The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Window Views appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
Since we are all stuck indoors, this week’s photography challenge topic is the WINDOW VIEWS!
Christie Kim
You might want to do a full interior scene with the view as a partial element, or you may like to shoot with the window itself in the frame. Alternatively, you may just want to do a photo of your view from an open window, with no hint of the window in sight.
If you choose to do the full interior with the window view, you may need to play with bracketing your exposures and HDR in editing to get an even exposure for the interior and the view.
So, check out these pics to give you some ideas, have fun, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Haibin WuKelly ArnoldNicholas Design
Check out some of the articles below that give you tips on this week’s challenge.
Tips for photographing the WINDOW VIEWS
Tips for Shooting Cityscapes Through a Window at Blue Hour
Tips for Minimizing Reflections When Photographing Through Windows
Tips for Photographing Real Estate Interiors
How to Photograph a Real Estate Interior or Property
A Guide to Creating Stunning HDR Images
How to Use Bracketing to get Your Best Shot – 3 Different Methods
6 Types of Bracketing Your Camera Can Do and How to Use Them
Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge.
Share in the dPS Facebook Group
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSWindowViews to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Window Views appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The post Fun 5-Second Photos – Using Long Exposures for Creative Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
Survey your collection of photos, and I’d bet that most will have been taken at 1/30th of a second or faster. Usually, we want to freeze any action, getting as sharp an image as possible. Other times, however, we might want to purposefully use long exposures for creative images.
Silky waterfalls, streaked clouds, oceans waves that look more like mist – those are the images where we might use shutter speeds that last multiple seconds or even minutes. But how about a middle-ground, say a 5-second exposure? What kinds of looks might that give you?
I wanted to tap into the frozen, non-moving ice and the moving fluid water in this photo. I needed an ND filter to get me to the shutter speed I wanted. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 6-seconds, f/22 ISO 100.
For the examples in this article, let’s be a little flexible saying anything between four and eight seconds is what we’re interested in.
Fortunately, Lightroom can filter images by looking at the shutter speed recorded in the Exif data. I was easily able to see which of the over 105,500 images in my Lightroom catalog fell into that range. It was just 1,036 of those or .981%.
So, while perhaps shutter speeds in the 5-second range are not often used for general photography, as you will see, occasionally that range is just right for the look you seek.
Tripod or hand-held?
The “inverse focal-length rule” says that to prevent camera shake blur you should always try to shoot at 1/lens focal length as your minimum for hand-holding your camera. For example, using your 70-200mm zoom lens if you were zoomed wide to 70mm your shutter speed should be 1/70th or faster like 1/100th of a second.
Zoom in to the full 200mm setting, and you’d best be at 1/250th or faster to prevent camera shake.
Keeping the still objects sharp while the water smoothed during this 4-second exposure required a tripod. It was shady and darker here, but I still needed an ND filter. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 4-seconds, f/20 ISO 50.
Those rules apply here. If you intend only to blur those things that move during your 5-second exposure, you’ll definitely need a tripod. However, there might be situations where you could make a 5-second exposure without one:
Your creative intent is to show some camera motion blur. A creative “swish-pan” is a good example.
No tripods are allowed where you are working. Crowded places, sports events, indoor locations or other places might not allow you to use a tripod. Come up with some workarounds – brace your camera against something, set it down on a bench or something, and use the 2-second timer for a hands-off shot. Maybe you could carry a beanbag or improvise with your jacket. If smaller variations of a tripod are allowed, things like a Gorillapod or Platypod might be the answer.
Consider mirror lockup to reduce vibration.
Exposure
You’re familiar with the “exposure triangle” right? If not, follow this link to learn about it. It is foundational knowledge for all serious photographers. Briefly, it states that all exposures are governed by three things, the “holy trinity” of photography:
Shutter speed (how long the sensor is exposed to light),
Aperture (the size of the hole through which light enters),
ISO (the sensitivity of the sensor to light).
Whether you are in Manual mode, Full Auto, or any other camera exposure mode, those three things are always at work. Now, if we’ve already decided we want a 5-second shutter speed, we’re left with just the other two to control our exposure.
ISO and Aperture – which?
You are likely going to want to choose one of two modes when practicing 5-second exposures: Full Manual (which will give you full control over all settings), or Shutter Priority (Tv on Canon and Pentax, S on Nikon and Sony).
Shutter priority lets you choose and lock in a shutter speed and then the camera adjusts aperture (the f/stop) and ISO (if you have that in Auto ISO). If not, ISO will be locked to whatever you set.
Now, you’ve locked in 5-seconds as your shutter speed, should you use Aperture, ISO, or maybe both to get the exposure right? Like so many things in photography, the answer is, “it depends.”
