Facebook vs. Google+, A Photographer's Viewpoint

Before I even start this article, I'll freely admit that I am not a fan of Facebook. Never have been and likely never will be. Despite that, I know it has it's appeal due to the large user base that it has accumulated of the last several years. However Google+ is catching up quickly, as last estimates indicated Google+ showing a number that is roughly half the active accounts of Facebook. It has grown at a much faster pace than Facebook ever has. All of this with Google+ just having passed its 2-year anniversary and only 1.5 years of being open to the public.

But I digress...

Facebook is more suited to catching up with old friends that don't have a Google+ account, or seeing the latest drama. It gets old quick...real quick. I find that on Google+ many of my discussions are with people that have similar interests, and our discussions often center around those topics. Sure there can still be some drama, but at least the ratio of drama to actual discussion favors the actual discussion.

I also keep a set of gallery albums that are my favorite shots that relate to a certain topic. On Google+, I have these set to stay at the top using a workaround through the Picasa web interface. I have set the album date to be several years in the future which keeps these galleries up on top. With Facebook, my album order is a jumbled heap of unorganized crap. If I upload more photos to an album later, the position will change yet again. Trying to find an album when there's more than a handful of them requires a bottle of Tylenol and the wisdom of a Himalayan Sherpa.

However, the biggest factor why I think Facebook does a disservice to anyone seriously interested in photography is the compression algorithms that Facebook uses to absolutely mutilate many of the images you want to showcase. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen, and when it does happen it's very ugly. Usually it is images with a smooth gradient in them, such as an image I posted for Independence Day. Notice the prominent bands of color in the blue sky, about a third of the way down, in the comparison below (click the image to enlarge). Facebook is on the left, Google+ is on the right:

If you want to examine the actual images, as doing so will really show you the differences, links to both are below. Due tot he small image size I use in this blog, the compression is much more subdued that it actually is.

Facebook  http://goo.gl/9UQCr
Google+  http://goo.gl/ZX2HC

With that being said, coming from an IT background, I completely understand the need for image compression. However, Facebook takes it to the extreme. The purpose in compression is to make the file size smaller, and adversely affect the image as little as possible. You want a small size with the viewer never really noticing the image was compressed. Facebook doesn't even attempt to accomplish that at times.

As a photographer wanting to showcase some images, overkill with image compression doesn't help show off your best work at all. While I still throw some of my images on Facebook, I find the bulk of my photography ends up on Google+ first because of this.

The Facebook approach of heavy compression may work well for phone camera snapshots, but as someone who takes photography a little more serious than the average camera phone addict, I find that I'm caring less and less about posting some of my images on Facebook.

Battery Grips: Storing the Battery Door

I thought I’d shy away from something solely focused on the 5D Mark III this time around, and discuss something that may prove beneficial to more than just owners of that camera. So this will be beneficial to those who use a battery grip on their camera.

In the course of talking to someone the other day, a question came up regarding the camera’s battery door and did I carry it with me in my bag in the event I want to revert to a gripless camera temporarily. I said I store the camera’s battery door with the grip, and they asked how I did that. They never knew that most grips will hold the door for you. Later, I asked a couple others if they knew about this, and come to find out they hadn’t noticed this feature either.

In the case of the Canon 5D Mark III, the door clips onto the portion of the grip that slides into the camera. Simply clip it there in the same manner you would attach it back to the camera.

All my camera grips have a similar feature built into them, and this would include my older and aftermarket grips. The way to store the battery door may vary somewhat, such as the example below from my old Canon Rebel XT. My Canon 40D is more similar to this. The door slides down into a slot on the grip, which is similar in concept to the 5D Mark III grip above.

So, if you aren’t aware of this, you might want to pull your grip off and give it a quick check. You may be in for a surprise, giving you one less small item to keep up with in your camera bag. Those little battery doors can become lost pretty easily!