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Tips for Creating Better Documentary Travel Photos

20 Jun

The post Tips for Creating Better Documentary Travel Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Good documentaries tell a story, often with the help of a narrator. To add interest to your travel photos you can employ the same techniques.

Showing your family and friends endless pictures of your recent adventures may seem exciting to you. You were there. You had the experience. They didn’t. If you want them to sit through your latest travel slideshow, you need to make it interesting.

Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos Happy Market Vendor

I had a lovely conversation with this man. He and his wife come to sell vegetables at their market stall each day. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Here are some tips on how to add more interest to your photos and create better documentary travel photos.

Tell a story with your photographs

Planning your trip took time and effort. Deciding where you wanted to go, what you wanted to see and how long you would stay. Why not include your photography in the planning stage as well?

Think about why you’re going and what you’ll be doing. How can you turn this into a story? Think about adding a connecting thread of what interests and attracts you most to each location you’ll visit.

Make a list of some themes you can follow. Each day you are traveling, check your list and make sure to include some of the items in your photos.

You might want to photograph:

specific architectural aspects
local artists working
old people’s faces
coffee shops
street signs
advertising hoardings.

Consider what’s most relevant to the places you’ll go. Which of these interest you the most and will make the best photo opportunities. Plan to spend more time at these locations.

Bicycle Close Up Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos

Many tourists choose to rent bicycles for sightseeing in Chiang Mai because the city is mostly flat. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Get the whole picture

One trick I learned when starting out in video production was to always capture wide, medium and close-up angles. This allows for more flexibility to build up the whole picture when editing. The same works when creating documentary travel photography.

I often encourage our travel photography workshop participant to imagine they are working for a magazine. They need to produce a series of images for their editor to show the essence of each place they visit.

Only capturing wide or close-up details is not going to build a complete picture.

red chillies Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos

Close up of large red chilies. The larger the chilly, the milder it is. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

You need to get in close. Show the texture and patterns.

Muang Mai Market Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos

Muang Mai Market in Chiang Mai is the biggest and busiest food market in northern Thailand. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

You need to stand back to encompass the whole scene.

Fruit Vendor Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos

Owners of small shops, restaurants, and household shoppers all come to buy produce at Muang Mai market. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

You need to come in tighter and capture what’s happening at that place.

Include your travel companions

Traveling with other photographers usually makes life easier. You can take your time rather than being hurried along by someone taking snapshots with their phone.

One way to make the most of your time with non-photographer travel companions is to include them in your photos. Make them part of your story.

I don’t mean for you to just take cheesy social-media-styled pictures of your partner. Put them in the story. Show what you’re doing and the interesting aspects of the places you visit. Having the people you’re traveling with in some of your photos makes them more personal.

Including them in some activity helps tell the story. Photograph them ordering meals or coffee. Take pictures of them boarding the boat or rickshaw. Make photos about what you are doing together, not only of what you are looking at.

Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos Myanmar Village Friends

My wife and I enjoyed meeting the locals at Pompee village when we traveled to Myanmar. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Take time out

If including your travel companions is not possible, take time out for photography. Arrange time each day to spend time with your camera with no other objective.

Rushing from place to place without taking the time to engage in your photography story is frustrating. Give yourself permission to enjoy using your camera.

This may mean having to wake up earlier than others you’re traveling with. It might be ducking out of the restaurant while you’re waiting for your lunch or dinner to be prepared. You will find it’s worth it because you will get better photographs when you can take your time.

Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos Wat Pra Darapirom

This ornate temple complex on the outskirts of Chiang Mai includes examples of Lanna and Shan temple architecture. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Book a photography workshop

Many popular travel destinations offer opportunities for travel photography workshops or photo tours.

Investing in either of these will undoubtedly mean you will come away with better photos. You’ll be experiencing the location with a photographer who knows it more intimately. They will be able to take you to the most interesting places at the best times for photos.

Taking a photography workshop you’ll also learn some new skills. Being on vacation is a great time to learn because you can put into practice what you learn immediately.

A good travel photography workshop will incorporate teaching camera and photography skills. You’ll also learn local cultural information which will improve your photography experience.

Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos Photography Workshop Teaching

Kevin Landwer-Johan teaching a photography workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand. © Pansa Landwer-Johan

Take more photos and edit them

Take more photos than you think you need to. Then choose the best.

Don’t go crazy and make snapshots of everything you see. A good subject does not make a good photograph. You don’t want to return home with hundreds of photos you could have made with your phone.

When you find something interesting to photograph, look at it from different angles. Consider how it will look from different points of view. Walk around and make a series of photos. Wide, medium and close up of the same subject.

Taking time to do this will mean you have more to work with to help tell your story. If you’re not taking enough photos, you may regret it later when you see gaps in your narrative.

Weeding out the rubbish photos and only showing the best ones is important. No one will want to look through all the photos you take. Be discerning and be selective about which ones you choose to share. This will help you in taking better photos next time you travel too.

Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos Tuktuks

Tuk-tuks are an iconic part of Chiang Mai’s public transport. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Caption your photographs

Captioning your photographs is like adding a narrative to your story.

Include details of the location and maybe the time of day when it’s relevant. Think about how you can add information which will enhance your photograph. Don’t always include the obvious. You don’t need to describe what can already be seen.

A caption may be a few words or several sentences. Your caption should be succinct and informative. Don’t waffle or include irrelevant information. Use your captions to support your photos and enhance your story.

Documentary Travel Photography: How to Add More Interest to Your Travel Photos

I found an alternative point of view to take this photo of a tuk-tuk. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Conclusion

Vacation travel is usually exciting. You see and experience new and interesting things more frequently than when you’re at home. This trends for more interesting photographs.

You want to put together a documentary travel photography story that will not put your family and friends to sleep. Tell your story well and you’ll inspire them to travel too.

