Every photographer is unique in their own photography style and gear preference. To get you started on your photography journey, this article will help you choose the only really essential photography equipment for beginners. You will also find specific brands and explanations for why they were chosen. This photography basics bundle has everything you need to get started! I will Continue Reading
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Successful landscape photography is made up of multiple elements, such as location, composition, proper depth of field, lighting, equipment used and other aspects. In the guide below on the basics of landscape photography, I will attempt to shed some light on what these elements are and how they work together to make landscape photos that stand out differ from ordinary Continue Reading
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| Jony Ive and Tim Cook at the September 2018 launch of iPhone XR | Photo provided by Apple |
Apple has announced that Jonathan ‘Jony’ Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, is leaving the company ‘later this year to form an independent design company which will count Apple among its primary clients.’
Ive’s departure is a monumental one considering the impact he’s had on Apple products since he was hired in September 1992. From the original, iconic iMac to Apple’s new Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California, which is estimated to have cost upwards of five billion dollars to construct, Ive has played a critical role in the look and—arguably more importantly—feel of Apple products for more than two decades.
No one person will assume the role of chief design officer, a title more or less created for Ive. Instead, as Apple explains below, two other design team leaders within Apple are expected to fill the void Ive is leaving behind1:
‘Design team leaders Evans Hankey, vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design, will report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.’
It’s unknown how much interaction will occur between Apple and Ive’s new design firm, but John Gruber of Daring Fireball says:
‘This angle that he’s still going to work with Apple as an independent design firm seems like pure spin. You’re either at Apple or you’re not. Ive is out.’
Gruber also points out that despite Ive leaving Apple, there’s little doubt his impact on Apple will remain for years to come, regardless of the role his design firm will have with the design of Apple products:
‘Apple’s hardware and industrial design teams work so far out that, even if I’m right and Ive is now effectively out of Apple, we’ll still be seeing Ive-designed hardware 5 years from now. It is going to take a long time to evaluate his absence.’
Time will tell the impact Ive’s departure will have on Apple and its products.
1AppleInsider has a great run-down of who Evans Hankey and Alan Dye are.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The world of photography is an exciting one, and it is only getting more and more accessible as technology improves. Technically, anyone with a smartphone can be a photographer; whether or not you choose to be a “good” photographer is up to you. Commercial photographers are some of the most sought after image-takers in the world as they have to Continue Reading
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The post 8 Tips for Better Fireworks Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
If you’ve been to a great aerial fireworks display, I’m sure you’ve heard the “oohs” and “ahhs” of the crowd, captivated by the colorful spectacle. Here in the United States, the Independence Day holiday is when many of us try our hand at fireworks photography. I’m sure if you live in other places in the world, you also have holidays celebrated with fireworks. So how can you capture those moments in a photo and elicit those same “oohs” and “ahhs” from your viewers and achieve better fireworks photos?
Include a landmark, city skyline, or something in your fireworks photo to add interest, place, and story. This is a show over the Boise, Idaho Depot.
Great fireworks photos aren’t difficult, but you will not get them in Auto mode. You will need to put a little thought into this and learn to take charge of your camera controls. Try these simple tips, however, and I’ll bet you’ll come back with images that elicit “oohs,” “ahhs,” some likes, and maybe even “wows” from your viewers.
Here are the things we’ll cover for better fireworks photos:
After you’ve read this article, and made your fireworks photos, be sure to read Part Two – Creatively Editing your Fireworks Photos.
You can make good fireworks photos with just an image of the colorful bursts in the sky. But great fireworks photos need something more – an interesting setting or foreground.
Think of displays you have seen taken with fireworks over the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Harbour, the Chicago city skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, or Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. What makes those shots over the top? A couple of things; iconic city skylines and landmarks, and most often, water.
Not only are there interesting things in the shot besides the fireworks themselves, but often with water in the shot, there’s the benefit of colorful reflections.
If you are lucky, the spot where you plan to photograph your fireworks display will also have interesting foreground features and perhaps a body of water. If so, scout the area ahead of time so you can find a location to best capture those things.
You can pretty much count on a crowd at a fireworks show. Get there early to stake out your spot. Then consider including the location in some of your shots.
