PHOTOGRAPHERS. Virtual reality (VR) photography provides a powerful way to deliver useful information to website visitors. By enabling viewers to interact with panoramic photography in a 360-degree circle or spherical views, a website can offer “virtual tours” of a site or facility.
VR photography is a popular way to showcase tourist destinations, real-estate developments, hotels, museums, convention-center facilities, college campuses, and medical, health care, and fitness centers. High-quality VR photography can give viewers a sense of being there.
If you have considered adding VR imaging services to your photography business, check out the new Virtual Reality Photography book by expert Scott Highton.
The richly illustrated 320-page book includes 24 detailed chapters on both the artistic and technical aspects of VR photography. The four main sections cover the basics of photography, panoramic and object VR imaging, and business practices.
Peter Skinner wrote a detailed review of the book in April, 2011 issue of Rangefinder magazine. You can also learn more about the book and the field of VR Photography on Highton’s website: www.vrphotography.com
The fledging iPhoneography movement is a perfect example of what can happen when technology developers make it easy for artists and other creative pros to experiment with new hardware and software.
Imaging-industry analysts have long believed that smartphones would someday replace point-and-shoot cameras as the primary tool for taking snapshots. But these analysts probably never imagined just how wildly enthusiastic photographers of all skill levels have become about the artistic potential of the Apple iPhone camera and its ever-growing ecosystem of apps.
Some iPhoneography evangelists are long-time photography pros who have extensive experience with darkroom processing and fine-art photo printing.
The Advantage of iPhoneography
Photographers coined the term “iPhoneography” to describe the art of capturing and creatively processing images with the inexpensive apps available for the camera built into Apple iPhones
Professional iPhoneographer and teacher Teri Lou Dantzler still uses her DSLR camera to shoot portraits for clients. But carrying an all-in-one camera, darkroom, and social-communication device in her pocket has opened her eyes to limitless possibilities for creative expression and fun.
“Since I always have my iPhone with me, I have captured images that I would have passed by before,” says Teri Lou. “I have processed images while waiting for appointments, while snuggled into a chair at the coffee café, on top of a 10,000-ft. peak, and at bedtime.” She publishes her work on photo blogs and for the Facebook iPhoneography group she started last fall.
Another benefit of iPhoneography is the simplicity of converting a basic camera and processor into a device that can shoot HDR or panoramic images or mimic the look of vintage cameras. Anyone can produce Photoshop-like effects without enduring a painful learning curve or continuously investing in new gadgets or full-featured editing software. For less than $5, you can buy a new app that performs only the tasks you need to create the type of art you envision.
Where to Start?
Because so many iPhoneography apps exist, it can be hard for novices to know where to start. And in fact, many apps do similar things, some better than others.
To help guide and inspire novices, there has been an explosion of iPhoneography books, courses, and tutorials. To decide which resource is right for you, check out the instructor’s background, images, blogs, and the content of the course or book. Here’s just a sampling of what’s available.
Online Courses
Teri Lou Dantzler offers four-week online courses, supplemented by one-on-one critiques over the phone. When you register, she asks what type of imagery you would like to produce, then modifies the course accordingly. Her iPhone-Ography 101 course helps beginners focus on learning those apps best suited for their artistic goals. Her iCreativity course covers a variety of blending, brushing, and masking techniques.
For more information about all of her upcoming courses and workshops, visit Terri Lou’s blog: http://iphoneographywithterilou.blogspot.com/
Chances are your local photography-learning center will be offering iPhoneography courses sometime this year. But if you want to learn how to convert your iPhone images into gallery-worthy art prints, check out the workshops offered by Harry Sandler and Dan Burkholder.
Harry Sandler is a former music-industry tour manager and rock-concert photographer whose images have appeared in Rolling Stone and Circus magazines. He has been taking iPhone pictures of his travels for over two years. Some 17 x 22-inch prints of his iPhone images have been displayed at the Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery in Carmel, Indiana and he has another gallery exhibit scheduled this fall.
Sandler will lead an iPhone-Ography Workshop May 14 and 15 at the Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton, New Jersey and a day-long iPhonography class June 4 at Foto-Care in New York. From November 4-7, he will team up with Teri Lou Dantzler to teach an iPhoneography workshop at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island near Seattle
During his May workshop, Sandler will explain how to: capture an image with the proper resolution, work the various apps, figure out a personal workflow, create panoramas right in the phone, and process and print your iPhone images with good color, resolution, depth, and texture.
