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The Merge

The Merge explores and visually interprets the possibility that our reality does not exist as we believe it to, but that instead we live inside a simulation.

Philosophers have been questioning our perception of reality since Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. This existential discussion gained new interest in 2003 when Oxford University philosopher, Nick Bostrom, published “The Simulation Argument”, which argues that life on earth could indeed be a computer simulation.

Since then, academic debate has been raging and multiple high-ranking technological specialists, such as Tesla founder Elon Musk, have publicly confessed to the theory. Elon Musk’s reasoning is based on the exponential haste in which artificial intelligence is developing. It will not be long before we are able to create perfect simulations of our own experienced reality. This leads people to speculate that if we can create perfect simulations, then we might only be programs inside a simulation run by others.

 

The Merge visually entertains the simulation theory. It artistically investigates the consequences that supercomputers, artificial intelligence and robots might have on our future society. By looking at interactions between man and machine, it explores how this accelerated digitized paradigm will affect our emotional, social and moral norms. 

The project employs an array of photographic tools to explore  how human existence could change as we move rapidly towards a point in history where physical and digital worlds may become so intertwined, that it will be impossible to distinguish between the two.  

Now is the time to document how the revolution of artificial intelligence and robotics may be rapidly changing our world. The Merge aims to debate the subject’s complexity, and the images balance realism and imagination, leaving space for multiple interpretations, and engaging a dialogue with the audience about the landscape of our future; If life is a simulation, where should we look to understand the world we live in?

Bio 

Peter Helles Eriksen (1984), Sara Brincher Galbiati (1981) and Tobias Selnaes Markussen (1982) are all based in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

In 2015 they formed an artistic collective, which finds inspiration in documenting issues founded on theories and first-person accounts, rather than fact.. When collecting their complex material, the collective is influenced by anthropological methods.   The collective had their first international solo show in 2016 (Rencontres d’Arles), which coincided with the release of their book Phenomena. They have been nominated for Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro and are presented in the collection of Musée Réattu.

Robert Doisneau

Du 15 octobre 2023 au 28 avril 2024, le musée de la Résistance nationale à Champigny-sur-Marne rendra hommage au célèbre photographe Robert Doisneau. Fruit du partenariat entre l’Association des Amis du Musée de la Résistance à Champigny-sur-Marne (AAMRN) et l’Atelier...

Ombres Chinoises

 ébrant soixante ans d’échanges diplomatiques entre la France et la République populaire de Chine, « Ombres chinoises. Sous l’œil des diplomates », présentée au Château de Tours du 24 novembre 2023 au 26 mai 2024, met en lumière les œuvres de deux grands photographes,...

Famille au Grand Coeur

Le 17 mai 2023 à 20h au Gazette Café (6 rue Levat à Montpellier), l'association "Famille au grand cœur", fondée en 2021 par des jeunes LGBT demandeurs d'asile ou réfugiés, présentera à la presse et au grand public l'exposition "Ombres et Latitudes" composée des...

Une histoire photographique des femmes au XXe siècle

Front populaire. Défilé du syndicat C.G.T. des femmes de ménage, laveurs de carreaux, etc. Paris, 14 juillet 1936. ©Collection Roger-Viollet / Roger-ViolletLa Galerie Roger-Viollet présente du 26 janvier au 25 mars 2023 l’exposition Une Histoire Photographique des...

Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron: Pioneering 19th-Century Photographer and Visionary Artist Julia Margaret Cameron, born Julia Margaret Pattle in Calcutta, India, on June 11, 1815, is considered one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 19th century[1]. She was...

Michael Kenna. Rivesaltes

80 ans après le départ depuis Rivesaltes de 2289 hommes, femmes et enfants juifs en 9 convois vers Auschwitz-Birkenau, le Mémorial du camp de Rivesaltes a souhaité mettre en lumière la place particulière de l’ancien camp Joffre, « Drancy de la zone Sud », dans le...

