Hands on with the RAVPower 6-Port USB Charger FileHub
In addition to handling the high-power fast-charging needs of today’s devices, the RAVPower 6-Port USB Charger FIleHub has a neat party trick up its sleeve.
Digital Photography Workflow
Tips, tricks, and reviews related to all aspects of digital photography workflow, from shooting photos to processing to backing up to sharing.
Ultra Portable Backup Storage on the Go with the RAVPower External SSD
External SSDs have been getting smaller, with higher capacities, and cheaper. The new RAVPower Portable SSD is the smallest and most portable I’ve used yet.
The RAVPower FileHub is Like a Digital Swiss Army Knife for Traveling
The RAVPower FileHub is like a digital Swiss Army Knife, solving several connection and networking issues that you commonly run into when travelling.
Facebook Video Covers – Size, Aspect Ratio, Duration, and Options
You can now use a video as your Facebook cover instead of a photo. Here’s a rundown of the requirements and options to make it work.
How to Format SD Cards on Mac
Wondering how to format SD cards on Mac? Here’s a step-by-step guide for formatting both SD and microSD cards.
SD Card Formatter for Formatting, Wiping, and Repairing SD and microSD Cards
Here’s a guide to using the SD Association’s official SD Card Formatter for preparing your SD and microSD cards for use.
How to Export a Single Frame as a JPG from Premiere Pro
There are two methods for exporting an individual frame from a Premiere Pro project. One is quick and simple but doesn’t give you much control. The other involves more steps but gives you more control over things like size and compression amount.
Using Instagram Location Search & How to Find an Instagram Location ID
Instagram has some useful built-in location features, but there are some quirks to how to use them and how they reliable are. Here’s a rundown.
How to Prevent VLC from Saving Recently Viewed Videos on Mac
The recent files list in VLC is designed to provide convenient shortcuts to the audio files you recently listened to or the videos you received viewed. But if you want to prevent VLC from adding files to to the Open Recent menu item, you can. Here’s how.
How to Make Your Twitter Photos Accessible to Visually Impaired Users by Adding Image Descriptions
Twitter has a built-in way to make your photos accessible to visually impaired users by adding image descriptions. Here’s how to enable and use the feature.
How to Extract Preview JPGs from RAW Files
If you’re looking to extract the JPG preview that’s embedded in a RAW image file, here are two free apps that can help.
Hands-on Review of the Mevo Plus Pocket-Sized Live-Streaming Video Studio
Need to stream some live video but don’t want to mess with the complications or expense that usually comes with doing that? The Mevo Plus is like having a basic TV studio in your pocket.
Video Modes of the Garmin VIRB Ultra 30
Here’s a rundown of the various video modes available on the VIRB Ultra 30.
Examples Using the New Accent AI Filter in Luminar 2018
Some examples of what the new Accent AI filter in Luminar 2018 does.
How to Export a Single Still Frame from Final Cut Pro X as a JPG
If you’re looking to export a single frame from Final Cut Pro X as a JPG, there’s a built-in function to that. Here’s how to do it.
Batch Processing Basic Photo Workflow Tasks with PhotoBulk
Sometimes you want an app that can accomplish basic image workflow tasks like resizing and watermarking simply, quickly, and with minimal fuss. That’s where apps like PhotoBulk come in.
Xcellon DRD-401 Four-Bay SATA HDD RAID Enclosure | Review
I’ve been testing out the Xcellon DRD-401 Four-Bay hard drive enclosure as a large local storage for backing up photos. Here’s my hands-on review.
How to Post Photos on Instagram from a Desktop Computer or Laptop
Instagram is designed for mobile devices. But that doesn’t work for everyone. So here are some options for posting to Instagram from your computer without using the mobile app.
Using Photoshop to Simulate How Colorblind Users See Your Photos
Nearly 1 in 10 people who look at your photos are likely to perceive colors differently because of some form of colorblindness. Here’s a way to use Photoshop to simulate how your photos will look to someone who is colorblind.
How to Change WordPress’s Default JPG Compression
By default, Wordpress compresses the versions of images it creates at a JPG quality setting of 82 percent. Here’s how you can change it.
Backing up Photos to the Cloud with CloudBerry
There are several different apps that can automate and schedule backups of photo archives to different cloud storage providers. CloudBerry is one of the simplest, and it works with a wide range of cloud services.
