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Crypto-art ‘Forever Rose’ photo sells for $1M, making it the world’s most valuable virtual art

20 Feb

A blockchain crypto-art rose titled “Forever Rose” has been sold to a collective of investors for cryptocurrencies with a value equivalent to $ 1,000,000 USD. The collective is composed of 10 investors, each of whom contributed an equal amount toward the digital rose. The artwork is based on Kevin Abosch’s photograph of a rose and was created by Abosch and GIFTO, a decentralized universal gifting protocol.

Blockchain technology is behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and rights management platforms like KODAKOne. The tech can also be used for art, as demonstrated by Abosch with “Forever Rose.” Abosch previously sold an image of a potato titled “Potato #345” in 2016 for more than $ 1 million.

More than 150 buyers expressed interest in the Forever Rose, according to a press release detailing the sale. Ten collectors were ultimately chosen using a ballot—the buyers include ORCA Fund, Chinese crypto-investor Ms. Meng Zu, blockchain advisory firm TLDR Capital, and others. Payments were made in IAMA and GTO-by-GIFTO cryptocurrencies, with each buyer paying the crypto-equivalent of $ 100,000 to get 1/10 of the ROSE, an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.

Forever Rose is believed to currently be the most valuable virtual artwork in the world. The buyers can choose to hold onto their rose tokens, sell them, or give them away. Abosch and GIFTO will donate the sale proceeds to The CoderDojo Foundation, which provides kids around the world with the opportunity to learn coding skills for free.

Press Release

World’s Most Valuable Crypto-Artwork Sells for US$ 1 million

HONG KONG, Wednesday, February 14, 2018 – IN CELEBRATION of Valentine’s Day, the Forever Rose, a crypto-art project produced by world-renowned visual conceptual artist Kevin Abosch and blockchain universal virtual gifting protocol project GIFTO, sold for US$ 1 million worth of cryptocurrency to a group of 10 collectors.

With the sale, the Forever Rose is now the world’s most valuable piece of virtual artwork ever sold, and marks the historical merging of blockchain technology, fine art, and charitable causes.

Due to an overwhelming response with over 150 potential buyers from around the world indicating their interest, the decision was made to allow 10 buyers to buy the Forever Rose, as a way to show how the crypto community can come together to do their part to benefit the underprivileged.

To select the buyers for the Forever Rose, a ballot was held to determine the 10 collectors who can purchase the Forever Rose on 14 February at 14:00 Hong Kong time. These 10 collectors are some of the leading projects and investors in the crypto community. They are:

ORCA Fund, the premier digital asset fund in Asia
Future Money and Ink, a leading blockchain investment fund and IP asset exchange
Node Capital and Jinse Finance, a leading crypto fund and financial media in Asia
TLDR Capital, a leading blockchain advisory firm
Project Boosto, power global influencers with their own dApps and tokens
Project DAC, a platform for decentralized interactive audio
Project Nebulas, a search framework for blockchains
Project Caring Chain, a decentralized charitable cause platform
Ms. Meng Zu, a leading crypto investor in China
1 collector who wishes to remain anonymous

Charles Thach, Managing Partner of ORCA Fund said: “ORCA is honored to support the Forever Rose project, our philosophy of bridging the best of west and east in blockchain industries fits nicely into the ethos of the Rose, and we will continue to contribute back to society via future charitable endeavors.”

Mori Wang, Founder of Project Caring Chain, said: “I believe blockchain technology has a huge potential to transform the entire charitable world, bringing transparency and accountability to projects worldwide. Project Caring Chain is proud to be a part of this historical milestone, the world’s first crypto charitable artwork.”

The cost of the Forever Rose was paid using two cryptocurrencies – GTO by GIFTO and IAMA by Kevin Abosch, with the 10 buyers splitting the cost of the crypto-artwork evenly, with each buyer paying US$ 100,000 in crypto currencies. The Forever Rose is an ERC20 token called ROSE on the Ethereum blockchain that is based on Mr Abosch’s photograph of a rose. The buyers each receives 1/10 of the ROSE token, as ERC20 tokens are divisible. They can then choose to hold their portion, sell it, or give it as a special gift for Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion.

