Photo life blog..
Pre-Photokina 2008: Tamron has also announced the availability of the AF18-270MM Di II VC ultra high power zoom lens in Canon and Nikon mounts (with AF motor for Nikon) and the recently reviewed SP AF70-200mm F/2.8 Di LD [IF] Macro zoom lens in mounts for Pentax and Sony SLR cameras. Both the lenses will be initially launched in Japan later this month.
By: www.dpreview.com
Canon has posted a firmware update for the EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi. The latest version (1.0.9) fixes Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) problems, errors with the Live View Exposure Simulation warning indicator and playback problems after continuous shooting when a printer or a video display is attached.
By: www.dpreview.com
“The Mount Saint Helens observatory”. Taken by Steve Buser
Source: planetearthdailyphoto.blogspot.com
The Life of a Photograph is a new National Geographic book by photographer Sam Abell. Drawing on 40 years of Abell’s fieldwork, the book takes readers on assignment and inside the heart of this master photographer to witness the making of nearly 200 images. Many photographs are complemented by text from Abell, providing background on the photograph and how he crafted the image. The Life of a Photograph will be available at the end of October for $40.
THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPH
Sam Abell Offers Master Class in Photography with Powerful Images
In THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPH (National Geographic Books; ISBN 978-1-4262-0329-9; Oct. 21, 2008; $40), Sam Abell, one of the foremost photographers of our time, shares some of his most powerful and unforgettable images and answers the question, “What gives life to a photograph?”
Drawing on 40 years of Abell’s fieldwork, the book takes readers on assignment and inside the heart of this master photographer to witness the making of nearly 200 truly great images. Abell has selected photographs that speak most powerfully to him. They include notable images that he has made for National Geographic magazine and books, as well as photographs from his personal body of work that are published here for the first time.
THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPH is organized around Abell’s perspectives on landscape, still life, street scenes and the photography of daily life. Selections cover geography and wildlife from the Arctic to the Amazon, and cultures from Australia to the American West.
In an original concept for a photography book, images are displayed in a unique, highly involving way that allows the viewer to be engaged in the photographic process. By showing similar images side by side, or sequences of photographs of the same event, the viewer is placed in the field and in the editor’s chair. Displaying images in this way allows the viewer to see how a setting appears before the subject enters, like an actor on a stage, and how subtle differences in point of view, framing, timing and perspective can lead to strikingly different photographs.
By presenting alternative images and clear, compelling text, Abell describes that act of seeking the picture — “a process with no absolute ending, as time and thought continue to shape the life of a photograph.”
With each image Abell presents a master class in photographic thinking. Through his lens, even the most mundane sights — a puddle of water, a bathroom faucet, a circle of laundry drying on the line, a plate of baked beans and toast — are transformed into artful, meaningful creations. Many photographs are complemented by text from Abell, providing background on the photograph and how he crafted the image.
“As a photographer my intent is to bring the world under my aesthetic control,” he writes. “Making a picture just right takes time even when the thing you’re photographing isn’t moving. Instead you do the moving — closer, not so close, change lenses, commit to a tripod, micro compose some detail, step back, reconsider, recompose, step back. And when it looks right, it also feels right — just so. Therefore it’s not only things that have made their way into my photography, but also the poetics of them in their setting.”
THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPH is part of National Geographic Books’ new Focal Point imprint, which draws on National Geographic’s legendary photographic archive of more than 10 million images and the work of distinguished photographers around the world. The imprint will present the finest in documentary photography past and present, and monographs will celebrate individual photographers’ unique style, vision and skill.
Abell, who learned his craft from his father Thad S. Abell, has photographed for National Geographic magazine for almost 40 years. He is the author of the National Geographic book “Seeing Gardens” as well as “Stay this Moment,” a mid-career retrospective accompanied by an exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York. His retrospective “Sam Abell: The Photographic Life” was accompanied by a traveling exhibition that opened at the University of Virginia Art Museum. Abell also collaborated with Stephen Ambrose on two best-selling National Geographic books, “Lewis and Clark: Voyage of Discovery” and “The Mississippi River.”
Via: feeds.feedburner.com
Panasonic Lumix G lens camera system : Panasonic is pleased to announce a brand-new digital interchangeable lens camera system – the Lumix G Micro System. It is based on the new Micro Four Thirds System standard that greatly reduces camera size and weight to further enhance the inherent advantages of the original Four Thirds System standard for digital interchangeable lens cameras. Although the world market for digital interchangeable lens cameras continues to grow at a steady pace, yet there is a widespread notion that digital SLR cameras are large, heavy and hard to use resulting in a preference for compact cameras. Panasonic has now made it possible to develop digital interchangeable lens camera that comply with the new Micro Four Thirds System standard and feature greater compactness and lighter weight.
