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John Watson is the original founder of Photodoto. If you're interested in what John has been up to, you can browse his personal blog.

Is it Time for a New Camera? How to Decide

By John Watson
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Rationally, I know my camera is excellent. It takes wonderful photographs, it still works great after 50,000 shots, and has all the resolution I can use right now. And yet… how nice it would be to upgrade.

New camera with lens

Buying a new camera can be exciting, but it’s important to be sure that you actually need one before taking the plunge. In this guide, we’ll help you decide if it’s time for an upgrade and provide tips on how to select the right camera for your needs.

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The “Beauty Function” For a More Beautiful You

By John Watson
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Beauty FunctionYou just can’t believe anything you see these days.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have created a computer algorithm that “beautifies” a photograph of a person’s face by making subtle adjustments to ratios that correlate with an objective definition of beauty. As a photographer, you are probably familiar with some of these mathematical formulas (The Golden Ratio) although you may not have thought of applying them to human faces.

It’s inevitable that software like this, for better or worse, will find its way first into products like Adobe Photoshop as a plugin and then eventually into digital cameras. One day, you may even ditch your old-fashioned glass bathroom mirror for a self-esteem boosting all-digital model.

Check out the before and after photos and read the full article at Israel21c.

(via Kottke.org)

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Nick Tosches’ Search for Autumn

By John Watson
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Vanity Fair ran a fascinating photographic detective story day before yesterday about the author’s year-long quest to discover where a photo used for Windows XP desktop wallpaper was shot and who the photographer was. The seemingly trivial task quickly became an obsession for the author and a small group of volunteers who were blocked by an impregnable wall of secrecy surrounding the origins of the photograph.

Read the full story at vanityfair.com.

Nick Tosches: Autumn and the Plot Against Me: On The Web: vanityfair.com

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Make your photos pop out of the page

By John Watson
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Photo Pop-OutsPhotojojo, the site with the oddly familiar name and really cool DIY tutorials, has a swell tutorial for making your own Photo Pop-Outs. All you need is a little bit of foam core, some tape and a knife, and a photo. Super easy to make and very cool. These look like they’d make great gifts.

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Favorite “everyday” camera settings

By John Watson
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For just about everything these days I shoot my Nikon at +0.7 exposure compensation, +1 tone, +1 saturation, +1 sharpening. I almost always use matrix metering (rather than spot or center-weighted) and dial in exposure compensation to adjust for different conditions. I change modes a lot but spend most of my time in aperture-priority, program, and manual. I shoot JPG almost exclusively except when I’m really paranoid about getting a shot.

Out of curiosity, how about you? What are your favorite “everyday” settings?

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Creating a 3D effect with image editing software

By John Watson
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Instructables 3D effectInstructables, a site that lets you share “what you make and how others can make it,” has a neat tutorial by Andrew546 describing how to create a 3D effect (pictured right) with your own photos. I’d say this tutorial is for anyone who knows the basics of layer masking (or who really wants to learn more about it). The 8-step tutorial is easy to follow with pictures describing each step.

Creating a 3D effect with image editing software [Instructables]

[via Lifehacker]

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How to process a photo for “mood”

By John Watson
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I was going through the tremendous Photodoto photo pool over at Flickr and found a great photo by photographer Remco Douma:

Gloomy

What makes this photo really neat though, is how he modified it from the original to create a specific mood. The processing steps he took are simple to do, yet create a powerful new image with a completely different feel from the original. It’s a great example of how learning to “develop” photos in the digital darkroom can really pay off.

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Do you need a drawing tablet?

By John Watson
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I was cleaning out my office today when I ran across the most unlikely of items—an original Koala Pad drawing tablet! According to Wikipedia, the Koala Pad was the first graphics tablet available for home computers. (That makes me sound older than I’d like but I’m only 34!)

Koala Pad
Click to enlarge

Today, I own a Wacom tablet and I love it. It offers a level of intuitive ease of use far beyond what a mouse can provide for certain operations. As a digital photographer, a graphics tablet might be an important piece of equipment but it depends a lot on your digital workflow.

… Continue reading Do you need a drawing tablet?

Build your own 42″x78″ free-standing lighting panel for about $40

By John Watson
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Light panelThe ability to control the lighting in a location can be the difference between a batch of duds and keepers. Nice light is worth a fortune in lenses. Unfortunately, equipment for controlling light can cost a fortune. With that in mind, a friend of mine recently constructed two free-standing lighting panels out of very inexpensive but sturdy PVC pipe (which you can find at any home improvement store).

He uses the panels for portraits indoors and out. Just set your lights up to shine through the panels and position as desired. In addition, outdoors he’s found they work great as portable shade for his subjects to soften direct sunlight.

The parts list and assembly instructions follow. Also, check out the photo set of the assembly process and finished product.

… Continue reading Build your own 42″x78″ free-standing lighting panel for about $40

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