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Archive for February, 2014

browserFruits Februar, Ausgabe 4

23 Feb

Die ersten Frühlingsboten sind zu sehen, überall recken die Frühblüher ihre Köpfchen aus der Erde und auf den Wiesen sieht man Schneeglöckchen und Krokusse dicht beieinander stehen. Auch die Vögel zwitschen am Morgen scheinbar viel vergnügter und so mancher Baum beginnt bereits, zu blühen. Auch wir freuen uns über die immer heller werdenden Tage. Bald kann man nach Feierabend noch Bilder mit natürlichem Licht machen! Wir warten schon sehnsüchtig darauf. Macht Euch der Frühling auch so glücklich?

 

Fotospecial: Laterne, Laterne…

Flickr

500px

 

Deutschsprachig

• Die Arbeiten der Gewinner von Close Up! – dem Wettbewerb für junge Fotografie hat Emerge. Seht Euch die Gewinnerbilder von der 64. Berlinale an.

• Der World Press Photo Award 2013 wurde vergeben. Die Fotos findet Ihr hier.

• Dieses Foto aus Olympia geht um die Welt und zeigt doch nur eine arme Zuschauerin. Wir hoffen, sie hatte den Blitz aus.

• Hier werden einige WordPress-Themes vorgestellt, die gut für Fotografen sind. Auf Seite 1 die kostengünstigen, auf Seite 2 kostenlose.

 

International

• Der New Yorker Braden Summers inszeniert gleichgeschlechtliche Paare aus aller Welt in wundervoll romantischen Bildern.

• Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen Olympias. Wie Fotografen olympische Bilder in Sotschi schießen.

• Wie stellt man bei Selbstportraits scharf? Andrea Peipe beschreibt ihre Vorgehensweise.

• Brooke Shaden hat schöne Texturen zum Download bereitgestellt. Dazu gibt es noch ein Video, in dem sie von den kleinen Dingen schwärmt.

• Die Nationalflaggen erstellt aus den traditionellen Gerichten der jeweiligen Länder. Schön kreativ und lecker.

• 33 lustige Bilder, die genau zur richtigen Zeit aufgenommen wurden.

• Und noch einmal zum World Press Photo Award: 8 % der eingereichten Bilder wurden auf Grund von Manipulationen disqualifiziert.

• Der Foto-Künstler Liu Bolin verschwindet. Im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes.

• „Nein, es geht auch anders“, dachte sich der Mond und legte sich auf die Erde.

• Schöne Fotos vom Siamesischen Kampffisch des thailändischen Fotografen Visarute Angkatavanich.

 

Neuerscheinungen und Tipps vom Foto-Büchermarkt

Buchtipps

• Zur Ausstellung der Pinakothek der Moderne in München gibt es das Buch „Jeff Wall. Arbeiten aus Münchner Sammlungen“*. Es zeigt 20 herausragende Werke des Künstlers aus öffentlichen und privaten Münchner Sammlungen. Erschienen bei Schirmer/Mosel ist es für 39,80 € erhältlich.

• „White Album: Die Farben des Schnees“* ist ein Bildband des Fotografen Bernd Uhde. Bilder von oben ins unendliche Weiß, dazwischen Gegenstände, die auf den ersten Blick sehr abstrakt wirken. Einen kleinen Einblick ins Buch erhaltet Ihr auf der Seite des Verlags Seltmann+Söhne.

 

Wettbewerbe

• Cewe Fotobuch veranstaltet immer wieder kleine Wettbewerbe mit verschiedenen Themen.

 

Zitat der Woche

Wenn man früher unfähig war, wurde man Fotograf; heute wird man Abgeordneter.

Guy de Maupassant –

Mehr Zitate

 

Videos

Ein inspirierendes Video darüber, dass alle Kreativen am Anfang straucheln.

