Category: Photography

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 Guide for Beginners
ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 was released recently and it has a lot of options included in a single software program. It offers a combination of features covered by the likes of Lightroom, Bridge, and Photoshop in one setup at a competitive price.

Depending on your skill level, it caters to beginner through to advanced users. This new 2018 version combines previously standalone programs into one with some new features added. Development for future versions is also underway, so it’s an option that is undergoing improvement.

For the purposes of this article, I will be using Lightroom and Photoshop as the basis for comparison as those are the tools I currently use.

Let’s work through the usual steps that this software would be used for, from the point of view of a beginner photographer and someone new to the software as well.

Contents
1. Setting up the program
2. Basic layout
3. Import images
4. Raw image editing
5. Edit mode with layers, etc.
6. General comments
1. Setup and Install

Setup and installation are fairly standard. You are required to set up an account as part of the install process (I tried to skip out of it but it canceled the Install when I did) which then requires an extra registration step with an email confirmation. However, once that is done there are no other impediments to using or starting up the program.

It does allow you to choose which drive/directory/folder you want to install it into as well if you want to use a non-standard install path.

2. Basic Layout

Basic layout when the software first opens.

This is the default setup upon opening up the program. It’s set to view the Pictures Library and is in Manage Mode. The modes are on the right-hand side at the top of the screen and take you to the different functions available. The Modes we will be looking at in detail are Manage, Photos, View, Develop and Edit in this article.

Catalog tab where you can view images which have been rated or labeled or by other categories.

On the left-hand side under the File menu, are three tabs. First is the Folders tab which is the default file structure. Next is the Catalog tab which appears to allow you to view/sort images that have been rated with numbers or colors. It did pick up the color labels I had previously applied to images within Lightroom, which was interesting.

By going back to the Folder tab to select the folder and bring up the images, you can then go back into Catalog. If you select an image you are then able to rate it with a number or color.

Manage mode with a folder of images loaded up for viewing.

View and Manage Modes

Back in the Folders tab in Manage Mode, if you select an image it comes up with EXIF data and a histogram in the bottom left panel. The right-hand panel pops up with all the metadata and also allows you to rate the image there as well.

Photos mode offers three different ways to view your images. In the bottom right-hand corner it has three numbers; 7, 31, and 365 – these allow you to sort by week, month or year. The above image shows the images sorted by year. You can scroll visually through all your images.

While you can move easily between Photos and Manage Modes. But if you want to go to View mode you have to click on an image within Photos Mode to open it. Double-clicking on an image in Photos mode will automatically open it in View Mode.

View Mode default layout.

View Mode is similar to Adobe Bridge, where you have a filmstrip to view images at the bottom and some basic edit functions on a toolbar on the left just above the thumbnails.

Given that at this point in time no image editing has happened, and the tools are basic automated functions, you may not want to do anything here.

Develop Mode

Develop Mode default layout with the editing panel on the left

Develop Mode is the Raw Editor. It is laid out very similar to Lightroom except the edit panel is on the left. However, it can be customized and moved to the right if you prefer.

Edit Mode

Edit mode with workspace modified slightly – the Layers panel is on the right

Edit Mode is the advanced edit functionality. This is where you find layers, masks, text, and other features generally found in Photoshop. The tool palette on the left-hand side originally went along the top of the image but I moved it.

The 365 mode offers options for subscription licensing which is probably not relevant if you bought the perpetual license.

The Dashboard Mode

Dashboard Mode default layout.

The Dashboard Mode offers interesting ways of interrogating your database for information – how many files you have, what camera is used most often. It doesn’t appear to be editable beyond the data it provides so you can’t find out things like your most commonly used lens focal lengths or apertures.

The last mode is a Message Center. I had no messages to view.

In summary – there are three different ways to view your images, a raw editor, an advanced editor and other functions of less relevance.

3. Importing Images

As I have been a Lightroom user since LR3, I have several years of images already stored on my computer. I store my image files on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) so I was interested to see if they would be found and accessible, as some programs have issues with NAS functionality.

The good news is ACDSee happily found the images on my NAS and I was impressed at how quickly it loaded them up for preview. It was significantly faster than LR usually imports images and loads previews.

Manage Mode showing the network with the NAS folders viewable.

Therefore doing an image import test was also necessary.

File > Import >From Device found my CF card plugged into my computer and an Import Panel allowed a preview of the images, selection of images, destination choice, and file renaming. Again the image preview was very quick.

Import image panel in ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018.

On clicking Import, a light grey box opened up in the bottom right-hand corner, with a progress bar and it flicked through all the images as it was importing them. I imported 28 images and it took less than a minute.

Once it’s finished you are asked if you want to view the imported images. Clicking Yes takes you to the image folder for viewing all the images.

4. Raw Image Editing in Develop Mode

Unedited RAW file.

Develop Mode is laid out very much like Lightroom. The editing panel by default is on the left-hand side but I moved it over to the right as that is my preference. The histogram is visible with the different elements of it in different colors, but you can’t click on them and move/edit them within the histogram itself.

The main edit panel is Tune, and the others are Detail (sharpness, noise reduction), Geometry (perspective, lens corrections, and crop) and Repair (Heal and Clone).

It’s not entirely obvious but the white bits with the triangle out the bottom are the sliders, and you move them to make your adjustments. You can also change the numbers or click on the arrows. It does not appear to reset to zero if you double click on the bar as the whole bar is active.

Image after edits applied.

The above image has been edited with the settings visible, plus a few other panels. In general, I found it a bit more aggressive than LR would be in comparison so if you prefer a more subtle approach, be delicate with your application of the sliders.

The main blueberry in my image had a mark on the front so I decided to test out the Heal function. While it was a bit slow to apply and appeared to do it in stages, I was quite surprised at how well it worked. Upon viewing at 100%, there are some blue color blotches that would look a bit unnatural if this image was printed, but to the casual glance (or online viewing) it’s not obvious this image had been healed. A much better job than my LR6 can do.

Image before Heal applied and scratch visible – viewed at 100%

Image after several brush strokes of Heal applied – viewed at 100%.

I also experimented with other things in the Develop Mode. There is an option to copy and paste settings between images, you can apply a vignette, and tweak its settings.

To save the image there are several options. Done opens up a dialog box to Save or Save As like a standard file-save function in Windows. Save gives you a drop-down box to Save As, Save a Copy, or Export.

The Export option opens up this window which allows you to choose things like destination, change the name, format, and size. Similar to the standard Export functionality in Lightroom.

Export images panel.

5. Edit Mode – Layers and other options

Edit mode with an image open for editing.

Edit Mode is where you can do the kind of editing for which Photoshop is often used. It has support for Layers, Masks, Adjustment Layers, Text, etc. I moved a few panels around to make the workspace more familiar but otherwise, the above screenshot shows the basic Edit Mode setting.

One of the new features of Edit Mode is the Actions – which seem to be a combination of LR Presets and PS Actions. They are only available in Edit Mode under Tools. There are several different categories and a Preview Browser offers an idea of what the final outcome will be.

Actions browser showing a preview of the effects.

To apply hit Play. The effect is applied directly to the base layer which is a bit limiting as you cannot edit the effect in any way and it is applied with quite a lot of enthusiasm. Adding a blank layer and applying to that didn’t work, which was a shame as you could have applied edits to the action layer that way.

Image after Grunge Action applied.

For comparison, I edited my image manually by adding a couple of texture layers and masked off the heavy texture with a soft brush to have a more gentle effect.

An alternative version of the image with some grunge texture layers manually added, adjusted individually, and heavy texture masked off to soften the overall outcome.

