Posted by T. Michael Testi
Every year Reuter manages hundreds of thousands of picture, it seems only fitting that they make a selection of Reuters Pictures of 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
What Makes Good Composition?
This is a very effective dialog about composition and how the direction of the flow of the photograph can make all the difference.
Source: David Tejada: The f-Stops Here
Written by: David Tejada
As photographers, we have the ability to control our viewer's eye through several creative techniques at our disposal. It's not good enough just to say, use good composition.
Good composition is made of several element working in unison. Focus is certainly important, actually it's the use of use of depth of field rather than the actual subject your focusing on. Another is the use of Light within the photo to direct the viewers eye. Our eye usually go to the brightest object within the photo. By making your intended subject the brightest object in the photo, your view will be directed there. Finally there is the uses of Leading Lines to guide your viewer eye through the photo.
Using leading lines to guide your viewers eye is what I would like to discuss today. It has been my experience that using a wide angle lens is a good and easy way to accomplish this. Let’s take a look at a few examples to illustrate this point.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Book Review - Real World Camera Raw: with Adobe Photoshop CS3 By Bruce Frasier and Jeff Schewe
Written by T. Michael Testi
If you want to be a serious digital photographer then Real World Camera Raw: with Adobe Photoshop CS3 is one of the books that you will need to study, learn, and live by. Camera Raw, the Photoshop plug-in, gives you precise control over image qualities like white balance, tones, color space, contrast, and saturation.
Real World Camera Raw: with Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the latest version of the book that was begun by Photoshop expert Bruce Frasier and is now carried on by his friend and business partner Jeff Schewe. It is contained in 365 pages divided into nine chapters.
Chapter 1, "Digital Camera Raw," focuses on Raw capture, its fundamental nature, advantages, and limitations. You will begin by learning what Raw Capture is, why you should use it, and just what is a digital negative? Chapter 2, "How Camera Raw Works," examines what "lies under the hood" of the Camera Raw plug-in. To use Camera Raw effectively, you must first understand what it offers and where its limitations are, as well as how you can overcome the limitations.
Chapter 3, "Raw System Overview," provides the 30,000 foot view of the whole digital raw system. Here the individual components are discussed in much more detail; not as much as in future chapters, but for now, this provides an overview of the workflow in general. The components are Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw, Adobe Photoshop CS3, and Digital Negatives.
Chapter 4, "Camera Raw Controls," examines the Camera Raw controls in detail. Here you will start by learning how to handle Camera Raw images one at a time and you will delve in-depth into what each control does and how best to work with them. They include the basic panel, the Tone Curve Panel, the Detail Panel, the HSL/Grayscale Panel, the Split Tone Panel, the Lens Correction Panel, the Calibrate Panel, and the Presets Panel. You will also examine the Camera Raw Flyout menu, the main Raw buttons, the Camera Raw toolbar, as well as other Camera Raw tools.
Chapter 5, "Hands-on Camera Raw," shows that knowing what each control does is only half the battle, the other half is knowing how the tools interact, and when and in which order to use them. Here you will learn about Camera Raw by getting in and working with it.
Chapter 6, "Adobe Bridge," explores briefly the history of file browser and its progression into Adobe Bridge and how Bridge under CS3 has become rather complex. Here Bridge is talked about in relation to the features that apply to digital photography and the Raw workflow. Topics include working with Bridge, Metadata, Keywords, and other tools such as Batch Rename, Cache, Collections, and Slideshow.
Chapter 7, "It's All About the Workflow," describes, that now, even though you understand many of the tools, you now need to learn how to perform the actual work of Raw processing. This can be described into five basic strategies; Image Ingestion, Image Verification, Preproduction, Production, and Post Production. This will put the Raw workflow into the big picture.
Chapter 8, "Mastering Metadata," examines the "data about data"; that is the information contained within the raw file. This EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) standard is the information that is provided by the camera manufacturers when you take a picture. Also examined is XMP which is Adobe's initiative to promote a standard for Metadata. It, like DNG, is an open standard to try to make digital become manufacture independent.
