Processed with Aperture 3.2 - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Aperture’s Photo Processing Tools

Is Aperture useful for post processing? Absolutely! I received some comments recently about Aperture’s photo processing tools and I wanted to share some examples of things you can accomplish without having to go into an external editor, like Photoshop.  For comparison, I’m posting the original image below to show you what came right out of the camera.

Original image out of camera - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Selective Editing

Although Aperture doesn’t have layers & masks like Photoshop, it’s still capable of doing some selective editing. The tools stack up on the Adjustments Panel in blocks.  Many of the different adjustments may have multiple blocks. Here’s a list of the processing I added to this image.

• Darkened the image using a Curves block. Selectively brushed it over the background.  The Detect Edges box on the brush made it easy to paint without affecting the motorcycle or model.
• Used the Repair brush to remove blemishes from the model’s face and loose hair on her top.
• Removed the reflection of my Octa Box on the motorcycle headlight with the Clone tool.
• Enhanced her lipstick with a Color block.
• Enhanced the color of her jean shorts with another Color block. (Way over the top for the demonstration)
• Added texture to jean shorts using using Definition on the Enhance block, brushed selectively on the jeans.
• Brushed in Skin Smoothing on the model at 50% Intensity.
• Brushed in Highlights block to bring down the brightness on her hair.
• Dodged her eyes (iris and whites brushed in separately).
• Burned edges of her face & nose to add a bit of sculpture to her features.
• Global edits for Levels, Definition and Vibrancy.
• Added a Vignette.
• Added a 16:9 Crop.

That’s it.  Although the list may seem a bit lengthy, it didn’t take long to finish the image. I didn’t need any plugins to selectively process the exposure, enhance colors or do the retouching on her skin.

There are different methods to handle some of the same techniques.  Instead of using a Curves block to darken the background, I could a Polarize (Multiply) block for the same effect. Instead of using Definition to bring out the texture on her shorts, the Intensify Contrast (Overlay) block could do the same thing.

The possibilities don’t end here.  Instead of using a plugin to create a glow, we can achieve the same effect with the Blur tool.  We can selectively brush an effect in or out of the photo, even further refining it to only affect Shadows, Midtones or Highlights. When used with the Detect Edges feature of the brush, Aperture provides exceptional control for your selected editing. If you’re unsure, you can turn on Overlay modes to see where you’ve processed part of the image.

Best of all, the edits are non-destructive.  I can hit the M key to toggle between the Master (original) view and my edits to see how the image changed, or I can create a new Version to try other editing techniques.  Aperture is a robust tool as a digital asset manager, but it also offers some comprehensive features for post processing.

Hillstone - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

The Hillstone Social Media Dinner

Last night, I was invited to join some of the Central Florida Food Bloggers for a social media dinner at one of my favorite restaurants – Hillstone’s (formerly Houston’s) in Winter Park, FL. I’ll be honest, this came as quite a surprise to me because I don’t really consider myself a food blogger.  It may be due to a secondary blog of mine – Orlando Local – which has a few posts about local restaurants, including some about Houston’s.

Central Florida has a thriving collection of food bloggers.  I follow some of them on Twitter & Facebook, and I got to meet a few more at Hillstone’s.  Gotta say that these are some nice people, very well informed on the local foodie scene and willing to share what they know.  You couldn’t ask for better dinner companions.  Of course, this isn’t a food blog and I felt a bit out of my element among them.

We were told to take all the photos we wanted, so I brought along my camera bag for food shots and my iPhone – since I wanted to share things live on Google+. The other food bloggers had an array of camera.  Most everyone had a smart phone, there were a few point & shoot camera, and a couple of DSLRs.  I didn’t think a bit when I opened my bag and started to assemble my D700 & 24-70mm lens.  Then, it happened.

Big Camera Syndrome

Suddenly, my camera became a topic of conversation.  It’s bigger, so it must be better. It’s kind of cute when that happens, but it has absolutely no bearing in truth. I agreed to share all of my photos with the others, but they were wise to take their own photos that night.  It’s good that they did, too.  You know why?

Food Blogging is Hard!