Panasonic Lumix G – Micro Four Thirds System
The new Micro Four Thirds System products will join today’s Four Thirds System products to provide customers with even higher levels of performance in a digital interchangeable lens camera. The features that clearly set the Micro Four Thirds System standard apart from the Four Thirds System standard: approx. 50% shorter flange back distance (mount-to-sensor distance), approx. 6mm smaller lens mount outer diameter and electrical contacts in mount increased from 9 to 11. In essence, not only the camera unit but also the Micro Four Thirds lenses are smaller, and this is particularly true for the wide-angle and high-power zoom lenses. The number of electrical contacts between the lens and the camera body is also increased in the new Micro Four Thirds System, to allow a variety of new features and system functions in future models. The Micro Four Thirds System will also allow users to continue using their present Four Thirds System lenses on Micro Four Thirds System bodies by adding a mount adapter. Together with an innovative mirror-less structure that also dramatically downsizes the camera body, the Panasonic Lumix G Micro System achieves a dramatic portability and ease of use by an adoption of electronic Full-time Live View Finder instead of conventional optical viewfinder.
Panasonic Lumix G Micro System
Combining superb image quality and unprecedented mobility, Panasonic Lumix G Micro System will change the way you see the world around you, and the role that photography plays in your life. Panasonic is committed to creating a new photographic culture by introducing innovative, high-performance cameras and lenses for this new generation standard.
Souce: www.letsgodigital.org
This is the first article in an occasional series on collecting.
First editions of scarce, time-worthy publications by known authors, or which covered newsworthy events, are fetching five figures on the market. As with any collectible category, low-print editions, special editions, autographed editions, or otherwise scarce or hard-to-come-by editions can command even more. Also like any collectible, condition is paramount. Please bear in mind that I’m not plugging any particular company, in spite of this article’s focus, which I use as an example.
Genesis Publications is a London-based company, a part of which specializes in publishing collectible manuscripts or, in this case, photographs that for the most part have not been publicly displayed previously. Genesis searches out and capitalizes on scarce and rare collectibles, making them even more collectible by the use of special bindings, low print runs, autographed copies, etc. Like any worthy collectible, this volume shows provenance by including something that the millions of other copies extant do not have: original, authentic signatures, in which case it is bound to be the most desired and probably net the highest sale price.
Genesis has just announced a special edition, limited to 1,000 copies, of a book entitled Easy Company, 506th PIR, In Photographs. The book is signed by seven surviving members of the US Army unit whose World War II story was told in the book and movie entitled Band of Brothers.
The photographs and story follow the men of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, a part of the famed 101st Airborne Division. (The 101st was also the unit to which another famous American was assigned: Jimi Hendrix.) The book follows the men's brave, valorous exploits, beginning with training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, through additional training in England, D-Day, and the invasion of Nazi Europe. From there, the men move through Normandy, Holland, and Belgium, engage in the Battle of the Bulge, and, in their final wartime triumph, capture Adolf Hitler’s Alpine fortress, “The Eagle’s Nest.”
The book contains 400 photographs and 20,000 words of text, with a foreword by Tom Hanks, and reproductions of maps, literature, and pamphlets from the era. As editor Alex Hedley says, “This book speaks for itself – all you need to do is look through to realize what an astounding group of men this was.” It is available only through Genesis Publications.
This volume is bound in medium-grain black leather, and has hand-tooled gold lettering on the spine. The backing boards of the book are bound in US Army M1942 8-ounce cloth, which is what the uniforms of the soldiers were made of. A replica of the unit patch for the 101st Airborne Division is embossed on the front board. The edges of the 232 pages are gilded, and each page is of heavyweight matte art acid-free paper.
Idea Generation, the public relations company for Genesis Publications, has also gained recent press coverage from mounting the first UK exhibition of photographs by former Rolling Stone photographer Robert Altman. More recently, The Fame Bureau announced a planned auction featuring the original Beatles recording contract, signed by all four members of the Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein, dated 1 October 1962, which is expected to bring in at least $500,000. Coverage of this 4 September event at the Idea Generation Gallery will be my next article in this series.
From: feeds.blogcritics.org
The six lucky winners of our fantastic August 2008 Newsletter contest have been randomly selected from the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter subscriber list.
