Copyrights

As soon as you create your work, a copyright is created. When a photographer clicks the shutter, they have a copyright in the image. A copyright exists as soon as the creator’s (non-copyrightable) idea is expressed in a medium that can be viewed.

A copyright is intangible intellectual property. It’s something that a person or corporation can have ownership of and can transfer ownership of to another person or corporation, but has no physical substance.

Generally speaking, no one has the right to copy your creation in any way in any medium without your permission. It is illegal for any unauthorized person or company to scan, copy, duplicate, manipulate, alter, etc. your work without your permission. And, the law specifically gives creators the right to copy, reproduce, distribute, display and create derivative uses of their work.

Registration is Protection: Although all work is copyrighted at the moment of creation, not all work is protected equally. If a registered work is later infringed, the creator/owner can recover actual damages (the fee that would normally have been paid for the use), as well as Statutory (Punitive) Damages (up to $150,000 for each infringement) and legal fees. A work that is infringed and has not been registered, can only generate the Actual Damages. This means that, in most cases, the cost of the suit far exceeds the recoverable moneys. If you expect to file a suit most attorneys won’t speak to you unless they know you’ve registered your images.

The one exception to the above is work that has been infringed within 90 days of first publication. In this case, it is still possible to register and have access to Statutory Damages and Legal Fees. If you are in this position, you need to register immediately.

The Copyright Act grants five rights to a copyright owner:
   the right to reproduce the copyrighted work;
   the right to prepare derivative works based upon the work;
   the right to distribute copies of the work to the public;
   the right to perform the copyrighted work publicly; and
   the right to display the copyrighted work publicly.

Workflow: Since registration of unpublished work affords the most protection, it is the most desirable. You can wait to submit/register until a specific work is about to be published. If you work on projects that have long lead times, this may mean infrequent submissions. If your work gets published more often, you may want to work the registration procedure into your normal image creation or digital darkroom workflow. Additionally, the image deposited to the US Copyright Office should be made in such a medium that it will still be viewable during the term of the copyright, which, for independent creators, extends to 70 years after the creator’s death.

The files in a registration are required to be uniquely named. Choose something that identifies the files, in case you had to dig up a single file for litigation - it’s a lot harder looking through lists of files named DCS_1045.jpg. It also makes it easier to prove that the image in question was actually part of the registration collection. Duplicate names in the owner’s other files or copyright registrations may cause problems.

Is it better to register the original capture or the post processed file? What if you increase the color saturation, contrast, crop the file, make it black and white, and so on? You can register files as basically captured, with minimal work, like exposure correction in Lightroom’s Quick Develop. The variations of the original are protected with what is known as the ‘right of derivatives’. You own the copyright to derivatives of your image. But, if you really work a file a lot - it couldn’t hurt to register it also.

And, just because a registered work is accepted by the Library of Congress, it does not mean that the copyright registration cannot be challenged in court. In fact, if a significant amount of money is on the line, a challenge is not uncommon. Any falsification or factual error in the registration could potentially invalidate the registration. You must expect that participants in a copyright case will look hard at all information on the form, including the publication dates. Make sure that you are registering the earliest possible publication of the photo.

Another tip - imbed copyright and owners information in metadata for electronically transferred files.

Myths and Questions:
“If it doesn’t have a copyright notice, it’s not copyrighted.” This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne Copyright Convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. By default, you should assume that other people’s works are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but you should not risk using them unless you know for sure.

It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is. You may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come upon something unknown, you shouldn’t post that either.

The correct form for a notice is: “Copyright [dates] by [creator /owner]”

You can use C in a circle © instead of “Copyright” but “(C)” has never been given legal force. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places.

“If I don’t charge for it, it’s not a violation.”
False. Whether you charge can affect the damages awarded in court, but that’s main difference under the law. It’s still a violation if you give it away - and there can still be serious damages if you hurt the commercial value of the property. If the work has no commercial value, the violation is mostly technical and is unlikely to result in legal action. Fair use determinations do sometimes depend on the involvement of money.

