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Upon request I have pulled together a number of clips show the movement of our Red Wing Boom being used as a Jib for video that would other wise be considered out takes from our Wet Plate Collodian fashion shoot a few weeks ago. You'll have to excuse any jittery moment which is due to my habit of consuming large amounts of coffee on those days when I'm in the studio. Other wise the Red Wing Boom was a really solid performer for what I needed on that day. Note too that only a few times did I use the camera zoom rather than rolling the camera in tight.

©2013 John Berthot Used by permission.

Question: How can I be successful with email marketing?

Email marketing has repeatedly come under fire from a number of creative directors who complain that they are inundated with unrequested promotions and unsolicited e-blasts. I cringe when I read examples of how photographers misuse this basic marketing tool. In essence, misuse tarnishes what is a valid and effective means for communicating with over-worked art directors, who simply do not have the time to field phone calls or schedule daily meetings with photographers and illustrators.

The key to successful e-marketing is to use it as one tool in your arsenal of promotional materials. Below I have listed ten tips to help you create effective email campaigns that get you noticed and create good will at the same time:

1. Create a targeted email list. If you don’t know what accounts your recipients work on, then do not send them an email. By the same token, ensure that your email is sent to individuals in a position to hire you and that your email contains images or links that are relevant to the creatives you are sending it to.

2. Remove and update your contacts quarterly. If you do not subscribe to a list service, it is important to verify that your contacts are still viable and are working on accounts that are relevant to your specialty and style.

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©2013 John Berthot Used by permission.

Question: How can I be successful with email marketing?

Email marketing has recently come under fire from a number of creative directors who complain that they are inundated with unrequested promotions and unsolicited e-blasts. I cringe when I read examples of how photographers misuse this basic marketing tool. In essence, misuse tarnishes what is a valid and effective means for communicating with over-worked art directors, who simply do not have the time to field phone calls or schedule daily meetings with photographers and illustrators.

The key to successful e-marketing is to use it as one tool in your arsenal of promotional materials. Below I have listed ten tips to help you create effective email campaigns that get you noticed and create good will at the same time:

1. Create a targeted email list. If you don’t know what accounts your recipients work on, then do not send them an email. By the same token, ensure that your email is sent to individuals in a position to hire you and that your email contains images or links that are relevant to the creatives you are sending it to.

2. Remove and update your contacts quarterly. If you do not subscribe to a list service, it is important to verify that your contacts are still viable and are working on accounts that are relevant to your specialty and style.

3. Enable users to unsubscribe from receiving your emails. This is not just smart business, it is a law designed to protect consumers from unwanted email solicitation. It is known as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and is regulated by the FTC.

4. Do not send an email using your Gmail or yahoo home email account. Only use your professional email address: John@johnsmithphotography.com. This seems fairly obvious, but I still get emails from photographers that I do not know, who communicate with their home email address. If you do not have a website, you should not be sending out promotional emails. Your email address should contain your website domain name. So, if you are John Doe and your website is johndoephotography.com, your email address should be john at johndoephotography.com, not johndoe@yahoo.com.

On a side note, do not send people to your Tumblr, Flicker or other free image hosting accounts. If you’re marketing yourself as a professional, you need to promote and present your work on a professional website.

5. Consider creating a quarterly newsletter. This is an excellent way to engage your viewers and encourage interaction. Keep your format and brand consistent so that viewers will quickly recognize who you are. Maintain and commit to a style and font for at least a one-year period. Create active links within your newsletter.

6. Monitor traffic to your site from your email. Most website providers now have built-in analytics, but if yours doesn’t, use Google Analytics to monitor your daily traffic and identify where it is originating from.

7. Use an email marketing service. There are now many companies that will send emails for you for a very reasonable fee.

8. Build your fan base through Facebook. Facebook definitely has its flaws, but it is now used by more than 750 million individuals worldwide. By creating a fan page on Facebook, you will establish a list of contacts interested in following your career while allowing you the opportunity to add additional fans through association.

9. Do not inundate your contacts. If you do not know the individuals you are emailing, do not assume they know you or remember you. Be respectful of their time and work demands. My advice is to limit your emails to individuals you do not know to a quarterly basis. Keep you emails professional - do not use overly familiar subject lines such as “Hello” and “How are you?” Keep the subject line relevant to the email or newsletter. Do not use all caps or bold colors in your emails - keep it simple.

