For whatever reason, we just can’t seem to let go of retro. When it comes to the photography that preserves the trivial memories of our daily lives, we love vintage-style borders and soft, mushy color palettes. We always have.
Even in an age where smartphones have more processing power than the Cray Supercomputer, what do we do? We may take digital pictures, but before we share them with our friends, we add filters that make them look like they were shot 50 years ago with an old Polaroid. [click to continue…]
Four months after being withdrawn from the app store, Tap Tap Tap’s Camera+ is back. The VolumeSnap feature, which was at the heart of the discord with Apple, was removed, clearing the way for version two’s triumphant release.
The December 2010 release helped Tap Tap Tap sell over one million copies of Camera+, clearly reaffirming the app’s lingering commercial success.
Camera+’s popularity can be attributed to its clutter-free design and multitude of features. The sheer number of editing tools alone makes iPhone’s own camera seem to pale in comparison.
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Create and share studio lighting diagrams at Sylights.com
If you’re a studio or portrait photographer, you know that a large portion of your craft and creativity is spent coming up with effective and stylistic ways to light your subjects. Whether you use a simple pair of off-camera flashes or a full kit that includes studio strobes, softboxes, umbrellas, diffuser and reflectors, knowing how and where to position them is the key towards making compelling photographs.
Many photographers will probably attest that achieving the perfect lighting is like chasing the Holy Grail, it’s a lifetime pursuit that requires years of practice and the aid of learning from others.
Enter Sylights.com, the interactive website where you can create sample lighting diagrams, download them for your own reference, share them and learn from other photographers. [click to continue…]
SimpleMind for iPhone and iPad
Mind mapping is a very popular and effective method of brainstorming that’s great for sparking creativity, solving problems and coming up with new ideas. Even if you’re not familiar with the term, I know that you’re familiar with the process.
It’s where you start with a single idea that you write down or draw on the middle of a blank page and then branch out in all directions with new ideas, keywords or concepts, each of which relates in some way to the idea to which it’s linked, as well as to the original, central idea. You end up with a graphic, radial arrangement of ideas that are all classified into groups of specific thoughts of interconnectivity. [click to continue…]
What does it mean when you shoot an assignment and one of your favorite images from the shoot is the one that you snapped with your iPhone?
I’ll tell you what it means. It means that you obviously need to be reminded that it’s not the gear that matters most, it’s your uninhibited creativity and your ability to tell the whole story with a single shot. Those things should never be ignored. [click to continue…]
Just how many cameras does a photographer need?
That’s like asking a fashionista how many shoes they need, or a guitarist how many guitars. Let’s see, you need an electric for rock, a steel guitar for blues, a pointy one for playing metal, an acoustic for fingerpicking, a doubleneck for Zeppelin tunes… oh sorry, this post is supposed to be about photography, right?
Like any other piece of gear or clothing, I suppose the answer depends on what you need them for. If you’re a die hard camera junkie, you’ll want to own just about every kind, right? Let’s go through them all.
High end DSLR: The mainstay of your arsenal. If you’re at all serious about your photography, you can’t live without this one. Your DSLR is your go-to camera. It’s the one that you use for shooting assignment work and for creating your highest quality imagery. It needs to be fast, hardcore and, of course, durable, just in case you drop it, like this fellow who dropped his Canon Rebel from a height of 3,000 feet while skydiving. Of course dropping it on land is one thing. Dropping it in the ocean is another, and probably not good for any camera, like the one below. [click to continue…]
We’ve all seen photography subjects or techniques get recycled, repurposed and endlessly reappear like an uninvited houseguest. We asked some of the photo industry’s greatest, a collection of famous shooters, photo editors and creative directors, what photography clichés, subjects, styles and techniques, they really don’t want to see anymore.
This is what they said in no particular order and very anonymously:
1. Faux Polaroid looking images. Bring back the real Polaroids!
2. Photographing little [uninteresting] towns that nobody’s ever heard of. [click to continue…]
