Alter Ego, Updated
Sure has been quiet around here recently.
Why? I’ve been busy.
There’s a trip to Florida on this week’s schedule, too — so a continued lack-of-posting is going to be the plan for at least the next week or so. Sorry.
Posted by Giles, Monday, August 27, 2007, at 1:29 AM.
Posted to Photography
85mm 1.4: For Sale
Been absolutely behind the 8-ball recently; apologies for not updating more regularly. Please stay tuned. Meanwhile.…
For the past several months, I’ve been going on and on about how much I love this Nikon setup. However, in order to better equip myself for the tasks to come, I’ve decided to put my beloved 85mm on the auction block.
If you’re a Nikon user, this is the “bokeh master” and a great lens. I’m sure that no matter how much I enjoy its replacement, I’ll miss it — but my loss is your gain. Bid, buy, and enjoy.
Thank you!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 31, 2007, at 1:51 AM.
Posted to Business | Flickr | Love | Personal | Photography
Story Behind the Photo
Been a super-busy week, with only a moment to glance at the headlines — but this photo in particular caught my eye:
Get the story from the guy on the left, Kieran Beer, especially with respect to his expression. Very interesting.
Great photo by Brendan McDermid of Reuters.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 19, 2007, at 11:48 PM.
Posted to Photography
Power Tool
There is mucho behind-the-scenes work going on here at Foreword. Much of it is thanks to this:
A little Nikon love, late this Monday evening.…
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 17, 2007, at 2:19 AM.
Posted to Flickr | Love | Personal | Photography | Technology | Whatever
Remember These?
Found this 1970s-vintage calculator while photostrolling (for lack of a better term):
I remember using stuff like this. Makes me feel old.…
Posted by Giles, Friday, July 13, 2007, at 11:37 PM.
Posted to Flickr | Photography | Technology | Whatever
Stauffacher Slideshow
Bill Drenttel wrote to let us know of this:
When I look at my bookshelves, I see my life. Whole glimpses of previous interests are represented, from my collection of Latin American fiction to the many reminders of the years I spent living in Italy (the novels of Primo Levi and Italo Calvino). […]
Prized among these are many books by Jack Stauffacher — the legendary San Francisco designer and printer. So it is perhaps not surprising that when the photographer Dennis Letbetter sent me these 60 images of Stauffacher’s bookshelves, I immediately wanted to compare notes. I quickly spotted his complete run of The Journal of Typographic Research. And more: Loeb Classics, Italo Calvino, Stop Stealing Sheep, Hermann Zapf, Horace, Goethe, James Agee, African Socialism. There are books I also own, and others I only dream of owning. It is like my library, only so much better, and I instantly recognized these books for what they are: a touchstone of someone else’s life. “Without this working library,” notes Stauffacher, “I would have no compass, no map, to guide me through the density of our human condition.” I can not think of a more fitting description of a library, or one that so aptly describes a collector’s approach to the world.
Great, great stuff, including sixty photos — check it out.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 12, 2007, at 11:05 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Libraries | Photography
Wooden Hysteria
Finally.
The big news: I’m not dead. Although, for the past few months, it’s certainly felt like it.
Like this guy, I’ve been stuck: fire lapping at my feet, in near- or total panic, desperate to do something — anything — but unable to do so. It’s been some of the hardest months of my life, and it’s taken a tremendous toll on both Osprey Design and me personally.
However, the recovery begins soon: almost four months on, the final divorce agreement has been signed. There are details, but for all intents and purposes, it’s done. At long last, I can move on with my life.
[Pause for deep breath.]
Time for some announcements:
- The recent outage was spambot-related, and took days to fix. Some things — notably my mail — still aren’t working. (For cryin’ out loud. I so didn’t need this extra stress right now.)
- The main ospreydesign.com site is down for a complete redesign. It’s bloody well overdue, and, hopefully, I can do it properly this time — such that the spammers will lose.