The exact number of tokens required was determined according to their value on 14 February at 10:00 Hong Kong time. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to The CoderDojo Foundation, whose mission is to ensure that every child around the world should have the opportunity to learn code and to be creative with technology in a safe and social environment.

With the donation, Mr Abosch and the GIFTO team aim to inspire future generations to continuously push the boundaries and tap on technology to create a better world, and also to call on the crypto community to use more of the vast wealth created for charitable causes.

Ms Giustina Mizzoni, Executive Director of the CoderDojo Foundation, said: “A huge thank you to both Kevin and the GIFTO team for choosing the CoderDojo Foundation to benefit from this historic project. Technology is rapidly changing the world we live in. We have a duty to ensure that the next generation can not only seize the opportunities presented by this, but also influence and shape its future. Thousands of volunteers around the world are working to ensure this by creating opportunities for young people to code and create through the global CoderDojo movement.”

The Forever Rose project started as a personal collaboration between Mr. Abosch and Andy Tian, founder of GIFTO, as a way to stimulate a deeper discussion on the state of the crypto and blockchain industry, which has captured the world’s attention over the last few months. The project is symbolic of the current massive global popularity of cryptocurrency, and also aims to drive discussion regarding the entry of blockchain technology into the mainstream economy.

After it is sold, a dedicated website will be available to track the value of the artwork based on movements of GTO and IAMA and giving the public a visual representation of the movements and trends in the current cryptocurrency environment. Mr. Abosch and Mr. Tian hope that The Forever Rose will become a symbol of the blockchain and crypto world, and extend an invitation for everyone to participate in the project by recording and submitting their responses on video. Instructions are on the Forever Rose website.

Mr Abosch is most famous for creating and selling his iconic photographic portrait of a potato – “Potato #345” for more than US$ 1 million in 2016, and is much sought after for his portraits of top global celebrities from the entertainment and technology sectors. He has been pushing the limits of visual and conceptual art for most of his career.

He said: “I’m delighted that the crypto world has come together around The Forever Rose to further demonstrate the elegant power of the blockchain as a technology, but more importantly, as an instrument through which goodwill and humanity can be amplified.”

The GIFTO project, which completed the fastest-ever token sale in Asia in 1 min in Dec 2017, is the world’s first universal gifting protocol. GIFTO was created by the makers of Uplive (http://up.live/), one of the most popular live streaming mobile applications in the world with over 35 million users. IAMA Coin is a crypto-art project that Mr Abosch launched recently (http://www.iamacoin.com/), in which the artist himself explores the value of a crypto coin.

Mr Andy Tian, CEO and founder of GIFTO, said: “We are excited that the community has embraced the Forever Rose Project, and has come together for a great cause. We see a lot of parallels between blockchain technology and art, and hope that the Forever Rose can become a historical point marking blockchain moving from an esoteric technology, into the minds and hearts of every day people.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How to Use ND Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene

12 Feb

Photography is the art of capturing light. In many instances, harnessing the light and properly exposing a scene means controlling it first. This is necessary for many landscape scenes where contrast is high. You have likely seen high contrast many times: a sunset with dark foreground elements, a church with deep shadows, or a moonrise over a snow-filled background. Each of these situations (and many others like it) will present a challenge for you to overcome.

One of the tools that you have at your disposal to alter the amount of light hitting your camera’s sensor is neutral density filters (ND). These dark gray pieces of glass come in many styles (graduated, 1-stop, 2-stop, 10-stop, etc.) and do not alter the color of your image but do restrict the amount of light.

How to Use Neutral Density Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene

I stacked a Graduated ND filter and ND Stopper for this image to control the gray sky and flatten the water around the island with a long exposure.

They provide an opportunity to control your exposure or create long exposures that emphasize static elements. This article will focus on Graduated ND filters that are clear on one half and dark on the other, as well as ND stoppers which are completely dark.

You can find more info here on dPS for learning about the fundamentals of using in ND filters. The rest of this article will focus on a few creative ways that you can experiment with ND filter angles, grades, and techniques to create unique shots.

Stack ‘em

You can easily combine ND filters to control more light in the scene as filter holders usually have more than one slot for multiple filters. Having multiple slots is a huge advantage because it allows you to stack filters on top of each other to control the light.

