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Lomography launches preorders for Berlin Kino B&W 2019 Edition film

11 Oct

Lomography has released its new Berlin Kino B&W Formula 2019 35mm ISO 400 film product. The new model follows the company’s previously released Berlin Kino Film, which it described as being inspired by the New German Cinema movement. The new film, Lomography says, offers photographers ‘an upgrade in their freedom of creative choice, no matter if they shoot with 35mm or 120 format.’

The most notable aspect of Lomography’s ‘refined’ Berlin Kino formula is its ability to offer ‘huge amounts of photographic details’ in heavily shadowed and bright environments, the company explains. The film has an ISO 400 native sensitivity but can be pushed to 800, 1600, or 3200 without compromising detail levels or tonal range, according to Lomography.

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The 2019 Edition of Lomography’s Berlin Kino B&W film can be preordered for $ 8.90 USD per roll or in a 5-roll bundle for $ 44.50 USD. The company currently estimates that its new film will start shipping next month.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The Highline Ballhead Review: The Best Bargain Ballhead in 2019?

28 Aug

The post The Highline Ballhead Review: The Best Bargain Ballhead in 2019? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

The Highline ballhead is billed by its creators, Colorado Tripod Company, as “ultralight,” with an “increased range of motion.”

But does the ballhead live up to the hype?

That’s what this Highline ballhead review is all about. I recently received a ballhead of my own, and I’ve been putting it through its paces.

In the next few sections, I’m going to take you through my experiences with the Highline ballhead. And I’ll let you know if it’s something you should consider purchasing.

(Spoiler alert: It’s a bargain worth checking out.)

Two views of the Highline ballhead.

The Highline ballhead overview

First things first:

Where does this new ballhead come from?

The Highline ballhead is produced by the Colorado Tripod Company (CTC). The CTC caught the attention of photographers when they announced on Kickstarter they would be producing the “world’s first titanium tripod system.”

For the purposes of this article, I will focus on the aluminum version of the Highline Ballhead, as that is the product I received for review. However, a titanium version is available from CTC.

As for the specs:

The Highline ballhead is has a 70 lb (32 kg) load capacity, though the ballhead itself weighs just 16 oz (0.45 kg). The head is cut out of aluminum. The ball itself is 1.89 in (4.8 cm) in diameter.

My first impressions of the Highline ballhead

The Highline ballhead makes a great impression from the get-go.

Opening the box, I found a quality neoprene drawstring bag with the Colorado Tripod Company logo printed on it. Inside the bag was the ballhead, as well as a plastic zip bag containing two Allen wrenches for working with the hex-head screws on the head. The bag also contained an adapter so the head can be mounted on tripods with 1/4-20 screws (without the adapter, the head mounts on the larger 3/8-16 screw used by most tripods).

I was impressed with the quality right out of the box.

I was immediately struck by the appearance of the ballhead, both in the quality of the parts and the beautiful gunmetal-gray finish. The design is clean and uncluttered, the knobs well-placed and sized for easy operation. All the components are metal; you won’t find a plastic piece on the entire ballhead.

My first thought?

This is a well-designed and well-built piece of photo equipment.

The CTC describes the Highline as a traditional ballhead but with some special features. Striking is the large 48mm hollow ball and the ability of the locking mechanism to provide a 54-pound load capacity, much greater than most tripod heads of this size.

The CTC indicates the Highline head is made for photographers with large camera equipment. I mounted my Canon 6D and my Canon 70-200 lens, but the head had no problem at all holding it right where I wanted.

With a DSLR (the Canon 6D here) and a large lens (the Canon 70-200), the Highline was more than up for the job.

Photographers want a tripod head that can lock in place with little droop or movement. The Highline satisfies this requirement, even with a full-sized DSLR and large lens.

This is how things look when the camera is mounted from the photographers POV:

highline ballhead review

Note the clamp-lock knob at the top left, main ball adjustment knob on the left side, and the pan-lock knob at the rear. The drag adjustment knob is at the front and is not seen in this shot.

Camera mounting, knob placement, and performance

CTC engineers designed the Highline so the camera can be held and controlled with your right hand and the tripod head knobs worked with your left hand.

The largest knob is used to release and tighten the ball. Its large size and knurled grip makes it easy to use, even with gloves.

On the rear of the head is the smaller pan-lock knob. This knob releases the head to be rotated around its vertical axis, such as when doing panorama shots. The base of the head is also marked out in degrees, which is helpful for pano shots.

On the opposite side of the head is the drag control. Adjusting this knob changes how freely the ball can be moved. This is a great aid in setting up the feel and control of motion while compensating for the size of the camera and lens used.

Once the camera is mounted and the drag knob is adjusted, you’re free to use the large knob for moving/locking the ball position.

At the top of the head is the clamp and camera mount plate. I was very pleased to see an Arca-Swiss type mount being used. This has become a standard mount in the photo world, so you don’t need to worry about mounting incompatibilities.

The mounting screw has a D-ring on it for tightening without tools. Open the clamp knob fully and tip the plate into the clamp, then tighten the knob most of the way. The camera can be moved forward and back, but will not fall out of the clamp. Balance the camera and then fully tighten the clamp knob.

The monogramming was a nice touch. And note the D-ring for tightening the mounting screw when you don’t have tools.

What to like about the Highline ballhead

The Highline ballhead is a great piece of photo equipment, so there’s a lot to like.

As I’ve mentioned above, the Highline ballhead features excellent build quality, fit, and finish.

The control knobs perform smoothly, are easy to grasp and operate, and the mechanism allows the ball to move smoothly and lock exactly where you want it without any droop.

Using the large drop slot, shooting straight up or straight down is very easy.

For a head its size, the Highline is also quite light. Even the aluminum version comes in at 18 oz (510 g). And the titanium version of the ballhead shaves 40% off that weight, coming in at just under 12 oz (340 g).