Frances Heaton , Henryk Fibich, Melanie Hopgood, Stephan Konjer, Mick Durnall and Neil Morgan each win a Kata DC441 Shoulder Bag, worth ВЈ50 / $70 each.
Via: feeds.feedburner.com
Alien Skin has announced a new version of its image-resizing software plug-in. Blow Up 2 offers a simplified interface, easy batch processing, and improved performance with support for multi-processor and multi-core systems. The plug-in can be used with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements software, and can handle CMYK images, 32-bit-per-channel HDR images, and output up to 300,000 pixels on a side.
Alien Skin has also added a Smart Cropping feature designed to center the crop area over the most interesting part of the photo, sharpening that is automatically optimized for the degree of enlargement and paper type selected, and greater control over simulated textures and film grain to retain a natural look. Blow Up 2 also offers new controls for cleaning up JPEG compression artifacts in images from low-quality sources.
Blow Up 2 is available in Windows and Mac versions on the Alien Skin Web site for $249 or as a $99 upgrade for current owners of Blow Up 1. Those who purchased Blow Up 1 who after July 26, 2008 can upgrade for free.
Souce: feeds.feedburner.com
Organisers of a photography competition have defended their right to publish entries anywhere they like on the grounds that only amateurs – not professionals – are eligible to enter.
Launched by the Container Shipping Information Service (CSIS), the contest offers prizes totalling $1,500.
However, the rules state that submissions ‘become the property of the CSIS’ and that organisers ‘may use and display them for any defined, reasonable and lawful purposes thereafter, whether a photo is a winning photo or not’.
When confronted over the rules of the competition a spokesperson failed to dispel any concerns entrants are likely to face.
She told : ‘CSIS completely understands and respects the sensitivities surrounding copyright. For that reason, we have only allowed amateur or В“have-a-goВ” photographers to enter. Professional photographers are not eligible to enter.’
The spokesperson added: ‘This competition is only meant to raise awareness of the importance that the container shipping industry has on our everyday livesВ… If anyone is unhappy with any aspect of the terms and conditions we would encourage them not to enter the competition.’
Organisers say the aim of the contest is to ‘improve the image of the container shipping industry’.
Souce: www.amateurphotographer.co.uk
Based on the device-independent CIE specification from 1976, Lab color is often thought of as a high tech, labor-intensive color space. In many cases, Lab color performs certain types of color modifications more quickly and with better, more effective results than RGB. In Photoshop CS3 Mastering Lab Color, Deke McClelland explores how to use Lab color "to make bad photographs great and great photographs even better." He demonstrates image manipulations that are best suited to Lab, and walks through a typical, non-destructive Lab correction. Deke also shows how to correct lighting, apply selective color modifications, and reverse the effects of color cast.
Your trainer for this library is Deke McClelland. In 1985, Deke McClelland oversaw the implementation of the first personal computer-based production department in Boulder, Colorado. Deke McClelland is a well-known expert and lecturer on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and the broader realm of computer graphics and design. To date, he has written 85 books that have been translated into 24 languages, with more than four million copies in print. This library is divided into five lessons and runs six and a half hours.
Lesson 1, "What Lab Color Is" begins with defining what Lab color is. Designed decades ago, Lab color has been available in Adobe Photoshop for over 10 years. Unlike the RGB and CMYK color spaces, Lab color is an optional color space but is often overlooked or considered too difficult to use but can save time and can make your images look better.
Here you will learn not to fear the Lab mode, you will learn why color is 3D, how to mix Lab colors, as well as other explanations of what Lab Color is. You will learn about the hue/saturation color wheel, the Lab color wheel, the different channels between the three color spaces, and how channels blend in Lab mode.
Lesson 2, "What Lab Color Can Do", at least according to McClelland, is "blow your mind." It will have a profound effect on your images, it will surprise you with its power, and it will just simply amaze you. This is where you will see how bad becomes great, and great becomes better. You will see how to favor yellow to balance skin tones, drop out the blues, correct a very bad image in Lab, sharpen luminance independent of color, and sharpen for effect and blur away noise.
Lesson 3, "A Typical, Nondestructive Lab Correction" now focuses on more realistic problems — not making the bad great or the great better, but rather how to make the okay or average image much better. You know those images where the colors are drab, the contrast is lackluster, or other problems where the image does not live up to what you saw when you pressed the shutter release. Here you will see a more typical scenario in which you convert an image to Lab and apply adjustment layers, turn the image into a smart object and sharpen it and turn that into an RGB image to resolve the chromatic aberrations — all without harming a pixel.
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From: feeds.blogcritics.org