Be sure to think about creative combinations of filters to give you the most out of a scene. For instance, you may want to shoot a really long exposure to flatten out the water in a sunset, or you may want to control very bright highlights such as the sun. The table below outlines some of the possibilities that stacking filters can provide you.

	ND GRADUATED	ND STOPPER
GRADUATED FILTERS	Graduated ND filters can be stacked on top of each other to control light and feathering at the horizon. Try stacking a hard-edged grad with a soft-edged grad to control more light high in the scene and then feather into a lighter foreground.	An ND stopper filter will evenly stop out the light in the scene. You still need to control the highlights! Add an ND grad to control highlights in the scene and bring up the foreground shadows.
ND STOPPER	You can combine an ND stopper with a flipped ND grad (i.e, put the dark side of the grad on the bottom). This approach is non-conventional but could be used if your highlights are at the bottom of a scene. See the Flip ‘em section of this article for more.	Stacking ND stoppers on top of each other can give you very long (>1 minute) exposures even in the brightest conditions. This is a great tool for you to use to extend creativity mid-day.

For this image, the boats in the harbor were important to complement the sunrise overhead. I stacked a Graduated ND filter and ND Stopper to control the sunrise and raise the foreground shadows.

Preserving foreground highlights and shooting sunbursts can be difficult because of the extremely high contrast. I double-stacked graduated filters for this shot to give me a firm control of the highlights (the sun) and maintain the snowy landscape in front.

This image was captured on a cold night in Minnesota (about -25F). At those temperatures, the sky after sunset has a purple hue, which was exacerbated by the double-stacked graduate filters that I used to control the light of the moon and allow you to see its craters.

Rotate ‘em

ND filter holders rotate easily around the lens giving you flexibility in the angle you choose. ND graduated filters are often aligned to the horizon by the photographer. This makes great sense if you have a flat horizon, but what if a mountain range is sticking up in front of you? You can take a little bit of creative license and easily align the ND filters to the angle of the mountains. Examine your scene and think about how the orientation and filters could emphasize foreground elements or draw the viewer’s eye.

In the images of Nugget Falls (below) in Juneau, Alaska I shot one image with a graduated filter flipped with the dark side of the sky and one over the falls. Although I personally prefer the images with the brighter falls, you can see how the lighter sky draws your eye to the mountain and glacier beyond the falls.

How to Use Neutral Density Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene

Hold ‘em

Let’s face it, you are not going to have a filter holder for every lens in your kit. However, that does not mean you cannot use filters! You can also hand hold a filter in front of your lens in a pinch.

I recommend that you mount your camera on a tripod before trying to hand hold filters. It will make them the easier to handle and allow you to compose your scene before adding the filter.

I was not carrying a filter holder for a 100mm lens, but handheld the filter on this shot to raise the foreground shadows. Sometimes you have to make due with what you have.

Practicing in the Field

As you begin to use and experiment with ND filters you are going to grow as a photographer. Keep creativity in mind to give your shots a distinguished and unique look. As I like to say, “pixels are cheap” so be sure to make lots of pixels as you experiment with your ND filters.

I would love to hear how you have extended your photography through creative uses of ND filters.

The post How to Use ND Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene by Ian Johnson appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Tips for Making the Most of Morning Light for Portraits

12 Jan

There’s something about taking photos in the magical morning light that makes my heart so happy. Maybe it’s because of the extra effort it takes to be outside in the crisp morning air when your family is still in bed. It could also be because morning sessions are more uncommon, so they feel a little more special. Most likely it’s because that soft, beautiful light just glows, and looks just a little different from the light later in the day, or evening.

How to Make the Most of Magical Morning Light

If you’re a night owl, and can’t imagine getting out of a nice warm bed just to take some pictures, let me try and convince you to give it a try. You might become a morning person, just for that incredibly gorgeous morning light.

Time it Right

The best time to start a morning session is right around sunrise. I have an app on my phone that will tell me what time the sun rises in my area on any date. I like to start about 15 minutes after sunrise. The light level is usually fairly low right at sunrise, so I give a little bit of time for things to lighten up before starting.

The nice thing about using that morning golden hour versus the evening golden hour is that you can take as much time as you need. In the evening you have to decide when it’s the exact right time to start. You want to use the best light right near sunset, but you don’t want to start too late and not have enough time before it’s too dark. If you start too early, you could be done before the beautiful golden sunset light shows up.

