Improve Photography » Other

See the Winners of the “Edit My RAW File” Contest [Announcement]

Jim Harmer — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:11:29 +0000

Last week, I announced an “Edit My Raw File” Contest. The idea is that I uploaded a photo that I took, and then put the file up for download so that all of us could take a crack at editing the exact same photo.

This was, easily, the most FUN contest we’ve done, because it gave everyone the opportunity to see MANY different ideas of how to approach the exact same photo. I got a TON of new ideas on how I can approach my post-processing by seeing how everyone edited the same photo.

There were THOUSANDS of people who entered this contest via Google+ and Pinterest. I personally looked through each and every photo and chose about 100 of the best photos. Then, I split up the 100 best photos into three categories: (1) the best edits that left the photo natural, (2) the best photos that made medium strength edits, and then (3) the best composite photos. Then, we selected one winner from each category so that everyone had an equal chance of winning no matter if you went crazy or just kept it natural.

By the way, many people had their photos “disappear” after adding them to Google+ or Pinterest. This was because the websites thought the photos were spam since so many of the same photo were being uploaded. Rest assured, we went through all of these photos and marked them as “not spam” and reviewed them for the contest.

Thank you to all those who participated and made this a fun contest!

Overall Winner – Edited by Donnis Sealey

And the Winner is….

Overall Winner: Donnis Sealey. We loved this photo because it accomplished all three of the things we wanted to see from a winner: (1) it looks good, (2) there aren’t any technical issues, and (3) it’s creative. Donnis wins a $100 gift card and a free online photo class. Donnis, email us at prizes@improvephotography.com to claim your prize.

UPDATE: Read here to see how Donnis edited the file to achieve the winning results.

Best “Natural” Image: Lekimcol Silver. After looking at HUNDREDS of variations of the same photo, what we focused on most was the skin smoothing. Most of the skin smoothing made the photo look downright blurry, but this one was done very nicely (which may be tough to see in the youtube slideshow below). LeKimcol, email us at prizes@improvephotography.com to claim your online photography class.

Best Composite Image: Sandy Le. We loved the pastel colors in this photo, as well as the clever color change of the model’s dress. While we weren’t so thrilled with the creative blurring, it still was very creative and is our third place winner. Sandy wins an online photography class from us, which she can claim by emailing us at prizes@improvephotography.com

Several Honorable Mentions were also selected. You can see those by viewing the photo below. In the video, we showed a lot of composites. While many of the natural photos with just simple edits were beautiful, we chose these photos for the slideshow because we wanted everyone to have the opportunity to see some of the more creative ideas from the group.

You can see a slideshow of our favorite and most creative edits below (or click here if viewing this post via email).
Further Reading:

You Might Be a Photographer If…. (Hilarious)

Jim Harmer — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:58:17 +0000

Put your mouse on this picture and click the "Pin it" button to pin this onto your Pinterest!

First of all, you’re totally missing out if you haven’t LIKED the Improve Photography Facebook page. It’s a great place to ask your photography questions and we always have a good time talking photography over there.

Earlier today, I asked the community to write their answers to “You might be a photographer if…” I can’t stop laughing! You guys are hilarious.

I thought you’d all enjoy these photography jokes.

After you’re done reading these jokes, make sure to pass this post along by sharing the hilarious photography love on your Facebook and Twitter!

Top Ten Reasons You Might Be a Photographer

10. You have nightmares of people using the “P mode” we won’t even talk about the “green mode.” That’s just too scary.

9. 30,000 family photos neatly categorized in Lightroom. Zero photos of you.

8. When at a car dealership, you translate the price of a car in your head to “Six 5D Mark II’s.” Your last power bill cost two monopods.

