With WPPI just a few days away, we wanted to give you a few interesting articles that you can put into practice on your trip out to Las Vegas! We hope to see you there for our photowalk and readers’ breakfast!
Julie Powell kicked off the week talking about using Excire Search to locate landmarks, while Nate Torres gave us eight ways to capture emotion in photographs. Lauri Novak talked about the legacy of photographs, Bryan Esler gave us insight into the latest Photoshop update to celebrate its 30th birthday and Jeremy Gray discussed the value of printing.
Using Excire Search to locate landmarks - Using Excire Search to locate landmarks is quick and easy to do. I tend to travel a lot and I really like lighthouses, but I frequently forget which lighthouse is in which folder within Lightroom Classic. Excire Search promised to get me organized, and it did. Keyword search I tried using the search term lighthouse and raised the criteria to load up to 5,000 images and the whole catalog. I was really impressed — 99% was spot on with every image. I also tried searching for house and bird, again spot on. I tried refining my search by looking for eagle as opposed to a bird, 80% were eagles, but also pelicans and owls. Looking for particular colors can be really handy too. Example photo search I also tried an example photo search, which did not quite as far. Again I used a lighthouse image and an eagle image, but mixed and random results. Being artificial intelligence, it’s possible the more Excire is run, the better it will be able to run a predictable search. In conclusion If like me, your catalogues are getting a bit up there in quantity, you may find that Excire Search really can improve your workflow and help get you really organized. I have only been playing with it for a short time, but already I have found it very useful. It really can make finding your Lightroom Classic images quick and intuitive.
Adobe celebrates 30th birthday of Photoshop - This morning, Adobe announced a range of updates to Photoshop for both desktop and iPad, to help ring in the software’s 30th birthday. According to Adobe, Photoshop has been around for 10,950 days. The company made note of its involvement in crating visual effects for the movie “The Abyss,” and also marked such innovations as the healing brush in Photoshop CS2, Content-Aware Fill, Sensei AI and more. Here’s what to look forward for in today’s releases. Photoshop for desktop Content-Aware Fill workspace improvements Following the updates to Content-Aware Fill revealed at Adobe MAX in November, the company has now made it so you can make multiple selections and apply multiple fills without leaving the workspace. You can now sample all layers in the Content-Aware Fill workspace, and iterate your fills with a new “Apply” button. Furthermore, you can now refine fills that need multiple iterations. To do that, you can break the fill region into sub-parts to give you more control, helping you achieve a more realistic fill. Lens Blur improvements The output quality of Lens Blur has been improved, while the performance of the tool now relies on the GPU. This helps to improve the overall realism, including sharpness and edges when using Lens Blur to synthetically blur the foreground, background or even the middle of an image. Lens Blur now delivers more colorful bokeh via the specular highlights, producing a more realistic and pleasing result. In its blog post, Adobe talked to an engineer about how Lens Blur works: The results are created by an algorithm the team built by studying the first principles of physics and how light interacts with objects in the real world. It is carefully tuned to simulate a 3D environment to create the most realistic results possible, while also consuming the least amount of computer power so you don’t burn up your machine. Lots of research and iteration occurred to make the feature. Several PhDs were involved. And now you can synthetically adjust the depth of field by dynamically manipulating the blur of a 2D image after capture in milliseconds. Performance improvements There are also several performance improvements brought to Photoshop. Clicking interactions like panning and zooming will feel smoother and more responsive. You’ll notice the biggest boosts on larger documents, and when using the hand tool to move around the canvas. For Windows users who use a stylus, you no longer need to use WinTab. Photoshop for iPad In this update, Adobe has brought some pretty big features to the touch-friendly interface of Photoshop. Object Selection tool After being released for the desktop version of Photoshop at Adobe MAX, the feature now comes to the iPad. Both use Adobe Sensei AI and machine learning to automatically make a great selection. Select Subject finds and selects the main subject in your image with one click, with no input or guidance from you. This is perfect when you have one primary object you want to quickly isolate. The Object Selection tool is designed to give you speed, but also more control over the selection process on more complex images. You can draw a rectangular region or even a crude lasso around the area you want to select, and the tool automatically finds and selects the primary objects inside the defined region. Type settings The iPad update brings many of the typographic controls you use in Photoshop on the desktop to the iPad platform. Type layer, character and options properties have been added. This includes tracking, leading, scaling and formatting. Kerning is set to ship in a future release. Learn more about the new features Join digital artists Anna McNaught and Magdiel Lopez on Adobe Live as they celebrate Photoshop’s 30th birthday. They’ll share tips on the newest features in Photoshop for two days — February 19 and 20, 2020, from 12:30-5:00 p.m. ET. Jump into the live stream, or watch at your convenience. For more information on these updates to Photoshop, visit the Adobe Blog.
