And here we are once again. After the long time that took us to gather the crew, and an even longer time to edit the episode, we are back to talk about Long term projects in photography.

Besides the really interesting conversation (after I’ve heard it, I really felt like grabbing the camera and going out for a few images), there was time for the news topics, and of course, our Selected from the Web.

News

Olympus Air A01 – micro 4/3 camera for your smartphone (compare to Kodak SL10, Sony DXC-QX range)

DXO One – smartphone camera attachment with DSLR quality

Nikon P900 and it’s amazing 83x optical zoom lens

The photography uprising against musicians: Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, Live Nation changes photographer job after backlash.

Projects

Tips for a long term project: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-design-and-shoot-a-long-term-photography-project/

Jacob’s book – Commute Culture – thanks for bringing that up , Dave

Sean’s Ecuador from the Back Seat of a Taxi: http://seangalbraith.com/ecuador-from-the-back-seat-of-a-taxi/

Bob Mills Work – http://www.lussierphoto.com/lawrence-and-the-mills/the-mill-collection/

Dave’s Rodeo Portraits – http://www.davewilsonphotography.com/galleries/rodeo-portraits/

Enjoy the show…

Selected from the Web

• Sean: Medium’s Catchlight photoessay series: https://medium.com/@Catchlight

• Dave: The 57 Most Powerful Photos in United States History

• Bob: http://digital-photography-school.com/96-year-old-example-forced-perspective-photography/

Jacob: http://art.rlketcham.com/?p=58

Thinking of a move to a mirrorless system?

As we hinted a few episodes back, we have the privilege of being joined by Brian Matiash to discuss his move to the Sony mirrorless system after over a decade shooting Canon dSLRs. If you want some more background to Brian’s move, he has written a free ebook about it. We talked about his reasons, advantages and disadvantages of the mirrorless cameras in general and the Sony system in particular, the biggest challenges faced, shooting hybrid with Canon lenses, EVF technology, and much more. We hope you enjoy the discussion.

In the news, we look at a promising new technology that could revolutionize lenses, the World Press Photo revokes a prize, and Defrozo goes Kickstarter.

As always, any feedback is very much welcome.

Enjoy the show…

Selected from the Web

Brian: Rob Whitworth’s Dubai Flow Motion

Scott: Jesse Summers beautiful long exposure and star photography

Bob: “Salt of the Earth,” a documentary about Sebastião Salgado and his work

Dave: Fair Witness – Street Photography by David Lykes Keenan

Sean: Real Meaning of Common Photographic Terms

Antonio: Ceramic prints that survived the ages

Photography Portfolios

In this episode, Antonio, Dave and Jacob Lucas discuss the news, answer some questions from listeners and discuss how they go about building and maintaining a photography portfolio. How do we define a portfolio and what do we intend it for? How often should you update the work in the portfolio and how should you go about deciding exactly what goes in and what stays out?

• Portfolio building advice from Zack Arias.

In the news this week, rumors of the upcoming release of Adobe Lightroom 6, Lytro’s finances and plans to move into virtual reality and movies, Getty Images’ cash-flow woes, Serif Affinity, a new, low cost image editor with Photoshop in its sights, and that blue and black (or was it white and gold?) dress.

Information related to listener questions

Mark asked about whether welders’ glass would be suitable for use in shooting the upcoming solar eclipse. No-one on the panel had looked into this but it was felt that it would likely introduce unpleasant distortions in the photos and may not be dark enough to use safely. Regardless, our advice was NEVER to use the viewfinder to focus when shooting into the sun. Poke the lens through a hole in the center of a large card or sheet of thick paper and use as much neutral density filtration as you can in front of the lens. ALWAYS use live view to focus.

This picture was taken by Dave a couple of years ago using a 10-stop ND filter stacked with a polarizer (12 stops of density in total) and a 400mm lens on a crop sensor body.

Some more advice on shooting solar eclipses:

• Nikon – How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse
• Photography Life – How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse.
• Space.com – How to Safely Photograph the “Ring of Fire.”

Selected from the Web

• Antonio and Dave: “Behind Photographs” by Tim Mantoani. Portraits of photographers with their most famous images.
  Jacob: The Photo Frontier #WE35 Project. A year-long project involving a group of photobloggers exploring the versatility of the humble 35mm lens.

Defining your photographic style

In this episode Antonio Marques, Sean Galbraith, Bob Lussier and Scott Kivowitz engage in a discussion about defining style in photography, how to develop one and finding inspiration from other photographic works and bodies of work to help photographers learn while introducing individuality into their work. What do you think? Does photographic style still exist?

In the news, the megapixel wars rages on with the new Canon 5DS and 5DSR, Nikon releases a super niche D810a, Scott introduces a perfect Nikon mirrorless full frame and the darkroom comes to the iPhone.

No time for listener questions, so we’ll have a few more on the next episode.

For now, enjoy the show…

Selected from the Web

Bob: Gotham: a moody BW Timelapse of San Francisco

Scott: New KelbyOne Lightroom show

Sean: World Press Photo Awards; Gallery

Antonio: Martin Gommel’s new work on refugees

We continue from the last episode, this time answering listener questions on off-camera flash triggers, photo sharing sites, night sky photography and back button focusing.

And, of course, time as well for our selected from the web.

Enjoy the show…

Selected from the Web

Sam: 13% SALT

Dave: The Life of a Siberian Reindeer Herder

Antonio: Elena Chernyshova

We hope you had a great Christmas together with your loved ones (and that Santa has been generous with the photographic treats).

For the last episode of the year, we decided to have a quick look into the past year, from our photography ventures and also from PhotoNetCast’s perspective. At the same time, we briefly discuss what we have planned for 2015, and what we expect to change during the year.

We also address some of the news topics: the appearance of a new file format that wants to take JPEG head on; Flickr backtracks on the whole Creative Commons for Wall Art thing; Fuji firmware updates add features for X-T1, X-E2, X-E1, and X-Pro1, Metz, a leading provider of lights just a few years back, files for insolvency; a new service that promises centralising all your social media photo uploads; Time UK being naughty with rights grabs; and lastly a Toronto Gallery Buys the Entire Collection of Vivian Maier Negatives Owned by Jeffrey Goldstein.

After all this, the show was just getting too long so we’ve split it in two, with Listener Questions and Selected from the Web coming up on a separate episode, just after the New Year.

Hope you enjoy the show and, as always, feedback and suggestions are very much appreciated.

From all of us at PhotoNetCast, we wish you a great entry into 2015.

Photography Accessories

This episode sees the return of Sam Scholes to the co-hosting team.

A round through the news takes us to the heated discussion about Flickr using CC-licensed images for their wall art business – but are they really doing anything legally wrong?

Also, GoPro makers seem to be developing a new line of consumer drones to be the perfect match for their cameras. However, with the FAA planning to tighten the regulations on commercial use of drones, is this the best move fore them?

And for the stock photographers out there, how would you like to have your images captioned (maybe even keyworded) by your computer? Google getting closer.

And a reminder that we are giving away two copies of David Taylor’s Mastering Landscape Photography. Just let us know you want one via the comments below, email, twitter, facebook, etc. More details on the giveaway just around the corner.

In terms of accessories (thanks to Dieter for suggesting the topic), here are some of those we mentioned on the episode:

Selected from the Web

Sam: Flickr

Scott: NitzStrap

Bob: Pop Spots

Antonio: DUFFY: The Man Who Shot the Sixties

A few days ago I wrote a review of the new David Taylor’s book Mastering Landscape Photography, published in the UK by the Guild of Master Craftsmen Publications.

Now, PhotoNetCast has two copies of Mastering Landscape Photography to giveaway to our listeners.

All you have to do is share the word about the giveaway or the book – tweet about it, share it on facebook, post it on Google+. As long as you tag the show we should be able to find it. We are here on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Winners will be randomly selected from all entries on December 25.

If you’re not lucky this time, you can always buy it directly from the publisher.

Good luck.

Everything in the interwebs these days seems to be “Mega this…”, “Hyper that…”. This episode is about filters, so…

The Ultimate Filter Show

I had the pleasure of having both Scott Wyden and Richard Wong as guests on this episode to help me in the filter discussion.

Before filters, we had a look at some recent news:

Eyes Wide Open: 100 years of Leica (Oct 24 – Jan 11; Deichtor Hallen)

natural History museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Decisive Moment to be reprinted

2013 Conviction at Zion National Park Serves as Reminder

And then to Filters… Here’s a short list of the filters we discussed.

What is a filter?
Materials
Glass
Resin
Attachment types
Threaded
Holders
Filter types
    UV/Skylight
    Polarizer
        Linear
Circular
Color balance
Neutral Density
Graduated neutral Density
        Hard Edge
Soft Edge
Reverse GND
Color Graduated Density Filters
B&W filters
    Hot Mirror filters
Infrared filters
    Diffusion / Softening filters
    Effects
Stars
Bokeh

Can’t really get much more comprehensive than this.

Enjoy the show…

We still had time for our listener questions and, as usual, our Selected from the Web

• Antonio: 100 years of Leica
• Scott: “Moving to Mirrorless” eBook coming soon now available from Brian Matiash
• Richard: The Artist as Activist – Michael E. Gordon.

Highlights from one of the largest photography industry shows – Photokina 2014

Every two years, Cologne, Germany, is stage for one of the biggest (if not the biggest) photography industry shows. Thousands or visitors and delegates fill the halls with so much gear that being there is like an gambling addict being dropped in the middle of Vegas…

Anyway, the rumours and announcements abound in the days leading to the event.

In this episode we take a look not at rumours, but at some of the announcements from this year’s show.

Enjoy the show…

In no particular order:

DSLR Cameras

• Nikon D750 $2300 (24MP, FX, 6.5fps, 12800ISO, 1080p, tilting LCD, WiFi

• Canon 7D Mk II $1800 (20MP, APS-C, 10fps, 65 point AF, 16000ISO, GPS, dual cards)

Mirrorless and Compact

• Canon G7X $700 (20MP, 24-105m f/1.8, 12800ISO, 1080p HD video, 6.5fps, NFC & WiFi)

• Fuji X100T $1300 (16MP, 51200ISO, APS-C, 23mm f/2)

• Fuji X-T1 $1300 body only, $1700 with 18-55mm, 16mp, 51200ISO  http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x-t1

• Panasonic Lumix DMC LX100 $900 (micro 4/3, 12.8MP, manual focus ring, Leica f/1.7 24-75mm lens, 4K video, WiFi)

• Ricoh WG-M1 action cam http://ricoh-imaging.ca/en/products/cameras/WG-M1/

Lenses

• Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 (for micro 4/3) $1500, weathersealed

• Fuji XF 50-140mm f/2.8 $1600

• Fuji XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 (for X-T1)

• Fuji XF 56mm f/1.2 $1000

• Canon 400mm f/4 $6900

• Canon 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 $600

• Canon 24mm f/2.8 Pancake $150

• Nikon 20mm f/1.8 $950

• Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 $2000

Accessories etc.

• Nikon SB500 flash with LED video light $250

• Olympus OM-D E-M1 Firmware update (Adds tethering and keystoning)

Selected from the Web

Bob: The Photo Frontier

Sean: Bruce Gilden Critiques Art Photography (NSFW)

Dave: Malkovich, Malkovitch, Malkovitch: Homage to Photographic Masters by Sandro Miller

The Value of Photography

If you listened to show number 85, you probably remember that we discussed South African photographer Greg Lumley’s offer to sell his one-off aerial panorama of Cape Town for $35000. After the show was released, Greg contacted us (you can read his response in the comments on the show page) so we invited him to join us for a discussion about his image and, more generally, the value of imagery and photography today.

News

In the news, we talked about the verdict in the Morel vs AFP case being upheld – that’s US$1.2M.  Still with copyrights, the appeals Court says streamlined copyright registration for collections is legal, and the Wikimedia Foundation is being naughty.

On Kickstarter there was a campaign for SnaPICam, a Raspberry Pi powered Touchscreen Digital Camera complete with interchangeable lenses – as of this writing, the funding was unsuccessful

The Research labs at Microsoft have been busy, and they have published some results of adjusted Hyperlapse, and the results are very very interesting.

To finish off the news, we talked about Canon launching Irista, a free dropbox-like cloud storage service for photos.

Enjoy the show…

Selected from the Web

• Greg: Well, google “russia wedding photography”
• Dave: A really big lens for £99,000
• Sean: The New York Times Lens Blog
• Antonio: Zack Arias on sensor sizes

Photo Copyright Greg Lumley – used with permission

We’re Back!

Has it really been 8 months? Surely not?

Just when you thought we had disappeared for good, we’re back. Job changes, house moves and family crises are (hopefully) behind us all so we’re hoping that we can now get back to something like a regular podcasting schedule. Keep your fingers crossed and keep watching!

In this episode, Antonio is joined by Dave and Sean for a general natter about some recent news topics and to answer listener questions.

During news discussion, Dave enthuses about the new Nikon D810, a camera that finally hits the function and price sweet spots for D700 owners looking to upgrade, we consider the value of photography in the light of a couple of news stories from ImageBrief and South African photographer Greg Lumley, consider Flickr’s newly-announced photo licensing marketplace and get confused about how Sony will manufacture their new curved sensor.

On a more light-hearted note, we take a quick look at some imaginative on-the-job engagement photos from a Chinese SWAT officer and note that DXO Film Pack 3 software is available free until August 15th.

