The Rise of the Amateur Photographer

I came across an article recently that got me thinking. The topic was the accessibility of high quality photographic equipment and the explosion of amateur photographers who are now starting to displace professionals in many areas. I have been curious about this in the past and it is nice to read someone else’s point of view on the matter.

I have noticed over the last few years that more and more people are starting photography businesses out of their home, focused mostly on indoor and outdoor portraits of one kind or another. These photographers have no formal training and would most likely not truly be considered professionals, as they don’t derive a significant portion of their income from photography. In my experience they are mostly stay-at-home moms looking for some additional income or an outlet for their creative urges or people looking for a second job that is more in line with their hobbies. The only qualifications they have are a digital SLR, a large memory card, and a desire to shoot. Many of them take fantastic photos, a few don’t.

Were I a professional studio or portrait photographer I would be worried at this point. All of my evidence is anecdotal, but I know several families, mine included, that rarely pay for family photos, but rely on the services of a talented friend with a decent camera. We often pay in kind on way or another so that we aren’t taking advantage of the kindness of our friends. My point is that there are fewer and fewer dollars being paid to people who actually went to school to learn how to take photos.

Though I realize that this trend is only going to increase, I am a bit mixed about it. As a photography enthusiast I have always held trained pros in high regard because of their skill level and commitment to their craft. As the article points out, to become highly skilled you need tens of thousands of hours of practice shooting and trained pros usually have that and more. Amateurs like myself have to cram shooting in when we can, so we don’t always attain the level of skill we would like. I would hate to see trained pros that make amazing images squeezed out of the market because they can no longer make a living. At the same time, I am hopeful that this will be a very good thing, as the truly dedicated pros will realize that to stand out from the masses they will need to create more amazing images than they have in the past. And, the very talented amateurs will rise to the top as well. The only ones who really stand to suffer from this are the photographers not as dedicated to their craft or who lack the focus necessary to be successful. I am anxious to see what happens in the next ten years or so!

Using Smart Objects to Reduce Noise

I have been working on some old photos recently and am dealing with quite a lot of noise in some images. I came across this technique and have found it very useful. It also seems to do a better job of retaining detail and sharpness than just using a noise reduction filter. Give it a try next time you have noise issues in your images.

More Good Advice

Autumn Lockwood over at Picture Correct has some very useful advice for photographers. It is pretty basic stuff, but also very important. A couple of her pointers hit home with me, particularly "Working in-camera" and "Learn your craft."

I often fall prey to the idea that any mistake I make in the field can be corrected in the computer later. When I get home and begin to sort my photos I then wish that I had taken better care when composing and capturing. You can only sharpen so much afterwards and often I end up cropping or cloning when there was no need for me to do so had I been more attentive in the field. Getting a good capture from the start will make the output that much better.

As for learning the craft, that is something I am always planning on doing, but never getting around to really. I need to be better about consciously thinking about photography and photographs instead of mindlessly thumbing through books and surfing websites. One thing I have tried is copying low res images from various photographers websites and uploading them to my iPad. Then I import them into Brushes or another drawing app and use a stylus to identify elements of the photo I like. For instance, I will color or draw lines in a grid to show that the photographer used the Rule of Thirds or something like that. My hope is that by identifying elements of photos that I enjoy, I will better be able to recognize these elements when I am composing in the field.

Anyway, Ms. Lockwood's advice is good and if followed will undoubtedly lead to better photos.

Two Days Upstate

Since we are a ways from family, my wife and I decided to take a short road trip for Thanksgiving. We crossed through the Great White North into upstate NY and spent a few days in the Finger Lakes area. I decided against bringing all my photo gear because the trees would all be bare and the weather forecast called for gray skies the whole weekend. Instead I decided to take photos exclusively using the iPhone and edit them on the iPad. Here is a sampling:

(From top to bottom: wall of license plates in the Anchor Bar, Buffalo, NY; Niagara Falls; Niagara Falls; Crooked Creek, near Palmyra NY.)

