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  • Avoid These 5 Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers

    Whether you are traveling abroad or within your own country, there are several mistakes that I’ve seen travel photographers make that hinder the process of making memorable photos.

    Five Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers

    Mistake #1: Not being aware of cultural sensitivities and laws

    When you travel to another country it’s easy to forget that the people there may see certain things differently than you. For example, in China, you will see signs up in temples asking you not to take photos. So it should be fairly obvious that doing so may cause offense.

    Others are not so obvious. Did you know that in Spain the law prohibits photographers from taking photos of people in public without permission unless they are taking part in a cultural event such as a festival? That’s right, Spain is not a great place to be a street photographer (although that doesn’t stop people from doing it).

    Unless you know this, you probably think taking candid photos of people in Spain is perfectly okay (as it is in most other places). Once you understand the attitude (and the law) towards photographing people in Spain, you can adjust your behavior to fit in with local expectations and behavior.

    If you want to create a street photo of somebody, it’s best to stop them and ask for permission. That way you protect yourself and (added bonus!) keep out of trouble with the police.

    Avoid These 5 Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers

    I made this street portrait in Cadiz, Spain after asking the street vendor if I could take his photo. If I had tried to take a photo without him noticing it would have been illegal, and if he had called the police I would have been on the wrong side of the law.

    Some countries have laws forbidding the photography of certain buildings, like airports. Did you know that photographers have been arrested, jailed, and accused of spying in Greece for photographing an airshow at a military base? If you’re going to Greece it’s a good idea to know which buildings are out of bounds for photographers. Make sure you’re aware of any legal restrictions in your country of travel.

    Mistake #2: Being disrespectful to local people

    When you travel somewhere new, especially somewhere that is exotic to you, it’s easy to treat people as if they were laid out, like colorful extras in a movie scene, for you to take photos of. That is not true, and it’s disrespectful and unkind to act as if it is. Imagine how you would feel if somebody from another country came and tried to take photos as you went about your daily life, without consideration for you and your feelings.

    It seems to me that a big part of the problem is when people travel through other countries without interacting with locals in anything other than a commercial context, such as renting a hotel room or eating in a restaurant. Sometimes this is down to language – it’s hard to strike up a conversation in China if you don’t speak Chinese, for example.

    But your travels (and life in general) can become a lot more interesting if you are open to non-commercial experiences with local people. Try having conversations with people about their hopes and dreams, what they do for a living, how they like living in their town and similar topics. You’ll gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the places you’re traveling through when you do.

    Avoid These 5 Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers

    A Spanish friend of mine invited me to see a farm owned by a member of her family. I would never have gotten to see the farm or make this photo if we didn’t know each other.

    Language study is an excellent way to meet local people. I have many good friends in Spain and South America that I met online through websites aimed to help people learn other languages. I’ve met most of them in person and learned a lot about their culture and countries in the process.

    Mistake #3: Not putting safety first

    Another mistake I’ve seen photographers make is forgetting to take care of their personal security or failing to take appropriate precautions to guard their gear against theft.

    Most photographers travel to most places without any security problems, but there is always the potential for something to go wrong, especially if you don’t put much thought into your personal safety and the security of your camera and computer equipment. Some countries are safe, others can be dangerous, so make sure you do your research beforehand and take any appropriate precautions.

    A good travel insurance policy that covers your gear (check the fine print) will help give you peace of mind if the worse does happen.

    Mistake #4: Taking too much gear

    We’ve all seen the type of photographer that walks around with a large dSLR camera and telephoto lens, perhaps even two, swinging from their side.

    At the other extreme are photographers who travel with just one camera and one lens. When I worked at EOS magazine we published an article about a photographer who traveled to India with one camera and a single 50mm lens. He made some beautiful images so the approach worked for him.

    Avoid These 5 Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers

    During a recent trip to China, I calculated afterward that I had used my 35mm lens for 73% of the photos, including the one above. That tells me that I probably could have taken just that lens and still enjoyed a very productive journey.

    There’s nothing wrong with taking lots of gear, especially if it works for you. Professionals often take lots of lenses so they know they are covered for just about any situation they may encounter. But there are a couple of things worth considering.

    • The first is that a large camera and lens combo is an obvious target for theft. Smaller cameras attract less attention and don’t look as expensive.
    • The other consideration is creative. If you have too much gear it’s heavy to carry around and you can waste time trying to decide which lens/camera combination to use.