 

* Das ist ein Affiliate-Link zu Amazon. Wenn Ihr darüber etwas bestellt, erhalten wir eine kleine Provision, Ihr bezahlt aber keinen Cent mehr.


kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin | Fotocommunity

 
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Enter the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

23 Feb

Guiding_Light_to_the_Stars_Mark_Gee-WINNER_AND_OVERALL_WINNER_.jpg

Think you have a striking picture of vast galaxies millions of light years away, or a dramatic night sky scene taken much closer to home? The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in association with Sky at Night Magazine, has launched its 2014 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Entries must be submitted by April 24. Learn more

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Accent Lighting for Portraits

23 Feb
accent lighting

Tthanks to the wonderful Bridgette for her work as the make-up artist in this image

Studio lighting continues to mystify and bewilder many developing photographers. The intimidation of lighting ratios, modifiers, set-ups, etc… often seems as complex as deriving the quadratic equation or suffering through an explanation of Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics. Oh yes, for those of you biochemically privy folk, I did just go there! Well, one does not have to get lost amidst the photonic chaos if they understand how to interpret and understand the meaning of light.

Wow! Meaning of light? Sounds kind of deep and metaphysical doesn’t it? Please don’t worry! The only thing you need to remember about light is that it illuminates and creates shadows. Fairly simple, huh? We all know that when we shine a light onto something it allows us to visualize whatever is illuminated by the light. That is simple enough, right? Now, consider that behind every good light is a shadow waiting to give shape, form and dimension to your subject. This intricate interplay between what you illuminate and what you keep in shadow is what brings visual interest and creative acuity to your images. In studio lighting, this is your raw material with which you have to work and create.

There are many articles and books that describe studio lighting and as the student you may tend to focus on that main key light with simple one or two light set-ups, so we can dip our toe into the pool, so to speak, and see if the temperature is warm enough for us to dive in. A main or key light is simply the light source that is providing the primary illumination for our subject. Now, don’t get me wrong, one can create some amazingly, captivating portraits with a single light, but what if you want to add a little something extra? A little hint of spice to get some unique seasoning and flavor?

This is where accent lighting comes out to shine.

What is an accent light?

accent-lighting-01

Accent lighting is typically a very controlled light source that highlights specific areas of the subject. It can be a hair light that gives you some separation from a background, or a side light that illuminates the drops of sweat on an athlete after an intense workout. It gives some shape or form to elements of the photo allowing your eyes to experience the different dimensions of the image. Now, there are two important things you want to remember about accent lighting:

  1. The source should be very controlled and only hit the areas you desire
  2. It should be brighter then your main light to create a proper highlight

Easy ways to control accent lights are with modifiers such as barn doors, spot grids or small strip soft boxes. Basically, anything that will narrow and direct the beam of light coming form the light source. Heck, it could be a flashlight beam, the sun shining on the back of a subject’s head, or even the bright screen of a tablet or computer in the right conditions (yes, the eye fatigue from staring at the LCD screen is setting in). Add some colored gels to the accent lights to really make your images pop or bring some warmth into the mix.

Personally, I love adding side accent lighting to my portraits by firing my strobes into narrow V-flats (two large pieces of foam core taped together to form a v-shape) directed at the subject on either side to highlight the cheekbones and neck and really sculpt out those beautiful forms in light and shadow. The possibilities with accent lighting are truly endless, and the luminous results are absolutely stunning.

accent-lighting-02

For more on portraits and lighting check out these articles:

  • Portrait Tutorial Feast – Best of dPS 2013
  • 4 Tips for a Perfect White Background in High Key Photography
  • Portraits – Lighting the Shot, a dPS eBook

The post Accent Lighting for Portraits by Alex Smith appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Zorn

23 Feb

Zorn – ein Gefühl, das schwer zu beschreiben ist. Ein starkes Gefühl, das in der Bibel als eine der sieben Todsünden sehr negativ bewertet wird, gleichzeitig aber auch für positive Veränderungen sorgen kann. Zorn zu fotografieren, ist ein schwieriges Unterfangen, an das sich der Fotograf Axl Klein gewagt hat.

Wie tritt Zorn in den Gesichtern von Menschen in Erscheinung? Wie wirkt Zorn, wenn man ihn aus allernächster Nähe, einer geradezu intimen Distanz, betrachtet? Diesen Fragen wollte er mit seinem Projekt nachgehen und hat dafür 55 Prominente fotografiert. Prominente, weil man diese Menschen kennt und ihre meist freundlichen Gesichtszüge aus Film und Fernsehen gut mit den entstandenen Bildern vergleichen kann.

