...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS
EVENING...
...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 7 PM
CDT SATURDAY...

* WHAT...For the first Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot
conditions with heat index values up to 113 expected. For the
second Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with
heat index values up to 115 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of central, southwest and west central
Louisiana and southeast Texas.

* WHEN...For the first Excessive Heat Warning, from 11 AM this
morning to 7 PM CDT this evening. For the second Excessive
Heat Warning, from 11 AM to 7 PM CDT Saturday.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly
increase the potential for heat related illnesses,
particularly for those working or participating in outdoor
activities.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out
of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young
children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when
possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent
rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone
overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.
Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

&&

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS
EVENING...
...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 7 PM
CDT SATURDAY...

* WHAT...For the first Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot
conditions with heat index values up to 113 expected. For the
second Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with
heat index values up to 115 expected.

* WHERE...Portions of central, southwest and west central
Louisiana and southeast Texas.

* WHEN...For the first Excessive Heat Warning, from 11 AM this
morning to 7 PM CDT this evening. For the second Excessive
Heat Warning, from 11 AM to 7 PM CDT Saturday.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly
increase the potential for heat related illnesses,
particularly for those working or participating in outdoor
activities.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out
of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young
children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when
possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent
rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone
overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.
Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

&&

AI is the perfect hype commodity for tech companies and social media shills. If you thought NFTs and crypto cults were full of hot wind, then strap yourself in for the AI movement, because it’s bigger, gassier, and truly inescapable.

Luckily, the hype around AI “photography” is at least good for a laugh, so we may as well enjoy the show.

AI Will Destroy Everything You Love, But Not How You Think

Earlier this week, hundreds of AI industry leaders warned that artificial intelligence could wipe out the human race. A joint letter insisted that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Now, I’m not disagreeing with this. But it always makes me chuckle when the industry talks about AI as if the algorithms are the threat. You know, instead of warning society about its increasing dependence on hackable technology or irresponsible developers writing code that basically says “kill all humans”.

Terminators won’t destroy the human race but hacked or poorly-written algorithms could, say, starve us if we’re dumb enough to make food production reliant on them.

Either way, AI will destroy everything you love long before anything like this happens.

Again, it won’t be the algorithms that do the damage, though. Instead, it’ll be the AI tech bros forcing the AI narrative into every aspect of our lives, incessantly overpromising and underdelivering while the technology itself progresses at a relatively slow rate. We’re already seeing this in photography and, basically, every creative industry.

Each week, a new AI revolution is announced, and we’re told the future is finally here. Then, the latest AI toy falls apart under the first round of genuine scrutiny, like the recently botched rollouts of Google, Bing and every other company clamouring for relevance in the age of AI.

It’s the hype that matters, though, not the results. In fact, the majority of gains in the stock market this year are attributed to AI enthusiasm. As we’ve seen with cryptocurrencies, NFTs and even content monetisation in the digital age, it’s the enthusiasm that’s profitable.

Welcome to the hype economy.

Adobe Enters the AI ‘”Photography” Race

Adobe has officially entered the generative AI race with its beta feature, Generative Fill. It’s the newest shiny toy in the AI hype machine, and the usual suspects are out in force with typical overenthusiasm. Search “rip photographers” on Twitter, and you’ll get an endless stream of tweets that all use the same hyperbolic phrasing.

I mean, half the tweets are identically worded, and they’re all sharing the same examples. But who cares about originality, anyway?

Here’s a word-for-word template being shared by countless accounts:

RIP Photographers

RIP Designers

RIP Retouchers

Even Midjourney is in trouble now…

The hype is real. 🤯

All of the best threads on Adobe Generative Fill on Twitter. 👏

Be sure bookmark & share!

The hype certainly is real.

If you’re familiar with the NFT hustle of recent years, you’ll recognise most of this language. In fact, a quick scroll through the comments on many of these threads reveals a mix of overexcited journalists and active or former crypto bros (plus a healthy amount of ridicule from creatives).

I’m not embedding any of these tweets because I don’t want to promote them and, secondly, they all use artwork without permission, something else I don’t want to contribute towards.

They are good for a laugh, though. So, I’ll share the AI-generated content they’re (not) producing – that nobody can own any rights to. Maybe you can guess which pieces of original artwork have been used – without permission – to generate these expansions.

Expanding Images With Adobe’s Generative Fill

Aside from having a bit of fun, it’s always worth taking an honest look at features like Adobe’s Generative Fill tool. As hilarious as the AI tech bros are, we all need to keep tabs on the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence. It’s not only a question of whether they’re a threat to creatives but also how useful they may be in helping us do our jobs.

