The digital era is here and photography has taken many strides into the future of artificial intelligence, thanks to camera lenses that beat human imagination. That is not all. There are many different brands to choose from such as Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus among others. But, does it mean everything you are going to buy should be automated and have Continue Reading
The post Top 5 Best Leica Digital Cameras appeared first on Photodoto.
The post Gear: AFIDUS ATL-200 Time-Lapse Camera Introduction appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
I don’t know how many of you have looked into long-term time lapse before now, but I’m renovating my house and I scoured the web for a solution that was simple to setup and use, and more economical than the ones I found.
Skip forward a few months and this is something we spotted at NAB this year!
An amazing little time lapse camera that is very big on features, but remains very economical on price – The AFIDUS ATL-200.
I wanted to write up an overview of this product for any of you that might be interested. A Macro Time Lapse of a plant growing, or your house being renovated, the possibilities are mostly limitless…
The camera was pointed out to me by my friend and filmmaker buddy, Lee Herbet. And then it went and won itself NAB Product of the Year! (Congrats!) To me, as a photographer first, what makes this little camera so appealing is its feature set.
(Full spec here)
I was looking around for a solution to capture my home renovation a few months back. While there are a handful of different systems on the market, for me, they were quite cost restrictive. Whereas, the ATL-200 comes in at $ 389.00, which is much easier on the bank account.
There are a couple of the system’s features that really appeal to me. One is the system timer, which means you can set it up so that it captures your time lapse during the day while the workmen are on-site. It doesn’t fill your card with all the overnight photos where nothing is happening.
The ATL200 has a macro mode, too. So it can do some really creative things (I’m thinking of things like watching little critters in a garden). Also, it’s weather resistant, so just sit it in the dirt and off you go! Alternatively, capture a plant growing, or that sort of thing!
One of the real highlights is that the camera takes regular batteries. A set of four AA batteries will last you 45 Days at the 1-minute interval, 80 days at the 5-minute interval (8 hours a day). This is really quite amazing and great for long term time lapse. No special batteries required, and you can use rechargeable batteries, of course.
While we don’t have our own video made in-house just yet, we’re looking forward to trying the ATL-200 camera on a project very soon! For such a feature set at this price, this could be a really great addition to your content creation toolbox.
Find out the full tech spec and details here.
The post Gear: AFIDUS ATL-200 Time-Lapse Camera Introduction appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The post Are Your Photos Safe in the Cloud? The Real Cost of Using these Services appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
From professionals to amateurs and hobbyists, to kids just getting started with their first camera, one issue remains constant: how to store photos. If you shoot with your mobile phone, you’ve likely encountered a “Low on storage space” error message at least once. If you use a desktop computer or laptop, there’s a good chance you’ve had to deal with ever-shrinking hard drive space due to an increasing abundance of photos. One option that seems ideal is to use the cloud-based options that have become so prevalent in recent years.
However, if you value data privacy, you might want to think twice before uploading your images to popular online services.
Some are free, but the hidden costs could far outweigh the benefits.
It’s difficult to come up with a perfect answer to the question of whether or not your photos are safe in the cloud because there are so many variables to consider.
I’m going to examine some of the more popular options for photographers. I’ll dive into their Privacy Statements and Terms of Service documents to see what they really do with your pictures.
Hopefully, this will give you the information you need to make an informed decision about where to store your photos.
Cloud storage can be a great option for your images, but make sure you know what you’re agreeing to when you upload your photos.
Originally part of the Google+ social platform, Google decoupled this service to operate as a standalone offering in May 2015. Some of its greatest benefits, which also help make it one of the most popular options for photographers, involve storage limits – or lack thereof.
Anyone with a Google account can upload unlimited JPEG files up to 16-megapixels in size, and unlimited videos up to 1080p in resolution.
Google automatically analyzes your photos for people, objects, and locations that you can search for. There are also options such as shared albums and access from a variety of devices that make the service even more attractive. Indeed, Google Photos seems like a no-brainer, and there is a lot to like about it no matter what type of photographer you are. It’s also the default option on most Android phones, so you might be using it unawares.
Google’s algorithms can automatically recognize people, objects, and even pets.
Things start to get a little murky when you dig deeper, though. Google’s Terms of Service is lengthy, but one tidbit that’s worth pondering has to do with the rights you grant to Google when you upload images to Google Photos or store any other data in your Google account:
You give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.
This means that Google can use any pictures you upload to Google Photos for, among other things, promoting their services and developing new ones.
Google goes on to say that their software analyzes your data, including photos and email, to provide you “tailored advertising” in addition to checking files for viruses and scanning emails for spam.
Don’t be surprised if you upload pictures like this to Google Photos and then start seeing ads for pet stores online.
This gives me pause as a photographer. On the one hand, it’s nice knowing that all my images are automatically scanned and analyzed by Google’s artificial intelligence algorithms. It makes it easier to organize, sort, and search for pictures. But all that information is also being used to tweak the ads I see in my daily online browsing. By providing photographers with free photo storage, Google is also providing itself with billions of data points to help send advertisements to everyone who is using their storage.
Google is serious about privacy, and it works hard to limit the ways in which your data is shared with other companies. Its Privacy Policy is pretty clear on how they protect your data from bad actors, but rest assured Google is definitely getting plenty of data from your photos that they use internally. And don’t be surprised if you take photos of your new sneakers, upload them to Google Photos, and then start seeing ads for Nike and Reebok when you surf the web. If that’s fine with you, then go ahead and use Google Photos and enjoy the benefits that come with it.
The sharing options in Google Photos make it easy to share pictures with family and friends.
While not exactly known for social sharing, Apple Photos is used by so many people simply because it’s the default option on most Apple devices, including iPhones. Many people store at least some of their photo library using Apple’s cloud-based offering, even if it’s just to sync with their other devices and not store permanently. In terms of data-mining and analysis, Apple takes a much more locked-down approach than Google, which they explain in their Privacy Policy as well as their Approach to Privacy.
Apple Photos is great for storing snapshots from your iPhone and can be used for DSLR images too.
Apple doesn’t make money from advertising, and all the analysis of your photos is performed on your phone and not in the Cloud, so Apple doesn’t really know what’s in your photos at all.
Whether you’re taking a photo, asking Siri a question, or getting directions, you can do it knowing that Apple doesn’t gather your personal information to sell to advertisers or other organizations.
The Memories and Sharing Suggestions features in the Photos app use on-device intelligence to scan your photos and organize them by faces and places. This photo data is shared between your devices with iCloud Photos enabled.
