Latest Lightroom Update Restores Import Screen and Fixes Bugs

Adobe today released Lightroom CC 2015.3 and 6.3. As was promised last month, this latest update restores the old Lightroom Import experience that was found in Lightroom prior to the tumultuous 6.2 update, which Adobe ended up apologizing for. “The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom,” Adobe says. In addition to new camera support (e.g. Leica SL, Sony RX1R II, Canon EOS M10), the update also contains fixes that address the “instability, functionality, and performance issues introduced in Lightroom CC 2015.2.x/6.2.x.” If you reverted your Lightroom after updating to 6.2 in order to get the old Import experience back, you can go ahead and update to 6.3 now.

This Selfie Stick Gives You Ridiculously Long Arms

Over in Japan, a guy named Mansun has invented an arm-extension selfie stick. Instead of being a stick that you hold, it’s shaped like an extra long arm. He bought some plastic hands on Amazon, mounted them to the end of selfie sticks, attached a phone to the palm, and then created a shirt with extra long sleeves to wear while holding the sticks.

Here’s what Mansun looks like while taking selfies out in public:

Photos of the Strange ‘Crooked Forest’ in Poland

German photographer Kilian Schönberger recently shot a series of photos showing one of the most unusual forests in the world. Located near the city of Gryfino in West Poland, the so-called “Crooked Forest” has a grove of pine trees that are curved at the base. The grove was planted sometime around the year 1930, Schönberger says, and it’s generally believed that some kind of tool or technique was used to make these trees grow in this strange way, but the exact method or motive isn’t currently known. Some people believe that the trees were used to harvest naturally curved timber for building things like furniture and boats. Others think the trees took on this shape through some natural event such as a snowstorm or flood.

Apple Surprises Photographers with Ultra Fancy ‘Shot on iPhone 6’ Photo Books

Earlier this year, Apple launched a global ad campaign called “Shot on iPhone 6” that featured the company’s favorite iPhone 6 photos, which were captured by 77 different photographers. The iPhone 6S has since replaced the 6, but Apple hasn’t forgotten about how the photographers helped the phone become yet another hit. The company has begun shipping out fancy cloth-covered coffee table photo books to the photographers as a special “thank you” gift. Cult of Mac reports that the photographers have been surprised by the packages that are arriving in the mail. Each sleek photo book comes with a pair of white gloves that are used for handling the ultra-limited-edition books with care. Cork, Ireland-based photographer Brendan Ó Sé was one of the 77 photographers who participated in the ad campaign and who received the new photo book. This was the photo of his that Apple selected (we also featured it back in March):

“Shooting from an unexpected angle can add an interesting twist. Here, it creates contours in the lines that convey a sense of movement to the viewer.” –Apple Ó Sé shared a number of photos with PetaPixel that show that there were two photo books included in the box set. One is titled “The Photographs” and one is titled “The Gallery.

The Gallery documents how and where the photos were used around the world. The photographers were also paid for the use of the photos for the campaign, Cult of Mac says. So far, there’s no word on whether the photo books will ever be made available to the general public.

How to Use Empty Instax Film Packs as a Holder for Your Instant Photos

Here’s a trifle tip for those of you United Nations agency shoot with Fuji Instax film whereas out and about: once you’re done exposing a pack of film, you'll be able to use the empty plastic pack as a instrumentation to carry your Instax photos. Reader MJ Idzerda of London, Ontario, Canada, tells USA that she solely discovered the hack a few of days past once shooting with Instax film for four years. “When finished victimisation Instax mini (or wide) don’t throw out the pack,” writes Idzerda. “Simply take away the skinny plastic strip at the highest of the pack and insert your prints for storage and display!”

source: http://petapixel.com/

Know Blazing Speed of XQD Memory Cards Compared to CF By Nikon Test

Nikon Asia simply announce this performance check video showing what quantity quicker XQD memory cards ar than the CF cards they’re designed to exchange (400MB/s versus 160MB/s). On a Nikon D4S DSLR, the XQD might record sixty seven uncompressed sixteen.2MP NEF RAW photos at eleven frames per second (or over two hundred JPEGs in a very single burst). The quicker speed additionally greatly cuts down the time it takes to transfer your shots to your pc. within the check, it took Nikon one minute and fifty five seconds to transfer one thousand photos from a CF card to a pc. those self same one thousand photos were transferred in barely thirty five seconds victimisation Associate in Nursing XQD card — a 3x improvement.

GET STARTED WITH STUDIO LIGHTING FOR LESS THAN $100

If you’re relatively new to photography, studio lighting can seem like a whole other world. If you’re like me when I started with studio lighting, you probably have a pretty decent camera and have seen a noticeable improvement in the quality of your photography as you have learned to work with natural light. But sooner or later you’ll realize that if you really want to progress as a photographer – you’re going to have to learn to effectively use artificial light. The good news is that getting started with studio lighting can be really easy, fun and you can do it for less than $100 in gear! The first studio light photograph that I learned how to take was a one-light studio portrait – so if you’re interested in learning studio lighting, lets start there.

GEAR

The first step in learning studio lighting is to learn to work with off camera hotshoe strobes and then build your knowledge and equipment from there.