Zorn © Axl Klein

Und auf einmal wirken Komikerin Anke Engelke und Musiker Samy Deluxe so fremd. Jeder der 55 Portraitierten setzt Zorn dabei auf seine ganz eigene Weise um. Einige fletschen die Zähne, anderen ist auch Empörung und Trauer ins Gesicht geschrieben. Jedes Bild wirkt jedoch echt und keine Mimik aufgesetzt.

Das Projekt entstand unter der Schirmherrschaft von Amnesty International, an die auch der Erlös des Bildbandes geht. Sehen könnt Ihr die beeindruckenden Portraits auch im Rahmen der Wanderausstellung. Sie werden dort im Format 1,6 x 1,2 m dort präsentiert und sind allein durch die Größe sicher sehr beeindruckend.

Zorn © Axl Klein

Neben jedem Foto steht im Buch ein Zitat einer Persönlichkeit. Von Martin Luther über Friedrich Nietzsche bis hin zu Gandhi wird auch in den Zitaten jede Facette dieser Emotion beleuchtet.

Nach dem Betrachten des Bildbandes ging es mir nicht gut. Die Bilder und Worte beschäftigen. Die Portraits sind perfekt fotografiert. Mit perfekten Bildern kann ich meist wenig anfangen, aber hier erreichen sie ihr Ziel. Nichts lenkt ab und man ist den Blicken hilflos ausgeliefert. Zusammen mit den Zitaten findet man sich auf einmal in Gedanken ganz bei sich und seinen eigenen Emotionen wieder. Deshalb möchte ich es empfehlen.

Mehr über das Projekt, das Buch und die Ausstellungen erfahrt Ihr auf der dazugehörigen Webseite. Ein schönes Interview mit dem Fotografen Axl Klein habe ich auf Amnesty International gefunden.

Informationen zum Buch
„Zorn: 55 Prominente“*
Gebundene Ausgabe: 128 Seiten
Verlag: Gollenstein
Sprache: Deutsch
Maße: 37,6 x 26,4 cm

 

* Das ist ein Affiliate-Link zu Amazon. Wenn Ihr darüber etwas bestellt, erhalten wir eine kleine Provision, Ihr bezahlt aber keinen Cent mehr.


kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin

 
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22 February, 2014 – Kitchen Stories and Other Realities

23 Feb

Over the years I have had the privilege of working with and shooting with some amazing photographers.  Photography to many of us photographers is like a good game of golf.  We can get out there with our friends shoot images, talk about what a great shot it was and feel bad when we just can’t seem to get the shot.  I find it a lot more staisfying and less frustrating than chasing a ball around and trying to whack it with a stick.  Well, Jackie Ranken takes the game of photography to a new level.  I have had the pleasure of working with Jackie on a number of workshops and discovered as a result a whole new way of seeing.  She is one of the most creative landscape photographers that I have ever met and she has certainly gotten the attention of her fellow Australian and New Zealand photographers when she started entering landscape images into major competitions with flying toasters in them.  

I was shooting with Jackie two years ago and while we were out she found about ten feet of twine.  The rest of the day she took this twine and interjected it into the shots she was making.  She was wrapping bushes with it, dangling it from trees and laying it out on the ground.  I found it totally refreshing to see this.  Later during this trip a number of friends shooting with me stopped at an overlook to shoot a landscape vista and the bottom of the overlook hill was a bunch of old refrigerators, stoves and metal junk. One person in our group couldn’t help themselves and said “I see Jackie was already here”.  

We hope you enjoy Jackie’s article “Kitchen Stories” and Other Realities. Luminous-Landscape will be working with Jackie in New Zealand this December and our Antarctica Workshops in January. If you can join us for these workshops you’ll get a chance to see Jackie in action. 

                                                                                                Kevin Raber, Publisher

 Are you planning on attending this year’s WPPI Trade Show and Convention in Las Vegas March 3-5? If so drop us an email. Kevin and Chris will be there reporting on the show and it would be great to meet some where and say hi.