The post Tips for Creating Better Documentary Travel Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

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Simple Methods for Creating Better Still Life Images

16 May

The post Simple Methods for Creating Better Still Life Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

Many find shooting still life images a real challenge when they’re just starting out because it can be hard to know where to start. But taking the time to shoot a great still life can be a rewarding and somewhat meditative pastime for photographers.

Still life photography can help you hone your photographic skills at your own pace while still creating work that can go in a portfolio or be printed for your wall. But styling tabletop images doesn’t come naturally to all photographers, so here are some simple things to think about when you’re next shooting still life.

Choose props for color and mood

Now might be a good time to go and brush up on your color knowledge, because you’re really going to need it when it comes to creating still life images! Everything, including the colors, in your still life scene, will be there because you put it there. Nothing has to make it onto your tabletop studio if you don’t want to include it in your shot.

Colors can be a way of introducing either harmony or contrast. If you were photographing something blue, for example, and you used blue and green backgrounds you’d have a very harmonious and potentially calm image. On the other hand, if you added yellows or oranges into the scene, it would create tension and result in a more dynamic overall feeling to the shot.

You can bring color to your still life images in different ways. Backgrounds, fabrics, plates, bowls, vases – all these items are props that you can start collecting to build up a color library of props. Don’t forget natural objects like flowers and foliage too; they can often really bring a shot to life.

Selecting complementary backdrops

Your backdrops will often be the most dominant colors in your scene, so pick wisely (it’s also hard to change it once you’ve started arranging your props). Pick your backdrops according to the feel you’d like to create in your final image.

Backdrops can be anything that works with the scene you’re creating. It might be a marble countertop, a beautiful old farmhouse table, or a complementary piece of fabric. Whatever helps to set the mood for your images.

As well as the color of your backdrop, think about the texture as well. A scuffed up, blackened old baking tray creates a very different feel to draped silk. Think about the way that different backdrops make you feel as you select them for your scenes and decide if that’s correct for the kind of story you’re trying to tell in your photograph.

Over time you will build up a library of different backdrops to use in your shots. Then you can create a whole variety of different styles of images just by switching out the backdrop. Keep your eye open when you’re out and about for potential backdrops to add to your library!

Thinking about texture

I love including texture in my still life photographs, and it has become a part of my style now. Scouring both high street and artists shops for interestingly textured table linens, bowls, and backgrounds for my still life images are favorite pastimes.

Along with all the other elements of a still life image, texture can really help set the mood. Are you shooting something rustic that would have its story helped by the introduction of some beautiful coarse fabric? Or maybe you’re photographing a more modern scene that would benefit from glossy backdrops and slick, shiny props?

It also adds interest and depth to your final image. If you look around the room you’re in I’m sure you’ll see a whole variety of different textures. Perhaps you have a smooth leather chair with a velvet cushion on it, placed next to a distressed wood coffee table. Our lives are a riot of different textures, and these affect our senses both visually and through touch.

Since you can’t touch the objects in a photograph, you need to tell the viewer what they’re like. Texture is the main way to visually convey what something would feel like if you reached into the photograph and touched it. With that in mind, pay attention to what the textures in your shot are telling your viewer.

Create a beginning, middle, and end

Just like a good story, a photograph needs a beginning, middle, and end. Except we usually refer to these things as foreground, middle ground, and background when it comes to visual storytelling. Creating a layered effect in your photographs helps to create depth in what is a two-dimensional object.

Try building your still life scenes intentionally. First of all, place your main object roughly where you think you’d like it to be. It helps if you put your camera on a tripod for this because you can keep the framing and focus consistent.

After you’ve placed your main object try creating some foreground interest. This could be some petals if you were photographing flowers, or perhaps the curled corner of table linen if you were shooting food. Anything that leads the eye into the shot without distracting too much from the main focal point is good. You want something that adds to the story.

Lastly, place a background element in your scene. In the shots above, I’ve added a yellow napkin which both creates interests and adds a contrasting color, but you could be more subtle. Your background itself could also be your background element if it were sufficiently interesting! It should be like a “full stop” to your composition; ending the viewer’s attention the same way that a full stop ends a sentence.

You might find it easier to play with compositional colors and shapes for the foreground and background if you use a shallow depth of field. Rendering these elements as out of focus in your scene helps to keep the viewer’s attention on the main focus of your image.

Finishing an image in post-processing

There’s no rule in creative still life photography that says the colors have to be true to life. Using different colors – or even turning your digital files black and white – can result in a change of mood and story.

Processing your still life images in Adobe Lightroom allows you to create duplicates of images and try out different color treatments while comparing them side by side. It’s great for black and white conversions too. The best thing about Adobe Lightroom is that the editing is completely non-destructive to the original file. This means you can try out everything from wild color treatments to something more conservative and always go back to the original file.

I touched on color grading your still life photographs in a previous article. It can help evoke different moods, bringing different colors to the fore. It can also help to make items really pop off the page if you use color grading in a way that emphasizes your main subject.

Color grading your shots can also help to contribute to a more coherent style in your work. You don’t always have to treat the color in your images the same way, but over time you might notice that you seem to pick up a style the more you shoot. This can help to make your work recognizable which you might find desirable.

Put it all Together

Now that you know the simple ways that you can improve your still life images it’s time for you to have a go. Get some inspiration, shoot some images, and then come back and let us see them in the comments!

Don’t be afraid to work slowly and try new things when you’re shooting still life. The objects in your scene are not going anywhere, and they won’t run out of patience as a portrait subject will! Also remember, you don’t have to show anyone the images if you’re not completely happy with them.

