A year ago, we asked PDN readers to nominate the 30 most influential photographers of the decade, and then stirred up a hornets’ nest when we posted the results: The voting put popular bloggers such as Becker and Jasmine Star well above photographic pioneers like Robert Frank and William Eggleston. Passions ran so high that we had to shut down reader comments after a few days.

So why would we want to stir things up again? Because Google Labs has posted an amazing and addictive tool–called “Books Ngram Viewer”– that allows you to search for phrases (and names of people!) published in millions of books over the last 500 years, and plot how often those phrases (or names) appear in books over time. (Keep reading to see the charts…) (more…)

Film Processing Timer for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad

The Massive Dev Chart app combines the world’s largest film development database from Digitaltruth Photo with an advanced multi-step timer, creating what is probably the best tool ever made for film development.

Its smart and easy-to-use interface includes access to over 8,000 preset development times which can be adjusted for temperature compensation, preferred processing methods and customized agitation sequences.

The timer provides separate optional steps for Development, Stop Bath, Fixing, Hypo Clear and Rinsing. Each step shows a progress bar and continuous display of the elapsing time, accurate to 1/10th of a second. Audio and visual indicators can be set for agitation sequences and alarms notify the end of every stage of development. Other features include a dilution calculator, a facility to save your favorites, and safelight modes.

Multi step development timer helps you to achieve consistent development results and convenient sound notifications remind you to agitate your tank while listening to your favorite iTunes music.

The Massive Dev Chart app can be downloaded from the App Store.

http://www.digitaltruth.com/apps/

One of the central questions of the seminar “10 Things You Should Know About Magazine Publishing Today,” which took place yesterday afternoon at the PDN Photo Plus Expo in New York, was what exactly defines the term “magazine” in the current media marketplace?

Moderator Michelle Dunn Marsh, co-publisher of Aperture magazine, put the question to the seminar panelists, which included Rolling Stone senior photo editor Sacha Lecca, photographer Lisa Kereszi, New Yorker photo editor Whitney Johnson, and Bonnier Corp.’s Gregg Hano, publisher of Popular Photography, American Photo, Popular Science and other magazines.

Dunn Marsh offered two definitions for the term magazine from a pair of sources. One progressive definition acknowledged that magazine companies are branching into tablet editions; online articles, videos, multimedia slideshows and other features; standalone special issues and other forms in order to reach readers. The other defined the magazine as a strictly print product. All of the panelists appeared to agree on the former definition, and a great deal of the seminar was spent contemplating evolving online and tablet media.

(more…)

This year, LaCie will be exhibiting its range of professional solutions at the PDN PhotoPlus International Conference and Expo at booth #479.

LaCie’s external storage products have always been popular with photographers, and our new products are no exception.

The LaCie 2big USB 3.0 is a great way to get capacity, speed, and security; it features up to 4TB of storage and three RAID modes for flexibility. It’s recyclable, eco-friendly, and compatible with USB 2.0, making it the most complete USB 3.0 storage device on the market.

For photographers or small offices that need even more storage, the LaCie 5big Backup Server and 5big Storage Server are both ideal solutions. Delivering seamless, full-featured backup for up to 10 PCs and 25 Macs, the 5big Backup Server offers robust performance and Microsoft storage software. With up to 10TB of capacity scalable through USB and eSATA connections, the 5big Backup Server offers total storage to back up all your office’s workstations. It’s even compatible with Time Machine.

If your office is a bit larger, consider the LaCie 5big Storage Server. It’s a professional desktop file-sharing server designed to manage file-sharing activities for 25 to 100 PC, Mac, or Linux workstations, and can even manage more.   For a full range of accessibility, the 5big Storage Server supports major network protocols such as SMB, AFP, NFS, and iSCSI. Additionally, HTTP and FTP accessibility means that your data can be accessed from anywhere.

But we’re more than just storage here at LaCie—we also focus on professional color solutions like the LaCie 324i LCD Monitor, which features a P–IPS panel for a uniform presentation. Its color is rated at an impressive 102% NTSC and 98% AdobeRGB. With such wide gamuts, graphic artists can be confident that the 324i gives them true colors that maintain the integrity of their work. The 324i stand has an easy 90º pivot, allowing for the flexibility to work in portrait or landscape modes. The 324i’s IPS panel also has a 178° viewing angle, which means that the display is visible from multiple axes without a change in the picture or losing any of its millions of colors.

Read more:

LaCie 2big USB 3.0

LaCie 5big Backup Server

LaCie 5big Storage Server

LaCie 324i LCD Monitor

Harvard law professor and Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig has responded on Huffington Post to the brouhaha over his call for copyright reform two weeks ago at the Vimeo festival in New York.

As we reported here, Lessig  called on re-mix artists to push for changes in the law to make it easier to re-purpose, transform and re-mix the copyrighted works of others to make new works.  With criticism raining down upon him ever since, he used Huffington Post to elaborate on his provocative and–I dare say–not entirely unreasonable position.