7. Touchdown plays are somewhat distracting because you can see the white glass on the sidelines

6. You are frequently greeted with “What are you taking a picture of?!?” instead of “hello.”

5. You’d rather buy the shirt that more closely resembles 18% gray

4. Your carry-on is heavier than your checked bags

3. You describe disgusting old dilapidated barns as “beautiful” (via Lori Anderson)

2. Number of lenses > Pairs of shoes you own (Carsten Deutschmann)

1. You actually believe a wizard could fit in your pocket

Other Hilarious Photographer Jokes

You’re now on your fifth tripod, and you finally decide it’s time to buy a Gitzo

You’re somewhat troubled by the fact that you don’t know how to calculate the shutter speed of your eyes when you blink

When performing daily duties, you adjust the angle of your head or change your line of vision for a more interesting composition (Erica Lampley)

You look at a desk full of tax returns and wonder how you could photograph the stack (Dave McKenzie)

You’ve gotten a ticket for an illegal u-turn– to go back for THE shot (Becca Morrison)

Your neighbors admit to you that they don’t take pics of their own kids playing outside anymore because they know YOU will be there doing it every chance you get! (Crystal Prahl)

Everyone hands you their cameras at family events and says”take some photos for me” (Khurt Williams)

You pity, and judge, members of the public when you see them using their big, fancy dSLR in… automatic… (Chad Dumbris)

the image taken as a visual memo with your phone has a sophisticated composition (Carsten Deutschmann)

The sign “no flash photography” means nothing to you and makes you laugh, because YOU don’t need a flash (Michael Kilian)

You no longer need a purse because your lipgloss and ID fit just fine in your camer bag (Megan Jeffries and Maureen Lingle)

You think in f-stops (Jackie Buys)

You will starve yourself and hold your urine just to get that last 30 minutes of the golden-hour of the day! (Crystal Prahl)

You try to go “full manual” with your p&s or phone camera (Larry Wright)

You are driving past “scary” parts of town and can’t wait to use it for a shoot! (Jennifer Fisser)

You have finally become oblivious to the odd stares you get when you whip out your camera to take a sweet shot that no one else seems to notice but you (Deborah Austin)

You watch a movie and pay more attention to the aperture then what’s happening in the movie (Celicia Steidl)

While wearing polarizing sunglasses, you rotate your head left and right to assess what impact your circular polarizing filter might have on a potential shot (Ron Tripp)

The camera in your hand is more comfortable than the tennis shoes on your feet (JK Bane)

You wish you had a camera installed in your retina (Kellie Allen)

Don’t forget to share this page on Facebook/Twitter/Google+! Thanks for paying it forward.Further Reading:

Top 5 Tips for Photographing Protests and Riots (Guest post)

Jim Harmer — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:31:22 +0000

Riot photography - Robert Graham

Before starting this article, I thank Robert Graham for sending this guest post in while I’m away hiking to the highest lake in Idaho (Goat Lake) for a few days on an epic photo adventure. I’m testing out my new Clik Elite Hiker camera bag on the trail and I’ll review it when I get back. Anyway, Robert Graham sent in this terrific post with timely and news-worthy photos. This is journalistic photography as reported through the lens of Robert Graham. In light of recent events, I thought this article would be interesting to the whole community.

Over the last year or so, the news has been full of reports about people protesting and rioting all over the world. Such events can lead to some great photographic opportunities if approached in the right way. Having photographed at several protests and riots recently and having my work published by BBC News, I thought I’d share my top 5 tips for photographing these events.

1. Get in close – Whilst a wide shot capturing the scope of the event can be effective, it is also probably going to be one of the most seen images as film crews and civilians with compacts and camera phones will be capturing shots like that. If you want your photos to stand out, get in close and capture the people that the event is made up of. These are the photos that your audience will really want to see, as it helps create the feeling that they’re right in the moment.

2. Don’t be afraid to talk to people – When I shoot documentary and street photography, I prefer to work candidly, that way I can capture events as true to life as possible without influencing or changing them. But don’t forget that whilst documenting an event, almost everyone attending, is doing so for the same reason, and are often quite friendly to others joining in with them. Because of this, you don’t have to be afraid of asking someone to take a portrait of them and getting a model release at the same time. Capturing the people attending the event is as much a part of documenting it as getting your candid shots.

