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Photography News

Your photos will get stolen. And what will you do then?

2/28/2017

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From people who download someone else’s photo for the desktop background, to those who steal photos from others and represent them as their own – photo theft is a pretty common occurrence. Many people don’t take the credits, but don’t give them to the author either (just remember the Tyra Banks case). In this episode of Burst Mode, Rick Boost talks about the image theft. He gives some examples of most memorable copyright infringement cases in recent years and discusses how we can fight this issue. Can we fight it at all?

VIDEO

No matter why you do photography and what level you’re on, you probably don’t want your photos to be stolen. And in the modern era, people do steal photos, big time! Even the watermarks are no guarantee of safety. It’s often fairly easy to remove a watermark, and you don’t even have to be a Photoshop master to do it.

Takedown notice and a couple of emails can sometimes solve the problem. But what happens when a famous artist or a brand steals your work? It has happened tons of times – brands stole someone else’s photos or copied their ideas, presented them as their own or didn’t give credits to the photographer. Then what?

Also, I’ve heard of a number of cases where photographers stole photos and sold them as their own, making money on someone else’s work. Now that’s kinda like stealing money from someone, right? Remember Richard Prince? He’s the master of photo theft, as he made millions displaying and selling other people’s Instagram photos.

There are some more bizarre cases of copyright infringement, like when the Wikimedia Commons posted a monkey selfie as public domain. Then, there’s the case of photographer Carol Highsmith. She posted an entire collection of her photos of America as public domain and Getty Images scraped them down and charged for their use. When their software discovered the photos on her website – she was asked to pay for them! She filed a lawsuit, but the court dismissed her copyright claim.

Even I recently used Google Image Search with some of my photos, out of curiosity. I got unpleasantly surprised seeing my photos on other websites. No one was selling them, but they were posted on several Instagram profiles. One bar from Belgrade even has one of my photos as their profile pic on Instagram. So, this happened to me, and I’m not even that good photographer.

One of my photos, taken from my Flickr and published without credits

At the end of the video, Rick suggests that we must fight against it. We should respect our own rights, just like the rights of other artists. Sign the petitions, report the thieves, work together with websites that prevent image theft and so on. However, he adds that we’ll most likely never win. But I disagree. Sure, there are some cases when it’s difficult to win (like when you’re suing Chipotle or Getty). But this is not the reason to give up the fight altogether. Do you agree?

I’m curious to know, have any of your photos ever been stolen, used without credits or even sold by someone else? How did you resolve this? I’d like to hear about your experiences in the comments.

[Photo Theft, Instagram, & Monkeys! Oh My! | Burst Mode]





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February 28, 2017 at 01:57AM
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The Oscar Announcement blunder was probably caused by a photo of Emma Stone

2/28/2017

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The Oscar Announcement blunder was probably caused by a photo of Emma Stone

February 28, 2017 · Dunja Djudjic Leave a Comment

The Internet is flooded with reactions about the Oscar best Picture gaffe, and the explanation is finally here. People have been speculating what went wrong that evening, and I’ve heard a bunch of theories since this historic mistake happened. But it turns out the whole mess was because of one photo and tweet of Best Actress winner Emma Stone.

VIDEO

Brian Cullinan from PricewaterhouseCooper and his colleague Martha Ruiz were in charge of handing out the category envelopes to the presenters. Right before the Best Picture was mistakenly presented to La La Land, he snapped a photo of Emma Stone and posted it on Twitter. Apparently, this distracted him, and he handed up the wrong envelope to the Best Picture presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

Warren Beatty explained that the envelope he held wrote “Emma Stone”. However, many people wondered: how was this possible, as Emma got her envelope after she received the Oscar statue? Well, it is possible – each Oscars winners’ envelope has a duplicate. Cullinan and Ruiz were holding one set each, and they were the only ones handing the envelopes.

Cullinan and Ruiz each have a briefcase containing all 24 envelopes for the winner announcements. They stand at either side of the stage in the wings and hand the envelopes to the guest announcers just before they head to the stage. And this is the first time envelope leaves their possession. As Cullinan got distracted for a moment, he messed up and gave the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty. So, basically, the mistake of epic proportions was caused by a tweeted photo.

Cullinan has deleted the tweet since, and he says he “feels very, very terrible and horrible” for what happened. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for him. Although I can’t blame him, I would probably get distracted myself if I met one of the best young actresses I’ve seen in the past decade.

