Master Photography

Jim talks with Connor and Brent about how it is photographers can get started in adding flash to their photography. Doodads of the Week! * Jim: Zoom h6 * Brent: Pacsafe Camsafe PCI-M Protective Camera Insert  * Connor: Zoom H4N PRO Digital Multitrack Recorder

Jim talks to Improve Photography writes about their end goal in photography and how to get paid work. Topic 1: What’s your end-goal with photography? * Go-to settings for shooting different genres of photography * Thinking fast Topic 2: Getting paid work * How to get your first paid gig * TRACK YOUR MARKETING SOURCES * SEO * Paid ads Doodads of the Week! * Jim: The Big Leap * Matt: PowerPax 12 AA Battery Caddy – Caution Yellow * Chris: YONGNUO YN360 LED Video Light with Adjustable Color Temperature 3200K-5500K

Erica & Connor share their best suggestions to help you improve your portraits in the next 30 days. * Familiarize yourself with your gear. It is easy to get bogged down with GAS, but it is important to realize that the best gear you can use is the stuff you have right now. Don’t allow yourself to pine after a new camera body if you don’t know the strengths and limitations your current gear. * Set up portfolio shoots. * Everyone has a busy schedule, so there is no need to add a certain amount of shoots here, do what you can comfortably do with your schedule even if it is just one shoot. * The key here is to not just set up a shoot, show up, and shoot the way you feel comfortable with. Set goals ahead of time of something you want to improve on and focus on that thing throughout the shoot so it becomes a comfortable point for you. * Set up portfolio shoots based on what you want to be paid for. Focus your efforts on the types of photography you want to be hired for. Don’t just shoot randomly. * Start Pre-visualizing your shoots. * This goes along well with the last segment. Go back and look at work you have done within the last 6 months and pull them apart. What could you have done better? THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING THAT COULD BE DONE BETTER. * Is this something you understand how to overcome? * The day of shooting it is nearly impossible to remember these things you casually noticed if you haven’t already mapped a solution to the problem. Think out exactly how you plan to overcome your weakness and have a “go-to” thing you want to do to fix it. This will increase the likelihood of you following through when the time actually comes about. * Focus on light. * Carve out time every day to focus on light. This doesn’t necessarily mean photography related light. As often as possible, pay attention to the way light hits certain objects and the shadows they create. The more you do this, the better you will understand the qualities of light. * Also make time to focus on photography related light. Whether you want to perfect your natural light photos or learn about flash, dedicate at least 30 minutes every day to light. Read about it, experiment with it, etc. * Start Building a visual vocabulary. * Something I have found as I have progressed in photography is that I have a certain visual aesthetic that appeals to me. This is something I honed by using sites like pinterest and tumblr to find work that appealed to me and pinned it. * This isn’t so you just copy work you find, but when you have a large list of images that you find striking, it starts to become easier to see elements of things you like in that imagery. I just recently downloaded tumblr again and went through my blog I haven’t posted on in a few years and it is amazing to see how much the things I blogged there still resonate with me now.

Brent and Brian talk about Brent’s workshops, recent trips to Coos Bay and Santorini Greece, and the upcoming Create Photography Retreat. Topic 1: Brief Announcements: I have a nasty habit of going to my “happy place” whenever I talk about a workshop such as my Croatia and Ireland workshops. And that doesn’t do anyone any good

Jim talks with guests about photography water and planning photography trips. Topic 1: Photographing water * All of these tips apply to any type of water: waves, river, waterfall, etc. * Finding the best waterfalls * What makes the best waterfalls for a photo? * Rgps * Polarizing/ND * Time of day to shoot waterfalls * Composing waterfall photos * Leading lines * Get far back and include some environment * Smaller pieces of the waterfall/telephoto * Photographing waterfalls in winter/slippery conditions * Wear waders.  Getting in the right spots * Keeping your lens clean * Huge microfiber cloth * Two lenses * Exposure time * Better to underexpose Topic 2: Trip Planning * Google earth * Schmoozing visitor centers/hotel desk clerks * Local gazeteer * Hiking blogs Doodads of the Week! * Jim: Arlo Pro * Brenda: https://www.mindshiftgear.com/products/professional-padded-insert * Nathan: Blue Yeti Mic

