Magazines

trooney

Just wondering, does anybody here subscribe to any photo magazines (the printed type, rather than on-line)? Or maybe pick one up periodically? Do you find they're worth it? Or do people avoid them?

minikin

I take Ag - it's an absolutely astounding production. The best art photography in the world, production values are unbelievable. Losts about working digital nowadays (used to be exclusively analog)

http://www.picture-box.com/current.html

City-Exile

I get a BBC magazine called Focus, which has nothing to do with photography, but does have some awesome pictures, in the first few pages. My mum subscribes to National Geographic, which I read in bulk, whenever I get home.

Paulw

I had subscriptions to Digital Photo and also Practical Photography (both UK magazines). Both very good.

The Digital Photo is full of Photoshop tutorials and tips.

The Practical Photography is more about composition and such.

Photography Magazines

Really great magazines, but I found I just didn't have the time. I even had a few months where my camera was feeling very neglected. :-)

elven

minikin wrote:

I take Ag - it's an absolutely astounding production. The best art photography in the world, production values are unbelievable. Losts about working digital nowadays (used to be exclusively analog)

http://www.picture-box.com/current.html

Do you need to buy that online or can you pick it up in Borders/Easons or something?

helios

I love Digital Camera magazine. Every issue has user submitted shots and advice on techniques, but there's too much reliance on Photoshop for my taste. I'm an avid buyer, but I find that there's a little too much 'nose in the air' sometimes...

Carrigman

The Digital Photo coverdiscs usually have excellent Photoshop tutorials and the magazine content is very good too. I occasionally buy Outdoor Photographer. I gave up buying Practical Photography a year or so ago as I felt it had significantly disimproved.

National Geographic is a favourite for excellent photography. (When I die I want to be reincarnated as an NG staff photographer. Either that or a Playboy staffer).

Vanity Fair is another regular purchase - primarily for the written word but the photography is also top class. Annie Leibowitz is a regular contributor for example.

Morlar

A few years ago "Loaded" used to have some great portrait photography in it - people like gary oldman and so on. Thesedays I cant think of any single consistently good photography magazine - having said that that AG one looks good.

elven

Don't you find that there's a certain style of landscape/portrait/macro/travel photography in all the standard titles just now though? You know, that Lee Frost/Colin Prior look, very slick and punchy and polished...? I also find that because they are trying to aim at too many markets at once they end up with a wierd and also repetitive mix of 'this is depth of field' and 'how to use the matrix metering system', and then in those 'expert' review sections they just like to argue with each other on whether the submitted shots are good or not.

I also remember being shocked at the quality of printing, I remember seeing a double page spread of someone's landscape that had nasty nasty looking out of gamut colours that went all blobby and it was oversharpened, ugh. If that had been mine and it was being shown to the country like that, I'd be devastated.

Ahem, rant over. Sorry...

mikeanywhere

Does Playboy count as there are some great shots in that too?

Morlar

I think it can - as they say 'boobies are art - specially big ones.'

minikin

hi elven,

i think it's subscription only, i have the whole set from issue one (great former boss gave them to me recently so i carried on the sub) They're like golddust (only four issue a year and quite expensive but well worth it!)

The early years covered mainly darkroom techniques... serious ansel adams stuff going on... how to make your own developer etc.

You might be able to get them from a public library!

ThOnda

mikeanywhere wrote:

Does Playboy count as there are some great shots in that too?

Well, their style was superb, however the market had changed and they also changed their photographic style. It is more vulgar (more like Hustler), however good photographers are still trying to keep the level of their work good. But they are only trying... It's hard to "make art" when it is easier to create pictures demanded by market and liked by graphic editors.

JMcL

trooney wrote:

Just wondering, does anybody here subscribe to any photo magazines (the printed type, rather than on-line)? Or maybe pick one up periodically? Do you find they're worth it? Or do people avoid them?

I've subscribed to Amateur Photographer (though they've just had a makeover - hope it doesn't dumb it down too much). Others I buy regularly are Outdoor Photography, PRactical Photography (though they have dumbed down after a recent makeover, so I'm thinking about that one), and Photography Monthly. I occasionally pick up Black and White Photography if there's something interesting.

I find a lot of the monthly mags tend to trot out the same basic Photoshop tutorials, the same style of articles, and are all just a bit samey.

Subscription rates for Ireland for most of the UK mags are extortionate, you'll end up paying considerably more that you will in the newsagents (hard to believe that!) in most cases. Amateur Photograpy (check out this site) is one of the few with considerable savings (25-30%), Outdoor Photography and B&W Photography have savings, but more modest.

magicbastarder

my dad used to get practical photography. one year's worth of purchasing was good enough; they'd then start to repeat themselves.

trooney

Practical Photography? I'd say a year of that is enough. Probably starts to repeat after that?

Cameraman

I think the internet means that they've all lost their 'must buy' status.
At one stage I used to buy them regularly for product reviews, articles and the ads (yes !). Now, you can get all of these from the internet.

You would think that they would then start concentrating on the quality of photographs etc. but largely they seem to rely on beginner-intermediate level features. As others have said, these begin to repeat once you've bought for a while.

Best advice is to check each month's lot in Easons, and only buy if there's something particularly interesting (or a good cover disk).

Huggy Bear

Generally get 3 regularly:

Practical Photography: I've been getting this for over 2 years, but I've decided not to get this now as the mag is repeating itself ...

Photography Monthly: This is sold at both film and digital photograhers, and has some good tips on places to go etc, UK based but can also have Irish locations and last year feature Drogheda camera club, I think! - good mag I'll keeping buying this one - some good hardware reviews also, but has a Nikon bias if you ask me, but then again I shot with a Canon :rolleyes: ...

Digital Camera: love this for the photoshop tips and CD that comes with it ... I'm not very knowledgeable on post processing so I find this Mag pretty good for that.

D.

Fajitas!

If I see Photography Monthly, I'll buy it. One of the best I think.

I end up buying any others considering that I have to get three hour train journeys 2 days a week, and my laptop battery only lasts an hour...

JMcL

Cameraman wrote:

I think the internet means that they've all lost their 'must buy' status.
At one stage I used to buy them regularly for product reviews, articles and the ads (yes !). Now, you can get all of these from the internet.

True, but since I have to stare at a monitor 8 hours a day in the day job, it's nice to be able to pick up something a bit more passive

mikeanywhere

Fajitas! wrote:

I end up buying any others considering that I have to get three hour train journeys 2 days a week, and my laptop battery only lasts an hour...

Shame they dont do "air miles" for trains mate, you would be stacking the ol miles up for sure

seanmcfoto

I've bought any amount of Magazines. I've found that the ones featuring ex Practical Photography guys like Will Cheung and Ian Farrell seemed to go down after a while. I stopped buying Photography Monthly (which used to the far outstanding as a magazine) and get Digital SLR Photography instead. I used to get Professional Photographer, but now that Terry Hope (former editor) has moved to Digital Photo Pro, I get that instead. Let's face it, however I feel about some things, I don't think an Amateur photographer should be editing a pro magazine.
I love the features and work in Digital Photographer and I occasionally buy Outdoor Photographer.

Fajitas!

mikeanywhere wrote:

Shame they dont do "air miles" for trains mate, you would be stacking the ol miles up for sure

Ah I work for CIE, so free travel