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News: The Nikon D6 Will Be Released in February, With a 24 MP Sensor and Much More

14 Dec

The post News: The Nikon D6 Will Be Released in February, With a 24 MP Sensor and Much More appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

The Nikon D6 has officially been in the pipeline since early September, when Nikon announced the development of its flagship action snapper.

But now we have a rumored release date:

February 12, 2020.

Whether the D6 will actually come out on February 12 isn’t certain (Nikon Rumors notes that this may be the date of an internal Nikon presentation), but it seems highly likely that the camera will be announced in February.

Note that this puts the D6 announcement close to the expected Canon 1D X Mark III release date (which is sometime in the first few months of 2020), and the potential announcement of the Canon EOS Rs (which is also in February of 2020).

While the D6 won’t be competing against any Rs-type camera, the Canon 1D X Mark III will be the D6’s direct competitor, forcing sports and action photographers across the world to make a tough choice between the Canon and Nikon flagships.

We already know that the Canon 1D X Mark III will feature 20 fps continuous shooting in Live View and 16 fps when using the viewfinder. Canon has also promised an upgraded autofocus system that sports enhanced tracking and improved low light AF capabilities.

As for the D6, while nothing official has been announced, we do have some updated specification rumors:

Upgraded IBIS from the Z-system
Upgraded silent shooting
Dual CFExpress card slots
4K video at 60p
A 24 MP sensor
Enhanced dynamic range
Better autofocus, but with the same point count as the Nikon D5 (153 points, 99 cross-type)

While there is no official information on the Canon 1D X Mark III megapixel count, it’s likely that it will be close to 24 MP (and some rumors suggest it could be even higher), so Nikon D6 may not surpass the 1D X series in that area.

But I’m certainly looking forward to learning more about the new Nikon (and Canon) AF system, and equally excited about the continuous shooting speeds on the Nikon D6. Will it be able to match Canon’s 16 fps/20 fps combo? Or could it possibly surpass it?

If you’re a sports, action, or even wildlife shooter, I recommend you keep your eyes peeled for more news.

The Nikon D6 will almost certainly be here soon, hopefully with the features we all want to see!

What do you think? How will the Nikon D6 compare to the Canon 1D X Mark III? Are you excited about the Nikon D6 release? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Nikon-D6-release-date

The post News: The Nikon D6 Will Be Released in February, With a 24 MP Sensor and Much More appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

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Real-World Scenarios and Solutions to Deal with Too Much Light in Photography

11 Jul

The post Real-World Scenarios and Solutions to Deal with Too Much Light in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Erin Fitzgibbon.

Natural light is beautiful light

If you’re a lover of natural light when creating photographs, then you’re like me – you love light. You love how it streams in windows and how it creates shadows. There’s so much wonder in the way light naturally falls into place. In many situations, it’s amazing to let nature take its course and create a beautiful view.

The reality is, however, while we can always go with the flow, sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate with the requirements of human life. There are times when Mother Nature gives you way too much light.

So the question becomes, “How do I deal with all this light?”

Let’s look at some real-world scenarios and discuss solutions to deal with too much light in photography.

Scenario #1: Intense light streaming through a window

As someone who often shoots interior design photographs for a magazine, I run into this situation all the time. I arrive at a house to find big beautiful windows casting a lovely soft light on a part of the room and a bright glare in areas close to the window. We usually use HDR to solve this issue. There are times, however, when you can’t set up a tripod as space does not allow this kind of luxury.

In the situation below, the restaurant had amazing, huge windows. It allowed much light into the room – great for those who were dining. The situation was not-so-great for photographing clear, detailed images. If you take a look at the photograph below, shot during a family event, you can see how bright windows can affect your images in a more personal situation.

dealing with too much light in photography - shows shadows

The big windows behind the display are somewhat blown out, but not horribly so. The problem is the light on the cake and other items are very dull.

In this scenario, the bright light from the big windows behind the display detracts from the cake and the sign. The sign is in shadow if you expose the photograph to reduce the brightness of the background. If you expose for the sign, then the light behind becomes very distracting and detracts from the look of the photograph.

dealing with too much light in photography - overexposure

Using a different combination of settings and the light on the cake and sign is much better, but this image still is not great.

The final composition

In this case, the solution was to use the items being photographed to block out some of the light from behind. I changed the angle from which I was shooting and tried to fill the frame with the items from the display table. Now the photograph is exposed correctly, and have a more attractive memory of a family occasion.

dealing with too much light in photography - composition

I changed the angle to block out the brighter lights outside, creating an even lighting situation. If I post-processed this image, it will do quite nicely to document the day.

