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A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and future Z-mount lenses

24 Aug

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

The higher resolution Z 7 might be getting most of the attention, but Nikon’s new Z 6 also has a lot going for it. We’re at the launch of the Z system in Tokyo, where we took a closer look at the Z 6 and three forthcoming ‘S-line’ lenses.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Cosmetically the Z 6 is virtually identical to the higher-resolution Z 7, and even internally, they have an awful lot in common (I’d recommend you start here, if you want to get a feel for the general feature set of both cameras) None of the key differences between the Z 6 and Z 7 are noticeable until you really start digging through their respective menu systems.

As such, like the Z 7 the Z 6 is a comfortable, nicely-sized mirrorless ILC with a good, deep grip and in terms of its general design and operation it has a lot in common with the established D800-series DSLRs – at least until it comes to the autofocus modes. Here, the Z 6 is shown with its ‘kit’ zoom, the collapsible 24-70mm F4, attached.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

The unusually subtle name plate on the lower right of the Z 6’s front is the only indication that this is the lower-priced model in Nikon’s brand new Z lineup.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

You’d need an electron microscope to really tell the difference, but this is what 24MP looks like, compared to the 47-ish MP of the more expensive Z7. If the Z7 is sort of a mirrorless D850, the Z 6 is sort of a mirrorless D750. Sort of, because there’s a lot more going on inside the Z 6 than the bare resolution drop compared to the Z 7 might suggest.

If you want to compare it to any camera, actually, the Sony a7 III is probably a more sensible point of comparison.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Compared to the Z 7, the Z 6 is faster, for one thing – and by a decent margin. Whereas the Z 7 tops out at 9fps (AE locked, no live view) the Z 6 – which shares the same Expeed 6 processor, but has less data to move around – can manage up to 12fps.

Sadly there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this life (that’s an expression I just came up with) and Nikon hasn’t bestowed the same 493-point PDAF system on the Z 6 that you’ll find in the more expensive Z 7. Instead, the Z 6 offers 273 PDAF points, covering the same 90% vertical and horizontal frame coverage.

The Z 6’s autofocus should be slightly more sensitive in low light than the Z 7, and we suspect that the Z 6 might ultimately have a slight edge over the Z 7 when it comes to outright AF speed, but that’s something we’ll have to wait for reviewable cameras to really test. In a quick, thoroughly unscientific test against the Z 7 at Nikon’s touch and try session in Tokyo, I couldn’t detect a noticeable difference in AF responsiveness between the two cameras with the 24-70mm F4 attached.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

This is a Z 7, not a Z 6 (although you’d be forgiven for not noticing) pictured in what Nikon hopes will become its natural environment – a professional video rig. Since both of the new Z-series cameras are hybrid designs, they’re equally comfortable (in more than one sense of the term) shooting video as they are stills.

Both cameras offer 4K and HD video, but the Z 6 could turn out to be the more compelling of the two new models for serious videography. That’s because (like the Sony a7 III) it offers 4K footage based on full pixel readout with no crop, whereas the higher-resolution Z7 can only do this in its cropped Super 35 / DX format mode. In theory, this should result in cleaner, more detailed video. So if you’re primarily interested in shooting video (or you’re a ‘bit of both’ shooter that can live with 24MP stills) the Z 6 might be the better purchase, when it becomes available in the next few weeks.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

It always warms my heart to see things cut in half, and at the Tokyo launch event Nikon did not disappoint. Here’s a Z 6/7 with a 24-70mm F4, sitting above a D850 with a 24-70mm F2.8 VR. Nikon is cheating a bit by putting an F2.8 zoom alongside an F4, but hopefully you get the point – both Z-series cameras are significantly smaller (and about 26% lighter) than the D850.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Here’s a closer look at one of the most impressive features of both the Z 6 and Z 7, their 3.69-dot EVF, which as you can see, is accompanied by an optical assembly that makes the D850’s finder assembly look pretty simple by comparison. Nikon could easily have skimped on the Z 6’s finder compared to the more expensive Z 7, but we’re pleased to see that this didn’t happen.

The viewfinder experience from both cameras really is lovely. After a couple of days shooting with a Z 7, I actually had trouble going back to the (excellent) optical finder of the D850, which feels cool and even a little unsharp by comparison.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Nikon has promised a dedicated grip for the Z 6/7, which was on show (in the form of this rough 3D printed mockup) in Tokyo. Details are still TBD, but we assume that Nikon will at least add a rubberized coating before it becomes officially available to buy.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Also not quite ready for primetime are three forthcoming S-series lenses (from left to right) the 24-70mm F2.8, 58mm F0.95 ‘Noct’ and 14-30mm F4. (Sorry about the limited depth of field in this shot, I was trying to isolate the Noct, and then forgot to get a proper group shot before moving on. It’s been a long day.)

