Want to brush up your Photoshop skills? Try creativeLIVE this week

If you're feeling that your Photoshop skills could benefit from a bit of refinement or perhaps that you'd appreciate getting to know Photoshop's darkest secrets, the online learning start-up creativeLIVE launched its Photoshop Week special yesterday. Over 40 different classes are available for free until Saturday. (And you can catch up if you missed anything.)

The range of lessons is quite extensive. You can swing from practical advice on managing your workflow and getting into good habits, to more focused classes on blending modes or brushes or retouching or working with text, via getting the most out of actions and presets, and then unlock some of Photoshop's hidden secrets.

Lessons last approximately 90 minutes and are led by one from a team of 12 tutors who include Ben Willmore, Kevin Kubota, and Aaron Nace.

creativeLIVE usually works by offering the live stream of a lesson for free and a download of the lesson at a fee. As the classes run off Pacific Standard Time this can be inconvenient for those of us based in Europe: a 14:45 class will be live streamed at 22:45 here in the UK (and there are re-casts later in the day to help you catch up). The rules change a little over Photoshop Week, however. You can pay to purchase the course in advance, or you can enroll and catch up with a class for free over the course of the week.

If you're not sure which of the lessons you'd like to join, you can buy the entire bundle for a special price of $299 right now. That'll increase significantly at the end of the week, however.

All the details on all the classes are here.

A Day Without News?

Marie Colvin (1956-2012)

About a year ago, I was having a drink in a bar in Coromandel, New Zealand with some fellow travellers. When the conversation turned to me and what I do for a living, one of my companions asked me what sort of photography I admired the most. Without hesitation I responded 'photojournalism'. The fantastic images that are produced in the direst of circumstances by people driven to tell the world what's happening leaves me breathless.

About the same time, Marie Colvin was reporting on the deaths of a group of civilians in the Syrian city of Homs. It was one of the last reports she filed.

On 22 February 2012 Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed in Homs, Syria. Their deaths weren't unfortunate incidents encountered in the terror and confusion of conflict. Eye witness evidence, including that from Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy, suggests that the make-shift press centre was deliberately targeted by Syrian government troops. Colvin had never been a journalist who pulled her punches, and the implication is that her coverage of the deaths those civilians, including a young boy, at the hands of government forces, had been a step too far for the Syrian regime.

Colvin's and Ochlik's deaths weren't the only losses to the journalistic community last year. In fact, 2012 was the most dangerous year on record to be a journalist: 90 of them were killed whilst on assignment. In addition, there were those injured and those held captive or missing.

For seven members of the journalistic community this brings the prospect of a day without news too close. Aidan Sullivan, David Friend, Lynsey Adarrio, Tom Stoddart, John Moore, Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC, and Sara Sofanelli are the key players behind the A Day Without News? campaign, launched today, on the first anniversary of Colvin's and Ochlik's deaths, with the ultimate aim of bringing about the prosecution of those who deliberately target or threaten journalists.

Contrary to what many people believe, the majority of journalists who cover conflict and disaster aren't thrill-seekers or adrenaline junkies. They're people who passionately believe that stories need to be told; that knowledge trumps ignorance. Their work is inherently dangerous, Colvin admitted that she was forced to weigh 'bravery against bravado', but it should not make them direct targets and their deaths should not pass with impunity.

In early February this year, Westminster Coroner's Court ruled that photojournalist Tim Hetherington had been unlawfully killed when he and a group of other journalists were mortared in Misrata, Libya, on 20 April 2011. It was the same attack that killed American photojournalist Chris Hondros. This ruling, that Hetherington's death cannot be attributed to the ghastly phrase 'collateral damage', re-inforces the fact that to deliberately target a journalist is to perpetrate a war crime.

For A Day Without News?, the aim is to successfully prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes against journalists. When reporters and photographers are no longer considered legitimate targets or expendable and foolhardy it might help to ensure their safety, and the continued reportage from conflict zones, that little bit more. If we're to avoid a day without news, journalists need to be able to do their job, to report the news. This is becoming increasingly difficult with the risks too great for freelances and retained staff alike. Since 1992, 971 journalists have been killed and there are now fewer journalists covering the conflict in Syria than there were in Libya.

A Day Without News? is asking that you show your support for the journalists who report on events across the globe, through your tweets, likes, blogs, and the campaign's own website as they seek the prosecution of those alleged to have committed war crimes against those who report the news. So that we can all continue to read, watch, listen to, and indeed, write, the news.

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Back to school - If you'd like to learn more about taking photos, why not try the Photocritic Photography School? Regular lessons and feedback on your photos from Haje and me - go on, sign up, you'll love it!

Photographers of the future: Sony World Photography Awards Student Focus finalists

'Jackpot', by Aimee Turner (UK). Student Focus Finalist, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards

The judges of the Sony World Photography Awards Student Focus competition have named their ten finalists. They come from ten different countries, across six continents, and were selected from 230 universities.

The finalists can't sit back and rest on their submitted images to be in with a chance of bagging €35,000-worth of Sony photography equipment for their college or university, though. They've been given a brand new Sony Alpha 65 and the brief of shooting a series of between six and ten images on the theme of family.

All of the finalists will, however, see their final-making photos exhibited at Somerset House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition between 26 April and 12 May 2013. They'll also be treated to a trip to London for the gala awards ceremony on 25 April.

The final-making images are on the carousel up there. What do you think? Is this a good example of the depth of student photography and how does it make you feel for the future?