“If it’s posted to the Internet or Usenet, it’s in the public domain.”
False. Nothing modern and creative is in the public domain anymore unless the owner explicitly puts it in the public domain. Explicitly, as in you have a note from the creator/owner saying, “I grant this to the public domain”, or words very much like them. Some argue that posting to Usenet implicitly grants permission to everybody to copy the posting within fairly wide bounds, and others feel that Usenet is an automatic store and forward network where all the thousands of copies made are done at the command (rather than the consent) of the poster. This is a matter of some debate, but even if the former is true (and in this writer’s opinion we should all pray it isn’t true) it simply would suggest posters are implicitly granting permissions “for the sort of copying one might expect when one posts to Usenet” and in no case is this a placement of material into the public domain. It is important to remember that when it comes to the law, computers never make copies, only human beings make copies. Computers are given commands, not permission. Only people can be given permission. Furthermore it is very difficult for an implicit license to supersede an explicitly stated license that the copier was aware of. Note that all this assumes the poster had the right to post the item in the first place. If the poster didn’t, then all the copies are pirated, and no implied license or theoretical reduction of the copyright can take place.

Note that granting something to the public domain (PD) is a complete abandonment of all rights. You can’t make something “PD for non-commercial use.” If your work is granted PD, other people can even modify one byte and put their name on it. You might want to look into Creative Commons style licenses if you want to grant wide rights.

“My posting was just fair use!” The “fair use” exemption to (U.S.) copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the creator. This is vital so that copyright law doesn’t block your freedom to express your own works - only the ability to appropriate other people’s. Intent and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations.

“If you don’t defend your copyright you lose it.” False. Copyright is effectively never lost these days, unless explicitly given away. While copyright law makes it technically illegal to reproduce almost any new creative work (other than under fair use) without permission, if the work is unregistered and has no real commercial value, it gets very little protection. The creator/owner in this case can sue for an injunction against the publication or infringing user and may win actual damages from a violation, and possibly court costs. Actual damages means actual money potentially lost by the creator/owner due to publication or use, plus any money gained by the defendant. But if a work has no commercial value, the actual damages will likely be zero.

In Summary
These days, almost all images are copyrighted the moment they are created in a material form, and no copyright notice is required.

Copyright is still violated whether you charged money or not, only damages are affected by that.

Postings to the net are not granted to the public domain, and don’t grant you any permission to do further copying except perhaps the sort of copying the poster might have expected in the ordinary flow of the net.

Fair use is a complex doctrine meant to allow certain valuable social purposes.

Copyright is not lost because you don’t defend it; that’s a concept from trademark law.

Work derived from copyrighted works is a copyright violation.

Copyright law is mostly civil law where the special rights of criminal defendants you hear so much about don’t apply. Watch out, however, as new laws are moving copyright violation into the criminal realm.

Don’t rationalize that you are helping the copyright holder; often it’s not that hard to ask permission.
Posting E-mail is technically a violation, but revealing facts from E-mail you got isn’t, and for almost all typical E-mail, nobody could wring any damages from you for posting it. The law doesn’t do much to protect works with no commercial value.

The eCO (Electronic Copyright Office) system
As far as the paper VA form (Visual Arts form), it is being phased out. If you have any VA short forms you can still use them or you can still request them to be mailed to you from the copyright office.

There is a problem with the number of files you can register - if you are registering a very large number of images. There is an upload time limit of 30 minutes, not a size limit. So after 30 minutes, the upload will time-out. But what you can do is fill out all the info on the electronic form, make the payment of $35, and then printout a mailing sheet and mail in your images on a CD, along with a printout of the filenames.

The effective date of your registration will be the date they receive your CD, which the Copyright Office calls the “deposit.” If you do mail in a CD, get a delivery confirmation or return receipt to confirm the date they received your image deposit.

http://www.copyright.gov/

Carbon Transfer II

In Susan Cain’s TED Talk, she spoke of introverts and extroverts and the power of both. I think our world of creativity has become extroverted. We are being condition and taught that our image in the eyes of others is more important than our own image of ourselves. So in photography, it’s all about ‘putting’ oneself out there, about competitions, about having the appearance of a professional, about having a following, about having ‘likes’.

The unfortunate consequence is that we can truly not admit we know nothing, or are a rank beginner and feel good about it. Contentment with one’s level knowing that growth lies ahead with work and time is an enlightenment reserved for the few. More common is the purchase of a digital camera, followed by an online photo-site account, then maybe a personal website. As instantly as the images appear one becomes an instant Artist. A Photographic Artist. It’s as easy as the Auto Mode you use in your camera.