Chapter 9, "Exploiting Automation," shows that although, up till now, everything has been done on a one off basis, to be truly effective, you need to be able to automate as many of these processes as possible. Here you will learn how to "work smarter, not harder" by using automation.
Bottom line, if you are serious about digital imaging, you will work with Raw files from your Camera; usually DSLR, but many higher end point and shoot cameras are offering Raw capture abilities as well. If you want to learn how to work effectively with Raw files then you will need to study Real World Camera Raw: with Adobe Photoshop CS3. It is the standard on the topic.
Unfortunately to the world at large and certainly to the digital world Bruce Frasier lost his battle with lung cancer on December 16, 2006. Fortunately for us, his friend and business partner Jeff Schewe has taken up the reigns, and updated his classic book and made sure that his legacy lives on.
If you are not familiar with Jeff Schewe's work you can find him as a regular on many of the videos from the Luminous-Landscape, from his website, and as the Editor in Chief for PhotoshopNews. As an award winning advertising photographer and pioneer in the digital imaging field, I can think of no one more qualified or more respected to take up the banner for Bruce Frasier and keep his legacy alive.
If you are serious about digital imaging and working with Raw files, if you find that you want to be in control of your images, or if you want to squeeze every last pixel of quality from your image capture, then Real World Camera Raw: with Adobe Photoshop CS3 is an absolutely, positively, must-own.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Q&A: Going to the mat for photo copyrights
This provides a clear reason why one should be carefull when getting images off the internet. Most are, after all, someone elses work. This also provides an insightfull interview with Lane Hartwell and well worth reading.
Source CNet News
Written by Stephen Shankland
It wasn't Lane Hartwell's first heated exchange over a photo copyright issue, but a tussle involving a witty YouTube video probably was the one with the highest profile for the professional photographer.
Last week, a not-for-profit San Francisco singing group called the Richter Scales posted a Web 2.0-mocking video, Here Comes Another Bubble, set to the tune of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. One of the many photos that flashed by in the video was one Hartwell took of Valleywag's Owen Thomas.
The problem: Although Hartwell had posted the image publicly at her Flickr account, she had kept copyright, labeling it as "all rights reserved," and the Richter Scales didn't license its use. When Hartwell found out about it, she took action, and YouTube pulled the video down. Hartwell sought payment for the photo's use, but Tuesday night, the Richter Scales posted an updated version without the Thomas photo. Hartwell now says she'll send an invoice to the band for the times it was viewed.
Hartwell, who turned pro three years ago and now shoots for clients including San Francisco magazine, Wired News, and Valleywag, took fairly aggressive measures, stepping on some toes on the way. But in her view as a professional photographer, protecting copyright is paramount, particularly in a day and age when digital photography and the Internet make copying photos very easy. Read it all...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
NPPA President To Testify Before House On National Parks Photo Rule Changes
News Item
DURHAM, NC (December 10,2007) - National Press Photographers Association president Tony Overman, a staff photojournalist for The Olympian in Olympia, WA, is scheduled to testify before the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, DC, on Wednesday regarding the Department of Interior's proposed revision to its filming regulations in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges.
With the assistance of NPPA's general legal counsel, Mickey H. Osterreicher, Overman will voice NPPA's opposition to the proposed rule changes because the organization feels they would expand restrictions on still photography in the parks, and NPPA also has concerns about the definition of "commercial filming" along with changes in the rules regulating audio gathering under the proposed statue.
"An environment that allows an open and free press to flourish is essential in maintaining the democratic foundations of this country," U.S. Representative Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) said in November. Rahall is the House Natural Resources Committee chairman.
"Unfortunately, this Administration has gained a well-earned reputation for leaking, distorting, and stonewalling, which undermines the ability of the press to serve as a valuable check on the government. The news media's concerns over this proposed rule deserve an open forum," the chairman said.
The committee's hearing on "New Fees for Filming and Photography on Public Land" is set to be held in the Longworth House Office Building beginning at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday, December 12. The hearing will be carried live via Webcast at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/.
