Barney L.

I just bought a maingear computer from the microsoft store and they are incredible machines. The only thing is now I wished I had seen their website first. I would rather have customized the laptop from their website than buying at a retail store. The other thing is that the graphics card I got from the MS store is outdated but the ones on their website is the new GTX 980 not the older ones. I definitely will be shopping here in the future. They also have some killer black friday deals.

I just recently got into cosplay for fananime convention... and then realized this was the perfect halloween costume.My GF ordered from this site and she loved it. They are very price at this store because they are all custom tailored and very high quality. Better than what I have seen off of ebay and etsy. The price can range from reasonable ($200) to crazy outrageous ($2700).

I have used udemy for awhile now and they have a good variety of courses on photoshop and I used it for some camera tutorials. Because of the variability of the quality of the instructor, it is hit or miss. Some are excellent and professional and others appears as if a kid from college is looking to make an extra buck. Worth a shot but I wouldn't soley rely on udemy for all of your tutorial needs.

Newish photography site for photographers. The quality of the photos on this website are superb and beyond that of flickr. Few amateurs and most are semi pros or pros. The down side of this website is that I believe as of now if you upload a photo it belongs to 500px. I could be wrong but that is how it seems to me. They are working on making this a stock photography website and I have read online that they will give photographers a good split and sell photos for more than a dollar like they do on istockphoto. I am hoping this website takes off but I feel like they need to make it more clear to us photographers how our images will be used and how much we can make from selling them both now and in the future. I think the best part of the site is being able to follow really good photographers and seeing your feed full of quality images. Their mobile 500px app is also pretty good.

Sonar X3 is a great mix program for any audio enthusiast. I found it on steam for sale and decided to buy it as it was about the same price as one of their games on steam. It works really well and I have used other similar programs in the past. Workflow in SONARX3 is really good and the Skylight interface makes everything approachable, especially the extensive use of dockable windows. Tools and functions are easy to find. For the price you can't really beat it.

Before Dell bought alienware that was the only computer I used to buy. They had the top notch graphics cards and hardware. In recent years I still bought alienware through dell.com and have noticed a steady decline in the value of what I am buying. They are no longer the top of the line machines but instead are just about equivalent of the Dell XPS line but at a higher price. At this point, I would skip on buying alienware anymore unless you really want that big alien face on your laptop. Even HP with their envy line of pcs can easily match what alienware is putting out these days at a fraction of the price.

I ordered his lightsphere for more shadowless lighting on my canon 5D and was mostly impressed by all of his video tutorials and free education. I learned quite a bit from all of his tutorials. The lightsphere itself I was not as impressed by and it didn't do as much as I had hoped for. It worked well though I already owned a few other light modifiers for my 580ex and it was pretty much the same thing as the others but less portable. I would recommend the gary fong lightsphere only if it is your very first modifier. If you already own other modifiers it might not fit your needs. It is very cheap and it does look more impressive to clients so on some level it makes sense to give it a shot and see if it works for you.

WD2GO is the service by western digital iscompatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phones, giving users the us the ability to pull files from any PC or Mac remotely -- without monthly fees. The only catch is you have to purchase a WD drive I bought their live duo 6TB drive and it was very easy to set up. Even a complete IT novice can set up file sharing in their own home. They made it easy to stream movies, share files and music. There are a few negatives about the wd2go that I feel everyone should know
1. NO FTP SUPPORT. If you don't know what this is then you won't miss it.
2. Not all video file types are supported by wd2go app on ipad/iphone. I had to experiment to find the exact mp4 resolution, bit rate that would work with this app.
3. You cannot share files on remote desktops. So for me this did not replace dropbox.

I have used pocketwizards for the past 5 years exclusively on all of my camera and lighting systems. I love how they work seamlessly with all brands of strobes and have never failed me. I just wish they had a better system of remote camera controls and integration into more advanced ipad apps. Other systems are going this route and hopefully pocketwizard picks up their development and adds this to their pocketwizards or I think in the future they may be obsolete.

