Pictures of the Week: January 10, 2014

from the Denver Post

Aida Diallo, whose ten-year-old son Bamba was killed when a fire struck the Dakar shack where he was sleeping along with other Quranic students, sits in her one-room home in the village of Ndame, Senegal. Bamba’s older brother Cheikhou, 13, managed to escape the fire which killed Bamba and three of their cousins. For now the surviving boys and their teacher are back in Ndame, but, says Diallo, when their teacher, her brother, returns to Dakar, Cheikhou will go too.

People unload belongings on January 9, 2014 at Minkammen, South Sudan that they were able to bring with them to the camps. Hundreds of civilians fleeing violence in Bor region arrive at dawn to one of the many small ports that run alongside the camps in Awerial region, having crossed over the Nile River by night. Thousands of exhausted civilians are crowding into the fishing village of Minkammen, a once-tiny riverbank settlement of a few thatch huts 20 miles southwest of Bor. Some say they had spent days hiding out in the bush outside Bor as gunmen battled for control of the town, which has exchanged hands three times in the conflict, and remains in rebel control.

Mount Sinabung spews hot lava as seen from Jeraya, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The 8,530-foot volcano has sporadically erupted since September.

Aida Diallo, whose ten-year-old son Bamba was killed when a fire struck the Dakar shack where he was sleeping along with other Quranic students, sits in her one-room home in the village of Ndame, Senegal. Bamba’s older brother Cheikhou, 13, managed to escape the fire which killed Bamba and three of their cousins. For now the surviving boys and their teacher are back in Ndame, but, says Diallo, when their teacher, her brother, returns to Dakar, Cheikhou will go too. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this late Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014 photo, Mount Sinabung spews hot lava as seen from Jeraya, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) volcano has sporadically erupted since September. Authorities extended a danger zone around a rumbling volcano in western Indonesia on Sunday after it spewed blistering gas farther than expected, sending panicked residents streaming down the sides of the mountain. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

People watch and photograph enormous waves as they break, on Porthcawl harbour, South Wales, Monday Jan. 6, 2014.  Residents along Britain’s coasts are braced for more flooding as strong winds, rain and high tides lash the country. At least three people have died in a wave of stormy weather that has battered Britain since last week, including a man killed when his mobility scooter fell into a river in Oxford, southern England.  (AP Photo/PA, Ben Birchall)

The frozen mist from Niagara Falls coats the landscape around Prospect Point at Niagara Falls State Park, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014. The Polar Vortex brought high winds and frigid temperatures to the area.  (AP Photo/The Niagara Gazette, James Neiss)

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Thinking of going to medium format digital?

In the days of film using a medium format camera was a sign that either you were a very serious amateur or a professional photographer, the eye watering prices of medium format digital cameras means that it really is only the preserve of the very serious professional photographer. Here are 5 for you to dream about from Photo District News By Michael McEnaney

It’s true that the camera is only a part of photography’s creative equation: the true artistry comes from the shooter. But when a shoot demands excruciatingly fine detail and exceptional image quality, medium-format cameras continue to help shooters consistently deliver.

There are those photographers who will tell you there is an entirely different “look, taste and feel” present when shooting medium format. It may be more involved, and the cameras are certainly more expensive, but in an industry where there’s so much sameness, loyalists insist that the unique look medium-format cameras can deliver make them worth the extra effort and higher price tag.

“It’s the look, pure and simple,” says Brooklyn, New York-based fashion photographer Sandy Ramirez. “There is a very definite and unique ‘look’ to medium format. It comes from the fact that you end up using longer focal lengths to get the same frame of view. This gives better subject isolation and has a wonderful 3-D look to it. Pure and simple, it just looks different.”

“There is a certain and very distinct esthetic allure inherent in medium-format photography that this technology has always owned,” explains another New York City photographer, Jim Cummins. He adds, “It’s something special with the tonality, detail and sharpness of the image that draws you in.”

 

See all of the article here

What’s New In Medium-Format Digital

Rumor: Canon Hopes to Launch a Digital Medium Format System in 2014

 

Lightroom tips: 6 quick tricks for giving your portraits a professional finish

Digital Camera World brings us this brief tutorial on using Lightroom. We teach a LR course that is very comprehensive but there are always tricks and special uses that can be learned from tutorials so if you use LR have a look here and see if you can improve your output

More and more lately we’re finding Adobe Lightroom is overtaking Photoshop as the program of choice for enhancing our portraits. At first glance, with its emphasis on tonal controls and presets, Lightroom may not seem like the ideal place to carry out detailed work like portrait retouching.

However, Lightroom was developed for editing photographs and it’s surprising how far you can take an image using a few simple tools and techniques.

A big part of retouching a portrait involves making adjustments to different areas of a face, and they’re usually the same adjustments every time: we lighten the eyes, soften the skin, boost the lips, sharpen the eye lashes, and tone down any bags under the eyes.

All these adjustments can be made with one powerful tool: the aptly named Adjustment Brush. We’ll use it here to give our portrait a fully professional finish.

Another important (if at times monotonous) stage of retouching is the removal of marks, spots and blemishes. Everyone has them, but what goes unnoticed in a moving person can spoil a static image.

In this area Lightroom is still playing catchup with Photoshop, but Lightroom 5 has taken a big leap forwards with the improved Spot Removal tool, which operates just like a brush……READ MORE HERE