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Aperture X (3.0) on the horizon?

Andrew Villa — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:41:51 -0500

A new book added to Amazon.com for preorder implies that Aperture 3.0 could be just around the corner coming in Spring 2010.

According to AppleInsider a new book, "Apple Aperture X(3) UNDER NDA: A Workflow Guide for Digital Photographers," which has a release date of May 26, 2010.

The book's ISBN number is 978-0240521787 and according to isbn.nu, it is not available anywhere else except Amazon, suggesting the posting was a mistake and the book is still under a non-disclosure agreement.

6 Pro Photographers Share Their Most Guarded Digital Secrets

Michelle Delio — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:59:59 -0500

Great photos are made, not taken. Creating the perfect image requires a skill set that includes a deep understanding of one’s gear, the light, and the ability to think about what story you want the photo to tell and how to communicate that story through a captured moment in time. Tremendous patience, physical flexibility (a photographer spends a lot of time pretzeled into odd positions to capture the perfect angle), and an ability to think lucidly before dawn (can’t miss that golden light) are also essential.

Most photographers would now agree that proficiency with photo-editing software is also a critical skill. So we asked six photographers to tell us about their favorite image processing applications and add-ons as well as share their best tips for making and digitally refining images.

Lucas Gilman travels the world in search of untouched places and wild experiences, capturing images ranging from kayaking in India to backcountry skiing in South America. His work is often seen in National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, ESPN.com, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Adventure, Outside Magazine, Men’s Fitness, Maxim Germany, FHM Australia, USA TODAY and the New York Times. Lucas recently won the “2008 American Photo Emerging Photographer Award” sponsored by Apple Inc.

Preferred Post Processing Applications: The majority of my post processing work is done in Adobe Lightroom 2. I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 for small detail work and Nikon Capture NX for certain images.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

Nik Viveza: Amazing color and contrast control without the need for masks. It helps make even a day with the worst light look good with just a few sliders and a couple of clicks.

Nik Silver Efex Pro: The best black and white conversions in the industry, allowing total control and creativity without layers, masks and hours of tedious Photoshop work.

Nik Color Efex Pro: Amazing ability to enhance and correct colors without masks.

OnOne Software Genuine Fractals: Allows me to deliver perfect images that have been resized on demand to epic proportions.

Which filters do you use the most in the Nik collections? In Nik Color Efex I really like the "Brilliance and Warmth" filter. It allows me to add saturation and warmth in a natural way to produce really pleasing images. I also really like the "Tonal Contrast" filter, it allows me to accurately adjust contrast in many areas of the image without masking. In NIK Silver Efex Pro I like being able to click through all the film type options within the black and white conversion filter, being able to control grain and contrast to show every detail that I want is really cool!

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General Filter Tips: Take your time, play around and check out what each filter can do for you. You will be amazed at all the variations you have the ability to produce with some creative thinking.

Favorite Photography Tips: Find your background and then wait for your action to come into the frame. Shoot early and shoot late when the light is good. And take hand sanitizer to Third World Countries -- you will make better photos if you are not sick in bed.

Where do you print your work? Printroom.com

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D3X, Nikon D3, Nikon D700, Nikon 14-24mm AFS f/2.8 G ED, Nikon 24-70/2.8G Autofocus-S, Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Lens, NIKON 300mm AF-S VR f/2.8G IF-ED, Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II, Nikon 400mm AF-S VR f/2.8 IF-ED, Nikon SB900 speedlights, Honl professional Light Modifiers (grids, snoots, gobos for Nikon SB900’s).

Backup and image storage: 16GB Lexar Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash, Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Readers, DroboPro (Studio), Western Digital MyPassport Studio Edition 500 GB DRIVES (travel)

Computer: Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Intel Xeon + 8GB Crucial RAM (Studio), MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 4GB Crucial RAM (travel).

To see more of Lucas’ work, visit his website.

David Schloss is the director of the Aperture Users Network and MacCreate.com. A photographer for more than two decades, David specializes in adventure sports, travel, lifestyle and hyper-macro photography. He is the author of two books on photography and teaches workshops internationally.

Preferred Post Processing Applications: I do about 95 percent of my work in Aperture, with occasional work in Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS 4 and Painter.

Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

NIK Silver Efex Pro: This is by far the best black and white conversion tool ever made.

Imagenomic Portraiture: After spending countless hours retouching portraits for commercial use Portraiture has been a godsend. It selectively retouches images without having to create complicated masks, it can tell the difference between facial texture and things like hair and makeup.

Picture Code’s Noise Ninja: The industry standard for noise reduction. Getting rid of noise from a high ISO or low light shot doesn’t get any easier--or better--than this.

Which filters do you use the most in the Nik Silver Efex collection?: I tend to be drawn to the filters that provide the grainy black-and-white experience I used to get from darkroom techniques. The film simulations for things classic 1600 ISO film stock are great. While it doesn’t feel exactly the same to me (there’s just a quality of black and white high-ISO film that’s hard to duplicate) it brings back much of that quality of playfulness and artistic expression of the darkroom.

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General Filter Tips: Digital filters are best used like a spice. A little bit can transform a creation from mundane to extraordinary, but used too heavily it will overwhelm the creation. And there’s no filter that’s going to save an out of focus image so work to get the image right in the camera first.