For the most part, they’re simply taking existing pieces of artwork and using Photoshop to expand them. The first example of this I saw was someone expanding the Mona Lisa painting. Essentially, we’re just getting a lot more of the same.

Can You Guess the Iconic Album Cover?

When you run out of famous paintings to butcher, I guess album covers are the obvious next step. So, let’s see what our pioneering artists have come up with using Adobe’s Generative Fill tool.

Can you guess which iconic album cover was used to generate this expansion?

This is a particularly interesting example. Aside from being one of the most famous album covers of all time, it’s also one of the most controversial regarding usage rights. The original photo used for this cover featured a naked baby in a pool of water, appearing to swim towards a $1 bill on a fishing line.

At the age of 31, Spencer Elden – aka: “The Nirvana Baby” – filed a lawsuit against the use of the image on the basis he was unable to give consent.

In terms of how well Adobe handles this, the original photo is about as easy as it gets for generative AI. Firstly, it’s a low-resolution image taken underwater, but, more importantly, it includes no lines of high-definition detail.
Anyone experienced with Photoshop’s intelligent fill tool will understand why the original image is a perfect choice for Generative Fill. Sadly, this seems like a classic case of beginner’s luck.

Next up, we could be talking about the most iconic album cover of all time and a more complex image for Adobe’s Generative Fill tool to expand.

Hopefully, the zebra crossing is the giveaway clue for this one. All you have to do is imagine the UK’s four most famous musical exports crossing a particular road.

Clearly, there are a lot of issues with Photoshop’s output here. It almost looks like the algorithm has merged images from Google Maps’ street view, creating all kinds of bizarre distortion.

Whoever created this prompt doesn’t seem to mind the car on the left completely mismatching an image taken in 1969. Who cares about details when you can add a blimp in the sky and take all attention away from the four original subjects of the image, though?

All of this aside, the real victim here is the poor dog to the right of the expansion.

Thoughts and prayers for our one-legged (?) friend.

Can You Guess the Famous Meme?

Moving further away from iconic paintings and album covers, memes are also getting the Adobe Generative Fill treatment.

This was created using a meme commonly referred to as “distracted boyfriend.” It depicts an apparent couple with the boyfriend gawking at a passing lady in a red dress, much to the dismay of his unimpressed girlfriend.

The girlfriend’s gaze is firmly locked on the back of her boyfriend’s head but it appears she has bigger problems to worry about.

I’m no doctor, but that looks like a medical emergency to me.

You only have to look around the frame of the original image to see a whole bunch of issues with this expansion.

You can also see where Generative Fill is having problems when it tries to merge multiple images together. The tool is clearly trying to merge multiple images of buildings to match the edge of the frame in the original photo. Again, nobody experienced with Adobe’s Content Aware tools will be surprised by the issues with lines and details.

These examples are supposed to demonstrate the capabilities of Generative Fill and AI tools in general. However, all they really do is reveal the lack of knowledge and attention to detail of anyone praising the results. By extension, they show how important it is that AI tools are used by experts who actually know how to use them.

In this case, photographers, photo editors, and digital artists.

Adobe’s Generative Fill feature is still in beta, which means it could improve somewhat before any official release. Don’t expect miracles, though, because beta releases are pretty deep into the development cycle for software products. In other words, Adobe must either be fairly happy with the results or in a real hurry to get its name in the generative AI discussion as quickly as possible.

You can try Generative Fill out for yourself by downloading the latest beta version of Photoshop from the Adobe website. You also sign up for a free trial to test Generative Fill, even if you’re not an existing Photoshop customer.

Funnily enough, Adobe isn’t promoting the feature as a tool for expanding paintings or album covers in its marketing material. In fact, the first demonstration in the video below is a reasonable use case for the tool. The video starts with a creative adding yellow road lines to an image of a cyclist riding on a remote road.

The creative, then, uses the tool to add more sky to the top of the image, converting the 1:1 image into what looks like a 2:1 composite.

To be honest, the sky doesn’t match all that well to my eyes, but maybe that’s just the bias of knowing it’s AI-generated.

Unfortunately, the video descends into madness from here, placing stags in cartoonish streets and turning a legitimate landscape image into a composite mess. I can’t be the only one getting heavy macOS Sierra flashbacks from these AI-generated mountains.

Adobe is telling us to “dream bigger” in this promo video, but the botched reflections, unrealistic lighting, and clip art signs are the stuff of nightmares. Based on this video, it also seems like Adobe’s Generative Fill feature isn’t as generative as Adobe would like us to believe. When you ask it to add a reflection, you can tell it tries to use the data in your existing image.

However, when you add completely new elements or change entire backgrounds, you often end up with recognizable mountain ranges or streets. Compared to tools like Midjourney, it looks like Adobe’s algorithm is using less data (fewer images) to generate content.