Morning light at sunrise takes care of that problem. You start with that gorgeous glowy light and shoot until you’re done. No light is ever wasted.

How to Make the Most of Magical Morning Light - portrait

Morning Weather is Usually Good

Depending on where you live, you might have better luck with the weather in the morning. In my area, it’s usually less windy than it can get in the afternoon. Most mornings are calm and still. Oftentimes there’s a light hazy cloud cover that makes any shooting direction work, so you can use your backgrounds to their fullest extent.

More often the rain and storms come a little bit later in the day. It’s not always the case that you get beautiful weather in the morning, but more often than not, it’s perfect conditions for shooting.

The only negative would be during the colder times of the year when mornings are brisk, or even downright freezing. I just instruct my subject to dress warm, and I wear fingerless gloves and a coat with pockets, so I can try to keep my hands as warm as possible.

How to Make the Most of Magical Morning Light - golden portraits of two girls

Morning Light has a Special Quality

There’s a softness to morning light that you just don’t see most afternoons and evenings. It feels like it wraps around the subject a little more, and has a bit less intensity compared to light later in the day. It can be easier to work with because you won’t have as much glare in your lens when backlighting (facing your subject away from the sun).

You can face your subject toward the sun easier too, because the light isn’t quite as harsh, so they don’t squint as much. The shadows on faces aren’t as pronounced, and everything feels a bit softer. The light isn’t usually as warm as it is in the evening, so sometimes I warm the photos up a bit more in post-processing, but there are times when the cooler light is simply stunning.

Be Different, Learn Something New

Many times when I’ve shared photos from a morning session, people have told me that they love the photos, but they don’t quite know what makes them so special. Most photographers are out there during the evening golden hour, and that little bit of difference you’ll see in a morning photo will set you apart from everyone else.

Your photos will have a quality to them that other photographers might not be able to put their finger on. I don’t do every photo session in the morning, in fact, most of my sessions are later in the day, but doing something different, outside of the norm, sets you apart from other photographers, and it also opens you up to more inspiration and creativity.

Every time we do something a little different, we learn new things, and sometimes discover something new that takes our photography to the next level. Shooting in the morning is just one of those things you can do differently, but it’s a big one. It might even be a game changer for you.

How to Make the Most of Magical Morning Light

Wake Up

How do you convince your next photography subject to get up early in the morning and get ready for a photo session when they could be sleeping longer? How do you convince yourself to get out in the brisk morning air with your camera when you could be snuggled under the covers?

The best way to convince anyone is to look at the results. I’ve had clients get up at 4:00 am to be ready for a session because beautiful photos were more important than a little bit more sleep. They can always take a nap later. If you can convince one person to give it a try, you might convince a lot more to do it too, once they see those photos.

You will love the feeling of accomplishing something wonderful first thing in the morning, and then having the rest of the day to edit and play. So, set that alarm and give that morning light a try!

How to Make the Most of Magical Morning Light

Are you a lover of a beautiful sunrise and glowing morning light? Share your morning photos, people or nature, in the comments. I’d love to see what you’ve captured while your neighbors were still in their pajamas!

How to Make the Most of Magical Morning Light

The post Tips for Making the Most of Morning Light for Portraits by Melinda Smith appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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5 Tips to Getting the Most out of a Photography Conference

04 Jan

One of the best ways to rapidly improve your photography skills and broaden your photographic community is to attend a photography conference. But, if you’ve never been to a conference before, just the idea of going can be intimidating. The rewards are great though, so read on for five tips that will help you select the right photography conference for your needs plus get the absolute most out of it once you get there.

Tip #1: Know your goals

Before you plunk down your deposit, evaluate your own specific goals for attending the photography conference. First, think about what you want to learn when you are at the conference. Obviously, if you’re a wildlife photographer and the conference focuses solely on street photography, it’s probably not right for you. But, if the conference offers many different learning options, you’ll need to do some investigating before you decide whether or not to attend.

