February 2010 Archives

© Nick Turpin - All Rights Reserved

Lasting Impressions: Photobook Colloquium by Nick Turpin

The Photobook is a fundamental part of the the work of many Photographers, for many it is their aim, their final object and many things must come together if they are to reach an audience with their work.

The traditional model is under a lot of stress, Photobook buyers only have a certain amount of money in their pockets and there is a proliferation of titles on the market, the pie has shrunk in the last decade and they need to reduce the number of slices taken out if they are to continue to make and sell Photobooks.

Nick Turpin

© Onaka Koji - All Rights Reserved

5B4: Distance and Slow Boat by Onaka Koji

Yutaka Takanashi in an interview once described his approach while working on Toshi-e as, "...two conflicting creatures settled into my body.

One is a 'hunter of images', aiming exclusively to shoot down the invisible, and the other is a 'scrap picker' who can only believe in what is visible."

Onaka Koji, a contemporary scrap picker to Takanashi has produced several books over the past ten years, of which, and Distance are my favorites.

Mr. Whiskets

© Todd Mcvey - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Todd Mcvey.

Jim

Photoshop and Photography: When Is It Real? by David Pogue

But meanwhile, we live in an age where Photoshop jobs are commonplace, reality TV shows dominate the airwaves, and news bites are taken out of context and manipulated.

Maybe, these days, the question isn't "What is a photograph?"; it's "What is reality?"

David Pogue

© Eric Brasseur - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Gamma Explained.

Jim

You can learn about gamma by reading this, even if you're not that interested in the gamma error.

Jim

Gamma error in picture scaling by Eric Brasseur

There is an error in most photography scaling algorithms.

All software tested (August 2007) had the problem: The Gimp, Adobe Photoshop, CinePaint, Nip2, ImageMagick, GQview, Eye of Gnome, Paint and Krita.

Also three different operating systems were used: Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

Eric Brasseur

© Dave Black - All Rights Reserved

Dave Black: Mixing Flash and Ambient Light

Combining light from an off-camera flash with ambient (available) light—commonly referred to as using fill flash—is a technique you can use to capture the details often lost when a scene has sharp variations in contrast.

Dave Black

© Lindsay Silverman - All Rights Reserved

Flash Points: The Control of Light

Dragging the shutter is a technique that offers a lot of creativity when a moving subject is involved.

The key element is time: when will the flash fire—at the start or the end of the exposure?

Nikon

© William Eggleston - All Rights Reserved

Also go to The Crusade For Color Photography by Claire O'Neill.

Jim

The Kings of Kodachrome by Philip Gefter

Black and white photography is such a relic of another age that it is hard to imagine, as recently as the 1970s, the art world's hostility to color.

William Eggleston's Color Photographs, for example, the first one-man show of color work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, was considered the worst exhibit of the year.

Hilton Kramer repudiated John Szarkowski, the museum's curator of photography, for throwing caution to the wind when he spoke of Eggleston's work as "perfect."

"Perfect?" Kramer wrote in The New York Times.

"Perfectly banal, perhaps."

"Perfectly boring, certainly."

Philip Gefter

© LUNA Commons - All Rights Reserved

LUNA Commons

LUNA Commons is a new source for finding valuable, educational content from digital collections built in the Insight Software from Luna Imaging, Inc. and presented in Insight's dynamic new LUNA browser.

LUNA Commons

© Joe Raedle - All Rights Reserved

NSFW due to violence.

Jim

Two Wars, Five Perspectives

As the seventh anniversary of the United States' 2003 invasion of Iraq approaches—and as American and NATO forces gear up for a major push into a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan—LIFE asked five outstanding photographers who have covered both wars to reflect on the conflicts, and on their own work.

Collectively, these four men and one woman have taken tens of thousands of photographs from the two wars; here, they've each chosen a handful of images that, for reasons as varied as their utterly distinct styles, resonate most deeply with them.

