Photo Philosophy | Time and Time Photographer

Jun10 4

Sharing photos on Facebook is good for you

Posted by Philip in General, Photo Philosophy

I just ran across an interesting article: http://blog.exposedplanet.com/why-sharing-photos-on-facebook-is-bad-for-you/ I almost didn’t want to post an actual link because it’s very short sighted and legal fear mongering.

There’s nothing overly surprising or devastating here. Nothing in this article has me the least bit concerned or worried and I will continue to post select photos to Facebook. As photographers we have known since the beginning of online photo sharing that if you put something online, people/companies can download and use the image you have made available. It doesn’t matter if it’s legal or not, it can be done and there’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening other than to not post your photos. No amount of watermarking or javascript will keep away a screen grab and content aware fill for the determined downloader.

What the Facebook lawyers have done is legally cover their collective butts. Could they turn around and sell your images? Sure. Will they? Most likely not, but it is possible. Will they use the photos in promotional videos and online advertising? It’s possible. Will they give you credit or compensation? No, it’ll take too much time and effort. That’s why they paid their lawyers for the extensive terms of service. Facebook is the number one photo sharing service online. But it’s not the number one highest quality photo sharing service.

So, as a responsible photographer with a modicum of common sense we need to do the following:

Know that anything you post online will be available for anyone to download and use.
Only post images that you are comfortable with this happening.
Make sure your meta data contains your contact information, so responsible companies can (and many do) contact you to license your photography.
If you do share images that you want to sell, license or otherwise profit from, post a reasonable sized image on a site you control or one designed for marketing and selling your photography.

Facebook is a marketing tool for photographers. Every time I post my portrait or model works, I get more awareness in my local community and more customers. . I get at least one new customer for every post. If Facebook want’s to use any of those images for promoting their site, that’s fine. I’m sure one of my friends will tell me about it and I’ll use that to my advantage. If what I put on Facebook is worth stealing, then you need to look at the photos I don’t post, they’re worth a fortune.

Jan02 2

Photography Tip of the week #094

Posted by Philip in 365+1, Featured, Photo Philosophy, Podcast

New Year’s Pixel Counts (Resolutions)
094 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I find that picking one time of the year to be the only time to resolve to better yourself, to be a bit silly. However, since it’s a new business year I do have to adjust my business plan a bit and have come up with a few side projects. These got me thinking and I feel there are eight things every photographer should resolve to do, to better themselves.

Set Goals. You can’t accomplish anything without goals. You can’t finish anything if you never set a goal to do it in the first place. So no matter what, you have define where you want to be, what you want to do, and how quickly you want to achieve it.
Content over technical perfection. Don’t worry about noise or sharpness. There seems to be almost a religion around reducing noise and image sharpness. You can waste a lot of unnecessary time trying to make your images completely noise free and sharp beyond compare. It’s more important make a compelling image. Ansel Adams once said, “Twelve significant photos in any one year is a good crop.” Peel yourself away form the technical and strive for significant content.
Push your limits. You should be constantly trying to be better than what you are now. I want my best photo to be the one I’m going to make tomorrow. Pushing your limits could be as simple as making more photos, or more keepers. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of panoramic sunsets from the same location on my driveway. I’m striving to create a true keeper from that location.
Push outside your comfort zone. It’s nice to do the same thing over and over. You have expected results and you know the outcome. But if you don’t challenge yourself on a regular basis, you will lose your edge and fall by the wayside. So come up with a suitable challenge to force some creativity. There are photographers that throw their cameras in the air, dangle them from poles over bridges or wallow in the mud with a bunch of kids.
Find another way. For many photographers, they have a formula for creating their signature image or look. It’s the same lens, same settings and same position to create that “special” image. That’s all well and good, until your environment changes. So before you are put into a situation where you are forced outside of that setup, find other ways to create the same look using different lighting, lens and camera settings.
Limit your options. This is a great way to expand your knowledge and can be really easy. It may be as simple as just using one lens all week or doing portraits in the dark without the aid of a strobe. Artificially limit your tools so you can learn more about their individual characteristics and how far you can push their capabilities.
Teach others. The best way to learn, is teach it to someone else. You don’t have to do a podcast or write a book. Just go on a photowalk with some friends and help them to make some photos they may not have thought to do before. The biggest challenge it to teach someone how to be comfortable changing their camera setting off of auto.
Be part of the picture. We can either be literal or existential here. Either, jump into the frame or do what’s necessary to make the photo uniquely you. You can do this by adding something to the photo that no one else has done or can do.

