 
Hey Everyone! I hope everyone's new year is starting out good. In this blog post I want to talk about the new Luminar 3 with Libraries and if it is an alternative to Lightroom. I have been using Lightroom from almost the beginning of the software and watched as it has turned into the main photo editing and digital asset manager for almost everyone. It is the true standard that all other softwares are compared to. When it started being a subscription service, many did not like the monthly payment scheme. I didn't mind too much because it was the price of a couple of Big Mac meals, and I remember the price of a full Photoshop or Lightroom for that matter. Photoshop was $600-$800, and Lightroom was $150. So the $120 a year was a small price to pay to get the most current versions of both. But others didn't like this at all. There were some other contenders at the time like Corral and Aperture, but they didn't have the power of Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom and Adobe have had a monopoly on the image editing software business. But new contenders are starting to come in, like Capture One and Luminar with DAM (digital asset managers) of their own, giving Lightroom a little cause for concern. I currently have used Capture One 12 on a trial basis and did like what I got with it. If I were a studio portrait shooter, it would be the perfect choice for me. Its tethering capabilities are unmatched as far as I'm concerned, and its RAW conversions are beautiful. You can see my last blog here Capture One 12 first look
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I purchased Luminar last year and have been experimenting with it as a kind of go-between of Lightroom and Photoshop. I use it as a plugin, and it works great with beautiful colors and tools that are not easily done with Lightroom or Photoshop. And I'm all about easy. But how does it work as a digital asset manager?
First, let me say that it is not as advanced as Lightroom as an asset manager. You can rate your photographs and use the star system. You can organize from within Luminar and from the outside of Luminar which can be confusing. You basically tell Luminar what folder you're going to put photographs in, and it will look there. It does keep a catalog with all of your changes much like Lightroom does, but not as robust as Lightroom, which can be good or bad. To me Lightroom has become a sluggish program over the years, and with the more features they put into it, the slower it becomes. But as many of you, I have been using Lightroom for so long that almost all of my photographs are in a Lightroom catalog, and to switch to a new system now isn't really where I want to go. But as a photo editor I think that Luminar is almost as good, and better at some things, as Lightroom is.
Who do I think that Luminar 3 is for? I think that Luminar 3 is for new photographers who are just getting started and don't have large Lightroom catalogs already established, for people who are still using Bridge or some Finder or Windows Explorer based program. I believe that in the future Luminar will make its digital asset manager better and better and at some point I will say now is the time to move, but now is not that time for me. I will still use it as a plugin to Lightroom and as a go-between of Lightroom and Photoshop. I recently went on a photo outing, and all of the photos I shot I brought into Lightroom, did my culling thing, and for the winners I did a quick edit and then sent them to Luminar to really make them look the way I wanted. It worked out great for me, and I'll bet it could for you too. On my travel laptop, a MacBook Air, I have taken Lightroom off of the computer and only use Luminar 3. When I travel I only want to process a few photos and then send them to Instagram or Facebook, and the rest I can upload into Lightroom when I get home. You can purchase it for $69, so it's fairly inexpensive. Give it a try. I believe after a while you will enjoy it as I do. Here is a link to a podcast from The Digital Story that talks about Luminar 3.
The Digital Story Luminar 3 with Libraries Podcast
Hey Everyone! This blog I'm going over my first thoughts on Capture One 12 as an alternative to Adobe Lightroom. First a disclaimer. I am no Capture One expert nor am I thinking of changing to Capture One, but I wanted to research the program to see what all the fuss was about. A lot of YouTube-famous people have switched from Lightroom to Capture One, and I am curious about it. So I downloaded the free one-month trial, which was painless. No credit card needed. I loaded it onto an older MacBook Pro, a 2011 model, to see what it could do. This machine has been upgraded to a SSD hard drive and 16 gig of memory. This is an okay machine but by no means top of the line. So that's where I've started. In bullet form, I'll list what I've found so far.
-Download and install was easy. I logged into Capture One and got the free 30-day trial. Thumbs up!
