What's New

Our regular contributor, Alain Briot, today provides us with his 51st essay for this site, titled  Landscape Blurs – Part 2.

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You have just over two weeks remaining in which to enter our exclusive contest which entitles you and a spouse or friend to a private workshop with Michael Reichmann in Northern Ontario this summer or fall.

What are you waiting for?
Someone's got to win it.
Why not you!

The above graphic says it all.
Enter our latest and greatest contest yet
through your purchase of any of the download videos
and tutorials available on this site. Thank you!

Are the new Epson 7900 / 9900 printers the best printers in the world? Quite possibly. Find out what I really think in my just published review.

This review includes a free streaming video showing the 7900 in action in my studio.

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Around The Net

It's the weekend, and if you're in the northern hemisphere it's mid-spring, the birds are chirping and the trees are budding, and the flowers blooming – so get out and enjoy, and of course do some shooting.

But, if it's raining today where you are, here are a few new items on the Net that you might be interested in... (or read them at work on Monday morning).

– Lloyd Chambers at Digilloyd has published a couple of interesting articles on Optimizing Lightroom and Optimizing Photoshop.

– Sean Reid at Reid Reviews has published reviews of the new Leica 21/1.4 Summilux Aspherical and 24/1.4 Summilux Aspherical lenses.

– Michael Tapes at Rawworkflow.com has introduced a Long Ruler Kit for his terrific LensAlign product. Highly recommended.

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"I wanted to congratulate you on your LL guide to Lightroom 2 which I've just watched in a marathon single sitting while trying out the techniques demonstrated on a second monitor. Despite managing a database  of 40,000 images in Lightroom this is the first time I've really deeply understood this software. The tutorial was extremely thorough, clear and enlightening. I cant wait to incorporate this new knowledge into my daily work".

Issue #18 of The Luminous Landscape Video Journal is now available on DVD. It joins our already available HD download edition.

Please note that this DVD will only be available for another 30 days. On June 1st we are discontinuing all of our DVD products, and our tutorials and Video Journals will then only be available as downloads.

Our remaining inventory of DVD back issues of the Luminous Landscape Video Journal on DVD and all DVDs and DVD sets are available at 50% off from now until June 1st.

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All Early Edition Video Journals Now Available as Downloads

Click on an Icon to Find Out More About That Issue

Northern Lights (aurora) are best seen in far northern latitudes. Along with Iceland, Alaska is one of the best places on earth to view aurora. In a new exclusive article for this site photographer Ben Hattenbach and astonomer Henry Throop share their experience and knowledge about Hunting The Great Alaskan Aurora.

Aurora are most common during peaks in solar activity. The next solar maximum is due in 2010 / 2011. These take place in 11 year cycles, and this next one is anticipated to be the strongest since 1958. This means aurora could be visible and therefore photographable from dark sky sites in mid-latitudes. Time to start honing your shooting techniques.

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The above graphic says it all.
Enter our latest and greatest contest yet
through your purchase of any of the download videos
and tutorials available on this site. Thank you!

May brings with it the tenth anniversary of The Luminous Landscape. I'm not sure which day the site went online, but as I recall it was in the first half of the month. The first What's New entry was on May 28, 1999 and I recall that the site had been online for at least a couple of weeks before that.

Originally the site was simply intended as a new home for some articles which I had written over the years for various magazines, including Photo Techniques where I was a Contributing Editor. But I slowly began adding original material, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today the site has more than a million unique visitors monthly, as many as a dozen new essays, product reviews, and tutorials each month, and a discussion forum that is among the most civil such places on the Net, populated with many of the industry's leading experts, and with a large group of knowledgeable and helpful regulars.

Where will the next ten years take us? My crystal ball is a bit cloudy today, but I can say that there are steps underway to greatly expand the educational as well as community aspects of the site, and I look forward to having you along as we enter our second decade.

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DVDs Coming to an End

For anyone still interested in back issues of the Luminous Landscape Video Journal on DVD – all DVDs and DVD sets are 50% off from now until the end of May.

