Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

At first this image can be overlooked without a second glance. After some time admiring it, I got caught on the tensions created by the irregular posture of the model, the unexpected and creative use of a helmet on what could be considered a nude portrait (definitely something you don’t see everyday) and the contrast between the model’s skin tone and the prop. A very creative and masterful capture. My Five Stars of the Week.

• 10 Tips to making your first photo book – Beyond Megapixels
• 10 Tipps zur Hochzeitsfotografie (in German) – Kwerfeldein.de
• SoFoBoMo published – A Roadtrop Through SE Australia – Neil Creek
• Help!  I’ve Been Infringed! – Photo Attorney
• Styling: Pure Hell or a place to “shine” – Yuri Arcurs
• Creative Partnerships vs. Self-Motivation – Rasmus Rasmussen
• 5 Tips to Get Followed on Twitter – JMG-Galleries
• Letting Things Marinate – PhotoWalkPro
• Making Fine Art Prints: Signing – Epic Edits (check also the other posts of Brian’s series on Fine Art prints)
• How to Price Assignments: Price High and Give Your Clients an Experience – DSLRBlog

(via Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection)

Yeap, it’s true. As incredible as it may seem, at least to me, PhotoNetCast, the photography podcast hosted by me, Brian Auer, Martin Gommel and Jim Goldstein, just got a bit older. The 28th episode marks our 1 year anniversary.

On a personal level PhotoNetCast has been a fantastic experience. For these 28 episodes, if I count the show prep, recording, editing and publishing, on a quick count, it’s probably more than 200 hours of time invested in this project and worth every minute of it.

Our objective, since the beginning, has been to produce a quality show in which we can openly discuss our ideas and topics that are brought to the table, independently of our point of view. It has not been an easy task with all the hurdles for a beginner in the medium, but personally I’m more than satisfied. I believe that PhotoNetCast is informative and entertaining to listen, and focuses on topics that matter for all photographers, independently of their "level".

PhotoNetCast allowed me to reach to the great photographers and industry professionals we had as guests and learn while they share their opinions. Yes, learn. The show has been a huge learning experience. My appreciation to all of them.

The audience feedback has been superb and it’s all that support that motivates to keep producing and always trying to publish a better podcast, every episode. Thank you. This is what makes me believe that PhotoNetCast is becoming a reference podcast for photography.

And finally, Brian, Jim and Martin: Thank you very much for joining me on this trip. It has been a year of waking up early or staying up late and fighting with sometimes frustrating technical issues, but also a year of great laughs and shared knowledge. Here’s to many more years doing this together.

If you’re still not listening, I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to PhotoNetCast on iTunes, or just grab the regular feed.

Since my last update of the podcast here on the blog, 3 episodes were published:

PhotoNetCast #26 – Going Beyond your Comfort Zone – We tried to discuss how important it is to grow photographically to always try to push yourself, whether with gear or just changing your approach.

PhotoNetCast #27 – HDR Photography – With Dave Wilson as guest, we discuss HDR photography.

PhotoNetCast #28 – Travel Photography – Logistics, preparation, regulations and the actual shooting. How to make the most of your photographic travels.

I hope you enjoy it. And thanks for listening.

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments. I’m sure the photographers appreciate it.

Five Stars of the Week

I have to say that I’ve spent a LONG time admiring this photo. Overall, everything seems right with it. The backlighting creates a perfect mood, and even the light in the curtains looks good. My Five Stars of the Week.

And here is a roundup of some interesting articles from the past days.

Cooking with light… Errr… Lighting with Cookware (Davidejackson) – This one made me laugh. Want to be innovative with your lighting without breaking the bank? What about some cookware as light modifiers?

Camera Corner – Part 1 – My Gear Bag (Zoriah) – Want to see how a photojournalist going to the most troubled areas rolls? I probably take more gear with me to photograph around the corner.

Great Digital Argument #1 – PC vs. Mac. Let The Wars Begin (Digital ProTalk) – David tries to show that the too boring old arguments between Mac and PC users leads nowhere. Main point: use whatever you need to get the job done.

Developing Multiple Streams of Photographic Income (DSLRBlog) – Going pro might mean having more than one income stream from your photography and the trick is diversify.

