This week, James Maher started out the week by giving us five common mistakes that photographers make. Then, Bryan Esler reviewed the new Olympus 12-45mm f/4 PRO lens, followed by Erin Holmstead showing us how to make a DIY light wand. Finally, Levi Sim told us how to best photograph boys, and we talked about the latest Luminar 4.2 update.
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Olympus 12-45mm a great compact, pro option for micro four-thirds - When I first received the new Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-45mm f/4 PRO lens for review, I was a bit perplexed. Who was this lens really for? But after using the lens for a few weeks now in various shooting environments, I have to say that the 12-45mm lens is perfect for travel photographers, as well as anyone looking for an ultra compact lens. Not to be overshadowed by its older cousin, the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens, the 12-45mm holds its own. And side-by-side, you can see why. The 12-45mm certainly takes inspiration from the 12-40mm, featuring very similar looks, just in a smaller casing. The 12-40mm is one of Olympus’ bestselling lenses, as it has premium glass and great performance. Why a 12-45mm? If you’ve ever used any of Olympus’ PRO lenses, you’ve come to expect certain features like advanced weather sealing and fast apertures. It’s no different with the 12-45mm, despite its small footprint. The lens looks and feels just like a smaller 12-40mm lens. How often have you packed your camera bag for a trip only to realize you have to leave that specialty lens behind because you’re out of room in your bag? The 12-45mm is SMALL. If you have an E-M10 or E-M5 system, it’s a perfect companion. It’s a great all-purpose lens and can easily replace the 12-40mm or 12-100mm f/4 PRO on your next vacation. It’s also a great street photography option. While Olympus’ PRO lenses are smaller than full-frame equivalents, they’re still not exactly compact compared to other micro four-thirds lenses on the market. The 12-45mm, given its smaller footprint, is less obtrusive and less noticeable. It’s a great lens to pair with Olympus’ f/1.8 primes. It’s also great for those looking to save a few bucks. The new 12-45mm retails for just $649, compared to $849 (on sale) for the 12-40mm. Performance While in Costa Rica, I used the lens at a local market. Even at f/4, the bokeh was nice and smooth, with the primary subject being perfectly sharp. Back at home, I took the lens on a photowalk around my local city of Grand Rapids. As a street lens, the lens was fast and provided me the flexibility to photograph from across the street if I had to. Attached to the E-M5 Mark III, the lens was nondescript and I was never questioned about taking photos. Compared to the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO While I’ve already stated the new 12-45mm is smaller than the 12-40mm, I was interested to see how the lenses compared in terms of what they were able to capture. The 12-45mm also has a maximum magnification of 0.25x, compared to 0.3x on the 12-40mm. It also has 12 elements in 9 groups instead of 14. But how do they compare in real-world usage? For the below photographs, I used an E-M1 Mark III camera and set the image settings to the exact same for each lens — 12mm, f/8, 1/80s and ISO 200. These photos are straight out camera with no edits. As you can see, both lenses are very clear, and very similar in terms of picture quality. Between the two of them, the 12-45mm has a slight bulge in the center of the lens, creating just a slight bit of distortion, causing for edges that were not as straight as the 12-40mm. However, as I zoomed in at the edges, the 12-45mm was slightly sharper. Oddly enough, the 12-45mm also photographed a bit darker, and therefore provided more details in the highlights. At first I thought this was due to a cloud overhead, but in comparing multiple photographs taken within less than a minute of each other, I believe this to be the optics. Regardless, both lens performed very well, and contained zero chromatic aberration (which has been a common problem with this location). Obviously the big difference is the 12-40mm having the ability to open up to f/2.8, making for better performance in low-light situations. Because of this, the 12-40mm also provides a more shallow depth of field, though you can work around this limitation by zooming in or moving your feet. Final thoughts All in all, the Olympus 12-45mm f/4 PRO lens is a great option for photographers looking for something smaller and more compact. If you’re a travel or street photographer, this can fit into your arsenal quite well. The 12-45mm f/4 PRO lens retails for $649, and is currently available for preorder.