Let’s speak to ISO first. We’re trying to make a 5-second exposure. Doing so will allow quite a bit of light into the camera. So as not to overexpose the image, dialing down the ISO will help. Many cameras have 100 ISO as their lowest setting. Some can go down to 50 ISO. The benefit of lower ISO is less noise. So, set to the lowest ISO possible, yes? Sure, but that by itself may not get you there, and there are other considerations.
Let’s consider aperture.
Setting the aperture (remember the aperture is the “hole.” The term f/stop is the way we reference the “size of the hole.”) to a larger number, i.e. f/11, f/16, or f/22 will let in less light. That too may help us get that 5-second exposure.
Of course, changing aperture also affects the depth of field. We could also encounter a reduction of sharpness if we use the smallest apertures due to what is called “diffraction.”
Pre-sunrise. I didn’t have a lot of light to work with, so a slow shutter speed helped here. It also smoothed the water a bit at the inlet at the Coquille River Lighthouse in Bandon, Oregon. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 6 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 1600.
Proper exposure while considering the implications of each “leg of the exposure triangle” is always a juggling act. If you’re still a novice photographer who has always used automatic exposure settings, I might have lost you here. If so, I suggested you read up on these things:
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
Exposure Triangle
Lens “Sweet Spot”
Depth of Field
Lens Diffraction
Cut the light
So, we have our shutter speed set at 5-seconds, our ISO at say 50, and an aperture of f/22. We check and see the image will still be overexposed. What now? Well, as we might put on sunglasses on a bright day to cut the amount of light coming into our eyes, in photography we use neutral-density (ND) filters.
These come in various grades of darkness. A rating system indicates how many stops of light they reduce. Each increase of ND 0.3 results in one additional stop of light reduction. So an ND 1.8 is a six-stop filter.
That means whatever a good exposure for the scene might be with no filter, putting such a filter on will allow you to adjust to the now correct exposure by six stops.
If all of this makes your head hurt, I suggest downloading a free ND calculator app (Android / iOS) which will tell you the settings you need.
Lee Filters (who makes a 6-stop ND filter called the “Little Stopper,” and a 10-stop filter called the “Big Stopper“) offers a nice free app. To use an example, if I had to shoot in bright daylight and the longest shutter speed I could use was at 1/200th of a second, using a 10-stop Big Stopper could get me down to that 5-second shutter speed.
Another option is a “variable ND filter.” These have two layered polarized filters, that when rotated, allow progressive darkening. They can be nice, but sometimes introduce weird visual artifacts, create color casts and such, particularly at darker settings and when using wider focal lengths. Do some research before you decide to buy one of these.
Standard circular polarizing filters can work to a degree as they will typically cut light by 1.5-2.5 stops. You can stack filters too, but a word of caution here – stacking filters runs the risk of vignetting the image, or worse, sometimes stacked filters can get stuck on the lens. This is a sure way to ruin your day. A filter wrench is a good tool to have in your kit.
In daylight conditions, even with a small aperture and low ISO, you might not be able to get to the longer shutter speed you’d like and have the proper exposure. ND filters which cut the light are often the answer. All of these photos were done with such a filter.
Suitable scenes
Okay, techy stuff out of the way. When and why might you want to take 5-second exposures? Let’s look at some example photos.
Flowing water
Silky water effects are a favorite with photographers. Slower shutter speeds allow you to get the look. Note the various shutter speeds on these images. A recommended practice is to bracket your moving water shots. The speed, volume, and proximity of the water to the camera will make a difference when finding that “just right” shutter speed to create the look you like.
Smooth water, streaked clouds
Whatever moves will blur during a longer exposure. Water, waves, and clouds will all have a different look. You need not always go for extra-long exposures either, note the shutter speeds on these were between 6 and 8 seconds.
Special Effects
A longer shutter speed buys you time for creating special effects photos. The “smoke” in the first shot is actually a piece of dental floss moved during the 6-second exposure. I used sparklers and laser pointers to create the other shots. Note the shutter speeds are all 4-seconds.
Fireworks
I find 6-second exposures are often just right when doing fireworks photos allowing capture of multiple bursts and a nice look.
Zoom during exposure
Longer shutter speeds allow you time to zoom the lens during the shot, producing the kinds of images in the first two photos. In the third image, it was the car that was doing the “zooming.”
Combining with flash
Combine a slower shutter speed with a pop of second-curtain-sync flash, and you get an image like this. The motion blurs during the ambient portion of the exposure, and the flash at the end freezes that part of the exposure. Second-curtain-sync flash shots are two-exposures in one. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 2-seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100.
Low light and night photography
Before sunrise, after sunset, dark days and nights – sometimes you go for a slower shutter speed because there’s not much light. Knowing when to “go slow” can make for some nice images. All of these are between 3.2 and 8 seconds.
Light painting
A longer shutter speed buys you time for light painting. The first image had a 4-second exposure, the second a 5-second exposure. Go read my article on this fun technique.
