Photographed on the

/ / /
7R. Exposure: 85mm 1/250 sec f/7.1 ISO 400
 A NEW FRAME of MIND.
Sony ® 7R Compact Full-Frame Interchangeable Lens Camera

Introducing the no-compromise full-frame that’s so small, you’ll take it everywhere.

Interchangeable lenses. 36MP. OLED viewfinder. Wi-Fi sharing—all in a compact body
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©2014 Sony Electronics Inc.The Sony logo is a trademark of Sony. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.
 &WHITE
BLACK 2014 PHOTO CONTEST
WORLD
Submit your best black-and-white photos
for a chance to win a prize package and get
your photo published in Digital Photo Pro!

VISIT DIGITALPHOTOPRO.COM/BWW TO GET STARTED

ENTRY PERIOD BEGINS MARCH 4, 2014
MARCH/APRIL 2014 Vol. 12 No. 2 digitalphotopro.com

Contents
Features
PORTFOLIOS
46 THE ART OF SCIENCE
Nathan Myhrvold is the ultimate
embodiment of the Renaissance
Man, and among his
achievements is reinventing
the art of food photography
By William Sawalich 쏜쏜
Photography By Nathan Myhrvold

54 STARTING WITH A
BLANK CANVAS
Philip Habib’s use of color, composition
and whimsy in his portraits gives his
photos a youthful and exuberant look
By Mark Edward Harris 쏜쏜
Photography By Philip Habib

62 THE FACE 2013 PHOTO

CONTEST WINNERS
The best of the best winning photos
from DPP’s annual The Face contest
Suzette Troche Stapp

Editor’sNote Form follows func-

tion. We’ve all heard
this and, of course, it makes perfect sense.
What could be more obvious than saying that
the products you make should be conceived
with an eye to how the products work? The
place where this breaks down is in the world
of retro products. In this issue of DPP, we
look at a class of cameras that falls into
this arena where the throwback look has a
special cachet.
I find that many things in life fall into a
predictable progression. First, they’re a bit on
8 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
the nerdy side. The cool kids claim to ignore
them. Think of books like The Lord of the Rings
trilogy or TV shows like Star Trek. Over time,
they become seen as being not so much nerdy,
but as visionary. The core group who have
been fans all along have spent considerable
time analyzing the book or TV show, and they
have seen beyond the surface to the visionary
core beneath. Also, the book or movie or TV
show finds a broader audience who begins to
feel nostalgic for it. Next comes retro, when
the things begin to show up in popular culture.
The formerly nerdy core fans are now the “in
crowd.” They’re in the know, while the cool kids
who originally had shunned the book, movie
or TV show are playing catch-up and finding
retro appeal. The last stage is art.
The current lineup of retro-look cameras is
part of this progression. Photography used to
be much less democratic than it is today. The
cost of cameras, lenses, film and processing
made photography an endeavor that was the
purview of the most enthusiastic amateurs and,
of course, dedicated professionals. Those of
us who remember the film age well will recall
the dials, buttons and brushed-nickel finishes
of cameras back then. We recognized how
visionary these cameras were, and today,
despite the fundamentally different technology
inside, the looks of old cameras have been
elevated to retro, and indeed, art.
The other thing about these retro designs
is that they make a statement. As the rest
of the world has caught on about the old-
school film look, today’s pros have also seen
the benefit of the statement such a camera
makes. That statement wouldn’t be worth a
thing if the cameras didn’t deliver, and in
“So Retro!” in this issue, you can see the
best of these cameras—tools that are up to
the needs of professionals. You can make an
argument that form isn’t following function,
but the function is at the highest level. Want
to make a statement? Add one of these stylish
cameras to your arsenal.
I also want to mention that in this issue
we showcase the winning photos from our
2013 The Face contest, as well as our 2013
First Impressions contest. Both contests
were incredibly successful, and we received
some outstanding imagery. As photography
becomes more democratic, more high-level
work is being produced by amateurs, as
well as professionals. One thing professional
photographers can learn from the amateur
world is to experiment. We tend to get a
certain amount of tunnel vision because we
focus on what has worked in the past. Take
a look at the finalists and the winning images
from these two contests. I hope you’ll find that
there are some pretty original images in these
galleries. Let me know what you think. Send
me a Tweet @DPPRobinson or send me an
email at crobinson@wernerpublishing.com.
—Christopher Robinson, Editor
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 9
 EDITORIAL
CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON
Editor
WESLEY G. PITTS
Managing Editor
MAGGIE DEVCICH
Associate Editor
MARCH/APRIL 2014 Vol. 12 No. 2 digitalphotopro.com
DAVID WILLIS
Associate Editor
ASHLEY MYERS-TURNER
Associate Editor

Contents MIKE STENSVOLD

Senior Editor
J. ANA FLORES, KRISTAN ASHWORTH
Copy Editors
Equipment JOHN PAUL CAPONIGRO, ROBERT HAWK,
MICHAEL GUNCHEON, WILLIAM SAWALICH
Contributing Editors
40 AUTOFOCUS EVOLUTION
JEFF SCHEWE, DOUG SPERLING, RYAN STEVENS
Radical advancements in AF technology are blowing away Professional Advisors
old assumptions about phase- and contrast-detection ART
systems. Set your old assumptions aside and look at what’s KURT R. SMITH
available today and what’s coming tomorrow. Art Director
ERIC BECKETT
By David Schloss Assistant Art Director
CANDICE OTA
Graphic Designer
68 SO RETRO! WWW.DIGITALPHOTOPRO.COM
The proliferation of high-end, back-to-the-future, WESLEY G. PITTS
retro-design cameras has style as well as substance Online Director
MIKE DECKER
By The Editors Web Art Director
DAMIAN GREENE
Web Developer
TECH LISETTE ROSE
Web Production Associate
76 PAST & PRESENCE
IMAGING GROUP
Douglas Dubler created a historical and artistic project
STEVEN D. WERNER
that was ideally suited to the unique qualities of the Publisher
legendary Polaroid 20x24 camera CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON
Editorial Director
By Richard A. Hood
Photography By Douglas Dubler KURT R. SMITH
Executive Art Director
EDITORIAL OFFICES
80 MAINTAIN FLEXIBILITY Werner Publishing Corporation
12121 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1200
Using Smart Objects in conjunction with Adobe Los Angeles, CA 90025-1176
(310) 820-1500
Camera Raw gives you the ultimate nondestructive
means of filtering that there is within Photoshop
Text And Photography By George Jardine
Printed in the U.S.A.
Digital Photo Pro is published by Werner Publishing Corp. Executive, editorial and
advertising offices: 12121 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90025-
1176, (310) 820-1500. Email us (editorial matters only) at editors@digitalpho-
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Contents Senior Advertising Sales Manager

CLAUDIA WARREN
Senior Advertising Coordinator
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DPP SOLUTIONS
90 SCRATCH DISK FEVER MARKETING
BASAK PRINCE
How a Thunderbolt drive cured a most debilitating condition Marketing Manager
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26 VISIONEER’S GALLERY Production Director
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More Than RAW Processing Consumer Marketing Director
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Departments JOANNA RUTKOWSKA
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8 EDITOR’S NOTE 14 FIRST TAKES Newsstand Sales Manager
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94 DPP MARKETPLACE 98 MISINFORMATION:
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Digital Photo Pro (ISSN: 1545-8520)—Vol. 12 No. 2—is published bimonthly except monthly in November and December by Werner Publishing Corp. Executive, editorial and advertising offices: 12121 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90025-1176, (310) 820-1500. Periodicals Postage Paid at
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12 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Experience high-speed,
professional-level performance

Improve your photo and video experience, from start to finish.

Lexar® Professional memory cards let you shoot more, faster—including stunning high-quality photos and 1080p full-HD,
3D, and 4K video. And when you’re done, transfer files at USB 3.0 speeds from up to four cards at once with the customizable
Lexar Professional Workflow Reader Solution. With professional-level performance, quality, and reliability, Lexar Professional
products help you make the most of your photography and videography, from start to finish.

Lexar. When Memory Matters.™

©2014 Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Information is subject to change without notice. Lexar, the Lexar logo, and When Memory Matters are trademarks of Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc. The Micron logo is a registered
trademark of Micron Technology, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc. is a subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc.

333 457 DPP

 DPP 2013 First Impressions Photo Contest Winners
FirstTakes

14 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Congratulations
to the winners
of our 2013 First Impressions Photo Contest,
sponsored by Tamron, Manfrotto, Tamrac,
Lexar, Hoodman USA, LumiQuest and
Duggal Visual Solutions. Out of more than
2,500 entries, the best of the best are on
display on these pages.
Go to www.digitalphotopro.com
to see all of the finalists.

First Place
Caffeinated by Jamila Clarke
“Caffeinated” was inspired by the feeling I
would get of being able to do anything whenever
I drank caffeinated drinks—the multiple tasks I
wanted to do all at once. The image was taken in
my home with ambient lighting on a Pentax *ist
DL equipped with a 18-55mm lens. The final
image was created by combining images
of the clouds (which are cotton stuffing), my
hands and various objects in Photoshop.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 15

 DPP 2013 First Impressions Photo Contest Winners
FirstTakes

Second Place | Portrait Of Khalia Frazier by Amy Texter (texterphotography.com)

Khalia Frazier is a dancer and fitness instructor from New York City. I met her when she first arrived in Los Angeles looking
for new opportunities. She has beautiful ethnic features, with a tall, lean and muscular frame that I knew would look great with
high-contrast lighting. To achieve the look I wanted, I used two bare-bulb White Lightning X800 monolights, with reflectors set
evenly to the left and right side, pointed slightly behind her toward her shoulders to give a nice rim-lit effect. I also had a large
octabank that I used unconventionally as a reflector to bounce light to help brighten her dark complexion in the low lighting.
16 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

3)
1)
4)
2)
1) Hope by Klaus Priebe
My image “Hope” was inspired by my daughter who we lost in an
automobile accident several years ago. She loved the clouds and nature, and
would often call me to make sure I was taking pictures of a particular storm
or sunset. Through her vision of life and our travels through life, we often
face obstacles that make it seem that there’s no light at the end of the tunnel.
This image depicts the journey through life and that there’s always a light
somewhere that guides us on our path. Through thick and thin, we’ll always
prevail. The work took several months to complete in shooting the storms,
the loon and the mountains here in New Mexico for the five exposures
combined in the image.
Honorable Mention
2) Thinking by Greg Orlov
I took this photo as a still for a painting I did of my girlfriend. I was trying
to capture a contemplative, beautiful, quiet quality, and I was excited to play
with my lights, having just gotten a copy of Heisler’s 50 Portraits book.
3) Secret Treasure by Kristen Grundy (www.kristengrundy.com)
My inspiration for this shot was to create a coming of age story a young
girl discovering a secret treasure. I spent a day creating the set, which
I modeled after an ideal bedroom for a preadolescent girl, while attempting to
keep it timeless. The set was lit with a Profoto 5 foot RFi Octa, which served
as an overall fill. The girl was lit with a Profoto reflector from above and a
7 inch grid reflector as a rim light. For the light illuminating her from the
treasure chest, I placed a Canon Speedlite 580EX II inside the chest and
synced it with the Profoto heads, which were powered by a Profoto Acute2.
4) Iced Tree by Don S. Rice
“Iced Tree” is a composite image. The clouds come from a portion of a
photograph of the sky during a tornado warning in Carbondale, Illinois. The
tree in the image is a backlit, iced over dogwood, shot after an ice storm in
Makanda, Illinois. The tree was isolated in a field of light brown grass, with
a white sky, and there was nothing compelling about the photograph except
the tree. In creating the composite of the tree and turbulent sky, I was
trying to provide a dramatic context for the former, while implying a sense of
“creation” for both.
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 17
DPPIn Focus

DPPInFocus
Nikon D3300 쏜쏜
New Tools Of The Trade

Nikon’s newest entry-level DSLR, the D3300 delivers pro image

quality with a 24.2-megapixel DX (APS-C) CMOS sensor, the
latest EXPEED 4 image processing and no OLPF (optical low-pass
filter) for maximum sharpness. Normal ISO range is 100-12800
C ameras I Digital Equipment I Software I Printing I S t or age I Li ght i ng

(expandable to 25600). The new camera can shoot stills at 5 fps

and do 1080 full HD video with full-time AF at 60p. The eye-level
pentamirror viewfinder shows about 95% of the actual image area,
while the 3.0-inch, 921K-dot LCD monitor shows 100% (in Live
View mode). Shutter speeds range from 30 to 1⁄4000 sec., with X flash
sync up to 1⁄200 sec. (with built-in or optional external flash unit).
Images are stored on SD/SDHC/SDXC cards (one slot), and the
camera can also take Eye-Fi cards. The optional WU-1a Wireless
Mobile Adapter adds Wi-Fi connectivity for instant uploading of
images and videos to a smart device (which then can be used to
operate the D3300 remotely). The camera is also compatible with
the optional GP-1A GPS. Dimensions are 4.9x3.9x3.0 inches and
15.1 ounces (body only). List Price: $649.95 (with 18-55mm VR II
kit zoom). Contact: Nikon, www.nikonusa.com.

Fluid Video Head

The compact Sirui VH-10 Professional Fluid
Video Head weighs only 1.98 pounds, yet can
support camera/lens systems weighing up to 13.2
pounds. A built-in, 4.4-pound counterbalance
system helps keep everything level. The Quick
Release Platform lets you easily adjust the
camera for ideal balance, while the panning
resistance is preset to provide smooth 360° pans
(and can be locked in position, when desired).
Two bubble levels help keep things perfectly
aligned. List Price: $199.95. Contact:
Argraph, www.argraph.com.

Sigma Lens Global Vision Additions

Sigma has introduced two new lenses in their Global Vision lineup: the 18-200mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 II DC
OS HSM Contemporary and the 50mm ƒ/1.4 DG HSM Art. The 18-200mm is smaller and lighter
than its predecessor and improves macro capabilities (focusing down to 15.4 inches for a 1:3
reproduction ratio), with updated optics for corrected chromatic aberration and minimized
distortion. The new 50mm ƒ/1.4 DG HSM is a pro-level performer for full-frame DSLRs, updated
with SLD glass and improved large-aperture performance. An optimized autofocus algorithm and a
floating focusing system improve AF. Both lenses provide quiet high-speed AF, thanks to Sigma’s
Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM), and are compatible with Sigma’s USB Dock and Mount Conversion
Service. List Price: TBA. Contact: Sigma, www.sigmaphoto.com.

| Digital Photo Pro . >> check out www.digitalphotopro.com/gear/in focus for more info
Camera lens and accessories not included
Shoot the next Hollywood blockbuster with the
world’s most amazing digital cinema camera!
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DQG PXVLF YLGHRV ORRN DPD]LQJ EHFDXVH WKH\ DUH ŵOPHG ZLWK GLJLWDO ŵOP
cameras! The new award winning Blackmagic Cinema Camera is unlike
a regular video camera or DSLR camera because it’s a true high end
GLJLWDO ŵOP FDPHUD <RX JHW D WUXH +ROO\ZRRG FLQHPDWLF ORRN ZLWK 
stops of dynamic range, interchangeable lenses, high quality RAW
and ProRes® ŵOH UHFRUGLQJ SOXV PXFK PRUH
Dramatically Better than DSLR Video
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes a large 2.5K
sensor for super sharp images that eliminate resolution loss
HD bayer sensors suffer from, while creating manageable
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DPPIn Focus

DPPInFocus
Sports-Action Cams
New Tools Of The Trade

Polaroid has announced three new mountable, high-definition

sports-action cameras, all offering shockproof, waterproof technology
and ultrawide-angle lenses. The XS1000i features a unique, patented
quick-change mounting system, a 16MP Aptina CMOS sensor and
a 170° angle of view. It can shoot 1080p and 960p video at 30 fps
and 720p at 60 fps, as well as still images. The Polaroid C features
a square design, a 5MP CMOS sensor and a 120° angle of view, and
can do 720p and 640x480 video, as well as 5MP still images. The
XS100i provides Wi-Fi with iOS and Android apps, a distortion-free
lens with 170° of coverage, and can do 1080p, 960p and 720p video
as well as 16MP still images. List Price: $179.99 (XS100i;) TBA
(XS1000i, Polaroid C). Contact: Polaroid, www.polaroid.com. HDR Darkroom 3
Everimaging has improved upon their HDR software with the newest version of HDR Darkroom
3. While the software offers additional HDR styles, the real upgrade is in processing power. An
improved alignment algorithm consistently corrects any alignment issues that arise between
bracketed frames without you needing to intervene. Advanced ghost-reduction technology
also removes objects when they differ between frames. HDR Darkroom 3 supports over 150
cameras, including Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic models, and is available for both
Mac and Windows. List Price: $129. Contact: Everimaging, www.everimaging.com.

Fujifilm X-Series Ultrawide Zoom

Fujifilm continues to expand their X-series lens lineup for
interchangeable-system cameras with the ultrawide 2.4x XF10-24mm
ƒ/4 R OIS lens. The 15-36mm equivalent range is optimal for grand
landscapes. Fujifilm has designed a new optical system with four
high-precision aspherical lenses and three extra-low-dispersion glass
lenses to match the performance of Fujifilm X-Trans sensors. The lens
also features a new coating on the reverse side of the lens, going one
step further to reduce ghosting and flare. With a seven-blade aperture
diaphragm, the lens has a 24cm minimum macro working distance.
The lens will be available starting in March 2014. List Price: $999.
Contact: Fujifilm, www.fujifilmusa.com.
Monolight Kit 쏜쏜
Monolights are a great option for photographers
who want to work with portable, yet powerful
off-camera lighting. The aluminum-housing
Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash units
come in 120Ws, 160Ws and 300Ws options.
AC-powered, the units take 0.5 to 2 seconds for
recycling time, and provide an audio and LED alert
when they’re ready for the next flash. Additional features include a preflash test button,
optical slave/master setting with LED indicator, SA fuse-protected circuit and replaceable
flash tube. Each unit is also available as a kit, with a 40-inch white/black umbrella from
Glow by Flashpoint and a six-inch Flashpoint three-section light stand. List Price: $49/$89
(Budget Studio Monolight Flash 120/Kit); $69/$109 (Budget Studio Monolight Flash
160/Kit); $99/$139 (Budget Studio Monolight Flash 300/Kit). Contact: Flashpoint
(Adorama), www.adorama.com.

| Digital Photo Pro . . .

 © Justin & Mary Marantz
JUSTIN & MARY
WALK THROUGH A WEDDING
Come join world renowned wedding
photographers Justin and Mary Marantz on
their Walk Through a Wedding.

Watch the full 20 video series at

www.profoto.com/us/justinandmary

Profoto US | 220 Park Avenue, Florham Park NJ 07932 | PHONE (973) 822-1300, profoto.com/us
DPPIn Focus

DPPInFocus
Bare-Bulb Pro-Flash
New Tool

The Strobies Pro-Flash One Eighty provides versatile lighting options

at a budget-friendly price. Used either on- or off-camera, just like a
traditional speedlight, the 180Ws bare-bulb flash spreads smooth and
even light across your frame. The Pro-Flash One Eighty is powered by an
external 11.1V/4500 mAh li-ion battery pack that provides 700 flashes
with a 2.2-sec. recycle time for shutter speeds as quick as 1⁄8000 sec.
The One Eighty can also be used with a variety of modifiers to vary the
lighting look. List Price: $594 (Strobies Pro-Flash One Eighty and Battery
Pack); $405 (Strobies Pro-Flash One Eighty Flash Head); $209 (Strobies
Pro-Flash Battery Pack, compatible with Canon, Nikon, Sony and Metz
speedlights). Contact: Interfit, www.interfitphotographic.com.
Panasonic Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm ƒ/1.2 ASPH Power OIS
Pushing the aperture range of Micro Four Thirds lenses, Panasonic recently announced
the Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm ƒ/1.2 ASPH Power OIS lens for the LUMIX G system.
With an 85mm equivalent, the rugged metal case has 14 lens elements in 11 groups.
Two aspherical elements, an extra-low-dispersion element and an ultra-high refractive
index element ensure sharp images from corner to corner with high contrast without color
bleed. Nine blades create a smooth bokeh, and the Power OIS (Optical Image
Stabilization) compensates for handheld shake, allowing you to take full advantage of the
large aperture range. List Price: $1,599. Contact: Panasonic, shop.panasonic.com.

Acratech Video Ballhead 쏜쏜

The aluminum and stainless-steel Acratech
Video Ballhead provides a sturdy all-in-one tool
for making fluid video movements and sharp 쏝쏝 FlexFlash Monolights
still photos. Fluid damping maintains smooth Ideal for indoor use with versatility
pans and tilts, and you can fully adjust the ball to light large group portraits down to studio product photography,
tension control for your needs. The oil-less and the FlexFlash monolights, in both 200Ws and 400Ws options, are
greaseless ball doesn’t attract dirt, and the open now being offered by Photoflex. With an oversized LCD screen,
frame allows quick and easy cleaning. The video these monolights sync with speedlights using a preflash detection
handle is removable, and a 15mm bull’s-eye level system and contain an auto-cooling system. With auto-voltage
and laser-engraved dual degree markings allow protection for worldwide use, Continuous Mode allows for output
for use as a panoramic head or with a long lens. control independent of the flash for continuous light and Auto
Compatible with Arca-Swiss quick-release Power Save kicks in after 20 minutes of inactivity. The FlexFlash
plates, the head fits standard ¼” -20 and ⁄8”-16
3 features the universal S-type bayonet mount for all sizes of
tripods. Estimated Street Price: $599. Contact: softboxes. Estimated Street Price: $319 (FlexFlash 200Ws); $389
Acratech, www.acratech.net. (FlexFlash 400Ws). Contact: Photoflex, www.photoflex.com.

| Digital Photo Pro . . .

 © Ab Sesay
HDR projects 2 쏜쏜
HDR projects 2 offers control over seven HDR
algorithms, including smoothing, denoising and halo
adjustment, all in full 32-bit quality. An exclusive
fully automatic alignment tool helps with handheld
brackets and moving leaves. Features include
individual weighting for every luminance, fully
automatic high-end ghosting correction with manual
control, when desired, 56 presets (sorted by theme)
for pro results, five tone-mapping algorithms and
52 high-end filters. There’s also integrated RAW
processing for pretty much every RAW format. List
Price: $169.99. Contact: Franzis, www.franzis.de.