-After doing a lot of tutorial watching online, I imported my Lightroom Catalog from my DC trip into Capture One, over 2,000 photos, and it took about 40 minutes. This was the Lightroom catalog, and it had all of my edits that I had made in Lightroom. This catalog I had on an external drive with all of the photos that I had taken on the trip. It then made smart previews of all the images. This is a default in Capture One and makes the program snappy! You can edit your photos without having the photos present. Thumbs Up!
-The interface was all in one page. I didn't have to go to a different module to edit my photos. The interface is totally customizable. You can even arrange things so it almost looks like Lightroom. And, like I said before, everything is snappy! You can make it anything you like and then save the settings. So if you had more than one person working on the same computer, they could have their settings and you could have yours.
-Capture One 12 creates catalogs similar to Lightroom. You can have the catalog on one computer and copy and paste it onto another computer that has Capture One, and you can edit your photos there even without your photos because of the smart previews it created on import. Moving of folders and photos to and fro must be done within the Capture One catalog just as you do with Lightroom. Capture One also has Sessions. These are smaller shoots that have everything contained in the session. They are smaller than the Catalogs and can be copied and pasted onto another computer and worked on separately without bothering the Catalog database. When you're all through, you can import the session into the Capture One Catalog database.
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Tethering is where this program really shines. Tethering is simple. Just hook up your camera to your computer, open a session, and start shooting. The photos come in very quickly, and you can edit on the fly and apply all the edits to incoming photographs. For example, if you wanted to crop a certain way and make the photos black and white, you would just edit the first photo and tell the program that you wanted to make those edits to all incoming photos the same way and it will. You could lay layout templates on top of the photos coming in, like if you were shooting for a magazine and you could have the magazine cover layout put on top of the photos coming in to see how it will look as a final shot. We probably will never need this, but it's cool. You can also shoot live view and see the setup that you are making live before you take a photo, say for example a food shot. You could take your time and get it right before you ever take a shot and know what the composition will look like. Tethering is what this program was made for with Phase One Cameras, which are mainly studio cameras, and it shows.
These are just a few of my first thoughts. I think this would be a great program if you were only doing studio work. I'm not quite sold yet on all of the other things that it offers. But if you're only doing studio work, this would be the program for you. Luminar 3 is another program that I think is a good replacement for Lightroom. Formerly, Luminar 2018 had added a DAM (digital asset manager) to its program, and I will go through it in another blog soon.
Hey Everyone! The holidays are upon us and everyone is hustling and bustling to get things done before the family comes to visit or you go to someone else's house. And now that winter is here the weather isn't as photogenic as in the spring and fall. How do we keep our photographic edge when we don't go out as much to shoot? For me, it has become sort of a pattern that I've done the last couple of years, and it seems to help even though I don't get to shoot as much as I want. The trick is keeping your mind photography active. Thinking, learning something new, stepping out of your comfort zone.
This time of year I'm winding down from the biggest photo event of the year for me, which is my photo club's fall trip. This is usually a week full of photography-rich shooting situations, and the senses are alive with what to take next.
This year we went to Washington DC for our fall trip (DC Fall Trip Blog Link), so I started early in the year getting geared up and experimenting with different camera and gear combos trying to figure out what to take with me and also researching the DC area and what photos look like that have been taken there before. Last year it was a big change for me, because I'm mostly a landscape and travel photographer, and street photography in DC was a new and exciting thing to get ready for. So there were lots of things to keep my mind photography active. This time of year we also have our Help Portrait event that you can read about in my last blog. Help Portrait Blog Link This year I was helping a young lady with her lights, and it really got my portrait juices flowing again. I used to do lots of portraits, but I have slowly gotten away from that. I enjoy taking the photos, but it's all of the other stuff I don't enjoy, like dealing with people. LOL... But this year I really enjoyed it. I sold all of my studio lights over the last couple of years, and all I had left were some manual flashes. I've heard a lot about the Godox/Flashpoint line of flashes and strobes that you can control all of your lights from your controller on camera. Big plus! Since I've gotten my Sony I haven't really done any flash photography. So I purchased some of the lights so I could play and take some portraits of the family during the holidays and also expand my photography knowledge.