And for the record, here are the finalists:

• Zanele Plaatjie, Vaal University of Technology, South Africa
• Eugene Soh, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Anshul Mehrotra, Jamia Millia Islamia, Dehli, India
• Andrea Azema, École nationale supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre, Brussels, Belgium
• Natalia Wiernik, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland
• Sarai Rua Fargues, Institut D’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
• Aimee Turner, Coleg Sir Gâr, Carmarthen, Wales
• Marcelo Sanchez, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
• Kim Annan, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
• Maria Candelaria Rivera Gadea, Escuela Motivarte, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Kleverbeast: bringing app creation to the masses

It's relatively simple to create a website for yourself; even if you haven't got the hosting business down, head over to Tumblr and you can post photos, share your thoughts, and inflict cat videos on the rest of the world with mind-bending simplicity. The only barrier to entry is an internet connection and in the circumstances, that's not really a barrier at all.

An app on the other hand, is a far more complicated beast to create that usually has a pricetag to match, reflective of the hours of work required to put into one. New York-based Kleverbeast doesn't think it should be exclusive, either in terms of cost or ability to create one. It has, therefore, devised a series of app templates that you can customise for your needs. It aims to cater to a variety of different creatives, but when it comes to photographers, it's suggesting showcasing your portfolio and even building in monetisation options, for example print sales.

As the Kleverbeast team puts it: 'You can make apps that look like Flipboard but with prices that you'll find at H&M.'

The basic package costs $29 a month; the pro package is $199 per month and allows for multiple editions and in-app commerce. There's also an option for something entirely customised, with an accordingly entirely customised price.

Creating a Kleverbeast app is a relatively simple drag-and-drop process that can be customised with a few clicks. You might be creating an app to a template, but it's fairly easy to pull together something that looks different from anyone else.

You can check out Kleverbeast's introductory video:

The question that I keep coming back to, though, is 'Is an app the best way for a photographer to display her or his portfolio?' If I were, for example, to be perusing the market for a wedding photographer (I'm absolutely not, by the way), I wouldn't want to have to download an app for every photographer who caught my eye. I'd just want to be able to get a flavour for their work: if I liked it, I could get in touch; if I didn't, I could close a browser tab and move on. Apps are wonderful for return visitors, and therefore ideal for news sites and completing your weekly grocery shop, but are somewhat redundant for single or infrequent visits.

I'm not sure then, that $29 per month for the basic package, with an additional $250 fee if you want help to navigate the App Store approval process, is worth the expenditure. If I'm missing something obvious, though, do pipe up because I love the idea of someone being able to simply and quickly build their own app.

A snapshot of time

Forgive the moment of introspection, but I've just stumbled into a dilemma. The beginning of this month has necessitated dealing with a pile of important paperwork, from passports to pensions. They are the sorts of tasks that require both finding and filing documentation, some of which you don't tend to look for especially frequently. It was whilst I was sifting through some of these significant documents I encountered my conundrum.

Stashed in an envelope and nestling amongst some papers, I found some photographs sent to me a few years ago by a guy whom I used to date. The photos aren't anything special, either in terms of our relationship or their photographic merits - he was no photographer - but I'm loathe to throw away photographs.

To start, who am I to discard someone else's creative output? That would place me in a category of Philistines with whom I have no desire to associate. I am not the Lady High Overseer of what Deserves to be Preserved, except with respect to what I produce myself. My photographs? Yes, I can choose to delete, to bin, to even burn those. Someone else's photographs? No, they are not within my gift to declare inferior, to determine insignificant, and then to destroy.

I don't intend to get too melodramatic about it; afterall, I'm not convinced that me throwing away a handful of photos taken of nothing-in-particular in New York City maybe ten years ago is cultural imperialism on a scale comparable to the 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities. But it does seem casually inconsiderate, especially when you read about the extent to which people have gone to protect a collection of ancient manuscripts from senseless destruction in Mali.

It's not the done thing.

Furthermore, destroying photos rankles with me because even the most mundane image can be valuable, whether that's emotionally or historically. Actually, especially historically.

We have a tendency to forget that the everyday is the most easily overlooked constituent of our lives, and therefore the least recorded. It is, though, one that fascinates historians and any documentation of the day-to-day are, really, significant for them. Right now, these photos might not mean anything to anyone; but one day they could. (Although to be honest, decontextualised and found amongst my papers in 60 years' time, they have the ability to confuse rather than elucidate.)

There is a nagging doubt at the back of my mind that these pictures could somehow, someday, complete a jigsaw puzzle for a historian. I don't know what this puzzle is and I don't know how these pictures might teach someone about life in the early twenty-first century. If I did, I'd be in remarkably privileged position of foresight. And of course, it is precisely because I don't know that I'm so reluctant to discard them.

Finally, I can't bring myself to dispose of these photos because once-upon-a-time they were important enough to him that he decided he should send them to me.

I could, it's true, return them to him. But we fell out of touch and have not spoken in years. Aside from having to look him up, the last that I heard, he was married. So I'm not sure how appropriate this would be. There is something romantic about the notion of receiving a fragment of your history recorded on photographic paper through the mail, a time capsule wrapped in brown paper to make you stop and think. But I'd want this to be just that, a flicker of time, to make him smile a moment.

They're in an envelope, sitting unaddressed on my desk. What to do? What to do?