The result is banality. Millions of mediocre photos of sometimes pretty things - way too many birds, flowers, and sunsets. But, it does get you the most ‘like’s’ - the extrovert’s reward. Photography today is like a super obese sugar addict sitting in front of a table filled with cakes and pastries. They can’t stop eating and the instant gratification of the taste buds trumps any thoughts of the consequences. The sugar addict gets a quick fix but is never happy.

For some, photography is a hobby or social endeavor - it is fun, light, and easy. Others who are driven to create may find that they don’t know why they have to take photos. Trying to understand the inexplicable, they often turn outwards and very unfortunately get sucked into the artstyle of the mediocre masses.

Growth comes from introspection and from education. Education can be as simple as a critique, or a pile of books and classes. There are millions of classes and books on Photoshop, a few thousand on learning the “rules” of composition (or how to put yourself in a little box), and maybe a handful that teach you how to discover your reasons, motivations, and direction of your creativity.

After 35 years of taking black & white photos with film, I went digital in 2006. Joined a photo club, one with an appropriate number of moronically stifling rules. Used an online photo-site. Even got a webpage and wrote an “Artists” bio. But nobody could every answer the one question I kept asking: Why?

Why? I think that was the first word out of my mouth, just before mama. Why? People don’t like that word; it puts them on the defensive. But how can you do anything if you don’t know Why?

So, I turned back to myself. I’m an introvert so it wasn’t too difficult. I may not absolutely know why I am driven to take pictures, or be creative, for that matter. But, I know it gives me great satisfaction to make things. I like to use my hands as well as my mind. I built an airplane - 12,000 rivets into 12,000 holes. I’ve written stories. I bake french bread.

Thinking, I now understand why I like to show people my photos, or taste my bread. It is about sharing the positive experience that I get from the things I make. More people like my french bread than my photos, but that has to be expected. My bread is crusty, warm, with flavor that piques ones warm & fuzzy buttons. My best photos, that is, the photos I like the most are a bit odd, often with mentally dark overtones, or simplistic geometric concepts.

Getting to that introspective place where you show creations to share what’s in your mind is a first step towards education. When you only care what you think or feel about a photo, but enjoy others’ enjoyment, then you now own your creativity. Not everyone can relate. Often not those with closed minds or the masses caught in the wave of instant photographic mediocrity. Conversely, it doesn’t matter how many people like your image if you don’t like it.

Enter Carbon Gelatin Printing.

I said I like the idea of crafting with both my mind and body. I’d be a painter if I could but I don’t have the mental skill. It’s much harder to take a photo than it is to paint a picture. Painters get to start with a blank canvas and add the elements. A photographer has to see all of the elements and minimize those detrimental while emphasizing those significant. A photo succeeds less often. It’s why I love photographing at night.

In my Carbon work, the capture is digital, and that’s ok - a camera’s a camera. The initial darkroom is the computer with the first print being a large negative on transparency film. Making carbon tissue is a bit like cooking, and then it becomes an industrial coating process. Combining and UV exposing the negative and carbon tissue is hands-on, as is the developing in a tub of hot water. The image appears slowly as the hot water melts away the unexposed and unhardened black or brownish gelatin.

Every now and then a carbon print comes out quite fantastic. It’s a real achievement. It makes one feel good. I’m talking happiness. The kind of happiness you feel when you do your first solo flight in a small airplane; not to be confused with what people experience when they buy a new car or iphone, or get 5 likes on fb. Printing one good carbon print beats printing five hundred inkjet prints - just ask the fat man eating cake over there.

Carbon Transfer (Carbon Gelatin)

Time to post some pictures of some pictures. Made using a combination of digital capture, digital print-sized negative, and an 1865 india ink (carbon based) and gelatin process.

The why’s of the post will follow following, suffice to say that the process represents a de-evolution relative to superficial instantaneous electronic gratification common to most and a reawakening of the energies that lead to satisfaction and contentment. Too philosophical, yes well…

The few photos posted are the learning phase. Buying already made carbon gelatin tissue, as it is called, exposing to ultraviolet light, mating the carbon gelatin tissue to a final support paper, and developing it in hot water in the kitchen while sipping a gin and tonic.

The prints are mostly 11”x14” and each took a really long time to make. In fact, there is no guarantee that it’ll even turn out and not just wash away in a large soup of cloudy blackness. Cool, huh. But when one does work, and it is a good image, you just want to show it to everyone. It’s fun to be 10 again.