Man, this is a pretty tough field.  We’re dining outside in a covered dock just before sunset.  There’s harsh light and shadows all over the table, and everyone is shooting the food before we eat it. Fighting depth of field and lighting to get a shot of some food that you desperately want to eat is something that just messes with your mind.  I was OK during the salads because I don’t eat that stuff.  Lettuce grows in the dirt, so you know it’s a filthy food.  However, they brought out some delicious shrimp, French Dip, steaks, pork chops and…oh, my – GET IN MY BELLY kind of food.  Don’t even get me started about the mojitos, brownies, key lime pie and more!  Meanwhile, the sun is sinking and I’m contemplating when to break out my flash, yet not be rude to the other folks at the table.

Once I get home and start reviewing my shots, I see some that I like, but also see what I screwed up.  Since I wanted to get in tight on the food, I zoomed in close.  That started creating a very shallow depth of field and I knew I wasn’t getting focus quite the way I wanted.  I changed my aperture, which also meant changing my ISO.  Next thing I know, I’m shooting at ISO 1600 in setting sunlight.  The flash comes out with a portable umbrella.  Too much – I should have brought the grid.

As much as photographers like to beat themselves up for what they didn’t get, sometimes we have to be happy with the results we achieved. Food photography is a great challenge in itself when in a controlled environment, so I’m not going to beat myself up too much for some quick snapshots at a crowded dinner table.  I find that it’s a matter of trial & error for me.  I make mistakes, discover them, adjust and move on to the next challenge. Taking pics with a knife & fork in your hand is definitely a new challenge for me.

Overall, I had a magnificent evening.  We had great hosts, food, service and company for dinner.  Maybe there’s something to this food blogging business.  If only I weren’t such a finicky eater.

If you’re in the Orlando area, you should come visit one of my favorite restaurants.

Central Florida Food Bloggers

Check out some of the folks who joined me at this dinner on their Twitter accounts –   @EatingOrlando, @PrimlaniKitchen, @Kwidrick & @TravelerFoodie.

HD Badge - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

The Art of Close-up Automotive Photography

I recently watched a course by Tim Wallace on Kelby Training about close-up automotive photography.  Having seen is work before (check out Tim’s web site for examples), I was eager to understand his technique and try it myself. The image above is from my first effort.  The course was intriguing, but extremely easy to understand and replicate.  In his concluding remarks, Tim urged practice of the technique.  Here’s what I learned from my first experience.

It’s Easy to Get Started

Per the course instructions, I used a single light (an Elinchrom BXRi 500) and a strip light setup at roughly a 90 degree angle from my camera & subject. My camera settings for this shot were as follows:

• ISO: 200
• Aperture: f/22
• Shutter Speed: 1/200
• Focal Length 52mm (using a Nikon 24-70mm lens)

The exposure settings are there to ensure that the light falls off rapidly.  You can’t see any ambient light in this shot, so the background doesn’t matter.  I was just sitting on the garage floor shooting up at the H-D badge on the fuel tank.

It Takes Practice to Master

Having only done this once, I’m no master.  However, I believe that it’s good to learn techniques and give them a try. That’s one of the reasons why I have been an annual subscriber to Kelby Training over four years now.

My brief experience here reinforced many of the things that Tim mentioned during the course, but they had more meaning after a bit of experience. For example, he spoke about ensuring your subject was clean before the shoot, as it was much less time consuming than dealing with it in Photoshop.  I sprayed the bike with a polish, wiped it down, and did my shots.  Everything OK, right?  Not even close.  The lighting revealed many little spots in the badge, swipe marks on the tank, and a plethora of imperfections that I never saw while looking at the bike.  However, they were quite bold and evident when looking at the full resolution images. Every spot & speck is plainly visible, and there are hundreds of them in this shot. Take this engine shot as an example.

HD Engine - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

The angle of light matters, but that doesn’t mean you move the light. Instead, move yourself.  Using the modeling light, I could get a feel for which parts would be lit and where there were shadows.  By moving the camera around before the shot while looking through the viewfinder, I could easily see which angle offered the best lighting.

Even then, it still took a bit more refinement once the flash fired. In some of my early shots, only half the tank badge was lit properly, and that sliver of it on the left side was completely gone.  I knew that I also needed to adjust my exposure, but that brought new lessons.