Photos from the finalists - The Sony World Photography Awards

Bolted. Adam Pretty, Australia, Finalist, Sport (Getty Images)

The Sony World Photography Awards' list of finalists for 2013 was announced this morning. The juries have narrowed down their selections from 122,000 entries from 170 countries. The Youth and Open category winners will be revealed on 19 March; the professional winners, together with the winner of L'Iris d'Or will be unveiled at a ceremony in London 25 April.

I've chosen a selection of my favourite images from the professional category here, but you can browse many more over on the WPO site, and if you're around London between 26 April and 12 May, you can see the winners' exhibition at Somerset House.

All images are copyright their respective photographers and are used by kind permission of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards.

Our fabulous February photo competition

After a hiatus for the month of January, the monthly photo competition is back! Huzzah!

We're feeling refeshed, and we hope that you are, too. In honour of that, this month's theme is relax. Any photograph that conveys a sense of de-stressing, putting up your feet, and unwinding is fair game; from the dog stretched out in front of the fire, to your children curled up with a book, to your very old and tatty but extremely comfortable slippers, we want to see them.

The photographer of the winning image will be eligible to claim a 12 inch Fracture.

We've made a slight change to the submission rules. Nothing major, but from now on, you need to link your image to the relevant thread in the Flickr pool, not just submit it to the pool. February's thread is here. And it's still one submission per person.

February's contest runs from today (Friday 1 February) to Friday 22 February 2013.

As ever, here are The Rules for your reference. Best of luck!

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me, Haje, or Gareth to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the relevant monthly thread within the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me, Haje, and Gareth) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!

Canon canons on with compacts

Canon IXUS 255 HS, available in pink, black, and silver

Canon brought out four new compact cameras, as well as the Powershot N, at CES; three weeks later and it has announced another four compact cameras. Today we're introduced to the IXUS 255 HS, IXUS 135 HS, IXUS 132 HS, and the Powershot A2500. (Or the ELPH 330 HS, ELPH 115 HS, and Powershot A2500 in the States. Yes, only three new cameras there.)

You know the drill: they'll all have smart auto mode with an improbable number of scene options (58, in the case of the IXUS 255 HS), they'll be HD video-ready, they'll all have a slew of filters, there'll be some quirky new introductions in an attempt to keep compact cameras relevant, and then you'll blink and you will barely be able to tell the difference between them.

In the case of the 255 and 135, they have wi-fi connectivity to allow you to share your images via your mobile or your tablet, and you can latch on to GPS via your mobile, too. All of them include Canon's new Eco mode, that aims to reduce battery use by 30% and there's also ZoomPlus technology, that supposedly allows you to double the reach of your optical zoom digitallly, but still maintain image detail.

The IXUS 255 (ELPH 330 HS in the US) is a fairly grown-up compact, with a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor coupled with a DIGIC 5 processor that should be competent in lower light situations and allow for higher speed shooting. Its lens is 24mm at its widest point and has a 10× optical zoom. There's also Intelligent IS to help reduce camera shake whatever you're up to, and the same Hybrid Auto that we saw in the Powershot N, that uses both smart auto and scene detection to grab the best shot and can create a montage of four second video clips grabbed before every shot that you take over the course of a day to produce some sort of meta-shoot.

The IXUS 135, IXUS 132 (ELPH 115 HS in the US), and Powershot A2500 all have 16 megapixel sensors with DIGIC 4 processors and 28mm lenses at their widest. Whilst the IXUS models have 8× optical zoom and Intelligent IS, the A2500 has a 5× zoom and slightly less wizzy Digital IS. 

There's no UK pricing or availability for these cameras as yet; I'll be interested to see what sort of difference there'll be between the IXUS 135 and IXUS 132 with really only wi-fi to choose between them. But the Powershot A2500? I think that could make an excellent first camera for a little one.

(In the US, the ELPH 330 will be around $230; the ELPH 115 $170; and the Powershot A2500 will be in the region of $130.)

Cash for cameras with WeBuyAnyCamera.com

I'm a fan of second-hand camera kit, especially lenses. But in order to be able to buy second-hand gear, it relies on people actually selling on their old stuff. It's not just good value, it's good for sustainability, too. I also happen to be a bit of a picky madam; I'm not keen on using auction sites, for either buying or selling. So an online service run by a physical company? I like the sound of that.

To complement its physical and online first- and second-hand sales, Wilkinson Cameras (a camera retailer based in the north west of England) has launched WeBuyAnyCamera.com to take your unwanted kit off your hands without having to go to one of their branches.

The system seems simple. You submit a detailed description of the gear you want to sell via the webuyanycamera site. A real live human being then assesses your wares and makes you an offer, usually within 24 hours of you submitting your inquiry. If you accept it, you bundle up your kit and send it to them; they inspect to make sure everything is as it should be and make your payment.

You can have a cash price paid directly into your bank account, take payment in Wilkinson vouchers, which gets you an extra 10% on top of the cash price, or use it in part-exchange against new kit.

Better yet, if they value your gear in excess of £500, they'll arrange for its collection, free of charge. You just have to package it.

It is a UK-only service, but people elsewhere in the world, please remember to sell on your old kit and take a look at second-hand goods. It's good for the environment and helps out people whose finances are a bit strapped.

Review: Pentax X-5

I spent a few weeks with a Pentax X-5. I used it whilst my brother's girlfriend was decorating the Christmas tree, I took it down to my father's allotment, and I conducted the requisite 'general fiddling' too.

