Category: Photography

5 Tips How to Set Up a Home Studio for Dramatic Portraits

Having a brick and mortar studio when you are a photographer is such a huge and daunting step. There are so many overhead costs to consider such as rent, electricity, insurance and various other bills. It’s a worry to cover all these before you pay staff and yourself and still make enough profit to make a living. This thought can make one feel that having a studio is an impossible dream or is too of a big a step to take. But you can always start somewhere, so let’s look at some tips for how to setup a home studio.

How to set up a home studio

If you have a spare room in your home or a basement, that is a good place to consider as a home studio. You may be surprised at just how much space is needed to start a portrait studio. Not that much at all! In this article, I will show you how I have set up my little home studio which I have recently revamped to make into a dedicated portrait studio.

I live in London in a narrow Victorian house. These houses have a typical 2-up 2-down rectangular layout, short side across and long side from front to back, with a narrow corridor that runs on one side of the house all the way to the back. My house has two reception rooms (living rooms) and a dining room and kitchen at the back. I decided to make the first reception room (the front room of the house) into my studio. It has a bay window at the front which juts out of the house and provides nice ample natural light.

At first, I set up my backdrop on the opposite side of the window so it was facing the window directly. The reason for this was so that I could get a much wider area for shooting. However, this is not great for dramatic lighting with natural light flooding from the window, with the camera right in between the backdrop and the window. This lends itself to flat lighting instead which isn’t what I wanted for my studio.

In order to achieve a more versatile directional lighting and avoid flat lighting from the window, I use strobes at 45-degree angles to the backdrop to get the lighting setup that I like.

Recently, I have moved things around so that I can use dramatic natural light if I want without the need for strobes, although I still have the flexibility to add strobes and artificial light if needed. This is how I’ve done it.

#1 Make sure your backdrop is at 90-degrees to the window

This angle gives you a lighting that is more dramatic as it is only coming from one side. If you position your subject so that the far side of the face is unlit, you could achieve lighting similar to the Rembrandt style or low-key portraits.

#2 It is ideal to have an L-shaped corner connecting your window light to your backdrop or wall

Having this little dark, unlit corner between your backdrop and the window gives you a 45-degree angle lighting setup which is one of my favorite set-ups. The corner minimizes the light for you to be able to create a moodier image with only the front left of the face illuminated rather than full light flooding from the side.

In terms of artificial light, this is similar to controlling the amount of light hitting your subject either by the use of grids, a strip light or a snoot. You don’t want your subject awash with light as that would make for a rather flat lighting.

My personal preference is for having both light and shadows in my images so I can sculpt my subjects using directional light. If you don’t have such a corner, you can use a V-flat (two black pieces of mountboard taped together to form a V) positioned in the corner as shown in the diagram above.

#3 Paint your wall dark or use a dark backdrop

You will be astonished at the difference a dark backdrop makes! It brings focus to the subject far more than a light backdrop can. It also lends itself to more artistic photos.

#4 Diffuse your window light

Window light, albeit coming from an angle, can still be a bit harsh. You can further soften this light by diffusing it with some white sheer curtains or voile or any fabric that can diffuse the light. The bottom half of my windows are frosted which means they are already perfectly diffused. I cover the top half with pieces of diffusion fabric to cut out the light.

#5 Use a reflector or light opposite the window

Much like in a painted portrait, reflected light is a pleasing detail found at the edge of the unlit side of the face. A silver reflector can achieve this very well with a stronger reflective light result as compared to a white reflector. I find that the gold reflectors can make the skin too warm so I stick with the silver and warm up the overall image in post-production.

The reflector does have to be positioned really close to the subject to make it more effective. If you don’t have an assistant who can hold it in place for you, get a free-standing reflector arm that you clip the reflector into thus making it easy for you to position it as needed.

Using strobes

If you want to use or add artificial light such as strobes or continuous lighting, consider a portable studio kit that you can fold and hide away when not in use. Here you can find suggestions of equipment to use for your portable studio kit.

There are many possibilities and things that you can do with this type of setup. Even with just one flash (like this tutorial), you can create dramatic home studio lighting. Another fun thing you can do with flash is creating double exposures.

These images below were taken in exactly the same spot as those above. But this time a gridded softbox was placed on the right as the main light instead of using the natural light coming from the window on the left.

I hope you found this article helpful. Please share images taken in your home studio, and if you have one or more tips on how to create portraits in a small studio space please share those too.

The post 5 Tips How to Set Up a Home Studio for Dramatic Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 7, 2018
How to Capture and Sculpt the Color of Light

The Basic Mechanics of Capturing Light

When the light of a scene enters the camera lens, it is dispersed over the surface of the camera’s image sensor, a postage-size electrical circuit containing millions of individual light receptors. Each receptor measures the strength of the light striking it in a metric called “lumens.” Each receptor on this sensor records its light value as a color pixel.

The camera’s image processor reads the color and intensity of the light striking each photoreceptor and maps each image from those initial values, producing a reasonable facsimile of the original scene. When this bitmap of pixels is viewed from a distance, the eye perceives the composite as a digital image.

Two important light issues must be addressed when capturing a photograph: light dynamic range (exposure) and color balance (temperature).

Light (Dynamic) Range

The full range of light that exists on a sunny day is virtually impossible to capture with your digital camera. Light range is defined as the dynamic difference between direct sunlight and absolute darkness.

Even though the image sensors in today’s digital cameras continue to improve, corralling all of nature’s dynamic range of light remains a futile challenge.

This statement is easier to understand when you consider the fact that camera sensors register far less light than the human eye, and not even the eye cannot tolerate unfiltered exposure to the sun. Any more than a couple of seconds of direct sunlight will absolutely damage several different parts of the human eye.

Fortunately, your body won’t allow you to stare directly into the sun for any longer. The light emitted from the sun is the strongest, most brilliant, and purest form of light in the universe. Luckily, very few scenes you will want to capture with a camera will involve shooting directly into the sun.

Camera settings

Most cameras have an automatic program mode that adjusts the three settings in the camera that affect exposure: f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. The A/Av (Aperture Priority) mode allows you to set the size of the lens opening (f-stop) while the camera automatically sets the shutter speed. The S/Tv (Shutter Priority) mode lets you set the duration of the shutter opening (shutter speed) while the camera automatically adjusts the size of the lens opening.

Your camera’s ISO (International Standards Organization) setting adjusts the light sensitivity of the camera’s image sensor, allowing you to capture scenes in dim or bright light.

The Histogram

Your camera provides a small graph, called a histogram, that roughly indicates how well the camera is set to capture the scene. This graph displays the range of light coming through the lens and approximates the current light distribution that will be captured under the current settings. By adjusting the three settings mentioned above, you can shift and somewhat distribute this range of light so as to best record the full range of light.

My best advice about using the histogram in your camera is to adjust the big three controls (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) to center the graph on the scale. While this won’t guarantee the most dynamic use of the tonal aspect, it will give you the latitude to adjust that tonal information in post-processing.

But remember, the histogram reads light range but doesn’t address the issue of color balance at all. Which brings us to the next point.

Color Balance

Setting your camera to capture the correct color of light is not as simple and straightforward as it might seem. It is certainly not as automatic as the Auto White Balance setting might suppose. You should understand what your camera means by AWB before you bet your pictures on it. I’ll explain this in some detail below.

Even if you are shooting in RAW mode, it’s a good idea to evaluate the light temperature of the scene and set your camera accordingly. RAW processing will allow you to change the color balance in post-production, but good estimating will certainly shorten the processing time.

Select the appropriate color (White Balance) in your camera’s settings.

Color of Light

Every scene’s color cast is influenced by the temperature of the light illuminating that scene. When the scene is captured outside, the sun’s position in the sky and the influence of cloud cover alters the colors of the light. Your camera offers two ways to compensate for the differences in color temperature (White Balance).

Auto White Balance

The Auto White Balance (AWB) sensor in your camera will seek any prominent white or neutral subject in the scene and will shift the entire color balance of the scene in an effort to neutralize the tint of that element. The assumption when using the AWB setting is that you (1) desire the current lighting condition to appear perfectly neutral in color, and (2) are certain that recognizable and visible elements in the scene are truly neutral in color.