- Foreword is also on the redesign list. Further, more than just the look will change — the focus will shift slightly, too. Fewer entries strictly on book design — although there will still be plenty — and more on use of photography in book design, advertising, and other design mediums.
Why? Well, that’s the most important announcement of all.
Simply put — someday, I’ll share more of the sordid details — having my primary business at risk of being lost to the divorce has led me to spend as much or more time doing photography as design, especially book design.
And darned if I didn’t get good at it. Enough so that people started asking me to do stuff. Then hiring me. A decision was necessary: just do design, or both photography and design?
Yeah, you saw it coming. Introducing Giles Hoover, Photographer.
Don’t get me wrong: I’ll still be here, designing books — and yapping about book design — for a long time to come. Indeed, stay tuned for more on both book design and photography next week. Then, shortly after, some semblance of regular posts.
Finally.
As always, thanks for stopping by.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at 3:06 AM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Photography | Site news
It Takes a Village!? Hell, No. It Takes a Crisis!
Okay, it’s been a week. month. year. FINE. Couple of years.
I bumped into someone I hadn’t seen in a while recently; she said, “I heard your life has turned into something of a blues album.” Exactly right, IMHO.
Case in point: the web site. Foreword hasn’t been updated nearly often enough, because it seems like all I have time to do is put out fires — and blogging on book design, photography, or anything else after a long day of bouncing from one panic to another isn’t always possible.
Having said all that, a couple of divergent items have unexpectedly snapped into focus in the last few days, and it’s been very helpful in moving the ball.
One of them, obvious to anyone who’s tried to access the site in the last few days, has been, well … the lack of a site. Woohoo. Takers for panic on panic?
The good news: the looooong-overdue overhaul of the site’s underlying structure — its server — is complete. Upgrades abound, from tons more space to better (and more) bandwidth. So, while the site may look the same, thanks to a little panic, it’s now on much more solid underpinnings.
The better news: With a very few exceptions, and despite the recent site crisis, I’m almost completely caught up with the “to do” list. Time to finally finish the rest of the upgrades, the main site redesign, and to get the rest of the comment stuff working.
Oh, yeah — need to take more photos, too:
Double Rainbow
Saw this outside the other day and at least had the presence of mind to go out and take a photograph. (And daydream, briefly, about finding the pot of gold…;)
Right now, however, time for another rare treat these days: a good night’s sleep. Back with more tomorrow afternoon.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at 10:11 PM.
Posted to Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news
Rumor Update: Photoshop CS3 Beta Tomorrow!?
Update: Beta Available. You’ll need a CS2 serial number. Get it from Adobe Labs. (More on my impressions in a few days — want time to become a little more familiar before I go blathering off…;)
People familiar with the matter tell AppleInsider that Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen will formally announce plans for the beta release during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter conference call with analysts and members of the media on Thursday.
On the other hand, those same people say that the San Jose, Calif.-based software developer does not plan to release or discuss details of other Creative Suite 3.0 applications, such as Illustrator, Dreamweaver and InDesign.
The Photoshop CS3 beta, which will be posted to the Adobe Labs website on friday, will include Adobe Bridge and Device Central components, and be available simultaneously for both the Mac and Windows operating systems.
People familiar with the Macintosh version of the editor confirm it to be a Universal Binary which “simply screams” on Apple Computer’s new Intel-based hardware. However, they tell AppleInsider that this week’s beta will include only the standard version of Photoshop CS3.
Read more over at AppleInsider. I’ll update this entry if a Photoshop beta does indeed become available.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, December 14, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Computers | Photography | Technology
Rumor: Adobe Might Do CS Beta
It’s thin — but promising. AppleInsider has more.
That said, March is only three months away. And that annual love-in known as the MacWorld Expo is even sooner — where we’ll undoubtedly get an update from Adobe or, perhaps, even the Steve.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 12, 2006, at 9:34 AM.
Posted to Computers | Photography | Technology
More Details on Photoshop CS3 Emerge
From Think Secret:
For many Mac users, the most notable improvement Adobe will be delivering with Photoshop CS3 is native support for Intel-based Macs. Sources stressed that the new version of Photoshop, which sports an upgraded and more responsive interface, continually exceeded their performance expectations, including on PowerPC hardware.