IP Roundtable 2.15 by Jim Harmer: Photography Nerd

Jeff is joined by Victoria Bampton, a.k.a. The Lightroom Queen, to talk about Lightroom Classic CC 7.1.  They talk about her new Lightroom Classic CC The Missing FAQ book and go over 6 questions (including tips on faster culling in Lightroom, the magic alt/option key, Range Masks, and why you should use Quick Adjustments in Library): * What is the future of Lightroom Classic CC?  Many are very concerned that the Lightroom they have used for years is going away, is there hope that it will stick around for years to come? * The way storage is not managed with the all new Lightroom CC and everything is automatically synced to the cloud, is there any hope that Adobe will add some kind of selective sync capabilities so that photographers with slower Internet, bandwidth caps, or don’t want to pay for Adobe cloud storage can use the all new Lightroom CC? * Your book has a number of workflows and decision trees, what are they about and how can they help photographers use Lightroom Classic CC better? * Adobe has said they are working very closely with Intel on a 7.2 update to Lightroom Classic CC to address some nagging performance issues.  When can we expect that update and what will be in it? * I have a workflow that works extremely well for me and one of the reasons is the way I use the Library module to cull.  I don’t know how many photographers are aware of the G and E hotkeys in the Library module to switch between Grid and Loupe view, but it has sped up my culling significantly.  When you go to the Library module you start of in the grid view by default, which is great for culling, but sometimes to decide between a couple of photos which I want to use I need to see a larger version of the photo.  When that happens I select the photo I want to see and hit the E key to switch to Loupe view and can see the image take up the whole view instead of the smaller thumbnail in Grid view.  When I have decided I go back to Grid view by hitting the G key.  With all of your work with Lightroom users over the years, do you have a tip for photographers who generally know their way around but may not know that could really help them use the application better? * My favorite feature added to Lightroom Classic CC is Range Masking.  Something you can do now with gradient and radial filters, and the adjustment brush.  When you have applied either of those things on the photo the masking panel where you can adjust the photo with that mask has a new item at the very bottom called Range Mask.  It is a drop down where you can choose Color or Luminosity.  I don’t tend to adjust my photos based on colors, but I want to target adjustments based on luminosity (brightness) all the time.  You could sort of get there previously with the auto-mask of the adjustment brush, but now if you pick Luminosity in the Range Mask drop down you can use range and smoothness sliders to tell Lightroom more specifically where to apply the adjustment.  It is an awesome new feature.  What new feature do you like best in Lightroom Classic CC?   Resources Mentioned in the Episode: * Lightroom CC/6 Keyboard Shortcuts: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/keyboard-shortcuts/lrcc6/ * Victoria’s website: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/ * Victoria’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/lightroomqueen * Victoria’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lightroomqueen * Victoria’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vbampton/ Other Photo Taco Resources: * Vote for Jeff’s “Cull” module idea to be added to Lightroom: http://bit.ly/cullmodule

Jeff Harmon talks with guest host Don Komarechka about DPI, a topic most professional photographers actually don’t understand. They talk about how file size, pixel dimensions, and DPI don’t really have anything to do with each other, how Adobe isn’t doing photographers any favors with how DPI is so prominently displayed in Photoshop and Lightroom, and how even the best of pros don’t really seem to understand the concepts.   Two listener questions that represent hundreds of requests to help with DPI: * I did a headshot for a “program”. I delivered it at 2000×3000 pixels and 300 dpi…..Now I get a note that it is not hi res enough (and not 300 dpi), but this is from someone just relating what they were told by the program people. Shouldn’t my specs be “hi res” enough? Not sure what they are looking for * I have a file that is 17MB and 4480×6720 at 300dpi. Do you have a chart that shows up to how big that can be printed?   Episode Resources: * Don’s Photo Geek Weekly Show: http://photogeekweekly.com * Photo Taco – Export for Printing * Photo Taco – JPEG Compression Levels * Don’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/donkom * Don’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donkomphoto * Don’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donkomphoto/  

