About John Aldred

John Aldred is based in Scotland and photographs people in the wild and animals in the studio.

You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.

How to quickly clean up and retouch a messy studio floor in Photoshop

January 18, 2020 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

In an ideal world, studio floors and walls would all be pristine and perfect. But in the real world, even freshly painted and cleaned ones don’t stay that way for very long. They pick up dust and dirt, get smudges, scuffs and scratches, and we end up having to either clean and repaint them more often or just deal with it in post. And if it’s a rented studio, forget about it.

In this video, Robert at Optical Noise brings us his method for retouching studio floors in Photoshop to clean up this mess, and even out the colours.

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Canon wins lawsuit against counterfeit battery sellers on eBay

January 18, 2020 by John Aldred 2 Comments

I don’t know why, but I always get a shock when I see how many fake products there are out there. Not clearly marked 3rd party alternatives, but products actually designed and branded to look like the originals. We see it with memory cards regularly and even camera strap accessories, but fake batteries are also out there. Canon has been doing something about the latter, though.

Canon has announced that they’ve won a lawsuit against two eBay sellers for selling counterfeit “Canon” batteries. While 2 sellers may not sound like a lot, the fact that Canon even went after them is certainly going to give other counterfeit sellers some pause for thought.

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How to photograph a clear liquid bottle using inexpensive gear and unusual modifiers

January 17, 2020 by John Aldred 1 Comment

Bottles are always a fun and challenging photography experiment, especially ones that contain crystal clear liquids like vodka. I don’t buy vodka often and when I do, it rarely tends to stay full long enough to have any time in front of the camera, but Dustin at Workphlo has definitely put some thought into photographing this one using some low budget kit and very interesting techniques.

If you’ve watched Dustin’s videos before, you’ll know he’s a fan of compositing when it comes to product photography. And this particular technique pretty much requires it as he cuts paper to act as reflectors on just small sections of the bottle’s label.

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Canon doesn’t innovate? Well, they’ve ranked top 5 for patent grants every year for the last 34 years

January 17, 2020 by John Aldred 11 Comments

People give Canon a lot of hassle for “not innovating”, but the truth is, Canon’s probably filed more patents than any other camera company out there. According to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, Canon has become the only company in the world to have ranked in the top five for the number of patents granted every year for an incredible 34 years.

Canon also says that they’ve ranked number 1 amongst Japanese companies for the 15th consecutive year. While not all of these patents have turned into real tangible products that you can go and buy, it certainly demonstrates that they’re at least exploring new and innovative ideas.

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Platypod’s Platyball is an inverted tripod ball head with built-in electronic level

January 17, 2020 by John Aldred 13 Comments

If you haven’t heard of Platypod before, they’re the company that makes that little flat kind-of-tripod of the same name to provide you with a stable platform on which to place your camera on rough terrain. You can stick just about any kind of tripod head on top of it you like, but regular tripod heads for photography generally have one big problem. You can’t easily pan them and keep your scene level.

This is where Platypod’s new Platyball steps in. It’s essentially an upside-down ball head. There are two versions of it, the Ergo and the Elite, the latter of which comes with a built-in gyro and LCD display for easy levelling. The project is being launched through Kickstarter, and they’ve already hit their funding goal 10 times over.

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Relio² 2020 Edition comes with more portability, practicality and accessories

January 17, 2020 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

Relio first launched in 2015 via Kickstarter. It was one of the first tiny lights on the market and came in a variety of preset white balances with a moderately high CRI plus various colour options. In 2018, it was updated to Relio², with higher CRI and more configuration options for working with multiple lights. Now, they’ve taken it a step further with Relio² 2020 Edition.

Once again, Relio has taken to Kickstarter to fund the project, and it’s over 1,150% funded. It doesn’t have long left to go, though, only a few hours, if you wanted to jump in on it yourself. They promise more portability, practicality and accessories – albeit 3D printed. Which is a little disappointing given the price they’re asking.

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The V-Coptr Falcon foldable bi-coptor drone has a flight time of up to 50 minutes

January 16, 2020 by John Aldred 3 Comments

Zero Zero Robotics, creators of Hover2 – “The Drone that Flies Itself” (and the original Hover), has just announced their new V-Coptr Falcon. It’s a bi-copter drone (2 arms, 2 propellers) which offers up to an amazing 50 minutes of flight time on a single battery charge. It’s a very unique design, inspired by the Boeing V-22 Osprey military aircraft. It’s compact, foldable, and they’re claiming it as the “world’s first” v-shaped drone with only 2 propellers.

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This is what a CFast 2.0 card looks like on the inside

January 16, 2020 by John Aldred 2 Comments

CFast 2.0 might be on the way out, thanks to CFexpress, but it’s a popular format still in use by a lot of cameras. The Pocket 4K and 6K, for example, pretty much require one for their highest resolution and highest data rate raw recording. But what happens if a card goes bad? Yes, it can happen. Well, that’s when you send it off to somebody to crack it open and have at it with a soldering iron.

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DJI agrees with need for Remote ID, but not how the FAA wants to implement it

January 16, 2020 by John Aldred 1 Comment

With drones now well and truly here to stay, some close calls, some too close and too many major disruptions, drones regulation is big on the minds of lawmakers around the world. While more laws generally won’t stop those who purposefully intend to break them, authorities are attempting to do something about holding them accountable.

The idea of “Remote ID” is that drones would essentially have a digital license plate. It’s a popular concept, allowing for more freedoms for legitimate users and make it easier to find those who break the rules. The FAA has introduced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on how this could be implemented, although DJI is not happy about it.

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Five composition mistakes you should avoid with your photography and how to fix them

January 15, 2020 by John Aldred 1 Comment

Composition is one of those things that often gets talked about in photography. After all, it’s one of the fundamental aspects of it. If your composition is bad, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got the exposure good or if you’ve even got your subject in focus. We all know about the “rule of thirds” and the “golden ratio”, but there’s so much more to composition than that.

In this video, photographer Joris Hermans talks about the five compositional mistakes he sees being made all the time. Mistakes you should avoid, and how to avoid them.

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