Images are the best I've yet seen from a DVD.

T e c h n o f i l e
'Luminous Landscape' DVD journal: Stunning images and expert photographic techniques

June 5, 2005


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, The Post-Standard

   Landscape photographer Michael Reichmann, who organizes photo expeditions to scenic locales around the world, can take you along as a virtual companion for a very small fee.
   Many of Reichmann's expeditions are captured in digital video as feature presentations in the "Luminous Landscape Video Journal," a quarterly magazine on DVD. Each issue contains about two hours of on-location video, interviews, tutorials and slideshows. The disks are standard video DVDs that can be played on any set-top DVD player or on any computer with a DVD drive and DVD-playing software.

Michael Reichmann, right rear, and Steve Kossack on location in the Rockies.

   Reichmann, a Toronto photographer, enjoys a worldwide reputation for both his landscape photos and his honest assessments of new camera equipment. He runs the Luminous Landscape Web site at www.luminous-landscape.com.
   His landscape workshop expeditions attract photographers far in advance, often selling out a year or so ahead of time. In coming months he's scheduled trips to China, Antarctica and Namibia.
   The video journal costs $19.95 for a single issue or $69.95 for a year's subscription. Order it from www.luminous-landscape.com/store/
   Technically, the "Luminous Landscape Video Journal" is unquestionably superb. Images are the best I've yet seen from a DVD and even the sound is first class. The videographer, Christopher Sanderson, sometimes captures what Reichmann is seeing, as if the viewer were standing in the photographer's shoes, and sometimes fades back to show Reichmann at the canyon's edge or on the mountainside, adjusting his lens and smiling rapturously when the light is just right.
   The current issue is particularly stunning. The main photo story documents a driving tour Reichmann and fellow landscape photographer Steve Kossack took through seven national parks in the Rockies.A secondary video and photo essay shows a quick visit to a wrecking yard for ocean-going ships in Bangladesh. Also featured are interviews with a modern-day daguerreotypist and with an official from a company that makes 22-megapixel digital camera backs for the kind of cameras often used by landscape photographers.
   In the issue's "Techniques" section, you'll see tips on getting pictures into your computer quickly, along with advice on using certified gray cards for setting white balance and a demonstration of naming photo-storage folders. Among other topics, Reichmann also shows how to use an external color meter to calibrate your screen. (For the latest Technofile article on calibrating your display, go to http://technofileonline/texts/tec010205.html.)
   The Luminous Landscape journal is unusual in an obvious way -- there are no other DVD-based photo magazines -- but it's a standout in another way, too: It avoids the usual temptation of photo magazines to cater to those who already know the subject. That sort of geek-speak can be enlightening to some people (I'll admit that I love it) but I suspect it puts most others to sleep.
   That kind of balance is unusual in a photo magazine, and it's unique the way Reichmann does it on a DVD.