My favorite book when I was a kid was the atlas. I would plan elaborate journeys through mountainous regions, follow the shipping news in The New York Times, and ogle the fascinating people and places in Life magazine while waiting for a haircut at the local barbershop. For me, getting there was the point and being there was the reward. I started my travel habit with bicycle trips...
Now that the Shutterbug Forums have been online for the last six months I can honestly say that they have been a success. We tried various topics and categories (and we're always open to your suggestions) and have honed them down to what we consider essential areas of interest. The feeling of success comes not so much from our creating the Forums but in how you, the readers...
Travel photography today has its difficulties, what with security lines and restrictions at airports and the concern some security personnel seem to have, perhaps rightfully so, of people with a camera in their hands. Photographers need be aware of the various restrictions and rules that are in place at the airports, available at
Gone are the days when we might be discussing the merits of stock vs. dilution ratios for film processing and the uses of potassium ferricyanide for snapping up highlights on prints. While these are still items of interest for those working in the chemical darkroom, the talk these days is more about raw image converters and which plug-ins are optimum for gaining a "Velvia...
In this issue we explore the myriad options for organizing, processing, and creating new visions from your digital image files. As with many things photographic, digital processing often stirs debate about the “purity” of the image, about what is real and what is “fake” when you begin to alter the image information. Indeed, some film photographers dismiss the entire...
A few years back when all these digital doings got started I was chatting with some photographers about how having images as information would affect our work. At one point in the discussion we started to joke about how the next generation of software would give us an instant Van Gogh, or emulate a Sunday painter's watercolor, or even create pen and ink drawings from any...
Those who have labored long and hard to create a many-layered workflow may find a certain sense of exasperation when confronting the latest software that’s come and is coming down the pike. If it’s ease of use you are after, and a certain push-button path to myriad results, much of the new crop is just for you. Yes, you have to know where you’re going, but more and more that...
We recently had another scare about black and white printing papers and supplies, what with the recent rumor that Ilford would be closing shop in the US and Canada. It was just that--a rumor, based on the fact that a consumer electronics distribution firm would now be handling the distribution of their fine line of papers. And, we have been assured that a knowledgeable tech...
While we at the magazine tend to get caught up in the exciting news about new products and technology, we also keep our eye out for topics we believe are of interest to photographers today. You might call these guiding lights that we will follow in the months and years ahead. We feel we owe it to you to occasionally state those topics explicitly, so you know where we are coming...
As this issue goes to press we’re off to photokina in Cologne, Germany, for the one show that always rocks the photo world. Held every two years, photokina is where just about every manufacturer in the industry from around the world gathers to show their wares, and their future tech, so that’s where we’ll be. Shutterbug is sending a team of reporters to cover every aspect of the...
While parts of the nation are blessed with warm or let’s say tolerable weather during these winter months there are many more areas in which we inhabitants spend the short days thinking about the springtime to come. For photographers who earn all or part of their keep with their camera some of the planning has to be preparing for what is hoped will be a busy season—the myriad social events that photographers are paid to document, including weddings, graduations and concomitant senior portraits, Easter and First Communions, and whatever social and familial events that come along. Granted, a good many jobs are already booked by now, but there are always late calls, cancellations, and rebookings.
When I first started out in photography one of the foundations of the craft I set out to learn was lighting. So I went out to my local camera store and bought a set of metal reflectors with clamps, and, aided by the storekeeper, got me a pair of blue, daylight photoflood bulbs and a few rolls of color film. Those hot lights wilted...
Whenever I need a visual shot in the arm I take my camera to somewhere I've never been, or switch lenses, or both. As this issue is weighted toward the exploration of optics, I'll focus here on the changing lenses part of the equation.
All of us have a favorite lens, the one that best expresses our vision, and that delivers the crisp images we...
Those who spend most of their time working in natural light have come to appreciate the difficulties of making the best exposure reading, working the point of view, and maintaining tonal value and detail in the scene. One of the reasons for the increasing interest in HDR (so-called High Dynamic Range imaging) is that it seems to be a digital way to overcome the curse of the ancient...
There have been profound changes in lighting gear options of late, and each adds newfound ways to make images. You can work using hot or cold continuous lights, with AC or battery-powered units, and even choose between LED and strobe sources. Some “new” light sources are coming into their own. For example, we have been covering LEDs for a while, and now we see how they are growing in their use in both the studio and on location.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Editor's Notes
Site Map / Direct Links