Martin Zalba’s World

Martin Zalba’s images are quite unique as he defined a very strong style over the years. Here are some samples of his work and if you want to know more about him, read his long interview andenjoy a strong portfolio in Shades of Grey Fine Art Photography magazine N°7

 

I am an amateur photographer who evolves in the way we see the world and how to reflect it personally. Photography helps me to put my personal evolution, aesthetic sense, capture the emotions and feelings that I try to convey through an image that captures specific moments of my life. Photography is the supplement of my other passion: music composition. I’ve always written my music by associating pictures, listening colors, lights and shadows and my picture happens the same way: try to express through it the silence that speaks in the atmosphere of the night, and my melodies want to evoke memories trapped in a beautiful sunset, evoke the impressionistic vagueness of imaginary worlds infrared, discover the intimacy of a cadence that looks at the macro and architectural photography because music is a building of sounds and both arts are very present in my creative search.

I want to highlight a very important place for photography as part of my artistic life as in music (my profession and passion). I think it’s necessary to make periodic breaks because you have to renew, study other artists and expand and refresh the mind. Otherwise we do same thing in different ways. There comes a time when it no longer moves more. At least that’s what happens to me and why I periodically alternate photography and composition. I am now disappeared in the composition after a year of intense activity. After 20 consecutive years of musical creation, I saw the need to be almost 8 years without composing and break came in handy because then I continued with renewed ideas and above all, more mature (at least I think so). I consider photography in the same way: as an art in which the creator has its creative processes of maturation and rest. So I quit temporarily when I see that my creativity stagnates. I am not satisfied with being a mere amateur photographer, I look for something else.

Robert Doisneau

Du 15 octobre 2023 au 28 avril 2024, le musée de la Résistance nationale à Champigny-sur-Marne rendra hommage au célèbre photographe Robert Doisneau. Fruit du partenariat entre l’Association des Amis du Musée de la Résistance à Champigny-sur-Marne (AAMRN) et l’Atelier...

Ombres Chinoises

 ébrant soixante ans d’échanges diplomatiques entre la France et la République populaire de Chine, « Ombres chinoises. Sous l’œil des diplomates », présentée au Château de Tours du 24 novembre 2023 au 26 mai 2024, met en lumière les œuvres de deux grands photographes,...

Famille au Grand Coeur

Le 17 mai 2023 à 20h au Gazette Café (6 rue Levat à Montpellier), l'association "Famille au grand cœur", fondée en 2021 par des jeunes LGBT demandeurs d'asile ou réfugiés, présentera à la presse et au grand public l'exposition "Ombres et Latitudes" composée des...

Une histoire photographique des femmes au XXe siècle

Front populaire. Défilé du syndicat C.G.T. des femmes de ménage, laveurs de carreaux, etc. Paris, 14 juillet 1936. ©Collection Roger-Viollet / Roger-ViolletLa Galerie Roger-Viollet présente du 26 janvier au 25 mars 2023 l’exposition Une Histoire Photographique des...

Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron: Pioneering 19th-Century Photographer and Visionary Artist Julia Margaret Cameron, born Julia Margaret Pattle in Calcutta, India, on June 11, 1815, is considered one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 19th century[1]. She was...

Michael Kenna. Rivesaltes

80 ans après le départ depuis Rivesaltes de 2289 hommes, femmes et enfants juifs en 9 convois vers Auschwitz-Birkenau, le Mémorial du camp de Rivesaltes a souhaité mettre en lumière la place particulière de l’ancien camp Joffre, « Drancy de la zone Sud », dans le...

B&W Artisan Pro by Joel Tjintjelaar

 

Joel Tjintjellaar is one of the best Black & White fine Art photographers today. Over the years, he built a solid reputation both as an artist and a post-processing master. The Photoshop panel he offers today lives up to his reputation. The name of his panel, B&W Artisan says it all. Being an Artisan means that you build something with care, professionalism and efficiency. These are exactly the qualities of this panel.

Here is only a teaser and you will find a complete review in the next edition of Shades of Grey Fine art Photography magazine.

B&W Artisan Pro is the successor of the older B&W Fine Art Quick Adjustments panel, with an entirely new design that takes the best of the old panel and combines it with a new and innovative approach towards digital B&W editing that is aimed at making B&W editing less technical and more intuitive and artistic. At the same time the name has changed for a more suitable name.Its goal is to effectively translate your personal artistic vision to a B&W image, with just a minimum of Photoshop knowledge and experience. No more steep learning curves and years of practice are needed to create sophisticated B&W images for which normally advanced knowledge of technically correct B&W processing techniques and knowledge of Photoshop were needed.