At that point DVDs will be removed from our catalog and will no longer be available. All new Video Journals and tutorials from now on will be available as download only.

Those who still have DVD subscriptions will receive LLVJ-18 as normal after it ships in about a week from now; you can likely expect it in your mailbox by mid-June. If you have moved in the past three years, PLEASE make sure that Customer Service has your updated mailing address. Note that an address change made in our Store database does not mean that the shipping database for DVDs kept by Customer Service has your correct shipping address!

Subscribers who still have DVDs beyond LLVJ-18 in their subscription are urged to contact Customer Service to explore the options for conversion to any of our Download products including Tutorials.

 

We are pleased to have just placed online four new download editions of previous Luminous Landscape Video Journals. These were only available till now as DVDs. They are each priced at just $9.95 and are available for immediate download.

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Several dealers let the cat out of the bag a couple of days ago (tsk, tsk) but Phase One has today officially announced, and has available for immediate delivery, their latest medium format back, the P40+ with Sensor+. This is a 40 Megapixel back.

UPDATE:

Phase One has also today made available Capture One 4.8, an update with support for the new P40+ and enhanced support for the P65+.

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Nikon Canada has announced a new free service program for its D3 and D3x customers. This provides...

– Unlimited preventative maintenance cleanings

– Routine adjustments as necessary resulting from normal usage, excluding cosmetic “wear and tear”

–  Two comprehensive check-ups and cleanings; one in the first year of ownership and one in the second

This program is effective as of today on all new D3/D3X cameras purchased from an Authorized Nikon Canada Dealer and is applicable for an initial period of two years from the date of original purchase. Also, D3/D3X cameras which were purchased new from an Authorized Nikon Canada Dealer prior to March 30, 2009, are also automatically covered.

Seems like a pretty attractive offer to me, especially since the other guys seem to be getting a bit of a black eye of late among some Canadian customers when it comes to warrenty service and repair practices.

Are you getting a bit bored with all the chatter about high megapixel and megabuck DSLRs and medium format backs? Thought so.

In these mean economic times a look at cameras which are somewhat more affordable (and pocketable) is in order, and so today I offer you The Pocket Camera as Visual Notebook – the Fuji F200EXR, Panasonic ZS3, and Canon SX200 Compared – a hands-on look at three of the newest and smallest pocketable super-zooms, all priced at under $400.

Michael, I just finished From Camera to Print, and I want to thank
you and Jeff for a seminar in which I feel like I learned to fly!
I learned so much that now I need to go back and watch again,
and take some serious notes.
I've made some nice prints in the past,
but with all this new knowledge,
I can only imagine what those old prints will
look like when I apply all this new knowledge.
So, a heartfelt "Thank You" to you both!

For those of you who think haven't bought it, what are you waiting
for? If you're anything like me, you'll be blown away by it. It may be
over six hours, but the conversational manner in which it is taught is
entertaining AND educational.

I'm starting on the Lightroom tutorial as I write this.
Great stuff, Michael.

The greatest challenge that we as photographers face is how to translate the jumbled real world into a simplified iconic representation of what we see in our mind's eye.

We have now placed online a free HD excerpt from a 45 minute-long segment on doing photography in Madagascar that illustrates the issue. This is from the latest Video Journal.

Please note that this is a true streaming HD video, and therefore requires a monitor with at least 1280 X 720 resolution and a high speed connection.

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If you're interested in the history of the digital SLR then you'll absolutely want to download The DCS Story - 17 years of Kodak Professional digital camera systems - 1987-2004, written by Jim McGarvey, Kodak's lead engineer on the DCS cameras. It is being made available by NikonWeb.com.

Is the Panasonic Lumix G1 the new digital Leica? No – not that it's a rangefinder camera – but with the addition of a Leica M series lens adaptor it can take all of your M lenses, and do so with a body that is as small, light and disrete as an M8, and with excellent image quality as well as a low price.

