ImageRights International offers free service

ImageRights International offers free service: "

This is a press release from the guys at ImageRights International, via our friends at Matternow… It’s fair to say that you guys don’t often like press release posts like this one, but I think this one may be something very useful to a lot of us!

**update** I can confirm this service works, as advertised, I did a sneaky test involving “borrowing” one of the co-founder’s photographs from his website and posting it on my blog, he had emailed me in no time to tell me I was “sprung” — I’ve signed up! –Sime

Press Release

ImageRights International offers free service to help professional photographers identify digital image theft

Powerful visual search technology detects photo copyright violations, stock photo piracy

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. June 29, 2010 ImageRights International, Inc., a company that helps professional photographers and illustrators discover the illegal use of their intellectual property on the Web, is offering a free version of its online image recognition and recovery service to further expand efforts against image piracy.

With this new offering, the company’s advanced visual search and crawler technology will continuously scan websites and blogs to protect up to 10,000 images for professional photographers and illustrators. The crawler indexes millions of new images every month and uses powerful image recognition technology to compare customers’ photos and illustrations against images found on the Web. It then detects where the customers’ images have been used, even if the stolen photos have been altered, cropped, rotated or color adjusted. The customer receives a full report, including a picture of the original image, its use online, and the URL and ownership information for the website where it was found.

“As an advocate for photographers and illustrators, our goal is to help artistic professionals monitor how their work is being used on the Internet, and to partner with them to recoup lost profits when it’s being used illegally,” said Maria Kessler, senior vice president of business development at ImageRights and former president of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA). “Image piracy is rampant online and by making these services more accessible, we’re enabling creatives to have more control over how their images are used, while sending a clear message that we are patrolling for unauthorized uses.”

Customers who take advantage of ImageRights’ free service may also participate in the company’s new, optional Recovery Program, which will launch next month to help photographers and illustrators obtain compensation for the unauthorized use of their images.

ImageRights will continue to offer its Basic, Standard and Pro packages for a monthly fee of $9.95, $19.95 and $39.95, respectively. Customers who select a paid program and opt into the Recovery Program will share 35 percent of their recovered fees with ImageRights; those who select the free service will share 50 percent of their compensation. Users are welcome to opt out of the ImageRights’ Recovery Program to pursue compensation on their own or with the help of their own attorney.

For information about ImageRights or to create your free account and start uploading your images now, go to www.imagerights.com

About ImageRights International

ImageRights International protects professional photographers and illustrators’ intellectual property online by identifying illegal use of images and providing a support system to receive proper compensation. With its industrial strength crawler technology continuously scanning business sites, blogs, news/media sites and more, ImageRights works as an agent to support proper compensation for image use. Founded in 2008, ImageRights International is a global company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. It is a proud member of the APA (www.apanational.com), CEPIC (www.cepic.org), and PACA (www.paca.org).

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

ImageRights International offers free service

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Extreme ISO Settings With the D3s, 1D Mark IV and Lightroom 3

Extreme ISO Settings With the D3s, 1D Mark IV and Lightroom 3: "

I’ve been digging into Lightroom 3 for a couple of days now. I’m a big fan of the improvements – happy to see my video files, love the tethered shooting capability, as well as the improved speed. Last night, however, I decided to dig up some of my photos from the Canon 1D Mark IV and Nikon D3s ISO comparisons and take a closer look at the improved noise control that we’ve all heard so much about.

While I experienced a taste of what was to come in the Lightroom 3 beta, I was not prepared for the magnitude of improvement that I saw in the images as I wiped my Lightroom 2 adjustments and made new adjustments in Lightroom 3’s noise control panel.

I could go on and on about it, but you really need to see for yourself.

Here’s a shot from the Nikon D3s at ISO 25,600 processed in Lightroom 3:

I chose to look in close at images at ISO 6400, ISO 12800 and ISO 25600. You can see the center portions of each image cropped to 100% view in the comparisons below.

You can download the full-res file (for personal use and inspection only) by right-clicking any of the links below the respective images and choosing “Save link as…” from your menu.

Canon 1D Mark IV vs. Nikon D3s – ISO 6400

As you can see, the Lightroom 3 file trounces everything else – and somehow Adobe still manages to hold onto plenty of detail. And this is ISO 6400 . . . at night.