B&W Artisan Pro is a panel that uses Photoshop as a ‘host’ to introduce new features, through easy to use presets, that aren’t readily available in Photoshop. Each preset triggers a specific sequence of combined advanced PS features and also ‘hidden’ PS features, that sometimes consists of more than hundred different steps, in a way that reflects Joel Tjintjelaar’s signature style, craftsmanship and knowledge to render a non-destructive and artistic result. This new panel doesn’t use the basic PS tools like dodging and burning, curves, levels or Photoshop’s built-in B&W conversion and adjustment features to adjust grey tones and alter contrasts, but a new and advanced way of linear adjustments that directly affects the luminance value of a tone, with a high degree of control imposed by the presets. The linear adjustments are accurate, predictable and proportionate. And they do that, either within the entire canvas or within an area, roughly or, if the artists desires to do so, precisely, indicated by the artist and depending on what the artist wants.

The use of luminosity masks play an important role in how the new panel operates, but the user doesn’t need to know how   to create luminosity masks, how to correctly use them and how to correctly evaluate them. The latter is something even  many advanced Photoshop users don’t do, and usually skip that part, while in my approach, the correct evaluation of luminosity masks plays the most important part. The presets create, evaluate and apply the luminosity masks automatically behind the scenes when they’re triggered.

Visit http://www.bwvision.com/ for more info and get the panel.

Olivia Gay – Envisagée

“At a distance of a photojournalism which favors the decisive moment and images shock, Olivia Gay continues the long and patient quest for a look. Next on the work in all its forms – whether it is insane or rédimé – and on women, which it narrates the meeting each time singular, and which she paints the portrait subjectivé in the form of this “envisagement” dear to the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. They are prostitutes, lacemakers, cashiers, labor, models, Citadines, nuns, detained, refugees, each is thus part of a community of women who “resistant”, in spite of everything. Resistant: thus will the women of Olivia Gay. For as much, not of feminism at the Simone de Beauvoir: the artist puts rather in before the concepts of “discretion”, “home” and “Contemplation”, thus leading a search of individuation. The pictorial model irrigates these subtle portraits and “pardoned”, which testify to an immersion at each time renewed in specific worlds, and what this could appoint a spirituality of the face.

 

“Dominique Baqué historian and art critic

LA MEP
Maison Européenne de la Photographie
5/7 rue de Fourcy, 75004 Paris 01 44 78 75 00 – www.mep-fr.org
M° Saint-Paul (ligne 1) ou Pont Marie (ligne 7)

Ouvert du mercredi au dimanche de 11h à 20h
Accès à la billetterie jusqu’à 19h30 Fermé lundi, mardi et jours fériés

Ahmed Thabet. Some of his latest projects.

I have a lot of series but my series to ( Seri Wawasan bridge in Putrajaya city in Malaysia ) which I named it ( Heart of steel ) due to my abstract approach which focused in all shots on the heart of the structure, is the closest to my heart.

I did it over 2 years in 2 different visits to Malaysia, on the first visit I came across the bridge by accident, i was stunned by it is futuristic asymmetric cable-stayed design, the lines and shapes were magic, I grabbed my camera, started to shoot euphorically, I got so many shots all of then were snap-shots but the most upsetting thing which might happen to photographer had happened to me, i did not take few steps more to cross the road and photograph the most sophisticated and beautiful part of the bridge, I was very upset, but i have decided to go back all the way to finish the job next year, I did it, I took long exposure as well, I was very calm and focused with very sharp vision which based on my medical background as well ( It looks like human anatomy), by this way this is the series which has won the first place in the International photographer of the year 2017 in architecture-bridges. And the one I named DNA has won the second place, abstract category in the international monochrome award.

The second series I focused on London city bridges architecture, I captured three of them, ( London bridge, tower bridge, and millennium bridge) all of them very long exposure, and I processed them as a black and white version to make the scenes as serene as possible.

