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Posts Tagged ‘Strategy’

What the Z50 tells us about Nikon’s APS-C strategy

13 Oct

APS-C is a strange sensor format. Derived from the dimensions of the short-lived Advanced Photo System film negative, it emerged as the dominant format in the early days of the DSLR revolution largely because for many years, full-frame digital sensors weren’t a practical option in consumer-level cameras. Canon used the even more obscure APS-H format for a few generations of its sports-oriented EOS-1D series, but by 2012, full-frame was solidly (re)established as the ‘professional’ format for both of two biggest D/SLR manufacturers.

Given the inherent messiness of adapting film-era platforms to digital, it’s no surprise that the respective APS-C strategies of the major D/SLR manufacturers have seemed a little confused at times over the past couple of decades. Now though, with every one of them (except Pentax/Ricoh) either defunct or offering at least one mirrorless lens mount, we are officially, finally, in a post-film era. As such, you’d hope that the battle lines in the so-called ‘format war’ might have become a little clearer.

So what does the Z50 tell us about Nikon’s APS-C strategy?

Well, the first thing it tells us is that there actually is a strategy. Nikon clearly believes that right now, and for the foreseeable future, a market exists for cameras which do not contain full-frame sensors.

Here’s Naoki Kitaoka, Department Manager of the UX Planning Department in the Marketing Sector of Nikon’s Imaging Business Unit, in conversation with me back in March.

“Since we launched the Z series, our DX format DSLR users have been asking us to apply mirrorless technology to the DX format as well. If we employ APS-C sensors [in mirrorless] maybe the system can be made even smaller”

Boiled down, this translates to ‘our customers have been asking for mirrorless APS-C, and we may take that opportunity to create even smaller cameras’. These hints, plus the steady flow of rumors over the past few months, made the Z50 (or something like it) inevitable.

To dismiss DX format Z-mount at this stage is like deciding a TV show will never be good because you don’t like the pilot

My colleagues Richard and Carey probably speak for a lot of our readers when they say that on the face of it, the Z50 feels a little underwhelming, and I tend to agree with them. But we all know that one camera and a couple of kit lenses alone do not represent a fully executed plan. It would be silly to dismiss DX format Z-mount development at this stage – it’s rather like deciding a TV show will never be any good just because you don’t like the pilot.

The Z50 (L) shares a lot of its DNA with the full-frame Z6 (R), including a generous grip and twin-dial ergonomics. Its main differentiators compared to Nikon’s FX line are size, weight, accessibility and cost.

What future for enthusiast APS-C?

However, the fact that Nikon is pushing APS-C as ‘smaller’, and the fact that the Z50 isn’t launching with a fast prime lens or two is a pretty clear signal that – for now – the company would prefer enthusiasts and professionals to focus on its full-frame Z cameras. That doesn’t mean we won’t see (for example) a DX 23mm F1.4 at some point. I just think it’s unlikely to happen any time soon, and as per Nikon’s roadmap, definitely not in the next couple of years. If I were a betting man, I’d put money on Nikon’s next DX Z camera being a slimmed-down, cheaper version of the Z50.

In effect then, it looks like Nikon is doing with the Z mount what it has been doing with the F mount for the past ten years: Making APS-C products for beginners and hobbyists, and full-frame cameras for advanced enthusiasts and professionals. 1 For APS-C users that want to expand their creative horizons with additional, more serious lenses, they’ll have to invest in the FX lens lineup, and accept a 1.5X increase in effective focal length. Or, better yet, jump in with both feet and upgrade to a full-frame camera.

Exhibit A: Nikon’s spotty record when it comes to DX lens development for its F-mount DSLRs, which has seen only one dedicated DX prime (the Micro Nikkor 40mm 2.8) released in the past ten years.

Given the size and weight advantages bestowed by APS-C, manufacturers see more potential for entry-level users

Why this lack of dedicated DX lenses? The brutal fact is that most APS-C cameras that are sold are bundled with one lens – the kit zoom – and the majority of the people that buy them never add another lens to their collection. 2

There’s an argument to be made that this is a self-fulfilling prophesy – Nikon’s APS-C customers can’t very well buy lenses that don’t exist, can they? But look at the market as a whole – with a handful of honorable exceptions, there are very few high-quality lens options available for APS-C anywhere, including from third-parties.

The only manufacturer currently marketing a really convincing range of ‘professional’ APS-C products is Fujifilm. Skipping full-frame entirely, Fujifilm has focused on the strengths of the smaller format when it comes to speed and mobility, while its high-resolution medium format GF lineup caters to landscape and portrait professionals.

That doesn’t mean that enthusiast-focused APS-C systems are impossible (just look at Fujifilm) but it does help explain why the big hitters of the D/SLR era remain wary about spending a lot of money developing lenses optimized for this format.