You can count on a crowd when you go to a fireworks show. Plan on getting to your spot early so you can “stake your turf.” Perhaps put out a blanket to ensure an unobstructed view of the show. Then, if you have no other foreground elements, consider the possibility of making the crowd your foreground, their heads silhouetted against the sky and fireworks.
Another possibility might be to find a less obvious location, not right where the fireworks will be launched. Perhaps there is a landmark, a tree-line, a high vantage point, or some other spot that will create an interesting foreground that while still including the fireworks, will give context, place, and “story” to your photos. Doing some scouting long before the night of the show is a good idea.
The first few fireworks of the show will be in clearer sky conditions. As the show continues, smoke may be more of an issue and the sky won’t be as dark with the fireworks lighting the smoke.
What will you need to make good fireworks photos? Let’s break down the basic equipment needs:
You can make fireworks photos with a cellphone camera if that’s all you have. However, the techniques will be different and the results likely not as impressive.
We won’t get into that here, so let’s assume you have a better DSLR or mirrorless camera with the option for manual control. Be sure to have a good-sized storage card, as well as a spare battery or two, as you’ll usually take lots of shots at a fireworks show.
Fireworks photography will require a steady camera as you’ll be shooting in low light and taking longer exposures. Consider a tripod pretty much mandatory for this kind of work. An L-bracket on your camera or at least a tripod that will easily allow going from landscape to portrait mode easily is a good thing too. Often you will shoot in both aspects.
Lens choice largely depends on how close you will be to the fireworks launch location. If you are really close, you may need a wide-angle to keep the larger bursts in the frame. If, however, you are a long distance from the show or want to compress the apparent distance between your foreground object and the sky bursts, a telephoto might be in order.
I typically use my go-to lens; a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS as it covers a good range. You don’t need a particularly fast lens as you will be working with mid to small apertures and longer shutter speeds. Still, a sharp lens is always a good thing.
The technique for photographing fireworks will be discussed in a minute, but trust that having a way to remotely trigger your camera will be a real help. One reason is you are presumably going to a fireworks show to enjoy the show. Having your eye to the viewfinder and your finger on the shutter button the entire time will lessen the enjoyment of “being there.” It will also introduce camera shake, something you don’t want.
A very basic remote release can be had for under $ 10.00 US. This is a great item to always have in your bag for many purposes.
The tree line at the bottom of the frame adds some additional interest.
If you’ve always worked in Program or one of the Auto modes with your camera, or even if you use Aperture (Av/A) or Shutter (Tv/S) mode, this will be the time to be brave and go to full Manual mode.
Here’s how you want to set up your camera for fireworks photography:
Real photographers shoot in Raw mode. There are many articles why. If you never have done so before, here’s your chance to try it. You can work in Raw + Jpg if that makes you feel more secure. However, I’m betting you won’t use the .jpg versions.
As described. Be brave. You can do this.
As you’re using Raw mode, (you are, yes?), white balance can be tweaked later so it doesn’t matter much what you set for shooting. I tend to leave my white balance in Faithful mode almost all the time.
Sometimes it’s fun to zoom in tighter and get the flurry of action.
Working in low light with dark or black backgrounds and long exposures will tend to introduce noise in your shots. Fortunately, the fireworks are bright, so higher ISO settings won’t be needed. Instead, use the minimum (ISO 100 on many cameras), and you’ll be fine.
Many modern cameras have a noise reduction feature, which after the first exposure, takes a second “black frame” exposure, detecting the noise and then subtracting that from the initial exposure. It can work well, but…
The second exposure takes as long as the first, and if you’re making multi-second exposures (for example, that 6-second exposure now takes 12 seconds to finish), your camera will be busy working, and you’ll be missing subsequent fireworks.
Turn it off. You’ll be using a low ISO with minimal noise anyway, and the delay in being able to make more shots isn’t worth it.
There are two things to consider here:
First, because the fireworks will be a good distance from your camera, you will be focusing on something further away and likely have a pretty good depth of field. Working at wider focal lengths helps too. Plan on being at your location well before the show starts and have an idea where you’ll need to focus and how much depth of field you need.
Secondly, most lenses are at their sharpest between f/8 and f/16. Learn where your lens performs best, the so-called “sweet spot,” and use that aperture if you can.
Most of the photos in this article were taken at the same show. Also, most were very close in their exposure settings such as this one at ISO 100, 10-seconds at f/8.