The camera on the iPhone 4 is pretty impressive, as is the auto HDR feature. I processed the photos in Filterstorm, which is easily the best mobile editing app I have ever used. The interface is easy to use and the masking options are the best. My only regret is that I forgot the phone was in my pocket half the time and didn't get as many shots as I would have liked.

Good Music, part 5

Here are my final favorite classical works. Enjoy!

Requiem Mass in D Minor, Lacrimosa
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart has been by far the most represented composer on my list, but I'm not sure that I consider him my favorite. I enjoy a lot of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, and Strauss compositions as well. Anyway, this piece is one of my favorites and was a very close tie with the movement that precedes it in the same work, Confutatis maledictis, which you can listen to here.



An der schonen blauen Donau (Blue Danube Waltz), Op. 314
Johann Strauss II

A very well known work, but I love waltzes and this is one of the best.



Peter and the Wolf
Sergei Prokofiev

This is a piece which is often overlooked by adults because it was originally written for children. I prefer it without the narration, but it is difficult to find on YouTube without someone narrating it, so I chose Boris Karloff. A great primer on music and musical instruments and a work I enjoy as much as any of Prokofiev's other compositions.

Ancient Music

Alert reader Edie Howe pointed me in the direction of this pieced of ancient music.



It is a fun piece to watch, especially when you try to sort out all of the period instruments.

Here is a link to an article on classical music and how period music is making a comeback.

Enjoy!

Good Things for Every Photographer to Know

These are good things to know if you do much shooting.

Good Music, part 4

Sorry for the long time between posts. I've had a cold that knocked me out pretty good for a few days. Here are three more pieces I enjoy:

Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, Adagio
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This is the second movement of this piece, and I think the best.



"Arabian Dance," Nutcracker Suite
Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky

Another classic from Tchaikovsky's third ballet.



"Hoe-Down," Rodeo
Aaron Copeland

Most of us know this as the music from the "Beef, its what's for dinner..." commercials. It one of my favorite pieces and served as inspiration for composers writing music for the western movies of the 1950s and 60s.



More to come...

Effective Advertising?

I read an interesting story today on former NFL offensive tackle Brad Benson and the advertising he uses to sell Hyundai’s from his dealership.

As someone who works in marketing, I was impressed by the results that Benson sees from his off-the-wall ads. Media of all forms are becoming so cluttered with messages that anything that can cut through and make an impact on consumers is worth taking notice of.

The types of ads that he uses are also going to be difficult for others to copy, as they are dependent on personality and the type of business. Obviously a fancy restaurant couldn’t use that type of message, nor could a rival dealership owner who is known for being more straight laced. I would imagine that Benson’s NFL image helps him here.

Undoubtedly people will see his success with and try to copy it in some way, which means that this type of messaging and advertising will become a new form of clutter that somebody else will need to be cut through with innovative new advertising.

See below for one of his ads.

Good Music, part 3

Here are three more pieces that I enjoy:

Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale"
Ludwig van Beethoven

The name is very appropriate, I think. It has a very pastoral feel to it.

Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major "Eine kleine Nachtmusik," IV.Rondo : Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I enjoy the fourth movement of this piece the best, but the whole thing is amazing.

Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, "L'inverno" (Winter): Allegro non molto

Antonio Vivaldi

More to come...

Good Music, part 2

Humoresque In G Flat, Op. 101/7, Antonin Dvorak:

This is a great piece of lighthearted music. The video is especially good thanks to the virtuoso violin and cello work of Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma, respectively.



Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, Frederic Chopin:

This is my vote for the best work ever written for piano. Very enjoyable.

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Not much to say here. Just a great piece of work. More to come...

Good music

This is another non-photography related post, but I have been thinking about music a lot lately, so I wanted to post on it.

I read an article in City Journal recently about the rise in popularity of classical music and it made me realize how little I listen to popular music lately. Over the last few years I have slowly migrated from popular music to classical in my listening habits and thought little about it. I would guess this is mostly due to my ability to work on school and personal projects while listening to classical music. Popular music can be distracting to me as I work. When I edit photos I am most likely listening to it. Anyway, that is mostly what I listen to nowadays, whether I am working on something or not. So, I decided I wanted to post my favorite works here as a way for me to list what I think is the best classical music has to offer.