As he points out, he’s not advocating for the starvation of photographers or other creators, much less the destruction of civilization. He’s appealing for changes to copyright law that enable a thriving culture of creativity in the digital age–especially by amateur artists–while still preserving the profit incentive of commercial artists, including photographers. (Creative Commons says its licenses “provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for creators, artists, and educators.”)

There are, of course, copyright hard-liners who see re-mix as a step onto a slippery slope. Some won’t tolerate so much as a discussion. Lessig called out a couple of them, citing their ad hominem attacks against him on Twitter. (The sticks-and-stones title of his post, though, is “The ‘Imbecile’ and ‘Moron’ Responds: On the Freedoms of Re-Mix Creators”.)

Lessig refers to our story in his piece, saying: “The inferno was ignited after the talk when a reporter covering the panel quoted the language I used… without making clear the context within which I was speaking.” Lessig also says his words were “ripped from their context and intended meaning.” For the record, the PDNPulse story explained the context (Ah hem. Link please, Professor Lessig!)

That said, his lengthy explication sheds more light on the nuances of his arguments. And it’s worth noting that “the inferno” he complains of no doubt helped him take his case to a bigger public forum, where it arguably deserve a lively debate.

Eliot Rausch accepts $25,000 Best Video prize at Vimeo ceremony.

The online documentary “Last Minutes With Oden” won the award for Best Video and its director, Eliot Rausch, won a $25,000 filmmaking grant at the first Vimeo Festival + Awards.

The ceremony, held October 9 in New York City, ended a weekend of video workshops, lectures and slide shows sponsored by Vimeo, the online video sharing site.
“Last Minutes with Oden” also won the Best Documentary category. It documents a former drug addict, Jason, having to put his dog, Oden, to sleep. In accepting the award, Rausch said, “I think Jason’s transparency and brutal honesty in Oden’s last moments are what made [the film] so successful.” He noted that he had asked Jason, to attend the ceremony, but “he’s flat broke.” When he accepted the grant, Rausch said Jason had asked for help getting his teeth fixed if Rausch won the grant “because his teeth are rotting.” Rausch didn’t say how he responded, but said, “I feel this is as much his film as mine.”

Among the other winners in the nine categories was “Thrush,” a series of still photos edited together to depict a couple’s six-month relationship, which won for Best Narrative. In a videotaped acceptance speech, filmmaker Gabriel Bisset-Smith said, “People are disappointed when they find out [the man and woman] aren’t real.”

The awards ceremony, which honored video creators who use the web to reach a wide audience,  struck a poignant note when the award for Best Motion Graphics was given to the Turkish-born Onur Senturk. In accepting Senturk’s award, a friend and fellow Turk noted that the award was encouraging to video artists in Turkey, where Vimeo was banned two weeks ago. Three years ago, the Turkish government banned access to YouTube.

Two honorary awards were also given. The Digital Maverick Award was given to the Neistat Brothers, who have made hundreds of online videos since 2000 and recently launched a series for HBO. The Feature Presentation award went to “Star Wars Uncut,” a retelling of Star Wars made up of hundreds of short clips created by Star Wars fans –using everything from Claymation figures to amateur actors in costume —and then edited together.

Award winners were selected by judges in nine categories:
Best Remix: Breakdown, by Kasumi
Best Original Series: Break-Ups, The Series, by Ted Tremper
Best Music Video: Liars’ “Scissors” by Andy Brunel
Best Documentary: Last Minutes with Oden, by Eliot Rausch
Best Experimental Video: oops, by Chris Beckman
Best Captured (given to a video that documents a performance or work of art): Fluid Sculpture by Charlie Bucket
Best Motion Graphics: TRIANGLE, by Onur Senturk

The winning videos and all the finalists can be viewed on the Vimeo Festival +Awards page at vimeo.com/awards/finalists

For artists who use existing works–especially photos, video clips and music–as raw material for their own creations, the “Know Your Digital Rights” seminar at last week’s Vimeo Festival + Awards was something of a call to arms.

“I don’t think you have any digital rights, yet,” declared Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, co-founder of the Creative Commons and a vocal advocate for copyright reform. “This community has to accept the reality of the way law treats you. The law believes that most of the creativity being celebrated this weekend [at the Vimeo Festival] is presumptively illegal.”

He called on artists to force a change in copyright law by “teaching the culture and the law that this kind of creativity”–re-purposing, transforming, and remixing the copyrighted works of others to create new works–”should be accepted and encouraged.” (more…)

In order to raise money to produce their projects, more photographers, writers, artists and aspiring filmmakers are appealing directly to their potential audiences for funding. At a seminar held at the Vimeo Festival + Awards on October 9, Yancey Strickler, co-founder of the crowd-funding Web site Kickstarter offered practical advice on why some projects posted on the site meet or even exceed their funding targets while others fail to lure donations.

