overlays and filters and easy to apply with just a few clicks. Even setting up auto reframe for video to be posted in vertical format online as well as a NOISE REDUCTION tool for video shot in low light.

Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements can be purchased on the Adobe site for $99 each or bundled for $149. No subscription for this version. Updates to new version will require another purchase. Learn more about the new updates on the Adobe blog.

Adobe Camera to Cloud Includes Atomos Zato, Mo-Sys and Teradek at IBC

With IBC 2022 kicking off, Adobe announces new partnerships and integration with its Creative Cloud ecosystem. Particularly, on the video side with its Camera to Cloud (C2C). There’s been a push for online collaboration for several years now. In my opinion, the COVID-19 pandemic really accelerated these efforts from big tech companies such as Adobe. So at IBC, Adobe is set to continue its double-down position and expand on Camera to Cloud.

Image: Adobe

New Partnerships for C2C

Teradek was along for the ride in collaborative creation since Adobe’s 2021 C2C announcement. The two teams have now added new pieces of hardware to the mix allowing live, wireless monitoring of video content as it’s shot as well as high quality streaming online. The Teradek Serv Micro is a wireless transmitter allowing for monitoring video capture on a set for directors, and stake holders to their mobile iOS or Android devices in 8-bit 1080p video up to 30fps. The Teradek Prism Flex is an encoder for your computer that will allow for streaming to the web or social media platforms up to 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 color. Tools like this in place really open things up for video creators. The head of post at Duplass Brothers Productions, Alex Regaldo says “for the first time, it feels like indie filmmaking is comparable to big-budget productions , and we can’t imagine a production without it.” The Atomos Zato Connect has also been added to the lineup of hardware supported to integrate with C2C.

Updates to Premiere Pro and After Effects

The Adobe video apps featured some updates in the latest Aug2ust 2022 releases of After Effects and Premiere Pro.. I’ve been bouncing back and forth using Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro for some of my jobs, but I’ve really bene digging the Frame.IO integration in Premiere Pro for client approvals. Ridiculously easy to use as show here. Some of the updates to Premiere Pro include a better titling tool so so graphic creation is more efficient, improved audio ducking for voice tracks with music beds and also GPU-accelerated unsharp mask. After Effects a few beta options such as track matte LAYERS and quick exports with native h.264.

The updates are all detailed on Adobe’s blog here. Check it out for more information on all the new hardware as well as the software update list.

Boris FX Updates FREE Particle Illusion App With Vers. 2022.5

If you’re a video creator, you know that creating particle effects can be quite a challenge when using VFX apps such as After Effects* , Motion or Fusion. The team at Boris FX has plugins for these apps to help speed up the process, but it also has a stand alone app that works really well. Better yet, it’s FREE to use. It’s Particle Illusion and it has just received an update to enhance the user experience.

In the video below, you’ll see that Boris FX didn’t touch the user interface that much, but gave some additional controls to help make creating 3D visual effects more efficient for the content creator. You can also import 3D models from via C4D (Cinema 4D) or OBJ files. Get the app for free here.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Hanging Out With an Aspiring Content Creator in Petaluma: Barry Almeria

I was recently a guest on the Infinite Table Podcast hosted by Barry Almeria. Almeria is an aspiring video creator here in the Sonoma County area, but also wanted to spend time creating a podcast for content creators. He reached out to ask if I’d chat with him on his “Creator Sessions.” Click the image below to watch the video.

Note: We had some tech difficulties, so I ended up recording the video on his behalf. So if the screen looks like my show, that’s why. Thanks for understanding and thanks for supporting an aspiring creator.

Image: Infinite Table Podcast