Photo Taco Podcast

Jeff Harmon share the top 10 things he learned during the 2017 Improve Photography Retreat. Advertisers for this episode: improvephotographyplus.com $19.99/mo macphun.com/luminar offer code "PHOTOTACO" for $10 off Top Ten from IP Retreat 2017: 1. Not a “relaxing” vacation, exhausting, yet amazing 2. So much fun to be around a lot of photographers-share interest of photography-nerd out together 3. Fail upwards-embrace the experience of “failing”=learning 4. Room to learn more about the exposure triangle for everyone from beginners to level 3-4 or higher 5. Trying other genres of photography will stretch your skills 6. Helping other photographers is so fulfilling and fun 7. My gear is heavy I found out as I dragged it around for 4 days and nights through downtown Phoenix, deserts full of cactus, hiking up mountains,dragging it through hotel lobbies/rooms/crowded elevators, convention rooms, restaurants, and transporting it in the car 8. Sharing and asking for feedback on your work with others can be uncomfortable, but will help you improve your photography 9. Add depth to your photo 9A. Pay attention to your contrast in your photos-look for ways to add depth to your photo on the screen 9B. Notice the saturation on the photo. Too much-no good, too little makes it look flat 10. Improve photography is a group of people who have formed a community to assist each other in improving as photographers. You can’t find that everywhere. 11. Learned so much at this conference to improve the conference to be even better next year. Looking forward to seeing you in Charleston in 2018. Other Resources: Vote for Jeff’s “Cull” module idea to be added to Lightroom: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/less_redundancy_actions_during_import_into_lr_instant_rating_during_import Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon answers listener question from Angela Norton who loved the Culling Like a Pro episode but came away from it wondering something: Angela: Jeff Harmon LOVED this episode. I ignored it in my feed, because I thought I was doing good with culling...LOL... My question is, how are you presenting client proofs? If they are able to give stars, I'm assuming you using something with adobe cloud? Or maybe I misunderstood, and you are presenting in-person. ((Thanks so much for all you do!)) Jeff details how it is he uses the Zenfolio (not an advertisement) web hosting service to accomplish this task and send low resolution proofs to clients so that they can pick the shots they want to be professionally post-processed. This episode was sponsored by improvephotographyplus.com and by MacPhun where listeners can get $10 off their Luminar post-processing software using coupon code "PHOTOTACO" at checkout or by using this link http://macphun.evyy.net/c/362006/185399/3255. Resources mentioned in the episode: Photo Taco - Culling Like a Pro: http://improvephotography.com/43595/photo-taco-culling-like-pro-2/ Jeff's 1,000th Instagram follower: https://www.instagram.com/matthattanyc/ Other resources: Vote for Jeff’s “Cull” module idea to be added to Lightroom: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/less_redundancy_actions_during_import_into_lr_instant_rating_during_import Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon gets expert advice from Instagrammer Josh Packer (@packtography) on how to grow your Instagram account. Within a couple of year Josh has grown his following to better than 50,000 without following many people. They walk through the following questions and more in the episode: How did you build up the following you have today? With only 385 posts on your @packtopgraphy account, and seeing how often you post to it since I am one of those thousands of followers, it can’t be very old? What was your original goal when you started your IG accounts? Has it led to clients for your photography? How much time do you spend on IG? Do you use any tools to post? Do you think the name of the account is important to getting followers? Is it important to keep a small number of following compared to followers? Do certain types of photos seem to do better than others? Have you run contests to expand your following? Do hastags make a difference on expanding your following? What is your strategy with hashtags? Do you use a tool for your hastagging? My own following is only at about 1,000 right now, BTW everyone can follow me @harmonjeff and the official account for the podcast @phototacopodcast, but I have two goals for IG and would like to hear your advice on how to get there because I think listeners will have a similar situation I want to bring attention to this podcast I want to market my landscape