Social networks are known for its power to distract you from your work. But this time, this distraction caused a mistake that will be written in Oscar’s history. It’s just show business, of course, but I believe an Oscar means the world to its winners. I can’t imagine the bitterness La La Land crew felt when they were told they’re not the winners after all.

I watched the Oscars live and I thought it was some kind of a joke. I love both movies, and I am equally thrilled for Moonlight as I initially was for La La Land. I thought something like this happened, and that Warren Beatty got a duplicate of an envelope for Best Actress. But I’d never guess the whole mess was caused by a single photo posted on Twitter.

What do you think? Did you watch the Oscars? What was your theory about this blunder?

[via Metro]





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February 28, 2017 at 12:36AM
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Interview with Canon Executives at CP

2/28/2017

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DPReview had the opportunity to sit down with some executives from Canon and talk about all things cameras. They covered a bit about 4K implementation, mirrorless cameras , 360° tools and even a little about film cameras. Q: Looking at 4K TV saturation, what kind of time-frame does that suggest and when do you think Read more...



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February 28, 2017 at 12:29AM
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6 Fun Photography Challenge Ideas that will Definitely Challenge You

2/28/2017

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6 Fun Photography Challenge Ideas that will Definitely Challenge You

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This is Gonna be Lods of Fun…and Challenging

There are undoubtedly those who think that most talented photographers acquired their skills through years of tutelage under a demanding but conscientious instructor.

I’m quite unsure as to the validity of this idea in a historical context, but in modern times it’s unlikely to be the case.

Image by Gaetano Cessati

Image by Gaetano Cessati

FREE BONUS: There are two reasons you should grab our free Portrait Photography Cheat Sheet. 1) It’s totally 100% FREE and 2) It’s full of really helpful tips to get your portrait photography up where you want it to be. Looking spot on! Download it here.

The advent of the Information Age brought with it an ease of access to resources and sharing platforms that have paved the way for a generation of self-taught photographers.

Not to suggest that formal academic training in photography is entirely unwarranted, but it would appear that self-driven education is the wave of the future.

While learning photography on your own may require an additional measure of discipline and dedication, one of the many advantages to this approach is that it’s easier to keep things fun.

Understanding f-stops and shutter speed are vital skills, but it’s not enough to simply have a theoretical grasp of the fundamentals — photography happens when you put those skills to practical use.

And you’ve got to challenge yourself in order to develop and, eventually, master your skills.

Challenging yourself can actually be fun, and it doesn’t require you to run off to the Amazon rainforest to experience real growth. If you’re ready to strengthen and diversify your skill set, keep reading for 10 fun photography challenge ideas that will help you do just that.

1. Minimize Your Gear

Less really can be more. There’s freedom in minimalism and you can discover this for yourself by shooting with just one camera and one lens. Leave everything else in your bag.

Give yourself a predetermined time frame, pick your favorite camera/lens combo and go shoot. If you’ve gotten used to using a zoom lens or frequently changing lenses while out in the field, you’ll be forced to rethink the way you see and compose your photos.

It won’t take long before you notice that you are choosing more meaningful subjects and treating those subjects to stronger composition.

SUMMER MOMENTS #2
Photo by Daniel Sjöström

 

2. Turn Ordinary Subjects Extraordinary

Believe it or not, you don’t need to book a trip to another country to find interesting photography subjects; there are plenty of them right under your nose.

You may look at those things as being mundane, but therein lies the challenge: take common objects and find a way to make them beautiful.

Whether it’s how you light them, the angle at which you shoot them, the environment in which you place them — make it a point to be attentive to the ordinary objects around you and treat them as if they are special.

Ultimately, it’s an exercise in how to connect with your subjects, a skill every photographer needs.

Composición simple
Photo by Hernán Piñera

 

3. Capture the Alphabet

Our third from our list of fun photography challenge ideas is deciding how you go about choosing what you shoot on any given day?

Is it something you decide on ahead of time or just figure it out as you go?

Is it a struggle?

Here’s an idea: choose a subject that corresponds with each letter of the alphabet. I know it probably sounds easy, but once you dig into it, you will see this is a task that tests your ability to find worthwhile subjects that also fit the criteria of the challenge, and some letters will surely prove to be more difficult to fulfill than others.

It’s a fun challenge with almost a month’s worth of variety built into it; the unique experiences you acquire will no doubt serve to expand your vision and sharpen your intuition.

back to school
Photo by Martin Abegglen

 

4. Photograph Water

Water may not immediately come to mind when thinking of riveting subject matter, but rest assured it’s something you will want to spend some time with.