 

Here are some  questions from the interview he gave us for Shades of Grey Magazine N°6. Get the magazine to read the full interview and watch a 24 pages portfolio.

 

 

How and when did you start photography?How and when did you start photography?

It is a very interesting story. I started 4 years ago, my profession is doctor and my specialty is neonatology; one of the most stressful specialty in medicine.5 years ago i complained to one of my senior colleagues about this kind of sedentary life which we had been through since graduation from medical school, which really ruined our pleasure and spoils our social life, then he gave me the most valuable piece of advice i had ever got … photography.I bought my first DSLR. It was a Nikon D3200 and I started shooting everything, holding it in my hand everywhere, even in the hospital, then one of the best parts of my life started.

What led you to architecture and cityscape photography?

I was born in Cairo, one of the densest populated city around the world. So my love of urban exploration and architecture either modern or ancient started from the very beginning, long before photography. One year after I started photography, I discovered the work of Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou, I read their book “From basics to fine art” which I always would like to name “the holy book of black and white photography». It was a turning point to me, honestly i had my own vision but they added to me the art of black and white.
How do you select your location? I first look at google maps to examine the places and single out the best vintage points. It really saves a lot of time. Secondly, I do one visit without the camera, walk around checking the streets, street lights, traffic lights, interesting angles, beautiful buildings, even pipes and ventilations sometimes really would help.  I am always looking for abstract views and some kind of minimalism.

How do you prepare for a shoot?

First, I check the weather forecast it is very crucial. Second, I am looking for the best lighting condition, it is most of the time the golden hour and overcast winter time with gentle diffused light.Then, I check the opening times of the buildings and verify of any permission needed.

What kind of equipment’s you use ?

I have 4 camera bodies Nikon d 3200, Nikon 1 j2, Nikon d 7100, Nikon d 610 ) Lenses!  sigma 10/20, sigma 24/70, Opteka fisheye 6.5, Nikkor 55/200, Nikkor 105. Filters ( Hitech 10 stops, Hitech 3 stops ) , ( Lee ND filters )

Follow Ahmed Thabet.

What does Brexit mean for love?

A portrait series by Laura Pannack

Separation is a series of 13 portraits that explore the angst and myriad emotions experienced by London-based couples who, as a result of Brexit, have been forced to contemplate separation. Brexit has long garnered column inches for its political implications, but what does it mean for love?

We were planning to get married at some point in the future but the referendum result hurried us along” – Stuart and Giulia

The couples that feature in Separation are all of different nationalities: one half of each is British and the other half from elsewhere in Europe. The nationalities of the featured couples are: British, Italian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Spanish, Polish, Swedish, French and German.

At least one half of each of the couples featured in Separation works in London’s creative sector, a diverse and thriving industry that has long been a draw for Europeans moving to the capital. The job titles of the couples include: film programmer, arts tutor, sound artist, graphic designer, animation designer and professional drummer, amongst others.

View the full series on the Brithis Journal of Photography at  www.bjp-online.com/tag/laura-pannack-brexit

Jana (German) and Luke (British)

 

Jana: We love London. Despite being financially squeezed, we managed to buy a small two bedroom flat in Islington. It is is our home and gives us everything we need to live a happy life in London. We are part of the local community and have made many friends. Our daughters are going to nursery and school here and we don’t really want to move.

 

After the referendum we thought a lot about relocating our family to Germany, and we still do. Although the UK is our home, the uncertainty, not only with my status, but also with the UK economy, has made us consider a move. There is so much instability in the UK and a lot of stability in Germany. Our lives there would be more predictable and more secure. Our German community has also shrunken drastically. Out of the eight local families we used to meet regularly, six have moved back to Germany. This is not all down to Brexit but it was definitely a contributing factor. Britain’s future out of the EU will be bleak; I can already feel it crumbling around me.

Nadia (Italian) and Paul (British) Photographer, tattoo artist

 

Nadia: I had a view of Britain as a multi-cultural melting pot that accepts everyone and embraces difference. When the referendum result was announced, it was clear that the reality is very different. I am sad that this nice country, one that once accepted the world, is closing its doors, but at the same time I don’t feel pushed away by the vote. Brexit means that Paul will need to marry me so I can stay in the UK.