Lightning
When you don’t have a lightning trigger, you do it the old-fashioned way – Point your camera where you’ve been seeing the flashes and shoot many longer exposure shots. With luck, you’ll catch a bolt or maybe even several during a shot. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 4-seconds, f/9, ISO 800.
Now go “take five”
Shooting into the sun, a six-stop ND filter was mandatory to get me to a 6-second shutter speed here. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 6-seconds, f/16, ISO 50.
So what is the “right” shutter speed to use? When making long exposures for creative images there is no absolute.
Use the shutter speed that best captures the vision you had when making the image. Learn to adjust aperture and ISO to get you to that speed you want and ND filters when you must. The key is taking control of your camera.
As a master painter knows exactly what brush and stroke to use, you as a photographer can make masterful photos when you know the right settings and controls to use. If you have not typically worked in the 5-second shutter speed range, use the photos in this article as inspiration. Now, go “take five.”
The post Fun 5-Second Photos – Using Long Exposures for Creative Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
The post Two New Canon EOS M Cameras Will Debut Before the Year is Out appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
While the camera industry has slowed in recent months, Canon continues to push forward.
New rumors indicate that Canon will be releasing two EOS M cameras by the end of 2020. While the details of these cameras are uncertain, they come as a welcome promise for a (hopefully) post-coronavirus world.
Prior to coronavirus concerns, discussion of two full-frame mirrorless models dominated the internet:
The Canon EOS R5, poised as a mirrorless-style 5D and packing true 8K video, along with in-body image stabilization and 20 frames-per-second continuous shooting.
And the Canon EOS R6, a camera that Canon has been fairly quiet about (but is rumored to have 20 MP sensor, 20 fps shooting, and 4K/60p video).
While coronavirus will potentially delay the release of these two bodies, the original plan was for them to both debut this summer, leaving the fall open for other Canon announcements.
Now we have an idea of what those announcements might be.
Note that we haven’t heard much about Canon EOS M models since the fall of 2019, when the Canon EOS M6 Mark II and the Canon EOS M200 debuted.
The EOS M line offers mirrorless APS-C bodies geared toward entry-level shooters. While some of these bodies offer advanced features such as electronic viewfinders, EOS M cameras are more compact than their full-frame counterparts and come at significantly lower prices.
EOS M cameras are designed to work with Canon’s EF-M lenses. But an optional adapter will allow you to combine EOS M bodies with Canon EF and EF-S lenses, making Canon EOS M cameras an excellent option for Canon DSLR users seeking a switch to mirrorless.
Rumors also suggest that we’ll see several new EF-M lenses debut before the year is out, which is a welcome development given the relative scantiness of the EOS M lens lineup.
So if you’re a Canon shooter looking to switch to mirrorless, or you’re planning to upgrade an existing EOS M body, keep an eye out for further news!
Now over to you:
Are you excited about new EOS M cameras? Which models do you think Canon will announce?Share your thoughts in the comments!
The post Two New Canon EOS M Cameras Will Debut Before the Year is Out appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post Poll: What Post-Processing Software Do You Use to Edit Your Photos? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
Here at dPS, we’d like to know what post-processing software you use to edit your photos so that we can deliver some post-production tutorials that better suit you.
Let us know below. You can vote for more than one if you use multiple editing platforms. If the software isn’t listed, please let us know what you use in the comments section!
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
The post Poll: What Post-Processing Software Do You Use to Edit Your Photos? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The post Photo Hacks to Make Your Canvas Print a Showstopper appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Gvido Grube.
Taking perfectly decent photos isn’t rocket science. And once you’ve taken them, it’s also not hard to turn them into perfectly decent photo canvas prints. But what if you’re striving for something more, something exceptional? What if you want your canvas print to be a real showstopper?
Well, there are a few hacks you can use that should get you instant results. And the photo printing experts at CanvasDiscount.com are here to talk you through these canvas printing tips.
Read on.
Stick with the basics of composition
Photo by Roger Erdvig – Unsplash
It sounds counterintuitive to play it safe when you want your photo to stir things up. But some rules really are best left unbroken. Using the Rule of Thirds, Fibonacci Spiral or Phi Grid might sound basic if you’re a battle-hardened professional. And yet these lie behind pretty much every successful photo ever taken.
And there’s another factor in play here.
It’s worth noting that after you print a photo on canvas, the canvas is stretched over a wooden frame and attached at the back. This means that some of the image detail – the very margins of the original photo – appear on the sides of the frame.
For those “playing it safe,” this shouldn’t have much impact, as the position of the subject, the focal points, and lines of perspective will all stay roughly the same.
But for those who take risks with the classic conventions of photography, the opposite can be true.
If your subject, or the center of the “action,” are too close to the edge of your image, there’s a risk that these will be obscured on the finished product.