As you can hopefully tell, though, the Noct is massive and the 24-70mm F2.8 – while not quite as enormous – looks like it will also be a pretty beefy lens when it’s released next year, dwarfing the compact 24-70mm F4 kit lens. The 14-30mm (shown mounted on a Z 7) on the other hand is fairly compact, which we know is one of the technical advantages of a very short flange-back distance.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

A closeup of the rather natty ‘Noct’ script and display screen on the forthcoming 58mm F0.95, which we’re told can be customized to show information such as depth of field, shooting aperture and focus distance.

The Noct is a manual focus lens, and this shot shows off its very broad, textured focus ring. We couldn’t pick this mockup up (or indeed any of them) to judge build quality or ergonomics, but we can’t wait to get our hands on a working sample.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Moving to the rear of the lens reveals a chunky tripod collar, to support the presumably substantial weight of the F/0.95 lens.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Here’s a closer look at the control layout of the 24-70mm F2.8, showing its display screen, Disp button (which we assume toggles between display modes) and a customizable L-Fn button. A full list of functions that can be assigned to the button is listed in our First Impressions Review of the Z 7.

A closer look at Nikon’s new Z 6 and roadmap ‘S’ lenses

Compared to the 24-70mm F2.8 and 58mm F0.95, the 14-30mm F4 looks positively tiny. Cosmetically, it shares a lot of the same design accents of the 35mm, 50mm and 24-70mm lenses announced alongside the Z 6. Details of all three forthcoming lenses are in short supply, but we’ll share more when we have more to share.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Skylum’s DAM will be included with future version of Luminar, free of charge to current owners

10 Jul

Skylum has announced that Digital Asset Manager (DAM) for Luminar will be provided for free to owners of the current version of Luminar – details of which will be revealed “within a few weeks.” Coming with the next version, Skylum will increase Luminar’s retail price, promising that it will “still be very affordable.”

Skylum hasn’t yet revealed a shipping date for DAM, explaining that it is still working on development. The company anticipates its DAM taking Luminar “in a new direction,” offering faster workflows, custom workspaces, a less cluttered interface, and much more. Talking about this is Skylum president Scott Bourne, who said in the company’s recent blog post:

Skylum plans to build our DAM so that we can keep simple things simple. We’re focusing our research and engineering efforts on a few key things. We want our software to be fast. Our goal is to be the fastest. Period. We also want to make sure that with Luminar, it will be fast, fun and easy to browse, rate, edit, share, and enjoy your pictures. That’s it.

Future versions of Luminar will be created with the company’s design goals in mind. Skylum is encouraging its customers to make sure they’re using the latest Luminar version to be put in the queue for the eventual free beta DAM.

Via: 43Rumors

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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SmugMug snaps up Flickr, promises ‘the future is bright’

21 Apr

Photo-sharing site Flickr has been acquired by photo hosting service SmugMug. According to USA Today, SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill is committed to ‘breathing new life’ into the once market-leading service, and will maintain it as ‘a standalone community of amateur and professional photographers’.

One of the most important and popular services of the digital photography boom of the mid 2000s, Flickr was acquired by Yahoo more than a decade ago, but in recent years the site has been in decline as once-loyal users abandoned the stagnant platform in favor of competitive services. Flickr loyalists had hoped that Yahoo’s then-new CEO Melissa Mayer would be able to ‘make Flickr awesome again’ when she took over in 2012, but the once industry-leading photo site never regained its former relevance.

Following Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo and Flickr in 2017, it looked possible that the service might be shuttered, but it seems that with the SmugMug acquisition, this one-time giant of the digital photography landscape may have a brighter future than some users had feared.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Canon illuminated buttons patent hints at future prosumer DSLR design

23 Nov

Canon has filed a patent that shows illuminated buttons appearing on the back of a prosumer DSLR camera (7D/5D-like design), hinting that the feature may be added to the maker’s future models. Details are sparse at this time, but an illustration in the patent shows a series of buttons with what appears to be a row of LEDs behind them.

The patent implies that this tech is about lighting up buttons while simultaneously preventing light leaks, explaining that this particular design: “enables a letter or character on the surface of a button to emit light uniformly […] without providing any dedicated separate member for light guiding and light shielding, and can prevent light leakage to the inside and outside of the device.”

As with all patents, we can’t say for sure when (or even if) this feature will make its way into a Canon camera, but it seems like a no-brainer and something that would be simple to implement. Check out the full patent for yourself here (Japan Patent Application 2017-147019).

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Is the future of beginner photography a bright orange camera with no buttons?

18 Nov

Traditional camera manufacturers fail beginner photographers over and over.

They’ll gladly sell you a camera with a kit lens, but they’ve struggled to help beginners with any of the challenges that come after taking it out of the box.

It’s not for lack of trying; every manufacturer has some form of beginner-friendly mode that will tell you how to open the aperture wider for sharp subjects with blurry backgrounds. But when you put a slow kit lens on a typical entry-level camera, you quickly find that there’s more to it than just opening or closing the aperture.

Only the viewfinder, shutter button and diopter are exposed – no LCD, no dials, everything else is off limits. It’s truly a point-and-shoot.

