Adobe Burns Photoshop Users With Upgrade Pricing

Adobe Photoshop Logo
Photoshop users get a lump of coal from Adobe

I always thought Photoshop was expensive for what you get, CS5 at almost $500 is enough to drive anyone to a second look at GIMP tutorials. Now Adobe has given current CS2, CS3, and CS4 users something to stew about.

The latest comes from Adobe’s own blog:

With regards to upgrades, we are changing our policy for perpetual license customers. In order to qualify for upgrade pricing when CS6 releases, customers will need to be on the latest version of our software (either CS5 or CS5.5 editions).

So, if you don’t have the most current version of Photoshop, the best Adobe is going to give you is 20 percent off CS6 and that only through December. Take that loyal customers!

You’d think that scoring a slew of new customers for Premiere Pro CS5 from Apple’s bungled FCP update by offering aggressive discounts would have pointed to the wisdom of lowering the barrier to entry on expensive software, but somehow that lesson didn’t sink in at Adobe.

Your other option is to spend $49.99 per month, which translates to $600 a year, on the Creative Suite Master Collection. For a lot of people that’s more than they’re paying for cable and internet for access to a software package.

Some people have argued that the pricing is not excessive when compared to other enterprise level software packages, but the majority of photographers are not an enterprise. It’s one person struggling to make ends meet and Adobe just kicked those people while the economy already had them down.

A lump of coal in the stocking of millions of small business people is Adobe’s way of saying happy holidays!

What Makes a Photographer Professional?

professional photographers
Having a big lens does not make you a professional photographer - by sgsprzem

Nikon really irked me with their Facebook post suggesting a photographer is only as good as his equipment. That was an arrogant statement of the type one would expect from a brand name company and it’s wrong.

I remember taking golf lessons one time, certain the reason I was golfing so poorly was my clubs. Without a word the golf pro asked to borrow my clubs and then proceeded to hit one perfect shot after another. He then repeated that performance with clubs from every other bag, including the kids and left handed players. He was making a point that being a pro doesn’t depend on your equipment.

That’s also true to a certain extent in photography. The real professionals are the people who can pick up any camera, spend a few minutes familiarizing themselves with the controls, and get fantastic shots that keep getting better the longer they use the camera.

You can argue that your equipment should reach a certain standard of quality and you’d be correct. But that standard has come down in price so far lately that it’s within reach of most people with an average income. So what then separates the “Uncle Bobs” from the true pros?

Rapport

Being able to capture fantastic portraits means getting people to relax and express real emotion. You don’t have all day to establish that trust and connection. One of the marks of a pro is having a knack for putting people at ease.

Establishing immediate rapport one skill you won’t get out of a book. You have to genuinely like people and be able to see anyone in a positive light. My pledge to people is that I’ll never take a shot that makes anyone look bad. Sometimes there’s a fine line between an unguarded moment and a goofy look. As tempting as it is sometimes, I’ll pass on the goofy look.

You Pay Your Dues

Not in terms of money to a professional organization, although there are good reasons to do so. I mean you put in the time. The professional photographers I know are shooting pictures all the time, whether they’re getting paid for it or not. They are driven to shoot, constantly striving to get a better shot, a better look, and honing their distinctive style.

The true professional photographers I know are both student and teacher, sometimes on the same job. In my experience the photographers who have all the answers are shooting work that looks like yesterday’s news. Perhaps technically correct, but lacking passion.

Driven To Perfection

The drive to perfection will also yield consistency. Your pictures will not only be good, but they’ll get a little better every time you go out. In any weather conditions, any location, any subject, whether you’re having a good day or a bad day, you’ll be able to bring back the shot.

At a certain point your clients will have more faith in your abilities than you have in your own. That’s kind of the tipping point in professional photography. The moment you know you’ve arrived as a professional. The point your clients know they can send you anywhere and not worry they’ll get fantastic work back.

Mainly, being a professional is staying focused on your work and honing your craft over a lifetime. That’s the difference between the pros and Uncle Bob.

Decoding Histograms For Better Photography

histogram picture
The histogram clearly shows the dark elements dominate this photo - Use a fill flash if you're shooting for optimum exposure

I do a lot of what’s sometimes mockingly referred to as “chimping”, looking down at my camera’s LCD screen after taking a shot. Sometimes I’m looking at the picture, more often I’m looking at the histogram.

The histogram is one of the most powerful yet frequently under-used features of high end cameras. Study them long enough at it gets to be like Neo in The Matrix: You can look at the histogram and know whether the photo is good and have a rough idea what it will look like.

At a basic level the luminosity histogram shows the distribution of luminosity values from darkest to lightest. The vertical spikes in the graph show the distribution of brightness levels in that particular scene.

In the example photos I deliberately selected images that were tricky exposures. A fair subject on a white background, brightly lit background with a foreground subject in shadows, and a balanced exposure in daylight so you can compare the histograms.

histogram light
A fair subject on a white background shifts the luminosity histogram the other way

In my Canon 7D, the histogram is showing a 5 stop dynamic range (different than the displays in the photos). That’s a pretty healthy dynamic range compared to the old days, and yet many photos demand more. To fit a photo into your camera’s dynamic range, you have a few options:

– Use the fill flash on the foreground, essentially moving the darks into your camera’s midtone dynamic range.