Photo Project: Symmetry (Beyond Phototips) – If projects is your thing, here is another one with some great potential to tickle your creativity.

My Favorite Film after a Year of Shooting (Epic Edits) – When you dedicate yourself so much to film photography as my good pal Brian has, a list of the true goodies comes out. If you’re into film photography (and you should be once in a while) you have to read this.

Why You’re NOT Making Photo Sales (Photopreneur) – A few simple advices that have the potential to increase your chances of licensing a few of those old images you have laying around on your hard drives.

And that’s it for this week. I haven’t had that much time to read all my favorite blogs, but the gems always pop-up.

As I was writing this small post, I stumbled upon a video demonstrating the capacity of the SprintCam v3 HD by i-movix, a full HD camera capable of capturing up to 1000fps directed at the sports broadcasting and advertising markets. This video was made for the NAB 2009 exhibit by David Coiffier, and you just have to see it.

Visual reality has much to do, not only with the real physical disposition of the world or scene, but also with how it is perceived. Someone with color blindness or some other visual impairment will have a different perception of reality than someone who’s vision is considered normal.

In photography, even if we assume that all film stocks and all digital sensors would capture light the same way, the simple fact that different lenses distort to a certain degree the light, is enough to conclude that photography cannot capture reality, but simply capture light.

What started me thinking…

A few days ago, I was reading a report mentioning how a Danish photographer saw his work disqualified from the Danish version of the “Pictures of the Year” contest. In short, the photojournalist got disqualified when judges requested his RAW files for comparison with the submitted processed images. Although the contest rules mention that "Photos submitted to Picture of The Year must be a truthful representation of whatever happened in front of the camera during exposure. You may post-process the images electronically in accordance with good practice. That is cropping, burning, dodging, converting to black and white as well as normal exposure and color correction, which preserves the image’s original expression.”, it seems that this photojournalist’s processing was too much for the judges.

I’ve passed this story to my twitter followers and this generated a nice discussion, with @marcoschmidt replying “but what’s real? the JPG? with which picture style? the RAW? With which converter? black and white?”

Capturing reality in photojournalism

I firmly believe that if what a photographer is doing is photojournalism, then the final images should indeed resemble as much as possible the original scene notwithstanding any different interpretations that may arise from framing, composition, etc. If too many exceptions are allowed, photojournalism will turn into a field of doubt and many publications have, indeed, strict rules on what is allowed in processing. But asking for the RAW files?!?  I’m not sure I agree with this move. If a photographer messes his exposures and ends up with a RAW that is overexposed, does that mean that the original scene was flooded by light? What if the white balance was not properly set? RAW files are exactly that, the raw information. Even a RAW file, outputted with different converters will originate slightly different images. Note that I’m not defending the photojournalist. I believe that what he saw in those places was probably much close to the unmodified RAW than to the images he submitted for the contest and he tried to make them more appealing. But when documenting something, the appeal should come from the story that photos are trying to tell, from good composition, good lighting, good angles… not from Photoshop. Individual ethics play a major role in photojournalism and I still prefer to believe that photojournalism tries to capture reality.

Photography as an art form

If we look at photography from an artistic point of view, then all of the above does not apply. Photography becomes a tool to express the photographer’s creativity, and it’s up to each individual artist to modify it (or not) as he pleases, in order to pass to an audience (or at least try to) the story he’s trying to tell and elicit emotions. Nobody asked Dalí if he actually saw that  somewhere when he painted “The Railway Station at Perpignan” (one of my favorite works by SD). I can have my personal preferences regarding a certain photographic work or a certain style of photographing or processing, I might like it or not, but no artistic photographer should ever listen that his work is bad because it doesn’t resemble reality.

Photography is not supposed to capture reality, just to capture light.

Twitter me this…

Earlier I asked on Twitter “In 140 chars or less answer this: "Is photography just supposed to capture reality?"

These are some of the replies I got… Interpret and take your own conclusions. Thanks for your thoughts.

@jeffcrossphoto “I think photography is supposed to be an interpretation of reality from the photographer’s point of view.”

@danzphoto “Absolutely not. Did Monet only try to capture reality? Like him, photography also captures mood, feeling, impression.”

