They say you can’t teach an old pony new tricks, but I don’t believe that’s true. Personally, in the last couple years, I’ve learned to dance, some Japanese, and how to develop film. Recently, I also decided to start learning to play the piano. To give you a bit of background, you have to know that I never studied music …
The Lightroom Catalog: Storage Considerations
This is the second article in my series about the Adobe Ligthroom catalog. You can find the previous articles here: The Lightroom Catalog: the Basics Where Should You Store Your Catalogs? One of the questions about the Lightroom catalog I get asked most frequently is certainly: Where do I store my catalog? In order to answer this question, I will …
The Lightroom Catalog: the Basics
Many people who are using Adobe Lightroom are confused about the concept of a catalog and have many questions about it. I keep getting questions myself, so I thought I’d write a series of articles to hopefully provide some answers and demystify some of its most obscure features and confusing aspects. Lightroom vs. Lightroom Classic What follows is relevant to …
When To Use Manual Mode
I have to tell you a secret: on my cameras I use aperture priority about 90% of the time. I sometimes use manual mode and very rarely shutter priority. If I feel a photo might be over- or under-exposed, I use exposure compensation (I love the fact that my Fuji cameras have a dedicated exposure compensation dial). There’s a piece …
The Best Milan Neighborhoods for Street and Urban Photography: Duomo and La Scala
Piazza Duomo, with its stunning gothic cathedral, is certainly the heart of Milan and it has been since its foundation. Road distances from the city are computed from this spot. The white Cathedral (“il Duomo”) is an amazing subject to photograph, but especially so at the blue hour, when it is lit up, and in the afternoon, when the sun …
Five Reasons Why You Should Ignore The Golden Section
I just had an interesting discussion in an online forum that started with a question that sounded innocuous enough. The question (paraphrasing) was: “Do you keep the thirds grid in your viewfinder on to help you with composing images following the rule of thirds?” My answer was that I do keep the grid on, but just as an aid in …
Launch Now, Review Later
I wish I had a dime for every time I had a conversation with somebody who wanted to show their work to the world, but was holding back because of some lame excuse. Usually, I ask if they have a website and the answer is some variation of: “It’s still under construction. I’ll show it when it’s done.” “I’m working …
Great photos need so much more than f-stops and shutter speeds
Did you ever find yourself thinking one of those thoughts? “Photography makes me feel alive. I never get tired of shooting!” “Oh, this sucks. Didn’t turn out at the way I saw it!” “Trying to find my style! Aaarrgghhhhh this is so difficult.” “If I think of my hard drive and all the courses and videos I bought? Embarrassing.” Let’s …
Jack Of All Trades, Master Of Some
In the past, through articles and emails and speeches, most notably in the recent talk I gave at the Out Of Chicago Photography Conference, whose recording you can find here, I mentioned the Helsinki Bus Station Theory, first introduced by Finnish photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen. The theory is a metaphor of the life of an artist and of a photographer in …
Five tips for teaching your kid photography
by Dan Barr While looking at something in front of us, it is difficult to take note of each aspect which is within our vision. A moment will only last for so long. But you tend not to notice everything about it. For example, at a birthday party, when the cake is being cut, it is not possible to observe …