And as your memory cards fill up with photos, you realize there’s so much more to photography than just pointing a nice camera at a subject – from composition to editing to how the heck do I get these off my camera and on to my phone so I can share them? It ends up being a frustrating experience, and that nice new camera ends up on a shelf at home.

I recently paid a visit to a little boutique on University Avenue in Palo Alto that’s taking a radical approach to bringing photography to beginners.

Relonch doesn’t sell anything you can walk out of the store with, and it’s not a hardware company. Their ‘Photo Club’ lends out its Relonch 291 camera free of charge. Specifically, it’s a Samsung NX camera stitched up inside a brightly colored leather case. Only the viewfinder, shutter button and diopter are exposed – no LCD, no dials, everything else is off limits.

I know, I know, to a seasoned photographer, this is a vision of hell. But for a beginner who doesn’t really want those things, it’s kind of genius.

Here’s how it works: you reserve the camera in advance and borrow it for, say, the length of a vacation. The camera uses a 4G data connection to automatically send a preview of each photo taken to a companion app. The previews are just that – they’re screenshot-proof because they’re sepia-toned and watermarked. You select the photos you want to keep at a $ 1 each. At that point they’re sent to the cloud for processing, and back to your app where they’re yours to keep.

Interestingly, instead of a kit zoom Relonch 291 comes with a fast prime attached. And you aren’t just handed a camera when you walk in the door – you also get a crash course in photographic composition.

Nobody at Best Buy ever made a cup of Cuban espresso for someone buying their first DSLR.

During this lesson there’s no mention of shutter speeds or f-stops because there’s no need – the camera handles all of that. Instead, it focuses on getting the user to try different composition techniques that take advantage of the shallow depth of field afforded by the lens and larger sensor.

Yuri Motin, a Relonch co-founder, takes me through the introductory session that a typical customer gets when first picking up a camera. And let me tell you, it is a rare customer experience. Nobody at Best Buy ever made a cup of Cuban espresso for someone buying their first DSLR.

Relonch automatically processes Raw images, making adjustments to exposure, white balance, sharpening and so on. This is a photo Yuri took of me with one of the cameras. Bless the facial-recognition-skin-smoothing algorithm that produced this image.

A little cafe setup at the camera club allows you to try focus-and-recompose to put either your subject or the coffee in front of them in focus. Another scenario I’m guided through is using the handle of a suitcase to frame Yuri in the background, pretending to charge his phone while sitting on the floor. It’s a common scene to anyone in an airport, but an opportunity for a candid portrait that many beginning photographers would overlook.

I didn’t frame this exactly how Yuri told me to but he gave me a passing grade anyway.

Relonch has cleverly addressed many of the pains beginning photographers feel. Sending the images to your smartphone happens automatically. Curation is built in – instead of coming home with hundreds of photos, you have only your favorites. The fast prime lens offers much shallower depth-of-field than your typical slow kit zoom, and the composition lesson helps first time photographers use it to their advantage.

And then there’s the look of the thing – the brightly colored leather case gives the camera a dual purpose as a fashionable accessory. It’s not a look everyone will want to sport, but if you ask me it’s miles ahead of any attempt by Canon or Nikon to dress up an entry-level DSLR.

Relonch announced its 291 camera just under a year ago, and at that point planned to loan cameras at a rate of $ 100 per month, with the same image editing process baked in. There was a catch, though – only your best photos were delivered to your mobile device, and they didn’t arrive until the next day.

In the end, Relonch launched with a pricing plan that’s easier to stomach, and the service is now aimed clearly at travelers. And that’s a pretty smart move, because I hear this line a lot:

“I’m going to [insert exotic location here] and want to take better photos than my phone takes, what camera should I buy?”

That answer is getting more and more expensive, because the difference between what your phone and a $ 500 camera can do is rapidly shrinking. Paying by the photo rather than sinking a grand into a camera system you may or may not continue to use after the trip sounds like a fair value proposition.

And it’s also true that these days people, especially ‘The Youths’, seem perfectly happy to pay a little bit at a time for something they don’t own, rather than invest a lot of money up front to own it. Not all that long ago it seemed unfathomable to pay a fee every month to access your music collection, or drive a car you don’t own and pay by the hour. But the Spotify-ing, Zipcar-ing generation is happily embracing a life owning less.

Paying by the photo rather than sinking a grand into a camera system you may or may not continue to use after the trip sounds like a fair value proposition

Still, there’s another hurdle in the way. Relonch’s business model may have partially been made possible by the smartphone, but it’s a double-edged sword: smartphone cameras might just become good enough to render it unnecessary.

Yuri isn’t worried about that. When I ask him what Relonch thinks of the rise of bokeh imitating Portrait Modes, he says they welcome more beautiful photos in the world. He doesn’t see the smartphone as a competitor, because he believes that once they try it, Relonch’s members prefer the participatory experience of taking photographs with a traditional camera, with a viewfinder. And with curation built into the experience, Relonch’s customers end up with photos they want to revisit again and again.