    The key is to think in advance about the subject matter you intend to photograph and what gear you’ll need for it. If you are into long exposure photography, for example, then you’re going to need a tripod, cable release and neutral density filters.

    If you are photographing people, you need to decide what lens or lenses you are going to use for portraits. If you are photographing local architecture, you will probably need a good wide-angle lens. If you are going to walk around all day taking street photos, a small camera and lens are much less tiring than a large DSLR with a telephoto zoom.

    You get the idea. Ultimately, you need to find the right balance between taking enough gear to meet your needs and taking too much. Also, if security is a concern, you may want to consider leaving your more expensive gear at home.

    Mistake #5: Not doing enough research

    If there’s one mistake that links all the others, it’s this one – not doing enough research. It’s important because it makes you aware of any local laws or cultural sensitivities you need to know (mistake #1).

    As part of your research, you may get in touch with local people (mistake #2) who can give you advice or help you gain access to places or events you would never know about otherwise. Some photographers go even further and work with a fixer – somebody who introduces you to other people, translates if necessary, and acts as a bridge between you and the local culture.

    Research alerts you to any security considerations (mistake #3). It helps you decide what gear you need to take, and avoid overload caused by taking too much equipment (mistake #4).

    In other words, doing your research is a key part of avoiding the mistakes that many travel photographers make.

    Avoid These 5 Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers

    Research also helps you find interesting places to photograph, such as this ancient fishing village in north Devon.

    Conclusion

    These mistakes are based on my observations of other photographers while traveling. But what mistakes have you seen other photographers make? What mistakes have you made yourself? I’m looking forward to hearing your responses in the comments section below.

    The Candid Portrait

    If you’d like to learn more about street and travel photography then please check out my popular ebook popular ebook The Creative Portrait.

    The post Avoid These 5 Major Mistakes Made By Travel Photographers by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.


    Digital Photography School

  • Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 sample gallery

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    We’ve had some time to shoot around with Panasonic’s freshest interchangeable lens camera, the GX9. This rangefinder-style camera features a tilting EVF and a 20.3MP Four Thirds sensor with no low-pass filter. It also gains Panasonic’s new L.Monochrome D mode photo style, which offers deeper blacks and richer gradation than the camera’s other monochrome modes. We put the new black-and-white mode to work and started to get a feel for how it handles out and about; take a look at our full gallery.

    See our Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9
    sample gallery

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Behind the scenes: Shooting a motion time-lapse in the Canadian wilderness

    Back in summer 2017, I went on a six week adventure to British Columbia and Alberta in order to capture Canada’s beautiful landscapes in the most impressive way possible. I wanted to make a time-lapse film that raises more awareness of our planet and our environment.

    Planning

    When it came to logistics, I tried to be as prepared as possible for this 6-week trip, and did tons of research ahead of departure. I knew I probably wouldn’t have a whole lot of internet (or time to waste on the internet) in the Canadian wilderness, and wanted to be prepared to just take things as they came. So I collected locations that I discovered on Google, on Instagram, or on other photographers’ portfolios, and created a long list of spots that were worth checking out.

    I didn’t have a specific shot list. I just tried to capture the most beautiful scenery and moments that I could find along my adventure. However, I paid a lot of attention to interesting details around me instead of going for spectacular vantage points only. That’s how the whole moody intro sequence was conceived. By stepping closer to the subject, I tried to approach time-lapse in a slightly different way than you see in your typical, ‘epic’ time-lapse films online.

    Challenges

    I guess my biggest challenge with shooting this project was my own safety—doing all of alone, in an area packed with grizzly bears, was pretty scary.

    Hiking alone comes with a risk that I always had to bear in mind. I carried bear spray at all times, and tried to let the bears know that I was there by creating a lot of noise on the hiking trail (they can get really dangerous when they’re startled). When I set up a time-lapse shot, I always had to have an eye on my surroundings and make a lot of noise by singing or talking to myself. Over the course of my trip, that risk was something I got used to.

    Being all alone also didn’t make it possible for me to camp out on location. Obviously because it is very risky, but most of all because I simply couldn’t carry camping gear along with my camera gear and slider all by myself.

    As a result of this, I had trouble getting to the best possible location at the best times of day. In order to shoot at sunset or sunrise, I either had to find a location that was fairly close to the parking lot, or take the risk of hiking up or down in the darkness with my head lamp as the only light source.