 

Paul: I voted Remain. In a world already so divided, the idea of Britain going at it alone does not seem right. The referendum result was a surprise for me. After living in the UK my whole life, and growing up surrounded by a mixture of cultures, I am open to the world and what it means to have cultural differences. I hope that the decision to leave the European Union was not just about immigration and border control.

Mirjami and Adam

Graphic designer, support worker

 

Mirjami: When Brexit happened, I took it personally. I come from an immigrant family and had been exposed to racism and stereotyping throughout my childhood. I was born in Finland but my parents are Chinese so I’ve always felt like an outsider. When I moved to London, I felt like everyone came from elsewhere for the first time; everyone looked different, everyone felt like they belonged. That made me feel like I belonged here too.

 

After the Brexit vote, I felt that same feeling I had felt as a kid, like I’m not wanted and I’m just a nuisance to the locals. That made me bitter and angry and I felt this massive gap between me and British people. As Adam himself is British, sometimes I felt that gap between us too, even though he did not feel the same way. Adam also resented the referendum result, but he has always remained nonchalant in his belief that it won’t have any bearing on our relationship and future.

Street Photography: A hot debate

Street photography in Pakistan is relatively new. A traditional society where laws/ guidelines are yet to be defined clearly in most of the situations, many people believe this art is against the dictates of their religion, law and order not ideal in some situations;  there is no wonder that few pursue this genre seriously.
by Aamir Shahzad

This emerging genre of photography has faced blazing criticism, occasional legal and ethical backlashes, besides stirring debates on public television and social media. Most street photography operates on the borderline between intrusion and observation. Even more problematic is the tradition of clandestine photography. Is street photography, an intrusion on someone’s personal space; that is the question? Can anyone claim privacy in a public space? Laws vary in different countries. There is a need to be aware of laws for those interested in documentary photography involving images shot on public places. Photography, as always, has lot of grey areas, where ethical concerns are involved. Is any image of human misery and poverty an insult to human dignity? Should we present only a happy face of society? An old man dragging a heavy load, a rag picker boy sifting through trash; do these pictures attempt to exploit human misery for self-promotion? Is showing social hypocrisy in a photograph is a breach of social rights? Art should not be judgmental, but it is often perceived that way. Sometimes it is the viewers who interpret an image through the haze of their own understanding and that their redemption is to put the ‘blame on the boogie’—the artist. Naked children sitting on the trash, addicts lying on the pavements, or a physically disabled persons begging around the market are reality of our lives as much as hunger and war. It is not something to be pushed under the carpet and pretend that if it does not exist in images, it does not exist at all. Famous street photographer Eric Kim says, ‘as a photographer, I see myself as a sociologist with a camera as my research tool to observe and record the people and world around me’. It reminds me of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, Stanley Forman and his shot ‘The soiling of old glory’. The picture stirred great emotions when it was posted. A censor on such art would seriously hamper the growth of artistic expression and its potential to create a tolerant and enlightened society. Umair Ghani, a famous Pakistani photographer once commented on one of my street images, ‘Commerce and Art play a tug of war with Faith and provoke greater conflicts and challenges for those who consciously focus on such concerns. These trends affect everyday life and our understanding of it. Some societies have learnt to sustain that shock; others are too fragile to come to terms with this recent awareness’. An elderly bearded owner of a boutique, trying to cover his face to avoid the offence of being photographed while standing with mannequins wearing sleeveless low neck dress is a social satire on our confused moral and religious criteria. Images of women covered in shuttlecock veils shopping in posh markets with explicit advertising contents show challenges presented to prevailing cultural trends in our society. Such images do not stab our cultural façade, but helps us document our bleeding wounds of social confusion and to some extent stitch and heal them. This is serious level of street photography. It is above ridicule or criticism; It is a commentary and interpretation. Furthermore, street photography is a contested sphere in which all our collective anxieties converge. terrorism, pedophilia, intrusion and surveillance. Even an attempt to capture the culture of marginalized sections of society is seen by some as a potential threat to ideology of Pakistan with a threat of creating fissures in society. The photography codes of ethics from the US National Press Photographers Association have some solid points and guidelines. Now is the time to address this pressing need to discuss and review those points within our own legal and cultural parameters’
“Can anyone claim privacy in a public space? Laws vary in different countries.”