The downside of Apple Photos is that, unlike Google and other vendors, the free storage option is so minimal it’s almost nonexistent. Everyone with an iCloud account, which you need to use most Apple devices, gets 5GB of storage space for everything, including photos, documents, and other data. That’s not much, and it fills up quickly! Additional storage options are cheap, such as 99 cents/month for 50GB, but that’s a far cry from Google’s unlimited free option.
Apple Photos is convenient and secure, but you’ll run out of room real fast on the free tier.
Like Google, Apple is serious about the privacy of your data, but they go a step further in that Apple doesn’t even know what’s in your photo library. They don’t scan or analyze your images in the Cloud, especially not for training their Artificial Intelligence algorithms or selling advertising. However, the tradeoff is that you will run out of room really fast unless you don’t mind spending money on storage space.
If you pay for Amazon Prime, you automatically have access to unlimited storage of full-resolution photos, plus 5GB of video storage. This can be a huge benefit to photographers of all stripes who want a secure place to store their pictures without worrying about intrusive advertising and data analytics. Amazon also has apps available for desktop and mobile that let you automatically upload your pictures.
If you pay for Amazon Prime, you have unlimited secure storage for photos.
When you upload photos to your Amazon account, they are automatically analyzed for faces, locations, and objects. This can be disabled, but Amazon clearly states that this data is only used for organizing your photos and not given to third parties.
Amazon doesn’t share your photos or any of the data derived from our image recognition features. Labels and data are only used to help you better organize and find photos in your collection.
There are other benefits to using Amazon Prime Photos as well, such as easy-to-use methods of ordering prints and creating albums that can be shared with others. However, as a photographer, you need to know that the Terms of Use specifically forbid you from using Amazon Prime Photos in a commercial capacity:
You may not use the Services to store, transfer, or distribute content of or on behalf of third parties, to operate your own file storage application or service, to operate a photography business or other commercial service, or to resell any part of the Services.
Amazon Prime Photos offers unlimited storage space, but their Terms of Use contains some notable restrictions.
Amazon doesn’t make any money off your photos or the metadata contained in your photos, and the security of Amazon’s data centers is as good as anything. If you already pay for Amazon Prime, this option is certainly worth exploring. However, you might want to investigate some of the automatic analysis options to make sure it’s not scanning your images in a way you don’t want.
Facebook owns Instagram and applies the same data policies to both platforms, so what applies to one also applies to the other. It’s so common to take photos and upload them to Facebook and Instagram that, for many people, these have become their de facto storage option for images. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Facebook lets you easily share your pictures and also analyzes them for people and places that can be useful when sorting through your images.
Facebook and Instagram are great for sharing photos. However, any data that can possibly be gleaned from them will likely be used for advertising purposes.
Since these platforms are free, and used by so many people around the world, it can be hugely beneficial for photographers or casual shooters to store their photos in Mark Zuckerberg’s cloud. Things start to get a little hazy when you start to dig through Facebook’s Data Policy.
We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our Products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content, and message or communicate with others. This can include…the location of a photo or the date a file was created. Our systems automatically process content and communications you and others provide to analyze context and what’s in them.
That’s just the beginning.
The full Data Policy describes dozens of ways in which Facebook scrapes through your photos and the rest of your data. The company makes money from advertising, and it’s clear that they will analyze and evaluate every possible data point in your photos as much as it can to benefit itself.
Facebook won’t share your personal information with advertisers, but upload photos like this and you’ll likely start seeing ads for baby products.
This information is primarily used for advertising and helps Facebook customize the ads and other content you see across its services. However, the degree to which Facebook lets third-parties have access to your information is uncertain. Many recent scandals, such as the Cambridge Analytica data breach, have shown that Facebook clearly has some issues regarding data privacy. However, in recent months, the company has taken a much more aggressive stance on privacy – at least publicly.
If privacy and security are your main concerns, I would recommend staying away from Facebook for a lot of photo storage. While things might change in the future, for now, it’s best to assume that your photos are not going to have the same level of privacy as other platforms. You also need to double-check your account settings to make sure that only the people you want to see your photos can view them.
With its recent acquisition by SmugMug, Flickr has seen a resurgence among photographers. Despite having a limit of 1000 photos for the free tier, it can be a good option if you value quality over quantity. The site has a freemium business model, which means that you can use the basic version for free but pay for more features if you want them. The free tier is supported in part by those who pay for the Pro version, but like a lot of other sites, advertising supports it.
Flickr collects a great deal of information about you and your photos, and its Privacy Policy is certainly worth a look if you want to use the site. They log and store information that you provide them when you sign up for an account, but also a great deal of information in the background too.
We collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our Services, including the hardware model, operating system and version, screen resolution, color and depth, device identifiers and mobile network information.
When you upload a photo with geographical data (i.e. from a mobile device) or manually geotag your photo, we collect the location of that photo. With your consent, we collect information about your location if you take a photo within the Flickr mobile application to add to your photo’s metadata.
Like other platforms, Flickr will automatically analyze your photos using its own artificial intelligence.
Flickr also stores and analyzes EXIF data in your pictures such as camera model, focal length, shutter speed, and more. Like Google, they also use image-recognition technology to automatically analyze and tag your photos. This helps in searching through your images, but it can feel a little Orwellian too.
Advertisers get a lot of data from Flickr, and there’s not much you can do to control it. Flickr suggests that you use on-device options such as “Limit Ad Tracking” features on your mobile phone, but that has nothing to do with the wealth of information the company is getting from your photos. Whether you like it or not, your images on Flickr are being used to help Flickr maintain and grow its business.
One interesting element of Flickr that most other platforms don’t have is the ability to change the license on your photos. While this won’t affect privacy or data security settings, it is a good way to help make sure others use your images in a way that you want.
Flickr has a better track record compared to Facebook, but just know that your photos will certainly be analyzed for advertising purposes.
Flickr is more widely used for artistic and creative photos as opposed to family, child, and friend photos.
As one of the pioneers in mass storage solutions for consumers, Dropbox has become a good option for photographers who want to store and even share their images. Their free option only gives you 2GB of storage, but that’s enough for hundreds or even thousands of photos, depending on the resolution and size. They make money from selling a service, not from advertising, and as a result, your images are about as close to secure and private as you will ever find.
Dropbox offers a range of benefits for privacy-focused photographers.