Basic spec

The X-5 has 26× optical zoom capability (22.3 to 580mm, extendable to 4174mm with Digital Intelligent Zoom in 35mm equivalent) with a dual shake-reduction system and 1cm minimum focusing distance in macro mode. The 16 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor has a maximum sensitvity of ISO 6,400. It can shoot upto 10 frames per second, capture HD video, and comes with a range of filters and in-camera tools.

It is powered by four AA batteries and can be picked up for around £180 or $245.

Build and handling

The X-5 feels very much like a scaled-down dSLR in the hands, with a chunky grip and protruding lens. It was comfortable to hold and the button layout was sensible. Would I have preferred to be able to switch on the camera without having to remove the lenscap? Yes. Is it going to change my life any? No.

The X-5 offers you M, P, full auto, and a range of other preset shooting modes. No, there's no Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority modes. After spending far too long messing about with the controls in an attempt to secure a decent exposure in manual mode and getting highly frustrated by the auto-focus with a mind of its own in fully automatic mode, I shot predominantly in Program mode. The ISO settings are squirreled away in a menu, but it was far less problematic to change the sensitivity than it was to deal with auto-of-focus pictures or to refer to the camera's idiosyncratic exposure meter and functionality. (I disliked the meter's display on the LCD and found it unintuitve.)

I wasn't at all comfortable using the electronic viewfinder. It looked far too much as if I should have been playing a video game than taking photos. As a consequence, I used the LCD screen exclusively and enjoyed its tilting ability, especially when I put the camera on a low-set tripod.

Powered by AA batteries, you are supposed to be able to get 330 shots from a fresh set of four. I'm sorry to say that I didn't come anywhere close to that number of images. Maybe 150?

Performance

Once I'd freed myself of the tyranny of the self-selecting auto-focus and switched to Program mode, I quite liked using the X-5. It has a great zoom range, the image quality is absolutely fine for web reproduction, and it's generally simple to achieve what you want (within its capabilities, of course).

The ISO tests showed that it was fine up to ISO 400, but after then, quality began to degrade significantly. Colour reproduction in daylight was good, but I found that the auto white balance tended towards too yellow in incandescent lighting. Set the white balance to incandescent, however, and the colour reproduction was far more accurate. I was pleasantly surprised by the impact of the pop-up flash indoors. It wasn't too harsh.I had pretty good results with the macro mode, too.

I don't have any particular love for in-camera filters, but the X-5's range of 12 were easy to use and could be applied non-destructively to the original image. In addition to those filters, you can play around stretching your images, giving people small faces, and creating collages. You can resize and crop in-camera, as well as edit video, too. There's also the ability to shoot direct to the camera's memory and then transfer the images to an SD card.

The Verdict

You get a lot of camera for your money with the X-5. But, it doesn't offer you anything outstanding and I found some of its features so frustrating to use that, from my perspective, they might not even have been included. Furthermore, I'm just not convinced by the bridge camera concept; they seem to sit in a photographic no-man's-land.

Would I buy it? No. Between my dSLR and a highly specced compact, my needs are met and the X-5 comes in no way close to fulfilling them.

Would I recommend it? If you really want a bridge camera, it offers such great value for money that I don't think you can ignore it.

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More images on Flickr.

A curious choice: Lomography turns to Kickstarter

A 35mm film scanner that functions via your smartphone? That sounds like a fairly cool idea to allow you to free your negative imprints, no matter how old or how recent, and share them digitally, courtesy of Lomography. It works by photographing a negative with your phone's camera (iOS or Android) that has been back-lit by the scanner. You then edit it using the custom-built accompanying app, and are able to archive, email, and share it. Simple.

All being well, the Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner should be available in March this year.

There is, however, something that I find particularly curious about this product (apart from it not being compatible with 120 film). Why has Lomography turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter to fund it?

It's true that Kickstarter doesn't have any stipulations about the sorts of people or organisations who can use it to seek funds, but the general feel is that it's an option for creative projects that might not be able to secure funding through more traditional means.

As Kickstarter itself says on its website:

We started Kickstarter as a new way for creators and audiences to work together to make things. The traditional funding systems are risk-averse and profit-focused, and tons of great ideas never get a chance. We thought Kickstarter could open the door to a much wider variety of ideas and allow everyone to decide what they wanted to see exist in the world.

I'm not convinced that Lomography, a company with an annual turn-over of $40 million and 350 employees, according the the FT, can be classed as an organisation that would struggle to secure a bank loan for a project that seems entirely reasonable.

This leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable. First, people have a limited pot of funds that they're able to donate in support of projects. When a company that could secure external funding through traditional means seeks the support of individuals, it is depriving other projects that might otherwise struggle to secure a bank loan or seed funding from amassing the funds that they need to launch.

Whilst it is all very well to say that funders have the ability to choose to whom they lend their support and donate their contributions, Lomography has a huge following and a professional PR department. They have the ability to reach a greater number of potential funders than media-shy Joe Bloggs who's a brilliant inventor with no assets to act as security against a loan. Kickstarter is designed to give everyone a fair crack at achieving funding and realising their ambitions; when well-known brands start to get in on the act, the odds suddenly become skewed against the small people again.

