Click here to view the embedded video.

Readers occasionally write in and ask for specifics about the camera, lens and settings I used for a particular shot.  Sometimes they want to know exactly how far from the subject I was when I took the photo, what the sensor size was, and whether or not I cropped the image after the fact.  At times I feel that some of the questions are overly concerned with the technical.  But I understand why people are curious about that kind of thing;  I enjoy the technical side of photography, too.  For many of us who’ve been doing this for a while, however, there’s a tendency to dismiss much of the gear and technical details as irrelevant.  They are not.  These things are important, even when they become so familiar to us that we take them for granted.

After all, even I enjoy behind-the-scenes footage showing a pro in action.  I paid enough attention to this video to know that Terry Richardson is using a Nikon D3X in such a manner as to get his trademark point-and-shoot style nailed.

He did this first with a Yashica T4, an actual point-and-shoot.  So, why use a $7k+ camera for the same thing?  Well it’s digital, dependable, and that wide angle Nikkor isn’t so bad either.  Tools and style are always linked but sometimes you can modify the normal use of a tool to make it your own.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Portrait Photography. An overview of a classic three-point lighting setup used in portrait photography.

Other videos >>

Concerning photography buyers, I wrote:

Commercially, it’s all over the place. Some buyers have a good understanding of usage, others throw the terminology around but really don’t know the definitions. In my opinion, people aren’t really interested in being “educated” as much as they’re interested in looking like they know what they’re doing, saving money, and getting a deal done. So, it’s on a case-by-case basis. I do believe you have to make sales to survive. The idea that not playing by the old rules will “kill the industry” is not helpful. The old rules belong to the old industry. The old industry is already dead.

What do you think?  The discussion can be found in the forum >>

Always ready with some good advice, Pretty Girl Shooter’s JimmyD talks about getting good looks from your models, when they’re just not happening.  By the way, this advice can apply to clients, too.  I love the way Jimmy puts it, and it’s all from real-world, working experience.

“Directing a model’s physical presentation to the camera is the easy part: Move this, twist that, point your belly button over here, make your shoulders go back, drop your face, turn your head, arch your back, make your knees touch and all that kind of stuff.  Getting poses and expressions to come from within is another matter. One of the ways I do that is to ask models to mimic what they’ve seen or experienced.”

If you really want to get into JimmyD’s head and explore the Art of photography, check out his ebook, Zen and the Art of Portrait Photography.  More about it here >>

Also, the official PGS t-shirts are now available (graphic shown above).  If you’re in the market for a cool new photographer t-shirt, you can get one directly from JimmyD here >>

Click here to view the embedded video.

Portrait Photography. Using a reflector to create fill lighting and reduce contrast.

Other videos >>

Click here to view the embedded video.

Something to see and consider.  Filmmaker, Adam Wingard.  Videography is photography afterall.  What do you think?

Argus C3

An older gentleman who takes care of things around my building noticed my iPad the other day and seemed fascinated by the technology.   He remarked about its incredible ability to store thousands of photos in one small tablet.   While the magic is less of a miracle to some of us, even I can still remember how much space negatives, contact sheets, and prints took up in my earlier days as a photographer. A little digital tablet that could store and display my entire portfolio, while taking up less space than a spiral-bound notebook?  That would have seemed impossible when I was coming up.  But there it was, sitting on my coffee table.  Funny that my iPhone can do the same thing.

Knowing that my friend also spent a few years behind a camera (including an old Graflex 4×5) back in his day, I said, “Yeah, the iPad’s cool.  But check this out.”  I pulled my Argus C3 off my bookshelf and handed it to him.  “I love these old cameras.”  I knew he’d appreciate what he saw.  He popped the back open, clicked the shutter, and said excitedly, “It still works!”  This, of course, made me want to go out and blow through some 35mm rolls of film.   Yes, even though beautiful, sharper images can be made with my iPhone.

Central Park. iPhone, Camera+ app. without vintage/film effects.

Taxi. iPhone, Camera+, Instagram with vintage/film effects applied.

As I’ve often said, you’ve got to get back to your roots now and then.  Some of my favorite images are from my early days as a photographer.  They were shot on film, with bad lighting, pushed and expired film, and had plenty of technical imperfections.  Back then, I was just a kid who loved to take pictures, and had yet to hear of megapixels and superior lenses.  But the old and the new are never really far apart.  It’s great to be able to use a digital camera now and get film-like results, instantly and at almost zero per-image cost.

After taking it, I realized how funny it was that the first image above, of the old “vintage” Argus film camera, was shot with the new tech of an iPhone, published immediately to the world via a shared portfolio called Instagram, which people like for its ability to make hi-res digital photos look like they were shot on old vintage film cameras.  Kind of a “going full-circle” thing. If you like to post your Hipstamatic and Instagram and actual film and Polaroid images you probably get it;  there’s art there, everywhere.   Sometimes you just have to point a camera at it and filter away the “better quality” of digital.  The beauty can be easier to see without all that punchy detail getting in the way.