"NPPA is sending representatives to this hearing to ensure that professional visual journalists are represented as completely as possible, and to also fulfill our mission to defend the rights and access afforded to journalists by the First Amendment," NPPA's Overman said. NPPA's Advocacy Committee has been following developments in the suggested rule changes since they were first proposed. Read it all...
Lightroom Keyword Tricks - Inside Lightroom
Source O'Reilly Digital Media
Written by Ken Milburn
I'm writing this piece as part of my own journey of discovery while looking for ways to improve on my keywords. There are three reasons I want to do this: (1) I want to build a list of keywords that will be consistent when I'm looking for a particular category of photos, regardless of what that category may be. (2) I have a lot of catching up to do in the keywording of my own library and if I don't start now, I'll never get there. (3) I want to be able to quickly put together "collections" of similar styles and subjects for both publication inquiries and fine-art exhibits, and --most important saved for last -- (4) Captions and keywords are the only way buyers are going to find the pictures they want to buy. If your picture doesn't come up when they do their search, you're not going to make a sale.
Lightroom provides you the ability to search and (nearly instantly find) any image in a given Catalog for any single item in an image's metadata. However, when looking for specific types or styles of images, keywords are the part of that metadata that, if properly set up, allow you to find the images you're looking for most quickly. Read it All...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Adobe Reports Record Quarterly and Fiscal Year Revenue
PhotoshopToday News Release
Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — Dec. 17, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Nov. 30, 2007.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, Adobe achieved record revenue of $911.2 million, compared to $682.2 million reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 and $851.7 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2007. This represents 34 percent year-over-year revenue growth. Adobe’s fourth quarter revenue target range was $860 to $890 million.
“Driving our Q4 results were continued adoption of our Creative Suite 3 family of products, record revenue for Acrobat and strong momentum in our enterprise business,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer of Adobe. “As we enter fiscal 2008, we are performing exceptionally well and the Company is positioned to achieve a sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth.”
Adobe Reports Record Annual Revenue in Fiscal Year 2007
In fiscal year 2007, Adobe achieved record revenue of $3.158 billion, compared to $2.575 billion in fiscal 2006. On a year-over-year basis, annual revenue grew 23 percent.Adobe’s annual GAAP net income was $723.8 million in fiscal 2007, compared to $505.8 million in fiscal 2006. Adobe’s annual non-GAAP net income was $965.8 million in fiscal 2007, compared to $757.3 million in fiscal 2006.
GAAP diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2007 were $1.21, compared to $0.83 in fiscal 2006. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2007 were $1.61, compared to $1.24 in fiscal 2006.
Fourth Quarter GAAP Results
Adobe’s GAAP diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 were $0.38, based on 587.9 million weighted average shares. This compares with GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.30 reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 based on 602.2 million weighted average shares, and GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.34 reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2007 based on 597.3 million weighted average shares. Adobe’s fourth quarter GAAP earnings per share target range was $0.35 to $0.37.GAAP operating income was $275.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, compared to $163.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 and $255.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2007. As a percent of revenue, GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 was 30.3 percent, compared to 23.9 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 and 29.9 percent in the third quarter of fiscal 2007.
GAAP net income was $222.2 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, compared to $183.2 million reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, and $205.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2007.
Fourth Quarter Non-GAAP Results
Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 were $0.49. This compares with non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.33 reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.45 reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2007. Adobe’s fourth quarter non-GAAP earnings per share target range was $0.46 to $0.48.Adobe’s non-GAAP operating income was $362.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, compared to $256.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 and $340.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2007. As a percent of revenue, non-GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 was 39.7 percent, compared to 37.6 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 and 40.0 percent in the third quarter of fiscal 2007.
Non-GAAP net income was $289.6 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, compared to $198.9 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, and $269.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2007.
A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results is provided at the end of this press release.