The Highline had no problem locking and holding the camera just where I wanted in portrait orientation.

The head also performs beautifully even with a good-sized DSLR and big lens. My current tripod is an aluminum MeFoto Globetrotter Classic, but while the MeFoto stock head isn’t bad for the money, it feels a little wimpy. Switching out the MeFoto head for the Highline made a world of difference: The Highline head worked great with the same camera/lens combo and fit very well on the Globetrotter tripod.

In fact, I will be using this combination as my new everyday camera support system. (Or at least until I consider the CTC Centennial tripod!)

Finally, the price is the best part of the Highline ballhead.

Though I can’t say I’ve tried every comparable ballhead out there, I’ve never found a better ballhead at this price point. The aluminum version of the Highline sells for just $ 129.00 USD. I consider that a screaming deal for a product of this quality.

Note that the titanium version of the Highline ballhead is $ 499.00 USD. If shaving six ounces off the weight is important to you and the cost is no object, go for it.

As for me?

I’m gonna be quite happy with my aluminum Highline!

What’s not to like about the Highline ballhead?

The Highline ballhead is nearly perfect, but falls short in a couple of areas.

What don’t I like about it?

First, I prefer a lever lock to the Highline’s twist-knob lock. However, the twist-knob lock should be fairly easy to switch out. And I spoke with Eric Ellwanger of CTC; Eric said CTC is already working on their own lever-lock clamps and should offer them as an option for new ballhead buyers before long. If CTC makes one with the same quality shown in the Highline head and at a decent price, sign me up!

(For those who have already purchased a head, CTC will allow those users to send in their clamps for a rebate if they’d like to switch to the lever-lock style.)

Another small nit: CTC touts the large elongated slot on the right side of the Highline head as a great feature, because it allows the camera to be flipped over into portrait configuration and gives extended motion. But I, like many other photographers, have mounted an L-bracket to my camera to allow easy switching from landscape to portrait orientation. I like that the L-bracket allows me to keep the center mass of the camera over the center of the tripod regardless of orientation. It also better supports panorama work, keeping the nodal point of the camera more centered over the rotation axis.

I still prefer using an L-bracket, which keeps my camera centered over the center axis of the tripod. Because the Highline clamp is an Arca-Swiss type, my L-bracket mounts with no problem.

In other words, for photographers like myself, the elongated slot is a bit redundant. It’s not a big issue, but I thought I’d bring it up.

What is the availability of the Highline tripod head?

The Highline was originally a Kickstarter product. This means that the first orders go to Kickstarter backers, which potentially limits availability for consumers. However, CTC says they are about caught up with Kickstarter orders and are now taking orders on their website as well as Adorama Camera.

If you check the CTC website, you may see that the Highline heads are available to purchase. Alternatively, the heads may be on backorder. Regardless, CTC says their machines are running 24/7 now. So if you want a Highline ballhead, place your order on Adorama or on the company website, and you will be billed when it ships.

Highline ballhead review: conclusion

There’s nothing I like better than a quality product at a great price, and the Highline tripod ballhead absolutely delivers.

Also, note that CTC is working on two other versions of the Highline: a smaller version and a larger version. I can see a smaller version being more practical for smaller mirrorless or bridge cameras. As for a larger version, I have trouble imagining a camera that needs more stability than what the current Highline ballhead can provide!

So if you’re in the market for an excellent ballhead at a bargain price, go have a look at the Highline tripod head.

It may be the right product for your needs.

The post The Highline Ballhead Review: The Best Bargain Ballhead in 2019? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

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2019 Guide: Apple iPad Pro for Photographers

25 Aug

Introduction

With the release of every new tablet, photographers peer past their laptops and wonder: could this be the one that lightens my gear load without sacrificing performance? The appeal of a fast and light tablet is seductive, even if you’re not looking to completely replace a desktop or laptop, but tradeoffs have so far made it a difficult choice.

2019 iPad Pro key specs:

Resolution of 2388×1668 pixels (11″ model), 2732×2048 pixels (12.9″ model)
64GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB storage capacity options
64-bit A12x chip
USB-C connection
468g (11″ model), 632g (12.9″)

Apple’s latest iPad Pro models boast impressive hardware that’s making them competitive alternatives. Depending on what you need to do, though, the software still isn’t quite there yet. Partly that’s due to limitations imposed by Apple and iOS, but it’s also because third-party developers have only recently had the power to build the types of full-blown apps photographers expect.

That said, based on what’s been announced about the next versions of iOS (called iPadOS 13 for the tablets), the iPad Pro will become even more capable when it’s released in the fall. I haven’t run the iPadOS beta on the current iPad Pro because the software is still in development, so I won’t be evaluating any of those features in this article. However, I’ll reference them as needed to talk about some of the current limitations and what to expect later this year.

Performance

During the early days of the iPad, Apple didn’t share all the hardware specifications, preferring to convey the message that the iPad was perfect for anyone’s needs. Processor speed, memory, and graphics specs were details for nerds and pros, and the computer industry had become fixated with them. Honestly, Apple was likely deflecting from the fact that the original iPad shipped with just 256 MB of RAM—not terrible for most uses on that first model, but it hampered the machine when working with large image files. It wasn’t until the third-generation iPad that it crossed into the 1 GB territory for RAM.

Affinity Photo on this latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro isn’t fazed by significant demands

Apple has since returned from that marketing sojourn with a lot to trumpet. The iPad Pro is powered by an Apple-designed, 64-bit A12X Bionic processor with eight cores that balance power and battery life: four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. When needed, all eight cores can be put to use. It includes 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, though the model equipped with 1 TB of storage includes 6 GB of RAM (the model I reviewed). The A12X also includes a 7-core graphics processor that Apple says delivers the same graphics performance as an XBox One S, and a Neural Engine that processes machine-learning tasks (such as identifying faces in the Photos app).