But does that audience really exist? I’m less convinced. While that may be true for a small portion of the photo-taking population, camera makers know all too well that there are plenty of people whose desire to carry less stuff around overrides the appeal of using a dedicated camera, no matter how much better it is. If Relonch is counting on growing its business they’ll have to tap into a market that seems to be happily retreating to their increasingly capable smartphones.

Relonch might not in the end survive the rise of smartphone photography, but it seems to me that they’re onto something. You certainly can’t beat the smartphone by insisting that every camera user learn the intricacies of exposure and post-processing to get the results they want. Smartphones – and to an extent Relonch – meet these consumers partway and do the rest of the leg work.

It’s time to pay attention, traditional camera manufacturers of the world.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Hello Lightroom CC: Embracing the future

19 Oct

Disclaimer: I’m an avid Lightroom user who uses a NAS with 12 TB of local storage. Yet I agree with Adobe’s decisions. Am I crazy? Read on…

It’s an inevitable truth that Adobe, like any other company, can’t please everyone. Today’s news of a new, all-cloud Lightroom CC has definitely ruffled some feathers among loyal users. But it might just be time to embrace the future – consider some important points here:

The current version of Lightroom is not going away. It’s just going from CC to Classic CC. Oh, and it got much faster.
The standalone version of Lightroom is entering sunset. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to keep using it for new cameras in the future: you’ll just have to use DNG Converter to first convert your files to DNG format.*
To continue to benefit from updates to Lightroom, though, you’ll have to go CC (Classic or not).
To benefit from consistent access of your entire library from every device, as well as AI features to help you manage, search, curate and more (a la Google/Apple Photos), you’ll want to go with Lightroom CC.

Whether or not you like the subscription based model, either way you pay for software updates, whether it’s when you buy a new version (upgrading from 5 to 6) or continually via a subscription method. Some would even argue the latter is a better user experience, as you don’t have to worry about ‘versions’.

Who is Lightroom CC for?

Good question. If you’re a staunch NAS user or have a hard drive for each of your shoots, it’s not for you. But there’s a reason that Director of Product Management is calling this new release a bigger deal than even the inception of Lightroom. According to TechCrunch’s conversation with Hogarty, “The new reality of photography [is one] where users tend to take a lot of their photos on their phones – and take a lot more images in general. [Many of them want] a powerful tool that allows them to communicate but doesn’t require them to spend a lot of time to learn.”

In other words, Adobe is trying to find a way to be Google or Apple Photos for the both the masses, and the enthusiasts/pros. Time will tell if it’ll succeed, but it’s an approach that is certainly future-focused.

In fact, we expect the cloud-based version will quickly improve and gain features beyond what Classic CC will offer. The AI features will help you organize, search, curate, and maybe even edit faster by learning your tastes. With storage getting progressively cheaper, internet (upload) speeds increasing, and the decreased sales of PC/laptop and the increased expectation to be able to access your files from anywhere, this is Adobe looking to the future, while still offering the present for the foreseeable future.

This is Adobe looking to the future, while still offering the present for the foreseeable future.

Inevitably, there will be some teething pains, for which Adobe is still offering Classic CC. But we expect that in the not-too-distant future, even pros will appreciate the instant access and AI features that will ease workflows. And I, for one, will be happy to say goodbye to my hard drives (though I won’t be forced to).

Understandably though, many of you have questions…

We’re a studio and need multiple licenses across many computers

That’s what CC business is meant for. You can have 10+ licenses with the same account across all your computers (each license serves up to 2 computers, and you can dynamically switch which two computers whenever you want). And if you’re installing a standalone on more than 2 computers today, you’re breaking the law. Multiple licenses are simply not an issue with CC.

I need multiple libraries, though

Do you really? Back in the days of physically limited hard-drives, many would assign one drive or another to one shoot. You can still work that way with Classic CC.

But in the future, with increased cloud storage at lower prices, and hopefully decreased internet service provider (ISP) bandwidths, that segmentation won’t be necessary.** Everything will live on the cloud, and you can still organize by albums if you wish. Better yet, you’ll have access to increasingly intelligent AI that will allow you to find the photos you’re looking for simply by searching for the content in it (in text form). Segment as you wish, or just search.

In that world – you may not find multiple libraries as useful anymore. It’s already a headache – I’ve gone to work on days where I needed the library on one drive that was, you guessed it, at home.

What if Adobe pulls the plug on Classic CC?

Certainly a valid suspicion. But one you may not have to be so worried about. First, we’ll likely see CC rapidly catch up to Classic CC. That raises the concern if Classic CC is itself at risk of being pulled.

Maybe. But likely not for quite some time. More importantly, if Classic CC were to run off into the sunset, do you really think Adobe would only offer a cloud-based version of Lightroom?

I don’t think so.

