Photoshop CS6 Liquify RGB vs. B&W

I don't know how I didn't notice this before. Perhaps it's because I don't typically export B&W images from Lightroom to edit in Photoshop. That is, I usually convert to B&W in Photoshop. But I've recently discovered that Photoshop liquifies my images differently if they're in natively in color versus if they're natively in B&W.

This is my setup. Lord knows I could use more than 8GB of RAM on my mid-2010 model MacBook Pro.

Artistry

Oh dear...

Never talked about artistry before. Honestly it's never interested me. Because I never thought of myself as an artist. I always thought it was pretentious to say,

"Yeah, I'm an ar-tíste"

After all, I'm missing the Mario moustache, the horn-rimmed glasses, the beanie and/or the emaciated physique.

Oh wait, that's a hipster.

In all seriousness I hadn't thought much of artistry because I never felt like I understood what artistry was. Four years into photography however, I finally think I have an idea. And it's not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be responding to some divine calling. Voices in my head. Seeing visions that I would have to magically etherealize into art.

Nope. Turns artistry is just being poor and hungry all the time.

:)

Meta-blogging

Meta capture

This is a post about blogging about blogging. Hence the title meta-blogging.

Writing is important to me because it allows me to organize my thoughts. Sometimes I start a post only as an initial reaction to something but not knowing exactly how I want to conclude the article. Those posts are often the most insightful into my own thought processes, my belief system, and most "revelating" (revelate is not an actual word) in general. My final take on these posts will often surface late in the process of writing; a process which is very much an internal and rhetorical debate.

But my best posts are the ones that I can finish in a single sitting. If it takes more than one sitting, I find that I lose my train of thought and/or I introduce new lines of thought, arguments, opposing ideas even. Not good for the reader. Often more confusing than revealing.

Tatooine

Booking a direct flight to Tatooine now ;)


Now if I could only figure out where in Tunisia the set is exactly...

Cavalli Photoshopping Beyoncé: Who's to Blame?

I don't often read the news but I saw this in the news recently. "Cavalli announced via email that Bey wore a special Roberto Cavalli "created exclusively for her 'The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour'" at her recent concert, a multicolored silk gown with gold embellishments and cutouts."

And with this they attached the image above.

Oh no they didn't!

Podcast: Instagram and Retouching (the lost podcast)

For those of you that have been to my fashion photography group workshops (or webinars), you've undoubtedly seen the desktop of my computer which is cluttered with drives, pictures, and random folders. As I was cleaning up my desktop today I stumbled across 2 podcasts that I never uploaded. I listened to them, they're intact and ready for consumption.

Hope you enjoy our brief discussion on Instagram, retouching, creating styles, and much more!

Intel's new Haswell processor

In contemplating a new MacBook Pro I've been anxiously awaiting the release of the Haswell processor from Intel. It looks like a modest bump in speed but even more impressively with better efficiency. Read on to see why I'm so excited!

Disk Utility and Invalid Content

A partition on my 2nd OWC Elite Qx2 disappeared off my desktop and then failed to mount. Not sure why this happened but it had me worried for about 15 minutes. These following links helped me resolve the issue:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10329628-263.html
http://imnotbruce.blogspot.com/2011/06/disk-utility-and-invalid-content-in.html

While I was in Disk Utility I also took the time to verify all of my drives/partitions and repair some permissions just to stave off future catastrophic failures. Toying with the idea of a single 8-bay RAID to combine the media servers and then repurpose them for other duties. Needless to say I'm outgrowing my infrastructure... again!

Chicago Sun-Times

More proof that the photography world is changing quickly. The Chicago Sun-Times has recently laid off all their staff photographers and is switching to freelance photographers and reporters. And they are emphasizing the importance of future news on video.

What does this mean for me and you?

For starters this doesn't really affect me at all. It's basic business and economics. Cut costs or increase revenues to increase net profits. Supply and demand dictate the going rate. Looks like there are too many photographers and not enough jobs. I'm not surprised. Everyone with an iPhone is now a photographer. As of March 2011 there have been 108MM iPhones sold.

That's a lot of potential reporters.