"View from the Window at Le Gras" by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. First photograph ever taken, 1826.

This 6-part BBC series called The Genius of photography follows the history of photography from the camera obscura to modern digital imaging by highlighting the most famous photographers of each generation.

If you’re an amateur, you will appreciate learning the rich history of photography and its transformation from a novelty – to documenting history – to an art form. If you’re a professional, the series will help remind you why you got into photography in the first place. The passion and art exhibited by each of the photographers is truly inspirational.

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The problem with getting older is that no one buys us really cool toys anymore. That is why I was amazed to discover the StopShot, a widget that uses your camera and flash to capture images that used to require thousands of dollars of high-speed photographic equipment.

The StopShot works by taking inputs from an infrared beam, laser or a microphone, letting you adjust the sensitivity, then outputting a signal to trip a camera shutter or fire a flash. The unit is so sensitive that with the proper flash it can be used to capture a .22 bullet in mid-flight!

Here are some examples of images taken using the StopShot.

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I was reading an article entitled the Top 10 Trends for Weddings in 2010, and the item about videographers caught my eye:

Professional grade still photo cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR are being released with HD video capabilities included. It is recommended to have both a videographer and a photographer at your wedding to capture every moment of the big day. Tech-savvy brides looking for a new experience, may like to experiment with a visual professional (videographer or photographer) who has this technology. In the future, you will begin to see an emergence of two-in-one companies. Companies like Engaging Films and Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles will shoot video and take stills, but use only one piece of technology.

For years, many pro photographers have “given away” the videography business. Brides wanted albums first, and videos second. But with the new generation of cameras, this no longer has to apply. With a push of a button, you can be both a photographer and a videographer – or as the article describes – a visual professional.

If you aren’t taking advantage of this technology, someone else in your market will soon be. Look for visual professionals who promise to take care of every aspect of recording an event: from portraits to albums to videos combined with still photography.

You can shoot your own video or hire a videographer. But if you choose to ignore this trend, I believe you’re going to see it effect your wedding photography sales.

Are you already shooting video or working with a videographer? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the subject.

The folks over at PhotoArgus.com have collected several “cheat sheets” made by professional photographers that show the effects of different lighting setups in a studio.

These cards cover everything from portrait lighting to light falloff to minimum hand-held shutter speeds to the “rule of thirds“.

Several of the sheets are produced under the Creative Commons license, which means you are free to print them for personal use only. Others are for sale by the photographers who created them for between $1 and $12 dollars.

I’m sure 99% of you already know all this stuff, but they might be helpful to bring someone new at your studio up to speed. Enjoy.

I just found this cool little camera simulator gadget online, and thought you might like to play with it.

Basically, you set the aperture, shutter speed and ISO with sliders, and it shows you in real-time what the final print would look like.

Interestingly enough, although setting the ISO is a a hold-over from film cameras, it still has an impact on your digital shots. Here’s a pretty good explanation from Wikipedia:

For digital photo cameras, an exposure index (EI) rating—commonly called ISO setting—is specified by the manufacturer such that the sRGB image files produced by the camera will have a lightness similar to what would be obtained with film of the same EI rating at the same exposure. The usual design is that the camera’s parameters for interpreting the sensor data values into sRGB values are fixed, and a number of different EI choices are accommodated by varying the sensor’s signal gain in the analog realm, prior to conversion to digital…this variation allows different tradeoffs between the range of highlights that can be captured and the amount of noise introduced into the shadow areas of the photo.

It’s nice to know that everything you learned shooting film still applies to digital.

Lindsay Adler over at PopPhoto.com has a great article entitled, “26 Books Every Photographer Should Own.” If you’re looking for inspiration, a gift for a photographer, or a gift for yourself, this is a great list to start from.
 
 
 
 
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Great Article by the folks at lensrentals.com that talks about the “myth” that some lenses are softer than others. Basically, they argue that although they will replace a lens as a courtesy, there is never anything wrong with them. So why the difference of opinion? Read more…