Have you felt it yet? That sinking feeling that comes when you realize all of your eggs are effectively in one basket? I’m talking about your “digital eggs”. If you’re like most folks, you have all of your precious photos of friends, family, and if you’re a pro even your client work stored one one rickety hard drive. And here’s the scary thing, YOUR-DRIVE-WILL-FAIL. It doesn’t matter which hard drive you buy, how much, or how little data you store on it… or even if you baby it by running drive maintenance software on it regularly. Hard drives are mechancial devices that have moving parts… parts that over time will wear out, and break. And if you haven’t taken measures to safeguard your data with a multi-faceted backup plan, when your drive dies — it will take your data with it. (more…)
Thanks to some inspiration from Trey Ratcliff after interviewing him for the This Week in Photography podcast, and reading his book A World in HDR, I decided to see what all the fuss is about and give this technique a try for myself.
I grabbed my Nikon D700, a 14-24mm lens, and a tripod, and drove up to San Francisco to see what I could capture. The obvious place to shoot from was the Golden Gate Bridge, I wasn’t trying to create “art” per say, but rather to gather some pixels with which to try out this technique… so the GG was just as good of a spot as any.
I set the camera to auto-bracket five f-stops (+2 and -2) — I realize that I could’ve gotten similar (or the same) results with just three exposures, but then this was all an experiment, and I had a blank 16GB CF card in the camera after all… so what was a few more megabytes? Oh yea, I was shooting in the raw file format. (more…)
UPDATE: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. I’ve selected the winners. I’ll post a video announcing the winners names shortly. Thanks to all who commented — this has been amazing.
I have several really good photography books on my desk that I either have multiples of, or have already finished reading. So, in the spirit of holiday giving, I’d like to give four of them away! So how do you get one?
To win one, just comment on this post!!
You can only pick one book, and make sure you specify in your comment which book you want. And get this — if you win, I’ll even take care of shipping (US only!)
Of course, all of the books are about photography, but from various photographers’ “perspectives”. Here they are listed, with links over to Amazon.com so you can read their full descriptions (in no particular order): (more…)
One of the many problems facing photographers today is the necessity of having a slick looking website, however most shooters lack the skill-set (or desire) to get into the “weeds” of building a site reflective of themselves. We’re long past the age where having a website is optional, today it is imperative that every photographer who intends to do any level of serious business on the Internet has a web presence that reflects both their art and skill, while also providing a way for potential clients and customers to get to know and contact them. Easier said than done.
has been around for several years now — their main goal is to help build websites that reflect Photographers’ craft and artisanship. The problem facing the liveBooks is that their audience is faced with a sophisticated problem, that is, creating a website that’s beautiful and functional while remaining flexible enough to allow the owner to keep it up-to-date and fresh. When you’ve got ISO, F/Stops, raw, etc, who wants to deal with CSS, Flash, HTML, CMS, FTP, and browser compatibility?
…a little known fact is that liveBooks sites have mirroring HTML counterparts to optimize SEO and to help make them Google-friendly.
Like I said, it’s a sophisticated problem but this isn’t to say the audience isn’t sophisticated, they’d just rather be out taking photographs and building their businesses than dealing with the complexities and the code behind designing a competitive website. liveBooks aim to take away the pain (more…)
Moose Peterson is a legendary wildlife photographer… along with being on the front lines as a working shooter, he also helps shape the industry as a Nikon Legend behind the Lens, a member of the Lexar Elite, and recipient of the John Muir Conservation award…to name just a few of his credits.
A longtime Nikon shooter, he was one of the first photographers to receive the original D1 in 1999, and he became the first wildlife photographer to shoot strictly digital in the early years.
Moose joins us today to talk, what else, photography… and maybe share a few tips.
Moose, welcome to this week in photography.
Moose Peterson is a legendary wildlife photographer — along with being on the front lines as a working shooter, he also helps shape the industry as a Nikon “Legend behind the Lens”, a member of the Lexar Elite, and recipient of the John Muir Conservation award, to name just a few of his credits.
As longtime Nikon shooter, he was one of the first photographers to receive the original Nikon D1 in 1999, and he became the first wildlife photographer to shoot strictly digital in the early years of the technology.
Check out this audio interview with Moose as we talk about Nikon, nature, and more.
First up is TiltShiftGen. This app has got to be one of the most underrated iPhone photography applications in the iTunes store. That’s likely due to how its creators have positioned it… wrongly. Even the name hides the power of this thing. For example, in the all-important iTunes title, the developers call it a “Fake DSLR”, and say it “will allow you to create retro miniature pictures”. Sorry guys, but this application does SO much more than create fake miniature pictures. In short, TiltShiftGen has become my go-to application for creating the “look” I like from my iPhone pics. Now I’m admittedly fickle when it comes apps on my iPhone — some sexy new number might show up tomorrow and catch my eye. But for now, I’m completely in love with this one. But why?
Well, for starters I’m a HUGE fan of shallow depth of field, over saturation, vignetting, you know… that sort of stuff. The user interface, features, and speed of this application allow me to create some pretty cool effects very quickly, and just using my thumb. Take this image for example. It’s a simple shot of a Japanese garden taken at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, CA. With about four quick corrections (Blur, Saturation/Contrast, and Vignetting). The image went from “oh nice”, to “oh my!”.