Second we come to the term 'profit-focused' in the Kickstarter blurb. Kickstarter wants people to be able to create products or host events that fulfil their ambitions; they might not succeed in making a profit, but that isn't the point. It's about giving people a chance and unleashing potential. If a project does take off and conquer the world, so much the better; it isn't, however, the pivotal principle behind its inception or the key factor that determines whether or not it should be granted funding. It's about moving away from risk-aversion and profit obsession and allowing cool things to come to fruition. 

Lomography, on the other hand, is a business and it is out to make a profit. I find it highly unlikely that it desperately needs to secure alternative funding for the scanner because it can't manage it through any other channels. From here, this feels like a cheap loan for Lomography that relies on Joe Public.

No, Lomography looking for Kickstarter funding isn't illegal and it isn't against Kickstarter's rules. It just comes across as really unfair.

The Smartphone Film Scanner project page is here, but if you'd like to contribute to project that's closing soon, take a look here.

I have asked Lomography to comment on its choice of funding source. I am yet to receive a response.

15:30 GMT, 16 Janaury 2013 - Lomography has sent a response. It's quite long, I doubt you want to read all of it. However, the pertinent points are these:

In order to continue to develop and release new films and cameras while also keeping up with the demand of a digital world we felt it necessary to start a crowd funding project to create a new product that otherwise would remain on the back burner for a few more years.

Part of the idea behind using kickstarter was to involve our community in our endeavors and to give back with some really fantastic incentives.

Sites like Kickstarter are a great way to help us fund some of our more off-beat projects. We want to continue introducing new products and keeping the film world fresh. This is just one way for us to continue making the future analog.

Brilliant in black and white - December's competition winner

Wow! December 2012's black and white themed installment saw the most ever entries to our competition. Thank you so much everyone who submitted a picture. It was a delight to look through them to select a winner.

After a lot of deliberation–there were, afterall, a lot of pictures–we decided that Almost Gone by Rob-Shanghai should take the spoils of a 12 inch Fracture. We loved the story, the composition was great, and we felt that it made the most of being in black and white.

Congratulations Rob!

However, seeing as there were so many entries, we only thought it fair to name some runners up, too.

And we have:

Sweep's Festival, Rochester, by Tim Allen - pin-sharp and beautifully framed.

And Monterey Fog, by Luca Pisanu - haunting and delicate.

You're a super lot.

We're taking a hiatus from the competition for January, but we'll be back in February, and we hope you will be, too!

Innovative space-saving from Giotto's with its Silk Road tripods

It seems obvious when you think about it: if you mould the centre column of a tripod so that the legs curve into it, rather than making it round, meaning that the legs clash, you save a heap of space. So why has no one done it until now with Giotto's' Silk Road YTL series of tripods?

Giotto's is replacing its MTL range of tripods with the YTL series, all of which feature a Y-shaped centre column that saves 30% space on MTL versions when the tripod is collapsed. It doesn't, however, compromise on load-bearing capacity or stability.

The Silk Road series will comprise 12 models and a range of features. These include 5kg, 8kg, and 10kg capacities; options for two-way centre columns or three-way centre columns meant for very low-level shooting; three-section or four-section legs; a bubble spirit level on two-way centre column models; and a swappable thread making Silk Road models compatible with any Giotto's head or standard thread heads from other manufacturers.

I'm also quite taken by the idea of Quick Easy Leg Lock, or QEL, (I can't think why!) as well graduated leg markings to allow for speedy adjustments to your set up.

Silk Road tripods will be available in aluminium or carbon fibre, starting at around £100 for aluminium models and £220 for carbon fibre versions. They'll be online and in-store from mid-January.

If you're wondering about the name, Silk Road, it's after the trading routes that snaked across Asia and the Middle East, into Europe and North Africa. It wasn't just silk, spices, and goods that were exchanged, but knowledge and ideas, too.

Quirky design, but who's it for? The Canon Powershot N

It looks cute, there are some fun elements to it, but I'm not convinced that Canon has identified a workable target market for the square-shaped, touchscreen Powershot N. Let me explain.

There are some elements of the Powershot N that I like a lot: the lens rings for zooming and shutter release; the tiltable touch-screen that you use the control focus and image review; the 28mm lens with 8× optical zoom; the 12 megapixel sensor with DIGIC 5 processor, and sensitivity to ISO 6,400; the quirky design; and of course, the wi-fi connectivity.

There are some elements of the Powershot N to which I'm indifferent. Being able to apply creative filters in-camera is ubiquitous now. Creative Shot mode, which examines a picture, applies a series of enhancements according to its attributes, and then presents you with five different versions is a novel toy, but doesn't exactly float my photographic boat.

Then there are the elements that leave me going 'Wuh?' Why, exactly, would I want to compile the four seconds of focusing and fiddling before taking any picture in Hybrid Auto mode, so that I can watch some odd kind of meta filmshoot at the end of the day? Why would I want to piddle about taking a photo and then transfering it to my smartphone or tablet so that I can upload it to Flickr because there's no available wi-fi network, when I could just take the photo and apply a filter using my phone? It's a bit gimmicky and feels slightly half-baked. Afterall, there are Android-based 'smartcameras' out there now that provide a whole lot more functionality.

Canon, it looks very to me as if you've designed a camera that is meant to appeal to the Instagramming, filtering, uploading crowd. But the thing is - they've gone and they're not coming back. They love their smartphones and their instant connectivity. They already have the tools they need for the job they want to do. At £270 ($300), I can't see them rushing to buy one in a hurry. In fact, I'm not sure who will.

