© copyright what is it?

As a professional photographer and videographer in Los Angeles shooting advertising and editorial assignments, I copyright everything I do. 

What is copyright? It is exactly what it sounds like, the right to copy.  The copyright owner has the right to control who gets to use copies of a image or motion picture (video).

In the next post learn when the copyright is created.

I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV so this is only my understanding of the copyright situation and is not legal advice.  You should always seek out your legal advice from a qualified attorney.

Advertising Photography in the New Age

Family?

As an advertising photographer in Los Angles California, I am called upon to illustrate concepts in my advertising and editorial photography.  The first read should be clear and understandable while there might and hopefully are many other layers and some subtexts with the image.  So what is up with this image?

The first read is that of a women, probably a mother with two boys, probably her sons and brother to each other.  There is no one else in the image so we start with these conclusions.   Now we start to read into the image based on our own biases.

Where is the father?  Is he just outside of frame or hidden by the horizon? Or is this a modern single parent family?  What else is hidden by the sand?  What has caught the boy’s attention?  This brings up why is the view such that we cannot see what the boys are looking at?  Where are they…? at the beach…?in the desert…?  The clothing give so no clue so we are left wondering.

Some advertising and editorial images can be used just to capture the viewer’s attention and bring them into the story told by the text.  I would allow comments and would enjoy them except for the crazy spammers.

Free Webinar: Lightroom for Everyone

As a professional photographer in Los Angeles county, California I’m always ready to learn more about the tools I use.  Please note that David Riecks is giving away his very handy Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog.  The information below is from Rob Sylvan.

Lightroom for Everyone

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to conduct a free webinar aimed at helping new Lightroom users learn how to get started on the right foot, avoid common pitfalls, and become more efficient with Lightroom; my absolute favorite photo workflow tool. We’ve only got about 100 seats left open, so head on over to  register now. The webinar is going to be streamed live on Tuesday, October 8th, 10-11 a.m. PST / 1-2 p.m. EST.

If a free Lightroom webinar was not enough reason to sign up we’ll also be giving away a free subscription to the awesome Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (thanks to David Riecks) and a full license to Lightroom 5 (courtesy of Adobe). Details of the giveaways will be given out during the webinar, and you have to be registered to be eligible to win. So head over to the Lightroom for Everyone sign up page and register!

This webinar is being sponsored by Stocksy United, which is an amazing stock photography co-op that is creating a sustainable business model for both contributors and customers by providing exclusive content at competitive prices that is fresh, authentic, and doesn’t look like the stock photography you can find everywhere else. I’m honored to be a co-op member and hope you will check them out the next time you need stock photos for your project.

Professional Photographers Find Value in DV Expo

Leewhitephotography.com composition

As a professional photographer in Los Angeles, California, I’m always looking for ways to improve my photography whether it is still photography or video.  DV Expo was an important resource for professional photographers who want to learn more about producing video.  That was the obvious goal of the Expo.  But there were two sessions that I attended that would be helpful to photographers with shooting stills as well.

On Wednesday, I attend Richard Harrington’s session on Timelapse photography.  It gave me some interesting insights into using long exposures with great depth of field to give a great feeling of motion in Timelapse productions.  Timelapse is a tool that any photographer should have in their skill-set.

Another session I found had some very useful information was Robbie Carman’s all day Friday class on color correction and color grading.  Many of the tools and techniques related directly to handling still photography as well as video.  Some of the most important ideas were that our ability to adapt in seeing color makes it important to have the right environment and not to work to long on an individual image.  Creating a neutral environment with the right lighting is important to judging color and reducing eye fatigue.  Our ability to automatically adapt to new color bias makes it important not to work too long on an individual image while color correcting.  Rather it is better to work on color correcting an image for a short time and then come back to it to have a fresh judgment.