What follows are three of my favorite classical works. I will post three more every few days until I finish my list or I get tired of it. These works do not appear in order of my preference.

Partita in A minor for solo flute by Johann Sebastian Bach:

I don't have much to say about this other than that it is fantastic.



"Waltz of the Flowers," Nutcracker Suite, Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky:



3 Preludes for Piano Solo: II. Andante con moto e poco rubato, George Gershwin:

Gershwin's music definitely has an early 20th century feel to it. I like the moodiness of this particular work. I couldn't find a professional performance of it on YouTube, but this kid is pretty good.



Three more coming in the next few days.

Another interesting piece, this one from National Geographic

After re-reading the article I posted about a few days back, I remembered one I read in National Geographic a few years ago with a similar theme. I finally tracked it down and here it is. Enjoy.

Article on Nature and Hunting

Read it here.

The article isn't photography related, but I liked it and I wanted to pass it along. The, Bruce Barcott, author does a great job of examining the two sides of the environmentalist/conservationist coin and given both sides credit for the good they do. Check it out.

New Sony Cameras

Is this the future of cameras? I played with one of these in the store a few days ago and have to say that I'm not opposed if this is where cameras are heading. It was small and light and would make traveling with photographic equipment much easier. There may be some downsides when it comes to sensor size, but I imagine that camera companies will find a way to cram larger sensors into ever smaller bodies.

If I owned one of these I do think that I would miss an optical viewfinder. Another new Sony takes care of that.

Sony NEX
Sony SLT A55

Featured Professional: Ian Shive

Great images. Very professional stuff.




Website: www.waterandsky.com

All images © Ian Shive; used with permission.

Feature Professionals: Fred and Joan Hanselmann

Website: www.hanselmannphotography.com

All images © Fred and Joan Hanselmann; used with permission.

Survey Results

The results of my survey are in. I didn’t get as many responses as I had hoped, but there were enough to get a general idea of who visits this blog. A brief summary:

• On average, you spend about seven hours a month shooting and nine hours processing photos
• You mostly shoot nature photos—with a good mixture of landscape, macro, and wildlife—but also spend a lot of time taking photographs of people
• You shoot primarily with smaller than full frame DSLRs
• A majority of you also shoot with Nikon, but only a very small majority
• Most respondents use some version of Adobe Photoshop to process their images, though Photoshop Elements and Apple Aperture are also popular
• Flickr is the most common place for you to post your photographs
• Most of you have no photographic education other than perhaps taking an online course

It was interesting to see what you shoot and what your photographic preferences are overall. I have no idea if the sample is representative of viewers as a whole, but it was still very enlightening.

Featured Professional: Frank Lüdtke

I typically feature photographers who shoot primarily in the western US, but I wanted to show what can be done in other areas too. Frank Lüdtke is a Europe based photographer who shoots across the globe. There are fantastic images on his site from all over the continent, New Zealand, and the US. Check his photos out on his website.




All images © Frank Lüdtke; used with permission.

Featured Professional: Inge Johnsson

He captures some pretty fantastic shots. Check him out at ingejohnsson.com

All images © Inge Johnsson; used with permission.

A Favor

Do me a solid and please take this survey. It only takes a few minutes to complete and you would be helping me a lot.
Thanks.

A Misunderstanding

This past weekend I was on vacation in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. During the trip stopped at a state park to take some photos. While I was shooting, a couple asked me to take their photo and when I switched my camera from my left to my right hand to grab the camera the man was offering me, he said: “No, I meant with our camera.” I guess he was assuming that I was moving the camera to my right hand to take his and his wife’s picture with my camera.

Well shoot, you figured out my plan, fella. Now I won’t be able to take a photo of you and your wife home with me like I had been scheming to.

Featured Professional: Jay Patel

Here are some great shots from master photographer Jay Patel. You can check out his work on his site. His work is pretty impressive and has an especially artistic touch. Take a look.



Also, please take a few minutes to complete this survey. Thanks!

Website: www.jaypatelphotography.com

All images © Jay Patel; used with permission.