Enjoy the show…

Questions from Listeners

• Lee vs. B&W 10 stop ND filters? Although we like both of these options, the consensus was that the Lee system, though more expensive, is easier to use.
  • A review of the Lee Big Stopper vs B&W 10 Stop ND filter.
• Web sites to support client proof galleries and offer print purchases? Several suggestions were offered with the two most popular in the host’s opinion being
  • SmugMug
  • PhotoShelter
• What resolution of file is needed to print at a given size? This question resulted in lengthy discussion of the variables involved in figuring out the answer. There’s more to it than just the paper and printer with viewing distance also playing into the equation.
  • Print Resolution Calculator

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC
• Sean: Managing your limited edition print inventory
• Antonio:  Digital Photography – A Look Back

No mirror? No worries

Micro four thirds and other mirrorless systems have been on the market for many years, but recently the level of adoption of these once frowned-upon cameras has been very intense.

On this episode, we discuss why would a photographer want a mirrorless system when compared to the tried and tested quality of a dSLR. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the systems, and what is making them so attractive that professionals are now switching and using the mirrorless has their main camera?

In the discussion we also touch up on the history of the system, compare a few prices, and talk about the range of lenses available and the Electronic Viewfinders (EVF).

On the news, what about a newspaper without photos? French newspaper Libération published an issue with white space in place of images, in support of photography and photojournalists.

Photo credit: British Journal of Photography

We also discuss the Panono, and how the Art Center College of Design, Passadena, started offering courses focused on old photography techniques, hoping to improve the digital photography of the students.

We rounded the show with a few listener questions.

Any feedback or suggestions? You know how to get in touch. For now, enjoy the show…

Just a quick note to remind everyone who still hasn’t joined Adobe’s Creative Cloud that the special offer for photographers is ending very soon.

The offer gives access to Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, 20 Gb of cloud storage and a Behance ProSite for US$ 9.99 / GBP £8.78 / €12.29 per month with a year membership contract.

If you’re interested, the offer ends tomorrow December 2.

Are instant Cameras still worth considering?

Instant cameras… The availability of digital cameras, with the final result right there on the display milliseconds after pressing the shutter, might fog the memories of old times when the idea of seeing an image quickly after it was made had one name only: Polaroid. A Polaroid camera could easily have been a central point of a party, and the memories, usually with added written comments (the kind actually written with a pen and not on some social networks’ statuses), could easily be made into an album right then and there. A few decades forward, and against all odds, the Polaroid name still exists, and is still recognized by a younger generation that might never have shot with one. So, what is so attractive about these cameras? On this episode we talk about the latest developments in instant camera “technologies” and what a number of companies are doing to keep the “instant” alive. Keeping in the topic, Sean also reviews the Impossible Instant Lab (see video below).

And still on reviews (this show is full of them), Sean gives us a long and short version of his take on “Watermark” and “Finding Vivian Meier”.

In between other news, listener questions and our selected from the web, that’s an almost 90 minute episode right here.

Enjoy it…

Show notes

News

• Watermark
• Finding Vivian Meier; Vivian Meier Exhibitions
• Scott Kelby WWPW 2013
• Adobe security announcement; Illegal access to Adobe source code
• Nikon’s new wild patent rumour
• WPPA to change entry guidelines; Before and after – last year winner’s post processing

Instant Cameras

• 1 Billion polaroids per year
• Sean’s unboxing Impossible Instant Lab

Selected from the Web

• Jacob: October issue of NGM
• Dave: Steve McCurry; Faces of Ground Zero – McNally
• Sean: Biting Lemons – April Maciborka
• Antonio: Psychedelic Science – Fabian Oefner

Panoramas and 360-degree photos

In this episode we are joined by Ron Pepper to talk about his expertise in panoramic photography, with emphasis in 360-degree images. While panoramic images are frequently made, and even more so with the large advances of software for this specific application, 360-degree images are not so frequent, and still demand attention for their interactivity. This is probably the only type of photography that is mostly reserved for the web and Ron is a skilful artist in achieving quasi-magic results.

© Antonio Marques, Isle of Skye, Scotland

In the news, we talk about Photoshop World, the new Sony QX “Lens Cameras”, the Creative Cloud deal for photographers ($9.99 – bargain), and a new promising technology developed in partnership between Cornell and Adobe. Take a look at the video below,  after the show notes.

As always, feedback is most welcome.

Enjoy the show…

Podcast Show Notes

• Applications & Gear mentioned by Ron:
• NodalNinja.com
• PtGUI
• Hugin
• Vpix360
• Kolor

• Selected from the Web

• Dave: Marc Adamus (Landscape photographer from Oregon)
• Ron: Sphere.es
• Bob: PhotoTickr.com
• Antonio: Magun Photo Legend René Buri; Interview with Joao Silva

Lots of topics on this one.Creative Cloud, the New Galaxy NX, surprises from Lytro and Lightroom 5, plus a bunch of listeners’ questions:

Lurch: Hi, Thanks for all the work you guys do. I’ve just got one question for you right now. Can you explain light field photography/cameras like the Lytro. Is it just a gimmick or something that would be useful in higher end photography?

John DeVille: Hi guys. I’ve tried to read the manual of my camera, but I still don’t get this: when I press the button half way to lock focus, I’ll get 2, 3, maybe 4 red dots that light up. Are these the areas of the photo that the camera is focusing on? I can change the mode so that only one red dot shows up in the viewfinder. Do I want this?

Paul Maguire: I’ve recently started using film which was a new experience for me. With digital, all the exif data is there when you need it if you want to analyze an image and see what worked and what didn’t, but in film there’s no such thing. Any suggestions on what is the best way to record this info? Thanks

Takashi: Greting from Japan. Need help with white balance cards – Where in the frame do you put it? How to use it in software? Should I make two frames of every image one with card and one without? Many thanks for help

Frank Jesmond: I was wodering what aperture do you recommend for star trails and other night sky photography. If I consider it a landscape, then I’m thinking f5.6-8 no?

Enjoy the show…

Many apologies for the delay in releasing this one.

On this episode I’m joined by Dave Wilson and Jacob Lucas to discuss some ideas around selling prints from your photography – we discuss self-printing vs outsourcing, order fulfilment directly from a gallery websites, quality issues, personalisation, pricing, etc.

As usual, we had also time for a quick look at the recent news, and our selected from the web.

As always, suggestions and feedback are very much appreciated.

Enjoy the show…

News

• Kodak point & shoot
• New Canon DSLR learning site
• Sigma’s 15-35mm f/1.8
• UK orphan works copyright law change (David Bailey letter) (BBC)

Selected from the Web

Dave:  Bret Edge Photography; Like Mother, Like Daughter

Antonio: Sebastiao Salgado in Siberia (Guardian)

Jacob: Jake Johnson

Concert Photography

Have you been bitten by the concert photography bug? Hanging around in darkened, smoky rooms trying your hand at shooting jazz or rock? In this show, guest and gig photographer Mark Gvazdinskas joins Jacob Lucas, Bob Lussier, Sean Galbraith and Dave Wilson to discuss the ins and outs of music photography. What gear should you take? How do you go about getting access to shows? How do you handle the low light of indoor performances?

Photo: Dave Wilson

Show Notes

• New from Canon – Rebel SL1 and T5i
• James Hodgins Photography – Crappy vs. Snappy
• RAW files from your iPhone camera
• Judge dismisses limited edition prints case
• Nik/Google+ Collection released for $149
• New stock agency site – Stocksy

Selected from the Web

• Antonio: The Absolute Cutest Father and Daughter Photos
  
• Mark: Alan Hess music photography
  
• Sean: Smithsonian 2012 Photo Contest Finalists
  
• Dave: Matthew Idler – Rodeo photography
• Bob: http://www.bwvision.com/ – Joel Tjintjelaar, black and white architecture photography
  
• Jacob: Seattle music photographer David Lichterman

Ins and Outs of Photoblogging

And here we are again (photography podcast anyone?), this time to discuss all about photoblogging. Dave Wilson takes the hosting job on this one, and together with Bob Lussier, Jacob Lucas and Scott Wyden Kivowitz go into detail on the practice of keeping a blog dedicated to visual imagery. We last talked about photoblogging on episode 58. Most of that episode was about the benefits of a blog and self-hosting. This time, the panel discusses various platforms that people can use and the actual practice of photoblogging.

There was still time for a couple of listener questions (when Antonio is not around the panel actually manages to answer these in a timely manner), and the regular selected from the web.

Until the next one, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• New from Nikon – D7100 and 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6
• Facebook revamps its look to be more photo-friendly.
• Google Plus revamps its profiles with a huge header image
• 2013 Photocrati Fund launched, $5,000 grant

• Flickr, 500px, Tumblr, Squarespace, WordPress.com, Self-hosted WordPress, Photoshelter, SmugMug

• Bob’s Mills Workshops

Selected from the Web

• Scott: Sandra Canning’s photo, Adam Allegro’s photo
• Dave: Alan Majchrowicz
• Bob: Time-Life Photos: Classic Life Photo Essays; Rodney Pike
• Jacob: Rod Hoekstra

Back in the cloud

Hello world! No, this is not a mistake on your feed – we have indeed recorded a new episode of PhotoNetCast.

It took us a long time to get together, and definitely more than usual for me to edit it, but #77 of your favourite photography podcast is here.

On this show I try to explain why the absence, and believe it or not I’m blaming it on a 5-month old baby (Dave insisted this time he wouldn’t take the blame).

We also take a look at some news (that were relevant when we recorded, maybe less so now), including the new ToS from Instagram with a nice conspiracy theory behind it, new gear coming out of CES, the Getty-Google deal, and more.

And we answer a few listener questions about shooting in very cold weather, infra-red photography and converting your cameras, image stabilization in lens and in camera, and the strange effect of beer has on composition and sharpness.

Hopefully after this episode the next ones won’t take as long to release. Once again apologies for that, but for now, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• http://thedambook.com/blog/2013/01/instagram-terms-still-terrible
• Nikon D5200
• Canon Powershot N
• Fuji X20
• Fuji X100s
• Weird Polaroid iM1836
• Pentax MX-1
• Kodak to launch a micro 4/3 camera
• AFP/Washington Post violated copyright by using images from TwitPic
• Getty – Google

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Steve McCurry – The Last Roll of Kodachrome; Mike “Theaterwiz” Criswell
• Sean: Story behind first photograph of first flight
• Bob: http://vimeo.com/56719388
• Antonio: http://www.penhad.fr
• Doug (listener): http://strangelycompelling.net/ http://www.vela-photo.com/blog/

At this point you might be wondering why haven’t we published any new episodes of PhotoNetCast, or why did the previously scheduled live recordings disappeared from the calendar. All fair questions from our photo-loving community. And I can tell you that it’s not even Dave’s fault . 

Actually we have a very good excuse:

On September 9th, just after lunch time, my son was born.

Having at least some of my priorities straight, I had to postpone the recording we had scheduled for the 11th and put on hold some other guests we had lined-up for the upcoming episodes. Gladly I also hadn’t take an invitation to cover Photokina (I was that close to say yes).

That said, I feel confident that around the middle of October we will have another episode out and that we’ll publish regularly again after that.

I hope you guys understand, and a special apology to the guests we had scheduled and I had to cancel.

See you very soon on your favourite photography podcast.

The first steps after importing into your DAM software

Even in cases where you are not really intending to so serious post-processing on images, there are a few image properties that you will always have to check after import and will often have to modify slightly. In this show, we discuss those steps, describe what each of us does and mention a few tools that can help both during shooting (to minimise the need for any later adjustment) and during post processing. New Jersey photographer Scott Wyden joins us to give a helping hand to the discussion.

Such things like Exposure, White Balance (here’s a good explanation for white balance), some Colour tweaks, Noise reduction and Sharpening are all discussed with some explanation on why we do these adjustments.

On the news, we discuss IKEA slowly shedding photography for computer generated images, Kodak set to quit film and photo paper business, the imminent release of the Nikon D600 and the Super-Ultra-Mega new standard for video, the Hi-Vision 8K (is 7680×4320 pixels enough?).

As always, any feedback is appreciated, and if you have any questions for us to answer on the show, go ahead and send them our way.

To keep up to date with all the news from your photography podcast (and receive notifications for the live recordings), follow us on Google plus.

Enjoy the show…

Selected from the Web

• Scott: Chocolate Falls (Mike Olbinski); Klaus Dyba on the PocketWizard blog
• Dave: Marty Wolff, marine photography
• Antonio: The Life of a photograph – Sam Abell

Let’s talk about books

A few years back we produced an episode in which we gave a few suggestions for some good photography books. Recently, our guest Ruben Vicente (see also his project at Light Travelers) suggested that we repeat the topic, with a few more book recommendations. And so we did. We brought him on the show to share his book highlights and we’ve added a few more of our own.

On the news, we’ve discussed a few of the latest issues with the newest cameras on the market, we’ve seen how a smartphone can be used to photograph the Olympics, and we take a look into the split-second decision to photograph or intervene in photojournalism.

Also, our Lightroom giveaway is still on. Because we’re releasing this episode so close to the deadline, I’m going to give it a couple more days before randomly selecting the winner.

As always, your feedback is mostly appreciated, and suggestions for topics are welcome.

Enjoy the show…

Highlights from the bookshelf

In no particular order, here are the books that were mentioned on the show. If any is missing from the list, just let us know and we’ll update it.

Selected from the Web

• Ruben: Photography by Joao Almeida
• Antonio: Intro by Art Wolfe
• Sean: An interview with Edward Burtynsky
• Bob: HOSSedia

We will talk about Photography Books and share a few recommendations on books we think should be in your book shelf.

And we want to hear from you. Which photography books, technical or non-technical, you think are essential in any photographer’s shelf?

Let us know in the comments below.

As always, you will be able to follow the live recording, and interact with us, on our PhotoNetCast Live page.

We have a boxed copy of Lightroom 4 to give away, courtesy of Adobe.

All you have to do is drop us a comment on the interview episode post and tell us what are your favorite features in Lightroom 4, or what you would like to see on the next version of Lightroom.

