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I don’t know anyone who knows more about artist’s copyright than Reznicki and Greenberg. That makes this a must read must have resource for all visual artists.

“Written by the president of the Professional Photographers of America, and a leading New York copyright attorney, this book provides photographers and visual artists with the most authoritative legal advice available. Everything is covered, from contracts, subcontracts, releases, and permissions to the copyright laws and all the steps artists should take to register and protect their work. Find out how to use copyright to protect your work from infringement, insure you are properly paid for your work, and how to proceed if your rights are infringed upon.”

Catch their seminars at Photoshop World and Kelby Training videos online.

Learn more on their blog The Copyright Zone.

Find more of the best photography business books here.

Category: Books
Tags: book, copyright, greenberg, law, legal, reznicki, rights

Horizontal, vertical, or square? It can be challenging to decide what orientation is ideal for your photo book.

In cases where all images share the same orientation, choose the same orientation for your book; a horizontal book for horizontal images, a vertical book for vertical images, a square book for square images. (If you’re concerned about how a book fits on shelves at book stores, use square formats cautiously and choose size accordingly.)

If the orientation of the images in a book is mixed, consider two approaches.

If a majority of the images in a book share a common orientation, choose that orientation.

Or, if you want to give all images equal opportunity for size and surrounding space, choose square for the most orientation neutral format.

When in doubt, remember that vertical books generally fit in people’s hands more easily.

Find more Bookmaking resources here.

Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.

Catch my Making Your Own Photo Book seminar today at 12 at Photoshop World Las Vegas.

Category: Books
Tags: blurb, Books, graphic design, orientation, print on demand

Adobe released multiple free updates today.

Camera Raw 6.2
Lightroom 3.2
Dreamweaver CS5 11.0.3
Bridge CS5 4.0.3

Download them here.

Category: CS5, Photoshop, Software, lightroom
Tags: adobe, bridge, camera raw, cs5, lightroom, updates

The word amateur comes from the Latin word amator (lover). Amateurs simply do things for the love of doing them. Over time the word amateur has come to mean doing things with less education, discipline, and craft. Amateurs rarely create great works of art. Yet, we’d all be wise to reconsider the original meaning of the word amateur and do more things for the love of doing them – even if we have to learn or relearn to love the things we have to do. No great work of art was ever made without this kind of passion. Passion is a prerequisite for excellence.

One danger professionals face is losing the spark of passion and the thrill of discovery along the way to achieving proficiency. I often recommend that creative people who have developed a significant proficiency in one creative discipline become amateurs in another creative discipline. It can be extremely challenging to engage in a creative discipline you know well to be spontaneous and to give yourself license to experiment within it. But that’s exactly what you need to do to do your best work and to make break throughs.

When we experiment we tend to be less results oriented and more process oriented. When we experiment we don’t expect perfect results the first time we try something; instead we hope to find new insights that can later be perfected. When we experiment we don’t fear failure; in fact we consider it part of the process. When did we forget that learning from failures is how we make discoveries and improve? When does our fear of failure keep us from succeeding in new ways?

Working in a secondary creative discipline can give you a fresh perspective on your primary creative discipline and the creative process in general. How are the two similar? What creative strategies are most useful in both? How are the two different? Is there a way that practices in one could be applied to the other? You can find ways to hybridize the two and energize your primary creative outlet. You may even find that your enjoyment of the creative process is higher in your secondary discipline, even thought the results you achieve within it aren’t as polished. This may lead you to the most important question of all, “Why do you do what you do?”

So dare to be an amateur. Do things simply for the love of doing them. Enjoy yourself. Experiment. Become more aware of your process. Do some soul searching. Make these things you do regularly.

Learn more about the word amateur at Podictionary.

Find more inspiration in my Creativity Lessons.

Learn more in my Digital Photography Workshops.

Category: Creativity
Tags: amateur, Creativity, play, professional. love, work

The credits for the movie The Other Guys are brilliant.

They put recent financial crises in sharp perspective.

It’s a wonderful example of the power of images.

(Click the Go Full Screen icon to see them better.)

Category: Video
Tags: credits, financial infographics, mark wahlberg, movie, the other guys, will ferrell

David McCandless shows how visualizing data makes more information by revealing patterns within it.

See more on data visualization from Hans Rosling’s lecture here.

See my favorite TED talks here.

Category: TED, Video
Tags: data, david mccandless, design, graphs, TED, visualization

You can learn a lot just by listening to yourself. When you speak about yourself, your creative life, and the works you produce, the words you use can be very telling. Do the words you use share common themes?

When I review someone’s work I listen carefully to the words they use to describe themselves and their work. One person was particularly concerned with mortality, his family’s and his own, and he kept using words that had to do with time, often in a limiting way. These concerns were reflected in the images he was making but he wasn’t consciously aware that any of this was taking place. Often it’s best if these kinds of observations are simply stated, without any evaluation or judgement attached. With nothing more than one important observation, he gained new insight into and control of his life and his life’s work. Becoming more aware of how pervading his concerns were allowed him to consider his choices more clearly – actions, reactions, emotional responses, self-image, and the images he made. He felt energized.

