IPOD users

[Teachable]

If there are any Ipod users out there - I just got one - There are a number of pod casts availible on Photoshop and Digital photography. Some have useful content - depending your level of expertise. However there are a few with some nifty techniques that even advanced users might enjoy. Actually, I dont think you even need to own an IPOD to view the pod casts. You do however, download ITunes (Which is free). I think if you simply google ipod or itunes you will get the link to download Itunes. Good Luck. Also, if there are any IPOD users out there that would like to make suggestions of specific podcasts, please send links on this thread. Thanks!

[Mac]

Here are a few shows I watch or listen to regularly:

Photoshop TV (www.photoshoptv.com)
The Candid Frame (www.candidframe.com)
Photo Walk Through (www.photowalkthrough.com)
Tips From the Top Floor (www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com)

I have heard lenswork has a good podcast too, but I have yet to download some and check them out...http://www.lenswork.com/lwpod.htm

[musthavemuzk]

definitely the candid frame.
not so much on photography, but more on what got others into photography and how they do things and how they see things and so on.

but since you have an ipod you already have itunes. so take some time to do a search for photography and any variation of it.
photography--digital photography--photoshop
pay attention to the cross linkage as it says others also tried this one or that one out.
pay attention to other podcasts that are mentioned in the ones you do listen to.
remember they can add up fast. and you can run out of time to listen to them all. so do this manually so you control what gets downloaded and sample the ones that interest you. unless on broadband then it is not as big a deal. same goes for only so much room on the hard drive.

if you can hook up your ipod in the car then do so. this way you can podcast while in the car as well. whether this is a hard wire as my eclipse has an input that i run mine into. or using an fm transmitter to broadcast and pick it up on the fm radio channel you are set up to.

but beyond the candid frame i am at a loss for specific ones to recomend.

of the podcasting i do, a majority of them are photography related. then comes car and mountain bike related ones.

some are boring and i only check them when the title interests me.
some are hit and miss from one episode to the next.

tips from the top floor come highly talked about from the candid frame.

for now

Monty

[ap.]

Andy's Top iPod Tips:

Free Audiobooks: Go to librivox.org where kind folks volunteer their time to read public domain books, like "War of the Worlds" or "Anne of Green Gables". Now, if you want these to show up in the "Audiobooks" category in iTunes and iPod it takes some work.

1. Import the downloaded MP3 into iTunes (no .OGG support).
2. Go to the iTunes preferences and set the encoding to AAC, audiobook quality.
3. in iTunes right-click on the book file and "Convert to AAC". After awhile this will make a duplicate file.
4. Select the new file, and press CTRL-R to open the folder that contains it.
5. Change the file extension from .m4a to .m4b
6. Now, re-import the file into iTunes.
7. Delete the other two old versions using CTRL + Delete.

Free Music: Lots of lesser known bands love to promote themselves by giving away free singles of their music. Finding them is the trouble. My fav sites are GarageBand.com, Download.com, Salon.com and You Ain't No Picasso.

Video Cable: for the iPod video you don't need to buy Apple's overpriced cable. You can get one from Radio-Shack for around $15. It should have the 3 RCA plugs (Red, Yellow, White) on one end and what looks like a long headphone plug on the other. The trick is that Apple switched the wire colors around. So, plug each color into the one to the right of it, or try different combinations. One wire is video, the other 2 are left and right stereo.

Slide shows: My wife teaches art and uses the poddy weekly as her presentation device. I set up a folder that's it's easy to find. Then, I set the iPod (via iTunes) to automatically update photos from there whenever it's connected. For each lesson she creates a new sub-folder, like "Impressionism", and saves images into it. Then, at school she hooks the pod to a TV with that cheap video cable.

iCar Stereo: If you have a cassette player it's easy, just buy one of those headphone-to-cassette thingies. Be sure to keep the iPod volume around 75% or low bass will peak out and sound bad. For CD players, umm ... well if you don't have an audio-in plug you'll need an ipod radio transmitter. We have one, but I don't like it. Check consumer reviews first.

Photo Transfer: Although you can get an adaptor to dump your camera cards onto a pod, it's not really practical. A 1GB transfer will drain most or all of the pod's battery life. Just buy another memory card.

Happy podding!

[dorkn]

Also check out studiolighting.net podcast if you have a interest in studio photography.

[musthavemuzk]

good tips andy but we need to clarify a little bit here.
that vid cable is cool and it is cheap for sure, BUT it will NOT play the video from the ipod. it simply will play the slideshows of photos from the ipod.
i am looking for a cheap cable to output the video on from my ipod. only one i see is the apple one at 100 usd. there has to be a cheaper one.
the video plays out of the 30pin connector and not the headphone jack.
apples cheap vid cable is 30 usd so that radioshack one is definitely a cheaper option at 15, but i am sure you could find one for less as well.

