Digital Innovations

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Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Nov 24, 2023  | 

Experience the thrill of precisely and accurately editing photos and other graphic creations directly on the actual image as it's displayed on the new Wacom One 13 Touch 13.3-inch screen using a battery-free, pressure sensitive Wacom digital pen. The Wacom One 13 Touch is easy to use, affordable and enormous fun—here is our hands-on REVIEW.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Oct 05, 2023  | 

The new Leica SOFORT 2 is a digital camera that can print. And it's an instant camera that saves digital images. It can even connect to Leica's FOTOS app and print images shot with a different Leica camera. Plus it comes in three colors, including a drop-dead gorgeous red. What more could one ask for?

Ron Leach  |  Nov 15, 2017  | 

The headline above may be a bit of a stretch, at least for now. But in the quick video below, you’ll see how new technology from Nvidia can create photorealistic faces, like those you see here, of people who don’t really exist.

Joe Farace  |  Dec 09, 2014  | 
When I was a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art back in the film days, there was a bulletin board near the school’s darkrooms where misplaced negatives were pinned. It was officially called “The Little Lost Negative Board” but someone had surreptitiously added, “Someday my prints will come.”
Joe Farace  |  Sep 19, 2014  | 

Like most photographers I occasionally become equipment obsessed, but sometimes even the smallest tool, something as simple and useful as a new LensPen, can make creating new images a little easier. I’ve often said that the most important piece of equipment is the one between a photographer’s ears, but creating images also requires tools. Choosing the right tool or accessory may not make the difference between a good photograph and a bad one, but may make the difference in whether or not you even try to capture it.

Joe Farace  |  Aug 26, 2014  | 

The most important tip I would like to share about travel photography is never buy a new camera or lens before traveling to Bhutan or even Carhenge. The next most essential travel photography secret is that using your equipment has to be instinctive; when a photo op presents itself you may only have a few seconds to get a shot. There’s no time to think about what menu to use or how to turn on continuous AF, or what exposure mode you’re in. Using your camera has to be instinctive; you should see—or even anticipate—then click the shutter. It’ll make travel more fun, too.

Joe Farace  |  Jul 11, 2014  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2014  | 

I received similar advice from my own father on my 17th birthday that ultimately put me on the path to a career—not a job—in photography. The photograph here was made by my friend Danny when we climbed the 897 stairs inside the Washington Monument. Inside the classy vinyl camera bag slung over my shoulder is a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye that my parents gave me for a birthday present. I modified the camera to accept close-up and yellow filters that an uncle gave me as a gift. Even then I was interested in enhancing images, and I had no idea what that might hold, but I was fascinated by computers (and robots) back then as well.

Joe Farace  |  May 09, 2014  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2014  | 
Aside from how to pronounce my name, the main question readers ask is about the workflow I use to process image files. I find it’s convenient to work with two desktop computers, often at the same time, with a laptop computer used on the road and for testing new software. A Mac Pro handles my daily work with an iMac tasked for e-mail and research but also as a live backup when problems occur with computer number one. The iMac also runs Microsoft Windows 7 using Apple’s Boot Camp. Since my laptop is used for experimentation, and that’s where you’ll find the latest OS and imaging software, I don’t store anything critical on it.
Joe Farace  |  Mar 17, 2014  | 
Many people think they need to travel far from home to make photographs when, chances are, if they took the time to look around they would discover that photo ops are right around the corner. That’s where self-assignments come in: for the past 30 years mine has been making images that I can walk to from my front door—like the tiny flower in my front yard I captured this afternoon. It wasn’t made for any commercial purpose and is just a way for me to appreciate and document the small things of daily life that many people take for granted. It’s personal projects like this that help us all stretch our talent, skill, and imagination. You can think of it is as a form of digital meditation.
Joe Farace  |  Apr 07, 2014  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2014  | 
New & Updated Photoshop Actions
Remember the ASCII-art dot-matrix photos that were popular in the 1980s? PanosFX’s free ASCII-art action recreates the effect by producing images pieced together from ASCII characters. The set contains five actions that let you produce not only the classic ASCII-art effect but four modern variations as well, including Gray, Color, Color tiles, and Color tubes. The free Paperworks actions were created by Pit Hermann and let you make papercraft projects. His Pencil Stand actions let you produce (surprise) pencil stands with your photos printed on them. There’s also a set of Advent Calendar actions and Panos Efstathiadis has bundled his Paper Cube actions that let you make paper cubes with images printed on them. Mac OS and Windows versions work with Photoshop CS4 and later as well as Photoshop Elements 11 or later.
Joe Farace  |  Feb 11, 2014  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2014  | 
Not too long ago there was an online discussion about what inspires people to create new images. For me, new things are what inspire me. It can be a new lens, a new accessory, or maybe just a new place to make photographs. Here are some new tools for your inspiration along with a few ways to make old things reinspire you.
Joe Farace  |  Jan 28, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2013  | 
Instead of visions of sugarplums, it’s visions of gadgets, gizmos, and software dancing through digital photographers’ heads during the holiday time. Presented for your approval is a group of fun, clever, and affordable tools that will put a smile on your face when opening holiday gifts and make imaging in 2014 more exciting.
Joe Farace  |  Dec 04, 2013  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2013  | 
On October 2, 1950, the first Peanuts comic strip appeared in a daily newspaper. As a lifelong Peanuts fan and Snoopy collector it’s fitting that this month’s column is my 2100th published magazine article and I’d like to thank the best editorial team I’ve ever worked with—Shutterbug’s Editorial Director George Schaub and Managing Editor Andrea Keister—without whom none of this would be possible. I would also like to thank all of those readers who have hung in there with me for all these years. You are the reason I do this.
Joe Farace  |  Oct 04, 2013  |  First Published: Sep 01, 2013  | 
As I write this controversy is swirling over Adobe Systems abandoning Creative Suite to focus on Creative Cloud. Even if this is solved by the time you read this, there will come a time when you’ll have to face a decision about whether or not to upgrade your software. There are two different schools of thought on software upgrades: one approach suggests that if a program is working, why spend money to upgrade? The reason behind this philosophy is that sometimes upgrades create more problems than they solve. A second viewpoint is to always upgrade to the latest version—no matter what. The thinking is that since change is inevitable that you should upgrade to the newer version to minimize or eliminate future problems. How Adobe has handled Camera Raw over the past few Photoshop upgrades is a testament to that theory. Over the years I’ve changed from an upgrade-regardless person to a more cautious approach. I may prefer to have the latest version of everything being used on a daily basis but now will wait weeks (months, years?) all the while listening to the drumbeat of grumbles from early adopters. That’s why I’m waiting to see what happens with Adobe’s new policy.
Joe Farace  |  Sep 03, 2013  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2013  | 
Alien Skin Software’s Exposure 5 is powerful monochrome conversion software that lets you produce accurate film simulations while adding a range of creative effects. Wrapped up in a redesigned and easy-to-use interface, Exposure 5 can also be launched as a stand-alone application, which can be useful in a workflow that doesn’t support plug-ins. This latest version includes controls for emulating color or black and white so you don’t have to switch between modes or, as in previous versions, separate plug-ins. It’s all one happy family.

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