Every serious photographer has experienced this. You have too many files and too little hard drive space. The result? No space for other data or laggy performance in Lightroom or on your computer as a whole. Thus begins the search for figuring out Lightroom’s deepest, darkest secrets. Thankfully, this article will tell you everything you need to know to clean Continue Reading
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Posts Tagged ‘These’
You Can Delete These Lightroom Files to Clean Up and Make Room
20
Aug
Is it Time to go Full Frame? Weigh These Pros and Cons Before You Decide
08
Feb
The post Is it Time to go Full Frame? Weigh These Pros and Cons Before You Decide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Bruce Wunderlich.
Has anyone ever said to you, “That’s a nice photo; you must have an expensive camera”?
According to photography legend Ansel Adams, “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”
Your camera is simply a tool, one that you use to create your vision of the scene in front of you. A camera can only do what you tell it to, so it’s not going to capture that “nice photo” all by itself.
But what if a camera doesn’t perform up to your expectations? Then it may be time for an upgrade – from APS-C to full frame.
I recently made the jump from a crop sensor camera to a full-frame body (a Nikon D750, used in all the images below). For this article, I am not going to get into a technical discussion about the differences between a crop sensor camera and a full-frame camera.
Instead, I want to talk about if and when upgrading to a full-frame camera is desirable, especially if you’re on the fence about purchasing a full-frame body.
Now let’s discuss some important full-frame pros and cons:
Advantages of full frame
- Enhanced low-light performance: The larger sensor of a full-frame camera has bigger pixels, which create less digital noise at higher ISOs. In most cases, you will get a one- or two-stop improvement in high-ISO noise over crop sensor cameras, which allows you to shoot with faster shutter speeds in low light.
- More control over depth of field: This is a commonly misunderstood benefit of full-frame cameras, because the larger sensor does not really affect the depth of field of an image. However, with the larger sensor of a full-frame camera, you can move closer to the subject while using an equivalent focal length, and this causes the depth of field to become narrower. Ultimately, you get smoother background bokeh.
- Improved dynamic range and color depth: A full-frame sensor can record more tonal range within shadows and highlights. Detail and color are much improved at both ends of the spectrum.
Disadvantages of full frame
- Expense: Not only is the cost of a full-frame DSLR or mirrorless camera higher than crop sensor alternatives, but you may also need to invest in full-frame lenses.
- Size and weight: The overall size and weight of full-frame cameras is greater than their crop sensor counterparts. Full-frame lenses are also larger and heavier. This may not matter to many photographers, but if you frequently carry gear for long distances, it could be a factor to consider.
- No crop factor: The telephoto reach of a full-frame camera is lessened by not having a crop sensor. A 200mm lens on a full-frame camera reaches to 200mm; a 200mm lens on a 1.5x crop sensor camera reaches to 300mm.
If you’ve made it this far and you still like the sound of a full-frame camera, it’s time to ask yourself a few key questions:
How much will it cost?
As mentioned above, the cost of buying a full-frame camera is significantly more expensive than a crop sensor one, plus you’ll likely need to purchase new lenses. There isn’t much use in changing to full frame if you are not going to use high-quality lenses designed for full-frame cameras. So if you plan to make the jump to full frame, you may want to begin by upgrading your lenses to those compatible with full-frame cameras.
What type of photography do you enjoy shooting?
Full-frame sensors offer advantages and disadvantages for different types of photography.
- Landscape: Enhanced low-light performance and more detail are both key advantages of full-frame cameras for landscape photography. The only possible drawback here is the effectively shallower depth of field, but this can be compensated for by using a smaller f-stop.
- Portraits: The larger size of a full-frame sensor will result in a shallower depth of field. For portraiture, this means the backgrounds can feature more blur and make the subjects stand out better.
- Wildlife: A full-frame camera loses the telephoto reach that a crop sensor camera offers. Nevertheless, a lot of wildlife photography is shot in low-light situations, where a full-frame sensor gives a significant advantage.
- Sports: As with wildlife photography, high-ISO capabilities are helpful for sports photography. However, the loss of increased reach may be a problem.
To summarize:
If you are a portrait or landscape shooter, there are many reasons to switch to full frame. But if you’re a sports or wildlife shooter, you’ll need to consider more carefully.
Is your current camera holding you back?
Every camera has a limited number of shutter releases, so if your camera is nearing the end of its life cycle, it might be time to consider an upgrade. If your older crop sensor model is limiting your results in low light, and you are constantly frustrated by high levels of noise, you might benefit from an upgrade to full frame.
However, keep in mind that it’s convenient to blame a camera for taking poor images, but it may not be the camera that’s holding you back.
Many times, photographers don’t get the results they expect from high-end equipment simply because they struggle with more fundamental techniques. No matter what type of camera you shoot with, get to know it and how all of its features work before moving on to a different one.
What is your level of photography experience?
A full-frame camera is probably not the best option for beginners.
So if you are a beginner, I’d recommend starting with an entry-level camera and working up to a full-frame model. In fact, if you are looking for a camera to take photos of family and friends, a crop-sensor model is a great choice.
Having a good handle on the exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) and how its key components work together is essential if you’re going to take advantage of a full-frame sensor. You must also be comfortable shooting in Manual mode.
Do you make large prints?