Scenario #2: Bright afternoon sunshine and you can’t move people into the shade

At family outings or special occasions, it can be difficult to get people to move. You have to deal with the shadows and squinting that the intense summer sun creates. And what if you don’t have a flash?

Last summer, I shot photographs and wrote an article about building birch bark canoes using traditional Indigenous methods. There’s no way I could ask the Elder working on the canoe to move his whole operation into a place to allow me to take nicer photographs of him. He was working, and he was not going to move everything for me.

Adapting to a situation is important

As you can see in the photograph below, the sun was quite bright, and I didn’t have a flash. He was wearing a white shirt, and his skin is darker, so there’s a challenge when exposing for this type of dynamic range. The color photograph is relatively flat. It doesn’t have the type of depth, or look I like to have for my images.

From an art standpoint, this image would never work. From a journalist standpoint, they are less picky about these types of issues, but there had to be a balance. The editor of the article, however, did agree that the bright light did take away from the photograph. Our solution was to post-process using black and white. The advantage of black and white is it allows you to hide washed-out colors and lessens the effect of blown-out whites. It is an option to consider when working in such harsh lighting conditions.

dealing with too much light in photography

Here is the unedited photograph. I did my best to balance the exposure for bright light and harsh shadows.

dealing with too much light in photography - to show extreme light

In black and white, I could control the image a little more and process it to show items like the strength in the Elder’s arms.

Scenario #3: Intense spots of light

In some situations, the light is just right in parts of a scene, but in others, it’s just too bright. It creates glares and reflections you don’t want in your photographs.

In this situation, you could once again use HDR. There are some other options to consider, as well. Consider using a flash to fill in shadows created when you balance out the lighting. In the situation below a flash and a diffuser were used to create more even lighting. The hanging lights are still bright, but unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done about those. The only way to minimize their distraction was to have the woman active. The viewer will notice that the woman is pouring the wine, and it helps to keep them focused on something other than the bright lights in the scene.

In some cases, you may have to accept defeat when it comes to light. However, you can take steps to minimize the influence the lights can have on your photograph.

dealing with too much light in photography - using a flash for lighting

By adding a flash I was able to reduce the shadows on her face.

Conclusion

Light is both a blessing and a challenge when your taking photographs. Sometimes you will have to think quickly. You will need to find ways to problem solve and manage the lighting effectively. There are lots of ways to create photographs, even in the most difficult situations, so try to think carefully about the scene before you. Try to be creative when managing challenging situations.

Please, by all means, share your toughest lighting situations and how you were able to deal with too much light in photography in the comments below.

The post Real-World Scenarios and Solutions to Deal with Too Much Light in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Erin Fitzgibbon.

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Photo Editing: When Does it Get to be too Much?

24 Jan

The post Photo Editing: When Does it Get to be too Much? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Peter West Carey.

Editing photographs in itself is an art. It is what has made so many great photographers legendary. The ability to take the limits of a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world, exact it onto a type of film or digital sensor, then, and only then, to craft the image into one’s liking.

Indeed, it is an art, which raises the question – where is the line drawn for too much editing?

Like art and how to define it, that answer is not straightforward. We each have our interpretation, but let’s take a look at some parameters. There are three questions you may want to ask yourself the next time you dive in to edit your images.

What is my intent?

In the days of film, you had to have intent. Even if your intention was “to mess around and learn some things,” you realized there was a direct cost to that learning. That cost was film, paper, chemical solutions and time — moreover, money.

Now, experimenting is so dang easy, any kid with an iPhone can do it. I think that’s a good thing. Experimenting is a vital part of artistic expression and is especially true with photo editing.

Having intent is important when coupled with experimenting if you hope to learn, grow and progress.

Intent lets you know when your experimentation goes too far, and your edits are too much. The intent is a wonderful guide, with plenty of latitude if you bestow it.

My suggestion here is to have intent with your editing experimentation. Know what you hope to gain from experimenting and have a general direction.

Have I stayed true to my vision?

Vision is where your intent takes you. Having artistic vision helps place boundaries on your work that is often needed, lest everything turns to chaos.

Maybe a portrait photographer’s vision is to portray each subject in a subdued manner with soft lighting and harsh details. They want to show that side of each subject, and that leads to their intent, over and over again. It is repeatable.

This is one edit the author now admits was too much editing, even if it was fun at the time.

Alternatively, perhaps you’re a landscape photographer who envisions your work being a truthful depiction of what you experienced, not some fanciful ‘perfect world.’ You put effort into recreating the scene when back at your computer and employ tools to your end vision.

Without having a vision of what you want to produce, it’s easy to be swayed by the siren song of really cool editing tools that pull you toward the rocks of editing ruin.

Is this sustainable?