What does all that mean for photographers? It never feels like I’m waiting for the device to catch up. For example, in my review of Affinity Photo for iPad using a 2016 iPad Pro, I noted, “The tradeoff is that adding several Live Filters will slow down the live rendering performance. I added five Live Filters to a layer to test this, and making subsequent edits did lag significantly.” Affinity Photo on this latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro isn’t fazed by the same demands.

We’ll call it abstract art: a photo with multiple Live Effects applied in Affinity Photo for iPad.

Similarly, making adjustments in Lightroom for iPad is responsive, even on large raw files created by the Nikon Z7 and Sony A7 III cameras. I threw images at other photo editing apps, such as RAW Power, Pixelmator Photo, and Snapseed and I swear the iPad Pro yawned and asked, “Is that all you’ve got?” (I may have been overcaffeinated at the time.)


Editing in Lightroom for iPad	Editing in RAW Power

Editing in Pixelmator Photo	Editing in Snapseed

Storage for two of the configurations is roomy enough for photographers generating gigabytes of image and video files. While the 64 GB base model is pretty sparse and the 256 GB level is what I would consider tight, jumping to 512 GB or 1 TB is a lot more workable. Of course, you’ll be paying for the privilege: the 11-inch iPad Pro with 1 TB costs $ 1549. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and your comfort level with cloud services, even the 256 GB configuration is workable if you’re using Apple’s Photos or Lightroom for iPad due to their ability to temporarily delete originals to conserve space and re-download them as needed.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Slideshow: Winners of the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

24 Aug

2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Winners

The South Australian Museum has announced the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year and also shared the winning images from each of the ten categories offered in this year’s contest.

In total, 2,219 images were submitted and judged by Justin Gilligan, Glenn McKimmin and Tui De Roy. In the end, the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year award was handed out to Mat Beetson of Western Australia for the above image of a beached Fin Whale being circled by sharks on Cheynes Beach in Albany, Western Australia. The winning image was captured with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone, marking the first time a drone-captured photograph has won the competition.

‘It was unreal, arriving at a peaceful coastal town with a pristine beach and then seeing this huge whale not even five metres from shore – we then noticed the thrashing close by and realised that a few sharks had also stopped by,’ Beetson told the Southern Australian Museum about the capture. ‘I launched the drone to see the aerial view and captured a sequence of photographs, this shot was one of the last ones I took and I was very lucky that the shark came back for a look.’

Beetson received a $ 10,000 cash prize as well as a Coral Expeditions cruise for winning.

The remainder of the images in this gallery are the ten winners in each of this year’s categories.

You can find out more information about the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition and the South Australian Museum by visiting their respective websites.

Above Image:

Overall Winner

Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus

The fin whale is sighted regularly in this region; seeing one beached, however, is rare. The whale sits less than 5m from shore and 100m from residential homes, giving whale researchers access to an unusual occurrence for this species. Bronze whalers and great whites feasted over the remains before removal.

Location: Cheynes Beach, Albany, Western Australia

Gear: DJI Phantom 4 Pro Drone, 24mm, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 100, 118m high, filmed with permission DPAW

Photographer: Mat Beetson, Western Australia

Photo credits: Images owned by their respective creators, used with the permission of the South Australian Museum.

Winner, Animal Portrait

Decorator crab, Achaeus spinosus

Typically, decorator crabs attach pieces of sponge and seaweed to themselves to camouflage and hide from predators (which makes them very poor photographic subjects). However, Achaeus spinosus attaches stinging hydroids to itself to ward off potential predators (making it a very attractive subject for photography).

Location: Lembeh Strait, North East Sulawesi, Indonesia

Gear: Canon EOS 7D Mk II, Canon EF 100mm, f/2.8 macro USM, 1/250, f/16, ISO 200, INON Z240 strobe with Retra Pro light shaping device, handheld

Photographer: Ross Gudgeon, Western Australia

Winner, Animal Behaviour

Humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae,
Dolphins, unidentified species

The heat run is the ultimate wildlife encounter – multiple whales competing for a female. The chase can last for hours or even days and males can display bubble netting, open mouth gulping, physical contact, loud acoustic sounds, and breaching. Even after 16 years documenting humpback behaviour in the region, it is still truly heart-thumping and adrenaline-pumping action.

Location: Tonga, South Pacific

Gear: Canon 1DX Mk II, Canon 8–15mm fisheye, 1/320, f/8, ISO 200

Photographer: Scott Portelli, New South Wales

Winner, Animal Habitat

Commensal amphipod living in solitary ascidian

I was searching for miniature pygmy seahorses on the reefs of West Papua when I happened across this tiny amphipod crustacean. Just 0.5–1cm long, this male is sitting at the mouth of the sea squirt to guard the females and young within. According to an amphipod expert, this is likely a new species.

Location: Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia

Gear: Nikon D800, Nikkor 105mm macro, 1/125, f/14, ISO 100, twin INON Z240 strobes, handheld, Subal underwater housing

Photographer: Richard Smith, United Kingdom

Winner, Botanical

Ghost fungus, Omphalotus nidiformis

The elusive ghost mushroom show starts after dark, when the green light of its bioluminescence glows across the pine forest on the Bellarine Peninsula. It seems like magic but the glowing works to attract insects that then help disperse the spores and spread the mushroom.

Location: Ocean Grove, Victoria

Gear: Canon 5D Mk IV, Samyang 14mm, 30, f/2.8, ISO 3200, Manfrotto tripod

Photographer: Marcia Riederer, Victoria

Winner, Landscape

When Barron Falls (Din Din) is in flood, the usually tranquil scene is transformed into a tumultuous cataract as huge volumes of water make their way to the coastal plain below. The sheer violence of this display, coupled with the deafening roar, makes it an unforgettable experience.