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JOEL MARKLUND DOCUMENTS THE LIVES OF SWEDEN’S SAMI PEOPLE

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Sweden’s indigenous and unrepresented community is brought into focus through a powerful portrait series

Nikon European Ambassador Joel Marklund has completed a unique project profiling Sweden’s community of Sami people – a subject close to his heart. With his D5 and NIKKOR lenses, Joel aimed to go beyond the stereotypes he feels the Sami community is associated with, showcasing their everyday lives through a series of intimate portrait images.

The Sami people traditionally inhabit a territory known as Sápmi, which traverses the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Kola peninsula. Although divided by the formal boundaries of the four states, the Samis exist as one group, united by cultural and linguistic bonds and a common identity. Joel wanted to communicate the true nature of this identity and move beyond surface-level perceptions of ‘reindeer herders living in the mountains’.

“The best stories aren’t always the ones in the most exotic or remote locations,” comments Marklund. “I was determined to cover something I believed in, something that really mattered to me. The Sami story has not been told by many, so, having grown up in Boden near to where some of their communities resided, it was one I felt both compelled and humbled to tell.”

To document what it is like to live as a Sami today in Sweden, Joel spent six weeks visiting the community, embedding himself in the lives of twelve of its people – from singers and dancers to drum makers and students – to tell their individual stories. During the project, he paired the D5 with the AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4GAF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G and AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II.

Joel’s images reveal the Sami people in both their traditional environment, wearing traditional clothing called ‘gákti’, and their day-to-day working lives that are more intertwined with the rest of society. This cultural contrast runs through the series.

For example, Joel discovered Marika Renhuvud helping her family with the reindeer slaughter before learning, after a few days of photographing Marika, that she was a student at Ballet Academy Stockholm.

Maxida Marak, meanwhile, who grew up in Stockholm, before moving to live among a traditional Sami community, has headed back to the city to become a successful singer, while another story follows Merethe Kuhmunen, a student aiming to promote LGBT rights in Sápmi.

Affinity Photo for iPad got strong improvements

Apple’s reigning ‘App of the Year’, Affinity Photo for iPad, now includes even more powerful professional features.

Developer Serif has issued the third substantial free update to the app since June when Affinity Photo for iPad was launched on stage at WWDC2017. To celebrate, for a limited time, buyers can also claim three bonus content packs made specially to harness the creativity of the app on iOS.  Designed to be the first complete, professional photo editing app for iPad, Affinity Photo was selected as the 2017 ‘App of the Year’ by Apple, as well as featuring in countless ‘best of’ end-of-year lists. The latest version, 1.6.7, includes a raft of enhancements which make it even more capable of handling a full professional workflow on the go:

New Features

  • Save overwrites back to the same location, without needing to create a copy
  • Shoot direct in RAW or HDR from within the app
  • Major upgrades for RAW processing including adjusting shadows, highlights and clarity on RAW images
  • Ability to add your own fonts
  • Opening and editing files in place directly from the iOS Files app
  • A new ‘Solo Layer View’ mode, allowing you to isolate individual layers instantly
  • Further enhancements to the handy Drag & Drop functions introduced with iOS11
  • A new ‘Show Touches’ option to create more detailed screen captures – great for users who create tutorials
Serif Managing Director Ashley Hewson says: “These latest additions will make working life simpler than ever for photographers who have embraced Affinity Photo and the iPad as the core of their professional workflow.

“Affinity Photo was created to take full advantage of the amazing technology the latest iPads offer, and our developers continue to work tirelessly to cement its reputation as the benchmark for creative apps on iOS.”

Ashley Hewson adds: “Improved RAW editing and the added convenience of using Files and Drag & Drop are further steps forward. And we’re delighted to see so many users are already publishing their own tutorials, so the ‘show touches’ screen-recording capability is really big news for them.
“Meanwhile Solo Layer View means you can instantly isolate a particular layer to work on, even in the most complex multi-layered documents. It all adds up to a faster, smoother workflow than ever, to take wherever you go.”