One limitation in adding texture layers manually was not being able to drag them across from an open instance of Windows Explorer, which I can do with Photoshop.

Once you’re ready to save the file you have File>Save/Save As/Save as a Copy/Export to choose from.

6. General Comments

Looking at this from a beginner’s perspective, someone new to photography and new to editing, ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 has a lot of benefits:
- It’s available as a perpetual standalone license or a subscription.
- It offers image management, RAW editing, and advanced editing features.
- For a novice, it has all the functionality you are likely to need in one program.
- Image editors are not the easiest programs to learn and use but this doesn’t make it any more complicated.
- It looks familiar in comparison with other popular programs in the market.
As an advanced user of both Lightroom and Photoshop, there are a few things that I’d prefer worked differently as follows:
- Visually the dark grey tone in the background is darker than I prefer and I was unable to easily find an option to change it.
- When adding other images or textures, it’s easier to find them in a second monitor via Windows Explorer and drag it onto my image – this is easy to do in Photoshop but ACDSee didn’t allow it in the Develop mode, only in Layers. It does have an “Add a File as a Layer” button which is a good workaround.
- In Develop Mode I was able to select a second monitor for viewing my image, but it stayed static on the original image view and didn’t reflect any of the changes I made to the image which was a bit baffling.
- If you are in Edit mode and have applied Layers to the image you cannot go back into Develop mode unless you save the flatten it. Not a really a complaint, just that it works a bit differently than I was expecting.
Conclusion

The full price of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 is $ 149.99 USD for the standalone perpetual license and there is also a free 30-day trial. It also offers a monthly (or annual) subscription which allows use on up to five devices, updates, and cloud storage as an alternative. Prices for the subscription vary depending on Personal or Business use.

At less than $ 100 USD for an upfront one-off cost, it offers an image management feature, a RAW image editor with a lot of features and functionality and advanced editing via layers, masks, adjustment layers and other extras.

For a beginner to either photography or editing, there is a lot on offer with ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018. Yes, it has some quirks and annoyances in comparison to other programs but nothing that renders it difficult to use (unless your eyesight is bad).

As a package to get a beginner started and provide everything you are likely to need, this is a competitive software solution for the general purpose user. Strong contender both on price and the fact it offers everything you are likely to need in one place, making it consistent and easy for a beginner to use and manage.

Disclaimer: ACDsee is a dPS advertising partner.

The post ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 Guide for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
May 15, 2018
4 Reasons Why Putting Your Camera Down Can Help You Take Better Photos

We’ve all been there; in a new country, a new city or just a new part of your local town. Camera in hand, you shoot and shoot and shoot as your memory card never seems to fill up. It’s thrilling and you don’t want to waste a moment because there is so much to capture. But what if putting your camera down, even just for 20 minutes, can help you take better photos?

I don’t mean leave it unattended. But I do mean put it away or leave it behind as you go for a walk in your new environment.

I know some of you are getting the shakes at the mere thought of being without your camera in a new area, but indulge me for a moment. In this article, I will bring to light a few thoughts on why putting away your camera might actually help your photography.

1 – Greater Awareness

How can you truly capture the essence of a location without first experiencing it? There are always bright and colorful things to shoot. But if you go around grabbing each little scene like a bird grabbing nectar from a cherry blossom, you risk miss seeing the whole tree.

I had time to visualize the shot above while watching an evening program at the Treasury in Petra, Jordan. While the program played, I was seated and limited in my movements, so I looked around at the space and tried to imagine photos from each location. At the end of the program, I was only allowed 10 minutes to get my shot (which took one minute to set up and 30 seconds to take), so my time spent gaining a greater awareness for my surroundings helped me greatly to take better photos in the time allotted.

Being aware of your surroundings is also important for safety. We all know the feeling of looking through our viewfinder, or camera screen, and losing all sense of what’s going on around us. It’s the feeling of “flow” when everything else melts away and there is just the joy of photography. That lack of awareness can work against you when in unfamiliar locations.

Beyond safety, having an awareness of your surroundings will also alert you if the clouds are about to cover the sun or if your scene is becoming more or less active. Watching others around you for clues on what to shoot is the next step.

2 – Observe Others

I love people watching in new environments. Even at home, if I go shopping with my wife I will typically end up on a bench just taking in the plethora of different shoppers passing by. Even we introverts can enjoy watching how people interact.

Look for clues about relationships and friendships while observing others. Do most people seem aloof or is there a lot of interaction? Watch how transactions are negotiated in markets. Is there a lot of haggling over price before money changes hands? These clues will help you anticipate when you can get those key shots when you return with your camera.

Because I took some time to people watch when the previous train came through town in the Urubamba Valley of Peru, I knew this colorful hat-seller would work the crowd when the next train arrived. So I waited and watched and was able to capture this image.

Is there a flow to the traffic of people around you? If so, look for a good location to set up and get some candid street photos. While crowds always draw attention, look for those standing back from the bustle if you want to capture a variety of everyday life.

Now is also a good time to realize who around you might not want their picture taken. Or who is charging photographers to pose for photos?

In this shot of officers in Jordan, I hung around for a few moments with my camera down, said “Hi” and let the men get back to their conversations before taking the shot. I had noticed that they all looked intently at anyone new coming through the door and that wasn’t the shot I wanted. This more relaxed version was my goal.

3 – Observe Patterns

With patterns, I don’t mean just the cool shapes made by architecture or found in nature. I also mean the patterns humans create as they go about their day. Observing patterns will help you return with your camera (or simply get it out of your bag) and better anticipate the moment for shutter release and ultimately you will take better photos.

For instance, watching a worker at the leather tannery in Fez, Morocco or a gentleman unloading chickens in Kathmandu, Nepal, with my camera down for a minute or two, helped me to visualize the action I wanted to capture and better time my shots.

4 – Interact Differently

Imagine someone came up to you on the street and instantly lifted a camera to snap a photo of your face. How would you feel?

Empathy for strangers and how they will react to my camera pointed in their direction is why I will typically recommend you ask permission first before taking a shot. Or better yet, with your camera down or put away, interact with your subject first. See what they are doing and ask questions if you can. Something about them made you want to take their photo, so take it one step further and interact before snapping away.

I played with these kids in Peru for a bit before having them ham it up for the lens. I don’t speak Quechuan and only poor Spanish, but I can recognize kids playing “shop” with weeds and flowers when I see it. I could tell who was in charge and I played along for a few minutes, trying in vain to get a good deal on my ugly weeds, before snapping this photo.

People will interact differently with you if you approach them first with your camera down or put away. Sometimes there is a fleeting moment that most feel needs to be caught candidly. But far more often a richer image can be created when you make human-to-human contact first. Rather than human-to-camera-to-human contact.

Conclusion

If you’ve never left your camera behind for even 10 minutes, I suggest giving it a try. It’s unnerving, I know! But it can lead to seeing your new environment in a way not possible with a camera constantly popping up to your eye.

Now you tell me; do you think you can take a walk and experience a new location without your camera? Do you think it might change the way you see the world before photographing it? Will it lead to helping you take better photos?

The post 4 Reasons Why Putting Your Camera Down Can Help You Take Better Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 15, 2018
How to Use Spot Coloring in Your Photos

What is spot color in an image?

Some people refer to it as selective coloring. However, these two techniques are not the same thing.

Traditionally, selective coloring is something that is done in post-production. Photographers would highlight a certain area of the image, or a certain object, and leave it as the only thing that has colored in the frame.

They would turn the rest of the image into monochrome, or on occasion increasing the color saturation of that object while lowering it in the rest of the photograph. This is to call attention or focus to that particular part of the image.

