Grüetzi Galera!
As the year speeds towards its end, August and a hot summer greet us and allows for some outdoor adventures. Jan Aidel shared with us some tips for #Astrophotography, we discussed many of our next activities and looked into news and knowledge resources published during the last week.
You can see the full recording of our online meeting below and download the presentation we discussed here.
On the agenda this time:
- Industry News: New and improved Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art lens. Smaller and lighter, fine-tuned for mirrorless cameras
- FREE Learning and Videos (documentaries, videos, fun and educational sources)
- Moonwalk: an epic project with one in a lifetime stills and video. They captured a man walking on a slackline with the huge full-moon as a background. The 7:58 are well worth the watch on Sony’s Channel.
- Create texture on skin and make it look more natural (especially useful if the edits were too harsh and skin looks a little “plasticky”) – by PHLEARN.
- Edit eyes in portraits to make them look great (and still natural) – by Piximperfect.
- Focal Distance (“zoom”) for portraits, a brilliant comparison by Fstoppers.
- Adjust facial features (nose, chin, eyes and much more) in Photoshop by Jesús Ramirez.
- 16:56 Free Courses on CreativeLive, including content from Lindsay Adler.
- A great comparison of Noise Reduction Software by Fstoppers.
- Tips for Night Sky Photography by Fstoppers.
- OUR Book Project
- Next photowalk in Zürich
- 45:56 Drone “photoFly”
- 52:26 R.I.P. Weekend photowalk
- Astrophotography by Jan Aidel
- 1:15:30 The best selection of Photo Apps by our own group
We meet weekly at 19:00 CEST to our Tuesday Photo CHats, you can see/download the PDF presented during the meeting and watch the full recording on Facebook and Youtube (on Youtube there are links to each specific section of the video). Everything written below is in full detail in the recordings and all mentioned links are listed in the PDF.
Don’t miss next week’s #Photowalk, RSVP here and consider subscribing to the blog using the column on the right and you won’t miss anything.
Video Recording of the Meeting
The Main Topics
Star Photography by Jan Aidel
Our dear photographer friend Jan was kind enough to share some of his insights into #Astrophotography, it was a great explanation and he shared some of his process and tips. Check the specific section in the video by following this link.
You can also download the material presented during the CHat.
Next Photowalk
On 27th of August we will meet for the next photowalk and I can barely wait for it! The last time was so much fun, you can see all the photos and comments in our Facebook Group or the Blog Post about it.
We will meet on the MFP Park Oerlikon, the stunning venue in the images below where we will have a blast while photographing portraits and architecture. Check the online discussion and RSVP while there are still spots available!
Next Activities in Our Group
OUR BOOK
Sorry for the all caps title, but this project is very dear to me and I hope most of us will take part in it.
We will produce a book with the photos we took during/for our activities during 2020 and preserve some good memories from this crazy and unforgettable year. Regardless if it was a photo from the #lockdown assignments or from the photowalks, we will collect and select some of the gems we produced during this year and produce a book, which should be ready in December. With the book ready, we will get together to see it and celebrate the good times we had during this year’s tough ride.
We plan to have self-portraits to showcase who we are, you can get some inspiration from the self-portrait ideas from COOPH or – if your are a male – chat with ‘our Tscharner couple‘ and join their Guys Only Magazine Project.
#Drone Photowalk
Even though we are all photographers and love snapping from time to time, not all of us enjoy getting high ?. With that in mind, a part of our group will go to the gorgeous Klontalersee to fly around and capture that coveted birds-eye perspective.
Of course the activity is open to non-droning participants, everyone who is interested in knowing more please send me a message.
Should we call this a “photoflight”? ?
New and improved Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art lens.
#Sigma released a new and much-improved version of the already phenomenal 85mm Art Lens. The new version was redesigned from scratch and optimized for mirrorless cameras, making it smaller and lighter. As if that was not enough, it costs a whopping USD 600.- less than the camera branded sibling. Go to 01:06 in the meeting’s recording and check our discussion about that incredible new portrait beast.
Anyone wishes to buy an used and very well conserved previous version 85mm Art for Sony? ?
Moonwalk
That was an epic project with one in a lifetime stills and video. They captured a man walking on a slackline with the huge full-moon as a background. The 7’58” are well worth the watch – by Sony Alfa.
Create texture on skin and make it look more natural
Edit eyes in portraits to make them look great (and please still natural ?)
Focal Distance (“zoom”) for portraits
Right at 09:17 we talked about this nice comparison of focal distances applied to portraits by Fstoppers. Even though that has been done and redone many times, it is great to pay close attention to how this affects the background, the model’s body and face and the background compression.
Adjust facial features (nose, chin, eyes and much more) in Photoshop
Jesús Ramirez is the great teacher and #Photoshop Guru behind PTC. He shared a tutorial in which he teaches how to use AI (and also older versions) to adjust facial features such as nose, eyebrows, mouth and a lot more.
Noise Reduction Software Compared
Right there at 18:12 we started to chat about a very helpful comparison made by the good folks at Fstoppers. They edited the same photo using different software and compared the results. Spoiler: they selected #Topaz Labs’ DeNoise AI as the best results and I agree. We already saw this powerful software in a previous meeting and we have a sweet 15% discount link if you decide to buy it.
Night Sky Photography
And yet another great content by Fstoppers: they posted some different rules to help you achieve perfect night sky pictures and absolutely sharp stars. The math behind that perfection is not the easiest, but the effects are well worth it. Jan mentioned this and much more when he showed us his process and results while shooting the night sky in one of his expeditions.
Contribute and Don’t Miss the Next Meeting
Do you have something to suggest for our discussions? Please shoot me a message and we will make that happen.
Thanks to all who participated, I always finish our CHats with new energy and ideas! See you all on our next meeting.
