Categories
iOS & Mac reviews Reviews

mac stuff for photographers

macphotography.jpgIf you’re a photographer and you use a Mac, chances are you’ve probably already heard of the vast majority of these, but it’s still a pretty good list so I really ought to link to it before I lose too many readers.

The Ultimate Mac Setup for Photographers is a nice collection of apps that you’re bound yo find handy when it comes to your digital workflow on your Mac. (and I nicked the image on the left from their site – credit where it’s due!)

There’s a couple of things I use that aren’t on there at all, surprisingly. First of all, in ‘Organizing and Editing’ (damn their American spellings!) they’ve tragically forgotten Photo Mechanic which to my mind is by far the best organisational tool for professional photographers. Of course, I’m biased because I don’t use Bridge, Aperture, Lightroom or iPhoto.

I’m not a fan of what iPhoto does to my filing system. I think Aperture does the same thing, I might be wrong. iPhoto’s default system is to take your photos off your memory card and store them where it wants to see them, in a folder within a folder within a folder within iPhoto’s own folder in your Pictures folder. Then if you make edits to the image it stores another copy and keeps the original untouched (good move). I don’t like this because it ties me into using iPhoto exclusively so that at least all my photos are in one place – but that’s iPhoto’s place, and if I want to use other apps, it becomes messy. Which one do I edit? Where do I save it?

And what if I have other shoots in different places but I want to start using them in iPhoto? It copies them from where they are to it’s own folder again, creating more duplicates. No, I vastly prefer to have complete control over my photos. I use iPhoto only for the occasional calendar or photobook from Apple, or to create albums of images to put on my iPhone. That’s it. I realise I can now set iPhoto to not move/copy photos to it’s own location, but that’s by the by as it’s simply a consumer tool – it might be great for you, but it’s not for me.

Photo Mechanic, which I use, doesn’t have any editing capabilities, focussing just on organisation and tagging. I ingest a whole shoot into my computer from a card using the app – it adds my IPTC info to each photo as it arrives. Then I can tag using stars (1-5) or colours; view or edit EXIF and IPTC metadata; preview full screen; move photos around the computer; batch rename; all the usual organisational stuff. It can show me previews of my RAW files almost instantly, rendering a preview JPG from the RAW data without any latent interpretation of the data by the app – the settings I shot at are what it shows me so I can make a judgement call. I can also export images to a web-gallery automatically, with a choice of several different packages – I use the SimpleViewer package almost exclusively as it’s so simple and classic. Finally, the colour or rating tags I apply can be set to be recognised by Nikon Capture NX2, my RAW developer of choice.

Which is the second big omission in my eyes. They list Lightroom, Capture One Pro and Aperture, but no Capture NX2. I know Lightroom, Capture and Aperture are the big boys with the big marketing bucks, but Capture NX2 is the only software that can do proper justice to a Nikon RAW file, in my opinion. It’s the only RAW converter I’ve used where the image I saw on the LCD is exactly what I get on the screen when I open the RAW file up. Other converters apply their own baseline values to the RAW files which necessitates setting up your own defaults that match what you thought you were shooting at the time. NX2 also gives you all the controls you’re used to on your Nikon camera, such as the Picture Control and Active D-Lighting settings. It’s also up to a useable speed on my aluminium iMac (the first of the new line of iMacs that came out a couple of years ago).

Other than that, it’s a great list with a lot of great apps in there. Have a look and see if there’s something you’re missing out on.

Categories
Apple Editorial Photographic

what’s happening with iPhone camera apps?

I love my iPhone for all sorts of reasons. One of them is that although it has a terrible camera (as mobile phone cameras go – and yes, even the new 3GS camera is pretty crappy in comparison to the rest of the market), it’s fun to use.

Because I take my phone everywhere, I have a camera with me nearly all the time. It’s no hassle to get photos from the phone to my computer. I can distribute my photos to various online locations from the phone itself (Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc) – and yes I know other phones do this too, but I’m talking about my phone. Finally, there are plenty of really cool apps in the App Store that tart up the photos it produces, making it even more fun to use.

Ah, the App Store. It’s a wonderful invention for sure, something all the other operators are tripping over themselves to emulate as soon as humanly possible. However, there’s a dark side to the App Store that’s no secret whatsoever in the blogosphere. To get your app approved, someone in Apple’s App Store Review team has to approve your work. There are very clear guidelines as to what’s not allowed – some cultural (such as ‘no porn’) but most technical (don’t use undocumented APIs, for example).

However it seems no two Apple App Reviewers are reading from the same hymn book. What slips past the net for one app will get another rejected. John Gruber, a hugely influential and outspoken tech/Apple blogger, wrote an amusing post about this recently, ‘Diary of an App Store Reviewer’. It covers the problems very clearly.