Do you remember the days of black and white prom dresses with red corsages? Or, do you remember a black and white image of a model with red lips? Those are classic examples of selective coloring.

Difference between spot coloring versus selective

Spot coloring uses the available colors in a scene and then composes the image so that one color stands out from the rest of the frame. Spot coloring is a technique that is used in-camera (done by the photographer). It works by placing a color against other colors that allow it to stand out in the composition.

Selective coloring is a technique where one color is prominent in the final shot whereas all the other colors have either been changed to monochrome or had their color saturation levels lowered during post-production.

The key with spot coloring in camera is to look for naturally occurring examples of color pops as opposed to making changes in post-production to highlight a particular color. This purple flower pops against the green of the leaves.

Before we move forward on this subject, I have to say that I am not downplaying or downgrading selective coloring versus the spot color technique. If there is one thing that this photography journey has taught me, it is that there is a market for every style of photography.

Each style of photography has its fans and its critics – that’s just the way the industry works. You just have to decide which camp you want to be in and run with that. I use spot coloring as I compose my shots in-camera. Unfortunately, rarely do I see a good use of selective coloring in post-production.

My lovely client, in her red sari, stood out against this historic yellow brick building. This is a perfect example of spot color. By placing the bright red clothing against the reduced color tone and vibrancy of the building, the eye is directed right toward the subject.

I don’t know about you, but being in front of the computer for an extended period of time editing my images is not the most productive use of my time. If I can get the shot as close to how I envision it to be in-camera, then post-production is just about adding the finishing touches so it becomes relatively easy.

Here is a link to another recent dPS article about tips for quick editing. For me, spot coloring is a way to achieve an effect that fits my brand, my aesthetics, and my style of photography. Also, note that a spot color in your frame doesn’t have to be bright and vibrant. Sometimes, color contrast or a change in color hue is enough to move the eyes to the subject.

Advantages of Spot Coloring In-Camera

Colorful Italian gelato against the brick façade gives the right amount of soft color pop in this “subtle” use of spot color.

Spot coloring in-camera, if done correctly, can help you in the following ways:

#1 – It provides a clear definition of your subject.

By isolating your subject by way of color, you give a clear definition of the subject and help it stand out in an otherwise busy/crowded frame.

#2 – It helps you understand the relationship between colors.

Some colors work together, and others just don’t. Understanding the relationship between complementary colors and opposing colors can go a long way to creating images that are aesthetically pleasing and on point for your brand and your portfolio.

When practicing your spot color technique, keep a copy of the color wheel with you when you are creating images or studying the images of others to see how colors work together or against each other. You can print a color wheel off of the internet or find one in your local art supply store.

By No machine-readable author provided. Bwilliam assumed (based on copyright claims). [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5 ], via Wikimedia Commons

#3 – Spot color makes images more impactful, images that have strong clear subjects.

These are more impactful when compared to images that are busy and cluttered and don’t give the viewer a sense of what is happening in the frame.

#4 – It slows you down to observe first and then click later.

When you observe a scene intentionally for the play of colors, patterns, and textures, you automatically slow down and learn to see first and then click the camera. Often, we are so focused on just clicking and getting something captured as opposed to photographing the right subject the right way.

If nothing else, this process will help you get away from the “spray and pray” mentality (photograph multiple frames at once and hope one of them works). Trying to use spot color can help you to slow down and analyze your scene. Ultimately, this will help you develop as a photographer instead of relying on the “spray and pray” technique.

Creative spot coloring can be done for any genre of photography: portraits, travel, and still life. Of course, some are easier than others, but this look is achievable in all these areas.

Spot Coloring in People Photography and Portraits

By choosing a pallet that complements the background, I was able to bring focus to my clients instead of having them blend into the frame. Here the red clothing worked really well against the white of the snow. This example is a bright, vibrant use of spot color. Note that they are not all wearing the same colors – but they do all have some common elements of the red which collectively looks well matched.

When you are photographing people (e.g. families and kids), a simple tool like a style guide can go a long way. I proactively send a style guide, or what-to-wear for your portrait tips list, to my clients where I suggest clothing options and colors – basically, pieces that I know will photograph well according to the season and location.

For example, if we will be shooting outside in a park or out in nature, I will suggest colors and outfits that will not compete with all the greenery. During the fall season when we have gorgeous colors in the trees, I will suggest colors that go well with the oranges, browns, and reds that Mother Nature shares with us. This way, when I am composing my shots and directing my clients, I will use poses that will ensure the photos are aesthetically pleasing and that do not have too many competing colors in the frame.

This is a “professional use” of spot color. I am going to coordinate the colors so that my client stands out from the background while looking pleasing at the same time.

Now, before you accuse me of manipulating the client experience, I have to point out that in all my eight years of being a family photographer, I have yet to come across a client who does not appreciate the what-to-wear tips that I send them when they book my photography services.

Most people are extremely uncomfortable being in front of the camera and get stressed out on what to wear and how to dress. Anything that can help alleviate that pain is going to be a welcome and much-appreciated thing. They have no idea that it’s actually a technical and aesthetic consideration on my part. It makes my job easier!

Spot Coloring in Travel Photography

This colorful costume of the guards in the Vatican, Rome really stands out against the pastel colors of the building facade and the iron gate.

One of the key considerations to creating compelling travel images is to be aware of what is going on around you. Location is just as important as light. When you get to a scene, take a quick look around and do a quick mental assessment of everything that is happening around you. Colors, textures, light, and the subject all play a very important role in the final outcome of the image.

Think about how spot color could work for your shot. If you are in a location that has generally muted tones and colors, look for a subject that is a contrasting color to the rest of the scene. If framed correctly, that subject will carry the entire weight of the image, and the other colors will work in harmonizing the overall image around that subject.

On the other hand, if you were to choose a subject more or less similar in tones and colors to the background, the subject will likely blend in and the entire image may lack that oomph that you were hoping for. If you are in a busy, colorful location with lots of activity, try to isolate your subjects against a monotone background, thereby giving the subject a chance to stand out from the commotion.

Spot Coloring in Still Life Photography

I love photographing food because that means I get to munch on it after as opposed to snacking on junk food! Plus, there is no better learning tool for the spot color technique!

This is one of the easiest genres of photography where you can practice spot color easily. Why? You have complete control over all of the color elements.

Remember when I said spot color is an exercise in understanding the color pallet? When you are planning your still life imagery, you can choose the colors (from opposite ends of the color wheel) to add that element of color pop to your images. You will also learn how effectively different colors work together to create a composition.

Spot color can be used with any genre of photography. However, the still life genre is a particularly useful learning experience because you have plenty of time and you control all of the colors that will be introduced into the picture!

Summing Up

I hope these examples help you to understand that just like many other techniques, spot coloring is a way to add creativity and fun to your images. Do you use spot color in your images? Share in the comments below.

The post How to Use Spot Coloring in Your Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 14, 2018
Optical Versus Electronic Viewfinders: Which is Best for You?
In this article, we’ll take a look at optical versus electronic viewfinders so you can get a better understanding of the differences and strengths and weaknesses of each.

Coke versus Pepsi, Star Wars versus Star Trek, football versus futbol. The world is full of great rivalries, and photography is no exception. Aside from simple brand loyalty and lens preference, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other tools, features, and options that photographers to argue about. One of the most recent but most pronounced has to do with how you see the world in front of your lens.

Some cameras have optical viewfinders while others sport more technologically advanced versions called electronic viewfinders. Other cameras even have hybrid options that attempt to combine the best of both worlds. So which is better? Just like most rivalries, that question is impossible to answer, but it is worth exploring some of their individual strengths and weaknesses to help you know which one might be right for you.