photography to people who want to buy landscape scenes from Utah You seem to be using the Story feature on IG quite a bit, have you seen that help expand your audience? What do you think of the new feature that let’s you post up to 10 photos at once? Are you having similar success with other forms of social media other than IG? ===================================== Resources mentioned in the episode: Improve Photography Facebook Live Video - How to Use Instagram to Build a Better Following: https://www.facebook.com/improvephotography/videos/1370925199585336/ Josh Packer’s Amazing Instagram Account: @packtography Josh's Mentor Mark Handy: @markhandyphotography Instagram Photo Josh Mentioned: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ4DjfEhJ2m/?taken-by=packtography MacPhun Luminar Discount Code: PHOTOTACO ======================================= Other Photo Taco Resources: Vote for Jeff’s “Cull” module idea to be added to Lightroom: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/less_redundancy_actions_during_import_into_lr_instant_rating_during_import Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon goes over 10 observations he has made comparing the new Luminar software from MacPhun with the old market leader in Adobe Lightrooom. 1. Non-live histogram 2. Layers Concept 3. Eraser tool (spot removal) 4. Deniose tool (noise reduction) 5. Filters 6. Presets 7. Before/After views 8. Saving 9. Overall speed 10. Pricing Jeff LOVES where MacPhun is going with Luminar and thinks they already have a very feature rich post-processing application here. However, the recommendation for photographers starting here in February 2017 is Lightroom. Start with the stand-alone version of Lightroom for $150 and master it. When you get to the point where you need to do something with a photo that can't be done in Lightroom then go to the Adobe Creative Cloud for Photographers subscription for $10/mo. Keep an eye on MacPhun and their Luminar product though because they are thinking about things differently, have a newer code base to work from, and they are going places fast enough Jeff could easily see Luminar becoming his recommendation for photographers just getting started.

Jeff Harmon and guest Victoria Bampton, better known as the Lightroom Queen, talk about 5 key principles that should guide how they organize their photos both inside and outside of Lightroom: 1. Scalable 2. Easy Backup & Restore 3. No Duplication 4. Standard Characters 5. Consistent Resources mentioned in the podcast: Photo Taco - Lightroom Queen: http://improvephotography.com/40799/photo-taco-lightroom-queen/ Why not organize photos into folders by topic? https://www.lightroomqueen.com/why-not-organize-photos-into-folders-by-topic/ How do I organize photos into folders? https://www.lightroomqueen.com/organize-photos-folders/ How do I use the Import Dialog’s Destination panel to put the photos into dated folders? https://www.lightroomqueen.com/import-create-dated-folders/ How do I use the Import Dialog’s Destination panel to put the photos in per-shoot folders? https://www.lightroomqueen.com/import-destination-shoot-folders/ Why use collections to organize photos? https://www.lightroomqueen.com/collections-organize-photos/ Other resources: Vote for Jeff’s “Cull” module idea to be added to Lightroom: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/less_redundancy_actions_during_import_into_lr_instant_rating_during_import Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon talks about the very latest, 7th generation processors from Intel code named Kaby Lake and if they are meaningful to the performance of Lightroom and Photoshop. Resources mentioned in the podcast: Windows Photo Editing SUPER Guide: http://improvephotography.com/35216/windows-photo-editing-super-guide/ Lightroom CC 2015.8 and Kaby Lake: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Lightroom-CC-2015-8-Intel-Core-i7-7700K-i5-7600K-Performance-880/ Photoshop CC 2017 and Kaby Lake: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CC-2017-Intel-Core-i7-7700K-i5-7600K-Performance-879/ Premiere Pro 2017 and Kaby Lake: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-2017-Intel-Core-i7-7700K-i5-7600K-Performance-884/ Other Resources: Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon brings on guest host Brent Bergherm to answer two listener questions about buying lenses: Steve Blacket: I need to upgrade a lens. I keep looking at different lenses; Nikon, Tamron, Sigma.... It is really tough to decide as every lens has reviews that point out faults. Do you have any advice on choosing lenses or maybe a Podcast topic for a future episode. I shoot Nikon crop sensor and have been