Photoshop CS3’s interface is said to closely resemble the look and feel of Adobe After Effects 7, with easy palette organization and brightness adjustment for the overall interface itself. Palettes can be moved, minimized, customized or collapsed down to a single icon with ease; even that familiar two-column toolbar can be converted into a narrower single column bar, if desired.
Another new feature substantially improving both workflow and raw performance is Live Filters, which effectively brings the dynamic editing features of Layer Styles to Filters. The pixel radius of a Gaussian Blur, for example, can be adjusted long after it has been applied with just a single mouse click. Sources report substantial performance improvements to the filters themselves, as well, and have speculated that Photoshop may now be tapping the GPU of the video card to help the CPU crunch filters.
With regard to non-destructive editing improvements, sources report that layers can now be saved as smart objects that the new editable filters can now be applied to.
Sweet.
Alas, not all is good news — Infinite Loop is reporting that Photoshop may be expanded to two versions, a standard and a pro — with the pro, naturally, costing more. As if it needs to be more expensive…!
A March-April 2007 introduction seems to be the consensus.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 5, 2006, at 11:43 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Computers | Photography | Technology
Uh, Sorry?
Sometimes, things just don’t go as planned:
Fessed up. Still had a great time.
And can’t help but to think that this would make a cool cover for something. Heh. Story of my life, perhaps…;)
Posted by Giles, Friday, December 1, 2006, at 1:07 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Flickr | Personal | Photography
Happy Thanksgiving
Well, it’s been a week.
Okay, that’s wrong. It’s been like this for quite a while now. I’m sorry. Between the divorce and the heavier-than-expected fall season, I’ve just been snowed in. And it shows.
Thankfully, the camera’s a good stress reliever. Even a walk around the neighborhood yields dividends:
From the other day — an experiment in highlighting only some leaves while leaving the rest for text overlay. Now to find a use for it.…
Meanwhile, couple more posts for today, then taking the rest of the holiday weekend off. Enjoy the turkey tonight if you’re in the US; see you all on Monday.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, November 23, 2006, at 2:46 PM.
Posted to Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news
Fun at the Georgia Literary Festival
Absolutely beautiful day Saturday here in Macon — perfect for the outdoor Georgia Literary Festival, which was a big success.
There were exhibitors set up along High Street, venues in area business and available rooms, performances in High Street Park, and lots of people of all walks of life enjoying the day.
Special thanks to Dr. Katey Brown for the opportunity to work on this great project — it was wonderful to see it turn out so well.
Posted by Giles, Monday, November 6, 2006, at 12:11 PM.
Posted to Books | Personal | Photography
Polling Place Photo Project
From the AIGA (!):
The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that seeks to empower citizens to capture, post and share photographs of democracy in action. By documenting their local voting experience on November 7, voters can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.
Did I mention it’s being spearheaded by the AIGA? Wow. And some friends:
The Polling Place Photo Project is part of Design for Democracy, an initiative of AIGA, the professional association for design. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project, working in collaboration with Jay Rosen, founder of NewAssignment.Net (a project of New York University’s Department of Journalism).
Good for all of them — applause from here. I’ll be doing my part (after I check the rules for photography hereabouts). Please do the same!
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 3, 2006, at 1:55 PM.
Posted to Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Public domain
Aperture 1.5.1, Plus a Trial Version
Apple has released a small version upgrade to its photo-management software, Aperture. It’s available for download here.
Apple’s also, finally, released a trial version — and better still, it’ll run on a good deal many more machines than earlier versions, so more of us can try the program out. And, of course, get us pining for new machines.…
Via Ars. Who, by the way, also identifies a nice Secret Santa gift…;)
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 3, 2006, at 1:41 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Computers | Photography | Technology | Whatever
'Nuther Nice Weekend
…away with the camera:
Cold and wet Friday night and Saturday morning, but once the weather cleared, the top of Tray Mountain, 4430 feet up (the second sixth [thanks, Phillip!] highest peak in Georgia, if I recall correctly), was a beautiful spot to photograph from.
