Why Bother?

Just a quick rant today.

The proliferation of poor stock photos or stock photos used poorly has reached its culmination.

Someone figured out that people are drawn to pictures. Those same people figured out if they wanted their text read by casually browsing readers, that a photo could grab some attention.  They started sticking stock photos at the top of their blogs.  Sometimes the photos actually have something to do with the subject matter, sometimes they are only peripherally connected.  I believe a cat has little to do with Extended Warranty but the desperate-to-be-read folks at the Consumerist blog seem to think so.

Or maybe they just hope the cute will buy them an extra look.

Lately there has been a more disturbing trend. Pictures that have nothing to do with the article – even peripherally.  Sometimes they just take a sticky note and write a word on it – a word that will provoke a reader – hopefully.

Yesterday, I saw the best effort yet.

Yes, the story is about bathroom vandalism and a disgusting read too. Rather than even find a useless stock image of a restroom, or a door, or a sign, they left this stupid graphic.  The graphic, however,  is full of implications:

Was the story so provocative that no picture could do it justice? Not likely.  They put cute little pigs on slaughterhouse stories and other incongruities. Inappropriateness of a graphic has never stopped them before.

Was the graphic carefully crafted to titillate the reader and get them to read an ‘inappropriate story’. Not likely. It isn’t that titillating a story.  And the graphic just made me wonder about their convoluted design process.

Do the Bots that build their articles and posts (or find them in syndication) not understand the story well enough to pick a keyworded graphic? This belongs in the realm of conspiracy theory.  But, it begs the question – are automated processes picking the graphics? Not likely but it could happen…

Are they just phoning it in at this point? I tend to think this is the real reason. Laziness or apathy resulted in a placeholder graphic that fails to add to the story but it does say something about the state of photography today.

Photo editors used to choose meticulously from a small palette of imagery.  If nothing was right, they commissioned it. Then stock came. Large numbers of ‘close-enough’ images were available for cheap. Next step in the descent was the remotely-close-for-free group of images. Now, it is splash anything with color or contrast to attract attention – content be damned.

The world of photography is somewhere in between those last two stages. It will be a poorer world soon.

Rikk Flohr © 2012

Badlands Workshops for 2012 Announced

Mark these two dates down on your 2012 Calendar!

May 19-23. 2012
December 1-5, 2012

Fleeting Glimpse Images is pleased to announce two Badlands Photography Workshops for our 2012 workshop series. Based on our sold-out workshops from 2011 we are expecting good demand for the coming year.  The workshop format will vary slightly from last year and we are hoping to pull off a couple of new twists for the 2012 offering.  We will pass along those details as soon as we lock them down.

Early Sign-up Discounts!

Save $50.00 by signing up no later than 2/29/2012 for the May workshop and no later than 8/31/2012 for the December workshop.  After that the price goes back to $645.00. See our website for full details.  Full information about the 2012 Badlands Photography Workshop series can be found at http://badlands.rikkflohr.com.

Reserve your place today!

Rikk Flohr © 2012

The Lightroom 4 Public Beta – Top Ten Features

Greetings Lightroom enthusiasts,

On Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 9:00 PM Pacific Time, Adobe announced a public beta for the next major upgrade in its industry-leading photographic asset management software, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Here is a brief summary of what is new and what I find exciting about the new release.

My Ten Biggies

Some of these are the features the public clamored for and while they don’t appeal necessarily to all users, I think there is ample feature growth and refinement for everyone.  The others are features that get me excited about the new release. I have detailed separately  the crop-specific enhancements on my Holy Crop! blog. You can read that entry here.  So, in no particular order…