Survey

I recently put together a short survey on photography and wanted to ask you, dear readers, to take a few minutes of your time to take it. I have run through it a few times and it should only take 5-7 minutes to complete. You can find it here.

I originally started this blog because I was spending a fair amount of time combing the internet for photography stuff and thought it would be nice to aggregate it in one place and make it easier for myself and others to access it. It may not have lived up to my ambitions yet, but it has been fun to do.

With this survey I hope to get a better idea of who visits my blog; what you shoot, what you shoot with, if you are a professional and if you ever hope to become one, etc. The survey is purely for my interest and I close it I will post the results so we can see who is visiting.

Thanks for visiting my blog and please take a few minutes to fill out the survey. I appreciate your help.

Photography survey link

I'm not sure I get this trend

Is this where cameras are going? Or is it just a niche product? It seems crazy that you would have to have a 3D TV or photo frame to even take advantage of what this camera can do. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Ansel Adams or not?

I just found out I have been missing out on the news about the recent Ansel Adams find. I saw it mentioned in the Wall Street Journal yesterday and found more in depth info in the LA Times here and here.

For those as ignorant as me, a gentleman named Rick Norsigian in California purchased some glass plate negatives from a garage sale ten years ago and someone put a bug in his ear that they might be Ansel Adams' originals. He has spent the better part of the past decade trying to authenticate them. Apparently he has had difficulty getting photography and history scholars to authenticate them for whatever reason, so he hired his own authenticators, none of whom are experts on Ansel Adams. He also had them appraised at $200 million. Now he is selling prints to the public from his website. You can check out the prints here.

I have to admit, I am skeptical about this for a lot of reasons. Everyone living who was close to Adams claims that the negatives are not his work. I am no expert, but I am an Adams fan and the images don't look like Adams' work to me. They look like black and white photos taken from standard Yosemite photo spots by a talented amateur. And, as it turns out, they may just be the work of a talented amateur. A woman in California has come forward, saying that the photos were taken by her uncle and she has prints that apparently match the negatives. Hopefully both her prints and Norsigian's negatives will be put into the hands of someone with some expertise in this area and it will all get sorted out.

I don't think that Mr. Norsigian is lying or trying to be dishonest about this. I suspect that he really believes they are Adams' work and also likes the idea of making some money off of them. Admitting that after all of this time and effort that they are not really Adam's work would be a crushing ego blow. But, if they are not in fact Adams', the world has a right to know.

One interesting side note: if people enjoy looking at the photos, does it really matter if Adams made them or not? Here is a link to the WSJ article that got me started on this and discusses that very subject.

Featured Professional: Tomas Kaspar

Really fantastic shots. Check more of his work out at tomaskaspar.com




Website: www.tomaskaspar.com

All images © Tomas Kaspar; used with permission.

Landscape Website

When it comes to nature and outdoor photography, I get just as much of a kick out of it looking at great images as I do trying to take them. I ran across a site today that has some of these great shots and is very simple. The site is called Landscapes 2.0. From what I gather, the site allows you to upload photos, which can then be voted on and the cream then rises to the top. Sort of like Digg, but for landscape photography. I like that there are none of the standard trappings, such as albums, groups, fans, etc, and I was amazed by many of the images. Some are a bit heavy on the tone mapping, but overall they are great shots. Check it out.

Another extended absence…

which is the result of a dumb mistake. My apologies to my two loyal readers. I just started my new job and so have been busy moving in to a new apartment, figuring things out at work, etc. I didn’t check my email for a couple of weeks and therefore didn’t notice that my domain registration was going to expire. It eventually did, and I have had to jump through several hoops in order to get it back and setup. You may have noticed that going to www.dodgeandburnblog.com didn’t take you to my blog. That is why.

Again, my apologies to anyone confused by this. It was a silly oversight on my part. I will be back shortly with more photo related content.

Best,

Tom

Nice images

Here is another collection of great landscape shots. A few of them were made by a past featured professional photographer, Marc Adamus. Enjoy.

Good Advice

Here is some good advice. Some other advice I came across recently and have put into practice is this: use filters only when absolutely necessary and never stack them.