Since I wanted to allow more light in the camera to show the entire badge, my first instinct was to open my aperture a bit.  Bad move.  The key to making this shot work is the light falloff. By opening my aperture, I let in more ambient light and had less falloff.  That made the subject more visible, but less dramatic.  They key was to keep my camera settings as they were and adjust the light to punch out another stop.

Angles mean everything here. There are plenty of reflective surfaces and I didn’t want the soft box to show up in a reflection.  That meant spending time tweaking the light in small moves until I got the angle I wanted.  As I said, the concept is simple.  It’s the refinements that matter. It worked well for me on some parts, and there are others (like the speedometer) where I need to go back and practice a bit more to work out the angle I need.

Knowledge is a Barrier to Learning

Sometimes you can talk yourself out of trying something because you know it won’t work. I never tried shots like this before because I knew the reflections would kill me. Tim’s course opened my eyes to the possibility and experimenting with these shots was a blast. After I thought about it for a bit, I realized that I also knew exactly why this should work.  It’s just that I didn’t let that knowledge come to the forefront.

When you think about it, the key here is a fast light falloff and using an angle to eliminate the reflections. I never put 1+1 together to do this on my own, and now I’m keeping myself awake with the possibilities for other subjects. That is exactly why your mindset is more important than your gear. This experience proves to me once again that photography is simple. The only hard thing about it is allowing yourself to succeed. Sure, it takes practice to master. These shots, at least for me, are just proof of concept.  Now that the barrier in my mind is gone, I can practice & tweak things to have fun with more subjects.  You should, too.
Kelby Training has been a great resource for me to see what other photographers are doing, understand the concepts, and then put them into practice. They keep adding new content all the time, so I never stop learning.  It’s a wonderful feeling to know that there’s always something else to learn, some new technique to add to my bag of tricks, or perhaps just to get me to think about using my knowledge in ways that I hadn’t considered.  Kelby Training really works.

Hollywood Nights - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Another Digital vs. Film Discussion

I was in the local Sony store with some friends last week and the topic turned to all of the TV players with Blu Ray movies running on them. They were very sharp and clear, but we started talking a bit about how they felt, rather than how they looked. To my eye, these digital movies were so sharp that they made skin look gritty. Not just on one TV or from one movie, but on all of them.  I’m guessing that’s an artifact of Sony products, because HD movies on my Panasonic TV don’t have that kind of over-reaching sharpness.

Older movies shot on film definitely evoke a different feeling in comparison. Of course, I never noticed that feeling before when I originally watched those movies or TV shows. If you compared them to even older films – the kind with obvious differences in color – you could put yourself in a different time and place.  That doesn’t happen in the digital age, unless we force it.

So, I forced it. I thought about the old Rat Pack era. Guys in suits with “dolls” hanging around.  Not black & white, but not quite color as we’re used to seeing it today.  I’m still experimenting, but I’m having a bit of fun with it.  We’ll see where it goes.

What do you think?

Why So Serious? - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Do you want to be known as a serious photographer?

There are many people who strive just for that label.  They want to be taken seriously. In fact, it seems to be a matter of pride for some photographers.  They strive to be taken seriously and, once they arrive at this mystical land if seriousness, they’re almost outraged at the thought of not being taken seriously. In order to be taken seriously, they create seriously dark & brooding images – often filled with shadows, but they delight at splashes of light with good quality.  That’s very important to be a serious photographer – you must have quality light.

There have been times when I’ve really tried very hard to be a good photographer, but I don’t know if I want to be known as a serious photographer.  It sounds as if I should be in a perpetual funk, tossing beer bottles across dimly lit bars like some Hemingway-esque character with a camera instead of a Corona #3 typewriter.

I love reading Hemingway’s stories.  Anyone who creates a work of art would aspire to create something as treasured as The Old Man and the Sea. On the other hand, I can’t help but note that being serious is not the only path to success. There’s another path with a sense of joy & whimsy – perhaps that’s why we also love Dr. Seuss and The Lorax.

It’s OK to be serious about your photography and work hard at your art.  Just don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t have photos just because they make you smile. So go ahead.  Shoot your picture of cats, railroad tracks, waterfalls and more cats. Other photographers may not take you seriously, but you may make someone smile.

The Escape Route - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Escape from Hoover Dam!

