7 Obnoxious Things People Believe About Photographers

Dale Hogan    Cool Links     Business, Photography

A friend sent me this link to a post over on www.lightstalking.com. I have to admit that I’ve run into all of these types of people. It got me thinking about how to best communicate to people that think this way and how to position my business / services to avoid running into these attitudes.  Perhaps it’ll inspire you too.

Adobe Lightroom 3 is Here!

Dale Hogan    Cool Links     Adobe, Lightroom, Lightroom 3, Photography

Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom 3 is now out of beta and available for purchase.  It’s an everyday application for me and I love it.  It’s saves me time and effectively keeps me organized, which is no small feat.

“Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 software helps you bring out the best in your photographs, whether you’re perfecting one image, searching for ten, processing hundreds, or organizing thousands.”

Crack the Cover

Dale Hogan    Photography     Manual, Photography, tips

A little reading time can go a long way to making you a much more effective photographer.  It’s amazing to me how quickly we will part with all kinds of cash for the latest gear but refuse to even crack the cover of the manual that comes with it.  OK, go get your camera manual & camera right now.  Find a nice comfortable spot to sit and start reading.  Take your time and try the different setting adjustments mentioned (that’s why I said get your camera too).  When you’re done, that means you’ve read the entire manual cover to cover, put it in your camera bag.  There are a number of settings and features that you just won’t use every time you have your camera out, so having the manual with you in your camera bag can really save the day.  Why are you still reading this?  Stop reading right now!  Go get your manual and camera.  I said, DO NOT READ THIS ANY FURTHER!
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Stock Photo Rights

David Gilder    Cool Links     Business, design, Images, Photography, Photos, Stock

Here is a quick little visual guide to why it is a good idea to license images for commercial purposes through stock agencies: http://www.stockphotorights.com/

Their main point is that the stock agencies offer legal guarantees that protect you if you accidentally overlook a model, trademarked, or copyrighted element in the image. The site is geared toward helping people working in the creative field better understand the issues surrounding using content they did not create themselves.

Looking at the Camera More Engaging to Stock Buyers?

David Gilder    Design and Development, Photography     Advertising, Copy, design, Microstock, Models, Photography, Sales Trends, Stock Photography, Text

Rahul Pathak over at LookStat (a multi-stock agency statistical analysis webtool) has put together some information about whether or not it is more engaging to have the models looking at the camera, or looking away. He looked at sales trends between images of senior citizens, comparing images where the models were looking at the camera to those where the models were looking at each other or off into the distance. His results were very surprising.
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Free Photo Masterclasses

AWWA    Cool Links, Photography     classes, free, learning, Photography, training, tutorials, wildlife

Advice from the experts online. These lessons are geared towards wildlife and outdoor shooting. Here’s the link to the classes that are free. The classes are in pdf form and grouped by topic. Photo Masterclasses

Reverse Image Search with Tineye.com

DavidM    Cool Links, Gadgets and Stuff, Photography     image, Photography, reverse, search, tineye

Tineye.com is a reverse image look up tool that allows you to find other occurrences of an image on the web. Visit the site and you can upload an image or link to a URL to search but the easiest way is to install the Firefox or Chrome plugin and just right click over any image online to select “Search Image on Tineye”. What is really impressive is it’s ability to find variations of the same image.

I often use this to find some of my more popular stock images or locate larger versions of product shots.

Where to Buy Photo,Video & Audio Gear

Dale Hogan    Cool Links     Audio, Equipment, Gear, Photography, Shopping, Video

If like me, you’re often looking for equipment that you need right away and at a great price, read on.  I often turn to B&H Photo to get the product, price and service I’m looking for.  I recently visited their brick & mortar store and was extremely impressed with the selection, staff and service.  They do much more than photo equipment; computers, photo, video, audio and more are all under one roof at B&H.

Market Pricing for Nikon Compatible Lenses

AWWA    Cool Links, Photography     Amazon, current, lenses, nikon, Photography, prices

This is current pricing for Nikon compatible lenses (includes Nikkors and 3rd-party). It runs off an Amazon widget so should be current.

Camera Metering

AWWA    Cool Links, Photography     incident light, light, metering, Photography, reflected light, understanding

Understanding camera metering. Incident and reflected light explained.