Given the undeniable size and weight advantages bestowed by APS-C, manufacturers understandably see more potential here for attracting entry-level users, perhaps even first-time camera buyers upgrading from smartphones. Witness the Z50: A small stills/video camera, packed with Instagram-friendly filter effects, but versatile enough, and with a deep enough ergonomics to allow for creative growth.

What about Canon?

This is an article about Nikon, but I would like to briefly touch on Canon’s APS-C strategy. Here’s Canon, also speaking to us back in March, when we visited the CP+ tradeshow in Yokohama:

“We wanted to develop RF to its full potential, so we wanted the latest specifications, state-of-the art technology and design. In the process of developing a no-compromise system, it became apparent that this wouldn’t be compatible with EF-M.”

In short – when developing the RF system, Canon determined that any attempt to incorporate compatibility with EF-M would result in unacceptable compromises. Very likely, in other words, RF is full-frame only, now and forever.

Canon really doesn’t want you mounting an RF lens on an EOS M body, or putting an EF-S lens on a full-frame EOS DSLR

Whereas Nikon is now supporting, in effect, four lens lineups: Full-frame (FX) and APS-C (DX) for two systems, Canon’s four mounts (EF, EF-S, EF-M and RF) span three systems. Of those four flavors of lenses, only EF lenses can be used on all three mounts. An EF-S lens won’t go on a full-frame EOS body, an EF-M lens won’t go on a full-frame EOS or RF body, and an RF lens won’t go on an EOS or EOS M body.

On the face of it, that’s a muddle. Nikon’s approach, whereby DX and FX lenses are interchangeable on either format, but force either a crop or a focal length increase, appears more logical. But this cross-system incompatibility is probably very deliberate on Canon’s part. Even if it were mechanically possible, Canon wouldn’t want you mounting an RF lens on an EOS M body, or putting an EF-S lens on a full-frame EOS DSLR, because they don’t want you to cross the streams.

Canon’s EOS M6 II is the company’s most ‘serious’ EOS M camera to date, and operationally it’s quite similar to Nikon’s Z50. Both cameras are aimed at beginner and casual photographers, but both offer enough creative control to allow for growth (and differentiate themselves from smartphones).

Canon wants to keep the channels clear, by making one set of products for its APS-C customers, and another for the full-framers, with no cross-talk to confuse the signal.

Unlike Nikon (whose adventures in the 1-inch sensor format could be the subject for a whole other article) Canon has been testing the waters of large-sensor mirrorless for a while with the APS-C EOS M lineup, which debuted in 2012. Significantly, the M-mount was, is, and always will be an APS-C mount, for engineering reasons.

After a slow start, EOS M has evolved into a really nice little system. The EOS M6 II is terrific, there’s (finally) a decent fast prime in the EF-M lineup, and Sigma’s recent announcement that its popular DC DN lenses will be available for the system is good news, too. 3

For all that, it’s still a system which is ostensibly aimed at beginners and hobbyist photographers. The implied message is that if you want to take advantage of the best technology (especially optical technology) that the company has to offer, you’ll need to step up to full-frame. And that means RF.

Summing up

On a strategic level, then, Canon and Nikon’s APS-C plans appears to be pretty much the same: Differentiate the format from full-frame by aiming at the entry-level and hobbyist demographic, and hope that those customers eventually step up to the larger sensor format.

The difference is that with Nikon, if want to you go from DX to FX (or back the other way) you don’t necessarily need to invest in a whole new set of lenses to do so. One downside of Nikon’s approach is that by putting a small APS-C sensor into a large full-frame mount, Nikon has placed a hard limit on the compactness of any resultant DX Z-mount cameras.

With Nikon, if you go from DX to FX you don’t need to invest in a whole new set of lenses

In the end, then, Nikon’s approach to APS-C and full-frame development is very Nikon: Focus on one mount, develop your best lenses for the common sensor format (FX) and get the most out it by allowing for cross-compatibility of DX and FX optics. And Canon’s strategy is very Canon: Give crossover customers a dedicated (and genuinely compact) crossover system, in the form of EOS M, and take the opportunity presented by a major new technology platform (full-frame mirrorless) to optimize optical development around a dedicated new mount (RF).

If the market for enthusiast APS-C products ever looks like growing, both manufacturers can meet that requirement with their mirrorless platforms. 4 But while Canon has opted to draw a clear, uncrossable line between APS-C and full-frame, Nikon would like us to believe that one – really wide – mount can accommodate more than one kind of photographer.

1: The exception to this general rule being the D500, which was in effect a companion camera to the D5 with a built-in 1.5X teleconverter when used with FX lenses (which, make no mistake, were the lenses Nikon wanted professional D500 users to shoot with).

2: This is one of the reasons that third-party lens manufacturers tell us that they don’t see much of a future in the wider APS-C market right now.