Two of the most common water-based projects are water droplet photography and oil-and-water photography. In addition to some basic photography gear (a flash, a tripod), both can be achieved by using items you likely have at home already.

Oh, you will also need a heavy dose of patience — rest assured there will be a lot of trial and error when it comes to lighting, camera settings and timing, but the takeaway is you’ll learn to make exposure adjustments quickly and learn some great lighting lessons.

Eventually, you’ll get some beautiful photos for all your effort.

Lightstalking Tutorials

Click here for an in-depth tutorial of how to set everything up for the water droplet challenge and here for a tutorial on oil and water photography.

Sunset Water Drop
Photo by Joe Dyer

 

Cellular
Photo by Carlos Andrés Reyes

 

FREE DOWNLOAD FOR READERS: There are two reasons you should grab our free Portrait Photography Cheat Sheet. 1) It’s totally 100% FREE and 2) It’s full of really helpful tips to get your portrait photography up where you want it to be. Looking spot on! Download it here.

5. Shoot in Low Light

If you really want to dive head first into the process of mastering ISO, shutter speed and aperture, then take on a low light challenge.

Whether it’s in a dimly lit theater or nighttime street photography, photo-worthy moments are happening all the time with no regard for lighting conditions.

Putting yourself through the paces of shooting in low light will help prepare you for those spur of the moment opportunities whenever and wherever they may occur.

You don’t actually have to leave your house for this challenge; using the ambient light filtering in from a window, for example, is an excellent way to practice low light photography.

What you learn here can be applied to a pretty wide variety of other situations where light is in short supply.

Prague: Charles Bridge in the Mist (Explored)
Photo by Roman Boed

 

6. Shoot in Black and White

This is about more than converting your images to black and white in post processing.

It’s about learning to “see” in black and white.

You will need to look for textures, patterns, shapes; light and shadows. Each of these is important in color photos, but absolutely vital to good black and white photographs.

You might go so far as setting your camera to produce exclusively a black and white jpeg; if you’re using a mirrorless camera you can even set the LCD/EVF to display in black and white.

Spend a week or two seeing the world in black and white and you will begin to acquire an eye for detail that will carry over into all of your photographic efforts.

Take Your Shot
Photo by Jason D. Little

 

Final Thoughts

Photography challenges come in many different flavors, but the best ones exist to make you a better photographer by strengthening the skills you already possess and paving the way for you to develop new skills.

It’s serious business as far as the craft of photography is concerned, but there’s no reason why all of this shouldn’t be fun.

So, challenge yourself and enjoy!

READERS CAN DOWNLOAD THIS FOR FREE: There are two reasons you should grab our free Portrait Photography Cheat Sheet. 1) It’s totally 100% FREE and 2) It’s full of really helpful tips to get your portrait photography up where you want it to be. Looking spot on! Download it here.

Further Resources

  • Minimalism in Action: How Placing Limits on Yourself Can Make You a Better Photographer by Jason D. Little
  • 4 Simple Strategies to Awaken Your Photographic Creativity by Jason D. Little
  • The Real Truth Behind Using Less Camera Gear by Federico Alegria

Further Learning

We mentioned creating an assignment for yourself which focuses on creating Black and White photographs through “seeing in black and white” and this is where you can truly master the art that is “Black and White Photography.”

The post 6 Fun Photography Challenge Ideas that will Definitely Challenge You appeared first on Light Stalking.





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February 28, 2017 at 12:02AM
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Elinchrom literally launches the new ELB 1200 with amazing mid-air photo shoot

2/28/2017

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Elinchrom literally launches the new ELB 1200 with amazing mid-air photo shoot

February 28, 2017 · John Aldred Leave a Comment

It’s become pretty clear by now that Elinchrom really like testing the limits of their gear. They’ve put them on drones, battled oceans, and lit up ice tunnels. So, for the launch of the new Elinchrom ELB 1200 pack, they had to go pretty crazy. And crazy is exactly where they went, strapping the new pack and strobes to base jumpers.

The ELB 1200 follows on from the very popular ELB 400, but offers a lot more power. The ELB 1200 offers fast recycle times of 3s in default mode, or 1.7s in fast mode.  Heavy duty compact flash heads are available for the new pack in three flavours; Pro Action and Hi-Sync. They also feature a 92 CRI dimmable daylight LED modelling bulb equivalent to 250W, which will be handy for those who want to double up their lights for video.