10. Test your email. If you are sending out an email to a large group of unknown recipients, be sure to send it to a few trusted friends first. This will ensure that all the links are operable and that it reads as you intend it on all computer platforms, web browsers and email clients.

About John

John Berthot has over 15 years of photography experience, and an MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts. Among other positions, he has been a Photographer's Agent at Stockland Martel and an Advertising Director at Magnum Photos. He has been a creative consultant for the last two years, founding Focus in 2009. He brings his extensive experience in assisting photographers on all aspects of commercial, editorial and fine art photography. FOCUS

©2013 John Berthot

FROM - APHOTOEDITOR.COM

On December 6th the Google Drive Blog announced that “5,000 new photos of nature, weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories are now available for your use in Docs, Sheets, and Slides” with no mention to how they were acquired or what type of license they come with. If you have a google drive account (comes with gmail and google apps for business) you can create a document and when you go to insert an image you can search google, life or stock. There’s a notice that the “results shown are labeled for commercial reuse with modification” but other than that you can insert the image results in your document and away you go.

It all seems quite mysterious, but luckily some istockers uncovered what’s really going on. In a forum post on January 10th an istock contributor is alarmed to find one of their images in the search results and once they place “it into my document at 1,066 x 1,600. No attribution. No meta-data. No license. No link.” This post is followed by 537 comments then the thread is locked.

Read the full original post here

Capture One Pro 7.0.2 is a service release providing a number of bug fixes, in particular for stability, and camera support. Full release notes are attached:

• Improved stability.
• Canon tethering now supported on OS X 10.8.
• Improved support for pen tablets on Windows 8.

• Aligned use of image counts in the library tool: No counts for smart albums on Mac, no counts for groups and projects on Win.

• File support for Fuji X-Pro1, X-E1, XF1 (all preliminary).
• File support Canon EOS M (preliminary).
• sRaw and mRaw file support Canon EOS 1D X, 5D Mark III and 6D (preliminary).
• File support for Olympus XZ-2 iHS (preliminary).
• File support for Sony SLT-A57 (preliminary).
• Tethered support for Canon EOS 6D.
• Tethered support for Canon EOS M (does not support remote capture).

Download here from Phase One.

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., January 10, 2013 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, announces the new CN-E14mm T3.1 L F and CN-E135mm T2.2 L F single-focal-length lenses for large-format single-sensor cameras employing Super 35mm or full frame 35mm imagers. These two new lenses join with Canon’s CN-E24mm T1.5 L F, CN-E50mm T1.3 L F, and CN-E85mm T1.3 L F primes to provide a broad line of five precision-matched, competitively priced EF-mount Cinema prime lenses that provide high optical performance levels and a choice of versatile focal lengths for a wide range of creative shooting choices. All five Canon Cinema prime lenses are part of the Canon Cinema EOS System of professional digital cinematography products, which include the EOS C500 4K/2K Digital Cinema Camera, EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera, EOS C100 Digital Video Camera and EOS-1D C 4K DSLR Cinema Camera, and four Canon Cinema zoom lenses.

CN-E135mm T2.2 L F.

“Since our introduction to the film and television production industry back in November 2011, we have brought to market five Cinema prime lenses, two top-end Cinema zoom lenses, two compact Cinema zoom lenses, and four professional digital cinematography cameras all within 18 months,” stated Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Canon U.S.A. “This is a testament to the Company’s dedication to the needs of the growing and diverse universe of professionals creating 4K, 2K, and HD moving-image content for theatrical, television, and other high-resolution digital production markets. We look forward to continuing to serve these professionals with Canon Cinema EOS products designed to help them achieve their creative imperatives and commercial aspirations.”

All Canon Cinema EOS lenses integrate advanced materials and coatings to meet high optical performance levels, including 4K (4096 x 2160) production standards. Each Canon Cinema lens is equipped with an odd-numbered 11-blade aperture diaphragm, which is ideally suited to achieve creative depth-of-field manipulation and pleasing “bokeh” effects of cinematographic quality. The Canon line of five Cinema prime lenses is precision-matched for consistent and solid optical performance that minimizes focus-induced changes in the angle of view. All feature a full-frame image circle in a lightweight, compact design, and they incorporate proven Canon lens elements designed to fulfill contemporary 4K production standards. All five primes also deliver color tone and balance that matches Canon’s top-end Cinema zooms and compact Cinema zooms. Canon Cinema prime lenses are also water-resistant for severe shooting conditions and deliver the operation and reliability required in professional film-style shooting environments.

