It’s been a great week at Photofocus! Here’s a few of our favorite posts from the past week.
First, Chris Anson discusses the FAA forcing recreational drone users to register via LAANC, while Bryan Esler reviews Sony TOUGH memory cards. Vanelli talked with judges Kevin Ames and Michele Grenier about the Impact Photo Contest, and Lauri Novak helped us see the bigger picture with a visit to the Chicago White Sox stadium. Finally, Bob Coates capped off the week showing us how to turn nature into abstract photography art.
And don’t forget! Drobo and Photofocus are having a photography contest. Read more about it and enter your photo here.
FAA forces recreational drone flyers to use LAANC authorization - As of July 23, 2019, the FAA is requiring recreational drone flyers to use LAANC (Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability) authorization to fly in restricted airspace, like areas around an airport. See my article on how to use LAANC here. What does that mean to you? So what does that mean to you as a recreational drone flyer? That means that if you are with five miles of an airport — even if it’s in your backyard — you’ll need to use LAANC to get an authorization. The good news is that with LAANC you can typically get an authorization for approved height in 30 seconds. Additionally, if you know you want to fly somewhere on the weekend, the KittyHawk app will let you request authorizations 90 days out. In the KittyHawk app on the iPhone and Android, you’ll something similar to the screenshots below. The app will walk you through the steps and then you’ll be able to submit the request and you typically get an answer within 30-60 seconds unless you are requesting a greater height than the grid allows. I currently use both the KittyHawk app and Skyward.io (web-based only for the free version) for getting my LAANC authorizations. Right now you’ll be able to download the KittyHawk app, sign up and use that app to get those authorizations. In addition, KittyHawk has taken over the creation and maintenance of the FAA’s B4UFly app, which is supposed to be released soon. I found the current version of B4UFly app to be useless and have high hopes that the KittyHawk version will be a good tool for people, given the quality of their current app. The KittyHawk app looks like this. How do I keep up with these changes? To get more information directly from the FAA regarding these changes and keep updated, you can sign up on the FAA website. The FAA is also offering the following free webinars about the process: How to operate in the National Airspace System (NAS) How to start a drone program How to fly during an emergency I hope you enjoyed this article and found it helpful!
Achieving peace of mind with TOUGH memory cards - I photograph a lot of corporate events and am constantly on-the-go. Up until recently, I had relied on trusty SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-II memory cards. I’ve had these for quite some time, and they’ve served me well. I’ve never once had a card break. That is, until a few weeks ago. As I was photographing around Toronto with fellow photographers Michael Muraz and Angie McMonigal, I loved that I was able to photograph quickly. While Burst Mode might not be necessary when you’re shooting architecture, it sure comes in handy for event work, or brackets, which is what I did on occasion up in Toronto. When I got back to my laptop though, I realized that something wasn’t right with my SD card. One of the ribs on the back — those skinny pieces of plastic — had bent, and was about to break off. I knew right there and then that the card needed to be replaced. Luckily, I was able to carefully insert it into my SD card reader and retrieve the photos and videos I had taken. Which was important, because the videos were only saved to that one card. So, what did I do? Did I just go out and buy another SanDisk card? My thought process I’ve always tried to be careful with my cards. But when you’re constantly running around and oftentimes switching cards during events, you inevitably push the card to the limits. And that’s what happened in Toronto. I didn’t want this to happen again. After all, I’m a professional photographer. How bad would it sound if I had lost an entire day of photos or video footage to a small piece of plastic breaking on my memory card? So I decided to do some research. I looked at all the major memory card brands — SanDisk, Lexar, Hoodman … you name it, I researched it. But then I stumbled upon a card that I knew would do the trick. Sony’s TOUGH line I was intrigued by Sony’s TOUGH line, as they clearly were going after a market of photographers that put their memory cards through constant wear and tear. And I fit into that group perfectly. That wasn’t the only reason, however. Upon closer inspection online, I discovered that the TOUGH cards were not only slightly faster than my SanDisk cards — with write speeds up to 299 MB/s — they were also, well, tougher. The TOUGH cards eliminated the pesky ribs on the back, in addition to the write protection slot (which, let’s be honest, who uses that anyway?). The cards also feature a one-piece molding and are dust, dirt, water, mud and grime-proof. They’re 18 times more resistant to bending than typical SD cards on the market. Basically, they represent what happens when Peter Parker turns into Spider-Man. Performance and peace of mind I ordered two 64GB TOUGH cards and had them delivered to my doorstep in just a couple days. When I opened them up, I was impressed — about as impressed as you can be about a memory card. Clearly, they were well-built. I had the chance to try them out a few days as I went on a few photowalks. I paired the cards with one of my older SanDisk cards and then went on a walk with just the Sony TOUGH cards as well. The TOUGH cards performed like a rock. They were fast and I never experienced any lag time, whether it be during sequential shooting, bracketing or creating a long exposure. Back at my desk, I used my ProGrade Digital SD card reader to import the photos. The import process was just as fast as the SanDisk cards, if not just a little bit faster. Going forward, the TOUGH cards will definitely be the primary cards I carry in my camera. If for nothing else but for peace of mind, and knowing that it’s going to be a lot tougher for me to damage these cards down the line. At $115 apiece, they aren’t cheap — but they’re only $6 more than the comparable SanDisk cards. I’ll eventually be replacing a few more of my older SanDisk cards as well, probably with the 32GB version (which run $72 apiece). The TOUGH cards come with Sony’s SD Scan Utility, which alerts you to when your cards are getting to the end of their life span. Also included is Sony’s Memory Card File Rescue program. If you’re worried about the flimsy package that SD cards are normally encased in, take a look at the Sony TOUGH cards. I find myself breathing just a bit easier because of it. Not to mention my peace of mind. Lead photo by Daniel Sak