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UPDATE:

What used lens costs more than an S Class Mercedes? A Canon 1200mm f/5.6, currently available from B&H Photo. Paypal accepted.

I'll take a pass though. No Image Stabilization.

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"I wanted to congratulate you on your LL guide to Lightroom 2 which I've just watched in a marathon single sitting while trying out the techniques demonstrated on a second monitor. Despite managing a database  of 40,000 images in Lightroom this is the first time I've really deeply understood this software. The tutorial was extremely thorough, clear and enlightening. I cant wait to incorporate this new knowledge into my daily work".

Not that long ago, together with award-winning film maker Chris Sanderson and documentary photographer Pierre Claquin, I spent two weeks exploring Madagascar with an eye to possibly conducting a future photography expedition / workshop. The country proved to be one of the most exotic and visually stimulating that I have ever visited, but so lacking in basic infrastructure that I eventually decided that conducting a workshop there wouldn't be viable.

A 45 minute long HD documentary on our shoot in Madagascar is now available as part of Issue #18 of the The Luminous Landscape Video Journal. The cost of the entire download issue is just $14.95. This issue also includes a segment on my recent expedition to Antarctica, an interview with  Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Jack Dykinga, and more.

This HD video is available for immediate download. Those who have previously purchased Issue #18 simply need to log onto their account on the site's Store to access the new video.

Oh yes – and your purchase makes you eligible for our latest contest, a private two-day field workshop with Michael Reichmann.

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The HD version of
Issue #18 of The Luminous Landscape Video Journal
containing a 45 minute-long documentary on doing a shoot
in Madagascar is now available.

Leica introduced the medium format S2 camera system at last September's Photokina with the intention of shipping in mid-2009. That time is now approaching.

I had an opportunity to briefly handle a pre-production camera at last month's PMA show, and today provide some thoughts on how the camera seemed to me, and what it might mean for the company when it is finally launched.

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Early Edition Video Journals Now Available as Downloads

Eleven months ago I held a fund raising print sale to assist Alexis, a very close friend of my wife and mine who lives in the U.S. She had a brain tumor and no health insurance. A great many people from all over the world purchased prints to help Alexis, and this money has been of invaluable assistance to her over the past year, making care and treatment available which would otherwise not have been possible for her. Alexis was amazed with and incredibly grateful for everyone's generosity.

It is therefore with great sadness that I report that Alexis passed away this past Tuesday. She will be missed by everyone that knew and loved her. Thank you again for your caring generosity last year. It made a very big difference during her final year.

Yesterday's links to two recent essays by Joe Holmes (see the 14 April entry below) has generated some considerable discussion. It also prompted me to put down a few notes on the importance of using optimum shooting techniques, which are now online.

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Michael, I just finished From Camera to Print, and I want to thank
you and Jeff for a seminar in which I feel like I learned to fly!
I learned so much that now I need to go back and watch again,
and take some serious notes.
I've made some nice prints in the past,
but with all this new knowledge,
I can only imagine what those old prints will
look like when I apply all this new knowledge.
So, a heartfelt "Thank You" to you both!

For those of you who think haven't bought it, what are you waiting
for? If you're anything like me, you'll be blown away by it. It may be
over six hours, but the conversational manner in which it is taught is
entertaining AND educational.

I'm starting on the Lightroom tutorial as I write this.
Great stuff, Michael.

Joseph Holmes is one of the pickiest photographers that I know of. He's a talented and widely published and collected landscape photographer, and is a highly respected inventor and patent holder in the field of digital imaging.

Joe is among a group of well known landscape photographers, including Bill Atkinson, Charlie Cramer, Mark Dubovoy, Tim Wolcott, and Michael Reichmann who previously worked with large format film and who now shoot with medium format digital Phase One backs in the 39MP – 60MP range on a mix of Hasselblad, Mamiya / Phase One, and technical camera bodies.

We are all driven by one compulsion – to achieve better than large format image quality – which we mostly do, but regretably not all of the time.

Being an absolute stickler for precision, and more importantly knowing how to achieve it, Joe has now written two articles on what's involved in achieving the absolute best from the latest generation of medium format digital systems.

