DIYPhotography.net

Recently I was involved in a video production for the DIY Lighting Kits that demanded synchronization between a large number of participants. Well, that is usually the case right, you have the photographer (or more than one), the editor, a retoucher sometimes, a sound man,  and a client. It can get even more complex if you have even more stakeholders to the project. how do you sync them all? In this post, I want to share my personal experience with Dropbox a semi-free file synchronization solution. (Here is my personal subscription link, if you sign up through this, both you and I get some extra space)

Before diving into the technical solution a few words about projects. The ability of ad-hock teams to organize like this to meet a project creative goals and deadlines is truly amazing. Only a few years back it was not really possible to work with a scattered team like this unless you were working for a big organization with a pricey network and expensive servers. For me this means freedom. Freedom to hire better craftsmen regardless of their physical location. Freedom to interact faster and on a deeper level with fellow photographers, and freedom to put my efforts into my core business rather than deal with bureaucracy and technicalities. Click to continue ›

If you like the SLR iPhone app that lets you take studio pictures from your iPhone, you're gonna love LightStudio ($1.99 on the app store).

It is a great fun while riding the train to work, or waiting on the bench for your date to arrive. The application is built from a series of lighting setups each has several tabs or "functions".

If you are familiar with lighting, the first tab is kinda trivial and shows the setup and a sample portrait taken with that setup. By setup I mean "Rembrandt Light", Clamshell, Butterfly and so on.

If, on the other hand, you are new to photographic lighting, this is a great resource to have on your next train ride. Just browsing through the setups and getting familiar with the "classic" lighting positions. Click to continue ›

Have you ever wondered what happens to those little raw files in big shoots? I mean, big scale productions gotta worry more than simply unloading the card, importing to light room and get a good night sleep.

Firstly it is a lot of date, and then it has to travel, get stored, archived, backed up and processed.

Chase Jarvis has a great video where he share his Protect-The-Data-Kong-Fu

I think that the question is how do you scale down (or up, if you are that guy) to your working model.

watch the video, and read the entire post (+ some really good comments) in Chase's blog post titled The Complete Workflow and Backup for Photo. Click to continue ›

I know you love lighting diagrams. We all do. So if you are a Lighting Diagrams freak (or a Stobist) at heart this will make you happy.

The good guys over at strobox created a lighting diagram that fits on the iPhone. Now, it is true that you can surf to the Lighting Diagram Creator site via the iPhone, but it feel better using this dedicated app.

Even better news after the jump. Click to continue ›

OK, I know what you're thinking. This post is probably gonna be about hacking used lens to a matchbox pinhole camera using some chewing gum.

Well it is even better (and simpler) than that (and it's about creativity more than about DIY). The best camera is simply the camera that you carry around with you. And since it looks like iPhone sales are close to hitting 6 billion units, odd are that your best camera is an iPhone.
This and the fact that Chase says so.

Click to continue ›

Just a quick news flash, if you're not up to date yet with the Magic Lantern.

Similar to CHDK, a firmware hack that allows you to take control over all the hidden features in your Point & Shoot, Magic Lantern unlocks some very nifty features on your New and shiny Canon 5D Mark 2.

Magic Lantern Firmware is mainly focused on video, but hey - if you're techie enough, feel free to jump in and download the source code and add whatever feature you'd like. (A movie, feature list and some thoughts after the jump).

Click to continue ›

UPDATE: coolest app added at the end of post.

The iPhone (or THE iPhone) is gaining popularity fast with photographers. Well, it has an in-phone camera. That kinda means that you carry a camera whenever you go (admit it!! you carry your cell anywhere!!). See Chase Jarivs's Twitpic iPhone pic stream for example. Just another argument to show that it is not the gear that makes you a good photographer.

Another evidence is the ever increasing number of "how to take good pictures with your iPhone" tutorials. Here are a few that I like: Wired, Goodtree & company, Chase, Neutralday, but really, the net is loaded with tons of tips, guides and creativity enhancers for iPhone images.

So iPhone is popular. OK; no news here. The news (at least for me who still wears black headphones) is that iPhone also packs great applications for photographers. The round up below, courtesy of Ladislav Soukup, is probably just the first mushrooms in the post forest rain of iPhone apps for photogs. I'd love to hear (on the comments) what's your favorite iPhone app.

Click to continue ›

What do you get when a programming guru decides that enough is enough, Flickr Lightroom users should also enjoy direct uploading to Flickr just like Aperture users.

You get Jeffrey’s “Export to Flickr” Lightroom Plugin. This is great plug in which I heatedly recommend if you are a using Adobe Lightroom and have a Flickr account. Hey, I am not affiliated with Jeffery, but after using his plugin for soooooo long, that I just had to share my joy.

Click to continue ›