These steps inside of Hoover Dam are the ultimate stair master!  They’re at such a steep angle that they have more in common with a ladder than a staircase. Just imagine being deep inside this mammoth concrete structure and something goes wrong – like a power failure or explosion. The elevators aren’t working or safe to use, so you need another way out. This is it, folks. You’d be trudging up these stairs, perhaps in the dark if the lighting fails.  Kind of creepy, isn’t it? Just think how creepy it would be to get stuck without those stairs and they suddenly look a bit friendlier.

Why I’m Still Not Switching to Lightroom 4

Photographers all over the Internet were broadcasting the release of Adobe’s Lightroom 4. I admit, I retweeted the news when I saw Adobe’s announcement at midnight.  Why do we do this marketing effort for corporations that pay us nothing for our efforts? I’m not even a Lightroom user and don’t plan on becoming one, so my own participation was…well, it was just sad.

As I’ve mentioned before, I use Apple’s Aperture 3. Both products are fine and do pretty much the same job.  It’s a major hassle to switch from one product to another, so it seems to me that you would need a very good reason to make the change. That’s why I paid close attention to a few folks who asked if they could import their Aperture library into Lightroom 4.

The short answer is that you can’t do it very easily, and you’ll lose the work that you already created in Aperture. The same would be true if you wanted to switch from Lightroom to Aperture. The thing I want to know is this – why would you want to switch?

If you’re going to spend money, disrupt your photography workflow, lose edits on photos you carefully created in the past, wouldn’t you want to have a real need before going through that experience? I would.

It’s not as if I’m trying to put down Lightroom.  I think it’s a fine product, but I’m already embedded with Aperture. So each time there is a new revision in the product lines, I do an evaluation to see if there is a compelling reason to change.  Does it solve a problem? Does it have a new feature that didn’t exist before and I can’t replicate with my current tools? What makes it worth the pain and expense of switching from one platform to another.

Unfortunately, I think some folks get caught up in the hype of a new product launch. People are going “ooh” and “ahh” over new features in Lightroom 4, and it’s tempting to want to get in on some of that affection. The problem is that is an emotional response, not a rational decision. Emotional responses are powerful, but they don’t last.  Digital Asset Managers are meant to last, so choose wisely.

At their core – their very reason for existence – Aperture and Lightroom are digital asset managers. They keep your media organized. Yes, they do other important things, but the view into your photo library and how you control it is – I think – the reason why you don’t just use Bridge and Camera RAW to process your photographs. With that in mind, I can’t help but notice that Lightroom 4 offers no improvements to file management.  I’m already of the opinion that Aperture’s file management is superior to Lightroom, so I know right off the bat that Lightroom 4 isn’t going to offer any huge improvements that I can’t implement into my workflow.

There are some nice enhancements to Lightroom’s Development module (why is any product limited to a modular approach in 2012?). Adobe added some of the features I already had in Aperture, and also a couple that I don’t have. Wait, those same features are in Camera RAW. So, I do have them if I absolutely need them. In any case, the new features fell into the category of convenience for me, rather than necessary for me.

As I noted in the Lightroom 4 Beta, most of the new features looked like Adobe was adding parity to many of the features I have in Aperture.  Book printing? Got it.  Maps?  Got it. Video support?  Got it. I don’t see anything compelling to make a switch.

If you have a previous version of Lightroom, it makes perfect sense to upgrade. You get more features in a package that easily upgrades your existing catalog. That makes perfect sense. If you’re using Aperture 3 or some other DAM, then weigh your options carefully. Unless you see a problem solved in Lightroom 4 that you can’t perform in your existing tools, I honestly don’t think it’s worth the expense & effort of making a switch.

Dude on a Harley - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Lightweight Lighting

Like many other communities, we have a local group of photographers & models who meet regularly to get to know each other. I started attending last summer and so did Justin, the model in this photo. He looks a bit different than he did in his suit & tie last time around. I never knew he was inked up like that when I first met him.  Personally, I’m not a fan of tattoos, but I think they work with this kind of image.

When I go to these events, I want my gear to be simple & effective. That meant using one Nikon Speedlight and a Lastolite Hotrod Octa soft box on a light stand. I shot using CLS in TTL mode and it worked perfectly.  Almost perfectly. CLS is a line of sight trigger, so I missed my flash on a couple of occasions when I didn’t have a good line between my camera and the Speedlight. That just meant I had to adjust my position or the light, and then I was as happy as tornado in a trailer park.

