PhotoActive
A podcast about photography and the Apple ecosystem.
Episodes
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Episode 113: Do Photographers Need the Mac Studio?
March 18th, 2022 | 36 mins 36 secs
apple, apple studio display, cameras, hardware, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, m1, m1 pro, m1 processor, m1 ultra, mac studio, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, studio display
Apple announced the Mac Studio, a brand new M1-based desktop Mac that smokes the performance of even the Mac Pro. But is it a good machine for photographers? Jeff and Kirk discuss what’s interesting about the Mac Studio and the new Studio Display.
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Episode 112: Dan Bracaglia on Rediscovering Joy
March 4th, 2022 | 35 mins 19 secs
apple, cameras, dan bracaglia, film photography, iphone, jeff carlson, joy in photography, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, spark joy
Dan Bracaglia joins us again to talk about that perennial problem: rekindling the joy of photography. Especially in winter, it’s easy to remain uninspired about photography, when in fact we know that there are image possibilities everywhere. We chat about some unusual steps to find fun in photography.
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Episode 111: The Glass App(roach) to Photography
February 18th, 2022 | 35 mins 15 secs
app, apple, cameras, glass app, ipad, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Tom Watson and Stefan Borsje created the Glass app as a way to get back to the experience of enjoying photography, without the endless pursuit of engagement metrics and traffic and all the things other apps (cough Instagram cough) do that detracts from it. We talk to them about the Glass approach, the new iPad app, and the upcoming web version.
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Episode 110: Dealing with Distortion
February 4th, 2022 | 30 mins 58 secs
apple, cameras, capture one, distortion, geometry, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lightroom, photo editing, photo organization, photography, pixelmator pro, podcast
What can you do when shooting with a wide lens introduces unwanted optical distortion in your photos? In this episode, Kirk and Jeff look at ways to correct for distortion, including correcting for horizontal and vertical planes, in apps such as Lightroom, Capture One, and Pixelmator Pro.
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Episode 109: Joe McNally Is The Real Deal
January 21st, 2022 | 32 mins 15 secs
apple, book, cameras, guest, interview, iphone, jeff carlson, joe mcnally, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, mcnally, photo book, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, rocky nook, the real deal
Joe McNally, who humbly refers to himself as a “working photographer,” has shot everything from high-concept editorial to the Olympic games, and established a reputation as one of the most generous photographers in the business. We talked with Joe about his dogged start on the streets of 1970s New York City and how he’s built his career, which he chronicles in his new book, The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer.
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Episode 108: Masking in Lightroom
January 7th, 2022 | 33 mins 38 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lightroom, lightroom classic, masking, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw, raw, selective editing
The new masking features in Adobe Lightroom and Lightroom Classic make it much easier to apply selective edits to areas such as skies or subjects, without a lot of manual fiddling.
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Episode 107: Simulated vs. Optical Background Blur
December 10th, 2021 | 38 mins 47 secs
aperture, apple, background blur, bokeh, cameras, iphone, iphone13pro, iphone13promax, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lightroom, luminar, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw, raw
You shot a lovely portrait and realized later that the background could benefit from some artistic blur. It used to be that if you didn’t get it in camera, you were stuck. But now it’s possible to recreate that blur using AI features in software later. Or, if you captured the shot using the iPhone’s Portrait Mode, you can edit the effect whenever you want. Is the software option really worth doing?
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Episode 106: PhotoActive 2021 Gift Guide
November 26th, 2021 | 28 mins 8 secs
apple, cameras, gift guide, gifts for photographers, holiday gifts, holidays, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
When they set out to produce a gift guide—the first one in three years—Kirk and Jeff chose items that really reflect how they approach photography, and items that hopefully aren’t on every other photo gift guide out there. This episode covers a gamut of price ranges and interests, so something is sure to appeal to you as the giver or the receiver this holiday.
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Episode 105: Aaron Hockley and Computational Photography
November 12th, 2021 | 46 mins 22 secs
ai, apple, artificial intelligence, cameras, computational photography, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, machine learning, photo ai, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational photography…whichever term you use, the technologies are here and touching almost every part of the photos you’re making. Our guest this week is Aaron Hockley, author of the book The Computer Ate My Photos: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Photography, and he’s here to help us unravel this brave new world (and convince us that he’s not a robot).
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Episode 104: The Leica Episode
October 29th, 2021 | 39 mins 51 secs
apple, black and white, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, leica, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, q2 monochrom
The day has arrived: Kirk finally purchased his dream camera, the Leica Q2 Monochrom. Why would someone pay for a camera that shoots only in black and white? In this episode, we talk about the advantages of a sensor without RGB, how shooting with the Q2 Monochrom is changing the way Kirk shoots, and processing the images in Capture One.
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Episode 103: Posing People with Lindsay Adler
October 15th, 2021 | 41 mins 29 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lindsay adler, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, portraits, posing, posing people, rocky nook
Does the thought of posing subjects for portraits make you nervous? Our guest this week is fashion and portrait photographer Lindsay Adler, whose book The Photographer’s Guide to Posing will calm your nerves and give you the tools to make beautiful photos of people. Lindsay talks about how she prepares for a portrait shoot, techniques to encourage great poses, working with everyday people compared to working with models, and much more.
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Episode 102: The iPhone 13 Pro Cameras
October 1st, 2021 | 37 mins 50 secs
apple, cameras, cinematic, iphone, iphone 13, iphone13pro, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, macro, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw, raw
It’s Apple’s best iPhone ever! Well, yes, they say that every year, but this time around the camera improvements are more exciting than in the past. In this episode, we look at what’s new, from the sizes of the lenses themselves to the Cinematic and Macro modes, in the iPhone 13 Pro.
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Episode 101: Practicing Photography with Ben Long
September 17th, 2021 | 42 mins 6 secs
apple, ben long, book, cameras, complete digital photography, inspiration, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, practice, practicing photographer
What does it mean to really practice your craft? In this episode we welcome photographer and educator Ben Long back to PhotoActive to talk about his wonderful new book The Practicing Photographer: Essays on Developing Your Photographic Practice. We talk about why practice involves more than grabbing your camera every once in a while, about getting out of creative ruts, and the value of studying other photographers’ works.
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Episode 100: One Hundred
September 3rd, 2021 | 30 mins 55 secs
affinityphoto, apple, cameras, centennial, iphone, iphone12pro, iphone12promax, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lightroom, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw, raw, rawpower
In the very early days of the PhotoActive podcast, when Jeff was a nervous first-time podcast host, Kirk said to him, “It’s OK. Once you do a hundred of these, you’ll be better.” Well, here we are! Episode 100! To celebrate, we’re showcasing some of our favorite episodes and sharing what we’ve learned from them.
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Episode 99: Photo Storage
August 20th, 2021 | 33 mins 59 secs
apple, cameras, hard disk, iphone, iphone12pro, iphone12promax, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lightroom, nas, photo editing, photo organization, photo storage, photography, podcast, proraw, raw, rawpower, ssd, storage, synology
Where are your photos stored? Internal disks, external drives, network-attached storage? In this episode, Kirk and Jeff talk about strategies for where to put and access all those digital files your cameras create.
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Episode 98: Camera Accoutrements
August 6th, 2021 | 37 mins 41 secs
affinityphoto, apple, cameras, iphone, iphone12pro, iphone12promax, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, lightroom, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw, raw, rawpower
There are all sorts of camera accessories out there, but for this episode, Kirk and Jeff challenged themselves to consider only add-ons that stay affixed to a camera all (or most) of the time. From additional shutter buttons to thumb rests and screen protectors, we look at whether these items are worth consideration, and if they help or hinder one’s photographic experience.