Manfrotto Backpack 30
Manfrotto has announced a new Pro bag line, including the Backpack 30. The pack features a rigid,
multi-layered Exo-Tough outer construction with thermo-formed areas and reinforced feet that
protect against impact. The bag’s interior Camera Protection System (CPS)
center includes thickly layered core center dividers that mold to your
equipment and provide shock absorption. The top partially unzips to
give quick access to your camera, or can be unzipped completely, PROFOTO RFi
providing a flap that also functions as a field mat, with pockets for
accessories and a tablet. The pack holds a pro-sized DSLR with
SOFTBOXES.
lens attached, additional camera body and lenses, and strobe. IT’S MORE THAN A
Exterior zippered pockets carry accessories, personal items SOFTBOX. IT’S A
and 13-inch laptop. The bag features a moisture-wicking LIGHT SHAPING TOOL.
padded back system with adjustable straps and a
The Octa RFi is most commonly used for such
waist belt. A tripod may be attached on the front purposes as fashion, beauty and portrait
or side with a detachable strap. photography. One of the most important reasons
for this is that its unique shape creates a beautiful,
List Price: $199. Contact: Manfrotto, natural looking catch light in the subject’s eye.
www.manfrotto.us. RFi softboxes come in all sizes and shapes, and are
compatible with all major flash brands. To ensure
full control for the photographer, they have a deeper
shape, a recessed front, double-layered diffusers and
Mirrorless NX30 쏜쏜 a highly reflective silver interior. Optional accessories
are available for even more precise light shaping.
Samsung’s new NX30 replaces the NX20 “mini-
In short, an RFi softbox is more than just a softbox…
DSLR”-style model in the company’s mirrorless NX
lineup, offering a more powerful image processor,
better EVF and external monitor, and improved video
and wireless capabilities. The 2359K-dot eye-level
EVF tilts up to 80° upward for easy low-angle
shooting, while the new 3.0-inch, 1037K-dot
Super AMOLED monitor swings 180°
horizontally and swivels 270° for easy all-angle
shooting. The 20.3-megapixel APS-C CMOS
sensor benefits from a new DRIMeIV processor,
providing 9 fps shooting at full resolution, ISO
settings from 100-25,600 and 1080/60p full HD video
capability. Wi-Fi with NFC connection makes it easy to transfer
and share images, and operate the camera remotely from your smartphone. Dimensions are 5.0x3.8x1.6 inches
and 13.2 ounces (body only). Price: TBA. Contact: Samsung, www.samsung.com.

Profoto US
220 Park Avenue, Florham Park NJ 07932
PHONE (973) 822-1300, profoto.com/us
DPPIn Focus
DPPInFocus 쏝쏝 Replichrome
Totally Rad! Inc. has created
Replichrome, a group of Lightroom and
Photoshop presets for digital shooters who
still relish the look particular traditional
film stocks could provide. The company
collected 13 popular film stocks, including Fuji 400H, Kodak Portra
400 and Kodak TRI-X, and shot in every lighting condition and with
every camera possible. Then using Noritsu and Frontier scanners,
the team created 134 total workflow presets. Each preset gives you
additional control over tone, color, grain and density. List Price: $99.
Contact: Totally Rad! Inc., www.gettotallyrad.com.
Location Laptop Bag
With a water- and rip-resistant outer shell and inner lining, the Flaked
Extravaganza Pro Camera Laptop Cabin Luggage by Crumpler
keeps your camera gear safe, whether you’re carrying it over your
shoulder to your location or rolling it onboard a plane. The removable,
molded EVA main compartment features 13 impact-resistant dividers
®
available for personalized configuration via Velcro . An easy-access
false floor stores cables. Along with zippered outer compartments and
clear mesh interior pockets, the exterior of the bag has a front pocket
for a 15-inch laptop, as well as removable tripod carrying straps. For
peace of mind during travel and location shoots, the bag features a
security chain that loops around immovable objects while on location
and integrates with the TSA zipper lock in the main compartment. List
Price: $355. Contact: Crumpler, www.crumpler.com.
| Digital Photo Pro . .
New Tools Of The Trade
쏝쏝 Lens Cleaner
For the past 20 years, LensPen has been creating
products to make sure your photo lenses are clear of any
distracting smears, smudges and fingerprints.
Carbon is often used for this chore, and while it gets
the job done, it’s messy to work with, sometimes leaving
black smudges on your fingertips or on plastic cases. This
year, LensPen has created the new Invisible Carbon compound for their LensPen Elite line, which
cleans surfaces, yet doesn’t leave any black residue, even if you touch the cleaning pad surface.
LensPen has expanded this specialized technology with several applicators: five photo cleaners,
ScreenKlean for tablets and SmartKlear for smartphones. List Price: $8-$14 (LensPen Photo
Cleaners); $19 (ScreenKlean); $9 (SmartKlear). Contact: LensPen, www.lenspen.com.
Phottix
Multi-Boom 28 쏜쏜
The Phottix Multi-Boom 28 is a
flash bracket and 28-inch boom
arm that can hold four shoe-
mount flash units and mounts
in a standard umbrella swivel,
allowing it to be mounted on a traditional light stand. It
provides full tilt and swivel motion, and you can tilt the
umbrella or umbrella-style softbox. Umbrella softboxes are
impossible to tilt, and the Multi-Boom overcomes this limi-
tation. The unit holds the four flash units on-axis with the umbrella shaft and also comes
with a single-flash mount. There’s an integrated short column for compact or handheld
operation, as well. The unit quickly and simply sets up and folds for easy transport. List
Price: $120. Contact: Phottix, www.phottix.com.
쏝쏝 Picture Rescue 2
Picture Rescue 2 (nee Klix) features a new user
interface that makes it easy to recover digital
photos and videos from accidental reformatting,
deleting or card corruption. Just select a card,
press start and deleted pictures appear. The
software works with all USB and FireWire cameras
and all common image formats, including RAW, as
well as MOV, MPEG-1 and AVI movies. It’s
available for Mac (OS X 10.7 or later) and Windows
7, 8 and 8.1. List Price: $19.95. Contact: Prosoft
Engineering, www.prosofteng.com.
.
 ©Klara G. for Anna Ekre
Mobile Power
Anton/Bauer offers new batteries for cinema cameras. The lightweight DIONIC HC and HCX provide 91Wh and
124Wh, respectively, and are easily transported as carry-on luggage with no restrictions—ideal for location
work. The 183Wh DIONIC HD weighs 3.4 pounds, 40% less than a NiCad or NiMH battery. The NiMH CINE
VCLX (honored in 2013 with a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences) provides extra power for extended run times and can power supplementary gear such as lighting, as
well as 24V film, 14V video and 28V digital cinema equipment. All feature Anton/Bauer’s RealTime LCD that
accurately displays remaining running time and a visual 15-minute warning. Estimated Street Price: $467.50
(HC); $637.50 (HCX); $956.25 (HD); see dealer for CINE VCLX. Contact: Anton/Bauer, www.antonbauer.com.

Mobile Apps For Professionals

Lapse It is a full-featured app for making time-lapse and stop-motion videos PROFOTO
UMBRELLAS
with your mobile device. There are no restrictions as to capture length or
number of frames. You can insert soundtracks, adjust the frame rate, apply
effects filters, and adjust focus, white balance and exposure. Projects can
be rendered to MP4 and MOV, and uploaded directly to your social networks. 12 MODELS.
The Pro version lets you make videos in resolutions from 240p to 1080p, the
free version, only a lower resolution. Lapse It is available native for iOS and
2 SHAPES.
Android. List Price: $1.99 (Pro version); Free (Basic version). Contact: INFINITE
POSSIBILITIES.
Lapse It, www.lapseit.com.

As social media and mobile editing become more integrated into the pro Available in 12 unique models and made with
photographer’s business strategy, the need for quick image protection and high-quality fabrics and surface-treated metallic
elements, Profoto Umbrellas will provide a superior
branding is also on the rise. Marksta is an app for your smartphone and light for years to come.
tablet that lets you easily watermark images with your personal
Available in a deeper shape for photo-graphers
brand/logo before uploading to your social-media outlets. You choose where who want a broader range of possibilities, and in
your watermark is positioned, its size, shadow effects and what’s included, shallower shape for those who value portability and
ease-to-use.
such as your website URL, Twitter handle and copyright notice. List Price: $1.99
(Full version); Free (Marksta Lite). Contact: Marksta, www.marksta.com. For further information go to
www.profoto.com/us/umbrellas

As pros, we’ve all felt that need to turn

our friend’s phone to landscape as they’re
shooting vertical video. The Horizon app now ensures a landscape
video no matter the shooting orientation of the phone—be it portrait,
45º or moving in between while shooting. Using the gyroscope in the
phone, it makes sure the landscape orientation is horizontal to the
ground, which is also a handy function for those of us who shoot
landscape orientation, but sometimes find our horizon line crooked
or shaky due to handholding. The app includes multiple resolutions
and aspect ratios, different filters, geotagging, AF/AE lock, and is
compatible with front- and back-facing cameras. List Price: $0.99.
Contact: Evil Window Dog, www.evilwindowdog.com.

Profoto US
220 Park Avenue, Florham Park NJ 07932
PHONE (973) 822-1300, profoto.com/us
 Visioneer’s Gallery
VisGallery
Alex Guofeng Cao’s mosaics from our collective photo bank
By Baldev Duggal
There’s something magical about
seeing a photograph, getting up
close to it and discovering that it’s
composed of tiny individual photos
that reveal themselves as a secret
hidden within an innocent artwork.
The art of mosaic imagery
goes back centuries when the
ancient Greeks, Romans and
Egyptians used small pieces
of tessera-shaped materials
including stone, glass, pottery to create
a grid of cubes that would eventually
lead to a single cohesive image. Having
evolved from pebble floor coverings and
church interiors, the mosaic has found
its finest poetic symbolism in contem-
porary visual arts in the concept of the
pixel—the fundamental building block
of a digital photo. After all, every digi-
tal photograph when zoomed in to its
smallest individual pixels is nothing but
a mosaic-like variation of brightness and
color values assigned to single pixels.
In one of the earliest known experi-
ments on photo-mosaics, Leon Harmon
of Bell Labs created “The Recognition
of Faces,” an image of Abraham Lincoln
created digitally from a collection of sol-
ABOVE: Alex Guofeng Cao’s photo-mosaics use our collective “photo bank” to re-create iconic art.
26 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
id gray mosaics to show that the human
eye only needs a small amount of detail
to recognize a face. That simple insight
acquired less than 30 years ago altered
the landscape of visual communication
and enabled a way of interacting tangi-
bly with digitally printed photography
through the concept of continuous-tone
printing. Large photographs printed as
giant outdoor graphics like billboards
essentially created an impression of a
photo to trick the human eye into per-
ceiving it as a continuous-tone print in-
stead of the actual dots of pixels per inch
manner of which they’re composed.
Alex Guofeng Cao, an exceptional
photo-mosaic artist based in New
York, worked with Duggal recently
Pixel Perfect
to showcase his new mosaic
series at Art Basel Miami.
On display were his photo-
mosaics, referred to as “photo-
pop,” which when viewed
from afar look like iconic
black-and-white photograph-
ic portraits of famous figures,
but up close reveal an astound-
ing composition of hundreds
Courtesy of Duggal Visual Solutions
of thousands of images. Mov-
ing to the U.S. from China
as a teenager, Cao turned
early toward photography and
found inspiration in the works
of Robert Mapplethorpe,
Edward Weston and Chuck
Close. He began to challenge the idea
of a portrait by composing photos with
fragments of different images with
their roots in history, antiquity, culture,
religion and politics.
Just as an algorithm assigns values to
every pixel within a photo image, Cao
breaks down every portrait he works
on into thousands of pixel forms, even-
tually replacing them with individual
photos. Cao’s approach to creating his
mosaics is imbued with deep symbol-
ism. He carefully juxtaposes his famous
subjects with an equally popular figure
to expose a symbolic relationship be-
tween the two. Cao’s portrait of Barack
Obama, for instance, is composed
entirely of tiny photos of Abraham

Lincoln. Some of his other pieces include
two portraits of Marilyn Monroe, one
composed of photos of John F. Kennedy
and the other of the Mona Lisa, a por-
trait of James Dean built with photos of
Elvis Presley and a portrait of a starving
child in Sudan created from the smiling
photo of Jimmy Carter.
Such juxtapositions shift our focus
from the photograph of a single person
to the ideologies, stories and inspira-
tions that lie behind the individual’s
identity. In Cao’s work, popular figures
aren’t merely individuals—their pres-
ence is tied deliberately to the stories
and inspirations that surround their
personal mythologies. When viewing
Cao’s works, we bring our own inter-
pretations of the “pixel-sized” figures
and project them onto the portrait that
confronts us and we refamiliarize our-
selves with the individual.
Cao builds fine art from popular
photos that have become
part of our collective cul- >> More On The Web
You can see more of
tural memory. He dives Baldev Duggal’s Visioneer’s works includes Brad Pitt made
into the photo bank of that Gallery columns on the
DPP website at
public memory to remind www.digitalphotopro.com. Diana built of Grace Kelly and
us of the influence those
images have had on our society. Cao’s
black-and-white fine-art pieces have
grabbed headlines at Art Basel Miami
for several years now. He has gained
commercial success and has been called
the “must-see” artist of Art Basel.
Cao reveals, “I’m fascinated by icons
and celebrity. I have worked with
many, from Lindsay Lohan to Tommy
Lee Jones; they shared a common mu-
sicality that translates internationally.”
Although the idea of photo-mosaic
isn’t new, the surprise in Cao’s work is
in the discovery of smaller images as one
gets closer to the portraits. In most of his
installations, there are hanging magni-
fying glasses to allow the viewer to get
truly intimate with his compositions.
On his choice to work specifically
in black-and-white, Cao states, “The
subtle gradations of tone between deep
black and stark white are the genera-
tors for all the colors I need to create
my world. Everybody sees something
different in these images.”
According to one reviewer of Cao’s
work, “The artist renders what Barthes
© Frederico Martins
formulated as the photograph’s intran-
sigent presence as what-has-been po-
rous to the narratives of history and the
process of representation itself. The pro-
cess of decomposing the original image
allows it to re-emerge with a new lease
on life; to be resurrected, as it were.”
Creating photo-mosaics from hun-
dreds of thousands of photographs is
no easy task. It demands rigorous at-
tention to technical detail—to match
the color and tone in a single “photo-
pixel” to the corresponding area in the
final image. It also requires intricate
computation. The art lies in conceptu-
alizing the image and in piecing it all
together. At Duggal Visual Solutions,
we printed Cao’s large digital compo-
sitions on canvas and stretched them
onto wood frames, making the image
feel more like a painting. Some of his
other works were enlarged to sizes as
big as nine feet by six feet and mounted SHAPE SUNLIGHT
to archival Plexiglas. Cao’s sold-
out portfolio of photo-mosaic
WITH PROFOTO’S
COLLAPSIBLE
REFLECTORS
up of Angelina Jolie, Princess
Carla Bruni created from im- The latest addition to our assortment of Light
ages of the former French President, Shaping Tools is a powerful and cordless continuous
light source the sun.
among several others.
Shape its light with one of ten collapsible reflectors,
Mosaic is a term derived from the each equipped with two ergonomically shaped
Latin Mosaicum, which means “be- handles, to make them easy to hold and fold.
longing to the muses” or evoking in- Available in two sizes and six surfaces for any
lighting challenge.
spiration. To have found inspiration
in the unlikely portraits of our popular For more information go to www.profoto.com/us
culture and to stitch them all together
into a single image is certainly an in-
spiring thought for our image-rich
cyber-world. It opens up the digital
world to a whole new set of exciting
possibilities and sets the tone for rein-
terpreting our entire photo bank.
Adds Cao, “As an artist, I am fortu-
nate to have Hope from Duggal, who
worked professionally and tirelessly
with me; this seamless collaboration al-
lowed me to create my best art works
ever! It has been a pleasure to work
with the best in the trade for the past
20 years with Duggal!” DPP
Visit Duggal at www.duggal.com or check
out the blog at www.duggal.com/connect
and see their newest articles on the print-
ing, photography and fine-art industries.
Profoto US
220 Park Avenue, Florham Park NJ 07932
PHONE (973) 822-1300, profoto.com/us
 MEET THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR

AWARD-WINNING FAMILY

THE OM-D E-M10.

The revolutionary OM-D family offers something for everyone. With a powerful image sensor and
processor, fast autofocus, and a wide-variety of M.Zuiko lenses, the E-M10 can capture crisp, clear images worthy of the
OM-D badge. The E-M10 is built to make the family proud. It’s the small camera that gets the big picture, so you don’t
have to choose between portable and powerful. www.getolympus.com/em10

Move into a New World

 Image shot with the Olympus OM-D
with the M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 lens by
Olympus Trailblazer Jamie MacDonald.

OM-D E-M10
• One of the smallest and lightest bodies in its class
at 12.3 ounces*, with a premium metal build
• FAST autofocus with 81 selectable points
• High speed, 8fps sequential shooting (S AF)
• Built in Wi Fi for file sharing and remote shooting
M-D E-M10
OM-D E- • Full system of versatile interchangeable lenses
-D E-M1 *E-M10 body only
Hi-Tech Studio
Hi-TechStu
Get the full tonal range, create
distinctive effects and make
your images stand out with High
Dynamic Range technology
HDR (high dynamic range) photography, in theory,
is capable of displaying more of the range from
shadows to highlights than the human eye can
see. HDR merges together several im-
ages at varied exposures to capture the
full range of tones. The final image,
when created this way, is technically
a composite. You’re capturing details
from the extreme ends of the dynamic
range, and using your software, you
can control contrast, color and lighting
in the final image.
HDR photography can be natural-
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: Nik HDR Efex Pro screenshot; HDRsoft Photomatix Pro 5; Everimaging HDR Darkroom 3; Unified Color Technologies 32 Float v3
30 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
HDR Software
nique is used at the point of capture.
As software technology has im-
proved, many, but not all, of the
looking or it can be surreal-looking. common image-degrading issues asso-
Descriptions such as “hyperrealism,” ciated with HDR composites have been
“synthetic pop,” “grunge art” and more reduced or eliminated. Color fringing,
have been used to describe for example, has haunted
HDR images that are taken >> More On The Web HDR images created from
Go to digitalphotopro.com
to the extremes. Through to learn about more software multiple frames. You’ll see the
experimentation and expe- that will give you an artifacts when a line of red,
rience, you can arrive at the advantage and help you to
achieve your artistic vision. green, blue or magenta oc-
aesthetic that works for your curs at a boundary of contrast.
photographic vision. As HDR soft- This is magnified when working with
ware evolves and is refined, new fea- HDR because HDR algorithms are all
tures are constantly being introduced. about contrast. This is something to
The current lineup of available soft- look out for when working with your
ware makes it easy to create flawless images and that your software should
photographs, provided that solid tech- be able to help compensate for.
 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

O LY M P U S O M - D E - M 1 0
T H E S M A L L C A M E R A T H AT C A N G E T T H E B I G P I C T U R E

“The first time I picked up an OM-D and shot with it, I knew I was holding
the future of photography.” —Olympus Trailblazer Jamie MacDonald

Olympus launched a revolution with the OM-D E-M5 and OM-D E-M1 interchangeable- In-Body Image
lens cameras. Now, the new ultra-slim, compact OM-D E-M10 is poised to continue Stabilization
that legacy. A high-resolution 16-megapixel Live MOS sensor, TruePic VII image pro- Some cameras rely on in-lens sta-
cessor and M.ZUIKO lens compatibility combine to give you crisp, rich-toned, sharp bilization. The Olympus OM-D E-M10
photographs across the full range of lighting conditions. has an advanced VCM in-body
image stabilization system derived
High-Resolution 16-Megapixel Live MOS Image Sensor from the flagship OM-D E-M1
At the heart of the new OM-D E-M10 is a 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds camera. With the Olympus OM-D
Live MOS sensor. The high-resolution image sensor is the same as the one E-M10, every photo has stabiliza-
Olympus uses in the OM-D E-M5 camera. With a maximum ISO of 25,600, the tion regardless of the lens used.
OM-D E-M10 will give you excellent detail and color reproduction with smooth The three-axis VCM stabilization
tonal gradations in dimly lit situations, and in bright conditions, you can select system gives you approximately
ISO 100 for expanded low-sensitivity shooting. This is particularly useful for shoot- 3.5 stops of advantage over non-
ing at maximum aperture for thin depth of field and beautiful bokeh effects. stabilized shooting. The system
even can correct for optical rota-
TruePic™ VII Image Processor tional blur that in-lens stabilization
The high-resolution image sensor works with the camera’s TruePic VII image proces- can’t handle. In IS-Auto mode,
sor—which is inherited from the flagship Olympus OM-D E-M1—to generate highly the OM-D E-M10 automatically
detailed, rich-looking photographs. The image processor has Olympus’ Fine Detail applies stabilization in challeng-
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properties of the attached lens. The image processor works with the lens to enhance mode uses the VCM stabilization
its strengths. system in movie mode.

