This week, Levi Sim reviewed the WANDRD DUO Daypack, while Jeremy Gray went over use cases of Lightroom and Photoshop.
Bob Coates showed us how to use Aurora HDR to process a single image landscape, Lauri Novak discussed whether photographers truly need Photoshop or not and Giulio Sciorio talked about being a dadtographer during a global pandemic.
DUO Daypack by WANDRD provides tough, customizable storage - Historically, photography backpacks have been aimed at people going on safaris and the packs have looked like they’re built to withstand tramplings by elephants and baggage handlers. WANDRD, a Utah-based company, seeks to make useful packs that look good, too. I’ve been using the DUO Daypack for some time and can attest that it’s a well-made tool that is surprisingly functional without looking like military surplus. Big enough From the outside, the DUO looks quite slim and compact. I thought, “Sure, that’d be fine for my compact Lumix setup,” but I doubted any DSLR user would be interested. It just looks too compact for a full-frame camera. But I was wrong. Both small systems and large full-frame systems fit equally well. Sure, I can fit more micro four-thirds gear in it, but not usefully so. A Canon 5D Mark IV, a 70-200mm lens, 24-70mm lens and a 16-35mm lens, plus a speedlight and accessories all fit without issue. Yes, I could put a few more lenses from my Lumix kit in it, too, but now we’re entering the safari bag territory, and this pack isn’t for that. It’s for carrying the stuff you’re going to use today — not everything in your closet. A 15″ MacBook Pro and tablet plus other small stuff also fits. There are little pockets everywhere and ingenuity sewn into every corner. Tough enough The DUO is also built really well. The material is all rubberized, waterproof nylon. The zippers are weather-resistant YKK zippers, so this bag is ready for a rainy day without a rain cover. The nylon is also durable and wear-resistant. You can see that my pack is a bit dirty, but those scuffs wipe off easily and you don’t have to worry about what you might have set it in on the floor at the coffee shop. The seems are all taped for durability and the straps are also well-made. The grab handles are soft seatbelt-style webbing with foam inserts so the handles are comfortable in your hand. If you are the kind of person who walks in and drops your bag on the floor, this may not be the bag for you. It is made to carry and use gear, but it won’t protect your stuff from airline baggage handlers. Everything is padded, and it has thin, rigid pads to keep lenses separate, not the thick flimsy kind from older packs. It is more than enough to keep your gear safe as long as you treat it like expensive gear and not a soccer ball. Smart enough A pack like this can’t be big enough and tough enough unless it has innovative features. The entire pack opens flat, which makes it easy to organize. The side flaps have useful storage, and the elastic cords at the tops are perfect for keeping your cords organized. The zippers have pulls at the top and at the bottom. This way, you can open it like a traditional backpack or like a sling pack, opening from the bottom to access the sides. The side opens to reveal the Pop Camera Cube. It folds flat if you don’t want it, but it pops up to separate the main compartment with a padded camera area. This cube fits a full-frame camera, like a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 70-200mm lens attached. I’ve carried it a lot with the 70-200mm in the cube. Combined with the side-opening zippers, it’s a convenient way to carry and use your camera. The DUO also has a hidden pocket for your passport and cash. It’s got a pass-though that goes over a luggage handle. There are anchor points for accessory straps (sold separately) on the outside and bottom. The lens pockets inside all have elastic expansion so they are flat when not used. Without all these innovative features, the DUO Daypack wouldn’t be able to manage all the camera tools you use all the time. Not enough? There are just two things I would like to see improved on this pack. First, it’s got an adjustable sternum strap, which I love to have. It keeps the shoulder straps from sliding off. Other packs I’ve owned have lost the adjustable sternum strap when it falls off its rail. This strap is designed so that won’t happen: It has a barbed anchor that fits in sewn slots. This design is really cool and secure. But, it’s sewn just a little too tightly — I can’t get the barbs out to move the strap to a different position. Maybe it’ll break it, but I think the slots need an extra millimeter. My only other gripe is that the removable hip belt is not included. When I carry gear, I usually end up carrying it a lot, and a hip belt relieves the weight from my shoulders. It’s cool that it’s removable so that it’s not dangling when you’re just going to the cafe, but I personally use it a lot. Having said that, the DUO is remarkably comfortable to carry without a hip belt. It rides high on my back and the straps are formed to fit and carry without digging into my shoulders. Enough for you? WANDRD is based in Utah and manufactured in Vietnam. They have a terrific video on their site showing the factory and the people who work there. I like that they are unashamed of where their packs are manufactured. WANDRD also tries to be of service to the community. For instance, last week they donated 100% of their profits to foundations for social change. I’ve been using the DUO Daypack for a couple of months. I’ve found only two small things I don’t like about it. Is this pack for you? Well, do you carry a camera and a laptop? Do you need to use a pack while shooting and have easy access to change lenses? Do you travel with your tools? Do you sometimes find yourself standing in the rain? Do you like a pack that
Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop: Which application do I use for various photo editing tasks? - For photographers who use Adobe software to manage and edit their images, there are two primary applications to use: Lightroom and Photoshop. There are two versions of Lightroom — the regular version (formerly known as CC), and Classic. I exclusively use Lightroom Classic, but Lightroom shares many features with Classic. When do I opt for using Photoshop instead of just Lightroom? Advantages of Lightroom Lightroom has become increasingly powerful and more capable over the years, and many photographers find that Lightroom does everything they need from photo editing software. Compared to Photoshop, Lightroom of course has library management tools, but it also has an intuitive and accessible user interface. It’s incredibly easy to make non-destructive adjustments to your RAW images in Lightroom. Advantages of Photoshop Photoshop, on the other hand, features a more complex workspace. It is not as straightforward to make basic adjustments to your images in Photoshop as it is in Lightroom. It is also more powerful software in certain regards, specifically with respect to utilizing a layers-based workflow and removing unwanted objects from your images. Lightroom does have some healing tools — which are capable — but Photoshop’s content-aware technology is particularly impressive. When it comes to making precise selections, Adobe Photoshop is also an excellent choice. Adobe has added various selection tools to Lightroom over the years, including color range and luminosity-based selections. However, Photoshop continues to deliver more powerful selection tools for precise and localized editing. Another advantage of Photoshop is its incredible compatibility with various plug-in software. While Lightroom Classic accepts numerous plug-ins, Photoshop’s compatibility cannot be bested. I use plugins from Alien Skin and Nik Collection frequently when editing images and making black and white conversions. In my experience, these simply work better through Photoshop. Using Photoshop allows me to keep various plug-in edits on individual layers, which makes future adjustments very easy. Further, while Lightroom has added automated tools for creating panoramic and HDR images, Photoshop remains my go-to application for stacking images together, especially for focus stacking. With that said, combining Lightroom and Photoshop for focus stacking is great. I can adjust one of the series of images and then sync those edits very easily across multiple images in my Library. Then, with each image selected, I can open them as layers in Photoshop. Utilizing a combined workflow using Lightroom and Photoshop Ultimately, my preferred way to take advantage of Lightroom and Photoshop is to use them both to create my final images. When making basic adjustments, I can easily rely solely on Lightroom to organize, edit and finalize my image files. However, when I want to focus stack images, which I do quite frequently, or make precise selections for either removing objects or performing local adjustments, I can open the image in Photoshop right from the Lightroom library. After editing the image, I can then return to Lightroom to find the edited file in addition to my original raw image file. Readers who use Lightroom and/or Photoshop to edit your images, what are some image editing tasks you perform in each software? How do you utilize each Adobe photo editing application in your workflow? Let us know in the comments below.
Revisiting Aurora HDR’s single image process with a juniper landscape - Many times we have tools in our quiver that we forget to use. There’s a feature I have not leveraged with Aurora HDR — a single image process. Now that I have revisited the possibility, I’ll be using it lots more. HDR capture I often use ability of my cameras to create multiple exposures of a scene. My standard, especially if I am on location, is to bracket five images separated by one stop. In the past, if a scene had an extremely high dynamic range I might even go for more. Now that I have revisited single image HDR, I might even go for less exposures. Expose to the right — straight out of camera As a micro four-thirds photographer I need to be careful about underexposure. Most of the noise in an image lives in the darker 3/4 tones. I’ve learned to expose to the right side of the histogram in order to work with the cleanest pixels possible. Single image HDR processing is perfect for this workflow. Here’s the image straight out of camera. In the past I might have blown right past this photo — now it is the type of capture for which I look. It appears to be overexposed, but the file has all the detail I need after running it through Aurora. After processing with Aurora HDR I’ve gotta tell ya, I forgot how powerful Aurora HDR can be. This image is about 1-1/3 stops overexposed yet still contains all the highlight detail I need. Revisit older files I’ll be heading back into my library of images to do some reprocessing. What I especially like about single file processing is I get an even cleaner output than I was able to accomplish with multiple brackets. High dynamic range in an image without the ‘HDR look.’ Yay! Looking to try Aurora HDR? Get a free trial here. Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Documenting fatherhood in times of crisis - Times of crisis should be documented, from many perspectives. Being a parent is an amazing experience but let’s be real — it’s hard. Some days you feel like a king, other days you might question your manhood and most days it’s both. It’s OK though, we all go through the emotions but being an effective father in times of crisis is a damn meatgrinder. As photographers, it’s impossible to shut off our ability to see. What doesn’t kill you will make you a stronger photographer if you capture it. Here are some ways to document fatherhood in times of crisis. Honesty is the best policy Sadly, the world has become a place populated mostly by sleepwalkers. These people who believe the BS influencer, celebrity culture, live a life of lies they tell themselves until it’s so burned in their minds, only experiencing a major crisis will they shed their facade. Throughout the day, we all become detached but as photographers, we understand the importance of being