What tips can you share with us about working in Aperture: In the 90's there was almost a mandate that "artistic" photos had to be processed and highly-filtered. A lot of simulated cross processing work and bleach tones. For many photographers the image in-camera was simply a jumping-off point for a creative journey. That's fine and it produced a lot of great looking images, but it can only go so far.

With the advent of Apple's Aperture, and the focus (pardon the pun) on bringing out the best of an image, I've really rededicated myself to shooting the best possible image in the camera and just bringing it back to the way I saw it in my mind when I shot it. So filters for me are largely about bringing images back to reality, or at least the reality that I had envisioned.

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The really powerful adjustments in Aperture allow me to do a lot of things I used to do in filters -- adjust levels, saturation, vibrancy, sharpness. I take my images and round-trip to a plug-in when I need to make that final little creative tweak to make an image mine. Take the black-and-white conversions possible with Silver Efex Pro -- Aperture is not designed to simulate a film stock, but the ability to take an image and go right into a plug-in and still manage it in Aperture allows me to make a version that replicates the techniques I used to use, with today's tools.

Favorite Photography Tips: The best thing I’ve ever heard about photography came from photographer Jay Maisel. Taking the expletives out it boils down to "you can’t take a picture if you don’t have a camera." One thing I learned from my father, a commercial shooter, was to forget about the automatic settings and spend days walking around with camera in manual mode, changing the f/stop and shutter speed by feel. Meter once in the morning and see if you can tell how many stops lighter or darker your subjects move from there. As a result, I often think of things in terms of stops of light. I’ll turn on a bedside lamp and think of how many stops lighter the room got. It’s really a great way to become one with your camera.

Do you still shoot with film? I have not shot a piece of film since 2002. The convenience, speed and ecological benefits of working with digital have outstripped all the reasons I shot film.

Where do you print your work? At home, on my HP B9180 and a HP Z3100. I’ve also used the site ImageKind.com when I want to get output printed, framed and shipped. They do great work.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Canon 1Ds Mark III, 5D Mark II, Nikon D3x. A mix of lenses, favorites are the Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 65 1x-5x macro, and the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8.

Computer: My main Mac is an 8-core Mac Pro with 16GB of RAM, connected to a Drobo Pro, HP B9180 printer, dual 30-inch Cinema Displays and a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet.

To see more of David’s work, visit his website.

Tony Sweet decided to redirect his creative energies towards nature photography after 20 years of working as a professional jazz artist. His images are published on calendars, post cards, posters, annual reports, greeting cards and catalogs. Tony conducts Visual Artistry photography location workshops and speaks to photography organizations and "Professional Photographers of America" schools throughout the continental United States and Canada. He is a staff writer for Nikon World magazine and has authored four books on the art of photography. Tony has been honored as a "Nikon Legend Behind the Lens" and is represented by The Getty Picture Agency.

Preferred Post-Processing Applications: Aperture for processing and cataloging, also Photoshop CS4.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

Nik Color Efex Pro: Particularly the “Darken/Lighten Center” filter to add depth to the image.

Nik Silver Efex Pro: For black and white conversions.

LucisPro: I use it on every HDR image to enhance detail and add depth.

AlienSkin Snap Art: To add watercolor, oil paint and other artistic effects.

Topaz Adjust: to affect exposure and region on specific images.

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What tips can you share with us about working with filters in general? Play often to learn the capabilities of the software. It’s impossible to pre-visualize a filter effect on an image if you are not familiar with the filter. And always place the filter effect on a separate layer and blend it with the original -- this works especially well when you are blending a black and white converted image with the color original. Work in layers, leaving the original untouched. Practice using your software. The more familiar you are with software usage, the more options you have to bring your creativity to fruition.

Favorite Photography Tip: Isolate and simplify the subject.

Do you still shoot with film? No more film for me. I have no need for it.

Where do you print your work? I use an Epson 7900.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D3X, 14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 105mm macro, Lensbaby.

Computer: MacBook Pro, 8G RAM, 320GB HD, 4TB external storage, Epson 7900 printer.

To see more of Tony’s work, visit his website.

Mike Sweeney started his visual career by drawing incessantly from the time he was old enough to be trusted with a box of crayons. By the time he was his early twenties he had bought a Canon 35mm camera and was learning the finer points of photography. Now Mike blends his photography skills with his extensive knowledge of technology to produce images that are both classic and state of the art. Mike is an active member is the "Strobist" and other social groups on Flickr, as well as the PPA (Professional Photographers of America), ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). He specializes in wedding photography, portraiture and fine art photography.

Preferred post-processing applications: Adobe Suite CS3 (primarily Photoshop, InDesign) for advanced editing, Lightroom 2 for the majority of workflow management and light editing, PainterX for live media effects, LumaPIX to create albums, calendars, cards etc, VMwareFusion for running Windows XP and LumaPIX, and Fundy SOS album builder which is Photoshop application for creating wedding albums.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

Imagenomic Portraiture: The best and fastest tool I have found for smoothing and evening out skin surfaces and skin tones.

Imagenomic Noiseware: The best noise reduction software.

OnOne Pro Tools: The best overall photo editing tool box on the planet. I especially like the Photo Tools Bleach Bypass and High Pass Sharpening filters.