Location: Barron Falls, Kuranda, Queensland

Gear: Pentax X-5, 28.3mm, 1/320, f/5, ISO 100, handheld

Photographer: Neil Pritchard, Queensland

Winner, Monochrome

Honeycomb moray eel, Gymnothorax favagineus
Maze coral, Leptoria sp.

I came across this amazing juxtaposition of a honeycomb moray eel and a textured brain coral. It screamed monochrome to me, but one of the significant disadvantages of shooting underwater is that you cannot just change your lens to suit the subject. Still, I slowly moved as close to the eel as possible, increased the depth of field, and adjusted my strobes to light up the coral and the eel.

Location: Banda Sea

Gear: Nikon D850, Nikonos 13mm RS, 1/200, f/16, ISO 400, Seacam housing, Ikelite 161s strobe

Photographer: Tracey Jennings, United Kingdom/Malaysia

Winner, Junior

This night was the most amazing display of lightning that I have ever seen, with constant flashes of lightning lasting hours. For the composition, I decided to focus on a man standing at the edge of the water with an umbrella to add a sense of scale to the image.

Location: Fingal Bay, New South Wales

Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mk lll, Canon 17–40mm f4 L, 15, f/4, ISO 200, tripod

Photographer: Floyd Mallon, New South Wales. Age 17

Winner, Our Impact

The Menindee Lakes were deliberately drained in 2016–17 and New South Wales has experienced a lengthy drought. Animals and birds desperately seek food and water and there is very little left due to these human-made and natural events. Lake Cawndilla is now just a drying lakebed scattered with the remains of our native animals.

Location: Cawndilla Creek, Menindee, New South Wales

Gear: DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, 20mm, 1/640, f/2.8, ISO 200, ND4 filter

Photographer: Melissa Williams-Brown, South Australia

Threatened Species Winner

Winner, Threatened Species

Mertens’ water monitor, Varanus mertensi

STATUS: ENDANGERED

Mertens’ water monitors are highly inquisitive. This extremely bold specimen ostentatiously approached me to investigate the good-looking lizard in my dome port while I observed another nearby pair engaged in courtship – sadly for him he was staring at his own reflection, not the mate of his dreams.

Location: Adelaide River, Northern Territory

Gear: Olympus OMD EM-1 Mk II, Olympus 8mm f1.8, 1/125, f/11, ISO 64, two Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes, manual flash output, handheld, Nauticam underwater housing

Photographer: Etienne Littlefair, Northern Territory

Portfolio Prize

Portfolio Prize (best portfolio of size or more images)

Artist: Charles Davis, (NSW)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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DPReview TV: Waterproof camera shootout 2019

22 Jun

Summer is here, which means it’s time for Chris and Jordan’s roundup of new waterproof cameras for 2019: the Olympus Tough TG-6, the Ricoh WG-6, and the Panasonic TS7. Find out which one is right for your next vacation.

Want more information about waterproof cameras? Watch Chris and Jordan’s 2018 Waterproof Camera Roundup, which includes several models still on the market, or read our recently updated Waterproof Camera Buying guide.

Get new episodes of DPReview TV every week by subscribing to our YouTube channel!

Introduction
Handling and design
Displays
Lens range and motor noise
Macro
Video quality and performance
Quick menus
Image quality
Conclusions
Chris is… stuck

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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National Geographic announces winners of its 2019 Travel Photographer of the Year contest

15 Jun

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Cities 1st place – and Grand Prize winner
Photo and Caption by Weimin Chu / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | GREENLANDIC WINTER

National Geographic has revealed the Grand Prize winner of this year’s Travel Photographer of the Year contest. Photographer Weimin Chu has taken home the Grand Prize award—as well as 1st place in the Cities category—with a moody image from a small fishing village in West Greenland. The caption of the winning photo reads:

Upernavik is a fishing village on a tiny island in west Greenland. Historically, Greenlandic buildings were painted different colors to indicate different functions, from red storefronts to blue fishermen’s homes—a useful distinction when the landscape is blanketed in snow.

In addition to Chu’s winning photograph, National Geographic has announced the winners, runner-ups and honorable mentions in three other categories: Cities, Nature and People.

The above gallery takes a look at the final photographs from each of the categories alongside the photographer, title and caption of each image. In addition to a full gallery of images on its own site—which allow you to download the winning photographs as wallpapers—National Geographic has a feature on the winning image and the photographer behind the camera.

Photo credit: images used with permission from National Geographic

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Cities 2nd Place
Photo and Caption by Jassen Todorov / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | IN THE AGE OF AVIATION

There are four runways at San Francisco’s International Airport (SFO). This is a rare look at the approach end of runways 28 left and right. I had dreams of documenting the motion at SFO and [arranged] permission to fly directly overhead. What a windy day it was. Winds atSFO were 35-45 miles per hour, which meant a bumpy flight, and itwas much harder to control the plane while photographing. The flight was challenging, but it was also so thrilling that I couldn’t sleep for several days afterward.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Cities 3rd Place
Photo and Caption by Sandipani Chattopadhyay / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | STREETS OF DHAKA

People pray on the street in Dhaka, Bangladesh during Ijtema. Bishwa Ijtemais one of the major Islamic religious gatherings which is [observed] annually in Dhaka and millions of Muslims visit [during this time]. Dedicated prayer grounds are not [large] enough to handle this huge number of people, so large numbers of people come to [Tongi], the main street of Dhaka. All the ground transportation and [pedestrian crossings] are suspended during that time.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Nature 1st Place
Photo and Caption by Tamara Blazquez Haik / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | TENDER EYES

A gorgeous griffon vulture is seen soaring the skies in Monfragüe National Park in Spain. How can anyone say vultures bring bad omens when looking at such tenderness in this griffon vulture’s eyes? Vultures are important members of the environment, as they take care of recycling dead matter. Vultures are noble and majestic animals—kings of the skies. When looking at them flying, we should feel humbled and admire them.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Nature 2nd Place
Photo and Caption by Danny Sepkowski / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | Geometry of the Sun