@dawilson “Documentary photography is supposed to capture reality as closely as possible given equipment capabilities. / Art photography uses reality as a starting point. What the photographer/artist does with that is entirely up to them.” (Dave cheated and used 2 tweets… That’s ok Dave )

@dwterry “Photography is a tool. It can reflect or augment reality. It can create works of art. It’s all in what you do with it.”

@pawoli “each photo is real, photographers and viewers have their own realities which may differ and evolve over time”

@EricBooth “By no means. IMO photography is an art form. An expression of ones self. I have no problem using all the tools available to me.”

@Raquita “Just capture reality limits its power, I think photographs should live up to the 1000 words thing – tell stories beautifully…”

@Celippitt “Photojournalism is supposed to capture reality…Photography is the process of producing images on photosensitive surfaces.”

@mcgraths “Photography is an art. I think it should be a blend on imagination and reality, but really it is up to the artist.”

Your thoughts?

And how do you mix photography with reality? Should it capture just reality or is it, a tool to be used? Share your thoughts with us…

Photo credits: “reality tag” by Scoobymoo (CC by-nd), “sheffield: what’s your reality?” by paolo màrgari (CC by-nc-nd), “Reality” by Bright Meadow (CC by-sa)

If not, here is what you’ve been missing…

PhotoNetCast #22 – Defining your photography goals – We tried to show how important defining goals is in order to help your photography, whether from an hobbyist or professional perspective.

PhotoNetCast #23 – Photographers’ Rights and the new UK Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 – The title says it all. A must listen, specially if you’re based in the UK.

PhotoNetCast #24 – Filters in the Digital Age – And what about those weird little pieces of glass that film photographers used to put in front of the lenses? Do they still have a place in the digital age?

PhotoNetCast #25 – Best Practices for your Photography Site – Not all photography sites are the same (gladly), but some work better than others depending on the objectives. Here are a few tips to make your site work for you on promoting your photographic work.

If you want to keep up-to-date with PhotoNetCast (no iPod needed), the best way is to subscribe to our feeds. If you use iTunes, you can use this link. Even if you’re already subscribed through iTunes, I’d still encourage you to subscribe to the full feed to get everything else that is published on the site (polls, news, contests, etc.).

And as always, your comments are truly appreciated. Also, if you have any photography questions you’d like us to answer on the show, just send us an email.

Happy listening…

I usually have some hard time knowing what to do with this kind of project, specially because I have an image to work with but it jumps in the middle of the creative process. What I mean with this is, when I make a photo, I have the final outcome in mind before I press the shutter (maybe this is something that crossed from film) and I know what I want to do with it in processing. Grabbing someone else’s photo and deciding what to do with it is simply missing that “other part”, the why.

But here is my attempt.

In the beginning…

This is the original image Phill provided.

Before even trying to do anything with it, I started by trying to figure out where my eyes were moving in the image – the right upper corner. Not good. Somehow I wanted to focus on the patterns in the building, not in some clouds. Also, the separation between the edge of the building and the sky surrounding it didn’t attract me. So, time to correct this.

In Lightroom, lowering the luminance of blue and green and a slight S curve improved it. But there was still that patch of clouds on the right upper corner… Time for Photoshop and a little cloning.

This is the result after these steps.

Ok, so time to focus on the sky. It looks ugly now. Since the building is out of ordinary in design and gives a feeling of coldness and separation (at least to me), time to give it some out of ordinary sky and make it more “steel-looking”.

I inserted a channel mixer layer set to monochrome and a +62% blue. This layer was set to overlay with 75% opacity. Usually, this leads to an image with way too much contrast and saturation. So, a new curves layer, set to luminosity, was used to try and correct it and decrease the general contrast a bit. After this, time to give it the “steel-look”. A new hue & saturation layer with a 50% reduction in overall saturation.

It now looked like this.

I was starting to get happy with it. But my eyes were still not locking on the dark shapes on the building. Still too much distraction around the bottom. I needed more contrast in the building. A new curves layer to increase contrast masked for the building (excluding the sky) improved it. Now for the final touch, back in Lightroom. A little touch of vignette just to slightly darken the corners and really direct the eyes to those shapes in the building.

And this is it…

I won’t say this was the best way to process it, or even that I’d process it this way if it was my photo. But I was happy with the final result. I think the overall effect suits the building.

What do you think about it?

Don’t forget to go to the photo pages and leave your comments.