This series of shots were made under cloudy skies while on my lanai (porch). The preset White Balance settings used were: top left: Shade; top right: Cloudy; bottom left: AWB; and bottom right: AWB with flash fill.

Any cloud cover interfering with the sunlight will have a slight influence on the neutrality of 6500° (natural sunlight) lighting. Once again, be aware that AWB takes that slight shift in color out of the equation. Most of the time, this is a good idea. But if early morning or late afternoon (golden hour) lighting is to be recorded accurately, that AWB setting will try to neutralize those warm colors and you will, therefore, lose the mood.

Top: the lack of an absolutely neutral color in this dominantly warm-toned outdoor scene fooled the camera’s AWB setting. So the khaki colored seat cover and the rattan chest were neutralized in the top photo. Bottom: setting the camera’s white balance to Cloudy correctly recorded the scene.

Preset Color Balance Options

Your camera offers several presets to offset any known color casts caused by specific lighting situations.

Daylight sets the camera to record scenes under typical midday outdoor lighting. For outdoor photo situations under normal weather conditions, Daylight is a safe bet. The Daylight setting’s color temperature is balanced for sunny days and photos that are taken in direct sunlight. Daylight is the most neutral of the three outdoor settings and provides rich, natural-looking colors on sunny and even partly-cloudy days.

The camera’s Daylight setting is ideal for bright sunny days. I love to shoot nature shots in the strong sunlight of mornings, particularly between the hours of 8 and 10 AM.

Shade shifts the colors toward orange to compensate for the bluish interference of nominal clouds. When the weather conditions are normal (sunny) but your subject is located in the shade, the scene’s color temperature actually changes slightly. If the camera’s white balance setting is Daylight, and the people are in the shade their skin tones will lack the sun’s warmth because the sun’s rays are not hitting the subject directly.

Even though there was plenty of sun outside, the flowers were located entirely in the shade. So the white balance was set to Shade to retain the warm greens of the leaves in this shot.

Cloudy offers a yet stronger orange shift to compensate for completely overcast (stormy) skies. When the weather conditions are overcast and clouds block the direct sunlight, the bluish color of the clouds actually removes the warmth of the sun.

On the color wheel, blue is directly opposite yellow. When these two colors influence each other, they dull each color’s intensity. When the blue-gray clouds block the sun they diminish the sun’s (yellow) warmth. For this reason, the Cloudy White Balance setting introduces more color warmth into the scene.

Quite obviously this picture was taken under stormy conditions. If the camera’s white balance wasn’t set to Cloudy (or Overcast), the little boy’s skin would appear a lifeless gray.

Flash provides a very similar color temperature lighting as Daylight and is intended to prepare the image sensor for artificial daylight or “Speedlight” type flash devices.

The camera’s automatic use of the flash in the “fill” function provided just enough light to balance the sunlight coming through the side window. Careful placement of the subject allowed this simple lighting to deliver a professional look.

Tungsten shifts the colors toward the blue end of the color range to compensate for the warmer shift of incandescent lights.

Fluorescent attempts to compensate for the greenish cast of gas-charged fluorescent lights.

All of these presets attempt to correct non-neutral lighting conditions.

The even warmth of tungsten lighting is best captured with your camera’s Tungsten WB setting. While Auto WB does an acceptable job of interpreting tungsten amidst other types of lighting, when table lamps are in the picture, Tungsten color balance is the right choice.

Custom White Balance

Among the other color balance settings, your camera offers a custom lighting (Custom White Balance, PRE on Nikon cameras) setting. With that option selected, you hold a neutral gray (18%) card in front of the lens and press the shutter button. The camera will read and lock in the color temperature of the light reflected from that card. That reading you take will now become the standard for the camera’s white balance until you select another setting.

When in doubt about mixed lighting conditions, the use of a gray card for establishing accurate color balance is the most accurate way to go.

Conclusion

The takeaway truth here is that you have very powerful exposure and color balance tools at your disposal. Whether you shoot with an expensive DSLR or a smartphone, take your art seriously. Invest the time to learn something new about photography every day.

Stay focused.

The post How to Capture and Sculpt the Color of Light appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 7, 2018
5 Genuinely Useful Photoshop Actions
I use Lightroom for basic editing and raw conversions, but I still like to tweak my photos in Photoshop. Mostly, that’s just about familiarity. I’m a Photoshop addict. Technically, it makes sense to do as much editing in the raw convertor as possible—perhaps all of it—but I like the blank canvas that is Photoshop more than the frog-marched workflow of raw convertors. Besides, there are still things you can see and do in Photoshop that aren’t possible in Lightroom.

Although I might spend a fair while in Photoshop doing labor-intensive things, for the most part, I’m looking to edit photos quickly and naturally so they might be broadly acceptable for publication. I want my pictures to look good without going down the path of fancy effects, which would often narrow their salability.

One way I can quickly tweak photos in Photoshop CC is to have a collection of Actions available. This article will show you five useful Photoshop Actions (available for download at the end of the article) curated and/or adapted by me that have nothing to do with 1970s summery film effects, light leak effects, or anything like that. Those are for another day.

Make Buttons for your Actions

Before we get down to the Actions, consider putting your Actions window into “Button Mode” once you’ve recorded or downloaded them. This makes actions more usable since it avoids you having to scroll down to find them. Nothing is faster than single clicks to get your images looking good, even if you have to back up sometimes.

You can customize the colors of your Action buttons if you want, perhaps assigning a different color to each type of edit.

Observe and Adapt

One of the purposes of this article is to show you some neat tricks in Photoshop that you can incorporate into Actions. You’ll be able to see what’s happening and use the same tools to achieve different or better things. These Actions also make use of channel masks, which enable precise, flawlessly nuanced selections of color and tone for different types of edits.

These Actions make heavy use of channels, selections, and layer masks.

Action #1 Saturation Boost

Ever since “vibrancy” was introduced, the use of saturation masks has diminished. The purpose of a saturation mask is to gradually mask the most or least saturated areas of an image, depending on whether you invert the selection or not. We can still use such a mask to create a saturation boost Action. It is made using Photoshop’s HSB/HSL filter.

The HSB/HSL filter has a psychedelic effect on the image.

An inverse saturation mask addresses the least saturated areas of the image more strongly, but there’s still an outside chance of clipping the RGB channels with it (i.e. overexposing or underexposing them and losing detail). In this Action, a “blend if” blending option has been added to give extra protection to shadows and highlights.

Method
1. Create a duplicate layer (Cmd/Ctrl + J).
2. Apply an HSB/HSL filter (RGB & HSB settings) to the duplicate layer – it will turn a weird color.
3. Invert the colors of the layer (Ctrl/Cmd + I).
4. Select the green channel under “channels”, right-click and create a duplicate channel (label it “Sat Mask”).
5. Go back to layers and delete the duplicate layer.
6. Back in channels, Ctrl/Cmd + click on the “Sat Mask” channel you just created (you should see marching ants on your open photo at this point).
7. In layers, create a hue/saturation adjustment layer.
8. Add +25 of saturation in the hue/saturation dialogue box (or any value that might be useful).
9. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options.
10. Under Blend If > This Layer, move the sliders inwards to 245 and 10 (or in that vicinity).
11. Hold down the Alt key to split these sliders into two, moving the inner halves to values of 70 and 160. This feathers the selection to avoid harsh transitions in tone. Click “OK”.
12. Delete the “Sat Mask” channel.
13. Ctrl/Cmd + E to merge all layers.
50-50 view of HSB/HSL filter and regular photo.

If the effect of the Action is too strong or weak for your liking, you can hit Ctrl/Cmd + Z to unblend the layers and alter the saturation value. Then simply blend again. This action is much the same as using the vibrancy slider only in fast button form.

Action #2 Mid-Tone Contrast +50

This relatively simple action injects contrast into the mid-tone to highlight areas of an image and leaves shadow areas untouched. Adding contrast in this way also intensifies the color. It’s akin to a curves adjustment, leaving the lower part of the curve untouched.