The post Simple Methods for Creating Better Still Life Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

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Creating Spectacular Photo Displays with Digital Projectors

24 Apr

If you are reading this, it is likely that you take copious amounts of photographs. A few years ago, families would gather around their Kodak carousel slide projector and look at 35 mm slides of family vacations. There was something that was almost magical about seeing images on the big screen in living color. Really, back then, a homemade slideshow Continue Reading

The post Creating Spectacular Photo Displays with Digital Projectors appeared first on Photodoto.

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Guidelines for Creating Your Photography Contract

23 Apr

The post Guidelines for Creating Your Photography Contract appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.

If you’re any level of a photographer working with clients, you need to have a contract.

When photo jobs go awry, it’s often due to a lack of communication.

A contract protects not only you but also your client in the event of any unmet expectations.

Here are some inclusions you may want to consider.

Who is the agreement between?

First of all, you need to state clearly who the contract is between and identify each party. You can identify yourself as “the Company”, and your client as “the Client.” The photo shoot itself can be referred to as “the Event.”

Note that the agreement supersedes any prior agreements between the parties, and that the only way to add to the agreement is to do so in writing, and that this amendment must be signed by both parties.

In short, if anything changes between the signing of the agreement and shoot day, you’ll need another contract.

What are the reservations?

You should have a section on your contract about the Reservations.

This means you note the date the shoot is scheduled for, and your policies about rescheduling, postponement and cancellation.

Make sure the client is very clear on the consequences of any of these changes.

For example, many photographers require a 50% non-refundable deposit in case of cancellation, so they don’t miss out on potential work that could have been booked that day.

Photography Contract - Darina Kopcok-DPS

Safety

I recommend having a section that notes that you as the photographer/company have the right to terminate coverage and leave the location if you experience inappropriate, threatening, hostile or offensive behaviour from a person at the event that calls your safety into question. This may be a rare occurrence, but it’s worth putting into your contract so you can assert your rights in case you’re a victim in an unsafe situation.

This could be relevant to a female wedding photographer being harassed by drunken guests, for example.

Shooting time and additions

Note that shooting time commences at the scheduled start time and ends at the scheduled time, regardless of when the client shows up. If a client is very late, then the shoot goes to the agreed upon time and no later.

I also highly recommend that if you’re a commercial photographer, that you state clearly that the client or a representative from their company must attend the shoot to provide creative direction and approve the final images.

You’re not responsible for the final aesthetic if they are not there to provide feedback and approval.

Furthermore, reserve the right to cancel the shoot and retain the deposit if the client or their representative does not attend.

Seriously. This happens.

Photography Contract -Darina Kopcok-DPS

Expenses incurred

This is where you might note that there could be additional expenses incurred that may not be part of the original quote, such as parking, props on a fashion or product shoot, or groceries on a food shoot.

These kinds of expenses are usually TBD (to be determined) and not part of the initial estimate. This should be made clear up-front so you don’t end up taking a cut from your earnings to cover these things.

Responsibilities

You are responsible for a lot on a shoot, but certain things are unforeseen and out of your control. Things such as obtrusive staff, lateness of the client and staff, the weather, schedule complications, incorrect addresses provided by the client, or restrictions of the chosen location.

Venue and Location Limits

Unless you’re shooting at your studio or a rental, the client is usually responsible for providing an appropriate place for the photographic work to take place.

If the venue is found to be limited in space or otherwise hinders you from carrying out your work in a safe manner (or one that doesn’t allow you to produce the desired result), reserve the right to request moving to another location or cancel the shoot without penalty.

Permits

Who is responsible for securing permits?

The second you put a tripod down in a public place, you can very likely get asked to move along by a police officer or other type of city official. This can be disastrous on a commercial shoot where the location has been scouted and is essential to the storyboard or narrative of the final images.

Permits can take some time to secure, so keep this in mind if this job falls on you.

Photography Contract -Darina Kopcok-DPS

Film & copyright

The photography you produce for a client still belongs to you, as the creator of those images. A lot of clients think the images belong to them because they are paying you money to produce them. They need to be educated on copyright.

In the commercial world, clients commission you to produce photos that align with their brand. They then pay you a separate fee to license those images for a specific use and time frame.

You should have a separate Usage Agreement in addition to your contract that outlines usage parameters.

Limit of liability

In the unlikely event that you are not able to perform to the guidelines laid out in the contract due to injury, illness, an “act of God,” or another event outside of your control, you should not be held responsible.

You should, however, make every effort to reschedule the shoot. If this isn’t possible, then ordinarily all payment received for the event should be returned.

If digital files are lost, stolen, or destroyed beyond your control, including but not limited to hard drive or equipment malfunction, your liability is to return all payments.

The limit liability for a partial loss of originals should be a prorated amount of exposures lost based on the percentages of the total number of originals.

Capture and delivery

You are not liable to deliver every image taken at an event or shoot.

The number of final files to be delivered is up to the photographers discretion or is based on an agreement made between the photographer and client before the signing of the contract.

In this section, you can make a note of when you’ll be delivering the files by and how they will be delivered, such as JPG or TIFF files.

Photography Contract -Darina Kopcok-DPS

Post-production and editing

The final post-production and editing styles, effects, and overall aesthetic of the image are at your discretion unless you’re working on a specific type of job where the editing will be done in-house, say by a magazine or ad agency.

Nothing is worse than working hard on editing and then having clients put crazy Instagram filters on your images. Prohibit any alteration to your photographs unless there is an agreement with the client as to what those alterations will be, like putting text on a photo.

Payment schedule

If you’re asking for a deposit (and I hope you are), make sure to put that in your contract.

How you manage payment for the remainder is up to you. Many photographers allow thirty days for receipt, however, any late payment after that is subject to interest – usually 15-18%.

Also, note a policy around any NSF charges and if there are any consequences the client needs to be aware of in terms of not paying on time.

For example, you can state in your contract that non-payment after three months is subject to legal action.