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Okay, I've wandered off subject a little. The point I was getting at is that you don't always have to be out taking photos to keep your edge. As long as your mind is actively thinking and learning about photography, you can keep from getting too rusty. So this time of the year I start preparing for next year and start learning new techniques. Yesterday, I downloaded the free trial version of Capture One editing software as an alternative to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I've heard a lot about it, and I'm going to try to learn all I can about it and play with the program for my free month. Every day while I commute to work I listen to podcasts about photography and learn about all kinds of things that I would never even have thought about if it were not for the podcast. I have written a blog that you can go to to see what I listen to. Podcast Blog Link I also look at YouTube and watch lots of webinars and video tutorials about different things instead of watching regular TV. This is a great way to learn stuff, and it's free! You can also go to CreativeLive website. They have all kinds of tutorial programing, and if you watch it live it's free.
So this time of the year is the time to plan for next year. Set goals, learn something new, and get out of your comfort zone. Last year I wanted to do some astro photography, so I did all the research, got geared up, planned a trip, and got some shots of the Milky Way. I'm looking forward to new gear that will come out next year, especially camera gear that is supposed to come out. My camera is a couple of years old, and there are rumors that a new one will come out this coming year. So I'm looking to see if it will be worth upgrading to. The same can be said about new lenses coming out this year also. I don't know where the next fall workshop will be, so I haven't started planning yet. This is also the time to get my camping trips soft scheduled for next year that my wife and I will be taking that I look forward to. Maybe I'll sneak in a festival or two and a backpacking trip or two. But now is the time to plan. Because if you're like me and wait until the last minute, you won't go. You'll find some sort of reason not to.
I hope this holiday season brings you much joy and happiness with family and friends and please always be safe. Take lots of holiday portraits and document your family's history! Keep shooting!
The first Saturday in December since 2008 has been Help Portrait day. All over the world on this day photographers get together to give back to the community. For one day a year it's not about us. Not about our lighting systems, gear, or how many likes we can get on Instagram. It's about giving back to the community that we live in and helping those in need with a photograph. You may say, "How does a photograph help anyone?" For the less fortunate this might be the only time they can have a family or self-portrait done of themselves. They can't afford to go to a photo studio and pay the prices that we charge. It builds self-esteem for them, because for one day they are very special to the photographers who are taking their photo. People who may not be noticed any other time as we just pass them by. But on this day we can give them a portrait that makes them smile at how good they look.
Maybe they will make them gifts for loved ones. At any rate the first Saturday in December is their day. This project was started by Jeremy Cowart in Nashville, a celebrity photographer, when he and his friends had an idea, a very simple idea. First, find someone in need. Then take their photo and give it to them. That's pretty much the idea. We as photographers do not post the final portrait on the internet, no logos or watermarks, no advertising of any kind.
My photography club does this event every year and treats it almost as a workshop, because we are amateur photographers and this is a chance to pull out our studio lights and shoot and learn. This year we had three photo stations set up. I was mentoring a young lady who is getting her photography degree, and she had to get some equipment for her classes but hadn't used them much. So I helped her with setup of the lights and made sure that they were set so she would get good exposure, the nerdy stuff.
She didn't need any help with arranging the clients and taking the photos. She was a natural at that. Some Help Portrait locations give food, clothes, toys for the kids, and do hair and makeup. We did not have hair and makeup this year but have in the past. This year we supplied refreshments and I think coloring books for the kids and books to take home, I believe. There are many jobs to be done at the Help Portrait, not just photography. There is manning the registration desk, refreshments, editing and printing, framing of the photograph, makeup artists, runners for the photographers, and people to help the clients. All very important jobs. My job for the last couple of years is to be the documentary photographer and photograph the event. I set up time lapses, take photos, and do some small short videos to create a small video that we can put on our website for others to see. So you don't need to be a photographer to do Help Portrait.
It's the holiday season. Let's think of those less fortunate than ourselves and give back. Next year, Help Portrait will be on the first Saturday again, so start planning now. If there is a photo club or organization in your area, look them up and see if you can help. Here's a link to the video that I created this year. Please check it out.