Valencia - Las Fallas Photography tour

I am pleased to announce that I will be joining Edi Finamore with Spain Adventures leading a photography tour to Valencia, Spain for the Las Fallas Festival March 14th to the 21st, 2012. Photography workshops are included and the tour is for all levels.

Las Fallas is one of the most unique and exciting festivals in all of Europe. It is a spectacular celebration of local tradition which takes place in the form of an incredible street party. Enormous sculptural compositions, elaborate traditional gowns, music, fireworks and fantastic nightlife are part of the party that lasts for days. Plan to be there with us to capture it all!

It began as feast day for St. Joseph, patron saint to carpenters, and has evolved into a month long event that culminates in a five day art, food, and entertainment filled street-party celebration that ends in a frenzy of fire and fireworks.

During the year, hundreds of Valencian communities construct the colorful and artistic fallas and ninots sculptures. The sculptures are ephemeral, ornamental, and satirical symbols of humorous, social, or political comment. The very large sculptures are human, animal, or vegetable in form, portraying a critique of a local, national, or international incident, personality, or character.
On the 15th of March, the sculptures get placed around the City of Valencia and the city explodes with festivities. Each day begins with a desperta, which is the traditional firecracker wake-up call signaling the beginning of another day filled with excitement. The streets teem with colorful flowers and every food stand through-out the city beckons to you with buñuelos and rosquilletas from morning until the wee hours.

Every day there is the mascletá that occurs in the Plaza Ayuntamiento at 2pm. String-lined fireworks are ignited to thunderous rhythmic sounds emanating a primal beat felt throughout the area. An important event is the Ofrenda de Flores a la Virgen de los Desamparados, a very beautiful ceremony on March 17 and 18 that honors Valencia’s patron Virgin. Members of the Fallas arrive from around Valencia and take to the streets wearing intricately decorated costumes winding their way to the square. The flowers they carry placed at the base of the enormous statue of The Virgin and are then put into place by men who climb the structure filling her gown.

The closing ceremonial burning on the 19th, when all the fallas and ninots are reduced to ashes is known as La Crema. Beginning in the early evening, hidden holes in the statues are stuffed with fireworks. The crowds get bigger and more excited. In the streets are dancers and entertainers. The city's streetlamps are all turned off and beginning around midnight, the fallas and ninots are set on fire. An incredible barrage of fireworks is launched in to the air above the Valencia as a grand finale.

For more detailed information, please CLICK HERE to visit my website. For information on Spain Adventures, please CLICK HERE.

Cheers,
SM Boris robinson

Real Photographs

My Thoughts...

Photographs represent memories. Memories of your children, of the times when you and they were young. Memories of grandparents, of parents, and special occasions. Cell-phone pictures and point & shoot camera images are for right now - you won’t have them years from now. I take pictures and print them on archival papers so they can be framed and instill into the future the history of you, your family, and your friends.

Everyone looks good when you look at the back of a small point & shoot camera, and most people look good when you look at a typical image on the computer. Capturing the true beauty and personality and making a large print of the person being photographed takes more than point & shoot luck - it takes a natural talent, and it takes training and experience. We learn our art over time with effort and a passion for perfection.

Art and Photography

There are a lot of reasons we run around with cameras taking pictures. For most it’s fun, it’s a hobby, we love to create images. For a very few others, it’s their art. It’s good to understand the two. The main difference between is that an artist has something they want to say or communicate and photography is their medium. Hobbyists take pictures for the pictures sake and many hobbyists produce pictures that can absolutely be termed very ‘artsy’.

Why does this matter? Because most of us really do have something to say, or at least convey or pass on – even if it’s just that we want others to see the beauty of the world. Maybe we feel there’s more to life than television, shopping, and adolescent pop stars. Maybe we believe in a cause, maybe we’re intrigued by life’s paradoxes and contradictions.

What can we learn from the artist? When an artist seeks to express themselves, they seek to create the images that portray what they want to say. The better they understand and know their medium, the better they may be able to offer their unique expression. So, artists tend to experiment. They are not people who are bound by rules or learnings that places limitations or guidelines on their expression. However, being human, we are a composite of our experiences and education, and so often the learning has more to do with ‘rules’ than it has to do with providing tools that may increase one’s ability to be intuitively expressive.