Strapping on a pack and hiking into the woods for photography. My kind of business trip!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 31, 2006, at 10:44 AM.
Posted to Flickr | Personal | Photography
Georgia Literary Festival
Until recently, I could honestly say (when speaking with folks in Macon) that I didn’t have any local clients — all done through email and the phone.
No more:
Nuthin’ like making a splash — with a poster (x5000, statewide), a bookmark (x10000, statewide), a program, a bunch of ads, a quick reference guide, and a billboard. Whew. Original plans called for a web site, too, but that never came to pass. (Shame, too, as the current one is, well, lame.)
Many thanks to Dr. Katey Brown of Historic Macon for being such a delight to work with — and the nice people kind enough to lend their likenesses to this great cause.
If you’re in the area, stop by High Street in Macon next Saturday for the Georgia Literary Festival. See you there!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 24, 2006, at 7:22 PM.
Posted to Design | Flickr | Photography
Covering Photography
Okay, this is interesting:
Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. Our database contains images of and information on approximately 1200 books so far, which may be accessed via Photographer, Author, Publisher, Publication Date and Designer.
Covering Photography is by it’s nature a work in progress, and meant to be interactive. Titles are added on a regular basis, and commentary is encouraged, whether it refers to the site as a whole, to individual phortographers or to any of the covers (every page, including the home page, contains a link to post comments). Because the site, due to my own background, emphasizes a photohistorical point of view, I am particularly interested in comments which approach the material from a literary or book design context. My hope is that this website and database may function as an alternative, albeit atypical, take on the nexus of literature, graphic design and photographic history.
Check it out. (And if anyone would like to redesign their “cover”.…..)
Posted by Giles, Saturday, October 14, 2006, at 11:51 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Photography
Waxy Photography
A while back, in a post on HDR — a special form of photography — I cited Waxy Poetic on Flickr. Now, he’s opened a pro site: Waxy Photography.
Would potentially make an interesting cover, no? Text on an angle, following the stairs.… (Please note: I’ve cropped this image to typical cover size. The original could wrap. See it under “Abstraction” here. )
Good stuff.
Thanks, John!
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, October 11, 2006, at 10:28 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Flickr | Photography
Aperture 1.5
Apple released a new version of Aperture this week at the Photokina show in Cologne, Germany. It’s a free upgrade for current owners, and should be available as a download today or tomorrow.
Rob Galbraith has a good overview:
The program can now work with pictures wherever they reside, not just on a single drive as before, the adding of metadata on import has been streamlined, RAW photos can be exported with XMP-format sidecar files, Aperture Library contents are accessible from applications in Apple’s iWork and iLife suites and a developer’s SDK enables third parties to create custom export modules.
There are important changes to the image viewing and processing controls too, but the most compelling aspects of the new release involving importing, tracking, exporting and sharing pictures. Here’s a look at some of what’s new.
Read the rest, and note the photos from the introduction — nice. (Thanks, Rob!)
Aperture has the potential to be a nearly-perfect application for sorting and preparing photos for use in book projects — its ability to organize is what got me interested in the first place. (After all, I love Photoshop. I’m not interested in “replacing” Photoshop, only streamlining the process — using something to organize and do simple adjustments to RAW files. Photoshop would still be the king for complex adjustments and all “artistic” stuff…!)
Note Apple’s section on books, too:
Presenting prospective clients with a handsome, bound and printed Stock Book sends a powerful message. And Aperture makes the production of such high-quality bound books both simple and affordable. To help you put a unique stamp on them, Aperture includes a sophisticated book-layout engine that offers significant design flexibility.
You can manually drag or have Aperture automatically place photographs in a layout for you. Double click on any photo, and you can zoom in or pan the image until it’s perfectly positioned. Aperture also lets you add both text and photo boxes; move, resize, and rotate photos; insert multi-columned text; even use your own photos as full-bleed, ghosted background images. Need another page? Add a blank one whenever you’d like or simply duplicate an existing page and replace its photos or text.