Seeing the scene

A viewfinder is one of the most basic elements of any camera; it’s what you use to look at what you will be photographing. When you hold your camera up to your eye, whether you’re shooting DSLR or mirrorless, the tiny little hole you look through is what’s known as the viewfinder. This is what you use to compose your shots.

Some cameras forego the viewfinder altogether and just have a giant LCD screen on the back, which is how all mobile phones work. But it’s not uncommon for many cameras to include a viewfinder along with the rear screen.

It’s not just a holdover from days gone by, and even in today’s fast-paced tech-centric world, there is a myriad of reasons why many photographers prefer to compose their shots with the viewfinder instead of the rear LCD screen.
- The scene appears much larger when held up to your eye which gives you a better sense of how your picture will look.
- Holding your camera up to your face also has the rather practical benefit of making things more stabilized.
- Viewfinders in DSLR (and more mirrorless) cameras often contain a row of numbers and indicators at the bottom showing you things like your aperture, shutter speed, metering mode, shots remaining, and more.
Optical viewfinders have a row of exposure and photo information at the bottom to help you as you shoot pictures.

Optical Viewfinders

Despite being decades-old technology, optical viewfinders still have many staunch supporters in photography today, with good reason. Their most important benefit, and the reason many photographers prefer them, is that they present an unfiltered and unaltered view of the scene in front of you as you are composing your shot.

Looking through an optical viewfinder, or OVF, is no different than looking through a window: nothing is changed in any way, shape, or form. This lets you see exactly what your shot will look like, and the view is not dependent on any type of fancy technology in order to function.

Optical viewfinders work even if your camera is turned off, in much the same way that looking through binoculars, a telescope, or even a paper towel roll does not require a battery. OVFs have no issue with accurate color rendition or screen refresh rates, and they work the same in bright light as they do in low light.

Most optical viewfinders also have indicators to show things like focus points and framing guides. When you half-press the shutter button to focus your camera, a small dot or square will show up in your camera’s OVF to let you know where the point of focus will be, and you can use a dial or knob on your camera to change this if you prefer.

Limitations of OVFs

However, not everything is sunshine and roses in the land of optical viewfinders. They do have some significant limitations that could be a factor depending on the type of photographs you take.

One of the most important is that you can’t see your image when you take a picture – a phenomenon known as viewfinder blackout. When you press the shutter button the mirror in a DSLR camera flips up and out of the way to let light pass through to the image sensor, which means the OVF goes completely dark.

This is not very noticeable when using fast shutter speeds but if you are shooting at about 1/30th of second or slower you will see a big blank box of nothing for a brief moment whenever you take a picture. In most situations, this blackout period is not going to make or break the photograph but it can cause issues if you are shooting fast-moving subjects. In those cases, the short amount of time that the OVF is blank is enough for the object you are photographing to move around quite a bit and it can take some practice to get used to this type of shooting.

Disadvantage

Another disadvantage of optical viewfinders is that they show you the world around you as it really is, not as it will appear in your digital photograph. The OVF sees what your eyes see, which is not necessarily the same as what your camera’s image sensor sees.

Unless you have a solid grasp on metering modes and how they affect your exposure, you might end up with pictures that are too bright or too dark, especially if there is a great deal of light and shadow in the scene itself. Looking through the OVF you might think your pictures are going to be just fine only to realize later that they are under or overexposed. Unless you shoot in RAW there might not be much you can do about it.

Electronic Viewfinders

A few years ago, this discussion about optical versus electronic viewfinders would have been more of an academic exercise without a whole lot of practical value because EVFs simply couldn’t compete with their analog counterparts in practical terms. Their list of downsides was as long as a 70-200mm lens, and aside from a few key benefits, there wasn’t much reason to use an EVF compared to an OVF.

However as time marches on and technology gets better and better, electronic viewfinders have now just about reached parity with optical viewfinders. They are not just a viable option, but in some cases are a superior one for some photographers.

Main difference

The most obvious difference with electronic viewfinders is that just like looking at the LCD screen on the back of your camera, you see a digital representation of the world in front of your camera instead of the actual world that your eye sees. An EVF is a tiny high-resolution screen that you hold less than an inch from your eye. Because it is entirely digital, it can show you a wealth of information and data that you simply can’t get with an optical viewfinder.

Benefits and bonuses of EVFs

While optical viewfinders have static overlays with framing guides and focus points splayed across your field of view, electronic viewfinders can show all kinds of information that is highly useful when taking photographs. You can see things like a live histogram and digital level along with the usual collection of exposure and metering information. But the ace up the sleeve of any OVF is its ability to show you exactly what your photograph will look like, not what the world in front of the lens looks like.

Electronic viewfinders will let you see instantly, in real-time, whether your shot is exposed correctly. This allows you to quickly made adjustments not based on a light meter (though you certainly can) but on the final image and how you want it to appear.

Things OVF can’t provide

If you’re shooting in a black and white mode, then that’s precisely what you will see as you look through the EVF to compose your image. You will also see the depth of field reflected exactly as the final image will appear, and you can watch it change in real-time as you adjust your focus point or aperture.

To put it simply, EVFs remove much of the guesswork inherent in OVFs. In many cases, this makes the act of taking pictures much easier, especially for new photographers.

Getting the exposure right on this shot was easier thanks to the electronic viewfinder in my Fuji X100F.

Due to their electronic nature, EVFs gives you options that an OVF is simply incapable of doing. Many cameras with EVFs allow you to check focus by enlarging a portion of your image so it fills the screen, and you can often get visual aids like focus peaking in the EVF as well. You can use an EVF to go through menus, review pictures, and even record and review movie footage you have captured with your camera–all things that are impossible with an OVF.

Drawbacks of EVFs

There are, as you might expect, some important downsides to EVFs not the least of which is power consumption. Optical viewfinders work without any batteries at all, whereas electronic viewfinders require constant power to operate. It’s not uncommon for cameras that rely on electronic viewfinders to have much shorter battery lives than their optical counterparts, and many photographers who use these cameras are in the habit of carrying spare batteries for a day of shooting.

Electronic viewfinders also suffer from screen refresh rate issues, which means that they can be difficult to use in situations with a lot of fast-moving action. Some EVFs have a great deal of lag which means the image you see is just slightly behind what is actually happening. While they have certainly gotten much better in recent years, they are still not quite on par with optical viewfinders in this regard (in my opinion).

Finally, even though electronic viewfinders show you a good representation of what your final image will look like they don’t quite have the same color range and resolution as what you will see in your photographs. Even the best EVFs top out at 3 megapixels with most hovering around 1-2, which means you’re looking at a much lower-resolution version of what you will see in your pictures.

So which is better?

Like many aspects of photography, this issue isn’t about whether an optical versus electronic viewfinder is better, but which one will suit you and your needs as a photographer. Some people prefer the analog precision of an optical viewfinder, while others like the high-tech features offered by electronic viewfinders. At the end of the day, what really matters is that you have the right tool for the job. So if you tend to prefer one of these over the other then, by all means, go ahead and use it.

I would like to add one caveat to all this, which is if you have not used an EVF in a few years you might want to give it a try. The shortcomings of EVFs are rapidly being addressed by many camera manufacturers today, and EVFs from days gone by have been eclipsed many times over by their modern counterparts. It might be worth your time to go to your local camera store and check out one of the newer models with a built-in EVF and see what you think, just so you can make an informed decision when choosing your next camera.

What about you? Do you prefer optical or electronic viewfinders? Leave your thoughts below. I’d love to hear from the dPS community about all of this, and I’m sure other readers would like having your thoughts as a way of learning more about this whole issue.

The post Optical Versus Electronic Viewfinders: Which is Best for You? appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
May 14, 2018
Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites – Which is Best for You?