I don’t mean to say all art, all forms of editing you choose, need to last forever. We all go through phases. This struck me most profoundly on a trip to Barcelona recently and a review of Goya’s work through the decades he painted.

Firstly, there were Goya’s early career phases where he exacted reproduction in a French and Italian style. These were the most important. Beautiful portraits!

Then, later, he had a more simplistic style. Filled with easy colors and a looser interpretation of the world around him with all its players.

In one of the last room were exhibits of Goya’s “Black period.” Charcoal and dark tones, and dire scenes of hardship. Nothing like what he had been producing before.

Most of us move through periods. That does not instantly disqualify any one of them as art (in an editing sense), but it does give us a good mirror.

We are our own harshest critic, and we alone can look back at work we did one, five, or twenty years ago and deem it art or not. If we see a style, a thread that runs through all our works, it’s easy to say we have crafted art. However, if we find through the benefit of time and distance, that something we thought was the bee’s knees is now, to our more experienced eyes, rubbish, we can cast it aside.

The HDR craze as an example

Some years ago, as digital photography was catching on with the masses, came the HDR craze. It was a time when anyone could use a particular technique to achieve what is known as High Dynamic Range (HDR) images.

For some, it was a fun departure from their normal routine. Others saw it as a chance to show everything in a scene; maybe not the same as their eyes saw, but better than the alternative.

Some of us had our stomachs turn every time we saw one of those photos.

It was new, and it was novel. Moreover, it didn’t fit into many photographers’ visions. Today, it’s hard to find any examples of those early attempts still being reproduced. It wasn’t sustainable.

Although, it was fun for a while. Particularly for those who enjoyed the departure from reality.

I would profess that it was a case of too much editing and that it met its likely demise because of it.

Conclusion

While deciding what dictates too much editing is subjective to the viewer and their experience, I hope the questions I posed above help guide you in future endeavors.

I’m not here to judge your work or to say you might be wrong. That voice, and what your art means to you, needs to come from inside you.

Develop your vision. Stay true to it. Focus your intent toward it. Then you will scarcely have to worry if you’ve gone too far in your editing work.

The post Photo Editing: When Does it Get to be too Much? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Peter West Carey.

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Darktable 2.6.0 update brings new retouch, color balance modules and much more

25 Dec

Darktable, an open source Lightroom alternative, has released a major update with a number of new modules, features and updates.

Darktable version 2.6.0 is the result of more than 6 months of work, consisting of more than 1600 commits, 260 pull requests and 250 issues that have been resolved. The resulting updates include a new retouch module, a filmic module, a redesign of the color balance module and more.

The updated retouch module is essentially an updated version of the spot removal tool that includes a whole new collection of tools to get unwanted artifacts out of images. Cloning has been drastically improved and a built-in split frequency module makes it easy to remove blemishes without losing texture.

A subsection of the retouch module new to darktable 2.6.0

The new filmic module in darktable ‘was designed to reproduce the good properties of analog film, while giving you the easy controls of digital photography,’ according to the darktable 2.6.0 announcement post. The filmic module is effectively a spin-off of the curves tool with more adjustments to precisely dial in the exposure. Blacks, whites, contrast, local contrast and more can all be adjusted within the new filmic module.

A subsection of the new filmic module in darktable 2.6.0

Also added in darktable version 2.6.0 is a new duplicate manager. This new tool makes it easy to create multiple versions of Raw files and keep them in a stack for simple organization. Other features include new zoom options, mask previews and an updated color picker tool.

For a full rundown of all the new features, modules and tools, head over to darktable’s announcement post. It’s a long read, but full of the wonderfully geeky insights we’ve come to expect from the darktable team.

Darktable is available to download for free for a macOS, Windows, and a number of Linux distros. Find out more information on how to download darktable here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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RawTherapee v5.5 released with Haze Removal, improved curves tool and much more

19 Dec

Free Raw photo-processing software RawTherapee has been updated to version 5.5, gaining a new Shadows/Highlights tool, a striping and banding tool, unbounded processing and numerous other updates. In addition to the new features, RawTherapee 5.5 brings a number of bug fixes, feature improvements, and speed enhancements.

RawTherapee 5.5 includes a Haze Removal tool that strips haze from images and a new Soft Light tool for boosting saturation and contrast in images. The old Shadows/Highlights tool was removed and replaced with an updated version and users now have Grid and Regions color toning options. The main histogram has three scaling methods now as well, and there’s a new Flexible tone curve type.

