Photo Taco Podcast

Jeff Harmon offers advice on how photographers can defend themselves from ransomware like WannaCry (aka Wanna Decrypter and WannaCrypt) through following 3 primary computing habits: 1) Keep your computer updated. Only install software you went out to get, keep all of the software on your computer updated, if you don't need software then get rid of it. 2) Do NOT open attachments you were not expect...

Jeff Harmon is joined by Brent Bergherm to talk about shooting a solar eclipse. For the first time since 1979 a total solar eclipse will be visible from locations across the continental United States and Jeff goes over 6 questions with Brent about how a photographer can prepare now to be ready to capture such an event: 1) What is the event, when is it happening, where is the best place to see it?...

Jeff Harmon answers a question from listener Melanie Rice who on the Facebook page asked: Question about upgrading equipment: Started 10 years ago with a Canon 30D. Upgraded to Canon 60D 3 years ago when photography played a bigger role in my graphic design business. Now photography is becoming my main focus - mainly stock images, fashion and real estate. Is it time to upgrade again? If so, to wha...

Jeff Harmon talks about 2 Lightroom bugs that he has had a lot of questions on from listeners: 1) In 2015.10 / 6.10 when round tripping from Lightroom to Photoshop an error message saying that the Camera Raw plug-in is not version 9.10 is coming up even though Photoshop is fully updated and has the very latest version of the Camera Raw plug-in 2) Back in 2015.8 / 6.8 an error message about the cat...

Jeff Harmon answers year old listener question from Improve Photography writer Aaron Taylor: Here's a Photo Taco episode if there ever was one: AF Microadjust/Fine Tune. Why do it? When to do it? How important? Is it obsessive or necessary? Use a Lenscal device or just something you print yourself? Jeff talks about how autofocus micro adjustment (AFMA) is something specific to DSLR cameras, not ne...

Jeff Harmon talks through three mini-topics and then shares how to use the keywording features of Lightroom like a Pro including the Keyword Tags box, Keyword Suggestions box, and the Keyword Set box of the Keywording panel along with the Keyword List panel in the Library Module. The three mini-topics covered: 1)Lightroom bug with macOS where panels and film strip all go black. Solution is to righ...

Jeff Harmon provides his view on the current state of major software updates for photographers including Windows 10 Creator's Update, Apple macOS Sierra (10.12.4), Lightroom CC 2015.9/6.9, Luminar, and On1 Photo 2017. ====================== Advertisers for this episode: 1) improvephotographyplus.com, free two week trial and only $19.99 to subscribe 2) Luminar post-processing software $69 but get $...

Get $10 off MacPhun Luminar by using coupon code PHOTOTACO at checkout! Jeff Harmon is joined by special guest Jeff Steinwand of cameramemoryspeed.com to talk about memory cards. They walk through the following questions: 1. Jeff's process for testing cards to get the data for his website at cameramemoryspeed.com 2. How photographers can test cards in their specific camera 3. How fast are the new...

Jeff Harmon explains aperture, depth of field, and hyperfocal distance as well as why hyperfocal distance is a concept EVERY photographer should understand regardless of what type of photography they do. Advertisers: improvephotographyplus.com MacPhun Luminar Software Coupon Code: PHOTOTACO Links mentioned in the episode: Photo Pills “The Ultimate Photography Guide to Depth of Field” article: http...

Jeff Harmon offers 3 Lightroom tips based on questions that were asked at or just after the Improve Photography Retreat in March 2017. Tip #1: Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts. It will increase the speed of your photography workflow if you will learn the Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts. Bring up an overlay of the shortcuts available where you are at in Lightroom by using command-/ on Mac or ctrl-/ on Win...

Jeff Harmon share the top 10 things he learned during the 2017 Improve Photography Retreat. Advertisers for this episode: improvephotographyplus.com $19.99/mo macphun.com/luminar offer code "PHOTOTACO" for $10 off Top Ten from IP Retreat 2017: 1. Not a “relaxing” vacation, exhausting, yet amazing 2. So much fun to be around a lot of photographers-share interest of photography-nerd out together 3....

Jeff Harmon answers listener question from Angela Norton who loved the Culling Like a Pro episode but came away from it wondering something: Angela: Jeff Harmon LOVED this episode. I ignored it in my feed, because I thought I was doing good with culling...LOL... My question is, how are you presenting client proofs? If they are able to give stars, I'm assuming you using something with adobe cloud?...