3: Of course the Sigma announcement can be read in two ways – as a vote of confidence in M from an influential third-party lens manufacturer, or possibly as an indicator that following the launch of its RF mount, Canon may have reassessed the cost/benefit calculation of keeping EF-M lens development to itself, versus licensing it to third-parties. In truth, it may be a bit of both.

4: Meanwhile we’ll probably continue to see both companies selling increasingly iterative budget APS-C DSLRs for a few more years. At the risk of mixing metaphors, that cash cow still has some milk left in it.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The FAA devises a new strategy for Remote ID

09 Jun

Remote identification (Remote ID) is the concept that drones need to be equipped with a digital license plate. Knowing who is flying an unmanned aerial system (UAS) where, and when, is imperative for increasing safety and security. Two senators on opposite sides of the political spectrum even urged U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to take action recently.

This Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed its Drone Advisory Committee (DAC) that a final rule on remote identification of drones could take up to two years to implement. This latest development also finds them looking to the committee for alternate strategies including how to get operators to voluntarily use remote ID.

‘We realize that there’s no schedule I can give you or anyone else can give you that will be quick enough to get to remote ID, from a regulatory standpoint,’ said Jay Merkle, executive director of the FAA’s drone integration office. ‘So we think working with industry to get early adoption of [technical] standards and voluntary compliance is a good way to start enabling and unlocking’ flights over people and beyond line of sight.

Remote ID for UAS has been a long time in the making. The process was introduced over two years ago. Rulemaking was supposed to begin on May 1st but was pushed back to July 21st. The newly-formed DAC hasn’t been neglecting it, however. ‘The reason for delay is not because people haven’t been working on it,’ Merkle said, describing the rulemaking as ‘very complex.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony reveals camera strategy: aims to be the top camera brand by 2021

25 May

In a recent presentation at its investors relations day in Tokyo, Sony was not shy about its ambitions in the photography market. According to the presentation, Sony intends to occupy the top slot in the overall camera market by the end of 2020 by boosting its interchangeable lens systems to beat back Canon and Nikon.

Already doing quite a good job of grabbing market share, the company has told investors that it plans to expand its lens business and push towards the professional market while ‘strengthening products’ in the interchangeable lens camera segment.

Despite predicting only very modest growth in 2018 and acknowledging that competitors are becoming more aggressive, the company told investors that it will “win in an increasingly competitive market and continue to generate high profit” in the mid-term. Citing its crop of awards from TIPA, EISA and Camera GP Japan to back up the claims, Sony stated that it intends to broaden the range of lenses it offers and to expand its professional support services worldwide.

According to figures shown at the event, Sony achieved a 20% share of the still camera market in 2017 by value, and managed to rank third behind Canon and Nikon. It says it was the number one brand in the mirrorless market, and was number one in the premium compact business.

To learn more about Sony’s plans, check out the whole Sony Imaging Products and Solutions Segment presentation here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Create a Successful Local Marketing Strategy for your Photography Business

26 Aug

The internet has taken over most aspects of our daily lives. We can talk to the world at a moments notice, promote our services instantly, and sell anything we want day or night. However, in the quest to grow as many followers and fans as we can, it can become easy to forget about one of the most important opportunities that exist for your photography business. There is so much potential right outside your front door.

Think local

No photography business can afford to forget about their local community – so you need to create a complete marketing plan that addresses both the internet and your own local community.

Photography Business Marketing

You don’t need to reach an audience around the globe to receive a job from your neighbor down the street. How many people cross your path in a given day? How many of them know what you do or could potentially use your services? How many of them might be interested in what you have to offer?

Through local marketing, you want to create a daily strategy for your local connections to grow consistently.

Photography Business Marketing

Be informative not intrusive

You do not have to be overly intrusive about it. You do not have to sell to your friends, colleagues, or acquaintances directly. Have you ever had a friend that you haven’t seen in years suddenly contact you out of the blue asking to talk or to get together? Then you speak to them and realize that they have just gotten a job as a financial planner (or some other such thing) and are trying to sign you up as a client.

This is not what I mean by local marketing, but you do have to be effective at making people aware of what you do, whenever the situation presents itself. You want to intrigue people. When people ask what you do, help them understand your photography business. You are in a creative field, so make it sound as exciting as possible.

Photography Business Marketing

Just let people know what you do

If there is a crossover that might help the person, mention it. For instance, what type of photographer are you? What are the specific services that you provide? Depending on who the person is, tailor what you say to them or their situation.

Send out an official announcement letting everyone know about your photography business. Briefly, explain what your services are and how you might provide potential customers with assistance. When done correctly, this will not be intrusive but informative. People will congratulate you and celebrate your endeavor.

If you are trying to grow your family portrait or corporate business, the people you know will be a huge help. How many of your friends work for businesses or have families? I am assuming most of them. Why would these friends want to seek out a stranger to provide these services when they could work with someone they know? You can be that person.