RawTherapee 5.5’s new artifact filter removes the striping artifacts that result from Sony’s Phase Detection Auto Focus, as well as the banding artifacts resulting from Nikon’s in-camera PDAF correction. At this time, the filter supports the Nikon Z6 / Z7 and the following eight Sony cameras:

Sony DSC-RX1RM2
Sony ILCE-6000
Sony ILCE-6300
Sony ILCE-6500
Sony ILCE-7M3
Sony ILCE-7RM2
Sony ILCE-7RM3
Sony ILCE-9

As always, RawTherapee is free to download on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The full v5.5 changelog detailing the new features and improvements is available here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Keith Ladzinski talks Nikon mirrorless: ‘It’s a different world now. But it’s so much more fun’

21 Nov

Keith Ladzinski is a wildlife and adventure photographer, filmmaker and Nikon Ambassador based in Colorado. He’s been using Nikon DSLRs since the early 2000s, and his most recent film project was created using the new Z 6. In this interview he explains the background of the project, how the Z 6 allows him to bounce seamlessly between photo and video, and what’s changed since he bought his first digital camera in 2004.

Can you describe the project you’ve been working on?

I’ve been working with athletes, old friends, they’re professional climbers and we’ve been shooting in areas where when I first started working as a professional photographer. So one place for example is where I shot my first cover story, and another was where I did another of my first big stories. So we basically went from Utah all the way back to Colorado. As I started thinking about this project, it became sort of one big nostalgic trip in a lot of ways. It was with people I had history with, and locations I had history with.

The way I wanted to put this thing together was to sort of look back right to 2004 when I was working with my first proper digital camera, which was the Nikon D2X. The only things that have stayed the same over that time are my relationships with people, and with those places. So coming back into Colorado, where I first learned to shoot photos in the Rockies, and building a narrative to go along with that story – it just worked so well.

So you’ve got to see 15 years of digital photography evolution.

Absolutely. I’ve been lucky to get a view of the evolution of digital photography from 2004 to where we’re at now, these tiny mirrorless cameras that give you extraordinary video. When I first started it was all about just photography, but now there’s this stills and video duality which is really interesting.

Nikon Z 6 sample images by Keith Ladzinski

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So I’m looking back, and there’s nothing more nostalgic than a road trip. That’s something we can all identify with. There’s a lot of laughter and memories. So there was a lot of serendipity that came together with these themes and this project. This trip was primarily focused on landscape and nature work, with the main activity being rock climbing.

How does the Z 6 fit into your workflow?

I use it for climbing, actually. Climbing is a pretty slow activity but I shoot bursts a lot because there could be that one moment when someone’s on tiny hand holds and there’s this momentary facial expression that tells the story, so having a high frame rate is really useful in that regard.

I lean on the Z 6 for video. There’s no crop shooting in 4K, so your wide lenses stay wide. And I shot some video at ISO 8000 lit by headlamps, and I was expecting crap image quality, but it was amazing. It blew me away how clean it was. I didn’t know what it was going to look like, and it’s damned good.

Is climbing one of the ways that you got into photography?

Natural history, landscapes, wildlife and – oddly enough – skateboarding were actually my initial avenues into photography. Living in Colorado you’re surrounded by wilderness all the time, but skateboarding kind of ruled my youth. And at the time, skateboarding meant trespassing, getting kicked out by security guards from wherever we were – there weren’t a lot of skate parks at the time, so you just went to the city.

And the wilderness is such a different vibe. From a photography perspective, skateboard photography is all about low light, artificial lighting, which of course was required when I was shooting film, but it was also the style of the magazines I was reading at the time. And of course landscape photography is about being alone, being patient, waiting for the moment to unfold.

Image courtesy of Keith Ladzinski.

As I got older and I started finding my own voice as a photographer, the two activities sort of came together. Along the way I got into rock climbing, and with every activity in my life, photography has a way of taking over whatever it is, and merging into it.

It’s a wonderful thing, because you end up compelled to document what you love. Once that started happening, I didn’t realize it but I’d inadvertently created a style that the climbing world hadn’t seen up until that point, because I was shooting it the way I’d shoot skateboarding. I shot the way I knew, which was a mix of using available light and artificial light. I got some magazine work and developed a career.

The challenge is that when you’re shooting photos often you’ll see video moments, and when you’re rolling video you’ll see still photography opportunities

How do you plan a multi-media trip like this?

There’s more involved, for sure. If I was doing a story on just rock climbing, I’ve covered that a lot for so many years, so like any photographer that’s shot something for long enough, I kind of know what I’m doing. But when you’re putting things into a video timeline you’re quadrupling your shot list, and you’re looking for moments that maybe have more personality and character to them, like soundbites, something funny someone’s doing, or an unexpected moment.

The challenge is that when you’re shooting photos often you’ll see video moments, and when you’re rolling video you’ll see still photography opportunities. That’s the conflict, but on a shoot like this I had help. I had two other people with me, capturing behind the scenes footage but also capturing some A roll and B roll as needed. Video is so much more of a team sport than photography.

