Master Photography

Topic 1:  Let’s get ethical (haha)

Sal Cincotta

 

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2017/04/28/ethics-conversation-sal-cincotta-just-won-his-own-photography-contest

“The answer is simple for me. I am a competitor. Competition pushes me and it pushes the people around me to raise the bar. I have been entering competition for 7+ years… Why would I not enter ShutterFest? I want it to be a major competition and if I don’t believe in it enough to enter – why would others? While I realize everyone may not share this philosophy, again, it’s pretty standard.”

“We are all hired to judge the event,” he said. “Each with a different line of work and portrait photographers judge portrait, wedding judge wedding. I judged fashion, engagement and beauty and landscapes. There are four judges to every room. Everything is blind judging, no names, no information. About 97% of our judging was within 3 or 4 points of one another,” Rojas explained. “Judgement was based on only what they saw, nothing else. So being so close in judgment to me, was huge,” he emphasized. “Any of us can challenge a judgment on an image and call for a rejudge of an image. Total throughout the day, we had that happen less than 10 times and we judged about 300 images. So for us to be that close on blind judging was huge.”

 

Souvid Datta photo of child sex slave being raped used to advertise a contest

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/01/lensculture-commodification-rape/

Souvid Datta plagiarized a photo from Mary Ellen Mark

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/03/photographer-souvid-datta-appears-plagiarized-mary-ellen-mark/

Topic 2: Jeff: Surface Laptop

13.5” 2256 x 1504 PixelSense display (beautiful)

14.5 hours battery life

Surface Laptop (Core i5)

Specs: 128 GB SSD, 4 GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620

Color: Platinum

Price: $999

Specs: 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620

Colors: Burgundy, Platinum, Cobalt Blue, Graphite Gold

Price: $1299

Surface Laptop (Core i7)

Specs: 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

Color: Platinum

Price: $1599

Specs: 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

Color: Platinum

Price: $2199

Jeff’s Thoughts

No TB3??? Come on!  Actually, where is all the TB3 we were supposed to be getting in 2017 in general!

No USBC ports, proprietary Surface Connect for charging

Like 2016 MBP, not enough RAM

Touch screen but no 360 degree hinge to make it feel more like a tablet?

Copying Apple, including the terrible price to performance, paying a premium for style

Midroll: Skillshare

Topic 3:  Scanning the family film collection

Flatbed scanner options, Epson V800

Dedicated film scanner option, Plustek 8200i Ai – includes better software than SE

Dmax rating, what’s that?

Film duplicator, lens attachment

Jim: Why not use a camera?

Jim: Photo Scan app

Jeff: What about outsourcing?  I get this question regularly, any experience sending shoebox of photos off and getting digital images back?

Announcements

ImprovePhotography.com/workshops

App release is under 30 days

IP Retreat tickets on sale next week

Price $459

Location will make this trip much cheaper

Alumni and IP+ members get $50 off.  Check your networks.

BRENT: New Lens in the inventory. Fuji 100-400. Don’t forget to, I include a solar filter with a one-week rental for the solar eclipse happening Aug 21.

Free meetup. Miami.

Topic 2: Brent

Printing. Using ICC profiles. Different paper types. Sets the tone of the image. Want to choose a paper that elevates the image, gets out of the way. Paper or other material that causes viewers to focus on that simply detracts from the photo and doesn’t magnify it.

I prefer Canson Infinity paper, but there’s Hahnemühle, Moab, Red river, tons of others. (epson, ilford, canon,

Midroll: Casper, Squarespace

Topic 3:  Laryssa – How long does it take you to edit your personal photos.  Procrastination.  I still haven’t edited photos from the Phoenix workshop.  It can typically take me a month or so before I get to them.  Paid clients get photos within two to three weeks my own work can go months.  

3 key star system

Only edit what you actually need to

Don’t come home with edits to make

Slow down, get it right, move to another composition.  Don’t repeat the same shot.

Turn off high speed drive mode

Lightroom medic – get a GOOD workflow!

Announcements

Free meetup. Miami. Wednesday, June 7. 6:00 p.m.  South Pointe Beach to start. Working north towards the great neon lights for blue hour and night shots. A listener, Randy, has helped point me in the right direction.

Workshop. Chicago Botanic Gardens. Friday, August 18. Details are on my website. www.brentbergherm.com/tours

Acquatic Garden, Bonsai, Prairie, English Oak, Roses, English Walled, Greenhouses, Japanese, Butterflies and SO MUCH MORE. Trails, lakes, ponds, islands, waterfalls, rivers.

Doodads of the Week!

 

* Jim: pixma pro 100 printer  

* Laryssa: Domke F-34M 15-Inch Protective Wrap (Yellow) 

* Brent: Cotton gloves for handling prints.

 

 

Topic 1: Jeff’s idea but Jim covers it? – Sony a9:

24.2 megapixel full-frame stacked CMOS sensor

20fps shooting with AF/AE doing 60 calculations per second (achieves this by significantly faster sensor reading, something Canon is supposedly researching to read the full sensor all at once)

No blackout-free viewfinder (Jeff saw a super impressive video showing this)

693 point wide-area phase detection autofocus

5 axis image stabilization for 5 stops (this has been in Sony cameras for a while)

Sony E mount, can use A mount with an adapter and get 10fps with AF/AE

Mechanical Shutter: ISO 100-51,200

Electronic Shutter can go as high as 1/32,000

Battery Life: Approx. 480 shots (Viewfinder) / approx. 650 shots

Video: 3840 x 2160 4K output

New menu interface!