looking at full frame lenses. My kit zoom just does not give me sharp images. Anyone else have input?? Catherine Johnson: Continuing the theme on lenses. If we get a podcast on them, Jeff Harmon, could there be some mention on third-party lenses? I'm considering jumping ship from Canon to Sony and Sharky James talks a lot about Samyang lenses. I'm running into controversy on which is better - that brand or Rokinon for Sony e-mount. Jeff and Brent talk about the following when answering the questions: -Samyang vs Rokinon vs Bower They are exactly the same Korean manufacturer, producing lenses that have high image quality but a little bit lower build quality. In fact, Bower is a 3rd brand name for the same manufacturer. From what I have read there isn’t any real difference between them and the different names were supposed to be for marketing purposes in different regions of the world. The more recent lenses they have produced have increased their build quality, but they are plastic lenses held together by glue and small screws. They produce sharp, high quality images, but they might fall a bit more into the “disposable” lens category where you shouldn’t expect them to live through harsh conditions or last for lots of years. Perfect for a lower budget like I have as a hobbyist photographer. They also mostly offer only fully manual lenses. Manual focus and manual aperture. Again, a way to produce a lens that is much less expensive. Jeff has a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens that I picked up on Black Friday in 2016. He has tried it out a couple of times but haven’t really had a good chance to use it yet as my intention is to get Milky Way shots with it and it isn’t the season for it here in Utah. -The process Brent used to determine which lenses he was going to make available in his business? -Should you take into account the reviews from Amazon or other online stores? Do we recommend that a photographer consider those reviews? -What about 3rd party lenses? How would you Brent rank the biggest of the third party vendors like Tamron, Tokina, Sigma, and Rokinon/Samyang, Zeiss. -Are there any lens brands to make sure to completely avoid? -What about buying a lens used? What would you look for? -What about buying lenses made for full frame to use on crop sensor bodies? Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon answers two listeners questions, that became 3 listener questions: Amber Davidson: Have you ever done a podcast on lens speed? I've heard people refer to a lens as "fast" but not all same aperture lenses are considered equal. Could you explain which lenses are ideal for sports and or children due to their ability to focus faster than other vs which you could use for everyday situations? Sidney Kantor: This now has me curious...if two lenses have the same aperture but one lens is just physically bigger, would the bigger lens let in more light and therefore be faster? This sounds like a good topic for a podcast. Jeff talks about fast lenses being those with lower number maximum aperture or f-stop values because that allows the shutter speed to be higher or "fast". He also talks about how lenses can affect autofocus speeds and that f-stops are not entirely accurate on lenses so that two of the same lenses even when the same make or model let in different amounts of light. This is why t-stop is used with lenses made for film makers and because a t-stop lens is actually measure with the amount of light let in and marked accordingly. Check out the awesome article by Roger Clark about how lenses affect autofocus speed: http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/autofocus.speed/ Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon walks through the things he has learned as he has incorporated a graphics tablet into his post processing workflow and some specific settings to look at in Photoshop. Check out Brian Pex's very well done article at improvephotography.com called "8 Reasons You Need a Wacom": 8 Reasons Why You Need a Wacom Tablet: http://improvephotography.com/43742/43742/ Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon answers a question from listener Mike West about Lightroom Virtual Copies and history. He also talks about how to request Adobe add features to Lightroom and a little about the snapshots feature in Lightroom. Resources mentioned in the podcast: Lightroom: New virtual copies should inherit develop history (vote for the idea): https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/new_virtual_copies_should_inherit_develop_history Add “Cull” Module to Lightroom (vote for idea): https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/add-cull-module-to-lightroom