Their Privacy Policy states that Dropbox collects some basic information such as file size, time/date stamps, and device information but not much more. They don’t really care what files you store on Dropbox so long as they’re not illegal. (And like other services, they have to comply with court orders to hand over files when necessary.)
We collect and use the personal data described above in order to provide you with the Services in a reliable and secure manner. We also collect and use personal data for our legitimate business needs. To the extent we process your personal data for other purposes, we ask for your consent in advance or require that our partners obtain such consent.
We may share information as discussed below, but we won’t sell it to advertisers or other third parties. Dropbox uses certain trusted third parties (for example, providers of customer support and IT services) to help us provide, improve, protect, and promote our Services. These third parties will access your information only to perform tasks on our behalf in compliance with this Privacy Policy, and we’ll remain responsible for their handling of your information per our instructions.
Nope. When it comes to data security, Dropbox is one of the best in the business. You can rest assured that nothing in, or about, your photos will be analyzed, tracked, or given to advertisers or other third-parties. You have to pay to move beyond the 2GB free tier, but it’s money well spent if you value data privacy and security.
Dropbox comes with a price if you want more than 2GB, but it can be well worth it depending on your needs.
There’s never going to be a one-size-fits-all option when it comes to cloud storage. Whatever option you choose, if you do want to store your images online, it’s a good idea to read through the relevant privacy and data policies to make sure your images aren’t being used in a way that you don’t want. There are plenty of options I didn’t even touch on here, and if you have a bit of time and technical acumen, you can even create your own cloud storage options using computer hardware at home.
All cloud-based services have benefits and drawbacks. Make sure you find one that fits what you need.
Make sure to do your due diligence when choosing a cloud service provider. If a free option catches your eye, you might want to dig a little deeper to find out just why it’s free and what they are doing with your photos. Also, if you value security and privacy, it might be worth it to spend some money on a solution that really does work for you.
The post Are Your Photos Safe in the Cloud? The Real Cost of Using these Services appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
The post How to do Abstract Watercolor Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
Less about what it is, more about how it makes you feel is this “watercolors” shot, “Visual Jazz.” © Rick Ohnsman
When you’re ready to make the transition from “snapshooter” to a serious photographer, make photographs rather than simply take pictures, then you’re also ready to begin thinking like an artist. No longer should you snap a photo to simply record a representation of what you saw. You will want to begin to think about how to craft your image so that it tells a story, captures the emotion, and involves the viewer in a way that communicates to them. While the subject and the location still matter, it is also important to consider “how does my image make the viewer feel?”
A Wikipedia article on the famous photographer, Minor White, (July 9, 1908 – June 24, 1976) describes him this way – “An American photographer, theoretician, critic, and educator. He combined an intense interest in how people viewed and understood photographs with a personal vision that was guided by a variety of spiritual and intellectual philosophies.”
I especially like this quote from White –
“One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” – Minor White
Water ripple reflections are sometimes distorted, making interesting abstracts. © Rick Ohnsman
The use of the term watercolors in this article is not to describe how you might photograph a watercolor painting nor is it about how to use digital tools and techniques to emulate a watercolor look with your photograph. Instead, we explore how you can learn to see, and then photograph the interplay of light and water to make interesting, and often abstract, images. Such images will require you to look harder, quietly observe, study and then decide how you will use your camera to capture the image. You will want to think about how the scene makes you feel and how you will communicate that to your viewer.
A real benefit of making these kinds of photos is – unlike joining the dozens of photographers who might line up at sunrise at that iconic location and all snap away, essentially all making the same shot – these kinds of images will be uniquely yours.
Every image will be different. In most cases, you couldn’t replicate the shot even if you tried.
There’s much satisfaction in crafting something that is uniquely your vision and creation.
Yes, it’s a wave, but this photo is all about the patterns, colors, and reflections in the sea and surf. © Rick Ohnsman
You may have heard the origin of the word “photography,” based on the Greek words “phos” for light and “graphé” meaning drawing. Thus, photography is ‘”drawing with light.”
The light that enters our camera lens is either direct (emitted from a source like the sun, or an artificial light source), or reflected (light bouncing off an object and into our lens). We study the effect of light, and it’s absence, and use it to define the objects we photograph.
Now add water into the scene. Water can also reflect the light (and the various colors comprising it). It can also refract the light – bending, altering, and even splitting it into its component colors.
Light waves are changed as they pass from a less-dense material like air to a more-dense medium like water. Understanding the physics behind how this works isn’t important. What you as a photographer, a trained observer, and an artist, want to do is learn how to watch for and then capture the interplay of light and water.
Water exists in all three forms in this shot; liquid, solid, and gas. © Rick Ohnsman
Okay, hang on, just a little more physics here.
Water exists in three states:
How light behaves when it is reflected off the water in these states or refracted through them will become part of your observation training as photographer and artist.
A long exposure blurs the liquid water, but the ice on the rocks is still, a way to display the static and dynamic qualities of water. © Rick Ohnsman
A long exposure blurs the water of Avalanche Falls in the Flume Gorge of New Hampshire. © Rick Ohnsman
There are always photos to be taken as this cellphone shot of water cascading down the windshield during a trip through the carwash demonstrates. © Rick Ohnsman
Include the duck for a touch of reality, use the reflection only, or catch a rippled reflection for an abstract, there are many creative possibilities. © Rick Ohnsman
Water dripping down the wall of a building makes for a “realistic-abstract.” © Rick Ohnsman
Something else water can do is move. From massive ocean waves, flowing rivers, erupting geysers, human-made fountains, tiny dripping drops, swirling fog and mist, snow and rain, in many forms water moves.
Our cameras can freeze that motion with high shutter speeds or flash or blur it with long exposures. Water and how it behaves gives us tremendous opportunities for creativity with our cameras.
Combining still objects in the photo which don’t move, (think a rocky coastline), with water that does (like the waves) in a long exposure, and you create an exciting image that displays both static and dynamic elements.
There’s the realism of the water lily, but over in the corner of the shot… © Rick Ohnsman
There are no rules when it comes to how you choose to depict water in your photo. It might be quite literal like an image of a waterfall. It could play a “supporting role,” adding story and color to an image. Or it could be about how the light interacts with the water; liquid, solid, or gas. Alternatively, maybe it’s totally abstract – all about the shape, form, line, and color with no concern whatsoever to what the subject might be.
The objective here is to become a “student of light,” observing how light and water interact to create interesting scenes to photograph.