I recommend you consider getting as much information in the fast changing world of digital imaging in both still or motion.  DV Expo is one of the resources you should consider whether it is checking out the exhibit and/or one of more of the sessions.

arDV Expo Los Angeles a Photographers Resource

As a editorial  photographer in Los Angeles, California that also shoots video I spend today at the DV Expo. There is still time to attend on Thursday September 26, 2013  It is great to catch up with developments that would be useful to professional photographers shooting video.  Brian Valente of RedRock Micro is showing their One Man Crew and Gimbal Gear.  Howard Kaufmann of Beachtek had a number of new and prototype sound adapters like the DXA-SLR PRO ULTRA and adapter rods.  Richard Schleuning of Zeiss showed me some stunningly sharp wide open pictures from their upcoming 50mm lens in their DSLR line.

See the RedRock Micro equipment videos :  RedRock Micro One Man Crew & RedkRock Micro Gimbal

The first day’s conference schedule included  a broad range of useful sessions for professional photographers and videographers.  I sat in on two by Rich Harrington on TimeLapse and Photoshop techniques, two by Abba Shapiro on Directing and Production Gotcha’s, one by Claude Shires on Crowdsourcing and finally Jay Phelps’ Profit from Your Media. The Thursday schedule looks just as interesting so if you can consider getting down to the LA Convention Center to get the latest on the fast changing video landscape.  The Exhibit hall will be open to see the latest and greatest.

Tribute to Ernie Brooks

Before going to Art Center College of Design and becoming professional  advertising and editorial photographer in Los Angeles, California I considered going to Brooks, Institute of Photography.  It had an outstanding name as a learning institution for photography.  A number of well known photographers especially underwater photographers have come out of Brooks, Institute of Photography.  It is not surprising that the tribute to Ernie Brooks filled the Arlington Theatre with over 2,000 attendees.

Many that attended seemed to be friends and long time collaborators of Ernie’s.  Some of those show their work to the enjoyment of the rest.  Along with a number of historical presentations were some newer photographs and video created by the speakers.  David Doubilet, a contributing photographer to National Geographic Magazine, showed some of his split over and under water photographs.

© David Doubilet

Visit his website at www.daviddoubilet.com for more beautiful images.

Howard Hall show some spectacular video footage of the kelp beds of Southern California among other places. Some of the work he has done is in the IMAX format which is an amazing feat to do underwater.

© Howard Hall

Visit his website at www.howardhall.com to see some of his beautiful videos.

APA Photo Assistant Basic Training in Colorado

Are you a photo assistant? Do you want to be one? Are looking to jumpstart your new photo career? Then Photo Assistant Basic Training is for you!

In this two day workshop you’ll not only learn essential information on grip and lighting gear, you’ll also learn essential photo shoot protocol, etiquette and secrets that will not only make you a better photo assistant, but will give you lifelong skills that will help you as you start shooting for your own clients.

Sony Artisans of Imagery Brian Smith is teaming up with APA New York Chapter Co-Chair and photographer Tony Gale to present Photo Assistant Basic Training, developed and offered for years by APA chapters to rave reviews across the nation.

With panel discussions, equipment demonstrations from industry experts, and hands-on training, attendees will come away with the essential knowledge and confidence to build your own Pro Assistant reputation. Acquire a comprehensive understanding of professional assisting behavioral guidelines, including contemporary set-etiquette, and discover how this valuable training will get you more call-backs – more repeat clients, more work.

Master Assisting Professionalism. Get booked solid.

Day One

The first day kicks off with the popular “Assistant Panel” which includes experts on working as a photo assistant. Get candid, real world answers to all the questions asked by attendees. Following the panel discussion will be exciting live software and equipment demonstrations with industry reps from Sony, Broncolor, PhotoShelter and Adobe. Industry reps will be on hand to answer all your questions.

Day Two

The second day is an immersive hands-on workshop with much of the gear an assistant will most likely encounter on the majority of professional photo shoots. Many aspects of assisting will be explained in great detail including strobes, flags, scrims, set etiquette, the assistant kit, tips on getting work, billing, and how to deal with the dreaded cancellation. Following classroom discussion and demonstrations, participants will work along side the Pro Photographers to discover crucial pro assisting skills.