Where did the rules come from? The rules in photography did not come from creation of art, but through the analysis of finished art moving backwards to its creation. This done by intellectuals and critics to understand why we like what we like, and to discover the intellectual and mathematical sides of harmony and composition.

Most people like rules as they provide structure to one’s life, and this structure provides security. But from an artistic standpoint rules stifle creativity. They set up roadblocks and diversions from allowing us to freely discover and express our creative vision. It is like deciding upon a religion, accepting the rules as divine, and closing the mind, in this case the artistic mind. Accepting rules may be good for the structure of society, but not for free expression and art.

So if you desire to learn more about photography, maybe also think about if you have something to say that can be expressed through the photographic medium. For both the hobbyist and the artist, having a basic understanding of composition and harmony, the way the brain sees objects, and what those objects are, is definitely beneficial. These can be learned by reading basic art books or by taking a beginner art class such as Basic Composition or The Elements & Principles of Design.

The next step is to learn one’s medium, in this case cameras and the digital darkroom (aka, Photoshop). The basics of photography and the camera is exceeding simple and involves only three controls: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Sensor Speed (ISO). Learn the relationships of these three and the effects and characteristics that that they produce and you have mastered the camera.

After the camera comes the refinement of your image. In the digital darkroom, you will make the adjustments you feel you need to produce the image that expresses what you want to say. As we age, what we have to say changes. And so our images reflect our evolving thoughts and photography becomes a lifelong pursuit of our own expression.
Cheers,
SMBR
Vero Beach Photography

Photoshop - A Dirty Word

“Hilda, what do you think of this amazing photo?” “It is amazing Agnes, yes, but it looks photoshopped.”

The “photoshopped” comment is something most of us have heard, or even thought or said ourselves. Professional Bird Photographer Ron Bielefeld’s images occasionally illicit the response of “that image was photoshopped” from other photographers. Ron has talent, and after 20 years of pointing a very large lens at 4 inch long birds zipping by at 35 miles per hour, his skills have honed far beyond most of us. His images reflect his capture.

To have captured an image that is so perfect it requires no photoshopping is a wonderful achievement. But, if you think about it, there are limited venues that permit such photography. To some photographers, the value or worth of the image comes from its good capture and lack of post manipulation. To others, the final image is what is most important. The question then is: Is worth measured by the process or the final image?

The answer to the question has a lot to do with what you plan to do with your images. If they are for presentation in a photo club with rules against manipulation, then you have to place more worth on the capture and you get what you get. Although this may seem artistically limiting, there can be satisfaction in manipulating the environment and capture process so as to take an image that portrays the scene that was in your imagination. Manipulation includes moving bad or distracting elements, moving yourself and camera’s perspective, and depth of field to further hone in on your subject.

If your photos are for your own artistic creation, then you must know that there are no rules. You are more free to say or express something through your photos. In many ways, this freedom is more difficult than when your creativity is placed in a small box. It requires more thought about the end result, and it requires studying the tools to achieve the result.

Ansel Adams often took several photos of the same scene with different exposures. The negatives were then manipulated and combined so as to allow a much greater dynamic range than would have otherwise been possible. In his day, chemicals and black inks were used. Today with digital capture, we use Photoshop. The result is the same – you imagine an image and you do what you must to make it real.

Photography can be no less an artful process than painting can be. A painter starts with a blank canvas and adds the elements she wants. A painter controls the way your eye moves through the image so you can ultimately experience what was in her imagination.

Photography is the opposite. We start with an image often full of distracting elements. The distractions take the viewer’s eye away from the path intended, from the feeling or message that the photographer saw and tried to capture. The post-capture manipulation of the image in Photoshop, or whatever digital darkroom tool you use, serves to refine the image to what your imagination intended. Painters and photographers may begin at opposite ends, but with skill they can arrive at the same place.

Take time to learn your available tools and expand your imagination and photographic possibilities. Photoshop doesn’t need to be a bad word, but it does need to be done well.

Boris Robinson
Vero Beach Photography
http://www.sebastianmark.com/

New to Photography

Perhaps you’ve recently discovered that you love to take pictures, you’ve joined a photo club, and maybe you’ve bought a small digital camera. Well, congratulations, but now what. If you’re interested in making better photographs or, at least, making photographs that come out the way you imaged, and you’re serious enough to spend $20 and read a bit, then here are a few ideas that might be of aid.