… a complete abstract. © Rick Ohnsman
The rest of this article will be about the photos. Study how I made each one and the way water, in its various forms, is used in combination with the light to make the image. I have captioned the photos with additional information about them. See what you can learn and then go make your own unique images.
Water vapor, or what we call fog, create effects with the light. © Rick Ohnsman
Ice is water in solid form. It reflects, refracts, and alters the light while taking on fantastic forms. © Rick Ohnsman
Reflections on the wet sand make great watercolors. © Rick Ohnsman
It might come in a bottle, but sparkling water is a great way to add bubbles to your watercolors. © Rick Ohnsman
Even where watercolors may not be the main subject, they can play a strong supporting role. © Rick Ohnsman
The post How to do Abstract Watercolor Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
The post How to Use a Photography Ring Light in Unconventional Ways appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.
With a ton of options on the market, adding a ring light to your kit has never been cheaper.
Continuous photography ring lights seem to be everywhere nowadays. There are dozens of offerings from dozens of companies that you can choose from, and they are popular with photographers, make-up artists, and videographers. The main use of a ring light is on-axis lighting for an even, somewhat flat exposure.
However, what do you do if you don’t like that effect or the distinctive ring-shaped catchlight for that matter? Because these lights are continuous, and because of their size, they have more uses than ring flashes of the past. If you don’t like the straight-on effect, you don’t have to use a ring light in that way.
In normal use, you would place the light directly in front of your subject and shoot through the aperture of the light.
This article demonstrates six uses of a continuous ring light that isn’t their intended use. It will also (hopefully) show you that these relatively cheap and effective lights are useful to have for any photographer in the studio.
While not to the taste of many photographers, ring lights can be used to create bold and vibrant images.
If you’re unfamiliar, a ring light is a circular, ring-shaped light with a large aperture designed to be placed directly in front of a subject. You then take your images by positioning your camera through the aperture of the ring.
Traditional ring flashes had the light attached to the camera. This front (on-axis) lighting provides an evenly lit image. This is one of those things that you either love or hate, but photographers who love it tend to really love it.
With the continuous versions of these lights, you have a wealth of options with how to use a ring light. Because the light is always on, you can position it anywhere you want. With a lot of the options on the market, this gives you a high-powered, lightweight and versatile continuous light for around $ 100.
Because of the brightness of a continuous ring light, your subject’s pupils will be constricted, allowing you to see more of the color in their eyes.
Here’s a bonus if you’ve never used continuous lights before. Because the output is constant, your portrait subject’s pupils get constricted. This means you will see more of the color of their eyes in your photos.
Below are five examples of ways you can use a continuous ring light to great effect without ever using it as a ring light.
Placed at a 45-degree angle and angled downwards, these ring lights work well as normal light source.
Despite its circular shape, ring lights are great when used as a normal light. Raise the light and angle it towards your subject to distort the effect the shape of the light has, and you can use it as a small softbox. You’re not limited to how you can light your subject this way, but I’ve found that all of the basic lighting patterns work well.
You are not limited to the shape of the ring. Use flags to block off portions of the light to shape it however you want.
If you have more than one ring light, you can use them together to create just about any two-light setup that you can imagine. If the ones you have have an adjustable output, managing your key to fill ratios should be pretty easy.
Having your subject pose with the light itself can create some interesting and fun portraits. It can also help to lighten the mood during a session.
If you have an LED ring light, they don’t get very hot. Feel free to have your subject pose with the light itself for some very different images. The results will vary with ring lights of different sizes, and you have to worry about the plug and the cables, but it’s still a fun technique. Though you probably won’t use it very often thanks to its tendency towards uplighting.
Modern ring lights are getting quite powerful and it is more than possible to use them as fill lighting in conjunction with studio flash.
You can mix any continuous light with studio flashes for some interesting effects. By using a strobe as your key light, you can then bring a ring light in for some gentle fill.
A couple of things that you will want to keep in mind is that your strobes are probably way more powerful than your ring light, so set the power accordingly. Also, you will probably want to have a ring light with an adjustable color temperature if you are going to be mixing light sources.
You could also reverse this and use the ring light as key and flash as fill. As before, make sure the power on your strobes goes down that far before committing to this.
Putting the light behind your subject creates an interesting tool for composition. Also, it may just be me, but I love that rim light that it is producing.
In its normal use, I am a fan of creating a composition with the actual ring light framing the subject. I just like it for whatever reason. However, you are not limited to that. You can place the ring light anywhere in your frame for some cool effects. Try placing one behind your subject for a halo effect, or placing one at an angle just inside your frame for a curved band of light running through the composition.
When you’re mixing a ring light with studio flash, it opens the door to some interesting techniques like dragging the shutter. Here, flash is acting as fill and the shutter speed is set to 1/15th of a second.
This is similar to using the ring light as ambient fill, but if you use your strobe normally, you can expose for the high-powered strobe and the low-powered ring light by dragging the shutter.
This technique is not for everyone, but it can produce some interesting results.
A little warning: if you’re a technically-minded photographer, you’re probably going to hate this technique, as the results tend to be a little soft. However, it can be used for some striking results. If you do like it, you still have to be careful with controlling the movement of your camera.
You do have to manage any movement in your camera while using this technique. If in doubt, use a tripod.
Because the power output on your flash is not in any way controlled by shutter speed, you can set your shutter speed as slow as you need to make this work. However, you may want to use a tripod for really slow shutter speeds. This technique can provide some cool effects in its own right, but no two attempts are going to be the same.
There you have it. That’s six ways that you can use a continuous ring light without ever having to use it as a ring light. Considering how cheap these things are, they are a very useful tool for any photographer who wants to get into off-camera lighting but for some reason is put off by flash.
Do you have other ways that you use a ring light? Please share with us in the comments below.
The post How to Use a Photography Ring Light in Unconventional Ways appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.
The post 8 Rules for the Creative Life appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.
The biggest stumbling block for many photographers is not knowing how to be creative. You have some natural talent but never seem to break out and become a satisfied creative person. Thankfully, some rules govern a happy and productive creative life. These rules help you to get control and live out your creativity – even with a busy work schedule, and without sacrificing valuable time with your family.
Here are eight of those rules that will help you thrive as a creative photographer.
Kids have creativity mastered. They may not be very good yet, but they do it all the time. Their life is ordered around exploration and little creative projects. Between the new skills they learn, and the volume of their output, their natural ability increases quickly.
Maybe you’ve got a natural eye for photography, but that’s not enough. You’ll hit a wall some day and not know how to overcome it.