Two New M.ZUIKO Lenses Fast AF Performance

The super-slim M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 EZ pancake zoom lens
measures just .9 inches thick. It has a smooth electric zoom that’s suitable for
shooting movies, and can also be zoomed in and out remotely using compat-
ible smartphones through the updated Olympus Image Share app. The high-
performance M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 25mm f1.8 lens has a fixed focal length and is ideal for
capturing portraits or close-ups from as little as 9.8 inches away.
The OM-D E-M10 has an 81-point FAST AF system and 8 fps maximum shoot-
ing speed that rivals the performance of the OM-D E-M1. The FAST AF system
has improved Group Target AF, which makes use of the 81-point system to track
fast-moving, unpredictable subjects. Working in conjunction with the on-board
electronics, the OM-D E-M10 has the shortest shooting lag time in its class—
approximately 44 milliseconds! This rivals many DSLRs with mechanical shutters.
HI-TECH STUDIO
Noise is another issue that plagues
HDR imagery. It’s responsible for the
grungy look that’s seen in some heav-
ily HDR enhanced images, and it’s
particularly common in single-image
“tone-mapped” photos. One reason for
the noise increase is because the soft-
ware is boosting the dark areas within a
frame. When you’re compositing multi-
ple frames and exposures to create your
Light Once. ShootTwice.
Jokers deliver flicker-free daylight to capture both stills and video on the same set,
at the same time. They work just like a flash head. Their light shapers are incredible,
and Jokers adapt to most of the reflectors you’re using today.
Jokers are in rental across North America:
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Ashley – Highline Locations – Lightspace
Milk Locations – Root – TREC
Calgary –– The Camera Store
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32 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
HDR image, noise is less of an issue. In-Camera HDR
Whenever possible, you’ll have the most
overall control over an image and you’ll HDR features are showing up in
minimize the noise by creating your cameras increasingly. While
in-camera HDR doesn’t offer you as
HDR image from multiple exposures.
much control over the effects, it’s
Unified Color Technologies HDR simple and convenient to use.
Expose 3 and 32 Float v3 Photoshop
plug-in allow you to merge multiple Pros
frames from handheld bracketed
shooting. The new file browser auto- 1 Because camera manufacturers
are intimately familiar with their
sensors and in-camera processing
matically detects bracketed exposures
engines, they can make the best
using thumbnails instead of filenames, use of both in generating the
HDR images.
2 In-camera HDR is incredibly
convenient. You can experiment
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Cons
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digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 33
(R)evolution

(R)evolution
How Adobe Camera Raw as a filter changes workflow
More Than RAW Processing

Text And Photography By John Paul Caponigro

1) 2)

3) 4) 5)

1) Before ACR Filter

2) After ACR Filter (split White Balance, local Clarity)
3) ACR’s Basic panel offers White Balance and Clarity
4) ACR’s Detail panel offers additional noise and
sharpness controls
5) ACR’s HSL/Grayscale panel offers a useful hue-specific
6) 7) Luminosity shift
6) ACR’s Lens Corrections panel offers new
distortions like Upright
7) ACR’s Effects panel offers new Grain patterns

Photoshop CC introduced a long-awaited feature
that will change how you adjust your images,
when you adjust your images and what
you adjust your images with—the
ability to use Camera Raw as a filter.
Since it was introduced, Adobe
34 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
Camera Raw (ACR) has been the
industry-standard tool for processing
RAW files—the beginning of a digital
photographer’s workflow before mov-
ing into Photoshop. Sometime later,
ACR extended its functionality to other
file types like JPEGs. Today, you can
use its full power at any point in your
workflow while working in Photoshop.
This opens up many new possibilities.
Using the Adobe Camera Raw Fil-
ter is useful for noise reduction, detail
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KEEP
IT IN
FOCUS
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Furthering environmental and
cultural conservation through
ethical photography
36 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
(R)EVOLUTION
enhancement, color adjustment, local-
ized lens correction, creative distortion
and even tone-mapping 32-bit HDR
images. Go beyond the maximum set-
ting of Clarity, with two ACR Filters.
Set different white balances for differ-
ent regions of an image. Apply Lens
Correction distortions locally. Global,
local, double and crossprocessing—the
ACR Filter can do it all.
While the ACR Filter revises
workflow, it doesn’t rewrite it com-
pletely. It’s still better to do the lion’s
share of image adjustment dur-
ing RAW conversion with ACR or
Lightroom (both offer the same RAW
conversion engine)—preferably as a
Smart Object so you can easily change
the settings or update the process ver-
sion. For instance, you’ll get better
shadow and highlight detail using
ACR during conversion than you will
using the ACR Filter after conversion.
So when would you use the Adobe
Camera Raw Filter? When the ACR
toolset does something Photoshop’s
toolset doesn’t. Or, when the ACR Fil-
ter does a task more quickly and easily,
without sacrificing quality or flexibility.
To decide this, compare the two toolsets.
There’s functionality in Adobe
Camera Raw that’s not in Photoshop.
ACR’s Basic panel has two col-
or-adjustment features not found in
Photoshop: White Balance and Clarity.
Photoshop’s Photo Filter (more uni-
form) and High Pass filtration (less halo
suppression) are the nearest equivalents,
yet both offer substantially
different effects. It’s worth >> More On The Web
carefully comparing and con- John Paul Caponigro’s
in-depth instructionals
trasting them to know when on image-processing and
to use each tool. printing techniques are
available as an extensive
ACR’s Tone Curve archive online at
digitalphotopro.com/
panel delivers nothing that technique/revolution.
Photoshop’s Curves does
not, and it lacks scrubbing features.
ACR’s Detail panel provides ad-
ditional sliders for Sharpening; the
Detail slider targets effects into dif-
ferent detail frequencies (think of fre-
quency as texture—low is smooth and
high is texture), something no tool in
Photoshop does; the Masking slider
makes edge masks easier and more
flexible. The Detail panel also pro-
vides additional sliders for Noise Re-
duction; it provides true separation of
Luminance and Color, plus the abil-
ity to adjust Luminance Detail and
Luminance Contrast, as well as Color
Detail and Color Smoothness. Con-
sider this panel one more tool to add to
your arsenal of detail-enhancement op-
tions. Now the tools once reserved for
capture sharpening can be extended to
creative sharpening.
ACR’s HSL/Grayscale panel offers
a useful Luminance response (one that
doesn’t compromise dynamic range)
for selective adjustment of hues. It
makes adjusting oranges and purples
easier as it provides ready-made slid-
ers, but unlike Photoshop’s Hue/
Saturation, the transitions between
analogous colors can’t be adjusted.
ACR’s Split-Toning panel is easy
to use, but yields less control than
Photoshop’s Curves.
ACR’s Lens Corrections panel is so
powerful, it almost renders Photoshop’s
filter Lens Correction obsolete, offer-
ing additional options like Upright in
an easier-to-use package—almost, but
not quite; Photoshop’s Lens Correc-
tion filter provides a stronger Remove
Distortion slider and three sliders instead
of two for removing chromatic aberra-
tion, which can be useful occasionally.
ACR’s Effects panel adds yet an-
other noise structure, Grain, that’s
different than Photoshop’s Noise or
Filter Gallery’s more robust Grain,
which is still only available in 8-bit.
And, Post Crop Vignetting is
fast and convenient, though
not as customizable in shape
or position as a radial gradient
mask in Photoshop.
ACR’s Camera Calibra-
tion panel has less control than
Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation.
While the Adobe Camera Raw
Filter can be applied to rasterized lay-
ers, it’s most flexible when it’s applied
as a Smart Filter. Then, whenever you
want to adjust the ACR Filter settings,
you can simply double-click the Smart
Filter to reactivate its settings window.
If the layer you want to apply the ACR
Filter to isn’t a Smart Object, simply

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38 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
(R)EVOLUTION
convert it to one using Layer > Smart
Objects > Convert to Smart Object or
Filter > Convert for Smart Filters. You
can even apply one ACR Filter to mul-
tiple layers, if you first convert them
into a single Smart Object; simply high-
light all the layers you wish to combine
before making the conversion.
Remember, you can apply the ACR
Filter more than once for more aggres-
sive and/or localized effects. Applying
different ACR settings to local areas is
challenging at first. While each Smart
Filter can have an Opacity and a Blend
Mode, only one mask is provided for
all of the Smart Filters applied to a
Smart Object. To get around this, you
can nest a Smart Object with its Smart
Filters as a new Smart Object and be-
fore applying another Smart Filter
with a new mask; this offers a leaner
file size at the price of a less clear layer
stack and more challenging previews.
Unlike using separate adjustment
layers that place many solutions in
multiple layers, using the ACR Fil-
ter tends to place many solutions in a
single layer, which can make it more
challenging to mask and preview indi-
vidual components.
The challenges the ACR Filter pres-
ents are a small price to pay for its added
functionality; it’s capable to do things
that Photoshop alone can’t do. The
ACR Filter is so robust that some are
tempted to try and do everything with
it, forgetting that Photoshop can do so
much more. As ever, when and how you
use a tool depends on the task at hand
and your objectives. Try using this new
feature sparingly at first, giving it a little
time here and a little time there, and
then one day you’ll realize that you’ve
effortlessly taken a deep dive into a sub-
stantially new workflow. DPP
John Paul Caponigro, author of Adobe
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series R/Evolution, is an internation-
ally renowned fine artist, an authority
on digital printing, and a respected lec-
turer and workshop leader. Get access
to a wealth of online resources with his
free enews Insights on his website at
www.johnpaulcaponigro.com.
 Autofocus
Evo
Radical advancements in AF technology
are blowing away old assumptions
about phase- and contrast-detection
systems. Set your old assumptions aside
and look at what’s available today
and what’s coming tomorrow.
By David Schloss

40 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

 Since the advent of digital photography, there have
been aspects of a camera’s operation that are
shrouded in mystery and confusion. That’s
because many of the technologies involved
in digital photography are rooted more
deeply in optical physics and computation-
al algorithms than in shutter speeds and
lens openings.
Most recently, a seismic shift in the tech-
nologies and techniques used to perform a
camera’s autofocus is the cause of confusion
when it comes to the operation and perfor-
mance of everything from SLRs to mirror-
less systems.
There are two different methods used
to perform autofocus in a camera: contrast
detection and phase detection. It used to be
canon (pardon the pun) that contrast-detect
autofocus was slower than phase-detect sys-
tems. That’s not the case anymore (at least,
it’s not always the case, as we’ll see). With the
advent of compact mirrorless systems, the
ground rules have changed, and thanks to
some new products in the DSLR space, the
rules are in the process of changing again.
Artificial Eyes
Autofocus systems function by way of
one of two mechanisms—contrast detec-
tion or phase detection—and, at best, most
photographers have a sketchy understand-
ing of the differences. Most photographers
who are familiar with the two systems are
likely to say “contrast-detection systems are
slower than phase detection,” and while
that was the case recently, that has become
an obsolete assumption.
Here’s an extremely rudimentary (and not
scientifically precise) explanation. Phase-
detection AF works by taking beams of
light from different sides of a lens, bounc-
lution
ing that light to a separate autofocus sensor
and comparing those two different beams.
The lens focus is adjusted until the wave-
form of the light from each side overlaps.
When those waveforms overlap, they’re
in “phase” with each other and an image is
in focus.
This is something that would be familiar
to anyone with glasses who has held them at
arm’s length. Try to read a sentence, and the
words overlap and line up improperly. Bring
the glasses back toward your face, and at a
certain point, the images line up and every-
thing is in focus.
The camera’s phase-detect sensor looks
to see if the waveforms misaligned because
they’re wide apart or if they’re out of align-
ment because they’re overlapping too far, and
that indicates if the subject is back-focused
or front-focused (i.e., the lens is focused too
close or too far).
To achieve this, SLR cameras have tradi-
tionally used part of the camera’s primary
mirror (plus additional mirrors) to bounce
a portion of the light onto a stand-alone au-
tofocus sensor. As a result, phase detection
usually can’t function with the mirror raised,
which means that it’s disabled during live-
view shooting or video recording.
This is the primary focusing system used
in most SLR cameras (both film and digital)
and generally has been regarded as superior
to contrast-detection autofocus because of its
speed and ability to predictively track an ob-
ject. (More on that trick in a bit.)
By comparison, contrast detection works
on a simple measurement of the contrast be-
tween adjacent pixels. The camera focuses
and looks at a histogram, refocuses and eval-
uates the histogram again.
If contrast increases, the image is more in
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 41
Autofocus
Evolution
focus. If it decreases, it’s less in focus.
The camera then refocuses and tries
again. This is the cause of the back and
forth “seeking” or “hunting” many
people experience when focusing, and
it happens more in low light because
there’s not enough light available for
the sensor to judge if contrast is im-
proving or not.
One of the strengths of the contrast-
detect focus system is that it can be
performed using the same sensor that’s
capturing the image, making it cheaper
to implement and requiring less space
than phase-detection systems, which
have traditionally relied on a second-
ary autofocus-specific sensor.
Even cameras that use phase-detec-
tion autofocus will fall over to contrast
detection if there’s not enough light to
perform phase-detect focus, and it’s
the speed discrepancy between the two
systems perceived when this happens
that leads many to the conclusion that
contrast detection is slow. Because for
most implementations in SLR camer-
as, when the focus speed slows down,
it’s doing so because the camera has
shifted to contrast detection.
Part of the sluggish performance of
contrast-detect autofocus in SLRs is
based on the relative heaviness of SLR
lenses. Since the camera has to adjust
the focus of the lens multiple times to
evaluate the focus, the mass of the lens
and the power of the focus motor have
a huge effect. A more expensive lens
with a more powerful motor will focus
more quickly on a given camera than a
cheaper lens with a less powerful mo-
tor will perform.
“I don’t think that the majority of
customers knew that SLRs had both
[focus systems],” explains Nikon Senior
Technical Manager, Steve Heiner. “We
hear ‘Why don’t I have the same focus
in Live View?’ and it’s because con-
Autofocus has long relied on the mirror setup of a camera to establish fast
and accurate focusing. New digital technologies and mirrorless models that do
away with these designs are beginning to proliferate, like the Canon EOS 70D
with Dual Pixel CMOS AF, which makes autofocus during Live View a reality.
42 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
trast detect can be done with the sen-
sor itself.” Customers shelling out a lot
of money for a high-end SLR end up
getting a powerful phase-detect system
and fast focus with pro-level lenses, but
then they see that performance slow
down when shooting video or in the
mirror-up Live View mode.
Once the camera’s mirror is locked
up, as is necessary for video and live
view, the phase-detect sensor can’t get
the necessary image to evaluate; so
not only does the camera focus more
slowly, but it loses the predictive focus
capabilities of the phase-detect system.
While contrast detection can accu-
rately lock onto a stationary subject, it’s
not able to predict where the subject will
be next, and that’s a problem for contin-
ual autofocus on a moving subject.
Remember that phase-detect au-
tofocus can tell if the subject is out of
focus because the lens is front- or back-
focused, so with a little bit of math, the
camera can guess where the subject
will be as it continues to move.
Here’s an example. Let’s say a subject
is moving across the field of view and
phase detect locks. A second later, it
reevaluates and sees that the subject is
out of focus by 10 feet, so it corrects and
refocuses. Another second, and the car
is 10 feet farther out of focus. The car
is moving 10 feet per second, so now it
can predict what the focus should be in
four seconds (40 feet).
Contrast detection can’t do this pre-
dictive focus. It can perform superfast
continual focus, but it can’t track an
object moving across the scene the way
phase detect can.
A New Breed
So, up until a few years ago, the state of
autofocus was this: Predictive autofocus
is the fastest system available, and it’s able
to track objects with predictive focusing.
But a funny thing happened on the
way to a mirrorless world—technolo-
gies changed and improved. By design-
ing a digital-specific system, the Four
Thirds partners were able to make
smaller, lighter cameras and lenses that
threw away some of the SLR rulebook.
Part of the space savings in these
cameras comes from the removal of
the mirror and the mechanical mecha-
nisms that actuate that mirror. The
iconic pentaprism on the top of an SLR
can disappear and the body can get
thinner and lighter because they elimi-
nate the need to make room for a piece
of glass that has to pivot up and down
to capture an image.
The result is cameras and lenses that
are much, much smaller and lighter
than traditional SLRs. Remember,
some of the sluggish performance
of contrast-detection focusing is due
to the weight of SLR lenses. Lighter
lenses mean less mass to rack back and
forth to measure focus.
But without that heavy, cumbersome
mirror, the ability to divert light to a
focusing sensor went away (at least at
first; more on that in a moment), and as
a result, Micro Four Thirds and simi-
lar mirror-free systems relied entirely
on contrast-detection systems.
“The motors are getting smaller,
faster and lighter,” explains Nikon’s
Heiner of both the company’s SLR
and mirrorless cameras. “In DSLR
lenses, we have the luxury of much
more space. In mirrorless, the space is
smaller, but they don’t have to move
as much mass, so [contrast detection]
tends to work extremely well in that
system. Where the Silent Wave motors
used [in Nikon pro lenses] work very
fast, they’re power-hungry.”
“The whole size battle...people have
to understand that bigger isn’t neces- Remember, contrast-detection auto-
sarily better,” says Richard Sasserath, focus can’t perform predictive focus. It
technical specialist at Olympus. “When can’t follow a subject as it moves across
you talk about an SLR, 90% of the the frame without having to refocus con-
time, they’re using phase detect. With stantly. No matter how fast the contrast
Micro Four Thirds with contrast detect, systems become at focusing on a moving
you’re getting a much faster autofocus.” subject, that’s still no substitution for be-
In fact, Olympus has clocked some of ing able to predict where to focus.
their Micro Four Thirds cameras as hav- And, even if the system was fast
ing the fastest autofocus in the world— enough to perform on par with phase
besting phase-detect-based cameras. detect when capturing a moving subject,
That’s because manufacturers, hav- it wouldn’t be as smooth as phase detec-
ing eliminated their ability to include tion is when capturing video, an area
phase-detection systems in the mirror- where predicting a subject’s motion is
less cameras, have had to focus a lot of vastly more important than a still image.
time and energy on making contrast- Shoot enough still frames, and even-
detection focusing faster, and more ac- tually one will be in focus, but with
curate, to boot. video, a lens racking back and forth to
“It’s one thing to say it’s the world’s try to achieve focus is irreparably dis-
fastest,” Sasserath adds, “but it’s also tracting. No one will put up with a vid-
incredibly accurate. You can be fast and eo where the focus is constantly locking
not focus on the right spot, and what and then becoming soft.
good is it? We have to train people to To solve this problem, companies
realize that phase detection doesn’t like Canon, Nikon and Olympus have
mean the fastest in every setting.” added phase-detect sensors to their im-
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know aging sensors, creating a hybrid con-
where the subject will be in a few sec- trast/phase-detection tool in one single
onds, as long as you can focus so chip. That’s exciting, as it
fast when the time comes that >> More On The Web opens up whole new pos-
Find a vast archive of
you can capture the subject in articles on both the art and sibilities for this relatively
focus before it has moved out of science of photography new breed of cameras.
on the DPP website at
focus again. www.digitalphotopro.com. The technique used is to
So the rules have changed, and replace some of the pixels
now it’s no longer true that phase-de- on the imaging sensor with autofocus
tection systems perform best in all con- pixels, essentially making two discrete
ditions, and in fact, contrast detection sensors out of one piece of silicon.
can be a bit faster in some applications. Different manufacturers have ad-
Unfortunately, even that new rule dressed this new technique differently,
is changing. with various levels of performance.
Nikon’s solution, found in their Nikon 1
Hybrid View cameras, is integrated into their CX sen-
Once you’ve wrapped your head sor, the chip at the heart of that system.
around the fact that contrast-detection “In the early CX sensor,” explains
systems can provide faster performance Nikon’s Heiner, “there was a spe-
in some systems, there’s a new tech- cific area where the phase detect was
nique of combining contrast detection [located], and that was more toward
and phase detection on the same chip the center. But it’s a larger center area
instead of using a secondary phase- than you’d typically find on the SLR
detection autofocus sensor.
[sensors]. The algorithms to determine
which of those pixels are used depends
mostly on the light level. But the phase-
detect [pixels] displace imaging pixels;
that’s why there are fewer of them in
CX designs. There, you’ve got maybe
about a third or less of the effective pix-
els. As soon as you start putting in many
phase detect, then you’ve displaced a
disproportionate number of pixels.”
Olympus has taken a different ap-
proach to integrating phase-detect sen-
sors on the chip and have rolled this
out for their new flagship camera, the
OM-D E-M1. This camera is based on
the Micro Four Thirds sensor and re-
places the Four Thirds-based E-5 that
was their previous flagship.
Four Thirds lenses have phase-
detection focusing capabilities and
many pieces of glass are still in circula-
tion. The OM-D E-M1 provides shoot-
ers who own Four Thirds lenses (and
some newer Olympus MFT glass) a ful-
ly phase-detect focus system in predic-
tive autofocus modes thanks to a hybrid
imaging/phase-detect sensor.
“By putting phase and contrast on the
same sensor, we’ve been able to vastly
improve the autofocus on the E-M1,”
explains Olympus’ Sasserath. “Basi-
cally, what we’ve done is scattered the
phase-detect pixels on the sensor, we’ve
scattered the left and right channel, and
we’re interpolating the surrounding pix-
els to make the final autofocus speed.”
Each of these phase-on-chip systems
has the same limitation to their practi-
cal use in low light. With so few phase-
detect pixels (relative to a dedicated
phase-detect sensor in an SLR), the use
of the phase detect stops being practical
when ambient light is low. That means
a scene that in the afternoon could use
phase-detection focus might use con-
trast detect when evening starts to fall.
Since contrast detect doesn’t perform
predictive focus, the light level plays a
Autofocus
Evolution
big part in whether it will be possible to
capture an image.
That would have resulted in a simi-
lar effect with hybrid-sensor cameras as
with SLR cameras; phase detect is active
when there’s a lot of light, and contrast
detection, when the light levels drop.
But the biggest advance in the na-
scent hybrid chip world is inside the
new Canon EOS 70D, which removes
this last limitation with a new and
exclusive-to-Canon (for the moment
anyhow) technology. Every pixel on
the camera’s sensor is split into two
photoreceptors, with one facing right
and one facing left.
This allows for a phase-detection
system that functions across the full
frame on every single pixel. The whole
sensor is used to both capture an image
and to evaluate phase-detection auto-
focus. It works in low light and is ac-
tive in both Live View mode and while
capturing video.
“The major advantage of Dual Pixel
CMOS AF,” explains Canon’s Chuck
Westfall, media spokesperson for pro-
fessional products, “is the fact that
every pixel on the image sensor can
measure autofocus and capture im-
age data simultaneously. This enables
high-performance phase detection
without compromising image quality.”
Adds Westfall, “The [previous hy-
brid] technique requires interpolation
of image data for the pixels that are
performing AF. In other words, the hy-
brid method takes pixels on the sensor
and either assigns them to image data
or focus data, but not both tasks. The
pixels that are dedicated to autofocus
have no image data, so the surrounding
pixels have to be used to reconstruct
the image. The more pixels allocated to
phase detect, the more gaps in the im-
age data are present.”
Since all of the pixels in Canon’s new
system are used for phase detection,
there’s ample light for evaluation and
there’s no degradation in image quality.
Perhaps, more importantly, for the
future of both SLRs and mirrorless
systems, is that a dual-pixel approach
44 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
like that in the 70D changes the basic
operation of the camera.
As Westfall explains, “The elimination
of contrast-detection AF in Dual Pixel
CMOS AF results in smoother autofo-
cus, driving directly to the required dis-
tance setting without going past it. Dual
Pixel CMOS AF also has advantages
compared to conventional phase-detec-
tion AF using a separate sensor, in terms
of compatibility with a wider range of
maximum apertures and the elimination
of any need for AF microadjustment.”
Because this technology is inside a
traditional DSLR’s chassis, the result
(for now) is an SLR camera that’s in-
credibly versatile when shooting video
and Live View mode, the opposite of
conventional digital SLRs. In non-
dual-pixel cameras, the mirror has to
be in the down position to bounce light
to the phase-detection system, so Live
View and video modes would require
the camera to use the less powerful
contrast-detection systems.
Now that has been turned on its head.
The mirror needs to be up in order to
have full-time phase detection because
the focus is performed on the imaging
sensor. The result is a camera that cap-
tures video like a camcorder and can
track subjects in video and Live View
without having to manually adjust focus.
But this is clearly an intermediate
step in camera development. SLRs, by
definition, have a mirror used to view
the image and perform focus. Now the
focus is performed without the mirror
in place. In a dual-pixel system like
that in the 70D, the main reason, then,
to have the mirror is to bounce light to
the optical viewfinder.
All that’s needed now is an electronic
viewfinder (EVF) good enough to re-
place an optical one, and the SLR space
is going to radically and quickly change.
EVFs first showed up on mirror-
less cameras because without a mirror
there’s no way to have an optical view-
finder. The early EVFs were really
terrible, but in just a few short years,
they have progressed quickly and
now some of them have beautiful
image quality and high resolution.
Electronic viewfinders also allow for
“heads-up”-style data displayed over the
image, perfect for things like real-time
histograms and horizon-level display.
That means that the Canon EOS
70D isn’t just an SLR that’s designed to
provide excellent video and Live View
use; it’s a camera designed to move pho-
tography to a new place, a world where
cameras with full-frame sensors and
high-end lenses are free of mirrors. Ex-
pect to see full-frame sensors in profes-
sional cameras with optical viewfinders
hitting the market very soon.
Double Vision
The stunning thing about digital
photography is that the seemingly sim-
ple addition of phase-detection sensors
to an imaging sensor isn’t just changing
what we know about autofocus tech-
nology; it’s changing what we know
about cameras.
The competing needs to develop con-
trast-detection and phase-detection sys-
tems forward is bringing huge benefits
to the consumer. Micro Four Thirds
cameras provide some of the fastest fo-
cusing times ever seen, and they do so
with a contrast-detection system.
Meanwhile, phase-detection systems
have moved on-chip with the imaging
sensor and stand ready to revolutionize
the shape of professional-grade gear.
The takeaway, then, is this: Phase-
and contrast-detection systems are both
incredibly capable and incredibly pow-
erful, when done right. If Canon’s EOS
70D is an indicator, in a few short years
we may even see contrast-detection sys-
tems largely abandoned.
The changes in AF technology are
moving two different types of cameras
toward one destination: a high-speed,
mirrorless world. Compact mirrorless
cameras are marching steadily toward
full-frame performance and features
while full-frame cameras are moving
toward a mirrorless design.
Just like the waveforms used in
phase-detection systems, at some point,
these cameras are going to overlap per-
fectly and the future of photography
will snap into focus. DPP
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 Art Science
The
Of