Photo Taco - Lightroom Queen: http://improvephotography.com/40799/photo-taco-lightroom-queen/ Photo Taco - Bought Lightroom, Now What?: http://improvephotography.com/42973/photo-taco-bought-lightroom-now/ Photo Taco - Lightroom Collections: http://improvephotography.com/32712/photo-taco-lightroom-collections/ Photo Taco - Lightroom Smart Previews: http://improvephotography.com/39724/photo-taco-lightroom-smart-previews/ Photo Taco - Aspect Ratio: http://improvephotography.com/35813/photo-taco-aspect-ratio/ Other Podcast Resources: Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon shares a tip on how it is he quickly and effectively culls his images using the star rating system in Lightroom and why it is photographers should consider doing the same. Other episodes mentioned: Why and How of Annual Top Ten: http://improvephotography.com/43254/photo-taco-annual-top-10/ Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon answers listener question from Ruben Zaldaña about bit depth setup for Nikon Raw files between 12 and 14 and what choosing 12 would give up in order to get a higher frames per second. =============================== Other articles referred to in the episode: 14 bit vs 12 bit Raw - Can You Tell The Difference? https://photographylife.com/14-bit-vs-12-bit-raw The Canon sRaw and mRaw Ouptut Formats: http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/sRaw.pdf sRaw Format Explained: https://photographylife.com/sraw-format-explained Cambridge Color Bit Depth Tutorial: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/bit-depth.htm DSLR Lounge 14-Bit Lossless Vs 12-Bit Compressed: https://www.slrlounge.com/nikon-raw-nef-file-quality-option-comparison-testing-14-bit-lossless-vs-12-bit-compressed/ Dr. Emil Martinec The Consequences of Noise: http://theory.uchicago.edu/~ejm/pix/20d/tests/noise/noise-p3.html#bitdepth Digital Photography School 12-Bit Vs 14-Bit RAW - Which is Right for You?: http://theory.uchicago.edu/~ejm/pix/20d/tests/noise/noise-p3.html#bitdepth Laura Shoe 8 bit, 12 bit, 14 bit, 16 bit — What Does It Really Mean to Digital Photographers?: http://laurashoe.com/2011/08/09/8-versus-16-bit-what-does-it-really-mean/ ====================================== Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

In this episode of the Photo Taco Podcast, host Jeff Harmon asks listeners to share their Top Ten photos of 2016 on social media and tag them with #phototaco and #topten. Then he talks about how breaking out of his photography comfort zone to take on a new style of photography really helped him to gain confidence and improve as a photography in the last few months of 2016. Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon goes through the why and the how of an annual Top 10 process that helps him make significant progress year after year in improving his photography. He walks through his own setup using the collections feature of Lightroom so that listeners can get setup to make this process much easier next year. Other photo taco episodes mentioned: Photo Taco - Lightroom Collections: http://improvephotography.com/32712/photo-taco-lightroom-collections/ Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/

Jeff Harmon takes on the question for listener Scott Spain who asked: "On the heels of this great topic (JPEG Mini), I’d love to hear an episode that contains your thoughts on what image dimensions to use for various avenues. What size for Instagram? Facebook? 500px? What about your Web site… Do you sacrifice a fast loading image to accommodate full-screen viewing on a 5K iMac (4096 x 2304), or is that overkill? What about SquareSpace (and do they re-compress the image when they create multiple sizes for you)? Does this strategy vary for sites like SmugMug and Zenfolio? Seems like these various avenues each have their own sweet spots." Links referenced: Facebook Photo Sizing Guide: https://www.facebook.com/help/266520536764594 Photo Taco - JPEGMini Review: http://improvephotography.com/42357/photo-taco-jpeg-mini-review/ Photo Taco - Aspect Ratio: http://improvephotography.com/35813/photo-taco-aspect-ratio/ Other Helpful Links: Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photo-taco-quick-photography/id980781096?mt=2# Facebook Photo Taco Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phototaco/ Photo Taco Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phototacopodcast/ Photo Taco email: phototacopodcast@gmail.com Jeff’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/harmon_jeff Jeff’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jsharmonphotos/ Jeff’s Portfolio: http://jsharmonphotos.com Jeff’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harmonjeff/