Although it’s hard to appreciate in a side-by-side comparison, perhaps you can see the snappier highlights and slightly increased mid-tone saturation to the left side of this image. Shadows remain untouched.

Method
1. Go to the channels palette and click on the RGB channel while holding down the Ctrl/Cmd key. This creates a selection on your background layer.
2. Switch to your layers palette and hit Ctrl/Cmd + J keys, which will paste your masked selection onto a new layer.
3. Go to blending modes (top left of the layers palette), and select Soft Light. Contrast is added to the mid-tone/highlight portions of your picture.
4. Adjust the layer opacity to taste (set at 50% in the supplied Action).
5. Ctrl/Cmd + E to merge down the layers.
Action #3 Refined Clarity

This Photoshop Action is similar to the previous one in that it’s a type of contrast adjustment which protects the shadows. The main difference is that this one uses Clarity, which it borrows from ACR.

In terms of appearance, this Action reveals more textural detail than a straight contrast adjustment by emphasizing edges and small changes in tone. It affects the saturation less.

The image on the left has some Clarity applied to it, but the shadows are protected to avoid the kind of crunchy look that occurs with a similar amount is applied in a raw converter (right).

(The Clarity slider gives much the same effect as “high radius, low amount” Unsharp Mask sharpening, which was a thing about 10 years ago.)

If you want to give flat images extra pop with a greater impression of depth and detail, this Photoshop Action works well. Once again, it uses a Blend If modifications to refine the result, avoiding the grunge that often makes excessive Clarity unsightly. By tapering the result from shadows to highlights, it does most of its work in the mid to high tones.

Method
1. Create a duplicate layer (Ctrl/Cmd + J).
2. Label the layer “Clarity”.
3. Open ACR by clicking on Filter > Camera Raw Filter.
4. Drag the Clarity slider to 100% (ignore the harsh result).
5. Click OK and be returned to Photoshop.
6. Open the blending options (Layer Style > Blending Options or double-click to the right of the layer name).
7. Go to Blend If > Underlying Layer. Hold down the Alt key and drag the right-hand side of the shadow triangle on the left all the way to the far right.
8. Click OK.
9. Adjust the layer opacity to taste (the supplied Action is set to 60%).
10. Ctrl/Cmd + E to merge layers.
Action #4 Shadow Noise

In recent years, the Auto button in Lightroom and ACR has improved to such an extent that I sometimes click on it as an alternative starting point. The result is akin to a mild HDR effect. In particular, it tends to cut out the high contrast in images.

Photos that are intended for sale (however optimistically) don’t generally benefit from being loaded with hard-to-see, blocky detail.

In an image such as this one, I might hit Auto in the raw converter to unblock some of the shadows (as is the case in the top section of the picture: notice the railings, man’s coat, and architectural details).

Of course, the problem with bringing out shadow detail is that it invites noise. Depending on your camera and its settings, it might invite a lot of noise. If we create a Noise Reduction Action using a channel mask, we can target the darkest areas of an image. What’s more, the mask is perfectly feathered, so it will seamlessly apply more or less noise reduction according to the tones of the image.

On the right side of this image, you’ll note that the brighter areas are masked off (redder areas) and thus excluded from noise reduction.

The downside of creating a Photoshop Action for noise reduction is that normally you’d adjust the settings according to the properties of each photo. However, there’s nothing to stop you creating several noise reduction actions for different picture profiles. As well, you could integrate a noise reduction plugin that assesses each picture individually.

Method
1. Create a duplicate layer and name it “Reduce Noise”.
2. Apply noise reduction to the duplicate layer.
3. Go to channels and Ctrl/Cmd + Click on the RGB channel, creating a selection.
4. Hit Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert the selection.
5. Click on “Save Selection as a Channel”.
6. With the selection visible (marching ants) go back to layers and add a mask to your duplicate “Reduce Noise” layer.
7. Delete the remaining extra channel (“Alpha 1” if you didn’t rename it).
8. Ctrl/Cmd + E to merge the layers.
Action #5 Web Sharpen

Sharpening is a contrast adjustment, where adjacent edges are made brighter and darker according to their tone to create the illusion of sharpness. The aim is to emphasize these edges without overdoing it and creating haloes.

One way you can control sharpening is with a luminosity mask, which automatically modifies the amount of edge contrast applied depending on how bright or dark it is. The beauty of this is that it’s subjective. Like other channel masks, it fades the effect of your edit based purely on the content of the image. The only control you have to think about is opacity, which might be greater or smaller depending on the size of the image.

By applying a luminosity mask, sharpening is proportionately reduced in the darker parts of the image (shown as deep red). This ensures that less attention is given to any noisy shadow areas, which we don’t want to sharpen. The Action also shields bright highlights from sharpening using a Blend If setting.

I find that this Action at 10% opacity works well on web images of between 800 and 1200 pixels wide.

Method
1. Create a duplicate layer and name it “Sharpen”.
2. Open channels, hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key and click on the RGB channel, creating a selection.
3. Click on the “Save selection as channel” icon at the bottom of the channels palette. A new channel will appear called “Alpha 1”.
4. Deselect it by hitting Ctrl/Cmd + D or by clicking Select > Deselect.
5. Click on your “Sharpen” layer to make it live.
6. Go to Filter > Unsharp Mask and select a high value of 400-500, a radius of around 0.8 to 1.2, and a value of 0.
7. Ctrl/Cmd + click on the “Alpha 1” channel in the channels palette (the selection will reappear as marching ants).
8. Go back to the layers palette and with your “Sharpen” layer selected, click on the “Add layer mask” icon. This modifies the sharpening effect.
9. Click on Layer> Layer Style > Blending Options.
10. Move the right-hand slider under “This Layer” to 245.
11. Holding down the Alt key, split the left-hand side of this slider and move it to around 220.
12. Click OK.
13. Adjust the layer opacity to taste (the download action is set at 10%).
14. Delete Alpha 1 channel.
15. Ctrl/Cmd + E to merge layers.
Photoshop Action Crashes

Occasionally, for reasons unclear to me, Photoshop Actions seem to crash and will not thereafter work without a Photoshop restart. A sure sign that this has happened, aside from inaction and error messages, is that the button in “button mode” changes color.

Download the Set

Download these actions here for free. To install: open the download directly into Photoshop or load from within Actions.

Finally

If an Action doesn’t improve the photo as you’d hoped, you can delete or add elements as you wish, perhaps with different settings or to refine the result. I hope this article inspires you to experiment with some of Photoshop’s more powerful tools. Good luck!

The post 5 Genuinely Useful Photoshop Actions appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 6, 2018
Review: Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod and XPRO Ball Head

Shopping for a tripod may be one of the most complicated endeavors a photographer can take on. Lights, lenses and other accessories are pretty easy. Most things on the market in these instances are relatively similar and the differences can be negligible. With tripods, that is not the case.

There are so many options at every price point on the market that it’s hard to choose. In my case, I went through various models at the cheaper and middle-grade ends of the market with varying results. At first, the cheaper models were fine. All that I used them for was tabletop work, where if I didn’t knock it by accident, there was little chance of movement.

But as I started to get outside more for landscape photography, the downfalls of using a cheap tripod became apparent immediately. Upgrading to middle-grade models did little to solve the problem. Still fine in a studio environment, they always underperformed on location.

Finding the Right Tripod

This all changed when I visited the Manfrotto stall at a trade show in the UK. At first, I thought it was going to be another case of being overwhelmed by choice with no apparent differences in the various models. That was more or less exactly what happened. That is until I spotted the Manfrotto XPRO Ball Head. Within two minutes of fiddling about with it, I knew that it was exactly what I had wanted for the past few years.

With a tripod head chosen, I just needed to find a set of legs. Going through the selection of tripod legs, none of them felt right. They were all either too heavy, too short, or the controls were too awkward. Just as I was about to give up, I spotted the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod. It was perfect. Lightweight, a maximum height just above my eye level, sturdy carbon fiber construction and easy, but firm controls added up to everything I had given up on finding.

The Legs

The Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fibre Tripod has a few relevant features.