Photography Business Marketing

Build relationships with other businesses

How many businesses do you frequent on a daily basis? From restaurants to law firms to local shops, there is a wealth of opportunity right under your nose. It is simple but can seem so daunting at the same time. Smile, talk to that business owner you have seen for years and tell them about your services and how they might benefit from them. Bring a brochure of your work.

For businesses that you do not have a prior relationship with, try to locate the person in the company who would be in charge of hiring out the type of work that you want to do. It can be much less effective to just walk in the door blind with the aim of speaking to the first person you see. Your prospective chances will improve significantly if you can make a pointed and direct contact with an influential person within a business.

Exhibit your work

Seek out gathering spaces, such as a coffee shop, a bar, or an event space to hold a show. This is good for their business as it provides art on their walls and a reason for people to enter their establishment. For you, it provides a fun space to show your work. If you live in a smaller community, where a lot of people who know you will come across the work, then this can be a great strategy. If you can draw people to the space to help show and sell your work, then that is a good thing. Many gallerists hold pop-up galleries in addition to their permanent spaces for just this purpose. Consider doing similar pop-up events of your work.

If you live in a smaller community, where a lot of people who know you will come across the work, then this can be a great strategy. If you can draw people to the space to help show and sell your work, that is a good thing. Many gallerists hold pop-up galleries in addition to their permanent spaces for just this purpose. Consider doing similar pop-up events of your work.

Photography Business Marketing

Make sure it’s on your terms

However, there are some pitfalls to this strategy. Providing your work to a business for an open-ended period of time at no cost doesn’t necessarily mean that your work will sell or that it will help you get noticed. I see artwork covering the walls of coffee shops all over New York, and most of it never moves. This is just giving the establishment free art with little or no benefit to you.

You need to select the correct establishment and have a way to draw people there with the specific purpose of seeing your art and hopefully purchasing it. Without that, this strategy can be as much of a drain on your time and resources as it can be a success. If these benefits are not there for you, the establishment should pay you for your work (or pay a rental fee) since you are providing a service to them. You are giving them an ambiance and improving the experience for their customers.

Photograph students at a local school

Another thing you could consider is contacting an acting or music teacher at a local school and offering to photograph the student’s headshots. If you do well, it will help build your portfolio and both the students and the teachers alike will tell others of your services. Hang an advertisement in a local business, do work for a local website, sell your work at a local fair; there are many creative ways to integrate what you do into your community.

Photography Business Marketing

There is an infamous and successful example of this type of strategy employed by a guitar teacher named Dan Smith in New York City. Beginning in the 1990s, Dan hung small ads in doorways and vestibules in businesses all over Manhattan. You could not walk into a diner or coffee shop without seeing one, and these ads persist today. He has built a business out of this single marketing strategy, and it lead him to be so ubiquitous that even The New York Times ran a profile of him.

The repetition is what worked for him, and it was not annoying; it was almost humorous and became a defining characteristic of growing up in the city. This is an example of the 80/20 rule, where 80 percent of your income can come from 20 percent of your marketing. Dan found a strategy that worked and pushed it to the extreme. It only worked because of the extreme measures that he took in plastering so much of the city with his ads. Other music teachers pasted their ads around the city, but none did it like Dan.

Conclusion

By working on a variety of local marketing strategies, these endeavors will combine to create an overall awareness of your business in the community. Some of the individual pieces might seem small, and all of this may seem tedious at first, but all together they can be very powerful.

For even more business help – join the Focus Summit 2017 Online Business and Marketing Conference for Photographers on Sept 26-28th 2017. We will cover marketing, business development, law, SEO, branding, blogging, and much more. Use the code “DPS” for a $ 50 discount.

The post How to Create a Successful Local Marketing Strategy for your Photography Business by James Maher appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Ming Thein joins Hasselblad as Chief of Strategy

29 Mar

Hasselblad has announced that commercial photographer and blogger Ming Thein has been appointed its Chief of Strategy. Thein is known for his popular blog, and is no stranger to Hasselblad as a former ambassador for the company. In addition to his photography chops, Thein brings a degree in Physics from Oxford and years of experience working in finance and private equity firms to Hasselblad. Plus, we think he’s got some good ideas about how cameras should function.

Hasselblad has been going through a transitional period lately – the company never denied reports that DJI became a majority stakeholder, and recently announced the departure of CEO Perry Oosting. Certainly Oosting had a hand in modernizing the company’s offerings and righting the ship after some unfortunate missteps. There’s more work ahead, however, as the company works to meet demand for its X1D mirrorless camera.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Create a Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

09 Mar

Most people take reasonable precautions when engaging in activities that are potentially unsafe or harmful, like wearing seat belts in a car or even washing your hands before eating. The benefits of these basic procedures are easy to understand which is one reason these practices are so widely adopted. But things look quite different where our digital lives are concerned; in other words, a backup strategy.