Sandler regards the iPhone as an extremely versatile tool in his artistic arsenal, offering a marriage of painting and photography. Initially, the iPhone camera reminded him of the Polaroid camera his father gave him as a child. Now he uses the iPhone in a variety of ways, including as a viewfinder for his 60 MP digital camera. Sandler is currently experimenting with compositing iPhone imagery and may try painting some of his iPhone photo prints.
Dan Burkholder was one of the first photographic artists to embrace digital technology in the early 1990s. He will be presenting iPhone Artistry workshops at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops (April 29-May 1 and October 12-15), Freestyle Photographic Supplies in Los Angeles (May 14), the Connecticut Media/Photo Workshops (June 25-26), the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY (Aug. 13-14), Maine Media Workshops (August 21-27), and in his own studios in Palenville, NY (Sept. 3-4 and Oct. 8-10).
During his workshops, he will teach camera capture techniques that are exclusive to iPhoneography and provide advice on which apps are best for contrast, color, and sharpening. He will demonstrate how certain apps can be combined to transform your images into fine art. Dan will also explain how to make stunning prints of iPhone images on art paper or canvas and show how the iPhone and iPad can work together to form a photographic dynamic duo.
Dan is widely known for both his vision as his artist and his mastery of the wet and digital darkrooms. His platinum prints are included in many museum and private collections. Dan’s groundbreaking book “Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing” helped black-and-white photographers take advantage of emerging electronic technologies. His forthcoming book on “iPhone Artistry” is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
To sample the type of advice Dan has to offer, download one of Dan Burkholder’s Tiny Tutorials to your iPhone. The tutorials explain how to organize your apps, streamline your image adjustment workflow, stitch and retouch iPhone images, and use basic masking and curves in Filterstorm.
Interactive Book with iPad Companion Edition
“iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps” was written by photographer/designer Dan Marcolina. Dan’s design firms are at the forefront of integrating design for print, video, and interactive media and designing publications and catalogs for touch-enabled tablets.
In his interactive print book, Dan shows how different iPhone camera apps can be combined to create artistic effects such as blurs and vignettes, high-dynamic range, and black-and-white imagery. After you download the free Microsoft Tag Reader onto your iPhone, you can scan one of the 75 tags printed throughout the book to watch Dan present pop-up video tutorials.
Dan was one of the first to use Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite to create an iPad Companion edition of his book.
Print and E-Books
The book “Create Great iPhone Photos: Apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects” was written by Allan Hoffman, who has spent 15 years as the technology columnist for New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper. He explains how to produce stunning panoramas, vintage-style photobooth strips, and super-saturated Polaroid® photos with a hip, 1970s look. The book also explains how to unlock the power of your iPhone’s camera with burst mode, high dynamic range (HDR) effects, exposure and focus controls, and more.
In “The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity,” award-winning documentary photographer Stephanie C. Roberts urges you to use your iPhone to loosen up your traditional approach to photography and become more spontaneous in shooting how you feel.
She emphasizes that, “photography is less about the camera, and more about the vision of the person behind the lens.” While the book explains how use various apps to stretch your creative boundaries and make art with your iPhone camera, many of the techniques in the book could be applied to shooting with any other type of camera. Stephanie will be presenting one-day Art of iPhoneography workshops at the Showcase School of Photography in Atlanta in May and June.
A new book by photographer/designer Dan Marcolina demonstrates the creative possibilities of both the iPhone camera and interactive books.
Entitled “iPhone Obsessed: Photo-Editing Experiments with Apps,” the book published by Peachpit shows how you can use 47 of the best low-cost apps with the iPhone camera and create artistic photographic effects such as blurs and vignettes, high dynamic range, traditional film effects, and black and white images. The “image recipes” in the book are the result of a year-long series of mobile-imaging experiments Dan conducted with his iPhone and various apps.
Marcolina explains how to combine apps to construct images, talking about which apps he used and why. He also includes some advanced tips for integrating Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. If you want to use your iPhone to create images that are good enough to hang on your wall, you’ll learn which apps to use and where to get them.
Marcolina has been practicing photography for more than 30 years, and his images have appeared in juried shows and dozens of publications worldwide. But he says his obsession with iPhone imagery has reinvigorated his love for both photography and visual experimentation.
