Peachpit Commons Blog

The #FridayFreebies fun continues!

Peachpit is proud to announce that four of our titles took home an Award of Excellence in the Trade Professional category at the 39^th annual Booksbuilders West Book show last night.

Amidst all the Apple hoopla, we've got a fun little announcement of our own! This week marks the first of our weekly @Peachpit Friday Freebies!

Question: Joe, on page 1 of Chapter 1 in "The Moment It Clicks" is an image of a ballerina on a very steep roof, being photgraphed by someone. Is that you? What is the deal on this shot? Where and how was it done, and how was the ballerina protected from falling off? Thanks.

2009 was a standout year for Peachpit TV. With well over one million downloads alone across all of our channels (a record for us), we've continued to expand and educate creative professionals in the subjects of Photoshop, Mac automation, digital photography, and Dreamweaver … just to name a few. We’ve also managed to launch our very first Spanish-language channel with bilingual author Rafael Concepcion of Layers TV fame.

Question: I am on a very limited budget and every month I treat myself to some kit. I have a Pentax with a 360 flash and some reflectors, and started buying correcting Gels etc. For me to become proficient with flash lighting, what's the minimum amount of flash units I could get away with -- e.g. 2 or 3-- in order to develop my skill set? I am still using my 18-55 kit lens and can probably save for for a better one, but I am inclined to want to get another flash unit in order to get really good at this. I also bought a Honl 1/4 grid and thinking about a 1/8 as well to slowly build up my kit.

Question: When I looked at the video, "Joe McNally - Empire State Building," I could see the original shot looked much lighter (earlier in the day?) than what I saw on page 3 (worker holds bulb) in The Moment it Clicks, but more like the one on page 236 (Joe takes photo), although a bit lighter.

The Peachpit offices join the Google 3D Warehouse, courtesy of Real World Google SketchUp 7 author Mike Tadros.

Here are short answers to some great questions!

Question: I have just upgraded to an FX body and I'm debating between which two lenses that I should get, the 14-24mm or the 24-70mm.  I shoot events and people in their environments. Which lens would you recommend for those types of photographs?

Q: What do I get for the Web designer who has everything?

The short answer is real estate.

The slightly longer answer is, anything that helps spark their creativity.

The long answer is that, whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or another December holiday (I prefer Saturnalia myself) the Winter Solstice is traditionally a time of gift giving. So, what to give to that Web designer you know who has everything they need to actually make Web sites?

Here are 10 ideas for gifts they will love but not expect.

It’s the holiday season, and I bet some of you are already thinking of your New Year’s resolutions. If one of them is to learn something new in the field of Web design, development, presentation, branding, and much more, then you’re in luck.