the fm transmitters. well they work, but are definitely not as good as plugging directly into my head unit in my car. the cable cost 5 usd and is 6ft long. works great for me. the fm stansmitter i bought is a belkin tunecast II. it comes with the cord to power the tunecast so you do not have to use batteries. as the batteries last less than 6hrs. i also bought the belkin car charger to charge my ipod to go with it. the transmitte works better then nothing and it is nice to not have to carry so many cd's or hope to find a good radio station.
yes there is a bit of static with it, but my biggest complaint is finding a station that is empty to use. one short trip (3hrs each way) we got lucky only had to change 3 or 4 times at the beginning of the trip to find one then used it the rest of the trip. the next time and even shorter trip (an hour each way) i was good til i got close to the destination then i had to change several times and finally gave up once i got inside the city limits.
the belkin uses the headphone jack.
some use the 30 pin.
www.ilounge.com has some good reviews and is ahelpful forum for things ipod.

definitely waste of time to transfer photos using it. unless in a dire emergency.

so this time i have itunes open
lets see what i am subscribed to
this is the podcast name as it is listed
2 minute photoshop tricks
American PHOTO Podcasts
fine art photography of earth and sky podcasts
inside digital photo
jeff curto - photo history lectures
lenswork - photography of the creative process
lightsource studio photography podcast
michelle's digital touchup
photography 101
photography podcast - photography blog - photography.ca
photoshop essential skills
photoshop killer tips
photoshop tv
pop photo podcasts
shutter stories
the candid frame
the luminous landscape vodcast
the third eye
through the lens
TPN:: the digital photography show
understanding adobe photoshop

some are good some are not so good. some are short some are long
some of them are simply event coverage. some have not been updated in a bit.

there is also tips from the top floor but i seem to always forget about it when i open itunes. i hear that mentioned on the candid frame frequently.

only recomendation i can makeis to spend some time looking to see what is out there and trying it. as they can range from tips on how to shoot, to photoshop tips, to just discussions on gear.
i like the candid frame alot as it is a photographer talking to photographers about how they got into photography. some experiences they have had. how they do what they do. they talk about influences they have had.

definitely set the podcast section up to manually get them or just the latest one or you could end up with downloads forever if you go crazy subscribing and it is set to get them all.

i am sure there are websites available to get them that way instead of through itunes. as i know many of the tech ones have multiple options as the tech industry is so huge. some of those vidcasts are several hundred megs as well in HD.

Monty

[ap.]

good tips andy but we need to clarify a little bit here.
that vid cable is cool and it is cheap for sure, BUT it will NOT play the video from the ipod. it simply will play the slideshows of photos from the ipod.
i am looking for a cheap cable to output the video on from my ipod. only one i see is the apple one at 100 usd. there has to be a cheaper one.
the video plays out of the 30pin connector and not the headphone jack.
apples cheap vid cable is 30 usd so that radioshack one is definitely a cheaper option at 15, but i am sure you could find one for less as well.

Monty,
video options will depend on what generation iPod you have. Only 30 GB or larger iPods can play movies. Nanos can only do slides. If you have the right iPod then check the settings. See if video out is set to "on" or "ask".

[Teachable]

Thanks for all the good podcast sites. I plan to check some of them out!

NOTE: On video cables -- You have to make some setting adjustments for the "TV OUT" to work. You have to go to Video setting and change "TV" to "ON". If not, no cable will works.
There appears to be something propriarity about the IPOD cables. I have a cable for a digital cable that is the same configuration but it did not work.Best Buy has a video cable for much less. For around 89USD you can get a useful kit with the video cables, car charger, home charger, and a couple of other extras. All the items seem to work well.

[musthavemuzk]

first off i stand corrected. i will get to that part in a bit.

i have an 80 gig gen 5.5 ipod.
in my reading i could have swore i read that to play video out you needed that $100 kit. as i swore i read that the sold separately cable only allows slide shows and sound out of the ipod. so in my continued reading and what i read on the package at a store i decided i had to buy the Belkin cable and see if it would work. Belkin part number is F8Z030-12-APL. it says it will play video, photos and sound through the cable. cost was $20 so i made the purchase. and well it does work. though i had to put two and two together to change the video settings on my own. it said nothing about that.
so i stand corrected in that you can play videos with the cheap cable. for some reason i thought that $100 set was the only way. as well as i was under the impression that the only way to play video out of the ipod was through the 30 pin connector. no way did i think that you could play video out of the headphone jack. looking at the end it is different than a normal headphone jack. there is an extra ring. on the back of the box it says the cable can be used with other devices by reversing the red and yellow plugs.

i felt it a good idea to correct my misinformation.

Monty

[MoboHaji]

There are also lots of good videos on YouTube for PS work and such.

[musthavemuzk]

and if you use firefox for your web browser there are addons that you can save the streaming you tube files to your computer for viewing later. then using one of the convertor programs you can put it on your ipod.

just remember there is only so much time in day to doo everything you want to do.

Monty

[Sparky534]

I got a 60GB Video iPod for my birthday a year ago and I thoroughly enjoy it. One of the podcasts I subscribe to (through iTunes) is The Photoshop Workbench. It is a weekly video podcast by Mark Johnson from The Radian Vista website. Each episode is a step-by-step tutorial by Mark. During each episode Mark uses a different user-submitted photo and then enhances their photo using certain techniques which are thoroughly explained in the tutorial. It is done slowly enough that even a Photoshop newbie can follow it, but has enough content to be useful for even experienced users. I look forward to each new episode. I HIGHLY recommend this podcast for anyone interested in photo retouching and enhancing. Subscribe through iTunes or visit the website at http://www.radiantvista.com/ There are also many other tutorial sections on the website in PDF form.
Enjoy!