The camera is the tool of photography. And as with all tools, understanding how your tool works means you’ll know which one to use to get the result you want, i.e., using a flat-head screw driver to try to remove a philips-head screw, or using a standard toaster to try and make a grilled-cheese sandwich (this doesn’t work!).

A good beginner’s book is “The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography” by Jim Miotke, available at Amazon.com for about $16. It was published in 2005, but the basics still apply and the main thing that has changed since then is more pixels and higher resolution. This book will teach you how to use your camera in an easy and simple way, and also teach you the fundamentals so if you do buy a DSLR, you’ll know how it can be used.

It’s not what you shoot with, it’s how you shoot. Point & shoot cameras have some limitations as compared to ‘bigger’ DSLR cameras(digital single lens reflex), but it’s mainly depth of field and noise issues. As an example, a fair number of photos that were accepted and hung (and got awards) in the current Backus Museum photography show were taken with point & shoot cameras. Don’t feel intimidated by people with big expensive cameras and lenses.

The next step is to slow down a bit. Digital allows us to shoot hundreds of pictures and that’s what most people end up doing – like firing a machine gun and hoping to hit something. Rather, use the book (and a written out simple cheat-sheet) to get the effects you want. Pick a subject and go and shoot it on purpose with an idea of what you want to get. For example, the last time I went to shoot water lilies at McKee, I shot three areas and took 31 digital photos. It took an hour and a half and the biggest difference between the photos was the light coming through different clouds and waiting for intermittent puffs of wind to die down. I used the puffs of wind to blur the water and get a ‘painterly’ effect in the reflections, yet had to wait a few seconds so the plants weren’t moving and blurry. Read the book and you’ll know that I used a long exposure (about 3/4 second), the highest f-stop, a tripod, and for point & shoots – the self-timer so there was no camera shake.

In today’s world, we’ve gotten so use to the idea that we buy something, turn it on and we get what we want, that there’s a marked resistance to actually having to do something like read a hundred pages in order to learn. In life we get what we give, so take some time to learn and you will be rewarded with artistic creation.

Now, go and shoot and have fun making photos. You’ll never stop learning because the more you discover, the more you’ll want to try and do.

Boris Robinson
Vero Beach Photographer
http://www.sebastianmark.com/

Understanding Digital Photo Processing

Imagine not knowing how to fly or having a pilot’s license yet having the money to buy a $30,000 airplane and doing so. And then, trying to learn it on your own because you won’t spend $3,000 on lessons – eventually becoming a ‘statistic’.

Photography is not quite as risky as flying, but how about buying $1,000 to $3,000 worth of digital camera gear and then not taking the time to learn to process the images. This is more common than not and there is one recurring theme applicable here – Slow Down, Read, and Understand what you are doing.

Many people are using Picassa or other such basic software to “Digital Darkroom” their images. For the average point-&-shoot snapshot shooter, this is fine as most pictures will be only viewed as low resolution on a computer or the web, or printed at Walgreens as 4x6’s. But if you are more serious about photography, then it is time to learn and use more advanced Digital Darkroom tools.

At around $100, Adobe Elements 8 is an incredible program. With it, you can upload images to your computer, rename them, and organize your files. Elements has a Guided Edit section that will take you through a “workflow” sequence of potential adjustments that produce excellent results and also teach you to the names of these adjustments. You can quick edit, then do more advanced edits as you learn.

Once you get it, though, you’ll have to take the time to learn. Buy a book, such as the Philip Andrews one listed below, watch some tutorial videos at Adobe TV, or take a class down at the Palm Beach Photographic Center. It may take a few months to learn, but you’ll be rewarded with years of producing images the way you imagine.

Resources to learn more include:
Philip Andrews, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for Photographers.
http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements-8/
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/  for advanced use of tools

Boris Robinson
Vero Beach Photographer
http://www.sebastianmark.com/

Time and Photo Files

Although the world seems to be whirling around much faster than in years past, things really haven’t changed. In order to do something properly, you have to take the time to do it properly.

One of the most common problems that new-to-digital and amateur photographers face is organizing and finding files. And the most common reason we have problems is that we don’t take the time to figure things out. So, in an effort to jump start the learning, I have a few tips to help ease your workflow.