What happens before a wave breaks? That question has been my assignment this past year. On this particular day, I decided to shoot the sunset on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii. About 100 photographers were out in the morning, but I had the evening to myself. The textures from the trade winds [created] subtle colors from the west and blended well using my 100mm lens. I had to look into my viewfinder while this wave was breaking. Not an easy task when a wave is about to crush you.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Nature 3rd Place
Photo and Caption by Scott Portelli / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | DUSKY

Dusky dolphins often travel together in great numbers in the deep canyons of the Kaikoura, New Zealand in search of food. They glide through the ocean effortlessly, coming up only to breathe. Dusky dolphins are fast and will often keep pace with a speeding boat. I waited on the bow of the boat as the Dusky dolphin almost broke [through the surface]. Their elegance and streamlined bodies are built for speed and maneuverability—accentuated by the smooth, clear water of the New Zealand coastline.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

Nature Honorable Mention
Photo and Caption by Jonas Schafer / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | KING OF THE ALPS

A herd of ibexes in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland cross a ridge above Lake Brienz. Their powerful and impressive horns show who the king of the Alps are. Ibexes are ideally adapted to live at dizzying heights. The continuing ridge path and the rising fog show the natural habitat of these animals. After a few hours of observing the animals, I spotted the ibex herd on one side of the ridge. Several ibexes stopped at the transition [to view the world around them].

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

People 1st Place
Photo and Caption by Huaifeng Li / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | SHOWTIME

Actors prepare for an evening opera performance in Licheng County, China. I spent the whole day with these actors from makeup to [stage]. I’m a freelance photographer, and the series “Cave Life” is a long-term project of mine. In China’s Loess Plateau, local residents dig holes in the loess layer [to create cave living spaces, known as yaodongs] and use the heat preservation properties to survive cold winters. This series mainly records the life, entertainment, belief, labor, and other [daily] scenes of the people living in the caves.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

People 2nd Place
Photo and Caption by Yoshiki Fujiwara / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | DAILY ROUTINE

This photo was taken at a public park at Choi Hung House in Hong Kong. When I visited during the afternoon, it was very crowded with many young people taking pictures and playing basketball. But when I visited at sunrise, it was quiet and a different place. [The area] is [designated] for neighborhood residents in the early morning, and there was a sacred atmosphere. I felt divinity when I saw an old man doing tai chi in the sun.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

People 3rd Place
Photo and Caption by José Antonio Zamora / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | HORSES

Every year on the feast of Saint Anthony the ceremony of the purification of animals, called Las Luminarias, is celebrated in Spain. In the province of Avila, horses and horsemen jump over bonfires in the ritual that has been maintained since the 18th century. The animals [are not hurt], and it is a ritual that is repeated every year. To make the photo, I moved from Seville to San Bartolomé de Pinares because I am very interested in photographing ancestral rites.

2019 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year winners

People Honorable Mention
Photo and Caption by Navin Vatsa / National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest | MOOD

I captured this layered moment during sunrise along the banks of the Yamuna River in Delhi, India. This boy was thinking silently, and visitors were enjoying the loud musical chirping of thousands of seagulls. The early morning golden light from the east mixed with the western blue light, creating a [ethereal atmosphere]. I am a regular visitor [here] and have photographed this place for the past three years. Now, many national and international photographers have begun visiting [too].

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Catalog Photos Like a Pro: ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 Review

11 Jun

The post Catalog Photos Like a Pro: ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 Review appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.

ACDSee software has been around since the earliest days of digital photography. For 20 years, it’s been competing with Adobe Photoshop. Today, with Adobe offering its top image-editing programs by subscription only, there’s more room than ever for alternatives. ACDSee offers a compelling subscription model of its own, but it also maintains a full suite of standalone products. Photo Studio Standard 2019 is among them, and I’ll review it here.

ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 - default layout

The default layout in Manage mode of ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019. You can move things around as you wish and close any panes you don’t need.

Aimed at keen photographers with growing photo collections, ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 is ideal for sorting, finding, and viewing photos. It also has a set of editing tools that will quickly make your pictures look good for the web or printing. We’ll look at all this in detail. To avoid wasting anyone’s time, this program recognizes and opens raw files but it’s not a raw editor or metadata editor – it’s a pixel editor. You have no control over how raw files are processed and can only save 8-bit files.

Embedding ACDSee metadata into DNG files

Preview of a DNG file. You can embed ACDSee metadata into DNG files, unlike other raw formats.

This review of ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 will include the following:

Starting up

One thing that struck me immediately about ACDSee software was how quickly it opened. Sometimes I wait 2-3 minutes for Photoshop CC to start. There are technical reasons for that, like the plug-ins I have loaded into it and its sheer girth. Perhaps it connects to my Adobe account, too. Whatever. Photo Studio Standard 2019 opens in around 15-20 seconds every time.

Manage mode

Digital asset management (DAM) is the great strength of ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019. In Manage mode, the software offers all you need for sorting and locating your images. Like many people, you may already have your folders arranged chronologically. This is handy for sifting through them using the folder pane of ACDSee, but the software gives you lots of other ways to find pictures.

ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 - folder pane

Here, I’m using the folder pane in Manage mode to browse photos. I’m not the best organizer, but I do have most folders labeled chronologically.

Calendar pane

I latched onto the Calendar pane within minutes of opening ACDSee. Even if you have your folders arranged by date, it’s so quick to rifle through your photos month by month using the calendar. You can widen the search by choosing multiple months or use single days to narrow it. I used this feature straight away to dig out a few files I might’ve overlooked as potential stock photos.

Catalog pane

The ACDSee Catalog pane gives you several ways to find what you’re looking for: color labels, keywords, ratings, saved searches, categories, and auto categories. Of course, you have to add most of this info yourself to the images, but that’s easy using the software. Auto categories come from EXIF data, so you can filter results by the lens or aperture used, for instance.