Five Stars of the Week

Who says film is dead? Look at the beautiful grain coming out from this one. It’s an image that I could imagine having hanging on my wall. My Five Stars of the Week.

Wow… It has been long since I last published a Pick of the Week full of juicy links.

I won’t go too much backwards and link to every post I found interesting. That would be too much. But here are a few that are worth of your time.

Marketing Through Infringed Photos with Watermarks (JMG Galleries) – Jim has written a very interesting article on how watermarks (as ugly as they are) can still serve a purpose: marketing.

Capturing Urban Decay (Photocritic) – Not everything is ugly in urban decay. With the right point of view and a certain degree of creativity, powerful images can be made. Here are a few tips that might help you with this.

Keyword strategies (Graf Nature Photography) – You hate keywording your images as much as I do? Besides the time investment (note that I’m not saying it is a bad investment) it’s always a fight to find the correct keywords. But it may mean the difference between selling your image or letting it rot in the middle of millions others.

Vignetting – When and Why to Vignette (Beyond Megapixels) – Vignetting is a powerful “effect” that can be used to direct the viewer’s eyes directly to your subject in a photo. But when should it be used and when too much vignetting is just too much?

Build a Film Developing Kit for Under $50 (Epic Edits) – Want to try out a bit of film and actually get your hands wet developing it? It might not be as expensive as you think. Here is a developing kit on the cheap.

The Video Tour Of My Gear Bag (Digital Pro Talk) – I’ll have to admit that I usually fight with the distribution of my gear inside the camera bags when going on location. David has a very nice video describing his bag “arrangement” and how it works for him. But ok, I usually do not carry around as much gear as David does. On a related subject, David is touring the US with his Digital WakeUp Call Workshops. You won’t find so much value for such a little price elsewhere.

Enjoy your browsings…

Just a small announcement for today. I’m in the process of re-branding the site and bring all the sides of my photography under the same umbrella. This, as expected, will also involve the renaming of the RSS feed.

So, while before you were getting the feed for this blog under the name “Words:irrational” (the name that originated this blog, at the time still not completely dedicated to photography), you will now get it under TZPlanet.com (or so I hope). All the links remain the same, including the RSS feed address.

The overall layout should not change much more and all the functionality remains the same (including the mobile version of the blog).

If by any chance things stop working for you, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for your patience.

For all those of you that are still not aware, during my break from this blog, we published 3 new episodes of PhotoNetCast.

PhotoNetCast #19 – A look at the Canon 5D Mark II, with Rich Legg and Phill Price – About the now-not-so-new Canon 5D Mk II, we had two guests to talk about their hands-on experience with the camera: Rich Legg and Phill Price.

PhotoNetCast #20 – Buying used photography equipment – Some advice for those moments when you want to get creative and buy something out of ordinary, or just if your budget doesn’t allow you to get your equipment brand new.

PhotoNetCast #21 – The Flickr/Getty Partnership – With the normal crew reduced by half, we invited Dave Wilson to join us and share some thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of accepting the invitations to submit your images to the soon-to-come Flickr Collection on Getty. We have also a poll running on this one: Poll: Flickr/Getty Images – Would you accept the invitation? Share your thoughts with us over there.

Book Info

Title: Fundamentals of Photography – the essential handbook for both digital and film cameras

Author: Tom Ang

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Release date: November 2008

Edition: 352 pages, soft cover

ISBN: 978-0-375-71157-2

Just a small note before I start with the review: I have a couple of copies of this book to give away. Details are bellow, so keep on reading. 

Tom Ang

Tom is an award-winning photographer with many books published in the photography world. He had several teaching positions and was a senior lecturer in Photographic Practice at the University of Westminster. His work was seen worldwide in several exhibitions. The last time I came across Tom’s name was at the jury panel for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 competition.

Besides Fundamentals of Photography, some other books by Tom Ang (a small sample since the full list is way too large) are: Digital Photography Masterclass, Tao of Photography, Advanced Digital Photography, Erotic Home Photography and How to Photograph Absolutely Everything.

