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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.

Lens reviews

By John Watson
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“It’s such a benefit for low light and for longer focal lengths. If you want an all-in-one then this is definately the lens to go for. Great for travelling as you only need to take one lens and don’t have to worry about changing lenses in dirty conditions. Highly recommended.” — fergusmacdonald about the Nikkor 18-200 VR

The lens review database is continuing to grow and has become a great resource for anyone doing lens research. Check it out if you’re thinking of buying a new lens. And please consider contributing a review if you own one of the lenses. Your fellow photographers will thank you for your generosity.

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The difference between taking and making

By John Watson
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“To take photographs means to recognize—simultaneously and within a fraction of a second—both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

You’ve probably heard people say they make photographs. Maybe you thought nothing of it. But making a photograph is a distinctly different approach to photography than taking. Taking implies coming upon or discovering something, lying in wait, to grab or trap. When you take photos, you go into the world and you find scenes to capture. Making implies building a scene from parts. Creating something from nothing. Choosing which elements to include and which to exclude.

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Photo statuettes

By John Watson
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StatuetteMpix.com has a neat new product called photo statuettes. These aren’t fully 3-dimensional statues but rather 1/8″ thick cutouts that are then attached to a base so they stand up. You submit any photo and someone at Mpix digitally removes the background to create the statuette. That’s why pricing is “per head” starting at $16. Pretty neat idea. I could see doing this for some of the dance photos I’ve taken.

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Why is it called “unsharp mask” when it sharpens?

By John Watson
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A brief history lesson about an image sharpening method called “unsharp mask.” Photoshop and other image manipulation software all have a feature with this name that will sharpen an image. So, why is it called unsharp mask?

The name comes from the original photographic procedure used to increase the apparent sharpness of a photograph on film. First the original negative was copied and turned into a positive (In a negative, black is white and white is black. In a positive, it’s the other way around.). During the copy, the positive was intentionally blurred. This is where “unsharp” comes from. Then the positive and negative were put in contact and exposed to light again. The blurry portion of the positive cancelled out (masked) the blurry portion of the negative.

Despite working with bits instead of film, digital unsharp mask works similarly by comparing the source image to a slightly blurred version and subtracting one from the other.

Source: Wikipedia

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Canon vs. Nikon

By John Watson
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I’ve seen this debate come up a lot. Of course, it’s been rearing its head for a long time and will continue to do so far into the future, but it seems like I’ve been seeing more of it lately. Most people are pretty light-hearted when they talk about it. But almost everyone has at least some loyalty to the brand they’ve chosen. Partly it’s because cameras and lenses aren’t cheap and people have a psychological need to justify large purchases. Partly it’s about belonging to a “club.” There are a lot of factors.

My point of view is this: it’s a tool. I don’t much care what brand it is. The brand certainly doesn’t help me make photos. The brand doesn’t aid me in composition or help me see the world in a 4:6 ratio. I bought Nikon because the price/performance at the time I bought my original D70 (not the “s”) was better and the Rebel is too small for my hands. They both make excellent lenses and bodies. Both companies make equipment that far exceeds the ability level of 99% of their owners. Even though I have some money invested in Nikon glass,

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Raw Shooter Premium for a 200 GB workflow

By John Watson
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I picked up a copy of Digital Photo Pro magazine this past week and noticed an interesting article about RAW workflow (Shooting By The Million) by Andy Rouse, UK wildlife photographer. He recently returned from a 3-month trip to Antarctica with 200 GB of RAW images (about 25,000 photos). And he uses none other than Raw Shooter Premium (RSP) to process his files. Even if you’re not an RSP fan, the article is worth checking out to see how he deals with working through so many photographs and how his workflow technique can even help someone who has merely a few hundred photos to process from a shoot.

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Anatomy of a photo edit: Ready in 3 minutes

By John Watson
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I really enjoy the process of editing a photo. Each one is different. And it can be a lot of fun playing with ideas, colors, highlighting this area, downplaying another. A single photo really does have a lot of possibilities depending on what you do with it. But I’ll often make a photograph knowing in advance the edits I’ll need to make to “develop” it. Ready in 3 minutes was such a photo.

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