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Derrick Story

Writer, Teacher, Photographer


Areas of Expertise:
  • digital photography
  • Aperture
  • iPhoto
  • Photoshop
  • Lightroom
  • speaking
  • training

Biography

Derrick Story is the digital media evangelist for O'Reilly. His experience includes more than 20 years as a photojournalist, managing editor for O'Reilly Network, and a speaker for IDG, PMA, and Santa Fe Workshops. He is the author of Digital Photography Hacks, Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Ed., and his latest, The Digital Photography Companion. He coauthored iPhoto: The Missing Manual with David Pogue.

Derrick likes to keep his shooting skills sharp by running his photography business, Story Photography. You can listen to his photo podcasts and read his tips at The Digital Story (thedigitalstory.com). Aperture fans might want to check out his co-authored video training on Lynda.com: Aperture 1.5 Beyond the Basics.

Articles

Multimedia

Webcast: Five Ways to Make Your Photos Look Better
March 27, 2008
In this webcast, Derrick Story, digital photographer, blogger, and author of The Digital Photography Companion, gives you the tools to capture the high quality pictures you've always wanted--photos that will distinguish your work from others. Thousands...

Tile Image

Podcast The Story Behind the Olympic Picture of the Day
Publish Date: Aug. 26, 2008

The Kodak Picture of the Day has been an Olympic tradition for decades now. While I was in Beijing, I had a chance to sit down with Rich Connolly, Director of Olympic Operations for Kodak, to talk about how the Picture of the Day came about, and the behind the scenes process for its daily selection during the Games.

Podcast Aperture Screencast 5: Managing Previews
Publish Date: Aug. 19, 2008

Aperture's previews are an important link to sharing your images with the outside world. Previews are JPEG renderings of your processed Raw files and, once generated, are easily accessible via other applications and output methods. In this screencast, Derrick Story shows you how to expertly manage your previews so you are always in control of your images.

Podcast Vincent Versace on Photography and Creativity
Publish Date: Aug. 13, 2008

Vincent Versace, noted photographer, author, and photography instructor, sits down with Derrick Story to discuss the some of the larger philosophical questions that inform the photographic creative process during this video interview from Photoshop World Orlando.

Podcast Noise Ninja Plugin for Aperture
Publish Date: Aug. 5, 2008

PictureCode has released Noise Ninja for Aperture, and it's the latest in the series of Edit Plugins that expand Aperture's image editing abilities. In this podcast, Derrick Story talks with Joe Schorr about Noise Ninja, and about the new plugins resource page on Apple's web site.

Podcast Off to Beijing - An Interview with Derrick Story
Publish Date: Aug. 4, 2008

On August 4, Derrick Story is boarding a plane to Beijing to work in the media center at the Summer Olympics. In addition to his job of helping photographers get their images out to the world, he'll be blogging, podcasting, and tweeting, not to mention capturing his own Olympic images. In this interview, Dan Brodnitz asks Derrick how he's preparing for this assignment.

Podcast Stephen Johnson on Print Display and Digital Photography
Publish Date: Jul. 31, 2008

In this video interview, Stephen Johnson talks about his seminal work, On Digital Photography, the evolution of digital cameras including how megapixels fit into that picture, and provides some great advice on how to best display your work. It's a terrific chat that I think you will enjoy.

Podcast Aperture Screencast 4: Introduction to Lift and Stamp
Publish Date: Jul. 29, 2008

Lift and Stamp in Aperture is a tremendous time saver when you want to apply image adjustments or metadata to multiple images. In this movie, Derrick Story shows you how to take advantage of this power, plus a shortcut you can apply directly from the keyboard.

Podcast Inside Lightroom 2 - Exclusive Interview
Publish Date: Jul. 29, 2008

Lightroom 2 is brimming with enhancements for all its modules. Derrick Story interviews Tom Hogarty and Frederick Johnson to find out their favorite features in this latest release of Adobe's comprehensive photo management application. Tom and Frederick share plenty of insights and helpful tips to help you quickly get up to speed.

Podcast Aperture Screencast 3: Working with the Basic Levels Adjustments
Publish Date: Jul. 22, 2008

The Levels adjustment is a comfortable tool for many photographers. In part, because it allows you to individually adjust the shadows, midtones, and highlights with the assistance of a histogram. In this screencast, Derrick Story walks you through the basic levels adjustments in Aperture.

Podcast Tim Grey Answers Your Digital Photography Questions
Publish Date: Jul. 18, 2008

Tim Grey, author of the just released Take Your Best Shot: Tim Grey Tackles Your Digital Darkroom Questions, sits down with Derrick Story to answer submitted questions about photography during this video interview from Photoshop World Orlando. Tim addresses a number of topics including film vs digital, megapixels, sharpening, color management, and more.

Podcast Aperture Screencast 2: Spot Removal with the Retouch Tool
Publish Date: Jul. 15, 2008

Aperture's Retouch tool has both "Repair" and "Clone" modes to help you tackle a variety of imperfections. In this screencast, Derrick Story shows you how to use the Repair mode for removing spots, such as sensor dust. He then demonstrates the Clone mode for larger cleanups.

Podcast Aperture Screencast 1: Designing a Postcard with Custom Layouts
Publish Date: Jul. 8, 2008

The book making tool in Aperture 2.1 goes well beyond the handsome stock templates that Apple provides. It's actually a sophisticated layout tool that you can use to design posters, fliers, invitations, and more. In this screencast, Derrick Story shows you how to use these tools to design a postcard with imagery and metadata from your Aperture library.