Much more likely – and this is just my opinion (and suggestion to Adobe) – would be CC simply offering an option to ‘Disable cloud storage. I don’t need access to my files on any device.’ Done. Problem solved. Remember that CC already has an option to keep all files locally (as well as in the cloud), so retiring Classic CC would almost undoubtedly see CC gain an option to not work in the cloud. Until ISP limits are definitively not an issue and privacy concerns are completely addressed, I can’t see Adobe offering no option to only work with files locally.

You can’t always get what you want… but you might get what you need

This is Adobe modernizing and considering the future. And the current masses of Google and Apple Photos users that are surprised and delighted daily at the auto search and curation functionalities, or the auto-generation of collages, video clips, and sharing of shots of your kid with your immediate family. This all depends on cloud-storage and AI. It’s the future, and whether or not you like it this future has a lot of potential benefits that you loathe the idea of today, but might come to rely on, nigh even need, in the future. Imagine AI learning your editing tastes and doing them for you as a starting point so you have less work to do. It’s not that unreasonable to imagine, and is something even pros would appreciate.

And as long as privacy issues are considered, sharing – both with family or with clients or collaborators – becomes far easier in a cloud-only approach.

Accessing your library on multiple devices has been clunky up until now – with manual selection of images that are synced, and a different user experience of LR based on what device you’re on. Lightroom CC’s promise is a consistent experience across all devices, and the removal of the headache of selecting images you wish access to. Not to mention the issues with editing ‘Smart Previews’.

And you might even find the perks of AI on top of this irresistible one day. But until that day, you still have options that allow you to continue working exactly as you did yesterday.

Footnotes:

* That’s actually probably a good thing. DNG can take a 96MB Nikon D850 NEF and make it into a 49MB Raw with no visual loss in quality (LZW and gamma curve compression done right provide visually lossless compression). DNG Converter is even scriptable if you want to automate the process. And if you need to save the original Raw (say because you want to access Dual Pixel Raw for some Canon files in the future), you can always embed, then later export, the original Raw. The only concern I see here is if future OS versions don’t support the final version of LR.

** ISP bandwidths are a valid concern. My current Comcast bandwidth per month is capped at 1TB/month, with a two months grace period if I run over in one year (I’ll pay on the third month I run over). That will likely still serve most users and even enthusiasts but may be an issue for pros shooting enormous amounts of images monthly. We’ll be following up with Adobe about their views on this issue, but for now we do expect the growth of cloud-based services to force ISPs to offer solutions.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Opinion: The future of photography and the value of a free photo

05 Aug

Photo by Lionello DelPiccolo on Unsplash

Mikael Cho is the founder and CEO of Unsplash, a community where photographers can share their high-resolution photos for anyone to use for free—no credit or payment required. The platform has been criticized roundly by many professional photographers who claim the service devalues photography. In a recent blog post, Cho responded to this criticism, sharing his thoughts on the future of photography and the value of a photograph that is given away for free.

Mr. Cho has given DPReview permission to republish the article in full below.

We didn’t start Unsplash to reinvent an industry. We started Unsplash because we thought it might be useful.

Unsplash is a community where anyone can share high-resolution photos for anyone to use freely. It began as a Tumblr blog with ten photos we had leftover from a photoshoot. Instead of letting our photos sit dead in a hard drive somewhere, we thought it would be better if they were put to use to move other creative projects forward. A freelance designer could grab an image to pitch a mockup or demo. An entrepreneur strapped for cash could put a website up with a nice background photo to attract potential customers.

We believed the good from giving our images away would far outweigh what we could earn if we required payment or credit.

The power of photography

This proved true. By setting our images free, Unsplash turned into something much more meaningful than the hundreds of dollars we likely would have made selling them. Those first 10 photos photos have been seen 58 million times. Unsplash has become a community of over 20 million creators. People from all over the world have generously contributed over 250,000 photos, moving hundreds of millions of creative acts forward.

Unsplash photos mapping the world

Unsplash photos have not only helped designers and entrepreneurs create demos and websites but have been a source of inspiration for everyone from teachers to nonprofits to independent creators.

A few things made with Unsplash

Unsplash contributors share photography to make an impact so our aim has been to push the impact of their imagery like no other platform ever has. Today, a photo featured on Unsplash is seen more than a photo on any other platform. More than Instagram. More than the front page of the New York Times.

The @unsplash effect ? pic.twitter.com/R78ZGU1ABx

— Jeff Sheldon (@ugmonk) June 1, 2017

You don’t need to come with an audience or have an agent to be great on Unsplash. We bring an audience to you.

The Direct-to-Consumer Creator

As an independent designer myself, I understand you can’t do everything for exposure because exposure doesn’t pay the bills. But to completely dismiss the value of exposure doesn’t make sense either.

All artists need an audience to survive. Why do we spend time posting on Instagram if we don’t get paid for it? Because those posts build an audience over time.

In the last ten years, several platforms like YouTube, iPhone, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Medium have enabled more and more of us to express and connect. Sometimes, this expression and connection is done for fun. For nothing but the purpose of creating. Other times it’s done to create an audience for something else. Filmmakers distribute trailers for free on YouTube to sell a movie. Musicians release free songs or entire albums on SoundCloud to sell concert tickets. Authors give free chapters and pour thousands of unpaid hours into blogs to sell a book.