A full-frame sensor has larger pixels, which will capture more light – and this results in high-quality large prints. If you never make any prints larger than 8×10″, then a full-frame model won’t help you much here.
Will purchasing a full-frame camera make you a better photographer?
You may have heard this quote, “Skill in photography is acquired by practice, not by purchase.”
Do you need a full-frame camera to capture great images? No, of course not! Most new crop sensor cameras on the market today are engineered to take beautiful images!
But if you’re an experienced photographer, you may benefit from switching to full frame.
The bottom line
If you are thinking of upgrading from a crop sensor camera, be sure to consider the price, lens compatibility, and type of photography you do before you make the change to full frame. Jumping to a larger sensor can be intense – but if you’re ready for that big step, the results are often rewarding.
Now tell me:
Are you ready to go full frame? Please leave your answer in the comments below!
The post Is it Time to go Full Frame? Weigh These Pros and Cons Before You Decide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Bruce Wunderlich.
How These 5 Photography Quotes Can Impact Your Photographic Practice
07
Jan
The post How These 5 Photography Quotes Can Impact Your Photographic Practice appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
Techniques, theory, approaches, and equipment; there are many items that feed into the art of making successful images. Luckily, we have the authority of countless photographers to guide us!
In this article, we’ll look at five photography quotes and the insights we can glean from them.
1. No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film – Robert Adams
Robert Adams finds interest in the seemingly mundane. He shines a thoughtful light on the vastness of the wilderness and the hum of human expansion.
However, as Adams argues in one of his better-known photography quotes: It isn’t just a pocket of unexposed film that staves off boredom, but a night of quality sleep.
This is good advice for those of us who often burn the candle at both ends.
2. The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong – Susan Meiselas
The second of our five photography quotes comes from Susan Meiselas. Seeing into the veneer of everyday life, photographers such as Meiselas use the camera as a tool to investigate, motivate, question, connect, and share. The camera acts as a passport, as well as a reason to explore and push boundaries.
Today, a generalized knowledge of photographic technology means that most people are aware of a camera’s appearance and function. Nevertheless, those witnessing a photographer in action will frequently respond with interest or curiosity. With a camera in hand, a photographer is often viewed as a person guided by artistic and technical authority.
This gives photographers an entry point into the inner workings of an environment and its inhabitants.
3. Photography is a language more universal than words – Minor White
Minor White sought to make images that stood as “a record of something in front of the camera and simultaneously a spontaneous symbol…A photograph of the bark of a tree, for example, may suddenly touch off a corresponding feeling of roughness of character within an individual.”
Photographs, as we know, have many layers of meaning. With a conscientious approach to composition and execution, photographers can start a dialogue that transcends the boundaries of language.
In referring to the universality of photographic language, White encourages you to carefully consider the many ways in which a subject can be photographed. This hopefully prompts you to capture the subject with a deliberateness and mastery that goes beyond words.
4. Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies – Diane Arbus
You’ve probably experienced the thrill of sneaking tasty morsels from the kitchen at a late hour: the anticipation, the apprehension, and then the reward.
But Arbus’s quote isn’t just about stealing food and photos; it’s about the driving force behind photography. Why does photography matter? What makes photography so compelling in the first place? And what makes us keep coming back for more?
Establishing why a photographer does what they do can be tricky. There are many different reasons a photographer might take up a camera.
Nevertheless, developing a good grasp of the motivations that spur on your own photography can help you find direction, especially in the event of a creative block.
5. Searching is everything – going beyond what you know. And the test of the search is really in the things themselves, the things you seek to understand. What is important is not what you think about them, but how they enlarge you – Wynn Bullock
Canon 5D Mark II | Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L | 1/20s | f/4.0 | ISO 200
It was during a tour in Europe during the mid-1920s that singer Wynn Bullock first encountered the artworks of Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy. Recognizing photography as a powerful vehicle for creativity, Bullock bought a box camera and began taking pictures himself.
Interested in art as well as psychology, physics, and philosophy, Bullock constantly sought to build on his own photographic practice. Many of Bullock’s photography quotes emphasize personal growth, affirming the need for deliberation and mindfulness.
Encouraging photographers to absorb as much as possible from every photographic subject and experience, Bullock’s words instill a sense of constructive curiosity in photographers that expands personal practice and furthers the medium overall.
Conclusion
There are so many photography quotes that have been recorded throughout history that it’s nearly impossible to list them all.
Nevertheless, reading and absorbing the advice uttered by pioneering photographers can help you understand the minds that helped shape the trajectory of photography!
Now over to you:
Do you have a favorite photography quote? Share it in the comments below!
The post How These 5 Photography Quotes Can Impact Your Photographic Practice appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
These copper-plated Leica cameras manage to make even broken rangefinders expensive
13
Aug
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Leica specialist store, Meister Camera, has found a way to make non-working Leica cameras into expensive one-of-a-kind pieces of art by copper-plating the camera, lens and all.
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Meister Camera currently has eight of these one-off pieces for sale on its website. According to the product descriptions, the shop partners with a third party to copper-plate the cameras using what it calls a ‘galvanic process.’ The precise details of how the entire camera is effectively embalmed in a coat of copper, including the glass lens and non-metal components, remains unknown, but the end result speaks for itself.
