The Critic

September 10, 2014 ·

Michael Reichmann

It’s easy to be a critic. You just need to have an opinion and a soapbox to spout it from. But when I listen to or read someone’s opinions I want to know what combination of knowledge and experience allows them to hold forth on a given topic. Since I pontificate on many subjects in various essay and reviews on this site I figure that you deserve to knew a bit about who I am and what experience I bring to the table in each of these areas.

Michael Reichmann
Photo © 2004 Doug Brown

_______________________________________________________

— started making my living as a professional photographer some 40 years ago

— had my first fine-art / documentary gallery one-man show in 1963, with numerous exhibitions since

— in recent years exhibitions at the Pikto Gallery in Toronto; 2004, 2005, and 2006

— operated my own fine-artphotography gallery and teaching studio in Toronto, Canada from 2007 – 2010

— first of several television documentaries on my work was aired in 1964

— over a 40 years period my work has appeared in many magazines and books in 6 countries

— work has been collected by private collectors and by public galleries on two continents

— have taught photography at the college level for the past 15 years

— teach photographic field workshops and seminars around the world on a regular basis

— an invited speaker to numerous industry conferences and symposiums in North America and Europe

— author of more than 300 articles on photographic technique as well as equipment reviews

— was a Contributing Editor atPhoto Techniques Magazine for many years and also a regular columnist inAmerican Photomagazine

— have tested and reviewed for print and online publications nearly every major camera system released in the past 30 years

— have been (and still am) a consultant to numerous companies with regard to product design and marketing

— an alpha and beta product tester for numerous companies

—   hold six granted U.S. patents in communications technology

— store manager for four years for Canada’s largest professional photographic retailer

— was head of product development for two major software publishers

— was Product Manager and then national head of Sales and Marketing for a major Japanese manufacturer

— founded, have run, and have divested two high-technology publicly listed companies

— founder, publisher and primary author ofThe Luminous Landscapeand theLuminous Landscape Video Journal

Producer and on-screen co-host with Jeff Schewe of best-selling training videos on Printing, Lightroom, and Photoshop, and with Walter Borchenko on C1

— Founder ofThe Luminous Endowment for Photographers(2014), a not-for-profit, providing grants for worthwhile projects to photographers world-wide

_______________________________________________________

Opinions

None of this makes my opinionsright. But it means that when I criticize something my opinion comes from some fairly extensive photographic and industry experience.

Am I biased? Yup! I like equipment that produces first-class image qualityandthat does so with well-designed ergonomics and user interface. A good product needs both. A product fails, in my book, if it only succeeds in one of these two areas.

Do I make mistakes in my reviews? Sure, lots of them. Who doesn’t from time to time? I do my best to correct them though when I do.

But I put a lot of thought into my writing, and I don’t criticize things casually or indiscriminately. I do praise good products, and point out failings when I see them.

Thought you might like to know.

Michael Reichmann

Avatar photo

Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.

You May Also Enjoy...

Yellowstone National Park Photomap

June 3, 2011 ·

Miles Hecker

Yellowstone NP Photomap The online version of the Yellowstone NP Photomap is an all new creation for 2011 . It is the second in our


Tonal Adjustments in the Age of Lightroom 4

October 14, 2013 ·

Charles Cramer

The Power of CurvesIn Photoshop, my primary tonal adjustment tool has been the Curves Adjustment layer.   I would wildly guess that 85% of the