FEW YEARS AGO

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Photographer Shares His Lightning Quick Lightroom Workflow




Scouring through a huge number of photos and editing all of the ‘winners’ can be a tiring task, especially when you consider that one day may consist of hundreds or even thousands of photos. A great workflow can help significantly expedite that process, and fortunately for us, pro photographer Nick Fancher has chosen to share his.
When it comes to working in Lightroom, Fancher has gotten his process down to a science. It’s not perfect (he’ll be the first to admit that) but it has enabled him to meet the sometimes staggering demands of his JackThreads job. Using this workflow, he can turn 500 initial images into 100 finished images in less than an hour — a process he claims would take him ten times as long if he was using Bridge and Photoshop.


Photographer Shares His Lightning Quick Lightroom Workflow workflow

We’ll let Fancher walk you through his process in the video, but the TL;DR version goes something like this:First, use the right bracket key to thin the number of initial images by giving the good ones one star and sorting by star rating. Then, start from scratch and completely edit the first image of each set that was taken using the same lighting, and then apply those settings to the remainder of the set. Finally, go through and tweak those settings on the rest of the images to get each photo right.
He speeds up the process in the video, but even if it were shown in regular speed, he seems to work through the 400 images from this one photo shoot (three lighting scenarios) in no time at all. As we said before, it’s not perfect; but as with the Dodge and Burn tutorial from yesterday, if you don’t have a quick Lightroom workflow established, this’ll be a great place to start. (via Fstoppers)

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The History of Photoshop as Told by Its Founding Fathers




Back in 2010, Adobe put out a short documentary called “Startup Memories — The Beginning of Photoshop” to celebrate the program’s 20-year anniversary by recalling its past. Somehow, that documentary slipped through our fingers at the time, but seeing as we’ve already started a conversation on how Photoshop is “remixing the world,” we thought it was an opportune time to share this blast from the past.
In the video, the founders of Photoshop — John Knoll, Thomas Knoll, Russell Brown, and Steve Guttman — sit down around a table and talk about the series of coincidences and circumstances that led to the creation of the tool that has visually redefined our times.

The History of Photoshop as Told by Its Founding Fathers photoshophistory1

The video offers a glimpse, not only at how this incredible program went from a PhD thesis to a worldwide phenomenon, but also at how far its come since then. The very beginning of the video rolls a short news feature from 1990 in which Photoshop’s “most unethical” uses are demoed.
Interestingly enough, fear of Photoshop’s effect on photography and our perception of what’s real had already begun to surface. Author Fred Richin is shown already warning against Photoshop over 23 years ago for its potential to devalue the photograph as a “document of social communication.” He probably had no idea how right he was.


The History of Photoshop as Told by Its Founding Fathers photoshophistory2
Neither Richin nor Photoshop’s founders could have imagined where the program would be today and how much a part of our culture it would have become. And even though we doubt any of the “founding fathers” of Photoshop have any regrets about the way it all fell into place, we can’t help but lament that the name Imaginator fell through the cracks.



Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Photographer Escapes Afghan Insurgents After Four Months in Captivity



Being a photojournalist in a war zone is a dangerous job. In addition to the physical hazards of combat photography, there’s always the possibility that you will be kidnapped and taken hostage by insurgents.
Backin August of 2011, Australian freelancerTracey Sheltonhad her gear stolen even as she barely managed to evade kidnappers in Libya. Unfortunately, 29-year-old French photojournalist Pierre Borghi wasn’t as lucky.
Borghi was taken captive on November 28th, 2012 by four men in a busy area of the Afghan capital of Kabul.According to Reuters, the men who took him were most likely organized criminals, who then sold him to insurgents claiming to be, at various times, Taliban, Haqqani and al Qaeda.
Photographer Escapes Afghan Insurgents After Four Months in Captivity borghi
Pierre Borghi’s Facebook profile picture
Fortunately, Borghi’s story would have a happy ending. After spending 4 months in captivity, being moved from location to location, the photographer managed to escape the chains that were keeping him in a crudely dug hole beneath a trap door on Monday.
Once free, Borghi was able to make it to a security checkpoint in central Wardak province, where he enlisted the help of the security guards there to ultimately arrive at Interior Ministry headquarters in Kabul.
The French embassy declined to comment on the matter, but according to ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi, Borghi was in good health when they passed him off to French officials later that same day.
(viaNBC News)


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Four Nebraska Cops Fired After Caught on Camera Chasing Man into Home to Steal Camera