Pricing

At the end of the agreement, I suggest that you lay out the agreed upon pricing.

If you don’t have a separate usage agreement, you can include the usage terms here.

For my commercial work, I typically don’t give my clients a usage agreement until the images have been paid for in full and prohibit the use of my images until then.

I find this works well for me. Clients should not be using your images publicly unless they have paid for them, or it is a violation of your copyright.

I even state this term on my invoices and draw their attention to this in my email communication upon sending it.

Some clients can take a long time to pay you unless you draw specific boundaries around payment and the use of your images.

Photography Contract -Darina Kopcok-DPS

Signature field

There should be an area where both you and the client can sign and date the contract.

It’s best if you use electronic signature software such as Hello Sign so that clients don’t have to spend their time physically downloading and scanning a signed contract back to you. Everyone is busy, right?

If you use a CRM software, it may already offer such a feature. For example, I use Dubsado, which is a CRM system for creatives. I can send clients emails and contracts directly from within the user interface.

I have all the other features of a client management system for around the same price I would have to pay for signature software alone.

In Conclusion

Hopefully, this has given you some idea of what you can put in your contract.

Be sure that your contracts are dated and signed before you consider a job booked.

Go over them with the client and make sure the terms and conditions are understood. A lot of people don’t bother to read stuff before they sign it and you don’t want to deal with any surprises.

Please note that this post is for educational purposes only and doesn’t constitute legal advice, as I am not a lawyer and cannot advise in that capacity.

To make sure that any or your contract or written agreements are legally binding, and will cover you in an event of a discrepancy, please contact an attorney.

The post Guidelines for Creating Your Photography Contract appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.

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Making the Shot: Your Guide to Creating Stunning High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash

02 Apr

The post Making the Shot: Your Guide to Creating Stunning High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

1 - High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

The making of one of my most successful shots started with a little photo play on a hot summer day, and a try at some high-speed splash photography.

The image above, “Red Bell Splashdown,” went on to win first place in the Corel International Food Photography Contest.

Let’s take a look at the “making of” methods used to create the shot so that you too can have fun with this quite simple technique.

Freezing motion

There are essentially two ways to freeze motion with a camera:

Use a Fast Shutter Speed such that the “sliver of time” you are capturing is very short and the object being captured moves very little, if at all, during the extremely short duration the shutter is open, or
Use the very Short Duration of a Flash so that the object you are photographing gets illuminated for a very small sliver of time. The duration time of an electronic flash can be extremely short. For example, a Speedlight like the Canon 580EXII at 1/128 power is less than 1/19,000th of a second!

I’ve used the flash method, and indeed it can produce some dramatic results. I will perhaps show that process and the results in a future article. For my splash photos, however, I wanted to keep it simple and do it outdoors where water splashes wouldn’t require any clean-up or endanger my photo gear. When I did these shots, I was using my Canon 50D which has a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000th of a second. I figured this should be enough to get the job done.

2- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

Let the sun shine in

Obviously, getting a proper exposure with a very high shutter speed would involve several possibilities:

Use a fast lens with a wide aperture – I was shooting with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, so a wide aperture was possible. However, I still needed a decent depth of field, so opening it up all the way wasn’t a good option.
Use a high ISO – Cranking up the ISO can aid in getting a fast shutter speed but at the penalty of more image noise. I didn’t want that if I could avoid it.
Shoot in very bright light. Normally, shooting under mid-day summer sun would not be something a photographer would do, but in this case, blazing sunlight (and lots of it) was the perfect solution.

3- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

The set-up

I wanted to use colorful subjects for the shoot. Bell peppers – easily found at the supermarket in red, yellow and green – seemed a good choice. I also picked up some other colorful fruits – strawberries and limes. To accommodate the size of the objects and also give me a flat glass “window” to shoot through, a 10-gallon aquarium was just right.

Wanting to get light not just from above but from below as well, I put a large 5-in-1 reflector on the table where I wanted to shoot, silver side up. I placed the aquarium on top of that out in the bright noon sun. I filled the tank with water about halfway and allowed the bubbles to settle out while I set up the rest of the equipment.

4- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

I put a pepper in the water and let it float while I took a look through the camera to frame the shot. I could see I would need a plain and preferably dark background, so I put a piece of black paper behind the tank. The paper was still too bright with the direct sun on it, so I used another reflector, black side down, at the back to the tank to shade the paper backdrop. I had my camera on a tripod and moved it to get as much of the front of the tank in the frame as I could, being sure I could focus that close.

5- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

To be able to drop my subjects into the tank and also trigger the shutter, I rigged up a Youngnuo RF-602C radio trigger so that I’d be able to fire the camera remotely. A wired remote with a long enough cord could have also worked.

Camera settings

I put the camera in Manual Mode. To get a good combination of the fast shutter speed needed, decent depth of field, and not too high an ISO, I found that shooting at ISO 400, F/6.3 and the key – fast shutter speeds between 1/2000 and 1/3200th of a second was about right. Letting a pepper float in the tank where I anticipated it to be when dropped, I set the focus and then locked it in manual. I also put the shutter in high-speed continuous mode so for each drop I’d get a burst of about 5 shots.

6- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

Splash-down!

So, good to go, I dropped the peppers, strawberries, and limes, trying to fire the bursts in synchronization with my drops. My wife Kathy came out to join in the fun and did some of the drops. We quickly found it was necessary to squeegee and wipe the front of the glass between shots to clean the drops off the front of the glass from the previous shot. So it went: drop, shoot, squeegee and repeat. For each drop, one frame of the 5-shot burst might be good, but often not. Timing is crucial. With practice, while we gained some skill, luck was still a huge element. There was lots of shooting to get the keepers. We tried it with the peppers and fruits in different combinations too. I easily made over 200 shots that afternoon.

7- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

Cleaning up your act!