The pictures that follow, and the photographer's words that accompany them, comprise a chronicle of courage, folly, misery, hubris—in short, a look at humans at their best, their worst, their most guarded, and their most vulnerable.

WARNING: Some of the images depict extreme violence.

Life

© PBH3 - All Rights Reserved

This posting is SFW, but other postings on the website may be NSFW.

Jim

1938 Dating Guide For Single Women

Apparently, the only keys to successful dating in the 1930's for ladies were dont talk too much, wear a bra, and don't pass out in the middle of your date because you're drunk.

PBH3

© Harry Benson - All Rights Reserved

Also go to 50mm Lens: Good for Low Light & Smooth Backgrounds.

Jim

How to Take Better Low-Light Photos

Don't be afraid.

You'll be surprised just how good your photos will be.

Make sure there is some light on your subject's face.

But be brave about it.

Harry Benson

© Mr Toledano - All Rights Reserved

NSFW

Jim

Mr Toledano : A new kind of beauty

Perhaps we are creating a new kind of beauty.

An amalgam of surgery, art, and popular culture?

And if so, are the results the vanguard of human induced evolution?

Mr Toledano

© Adobe - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Photoshop Elements.

Jim

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8: Review

The new interface, editing tools and templates that Elements 8 offers make for a powerful program that developing photography enthusiasts will love.

Adam Smith

© Harald Woeste - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Panoramas.

Jim

Panorama images can be created in a variety of ways, from the first round paintings in the 18th and 19th centuries, to the first photographic panoramas in the middle of the 19th century, right up to modern, digital panoramas created using computer-based image processing techniques.

Harald Woeste

© Stephen Dupont - All Rights Reserved

Bombed in Afghanistan: What is Smithsonian magazine's ethical obligation to their freelance journalist injured on assignment? by Katie Rolnick

As media outlets turn increasingly to freelancers in order to cut costs, the risks for hired journalists become more evident.

Australian Paul Raffaele is a case in point.

Raffaele worked as a freelancer for Smithsonian magazine for more than three years, until April 2008, when he was injured on assignment in Afghanistan.

While sitting in a vehicle parked inside a police base in a small Afghan town, Raffaele was grievously wounded by a suicide bomb attack that shot pieces of metal into his elbow, chest and brain, where they remain today.

Twenty-two policemen were killed in the attack, carried out by a 12-year-old boy.

An additional 32 were wounded.

Now, disabled and unable to work as before, he wonders why Smithsonian magazine refuses to assist him.

For the many freelancers out in the field, Raffaele's plight offers a sobering, cautionary tale.

Katie Rolnick

© Tim Cothren - All Rights Reserved

An Interview with Tim Cothren: A TV Cameraman in Haiti by Ron Steinman

N24, Germany's largest news channel, called cameraman Tim Cothren in New York three days after the January 12 quake and asked him how quickly he could get to Haiti to help cover the earthquake.

He had worked for them in Iraq as an embedded cameraman during "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and over the years had also done other work for N24 and its sister channel, SAT.1 TV.

He would be in Haiti to relieve a team that had been on the ground since the second day.

The German news channel needed him to produce several short news stories per day, edit them, feed them, and do 'live' stand-ups for the morning news shows that were six hours ahead.

Once in Port-au-Prince, his workday would be 24 hours long with snatches of sleep as best as possible.

Ron Steinman

© Nancie Battaglia - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Nancie Battaglia "... in motion..." and Nancie Battaglia.

Jim

Interview with Nancie Battaglia by Graham Lanktree

© Joe Stevens - All Rights Reserved

Vans and the places where they were.

© Alex - All Rights Reservedserved

Also go to PATH.

Jim

Overcoming Creative Block by Alex

I do not know what to write.

I am sitting here staring at the screen, running sentences in my head, and turning my music on and off.

Earlier I went foraging for food (in hopes of sparking some magical words), but ended up getting distracted by Arrested Development for 20 minutes.

This happens just about every time I sit down to do anything.

