A friendly donkey on Bonaire, with a question on his mind... in this case, I believe it is "do you have any food?"
I have received a number of emails about photo contests lately, and it brought to mind a problem I have with judging and critique of photographs. That problem is one of The Missing Question. Now of course contests aren’t meant to be constructive, but many photographs are judged in a similar fashion. The basic premise of a critique is an attempt to guide people on what they can improve upon. Others may just want some affirmation that they created something worthwhile the effort.
More often than not, the photograph is examined at face value and the judge offers their opinion of it based upon whatever background and experiences they may (or may not!) have. They may even apply some type of numerical score to an image if it is in some type of competition. This very process can be completely useless to the photographer on the other end. Why? Because of The Missing Question.
The Missing Question is one that asks “What was your goal with this image?” Note this is a different question than “what are you attempting to communicate” or “what’s your subject?” because those things often come through without explanation in a well composed image. However, it is impossible to know the goal of the photographer without asking first. The goal offers vital information that would help frame feedback in a constructive way. Were they out to improve on their use of backgrounds? Did they aim to imitate the work of a more well known photographer they admire? Were they simply trying to show what they found interesting about a special place? Is there a theme or project of other images involved? Were they simply trying to make a better image than their last?
Read MoreAnyone that prints their own work knows for all the enjoyment it can offer in having the ulimate control, it is plagued by an assortment of frustrations. If my Epson 4800 experiences one more major clog, I may be ready to throw it through the window. One of the hardest aspects to overcome is knowing if the print you made is really the best it can possibly be. Color management and the dozens of options you need to be wary of in working with today’s digital printers are not easy things to understand or concepts to get clear in your head. One miss of a small check box and you may as well position your garbage can right next to your printer’s output tray.
Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe have done a tremendous service to the community in filming a tutorial series called From Camera to Print. I am giving them an unsolicited plug because I think it is very well done and offers an enormous amount of information at an incredible value. I personally learn more from watching videos or listening to audio than I do from reading books. It just seems to sink in better with me personally. The way Michael and Jeff present this tutorial in a conversational style discussing everything from capture to final framing and matting really offers a complete picture on the state of the art in digital printing. They clear some of the fog that often surrounds this entire topic and processes to the final stage of a photograph.
The series is lengthy – over 6 hours – and best digested a little bit at a time. If you have any confusion about color management and optimizing your images from capture to sharpening to the final print, the $35 spent is miniscule compared to the troubles and confusion it may save you in the future. And even if you think you know quite a bit already, I think you will pick up a few Lightroom or Photoshop tips that will make it just as worthwhile. But be warned, the $35 is also small compared to some of the tools you might want to pick up after watching this. For you rebels that still like to shoot in JPEG instead of RAW, you might see your rebel side softened a bit.
Both of these guys agree that the process today can get very complicated. We can only hope that this stuff will become simpler in the future. Reichmann makes a statement that will likely come true. We will look back on these processes (and this video series) in the future and refer to it as the “Dark age of Digital Printing.”
Highly recommended!
Read MoreI stumbled across a couple of pretty good wildlife news blogs recently. They both seem to have very informative posts. If you are like me, you already have a lot of feeds you are subscribed to, but these two are worth considering adding a couple more!
From their about page: “Named after the Ute word for wolves, Sinapu is dedicated to the restoration and protection of native carnivores and their wild habitat in the Southern Rockies, and connected high plains and deserts.”. . I particularly like their category tag “Postcards from nutsville!”
A great blog on wolf news, recovery programs, and threats
Read MoreI have read various opinions on protecting images from copyright violations over the years. The bottom line is any picture on the internet could potentially be used illegally. The only way to be 100% protected is to not have them online to begin with, which isn’t an option for many. You can put up some stumbling blocks (no right clicks, etc), but none of them are fool proof in actually preventing the theft. There are so many ways around those hurdles now. So you have to accept the fact that someday some images may be taken (if not already.)
Awhile ago I settled on putting a transparent logo watermark on my images. I have read some thoughts that some photographers consider them too distracting, but I think if done in a subtle way, they do not distract from the primary content of the image.
Having read a great post at Carolyn Wright’s PhotoAttorney site reaffirms my decision to do this. She details the specific sections of the law that grant some protection by using watermarks. I have always thought that ignorance (versus apathy) could be the excuse for someone using an image illegally. But with a watermark on the image, it certainly gives a strong case towards intent to violate that copyright if they try to remove it. It is nice to see specific sections of the law that supports that presumption on my part. By using a logo (or something similar), it also makes it harder for someone to simply crop it off the bottom of the image. Of course, some numskull may just post the image somewhere with the watermark clearly intact.
In addition to the watermark, I also list in my image metadata copyright notices and place specific verbage that the notice is not authorized to be removed. This probably isn’t as good as the visual watermark, but is an easy thing to add on all of your images when imported to your computer by using metadata templates or presets in a program like Lightroom. The metadata verbage is also good to include if sending an image out for publication or if it is licensed for specific usage rights where you may not have the watermark on it.
Either way, just hope that you find out about the theft and it could be your lucky day as Dan Heller describes making money from stolen images. Dan goes into great detail about the aspects of image theft on the net, the trouble in finding such violations, and how it may be the best thing that ever happened to you. So have that watermark intact (or removal of) as your proof and ultimately talk to an attorney if you discover an infringement.
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Today is Endangered Species Day. From the name, it is obvious what it is about, but if you want a little more info and background, you can head over to this site. So what do you do for this day? Well, the Endangered Species Coalition certainly has a lot of good suggestions. I think the first step would be simple education.
Head on over to Google and type in your state, city, county, country, province, whatever local region you may be from plus the words “endangered species” and learn a little about what is stuggling to survive in your area. For example, I found this list by county in Michigan and learned a few things. Of course I knew about the wolf, karner butterfly, piping plover and kirtlands warbler. But I didn’t know about the Rayed Bean mussel that is being considered. One of the habitat’s listed is the Clinton River. Heck, the river is a 10 minute walk from my house! I also didn’t know the Eastern massasauga rattlesnake was being considered for listing here.
From that search, usually you will turn up some protection activities that you may want to donate to or become involved in. Nature organizations that buy critical habitat to protect it from development are some of the key preservation activities we all need to support. In Michigan, the Michigan Nature Association has been doing this for decades. The Nature Conservancy does this across the country just to name a couple. Of course, without the habitat, the species that make these lists have little chance for survival.
So get to Googling, learn a bit more than you knew yesterday, and help spread the word. Thanks!
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