Entries open until the end of August 15, 2012.

The winner will be randomly selected from all the valid entries.

Want to help us out? Spread the word about this giveaway and PhotoNetCast on your social networks and to your friends.

Tom Hogarty on Lightroom 4

As we announced Tom Hogarty, principal product manager for Adobe Lightroom, joins us on the podcast to tell us all about Lightroom 4. He was with us before, and after more than 3 years it was time to get back and tell us what has changed, and masterfully managing to avoid answering questions on what is coming in the future for Lightroom .

We discussed what’s new, the processing magic behind LR4 – PV2012, the new GPS and book modules, Adobe Revel, synchronization of catalogues, the surprising price drop, some complaints from users, and a lot more.

It was a great conversation, and if you enjoy using Lightroom 4, or if you are thinking about trying, I’m sure you’ll enjoy listening to it.

So, a big thanks to Tom for taking the time to join us and Lauren (PR from Adobe) for the help setting it up.

Lightroom 4 giveaway

And if you don’t have Lightroom yet (or if you want another copy with the box and all), here is your chance. We are giving a boxed copy of Lightroom 4 to one of our listeners, courtesy of Adobe.

All you have to do is drop us a comment on this post and tell us what is your favourite feature of Lightroom 4, or what you would like to see included on the next version. We’ll randomly select a winner from the comments we get.

And don’t forget to let us know what you think of this episode, and the show, and give us your suggestions for new topics or people you’d like us to interview.

For now, enjoy the show…

Here is the audio version, at the bottom you can find the video of the recording (not edited)

Show Notes

• Fujifilm discontinues two professional films
• New features on Lightroom 4
• DNG format
• Photo Smith
• Adobe DNG editor for infrared images

The podcast will be recorded this Friday, July 20th, at 4pm PST/7pm EST/12am (of the 21st) BST. You can follow it live and interact with us and Tom on our PhotoNetCast Live page.

Do you have any questions for Tom? Do you want to know something about Lightroom or what’s going on behind the scenes? No problem. Just drop us an email ( photonetcast at photonetcast com), use our contact form, or ask you questions on the comments below.

Don’t forget to add the date to you calendar… Hope to see you there.

Each image was scored by six judges, and each judge was blinded to the scores attributed by the other five.

And you have no idea how tight the race was. In this case, one point literally made the difference…

But enough talk, and let the images have the spotlight… Congratulations to our 3 winners and a big thank you to all the participants.

1st Prize
“Tunnel”  Chris Utano
2nd Prize
“My First Pair of Glasses” (Nicaragua) Mary Lafferty
3rd Prize
“Vatican Museum Spiral” Adam Allegro   Honorable mentions

Although we had prizes for just three, the judging panel wants to attribute Honorable Mentions to the following images. These 3 photos had the same overall score, and were separated from the prize-winning places by just one point out of sixty. Very very close.

“Tonia 4.0” by Robert Gordon

“Electric Shovel” by Liam Schulze

“Anaxyrus on Bryopsida” by TylorTy

The full list of prizes can be found on the announcement page.

This competition would not have been possible without the generous support of the following companies:

Film is funny this way: photographers who spent years and years burning film, after the digital jump, either can’t stand the thought of film anymore or still use it once in a while. And then there are the digital era photographers that never tired anything film related… Once in a while, in conversations, I come across this latter kind and, surprisingly or not, many want to give it a try, if for nothing else, to at least bury the subject and never have to think about film again.

But, unlike digital media, the variety of camera types and different film is so big that confusion reigns.

Agfa Billy I, copyright A. Marques

To increase the confusion provide a little help, on this episode we have as guest Rob Nunn to talk about different cameras and some of their characteristics, as well as different film stocks. We even approach (slightly) film developing at home (in my opinion, if you’re going to try shooting film, you will lose much of the experience if you don’t try to develop it at home).

As always, we appreciate your feedback. And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send them our way.

Enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• Alamy report
• Will’s Wildlife Photo Contest 2012
• DSLR manufacturers ranked by purchasers
• Getty Images for sale
• Myanmar Exhibition by R. Vicente and J. Almeida

Some of the cameras mentioned on this episode:

Kodak Retinette, Olympus Trip 35, Canon AF10, Minolta SRT 101, Olympus OM2n, Nikon F55, Mamiya C33

While we wait for the last scores on the Photo Competition to come in, here is the list of the Social Networks Competition winners.

Congratulations to you all.

X-Rite ColorMunki Display X-Rite		Erika Iesse (Italy)
$150 printing services credit Artsy Couture		Jim Denham (USA)
Retrospective LC-2 bag ThinkTank Photo		Aaron Davies (Canada)
$100 rental credit BorrowLenses.com		Gareth Ash (USA)
Camera Split Strap and C-Loop HD CustomSLR		David Matel (USA)
Cable Management 50 bag ThinkTank Photo		Joao Almeida (Portugal)

In the unlikely event you don’t get a message from us in the next one or two days, please get in touch.

Once again, congratulations to the prize winners, and a big thanks to the companies that made this possible.

We have finally decided to tackle the backlog of listener questions we were dragging with us (some already for a few months).

On this episode, Antonio Marques, Dave Wilson and Will Burrard-Lucas discuss aperture, shutter speed and their relationship with sensor sizes and different lenses; polarizers and graduated neutral density filters; some suggestions for the choices that have to be made with online portfolios; hosting and different publishing platforms (CMS); the (Ryan) Brenizer technique; creating packages for wedding photography; and more.

On the news side, mentions of the newly released MacBook Pro and Aperture, and some interesting news coming out of Getty on their coverage of the Olympic Games.

As always, questions or general feedback can be sent via photonetcast (at) photonetcast.com or through our contact form.

We are also looking at replacing our long-standing logo on the show. If you have any good suggestions for it, let us know.

Until the next one, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• Getty Images to use new tech at the Olympics (VIDEO)
• New Aperture update
• The Brenizer technique; Video 1; Flickr group; Ryan’s video
• Zerene Stacker
• Note: I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of links on this one. If you want to know any I’ve forgotten just get in touch (Antonio)

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Happy Moments Caught On Security Cameras; Mark Blundell
• Will: From the G+ Photographer’s conference; Richard Peters
• Antonio: Life and Work of Sally Mann; Joey L

Summer is coming, and this usually means some family traveling.

With that in mind, on this episode, we decided to talk about vacation photography – basically how to make the most of your trips that are not happening mainly for photography.

We discuss gear that you need and gear that you think you’ll need, finding the best locations and how to ditch your family for long enough to go there and photograph them, the not-quite-right-camera-bag-but-it-was-the-best-I-could-think-of, and security and safety of your gear and your person while on vacation.

We also give a quick look at the news (very very quiet) and, as usual, we have our Selected from the Web.

Big reminder that we have still our Photo Competition and Social Media Competition open until June 16th. The Photo competition is open themed, so you just have to send us a link to your entry photo, and for the social media competition all you need to do is send a tweet, or facebook post, etc etc. Details on the link above.

## 15 prizes, over $1400 value ##

Enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• Nikon firmware updates for D4, D800 and D700
• Daylight viewfinder for iPhone on Kickstarter
• Photographer Hector Garcia dies at 88 (bio at the Getty Museum)
• Sony World Photography Awards 2013 now open
• “From World to Bingo” Getty advertisement
• Big City Heat Maps of local and tourist photo spots
• UNESCO heritage sites
• Crumpler system Sean mentions
• The Domke wrap

Selected from the Web

• Bob: Lewis Hine: Photographer, Activist, Character ; Mornings on Maple Street: Lewis Hine Project
• Teymur: https://vimeo.com/42652596 ; http://mobylosangelesarchitecture.com/
• Sean: photoblog of Tanja-Tiziana
• Dave: Neil Gaiman commencement speech ; Panoramic Daguerrotype of Cincinnati ; Robert Seale – Houston-based portrait photographer
• Antonio: Lee filters ; Damon Winter

4 years of Photography podcast

Yes, that’s right. Episode 70 marks four years of talking photography. It feels almost strange, looking back at the almost shy announcement (episode 1), to know that just over four years have passed, and more than 80 hours of published audio. Many awesome moments on the show, not only the ones that we publish, but also what happens behind the scenes, when things go smooth, and when things almost fail miserably. It has been an amazing experience and a privilege to be able to reach a great audience such as you.

Not everything has gone according to schedule (otherwise we would be running episode 100, not 70) but we do our best and I guess that what matters is that we have not podfaded just yet

What about from your side of the show? What were the most memorable/funny/entertaining/horrible/insightful moments that you remember? Share with us in the comments…

To celebrate this 4 years, we have two competitions with amazing prizes for our listeners: a photo competition, and a social media competition. All details on how to participate at the link.

Also on the show we go through some news, and we take a look at the past four years in photography, with what we think were the biggest game-changers since we started the podcast. And just for the fun of it, there were also a few guesses at what the next four years are going to bring.

And also a big thank you to the great companies that have donated over $1400 in prizes for the competitions: OnOne Software, Nations Photo Lab, X-Rite, GMC Publications, CustomSLR, ThinkTank Photo, Artsy Couture, BorrowLenses.com and HDRSoft. It’s great to see these companies supporting the community. So, next time you need some gear, try to support them.

Here’s to another 4 years…

Show Notes

• Nikon D3200 announced
• SF PhotoWalk (winning image)
• Leica M-Monochrom
• Digital Camera timeline
• Nikon DSLR release history
• Photoshop release history
• onOne Suite history

“Floral Escalation” (c) 2012  Jesse Nichols. Used with permission.

Many thanks to our sponsor, HDRSoft, for donating the prize for this competition.

Photo Contest

Given that we’re a photography podcast, it seemed extremely appropriate that the first of these competitions should require you to actually do some photography so here it is – the 4th Anniversary PhotoNetCast Photography Competition.

To enter, post your entry photo (the theme is open so post whatever you want) on any social network (Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, SmugMug, wherever) or your own blog, then leave a comment on this page with the URL to the post containing your picture. If you want to link to this post on the page containing the picture we would love that but it’s not required to enter. If you entered the landscape photo competition in our Flickr group, we’ll carry your entry forward to the new competition and give you a crack at the prizes on offer here.

Entries must be received by midnight CST on June 16th. After this point, the show hosts will look at all the entries and, following a period of violent dissent and heated debate, will pick a winner. We’ll announce the winner on the first show recorded after the judging completes.

What about the prizes though? We’ll be offering prize packages for the first, second and third place winners as follow:

First Prize – Total Value $380

Perfect Photo Suite 6.1 OnOne Software
“The Photographers’ Survival Guide” by A. Stone and Suzanne Sease GMC Publications
Camera Split Strap and C-Loop HD CustomSLR

Second Prize – Total Value $180

$100 credit for printing services Nations Photo Lab
“The Photographers’ Survival Guide” by A. Stone and Suzanne Sease GMC Publications
Camera Split Strap and C-Loop HD CustomSLR

Third Prize – Total Value $75

Artificial Intelligence 2.0 17″ laptop bag ThinkTank Photo
“The Photographers’ Survival Guide” by A. Stone and Suzanne Sease GMC Publications

“Spread The Word” Competition

Even if you don’t want to enter the photo contest, we still have an option that gives you the chance of winning a fabulous collection of prizes and this one only involves you spreading the word about PhotoNetCast on your favourite social networking sites. You have the following options to enter and you are welcome to enter once per social network to maximize your chances.

On Twitter

Follow @PhotoNetCast then tweet “RT for a chance to win a valuable prize from @PhotoNetCast – photography podcast. Over $1300 in prizes! http://goo.gl/f2B9Y #pnc_4yrs”. Slight variations of this message are also allowed.

On Google+

Add the PhotoNetCast page to one of your circles then post a link to this page on your stream and reference +PhotoNetCast so that we notice your post.

On Facebook

“Like” the PhotoNetCast page and put a post on your timeline with a link to this page and a reference to @PhotoNetCast.

On Your Blog

Publish a post on your blog mentioning PhotoNetCast and include a link to this post. If your blog support trackbacks, we should see this incoming link but, just to be sure, add a comment here with a link back to your post.

On iTunes

Add a review of PhotoNetCast on iTunes then comment on this page telling us that you reviewed it (include which iTunes store country).

You will get 1 competition entry for your first post on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, and we’ll give you 3 entries for a post on your blog or a review posted to iTunes. The competition will close on June 16th after which we’ll record all the entries and use a random number generator to pick the winners. You’ll be on the run for one of the following prizes:

X-Rite ColorMunki Display X-Rite
$150 printing services credit Artsy Couture
Retrospective LC-2 bag ThinkTank Photo
$100 rental credit   BorrowLenses.com
Camera Split Strap and C-Loop HD CustomSLR
Cable Management 50 bag ThinkTank Photo

Start spreading the word!

We also had a competition running during our San Francisco Photowalk. At stake was a copy of Photomatix Pro by HDRSoft. That prize has been awarded already (and we’ll post the winning image very soon).

Thanks to our generous sponsors

And of course we could not finish announcing this competition without a word of thanks to the amazing companies that have generously donated the prizes listed above. You rock!!

Limited Edition Prints

In episode 69 of PhotoNetCast, Guy Tal joins us to discuss the practice and ethics of selling photographic prints in limited editions.

Guy Tal, a landscape, nature and travel photographer based in Utah, recently posted an article on his blog offering his opinion that, given the state of photographic technology today, selling prints as limited editions is, at best, a marketing ploy and, at worst, unethical. Tal argues that artificially limiting the availability of prints is intended purely to drive up the cost of the work and such behavior is inconsistent with his views regarding the social good provided by easy and widespread access to art.