VIDEO

The system is designed to encompass the needs of many different types of location photographers. Although it is marketed as Elinchrom’s “Premier adventure light”. But whether you’re shooting regular location portraits or crazy fast action, it’s built to keep up. The Hi-Sync head lets you freeze motion all the way up to 1/8000th of a second. And all the heads are compatible with existing Elinchrom modifiers.

The dimmable 92 CRI daylight balanced LED modelling light also seems perfectly suited for video. With an output equivalent of about 250 Watts, and silent mode running, it sounds like a decent option.

But we’ll get back to the specs later. For now, check out the insane mid air photo shoot by photographer Tristan Shu.

VIDEO

When I see videos from shoots like this, they really inspire me. They make me want to go out to do and photograph something exciting. Then I remember that there’s no way I’m jumping out of a plane or off the side of a mountain. With or without a camera. But it does make me think about the kind of planning that must go into a shoot like this. It must present some fairly major challenges.

Like, metering, for a start. It’s not like you can say to somebody “hey, just go fly over there with this Sekonic”. It must’ve taken a lot of co-ordination and testing on the ground. You’d need to learn the equipment well. Know the power it puts out at different distances from the subject, and then try to balance that with the exposure of the sky. All while trying to keep an eye on your fast moving subject. Oh, yes, and while you’re hurtling toward the ground at a ridiculous rate.

Positioning everybody and everything in mid air must’ve been extremely difficult. To get you as the photographer, the light and your subject all in the right position relative to the background. How do you even begin to direct and co-ordinate something like that?

It turns out, it’s done with a week’s worth of testing and training. Shu says that it took a few trials to get to the end result. But despite all the training, there was still an element of luck to get the perfect shots.

I remember thinking that Guillaume Galvani (the base jumper) was almost too close to me. If I wanted to, I could have given him a high-five. In the end, it was perfect!

– Tristan Shu

It seems that the ELB 1200 stood up to the task just fine, though.

The Elinchrom ELB 1200 will be available in mid 2017, and prices will be announced at a later date. Elinchrom are also introducing a rebate scheme towards the purchase of a new ELB 1200 system for existing Ranger RX / Free Style users. The details of that will also be announced at a later date.

 





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February 27, 2017 at 11:36PM
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Billboard Magazine issues a cover shot with an iPhone 7 Plus Portrait Mode

2/28/2017

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You may argue if iPhone 7 Plus’ Portrait mode is any good. Some people love it and some hate it, but apparently – it was good enough for Billboard Magazine. Photographer Miller Mobley shot the February 17 issue of Billboard magazine, featuring a rising pop star Camila Cabello on the cover. And despite the fact that he generally uses professional and expensive gear, this time he was limited to iPhone 7 Plus and its Portrait mode. And he really did a fine job.

Mobley has worked with Billboard before. He ‘s photographed many celebrities, such as Justin Timberlake, Denzel Washington, Sting, Iggy Pop, Mel Gibson, to name just a few. He generally uses professional cameras such as Mamiya 645DF+ and Canon 5D Mark III, along with lighting gear, tripods and other stuff every pro photographer uses. However, the editor of Billboard Magazine had an idea of shooting the cover with an iPhone 7 Plus’ Portrait mode. Being all about embracing new technology, Mobley was up for the challenge.

The photographer’s idea was to blend the shots he made with Canon 5D Mark III and Mamiya with the iPhone shots. He wanted people to look at the images as a whole and not think about the tool used to make them. The model herself was totally ok with him using an iPhone for taking photos. She is 19 years old, and with the young generation, iPhone photography is quite common and normal.

After the shoot, it took some color tweaking to match the image with his creative style. But overall, Mobley didn’t edit the photo to much, and he was satisfied with the result.

Challenges

Of course, the shoot didn’t go without some challenges. Portrait mode didn’t perform well at low light, so Mobley needed to throw a lot of light on the subject in order for iPhone to read Portrait mode. Then, it takes more time to shoot professional, magazine-quality photos with a smartphone than with professional cameras.

Another challenge was that the phone camera needs to be within 8 feet of the subject in order to register Portrait mode. This requires you to give it more thought into composition. And also, you can’t sync an iPhone with professional lighting systems. Lastly, there’s the problem of resolution, as iPhones have smaller sensors, lower resolution and dynamic range than DSLR cameras.

I love it how Mobley put it when it comes to using iPhone instead of a professional camera: “It’s kind of like fighting a fire with a garden hose. You could do it but it’ll take longer to get it to work.”