Riot photography by Robert Graham

3. Make sure you can change your lens quickly – I often find that I’m using my telephoto lens to make sure I don’t miss out on any of the action whilst keeping me out of harm’s way, however shooting with a 70-200mm lens in a crowd can get a bit tricky if you find the crowd closing in around you, perhaps in a tighter spot. You will soon find people blocking your line of sight and taking up more of the frame of your image due to your longer focal length, so it is vital to be able to change to a shorter lens as quickly as possible.

4. Be open about your intent – If anyone asks what you are doing, especially the police, tell them. Just let them now that you are a photographer and that you are documenting whatever is happening. If you have any business cards, get them out, or simply show them some of your photos. Remember that the police are there for public safety, and will have a lot on their hands with protestors and rioters testing their nerve; try not to add to their problems. From my experience if you are friendly and open with them they won’t cause you any problems and let you get back to doing what you do best.

5. Keep safe – I can’t stress this point enough, never put yourself in harm’s way. If you were making a living from your photos, then how are you going to survive if your camera gets damaged, stolen, or you end up in hospital? There’s no shame in being sensible and simply taking a few steps back if things might be getting out of hand.

Further Reading:

4 Tools to Find Who is Stealing Your Photos

Jim Harmer — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:54:01 +0000

Who is stealing your photos?

Photographers don’t make any profit when someone steals their copyrighted images. So, most photographers work hard to protect their images from getting ripped off. However, there are 255 million websites on the Internet, and it is literally impossible to manually monitor them for infringement. To that end, this post reveals the four most successful ways that I have found to find infringers.

TinEye

TinEye is a free service that allows photographers to upload a picture and then search for the same image across the Internet. TinEye has been a useful tool for quite some time for photographers, but it usually only finds 1 in 20 of my photos even when I know for a fact that they are publicly accessible online.

Google Image Search

Recently, Google added the functionality to Google Images for photographers to upload (by dragging and dropping your image file into the search bar) a photo and then it will search for instances of that same photo on the Internet. I was quite impressed with how well this worked in my test. Although it did not find every instance of my photos, it performed significantly better than TinEye.

ImageRights

ImageRights is a company that works to secure your rights to your photos. The service has both paid and free plans, in which photographers upload their photos and can choose to allow ImageRights to help with registering the copyright (for US photographers), searching the web to find violators, and they even work to achieve legal settlements with violators and then pay you about 50% of the money from the settlement that they work out. ImageRights is a valuable service for photographers who need the most protection possible.

Change the file name and EXIF data

I have found more violators by simply editing my EXIF data than any other method. When I edit my EXIF data, I simply put the copyright information and also my name in the comment field. Then, I set up a Google alert for my name. This works perfectly for me because I’m about the only Jim Harmer in the world, but it obviously wouldn’t work if you have a common name. When someone posts one of my photos without altering the EXIF data, it often comes up on a Google alert if their CMS is set to use the comment field as a caption, which is quite common. I find a violator with this method about once per month.Further Reading:

Focussion Review: A cool website that helps you get more comments on your photos

Jim Harmer — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 05:01:55 +0000

How to get more comments on your Flickr photos

Looking over the website stats for Improve Photography last week (WOAH… there are A LOT of you readers!), I noticed that several people found this website after typing in keywords in Google like, “How to get more feedback on my Flickr photos” or similar keywords. Flickr is the largest photo sharing website in the world, and most of the people on the site use it to get feedback on their photos. The trouble with Flickr is that it is nearly impossible to get noticed, unless you are a Flickr extraordinaire like Algo. If you enjoy Flickr and want to improve your Flickr SEO, then check out this post on getting more comments on Flickr.

HOWEVER, I believe there is a much better way to get feedback and comments on your photography. One of them is to try out a website called Focussion. Focussion.com puts a unique spin on photo sharing by working with a token system. When you upload a photo, you use up 25 of your free tokens. The only way you can gain back enough tokens to post more photos is by commenting on the work of other photographers. Each comment earns you 3 tokens. This way, you are much more likely to get your work noticed and get some feedback on the pictures you take. It’s like Flickr, but better.

