As photographers, we have this not unnatural fear that people will simply steal our pictures and reuse them without giving credit, never mind pay for them. Enter the Creative Commons licence that allows free non-commercial use of online photos. Diane Smyth talks to several photographers who embrace Creative Commons to freely share their photos online.

Take Jonathan Worth, for example. He used to track down his images and send out nasty take-down notices. Now, he labels his photos as CC BY-NC- which requires that commercial users pay for a photo, and that he is always credited; non-commercial users are free to use it as they choose.

“It’s not a silver bullet but it was ground-breaking for me,” he says. “By making fans part of the process, they effectively do my publicity. I’m represented by Google now, and because I’m not paying for an agent I can sell for less and still make a profit.”

Read the article at: BJP.

Olivier Laurent over at BJP has an interesting article about the use of audio in a photo slide show. For example, war photos may not convey how loud and scary it really is so the idea of using an accompanying audio is so the photographer can tell the story better.

If you click through to Sebastian Meyer‘s site, you’ll find an example of a photo of a bomb and the accompanying audio. You’ll have to turn the volume up real high (like in a movie theatre) to really get the effect.

I do agree that sound accompanying still photos slideshow do help tell a story better. There’s no doubt that all the war pictures and accompanying sound will end up as documentaries of our violent history. We won’t need to ask the special effect department for sound effects because we will have the real sound of the battles.

But sound does not have to be from war photography only. Recording the sounds and languages spoken by the local people of a country can also bring still pictures to life.

What do you think? Do still photos need to be accompanied with sound?

Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D

“A great option for lightweight travel and general use, and an even better one for video work.”

We’ve added a new Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D [QuickPrice Check] Review to our Reviews Matrix.

BJP has published their review of the Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D digital SLR camera with 18MP resolution on a large APS-C CMOS image sensor, a large 3.0-in. high resolution (1.04 million dots) Vari-angle LCD display screen, ISO range of 100-6400 (expandable to 12,800), and Full HD Movie 1920×1080 at 24fps. It is targeted to Families, as well as beginner and serious amateur photographers.

You can read the Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D Review @ BJP.

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Some of us still love and believe in film photography. The continuing love fest for Holga, Diana, Polaroid and Fujifilm Instax cameras attest to this. Ken Rockwell is a big believer in “the timeless power — and exclusivity — of 35mm film.” You won’t read too many reviews about film cameras and we thought it would be interesting to feature one here.

The Fujifilm GF670W is a rangefinder camera that takes large 6×6/6×7 120 or 220 roll film and has a fixed EBC 55mm F4.5 wide-angle lens. The GF670W allows dual format shooting, which means that you can select between the square 6×6 format (120 – 12 shots/220 – 24 shots) or the 6×7 format (120 – 10 shots/220 – 20 shots), and without needing additional inserts. Of course, you can only do that when switching rolls. The GF670W features a coupled rangefinder, aperture-priority AE and manual exposure modes, electronically-controlled shutter (4-1/500 sec., B), center-weighted average metering, exposure compensation (+/- 2EV in 1/3 EV steps), and ISO 25-3200. [See, that's really all the features you need in a acamera to take great pictures.]

Richard Kilpatrick over at BJP reviews the GF670W and finds that the Fujinon 55mm f/4.5 wide lens (presumably assembled by Cosina) delivers “excellent corner sharpness, and beautiful bokeh, and any minimal distortion feels natural for the view of the lens.”

Read the Fujifilm GF670W Review @ BJP.

Photojournalist Edmond Terakopian takes both the Apple MacBook Air and the iPad 2 on assignment for an in-the-field comparison. The goal of the test is to see if either can be used in a pro photographer’s workflow, processing RAW files and sending a ready JPEG picture back to the picture desk. The attraction of these two items is, of course, their extreme lightness.

This seems to be the trend now that we have tasted quality images and quality displays from small and light cameras and laptops. Why would anyone want to go back to heavy and clunky cameras and laptops?

Read the article at: BJP.

Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH

Dubbed the “Light of the Night,” the Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH lens allows you to shoot in low light as no other lens does and is currently the fastest lens available on the market for a full-frame camera. At this large aperture, the bokeh is simply amazing. Some photographers even claim it gives a 3D quality to their pictures.

To get one, you’ll have to patiently take your place in the year-long waiting line and be ready to fork out a little over US $12K. Otherwise, you’re good to go and I would appreciate your ordering it via this Amazon.com link. Thank you!

Read the Leica Noctilux-M f/0.95 Lens Review @ BJP.

A very interesting article over at BJP concerning photographers moving to embrace film making. Six photographers (Tim Walker, Sam Taylor-Wood, CJ Clarke, Zed Nelson, Stanislas Guigui and Jessica Dimmock) share their insights into the world of filmmaking.

Read the article at: British Journal of Photography.

Can the court trust photographic evidence anymore now that it is so easily doctored in a photo editing software? Mark Wood addresses this issue in an interesting article over at BJP. He encourages Police (and CSI) photographers to shoot in RAW instead of JPEG. He argues that not only does a RAW file provide more data to work with but, because RAW is read-only, it has more integrity in court. How do you prove that a JPEG has not been tampered with? By having the RAW file available. Used in a camera that records GPS location, the EXIF metadata encoded with every picture provides a pretty good record of the when, where and what was recorded at the scene of the crime and what changes may have been applied to the JPEG version.

It’s a very convincing case and this is no doubt the way to go.

Read the whole article at: BJP.

I would however still caution that photographic evidence should not be granted unchallenged status in court, especially in JPEG form and even when backed up by the RAW file. A picture could still be doctored in-camera before it is saved as a RAW file. In that case, what the RAW file would be recording would be already suspect.