With Aperture, you have total control. And when you’re ready, you can print your completed book on your own printer, save it as a PDF, or take advantage of Aperture’s integrated ordering service to order hard- or soft-cover books printed at 300dpi for optimal print quality.
Would I lay out a photo book in Aperture rather than InDesign? Probably not. Will have to see, once I have the program.
…Which, unfortunately, won’t be immediately. It’s not just a matter of purchasing Aperture — it’s a matter of also purchasing a computer it’ll run on. My 20” iMac won’t cut it. Soon.…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, September 28, 2006, at 9:45 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Photography
For Sale: Sony F828
Update: SOLD. Thank you all for the interest!!
My year-old Sony F828, a 7x (optical) zoom, 28-200mm, 8 megapixel, articulating body camera, is up for sale:
Selling as a kit, with the HVL-F32X external flash (a nice unit with excellent capabilities), 1GB compact flash (it’ll also take Memory Sticks — simultaneously!), all the cables, original packaging, etc., and two bags (of different styles).
I liked my time with it, but simply outgrew it — and found that the only way to get some of the “pro” features I needed was with “pro” gear. The Sony isn’t, frankly, but during the year I had it, I was asked a great many times what kind of camera I had — because the pictures were so good.
It does well-lit and studio scenes beautifully. Use a tripod in the dark, and get great results there, too, or attach the external flash to get outstanding results with fill or bounce. Small enough to carry in a purse, it’s best feature is the articulating body — move the grip and screen on the back some 100 degrees up and down (I think it’s 70 up and 30 down) relative to the plane of the lens — fantastic for taking ground-level or over-the-crowd shots.
Read Sony’s point of view, or a review by The Luminous Landscape’s Michael Reichmann, who covers the good and the bad — and notes that he bought one:
”[T]he Sony F828 has found a permanent place in my camera arsenal— it’s the ideal digital travel camera…”
$550 for the kit, plus $25 insured shipping (in the U.S.). Little more than some — certainly not all — on eBay, but you get the great flash unit, you know who you’re buying it from, and can rest assured that it works and has been well taken care of.
Email blog (at) ospreydesign (dot) com if you’re interested or would like more information. Good examples of photos taken with this camera are available on Flickr. (That link only shows photos taken with the camera pictured above.)
The Sony opened my eyes to what photography can do. It’s not perfect, but what it does, it does exceptionally well. I hope someone enjoys it!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 19, 2006, at 6:32 PM.
Posted to Personal | Photography | Technology
Amazing
…photograph by Joe Reifer, titled Mojave #189:
Now if that’s not a book cover waiting to happen!
From The Online Photographer, (still) perhaps the best photography blog going.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 19, 2006, at 5:18 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Photography
Two on Photography
— Smithsonian’s new Photography Initiative. Very cool.
— Digital Tampering in the Media, Politics and Law
Photography, of course, lost its innocence many years ago. In as early as the 1920s, shortly after the first commercially available camera was introduced, Stalin had his enemies “air-brushed” out of photographs. With the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, powerful personal computers and sophisticated photo-editing software, the manipulation of digital images is becoming more common. Here, I have collected some examples of digital tampering in the media, politics, and the law.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, September 9, 2006, at 12:47 PM.
Posted to Photography
Photoshop Tech "Sneak Peak"
From Rob Galbraith:
During his upcoming keynote address at Photoshop World, John Loiacono, senior vice president of Adobe’s Creative Solutions Business, will provide “a sneak peek at some of the new Photoshop technology being developed,” says a company press release. Photoshop World runs from September 7-9, 2006 in Las Vegas; Loiacono’s speech is slated for the morning of September 7.
Hope to see more news on that soon.