Jim Harmer spotlights listener Eric Fortman, a biologist photographer. Eric Fortman: I’m a Biologist who uses photography to communicate science. Sometimes I use photography to capture data. (e.g. Seaside sparrow coloration, and wood stork foraging). Sometimes it is used in conversations is between scientists to help describe a certain phenomenon (e.g. landscape photos can help describe the habitat of a specific cite). Sometimes used in conversations with the public to get them to understand our research, and care about conservation (e.g. the clearing and stain technique used in Morphology). I started photography in high school, and continued in college as the photo editor of the student newspaper. In college I started using photograph to document some of the scientific research I see around me. After graduation, I began incorporating photography in some of my research positions with universities and wildlife management agencies. Most of my work has roots in photo journalism. But I branch into fine art as well. Morphology is the first project I have created specifically for a gallery setting. It explores concepts of biodiversity, form & function. I hope to get viewers to consider the incredible diversity of structure found in fishes, and foster an appreciation for the complexity of the natural world. All of the species featured are found in the costal waters of Florida. Each specimen goes through a chemical process that stains bone: red, cartilage: blue, and renders other flesh transparent. Depending on the specimen, it takes about 3 weeks to complete the process. In October of 2016, the first phase of the project opened at the DNA by the Hand of Man Gallery in Gainesville, FL. Currently in its second phase I am working to expand the number of species included. My eventual goal is to photograph one species from every fish Family found in Florida. Limited edition C-type or aluminum prints are available for purchase. I also included a copy of my CV if you are interested. Tips: * Use a constant light source for macro work. It will make your life easier. * Don’t be afraid to try new techniques. Weather it’s focus stacking, HDR, etc. Start in a low preserve situation, and get the basics down. When you find a story that requires the technique. You will be glad you had some practice first. * Make photos, even if they suck. Photography is iterative. Just like a painter will sketch, and sketch, and sketch, until they hit on idea that is worthy of becoming a painting. Do the same with a camera. * Give yourself permission to work on a personal project. It ties easy to fall into the trap of making photos for everyone else but yourself. It will be worth your time and money, and make you happier to. Episode Resources: * Eric’s Website: http://EricFortman.com * Eric’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericfortman/

Jim Harmer spotlights Natalie Greenroyd, a photographer who actually made it through a 365 project!Natalie Greenroyd: I’m a professional photographer with a small, part-time business with the bulk of my clients being families with young children.  I was happy with my clients and the photos I was producing, but I was feeling completely unfulfilled with photographing my own kids.  I was getting more and more frustrated with the photos I was taking of my own boys, while I was producing beautiful images of other people’s kids.  I knew I needed to change my approach but didn’t know how so I decided to tackle a daily shooting project in 2016.  Shooting daily for an entire year was the best thing I’ve done for my photography.  I learned to push past seeing the “cute” moments, and capture my kids in a way that made me happy as a parent and as an artist.  That’s my number one goal, to create images that fulfills those two parts of me. As I grew in my photography, I created somewhat of a mental checklist to go over when I’m not sure what or how to shoot.  I know the elements that I need to add to my photos in order to be happy with them, so when I’m observing a scene I will mentally go over my list and see what can be applied.  The categories include a fresh perspective, interesting light/shadows, emotion, movement, and photography tricks.  I’ve realized adding at least one thing from this list when I’m shooting prevents me from being bored with the images I’m creating and really transform the images from being cute pics of my kids to something much more. TIPS * Shoot daily.  Sometimes the most unique and artistic photos can come when you least want to pick up your camera. * Don’t shy away from shooting the same thing over and over.  Doing this will force you to find new ways to shoot the same thing. * Experiment.  Try something new!.  Ring of fire, prism, double exposure, freelensing, underwater photography etc.  They may seem daunting and you may fail miserably, but you may also find that one these techniques stirs something in you as an artist. * Find your people.  Whether it’s members of the Improve Photography Facebook group, a group of local photographer friends or on Instagram, etc.  Find a group of photographers that you can grow with and encourage one another. Episode Resources: * Natalie’s Website: http://www.nataliegreenroyd.com * Natalie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalie_g_photography