Our discussion touches on the definition of an artwork (with some surprising discoveries found in California law), the definition of a "limited edition" and news relating to photographer William Egglestone’s recent sale of new prints which has resulted in him being sued by a collector of his original work.

Enjoy the show…

Audio here (un-edited video coming at a later time)

Show Notes

• Sigma rewards SD-1 customers who purchased before massive price drop
  
• Crowdfunded photojournalism on Emphas.is
  
• Flickr announces availability of Aviary online photo editing feature
• Canon announces EOS 1D C DSLR with 4K video support
  
• Collector Sues Egglestone Over New Prints of Limited Edition Works
• Sizing Up The Curious New William Egglestone Lawsuit
• Guy Tal – The Ethics of Limited Editions
• Craig J. Sterling – Limited Edition Prints
• Brooks Jensen – What Size The Edition?
  

Selected from the Web

• Guy:
  • Thomas Kinkade’s Premise
• Dave:
  • Randall Ford – Hero Portfolio
  • Christian Stoll – Epic Gallery
  •  SLR Camera Simulator
• Antonio:
  • Steve McCurry – "Afghan Girl": Taking National Geographic’s Most Famous Photo
  • Photoblogger: Sam Javanrouh – "Daily Dose of Imagery"

I’m sure we have quite a few listeners in California and many of you probably live in the Bay Area. How do you fancy getting together for a photo walk in San Francisco on April 21st, 2012? Dave Wilson will be in town that weekend and is keen to get together with some locals to do some shooting and generally geek out on photography. If you can make it to San Francisco and have that Saturday afternoon free, we’ll be meeting up under the statue in Union Square at 2pm and spending a couple of hours wandering around downtown.

Let us know you are coming on the event page here and then show up with a camera on the 21st. If we’re lucky, Jim Goldstein may be available and we’ve invited various other Bay Area photography podcasters and bloggers too so hopefully we’ll have a good crowd.

Combining Photography and Charity Work

Episode 68 of PhotoNetCast brings together on the show Colby Brown (The Giving Lens) and Ivan Makarov (Plus One Collection) to talk about their experiences combining two of their passions – Photography and Charity Work.

The Giving Lens organizes workshops and photo education events in several locations around the globe. They work with local non-profit organizations and aim to make a difference within that community. On the show Colby describes very well what they do.

Plus One Collection is a collective effort by many photographers organized on Google Plus. Main idea? Publish a photography book and give the proceedings to Kiva, a micro-lending organization helping individuals in less privileged parts of the world.

Overall this was a very inspirational conversation and just shows what can be achieved when creative minds and a willingness to help others come together.

Enjoy the show…

Audio here (un-edited video at bottom)

Quote of the show:

“…it would have been better if my boots hadn’t leaked…” – Dave Wilson

Show Notes

• Jim’s Star trail Photography Webinar
• Nikon uses Canon 5D Mk II footage to promote the D800
• Photoshelter SEO guide 2012
• World’s biggest photowalk
• Kiva
• Plus One Collection on G+
• The Giving Lens on G+

Selected from the Web

• Ivan:
• LensWork
• Dave:
• Infra Red photography from Peter Talke;
•  LifePixel;
• Photoblogger: Jacob Lucas
• Antonio:
• William Miller’s Ruined Polaroids
• Photoblogger: Stuart Lee

Macro Photography

Want to shoot the tiny stuff in life? All the bugs, all the details in flowers, all the details in the small objects? Then this episode is for you.

I am joined by Dave Wilson, Will Burrard-Lucas and Teymur Madjderey for a discussion in Macro Photography.

“Up Close on the Head”

Extreme macro of a screw head with Phillips indentions. The original object is about 5mm wide and the image was not cropped.

We talk about some gear such as dedicated macro lenses (including the difference between macro lenses and zoom lenses with a macro stamped on it), extension tubes and close-up filters, without forgetting the good old trick of reversing lenses. We approach lighting in macro photography and we give a few tips to improve focus, exposure and background. Will also shared the setup for his amazing photos of mosquitoes.

Regarding post processing, we mentioned focus stacking and stitching.

On the news, we talk about the 5D MkIII, the almost end for Kodak’s slide film, the announced 41MP on Nokia’s new smartphone, and the latest news from BeetleCam.

Enjoy the show…

Unedited video of the live recording is below the Show Notes.

A big thanks also to everyone that followed the show live.

Show Notes

• Canon 5D MkIII
• Kodak announces end of slide film
• Nokia 808 PureView 41MP camera phone
• Lytro cameras hit the streets
• LifePixel – IR conversions
• Lenses: Canon 65mm f/2.8 1x – 5x; Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Macro; Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro; Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro

Selected from the Web

• Antonio: Reflections by Tom Hussey; Klaus Fies Pixeldreamer.de
• Dave: A Simple Guide to Depth of Field by Dylan Bennett; Oliver Fluck;
• Will: Great Macro Photos; David Lloyd Wildlife
• Teymur: Andrew Huth – technology and laughter; Zack Arias – de_Vice

Listener Questions

We have dedicated this episode to clear the backlog of listeners’ questions we have been accumulating.

Lot’s of useful and insightful discussion:

• We talk about Eye-Fi cards and their advantages and disadvantages;
• we try to explain the golden ratio, not an easy thing to do on and audio show;
• 
• We discuss points of focus and problems that might arise from the “focus and re-compose” technique;
• We lift the veil on high key photography;
• Filter holders vs screw filters;
• Medium format in landscape photography
• Flash fall off

Want to send your questions to the show? photonetcast _(at)_ photonetcast.com

In the news, we mention the closing of Picnik, the photo editing engine used by Flickr – it seems that Flickr is getting a major revamping, let’s see what’s going to be new as editing tool. We’ve also discussed the new Nikon D800 and tried to foresee if the optical viewfinder is going to be around for a few years more or not.

Questions of comments? Drop them below the post.

And don’t forget to connect with us on Google+, Twitter and FB.

Show Notes

A few links mentioned on the show

• Sony World Photography Awards shortlist announced
• Picnik is closing down
• Is the Optical viewfinder going out the door?
• Golden ratio:
  • On Wikipedia
  • On APN
  • On FM Photo Courses
• Light fall off
• Eye-Fi cards
• Large format landscape

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Why Wedding Photographers Prices are “Wack”; Sven Seebeck
• Sean: Photography heat map
• Bob: Clyde Butcher, Large Format B&W landscape photography 
• Antonio: Recolored photos from the past

What a full show… and just to finish it even better…

As I’m sure you are aware, we encourage our listeners to send us photography questions that we can try to answer on the show.

At the moment we have a few that need attention and we are going to dedicate the most part of one episode just taking care of them. We will record this Saturday at 9pm GMT (check the time at your location). You can also follow the recording live.

That said, if you have any questions that you want us to address, this is the time to send them in – use our contact form, through any of the social networks (Twitter, Google+, Facebook) or use our email address photonetcast (_at_) photonetcast.com

Also, if you haven’t done so, we still have open our latest poll “What would you like to hear on PhotoNetCast”, and your input is appreciated.

See you Saturday…

That said, I’m not making prints since the little amount of work can’t justify having a dark room (although I’d love one). As such, and probably the case with the majority of photographers still using B&W film, after developing the negatives the transition to digital happens.

Below, I’ll try to explain my process scanning my Black and White negatives (next to “how do I develop film”, “how do I scan film negatives” has to be the mostly asked question I get when talking developing film at home).

The equipment

I’m not going to focus on equipment too much. I’ll just say that since I can’t justify the price of a good drum scanner (the best to scan negatives), I make do with a good flatbed scanner (probably the worst to scan negatives). I’m using a Canon CanoScan 8800F. If you go into photography forums discussing scanners, you’ll find that it’s worse than the Canon Nikon thing, so I’m just using something that gets the job done to a standard that meets my needs.

The Software

This is the major focus of this post. Forget the software bundled with your scanner – it is probably very good for paper documents, but it lacks the refinement that a dedicated software gives you. I’ve been using VueScan (Hamrick Software) for some time and I’ve been very happy with it.

Now, I’ve also heard that the learning curve for VueScan is steep. It’s true and things can go horribly wrong, but with a few tweaks (or maybe I should say getting rid of tweaks) the results are good.

Getting started

Have this in your mind: you will not get a perfect image out of the scanner. What you want is to grab as much information as possible from the negative, and work on it afterwards. This means, no clipping shadows or highlights, and minimal processing while digitizing the image. This will give you the best options for processing in some other software (Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture, etc).

Settings

I usually have my settings as “bland” as possible. No curves, no white balance, nothing.

VueScan has a library of profiles for some common films, but not too extensive. I also don’t want to be thinking too much about contrast intensity when developing. So, I always go with a Generic profile (Color is the only option for brand – don’t worry about this, it won’t affect your result). I prefer to go as generic as possible because if you choose a profile, all you’re telling the software is to apply a set of adjustments that I prefer to apply on my own later on.

Scanning

Usually I do a full frame preview of one of the frames. The result will be far from optimal, and normally overexposed. If you notice the image below, you’ll see that, although I have included the margins between frames, which should be the blackest you have on the negative, on the left the histogram falls off quite before the axis. Pure black should be right there on the left.

What you have to do is tell the software what black is and adapt for that.

Select a rectangle on the transparent margins (pure black on the positive).

Notice that, as before, the density of black is not at the absolute left of the histogram. Now, check the box “Lock exposure”.

See that value on RGB exposure? This value is unique for each film and is calculated based on the pure black you’ve just selected.

Do not change the selection, and do another Preview.

If you look now at the histogram, you’ll see that the black is shifted to the left, right on the axis where it should be.

Now the software knows what black is and will adjust the exposure accordingly.

Selecting the entire frame and doing again a full preview should show you the final image, with the exposure adjusted.

The blacks on the histogram fall off where they should and the image doesn’t look overexposed. Scan it to file (I do tif, but other non-destructive formats should work too).

As I’ve mentioned, this is a “flat” image but contains the maximum of data that can be gathered from the negative.

Post processing

I won’t dwell much on post processing as that is not the aim of this article, and it will depend on your vision for that specific image.

I use mostly Lightroom and tend to simply adjust the curves to increase contrast, maybe some dodging and burning if required, and spot removal if some dust grains escaped my cleaning.

Final considerations

This seems like a complex process, but really isn’t. After you get used to it, it takes just a few extra seconds per roll.

I usually do this once per roll and not, as I was already asked, for every frame. Actually, after I have the exposure locked, I set VueScan to batch scan all the frames. Some photographers, probably much more perfectionists than myself, emphasize the need to repeat this process for every strip. I don’t believe that differences in the developing process are going to be so noticeable as to require exposure locking on a per strip basis, but your mileage may vary and you should experiment.

You should also have in mind that scanners have problems with very dense highlights (the very opaque blacks on the frames). You will get a better result by slightly under-developing the negative if your aim is just to digitize the film. Accordingly, pushing the film increases contrast and will require you to pay some more attention if you have very dense highlights but the principle is the same.

I hope that if you use VueScan and aren’t getting what you expect, this guide will improve you results when you scan your film.

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please post them below.

____________________________________

This article was brought to you by Nations Photo Lab, a professional photo printing and photo hosting partner.

Real Estate Photography with Michael James

For the first episode of 2012 we have the pleasure of talking with Real Estate photographer Michael James.

Michael, based in northwest Florida, came to real estate photography out of his own need for quality property imagery and found a niche that, according to him, is far from dead.

During the conversation we talk about the difficulties faced while shooting interiors, Michael’s approaches to lighting, workflow, gear, assembling a portfolio, etc. According to Dave, this “seemed more like a workshop than a podcast recording”, so it has to be good.

We discussed also some of the more recent news, namely Kodak’s filing for bankruptcy protection and what it might mean for the company, the release of Lightroom 4 beta, a couple of items coming out of CES 2012 and the controversial use of a HDR image on the cover of the Washington Post.

If you haven’t voted on out latest poll yet, we want to know what would you like to hear more of on PhotoNetCast…

As always, comments, suggestions, feedback in general is very much appreciated. And why not give us a review on iTunes? Thanks…

Selected from the Web

• Michael: Ginger HDR, by 19lights
• Dave: Bull Riders, a photo essay
• Antonio: Richard Wong Photography

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Another year starts and with it what we hope will be a calendar full of PhotoNetCast episodes.

As always, we aim to provide a photography podcast that is informative and entertaining, and provides a pleasurable listening experience. As much as possible, we also want to adapt what we cover on the show to what you find interesting and useful for your photography objectives.

With that in mind, what would you like to hear more of on PhotoNetCast?

Let us know by voting on the poll below (you can select up to 2 answers).

[poll id=”8″]

If you have any other suggestions or comments, please drop then on the comment section below.

Did you know that PhotoNetCast is now also on Google+? Connect with us.

Welcome to the last episode of your photography podcast for 2011.

On this episode we have the pleasure of having as guest Thomas Leuthard. Thomas is a street photographer from Switzerland, although a lot of his work is done all over the world.

During the conversation we had the time to discuss his books (Going Candid and Collecting Souls) which Thomas makes freely available to the community, his initial steeps into the art, his philosophy documenting the street, and how his style evolved since his initial work.

If you want to follow Thomas, you can do so on Twitter, Flickr and G+.

We also had the time to mention Jim Goldstein’s new ebook, Photographing the 4th Dimension – Time, although we’ll have him on one of the next shows to give us more details on it, and a controversial move by CNN to let go some of their photojournalists.

As always, if you have any comments on/for the show, feel free to drop them below or, why not, record them as mp3 and send them to our email address photonetcast_at_photonetcast.com.

If you’re downloading this through iTunes, please rate the show or drop us a review. And, why not share that you’re listening to the show on your social networks? Your help spreading the word is very much appreciated.