    This is all of the gear I brought with me into the Canadian wilderness

    Gear

    Since I was all alone on this mission and wanted to hike out to locations a lot, I had to keep my gear package as compact and efficient as possible. I packed my Sony a7S II and Nikon D5100 (as backup camera) together with a newly purchased Canon 16-35mm F4 and Rokinon 14mm F2.8, as well as two cheap vintage lenses: an SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 and an SMC Pentax-M 100mm F2.8.

    As you might have noticed, my camera package was pretty humble. That was all I had and all I could afford, and honestly—that was all I needed.

    A great Sony camera with only 12 MP paired with a sharp Canon wide-angle lens that could almost do anything on location. This lens is my absolute favorite due to its great flexibility for wide three-dimensional time-lapse movements. The Rokinon lens is well-known for its night- and astrophotography abilities, as it has just little amount of coma and is wide enough to capture almost the whole night sky. The Pentax lenses are actually my first lenses I’ve ever bought. Obviously, they’re old, cheap, and not the sharpest; they’re also small, light, and capable of projecting an image onto my sensor I was totally happy with.

    In contrast, my time-lapse gear was downright extravagant thanks to a sponsorship from the innovative company eMotimo. They gave me a loaner for a great package for the duration of my whole trip: The spectrum ST4 is a newly designed 4-axis motion control system that, combined with the iFootage Shark Slider S1, simply can do it all—slide, pan, tilt and even pull focus in video or time-lapse shooting mode.

    Using a Playstation Controller, I could easily set up literally any shot I wanted, and the ability to set keyframes in between the start and end point of my programmed shot gave me ultimate control over my composition. Additionally, an innovation that I’ve never seen before is a mountable extra motor to automatically pull the focus as the time-lapse is running. There are many ways to mess around with that: one I used was to shift focus from an interesting foreground to the revealing scenery in the background.

    Another great feature worth mentioning is the ability to repeat a programmed movement at different speeds. This allowed me to record shots at different frame rates, but still have the exact same camera movement in each.

    Since I couldn’t get the idea out of my head to combine a moving time-lapse shot with a real time video, with both shots having the very same camera movement, I did exactly that in the final shot of ALIVE. I recorded the whole scenery in dynamic time-lapse except for the person (me) being recorded in real-time video 25fps. Even though it took a lot of time perfectly masking out the person in post production, this shot probably wouldn’t have been possible without the spectrum ST4.

    With all the flexibility of the motion control devise I felt an enormous freedom as a time-lapse photographer and could explore further ways to creatively make use of its features. However, this turned out to be a weakness as well, as I often found myself tempted to design way too sophisticated time-lapse shots. In this case, the inorganic/mechanical camera motion often drew way too much attention when watching the processed time-lapse sequence making the scenery appear surreal.

    So in the process of my trip I learned that less is more in this case. It is way more important so be at the right spot at the right time—which is ultimately what I was seeking for my whole adventure.

    Editing

    In the editing process of ALIVE it was certainly very hard to come up with an edit as I had to choose the best among 149 time-lapse shots I recorded on my trip. Since I wanted to keep my film under 4 minutes, I forced myself to make some hard decisions. That turned out to be a pretty emotional process because every shot has a background story that connects to me personally.

    It just often felt super frustrating to kick out a shot for which I woke up at 4 a.m. and hiked up a mountain for two hours in order to be there for sunrise.

    A Story

    Let me conclude my little behind the scenes tale with a story from Lake O’Hara, one of the most captivating landscapes I have ever experienced in person, and the final shot of the film. I decided to hike up to this incredible viewpoint for sunset and kept shooting until there was no light left to work with. That was the moment when I found myself alone in the darkness on the edge of a cliff.

    The final shot of the film, captured above Lake O’Hara at sunset.

    Should I take the risk of hiking down the steep and forested trail in the darkness potentially ending up as grizzly bear food? Or should I rather just stay up here all night and do another time-lapse of the milky way? Without camping gear and food, I stayed and spent another 5 hours in the cold darkness until the sun came back up.

    Even though this shot of the milky way didn’t even make it into the final film, there is nothing I regret about staying up on this mountain all night all alone without a tent in bear territory… simply because it was one of these adventures that made my trip so unique.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Photography can be traced back all the way to the camera obscura; which was an aid for artists who could then draw their subjects from the projection created by the light passing through the pinhole. Following that tradition, in this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a drawing by outlining the subject from your digital photo to create a fun, cartoon-like image.

