Jack Neubart

Hospitality photography focuses on hotels, resorts, and casinos but it’s not just about capturing luxury accommodations and lush exterior shots of surrounding vistas and scenery. It’s as much about highlighting comfort, relaxation, and fun. The pictures may include special dishes prepared by gourmet chefs, waiters serving tables, and guests enjoying the ambience and amenities. It’s a smorgasbord of images designed to appeal to a wide range of tastes, albeit presented with an air of sophistication to make any potential guest feel like a prince or princess upon arrival.

One outing with the new Nikon D810 pro digital SLR convinced me that this camera is not only thoughtfully designed, a good fit, and easy to work with right out of the box, but that it’s also a solid performer that’s beautifully crafted. It has looks, smarts, and savvy, without being pretentious. And unlike enthusiast and entry-level cameras, it’s not filled with a bunch of useless toys no one really needs, wants, or uses (well, except for maybe a few of the post/retouching effects that seem to be wasted on this camera).

I’ve worked with DxO's OpticsPro imaging software for several years and have watched this program evolve and make great strides as a Raw image converter. What the new DxO OpticsPro 10 version of the software brings to the table is a cadre of new features and improvements. But are these enough to catapult this software into the top tier, or is it still playing catch-up?

“I usually try to make the scene look and feel as natural as possible while still augmenting the available light,” Canadian-born photographer Peter Leverman observes. “I want the viewer to see the image and get what I’m trying to put across without the technique getting in the way.” By extension, Leverman knows when to leave well enough alone and simply use the existing lighting, in contrast to some photographers who prefer to noticeably overwhelm the scene with their lights.