Personally, I love Mobley’s work (both this cover and the rest of his photos). To me, they are beyond celebrity portraits. He captures the mood and I feel he also captures people’s souls in the photos. And by shooting a Billboard cover with an iPhone, he proved the theory I generally stand behind – it’s not about the gear, it’s about the photographer.

After Sports Illustrated issued a cover shot with an iPhone, this is another example that phone cameras are making their way into the world of professionals. They still have a long way to go, but it’s really interesting to witness their growth, development and the increasing number of professionals who test their capabilities.

[via Mashable]





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February 27, 2017 at 09:54PM
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Sony might be getting ready to announce a new A7 camera next month

2/28/2017

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Sony might be getting ready to announce a new A7 camera next month

February 28, 2017 · John Aldred Leave a Comment

Normally, I don’t pay that much attention to rumours. But this is a rumour-not-rumour-sort-of-a-maybe-leak kinda thing. It may simply just be a typo. But, the good folks at The Photography Show have released their official preview mini-guide to this year’s show. Browsing through the guide, you might notice something a little interesting under Sony’s listing on page 43.

Check out Sony’s new products including the new A7, A6500, and A99 II cameras.

It could be entirely intentional “spin” just to get a little extra free advertising via blog posts just like this one. But, Sony Alpha Rumours did report a month ago that a possible Sony announcement might be coming at The Photography Show this year.

It wouldn’t be entirely unexpected for Sony to release a new body. The Sony A7 was originally released in 2013. The A7II then came at the end of 2014. It’s now 2017, so it really feels like it’s time for a refresh. Especially when there are now so many bodies out there in Sony’s lineup that contain features the A7II doesn’t.

Again, it could be a typo, or perhaps the marketing guys just used the word “new” to mean “the latest models of…” the A7 product line. But, we’ll be there at the show next month, and our first stop will be Sony’s stand to check it out.

If there is a new A7 III, you can bet we’ll be putting up a video from the show to tell you what we think. What would you want to see in a new A7 body?

[via Sony Alpha Rumors]





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February 27, 2017 at 09:36PM
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The Real Reason You Suck on Photo Sharing Sites The Bots are Beating You

2/28/2017

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Photographers join photo-sharing sites for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s as simple as a need for recognition and the occasional pat-on-the-back. In fact I suspect that’s the reason most people join these sites in the first place; a little bit of recognition is worth big dollars in the feel-good bank. Sometimes they join those sites to promote their work for financial reasons, either to sell prints or services. In the post-Instagram era I suspect that many people join in the hopes of growing a sizeable enough audience to attract sponsors, and trips and cheap booze.

Whatever the reason, the simple fact is that once you started posting, you are in competition with every other photographer on the site. Whether you like it or not, your photograph is judged alongside those of the entire membership, rank amateurs and seasoned pros alike. The aim of the game is to get your photograph in front of as many eyeballs as possible and that means playing the like-you-like-me game, getting involved, interacting, posting comments, replying to discussions – you know the drill.

But what if I was tell you Neo, that you were doing it all wrong, that many of the people you thought you were competing against in this photographic game of life, were not honest photographers working hard to get their photos seen? What if I was to tell you that this playing field is not only hilly as fuck, but littered with the spent corpses of a thousand disillusioned photographers? Hmmmm? Take the Red pill, Neo and follow me down the rabbit hole.

How to Win Bots and Influence People

Right now, at this very second, an army of bots, scripts and hacks are hard at work on all of your favourite social media and photo-sharing sites. These tools come in a wide variety of formats, from simple macro-based scripts, to polished commercial apps and all the way up to cloud based services with slick websites and monthly subscriptions. If you’ve ever wondered how some people seem to suddenly bloom in popularity, seemingly out of nowhere, then the odds are that they’re using one of these commonly available tools.

Like most social engineering, the techniques employed by the designers of this software relies on the way that we humans interact with such social sharing sites. They work by blowing smoke up your arse and making you think that someone 1) liked your photo, or 2) thought so much of it that they took a minute out of their day to comment or 3) loved it so much that they shared it with their friends. Feeling the glowing warmth of that smoke up your back passage you of course reciprocate and like, comment and share back, because that’s the nice thing to do and you’re a nice person. Well sorry mate, but the odds are that the vast majority of times this has happened to you, you were giving a bot a reach-around.