My eternal quest to make my photos sharper benefited from this helpful tidbit I read somewhere on the internet, I can't remember where. I had been keeping a UV filter on the front of my lens to protect it and would then stack a polarizing filter or ND filter on top of it. I immediately took the UV filter off and use a polarizer or ND filter only when the situation dictates. Hopefully the results will be noticeable.

iPad and more

My apologies again, dear reader, for my prolonged absence from blogging. I thought that finishing school would give me much more time to search out photo info and blog, but I was wrong. My access to the web is far more limited now that I am not at school all day.

Also, I purchased an iPad and have been spending a lot of time fooling with it. I have to say that it is a fantastic way to read the news and books; it is the best way to read the Wall Street Journal. I haven’t, however, spent much time exploring its abilities for photography. I use several photo apps on my iPhone, mostly Adobe’s Photoshop mobile app and Photoforge. Both of these are able to do a great job on certain projects, but are obviously limited. I know that Photogene and Photoforge have iPad specific apps that I imagine are more robust than their iPhone counterparts, but that still don’t measure up to what is possible on a true computer.

What would really be nice is an Adobe iPad version of Photoshop CS5. Some features would have to be dropped, but I would imagine that they could put together a pretty sweet package. Editing on a tablet without a pressure sensitive stylus may not be ideal, but it could still work.

Truthfully, making the iPad into a Wacom-style tablet for a computer is, I think, the most exciting possibility for the device. Tethering it to a computer to do edits through PS would allow photographers to buy one gadget that would perform multiple roles. Again, developing a pressure sensitive stylus like those used with Wacom tablets might not be feasible, which would create some issues. Maybe it is possible. Who knows?

Also, some app makers out there need to get with the program and optimize their apps for the iPad or make new one altogether. I am thinking specifically of flickr, whose iPhone app is great, but doesn’t quite measure up when used on the iPad.

Adobe Photoshop CS 5

I got my hands on the new Photoshop at the end of last week and have been playing with it over the long weekend. I have to say that I am quite impressed. I am a fairly unsophisticated user of Photoshop, but I have been using it for several years and got to know CS 4 pretty well. CS 5 blows me away. Several of the new features justify in my mind paying the $200 to upgrade from CS 4. Content aware fill is incredible. I'm not sure about the ethical implications of using it in landscape photography, but I am amazed by its power and the possible applications for it. The new HDR Pro and HDR Toning features are equally amazing. In a past post I dissed CS 4's HDR tool. HDR Pro is vastly improved and in my mind as good as Photomatix. Check out Terry White's review of the best new features here. For an even more thorough review of new features, see Deke McClelland's Lynda set "Photoshop Top 5" at Lynda.com.

Featured Professional: Steve Sieren

I'm back. No more vacations for awhile, so I will be hopefully shooting and posting more often. I wanted to make my comeback with a new featured professional, Steve Sieren. I won't say much, other than that I have enjoyed his photography for awhile and that he makes some incredible images. Check him out at his site here.
















Thunder Falls



















Spring Splendor




















Sedona Light
























Untitled

Website: www.sierenphotography.com
All images © Steve Sieren; used with permission.

More coming...

It's been a while since I last posted. The school year ended and I am now a graduate, and I went on a short vacation, so I haven't been on the web much. I will post something new shortly...

David Griffin from National Geographic

Take fifteen minutes to watch the video below. David Griffin, photo editor for National Geographic, speaks on the impact of photography in our lives. He shows some great photos and discusses using photography to tell a story; something we all should probably think about when shooting.

Featured Professional: Daryl Benson

I haven't featured a professional photographer on the blog in a while, so I thought it would be nice to put the spotlight on someone who isn't strictly a landscape photographer, like Daryl Benson.






















Mr. Benson takes what I think of as unique landscapes. A lot of photographers who shoot landscape-myself included-take traditional shots that use a foreground element, such as rocks or wildflowers, a background of mountains or hills, and a mid-ground of trees or a lake or valley, with a sunset or cloud pattern in the sky. Many of my favorite landscapes follow this pattern. Mr. Benson plays with that standard a little and comes out with some amazing shots, like any good landscape photographer will. His work reminds me a little of Jim Brandenburg.



