There are various ways to filter photos in the Catalog pane, some of which rely on you having rated, keyworded, labeled, tagged, or categorized your photos already. In this screenshot, I’m looking at photos taken with a particular lens.[/

Map pane

ACDSee includes a Map pane. Drag your photo(s) onto the place where they were taken, hit Save, and the GPS coordinates are automatically embedded into the EXIF data. Cool! That wasn’t a feature I expected at this price point (Lightroom has it), but it does show how thorough this software is in what it does.

Dragging a photo or several photos onto a spot on the map and hitting “Save” embeds GPS coordinates into the metadata.

Shortcuts pane

The Shortcuts pane offers a way of bookmarking files you know you’ll often need. It makes it that little bit quicker to find any special photos – perhaps a collection of your best-ever shots.

Image Basket

Another neat feature of Photo Studio Standard 2019 is the Image Basket. Normally, when I’m preparing a gallery for the web, I create a new folder on my desktop to work from. The Image Basket is a way of gathering original files together without having to copy them elsewhere.

Keywording in ACDSee

Keywords are an invaluable way of quickly finding what you’re looking for, but they can be time-consuming to add. ACDSee is ahead of Adobe in this respect. It’ll import any keywords you’ve added elsewhere to the IPTC data, but it has excellent keywording capability of its own.

The ability to create large keyword sets of up to 250 is enough to satisfy any lexicologist. I wouldn’t normally need that many, but 40 or 50 isn’t uncommon. Adobe software is restrictive in this respect.

A welcome feature of the new ACDSee ‘Quick Keyword’ tool is the ability to use 25 rows by 10 columns of words (i.e., up to 250 keywords). In Lightroom, you can only have 9 keywords max per set – a source of frustration for many users. ACDSee has its own metadata field that is stored in the database rather than embedded in the file, but you can embed it into suitable file formats.

Photos mode

In Photos mode, ACDSee catalogs all images from the location(s) of your choice and puts them on display so you can scroll through them. Like the Calendar pane, it’s an easy way for you to search visually and find pictures. Hovering the cursor over a thumbnail brings up a larger preview with vital info such as image dimensions, file size, and folder location.

Photos mode on the daily setting. You can scroll through your whole database, but it’s still divided by daily, monthly or yearly headings.

View mode

Double-click on a photo in Manage or Photos mode and you’ll bring up a large view of the image in ACDSee’s View mode. Various viewing options are available as well as useful editing tools like Auto Light EQ and Auto Lens. You can rapidly scroll through files in this mode and tag images or add ratings, labels, keywords, and categories. It’s an extension of Manage mode if you want it to be. Clicking on Edit mode from here takes the open picture into editing.

View mode is the place to be if you want to browse large previews of your pictures. Double-clicking on any picture in Manage or Photos mode brings you here, too. You can also perform a few basic edits in this space or categorize photos.

Edit Mode

ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 has plenty to offer in terms of editing but something has to be sacrificed at this price point, and that’s parametric (non-destructive) editing. Photo Studio Standard is a pixel editor only, so you make physical changes to rendered images. You can still leave the original file untouched, but as soon as you finish editing and save a file, there’s no going back and tweaking your adjustments. This is more important if you’re in the habit of reworking pictures or if you edit extensively and want your work to be reversible.

Repair

There are a couple of tools under the “Repair” heading. The red-eye reduction tool is something I’d probably never have a need for, but I tested this with a public domain image. Works well – easy to use.

With this close-up view, I found myself wishing the size of the adjustment would go slightly larger, as it barely covered the dilated pupil. But still, the red-eye has gone. Most portraits won’t be as near to the subject. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

One of the few glitches I encountered in ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 was a malfunction among the repair tools. I can get the Heal tool to work, and it does a nice job of blending the sampled pixels into a new area. But the Clone tool hasn’t worked for me even after a reinstall. I just get a blacked-out image. This appears to be a bug in the program, as it works flawlessly in other ACDSee software I have on my PC.

Add

Under the “Add” heading you can insert text into your photos or a watermark (the Watermark feature is new in 2019). The default watermark is the ACDSee camera logo, but you can use your own graphic if you want. There are also borders, vignetting, special effects and tilt-shift choices here.

The Tilt-Shift tool makes Manhattan look miniaturized.

Personally, I’d be most likely to use vignetting out of these, as it helps direct the viewer’s eye and is a useful photographic tool. It can be fun to add borders to your photos, too, which you can customize in this case with a wide selection of textures or any color you choose.

I counted 54 special effects in ACDSee’s collection, and each is modifiable in some way. Even the ones that don’t instantly appeal might work for you with some adjustment, so there’s a lot to go at. Among my favorites are Collage, Lomo, and Orton. The latter is great for creating a dreamy look.

ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 - Orton special effect

This is the Orton special effect, making a peaceful scene even dreamier.

Geometry

Under “Geometry”, ACDSee provides rotate, flip, crop, and resize tools. There are some thoughtful touches among these tools, like the ability to control darkness outside the crop area. The Rotate tool also has a cropping feature, so you can level the picture up if necessary and correct wonky horizons.

When resizing, the default algorithm is Lanczos, but it’s worth experimenting, depending on what you do with your photos. Lanczos gives a sharp result when downsizing, for instance, but if you want to back off that a little and achieve smoother edges, try Bicubic.

Exposure/Lighting

ACDSee offers some powerful tools under “Exposure/Lighting,” not least its excellent Light EQ technology alongside traditional tools like levels and curves. Light EQ is similar to curves, only better in some respects since it treats highlights, mid-tones, and shadows separately. That’s only possible to a degree using curves without layers.

Here, I’m using ACDSee Light EQ to adjust the tone of the image. By having the Exposure Warning switched on, I can ensure a good tonal range without losing detail in the shadows or highlights. As soon as pixels appear in red or green, I back off the adjustment slightly. I have the histogram showing the blue channel, as that’s the nearest to clipping at both ends.