Carbon Fiber Construction

This is pretty self-explanatory, but the carbon fiber build on this tripod is excellent. Despite being quite lightweight at 4.6 pounds (2kg), it’s still tough as nails.

I once gave up on a landscape location after 15 minutes because of gale force winds. When I got home, I realized the frames were all sharp with no signs of camera movement.

This thing is sturdy. Any of the other half dozen tripods I’ve used in the past decade or so probably would have snapped in half on that occasion. (An exaggeration of course, but it doesn’t feel like one.)

I gave up on this location after 15 minutes because of really strong winds. When I got home, I realized the tripod held its own and there was no sign of camera shake despite the weather.

Here’s a little bonus:

All of my previous tripods have been aluminum. As it’s difficult to operate tripods with thick gloves on cold winter days, they were quick to become painful when used or carried for any amount of time. One of the first things I noticed about this tripod is that the legs never got truly cold, even in the worst weather.

At first, I thought I was making this up and it was psychosomatic, but when you have poor circulation as I do, these things are really noticeable. A bit of research showed that heat conduction with carbon fiber is vastly lower than it is with aluminum. If you have poor circulation and carrying cold metal in the winter is painful to you, even with gloves, try carbon fiber. It may give you a bit of relief that you weren’t expecting.

Controls

All of the clasps, knobs, and levels on the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod work beyond well. All of the knobs can be tightened with small movements and loosened just as easily. Gone are the days where I would have to spend ages tightening down a knob with all my strength only for it to still not be tight enough. In this case, Manfrotto’s engineers have outdone themselves. Twist and go.

The clasps that hold the legs in place are strong, but they’re designed so they are easy to use, even while wearing thick gloves. At first, it seemed like getting the clasps open was a bit tough. But once you get used to the amount of pressure you have to apply to get them to open and close, you begin to appreciate how much force is keeping the legs in position.

Just don’t close your fingers in them. That would hurt a lot.

The clasps on the legs are strong and require a bit of effort to open and close, but they do their job really well.

Height

Without the head, the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod has a maximum height of 66.9” (170cm). This stat alone could have caused me to not give this tripod a second glance had it been any shorter. There have been too many occasions, when on location, that I couldn’t get the shot because I couldn’t get the tripod positioned over a normal size barrier like a fence or railing.

It was frustrating, which is why height was a major consideration in choosing my next tripod. The problem is, every single tripod I looked at that had a similar height and the taller ones were significantly more expensive. This tripod, however, sits at exactly the height I was after and was just inside the budget I was willing to spend.

Fully extended, the Manfrotto 055 comes to (just about) my eye level, making it the perfect height for me.

Spirit Level

The body of the Manfrotto 055 features a spirit level that moves independently from the rest of the tripod and the head. You can put it in any position around the center column. Although the XPRO ball head features two spirit levels already, this third one makes sure that you have visual access to a level at all times.

Size

When folded up, the Manfrotto 055 is small and easy to carry around.

Despite being just shy of six feet when fully extended, when it’s compacted the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod folds up quite small. With the head detached, it fits neatly into the small carry-on suitcase that I fly with. On location, I can slip one of the legs through the straps on the side of my camera bag and it only sticks out a few extra inches.

Tripod Design

It may be a weird thing to say about a tripod, but this one sure is pretty.

As an aside, it’s worth mentioning the design aesthetics of both the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fibre Tripod and the XPRO Ball Head. Considering that we’re talking about a tripod, they both look really good.

The carbon fiber legs feature a pleasing pattern and the whole thing has a generous dose of metallic red that looks good to the eye. Now, aesthetic design is the last thing that you should ever consider when choosing a tripod, but as it exists here, it’s worth a mention.

Perhaps it’s a symptom of that fabled Italian design, or perhaps it just reflects the price point. Either way, don’t buy a tripod because it looks good, but this one does all the same.

The Ball Head

In short, the Manfrotto XPRO Ball Head is a dream. As mentioned, it’s exactly what I have always wanted in a tripod head.

If you don’t know what a ball head is, imagine an old trackball mouse (if you can). The tripod plate is mounted on the ball which in turn moves freely in its mount until you clamp it down. This allows you to move the camera freely to any position within the head’s range of movement, and clamp it into position with the twist of a knob or two.

Ball heads are ridiculously convenient and easy to use.

Dedicated landscape photographers whom may balk at the thought of jaunty angles may choose other options, such as pan and tilt heads, but I shoot landscapes for fun when I can. The versatility and ease of use of a ball head in the studio or for a portrait session make it ideal for multiple disciplined photographers.

Ball Head Controls

Both knobs that hold the ball in place (yes, there are two) are strong and tighten with short, effortless movements.

Like the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod, the controls of the XPRO Ball Head are very well designed and easy to use. Movements of the knobs that hold the head in your desired position are slight, yet they hold fast without any slippage.

On top of that, there are two knobs to hold the ball in place, creating a layer of redundancy when it really counts. The same applies to the other mechanisms and controls. They all work perfectly and in the time I’ve been using the tripod, nothing has slipped yet.

Spirit Levels

The Manfrotto XPRO Ball head features two spirit levels in perpendicular orientations that make it easy to ensure that your shots are level.

Price

You may be thinking that I’m waxing a bit too lyrical about the virtues of this tripod and head. I promise, it really is that good, but there is a significant downside. All that greatness comes at a cost.

At $ 379 for the legs and $ 139.95 for the head, this is not a cheap piece of equipment. If you’re using it a lot, that price is fine, but if you’re looking for a tripod for the occasional landscape foray, this tripod is probably not for you. Likewise, if you’re only using it in a studio for static subjects, you can easily get away with a less expensive model.

Conclusion

As you can gather from the write-up, this tripod works very well when in use. It’s sturdy, with easy controls that work quickly and fluidly. It’s lightweight and does what it says on the box.

If you’re looking for a quality tripod and head combo that’s a workhorse, do consider the Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod and the XPRO Ball Head combo. It does exactly the job it’s meant to with finesse. Yes, it’s an expensive bit of kit, but the price point reflects the quality.

A good tripod is a great investment, one you will not have to repeat if you choose wisely.

The post Review: Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber Tripod and XPRO Ball Head appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 6, 2018
Enter for a Chance to Win One of NINE Photomatix Licenses!
Enter the Photomatix “Spring in HDR” Photography Contest Today!

Over the last few years here at dPS, we’ve run very some very popular competitions with our partners to give away some of their great photographic products to lucky dPS readers.

We are lucky enough to be able to do it again today!

Enter to Win One of NINE Photomatix Licenses

For this competition, HDRsoft is giving away THREE Photomatix Pro Plus Bundles, THREE Photomatix Pro, AND THREE Photomatix Essentials.

HDRsoft, the maker of the popular Photomatix software and pioneer of HDR photography post-processing, bring you the “Spring in HDR” photo contest.

What is HDR, you ask? HDR stands for “high dynamic range.” In simple terms, dynamic range is basically just the difference between the lightest light and darkest tones in a scene. HDR photography lets you capture a high contrast scene as you saw it. Take three or more photos with different exposures and merge them to create one stunning HDR image.

With spring in full swing, let’s have fun and SPRING into HDR!

These prizes are designed to help every level of photographer create impressive HDR pictures. Each prize will be won by a different dPS reader.

Photomatix Pro and Essentials offer the dPS readers High Dynamic Range photography software to:

Merge bracketed photos to HDR
- Load photographs taken at different exposures (a.k.a. bracketed photos) to merge them into a single HDR image.
- You can leave your tripod at home. Photomatix will align your bracketed photos for you.
- If there are moving objects or people between the bracketed shots, Photomatix will remove them via its ghost removal tools.
Adjust the HDR image to your liking
- Choose from a wide variety of styles, with built-in presets from natural looks right through to surreal or grunge effects.
- Try different HDR styles and fine-tune the HDR settings to find enhancements that work best for your photo.
HDR Photo by Manarola Wojciech Toman, created with Photomatix Pro.

Prizes

Three grand prize winners will win the Photomatix Pro Plus Bundle, a $ 119 value. Three second prize winners will win Photomatix Pro, a $ 99 value. Finally, three third place winners will win Photomatix Essentials 4, a $ 39 value.