And now to the point of this entry, which is that most of the photo apps I’ve been using have got through the 3.0 updating process (by which they tweak their apps to make sure they work as expected on the new iPhone operating system, then re-submit the update to Apple) but several have not updated as yet (although some of them do appear to still work, if a little flakily).

One big app I used to use a lot is QuadCamera. At time of writing the developer, Takayuki Fukatsu, has had no response whatsoever to his submitted update, and is seeing his colleagues being similarly forced to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait – or worse, just get rejected. Here’s some excerpts from his Twitter feed on the matter (bearing in mind English isn’t his first language):

I send 3.0 version month ago, but no feedback since that. ToyCamera and oldCamera works fine

Now I’m keep on trying to get it approved. But apple’s review is actually black-holl.

Please do not remove QuadCam from your iPhone yet. I’m still keep trying to contact with Apple.

I think we should make Killed Camera app List for iPhone OS3.0 asap, many developer and user need it.

I thins easycam, standardcam, bullcam, molopics, 25shot, bullcam does not work as well.

also I heard great poralize doesn’t run

That last tweet refers to Polarize, a cool app that treats your photo like a Polaroid, gives it the distinctive frame and lets you ‘scribble’ a caption on the bottom using a built-in handwriting font. My experience is that Polarize will process a photo you load into it from the camera roll, but rarely manages to save a photo you take and directly with the app.

Anyway, then today Takayuki posted a link to an article on CrunchGear. It’s an interview with Jared Brown, developer of a wee camera app called QuickShot. I don’t really know what his app does as I’ve never used it, but the article itself makes it clear that technically speaking, practically all camera apps contravene some part of the new OS 3.0 SDK agreement (the small print that says what apps are allowed to be doing under the bonnet).

The problem? His app, that’s been doing what it does since Day Zero, is now being rejected on the grounds that one of the processes contravenes the SDK rules, despite it never having been a problem before and, crucially, that there are apps in the store that have been updated and approved in the last week that do exactly the same thing.

It really does seem like there are a bunch of folk sitting around in the App Store Review department that haven’t got a sodding clue what the rules are, how to review an app, what their colleagues are approving or rejecting and why, and basically don’t take it seriously at all.

Apple created a viable new marketing model with the App Store and provided a place where bedroom coders could outsell the likes of EA, but now they’re taking money and consumer trust away from the developers who populate the Store by arbitrarily punishing some and not others.

Put simply, what the fuck, Apple?

Categories
Editorial Other

meltdown: refocussing

I’ve had a bit of a meltdown in the last few weeks and it’s had the result of forcing me to rethink what these blogs mean to me, what photography has come to mean to me, what I mean to myself, what other aspects of my life mean to me, and what’s most important.

Basically, photography used to be a hobby. It was this way for about a year, pretty much, from the day I bought my first DSLR (a Nikon D70) in 2005. I’d always liked trying to take arty photos as a kid and teenager but never really work with a crappy point and shoot! When I got my hands on that D70, wowee… Why the hell had it taken me so long?

A couple of weeks after I got it, I started a photoblog at blogspot – I called it i-shot and it was great for posting the results of my shooting and self-taught Photoshop processing. I was inspired by the photoblogs of John Waller and Dave Nightingale. I produced images I enjoyed, got a few comments (but never enough to make me feel like I was doing something right – more on that later), and learnt a heck of a lot.

A few months after that I got involved on a short film that a friend of mine was working on. I fancied taking photos on a film because it would mean actors and lighting and cool candid photography, and they could do with the stills for promotional purposes. The DP on the film liked my stuff and took me onto his next short. And his next one. On that latter short, the directors liked my work so much they took me onto their next short, and so on. If you skip forward 2 years, I’m now at the start of a career as a movie stills photographer, getting paid to shoot some pretty big names (Pussy Galore, dude!!!) on their latest film.

I’m also getting paid work shooting portraits, promotional stills for TV shows, product photography, all sorts of little bits here and there, all while juggling it with a satisfying career in TV camera operation which you could say is my bread and butter to fund expanding my photography client base.

Really, this is a pretty good situation!

The problem is I’ve been obsessing over the back end of the photography business, if you like. See, we live in an incredibly digital age. The geeks are going to take over the world, man, if they haven’t already. I consider myself amongst a geek. I embrace technology, but this web presence stuff has gone overboard a bit! I have at least two blogs (this and my glass eye), maintain three different websites that host my photography (my glass eye, my portfolio site and my Flickr account), follow an ever growing number of photoblogs and photography news sites via RSS feeds, post updates on Twitter and follow photographers there as well, enter photo ‘competitions’ online at Photofriday and VFXY and so on…

This all takes time.

