PhotoActive

Episode 167: Sensors and LUTs

July 19th, 2024  |  35 mins 48 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lumix, luts, panasonic, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, s9

Touting Panasonic’s new LUMIX S9 camera, a representative was quoted saying that Micro Four Thirds sensors are more difficult to understand than full-frame sensors, especially for people with “low camera literacy.” That piqued our interest, because many photographers assume that a full-frame sensor is just inherently better. But is that true? And is it really that confusing? We also touch on LUTs, which Panasonic is pushing on the S9 by dedicating a button to choosing different look-up tables for creative color rendering in camera.

Episode 166: Pentax 17 and Photo Social Apps

July 6th, 2024  |  33 mins 34 secs

apple, cameras, film, film photography, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, pentax 17, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

If you're wondering whether film photography is really experiencing a resurgence in popularity, the announcement of the Pentax 17 is your answer. It's a brand-new film-only camera with some interesting design choices. Also in this episode, we talk about social media alternatives to Instagram for photographers.

Episode 165: AI and Photography from WWDC

June 21st, 2024  |  31 mins 24 secs

ai, apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, machine learning, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, wwdc

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is where we learn about what’s coming in the company’s many operating systems, and this year was focused on machine learning features and AI - Apple Intelligence. That turns out to have a lot of significance on photography, such as in searching your photo library and making edits in the Photos app. We look at what was announced and how it will affect the way we work with photos in the fall.

Episode 164: M4 iPad Pro

June 3rd, 2024  |  36 mins 29 secs

apple, cameras, ipad, ipad pro, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, m4, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Apple has released the new M4-powered iPad Pro, and Kirk bought one straightaway. Is it worth buying for photographers? Plus, we mention what’s changed in the new Lightroom releases and welcome a new sponsor: Photo Scout by Cascable!

Episode 163: Photo Criticism

May 17th, 2024  |  39 mins 59 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo criticism, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Part of enjoying photography is understanding photography. What makes a “good” photo? How much of that is based on the circumstances around its creation? In this episode, we talk about looking at photography with a critical eye.

Episode 162: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

May 3rd, 2024  |  34 mins 59 secs

apple, cameras, gas, gear, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is a running joke among photographers (and musicians), but it's also a real thing that can spin us up with the desire to buy some new camera or lens. We look at what drives this compulsion, and try to be honest about whether it affects us as photographers.

Episode 161: Nitro with Nik Bhatt

April 5th, 2024  |  39 mins 7 secs

apple, cameras, gentlemen coders, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, nitro, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, raw power

Gentleman Coder Nik Bhatt returns to talk about Nitro, his all-new photo editor for macOS (and soon, iOS and iPadOS). As the successor to RAW Power, Nitro has a lot to live up to. Nik talks about what prompted him to build a new app from the ground up, adding new features like masking, supporting cameras that Apple ignores, and more.

Episode 160: Primed by Seeing

March 22nd, 2024  |  35 mins 35 secs

apple, cameras, creativity, inspiration, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo creativity, photo editing, photo influences, photo organization, photography, podcast

We were recently asked about where we find inspiration while making photos, which led Kirk and Jeff to muse on the idea of being primed to find photo subjects. It’s not enough to arrive at a destination with a blank slate—you’ll create better photos and enjoy the experience more if you prime yourself to see what’s in front of you. That can come from photo books, online photos of the same area, and more.

Episode 159: Fuji X100VI and the Appeal of Small Fixed-Lens Cameras

March 8th, 2024  |  34 mins 23 secs

apple, cameras, fuji, fujifilm, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, ricoh, x100v, x100vi

The entire Internet - yes, the whole thing, trust us - is going crazy for the new Fujifilm X100VI compact fixed-lens camera. What’s the appeal of this not-inexpensive camera? Its predecessor was in such demand that Fujifilm just stopped manufacturing it because it couldn’t keep up...for more than a year. And now the X100VI is backordered until summer. Is it all just influencer hype?

Episode 158: AI Revisited

February 23rd, 2024  |  35 mins 26 secs

In five years, will our cameras look anything like today’s cameras? We’ve seen staggering advancements in AI technologies in photography, so in this episode we stretch our imaginations to think about where things are headed.

Episode 157: Photos at the High End: Hasselblad 907x/CFV 100C

February 9th, 2024  |  33 mins 10 secs

100mp, 907x, apple, cameras, cfv 100c, hasselblad, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, medium format, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

What would you do with 100 megapixels? Jeff recently had the opportunity to shoot with the new Hasselblad 907x/CFV 100C, a medium format camera in the form factor of Hasselblad’s classic film bodies. This $8,200 (body only, of course) system made him rethink the photographic muscle memory he’s developed over the years, as well as the mental-muscle-memory of how to approach making photos.

Episode 156: The Rescue Mission with Derrick Story

January 26th, 2024  |  39 mins 3 secs

aperture, apple, cameras, derrick story, drobo, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, peakto, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the photos on your old hard drives are perfectly safe. But are they really? Our guest Derrick Story needed to extract 200,000 images saved in Apple’s discontinued Aperture software on an old Drobo storage array. Using a combination of an old MacBook that could run Aperture and modern software like Peakto for organizing the extracted images, he was able to restore them all.

Episode 155: Favorites from The Photo Book

December 15th, 2023  |  35 mins 55 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, the photo book

To wrap up the year, we thought we’d turn our attention to selections from The Photo Book, a massive, rich collection of photography from some of the best photographers throughout the history of the art form. Out of hundreds of images, we each picked five photos and explain what about them caught our eyes.

Episode 154: Lens Blur

December 1st, 2023  |  35 mins 12 secs

apple, blur, bokeh, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

It’s time to talk about the B-word again! Jeff couldn’t trick Kirk into saying “bokeh,” but this week we’re looking at a few ways to get background blur using Portrait mode in the iPhone and editing in Lightroom. Technology has improved quite a lot in the last couple of years, to the point where simulated bokeh can sometimes pass off as natural lens blur.

Episode 153: M3 Macs

November 17th, 2023  |  38 mins 5 secs

apple, cameras, imac, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, m3, mac, macbook pro, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

The photographer’s dilemma rears again. Not only are we sometimes struck by gear acquisition syndrome when new cameras are announced, we run into it when new computers that can process our images come to market. In this case, it’s the new M3 MacBook Pro and M3 iMac models from Apple. Will the M3 processor make a difference when working with photos? If you bought an M1 iMac when it came out, is it time to upgrade? Kirk and Jeff hash it out.

Episode 152: Android and AI

November 3rd, 2023  |  28 mins 9 secs

ai, android, apple, cameras, google, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, ml, photo editing, photo organization, photography, pixel 8, podcast

Google’s Pixel phones are held up as the Android smartphones to follow, and their cameras are often pitted against the iPhone as examples of the state of the art. However, as Kirk discovered when he bought a Pixel 8, the details matter... such as the Pixel 8 not being able to use the full resolution of its main camera. Also in this episode, we check in with some new developments in the generative photography world with Adobe’s release of Firefly 2 and GenAI integration in Photoshop.