HDR Photo by Manarola Wojciech Toman, created with Photomatix Pro

THREE Grand Prizes

Photomatix Pro Plus Bundle – a $ 119 Value

Bundle of two products:
- Photomatix Pro 6
- Tone Mapping Plugin for Photoshop
3 second place prize winners will receive Photomatix Pro 6 – $ 99 Value

Photomatix Pro is a standalone program (running on Windows and Mac) to create HDR photos with the look you want, from natural to artistic, using one-click presets and a large range of settings.
- Merge bracketed photos to HDR.
- Automatic alignment of hand-held photos.
- Advanced ghost removal tools.
- 6 HDR styles (Tone Mapping / Fusion).
- Over 70 HDR settings and 40 built-in presets.
- Create an HDR “Look” with a single photo.
- Native RAW file support.
- Brush Tool.
- Options for real estate photography.
- Batch processing.
- Plugin for Lightroom included.
Three third place prize winners will receive – Photomatix Essentials 4 – $ 39 Value

Photomatix Essentials is an easy-to-use standalone program (running on Windows and Mac) to create HDR photos with the look you want, from natural to artistic, using one-click presets and streamlined settings.
- Merge of bracketed photos to HDR.
- Automatic alignment of hand-held photos.
- Automatic ghost removal.
- 4 HDR styles (Tone Mapping / Fusion).
- 33 HDR settings and 30 built-in presets.
- HDR “Look” with a single photo.
- Native RAW support.
- Plugin for Photoshop Elements included.
Learn a little more about Photomatix Pro 6 HERE

How to Win

To win this competition you’ll need to:
1. Download a free trial of Photomatix Pro or Photomatix Essentials from HERE
2. Load a bracketed photo set or a single photo of your favorite shots in Photomatix Pro or Photomatix Essentials, to create an HDR photo and adjust it to your liking.
3. Post your HDR photo in our comments section below, include a few words about what you like about the software…and of course, a few words about your HDR photo. It’s as easy as that!
Do this in the next month and on or about July 20, 2018, the team at HDRsoft will choose the nine best photos and comments, and we will announce the winners in the following days.

Deadline to enter is July 6, 2018, 04:59 pm AEST (July 6, 2018, 02:59 am EDT). Photos and comments left after the deadline will not be considered.

Please click HERE for full contest rules, terms and conditions.

There’s no need to write essay length comments to win, just what you like about Photomatix and/or HDR. Don’t forget to include your HDR photo in our comments section below. We encourage you to have fun and be creative!

This competition is open to everyone, no matter where you live. To enter – simply leave your photo and comment below.

HDRsoft will be offering a 25% discount on Photomatix when we announce the winners. Make sure to get your trial now and watch out for the announcement after July 20th!

Learn more about Photomatix HERE

Disclaimer: HDRsoft is a paid partner of dPS.

The post Enter for a Chance to Win One of NINE Photomatix Licenses! appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 5, 2018
5 Framing Tricks to Help You Capture Better Landscape Photos

Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres of photography and for good reason. A great landscape photo has the power to wow the viewer and captures the beauty of the incredible planet that we live on. But landscape photography is also difficult to master as not only are you often at the mercy of the elements, but you are also fighting against the limitations of digital cameras versus the human eye.

As advanced as digital cameras are, they are still no match for your eyes and that sometimes means you feel let down when you look at photos you’ve taken. A big part of this could be as simple as framing your shot correctly. So here are 5 framing tricks to help you capture better landscape photos.

1. Add a Sense of Scale

Think about that feeling you get when you first see an amazing landscape in front of you. It’s often the sense of feeling really small compared to those towering mountains or that deep valley. But capturing that feeling in a photo isn’t as straightforward as just taking a shot of the scene. To be able to convey that sense of scale you need to help the viewer by showing them a comparison with something they can relate to.

For example, photograph a large boulder and it will be difficult for someone looking at the photo to know how big it is in reality. But put a person next to the boulder and suddenly there is an instant sense of scale. This is a great way to really make your landscape photos jump off the page and captivate the viewer.

2. Point of Interest

A good landscape photo should lead the viewer’s eyes around the image. Sometimes to achieve this you need to add a point of interest to your image. This is especially true if you are photographing a scene where there is a vast empty area where nothing is happening.

Without a clear point of interest, the viewer’s eyes will get lost in the photo and it won’t work. For example, the photograph below would be pretty uninteresting without the people in it. But by including people not only does it add that point of interest but it also tells a much more intriguing story.

A point of interest could be anything. It can be a rock, person, animal, a tree, or a building. So next time you are evaluating a scene, think if it will benefit from having a point of interest. If so, try to frame your photo using the rule of thirds to capture this in the composition.

3. Zoom In

In landscape photography, it’s really easy to try and capture everything in front of you. After all, that amazing vista is what usually wows people. But sometimes a wide-angle shot of a scene just doesn’t work because there is too much for the viewer to process. On those occasions, you need to zoom into your scene and try to capture a small section rather than the whole thing.

Think about the small section in the same way as if it was a wide-angle shot and frame up your image with the same thought process. The key is to not be afraid to forego the “big wide-angle shot” for the smaller zoomed in section. Remember that you can always try a few different crops and then decide on the best one later in post-production.

But don’t make the mistake of just capturing wide-angle shots and relying on cropping in post-production as the more you crop an image, the more pixelated it will become if you want to print it at really large sizes. Try to actually capture some photos zoomed it with your camera instead.

4. Sky or Land?

One of the best ways to ensure that your landscape photos look dramatic and stunning is by focusing as much of the photo on the part that is going to give you impact. That means really considering where to put the horizon line. If you have a dramatic sky with lots of clouds, beautiful dramatic sunsets or even moody stormy weather, then place your horizon line in the lower third of the image, so you are showing more of the sky.

If on the other hand, your foreground is interesting with a good point of interest, then place your horizon in the top third of the image. Thus maximizing the area showing the foreground in the image. Just try to avoid placing your horizon line in the middle of the image where possible as it can make your photo seem uninteresting.

So always remember, sky or land? Whichever it most important to your image, show more of that part of the scene.

5. Extreme Angles

Most people see landscapes from one particular view only – eye level view. The great thing about photography is that it allows you to capture a photo at a completely different point of view to what most people see. You don’t need to dangle yourself off a cliff to capture unique views, sometimes just being slightly lower or more elevated can have incredibly dramatic results.

For example, set your camera really low (almost on the ground) and you will capture a unique angle from a worm’s eye viewpoint. Put your camera on a tall tripod and lift it up so that it’s higher than normal eye level and again you’ll capture a unique shot.

There’s also the option of using drones these days which can give you even more stunning photos of landscapes. But make sure you always check local laws regarding drone usage. As with any type of photography, the key is to experiment.

Conclusion

Capturing the perfect landscape takes time, effort and usually some luck a well.

You need so many factors to be working together to capture stunning photos and even then you still need to think about how to frame all of those elements into a photograph that will do the scene justice. But once you have a great location, an interesting subject, and the perfect light, follow these framing tricks and you may well capture some stunning landscape photos.

The post 5 Framing Tricks to Help You Capture Better Landscape Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 5, 2018
Tips for Shooting Landscapes With a Telephoto Lens

Landscape photography is the realm of the wide-angle lens. Right? Isn’t it? I’m sure I read that somewhere. “When photographing the landscape, use a wide0angle lens.” I know I’ve heard that. We probably all have. But it’s just not true. So in this article, I’ll give you some tips for shooting landscapes with a telephoto or long lens.

At 100mm, I was able to bring in the details of Denali, and the nearby Alaska Range as seen from Talkeetna, Alaska.

Think beyond the wide view

Sure, wide-angle lenses are great for the landscape, I use them frequently. But they shouldn’t be the only tool in your box when you are photographing the landscape. In fact, as I was browsing through my image catalog looking for images for this article, I found that many of my favorite landscape shots were made with a lens other than a wide-angle. Many were in the 70-200mm range, and a few were even made with super telephotos at 500mm or 600mm.

If you spend much time photographing landscapes, then you’ll know that there are situations where a wide-angle falls short. Here are some thoughts, and examples of when to apply telephoto lenses of different lengths to your landscape photography.