A Neutral Density Gradient: I use a gradient more than any other processing tool aside from sharpening to dial in localized exposures of sky, water, windows etc.

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What tips can you share with us about working with filters in general? Apply any filter effect at the level that you think it should be and then dial it down a notch. Educate yourself about sharpening your images. It's not as simple as you may think and it can make or break an image. Highpass sharpening is your friend. Learn about using sharpening masking in Lightroom, you will be amazed at the details it can bring out. When you’re sharpening don’t forget to zoom in to 100%. Invest 17 bucks in a monthly pass for kelbytraining.org, some of the best information I’ve seen for Lightroom comes from Matt Kloskowski on kelbytraining.

Favorite Photography Tip: Read the manual for your camera even if you have been shooting for years, you will certainly learn something from it. Be an active member of a few of the many, many photography related boards, there is always something new to see and learn and you never know when you will uncover a piece of priceless information or learn the one thing that will tip a gig your way.

Do you still shoot with film? Yes, Kodak Porta-160VC. I offer it as a custom option for portraits. Some clients like the look of film and will pay a premium for it. And I still shoot Polaroid sometimes because it's fun.

Where do you print your work? BayPhoto and MPIX

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D70s, D90, D300, Nikon 17-55mm F/2.8, Nikon 11-24mm F4, Nikon 50mm F1.8, Nikon 17-55mm VR, 4 Nikon SB800 flashes, Nikon SU800, 5 Cybersyncs, Mountainsmith Parallax backpack Flashpoint carbon tripod/head, Westcott collapsible umbrellas, Photoflex Transpack, Z Raygun - a Dual Xenon battery powered light by Brinkmann.

Computer: MacBook Pro 6GB RAM, 250GB drive (Travel), Mac Pro dual quad 10GB RAM, 4TB disk (studio) with a Dell 24-inch Ultrasharp monitor, Canon MP950 all in one printer, Epson 4990 Scanner.

To see more of Mike’s work, visit his website.

Anthony Tortoriello is a Chicago commercial photographer who specializes in animal and pet photography, action/motorsports, food and people and anything else that comes his way. His work has been used in numerous publications worldwide. Anthony is an expert in color processing and regularly works as a digital technician for top shooters across the country. He has studied color theory with the best (notably Dan Margulis) and is also a professional retoucher.

Preferred Post-Processing Applications: I’ve dabbled with every photo related software at some point or another but now the vast majority of my time is spent working in Phase One’s Capture One Pro which is a RAW workflow application, Photoshop CS4 (which I live and breathe) and occasionally Lightroom.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

onOne’s Software Suite: Mainly for Genuine Fractals Pro and Photo Frame Pro which I find useful for certain images and jobs.

Photomatix Pro: For HDR and a handful of complex sharpening and color boost actions that I created and are specific to my style.

What tips can you share with us about working with filters in general? Less is more. Filters are to be used when needed not just because you can. Sure you can play and have fun, but if your job is to get an ordinary image to look like a breathtaking postcard then use filters with caution.

Also, you can use color effects software, noise reduction software, etc., but there is no substitute for knowing how to do this all yourself by having a solid understanding of Photoshop. Photoshop is our digital darkroom period and should not be taken lightly.

I would suggest people use Photoshop as if it is a video game and you are trying to win the game by getting the best possible looking images. Try every possibility like you would in a game, for example you could try running filters in different channels.

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Favorite Photography Tips: I am a firm believer at shooting as much as possible any time I can. This means always having a camera by your side and using it with NO worries about what others may be thinking. To paraphrase something photographer Jay Maisel has said, we have to do our visual push-ups everyday to keep our skills in shape.

Do you still shoot with film? I have not touched my film cameras in years. It just does not make sense on so many levels for me to still be using film.

Any tips on getting prints that match what we see on the screen? Make sure your displays are calibrated correctly with a calibration device such as an i1 Display 2 from X-Rite, which will help ensure that the color and luminosity of what you are seeing is accurate. Familiarize yourself with the proper settings for your software and output device -- for example, if you are printing out of Photoshop make certain you are not double color managing your files -- turn off color manage in the print dialog box. And select the correct paper profile. Obviously there is much more to it than that, but those things are a big step in the right direction.

Where do you print your work? At home I print with an Epson 4880 and an Epson 3880 for my more manageable sized prints. And for the larger prints I work with an amazing printing boutique in Chicago; JS Graphics.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D3x, Nikon D3, and Canon 5D Mark II. Lenses include “fast glass” Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, 200-400mm f/4, 105mm f/2.8 micro, 16mm f/2.8 fisheye, & 50mm f/1.4G and similar for the Canon. Tony also loves his Canon G10 and G11 professional point and shoot cameras for everyday fun.

Computer: (Studio) Mac Pro 8-Core Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" Processors with 16GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM with 4TB Internal Storage and 20TB external RAID Storage. 30-inch Apple Cinema Display and a 22-inch CRT for proofing. Wacom Intuos4 graphics tablet “I could not work without it.” (Travel) Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM

To see more of Anthony's work, visit his website.

Michele Wortman has been taking pictures professionally for over a decade. Her specialty is “macro photography with a deep emphasis on observing beauty.” Her work also includes shooting studio portraits of her tattoo clients. Her photography has been featured in several publications and in a book, “Moments of Epiphany” by Proton Press.