The good news for Adobe is that increasing data volume should, in theory, improve the results of its output. In fact, this is the only way companies like OpenAI and Adobe can realistically improve the quality of their AI products using the current technology available.

A more significant jump in AI capabilities will require a new technological breakthrough of some kind.

How Useful Is Generative Fill for Photographers?

Adobe’s Generative Fill tool will improve with time, but I can already see some legitimate use cases for photographers and other creatives. Obviously, digital artists that don’t need realism in their work have the advantage here.

The use cases for photographers will always be more limited, though. As the technology improves, it will only get easier to remove unwanted elements from an image. You can already imagine publishers asking photographers to switch out the sky on an image, rather than waiting an unknown period of time for better weather conditions.

Personally, I have no interest in using generative AI for photography, but I still test every tool I can get my hands on. Quite simply, I want to know what they’re capable of and what they’re not.

To test Adobe’s Generative Fill, I went through a bunch of rejected photos and selected this raw file of an image taken in London last year.

I selected this image because it seems like a good candidate for using Generative Fill to expand the left side of the frame. Most of the image is shadow and light with almost no detail, except for the pattern on the window, which will help demonstrate the tool’s capabilities with details.

This is the most convincing version Generative Fill produced:

At a glance, it’s done a decent enough job until you notice the smeared patterns on the generated parts of the window. In all honesty, casual viewers would probably never notice this.

So, if I desperately wanted to expand this kind of image to 4:5 and fill the left side of the frame, maybe Generative Fill is a viable option. Even still, I think I would reject such an image on the basis that I should have composed it better in the field.

Also, keep in mind I specifically chose this image because I knew it would be relatively easy for Generative Fill to work with. Aside from the pattern on the window, there is no detail required in the expansion at all.

Once you start replacing backgrounds or anything major, results quickly get messy.

For example, here’s the original version of an image I took during a rare daytime shoot in London:

So, what happens when I ask Adobe to swap out the background for a street in Paris on a sunny day?

Well, after three failed attempts to cleanly select the subject with Photoshop’s AI tools, I had to do it manually with the good, old-fashioned quick select tool. Then, I inverted the selection, hit the Generative Fill button and typed the prompt: “A street in Paris on a sunny day.”

This is the most convincing of the three generations Adobe’s tool came up with:

You can see how it’s trying to recreate the perspective of the original image, but the result is a complete mess. You can see in the bottom-left of the frame how much the algorithm has struggled with detail, and this crop from another alternative is even worse.

Let me be clear, though, I would never expect good results from a tool like Generative Fill for this kind of application. The first test, where I slightly expanded an image with no detail, is the kind of task that’s suitable for current AI tools. Switching out backgrounds and expecting quality or realistic results is going to end in disappointment.

All in all, Adobe’s Generative Fill tool is one of the least impressive AI tools I’ve tested from major providers. It will get better with time, but this rollout feels rushed. I get the sense Adobe wanted to release an AI tool as quickly as possible to put its name in the mix.

And, honestly, the quality of its output doesn’t really matter because it’s the hype that bolsters stock prices, not the technology itself.

The Hype Will Die Down, Eventually

Soon enough, the market will be saturated with AI tools, and the hype will start to die down.

The mist surrounding AI technology will gradually clear as people’s understanding of it increases – not so much the technical aspects, but the experience of using it. AI will change the way we work and live our lives, but the current technology isn’t putting us on the verge of revolution.

Tech companies are exploiting the public’s limited understanding of AI technology and the media’s predictable sensationalism for quick profits. The dishonesty will become less profitable as people’s experience and understanding of the technology increases and the narrative in the media has to change.

The hype will die down, but it’ll take longer than the NFT craze that swept photography in recent years. AI isn’t a niche movement; it’s already entrenched in every aspect of our lives – at home, at work, and almost everywhere we go.

So, we’re going to have to put up with a lot more hot wind from the AI tech bros every time a new product or feature hits the market. All we can do is sit back, have a good laugh, and enjoy the show.  

On view 16 June – 9 July 2023. Tickets available to book now: Saatchi Gallery Tickets – Saatchi Gallery

The RHS has unveiled its medal-winning entries as it opens the 2023 RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Artists and photographers have been awarded RHS Gold, Silver-Gilt, Silver, and Bronze medals, as well as a series of special awards including ‘Best Botanical Art Exhibit’ and ‘Judge’s Special Award’.

Entries for the show have gone through a meticulous pre-selection process, where the scientific accuracy, technical skill and aesthetic appeal of the work have been reviewed by an expert judging panel.