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Most of the copper-plated cameras are various versions of the Leica I, II and III cameras, but Meister Camera also has a copper-plated M3 up for sale. Prices start at 995€ (~$ 1,170) for the Leica IIf and go up to 1,450€ (~$ 1,705) for the Leica M3. You can see more information for each of the cameras on Meister Cameras’ online shop.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Slideshow: These are the shortlisted images for the Palm* Photo Prize 2020 contest
20
May
Shortlisted images for the Palm* Photo Prize 2020 contest
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Palm* Studios recently announced the shortlisted images for its 3rd annual Palm* Photo Prize competition. Over 7,000 images were submitted from all over the world. 108 were selected for the shortlist and are now in the running for the annual prize. All of these photos are for sale as prints with 100% of the profits going directly to the artists.
The judging panel consists of Alastair McKimm, editor-in-chief of i-D, Karen McQuaid, senior curator at The Photographers’ Gallery, Sarah Allen, assistant curator at Tate Modern, David Campany, Jessica Lopez, photo editor at Polaroid Originals, and Lola Paprocka, founder of Palm* Studios.
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| Brooklyn, New York-based photographer Dino Kuznik is in the running for the annual prize. |
20 overall award winners for the Judge’s Panel prizes, Peoples Choice Award, and Peoples Choice Instagram Award will be announced on May 30th. DPReview reached out to a handful of these shortlisted photographers and got the story behind their nominated images plus the information on the gear they used. Don’t forget to check out all the nominees and support their work.
Shortlist, 2020: Dimitri Djuric (London, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: The image is a type of pylon for a high tension overhead power line. It’s part of an ongoing series of buildings and structures photographed at night.
Gear: Fujifilm XH1 camera and a big flash.
Shortlist, 2020: Ashley Bourne (Bristol, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: My work centers around storytelling within society, drawing on ideas from personal experience to form the basis of my projects.
Gear and Film: Pentax 67 medium format camera, a 90mm lens, and Kodak Portra 400 film.
Shortlist, 2020: Mark Mahaney (San Francisco, California, United States)
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Artist Statement: This is an image from my first book, Polar Night. The project is a passage through a rapidly changing landscape in Alaska’s northernmost town of Utqiagvik. It’s an exploration of prolonged darkness, told through the strange beauty of a snowscape cast in a two month shadow.
The unnatural lights that flare in the sun’s absence and the shapes that emerge from the landscape are unexpectedly beautiful in their softness and harshness. It’s hard to see past the heavy gaze of climate change in an arctic town, though Polar Night is a visual poem about endurance, isolation and survival.
Gear: Pentax 645z camera with manual focus 75mm lens.
Shortlist, 2020: Joseph Balestra (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
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Artist Statement: At the end of 2019, I spent a month out west in California as a way to wrap up the year and reflect. During this time I created a few portraits of local artist and personalities. This portrait was created on Venice beach of Artist Floyd Zion, a musician and model based out of LA. The shoot was approached in what is still to this day one of my favorite ways to work with a subject. No planning, just chasing light and enjoying a day of collaboration.
Gear and Film: Mamiya AFD II camera, Kodak film, self-scanned.
Shortlist, 2020: Alexander Beer (London, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: Too many people stigmatize women who wear the hijab. There is nowhere in the the Holy Quran that tells them not to kick ass as human beings. These amazing girls and women are all taekwondo black belts.
Gear and Film: Asahi Pentax 67 6×7 camera, with 120 film.
Shortlist, 2020: Caitlin Chescoe (London, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: My Father has been a life long KISS fan, we’ve grown up with bands like KISS playing throughout the house and it is very much a part of who we are as a family. On this occasion myself, Mum, Dad and Sister all dressed up as the band to watch a gig in Munich for KISS’ last ever world tour. We had front row seats and my Dad nearly cried he was so happy. This image represents an incredible memory that we all share together.
Gear: Hasselblad 500c/m camera.
Shortlist, 2020: Jan Kühr (Oslo, Norway)
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Artist Statement: Ripe fruits and vegetables constitute a wild boar feast in the mountains in Alpilles, South of France.
Gear and Film: Mamiya 7 II camera with an 80mm lens, Kodak Porta 160 ISO film.
Shortlist, 2020: Rinchen Ato (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: Rinchen Ato’s photographs are an exploration of her heritage and the fast-evolving culture of the Khampa people. Over multiple trips, spanning the past two decades, she has documented family, friends and the struggles and celebrations of the wider community of Tibetan people living in Kham.
It is an incredible place. The region is mountainous, consisting of high altitude grasslands, a remote and rugged land with a society where little had changed for centuries until recently. ‘My father often jokes that he was born in the Bronze Age and even in the 20 years I have been photographing there I have seen how quickly Kham has evolved.’ The inhabitants were mostly nomadic but, with rapid modernization, mass migration to the town of Jyekundo ????????????? and huge earthquake in 2010 which obliterated the area, many villages are now abandoned or only have a few families remaining.
Deeply aware of the visual tropes used by foreign photographers, depicting Tibetans as ‘other,’ Ato’s work employs a sensibility which comes from her connection to the community, a community which is familiar to her.
The project has been described as a mix of nostalgia and realism. ‘To photograph is the act of capturing a moment and this is my attempt to record and hold on to something precious, like a love letter, an homage, to the people I hold most dear and the country that I adore.’