Strickler said almost all successful Kickstarter projects share three characteristics:

• – The creators describe their projects in a personal and passionate way, share some of the work in progress, “and say: you can make this happen.”  Strickler added, “You have to put time and care into it.”
• - The projects lure a community. Most original funders are creators’ friends, family “and people who care about it,” he said. Strangers generally only begin donating after a project has at least 70 percent of its fundraising and a goal seems within reach.
• -The creators offer tangible and appealing rewards to donors. Kickstarter recommends that creators should offer small rewards, such as T-shirts, for donors who give as little as $15, in order to encourage a wide base of donors. Donors who give several thousand dollars should be offered large gifts or an experience –such as a tour, a meeting with the creators or the project’s subject.

Why do projects posted on Kickstarter fail to raise enough money?  Strickler said some creators set overly ambitious goals:  “If I get $4 million I’ll make this movie.” He noted that  recently some filmmakers had successfully used Kickstarter to solicit $3,000 to color correct their documentary film; a few months after they met that goal, they posted a new project, seeking another $3,000 to make the movie poster.

Some projects fail, he said, because no one knows about them. He said Kickstarter users shouldn’t “expect the internet to rain down on them” – they have to generate traffic themselves, starting with friends and members of their online social networks. He said a review of Kickstarter traffic has shown that emails that are personalized drive the most traffic. Facebook is the second most effective way to send traffic to a project, while “Twitter is useless for fundraising.”

Once a project reaches its goal, he says, the next step is fulfilling the promise of rewards. “If you promised to send a book, it’s up to you to think of shipping,” Strickler said.  “I know of projects that in the end lost money because people didn’t think about the shipping costs.” According to Strickler, some Kickstarter users hold “mailing parties” where they get their friends together and pack up hundreds of books or posters over a few beers.

Strickler was careful to note that Kickstarter does not offer its users any legal or tax advice, so it’s up to users to determine how to handle state sales taxes when selling rewards to donors who are in their state.

Backers are disappointed if they don’t hear about the project to which they donated for three months. He said Kickstarter users should post updates or send emails as the work progresses. If your goal is to publish a book, he said, you should take photos or make a video when you go on press. He said donors want to know you’re committed to your project—even if you hit an obstacle. “People are more forgiving when things screw up if you communicate regularly.”

Strickler said posting a project proposal on Kickstarter can do more than just raise money. “It’s about sharing your idea,” he said. “You can build a community of 300 people who care about it and follow you throughout your career.”

A list of guidelines for submitting projects to Kickstarter are available on Kickstarter.com.

As media organizations have rolled out apps for the iPhone and other smart phones, their treatment of photographic content (and those who create it) has varied.

A programming glitch has thus far prevented the New York Times from including photo credits and captions with the photographs that appear at the top of articles in their iPhone app. “It’s a bug we’re working on fixing,” the Times’ deputy director of photography Beth Flynn told PDN via email.

On other news apps, credits get minimal attention. For example, captions for photographs that accompany BBC News articles in that organization’s iPhone app appear under the image, but the credits, which appear in the bottom corners of the photographs, mimicking the BBC News Web site’s credit treatment, are too small to read.

Captions and credits for images accompanying USA Today articles on that organization’s iPhone app appear when users press on the photographs and enlarge them in a new window. A plus symbol over the lower right corner of the images encourages readers to enlarge them. USA Today also dedicates a section of their app to pictures, with features that include the “Day in Picutres” and “Week in Travel,” but readers must open a caption window to see the credits for those images.

The News section of NPR’s iPhone app functions similarly to USA Today’s, with a plus symbol over the top corner of the images on their site. However, when users enlarge the image, no photo credit appears and any caption running longer than six lines is truncated. NPR photo credits run instead at the end of the article.

Of course, all of the writer credits managed to make it into the apps.

Several agencies that supply celebrity photographs taken by
paparazzi to People magazine have banded together to demand additional compensation for the use of photographs in People’s forthcoming
iPad app, according to Hollywood Reporter.

The entertainment trade publication says the negotiations
are delaying the release of People’s iPad app, an assertion Time, Inc., owners
of People, deny.

“Photo agencies are taking a keen interest in the iPad
because while online usage of their snapshots commands a fraction of what their
fees earn from print usage, they recognize the potential for the tablet market
to be a game-changer,” the article says.

If a recent study commissioned by a consortium of publishers
that includes Time, Inc. is to be believed, the tablet market could drive $3
billion in revenues by 2014. According to a report published yesterday by Folio,
digital consortium Next Issue Media, which includes Condé Nast, Hearst,
Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc., hired a consulting firm to evaluate the
demand for tablet subscriptions. The firm found that the tablet market for
newspapers and magazines could create $3 billion in revenue.

If the market for tablet editions of publications does realize this potential, photographers and their agents are likely to press publishers to negotiate additional compensation for tablet usage over the next few years.

Related: Wired iPad Edition Launches, But Will Photographers Get More For Ads