Even with a good eye already, you should keep learning more about what makes for a good photograph. Go ahead and put your own creative spin on what you’re learning. When you work hard and understand what makes your photography good, you’ll always have ideas and principles to pull from, even when you’re completely uninspired. At the very least, you’ll be able to keep working until truly creative ideas strike you.
Don’t rely on natural talent. Understand how photography works, and exercise your creativity so that you can turn it on whenever you need it.
Successful creative people never stop working. They are not lazy. They rise to the top because of how hard they work.
But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t sleep or never step back from your creative endeavors. Successful creative people rest in order to recharge and come back to their work even stronger.
When you think about it, you’re always doing something with your time (even if it’s just scrolling social media). But the best creative people are intentional and constructive with their time. If you’re always doing something anyway, then why not prioritize something creative?
Many people think they lack time to devote to their photography. You have time, but you’re choosing to spend it on other things. Write down exactly what you do all day. You’ll be shocked at how much time you waste. Don’t waste your time, do photography instead.
Get up one hour earlier. Study and practice photography before your day even begins. You’ll be cheating time by using what you usually would have slept away.
Think about where you could be in a year if you devote one hour to photography every day. Henri Cartier-Bresson says that your first 10,000 photos are your worst. If that’s true, then hurry up and get them behind you. You only need to take about 28 pictures a day over a year.
But working hard does not mean that you need to neglect your family in the process. A workaholic career can destroy your family, and this is not healthy for them or you. Many traveling photographers abandon their families in the name of doing something meaningful with their work. However, what good is their work to the world if their own family suffers for it?
Work, work, work. Get up one hour earlier to do it, but guard your family from abuse of work.
I know this photo is grainy and a little soft. It’s okay with me because I’ve acquired a taste for imperfect black and white photos (and Rembrandt lighting).
Exploration is a creativity generator. So explore your craft, other peoples craft, and the whole world around you.
If your craft is portraiture then you need to explore portraiture. But you should also explore other types of photography (photojournalism, macro, wildlife, etc.). You’ll discover interesting ways to improve your portraiture as you study other forms of photography.
Take your learning beyond photography. Study all sorts of creative disciplines (writing, painting, sculpting, or architecture). You don’t have to learn to do these things, just learn about them.
Read memoirs and biographies of creative people too. See what a successful creative life looks like. And learn from the mistakes of tragic lives.
Part of creativity is bringing familiar things together in new ways. The more you explore, the more you have to bring together.
Exploration leads to endless creative possibilities.
As you learn, work and explore, you’re going to need a way to capture the creative ideas that keep coming into your mind. They light up brightly but disappear quickly. You need to capture those ideas like fireflies in a jar.
Rather than jumping from idea to idea without ever completing anything, carry a notepad or recording device to capture your ideas. Record your idea and then get back to the project you’re working on. Being single-minded is far better than scattering your mind across many half-finished projects. Those half-finished projects will likely become never-finished projects.
Sift through your ideas later when you need something new to work on. You’ll find that many of those ideas weren’t worth pursuing. Moreover, you’ll realize that there were some gems that you had completely forgotten about.
You’ll end up with a lot of ideas, let the best ones rise to the top over time.
While watching my son build Lego, I noticed the gesture expressed in his toes. Part of exploration is just watching what is going on around you.
Some people prefer to work as a team, others prefer to work on their own. Even if you prefer to pursue your craft on your own, you should still gather with other photographers.
You should especially gather with ones who photograph different subject matter than you. The friendship and feedback will encourage you and help you to avoid becoming narrow and stagnant.
It can get very lonely being the only creative person you know, especially if your spouse doesn’t share your drive for creativity. Before you know it, you’re like an isolated island.
Build bridges to the other creative people around you.
It’s better to build bridges than it is to burn them.
All it takes is one big emotional outburst to ruin your career as a creative person. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or work in a team, nobody wants to put up with your anger or dramatic outbursts. Treat everyone around you with respect. Even go as far as to treat them as more important than yourself. Everyone will love working with you.
If you do let your emotions get the best of you, be quick to make amends.
Excessive negative emotion stifles your creativity. Be kind to yourself as well and get help dealing with your stress.
In a world of difficult people, be the easy person to work with.
Gathering with other creative people.
It would be natural to assume that if you’re generous with your talent, time and resources that people will just take advantage of you. That might happen. But soon enough your generosity will align with people who will be forever grateful for it.
I still remember those who went out of their way to help me when I first started out. They could have protected themselves from the new photographer, wishing that he would fail and disappear. Instead, they helped me. Now, I help other photographers, even if they seem like my direct competitors.
It seems counter-intuitive, but you’ll help yourself more when you help others first. At times, focusing on another person’s creativity may help you more than focusing on your own.
Be the first in a fellowship of creative people helping each other to get better, and better, and better.
My daughter wanted to make her own birthday cake. We let her.
You need to have periods of time when you are uninterrupted. The last thing you need when you’re brainstorming ways to complete a creative project is a phone constantly alerting you to something else.
Practice turning your phone off for a couple of hours at a time – maybe even a whole day. It’s liberating to think, play, and be creative without the distraction.
While I was driving back from a 3-hour creative session this morning, I saw a person checking their phone while they waited at a red light. I had a lot on my mind and couldn’t fathom adding a phone to the mix. Now I know that looking at my phone means that whatever creative ideas were on my mind will vanish. So I only look at it a couple of times a day.
We easily become addicted to our digital technology, and a “fear of missing out” keeps us constantly checking in. I’ve developed a greater satisfaction in my creativity and a greater fear of losing my creative drive in the moment. My phone is off most of the time.
You don’t want to trade your creativity for endless digital chatter. Phones, tablets, and computers are useful. But they have a way of talking over.
Turn your phone off and switch your creative mind on.
When you follow these eight rules, your creativity will be able to thrive.
You’ll have distraction-free time to learn, work, and explore.
You’ll find yourself encouraged by the other creative people in your life.
Moreover, you’ll always be growing and so will your creativity.
Do you have other tips for your creative life? Please share them with us in the comments below.
The post 8 Rules for the Creative Life appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.
The post How I Found Inspiration Using a Telezoom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Christian Hoiberg.
I’ll admit something to you – something that I haven’t really talked about with too many. Something that might sound strange coming from someone who makes a living from photography…
I’ve had close to zero inspiration for doing landscape photography for several months – despite being out in the field most of the winter season.