The project started in a naïve way. Twins are an obvious subject for photographers as the very notion suggests the mirror-like rhetoric that photography has with the world. It’s also interesting because when you shoot subjects so similar, under scrutiny, it highlights the differences between them and how we’re all individuals. But as the project now stretches over such a long period it has evolved into something more, an uninterrupted sequence, a body of work in it’s own right marking the passage of time. As they have grown and changed, so too has the environment around them, yet the resemblance between the girls remains constant.
In this image they were 15. We’d finished lunch and were sitting around chatting but this year was different. They dashed off to their room to get ready and were gone about half an hour. They came out wearing these incredible gingham dresses and matching watches. It felt like a real transition, they’d become conscious of their appearance. We stood on the balcony overlooking the town. The rabbits were a birthday gift and they wanted to hold them, and there it was, the shot.
Gear: Hasselblad 503CXI camera with film.
Shortlist, 2020: Lotte Van Raalte (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
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Artist Statement: This January (2020) I published my very first book, BODY. Over the course of 16 months I photographed 46 women in their most natural form including my mom. This picture was taken on the 16th of October 2018 at the beach in The Hague, the city where I grew up. My mom – who is terminally ill – had just told me some bad news. Minutes after, we were driving to the beach, during which I was still processing what she had just said.
As soon as we started shooting she was running, dancing and playing. One of her oldest friends was at the beach too, so I photographed them together. My mom absolutely loves the beach and although she’s ill, looking at the images afterwards, she looks so full of life and joy. It’s one of my favorite images of the book and I still am fascinated by the fact that her body actually created mine. The title of this image is ‘Judy and Lily.’
Gear: Sony a7RIII camera.
Shortlist, 2020: Jon Ervin (Brooklyn, New York, United States)
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Artist Statement: This project aptly titled ‘Boys Will Be,’ which references the common phrase ‘Boys Will Be Boys,’ is an ongoing photographic journey exploring the various ways in which men perform and construct their identity. In this project I use the camera as an active agent to witness these gestures of masculine performance through documentation, portraiture, and staged scenarios.
By turning the camera on these men, I am encouraging them to perform for the ‘other.’ That performance, framed between the lines of the viewfinder, is a subjective choice to display their constructed identity to the camera, myself, and the viewer. The use of staged adolescent experiences creates scenarios where innocent horseplay can become something of consequence and for impalpable power dynamics that are threaded throughout our society to become tangible.
It is in those moments where boys learn their own power and how it can be used to influence others. Despite the relation to “Boys Will Be Boys,” this project does not adhere to the belief of so-called excusable male behavior that is at times aggressive, violent, and toxic; instead it has importantly left off the last word — ‘Boys.’ That distinction allows the men of this project to simply be.
Gear and Film: Pentax 67II camera with a 300mm f/4 lens and 1.4x teleconverter, Portra 400 film.
Shortlist, 2020: Dylan Lewis (Richmond, Virginia, United States)
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Artist Statement: This image is from my larger body of work, a photo book titled ‘Dusker.’ The images in Dusker act as physical expressions of interior states. Situated between exhalation and incantation, they construct a space where the ontological unease of ‘documentary’ photography, the aestheticizing eye of fiction, and the emotional texture of dreams within an always-already fractured reality intertwine.
Shortlist, 2020: Pat Martin (Los Angeles, California, United States)
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Artist Statement: It was Easter afternoon and we heard Jeff was feeling lonely. She had thought that her whole family had forgotten about her, but to her surprise, we all showed up with a pack of American Spirits, wine, and a pair up bunny ears. Jeff may be 98, but she’s still a party-girl and loves some good company.
Gear and Film: MF Pentax 67II camera, and printed in a color darkroom. All Kodak film, chemicals, and chromogenic darkroom paper.
Shortlist, 2020: Hua Jin (Montreal, Canada)
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Artist Statement: This photo is part of my long-term and ongoing project ‘My Big Family.’ A project I document my extended families in China.
I call the woman in the picture ‘Aunt,’ she is a distant relative who lives nearby. When I took this photo she was trying to dig some coppers and wires from the demolition sites where the old farmer houses had been destroyed. She could make a small amount of money in the market by selling these materials.
While local people were trying to make small amounts of money from the ruins that used to be their homes, the government along with big companies were trying to redesign and reuse the land by building residential and commercial high rises, meanwhile, to change the traditional life-styles in the rural area.
Gear: Plaubel Makina W67 camera
Shortlist, 2020: Kamila Lozinska (Bristol, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: This is a candid shot of my dear friend Jasmine basking in the sun.
Gear: Mamiya RZ67 camera.
Shortlist, 2020: Laura Pannack (London, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: At the age of 16, Baruch chose to leave his Orthodox Jewish community and to study. The dramatic and challenging decision forced him to question his identity and future. Einstein says: ‘The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.’ The project explores how we choose our paths in life and questions how much control we have to change who we will become. The project was commissioned by 1854 Media and supported by Panasonic.
Gear: Panasonic SR1
Shortlist, 2020: Imogen Forte (London, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: Last Summer, I moved out of my house, put my stuff into storage, and spent three months traveling the coast of England documenting the people and places I encountered. I wanted to explore more of the country I’d always called home and familiarize myself with new people and new places.
I met this girl in Cornwall, where she was stood in the street with her family. I approached and asked if she wanted a portrait and she agreed. I spotted this amazing backdrop in the cafe beside us and so we popped inside to have a drink and a chat and take some portraits.