    Deer cartoon - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Getting started

    You can use this technique on any photo you want and apply it to any subject you like. However, I find it best, especially for your first attempt, that the subject is well defined or isolated so it’s easier for you to outline it. I also personally prefer and recommend that the image is not too busy. So, once you have chosen your photo, open it in Photoshop.

    Outline the subject

    To trace your subject you are going to use the Pen tool. The way it works is that you create anchor points with each click. A straight line then connects those points. Do this all around the subject.

    Once you have this, change the Pen tool to the Convert Point Tool, which you can find by holding down on the Pen until the drop-down menu opens. With the Convert Point, you can curve the straight lines to make it fit the silhouette best. Just click on the anchor point and start dragging it. From each anchor point, you will have to handles, each one to control the line in each direction of the anchor.

    Pen Outline - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    This will help you get a smoother silhouette and avoiding unnecessary bumps that you would get if you only trace by adding anchor points.

    Straight lines - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    A straight line.

    Curve - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Using curved lines.

    Create your outline

    Once you have outlined the silhouette of the subject, create a new layer. You can do this by going to the top Menu > Layer > New Layer. You can rename it as “silhouette” or “outline” just to keep things tidy, as you will be creating more layers further along.

    What you’re going to do next is turn this path into a drawing, more precisely, the line that borders your drawing. Therefore, you can choose which color it will be and how thick you want it. To set it you need to go to the Brush tool and select a hard brush as thick as you want. I’m doing 8px in this case.

    You can also choose the color by clicking on the foreground color at the bottom of the tool palette, for this example, I’m using black. Turn off the background layer (click the little eye icon) so you can see how it will look like and then choose your settings.

    Silhouette - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Now that you have this ready, leave the new layer active go to the path palette. If it’s already opened you can open it by going to the top Menu > Windows > Path. In there you will see that a Work Path has been created, the icon will show the image as a grey rectangle and the path is the silhouette you traced.

    Next, right-click on the Work Path and choose Stroke Path. A pop-up window will appear, make sure the Brush option is selected and click OK.

    Stroke Path - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Adding details

    You have a border or a silhouette now, but you still need details. Each one will be a new layer and a new path, that way you have it separated and can, therefore, control it more precisely.

    If you want two details on the same layer, for example, to keep the two ears in one layer so that any changes apply equally, then you keep working in the same layer. But you do need to create a new path for each one.

    Notice here that I have my background layer which is my original image; a Layer 1 that corresponds to the Work Path which is the outline; and a Layer 2 that contains Path 1 and Path 2 which are the two details of the ears. This is why I suggested earlier that you should rename the layers and the paths to keep track of them easier. Continue doing this as many times as you need to finish your drawing.

    Layers and Paths - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Apply a filter

    Once you’re finished with this, duplicate the background layer. With this new layer active, go to the Work Path (the one that has the outer line of the drawing) and right-click it. From the drop-down menu, choose Make Selection. This will select your subject so that the filter you’ll apply next doesn’t affect the background, otherwise the entire will turn into a cartoon.

    Now go to the top Menu > Filter > Filter Gallery. A window will appear with all kind of filters that you can apply and a preview image. In this case, you’re going to select the one called Cutout from the Artistic Filters. On the right side there are sliders to refine the effect, just move them around until you are satisfied. I’m going to do it as Number of levels 7, Edge simplicity 5 and Edge fidelity 2. When you’re done just click OK.

    Cutout - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop

    Other tricks

    You can also multiply your cartoons, apply modifying layers to change colors or saturation, and anything else you can think of! And the best part is that you can do this to any kind of photo, here are some other examples; share yours as well in the comments!

    Three deers - How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop


    The post How to Turn Your Photo into a Cartoon Drawing Using Photoshop by Ana Mireles appeared first on Digital Photography School.


    Digital Photography School

  • Hands-on with Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 / TZ200

    Hands-on with Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 (TZ200)

    The Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS200 is a powerful, pocketable travel zoom compact camera, with an impressively long lens. We’ve had our hands on one – click through for a closer look.

    20MP 1″-type sensor

    The ZS200 is built around the same 1″ 20MP BSI-CMOS sensor as its predecessor the ZS100, which immediately makes it a cut above traditional superzooms that sacrificed (among other thing) sensor size for lens reach.