Every mobile phone, laptop, and personal computer stores your photos, documents, and other data on either a small memory chip or a spinning hard drive and it is not uncommon for these to fail. In fact, due to the nature of how hard drives (which are still by far the most common method of storing data) operate, they are guaranteed to wear out over time. It’s just a question of when. Anyone even remotely concerned with making sure their digital files are safe and accessible one, five, 10, or even hundreds of years from now needs to have a solid backup strategy in case the unthinkable happens.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

Don’t let your photos disappear when your computer fails.

The challenge

One problem with creating a backup strategy is that it can seem so complex and convoluted it’s difficult to even know where to begin. From clouds to closets to safe deposit boxes, the world of data backup has so many options it’s enough to make your head spin. I’m going to explore three common options in this article, but before I get too far I want to remind you of the words of Carl von Clausewitz who said, “The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”

Don’t get so caught up with finding the ideal backup strategy that you don’t do anything at all. The important lesson, no matter which method you use, is to create copies of your data – especially your photographs – so you can still get them if something bad happens.

3-2-1 Strategy

One of the best ways to approach backing up your data is the 3-2-1 strategy:

  • 3: Have three copies of your data.
  • 2: Keep them in two separate places.
  • 1: At least one must be offsite.

This might seem like a lot of hassle, but it’s similar to most things in life that require small behavioral changes. Once you get over the initial setup of utilizing a backup strategy it becomes a habit or better yet, a completely transparent activity that just happens in the background. As someone who has lost data, and has had friends and family lose thousands of photos thanks to computer failures and hard drive corruption, I can confidently say that it is well worth your time to back up your data. It won’t save your physical life, but it could save your digital life.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

A good backup solution doesn’t have to be complicated and can help make sure your memories stand the test of time.

Option #1 – External hard drives

Inside nearly every personal computer is a spinning hard drive that rotates at a mind-numbing speed of 5400-7200 rotations per minute, every day, for as long as the computer exists. Over time, hard drives have proven themselves to be simple cost-effective vessels for storing massive amounts of data. However, their mechanical nature makes them not only prone to failure but quite expensive and time-consuming to recover your files and photos if something does happen.

Because of these caveats, one of the simplest methods of backing up your data is to use software to make a clone of your hard drive onto – you guessed it – another hard drive. This duplicates everything on your computer so you can instantly access it in the case of an emergency. Thanks to the relatively inexpensive nature of external hard drives and backup software (which is often bundled with hard drives) the process is mostly painless.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

Backup hard drives are a cheap and effective way of making sure your data is safe.

File recovery

Mostly, that is, until it comes time to actually recover your data. In my experience, this method of file backup is best when your entire computer dies and you need to start from scratch, at which point a clone of your hard drive can be used to create an exact copy on a new computer. I have had to do this a few times with excellent results, and except for re-registering some serial numbers with Adobe I was up and running again in no time.

However, if you accidentally delete some data, such as an entire folder of images, and need to recover just those specific things from your backup it can be tricky depending on the software solution you are using. Apple’s Time Machine, for example, is designed to facilitate the easy recovery of an entire computer’s worth of data but many people (myself included) have found themselves more than a little frustrated when restoring individual files or folders. Microsoft includes software called Backup and Restore which will do the same thing for Windows users. Either one of these is a great solution if you want a simple way of making sure all the data on your computer is saved and stored in the event of a complete hard drive failure.

One significant benefit of both Time Machine and Windows Backup and Restore is that they run automatically in the background so you never have to think about it once you set them up. However, one drawback is that because they only backup to external hard drives, if you lose data to a catastrophic event such as a fire or flood, chances are your backup drive will be toast also. For that reason I like to keep a second backup hard drive at the office where I work and switch the hard drives out every Monday. That way even if my house explodes in a freak meteorite incident everything but the very latest files and photos will still be available on my backup drive at work.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

Mac users can use Time Machine to easily create automatic backups on an external hard drive.

Extra options

If you really want to go the extra mile with an external hard-drive-based backup plan, you can set yourself up with a multi-drive solution where all your data is copied to not only one, but several hard disks at the same time. This is called a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives) system and while it’s more costly than a single drive solution, it’s virtually guaranteed to protect against data loss. If one of the drives in a RAID array fails you can usually just swap it out with a fresh drive and continue backing everything up.

Finally, if you are going to use external backups it’s important to keep them encrypted so prying eyes or thieving scoundrels can’t peek at your data. Time Machine lets you do this with the click of a mouse, and Windows has an option to do this as well using a setting called BitLocker. This adds a huge layer of security to your backups while taking almost no effort on your part. I highly recommend doing this.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

BitLocker offers a great solution for Windows users who want a simple and effective backup strategy.

Hard drives are so cheap these days that it’s hard to go wrong with this type of solution. If your backup drive ever goes belly-up you can buy another one for the price of a few movie tickets. I recommend buying a drive that is double the capacity of your computer’s internal hard drive which means you can restore old copies of files long after they have been deleted from your computer.