Search and Replace Plugins for WordPress
Whether you’re moving from HTTP to HTTPS, moving a site to a new domain, or updating links, there are times you might need site-wide search and replace to speed things up. Here are some options for Wordpress.
How To Schedule Posts to Instagram to Personal Profiles
Instagram doesn’t offer any built-in way to schedule posts, and it even discourages automated scheduling, but it can be done. Some options play by the rules better than others. Here’s a rundown of the options.
How to Archive Photos in Instagram
Instagram has a new feature to archive posts. It makes them private, so only you can see them, without deleting the post and losing the comments and likes.
How to Post to Instagram with a Web Browser by Spoofing the User Agent
Here’s a method for posting to Instagram from a desktop or laptop that doesn’t involve any third-party apps or installing plugins. It uses a feature built into several modern web browsers.
How to use Gramblr to Post to Instagram from a Desktop or Laptop
Gramblr is a free app and web service that lets you post photos to Instagram from a desktop or laptop. Here’s how it works.
How to use Uplet to Post Photos to Instagram from a Desktop or Laptop
Uplet is a simple Mac app that let’s you upload photos and videos from your desktop or laptop directly to Instagram.
How to Post Panoramas on Instagram
There’s a new and better way to share panoramas on Instagram. Here’s how to do it and some ways to prep the tiled images.
Instagram Now Lets You Share Up To 10 Photos or Videos at Once
Instagram has added a new feature that lets you share up to 10 photos or videos in one post. Here’s how it works.
Best Panorama Software for Stitching Images
A rundown of some of the best programs for stitching panoramas, from free and simple to paid and powerful.
How to Customize the Thumbnails for Shared Links in Facebook
Facebook has a new feature that gives you more control over the image thumbnails for shared links. Here’s how it works.
How to Escape Shortcodes in When Posting Code Snippets in WordPress
If you’re trying to post example shortcodes in your post but finding that the shortcode is getting processed, here’s how to escape it and present the shortcode as plain text.
How to Remove or Replace “Filed Under” and “Tagged With” from Post Metadata in Genesis
This simple little hack is a way to change the “Filed under” and “Tagged with” labels from post metadata if you’re using the Genesis Framework in Wordpress.
Facebook Photos Size Guide for 2019
Ever tried using photos and images on your Facebook page? It can be frustrating. So here’s an up-to-date guide explaining what’s what, what’s where, and how big.
How to Share 360° Photos
So you’ve shot some cool new 360 degree photos. How do you share them so other people can see them? Here are some places to start.
Organizing Photos into WordPress Media Library Folders
If you have a lot of photos in your Wordpress Media Library and are looking for a better way to organize them, the WP Media Folder plugin provides a way to create virtual collections without messing up your underlying filesystem.
How to Embed an Animated GIF in WordPress
If your animated GIFs aren’t animated when you embed them in a Wordpress post, there’s a simple fix.
Finding and Cleaning Unused Images in the WordPress Media Library
This plugin does two things: scans your Wordpress media library for unused images and scans your uploads folder for images that aren’t in the media library.
Mevo, the Live-Action and Live-Editing Camera
Livestream have put out a new live-action, real-time editing camera, the Mevo. Here’s my hands-on review.
NextoDI NVS2801 Portable Memory Card Backup Device – Review
The new NextoDI NVS2801 memory card backup device will especially be of interest to photographers shooting with CFAST 2.0 or XQD memory cards.
How to Extract Still Image JPGs from a Video File
Sometimes it’s easier to visualize the contents of a video file with a sequence of thumbnails or still images. Here’s a quick, easy, and free way to extract JPGs at intervals from a video file.
JPEGmini Review
JPEGmini promises that their proprietary algorithm can dramatically reduce the size of JPGs with no discernible loss in quality. So I put their secret sauce to the test.
Things I Learned Moving My WordPress Sites from HTTP to HTTPS
I recently moved some of my sites from regular HTTP to HTTPS with SSL. Here’s are some things I learned along the way.
Review of ImageRecycle Image Optimization Service for WordPress
ImageRecycle is a cloud-based image optimization service that can shrink the size of your image files. Here’s another in my series of reviews of image optimization tools for Worpdress.
How to Upload 360° Videos from a Ricoh Theta S to Youtube
Youtube is one of the few big players that support 360° video so far. Here’s how to upload and share the video footage you’ve shot with a Ricoh Theta S on the service.