One of the joys of photography is sharing it with the world. Once upon a time, a photography portfolio was a collection of prints, but digital photography and the internet have changed everything. Photography portfolios these days come in many forms, and they are almost exclusively online.

So, do you need a portfolio, and how do you decide where to proudly display your photos for the world to see?

Why You Need a Photography Portfolio

You may be asking why you need a portfolio at all. Maybe you’re happy keeping your photos to yourself and never sharing or printing them for anyone else to see? It’s your photography, and you can do what you like with it. But, there are a few benefits that only come from sharing your work, though.

A photography portfolio allows other people to see and enjoy your creations. I’m betting you love not only the process of creating images but also the final product. So why not let others appreciate your artwork too?

You will be driven to stretch yourself and work on improving your photography if you put it out there for others to see. This is often a quiet voice nudging you to try a new technique or take a workshop or develop your post-production skills. A portfolio opens your photography up to critique, which is a little daunting, but I’ve found it to be positive and helpful most of the time.

A portfolio is also necessary if you ever plan to sell your photography. This isn’t for everyone, and I wouldn’t recommend that this be your primary motivation, but it’s worth considering. You may not think you want to make money with your photography, or not yet at least, but if and when that time comes, you will be better prepared if you already have an online presence and portfolio.

Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites

The options for displaying your photography portfolio online can be a little overwhelming. A quick google search for “photography portfolio website” returns 48 million results. The first question you need to ask is whether a paid or free service is best for you? There are many options within each category, but they each have their pros and cons.

It’s also worth noting that “photography portfolio” doesn’t necessarily look how you expect. In fact, you may already have a portfolio online, you just aren’t thinking about it in that way yet. Let’s look at a few of the options and you’ll see what I mean.

Free Services

If you’ve ever shared any of your photos online, whether on social media or on a photo-sharing website, then you already have an online portfolio. Although not generally considered portfolio websites, some social networks actually make great free portfolios.

Photo sharing websites are a great place to display your portfolio for free. They’re aimed more towards photographers than most social networks, so often include features that may assist you in using them as your primary portfolio.

Pros

Other than being free, the biggest advantage of free services is the volume of traffic. The larger websites are among the biggest on the internet, so the potential for people seeing your photos is far greater. With all these visitors and traffic comes community. The ability to engage with other users is a huge advantage in my opinion. They have become the modern camera club. They are places where you can not only find an audience for your work, but other photographers to inspire you and network with.

Free services are constantly pushing forward with new features and technology, so you get to be on the cutting edge. The regular updates can be frustrating at times, but I think the good far outweighs the bad in this regard.

These are also the places that you are likely to be found by buyers. One of my first magazine features was an image that was found on Flickr by a photo editor searching for a specific image to buy. Again, this isn’t for everyone, but something worth considering if you are wanting to sell your photos.

Cons

There are downsides to using a free service, though. The biggest one for me is that you are depending on someone else’s platform to build your portfolio. Their primary interest is profit, not making you rich or famous. They can and will change things whenever they like and you have no say in the matter. If they close down or are sold to a new owner, that can mean a lot of hard work goes down the drain.

You have little or no ability to customize your profile page, meaning you have no options for how your portfolio looks. This may not be something you’re concerned about, but it’s worth considering. Free services make money by either selling ads (social networks) or offering premium features to users (photo sharing sites). This is fine, as it keeps the service free for those who don’t want to pay, but it means you’ll miss out on some of the best features the service has to offer.

You’re probably already using one or more free portfolio services, or are at least aware of them. Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest ones and see if they’re right for you.

Flickr

The photo-sharing website Flickr has been around forever and was one of the first places I began sharing my photography when I started out. With around 75 million users, it is a giant in the photo-sharing world. Flickr’s biggest strength lies in its communities. I have been involved with many Flickr groups where I have met lots of other photographers and learned a ton.

Flickr’s popularity has declined over the last few years as users have moved on to other things, and the Yahoo-owned website (recently acquired by SmugMug) hasn’t done itself any favors by being incredibly slow to innovate and keep up with the competition.That being said, it still has a thriving photography community and is worth considering.

500px

Like many Flickr users, I abandoned ship when I discovered 500px, a newer photo sharing website that offered many of the same features but with a fresh new user experience. 500px also used an algorithm that meant you were far more likely to see amazing photography on its “popular” page. The standard of photography seemed higher, so it naturally attracted a lot of photographers.

500px has never reached the same volume of users as Flickr, with current numbers sitting around 12 million, but the service has added new features like communities and their “Marketplace”, which is essentially a way to license your images to sell as prints or stock.

500px has made headlines recently in the photography world after it was sold to VCG, the “Getty Images of China”. This has been a hugely controversial issue for 500px users, and there has been a mass exodus of previously loyal users. Don’t let that be the deciding factor for you, as 500px still has a lot to offer as far as free portfolio websites go.

Instagram

You may think of Instagram as just another social network, but you might be surprised how many photographers are now using it as their primary portfolio.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that Instagram is currently the world’s number one photography app, and for good reason. People want to go where the masses are. With over 800 million users, there is no question as to whether it’s a place to consider sharing your portfolio.

Instagram can be used in many different ways, but if you choose to use it as a portfolio, you must learn to be selective about what you share. Try to resist the temptation to share every photo. Curate your feed well, and you will have a portfolio that will attract people to it. If you must share photos of your cat, try using Instagram’s awesome Stories feature.

Pinterest

Just like Instagram, Pinterest has grown into a social network with a massive number of users, and it has the added advantage of being heavily visual. It’s a great place to be able to share your portfolio with the potential of being seen by a large audience.

Pinterest allows you to create boards and then “pin” your photos to as many boards as you like. You can create a different board for each photography category or location, such as “Weddings” or “Australia”. You can even have a “Portfolio” board where you only pin your best photos.

Pinterest also allows you to pin web pages, so if you have a blog you can pin your posts. The ability for others to re-pin your pins to their own boards means your work can be seen by a lot more people. You can also create inspiration boards for re-pinning other photographers’ pins. With all these features, Pinterest is definitely worth considering as a place to share your photography portfolio for free.

Paid Services

When it comes to paid photography portfolio websites, there aren’t as many options, but the ones that are available give you pretty amazing bang for your buck. Most professional photographers use one of these services these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a professional to use one.

They all have a range of options that vary in cost and features, but if you are considering a paid service for your portfolio, I’m sure you can find something that will fit your budget and needs.

Pros and Advantages

As with the free options, these services have their pros and cons. The biggest advantage, in my opinion, is the ability to customize how your portfolio looks and feels. You can change colors, layouts, text, logos, etc., all without needing to know how to code websites.

Most of them include unlimited storage for your photos, meaning you can upload as many high-resolution images as you want. This not only means you never have to delete another photo to make space for new ones, but you also have a copy of your photos backed up in the cloud.

The ability to sell your photos as prints or license them as stock directly from the website is a major attraction for many photographers. Each service’s e-commerce system works differently, but if this is a feature you want, you will find something that works for you. Some paid portfolio websites also allow you to deliver image files directly to clients, which works great if you’re a wedding or portrait photographer, or if you want to deliver files directly to a magazine, etc.

If you have a blog, some of these services will allow you to integrate your domain with your portfolio. For example, you can make your portfolio URL something like “portfolio.yourdomainname.com” rather than “yourname.photoshelter.com”. Visitors to your portfolio won’t even know that they’re on another website.

Cons or Disadvantages

As you’re paying for premium features, there aren’t as many disadvantages of using a paid service. The main one is that they don’t have the social element that you get with photo-sharing sites or social networks. Getting your portfolio in front of eyeballs is a lot harder without the ability for viewers to engage with your work like they can on social media.