Paul C Buff with his creation of the Alien Bee and white lightening sets of photography lights revolutionized the entire photography lighting industry years ago because of the low cost of his set of lights. Photographers were used to paying thousands for expensive lights until the Alien Bees came along. They are a great set of starter lights with extensive light modifications. Their phone support is also very good and they are a very knowledgeable team. The only thing is that the lower end Alien Bee lights do not have a wide range of f stops and if you are a newcomer to photography and you buy a set of AB lights then you could be selling them in the near future. Paulcbuff does have a higher end line of Einstein lights which are much better but they are at the same price as other higher end lights. I wish the alien bees were more compatible with their set of Einstein lights; the modifiers you buy for alien bees will not work on their other lighting systems. So do not invest too heavily in them if you think in the future you will need a more robust system.

I typically have shopped online at BHphotovideo and adorama but recently found Samys camera to be an excellent value and they have better customer service than either of the other sites in terms of really helping you pick out the best equipment for your needs. I heard about them through the Playboy shoot the centerfold workshop http://samysedu.com/2011/06/03/shoot-the-centerfold-weekend-begins/
and met some of their employees who were very knowledgeable. They can sometimes have deals that are not on their website I noticed so call them if you are looking for something specific.

when people ask me whether to choose portraiture over portrait professional, I usually will go in this direction. Portraiture by imagenomic was designed for the busy professional who knows photoshop but for the sake of time would rather automate the tedious process of touching up photos. If you have a single masterpiece you are working on then obviously you would do it by hand and use photoshop. If a client is waiting on 30 photos and you have an hour to deliver them, then portraiture comes to your rescue. Probably not the best tool for an amateur as it really only shines when in the hands of a professional who already knows photoshop and uses it as a plug in. As this is a review of the website and they also sell noiseware, I will also say that is an excellent plug in and if you do a lot of high ISO shooting then it is a lifesaver. Though I think these days with sensors becoming better and ISO of 6400, the need for noise reduction is luckily becoming less and less. Still as a package deal for both of them it is worth the price.

I am giving this a cool rating because I think this is an excellent value for the aspiring photography who does not know photoshop very well and would like to touch up their photos in the easiest way possible. Download the demo and you can see how simple it is to use. For photoshop pros, this is not as useful as it just doesn't have the wide breadth of tools available and you can easily overdo the look and make the portrait appear fake. Combining photoshop and portrait professional together makes the most sense for the professional photographer. Basically just do the work in portrait professional and then create a layer on top of the original and blend in where you specifically think the portait needs help and that will speed up the process. I think the best use case for this software is the amateur photography who has not mastered photoshop and or doesn't own photoshop.

This is a site that is heavily advertised on the internet for models to find work. Or basically any talent to find work. In a way they use people's desperate attempt to find work as a struggling artist to make money. There are many free places for artists to find work but this site charges for it. From that point of view, they do save people time and as such it does provide some level of value. Anyone looking at this site should read a little bit about what people in this industry think of sites like this in general.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=30397

Models/actresses looking for easy gigs such as promo work and such might be better off with sites like onemodelplace.com and checking out the casting calls.

Sites like this get very mixed reviews because of the very nature of social networking sites. You either love them or hate them. Before the advent of the internet and digital photography, most people who were photographers really were only just photographers and models, well that was their sole occupation. The internet and in particular social networking sites like this allow basically anyone with a digital camera to call themselves a photographer (GWC-guys with cameras) and pretty girls can call themselves models. The photographers need willing subjects to photograph and the models want pictures of themselves to help them land jobs. These sites will exist and this one does do a pretty good job of connecting photographers with models. Sometimes the photographer will pay the models and other times models pay the photographer. It just depends on supply and demand. I give this site a full heart for changing the game in the way people can connect and can find jobs online. I will also say that if a photographer has meager skills or a model is not skilled or attractive they will not find any of these types of sites very useful just like IRL.