If you’re a minor league photographer with a couple of hundred or thousand followers or even if you’ve just started out, the traffic you’re seeing on your photos will have been grossly inflated by artificial likes, comments, shares and follows. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it was the Red pill you swallowed, not the fingers-in-ears Blue pill. Don’t choke on it, we have more to discuss.

Macro, Script, Hack, Cloud

Let’s start with one of my personal favourite sites (heavy sarcasm) 500px. I wrote an article about 500px, five years ago, and it continues to be the most viewed article on this site by some margin. One of my complaints about the site was that photos were being upvoted irrelevant of quality. I don’t know why I didn’t see it at the time but it’s obvious to me now – this is the result of heavy bot usage.

You can get a wide variety of tools to improve your standing on 500px. Why not begin a simple new user bot. This Python script available for download on Github will “automate the process of following new users on 500px.com”. That’s right friends, fire up this little script, let it loose with your account and before you know it you’ll be racking up the reciprocal follows from guileless punters.

For a more sophisticated tool, how about we check out our old favourite Flickr? Admittedly having a popular presence on this site is nowhere near as useful as the same thing on Instagram, but it’s still a helpful thing to have. The Flickr Attention bot will mass follower, mass favourite and mass comment and favourite.

Our Bot Who Art in Heaven

Such is the sophistication of the modern popularity bot that these days you can buy yourself a subscription to a cloud based service. These are particularly popular with Instagram users looking to increase their fanbase and not prepared to, like, be good at taking photographs.

Over at Instagress they’re not hiding their light under a bushell – in fact their front page proudly claims that their tools can,

Accelerate your life on Instagram for more targeted likes, comments and follows

For a very reasonable $10 a month, their cloud-based services enables you to,

Create a small robot clone of yourself with the same interests and style, and then let it work for you on Instagram

All the goodness, none of the calories friends. Or how about Gramista – it’s four times the price of Instagress, but they do promise that,

Gramista will automate liking, following and unfollowing just like a human being would.

That’s right, not only will their product pointlessly follow people in a shameless effort to boost your own flagging viewer numbers, but they will also unfollow you if you don’t return the favour! It’s hilarious isn’t it.

Over at RoboLike, for a commendable $13.99 a month you can automate both your Instagram and your Twitter interaction. The team say that,

With the Robolike Instagram auto bot coming in at around 80 likes per hour and Twitter auto bot at 60 per hour, you get way more exposure to your account then you can do alone. Put your thumbs to rest and let us do the liking for you.

Because god forbid a photograph receives an actual human response of some sort. It’s pure gold mates.

Click Farms Are So 2016

You’ve probably heard about the digital sweatshops in Asia and Africa where a small army of impoverished mouse-clickers will descend on your Facebook page and shower you in utterly meaningless likes, all for the price of a Satsuma. Well, I’m guessing that the move to fully automated systems is bad news for the Mumbai economy. Or maybe all those click-farmers have transitioned into the far more lucrative encryption-ransom and fake-Microsoft-support games now. It’s important to keep your portfolio fluid, after all.

Over at MonsterSocial (“Undefeated for more than 3 years. Our 2000 customers can’t be wrong!”) they claim to be,

The #1 automation bot for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter

These guys will let you automate every element of your social media presence and, while I can’t see it in the small print, I believe they’ll even shake your dick for you once you’ve finished pissing. Check out the video below where a dude walks through the whole process of farming likes using stolen or fake Facebook accounts.

VIDEO

I know, right? And if you’d rather not entrust your accounts to a cloud based service then there are many software companies producing apps to help your accounts out of the no-friends doldrums. At BoosterBots they will sell you software to fake your popularity on 500px, Behance, Cafepress, eBay, Instagram, Etsy, Facebook, Pheed, Pinterest, Redbubble and Twitter.

Pretty depressing, huh?

So by now you’re probably thinking something along the lines of, “Fuck it, if everyone’s doing it, then count me in too.” And that of course is entirely your prerogative. If you wish to engage in the like-follow-share tennis match being played between these armies of bots, then go right ahead. You may want to consider the possible ramifications of using these bots though, should you get caught.

All of the social media and photo sharing sites have policies about this sort of stuff. For instance Twitter has this to say about automated following and unfollowing,

You may not use or develop any application that allows for the following or unfollowing of user accounts in a bulk or automated manner. Accounts and applications that engage in this practice will be suspended.

That seems pretty black and white to me. Over at Instagram their Terms of Service say,

We prohibit crawling, scraping, caching or otherwise accessing any content on the Service via automated means, including but not limited to, user profiles and photos.