There are many reasons why I’ve lacked inspiration, but most of them come back to the urge to creating something different, which I keep asking myself is possible at all. Has it all been done already? Aren’t we all in one way or another influenced by the photographers we admire? For years, my work has focused on wide-angle landscape photography. While I still enjoy it, I’ve become more fascinated with the intimate views offered through the use of a telezoom. This is how my inspiration blossomed again.
One of the great things about using ultra wide-angle lenses is that it’s relatively easy to get a decent shot. Find a foreground, get close to it, smack on a filter or two and, hello, nice image. It might not be portfolio-worthy right out of the box, but it will certainly impress your friends and family.
Working with a telezoom is quite different, though. Simply zooming in on something isn’t going to create an interesting shot. You need to find that special something hiding within the grand landscape. Also, you’re even more dependent on having the right light and weather conditions.
When I first picked up a telezoom many years ago, the fact that it forced me to slow down was one of the best benefits. It changed my approach to photography and the world in many ways. Prior to that moment, I’d go out photographing but not really do much observing.
That’s different now.
In fact, I often do more observing than photographing.
I quite often return home from outings without the camera leaving my backpack.
It’s not just about being out there taking as many images as possible. It’s about enjoying the time you spend out there. This is something that came back to me again when, late last year, I started playing more with my Fuji 100-400mm again.
Well, I’m not sure if simply zooming in is going to help create more unique work, but I think that, in many cases, it’s possible to show well-known scenes in an entirely new light. Up until now, “trophy hunting” has typically taken place in wide-angle landscapes. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the overall landscape doesn’t need to be stunning when working with a telezoom. You can get stunning images anywhere you look.
The type of images captured at a focal length of, for example, 400mm are often what I call “no-name landscapes.” What I mean by this is that it doesn’t matter exactly where you take that shot; it’s simply beautiful, and you can just enjoy the image.
When I’m guiding photography workshops, I often notice that many of the participants tend to stick with one lens, regardless of what we’re photographing and what the weather is like. This is despite the fact that they often have a wide selection of lenses to choose from in their backpack.
Now, I’ve been there, and I’m willing to bet that you’ve been there too. The reason is that we tend to have a favorite lens and quickly forget about all the others. My go-to lens for many years was the Nikon 16-35mm. Looking back at it now, I know that I missed a lot of great shots because I had taught myself to view the world within that focal length.
Mixing it up and taking out the telezoom forces you to break that bad habit and view the world at an unfixed focal length. When I’m standing at a location today, I’m continually analyzing my surroundings looking for both wide-angle and telezoom images.
Maybe I’m just rambling and making no sense. I ultimately believe that any artist is free to do whatever they want with their work. Who am I to tell someone what to do or not to do? The only thing I know for sure is that focusing more on working with a long focal length gave me a much-needed boost of inspiration and has led to me now enjoying working on several new and interesting projects.
Have you been getting into taking photos with a telezoom? We’d love you to share them with the dPS community in the comments section below.
The post How I Found Inspiration Using a Telezoom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Christian Hoiberg.
The post An Easy Hack for Shooting into the Sun and Processing the Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Adam Welch.
Whether you’re shooting landscapes, street photography, outdoor portraits, or just making a photo of your cat lounging in the window, a great many photos have one thing in common – sunlight. Yes, that big burning ball of fire in the sky can either ruin your photos or make them memorable. Some photographers enjoy the look of the sun shining brightly in the sky with radiant starbursts and flare while others do not. However you happen to feel about it, you will often find it necessary to shoot directly into bright sunlight.
I’m going to show you an easy way to deal with the invasive (yet often rewarding) circumstances of making a photograph when the sun is burning bright directly towards your camera. All this is done without the need for filters and is easily accomplished with some simple work in Photoshop.
Warning: Remember friends, the techniques shown here are intended to help you work in conditions faced when shooting into the sun as it relates to commonly encountered photographic conditions. Prolonged exposures aimed at the sun may damage your camera and purposefully staring directly into the sun will permanently damage your eyes.
First things first. You will need at least two photos of the same scene but shot with different exposures. Keep in mind that two photos are the MINIMUM required; one for the foreground elements and one for the desired brightness of the sun. Depending on the complexity and contrast of your scene, it is a good idea (as I’ve done here) to have additional exposures to help your final image look realistic.
If you prefer a prominent “starburst” effect for the sun, it’s a good idea to use a relatively small aperture (large f-number) for at least one of your images. Since we’ll be blending multiple photos together, it is crucial that each of them align as closely as possible. So, of course, using a stable tripod is integral to the outcome of your photograph. I know, I know…you’ve heard it a thousand times.
Before we move on to how to actually blend our images together, I want to tell you about an incredibly neat trick to help you reduce lens flare and get a much cleaner result when shooting directly towards the sun. You might have noticed one of my images has a big fat thumb right in the middle of the frame? This is not by accident.
What this allows us to do is block out the most direct light rays so that we have a good spot to blend in the sun from our drastically underexposed photo. Not only that, but it helps to greatly reduce (not always eliminate) the lens flare artifacts which commonly rear their head in these types of photos. It will all make sense in just a second.
As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, the actual acquisition of the photos you need is a very simple operation. The magic lies in how we handle those images in Photoshop. We can bring our images directly into Photoshop, or as I prefer, work with them first in Lightroom and then kick them over to Photoshop as layers. This saves time and makes things much easier, especially if working in Photoshop is new to you. Make sure you don’t crop any of the photos!
To open up your images as layers in Photoshop from Lightroom, make sure all of your photos are selected and then right-click on any images. Select ‘Edit In’ and then choose ‘Open as Layers in Photoshop.’
Once Photoshop launches, you will see all of your photos presented as layers in the Layers Panel.
Arrange the layers by dragging and dropping them into place. Sort the layers where the sun blocked with your thumb at the top. Proceed downward by order of decreased brightness with the darkest image at the very bottom.
Even though we’ve done our best to make sure all of our photos are composed identically, it’s a good practice to allow Photoshop to help out with aligning the layers. That way, they fit as closely as possible to avoid misalignment. Doing this is a snap (Photoshop humor) using ‘Auto-Align Layers.’ Make sure all of your layers are selected either by Ctl+click or Cmd+click (Mac).
If you have a large number of layers, a quicker way to select them all would be to highlight the top layer and then Shift+click the bottom layer (or vice versa). Once all your layers are selected, select ‘Edit’ and then ‘Auto-Align Layers.’
Leave the alignment projection set to ‘Auto.’
