10 - Keeping light meters relevent the age of digital

You can take fantastic photos without having a clue what you're doing, but without technical some knowledge you will be limited in so many ways. We talk to guest Jeff Way of Wilkosz & Way about how to use light meters to step up your photography game.

Guest Jeff Way of Wilkosz & Way

Guest Jeff Way of Wilkosz & Way

Cameron's Pakon F135 film scanner

Cameron's Pakon F135 film scanner

 

Thrift store finds. $1 each. #T4 #bigmini

A photo posted by wilkoszandway (@wilkoszandway) on

9 - Do you want to be a generalist or specialist?

There are so many kinds of photographer to be. We can shoot portraits, weddings, lifestyle, stock, food, video or all of the above, so this week we talk about what is gained and lost in specialization.

What we're into

Pakon F135 Flickr Group

8 - The traveling photographer

Choosing the right gear for the road can be a lot of trial and error. Bring too much, and you want to leave your bag in the hotel. Too little and you might miss a great shot. Or is it even possible to bring to little? In this podcast we talk about how a photographer can be prepared and anything they might encounter in their travels. 

Cameron has some of his travel photos on his flickr page, and an assortment of Tyler's travel photos can be found on his photo blog & Ania’s style blog

Kevin russ on Stocksy and VSCO

Young man studio portrait by Cameron Whitman

Young man studio portrait by Cameron Whitman

7 - Lightroom presets: We compare VSCO, Mastin Labs and Replichrome

Digital photography has an era before presets, and after. They've been around for a while but recently some high quality filters have become standard for many photographers. In this episode we compare the best of those preset packs VSCO, Mastin Labs and Replichrome (RadLab), and talk to Chris Dowsett about new ways of thinking about color. 

In the end we recommend that if you will only have one set of Lightroom presets, they should be Mastin Labs. They add character and punch to photos, but are subtle and nuanced. The Kodak Portra Pack targets skin tones and is perfect for portraits. The Fuji Pro Pack enhances greens and blues which is great for landscapes, and can also help a person stand out a little more from their background. It is my personal all around favorite. For black and white I only ever use the Illford B&W Pack, which has a great blend or contrast and detail retention. All three stay true to the film emulation they were based on.

VSCO is also very useful and it can be very helpful to have the 01 and 06 packs for when you are looking for more variety. Their Kodak Portra and Fuji Pro often push the colors a little more aggressively, but are a bit more flexible with different levels of exposure. 

Although we spent some time experimenting with Replichome by Radlab, we didn't find a need for it. 

Tyler's Samples

These sample images are not at all scientific, and have minor exposure and white balance adjustments to account for how the different filters are meant to be used. They have all the grain removed, and as you can see are some of the more subtle presets each company offers.

As I mention in the episode my go to presets are currently Mastin Labs and I should mention that my links to his preset are affiliate links, so purchasing via that link helps support the podcast.

Cameron's Samples