Filed under: Media, Photography | Tags: Aperture, Apple, Camera, Photography
A recent Twitter post summed things up when the writer said, “Apple Aperture is like your dead-beat dad who shows up late on Christmas day. But he has EVERY present you ever wanted.”
There’s some truth in this because Apple are kind of slow at releasing updates – and they struggle to keep up with RAW formats for new cameras – much to the frustration of many a new camera owner.
I had decided that failing anything new from Apple, I would switch to Lightroom 3 when it come out of Beta in April. Aperture 3 therefore surprised with it’s “200 new features” so Apple delivered, and big time. This is really quite an impressive upgrade.
Sadly actual upgrade process was incredibly painful – there is some suspicion on web forums that there’s a memory leak – and as a result there are many posts about the amount of time it takes to complete an upgrade (and the fact that computer resources are so heavily drawn on that the computer is useless for many hours). Hopefully a fix will come soon, but if you persevere with the upgrade and cycle through a series of re-starts, things seem to come right. And that’s when all is forgiven (new users probably won’t have this upgrade hurdle of importing and converting their old files)
It’s clear that Apple have been listening – and while this is still not quite the DAM manager I’d like it to be, it’s much improved on many fronts.
While Aperture was down for me, I used Lightroom 2 to finish a project I was working on. Granted it is a while since I used LR, but it proved to me just how much more I prefer Aperture. Lightroom’s “module” based approach is frustrating – chopping and changing my workflow to suit the software is not how I want things to work. Also, the cluttered interface was annoying – urgh, you have to click so many things to get the panels out of the way. By contrast, Apertures F key (for full-screen) is sweet, and now on A3 you simply hold the shift key while making your Adjustment and 99% of the HUD vanishes (it just keeps the slider you are using). This is very cool.
There are many great new features in Aperture 3 – thanks Apple (and perhaps thanks to Adobe too, as some of the new ideas appear to have been inspired by Lightroom). It’s a pity the upgrade path is so onerous, and that updates to the RAW engine seem to take so long to be released, but all in all this is an outstanding application.
UPDATE
Hmm maybe I spoke to soon. Things slowed down again – had to crash out of an export session that A2 would have done easily (seemed the CPU creep thing was happening again). And brushes, woah those things are slow and clunky on me.
Oh well, I await a fix – am sure they’re working on it at Apple land. Just hope it’s soon as this is frustrating (and damaging for them too)
UPDATE 2
Well it is a week later as I write this and I have just had A3 crash three or four times in a row as I try to work on a clients shoot. I guess the fine print says I can’t sue for lost income and time, but professional quality this is not. C’mon, where’s some info on patch/fix please???
UPDATE 3
A major patch came out today (taking Version 3 to 3.0.1), about two weeks after my problems started. I think this is a good fast response from Apple – hopefully it addresses the issues, I’ll give it a good workout over coming days…
UPDATE 4
MUCH improved in many area (thanks!), but Faces is frozen and won’t re-start (after initially working for about 10 minutes), brushes still too clunky to be of any use, random crashes continue – and there are other “issues.” As twitter message said, “Aperture 3 was Alpha and 3.0.1 was Beta” – so hopefully we get a release candidate soon…
UPDATE 5
Another patch duly applied – this time to Apple Pro Apps (to address a “memory leakage”) so hopefully the cumulative effect of these fixes is helping. I still find the bushes too slow to be useful, and faces has given up on me – but the main features I relied on with Aperture 2 seem to be going OK. So far anyway.
UPDATE 6
A patch that upgrades Aperture to 3.0.2 came out today. According to Apple’s release notes it appears to address quite a list of bugs – and even adds a new feature (iPad support). So, kudos to Apple for continuing to address their screw-up’s – they’re making an effort to get this right and I imagine there will be more of these yet. Shame it wasn’t right when it shipped – but they’ll learn from it and someone will be updating their resume I guess. Meantime, I’m running Faces again overnight to see how it performs this time around…
Later: Well after two nights and all-day in between, Aperture picked six more faces out. As a result, I’ve once again disabled this feature…
UPDATE 7
After downloading an OS (non-Aperture) update I decided to re-activate Faces. Woah, looks like all that processing the other night did something. It seems to have located most faces, and correctly named a decent chunk too. OK, so this is progress. The only footnote to add is that I am testing this feature on a small library – hate to think how long it might have taken on my main Aperture library, but hey Faces is finally starting to make me smile.
Filed under: Media, Photography | Tags: Aperture, Apple, Camera, DAM, ExpressionMedia, IDImager, iViewMediaPro, Lightroom, Phase 1, Phase One, Photography
A few years ago, iViewMediaPro was the preferred choice for those handling large catalogs of media files – it proved especially handy for managing digital photo files. It was quick, stable, and easy enough to use. There were numerous ways to find photos in a hurry, and ample options to customize things. This was in the “early days” of DAM (Digital Asset Management), and with it’s ability to handle over 100 different media types, iViewMediaPro proved a winner.
In fact the application was so good that Microsoft acquired iView in what appeared to be an astute move at the time. They made some tweaks, re-badged it as Microsoft Expression Media 2, and life for Mac and PC users went on quite happily.
Well that was then and this is now. MS have now abandoned the product – most likely due to low sales (it is a niche product after all). While it’s still possible to download a 30-day demo, you cannot buy a license key or full version off MS. It is possible to find boxed product at online stores like Amazon, but for all intents and purposes the product has ceased to be.
I don’t mind that MS have had a change of heart – that’s their free choice – but in the absence of any word of a replacement from them, it seems criminal that they acquired iView and in subsequently abandoning it have stranded users like me from any future with the product. I wish they’d give the software code back to the original owners, or put it out as shareware or something.
Meantime, photo applications like Apple’s Aperture and Adobe’s Lightroom offer pretty good DAM functionality, but neither are close to what even the old iView could do – let alone the newer Expression Media. Both Aperture and Lightroom are a great start, but they struggle when your library gets into the tens of thousands of images – something pro-photographers get to in short order. Expression Media also had many other options and tools that these later offerings do not have (e.g. you can’t burn to DVD from within Aperture).
There is a Windows offering called IDImager but as a Mac user I’m hoping Adobe up the ante and make Lightroom 3 the industrial grade DAM product that Lightroom 2 is not. Or maybe someone like PhotoMechanic or IDImager for Mac will come to my rescue?
UPDATE – May 2010
Good news all round. Microsoft has sold Expression Media to Phase One. Totally brilliant move on P1′s part as clearly Microsoft had put this in the too-hard basket, and P1 have a strong track record with software – witness Capture One as a class-leading application. Talk about a win!
Read the press release here
A mighty-fine doco on the genius talent of photographer Richard Avedon (1923-2004).
This is part one of nine. If you like this, the balance can readily be found at YouTube.
Filed under: Media, Photography | Tags: Camera, Drew Gardner, Flash, Light, Location Lighting, Model, Photography, Photoshop
UK photographer Drew Gardner has an interesting “behind the scenes” DVD that is sure to appeal to many photographers.
The DVD comprises two shoots, and takes you through;
- Drew’s thought process (he emphasizes the importance of pre-scouting a location with great care, his preference for softbox’s and gridded lights outdoors, setting things up one light at a time, and so on)
- His work-flow on the day
- An overview of his processing back at the studio
While there are no “OMG” moments here, and the advice is practical perhaps even obvious at times – this is a very worthwhile DVD. A key message in this is how Drew “worries” his vision into reality - and the results speak for themselves. There are not many who can post creative images quite like these.
There is an emphasis on getting things right in-camera, although of course the computer has a significant role to play post-shoot. While Drew uses professional camera and lighting equipment, there is a suggestion that an advanced amateur could use some of these ideas for creative simulation around their own photographic efforts.
When you think about marshaling a water buffalo or a badger on site, you can appreciate that there’s a level of complexity on top of the model, location, and lighting considerations. Drew somehow makes it look manageable – testament to his experience and can-do attitude.
Highly recommended.
Filed under: Photography, Technology | Tags: D3, Flash, Manfrotto, Nikon, Photography, Sydney
An interesting shot this one – it involved securing the camera to the car with a Manfrotto suction cup and arm. The camera was fired by Pocket Wizard, roughly an eigth of a second to get the blur off the tunnel walls, and at the end of the expsoure, the hotshoe fired another PW that in turned fired flashes on the back seats and one on the dash. Sweet. If not nerve wracking.
An attempt inspired by American photographer Irving Penn’s series known as The Trades. Penn was a master of simple light and careful composition. Although he used studio flash (as was used here, one softbox feathered to left background and one camera right ro subject, triggered by PW), Penn was also famous for using window light – especially his series of portraits taken in tent-like studio that he took to New Guinea and other countries with fascinating results.
Clarity, composition, careful arrangement of objects or people, form, and the use of light characterize Penn’s work. Penn also photographs still life objects and found objects in unusual arrangements with great detail and clarity. While his prints are always clean and clear, Penn’s subjects vary widely. Many times his photographs are so ahead of their time that they only came to be appreciated as important works in the modernist canon years after their creation. (Wikipedia)
Following my attempts to emulate Irving Penn, this photo is based on the work of Helmut Newton. It kind of drifted from Newton’s sometimes stark lighting, but ended up being a fun shoot.
Helmut Neustädter (b. 1920, Berlin, Germany – d. 2004, West Hollywood, California, USA) was a German-Australian fashion photographer noted for his nude studies of women. During WWII Newton was interned by British authorities while in Singapore, and was sent to Australia, arriving in Sydney on 27 September 1940…In 1942, he enlisted with the Australian Army and worked as a truck driver.
After the war, in 1945 he became an Australian citizen, and changed his name to Newton in 1946. In 1948 he married actress June Browne, who performed under the stage-name ‘June Brunell’. She later became a successful photographer under the ironic pseudonym ‘Alice Springs’ (after Alice Springs, the central Australian town). In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Lane in Melbourne and worked primarily on fashion photography in the affluent post-war years. He shared his first joint exhibition in May 1953 with Wolfgang Sievers, a German refugee like himself. The exhibition of ‘New Visions in Photography’ was held at the Federal Hotel in Collins Street and was probably the first glimpse of ‘New Objectivity’ photography in Australia. Newton went into partnership with Henry Talbot, a fellow German Jew who had also been interned at Tatura, and his association with the studio continued even after 1957 when he left Australia for London. The studio was renamed ‘Helmut Newton and Henry Talbot’. Newton’s growing reputation as a fashion photographer was rewarded when he secured a commission to illustrate fashions in a special Australian supplement for Vogue magazine, published in January 1956. He won a twelve-month contract with British Vogue and he left for London in February 1957, leaving Talbot to manage the business.
He left the magazine before the end of his contract and went to Paris where he worked for French and German magazines. He returned to Melbourne in March 1959 to a contract for Australian Vogue. He settled in Paris in 1961 and continued work as a fashion photographer. His works appeared in magazines including, most significantly, French Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylised scenes, often with sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts. A heart attack in 1970 slowed his output somewhat but he extended his work and his notoriety/fame greatly increased, notably with his 1980 "Big Nudes" series which marked the pinnacle of his erotic-urban style, underpinned with excellent technical skills. He also worked in portraiture and more fantastical studies. (from Wikipedia)</i>
Following my attempts to emulate Irving Penn and Helmut Newton, this photo is based on the work of Richard Avedon.
b. 1923, d. 2004, USA. In 1944, Avedon began working as an advertising photographer, but was quickly discovered by Harper’s Bazaar and began providing images for magazines including Vogue and Life. Avedon is equally renowned for his photographs of celebrities and the non-famous.
In both cases he was always interested in how portraiture captures the personality and soul of its subject. As his reputation as a photographer became widely known, he brought in many famous faces to his studio and photographed them with a large-format 8×10 view camera. His portraits are easily distinguished by their minimalist style, where the person is looking squarely in the camera, posed in front of a sheer white background. Avedon would at times provoke reactions from his portrait subjects by guiding them into uncomfortable areas of discussion or asking them psychologically probing questions. Through these means he would produce images revealing aspects of his subject’s character and personality that were not typically captured by others. Avedon became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker in 1992.
He has won many awards for his photography, including the International Center of Photography Master of Photography Award in 1993, the Prix Nadar in 1994 for his photobook Evidence, and the Royal Photographic Society 150th Anniversary Medal in 2003. (from Wikipedia)