46 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

 N)
athan Myhrvold is one
hell of a photographer.
With his new book The
Photography of Modern
Cuisine, he and his team
of photographers practically rein-
vented food photography, aban-
doning its most clichéd commercial
techniques in favor of a ground-
breaking aesthetic that better serves
its purpose—to clearly illustrate a six-
volume, 2,438-page cookbook that
also carries Myhrvold’s byline and that
similarly reshaped thinking about the
art and science of food preparation.
Dr. Myhrvold’s name is likely
familiar, but it’s likely not from
photography. Though he’s a noted
landscape and wildlife photographer,
he’s better known as the boy who
entered college at 14, earned degrees
in mathematics, physics and eco-
nomics from UCLA and Princeton,
spent a year at Cambridge study-
ing theoretical physics with Stephen
Hawking, built a company and sold
it to Bill Gates, became Microsoft’s
first Chief Technology Officer and
held the role for 13 years until he
left to start another new company,
Intellectual Ventures, which is noted
for being one of the largest patent
owners in the United States. He’s also
the man who upended the art and
science of food photography.
The threads of art and science
have always run through Myhrvold’s
personal and professional lives,
from the moment they spurred a
childhood interest in photography
and cooking, to 2011, when the by-
now classically trained chef pub-
lished a 50-pound, $500 tome called
Modernist Cuisine. The work became
a touchstone, a must-have for the se-
rious chef, and from the moment he
conceived of it, he knew photogra-
phy would be integral to its success.
“Photography was always part of
the idea,” Myhrvold says. “We were
Nathan Myhrvold is the ultimate embodiment of the Renaissance Man, going to make a book that was very
in depth, that tried to cover the state
and among his achievements is reinventing the art of food photography of the art of culinary science, and I re-
By William Sawalich 쏜쏜 Photography By Nathan Myhrvold alized that it could be very technical,
a daunting book. So I thought one of
the ways we would combat that was
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 47
 Art Science
The
Of

to make the book really visually com-

pelling, and we’d use great photogra-
phy to do that. When we discuss what
happens inside a food when you cook
it, rather than using a line drawing or
a diagram, let’s have a photo. Because
a photo can show you something in a
way that’s just way more compelling.
If we had really striking photos, that
would cause people to get interested
and we would suck them in, get our
hooks in and away we go.”
The photography hooked
Myhrvold, too. Leading the teams
that wrote the recipes, prepared the
food and photographed the dishes, he
acted simultaneously as chef, writer
and photographer, as well as chief
creative director for all aspects of the
project. As photographer, though,
his experience had been almost exclu-
sively outside the studio, making this
project a learning experience, too.
“I had a bunch of studio equip-
ment,” Myhrvold explains. “Almost all
of the equipment we used—Broncolor
strobes, the big camera stand—I al-
ready had, but I had never gotten into
Nathan Myhrvold and his team of scientists-slash-chefs employed a variety of techniques to
using it that much. I was familiar with
illustrate a comprehensive 2,400-page book on food and preparation titled Modernist Cuisine: The
it, but I wasn’t a studio photographer. Art and Science of Cooking. Differing setups for the six-volume tome required different solutions,
The trouble with the studio is that like balancing foods and even liquids or learning how to machine kitchen equipment in half.
I have a very busy life, and because I Whereas the majority of photographic challenges were solved physically, images with water, for
control the studio, it was possible to put example, required digital compositing. But even shooting a side view of boiling water was a
the time off. Whereas if you schedule a challenge. OPENING SPREAD: A meticulously composed “Vegetable Garden.” ABOVE: Blueberries
trip to Africa, you’re going to Africa.” cut open. Myhrvold employed high-power flashes and custom optics to achieve larger-than-life
macros. ABOVE, RIGHT: A “blowup” of Camembert cheese on brioche bread. RIGHT: A cutaway pan
Unsurprisingly, Myhrvold is a fast
holding cutaway jars.
learner. Not only did he manage to
navigate the strobes and other techni-
cal studio challenges, but he quickly ever—and then we’ll go use that to tell had nothing glued on it and it turns out
thrived. One of the first images he made the story. Pretty soon, it was clear that you don’t need to have anything glued
for the cookbook raised the bar both we had a look going and we could take on; you just stack it right and it works.
technically and aesthetically. Out of the that and build on it.” There’s a frying pan that shows the
gate, he was shooting for greatness. For the cutaways—photographs of same thing. For the half a blender, it’s
“I set up in my garage,” he says, pots and pans and foods literally sev- literally half a blender. There’s a shot in
“and I shot the carrots and the broc- ered in half—verisimilitude was im- the book of me photographing the half
coli cutaways. The way we chose to do portant. Myhrvold shot everything as a blender, and you can see there are
it was to say we’ve invented a magic, straight in-camera as possible, relying some wires and needles sticking out.
X-ray vision, Superman way of look- on compositing and digital wizardry We found that just by being straight-
ing inside your pots and pans, and so only to fill in gaps as needed. forward and packing stuff in, that was
we’ll go do that in as many contexts as “Case by case,” he explains, “we actually enough to get us a hell of a
we can—whether that’s blenders or it’s would shoot through a sheet of Pyrex® shot. One of our philosophies was, it
cream whippers or barbecues or what- or not. There’s a cut-in-half sieve that only had to look good for a thousandth
48 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
 >> More On The Web
For more cutting-edge
imagery from fine-art and
commercial photographers,
see the Profiles section of
DPP on the web at
www.digitalphotopro.com.

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 49

 so we had to look at food in a different
way. It’s just a tomato, but we wanted
you to look at a tomato in a way you
hadn’t ever looked at it before, and
honor something as simple as a tomato
this way. When you look at them up
close, tomatoes actually are speckled,
they have all these little imperfec-
tions. The other thing I personally
love about that shot is the thing that
gets the biggest play isn’t the tomato,
it’s the stem. That’s trying to be a ref-
erence to where tomatoes come from.
“Let’s take pictures of food that aren’t
like any pictures of food people have
taken,” he continues. “I don’t mean in
any way to slight people who do food
photography, but it’s a little bit of a
strange field. Most food photography

Art Science
is commercial, but many parts of com-
The
Of

of a second. Once we got the shot, it

didn’t matter if it all went to hell.
“All digital photography uses some
Photoshop,” Myhrvold continues. “You
always color-correct, you always spot,
you always do a bunch of stuff, and we
were certainly not above doing some ed-
iting. In the case of the boiling water, we
separately shot pictures of boiling water
and used them to composite, very much
like on a Spiderman movie, taking out
the wires. A key element to us when we
did use compositing or other tools, we
were still trying to get that straight shot.
We were trying to get a picture of the
cut-in-half pan just as straightforward
as the shot of the tomato.”
The tomato image that graces the
cover of the book represents another
defining element in the project’s aes-
thetic. More than just the technical
innovation, Myhrvold’s simple, mini-
malist compositions put the focus
squarely onto the food. This, too, was a
deliberate choice made to put distance
between what’s typical of food photog-
raphy and what the photographer held
as a higher standard.
“One of our points of philosophy is
that we want people to look at food in
a different way,” Myhrvold says, “and
50 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
mercial photography have more dignity,
in the sense that if you take fashion pho-
tos, fashion photos are something that
people think are legitimate for museum
shows, they’re legitimate for coffee-
table books. Well, try to find that on
food. Food photography seems to have
been banished almost entirely to com-
mercial things. It’s very rare to find pic-
ture books of food. It’s very rare to have
pictures of food in museums or treated
like they’re art at some level.
“Meanwhile, cookbooks are full of
food photos,” Myhrvold says, “but al-
ways in a very particular sense. Food
photos have a very pedestrian role,
more than most other kinds of com-
mercial photography, where you’ve got
more freedom to take an interesting
photo. Whereas most food photos—
most, not all—are there for a very spe-
cific role, and it’s pretty heavy-handed.
They’re full of lots of cues, and those
cues are setting up a gestalt about what
the picture is about. The food is a play-
er, but it’s only one of the many players.
Magazine covers in November are sup-
posed to show a turkey with some ver-
sion of a Norman Rockwell traditional
American Thanksgiving. And that’s
what it’s supposed to be about. The idea
that you’d have an edgy Thanksgiving
photo is just a nonstarter.
“We set out to do things in a bunch
of ways that were very different,” he
adds. “We had no food stylists. We had
a sense that, as chefs, it’s kind of the
chef’s job to make the food look good.
So I and the other chefs, we styled all
of the food. It wasn’t that there was
anything wrong with food stylists, but
I was afraid that if we hired someone The refreshing food photography of Myhrvold
we would get the kinds of things they and his team at Modernist Cuisine may
were good at, which is the kinds of seem to be the result of digital trickery, but
the majority of work was done in the real
things that all other food photos do.
world, as you can see in this cutaway shot of
We set out to do something different Myhrvold taking a shot of a cutaway blender
and I think we achieved it, which is (above). Their goal for the book was to
remarkable because people have been forge a different approach to the soft-focus,
taking pictures of food for 100 years. high-key look that’s popular in food
But the idea of creating a new, edgy, photography. TOP, LEFT: The expansive kitchen
different look in food was available.” space where the recipes are brought together
also serves as a photographic studio.
During the four years of principal
photography for the cookbook, and
continued shooting for the Photography
book, Myhrvold used every high-end
digital camera Canon produced—“I
own about every camera made; I’m
exaggerating, but only slightly,” he
says—as well as Canon lenses and cus-
tom optics. He reconfigured a set of
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 51
 e, THE ART OF SCIENCE
sid ).
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He
c o well beyond 1:1 enlargement. In other
in t s t n l n t cases, like the beautifully textured im-
a de , adapcal glareveninatioe repe bindi reflec lte
r age of a Savoy cabbage, he used post-
M lters opti nts p elim h sid vent uce D ) Fi ite ity).
processing techniques to create images
fi st u n c re ed (N fin s
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“ • 10 lac G V ari reater 1 toartifac inter, to 10
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. dations of chartreuse. So the deal was
tos
pho s of to light it softly so that would come
r
UVtdoo d los d or
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aze to St po ing because I want to show all of the
ces h blue ilable No ex d. .
u es va s. ire
Redinimizess. A ating requ aze little crinkles. Our eyes refocus to see
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o
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sh -PM orre la riz , glareation. = 1 st io nis all of them, but when you shoot with
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SH c rfe a camera, you only get the instanta-
refle color lter f d rimating r pe ds
.
u ce pen ion fi librate C co ts. rs fo
t b ran neous part. It’s not obvious it’s a focus-
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Re Dee smiss lly ca H-PM oun e
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a stacking image, but the wonderful
gre com
ran rica t S rd
m
fect ou orp.
igh T ume ithou anda pe
r y
ing gc ty gradations and textures of cabbage just
H N r w r st e ng tin an
o
th m
o Th Bri arke arr keep going and going. Photography is
W Sli
i m im
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hp fet always about excerpting some aspect
73 i
-43 dL
735 mite of reality. For Cartier-Bresson, it’s the
0/ Li
80 decisive moment, this single frame
taken out of the whole thing is some-
how stronger than what it was before.
All photography is about isolating that.
Some photos are there because you iso-
late with depth of field. Is it more or
less natural to shoot with an ƒ/1.4 lens
or to stack photos? They’re different
sides of the same coin. It happens that a
certain photographic situation is going
to require one rather than another.
Ballheads “I’m sure there’s some parallel uni-
Panheads verse in which I became a photogra-
Quick Releases pher,” Myhrvold adds. “Instead, I got
5-Year Warranty busy. When I was at Microsoft in the
MH 1300-657
late 1980s, I was very busy, but I had
enough income that I could buy cam-
eras again, so I started buying cameras
and taking pictures quite seriously. I
started doing a lot of travel and land-
scape photography, but it was this proj-
ect that allowed me to take several of
my long-standing passions and pull
all of these things I’ve always loved
to do—science and photography and
cooking—all into one thing. And it
worked out.” DPP

800/735-4373 See more of Nathan Myhrvold’s food

hpmarketingcorp.com giottosusa.com MH 3300-550C
photography at modernistcuisine.com.
5 2 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
 Starting
With A
BLANK Philip Habib’s use of color, composition and

CANVAS
T)
hough New York-based photographer
Philip Habib has been plying his trade
for three decades, his style is cutting-
edge contemporary while retaining a
classic elegance. It’s youthful without be-
ing adolescent. Habib’s work is polished and styl-
ized, and when people are his subject matter, the
resulting portraits reveal his ability to tap into the
inner souls of the sitters or standers before his lens.
In the spirit of Irving Penn, with a splash of
Andy Warhol’s colors thrown in, Habib’s unique
ability to create award-winning imagery in
both people and still-life photography has been
used effectively in the fine-art and commercial
worlds with clients ranging from Smirnoff and
Schweppes to Canon and Sony.
DPP: You were educated in London, Paris and
Milan. How does that play into your style?
Philip Habib: My work is quite eclectic. Also,
the subject matter I choose for personal projects is
influenced by my European background, for ex-
ample, my series “The Future of America” on so-
rorities and fraternities here in the United States. I
came here and saw this phenomenon that doesn’t
exist in Europe. It’s an American institution. I was
really interested in it because it’s this little gap be-
tween leaving home and the workplace. It’s a place
where teenagers develop and find themselves.
The only rule is that they keep their grades up.
I kind of feel like I missed out on that experience
in Europe. By documenting it, I’m getting a sense
of it. The only thing I knew about the subject up
until then was from the movie Animal House with
John Belushi. I discovered that a lot of the frater-
nity houses are pretty much just like that.
DPP: What are you going to do with this body
of work?
Habib: I would like to create a book and a touring
exhibition. In 10 years’ time, I would like to docu-
54 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
 Portfolio
whimsy in his portraits gives his photos a youthful and exuberant look By Mark Edward Harris 쏜쏜 Photography By Philip Habib
 Starting
With A
BLANK
CANVAS

“I like very simple and graphic images, and I like strong color. I love the work of Andy

56 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

Warhol. Bill Brandt was a huge influence on me at one stage. Jeanloup Sieff, as well.”
“I like very simple and graphic
images,” says portrait and still-life
commercial photographer Philip Habib.
“I like strong color.” As you can see
from the opening spread image,
captured at Coney Island, Habib
distills his compositions to repeating
shapes and colors, reducing a scene
to its graphic essence. It gives his
content a fine-art depth while the
personalities of his subjects and the
absurdity of the overall scene
counter with quite a bit of humor.
ment the same students in their homes
or work environments, which is going to
be very different than their school ones.
DPP: In a sense, you’ll be creating
10-year college reunions for these stu-
dents with themselves. From a techni-
cal standpoint, how are you creating
the images for this series?
Habib: In two parts. During the
daytime, when the kids are in class, I
photograph their rooms with a pretty
basic lighting setup. I began the series
using Broncolor strobes, but over time
switched to Canon 600EX flashes for
the room shots because the technol-
ogy for these flashes has improved
so much. I then photograph the stu-
dents themselves on a gray seamless
in a common room in the evening so
I can capture the spontaneity of them
goofing around, that energy of being a
part of a fraternity or sorority. I use my
Broncolor lights and put the music on.
The students egg each other on to get
in front of the camera so it’s more like
a party. It’s a lot of fun. I draw on the
youth from this series; they give me a
lot of good energy.
DPP: Do you think personal proj-
ects like this play a major role in help-
ing you land commercial assignments?
Habib: I’ve always gotten commer-
cial work from my personal projects.
When I present my portfolio for a
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 57
 Starting
With A
BLANK
CANVAS
“The key is to get people to not be conscious of the camera. The biggest trick is to
commercial job, 70% of it is made up
of personal work up front with the
tearsheets in the back. The commer-
cial 30% of the portfolio is to show art
buyers that I’m a professional.
DPP: And that you can execute a
commercial project. One of the great
European photographers who’s not
extremely well known here was the
late Jeanloup Sieff. He refused to be
categorized into being an advertising
photographer, a fashion photographer,
a fine-art photographer, a landscape
photographer or any other label. You
seem to have established yourself in a
58 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
variety of photographic genres with- The photographer has an almost
out confusing art buyers. graphic design approach to his
Habib: Within the commercial work, work, as you can see from this
minimalist portrait of digital tech
you tend to get more pigeonholed, and I
writer Evgeny Morozov (right),
was during the first two decades of my which ran on the cover of
career. It’s only since the digital revolu- Columbia Journalism Review.
tion that I’ve evolved a lot more and
started doing all sorts of stuff.
DPP: It’s impressive that you can be
such a strong still-life photographer
and people photographer, for instance,
at the same time. That’s a rarity in the
photography world. The common
thread in all your work, be it portraits
or food photography or still lifes, is
get them relaxed.”

>> More On The Web

For more cutting-edge
imagery from fine-art and
commercial photographers,
see the Profiles section of
DPP on the web at
www.digitalphotopro.com.
ABOVE: Taken at the Zeta Beta Xi fraternity in Geneseo, New York, this college student is part of Habib’s “The Future of America” series, which
concentrates on the “Animal House” antics of U.S. dorms. The room may look like a mess, but Habib’s compositions are anything but.
Starting
With A
BLANK
CANVAS
the very graphic nature of the images.
Habib: I like very simple and
graphic images, and I like strong color.
I love the work of Andy Warhol. Bill
Brandt was a huge influence on me
at one stage. Jeanloup Sieff, as well.
Irving Penn had a huge influence on
me. Chuck Close—I love his portraits.
Very graphic and powerful.
DPP: Like your image of chopsticks
in a takeout container set in a red
background. It’s a great example of
a graphic photo with strong Warhol-
type colors. How do you create these
types of images?
Habib: A lot of them are shot sepa-
rately. I shot the chopsticks and con-
60 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
tainer on a neutral background, then
created the red background and the
shadowing in Photoshop. There’s a
bit of refining to do, but it’s pretty
straightforward.
DPP: How did you learn the craft
of photography?
Habib: I went to Mallinson’s School
of Photography on the Isle of Wight.
That was a two-year course. It was
basically black-and-white fine-art pho-
tography. We did landscapes and print-
ing. Then I went to the New England
School of Photography in Boston for
two years. That was very commercially
oriented. Their goal was for you to
come out of the program with a com-
mercial portfolio so you could go out
and get work. That’s where I learned
the 8x10 and 4x5 cameras. I then as-
sisted for about a year in Boston before
opening my studio there in 1983. Then
I went back to Europe in 1986 and
opened a studio in London. In 1994, I
based myself in Paris until 1997 when
I came back to the States and settled in
New York. I was shooting mostly 8x10
for the still lifes in Europe, but when
I came here they seemed to prefer the
4x5, basically because it’s quicker.
DPP: Working in large format
tends to create very disciplined pho-
tographers. There’s no motordrive
button to hold down.
Habib: Even now for my portrait
work, with my Canon 5D Mark III,
I don’t shoot that much. You know
when you’ve got it, and usually it’s
within the first few frames. It’s strange;
it always seems to work that way.
DPP: How do you work with people
to get them into the right mood for what
you’re trying to convey in a photograph?
Habib: The key is to get people to not
be conscious of the camera. The biggest
trick is to get them relaxed. I meet them
and we’re just chatting about whatever
before we get on set, and then when on
set, the conversation continues. Some-
times I’m pressing the trigger with-
out looking through the viewfinder.
They’re looking at me and we’re talk-
ing with each other. Within those few
moments, I also take some more seri-
studio shooting them, it would get bor-
ing for me. Things have changed a lot. I
had a studio in London for many years,
then I started shooting a lot of still lifes
in rented studios in Paris. At the time,
it was unusual because it seemed like
still-life photographers had to have their
own studios. That got me thinking that

“I loved the idea of starting with a blank canvas. I found that my

studio in London was bogging me down more than anything. I just
let go of it and haven’t had a studio since. I love the freedom of it.”
ous ones. I’m handholding the camera, I shouldn’t get stuck to one place. I liked
looking through the viewfinder, then the idea of traveling, even for still lifes,
back out. It’s just a chat. I’ve always then packing my stuff up at the end of
been interested in people. I love meeting a shoot. I loved the idea of starting with
people and chatting with them. a blank canvas. I found that my studio
DPP: Like the late Irving Penn, in London was bogging me down more
who you cite as an influence, you than anything. I just let go of it and
do extremely well with people and haven’t had a studio since. I love the free-
still lifes. It’s a tribute to your shared dom of it. DPP
graphic sensibilities and people skills.
Habib: I really like the graphic na- You can see more of Philip Habib’s work
ture of still lifes, but if I were always in a at philiphabib.com.
 ½he
FAC E The best of the best winning

2013
ANNUAL
PHOTO
CONTEST
WINNERS
Photographers are
continually drawn to
portraits, as they can
create deep connections
and express powerful
emotions to a viewer
within a single frame.
After looking through
thousands of entries,
the winners of DPP’s
The Face 2013 Photo
Contest have been
chosen, whose images
exemplify this
dynamism of the
portrait. Congratulations
to our winners and
honorable mentions, as
well as our finalists.