The quality of light from this combination is just beautiful. Great contrast, shadows and falloff. For a lightweight setup, the Nikon Speedlight and Lastolite Hotrod Octa pack a lot of punch.

My Photography Gear

I added a page showing what photography gear I use, along with some sample images to show how the gear impacts the results. You can find it under the Gear menu link, or just click this link.

Cheap Trick - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

I think this qualifies as my first concert photo opportunity. Back in 2006 at Orlando Harley-Davidson, Cheap Trick was playing for Bike Week crowds.  Yes, I am a biker and I love free concerts.  My boss at the time was not a biker, but he loves concerts.  I didn’t realize it, but he ended up in one of my shots over the crowd – talking on his Blackberry.  That just isn’t right. You can’t go to a concert and talk on a cell phone.  If there’s a law against writing on the sidewalk in chalk, there should be a law against using cell phones at concerts.

There was no photo pit or special access.  I was just a guy in the crowd with a Nikon D70 and a cheap Nikon 70-300mm lens that I bought for $150 years ago, trying to shoot over the crowd.  No glamourous stage lights or explosions, but a bit of nice light coming from the sunset. Most of my shots didn’t come out because I honestly didn’t know a thing about concert photography.

Music Photography

If you ever wanted to get photos of your favorite musicians, it may have seemed impossible. The good news is that it’s not impossible.  People are doing it all the time.  You just need to know what they know.  That’s where you’re in luck.  Alan Hess just published his book  on concert photography – All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography (Amazon URL). If you’re curious what you get, check out my review of his book. I wish I’d known then what I know now – particularly at an open even like that one!  The good news is that I can try again.  Only a little over a month until Bike Week comes back.

The Pirate's Den - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Before I start discussing Aperture vs. Lightroom again, I just wanted to share the photo of the Pirate’s Den today. If you wander back into Adventureland in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, you may not notice this little area as you pass it.  That is, unless you happen to find Captain Jack Sparrow out front.  He tends to stop in here when it’s time to recruit new pirates for his ship.  Odd, though.  No one ever asks what happened to the pirates he needs to replace.

Lightroom 4 (beta) Announced and Released

You may have heard that Adobe released an open beta of its next iteration of Lightroom at midnight on January 11th. I happened to be up at the time and grabbed the download while it was still fresh and hot out of the oven. Mind you, I’m an Aperture 3 user, but I’m also an Adobe Photoshop user. Either brand is fine with me, so long as the tool does what I need. Both Aperture and Lightroom are very capable products.  Each one has features that the other lacks, and it seems that new releases from either vendor try to close the gap where they lack and expand it so the other guy has to play catch-up.  There’s definitely a lot of that apparent in Lightroom 4 (beta), as there was when Aperture 3 was released.

Ultimately, my primary reason for using this type of tool is to manage my photographs. Why did I choose Aperture? It’s pretty simple.  At the time I chose, Aperture existed and Lightroom wasn’t announced. When Adobe initially announced Lightroom (with a very long beta period), I checked it out.  I’ve also checked out every other release of Lightroom and compared it to Aperture, trying to determine if there is a compelling reason for me to switch products to manage my photos.

Is There a Compelling Reason to Switch from Aperture 3 to Lightroom 4 (beta)?

Let’s start with the short answer.  No.

Is there a long answer?

Yes. Before I get into that, I want to share this video of a Google+ hangout that Matt Kloskowski conducted during the midnight launch.  I was lucky enough to join (like I said, I was still awake) to see some of the new features. Thanks to Keith Barrett for providing a live stream to those who couldn’t get in the hangout, not to mention recording it for folks to watch later.

Let’s take a look at this list of new features in Lightroom 4 (beta).

• Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
• Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
• Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
• White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
• Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
• Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
• Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.
• Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
• Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

From that list of nine new features, seven of them already existed in Aperture 3. The first item, Highlight and Shadow Recovery, really looks great on the demonstration.  It looks like Adobe broke the Recovery slider apart to tackle problems in different areas of an image.  Definitely a very impressive feature that Aperture doesn’t have at the moment. The White Balance Brush is another step beyond fore Lightroom, since it’s a global adjustment in Aperture.

