Archive for December, 2006

Don’t ignore Paper Negatives!

So, you fancy yourself a bit of a photographer, do you? Awesome, that makes two of us. Or, judging by the number of people regularly visiting his blog, a few thousand of us. If you've ever played around with pinhole photography (and if you haven't, you totally should), you'll have stumbled across Paper Negatives - or the idea of using photosensitive paper rather than film - to make photos. My good friend R. James Davis (check out his website, his photograhy rocks) recently wrote a wicked little piece about what Paper negatives are, what they are, and how (and why) they are used.

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First steps in Portraiture

My entry into Photography was a very gentle and gradual one. As such, I don't actually remember much of how it all came about, nor do I remember the specific steps I took, nor in what order I learned the lessons, or why. Handy, then, that there are people out there who are just coming to terms with their disease, errr, affliction, errr, passion that is photography. In this case, my dear friend Anna went on a rant-a-licious rampage, which might help some budding photographers gain some self-esteem and follow a new-ish photographer in her first footsteps towards what's promising to become a life-long obsession: Taking good portrait photos. Without further ado, I'll hand you over to Anna!

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Contrast, colours, and curves, oh my!

Curves is one of the most powerful tools a photographer has in his or her arsenal. You can do a lot more with curves than you can do with the Levels tool. In fact, most photographers who embrace curves stop using the Levels tool altogether - although until you fully understand what Levels is, what it does, and how to use it, you'll never be able to get the full potential out of the Curves tool either.

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Merry christmas and NY!

Wow, I can't believe it's Christmas already. If you celebrate it, have a fabulous celebration, and if you don't, have peaceful time anyway! As for new year's - I'm going to Edinburgh again this year, to celebrate Hogmanay. Knowing those nutty Scotts, it could get quite mental, but I'm looking forward to it lots. Updates will probably be somewhat limited over the holiday season for various reasons, but I'll be back stronger than ever in 2007!

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Image aspect ratios

In a recent photo critique, I went off on one about the aspect ratios I prefer, when I look at photos. But have you ever thought about why you would prefer a particular image ratio? Is there a rule about what size photos should be, and if so - who decides the rules? I'm just sharing my own thoughts here, but I'd love to hear your opinions on the matter as well! {democracy:19}

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Framing and cropping your images

For this issue of the Photocritic Photo Critique, we're going far afield! Joel Legassie is a Canadian who is currently living in Japan, and is an avid photographer. His photos are sharp, stylish, and striking... So can we offer him any advice?

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A new meaning to ‘tele-photo’

Mobile telephones start having better and better phones - most of them are currently between two and three megapixels, and the vast bulk of them even have digital zooms on them. But what about optical zoom? Well, not a lot of that, yet... At first, I shunned cell phone cameras, but after I bought a decent-quality Sony Ericsson with a 2mpx camera, I've actually used it quite a few times. Quality still leaves something to be desired, but some times it's better to have a bad photo than not to have a photo at all. Now, it seeems as if the accessory companies are warming up to the idea of camera phones, with a series of telephoto lens attachments for cell phones. Tele-Phone, meet Tele-Photo...

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The Lensbaby lens

Why would you put a $100 lens on a $8,000 camera? Well, because even the professional photographers have to go back to their roots, and re-learn the passion of photography. The Lens Baby can help.

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Olan Mills update

A couple of days ago, Photocritic broke the story about Olan Mills going under. It was a weird one, because I don't generally run corporate news stories like that. However, the story struck a chord with me, because I know what it is like to be struck down without a job as a photographer, and how much trouble it can cause. I know that this type of thing is a nightmare for those concerned: Sure, the people who were waiting for prints are ripped off, and are left without presents and money, but the real victims of this one are the studio staff and day-to-day employees of the chain. Strangely, it appears as if our article was the only one considering much of this aspect (except for the Mirror, who ran the tabloid-a-licious headline "1,000 workers sacked by recorded phone message"). Other news media also picked up the story, including local press (2, 3), but other than that it has been oddly quiet. Except from right here, of course. Lots of Olan Mills employees found the Photocritic article. Among the stories, there are some truly moving stories of the adversities the staffers and lower management of Olan Mills, along with a dose of fear about what is going to happen in the future. Not exactly the kind of Christmas story you want to read, but it's worth having a look... Comments on this thread are turned off, please add any comments or insights you might have to the original thread.

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Getting your camera repaired

Another long-term reader and frequent-commenter had a question for us, and because I'm such a nice guy, I couldn't let this one go, because I feel his pain: He has ruined his camera, and doesn't know what to do next...

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