PhotoActive

Episode 27: Flying High with Ian Schray and Drones

November 30th, 2018  |  29 mins 15 secs

apple, camera drone, cameras, dji, drone, drones, faa, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, quadcopter

In traditional photography, a great piece of advice is to “zoom with your feet,” or, move yourself closer to a subject. What happens when the subject is 400 feet high? Or you want a unique viewpoint that wouldn’t be possible without a crane? This week we talk to Ian Schray about flying drones: quadcopters outfitted with cameras.

Episode 26: RAW Power 2.0

November 23rd, 2018  |  36 mins 38 secs

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

This week we’re joined by Nik Bhatt, former developer of Aperture and iPhoto at Apple and now a distinguished gentleman at Gentlemen Coders. Using his deep knowledge of how Apple’s raw photo editing engine works, Nik has just released RAW Power 2.0, an app for macOS and iOS. We talk about RAW Power’s unique features and learn some of the fascinating ins and outs of raw image processing.

Episode 25: Understanding iCloud Photo Library

November 16th, 2018  |  32 mins 17 secs

apple, cameras, icloud, icloud photo library, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo backups, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

If you use Apple’s Photos app on your Mac or iOS device, are you also synchronizing your images via iCloud Photo Library? In this week’s episode, Jeff and Kirk talk about the pros and cons of Apple’s cloud service for photos. Why should you consider it? What are the downsides? And if your images are in the cloud, is that considered a backup? (No, it’s not. We explain why.)

Episode 24: Manual vs Automatic Camera Settings

November 9th, 2018  |  31 mins

aperture priority, apple, auto camera mode, cameras, f8 and be there, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, manual photography, manual shooting, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, program mode, shutter priority

We (good-naturedly) wade back into the question of “What makes a REAL photographer?” In this case, we’re talking about shooting using entirely manual controls or using the auto or semi-automatic modes on your camera. (Spoiler: Anyone with a camera is a real photographer.) We discuss when each approach works, and the advantages of knowing how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO all work together.

Episode 23: Printing Photos with Rick LePage

November 2nd, 2018  |  33 mins 10 secs

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

Do you print your photos? Although we know we should make prints, but getting from screen to paper isn’t always easy. It turns out, though, that printing is much easier today than it used to be. In this episode, we welcome photographer and publisher Rick LePage to talk about printing photos at home, from hardware to paper to inks.

Episode 21: High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography

October 19th, 2018  |  32 mins 19 secs

apple, cameras, hdr, high dynamic range, iphone, iphone xs, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

“HDR” used to bring to mind surreal landscapes with garish colors and very few shadows. Fortunately, high-dynamic range photography has matured beyond those early days, and is a useful technique for getting more detail out of any scene. The latest iPhone and other smartphone cameras use HDR liberally to create good shots in all types of situations. We talk about making HDR photos using traditional cameras and techniques and also the new iPhone's computational methods.

Episode 19: Michael Rubin and Classic Photos

October 5th, 2018  |  35 mins 36 secs

arnold newman, black and white, conversation, elliot erwitt, igor stravinsky, magnum photos, michael rubin, photo podcast, photography, podcast