How to Share 360° Videos from a Ricoh Theta S on Facebook
So far there are only a few options for sharing the 360° videos you’ve shot with your Ricoh Theta S. Here’s how to upload and share them with Facebook.
Lexar Professional Workflow Memory Card Readers
Lexar has come up with a new way to streamline the chore of downloading photos from your memory cards to your computer: the Lexar Professional Workflow system.
Review of the Spyder5ELITE for Desktop Display, Laptop, & Projector Color Calibration
The Spyder5ELITE is the top model in the Spyder5 display color calibration range. Here’s how it compares to the Spyder5PRO.
Review of the ColorSpace UDMA3 Portable Memory Card Backup Device
My hands-on review of the new ColorSpace UDMA3 portable memory card backup device.
Stacking Font Awesome Icons in WordPress
Stacking Font Awesome icons does work in Wordpress, but it needs a simple tweak to work around one of Wordpress’s editing quirks.
Review of the RocketStor Thunderbolt Dual-Bay Hard Drive Dock
Hard drive docks for naked hard drives have been available with USB interfaces for several years. Now there’s a new dock with a Thunderbolt interface that promises up to double the speed. But it’s not going to be a good fit for everyone.
Calibrating a Display with the i1 Display Pro
A correctly calibrated display helps in your photo processing workflow and ensures better end results. Here’s how the i1 Display Pro performs.
Calibrating Your Display with the Spyder5PRO
Using a color calibrated monitor can save a lot of time, aggravation, and ink, and helps ensure that your images look their best when viewed elsewhere. Here’s my hands-on review of the Spyder5PRO from Datacolor.
WP Smush Pro Image Optimizer for WordPress
WP Smush Pro builds on the oldest of the cloud image optimization services. Here’s how the reborn version stacks up.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer for WordPress
There are several cloud-based image optimization services available for Wordpress. I put ShortPixel through its paces to see how to stacks up to the competition.
Smartphone Apps for Tracking the Sun, Moon, and Stars
Whether you’re trying to make it for magic hour, line up the sun or moon with a landmark, or just want to make sure your subject is shown in the best natural light, smartphone apps that calculate the location of the sun and moon for any location on earth for any date and time can come in very handy.
MOVO MTP-10 Timelapse Panning Base
The MOVO MTP-10 is one of several devices for adding rotation and panning to timelapse captures. It’s a significant step up in both features and price than some alternatives. Here’s my hands-on review.
Camalapse 4 360-Degree Panning Timelapse Base
If you’re looking for a way to spice up your timelapse captures, adding some rotation can be a good start. Here’s my hands-on review of the Camalapse 4 360-Degree Panning Timelapse Base.
How to Prevent the Photos App from Launching in Mac OSX
Mac OSX El Capitan wants to launch the new Photos app automatically every time you insert a memory card or connect a device. Here’s how to stop it.
Kraken.io Image Optimizer for WordPress
Kraken.io is a Wordpress plugin and cloud service combination that aims to reduce to file size of your images in order to speed up your site. Here’s how it works in practice.
Is there any benefit to using WebP images on my website?
WebP is an emerging image format that is designed to create images that are visually indistinguishable from JPGs (or PNGs) but with much smaller file sizes. That in turn makes for a faster website.
Optimus Image Optimizer for WordPress Review
Optimus is a plugin and cloud service combination that promises to dramatically reduce the filesize of your images and speed up your Wordpress site. Here’s my hands-on review.
Digital Foci Picture Porter Advanced – Hands-on Review
The Digital Foci Picture Porter Advanced is feature-packed. Here’s how it stacks up in real-world use for backing up photos without a computer while traveling.
YouTube Banner Size and Channel Art Guide for 2019 Layout
If you’re looking to make the most of your YouTube channel art, here’s a rundown of the sizes and layout.
Making Photos on a WordPress Site Sharp on Retina Displays
If you want your photos to look their best on new high pixel density Retina displays, here’s a Wordpress plugin to help.
WD MyPassport Wireless Review
The WD MyPassport Wireless is a portable hard drive that can be used to stream media to mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. But it’s also a cost-effective option for backing up your photos while traveling.
Backing up Photos to the Cloud with Syncovery
Syncovery is a program that offers extreme flexibility in where, what, how, and when to back up photos to the cloud, local hard drives, or network drives.