Your choice of shutter speed will be important in capturing good fireworks photos. You know when you hear the boom of the launched fireworks from its mortar that it trails up into the sky, explodes, and a beautiful shower of colorful sparks radiates out and trails down.
Often multiple fireworks are launched close together, each doing the same thing. What you’re after is to capture the entire event which can sometimes take several seconds.
You could pick a fixed shutter speed of, say, four seconds, but would that be too short? Too long? Of course, it depends on the individual firework duration or sequence you want to capture, and that will vary during the show.
So how do you choose?
The answer is, you don’t have to because there’s a better way.
Using bulb mode you will be able to hold the shutter open and capture multiple fireworks bursts, closing it when you like. Note this shot is in portrait orientation.
If you’ve seen pictures of early photographers with their view cameras, you might have noticed them holding a rubber “bulb” which when they squeezed, forced air through a rubber tube and tripped the shutter. As long as the photographer kept the bulb squeezed, the shutter stayed open, ending when they released it.
These were the first shutter remotes, and it was that rubber bulb that gave the mode its name.
Today we have wired, and sometimes wireless triggers that can do the same thing. Putting the camera in Bulb mode allows a variable shutter speed. As long as we press and hold the button, the shutter stays open. Let it go, and the shutter closes, ending the exposure.
This is just the ticket for fireworks photography, a variable shutter speed.
So, let’s review our basic camera settings:
Set up like this, you’re good to go. Remember, once the show starts, you will be busy. If you are fooling with camera settings, you’ll be missing shots. You will want to try some variations, but you don’t want to have to struggle and miss the show.
Be ready, think it through beforehand, and when the show starts, start clicking.
You’ve set your camera up on a tripod, figured out where to point it, made sure to pre-focus on a distant spot and locked the focus by putting it in Manual Focus (MF) mode.
If you leave your camera’s Autofocus on it’s almost guaranteed to give you images that are a bust rather than a boom. Against the dark sky and the moving fireworks the focus will hunt, fail, and… it’ll just be bad. Don’t do it.
Often the best images can be made right when the show starts as later, smoke from the previous fireworks becomes thicker, and the fireworks more obscured. So, when you hear that boom of the first firework going up, click and hold the button on the remote. You’ll be in bulb mode so hold it open while the firework goes up, explodes, and radiates out. Then release the trigger.
Now, quickly check your shot. Is it in focus and framed properly? Is it exposed correctly? If it’s too dark, increase the ISO a click or perhaps open the aperture a stop. Too light? Do the opposite.
Try not to spend too much time doing this as, of course, the show will continue without you.
If you’re in the ballpark, the ability to edit in raw gives you the tweaking room you need. The two unrecoverable mistakes you might make would be to have things out of focus or have the highlights so blown out as to be unrecoverable. Editing won’t save you if you do those things, so be sure the focus is good and if you’re not sure with exposure, underexpose a bit. Some fireworks will be much brighter than others – especially a multi-burst or the finale. So quickly check your histogram and be sure you’ve not clipped the right (highlights) side.
Make any tweaks you need and then keep clicking. Vary the zoom if you need to, but if anything, frame a little “loose.” You can always crop in tighter later. However, if that really big and spectacular burst is so big it goes out of the frame, you’ll have missed it. Try both some portrait and landscape orientation shots. Perhaps reframe to get different things in the shot, especially if you are including foreground elements.
If things are going well, it’s going to be a fairly long show.
And if you’re feeling frisky, you might be ready for some more advanced techniques.
Note how the bright pink burst appears here, thicker streaks at the base of each trail growing thinner at the tip. This uses what I describe as the “Boom Zoom Bloom” technique described.
You may have seen those photos where the bursting fireworks look more like a flower, fat blurry trails with sharp points. How is that done?
Here’s the technique, which you can vary for different results.
Know this takes practice, and luck plays a big part. So decide if you have already got enough necessary shots before you try it and whether the show will last long enough for some experimentation.
If you’re game, here’s how you do it:
Two other images using the defocus-to-focus technique. Also note how some of the bursts, captured after the focus was performed but before the shutter closed, don’t show the same look combining two looks in one photo.