Gear: Mamiya RZ67 camera.
Shortlist, 2020: Tais Sirote (London, United Kingdom)
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Artist Statement: Tais Sirote, also known as Taisido, is a London-based photographer specializing in still-life and product photography. She has a background in graphic design and loves anything related to self-publishing books. Her style has always shown attention to lighting, showing her strengths on taking bold images, and having an eye for detail. Her pictures are sometimes mistaken for 3D renders and attempt to trick the eye of the viewer to make you wonder how it was taken.
Gear: Canon 5DS
Shortlist, 2020: Valeria Moreno (Richmond, Virginia, United States)
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Artist Statement: This image is from a photo series meant to serve as an image as film sequence portraying young womanhood.
Gear: Panasonic Lumix G7 camera.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Stay creative in lockdown with these fun photo projects
05
May
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A version of this article (‘Fun winter photo projects for the long, dark days of winter’) was first published in late 2019. Following the global restrictions on movement as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, this article has been updated with some additional ideas for photography in isolation.
It might feel that this lockdown situation has left our cameras totally superfluous while we can’t get out to shoot the things we would usually take pictures of. Not being able to go out means we have nothing to take pictures of. Right?
Wrong!
Just because we can’t get out and about like we normally would, doesn’t mean we have to stop taking pictures. There’s still plenty you can do, provided you’re prepared to use some imagination. Here are a few ideas to keep you shooting until normal life resumes.
Start a photo diary
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| A few months ago if you saw someone shopping for groceries wearing a respirator, you’d probably have called the police. As well as providing a creative outlet, a photo diary will serve as a reminder of the current weirdness, when things finally get back to normal. |
Most photographers love to shoot the unusual, and you don’t get much more unusual than These Unprecedented Times. Right now everything counts as out of the ordinary.
There are a number of remarkable things about these lockdown days that are worth photographing now so we can remember them when it is all over. Streets empty that are usually busy are remarkable and can evoke the sense of historical pictures from before the invention of the motorcar. Other things that are different at the moment will be queues to get into stores and the lines marked out on the floor to show how far apart we should be.
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For this abstract shot, I framed a social distancing guide inside the lattice of my shopping cart at a local grocery store. |
People wearing masks and gloves – and sometimes full-body chemical suits – in the street, in stores and out exercising are also a sure reflection of the times we are in. There are signs too of social distancing, with people chatting from further apart than seems natural, delivery people standing at the end of the garden path waiting for someone to answer the door, and of course people at home making video calls to friends and family. And baking – suddenly everyone is making cakes, bread and cookies.
Perhaps start by making a list of all the things that have changed about your life, the lives of those around you and your environment, and then think about how you can record those changes with your camera.
Of course the project doesn’t need to be presented literally as a diary when this is all over, but if you think of it as a diary while you’re working, it will remind you to try shooting something every day.
Abstracts at home
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| It’s likely that there are abstract photographs to be had all over your house or apartment, if you use some imagination. |
Most photographers find it hard to see interesting pictures in places in which they are most familiar. A trip somewhere new seems always exactly what our photography needed, as shooting away from home consistently inspires us to new artistic heights. The truth of course is that everywhere else isn’t more interesting than the place we are in, it just seems that way because over time it’s easy to become blind to the things staring us in the face at home.
Our houses, apartments, sheds, garages, bathrooms, stairways, windowsills and shoe cupboards are all harboring an infinite number of stunning, interesting, intriguing and fascinating pictures that, on a daily basis, we fail to see. If someone else came into our house they would see all those opportunities (which would be very annoying) and we would see them in theirs, but finding them in our own is a much more challenging matter.
Finding the interesting abstracts in your own home requires you to look with new eyes.
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Here, the frosted glass window on a bathroom cabinet provides a frame for a simple abstract shot, without the need to go outdoors. |
Pretend everything is new and that you haven’t seen it before, and then you will be free to notice the leading lines, the places where one edge meets another in delightful geometric harmony, and how the ordinary things in the kitchen are transformed when the light is on or off.
The trick here is to look slowly, and then look again. Take the time to look in detail and to look at the same thing from different angles, with different light, long lenses and wide lenses. Then move to the left a bit. You may never feel the need to leave the house again.
Country and urban landscapes
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| You don’t have to travel far to find nature. It doesn’t occur to a lot of photographers that there may be beautiful photographs waiting for them in their home towns and villages. |
When it comes to landscapes, you should be careful, because the rules and regulations are different for each country. If you’re considering venturing out, be aware of what is allowed and not allowed where you live. In some places people aren’t allowed out of the house for any reason other than shopping for food or medical supplies. In others parts of the world, taking a walk for exercise is positively encouraged.
Where I live there are more people out exercising than ever before, so the popular places are, well, popular and too crowded for my liking. I’ve been avoiding those and walking in less obvious areas where the lack of traffic and the usual bustle has made for some interesting and unusual sights. I go early too, as it seems everyone else is taking the opportunity to stay in bed a little longer. I get the early morning light as well as empty places all to myself.
Where I live it is okay to take a camera with you when you are going out to exercise, but it’s not acceptable to just head off on a photo expedition with tripods, big bags and a pile of paraphernalia. I’ve actually been shooting a lot more with my phone, as I feel that is easier to justify to myself and I know it will delay me much less than having a proper camera with me.