    15X optical zoom lens

    The ZS200 scores over its predecessor in a few ways, but the most obvious upgrade is to the lens. While the ZS100’s zoom range of 25-250mm was pretty good, the ZS200 turns things up to 11, spanning a much wider range, of 24-360mm (equiv).

    Comprising 13 elements in six groups, this complex lens contains three extra low-dispersion elements and five aspherical, plus one that’s both extra low-disperson and aspherical. That’s pretty impressive for such a small camera.

    Also updated compared to the ZS100 is minimum focus, which has been reduced to 3cm from 5cm (at 24mm equiv). Distortion at such a close distance (and at such a wide focal length) will be pretty wild, but for flowers, bugs and other organic subjects, it should be fine.

    15X optical zoom lens

    The extra zoom range doesn’t come free though, and at F3.3-6.4, the ZS200’s lens is slightly slower across its focal length span than its predecessor (shown above, on the left). The longer lens contributes to a slightly greater bodyweight, too. The ZS200 weighs 340g with a card and battery installed, compared to 310g for the ZS100.

    This side-by-side shot shows off our ZS200’s ‘gunmetal’ finish. Not quite gray, not quite silver, we think it looks rather nice. Good old black will still be an option when the camera ships next month.

    4K video

    The ZS200 offers 4K video recording at 30p and 24p. Familiar 4K Photo features like Post Focus are available, in addition to a couple of new modes which were also introduced into the DC-GX9.

    Auto Marking analyzes a 4K video clip and automatically marks points at which it detects action, and Sequence Composition (illustrated above in a Panasonic-supplied example shot with the DC-GX9) is a 4K Photo feature that allows you to composite multiple frames of a moving subject in front of a static background into a single 4K-resolution still image.

    2.3 million-dot EVF

    Here at DPReview we love a good EVF, especially in pocketable travel cameras, where it can really make a difference to handling in bright light. The good news is that the ZS200’s EVF is improved quite a bit over its predecessor. Resolution has been upped to 2.3 million dots, and magnification has been increased from 0.45X to 0.53X (equiv).

    The bad news is that the viewfinder is still field-sequential, so the rainbow effect is alive and well, and shooting with a 0.53X magnification finder is still a bit like watching a television from the end of a hallway. As such, while the ZS200’s EVF is much nicer than its predecessor’s, it’s not a match for the OLED finders in some competitors, such as Sony’s RX100-series.

    1.24 million-dot touchscreen

    Keeping the ZS200’s electronic viewfinder company is a fixed 3″ rear LCD, which boasts 1.24 million dots and touch-sensitivity. As such, placing your desired AF point is as easy as simply tapping the screen.

    We’re also pleased to see that Panasonic has included its ‘Touch Pad AF’ feature to the ZS200. In essence, this is exactly what it sounds like – with your eye to the viewfinder, the ZS200’s rear LCD can be used as a touch-pad to position the AF point. Pretty neat. And as you can see, despite the touchscreen, the ZS200 still has enough direct-access buttons to satisfy someone used to more traditional user interfaces (or someone wearing gloves).

    Depth-from-Defocus (DFD) Autofocus

    The ZS200 features a version of Panasonic’s Depth-from-Defocus autofocus technology. In very simple terms, DFD uses known blur characteristics of Panasonic lenses to work out whether a subject is front or back focused, before driving the focusing group to achieve focus. This reduces the characteristic focus ‘hunting’ of a typical contrast-detection AF system, by increasing the processor’s confidence that it’s moving things in the right direction.

    While we haven’t had the chance to properly test the ZS200 (or use it much outside of a conference room and our upper floor balcony), AF speed is impressive at all focal lengths, albeit with some very slight ‘wobble’ when focus is acquired at long telephoto settings. In theory, the ZS200 should be capable of continuous autofocus at up to 6 fps – something we’re keen to try out when we receive a final production camera.

    Increased battery life and Bluetooth Low Energy

    Built-in Wi-Fi is to be expected these days, but we’re pleased to see that Panasonic has also included low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) in the ZS200. This allows for ‘aways on’ functionality, enabling easy remote trigger functionality from a smartphone without a huge hit in battery life.