Keith Ladzinski on location in Antarctica. Picture by Cristina Mittermeier, used with permission.

How does your kit now compare to your kit back in 2004?

Oh my god, it’s so much lighter now. I used haul a 70-200mm F2.8, 17-35mm F2.8 and a 24-70mm F2.8 up the wall with a D2X, and it was heavy! Lenses have made tremendous progress. The current 70-200mm F2.8 compared to the original, it’s so much lighter. Now you look at mirrorless, and it’s smaller, lighter, faster. Things have become so much better for outdoor photographers.

I love looking through an EVF, too. I much prefer it because focus peaking is really important for me. There are times when I’ll switch to manual focus, even if I’m just shooting still photos, and of course just for blocking out the light. Living on the back of an LCD is just not effective if it’s high noon, for example. Those things mean a lot if you’re in the field.

What are your must-have camera features?

Focus peaking is huge for video, for sure. But I’ve tried the face detection autofocus on the Z 6 and I was very, very impressed. I ended up using it a lot on this shoot. 120fps video is so standard, now too. The camera has to have that now for shooting video, because those moments do present themselves. I don’t like to lean on it too much, but I need it when I need it. So that is really important to me. Being able to shoot in low light, obviously I need that too but I feel like the low light game was changed when the D3 came out [in late 2007] and it’s just been great since then.

You’ve used several generations of digital cameras – what are the biggest changes that you’ve seen?

ISO sensitivity is a big one, it’s incredible really, the kind of light you can work in these days, it’s so great. The introduction of video into DSLRs and mirrorless has been a huge thing, too. When the D90 came out and all of a sudden we had this capability to shoot video and I started to look into that world, first I was doing it out of fear. People were saying ‘you need to be a director, you need to shoot video, you don’t want to be left behind’ so I was reading all this information thinking ‘oh my god I should really figure this out’, and going down that wormhole.

Video was just such a completely different thing. I was told if you want to get serious about it, you’d better know how to edit, you’d better know how audio works.. it was this whole new thing. But the fear turned into love.

It’s a completely different world now. But it’s so much more fun

In photography you’re hunting for a moment, but in videography you’re looking for a sequence, and a scene. And it made me work differently. I started to think in terms of scenes and edits. You learn that when you first attempt to make films, you realize what you don’t know! You quickly realize ‘ok, I need to look at what I’m doing, differently’. That helped me become a better story teller, which helped me later when I started working with National Geographic and magazines like that because they require so much more. They require photographers to look at a subject differently because they’ve seen it all. It’s a high pressure place to work.

Working in video actually really helped me. I started breaking into a dual role, so that technological advancement, seeing that and living through it, I’m very grateful. Coming from film, into digital and now true multimedia where you’re working with stills and audio and video, it’s a completely different world now. But it’s so much more fun.

This is sponsored content, created by Nikon. What does this mean?

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography

21 May

One of the questions that a lot of photographers ask, is how much I should charge for my images? It is very hard to do, and hence a lot of artists struggle with it. There is so much more involved, and many don’t quite understand. So, how do you go about pricing your photography?

How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography

Flinders Street Station, this image took me about 3 years to get and I spent hours processing it. Hence it would have a high price on it.

Learn from the masters

There is a great story about Pablo Picasso, the famous artist. It goes like this.

Picasso was sitting in a Paris Café when an admirer approached and asked if he would do a quick sketch on a paper napkin. Picasso politely agreed, swiftly executed the work, and handed back the napkin – but not before asking a rather significant amount of money. The admirer was shocked and asked, “How can you ask for so much? It only took you a minute to draw this.” Picasso replied, “No, it took me 40 years.”

Whether this story is true or not is hard to know for sure, but it has a very good point. Most people do not consider the experience of the artist. Along with that are many other factors, like your education, the cost of equipment, and not to mention the time you spend creating the photo.

How much to charge, as you are going to see, is a complicated question and does depend on many of those factors. They are often things that people don’t really think about. Many photographers just pluck a price out of thin air and go with it. If I’m telling the truth, I have to say I was the same. I would constantly give different prices for my images.

Now I have a system in place and it is all based on the following.

How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography - yellow flowers

I do macro for fun, so this was shot in my garden one morning and processed quickly. The price wouldn’t be high for this image.

Education

You have to take into consideration any education you have done to learn or improve your photography. It doesn’t have to be formal education, like a university degree, but if you have paid money for it, then you need to consider the cost.

Something like a Bachelor of Fine Arts will cost you thousands of dollars. You will never recover your money if you are only charging people $ 20 an image, for instance. How many will you have to sell to pay off the degree at that price?