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Landscape photography doesn’t have to mean driving for hours to get to a beauty spot. This photograph was taken within walking distance from where I live. An emblematic image of lockdown: A completely empty highway, in the middle of the day. |
Be conscious of what is acceptable in your region and don’t risk your health, or that of anyone else, by being out too long, standing in one place for ages waiting for the light, or putting yourself somewhere in which others can’t pass you without getting too close.
I live in an urban area in a mostly flat county, so I’m not expecting rolling hills and distant mountains, and I’m making do with roads, bridges, patches of green and the occasional field of crops. Landscape pictures don’t have to be of beautiful scenery, but you can usually find something aesthetically pleasing in an ordinary scene when you look hard enough.
Still life
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| I used a gold sheet of card from a craft store to send a little warmth back into the subject from the left hand side. The diffused flash was positioned on the right, and contrasting the white light from the flash with the gold light from the reflector emphasizes the warm effect |
A good mastery of still life photography should help improve your photography across the board, and this is a good time to get some practice in. Working with a few objects on the table top with just a single light and a reflector is an ideal way to teach yourself more about lighting, exposure and composition.
If you are new to still life photography I suggest starting with just an orange and a table lamp, moving the lamp around the orange to see how the direction of the light changes the way the orange looks. Once you’ve done that and looked carefully at the way highlights and shadows control the sense of three dimensions in the image you can move on to everyday objects laying around the house.
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Keep things simple by using just one or two objects in your scene, and try lighting with just one source and a couple of reflectors to moderate the shadows. Here I used a single LED panel at the top of the frame, and a couple of mirror tiles to the left and right of the handle to throw some light back in the opposite direction. A wide aperture created a shallow depth-of-field to draw the eye diagonally up the handle to the point of focus. The blueberry doesn’t need to be sharp for us to know it is a blueberry, and it is used as a counterweight to the main area of interest |
Knives, forks and spoons offer interesting shapes and compositional challenges, and natural objects saved from the autumn, like nuts or dried leaves, give you the chance to bring nature into your work. The supermarket is also filled with interesting fruit and vegetables, and home stores and hardware stores stock nice cups, glasses and industrial looking bolts, screws, springs and fascinating sheets of metal/plastic/wood that will make interesting backgrounds.
One of the nice things about still life is that you can take your time and there is usually no rush, so you can look really carefully, try things out and try again when it doesn’t work the first time.
Tips:
- Work slowly and really look at the effect of the light on your subject
- Use silver, gold, white and black cards to bounce/block light
- When used as a reflector, mirrors throw back so much light they can save you having to buy a second flash
Macro
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| Here a little light either side is used to demonstrate the three-dimensional qualities of the seed head and the stem, and to lift it from the black-cloth background. I used a pair of hotshoe flash units fired through mini-softboxes attached to an adapter ring |
An extension of still life, macro photography will test your ability to see details and to look more closely than usual. Successful macro photography is all about finding hidden textures, patterns and features of everyday objects as well as capturing tiny plants and animals that might otherwise escape our attention.
Macro does require at least some specialist equipment, whether that’s a reversal ring, a coupling ring to mount one lens backwards on another or an actual dedicated macro lens. Using a lens designed for macro will make your life a lot easier and will deliver the best quality without too much effort, but high-quality macro lenses can be costly.
Extension tubes are very affordable, and can be added to a standard lens to help you get a little, or a lot, closer, and a micro adjustment platform for your tripod head can help when it comes to getting accurate focus in the closeup range without having to move the tripod.
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| Lights don’t need to be expensive. This was lit with a small pocket flashlight positioned to make these pasta shells glow in the dark. A sheet of white paper under the lens was enough to throw a touch of light back to reveal some of the details of side of the shells closest to the camera |
Cable and remote release devices will help to avoid camera shake with dramatic magnifications and tethering software will allow a bigger preview to ensure anything is perfect before you trip the shutter. How about using these months of isolation to teach yourself focus stacking so you can control exactly what is and isn’t sharp in your images?
Tips:
- Having a dedicated macro lens will make your life easier
- Use a tripod or support, don’t think you can do this handheld
- Be aware that depth-of-field is tiny in macro work, so add lots of light if you need small apertures
Window portraits of family
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| Late afternoon light on a winter’s day softly passing through a bay window was all that was needed for this portrait. I kept the sitter well back from the window to produce nice soft contrast but still retaining enough to show the shape of her head and features. Using the white balance in Daylight mode shows the coolness of the light and lets us know this is a winter image |
It doesn’t matter what time of year it is – daylight gliding through a north-facing window will always provide some of the best kind of lighting for natural-looking portraiture. On rainy and overcast days the light levels might be lower but that light will also be softer and more flattering.
Position your subject close to the window if you want more contrast and further away for less, and try turning them 3/4 against the light to get a more dramatic effect. Using a black card on the unlit side of the face can help to deepen shadows if there’s more light than you want bouncing around the room. A net curtain or sheet of thin paper across the window can diffuse the daylight on a sunny day or when you only have south-facing windows to play with.
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Positioning the subjects directly in front of a sunny window gives them this stark and very direct frontal lighting. I stood with my back to the window and pulled the shutters across to create the stripes on the groom’s jacket. The light on his face is reflected from the white top-side of the shutters. As he is close to the window the light drops off quite quickly, leaving his friends visible but much darker. This helps to express who is the most important player in the scene, and who are the secondary elements. |
Extra diffusion will also cut down the light making it easier to achieve a wide aperture if you want shallow depth-of-field.