Jeff Harmon gets expert advice from Instagrammer Josh Packer (@packtography) on how to grow your Instagram account. Within a couple of year Josh has grown his following to better than 50,000 without following many people. They walk through the following questions and more in the episode: How did you build up the following you have today? With only 385 posts on your @packtopgraphy account, and seei...

Jeff Harmon goes over 10 observations he has made comparing the new Luminar software from MacPhun with the old market leader in Adobe Lightrooom. 1. Non-live histogram 2. Layers Concept 3. Eraser tool (spot removal) 4. Deniose tool (noise reduction) 5. Filters 6. Presets 7. Before/After views 8. Saving 9. Overall speed 10. Pricing Jeff LOVES where MacPhun is going with Luminar and thinks they alre...

Jeff Harmon and guest Victoria Bampton, better known as the Lightroom Queen, talk about 5 key principles that should guide how they organize their photos both inside and outside of Lightroom: 1. Scalable 2. Easy Backup & Restore 3. No Duplication 4. Standard Characters 5. Consistent Resources mentioned in the podcast: Photo Taco - Lightroom Queen: http://improvephotography.com/40799/photo-taco-lig...

Jeff Harmon talks about the very latest, 7th generation processors from Intel code named Kaby Lake and if they are meaningful to the performance of Lightroom and Photoshop. Resources mentioned in the podcast: Windows Photo Editing SUPER Guide: http://improvephotography.com/35216/windows-photo-editing-super-guide/ Lightroom CC 2015.8 and Kaby Lake: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-L...

Jeff Harmon brings on guest host Brent Bergherm to answer two listener questions about buying lenses: Steve Blacket: I need to upgrade a lens. I keep looking at different lenses; Nikon, Tamron, Sigma.... It is really tough to decide as every lens has reviews that point out faults. Do you have any advice on choosing lenses or maybe a Podcast topic for a future episode. I shoot Nikon crop sensor and...

Jeff Harmon answers two listeners questions, that became 3 listener questions: Amber Davidson: Have you ever done a podcast on lens speed? I've heard people refer to a lens as "fast" but not all same aperture lenses are considered equal. Could you explain which lenses are ideal for sports and or children due to their ability to focus faster than other vs which you could use for everyday situations...

Jeff Harmon walks through the things he has learned as he has incorporated a graphics tablet into his post processing workflow and some specific settings to look at in Photoshop. Check out Brian Pex's very well done article at improvephotography.com called "8 Reasons You Need a Wacom": 8 Reasons Why You Need a Wacom Tablet: http://improvephotography.com/43742/43742/ Photo Taco Archive: http://impr...

Jeff Harmon answers a question from listener Mike West about Lightroom Virtual Copies and history. He also talks about how to request Adobe add features to Lightroom and a little about the snapshots feature in Lightroom. Resources mentioned in the podcast: Lightroom: New virtual copies should inherit develop history (vote for the idea): https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/new_vi...

Jeff Harmon shares a tip on how it is he quickly and effectively culls his images using the star rating system in Lightroom and why it is photographers should consider doing the same. Other episodes mentioned: Why and How of Annual Top Ten: http://improvephotography.com/43254/photo-taco-annual-top-10/ Photo Taco Archive: http://improvephotography.com/category/taco/ iTunes review link: https://itun...

Jeff Harmon answers listener question from Ruben Zaldaña about bit depth setup for Nikon Raw files between 12 and 14 and what choosing 12 would give up in order to get a higher frames per second. =============================== Other articles referred to in the episode: 14 bit vs 12 bit Raw - Can You Tell The Difference? https://photographylife.com/14-bit-vs-12-bit-raw The Canon sRaw and mRaw Oupt...

In this episode of the Photo Taco Podcast, host Jeff Harmon asks listeners to share their Top Ten photos of 2016 on social media and tag them with #phototaco and #topten. Then he talks about how breaking out of his photography comfort zone to take on a new style of photography really helped him to gain confidence and improve as a photography in the last few months of 2016. Photo Taco Archive: http...

Jeff Harmon goes through the why and the how of an annual Top 10 process that helps him make significant progress year after year in improving his photography. He walks through his own setup using the collections feature of Lightroom so that listeners can get setup to make this process much easier next year. Other photo taco episodes mentioned: Photo Taco - Lightroom Collections: http://improvepho...

Jeff Harmon takes on the question for listener Scott Spain who asked: "On the heels of this great topic (JPEG Mini), I’d love to hear an episode that contains your thoughts on what image dimensions to use for various avenues. What size for Instagram? Facebook? 500px? What about your Web site… Do you sacrifice a fast loading image to accommodate full-screen viewing on a 5K iMac (4096 x 2304), or is...