Four Nebraska cops were fired over an incident in which they tried their best to conceal, including beating a man and chasing his brother into a home to steal his camera all while unknowingly being recorded by another citizen from an upstairs window.
And another three officers were placed on leave and an additional officer was reassigned, according to the Associated Press.
However, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer refused to release any of the officers’ names, meaning they will likely get hired at another police department in the near future.
After all, as hard as it is to fire a cop, it is even harder to prevent him from getting rehired as a cop where he will likely continue his unlawful ways.
Take the case of a South Florida cop who violated police protocol when he pursued a suspect down the wrong way of a Miami expressway this week, which resulted in the suspect striking another vehicle and killing its four occupants inside.
Opa-Locka police cpl. Sergio Perez had tried to pull the suspect over for making an illegal right turn. Departmental police only allows pursuits in serious felonies like murders, rapes or robberies.
Perez had been kicked out of the police academy for reckless driving but somehow managed to get hired by one of the most corrupt police departments in Miami-Dade County, the Opa-Locka Police Department as Miami blogger Random Pixels explains.
The Miami Herald did a good job on digging up his short, but extremely questionable police experience:
But just two months into his training, he crashed his car into another vehicle on I-95 while drag-racing at speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour, according to the FHP report. A city of Miami police detective witnessed the race, the report said. Perez, who was off duty, was taken into custody on reckless driving charges. It’s not clear from the report whether he was driving a patrol car or his personal vehicle.
But he was fired the following day and kicked out of the police academy.
He applied to Opa-locka a month later, noting on his application that the reason for leaving Miami Shores was because he “received a criminal traffic citation.’’
Opa-locka hired him a year later, in March 2008. There is no indication in his personnel file that the city conducted a background check or investigated why he left Miami Shores.
A month later, he was given a “post-accident substance control test,’’ which he passed. It’s not clear why the test was administered, since there is no accident report in his file.
In October 2009, a woman filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that Perez punched her in the head with such force that surgeons had to reconstruct her face by inserting a metal plate. Included in the lawsuit is a copy of the surgeon’s report from Jackson Memorial Hospital, detailing the severity of her injuries.
Now four innocent people are dead  and while Perez was not the one who initially drove down the wrong way on the expressway, he holds at least some responsibility for the incident.
But we will probably hear from him again as a police officer and not in a good way.

Important data for Wedding Shooters:Age at first marriage in the World





This is an incomplete list of the average ages of people when they first marry in various countries. This list is current (from year 2000 or later), and does not treat the topic in history.
Because the age distribution of the marriageable population is skewed,[1] the median age is a more precise representation of the average age. However, for most reporting sources, only the mean ages are given.

Contents

  [hide

[edit]Africa

Country
Men
Women
Average
Year
Source
29.7
25.2
N/A
 Chad
24.1
18.0
N/A
23.9
24.2
N/A
26.3
21.6
N/A
32.0
29.2
N/A
22.6
18.0
N/A
23.9
17.6
N/A
28.9
27.1
N/A
 Togo
27.0
21.3
N/A
29.0
22.2
N/A

[edit]Americas

Country
Men
Women
Average
Year
Source
25.6
23.3
1991
28
26
2006
31.1
29.1
2008
27.5
24
26
N/A
28
25
26.5
2007
 Peru
25.7
23.1
1996
28.9
26.9
2011

[edit]Asia

Country
Men
Women
Average
Year
Source
28.4
24.5
2008
27.3
23.1
2008
28.9
25.1
1991
26.3
22.8
2007
24
22
1990
28.8
25.1
2008
31.1
28.9
N/A
26
22.2
2011
25.2
24.6
N/A
 Iran
29.8
26.8
2007
 Iraq
24.5
24.0
N/A
25.5
24.8
2007
30.5
28.8
2010
32.8
28.8
2006
25.8
19.3
N/A
30.0
28.5
2010
31.9
29.1
2011
31.6
28.9
2009
26.2
22.4
2008
26.8
24.1
2008
26.7
23.4
2008
26.8
25
N/A
28.0
25.7
2010
26.2
24.2
2010
27.5
26.4
N/A
22.0
18.8
N/A
26.2
22.8
2009
25.2
22.4
2006

[edit]Europe

Country
Men
Women
Average
Year
Source
27.7
22.4
2007
31.7
28.9
2008
26.0
23.9
2008
30.7
28.5
2008
28.3
24.9
2008
29.3
26.1
2008
29.7
26.8
2008
32.4
29.6
2011
34.8
32.4
2008
29.6
27.2
2008
32.5
30.2
2008
31.6
29.6
2008
33.0
30.0
2008
31.8
28.9
2008
30.4
27.9
2008
34.3
32.1
2008
32.1
30.4
2006
32.8
29.7
2007
28.8
26.7
2008
28.0
25.7
2008
27.7
24.7
2000
29.6
27.5
2008
25.8
23.0
2008
30.0
25.9
2008
30.7
28.3
N/A
33.4
31.1
2008
29.7
27.6
2008
31
29.5
2011
30.9
27.5
2009
26.1
23.3
2004
29.8
26.6
2008
31.9
28.8
2010
30.9
28.4
2008
32
29.8
2008
35.1
32.5
2008
31.4
29.1
2008
26.7
23.4
2011
25.9
23.1
2007
30.7
28.5
29.6
2005



How to Plan a Cheap Wedding (and a Cheap Reception)