Yesenia, a favorite model of mine has been participating in several projects over the past year or so with well-known photographers including Nathan Appel and  George Pitts.  She’s also the model on the cover of my book, Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level.  Recently, she posed for an excellent moving portrait clip (vignette) titled, “Room 1612″ by CafeGlow.  If you’re going to be in the New York area and have a project coming up, you might want to hire this rising star.

CafeGlow is an interesting and stylish site featuring provocative images and video clips that mix fashion and erotica.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More on the model:

• Yesenia featured in the article, The Nude:  Clients and Models Talk About Posing Nude
• See Yesenia in an experimental minimalist moving portrait video in the notes for Podcast #23
• ModelMayhem is the place to contact her for work

A couple of my favorite shots from a session in late 2010:

Yesenia by Ed Verosky

Yesenia by Ed Verosky

Another 365 Project.  But this one’s got some prizes, organization, and a good vibe.  I’m not a big fan of shooting for yourself on a schedule, but if you really want to try it, this looks like a great way to go.  Get involved before January 30th.

Other Good Links:

• Lessons for 2012.  Luke Copping brings us some good advice for the new year, including:  “Never be too prideful to learn something new – consume knowledge and media like it’s the air you breathe. I have seen veterans of this industry learn new skills from first-year students because they were open and excited about growing. Make study, experimentation, and shared mentorship a part of your regular routine to better understand how the world around you works. You never know where your next inspirational goldmine may come from.”
• Gifts For The Camera Lover.  The Holiday’s are over, but Valentine’s Day is coming up.  Send this to someone as a hint.
• Photographing Ice.  I’m going to see if ice inspires me this year.  Last year, snow inspired me to walk less, and write more.
• A Photographer on Self-Image.  Belinda McCarthy blogs about her feelings about being behind the camera and working with clients.  Pt. II is here.  This is a good read.

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), or what some might call the free, open-source, Photoshop alternative, is inching toward the 2.8 version.  GIMP has been around for a long time and has a loyal and growing user base with downloads available for just about all popular platforms.  The newest available download (2.7.4) is touted as “finally going to be a first class citizen” on the MAC, too.  I’m admittedly only an occasional user of GIMP, preferring commercial applications like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for most of my work.  But the truth is that GIMP is an ever-improving tool, with loads of plug-ins available.  It can handle many important pixel editing tasks, the least of which is creating web versions of your images.  If you’re into open-source software and want a high-quality tool but don’t want to spend $700 on Photoshop, or you’re just curious, give GIMP a try.  It’s free!

A non-scientific comparison of the lens distortion correction features of GIMP and Photoshop CS5:

I wanted to see what the difference was when using a feature/tool common to both applications.  I decided to try out the Lens Distortion filters each provide.  In my example, I shot this iPhone image of a group of buildings off Columbus Ave. in my neighborhood in New York City’s Upper West Side.  Here’s the original shot:

Original iPhone photo showing perspective distortion

You can see the common distortion caused by angling the camera up in this type of shot (above).  The lines of the buildings are not perfectly vertical as they seem to be leaning inwards.  First, I used GIMP’s “Lens Distortion” filter.  The screen shot below shows what the filter looks like.  I had to make adjustments to the Y-shift and Main sliders, to get the result shown below:

GIMP Lens Distortion filter

GIMP Lens Distortion filter after two passes

As you can see, there is some improvement.  But it’s not very impressive.  A second attempt at the filter resulted in the image below, which I was happier with.  The adjustments were not smooth, but definitely workable. I’d need more practice to get this right.

GIMP Lens Distortion adjutment, second attempt

But I moved on to see what a quick adjustment in Photoshop would give me.  Upon firing up the Photoshop Lens Distortion filter, I was surprised to see specific lens profiles for the iPhone 3 and 4 pop up.  That was a good start, but didn’t do much to correct this kind of perspective distortion.  For that I simply went to the custom tab, and dialed in some Vertical Perspective transformation.  All it took was moving the slider to about -50.  At that point, much of the image bleeds off the canvass so I used the Scale slider to zoom out so I could see the entire image.

Photoshop Lens Distortion filter - actual slider adjustments not shown

As you can see, altering the image with the perspective tool leaves you with an uneven rectangle which, when cropped, forces you to cut out much of the image.  This was true of the GIMP image, too, but the crop wasn’t as narrow because the perspective wasn’t altered as much.  If I had managed to get a good perspective transformation in GIMP, it would have required a tighter crop to eliminate the border caused by the narrowing of the bottom part of the image.  Here is the final Photoshop fix, with crop.

Photoshop Lens Distortion correction, cropped

Both applications do a good job when it comes to quick fixes for this type of distortion, but Photoshop made the job much easier and faster to produce good results.  This little experiment by no means suggests that Photoshop is superior to GIMP in every way.  I suggest you try out GIMP for yourself and see if you might find it useful for some, or all, of what you do as a photographer.