Mr. Benson isn't just a landscape photographer. His site features his impressive portfolio of landscape and travel photos. Check them out.













































(Blogger was having trouble adding the photo names to each photo, so I added the borders and names in PS)

Website: www.darylbenson.com
All images © Daryl Benson; used with permission.

Clean Your Gear!

I make that statement because I went shooting yesterday morning and came back with a memory card full of photos with odd blurs in three spots. When I looked at my lens it was obvious why. The UV filter I usually keep on front of my wide angle lens had heavy smudges, obviously made by someone with tiny hands. I won't name names. The smudges translated into fuzzy areas that no amount of photoshopping will remove. Some of the images may still be usable, but this is an important reminder to me to always check my gear before going out.

Lens cleaning is one of the most important things we can do to ensure we have clean, sharp captures and glass with a long life. My online search found plenty of articles on the subject, which all recommended using a soft, lint free glass cleaning cloth in conjunction with lens cleaning fluid. Make sure to spray the fluid on the cloth and not the lens and wipe with circular motions. I would add that before using a cloth and cleaner, you blow the lens with a bulb--never use canned air--and then brush it with a soft brush. This will remove most large particles that could scratch the lens. Make sure to do both front and back of the lens. Also, clean all of your filters while you are at it.

The other key component to clean is the digital sensor--assuming you are using a digital camera. Sensor cleaning is tricky; if not done correctly it can scratch the filter over your camera's sensor, which would then require expensive repairs. I have personally never cleaned my own sensor, but I know a lot of folks who do. There are plenty of sensor cleaning kits on the market which I am sure do a great job. I found two useful articles here and here on how to clean your own sensor. I think next time my camera needs cleaning I will try doing it myself, if only to save a few bucks and a few days without the camera.

It is also wise to have the camera checked and cleaned professionally every few years. I have done this a few times and been happy with the results. Repair pros will open up the body and clean out any dust and dirt and make sure all of the screws are tightened and so forth. The really thorough ones will clean your mirror and prism as well, so you don't see dust in the viewfinder any more.

So, before you go shooting next time, take a look at your gear and at the very least, take a few minutes to clean your optics.

(Here is another useful article on general camera cleaning.)

Adobe Camera Raw

Check out this article. Proof that we should always shoot RAW and use ACR.

PhotoFizz

PhotoFizz is a site that looks like the mutant child of delicious and digg, with a focus specifically on the photography industry. I stumbled across it a few days ago and have been following links ever since. The links aren't terribly well organized, but that is half the fun--finding something cool that you wouldn't have seen had you been looking specifically for something.

website: http://photofizz.info/

HDR Tools

Awhile back I posted on creating HDR images and concerns I had with overusing the technique. Putting those aside, I decided to try several of the software tools out there for creating HDR images and see how well they work. I had heard of a few different tools and rounded them up to give them a try. For this experiment I used Photomatix, FDR Tools, Qtpfsgui (Luminance HDR), and Adobe Photoshop CS4's merge to HDR function. A more exhaustive list of HDR software is available here.

Two of the packages--FDR Tools and Qtpfsgui--were free, though their creators do ask for donations to support their work. FDR Tools also has an advanced option that costs $52 that looks like it has useful additional functionality. Photomatix costs $99 for a license; I used the demo version which is identical, but leaves a watermark on the final image. Photoshop CS4 costs around $650, depending on where you get it; it is worth the price without the HDR function.

After running a particularly troublesome set of images through each of these tools, the clear winner is Photomatix. It output an image with the greatest dynamic range and best preservation of color, tone, and contrast.















Here is the original image, the middle exposure of a bracketed set of 3.

















Here is the Photomatix output. The differences are subtle, but you can clearly see the foreground is much brighter than in the image above. The additional range gives the image a more balanced appearance. A little tweaking in PS will create a much improved final product.

