Tips from a pro: Learning from Kodak’s Mistakes
While reading Bloomberg.com I noticed that Kodak, the company that invented amateur and digital photography, was nearly bankrupt. This would be the end of the yellow box as I knew it,but Kodak has become more of a joke during my photography career for making crappy product decisions than the innovator one would expect from a company with a huge research and development budget and incredible people working for it. While Kodak had a great history and continued to evolve the consumer market for film and paper it was afraid to aggressively develop digital cameras because they feared it would cut into their highly profitable core industries and thus they are now near extinction and scrambling to catch up.
One lesson to learn here is to not be afraid of new technologies, innovations or opportunities. While we are all highly skilled in our own specialties it is important to develop our other gifts and keep an eye toward the future. We must assimilate new technologies and see our career as a continuum where we adapt to and incorporate the tools which will help us grow and in turn better serve our clients. Any photographer who has not tried to shoot video with their cell phone or more advanced camera is perhaps missing the same type of opportunity that Kodak did in 1993 by not focusing on digital technologies.
In 1888 founder George Eastman said “you press the button, we do the rest which made photography accessible to the masses. The same is true today with digital distribution in which the stills or videos you capture can shared with a simple click of a “button” to Flickr, Facebook, Vimeo, and a myriad of other file sharing sites in the digital community. These images are available to anyone anywhere in the world immediately which is really the kind of image sharing that Kodak should have been seeking to develop and the natural evolution Eastman envisioned.
Tips from a Pro: Learning from assistants
One of the highest compliments I receive is when young photographers contact me about assisting me in the field. My own experience as a full time assistant for 3 1/2 years for amazing photographers traveling the world prepared me for the demands of working in the field, handling clients demands in the office and understanding that being a professional was a lot more involved that clicking the shutter and sending the finished files. In my past experience, the best traits an assistant can bring to a shoot are enthusiasm, attention to detail and basic conversation skills so they can entertain the clients while I am attempting to get my thoughts and shots together. I also favor hiring established photographers over students or recent graduates because they tend to have more experience and they know how to handle the unexpected.
I have a three city trip to Chicago, Corpus Christi and Oklahoma City coming up and will get to test my theory on three new assistants as the complexity of the travel will not permit me to bring any of my regular NYC crew. I believe the perfect assistant should know where to place the camera, how to arrange the objects and people in the frame, captures the right range of exposures and then downloading them into the computer, selecting a good image for the clients to preview. The assistant should also have the Germanic qualities of arriving on time, keeping track of the equipment and is also able to pack the gear like a Japanese bento box. I also believe that the assistant should teach me something wether it is a better method to view images, lighting, coiling a 100′ extension chord or having an equipment dolly that could beat a soap box derby car down a hill I am always keenly aware of what they do and have to offer.
The first assistant in Chicago was a veteran photographer, post production expert and producer. I was worried that the requirements of wrangling high school students and moving furniture might tax his patience but he was great and never complained. The economy has effected every creative I know and he reminded me that we need to do whatever is necessary so that we can pursue a career in the profession we love. The assistant in Corpus Christi was actually an ace that I had to import from San Antonio. He was incredible easy to work with and was able to plan ahead from shot to shot. He brought ladders, C-stands and his own custom set cart. His go get them attitude and broad experience on almost any shoot made it a fun day of banter and discussions about how to look at shooting familiar subjects in a different way. While I was just one stop on his incredibly busy schedule I never felt that way and even though he was juggling a bunch of other shoots it never interfered with what we were doing. The final assistant in Oklahoma CIty was fantastic and I enjoyed discussing all aspects of photography with her. She brought incredible people skills and really engaged the client and myself in some interesting discussions throughout the day. Her local knowledge came in handy when I we had an unexpectedly long lunch break and selected the perfect location in the downtown area.