New platforms don’t kill industries. They change the distribution.

Online platforms have opened up an opportunity for so many people to share their craft with huge audiences instantly. New platforms create a distribution channel and community we otherwise wouldn’t have. In this sense, there’s never been a better time to be a creator.

When two-time #1 New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss was blocked from distributing his book in Barnes & Noble, he uploaded excerpts from his book for free on BitTorrent to get distribution. Writer Leo Babauta “Uncopyrighted” everything on his popular blog, Zen Habits, in service of spreading his work further than he ever could alone. Chance the Rapper became the first artist to win a Grammy without selling physical copies of his album and giving most of his music away for free.

These examples of creators sharing in extreme ways didn’t produce any immediate monetary gain. In fact, they probably lost some sales from it. But whatever the losses, they were more than made up for by the outsized benefits that came from openly sharing their work. As Chance the Rapper said,

“I realized my strength was being able to offer my best work to people without any limit on it.

I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.”

Unsplash is different though…

Unsplash seems like a beneficial platform for hobbyist photographers because hobbyist photographers make money elsewhere. But what about commercial photographers?

I get how Unsplash could seem more devaluing to a commercial photographer than other photo-sharing platforms because you’re giving up your copyright ownership of your photo when you share it. To get behind this argument though, we need to understand what photo copyright ownership gets us. The purpose of holding on to copyright for a photo is typically so you can protect it from someone else taking that photo and selling it for profit.

Before the internet, holding on to copyright for photos was more beneficial because the value in licensing a photo was high. The issue today is a licensed photo is losing its value. The price photo buyers are willing to pay to license a photo is accelerating downward. If you post your photos on a stock photo site, you’ll earn ~$ 511/year on average on your collection, half what you would make two years ago.

Data from Shutterstock

While almost everyone needs images to do their jobs today, the jobs we do with imagery are different from when photos used to be licensed by media buyers or photo agencies for commercial use. For example, almost 70 percent of the people who download images on Unsplash have never downloaded a photo from a stock photo site before. And the most common uses for Unsplash photos are presentations, blogs, or personal projects.

At the same time, the cost to produce a photo is going down. The five most valuable companies in the world today are all competing on the camera. While professional photography gear is still expensive, mobile cameras are improving at a rate that will eventually put a professional-level camera in everyone’s pocket.

Every 2 minutes, people take more photos than ever existed 150 years ago. There’s no doubt creating a great photo requires artistry but photography has become more saturated which means many photographers today are not contacted by people wanting to pay to use their copyrighted photos.

There’s more demand. There’s more supply. But it’s also different demand and different supply. The photo licensing business model doesn’t fit.

Photos as Relationship Makers

Most photographers have transitioned to using photos as tools to create relationships. Professional photographers use photos they took for fun to connect with potential clients. Potential clients enjoy the photos on your portfolio or Instagram, so they hire you for a photoshoot. Hobbyist photographers use photos to build an audience they can direct toward where they make a living or simply to practice their craft.

The human brain is wired to connect with imagery so imagery will always be something people seek out. Since photos work so well as a form of connection, we saw Unsplash as a more impactful way to do that. Giving up your copyright to a photo seems extreme but it’s this extreme level of giving that produces the unprecedented level of connection.

Recently, a team of researchers found the most shared articles from the New York Times were ones that gave readers practical utility. Giving someone something useful tends to have the biggest impact on people. When you pair two powerful things like giving and photography, you reach a whole new level of impact.

Many of our members have said they’ve gained so much from sharing work on Unsplash compared to anywhere else. Many have booked client work after posting just a couple photos. Some have been flown around the world on photoshoots. Some have gotten enough work to leave their jobs and become full-time photographers. Some have been able to build audiences for new products. And every contributor we’ve spoken to has enjoyed the impact their photography has made toward moving creativity forward. Here’s a few of their stories.

Yes, there will be people who use Unsplash photos freely who may have hired a photographer if Unsplash didn’t exist. But by giving photos, Unsplash contributors create a new opportunity for millions of other people to find their work.

If someone needs a photo for a presentation that will only be seen by a few co-workers, they don’t have a budget for photography. If they can’t use a free photo for that, they are not hiring someone. And there is no relationship created. But by finding a photo on Unsplash, a relationship begins. When they need to hire a photographer for a shoot, they’re more likely to go back to the place that fulfills that need. We’re trying to make it so these relationships connect back to the Unsplash contributor that inspired them.

We’ve already begun to build things into Unsplash to strengthen this relationship between photo contributors and the creators they inspire. We’re building up a library of things made with Unsplash to connect back to contributors. Just last month, we launched a “Say Thanks” feature which creates a way for people to publicly recognize the Unsplash contributor who gave the photo they downloaded. And we’ve begun work on an Unsplash member search to help our members book creative work.

