The story of Noah’s Ark has survived for thousands of years, but one detail has always stood out to me. The voyage began long before the ark touched the water. Before there was a journey, there was planning. Materials had to be gathered, the vessel built and everything needed for the voyage put in place. … Read more
Trust is one of the most valuable currencies in professional photography. Cameras, lighting, and technology will always evolve, but trust remains constant. It is the foundation of long term relationships, the driver of reputation, and often the reason one photographer is chosen over another. Photography is a surprisingly small industry, and not just in Australia. … Read more
Last month I wrote about DNG becoming an ISO standard. Like any ISO standard, there are costs and benefits to adopting it into your workflow. It is up to you, whether you are an individual photographer or running a business, to decide if ISO DNG makes sense for how you work. What is an ISO … Read more
If you had told me in the late 1990s that I would still be talking about raw file formats more than 25 years later, I probably would have laughed. Back then, we were all trying to make sense of digital photography as it found its footing, full of excitement and uncertainty. Color management itself was … Read more
Every so often, a client asks me for TIFF files because “the designer says TIFF is better.” It reminds me of my earlier post on high resolution images, how many long-held beliefs in photography aren’t actually based on best practice, but on assumptions. The JPEG vs TIFF debate falls squarely into that category. Some context … Read more
In 1826, French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce achieved something never done before: he fixed an image permanently using light. His photograph, “Point de vue du Gras”, is the earliest surviving photograph in history. Before then, images produced by light-sensitive materials would fade when exposed to light. Niépce’s breakthrough process, which he called a “Heliograph”, changed … Read more
This month we lost another legend of photography, British documentary art photographer Martin Parr. His work had enormous influence on me at art school in the 1980s, realising my strength was in colour photography. Since the 1970s, Parr’s work has documented people at leisure, especially his fellow Brits. His early work was black and white, … Read more
Until recently I wasn’t able to recommend a simple program for managing image collections. DAM software with a clean interface that will appeal to creatives seemed to have become extinct. A creative is anyone who makes digital art; photographer, designer, illustrator, video or music producer. Digital Asset Management software for creatives has undergone many changes … Read more
Digitising a collection of artworks, photographing them with the highest possible accuracy, is both a technical and logistical challenge. It’s a process that demands precision, problem-solving, and a deep respect for the works themselves. Last century, I had the privilege being a full-time assistant to photographer Stuart Scott in Max Dupain’s old studio. Working on … Read more
When I’m out photographing or capturing video, almost everything on my cameras is set to manual. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc, if there’s a setting to control, I’d rather make the decision myself. It might sound odd, especially since I’ve paid good money for a camera packed with the latest in technology. But the truth … Read more