In the end, the experience was fantastic and I was inspired by the energy and creativity of those around me. My concerns over their abilities melted away to questions about how I could improve my own work flow, client skills, and better direct energies during the shoot based on what I observed. All three assistants were accomplished photographers in their own right and I was happy to have met them and know that passion and creativity survive even in the toughest economy all around the country. What I learned about myself on this shoot was that I really miss working with my regular team but am happy to learn from those around me. It forced me to make sure that every detail in the composition, lighting and sun position was perfect. I also felt it was more important for the assistants to look at the framed final shot and look for things that required moving or cleaning rather than just giving them directions. It seems outside of NYC more emphasis is placed on the basics like photoshop, lighting and keeping people happy instead of being distracted by discussions over the latest image browsing software, the 40 versus 60 phase one back and who has the best mofongo. I loved that each assistant was also a working photographer and a vital creative.
Waiting for the perfect light in Oklahoma CIty (Photo by Holly Baumann Photography)
Paying for content = Patronizing the arts
The only way for an online editorial pay plan to work is for those subscribing to see themselves as not just consumers of information but patrons of the arts. They are patronizing all the creatives including the editors, writers, photographers and their supporting cast. While the WSJ, NYT and other services offer online pay subscriptions years of free content, hacks, work arounds and jail breaks have enable even basic users able to find ways into the pearly gates of free content. Advertising agencies who used to spend tens of thousands of dollars are now stuck with tiny budgets and are searching Flicker, purchasing dvd’s with 1.000’s of images for $10 or using free clip art to comply with budgetary constraints. While I could see the rise of content without borders years ago when we used to license the internet separately from promotional, editorial and in house usage the internet is now the main way for my clients to market themselves.
My premise is that everyone wants great content, photography, writing, music, etc. but they also feel entitled not to pay for it. Because much of the content was given for free or illegally obtained via file sharing items has been so easy to obtain that people have been getting by, breaking the law, for years without thinking twice. The idealist who evolved the internet from a small government and scholastic tool dreamed of a situation where content would flow royalty free throughout the internet in a utopianist intellectual haze without regard to the costs of creating it. While the music industry has fought this battle for years with Napster and other file sharing programs and the motion picture industry now has to deal with bit torrent and similar services until the provider can show value in paying for content people will never go out of their way to do so. The occasional file sharing lawsuit where a woman from Minnesota is hit with Million Dollar file sharing infringement is so rare that it is not even a deterrent anymore. While ITunes is revolutionizing the music business $.99 at a time many people still prefer to swap songs with online services for free.
In the photo industry one of the challenges that has arisen is who should pay for content and how much. stringent Copyright protection of our images by the US Government has always served as a deterrent for those who would seek to use our images without permission or compensation knowing there is a hundred years of legal prescedent protecting the creator. I license images to my clients, while retaining the copyright, and am constantly besieged with requests to use the images for a photo credit and a hyperlink to my website by those searching to fill the endless void of internet content without financial compensation. While I readily grant these for educational purposes and those in the best interests of my clients, I always remind the editors that someone had to pay to commission the content and that they should be aware and respect this and be ready to pay for it. I also ask them if they are being paid to solicit my images and if so, explain even more strongly that those in the process should be paid even if it means that my fee comes out of their salary.
The WSJ seems to be the real exception to the subscription model and this is because they always required their subscribers to pay and they have an incredible stable of writers that provide insight and information that is not readily available elsewhere. Also their base is incredibly affluent and sees this small investment as a leg up on the competition as well as a write off at tax time. One other bright side to online content is that they do not need printing plants and inks to produce them, fleets of trucks to deliver them and landfills to recycle them. As a huge supporter of environmental causes one great advantage of online subscriptions and content is that are paper free and accessible at any time from almost any electronic devise.
I work for the NYT as a freelancer because I believe that it is great to work with the best clients possible on any level wether it be editorial, advertising or private commissions. While their compensation does not positively effect my lifestyle through financial gain, the assignments always introduce me to interesting people and I love knowing that my work is being seen by a broadest possible audience. Even though working for the Times has never led to any other significant work, I see it as a great online marketing tool in an era of shrinking outlets for both marketing myself and meeting other creatives. Since the NYT went to a paid subscription model in June of 2011 I have struggle to embrace this as I am feel I am one of the creatives and they should give it to me for free. NYT columnist like Pogue, Bitmann and Cunningham inspire me I also read the LATimes, the NY Post, CNN, the Huffington Post, Google News, ten gossip sites, 5 blogs and a robust twitter list soI feel that I am getting a lot of the same information for free.