Photography Conference Tips - northern Nevada landscape

I’m primarily a wildlife and nature photographer so when I evaluate a conference, I look for courses that will support my goals. I want to become a better landscape photographer too so I look for classes that will help me do that as well. Canon 7D Mark II, 24-105 II @ 70mm, f/11, 1/400th, ISO 100, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

The instructors

Start by checking out the bios and websites of the instructors. Ask yourself if they are making images that inspire you. Do their images look like the images that you aspire to make yourself? Read their blogs and watch their videos too to get a good idea of whether their teaching style suits your learning style. If you find a few instructors that are simpatico, check out their courses at the conference.

I signed up for a Photoshop course at AdobeMax with Glyn Dewis but, since I didn’t know much about him, I looked up his website and read his About page first. Turns out he was an excellent instructor.

The course offerings

Now, review the course offerings. Is there content that you need to learn? Most photographers want to improve their existing skill set, whether that’s learning how to make better-exposed images or how to mask in Photoshop.

Does the conference offer courses at the right skill level for you? If you’re not sure, reach out to either the instructors or the conference organizers.

Photography Conference Tips - Course description

I use Lightroom and Photoshop in my work often so discovering how two different photographers use these tools felt like a course that would teach me a great deal. Plus, Julieanne Kost is my photography hero!

Learning new things

Learning new things is important too so look at courses that are completely out of the box for you.

If you’re a wildlife life photographer and you invest your time in a 90-minute course on street photography, you might be surprised at how that affects your work the next time you head out on an African safari. It can help you get “unstuck” if you’re mired in a creative rut.

After the class, you might even be inspired to continue learning street photography.

When I attend a photography conference, my goal is to improve skills I already have but also to learn new things. At AdobeMax I did a bit of both, with courses on public speaking and Photoshop.

Tip #2: Networking

A huge reason to go to a photography conference is to expand your photography community. One thing I really love is that I can connect with people I’ve only ever met online. Meeting “live” at a conference is almost like a reunion. Of course, you can make new friends too, plus you can meet expert instructors in person.

Big conferences versus small ones

When you’re evaluating a conference, if networking is a big part of why you’re attending, definitely reach out to past conference attendees to gauge their experiences. At a 12,000-person conference like AdobeMax, it’s not as easy to hob knob and make new friends.

At a smaller, 400-person conference like Out of Chicago, making new friends is a snap. You’ll be in the same courses with the same people over and over. You’ll probably be best friends and be planning a photography trip together before the weekend even ends.

Photography Conference Tips - OOC community

The Out of Chicago Community page has over 1000 members. That makes it easy to reach out to people to ask if the conference would be a good fit for you. Most photography conferences have similar social media community pages.

Instructor accessibility

Likewise, at a huge conference, the instructors might not be so accessible for you to chat with, except at special times. And at those special times, since 12,000 people are waiting to speak with them, it will be a mob scene rather than a cozy tête-à-tête.

At a smaller conference, your instructors will probably be eating lunch right next to you. Bigger conferences draw bigger names though. So while you might not make as many personal one-on-one connections, it might be worth it if you’re going to learn from someone you hold in extremely high esteem.

Tip #3: Take advantage of every opportunity

In addition to seminars and hands-on courses, most photography conferences offer opening and closing keynote speeches. Big-name photographers or well-known industry experts usually give these talks. You might think of these things as “free” – just regular stuff included in your conference that everyone gets – but don’t think that way.

Often the keynote speeches are the best parts of the conference. The opening keynote sets the stage for the week and lays out all of your opportunities for learning. The closing keynote caps the week with a review of what you did learn, and a reminder to go out and practice it.

AdobeMax didn’t offer any photo walks while I was there. So instead, I photographed the expo hall one morning while the light was amazing. Canon 5DIV, 24-105 II @ 31mm. 1/100, f/14, ISO 640, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

Photo Walks

Another great add-on is photo walks. They help combine learning and networking into one fun outing. As you can imagine though, these are more prevalent in smaller conferences than large ones. Herding 12,000 attendees with cameras around the Vegas Strip doesn’t typically make for very good picture-taking.

On the other hand, 400 attendees walking through the Chicago Loop is a drop in the bucket. If photo walks are important to you, check into smaller, regional conferences. Either way, don’t skip these if they’re offered at the conference you’re attending.

Vendors

Every conference has a vendor or exhibition area where you can check out the latest and greatest gear and technology. Make sure you plan time into your schedule to visit this area. I usually grab a quick lunch on the go and use the 90-minute lunch period checking out all the different booths.