Posted by Giles, Friday, September 1, 2006, at 12:42 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Computers | Photography | Technology
Photoshop: What's Appropriate
Quick mention of something sent along by a friend here in Macon:
This is from the NY Post, a publication I’m not in the habit of reading — but nonetheless a good catch. Altering photographs like this for magazine use, even CBS’s internal magazine, are beyond what Photoshop’s for, I believe, when it comes to people — or anything, for that matter.
For the record, nearly every photo I take runs through Photoshop at some point — especially now that I’m using a camera that shoots RAW. Altering things like exposure and color temperature are standard practice.
Further, I’ll often do a smidgen of “touch up.” Telephone/power lines, dust, something in someone’s teeth, zits — all often get removed in Photoshop. But there’s a line that, for me, rests well shy of altering an image’s character — and making someone twenty pounds thinner definitely crosses that line.
When it comes to photography, I’m more artist than journalist, I guess, but still feel like I have to respect some of journalism’s rules to get “authentic” photographs. What do you think? It is worth following some “rules,” or is this sort of alteration okay?
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 30, 2006, at 10:00 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Ethics | Photography | Whatever
Yet Another Personal Post: Why, #12
A client said something to me the other day that I hadn’t expected — and welcomed gratefully:
Giles … you nailed [this cover]. I didn’t expect to come home tonight and
find this gift. I’m downright excited about it.
Gift. Few things have made me feel as good about the work I’ve been doing recently, and emails like that are exactly the reason I’m a freelancer doing what I love, rather than sacrificing standards or autonomy to work at a firm or — gasp — publisher.
As most of you know, 2006 has not been an easy year; divorce aside, too many ospreydesign-related items have been started and not enough finished. A good chunk of that is because I always put my stuff at the bottom of the “to do” list, but I’d honestly rather do book covers than web site updates any day.
Thankfully, the quality of my book design continues to improve as I learn — from you, Foreword’s readers, from my fellow book designers, and from photographers. This is especially important to me; understanding the components I use most in book cover design is vital to where I want to go professionally.
So, a big thank you for your help — and patience — this year.
As a stop-gap measure ahead of the updated main site, which is still waiting on a related project (that’s been suffering delay after delay, grrrrr) before the almost-completed redesign can be finalized, I’ve updated the gallery with eleven new items. Most have been posted before, here or on Flickr, but some are new to all. Hope you like.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 23, 2006, at 8:06 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news | Whatever
Nice Weekend
A good description — and the title of this photograph:
Camping is not luxurious, but it’s an amazing playground for photography — especially when you’re playing in a 16,000-acre nature preserve. I remarked to a companion how wonderful it was to be swimming in the Atlantic (thankfully, sans camera at that moment…;) and look ashore — to see nothing but sand and trees for miles and miles. No lights, no buildings, no nothing resembling human habitation.
“Like being the only people on the face of the planet,” he said. Sure felt like it.
Nice to be home to a soft bed and cats, though. The picture series will continue on Flickr tomorrow — uh, Tuesday — and Wednesday.
Oh, and bonus: already used a photo from the weekend on a book cover draft. More on that in a couple of days.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, August 22, 2006, at 12:16 AM.
Posted to Flickr | Photography
Everyday Art
Slowly, I’ve been learning about the Nikon and how to use it effectively. It’s more than a different feel — it’s a whole new animal. One capable of pretty astonishing quality.
What I like even better are the opportunities that the camera system presents. I try to take it with me as often as possible, including unlikely events like helping friends move:
Oh, someone please write a tell-all on the American icon that is U-Haul. Have I a cover photograph for you…;)
Was back in their house the next day, and set up this shot intentionally — wanted to see the light reflecting off the surface:
This one’s been fooled with in Photoshop a little, but minimally — the originals are of such high quality that it’s now a question of tweaking or artistic touches instead of “fixing.”
Moving weekend — a camera expedition. Whoda thunk it? Yet two shots (well, more, actually — click thru to Flickr to see the rest) that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Glad I brought it along.