– Use HDR techniques to expose for different parts of the photo and merge them digitally.

– Use a Neutral Density filter to crush the highlights and shift the exposure toward dark and middle tones.

– Wait for better light.

histogram balanced
This histogram shows a wide dynamic range but fairly well balanced - If the subject wasn't moving, this would be a candidate for HDR processing

Now you might understand a little better why DSLR video shooters always carry a set of Neutral Density filters around. They’re limited to 1/50 of a second shutter speed, which narrows their options for shifting the dynamic range.

Luminosity is only one component of your histogram. In the future we’ll look at even more ways to hack your histograms for better photography.

Learning The Photography Business

photographers on TFP shoots
It's not unheard of to have 10 to 12 photographers sharing TFP models

Photography is one of those fields that requires a certain amount of study, whether that comes out of books, online, or in a classroom, combined with practical exercises in order to grow in the field.

There are lots of ways to get that experience. You can strike out on your own with the equipment you can cobble together and slowly build your portfolio. Another approach is to partner up with other photographers in the area and pool your resources.

TFP Shoots

TFP stands for Time For Prints and it’s how poor photographers starting out get to work with poor models just starting out. The basic arrangement is an exchange of the model’s time for your pictures.

When it comes to a commercial release, some TFP models will sign them, but many will not. Usually a commercial release comes with a price tag. Some photographers will insist on a commercial release for a TFP contract, and more than a few get them. To me it seems a little unfair. If you’re going to sell the photos, the model should get something, even if it’s on a contingency basis. That’s my philosophy anyway, not everyone agrees.  You don’t need a commercial release to use TFP photos in your personal portfolio, you may when using them on a commercial web site or for promoting your business.

It’s not unusual for two, three or more photographers to team up for a large shoot involving several models. When I say “models” most people are picturing women in the 18-24 demographic, but don’t get tunnel vision when it comes to picking talent. There is a big call for older and middle age models and don’t pick all women, either. Mix it up. The more diversity in your model selection the bigger chance you have of making a sale.

tfp model
Make diverse choices when selecting TFP models and don't forget to consider men as well

Studio Rentals

I know successful photographers who do not have their own studio. They rent studio space when they need it, sometimes scheduling several portraits on one day. It makes sense in many instances. You can rent fully equipped studios with high end lights by companies like Paul C. Buff and Bowens that even include the radio triggers and backgrounds. In some cases you’re just renting lights, space and supplying your own backgrounds.

Until you have the business to justify your own studio and equipment, this may be your only option for getting started.

This is another area where partnering up with other photographers can save money. Two photographers splitting a studio rental may be able to work with high end lighting equipment for as little as $20 an hour.

You can find other photographers in your area on Flickr, through professional associations like PPA, or just running an ad in Craigslist. Obviously, you’ll want to spend some time checking out potential partners and agreeing on the ground rules of shoots beforehand.

By looking around and working with other photographers, you’ll be able to encourage one another, learn from one another, and cast a longer shadow than either of you could alone.

Hack Your Camera’s Presets

The Canon Neutral picture style menu - by Canon

One of the more amazingly powerful and least understood features of modern DSLRs are the camera image style presets. I’m speaking specifically about image presets, also called picture styles, not preset shooting modes like aperture priority or shutter priority.

This topic can get a little confusing because of the sometimes fluid nature of photography terms and because some manufactures implement presets that change both the shooting modes and picture style under one setting heading and they all use different terms to describe the same basic processes. That’s why owner’s manuals are your friend. I’ve never been to a professional photography studio where a dog-eared camera manual wasn’t either on the desk or a convenient shelf.

Today I’m focused specifically on image presets. In the Canon line they have names like Standard, Portrait, Faithful, and Landscape. Nikon implements them slightly differently with names like Standard, Vivid and Neutral.

This is another one of those topics where DSLR video and still photography collide and maybe the video guys have a little bit of a lead. In the old days you’d make this selection by choosing a different film type based on the shooting you were doing that day. Today it’s the Picture Styles menu in Canon and Manage Picture Control in Nikon.

If you’re not using styles, you’re missing out on a huge amount of functionality. In Canon you can switch between Standard and Landscape when shooting outdoors which produces more vivid colors in the green and blue range. Switch to the Portrait style when shooting people and your camera shifts the color and saturation settings to those more favorable to skin tones.

You can also create your own custom picture styles by selecting a unique combination of sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone and then save them in one of your custom preset menu options.

You can also modify the camera preset by tweaking the settings in the menu options. I don’t really recommend doing that until you have a lot of experience. Better to copy the settings into a custom preset and play around with them there.

The best place to learn the particulars of your camera’s picture styles is the owner’s manual. Read it, understand it, and do some experiments in controlled shooting situations that help you understand what’s happening when you change the image style settings.

Understanding picture styles and presets can make a huge difference in the quality of your photographs. It’s not fun, it’s not sexy, but it’s imperative to becoming a better shooter.