Straight out of the camera, the raw shots were less than impressive. Of course, Raw files look flat, and so I knew they’d improve greatly with a basic Raw edit. There were also more drops, splashes, bubbles and other particles in the water than I wanted. However, the important thing – the action – was properly frozen and sharp!

My Red Bell Splashdown image used settings of ISO 400, f/4.0, 1/3200th sec. The rest was using editing tools to adjust the exposure, get good rich color and deep blacks, and eliminate distractions. My editing tool of choice is usually Adobe Lightroom. With the Adjustment Brush and the Spot Removal Tool, I was able to clean up the image to create the impact I was after.

8- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

Other considerations and possibilities

With any photo shoot, it’s always a good idea to critique your work and consider, “What might I have done better? Differently? What variations might I want to try?”

Seeing I had used a shutter speed of 1/3200th for my splash shots, I was curious how much difference there might be at the maximum shutter speed of my Canon 50D which is 1/8000th. I didn’t want to set up the fish tank and all of that for this second experiment, so I tried something simpler.

This time, I poured liquid into glasses in the bright summer sun. This process was simple enough. I clamped the glasses in a stand, put up a black backdrop behind them, set up the camera in a similar fashion to the previous splash shots, and did the pours. This time my settings were ISO 400, f/3.5, 1/8000th of a second.

When checking the shots afterward, it was apparent that the freezing effect was even more pronounced. However, at such a wide aperture, my depth of field was much more shallow.

9- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

What might I try next time?

I’d like to give different color backgrounds a try. Using black made editing much easier, and when cleaning up the shots, it was simple to “black out” any distracting elements. I’m not so sure that would be as easily achieved with a color background. Trying it with a white background for a high-key look might also look interesting.

10- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

Of course, using different objects for the splash photos is also fun. In fact, we did do that when during the splash photo session my Mini-Schnauzer, Schatzi, wanted to play and decided to bring us her favorite ball. Looking at the “face” on the ball, I thought it might be fun to try it in a splash drop as we’d done with the peppers. When seeing the result – which looked like the “creature” was exhaling bubbles during a dive – it made me laugh.

11- High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash - Rick Ohnsman

So, give this high-speed shutter technique a try. Take it outside in the bright sun, crank up the shutter speed as high as you can and have some fun. It’s a great way to improve your camera skills, learn the relationships between ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed, and then test your editing skills when tuning up your shots. I’m confident you’ll get some images of which you’ll be proud.

The post Making the Shot: Your Guide to Creating Stunning High-Speed Splash Photos Without Flash appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

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The Live Planet VR System is an end-to-end solution for creating, streaming 4K 360º content

23 Jan

Live Planet has announced the Live Planet VR System, an end-to-end solution to capturing, editing and delivering immersive 360-degree content to viewers.

The idea behind the Live Planet VR System is to launch an all-in-one product that makes it easy to get a full VR production up and running without the need to hassle with multiple products and programs. In Live Planet’s own words:

VR video has yet to take off as a medium because no one has focused on solving the full range of production and distribution challenges. As a result, it has been very difficult to easily, quickly, reliably, and affordably produce VR video experiences at scale, in particular for live distribution.

At the core of the Live Planet VR System is its 16-camera 360-degree video array. The camera system uses an Nvidia Jetson Tx2 module to instantaneously stitch the video from all 16 cameras to create 4K30p footage on-camera — no need to offload the footage to stitch it all together.

In addition to taking the video off of the device for post-production, the resulting video can also be streamed directly to viewers using Live Planet’s accompanying VR apps or platforms that support VR streaming including: Samsung Gear VR, Oculus, Google Daydream, YouTube and more. Live Planet also offers a cloud-based storage via its Live Planet VR Cloud platform.

The Live Planet VR System is available for $ 9.950 USD and includes the stereoscopic VR camera, $ 1,000 credit toward VR Cloud storage and delivery services, a premium monopod, app licenses, ‘platinum support’ and a custom camera case.

Live Planet’s Industry Changing VR System Now Shipping, Empowering Anyone to Expand The Boundaries of VR With Integrated Capture and Delivery of Immersive VR Video

Stereoscopic Camera Stitches Perfect VR in Real Time Paired with a Powerful Cloud and Apps for Picture-Perfect Optimized Delivery That Revolutionizes VR, Allowing Anyone to Capture, Manage, and Deliver Live and Recorded VR Video to All VR Headsets and 360° Platforms

LOS ANGELES and SAN JOSE —? January 22, 2019? —? ?Live Planet, Inc.?, creator of next-generation media technologies, today announced the full-system release of its game-changing, end-to-end virtual reality (VR) video solution, the Live Planet VR System. In development over the last three years, the system is a powerful, fully-integrated solution for creating immersive video experiences, enabling anyone to easily and quickly capture and distribute dramatically better stereoscopic VR video easier than any other method. This complete system includes the full integration of best-of-breed VR camera, cloud and applications, delivering VR video live or recorded to all VR headsets and 360° platforms (e.g., Samsung Gear VR, Oculus, Google Daydream, YouTube, etc.).

Live Planet’s VR System enables anyone to easily and quickly unleash their vision for immersive video experiences and define new categories of VR application, expanding the visual mediums within and beyond television and film. The system makes it simple, practical, and affordable to create and deliver stereoscopic VR and 360° video. Creators can:

CAPTURE? picture-perfect, real-time automatically-stitched stereoscopic footage optimized for comfortable viewing for livestream or later use with the Live Planet VR Camera.
STORE? and manage their uploaded VR video easily and affordably from anywhere with the Live Planet VR Cloud.
DELIVER ?on-demand VR video and live VRcasts to audiences publicly or privately, even over mobile networks, to both Live Planet VR apps and social platforms.