Don’t forget to check out the Luminous-Landscape "Land Of The Polar Bear" workshops this July

…
The Luminous Landscape – What’s New

 
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If You Build It: A True Story of Hands-On Design Education

23 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

design build project movie

What if high schools replaced shop classes with results-driven, full-scale architectural projects, where the goal was to collaborate and make something substantial for the entire community? If it sounds idealistic, perhaps it is – the reality on the ground can be full of setbacks and surprises, as this film illustrates in evocative detail. The title of the documentary in perhaps intentionally open-ended, because, unlike the phrase’s cinematic inspiration (Field of Dreams), what will happen if you build something is never quite clear until you try.

Directed by Patrick Creado, If You Built It is the compelling story of a one-year design/build program set in a small American town – a story that is both inspirational and heartbreaking. Its protagonist teachers are enthusiastic visionaries who are exceptionally driven. Its director shows these strengths but is unafraid to also highlight their steep learning curve, right alongside that of the students, who struggle at first to understand what two outsiders want to teach them and why.

design build movie poster

Studio H, a collaboration of designers/builders Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller, is named for its focus on “humanity, habitats, health and happiness”. Its mission is born of a noble desire to enable people to change where, how and how well they live, all through design.

design build model making

Of course, working with a community as outsiders is challenging, as this pair learned when they moved to Bertie County, North Carolina, for the first year of their program. Their mission: to start small and build up to a student-decided project for the community, which turns out to be a farmer’s market inspired by contextual farm architecture.

design build studio h

In the press, idealized renderings and carefully-staged architectural photographs often gloss over the gritty reality of designing and building projects, as well as the slow change in thinking that comes with learning to design. Likewise, a look at highly-funded architectural programs and never-to-be-built college-student projects can make it easy to forget we have an opportunities to educate high school students everywhere through designing to build.

design build construction collaboration

For anyone not educated in design, this movie provides  a unique window into how it can be taught and how understanding design processes can help us see unrealized possibilities in our everyday lives and built environments. For the broader public, the documentary also provides fascinating insights into the present and uncertain future of rural America.

design building process outdoors

In the end, the film is neither a tale of outright success or total failure, but it does show how even the best intentions may not work in every situation. In a key flashback, we are shown scenes of a home built for charity by Miller as a thesis project that ultimately failed in practice but also provided him critical real-world feedback on projects where the owner is just a passive recipient. Anyone interested in the intersection of architecture and education should watch If You Build It and sign up for screenings to share it with students.

rural design farmers market

design build project results

A synopsis: “IF YOU BUILD IT follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what’s possible.”

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

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Click Here to Read More »»


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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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22. Februar 2014

23 Feb

Ein Beitrag von: Charlotte Grimm

© Charlotte Grimm


kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin

 
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LedGo 4 x 150 LED Photo and Video Lighting Kit Review

22 Feb

It’s been a long while since I used LED lighting for photography! In fact, it was the 6th of April, 2010. Reading back over that review, I can confirm that LED technology has come a long way! I have a great little kit on loan from ProTog here in Melbourne that consists of four LED panels, 150 LEDs each, lithium batteries, charger, AA battery adaptors, four gel packs to colour up your lights and mounting hardware, too.

LGB1504KB

LedGo 4 x 150 LED Photo / Video Lighting kit

I first saw this little kit (which comes in different forms with various sized panels) when working with Jeff and the team from ProTog at the recent Digital Show here in Melbourne, I had a few chances to play with it as I was working the booth at the show. I noticed a massive difference by comparison to the LED panels I’d tried before (and I sound like a laundry detergent commercial, but…) whiter whites and brighter brights! I could see right away that these little panels had the ability to put out a decent amount of the good stuff! And, at the same time it can be so nicely controlled. A photograph below of something I’m playing with right now, the Sony QX100, but more on that later…

gtvone_sony_qx100_ledgo

So, I’ve been using the kit for three weeks now, I’ve used it for macro, portraits, fill lighting (in a boardroom on a boom) mixed with daylight and to say I’m very impressed is a tiny little massive understatement! It’s not that I can’t achieve the lighting I’m getting from the LedGo kit with a conventional flash, it’s that I can really quickly light a scene or even hand a light to a seven year old and say “here, point it at the side of your head” without them burning themselves or having to use two hands to hold the lights up.