Vanelli talks with two of the judges of the Impact Photo Contest - Drobo, the foremost manufacturer of protected storage devices and Photofocus bring you the Impact Photo Contest to celebrate World Photography Day, Monday, August 19, 2019. In this video, Photofocus InFocus podcast host Vanelli shares how to enter and talks with two of the judges. Enter the Impact Photo Contest. Prizes are valued at $4000. Enter until midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Thursday, August 15, 2019. Winners announced on World Photography Day. Click the Official Rules tab for how the contest works. Photography: © Kevin Ames
Abstract photo art from nature - Creating abstract photo art from nature is a wonderful way to turn a ho-hum overcast photo day into one that gets you some colorful décor imagery. Keep this in your back pocket on days when it just isn’t working for you as well. Camera settings When you have an overcast flat light day it’s time to get creative. It starts with changing the way you think about image making. Normally we want to have a steady camera with a decent exposure that represents the subject that is in front of our camera. At times that will lead to boring photos. We can change that with a bit of camera magic. You’ll need to override some of your instincts to make something out of almost nothing. I’ll often do this in aperture priority by pushing to the smallest setting, such as f/22. In addition, set the ISO to a lower setting. The idea is to attain a relatively slow shutter speed. For these images I used my Lumix G9 with the Leica 100-400mm lens. As a former Lumix Ambassador I’ve found this to be one of my favorite combinations. Any camera and lens combo will work as there is so much abstract stuff going. Shooting technique Then it’s time to play! When making your exposures, instead of holding still, move the camera. Try moving it in many directions including up and down and side to side. For a fully different variation spin the camera in a circle. This technique calls for lots of experimentation. If the result is too blurry you can slow down the speed of your camera movement. Or, you can open up the shutter a bit to f/16 or f/11 giving you a slightly faster shutter speed. The beauty of the digital realm is that we can see the results immediately. Plug in that feedback and play some more. Post-production Once you are back in the studio working on your computer it’s time to enhance the images. This will take them to a whole ‘nother level. Start with your processor of choice. Mine is Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. I personally almost always capture my images in the RAW format. RAW gives you more headroom because it has all the information presented to the camera. If you use jpeg you will be using the camera processor and settings throwing away information as the file is saved. Time to play (again) I am a big fan of playing with settings and pushing limits to find out what tools will do. I discovered with this experiment that Dehaze gives tremendous depth and dimension. This is not a tutorial but some of the settings I always seem to use in addition to Dehaze are, Blacks, Whites, Shadows, Vibrance, Temperature and Tint. Move to Photoshop I know you will be shocked because I’m going to tell you to play again. You can Copy Layers and change the Blend Mode. You can do that again. Add masks for areas where you might not wish for that effect to be applied. Add Adjustment Layers for Levels, Curves and Hue/Saturation and use the masks to be. Change color. Dodge and burn the image. I think you get the idea from the examples I shared in this post. Just in case I’ll be following up this post with some more in-depth post-production tips and tricks. I’d love to see what you create! Let me know.
Seeing details in the bigger picture - Details are an important and often left out part of telling stories with our photography. I went to a fan event a couple of years ago at Guaranteed Rate Field (still Comiskey Park to me), home of the Chicago White Sox. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some fun photos of the park without all people. The big picture Our first tendencies when we walk into a scene are to see the whole thing, the big picture. I wanted to get some wide shots of the stadium, the scoreboard and the field, of course, which I did. You want to be able to share the whole story of a place, location or event. Wide shots that include everything can do that very well. But, let’s not forget it takes many pieces to create the overall story. Details are part of the story Whether we are at an event, on vacation or wandering around our local city taking photos if you want to bring home the story of your trip or where you were you want to include all parts of the story, big and small. Sure we all like to see the Grand Canyon, but what about the details all around you? The colors of the rock, the texture and shapes of the old trees? How about the really cool doorknob you saw on some skyscraper? Did you meet someone along the way who shared a part of your day, your journey? Be sure to grab a shot of them as well. Seeing details The details are what draw me in. The scenes and things we all walk by without usually noticing. Shapes of things, not the things themselves. I like to look for and shoot the images most people don’t see or pay attention to. How do you find these things? Slow down, pay attention to your surroundings. Look for shapes, light and shadows that accentuate everyday items, like the seats in the ballpark. Look for unique reflective surfaces, put your camera on it and see what happens. Another fun way to get yourself to see the details is to look for faces in things. They are everywhere. Coat hooks, bolts, spilled ice cream. Seriously, the more you start looking for faces, the more you’ll see all sorts of other details you never would have noticed before, and you’ll start seeing faces everywhere. Photographing the details is also a great way to avoid crowds. You can zoom in and remove signs, people and distractions from your shot. Like the cover image, there were people around the trophy constantly but by using my Tamron 100-400mm lens, zooming in and focusing only on the flags, I was able to get an interesting image and anyone who knows baseball would still know what that was. Whether you are out for the day or traveling, remember to take images of the details to help tell your entire story.