Adobe Provides First Quarter and Fiscal Year 2008 Financial Targets
For the first quarter of fiscal 2008, Adobe announced it is targeting revenue of $855 million to $885 million. The Company is targeting a GAAP operating margin of 30 to 31 percent in the first quarter. On a non-GAAP basis, the Company is targeting a first quarter operating margin of approximately 40 percent.In addition, Adobe is targeting its share count to be between 586 million and 588 million shares in the first quarter of fiscal 2008. The Company also is targeting other income in its first quarter to be $15 million to $17 million, with a GAAP and non-GAAP tax rate of approximately 27 percent.
These targets lead to a first quarter GAAP earnings per share target range of $0.34 to $0.36. On a non-GAAP basis, the Company is targeting earnings per share of $0.44 to $0.46.
For fiscal year 2008, Adobe reaffirmed it is targeting annual revenue growth of approximately 13 percent. The Company is targeting a GAAP operating margin of approximately 30 percent, and a non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 39 percent.
A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial targets is provided at the end of this press release.
Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including those related to revenue, operating margin, other income, tax rate, share count, earnings per share, and anticipated business momentum which involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: delays in development or shipment of Adobe’s new products or major new versions of existing products, introduction of new products by existing and new competitors, failure to successfully manage transitions to new business models and markets, adverse changes in general economic or political conditions in any of the major countries in which Adobe does business, difficulty in predicting revenue from new businesses, failure to anticipate and develop new products and services in response to changes in demand for application software and software delivery, computers, printers, or other non PC-devices, costs related to intellectual property acquisitions, disputes and litigation, inability to protect Adobe’s intellectual property from unauthorized copying, use, disclosure or malicious attack, failure to realize the anticipated benefits of past or future acquisitions and difficulty in integrating such acquisitions, changes to Adobe’s distribution channel, disruption of Adobe’s business due to catastrophic events, risks associated with international operations, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, changes in, or interpretations of, accounting principles, impairment of Adobe’s goodwill or intangible assets, unanticipated changes in, or interpretations of, Adobe’s effective tax rates, Adobe’s inability to attract and retain key personnel, market risks associated with Adobe’s equity investments, and interruptions or terminations in Adobe’s relationships with turnkey assemblers. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, individuals should refer to Adobe’s SEC filings.The financial information set forth in this press release reflects estimates based on information available at this time. These amounts could differ from actual reported amounts stated in Adobe’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Nov. 30, 2007, which the Company expects to file in January 2008. Adobe does not undertake an obligation to update forward-looking statements.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .
onOne Gets Leopard Compatibility
PhotographyToday News Item
Press Release: Portland, OR - December 18, 2007 – onOne Software, Inc., provider of world-class software solutions for professional photographers and graphic designers, announces today that all of the latest versions of onOne Software’s products are compatible with Apple’s recently launched Leopard operating system.
“We are pleased to be able to provide these updates to our users for Mac OS X Leopard so quickly,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “We appreciate the loyal support of our customers within the Mac community and we’re delighted that they will be able to benefit from the creative features of our imaging software products on the new Mac OS X Leopard operating system.”
The following onOne Software products are now compatible with Apple’s latest version – Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Genuine Fractals 5.0.4, Mask Pro 4.1.2, PhotoFrame 3.1.1, PhotoFrame Professional Edition 3.1.2, PhotoTune 2.2, Intellihance Pro 4.2.1, Essentials for Photoshop® Elements 2.0, PhotoTools 1.0, PhotoTools Professional Edition 1.0, Plug-In Suite 3, PhotoFrame Frame Collections, PhotoPresets for Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom®, and PhotoPresets for Adobe Camera Raw.
New users of the above mentioned onOne Software products will automatically receive the latest Mac versions of these products which will operate with Leopard.
Existing users of onOne Software’s Plug-In Suite 3, Genuine Fractals 5, Mask Pro 4, Intellihance Pro 4, PhotoFrame 3 and Essentials 2 for Photoshop Elements can use their auto-update feature in each plug-in to receive the latest updates or they can visit the onOne website (www.ononesoftware.com) to download the latest Mac OS X Leopard compatible installers. Existing users of the Plug-In Suite 3, Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, Intellihance Pro, PhotoFrame and Essentials for Photoshop Elements will need the following version numbers to ensure Leopard compatibility: Genuine Fractals 5.0.4, Mask Pro 4.1.2, Intellihance Pro 4.2.1, Plug-In Suite 3.1 (now includes PhotoFrame 3.1.2 and PhotoTune 2.2), Essentials for Photoshop Elements 2.0.