    Battery life is actually something of a strength of the ZS200. Usually when features get added to a camera, battery life goes down. Not so with the ZS200. Panasonic tells us that improvements have been made to power management, which have paid off in a CIPA rating of 350 shots (compared to 300 from the ZS200) when the LCD is used, and ~250 when shooting with the EVF.

    Putting the camera into ‘Eco’ mode should ensure ~300 shots between charges, regardless of shooting style.

    What do you think?

    So what do you make of the Panasonic Lumix ZS200? Did one of the best travel zoom compacts just get better, or are you ambivalent about the extra zoom reach and slower lens? Let us know in the comments.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Fujifilm X-H1: What you need to know

    Introduction

    The Fujifilm X-H1 arrived in the last few hours of February 14th, at least out here on the West Coast in the US, making it a Valentine’s gift that came in just under the wire for the Fujifilm faithful. It’s deserving of a big red bow with a range-topping APS-C 24MP X-Trans sensor, sitting above the X-T2. It builds on many of the X-T2’s features by adding in-body image stabilization, a touchscreen and enhanced video options. Here’s a detailed look at everything that’s new and improved.

    Image Quality

    Given the camera’s pedigree and the initial results we’ve seen, the X-H1 looks highly capable of great image quality. The sensor, shared with the X-T2, has already shown itself to have performance comparable with the best of its APS-C peers, both in terms of dynamic range and noise performance at high ISO settings.

    Throw in Fujifilm’s excellent film simulation modes (plus a bonus new one!), and you’ve got a mighty tempting camera for stills shooters. However, the camera’s unique X-Trans color filter pattern is worth taking into account – your results will vary greatly depending on your Raw conversion software.

    Further enticing stills photographers is the X-H1’s healthy 14 fps burst rate with electronic shutter and 8 fps with mechanical shutter (which can be boosted to 11 with an optional grip). Buffer depth looks reasonably good too, allowing for 40 JPEG shots or 23 uncompressed Raws (27 compressed). Fujifilm also promises autofocus improvement, with better performance in low light and at smaller apertures. All excellent news.

    Image Stabilization

    Despite Fujifilm previously suggesting that it couldn’t be done, the X-H1 offers in-body stabilization rated up to 5 stops. Unusually, Fujifilm says the system works better with non-IS lenses because they project a larger image circle and tend to be neither too long nor too wide, both of which are harder to stabilize. With such a lens, up to 5.5 stops of stabilization can be achieved.

    Viewfinder and rear LCD

    Comparing to the X-T2, the X-H1 gets a higher resolution viewfinder: a 3.69 million dot OLED panel with 0.75x magnification to the X-T2’s 2.36 million dots and 0.77x magnification. Like the X-T2, the X-H1 provides a 3″ 1.04 million dot rear LCD that tilts upwards and downwards, but of course, adds touch sensitivity where the X-T2 has none.

    The X-H1, like the X-T2, also comes with a ‘Boost’ mode that increases the viewfinder refresh rate from 60Hz to 100Hz for a smoother look.

    Touchscreen

    The X-H1’s touchscreen is all-around nice to have, allowing you to place a focus point with a tap, tap and acquire focus, or acquire focus and shoot all with one touch. It’s also usable as a touchpad with the camera to your eye. That said, we have a word of caution – in our initial use of the touchscreen both setting focus points and touchpad operation, the screen has felt noticeably laggy.

    The LCD also provides touch control of the camera’s Q.Menu, and in playback mode offers quick access to 100% image viewing, along with gesture-controlled swiping and scrolling. As in the X-E3, a swipe across the shooting screen acts as a Fn button shortcut.

    Video specs

    The latest generation of flagship mirrorless cameras take video very seriously, and Fujifilm has definitely gotten the memo. The X-H1 offers DCI 4K in 23.98p and 24p, as well as UHD 4K in 23.98/24/25/29.97p. Where the X-T2 requires an external recorder to use flat Log capture, the X-H1 allows for internal F-Log recording. The camera offers bitrates of up to 200 Mbps and 24-bit audio (vs 16-bit on the X-T2).

    Plenty of other goodies are on offer for videographers, like a new Eterna/Cinema film simulation mode, slow motion 1080p capture, and the ability to record full HD internally while outputting 4K over HDMI. Autofocus in movie mode is still a bit of a question mark, but rest assured we’ll be putting it to the test in short order.