Most people would criticize a website like this because you might think the token system would encourage people to just quickly browse through other people’s photos and make meaningless comments like, “Nice pic.” However, that is not the case. I looked through many photos on the website and, while there are obviously some meaningless comments, most of them were specific and helpful feedback for the photographer. One thing that the Dutch owners of the website have done to increase the quality of the feedback is to allow photographers to thumbs up or thumbs down a specific comment to allow the commenter to know whether or not the feedback was helpful. In my opinion, this increases the quality of the commenting drastically.

I was also concerned that a start-up photo sharing site would be slow, but the user interface is expertly designed to allow for large and sharp photos while still keeping file sizes to a minimum. Since I moved to Boise, my internet service has been INCREDIBLY slow, and this website still loaded quite quickly.

In short, if you would like your photos to see the light of day and be seen by other photographers rather than letting your photos simply collect dust on the hard drive, then I recommend Focussion.Further Reading:

Top 21 Up-and-Coming Photography Sites to Watch (and Learn!)

Jim Harmer — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:52:54 +0000

: I’m beginning to warm up to cheesy stock photos… have you noticed that I’ve used some super cheesy ones the last few days?

I’ve spent several days searching all over the Internet to find the very best 21 up-and-coming photography websites. Each of the sites on this list are well deserving of a good read. While I have been following most of them for some time, a few of them were new to me. When you visit these sites, I would appreciate if you leave a comment letting the website owners know you found them through Improve Photography.

Here, I will use “up-and-coming” to mean websites that are not yet household names (such as Digital Photography School, Strobist, or Scott Kelby’s Blog) even if the sites are already somewhat popular. There were 5 criteria by which I judged the (literally thousands) of photography instructional sites: (1) The content must be updated at least weekly, (2) The author has to be competent, (3) The content must be unique and informative, (4) The site must be both user-friendly and not filled with ads, and (5) I have to have learned something by reading the site.

The Best 21 Up-And-Coming Photography Sites on the Internet (In no particular order)

ExpertPhotography.com – A new photography site with provocative articles and knowledgeable writers. The site layout is very well done, and the content is always compelling. To get you started on this site, I would recommend this article about ISO for beginners.

CurrentPhotographer.com – This site has a tremendous amount of quality content. When you first get to the site, you may be tempted to skip over a lot of the content because the navigation is tricky, but I recommend hovering over the “Tips and Techniques” section to find the goods. Here’s a good post on landscape photography to get you reading.

EPhotoZine.com – This site has great information, especially for beginning and intermediate photographers. I’d recommend this general landscape photography post as a starting point.

Photography.ca – I absolutely love this podcast by Marko Kulik up in Canada (eh?). He is very knowledgeable and fun to listen to. Great site with authoritative articles. I liked his post on low light photography.

PhotographyTalk.com – This is a large site with an active community behind it. The articles on the site are well illustrated and cover important topics for photographers. You may find this article on autofocus to be helpful.

PhotoNaturalist.com – This site is focused on outdoor photography of nature: wildlife, landscape, and macro. The site has many helpful articles. I especially liked this article on shooting perched birds.

PixelatedPhotographer.com – This is a new site to me, but it seems to have good content for photographers that like the geeky side of photography and try to keep up with tech news. I think many of you would find this article on wireless flash to be helpful.

Burrard-Lucas.com/blog – I have read this site for quite some time. The photographers have thought up some interesting photography projects and share all of the things they are interested in on the site. Without a doubt, their most famous post is this one on the BeetleCam.

VirtualPhotographyStudio.com – Cool site with a wide range of topics covering portrait photography and the business of photography. This article on posing models is a great starting point.

WeArePhotographers.com – I almost kicked this site out for not being user-friendly, but the content was too good. The author obviously has a passion for photography. I LOVED the concept of night portraits in this article and am excited to do something similar.

PhotoCreative365.com – This site is for portrait photographers, from portrait photography professionals. You might like this article on setting up a wordpress blog as a photography portfolio.

PhotoPathway.com – This is one of the nicest sites on this list. The site has fantastic articles. If you don’t yet understand DPI and PPI, then here’s a great article.