Preferred Post-Processing Applications: Adobe Photoshop CS3. And I particularly enjoy shooting my portrait work directly into my computer using Aperture and completely bypassing the memory card in the camera by tethering the camera to the computer. You can really see your shot and be able to make adjustments a lot better than the film days.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc: I don't use a lot of filters, and all of my favorites are included with Photoshop. I try not to alter the image too far beyond the original shot as I like to preserve the natural magic from the first impression. Typically I adjust the levels first, then I use the selective color menu to create better color balance adjustments. If the image needs some enhanced focus I select the area to sharpen with the lasso on a wide feather and sharpen as needed. I often use the path select tool to create cut outs for my portrait photography. I am a firm believer when it comes to digital manipulation that less is more. A subtle enhancement can make an image look extra dreamy, but take it just a bit too far and the piece will probably look artificial and overworked.

Favorite Photography Tips: Follow your bliss and where the light lands. Shoot what interests you and whatever your passion is. It will show in your work.

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Do you still shoot with film? No, digital photography meets all of my needs plus I never have to deal with the hassle of scanning negatives with dust specs!

Where do you print your work? For portfolio purposes I print on the Epson Stylus Photo r1800. I also sometimes print on high quality transparency film which I backlight when I’m exhibiting my work.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Canon EOS 5D with Canon EF 24-70MM, Canon MP-E 65MM, Canon EF 100 MM lenses. Lights: Calumet travelite 750 set, Nova 32 softbox, Canon 540 EZ Speedlite

Computer: MacBook Pro with 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB RAM and an iMac with Intel Core Duo 2GHz and 2GB RAM. MyBook Essential edition 1TB external drive and a Burly 4 Bay Firewire Enclosure with four Seagate 7200.10 500GB drives.

To see more of Michele’s work, visit her website.

Canon Digital Rebel T1i vs. Nikon D5000

Zack Stern — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:40:26 -0500

Coke versus Pepsi. Mac versus PC. Canon versus Nikon. Among these great rivalries, we can only pick out one clear winner. (Here’s a hint: It’s not the colored sugar water.) In the latest Canon-versus-Nikon entry-level digital SLR (single-lens reflex) battle, both cameras score hits against the other.

It's the DSLR version of Mac vs. PC--except without as obvious a winner.

But in the end, they’re much more similar than different. If you already use a film camera from either camera maker--and own a few lenses--don’t bother switching sides. If you’re not already invested in hardware that only works with one of them, your decision is much more nuanced. After much debate, we give a tiny edge to the Nikon D5000 for its impressive high-ISO performance. But you could just as easily fall in love with the Canon Rebel T1i for its slightly brighter, clearer LCD.

Canon Digital Rebel T1i

The T1i is light in your palm, weighing about 1.5 pounds with the bundled lens. We felt comfortable slinging it around and shooting with just one hand in one of the auto modes. Like the D5000, the T1i uses a single LCD screen to show your exposure data. (Most midrange and high-end DSLRs include a top-mounted screen too.) But the clear markings give enough details for manual photos, and you can also see the most important information inside the viewfinder.

The T1i LCD edges out the D5000 in a direct comparison. Canon’s slightly larger screen sports a higher resolution and looks great when reviewing recent images. It also looks a little better outdoors, but just as the D5000’s, this screen washes out in bright sun. When you sight through the eyepiece, the screen automatically turns off, which is a major benefit at night.

Images look good overall, although the T1i has a few weaknesses. We shot clean colors in many different lighting conditions, but the auto settings look more muted than higher-priced cameras. While bright daylight can wash out the hues, and night images without a flash run too warm, they are common problems that can be combated with manual controls. Earmark a lot of storage space for best results: The T1i’s 15.1-megapixel RAW photos can run 20MB each.

Mid- and high-ISO night photos mark the T1i’s biggest weakness. Images show moderate noise--random, colored pixels in dark areas—at about 400 ISO. Significant noise enters past 800 ISO, a setting you’d try to use to compensate for minimal lighting.

Nikon D5000

The D5000 is roughly the same shape and weight as the T1i. Nikon’s camera felt just as comfortable to shoot with, and its versatile LCD helps you shoot in awkward positions.

Like the T1i, the D5000 includes a live-view shooting mode, so instead of looking through the eyepiece, the preview image gets diverted to the LCD just like a point-and-shoot camera. But since the D5000 LCD swivels and turns, you can hold the camera high above your head, around a corner, or at ground level and still get a clear view of the screen. The 2.7-inch screen unfortunately stays lit when you compose shots through the eyepiece. But you can rotate it against the body, giving up exposure details for just the viewfinder information.

We thought that colors in photos shot with the D5000 popped a little more than those shot with the T1i, although the 12.3-megapixel D5000 scored only a subtle edge. And like the T1i, fine details looked excellent, such as the furry texture on a flower’s leaf.

In low light, the D5000’s clearer high-ISO modes perform better. We cranked the setting up to 2500 ISO before the noise seemed too distracting, but you could go even higher in a pinch. Images brightened up in this mode, helping us shoot in certain night conditions--indoors or with a streetlight--with no flash.