What about other short courses you may have done? Ones that are just a few weeks long, or those that are done online. You need to think about how much they cost and the time you spend doing the classes and learning to do all those new skills. There are so many online courses, from learning how to use your camera, to how to edit your photos.

dock with blurry clouds - How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography

While I enjoy this kind of photography, it isn’t part of my main body of work. Therefore, it would never be editioned as it isn’t worth as much.

Gear

If you are anything like me, you have spent a great deal of money on your photography gear. Though you also need to think about what you have bought in the past and what you have now. For instance, how many cameras have you had? How many lenses have you had over time?

Consider all your accessories as well. Think about your camera bags, tripods, filters, memory cards, camera straps, etc. These are often forgotten, but they all add up and should be considered when pricing your photography work.

purple flower - How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography

This was taken with a good macro lens and an expensive camera so those factors should be taken into consideration when pricing the image.

Time

Every time you go out to take photos, how much time do you spend in the field? Don’t think just about the length of time it takes to take a photo. You need to think about how far you traveled to get there and back. Did you have to drive around quite a bit?

When I go out shooting I can be gone all day. I might leave early in the morning and not get back until late that night. During that time, I may have traveled over 250 miles or 400 km, and used a tank of fuel. Not to mention having to buy two to three meals. It all adds up and if you are selling your images you need to consider these things as well.

Then what happens when you get home? The images are put onto your computer and then processed. It is going to be different for everyone, but you will likely spend anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours on each image. All this time should be considered when you are pricing your photography.

You should be giving yourself an hourly rate so you can add that up at the end to add to the price. While you may have gotten several images to sell in that one trip, you can divide it up and spread it out over the series.

How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography - dark moody image

This image is a combination of two and I spent many, many hours on it. I would ask for a high price for this one.

Editions

If you plan on selling your work as limited editions, then it will be worth more as you can only sell so many. When you do a limited run of an image they must all be identical and numbered, according to where in the edition they are, for example, 1/10, or 4/10, etc.

An edition is where you decide how many of that image you will sell. The number is up to you, 10, 20 or 100, maybe more if you think the image will be in high demand. However, the more there are in the edition the lower the value will be.

You have to be very organized to edition work and keep very good records. Once the edition is sold, you cannot sell anymore. There is some debate as to whether you can rework the image so that it looks different, but that is perhaps for another article.

dark image of a city skyline - How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography -

This image would be part of my body of work and would definitely be put into an edition, perhaps with a limited run of 10.

Printing

Most know that you have to include the cost of printing. If you are selling the image you need to make sure the print is a good quality. Printing it yourself with a cheap printer and ink is never a good idea. Most of those will fade with time and you will be selling someone a print that won’t last a lifetime or more.

Make sure that wherever you get the work printed that it is archival. There is nothing worse than buying a piece of art from someone and then in 10 years it is gone because it was printed badly.

When you are preparing your work for sale, make sure you get the cost of a professional printing job and include that in the price.

- How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography - lighthouse at night

An image that was done for fun. It would still be printed well, but the price would be lower than others.

Working for free

This may seem like a good idea, it gets your foot in the door, but the reality is that it rarely works. Once people know they can get images from you for free then they will continue to expect that. When you stop, they will just go to the next person. You should always charge for your images and your work.

You should also not sell your images for next to nothing. Think about how you are harming the industry by doing so. If it were any other industry and people were selling their services or products for much less than others it would be considered wrong, or cheap would mean not good. You need to consider every aspect when pricing your photography

sunset lighthouse - - How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography -

This is a bit of a throwaway image, taken during a time-lapse with a few hundred others. Still, it would never be given away for free.

Next time

So when someone asks you how much is your image worth, think about all the things that have been mentioned here. Of course, you are not going to charge thousands, but you want to get some of what you have spent back. Each time you sell one photo you have to work out how you can start to recoup the costs you have outlaid for your photography.

Please share your thoughts, if you have anything to add, on pricing your photography tips in the comments section below.

The post How Much is an Image Worth? Tips for Pricing Your Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Brands, breakthroughs and bias: Here’s why you’ve heard so much about Sony recently

15 May

If it feels like we’ve been writing a lot about Sony recently, you haven’t been imagining things: we’ve been writing about its products and technologies quite a bit. But there’s a good reason for that – the company has simply given us a lot to write about.

A period of intense, sustained activity, set against a backdrop of relative inactivity from its competitors has seen Sony receive probably more coverage than any other brand.