Although you have far more options to customize the way your portfolio appears, you’re still at the whim of the website that it is hosted on, and therefore how it functions. If you don’t like the features a website offers, it’s take-it-or-leave-it.

The following paid photography portfolio websites are by no means an exhaustive list, but these are some of the largest and most popular amongst photographers.

PhotoShelter

This is the first paid portfolio service I used for my own photography. PhotoShelter offers some of the best photography portfolios money can buy. Their websites look and work great, and their e-commerce features are second-to-none.

You can sell and license your photos directly through the website, and they even offer self-fulfilled printing if you want to print and ship images yourself. Although it’s one of the most expensive services, PhotoShelter is a solid option.

SmugMug

I switched from PhotoShelter to SmugMug a few years ago after running an experiment to see how the two big boys compared in terms of Google search traffic. SmugMug won hands-down, so I moved my portfolio over. The two are very comparable in terms of cost and features.

If you want a beautiful portfolio website that works well and offers unlimited storage, I would definitely consider SmugMug. They also offer a solid e-commerce system, although they let themselves down with their refusal to allow self-fulfilled printing, despite users requesting it for years.

Zenfolio

I haven’t used Zenfolio personally, but from what I’ve seen and heard from other photographers, it’s a service worth considering. Their websites look great, although aren’t as customizable as the competition. Zenfolio is one of the more affordable services available, especially if you aren’t planning to sell your photos. It’s definitely, worth a look.

Editor’s note: I personally use Zenfolio (screenshot below) and have used their print fulfillment services for clients, as well as for file downloads. It all works seamlessly and you can set your own prices with the Pro or Advanced plans. So, I can add my recommendation for this service.

Zenfolio photography portfolio of Darlene Hildebrandt, dPS Managing Editor.

Self-Hosted Website and Portfolio

The last option sits somewhere between paid and free, and is yet another option to consider. If you want total freedom to customize and run your portfolio website however you want, you need your own self-hosted website.

The easiest way to do this is with an installation of WordPress on your own domain. It’s cheap and easy to set up with a service like BlueHost. Once it’s up and running, the options for your portfolio are endless. There are many free and paid gallery plugins, and if you want to sell your photos you can do it directly from your own website with a plugin like WooCommerce, all without having to pay anyone else a commission, so you get 100% of the profit.

If you have time (and are technology savvy) and you like to have total control over how things look and work, this is a great option. It does require a lot more user input, though, so be careful about rushing into it. If you prefer something that’s easier to set up and does most of the heavy lifting for you, one of the paid services is probably best.

How do you choose?

With so many options, it’s hard to know which is best for you. The good news is that whatever you choose, nothing is permanent. I have used almost all of the services that I’ve mentioned in this article. They all worked for me at the time that I used them, and then I moved on when they no longer served my needs.

Try one or two of the free ones and see if you like them. If you think one of the paid services might be for you, they all offer free trials, so you don’t need to commit until you’re ready.

Whatever you decide, remember to have fun and don’t take it too seriously. Sharing your photos with the world can be one of the most enjoyable parts of photography. I would love to know about your experiences with portfolio websites. Have you used any of the websites mentioned? Are there any others you would recommend? Questions? Let me know in the comments area below.

The post Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites – Which is Best for You? appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 13, 2018
How to Use the Lightroom HSL Panel for Landscape Photo Editing

If you are a landscape photographer, you might already be using various lens filters to get desired colors and saturation in your images. What if you do not own these filters or forget to carry them along? There is a tool in Adobe Lightroom can help you.

The HSL (Hue, Saturation, and Luminance) tool is a savior for all photographers, especially those shooting landscapes. This is because the HSL tool allows you to adjust the hue, saturation, and luminance in your photos very efficiently.

Where is HSL Panel located in Lightroom?

First, you have to make sure that you are working on the Develop module, in order to access the HSL tool.

Once you are in the develop module, you can now see all the toolbars on the right-hand side of the window. Simply scroll down a bit until you see the “HSL / Color / B&W” panel. As you will be working on the HSL tool, just click on the “HSL” tab.

Using the Hue Sliders in HSL

The first tool that we shall be discussing is the Hue tab, which as the name suggests allows you to adjust the hue (or color tint) of a photo. Hue enables you to adjust the tones ranging from -100 to +100. In simple language, you can change the tone/tint of a particular color in a photo, but within the hue range. By default, Lightroom allows you to play with the hue of eight default colors as shown in the photo below.

For example, if you look at the comparison below the original color of the sky was blue (middle image below). So if I adjust the blue slider and take it all the way to -100, the color shifts from blue to a somewhat greenish color. Similarly, if I take the slider all the way to +100 the color shifts towards a magenta tone.

Hue adjustments with the Blue slider.

I know it looks disastrous, but this extreme example gives you an idea of how you can use the Hue tool when required. Let me share a perfect example with you that I achieved using the Hue adjustments.

LEFT: Original image RIGHT: Color corrected using the Hue tool

Using the Saturation Sliders in HSL

Now once you are done adjusting the hue of the colors that you desire, you can move on to the saturation tab in the HSL panel. We all love saturation in landscape photos especially in the sky, don’t we?

Using the saturation tab, you can adjust the intensity of a particular color from the list of eight default colors. Unlike the saturation slider in the Basic LR panel where the whole photo gets affected, here you can selectively adjust the saturation of a single color.

Suppose you want to boost the saturation of blue color in the sky, simply drag the blue slider towards the right and see the magic. If you wish to make it less saturated, mode the slider towards the left and experiment with selective coloring effect.

Similarly, you can perform repeated actions using different colors in your frame and get a well-saturated photo.

The blue saturation slider on the HSL panel in action.

Using the Luminance Sliders in HSL

The last tool from the HSL panel is Luminance, which allows you to adjust the brightness of a particular color tone. So basically you can increase or reduce the brightness of a color by adjusting the Luminance slider.

There are situations when the sky is way brighter than the mountains or your subject, or maybe your subject is brighter than other elements of your frame. Using the luminance sliders, you can balance the brightness of the scene.

For instance, in the photo below, the sky is overexposed and I want the blue color to be dark in order to get more contrast in the sky. Using the Luminance tool I adjusted the blur color slider to -80 to get the desired result as shown below.

Choosing Colors Manually in HSL

There are chances that the color that you want to choose to adjust the Hue, Saturation, or Luminance is not amongst the eight default colors. No worries, you can still adjust the HSL settings using a special feature called the Targeted Adjustment Tool which is located on the HSL toolbar itself (as shown in red below).

The targeted adjustment tool is highlighted in red.

Simply tap on the icon and take it over to the exact spot where you wish to adjust the hue, saturation, or luminance. Now click and hold at that point in your frame and drag the mouse up/down to adjust the sliders automatically.

Some colors are a mix of two or more primary colors, so you may see multiple sliders being adjusted when you click and drag the mouse. For example, green grass isn’t always just green, it usually has a lot of yellow in it as well.

Final Words

Hue, saturation, and luminance play an important rule in landscape photo color correction, do you agree? Using the HSL sliders, you get a lot more flexibility as you can perform better color correction based on particular colors.

Be it changing the hue of trees from green to orange, boosting the saturation of the sky, or adjusting the luminance of the scene, the HSL tool in Lightroom takes care of it pretty well.

The post How to Use the Lightroom HSL Panel for Landscape Photo Editing appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 12, 2018
5 Ways to Find Great Locations for Travel Photography

In this article, you’ll get five tips to help you find great locations for travel photography.

