TWiP #234 – 2012 Photographic Resolutions

This week on TWiP: Looking back on trends of 2011, and looking forward on what’s coming in 2012.

Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Alex Lindsay, Martin Bailey and Sohail Mamdani

A special episode:

This is the last TWiP of the year, so it’s a very special one. Throughout the show, you’ll hear audio clips sent in from some of our past guests, including…

Scott Bourne is one of TWiP’s original co-founders and publisher of the enormously successful PhotoFocus.com blog and podcast, talks about his favorite bits of gear and trends of 2011. Scott acknowledges the difficult year for a lot of the camera industry due to the floods, tsunami and other incidents in the Pacific Rim. He talks about his feelings on the Olympus E-P3, Google Plus, Twitter, Aperture, and more.

Trey Ratcliff sends greetings from the road and discusses some of his thoughts for 2011 and how the period we’re in now reminds him of the renaissance. He’s currently in Yosemite “talking the talk” and “walking the walk” — leading a huge year-end photowalk.

Thomas Hawk talks about his excitement around self-publishing, especially Google Plus and his work with the communities there. He also talks a bit about where he’s looking for technology to go (including his hope that he can replace his 5D Mark II this year).

Chris Marquardt of Tips from the Top Floor fame explains how 2011 was, photographically, one of his personal most important years ever. From high-ISO performance to mirrorless cameras, Chris has found 2011 to be a very exciting year. Listen as he waxes poetic about a retro movement – from the Fuji X100, to actual film photography as well.

Joseph Linaschke of ApertureExpert.com talks about Aperture and the many changes that have occurred this year for Apple’s pro image management software. From the price drop to $79 to the changes that came with iOS 5, this has been a great year for Aperture, and Joseph has been busy creating new training content for Video2Brain.com as well as his own site. From eBooks to videos, ApertureExpert.com has really expanded its offering this year.

NEWS & DISCUSSION

Favorite Gear of 2011

Alex Lindsay, Martin Bailey and Sohail Mamdani join Frederick to discuss their favorite gear of 2011. Martin goes into the the state of software today, especially the Nik software suite and the recent advances in their flagship products, Silver Efex Pro 2 and Color Efex 4.

Alex expresses his own love of how far cameraphones have come, especially with his iPhone 4s and he talks about the social nature of iPhone photography because you can take and share images very quickly.

Sohail’s favorite piece of gear of 2011 were the PocketWizard’s ControlTL radio triggers. Since he suffers from a slight disability, having the ability to adjust strobes remotely is a big deal, making them his gear of choice for 2011.

Fredericks’ favorite photographic product of 2011 was Video2Brain, an online learning community that, despite its relatively small size, has been extremely useful to him.

Favorite Industry Trends of 2011

For Martin, the most important trend of 2011 was the way companies have started to think outside the box. He cites technologies like light field technology, Photoshop’s upcoming motion de-blur tech and other ways of adjusting images in post-production, rather than having to get them perfect in-camera.

Alex echoes Martin’s sentiments and talks about how he sees this trend progressing in the future, and feels that in the next 10 years, technologies like Lytro’s light field technology that are in their infancy now, will be incredibly prevalent.

Sohail’s favorite trend of this past year is the proliferation of outlets for photography, from Google Plus and 500px, to iPad apps and magazines.

Photo Resolutions of 2011

Martin: Martin is looking to re-develop a number of tools for his workshops for next year. He wants to try more adventurous tours for next year. Martin also wants to get back to reading a lot more.

Alex: Alex  plans on using his iPhone 4s a lot more, including starting a “365″ project, where he takes one iPhone image every day for a year. He also wants to build a monthly or weekly project where he uses his 5D Mark II to build more themed photo libraries.

Sohail: Sohail’s resolution is to continue his ambition of getting a better handle on lighting, and making an effort better understand how light falls off, reflects, refracts and behaves in general. In short, he plans to “get intimate with photons” (tagline donated by Frederick).

Frederick: Frederick has been hinting throughout 2011 about working on his new project “MediaBytes”. His personal resolution is to reveal it to the world… but in his own special way. Stay tuned for more.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Question 1: Rich Baum on our Facebook page writes: In the past I heard someone on this show using a point and shoot to do time lapse photography to capture the building / setup of film sets. If anyone has any info on a good lowcost camera for time lapse would you please send the info my way…

Alex: One of the easiest cameras to use for this are GoPro cameras – they are easy to use and have built-in timelapse features. Ricoh R10s also have timelapse features built-in. He also recommends looking into a controller for your SLR or look for an app for your iPhone to convert it into a timelapse camera. Listen to the show to get some of Alex’s tips on timelapse as well.

Question 2: Twitter user @Pixelgrind writes: Why don’t they make a camera lcd to view raw preview so you get a wysiwyg image on your LCD?

Martin: In some respects, camera manufacturers are doing this already, where they save a JPEG file in the RAW file. However, there are limitations here, as you start to clip on the right side (the highlight side) in the JPEG previews before the actual RAW image clips those datas.

Since the RAW files are very large, Martin theorizes that there may be a cost or technology issue that keeps manufacturers from creating displays and chipsets that can accurately portray the full spectrum of the RAW files.

Question 3: David Barnas on our Facebook page writes: Can any twip-ers tell me if an ipad is any good for photo editing? Currently my workflow involves PS Elements, and Photomatix, and Nikon ViewNX 2.

Sohail: The short answer is, Yes. Look for apps like Snapseed, FilterStorm Pro, PhotoGene, Pro HDR, and  Photoshop Express.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Alex - iPhone 4S

Martin - The new FREE Craft & Vision ebook, 11 Ways You Can Improve Your Photography

Sohail: KelbyTraining.com

Frederick - Bloggers Bootcamp: Learning how to build, write, and run a successful blog (Focal Press)

WRAP UP

Follow us on twitter.com/ThisWeekInPhoto. Join the Flickr critique group. You can also join our Facebook group and add us to your circles on Google+.

Martin Bailey – www.martinbaileyphotography.com

Alex Lindsay – www.twitter.com/alexlindsay

Sohail Mamdani - www.sohailgplus.com

Frederick Van Johnson - www.frederickvan.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan or Google Plus

CREDITS