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Bill Larkin
Carson City, NV

Articles written by Bill Larkin

Make Sure Your Frame Is Dirty for Depth

There are plenty of ways in which video and photography technique overlap. One of my favorite ways to increase interest is to add things in the foreground, and with video, this can really add a lot of motion to the scene via a parallax type effect, while for photography, it can add depth.

Oprema Jena’s Future for Resurrecting the Classic Bokeh Looks Bleak

The company behind Oprema Jena has filed for bankruptcy and applied for de-listing from the German stock exchange. The crowdfunded designs for resurrecting some of the classic lenses that made bokeh character famous are likely to never come to fruition now.

Fstoppers Reviews the Hair Retouching Course From Retouching Academy

Hair retouching is something that most retouchers and photographers cringe to think about. It's also something that we really need to be fluent in because the situation will come up where there will be things you need to fix. The Hair Retouching course by Retouching Academy with Michael Woloszynowicz is a full overview of the variety of hair issues and how to fix them.

Fstoppers Reviews the Syrp Magic Carpet Pro Slider

After much anticipation, the Syrp Magic Carpet Pro is here. This is a professional-grade, manual slider that can handle up to a whopping 70 lbs and will be beefy and strong for most possible uses.

Fstoppers Reviews VSCO X Mobile App: Consistent Stylized Colors for Mobile Content

Everyone knows I am a workflow nut, and for a content creator who posts many cell phone images, the concept of downloading them to your computer then retouching and grading them and sending back to your phone is simply not efficient. Today we will be looking at the VSCO X app for mobile devices and how I like to use it for that very purpose.

Be Ready to Pay More for Your Photo Equipment

One of the great benefits of buying gear online is the ability to buy cameras, expensive lenses, etc. and not have to pay sales tax (if ordered from out of state). That all appears to be changing now.

Instagram Releases Official Details Amid Multiple Rumors Regarding New Algorithm Rollout

Many folks have been speculating based on rumors about the function that creates disdain in the hearts of most all social media business users: the Instagram algorithm. Speculations have been things like the infamous "shadow ban", chronological feed, and business profile views. Instagram puts these rumors to rest with an official update.

Adding Tool Selections to Your Photoshop Actions

As I always discuss, I am looking constantly for every way to streamline every little detail of my workflow as much as possible. Today I want to talk about what you do after you run your actions. It's a very simple thing that I rarely see anyone do.

My Favorite Way to Watch Fstoppers Tutorials and Other Content

We are all addicted to tutorials; at least, I know I am. I'm also addicted to food, so I need to double up my free time. My goal was to come up with an easy way to watch all the tutorials on my iPad. Sure, you could copy the tutorial files onto your iPad, but if you are like me and have a lot more content than would fit on the iPad and don't want to keep putting on and taking it off, there is a better way!

Continued Learning: Taking Advantage of Skillshare Versus Traditional Learning

In general, we always discuss how our industry is changing and how we should do things differently to prosper. This is not only limited to our industry of photography: take the industry of education for example. Not all that long ago, college was considered the thing to do to be respected and move forward in your chosen profession.

The End of Medium Format’s Reign: My Journey With Phase One

For many years the real king of detail, sharpness, color, and DOF has been a 16-bit medium format system, such as Phase One. The larger the film (or sensor) the better the quality has been. Naturally, with my quest for maximum quality in every way, the path led me to medium format. Along with an obsession to be like Joey L for a longer period of time than I care to admit, it only seemed like the next step was to make the switch to medium format.

Syrp Preorder for Genie II Now Available

Syrp's original Genie was an amazing success, built from an overwhelmingly popular Kickstarter campaign and exceeding its goal multiple times over in just five days. Today, building on that success and implementing some incredible new features, filmmakers can be delighted that the Genie II is in production and preorders are open now.

SYRP Announces Pre-Orders for Magic Carpet Pro

SYRP announced the pre-order for the much anticipated Magic Carpet Pro. While building on the success of the original Magic Carpet, this pro-level slider boasts some impressive new features.

Instagram Finally Allows Automatic Post Scheduling via API

At long last, we can say goodbye to push notification scheduled Instagram posts. As all my workflow articles reiterate, I am always looking for the most efficient way to accomplish my tasks especially since I work alone with no assistants. For my Instagram postings, I have been using Later which has been good, because it allows me to get my caption and hashtags ready on the computer and do my final posting from my phone.

Mac to Windows - Workflow Enhancements: Batch Renaming

In my switch from Mac to Windows, most things have worked smoothly while running Windows 10. I have always been very much into all the fine nuances and details of any workflow or program you are working within and I am a huge ambassador for really learning all the small details that can make your life easier and more efficient.

Using an IKEA Lampshade to Create Beautiful Product Photos

Along the lines of my "it's not about the gear" principle that I believe in so much nowadays (believe me, it took years to drum that into my head), this is a quick tutorial on how to use an IKEA lampshade for an unusually simple product photography setup and covers both the shooting and the retouching for the example photos.

Fstoppers Reviews Opal Opacity Plugin for Lightroom

Often when going through a set of images via Lightroom, we use a preset we like, export the images, and then tone back some of the color or "effect" from the preset, once in Photoshop. There has always been a need for a way to easily dial back a preset and now there is.