Photography Conference Tips - Interactive

Just outside the AdobeMax vendor area, there were lots of interactive activities for creatives, like this “chalkboard.” Canon 5DIV, 24-105 II @ 24mm, f/6.3, 1/100th, ISO 640, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

At small conferences, you’re more likely to be able to rent a piece of gear for the day and test it out on a photo walk. Sometimes vendors offer discounts and even have product on hand that you can buy and take home with you.

At a large conference, you probably won’t be able to do more than review the gear at the vendor booth and talk to the rep. However, at a large conference, the vendor area often has a carnival-like feel to it, with interactive creative and technology exhibits set up to draw you in.

Tip #4: Conference bonuses

There will almost always be a party and often that party will include free food, drinks, and entertainment so go! It’s a bonus. Don’t skip it. Remember, if you’re goal is to network, the party is where you’ll meet fellow photographers and instructors.

Bring your camera

While night-time concert photography isn’t even remotely one of my fortes, I had a blast photographing this band at the AdobeMax Bash. Canon 5DIV, 24-105 II @ 105mm, f/5, 1/320th, ISO 8000, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

That party – and probably a good bit of the conference – will be a blast to photograph so bring your camera. A lot of people won’t. Some people will bring them, but will never take them out of their camera bags. You, on the other hand, should keep your camera in hand and happily shoot away.

Even if you’re a wildlife photographer, and the images won’t go into your portfolio, making images of the conference will help you solidify everything you’ve learned over the course of the weekend.

Photograpjy Conference Tips - dragon's breath

Serving up dragon’s breath dessert at the Adobe Max Bash. Canon 5DIV, 24-105 II @ 24mm, f/4.5, 1/320th, ISO 10,000, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

Swag

Hopefully, it doesn’t surprise you that you will get swag (free stuff!) at a photography conference. There might be a raffle or contest where you can win big door prizes – like lenses, tablets, and cameras. There will surely be a bag of goodies handed to you when you check in.

Most often you’ll get a reusable bag containing a sample pack of printer paper, a tee shirt, stickers, magnets, lens cleaning cloths, candy, water bottles, and lots of flyers. Now I know it’s tempting to just pitch most of it but before you do, review it all. There will be coupons and promo codes and it’s possible that there might be one for 20% off the business cards you always order or a BOGO (buy one get one) for your favorite ink or fine art paper.

A notebook and pen, courtesy of Adobe, in my AdobeMax swag bag.

Tip #5: Maximizing your trip

This is pretty much my favorite part of going to a photography conference. Most of them are only three or four days but there’s no rule that you can’t play hooky from work a bit longer. I recommend that you pick a conference near a cool destination. After the conference ends, stay in the area a few more days and put everything you learned to practice.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away

Photography Conference Tips - wild horses

Wild mare and foal in the Onaqui Mountains in Utah. Canon 5DIV, 100-400 II @ 400mm, f/10, 1/60th, ISO 200, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

After the AdobeMax conference in Vegas this past October, I headed off on a week-long wild horse photography road trip. I drove through Nevada, all the way to Utah, meeting half a dozen friends along the way, and flew home from Salt Lake City.

No surprise that for me that maximizing the conference was about heading off to photograph wild horses! For you, it might be photographing the Vegas Strip at night, or creating panoramas of the nearby Grand Canyon.

Which photography conferences are your favorites?

While AdobeMax was pretty amazing, my favorite is still the Out of Chicago Summer Conference. Of course, I’m biased since the conference is run by some of my good friends.

Chicago has so much beautiful architecture, it’s perfect for magical photo walks. Canon 5DIII with 24-105 @ 24mm, f/8, 1/125th, ISO 250, handheld, stylized in Lightroom.

Which photography conferences are your favorites? Please take a minute and list the conference name in the comment section, and why you recommend it so that other photographers can benefit from your experience.

The post 5 Tips to Getting the Most out of a Photography Conference by Lara Joy Brynildssen appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Canon and Sony dominate Lensrentals’ most rented gear of 2017 list

28 Dec

Lensrentals has released its most rented gear of 2017 list, and the results are very interesting. You can check out the full list here, but we thought we’d point out the three things that immediately caught our eye.

