I'm sure this has been done, but I looked through the archives and couldn't find any entries about it? If it has, just direct me to the archives.

I'm curious about the best ways to convert a digital image to black & white. There are so many ways to do it but I can't seem to get the results I'm looking for. My shots come out looking flat and dull with too few greytones. Anyone have similar problems?

Is it better to leave the image in RGB and reduce all the saturation or do I simply click "greyscale"? Or do I go to the channelmixer and hit "monochrome"? Or is it best to convert in the raw file converter for those who shoot raw?

Or are there other better ways? Any good plugins? I use CS2...

Sara

In the thread on Brandon's newly developed randomizer (hooray! hooray! hip, hip... SO hip!) I suggested we would do well to clean up the database by using the alphabetical, country, or language indexes to root out the defunct - - only because the pages make it easier to get to the profiles and tag for deletion.

Well, I did Arabic, Breton, Catalan, Chinese, and now I'm into Czech, and what do I see?

sixtimesnine. (Profile here.) Some really great shots, very eye catching. Not really "street photography," but definitely worth a looksee.

(Personally, I think the fact that only 5 people list this blog as a favorite is an indication of how much is out there that we don't know about. I continue to believe that language is a barrier for those of us who only speak English, and that we're missing out on a lot of great photography.)

Frank

Thank you for all the comments and interest in winning the Cathy Joseph book "Outdoor Photography:  Portraits".

I must admit after tearing through the book, cover to cover, I am impressed with the diverse amount of portrait photography from photographers included in the publication.  I have also paid attention to the techniques and tips inside the book, starting to incorporate a few ideas in the projects I am working on right now.

But...

My trusted co-worker Darrell sifted through the funky red velvet hat this morning (this photo is a stock image from the Holga giveaway, I did not have time to snap away and PShop another) and picked a winner for the book giveaway and the luck winner is...

Mr. Bill from Out of Contxt.

Mr. Bill, I have visions of you actually being made out of Play-Doh, but if that's not the case and you are a real person capable of replying to email I will shoot you a message today so you can get in touch with your shipping address to send the book to later this week.

Not everyone can win, but you can buy the book...Just search for:

Cathy Joseph - "Outdoor Photography: Portraits"

or ISBN:2884790616

Thanks again for the interest in the book, I hope you enjoy it Mr. Bill...I will have a few other publications to giveaway, for I have been on a publishing kick lately and will have more images in a few other books out late this year and early next year.  So as long as the publishers keep sending me a few copies I will continue to share here at Photoblogs.org

all the best~btezra

A few people have mentioned that this blog has been acting a little strange over the past few days.  TypePad (the company that hosts this blog) did a big upgrade over the weekend, and according to their tech support that has been causing some issues.

I've been watching the Six Apart Status Weblog for details.  And I've already republished this blog a few times...  That actually fixed a couple of the problems, but not all of them.  At this point I guess we just wait and see.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to get the "remember personal info" option in the comments to work again, let me know.

Introducing the NEW photoblogring!!
Hi all! Since I announced that I could no longer manage the photoblogring effectively, it has been rescued by Donald Tetto, the wizz behind the great php photoblog application ~ folderblog
The photoblogring has been redesigned from scratch by Donald and is now super simple, with only two link url's you need to include on your home page. Donald has also designed it to parse and check each site every time it is linked to to check for dud/dead-end sites, so this should ease the frustration that sometimes occured with the old ring system. I encourage everyone who was with the old photoblogring and thought it was worthwhile to sign up and support it!
I would personally like to thank Donald for taking on this task and leaving me with more time to finally take some photos! Thanks Donald.
Please take the time to consider the new photoblogring.
:-)>

The photographers of the past can teach a ton.  I have been flipping thorugh a book that a someone graciously gave me, "Photographs from the Collection of Lasalle National Bank", yep, this bank has one helluva collection of art, the photography portion is vast.  Here are a few photographers I have uncovered thorugh the book, take a look for yourself:

Paul Caponigro.  American,  "...his photographs convey a remarkable parallel of melody, harmony, rhythm and even discord".

Barbara Crane.  American, born 1928.  Since 1967 she has racked up 26 years of experience as a photo educator at the Art Institute of Chicago, a Professor Emeritus actually, and prior to teaching she photographed her surroundings, natural artifacts which require the viewer to look at things a different way.

Bruce Davidson.  An American photojournalist, born in 1933, he called his work, "a personal study of the contemporary world".  Life, Time, National Geographic, Esquire, Vogue, The NY Times Magazine have all published his work...to name a few notables.

Lynn Davis. American, born 1944, was a freelance photojournalist for Time, Ms., and Esquire.  She has worked on recent images of monuments, one monument of nature was detailed in an exhibit on iceberg's in 1986.

Frederick Henry Evans, English, born 1852, died 1943.  A champion of "straight photography"...he opposed the retouching or manipulation of negatives and prints.

Patrick Faigenbaum, French, born in 1954...Faigenbaum's images are referred to as tableaux vivants or living pictures.  His scenes resemble theater sets, actors, props, everything in its proper place; slow unfolding dramas caught on film.

and here's a few to chew on, from AVA Publishing's "Outdoor Photography:  Portraits", by author Cathy Joseph:

Matt Hoyle from Sydney, Australia.

Tomek Paczkowski, from Warsaw, Poland.

Alberto Monteiro, from Lisbon, Portugal.

On June 29th Google announced their new Google Maps API. See here for more details. There is also documentation online and of course a Google Group to discuss it.

Photoblogers are already taking advantage of the new service, with sites like:

• San Diego photo-bloggers locations
• seems Artless photo locations in Toronto (my site)
• Flickrcity - Flickr and Google maps

It is interesting to check out a picture, then see what other entries are close by.

In my case I am using MySQL and have stored the lattitude and longitude information along with the other information about each photo. When a user accesses the map, PHP generates the list and passes it to the JavaScript that calls the Google map APIs.

Flickrcity uses 'geotagged' entries in Flickr for a given area (New York, London, etc...)

I'm sure there must be other photobloggers using Google Maps (or other such mapping sites). Please add a link here to any others you are aware of.

In response to Cameron's recent post about the end of the Photoblog Ring, I've created the Photoblog Randomizer.  It's a very simple way to randomly browse photoblogs.

I've been browsing around with it for about an hour now and almost every site has been one that I've never visited before.

One thing about random browsing, though, is that you'll find several sites that are not photoblogs.  When you come across a site that isn't a photoblog, it would really be helpful if you could mark it for removal.  That way our database will become cleaner.

Anyhow, I've got mixed emotions about this new feature, but nonetheless it's an interesting way to browse the Photoblogs.org database.  You'll definitely find something new... even though it may not be something you like.

If you have any suggestions, thoughts, or questions, feel free to add them to the comments below.