Tony Northrup hands-on today tweeted:

Shoots 100+ shots before filling buffer, but a full buffer takes 2-3 mins to clear out and the camera video and menus stop working

2 hours of shooting 4,500 shots and battery was only down to 66%

Drenched the camera and it was great

Price: $4,500

Also a new FE 100-400mm F4.5–5.6 GM OSS Super Telephoto Zoom Lens – $2,500

Topic 2: Brent’s tips to going “deeper” with your photography. Either you’ve been someplace before and you want to look for something new. (restrict yourself to certain gear, time of day, other ideas the others have? Restrict to certain genre. If you’ve been there before, it may even been helpful to work on previsualizing new images, so you can hunt for unique images.)

Or, maybe it’s your first time there, how to go beyond the icons that everyone gets. (I’m an avid travel reader. I’m now reading an 1100 page book on the former Yugoslavia preparing for my trip in September. Provides historical perspective that you can’t get from a guidebook.)

Topic 3:  Jeff – Amazed at the improvement in focus after doing Autofocus Micro Adjustments (AFMA)!

Love my Tamron 24-70 lens but had very consistently seen soft focus at the shorter focal length and since there was a request for a Photo Taco episode

Did a lot of testing of different methods for AFMA, this is the subject of the Photo Taco episode coming out on 4/25 so won’t go into it here.

Canon 7D2 can do two AFMA per lens.  Started 70mm and it needed -3 out of -20.  Not too far off, it was hard to tell much of a difference going through the testing.  But then at 24mm needed +13 adjustment and the difference from the testing was VERY different.

Having watched Connor and Nick do videos on post-processing for their portrait work, the sharpness they had as they zoomed in around the eyes was so much more than I had really ever seen with my own portraits.  I had assumed it was just the difference between full frame and crop.

Did an engagement shoot recently and can’t believe the difference in sharp focus after successfully doing AFMA.  I finally have shots where the eyes are every bit in as sharp focus as anything else I have seen.

Listen to the Photo Taco episode if you want more information about AFMA.

Mirrorless cameras don’t need AFMA.  Not going to go into detail, but this is only something to watch out for with a DSLR.

If your camera doesn’t support AFMA then if you have purchased the lens fairly recently you may be able to get it done by the manufacturer by sending both the camera and the lens in.

Doodads of the Week!

 

* Jim: Western Digital 8tb red drive 

* Jeff:  MagMod Sphere.  Used it at the engagement photo shoot during sunset and just love the results.  Can see a couple of the shots if you find me on Instagram...

Pre-Roll: Squarespace

Topic 1: Camera Survey

Brand

Canon – 43%

Nikon – 33%

Fuji – 10%

Sony – 10%

Olympus – 2%

Panasonic – 1%

Pentax – 1%

Sensor Size

Full Frame – 47%

Crop – 49%

M43 – 4%

Camera Age

Released in Last 2 Years – 18%

Released 2-4 Years Ago – 25%

Released 4-6 Years Ago – 43%

Released More than 6 Years – 14%

Most popular camera

Most Popular Camera – Nikon D750

2nd Most Popular Camera – Canon 5DIII

3rd Most Popular Camera – Canon 6D

4th Most Popular Camera – Canon 7DII

30% of Nikon Shooters Use the Nikon D750

Topic 2: Organizing photography gear

My office is always a MESS!  What’s your process when you come back from a trip?

Dump space

Smaller baskets

Midroll: Squarespace

Topic 3:  Printing options… Metal vs Canvas vs Acrylic

For huge prints I love canvas, but getting the floating frame adds a sense of value

For affordable prints.. I go with metal prints.. Easy and good image quality

Acrylic

Doodads of the Week!

 

* Jim: CQR Men's Tactical Pants 

 

Nick: Fstop – Anja bag

 

* Stephen: grid it

Kauai, Tasmania, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands

 

Topic 2: Brent – Photographing the Solar Eclipse of 2017

http://www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/SEphoto.html

http://www.eclipse2017.org

http://eclipse-maps.com/Eclipse-Maps/Gallery/Pages/Total_solar_eclipse_of_2017_August_21.html

https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com

Basic Facts:

Happens August 21, 2017 at 17:16 UTC

Total duration for the shadow to travel across the continental US is about 1:33

States that will experience totality: Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina.

Equipment Needed:

Solar Filter, Metal coated glass or black polymer (The type I bought) provides yellow or orange color

Mylar sheet makes the sun look white or blueish.

Long lens, a 500mm lens will create a 4.6mm circle for the sun. Somewhat small. However, at totality you’ll get the corona showing which will be a bit larger.

800mm lens should get you about 7.3mm circle for the sun.

Topic 3: Connor – I plan to shoot product using just one light

I was inspired by a recent post on our facebook group in which someone as talking about not being able to photograph bottles well because they didn’t have enough lights to do so. Now as a personal challenge to myself I have decided I am going to attempt to shoot a bottle using only one light to show that it can be done.

There are two ways I can think to go about this. The first is to use lots of bounce cards, reflectors and flags.

The second method I can think of using to get the shot is to composite a bunch of shots together with light painting. This is something I did during the retreat to light the car that Erica had rented for the studio shoot, so I figure if it worked there, it could work for this.

I intend to make some sort of video just showing the process as I do it as well as stream it on my new streaming channel twitch.tv/connorhphoto

Doodads of the Week!

 

* Jim: Kupo midi 7’ light stand 

* Brent: Battery case for cell phone, charges while in the pocket!

* Connor: ARKON Heavy Duty Camera Clamp Mount