1. New Module: Maps
   GPS and Mapping support has found its way into Lightroom.  There is now a Map module designed to allow you to manage your shots and where they were captured. Maps is primarily a metadata management system.  
2. New Module: Books
   The Book Module fills a gaping need in many people’s output workflow. The basic tools are there to layout your pages, add and format text and create a finished product ready for uploading. Right now, the output is designed around the PDF and Blurb engines.
3. Library – Global Flags
   In the past, flags were unique to collections/folder and the like. If you picked an image in a collection it wouldn’t necessarily be picked elsewhere.  That lead to some convoluted workflow. More people should be able to get their heads around the new model.
4. Library – Layout Overlay
   The Layout Overlay is of particular value to the the tethered shooter. It provides the ability to overlay a graphic onto an image in the Loupe mode of the Library Module.  Now, if you are shooting with the art director of Nat Geo, you can put their cover on every shot as it comes into the machine.
5. Library – Drag Multiple Folders
   In previous versions of Lightroom, you were limited in your disk clean up by the inability to drag more than one folder at a time.  This has now changed and should ease a prominent pain point.
6. Develop – Process Version 2012
   This is a biggie. The Raw engine has been revamped again and wow! Images upgraded to PV2012 now have a different selection of basic development tools.  Greater control over the Raw rendering process can be had through a series of new PV2012 Sliders.  The Brightness. Recovery and Fill Light Slider are gone in PV2012 and are replaced with a Highlight, Shadows, Whites sliders. Each has positive and negative ranges to provide you with maximum flexibility.
7. Develop – Soft Proofing
   Probably one of the most-requested Lightroom features is the ability to soft proof for screen and print output. The tool bar in Develop is your ticket to a check mark that will enable a proofing dialog beneath the histogram.  The ability to create a Virtual Proof Copy is a key component of this new feature.  If you have a calibrated and profiled system, this should enable you to dial in your output with greater accuracy.
8. Develop – Enhanced Local Corrections
   
   Whether you are a fan of the Adjustment Brush or the Graduated filter, you are sure to be pleased with the additional adjustment available in LR4.  The new Highlights and Shadows sliders are now available as well as the ability to brush in (or out) Noise and Moiré. Of special significance is the ability to control White Balance locally via a local adjustment for Temperature and Tint for those sunlight/shade images.
9. Develop/Export – Lossy DNG
   Lossy DNG may seem like one of those ‘why did they do that’ kind of features. It can cause some trouble for sure. It can also allow you to do some pretty cool things like archive in smaller space your not-so-perfect shots. It can also allow you to carry temporary versions of your catalog and use Develop module to change your images and reintegrate with your master catalog.  You can always chose not to use it.
10. Print – Adjust Print Brightness
    
    If you are the ultimate print tweaker you will love this! At the bottom of the Print Job panel is a new Print Adjustment feature that allows you to further tweak a print after you just love it in Develop. If you are one of those people with overclocked brightness on your monitor or wondering why you always get a darker print, this new feature will save your day.

Those are my top ten features of the Lightroom 4 Public Beta. There are many many more features, augments and bug fixes and many of the other blogs will be covering them in detail. I recommend you check them out.

These are the links to the public beta pages:
Public Beta Site:  http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/
Forum:  http://forums.adobe.com/community/labs/lightroom4/

Rikk Flohr © 2012

2012: Looking Back at 2011

In my next-to-last post, I showed you the 12 monthly images deemed worthy in my mind to hold a special place. They were the watershed moments, flashes of insight and fortuitous circumstances that melded into an image of unique meaning to me and perhaps, me alone.

You can view them here.

I also like to look at my image metadata to glean simple wisdoms about the photographer that grew into the 2011 iteration of myself.  The data help me answer questions when I am teaching about things to which I don’t give a thought during the heat of the capture.  Namely, “What settings are you using? Which lens do you have on?” Though I likely know where I am set without looking, it is less important to what I am doing.  But, because people insist upon knowing, I thought I would give you a glimpse into my settings-for what they are worth.

