Craft & Vision

Mar

2012

Forget Mugshots: 10 Steps to Better Portraits EBook

The good folks at Craft & Vision have held true to their promise to release 1 quality ebook per month by releasing today yet another title by David duChemin, Forget Mugshots: 10 Steps to Better Portraits. It is available through the Craft & Vision online store for a mere $5 and readable through any of your favorite PDF e-reading devices.

In this ebook, David instructs and reminds us of the fundamentals of portrait photography; those simple yet easily overlooked basics when engaging in photographing another human being in a mindful way. Filled with beautiful portraits taken on his many travels as a world and humanitarian photographer, the book also contains sidebar “Creative Exercises” to help the reader work through the steps and come to a deeper understanding of the steps.

This book is an easy and lovely read and one that will stay on your electronic bookshelf as a solid reference and reminder of how to do portraits well for years to come. You will be reminded, among other things, to play with the light, understand the smile, relate to your subject, watch the eyes, and be mindful of your background-good stuff for all of us to remember from time to time.

While at the Craft & Vision store, why not check out their other wonderful titles including the one you can get for free:

Special Offer on PDFs
For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code MUGSHOTS4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Forget Mugshots: 10 Steps to Better Portraits for only $4 OR you can use the code MUGSHOTS20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm (PST) March 17, 2012.

Nov

2011

New Craft & Vision eBook: Beyond Thirds

The fine folks at Craft & Vision have been staying true to their mission of providing quality ebooks meant to educate photographers to increase their craft and explore their vision. Today, they released the latest publication by Andrew S. Gibson, author of “The Magic of Black and White, Part 1 & Part 2”: “Beyond Thirds: A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition.”

In this ebook Gibson uses some of his beautiful imagery to explain basic guidelines of photographic composition beginning with the Rule of Thirds and moving beyond into aspects of the Golden Section, Balance, Dynamism, Contrast, Aspect Ratios, the use of Space and more.

This book is particularly useful to those photographers that are attempting to understand how positioning subjects in a photographic frame leads to stronger images. If you tend to adhere to-or have not even heard of-the “Rule of Thirds” this book is for you. Gibson is clear in his writing and explicit with his imagery and while he introduces the reader to varying compositional theories he also encourages the reader to work from feel. For $5 this ebook provides what it promises-an introduction-but can also serve as a nice reminder for those of us that think we are beyond such discussions.

Click on the link in the text above or click on the images in this post and you will be taken to the Craft & Vision store where you can purchase and download this and other wonderful ebooks.

Special Offer on PDFs: Use the promotional code BT4 and you can have the PDF version of Beyond Thirds for only $4 OR use the code BT20 to get 20% off when they buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST November 19th, 2011.

Oct

2011

New Craft & Vision eBook: Making Light 2

Not too long ago Piet Van den Eynde released an ebook titled Making Light that really helped my understanding of off camera flash. It was a $5 well spent for me. I don’t use off camera flash all that often but when I do I want to be able to do it well. Once the ambient light dips really low and I want to keep making compelling images a flash-especially an off camera flash-is essential. Making Light helped me a great deal.

Yesterday he released his second book in the series, Making Light 2 through the really awesome folks at Craft & Vision. Making Light 2 picks up where Making Light leaves off and takes the reader deeper into understanding working with off camera flash. Van den Eynde works through High Sync Flash, working with multiple flashes, advance triggering systems, different modifiers, and what to do when your small flash units just don’t cut it anymore.

I particularly enjoyed the 4 interviews he includes at the end. It was great fun to read about more takes on off camera flash and see the work of yet more people. This helped me understand what can be a mind blowing subject for some, including me at times.

So, if you enjoyed Making Light and want to explore off camera flash in more depth then this book is for you. If you have yet to read Making Light I would recommend it. Even though I don’t use off camera flash all that often that book helped me to notice and understand different qualities of light and how to work more effectively with them. Then I could add more light if I wanted to. Better to have more tools in the toolkit than less.

Special Offer on PDFs: Use the promotional code MAKINGLIGHT4 and you can have the PDF version of Making Light II for only $4 OR use the code MAKINGLIGHT20 to get 20% off when they buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST October 24th, 2011.

Making Light Bundle: Get both volumes for just $8. There’s no product page for this package on the C&V website but you can make your purchase by simply clicking the direct shopping cart buttons below.

Sep

2011

New Craft & Vision eBook: The Inspired Eye, Vol. 3

David duChemin has been a tear these past three years or so. For a man who has chosen a visual medium as his profession he has also proven to be quite the writer and penning 4 print books and numerous ebooks as well as regular posts on his blog, www.pixelatedimage.com. Today he release the third and final ebook in his “The Inspired Eye” ebooks, The Inspired Eye, Vol. 3

Ever since coming across a copy of “Within The Frame” in my favorite local-and now closed(!)-Borders book store I have always enjoyed David’s writing. He writes about matters close to my heart and does so with eloquence and humor-though he would spell that “humour.” He tends to focus not on the “how to” of photography but rather on the “why” of photography. This book, and this series, focus on creativity: it’s joys and it’s challenges.

