PhotoActive
A podcast about photography and the Apple ecosystem.
Episodes
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Episode 120: The Cameras of the Future
June 24th, 2022 | 36 mins 50 secs
apple, cameras, drone, future, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, prediction, quadcopter, speculation
What do the cameras of the future look like? The ones we use now are vastly different from cameras just a decade or two ago, so it’s reasonable to assume that changes will continue to advance. Jeff and Kirk speculate on what’s coming.
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Episode 119: WWDC and New Apple OSes
June 10th, 2022 | 37 mins 39 secs
apple, cameras, ios 16, ipados 16, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, m2, macbook air, macos ventura, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw, raw, watchos 9
Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) wrapped up last week, and with it a lot of news about hardware like the M2-powered MacBook Air and what's coming in macOS Ventura, iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and watchOS 9. In this episode, Jeff and Kirk look at what struck their interest for photographers.
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Episode 118: Scott Kelby's Travel Tips
May 27th, 2022 | 37 mins 53 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kelby, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, scott kelby, travel, travel photography
Scott Kelby joins us this week to talk about travel photography, using the years of experience he’s gained and now collected into his new book, The Travel Photography Book. We often want to start by figuring out what gear to bring, but Scott makes that point that there are far more important things to consider first.
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Episode 117: John Cornicello on Lens Distortion
May 13th, 2022 | 29 mins 11 secs
apple, cameras, cornicello, distortion, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
In episode 110, Kirk and Jeff talked about dealing with distortion when you’re editing your photos. Now we’re happy to welcome portrait photographer and educator John Cornicello to discuss distortion when you’re photographing. You know those grids of headshots that demonstrate how wide-angle lenses cause distorted features? They’re wrong, and John explains why.
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Episode 116: iPad Photo Editing
April 29th, 2022 | 32 mins 47 secs
apple, cameras, ipad, ipad editing, ipad pro, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Is an iPad good for photo editing? It can be great for slimming your amount of gear on a trip, but what tradeoffs are involved? In this episode, Jeff and Kirk look at using an iPad or iPad Pro in a photography workflow, from importing images to culling and sorting to editing the photos.
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Episode 115: iPhone Camera Tips & Tricks
April 15th, 2022 | 36 mins 35 secs
apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast
Millions of people take billions of photos using the built-in Camera app on their iPhones, so we wanted to do an episode all about the clever and sometimes hidden capabilities of this camera that’s always with you.
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Episode 114: Bryan Jones on Why Color Doesn't Exist
April 1st, 2022 | 40 mins 13 secs
apple, black and white, bryan jones, cameras, color theory, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, leica, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, retinal neuroscience
An offhand remark from our guest Bryan Jones when he was a guest on a previous episode stuck with us: “You know color doesn’t actually exist, right?” We had to invite him back to explain! Jones, a retinal neuroscientist, explains that color is really a shared hallucination and talks about how photographers can take advantage of this knowledge.
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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).