Now, try different things with subsequent shots. Go from focused to unfocused, zoom in or out during the exposure, or maybe take the camera off the tripod and move it during the exposure to make light trails. Play and see what you like.
Just remember, the duration of the show is limited, so try some experiments but also be sure you have some solid “keepers.”
I have to confess, I’ve not personally tried this but the concept is sound and could be fun. (I’ve always wanted to do a “hat trick.”)
Here’s how it’s supposed to work:
What you’re doing is making a multiple-exposure image in-camera. This should work. Of course, there’s also a way to do it in post-processing. For that, and some other tips on how best to process you fireworks photo, come back for Part Two – Creatively Editing your Fireworks Photos.
There may be a frenzy of fireworks at the show finale. Keep the shutter open and capture it all if you can without overexposing.
I hope you’ve decided that good fireworks photography is easy and go and have fun with it. It’s one more way to enhance your camera skills and make some exciting images.
If there’s anything that’s a problem it’s that good aerial fireworks displays are seasonal in most places and if you really catch the bug, you may find there are not enough opportunities to practice.
So, find out when and where the shows will be near you, mark your calendar, do some scouting for the best locations, “light the fuse” and have fun!
Post your best shots as images in the comments – we’d love to see them.
The post 8 Tips for Better Fireworks Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
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In January, Insta360 unveiled Titan, an 11K 360-degree cinematic camera featuring eight lenses with Micro Four Thirds sensors. The camera is designed for VR video production, offering shooting modes ranging from 5.3K/120fps through 11K/30fps with 10-bit color. The model is now available to order from Insta360.
Titan offers a number of high-end features for professional productions, including an integrated 9-axis gyro with FlowState stabilization for smooth shots without a gimbal. Insta360 boasts that its Titan camera offers superior low-light performance, color depth, and clarity compared to ‘conventional’ VR cameras.
The 360-degree camera produces stitched 2D videos at up to 10,560 x 5280 pixels and 3D stitched videos at up to 9600 x 9600 pixels. Stitched 2D images are processed at 10,560 x 5280 and stitched 3D images at 10,560 x 10,560 pixels in JPEG and DNG formats.
Titan supports capturing in-camera HDR images, 10 continuous burst shots, and time-lapses in addition to single shot images. The model offers multiple exposure modes (auto, manual, etc.), 12 stops exposure range, ISO 100 – 6400, and records data to nine full-size SD cards.
When the camera was announced in January, interested customers could reserve a unit with a $ 150 deposit. Titan is now available to directly purchase from Insta360 bundled with the Farsight live monitoring device for $ 14,999 USD; there’s also a bundle that includes memory cards with Titan and Farsight for $ 15,339 USD.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post What Size Beauty Dish is Right For Your Portrait Photography? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.
Beauty dishes are common and well-loved lighting modifiers. They are particularly useful for portraits (beauty is in the name after all). They also tend to be a lot cheaper than decent sized softboxes. Years ago, your choice of beauty dish was quite limited. Nowadays, if you try searching for beauty dishes, you will be presented with a multitude of options that greatly vary in size and even how they set up.
Although the numbers don’t seem to be that different, the actual sizes of these beauty dishes vary greatly, and they all have a distinct effect on the light in your images.
What do you do when faced with this kind of choice and how do you know what size beauty dish you should buy? This article discusses three common sizes of beauty dishes and shows you what effect they have on your images. All of the beauty dishes discussed here are silver, and none of them are collapsible. As long as they are of decent quality, the fact that a beauty dish is collapsible should have no impact on your images.
Three different size beauty dishes. Left: 16″ Middle: 20″ Right: 27″
Beauty dishes are bowl-shaped modifiers that are known for the contrasty light they provide. The quality of light is usually somewhere between hard and soft (when brought in close to your subject). This sets them apart from other modifiers, like umbrellas and softboxes, where the goal is to achieve the softest light possible. This allows you to achieve well-defined edges and shadows, but still retain a flattering light on your subject.
This image shows an unmodified beauty dish on the left. A gridded beauty dish in the middle, and a beauty dish fitted with a diffusion sock on the right.
Often, you will find that beauty dishes come with grids and diffusion socks to help modify them further. Grids alter and increase the directionality of the light, while diffusion socks diffuse the light further, softening it a bit and altering the shape.