I hope these eight things will help you with your photography in the upcoming year.

Dec26 1

Photography Tip of the Week #093

Posted by Philip in 365+1, Featured, Photo Philosophy, Podcast

You get what you pay for
093 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)

I know, this is an obvious tip. But even so, there are some great deals to be had and some inexpensive gems within photography. Up until recently I thought that the Canon 50mm f1.8 was just such a gem. I’ve recently broken 2 of them and have realized that they aren’t as great as I once thought. With that being said, they are easily fixed as long as none of the parts are actually broken. If you store them with the focus mechanism extended, there is a a possibility that they can pop apart. Actually, it’s more than just a possibility. But never fear, they can be popped back together just as easily with a bit of patience. I would only suggest this on a lens like the 50mm f1.8 because it is so inexpensive, that it’s not really worth sending it in for repair.

The lens will only go back together one way. You will notice that the inner portion has two ramps that correspond to two ramps on the outer portion. These will have to line up when you put the lens back together. There is also one side of the inner portion that has a raised section that forces the lens to only go back together one way. Extend the focus ring and line up the sections. It’s almost as easy a putting tab “A” into slot “B.”

Before attempting to put the lens back together make sure the inner workings are clear of all dust and debris. You can also clean the inner portion of the lenses with a microfiber cloth. Put the autofocus selector to manual and extend the focus ring by rotating the ring clockwise.

You will finally have to do something that will make most photographers cringe. Grab the lens and with your thumb on the inner lens and your forefinger on the outer lens, squeeze and it’ll pop back into place. Rotate the focus ring back so the inner portion isn’t extended and now you can reengage the autofocus. It may click the first few times as you use it, but it has been my experience that this stops after a couple of focus adjustments.

With this all being said, I reiterate that you should only do this with a lens that would cost more to repair than to purchase again new. These 50mm f1.8s have been great and I’m glad I have figure out how to put them back together, but I need something a bit more reliable so I’ll keep these in my camera bag but I’ll reach for the 50mm f1.4 and reserve the f1.8 for hazardous shooting conditions where I don’t really care what happens to the lens.

Nov25 0

Is social media a waste of time?

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy

Photoshelter asked 4 photographers the following 5 questions. Instead of commenting on their responses, I thought it would be best to answer them myself. It’s a great way to think about what and why one does.

1) When did you get started with social media? What prompted you to start factoring social media into your marketing efforts?

I started with a podcast for photography tips. For me it was a way of creating a discipline and forcing me to think through the photography process. If I can teach someone else how to become a better photographer, I learn more as well. I wasn’t looking at it any more than finding a way to help others. The added benefit is that when people think of photographer, they think of me.

2) What are the elements used in your social media strategy? Which do you feel is the most effective?

The biggest element is the concept of giving something back. It doesn’t matter which social outlets you use or what groups you target. As long as your message is relevant to that group. The purpose of social media is to create awareness, maintain awareness and basically advertise. You don’t have to post the sale of the month, just create useful relevant content that is worth something to some one. I get a lot… a lot of positive comments and a couple negative comments. The positive are a great boost to my energy and the negative allow me to look at myself and find a better way.

3) Do you feel the effort is worthwhile? Does it pay for itself? Can you describe any sales successes directly tied to social media?

Post beautiful portraits on Facebook, friends look at them and say… “Who was the photographer?” I get calls. Plain and simple. It becomes word-of mouth or in this case electrons-on-Internet advertising.

4) Who are you targeting with your social media efforts, and how to you expand your base of followers/fans?

I’m a generalist. It’s hard to be a generalist in any field without proof of your abilities, understanding, and experience. Social media gives you that very easily. With my background in physics, I feel I have a more unique understanding of light and how to make it do what I want so I can make the image. As a software developer I understand the representation and requirements for creating the final image. Social media is very organic, and configurable. Various categories of work will naturally show up to those who have an interest. This creates the targets and expansion very easily.