Aim for scale and movement
Drone photography often makes for superb photo canvas prints. And close-up photos of fabric and plant textures can also look fantastic when printed on canvas. In fact, though it might seem paradoxical, there are certain similarities between these two kinds of shots.
Photos by Adam Gonzales, Ryan Wilson and Bharath g s – Unsplash
Both allow you to take certain liberties with the rules of composition, as the focus here is on a sense of scale.
Repetitive patterns and an emphasis on texture also help to make aerial photos and close-up shots visually effective.
But there are many other ways to give your prints more impact.
Use the leading lines cleverly
Photo by Mak – Unsplash
The most common way to create dynamism in photos is to use the leading lines. These are lines that draw the viewer’s attention to the subject of the photo. Usually produced by lighting conditions (light/shadow relationships) or geometrical patterns in the photo, leading lines can also be formed by the contours of buildings, handrails of a staircase, or any physical object close to the main subject.
When you’re framing your shot, just make sure these lines lead to your subject.
Go to the extremes
Many readers will be familiar with the terms “negative space” and “positive space.” The former denotes the areas surrounding the main subject of your photo, while the latter denotes the main subject/object. Of course, “negative space” shouldn’t be taken as implying any sense of inferiority!
Photos by Adam Birket, Michel Paz, Trevor Mckinnon – Unsplash; Serhii and Besjunior – Adobe Stock
Negative space serves to highlight positive space. In fact, you could say that one relies on the other to make an impact. But it’s possible to compose an image so that negative space becomes the main subject of the photo. This can work to amazing artistic effect, challenging traditional ideas about composition.
Meanwhile, keeping your focus on positive space but taking it to audacious extremes is another example of how you can break the rules and still get great results.
So what do we mean when we talk about extreme positive space?
Photos by Red Ana & Pavel – Unsplash
A photo with extreme positive space usually features little or no negative space. The whole photo, from top to bottom, is buzzing with noise, movement, lines, and patterns, produced by multiple competing subjects. Done right, this can lead to an appealing sense of artistic chaos.
Photos of crowds, building blocks, lush woodlands, or mountain ranges lined up one behind the other – these are examples of subjects that can use extreme positive space to great effect.
And any successful photo using positive space in this way is sure to make for a successful canvas print too.
Photos by Rodion Kutsaev and Janita Sumeiko – Unsplash
You can try going extreme in negative space too. In fact, extreme negative space often gives photos a sophisticated fine-art appeal. So push minimalism as far as you dare, and there’s every chance your photo will make for a wonderfully striking print on canvas.
Blur up the background
Is background clutter distracting from the subjects in the foreground of your photo? Shallow depth of field is a common way to emphasize the subjects in focus, effectively reducing the “noise” in the background. This simple trick works exceptionally well with still-life photos, as it accentuates nuanced details. It also produces the much-valued bokeh effect, as well as some specular reflections and blurred light sources.
Photo by Yeshi Kangrang – Unsplash
One might argue the effect is somewhat overused these days, but there’s no denying it can look amazing. Frankly, we’d recommend jumping on the bandwagon at this point.
You can get the effect by using your camera’s macro settings or shooting in aperture priority mode. Choose the former, and you just need to switch to macro mode, turn off flash and zoom in before you shoot.
For the latter, you’ll need to switch to aperture priority mode and aim for the lowest f-value available – then just zoom in again and take the photo.
The two methods should give you near-identical results.
Use layers
Note that this has nothing to do with manipulations in Adobe Photoshop. Layering is a technique that’s commonly used to give your photo a depth effect. In practice, it means producing a photo composed of multiple layered elements at a range of distances from the lens. Using varying tones and textures will enhance the effect, making the photo appear more immersive.
Photos by Jordan Steranka and Nathan Anderson – Unsplash
Creative use of these layers can produce a striking three-dimensional effect – which should work just as well once you print the image on canvas.
To get the best results, try to keep a clear distinction between the foreground, middle ground, and background of your image.
The many aspects of motion
Movement is one of the cornerstones of photography. Whether you capture a single instant of action using lightning-fast shutter speed or create motion blur with an epic long-exposure shot, movement creates visual tension. It makes your subject stand out from the background action.
This hack is not so much about creating a sense of motion as about where to position your moving subject in your photo. Get that part right, and your image can produce a spectacular impact.
Photos by Rémi Jacquaint – Unsplash, Fannyes, and 75tiks – Adobe Stock
The trick involves leaving a space between the object in motion and the opposite side of the photo. The subject should occupy roughly one-third to two-thirds of the photo, with the remainder taken up by negative space.
This will suggest a direction in which the subject is heading and make your photo more dynamic.
Many great sporting photographs owe a lot of their power to this technique.
Trust your instinct
While the hacks listed above will help you shoot professional, well-balanced photos, the key to getting exceptional results is to go with your gut feeling. If you remember that not everyone agrees with even the most conventional ideas of beauty, you’ll feel free to do things your way.