Topic 1:    Brent: Bags: I’ve been on the hunt for the “perfect” backpack since I’m wanting to distribute the weight better than a shoulder bag will do. I looked far and wide and Here’s what I found that isn’t available at B&H. WolfePack Capture. It’s a backpack with a release mechanism allowing you to lower the pack and swing it around front. You can attach it to the front of the harness for better security. I’m just not sure I would be OK with the cables wrapping around my body. https://us.wolffepack.com/products/capture Shimoda Designs bags. They make a 40L bag and a larger bag. The 40L looks good, but its purpose seems a bit more than what I’m needing out of a bag. I expect this bag to be available through normal retailers soon since they are connected with Tenba and had a very successful Kickstarter campaign. http://www.shimodadesigns.com Eagle Creek Straight Up Business Brief Case. This bag is awesome. It’s a shoulder bag with integrated straps to turn it into a backpack. It can also perfectly hold my camera insert from my Tenba DNA 13 so it makes for the perfect camera bag too. It also has extra room for stuff inside the bag. Cons: no water bottle holder or tripod holder. I bought this bag for work. https://shop.eaglecreek.com/straight-up-business-brief-rfid/d/1481C1243?CategoryId=1411 REI Trail 40. I bought this bag and I’m trying it out. Pros… Doesn’t look like a camera bag. It barely fits under the seat in front of me when I’m flying, but it does, it also fits in the overhead compartment on a Q-400, the puddle jumper planes that serves my airport. It also holds my computer and has an EXCELLENT harness, better than any camera bag I’ve seen or tried. It also has great access to the interior portion of the bag and I use a camera insert to hold my gear, plus it has extra room for chargers etc. It has two water bottle holders, one for my tripod one for my water, and it has built in straps to hold that tripod in place. Cons, It’s slightly larger than I’d like it, Its pockets for extra gear aren’t optimized for the photographer but workable. https://www.rei.com/product/880839/rei-co-op-trail-40-pack-mens     Announcement:    Brent: Two workshops, Ireland and Croatia are now ready to go on the site. Talk briefly about each. Charleston attendees, I recently added a Sunday workshop with a sunrise boat tour and more.   Topic 2:    Brent: Releases and intellectual property revisited. I know we’ve talked about this somewhat recently, but I just received updated guidelines for shooting on private property and intellectual property from my photo agent. For those of you that don’t know, I shoot travel images and submit to a stock agency in the Seattle area. They have worldwide distribution and partnerships with other smaller agencies. (it’s not Getty that I’m listed with) Here’s the basic idea on the restrictions I’m under now, if I want to submit stock: Street art: Won’t take it anymore. Unless releases are obtained, they’ll only take very little for editorial use only Architecture: For unique buildings especially, they can’t be marketed commercially, so we need to mark them as “for editorial use only. Same goes for botanic gardens, bridges, homes etc. Street scenes: Fine if no single business is highlighted. Contributors are encouraged to remove license plates, boat names, ID numbers and the like. The basic reason this has come up is that folks are finding “their property” or likeness listed on the site and they say they never gave permission for this and are issuing take down requests.

Erica and Connor talk with Melina Contogiorgakis about her career as an underwater portrait artist. Melina Contogiorgakis is an underwater photographer from Argentina, who is currently traveling and searching for inspiration and the best places to shoot. As a scuba instructor with a degree in photography, she is trying to develop her own style for her underwater portraits, which are mostly centered around the relationship between humans and nature. * What led you to begin shooting underwater portraits? * Listener Q: Where have you worked underwater? * Listener Q: Tell us about one or two of the more unusual underwater shoots you’ve done. * Differences between land photography and underwater * Listener Q: Everything we do is about light. Talk about how light might function differently underwater. Does it, really? What adjustments do you need to make, to work in that context? * Getting the shot, water conditions and visibility, diving. * Pool sessions vs Outdoors * What gear do you use? * Listener Q: What was your first experience like when you first submerged your expensive gear in water? What products did you confidently use for your first time?