Original Files

Nikon D3s Default JPEG file

Nikon D3s ViewNX NEF Conversion

Nikon D3s Lightroom 3

Nikon D3s Lightroom 2 +50 Luminance Noise Reduction

Canon 1D Mark IV Default JPEG file

Canon 1D Mark IV DPP CR2 Conversion

Canon 1D Mark IV Lightroom 3

Canon 1D Mark IV Lightroom 2 +50 Luminance Noise Reduction

Canon 1D Mark IV vs. Nikon D3s – ISO 12800

Original Files

Nikon D3s Default JPEG file

Nikon D3s ViewNX NEF Conversion

Nikon D3s Lightroom 3

Nikon D3s Lightroom 2 +50 Luminance Noise Reduction

Canon 1D Mark IV Default JPEG file

Canon 1D Mark IV DPP CR2 Conversion

Canon 1D Mark IV Lightroom 3

Canon 1D Mark IV Lightroom 2 +50 Luminance Noise Reduction

Canon 1D Mark IV vs. Nikon D3s – ISO 25600

Original Files

Nikon D3s Default JPEG file

Nikon D3s ViewNX NEF Conversion

Nikon D3s Lightroom 3

Nikon D3s Lightroom 2 +50 Luminance Noise Reduction

Canon 1D Mark IV Default JPEG file

Canon 1D Mark IV DPP CR2 Conversion

Canon 1D Mark IV Lightroom 3

Canon 1D Mark IV Lightroom 2 +50 Luminance Noise Reduction

Additionally, I went ahead and processed images at ISO 51200 and ISO 102400 for the sake of comparison. Below are web-sized samples at these extreme settings, and you can see the full-size images by right-clicking on each image and choosing “Save link as…”

Nikon D3s at ISO 51200 in LR3

Nikon D3s at ISO 102400 in LR3

Canon 1D Mark IV at ISO 51200 in LR3

Canon 1D Mark IV at ISO 102400 in LR3

While these images at ISO 6400 and above are extreme examples from two state of the art DSLRs, the processing power in Lightroom 3 will push any other RAW files to the next level as well. And, granted, the ISO 51200 and ISO 102400 are more of spec lines than anything else (but the D3s still weighs in pretty respectable at ISO 51200). Finally, I still think that ViewNX and Canon DPP hold detail pretty darn well (especially ViewNX), but neither deal with noise in as smooth of fashion as Lightroom 3 does.

The bottom line is that if you shoot weddings, events or other low-light situations, this capability of Lightroom 3 should be reason enough to get the software, or to upgrade if you are still using Lightroom 2.

You can get Lightroom 3 direct from Adobe, or trusted online retailers like B&H Photo.

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Lightroom 3 Noise Reduction: To Be Used in Moderation

Lightroom 3 Noise Reduction: To Be Used in Moderation: "

Yesterday, I showed off a little of what Lightroom 3’s noise killing prowess could do. And then, I started looking back at some of my basketball photos from this season, most of which were shot at ISO 3200. Some of them could use a little help from Lightroom 3’s noise reduction panel; however, some looked just fine, even with a little bit of grain.

It’s easy to get carried away with ISO boundaries and post-processing effects. Use it when you need it, and remember, that a little grain is ok now and then.

Take, for instance, the above shot of John Wall, who was probably complaining about the trouncing that the Vols were delivering to the Wildcats that night (yeah, I know he just went number one overall in the draft, but I gotta get my jabs in where I can). I shot this image with the Nikon D3s at ISO 3200, f/2.8 and 1/1000s.

Now, let’s look up close at the orginal, grainy shot on the left (originally processed in Lightroom 2), and the new, de-noisified (is that a word?) shot on the right.

While this may come down to a matter of personal taste, I like the shot on the left more so than the shot on the right. It’s grittier, sweatier and, yes, grainier. It just evokes more emotion from me than the smoother and cleaner shot on the right. To me, it embraces the physical battle on the court more so than the cleaner image, which has lost some of that fine detail and just the overall character that the grain brings.

I just pass this along as a reminder that just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should. Even if you have a different aesthetic viewpoint of my example image above, I hope the message gets across just the same. Sometimes, it’s ok to leave in a little grain.