An otherwise non-descript mountain becomes an interesting subject when the dappled sunlight plays over the tundra.

50-100mm Short Telephoto

Just a step above the “normal” lens lies the short telephoto. Many frequently used zooms, such as the popular 24-70mm and 24-105mm lengths fall into this category. Since images made in this range are not much above a standard lens, they share many of the same characteristics.

A substantial depth of field remains, even at fairly wide apertures, and the field of view is wide enough to include large features of the landscape, such as entire mountains, or broad bends of a river.

While holding on to some of the advantages of a wide-angle or standard lens, short telephotos also retain some of the challenges. This range is not for landscape details alone, rather, substantial elements of sky or foreground are often included, reminiscent of classic landscape composition.

As in a wide-angle landscape, you must consider the many different layers of an image (foreground, mid-ground, background, subject, etc.). Unlike a wide shot, however, depth of field is compressed, so when possible, use a high f-stop (like f/11 or f/16).

Think of this range (50-100mm) as a tool to simplify your composition, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to make an image work.

100-200mm Range

The storm described below rolls over the Kelly River in the Noatak National Preserve of Northwest Alaska.

As I was paging through my Lightroom catalog looking for images, I was surprised to find that this range of focal lengths (100-200mm) is actually one of my most-used. I expected to find a lot of portraits and action shots but was surprised to see how many landscapes appeared.

A couple of years ago, I was hiking with a group of clients on a remote mountainside in far northwestern Alaska. It was late autumn, my last trip of the season. The tundra below was a mosaic of red, yellow, and orange. We’d summited a small peak and were on our way down when ominous clouds appeared on the far side of the valley. From the way the precipitation blew, I could tell that those clouds held not rain, but snow, and a lot of it.

My mind went two directions at once. The guide in me, safety oriented and risk-averse, told me I needed to get down the mountain with my clients, and fast. We still had a couple thousand feet of descending, plus three or four miles to walk to reach the safety of camp.

The photographer in me, however, wanted to drop my pack, pull out the camera and go to work. I compromised, pausing regularly to shoot as we made our way down carefully. I relied heavily on a mid-range telephoto, reaching out with my lens to find the patterns in the tundra, the rolling storm, and the sweep of the river.

Telephoto lenses allow you to play with patterns. Here I worked with a creek flowing through the autumn tundra in Denali National Park, Alaska.

As that focal length was too long to show a broad field of view, I isolated the components that told the story. I ignored the foreground, cropping it (in the camera) completely out of the composition. From my perch high above the river, everything in the frame was far away, maximizing depth of field and relieving any necessity to choose a focal point. A

That is where this range of telephotos thrive: distant landscape elements can be shown in context, sharp from front to back.

200-400mm Long Telephoto

At 300mm, a detail can become a subject, or something entirely abstract, like these distant mountains reflected at dawn in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.

High in the Himalayas of Bhutan, I rose before daybreak and walked a quarter mile to a mid-valley hillock. At 15,000 feet even that small exertion winded me. I recovered, gasping, and watched a dense bank of fog roll past in the gray light.

As morning dawned, the fog began to break, alternately revealing and hiding narrow views of the surrounding peaks. The rocks and glaciers of the mountains high above the fog layer were lit by the bright morning sun, while I shivered in damp mist.

Through the 24mm lens on my camera, I saw little but gray. Frustrated, I pulled the lens off and replaced it with a long telephoto zoom. When a window opened in the fog, I followed it with my camera waiting for something to appear. Letting the clouds do my composition for me, I snapped images: a glacier, a jagged ridge, a spear-headed peak.

A flank of Jhomolhari, a Himalayan peak, appears through a hole in the clouds. With a wide-angle, this would have been a small sliver of a gray image.

When the circumstances are right, a long telephoto can be a trip-salvaging tool for a landscape photographer. The morning described above was the one chance I had to make images from that camp high in the mountains. Without a long lens, that sweet light touching the mountains above would have appeared as a tiny speck in a sea of gray.

Rarely is there much depth in images made in this focal range. The depth of field is shallow at most apertures, and it can be difficult or impossible to retain focus in all of the image’s layers. So select your focal point carefully, and then compose your image to suit the story you want to tell. The focal length may cut the landscape down to smaller parts, but that doesn’t make your composition any less important.

400mm and Above Super-Telephotos

There aren’t many photographers who spend thousands of dollars on a 500mm or 600mm f/4 lens to shoot the scenery. And yet super-telephotos are capable of capturing surprising and unique landscapes.

I’ll be honest. My big glass stays at home unless I expect to see wildlife. In the backcountry, where I shoot a lot, my 500mm f/4 is just too big to lug around. However, on a number of occasions, it’s proved useful for making some atypical images of the landscape.

A 600mm equivalent allowed me to bring in a ridge of Denali in Denali National Park, Alaska, and show close detail.

Several years ago I was leading some bird photographers on a trip to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We were camped near the coast, on a river delta just spitting distance from the Arctic Ocean. We had been happily exploring the tundra, photographing the abundant birds and rarely paying attention to the landscape.

But one evening (late-night really), the never-setting sun was at its lowest and shed golden light across the expanse of tundra between us and the mountains. It was crystal clear, every detail visible in the distant peaks. The tripod-mounted 500mm leaning atop my bruised shoulder was the perfect tool.

The great distance to the mountains allowed large swaths of the coastal plain and foothills to maintain focus. Everything was compressed, making elements that were miles apart appear close to one another. I played with the light on the mountains, exploring the Brooks Range with my camera from 50 miles away.

The distant Brooks Range loom over the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a place, where for now at least, caribou still roam wild.

The next morning, it was still clear when a herd of caribou (above) some ten thousand strong, passed by a few hundred yards from our camp. The long glass combined with the animals were the perfect combination for showing what a dramatic and wild place is the Arctic Refuge. The compressed field made the distant mountains loom close providing more context for the caribou in the foreground.

Super telephotos are all about compression and isolation. The landscape through long glass looks nothing like it does to the human eye. Distant elements grow close, and unless your focal point is in the distance, depth of field is compressed to a few feet. These lenses are a tool for isolating patterns, compressing distances, and exaggerating sizes.

Conclusion

At 500mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter allowed me to provide a close-up image of the full moon rising over the Andes of Bolivia, just as the last alpenglow touched the volcano.

Long lenses allow you to play with details. Here, sun falling through the clouds in Southeast Alaska makes a simple composition.

When it comes to landscape photography, telephoto lenses are often forgotten. They slip to the bottom of packs or are simply left at home.

Your bag or closet are bad places for telephoto lenses. They should be accessible, ready to help you see your landscape in a new, and creativity-inspiring way. So pull your long lens out, click it onto your camera, and explore the way the lens changes your perspective of the landscape.

The post Tips for Shooting Landscapes With a Telephoto Lens appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 5, 2018
How to Simplify Your Life as a Photographer
Whether you’re an amateur or a professional photographer, complexity, confusion, and chaos are your enemies. When your life is chaotic and you’re feeling out of sorts, you’ll be unfocused and your photography will suffer. As a creative person, the last thing you want is to neglect your creative pursuits like photography.

“The more simple we are, the more complete we become.” – August Rodin

Here are 5 ways for you to simplify your life so that you can focus clearly on your life and love of photography.

Embrace simplicity in your photos by including as little as possible in the frame. In this photo, I eliminated the foreground as well as boats and other objects that could have been in the frame. All our attention is drawn to the clouds and the lighthouse in the distance.

1. Tidy up a mess

“Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris

One of the simplest ways to bring some order to life around you is to tidy up a mess. Find space that you’ve got control over and clean it up. Start with your desk, or clean up your bedroom. Maybe you’ve got piles of stuff laying around the house. Choose one pile, sort it out, and put it away.

Once your space is clean, make it beautiful. Make a print of your favorite photo and frame it. Place it on your desk or hang it on the wall. Creating a tidy and beautiful space around you will help you simplify the chaos and encourage your creativity.

With nothing else present in this photo our full attention is drawn to the little jellyfish. Sometimes simplicity in photos is hard to achieve because there are so many other distracting elements.