2011 is coming to an end and we all want to wish you a happy Christmas season, and a very successful 2012.

For now, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

Selected from the Web

• Sean: Should you take photos everywhere?
• Teymur: This is not porn
• Antonio: Egyptian Youth

Photos ©Thomas Leuthard, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Welcome to another episode of your photography podcast.

Today we take a look at the results of our poll on our listeners’ photography spending habit. We also mention a new 500px export plugin for lightroom, bash Getty Images yet again for their cuts to photographers’ royalty percentages, and discuss photography as collectible art after the record-breaking $4,338,500 value reached at auction for “Rhein II”, a gigantic print by Andreas Gursky.

On this topic, while I like the idea of photography being sold for such prices, and getting the recognition it deserves as collectible art, there is the question of the perceived vs real value of such a print. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the prices will go up or drop due to the amounts of photography on the market? Let us know on the comments below or record your comment as mp3 and email it to photonetcast at photonetcast.com

If you’re still looking for that perfect Christmas gift (maybe for yourself?), we have compiled a list of 16 suggestions for items that we recommend, and chosen to fit every budget.

Got any more gift suggestions? Drop them in the comments…

For now, enjoy the show…

Antonio

Wacom Intuos4	Lee Foundation kit	Westcott 5-in-1 reflectors
50mm lens Canon Nikon Sony	Black Rapid strap

Dave

Lens Pen	Gorillapod – SLR Zoom – Focus	Hoodman Loupe
Adobe Lightroom 3	X-rite Colormunki	Nikon D7000

Teymur

Quick Drying Towel	Magnum Contact Sheets	Singh-Ray Variable ND
Manfrotto MTT2-P02	Manfrotto 055XProB

Storm Photography

On this episode we have the pleasure of talking with Mike Olbinski. Mike is a Phoenix photographer who happens to like chasing storms with his camera. He recently got a lot of attention for his timelapse video documenting a massive dust storm (aka Massive Haboob) hitting Phoenix on July 5th, 2011.

We discuss his work, his book, as well as some tips for anyone wanting to start on this photography niche.

On the news, we briefly talk about the 1Dx, the new flagship camera from Canon, and the “don’t worry now, focus later” camera from Lytro.

The results are getting in, but if still haven’t done so, vote on our latest poll, it will be open for a few more days – How much did you spend on photography in the past 12 months?

And hey, look, Brian is back…

Enjoy the show…

We have a special offer for our listeners. If you want to try any of the products in the Photomatix range, you can try it for 30 days. When you are ready to buy, use the code PHOTONETCAST at checkout for a 15% discount.

Show Notes

• Canon EOS-1Dx
• The cute Light Field Camera, the Lytro
• PhotoNetCast is on Twitter, facebook and Google+

Selected from the Web

• Mike: Mitch Dobrowner
• Brian: The Bang Bang Club
• Dave: National Geographic Extreme Photo of the Week
• Antonio: Ashes and Snow, by Gregory Colbert

Photography is expensive. It was expensive when the main medium was film, and is expensive with digital.

Whether as a hobby or a more professional level, the constant requirements (the needs or wants) of investing in equipment upgrades, software, workshops, etc is a constant and not so small drain on the budgets.

So, to try to understand the photography spending habits of our listeners, here is a new poll.

Do not count your time, but everything else from equipment, software, books, workshops, …

[poll id=”7″]

Thanks for your help with this.

A few suggestions to improve your photography workflow

Many times, the expression workflow is thrown around when talking about photography, and it gained popularity since the expansion of digital photography, hence digital workflow, namely used associated handling the digital files, from capture to publication. In my personal opinion, I think workflow includes/should include also the steps before the capture, and this is something we have approached on this episode.

Since I don’t think there is such a thing as an inherently wrong workflow, and since this is a very individual process, instead of trying to preach on what you should do, we’ve decided to discuss our own workflow, and pass on a few tips that, we hope, will help to improve yours.

On this episode of the podcast we talk about

• Steps before the shoot, including shoot planning
• Backups “on the field”
• Backups on return, and redundant backups
• Importing images
• Associating metadata
• Presets
• Flagging images and using smart collections
• Registering with the Library of Congress (increased copyright protection)
• Publishing online

We had also time to discuss a few news topics and answer listener questions, and of course, our selected from the web.

Enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• Scott Kelby’s World Wide PhotoWalk
• iPhone 4S
• Antonio Marques
• Jim Goldstein
• Dave Wilson
• Will Burrard-Lucas

Workflow

• Using Colour Labels
• ASMP Workflow site
• Backup your LR library
• DNG, RAW and JPEG: What I Use & Why
• Backblaze (cloud backup) (aff)

Questions from Listeners

• Nikon announces J1 and V1
• Importing photos to LR from Aperture

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Landscape photo competition results; The Art of Clean Up
• Will: Time-lapse; Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech
• Antonio: A Diary of Healing
• Jim: Aurora seen from the International Space Station

Inside 500px.com

Welcome once again to your favourite, albeit almost always late, photography podcast. Episode #60 is up, and on the show we are inside 500px (no, really, Sean was there) for a conversation with Jennifer Tse and Andrey Tochilin, the Media Director and the Digital Strategist for 500px, respectively.

500px, started in 2003 as a community site, has seen an explosion in traffic, coverage, and extremely high quality content of late, and is considered the wonder kid of the photo sharing services.

In the conversation we looked more closely at the service, approached the reasons for this growth, and discussed the awesome improvements coming in the future.

Many thanks to Jen and Andrey for taking the time to talk with us.

Besides the 500px conversation, we’ve also talked about Google+ and discussed how photographers are using it.

Enjoy the show…

Show Notes

Selected from the Web

• Sean: Day into Night; 8 Ways to title a Photograph
• Dave: Plenoptic Lenses; Lytro Cameras
• Antonio: Persona by Jason Travis

Unedited live recording:

Aperture Choice

Having a stable camera and choosing a safe shutter speed are the cause of most focus problems from my perspective. Choice of aperture can also, however, play a significant role in the overall sharpness of the image especially when you are shooting with consumer lenses. Each lens has a “sweet spot” which offers the best sharpness that that piece of glass can provide. This is generally found about 2 stops down from the widest aperture the lens supports so, on an f/4 lens this would be about f/8 and on an f/5.6 telephoto, about f/11.

Lens test results published by DPReview offer a great resource when trying to find the optimal aperture for your particular lens (assuming it has been reviewed). For example, the results for the popular Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G can be found here. The interactive graphic allows you to see the sharpness characteristics at different apertures and focal lengths across different areas of the frame. If this is too much information, the test conclusions also list the best overall apertures for the lens under test.

If your particular lens is not listed on DPReview’s site, take a look at the data provided by the manufacturer since they will usually publish the same or similar information.

Autofocus

Next we have to consider how you use the camera’s focus system. In the old days, focus was entirely up to the photographer but manual focus is hardly ever used these days and instead we rely heavily upon the camera’s autofocus system. Knowing how to use it effectively is important.

Continuous vs. single vs. manual

DSLRs typically have three main autofocus modes. In manual focus mode, autofocus is completely disabled and you are responsible for setting the focus point in your images. Given how good autofocus systems are these days, it may seem odd to turn the system off but there are some occasions when this is helpful or even vital.

Shooting macros

When shooting macro, especially when using extension tubes, autofocus frequently doesn’t work at all or, if it does, it tends to hunt around trying to acquire focus. Normally, I switch to manual focus in these situations to prevent this problem. Shooting a burst of frames as you move very slowly towards or away from the target will normally result in at least one image which is sharp where you want it to be. Manual focus is also vital if you are using software to improve the depth of field of macro images by focus stacking – taking several shots of the same subject with the focus set at different depths in each one then having software such as Photoshop use the information in these frames to generate a single image with a deeper depth of field.

Action

If you are fortunate to have fast, expensive professional lenses, you will almost certainly be able to rely upon your autofocus system when shooting sports or other action. From my experience, for example, a Nikon D700 and 70-200mm f/2.8 combined will track focus faster than my own eyes can! With cheaper lenses, however, the autofocus system often can’t keep up with the pace of the action even when using continuous autofocus mode (more of which later). In these cases, switching to manual focus can be a help. In situations where you are setting up for a shot at a particular place, for example waiting for an athlete to jump a particular hurdle or a high jumper to cross the bar, using manual focus and pre-focusing on the point that you know the shot will be at will very much increase your chance of getting the image you are looking for.

Panorama and HDR shooting

When shooting panoramas, HDRs or any other special form of photography that requires multiple images to be captured of a single scene, it is usually important to prevent changes in the focus between exposures. In these cases, set the camera focus for the first shot, either manually or using autofocus, then turn the focus system to manual to ensure that no changes occur as you take the sequence of shots.

Artistic Effects

Many cameras refuse to shoot images if focus has not been acquired. While this is useful most of the time, there are occasions when you want to take an out of focus shot for artistic effect. In these cases, turn the camera to manual focus and use the focus ring to generate the level of blur you want in your scene. In manual mode, the camera shutter will fire regardless of whether or not it thinks focus has been acquired so you are free to be as creative as you want with the focus ring.

Single vs. Continuous Autofocus

In the majority of cases, you will be shooting with autofocus enabled and you will have two more modes to choose from, single or continuous autofocus. The difference here is in how often the camera checks for focus and adjusts the lens elements for you. In single mode, a camera will autofocus once when you press the shutter halfway down or when you press a dedicated “AF” button (many DSLRs allow you to choose how autofocus is activated via a menu option). Until you release the shutter or AF button and press it again, the focus will remain locked after this one check. This is fine in most cases where you are not dealing with fast movement towards the camera and has the nice side benefit of not using a lot of battery power to tweak the lens position continuously. On the other hand, if you are shooting action where your subject is moving towards or away from the lens, this poses a problem since there will be movement between the time when the autofocus locks and the point at which you push the shutter button fully to activate the shutter release. During this time, a fast moving target will likely have moved out of the plane of focus and you will end up with a blurred image.

To combat this problem, continuous autofocus can be used. In this mode, your camera will constantly check and adjust the focus as long as you have the shutter half pressed or the AF button pressed. This is the mode of choice when shooting moving targets whether they be athletes or kids running around. The downside to continuous autofocus is that it is more battery-hungry. On Nikon cameras at least, it also turns off the autofocus illuminators so it will not likely work too well in low light or when you want to use a flash.

Choice of AF point

In addition to choosing the appropriate autofocus mode, it is also important to know exactly where in the frame your camera will focus. With compact cameras, it is common to have the camera focus in the center of the field meaning that you have to focus then recompose your shot if the subject you want to be sharp is elsewhere in the frame. On DSLRs, however, most offer various choices to help you control what the camera focuses on. In addition to the “center of frame” option, you will also generally find several other modes, most of which require your input to select the initial focus point. The Nikon DSLRs I use (D90 and D700) offer the following options:

Single Point

You select the exact focus point you want by using the multiselector on the back of the camera to move a rectangle around the viewfinder. The number of possible positions varies by camera with later and higher function models offering more choices (51 for the D700 vs. 11 for the D90, for example)

Dynamic Area

This is a bit more clever than the single point option when you are using continuous autofocus mode. You still select the focus point using the multiselector and the moving rectangle but the camera will check surrounding focus points and adjust focus as needed if the subject moves away from the initial position.

Auto-area

This is a fully automatic focus mode where the camera analyses the scene and focuses on the object that it assumes is the main subject. In this case you don’t provide any input and, as a result, have a lot less control over what is to be focused.

3D-tracking

This is the most advanced autofocus mode offered by the camera. When the shutter is pressed half way, the camera analyses the scene around the chosen autofocus point and tracks the object as it moves around the frame, keeping the same subject in focus regardless of where it moves. Once again, this mode only helps when using continuous autofocus.

Each of these modes has pros and cons but, generally speaking, the advanced modes are only really useful when shooting moving subjects. For static subjects, any mode other than fully automatic should offer similar performance. In continuous autofocus, however, different people prefer different modes so experiment and see which option you prefer for the kind of shooting you do. Personally, I use either Dynamic Area or 3D-tracking for sport shooting.

Very wide apertures

If you are used to using single point autofocus, focusing on the center of the image then turning slightly to recompose your image before making the exposure, you may fall into another trap when using very wide apertures and wide or standard lenses (50mm or below). The act of rotating the camera to recompose after focusing can actually change the camera/subject distance enough that the area you had previously focused on is now no longer pin sharp. Rather than moving the camera to refocus in these cases, it is important to keep the camera static and select focus using one of the autofocus modes that allows you to position the focus using the camera’s multiselector and the focus marker in the viewfinder.

It’s taken two posts spread over exactly a year (sorry about that!) to outline some of the issues related to getting a sharp image and this may all sound rather daunting. Overall, however, the best advice I can offer is to shoot a lot, practice your camera holding technique to keep as steady as possible and try out your camera’s various autofocus modes so that you are familiar with the ones that offer the best performance for the kind of shooting you do.

The Importance of standing out with your photographic work

In this episode we have as guest Scott Liddell to help us in the discussion. Scott is the anonymous now not anonymous anymore author of Dark Edinburgh. This site, although small in scale, has been gaining some notoriety around the local photographic community, and one reason for this might be the focus Scott has placed on it, showing a darker side of the city, that you won’t get on the guide books.

From a lengthy conversation with Scott about the story of this site, I thought it to be a fairly good example of the importance of standing out with your photography and invited him to join us on the show.

Besides the discussion, we talked about iOS 5 and what it means for iphoneographers, and the new Pentax O-GPS1, the new geotagger from Pentax with some interesting peculiar features.

We are also reviving the PhotoNetCast group on Flickr with some themed “competitions”. For this episode the theme is Old. Go out and shoot anything that can be related to this theme and upload it to the group.