After Photoshop is finished cooking up those layers into better alignment, you might notice a small perimeter border around your image. This is due to Photoshop aligning the layers. Don’t worry; you can crop it out later.
You’ll need to incorporate layer masks so that you can paint in and out our layers as you go. Select each layer and add a mask by clicking the layer mask icon. There’s no need to apply a mask to the bottom-most layer in the stack.
For a refresher course on working with layer masks check out this article by Jim Hamel.
Now that we have masks added to all of our layers, it’s time to start blending. We’ll start with the sky and remove the obvious digit from the photo. Since the layer mask is set to white, make sure you are painting with black. If you get confused, remember the old adage “black conceals, white reveals.”
Even working with this small number of layer masks can get somewhat unwieldy. I recommend you merge each layer with the next after you’ve finished blending each portion of your photo.
To merge your completed layers, simply highlight them and use keyboard shortcut Ctl+E (Cmd+E for Mac). This helps avoid any conflicts with your masking. Blend your layers as needed based on your particular photos.
After each layer merge, be sure to add a layer mask to the resulting layer.
Eventually, you should have two layers remaining.
It’s here where things can get a little tricky because you will likely be dealing with blending your starbursts with a darker surrounding sky. Just take your time. It’s a good idea to set your brush to a low flow rate of 10-15 and your opacity to around 15 to start. Then gradually build up the effect. A soft brush is definitely required here.
And ta-dah!
With just a little bit of blending, we’ve successfully combined our four images of the sunset. Before leaving Photoshop, I went ahead and removed those few flakes of dust as well as the remaining lens flare artifacts that managed to escape my thumb. After you save your changes and close Photoshop, the newly blended photo will be thrown back to Lightroom for cropping and some final tweaking.
There are multiple ways to work around shooting directly into the sun to get great photos. Most involve various filters and careful positioning.
With a little basic knowledge of Photoshop, you can forgo the extra equipment and achieve results which are arguably as good or better than more traditional photographic methods.
This is especially helpful if you happen to be using a camera that sports less than spectacular dynamic range. Sure, you shouldn’t view this technique as a replacement for practicing solid photography techniques, but instead, it provides a way for us to easily bring home the photo we want at the end of the day.
Not too comfortable with Photoshop? We’ve got you covered!
Make sure to check out some of the great resources here at Digital Photography School which will teach you all you could ever wish to know about working with layers, blend modes and masking in Photoshop.
We’d love to see the images you create from this tutorial. Please share with us and the dPS community in the comments below!
The post An Easy Hack for Shooting into the Sun and Processing the Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Adam Welch.
The post No Filter? No Problem! 3 Simple Methods to Fix Your Sky in Post-Production appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nils Heininger.
Quite often, we look at an amazing scene, take out our camera, make a snap, and become disappointed. We are not able to capture what we saw. Sometimes it depends on the perspective and composition. Other times it is an issue of dynamic range. When we are working under a bright sky, the latter is a problem.
Dynamic range means the range of light, in which we can still see detail. It is everything between pitch-black and dazzling-white. The human eye has a very wide dynamic range. For us, it is not a problem to see all the detail in the sky, while also recognizing every rock on a mountain.
Our camera, however, has to find a compromise. It either gets the detail of the rocks and a blown-out (white) sky in the background, or it gets the detail in the sky, but just the dark silhouette of the mountain. Sometimes you want that effect, and sometimes it is merely disappointing.
If you are really into landscape photography, you might consider getting a graduated neutral-density filter. You can put the filter in front of your lens and darken part of the image while leaving the rest untouched. There are systems for square filters, which you fix on using an adapter in front of your lens. You can also get screw-on filters, which you fix directly onto your lens. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and there are many options for ND-grad filters.
If you are just occasionally shooting landscapes, or you don’t want to invest too much money at the moment, you can fix the images in post-production.
Here are three different ways you can fix your sky in Lightroom or Photoshop.
Fixing something in post-production does not mean that you can be lazy while shooting. When you take your image, you have to make sure that you get the necessary detail and find a good exposure. I always recommend shooting in RAW format as it saves far more detail than .jpg files do.
Lightroom’s graduated filter changes the exposure of a part of your image. It will never recover lost information. Shoot your image as balanced as possible. Find a compromise of getting some detail in the sky and some in your foreground.
Before you use the graduated filter, you should adjust the image in a way that the darker parts are well exposed, and the sky is blown out. In the example image, I pushed the shadows and the whites, to make the buildings pop. It all depends on your image. Just make everything except your sky look like you want it to be.
Then click on the little rectangle in your toolbox. This is the graduated filter.
Applying the graduated filter is easy. Just left-click somewhere in your image, hold the mouse button, and pull it in the direction you want the graduation to happen.
In landscapes, we usually pull it down, as we want graduation along the horizon.
The tool marks the borders where the filter will affect the image. You can also see the intensity of the filter, by pressing “O.” This marks the area in red to give you a visual of the graduation.
If the selected area of your image somehow gets pitch-black, white, blue, or looks weird in any other way – don’t panic! Just check if the filter adjustments on the right are already active. Reset the filter adjustments by double-clicking on the sliders and the image will look like it did before.
Now you can adjust the sky. Usually, this means that you have to make the highlights darker. Pull the Highlights-slider to the left. I also added a little blue in the white-balance and pushed the whites, to have a little dramatic contrast in the sky. If you are irritated by the filter-marks, press “H” to make them disappear.
Still, there is a big issue with the image. As there is no straight horizon, the graduated filter also affects the buildings. This is not always a problem in landscapes – especially when using images of the sea, where the horizon is straight. If objects are towering above the horizon, there is an easy way to deal with it.
The Range Mask helps us to quickly deal with deselecting some parts of the applied filter. In this case, we click on Range Mask -> Luminance in the filter options on the right. Here we can select which parts of the graduated filter will be affected. It’s a filter in a filter!
Luminance means that we can make the filter affect a certain range of brightness within the selected area. In the example, we want the filter to only affect the brighter parts (i.e., the sky) and not the darker ones (i.e., the skyscrapers). Hence, we will push the left marker of the range-slider to the right until we exclude the buildings from our selection.
That’s it!
The graduated filter in Lightroom basically does the same thing that an ND-grad filter in front of your lens does – it changes a part of the image and leaves the other untouched. In Lightroom, however, you can choose between many different adjustments, while the physical analog ND-graduated filter will just make the image darker. You can also individually set up the area you want to edit and decide about the softness of its edge.