While hotshoe strobes are technically not “studio lights” in the traditional sense, what you will learn from working with hotshoe strobes in a studio setting is directly transferable to working with full size studio lights.

The best thing about working with hotshoe strobes in a studio setting is that you can get fantastic results with gear that is accessible to everyone.

CAMERA & LENS

Since you are working in a controlled environment, studio photography typically doesn’t require the latest camera technology or expensive fast lenses. The sample photo in this article was captured with a 10 year old Nikon D200 and a standard 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens.

(I am not including the camera and lens in the total cost since you probably already own that – but a Nikon D200 and a used kit lens wouldn’t be worth much more than $100 either).

You can get great results in studio with pretty much any DSLR or mirrorless camera made in the last 10 years – provided it has either a PC sync port, or a hotshoe (more on that in a moment).

STROBES

In studio we almost exclusively work in manual, so you also don’t need the latest and greatest ($$$) TTL hot shoe strobes. When you’re just learning, you don’t need big expensive studio strobes either.

For the sample photo in this article, I used an ’80s era $20 Sunpak hotshoe strobe that I bought used from my local camera store.

The only feature that you need on your flash is a manual power setting.

TRIGGERING OFF-CAMERA FLASH

Triggering an off-camera flash can seem a little complex, confusing and expensive – but it doesn’t have to be.

By far the easiest and least expensive solution is to use a PC sync cable. Here are a few options from my favorite cable supplier Flash Zebra:

If you really want to go wireless, you can use your on-camera pop-up flash set to minimum power to trigger your off-camera flash with the built in optical slave. If you’re using an old, inexpensive strobe that doesn’t have a built in optical slave sensor (like my Sunpak)

LIGHT MODIFIERS

Once you have your strobe off camera – the next step is to experiment with different light modifiers.

or reflectors, sheets of white foam core (available at any office supply store) work great and are very inexpensive.

It helps to have a light stand as well – but I made due for years by propping my strobes on bookshelves, chairs etc.

ONE LIGHT PORTRAIT EXAMPLE

Here is the recipe to set up your own one-light studio portrait:

Set your camera to manual mode, 1/200th shutter speed, f/5.6, ISO 200, flash white balance.

Set up your off-camera flash on a light-stand (or have an assistant hold it for you), with a shoot-through umbrella on about a 45 degree angle from your subject. Set your strobe to manual mode and set the power to about 1/4 to 1/2. Take a test image and increase or decrease the flash power as required.

This is your key light.

Set up a piece of foam core reflector opposite of the strobe. The reflected light will fill the shadows on the dark side of your subject and make the light from your key light appear less harsh.

This is your fill light.

If the shadows are still too harsh, you can place another piece for foam core below your subject’s face to bounce the light up from below.

This is your hair light.

And don’t forget that all photography needs to be polished up in post. With a few Lightroom adjustments, here is your finished one-light studio portrait!

Source: http://www.diyphotography.net/

Janet Jackson’s Concert Photo Contract: Shoot for 30s Max and Give Up All Copyright

If you’re a concert photographer looking to shoot Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable World Tour 2015, you’ll have to agree to some extremely strict terms for permission to do so. First, you’ll only get 30 seconds total to shoot. Second, you agree to sign over all copyright to your photos. A copy of the contract was sent to PetaPixel today on condition of anonymity. “I’m not trying to get blacklisted from shooting the show,” the photographer tells us. Here it is (click to enlarge):

“I grew up listening to Janet Jackson,” the photographer tells PetaPixel. “She was the second concert that I have ever been to. I have spent so much money on her merchandise and albums. So when the opportunity to finally photograph her concert came up, I was beyond ecstatic. That was, until I saw the contract.” “I have seen a lot of crazy contracts come my way, but this one is beyond ridiculous.” Term #1 of the contract states that the photographer can only shoot during 30 seconds of the first song at the concert. Once that tiny window is closed, that’s it. Term #2 says that the photos shot during those 30 seconds are made as a “work for hire,” so all copyright to the images belong to Jackson’s production company. The photos can be used a single time in a news article. All other uses — including showing the photo in your portfolio — must be approved in each instance in writing.

“I’m not seeing any money from Janet Jackson’s people,” the photographer says regarding the work-made-for-hire term. “Yeah I have my outlet that I work for, but that does not give them the right to take advantage of that, and strong arm my pictures away from me for doing my job.” “If I refuse the assignment, then that is less money for me to eat or pay my rent. On top of that I’m driving many hours to photograph this concert, only to be allowed to shoot Miss Jackson ‘solely during thirty seconds of the first song’. In most cases, photographers are allowed the first three songs, sometimes only two.” Concert photography contracts have been a big topic of discussion in the photo world this year. Taylor Swift’s contract led to a viral open letter, controversy, and, eventually, a revised contract. When the Foo Fighters’ contract was publicized, some newspapers decided to buy fan photos and send cartoonists to the show instead. More recently, guitarist Dweezil Zappa responded to photographer complaints about his strict contract. Jackson’s contract is just the latest in a long line of restrictive agreements that photographers are having a problem with.
Source: http://petapixel.com/