Check out the full group of finalists at www.digitalphotopro.com

62 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
photos from DPP’s annual The Face contest
1st Place
Soldier | Kristina Varaksina
I’ve been doing portrait photography for about 10 years, though
it’s only in the last three years that I’ve taken it seriously. In this
image, I’m telling a story about a woman who isn’t happy with her
life, or at least with the current situation. It’s an observation of herself,
an anticipation, a desire to change something. I like revealing
something about a person that isn’t usually on the surface. I think a
great portrait leaves emotion that you remember long after you saw
the photo. I also love telling stories, so that the viewer can look at a
picture and make up a narrative in their head. The best advice I’ve
ever received was to do my homework and to think through as many
details about the shoot as possible, from scouting, sketching, testing
and so on. But shooting is tough for me when I can’t get what I had
in my mind. There can be several reasons: a location isn’t working,
a model doesn’t give me the right feeling, my lighting setup isn’t
working for the mood. The first and the last problems may be fixed
by changing and trying. Getting the right expression from a model
who can’t relax, get into the mood or just can’t stop posing, is the
toughest for me. In that case, I try to catch them off-guard.
Equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 85mm ƒ/1.2 II
USM, window light, handheld
2nd Place
This Is My Stop | Art H. Siegel
When I was 8 years old, my father was given an early
Polaroid camera as a gift. Having no use for it, he handed it to
me. I began taking photos of people I knew and people I didn’t
know. I’m fascinated by human interactions, especially in crowded
metropolitan environments. I feel that the best people shots
occur naturally. You just have to be in the right place at the right
time to capture them. The New York subway system is one of my
favorite locations. Thousands of stories are written in the faces
of riders. We never actually know their stories, so we just have to
imagine them. I took this shot on a very quiet weekday time, when
relatively few people were on the platform or the trains, and the
interval between trains was extra-long. Here, I captured a woman
anxiously, yet patiently waiting to board, while two other
passengers inside their car have faces glued to the glass. None of
them acknowledges the others or makes eye contact, but all are
part of a brief moment of theater taking place in a very small area.
Equipment: Nikon D800E, AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm ƒ/4G ED VR,
available light, handheld
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 63
 3rd Place
Blue Eye
Tatiana Gerusova
I love shooting women. Women
possess the mystery of sensuality, and
each woman is beautiful. They play and
tease, they have secrets, they
mesmerize you with their grace. I also
really enjoy capturing all kinds of
emotions. It took a while for me and my
model, Mosh, to finally shoot together.
Even though this was a little shoot,
Mosh put it all out there. I wanted her
to show a range of emotions with the
least possible amount of expression.
I think she nailed it! What attracts me
to a portrait, on top of the composition
being pleasing to the eye, is when a
picture makes me create my own
story or wonder what’s going on.
High-contrast black-and-white work has
been an influence on me. It definitely
adds so much secrecy. I also love the
Golden Era, retro-chic and classic
Hollywood cinema.
Equipment: Nikon D600, AF-S
Nikkor 24-85mm ƒ/3.5-4.5G ED VR, two
umbrellas, handheld

Honorable Mention

A Very LuLu Christmas | Haven Hartman
In junior high, I first became interested in photography, but really
embraced portraiture at Brooks Institute of Photography, starting in 2002.
I love connecting with people and telling a story. People can be so
camera-shy (me included)! I joke around and try to make them
comfortable. When children are particularly difficult, I’ll let them shoot
some frames so they get to be the photographer. Great portraits are about
sincerity, fun and character. The LuLu family are my favorite clients.
They’re fun and creative people. We always collaborate on their Christmas
card. This was the first frame we shot it just came out perfectly.
Equipment: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF 17 40mm ƒ/4L USM, Calumet
Travelite strobes
Blending Thought | Jean François Seguin
I’ve been in the business for over a year now, and shooting portraits is
something I find magical. I like portraits where the viewer can read the
subject’s mind and understand where she/he comes from or is going. We
were doing a fashion shoot for a young new designer, and this model’s hair
and features captured my attention. For a moment, I wanted to forget about
the clothes and focus on what I felt from the model herself. I took another
camera and worked my way to create this frame. After I achieved the image
I wanted, we went on with the fashion shoot.
Equipment: Nikon D80, AF S Nikkor DX 16 85mm ƒ/3.5 5.6G ED VR,
two Lightrein 1200ws monolights with large softboxes, one Lightrein 1200ws
monolight with grid, white reflector

64 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

“I have used and continue to use Museo media because, quite simply,
without high quality media there is no project. I love the luscious, artful
look of Museo Silver Rag and Max. They have terrific D-Max and tonal
range so my work looks its absolute best...”

–Lester Picker, Les Picker Fine Art Photography

www.lesterpickerphoto.com
 Honorable Mention
Louder | Caesar Lima
Portraits are always a challenge. You need lots of expression,
mood and attitude. You want to tell a story and make people wonder.
And every good portrait needs a visual “punch.” I wanted to shoot a
steampunk portrait with some crazy headpiece. I told sculptor Mark
Silka I wanted something bizarre with the feeling of pain and anger,
something beautiful, but at the same time ugly. We chose human
elements like the “eye” and a few photographic elements like the
lens to incorporate. We were looking for an old-school industrial look
like “the mechanical brain,” as if it was the future of the past. Silka
nailed the design. It’s a piece of art.
Equipment: Hasselblad H4D, Hasselblad Normal 100mm ƒ/2.2 HC
Autofocus, FOBA studio stand, Broncolor Move 1200 L battery power
pack, Broncolor Para 88 FB reflector
Check out the full group of finalists at www.digitalphotopro.com
66 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
Song of the Samurai | Joshua Wilcoxon
I enjoy finding hidden traits in people, almost a more fierce side
to their nature. Lately, I’ve been expressing myself through more of
a fantasy/character type of photography. I had this vision of a great
samurai warrior in death dancing for the heavens to open up to let her
warrior spirit enter, somewhat like Valhalla. Whenever I shoot women, I
always prefer to shoot beauty and strength as if they were one and the
same. I know that samurais were mostly warriors of male dominance,
but I have a place in my heart for strong women. Knowing only death
and war, I wanted to make something beautiful that still had a hint of
sadness, hence the flowing kimono, that reacts like the flow of blood
from battle or that of the chains that bound her to her life.
Equipment: Canon EOS 5D, Canon EF 28 70mm ƒ/2.8L USM,
Paul C. Buff AlienBees B800 monolight
Tinsletown | Suzette Troche Stapp
I love stories, and I dream people. Taking the images of
the people that come in my dreams, and making them
tangible, is like therapy. “Tinsletown” was from a series of
photos that I created for Margi Kent Couture. Both of my
daughters are actors. One night, I dreamed about Hollywood
being solely run by women and wanted to integrate that
dream into the project. Margi dresses many Hollywood
celebrities, so it was a perfect fit. In this image, from right
to left, the characters are the insane demanding director, the
singer, the actress and, of course, the diva! Each image was
shot separately and then brought together in Photoshop.
Equipment: Nikon camera, AF Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8D,
Dynalite 2040 monolight, X Small Chimera softbox
and grid, reflectors
SoRetro!
The proliferation of high-end, back-to-the-future,
retro-design cameras has style as well as substance
By The Editors

“Retro”-look serious cameras are hot
today. Besides the nostalgia factor, they provide
their users with a sense of style. We wouldn’t trade
the technology of our recent DSLRs and mirrorless
cameras for that of the old 35mm film cameras,
much less earlier digital cameras, but there’s
something to be said for the retro look.
Photographers—pro photographers, in particular—
have an image, and a stylish camera can be useful
for that image. Retro-style cameras look cool,
and some are quite suitable for pro work.
68 | Di ital Photo Pro di italphotopro.com
Back in the day, things were simpler. You could
set your DSLR directly via dials, no need to deal
with menus on an LCD monitor (film cameras
didn’t even have monitors)—or even switch on the
camera. No white balance (you did that through
film choice and when making prints), no video—
just good cameras that could be directed easily to
take excellent pictures. The cameras were quick,
but let you work methodically without bells and
whistles, urging you ever onward. Here, we present
the prime movers behind today’s retro movement.

— Nikon Df —
The concept behind the Df is akin to that behind a
classic sports car, where the creators looked at the key el-
ements that a driving enthusiast would want and then
took out everything else. The Df includes the flagship
D4’s full-frame sensor and amazing low-light image
quality, retro styling with dials that provide direct access
to the most important functions for a photographer, a
150,000-cycle shutter, 5.5 fps shooting and the ability to
use a huge number of current and legacy Nikon lenses.
But it leaves out HD video (although it does have live
view) and a pop-up flash (but it has an i-TTL hot-shoe
and a PC connector for studio flash). Like a true sports
car, at $2,749, it’s not inexpensive, but it certainly ticks the
critical boxes for a lot of still photographers.
Many online photo forums have long-standing threads
populated by those who long for “the good old days”—or
at least for that simplicity. Those photographers will love
the new Nikon Df, a rugged and relatively compact full-
frame DSLR, with plenty of dials that let you set non-
digital photographic things directly, and no video. While
the Df’s back is similar to those of other higher-end
Nikon DSLRs, with a 3.2-inch, 921K-dot LCD monitor,
a big eye-level pentaprism viewfinder that shows 100%
of the actual image area and the usual DSLR buttons, the
top plate is where the action is. To the right of the penta-
prism is a shutter-speed dial (4 to 1⁄4000 sec., plus B, T and
X, and a 1⁄3-step position). To the left are concentric di-
als: The top one contains exposure-compensation settings
(from +3 to -3 in 1⁄3-step increments); the bottom one sets
ISO (the normal range in 1⁄3-step increments, plus L1 and
H1 through H4). Adjacent to the shutter-speed dial is the
drive-mode switch (S, CL, CH, quiet mode, self-timer,
. To the right of the mechanical shutter button
PSAM exposure-mode selector. The key point
u can set, and check, all of these items without
t the LCD monitor or operating multiple but-
nd controls. Very cool.
While the exterior is retro and simple, inside
igh-tech. For starters, you’ll find the 16.2-
gapixel, full-frame CMOS sensor from the
o flagship D4, along with EXPEED 3 process-
g to optimize image quality and produce the
me remarkable ISO performance. Normal
nge is 100-12800, plus L1 (50), H1 (25600),
2 (51200), H3 (102,400) and L4 (a whopping
4,800)—here’s your chance to get D4 image
uality at half-price! There’s in-camera HDR,
wo- and five-shot auto-bracketing, and Nikon’s
cture Controls. The 2016-pixel 3D Matrix
etering with Scene Recognition System and
point AF system (with 9 cross-type points,
7 points that can function at ƒ/8, great news
leconverter users) with 3D Tracking and Auto
F provide excellent performance in these areas.
ew mode, the Df features the same contrast-
based AF system as the flagship D4 pro camera.
The Df can shoot at 5.5 fps with focusing for each
shot, in bursts of up to 100 JPEGs or 29 14-bit RAWs.
The rechargeable EN-EL14a lithium-ion battery is good
for around 1,400 shots per charge, per CIPA testing
standards, and the shutter has been tested in-camera to
150,000 cycles. The body features the weather-resistance
of the D800, with a single slot for SD/SDHC/SDXC
memory cards, UHS-I-compliant.
There’s no built-in flash, but there’s a hot-shoe that ac-
cepts Nikon Speedlights (the Df is also compatible with
Nikon’s i-TTL wireless Creative Lighting System), as
well as a PC terminal for studio flash systems. You can
add the optional WU-1a Wireless Mobile Adapter and
download images (and operate the camera remotely) with
a smartphone or tablet. The Df is also compatible with
Nikon’s optional GP-1 and GP-1A geotagging GPS units.
Of course, the Df can use all current AF, AF-S, DX and
AF-D Nikkor lenses (like other full-frame Nikon DSLRs,
it automatically crops to 1.5X DX format when a DX lens
is mounted, producing 6.8-megapixel images). FX (full-
frame) lenses range from 14mm to 800mm (DX lenses
go down to 10-24mm, but that’s equivalent to 15-36mm
with the DX crop), including many with VR Vibration
Compensation. But, unlike other Nikon DSLRs, the Df
is also compatible with classic Ai and non-Ai Nikkor
lenses with full-aperture metering. Concurrently with the
Df, Nikon has also introduced the new classic FX-format
AF-S Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.8G Special Edition lens honor-
ing the design of the classic Ai lenses (and the Df camera).
Dimensions are 5.6x4.3x2.6 inches and 25 ounces.
Estimated Street Price: $2,749 (body); $2,999 (with
50mm Special Edition kit lens). www.nikonusa.com
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 69
 SoRetro!
— Olympus OM-D E-M1 —
Olympus kind of started the current retro w
with its E-P1 PEN mirrorless camera in 2009. T
E-P1 and its successors are based on the look of t
classic compact Olympus PEN half-frame 35m
cameras of the 1960s, and while they’re excelle
image-making devices, none has a built-in eye-lev
viewfinder (an electronic viewfinder is available
an optional accessory for some of them).
Enter the OM-D, based on the look of the cla
sic compact Olympus OM-series 35mm SLRs
the 1970s. The original OM-D E-M5 drew a lot
praise when introduced in 2012, and the curre
flagship OM-D E-M1 is becoming popular with
as a go-anywhere system camera. Actually, the
E-M1 is also the successor to the last Olympus pro DSLR,
the E-5: Yes, it’s that good.
A “mini-DSLR”-style mirrorless model with a rug-
ged freeze-, dust- and splashproof body, a state-of-the-art,
16.3-megapixel Micro Four Thirds Live MOS sensor and
powerful new TruePic VII processor, the E-M1 offers a fea-
ture set that goes well beyond that of the E-5.
The new Dual Fast AF system provides great lens ver-
satility. The camera uses 81-point contrast AF when native
Micro Four Thirds lenses are mounted and automatically
engages 37-point on-sensor phase-detection AF when lega-
cy Four Thirds lenses are used. (When continuous AF is se-
lected with an MFT lens, both AF systems work together to
improve tracking performance.) There are 57 Four Thirds
and MFT lenses currently available, all designed specifically
for the Four Thirds/MFT image sensor. These include 32
Zuiko and M.Zuiko Digital ones from Olympus, provid-
ing focal lengths from 9mm through 300mm, plus an 8mm
fisheye. With the sensor’s 2X focal-length factor, this pro-
vides users with focal lengths equivalent to 16mm through
600mm on a 35mm camera. Note that an adapter, preferably
the new weather-sealed MMF-3, allows you to attach Four
Thirds lenses to the E-M1.
You can choose a single AF point or activate a 3x3-point
group or let the camera choose the AF area. Super Spot AF
lets you pinpoint focus on a tiny subject or a tiny area of
a subject. There’s not only face-detection AF, but also eye-
detection AF, which can be set for nearest-eye, right-eye or
left-eye priority. You can also quickly focus anywhere in the
image merely by touching the spot on the LCD monitor. For
manual focusing, focus peaking is available.
You might think that devoting sensor pixels to AF in-
stead of the image could reduce image quality, but only
about 6% of the 16.3 million pixels are devoted to AF.
The E-M1’s TruePic VII processor delivers effective noise
70 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
reduction and lens aberration corrections, and the sen-
sor produced the highest score yet (by a point) for a Four
Thirds-format sensor in DxOMark.com’s testing.
The E-M1 also incorporates the Olympus excellent 5-axis
sensor-shift image-stabilization system, which compensates
for yaw, pitch and roll, as well as vertical and horizontal shift,
and works with all lenses. The system allows you to hand-
hold steadily at shutter speeds 4 EV slower than without, per
CIPA measurement conditions.
A new super-large, eye-level electronic viewfinder fea-
tures 2.36 million dots and a 1.48X (0.74X 35mm-camera
equivalent) magnification, with a minimal 0.029-second
display-time lag. The EVF is complemented by a 3.0-inch,
1037K-dot, tilting touch-screen LCD monitor.
There are lots of control dials and buttons, making it
quicker and easier to set many camera functions, and a lot
of customization is possible. The BLN-1 lithium-ion bat-
tery provides 350 shots per charge (per CIPA standard); the
optional HLD-7 Battery Grip holds a second battery and
doubles shooting capacity. Built-in Wi-Fi, in conjunction
with the Olympus Image App, lets you upload images to
your smartphone wirelessly, operate the camera from your
smartphone and geotag images using the smartphone’s GPS.
The E-M1 can shoot at 10 fps with focus locked at the
first exposure and 6.5 fps with continuous AF. A big buf-
fer lets you shoot up to 41 RAW or 95 JPEG images in H
advance mode. The built-in intervalometer will shoot 1-999
images at intervals from one second to 24 hours. Video capa-
bilities include 1080p, 720p and 640x480, all at 30 fps. Sound
is stereo via built-in or external microphone. There’s also a
720p 10 fps time-lapse mode. Dimensions are 5.1x3.7x2.5
inches and 15.6 ounces.
Estimated Street Price: $1,399 (body only).
www.getolympus.com
 the
fifth
annual

P H O T O C O N T E S T

Photo by Gary Ehinger

2013 Perfect Portraits Photo Contest Winner

PRIZE PACKAGE AND

SUBMIT YOUR BEST PORTRAITS FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A
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 SoRetro!
— Leica M Typ 240 — SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, and can be saved as uncompressed
Leica has been making M-series rangefinder cameras or lossless compressed DNG (RAW) or JPEGs. Shutter
since the M3 model in 1954 (yes, there were M2 and M1 speeds range from 60 to 1⁄4000 sec., with flash sync up to 1⁄180 sec.
models, but curiously, the M3 was the first). So the current M TTL flash is possible via the SCA-3502-compatible hot-shoe.
Typ 240 isn’t a throwback to the look of the past, but simply Video capabilities include 1080p and 720p at 25 and 24
the latest in a long line of highly respected imaging devices. fps, and VGA at 30 fps, with mono sound via built-in micro-
It looks like a classic Leica rangefinder camera because it is a phone or stereo via external mic.
classic Leica rangefinder camera. But it’s digital.
The Ms were 35mm film cameras until the
first digital one, the M8, in 2006. The M7 35mm
camera is still in production, but the top digital
Leica is now the M Typ 240. It’s the first Leica
to use a CMOS sensor (a 24-megapixel “full-
frame” one), and thus the first to offer live
view, live focusing and video. It also produces
the best image quality of any Leica digital cam-
era by a wide margin.
Focusing is manual only. Like all Leica M
cameras, the M Typ 240 provides excellent
rangefinder focusing and can use all of the su-
perb Leica M-system lenses. It can also use
Leica R-series SLR lenses via optional R
adapter. It provides live-view focusing on the
3.0-inch, 920K-dot LCD monitor, with focus
peaking, and you can add the optional Visoflex EVF2 elec- As you’d expect of a Leica, the M Typ 240 is ruggedly
tronic viewfinder for eye-level electronic viewing and focus- constructed, with top and base plates machined from solid
ing, if desired. (Note that you have to use live viewing with brass and the body manufactured in one piece from high-
the R lenses; the rangefinder doesn’t work with them.) strength magnesium alloy, covered in synthetic leather.
Leica’s fast Maestro image processor optimizes image The body is splash- and dustproof (but the M lenses aren’t).
quality and speeds operation. Startup time is about one sec- Dimensions are 5.5x3.1x1.7 inches and 23.9 ounces.
ond, and maximum burst rate is 3 fps. Images are stored on Estimated Street Price: $6,950. us.leica-camera.com

Fixed-Lens Retro, And Not

Fujifilm’s 12.3-megapixel X100 was its first compact
APS-C-sensor camera, featuring a built-in 23mm lens
(equivalent to 35mm on a 35mm camera) and a classic
Leica-style look. It also introduced Fujifilm’s unique Hybrid
Multi Viewfinder that lets you switch instantly between an
optical eye-level finder and an electronic one. The former
provides the brightest image and minimizes shutter lag,
while the latter provides an excellent live view of the image.
The X100S improved upon the original X100’s APS-C
sensor with a 16.2-megapixel Fujifilm X-Trans II APS-C
sensor with on-chip phase-detection AF sensors to
complement the unique X-Trans filter array (see the main
article for details on that) and a higher-res version of the
Hybrid Multi Viewfinder. So you get pro image quality and
good AF performance, all in a stylish, much-smaller-than-
DSLR package. The X100S measures 5.0x2.9x2.1 inches
and weighs 15.7 ounces. Estimated Street Price: $1,299.
Actually, now there are a number of excellent fixed-lens
cameras with compact bodies and DSLR-sized
image sensors, although lacking a classic retro look.
Leica’s X Vario features a 16.2-megapixel, APS-C CMOS
sensor and a built-in 18-46mm zoom lens (equivalent
to 28-70mm on a 35mm camera). Dimensions are
5.2x2.9x3.7 inches and 24 ounces. Estimated Street
Price: $2,850. Leica’s X2 features the same sensor and
a built-in 24mm lens (equivalent to 35mm on a 35mm
camera). It measures 4.9x2.7x2.0 inches and weighs 11.2
ounces. Estimated Street Price: $1,995.
(Cont’d on page 74)