FDR Tools and Qtpfsgui both had somewhat similar output. If I had to choose I would put Qtpfsgui just a little ahead of FDR Tools. Both created an image with greater dynamic range, but also one that had fewer highlights and shadows and was much too heavy in the midtones. Both outputs looked somewhat flat and will require a lot more work in PS to get them to where the Photomatix image is, if they can get there at all. Additionally, Photomatix' interface was more user friendly, using sliders to make adjustments instead of curves and histograms. FDR Tools had perhaps the most challenging interface and the fewest options for adjusting the tonal map after the creation of the HDR image.

I save Photoshop's tool for last because it was a bummer. You have little control how the images are merged. And once they are merged you have only one slider to adjust the tonal values. The output was by far the worst of the four. I read recently that Adobe didn't put much work into the tool and that it is a tack on that should see more development in the future. Let's hope so.

Ultimately, these are tools to help us make our images more like reality, and help overcome the limitations of cameras. I liked what I saw and you can bet I will be investing in Photomatix' full program in the future.

Photography and the iPad

Like anyone who writes a blog, I feel I have to weigh in on the new iPad. Specifically, I am interested in how it affects photographers and how it can be a tool for them. After an exhaustive five minute search of the web I found these two articles on the topic by people who had not at the time of their writing actually touched an iPad. See below.

The Apple iPad-Luminous Landscape

Is the Apple iPad a tool for serious photographers?-photo.net

Both articles are actually very good. They speculate on possible uses of the iPad for photographers and discuss its pros and cons. Both avoid drawing conclusions on how it will affect the future of computers, which is refreshing.

I have little interest in speculating on how it will affect computers, how it will sell, its pros and cons, etc. I have played with it a few times in the store and have to say whether you love or hate Apple, love or hate the concept, it is a very fun device. Especially pertinent for photographers is the gorgeous display. Photos are displayed big and bright and are very easy to manage.

I would agree with both authors that one of its best uses for photographers is as a tool to display a portfolio. Wedding and portrait photographers will benefit especially from the ability to show clients images almost immediately. Truthfully, though, the sharpness and rich colors of the display will make anyone want to use it to show off their photos.

As beautifully as it displays photos, this probably isn't reason enough for most amateur photographers to buy it. Hopefully the future will see a more robust image editing app make it into the app store so that photographers can work on it as well.

Photo Sharing Websites

Ever since moving from film to digital I have been looking for ways to display my photos online. I have tried maybe three or four sites and have not found one that does everything I want it to, but many of them do have some pretty neat features.

The more I have used these sites, the more it has become clear to me that each site has attributes that make it best for specific uses. Some sites are very general and offer casual photographers a place to upload photos for sharing with friends and family, and maybe make some prints as well. Over time I have gravitated away from these types of sites and more towards ones that offer more robust features and customization. Like many enthusiastic amateurs, I am interested in a place to display my photos that will help me to build an audience and provide useful feedback and comments. The sites I have liked the most are those that allow me to become part of a community of like minded photographers and give as well as get feedback. They also have a clean and simple look when displaying photos and an interface that is not overly complicated.

What follows is a short list I have made of sites with some hopefully useful information. Among this group, some things are taken for granted, such as keyword tagging of photos and variable privacy settings.


















I included Summit Post not so much for their capabilities as a photo hosting site, but because they showcase some pretty impressive shots from outdoor enthusiasts and are a unique way to show photos.

There are dozens of other sites out there for sharing photos, many of them geared to a more casual user. Sites like Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, Webshots, Snapfish, and Fotki are all capable sites, but many of them pressure users to purchase prints or don't have a lot of flexibility.

Regardless of what type of photographer you are, there are several things to think about when choosing a site:

• cost: is it free? What do you get for what you are paying?
  
• contests: are there opportunities to submit your photos for contests?
  
• sharing abilities: can you share photos with other? Limit who can see what?
  
• storage space and limits: how much space do you get? Over what period of time?
• availability and quality of non-professional feedback: are there mechanisms for feedback and comments?
  
• availability of professional feedback
• audience: who visits this site? Who posts on this site? Will you be reaching the people you want to?

Finally, make sure to read the terms and conditions. You don't want to unknowingly give permission to the site or its users to use your photos however they see fit.

Link to spreadsheet