In a sense, every Unsplash photo turns into a billboard for our contributors. And the future business model of Unsplash is about creating relationships through the unique attention and use each photo creates.

The future value in photography

By our estimates, there are potentially 100 times more people looking for usable imagery today, than a decade ago. Image use has moved mainstream which is why there’s a new opportunity for a business model that works better for everyone.

There’s no doubt about the impact of photography. Photos are powerful. The question is not if photography will maintain its power but how to create meaningful value from it. We’ve already begun to think about what this looks like. It’s going to take time to figure out. While we don’t have all the answers today, we will always be transparent and upfront about where we’re headed.

Every industry evolves. Things will change. We can’t be resistant to change no matter how much today’s world benefits us. We face the same fact that every artist and business must face: what we offer today will eventually be obsolete. We can choose to be upset with this fact or understand it is inevitable and continue to adapt.

If you do it right, you’ll be the one to disrupt yourself. You’ll be out in front of the pack. You’ll help determine the new value. That’s what we’re looking to do for photography. That’s what we’re looking to do for the creative community. We’re all in the same boat. When the creative industry benefits, we all benefit.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Future Fonts: Tracing the Role of Typography in Science Fiction in Films

04 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]

Whether intentionally retro, as in Stranger Things, or overtly futuristic, as in RoboCop, the role of typography in a movie goes well past the title, subtly but powerfully shaping the world viewers are invited to experience.

Dave Addey, author and creator of Typeset in the Future, is as meticulous as he is obsessed, analyzing appearances of type in film line by line, providing insights, context and speculative answers to various uses (as well as typo corrections).

It started with Eurostile Bold Extended, which has made appearances from Star Trek to Wall-E. Since then, he has written about typography in Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon, and in anticipation of the sequel: Blade Runner.

With fonts you get a lot of context for free,” says Addey. “You’ve established the time frame for your movie in seconds without a lot of special effects or backstory.” It also tells you something about the world, like: when a single megacorp runs everything and its typeface is consequently found everywhere.

He watches films over and over again, taking notes then tracking down type, sometimes manually by searching through old books to find exact matches (in other cases: the typography is custom, making the process frustrating).

And type is just part of the equation: he looks at iconography and other design elements too, piecing together a larger picture of the various strategies in play and how they relate to the core narrative.

By zooming in on this one aspect of films, he often traces connections that are easy to miss, like: a newspaper being held by the lead character in Blade Runner later appearing as the liner for a drawer. For fans of sci-fi and design, his blog will take you deeper into films than you realized you could go — it is well worth checking out.

More about the project: “This site is dedicated to typography and iconography as it appears in sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV shows. It’s inspired by the Typeset In The Future trope I added to TV Tropes. (If you know of more good sci-fi font examples, please do add them to that page.)”

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]

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Photokina’s new manager talks about the future of the trade show

18 Jul

Back in May, Photokina, the biennial photo industry trade show in Cologne, Germany, announced that it would become an annual event and include products and technologies beyond its historical focus of cameras and photography.

Now recently appointed show manager Christoph Menke is providing some background on the decision to change the dates of the future shows and other changes in a short Q&A session with the internal PR team of Koelnmesse, the company that is organizing Photokina.

You can read the full Q&A below, in case you’re curious:

What made Koelnmesse decide to change the show cycle from every other year show to a yearly show?

Today, professionals and consumers view the subject of imaging completely different compared to 10 years ago. Now virtual reality, wearables, tablets, mobile and smart home security are an integral part of the imaging world. The same applies to imaging software for editing, sorting, storing images, or even for CGI & sharing solutions.

As an imaging platform, we need to embrace those new technologies. As a part of this embrace, we acknowledge the significantly shorter innovation cycles of those new technologies compared to established capture technologies. For instance, the software industry has always been characterized by short development cycles. To offer these industries a suitable exhibition platform, the answer can only be a shorter cycle.

Based on surveys we know that our visitors prefer an annual photokina. The annual show cycle will also put a more regular spot light on other segments of our show such as photo equipment, photo accessories and photo studio segments and the brands represented there. They will benefit from more frequent exposure to buyers, consumers and the international media attending our show

Why is photokina going to move to May in 2019 and the following years?

The photokina dates for the next 2 years are Sept 26-29, 2018 and May 8-11, 2019 (Wednesday to Saturday). The switch to the May dates starting in 2019 is the result of conversations with key accounts from all segments. The feedback we received indicated that the May dates will provide an ideal time frame to fully take advantage of international demand before the start of the summer season.

The Show will be shortened from six to four days – what will be the upside of this change?

Based on attendees surveys we conducted we know that four show days are sufficient to see all the imaging technologies and content. Within those four days we create a more compact and thereby more intense show experience that is appreciated by both exhibitors and visitors. The fact that our customers will no longer have to wait two years for the next photokina had a significant impact on the decision to shorten the sequence.

Will the annual show cycle also mean changes to the content and focus of this event?

