Tag: techniques

Work & Travel: 12 Tips to Using Your Photography Skills

By Nicholas
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Spending time away from home is always an exciting opportunity to experience new things and discover places you’ve never seen before. This is particularly pertinent to photographers, both amateur and professional. There are hundreds of suggestions about taking photos while you’re traveling, so many that it can become overwhelming rather than helpful.

man with camera at a lake

In this article, we’re going to provide you with 12 tips to take your photography up a notch the next time you go on an adventure.

… Continue reading Work & Travel: 12 Tips to Using Your Photography Skills

Ultimate Guide To Blending Modes in Photoshop

By Melanie Mayne
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The blending modes feature is one of Photoshop’s most undervalued tools for Photographers. Blending modes can be used to alter the ways in which each layer interacts with the layers below it, allowing for endless possibilities when it comes to setting the right tone or adding artificial lighting.

How to Master Blending Modes in Photoshop

Graphic designers and digital illustrators use blending modes all the time to create interesting lighting effects or textures; however, most digital photographers don’t realize that blending modes can be useful when working with photographs, too. The right combination of blending modes can set a dramatic tone that is otherwise difficult to achieve.

… Continue reading Ultimate Guide To Blending Modes in Photoshop

Retouching with Cloning Tools: Part 3

By Melanie Mayne
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In Part 1 and Part 2 of the Retouching with Cloning Tools series, you learned what cloning tools are used for and the differences between each tool. In this part of the series, you will follow a step-by-step tutorial to learn how to remove power lines (or other unwanted objects) from an otherwise beautiful photograph.

This particular image contains distracting power lines on the left side of the stylish building, but the photo is oriented in such a way that simply cropping them out would look strange.

… Continue reading Retouching with Cloning Tools: Part 3

Review: The Art of Black and White Photography

By John Watson
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First of all, let me get something off my chest. I’m not picking on this book in particular, but generally, when will photography book authors quit talking about digital photography like it’s some crazy new thing that people need to be gently introduced to? Why does every photo book have an “introduction to digital” section that is all but useless filler? It’s 2008 people! If I wanted an introduction to digital photograhy, I’d have bought an introduction to digital photography book. Ok, rant over.

Read on to learn more about the book and find out how you can get a free copy.

Mercifully, The Art of Black and White Photography by Torsten Andreas Hoffmann keeps the intro to digital section to a mere 9 pages.

The meat of this book starts in section two. Section two devotes a full chapter to each of many different genres and concepts and attempts to show by example how to make black and white photographs.

Topics include overcoming clichés, architecture, portraits, street photography, and moods. Arguably, these are all topics that apply equally well to color photography.

… Continue reading Review: The Art of Black and White Photography

The making of a “simple” snapshot: a photo essay in four frames

By John Watson
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Last night, as she tucked our son into bed, my lovely and talented wife came into the office in search of the camera. Our conversation went something like this:

Wife: “Where’s the camera? I need to take a picture of your son. How do you get this thing off the tripod?”

Tripod head

Me: “Wait a second. You’re going to need some light.”
Wife: “This is supposed to just be a quick snapshot.”
Me: “Do you want a blurry mess or do you want to be able to see what’s in the photo?” (Set flash to TTL BL, +1 EV, on-camera, oriented to bounce off ceiling and adjacent wall. Camera set to ISO 200, P mode, +0.7 EV)

SB-800 Speedlight

Me: “Oops, you’re going to need some film.”
Wife: Grrr.

Flash memory

Me: “There you go.”
Wife: *Click!*
Me: “Hey, presto!”

Snapshot

Scene and composition: The Lovely and Talented Wife
Camera setup: Me

… Continue reading The making of a “simple” snapshot: a photo essay in four frames

Anatomy of a photo: The silly faces project

By John Watson
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The silly faces projectI recently published this photo on Flickr (click here to view larger) and it received a lot of interest so I thought I’d share how I made it. Taking 64 photos like this may look like a lot of work but it can actually be done quite easily. Here’s how I did it.

First of all, I used two flashes for lighting. An on camera SB-800 with diffusion dome pointed up and back and an off-camera SB-600 bounced into an umbrella to the right of the camera. You can do this without fancy lighting equipment. The important thing to remember is simply that the lighting must be consistent from shot to shot.

… Continue reading Anatomy of a photo: The silly faces project

Perk up photos of snowy scenes with these simple and practical tips

By Elizabeth West
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farmstand in winterI spend most of the winter shivering in New England despite numerous layers of silk, fleece, and wool. One of the few consolations that the season offers is the opportunity—often numerous opportunities—to photograph snow. Although driving in snow is wretched, seeing it is glorious.

However, for years, my snow shots were disappointing. I would try to capture a brilliant snowy scene and wind up with an image that appeared dingy or slightly blue. Luckily, the cure was simple.

I had forgotten that cameras are designed to expose for a nice, even medium grey. Grey, not white. So snow throws off the camera’s metering system, which tries to make the snow a nice shade of grey.

… Continue reading Perk up photos of snowy scenes with these simple and practical tips

Take better flash photos in one easy step

By John Watson
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Photo by *Micky
Photo by *Micky

Many people shy away from flash photography because it makes people look bad. Photographs taken with a flash can leave harsh shadows that highlight every wrinkle, turn skin blue, shine a flood light at thinning hair, create hot spots on the forehead, nose and cheeks, and generally make subjects look unattractive. But when there isn’t enough light, sometimes your only choice is to use a flash or not take photos at all.

Well, I’m here to tell you that your flash photos indoors can look amazing. And here’s how…

… Continue reading Take better flash photos in one easy step

Get Stable Without a Tripod

By Ray Davis
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I recently bought my first tripod. More than a year after I first started making money with my photography, and two years after I got my first decent camera. I finally got one because I’ve been asked to do photography at several night time events over the coming months but I had resisted buying one for so long because I find them (the affordable ones anyway) too heavy and bulky to be practical. For those of you who may also be making do without a tripod here are a few other options for getting stable:

Monopods. These are little poles that you mount your camera on top of. They are lightweight and easy to move and some of them come with velcro straps so you can attach them to fence posts and the like. However they’re not great for long exposure and some monopods may not be strong enough to hold a larger SLR camera.

Beanbags. Very cheap, light weight, and easy to squash into an overstuffed camera bag. Beanbags make excellent camera supports and almost never break! Simply put a beanbag between your camera and a rock/bench/tree/car roof and it’ll support your camera perfectly.

… Continue reading Get Stable Without a Tripod

I’m ready for my closeup: 6 methods for perfectly focused self-portraits

By John Watson
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Self-portrait shooters usually rely on the trial-and-error method of focusing. Shoot, shoot, and shoot again until the perfect combination of pose, exposure, and focus are achieved. But there is a better way (several, in fact)! All of these methods are quick and easy and will give you accurate focusing without a lot of frustrating trial and error.

Before you begin, you’ll just need to acquaint yourself with how to put your camera into manual focus mode. You won’t actually use manual focus for focusing—you’ll just use it to keep the focus once you’ve got it set just the way you want. For each of the methods below (except the last one), you’ll auto-focus first and then set the camera to manual focus so that it won’t attempt to re-focus when you take the shot. You’ll also find that having a remote shutter release helps immensely.

… Continue reading I’m ready for my closeup: 6 methods for perfectly focused self-portraits

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