Any search for a beauty dish should reveal a huge amount of results these days. You can find tiny beauty dishes that are only a few inches across that are designed for flashguns and you can find massive beauty dishes that would be ideal for lighting groups of people. This article compares three sizes that fall more into the normal sized category. These are a 27″, 20″ and 16″.
All three beauty dishes were positioned the same distance from the subject to clearly demonstrate the differences in the effect they provide.
At 27-inch in diameter, this beauty dish is at the upper reaches of what you can expect to find in terms of size. When it’s in close, the light it provides is really soft and is comparable to a medium-sized softbox, but with a bit more contrast to it. It also provides large catchlights in your subject’s eyes.
Because of its size, it’s easy to bring the light further away from your subject to achieve a similar effect to that of smaller beauty dishes, while giving you more room to work. This beauty dish would also be great for lighting multiple people, whereas smaller dishes might struggle.
The 27″ beauty dish provides really soft light when placed in close. Pay attention to the shadow and highlight transitions as well as to how the light wraps around the subject.
There are a couple of disadvantages to a beauty dish this big. The bigger the light source is in relation to your subject, the less bright your subject’s eyes are going to be. If you want bright, clear eyes, a smaller beauty dish may be the way to go. It is also harder to control the light fall off (without a grid) as the bigger source will cast more light behind your subject.
The second beauty dish we’re going to discuss comes in at 20 inches. This is pretty close to what may be considered a standard size for a beauty dish (if there is such a thing). Placed a few feet (1-4) away from your subject, the qualities of light it produces are great for all sorts of portraiture and for a wide variety of subjects.
It is great for male and female subjects, though for flattering portraits of older people you may want to consider not using a beauty dish. Instead, opt for large softboxes and umbrellas. As the beauty dish isn’t a great deal bigger than your average subject’s head (from an appropriate distance), you also have good control over the light fall off, and you have even more control when you introduce a grid.
The 20″ beauty dish also provides good, soft light but the edges of the transitions from shadow to highlight are more defined. You’ll also note the light wraps around the subject less and results in darker shadows toward the back of the subject’s head.
This last beauty dish is 16-inches in diameter. This is the size that I have used the most ever since I bought it well over a decade ago. You can see in the images just how battered and well-used it is.
Because it is quite small, it is easy to control and great to bring in really close to your subject. This beauty dish clearly lights and defines your subject’s eyes. The harder light source also provides clearly defined edges between shadows and highlights but in a flattering manner.
If you want to reduce light fall off as much as possible, this size is definitely the way to go. However, if you want to increase it, you are better off with a larger modifier. This is because moving this beauty dish any distance from your subject will result in really hard light that you might find unflattering to most subjects.
The 16″ beauty dish also provides excellent light. Here you can see the transitions from shadow to highlight are clearly defined. Also, the rapid light fall off means the areas towards the back of the subject’s head are more in shadow.
In terms of portability, this size beauty dish is great. It doesn’t weigh very much at all and just carrying it in your hand takes minimum effort.
When used as something other than a key light, this size beauty dish is really effective. Its small size makes it unobtrusive and easy to position anywhere you need, whether that’s for use as a hair light or fill.
Left: 16″ Middle: 20″ Right: 27″
Some of the differences between these three modifiers can be subtle and hard to spot if you’re new to lighting. If you’re still wondering which you should opt for, my best advice (which is by no means gospel) would be to evaluate what you need it for.
Do you need portability? Get a small one or consider a collapsible one.
Will you be shooting groups of people often? Go for the largest one you can.
Are you shooting in a small space? Go for the small one again.
Are you shooting in a large space where you can’t get the lights very close to your subject? Again, go for the biggest one possible.
Whichever you choose, make sure that it comes with both a grid and a diffusion sock for the most control possible.
No matter which way you choose to go, you are going to find yourself with a versatile and useful modifier that will last you for years.
Have you used these modifiers? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
The post What Size Beauty Dish is Right For Your Portrait Photography? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.
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We were already impressed with the Sony a9 when we reviewed it, giving it a score that put it on par with its two very capable rivals, the Nikon D5 and the Canon EOS-1DX II. In April this year, nearly two years after the camera’s launch, Sony introduced a significant firmware update that largely revamped the autofocus system of the camera, adding a new ‘real-time tracking’ AF mode that works seamlessly with face and eye detection. Sony also updated face and eye detection algorithms by using machine learning to understand human subjects and features more accurately.