Award-winning works this year include:

Best Botanical Art Exhibit
Nina Mayes for the exhibit: Macrophytes in the Emergent Zone of Britain’s Fresh Waters

Best Botanical Artwork
Eunike Nugroho for the artwork: Hoya latifolia G.Don / Bold under (Sun) Stress

Judges’ Special Award
Hiroko Kita for the exhibit: Japanese Cultivated Evergreen Azalea and Their Parental Species

Best Portfolio Photography Exhibit
Irene Stupples for the exhibit: Faded Iris

The RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show is supported by Riverstone Living. Entry is free for RHS and Saatchi Gallery members.

Introducing the All-in-one Photography Bundle, your ticket to mastering the art of landscape editing and unleashing your creative potential. This bundle includes expert courses from 5 renowned photographers, a powerful photo editor Luminar Neo, and a selection of creative content. Elevate your skills, enhance your images, and be inspired by the best in the field.

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The bundle includes educational courses in English, Luminar Neo, and Presets&Skies. Check out the included courses:

Educational courses

Learn from the masters of landscape photography with our expert courses. Dive into fundamental principles and advanced techniques, discovering how to enhance colors, optimize contrast, and create captivating compositions. Gain the knowledge to transform ordinary shots into extraordinary works of art.

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Zelda Start to Finish. Turn an unusable file into a great image with this in-depth tutorial, including how to paint light from the side, how to fix areas that are blown out, how to dodge with color, how to recreate the polarizer effect in the sky, how to alter the perspective of an image and more.

Daydream Start to Finish. Learn how Marco edits an image, starting in Lightroom and ending in Photoshop. Master different post-processing techniques and how to add depth to your pictures and enhance them.

Pledge Start to Finish. Learn how to change the mood of your image and turn a flat file, shot during the harsh daylight, into a dramatic and unique scene with this in-depth tutorial. After this tutorial, you’ll know how to get a more dramatic look, how to desaturate the blues, and more.

Matt Suess

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David Johnston

Landscape Photography University 201 — Ignite Your Composition. With this course, you’ll get a proven system for quickly improving your photography composition, saving time through learning these techniques, and reaching your goals as a photographer.

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New users will get the bundle of courses plus a Luminar Neo Pro annual subscription for $129 (Luminar Neo renews at $99 after the first year). That’s a 96% discount.

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Existing Luminar Neo users will get the bundle of courses for $99. A 97% discount.

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Product photography is often considered one of the most complicated and challenging genres. Besides having the right lenses and props to decorate the shot, you’ll need a variety of light shaping options to create the best looking photos. This is where the $399 Halumin H18 Soft Light brings something interesting to the table.

Obviously to create great looking product and food images takes a lot of practice and a deep understanding of how light will behave when pointed at different reflective surfaces. To help lower the impact of that learning curve, Halumin hopes its ring light-esque modifier will make it faster and easier to create high quality images for photographers at any level, and at an affordable price.

According to the company, the H18 modifier was designed to transform small product, food, and beverage photography (and video lighting) via an easy to control, versatile, and portable system.

At a glance the H18 doesn’t seem that special, but a close inspection changes that. Where you would normally find light pushing forwards out of the ring to light subjects in front of the modifier, the H18 instead has it’s diffusion pointed inwards in a patent pending “open cylindrical” design.

The modifier itself starts at $399 and has accessories and bundles that can bring the price up to $848 depending on how expansive you want to go. The question is, just how useful and user-friendly is it, and more importantly, is it worth the money?

Halumin H18: Design and Build Quality

The H18 modifier is pretty well built. The system itself ships in a small duffle bag and folds up much the same as a standard reflector would to save space and travel easier. It’s made with a very rugged and durable polyester ripstop laminate, nylon, and even tempered steel with tough rubber tabs on key stress points of the device to reduce wear and tear along the edges.

The thicker fabric is supposed to enhance the durability of the modifier and minimize any chance of light leakage, ensuring the only place light should come out from is the intended inner circle which is enhanced by the use of an inner lining of reflective silver.

While that is true where it counts, my unit did exhibit a little bit of leakage along the inner seam where the diffusion panel is connected. It is quite minimal and you can only see it if you are actually looking for it. In real-world usage this is completely unnoticeable to the eye and had basically zero effect on the actual images captured, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it.

When opened and assembled, the H18 modifier has an interior “Staging Area” of 18 inches and measures 36x 36 x 8 inches in total, basically allowing for a shoot space of about four by four feet if you’re in a pinch for space. When collapsed and in it’s travel bag, the H18 measures just about 15 x 15 x 8 inches (if you don’t make use of the speed-light pouches) making it very easy to store and travel with when compared to many other light modifiers. The bag includes two pouches to carry speed-lights (or other small sized accessories) that can fit most speed-lights on the market, including the larger Profoto A, Westcott FJ80, and Godox “round” style heads.