Photo by Roger Erdvig – Unsplash
There’s no universal formula for taking an excellent photo. No image, however highly acclaimed, is going to appeal to everyone. So when in doubt, trust your instinct, and there’s every chance it will lead you to your perfect photo.
Do you already have a photo with showstopper potential? Think it would look amazing hung on your wall? We can help! In collaboration with CanvasDiscount.com, we’ve prepared a special purchase offer exclusively for the readers of Digital Photography School. Head to CanvasDiscount.com and use the code DIGITALCANVAS15 to get 15% OFF all canvas prints! This is one you don’t want to miss!
CanvasDiscount is a paid dPS partner.
The post Photo Hacks to Make Your Canvas Print a Showstopper appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Gvido Grube.
Whether you’ve just purchased the Nikon D750 or you’re still in the research phase, you likely already know this is a DSLR with an amazing price point. It’s still one of the top rated cameras, even after more than 5 years on the market. Lightweight and extremely reliable, with excellent dynamic range, the Nikon D750 is a full frame DSLR Continue Reading
The post Nikon D750: Answers to Your Real Questions appeared first on Photodoto.
The post How to Use Photography to Teach Your Children Maths, English, Physics and More! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
It is certainly a weird time right now. We are all suddenly expected to become teachers due to the current lockdowns. While we all have different skills, we are all full of knowledge about photography. You may be wondering, how you can use photography to teach your children during this difficult time.
It’s actually easier than you think! Moreover, it can give your children a passion for learning during this difficult time.
Photography is a powerful teaching tool that can be linked to many subjects.
Where to start?
I first want to give you some more general points about homeschooling during these times.
In a classroom, your child will be one of many. They do not have a teacher over their shoulder the whole lesson, so try not to hover. Set them a task and let them explore.
It’s hard to do as we always want to see our children happy, but sometimes you just need to let them make mistakes.
When using photography to teach your children, it can be easy to take the camera and do it for them. However, this does two things:
It means they don’t learn anything for themselves
It can make them feel stupid or incapable.
Remember when you first started with photography. I know I made several mistakes, as I am sure you did. When I finally figured out my mistake and got the result I wanted, I felt a great sense of achievement.
The only way for your child to feel this same sense of achievement is to let your child fail and figure things out for themselves. Failing is one of the best tools for learning. It gives them a great sense of satisfaction when they succeed.
So let’s take a look at some of the key subjects and how you can use photography to teach your children.
Maths
Maths is usually the most dreaded of all subjects. The best way to use photography to teach your children maths is by using the exposure triangle.
The exposure triangle uses equations, which is a key skill in maths. Unsure of using manual exposure yourself? Why not learn along with your child. This demonstrates to them that learning is a lifelong skill.
Start by explaining that every time you double your shutter speed, it equals one stop of light. Conversely, every time you double your ISO it equals one stop of light. So, if you double one, you need to double the other. If you halve one, you need to halve the other.
To start, take a correctly exposed photo. Then challenge your child to alter the shutter speed and ISO but to keep the correct exposure.
To demonstrate this, take a photo at ISO 400 and make a note of the shutter speed. You can then explain that when you halve your ISO you also have to halve your shutter speed. You can make this harder by giving them a high ISO (say 1600) and ask them to keep the exposure with an ISO of 100.
You can also give these questions on paper, then take them out into the real world.
Example Question.
Jack takes a photograph. His camera gives him the correct exposure at ISO 400 and a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second. If Jack wants to change his shutter speed to 1/100th second, what ISO value does he need?
You can then make things more complex by adding aperture. This is a great way to show how equations work in a practical environment.
Two images, same exposure, different ISO. Halving the ISO also means halving the shutter speed. It’s all just balancing the equation.
Science/physics
For this, you will need a flash for your camera to demonstrate.
There is an inverse square law and how it affects photography. The inverse square law states:
The intensity of an effect such as illumination or gravitational force changes in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the source.
When you double the distance between a light source and a subject, the amount of light falls off by 3/4. This also means that the greater the distance between the light and the subject, the less harsh the fall off of light across it.
The most fun way to demonstrate this is to show what happens when you change the distance between a flash and subject, and the impact on the light fall off.
Start by placing the flash close to the subject (say 30cm) then move the flash about 1.5 meters from the background.
When the flash is close, any background will be almost black, but when further away, the exposure on the background and the subject will be almost identical.
For more science-based work, give your child a shiny or reflective object to light. Light travels in a straight line, so getting them to change the position of the light or object means reflections can be minimized or enhanced.
Teach the inverse square law by changing the flash-to-subject distance to show how light falls off over distance.
History
This can be done in a variety of ways. They can research a specific photographer from history or research a time period (e.g., the 60s) through photography. Get them to look for similarities in the works and create a presentation or written report on this. Try using our Lessons From the Masters Series for this.