We’ve spent some time shooting with the updated a9 in a variety of situations, and have previously written and in-depth look into what the new AF system brings. After further testing, we’ve re-scored the a9 with the boosted autofocus in mind, and it brings the score up to 90% (from 89%). This makes the a9 the highest-scoring camera in its class, out-ranking the Nikon D5 and Canon EOS-1D X II.
The increased score reflects the precision of the updated a9’s subject tracking system, as well as its ease-of-use that makes it valuable for nearly all types of photography. Click ‘Read our review’ above to jump to our full review (originally published in 2017), and read on for a description of the new real-time tracking mode, with some examples and videos of the system in use.
‘Real-time tracking’ refers to the ability of the a9 (and a6400) to understand the subject you initiated focus on, and track it in three dimensions, much like 3D Tracking on Nikon DSLRs, and the respective subject tracking modes on various mirrorless cameras. What sets the a9’s system apart are both its performance (we found it to reliable enough to be useful for portrait, event, candid, sports and even landscape photography), and its ease-of-use.
To pick a target, you can simply reframe your composition to place your AF point over your subject, half-press the shutter, and real-time tracking will collect color, brightness, pattern, distance, face and eye information about your subject so it can use it to keep track of your subject.
It’s robust enough that it will even, again reliably, switch in and out of Eye AF as necessary if a face or eye is detected on the subject you are tracking, as you can see in the video above.* Collectively, this means you can concentrate on the composition and the moment. There is no longer a need to focus (pun intended) on keeping your AF point over your subject, which for years has constrained composition and made it difficult to maintain focus on erratic subjects.
In practice, the system excels. While many professional sports photographers that know their sport, and can anticipate the action, have successfully used Single Point or Zone AF for years, real-time tracking can help both the amateur and the pro achieve potentially better results. First, it frees up the photographer to compose freely, as composition is no longer constrained by having to keep an AF point over the subject. But perhaps more importantly, not having to keep a fixed AF point or zone over a fast moving subject is a boon when it comes to fast, erratic subjects shot using long telephoto lenses, where framing is increasingly difficult. The sequences below were shot with the 600mm F4 GM lens at a soccer match (click on any thumbnail to launch the gallery):
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And below, despite erratic motion, changing directions, and nearby similarly-dressed players, the camera tracks the original player in both instances. In the first sequence we targeted the player in red (Everton); in the second, the player in silver (Ivan). Only one or two shots in the sequence are slightly misfocused.
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Away from sports and burst photography, we found the performance of Sony’s ‘real-time tracking’ to be beneficial for even more stationary subjects, as it frees you up to try different poses and framings quickly, as we’ve done below.
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Most of the 20 shots above were captured in under 19 seconds, without ever letting off the AF-ON button. The camera never lost our model, and the seamless transitioning between Eye AF and general subject tracking allowed the AF system to remain on our subject throughout the series. By not having to think about focus, you can work faster, and come home with a greater variety of images to choose from.
*This video demonstrates ‘real-time tracking’ on the a6400, but the principle is the same on the a9.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post 3 Photo Keywording Tools for Little or No Cost appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.
Most dictionaries don’t recognize “keyword” as a verb, yet keywording is seen as an arduous task by many photographers. Despite the mundanity, if you want to find specific photos amid a large collection, it helps to keyword them. This article looks at three keywording tools that will hasten the work for little or no cost.
The main benefit of laboriously keywording every image yourself is accuracy. You know every word you enter applies to that photo. Or, you have a good-faith belief that it does. Good keywording often involves research, especially if you’re keywording with the aim of selling or licensing photos.
One way to speed up keywording is with the quick keyword lists you find in all software with built-in DAM (digital asset management). Such lists normally need building first, but they cut out typing and thinking time once installed. A similar system is used in paid-for keyword tools.
An ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate quick keyword list, which you can expand if necessary to include many keywords. I also have an organized keyword list under construction.
An even faster way to keyword is by using image recognition software. This populates keyword fields quickly. The main drawback is having to remove a few words from most photos. That’s not a bad trade-off when it works well, since deleting words is less taxing than adding them. You’ll still need to add a few keywords yourself, because software like this tends to identify subjects generically.