I’ve had many similar encounters.

I know that I can learn a lot about myself, simply by listening to how I speak.

Find more inspiration in my Creativity Lessons.

Learn more in my Digital Photography Workshops.

Category: Creativity, photography

To truly touch your viewers you may have to touch someone or something else first.

We have many intelligences (intellectual, emotional, physical, etc), but when it comes to making images we often leave many of them out of the mix. Try energizing your creative process by using all of your intelligences.

Get physical. The power of touch can reveal volumes. Imagine how much and how quickly an extended hand or a pat on the back can say. This doesn’t only apply to interacting with people and animals. If you physically make contact with any subject, even inanimate objects, you’ll come to understand it better; its scale, texture, density and much more. You may even decide to make contact with more than your hands. Press your face up against a window. Step into the currents of swift flowing waters. Lay down in shifting sands. Experience your subjects from many perspectives. As your understanding of your subjects grows, your images will take on new dimensions and new depths.

Find more inspiration in my Creativity Lessons.

Learn more in my Digital Photography Workshops.

Category: Creativity, photography
Tags: contact, Creativity, exploration, photography, physical, touch

There’s a lot to learn about producing books and graphic design.
Find books that will quickly help you learn about these interesting topics here.

Find more Bookmaking resources here.

Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.

Category: Blurb, Books
Tags: blurb, bookmaking, Books, graphic design, grid systems, print on demand, typography

How many images is optimum for a photo book? Of course, the answer depends on the kind of book being produced and its purpose. There’s no set number; extreme lengths for books vary between as few as 12 to more than 300 images.

There are number of things to keep in mind when making a photo book.

Most photo books contain between 50 and 100 images.

Shorter books can work well if the images they contain are very concentrated, being both graphically strong and thematically related. Short books can leave and audience feeling hungry for more, which is a good thing – but if they don’t create strong presence rapidly they’ll lack both impact and staying power.

Longer books work well if a subject is complex and/or portrays a substantial duration of time. Long books may tire an audience and if not carefully edited and sequenced can seem unfocussed and rambling.

Be careful. It’s tempting to show all of your work. Instead, show only your best work. Avoid including weaker images to make a book seem larger and more important; they just dilute the average quality. And, include only images that relate to one another. Avoid including more images simply because they’re graphically strong; instead, select images that are related to each other. The form of a book will imply and create relationships between the separate items included in it. Make sure a viewer’s attempts to find and understand those relationships don’t go unrewarded. The more interesting and rewarding you can make this search, the stronger your book will be.

One way to find out if a book is too short or too long is to create a prototype and then observe how people interact with it. Do they put a short book down quickly without giving it a second or third look? Do they suddenly increase their viewing speed in a long book or not finish at all? After someone looks at a book, ask them if the book seems too short or too long.

Find more Bookmaking resources here.

Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.

Category: Blurb, Books
Tags: blurb, Books, editing, image selection, length, number of images, print on demand

“Clay Shirky looks at ‘cognitive surplus’ — the shared, online work we do with our spare brain cycles. While we’re busy editing Wikipedia, posting to Ushahidi (and yes, making LOLcats), we’re building a better, more cooperative world.”

He points out, “The gap is between doing anything and doing nothing.”

What will you do today, this week, this month, this year, next year?

Category: Video
Tags: clay shirky, online information, TED, time, ushahidi, Video, world wide web

Visit Nik Radio and listen to advice and inspiration from top pros using Nik software; the growing list of offerings includes Tony Corbel, Moose Peterson, Rick Sammon, Tony Sweet, Vincent Versace, and many others.

Want more inspiration?

Read selections from 42 conversations with photographers here.

Category: Audio
Tags: corbel, NIK, nik radio, peterson, sammon, Software, Sweet, versace

It’s important to learn how to make the visual verbal, by crafting artist’s statements. Many artists feel that images are better seen and not heard. I understand their point of view. But, face it, things will be said and written about your images. If you don’t do it, someone else will. You might as well become involved in the process. After all, as the author, this is one arena where your words are definitive.

You don’t have to be a professional writer to write. Just write. Write like you speak. Write with your voice.

Like making images, writing is a process, a process of making thoughts and feelings clearer. Often, you don’t know what shape the final product will take, until you finish.

At first, I resisted writing about my images. Now, I find the process so valuable that I’ve made it a part of my artistic process. Every time a new body of work arises, I write. When I’m ready to release a book of the work, I write again. As a result of writing, I gain a better understanding of the work I did, the work I’m doing, and the work I’m going to do. So do the people who see my images, surprisingly, even if they don’t read what I write.

This is an excerpt from a longer essay Artists’ Statements. Download it here.

Read my artist’s statements here.

Read the text from three recent books here.

Category: Creativity, Statements
Tags: artist's statements, Creativity, words, Writing

Find printing tips is my latest interview with Ron Martinsen.