As a consumer I am no different from anyone else who enjoyed a free service for years and is having a hard time justifying the $20/month the Times charges for unlimited access. It is ironic, sad, and perhaps truly telling that I am not supporting a client and fellow creatives, including my sister, beyond giving them incredible content at an incredibly reduced rate relative to what I charge clients like the Hard Rock Hotel and feel they should give me free access as a contributor. While tradition media companies like the NYT are finally admitting how low their on line advertising revenues are relative to their print editions they still exist and their business model will need to evolve to insure they survive in some form. I truly believe those that provide, edit, design, etc are artists in a dying business model like orchestras, ballet companies, and broadway shows. My only solution is to educate consumers, create alternative revenue streams for myself and help convince subscribers that purchasing high quality content online is more like being a patron of the arts than just one more stop in an endless information diet.
New York Times WYG $900K
Screen Envy: Confessions of a Pixel Pusher
I had the honor of working with Aspire Auctions on their latest catalogue of Fine Art and Antiques in May. My work normally involves using continuous lighting and travel so it was wonderful to use the new Profoto D1 strobe system in the studio for several weeks shooting paintings, furniture and statuary. While it was fantastic to work with a new client and new equipment the part I ended up enjoying the most was learning a new work flow, getting a hands on test with Aperture 3 and Apple’s HD 30” Display to view my images.
At Aspire they provide clients the best images of any item taken with the high resolution dslr cameras and the least amount of post production so that the client is clearly seeing all the details of the exact item they are bidding upon. In fact, raw files are imported into Aperture, cropped and then loaded onto the internet catalogue with no retouching except in rare case where the most minimal color or contrast adjustment is necessary. Given that each auction involves nearly 80,000 images, Aperture 3 is a great program which allows easy viewing, basic adjustments, cropping and cataloging. While I am very comfortable using bridge to view my images and make selections I have to admit Aperture 3 was incredibly intuitive and now that the online price has dropped from $199 to $79 it is a great deal at the Apple App Store.
What I loved the most about the capture process was viewing the images from my Canon 1ds Mark III at 100% resolution on their 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display to check for focus and exposure. While I have a 15” Macbook pro with a high resolution matte screen and a 23” external monitor the images really came alive on the 30” monitor. The monitor made me giddy and a bit creeped out as I could see every subtlety and nuance from cracked varnish on an antique painting to individual fabric knots on a silk vest. It also permitted us to test my Canon against the studios Nikons and how switching from iso 100 to iso 200 on my camera had just the slightest effect on the color saturation. It was amazing to work with a piece of equipment so incredibly responsive that it could actually split hairs and enable the team to make decisions on how best to serve their clients in this and future auctions.
Technically Apple states “the Display delivers an amazing 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution. Designed specifically for the creative professional, this display provides more space for easier access to all the tools and palettes needed to edit, format and composite your work. The Cinema HD features an active-matrix liquid crystal display that produces flicker-free images that deliver twice the brightness, twice the sharpness and twice the contrast ratio of a typical CRT display. Unlike other flat panels, it’s designed with a pure digital interface to deliver distortion-free images that never need adjusting. With over 4 million digital pixels, the display is uniquely suited for scientific and technical applications such as visualizing molecular structures or analyzing geological data. Offering accurate, brilliant color performance, the Cinema HD delivers up to 16.7 million colors across a wide gamut allowing you to see subtle nuances between colors from soft pastels to rich jewel tones. The result: you can confidently use this display in all your color-critical applications.”