I was actually surprised that some of these features didn’t already exist in Lightroom 3, such as e-mail.  That seems like a no-brainer to me.  However, software development often has a longer list of features than time allows.  It could be that e-mail wasn’t high on the list and never got completed before. At any rate, it’ll work in future versions of Lightroom.

Lightroom has some features that I genuinely like, including a great noise reduction tool, gradient tool and lens profiles.  None of those are reasons to switch, though. As I mentioned, I have Photoshop CS5. That comes with Adobe Camera Raw, which includes the same features in the Lightroom 3 Development module.  There is no reason to believe that Adobe won’t update ACR to be comparable with Lightroom 4 at some point.  Aside from that, I think that Aperture 3 has a better RAW conversion engine than Lightroom/ACR.  However, the differences between the two get into the pixel-peeping range and it’s not a substantial advantage.  Nobody is going to look at a finished photo and say, “Oh, dude!  You used Lightroom’s RAW conversion instead of Aperture.  You really blew it there!”  Not gonna happen.

The biggest reason I don’t think it’s worth the switch is because Adobe did nothing to improve the core competency of Lightroom as a Digital Asset Manager.  At least, not yet.  After all, this is just the first introduction of a beta product.  Adobe has included features in shipping products that weren’t in the previous beta releases. Maybe they have something in mind and don’t want to share it yet.

What Would It Take to Switch from Aperture to Lightroom?

Pay attention, my Adobe friends.  Here’s my list of obstacles you need to overcome to sway me from Aperture to your side completely.

• A Migration Tool – I have thousands of photos in my Aperture databases that are filled with metadata.  Keywords, GPS data, etc.  I don’t want to lose any of that information.  You need to provide a migration tool that takes all of my images (not to mention audio, video & PDFs) with its associated metadata, folders, projects, albums, smart albums, etc…and seamlessly translate it into your product.  I don’t expect you to convert the photo edits from Aperture Versions to Lightroom (though that would be nice), but the metadata and structure is essential and non-negotiable. It needs to be dead-stupid simple, too.  Magical.  Press this button and bibbity-bobbity-boo – you’re migrated.
• Provide a Managed Library – Your referenced catalog approach is quaint.  Aperture can also reference images in directory folders, but I prefer the Managed approach. It simplifies many operations.  If I want to backup my photos, I press a button in Aperture to save them in a Vault, right inside of Aperture.  It doesn’t waste time copying each file over and over – it makes incremental updates so backs are quick and convenient.  If I want to move my Aperture Library, I drag it and move it to another directory drive or folder and it’s good to go.  No rebuilding of catalogs or any other myriad of problems involved with separate files & folders held together by the twine of a catalog, XMP sidecars, etc.  If I want to merge a Library into another one, I can either import it in Aperture or just drag one on top of another in the Mac Finder.  Simple. I know some people actually like using a referenced catalog, but I’ve found that’s mostly due to their lack of understanding how a Library system can work.  It’s like they think keeping their photos in a Library are the photographic equivalent of Schrodinger’s Cat.  Everything that someone has thrown at me explaining why their RAW files just have to be in a directory folder was bogus. They worry about database corruption and losing their images, and all sorts of imagined dangers.  Those fears are as likely as a directory corruption, which is why we all keep backups.  The benefits are plentiful & useful, and I’ve never suffered a setback.  Lightroom could benefit from providing a managed option to store data.
• Dump the Modules – What in the world was Adobe thinking when it introduced a modular digital asset manager? Such constraints are a thing of the past. An object-oriented approach in development should flow over into usability. I expect to be able to manipulate the properties and methods of any data object at any time. Again, Aperture does it.  I don’t need to be in a Library, Print or Development module.  At any time, I edit my photos. A slideshow, folder, book or print is just another container. The only variable is the selection of data objects (photos) in that collection.  I should be able to look at a book layout and decide that a photo would be better as a black & white image here, and then make the changes right there.  Hopping about from one module to another is tedious and obsolete. You could fix that issue.  You should fix that issue.
• Price Parity – Lightroom is no longer worth $300.  I think you know that, though.  I think that’s why we’ve seen so many price reductions to $150 over the past few months.  When you woke up one morning and saw that Apple dropped the price of Aperture from $200 to $79, I bet your jaw dropped.  I know mine did, because I paid full price & upgrade pricing over the years.  I missed out on all of that low-priced goodness, but no more.  Aperture 3 is a great tool, as is Lightroom.  So, why should I pay 3.8 times more money to switch to your product, particularly with the issues I listed above?  You have some stuff I like, but it’s not like you’re the only place I can get tools to manage my images.