5) Please describe your normal social media routine – from start to finish. How long does the routine typically take?

My weekly 5 minute podcast generally takes about 2 hours on average. This includes either finding or creating the necessary photography, writing the copy, recording, assembling and posting. Then there is the notification process. Some pieces are automatic, but if I finish really late at night, I will either retweet or post to other sources the next morning when people are more apt to see the post. I don’t often dig up or rehash too much, since I have so much new content (at least for me) to do.

A blog post can take anywhere from 5 minutes to several days of work. I decided at the beginning of the year I would do the podcast and 2 blog posts each week. I have a mantra:

Content worth sharing
Start with the end in mind
Write from my uniqueness
Don’t brag, boast or stretch the truth
It’s all about writing for people!

When you are ready to post, the most important thing is that your social media has to come from a source that you control. In my case it’s my website. I do not rely on any single social media outlet. So if the individual social media outlet’s terms of service changes, there is an outage, or the service disappears completely I haven’t lost a thing. Once the content is available on my site, it take about 3-5 minutes to push it to the various social media outlets.

-) And the question they didn’t really ask: Are you going to continue to expand and pursue social media?

Whole heartedly, Yes. If you are genuine in you desire to help others, good things come back. Social media is not a one way conversation, and one of the reasons my mother has a hard time understanding why Facebook is different than e-mail. Social media is a way of putting yourself out for examination. It keeps you honest and help show who you really are to the world.

Nov11 0

What is HDR

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy

I know that this may be splitting hairs to some, but HDR is a process, it is not a look. So what is HDR?

High Dynamic Range is the process of capturing multiple images at different exposure settings. These images are then merged in software into a HDR file. This file has multiple values for each pixel at different exposure values. And that’s it as far as HDR goes. Currently there is no monitor and definitely no printer that can display this data.

In order to display the data you need to process it and currently the most widely used processes are called tonemapping and exposure blending. Tonemapping allows you to apply a complex set of curves to the HDR file to push and pull various set of pixels to create hyper realistic images to surrealistic images. Exposure blending is a much simpler process of intelligently choosing which pixels to use based on the exposure values. This ensures that none of the data gets clipped and you retain detail across the shadows, midtones and highlights.

This photo is an example of a exposure blended image. It looks very natural and appoximates the richness in color you would expect, especially in the sky.

Technically speaking there is no such thing as an HDR image, since you can see all the data in the HDR file at once. It’s like trying to draw a 2D representation of a 3D object. There’s no way to accurately represent all the data at once, you only show a sampling of it. But like many other tings, I’m sure the term HDR image will end up in the dictionary with a reasonable definition that’s not 100% scientifically or mathematically accurate.

Sep16 0

Essence of Photography

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy

There are a lot of concepts of the essence of photography and plenty of debate as to if photography is an art or a craft. I can easily argue from both sides, and I feel it has relatively equal amounts of art and craft. We had several people over the other night and they saw the photos I had recently entered into a local contest with the various ribbons I had won including the “Best in Show.” Upon seeing that ribbon there was one comment, “I could never do what you do.” That struck me as funny, especially since I don’t see where what I do is technically very difficult. But then I remembered a way I used to describe the essence of photography to people. A poem is to a novel what a photograph is to video. It’s that ability to pick the moment that captures the essence of the story in a poetic fashion that makes photography that unique blend of art and craft.

To give an example, here’s a lightning bolt. This was the third attempt that day to make this shot. The craft was in knowing the settings required for the lighting conditions and knowing where to have the camera pointed. The art is in the composition and ensuring the exposure gave enough depth to make the shot really interesting. So instead of “Poetry in motion” think of your photography as the “poetry of motion” or picking that one frame out of the video that really sets the mood.

In this image there was no “picking” the frame, but it is a very poetic image. I didn’t do anything in Photoshop to make this image, it’s all in camera. The softness was picked up through the material I shot through and the look was very natural since I caught her off guard. It is spontaneous and what I feel to be the essence of photography.