Posted by Giles, Monday, August 14, 2006, at 7:34 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Flickr | Photography
In the Drink: HC, PB, and Something I Don't Do Well
Bumped into this title today:
I like it. It’s not great, but it’s eye-catching, almost there. The changes I’d make are all tweaks (I’m strongly dislike the author/novel font choice, for instance), and all on the periphery — the title treatment is perfect.
This cover represents something I don’t do well. It caused some reflection and a reminder to work on being better at the “style” this represents, especially in the subtlety of the background.
As designers, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. One of my biggest strengths, different, dynamic, or dramatic photography, can also be a weakness — in that I think of that sort of photography first, sometimes negating a simple solution like the one above, which, with the aforementioned tweaking, could be very good indeed.
The hardcover for this title goes in a completely different direction, more “photographic,” playing to the novel’s New York setting:
Again, I have font reservations, but although I’d make changes, the “style” is more in line with how I’d approach this cover. But is it “better?”
It’s a fine line between playing to your strengths and falling into the trap also known as “having a style.” Or is that okay, as long as the versatility to produce different styles well — and appropriately, as in when a book deserves it, instead of “forcing” your style — enough?
Thoughts as I stare at two different projects stuck on the desk for far too long, suffering from cliché hell.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 10, 2006, at 10:59 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Personal | Photography | Whatever
NYT on HDR
One of the many benefits of Flickr is seeing trends in imagery before they get out into the mainstream. HDR, or “high dynamic range” photography, has been around for a while on Flickr — but the article in today’s New York Times definitely means it’s hit the mainstream.
They have uses on book covers, but so many that I’ve seen are just overdone — the “high” range produces something that looks artificial. (We’re used to seeing range constrained to the “usual” range offered by cameras, among other reasons.) Plus, far too many people are enamored with the process, producing images that neither need nor work with the HDR technique.
Both of the examples in the Times article and many of the images in Flickr’s HDR group are fall into that “too much” category, in my opinion. But before you dismiss the technique and something that’s only good when “artificial” is appropriate for your book cover, consider that it’s useful for helping “pull” an image from flat into something more, well, dynamic:
From Waxy Poetic. Says “postcard” to me — even some months later, this was one of the first images that came to mind when I read the article. Improved, not overdone.
HDR is definitely a tool worthy of photographers’ and book designers’ attention. Please, though, do it well.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 3, 2006, at 2:00 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Flickr | Photography
Shots from Heaven
Monday night, sure. Definitely been running behind.…
I bought the Nikon D200 with one purpose in mind: having an extraordinary tool available to make my work better. Judging from the first few days’ exposure (pun intended), it’s going to be very useful.
Quite a list of improvements over the Sony — which, as you’ll remember, was Sony’s top-of-the-line camera at the time. Last year, when I stood at the crossroads of which camera to get, I was convinced that an all-in-one camera (with the lens permanently attached, I mean) was the way to go — simple and elegant.
Then came my friend Gerald’s wedding. Using his Canon Rebel XT really opened my eyes to the possibilities. I was wrong a year ago, pure and simple.
However, by being able to revisit the purchase a year later, I got lucky. Now, more and better camera options are available. This Nikon D200 wasn’t out yet when I purchased last year; Canon’s also improved their mid-range with the 30D. Both are better cameras than either the Sony or the Rebel, both offer pretty amazing capabilities in low light, bright light, and for taking multiple pictures in a row, and both would help any designer looking for expand their skill set and offerings.
I went with the Nikon for two reasons. First, the grip and “feel” of the camera as compared to (especially) the Rebel. The Canon 30D, while not as comfortable as the D200, is much better than the Rebel, but still not as comfortable for my hands. (Your experience will vary — please be sure to try both!) Second, the wide variety of available lenses. While an astonishing array of lenses are available for both Canon and Nikon systems, the options for what I was specifically looking for — fixed-length lenses for portraits and “stuff” shots (including macro) — seemed larger on the Nikon side, often for less cash. (The better 85mm Nikon lens, for instance, is about half the price of the better Canon 85mm.)