Option #2 – Save your data to the cloud

If you don’t want to bother with the hassle of setting up an external hard drive, encrypting your data, and switching out drives every week or every month, another good option is to go with a cloud-based backup service like CrashPlan, BackBlaze, or Carbonite. These companies offer paid plans that backup all the data on your computer, or just a portion that you specify, to their own servers automatically. In terms of convenience, these services are hard to beat since they require almost no interaction from you after the initial setup.

Drawbacks

One of the downsides is the price, as they require a recurring monthly or yearly fee which, though usually not too expensive, can add up over time. They also make the act of restoring all your data, such as in the event of a fire or flood, more difficult than just hooking up a spare hard drive with a full copy of everything. Thankfully many cloud-based services will actually mail you a hard drive with a full copy of your data on it for an additional fee if you really need to do a full restore of your entire computer. You also have the option of logging into your account from a web browser and selectively downloading individual files or folders, which can be useful if you just need to retrieve specific items and not restore your entire computer.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos - CrashPlan, BackBlaze, or Carbonite - cloud options

One of the major drawbacks of cloud-based backup options involves actually getting your data to them in the first place. While broadband internet access is becoming increasingly common around the world, upload speeds still lag far behind download speeds. According to BackBlaze, a typical home internet connection will let you upload 2GB to 4GB per day, which means it could take several months to backup your entire hard drive! If you shoot in RAW and are constantly filling up your memory cards, you might find cloud-based backup services to be quite limiting unless you have a very fast internet connection!

Other cloud-based options are available that specifically address the needs of photographers. Google Photos allows unlimited storage for JPG pictures up to 16 megapixels, and Amazon allows unlimited photo storage for Prime members. Flickr, that longtime stalwart of online photo sharing, gives users 1TB (Terabyte, or 1024 GB) of storage for free. Services like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Apple’s iCloud offer paid plans that allow you to backup massive amounts of photos and other data for a fee while also syncing them across your devices.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

Even if you already share pictures on social networks, it’s a good idea to have a full backup of all your images and a dedicated cloud-based solution is a nice way to accomplish this.

Shop around for the best cloud option for your needs

If you are thinking about using a cloud-based solution I would encourage you to investigate some options and see what you think would work best for your needs. I have used CrashPlan, BackBlaze, and Carbonite, as well as solutions like Arq which store your data on the Amazon cloud. Each of these has its own strengths and weaknesses and because of that, it is difficult to recommend a single cloud-based solution as every individual has their own needs.

All of them are good, and you really can’t go wrong with any of them if you currently don’t have a backup solution in place. I also like to caution people that when you utilize free services like Google Photos or Flickr it’s a good idea to review their Terms of Service so you know exactly what information and personal data you are giving up in exchange for the free use of their storage.

Option #3 – DVDs and Blu-Rays

Longtime computer users might fondly remember the days when CD-ROM drives first entered the scene. In those heady days of the mid-1990s the idea of putting as much data as you could fit on an entire 500MB hard drive onto one single CD was basically a computing miracle, and as CD drives became more prevalent they also became a good way to backup data such as documents and photos.

However as digital cameras rose to prominence in the early 2000s it became painfully obvious that backing up data to CDs and, subsequently, DVDs was too slow and cumbersome to be a good solution. Burning the discs took time, and getting files off them could be a chore especially as more and more computers abandoned these types of disc drives altogether.

So why in the world would this type of solution even be considered as part of a balanced backup strategy in 2017?

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos CD and DVD

Behold the classic Compact Disc. You might not give this type of media much thought nowadays, but it can still be an essential component of a comprehensive backup strategy.

Cost and drawbacks

The answer to this question is mostly related to cost. Blank discs are cheap, and even if your computer doesn’t have a disc burner you can buy an external one for about $ 50-100. CDs hold about 600 MB of data, or enough for your vacation photos if you shot on medium-quality JPG. DVDs hold about 4.5 GB of data or a couple months of pictures (if you shoot RAW this will be more limited). Blu-Ray discs hold about 25GB of data or enough for an entire year’s worth of JPG images which make them very well suited for long-term image backup. Even if you already use a hard drive or cloud solution, it’s still a good idea to make regular backups of your pictures to some type of physical disc that you can then store in a safe deposit box or even mail to a trusted friend or family member.

One of the notable downsides to disc-based backups is that this media is prone to the same harsh realities of time as any hard drive. Sooner or later all discs that you create at home will fail due to a concept known as “bit rot” which is when the layer of dye inside a CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray that actually contains your data deteriorates over time. It might be a few years or 50 years, but it’s almost certainly going to happen to every disc you burn.

Thankfully some drives are capable of burning a special format of Blu-Ray called M-Disc which is supposed to keep your data safe for hundreds of years. Even though the actual discs are a little more expensive it could be well worth it to make sure your images aren’t lost to dust and decay over the years.

Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos

It might be worth your time to dust off that old DVD or Blu-Ray burner and use it as part of your photo backup plan.

Annual plan

When adding a disc-based component to your backup strategy I recommend making it part of an annual ritual instead of something you do monthly or weekly. Get a Blu-Ray burner so you can store all your pictures from the whole year and make the process of burning a disc and taking it to a safe deposit box an annual tradition. It might seem silly at first, but it could really save your digital life if you ever need it.

The Solution

The great challenge with backing up your digital images is that all methods have their positive and negative aspects, no one single solution is best. And very few things in life are truly permanent, so even if you physically print your pictures they will eventually fade and will also be susceptible to mold, moisture, or physical damage.

Any digital backup option is better than none at all. If you leave your photos on your computer or phone without duplicates then you are at risk of putting all your eggs in one basket which is almost certainly guaranteed to fail. The solution, then, is to do something to make sure your pictures don’t meet a premature digital demise. It could be a second hard drive, a cloud-based solution, making a Blu-Ray disk, using a combination of all three, or another method I didn’t even mention.

My father still has a hard drive sitting in his closet filled with thousands of images he may never see again. The disk failed years ago and was not backed up. The same thing has happened to many photographers around the world. Don’t let it happen to you.

Read more here:

What about you? What solution do you use to make sure your pictures are backed up and ready to access if you need them? There are hosts of other solutions I didn’t address in this article and I’m sure other DPS readers would like to know what ideas you have and what works for you. Please share in the comments below.

The post How to Create a Solid Backup Strategy for Your Photos by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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A 10 Step Personal Development Strategy for Photographers

25 Aug

In this article I want to lay some foundations, on which I will build in future articles. I am not talking here about image development, but your personal and professional development as a photographer. As a full-time working photographer, I am well aware of the 10,000 hours I have invested in my art and craft – not just once, but many times over the last two decades – and it doesn’t end. This is ongoing and if you don’t continue to invest in your personal development, you will not improve and remain static.

Hidden Kingdom

Regardless of whether you are at the start of your journey, having just recently picked up a camera, or have been working in the field for decades, this overview will apply and help you improve.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, don’t complain about the destination!”

1: Nobody is born brilliant

Pick any field: from music, sports, arts, academia, whatever, and pick the best-known people in any of them. They started off as babies playing in mud and sucking their thumbs. Yes, they applied themselves and made life choices to get where they are, but they are all the product of hard work and dedication. We all have a capacity to be brilliant in our own way.

2: Education should never stop

You invest the best part of your childhood in school and the better part of your 20’s and 30’s climbing ladders at work – whatever that may be. This is normal; you accept it as the necessity of making a living.

When it comes to hobbies and pastimes we vary in our commitment to study. There are plenty of folks who only do photography to wind down on the weekend and get away from the stress of a professional career. If that’s you, don’t worry, as I often say, “Learning should be Fun.”

Into the West

3: Effortless development

Be inspired – surround yourself with excellence. When I started to get serious about wanting to become a better photographer, I sought out the very best photography in the fields that interested me. This can be found in many of the excellent online forums these days – images are everywhere and you need to find the best.

Why? Excellence inspires excellence. It allows you to set the bar for yourself and establish a standard for which you aspire. I don’t mean to offend, but if you surround yourself with mediocrity, it will drag you down and create a “that’s good enough” mentality.

Inspiration should be used to help seek out styles you gravitate towards, themes, moods and forms of expression. Plagiarism is a great way to grow, we all do it, but I would recommend trying to develop your own style as soon as you can, rather than copying others. Why, because you’re the best in the world at being you!

4: Truly evaluate where you are right now

This is actually harder than it sounds, as you are trying to compare yourself to a massive spectrum of talent out there in the world. Many times I have gotten to the stage where I thought, “Hey, I’m not bad at this.” Only to find the work of some unknown guy from Romania, whose work blew me away! Honest evaluation can be very humbling.

Life on the Edge

Remember when you were a kid and you used to get your height measured with a pencil mark on the kitchen wall? Remember that feeling when you’d grown an inch over the summer? That’s what photographic development is like – you can feel the inspirational creative muscles stretching and growing.

5: Ask yourself WHY?

I can answer one question about every one of my images, “Why did I make it?”

To be honest, those reasons have changed significantly over the years, especially now this is my career. But typically the more you understand why you are making (or taking) photographs, the sooner you can begin to channel purpose, and specific expression into your work.

I have been through every stage of WHY in my own development. I know when I am forcing it and making images just because I have a camera in my hand. I know when I am making contrived compositions, because I feel I have to make images, even when I don’t feel like it. Equally, I know when I am on fire, running on instinct in the fast lane, charged up with a lot of technique and subconscious understanding.

Professional photographers often talk about utility, having a preset use for an image even while it is being envisaged. For example, while I am in the field, I may be thinking, “That image can be used to advertise a workshop, that one will work well in an eBook or article, that’s a portfolio image to showcase my work, that one is great for Social Media” and so on.