Tough Call

The similarities between these SD-card DSLRs outnumber most of the differences. Both shutter speeds range from 1/4,000th second to bulb mode (where you hold the shutter open as long as you choose). Both start up and continuously shoot images with almost no delay. Both have competent stabilizers built in to the bundled 18-55mm lenses, netting shake-free photos as slow as about 0.4 second. And both shoot weak high-definition video, blurring moving subjects or camera pans into useless footage. (If your subjects and framing stay mostly static, video can look great, however.) Other than that video complaint, they’re both winning cameras.

Up With Little People - Miniature Still-Life Photography

Leslie Ayers — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:33:00 -0600

Case Study: Matthew Carden
Occupation: Photographer
Gear: 15-inch MacBook Pro, 13-inch MacBook, 23-inch Apple Cinema Display, Adobe CS3, Nikon D3 DSLR camera

We know, there’s nothing that unusual about a job as a professional photographer, especially among the Mac-using ranks. In Matthew Carden’s case, though, he’s found an unusual--dare we say ”odd”?--photographic niche after many years working as a food and lifestyle photographer for outfits like Williams-Sonoma, Chronicle Books, Taunton Press, and others.

Carden’s current focus—building a business photographing miniature model-train people arranged in interesting and surprising ways in still-lifes with food—arose spontaneously several years ago when Carden had the idea to shoot some miniature people “climbing” some homemade marshmallows that his wife Jennifer, a chef, cookbook author, and food stylist, had prepared. “Homemade marshmallows look nothing like the kind you buy in the store,” Carden says. In fact, they resemble crumbly white chunks of granite much more than the puffy, squarish cotton balls we’re familiar with.

Jennifer got into food styling a little while after graduating from culinary school. “I started shooting a Williams-Sonoma catalog that involved a lot of food,” Carden says. “I was paying a food stylist--who didn’t know anything about food--a lot of money. At that point my wife was working in a restaurant, but knew she didn’t want to own a restaurant. She has an artistic background and I said, ‘Look, this food styling thing is what you should be doing.’ That spun her into food styling, which spun me into more food photography, and it spiraled from there that the food became a more consistent part of our work.”

The dimple at the bottom of this Asian pear was the perfect nook for a mini charwoman.

Carden decided to start doing a series of photos with the mini people to help himself stay on his “creative toes.” He saw it as an exercise “to stay in a creative and aware state of mind more often: Don’t think about it too much, just react and create.”
What drew him to photography in the first place was an interest in creating images that have multiple layers.

“Layers can be ideas or messages behind an image, forms and shapes that create other images, or a play on scale and subject matter--anything that makes people stop and think about a picture.”

Give Him A Mac-Or Two. Like a lot of creative pros, Carden is a Mac user because that was the default platform in his field when he transitioned from film photography to digital. “The interface is easier, the system works better, and the platform is not as fraught with problems as the Windows platform. Of course, there used to be a much bigger divide [between Mac and Windows users].”

Carden tries to avoid buying tech gear just for the sake of owning the newest thing. “I have evolved from massive camera systems that required tricked-out computers and huge monitors to a totally portable and streamlined studio--and I am loving it,” he says.

“Today you can really do anything with any system, depending on what you do, but Macs do look better. I’m a sucker for innovative industrial design. [The Mac] looks and feels better, period. Everything in my studio is brushed aluminum, so our aluminum MacBooks work very well with that.”

Swoosh. Miniature skiers traverse the candy sprinkle-bedecked “slolems” of a red velvet cake Jennifer Carden baked as part of the Carden family New Year’s Eve celebration.

Carden’s current studio setup consists of a 2-year-old 15-inch MacBook Pro; a brand-new 13-inch MacBook (aluminum unibody); a 23-inch Apple Cinema Display; assorted external drives, scanners, and printers; a USB/FireWire hub; and a Wacom tablet. He connects the Macs via an AirPort Extreme wireless base station.

As for software, Carden is an Adobe Creative Suite 3 user, which he doesn’t see changing anytime soon. “I don’t use new stuff anymore unless I have to. The learning curve can really kill my creativity and spontaneity,” he says.

To keep things as spontaneous as possible, Carden says having a somewhat uniform workflow for every shoot helps keep him focused on the end result. He shoots all his photos in RAW, uploads them to his Mac, previews and organizes them using Adobe Bridge, converts the images to TIF and makes initial tweaks in Camera Raw. “Almost all post is done in Photoshop,” he adds. “I try to make a point of shooting what I want, but the ability to control everything in Photoshop is amazing. Even when I think an image is shot perfectly, I can usually improve it somehow in Photoshop.”

Of course, he adds, he tries to avoid tweaking images to the point of “blatant manipulation.” The goal, he says, is simply to arrive at “the best possible version of an image.”

Life In Miniature. So just how big is Carden’s personal collection of mini model-train figures?

“When you look at how many are available, it’s not that big,” he says. “There are a billion different styles and themes, but there are a lot of weird ones that you wonder why they make for trains, like scuba divers. It never ceases to amaze me how many different kinds there are. Some friends of mine were just in Germany and brought me back a set of nudists, which I’d never seen before. Where is that going in your train set?” he wonders, laughing.