2. Organize your photography gear

“There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.” – Jackie French Koller

Gather up all your photography gear into one place. This is especially helpful if you’ve got equipment stashed all over your house or apartment.

Clean it thoroughly, sort it out, and sell what you don’t need. By simplifying your gear, you’ll have fewer decisions to make and you’ll be freer to take photos when you’re in the moment.

For example, instead of wasting time wondering which of your eight lenses you should use, you’ll have three favorite ones from which to choose.

Silhouettes are an excellent way to simplify and draw attention to your photos. The frosty glass adds an interesting background.

Organizing and simplifying the gear you own is one way to simplify your life. But another way is to simplify your desire for more gear.

Photographers are notorious for suffering from GAS – gear acquisition syndrome. Buying new gear is necessary from time to time, but sometimes buying stuff is an easy way to feel like a photographer rather than actually being one.

Make the most of the gear you’ve alredy got and only purchase what will truly allow you to take more creative photos.

I love taking photos with my Fuji x100s because it has just one prime lens. I don’t have to think about lens choices or focal lengths. Instead, I forget about my camera and just observe what’s around me.

3. Learn one new thing

“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” – Martin H. Fischer

You’ve embraced simplicity by cleaning up some small space, you’ve made that space more beautiful by printing and framing one of your photos, and you’ve begun relieving your GAS.

Now, take your favorite camera and lens and go learn something new. But learn just one new thing at a time. As a creative photographer, you’re likely eager to learn many new things and become a better photographer. That is a worthy ambition. But don’t pile on too much learning at once. That will only hold you back.

Choose just one article, book, or course, and master that before moving on. DPS has a lot of tips and articles for you to learn from, but they have also organized and simplified topics with their books and courses.

I decided to spend some time trying to learn food photography. It’s a fun skill to study about. I needed to create some sort of background for this coffee mug and decided to stack up a few other mugs behind it. I like the repetitive pattern, another form of simplicity in photos.

4. Create a photography project

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” – John Maeda

With your new learning, why not tackle a photography project?

Many photographers have thousands of disorganized and disconnected photographs. And they have dozens of ideas in mind for what they will photograph next. Make of list of everything you’re interested in trying as a project and then choose one thing from the list to accomplish.

I have a growing collection of silhouette photos with my living room window. Soon, I’ll gather them all together and choose my favorites for a photo book. The symmetry in this photo is an element of simplicity.

Instead of the chaos of too many options and ideas, choose one thing and bring it to life. Maybe you could take a day trip to a favorite location. Or gather together friends for a portrait project. Maybe you should sort through photos from the past and create a photo book.

In just a few days or weeks you could have a finished project and something new to hang in your tidied up space. Tackling a project will help simplify your life and bring order and accomplishment to your day.

Close-ups simplify portraits by eliminating distracting backgrounds. Toddlers and kids have lots of fun peering into the camera or playing peekaboo.

5. Photography business

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

It is natural for photographers to consider starting a photography business. It’s a natural move since entrepreneurs and creative people are cut from the same cloth. Starting a photography business may seem like the ultimate way to live as a photographer. But even with a business, you must keep it as simple as possible.

I love to show up early before family photo sessions. Arriving at the harbor at 5 am in the morning, I captured this beautiful silhouette of a father and son heading out on one of the Great Lakes to fish.

If you’re already in business consider ways that you can simplify your photography business:
- Keep your business aligned with what you actually love to photograph.
- Offer one type of photography rather than doing everything.
- Choose a simple pricing strategy.
- Create a simple mobile-friendly website.
- Put limits on how long your workday will be.
- Create simple systems to make your workday flow.
- Carve out lots of time for family and friendships.
I played baseball as a kid and feel nostalgic about it in the autumn months. Photographing a single object, such as a baseball, is a way to practice simplicity in your photography.

Start simple and make steady progress

Take the next 90 days (3 months) to simplify your life and your photography. Clean up your spaces, appreciate the gear you’ve got, learn just one new thing, and bring it all together with a photography project. If you have a photography business or are thinking of starting one – keep it simple by keeping all the parts simple.

Let me know in the comments what you plan to simplify first.

The post How to Simplify Your Life as a Photographer appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 4, 2018
DIY Camera Bag Modifications for DSLR Storage and an Active Lifestyle
In today’s world, digital camera technology continues to improve and get lighter. A plethora of systems offer lighter camera bodies with more technology bundled into them. There are many photographers transitioning to these systems to lighten their gear and are selling off their old equipment. However, I cannot help but be attached to the reliability and familiarity of my full frame DSLR bodies.

I do not like to compromise on image quality and feel most confident making quality images in spur-of-the-moment wildlife activity or in difficult lighting with my full-frame camera. Are you the same as me? If so, does that make us a little crazy?

The Pelican case gives me space for a couple of bodies, a 200-500 mm telephoto lens, and two shorter ones. Lots of space to pack a full kit!

Well, in truth, it is a bit crazier than that, I am most comfortable when I have two camera bodies with me at all times. I also carry a telephoto lens, 50mm, and wide-angle lens with me along with cleaning equipment and filters, and I like to do so at all times. In other words, I carry a full kit. I do my best to carry a full kit when hiking 10 miles into the backcountry, floating a 5-mile river trip, or walking to a local beach to watch a sunset.

If you are like me you are constantly looking for ways to safely haul your gear from Point A to Point B while also protecting your investment during your adventures. Through experimenting and modifying a Pelican 1510 case I have found a solution that works for me. In this article, I will demonstrate that system for you. I hope my DIY camera bag for DSLR storage and transportation works for you and inspires you to get more creative in hauling your gear!

I customized this Pelican 1510 case to provide waterproof and shockproof protection for my DSLR bodies and kit. Thanks to the modifications I have made, I now transport this kit everywhere.

What you’ll need
1. A hard case – I use a Pelican 1510. The case is TSA approved as a carry-on size, meaning you’ll never have to check your camera gear to baggage claim. I pack non-critical, lower-cost items in the modular pack (see below in #4) and check those in my bag. Then I carry on the rest of my kit.
2. A drill, 3/32 drill bit, and 3/8 drill bit – You’ll need a high-speed drill and a sharp bit to do some customization of the Pelican case. Make sure the 3/32 bit is wide enough diameter to put the eyebolt through.
3. Eyebolts (2x) with nylon locking nuts (2x) – These will be used to secure the luggage straps to the Pelican case in the front.
4. A secondary “modular” case for the outside – You can choose any case that is the same size or smaller than the Pelican case. Think about the gear you are using and tailor it to fit your needs. I make sure my modular case can hold my filter set, cleaning equipment, batteries, and other photography knick-knacks.
5. Velcro – This will be used to secure the secondary modular case to the outside of the Pelican case. Get Velcro strapping that has sticky sides.
6. Adjustable luggage straps (2x) – make sure the straps have good clips. I prefer a 1” wide webbing for the strap.
7. Carabiner clips (2x) – These will be used to secure the luggage straps to the Pelican case in the back.
8. Backpack straps – I use the Pelican 1510 backpack conversion straps offered by RUCPAC. I have been using their system for about two years now and find it durable and comfortable. If you are a true DIY-er you could modify the straps of an old backpack.
Modifying the Pelican 1510 Case

Step #1 – Drill holes near the latches

Close the lid and use the 3/32 bit to drill through the plastic to the inside of each latch. You’ll need to go through both layers so the extra length of eyebolt has a hole to pass into. Once you have drilled the hole, open the case and use the 3/8 bit to bore into the plastic so that the nylon nut recesses into the case and allows it to close. Repeat on both sides of the case.

You can see here that I bored through both sides of the Pelican case with the 3/32 bit to allow the eyebolt to pass through. I bored with the 3/8 bit into the top layer to allow the nut to recess so that the top can close

Step #2 – Drill holes through the fins (back hinge)

Use the 3/32 bit to drill through the “fin” on the backside and pass a carabiner through the hole. The fins are the rigid plastic ribs that stick out to hinge the lid and bottom of the Pelican case together.

Repeat on the other side.