Having ridden some creative highs in the past few years, experienced the challenges of creativity overflow (too much going out with not enough coming in), as well as a personal low through physical injuries, surgery and months of rehab, David knows about the rewards and challenges of the creative life. And he pours it into this book.

Filled with humor, anecdotes, quotations, images shot mostly on his iPhone, and sound, soulful advice and direction, this book encourages us to take action on our creative path and warns against pitfalls along the way. Drawing from his own personal experience as well as the wisdom of creative people from history David weaves a wonderful read with a motivating and encouraging voice. I recommend it.

Special Sale:

you can get The Inspired Eye 3 for $5, or $4 if you use coupon code EYETHREE4 before Saturday, September 24 at 11:59pm (PST). As always during these launch discounts, you can get 5 for the price of 4, this time the discount code is EYETHREE20.

You can also get the entire The Inspired Eye bundle for $12. Volumes 1 & 2 have new covers but the content remains unchanged. Just visit the Craft & Vision store.

Aug

2011

New C&V eBook: Andes: Print and Process by Andrew S. Gibson

Andrew S. Gibson is quickly becoming one of my favorite photographers as well as one of my favorite photography writers. I fell in love with his first 2 ebooks, The Magic of Black and White and The Magic of Black and White, Part II soon after he released them. I found they really taught me to “see” in black and white better and produce better overall images as a result, whether in color or monochrome. I return to those titles over and over reminding myself of his tips, suggestions, and direction as well as to receive inspiration from the absolutely stunning images included within.

Yesterday he released another ebook. It is a bit different from his earlier works for the Craft & Vision label in that this is not really an instructional book although the reader will get a pretty clear sense of how Gibson approaches photography philosophically. This ebook: Andes: The Print and Process Series features some of the same images in his earlier works but also delves into the journey that gave birth to those images as well as the thought process behind them.

Focused intently on several journeys to the Andes mountains in South America, Gibson recounts bus rides, exploratory wanderings, encounters with indigenous cultures, witnessing local festivals and really gives a sense of what it is like to wander and photograph the area, the land, the people, and their customs.

What struck me the most personally was the simplicity of Gibson’s gear and how it had a direct impact on the outstanding quality of the resulting images. On his first trip Gibson traveled with two simple Pentax 35mm film cameras with a 24mm wide lens on one and a 50mm lens on the other. On his second trip he traveled with a Canon EOS 350D (a Canon Digital Rebel XTi here in the U.S.) and 18-50mm kit lens. A kit lens!! Brilliant!! Just the proof I needed to be reminded that the quality of a photographer’s gear does not directly correlate with the quality of a photographer’s photographs.

So come take a tour of a gifted and skilled photographer’s images in this wonderful ebook: Andes: The Print and Process Series. If you’re anything like me you’ll be inspired to go out and make incredible images with simple gear.

Special Offer on PDFs
For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code ANDES4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of ANDES, A Print & Process Series for only $4 OR use the code ANDES20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST August 6th, 2011.

Jun

2011

New Craft & Vision eBook: (Micro)Stock: From Passion to Paycheck

Regular readers of this blog, especially people that know me personally, are aware of how much I like eBooks. I’m a person that, while I love “traditional” forms of publishing for their handiness and physical beauty, just loves the paradigm change that the internet and digital media has brought to bear. The rapid and low-cost possibilities in publishing, as well as the democratization of the publishing process (and its return of control back to the artist/writer/musician) just excites me to no end.

The same can be said for how photography has changed in recent years; now photography in general is more widely available through sites like Flickr, FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr, and individual artist websites such as this one. In addition, what used to be a fairly exclusive club of professional stock photography and photographers has had its doors thrown open, making stock photography sales more available to a wider range of photographers.

I’ve dabbled a bit in stock photography and have managed to get a few images listed and sold through Getty Images, a worldwide leader in stock images. It has been great fun getting notices by email that an image of mine has sold, especially when I see the dollar signs attached. I start dreaming of new lenses, creating photobooks, buying stuff online or, more realistically, buying that next package of diapers…(You can view my modest collection of stock images listed on Getty here.)

But I, like others, have wondered if there is a living in this thing called “stock photography.” If I can make some money on one-off pictures I throw into the mix, could I increase my income significantly (read: high reward for low effort) by throwing more pictures into the mix. Well, to answer that question along comes a timely little eBook from my favorite photography eBook store: Craft & Vision.

(Micro)Stock: From Passion to Paycheck by Nicole S. Young is both a description and guide to succeeding in the stock photography industry. The book is filled with helpful pointers about the stock photography field in the digital age and also includes several case studies for additional reference. I enjoyed reading this book and I suspect if you are interested in stock photography or, like me, have dipped your toes into the business, you will like it too. It is not heavy on “how-to” and direction, but it does contain good examples of sell-able stock images as well as suggestions on what stock companies are looking for. There is a nice section on how not to be rejected as well. Ms. Young also maintains a realistic perspective throughout the book describing the work as rewarding but challenging and far from a get-rich-quick opportunity. Rather, she encourages photographers to enter to the stock photography business in an effort to improve their photographic skills and grow as an artist. The money you might make on the side just might be a nice little bonus. I know it is for me.

Special Offer on PDFs
For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code MICRO4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of (micro)STOCK for only $4 OR use the code MICRO20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST June 11, 2011.