DigitalPhotoBuzz.com - This website by Mark Stagi is very helpful for photographers of all genres. I thought you all would like his article on using digital graduated neutral density filters.

SmallAperture.com – This is a terrific site for staying up-to-date with photography news and everything going on in the industry. This commentary on a London photography workshop was pretty hilarious, I thought.

PhotoPreneur.com – Great site with some great articles. Don’t go to PhotoPreneur.com or you’ll just wonder why I sent you to this site. The good stuff can be found on the PhotoPreneur blog.

PhotoComment.Net – A cool site from South Africa, but the information is universally applicable. If you have a pet, you might like to read this article on pet photography.

PhotographyCorner.com – It takes a few minutes to get oriented on this site and figure out what is happening, but it is full of great content and active users. You might want to check out the forum as a good starting point on the site.

LearnFoodPhotography.com – Great site if you’ve ever had an interest in food photography, this is your ticket. A good starting point is this article on lighting your food photography.

3Exposure.com – Good, short articles on panoramic photography, hdr photography, and time lapse photography. Definitely worth watching this site. Whoever registered the domain should be fired, though. There are WAY too many possible misunderstandings for this url: tripleexposure.com, 3exposure.com, threeexposure.com, threeexposures.com, 3exposures.com, ugh! Not only that, but they didn’t buy the misspellings and redirect them. HOWEVER, it really is a cool new site by Scott Bourne and deserves to be on this list. Here’s a good post on time lapse photography to get you going on that site.

PhotoAttorney.com – Many readers of this site know that I am a third year law student (only 10 months to go!), so this site about the legal aspects of photography is of special interest to me. The author is about the only writer on the legal aspects of photography that I trust. Every time I hear the folks on TWiP or other photography sites talk about the legal aspects of photography, I roll my eyes because of how wrong they often are. Seriously, Photo Attorney is worth a read if you are one of my US readers. Here is a fascinating article on property releases.Further Reading:

One Reader’s Photography Project

Jim Harmer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:10:49 +0000

Record player - Marisol Farda

This post is from Marisol Farda, a photographer who took my post on photography projects to heart. She started her own photography project and was kind enough to send it for me to look at. I thought it was a creative photography project. Sometimes taking on a little photography project like this can really help you learn new skills. Here’s Marisol….

I have been working on multiple photography projects for sometime now. By working on a project and creating a series, I am able to express myself by bringing ideas to life and telling a story. The idea to photograph objects from my childhood came to me while eating lunch at a local diner. The idea was to find everyday technologies that were eventually replaced with newer technologies (ex. floppy disc replaced by CD-R, VHS tape replaced by DVD, etc.) I have had a number of these items in my possession for years and have always wanted to find a way to record them. Photography gives me a way to document these objects so they are not forgotten, essentially creating a visual history. For me, this gives new life to possessions that would otherwise have little to no functionin their present state.

In doing this project, I learned that creating a series does not necessarily happen overnight and to remain patient with the process. This project started with an idea; then, I had to work to bring the idea to life, which takes time. Of course, I was able to photograph the belongings that I owned right away; however, there were other objects that lived only in my memory, and those things were not as easy to find. To find these items, I had to rummage through thrift stores and search on Ebay. As I write, I am still gathering objects to complete this series.

To learn more about this photographer, check out her website and read her photography blog.

VHS tape

Polaroid Camera

Incandescent Lightbulb

Audio Cassette Tape

Further Reading:

Making the Right Choices with Canvas Prints

Jim Harmer — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:33:08 +0000

Preparing photos for canvas prints

For working photographers interested in expanding your print offerings, canvas prints are an option worth considering. Canvas prints are an affordable way for your images to make a big impact, and they’re the perfect upsell for many of the packages you may already offer. However, there are a few considerations you’ll want to help your clients think through as you’re deciding which canvas format to order, making recommendations on the canvas edge treatment, and providing information on how they need to care for it once it’s in their home or office.