They should also be encouraged to create history by recording their experiences in this time. The possibilities here are endless, including creating a Vlog (you don’t need to upload it to YouTube if you don’t want to), creating a photo story, writing a journal, etc.
We are living through a major historical event, get your children to record it.
Design and technology
Get your children to create a backdrop for a photoshoot. Get them to choose a toy or give them a household object such as hand soap and create a backdrop for this.
You can keep the brief as open or closed as possible. You could get them to build something only using a set of equipment given to them. Or let them create something from whatever they can find. If you have access to a tool shed, you can get creative with scrap wood, etc. This can then be used for the next lesson.
Making a backdrop will involve physics and maths skills (forces and measurements respectively).
See more DIY projects here.
Graphic products and graphic design
Use the backdrop your child has built to create an image that will become an advertising campaign for a project.
You can teach them how to edit a photo. From here, you can then get them to use the image in a poster to promote the product they have photographed. Not only does this involve graphic skills, you can involve English skills by encouraging them come up with the slogan and blurb for the product.
This also has a nice crossover into ICT in terms of using the software for designing and editing the photographs.
Taking Images and making them into a poster is great for developing graphics & ICT skills
English
Although not strictly photography, a great way to involve English in using photography to teach your children is to make a film. This means writing a script, which teaches them about formatting work. It also gets them to think creatively and produce an original piece of writing.
You can extend this to include art by getting them to storyboard the project. Then push it into design and technology by creating a set.
If you have access to lights, you can even get them to light the scene and look at how placing the light in different positions creates a different mood. This can then lead to talking about low-key lighting and high-key lighting. This also involves physics in terms of light direction and the inverse square law.
The next Hollywood BlockBuster has to start somewhere.
Art
The most obvious way of doing this is getting your children to take photographs, but it is easy for this to lack structure. To make sure this is more learning-based, you can give them a brief.
Give them a household object and get them to photograph it in an unusual or abstract way. If you want to make this more game-based, get them to take photographs of 5 household objects of their choosing and then present them to you and see if you can guess what they are.
For a more traditional photographic approach, you can give your child a theme to photograph. You can use our weekly challenges to give them the theme if you are stuck for ideas.
When complete, sit down and critique the images together. You can use this to explain things such as composition.
If you want to go more into theory, you can teach them about the rule of thirds. Get them to look at photographs and see if they can see this within them.
The easiest way is to use a grid in something like PowerPoint that you can overlay onto different images. They can then use this to identify patterns in images they like or that you give them to study. You can also use this for things such as leading lines, foreground interest and so on.
Art fits in perfectly for photography, but to make sure it aids learning, all you need to add is a little structure.
Shot on an iPhone, this is an abstract representation of Venetian Blinds. Did you guess what it was?
Equipment
Obviously, you can give your kids your camera, but if you don’t feel comfortable with this, for most of these lessons, you can use a camera phone or the camera on a tablet. Many of the images in this article are iPhone images.
The lighting you use also doesn’t need to be some beautiful color-balanced LED panels. An angel-poise lamp works brilliantly, or even a simple torch will do the job.
For the sections on the exposure triangle, you will need access to a camera with full manual controls. In fact, you can possibly use a manual camera phone app in a pinch.
In terms of software, there is GIMP, which is free for photo editing. Also, Affinity Software is doing a 90-day free trial on all their software during this time.
Over to you
Hopefully, I have given you a few ideas on how you can use photography to teach your children during this difficult time. It gives some activities to try and maybe work that they find more interesting than sitting at a desk writing away.
Remember, homeschooling is very different from being taught in a classroom. There is no expectation of getting it perfect. You are doing your best in a bad situation, and that is all anyone can ask. The same applies to your children; they are finding homeschooling every bit as weird as you are.
Stay safe.
The post How to Use Photography to Teach Your Children Maths, English, Physics and More! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
The post Fujifilm Will Award $ 90,000 in Gear as Part of “Students of Storytelling” Initiative appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
If you’re a university student, or you’re interested in following the work of student photographers and videographers around the US, then I have good news:
Fujifilm is launching its Students of Storytelling contest, which awards 30 students up to $ 3000 USD in Fujifilm gear.
Its purpose?
To help students tell their own stories through photography and videography.
As Fujifilm explains, ” We are passionate about stories and truly believe that the future of storytelling rests in the hands of today’s college students. This is why the Students of Storytelling contest will award up to $ 3,000 of Fujifilm gear to a select group of winners to help bring their creative stories out into the light.”
Note that you don’t have to be an accomplished artist to take part; all current part-time and full-time college students are eligible, excepting Florida residents.
Fujifilm does offer entry guidelines, stating that the ideal proposal “should be designed to tell a cohesive ‘story’ of a human, or life-related experience, event, challenge, objective, relationship(s), approach, passion, and/or interest that may be depicted and effectively communicated through photographic images or video.”