Creating a light wand for dramatic portraits - I was recently at WPPI and came across the Savage booth, which had their RGB Light Painter Pro LED Wand for attendees to try. I messed around with it for a bit and instantly realized I needed one. However, I wasn’t willing to spend almost $160 in order to do so. Dreamcolor LED Strip Lights That evening I went back to my Airbnb and placed an order on Amazon, for a pack of Govee Dreamcolor LED Strip Lights. I choose this package for three reasons. First, the strip is waterproof. The rubber coating effectively protects it against water splash and you better bet this thing will be around water. Second, thanks to the Bluetooth-enabled feature, the Govee Home app allows me to control the lights from my home. A major bonus for someone who light paints a lot by myself. The third and final reason — drumroll if you please — it only costs $19.99! Thanks to Amazon Prime’s speedy delivery, I knew that if I ordered the LED that night it would arrive at my home before I did. At home, I knew I had some extra PVC pipe leftover that worked perfectly to complete my wand-making project. How to create the wand Below you can see the full tutorial. The whole project took me less than five minutes to make and it has become one of my favorite light painting tools. Want more from The Artists’ Notebook? Click here!
Portrait Tips: How to photograph boys (let boys be boys) - If you’ve ever photographed a bunch of brothers all at once, you know they can be a handful. But the thing I’ve learned over the last ten years is that you’ve just got to let boys be boys and hang on for the ride. Boys play What’s the one thing mom always says before your portrait session? “I love pictures with NATURAL EXPRESSIONS.” The best way to get those natural expressions is to let the boys play. How many times do you really think you can get them to sit down and sit still and all look at the camera at the same time, anyway? Get them to play along Instead of trying to get them to be still, just try to get them to play along. Give them a spot to play in and a game to do. “Can you three walk on this curb holding hands? Who can jump the highest? who can count to three the fastest? Can you help your brother stand up there?” Give them things to do and keep your camera clicking. Manage mom Mom says she wants natural expressions, but she probably spends a lot of her time just trying to get the boys to behave. Her natural expression will be to tell the boys to listen and do what you say and SMILE!!! You’ve got to tell mom your plan so she can be cool and everyone can have a good time. Tell her that you’d like to let the boys play and then you’ll gather them up now and then for a little group shot. When you tell her your plan she can chill out and know that you’ve got it under control (-ish) and she’ll trust that you’ll get the kind of pictures she’s after. Hang on for the ride Go ahead and let boys play. Give them some games to play while you make pictures and you’ll get terrific shots. Help the boys play together and help each other do little challenges and you’ll have a lot of good picture opportunities. If you must, sit them down once-in-a-while for a group shot. Just make sure you give mom the plan so she can relax and have fun, too. Portrait Tips come out each week, and you can see them all right here.
Luminar 4.2 adds enhanced portrait tools, sky-based compositing - This morning, Skylum announced the latest update to its flagship Luminar software, version 4.2. This free update contains several enhancements to the existing feature set, including Shine Removal for portraits. Also included is a brand-new feature, AI Augmented Sky, to help photographers create digital art. New enhancements to portrait tools A new Face Features Detection Neural Network lets Luminar 4.2 provide even better automation when it comes to enhancing portraits. The technology is trained to detect faces in all sorts of positions, accounting for things like head tilts, unusual angles, badly lit or partially hidden faces and those with heavy makeup. It detects people of any hue of skin or age, and also spots all the faces in a group photo. Shine Removal As a part of the AI Skin Enhancement tool, Shine Removal provides the ability to reduce excessive shine on the forehead or cheeks of a person. It restores the skin on the patches of the face where it was hit by excessive light, automatically generating realistic-looking skin that blends in with the rest of the face. Slim Face 2.0 technology Inside AI Portrait Enhancer is an improved Slim Face 2.0 technology. With Slim Face 2.0, the tool can make the whole face proportionally smaller and naturally slim, letting photographers obtain more realistic and pleasing results. AI Augmented Sky The new AI Augmented Sky tool lets photographers transform their images, allowing for the ability to place different objects directly on the sky. You can choose objects from the Luminar database or use your own. The object seamlessly fits into the photograph, resulting in realistic self-expression. AI Augmented Sky detects a photo’s sky automatically and adds the chosen element to the sky area. Foreground objects are taken into account automatically, letting the object blend naturally with the sky. For additional control, you can drag and resize the object within the sky area. Other improvements in Luminar 4.2 Luminar 4.2 also includes several enhancements to the program. The AI Sky Replacement tool has an improved Relight Scene technology, letting you retain colors as you originally captured them in-camera. Improvements have also been made to increase the efficiency and speed of interaction with the machine’s processor. Windows updates Preview Preset Multithreading – For multi-core systems, generating previews has received a boost, making for faster and more comfortable viewing and usage. Third-party Plugin Implementation - Popular plugins can now be used. At this time, plugins for the Aurora HDR, DxO Nik Collection family, as well as the Topaz plugins collection, are supported. How to update Luminar 4.2 is a free update to current Luminar 4 users. Mac users can update by clicking in the top menu bar and choosing Luminar 4 > Check for updates. If you purchased via the Mac App Store, simply open the App Store and click the Updates tab. Windows users can click Help > Check for updates in the top menu bar. For those users running Luminar as a plugin, it’s also recommended you rerun the plugin installer. Don’t have Luminar 4 yet? Save over 40% off on our Luminar 4 Bundle, which includes training, extra skies, Looks and more!