The legacy of our photographs - The legacy of our photos (and other bits and pieces of our lives) isn’t necessarily something any of us really like to talk about. Because I’m dealing with it personally and creeping up there in age, I’m seeing and hearing more and more of this subject come up in conversations. What do we do with all of these photos? I know I’m not the only one who has shelves and shelves of photo albums along with shoe boxes, containers, tubs, bins and stacks of photographs. Printed. Yes, prints. It’s quite overwhelming, to be honest. Not only do I have my own going back over 40 years (told you I was creeping up there in age), I also now have my family’s prints some of which date back to the 1940s. Start by sorting Easier said than done, I know because I haven’t started yet even though I say I’m going to every week. It’s daunting but just start. Pick one box or album and start making piles. Decide ahead of time what you want to do with the prints you have. Your piles may be Keep, Toss, Give, Scan. Which photos do you want to keep for yourself and your family? Some of the photos may have zero meaning to you and/or you have no idea who those people even are in them, toss those (recycle when you can). Give the photos to family/friends who are in the images. Scan the images you want to share either online or with friends and family. Create new albums Once you’ve completed the sorting process, you may want to make new albums. Update those little photo mounting corners that no longer stick or are missing. Write any information you have on the back of the prints so the next person doesn’t have to figure out who, what and when the photos are from. You may even want to cut out the original writing in the old albums to keep with the images, paste under the photos in a new album or create scrapbooks based on years or family events. The scanning process Depending on the number of prints you have to scan you have some options. Scanning is a very time-consuming project. Scan them yourself. You can purchase film/negative/slide scanners in a wide range of prices from $40 to $900 depending on the quality you need/want and the type of film you have to scan. This range includes 8mm film as well. You’ll need to learn how to prepare the prints, slides or negatives; make sure they are clean and dust-free so you get clean scans. There are several online companies that offer scanning services. One I used several years ago is ScanMyPhotos.com. They did the job I needed to archive around 600 prints for me so that I had them digitally. They offer several different services and options for how to send your images. Legacybox.com is another online company that offers scanning services. They allow you to include different types of media, film, printed materials and audio files that they digitize for you. There are a few others out there. Like anything, do your research, read reviews, ask around and make your decision based on the information you’ve gathered. If it makes you a little nervous sending your prints out into the world via the postal service or other delivery companies, do a little research and find out if there are scanning service companies near you. I found a couple within an hour from me. I asked for quotes from both places and was a little surprised to find their prices varied quite a bit. One quoted me based on 1,000-4,999 prints at $0.29 each print. 1-99 prints were $0.99 each. The other company gave me $1 per print and only dropped down to $0.75 for the 1,000 prints or more. The digital image legacy Once you have your prints archived digitally then decide where to store them. How to preserve those files and the media they are stored on for generations. Obviously we also need to consider our digital legacy as well, especially since we’ve just digitized our old prints. What do we do with all those external hard drives? Who has access to your digital files, passwords, cloud-based storage and do they know how to handle images? I think it’s a good idea to create a plan and share it with your family. A similar process as above, sort through your images and decide what stays, what goes and what to share. Technology is constantly changing. Will your files be easily accessed, will file types change? Remember floppy disks? Yea, those among a myriad of other types of storage that basically no longer exist. The tried and true method of printing our images is still one of the best ways to ensure future generations will be able to see our stories. What are you doing to preserve the legacy of your photos?