These articles are currently available on Joe's site. The first is titled MEDIUM FORMAT DIGITAL CAMERA OPTICAL PRECISION while the second is GETTING TOP QUALITY FROM MEDIUM FORMAT.

Read 'em and weep!

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The HD version of Issue #18 of The Luminous Landscape Video Journal is now available.

Now that summer is approaching and the days are getting longer, (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) there are night landscape photography opportunities to be explored.

Irish landscape photographer and educator Peter Cox today gives us an essay on some basic techniques for this in his tutorial Irish Nocturne.

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I have been offline for the past week, on a shoot with a small group of friends in southern Arizona. The first of a sampling of images from this trip is now the new home-page photograph.

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The above graphic says it all.
Enter our latest and greatest contest yet
through your purchase of any of the download videos
and tutorials available on this site. Thank you!

Doing nighttime urban photography intimidates some photographers. And it should, since it's all too easy to have ones intentions misinterpreted by our potential subjects.

Last week I was in Miami Beach shooting a new video tutorial, and spent a couple of evenings cruising the South Beach area with my camera. In Adventures on the Dark (and Noisy) Side I discuss some of the issues involved in doing this type of shooting, and show some of my more "publishable" images.

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We have now been publishing the Luminous Landscape Video Journal for some 9 years and 18 editions. Initially these were available only on DVD and then we also added Standard Definition as well as HD downloads. Our current issue, #18 will be the last to be available on DVD. It is currently available as an HD download. All future Video Journals will available either as SD and HD downloads.

We are now starting to make all of our back issues available as downloads. Issues one through four have just been made available at a price of just $9.95 each, the lowest that we can make them.

While some of the product reviews in the older issues may be a bit dated, the technical articles, interviews with famous photographers, and travel segments continue to be both relevant and fresh. Chris and I hope that you enjoy them.

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I will be mostly offline for the next week on a shoot with some friends in Arizona. Whether there will be new content this coming week depends on Net availability while I'm travelling.

Phase One’s Capture One version 4.7 was released on Thursday with a new  file format designed to make it easier to share adjusted Phase One digital back-generated RAW files called EIP. It also permits adjustment of both JPEG and TIFF files. Additionally, 4.7 adds tethered shooting support for the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D3X. 

Are Things Really Simple at the Top? That's a play on Alpa's (a small Swiss speciality camera company) slogan. It's also the title of a new field review by contributor Mark Dubovoy.

Michael, I just finished From Camera to Print, and I want to thank
you and Jeff for a seminar in which I feel like I learned to fly!
I learned so much that now I need to go back and watch again,
and take some serious notes.
I've made some nice prints in the past,
but with all this new knowledge,
I can only imagine what those old prints will
look like when I apply all this new knowledge.
So, a heartfelt "Thank You" to you both!

For those of you who think haven't bought it, what are you waiting
for? If you're anything like me, you'll be blown away by it. It may be
over six hours, but the conversational manner in which it is taught is
entertaining AND educational.

I'm starting on the Lightroom tutorial as I write this.
Great stuff, Michael.

Our correspondent in Tokyo, Bernard Languillier, attended the Photo Imaging Expo show in Tokyo last week and today provides us with his show report.

I am currently in Miami Beach shooting a multi-hour instructional video with famous stock photographer and educator, Seth Resnick. It will be titled Where The %@# Are My Pictures, and will be an in-depth look at image management, archiving, key-wording, and backup, by the creator of D-65 Workshops. Watch for it here within a couple of months.

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UPDATE

A couple of the shots on Nick Devlin's 5DMKII review were orginally mislabled, and taken with his 1DsMKIII rather than the 5DMKII. A few people have gotten a bit bent over this.

The fact of the matter is that Nick shot with both cameras in Antarctica, and when he chose the shots to include simply selected the ones that he liked the best.

While it's true that the article was about the 5D MKII, the reality is that it makes not a wit worth of difference which camera was used, since the shots shown were not intended to llustrate any aspect of technical quality.