I have a life, though. At least, I try to! And I’m struggling to enjoy all of this shit. I go out for a walk and take a camera… why? I won’t have time to blog the shots and the vast majority of them will go on my hard drive and never get seen again. I meant to make books for me and my girlfriend of our year in photos in 2007. Didn’t happen. And in 2008, didn’t happen then, either. I don’t print them, I don’t have the time or energy to blog them… So why do I take them?

Well, I like to keep my hand in for one thing. I went out and learnt a lot about my Softbox III by using it on the street one afternoon. I also just like taking pictures full stop – even if only one really stands out at the end. But I also put pressure on myself to do it because I’ve bought too far into this idea that I’m supposed to do it.

I read Chase Jarvis occasionally. Chase lives and breathes photography because he loves it so much. He’s good at it, it’s his only career, he has a lot of time to devote to it. He really is the epitome of consuming the career, becoming it in every way – it’s inspirational but I think I feel I struggle to match that level of commitment and in some way I’m a lesser photographer because of it.

Yeah, it’s a bit neurotic, I know.

Incidentally, Chase also stands out alongside an increasing number of similar-minded photographers, because he wants to share his experience and knowledge.

Also feeling this whole ‘share the love’ vibe (amongst no doubt hundreds of other photographers, myself included) are people like David Hobby of Strobist and Joe McNally. I’ve learnt buckets from both these guys, just by reading their blogs and taking the knowledge out on the street or on location or just in my back garden. Learnt to stop fearing light purely through the exemplary work of Mr Hobby.

But it’s that personal, fun explorative side of the hobby that’s not fun for me right now. I started ‘my glass eye’ to post one photo a day, little insights into my world and the way I saw things. Well that doesn’t happen any more. The exciting thought of firing up Photoshop to have a fun little tinker with some personal shots and share them with y’all always feels like a great creative goal for the afternoon when I get up in the morning to go to work, but when I get home it feels like a chore.

I spend so much of my time at my computer now, either doing my paid work or avoiding doing crappy stuff like tax returns, or making a new shot for my blog (or avoiding doing so), or reading all my RSS feeds, or reading up on another new shooting/processing technique, or writing an entry for this blog, or just chilling the fuck out playing a game, that I think my backside has probably moulded itself to the shape of my Herman Miller ‘Mirra’ chair (if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up – it is so choice).

This also means my poor girlfriend gets quite a shock if she ever sees any more of my head than just the left hand side of it, or can’t hear the clatter of the keyboard, the click of the mouse or the tap of pen on tablet. I feel guilty if I’m not on the computer doing something ‘creative’ or catching up on my work.

I also have a bit of a neurosis that requires pretty constant feedback. If I’m not checking my Mint stats (again) I’m looking to see if I’ve got any comments on any of the forums I frequent. I also have these really high expectations of myself which means that much as I love the stuff Jarvis, Nightingale, Hobby etc are putting out, I’m also constantly trying to work out how to get the quality of gigs and traffic that they are, as if either of those things really mean anything. I’m getting the jobs that I enjoy (movies – and boy do I enjoy shooting them! Dream job! Such a fucking cool thing to shoot!) and I’m working on getting more, so why am I not happy?

Well, because I’m not riding an indefinite wave of popularity in the blogosphere, or because I’m not getting invited out to some mountain range to shoot cool lifestyle stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I know the guys that are at that level deserve their success, it’s just that I’ve tried everything they’ve suggested to get the hits, get the notice, get the gigs, and it’s just grinding along at exactly the same pace it always has. I get a hundred or so hits a day, and occasionally someone calls me for a job after I got recommended by someone else.

Ah-ha! Now I should be really pleased about that. I bet you’re thinking, “Bloody hell, someone recommended you? That’s great! That’s how it works! What are you moaning about?”

It’s because I’ve starting caring about the wrong things.

I’ve got to stop beating myself up to post an image a day. I’ve got to stop caring if people like them when I do. I’ve got to realise that just because nobody bothers to comment, that doesn’t mean I’m a failure. Stop worrying about traffic and comments.

In fact, all the type of work I’ve been doing has come from good word of mouth. As a marketing tool I have no idea how much my web presence makes a difference. I don’t think they’re even finding me from Google. I get a load of Google hits from people searching my name or a particular sort of image, but I can honestly say I don’t think a single one of those hits has led to someone calling me up and offering me work. People come here to check out some photos, maybe they like it, maybe not, then they generally leave, or they come back some more.