Jim talks with Jeff and Brent about KodakOne/KodakCoin and photography predictions for 2018. KodakOne / KodakCoin * Jeff: * This is a copyright protection platform where the preferred method for paying to use photographs is a new cryptocurrency.  Photographers can register their images on the new KodakOne platform, which will spider the web looking for usage violations and provide a means for the photographer to be paid using this new currency. * My view on this can be described in one word – DESPERATION.  I see this as a very desperate move for both Kodak and a partner who it looks like came up with all the technology WENN Digital.  I spent some time searching for WENN Digital and couldn’t find anything on them except being connected to this announcement so it looks to me like WENN built this platform and went to Kodak to push it out there under a brand photographers are more likely to trust.  I don’t see this going anywhere. * There are already services that offer the ability to register photos and search for usage of them, Google image search being one of the biggest.  It is free and effective in finding violations of copyright * There isn’t enough information published about the makeup of the cryptocurrency, which if done incorrectly will cause that portion of the platform to fail before it even gets started.  I can’t find any published documentation about how this new cryptocurrency is going to work, maybe that is coming, but in the world of cryptography that nearly always means disaster.  But let’s assume they by some miracle they do have it right, to me nothing in the information I have seen solves the actual problem photographers face with their copyrights being violated. * If a photographer finds a violation of their copyright the majority are stuck in a terrible place where they can’t really do much to enforce their rights and be compensated.  These copyright cases are generally too unprofitable for lawyers to really want to take them on and in the rare cases where they are the violator simply removes the photo and finds another one.  Photos just aren’t being paid for these days and I don’t think this platform will fix that issue. 2018 Predictions * Jeff: Canon talks about / leaks specs  but does not release an update to my beloved 7DM2 * Jeff: Canon and Nikon release full frame mirrorless bodies but they require adapters to use EF and F mounts (brent: I hope not! On the adapter idea that is but you just might be right) * Jeff: Adobe updates the all new Lr CC so that photographers can use local storage for the majority of their photos and choose which sync to the cloud, but the way they do it is still not something most photographers are happy with. * Jeff: The price for Adobe cloud storage is unchanged or has a one year discount. * Jeff: Skylum (used to be Macphun) releases a version of Luminar that has digital asset management (DAM) and it is really good but there are significant challenges to converting a Lightroom catalog making it hard for established photographers to switch. * Jeff: Jim cannot hold true to his goal of not buying photography gear in 2018, he breaks the goal within the first 6 months. * Jeff: Apple releases the iPhone Xs with a back facing camera that uses the same tech doing Face ID on the front facing camera to do a much better job of mapping faces and increases the effectiveness of computation photography to not only blur, but auto-replace backgrounds in portrait mode.  It is released in partnership with Adobe tools that can use that same data to let you replace backgrounds on the computer. * Jeff: There is a significant issue with a drone mishap that results in loss of lives and causes drastically increased regulation. (maybe too gloomy?) * Brent: Create Photography Retreat will be in Hawaii (Maui) next year

Jeff nerds out about the Lr Classic CC 7.1 Update and Composite PortraitsJeff updated his Lightroom Classic CC status with version. 7.1 from “WAIT!” to “cautiously proceed”. He recommends backing up your catalog prior to updating and then checking out the new version at a point where you don’t have a huge client Jon to process and see how it works. He also found Classic to be about 25% faster with import and moving from Photo to Photo in the develop module! Jeff also goes over his process for doing “Composite Portraits” which he will Be teaching and demonstrating at the upcoming Create Photography Retreat (http://createphotographyretreat.com). You can check out some examples of Composite Portraits by following Jeff on social media. find him on Instagram where He is@harmonjeff or on Facebook he is harmon.jeff so you can do facebook.com/harmon.jeff. Basic process: * Get model in front of a completely blown out white (not green) background by using two flashes on the background and two flashes on the model * Edit in Lr being careful to keep the background fully blown out * Take the photo into Ps and use luminosity masking to select just the model and then the brush tool in overlay mode to make sure all of the model is masked in and the background masked out. Clean up the layer mask with more believable edges using the Select and Mask workspace. Resources mentioned: * Photo Taco – Is Lightroom CC Classic? * Improve Photography Episode 259 * Photo Taco – Inexpensive Flash * Jeff’s Post-Retreat Workshop

IP Roundtable EP259 by Jim Harmer: Photography Nerd