The day I took this, it started raining right around the sunset. I thought about going back to my hotel, but as I was leaving the Paris next day, I thought I wait, maybe the rain stops. So i hid under one of the bridges, and spend the next 30 minutes watching a couple playing chess there :) And not that it stopped raining after that, but at least it stopped raining enough for me to take few photos.

I tend to use my 24-70mm lens when it rains. The reasons is very simple, and I think you would see it once you see the lens hood on it. It’s just massive, and it keeps the front of the lens nice and dry.

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo PHotoengine and finished in Photoshop.

Always when I edit a photo taken with the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 lens, I just cant believe how sharp it it. Al my other lenses are sharp, but this one is just crazy sharp. But I’m not complaining :) It just could be a little lighter. The first year I had that lens, I almost never used it, as I never had it with me. But now I take it every time.

Btw. how about a little editing tip :) It easily can happen, that when you use Photoengine or Photomatix, your results look less realistic. It’s very dependent on the settings you use, but the biggest reason for this is, that the light distribution is not as it should be. The results have usually everything in the same level of brightness. It just isn’t like that in reality. But there is a simple way you can make it much better. Just take the HDR result from Photoengine/Photomatix and load it into Photoshop with the original 0EV photo in separate layers. Put the original on top of the HDR and set it to 20-40% opacity. And that’s all. This will darker the areas that should be dark, and brighten the areas that should be bright. The effect is subtle, but the photo looks much more realistic after that.

I also used it for this photo. This is a HDR created from 5 exposures in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

New tutorial from Trey Ratcliff

Yesterday Trey Ratcliff published a new video tutorial on his page. And I have to say, it looks quite interesting. You can even find a free 40 minutes tutorial video there. But he also announced a photo contest for everyone who purchases the tutorial. The all expenses paid photo trip to New Zealand sound so good :) Check it out on his tutorial page.

Morning with the gold sky

I published quite a few photos already from this sunrise, but I still got few that I really like. It was one of those sunrises, when you try to get as many photos as you can, and they all look good :)

This is a HDR created from 7 exposures in Oloneo Photoengine and finished in Photoshop.

First of all, thank you very much for all your comments, responses, shares and likes to my yesterdays post. Your support is very appreciated. Still if you like the article, please share it further. I think more people still need to understand the value of photos.

My photo for today is a little less colorful than my other photos, but I think it nicely captures the mood of the day I took it. It was a rainy day, with heavy clouds covering the sky most of the time. It was a day like made for B&W photography. I even tried this one in B&W and I quite liked it, I just always miss the color so much, that I never use the B&W version :)

This is of course the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, captured in May last year. I used the Hoya ND400 filter to get a long exposure to blur the water. This is a HDR created in Oloneo Photoengine (I was lazy to blend the moving leafs of the trees, and so I used the deghosting in Oloneo) and finished in Photoshop.

This will be a little rant, as I’m quite fed up with some people and few things need to be said. I think most of the photographers can relate to this.

As every photographer I get quite a lot of requests for photo usage from companies. As you know, all my photos are shared under the Creative commons licence, so that all who don’t profit from them can use them for free. But if a company uses them commercially, then they should buy it, as they use it to try to get more clients for themselves.

Of course the reality is different. A lot of companies contact me, and other photographers to ask if they can use the photos for free. Of course when you reply that for commercial use they have to buy the rights, usually they don’t respond to that at all, say that they will find someone else who would work for free, throw the non-profit organization in your face or promise you exposure. But let’s take a look at this.

1. Why don’t you work for free? – Let’s translate this into what it is. Work for free equals “I think your work is worthless, and so you should give it away. I don’t care how much time and money you spent to learn your skill, to buy your equipment, to get to the location. I don’t care how many nights you didn’t sleep to get up early to get your photo. I don’t care how many times you spent hours in the freezing cold to get a nice shot. I just don’t care. I’m paid for browsing the internet and writing insulting e-mails, so why should I care?”

2. We don’t even ask how much a photo cost – They just expect it to be free. What if my prices are reasonable, and they can afford it without problems? They don’t care, it’s free or nothing.