1. Sony’s claim that it’s beaten Nikon to take the #2 position in sales of full-frame interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs) is backed up by the rental data. According to Lensrentals, for the first year ever, Sony has out-rented Nikon and “is slowly closing the gap to Canon.”

2. That said, Sony’s top renting piece of gear—the Sony a7S II—only reached the number five spot behind four Canon products; the Canon 24-70mm F2.8L II, Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS II, Canon EOS 5D Mark III, and Canon EOS 5D Mark IV took the numbers one, two, three, and four spots, respectively. Canon may not have released anything overly exciting this year, but there’s no doubt it’s still the best-selling camera brand in the world.

3. Finally, the last bit that caught our eye is that a battery—Sony’s NP-FW50, which was recently replaced the the NP-FZ100 that our own Richard Butler loves so much—took the number 6 spot, beating out some seriously popular gear like the Canon 50mm F1.2L and Canon 6D. This just foes to show: upgrading the Sony a9 and a7RIII to the much bigger FZ100 battery was an absolute necessity.

To see the full list and breakdown, or dive into a few other categories like last year’s most-rented list or the most popular new equipment rented in 2017, head over to the Lensrentals blog.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Most Popular Post-Processing Articles of 2017

1. 5 Common Post-Processing Mistakes to Avoid
2. A Step by Step Guide to Processing Portraits in Lightroom
3. Basic Portrait Post-Processing Workflow Tips to Help You Save Time and Stay Organized
4. Don’t Fear Photo Post-Processing – Shooting is Only the First Part of the Image Creation Process
5. How to Match Your Image Processing Using Reference View in Lightroom
6. 4 Tips for Post-Processing Images on the Road
7. Overview of the Intuos Pro Wacom Tablet and the MobileStudio Pro for Post-Processing
8. How to Choose the Right Monitor for Photo Editing
9. Overview of Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 for Windows by ACDSee
10. Image Editing Software Review: PortraitPro 15
11. How to Speed Up Your Photo Editing with the Right Lightroom Workflow
12. How to do Non-Destructive Editing in Photoshop
13. How to Merge and Combine Images in Photoshop
14. How to Remove People from Your Photos Using Photoshop
15. How to Create a Rim Light Effect Using Photoshop
16. The dPS Ultimate Guide to Getting Started in Lightroom for Beginners
17. Tips for How to Think and Use Lightroom More Artistically
18. How to Understand the Lightroom Tone Curve
19. 3 Handy Lightroom Features I Discovered by Accident
20. Review of Macphun’s Aurora HDR 2018
21. How to use Macphun’s Luminar for Beginners
22. Luminar The Ultimate Lightroom Plugin

Whew, that is a lot, but it’s a big category with lots of options now available to you for processing your images.

Can you help us with a quick poll? Since there are so many new photo editing software options – please fill in any that you are using below. It will give us a better idea of what to cover in the upcoming year! Thanks for your assistance and for reading.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

The post Most Popular Post-Processing Articles of 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Calgary police catch suspected Camera Store thieves, recover most of the stolen gear

22 Dec

Photo: The Camera Store

Earlier this week, we reported on a high-profile burglary at Calgary’s well-known camera shop “The Camera Store”—best known for its popular YouTube channel. Well, thanks to sharp-eyed tipsters and the fast-acting Calgary police, it only took 48 hours from when the store was robbed to catch two suspects and recover most of the stolen gear.

As we reported on Monday, the thieves made away with over $ 27,000 worth of cameras and lenses, including a Hassleblad X1D, three Hasselblad X lenses, and a limited edition Leica M-P Edition Safari. This is the first time The Camera Store has experienced a break-in in over 20 years of business, and owner Julian Ferreira was both upset and determined: offering a $ 3,800 shopping spree “for any information that leads to a conviction.”

Fortunately for Ferreira, he need not have worried too much about the break-in. The same day that the story was spreading like wildfire across the blogosphere, the police were already tracking down the majority of the stolen gear.

Photo: The Camera Store

According to The Calgary Sun and The Camera Store’s own website, once the story went live on local news last weekend, tipsters alerted Calgary police of a Hasselblad X1D and three Hasselblad X lenses that had just been put up for sale on the website Kijiji. Undercover officers responded to the listing, meeting with two men—60-year-old Tan Bui and 36-year-old Justin Ross—at a Calgary mall on Monday afternoon, and taking them both into custody after it was confirmed the camera and lenses ‘for sale’ were the same ones stolen from The Camera Store.