The outer ring of the modifier has several fixed points that help the system maintain its shape. These “ribs” are secured using velcro and positioned alone the heavy rubber points along the outer edge of the ring. Then there are the two slots on opposing sides (we’ll say they are at the three o’clock and six o’clock positions for the purposes of this review) where you can mount the lighting system of choice using the included speed-light adapters, or optional studio light mounts. These ship by default with a Bowens mount, but additional adapters can be purchased to connect to nearly any other lighting system including Profoto which I used for this review.

The speedlight setup uses a system of snap-ties and velcro with a “rib” to connect to either side of the modifier, whereas the studio light uses larger metal and plastic clamp-based designed that connect over the thick rubber outer lining of the modifier. Even though its quite a simple setup, it can feel pretty confusing at first, so I’d recommend taking the time to watch a setup guide just so you don’t waste time.

Inside of the ring where the diffusion is, you may notice two thick rings of a heavy-duty velcro like material. These are built to act as a sort of “barn-door” to give you more control over how much light you want to spread on your subjects. This includes the use of some included “blackout materials” which we’ll dive into in the section below on using the modifier.

Finally, the Halumin H18 modifier has optional $269 accessory legs which lock onto the support ribs of the modifier and can articulate in nearly any direction to help support the H18 and its attached lights in a variety of positions. You can use these to help balance the modifier when being used on an angle or even as a “stand” to hold the modifier upright.

The collapsable leg(s) can extend out to 30 inches (13 inches collapsed) giving users a flexible range of lengths and angles to position them. At first these feel rather clunky, but after a bit of practice it started to feel second nature for helping balance tricky angles and setups.

Halumin H18: How Do You Use It?

If you don’t read the instructions (or watch the handy series of YouTube videos) the first setup can be a little confusing, but even then it didn’t take me long to figure out.

Once you figure out the intricacies of the H18, setting it up using either speed-lights, LED’s, or strobes shouldn’t take you any more than a few minutes. Depending on the complexity of your lights attached and if you need stand support, it might take you a bit longer to reposition the lights the way you want than to set it up or tear it down.

When you first take the modifier out, you need to connect a few rigid “ribs” along the outer lining to keep the system expanded for use. These are positioned along four corners of the modifier with openings at the three o’clock and six o’clock positions to mount the light of choice for your shoot. If you use the speed-light option, the H18 has a built-in reflective cover to fold over the speed-light to ensure there’s no light leaked when in use.

If you use the strobe/LED mount option, the base of the mount covers the entire opening, ensuring the light goes exactly where it’s needed and nothing is spilled out of the sides.

As I mentioned, the inner ring of the H18 has a set of 360-degree velcro “barn doors” that when turned inward keep the light contained in a really narrow area with a hard drop off. The idea here is that you can isolate the light in a tight space and only light your subject and not spill out onto the background. If you flip one of the rings outwards, it lets light come out at a wider angle. This lets you get a little more light on the product and/or the background.

Additionally, you can also flip part of the ring on both sides open to allow light to be stronger in one side of the ring so you can manipulate the light with having to change the settings of each flash as often.

Since they are Velcro you can control the light even more by taking the included blackout strips and use them totally block the light from select areas. According to the company, “This is for situations like, if you have a reflection on part of your subject that you want to eliminate or some of your subject is too close to the edge of the ring and you want to block that light so it’s not hot in that spot.”

The design itself is meant to be able to reduce the number of lights and modifiers needed to achieve a soft all-encompassing light setup which would typically need four or more lights to achieve a similar look, so while it still feels a bit big, it really does cut down on the space and quantity of lights needed to get a very smooth looking product shot. This was especially useful for me, being rather new to that side of the photography world.

Halumin H18: Performance and Results

I tested the Halumin H18 in a few different setups from the small dining area of my home to some lay-flat and table setups in the studio to see just how good it was, and maybe it was the beginner product photographer in me speaking, but I was pretty impressed with it. Yes it’s kind of weird to look at, but it actually works really well, especially if you want to create that dramatic product shot.

For the first few tests, I used a C-stand arm with a Manfrotto/Lastolite micro-arm and mini-clamp combination to hold a bunch of different items and almost straight out of camera they were ready to release.

To clean things up a little better and reduce my editing time, I simply draped a black t-shirt over the reflective c-stand arm and was left with just photoshopping out the actual “clamp” for the final shots. Other than adjusting my exposure, it was pretty easy to get a great shot right out of camera. Granted, the images could have been made much more attractive had I added additional lights or colored gels for the background but I wanted to focus on using the Halumin H18 on its own to show what it is actually capable of.