Also, out latest poll is still up. How many photography podcasts do you regularly listen to?

Enjoy the show (this one has outtakes too)…

While editing the last episode, I decided to split the conversation in two so that we wouldn’t end up with an episode far too long.

This episode is the second part of that conversation, and we discuss the good and the bad of hosting your own photoblog, as opposed using third-party services.

As in episode 57, you’ll be hearing me (Antonio Marques), Dave Wilson, Sean Galbraith and our two guests Brian Matiash and Bob Lussier.

Also, if you have a few seconds, head on to our latest poll and help us figure out how the photography podcasting market has evolved since we started publishing.

Enjoy the show…

Show notes

Selected from the Web

• Sean: Another Street Photographer Discovered, Captured Life in 1950s NYC; The Photography of Frank Larson
• Dave: The Photo Attorney
• Brian: 500 Pixels
• Bob: pixel-peeper
• Antonio: The Learning Lab

As surprising as this seems (to me in particular) it is now over three years since we started publishing PhotoNetCast.

During this time we’ve observed many changed in the podcast “market” and, in particular, in photography podcasting. Several well established podcasts have disappeared, many are still going strong and many more have been created, both in audio and video. We can say that photography podcasting is as dynamic as the industry itself.

At PhotoNetCast, one of our aims was to always try to understand the changes in our listeners’ preferences and, while keeping the initial objectives of the show, adjust and evolve to balance it all together. One way we have tried to gather feedback from the listeners is by asking directly in polls.

With that in mind, we’d appreciate it if you could help us out by answering the question below.

[poll id=”6″]

Thanks in advance for your time.

On episode 57 I’ve mentioned a new project I’m working on – Aksgar Magazine.

As I mentioned on the show, Aksgar is a new venue for the publication of narrative and documentary photography from around the world, in the form of photo essays.

We are interested in publishing works that, besides their documentary value, tell stories beyond the photos and would not, normally, have a place in traditional media.

Besides the publication of essays on aksgar.com, the magazine will be distributed electronically (pdf and app) and, probably, in print. We also have a periodic newsletter highlighting the best essays and news published on the site, besides some exclusive content. If you’re interested in getting the newsletter directly on your email inbox, all you have to do is subscribe. Subscribers to the newsletter will get the first issue of Aksgar in pdf format absolutely free.

If you think that your work is suitable for Aksgar Magazine, we are accepting submissions.

Do take a look at what we have around there, and tell us what you think. Here’s a few examples of what you can find in Aksgar.

Hunger in their Bellies by Baya Agarwal	Mughli the Lonely Mother by Altaf Qadri	Land of a Thousand Struggles by Sohrab Hura

Episode 57 of your favourite photography podcast is here.

On this one, besides the now regulars Sean and Dave, we were joined by Brian Matiash and Bob Lussier. Thanks to everyone for joining.

Lots of discussion and exchange of ideas going on, namely on the latest TwitPic Terms of Service “blunders”. Does TwitPic really want to make money from users’ photos? While sustaining a service like TwitPic through advertising alone is almost impossible, having ambiguous terms of service does not give assurance to users and can result in mass exodus.

Mass exodus is what Getty Images might be facing soon from its contributors. Recently, Getty sent a new contract agreement to contributors with, amongst other changes, prevents them from having their images included in subscription packages and, probably more damaging, requires that images in Rights Managed licencing not sold for more than 3 years be placed under Royalty-Free. Will a new or existing player in the market come up with more amenable terms for photographers and be able to compete with the Getty giant? PhotoNetCast Images was suggested

The discussion was going long and I’ve decided to break the conversation into two episodes. Over 110 minutes seemed a bit too much. So, join us also on PhotoNetCast #58. The video version, if you ever decide to watch it, will come with #58.

As always, your comments and feedback are very much appreciated.

For now, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

TwitPic ToS

• TwitPic ToS
• ASMP comments on TwitPic ToS
• We’ll profit from your photos to protect you
• TwitPic plans to sell your images so it can profit
• Sharing services compared
• TwitPic updates ToS to reassure users of photo copyright ownership

TwitPic competitors ToS Pages

• yFrog
• MobyPicture
• TwitrPix

Getty’s new contributor contract

• Sample contract (pdf)
• APA recommends that members do not sign Getty agreement
• APA campaign
• ASMP to Getty Photographers: Time to Bail

Episode #56 is (finally) out.

On this episode we have Trey Ratcliff as guest, the one of THE HDR tutorial, talking about his progress in photography and his story from his initial days in HDR to the recognition, trust and respectability Trey has in the HDR world and photography in general.

Besides the normal topics expected from a conversation in HDR photography, we also dip into business models and how a profitable business can be created from HDR photography.

This was a very inspiring conversation and one I’d really recommend you to take the time to listen. I’m sure you’ll take something out of it that you can apply on your own vision, creativity and photography journey in general.

I’ll also take the opportunity to thank Trey, the co-hosts involved in this episode and all the listeners that followed us live during this recording for everyone’s patience – we were plagued by technical issues at the beginning that delayed the recording by much longer than it should have.

App giveaway

We have some codes for Photo Verse (iPhone) and PixelSync (iPad) to share with our listeners. If you’re interested, send us an email stating the name of the app you are interested in on the subject. A week after the show is published we’ll randomly select the winners.

For now, enjoy the show…

Unedited live recording:

Show Notes

• Trey’s Burning Man Images
• Trey’s Flickr
• Trey on Twitter

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Amazing Black & White Modern Architecture Photographs
• Antonio: Photoblog performance tips
• Jim: Growing is for Ever, Ridiculous Stock Photos
• Sean: Scanner Camera, Magnum in Motion Photo Essay
• Trey: Image Spark

First of all I have to apologize for the delay in releasing this episode. It was recorded in the beginning of January, but only now I had the time to edit and publish. Hope you understand.

We start the show by answering a few listener questions (see below), continue with a short revision of some interesting topics on the news, namely the new “wireless lens” cameras and the discovery of a large amount of work by Vivien Maier, and get into the main topic talking about mobile photo apps. Unfortunately we only had “one side of the equation” with iPhone users, no Android or other platforms were discussed.

If you’re interested, here’s the list of the photo apps we mentioned, and their prices (at the time we recorded) on the iTunes store:

– Photocalc – $2.99; Xposure – free; Photogene – $1.99; Focalware – $4.99; Nightcamera – $0.99; The Photographer’s Ephemeris – $8.99; Instagram – free; 360 Panorama – $1.99; ToonPaint – $1.99; See This! – $0.99; Easy Release – $9.99; Hipstamatic – $1.99 (plus add-ons); iFolio – free; Massive Dev Chart – $7.99; BestCam $2.99; 100 Cameras in 1 $1.99; Fotomatic $1.99; Camera+ $1.99; True HDR $1.99; Autostitch $1.99; Sunrise Sunset $0.99, Shakeitphoto $0.99, Flickr (Free); Filterstorm $3.99; Picture Show $1.99; White Sands Fine Art ePhotobook $4.99

UPDATE: Episode #56 is also recorded and will be released soon. Trey Ratcliff is our guest on that one. Still on mobile photo apps, we have a bunch of giveaway codes for 2 other apps, Photo Verse and Pixelsync but you’ll have to listen to it to know how to score one of these codes.

For now, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

Listener questions

• David Falk: Hi guys, I need to get a shutter release cable and I would like your opinion on the main features I should be looking at. Any particular one you recommend? Thanks and keep up the great work with the show.
• Peter Johnson: I have some extra batteries that I use when travelling. When not travelling I keep using and recharging the same battery. Do you think this is the best approach? Would you keep your spare batteries recharged or let them dry and recharge only before needing?
  • Best life if stored after charging
  • Store NiMH batteries at a low temperature (even in freezer). Discharge rate without this is typically a few per cent per day so prepare to recharge after removing from storage
• Matt Kuhn: Hey guys, I have a quick tech question for you. I shoot raw, and would like to be able to import my images and keep the in camera settings after import, so black and white or sepia or saturation or … maintains the same as it was shot in camera, instead of readjusting my images in the computer. I import and do the bulk of my processing in LR3, and would love to hear that this is possible.

News

• WVIL Cameras (concept camera)
• Vivian Meier – Street photography
  • Original Flickr thread
  • www.vivianmaier.com

Selected from the Web

• Sam: Vivian Maier’s work
• Dave: Best Photos of 2010 (from Jim’s blog); Epic Ski Moments (PDN)
• Antonio: Self-Promo Likes (And Pet Peeves)… From The People You’re Sending Them To (Part 1 Of 3)
• Jim: Incredible Space Photos from ISS by NASA astronaut Wheelock; Where Science, Art and Photography Intersect

Wildlife Photography

As we’ve mentioned before, episode 54 is focused on Wildlife Photography. Will Burrard-Lucas is our expert on the topic and we discussed the basics of wildlife photography, including gear and logistics to commercialization of the images and approaches on how to get your images be seen by the traditional media. This is a must listen discussion if you’re interested and/or planning to start in Wildlife Photography.

Before our main topic, we had the opportunity to discuss the future of photography publishing and the shift from the traditional books to e-books and portable applications, following Jim’s launch of his White Sands Fine Art e-photobook, and talk about the new limited edition cameras by Hasselblad.

As in the last episodes, we’ve recorded the live video and we’ll publish it below as soon as it’s ready. it can be seen at the bottom of the post.

As always, any feedback, comments or questions are greatly appreciated.

For now, enjoy the show…

Show Notes

• White Sands Fine Art e-Photobook
• Hasselblad announces limited edition stainless steel H4D-40
• Burrard-Lucas.com
• Top ten Wildlife Photography Tips
• The Art of Wildlife Photography
•    

Selected from the Web

• Will: Earthshots.org; Instagr.am
• Jim: Photo Advent; Shooting by Britta Thie
• Antonio: How to write a photography proposal; Music video

Uncut video of this episode is now available

Quick note just to let you know that the next PhotoNetCast is lined-up. We will be talking about Wildlife Photography. To help us on this one we’ll have as guest Will Burrard-Lucas. While it’s not the first time Will is on the show, it’s the first time that we’ll be dedicating one episode to the topic and share a bunch of tips on the subject.

As we have been doing for the past two episodes, the recording of PhotoNetCast 54 will be broadcasted live and you are more than welcome to join us. A chat box will be available for any questions you may have.

So, add it to your calendars:

Monday, December 6, 10pm Pacific

Tuesday, December 7, 1am Eastern, 6am GMT.

If you prefer to send your comments or questions in advance, just drop them on the bottom of this post, use our contact form, or call our voicemail line at +1 (415) 343-5030.

Photo copyright: Burrard-Lucas

As we mentioned in our last episode, we wanted to bring on the show someone who has been on the floor at Photokina 2010 to give us a general feeling for the biggest photography fair in the world.

Joining us are Teymur Madjderey (Manfrotto School of Xcellence) and André M. Hünseler, two pros from Cologne working at Photokina.

We talked about Photokina 2010 in general, highlights from the ground, the best and the worst, workshops and events surrounding Photokina, etc. We also had some time to talk about some of the latest cameras and equipment announced at Photokina, and we discussed the market trends and flooding of the semi-compacts as well as the tendency to make the large formats more affordable to the “average” photographer.

We finished it off with listener questions regarding the difference between flashes and continuous studio lights, wireless triggers, and advantages and disadvantages of third-party strobes.

This was also the second time we tried to broadcast the recording live and I have to say that, besides a glitch or ten, it went much better than the first attempt. If you’re curious, the un-edited video is bellow the show notes.

I have to end by apologizing to everyone for not making this episode available sooner (after all it was recorded in the middle of October). Time has been a precious commodity around here. Hope you understand.

Show Notes

• Fuji Finepix X100
• Canon G12 
• Nikon P7000
• Hasselblad H4D-31
• Leica M9 Titanium (£19,800)

Aside from a few isolated creative cases, photographers strive to ensure that their images are as sharp as possible in the areas that are supposed to be sharp. When an image falls short, we are often quick to blame poor equipment but, if we are going to be honest with ourselves, we should realize that the vast majority of focus problems are caused not by a cheap kit lens but by “user error”. This article and the one which follows, aim to help you work through the kinds of problem which can reduce sharpness in your pictures and which can be fixed without spending thousands on new lenses.

Before delving in, we should remember that your definition of whether or not a photo is sharp will vary a lot depending upon what you are going to do with it. If you print nothing larger than 6″x4″ or use only low resolution versions of your images on a web site, you will be a lot less likely to notice an unsharp image than if you are producing 36″x24″ prints. The larger your output, the more careful you must be to nail the focus exactly where you want it.

Stabilizing The Camera

Most problems that appear as poor focus are likely due not to lens focusing at all but are caused by camera movement during the exposure (or “camera shake”). A slight movement of the camera is all it takes to blur those eyelashes in an otherwise perfect portrait or turn the leaves on the trees in your landscape into green mush. The problem of camera movement is magnified with longer lenses where a small angle change in the camera translates into a large positional change in the image you are capturing. Conversely, a significantly larger movement is required to produce equivalent levels of image blur when using a wide angle lens.

The most obvious way to prevent camera movement is to lock the camera down hard using a sturdy tripod. While this is the best option, carrying a tripod is unlikely to be practical in many situations but there are several other things you can do to reduce camera shake. The first of these is to hold your camera properly – be your own tripod and support the weight of the camera in a way that is comfortable for you and as stable as possible. The position of your right hand is generally fixed by the camera controls – grip the right side of the camera tightly. Your left hand, however, has a lot more choice and this tends to be where the problem lies.

