What Photogs Wish They Learned in School

You'll learn all about technique and aesthetics, and perhaps even glean a smattering of history, if you study photography. But what are some of the "real-world" lessons that professionals wish someone had taught them earlier in their career? What do photographers need to know that involves more than just taking better pictures?

That was the question posed by Photshelter to about a dozen of the industry's top photogs.

Grover Sanschagrin compiled the best responses in his blog entry, "The Top 11 Things Photographers Wish They Learned in Photo School"

Here are the bare-bones bits of desired advice, but be sure to check out the blog yourself for the expanded commentary, which you will find invaluable.

11) How to treat others.

10) How to maintain a balanced life.

9) How to maintain an ethical standing in a changing photography business.

8) Where to find story ideas and things to photograph.

7) You don't have to be perfect.

6) How to keep your head up, navigate obstacles, and handle rejection.

5) How to continue to evolve and grow your career.

4) How to market myself, and my work.

3) It's not the camera, it's the photographer.

2) How to price their own work.

1) The realities of photography as a business.

What would you add to this list?

NY Times Unveils 'Moment in Time'

At long last, the New York Times presents its interactive "Moment in Time," the ultimate "citizen photographer" project.

Readers of its Lens blog were invited to submit photos taken at precisely 15:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), Sunday, May 2, 2010. The thousands of submissions were diligently sorted, categorized, and affixed to a virtual globe, where, after many delays, they can now be viewed in all their universal glory.

It's clearly more a stunt than a work of art -- or journalism, for that matter -- but the bottom line is that the project was undertaken with diligence and sincerity, and the Times even went out of its way to own up to the process' inevitable shortcomings. (In fact, they're still working out a few bugs.) More importantly, it's fun to click through and look at. And be forewarned, that all those "moments" can add up to hours of viewing.

Read all about it here.

See it here.

Sneak Preview: Photoshop CS5's Hot New 'Content-Aware Fill'

Jaws are dropping over Adobe's hot new Content-Aware Fill feature in its upcoming Photoshop CS5 (due April 12). Some enthusiasts are finding it so incredibly magical that they're wondering if it's just an elaborate April Fool's hoax.

Essentially it's a retouching tool that clones and intelligently replicates textures as needed to instantly achieve the sort of image smoothing and cleanup that would manually take you forever to reproduce.

As Photoshop product manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes demonstrates in this video (below), Content-Aware Fill can eradicate everything from flare to litter to entire highways. It can extend erratic cloud patterns to the borders. To judge from early response from Photoshop fans, it might as well microwave your dinner and fold your laundry, too.

(NOTE: Watch this demo full-screen to truly appreciate the subtleties.)

One of the biggest requests we get of Photoshop is to make adding, removing, moving or repairing items faster and more seamless. From retouching to completely reimagining an image, here's an early glimpse of what could happen when you press the delete key.

Already there's fear among pro photogs and stock houses -- and glee among image purloiners -- that it's a one-stop solution for eradicating protective watermarks.

And of course visual journalism ethicists, who wrestle constantly with the extent to which technology should be used to alter the depiction of reality, will have a field day trying to figure out whether Content-Aware Fill is going too far, for any situation or circumstance.

The conundrum expands exponentially when you consider what will soon be possible with video retouching -- a godsend for advertisers, a dance-with-the-devil for journalists.

'Obama Time Capsule' Puts You in the Picture

Photographer Rick Smolan, best known as the visionary co-creator of the mega-successful "Day in the Life" coffeetable-book series, has done it again.

He's put together a revolutionary new customized book project that serves twin purposes. It memorializes Pres. Obama's road to the White House through the eyes of the world's top photographers. And it enables you to personalize your copy so that it includes your name, photo, and thoughts woven throughout the book.

"The Obama Time Capsule" spans a two-year period, including Election Day, the inauguration, and his first 100 days in office. It features essays from TIME magazine’s Joe Klein, the Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president’s sister, Auma Obama.

But what makes the project especially noteworthy is that there are nine customizable elements in the book. After you order it, you can personalize it by going online and adding your name on the cover, your photo on the back cover, your own dedication page, your name to the inaugural invitation page, your name and photo to the celebrity supporter page, even your own kids' artwork to the "Kids for Obama" page. And then the one-of-a-kind book will be shipped to you.

Smolan's "Obama Time Capsule" represents a new chapter in custom publishing, incorporating an especially fitting topic and theme.

See the ABC News slideshow here.

David Leeson Video Workshop

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Leeson is offering a workshop, "From Still Photography to Videography," in the Bay Area, Jan. 24-25.

David Leeson was already a seasoned photojournalist when he began shooting video in 2000 for The Dallas Morning News, thus his experience gained through photography heavily influenced his approach to video. Over the next eight years he developed a methodology that incorporates the skills of the still photographer into a world of motion and sound.

In this workshop you will learn how to transition the skills you already have as a still photographer to the skills needed in video.

You’ll also learn how to better utilize the key elements of motion and sound through video. Leeson’s curriculum will teach you how to better utilize motion and sound in your daily story telling and includes time saving tips for better editing. You’ll also learn how to make stills from your video that rival the quality of a 35mm DSLR. Leeson pioneered the use of frame grabs in high definition video and will provide you with all the information you’ll need to begin producing great still images from your videos.

You can learn more about the workshop here. You can see David's videos here.

Transition Questions

Does being a good photographer make you more likely to be a good videographer? Why or why not?

Does being a good photojournalist make you more likely to be a good videojournalist? Why or why not?

As newspaper photographers transition to online video, these questions are being asked more frequently. We have our own observations, thoughts and perceptions. But first we want to hear yours. Please comment below.

L.A. Times Launches Visual Journalism Dept.

Newspapers everywhere are struggling with how to best adapt images to the Web, a medium that can accommodate so much more than still pictures.

Photojournalists are having to learn a whole new set of skills -- not just the nuts-and-bolts of shooting and editing video, but also how to tell an entire story (and not just provide visual accompaniment), complete with audio interviews and sound bites, while meeting the basic standards of journalism. Whew!

Similarly, print journalists are being handed fancy new equipment, given fast-track tech and software training, and sent out to shoot and edit audio-slideshows and video stories (and still meet their daily print deadlines).

The Los Angeles Times is in the vanguard of metropolitan dailies that are making a concerted effort to maximize their talent pools, and allocate their personnel and resources intelligently, to meet the new challenges of telling stories online with moving pictures.

Read today's memo from L.A. Times Editor Russ Stanton, about the creation of its new Visual Journalism department.

Excerpts:

Today, we are creating a fully integrated department in editorial that will serve our site and our newspaper, combining our print photo, Web photo and video operations into one new department: Visual Journalism.

Today, three photo staffers and five editors work full time to produce photos, photo galleries and videos for the web, and almost all others in the department have been cross-trained and contribute to both mediums.

Combining these three departments under the umbrella of visual journalism will improve our ability to present multimedia storytelling in an even more engaging way, and take greater advantage of our outstanding photo staff.

KobreGuide will be watching, and looks forward to seeing improved video and multimedia on LATimes.com. We'll be right here in a few weeks to point you directly to their best efforts.