72 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

 SoRetro!
Fixed-Lens Retro, And Not
(Cont’d from page 72)
Nikon’s Coolpix A features a 16.2-megapixel APS-C
CMOS sensor and a built-in 18.5mm lens (28mm 35mm-
camera equivalent). It measures just 4.4x2.6x1.6 inches
and weighs 10.6 ounces. Estimated Street Price: $1,099.
Ricoh’s similar GR has a 16.2-megapixel, APS-C CMOS
sensor and a fixed 18.3mm lens (28mm 35mm-camera
equivalent). It measures 4.6x2.4x1.4 inches and weighs a
mere 8.6 ounces. Estimated Street Price: $799.
Sigma offers three DP Merrill cameras, all featuring
the unique Foveon X3 image sensor that records all three
primary colors at every pixel site. (Conventional sensors
record just one color at each site, producing the
missing colors at each site by interpolation using complex
proprietary algorithms and producing color moiré that
generally requires use of a blurring optical low-pass filter;
the Foveon sensor doesn’t need the OLPF filter and thus
can deliver higher resolution for a given pixel count.) The
Digital Editions
www.digitalphotopro.com/digital
74 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
DP1M has a built-in 28mm lens (equivalent to 35mm on
a full-frame camera), the DP2M, a 45mm equivalent lens,
and the DP3M, a 75mm equivalent lens; all three lenses
were designed specifically for the Foveon sensor. All three
DP models are 4.8 inches wide and 2.6 inches high;
due to the different lenses, they differ in depth (2.5mm,
2.3mm and 3.2mm, respectively) and weigh 12.0, 11.6
and 14.1 ounces, respectively. Estimated Street Price:
$899 (each).
Sony offers two versions of its RX1 full-frame “pocket
camera”: the RX1 features a 24.3-megapixel, full-frame
Sony Exmor CMOS sensor with an OLPF, and the RX1R,
a similar sensor without the OLPF. Both have a built-in
35mm ƒ/2.0 lens designed for the camera and sensor,
measure 4.5x2.6x2.7 inches and weigh 17.0 ounces—the
most compact full-frame digital cameras available.
Estimated Street Price: $2,799 (each).
 — Fujifilm X-Pro1 —
The X-Pro1 was the interchangeable-lens follow-up to
the company’s popular retro-style APS-C fixed-lens X100
(see sidebar), introduced a year later in 2009. Featuring
something of a classic Leica-style look, the X-series cam-
eras feature a unique Hybrid Multi Viewfinder that lets you
switch instantly between an optical eye-level finder and an
electronic one. The finder automatically adjusts magnifica-
tion and frame lines to suit the lens in use.
The X-Pro1 has a clean, retro-style body incorporat-
ing a magnesium-alloy chassis and die-cast aluminum top
and base plates, and a leather-like covering. The precision-
milled control dials allow you to directly set shutter speeds cate the rear element much closer to the sensor than with
and exposure compensation. Aperture rings on each lens let DSLRs. The new X mount also features a wide opening,
you set apertures in 1⁄3-EV increments, while focusing rings allowing for wider-diameter rear elements. The result is
permit manual focusing (albeit electronic “by-wire” focus- light more evenly delivered to the sensor for higher reso-
ing, not mechanical focusing). lution across the image frame. Currently, Fujifilm offers
The X-Pro1 employs a 16.2-megapixel, APS-C Fujifilm 11 lenses for the X-series cameras, from 10-24mm to 50-
X-Trans image sensor, which has a unique RGB filter ar- 230mm for 35mm-camera-equivalent focal lengths of
ray that differs from the conventional Bayer grid by featur- 15mm to 345mm.
ing a more random pattern that minimizes moiré and false The X-Pro1 is primarily a still camera, but can do
colors, which, in turn, allows Fujifilm to do away with the 1920x1080 full HD and 1280x720 HD video at 24 fps, with
sharpness-reducing optical low-pass filter employed by most stereo sound via built-in microphone (but no external mic
Bayer-sensor cameras. jack). Clips can run up to 29 minutes in length. Dimensions
The X-Pro1’s mirrorless design permits a flange-back are 5.5x3.2x1.7 inches and 14.1 ounces.
distance (the distance between the lens mount and image Estimated Street Price: $1,099. www.fujifilmusa.com DPP

digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 75

 PAST
Presence Douglas Dubler created a historical and artistic project that was ideally
suited to the unique qualities of the legendary Polaroid 20x24 camera
By Richard A. Hood 쏜쏜 Photography By Douglas Dubler
Imagine a modern professional photographer
involved in a photo project allowing only 25
exposures in an entire day—with film so
rare, there’s no room for tests, mistakes
or retries. This is the story of a meet-
ing between a great photographer and
a historic camera.
Among the world’s foremost beauty
and fashion photographers, Douglas
Dubler has always seen his career as
a series of works in progress. From
his early days studying fine arts (and
being mentored by Ansel Adams and
Noguchi), through his celebrity por-
traits in Hollywood, to his recent ballet
projects, he has looked upon his work
as an evolving progression. Always, his
invented techniques and accumulated
experience have led to newer and more
artistically challenging projects. On the
way, his photographs have appeared
on the covers of virtually every fashion
and fine-art photography magazine
in the world, from Vogue to the issue
you’re reading at this moment.
Dubler’s hallmark is intensive prepa-
ration, acute attention to detail and an
approach to collecting and collaborating
with a team (models, makeup artists, So it seems natural that Dubler image, immediacy and tradition.
set designers, technicians) that reflects would turn the opportunity to shoot John Reuter, who owns the 20x24
his vision in every element of the final with a historic camera into a major ex- camera in New York (along with the
product. No one is more sensitive than ploration of personality, style, context last film stocks), has been friends with
Dubler to the creative dynamics of art- and form. With the Polaroid 20x24 Dubler for many years, and has en-
ist, equipment, technique and subject, camera, and ballerina Rachelle Di couraged him to do a project on the
and he approaches every project as a Stasio, Dubler found a model and large-scale instrument. “He would
creative director, closely involved with a medium that meshed with his invite me to use the camera,” Dubler
his team in every step of the process. career-long exploration of motion, says. “But I didn’t have the project for
76 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
 of creative contraries at work: the stylized
classicism of the form with the immedia-
cy and evanescence of the movement; the
rigid rules of ballet with the fluidity of
the body; the hard discipline of dance and
the spirit and energy of the young dancer.”
Di Stasio studies ballet at the Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis School at the American
Ballet Theatre on a full scholarship. She’s
presently working at the top student level

In a meditative study for both the photographer,

famed portraitist Douglas Dubler, and his subject,
16-year-old ballerina Rachelle Di Stasio, Dubler
recently returned to his roots as a film photographer
by employing a historic and extremely rare camera,
the Polaroid 20x24. Without the possibility to shoot
digitally, each of the massive 20x24-inch frames
was indispensable. The budget only allowed for five
black-and-white exposures.

it. Still, I wanted to use it before it disap-

pears—this is a historical endeavor, as well
as an artistic one.”
Dubler has created some striking dance
photography already, including the large-
scale “Swan” images of Irina Dvorovenko
(with the American Ballet Theatre in New
York). “And I thought some of the dy-
namic tensions involved would work well
with the large Polaroid camera,” he adds.
“I found a young ballerina, Rachelle Di
Stasio, who seemed to me to be a good
subject. My goal was to capture a young
dancer’s persona within the context of the
classical ballet. There’s a fascinating series
 artistic approach would be a gamble,
especially working with the large cam-
era, where prints would be unique and
fixed—and expensive. With very little
black-and-white film remaining, the
artist has to put himself on a strict ex-
posure budget. There was no question,
once the project started, of reworking
shots or doing anything over again.
But Dubler knows his craft, and has
the experience and vision required to

Dubler is quite explicit about the balance

like lighting, backdrop and so forth—as a
move into new areas of expression. So
this was a calculated gamble.
“And she’s a great dancer, a beauti-
ful young girl, and I could tell at our
meeting that she understood what
I was after,” says the photographer.
“And once we shot a first Polaroid, I
knew this was going to work out. I’ve
been doing this long enough; I can tell
if the model is engaged in the job, can
tell how it’s going to work—and this
ability to anticipate is especially crucial
in working with this camera, where
you don’t get ‘just another shot.’ When
I saw her working on that first shot, I
knew we had a good day ahead of us.”
“There was no testing, of course,”
h like classic says Di Stasio. “We only had five
backdrop, muc
with a hand-painted muslin tural grace and black-and-white frames available.
simple studio environment nters the attention on the na
In a e design ce So we would practice everything.
e minimal imag
Irving Penn, th rina. Douglas would work with me on
young balle
beauty of the
facial expressions, hand gestures. So
and dreams of being a company mem- her mother to discuss the concept. You we did a lot of processing before
ber of ABT. know, I didn’t know if she could do each picture was taken.”
“I met Rachelle through her moth- this, I didn’t know how she’d work Dubler met with his team, the styl-
er, Diane, who has been involved in with the camera or with me, because I ist and makeup artist, explaining his
the New York dance world, and who was looking for something a little dif- perspective and what sort of details
told me her daughter was going to at- ferent, not the standard dance photo- he wanted for the shot. “I spoke with
tend the JKO school on a scholarship,” graphs. But she had some experience Sylvia Pichler, with whom I’ve worked
says Dubler. He had seen some photo- being photographed, which was help- for 20 years. She has invented airbrush
graphs of the young Di Stasio ful. At any rate, she was fab- techniques for putting designs right on
“and I thought, interesting, and >> More On The Web ulous in front of the camera.” the model’s skin. Sylvia created a small
For more classic imagery
filed that away in my mind.” from iconic photographers, The young dancer was ex- white stencil—a stylized filigree—to
With the general idea o see the Profiles section of cited about the opportunity airbrush onto Rachelle’s cheek for a
DPP on the web at
working on the 20x24 cam www.digitalphotopro.com. to work on such an unusual little different effect,” he says.
era, and his own experience project. “When I first heard “I depend upon establishing long-
photographing dancers, Dubler began the idea, I thought it would be amaz- term relationships with my team mem-
to conceive of a project involving this ing to be a part of history like this,” she bers,” Dubler notes. “We carefully put
ingénue ballerina. says, “but it was definitely a challenge.” all the pieces in place, so that each ele-
“I had a meeting with Rachelle and Dubler recognized that any new ment will contribute to the whole.”
78 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
 Several weeks before the actual
shoot, Dubler met with John Reuter
at Lincoln Center, where Reuter was
shooting, to check out and study the
camera. Among the crucial param-
eters was lighting. The 20x24 Studio
provides lighting and backdrop, but,
as lighting is a crucial part of all of
Dubler’s work, he wanted to set up his
own lights in order to give his Polaroids
a distinctive “deep” look. Meanwhile,
creative tensions, the culmination of
histories of dance, art about dance, the
classical impulses—all in creative syn-
thesis with the immediacy and fresh-
ness of this young ballerina, and the
instantaneous nature of the Polaroid
process itself.
Dubler is quite explicit about the
balance between technical prepara-
tion and the photographer’s art. He
sees technique—and instrumentation,
that frees you to concentrate on the
art,” he says. “When I’m shooting, I
want all the technical details done, so
I can work with getting the expressive
interaction with the model, getting the
images that show what I want them
to show. So technical skill is crucial—
not as an end in itself—but as a way
to open up artistic possibilities when
you’re in there shooting. The project
isn’t about lighting and exposure and

between technical preparation and the photographer’s art. He sees technique—and instrumentation,
necessary feature he can develop to serve the principal purpose of his work.
he went to Charles Broderson for a like lighting, backdrop and so forth— makeup and detail; the project is about
hand-painted muslin backdrop, with as a necessary feature he can develop psychology and emotion and personal-
an eye toward developing a look to serve the principal purpose of his ity and grace. So if I have the techni-
reminiscent of Degas’ ballerina paint- work. “The thing about preparation, cal elements worked out, I don’t think
ings. Dubler directed each element knowing the technical side of the craft, about that side of things in the actual
in the project toward a synthesis of having the ability to have it all set up, shoot. I’m free to concentrate on that
personal immediacy, the interaction,
the real subject of the picture.”
The Camera A shoot with the Polaroid 20x24
camera isn’t like a contemporary pho-
Before digital changed the whole meaning of “instant photography,” there
to shoot. “Everything slows down,”
was the Polaroid Land camera. First marketed in 1948, the camera used a
self-developing film in a negative/positive sandwich-style form drawn through
Dubler says. “Instead of taking hun-
rollers that spread a chemical reactant through the sandwich. The film would dreds of pictures in a day, we might
be peeled apart to display a finished image. spend 15 or 20 minutes between in-
In 1976, Edwin Land created a prototype for the giant-scale Polaroid 20x24 dividual shots.” And, then, of course,
camera out of spare parts in his workshop. He designed the 235-pound colossus there’s a 90-second wait to see the fin-
as a means of copying large, flat artwork and as a format for commercial and ished image. That moment when the
artistic work. Today, there are six of these cameras worldwide. The busiest sheet is pulled away to show the pic-
of these belongs to John Reuter’s 20x24 Studio in New York. With an eye to
ture is fraught with suspense, anticipa-
preserving the camera as a working instrument, Reuter made a deal with Polaroid
to purchase the remaining film before Polaroid ceased its operations in 2004. tion, gratification—a kind of wonder
“We knew they were winding down,” says Reuter, who worked for Polaroid at the as the actual photograph is revealed.
time, “and so we put together the finances to get the film. We still have quite a bit “To see these prints come up,” Dubler
of color film remaining. But the black-and-white is disappearing as we speak.” says, “is magical.”
Reuter is currently involved in a research project to create new film for Di Stasio agrees. “Everyone would
the camera. gather around to watch the cover be-
Nafis Azad, the 20x24 Studio’s Director of Photography, runs the camera, which
ing peeled off, to see the print emerge.
is loaded with the negative/positive film and is focused from the back. Once an
exposure is made, the film pack is pushed through rollers, which press the pods
It was very exciting.”
holding developing chemicals and spread these through the sandwich. The print is Lighting is a significant element in
pulled out of the camera bottom and sliced off with a utility knife. Ninety seconds the look of a Douglas Dubler image,
later, the negative/positive sandwich is peeled apart to reveal the final gigantic and he didn’t want to sacrifice his own
print. Images have a narrow depth of field and very sharp details. vision to the technical needs of the
Dubler’s project used an 800mm Rodenstock and a Sinar shutter. “We put the Polaroid project. Images from the
shutter in front of the lens,” says Reuter, “and this was very workable.” Polaroid 20x24 camera tend to be low-
Recently, Reuter closed down his 20x24 Studio. “Virtually all the projects were
er in contrast and, because of the film
on location,” he says. “The model of a full-time studio just wasn’t working.”
There’s a space at Lincoln Center, but most of the time, the camera travels to speed and bellows extension, require
shoots in a lift-gate truck. Reuter is quite aware of his role as a steward of the excessive amounts of light. The chal-
remaining film stock, only mixing chemicals as they’re needed, and keeping lenge was to maintain his distinctive
negatives in cold storage, positives in climate-controlled environments. lighting style, while putting out the
“Polaroid film was never meant to last very long,” he says. “So we’re taking kind of power necessary.
good care of what we have.” (Cont’d on page 92)
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 79
 Maintain
Using Smart Objects in conjunction with Adobe Camera Raw

Camera Raw

(Fig. 1)

80 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com Settings

gives you the ultimate nondestructive means of filtering that there is within Photoshop
Camera Raw 1.0 first appeared as a $99 plug-in
for Adobe Photoshop 7 in 1999. The ACR
(Adobe Camera Raw) plug-in only
supported a few cameras in the begin-
ning, but shooting RAW was quickly
recognized by early digital adopt-
ers as the way to go, and things took
off. After the initial launch, the
plug-in shipped free starting with
Photoshop CS, eventually extending
built-in RAW processing to Bridge,
After Effects and Photoshop Elements.
Smart Objects first appeared in
Photoshop CS2, and represented a
huge innovation for Photoshop us-
ers. A Smart Object essentially wraps
up an entirely new copy of a source
file and stores it inside the Photoshop
document as a layer. This meant the
source files for a Smart Object al-
ways traveled inside of the Photoshop
document and never got lost. Smart
Objects allowed embedding of things
like Illustrator vector art, PDF files
and Camera Raw files, and had them
remain editable anytime down the
BELOW, LEFT: Adobe Camera Raw converts
(or “decodes”) RAW files for Photoshop,
creating pixels in an RGB, a CMYK or a
grayscale working space.
BELOW: Double-clicking a RAW Smart Object
layer icon opens the image in Camera Raw
again for reprocessing.
Camera Raw
Settings
Text And Photography By George Jardine
road. (Linked Smart Objects are new
to Photoshop CC, and allow linking
rather than embedding of the original
RAW file, reducing file sizes.)
In the case of the camera’s RAW
files, you would first open the photo
into the plug-in and make all the regu-
lar adjustments you think you might
need. Then, rather than simply ren-
dering the RAW data into a regular
RGB file, holding down the shift key
changes the Open Image button to
Open Object, and clicking that creates
the Smart Object layer. (Creating a
Smart Object can also be set as the de-
fault in the Workflow Options dialog.)
RAW file Smart Objects give you
an incredible amount of flexibility in
your workflow. For instance, at first,
you might place the RAW file using
the processing defaults simply for po-
sitioning or comping purposes. Then,
later, if you want to change the look
of the RAW image, you can do that.
Double-clicking the Smart Object icon
opens the embedded file in Camera
Raw again, allowing you to essentially
reprocess the RAW for an entirely dif-
ferent look, all the while preserving
the exact position, scaling and filters
that you applied to the original.
All of which finally brings us to
Smart Filters. Smart Objects were a
(Fig. 2)
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 81
 (Fig. 3)

>> More On The Web

The DPP website is home
to an archive of articles,
reviews and tutorials on
everything from essential
equipment to shooting and
processing techniques. Go to
www.digitalphotopro.com.

(Fig. 4)
huge innovation in nondestructive
workflows, but you couldn’t paint or
run Photoshop filters on them in the
same way that you would an ordinary
layer. To do anything more than trans-
form a Smart Object, you would have (Fig. 4a)
to “rasterize” it first, thus discard-
ing its nondestructive qualities. Smart
Filters came along in CS3 and solved
that problem by working nondestruc-
tively on Smart Objects.
Then, to add chaos to mayhem,
Photoshop CC came along with the (Fig. 5)
new ability to run Camera Raw as a
filter! In the case of an ordinary RGB nondestructive filter acting on a Smart let’s summarize. You can now use the
layer or selection, Camera Raw can act Object, which has its own nondestruc- ACR plug-in three entirely different
just like any other filter, changing the tive attributes! ways in Photoshop:
pixels forever. But if you run it as a fil- For beginners, I think you can To process a RAW file into
ter on a Smart Object, ACR becomes start to see how learning to use all this 1) RGB for further editing or
a Smart Filter. So you can now have a stuff could be a bit of a challenge. So printing in Photoshop
82 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
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 (Fig. 6a)
(Fig. 6)
To change the processing of a
2)RAW Smart Object as a layer
in Photoshop
As a filter on any layer (Smart
3) Object or otherwise) or a
selection in Photoshop
Let’s start with Case #1: processing
a RAW file into RGB. This is the base
case, and it’s the most important because
the RAW file contains all the original
information from the capture, with the
data stored in its most pure form. To
view or use the RAW image in any way,
it must be transformed into an entirely
different format, usually RGB (Fig. 1).
There can be many interpretations
of any given RAW photo into RGB,
and there’s no “right” or “perfect” ren-
dering. It’s always an interpretation
that’s pretty much a one-way street,
meaning it’s a destructive process,
which is why we have Smart Objects.
When you change your mind about
how you want your photo to look, go-
ing back to the RAW data always gives
you the most flexibility. But if you’ve
made transformations to the image in
Photoshop or applied filters to it, going
back to the RAW data can be difficult,
or impossible if you’re the designer
and don’t have access to the original
RAW file.
Which brings us to Case #2: ACR can
84 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
be used to change the processing
of a RAW Smart Object in Photo-
shop. Once you’ve created a Smart Ob-
ject layer, you can reopen ACR and edit
it at anytime, starting with the original
source data again, to change your inter-
pretation (Fig. 2).
Editing a RAW Smart Object lit-
erally reprocesses the image from the
original embedded file, creating an
entirely new set of RGB pixels for the
layer in Photoshop—without disturb-
ing any scaling or filtering you might
have done previously! This is impor-
tant because going back to the source
file gives you access to all of the original
color and tone that exist in the RAW
data before processing. This becomes
much easier to see when we come to
Case #3: using Camera Raw as a filter.
There are already about 100 differ-
ent ways to adjust color in Photoshop,
so why add the Camera Raw plug-in
to the filter menu? I don’t have any
inside information on the subject, but
my personal view is that many pho-
tographers and designers simply find
Camera Raw to be a more efficient way
to correct photos. All the tools are in
one place, and Camera Raw does bring
new functionality to the party, such as
the Clarity control and a true White
Balance control. And because many
photographers have taken the time to
really learn Adobe’s RAW processing
controls, this brings those same famil-
iar controls into Photoshop for use on
any layer or selection, which is genius.
Having said that, I’ll add that you
do have to be careful when you use
Camera Raw as a filter. Unless it’s used
as a Smart Object editor, ACR always
works on the RGB data in the layer. It
can’t access the original RAW pixels.
This may seem like a merely technical
distinction, but it goes to the heart of
why Smart Objects matter. Being able
to reprocess the original RAW data
can make a huge difference in the final
image quality.
Here’s an example. If you’re expos-
ing to the right (ETTR) when shoot-
ing RAW, you might end up with an
exposure like the one I captured pho-
tographing a hawk over Big Sur. And
this is what the RAW capture would
look like if it were simply placed into a
Photoshop file as a Smart Object using
the ACR defaults (Fig. 3).
Exposing to the right is a tech-
nique of capturing the brightest tones
up as high as possible in the dynamic
range of your sensor, where you have
the most capture bits available. The
downside is that ETTR can leave you
with flat, washed-out highlights until
you bring them back down into their
normal relationship to the midtones
during processing.
Once placed for size and position,
 C o m p l e t e ca s e s o lu t i o n s
before publishing you’d go back and
reprocess the RAW file to finesse the Inside and Ou t.
final image. When you double-click
3i 1 9 1 4 8 d s l r

i
the Smart Object, you’re accessing the
RAW data in Camera Raw again, and
applying a few quick settings enables
you to bring out the true highlight de-
tail contained in the capture (Figs. 4, 4a).
The fact that you’re going back
to the actual RAW data in the Smart
Object is the only reason why you’re
able to pull out such a striking amount
of detail from the highlights. This is in
stark contrast to what’s possible when
using Camera Raw as a Smart Filter on
the very same layer. Rather than double-
clicking the Smart Object icon to access
the original RAW data, this time I’ll
select the layer and choose Camera Raw
from the Filter menu (Fig. 5).
This opens the layer in Camera
Raw, and at first everything looks
the same. Go ahead and apply the
very same set of settings. This time
Photoshop creates a Smart Filter for
the nondestructive Smart Object layer
because it can’t actually modify the ob-
ject. It only has the pre-rendered RGB
pixels in the layer to work with, so this
is what you get (Figs. 6, 6a).
Camera Raw does its best to pull
out detail with the Exposure and
Clarity settings, but the end result is al-
most unusable compared with what we
were able to achieve working from the
actual RAW data in the Smart Object.
The highlights are flat and muddy be-
cause they were all compressed togeth-
er up into the very brightest part of the
range in the original. Once compressed
in that way in an RGB space, it’s im-
possible to pull them apart again to
yield the same amount of detail. This
is exactly the same problem you have
when shooting JPEG, where the com-
pression of the highlights is essentially
Join The Discussion
done for you in the camera. Once the With Other
RAW sensor data is compressed and
rendered into an RGB space, you have
Photo Enthusiasts!
much less flexibility in the changes you
can make in tonality, even when using
Camera Raw as a filter. DPP