Some of the regulars do actually comment occasionally, and have been coming since it was called ‘i-shot’, and that’s really cool. But while I’m fretting about the correlation between hits and work received, I should be focussing far more on direct networking and continuing to give the clients I do have my best possible service.

So. Having left this blog alone for the last month or so, I think it’s fair to say that I feel no great pressure to update it that often. I’m also going to try and chill my brain out about updating my photoblog so often, too. After all, 52 great photos are more satisfying than 365 so-so ones. Visitors do not equate to job offers or money, so I have to learn to stop checking Mint. I think if I want to give myself something achievable to do with photography I’ll set up a Tumblr blog and post one iPhone photo a day on that for something to do.

I basically have to stop caring about who likes me and my work, and just start enjoying what I want to do with my life. If that means I blog less, fine. If I take a camera out less, I’m no less a photographer – I just want some time to enjoy a life that goes beyond that lovely black box with glass on the front.

Categories
Editorial Other Photographic

go the extra mile

Thought I’d give a motivational sermon today.

I did a ‘half day’ job for a client recently, portraits to publicise a documentary they’d made for the BBC. They’d asked my rates, I told them, they decided it was a half-day job, I booked it in. It subsequently changed date numerous times. So many, in fact, that I honestly can’t remember how many emails and calls I took where I was asked for the umpteenth time what my availability on this day or that week was as the people we were going to photograph weren’t available, or the producer of the project wasn’t available. Didn’t really matter – I just kept answering the question and re-booking the job in whenever they needed to change the date.

Eventually the day arrived and I had a lovely 2 hour drive to the location with the producer, and we got on famously. Did the job and had a lovely time and was cheerful and practical and helpful throughout, as much for my own benefit for anything else. Nobody wants their portraits shot by a moody negative arse, right? And there’s nothing worse than shooting portraits of someone who doesn’t like you and doesn’t want to be shot.

I’d booked and quoted for a half day rate, and by the time we got back to London it was a good couple of hours over, at least. Didn’t ever mention this on the day, it wasn’t important.

Downloaded my cards, did a rough photo-kill on the duffers, had a few beers, went to bed. Next day I went to work at my ‘other’ job (*cough* The Wright Stuff *cough*) and while there got a call from the client asking how soon they could get the images or at least some of them, as their client (the Beeb’s picture publicity department) needed some ASAP to start publicising the project.

Got home after the show, about noon-ish, and started working on them, did a final approval on the keepers, had to swap a couple of heads in from other shots to hide the dreaded blinkers in a couple of group shots (you know, it’s a great group portrait, but someone had to blink at that precise 1/100th of a second!) and threw together a gallery to upload to a private client area. Hint: buy Photo Mechanic and use the built-in Export feature to export in any one of a range of Flash or HTML galleries. I use Simpleviewer, and I tweak the HTML it produces to fit my website style. A couple of clicks and a miniscule bit of copy/paste in Coda and it’s ready to go.

Emailed gallery link to client. Client bloody well loved them (yay) and sent me the numbers of the ones they need ASAP to send to Auntie Beeb, and can I get them to them on a disc by the end of the week for them to send off? I offer to upload a ZIP archive of the selected photos to my site for them to download and send directly to the Beeb that very day. Oh no, they say, don’t go to any effort, so long as I can get a disc to them by the end of the week that should be okay.

Hah! I dig out the high res copies of those photos, around 70MB worth (and therefore not really email-able), compress them to an archive, upload the archive to my site (took 15 minutes to upload), send them the download link. 20 minutes later I get an email.

“What’s your day rate? We love the photos and are happy to pay your full rate for the day.”

Always go the extra mile! 🙂

Categories
How-Tos Photography how-tos Pictorial

adventures in softboxing: sunshine and daisies

daisy_07.JPG It’s been pretty sunny in London recently, although not so much the last few days. Yesterday, however, the sun was threatening to come out from lunchtime and at around 3pm it finally did. I was sitting around indoors finding all sorts of ways to do not very much at all and finally realised going outside and maybe taking some photos would actually be pretty cool instead.

I walked over to Wandsworth Park and found a tiny patch of daisies – I was looking for something I could light with my new softbox (the LumiQuest Softbox III I posted about a while back). At first I just took photos of the daisies in natural light, playing with the wide angle lens I’d taken with me, the Sigma 10-20mm. I don’t often use it as it’s pretty stylised and only useful for particular things as opposed to general use so I don’t often walk around with it unless I’m specifically out on a ‘photo walk’ like this. It’s great fun every so often though, and worth remembering if you need a quick change of style.

In the rest of this post I’ll talk through the shots I took, including a few mistakes and learning points for myself.

Continue reading “adventures in softboxing: sunshine and daisies”