I was recently at a sporting event and watched an amateur photographer hold a 300mm lens with his hand above the lens barrel. Aside from the fact that this must have been rather uncomfortable, it was also a very unstable way to support a heavy lens (or any lens, for that matter)! Holding your left hand underneath the lens offers a far more stable platform and tucking your elbows in against your sides helps even more. While doing this, keep your feet apart and, if you have the option, brace yourself against something solid – a wall, a tree, a fencepost – to further reduce the likelihood of you moving during the critical hundredth of a second or so that the shutter will be open.

One of the masters of the genre produced a video a while ago that describes what I am talking about here. Joe McNally is a left-eyed shooter so his camera grip technique won’t work for most of us but do watch his video since it contains great information even for those of us who clamp our right eye to the viewfinder.

Even when you are in the fortunate position of being able to shoot from a tripod there are a couple more things you can do to ensure ultimate camera stability. Firstly, to minimise your need to touch the camera and possibly jolt it, use a cable release or, if you don’t have one, set the self timer so that your hand is away from the camera when the shutter fires. Secondly, if your camera has the option, use Mirror Lock Up or Exposure Delay (a Nikon feature which delays the shutter release for a second after the mirror is raised) to reduce vibration caused by the DSLR’s mirror moving. This may sound nitpicky but it can make a noticeable difference if you are producing really large prints.

Shutter Speed Choice

Having fixed problems associated with stabilizing the camera, another question often comes to mind. Just how slow a shutter speed can I use and still get sharp images when I’m hand-holding a camera? I know one professional photographer who claims to be able to get decently sharp, handheld exposures with a wide angle lens when shooting with a half second shutter speed but, for the rest of us, there is a useful rule of thumb. Don’t try to handhold a shot if the shutter speed will be any slower than 1/(focal length). For example, if I’m shooting with a 24mm lens, I should be able to handhold it successfully at shutter speeds shorter than 1/24 second. If, however, I change to a 300mm, I must keep my shutter speed shorter than 1/300 to ensure sharpness. Different individuals obviously have different abilities here but this makes a pretty good starting point for most people.

I still use this rule of thumb today but I can now bend it if I’m shooting with a Vibration Reduction (VR) or Image Stabilization (IS) lens. These lenses include special optics that sense vibration or movement and cancel it out automatically. Most claim something between 2 and 4 stops of improvement over a non stabilized lens of similar focal length, so, using one of these and assuming a conservative 2 stop improvement, I can shoot at a shutter speed 4 times slower than the rule of thumb would dictate and expect to get a shot of similar sharpness. Taking the 300mm example again, without VR, I should keep my shutter speed shorter than 1/300. With the 2 stop improvement I get with VR, however, I can move this limit to 1/75 second (1/150 is 1 stop down from 1/300, 1/75 is 2 stops down) and still expect a sharp shot. I must admit to having been skeptical of this but, on trying out my Nikon 70-300mm VR lens at the 300mm end, I was delighted to find that I can indeed get images whose sharpness I am happy with when hand-holding at 1/30 second.

The previous rules do make one assumption that you also need to consider. Regardless of how well you handhold and how fast your shutter speed is, if your subject is moving and the camera is fixed, the longer the shutter speed, the less sharp the subject will be. In these cases, you would need to move the camera during the exposure (pan) to track the subject position but that’s a subject for another article.

In part 2 we’ll consider how your choice of aperture can affect overall sharpness and discuss the use of your camera’s autofocus system to ensure that you get the sharpest focus in exactly the right place.

David Nightingale

Episode 52 is out. In this episode, which marked our semi-successful attempt at broadcasting the recording live (more on this on an upcoming post), we started by discussing a couple of news coming out of Photokina 2010. The new Nikon D7000, some news from Sony, Canon G12 and the small Fuji Finepix X100.

David Nightingale (@chromasia) was kind enough to agree joining us on this episode and we explored his photographic work and career, as a photographer, author and  teacher, starting from his initial postings on his photoblog, to establishing two companies fully dedicated to the photography industry.

David also discussed his three books (Baby Photography Now, Practical HDR and Extreme Exposure) and highlighted some of the process that led to publication.

There was still time to discuss the influence the internet, and more recently social media, had on his establishment as a renowned photographer.

A big thank you to David for his time and availability. It was a pleasure having a good conversations with such an inspiring person.

This episode of PhotoNetCast was brought to you by Nations Photo Lab. For a FREE $50.00 credit (US only), use the code NPLCAST.

Offer ends September 30.

Show Notes

News

• Nikon D7000
• Nikon D7000 (dpreview)
• Sony news
• Canon G12
• Nikon P7000
• Fuji Finepix X100, and more, and even more

David Nightingale

• Chromasia
• Golf Photo Plus
• Photoblogs.org
• Cool Photoblogs
• Fotomoto

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Photography is not a Crime, ASMP – Photographing Public Buildings
• Brian: Canon 7D footage slowed down to 1000fps
• Antonio: Time Lapse Montage

David Nightingale joins us on PNC 52

Yeap, that’s it. David Nightingale (@chromasia) will joins us for a conversation about his work, photographic career and most recent book on the next PhotoNetCast.

It’s always inspiring to hear what creative and successful people have to say, and I’m sure that with Dave it won’t be any different.

So, if you have any questions or comments for Dave, please make sure you send them our way either through the contact form or the voicemail line +1 (415) 343-5030 (a comment below will also do).

And this brings me to the second topic…

PhotoNetCast 52 live

PNC 52 will also mark our more serious first attempt at broadcasting the recording live (if the interwebs allow, of course). Some time ago we toyed with the idea of broadcasting the show live to allow our listeners to interact with our guests and participate in the discussion. As I mentioned this will be a complement to the audio version of the show and never meant to replace it.

Since we do not have a very fixed schedule for the recordings, and with all the different people participating I doubt that we’ll have one anytime soon, the recording schedule will be announced over twitter (@PhotoNetCast) a couple of days before. You’ll be able to watch and chat with us at our LIVE page.

PhotoNetCast is on Facebook

Finally, no? New page for the podcast on facebook. Some show news, some other photography-related news, and the recordings schedule on the events tab. “Like it”?

Photo credit: Audience by Stijn Bokhove

If you’ve listened to the past two episodes, you’re probably familiar with the brand Nations Photo Lab… and the special offer they have for PhotoNetCast listeners.

Nations Photo Lab is a leading professional photography lab providing high quality printing services to both established and emerging photographers. Nations Photo Lab prides itself in the quality of its service and products and in its clients’ satisfaction.

And they have setup an amazing deal for our audience: for a short period, Nations Photo Lab is giving our listeners a completely FREE $50 order to try their products. No purchase needed. Just choose your products, upload your images, and at checkout insert the code NPLCAST. Nothing to lose on this one. Please note that this offer is only valid for first time customers residing in the USA.

Want to know how you can extend these $50 even more? Until the end of September, there’s a 40% discount on print enlargements.

Redeem your free $50 order as soon as possible – this offer will expire very soon.

If you’re looking for a premiere photo lab for your printing needs (traditional prints, canvas wraps, mounting, albums, metallic prints, photobooks, etc) able to supply a fast and very affordable service, give Nations Photo Lab a try.

And don’t forget to share this offer with anyone you think may be interested.

From documenting the comeback of Lance Armstrong, to a World Press Photo Award

In this episode we have the pleasure of having with us a very established name is sports photography – Elizabeth Kreutz. Elizabeth’s work got international recognition after she spent over a year documenting the unexpected comeback of one of the biggest names in world cycling to competition, Lance Armstrong. From training sessions to more personal and family periods to the excitement of the Tour, these moments were captured by Liz’s lens and compiled on Comeback 2.0 – Up Close and Personal, that she co-authored with Lance. Much more than a sports photography book, Comeback 2.0 is a journey documented, with stunning photos made to be admired.

A selection of twelve images from the book earned Elizabeth the 1st Prize in Sports Feature by the World Press Photo.

A big thank you for Liz’s availability and her time spent talking with us.

Looking at the news, we talk about the new HDR feature for the iPhone and the controversial hated change in the royalty percentages by one of the leading microstock agencies – iStockPhoto (a Getty company). We speculate on what this might mean for the future of the industry.

As always, comments or questions are appreciated.

Enjoy the show.

This episode of PhotoNetCast was brought to you by Nations Photo Lab. For a FREE $50.00 credit (US only), use the code NPLCAST.

Show Notes

News

• HDR photography with iPhone 4 and iOS 4.1: how good is it?
• Important!: Royalty Changes and iStock Collections
• Royalty Change Follow up

Interview with Elizabeth Kreutz

• Elizabeth Kreutz
• Comeback 2.0
• Kreutz Photography

Selected From the Web

• Antonio: Ausencias (Gustavo germano); Blog
• Dave: PDN Photo of the Day – The Power of Surf
• Brian: Photobomb tool parody

 Questions from Listeners

Paul Dumas: Hi PhotoNetCasters. I have a question regarding colour calibration for monitors. I got a colorimeter and after going through the calibration process I’ve noticed that everything is very yellow and even greys have a slight sepia tone. Is this normal? I wasn’t expecting such a huge change. Thanks for any help.

John Finley: Hi guys. I’m an amateur doing some event photography. I tend to shoot in raw and adjust the white balance in post. Is there anything inherently wrong with this workflow or should I get a grey card and set my white banlance on location?

• Spyder Cube http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-cb-spydercube.php#
• XRite Color Checker Passport – http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1257

Allan Pang: can u suggest me a good 10mm lens for Nikon D60?

• Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye (approx $700)
• Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5-5.6 (approx $480) (f/4 version approx $670)

Besides the typical "What Camera should I buy?" question, another that comes up frequently is related to camera bags and how to pack the gear. In this episode, we try to expand on this topic and give you some ideas to consider when traveling with photography gear, from what gear to take to what considerations you have to have when flying internationally and crossing borders.

On the news side, Uncle Earl is on the spotlight for having his images mistaken for Ansel Adams’ work, and a new way to connect your SLR on the back of a large format camera (if you can come up with a reason on why you’d want to do this, please let us know).

We still had some time to answer a couple of listener questions, this time to do with copyrights and Flickr and a few tips on how to tell a story with your images.

As always, any comments on today’s show are very much appreciated.

Enjoy, and get shooting.

This episode of PhotoNetCast was brought to you by Nations Photo Lab. For a FREE $50.00 credit (US only), use the code NPLCAST.

Show Notes

News

• He is glass-plate positive
•  Reply to Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage sale worth $200 million
• Has Ansel Adams mystery garage sale negative been solved?
• Sinar announces dSLR holder for large format cameras

Travelling with gear

• Carnet
• Travel Tips
• Travel with Camera Gear
• Packing Photography gear

Selected From the Web

• Brian: Mijonju’s videos on Youtube
• Antonio: How To Make Instagrams, Hand-made Exposures on Instant Film!

In there an easier way to license your photos?

One of the complains we hear from photographers and buyers who are in the stock business has to do with the complexity of the Rights-Managed Licenses. From the usage type, run, duration, sizes, etc it all becomes a nightmare to manage in the long run. In that sense, and although not quite as simple as it may seem, Royalty Free sounds much less complex. But is there something in between that would allow photographers to still manage the usage rights in a less complex way, and at the same time tap into the budget market? Our guest Jim Pickerell thinks so and joins us on this episode to explain the why and how.

As always, if you have any comments, we’re here to listen.

Enjoy the show…

The links mentioned on the show and some more support reading are, as usual, on the show notes below.

Show Notes

• Articles by Jim Pickerell on Blackstar
• Let’s Create a Two-Tier Pricing System for Stock Photography
• It’s Time to Set a Price Floor for Rights-Managed Photography
• Modified Rights Ready Pricing
• Some interesting articles by Jim (paid access):
• All Images available to all customers
• Who Controls the Price?
• RM, RF or Micro
• Charles O’Rear

Selected From the Web

• Jim Goldstein: Focus On Your Passion: Finding Yourself in Your Photography
• Brian: Holga . D
• Antonio: Syncing your Flash: the recommended list

I’m a NY / NJ based photographer. I work in marketing for a New York City based company, where my role includes photographing corporate events and head-shots. I also freelance in New Jersey shooting portraits, weddings and other events. I recently had the privilege of shooting two very talented recording artists for their album art and promotional material (more on that later).

For fun, I shoot medium format and 35mm film. I own a variety of film cameras and usually use film in the fall and winter when work slows down. You can probably expect a post or two about film, developing, and cameras also.

With that out of the way, I want to state that anything I write is based on personal experience and opinion. I photograph both on location and in the studio. I love lighting locations and learn from each and every experience. The kind of things I plan on writing about will cover a broad spectrum. Expect anything from location problems to gear that I found helpful (or not so helpful) to dealing with clients.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to do certain things that I will write about and I know I won’t be the last. If I use something that someone has taught me directly I will quote them and provide a link to their site. Nothing in this art is set in stone and is always subject to change.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with the readers of PhotoNetCast. If there is a subject you’d like covered, feel free to drop me an e-mail: AskLarry@larryleone.com .

Ed.: Welcome to the community Larry. Looking forward to read what you have to share, and I hope all our audience will make you feel as welcome as we feel with them.

We, also as media consumers, understand that the one-sided format of media entertainment is long gone. In the new media world real interaction with the listeners needs to happen, and we’ve been implementing some channels to allow for that:

• Comments are open on the blog;
• Contact form exists;
• You can reach us on Twitter;
• We have a listener voicemail line +1 (415) 343-5030 (how old-school is that)

But one thing that we realize is that the way we approach the conversations, and specially when we have guests, are our own and there is no way (or time) to consider all the possible questions our listeners would like to ask. And this is a flaw in the system…

The idea

We have been toying with the idea of broadcasting the show live while we record (audio and video) and complement it with a real-time chat box. This would allow the audience to participate, ask questions and share their own views during the actual recording. Please note that our main focus is the audio version and this will not change anytime soon. But this would create another layer of possible interaction with our listeners.