present. It’s that feeling of being in the zone, being fully alive that we’re in touch with our true selves and that’s what makes the world’s best photos. A crisis can bring blessings such as waking up from a sleepwalking state. Want to experience being fully present? Take a cold shower at 5 a.m.! When that cold water hits your body you will be alive with a mindfully focused on how damn cold the water is. Be real, be honest in your photography and minimize retouching (if at all), post-processing, or posing. Just get the shot and get back to life. Always be ready Every time I lead a photowalk, there are always people that miss photos because they’re messing with their gear. If you are not able to shoot fast in manual mode use auto. Don’t bury your camera in a bag or mess with lens caps, flashes or anything else you have to put your hands before you take the shot. Get over yourself and selfie If you’re like me, no one is taking your photo so you’ll have to do it yourself. Don’t forget, you are an important part of the story here so put yourself in it. Documenting your experience in fatherhood is not about making yourself look awesome — you already are for being a good dad. At some point, the crisis will end or it won’t and you’ll be forced to adjust. Either way, a selfie is your historical document marking this moment in time. Involve your family As much as I love being a father, time to myself is important for my mental health. On the weekends, I take a half day to myself to recharge while my wife takes our son out for some time together. I won’t be there so any content she captures that documents that time I get a copy of. Remember what matters Being a quality father takes a lot of work in every way but as you know it’s part of the deal. There’s no stopping time and eventually, kiddos become adults. People matter most so document with respect to the people you love. Spend less time behind the screen and more time with those you love most. It’s a balance so communicate to your family and be open to their requests to put the gear down.
Not every photographer needs Photoshop - What? You can’t possibly be serious? Or at a minimum you can’t possibly be a serious photographer without Photoshop, right? Who says? Well, certainly not me. I’m part of a mentoring community that works with members to help them down their own paths. Part of that journey is declaring an intention, describing what you want to learn or do as a way to get where you want to go in your photographic journey. So many of the members stated that they want to learn Photoshop or learn more in Photoshop. This prompted me to share my own take on the whole “you can’t be a photographer without using Photoshop” narrative. Personally, I don’t want people to feel like it’s a requirement for being a photographer. This photo? It’s me anytime the word Photoshop comes up. UGH. (No offense to you tech geeks, composite creators and masking masters.) I get it. When you are told or it’s suggested to you to use Photoshop, I feel your pain and know that you’re overwhelmed by all the options and the 89 different ways to do one thing in Photoshop. There is certainly a place and time for using Photoshop, but to be quite honest it’s not for everyone. I’ve tried over the years to use it for my photography and failed, over and over and over again. I actually used to use Photoshop for jobs I had in marketing, cleaning up scanned logos and filled backgrounds, but that was about it. So I’m not going to say I can’t learn it or use it — I can. I just choose not to for editing my photos. Learning to use what you have We don’t always need more tools than we already have to get better results. Sometimes we need to step back and figure out what it is WE want out of our images, how WE want them to look, what WE want them to say. Yes, the latest fad/trend is fun to play with, try and see what you can learn — remember luminosity masks? I thought I HAD to learn them. I never got very far. Guess what? I’m still a photographer, I still can create the images I want the way I want them and I rarely use Photoshop. I still call myself, and I think others call me, a real photographer. I know quite a few other ‘real’ photographers who don’t use Photoshop either and they’ve had gallery shows and won plenty of awards. Maybe you don’t like spending the amount of time it takes to 1) learn the software or 2) actually edit in it. Maybe you don’t have the time. There are other ways to create what you want. Most of us were told/taught to shoot in RAW so we had all the pixels available to us when it came time to edit. Not everyone loves editing though, so why force it? Maybe to you, being a photographer means actually getting out and photographing, composing images, capturing scenes and not spending hours in front of a computer. Today’s cameras are quite good at capturing images. Technology is quite advanced and many of you likely have JPEG presets in the cameras you use. Take advantage of those presets. Use them! If you like how your images look doing that, then do that. Post-processing is not mandatory. I’m not here to bash Photoshop or post-processing — I hope that’s not what this sounds like. I just want to make sure you’re not feeling like it’s a requirement to be a photographer. So many options for editing photos Desktop software Phone apps In this day and age, there are so many options and ways to edit images. This is a partial list of some of the software/editing apps that are out there. You can reference them, look them up and see if there is something new or something that looks a little less intimidating to you than Photoshop. Most of us have at least one or two of these in our toolboxes. They all have different capabilities and functions and some actually work together. In the end, we should all use what works best for each of us, not use something just because all the cool kids are, or that it’s the latest and greatest whatchamacallit out there. Creating images and art is personal. It’s about what we felt, what we saw and how we want to capture and present it, if we even choose to present it at all.