Space is limited, so register today.

September 21st & 22nd, 2013

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM each day

lunch included

Separate registration for each day REQUIRED

Sims Studio

2760 Downing Street

Denver, CO 80205

Day One is free to APA Members RSVP to director@apa-la.com

Day One Non Member Fee $40:

Day Two APA Member Fee $40:

Day Two Non Member Fee $80:

This special touring event is brought to you by our generous APA National Sponsors:

LAST minute!! Art Buyers are waiting! Only a few hours left!

LAST minute!!  Art Buyers are waiting!  Only a few hours left!  Enter here NOW:

Photographs in Video Production

As a professional photographer I have a ready supply of stills that I have taken over the years of landscapes, stilllifes and locations.  These images can be a useful addition to my videos.  Remember “video is simply a bunch of stills put together”. This is one of the ways I multi-purpose my work. There is the different that in some video clips something(s) will change position from frame to frame to make it live action but there are many subjects that don’t necessarily have that attribute.  To name a few: landscape without wind or flowing water, buildings, tabletops and so on, you get the idea.

One of the big advantages of using a still in video is if there is any retouching that needs to be done it is only to one frame as that one frame is duplicated over and over when made into a video clip.  This duplication also means the clip can be as long as you need since there is really no end to the number of times a frame can be reproduced.

When preparing a still for conversion into a video clip you should keep some things in mind.  The nominal resolution of video is 72 so that is the minimum resolution your still should end up as.  A higher resolution will not produce a better image and will take up more file space.  You should end up with an image that is a least the size of the video frame you are using so for Full HD you should start with at least a 1920 X 1080 image.  If you plan on any moves like a pan, tilt, push in or pull out you will need to start out with a still with larger dimensions.  For example, if you plan to push in 200% you need to double the size of the still image.  A Full HD frame being 1920 X 1080 times 2 would result in 3840 X 2160 still image that would allow a 200% push in without showing the pixels larger than normal.

If you don’t know what you are going to exactly to do with each still image you convert you might start out with an approximately 4000 X 2200 @ 72 image and see how they work out.  You don’t want bring in overly larger an images as it will cause unnecessary processing time yet they should be big enough to comfortably try some moves.  If you find you are going to make more than a 200% move on an image you can go back and process a larger image for that particular shot.  That is one of the beauties of using still in video, you can resize and recrop your clip after the shoot.

The image should be output from your image manipulation software as a JPEG at the highest quality with a color space of Adobe RGB.  A tiff is not necessary and although the image will be converted down to a Rec. 709 color space which is like the sRGB color space the additional colors the of Adobe RGB might be useful in the conversion.

Start thinking about some of your images that might be useful in your videos and we will see how easy it is to use stills in a Premiere Pro project in my next entry.

Some of the equipment in my toolbox Ziess Distagon T* 2/28 and Planar T* 1,4/50  lenses which I use to get the sharpest images both for photographs and video plus the RAW Steel Hoodman 1000X UDMA7 CF cards which the fastest and american made cards to record my still images and video.

To be continued.

Guilin City of Water

My first stop as a location photographer in China is Guilin.  As a location photographer, how could I miss a chance to make images of one of the most beautiful places in the world.  The famed city of Karsh hills has the Li river snaking its way between the green velvet foliage covering the peaks you see in most movies of China.  Being the rainy season, there has been a steady rain creating a sea of umbrellas on the sidewalks.  Bright colors and the constant movement remind me of beach balls being tosed about.

 All this rain brings up a few tips for fellow travelers.  Take the new shirts and pants from makers like Patagonia, A16 and REI.  They wisk the mositure away from your skin and dry quickly from your body heat. When you do get back to your hotel, throw them in the bath. Then towel dry before hanging for use the next day.  Of course, take at least two of everything.