Choosing Between Stretched or Unstretched Canvas

The choice between ordering a stretched or unstretched canvas print is likely dependent on a number of factors, namely:

Client preference: Does the client plan on framing the canvas, or does he want to be able to hang it directly on the wall without a frame?
Cost: Can you stretch the canvas yourself and increase your profit margin? Unstretched canvases are typically much cheaper to ship, and cost less to order, so there may be an opportunity for you to charge for the service.
Level of expertise: Are you familiar and comfortable with stretching a canvas?

If you aren’t an expert at stretching canvas, your best bet is to order it pre-stretched. Though the cost is a bit higher, you do get the benefit of a professional preparing your canvas and alerting you to any potential problems.

Choosing the Right Edge for your Canvas Print

Unlike traditional photos that are typically displayed in frames, canvas prints are often mounted on wooden bars and hung directly onto the wall—often referred to as a gallery wrap. As a result, canvas prints have the depth of a framed image without the actual frame. With this in mind, you’ll need to make some decisions when it comes to how those edges appear. The edge style you choose will ultimately depend on the type of image you’re printing (e.g. portrait, abstract, landscape) and your client’s preference. A few of the most commonly available edge choices include:

Solid color edge: A solid colored edge allows you to choose a color to serve as the ‘frame’ for your canvas. Most canvas print providers allow you to choose from a set array of colors, with the most common being black, white, and gray. Many people believe that a solid colored edge gives the piece a more contemporary look.
Mirrored edge: A mirrored edge presents the entire photo on the front of the canvas. The edges are mirrored by simply copying the outer edges of the front of the image and printing the copied image onto the edges. Mirrored edges allow you to virtually ‘extend’ your original image without having to change dimensions. They’re a great choice when it comes to landscapes, abstracts, and other images that don’t have faces or other important elements in the outer perimeter.
Blurred edge: Similar to a mirrored edge, a blurred edge copies the perimeter of the front of the image and then repeats it on the edges; however, before it is added to the edges, a blur filter is applied. This means that the edges of the canvas are similar to the image on the front, with complimentary colors and shapes, but without sharp elements. Blurred edges are among the most popular of the edge treatments because they allow the image to maintain continuity without the worries of odd edge elements.

How to Clean and Maintain a Canvas Print

Similar to photos printed on paper, canvas prints require a bit of care in order to last a long time. As with regular photographs, direct sunlight and humidity can cause fading or sagging, so remind your clients that it’s best to avoid hanging canvas prints in extremely bright or damp areas. If the canvas gets dusty, the best way to clean it is with a soft cloth or towel; alternately, if your vacuum has a soft brush attachment, you can also use that to gently remove dust particles from your canvas print. Avoid using water, soap, cleaning sprays or other chemicals to clean your canvas, as these fluids may react with the dye and/or have a negative impact on the canvas fabric itself.

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Ashley Reeder is the Director of PR for Nations Photo Lab, a leading provider of professional photo printing, digital photo finishing and canvas photo printing services.Further Reading:

Offline for a 4-Day Cross-Country Photography Tour

Jim Harmer — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 14:01:18 +0000

Hey everyone. Thank you for the kind emails from readers. The reason articles have been sparse the last few days is that I am currently embarking on a cross-country roadtrip from Southwest Florida to Boise, Idaho, where I am moving. The trip, of course, is involving a lot of photography I’ll try and get out some photos during the trip, but I may not be quite as regular in writing articles until Tuesday.

I’m driving through Georgia, Missouri, Montana, Utah, Illinois (spending a whole day around Nauvoo on Sunday), Nebraska, Wyoming, Florida, and Tennessee. Anything I should be shooting around I-80?Further Reading:

How do Photographers Remotely Capture the Space Shuttle?

Jim Harmer — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:52:22 +0000

With the historic last launch of the space shuttle Endeavor, I got to wondering how the photographers remotely trigger their cameras to photograph the launch. Since the public has to be 3 miles away from the launch site, it would be WAY too far for a Pocketwizard.

Fortunately, BorrowLenses.com posted a link on their facebook page that answered my question. Just thought I’d share the video with the rest of you. It’s quite interesting.

Further Reading: