Darren's Photography Blog

Fireworks are photogenic and inspiring, especially on the 4th of July -- but they are also very challenging to capture on camera. Learn camera settings, accessories, and shooting techniques that will help achieve great results in your fireworks images!  Read More...

High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) what a wonderful world it is, well at least for some photographers. HDRI or HDR for short-short is another alternate process for image processing. Some folks like it and some do not, kind of like the entire digital age. I personally think it can help to produce some interesting images. However, some folks just can not seem to except HDR as a valid process.
In my opinion HDR has had some bad exposure, no pun intended. For various reasons people have rejected HDR images, claiming they have no control over the math, and to think we didn’t think math was important. Also, I have heard the images have halos, and look animated and surreal. However, these are not reasons to dismiss the process but perhaps learn why this happens and try to make something good of it.
HDR has its place in photography just as all the other alternate processes and if done correctly the process will evolve into wonderful images. But you are not going to please everyone. So, for those that like HDRI drive on and those that want to learn more please join me over the next few weeks to explore HDRI a little more. Hopefully, I will be able to explain the process and help those that might need help with HDR imaging. Check back and remember please comment.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Eastman Kodak Co. announced Monday it is retiring its oldest film stock because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age.

The world's first commercially successful color film, immortalized in song by Simon, spent 74 years in Kodak's portfolio. It enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and '60s, but in recent years has nudged closer to obscurity. Sales of Kodachrome are a fraction of 1 percent of the company's total sales of still-picture films, and only one commercial lab in the world still processes it.
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Jim Goldstein  Landscape, Nature and Travel Photography

After attending the getMETAsmart event in San Francisco last week I became curious how photographers who read my blog and/or follow me on Twitter use it. To be honest I’d be even more curious how photo buyers or stock agents actually use metadata on a daily basis, but that will have to wait for another post. Metadata as many of you know is often discussed but rarely so in the context of how real people use it. While hearing about best practices is helpful everyone has a slightly different take on the subject and many address metadata differently in their workflow. Let’s first address the “why”. Why should metadata play a role in your workflow? To answer that I’ve combined my understanding of metadata with feedback received from my Twitter followers. Read on to learn more.
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Canon has announced a firmware update for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR enabling manual exposure when shooting videos. With the updated version, users will be able to manually adjust the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings in the video mode. The new firmware will be available for download on 2 June 2009 from Canon's website. Click here to take you to the download page.

To read the full Press Release go to dpreview.com