What Makes the Book Interactive To extend your reading pleasure, the print version of the book integrates 75 Microsoft tags that take you beyond the surface of the printed page. After downloading a free Tag Reader (http://gettag.mobi), you can use your iPhone to scan the tags printed in the book. When you scan each tag, you can watch full-screen video clips on your iPhone of Dan Marcolina giving app overviews and step-by-step tutorial of how he created a particular image.
The tags let you uncover more than four hours of bonus video tutorials, app developer websites, and linkes to the iTunes Store for app purchase. You’ll also view inspirational image galleries and free downloadable resource images.
“Microsoft Tag makes the world around you clickable, and now with the scan of Tag, readers will get a richer, more enhanced experience from the pages of the book,” explains Bill McQuain, Microsoft’s director of Tag Product Management.
The iPad Companion Edition The book “iPhone Obsessed” is one of the first printed books to be released with an iPad Companion Edition authored with Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite. The suite enables publishers to create, distribute, monetize, and optimize publications on a variety of mobile devices including iPad and Android media tablets.
When the iPad companion edition of the “iPhone Obsessed” book is released later this month, Dan will supplement the book’s core content with 25 brand-new image recipes and 35 app reviews, along with expanded video tutorials on some of the images from the book.
About Marcolina Design and Marcolina Slate LLC Dan Marcolina’s Philadelphia-based firm Marcolina Design is well-known for their expertise in integrating print, web, and video work. Dan recently launched Marcolina Slate LLC to produce “touchable design for mobile devices.” Applying lessons learned from designing print, interactive, and video, Marcolina Slate LLC will produce unique publication solutions for iPad and Android Slate devices, immersive books, engaging advertising, memorable advertising, and living catalogs.
About Peachpit Peachpit has been publishing books on the latest in photography, graphic design, web development, digital video, and Mac computing since 1986. Many photographers and designers know Peachpit as the publishing partner for Kelby Training and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
Here’s an excellent example of some of the fun and creative ways marketers are encouraging customers and prospects to engage with their brands. With the launch of MyPhotoExhibits (MPE), Tamron USA is inviting photography enthusiasts to showcase their favorite images in a unique, free online venue. Unlike traditional static online galleries, Tamron’s MyPhotoExhibits interface allows you to create your own customizable, 3D exhibit space.
You start by setting up a user avatar and bio, then uploading your favorite high-resolution images. After organizing your exhibit and captioning the photos, you can put the finishing touches on your exhibit space by choosing from different options for the gallery space (wall and floor textures and colors), photo frames, furniture, and lighting.
After the space has been created, you can go back into the MPE interface to add more photos, tweak presentation specs, or create additional exhibits.
Use the iPhone app to browse other MPE exhibits, view your own exhibit, or invite others to view your exhibit.
Once your exhibit is ready to “open,” you can choose to have the exhibit viewed “by invitation only” or remain open to the public. Invitations to view the exhibit can be sent from the website’s iPhone app via Facebook or other social media, or by email. Viewers of the exhibit can sign the your “guest book,” choose “favorite” exhibits, and “follow” exhibiting photographers.
If you would like to produce your own iPad magazine, catalog, or book app, check out the free iPad Publishing solution announced by Silicon Valley-based start-up iBuildApp.com. The company has created templates that make it much less complicated for authors and other non-coders to format and publish content to mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad.
The solution was designed to deliver a good experience for the reader. “We believe that a digital magazine or newspaper should feel like a media app, not like a magazine reader,” said Rafael Soultanov, of iBuildApp.com “When someone swipes from page to page they can choose different stories to read. Images are vivid, and video is optimized. If a reader wants to comment or share what they’re reading, they just tap a button.”
The fully functional publishing app takes about 2 to 3 hours to create and publish content. Just copy/paste content into the pre-made templates for the iPad for free. With the templates, self-publishers can focus on their content and leave the formatting, publishing and distribution to iBuildApp.
The company plans to integrate the iBuildApp iPad solution with other CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. It will simply require snippets of code from iBuildApp to be inserted into the CMS code.
Unlike other services, iBuildApp Self-Publishing Solution provides authors with a free online editor, free formatting and design templates, and integrated publishing for iPad and Web.