“The vision of “Live Planet VR” is as the name suggests: to allow instantaneous immersion in the experiences that catalogue being human,” said Halsey Minor, founder and CEO of Live Planet. “VR video is more than just a new medium and those who have tried VR instinctively know something extraordinary is afoot — the capacity to share our lives, the arts, sports, celebrations and tragedies in profound new ways that are not mediated by others but directly experienced. Where the power of television leaves off, VR begins. Until now, creating VR video has been hindered by poor quality and insane complexity. Live Planet has put the industry’s best VR experience in the hands of mere mortals, enabling the innovation and growth the industry has so far lacked. Just as pundits have written off VR for its experiential issues and complexity, along comes the Live Planet VR System to change the game.”

While VR point solutions — including various headsets and cameras — have been around for the last few years, VR video has yet to take off as a medium because no one has focused on solving the full range of production and distribution challenges. As a result, it has been very difficult to easily, quickly, reliably, and affordably produce VR video experiences at scale, in particular for live distribution. Technical hurdles the Live Planet VR System has now overcome include:

Capturing footage at the highest possible visual quality, stereoscopically, and in a manner consistent with the natural characteristics of human vision, providing a comfortable experience with no dizziness or nausea so viewers may dwell in content experiences for long periods of time.
Generating automatic, perfectly-stitched footage in real time on the capture device, critical for live applications.
Delivering all footage, whether live or recorded, reliably and of the highest quality over dynamic network conditions — including mobile networks — to the myriad VR and 360° platforms, each of which has its own specifications.

Live Planet has invested in addressing these technological hurdles, creating innovations that handle them “under the hood”, enabling the VR video industry to move forward with push-button simple solutions.

Live Planet uses the ?NVIDIA Jetson TX2? supercomputer on a module to stitch together 16 different image sensors to output 4K video at 30 frames per second — all inside the camera,saving creators days and dollars? in post production time and expense. With its camera and cloud in beta with VR enthusiasts over the last year, the VR System now enables creators and application developers to “share their world,” from transporting audiences to the stage with their favorite band, witnessing a Hail Mary from the 50 yard line, or attending Tim Cook’s next Apple WWDC keynote — the creative potential of the VR video medium is now available to anyone.

“VR provides a unique opportunity to tell immersive stories, but creating and editing high-quality scenes comes with its own set of challenges,” said David Weinstein, Director of VR at NVIDIA. “With the NVIDIA Jetson TX2, Live Planet simplifies the process with a system that provides stunning immersive environments, delivering a VR experience like no other.”

The Live Planet VR System is available for purchase at ?www.liveplanet.net? for $ 9,950 USD. The purchase price includes the stereoscopic VR camera, $ 1,000 credit toward VR Cloud storage and delivery services (additional services are priced a la carte), a premium monopod, app licenses, platinum support, and a custom camera case.

About Live Planet, Inc.

Live Planet, Inc. develops infrastructural technologies to transform the world of video toward a more compelling, controllable future for consumer and business applications everywhere. The company was founded in 2016 by serial entrepreneur Halsey Minor, a technology visionary behind notable successes including CNET, Uphold, Salesforce, Google Voice, OpenDNS and Vignette. Live Planet’s initiatives include:

? The Live Planet VR System:? the end-to-end solution for easily creating and delivering live and recorded picture-perfect stereoscopic VR video programming and applications. For more information on the Live Planet VR System, please visithttps://www.liveplanet.net?. Creative professionals and innovators seeking to shape the future of immersive media may join our partners program by contactinginfo@liveplanet.net?.
? The VideoCoin Network:? video infrastructure for the blockchain-enabled internet delivering decentralized video encoding, storage, and content distribution. For more information, visit ?https://videocoin.io?.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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So You Want to Make a Website? Part 3: Creating Your Portfolio

16 Jan

The post So You Want to Make a Website? Part 3: Creating Your Portfolio appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

So you’ve read part one & part two of the So You Want To Make A Website Series. You’ve set up an awesome website. Now it’s time to create amazing content to go with it. Obviously, for you photographers, the most important part of that process is curating your portfolio.

It is as simple as picking your best images and putting them together. However, a good portfolio takes time, effort and sometimes a good butt-kicking from somebody else. With that in mind, here are my…

Seven steps for creating a great portfolio for your website

1. Know your audience

The starting point for your portfolio is who will be viewing it and what will they be looking for? Are you making a website to show how your photography develops over time? Perhaps you’re sharing your passion with friends and family? You might be a wedding photographer wanting to get more beautiful couples in front of your lens. Is your goal to be seen by art directors at ad agencies?

For best results, when you know the audience, your portfolio will need to match it. For example, if you are a family photographer, parents looking for someone to photograph their child will not want to see your latest glamour photography. Similarly, an art director will not want to see images from the amazing wedding you shot. If you have multiple specialties, it is best to consider multiple websites. Give the audience what they want.

However, you can showcase different specialties with different portfolios within the same website. The process from here is the same for every portfolio, whether that be on the same website or multiple. Just make sure the galleries are related.

A Striking image to kick off your portfolio is essential.

2. Break it down

How do you want to break down your galleries? Do you want one for people and one for lifestyle photography? One for birds and one for land animals? Once you decide what galleries you want, it is now time to go through your archive and pick out images you might want to use.

I always rate images I might want to use in my portfolio as five stars as I edit. That way, whenever I update my portfolio, I can open catalogs and simply pull up all five-star images and use these as a starting point. If you haven’t done something similar, start now. It saves a lot of time and gives you a great place to start.

3. Watch the numbers. AKA be ruthless

I love both of these images, but as I begin to update my portfolio I know only one will make the cut. Which one is still to be determined.

Now is where the hard work begins – getting the numbers down.

Have you ever been to a friends house and they show you their holiday photos? The photos that seem to go on and on and on… That is the feeling you want to avoid when people look at your portfolio. Like any good performance, they should be left wanting more.