Again, that is pretty clear.

Will you get caught if you use these services? If you’re careful, probably not, there’s way too many of these apps, hacks, crack and cloud services to suggest that people are getting systematically banned as a result of using them. I certainly know from my own Instagram account that I pick up bot-rendered comments generated from a script by someone with the imagination of a carrot. The truly unimaginative ones are the guys who just put a smiley emote in there. Like their brain capacity doesn’t stretch as far as adding the word ‘Nice’ or ‘Great’ before that smiley. Hey look everyone, Nikkos the Mobile Car Detailer from Hungary just said ‘Great :)’ on my photo – it couldn’t possibly be a bot.

Now the guys over at 500px reckon they’re ahead of the curve. In a recent blog post they said,

We have automated systems in place that tell us if you’ve somehow liked 1,000 photos in 3 hours. Or left the same “V F” comment on 100 photos in the last 10 minutes. Bots beware, our ban hammer is hovering right above your automated heads… ready to drop.

To which I say, like fuck. These systems can, if used correctly, perfectly imitate the behaviour of an actual human and I defy the 500px development team to prove otherwise. Yes, some arsehole liking 1,000 photos in a couple of hours might attract attention, but someone with a decent enough comment script, with the common sense to like only about 50 photos an evening, with the chops to turn the wretched script off occasionally so that the pattern appears sort of random – you’re not catching them.

Is there a solution to all this nonsense? Of course not. As soon as the number of followers you have became a monetisable asset, it was going to be abused. You can pick up small-scale sponsorships with as few as 5,000 followers on Instagram these days and at 50,000 you’ll be getting flown to exotic locations and have ‘samples’ appearing in your post. So why would you not try and game that system and get a piece of that corporate sponsorship money? Unfortunately that makes a mockery out of the entire system, its most popular content (even if it is legitimate) tainted by the stink coming from the shots that have been gamed to the top. And I’ll tell you something else too – it’s only going to get worse.

About the Author

Andy Hutchinson is a photographer and journalist based in South Coast, New South Wales, Australia. You can find more of his work and words on his website, or by following him on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and 500px. This article was also published here and shared with permission.





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February 27, 2017 at 08:36PM
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Hands on with the Godox Witstro AD200 Strobe

2/28/2017

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As we reported a few weeks ago, Godox has launched new Witstro AD200 Modular Strobe. It’s also called 200x or eVolv 200, so if you see it under these names – have in mind it’s the same thing. If you’re thinking of investing in one, we’re sharing a review from photographer Robert Hall. As I can see from the video, this unit is very versatile, and I believe it’s worth the buck. According to Robert, this is the most versatile Godox unit so far, and it has lots of tricks upon its sleeve.

VIDEO

Portability

One of the first and the most obvious features of AD200 is its portability. It has a lithium Ion battery built right in, so there is no need to connect it to wall power or an external battery pack. It weighs less than 2 lbs, which means it’s a little bit heavier than the Godox AD360ii. From the solid construction, you can see that they packed everything in as tightly as they could.

Power

The battery provides the strobe with 500 full power flashes. It takes 2 seconds to recycle full power. And at a quarter power and below, it recycles almost instantly.

For power, Robert tested it against the V860II (or the Flashpoint Zoom R2 Lithium Ion) and the Godox AD360ii (also known as the Flashpoint Streaklight TTL). He set the V860II to 35mm equivalent, so that it would match the beam of power that you are getting out of the AD200.

The AD200 metered 1.5 stops more than the V860II, at the same distance, meaning it’s equivalent to exactly 3 speedlights.

Next, he switched the bulb to the omnidirectional head, and then I put the 5” reflector dish on, which is the same reflector that comes with the AD360, and compared those two. The AD360ii was just 0.8 stops stronger, which means about 2/3 of a stop. This is very impressive for the AD200, as it comes in a much simpler package yet packs a very similar output to AD360ii.

Display

The display is simple and intuitive. It has a power dial if you want to control the power from the light itself. Also, there are controls for the 5 groups, channel, custom functions, LED, and HSS. The only downside is that the screen itself is pretty dim and tough to see in bright conditions.

Versatility

The AD200 has 2 interchangeable heads. First, it has a fresnel speedlight head, equivalent to a 35mm zoom head on a speedlight. It also has 2 strips of LED lights, but they aren’t powerful enough to be used as a modeling lamp. Second, it has an omnidirectional bulb very similar to the Godox AD360ii. This means you can use just one flash for speedlight, or for monolight heads.

