Finally, Lightroom has introduced GPS functionality. Now you can place photos on a map and save the metadata without the hassle of a plugin and several ghost information and workarounds.

Now you might want to do it manually or you do it with data recorded with a gps dongle, or special track recording app in your smartphone. That’s great, but did you record all your past photo walks? No? Maybe you do anyway.

If you have an Android phone and you use Google Maps you might have enabled Google Latitude. Google Latitude tracks your position and saves it. The Google Latitude Dashboard has some nifty features and you can find also the history tab there.

The best thing about this feature is, that you can export this tracks. These files can be converted from KML to GPX and after syncing the time offset you can automatically tag your photos.

I will now use this feature to back-tag all the photos I’ve made in the last two years with this data – sweet.

Here the steps to follow

Export GPS Data into a Tracklog

1. Go to http://www.google.com/latitude (or Enable Google Latitude if you haven’t already)
2. Go to the history tab and select “View and Manage”
3. Select the day of your photo shoot
4. Click on Export to KML
5. Convert the resulting file at http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ to GPX and download the resulting file

Import the Tracklog and tag photos

1. Open Lightroom 4 Beta and select the photos you want to tag
2. Select the Map Tab in Lightroom
3. Select in the Menu Map > Tracklog > Load Tracklog…
4. Load the GPX file
5. Select in the Menu Map > Tracklog > Time Zone Offset
6. Set the offset to match the photos time range
7. Auto tag with Map > Auto tag X photos
8. Save the Metadata … Photo > Save Metadata to file

Done.

Yesterday was a great day for heading down to Kitsilano Beach and False Creek and try out if I can make some nice shots for a HDR experiment.

I quite like the result, but I’m new to HDR and some other shots (I didn’t upload them) didn’t come out as expected.

Comments are welcome and suggestions also

#vancouver #photowalk #hdr

In album Vancouver Highlights (6 photos)

Google+: View post on Google+

Nice Update for Google Plus of requested features (Google Apps Integration) and some other goodies. The Photo Editing has been seen a great improvement to before and has all the tools for basic photo retouching – so now you can pimp you smartphone pictures. But even nicer in my opinion is the Google Plus Ripples feature.

How often have we looked at visualizations of Twitter and Facebook shares. Most of the times you couldn’t really have the same tool for your own posts as none of the tools had access to all the users. The new tool from Google is build into the social network and therefore has full access.

When comparing it to the statistics you get from Facebook you can clearly see the different approach of this social network. While Facebook claims to be people centric, the stats are mostly advertising driven. Since Advertising is not yet possible in Google Plus, the statistics are more people centric. I’m really interested to see how this will evolve in the future.

#GooglePlus #update #Apps #Visualization #data #photography

Embedded Link

Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and…
Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and… 10/27/2011 10:07:00 AM. We think Google+ should get better every time you use it. It’s not enough to obsess over community feedback…

Google+: View post on Google+

Every time I change phone I hope I can forget about my point&shoot. I hoped it in 2005 when I’ve got the Sony Ericcson K750i (K is for Kamera = Camera) – and later with the first Nexus One. The improvements where there, but slow and I couldn’t really see why the evolution was so slow and the quality so bad even compared to a $50 Point&Shoot from the electronic gadget store around the corner.

My main problem is that the shots don’t live up to the memories. If we take the pictures to keep on the memories, I want them to be on par with my memories – or even better. I want them to be the aid to remember more vividly how beautiful, fun or dull that moment was. I don’t want them to distort my memory or change it.

Within the latest releases of smartphones I’ve seen (at least from the publicized shots) that the technology is going to be there – soon. This video is an example of the images you can shoot with the latest Google Galaxy Nexus Phone (with some technical help to make it more engaging). It really looks promising, just like the Samsung Galaxy SII and the new iPhone 4s. Maybe this time we can really forget about our Point and Shoots.

#photography #smartphone #memory

Reshared post from +Romain Guy

Rockaway Beach, by Galaxy Nexus
#android #galaxynexus #timelapse

This is a slightly longer version of the video showed during the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 launch event.

You can also watch the video on YouTube: Rockaway Beach by Galaxy Nexus

The video was shot on Rockaway Beach, near Pacifica, California. The final video is a compilation of video and time-lapse clips shot with a Galaxy Nexus phone. Everything was shot in 1080p and the final video was edited in Adobe After Effects CS5. The only processing done on the original footage was to speed it up in the first clip.

The video clips were shot without the help of a tripod and shake a little bit. The time-lapse clips were shot using a Stage Zero Dolly from Dynamic Perception (www.dynamicperception.com). If you haven’t seen them before, check out the photos of the rig I used by opening the album linked below.

This video was my very first try at shooting video (including time-lapses) with a phone. It is also not what I had planned on doing when I went to Rockaway Beach that night! My Canon 5D Mk II remained untouched as soon as I got the idea of using the Galaxy Nexus. This first experiment was very interesting and I already have many ideas of other videos and time-lapses I would like to shoot with this phone.

You can watch the video in full 1080p resolution and I highly recommend you do so on… a Galaxy Nexus! The gorgeous 720p screen at 315 dpi is amazing.

Enjoy!

In album Photo Gear (5 photos)

Google+: View post on Google+

Stock images are cheaper than ever and access to creative commons material is great, but often not available in print resolution. Having your own stock photography is better – and easy. I show you how.