Note I don’t mention quality. As far as my eyes are concerned, the differences in quality between the 30D and D200 — and the Rebel and Nikon’s D50 and D70s — aren’t enough to purchase one system over the other. It’s about what works better for the photographer. I went with a mid-range camera body so that advanced capabilities were there from the get-go — and so that I wouldn’t outstrip those abilities in less than a year, as I did with the Sony. (And that’s before adding more lenses, which any SLR user can do.)
I also broke a “rule” almost immediately: the second lens is from a third-party manufacturer. I’d had several discussions regarding third-party lenses with a bunch of different photographers, and most seemed to agree that, at least until you know what you’re doing, for the best in terms of quality, you should stick with the camera manufacturer’s lenses. However, Sigma makes a wide-angle macro, a combination that fascinated me, and I took the risk. So far, I’m impressed indeed. (So much for rules…;)
Is all perfect? No, not at all. I’m still very much learning, especially how to deal with a complex camera (think Photoshop — lots and lots of layers of capabilities). Plus, the whole “frame with your feet” thing is still not an ingrained habit. Fixed lenses force a whole different style of photography after years of zooms. (I will be getting a zoom, the 18-200VR, but it’s a pretty lengthy waiting list. Perhaps next month.)
Some items on the camera will take some getting used to; the round switch on the back feels flimsy, and the lenses attach from the opposite direction from every other I’ve seen (counter-clockwise) and for some reason my brain just can’t accept that.
That said, it’s an extraordinary piece of equipment. More than half of the thousand or so photos I took this weekend were directly for work, and I’m already constructing a couple of projects (neither are books, unfortunately — both support pieces) using photos from the new camera. Perhaps not wedding-level “trial by fire,” but right to work nonetheless. Sweet.
Oh, and two more things. One, a thousand RAW photos, give or take, is about 15GB of space. All of a sudden, drive space is at a premium. (Backup time!!) Two, while iPhoto will take RAW files, and provide some simple adjustments, it’s still necessary to take a trip into Photoshop if you’d like to tweak on a fine level. My iMac doesn’t support Aperture (graphics card isn’t good enough), which would bring the adjustments and workflow/organization into one program. Next upgrade!
More on the photography front in the weeks to come. Next post: book design. Yeay!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 18, 2006, at 2:36 PM.
Posted to Photography
Astonishing.
Perhaps love is a better word:
The quality of photography in my work is about to take a quantum leap forward.
More over the weekend.
Posted by Giles, Friday, July 14, 2006, at 4:23 AM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Flickr | Personal | Photography | Technology
Artist I'd Like to Work with Soon
Meet Els Overkleeft, a photographer and graphic designer from my old stomping grounds of Maine:
In addition to wonderful photos like the one above, Els uses a combination of photos and overlays on some of her work that’s just beautiful — check out many more examples at her web site. Check out the book she’s put together, too.
I especially enjoyed seeing some of the places I’ve known well in the past — it’s been too long since I’ve been back to Maine. Thank you, Els, for the mini-vacation down memory lane.
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 3, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Book people | Books | Design | Photography
Microsoft Buys iView
Now here’s an interesting change to the digital-file/media-management landscape:
iView said on its Web site that Microsoft has many plans for iView’s technologies and product line, but those plans would not be announced right away.
iView made a point of noting that its Macintosh versions will continue to be made available and supported.
“Microsoft will fully support the existing Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the current iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that may be available based on the iView products,” said notes on the iView Web site.
I worked with iView MediaPro at the juice company, and found it great for nearly everything except EPS files, which is what we used most. I looked at it again just recently, but decided that Aperture was the better route for my digital media workflow. Glad I did.
This comes hot on the heels of Adobe’s announcement yesterday of the purchase of the RawShooter conversion engine for use in the Lightroom product. The big boys are definitely solidifying their positions — seems like the battle for who “controls” the media market is just heating up.
Notice that iView promises an upgrade path, not a Mac one. Peter Krogh, author of a digital management book for O’Reilly, calls it a good move — but cautions M$ to keep Mac support.
Time will tell.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, June 27, 2006, at 6:49 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Computers | Photography | Technology