The issue

The use of cell phones has truly changed the face of photography. All realms have been affected. Travel photography like all other genres has changed. Nowadays the world is so easily accessible through the internet, so many famous sites have been shot over and over again. Google the Eiffel Tower and millions of images will pop up.

We stopped to visit the small town in Wales that my parents lived in when they were young, and discovered a beautiful moody beach.

So when traveling how do you find things to shoot? Yes of course still shoot the famous landmarks and sites. You have to shoot them! How could anyone go to London without checking out Big Ben or London Bridge? (Unless of course the clock was covered in scaffolding for maintenance like it was when I visited.)

As always, I’m going to suggest you push yourself past these common sites and look deeper into a location. The question is how do you find great locations for travel photography and how can you plan your trip, so you make the most of these sites?

It’s time to look into a few methods for finding fantastic photographic opportunities when traveling at home or abroad.

1) Travel Books

A shot from my Instagram feed. I’m always researching my next location, even when sitting in a car waiting for my kids.

Tried and trusted travel books can help you begin your search for interesting places to photograph. While not focused solely on photography, they provide you with the background information and history of different sites.

All of this is, of course, relevant for travel photography. You need to know the ins and outs of visiting a country and all its sites. There’s nothing worse than showing up expecting to be able to shoot a variety of historic buildings only to discover they’re closed on Sundays.

Having a solid knowledge of a country is so important when going to photograph a location. What are the rules for photography? How will people react when you take their photo? Travel guide books can help you in the primary stages of your research.

Snowdonia is the main tourist location but when we stopped to check out the view we stumbled upon the training grounds for the airforce planes zipped through this valley. It was impressive.

One of my favorite series of digging into a place is the 500 Hidden Secrets Books. I love them for the info and the pointers. They usually contain some small less popular sites and the books are nicely organized. Another favorite that has never steered me wrong is the Lonely Planet Guides. Whatever you prefer, there are tons of books out there that can assist you in your primary travel research.

2) Travel Blogs and Articles

I often find inspiration for travel by reading articles on the internet. Of course, check out the famous websites like the travel lists from Forbes and National Geographic but I also like to dig into some rather interesting blogs. There are lots of people visiting the world, discovering places, and providing inspiration. I like to take a look at what the folks at Drink Tea and Travel have discovered as well as Dan Flying Solo.

A small out of the way beach we found through a hiking website.

3) Travel sharing websites

A site like Trover can be very inspiring and informative when trying to research a destination. I’m heading to New York and Portugal shortly so this site will feature fairly heavily in my research. It’s very much a social sharing site that allows you to get some first-hand information about specific locations.

But it’s important to plan when going traveling with photography as your focus and being able to get first-hand information is important. Let’s face it; if the author is not a photographer, they have no idea how important it is to visit a site at the right time of day. So, by all means, check out a ton of photo sharing sites before you head to any location.

A shot of the impressive Unesco Heritage Site, Harlech Castle. You will find this site on the main tourist trail in Wales. It’s still worth a visit, though.

4) Ask Locals

One of the best places I found to shoot was based on information I got from a local. You have to be careful when you ask. Always take the proper safety precautions but they know their home well, and they know the hidden away amazing places.

Case in point, people come to Canada and they often skip Toronto and head straight to Niagara Falls. Their response is often the same. The falls are nice but the rest of the town, it’s kitschy. As a local, I know all about the tourist trap areas around the falls. I often direct people to see the falls but to also visit Toronto too. They are often surprised at what they find in this frequently overlooked city.

So go for it chat up the locals to find out what they know about their home. Just be aware and always use safety precautions when meeting people in person or giving our your personal information or travel plans.

A shot taken on my phone. We found this amazing restaurant by chatting with a bouncer in Cardiff.

5) When you get there take a calculated risk and follow a whim

Some of the best photographs I’ve ever captured have occurred because I let fate guide my steps. I chose to leave the beaten path and explore. I revelled in the mystery of getting lost.

You will find that these detours almost always pay off. You find out of the way places that provide you with some insight into the wonder of a location. Plus there’s always the excitement of adventure and the road less traveled.

Most of my favourite memories come from these moments when I have no idea where I’m going or what might occur.

A more artistic shot of Harlech Castle.

Summary

There are endless places to discover. Travel photography is both exciting and challenging. Don’t hesitate to discover some amazing things.

Share your favorite methods of finding great photography locations. The more ways we share, the more we discover about this incredible world in which we live. So go ahead post your favorite travel articles, share your stories with locals and let’s make a huge list of resources we can all use for finding those amazing locations we love to capture so much.

Best day ever! On a side trip, we found this waterfall and had a blast wandering around behind it.

The post 5 Ways to Find Great Locations for Travel Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 12, 2018
Weekly Photography Challenge – Time for a Picnic
Whether it’s spring where you live or fall, it’s always a good time for a picnic! And what better way to cap it off than by taking some photos as well for this week’s photography challenge.

Photo by Lucie Capkova on Unsplash

Think of all the things you could photograph at a picnic like:
- The food (get some tips on that here)
- People enjoying themselves
- The table and surrounding scenery
- Ants if they show up to the party (get out your macro lens!)
- Patterns
- Abstracts
The sky is the limit – oh wait, you could photograph that too!

Photo by Juja Han on Unsplash

Weekly Photography Challenge – Picnic

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. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

Win Prizes from ViewBug

We’re excited to introduce a sponsor and prizes for this week’s challenge. ViewBug is the World’s biggest photo contest community with over 70 contests always open for submissions. Win prizes, exposure, and the bragging rights. It’s FREE to join! This week, ViewBug will be awarding three winners prizes!

One Challenge winner will receive 1 year of ViewBug PRO ($ 139 value) plus a free photography logo bundle ($ 59 value). Two Runners Up will receive a 1 year of ViewBug Premium ($ 59 value) plus a free photography logo bundle ($ 59 value).

To Enter

Participate in the challenge as you normally would (as described above) by posting your photo. To be considered for a prize you just need to complete the entry form below (or via this link) and submit the link to your photo.

The Contest is open continuously from 05:00am Australian Eastern Standard Time (“AEST”) on May 12, 2018 (03:00pm United States Eastern Daylight Time (“EDT”) on May 11, 2018), through May 19, 2018, 04:59am AEST (May 18, 2018, 02:59pm EDT) (the “Contest Promotion Period”).

Full Terms and Conditions Digital Photography School Weekly Challenge Picnic – ViewBug T&C

Winners are announced on the Weekly Challenge Winners page on 26th of May.

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The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Time for a Picnic appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
May 12, 2018
Camera Basics – Two Video Tutorials to Help You Master Your Camera Settings

Okay so you’ve got a new camera and want to learn some camera basics, these two video tutorials will give you a hand. Or perhaps you’ve been shooting for a while and want to get off Auto mode – this applies to you as well.

Camera Basics

In this first video, Peter McKinnon explains the three parts of the exposure triangle in an easy to understand format.

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Understanding Exposure

Next, in this second video, Tony Northrup demonstrates the basics of exposure and how the elements of the exposure triangle work together.

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One thing he explains well is how adjusting just one of the three parts of the exposure triangle doesn’t make the photo darker or brighter when using one of the auto or semi-automatic modes.

Tony encourages you to watch his demonstration and then set up a similar arrangement in your home and try the experiments yourself. This is a great way to learn so that you can really see the results of changing the various settings and understand how they work.

The post Camera Basics – Two Video Tutorials to Help You Master Your Camera Settings appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 12, 2018
Tips for Doing Better Indoor Sports Photography

Fast-paced movement across the court or rink, cheering crowds, the thrill of the win (or agony of defeat). These are the myriad of elements waiting to be captured by your camera when you photograph a sports event.