Emotional photography: Eight ways to capture feeling in photos - Emotions can be found anywhere in photography, even in landscape photos. However, as a portrait photographer or event photographer, it’s more important than ever to ensure you capture the emotion of the scene. Your clients will be relying on your ability to tell a compelling story through your photographs. Emotional photography is the key to unlocking the hidden narrative in every session you have with a client. Emotional photography can be perplexing to beginners. How do you translate the way people feel or the way your surroundings inform a moment to a two-dimensional photograph? If the feat of emotional photography was easy, then you probably wouldn’t be in business. Yet, with a few fundamental principles under your belt, you’ll find that “capturing the moment” comes easier. Keep things natural The worst thing you can do as a photographer is to make your subjects seem stilted or uncomfortable. As the person behind the lens, you need to not only capture their best angles but ensure you do so while they’re looking completely natural. Keeping things natural takes a bit of skill and might need some practice before you are adept at it. For one, ensure your subjects are comfortable in their own skin from the start and constantly reassure them. Simply saying “these photos are looking great” works well. A few other compliments here and there will go a long way to making your client feel empowered to be themselves in front of the camera. Most of all, make sure you adopt a relaxed, passive personality when behind the lens so as not to intimidate your client. Be the ice breaker Before you even begin shooting, try and start a conversation with your client and sustain it throughout the entire shoot. If you keep your client talking, then they’ll have much less to scrutinize about themselves when you start the session. There’s no need to worry about distracting your client — you want them distracted from the unnatural fact that there’s a camera in front of them. The great thing about a conversation is that it can start rather innocuously and find its own momentum. Begin by talking about the weather and continue from there — the more you talk, the more at-ease your client will be. If you’re lucky, you might even land on something they love to talk about — let them get lost in the conversation while you shoot. You’d be surprised by the results that come from a completely comfortable model. Give your subjects space Some photography is meant to be up close and personal. However, event photographers (think of weddings or other special events) will often shoot from a distance. The purpose of this is because they do not need to be the ice breaker in these situations — their subjects are among friends and in the middle of an important moment in their lives. They’re already thinking about other things (rather than your camera). At that point, your job is to step back and capture real moments and emotions as they happen. A good telephoto lens will give you the distance you desire while still capturing each moment as if you were right there. Choose the right location There is plenty of emotion to be found in a location, not just in your subject. Choosing an emotional location is sometimes the perfect way to coax the right emotion from your clients. For instance, if your clients were engaged in front of a certain Ferris wheel in a city park then it only makes sense to return to that locale for their engagement photos. Not only will the location act as an impressive backdrop, but it will bring your clients back to that beautiful day, allowing you to capture a fraction of that original moment. Beyond shooting in memorable locations, simply choosing an impressive backdrop can be just as impactful. Crashing waves on a craggy shore in the middle of the golden hour can elevate your client’s photos to another level if that’s the vibe they’re going for. The opposite is true, too — peace and serenity can be just as useful for the right client. There’s plenty of both, and much in-between found everywhere in nature. Choose the right time of day Just as important as location is the time of day. The golden hour (the time of day when the sun is just about to rise or set) is a pivotal window of opportunity for photographers but it brings with it a certain atmosphere that might not be ideal for all photos. It’s equal parts dreamy as it is stylish — great for certain clients but wrong for others. On the contrary, an engagement shoot or family photo session can lend itself well to bright noontime light. Shadows are minimized, everyone will be in startling focus and the scene will typically be bright and cheery. Whatever time of day you decide on, just ensure that it’s an intentional decision that matches the vibe of your client. Don’t rely so much on posing Posing can be a great way to find certain shots, especially for clients looking for professional portraits. However, posing will only get you so far. Because it’s so unnatural, there can be a certain stiffness to posed shots no matter how good you are at making your clients feel at ease. Despite this, posing is still important to the creative process. Many professional photographers will start a session with posing and then slowly loosen that restriction. As you go, you’ll find that creative ideas come to you, the conversation between you and your client is flowing, and you will both typically opt for more improvisation. This is a sign that the session is headed in the right direction — the more natural you and your model become, the less reliant you’ll typically be on posing. Let your clients be themselves You might have a strategy in your head from the beginning but if you find that it simply isn’t meshing with