These fiery-hot chicken wings were on their way to the dinner table when Carden borrowed them for an ad hoc shoot.

Another oddball theme in model-train miniatures is a series of people mooning, Carden says. “There’s some subculture down in Los Angeles, who on the same day every year, go out and moon the Amtrak trains. Apparently that was justification enough to come out with a series of people doing that.”

So will Carden create a series of food shots for his portfolio featuring the miniature mooners?

“Stuff like that I almost don’t even know where to go with because it’s so weird and random that I don’t know if people would understand what was going on,” he says.

He’s toyed with the idea of contacting the companies that make the mini figures, to let them know that he’s using their products in ways they probably never imagined.

The potential to grow his collection of little people is almost endless, he says, but it will depend on whether he can carve out his niche as a photographer who works with the tiny figures.

“There are always more I could buy,” he says. “I rarely buy people for a specific reason. I’ll go and I’ll find things that strike me, and some food or context will pop up spontaneously and I’ll connect the two.”

That kind of visual serendipity keeps the work exciting.

Carden had some firefighter figures in his collection, and one evening Jennifer prepared some hot wings for the family to eat. The chicken wings were on their way to the dinner table and Carden says he grabbed them for an impromptu shoot with the wee firemen.

While he recognizes that not all paid shoots can be governed by that level of spontaneity, he hopes he can try to infuse that feel into every assignment he gets. For more of Carden’s work, see “10 Reasons Your Small Business Should Run on Macs”, and check out his website: www.matthewcarden.com.

Scanning 35mm Slides

Scott Rose — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:12:16 -0600

At $2,199, the Nikon CoolScan 9000 ED is a top-of-the-line film scanner.

I have a large number of 35mm slides that I would like to convert to digital format and put on a CD. How can I do this on the Mac?

If you’d like to undertake this project yourself, you could purchase a dedicated film scanner. For example, Nikon (www.nikonusa.com) makes a series of film scanners under the CoolScan brand name that range in price from $599 to $2,199 and can quickly scan all sorts of film formats into your Mac: slides, negatives, film, and film strips.

You could also purchase a traditional flatbed scanner that comes with a film holder or transparency unit that’s built for slides, such as Epson’s Perfection series of scanners (starting at $99, www.epson.com).

Alternatively, you can always hand off your project to the professionals and let them do the conversion for you. Companies like DigMyPics (starting at 35 cents per scan,www.digmypics.com) specialize in taking your slides and other analog media—such as negatives, photo prints, film reels, and VHS tapes—and transferring them all into digital format for you. So all you have to do is sit back, kick up your heels, and wait for your digital media to be delivered to your doorstep.

Take Better Product Photos, Become an eBay Millionaire

Christopher Dack — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:09:14 -0600

Which iPhone would you rather buy? Would you be willing to pay a few bucks more for the nice-looking one?

Whether you’re already an Ebay Power Seller or simply have some old stuff you’d like to unload via Craigslist, good-looking product photos can not only increase your chances of finding a buyer, but also raising the price you can get. (If you doubt this, sadly we think you’re underestimating the shallowness of many.) Luckily, the quality of most eBay and Craigslist photos ranks somewhere between bad and yeesh. Using these tips, you can easily beat the competition—even shoot like the pros, and without breaking the bank. After all, we’re trying to make money here.

Difficulty level: Easy to medium

What you need:
> Digital camera, either point-and-shoot or DSLR
> Product(s) you want to sell
> White poster board or butcher paper
> Movable utility lights (optional but recommended)
> Tripod (optional but recommended)

1. Cut the clutter

Perhaps the most noticeable change you can make to improve your product photos has nothing to do with the product itself and everything to do with the backdrop. Photos with ugly or distracting backgrounds can detract from the perceived value of the item. Almost any backdrop that isn’t worn carpeting, a chewed-up table, or linoleum dating to the Eisenhower administration is a step in the right direction, but you can go further and create a professional-looking backdrop cheaply and easily.

Pros often shoot in studios with “infinity walls,” where the floor curves up to meet the wall to provide a seamless background. When evenly lit, they provide the illusion of blank, infinite nothingness. If you’re shooting something small, you can create your own infinity wall with a piece of poster board, or even butcher paper.

Lay the poster board on the floor or on a table. Place an open-topped cardboard box behind it. Then, smoothly and without creasing, bend the poster board up from the “floor” to become a “wall” and clamp the top of the board to the cardboard box. It can be difficult when shooting many products to keep white poster board clean, but it’s cheap enough to easily replace when necessary.

This brings up another point: Clean your items to match the clean backdrop you’ve just created. Lint, smudges, and fingerprints make the item look bad and make you look like a slob. Nobody wants to buy used stuff from a slob.

Step 1. DIY infinity wall: It's a good thing.

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2. De-dingify your item

Most of us think nothing of the incandescent lightbulbs in our homes and may even associate the warm light they provide with nice, quiet evenings. Such light has a less charming effect, however, when used for product photos, making your items look yellowish and dingy.

A couple of solutions, besides avoiding incandescent light completely (see step 4): First, change your camera’s white balance setting, which tells the camera what type of light you’re shooting in so it can calibrate colors accordingly. This setting will be easy to access either through the camera’s menu or, if you use a DSLR, with the dials or buttons. Choose the preset that’s closest to your lighting; the “incandescent” setting, for example, will likely be designated by a light bulb icon.

