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    Entries in book (9)

    Monday
    08Feb2010

    I'm staying with Aperture. At least for now.

    All this talk about a new version of Apple Aperture is now driving me crazy. It's all over the Internet and there seems to be a new rumor in Twitter pretty much every day. Hey, even I have been contributing to the rumors here and in my last post I went on a rant about thinking about switching to Lightroom in which I described a few issues I've been having with Aperture since upgrading to Snow Leopard. And as much as I'm over the rumors, here's another one for you. A book for Aperture 3 is right now (as of this posting) available for pre-order in the Canadian Amazon store. There have been a few instances of this happening but they've removed the page and I had never seen it before. This time I took a screenshot just in case they remove it.

    Apple Aperture 3 book in Amazon

    Anyway, as I mentioned in the last post, I've been giving Lightroom a good run lately. I actually downloaded both the Lightroom 2 trial and the Lightroom 3 beta. I downloaded a copy of each for both my MacBook Pro and my desktop, so that when one trial expired I could continue testing in the other machine.

    Yes, Lightroom is a great program and in many ways it does pretty much the same thing as Aperture. It does have some features that Aperture lacks and it has a few things that I admit are really cool (like the cropping tool and the Print module). But the reality is that as much as I tried, Aperture just seems much more useful and friendly. It's infinitely better as an organisational tool, which is the main purpose of these applications, and in the current version there's very little that Aperture doesn't do for me.

    That whole localised editing thing I think is highly overrated. I spent a lot of time using this feature in Lightroom and it really isn't that useful without proper layers and blending control. If you need that level of processing you really need to take the image into Photoshop. It seems like a gimmick to me, but that's just my opinion. You're welcome to disagree.

    The more I think about it, the main reason I want an Aperture 3 is because the geek in me wants to see what "cool stuff" they put in there that I don't know I need. I'll say that again... cool stuff that I don't know I need. That's an interesting statement. On one hand, it means I don't really need a new version of Aperture as the current one serves me fine. On the other one, they may come up with something so cool that'll change my workflow significantly. Take the iPhone for example. I was really happy with my mobile phone before the iPhone came out and I never thought I'd need one. Now I love it and couldn't imagine getting by without one.

    But I digress. This post is just to say that at least for now, I'm staying with Aperture and I plan to revamp the articles here. The only things I would really like Aperture to have are global adjustment presets (I have to give it to Adobe on this one), camera profiles, a non-destructive gradient tool, and better integration with Photoshop.

    Thursday
    06Aug2009

    People of the Globe book preview

    I've decided to redesign the site to show the photographs much bigger than they were, but it's taking a while and with limited time to dedicate to this I don't think I'll finish any time soon. I will, however, put up new photographs in the larger size as I upload them. It's only the older posts that it may take me some time to reload.

    Anyway, I designed a short book using Apple's Aperture as a test and had it printed through them. The quality is pretty good, so I'm happy.

    Friday
    19Jun2009

    My aperture book arrived!

    Photograph of Penny by Gabriel PonzanelliPenny; Sydney, Australia; 2006 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli

    A few days ago I posted that I had ordered a book via Apple Aperture and was waiting for it to arrive. Well, it's finally here and I have to say I'm really happy with the quality. I wasn't sure what to expect because all the photographs were in black and white, and most non-professional labs are terrible at printing them. This book looks really nice, I'm sure I'll be doing more soon. I'm planning on shooting a video of it and posting it in the People of the Globe website over the weekend.

    Saturday
    13Jun2009

    Waiting on a photobook from Apple

    Model: Penny, shot by Gabriel PonzanelliPenny; Sydney, Australia; 2006 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli

    A few weeks ago I designed and ordered a photo book using Apple Aperture with photographs from my People of the Globe project. Because books ship from overseas (I'm in Australia), it takes 6 to 8 weeks to arrive, so it should be here in a week or two. I wish it'd be faster. Anyway, I'll post my thoughts on the quality as soon as I get it. I'm excited. The photograph above, of Penny from India, is part of the series.

    Thursday
    21May2009

    Update: Printing a book through Apple

    Book page

    I now have enough photographs that I consider good enough to put in a book. I've been playing around with Aperture's book feature and designed a 35 page book that I just sent out to be printed. Although I'm doing this just as a test at this stage, I have really high hopes for the quality of the book. Hopefully I won't be disappointed.

    Once it arrives, I'll take some photographs of it and post them here with my thoughts on the process and the quality of the end result.

    As far as editing down the photographs to the final "pick" ones, I always find that to be an extremely difficult task. The job of a photo editor really requires a sensitive eye and impressive skill. It's an art form in itself. I wish I could do it easily, but I can't.

