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In-Depth Technique Articles • Impossible Photography: Light Paintings by Michael Ross, by Ole Utne • Wilson Bentley’s Snow Crystals and the Bleach Etch/MordanÇage Process, by Christina Anderson • Light Painting: Breaking Away from a Perfect World, by Stan Patz • The Importance of Working Situations, by David H. Wells • Kodak Porta 160 Film, by Tom Persinger • Easy Camera Calibration with the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport, by Steve Anchell On Photography & Portfolio Giving Back News & New Products |
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Impossible Photography: Light Paintings by Michael Ross, by Ole Utne “I think what sets me apart from most other light painters is that I have a much more structured approach. I concentrate on trying to perfect different techniques to get the exact effect I am looking for. I have caught a lot of attention from other light painters through some of the tools I have made.” |
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Wilson Bentley’s Snow Crystals and the Bleach-Etch/Mordançage Process, by Christina Z. Anderson “Over a century ago a nineteen-year-old Vermont farm boy named Wilson Alwyn Bentley began a 46-year love affair with the typology of snow crystals. A century after Bentley, I began a love affair with the historic bleach-etch process and at the same time came upon Bentley’s snow crystal book. Bentley’s beautiful snow crystals swimming in a sea of black were ripe for this bleach-etch process. How was I to make this happen, since these images were not my own?” |
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Light Painting: Breaking Away from a Perfect World, by Stan Katz “As a commercial photographer, my usual assignment involves photographing new merchandise fresh out of the box. My job is to make things look perfect: everything sharp, well lit, blemish-free and with accurate color. When it comes to personal projects, I often break away from this perfect world and shoot heavily textured, dirty old things. ” |
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The Importance of Working Situations: Understanding Your Own Process, by David H. Wells “I have been photographing seriously for almost four decades. Over those forty years I have honed in on the one thing any photographer can do to improve their photography. It does not involve a new piece of gear or imaging software. Rather it is simply to learn how to “work” the situations they encounter when photographing.” |
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Kodak Porta 160 Film, by Tom Persinger “The new Portra 160 has been formulated to have neutral contrast and a 5% increase in saturation. In addition, it takes advantage of Kodak’s new t-grain emulsion where the small, salt like cubes of emulsions introduced 20 years ago have been flattened. This innovation results in larger surface area, greater efficiency, a less grainy appearance and appreciable ease in scanning. It also has quite a healthy exposure latitude−images that are underexposed two stops and overexposed three stops still print wonderfully” |
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Easy Camera Calibration with the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport, by Steve Anchell “Until recently camera calibration was a process not much understood by many photographers. The X-Rite ColorChecker Passport has taken the mystery out of camera calibration for those photographers using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom and capturing images using RAW.” |
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The Heyday, by Kevin Moloney “We are now deep enough into the digital age that the quality of that equipment has reached heights we could have only imagined a few years ago. And with the recent and expected announcements of new gear from the big digital players, we are in for astounding advancements this year.” |
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Instagram, by Richard Koci Hernandez “The iPhone is not just a camera, but also the darkroom in the palm of my hand that includes instant ‘shareability’ with the world. My love affair with my iPhone as both serious tool for journalism and a new form of creative expression began at a crime scene in early 2007.” |
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Page 48, by Harvey Stein “I am always interested in photographing photographers photographing. They (we/I) often look so strange doing it, whether lying on the ground, bending over backwards in strange contortions when we really don’t have to, or stretching to greater heights to shoot our masterpieces.” |
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Daniel Beltrá: Photography and the Environment, by Robert Hirsch “As we become aware of the global consequences of human activities, the role of increasing responsiveness to environmental issues is carried on by groups such as the International League of Conservation Photographers (ilcp.com), whose mission is to further environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography.” |
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Mathieu Young on Assignment: Photographing by Moonlight in Cambodia, by Wendy Erickson “Self-assigned photojournalistic projects have always been an important part of what I do. I haven’t found total artistic fulfillment doing only my commercial work, and I haven’t found a sustainable financial model in doing only reportage projects, so I have always done both.” |
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Self-Publishing with Digital Books, by Veronica Cotter “In the past one could only hope that someone would see the work that either had a connection to publishing or knew someone, who knew of someone who might be interested in looking at your portfolio. It’s a long shot at best, but difficult to resist nonetheless. Combine technology with opportunity and the result is a number of satisfying self-publishing choices.” |
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