Help Portrait 2018 GAPC Goldsboro NC
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Hi Photo Buddies! My last blog was about my photo trip I took to Washington DC with my camera club on our annual Fall Workshop. This was a different trip in that we were dependent on public transportation and would be carrying all of our stuff that we were bringing for the trip, so packing and planning was a must. There are many ways to plan and pack for a trip, and this is just my version.
I know after years of backpacking that weight matters! So one of the first considerations was how heavy were my bags going to be and how many of them would there be. So I decided on my backpack with photo gear and another bag that would have my clothes. I decided early on that I wanted a backpack that was not a camera bag looking kind of bag.
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I didn't want the traditional bag like a black LowPro bag that looks like a camera bag. One reason for this is security. A big guy with a regular backpack is not as an appealing of a target as a big guy with a camera backpack with thousands of potential dollars in it is. The other reason is that photography backpacks are designed to carry only gear, and there is not much room for extra stuff like coats, sweaters, and souvenirs. So I got a 25-liter smallish bag to carry my camera gear in with an insert that I got off of Amazon to keep my gear safe, much like I do with a MountainSmith bag that I use for a shoulder bag with an insert. So with this, my camera gear in this took up about one-third of the space, which left enough room for other things that I would need to carry on a daily basis like rain gear, umbrella, water, and a coat. Also I wanted a small backpack because I learned if you get a large bag you will fill it up! So keeping a smaller bag keeps the weight down. My other bag that I was going to use is a roller bag that you would use as overhead luggage. But one of the days we had to wear a sports coat and there wasn't enough room for the sports coat, extra slacks, and shoes for that day, so I got a larger roller bag to accommodate those items. But, as with larger bags, I did fill it up! So those were my two bags: my backpack and a roller bag.
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Now that I have the bags, what to put it them. Let's start with my camera gear. If you have read my blogs, I used to shoot full frame Nikon with all the fast glass. And don't get me wrong, it was excellent quality gear but heavy. I started using a Sony mirrorless system for hiking and backpacking and eventually switched completely to a Sony crop sensor system. My first thought was to bring camera body and three lenses: one for wide angle shots, one for midrange shots, and a telephoto for long-range shots and that would be my kit. My wide would be a Sony 10-18mm f4 (full frame equivalent 15-25mm) and that's what I took. My telephoto would be a Sony 55-210mm f4.5-6.3 kit lens (full frame 80-320mm). I chose this one because of size, and I have a good copy that is sharp so that's what I took.
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My midrange is where I had my problems making a decision. I have a Sony 18-105mm f4 (full frame equivalent 24-150ish mm) that is a good lens, but it's large and heavy. It's bigger than the 55-210mm that I'm bringing for my telephoto shots. So I decided not to bring that one. I decided to take a Sony 35mm f1.8 (full frame equivalent 52mm) as my midrange and then I bought a Rokinon 24mm f2.8 (full frame equivalent 35mm), so I decided to bring that. Now I'm at four lenses and a body. And I stuck with this for a couple of months shooting with this combo. I went to Savannah, Georgia and this is what I took and got great photos. I took this combo to all of our monthly workshops, and they worked great. But in the back of my mind, I'm thinking I sure am changing lenses a lot. I would love to just have one mid-range zoom lens. I considered buying another zoom, a 16-70mm Sony/Ziess lens. But it's an expensive lens, and I couldn't make myself buy another midrange zoom just for this trip. So I had my setup: the Sony A6300, Sony 10-80mm for wide shots, Rokinon 24mm, Sony35mm for midrange shots, and Sony 55-210mm for telephoto shots. Well, until I started packing. Remember I said if you get a larger bag you will fill it up? My large roller bag was really bigger than I needed, so at the last minute I stuck the Sony 18-105mm in just in case shooting and changing lenses from a backpack got really cumbersome. So that was my camera
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gear: all the lenses mentioned above, my trusty Sony A6300, some filters that I never used on the trip (but would still bring), a small Jobe table top tripod, and a travel-sized tripod. I carried the Jobe tripod all the time, and the other travel tripod I brought just for nighttime photography. I just went into Lightroom to see the lens breakdown of my winner/rated shots from our trip, and out of 309 photos that I considered my best, my 10-18mm took 21shots, 16-70mm (yes, a member let me use his for part of the day) 5 shots, 35mm another 30 shots, 55-210mm 82 shots, 18-105mm 26 shots, and the most was the Rokinon 24mm (35mm full frame equivalent ) at 145 shots. So well over half of my shots came from the mid-range primes and not the zoom. To be fair, on our museum day I did only take one body and one lens, the 24mm, and shot that all day because of the security at
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the museums. It was just easier. And to tell you the truth, I really didn't notice while I was shooting that day that I didn't have the other lenses with me and I did just fine. Another piece of kit I took was a GoPro Session, which I used it once and it never came out of the bag again. We had a guy that was videoing the whole workshop. I was just too lazy to do video and stills at the same time, so I stuck to stills and took the GoPro out of my backpack the first day, put it the suitcase, and it never saw the light of day again.