Whether you’re taking pictures at the home arena of your favorite pro team or snapping away in the gym at a high school game, shooting indoors requires you make certain preparations. You must get a handle on your surroundings to ensure sharp, compelling photos that will make viewers feel like they are part of the action.

Select the appropriate lens

Typically for indoor sports, you’ll want to have lenses that open to an aperture of f/2.8 to let in the maximum amount of light. A versatile lens to start with would be a 70-200mm f/2.8. From there, it depends on whether you’re shooting hockey, basketball, or another indoor sport.

For basketball, for instance, a 24-70mm lens is ideal so you can capture the athlete’s full body as he or she jumps up for the basket. For other indoor sports, a 300mm f/2.8 lens will serve you well so can zoom in on the puck or ball.

Because most pro arenas are now using higher-intensity LED lights, a lens with a 100-400mm or 150-600mm focal-length range, even with a maximum f-stop of f/6.3, is also a viable option.

Prepare for the big game

To get the lay of the land, you’ll want to do your homework on the arena or venue in which you’ll be shooting. If you can, find out what kind of lighting the location has and its intensity, either by visiting the venue yourself or asking other photographers who’ve shot there. This will help you better prepare what lens assortment you will need to bring.

Pack your gear bag early, perhaps a day in advance if possible, then unpack it and look at it again on the day of the event to make sure you’re not missing anything. There’s nothing worse than getting to an event and realizing that you left a lens behind (to save a little weight) that you would’ve been better off having with you.

Also, scope out what the conditions will be like beforehand. Although you won’t have to worry about certain elements as you would outdoors (e.g., it won’t be raining inside), you still need to be vigilant.

Case in point: At the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang this year, they kept the main arena at 53 degrees (11.7 c) so the ice would stay in perfect condition. That’s a lot colder than what photographers are used to inside most National Hockey League arenas. It’s key to know those logistics in advance so you can make the necessary preparations to keep your body warm, as well as to keep your equipment in tip-top shape by protecting it where applicable.

Scout out the best vantage point

Photographing indoor sports is all about focusing on the athletes’ eyes, so being at floor level is usually ideal. If it’s hockey, you’ll want to be at ice level in what’s called the “deep corner position,” which is just south of where the goalie’s line intersects the boards. From that angle, you’ll have the ability to shoot the entire ice.

For basketball, being on the floor halfway between the side of the court and the basket works best. That offers you the opportunity to not only see the entire playing surface but also to capture players jumping up toward the hoop or coming in for the goal.

Compensate for various lighting setups

As mentioned earlier, most modern indoor arenas today have switched to LED lighting. So using regular auto white balance (AWB) is usually sufficient to get you close to the proper color. If you’re using the Kelvin temperature setting, it can range from 4100-5400K, depending on how they’ve set up the LED lights.

In some hockey arenas, if AWB isn’t cutting it, use a custom white balance and take a reading off of a neutral surface in the arena. In other arenas, it is actually best to do a custom white balance by shooting towards the arena lights themselves. With hockey, for instance, the ice works well because you’ve got such a large white surface to use as your neutral tone.

In smaller venues, like high school or college gyms, the problem isn’t just that these places are poorly lit. They’re also illuminated with an assortment of different kinds of lights, whether they’re different-colored fluorescents, sodium vapor lamps, or older-style carbon arc lights. If that’s the case, you may find that as a player is dribbling down the court, the sequence of frames you get of that player will each be a bit different in color.

On Canon cameras, you can use the anti-flicker option to cut down on the pulsing from certain lights. That helps balance the color of the light, but in situations where it varies greatly, you can shoot in auto white balance and then tweak the image when you bring it into Photoshop.

One other thing to be aware of is shooting through glass. You’ll not only have to worry about reflections, but also the color cast that’s given off by some of the glass sheets used in arenas. Keep an eye out for that so you can adjust accordingly.

Nail down your camera settings

Exposure is going to depend on each venue’s lighting conditions, but one of the keys to this type of photography is that you need to freeze the action. Shooting at 1/1000th of a second or 1/1250th of a second will freeze most of the action you’ll find at indoor sporting venues.

In terms of ISO, it wouldn’t be unusual to be shooting at 4000 or 5000. Inside a pro arena, that could give you an f-stop of f/5.6 or f/6.3; in the worst-lit arenas, you could be down to f/2.8 or f/3.5.

Hone your focusing skills

You’ll want to use autofocus 99% of the time for indoor sports, although you can certainly override that in situations where the need arises. You may want to shoot in continuous autofocus mode, called AI Servo or Continuous/AF-C, depending on what camera you’re using. This allows you to photograph moving subjects while the camera keeps adjusting focus with the shutter button pressed halfway.

Or you may want to keep the shutter button separate from focusing and assign another button on the back of the camera to focus, a technique called back-button focusing. It all comes down to personal preference, which you’ll discover the more you shoot.

Either way, what’s critical for shooting indoor sports is that you select one point of focus. It’s infinitely faster than using the variable dots that manufacturers have built into the cameras, in which the camera decides which one of 61 different places to focus. Get a handle on the sport — and on individual players — so you’ll know when to press the shutter button.

Experience helps, but so does knowledge of the sport you’re photographing. That includes getting to know not only the ins and outs of the game but also individual players and their particular propensities, such as what side they tend to move toward or when they tend to shoot.

Practice this by selecting an individual player as he or she flies up the ice or runs up the court and concentrating on that, instead of simply following the puck or ball around. Eventually, you develop almost a sixth sense.

Shoot high, low, and 360 degrees around

If you want your photography to stand out, don’t settle for one shooting position. That can be achieved using more advanced techniques, such as using remote cameras. Or you can simply get up and move around the venue so that you’re able to place different backgrounds in your images.

You want to fill the frame, and it’s not always advisable to do so using Photoshop. It’s better to fill the frame in your camera.

Keep an eye on the horizon

They call it that for a reason – it’s horizontal. Double-check your background, such as the boards of an ice hockey rink, to make sure everything is straight, not crooked.

Watch your cropping

Don’t cut a player off at the joints, like at an athlete’s ankles or knees. It’s best to stick with waist-up or full length.

Focus on facial expressions and emotion

The best sports images show both jubilation and dejection in the same frame. Always be on the lookout for the sort of image where you can witness both teams participating and showing the full range of emotions in a game. That’s not to say the action shots aren’t important; it’s just that it adds so much more to show the players engaged in what they’re doing.

These kinds of photos are called “rounding out the take”. You don’t want to come away from an indoor sporting event with just 20 action images — a well-rounded photo narrative will include an action shot, a celebration, a dejection, some individual shots of stars that are playing, or rookie players, and then some ancillary images. Those could include, for example, photos of the officials, fans celebrating, or images of both of the goalies if you’re shooting hockey (just in case one of the goalies ends up being the big story of the game).

If you’re thinking of selling your images, you should also think more generically when it comes to indoor sports photos. In other words, you’ll want to photograph details that tell the story of the sport without pinpointing an individual player or team. That could entail, for instance, a close-up of a puck or a ball, a hand on a ball, or a stick on a puck. Close-ups of skates churning ice and creating ice spray can also tell an interesting story.

Arrive early and stay late

There’s nothing worse than rushing to an event and not having time to think out what you’re going to shoot. Some of your best images will come from those early arrivals and from sticking around after the final buzzer, whether it’s players heading into an arena and prepping for a game or images of the players leaving an event.

If you build in that bit of extra time, you could end up capturing shots that other photographers miss.

Disclaimer: Tamron is a paid partner of dPS.

The post Tips for Doing Better Indoor Sports Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

May 11, 2018