This will be quiet short and is more a reminder.  Yes a reminder – I want to remind you to take some more pictures for your stock library while you are taking photos for your private albums.

How many times have you bought a wood texture background or a crowded place or a busy street? I have many times. Once I needed a picture of Picadilly Circus, nothing fancy, but all the photos I had where with some of my friends in the middle. I lived in London for 6 month and have not taken one picture of the place except those “tourist” photos.

So remind yourself when you are on vacation or on a business trip – take a few extra pictures with the eye of the graphic designer. You don’t have to have the greatest gear to take good pictures , but you need a little bit of practice. A blogpost over at Boagworld actually tells you how to make unique stock photos for your website

And most important, tell your wife/girlfriend/friend why you are taking pictures of the floor, the wall and the scenery without them on it. The photo of this post for example was shot on my old balcony during a bbq session – perfect for various uses, don’t you think?

So go out and take the lens cap off (as they say in the TWIP Podcast)

How many times have you heard your client say: “You can fix this later in Photoshop.” or “We don’t need a photo shooting, we just combine the photos we have.” As an art director one of your jobs is to ensure that the quality of the final product lives up to the standard you set. To ensure this quality you have to look at all aspects. We already discussed the copywriting part, now let’s look at the photography.

You can’t fix it later in Photoshop

Ok, some minor issues can always be fixed but I’ve discovered that you have to do you time calculations precisely. How much time does it cost you to clean the product you are going to shoot with a cloth before the actual shoot and how much with photoshop afterwards for example? It might seem trivial, but you may wonder how many times I had to go into a photo shooting with scratched and dirty products. I now always want to see the material I’m using for the photo shoot ahead of time to be sure to have the best material.

I’ve started to charge extra for this kind of retouching when I was sure that it was the client who didn’t care to provide a proper product. Sometimes the client really didn’t have any better material, but it was quite easy to sell the extra cost.

There is also another factor to consider. The graphic design business is often fast paced. If you have to do extra retouching it will probably blow your time schedule. It put’s pressure on the project unnecessarily. So talking to your client at the beginning of the project about this issues is key to get better input (the products) and therefore the best output possible.

If you have to anyway – get prepared

There are some situations where you have to do major retouching. Maybe the product you have to feature is still a prototype and therefor not perfect, or the product is too big to be set on a clean background, or you plan to do a compositing. The key here is to plan ahead to get photos that ease the retouching. A good starting point is to know exactly what the final picture should look like. You can spot then critical spots and imagine where the difficulties or the major time consuming aspect will be. It might be also good to have a look at the product and make some notes. This will help you brief the photographer. Tell him that what you are going to do with the picture. He will help you getting rid of reflections, will know where to put white cardboards for helping you to cut out the parts for example and many more technical aspects.

The photographer can really ease your work here a great deal and it’s your job to point out where he has to point his attention. You might think that he will know by himself that scratches and dirt are not meant to be shown, but he doesn’t know for what use the picture is intended. You could use the picture to show the scratches and dirt on purpose – how should he know if you don’t tell him.

If you have to do retouching because of a compositing the planning is even more important. I will cover this in a case study later this week featuring a composition of a photo shooting, a stock image and a computer generated background – so stay tuned.

Conclusion

Does photoshop retouching cut the photo shooting cost was the question I asked in the beginning – and the answer I give is “NO”. Retouching is always some extra you have to add. It is an extra step you have to calculate in terms of time, planning and in the end costs. So avoid it as much as you can and if you can’t avoid it let your client know about it and charge him if appropriate.

I’ve recived an email from Getty Images telling me, that they will stop selling Images under the “Rights-Ready License”. If you never heard of this license don’t bother – though it was intresting.

It was a mix of Roalty Free and Rights Managed Images. In short. You bought the rights for an image based on its use (like RM), but you can reuse it for that use as long as you wanted (like RF). Getty describes it like this:

Rights-ready (RR)
Rights-ready products may be used for the particular use and the project and end client specified at the time of licensing. When you order a rights-ready product, you will be asked to submit information that specifies how you intend to use the product, and the project and end client for whom it will be used. Pricing of rights-ready products is based solely on the use of the product that you select. You don’t have to pay any additional royalties if you reuse rights-ready products for the same use for the same project and end client specified at the time of licensing.

It was paired with combo uses like Print+Web and the prices where affordable. The image quality was somewhat better then standard RF, but not as good as standing out RM-photography. All in all not a bad deal. But it seams the model didn’t work out.

They announced that some features of the RR-Licensing will be transfered to the Rights Managed Licensing – let’s see, I will keep you updated.

I’m sure you are using IStockphoto, it’s a great site and makes our work so much easier. But be aware that if you buy credit in advance they will be valid only for one year. I knew that and bought 600 credits a year ago for our firm. After a year you cannot be sure anymore when the will expire and IStockphoto doesn’t send you any notice.

So mark the expiration date in your calender – maybe mark a few weeks earlier so that you won’t lose them, like I lost 201 credits.

Update 18/12/2009

I’ve been contacted by Istockphoto, they are watching the blogsit seems, and they reactivated my credits. They postponed the expiration date. Great costumer service – so if you get close to the expiration date and have a lot of credits it might be a good idea to contact their customer service, they may postpone it for you as well.

Update March 2010

The famous expiration emails don’t work with the corporate accounts.