For $0.99, I don’t think this is an application you can afford NOT to purchase.
PhotoGene
Second on my list is PhotoGene. This app is my “Swiss Army Knife” of iPhone Photography. It’s kind of like Photoshop on the iPhone. Kind of what Adobe’s Photoshop iPhone app should’ve been really, complete with cropping, saturation, rotation, sharpening, borders and more. The power of this app becomes clear the first time you see a histogram on your iPhone with shadow, midtown, highlight sliders. Most of what I need for basic on-the-go pixel pushing is tucked neatly in this application. There are a few features I’d love to have, like some sort of rudimentary cloning tool, and more control over the size of borders, etc.
But for my $2.99, I’ve already gotten WAY more than my money’s worth out of this application.
Photographers like Chase Jarvis were early to recognize what a game-changer having a decent camera with you at all times is. But the iPhone camera is so much more than just a camera. Not only do you have a camera with you, but one with photo-manipulation software and a way to share your creations. All of this wrapped up in one pocket-sized package.
So celebrate the restrictions, and the new capabilities of this new kind of image-making. In future posts I’ll go into detail on my other iPhone apps, and how I use them. In the mean time, post your favorite iPhone apps in the comments, and check out a few of my iPhone pics on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredjohnson/
1. TiltShiftGen
First up is TiltShiftGen. This app has got to be one of the most underrated iPhone photography applications in the iTunes store. That’s likely due to how its creators have positioned it… wrongly. Even the name hides the power of this thing. For example, in the all-important iTunes title, the developers call it a “Fake DSLR”, and say it “will allow you to create retro miniature pictures”. Sorry guys, but this application does SO much more than create fake miniature pictures. In short, TiltShiftGen has become my go-to application for creating the “look” I like from my iPhone pics. Now I’m admittedly fickle when it comes to apps on my iPhone — some sexy new number might show up tomorrow and catch my eye. But for now, I’m completely in love with this one. But why? (more…)
At the November 30th TWiP/SmugMug photo shoot I took some photos of two models, with the purpose of demonstrating some quick retouching on the images later. This is a quick video showing how one might quickly (less than 5 minutes!) get started retouching an image in Lightroom 3 Beta. Once you’ve downloaded the beta, be sure to head over to the PhotoshopUser.com Lightroom 3 Learning Center. They’ve created a TON of screen cast videos to get you up to speed on the software.
If you’re interested in early notification of the next workshop, please be sure to join my mailing list.
The last TWiP/SmugMug event was a smashing success. The previous two photo shoots I organized were sold out, and as I was conducting the last event, I noticed that the attendees *really* wanted to shoot too — but I was hogging the model.
I wondered how could I make this more of an interactive experience where everyone could shoot. I decided to make the very next meeting *all* photography. The issue then became how to allow everyone to shoot. Setting up an 100+ equal opportunity shoot ain’t no joke — and all within the span of two hours. This was a huge challenge. The only solution was to remove the need for folks to be able to fire the strobes. (more…)
I recently had the honor of sitting down to record this audio interview (via Skype) with author/photographer David duChemin. David is one of those “next generation” photographers that “gets it”. He is fluent in the latest and greatest photographic trends, technology, social media, etc. And along with being a sickeningly talented photographer, he’s also a brilliant marketer. Wrap all of that up and you’ve got an artist who can not only create masterful visual imagery and write about it — but one that can also publsih it. He’s a one-man creative ecosystem. Click through for the full audio interview… (more…)
At 19 years old, JoeyL already has already built up an enviable career. Hailing from Canada, Joey now lives in New York city but travels the globe taking photographs for clients like Warner Brothers Records, Forbes, NBC, the Scifi Channel, Kawasaki, as well as the Twilight movie ad campaign. And he’s only just getting started.
Even if you don’t recognize his name, you probably have already seen his work. Joey photographed the ad campaign for the hit movie “Twilight”. In this interview Joey and I talk about the Twilight shoot, as well as how he got his start in photography, how he was able to break into the “big time” so quickly. He goes into his thought processes when coming up concepts for his commercial photography gigs. (more…)
The folks over at Peachpit Press saw how many folks entered my last (first) book give-away contest — so they kicked down a few (TEN!) more for me to hand out! These are from their new book series, “From Snapshots to Great Shots” … these books are focused (no pun intended) on teaching you how [...]
On the weekend of Feb 19, 2010, This Week in Photography co-host Joseph Linaschke (the guy behind ApertureExpert.com) and myself conducted the first TWiP workshop – in Joshua Tee, CA. And what an amazing time it was. The TWiP audience had been asking for something more intensive than the informal (though very fun) Meetups I’ve [...]
If you haven’t heard about Syl Arena, you’re missing out. He’s the guy who founded and operates the popular Paso Robles Workshops. In 2009 the workshop featured the likes of Dave Hobby aka the Strobist, and the amazingly talented Joe McNally. He attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara for 6 months, then fled [...]
What an amazing year 2009 was. I had the privilege of interviewing some of the most talented people in the photography industry. In the series of interviews below you’ll hear from; Flickr mavens, stock photography experts, photojournalists, commercial photographers, authors, and more. My thanks to all of the folks who allowed me to interrogate them [...]
, I decided to see what all the fuss is about and give this technique a try for myself.
