Editorial - New Mirrorless Cameras: It’s about choice

Editorial - New Mirrorless Cameras: It’s about choice

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Gear

With the new mirrorless camera options from Nikon and Canon there has been a lot of discussions about the various specs and pros and cons of these new cameras. Now that the initial craziness has died down a bit we’re starting to see reactions from those actually using these cameras, and for the most part the opinion from those with real world experience seems to be mostly positive. Something struck me though when reading some of the reviews, and also readings some comments on my own content, is that people may be missing the most important thing about these releases: Its about choice.

Alternative Workflows: Working with Your Camera’s Own Software

Alternative Workflows: Working with Your Camera’s Own Software

Thomas Fitzgerald
Software

While there’s no doubt that working with photo workflow software such as Lightroom or Capture One has changed the way most people work with photos, there are still people who prefer the old fashioned way of doing most of their processing in Photoshop. For some, the Bridge/Photoshop workflow is still their preferred method of work. Another method that is sometimes used is to work with the software supplied with your camera as a starting point, and then finish in Photoshop. For those used to working in Lightroom, this approach may appear clunky, but it does have some advantages. Lately I’ve been giving this workflow a try, and here are my thoughts.

Photographing Autumn Textures

Photographing Autumn Textures

Thomas Fitzgerald
Autumn, Landscape & Nature

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year for taking photos, but sometimes I feel like I’ve done it all before. I’m always trying to do something different, to shake things up a bit, and so recently I had an idea. Instead of doing the usual and focus on the autumn colours, I would instead see if I could make some interesting images of autumn textures.

Video: Luminar Raw Image Editing Tutorial

Video: Luminar Raw Image Editing Tutorial

Thomas Fitzgerald
Video, Software, Luminar

I’ve been trying to catalogue a drive full of Raw files going back several years (more on that in a future post), and during the process, I got sidetracked and started playing with some of the older images. I came across one shot that I had taken in Washington DC a few years ago, which I really liked at the time, but now I realise that I had over-edited it originally. I wanted to have another go at it, and so I thought It would be interesting to try it in Luminar, and it would make a good tutorial.

Understanding the Difference between Iridient Developer and Iridient X-Transformer

Understanding the Difference between Iridient Developer and Iridient X-Transformer

Thomas Fitzgerald
Software, Fuji X-Series

One of the questions that I get regularly from readers and viewers is: “what the difference is between Iridient X-Transformer and Iridient Developer?” If you are considering one of these for converting X-Trans files, it may be confusing for some people as to which one to choose, so here is what I hope will be a simple guide to deciding which software to use.

One of my earliest lessons on Cameras and Gear

One of my earliest lessons on Cameras and Gear

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Gear

Many (too many) years ago, at the beginning of my career in television production, I did a government-sponsored course of film and video production. It was how I got started, and I loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t be where I was today without that course, and I’ll talk about that more at some point in the future, but there was one really important lesson I learned in the first week, which has stuck with me to this day and applies across all fields. 

A few more Nikon Z-Series Notes

A few more Nikon Z-Series Notes

Thomas Fitzgerald
Gear

After the initial hype (and the corresponding outpouring of disappointment and scorn) lots of details have begun to emerge about Nikon’s new mirrorless cameras, and there are a couple of interesting tidbits that I came across. So here are a few notes in no particular order.

How to use presets on Lightroom Mobile

How to use presets on Lightroom Mobile

Thomas Fitzgerald
Lightroom, Preset

Adobe recently introduced a new feature for the mobile version of Lightroom CC that people had been requesting for a long time, and that is the ability to use presets. What’s more, they also added preset syncing between the desktop and mobile versions of Lightroom CC. You can now use all of your Lightroom presets, and profiles on your mobile device, and the process is fairly simple. You will however need to use Lightroom CC on the desktop. You will also need a creative cloud subscription.

Video: Scanning film on a 20 Year Old Film Scanner

Video: Scanning film on a 20 Year Old Film Scanner

Thomas Fitzgerald
Video, Film

I recently came across a set of negatives that I took about a year ago, and I realised that I had never properly scanned them. This gave me the opportunity to record the process, something I had wanted to do for a while, but had never gotten around to it. So, in this video I show you the process of scanning film using a dedicated, if somewhat old, film scanner.

Signal to Noise Ratio: Why some camera comparisons are wrong

Signal to Noise Ratio: Why some camera comparisons are wrong

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial, Gear

An age-old measure of the performance of many types of recording is “signal to noise ratio”. In essence, it looks at how much noise there is compared to useful signal in any given medium, whether it’s an analogue transmission or even a digital recording. There’s one thing that I’ve noticed a lot recently, and that is when people compare cameras they often look at 1:1 crops to compare the results. In particular, they use this to compare noise performance between cameras. However, when comparing cameras of different resolutions, this may not actually give you an accurate comparison. The reason for this is that when doing this you’re only looking at one part of the equation, the noise, without considering the other part: the signal. 

Introducing StreetLUX for Lightroom & Photoshop

Introducing StreetLUX for Lightroom & Photoshop

Thomas Fitzgerald
Lightroom, Sales, News

Today, I’m happy to announce the launch of my latest set of Lightroom Presets: StreetLUX. I got the idea for StreetLUX when I was processing my most recent set of photos from my Street Photo Diary series, and I was originally using my Monolith Presets. I wanted a high contrast look, but I wanted to create something a little more “film like” so I went back to the drawing board and came up with a new set. But I didn’t stop there and I also created a set of colour presets too, which were inspired by the “chrome” style of films from the past.

Lensball Review

Lensball Review

Thomas Fitzgerald
Review

If you haven’t seen them before, a Lensball is basically a polished glass sphere. That’s pretty much all there is to it, but once you’re aware of it, you start to see them cropping up everywhere, in Instagram and other online photos. A little while ago, the company that makes them sent me one to review, and I’ve been having fun with it ever since.

Video: Shooting Street Photography with the Nikon D700

Video: Shooting Street Photography with the Nikon D700

Thomas Fitzgerald

In the latest episode of “Street Photo Diary,” I decided to shoot some street photography with the Nikon D700. The D700 is probably still my all time favourite camera. I love the ergonomics of it, and I love the images it produces too. While it is a big and heavy camera, and it may not seem like the first choice for shooting street photography, after a while, you don’t even notice the weight or the bulk.

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