Find more tips in my Lessons.

Find out about my fine art digital printing workshops here.

Category: Interviewed, Printing
Tags: Epson, epson stylus pro, inkjet, papers, Printing

In his book Photography and the Art of Seeing, Freeman Patterson offers excellent advice. List all of the rules of photography. Then break them. If you do this, you’ll develop a better understanding of the medium.

I recommend you take this advice one step further. List all of your rules of photography. And break them. You’ll either find confirmation that what you’re doing is right for you or you’ll make new breakthroughs. You’ll develop a better understanding of your personal relationship with the medium and your unique way of looking. Keep going. And revisit this list frequently.

Find my lists in my PDF Breaking The Rules.

Find more resources in my Lessons here.

Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Category: Creativity, photography
Tags: breaking rules, Creativity, Exercises, Freeman Patterson, lists, The Art of Seeing

During reviews in my workshops we discuss what keeps some images from working better and how they could be improved.

Here’s a list we compiled during my recent Iceland workshop.

Avoid these thing and make your images stronger.

Lack of Focus (Not Deliberate)
Limited Depth of Field (Not Deliberate)
Motion Blur (Not Deliberate)
Chromatic Aberation
Noise (Not Deliberate)
Posterization (Not Deliberate)
Lack of Shadow and/or Highlight Detail (Not Deliberate)

Color Contrast Between Elements Not Strong Enough
Low Contrast Light

Cropping Seems Accidental Rather Than Deliberate
Distracting Elements on the Frame
Almost Centered (Neither Centered Nor Significantly Off Center)

Too Many Competing Lines
Shapes Merge Becoming Unclear
Shapes Rendered Without Volume (Not Deliberate)

Too Busy (Complexity Lacks Structure)
Simple Subjects With No Counterpoint
Secondary Elements Distract From Primary Elements

Image Enhancements Call Attention To Themselves

Text Competing for Attention
Text Creates Unintended Commentary
Graphics (Text/Images) Not Integrated Into Image

Cliches
Insincerity

What else would you add to this list?

Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Category: Workshops
Tags: focus on nature, iceland, Images, Workshops

During reviews in my workshops we discuss images made in terms of what makes them strong and how they could be made stronger.
Here’s a list we compiled during my recent Iceland workshop.
You can use any one or more than one in combination to make your images stronger.

Form
Simplicity
Structured Complexity
Gesture
Leading Lines
Interesting Shape
Clean Shape
Deliberately Incomplete Shape
Clear Figure Ground Relationships
Overlapping Planes
Strong Recession (leading lines, overlapping planes, figure ground, color)
Texture
Pattern
Structured Fields
Minimalist Fields
Selective Focus
Archetypal or Evocative Proportion
Contrast
Clean Frame
Spaciously Placed from Frame
Touching the Frame
Cropped by Frame

Palette
Color Interest
Light
Luminosity Contrast
Hue Contrast
Saturation Contrast

Content
Significant Detail
Shows Subject’s Process
Shows Media Process
Clear Stage, Actor, Secondary Character
Action
Decisive Moment
Story
Unresolved Tension
Mystery Left to Be Solved

Emotion
Emotion of Subject
Personal Emotion
Emotional Interaction
Color Mood
Atmospheric Mood

What would you add to this list?

Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Category: Workshops
Tags: evaluation, focus on nature, iceland, Images, strengths, Workshops

We do lightning fast reviews of participant’s images in my digital photography workshops.
We discuss what works and why and what doesn’t and why not.
It’s wonderful to see how different the images are, made by individuals in the same situations using the same tools.
A lot of learning happens by simply sharing images and spontaneous responses.
Here’s a sampling of this week’s first selects during my Iceland 2010 workshop.

Reserve your space in my 2011 Iceland workshop here.

Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Category: Workshops, iceland
Tags: focus on nature, iceland, Images, Workshops

We do lightning fast reviews of participant’s images in my digital photography workshops.
We discuss what works and why and what doesn’t and why not.
It’s wonderful to see how different the images are, made by individuals in the same situations using the same tools.
A lot of learning happens by simply sharing images and spontaneous responses.
Here’s a sampling of this week’s first selects during my Iceland 2010 workshop.

Reserve your space in my 2011 Iceland workshop here.

Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Category: Workshops, iceland
Tags: focus on nature, iceland, Images, Workshops

Ragnar th Sigurdsson treated us to a midnight display of lighting techniques at Iceland’s glacial lagoon Jokullsarlon.

Multiple exposures for multiple Photoshop layers. Fantastic light. Glowing icebergs beached on black sand at tide line. Venus on horizon. Magic.

Taking artificial light into the field is just one thing we explore in our workshop. Have you ever tried it?

If you’re in Iceland, next Saturday is the annual firework display over the glacial lagoon.

Reserve your space in my 2011 Iceland workshop here.

Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Category: Workshops, iceland
Tags: focus on nature, glacial lagoon, icebergs, iceland, jokullsarlon, lighting, night photography, ragnar th sigurdsson

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