Magazine???

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astro
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Magazine???

Post by astro »

Hi, just wondering if there is a magazine available dedicated to photomacro please?

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

Pretty sure there isn't. Not in the UK anyway. Just the occasional articles in ordinary photography magazines. There are a few books dedicated to the subject. Amazon is your friend for finding those.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&key ... aphy+books

astro
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Post by astro »

Beatsy wrote:Pretty sure there isn't. Not in the UK anyway. Just the occasional articles in ordinary photography magazines. There are a few books dedicated to the subject. Amazon is your friend for finding those.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&key ... aphy+books
Do you think this is something the community would enjoy? A digital magazine maybe?

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

astro wrote: Do you think this is something the community would enjoy? A digital magazine maybe?
Maybe, but I think sites like http://extreme-macro.co.uk/ serve that purpose well for "authored" content. And this site of course for user generated content. Dead tree press is too slow and non-interactive for most tastes.

Having said that, really good "art" prints on quality paper (of macro subjects) would be nice to see - but that would be an expensive mag. Might have some appeal beyond macro enthusiasts. But I I think a coffee table book would be a better way to present that.

In short: I wouldn't risk my money on trying to launch a macro mag.

enricosavazzi
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Post by enricosavazzi »

Beatsy wrote:
astro wrote: Do you think this is something the community would enjoy? A digital magazine maybe?
Maybe, but I think sites like http://extreme-macro.co.uk/ serve that purpose well for "authored" content. And this site of course for user generated content. Dead tree press is too slow and non-interactive for most tastes.

Having said that, really good "art" prints on quality paper (of macro subjects) would be nice to see - but that would be an expensive mag. Might have some appeal beyond macro enthusiasts. But I I think a coffee table book would be a better way to present that.

In short: I wouldn't risk my money on trying to launch a macro mag.
There is also the problem of "shelf life" in the usefulness of technical information. Basic optical theory remains pretty much the same, and this part of books on macrophotography remains valuable and correct in the long term (with changes required by major technology steps like the switch from film to digital photography). Legacy equipment also remains fairly constant (except for price and availability fluctuations, sometimes dramatic). New equipment of broad interest comes out perhaps 5-6 times a year, and is already fairly well covered by generic photo magazines, manufacturers' web sites and sites like this one. Bulletin boards like this one and personal web sites cover the equipment testing part quite well for both new and legacy equipment, probably better than a magazine could hope to achieve.

Is there a market for technical macrophotography books? Yes, albeit quite a small market (I know, because I published one such book).

Is there a market for technical macrophotography magazines? A technical macrophotography magazine would by necessity be a niche magazine, given the above. Would it be able to provide technical information not already available elsewhere? I don't think so. Science journals already cover the cutting edge of optical science and technology, and the rest can be found in books and web sites. I don't actually remember getting from a photo magazine technically correct and useful information that I was unable to find better explained in a book, science journal or web site. A beginner would probably be better served by two or three good books than a magazine to get correct and reliable technical information. Bulletin boards like this one and dedicated web sites help to spread technical information better, more timely and more cheaply than a commercial magazine.

Is there a market for a macrophotography pictures magazine, on paper or online? I don't think so. A magazine would have to pay photographers for good pictures (which is good for the photographers of course) and/or rely on freely submitted materials of broadly varying quality. How many potential subscribers would be willing to pay for this magazine? There is already a lot of top-quality material available for free online for browsing and getting ideas, and for these purposes one rarely needs access to high-resolution original images.
--ES

perdu34
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Post by perdu34 »

Beatsy wrote:Pretty sure there isn't. Not in the UK anyway. Just the occasional articles in ordinary photography magazines. There are a few books dedicated to the subject. Amazon is your friend for finding those.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&key ... aphy+books
Having bought at least three of those books I would suggest that Product photography is a much better topic to read up on for Studio macro photography.

Other than that, read the threads in forums like this.

johan
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Post by johan »

I'm with Enrico on this - sites like pm.net have photomacrography covered really well and if you want to learn basic macro, there are plenty of books and sites around. Those books tend to be ok but they're usually aimed at beginners so you do have the problem of attracting the more experienced macro photographer as a customer.

Free ezine, sure, I'll take it, but the newsletters/sites that I've seen do stuff like this simply don't have the content that experienced people crave. That said, it's somewhere on my todo list next year, but more an occasional update newsletter thing on extreme macro rather than any ambitious all singing all dancing glossy macro thing.

The market for macro is obviously much bigger than extreme macro, but it is still a bit niche - have you seen mags for street, landscape, sports, portrait photography? Arguably they're all bigger than macro photography, so if no mag for those I'd be surprised if there's a market for a macro mag!
My extreme-macro.co.uk site, a learning site. Your comments and input there would be gratefully appreciated.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

I occasionally pick up old issues of Industrial Photography and Product Photography magazines. They often have something interesting to say, and the many of the ads are of interest.

Does anyone subscribe to Photo Technique? It looks interesting. Maybe I will pick up a few back issues and check it out.

edited to add: I think Photo Technique is defunct. No response from the website...

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

What could be better than this site? It is diverse, interactive and responsive and includes easy-to-follow links and digital zooming, taking full advantage of modern digital technology. A paper magazine would be comparatively boring I think.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Lou Jost wrote:What could be better than this site? It is diverse, interactive and responsive and includes easy-to-follow links and digital zooming, taking full advantage of modern digital technology. A paper magazine would be comparatively boring I think.
Digital zooming?

johan
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Post by johan »

Ctr + on any browser
My extreme-macro.co.uk site, a learning site. Your comments and input there would be gratefully appreciated.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

johan wrote:Ctr + on any browser
Ahh, I thought there was some special forum function I was missing.

I do like print magazines and books, though, more so than digital, but I'm an old guy.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

I do like print magazines and books, though, more so than digital, but I'm an old guy.
But how would you see (or even define) the 100% crops on those?

enricosavazzi
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Post by enricosavazzi »

Lou Jost wrote:
I do like print magazines and books, though, more so than digital, but I'm an old guy.
But how would you see (or even define) the 100% crops on those?
I guess it could be done, if the individual pixels are visible. The pictures would not be very pleasant to look at, though. Alternatively, the caption could state "This is a 500 by 350 pixels crop" or something equivalent, even if the individual pixels would not be very obvious from a normal reading distance.

The printing quality would need to be very high (and expensive to produce).

The best things for readers and cheapest for the publisher would be to tell readers "follow this link to our web site for 100% crops", but then we are no longer talking about a 100% printed magazine but a hybrid, and from there the logical step is toward an online magazine rather than a hybrid or print-only one like this thread is discussing.
--ES

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Lou Jost wrote:
I do like print magazines and books, though, more so than digital, but I'm an old guy.
But how would you see (or even define) the 100% crops on those?
You should have put a smiley after that one Lou!

I'm running into the print vs online problem in the numismatic world. Some of the most useful things I've done photographically are the various types of animations of variety comparisons, 3D animated views, etc. These obviously can't be shown in print format, but add a lot of value to the discussions. Many of the numismatic publications are still printed, which is great but limiting in what I am able to show. Static images are tougher to compare unless they are very different.

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