Properly Output To The Web:

The web is a complicated technology that the average individual doesn’t understand. Many people have websites loading far longer than they should – and it can promptly be cut down if proper image output is used. I know there are a lot of Lightroom users, and still Photoshop users that use these two primary applications to do all their image exporting out of, so I’m just focusing on these two. I know Adobe Bridge and iPhoto are two other popular contestants, however my experience is not sufficient enough to add them into this article.

What surprised me at the end of this article is the fact that one of these two applications exported the file at 28% smaller file size! Now imagine that multiplied by five or six images per page on your website and the results are quite significant. HSQ98KE7Q9QX

Color for Web:

Color on the web is very tricky. As many well know, our monitors produce colour from RGB, unlike it’s print counterpart using CMYK or Pantone. Luckily, with the advancement of technology, our monitors now far exceed the previous limit of 256 colours, and are now fully capable of producing millions of colours! Yay! (thank god I missed that generation!) The problem now is that every monitor displays these million colours slightly different. Think about these conditions:

• Lighting
• Age of monitor (old monitor = faded colours).
• Quality of monitor
• Type of monitor (CRT, LED, etc)
• Screen Brightness
• Screen Saturation/Contrast

For these reasons, it is next to impossible to have a website – or your photo – display identical on all your visitor’s displays. The next best option is to get as close as possible by using the sRGB  Colour Space.

Editing Images:

Editing images is often done in Adobe RGB, a colorspace Adobe brought up about a century ago. Now, for editing images, I’ll just direct you to the leading photoshop expert Deke, whom has the perfect article of how you want to set up your Photoshop workspace.

Output With Lightroom and Photoshop:

Lightroom and Photoshop both have excellent export systems, with built in features to add watermarks or to export directly to Facebook (Lightroom). So I decided to export the same image from both Lightroom and Photoshop. I imported the same .psd file into both software packages, and exported them at the required web settings. Follow through for the surprising results.

Output with Lightroom:

Lightroom Export to Web Settings

As you can see from the above settings, I exported the image out at 600px, with a native screen resolution being 72 DPI (or PPI). At the top, under File Settings, I wanted to export as a .jpg as the file did not have any transparent properties – thus .jpg would be the smallest file size. Quality was lowered, and the colour space chosen was sRGB. Why sRGB? It is still the most reliable colour space to use for anything web related since it can match the millions of monitors out there the closest. Remember, Deke’s previous article says to edit images in Adobe RGB (or I know some who use ProPhoto RGB), but when he exports he also converts to sRGB.

Just a quick note: I did reduce the image quality to 60 instead of the displayed 70.

The dimensions are small enough to fit into almost all content areas for a website, and the low resolution keep  photo pirates at a relatively safe distance!

Output With Photoshop:

Adobe Photoshop Save for Web

Photoshop has a hidden export option that many people don’t know about. I suppose it can be  considered one of those “hidden jewels”. It’s the Save for Web and Device option. This is always used instead of the standard save function because it has extra capabilities to reduce file sizes for website usage. Once again, as you can see from the above image, I use the same image size as in Lightroom. Same colour space, and same quality (yes, the images are different – but I did have them the same!). Lastly, I convert to sRGB again!

So what are the results in terms of file sizes between these to software packages?

The Results:

Lightroom vs Photoshop Results for Web

Photoshop is the clear winner in this battle!

With a staggering 28% difference, I’m gonna be exporting from it a lot more! Where does this free space come from? You’ll notice two main differences: In Photoshop when exporting as a .jpg there is a special “optimize” checkbox. This is going to make the biggest difference. Also, you will notice there is no metadata about the camera.

Adobe CS6 New Upgrade Options

Upgrading to Adobe CS6 Suite?

Adobe initially announced that their upgrade options for the CS6 Suite would only be available to CS5 and CS5.5 users – leaving older software packages such as CS4 and lower sitting in the water without a paddle. Luckily for you guys, the photographic community got together and communicated their frustrations to Adobe.

Fortunately, we rely on a company that does value their customers opinion, and they are now offering a special upgrade offer.

From the Adobe website (linked above): “…we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4.”

This offer is available from the release date of CS6, until the end of the year.

Personal Upgrade Plans?

I definitely plan on upgrading, and luckily I was never worried about missing the upgrade options – I currently run CS5. With the file incompatibilities between CS5 and CS5.5, I will be purchasing CS6 just to be back on the top of the mountain and quit worrying about small issues such as those. Currently I am unaware of any of the up and coming features, however if the upgrades found in Lightroom 4 Beta have anything to say about the rest of the Adobe CS6 suite – they should be impressive!