Fujifilm also notes that participants will need to adhere to the CDC’s COVID-19 social distancing guidelines when carrying out their project.
The submission period goes until May 31st, during which eligible students can submit their proposed stories in written, video, or photographic format. The first half of June will be spent judging the entries, and students will be notified of their success at the end of June.
At that point, winners will be given the opportunity to choose Fujifilm equipment totaling up to $ 3000 USD. Winners will then have 90 days to complete and submit their stories, which are to be shared via social media, as well as on Fujifilm’s Create Forever website.
So if you’re an eligible student, head on over to Fujifilm’s website, where you can submit your own proposal to be considered for the Students of Storytelling contest.
And for everyone else:
If you’re interested in following the contest and all the winners, be sure to check Create-Forever.com for updates.
The post Fujifilm Will Award $ 90,000 in Gear as Part of “Students of Storytelling” Initiative appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post How to Convert a Photo to a Drawing in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mark C Hughes.
If you are anything like me, your artistic skills with a pencil are not great. I can, however, take pretty good photographs. So, this technique will show you how to convert a photo to a drawing in Photoshop.
The steps aren’t complicated, but we will use smart objects, filters and blend modes. If you are not familiar with these, check out the related links to learn more about them.
You will need to use Adobe Photoshop for this particular technique and I will be using the current 2020 CC version of Photoshop. Different versions of Photoshop may require slightly different approaches, particularly as it applies to smart objects.
Start with a portrait
To convert a photo to a drawing in Photoshop, I will start with a portrait of a writer I know, Jane Marshall. I photographed this during a recent portrait session. My version of Photoshop is windows-based, but the commands apply to Mac too.
Make sure you are working with an 8-bit image, or some of the filters will not be visible within Photoshop.
Start with the image you want to convert into a pencil sketch
We will be converting the layers into Smart Objects. Converting them into a smart object will allow you to make modifications to each layer.
Before you do this, use the Quick Select tool on the left side. With that highlighted, you can look across the top of the bar (on Adobe Photoshop CC) and use the Select Subject.
This uses Adobe’s Sensei AI technology and selects the subject for you. It generally does a pretty good job.
Mask out the subject
Create a layer mask so you are only working on the portrait
Create a layer mask so that you are only working on the portrait.
To do this, with your selection still made, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection. Alternatively, select the little layer mask icon in the Layer palette.
Clean up the mask by either using a black brush on the layer mask or use the Select and Mask tool. The Select and Mask tool is similar to the prior versions Refine Mask function, but works much better now. Fundamentally, the mask doesn’t need to be perfect, just smooth.
Remember when working on the mask, white reveals and black conceals.
Refine the mask
Once you are happy with the mask, we need to invert the selection, so press Ctrl I or Command I (Windows/Mac) and select the background.
Press Delete and the background will disappear. We will proceed to convert the layer into a Smart Object by clicking on the layer. You can also do this from the Edit menu.
Convert the base image into a Smart Object
You can convert the image into a Smart Object by right-clicking on the layer or going to the edit menu
Duplicate the layers and rename the new layers.
Because the layer was already a smart image, all the duplicates will also be smart images and will be tied to the original layer (more about that later).
There will be four layers above the original layer.
The original layer should be called Original (it will change from “Background” when you convert it into a Smart Object). We will leave that one alone and only work on the layers above it.
Title the layer above the original “Base.” We can call the layer above Base, “Pencil Outline.” The layer above that, call “Shading” and the Layer above that, call “Lines” or “Edges.”
Naming layers makes adjustments easier to keep track of. Smart objects will make the files larger, but will make all the changes non-destructive and editable.
Create multiple Smart Object layers
Once you create the first Smart Object layer, you can create all the additional layers we will need. Turn off all the layers above the one you are working on at the time.
Create the Pencil Outline layer
Turn off all the layers bar the layer you are working on using the Eye icon next to the name of each layer in the Layers palette. In this case, we will start on the Pencil Outline layer. To start the conversion, press Ctrl I or Command I to invert the layer.
Only the layer we are working on should be visible and we need to invert it to create the initial colored pencil effect
Once you have inverted the image, we are going to use the blend mode, “Color Dodge” to create the initial colored pencil outline effect.
The blend mode has created the initial effect, but it is not strong enough
Add a Gaussian Blur
The next thing we need to do to convert a photo to a drawing in Photoshop is to add a Gaussian Blur. We will do this to improve the appearance of the initial colored pencil effect.
Select Gaussian Blur from the Menu bar, by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. The amount of blur you add will affect how much of the underlying image appears.
Adding the Gaussian Blur creates the amount of the image that will be visible
Adjust the amount of Gaussian Blur you want, and a color version of the pencil sketch will start to appear.
However, we can improve the image by creating shading and emphasizing some lines.