About the Products
- Genuine Fractals 5 can resize images over 1,000% with no loss of detail or sharpness.
- Mask Pro 4.1 easily creates high-quality masks and selections from tough subjects like hair and glass.
- PhotoFrame 3 and PhotoFrame 3 Professional Edition create stunning border and edge effects right out of the darkroom. PhotoFrame 3 Professional Edition builds on PhotoFrame by including additional frame choices, created by professional photographers Dave Cross, Jack Davis, Jim DiVitale, Helene Glassman, Kevin Kubota, Rick Sammon and Vincent Versace.
- Intellihance Pro 4 makes optimizing your images a snap by combining eight image adjustments in one place.
- Essentials 2 for Photoshop Elements software suite includes technology from onOne Software’s newly acquired PhotoTune color correction software, and onOne Software’s Mask Pro, PhotoFrame, and Genuine Fractals software products fine-tuned specifically for Adobe Photoshop Elements.
- PhotoTools 1 and PhotoTools 1 Professional Edition utilize the power of Photoshop Actions to provide a wide range of imaging tools including effects, corrections and production automation in a full-featured interface.
- Plug-in Suite 3 combines full versions of four essential software tools – Genuine Fractals 5, PhotoFrame 3.1, Mask Pro 4.1 and Intellihance Pro 4.2 – as well as the new PhotoTune 2.2 as a bonus.
- PhotoTune 2 incorporates the onOne Software’s newly acquired color-correction plug-ins – 20/20 Color MD™ 2.0 and SkinTune™ 2.0.
- PhotoPresets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom features over 80 presets designed by Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis.
- PhotoPresets for Adobe Camera RAW features over 100 presets for designed by Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis.
Is Photography Dead?
Source Newsweek
Written by Peter Plagens
How is that even remotely possible? The medium certainly looks alive, well and, if anything, overpopulated. There are hordes of photographers out there, working with back-to-basics pinhole cameras and pixeled images measured in gigabytes, with street photography taken by cell phones and massive photo "shoots" whose crews, complexity and expense resemble those of movie sets. Step into almost any serious art gallery in Chelsea, Santa Monica or Mayfair and you're likely to be greeted with breathtaking large-format color photographs, such as Andreas Gefeller's overhead views of parking lots digitally montaged from thousands of individual shots or Didier Massard's completely "fabricated photographs" of phantasmagoric landscapes. And the establishment's seal of approval for photography has been renewed in two current museum exhibitions. In "Depth of Field"— the first installation in the new contemporary-photography galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, on display through March 23—the fare includes Thomas Struth's hyperdetailed chromogenic print of the interior of San Zaccaria in Venice and Adam Fuss's exposure of a piece of photo paper floating in water to a simultaneous splash and strobe.
At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, "The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888–1978" (up through Dec. 31) celebrates average Americans who wielded their Brownies and Instamatics to stunning effect.
Yet wandering the galleries of these two shows, you can't help but wonder if the entire medium hasn't fractured itself beyond all recognition. Sculpture did the same thing a while back, so that now "sculpture" can indicate a hole in the ground as readily as a bronze statue. Digitalization has made much of art photography's vast variety possible. But it's also a major reason that, 25 years after the technology exploded what photography could do and be, the medium seems to have lost its soul. Film photography's artistic cachet was always that no matter how much darkroom fiddling someone added to a photograph, the picture was, at its core, a record of something real that occurred in front of the camera. A digital photograph, on the other hand, can be a Photoshop fairy tale, containing only a tiny trace of a small fragment of reality. By now, we've witnessed all the magical morphing and seen all the clever tricks that have turned so many photographers—formerly bearers of truth—into conjurers of fiction. It's hard to say "gee whiz" anymore. Read it all...
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