I drilled through the “fin” of the back with the 3/32 bit and threaded the carabiner through. I did the same thing to the other side of the pack.

Step #3 – Apply the Velcro

Apply the Velcro to the back of the modular case and then line it up accordingly on the front of the Pelican case.

Tip: Stick the hook side and the fuzzy side of the Velcro together on your modular case, peel the paper off to expose the sticky surface and then press the modular case onto the Pelican case to get a perfect alignment of your Velcro.

Attach Velcro to the top of the Pelican case and make sure that it aligns with the modular case. It is easies to make sure that the Velcro is aligned by sticking it together, applying it to the Pelican case, and then pressing the secondary modular case onto it.

Attach the Velcro.

With the Velcro attached to the Pelican case and the modular case, you’ll be able to open and access the case without it falling off the larger Pelican case. That’s a huge perk!

Step #4 – Thread the luggage straps onto the system

Thread the luggage straps through the eyebolt and the carabiner. Adjust it to a length that fits around the modular case, and then tie a good knot – I prefer two half-hitches.

Make sure the luggage straps are long enough to wrap around the modular case. Tie the ends securely to the carabiner and eyebolts.

Step #5 – Install the backpack straps to the Pelican case

Next, install the RUCPAC straps to the Pelican case. This is very simple – you’ll attach it to the top handle and thread the straps through the bottom wheels. Instructions to install the RUCPAC come with the product.

RUCPAC straps attached to the Pelican 1510 case.

There you have it!

This DIY camera bag solution has grown with me and my kit and worked for me the last two years. I find this pack very comfortable to use and wear. I am 6’3” and would be interested to hear if it fits shorter torsos as well.

The luggage straps give you the flexibility to attach a tripod or any other gear on to the outside. You can choose the size of modular case you that use to accommodate the gear you have.

This pack also provides a portable chair for those long days or nights shooting photography and can act as a tripod in a pinch. In fact, having the pack available has saved my shoot on several occasions when I needed stabilization but did not have a tripod.

The DIY camera bag case can function as a spur-of-the-moment tripod. I’ve used it for shooting the Northern Lights and time-lapses.

I took this image of the Aurora Borealis with my camera stabilized on my Pelican case. It saved the night since I did not have a tripod along with me!

Conclusion

What I’ve shown you here could be just a jumping off point for you. Use this concept to expand and create your own DIY storage solution that works for the gear and kit you have, and your needs.

Once you are done get out there and shoot lots of images. As I like to say, “pixels are cheap”, so go make a lot of them!

The post DIY Camera Bag Modifications for DSLR Storage and an Active Lifestyle appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 3, 2018
How to Create Your Own Style by Using LUTs in Photoshop

It is important to have your own style. Everybody says that. It is one of the most important factors to avoid drowning in millions of other photos from other photographers. A style is many things. It is your compositions, what you shoot photos of, what light you shoot in, but one of the most important factors is, how you post-process your photos. In this article, we will look at a post-process technique that can give you your own unique look to all of your photos using LUTs in Photoshop.

There are many ways to apply a certain look to your photos, some are better and some are simpler than others. You can pick up a filter or a preset in some tool and it might look pretty good. But it will not really be your style no matter how cool it looks. Anybody with that tool can click that exactly same preset and have the same look.

Create your own look

If you want to have your own style or look, you will have to create it. A great way to do that is by creating your own “Color Look -Up Table” or simply called LUTs. This is a fairly easy way to make a quite drastic look which will be unique to your photos. This is also called color grading.

A LUT is a Color Look-Up Table, it maps one color into another. It is a technique used in the movie industry, to create certain styles to movies. The same technique can be applied in photography to create a distinctive and professional look to your photos.

In this article, you will first learn how to use LUTs, and then how to create your own LUT files. The LUT is your post-processing style. This technique requires Photoshop or GIMP (or any program that uses layers – Luminar is also capable of using LUTs). The examples in this article were done with Photoshop.

Before we start, remember that when you are post-processing not to overdo it only “do it” enough, or subtly.

How to use a LUT

Photoshop comes with a number of LUTs out-of-the-box, you apply them as an adjustment layer. They will change the colors of the image and some of them will also change the contrast. Let’s see how to add LUTs to a photo.

Step 1 – Open a photo in Photoshop

Start by opening a photo, maybe one that you have post-processed a bit to balance the contrast, highlights, and shadows.

Step 2 – Add an Adjustment Layer

Then add an Adjustment Layer – choose “Color Lookup Adjustment layer”.

This layer will use a LUT file to make magic changes to your photo.

Step 3 – Pick a LUT

Make sure that you have the Properties tab of the adjustment layer opened. Click on the 3DLUT file drop-down menu and a list will appear. The list you see include the default LUTs shipped with Photoshop.

Pick one and see what happens. Play around and try different default LUTs and see what happens.

Some are very dramatic, like for instance EdgyAmber, while others are a bit more subtle.

Resulting image using the EdgyAmber LUT.

At first, you may think that the dramatic ones are not useful at all, but try changing the layer opacity to 30% while you have the EdgyAmber LUT selected.

As you can see the dramatic LUTs can also become subtle.

EdgyAmber LUT applied at 30% opacity.

Step 4 – Combining several LUT files

You can also create your own unique look. One that you can use for a particular series or even apply it on all of your photos as your style. You can do that by combining several Color Lookup (LUT) adjustment layers.

On each one, change the opacity level to something rather low, probably in the 5%-40% range. Once you have 4-6 layers, you can be pretty sure that the exact combination of layers, their order and opacity is unique.

Combining four LUTs for a unique look.

This is a pretty effective, yet simple, way to process your images to make them look like professional photographs.

Advanced tip!

You can also use some of the other kinds of adjustment layers to change the colors, to make more exact fine-tuning tweaks. Good adjustment layers for doing this are Selective Colors, Channel Mixer, and Color Balance. There are others, but they are even more advanced.

Once you have a selection of Color Lookup Adjustment (LUT) layers that you like, you can save this combination as your own LUT. This way you can achieve the same look on another photo, simply by applying just one LUT. It is almost as simple as clicking a preset button.

Requirement 1 – Your photo must be the Background Layer

To make this work, it is a requirement that the original image is the Background Layer. This will always be the case if you have opened the image normally.

Requirement 2 – Do not use masks

Whatever color grading adjustment layers you use to change the colors, do not use any masks. Using masks will confuse the Color Look Table export tool and your LUT will probably not be usable.

Step 5 – How to use your own LUT

Once you have made a set of adjustment layers to your photo, you can save it to a LUT file by going to: File > Export > Color Lookup Tables…

In the export dialog box, you can name your LUT. You can also change the Grid Points. 64 is a good compromise between size/performance and quality. Finally, make sure that you have 3DL checked.

If you save all your own LUTs to the same folder, they will be easy to access and find later. You can make a shortcut to the folder and very quickly apply one of your own LUTs to another image.

Step 6 – Using your own LUTs

It is very simple to use your newly created LUT file. Open a new image in Photoshop, add a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer and click Load 3D Lut.

As you can see, it instantly transforms your photo.

If you apply this LUT to any photo they will share a common look and feel.

All the photos in this article are processed using the same LUT and the familiarity is easy to spot. The results are dark moody images with a yellow/orange tint in the highlights and a blue/purple ting in the shadow areas.

They were all created with just some basic contrast, highlight and shadows adjustments applied in Lightroom, before importing them into Photoshop. The post-processing need not stop here, but for the purpose of the example, these images were kept simple.

Conclusion

By creating and using LUT files you can create a look for all your photos or even just to a series of images, that is unique. The LUT could be just a part of a more complex post-processing method or it could be the one spice that makes it your signature look.

As you grow more familiar with them you can create LUTs that you use for particular types of photos. One for sunny daytime photos, one for pre-sunrise, one for nighttime, etc. Have fun and be creative with using LUTs.

More LUTs

You can find tons of LUTs available on the internet. Some are free, some are not. However, I still recommend that you try to create your own, make it your style.

If you have any questions about creating or using LUTs, please ask in the comments area below.

The post How to Create Your Own Style by Using LUTs in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 3, 2018