Digital Innovations

“I’m not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.”—Bill Watterson

The first PMA show I attended in 1982 was also held in Las Vegas. A lot has changed since then, but photography has clearly changed the most. Here are some of the highlights for digital photographers I saw at this year’s edition:
The D-SLR announcements were few but...

"Life is like a 10-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use."--Charles M. Schultz

Retouching Tools
One of the biggest challenges facing aspiring portrait photographers is retouching. Few of us are perfect. In fact, Cindy Crawford once said, "Even I don't look like Cindy Crawford when I get up in the morning!"...

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”—Pablo Picasso

I’ve attended many photokina shows since my first in 1978 where I met two men whose work affects me to this very day. One was Norman Rothschild who wrote a popular magazine column called “Offbeat” and the other was Jean Coquin who had just invented a modular...

"There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis."--Malcolm Gladwell

The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in mathematics (www.improb.com /ig/ig-pastwinners.html) was awarded to Dr. Piers Barnes and Ms. Nic Svenson of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific...

"No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it." --Charles M. Schulz

After recently acquiring a Canon EOS Rebel XTi, I was able to retire (thanks, Gary) the EOS D60 I've been using for digital infrared photography and start using a camera with a 2.5" LCD screen that delivers 10.1-megapixel resolution. To convert the...

During a portrait session and perhaps to a lesser extent when shooting a wedding, you can control the lighting, background, and subject. During a portrait session, I try to manage everything from the subject’s pose, clothing, and makeup and the resulting photographs tend to be as much a portrait of me as they are of my subject. What often emerges from that control is a style, which is not something I’m conscious about when photographing, but the truth is that over time we all develop a signature way of shooting. The danger is that we keep shooting that same way or different versions of the same shot for the rest of our lives. Any style you develop must grow and change as you learn. Otherwise, what’s the point? As we continue to shoot and learn from experience, and reading magazines like Shutterbug, we start to tweak and improve those results until what emerges is truly a personal style.