Yesterday’s technology

When Mike, a good friend of mine, handed me an article about technology and it’s past it really struck a chord with me.  The article  talked about how some of our old technology that we may have used many years ago, is not relevant or even available today.  Let’s take a look at some of these (clearly my age is going to be a dead give away when you see the list):

• VHS tapes
• Betamax tapes
• Casette tapes
• 8 track tapes
• Super 8 video
• Slides
• Kodak or Fuji film
• 33′s LP albums (google it if you must)

What is the issue with this?  It’s the very fact that there is media of some sort stored on these mediums that could potentially be lost forever.  The reason this really struck a chord for me is because I’m in the final stages of sorting, selling, packing and pitching items from my home as Jackie and I are off on a multi-year adventure and have sold our house.  During the sorting stage I found several VHS & camcorder tapes that were stored in a box.  I said whatever is on these tapes we’ll likely want to keep.  So luckily I had devices that could read these tapes and I started on a multi-hour project of downloading all the video and music onto my Mac Pro.

BUT, what if I didn’t have the original camcorder anymore, or access to a VHS tape deck.  Would these hours of video be lost forever?  Worse yet, what if I did have devices that could read the media but the aging process of the media itself made it useless due to cracking or the brittle nature of the low humidity environment I live in.  Luckily for me I was able to retrieve all the video amounting to multiple Gigs of video on my computer.

The next stage is to make a visit to my parents as I know they have multiple hours of Super 8 video film exposed and getting old and brittle while sitting in a closet somewhere I’m sure.

Today’s Technology

We still use Compact Disks (CD’s) and BlueRay disks to store media (music, video, & pictures) but these too will have an end date.  Do you have a backup plan for the technology you currently use?  While I was able to download multiple hours of video from VHS and camcorder tapes what do I do to ensure its long term viability?  Today, it is current while it sits on my hard drive, but what is the life of a typical hard drive.  What about the software solution that I’m using to view the video.  Will iMovie or Final Cut be around in 10 years time from now?  What about the various formats current in use? (.MOV, MPG4, WMV, JPG, TIF, CR2, NEF, etc.)  Will these formats still exist in 10 years, or how about after we have died and our children are digging through our possessions and find them?

Do you have a technology transition plan?  Do you keep current in all your software and ensure all your media is updated to the most current version, the most current media format?

Something to think about… keep current and keeping your historical archives of media current can be a chore but worth the effort to ensure it isn’t lost due to the progression of technology.

~RoTP team

Sightsmap - Your Virtual Photography Location Heatmap

Virtual Hotspots of Photography Locations:

If you are like me, you enjoy going out for a walk – in the opposite direction of the main flow of traffic! You’ll beat through the bush to find a trail that only you and the wild animals traverse, because lets face it: with so many photographers roaming the streets, and trails you can count on the fact that they have all stopped at that same tourist trap and have almost identical photos! Meanwhile, I will be casually taking a relaxing walk without the hassle of the public around. Of course this is all personal preference, and obviously I would love to see every tourist location if traveling to somewhere such as Europe!

With new technology and image uploading services by entities such as Flickr, Google Images/Maps, Panoramio, websites such sitesmap are born.

This is Sitesmaps.com

Sitemaps is a heatmap overlay over what I assume is Google Maps (although the logo seems to have disappeared on me). This overlay visually displays popular photography locations for tourists (or locals to avoid). It bases it’s popular shooting locations off of the catalogue on Panoramio. If there is a large number of images and authors uploading geotagged images from the same location… obviously the heat map will jump up. Unsurprisingly, the top 4 locations are all Europe based.

Check it out guys! Perhaps it will help guide your next vacation or shoot based of popular locations, or for other it will guide them further into Africa!

Technology – What’s next?

Canon 5D Mark II

While we talked about Technology – History & Today,  most are more interested in technology of tomorrow or what is right around the corner.

Canon & Nikon have recently released their 1DX and D4 respectively but many are waiting for their next big announcement.  What will the next Canon 5D Mark III look like?  Nikon D800?  What about the next Apple iMac, iPad 3, or MacBook Pro?

While we at RoTP focus on education we are often asked what we think is coming down the pipe.  We don’t really know, and for most of us we use the tools we currently have and not worry about the next generation of tools.  After all you can easily become fixated in chasing pixels.

So what is coming:

• High megapixel sensors? (30+ Mp)
• Eye control focus?
• Even better video?
• Faster FPS?
• Cleaner images (ISO)?
• Better flash sync times?
• etc.

Photography + Creativity = Excellence

Creativity is the basis to good photography! Lets face it – you can know every technical aspect to the world of photography, but if you lack creativity, you lack a good photography portfolio.

I ran into this awesome video on WebTuts+ network that can easily be applied to any designer, being painters, illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, etc.  Watch it and consider your daily work flow.  Do you get out enough?  Do you get enough sleep?  Do you carry your camera everywhere?!  (Remember the best camera is the one you have with you).