Podcast Know Your Lens Model and Other Metadata Tricks in Aperture
Publish Date: Jun. 5, 2008

Would you like to know the exact lens you used for every shot in your Aperture library? In this podcast with Joe Schorr, Derrick Story learns about the new "Lens Model" field and how to use it. Plus Joe explains how to update your previously uploaded images in Aperture to also display this information. Other helpful techniques include tapping the power of the Query HUD and changes in Aperture 2 to help you better look inside Stacks.

Podcast Layout Tool Disguised as Aperture's Book Making Function
Publish Date: May. 6, 2008

Aperture 2.1 includes a more versatile book-making tool than we saw in earlier versions. So powerful in fact, that calling it a book making tool is really selling it short. It's actually a flexible layout application with some very useful output options. In this podcast, Derrick Story talks with Joe Schorr and tries to uncover all the hidden gems buried in Aperture 2.1.

Podcast John Paul Caponigro on the State of Printing
Publish Date: Apr. 23, 2008

Photographer and fine art printing expert John Paul Caponigro sits down with Derrick Story at Photoshop World 08 in Orlando to provide an inside look at the Epson Print Academy, the changing world of photography, and even a few remarks about his favorite printing papers.

Blog

Macworld Podcast about Aperture in Beijing

August 29 2008

Chris Breen and I sat down to chat about Beijing, photography, and Aperture in the Main Press Center at the Olympics. It's a great conversation with an old friend, and there are plently of links to other goodies too. You.... read more

Quick "Hot/Cold" Tip for Aperture

August 25 2008

Inside Aperture reader Alfred Lanctot sent me a "cool" tip that I think you'll find useful. When you're working with the "Highlight Hot & Cold Areas" display on in Aperture 2.1, you can temporarily disable it by clicking and holding.... read more

Plug-Ins Same as External Editor? I Don't Think So

August 21 2008

There's been some interesting conversation, bordering on FUD, about Aperture's Edit Plug-In architecture, saying that it really provides no advantages over using an external editor. Micah Walter, whom you may recognize as a contributor to this blog, has published a.... read more

Slice and Dice Raw in Beijing

August 13 2008

Working on the road is fun thanks to my portable MacBook and Aperture 2.1. Here's how I keep up the daily posting pace in Beijing.. read more

A Week of Images from Beijing

August 11 2008

I've pulled together a collection of images from my first week of wanderings in Beijing. So here's a whirlwind tour of Olympic goodies, the Forbidden City, and more. read more

Quick Aperture Tip from the Main Press Center, Beijing

August 11 2008

I'm enjoying helping photographers solve their problems, and even more so, watching my teammates here do the same. As a result, I've learned some good tips and thought I'd pass one along right now. One of the big challenges shooters.... read more

Aperture at the Olympics

August 08 2008

I'm working in the photographer's area of the Main Press Center at the Beijing Olympics. As you can imagine, I'm seeing some beautiful images on Apple 30" Cinema Displays. That's right, Apple has 50 workstations set up with MacPros and.... read more

Quick Tip to Go from Quick Preview to Edit Mode in Aperture 2.1.1

August 06 2008

I just learned a sweet little UI tweak in the latest Aperture update. As you already know, when you're working in Quick Preview mode, you can't do any image editing. Sometimes people forget they're in Quick Preview, try to edit,.... read more

Aperture in the Olympic Media Center

August 01 2008

This coming Monday I board a plane to Beijing to help Kodak and Apple in the Olympic Media Center. In addition to the excitement that comes with my first visit to China, not to mention my first media pass for.... read more

DNG - Aperture's Camera Support Safety Net

July 25 2008

If your new camera doesn't appear on the Digital camera RAW formats supported Knowledgebase document, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't add its Raw files to your existing Aperture library. Thanks to baseline DNG support in the current version.... read more

Matt Twomey Joins Site with Cool Article on Dev Resources

July 03 2008

We just published a new article by Matt Twomey titled, A Guide to iPhone Dev Documentation. This is Matt's first publishing with us, and I'm looking forward to more up the road. You might want to bookmark this one, however.... read more

Intriguing iPhone Posts on Hackzine.com

June 19 2008

I was just perusing some of the iPhone entries on Hackzine.com, and I figured that you might want to know about these. The current post is how to scrub private data from your phone. And there's lots more too, such... read more

Summary of Ink Costs per Print for Epson R2400 & R1900

June 17 2008

Drew over at Red River Paper Company just sent me a link to summary of ink cost by print size for the Espon R2400 and R1900 printers. It's a cool (and somewhat sobering) study where I learned that a full-coverage.... read more

Good WWDC Photo Gallery with Captions

June 16 2008

Steve Weller (bagelturf) posted a handsome photo gallery from WWDC, complete with captions. So, not only do you get to see the faces at the event, you learn who they are. read more

What to Do with iPhone 1.0?

June 14 2008

I've looked closely at the announced iPhone, and I've decided that I want to upgrade. That was the easy part. My question is: what am I going to do with my current iPhone? read more
Derrick Story

"I just scored O'Reilly's new 'Digital Photography Hacks,' written by the inestimable Derrick Story, a geek's geek and a photographer's photographer, whose work I've admired for years."
--BoingBoing.net