Keyword software ranges from expensive to free. It can be standalone, plugin, SaaS or web-based without charge. You’re unlikely to want to pay for keywording unless there’s a chance of return on investment. Below are three keywording tools that have little or no effect on your bank balance but which might save you time.
The Any Vision Lightroom Plugin uses Google Cloud Vision technology to recognize the content of photos and populate the LR keyword field accordingly. It’s clever stuff. You can try the same technology out here on image files under 4 MB in size. Google Cloud Vision is the engine behind Google image search. The plugin is available on trial for the first 50 images, after which you must buy a license for whatever price you can afford or deem suitable.
Does it work? I’ve found it to be useful for everyday photos, and it even recognizes a few iconic buildings (e.g. Flatiron building). Yes, I have to cut out a few keywords, but I keep more than I delete. It’s not so good with plant portraits, as it tends to fill the keyword field with the names of various lookalike flowers. But once you know its weak spots, it’s good to have on board.
Any Vision impressed me by identifying the location of this photo (Lyons-la-Forêt), though I’ll still need to add and subtract a few words.
To get Any Vision working after the trial, you must obtain a Google Cloud Key. That’s linked to your Google billing account, but unless you keyword over 1,000 photos a month, you won’t be charged a thing. Bear in mind you won’t need to analyze every image (i.e. you can copy and paste).
The online IMS Keyworder tool is simple to use. Just enter one or two keywords that best sum up the content of your picture, hit enter and click on relevant photos to create more keywords. The keywords that appear are ranked for their popularity with microstock searchers – customers that look for and download photos. This gives you a clue as to how vital a keyword is to your image.
IMS Keyworder shows you how popular search terms with microstock buyers. You can also see how often each keyword appears among your selection.
Other handy IMS features include the ability to bring up a list of synonyms and create templates. You can also embed keywords, descriptions, and captions directly into JPEGs on your PC. This online software is free with the option of making a voluntary payment to the developer.
Xpiks is a good open-source program that, like IMS, draws its keyword suggestions from microstock photo libraries. You still need the Internet to use it, but the software exists on your hard drive. And that makes it more versatile since you can add keywords to bigger file formats in the absence of bandwidth restrictions.
Among the useful features of Xpiks are XMP/IPTC/EXIF metadata editing, translation, autocomplete, search facility, spellcheck and, of course, keyword suggestions. If you happen to contribute to microstock libraries, you can also upload photos straight from Xpiks.
A photo of Mont Blanc in Xpiks with 30+ keywords sourced from several similar microstock photos.
Among the other third-party keywording tools I’m aware of (free or not) are the following:
Akiwi has a cleanly designed webpage that is simple to use. Image recognition helps you find a maximum of 15 keywords per image.
If you break keyword lists up into categories and sub-categories, you’ll have the basis of a methodical keywording system. The problem with adding words randomly without any system is one of consistency: you’ll rarely end up with the same set of words twice. And that may force you into trying multiple search terms later when it comes to finding pictures. Even if you use keywording tools to help you, it’s handy to have your own lists of words to add on top.
Excire recognizes content but adds keywords sparingly. It’s a paid-for Lightroom add-on that can search your library to some extent without keywords.
The number of keywords you should add is open to debate, especially if you’re licensing photos for publication. You don’t want to waste picture researchers’ time with loosely related words, but you also don’t want to make photos invisible through minimalism. The same applies for your own purposes. About 10-25 keywords often suffices. Some photos might need more. It’s wise to stick to common words where possible. Long or formal words are less likely to be used in search terms.
The 50-image limit of Keywords Ready is limiting for prolific photographers, but this is free software. It gave me a good selection of words for this photo, save for one or two exceptions (I wouldn’t add “material property”).
I hope this article has led you to some useful keywording tools. If you get to the stage where you have thousands of untagged pictures, modern AI software will help you narrow down a search. Paid-for keywording software tends to be more methodical than the free stuff. It usually includes a large lexicon of categorized words. But free or inexpensive programs will help you get the work done and make your library searchable.
Have you used any of these? What are your thoughts? Or do you use other keywording tools? Share with us in the comments below.
The post 3 Photo Keywording Tools for Little or No Cost appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.
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