I'll probably go play the guitar between this paragraph and the next.

Alex

© Miroslav Tichy - All Rights Reserved

Miroslav Tichy - An Ogling Subversive With a Homemade Camera by Karen Rosenberg

The photographs are blurry, skewed, badly printed and in terrible condition: dog-eared, scratched, spotted and encrusted with who knows what.

They all show girls and young women, in streets and public parks, going about their business and mostly unaware of the camera.

Karen Rosenberg

Photographers- How To Deal With Infringements

Infringements are rampant these days, both because it's easier for the infringers to find and copy your images and because too many people think that they have a right to use your photos when they don't or think that they won't be caught.

Fortunately, you can take steps to combat infringement.

But the steps you take may limit your ultimate remedies so be sure to first understand what are your options.

Carolyn E. Wright

LensTip.com has lots of reviews

Jim

LensTip.com

© Kate Stone - All Rights Reserved

Kate Stone - Photos That Fall Apart At The Seams by Claire O'Neill

At a glance, Kate Stone's photographs might look like normal landscapes and living rooms.

But wait, that house is kind of warped ... and that buffalo is standing on a hardwood floor?

Stone begins by photographing a scene.

She then prints the images, reassembles them in a 3-D sculpture, and photographs them again.

The result: these unusual montages.

Claire O'Neill

© Lester B. Morrison - All Rights Reserved

Lester B. Morrisonv by Mr. Whiskets

I got nearly all the bottles filled before I started floating out of my body.

The tension was incredible.

Like before a storm.

Big thunderheads rolling in, the temperature is dropping and the wind comes up, turning the leaves over the way it does, rustling through your hair and clothes.

I couldn't stand it any longer.

I licked my hands all over, drank what was left in the burette, then knocked back a couple vials just to make sure I'd be good and dosed.

I still have super-power acid night vision, cognitive invisibility and... (phone disconnects) (tape ends)

Lester B. Morrison

© Wisconsin Historical Society - All Rights Reserved

Albert Hansen - Prophetic Pictures from Menominie, WI

The album comprises 32 photographs taken in 1905 of graduates of Menomonie High School in Dunn County.

It doesn't describe the students' extracurricular activities nor does it reveal their hopes, dreams and aspirations upon leaving high school.

Instead, photographer Albert Hansen and "prophet" Sarah Ana Heller, both 1905 class members themselves, portrayed imaginary futures for their classmates in words and pictures.

Wisconsin Historical Society

© Erwin Olaf - All Rights Reserved

Erwin Olaf - Something Is Happening by Nozlee Samadzadeh

With an incredibly detailed eye for life in the 1950s and '60s, Erwin Olaf's photographs offer much more than what's seen at first glance.

Subtle variations in color and the tiniest of precise touches render his models into actors whose stories transcend the moment in which they are photographed.

Nozlee Samadzadeh

© Bruton Stroube Studios - All Rights Reserved

Bruton Stroube Studios - Upside Downy Face

© Nikki Graziano - All Rights Reserved

Nikki Graziano - Found Functions

© Francis Gardler - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Connecting the Eye with the Heart by netbros.

Jim

Chapter 5: Dave LaBelle | On Storytelling by Francis Gardler

Dave LaBelle discusses his thoughts and philosophy on picture stories.

As a photo coach at the Picture Kentucky Workshop Series, LaBelle talks about working with participant Benjamin Brayfield.

Francis Gardler

© www.valleygirl.com.au - All Rights Reserved

Image Forensics : Error Level Analysis

Error level analysis (ELA) works by intentionally resaving the image at a known error rate, such as 95%, and then computing the difference between the images.

If there is virtually no change, then the cell has reached its local minima for error at that quality level.

However, if there is a large amount of change, then the pixels are not at their local minima and are effectively original.

Neal Krawetz, Ph.D.

© John Williams - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Combine Two Photographs .

Jim

Blending Exposures in Photoshop by John Williams

One powerful advantage of the modern digital darkroom is the ability to expand the camera's capability by blending multiple photographs into a single image.