All five Canon Cinema primes feature mechanical attributes specifically designed for motion-picture production, as opposed to still photography. These strategically integrated film-style characteristics include 300 degree rotation on the focus ring for precision focus control as well as large, highly visible engraved focus scales for convenient operation. These markings appear on the angled surfaces on both sides of the barrel, making them easy to both read and to adjust the step-less focus and/or aperture settings of the lenses from behind – or from either side – of the camera. Focus markings can be switched from standard labeling to metric, and control rings are engineered to maintain the proper amount of resistance with consistent operating torque and familiar tactile “feedback” for satisfying manual control. All Canon Cinema prime lenses also share the same uniform gear positions, diameters, and rotation angles, as well as front-lens diameters, making them compatible with matte boxes, follow focus gear, marking disks, and other third-party film-industry-standard accessories. Film crews can quickly change lenses without the need for accessory gear-position adjustments or other changes to the rig setup.

 

CN-E14mm T3.1 L F

The new Canon CN-E14mm T3.1 and CN-E135mm T2.2 Cinema prime lenses – as well as the Canon CN-E24mm T1.5, CN-E50mm T1.3, and CN-E85mm T1.3 primes – are fully compatible with the Canon EOS C500, EOS C300, EOS C100 and EOS-1D C digital cinema cameras. The EF-mount design of all five Canon Cinema prime lenses provides communication with these cameras for such handy features as display of the ƒ number in the electronic viewfinder, recording of focus/zoom position and ƒ number, and Peripheral Light Compensation for more pleasing effects shots.

The versatility of image-capture options using Canon EOS digital cinema cameras can be further extended with Canon’s Super35mm top-end Cinema zoom lenses (the CN-E14.5-60mm T2.6 wide-angle and the CN-E30-300mm T2.95-3.7 telephoto) and compact Cinema zooms (the CN-E15.5-47mm T2.8 wide-angle and CN-E30-105mm T2.8 telephoto). All four are available in both EF- and PL-mount versions, as are the EOS C500 and EOS C300 cameras. Almost all of Canon’s EF Series photographic lenses can also be used with these Cinema EOS cameras, including Image Stabilized zooms, tilt-shift models, and macro lenses. All of these products are designed to contribute to the continued advancement of tools for visual storytelling and all express Canon’s continuing commitment to cinematic culture.

Pricing and Availability
The CN-E14mm T3.1 L F single-focal-length lens is expected to be available in April 2013 for an estimated retail price of $5,500. The CN-E135mm T2.2 L F single-focal-length lens is expected to be available in May 2013 for an estimated retail price of $5,200.

 

A week ago my friend James Weber did an editorial fashion shoot using Wet Plate Collodian process.

I shot video as well as acting as lighting technician.

This was a combination of Profoto studio strobes at around 9600 Watt seconds and ARRI's for an additional 6000 watts. This allowed for exposure times between 9-12 seconds for an ISO of 1. Not the kind of process for the feint of heart or those whose idea of shooting is to hold down the button as if they were making a movie and pray that you got the shot.

Last week I was helping out a friend with his editorial fashion shoot that he shot using Wet Plate Collodian process; by recording it on video.

I used a Red Wing Boom as a camera jib in order to get a few more camera options which is something I've been meaning to try for sometime.

As you can see it was easy to do simply by adding some basic grip equipment that most photographers would usually have on hand in their studios.

I used a: Bogen super clamp, a Manfroto magic arm, a knuckle and a 6" wall plate which I had previously drilled and tapped and attached to my Cannon HD video camera. Although anyone could just as easily use any combination of grip equipment to achieve the same thing rather than spending money on an additional piece of equipment just to perform jib movements.

For those wondering why I didn't just attach the magic arm to the end of the Boom pin by adding another knuckle, that because I use this same combination of grip as a steady cam set up so having a quick release option to from 1 to the other is a nice option.

This setup proved to work extremely well and afforded great stability; and also because the boom was on a rolling stand it allowed me to move around the studio and change elevation in nice smooth motions. A short edit of the video from this shoot will be posted in the coming days.

AbelCine Expo: Innovations in Lighting  -  Run time 05:22:31

Yeah its long but you didn't have to travel across the country to hear and see the event.