Halumin H18: Awkward At First, But Incredibly Useful

In each of the the vertical floating setup, lay-flat, and the corner/table setup, the $399 Halumin H18 Light Modifier was the only light used, and each shot was used with the modifier positioned at a few different angles with the inner “barn doors” held in a variety of positions to make subtle changes to the lighting. But in each and every case, it was clear that the H18 Softlight handled the reflections on shiny objects exceptionally well, making it an ideal tool for those serious about food, beverage, and product photography.

Being new to that world myself, It was kind of exciting to be able to capture images this way with such ease, especially since the modifier on its own seemed to make the products shot with it just pop out of the background. It was pretty quickly clear that spending more time finding the right angles or adding additional accent lights could make the products shot with this modifier absolutely jump off of the screen. The only downside would be if you had to photograph larger products, then this modifier would effectively be useless for you.

For many new to the product world, the cost of entry may be a bit of a deterrent given that the modifier starts at $399 for the base system and goes up to as much as $848 for a bundle with the accessory legs and adapter mounts for studio lighting (more if you need to buy adapters for a light other than Bowens)

But, given that good product photography lighting, sets, accessories and props are expensive, adding a high qualify modifier like the H18 just makes sense as it can significantly cut down the amount of gear and lighting required to get “the shot” as well as save you a ton of time both on set and in post production.

Are There Alternatives?

One alternative that is kind of close in the end result would be the much more affordable $139 V-Flat World Light Cone bundle by Karl Taylor which would require additional setups but can deliver somewhat similar ending images.

Outside of that though, there really isn’t any other close alternative which makes the Halumin H18 modifier unique. Yes, there are tons of other ring-lights out there, but they are all front-facing designs, not “inwards” as the H18 acts. Meaning, you can get other similar shaped light modifiers, but they would require a significant amount of additional customization to even begin to get close to replicating the setup, which would defeat the entire purpose, and likely make the cost and or space required to use much more significant.

Should You Buy It?

Yes, if you’re serious about food, beverage, and product photography.

The StockCam is an unusual camera cage for photography enthusiasts who need multiple mounting points for various accessories, as well as stability and better camera handling. It’s also shaped like an assault rifle…

If you’re a photographer who’s also into guns, you’ll probably love the design of the StockCam. It combines the functionality and convenience of a high-quality camera cage, with the aesthetics of a modern assault rifle. It even features a trigger to activate the shutter or lock the cage to ensure that the shutter doesn’t accidentally get pressed. You actually use it by pressing the stock against your shoulder and looking into the camera display as you would in a gun scope, and then press the trigger to shoot, as in take a picture. But can you imagine using one of these things around police?

The first time I stumbled upon a video of the StockCam on an obscure Japanese website, I was convinced it was some sort of a joke, as the idea of disguising a camera cage as a realistic assault rifle seemed, well, dangerous. But then I studied the product a bit, and it looked a bit too well-thought-out to be a spoof. It does offer plenty of functionality, with multiple mounts for things like microphones, lights, and spare camera lenses, and the trigger is designed to work like an actual camera shutter, with light presses used for focusing, and hard presses for taking shots.

The thing is that whoever designed the StockCam wanted it to look like a real gun. They could have simply made it bright yellow or orange, but instead, they went for the gun black which only enhances its similarity to a real firearm. Even the guy in the promotional photos and videos is wearing a military-type vest – albeit one with the Rockstar logo on it – so the military look is intentional.

If you’re going to use something like the StockCam to take photos of birds in the wilderness, maybe you’ll be fine, but if you bust something like this out in a US  city, you’re asking for trouble. This thing looks way too realistic not to be confused with an assault rifle, and do you really want to get shot? And I don’t mean photographed.

 

For more information on the StockCam, check out the official website. They actually have a 50% early bird discount, if you’re considering getting one.

For years, photographers old and new would enjoy sharing their favorite work across social media sites such as Instagram. Sharing your images was fun and would create conversation, engagement, and perhaps sales. Nowadays, the situation has changed.

I, like many others, have enjoyed sharing my photography on social media. Instagram has usually been my go-to, and for a long time, engagement was great. I would receive many new followers, comments, and likes. The feeling was amazing, as I felt my name was getting out there and I was receiving lots of inquiries and photography jobs. As time has gone by and the algorithms have changed, my engagement has dropped massively, the jobs from social media have declined and I was left wondering: what’s the point?

Instead of worthwhile comments providing me with valuable critique of my images and inquiries, now, I receive comments such as “cool tones bro” or countless comments from bots saying “DM me to be featured on such and such.” The number of accounts my images reach has fallen drastically, direct messages are now mostly spam, and the likes are almost nonexistent. These issues are not just experienced by myself, but many others that I talk to.