Try experimenting with white balance too, so you can create a warm or cool effect whatever the conditions outside.
Tips:
- Try positioning the sitter at different distances from the window to vary contrast
- Move your sitter between each end of the window to alter how the light wraps around their face
- Use net curtains, bubble wrap or paper to diffuse the light even more
Home studio
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Using quite a small soft light creates strong direction but avoids razor-sharp edges to the shadows. The small light also allows a rapid fall off, so the subject’s head is lit more brightly than her body, and positioning the light just slightly behind illuminates the front of her face while leaving the side closest to the camera dark – drawing attention to her closed eyes. A small direct light from behind her lifts her shoulders from the background and helps to create a sense of depth in the picture. Opera singer Golda Schultz for the BBC Proms Magazine |
When there’s not too much natural light coming through the windows, or we need more for smaller apertures and lower ISO settings, it’s a good time to think about alternative light sources. Domestic lights can be very useful for lighting in a home studio but they don’t always deliver enough power, so sometimes we need to look at flash.
There have never been so many flash units available for photographers so we have plenty of choice. Big studio monoblock type studio flash offer the advantage of power and a modeling bulb so we can see what we are doing, but they can feel expensive for the enthusiast. A useful alternative is to use one of the host of hotshoe flash units that are available – either from the manufacturer of your camera or from one of the many independent brands that have sprung up over the last ten or so years.
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This is the setup for the shot above. You can see that I believe in keeping things simple. The lights are Rotolight Annova Pro on the left and the Neo2 on the right. I used a Veydra Mini Prime 35mm T2.2 cinema lens – for a softer feel – on the Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 |
Modern hotshoe flash units are remarkably powerful, flexible and easy to use, and with auto and TTL modes they can be set to do all the work for you. In manual mode they offer more straight forward options and with wireless control becoming the norm you don’t have to leave the camera position to make your changes – or to check the results of any adjustments you’ve made.
What makes hotshoe style flash units so useful now is the mass of accessories and modifiers that can transform their light to be indistinguishable from that of a professional studio flash. I use adapter clamps so that my flash units can fit inside the softboxes, dishes and snoots that I use with my main studio units, and enjoy the convenience, the shorter set-up time and that they fit in smaller spaces.
Tips:
- Keep the flash/light source away from the camera for a more three-dimensional effect
- Bounce light from a white wall/ceiling to create a larger/softer light
- Use an adapter that allows you to use soft-boxes and accessories with your flash head for a wider range of lighting looks
Summing up
Lockdown doesn’t have to mean putting down your camera. All that’s required is a little imagination and (ideally) a tripod. So take a look around your home to see what/who you can aim your camera at, start a photo diary, and keep on shooting until we can all get outside again.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
These are the best portrait lenses for Sony mirrorless shooters
05
Apr
Our guide to the best lenses for Sony APS-C and full-frame mirrorless cameras has been updated to include recommendations for portrait shooters.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
How to Easily Make Images ‘Pop’ with these Luminar 4 Tips
05
Apr
The post How to Easily Make Images ‘Pop’ with these Luminar 4 Tips appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Christian Hoiberg.
Luminar 4 has become a popular photo-editor since it’s release, partly due to it’s groundbreaking AI tools used to replace skies, introduce elements or give an overall ‘pop’ to your image. However, these Luminar 4 tips go beyond the AI tools and teach you how to quickly make your images look more impressive.
In this article, I want to show you how we can transform this rather ordinary sunset panorama into something more visually pleasing that’s sure to grab people’s attention.
To avoid making this too complicated, I’m going to avoid using layers and masks and instead show you a series of very basic tips that you can immediately implement into your workflow.
Let’s get started and dive into these Luminar 4 tips:
1. Use AI only when needed
While Luminar 4 has become widely known due to its Artificial Intelligence tools such as the AI Sky Replacement Tool and AI Augmented Reality Tool, you should avoid using them for every image.
These types of composite tools are a very personal choice (there are many opinions on both sides of the discussion, but I don’t want to delve into that now), but there’s no secret that it’s an easy way to make a boring photo interesting.
If you’ve got a boring blue sky, you can easily replace it with a more colorful or dramatic one. This can be fun and useful at times, but I strongly recommend that you avoid replacing the sky or introducing elements to it all the time.
Most images simply don’t need to be worked on in such a way. Most of the time, it ends up looking more distracting than attractive.
For example, using the AI Augmented Reality Tool to introduce a flock of birds or a rainbow in the image we’re working on in this article makes no sense. It looks misplaced.
Reserve these tools for particular images only.
2. Don’t forget about the basic adjustments
Playing with the various AI tools, adding sun rays, or dramatic effects can be fun, but don’t forget about the basic raw adjustments; these are crucial for the image and will set the basis for further development.
The basic adjustments I’m talking about can be found in the Light Tools inside the Essentials Category. More specifically, I’m talking about the following sliders:
- Temperature
- Tint
- Exposure
- Highlights
- Shadows
- Whites
- Blacks
To enhance the warm sunset feel and give the image a little more contrast, I increased the Temperature and Tint, darkened the Exposure (as a result of the next adjustments), darkened the Highlights and increased the Shadows, Whites and Blacks.