Of course that it would only make sense if there’s someone on the other side listening and participating. While this will not mean a significant financial investment (sorry, no HD cams yet) it will mean a significant change in how the show is prepared and produced.

It basically would come down to watching our ugly camera-friendly faces for the duration, laughing at all the stupid insightful nonsense that usually doesn’t make it to the final cut, putting up with Brian’s connection going down all the time all the interruptions, out of context conversation and a great deal of confusion (usually me). And participating, of course…

Do you think this would be an added value to the show? Vote on the poll and please drop us a comment with your thoughts on this.

Urban Exploration – When decay turns into art

As we hinted (sort of) in the last episode, the main topic for today’s show is Urban Exploration. As usual, we got a couple of guests really familiar with this topic to help us in the discussion: Sean Galbraith, which was with us on #47, and Sam Scholes (or on flickr). Both Sean and Sam have extensive experience in Urban Exploration, with Sean co-staring on a TV series (PhotoXplorers) and Sam having several exhibits with his UrbEx photos (one coming soon).

Before this, we discussed the new re-design of Flickr, and the upgrade of the Flickr/Getty partnership (if you remember we had an initial discussion about this partnership on episode #21). While the general feeling is that this is good for photographers, the possibility that photo buyers will approach the photographer directly for a license instead of contacting Getty is very very small. What are your thoughts on this? Will you allow photo buyers to request a license through Getty (even at a loss of 80%)?

Also on the table was the upcoming World Wide Photo Walk. It’s on July 24th.

In our Urban Exploration (or UrbEx) discussion we covered a lot of material from the legality of it (since it usually involves entering into private property), to philosophy, some equipment suggestions, safety, and much more. If you are at all interested in the topic, you really need to listen to this one.

As always, any feedback is truly appreciated.

Show Notes

Urban Exploration

• Noel Kerns
• Troy Paiva (we’ve interviewed Troy on #16)
• Roman Solowiej
• The Color of Loss, Dan Burkholder
• Urban exploration in the West
• Sleepy City
• Urban Exploration – technically it’s illegal, but…

Other articles on UrbEx you might like

• Urban Exploration
• UrbEx – The art or Urban Exploration
• Capturing Urban Decay
• Urban decay Tips
• Urban Decay
• Gunkanjima: Ruins of a Forbidden Island
• The Ruins of Detroit

Selected From the Web

• Antonio: CEPIC 2010
• Dave: GlastoTag; Obama Inauguration panorama; FIRST Robotics Competition – GeorgiaDome, Atlanta
• Sam: Opacity; Christopher Pain Photography;
• Sean: Are You Ready For a Portfolio Review?
• Brian: Early Kodachrome film test

• Basic photography concepts – camera controls, exposure, focusing, white balance.
• Advanced exposure control – when to ignore the meter and using histograms to best effect.
• Rules of composition – using them and breaking them.
• Photo correction and post-processing techniques.
• Camera raw adjustments.
• Lightroom workflow.
• Night and low light photography.
• Photography book reviews.
• Software package reviews.

Let us know your thoughts and suggestions!

First of all I’d like to thank all our listeners and friends for all the support you’ve been sending our way. It has been a great ride and, hopefully, it will continue to get always better.

Although we haven’t received much criticism from listeners for this, it is a topic that recurrently comes up in our pre or post-show discussions: the amount of content we should have on the site. And at the moment we feel that is probably our weakest front and it would be beneficial for the community around PhotoNetCast if some more quality information was published on the site.

And so, we are going to look into the community for this – we need some guest writers, people that want an established platform with an audience to write a few articles for once in a while.

Writing about industry news, gear, tutorials, opinions or commentary… You know what we are talking about. And you don’t have to be some big name either. As long as you have something interesting to say and have knowledge of what you want to write about, you’re good.

Interested? Get in touch. Use the contact form or email directly at photonetcat (at) photonetcast.com and we’ll discuss it further in detail.

Discovering the true value of a photography magazine

For this episode two new voices join us on the show: Sean Galbraith, co-owner of galleryDK and Achim Runnebaum, editor of RAN Magazine.

A few days ago I posted an article on my blog explaining why I don’t subscribe to generalist photography magazines and would rather pay a higher price for a good quality magazine showcasing photography art and documentary, and asking the readers how much would such a magazine be worth for them. This was the same question I brought to the panel for discussion on the show.

We’ve also analyzed some of the new features of Lightroom 3 namely the noise reduction and how it compares to some third party applications.

iPhone 4 anyone? Is iphoneography here to stay with the new improvements (supposed) on the new iPhone’s camera? Everyone seems to think so.

Got some thoughts on the topics? Just drop us a comment…

If you want to submit your photos to the PhotoNetCast group on Flickr, we are looking for your black & white landscapes. Don’t forget to tag them with PNC46.

Very nice conversation with everyone. Thanks again to Sean and Achim. I’m sure we’ll have them again on the show soon.

Enjoy the show…

This article was brought to you by PsPrint.com. And here are 10 Flickr groups to give you more vintage photography inspiration.

Show Notes

Sean’s PhotoXplorers show:
• PhotoXplorers Promo Reel
• PhotoXplorers, Episode 1 (Part1)
• PhotoXplorers, Episode 1 (Part 2)
• PhotoXplorers, Episode 1 (Part 3)

• Lens Work Magazine

Selected from the Web

• Sean: Shorpy Historic Photos;  Photography density maps
• Brian: The Attack of the Killer Crystals
• Dave: Scenes from the Gulf of Mexico (Big Picture); Early 1900s Colour Photography
• Achim: Jose Ramos
• Antonio: Captured: The Pacific and adjacent theaters in WWII

Cameras in the mouth of lions… and other stories

Joining us on this episode we have once again William Burrard-Lucas, co-inventor of the BeetleCam. Although we didn’t spend much time on BeetleCam, I could not pass the opportunity to at least ask for a small introduction and letting you guys know about the first field experience of the "little buddy".

Never heard of BeetleCam? Take a look at the teaser video.

BeetleCam Project Teaser from Will & Matt Burrard-Lucas

And here’s an example of what BeetleCam can do. Pretty amazing.

We also discuss the latest copyright issues coming out of Corbis and how this affects photographers represented by that agency.

After a short dip into film chemicals (pun intended, but not funny) we progressed to newer technologies and talk about the iPad and its uses for photographers. Still with Apple, we approach the potential problem that thousands of photographers will have with their flash websites not loading on the iPad. Time for a re-design? Let us know what you think.

Our photography assignments are progressing and following the first topic (we’ll publish the results in the next days) here comes the second one: Landscapes in Black & White. Go out, enjoy the spring time and photograph some beautiful B&W landscapes or go through your library and find what you have. Submit your entries to the PhotoNetCast Flickr group. To help us distinguish submissions for this assignment from regular submissions, please tag your photos with "PNC46".

Enjoy the show…

Photo and video Copyright Burrard-Lucas. Used with permission.

Show Notes

• Will & Matt BeetleCam project
• Copyright issues and Corbis’ bulk registration of photos
• John Harrington on the issue
• New Sony NEX family
• …and the hands-on preview
• HTML5 photo editor
• Steve Jobs’ "Thoughts on Flash" open letter
• Adobe’s response

Selected From the Web

• Brian: 14 Powerful TED talks by photographers
• Will: Photoshelter resources
• Antonio: AIDS in Uganda
• Dave: 30 Years since Mt. St. Helens eruption, Outstanding travel photography

In this episode we have the pleasure of having with us documentary photographer Raul Touzon.

Raul started his career as an underwater photographer but is better known for his documentary / photojournalism work that includes assignments for the National Geographic magazine.

Recently, Raul traveled to Sudan on assignment for the U.N. to document the region, its people and culture. And it’s about this latest endeavor that we focused our conversation with Raul.

Raul is also a photography instructor, producing and teaching workshops for the Santa Fe Workshops and National Geographic Expeditions, and leading photo-adventures at PhotoXpeditions.

We still had time to talk about the new Adobe Photoshop CS5, watching tv with House, and a kind of Polaroid camera that is not quite like a Polaroid camera but it’s called Polaroid.

All photos Copyright Raul Touzon. Used with permission.

Show Notes

• House finale shot entirely with a 5D Mk II
• The real Polaroid returns… sort of
• Suggestions on a bag for our listener
• Brian’s Large format DIY pinhole camera

Selected from the Web

• Dave: Nick Brandt gallery / site
• Antonio: Looking back at the Vietnam War
• Brian: The Making of a Platinum Print

On the past January 12, Haiti got hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that left 230,000 people dead and over 1 million homeless.

In this episode we have with us Felix Kunze, a London based commercial photographer who decided to visit and document Haiti after the tragedy, and follow the country’s steps to recovery.

Working as a volunteer, Felix was no only able to connect with the people and help where help was needed, but also gather a fantastic collection of images that tell stories of tragedy and despair but also hope and cheerfulness.

We also touch on some of the logistics involved in flying to a disaster area with the purpose of documenting it, the required contacts and networking and how to deal with the tragedy and still find joy to shoot.

Our thanks go to Felix for his time and his stories.

Show Notes

• Haiti Preview
• Haiti Overview
• Shelterbox
• Help for Orphans
• The Future of Haiti

Selected from the Web

• Brian: Artists Ain’t Saints: Jim Marshal, 1936-2010
• Antonio: Finding the Sweet Spot
• Dave: Frommer’s Rights-Grabbing Contest Loses Prestigious Judge!

In the past weeks we have been getting some questions from our listeners, which are very much appreciated. Unfortunately we did not have the time to dedicate the time to them as they deserve, so #43 is a catch-up on those unanswered questions.

A wide variety of topics came up, from ISO to stitching panoramas, assembling and printing books on-demand, comparing kit lenses to more expensive ones, Lightroom and bird photography.

To help us with the task, we invited Aggie Villanueva and Joan Hunt to join us on the call. Thanks gals, it was a pleasure.

And here are the questions that we’ve tried to answer:

• Daniel Roberts: Hi photonetcasters. I know that one of the settings in my camera allows it to select an ISO value, for a certain aperture and shutter speed. Somehow this feels like giving up too much control. Are there any benefits or disadvantages for using this setting?

• Isabella Campbell: When I shoot several images from one location intending to stitch them together for a panorama, I get the usual distortion on the sides. What is best, to compensate for the distortion on PS or shoot from different locations trying to get all the frames "front facing"?

• William Watson: Hello photonetcast crew and listeners. I’ve noticed that you don’t approach too much the subject of printing on the show. It would be good to dedicate one show to the topic as I’m sure many listeners would like to know more about it. The question i have for you is, for fine art prints, what paper do you use/recommend? Is there a main brand you use? What about whitening substances, do they affect the outcome of the print?

• Barton Ebanez: Hi guys. I want to print a coffee table style book with some of my work. Is there any service you recommend for this? I don’t want any mass production or anything like that, just a copy or two. Still on the topic, is there any process to help me select what images to include? I have way to many that I’d like to see included. Thanks and keep up the great work.

• Rob Rega: I’m thinking about purchasing lightroom and have a few questions: 1) Can I selectively change exposure of one area of the photo (i.e., assume I have a backlit shot with the main subject underexposed)?; 2) does it include traditional photo editing functions like selecting objects, cloning, removal, etc.?; and 3) does the educational version support raw files from a Canon 40D?

• Mateo Walburn: I just upgraded from a small camera to a dslr and one of the advices the salesman gave me was to invest in some good lenses since the kit one is usually bad. Is this true? And if     so, if you had only one lens that you could buy which one would that be?

• Joseph Miller: Hello. I’m interested in wildlife photography, in particular bird photography. I’ve been reading online that one of the best ways to photograph smaller birds is to assemble a bird feeder and photograph the birds while their approaching or standing nearby. Any of you have any experience doing this? I mean, how long will it take until the birds start coming? I know this is a weird question, but any insight is appreciated.

Show Notes

• Dell and Stock Photography
• Printing on aluminum: Aluminarte

Selected from the Web

• Aggie: Digital Video Production Handbook
• Joan: 10 Deadly post-processing sins
• Antonio: Writing your photography marketing plan
• Brian: A History of Photography, part 1

Social Media for Photographers

In the show we frequently approach the topic of social media and how we are using it. Even here on the show, PhotoNetCast is active on twitter.

My guess is that besides the common downfall of "wasted time", there aren’t many disadvantages for a photographer to be active with social media networks and share their knowledge with a wider audience.

To help us with our discussion, we invited Jack Hollingsworth (@photojack on twitter). Jack, a photographer for over 30 years mainly in the stock photography business, is one of the most active photographers on the popular social network, and explains how he uses it, shares some tips on how to best use it, and why being absent will mean "not existing" in the near future.

Before we got into the main topic, we had the opportunity to discuss some relevant news topics like the announced acquisition of Picnik by Google, the fact that Canon was absent from PMA and the polemic disqualification of an awarded image from Word Press Photo awards 2010.

If you enjoy the show and appreciate our effort, help us spread the word about PhotoNetCast.

And thanks once again to Jack for his time on this one.

Show Notes

Social Media for Photographers

• New Media Photographer
• Social Photo Talk
• Why social media matters to photographers
• Social Media for photographers (Photoshelter)
• Social Media for Photographers (Prodig)

Selected From the Web

• Jack:
• Epic Edits Weblog
• Social Media Photography Survey Results 2009
• Brian: Lightmeter iPhone App
• Antonio: Nuit Blanche (Making of)
• Jim:
• Photographer films anti-terror arrest
• First Look: How Penguin Will Reinvent Books With iPad