Platforms such as Instagram have changed so much that their preference is now for products such as Reels where scantily clad women try to attract you to their Onlyfans or useless financial advice from non experts about how you can make a million dollars in a year by investing $1 a month!

Social media has become so dangerous that it could destroy your self-esteem. For the vast majority of photographers out there trying to make a name for themselves using social media, the chances of being discovered are highly unlikely, even if your work is original and amazing. You can post the most amazing photo and perhaps only receive 20 likes, and this can leave you feeling invalidated, questioning your own ability, or worrying about where your next photography work is going to come from. 

Some photographers rely so much on social media engagement to find work. They want to run workshops and sell presets for Lightroom, prints, and other products. If the algorithm no longer supports them, they can lose so much in the long run and will have to find other ways to market themselves and diversify their options.

There is the option to promote your images, but is this really worthwhile now? Unless you can afford a large budget, for most, I would say this is best avoided. 

Did you become a photographer just to become famous? I don’t think so. You became a photographer because you enjoy art, you enjoy being out in nature or working with different people, trying to create something beautiful. What you create is for you and your clients, and anything else is on top is a bonus.

For those looking for more photography work via it, it might be time to look at additional ways of marketing yourself outside of social media, and I wish everyone the very best of luck, as it’s tough out there.

Photography is for the birds

Southern Utah is an amazing place to watch and photograph many majestic species of birds // Photos by John Byron Turner

BY JOHN BYRON TURNER — This past winter lasted so long that my wife and I were experiencing serious cabin fever here in Parowan. So, rather than becoming permanent couch potatoes, we set out to photograph some of the birds of prey that we have seen along the rural roads throughout the Iron County farmlands.

Jennifer has always been an avid bird watcher and I have been involved in many areas of photography most of my life. We are both retired now, so we headed down the farm roads once or twice a week when we weren’t getting blasted by yet another snowstorm.

On our first couple of trips, we wanted to find the bald eagles we had read about in this newspaper, and we found quite a few. Along the way we also saw lots of hawks…mostly red tails, and recently we spotted a very well-camouflaged pair of owls who had just built a nest. Once spring got closer we began seeing several hawk nests, so we now have eight or ten sites which we regularly monitor and are seeing the birds attending to their eggs.

  

Now that the snowy farm fields have turned to lush green crops, we have watched the owl hatch two owlets that started out as little fuzz balls resembling Ewoks from Star Wars, but we have watched them turn into fierce, curious little owls. We have seen them start to advance to a stage known as branching, where they test life out of the nest for the first time, and start to try out their wings, under the close supervision of their parents.

In photographing these beautiful birds, we learned pretty quickly that none of these birds are anxious to pose for a camera, and that a lot of patience is necessary when shooting bird photos. The hawks were especially anxious for us to leave their territory and would hover over our heads menacingly. You can only get so close before they get spooked, and we don’t want to disturb their habitat, so a telephoto lens is a must.

Also, while it can be easier to spot and photograph birds during winter, when the trees are bare, now that summer has arrived it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find them. So please be watchful and careful.

Over the course of four years, the photographer Bieke Depoorter made eight visits to the United States, hitchhiking and spending each evening in the home of a different stranger. After sundown, she’d approach someone on the street who looked trustworthy and ask if she could crash with them for the night. 

Depoorter photographed those who said “yes” during those brief one-night stays, knowing that, in almost all cases, she’d likely never see them again. In 2014, those trips culminated in the photography book I Am About to Call it a Day, a series of tender, intense, and mysterious portraits of people encountered purely by chance.

This is an article about artists who took risks while finding photography subjects and made singularly compelling images in the process. One turned to Tinder, while another contacted all her exes. A taxi driver asked his passengers for permission to photograph them, and a student messaged people on the Couchsurfing app.  

While studying in France, Mel McVeigh faced the challenge of finding photography subjects in an unfamiliar place. It was her teacher, Claudine Doury, who suggested she start on Tinder. McVeigh edited her existing dating profile to include the question: Can I take your portrait? 

If the men she matched with brought it up, they’d discuss meeting (for a date and a portrait). Looking back, McVeigh remembers a sense of “giddiness” and anticipation—for both the photograph itself and the possibility of falling in love. In the end, the artist did not fall in love, but she came away with several friendships. 

After university, the photographer Mike Harvey took a job in Wales as a taxi driver to earn some extra income. During his four years driving people, he was intrigued by these brief but intimate meetings, finding passengers would often open up about their lives. 

With these encounters in mind, he kept a DSLR in his glove box and asked people if he could take their portraits at the end of their rides. As a “thank you” to those who said “yes,” he’d waive their fares. He asked 130 people; all but about nine agreed. 