The fun design demonstrates that you are at least thinking creatively about the point-and-shoot market. Carry on - it needs this. But what you really need to think about are who still uses point-and-shoot cameras. Make cameras for them. With the Powershot N you've a camera that isn't sophisticated enough to be a smartcamera, isn't cheap enough to be a fun camera, and isn't serious enough to be regarded as a game-changer. It isn't even falling between two stools, but three.

Potentially, there are the beginnings of something here, but I'm not sure where you're going with it, Canon.

The 2012 round-up

Oranges in the early morning light. Davis, California - January

If you want 2012 in a sentence, it was all about putting big sensors in smaller cameras and the continued rise of social photography. Nikon and Canon both unveiled smaller-bodied cameras that had full-frame sensors, the D600 and a 6D respectively. It was down to Sony to put a full-frame sensor in a compact: the RX1.

As for social photography, that's gone a lot further than Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. It's gone further than wi-fi enabled cameras, too. We've now got 'smartcameras', thanks to Nikon and Samsung. They won't be the only ones.

I'm not going to say that 2012 was an exciting year for photography. Photography is always exciting. But these are the headlines.

January

The new year always brings a flurry of photographic announcements when pretty and shiny new toys are announced at CES in Las Vegas. This year was no exception; if the compact camera is supposed to be dead, manufacturers haven't read that memo yet. Fujifilm unveiled 27 (yes, really, 27) new compacts, as well as a gaggle from Olympus, quite a few from Sony, a couple from Canon, and one from Pentax. There was, however, at least one big-hitter, with the Nikon D4 making its appearance, and not forgetting the Canon G1 X and the Fujifilm X-Pro1, either.

Meanwhile, the Intergoogles went dark to protest about the proposed SOPA legislation, Google axed online editing suite Picnik, things looked very grim for Kodak with the prospect of Chapter 11 bunkruptcy proceedings, and we mourned the death of Eve Arnold.

February

That memo about compact cameras? No, it still hasn't made it to manufacturers: 11 from Canon, ten from Nikon, and two more from Pentax. But, Nikon also brought out the D800, Olympus announced the deliciously retro OM-D, Pentax let the K-01 play in the mirror-less sand-pit, and Canon had some new lenses, too. Oh, and the Japanese authorities made some arrests in the Olympus scandal.

March

The BBC decided that footage from the Canon C300 makes the grade; Sony re-organised itself to give priority to cameras, and it also annunced the SLT-A57.

April

Nikon added the D3200 to its entry-level line-up but officially discontinued the D3x; meanwhile Canon brought out the 1D C and the 60Da especially for astro-photography. When it came to mobile photography, Instagram released its much-anticipated Android app and then jumped into bed with Facebook for $1billion a week later, and Triggertrap launched its mobile app.

There were also vague hints at a Flickr revival: first it brought out the new Uploadr, then it announced that Aviary would be its new partner for editing, after Picnik was rained-off.

May

That potential Flickr revival continued with a few more tweaks that allowed for better control over sizing photos. Adobe Photoshop CS6 was made available, and its subscription service Creative Cloud came with it.

As for new cameras: Pentax's weather-sealed mid-range dSLR, the K-30; rugged cameras from both Olympus and Fujifilm; another SLT (the A37) and a mirror-less (the NEX-F3) from Sony; and some tasty treats from Leica including the M Moncohrom especially for black and white, the X2, and the V-LUX 40.

June

Argyll and Bute council showed themselves be, what I'm wont to describe as, camera-shy wimps who were intimidated by a nine year old who photographed her school meals. Martha Payne, who recorded her exploits in school lunches on her blog Never Seconds, was told that her behaviour was upsetting the kitchen staff, so she couldn't continue. When the rest of the world found out, there was a bit of a out-cry; Argyll and Bute backed down.

Oh, and Fujifilm announced some new lenses for its X-Pro 1, which given the limited offerings, was much-needed.

July

The Olympics began. There was an amazing opening ceremony. The world was focused on that, but it was at the end of the month. Before then Canon went through the mill with a sticky lens problem with the S100 and too much vulcanising agent in the grip on its 650D. However, a years of rumours (that's not an exaggeration), it also announced its mirror-less camera, the EOS M. Nikon brought out its huge 800mm lens and Fujifilm discontinued Velvia 100F and 50.

Flickr users banded together to ask new CEO Marissa Mayer to 'make Flickr awesome again,' and I wondered if there's an ugly truth lurking beneath our beautiful cameras.

August

I spent August glued to the Olympics and the wonderful images it produced. I could say that was all that interested me, but towards the end of the month, things started to ramp up in anticipation of Photokina. Nikon upgraded its 1 Series J1 to a J2, although I wasn't quite sure what the upgrade really comprised. Olympus announced that it was developing a new top-end camera, so the rumour mill started up almost immediately. There were more new camera announcements from Nikon, including the S800c, which is on an Android platform. There was also the C300 from Canon, the Pentax X-5 bridge camera, and the Sony NEX-5R.

Canon celebrated the production of 80 million EF lenses, Getty Images was sold to the Carlyle Group for $3.3 billion, and I took a look at the overall state of the camera market.

September

Ehm... Photokina, anyone? Four new cameras from Canon, including the full-frame 6D and the pocket-rocket S110; Fujifilm's gorgeous XF1 was star of the show; five new cameras from Leica; the new Spark from Lensbaby; the D600 from Nikon; four new lenses and three new cameras from Olympus; an update to the Pentax K-5; Panasonic's GH3; new lenses from Samsung, Samyang, Sigma, and Tamron; and from Sony the full-frame flagship translucent mirror SLT-A99, the full-frame compact the RX1, and the NEX-6.