    Video interface and usability

    In a further nod to the X-H1’s cinematic leanings, Fujifilm’s included specific shutter speed options in video mode that directly correspond to 90, 180 and 360 degree shutter angles on more dedicated video cameras. In other words, instead of being stuck with shutter speeds of 1/25 sec, 1/50 sec or 1/100 sec for shooting 24p video, you can choose 1/24 sec, 1/48 sec, 1/96 sec, and so on.

    Touchscreen benefits aren’t limited to stills applications either – Fujifilm put a lot of thought into adding touch control for video shooters. Movie Silent Control disables the aperture ring, shutter speed dial and ISO dial, shifting those settings to touch control. This makes it easy to leave settings dialed in for stills, and then jump quickly to video shooting with separate settings. It’s a great feature to have if you’re, say, shooting stills and video at the same time at a wedding reception, but our initial impression is that the interface itself feels a bit fiddly.

    It’s worth noting that the newly announced X-mount versions of Fujifilm’s MK cinema lenses will work beautifully on the X-H1, as you can see your aperture as T-stops rather than F-stops.

    Unfortunately, despite all the strides Fujfilm’s made for video users, there’s a notable lack of exposure aids of any kind – you don’t even get zebra warnings, much less waveforms.

    Who’s it for?

    It’s not totally clear-cut who this camera is for. High-end stills shooters who want an X-T2 with stabilization may feel that their ship has finally arrived. But with so much emphasis on video features, is this a camera that’s better suited for photographers who need to shoot video along with their stills?

    Fujifilm tells us it’s a camera for both parties. Like the Sony a6500, it acts as a step-up model even if you aren’t planning on shooting video (a step-up model that happens to be VERY capable in the video department). So if you’re a stills shooter who buys one, do us a favor and give the movie mode a try – it looks pretty darn good so far.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Microsoft Photos Companion app offers easy photo transfer from smartphones to PC

    Microsoft has launched a new app to facilitate easy photo transfer from mobile devices to a Windows 10 PC, without using the cloud. Photos Companion is available for iOS and Android and deposits your mobile images in the Windows Photos app on the desktop or laptop PC using just a WiFi network.

    To get started, you have to scan a QR code in the Windows Photos desktop app to pair smartphone and computer. Both devices have to be connected to the same WiFi network, which in turn allows you to send individual images or entire batches across very quickly. It is, in essence, the exact same system as Apple’s AirDrop, but limited to photos and videos.

    Pairing isn’t permanent, and will have to be re-established for each sharing operation. Still, that’s easily done and the app looks like an interesting solution for collecting media files from multiple mobile devices on a single PC for working on collaborative projects.

    Once on the PC, images and videos can be shared and edited in the Windows Photo app as usual. If Photos Companion sounds like an app that could potentially improve your workflow, you can find more information and app store links on the Microsoft website.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • How to Rescue an Image in Lightroom With Split Toning

    Split toning is one of the most overlooked features in Lightroom (or any post-processing program for that matter). It’s a technique used mostly in the film industry and is apparent in just about any action movie poster. You know the ones, where the skin tones are super warm, while the background and shadows are cool and blue.

    That’s all split toning is: adding a hue to your highlights and an opposing (but complementary) hue to your shadows. Most of the time, the best colors to stick with are an orange tone for your highlights and a blue tone for your shadows, although there are certainly exceptions.

    How to Rescue an Image in Lightroom With Split Toning

    Before processing.

    How to Rescue an Image in Lightroom With Split Toning

    After processing and split toning added.

    Great location, less than ideal lighting conditions

    The location was Ke’e Beach, an incredible spot on Kauai that is literally at the end of the road on the north side of the island. I was there with my workshop students and we had realized earlier on in the day that shooting conditions were going to be tough.

    A think layer of vog (volcanic fog) had blown over all the way from the Big Island. It covered all of Kauai’s north side in a thick, desaturated haze. This made shooting conditions quite challenging. On top of all that, the ocean was quite angry that day! A rough sea is normal in the winter on Kauai, but this was something else.

    Our goal at Ke’e Beach was to photograph the waves that exploded out of the sea and then fanned out, almost like seashells. But because of the conditions, the waves were just getting obliterated before they could fan out. Still, we didn’t give up. We focused on capturing the anger and drama of the ocean and everyone walked away with some great shots.