HyperDrive ColorSpace UDMA2 Memory Card Backup Device
Memory card backup devices combine a battery-powered hard drive with a memory card reader so you can back up your photos and videos without a computer. Here’s my hands-on review of the ColorSpace UDMA2.
Geotagging Software
Here’s a roundup of software that will take your photos and a GPS tracklog and marry them together to geotag your photos.
Using a Garmin Fenix 3 GPS Watch for Geotagging Photos
Garmin’s new Fenix 3 sports watch isn’t aimed at photographers, but it makes for a surprisingly useful tool for travel photography.
GPS Trackers for Photographers
For travel photography, location matters. Whether you’re trying to track your adventures on a map or enter caption information in the image metadata, it helps to know exactly where a photo was taken.
NextoDI ND2901 Portable Memory Card Backup Device
A hands-on review of the NextoDI ND2901 portable memory card backup device for backing up photos and videos from memory cards to a hard drive without using a computer.
Useful Plugins and Tools When Migrating WordPress
If you’re moving your Wordpress site or changing its structure, here are some handy tools that help with some aspects of the migration.
Portable Hard Drives for Photographers
A roundup of some of the best options for small, reliable external hard drives that are perfect for backing up your images while traveling.
Instagram Photo Size Guide for 2019
If you’re posting images to Instagram, whether from a phone or computer, here’s my unofficial guide to photo and picture sizes for Instagram posts.
Guide to Cropping Thumbnails in WordPress
Thumbnails come in handy in all sorts of places in Wordpress. Here’s a guide to the various ways to crop an image within Wordpress.
How to Resize WordPress Thumbnails
If you change your Wordpress theme or even just tweak the layout of your existing theme, you might need to change the size of your thumbnails. Here’s how to do it.
Lightroom Alternatives
Lightroom might be the most popular one-stop image management and image processing app, but it’s not the only option. Here are some apps to look at if you’re after an alternative to Lightroom.
6 of the Best WordPress Plugins for Photographers
Wordpress is a great platform out of the box. Here are some plugins that make it even better for photographers’ websites.
Removing Dust and Scratches with Photoshop
If you’re scanning film, slides, or prints, you’re almost certainly going to run into the problem of dust and scratches. Here’s a handy technique for removing them that works particularly well with black and white images.
Resizing Oversized Photos in WordPress
If you find your Wordpress site is getting overweight with oversized original photos, the Imsanity plugin can trim them down to more sensible sizes.
EWWW Image Optimizer Cloud Review
If you use a lot of images on your Wordpress site and are serious about speeding it up, image optimization is a great place to start and can give some really impressive gains for very little work or expense.
How to Scan Oversize Images with a Flatbed Scanner
Need to scan something that’s larger than your scanner’s window? Here’s how to do it with any flatbed scanner and panorama stitching software.
Amazon Prime Photos and Amazon Cloud Drive for Backing Up Photos
Amazon Prime Photos and Amazon Cloud Drive now offer unlimited storage for your photos. I took it for a spin and see how they perform as ways to back up photos to the cloud.
Turn Any Internal Hard Drive into an External Hard Drive
Using bare hard drives can be a cheaper and less cluttered way of making external hard drives. Here’s an option for turning any hard drive into an external hard drive.
How to Share Photos with Dropbox
Dropbox is primarily designed for backing up and syncing files. But it’s also a very handy way to share photos quickly and easily.
Sharing a Keyboard and Mouse on Two Macs with Yosemite
If you’re looking to share a single keyboard and mouse between two Macs, there’s a new option on the block: Sharemouse.
Creating a Photo Collage with TurboCollage App for Mac
TurboCollage for Mac is a great option for creating photo collages, whether it’s for a photo book, a print, or your Facebook Cover Photo.
How to Remove Unwanted Adobe Creative Cloud Apps
If you’ve got CC and CC 2014 versions of your Adobe Creative Cloud apps installed, here’s how to remove the unwanted versions.
6 Fun Ways to Share Photos of Your Kids with Their Grandparents
If your kids’ grandparents are all over Facebook, more power to them. If they’re not, here are some ideas for sharing baby photos with the grandparents in ways that provide a lasting memory they can hold in their hands.