    Tuesday
    12May2009

    Book Review: Arthur Elgort's Models Manual

    Book: Arthur Elgort's Models ManualArthur Elgort is a well known fashion photographer. He's been published in many magazines, including Vogue, Madmoiselle, New Yorker, Italian Vanity Fair, and many more. He's worked with many of the top models, such as Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Iman, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, and many, many more.

    Arthur Elgort's Models Manual is a mixture of his published photographs, a lot of behind-the-scenes shots, advice for both models and photographers, insights into the fashion industry, and random thoughts from the photographer, the models, art directors and editors. Reading it feels like getting an inside look at the industry at the time.

    The book was published in 1993, at a time when models were as famous as movie stars or rock stars, and in some cases even more so. That is evident in this book. I’ve owned it ever since and I keep going back to it as a source of inspiration. Definitely a recommended book. If you’re at all interested in fashion, swimwear, portraiture, or just the supermodels of the 80’s and 90’s, then this book will certainly make you happy.

    The book was published in 1993, at a time when models were as famous as movie stars or rock stars, and in some cases even more so. That is evident in this book. I’ve owned it ever since and I keep going back to it as a source of inspiration. Definitely a recommended book. If you’re at all interested in fashion, swimwear, portraiture, or just the supermodels of the 80’s and 90’s, then this book will certainly make you happy.

    The design of the book itself is very “90’s”, when graphic designers were using desktop publishing software effectively for the first time and were exploring the possibilities. There are a ton of different fonts used, colours, columns are small, big, even on top of each other. It feels a little dated in that sense, but for me that’s part of the charm of the book.

    What really counts though, is the content. The photography is amazing and the advice sound. If you’re an aspiring model, you’ll learn a lot from this book. And not just about posing, but about the industry and working with photographers. It give you the opportunity to get close and personal with the supermodels of the time. Similarly, if you’re a photographer (aspiring or pro), you’ll find this book a constant source of information and inspiration. Definitely recommended.

    Monday
    27Apr2009

    Book Review: The Nikon Creative Lighting System

    The Nikon Creative Lighting System: Using the SB-600, SB-800, SB-900, and R1C1 FlashesFor a long, long time I struggled to get a hang of Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS). A few years ago I bought a Nikon D70s and a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash with the intention of playing with the possibilities of remotely controlling the flash unit without the need for extra (and expensive) hardware. The original manual unfortunately doesn't do a very good job at explaining how this works and the flash units have many settings hidden in the menus that make the whole thing quite confusing.

    After a while, and a lot of trial and error (mostly error), I finally figured it out. But by then I was moving onto a Nikon D700 and bought an SB-800 to add to my portable setup. That's when things got frustrating. There are so many ways to control 2 or more flashes with these cameras that understanding all the possibilities is not easy. You can control both as remotes and trigger them with the on-camera flash, or you can use the SB-800 mounted on camera as a master-only to control the other one remotely, or you can use the SB-800 as an actual flash and master, etc. To make things even more confusing, the manuals aren't much help and the user interface on the flash units is not what I'd call user friendly.

    I finally decided to search for some external help and came across The Nikon Creative Lighting System by Mike Hagen.This book makes it very easy to figure this all out. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to read, although it does repeat itself quite a bit. For example, there’s a complete chapter for each recent flash unit that Nikon produces and the explanations are thorough enough in each that there’s a lot of duplication of content. I guess if you only own one model it won’t matter and it actually makes sense. The book fully explains the modes and operations of each speedlight, including the SB600, SB800, SB900, SU800, SB200, and even the R1C1. It goes into how these integrate with most of the Nikon cameras of the last few years and briefly touches on some techniques on how to use the system.

    The book is divided in 16 Chapters, roughly:

     

    • Chapters 1-3: Quick Start Guide, CLS Background (what is it, how it works, compatibility with older cameras), and Flash Theory (f-stops, guide numbers, sync modes, etc.)
    • Chapters 4-7: Buttons, Modes, Menus, and Operation for the SB-600, SB-800, SB-900, SU-800, SB-R200, and R1C1.
    • Chapters 8-13: How to use CLS, what the beeps mean, white balance & gel usage, batteries, etc.
    • Chapter 14: Case Studies and Examples (really basic stuff)
    • Chapter 15: Product Recommendations (or more stuff to buy)
    • Chapter 16: FAQ’s (only 15 very basic questions)

     

    The book is great at helping you set up and understand CLS from a technical point of view. However, the application side of things is not a strong point. If you’re looking for creative inspiration you’ll be sadly disappointed. The photographs used for the examples are really not that interesting and in many cases are just plain bad. This is a shame really as the Creative Lighting System lets you do some pretty cool stuff.

    In summary, if you’re looking for a book that gives you clear step-by-step instructions on how to set up the camera and flash units, you’ll be very happy with this one. It’s truly a replacement for the manuals when it comes to CLS. However, if you’re after creative applications or generic lighting techniques, this is not the book you want.