A good first selection should end up at around forty to fifty images, with a final goal of around twenty. Finding the initial fifty is the hardest part. You just need to push yourself to find the best of the best. Are there two similar images? Choose just one. Is there an image that when looking through just doesn’t hold up to the rest. Remove it. Be harsh on your photos and try to look for the reasons why they should not be included rather than why they should. This approach isn’t always fun, but it works.

I suggest you make your initial selection of images to include, then walk away for a while. Grab a coffee, have a walk, just clear your head of the process. I tend to leave it until the next day to come back and look again. Fresh eyes always help.

Remember, a strong portfolio should contain around twenty images. If people want more than that, they can look to your blog.

4. Get some help

It is easy to listen to those around you tell you how great all your photos are, but sometimes you need some good old fashioned home truths. I will tell you in advance, sometimes it is hard to hear. However, you need to hear it. Critique of your work from peers or others in the field will not only help you get a better portfolio, but it will also help you become a better photographer.

When looking for critique, you should have your image numbers down to around thirty or so. From here you can get others to help you make the final step. By culling your images to a respectable number, it also shows those you are asking for their help that you have done the groundwork. If someone approached me with fifty plus images for me to help them get a portfolio from, I would not be hugely impressed.

Who should you ask? You can ask photographers in your local area whose opinion you value, or you can ask people you know through Facebook groups, etc. to critique your work.

In my experience, it is better in person if you can. Whilst family members are great, they will generally not want to hurt your feelings, or not be experienced to offer critique. You need experienced eyes on your work and let them do their worst. Someone with no emotional attachment to your images can give honest feedback and will help you get rid of the images you love, but know are not your best work. Just remember, they are talking about the images, not you. It is easy to get upset when people rip your work to shreds, but take it in the spirit it is intended.

5. Listen to your heart

A friend who worked at a music publication told me to remove this from my portfolio. I wrestled with the idea, but I love it, so I keep it in.

Having said that you should get opinions of others, always remember it is your work. Critique from others is just another point of view. If there is an image you love, but others say isn’t your best work, listen to your gut. Maybe they’re right, maybe you need to let go. However, if after the critique you still think it deserves a place in your portfolio, put it in there. It’s your site and you need to be happy with it.

6. Get them in order

Now you have the final images, you need to get them in order. Start with your best and finish with your second best image. This is known as the primacy and recency effect. Put simply, we remember the things we see first and last the most.

Getting the right order is key to really making your portfolio sing. Put the portfolio in order, then tweak it. Do you want to mix up portrait and landscape images? Do you want to mix in black and white images or have a part of the portfolio where they are grouped together? There is no specific answer as every portfolio is different, but try variations and then tweak until you’re happy. Unfortunately, there is no proven recipe. Instead, think of your portfolio like a great home cooked recipe, just keep tweaking things until it tastes just right.

7. Update regularly

A portfolio will always evolve. I look back at some images that were in my initial wedding portfolio and cringe. I also have some images from that first ever wedding that I still have in my portfolio. Take the time to revisit your website portfolio regularly. Update it at least once every six months or so. Doing this is also a great way to show yourself how you are progressing as a photographer.

If you go to a course or meet with local photographers, why not have a portfolio critique session? Things like this help keep your portfolio fresh and identify gaps in your work that you can plan to shoot in the future.

That’s it, you now have a portfolio.

In the next article of the series, we discuss the blogging and your written content.

Until then, have fun building your portfolio.

The post So You Want to Make a Website? Part 3: Creating Your Portfolio appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

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Luminar 2018 gets new AI Sky Enhancer tool for creating dramatic skies

02 Nov

Skylum has released a Luminar 2018 update that brings its new AI Sky Enhancer filter to the image editing software. The new tool works “almost instantly” to improve the sky in photos, only requiring the user to adjust a slider, according to the company. AI Sky Enhancer replaces the masks and filters that would otherwise be used to enhance skies.

The new tool was created by Skylum’s AI Lab and is powered by a deep neural network that was trained using hundreds of thousands of images. Luminar uses the enhancer to detect and adjust only the skies in images, including ones that are cloudy, partly sunny, bright blue, and more.

Skylum offers a long look at how AI Sky Enhancer works in a new blog post, where it explains that the tool relies on semantic segmentation, in part, to separate an image into layers based on detected objects. By doing this, AI Sky Enhancer is able to adjust the sky independent of other image elements while keeping issues like noise and halos to a minimum.

The software automatically applies a mask to the sky in these images, working to selectively adjust elements like brightness and contrast as the user moves the tool’s slider. “Every parameter is applied selectively, as if you were doing it yourself using masking and layers,” the company explains in its post.

The AI Sky Enhancer update is free for Luminar 2018 and arrives ahead of Luminar 3 with Libraries, which will be available starting December 18. Skylum will offer all of its new Luminar features for free to current Luminar 2018 owners until “late 2019,” it explains on its website. The application is available to purchase through Skylum for $ 59/€59/£53.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

27 Feb

Aurora HDR is one of the best and easiest photo editing programs available for quickly creating HDR images. With that said, it has a wide range of tools and filters to help you achieve your HDR goals. To help you sort through them all, this article will highlight seven tips for creating natural-looking HDR landscapes in Aurora HDR 2018.

1. Keep HDR editing of sunsets and sunrises to a minimum

Everyone knows that sunrise and sunset provide optimal landscape photography opportunities. Golden hour bathes everything in a beautiful, often colorful natural light. As a result, it’s best to take a more subdued editing approach to keep the scene as natural looking as possible, especially when dealing with HDR. Otherwise, you risk over-processing your image.

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

Original starting image (the middle exposure of a 5-image bracketed set). Image courtesy dPS Managing Editor, Darlene Hildebrandt.