Founded in 2010, iBuildApp is headquartered in Foster City, California. Their goal is to make it easy and affordable for businesses of all sizes to build and manage mobile apps.
iBuildApp’s first product was a do-it-yourself platform for making iPhone/Android apps without knowledge of coding. As of the end of March, the iBuildApp solution had been used to produce about 2,000 of the iPhone apps available on iTunes.
Picture some of the photo-merchandise possibilities of the latest 3D printing service offered by Sculpteo. After you upload front- and profile-view photos of an individual, Sculpteo artists will interpret the visuals to create a 3D model of that person which they will send you for approval. You get to choose the clothing and colors.
Within a few days, you will receive a personalized figurine (or 3D avatar or mini-action figure) between 3 to 4 inches high. The figurines are manufactured on a 3D digital printer, which builds and solidifies a material layer by layer until the finished object is created.
The mini-action figures could be popular for graduation, birthday, and retirement parties or bridal showers and weddings. You might also create mini-action figures for sports-team banquets or as gifts for children of military parents serving overseas. You can figure out many other possibilities as well.
PHOTOGRAPHERS. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to win a Pulitzer Prize at age 25? To see your photography on the cover of Sports Illustrated? To get paid to shoot a celebrity on the beaches of the British Virgin Islands? Photographer Brian Smith has done all three of these things during his 30-year career as a photography pro.
He talked about those experiences and more during an entertaining and informative PhotoShelter webinar entitled “Stop Waiting for Your Big Break.”
During the hour-long interview with PhotoShelter CEO Alan Murabayashi, Smith provides practical career advice while sharing some of the humorous stories behind some of the images that helped him transition from shooting sports for local newspapers to shooting celebrity portraits for national magazines. Here are just a few of the tips Brian Smith presented during the discussion.
Find ways to shoot what you love, then shoot every assignment as if it were your dream job. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever get one big break that will permanently propel your career into the stratosphere, Smith said. But with the right attitude and work ethic, you can build a satisfying career from a series of small breaks. The key is to make the most of each small break by shooting everything like you’re working for Sports Illustrated or Rolling Stone. Smith pointed out that the photo editors at top magazines are unlikely to call you until you have demonstrated that you can produce the type of work they expect.
Build on those techniques that have worked for you in the past. By continually returning to projects and techniques that have worked for you in the past, you will eventually develop a style that will set you apart from others. For example, Smith says, “As a photojournalist, I continue to look for the unexpected, even when shooting portraits.”
Enter contests that are appropriate for your demographic. Winning the right contests can be a great way to get your work in front of people who are in a position to hire you. It also means that other people will be doing PR on your behalf. That type of PR is generally more credible and effective than the PR you do on your own.
Use personal projects to show people the type of work you want. When Smith was trying to transition from sports photojournalism into celebrity portraiture, he decided to shoot a series of portraits of aging burlesque stars. The project demonstrated that he could work with flamboyant performers with oversized personalities. Not only did this project help Smith land an assignment to photograph Donald Trump, but several years later, it resulted in a Sports Illustrated assignment to photograph a nudist golf tournament. As Smith puts it, “Do good work, and you never know when it will pay off.” A personal project may not generate assignments right away, but good work can leave a lasting impression.
Build a strong website and keep people coming back to it. Once you have built a strong body of work with a distinctive style, Smith says a good website can be the most important tool you have. Today, every photo editor has different preferences in terms of how they want to be contacted (e.g. through the mail, e-mail, social networks, etc.). So you have to try a lot of different methods of getting your work seen. But if you always point people back to your website, they can get a sense of what you’ve been up to and the type of work you are capable of. Smith said it’s important to tweak the content regularly and show people that you’re continuing to work on new projects.
Smith noted that it’s never been easier to get your work out there and seen, but because there’s so much work out there, your work really has to have something special.
That’s why he urges photographers to swing for the fences, and not always go for the safe shot. For example, Smith provided this advice: After you’ve fulfilled all of the items that your clients wants you to shoot in the way they want it shot, try to take a moment or two to shoot the job the way you would do it if you were shooting it for yourself. Your client might be happily surprised by the results.
PhotoShelter is a leading provider of websites and business tools for photographers.
PHOTOGRAPHERS. Virtual reality (VR) photography provides a powerful way to deliver useful information to website visitors. By enabling viewers to interact with panoramic photography in a 360-degree circle or spherical views, a website can offer “virtual tours” of a site or facility.