By applying these few basic adjustments, we’ve introduced some more details in the shadows, increased the contrast, and warmed the image slightly.
3. Correct mistakes using AI Enhance and AI Structure
Now, I said that you should only use AI tools when they’re absolutely needed, but the AI Enhance and AI Structure tools are the exceptions. Unlike the other tools, they don’t add or replace anything. Instead, they use Artificial Intelligence to ‘correct’ the image.
I’ve always been a skeptic of these types of automatic tools (I still have nightmares about the good ol’ Photomatix days), but these two have proved me wrong. AI can have a place in photo editing.
Don’t get me wrong – pulling too much in these sliders is going to make the image look overly edited. But applied at a lower amount, they can add a lot to it.
For this example, I applied them with the following settings:
- AI Accent (AI Enhance): +9
- AI Sky Enhancer (AI Enhance): +20
- AI Structure Amount: +19
As you can see, these adjustments have made the sky and image ‘pop’ a little more than previously. The nice part about these tools is that they don’t add any unwanted noise or grain to the image.
4. Add a vignette
A vignette is commonly used to shift the focus of an image towards its more interesting parts by darkening the surroundings.
This is a particularly useful tool when the borders of an image are bright. That’s not quite the case in this image, but I do find that darkening the outer areas can help emphasize the setting sun.
I recommend using the Vignette tool with some caution too. Don’t go to the extreme, as that will quickly make the vignette too obvious and distracting.
It’s also a good idea to use the ‘Choose Subject’ button to set the midpoint of the vignette, it won’t always be in the middle! For example, if you’ve got a person standing to the left of the image and they’re the main subject, that should be the middle point.
5. Add a glow (but be careful!)
Techniques such as the Orton Effect is loved by landscape photographers, and it’s a technique that’s been around since the 1980s (created by Michael Orton). This technique can easily be replicated in Luminar 4. In fact, it can be found two places.
The Orton Effect tool is found in the Portrait Tools Category. By placing it here, Skylum has made it clear that this particular effect is mostly meant for portraits.
For other genres of photography, you can use the Glow Tool found in the Creative Tools Category. This tool introduces a nice soft glow to the image that can help give that much desired ‘dreamy’ atmosphere.
BUT don’t go all-out and apply this technique at a high amount. That’s going to look more distracting than appealing and will make the image look amateurish.
Instead, apply this at a low amount. If you’re feeling brave and have some knowledge about Luminar 4, this is a technique that’s best added through a mask.
6. Midtone contrast is your friend!
For years I’ve been using Luminosity Masks in Photoshop to introduce Midtones Contrast. However, in Luminar 4, it’s done with a simple slider found inside the Advanced Contrast tool in the Professional Category.
The problem with adding contrast to the entire image is that you essentially brighten the brightest parts and darken the darkest. This quickly results in clipping of the shadows and highlights.
By introducing contrast to the midtones only (i.e. any pixel that’s neither bright nor dark), you avoid this problem and get a much more desirable result.
This is one of my most important Luminar 4 Tips that will make your image pop. Go try it for yourself!
7. Adjust the focus by using the Adjustable Gradient Tool
The final tip I’m going to share in this article is one that’s not necessary for this particular image. It’s something that’s going to do wonders in the majority of your images. Use the Adjustable Gradient Tool to shift the focus in your image.
Very often, I find the foreground or sky to be too distracting in images. There’s no reason why a foreground should be as bright and sharp as the main subject of the image. Remember, our eyes naturally gravitate towards the brightest parts, which is where you want the main subject to be.
The Adjustable Gradient Tool is an easy solution that even complete Luminar beginners can take advantage of (there are more advanced methods that are superior, but I’ll save that for another time).
You can switch between the Top and Bottom gradient and choose the gradient’s orientation in order to better fit your image. It’s possible to add adjustments to both the top and bottom at the same time.
For this example, I only applied adjustments to the Bottom as I wanted to remove some details in the rocks visible in the lower part of the image. All I did was increase the Exposure, Highlights and Vibrance.
This tool is also used to darken/recover a bright sky. For those scenarios, simply choose Top and increase the Exposure or Shadows.
Conclusion
The truth is, you don’t need to spend hours upon hours editing your images to make them look impressive. Applying a few simple adjustments can often be enough to give that extra pop.
In the 7 Luminar 4 tips shared above, we’ve managed to take an ordinary sunset image and make it slightly more appealing:
I hope that you found these Luminar 4 tips useful and that you can apply these techniques and tools into your workflow. I would love to see the images you’ve edited, so make sure to leave them in the comments below!
Make sure to have a look at my popular eBook ‘A Photographer’s Guide to Luminar 4′ if you’d like to learn how you can take full advantage of all the organizing and processing tools and create professional-looking images with this popular photo editor. There, you’ll learn everything you need to know about organizing and editing, as well as receive several step-by-step workflows you can use for yourself.
The post How to Easily Make Images ‘Pop’ with these Luminar 4 Tips appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Christian Hoiberg.
These are the best lenses for Nikon DSLR portrait shooters
05
Apr
We think that the Nikon 50mm F1.4G and 85mm F1.4G are great all-around picks for APS-C and full-frame Nikon DSLR portrait shooters, respectively. Read on for more recommendations and all of our top lens picks for these systems.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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