You can go to mulita.com to find George

Jardine’s extensive tutorials on Lightroom facebook.com/digitalphotopro
and his blog.
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 85
PROMOTIONAL
BENEFIT
Is social media
synonymous with
a loss of rights
over your images?
OR
By Samuel Lewis
RIGHTS
There seems to be no shortage of commentary
regarding the potential pitfalls asso-
ciated with posting photographs on
social media. Even discounting the
more emotional aspects of the debate,
there’s reasonable concern among pho-
tographers that posting images to so-
cial media will result in a loss of rights
GRAB
ous social-media services and websites.
Yet another aspect of the debate has
lamented the lack of control, and in-
deed, the lack of meaningful choice,
that photographers have when faced
with the dilemma of losing control
over images or risking being left be-
hind as others embrace social media.
?
Strange Bedfellows
As the Great Bard observed in The
Tempest, “[m]isery acquaints a man with
strange bedfellows.” Shakespeare’s con-
cept was refined in the 19th century by
American writer and editor Charles
Warner, who wrote that “politics makes
strange bedfellows.” Now, it seems that
and/or control over such images. Now, relatively recent events may the maxim applies equally to social me-
One aspect of this debate has been reshape the debate over whether or not dia, and specifically, the photo-sharing
fueled by the uncertainty associated photographers should embrace social service Instagram (www.instagram
with a lack of judicial interpretation media, and whether doing so will re- .com), for it succeeded in uniting pho-
of the terms of service governing vari- sult in the loss of control over images. tographers and celebrities in protest.
86 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
 Instagram made news in 2012
when Facebook announced that it had
finished a deal to acquire the budding
competitor for $1 billion. Claiming to
have 90 million monthly active users,
and handling 40 million photos per
day, there seemed to be no limit as to
how big the service could become. It
didn’t hurt that Instagram was able to
count among its users celebrities such
as Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Usain
Bolt and Lebron James, and a number
of popular brands, including Major
League Baseball, National Geographic,
Louis Vuitton, The Wall Street Journal,
Sports Illustrated and The Ellen Show.
As the end of 2012 approached,
Instagram appeared unstoppable.
In December 2012, Instagram made
news again; however, this time, the
catalyst was Instagram’s announcement
that it was revising the contract terms
governing the use of its photo-sharing
service. The new terms—a bloated col-
lection of legalese swelling from the
roughly 1,300 words in the old terms
to over 5,000 words—represented a
significant change that included some-
thing to offend just about everyone.
One of the more controversial
changes related to the manner in which
Instagram intended to generate reve-
nue: through the use of its users’ images.
Specifically, the new terms described
how Instagram intended to generate
revenue: “Some or all of the [Instagram]
Service may be supported by advertising
revenue. To help us deliver interesting
or paid or sponsored content or promo-
tions, you agree that a business or other
entity may pay us to display your user-
name, likeness, photos (along with any
associated metadata), and/or actions you
take, in connection with paid or spon-
sored content or promotions, without
any compensation to you.”
While photographers have com-
plained about the overreaching terms
utilized by some social-media websites,
this language was sufficiently blunt that
it caused many celebrities and media or-
ganizations to take notice, as well.
Following the announcement,
Twitter was ablaze with messages from
celebrities voicing their opinions of
Instagram’s new terms. Anderson
Cooper complained about the new
terms and asked for recommenda-
tions for similar apps. Other celebrities
tweeted that they were going to, or had,
deleted their Instagram accounts. In
this vein, Mia Farrow tweeted “[t]rust
me, deleting your Instagram account
is satisfying.” Actress Nia Vardalos, of
My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame, tweet-
ed “[y]ep, just deleted my [Instagram]
account,” and questioned whether this
was the beginning of the Instagram
backlash. Pop singer P!nk tweeted, “I
will be quitting Instagram today.... You
should read their new rules.” Actor
Seth Green explained that “[a]rt I share
for free isn’t theirs to sell....” Lebron
James summed up the mood: “So [I]
hear [Instagram] will start selling pho-
tos that posted for their own profit. Is
this correct? If so then me and everyone
[I] know will be OUT!”
The mass exodus wasn’t limited to
celebrities offended at the thought that
someone might profit off of their im-
ages. Major brands also voiced their
objection to the new terms. National
Geographic—who in early December
was ranked as the number-one me-
dia brand on Instagram with 588,000
Instagram followers—announced
that it was suspending new posts:
“@NatGeo is suspending new posts
to Instagram. We are very concerned
with the direction of the proposed new
terms of service and if they remain as
presented we may close our account.”
The negative reaction to the new
terms was so severe that Instagram
quickly announced that its terms
were misunderstood. Only one day
after the new terms were announced,
Instagram founder and CEO Kevin
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 87
Systrom suggested in a blog entry that
“[l]egal documents are easy to misin-
terpret.” According to Systrom, “[o]ur
intention in updating the terms was to
communicate that we’d like to experi-
ment with innovative advertising that
feels appropriate on Instagram. In-
stead, it was interpreted by many that
we were going to sell your photos to
others without compensation. That is
not true and it is our mistake that this
language is confusing. To be clear: it is
not our intention to sell your photos.
We are working on updated language
in the terms to make sure this is clear.”
Systrom repeated the same senti-
ment in a follow-up blog entry. “You
also had deep concerns about whether
under our new terms, Instagram had
any plans to sell your content. I want
to be really clear: Instagram has no
intention of selling your photos, and
we never did. We don’t own your
photos—you do.” In the same post,
Systrom announced that Instagram
would be “reverting [the] advertis-
ing section to the original version that
has been in effect since” Instagram
launched in October 2010.
However, while the advertising sec-
tion may have reverted to its previous
language, other aspects of Instagram’s
terms—specifically, the language that
gives Instagram the right to do what us-
ers fear, namely, treat the service as one
big stock photo service—didn’t revert
to their previous form. It’s these chang-
es, which went into effect on January
19, 2013, that actually give Instagram
far greater rights than it enjoyed under
the older terms, including the right to
license users’ images to third parties
without compensating users.
One of the most significant changes
is in the language regarding rights.
Under the previous terms, Instagram
received a “non-exclusive, fully paid
and royalty-free, worldwide, limited
license to use, modify, delete from,
add to, publicly perform, publicly
display, reproduce and translate Con-
tent [which includes images, photos,
videos, sound, etc.], including with-
out limitation distributing part or
88 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
all of the Site in any media formats
through any media channels, except
Content not shared publicly...will not
be distributed outside the Instagram
Services.” While this was a relatively
broad license, this language didn’t give
Instagram the right to license users’
photos to third parties.
Under the new terms, Instagram
receives a “non-exclusive, fully paid
and royalty-free, transferable, sub-
licensable, worldwide license to use the
Content that you post on or through
the Service, subject to the Service’s
Privacy Policy...” [emphasis add-
ed]. The addition of the term “sub-
licensable” in this phrase gives
Instagram the right to license photos
posted to the service without having
to share royalties or license fees with
the photographers or other users who
posted the images. The inclusion of
such language isn’t necessary if, as
Instagram has stated publicly, it has
no intention of selling users’ photos.
It’s also important to recognize
that the terms of the agreement itself,
as opposed to any public statements
made by Systrom or anyone else at
Instagram, is what a court will gener-
ally consider when determining parties’
respective rights under the agreement.
The bigger problem, which seems
to have been largely ignored, is the po-
tential impact that the rights language
can have when combined with other
language in the new terms. The new
terms include a series of representa-
tions, including two significant ones:
first, that the user posting photographs
isn’t violating any privacy rights, and
second, that the user will pay all roy-
alties and fees owing to any person by
virtue of a photograph being posted to
Instagram. Separately, these terms can
be trouble enough, but together with
the license language detailed above,
they have the potential for creating a
nightmare scenario for users.
Consider for a moment a situation
where a photographer uses Instagram
to post a photograph of a professional
athlete prior to a sporting event. Un-
der Instagram’s terms, it has the right
to license that image for advertising
purposes, and isn’t obligated to share
the license fees/royalties with you. It’s
bad enough that the photographer
isn’t sharing in the license fees for the
commercial use of an image. However,
under this scenario, the nightmare is
just beginning. Since the photographer
most likely didn’t obtain a model release
from the athlete featured in the photo,
the athlete now has a claim for the use
of his or her image in connection with
advertising. Under the terms, the pho-
tographer who uses Instagram’s service
is responsible for paying “all royalties,
fees, and any other monies owing any
person by reason of [photos] you post on
or through the Instagram service.” So at
the end of the scenario, Instagram gets
to keep the license fees for the commer-
cial use of the photo, and the photogra-
pher gets to pay the athlete who didn’t
sign a model release.
The only exception to the license
is Instagram’s privacy policy. While it
may be possible for individual users to
indicate that photos are private and not
for public viewing, that limitation won’t
help entities like National Geographic,
celebrities and anyone else who’s post-
ing images in an effort to build up a fol-
lowing through social media.
Mike Tomkins, news editor at
Imaging Resource (www.imaging-
resource.com), recognized a simi-
lar problem with the new Instagram
terms. Writes Tomkins, “Should it
choose to do so—and it’s important to
note that it hasn’t yet stated any such
plans—Instagram could sell user con-
tent to a third party. Users would have
no say as to which parties the content
was licensed to, nor how it could be
used, and they would receive no pay-
ment for that usage beyond having
received their access to the Instagram
service free of charge.”
The new terms also contain some
fairly comprehensive language that
attempts to limit Instagram’s liabil-
ity, requires its users to pay the cost of
defending Instagram against claims
made by virtue of images posted to
the service and a provision that signifi-
cantly limits the time in which a user
may bring a claim against Instagram.
The new terms also include an arbi-
tration provision. Arbitration is a form
of alternative dispute resolution; it al-
lows people to resolve their disputes
but without presenting their case to
a court. As discussed in my article,
“Arbitration, Friend Or Foe?” (DPP,
November 2012, www.digitalphoto-
pro.com/business/arbitration-friend-
or-foe.html), there are pros and cons to
arbitration that should be considered
before entering into an agreement
with an arbitration provision.
The true extent of the fallout from
Instagram’s faux pas may never be
known. Some sources suggest that in
the month preceding Instagram’s new
terms going into effect, its user base
declined by as much as 40% or more
from the more than 15.6 million daily
active users on December 15.
“Brevity is the soul of wit”
While the legal battle over
Instagram’s terms proceeded in San
Francisco, a court in New York re-
leased a decision interpreting Twitter’s
terms in the case involving photojour-
nalist Daniel Morel, Agency France
Presse (AFP), Getty Images and The
Washington Post. Although perhaps
not a model of clarity, the decision
analyzes whether Morel’s posting of
images to Twitter authorized AFP to
download and license the images.
The facts of the case are relatively
straightforward. Morel was in Haiti
in January 2010, when a devastating
earthquake struck. He captured images
of the aftermath and transmitted some
of those images to Twitter through a
TwitPic account. Shortly after Morel
uploaded, the images were reposted to
the Twitter account of Lisandro Suero,
who indicated that he had exclusive
photographs of the earthquakes. AFP’s
Director of Photography for North and
South America found the images on
Suero’s Twitter account and sent eight
of them to the AFP photo desk. AFP
ultimately transmitted the photographs
to Getty, who in turn provided the im-
ages to the Post (the Post published four
of Morel’s images). Because of the way
the images were originally obtained—
from a Twitter account other than
Morel’s—the images weren’t even
credited to Morel initially.
A day after the images were origi-
nally transmitted, AFP started to ques-
tion whether attribution to Suero was
correct. The inquiry resulted in AFP
issuing a “caption correction,” identi-
fying Morel as the photographer. The
caption correction was transmitted on
AFP’s wire and also went to Getty.
Corbis quickly joined the fray
when its corporate counsel emailed
Getty advising that Morel was “exclu-
sive to Corbis.” While Getty removed
images credited to Morel, it didn’t re-
move the images initially transmitted,
“If the issues with
Instagram and Twitter bring
one concept into sharp
relief, it’s the importance of
reading and understanding
the terms of a social-media
service or website before
deciding to upload images.”
as those had been credited to Suero.
AFP finally issued a “Kill Notice” re-
garding Morel’s photos, and a copy of
the notice went to Getty.
Meanwhile, the Post published four
of Morel’s images. In a turn of events
more befitting a comedy of errors,
nearly two months after the earth-
quake, Morel’s attorney sent a letter to
the Post advising that Morel would al-
low the Post to display his photos pro-
vided the captions were corrected to
credit Morel. The Post never received
the letter. It did, however, receive a
notice from Getty several months lat-
er advising that the images should be
taken down, and the Post ultimately
removed the images from its website.
In March 2010, roughly two and a
half months after the earthquake, AFP
filed suit against Morel in the U.S.
District Court in New York. In this
preemptive strike, AFP sought a decla-
ration that AFP’s use of Morel’s images
was authorized under Twitter’s terms,
and therefore, AFP couldn’t be liable
to Morel for copyright infringement.
Morel countersued, accusing AFP, Getty
and the Post of copyright infringement.
On January 14, 2013, U.S. District
Judge Alison J. Nathan released a 58-
page summary judgment opinion. A
court grants summary judgment when
it’s able to resolve aspects of the case,
and sometimes the entire case, by mak-
ing legal rulings based upon undisputed
facts. Summary judgment prevents the
court and the parties from wasting the
time and expense associated with a trial
when there’s no dispute over the facts.
In her opinion, Judge Nathan ana-
lyzed Twitter’s terms to assess wheth-
er AFP had the right to republish
Morel’s images without his consent.
Under Twitter’s terms, users like Morel
grant Twitter the right to make content
“available to other companies, orga-
nizations or individuals who partner
with Twitter for syndication, broadcast,
distribution or publication of such”
content. Similar to Instagram’s terms,
Twitter’s terms provide that any such
use of content may be made without
compensation to the user who posted
the content to Twitter. AFP contended
that this language was broad enough to
give it the right to use Morel’s images
once he posted them to Twitter.
When interpreting Twitter’s terms,
the Court ruled squarely in Morel’s fa-
vor. As the Court explained, “It suffices
to say that based on the evidence pre-
sented to the Court the Twitter [terms]
do not provide AFP with an excuse
for its conduct in this case.... Put dif-
ferently, the evidence does not reflect
a clear intent to grant AFP a license to
remove [Morel’s images] from Twitter
and license them to third parties....”
The Court went further when ad-
dressing both AFP and the Post: “AFP
(Cont’d on page 92)
digitalphotopro.com March/April 2014 | 89
DPPSolutions

DPPSolutions
How a Thunderbolt drive cured a
Scratch Disk Fever

most debilitating condition

By Wes Pitts

Things seemed a little sluggish after my upgrade

to OS X Mavericks, especially when
I was running several apps at once.
Launching Aperture with Photoshop
already open was just asking for the
dreaded spinning rainbow. Alright,
time for a RAM upgrade.
That story has a happy ending—I
wasn’t aware how far RAM prices had
fallen. For under $100, I added 8 GB of
RAM to my system for a total of 12 GB.
Surely, things would be screaming-
fast now. And they were, at first, but
with multiple JPEGs and PSDs open lets you work on larger files and keep place. It’s like trying to have two separate
while working on a website design, a deeper log of undoable history states telephone conversations at once: Some-
Photoshop was bogging down, and than your system memory would oth- one is eventually getting placed on hold,
taking the whole OS with it. I was dis- erwise permit. The downside is that it’s or neither conversation will go well.
traught. This shouldn’t be happening. terribly slow compared to RAM. I could hear my hard drive wheezing
Turns out, the problem wasn’t RAM You don’t usually notice it, though. as spinning rainbows had apparently
(although I’m still very happy that My big oversight was that I never set permanently replaced my cursor, and
I added more). The problem was that up Scratch Disks correctly on this com- then I remembered, “Scratch disk!”
I had forgotten about Photoshop puter and installation of Photoshop. See, Sure enough, an inspection of the disk
Scratch Disks. the one thing you really don’t want to usage in the OS X Activity Monitor
Shying away from attention under do is use your system hard drive—the showed Photoshop furiously reading
Performance in Photoshop’s preferenc- one that runs your OS and apps—as a from and writing to my system drive.
es are the Scratch Disk settings. The scratch disk. If you do, all of the reading This story also has a happy ending
concept of a scratch disk is a good one: and writing that Photoshop is doing to because I fortunately have an 8 TB
As RAM maxes out, Photoshop starts supplement RAM is competing with the Thunderbolt drive that I use primarily
using hard drive space as “virtual” reading and writing your OS does just for backups. Thunderbolt is a relative-
memory. It’s a really smart feature that to exist and run Photoshop in the first ly new hardware interface introduced

TOP: Photoshop Scratch Disk Usage; ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: G-Technology G-RAID, LaCie 5big, Western Digital MyBook, Buffalo DriveStation Mini
90 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
in 2011 with the MacBook Pro, and
now ubiquitous across Apple’s lineup.
Thunderbolt is fast: With transfer
speeds of up to roughly 1 GB per sec-
ond, it’s almost twice as fast as USB
3.0 (600 MB/s) and more than 17 times
faster than USB 2.0. That speed makes
Thunderbolt drives a great choice for
scratch disk use. (It’s important to note
that those speeds are the maximum “on
paper” speeds, and that in actual use,
speeds are slower than the maximum
and depend on other factors besides
the interface.)
I reconfigured Photoshop’s settings
to unburden my system hard drive,
sent the Scratch Disk data to my
Thunderbolt drive and relaunched
Photoshop (any changes you make in
the Performance settings take effect af-
ter restarting). Success! Photoshop re-
launched quickly, stability returned to
all of my open apps, and after a minute
or so of the system drive grinding away
at dumping all of what Photoshop had
piled on, it, too, settled down.
If you hear your system drive work-
ing too hard, inspect those Photoshop
Performance settings. There’s some
other useful tools in there, not just for
Scratch Disk selection, but also RAM
allocation, cache controls, which can be
optimized depending on the types of
files you’re working with, and the abil-
ity to reduce or increase the number of
history states that are available (which
also affects scratch disk use).
Don’t use your system drive as your
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drives to bear the burden instead. It’s
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G-Technology offers a selection of develop
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your creative
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If your studio manages a massive li-
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PROMOTIONAL BENEFIT OR RIGHTS GRAB?
(Cont’d from page 89)
and the Post raise no other defenses to
liability for direct copyright infringe-
ment, and, in fact, concede that if their
license defense fails—as the Court has
determined that it does—they are lia-
ble for direct copyright infringement.”
The Court noted that Twitter’s
terms “‘necessarily required’ Morel
as promisor to confer certain rights of
use on two classes—Twitter’s partners
and sublicensees....” However, even
with Twitter encouraging and permit-
ting broad reuse, the terms still didn’t
establish “Twitter’s intent to confer
a license on ‘other users’” like AFP.
The Court also noted that Twitter’s
terms suggest “that content should
not be disassociated from the Tweets
in which they occur,” and that “AFP’s
removal from Twitter and commercial
licensing of the Photos-at-Issue is not
akin to the rebroadcast of a Tweet.”
Although the Court ruled that AFP
and the Post are liable for copyright in-
fringement, the decision doesn’t nec-
essarily obviate a trial. There are still
factual issues, such as whether AFP
and the Post willfully infringed Morel’s
copyrights, and how much Morel should
recover from AFP and the Post as dam-
ages for their infringement.
Unlike AFP and the Post, Getty also
argued that it can’t be liable for copyright
infringement because it’s entitled to the
benefit of the safe harbor (limited immu-
nity) applicable to online providers under
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA). The Court found that there’s
a factual dispute as to whether Getty
qualifies, and thus, Morel will have to
proceed to trial and let a jury decide if
Getty enjoys the limited immunity under
the DMCA. As with AFP and the Post,
the question of whether Getty is a willful
infringer is an issue that will have to be
resolved at trial.
While the Court’s opinion regarding
the Twitter terms and their limitations
was generally positive for photographers,
the Court’s analysis regarding damages
wasn’t favorable. The Court squarely re-
jected Morel’s theory of damages, which
would have resulted in an award of statu-
tory damages against AFP and Getty “in
92 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
the tens or hundreds of millions of dol-
lars.” AFP and Getty argued that they’re
only liable for one award of statutory
damages each—a maximum of $30,000
per image for infringement, and up to
$150,000 per image for willful infringe-
ment—and not responsible, as Morel
contended, for an award of statutory
damages for every subscriber who used
the images. The Court ultimately ruled
that “AFP and Getty are, at most, each li-
able for a single statutory damages award
per work infringed.”
“There is nothing as mysterious as
a fact clearly described”
Garry Winogrand’s quotation about
things clearly seen applies with equal
force to social-media terms as to pho-
tography. Since contract terms vary
from one social-media service to an-
other, there’s no way to summarily
conclude that posting images to so-
cial media will or will not result in a
loss of rights. However, at the risk of
oversimplifying the issue, additional
scrutiny is justified anytime the terms
include the right to “sublicense” the
content that may be posted. Indeed,
had Twitter exercised its right to sub-
license Morel’s images to AFP, the
Court’s decision would have been dra-
matically different (and considerably
less favorable for Morel).
If the issues with Instagram and
Twitter bring one concept into sharp
relief, it’s the importance of read-
ing and understanding the terms of a
social-media service or website before
deciding to upload images. Moreover,
since the rights to any images upload-
ed will be governed first and foremost
by the terms, the decision to accept the
terms should be informed by the terms
alone, and without relying upon any
public statements or other representa-
tions appearing on the service’s website
that may run contrary to the terms. DPP
Samuel Lewis is a Board Certified Intel-
lectual Property law specialist and partner at
Feldman Gale, P.A., in Miami, Florida, and
a professional photographer who has covered
sporting events for more than 25 years. He
can be reached at SLewis@FeldmanGale.
com or SLewis@ImageReflex.com.
PAST & PRESENCE
(Cont’d from page 79)
“For me, it’s all about the light,”
Dubler says. “Light is a photographer’s
medium, after all. We paint with light,
and I want my signature to be on that.
I wanted high contrast from the light-
ing because the Polaroid film is flat. So
I had to build contrast into the lighting,
knowing I would lose it in the film.”
Dubler overlapped Broncolor Light
Bars—three of them—to produce over
18,000 watt-seconds for the main light,
and a total of over 32,000 watt-seconds
with background light included. “I
configured these in a shape that would
give me the coverage I needed,” he ex-
plains. “I had to consider both the qual-
ity and the quantity of my light, and I
didn’t want one to compromise the oth-
er. The overlapping gave me more light
coming out for Rachelle’s face, and the
configuration gave me even coverage
for both close shots and full length.”
The power of Dubler’s lighting
would provide a challenge for the bal-
lerina. “It’s no small deal,” he says.
“When you fire the flash, it’s like open-
ing an oven door. Not so much heat as
a sudden detonation of brightness. So
you can imagine the demands on a
model. And she did a marvelous job.”
“I was nervous,” says Di Stasio.
“With everything so concentrated and
immediate, I was so afraid I’d blink
because the flash was so bright. But it
ended up turning out, every time.”
This kind of photography demands
meticulous attention to detail. The artist
can’t look through the camera when the
shoot is going on. Dubler stood in front
of the lens, checking each detail before
the shot, anticipating the outcome and
making adjustments, all before taking
any shot. Dubler says the process makes
new demands on the photographer. “It
requires a different sensibility, making
you really use your eyes. You’ve got to
look at a shot you haven’t taken yet, and
you’ve got to make adjustments before
you take the picture.”
Dubler found that this process
changed the energy and concentration
on the set. “It slows you,” he says. “It’s
a different feeling, a whole new sen-
sibility, to work like this, looking and
checking, standing in for the camera
before every shot, making sure that
it’s right, anticipating the outcome.”
Everybody on Dubler’s team became
involved in the intense attention nec-
essary for photographing this way;
there’s no doing it over again, so ev-
erybody tries to make certain that his
or her contribution is perfect, finished.
The individual images are remark-
ably sharp: detail is clear and com-
manding. But what Dubler has most
noticeably captured is a kind of “pres-
ence,” where the moment of the pho-
tograph shows a dancer on the verge of
incipient movement. There’s a sense of
suspension, like a space between steps,
between breaths.
Since these images are unique ar-
tifacts—more like paintings than our
usual sense of photographic “prints”—
they require particular care in repro-
duction. The goal is to produce very
large digital prints that will look like
supersized original Polaroids. Dubler
when you’re
turned to longtime colleague Larry
Spevak at ColorBurst Studio142,
behind the camera,
where a specially adapted Cruse scan-
ner yields 2 GB images, rendering
the original sharpness and contrast. is behind you.
The images shown in this article were
scanned in this manner.
“Ultimately, I’m foreseeing 60x80-
inch final prints,” Dubler says.
And so you have the complete synthe-
sis: the centuries-old classicism of ballet
and the history of artistic representa-
tion of dance—Degas, Matisse—to bal-
let in photography—Eisenstaedt, and
Cartier-Bresson, to Dubler himself.
Meanwhile, the historic camera, that
captures the immediacy of gesture and
Your go-to resource for professional tools,
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Stasio, poised on the brim of a spectacular
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94 Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com