The Content

Fundamentals of Photography is divided in 11 main chapters:

• What is Photography?
• Fundamentals of Light
• The Camera
• Capturing Light
• Using the Lens
• Manipulating Light
• Working with Color
• Processing the Image
• Digitizing the Image
• Outputting the Image
• References

My Impressions

Photography has evolved immensely in the past decade. Digital photography became much more affordable and is now the norm with film relegated basically to the serious enthusiast. This tendency can also be seen in the dedicated photography books and if you take some time at your local book store and overview the contents of the books on photography edited in the last years chances are that a big majority is focused on digital photography. Unfortunately, and of course this is my personal opinion, by “digital photography” many editors are only thinking about digital darkroom. And while knowing what can be done with an image on the computer is a necessity and a pleasure to explore, photography is much more than that. Photography is understanding the camera and how light is captured, is understanding light and knowing how to modulate it, is understanding how an image will be perceived by someone looking at it,… And there is where this book excels.

The content is extremely well structured and explained in detail without overwhelming the reader. Although it can be read from cover to cover in one sitting, one of the strengths of the book is being structured in a way that individual chapters stand by themselves and can be referenced on their own. The sub-chapters are well divided and have just the right length: enough to provide all the information without crossing the “too boring” barrier. Every definition or concept is explained in great detail without sounding excessive, but it does go deep and it is not what can be considered light reading. Even if you are a seasoned photographer, I believe that within the book you’ll find some information that you haven’t seen before. In any case, this is not a “field guide”. Don’t expect to use it as a always-carry-in-your-camera-bag book.

With over 1000 illustrations and photographs complementing the definitions, the book is visually very appealing and able to provide information on just a quick overview. From example photos to schematics on lenses, cameras and other gear, you’ll find everything here.

Intermingled with the content there are small sections that target the more advanced user or the really curious photographer and are technically more complex. Again, bypassing these sections, will not detriment in any way the understanding of the remaining content, but is good to have them around. There is no such thing as too much knowledge…

On the photography gear side, details on available equipment abound. Moreover, Tom gives constant advice on which type of equipment is needed or better suited for a certain kind of shot. And besides that, you’ll get explanations on how the equipment works, allowing you to completely understand the functionality of the equipment and why it might be better suited for a certain task.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Price – at the current listed price, it can’t be beaten
• Huge amount of good information (read again: GOOD INFO & HUGE AMOUNT)
• Content well structured
• Suited for both beginners and seasoned photographers
• Tons of photos and illustrations
• Approaches both digital and film

Cons:

• Page layout can be tricky at times with so many boxes and side notes.

In Conclusion

As I mentioned before, if you are looking just for digital darkroom information, Fundamentals of Photography might not be the more adequate for you. This book feels like a photography encyclopedia and is a reference for everyone wanting to understanding it more. If there was only one book that I’d be able to recommend to anyone wanting to learn photography, this one could very well be it.

Free copy of Fundamentals of Photography

The publishers were kind enough to offer me a couple of copies to give away. One of the copies I’ll be giving here on my blog while the other is offered on PhotoNetCast (the photography podcast I’m co-hosting). This means, two chances for you to win. If you’re interested in a copy just write a comment saying you’re interested. You can leave your comment right on this post, on the show where the giveaway was announced, or both. BE QUICK. On Wednesday, Feb 4th, in the evening, I’ll be randomly selecting the winners. Your comment has to be in by then.

Please Note: This book was sent to me by the publisher for review. Financial compensation was not and will not be received and the review was not read or edited by the publisher before publication. The opinions expressed are mine alone.

Photo Credit: “Confused/Relaxed”, by stevec77 (CC)

If you aren’t following PhotoNetCast, this is what you’ve been missing:

The winners of our ATP Photofinder Mini contest have been announced. If you’re one of the winners, congratulations.

Also, we’ve published a new episode (#18) on which we interview Tom Hogarty, product manager for Lightroom. Lot’s of insider views on this one about one of the favorite photo management tools for photographers. Thanks to Tom and all the listeners who sent questions.

And talking about Lightroom, if you don’t have a copy of Lightroom 2, Adobe has provided us a copy of the software to give to one of our listeners. More details on PhotoNetCast #18.

Still on podcasts, another one that I recommend is EXIF and Beyond, by Jim Goldstein. In his last episode, Jim talks with Nick Dunmur of Pro-Imaging.org about the Bill of Rights for Photography Competitions. Give it a listen, it’s worth it.