To celebrate the latest update, for two weeks Affinity Photo for iPad is being offered with two free brush packs and a macro pack, together worth almost as much as the app itself (offer ends 8 March).

They are:

  • Luminance Brush Pack (value £9.99 / $9.99): A vibrant collection of 13 breath taking light effect brushes
  • Retouch Brush Pack (value £9.99 / $9.99): 20 studio quality retouch brushes for enhancing portraits
  • Live Filters Macro Pack: Harness the full power of 28 non-destructive live filter layers

Affinity Photo for iPad is priced £19.99 / US$19.99 / 21,99€ (subject to regional currency variations) with no subscription from the App Store.

Affinity Photo for iPad is compatible with the iPad Pro 9.7-inch, 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch

, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, and optimised for Apple Pencil. For more information go to affinity.serif.com/ipad-update. Existing users should claim the free update by following the prompts in the app.

The bonus content can be downloaded from affinity.serif.com/ipad-update.

How to Edit Black and White Images with Luminosity Masks

Color preparation is the most important thing when working on a Black & White conversion. If you use photoshop or any good image editing software, the first thing you see is a window with color sliders. If you want to darken a sky, increase the blues, if you want to whiten foliage, work on the yellows, reds and greens. You will see drastic changes in your image tonality. But sometimes, you want to work on specific color zones of the image, this is when masking comes into place. Luminosity masking is without a doubt the best way to precisely target colors. In this movie by Greg Benz, the creator of Lumenzia luminosity masking panel, you will see how he targets specific zones and works on the mood of an image.

Lumenzia by Greg Benz

One of the best luminosity masking panels for Photoshop. Visit the website and learn more about this great tool for both Black & White and Color images.

Skylum creates a new Influencer Team of Brand Ambassadors

Skylum Softwarehas added four experienced and influential photographers to its influencer team. Joining the new group are Matthew Jordan Smith, Dixie Dixon, Jerry Ghionis and Joel Grimes. All four are widely-respected, professionals who will help the company refine its software to benefit photographers and help educate users on how to make better photos.

Dixie Dixon

She has spent the last decade bringing creative visions to life and educating others about the latest cutting-edge photography techniques and technology. She has followed her passion around the world, shooting in locations such as such as Cannes, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Brazil, Ibiza and Barcelona. Most recently, she released her new book “Fashion and Lifestyle Photography.”

Joel Grimes

He began working as a commercial advertising photographer, capturing the attention from many of the nation’s finest advertising agencies and art buyers. Due to his strong fine art background, Joel strongly believes in creating images that go beyond the normal commercial application. Joel’s assignments have taken him to every continent and to over fifty countries across the globe.

Jerry Ghionis

Widely regarded as one of the top five best wedding photographers in the world, Jerry Ghionis is based in Las Vegas, USA and Melbourne, Australia and travels frequently on international photography assignments and speaking engagements. With the flair of a fashion designer and the ingenuity of an architect, his style can be described where vintage glamour meets contemporary fashion. Renowned for his creativity, he not only has the ability to capture natural magic on your wedding day but he creates magic of his own.

Matthew Jordan Smith 

launched his career as a photographer in New York City shooting for major magazines and advertising agencies. He has photographed some of the most famous people in the world. He is best known for his portraits of celebrities, actors, and models. His celebrity clients include Angela Bassett, Tyra Banks, Queen Latifah, Aretha Franklin and many more.

The Art of Black & White

Harold Davis gave a few conferences about the Art of Black and White for B&H. Here are two of our favorites in wich he discuuses the Art of Black and white photography in the digital era. A very interesting topic as except if you own a monochrome camera such as the Leica Monochrome, all the images you are making are in color. The process of converting to Black & White only comes during the processing workflow. In this video, you learn a lot about how to think and envision your images and how to process theimage with intent.

Creative Vision and Craft in Digital Photography

The second video goes more into the real way to create and craft your images. A real must watch for any Black & White photographer.

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