Compatibility

In terms of compatibility, the Godox AD200 has the same 2.4Ghz radio technology as the rest of the X Series. This means you don’t need an external receiver or cable to control the power of this flash remotely. You can change the power, as well as access it’s TTL and HSS features remotely by using a Godox X1, XT32, or X Series speedlight.

Since Flashpoint, Cheetah, Neweer, Pixapro, and StrobePro all rebrand the Godox X series, it will be 100% compatible with their series equivalents as well. It actually accepts TTL, Hight Speed Sync, and control signals from Sony, Nikon, and Canon. So if you’re a multi-brand user, this means you can use this strobe with all your brands as long as you have the appropriate master controller.

Attaching

The Godox AD200 is also being called a modular strobe. While there are ridges on the top and bottom that would allow for seamless stacking, Robert doesn’t think it’s going to be secure enough that they are going to connect in any fashion. A bracket specifically designed to accommodate multiple AD200s will probably be available once the strobe goes on sale.

There are 2 1/4” 20 threads on the bottom and side of the body of this flash. This allows the AD200 to be attached to a stand, but it also has a simple flash stand that allows for tilt and attaching an umbrella.

Accessories

The Godox AD200 will be launched with a barn door attachment that will also hold a proprietary system of honeycomb grids and color correction and effect gels.

Specs:

Power

200Ws

GN Bare Bulb Head

196ft / 60m, ISO 100 (SL360 reflector)

GN Speedlite Head

170ft / 52m ISO 100 (35mm coverage)

Flash Modes

TTL / M / Multi

HSS

to 1/8000th

FEC / FEB

1/3rd Increments ( 3 Stops)

FEL (Flash Exposure Lock)

Yes

Manual Flash

1/128 1/1 Output (1/3rd Increments)

Radio

R2 2.4GHz Radio System

Radio Slave Modes

Canon, Nikon, Sony (Auto Switching)

Wireless R2 Range

330ft / 100m +

Groups

A / B / C / D / E

Channels

32

Optic Wireless Slave Modes

Canon, Nikon, Sony

Optic Slave Modes

S1/S2

Sync

First Curtain, Second Curtain, HSS

Flash Duration Fresnel Head

1/220s 1/13000s

Flash Duration Bare Bulb Head

1/220s 1/11300s

Color Temperature

5600 +/- 200 k

Recycle Signal

Audio and Visual

Battery

14.4V 2900mAh Lithium-ion

Battery Capacity

520 Full Power Flashes

Recycle Time

0.01 2.1 Second

Custom Functions

Yes

Auto Memory Function

Yes

LED Modelling Light

Fresnel Head Only

USB Port

Yes. For Firmware Upgrades

Sync Port

3.5mm

Size Main Body

8 3/16 x 2 7/8 x 2 or 208x75x51mm

Weight Main Body

1lb 7.5oz or 668g

Size Battery

2 13/16 x 2 13/16 x 1 9/16 or 71x71x40mm

Weight Battery

7.5oz or 214g

Size Bare Bulb Head

2 7/8 x 2 7/8 x 1 1/4in or 75x75x33mm

Weight Bare Bulb Head

1.7oz or 48g

Size Fresnel Head

3 x 2 x 1 1/2in or 74 x 52 x 38.5mm

Weight Fresne4l Head

3.5oz or 98g

Size Barndoor Set

3 13/16 x 2 7/8 x 1 1/4in or 98x74x31mm

Weight Barndoor Set

5.9oz or 166g

As you can see from the review, this is a very flexible and versatile light with great output. You can find it useful both in the studio and on location. Despite some minor downsides, it’s still quite powerful and portable piece of lighting gear you can use in various situations. The Witstro AD200/200x/eVolv 200 is available for preorder at the price of $329.95.

[Godox Witstro AD200 Strobe Review Flashpoint eVolv 200 TTL | Robert Hall]





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February 27, 2017 at 08:18PM
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The Joy and Wonder that is Lights Out Cropping

2/28/2017

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Hi gang – it’s Tuesday and time for Benjamin Warde’s “Lightroom Coffee Break” and this one is on using two features together to make cropping just so awesome (a perfect follow-up to my cropping tips post last week).

Hope you found that helpful. ?

Have a great Tuesday everybody, and check back tomorrow for another Custom Print Layout and free downloadable template.

Best,

-Scott

 

The post The Joy and Wonder that is “Lights Out” Cropping appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.





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February 27, 2017 at 06:17PM
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