The disadvantage of the digital graduated filter is its limitations. You can’t recreate the information that your sensor did not capture. A filter in front of your lens will influence what your camera captures on its sensor. The digital filter can only work with what you have. You cannot push everything as far as you want and usually, you will lose some detail.
Still, the graduated filter in Lightroom is often a decent way to make your sky pop.
HDR is the abbreviation for High-Dynamic-Range. HDR images artificially increase the dynamic range of our camera by summing up the information of different exposures. Hence, you have to plan an HDR-image in advance.
While you are shooting, you have to create different exposures of the same image.
I usually take three images:
Make sure, these shots show the same image, and you don’t move your camera. It’s best if you shoot using a tripod.
If you are not familiar with calculating stops, there is good news – most cameras can do it for you. Your camera will likely call it “bracketing.”
Somewhere in your menu, you can select the bracketing setting. My camera asks me how many different exposures I need and how many stops they should differ from each other. Then I hit the shutter three times and have my three exposures.
Don’t forget to reset the bracketing, because it is more than annoying to have different exposures when you don’t want them.
The next step is quite easy. Upload your three exposures into Lightroom and select them. Right-click on one of them. Choose Photo Merge -> HDR and wait until the calculation is done. This can take a little while, depending on the image size and your computer speed.
A fresh window of photoshop should pop up. I always check the boxes Auto Align and Auto Settings and mostly use medium Deghosting. Deghosting is the process Lightroom uses to deal with small dissimilarities in the three images (e.g., moving people, clouds, waves).
Then you hit the merge button and wait again. Here is your finished HDR-image.
Wasn’t that easy?
Sometimes, you won’t be happy with the HDR-image. You can still adjust it! Even though the image above looks a little innocent, there is a lot of detail in there. Get it out by applying local adjustments like a grad-filter.
Nonetheless, you have to be careful. HDR is still just a computer calculation, that does not know what you saw on location. If you do hard editing, you will find artifacts on your image. Artifacts are disturbances caused by processing an image.
Look closely at the example below, and you will find a black shade around the top of the highest tower. Artifacts like this often occur around areas of high contrast.
HDR is a quick and effective tool to make your sky pop. While the graduate filter in Lightroom can only work with the available information, HDR increases this information. If you check the file size of the original image, you will also find that the HDR image is often three times as big as each single exposure. If your computer is a little slow in processing images, it will have more issues with HDR images.
Another disadvantage is the preparation involved on location. You will need extra equipment to get a similar composition under different exposures. Movement in the image, as well as high-contrast areas, can also create artifacts.
HDR has often been overused to create an “edgy effect.” Don’t over-do it here. There is an easy rule of thumb – if you see that it’s an HDR, it is too much.
Composite means cutting out parts of one image and putting it above another. There have been many debates about this issue in the past and present. Are composites fake?
In our example, I think it is fine to cut out the sky of a good exposure and put it on top of the same scene. At least the sky looked like this some few seconds before. It was there – the camera simply couldn’t capture it.
To make a composite in Photoshop, you should already have adjusted the images in Lightroom. Prepare one image with a great sky and another one with a good foreground. Select both images, right-click, and choose Edit In -> Open as Layers in Photoshop. A Photoshop project with two layers will pop up.
In this example, I chose to treat the image with the blown-out sky as the background and put the blue sky on top of it. That means that we have to arrange the layers accordingly. Photoshop will always display the upper layer of your project. Thus, we need to keep the sky as the upper layer, but make the buildings disappear, so the lower layer is visible.
The best method to do this is to create a Layer Mask. It allows us to hide a part of the lower image without deleting any information. To create a Layer Mask, we select the upper layer and click on the little square-symbol with the circle in it. A white rectangle appears next to your layer.
Every white part of the layer mask will be displayed. The black areas will be invisible, while everything grey will be partly visible. Now, we need to fill the areas we don’t want to see (i.e., the buildings) with black. This process is called masking.
Masking involves skill and experience. A proper guide to masking in photoshop can fill books. In our example, we try the basics. We want to see the sky and hide the buildings. Thus, you have to mark the buildings with the Quick Selection tool (Press “W” on your keyboard). We need to select everything except the sky. For hiding the selection, we choose the layer mask and fill the selected area with black color (Edit -> Fill or press Shift+F5).
Now, you have your first composite. It looks a bit weird and artificial in the example. Usually, you need to make some adjustments after masking. Work on the layer mask for the edges of the building. This can be done manually brushing the parts you do not want to see.
You can also make some adjustments to fit the look of the sky and buildings. By using adjustment layers and pulling the opacity of the sky a little back, you will create a more natural look.
The big advantage of a composite is that you take two independent images and blend them into each other. It does not matter if the clouds or cars in the image move. You can control every part that you want to see. The result is pretty much dependent on your skills.
However, a composite is a lot of work. It takes a while to understand all the options, tools, and shortcuts to edit a layer mask. The amount of works depends on the scene. Editing the horizon of a seascape is easy. A skyline can be challenging. Put a bush in front of it, and it is easy to mess it up. You don’t want your image to look like the one below.
There is no right or wrong here. It differs from case to case. How much energy do you want to invest? Are your skills advanced? Did you prepare more than one exposure?
You can also mix methods or even manually create an HDR-image in Photoshop.
One day, I will get myself a bunch of ND-grad filters and work things out on location. Until then, I will continue using HDR or – if possible – get along with the graduated filter in Lightroom. So far, it has worked fine for me.
Is there a method you prefer? Do you work with ND-grad filters, or have another method of dealing with the issues of dynamic range? I would be glad if you share your own experiences and images in the comments below.
The post No Filter? No Problem! 3 Simple Methods to Fix Your Sky in Post-Production appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nils Heininger.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Travel appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
This week’s photography challenge topic is TRAVEL!
Ross Parmly
Let’s face it; we all love to travel – especially as photographers. So, go out and take some of your best travel photography images and share them with us all. As usual, they can be color, black and white, moody or bright. They can be people, iconic travel landmarks, stunning landscapes, aerial shots etc. You get the picture! Have fun, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Steven Lewis
Alan Hurt Jr.
Check out some of the articles below that give you tips on this week’s challenge.
The dPS Top Travel Photography Tips of 2018
5 Ways to Photograph Travel Icons
8 Elementary Travel Photography Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Out
How to Find the Best Kinds of People to Photograph While Traveling
The Best Fujifilm X-Series Kits for Travel Photography
How to Travel Light With Your Photography Gear
Transcending Travel
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.
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 #DPStravel 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 – Travel appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.