Alternatively, you can get even more ambitious and set a custom white balance. It’s a little more involved, but will always give you the most accurate color for your lighting conditions. Doing so might require digging through the camera’s manual—different makes and models have slightly different processes, but they all involve taking a picture of something pure white. This picture will be easy to capture if you’re using the white poster board solution described in step 1: Just take a picture of your backdrop without the product in the frame.

Step 2. The incandescent light gave our before photo (left) a yellowish cast that doesn't represent the item's true color.

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3. Don't be harsh

Hard-edged shadows in product shots look amateurish. If you don’t believe us, check out some magazine ads and you’ll see almost exclusively small, soft shadows or none at all. Avoiding harsh shadows is easy: Don’t let any direct light fall onto the item when photographing it. The problem, then, becomes lighting the product adequately. Pros use umbrellas and softboxes to bathe the product in diffused, “wrap-around” light, but you have several cheaper options.

First, photograph the item during daylight near a window but not when direct sunlight is coming through. Shoot from the window toward the product to avoid backlighting. If you can place the product near two windows letting in indirect sunlight, that’s even better. You’ll want to use the “shadow” white balance setting on your camera or, again, set a custom white balance.

Second, if indirect daylight isn’t an option or isn’t bright enough, use a room with white walls and a white ceiling as a giant photo umbrella. Use two, three, or more utility lights pointed upward and away from the product to bounce their light off the walls and ceiling behind you. The bounced light will wrap around the product, creating even illumination and good-looking shadows. Just make sure the lights don’t shine into the camera, causing a bunch of flare. And, again, try different white balance presets or set a custom one. Some trial-and-error may be called for with this setup, but don’t worry—unlike pets and people, products don’t get impatient waiting for you to get it right.

Step 3. That harsh shadow is distracting from Gargie's natural beauty.

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Next: More tips on perfecting your lighting, focus, angle, and sharpness.

4. Stop flashing me

If you’re shooting using an automatic mode (like the close-up mode, often designated by a flower icon), your camera may insist on activating its onboard flash. If incandescent light is ugly, the on-camera flash is usually hideous. Flash not only causes shadows that are unbelievably harsh (and often comically distorted), but also washes out much of the item’s detail, particularly if it’s at all reflective.

Unfortunately, when a camera automatically kicks in with the flash, it often means there isn’t enough light. Using more or brighter lights may automatically solve the problem. If the camera still insists on popping off the flash, you may once again have to hunt through the settings. Often, an option exists that’s still an automatic mode but that specifically keeps the flash from firing. (On some cameras, this is called “museum” mode.)

If you simply can’t light the item adequately without flash, you can minimize the damage using certain backdrops. The white poster board solution in step 1 will probably show harsh shadows, but not as badly as some other backdrops. Better yet, shoot against an entirely black backdrop that will absorb the flash and hide the hard shadows. Black cloth works well if you can keep it from wrinkling.

Step 4. On the left, the camera's flash blows out the details. Using a black backdrop (right) absorbs the extra light.

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5. Caffiene overdose much?

Shaky camera work is great for cheap horror movies, but not so good for product shots. Stabilizing your camera will reduce or eliminate camera shake and give you a sharper photo.

Tripods, of course, are king. If you have one, this is the time to break it out—no excuses! If you don’t have one, try bracing the camera on a table or door jam. A cushion or microbead pillow can be a miracle device in this situation, allowing you to press the camera into it for good stabilization while retaining maneuverability. Oh, and hold your breath when you press the shutter button—it really does help.

Step 5. Time to switch to decaf.

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6. Back off a bit

Two problems result from placing the camera too close to products when shooting. First, it distorts the product, sometimes drastically. This can be a cool effect for certain print ads, but is probably not what you want for a simple Craigslist posting. Backing off a bit and zooming in will capture a much more natural-looking shot.

Second, shooting from too close can cause your autofocus to balk. Most cameras allow decently close focusing, but if your autofocus starts endlessly “hunting,” racking in and out because it’s unable to lock on, it’s probably because you’re not far enough away from the item.

If you shoot from too far away, however, camera shake is exacerbated. So make sure to use the tips in step 5 to stabilize the camera.

Step 6. The top picture is out of focus because we were too close. Better to back off a bit—you can always crop later.

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7. Play the angles

Many, if not most, eBay and Craigslist shots couldn’t be more boring because the seller photographed the product dead on from one side. With some products that works OK, but most will benefit from being angled. The classic approach involves shooting from about a 45-degree angle from the front and from 30 to 45 degrees above. The best angle will vary by item.

Shooting at an angle is more attractive, showing more of the product and making it more tangible. Plus, it helps you avoid ugly reflections from the product itself, if it’s at all reflective.

Speaking of reflections, if you’re shooting larger items and thus have to widen your shot to include most of a room, watch out for other surfaces that might reflect lights, the camera, or even you. Some eBay sellers have inadvertently (or, we suspect, quite on purpose) included distant mirrors in their shots and revealed more than just their for-sale detritus to the world—like their preference for shooting while nude. Don’t be that guy.

Step 7. Straight on = boring. Angled = sold!