As a photographer it is very important to visit new locations as it brings new ideas just because of the different landscape. Quit going to your favourite nature spot to shoot – travel a little further to that little alcove you have yet to explore!

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Nothing makes me happier than browsing through awesome examples of food photography! It is an entire sub category within studying photography that often a small team takes on instead of an individual photographer. In professional media shots, the food is often nothing close to the real product. In fact, the materials are often artificially produced to get the best colour and texture for the product’s advertising.

Alessandro Guerani

Just Pic n’ Jules

Louie_Jones

Sylvie

Matt Wright

Hiroshiken

Francesco Bartaloni

Sean Raynon Sabado

Sean Raynon Sabado

Mr.Shultz

Vivian Chung

Vadim Daniel

Vadim Daniel

Vadim Daniel

Crusoe812

2012 CES Canon New Products

New Cameras, Tablets, TV’s, and more!

CES 2012 was held at Las Vegas this year, producing many new products that we all can wish for! From reports, there was a mass of new tablets being announced from a variety of manufacturers, Microsoft announced this was their last show they will be attending (following Apples lead), and of course there was new camera gear announced! Canon Rumors dropped into a few booths such as Beta Shell, and Sigma – so go check them out for more show coverage!

If you couldn’t get all the way out to CES this year, we have you covered! Well… we have everything from Canon covered! You can easily download Canon’s new product lineup for 2012, including: PIXMA PRO-1, EOS-1DX, VIXIA HD Camcorders, PowerShot G1X, and more!

Photography Summed Up:

Depending on the individual, the definition associated to “Photography” may be summed up in as few as one word: “memories”, or become a complex definition – really it depends on the individual’s own outlook on the subject, and their own experience in different fields of art/design/business. We know photos are used in magazines, websites, books, etc, and are in our daily life – so what is the definition?! We, at RoTP, asked ourselves this question: “what is photography?”, and here are our own personal responses. Hold on tight, as this is a long, complex, yet important question to ask ourselves!

What is Photography?

Designer By Day – Photographer By Night: Brandon

Welcome! I’m Brandon Bolin, designer by day, photographer by night! Photography has been a personal hobby of mine for a few years now, and I have been fortunate enough to land myself a few paid gigs throughout the years to make my hobby play a more important role in my life. Currently I am majoring in Digital Media and use photos as important elements in daily design projects – ranging from single one-time marked assignments, to projects being viewed by the thousands of viewers on websites such as RoTP. To me, the role of photography in our daily life is vastly different then those with different backgrounds. For example, I might quickly define the surface layer of Photography as a design with a purpose. A good friend of mine however just defined it as Art and Freedom of Creativity. So which is it?

Perhaps both? Or neither! Once again it differs based on the individual. As a designer – every photo has a purpose to it. The composition, the subject, the lighting, the angles all have a substantial impact to the message I wish to communicate. By this definition, I may sum it up as a simple element in a larger world of communication of that is design. I need to choose an image for our featured home page article… do I choose the one with a horizontal fence, or do I choose the image with the fence at a 60 degree angle clockwise? I would choose option two, because it has a direct line leading the viewer straight to the website logo. Or, more specifically, from the logo, down through the image, and then onto my featured article of most importance. This image was chosen by simple design principles, not pure creativity.

I am however, quick to admit that photography, especially to a non-professional, may be defined more as an artwork where you pick a photo just because you “like” it. It gets printed and hung on a wall with an initial purpose that was undefined. In this instance, it is a symbol of personal expression. It is a piece of you – you shot it – you like it for a reason – it is a part of you! So is this art? Well… that’s another long question, because art and design are two conflicting ideas stemming from the generation of creativity. I personally consider it art, unless it has a greater meaning beyond yourself (such as the example below).

I could have easily begun this extensive answer by simply laying down the technical aspects of photography: Photography is shooting an image (capturing memory), editing it, printing it, selling it, buying new dSLR, shooting more, editing more… etc. However, due to my educational background I feel it important to figure out exactly what is photography in a more conceptual meaning. To me, it revolves around design and purpose – perhaps not initially, but instead the purpose is found and then exaggerated! For example, my father took an image of an elephant trunk on the RoTP home page (detailing the technical side on the rule of thirds). For me, the image makes me consider the implications of the endangered animals in Africa. It has a greater purpose in meaning, however no purposeful structure or composition chosen before taking the image to place it in a greater environment. So it has a greater meaning, yet compositionally it was not intended to be placed into something larger than it’s purpose of hanging on a wall. I suppose then it is up to a designer to find exactly how the resulting composition will benefit a given design project… and I suppose that is leading even further than the idea of photography…

The image does have an incredible amount of design within – which we may parallel with the idea of simple composition. Your composition is chosen with a purpose: to engage the viewer within your photo. Your composition has meaning, thus design. That is why most photographers learn about practical composition (or basic design principles) before any technical aspects such as aperture or shutter speed.