The auto buttons in these exposure/lighting controls are also worth a hit every now and again. Personally, I find the auto setting in Light EQ tends to make things too bright, but it might provide a better starting point.

You can set your black and white points using eyedroppers in levels and also define the clipping limits under “tolerance.” (Don’t worry if this means nothing to you – it’s only one of several options.

I should mention, too, that ACDSee provides an Edit Brush and gradients with many of these controls, so you can apply edits to selected parts of the image.

Color

Under “Color,” you’ll find White Balance, Color Balance, Convert to Black and White, and Color LUTs. The White Balance tool is excellent, though, like all white balance tools, it relies on neutral tones in the image to use as reference points.

You could also correct color using the Color Balance tool, especially in conjunction with the floating histogram. A good thing about the ACDSee histogram is you can stretch it out as far as you like for a detailed look at tonal distribution. There’s a hue/saturation tool alongside color balance.

You can make the floating histogram as compact or elongated as you wish.

“Convert to Black and White” is new to ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019. Based on the colors you know are in the image (e.g. blue sky), you can adjust their brightness to alter the contrast of the final result. This also lets you emphasize different areas of the photo. Good stuff! Contrast is also affected by the RGB percentages, which must always add up to 100. A high proportion of red usually creates more contrast in cloudy blue skies, for instance. Colorized monochrome images are possible, too, under Convert to Black and White.

Using the new “Convert to Black and white” feature, I’ve increased the brightness of cyan a fair bit to make the fire-escape steps stand out more. Then I’ve colorized the picture with sepia-like brown tones.

One of the best things in ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 Edit mode has to be Color LUTs. These let you alter the look of your photos (often drastically) via numerical color shifts. They’re like photo filters on steroids. ACDSee LUTs are good, but you can also download LUTs from the web and load them into the program.

The lower half of this picture has the ACDSee “Turin” Color LUT applied to it. Look closely and you’ll see it’s darker with deeper blue windows and yet has a more cyan sky. You can use the Edit Brush or gradients on many edits.

Detail

Sharpen, blur, noise, and clarity all lie under the “Detail” heading. These are all pretty standard. The sharpen tool is like unsharp mask with amount, radius and threshold settings. Typically, you use a low radius for high-frequency photos with a lot of fine detail or a higher radius to bring out coarse detail across a wide area. A sharpening mask slider would be a nice bonus here if I were compiling a wants list. That would be quicker than selective sharpening with a brush.

Other Features

In case all the above isn’t enough, there’s more. For instance, the external editor feature in Manage mode lets you swiftly open images in other programs. Perhaps that will be Photoshop or it could be ACDSee Photo Editor 10, which would complement Photo Studio Standard well.

ACDSee also has a dashboard that gives you stats on equipment used, database size, and photo counts that show you how prolific you’ve been at various times.

ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 dashboard

The ACDSee Dashboard, indicating prolific use of a Sony RX100 in my case. There are numerous other stats available.

You can create PDFs, PowerPoint files, slideshow files, zip archives, contact sheets, and HTML albums straight out of ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019, too. There really isn’t a lot you can’t do.

More new stuff

ACDSee also introduced AutoSave and Auto Advance features in 2019. AutoSave does away with the “do you want to save changes?” dialog when you move onto another image. Auto Advance is good for rating, labeling, or categorizing photos, as it moves onto the next image automatically once you’ve clicked.

Also new in 2019 are customizable keyboard shortcuts, support for HEIF files (used on later iPhones), and print improvements that let you adjust for differences between what you see on screen and what your printer produces.

Conclusion

As much as I understand the benefits of SaaS and subscription software models, I think there will always be a market for standalone products that consumers can update when they want.

ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 is, first and foremost, a great photo organizer. I’ve never seen better. It’s quick as a browser – doesn’t hold you up – and it gives you workflow choices. There are lots of nice touches to make tasks easier. It’s not especially advanced as a photo editor, but you can achieve a lot without layers, 3rd-party plugins, and even Adobe’s unassailable repair tools.

If like me, you prefer taking photos to organizing them, ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 is the ideal way to get your collection under control. It drills into your database from several directions and helps you find any picture. Many people will want to supplement the editing capabilities with other programs, but you won’t find much better than this for photo management.

Disclaimer: ACDSee is a paid partner of dPS

The post Catalog Photos Like a Pro: ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019 Review appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.

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Best smartphone cameras of 2019

08 Jun

There are plenty of factors to consider when choosing your next smartphone, and it’s not a decision that should be made based solely on any individual feature. But we hear from a lot of folks that camera performance is right at the top of the list of considerations when it’s time to upgrade, and we’re often asked which smartphone camera is the best.

While we rank the Google Pixel 3 as the best all-around smartphone camera, it’s important to consider your unique photographic needs. Here are the smartphone cameras we think are worth consideration for a range of use-cases.

If you’re well-versed in smartphone imaging terminology, skip right ahead. But if you’d like a quick primer, here are some of the terms you’ll see referred to frequently in this guide:

Computational photography: Image capture and processing techniques that replace traditional optical processes with digital, or computational, ones.

Portrait mode: A photo mode that mimics the blurry-background effect known as bokeh. It’s used commonly for portraits, but isn’t necessarily limited to that use case.

Night Sight: Specifically, a proprietary Google camera mode that captures multiple frames and combines them to create a final image with more detail and less noise in dark situations. Other manufacturers offer their own, similar, modes but the Pixel 3’s is especially impressive, thanks to its use of super resolution that makes the mode useful even for daytime shooting.

Hybrid zoom: A method for zooming that combines traditional optical zoom with computational techniques, allowing for better detail rendering at intermediary focal lengths than digital zoom alone.