Ever since it bought Konica Minolta’s camera business, Sony has been trying to find a foothold in a market sector that’s historically been dominated by two camera makers. Its first attempts were to crowd-out the shelves with ‘me-too’ SLRs. Actually, that’s not quite fair, the a350 was pretty innovative, in its own way. But despite offering lots of models often at low prices, this didn’t yield the desired results.

Sony’s attempts at innovation don’t start with the RX and a7 cameras, but the relentless pace of its updates are a relatively recent trend.

But Sony’s more recent moves, particularly the embrace of full-frame mirrorless and 1″ sensor compacts, along with numerous additional features arriving in the realms of video, sensor technology and autofocus, have included some significant steps forward for the industry. And ones that are relevant for a broad range of photographers.

This has left us with a lot of technology and features to write about. Sometimes this comes in the form of a standalone tech article, other times in the reviews themselves, as we try to explain the real-world benefits and shortcomings we’ve encountered while using them.

Of course we’ve seen this before: periods of innovation from various manufacturers as the industry grows and changes. The introduction of the first mirrorless camera by Panasonic, for example, or its subsequent improvements in video (we often joke that the launch of a GH series camera means we all have to learn more about film-making). Fujifilm was the first to offer on-sensor phase detection and, while divisive, its X-Trans color filter array and DR Modes have given us plenty to talk about.

Mirrorless cameras, as pioneered by Panasonic and Olympus have been the area with most innovation in recent years. Again, this has meant we’ve written about them a lot, as the technology has improved.

What’s unique, though, is the continued drive, this sustained flood of products and of new technologies that Sony has recently been responsible for. And, more starkly, this has come at a time when the industry’s largest two companies have been comparatively quiet. Over the past four years, Sony has released around 60% more new high end (>$ 1000) models than any of its rivals.

This has come at a time when the industry’s largest two companies have been comparatively quiet

This has meant that we write a lot about Sony right now. Not because it’s Sony, specifically, but because they’re the company doing so much of the running at the moment. And of course, our coverage isn’t always positive. Our job is to cover technology and innovations regardless of how well they perform, so in addition to being impressed by the capabilities of DRAM-backed Stacked CMOS sensors, we’ve also written about banding, striping, and work that still needs to be done on the menu systems.

Sony isn’t the only brand innovating, of course. We continue to be impressed by Canon’s Dual Pixel AF design, particularly in terms of the benefits it brings for video shooting, and Nikon launched the D850, arguably the best DSLR the world has seen. But neither brand is delivering the constant innovation that currently sets Sony apart right now.

This is to be expected: the dominant players in the industry will be keen not to change an apparently winning formula, while the insurgent newcomer needs to offer something suitably different to entice people away from the tried and tested ‘safe’ choice.

Canon didn’t achieve its market dominance by chance. Cameras such as the EOS 5D and EOS 300D/Digital Rebel offered something none of its rivals did.

Looking back, we’ve been here before. Canon didn’t achieve its recent market dominance solely by chance: a combination of investment in CMOS technology and aggressive pricing of its mass-market DSLRs played a big role. This combination gave it several years in which its cameras had a distinct edge over most rivals.

Similarly, Nikon made great strides forward around the time of the D3 and D300. These two cameras brought hugely improved autofocus as well as a move to CMOS sensors which greatly increased low light performance (and dynamic range, in subsequent iterations).

The Fujifilm S3 Pro was the first DSLR to offer live view. It could be argued that we failed to recognize its significance at the time.

The long-expected thinning-out of the camera industry hasn’t yet happened: there are still plenty of players in the market. The thing that’s changed is that they’re all competing for a slice of a much smaller pie than they were, just a few years ago. This is likely to mean more brands trying the aggressive, fast-iteration, constant innovation approach that Sony (and, to a lesser degree, Fujifilm) is taking. It’s also unlikely that Sony can continue at this rate indefinitely: there’s every chance that its strategy is to capitalize on being first mover by staking out as much territory as it can before everyone else responds.

Manufacturers are all competing for a slice of a much smaller pie

As the remaining camera brands fight for recognition and search for tech and features to distinguish themselves, we should have plenty more to write about. Especially if, as all the rumors suggest, Canon, Nikon or both end up introducing high-end mirrorless cameras in the next twelve months. After all, despite being well-entrenched in the DSLR market, they’ll both be relative newcomers to serious mirrorless, so may feel the need to be more innovative than we’ve seen in a while.

Busy times, then. And we will cover these with the same vigor and enthusiasm we try to show for every innovative launch. Regardless of which name is on the front of the product.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

08 Oct

Are you one of those people who winces every time you take a photograph that’s slightly skewed, with a foot cut off, overblown highlights, or too much grain? Well let me tell you something, sometimes the problem might not be with the photograph – it may be you. Are you a perfectionist? Is it affecting how you view your photography?