By blending photographs, you can increase the field of view and/or resolution (stitching), remove unwanted elements, reduce noise, increase the depth of field, and increase dynamic range.

Whether you blend using an automated program or by hand, no one method will work best in all situations.

Automated blending programs can be simple to use, time efficient, and produce optimal results with some images.

Unfortunately though, there are many images where the results are less than optimal.

Although blending by hand can be more labor and skill intensive, many images look more natural with this method.

John Williams

© FoldPlay - All Rights Reserved

Make your own Kaleidocycle!

A dynamic new way to show off your photos!

FoldPlay

© Michael Paul Smith - All Rights Reserved

Michael Paul Smith - Photos of my models

What started out as an exercise in model building and photography, ended up as a dream-like reconstruction of the town I grew up in.

It's not an exact recreation, but it does capture the mood of my memories.

And like a dream, many of the buildings show up in different configurations throughout the photos.

Or sometimes, the buildings stay put and the backgrounds change.

Michael Paul Smith

© Jeff Wall - All Rights Reserved

Jeff Wall: The Complete Edition by Guy Lane

Conventional wisdom has it that large-format, tableau photography - as embraced by many of the most prominent art photographers of recent decades - is a means to fictional ends.

That is, it stands opposed to factual modes of reportage and documentary, for example.

But the work of Jeff Wall, one of the most successful photographers working with staged tableaux, undermines and obscures such demarcations and divisions.

Guy Lane

© William Neill - All Rights Reserved

Also go to Color to B&W and Ansel Adams.

Jim

Meditations In Black-And-White by William Neill

I recently had a client ask to see some images—black-and-white nature photographs for a corporate environment.

Since I haven't made black-and-white photos at all during my career, except on a rare occasion, I was surprised.

However, her simple request led me down a path that was both creative as well as successful in terms of business.

William Neill

© George D. Lepp - All Rights Reserved

Trying Infrared by George D. Lepp with Kathryn Vincent Lepp

What are the advantages, if any, of having a digital camera converted solely to infrared capture versus using the B+W 093 IR filter on my DSLR?

G. Gould

© Samantha Chrysanthou - All Rights Reserved

Also go to How to Become a Pro.

Jim

Taking the Plunge: Making the Transition to Pro Photographer by Samantha Chrysanthou

Have you ever sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic on your morning commute to work and wished you could just be out taking pictures for a living?

Perhaps you have received a great deal of encouragement from friends, family and colleagues to start your own photo business and are contemplating taking the plunge and switching careers.

As a relatively recent convert to the world of photography, I'll share some of my experiences and a few tips for any of you seriously contemplating the transition to a full-time photography business.

Samantha Chrysanthou

© Kenn Leonhardt - All Rights Reserved

Crafting Your Photography Website by Kenn Leonhardt

You've spent months and years honing your photography skills, yet the odds are that the majority of your photos sit on your hard drive, doing nothing.

You should change that!

Unless you're a technophobe or that mysterious closet-photographer who doesn't want anyone to see your photos, why not upload your photos to your own photo website?

Setting up a website is as easy as ever and it offers an excellent way to share your photos, while also potentially generating some sales.

Kenn Leonhardt

© Russ Martin - All Rights Reserved

Russ Martin by Michael Werner

My father loaned me one of his Rolleiflex cameras, showed me the basics, and I was on my way.

Once I started, I was hooked. I loved looking through the camera and took pictures of everything and everyone.

Russ Martin

© Robert Williams Wood - All Rights Reserved

Also go to See the world in a whole new light: Infrared by spock.

Jim

On a different wavelength: 100 years of infrared photography by Phil Coomes

This year sees the 100th anniversary of the first published infrared photograph.

Though there had been infrared spectrograms produced before 1910, as far as we know the first infrared images in print were taken by Professor Robert Williams Wood and published in the October 1910 Photographic Journal of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS).

Phil Coomes