Adjust the amount of Gaussian Blur to an amount you like, but you want to clearly see your subject.
With an appropriate amount of blur (the amount will vary depending upon your image and image size), the base becomes visible
Make the image black and white
While on the Pencil Outline layer, add a new Black and White Adjustment Layer from the Adjustments Panel. This will add a layer above the Pencil Outline layer.
If you cannot find your Adjustments Panel, go to the menu bar and select Window > Adjustments. You will then see the panel open. The Black and White Adjustment icon is a box with a positive and negative rectangle inside.
Remember that if you have the layers above the one you are working on turned on, you will not see any changes. So make sure only the layer you are working on and the ones below are turned on.
You don’t need to change anything from the default settings for the black and white adjustment layer for the purposes of this exercise.
A black and white adjustment layer creates the pencil image effect
Working on the shading
When you are converting a photo to a drawing in Photoshop, you want some shading to give depth. However, pencils are usually shaded with texture and blending.
You can create this appearance in Photoshop.
Select your Shading layer.
To improve the effect, we are going to change your brush color from pure black to a dark grey and leave the white as white. You want the foreground color to be the dark grey and the background to be white.
As this will be a pencil effect, we are looking for the pencil color to not be 100% black
With the shading layer selected, go to the Filter Gallery (Menu > Filter > Filter Gallery) and choose the Charcoal Filter under the Sketch Group. Set the Charcoal thickness to 1, Detail to 5 and Light/Dark balance to 50.
At 100% this become the new layer. But we want a pencil effect, not a charcoal effect.
On the Shading Layer, change the blend mode to “Multiply.” This allows the underlying layer to merge with the shading layer, creating some detail and some shading.
The multiply blend mode combines the two main layers
Change the Opacity
Change the Opacity of the Shading layer to a pleasing amount. This will add texture to the image and make it look a lot more like a pencil drawing with shading. For this example, I used 62% opacity for the shading layer. This allows the underlying layer to start showing through. Choose an amount that works for your image
Balance the shading and the pencil outlines
Improve the outer edges
Most pencil drawings have stronger edges emphasized. Because we are converting a photo to a drawing in Photoshop, the photograph has lots of details but the edges aren’t pronounced. To do this, we are going to work off the Lines layer (this is the top layer we created earlier).
Work on the Top Layer
Invert the image by pressing Ctrl I or Command I.
To get stronger edges we need to invert the image again
Once the image has been inverted, we need to go to Menu > Filter > Filter Gallery and chose “Glowing Edges.”
Use the Filter Gallery to Access the Glowing Edges Filter
With Glowing Edges chosen under the Stylize Folder, use this to create the lines. Don’t worry that they are color – we are just looking for stronger edges like an artist would draw.
Glowing Edges makes the image strong
Change the blending mode to “Multiply.”
Use the blend mode to enhance the edges
Convert it to black and white
This time, instead of adding another layer, we can convert this layer to black and white. Do this by going to Menu > Image > Adjustments > Black and White.
Convert this last layer to Black and White for finished effect
Any filter effects below other filter effects will not show up live until you move to a different layer (no live preview as you change).
The finished effect can be tweaked because each smart object can be re-edited
Because each layer is a Smart Object, you can go back and adjust each layer’s filter settings to your liking. Essentially, everything is non-destructive. You can even replace the original image and apply the same settings (but that is a more advanced topic).
The finished look
The Final Portrait
In conclusion, by following all these steps you get a lovely pencil drawing image with shading and definition all starting from a color portrait photo.
There are other ways to accomplish converting a photo to a drawing in Photoshop, but I like how this technique adds subtle shading. This is how a sketch artist would convert a photo into a pencil drawing sketch.
Try converting a photo to a drawing in Photoshop yourself at home, and share your results in the comments section!
The post How to Convert a Photo to a Drawing in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mark C Hughes.
The post Landscape Editing Techniques for Fine Art Photography Using Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
In this video from the photographer, Marvin Grey, you’ll learn some fine art landscape editing techniques in Lightroom that will give you the opportunity to experiment with your landscapes to give them a whole new look and feel.
While the results may not be for everyone, the techniques he uses will teach you some valuable Lightroom editing techniques that you can use in other editing scenarios.
And what better time to tackle and play with our catalogs of landscape photos and learn some new landscape editing techniques while we are at home!
Feel free to share your results with us in the comments below.
You may also like:
How to Use the Lightroom HSL Panel for Landscape Photo Editing
Create Stunning Photos in Lightroom
5 Tips For Mastering Contrast In Your Landscape Photos (video)
RAW Photo Editing in Lightroom: How to Make Your Photos Look Real to Life
Four Lightroom Tips to Enhance Your Landscape Photos
How to Edit Landscape and Nature Photos with the Lightroom Gradient Tool and Range Mask Features
Loving Landscapes
The post Landscape Editing Techniques for Fine Art Photography Using Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