Ironically, Apple has abandoned the 30” LCD monitor in favor of the 27” LED monitor which they produce for the largest version of the IMac. The 27” screen has 10% less real estate but is supposed to better because it renders faster and Apple says so. Apple also states that the new 27” monitor provides “full brightness with no waiting. That’s the big advantage of LED backlight technology. Unlike most displays that take time to warm up before they reach maximum brightness, an LED-backlit display is instantly on and uniformly bright. LED backlighting also gives you greater control over screen brightness. So you can tune the LED Cinema Display to suit the ambient light in even the dimmest room.” This is an interesting shift in technology away from the 30” monitor which “features an active-matrix liquid crystal display that produces flicker-free images that deliver twice the brightness, twice the sharpness and twice the contrast ratio of a typical CRT display.” SO there you have it, the evolution from CRT to LCD and now LED. While many people may ask if it is worth $1700, $1200 refurbished on the Apple site, for a 30” monitor or $1000 for the 27” cinema display the simple answer is “Yes, please sir may I have another.”
Confessions of a Pixel Pusher
Earth Day 2011… Getting shot on Daffodil Hill… Improvise, Adapt and Overcome
In honor of Earth Day I thought I would photograph the annual blossoming of Daffodil Hill at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. With over 100,000 bulbs the Hill attracts almost as many visitors as the graves of President James A. Garfield, John D. Rockefeller, and Eliot Ness. I had scouted the cemetery a few weeks earlier and noted I needed to wait at least until the third week of April for the daffodils to be in bloom then a sunny afternoon to take my pictures as the Hill is situated on the South West side of the Cemetery.
While many landscape photographers prefer to shoot on overcast days in order to capture the flowers subtle textures, I feel that sunny days give my subjects extra depth due to increased contrast and strong shadows. In addition having the sun behind you is also the best way to get a blue sky in the background of your images because there is less glare or haze. A week of rain, cold weather, and high winds had left the Hill in pretty sad shape with bulbs ripped out of the ground so was time to think like Gunny Highway in Heartbreak RIdge and Improvise, Adapt and Overcome to get a great shot.
My initial plan had been to photograph the Hill as a sea of yellow and green based upon what I had seen on my scouting trip and from images on the internet. The more I walked around the more apparent it became that I should revise my plan to do a wide shot in favor of a detail with selective focus. I had brought my camera with 3 lenses in case I wanted to tell a complete story about the Hill and I had also included my 12mm and 25mm extension tubes. While none of my lenses are truly “macro” when fitted with extension tubes they are able to deliver great close up results.
As a teaching moment I have included a shot Daffodil Hill to show its location as well as the image I had taken as part of my process of creating a great image. There were 100,000 bulbs with a lot of different varietals so I was able to switch gears from seeing the big picture to what was just right in front of my nose.
Size Matters! Purchasing a good point and shoot digital camera
As a professional photographer my friends and clients assume that I am an expert on how to buy a good day to day digital camera. While this just happens to be true, the bottom line is simply that the best camera to own is the one you want to use! Almost everyone has a cell phone with a built in camera where the quality is as good if not better than the old single use disposable cameras that you could buy for $8. The only way to capture and share memories is to take pictures/video and hopefully these tips will make your purchase easier.
1. Prepare before purchasing by reading camera reviews on line at sites such as dpreview, cnet, digital camera review, and consumer reports. Knowing what you want before you are given a pressure sell in the store or an impulse purchase on line can make you a happier customer.
2. Size matters! The smaller the camera the more likely it fits into your pocket or purse. Extra features like a long zoom lens, built in flash, and images stabilization are nice but they may add weight and bulk.
3. Simple is best in the design and function of the camera. The controls and layout should feel natural and intuitive. The best way to enjoy your camera is to set it on program and let the camera do the work while you focus on composition. The digital camera is also a computer so it can automatically adjust and compensate for the exposure, the lighting conditions, the focus and many other variables.
4. Try before you buy. Go to your local camera store or big box retailer to find out what feels nice in your hand, easy to operate and even look at the images on a monitor. Make sure your purchase includes a large memory card, at least 8gb, so that you can have a thousand exposures and not worry about running out of storage space ever again.
5. The biggest complaint regarding digital cameras is the shutter lag between when you push the button and the camera actually records the images. If you have children or pets which you desire to capture in a candid fashion purchasing a camera with the shortest lag duration is a must and a dslr might be for you even though it is bigger.
