PhotoActive

Episode 17: Prime vs Zoom Lenses

September 21st, 2018  |  33 mins 5 secs

Photographers often focus on cameras, but it’s the lens that can have the most impact on your photos. In this episode, Jeff and Kirk talk glass: lenses. When do you want a prime lens, which has a fixed focal length, and when does a zoom work better? Why are prime lenses often better? And why not just use one zoom lens that hits both wide and telephoto ranges? We sort out an often confusing topic.

Episode 16: Buying and Selling Camera Gear

September 14th, 2018  |  33 mins 13 secs

Do you have a pile of old cameras and lenses stashed in a closet somewhere? Or do you sell your used gear to make way for new goodies? What about buying previously-owned cameras and lenses? This week, Kirk and Jeff talk about buying and selling your photo gear: where to do it, pitfalls to avoid, and more.

Episode 15: Time-Lapse Photography

September 7th, 2018  |  29 mins 57 secs

camera app, how-to, iphone, time-lapse, video

Time-lapse photography can create dramatic short videos - think about clouds zooming overhead throughout the course of a day or flowers blooming in seconds - but creating time-lapse videos turns out to be remarkably easy. In this episode, Jeff and Kirk walk through the process of using the Time-Lapse mode in the iOS Camera app as well as capturing time-lapse photos with traditional cameras.

Episode 14: Chris Marquardt Goes Wide-Angle

August 31st, 2018  |  40 mins 39 secs

chris marquardt, landscape photography, photo book, photo technique, photography, rocky nook, technique, wide-angle

Photographer, podcaster, and author Chris Marquardt just published Wide-Angle Photography (published by Rocky Nook), and he joins us to talk about the time he took only a 24mm lens on a photo tour and fell in love with wide-angle lens photography. We cover composition, thinking in wide-angle terms, and shooting with tilt-shift lenses.

Episode 13: Aspect Ratios and Why They're Important

August 24th, 2018  |  30 mins 3 secs

2x3, 4x3, 5x7, 8x10, aspect ratio, iphone, medium format, photo podcast, photography

Aspect ratios in photography are about more than making prints at 8x10 or 5x7 sizes. In fact, aspect ratio has been key in defining some of the best-known photos in the world. In this episode, Kirk and Jeff talk about why every photographer should understand the importance of aspect ratios.

Episode 12: David duChemin on the Long-Building Vision

August 17th, 2018  |  35 mins 49 secs

"Gear is good, but vision is better," says photographer and educator David duChemin. This week, we talk to David about discovering and developing that vision.

Episode 11: Selective Editing

August 10th, 2018  |  29 mins 18 secs

Most photos can benefit from universal edits to tone and color, but what do you do if just a sky needs to be made more dramatic or you want to add a soft splash of light to a person’s face? In this episode, Jeff and Kirk talk about adjusting specific areas within an image using selective editing tools in apps such as Lightroom, Luminar, and Affinity Photo.

Episode 10: Quintin Lake's Long Photo Walk

August 3rd, 2018  |  44 mins 33 secs

interview

Long walks are great opportunities to bring a camera and make photos—but what about 10,000 km of walking? In this episode, Kirk and Jeff welcome photographer Quintin Lake, who is walking the entire coastline of Britain and taking photos of what he discovers. Our interview talks about the motivation behind Quintin’s The Perimeter project, how it quickly made him realize what gear is essential and what can be left behind, and why ambitious projects like this are worth pursuing.

Episode 9: Instagram for Photographers

July 27th, 2018  |  32 mins 43 secs

cats, instagram, photography

In this episode, we turn our attention to something that often takes too much of our attention: Instagram. It's an annoying time trap filled with hucksters, motivational imagery, and so, so many selfies—while also being one of the world's richest resources for experiencing all kinds of photography.

Episode 8: Episode #8 - Gordon Laing on Taking Great Photos In Camera

July 20th, 2018  |  40 mins 14 secs

We chat with Gordon Laing about how to take great photos without post-processing, by taking advantage of the capabilities of your camera.

Episode 7: Do You Really Need All That Gear?

July 13th, 2018  |  35 mins 52 secs

We all end up carrying too much gear. In this episode, we discuss the mistakes that we've made with gear, and when and why we need certain types of gear.

Episode 6: Raw vs. Jpeg

July 5th, 2018  |  31 mins 19 secs

We explain what raw image files are, and discuss the balance between shooting in raw, jpeg, or both. And explain how to shoot in raw on the iPhone.

Episode 5: Wenmei Hill on Personal Photo Projects

June 29th, 2018  |  33 mins 42 secs

We welcome Wenmei Hill to talk about her work as Editorial Manager at DPReview, volunteering with the organization Soulumination, and inspiring and helping women become better photographers as part of Mamas with Cameras.

Episode 4: Mastering iPhone Photography

June 22nd, 2018  |  31 mins 21 secs

We talk about the many advanced features that the iPhone's camera contains, and explain some tips and shortcuts that can make your iPhone photos better.

Episode 3: Black & White

June 15th, 2018  |  33 mins 13 secs

Jeff Carlson and Kirk McElhearn chat about black and white photos: the history of black and white photography, the various ways you can convert your photos to black and white, and how you can shoot and think in black and white.

Episode 2: Managing Photo Libraries

June 8th, 2018  |  31 mins 55 secs

Jeff Carlson and Kirk McElhearn discuss why you want some sort of photo library in place, such as Photos or Lightroom, and their different approaches to managing their images. We dig into software, keywords, machine learning-based search, and the advantages (and annoyances) of cloud-based libraries.