First, when you plug in your camera or card, slow down a bit and read what the little boxes popping up have to say. These automatic features of programs like Kodak Easyshare (not at all easy!), Picasa, and Elements/Photoshop will give you clues as to where your files are being placed. If not evident, when the program opens, look for a menu item (usually under an item at the top of the page in a tool bar) like ‘Preferences’, ‘Options’, or ‘Folder Manager’, which will list where your photo files are being saved. Nowadays, almost everything is saved to a My Pictures folder in My Documents (XP) or under Favorites and the computer name (Vista).

So, now you want to take a few pictures and copy them to a memory stick, or maybe attach a picture using gmail or yahoo. How do you find the My Pictures folders.

The most powerful organizational tool invented by Billy Bob Gates and used in Windows is called Windows Explorer. It uses several very easy features to move and copy files including Apple’s Drag and Drop features. This means you can click on a file and drag (left click and hold) it to another folder and drop it (release mouse button).

I always have Windows Explorer in several places including my desktop. To get it there, if you don’t have it (it looks like a folder), minimize your windows and programs, click on Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, then right-click (and hold) on Windows Explorer and drag it over to your desk top. Release the mouse button and a menu pops up. Choose Copy Here, and voila, you have a Windows Explorer Icon on your desktop. If you don’t, bloody well slow down, read, and do it again!

Afterwards, double click on the Explorer icon and it’ll open. On the left side you’ll have My Documents (XP) or Favorites and a list of folders on your computer. By clicking on a folder in the left pane (double-click if it’s in the right pane) it’ll open the folder. Now you have to think of your physical desktop, I mean your real desktop with the mound of papers and unpaid bills on it. How do you move a paper (file) from one place to folder to another. you pick it up and move it. The same applies in Windows Explorer.

You left click and hold on a file or photo file and drag it to another folder, and it moves the file. For more options, you can click once on a file in the right pane of Windows Explorer to highlight it. In XP, click on Edit in the top toolbar and you’ll see you can copy it, rename it, etc. In Vista, click on Organize and you see the same options.

Now, when you plug in your memory stick notice that an automatic list of menu choices opens up. Slow Down! Read your choices and if Open Windows Explorer folder is one of them, click it. By reading the options listed and trying to navigate around, you’ll see that you can drag and drop files onto the memory stick (usually listed as a drive, such as ‘Drive E’ under ‘My Computer’). Or, you can use the top toolbar item such as Edit/Copy. you can also right-click on a file or folder and similar options such as Copy or Move will be available.

Take some time and explore this and you’ll see that you can make and rename folders and really get organized.

Boris Robinson
Vero Beach Photographer
http://www.sebastianmark.com/

Raw vs. JPG Camera Files

If you’re shooting images in JPG, you are actually creating digitally enhanced or manipulated images, well at least the camera is.

RAW is essentially the data from the digital camera sensor. To get the largest tonal range, that is the range from shadows to highlights, camera sensors are optimized to create a flat, low contrast image. Unprocessed RAW images look flat and the colors are often muted. In order to make it look ‘right’ you have to use software to process your image (or “digital darkroom” the image as my friend Boris calls it).  

For the JPG image format, the camera software takes the RAW data and enhances the contrast, the color saturation and vibrancy, and removes some of the sensor noise. You can usually choose different enhancements or manipulations such as Vivid (pops colors) or Low, for lowering the contrast. JPG files are compressed and are smaller so you can get more images on a card as compared to RAW files, which tend to be very large and use up memory cards faster.

So which one? Many people say that it’s about quality, but when you look at most images and what you’re going to use them for, it’s hard to tell the difference.

But, it’s actually more than just quality verses files size. RAW images are like a film negative. They haven’t been manipulated or processed. If you’re taking snapshots, it probably won’t matter so use the easier JPG. But if you take photos with a final picture in mind, or want to do more serious digital darkrooming to create an image that specifically expresses what you want, then using the RAW format will give the greatest control and latitude in the final artistic processing.

The biggest hurdle when considering RAW digital darkrooming is that you have to learn to use more advanced software such as Adobe Photoshop or Elements. Elements is a great and powerful program for around $100 (and all most will need) but will require some reading and maybe a few classes. But the rewards are better images that you control.

SM Boris Robinson

Vero Beach Photographer

www.sebastianmark.com