The value of printing your images - Printing your images is a great way to share your digital photography and add a special element to your workflow. In an increasingly digital age, many photographers exclusively share their work online. Whether it’s a personal website, a photo sharing site or Instagram, for many photographers, the only way their work is displayed is on a computer monitor or a smartphone. Printing is a powerful medium There’s nothing wrong with sharing work online, of course, but I believe there’s an important part of the photographic process that is lost when one does not print their work. Further, a photograph viewed on Instagram does not carry the same weight as the same photo viewed as a well-crafted print. Seeing your work come to life in a matted and framed presentation is more powerful. That is not to say that digital photography solely consumed digitally is without merit. It’s incredibly easy and affordable (often free) to share images online. There is also value to the instantaneous nature of the internet. Whether you’re looking for feedback on your work or are building your business online, being able to quickly publish many images is great. This image was printed on Epson’s Legacy Baryta fine art paper using an Epson SureColor P800 printer. The paper offers excellent black levels and saturation. I’ve used many excellent papers, but the Epson Legacy Baryta paper is one of the best. It is also an expensive paper, with a 17-by-22 inch sheet costing $5 USD each. These same advantages are not as readily felt when considering your images for print, especially at home. It takes time, for one thing, but a larger deterrent for many is the cost of printing photos. Paper and ink are not cheap, especially when making large prints on quality paper. A wide-format photo printer is also quite an expense. You can, of course, use a local printer or an online photo lab to print your work, but you lose a level of control over the process and the service can be expensive. Details With an image like this, which was printed on Epson Legacy Platine paper, the devil is in the details. Looking at a large print of this and many other landscape images is a different experience than viewing it on a screen. Seeing a large print allows you to pick out all the fine details in the scene. Details such as the branches, the ice on the mountain and the little bit of leftover fall foliage that are floating on the surface of the water. A large print can transport you to a place in a way that I believe is more impactful. With most photographers working exclusively in the digital realm, you lose the hands-on element of photography, which was critical when film dominated the industry. By incorporating printing into your digital photography workflow, you reintroduce a very hands-on element to your digital photography. You select your paper, load your printer and after a few minutes, you’ve transformed your digital file into a photo you can hold in your hands. Control how your work is viewed Another excellent reason to print your work for display is that you have complete control over how your work is viewed. When you send a digital file out into the world to be viewed, people will see it under different conditions, with disparate monitor settings and at varied sizes. When making a print, you get to control the size of the print and how it is seen by others, whether it is framed or shown only in certain light. Further, you get to pick the type of paper you use, which can have a dramatic impact on how a photograph looks. Glossy paper may be better suited for vibrant, high-contrast images, whereas a matte paper or even a textured paper may well work in other situations and deliver a very different tone and feel. Cost As mentioned earlier, cost is a factor when considering printing your work. There’s a real monetary cost up front and there’s a time cost associated with the printing process. Creating a consistent workflow is the best way to limit costs. By utilizing color management and understanding your printer, you can ensure that you waste very few sheets of paper and minimal ink. With respect to the largest cost, the cost of a printer, identifying your needs and selecting the right printer ensures the best bang for your buck. It’s all too easy to buy a printer that is too big for your typical needs, so be realistic with your printing plans. This is one of my favorite images. It comes to life on the page. In this instance, I printed it on Epson Legacy Platine paper to bring out the vibrant colors. I’ve successfully printed it on several different types of paper. It’s a simple shot but I always love seeing it come out of my printer. Ultimately, this feeling is what matters most when seeing your work this way. Nothing beats seeing your favorite photographs freshly printed. You won’t regret printing At the end of the day, I believe that the cost is well worth it. I’ve been printing my own work at home for nearly as long as I’ve been a photographer. Being able to control the creation of a photograph from capture all the way through to the final product is fun and satisfying. I’ve gotten to experiment with many different paper types and ways of displaying my work, which has helped keep photography exciting. As far as I’m concerned, there is no electronic substitute available for a high-quality photo print. They make excellent gifts. They offer customers a beautiful product. And, they keep digital photography rooted in the realm of the tangible.Win free prizes just for entering the Photofocus Celebrates 21 Years contest! Get started today.