3. We can find someone who will give it for free – This is a sad truth. With the internet, they can search and search and sooner or later they will find someone who will give them the photo for free. Usually photographers who just started recently, don’t value their work so much, so they give it for free. But other photographers should teach them, and they should learn never to do that.

4. We are a non-profit organisation – Yes, they love this excuse. But do they know what that means, or should a photographer explain that to them? For those of you who don’t know, a non-profit organisation is a normal organisation, it just doesn’t generate any profit. They just spend the money. They have budgets, the people working there get paid and so on. In many countries their budget even has to be public, so you can check it out on their webpage. So what they say with saying that they are non-profit is “Everyone working here gets paid, but you are a stupid photographer and you should work for free. We really really think your work is worthless”.

5. You get free exposure – Another excuse companies love. But you know what, exposure does not pay bills. You just can’t live from it. And think about it. How many people have to see your photo for you to make a sale? 100? 1000? 10 000? It’s sometimes even more. You know there is a saying (I think it’s more fitting in Slovak, but the translation is also ok) “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and it fits perfectly here. And you know what? If they pay me, I can buy all the exposure I want. You can buy promos on Facebook, Google and many more. But I decide if I want that, not them.

6. It cost’s you nothing, you just have to press the shutter – This one is as insulting as it gets. By this logic, a driver should work for free, as he just turns a wheel, an accountant should work for free, as he just fills out forms, a hairdresser should work for free as he just has to cut with scissors and so on and on. By this logic, everyone should work for free, no? But lets take a look at my costs. First of all, it costs my time. It’s not just the second I take the photo, but I have to prepare for the shot, get to the location, take the shot, get home, upload the photos and edit the photo. It can take up to hours for a single photo. I also had to buy the camera, lens, tripod, memory card, computer to edit on and countless software tools.  And still I haven’t put a price on my skills that took me years to learn and I spent a lot of money to learn. And that’s of course the cheapest scenario. If I take photos in other than my city, I have to pay for the travel there, pay for the hotel, and so on and on and on. Compared to these expenses, a price for one photo is usually nothing.

7. There is no budget for the photos – Interesting. So you have a budget for everything else, just not for what you need? Again a popular excuse that means nothing, or in the most, the company does not know how to create budget’s. Just think about it. They made a budget for their website (magazine, booklet, flyer… whatever) and they forgot to include a budget for the PHOTOS? I also made a budget and I forgot to include my new car, please send me a free one :)

Let’s take an example here. Let’s say a company wants to make a booklet to promote their work. So they ask you for photos, and they ask you to give them for free just for the exposure. So what does that really mean?

• the person contacting the photographer gets paid, as she/he is doing her/his work
• the person creating the text for the booklet gets paid, as she/he usually works for the company
• the person creating the booklet in Photoshop gets paid
• the company that prints the booklet gets paid
• the company that distributes the booklet gets paid

Just the photographer, whose photos are the main part of the booklet, should work for free? They don’t expect any of the other people to work for free. They should try making the booklet without the photos, let’s see if it’s usable then. It really feels like an insult to me, and my work.

So that brings me to the original question. Is my work worthless? People like those think it is, but I have to disagree. You know, I gave away few photos, when I was a stupid beginner and I didn’t know better. But I learned, and so should every photographer. If you think about it, by giving photos for free, you not only show these people that your work is worthless. You also make it harder and take away work from professional photographers, who are depended on the income from their work.

There is one kind of organisation I don’t mind giving my photos for free. And that is a charity. But again, if everyone working for the charity gets paid for their work, it’s not a charity, its a normal commercial organisation, and either everyone should get paid, or no one.

It’s nice to see that there are still companies who understand how much work a photo is and it’s a pleasure to work with those. Too bad that the trend is going towards the bad ones.

If I can suggest anything to every photographer, don’t give your photos for free. Even if you think you are just an amateur. If they make money from your photos, so should you. You are not a charity, and the companies don’t need a handout. If you want to help people who really need your help, there are many other ways to do it.

Feel free to share this further and let me know your thoughts.