Otherwise: Smugmug announced a huge subscription fee increase that left quite a few people a little bit upset.

October

Everyone took a breather after Photokina, except for Nikon that turned the V1 into the V2 and Joby, which warned consumers about the perils of fake Gorillapods.

November

Nikon brought out the D5200, Canon set free some new lenses, Adobe updated Photoshop Touch, Triggertrap Mobile was upgraded to allow wireless functionality, and Jordi Ruiz Cirera won the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.

December

Apart from a major update to Photoshop, including Retina display compatibility, December was entirely dominated by mobile photography news. There was the minor problem with the Instagram terms of service, awesome editing app Snapseed was made available for Android phones, Twitter and Instagram had a barney, and that Flickr renaissance continued with a much-needed new iOS app and free Pro-subscription for three months for all users.

And 2013?

We're going to be seeing more large-scale sensors in small-form cameras; there's going to be a concerted push towards social photography integration in 'traditional' camera devices; and there will be an increased delineation between dSLR manufacturers and mirror-less camera manufacturers.

Finally, I wish you a healthy, peaceful, and prosperous year ahead.

---

All images © Daniela Bowker 2012. (Yes, they're my favourites of 2012.)

A much-needed update for Flickr's iOS app

Android users enjoyed a significant upgrade to Flickr in August, but iOS users were left languishing with a fairly basic app that didn't offer half of the functionality of the website. In fact, using the mobile site was a superior experience to the app. That changed around lunchtime (here in the UK, anyway) today. An updated Flickr for iOS is now available, complete with in-app camera and snazzy new layout.

Ignore the moaners and groaners who are dyspeptically lamenting that Flickr has added a filter option to the camera function. Yes, they included the option to wash your photo, taken on the newly introduced camera, with some kind of filter. Everyone's doing it now and it isn't really new or exciting. In fact, it's probably the scourge of modern photography and we'll succumb to scurvy if we continue to apply them.

But you know what? This upgrade is about a whole lot more than a selection of filters. Some much-needed functionality has been added to the app, which was quite frankly rather poor before hand, bringing what you can do with the app closer to what you can do with the website.

For me, the most exciting addition is the ability to interact with the groups you belong to. You can see the photos that have been submitted to them and you can participate in their discussions. Previously, I found not being able to do that from the app highly frustrating.

When you explore your contacts' uploads, you can select from two layouts. One shows you the uploads by adte alone. The other gives you the streams of your contacts organised by most recent upload. 

As for uploading your own images, take a picture, make your edits with Aviary, apply a filter (or not), and then upload it to your photostream, add it to a group or set if you want, write a description, and complete everything with tags. Or you can select one from your phone's camera stream.

This update improves the functionality of the app hugely, but even I, in my rose-tinted Flickr-adoration, know that Flickr has suffered from stagnation. I don't know if it's enough, but it's a start. And I'm very happy about the improvements.

Whoah! And there's more! Flickr has just announced that over the next few days it'll be rolling out an improved navigation bar and a new-style Explore page on its website. I'm not seeing that yet, but I'm looking forward to trying it.

Instagram and Twitter's playground scuffle

Twitter's new Aviary-powered filters

Instagram and Twitter's current spat is worse than squabbling children. 'Instagram doesn't want to play!' 'But Twitter started it!' 'Well, ner, we'll just play by ourselves then!' 'Fine, we'll find some new toys, too!' I feel like putting them on the naughty step and asking them to explain themselves when they're ready.

This round really kicked off late last week, when Instagram's CEO, Kevin Systrom, confirmed that Instagram will no longer be offering card support on Twitter. That means instead of Instagram pictures appearing directly in a tweet, you'll have to follow a link taking you to Instagram's site.

From Instagram's perspective, this is 'The right thing to do' because it is building on their own social network. Systrom did state that this was in no way a direct result of Instagram's acquisition by Facebook. It is, however, easy to interpret this as Facebook pulling strings and fostering the sort of social networking that prompted the buy-out. Facebook snapped up Instagram because it needed a route into mobile, photographic social networking. By burning bridges with Twitter, it's encouraging its users to stay within its own network, not share the love across them. So really, it isn't so much about being globally socialable, but more about being a global social hegemony. 

From Twitter's perspective there are short-term and long-term implications. In the short-term, it's not that big a deal. That people's Instagram images don't appear directly in tweets is an irritation for some, but Twitter is about so much more than Instagram that it's just that: an irritation. It isn't a fundamental failing. The long-term implications need a bit more thought, though.

From Twitter's perspective, is this that big a deal? I'm inclined to say not really, for now. Twitter is about a great deal more than Instagram. Yes, that people's Instagram images don't appear directly in tweets is an irritation for some, but it's just that: an irritation. Whilst Instagram is a component of Twitter's functionality, Twitter doesn't rely on it for survival. It is, though, a warning signal to Twitter that will need to think about maintaining its attraction to users, because Facebook is gunning for it.

Yesterday, Twitter announced that it has partnered with Aviary–the company that provides image editing services on Flickr and in MailChimp, amongst others–to provide its own photo filters. The timing fits neatly with Instagram's card-retraction move, but isn't a direct result of that. If anything, it's more likely to have been the other way about with Instagram withdrawing cards knowing that Twitter was about to offer its own filters. These filters have thought to have been in the pipeline since Instagram's takeover in April. So Twitter is thinking in terms of its longevity.