If you want to sway me to abandon Aperture to use Lightroom, and to get those features that I truly do respect, then you need to make more of an effort.  Windows users don’t have a choice to use Aperture. Is the Mac market worthy of the effort I mentioned above?  I don’t know your analysis.  What I do know is that a lot of new users will look at the products and see price tags.  A lot of existing Aperture users will find that both price and migration issues stand in their way.  Only Adobe can address those issues.

Some Aperture users may look at other factors and come to different conclusions, and that’s fine.  For example, both Aperture 3 and Lightroom 4 (beta) now have templates for books.  There are 11 templates in Aperture.  There are 180 in Lightroom 4 (beta). Slideshows are another area of comparison with pros and cons on each side.  Aperture has a limited set of templates, but you have better options to time the slide transition to go along with music, or whatever timing you want. Lightroom 3 already had more flexibility for creating custom slideshows than Aperture, and the same is true of Lightroom’s print module.  By no means do I mean to convey that Lightroom is any kind of slouch compared to Aperture.  It’s just not compelling when I look at the core workflow, the burden of effort to migrate, and the price disparity.  I’m happy to peek fondly over the fence to see what Lightroom is doing, but it isn’t making me switch sides yet.

I'm Going Off the Rails on a Crazy Train - © Copyright 2012 by William Beem

Welcome to 2012, everyone!

Everyone seems to like a New Year.  There’s fresh optimism about what’s to come, despite the news at the end of the previous year. Don’t year-end wrap up reports seem to be rather depressing?  It always amazes me how quickly we forget that stuff to be happy for the New Year.  Perhaps it’s just something we have to do.

The New Year is often a time of change.  For instance, I know that parking at my gym is going to be packed for the next month or two as many people try to get over their holiday indulgences.  In that respect, I’m no different – been packing away the cupcakes and ice cream lately and I’m feeling it.  However, there’s something else that I’ve decided to change this year.

I’m Going Creative Commons

As of January 1, 2012, I’ve decided to adopt a Creative Commons license for the use of my photographs. It’s not something I decided lightly, but I finally got over the last hurdle. You see, I don’t mind non-commercial use of my photos. When someone asks me if they can have a photo for a background or some other use, I’m good with it. However, I’ve never been appreciative of commercial use of my photos. That’s one of the big issues I had with Creative Commons – it doesn’t adequately describe “Commercial Use.” So, I quietly allowed people to use my photos and went after commercial entities who used them without a license.

What I lacked, however, was the benefit of attribution from those who shared my photos. While I still would like Creative Commons licenses to have a bit more definition about the terms of Commercial Use, I find that no longer outweighs the benefits of sharing and attribution.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve observed other photographers on each side of this issue. What is eminently clear to me is that there is greater benefit – to everyone – when your usage intentions are identified in a way that people can understand.  Not surprisingly, sharing with attribution really does provide its own rewards.

I know the old argument – in fact, I’ve made it in the past – that you pay your bills with money, not attention.  That’s true, but the bigger truth is that you aren’t going to get much money if you won’t let anyone pay attention to your work. As I said, I’ve watch photographers on both sides of this issues.  Those who are sharing their work via Creative Commons are coming out ahead of those who are filing DMCA notices left & right.

My photos are still registered with the U.S. Copyright office, so I’m not giving up ownership of my photos or copyrights. Rather, I’m simply providing a usage license. Although I’ve found some unauthorized commercial uses of my images in the past, I don’t see that it is a very common problem worthy of overriding the benefit of sharing with a Creative Commons license.

With that in mind, I’m adopting the following license:

Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

How Does it Work?

It’s very simple.  You’re free to use my images on your blog, for personal use – basically anything that isn’t a commercial business use – as long as you do the following:

1. Link back to http://williambeem.com
2. Give credit to William Beem

If you want to use one of my images for a commercial use or for a print, please contact me to discuss a licensing agreement. Larger versions of most images are available on my Flickr account, and I’ll work to upload larger versions of images that aren’t full size.

Please see my Licensing page for more details.