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2º Dia do MED 2010 em Loulé, podem ver as fotos AQUI - Blitz

2º Dia do MED 2010 em Loulé, podem ver as fotos AQUI - Blitz

Chase Jarvis TECH: Complete Workflow for Photo and Video

Download:

FLVMP43GP

MED Festival 2010

MED Festival 2010
Originally uploaded by Rolando Oliveira

Noticias publicadas sobre o festival da Guitarra Portuguesa

Noticias publicadas sobre o festival da Guitarra Portuguesa que decorreu durante os últimos 4 dias no Teatro Lethes em FARO.
Revista a23online.com

Podem ainda ver toda a reportagem fotográfica no Portal da Guitarra Portuguesa (http://guitarraportuguesa.com/) e no Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rolando_oliveira/)

Fotografo Interesante

craigmod.com

Lightroom Pro Q&A with Chris Orwig

Lightroom Pro Q&A with Chris Orwig: "

Hi everyone. Here’s another in a series of mini-interviews with some of the Lightroom pros out there where they’ve answered a short series of questions about how they use and feel about Lightroom:

Today’s Guest: My good buddy Chris Orwig.

Bio/Intro: Chris Orwig is a celebrated photographer, author, and is on the photography faculty at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. Chris brings his unique perspective, creativity and passion to all that he does. As a photographer, he subscribes to Marc Riboud’s observation that “Photography is about savoring life at 1/100th of a second.” Find inspiration and see his work at chrisorwig.com, his blog at chrisorwig.com/flipside or learn about his most recent book at visual-poet.com.

Q. How many presets do you have in the Develop module?

A. One of the biggest challenges in digital post-production isn’t tools and techniques, it’s style, voice and vision. When it comes to presets, I know a number of really successful photographers who aggressively use presets to refine, develop and communicate their style. In contrast, in my own workflow I tend to be a bit more of a minimalist when it comes to presets. I only have a few custom presets and many times these help me to not only speed up my workflow but to think more creatively about how I might process a photograph. In sum, when it comes to presets, I’ve found that having a more condensed list of presets has been more helpful than having hundreds and hundreds of options. Otherwise I just end up “channel surfing” all the presets searching for the perfect look. That being said, we’re all different. Most importantly, in your own workflow, experiment with presets and seek to determine a system that works best for you.

Q. What’s your favorite panel besides the Basic panel ( Sorry the basic panel is too much of a gimmee)?

A. Like most Lightroom users, I spend the majority of my time in the Library and Develop module. And the bulk of that time is spent in the Basic panel. After that comes work with the Black and White and Detail Panels. If I had to pick my favorite panel (besides Basic) I’d have to say it is the panel that isn’t included. I’m glad that Lightroom, even in its most recent release, hasn’t been bogged down with an excess of features. It is simple and strong.

Q. What panel/slider/feature do you use the least?

A. It used to be the Camera Calibration panel in the Basic module and the Slideshow module. Yet, now this is completely changing. With the release of Xrite’s Color Passport and the ability to create a camera profile, I now use the Camera Calibration panel all the time. And I mean that. If you haven’t checked out this new color tool, you’ll want to at least google it to learn more. In regards to Slideshow module, I now use that because Lightroom 3 finally has the ability to export a slideshow to video. It’s incredible to be able to create a different narrative by combining design, image order and audio. Being able to share these shows is a tone of fun.

Q. Do you keyword (All the time/Sometimes/Never)

A. In my own context (commercial photo shoots, personal projects, writing and teaching), I keyword when I need to. In certain situations, I don’t keyword at all. Maybe even more importantly, I’ve found it effective to have my studio manager, digital techs or assistants take on the task of adding keywords. Having someone else add keywords has been working out really well and is definitely something you might want to consider.

Q. Do you use Collections (All the time/Sometimes/Never)

A. I agree with one of my students who is fond of saying, “Collections are cool.” In fact, they are a foundation to everything that I do in Lightroom. I use them for many purposes: organization, speed, creativity, client communication, etc. If you’re not using Collections, perhaps its time to catch this wave. It will give your workflow a boost and buoyancy which will help you to become more effective and creative.

Q. Favorite Lightroom Plug-in?

A. My favorite plug-ins are created by the folks at onOne Software and Nik Software. I use many of both company’s plugins on a regular basis. It’s hard to pick a favorite… so how about if I list a few of my favorites, here goes: Nik Color Effects Pro, onOne Focal Point and onOne Photo Frame. That being said, I like to work with plugins in non-traditional ways. In other words, I rarely use a plug-in as a way to finish a photograph. Rather, I use a filter almost like a cook uses spices or seasoning when creating a meal. The spice or seasoning is used in subtle ways to bring out flavor. I think of using them to add just a bit of style so that it doesn’t over-power the image.

Q. If you could add one feature to Lightroom what would it be?

A. More accurate masking with the Adjustment Brush. That being said, the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom is good. Yet, I look forward to the day when we can “paint” in adjustments with even more accuracy and speed.

Chris Orwig

www.chrisorwig.com

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