NOTE: On that note, many of the tips below will include editing tools and sliders that have been pushed to their extremes. This is meant as a demonstration to show what you could do by using these tools at their maximum, but it’s not suggesting you should do this.

2. Intelligently bump contrast and color with HDR Enhance

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

One of the first tools you should utilize is called HDR Enhance. Found in the HDR Basic panel, it’s a newer feature available in Aurora HDR 2018 and it serves as a replacement for the clarity slider. When activated, HDR Enhance brings out the details and textures in your image while minimizing any residual artifacts such as image noise that might be introduced in the process.

In the example below, the HDR Enhance slider has been pulled to the extreme for demonstration purposes. Notice how the contrast in the foreground and the distant rocks have increased significantly, and the color in the sky really pops.

HDR Enhance at 100.

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

But adding too much HDR Enhance is like adding too much clarity. The rocks and sand in the foreground have so much contrast and clarity that they look unreal, and the rocks and hills in the background now have a halo effect (generally considered undesirable).

To reduce these effects and thus make your landscape appear more realistic, tone down HDR Enhance significantly (or use the masking brush to apply or erase the effect wherever you choose). By having the slider at 36 as opposed to 100, there’s still a nice pop of details and color.

HDR Enhance scaled back to 36.

3. Bump up the contrast

To make your image appear less flat, bump up the contrast. Going to extremes results in lots of shadows, reducing details in any dark areas. It also saturates color in the sky and in the reflection on the water.

Contrast at 100.

By lessening contrast to about 20, shadows are still enhanced, but the details are better preserved. Note that the trees on the hill are still visible.

Contrast scaled back to 20.

4. Use Smart Tone to brighten up an image

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

Since increasing the contrast introduced more shadows to the image, brighten it up again by using the Smart Tone filter. Dragging the slider to the right brings more light to areas of the image that are dark, without dramatically affecting parts of your image that are already bright.

Below, you can see an extreme version of the Smart Tone slider in action. Notice how the shadowed areas are brightened, revealing lots of detail, particularly in the hill on the right. This is what you can do with Smart Tone, but it’s not necessarily what you should do since the image now appears very flat without any shadows or contrast, and the dreaded halo has appeared again.

Smart Tone at 100.

To appear more realistic, pull back Smart Tone to about 22. This gives a hint of detail to the trees in the right, similar to what a reflection on the water might cause. It also brightens that patch of sand to the right.

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

Smart Tone dialed back to 22.

5. Enhance Saturation, Vibrance, and Color Contrast

At this point, let’s turn our attention to the colors. Play with the Temperature slider in the HDR Basics panel to add some warmth to images like this sunset. Then scroll down to the Color panel and tweak the Saturation and the Vibrance sliders.

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

Depending on your image, you may need to bump these either up or down. Just avoid taking them to their extremes; generally, somewhere between 5-20 will be a good range. You can also bump up the Color Contrast slider, which controls the contrast between primary and secondary colors.

Saturation, Vibrance and Color Contrast boosted.

6. Use Image Radiance for an ethereal effect

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

Now we’re looking at a few finishing touches that you can add to your HDR landscape shots, and one option is Image Radiance. This adds a soft, dreamy glow to your photo, and it is best used on sunset or sunrise images. In this particular scenario, Image Radiance seems particularly important since it can contribute a soft, hazy effect typical of ocean shots.

Increase the Image Radiance slider to about 37. Doing this will introduce some shadows to your image, but that can easily be fixed with the Brightness and Shadows slider in the same panel. You can also adjust Vividness and Warmth here too if you see fit.

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

7. Add a subtle Vignette

7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR

The final edit that you might do to an HDR landscape image is to add a vignette. In the case of a sunrise or sunset, a vignette can be particularly helpful to add a subtle frame around the subject, drawing more attention to the focal part of the scene, the setting sun.

Within Aurora HDR, the Vignette panel is at the very bottom. You can control not only the size, amount, roundness, and feathering of the vignette, but also the inner brightness. As well you can adjust the placement of the vignette, meaning you can easily create a vignette that is not centered on the image – very handy if your subject is following the rule of thirds and is off-center.

When adding a vignette, note that the amount is a negative number for a dark (black) vignette and a positive number for a bright (white) one.

Final image with the vignette added.

Bonus tips

In addition, Aurora HDR also has tools for correcting Chromatic Aberration and Lens Distortion. It also comes loaded with several “Realistic HDR” presets that you can use to get started, and then just tweak the settings to your liking.

Over to you

There you have it, seven tips for processing landscape HDR photos in Skylum’s Aurora HDR. If you were inspired to create your own HDR landscapes, please share them in the comments below along with your post-processing tips and tricks.

Disclaimer: Skylum (formerly Macphun) is a dPS advertising partner.

The post 7 Tips for Creating Natural-Looking HDR Landscapes Using Aurora HDR by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Video Tips: Composition Dos and Don’ts For Creating Better Images

01 Dec

How you compose or arrange your frame is one of the keys to creating interesting and compelling images. So learning some composition rules, and when to break them is essential.

Here are three short videos to help you see what to do and what to avoid in your composition.

Composition Mistakes to Avoid

Learn what not to do in this video including:

Double subjects
Looking out of the frame
Tangents (lines cutting through the subject)
Lazy composition

Beginner’s guide to composition

In this second video, Jordan from Sleeklens gives you four tips you can use to help elevate your photography composition.

The four tips covered include:

Rule of thirds
Balance
Symmetry
Leading Lines

9 Composition Tips

Finally, in this last video from COOPH you will see nine more composition tips based on the images of master photographer, Steve McCurry.

Do you have any other composition tips you would like to share? Please do so in the comments section below.

The post Video Tips: Composition Dos and Don’ts For Creating Better Images by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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