The five most common (nontechnical) mistakes that photographers make - After years of teaching, I’ve had the privilege of reviewing the work of all types of photographers. And technical mistakes aside (of which there are many), I think there are a few major conceptual mistakes that I see over and over, which I think are much more important to focus on. Of course, these ‘mistakes’ are generalities and there are many exceptions to every rule. But these are important ideas to keep in the back of your head when you photograph. 1. Not photographing close to home, and only photographing when you travel I notice that photographers tend to be a part of two different camps: The ones that prefer to only photograph when they travel, and the ones that feel more comfortable photographing around home. Neither is better than the other, but if you are one of the photographers who only take their camera out on trips, I suggest switching things up a bit. Travel photography is wonderful, but unless you are spending a lot of time in an area, it is very tough to understand the area enough and to have enough time to get beyond the superficial photographs. It takes time and effort to get intimate with an area. Similarly, I get a common complaint that people feel their skills get rusty between trips. Photographing close to home is a way to keep photography as a part of your everyday life and it will keep your eyes and your camera skills sharp. And I know everyone is busy, but daily or weekly photography — even in 15 minutes stretches — is excellent for your mental and physical health. But most importantly, it will do wonders for your photography. Work on a project capturing your neighborhood or an area close to you consistently. This will give you time to get intimate with an area that you already know well and your photographs will show that. And it will give you time to consistently come across photogenic moments to create a full body of work that is interesting, which is tough to do with limited travel time. The quieter or more ‘boring’ the area, the better. Often you can create such interesting photographs in areas like this, and many photographers have created wonderful projects, but it seems counterintuitive. There are fascinating moments everywhere and the idea of a quiet neighborhood is fascinating in its own right. I promise, if you search, you will find great photographs. 2. Not embracing imperfection Life isn’t perfect and photography shouldn’t be either. What’s important is that the photograph is interesting and that it looks pleasing. Everything else should be forgotten about if those two points are met. I notice that photographers can get too obsessed with simple mistakes and forget about the larger issues such as a photograph just not being interesting enough. Often mistakes will ruin a photograph, but just as often they will not be detrimental and will instead make the moment feel real and unplanned. It’s OK for a photograph to have some blur, blown-out highlights, cut off feet, a skewed composition or even objects getting in the way. It doesn’t have to ruin the photograph or even hurt it in any way. 3. No subject Capturing light, color and beauty are incredibly important, but that is only part of the battle. Some photographers are so focused on this that they forget about the content. Photographs need some content and substance to them. When you mix the two, that’s when the magic occurs. Think about ideas, showing emotion and feeling, and capture a photograph that hints at or tells a story of some sort. Create a project. Think about your voice and your own feelings and try to express them through your work. This is what will make your photography stand out, and good light, color, and beauty will only enhance that. 4. Not being consistent enough It’s wonderful to capture different subjects and to shoot in different ways, such as with different cameras, and lenses or in both black and white or color. It’s fantastic to experiment and try new things. But it’s also important to work on consistency within your work. Group your photographs into consistent themes and ideas and work to make the look of those photographs feel consistent as well, per idea or project. When viewers look at this body of work, the consistency will help to keep their focus and allow them to get into the story or idea that you are sharing better. There are exceptions of course, but consider keeping projects in either black and white or color, keep the crop the same and keep the editing consistent. It will help to make your final project feel like a cohesive body of work. 5. Not becoming part of the scene Part of creating strong and intimate photographs is to get close and to be a part of what you are photographing. It’s much easier to skirt the edges with a telephoto lens, or not interact with your subjects at all, but this shows in the work. Build up your confidence and get closer to your subjects. Learn more about what you are photographing and the area that you are photographing. Interact with people and add some portraits to your project. This can be tough at first, and it can make you nervous, but over time it will become second nature. Doing this hard work is what will allow your photography and your projects to shine.