Best all-around: Google Pixel 3

It’s certainly not flawless, but if there’s one mobile device to recommend above all others for pure imaging prowess, it’s gotta be the Pixel. Sure, you’ll have just one main camera lens at your disposal, but Google’s clever multi-frame image processing brings capabilities to a single camera that are downright spooky.

Night Sight does an impressive job of rendering very dark scenes, and can even be used to bring out even more detail in well-lit scenes (provided your subject isn’t moving too much). It even uses machine learning to provide more pleasing colors. Portrait mode handles tricky subjects like hair convincingly, videos are well-stabilized, and it’s all integrated with Google’s powerful Photos app.

So who shouldn’t buy a Pixel 3? If any of the following use-cases are your primary goal for your smartphone photography, then you should consider our picks in those categories. And of course, if you’re deeply entrenched in iOS and/or you can’t stand Android, you’ll probably be happier with the iPhone XS.

Best for video: iPhone XS

The iPhone not only offers 4K/60p standard video recording (a notch above the Pixel’s 4K/30p) but it also offers HDR video capture at 4K/30p. This mode uses multiple frames for impressive dynamic range, and is simply some of the best footage we’ve seen from a smartphone.

The XS is a fantastic all-around camera in its own right, going so far as to even simulate optical properties of lenses like mechanical vignetting, so if you plan on consistently shooting a mix of stills and video it’s worth considering over the Pixel.

On the stills side, we’re particularly impressed by Apple’s decision to capture a wider (P3) color gamut and display high dynamic range photos in a manner that takes advantage of the HDR capabilities of the display – something no other phone (or camera) on the market does to-date. Not to mention that we’re partial to Apple’s color rendition over Google’s – the latter tends toward cooler white balance and less saturation.

We give the Pixel 3 an edge in our recommendations thanks to features like Night Sight and computational Raw (read up on all of that here) but the XS isn’t far behind.

Best portrait mode: Google Pixel 3

Oh, portrait mode: sometimes it’s pretty good, sometimes it’s okay, and sometimes it’s downright terrible. It’s a feature that’s very much a work-in-progress on every phone, but we think the best implementation currently is on the Pixel 3. Google uses its dual-pixel sensor as well as machine learning to identify subjects and backgrounds, giving a slightly more realistic, progressive blur. While others use similar approaches, Google’s additional use of machine learning to help the camera understand depth cues makes it stand out from the rest. It’s good enough for Instagram.

Best for zoom: Huawei P30 Pro

Huawei is the first manufacturer to bring folded optics to the smartphone market, packing a 5x telephoto lens into its P30 Pro alongside standard and wide-angle camera units. Other phones offer 5x digital zoom, but this tends to degrade image quality and the P30 Pro’s 5x optical zoom image quality is significantly better. Furthermore, it utilizes hybrid zoom to fill in the gaps between its standard and tele lenses for improved image quality compared to simple digital zoom.

Though it lacks the impressive optical telephoto reach, the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ are also worth considering for more focal length flexibility. They each provide 2x telephoto and ultra-wide lenses in addition to a standard wide-angle unit. If the P30 Pro isn’t available in your area and you’re one of the Android faithful, the S10-series are also good all-rounders.

Best budget smartphone camera: Google Pixel 3a

Flagship phones have packed in more and more impressive features in recent years and likewise, MSRPs have ballooned right along with them – up to and beyond the $ 1000 mark. In this context, Google’s Pixel 3a is bargain for $ 400.

You can easily spend less on a phone by opting for a device that’s a generation or two old, but you’ll be missing out on the significant camera tech improvements available on current models. That’s why the Pixel 3a is sort of groundbreaking. By sacrificing a few features reserved for the flagship (the 3a lacks wireless charging, water resistance and uses a slower processor) and some nice-to-have imaging features (no wide-angle selfies) you’ll still get the latest camera tech and save a bunch of money.

Should I wait for the next round of flagship phones?

You don’t have to be James Holzhauer (YES RICHARD I KNOW THAT NOBODY OUTSIDE OF THE US WATCHES JEOPARDY JUST GIVE ME THIS ONE THING) to know that betting on new flagship smartphones debuting in the fall is a safe wager. Should you wait a few more months for the latest and greatest? That depends.

The next crop of phones will likely rely on machine learning for smarter algorithms to process images, isolate Portrait Mode subjects and offer more focal lengths and zoom ratios. Screens will get bigger and nicer, bezels will continue to shrink and the Battle of the Notch wages on.

With smartphone sales down there’s more motivation to make the next generation even more enticing

Things get interesting on the camera hardware side. Rumors point to Google adding another rear camera, and murmurings of a triple-camera iPhone are looking increasingly plausible. That’s good news for anyone with an eye on a budget model too: if the XS successor adds a wide-angle camera to the mix, then the XR successor may adopt the dual-lens module currently used by the flagship.

If nothing else, with smartphone sales down there’s more motivation to make the next generation even more enticing (and the ‘affordable’ versions more affordable). If you’re an early adopter or hoping for a few more features on a budget model, you might want to hold off. But if you’re upgrading from a phone that’s more than a generation old, you’ll probably be satisfied with the advancements present in the current crop of flagships for some time.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Video: A curated collection of street photography from 1838 to 2019

22 May

YouTuber Guy Jones, who specializes in sharing historical images, footage, and audio, has uploaded a new video highlighting street photography from 1838 to 2019. The video provides viewers with a curated look at street photography from past generations, including images of New York City, London, Paris, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco, and other destinations.

According to a note on the video, all of the images have been remastered and color adjusted. A full list of audio accompanying the images can be found in the video’s description. Viewers interested in seeing other similar content can find a huge catalog of historical images through the Library of Congress website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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2019 Buying Guide: Best instant cameras

21 May

Looking to get in on the instant camera fun? We tried every model and think the Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 strikes the right balance between price and features – the Instax Wide 300 is our choice if you crave a larger format.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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