The changes in content and focus are what led to the structural changes. New technologies are accelerating in the innovation cycles in the imaging world. The annual show cycle is photokina’s response to a rapidly changing market place. Our mission is to provide a platform that shows the imaging technologies of the future and promotes the exchange between developers, engineers, start-ups and manufacturers.

Take video for example: In times of the YouTube-revamped trend towards amateur videos and an increasing convergence of the technologies for photo & video (4K-Grabbing), the moving picture is as important as it was in the first hour of photokina – hence the name. One of the highlights for the next event will be an Imaging Lab at photokina.

What has been the reaction of your photokina customers to the date change?

So far the responses are mostly positive. Budgets and logistics are certainly issues which have to be dealt with and we expect a transition process to adjust to the yearly dates. We are confident that the date change will provide an improved photokina for exhibitors and attendees alike.

The latest editions of Photokina were noticeably smaller and less busy than previous shows which is not much of a surprise given the decline of the camera market. Let’s hope the changes mentioned by Christoph Menke will help Photokina remain as relevant and vibrant as it has been throughout most of its existence.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Flying drones over the internet isn’t the future we wanted, but it’s the one we’ve got

25 Mar

You’re flying… kind of! Cape lets registered users fly drones in remote locations. Takeoff and landing are handled automatically by the drone.

We were promised jetpacks, but as many-a-scholar has noted, here we are knocking on 2020’s door and we are still jetpackless. We have, however, managed to put countless drones into the sky. While jetpacks are scarce, a drone can be had for as little as $ 15 and as much as, well a hell of a lot more than that. Anyone can fly a cheapo drone into their living room wall, but if you want to fly a bigger drone somewhere cool there are costs, logistics and federal guidelines to contend with. What’s an apartment-dweller with big drone flying ambitions to do?

Enter Cape: a service that lets you fly real drones in real outdoor locations, without leaving the comfort of your home or your web browser. No license, no learning curve, no expensive crashes. Flight locations are exclusively located in California at this point, and the service is in beta so its developers expect to work out some bugs and improve latency before launch. Deep into a stretch of grey Seattle weather, flying a drone around a sunny California desert sounded fantastic to me.

Just sitting at my desk in Seattle, flying over the Sacramento River. You know, no big deal.

How I learned to stop worrying and love the drone

Cape’s locations include desert and coastal sites including San Francisco Bay, the Salton Sea and Sacramento River. Each has its own hours and days of availability, but most are available weekdays until 5pm Pacific Time. Provided your internet connection is robust, all you need to do is select a site that’s available and hop to the controls of your very own DJI Inspire 1.

Your flight begins with a diagram of your keyboard control shortcuts overlaying the camera’s live feed. Getting started just requires pressing ‘enter’ to initiate autopilot take-off. And there you are – soaring above the California desert with the press of a button.

When your session starts, you’re met with this handy controls diagram.

Cape’s drones are as dummy-proof as you’d hope they would be. A map in the corner of the screen indicates where your aircraft is in the geo-fenced zone. You can’t go beyond the zone’s boundaries, can’t crash your drone into another drone, and can’t stray outside of minimum and maximum altitudes – autopilot will kick in and prevent you from doing any of these things.

You quite literally learn the controls on the fly, but they’re easy to master. There’s some lag, but it was honestly less than I expected. In no time, I was zooming across a little patch of California desert at a reasonable speed and legal altitude. There wasn’t much to see, since that’s how deserts are, aside from some distant brush and pixelated mountains on the horizon.

And on that topic: considering you’re flying a drone that could very well be a world away, the live feed resolution isn’t bad. At best it looks like a Google Street View image, but most of the time it’s a bit more pixelated than that as it catches up with your movements. This translates to a slightly less awe-inspiring experience than, say, actually being there to gaze on some distant desert mountains.

I’m trying to drown this drone and it’s having none of it.

It’s a small world after all

The zones feel small once you’ve flown from one edge to the other, and by necessity the controls are pared down to a minimum. If it’s a truly realistic piloting experience you’re hankering, I’m not sure it’ll scratch that itch. Playing tennis on a Nintendo Wii is convenient and fun in its own way, but it’s not the same experience as playing on a real court with a racquet in your hand. You don’t come away with the same satisfaction when so much is done for you.

So if it doesn’t quite provide the same excitement as flying a drone in person, is it escapism that Cape can provide? Sure, getting a peek at the sun for the first time in days, even virtually, felt pretty nice. I can attest to how strong the desire is around Seattle to be somewhere sunny right now. I got a little bit of that escapism from Cape, but not so much that I’ll be racing back to fly somewhere else tomorrow.

But really, when you think about what Cape allows you to do, it’s kind of incredible. You’re controlling an aircraft hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away, in real time. Finding visually rich places where those drones can be operated safely and legally seems like a tricky balance. Cape’s website says the company is working on ‘unlocking new locations,’ and if one of those locations is in say, Norway or Iceland, then you’d definitely have my attention.

It’s not jetpacks, but maybe we’re getting closer.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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