My personal favorite point and shoot digital camera is the Canon G series which is a bit bulkier than most but it feels great in my hands, the controls are simple dials that I can easily adjust, and the images look great right out of the camera.
Capturing the Money Shot while Shooting in the Rain
The Money Shot is a photograph of the exterior of a building taken at the magic hour between light and dark. While none of us would prefer to shoot in an antediluvian rainstorm, like this shot for the Cleveland Clinic, having to do so is part of my job because I must deliver my clients the best possible images of their work no matter the weather conditions. Although overcast or rain filled skies are less dramatic than skies filled with cumulus and cirrus clouds you can still get amazing results with practice, preparation, and perseverance. These suggestions should make things easier.
1. Much like FIght Club, the best way to avoid shooting a money shot in the rain is to not shoot dusk photos in the rain. Know the weather before you start and try to pick a day with nice weather and clear skies. While it may seem to rain for days in cities like Seattle or Cleveland there are normally gaps in the weather which provide the opportunity to photograph the exterior. Mobile devises can even show Doppler weather forecasting so you can locate your window of opportunity between storm bands.
2. Find your camera angle and lens length for the money shot when the weather is nice and mark it so that you can find it quickly if the weather changes. The best results come from staying in a fixed position on a tripod and capturing a variety of exposures from light to dark, which is know as bracketing. With planning you should be able to run to the location, set the camera, focus and expose 10 frames in just a few minutes.
3. Protect your camera system from the weather with a plastic bag and some gaffer tape or a custom rain cover from companies like Kata, OP/Tech, Tenba or AquaTec. While you can shoot in the rain with these devices I find the best results come from removing the portion over the lens so that any chance of reflections, changing the focus point, or internal fog are avoided. Most importantly, keep the lens clean from rain droplets and other contaminates and have the lens cap in one hand and the shutter release in the other.
4. The best results come from staying in a fixed position on the tripod and capturing a variety of exposures from light to dark throughout the magic hour. No matter the weather during the day, the sky is always interesting at dusk and if you are willing to wait mother nature will show some mercy. If it is just a deep blue cast from the natural change day to night or something amazing caused by the sun bursting through the clouds being ready for it insures you bring home the money shot.
5. A money shot is not always a single frame, but a series of exposures for the best clouds, the best interior light level, the highlights both inside and outside the building and for any assorted extras such as car headlights which are then composited together in Photoshop to create the final shot. The human eye sees all these at once and the brain creates a composite for us but the camera does not and so the final image must reconcile what they eye saw with the exposures captured by the camera.
How to get the most out of the cameras and lenses you already own
Your camera is your tool for sharing your vision. It is a simple device that takes in outside light, bends it through a lens, and then captures it on a sensor, sheet of film or other medium. A great way to improve your skills as a photographer is to use your camera and lenses in a different way.
1. Use your macro or telephoto lens for exactly the opposite purpose. Instead of using a telephoto lens to shoot far away objects get a close up adapter and shoot close up, macro, photography with the lens. My canon 24-70mm lens was an average lens in normal use but when I started shooting macro with it the wide aperature, f2.8, and built in lens curve created fantastic images.
2. Tape your viewfinder or lcd display into a square to focus on the subject instead of the aspect ratio. While many dslr’s have a 24×36 or 16×9 aspect ratio many cameras such as Hasselblads, Kiev’s, Diana’s and Holga’s have a square format so that you can focus on what you are seeing through the lens and not wether to shoot in a portrait, vertical or landscape, horizontal direction.
3 Shoot your images with a fixed focus lens so that you devote time to composition within the lens as opposed to composing by zooming the lens. Walking with your feet in order to compose the shot forces you to realize how the perspective in the composition changes as the relationship of the viewer to the subject increases or decreases.
4. Take all of your pictures on a tripod. One of the great things about digital photography is that you can keep pushing the shutter and look at your results until you get something “good enough”. By using a tripod, it slows the process down and enables you to spend more time with composition.
©David Joseph Photography
These quick tips will enable you reboot the way you approach taking images because it challenges where you put the camera, how you use your lens and the type of compositions you make.