In this article let’s take a look at this concept and see how it applies to you and your work.

Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

How much does it matter?

Needless to say, there are many situations where a skewed horizon, a cutoff limb, or a white sky will ruin the photograph. But there are just as many situations where it won’t matter at all, yet many people will think it does, and they will trash their perfectly good photographs because of this.

It’s hard not to over-think your photographs, especially if you are a bit of a perfectionist or like as much order as possible to things. And even if you’re not, you probably have moments where you over-think the details in your images. We all research cameras that have the sharpest lenses and most megapixels for a reason, don’t we?

Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

But a lot of the time, this stuff doesn’t matter that much. What matters is that the photograph looks beautiful, that it’s interesting, and that it has an alluring quality that engages the viewer. In those situations, straight lines and perfect sharpness are just a bonus.

Negative critiques

A big purveyor of this way of thinking comes from photo competitions or photo clubs. While I’m not knocking photo clubs – they are an amazing place for the knowledge, enthusiasm, and comradery. But they can also have the effect of making us question our photos in the wrong way.

In a room full of people, there will always be a few that are hyper-focused on an element that they see as out of line, and this disregards the photo as a whole. No matter what image you show, there is guaranteed to be one person who will find something wrong with it, and that puts a lot of pressure on you.

Similarly, think about the difficulty for judges in photo competitions, where they have to stare at hundreds or thousands of photos to pick a winner. They are just looking for any reason to disregard a photo. Nitpicking the little details is the easiest way to do this, so that becomes a prerequisite for your photo to do well.

Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

Find a balance

The result of all of this is that I work with many photographers who get so nervous about making the slightest mistake, and it throws their whole photography experience off. Where they should spend their time enjoying themselves and looking for something amazing, they question their abilities and over-think each detail.

I’m not trying to disregard the importance of technical quality in photography. It’s vital and necessary. You have to have good technical skills to become a good photographer, but the technical aspects should be in the back of your mind instead of in the front.

After all, the only people that pixel peep and gaze at a photograph from six inches away, are other photographers.

Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

Embracing imperfections

Going to galleries to view the work of the old masters is a great way to learn this. For every Ansel Adams, there was a Garry Winogrand. Cameras were often downright primitive compared to what we have today. Some of the most famous photographs of all time are slightly blurry or have technical elements that would make the judges of a photo contest today cringe.

Some photographers even look to add imperfection into their work, often by skewing their photographs or including elements in strange compositions. Other photographers even will shoot at high ISOs in all lighting situations because they like to have a grainy look to their images. In this way, imperfections can improve your photographs by making them feel more real and of the moment. It shows that the photograph was a special and unplanned event.

Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

I do not want you to forget to think about the technical qualities of your photographs, but I want you to be more in the moment. Take the pressure off yourself. Be more spontaneous, enjoy yourself, and try to get lucky. Focus on the moment more than the photograph, and share that moment with us. If it’s a great moment, it won’t matter how off the horizon is.

Bring back a photo that you love, that you relate to, that you want to put on the wall, and I guarantee there will be others that will love it as much as you do. Don’t worry about the ones who feel differently. Take their opinions into account, but try not to let it consume you.

Just make sure not to photograph someone with a tree coming out of their head.

Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography?

The post Are You Too Much of a Perfectionist With Your Photography? by James Maher appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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CityTree: High-Tech Green Wall Cleans as Much Pollution as a Forest

27 Jun

[ By SA Rogers in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

A 13-foot-tall high-tech green wall encased in a concrete frame is capable of cleaning as much polluted air as an entire forest, combining the Internet of Things and biotechnology to collect data while it improves the urban environment. Created by Green City Solutions, the ‘tree’ isn’t really a tree at all, but rather a moss culture that removes dust, nitrogen dioxide and ozone gases from the air while also collecting weather data, providing electricity via solar panels and filtering its own rainwater.

Wifi sensors measure factors like temperature, water quality and soil humidity that help each CityTree self-regulate while also allowing the creators to measure how efficient it is at its job. Over a period of a year, each one can remove up to 240 metric tons of climate change-inducing CO2 from the air. Each one features a display for information or advertising. It also features optional benches on either side, and can be vandalism-proofed and customized according to a city or company’s needs. Green City Solutions takes care of the maintenance, and there’s a slim-line version measuring one square meter for smaller spaces.

Asia’s first CityTree went up in Hong Kong last summer, and around 20 others have been installed in cities like Oslo, Paris and Brussels. More are planned, but red tape tends to get in the way, stalling its growth to additional cities. The German-based company plans to introduce the CityTree to lower-income countries like India as well. While it’s definitely not enough to combat urban air pollution on its own, it’s an interesting element to integrate into a more comprehensive strategy.