At this point my answer to “What is photography” is: Photography is design. It is meant to hold a purpose, either it be holding a memory, cleverly displaying a product, or engaging an individual into taking some sort of action towards a given cause. I also feel its important to remember the difference between “what is photography” and “what is a photographer”, as one focusses on the process, the taking of an image, and the idea of a form of communication,  while “photographer” is a career or refinement of an art (lol, or design) and processing the most effective possible photography.

Furthermore, photography may have been a form of communication for years, upon years, upon even more years. In fact, if we are currently running with the idea that photography is a purposeful form of communication, or holding of a particular memory, then we might consider the early cave paintings as a form of photography? Is this a stretch? Possibly… but it was their medium to hold information, used to remember particular dangerous animals or good scavenging locations. The only difference is we now instantly capture the image on a digital memory card. So, do we draw the line and say that a further definition of photography is that it must be taken by a machine and does not contain human interaction to process a final result? Initially I considered that to be a clear line in the sand, however film photography required chemical processing and hands-on work in dark rooms, while even earlier photographers had to apply the chemicals directly onto a sheet of paper of which will be exposed. There! That might be the key difference! Exposure. Photography across every age has involved exposure to a medium to produce the result. Cave paintings on the other hand were applied by hand, and not exposed (even though early methods of revealing these exposures may have needed further human interaction). While both forms of communication (cave paintings and photography) have a similar purpose, photography is really one form of communication (which may involve music, poem, writing, drawing, painting, photography, dance, and possibly more).

On a historic note, photography has had a very powerful impact. It has been a determining factor for ancient celebrities to keep their face in the public’s eye – even today! We have seen the image of Hitler so many times that we immediately recognize a moustache such as his! Without photographs of such men, generations after may not ever be able to visualize history in the truest sense possible!

That is my rant for the night, and I highly look foreword to my dads response since he lives and breathes photography specifically much more than I do!

~Brandon

The Emotional Connection: Kelly

What is photography?  I have a quote on my portfolio site that adequately sums it up for me.  “Photography – An art capable of eliciting powerful emotions, Capturing a moment into eternity, providing insight into life’s reflections”.

Let’s break this down: Art – yes I do believe photography is an art.  When I talk to people about “fine art photography” or “fine art prints” some are stumped or mystified at the idea that photography can be described as a form of art.  Let’s look at a painter for a moment.  They start with a blank canvas and start layering different colours of paint in different angles, etc. to result in a piece of work, that for the most part, people call art.

Now let’s turn ourselves to photography as an art.  Unlike a painter who starts with a blank canvas, the photographer starts with a full canvas (the world) and has to remove distracting elements by moving forward or backward, zooming in or out, moving sideways either left or right, crouching down or raising oneself up, deciding to shoot landscape or portrait mode or perhaps somewhere in between, choice of lens for wide angle or telephoto depending on whether to achieve a compressed background or not, choice of aperture to create a blurred background or one in sharp focus, choice of shutter speed whether one wants a blurred background to create a sense of motion or fast to create a tack sharp image.

While many of the decisions appear to be technical in nature (and they certainly are) the choice the photographer makes is based on a creative desire he wants to achieve.

Capable of eliciting powerful emotions - this can be a challenging endeavour.  There are many images we see in our lifetime that elicit emotions of happiness, sadness, joy, sorrow, etc.  It can be a picture of a child splashing in a pool with a funny face, to perhaps a child suffering or dying in the midst of a war.  We have all seen them and each image conveys it’s own emotional response based on our own beliefs, values, and experiences.  It’s that almost instantaneous emotion that we feel deep inside us that determines where exactly that image fits in our opinion of whether it’s art or simply a snapshot.

Capturing a moment into eternity - haven’t we all seen these?  Think about it for a moment, those shots in history that we immediately recognize.  Images of WWII, soldiers at Vimy Ridge, President Kennedy shooting, Neil Armstrong on the moon, Twin Towers of 9/11; this list goes on and on.  Simply open the “Life magazine’s Year of Pictures” and you’ll quickly understand where I’m coming from.

Providing insight into life’s reflections - When I think of this it’s much more personal for me, but basically comes down to “expressions” of joy, happiness, anger, sorrow, etc.  Those images that really “tell a story” of ones life.  To me it’s not simply a single image but rather a collection of images that tell a story and convey “who this person is”.

Further Reading:

If you have enjoyed our answers to “what is photography” be sure to stop at the following links to read up more:

• Photography Timeline
• Photography Podcast

Clare Paniccia

Arnar Viggosson

Buck Forester

Ovar Atli

Maria Stromvik

Ovar Atli

Kirk

Andre Leopold

Andri Elfarsson

Stephen Oachs

Eric Rousset

Ben The Man