 I N S P I R AT I O N 𰀛 E D U C AT I O N 𰀛 T E C H N O LO G Y

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WORKSHOPS INCLUDE:
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G L E N W E X L E R : M A N U FAC T U R E D R E A L I T I E S
IAN RU HTE R : WE T- PL AT E COLLODION IMAGES
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OVER 1200 PORTFOLIO REVIEWS OFFERED
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palm springs photo festival is presented by

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Body Only........................................... #PADMCGH3B 16 Mega

Pixels #OLEM1* 16 Pixels

EOS-70D DSLR EOS-5D Mark III D-SLR

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www.BandH.com
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Body Only #CAE70D........................................ 1199.00 Body Only #CAE5D3* ......................................3399.00
Kit with 18-55mm STM #CAE70D1855 ............1349.00 20 Mega
Pixels Kit with 24-105mm L IS #CAE5D324105..........3999.00 22 Mega
Pixels

When in New York, EOS-6D DSLR EOS-1Dx D-SLR

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Body Only #CAE6D..........................................1899.00
Kit with 24-105mm f/4 L #CAE6D24105 ..........2499.00 20 Mega
Pixels Body Only #CAE1DX*.......................................6799.00 18 Mega
Pixels

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EOS Flash System (USA)
270EX II .....169.99 430EX II .....299.99
320EX................... 600 EX-RT..549.99
MR-14EX Ringlight....................................
.5&9 5XJO 'MBTI....................... 829.99

.........................
EF-S Lenses for Digital Only (USA)
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24/1.4 II (77ø) ............................. 1749.00 DX ED-IF Lenses for Digital Only
XJUI )PPE...........................
60/2.8 USM Macro (52ø)................ 469.99
10-22/3.5-4.5 USM (77ø) .............. 649.99
15-85/3.5-5.6 IS USM (72ø) .......... 799.99
17-55/2.8 IS USM (67ø)................. 879.99
17-85/4-5.6 IS USM (67ø) ........................
...................
18-135/3.5-5.6 IS (67ø) ................ 499.99
.............
18-200/3.5-5.6 IS (72ø) ................ 699.99
55-250/4.0-5.6 IS USM (58ø) ........ 299.99
EF Lenses (USA)
20/2.8 USM (72ø).......................... 539.99
24/2.8 IS USM (58ø) ...................... 599.99
28/2.8 IS USM (58ø) ...................... 549.99
35/2 (52ø)................................................
35/2 IS USM (67ø) ......................... 599.99
50/1.8 II (52ø) ............................... 125.99
50/1.4 USM (58ø).......................... 399.99
50/2.5 Macro (52ø)........................ 299.99
85/1.8 USM (58ø) ............................ 419.99
100/2 USM (58ø)........................... 499.99
100/2.8 USM Macro (58ø).............. 599.99
28-135/3.5-5.6 IS USM (72ø) ........ 479.99
XJUI )PPE...........................  % XJUI $PMMBS 
...................
70-300/4-5.6 IS USM (58ø) ........... 649.99
70-300/4.5 5.6 DO IS USM (58ø) ....................
Over 70,000 square feet
75-300/4.0-5.6 III (58ø)................. 199.99
of the latest gear 75-300/4.0-5.6 III USM (58ø)....................
The most knowledgeable
Sales Professionals
Hands-on demos Flash System
FL-300R Flash......... 169.95 FL-600R Flash ...... 299.00
Convenient free parking FL-50R Flash........... 499.95 RF-11 Ring Flash .. 249.95
available Zuiko 4/3 System Digital Lenses
35/3.5 Macro ED (52ø) ......................................... 229.95
50/2.0 Macro ED (77ø) ......................................... 499.95
7-14/4.0 ED (72ø) .............................................. 1799.95
11-22/2.8-3.5 ED (72ø)........................................ 799.95
12-60/2.8-4 ED SWD (72ø)................................... 999.95
14-42/3.5-5.6 ED (58ø)........................................ 249.95
18-180/3.5-6.3 ED (62ø)...................................... 499.95
EC-14 1.4x Teleconverter ...................................... 439.95
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212-444-6633 EF-S USM Digital Lens
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16-35mm
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TS-E MF Lenses (USA) AF Flashes D-Type AF Lenses
17/4.0 L...2499.00 24/3.5 L II ..2199.00 4# ...... 146.95 4# ...... 326.95 50/1.8 D (52ø)....... 50/1.4 D (52ø).......
45/2.8 .....1399.00 90/2.8 .....1399.00 4# .......................................... 546.95 50/1.8 G AF-S (58ø) ....................... 216.95
3 8JSFMFTT 5XJO 'MBTI............................... 50/1.4 G AF-S (58ø) ..................................
EF “L” Lenses (USA)
14/2.8 USM II.............................. 2359.00 3$ 8JSFMFTT 5XJO 'MBTI 4ZTUFN...............  % .JDSP 
60/2.8 G AF-S ED Micro (62ø) ....................
35/1.4 USM (72ø)........................ 1479.00  % 
 'JTI&ZF...................................... 85/1.8 G AF-S (67ø) ....................... 496.95
50/1.2 USM (72ø)........................ 1619.00 35/1.8 G AF-S (52ø) ....................... 196.95 85/1.4 D IF (77ø)........ 85/1.4 G AF S (77ø) .....
85/1.2 USM II (72ø) ..................... 2199.00 40/2.8 G AF-S Micro (52ø) .............. 276.95 105/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF VR Micro (62ø) .........
100/2.8 IS USM Macro (67ø)........ 1049.00 85/3.5 G ED VR Micro (52ø) ............ 526.95
 %$ % XJUI )PPE 
135/2.0 USM (72ø)...................... 1089.00 10-24/3.5-4.5 G AF-S (77ø).......................
180/2.8 D ED-IF (72ø)................................
180/3.5 USM Macro (72ø)............ 1579.00 12-24/4 G AF-S (77ø) ................................  % &%*' .JDSP X$BTF 
200/2.0 IS USM (52ø) ............................... 16-85/3.5-5.6 G AF-S VR (67ø)..................
200/2 G AF-S ED-IF VR II (52ø) ...................
300/4.0 IS USM (77ø) .................. 1449.00 17-55/2.8 G AF-S (77ø) ............................. 300/4.0 D AF-S ED-IF (77ø) .......................
300/2.8 IS USM II (52ø rear)...................... 18-55/3.5-5.6 G AF-S II (52ø) ....................
14-24/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF................ 1996.95
400/5.6 USM (77ø)...................... 1339.00 18-55/3.5-5.6 G AF-S VR (52ø)....... 196.95
16-35/4.0 G AF-S ED VR (77ø) ...... 1256.95
 'JTIFZF 64................. 1499.00 18-105/3.5-5.6 G AF-S VR (67ø)..... 396.95
17-35/2.8 D AF-S ED-IF (77ø) ....................
16-35/2.8 USM II (82ø)................ 1699.00 18-200/3.5 5.6 G AF S VR II (72ø) ......... 846.95
18-35/3.5-4.5 G ED (77ø)............... 746.95
17-40/4.0 USM (77ø) .................... 839.99 18-300/3.5 5.6 G AF S ED VR (77ø) ....... 996.95
24-70/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF (77ø) ....... 1886.95
24-70/4.0 IS USM (77ø)............... 1499.00 55-200/4-5.6 G AF-S (52ø)........................
55-200/4-5.6 G AF-S VR (52ø)........ 246.95 24-85/2.8-4.0 D IF (72ø) ...........................
24-70/2.8 USM II (82ø)................ 2299.00 24-120/4.0 G AF S ED VR (77ø) .......... 1296.95
24-105/4 IS USM (77ø)................ 1149.00 55-300/4.5-5.6 G AF-S VR (58ø)..... 396.95
28-300/3.5 5.6 G AF S ED VR (77ø) ..... 1046.95
28-300/3.5-5.6 IS USM (77ø) ...................
D-Type AF Lenses 70-200/2.8 G AF S ED IF VR II (77ø)....... 2396.95
70-200/4.0 IS USM (77ø)............. 1349.00 14/2.8 D ED .......... 24/2.8 D (52ø)....... 70-300/4.5-5.6 G-AFS VR (67ø)...... 586.95
70-200/2.8 USM (77ø) ................ 1449.00  % 
70-200/2.8 IS II USM (77ø) .......... 2499.00 24/3.5 D ED PC-E (77ø) ............................. 80-400/4.5-5.6 D VR (77ø)........................
70-300/4.0-5.6 IS USM (67ø) ...... 1599.00 28/1.8 G AF-S (67ø) ....................... 696.95 200-400/4 G AF-S ED VR II (52ø)................
100-400/4.5-5.6 IS USM (77ø) .... 1699.00 28/2.8 D (52ø)....... 35/2.0 D (52ø)....... TC-14E II (1.4x) Teleconverter.....................
1.4x III Tele ..499.99 2x III Tele ....499.99 45/2.8 D ED PC-E Micro (77ø).................... TC-17E II (1.7x) ..... TC-20E III (2x)........
AF Flash System Flash System
AF-360FGZ ........................ AF-540FGZ..................... HVL-F20M............... 149.99 HVL-F20S ............. 149.99
DA Digital AF Lenses HVL-F43M............... 398.99 HVL-F60M ............ 548.00
Digital Lenses
21/3.2 AL Limited “Pancake” (49ø) ...................................
24/2 Carl Zeiss (72ø) .......................................... 1399.99
40/2.8 Limited “Pancake” (49ø)........................................
70/2.4 Limited HD (49ø)................................................... 50/1.4 (55ø)............ 449.99 100/2.8 Mac (55ø) .. 799.99
10-17/3.5-4.5 ED IF (77ø) ............................................... 16-80/3.5-4.5 DT Carl Zeiss (62ø) ........................ 999.99
16-50/2.8 ED AL IF SDM (77ø)......................................... 11-18/4.5-5.6 DT (77ø)........................................ 799.99
50-135/2.8 ED IF SDM (67ø)............................................ 18-250/3.5-6.3 DT (62ø)...................................... 649.99
50-200/4-5.6 ED WR (52ø) .............................................. 70-200/2.8 G APO (77ø)..................................... 1999.99
55-300/4-5.8 ED (58º)..................................................... 75-300/4.5-5.6 (55ø) ........................................... 249.99
18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 18-200/3.5-5.6 DX G SB-910 Speedlight
ED AL (IF) DC WR Digital Lens AF-S ED-IF VR II Digital Lens i-TTL 4IPF .PVOU 'MBTI
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Prices, specifications, and images are subject to change without notice. Manufacturer rebates are subject to the terms and conditions (including expiration dates) printed on the manufacturers’ rebate forms. Not responsible for typographical or illustrative errors. © 2000-2014 B & H Foto & Electronics Corp.
 Alpha A7 DSLR Alpha NEX-6 Mirrorless System Camera
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Body Only............................................#SOA7B
Kit with 28-70mm Lens......................#SOA7KB 24 Mega
Pixels with 16-50mm Lens .......................#SONEX6L* 16 Mega
Pixels

D7100 DSLR D800 D-SLR

The Professional’s Source™
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#PEZ 0OMZ #NID7100...........................................1199.95
,JU XJUI NN 73 #NID710018105 ............. 1599.95 24 Mega
Pixels
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#PEZ 0OMZ #NID800 ........................................... 2996.95 36 Mega
Pixels
XXXBandHDPN
D610 DSLR D4 DSLR
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#PEZ 0OMZ #NID610............................................ 1996.95
,JU XJUI NN 73 -FOT #NID6102485.......... 2596.95 24 Mega
Pixels #PEZ 0OMZ #NID4................................................ 5996.95 16 Mega
Pixels

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AF LENSES AF LENSES
DC o GPS %JHJUBM 4-3T 0OMZ t DG – Optimized for Digital SLRs DX – for Digital SLRs Only FX o %FTJHOFE GPS GVMM GSBNF %4-3T
$  $BOPO /  /JLPO 0  0MZNQVT 1  1FOUBY 4  4JHNB 4.  4POZ.JOPMUB  "MTP "WBJMBCMF GPS 4POZ "MQIB %4-3 Canon EOS Nikon AF Price
H o )4. .PEFM XJUI $BOPO /JLPO 4JHNB FX 100/2.8 Pro D Macro (52ø) #TO10028PCAF #TO10028PNAF 489.00
R o 3FBS 4MJQJO (FMBUJO 'JMUFS 4MPU SKU # Available for Price
DX 10-17/3.5-4.5 ATX Fisheye #TO101735CAF #TO101735NAF 669.00
DG 15/2.8 EX Diagonal Fish-Eye R #SI1528DG* C, N, P, S, SM 609.00
DX 11-16/2.8 Pro II (77ø) #TO111628PCII #TO111628PNII 599.00
DG 20/1.8 EX DF RF Aspherical (82ø) #SI2018* C, N, P, S, SM 629.00
DG 28/1.8 EX DF Asph. Macro (77ø) #SI2818M* C, N, P, S, SM 449.00 DX 12-24/4.0 Pro II (77ø) #TO12244DXC — 399.00
DC 30/1.4 HSM (62ø) #SI3014DCHSM* C, N, S 499.00 FX 16-28/2.8 Pro (77ø) #TO1628FXC #TO1628FXN 699.00
DG 35/1.4 HSM (67ø) #SI3514* C, N, P, S, SM 899.00 FX 17-35/4 Pro (82ø) #TO1735F4FXC #TO1735F4FXN 549.00
DG 50/1.4 EX (77ø)
DG 50/2.8 EX Macro (55ø)
#SI5014*
#SI5028MDG*
C, N, P, S, SM
C, N, P, S, SM
499.00
369.00 Six-Year Manual Focus Lenses
800-336-7520
AF LENSESL
DG 70/2.8 EX Macro (62ø)
DG 85/1.4 EX HSM (77ø)
#SI7028MDG*
#SI8514*
C, N, P, S, SM
C, N, P, S, SM
499.00
969.00
Warranty In Stock – Call for Prices
Di GPS EJHJUBM  ýMN 4-3 DBNFSBT t Di-II GPS %JHJUBM 4-3T 0OMZ t Di III for mirror-less cameras Only 212-502-6324
DG 105/2.8 EX OS Macro (62ø) #SI10528MDG* C, N, S, SM 969.00 $  $BOPO /  /JLPO 1  1FOUBY 4.  4POZ.JOPMUB 4&  4POZ & .PVOU
DG 150/2.8 EX APO Macro OS HSM (72ø) #SI15028AMO* C, N, P, S, SM 1099.00 ** Price After Rebate (Exp. 3-31-14) SKU # Available for Rebate Price Fax:
DG 300/2.8 APO EX HSM
DC 8-16/4.5-5.6 HSM
#SI30028DG*
#SI8164556*
C, N, P, S, SM
C, N, P, S, SM
3399.00
699.00
Di-II
Di
60/2.0 LD IF Macro (55ø)
90/2.8 Macro (55ø)
#TA602DI*
#TA9028M*
C, N, SM
C, N, P, SM
—
—
524.00
499.00
212-239-7770
DC 10-20/4-5.6 EX HSM (77ø) #SI102045D* C, N, P, S, SM 479.00 Di-II 10-24/3.5-4.5 (77ø) #TA102435* C, N, P, SM — 499.00
DG 12-24/4.5-5.6 EX Asph. HSM R
#SI122445* C, N, S, SM 949.00 Di-II 17-50/2.8 XR LD IF Asph. (67ø) #TA175028* C, N, P, SM — 499.00
DC 17-50/2.8 EX OS HSM (77ø) #SI175028* C, N, P, S, SM 669.00 Di-II 17-50/2.8 XR VC LD IF Asph. (67ø) 5"2 C, N — 649.00
DC 17-70/2.8-4.0 OS Macro HSM (72ø) #SI1770284DC* C, N, P, S, SM 499.00 Di-II 18-200/3.5-6.3 (62ø) #TA1820035* C, N, P, SM $20 179.00**
Di-III 18-200  7$ 
#MBDL PS 4JMWFS #TA1820035S* SE — 739.00
DC 18-200/3.5-6.3 OS II HSM (72ø) #SI1820035* C, N, P, S, SM 499.00
Di-II  7$ 1;% 
#TA18270* C, N, SM $50 399.00** Store & Mail Order Hours:
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Misinformation
Misinformatio
Modern memory cards for massive
capacities and fast data
By David Willis
For such a simple part of the imaging chain,
it’s ironic that there’s so much confusion about
memory cards. Capacity is simple to un-
derstand, but card speeds are quite
a bit murkier. They’re determined
by read and write times, the speed at
which a digital device can access digital
files (read) or capture information to
the card (write). Reading rates are al-
ways faster than creating a file, which
is why most manufacturers use read-
ing rates over writing rates to classify
their cards. Data transfer is also bottle-
necked by cables and connections, so
the maximum capabilities of your card
can be dependent on the abilities of
your camera. Keep in mind that cards
faster than your camera won’t improve
performance, but better cards can cer-
tainly be used with more advanced
models if you upgrade. Good choices
for reliable cards include Delkin,
Eye-Fi, Hoodman, Kingston, Lexar,
PNY, SanDisk, Sony and Transcend.
Most memory cards offer an X rat-
ing (as in “times”) denoting the speed
at which it will transfer. Based on
CD-ROM, 1x equals 150 KB/s, or 0.15
MB/s, so a 100x card would transfer at
15 MB/s, while an 800x card offers 120
MB/s. Manufacturers still use the X
rating with CompactFlash, but Speed
Class Ratings have largely replaced
this with SD cards. CompactFlash, at
the largest memory card dimensions
of 43x36mm, is still king of capacity,
but by a slim margin, with new mod-
els available at up to 512 GB. First in-
troduced in 1994, the solid-state tech
is also very fast, with top speeds of up
to 1066x at 160 MB/s (which will sup-
port 4K video and even 3D). Newer
CF cards also offer compliance with
the VPG 20 standard for HD or 4K-
compatible VPG 65 standard, which
ABOVE: Lexar 512 GB Professional 800x CF card; Lexar 256 GB Professional 1066x CF card
98 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com
Gear Tech
promises sustained rates of writing
without dropped frames. The Achilles’
heel with CompactFlash is that it uses
a pin array to plug into a camera, and
these pins can easily bend or break with
a slightly misaligned card—a costly fix
on your camera.
Introduced in 1999, SD (Secure
Digital) cards are particularly popu-
lar with electronics makers, thanks to
their size and affordability. While the
thumb-sized cards are easily lost in
camera bags and elsewhere, they give
gadget makers more inter-
nal space for circuitry and
>> More On The Web
electronics. Now available Go to the DPP website at
as SD (up to 4 GB), SDHC www.digitalphotopro.com
to learn more about
or SDXC (with microSD cutting-edge technology
versions of these for mobile and how it’s changing
photography.
phones and tablets), the dif-
ferent nomenclatures refer to high ca-
pacity (HC, up to 32 GB) and extended
capacity (XC, up to a theoretical 2 TB,
though currently they max out in the
real world at 256 GB). From Class
2 (slowest) to Class 10 (fastest), SD/
SDHC/SDXC cards are classed by the
minimum write speed, though speeds
in each card are generally much high-
er than this minimum. These Speed
Classes are based on the needs of video.
At a minimum of 2 MB/s, Class 2 is
M
Myth:
Cardsemory
The SaAre All
me
capable of standard-definition video
while 720p is possible with Class 4 at 4
MB/s. Class 6 at a minimum of 6 MB/s
is generally required for 1080p/i while
Class 10 with a high-speed data bus
guarantees sustained video with a min-
imum write time of 10 MB/s and cards
that currently offer up to 40 MB/s.
Speed Classes are shown on cards as a
“C” with the respective number inside.
To make things more confusing,
higher speeds from SD cards also can
be attained through professional mod-
els with the Ultra High Speed Bus
(UHS) technology. UHS-I supports up
to 104 MB/s (with UHS104/SDR104-
compliant cards; other UHS-I cards top
off at 50 MB/s), and a theoretical 312
MB/s is possible through the UHS-II
bus standard, which holds two pin lay-
outs rather than just one. Announced
this last November, UHS Speed Class
3 cards are coming soon, with a mini-
mum write speed of 30 MB/s, fast
enough to support 4K-resolution vid-
eo. (Panasonic teased a UHS-3 card at
CES in January with their mock-up of
the new 4K-capable GH4 camera.)
It’s easy to get UHS
Speed Class and UHS-I or
UHS-II confused. UHS-I/
UHS-II symbols on a card
indicate a bus interface for
heightened speeds while
UHS Speed Class symbols
(U1 or U3; on the card, this is shown
as a U with corresponding number
inside) define the minimum write
speed. Equipment needs to be UHS-
compatible to achieve these speeds,
though most pro cameras offer com-
patibility. SD cards also are interest-
ing in that a few models from Eye-Fi,
Toshiba and Transcend feature inter-
nal Wi-Fi hot spots. These cards are
smaller in capacity, but you can trans-
fer files wirelessly to free up space. DPP
 The moment you move in
closer and still see it all.
This is the moment we work for.

// DISTAGON T* 2/25
MADE BY ZEISS

Distagon T* 2/25
Go ahead, step in close. This high-speed wide-angle lens features aspherical lens elements and
a floating element design for razor-sharp images free of any chromatic aberration. Its close focus
ability and virtually distortion-free optics open up fascinating creative possibilities and make it
easy to add a bit of wide-angle drama.

www.zeiss.com/photo/moveincloser