Why you won’t succeed in photography

Ted Forbes:

Success requires work. It also requires understanding how to get people’s attention. I got a question from a viewer about how to succeed in photography. This individual is somewhat frustrated and its completely understandable. I personally believe that everyone in the world has the power to do anything they want. There are countless people who are proof of this. But the bottom line is that most can’t/don’t/won’t which is why my advice should fire you up even more.

• Define what you are trying to succeed at specifically. Chase that goal, but don’t close yourself off to other opportunities.
• Be careful about “creating work for yourself”
• Do the work. This is the most obvious, but its the most difficult. Its also what makes people ultimately give up. Do the work.

Kamlan just announced the new 50mm f/1.1 II and 21mm f/1.8 APS-C lenses!

The Taiwanese company Kamlan announced two new APS-C lenses:

50mm f/1.1 II for Sony E, Fuji X, MFT and Canon EOS-M
21mm f/1.8 for Sony E, Fuji X, MFT and Canon EOS-M

Kamlan also announced the intention to develop Full Frame lenses for the Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon EOS-R system.

Kamlan has currently a range of lenses on sale on Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon CA.

Image sample shot on the Sony A7rIII (crop mode):

via Mobile01

Ted Forbes and Matt Granger thoughts about the new Fujifilm GFX 50R and 100S announcements

Ted Forbes:

Fujifilm have announced the GFX 50R and the Fujifilm 100S concept cameras. Both of these are medium format. The GFX 50R is a compact, “rangefinder” style version of their previous camera – the Fujifilm GFX 50S. It brings over the same sensor in a much smaller and more portable configuration. The price point is considerably lower as well. Also added is Bluetooth integration. The Fujifilm GFX 100S concept is a camera to be released in 2019. This is where things get particularly interesting. The 100S will feature a 102 megapixel sensor, IBIS (in-body image stabilization) as well as 4k video and phase detection autofocus across the entire sensor. I’m guessing this will be an entirely new sensor likely not built by Sony. But my favorite announcement today is the Fujifilm partnership with Phase One in the Capture One software. Capture One has not supported any medium format cameras other than Phase One until now. This is a huge step forward. I love Capture One and use it all the time. But this has been a stumbling block for Capture One – they have to support all cameras if they intend to gain traction in the raw image editor application space.

And here is Matt Granger talking about the new Fuji cameras:

New Luminar 2018 with Sky enhancer tool available announced

Today Skylum launched the new Luminar 2018 with Sky enhancer tool. For a limited time you get this package with a $10 discount using our code “MIRROR” and extra Bonuses (see list below). And in December you will get the Libary tool for free too.

Pricing:
? New users can purchase Luminar 2018 for US$59 ( US$49 with your coupon code).
? Current users of Luminar 2018 will be able to update for free .
? Current users of Luminar 2017 can upgrade for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
? Current users of a Luminar 2018 trial (those who have downloaded it before November 1) can purchase Luminar 2018 for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
? Owners of Skylum legacy products (Creative Kit, Noiseless, Intensify, Tonality, FX Photo Studio, Focus, Snapheal, Filters for Photos) can purchase Luminar for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
? Current users of Aurora HDR (2016–2019) can purchase Luminar for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).
? Current users of Photolemur can purchase Luminar for US$49 ( US$39 with your coupon code).

Bonuses:
? ViewBug: 3-month Pro membership ($42 value)
? KelbyOne: 2-month Pro membership ($40 value)
? Rocky Nook: Choice of ANY e-book ($40 value)
? Daniel Kordan: Awesome Landscapes Tutorial ($29 value)
? Manfrotto & Gitzo: $20 gift card on any $120 purchase ($20 value)

Press text:

AI Sky Enhancer: More Than an Innovation, It’s a Breakthrough
Skylum has released a free update to Luminar that brings AI Sky Enhancer, designed to add detail and drama to the sky with just one slider.

Bellevue, WA, November 1, 2018 — Skylum Software today released a free update to its award-winning Luminar photo editor and presented the AI Sky Enhancer filter. Developed in the company’s AI Lab, AI Sky Enhancer adds depth, definition, and detail to any sky almost instantly, with only a swipe of a slider.

AI Sky Enhancer is a revolutionary new tool for automatically enhancing skies and making them beautiful without the need for masks and layers. This will save photographers an enormous amount of time in post-processing while allowing photographers of any skill level to achieve dramatic skies.

Hundreds of thousands of photos incorporating varying degrees of tonal skies were used to train a deep neural network that powers the AI Sky Enhancer filter and allow Luminar to analyze each image and detect (and adjust) only the sky. The result is complete automated control of the sky. AI Sky Enhancer works with sunsets, blue skies, partly sunny skies, storm clouds, and virtually any other sky scene imaginable.

“And while this update is great by itself, it’s just the beginning. Luminar now includes an innovative core neural processing engine that enables all Luminar users to harness the power of AI. This will give the Skylum team the possibility to introduce more smart and automated tools more frequently,” explains Dima Sytnik, CTO and co-founder of Skylum. “Expect more innovative AI-powered features in Luminar in the near future.”

The new AI-powered filter comes ahead of Luminar 3 with Libraries, which will start being rolled out to Luminar owners on December 18. Skylum has made the unprecedented decision to include every new feature of Luminar — big and small — at no additional cost to current Luminar 2018 owners until late 2019. This will include Luminar 3 with Libraries, which will allow photographers to organize, browse, and edit images on the fly. Additionally, Luminar customers don’t have to pay an annual subscription fee.

New and current users of Luminar will also receive a value-added promotional package including a three-month Pro Membership to ViewBug ($42 value), a two-month Pro Membership to KelbyOne ($40 value), a choice of any ebook from Rocky Nook ($40 value), the Awesome Landscapes Tutorial from Daniel Kordan ($80 value), and a $20 gift card toward the purchase of any Manfrotto/Gitzo product valued at $120 or more.

Luminar is available to new customers for just $59/€59/£53. Current users of other Skylum software including Aurora HDR, Photolemur, and Skylum legacy products can purchase Luminar for the special price of $49/€49/£44.