As for the in-Twitter editing options, they're available for both iOS and Android, there's a choice of eight filters, all of them can be previewed simultaneously using a grid view, you can crop and zoom, and there's a magic wand to enable auto-correction. It's not nearly as diverse as Instagram's offerings, but it's a start.

Indeed, Instagram made their offerings even more diverse yesterday, too. There was a camera update for iOS users, a new filter called Willow, and some improvements to the tilt-shift effect. The camera update should make it easier to Instagram-ify previously taken photos as well as providing an optional grid when you're taking photos and a permanent grid when you're cropping. That, then, would be a small reminder to its users about the sorts of functionality (barring lack of Twitter integration) that it offers.

Twitter has managed to upset plenty of developers with its stringent API requirements and Instagram seems intent on developing its own (and by extension, Facebook's) network as opposed to playing nicely with others. They might see this as good for their businesses, but the reality is that the users lose out. And it's the users who make these social networks social.

What then for the users? If you're on Instagram for the followers, then you'll have to stick with it, or at least stick with it until you've grown a new network elsewhere. If you use Instagram for its filters and for the purposes of being social, then there are plenty of other ways of doing that.

It's irritating that these big kids can't play nicely and that it has the potential to all end in tears. There really are enough relationships and enough photographs to go around. We don't need to be forced into a social networking hegemony.

You can check out Instagram's update on its blog, and Twitter's update on its blog.

New features for Photoshop

There have been rumours floating around for a little while that Adobe was about to unveil Retina support in Photoshop; those have been confirmed today, along with some other new features for Creative Cloud subscribers.

Whether you have a Photoshop licence or a subscription to Creative Cloud, there's an update available to provide support for HiDPI displays.

If you're a Creative Cloud member your update will also enable to following:

• Smart Object support in the Blur gallery and with the liquify feature
• The ability to quickly export CSS code for text and objects as well as import colour swatches to help design incredible websites more easily
• Crop tool refinements and other timesaving features in the workflow
• 3D enhancements including improved live previews of shadow effects and additional control over illumination using 32-bit colour picker to create glow effects
• Conditional Actions that automatically select the appropriate action based on user-defined rules, giving users enhanced image processing speed.

There have also been some updates to Creative Cloud as a whole as well as other Creative Cloud products, not just its Photoshop features. You can now subscribe to Creative Cloud on a team basis; Creative Cloud Connection allows for desktop synching, a la Dropbox; and there's also Creative Cloud Training, which provides members with a library of tutorials and trial courses.

If you're not like one of the one million people already subscribed to Creative Cloud, an annual subscription comes in at £38.12 a month (excluding VAT). Creative Cloud for teams is more expensive whilst there are discounts for for students, teachers, and existing Adobe customers with CS3 or later.

Offering Photoshop updates to Creative Cloud subscribers before they're rolled out to stand-alone licence-holders is clearly a perk of the package, but there's been no indication when these new features (barring the retina support) will be rolled out to everyone. Combined with the discount for CS3+ licence holders, I'm intrigued to see if this is the beginning of a steady enforced obsoletion of the individual package, and a move to a subscription-only package.

Something to keep an eye on.

Congratulations to November's competition winner!

November's competition theme was wood. You presented us with so many wonderful images that we had a lot of fun looking for a winner. This month's prize, however, goes to Flickr used ludovi for his image Wounded Tree.

I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous variations in colour in this image. On top of that, it's technically great. We're very happy to award it a 12" Fracture.

There's an honourable mention, too, for Phil Walton and his Just Missed Bonfire Night. It's a fun twist on the theme, with great lighting, that made us laugh. Well done!

Congratulations, and thanks everyone for entering. If you feel like having a go this month, December's competition is up-and-running.

A photo competition for December

For December's competition we're going back to basics, something simple to round-off the year. We'd like black and white images, please.

Your image can be a portrait, a landscape, a macro... whatever takes your fancy. But it must be in black and white.

The competition is open from today (Friday 7 December) until Friday 28 December 2012. You can submit one entry to the Small Aperture Flickr pool. And the winning image will bag its photographer a 12" Fracture.

I've reproduced the rules for your reference, and here's a wish of good luck:

The Rules

• If you decide to enter, you agree to The Rules.
• You can’t be related to either me or Haje to enter.
• One entry per person – so choose your best!
• Entries need to be submitted to the right place, which is the Small Aperture Flickr group.
• There’s a closing date for entries, so make sure you’ve submitted before then.
• You have to own the copyright to your entry and be at liberty to submit it to a competition. Using other people’s photos is most uncool.
• It probably goes without saying, but entries do need to be photographs. It’d be a bit of strange photo competition otherwise.
• Don’t do anything icky – you know, be obscene or defame someone or sell your granny to get the photo.
• We (that being me and Haje) get to choose the winner and we’ll do our best to do so within a week of the competition closing.
• You get to keep all the rights to your images. We just want to be able to show off the winners (and maybe some honourable mentions) here on Pixiq.
• Entry is at your own risk. I can’t see us eating you or anything, but we can’t be responsible for anything that happens to you because you submit a photo to our competition.
• We are allowed to change The Rules, or even suspend or end the competition, if we want or need to. Obviously we’ll try not to, but just so that you know.

If you've any questions, please just ask!