Now for the clothes I took with me. Let me start by saying I'm not a fashion type of guy and I like what I like. I want it to be comfortable, lightweight, and an earth tone color so I can mix and match anything in my bag and it looks okay. I like to take clothing that is quick drying material so if I do get wet it dries quickly, and when washing it dries quickly too. The clothes I take are the same if I'm camping or doing a street shoot. Pants are hiking convertible pants, ones that the bottom part of the leg zips off when it's hot and you have shorts. They are lightweight, usually cargo pants with lots of pockets but can also be plain. Shirts are hiking or fishing shirts that are made out of the quick drying material as well. They may be long or short sleeve, but most of mine are long sleeve and they can be rolled up if it gets hot. Undershirts and pants are made out of stretchy, quick-drying material. T-shirts can be many colors so if I get hot I can take off the outer shirt and still look okay. Now you know the type of clothes I take and how many. For this week
 Eastern MarketEastern Market in Washington DC, A good place to photograph.
-long trip, I had planned on taking three pants and three shirts I could wear more than once or wash one daily and could mix and match so I don't look like I'm wearing the same thing every day. Well, that didn't quite work out the way I had planned because of the larger bag (you know where I'm going with this). I packed more stuff. I had planned on washing clothes while on the trip, but I had enough room that I just took extra socks and underwear and just wore pants and shirts a couple of times so I didn't have to wash. But normally I wouldn't and would wash clothes. I usually have a hat of some kind to keep the sun out of my eyes. I wear glasses and have a hard time without a hat or sunglasses. I carried a puffy jacket that packs down small and a fleece type of sweater. I took gloves, a wool cap, and a neck scarf that I never used on this trip but always goes with me even in summer camping when it gets chilly at night. I also had a rain coat that I think I used once. I took one pair of comfortable hiking shoes that I already have broken in well with good inserts in them. I had no foot problems at all, and we walked 50 miles that week.
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Now my computer that I took I discussed in detail in an earlier blog, the 13-inch MacBook Air. I took a 250gb SSD drive with me that I put all of my photos on and my Lightroom catalog made special for the DC trip that I merged into my large catalog when I got home. I had cables and chargers for all of my gadgets like phone, camera batteries, external battery (to charge my phone while out and about), and of course a laptop. I took a little surge protector plug so I could plug all of my things in without taking up all of the sockets in the room I was in (I had roommates that had a lot of electronics also). I took enough SD cards for every day and changed out daily so the SD card was one copy of my photos. My daily routine after shooting all day when I would get back was first of all to start charging all of my batteries. I had the ability to charge three at a time (mirrorless uses lots of batteries). Next, I would pull my SD card out and refresh with a new one, download to an external SSD drive photos of the day from an SD card, put the SD card in safe place (card holder), and at night when I slept I would charge up external battery and phone. While we were out shooting, I would plug in my laptop and let that charge so when we got back to house I wouldn't have to have a cord hooked to my computer. When I traveled on the train I had enough room in my backpack to hold my computer so it was safe place with me not in my checked luggage. I didn't have any issues with electronics.
So these are some of my thoughts on how I packed for my DC trip. Have fun and keep shooting!
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