Make High-Def Time-Lapse Movies with a Still Camera

Zack Stern — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:53:00 -0500

You’ve seen time-lapse video effects: A smooth sunset peacefully glides into the ocean, jittering traffic patterns swerve at night, and construction projects are instantly assembled. These effects are loaded with emotion, and can take their makers from amateurs to auteurs. We’ll show you how to shoot individual still photos and compile them into an HD video. You’ll need a tripod, still camera—a DSLR is ideal but not required—and QuickTime Pro. The results are much more cinematic than just turning up the playback speed for a video clip. (See our example video at  www.maclife.com/time_lapse.)

What you need: DSLR or other digital camera, Tripod, QuickTime Pro, $29.99, www.apple.com

1. Pick a Subject

A gorgeous sunset or sunrise is a great subject for this project.

You can shoot a time-lapse video of anything, but the process works best with slow-moving subjects. First consider scenes that have a linear pattern. An opening flower clearly has a beginning and ending. A baking cake—or one being cut and served—progresses in an order too. Other effective time-lapse scenes show movement, but no significant progression. Random groups of people walk by on a busy street. Ducks splash around in a pond. The scenes that follow a natural progression are usually more serene, while the nonlinear movement in the second set of examples usually creates chaotic clips. Pick a subject that will look good in your current video project, or just go experiment.

2. Position the Camera

Steady now.

Place the tripod where it can stand for as long as you need. If the camera gets bumped, your work could be ruined. We like aiming from corners and walls, but if you can protect the tripod legs from being bumped by people walking by, you can shoot from anywhere. Frame the scene, and lock the camera on the tripod.

3. Set Manual Controls

Make sure to manually set the exposure and focus for your first shot.

If you’re shooting over hours—and in some cases, minutes—auto settings will change exposure levels based on moving light. This compensation can neutralize the adjustment, while the finished movie will usually look best with these soft changes. Set the camera’s exposure with fully manual controls. Also set the manual focus in the first shot and leave it alone for the rest. (If your point-and-shoot camera doesn’t offer manual settings, you can still create good videos, but you’ll have less influence over the outcome.)

These manual settings also embellish the time-lapse style far beyond the look of a speeded-up video. Keep the flash off, and set a small aperture and longer exposure. Moving subjects will come out blurred, while backgrounds will stay sharp. Car lights will stretch through the frame as they pass. A longer exposure amplifies the effect. Try experimenting with that setting so that faster subjects blur, while slow subjects stay sharp.

4. Shoot the Movie

Do the math to find out how long to wait between exposures—we shot the stars every 72 seconds.

Pick an interval between each frame that suits the subject. To condense about 10 minutes of photos into a several-second video, we often shoot one frame every 20 seconds. But you can estimate the interval by dividing the number of needed frames by the length of the event. For a 15-frames-per-second video, we might want a 10-second shot watching stars track across the sky (15 frames x 10 seconds = 150 frames). Since the real-time event takes about three hours, that’s 10,800 seconds (3 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds). That leaves 72 seconds between each shot (10,800 seconds/150 frames). You will no doubt need to experiment to find the best interval for your intended results.

It’s up to you to manually shoot each frame, although some cameras include a time-lapse timer to keep snapping after a set interval. Some cameras are also compatible with time-lapse shutter remotes that do the same thing. If you have neither, we still recommend using a “dumb” shutter remote that just snaps the picture so you can avoid touching the camera. But if it’s tightly anchored to the tripod and you touch it gently, you can still work without those extras. Eventually, you can gradually adjust zoom and framing as you shoot, but practice the basics by leaving the camera pointed in the same place.

5. Import the Photos

Using Image Capture will dump the individual images in a folder on your Mac, instead of adding them to the iPhoto library.

Connect the camera or memory card to your Mac, and open Image Capture (in your Applications folder). From the Download To pop-up menu, choose Other, and create a new folder for the photos. Download all of the images. Navigate to that folder and, if needed, erase any test photos taken before the time-lapse sequence. (Or instead, choose Download Some in Image Capture, and pick only the needed photos.)

6. Assemble the Video

Choose the first photo in your sequence here.

There are several ways that you can turn these images into a movie, but the easiest is with QuickTime Pro ($29.99, www.apple.com). This technique will also create a video file ready for any application.

Open QuickTime Player, and choose File > Open Image Sequence. Pick the first photo, then choose the frame rate. We think 15 frames per second works well. The new window will probably spill far outside your display. Pick View > Fit To Screen to tame the clip. If you play the movie now, you’ll get a rough idea of how it will look. Because the video is likely at an exceptionally high resolution, it’ll probably play at a choppy frame rate. Choose File > Save As to export the shot. Click the radio button to Save As A Self-Contained Movie. Depending on the speed of your system, this might take several minutes.

7. Edit

iMovie can import your clip as full HD, ready for editing.

Open iMovie, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, or your favorite video editor to import the video. In iMovie, pick File > Import Movies. Select the clip, and be sure to import as 1920x1080 resolution. If you want, save disk space by clicking the radio button to Move Files Instead Of Making A Duplicate. Choose Import. Edit the clip, using the crop tool to adjust the framing if desired. Because of the big source file, the video will still play at a choppy rate until you finish and share the final project.