Take a deep breath folks. This stuff isn't worth getting agitated about.

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The above graphic says it all.
Enter our latest and greatest contest yet
through your purchase of any of the download videos
and tutorials available on this site. Thank you!

Today sees two new articles. The first is a field review of the Canon 5D MKII by Nick Devlin, based on his use of this camera during our January, 2009 Antarctic Expedition.

If you're looking for spec lists, graphs and menu diagrams – look elsewhere. But if you want an experienced photographer's impressions based on real-world usage, Nick's review is bound to please.

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The announcement yesterday that Phase One has made a major investment in Mamiya, and that they now are taking the lead position on both company's joint efforts in R&D, marketing and world-wide distribution, sent some waves through the industry.

Curious to find out more than what was in the press announcement I had the opportunity to interview Phase One's president and CEO, and an article based on that interview is now online.

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The HD version of Issue #18 of The Luminous Landscape Video Journal is now available.

Phase One and Mamiya Digital Imaging announced today that Phase One is making a significant financial investment in Mamiya Digital Imaging, thus becoming a major shareholder in the company.

It was also announced that Phase One will take on strategic leadership for the companies’ R & D, marketing and distribution management.

Like the companies’ flagship 645 camera system announced one year ago, future digital backs based on Phase One digital expertise will be marketed under both the Phase One and Mamiya brands.

The above is a paraphrase of the press anouncement deleting the legalize and marketing bumph. As to what the broader implications of this annoucement might be, I hope to be able to interview some Phase One executives in the days ahead and report on this here in greater detail.

The above graphic says it all.
Enter our latest and greatest contest yet
through your purchase of any of the download videos
and tutorials available on this site. Thank you!

Gekko is the brand name given to four B&W printing papers from Pictorico. My review of these new  papers is now online.

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The HD version of Issue #18 of The Luminous Landscape Video Journal is now available.

It isn't often that really new and useful technology comes along in photography. Yes, digital has seen a lot of innovation over the past ten years, but much is simply building on what came before and represents incremental improvements.

Following my review here last week of the new P65+, 60 Megapixel medium format back from Phase One, I now have an exclusive review of their Sensor+ technology, which is out of the lab and in production, and available in shipping P65+ backs as well as as a free upgrade for existing P65+ owners.

By "binning" four pixels together Phase One is able to produce files which, while 4X smaller (just 15 Megapixels rather than 60) are 4X cleaner at high ISO – an improvement of two full stops. Even if a P65+ is never to be in your future, it's interesting to see what is being done at the leading edge of sensor technology.

The HD version of Issue #18 of The Luminous Landscape Video Journal is now available.

This issue contains an interview with Pulitzer prize winning National Geographic photographer Jack Dykinga, and a segment on him and Michael Reichmann conducting a spring "Moose" photo workshop in Algonquin Park.

There is also a remarkable video on our trip through The Gullet, south of the Antarctic Circle this past January – a must-see in HD.

A feature on my expedition to Madagascar last year will be added soon (something to look forward to), and the technical feature in this edition is a detailed look at strategies for backing up your images in the field.

This High Definition (720p) download video may be viewed on any Windows, Mac or Unix PC using a free Quicktime player.

The DVD version will be available to exisiting subscribers in a few weeks.

The HD version costs just $14.95, while the SD Version costs only $9.95. Its purchase also makes you eligible for our new contest.

The above graphic says it all.
Enter our latest and greatest contest yet
through your purchase of any of the download videos
and tutorials available on this site. Thank you!

In the days of film there were always a number of weird and wonderful cameras to challenge and delight photographers. For all of the advances of the digital era we seem to have sacrificed originality, with most cameras seeming to be wonderplastic clones of each other, in form if not in function.

Setiz is one of the small European companies that has always followed their own path, and with their new Seitz D3 617 Panoramic Scanning Camera they bring that sense of adventure to the digital world.

David Osborn, a UK based photographer, today gives us some insight into this fascinating new camera.