    Split toning to the rescue

    In the video below, I process an image from that evening from start to finish inside of Adobe Lightroom Classic CC. The problem with the shot is that it came out of the camera looking quite dull. Because of the thick haze and everything in the shot being backlit, the resulting RAW file looked almost monochromatic. The sky was grey and looked overcast, the rocks and water were dark, and it just looked uninspiring.

    ?

    A common technique that a lot of photographers reach for in these situations is just embracing it and converting the image to black and white. But, if you’re looking for something new to add to your bag of tricks, split-toning can be quite effective at saving images as well.

    For this image, I started out by doing what I could in the Basic module to bring out details, add contrast, and make the image pop. After a few other adjustments, I made my way down to the Split Toning module, adding a warm orange tone to the sky (the highlights) and a cool blue/teal tone to the rocks and water (the shadows).

    Here are the settings I used in the Basic panel.

    These are the Split Toning settings I applied.

    The result is a dramatic looking shot that both effectively shows the power of the ocean that evening and also gives the impression of a warm, vibrant sunset.

    After

    Conclusion

    Split toning is a powerful and fun technique. It can be used both to enhance already great images or save otherwise dull ones. When you discover this technique for the first time, you’ll have a blast going through your images and trying it out in different situations. And, just a heads up, it can be used on either color or black and white images. Regardless of the image type, you’re simply adding one hue to the highlights and another to the shadows.

    Have you used split toning in Lightroom before or is this completely new to you? If you have done it, please share your favorite split toned image in the comments below. If not, give it a go and share your results.

    The post How to Rescue an Image in Lightroom With Split Toning by James Brandon appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Judge rules that embedding a photo tweet is still copyright infringement

    In a court case that could fundamentally change what constitutes copyright infringement online, a New York district judge has ruled that embedding a tweet that contains a copyright protected photo does, in fact, constitute a copyright violation. If the ruling is upheld, its impact across the internet is hard to understate.

    The case involves a photographer, Justin Goldman, who sued several major publications including Time, Vox, Breitbart, and others, when they embedded someone else’s tweet of his copyright-protected photo of NFL star Tom Brady. Judge Katherine B. Forrest is ruling in favor of Goldman, writing:

    …when defendants caused the embedded Tweets to appear on their websites, their actions violated plaintiff’s exclusive display right; the fact that the image was hosted on a server owned and operated by an unrelated third party (Twitter) does not shield them from this result.

    As the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) points out, this ruling rejects a decade-old legal precedent set by the Ninth Circuit Court in a 2007 ruling called “Perfect 10 v. Amazon.” That case ruled that the company hosting the content—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.—was liable, and absolved the company or publication or person who actually embeds the content. This, in essence, is how the internet has worked ever since.

    Some sites, like YouTube, give creators the option to limit embedding so that only sites they specify (or nobody at all) can embed the content on their own platform, but others like Instagram and Twitter offer no such control. If your account is public, and you share a copyright-protected photo on it that goes viral, you can expect it to crop up on any number of outside websites, publications, and blogs with nary a permission request.

    Of course, if it’s your own share, you could always take down the original Tweet or Instagram post or shift your account to private, breaking all of those embeds all at once. You (or the original poster) could also change what the post says or even swap out the file that shows up under that embed. But irrespective of those things, up until now, you had no legal case against the people or publications embedding your photo, since they have no control over what the hosting server will provide with that embed code—this is called the “server” test.

    According to this ruling, embedding the DPReview tweet above without permission from the original creator of the GIF constitutes copyright infringement.

    The server test is what Judge Forrest ultimately rejected, and if the ruling is upheld, it could apply to more than just embedding a tweet. As the EFF explains, the wording is broad enough that “the logic of the ruling applies to all in-line linking,” which could “threaten millions of ordinary Internet users with infringement liability.”

    Appeals will no doubt be filed, and a closer look at the ruling and the standard practice of embedding on the internet may very well lead to its being overturned. But if it’s not, expect it to be open season for social media copyright infringement cases.

    If you’d like to dive deeper, you can read the full ruling for yourself at this link.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Hands

    Last week I sent you off to photograph feet – this week let’s try the other appendages – hands!

    Hands can be young or old, tough or tender, but are always very expressive. What do the hands you’re photographing have to say? Add some storytelling into your hand photos for extra marks!

    Photo by JORGE LOPEZ on Unsplash

    Weekly Photography Challenge – Hands

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

    Share in the dPS Facebook Group

    You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Hands by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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