The individual panels with battery attached weigh in at 334 grams (0.75 lbs) as per my kitchen scales, so easily within the realm of what a model can hold if you need to take a portrait. You can very quickly and easily gang two of the 150 panels together to give you plenty of light for a standard portrait, but remember that you have four panels in the kit, so you can use two as your key light and two as a hair light or… well, the possibilities are many.

LedGo_LED_LIGHT_LG1504-KIT-bag_REVIEW

If you’re not confident with your ‘mastering light’ something you may find appealing is the “forgiveness factor”. It’s very easy to grab a LedGo panel, pop it on a stand, or as I did so many times, a NastyClamp, and turn it on and flick my camera into “live View” mode – What You See is What You Get – this means it’s very easy to see exactly what effect you will have on your scene and subject if you have the light in the wrong spot. Shifting your hand, stand, or clamp an inch to the left will make your subject more backlit, moving it forward gives less shadow etc. All of this is right there in front of you and you can set up your scene as you like it and shoot it. Of course you can do this with flash too, but constant light may be easier for you to deal with if you’re just starting out.

I’ve only had the gear for three to four weeks, but it’s been used a lot! By me AND (don’t worry ProTog!) by my 4 year old. It’s very sturdy and very easy to use! My little man likes to copy what I do and so, I found him lighting his dinosaurs one morning and taking photographs with my 5D MK3! I was somewhere between super impressed, and a little amused by the fact that he’d used the light as “the Dino door” — My point is that the LED panels can be handled by a 4 year old with no issues (for the light or the child).

LedGo_LED_Light_ProTog_Review

The first images I took with the kit were a small handful of product type shots – I’m not a product photographer but I liked the results…

Led_Lenser_photograph_gtvone_ledgo_review

Above, the Led Lenser P7 is lit with two lights, one on each side. Same with the espresso below…

espressor_simon_pollock_ledgo_led_kit_protog_review

The photograph below of the memory cards is one single LedGo panel over the top, in nice and close to give me a bit of dramatic fall off.

memory_cards_ledgo_led_lighting_kit_review

I can’t fault the LedGo LED kit – the 150 led panels are rated at 90+ CRI (colour rendering index) which means that they’re very color accurate – the clip together and clip apart feature, the gels clip on and off very easily as do the feet that allow you to use a single light in the hotshoe of your camera or you can flip the bracket around and mount it to anything with a 1/4 20″ threaded mount. (like a tripod plate, so you can stick a panel(s) on a tripod very easily)

PROS:

  • ease of use
  • durability
  • not silly expensive
  • flexible

CONS:

  • The gels need to go on and the lights need to go together a certain way – the guys at ProTog told me how, so I knew, but it’s not in the instructions so you could damage a mounting tab if you’re a bit gung-ho about putting them together. (It’s pretty obvious, you’d have to be a bit of a muppet)

I have since picked up my own LedGo panel for myself from ProTog and do not hesitate in suggesting you pop out and try one – they’re not for everything, but for video, product, and spontaneous selfies (no, really) they’re utterly fantastic!

I rate the LedGo 4 x 150 LED Panel kit a Nine of a possible Eleven stars. Clearer instructions and iIll hand those stars back to you…

–Sime

The post LedGo 4 x 150 LED Photo and Video Lighting Kit Review by Sime appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Meet ‘The Archivist’ at National Geographic

22 Feb

Screen_Shot_2014-02-21_at_10.18.28_AM.png

Ever wonder who looks after at all the old photographs in National Geographic’s archive? Well, now you can meet that man. His name is Bill Bonner and they call him ‘The Archivist’. For 31 years he’s worked mostly by himself in the basement of National Geographic’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and has handled hundreds of thousands of photographs. In total, Bonner is responsible for about eight million images in the vintage collection. See the video

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google’s Project Tango creates 3D-maps of your surroundings

22 Feb

tango4.jpg

Google has announced Project Tango, an initiative that aims to develop mobile devices that are capable of capturing 3D-maps of your surroundings. Formerly a division of Motorola, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) has been working with academic and industrial partners from nine countries, and used research from the last decade in the areas of robotics and computer vision. According to Google the goal of the project is ‘to give mobile devices a human scale understanding of space and motion.’ Click through for more.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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