Cloud Photo Storage and Backup for Photographers
Storing and backing up your photos in the cloud is now a viable option. But not every cloud storage service is a good fit for serious photographers. Here’s a rundown of some of the best options.
How to Put Your Image ALT Tags to Work in WordPress
Most of the time, you’ll never see your image ALT tags. But they matter.
How To Compile a TimeLapse with Quicktime 7 Pro
A step-by-step guide to compiling time-lapse video footage from a sequence of time-lapse photos in Apple’s Quicktime Pro.
Web Fonts for WordPress
You want your site to look good. You want it to have some personality. And you want it to be easy to read. Web fonts can help with all three.
Optimizing Images for the Web with ImageOptim
If you’re posting images on the web there are very good reasons to keep the files as small as possible. ImageOptim makes images smaller without sacrificing quality.
Using Google Trends to Choose Between Similar Search Terms
Sometimes you need to choose which of several similar search terms to emphasize for SEO. Rather than relying just on your gut instinct, here’s how to use actual data with Google Trends.
How to Set ‘Paste and Match Style’ as Default on Mac OSX
If you’re pasting from one application to another, it can get infuriating when the formatting from the copied text gets transported into the target document. Here’s a way to fix it.
Twitter Header Photo, Profile Picture, and Post Image Sizes
There are various places you can use images on Twitter, including the header photo, your profile picture, and on your timeline or feed. Here’s a rundown of the various sizes of each.
How to Compile Time-Lapse Video with Time Lapse Assembler
A step-by-step guide to using Time Lapse Assembler to create timelapse video footage from a sequence of timelapse photos.
How to Get Sharp(er) Facebook Cover Photos
Getting fuzzy images, text, or logos on your Facebook images? Facebook has closed some of the old loopholes, but here’s a tip worth trying.
How to Insert the Content Of One Post Into Another in WordPress
There might be times you want to insert the content of one post in another post. Here’s a Wordpress plugin that does just that.
New Top Level Domains for Photography Websites
If you’re looking for the perfect domain name for your photography website, you now have some new options. There are new top level domains available related to photography, such as .photography, .camera, and .lighting.
The Photographer’s Guide to Making Money
The subtitle of this book is “150 Ideas for Cutting Costs and Boosting Profits.” And that really sums up the book. Its goal is to help you think differently about what you’re already doing.
iStockPhoto Image Sizes
A table of image sizes in pixels and megapixels for contributing images to iStockPhoto.com.
How to Prevent Photoshop from Flattening Layers When Converting the Color Profile
When you convert color profiles in Photoshop, it will flatten all the layers by default. If you don’t want the layers flattened, here’s the simple fix.
Timelapse Calculator for iPhone
Timelapse Calculator for iPhone is a simple yet effective app for calculating shoot durations, frame rates, and clip lengths for creating time-lapse video.
How to Allow Public Access to an Amazon S3 Bucket
If you’re using an Amazon S3 bucket to share files, you’ll first need to make those files public. If you don’t, your users will get an XML error message saying the file is unavailable. Here’s how to fix it.
TIFF Compression Options: ZIP vs LZW
A guide to using ZIP and LZW compression for TIFF images, along with real-world examples.
Time-Lapse Photography with a Panasonic Lumix GF1
One of my few complaints about the Panasonic Lumix GF1 is that it doesn’t have a built-in intervalometer to take time lapse shots. But for about $50-$70 you can get a third party timer cable release that does the job quite nicely.
How to Make a Facebook Cover Photo Collage with Lightroom
A step-by-step guide for making a custom collage for your Facebook Cover Photo with Lightroom Classic
Using Typekit Fonts with Photoshelter
Using Typekit fonts with a Photoshelter customized site is quite straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
At War with the Dust Bunnies: Tips for Changing Lenses on the Go
Dust bunnies, which leave ugly dark spots and marks on your images, are one of the annoyances of digital photography. If you’re changing lenses on the go there are some tricks to minimize them.
Capturing the Sun and Moon: The Photographer’s Ephemeris
What if you want to be sure to get a shot of the sunset over a mountain range or the full moon with the Eiffel Tower? The Photographer’s Ephemeris helps with that.
FileChute: Sending Oversized Attachments to Email Recipients
FileChute for Mac OS X makes it easy to send large, oversized attachments to email recipients by automatically packaging and uploading the files to your server and generating the download link you can insert into your email.