Both men have been charged with possession and trafficking in stolen property, although it is unknown if police believe Bui and Ross are also responsible for the break-in. The $ 10,000 special-edition Leica M-P Edition Safari has not been recovered… at least not yet.

As for that promised shopping spree, The Camera Store writes:

Multiple tips from the public lead Calgary police to the Kijiji listing that helped them recover our equipment and to arrest the two suspects. Once convictions are made, we will contact the person who was first to provide the information to CPS that allowed them to take action quickly, to collect their $ 5000 [CAD] shopping spree reward.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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These are the 15 most popular Flickr photos of 2017

09 Dec

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Yesterday, Flickr revealed the Top 25 Photos on Flickr in 2017, simultaneously wowing photography fans and reminding people that Flickr is still an active community of millions of photographers from across the globe. That’s right Instagram… you haven’t stolen everybody yet.

The top 25 includes dreamy childhood portraits by Iwona Podlasinska and Elena Shumilova, a spectacular eruption photo by Albert Dros, a perfectly-timed wildlife photo by Salah Baazizi, and much much more.

Flickr was kind enough to share the top 15 with DPReview, so you can scroll through those in the gallery above. And if you want to see numbers 16-25, or check out Flickr’s Top Genre Galleries, Top Country Galleries, and more, head over to the Flickr Top 25 blog post.

All photos used courtesy of Flickr.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The 19 Most Popular DSLRs Among our Readers

24 Nov

Every few months we like to report back to the dPS community which cameras (and other gear) are most popular with our readers. Today we’re going to take a look at the highest selling DSLRs among our readers over the last 4 months (as ranked by the reports that Amazon gives us*).

popular dslrs

As usual you’ll see it is largely a battle between Canon and Nikon (who dominate this class of camera) and that at the top of the list we see entry level DSLRS most popular (mainly due to their price). Further down the list we see more serious (and expensive) contenders.

1. Canon EOS Rebel T6i

81aLEVAFXnL._SL1500_.jpg

2. Nikon D750

Nikon D750 popular dslr

3. Nikon D850

Nikon D850 popular dslr

4. Nikon D3400

Nikon D3400 popular dslr

5. Canon EOS 6D Mark II

Canon 6D Mark III

6. Canon EOS Rebel T5

71tz63oxXqL._SL1500_.jpg

7. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV popular dslr

8. Nikon D5500

Nikon D5500 popular dslr

9. Canon EOS 80D

Canon 80D DSLR Popular

10. Nikon D5300

Nikon D5300 DSLR Popular

And here are the next 9 most popular DSLRs.

Canon EOS Rebel T7i
Canon EOS Rebel T5i
Nikon D5600
Canon EOS 77D
Nikon D7200
Canon EOS Rebel SL2
Nikon D500
Canon EOS 6D
Nikon D3300

Updated 23 November 2017

*Note: this list was compiled from reports supplied to us from Amazon.com where we are affiliates. One of the ways dPS is able to cover its costs and be a sustainable business is that we earn a small commission when readers make a purchase from Amazon after clicking on our links (including those above). While no personal details are passed on we do get an overall report from Amazon about what was bought and are able to create this list.

The post The 19 Most Popular DSLRs Among our Readers by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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The 19 Most Popular Compact System and Mirrorless Cameras with Our Readers

23 Nov

Earlier in the week we revealed the DSLRs that were best selling among our readers over the last few months. While DSLRs are still the most popular type of readers among our readers this last quarter has seen a big rise in the number of you using compact system/mirrorless cameras.

popular compact system cameras

In fact if we combined the two lists we’d now see compact system cameras in the top 20 cameras bought by our readers with the Sony Alpha a6000 and the Sony Alpha a7II both making that list.

Also an indication of the growth of sales in the compact system camera class of camera is that today we’re listing 19 of them while last time we created this list we only saw enough sales to justify making it a list of 9 cameras.

Here are the most popular compact system cameras among our readers!

Note: we’ve included cameras with interchangeable lenses and fixed lenses in this list.

This post was last updated 23 November 2017