Here are some statistics of those images worthy of hard drive space from my 2011 year’s shooting:

Capture

• Raw – 30737
• JPEG – 6875

Camera

• Canon 5D MKII – 24135
• Canon 40D – 8615
• Canon 5D – 4148
• Canon G10 – 943
• iPhone 4 – 252
• Canon 20D –32
• Droid – 35

Lens

• EF 24-105 F4L – 23177
• EF 300 F4L – 6313
• EF 70-200 F2.8L – 5591
• EF 17-40 F4L – 1230
• EF 100 F2.8 Macro – 1134
• EF 15 F2.8 – 734
• EF50 F1.8 -  506
• Various Borrowed/Rented Lenses: 213

Flash

• Studio Flash – 11508
• On-Camera Flash – 5206
• No Flash -  21381

ISO

• Up To 200 – 25822
• 201-800 – 12299
• 801 and Up – 321

Aperture

• More Open than F5.6 – 6738
• F5.6 – F11 – 30365
• F11 or more Closed – 1099

This was the data I found interesting as it showed me more about my evolution as a photographer.  Key points my data taught or reminded me.

1. In 2011 JPEG found an increased role in my photography.  1 in 6 photos was a JPEG due to a variety of circumstance.  I shot more JPEG this past year than the past three years before.
2. Studio Flash/Off Camera Flash is now 1/3 of my image making.
3. My newest lens is my workhorse. In two years, I have shot more images with it than my previous workhorse lens shot in six years.
4. Full-frame still rules. 4 out of 5 captures is on a full-frame sensor.
5. I stick closer to F8 than I used to.  I am not sure what to make of this but it must be significant.   1/3 of my images are captured at F8.
6. I am still leery of higher ISO’s.  While my ISO crept above the long-time average of just under ISO 160, I didn’t go crazy.  ISO did find it’s way to the faster side of 160 in 2011. ISO 320 became my new 200 and 640 my new 400.

What does it all mean to you?

When I am teaching a workshop in the field one of the most basic (and less useful) questions I am asked by my students is: “What are your camera settings? What are you shooting?” If you look at my statistics, you can tell that – unless there is a special circumstance – I am shooting:

A Canon 5DMKII with a 24-105 MM F4L IS lens at F8. My ISO is at 160 and I am shooting Raw.  If there is a flash connected, I am in Manual mode-if not, likely I am in Aperture Priority.

Whether that helps you or not, it answers your question.

Remember, a camera’s settings are only the beginning. A golfer selects a club, lines up his shot and swings building on talent, practice and experience to make a successful shot under the given conditions.  Likewise, your camera/lens/setting choice is like pulling the club out of the bag-the rest is talent, practice and experience.

Swing away in the New Year!

Rikk Flohr © 2012

2011: The Year in Pictures

Each year, I like to perform a retrospective on my photography from the last twelve months. Because of my geeky nature, I like to perform a cursory statistical analysis of what I shot and contrast that to what has gone before. The pictures chosen are picked by month and typically represent a favorite image to me. I don’t always pick the best image shot, or the best-selling image but I do pick the one that means the most to me.  Usually it represents an evolution or event in my growth as a photographer.

Stats:

• 8 of 12 images contain people (3 last year)
• 4 of 12 images are monochromatic in nature (none last year)
• 3 of 12 images are pure landscape (same as last year)
• 0 of 12 images are of animals (4 last year)
• 7 of 12 images are taken at Fleeting Glimpse Studios (4 last year)
• Crops: 6 Portrait, 6 Landscape(Last year 2 Portrait, 2 Square, 8 Landscape)
• HDR: 3 images (Last Year 3 Images)

What I glean from this is that I have shifted in 2011 toward a more people-centric subject choice and have explored black and white a little more. There are fewer wildlife shots and more shots in-studio. Doubtless those on the outside looking in will see other differences as well.  All in all it is a good exercise to see where you are going and where you have been.

Without further adieu, my favorite images, by  month of 2011. Thanks for hanging with me this year.

Rikk Flohr © 2011