For Laura Beth Reese, photography was, in some ways, a secondary motive, coupled with her desire to reconnect or find a sense of resolution after a breakup. Of the exes she contacted, only about half said “yes” to being photographed; she met them at their homes for the sessions. 

In the portraits, the exes are partially unclothed but not fully nude—the artist believed that might be “too much to ask.” Some weren’t comfortable being photographed but wanted to photograph Reese instead—a proposal to which she agreed.  

When Mirja Maria Thiel set out to document intimacy among senior couples in their 70s and 80s, she went about finding photography subjects in a few ways. She met her first couple through a sculptor who taught nude painting to students ages 60-plus. At one point, she contacted a sex therapist—a perfect approach, given the subject. 

Thiel also ran ads in supermarkets (look for bulletin boards too) and took out an ad in a popular local newspaper. As it happens, photographers have been using newspapers and newsletters to find subjects for decades: while traveling the country and working with LGBTQ+ couples in the 1980s, Sage Sohier ran ads in local gay newsletters. 

When Natcha Wongchanglaw moved to New York to study photography, she didn’t get the chance to meet many people in her new city. But an assignment from a class in editorial photography encouraged her to think outside the box. Using the Couchsurfing app, a network created to connect travelers with local hosts, she started contacting hosts who lived in New York. 

It took her a few weeks to get a “yes,” but soon after, she was traveling to Harlem to meet her first sitter. Wongchanglaw usually spent a few hours with each host and shared a meal, but in some cases, she stayed the night as a “couchsurfer” herself.

The photographer Sophie Green was looking for subjects with a very specific requirement: people who were also named “Sophie Green.” She took a few avenues in her search: she looked up voter records and searched Wikipedia. She also ran searches on Facebook and Twitter. 

You can use Facebook to find people who share a common interest (check out groups); find events in your area; or filter by name, location, or keyword. Try sending messages explaining your intentions, and see who responds. 

Before Bieke Depoorter stayed with strangers in the United States, she took a similar approach while traveling along the Trans Siberian Railway. During that journey, she carried a handwritten note, which helped her navigate the language barrier: “I am looking for a place to spend the night. Do you know people who would have a bed, or a couch? I don’t need anything in particular, and I have a sleeping bag.”

By making herself almost painfully vulnerable—without the kindness of strangers, she’d have no place to sleep—Depoorter invited the people she photographed to express their own vulnerabilities. Sometimes, it’s easier to let your guard down with strangers, and her photographs speak to that paradox: had she got to know them a little bit better—or stayed just one night longer—perhaps the images would not have felt so achingly intimate. 

Discover More

An Organic Image

I was on a trip to photograph lighthouses on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and ended up at the Currituck Beach lighthouse earlier than I wanted for the light, so I decided to climb up to the lantern room to check out the view. I was mesmerized by the spiral stairs and spent most of my time shooting inside the structure. For this image, I knew I had to carefully balance my exposure to retain some detail outside the window, so I picked a window that was mostly looking out at the green foliage.

For my still work, I shoot with a variety of Canon cameras: EOS-1D X for high-speed continuous shooting, the EOS 5DS R for its 50-megapixel resolution, and the EOS R for its small and light form factor. Most of my still photography is done with Canon glass. I like the way it looks with their sensors. The sharpness and contrast of their lenses, combined with the dynamic range of the sensor, just seem to fit the way I shoot. I feel that I get a more organic, filmlike image. I have a variety of focal lengths, from full-frame fisheye to 800mm. For some landscapes, I’ll use a tilt-shift lens. For the photo shown here, I used an EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM.

Mostly, I shoot around f/8 to f/11 for landscapes and do a lot of focus stacking. I use several different filters, all Tiffen, including a polarizer to reduce haze and control glare, a 3-stop graduated ND to control skies in my landscapes and the foreground during long nighttime exposures, and 4- and 10-stop NDs for long daylight exposures. With wildlife, I try to shoot a tight stop — f/16 to f/22 — for the increased depth of field, which means I have to shoot at higher ISOs than I normally do to get a faster shutter speed for controlling motion blur. I use Topaz Labs’ DeNoise AI on those images.

What I’m shooting determines my configuration. I use long lenses with the 1D X when photographing wildlife, and work off a Really Right Stuff tripod with an FG-02 gimbal head. For landscapes, I primarily shoot with the 5DS R and treat it like a view camera. I use a Hoodman loupe magnifier on the rear display screen to help me set critical focus.

I almost never use automatic functions on a camera — which, I guess, is a throwback to my film days — though I do use autofocus and find Canon cameras to be very accurate in this regard. ISO is almost always at the native for the camera I’m using, and I always shoot raw images, with the least amount of compression, because I want the best “negative” to work with in post.