Symphony of Light

6: What is photography?

I am well aware that you could ask a million people and get a million different answers, but this is mine!

“Photography is a visual language: its aim is to communicate something to another person. That something is in the voice of the person who made the photograph. The clearer the photographer’s intention, the more likely the viewer will understand the intent.”

As with spoken language, the more articulate you are, the better you can be understood – by people who understand your language!

Leading on from the why in point #5 above, you have to ask yourself what? – “What am I trying to say with this photograph?”

7: Speak the language of photography

When you admire an image, think about words that explain why you like it. I would imagine the majority of those words would be adjectives, for example: Moody, evocative, dramatic, calm, reflective, soothing, energetic, sad, happy, etc.

Only photographers use technical language to describe photographs. Shutter speeds, exposures, apertures, noise, depth of field, etc.

When you make your images, concentrate on the adjectives. If you make an image to be moody, you can bet the viewer will think it is moody too. Advertising agencies do this all the time, they manipulate their viewers with subliminal messages in film, photographs to make them more likely to buy a product.

This was one of the biggest developments in my own images – I always try and instil a very distinct mood, or feeling, into my work. Start to think in terms of key words that describe your work.

The Wester Isles

8: Understand the creative cycle

Many people describe photography as a process – as if it is linear and follows a set path. In some regards this is true, and certainly from a teaching point of view it is the only way to explain it without melting your student’s brain.

However, recall what it was like learning to drive a car, especially a manual transmission with a stick shift. All those things you have to learn to do simultaneously: steering, mirrors, signals, brake, accelerator, clutch, gears, changing lanes, avoiding pedestrians and cyclists. Now, you manage it with ease, totally subconsciously while having in depth conversations with passengers, kids in the back, or on a hands-free phone to the office.

Photography is the same – the trick is to determine what can become subconscious, and what needs to be at the front of your mind. I call it the creative cycle because there is feedback.

You are unique, because when you look at one of your own photographs, it triggers memories for you – you were there when it was taken and you crafted it in-camera and in processing. When you see the final image, you get it. Other viewers only get what you show them – they have no experiential perspective. You need to be super-articulate with your images to allow a viewer to feel something.

The photograph itself forms an emotional bridge between the event experienced by a photographer and a viewer who only experiences it second hand – but gets it!

9: Disciplines

The First Dawn

Again, I’ve seen the whole process written in many ways, with lots of subsets. For me it is this:

Seeing – Shooting – Expressing

You see something; you organize it, get the light in the camera and then use a computer (typically these days anyway) to make it look the way you want. You can hold up that image and compare it to what you wanted to say about that moment in time, and determine how successful you have been in your expression.

How other people feel about it is a product of how well you get that message across.

The shooting phase is mostly technical and you should become very adept with your camera. Know what it does, know how to expose well and get the light into the computer where it’s useful.

10: Aim for second impressions

The world is full of images. We see thousands every day, and every one we see sparks a snap decision in our brains.

  • First Impression – Wow/Yuk – I like/don’t like that (formed in maximum two seconds)
  • Second Impression – Wait a minute, there is something about this one! (10-30 seconds)
  • Third Impression – This image changes my view of the world, inspires me, makes me want to change, etc. (one minute to the rest of your life)

The Heart of Me

If you are going to open your mouth, you normally think before you speak. It saves a whole lot of trouble. Do the same before you post an image online. You’re still saying something – just with an image instead of words. It represents you; it is a statement from you. Value your work and value what you have to say – then others will too.

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The post A 10 Step Personal Development Strategy for Photographers by Alister Benn appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Am I missing something here? An opinion on Nikon’s mirrorless strategy

13 Mar

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Nikon’s latest 1 System camera is its most obviously enthusiast-targeted model so far. And yet the signals given off, both by the camera and its associated lens range, are not quite so clear. In this opinion piece, Richard Butler wonders: Just what is Nikon up to?

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Pentax Ricoh changes name and reveals branding strategy

02 Jul

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Hot on the heels of Carl Zeiss’s decision to become simply Zeiss, Pentax Ricoh has decided that from August 1st it will be known simply as Ricoh. It’s not all bad news for Pentax fans though – the brand name will continue to be used on the company’s SLRs and interchangeable lens cameras. Meanwhile the Ricoh name will be used for compact cameras and, cryptically, ‘new technological innovations’.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Leica exec speaks to Forbes.com about digital medium-format strategy

10 May

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Stephan Schulz, the Head of Professional Photo at Leica Camera AG has given an interview to Forbes.com in which he explains the opportunities – and challenges – of moving into the professional digital medium-format marketplace. Traditionally identified with 35mm (film and latterly ‘full frame’ digital), Leica announced the creation of the S2 back in 2009, and followed it with the 37MP late last year. Click through for some extracts, and a link to the full interview at Forbes.com.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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