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Getting Started with Landscape Photography – 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

13 Feb

One of the things I like most about photography is that there is always more to learn. It keeps the mind active and the creative juices flowing. But the wealth of information out there can be overwhelming for beginners in landscape photography. Where do you start?

There are a few easy things you can do that will have an immediate impact on your photography so you can start making better images right away. Let’s focus on those and leave the more technical stuff for later.

1. Pay attention to the light

There is no such thing as bad light. The key is to understand what kinds of images are suitable under various lighting conditions.

Red Rock State Park, Arizona by Anne McKinnell - Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

During golden hour, the day’s last light makes the rocks glow.

The Golden Hour

This is the time right after sunrise and right before sunset when the sun is low in the sky and casts beautiful golden light. Start here! It’s hard to go wrong with golden light, which is the most popular time of day for photography.

Ajo, Arizona by Anne McKinnell - Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

The cactus in the foreground is in the shade while golden hour light reflects off the mountain in the background.

Bright Midday Light

The opposite of golden hour, the harsh direct light you find at midday can be the most difficult to work with – unless you photograph in the shade.

Just look for interesting subjects that are in the shade and leave the sky out of the frame. The even soft light is great for close-ups and flower photography.

Bush Lupin - Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

Flowers photographed in the shade.

There are more types of light to work with and different times of day to photograph, but start with these for the quickest results.

2. Remove distractions

Pay attention to the things in the background of your images and try to simplify the background as much as possible. Sometimes there is an unwanted object, like a trash can for example, that you might not notice unless you are looking for it. These things can often be hidden behind your main subject simply by moving to one side, photographing from a higher or lower perspective, or getting closer.

Try to simplify your composition as much as possible with fewer items in your scene. Find a way to photograph your main subject on a clean background.

Big surf on the Oregon Coast. Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

To make this image, I had to change my perspective to eliminate debris on the sand as well as other rocks and birds from the frame.

Beware of tree branches or other things that poke in to the edge of your frame. Before you take your shot, try to remember to do an “edge check”. Look around the edges of your frame and make sure it looks clean.

3. Look for one thing

Your photograph cannot be about everything. You need to decide what is most interesting in your scene and make your photograph about that. Get closer to it.

One exercise that will get you in this habit is to go on a photo walk with the purpose of looking for one particular element of design. You’ll find that when you set your mind on one thing, you’ll start to see it everywhere. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Textures and Patterns

Often beginning photographers will try to capture an entire vista in one photograph and don’t notice the details. But the more you train your eye to notice the details, the more interesting your photographs will become.

The best thing about photographing textures and patterns is that you don’t have to go far to find them. Your subject can be anything from rocks to grass or peeling paint. I’m sure you can find subjects with wonderful textures close to home. Try to fill your frame with the pattern.

Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, California - Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

Filling the frame with the pattern of colorful rocks.

Lines

Look for horizontal lines, vertical lines or diagonal lines. Try to find lines that lead the way to some interesting subject.

Colors

Take a look at the color wheel and notice complementary colors. Those are the ones that are opposites on the wheel such as blue and orange, red and green, or yellow and purple. Any scene with complementary colors is always striking (which is why so many photographers carry around a red umbrella or a red jacket for their partner to wear in a grassy or forest scene).

Bamboo Forest - Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

Complementary colors plus diagonal lines.

4. Make time to practice

It doesn’t take long to develop good habits and learn what makes an interesting photograph. But it can be hard to remember if you only go shooting once in awhile. Try to make a habit of doing it every day, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes. By doing this, you’ll reinforce the habit and find yourself seeing the potential for great images all around you all the time.

Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona - Getting Started with Landscape Photography - 4 Easy Tips for Beginners

Golden hour – there is still enough light to photograph the depths of the canyon while the last of the day’s light reflects off the top of the highest rock.

Conclusion

There are more technical things that you’ll want to start learning soon such as; how the exposure triangle works, understanding depth of field, picking the right shooting mode, focus settings, and more. It’s endless (which is a good thing).

But for now, these tips will get you on the right track so you are happy with your images right from the beginning. Have fun!

The post Getting Started with Landscape Photography – 4 Easy Tips for Beginners by Anne McKinnell appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Make Use of Foggy Surfaces for Abstract Photography

12 Feb

When I mention that one of my favorite subjects to photograph is foggy surfaces, I get a few weird looks. To the uninitiated, the subject is an unusual one and most likely a boring one too. Photographers in-the-know furrow their brow, recalling the dreaded lens fog plaguing important shoot days and holidays photos.

Nevertheless, diffused glass is a beautiful and extremely diverse tool, great for adding an atmospheric layer to any image.

How to Make Use of Foggy Surfaces in Photography

What is a foggy surface?

First of all, “foggy surfaces” (or fogged) is a term I use to encompass a whole wealth of surfaces that render softly focused images. Office partitions, shower doors, windows – there are hundreds of different sources of glass diffused organically by weather or intentionally by the manufacturer.

Frosted glass is an artificially diffused surface material. Created by sandblasting annealed glass, frosted glass is used to separate environments without sacrificing light. It suggests a sense of openness without sacrificing privacy. These surfaces diffuse and soften subjects to create dense, otherworldly subject matter that investigates form as much as they obscure.

How to Make Use of Foggy Surfaces in Photography

Due to scratches and reflections, this image has an extra layer of depth.

Where to find fogged surfaces

A great source of fogged glass is through your everyday exterior office window. Decorative or plain sheets of frosted glass are used as partitions, making use of natural light. Photographing objects through these types of glass creates beautiful, isolated studies of subjects matter.

Plant leaves pressed against the glass plays with light and form, unusual office chairs take on a new life framed by a foggy canvas. It’s amazing how little it takes to re-imagine form in a whole new way with something as simple as a thin layer of glass.

One of my favorite times for taking photographs is on a rainy day. The heavy atmosphere, the movement, the transformation of color and light – it’s all enticing to me and nothing illustrates this more than the view through a damp, slowly fogging window.

On a cold and wet day, warmer moisture in the air turns into condensation upon contact with cold air. Inside a vehicle, warm air brushes against the coldness of a window and this begin to collect as condensation on the glass. This fogs the window and the pane of glass frames and reflects the environment while housing the subject itself beyond the glass. It’s a bit of a mixture of art and science, and the results are really beautiful if you’re willing to brave the wet conditions.

This photograph was taken through a tram window on a cold and rainy night. Commuter’s coats and the lights in the tram create a surreal landscape of color.

The bad type of fog

Seeking out subjects in the rain as can also lead to “camera fog”. This is a type of fog you want to avoid. Transferring a camera from a warmer environment to a cooler one causes condensation inside the camera too. While a few rounds of camera fog won’t destroy a camera, taking steps to acclimatize your camera will prevent extra wear.

Before heading out for a rainy day photography walk, minimize the issue by putting your camera inside a plastic zip-lock bag until the temperature inside the bag and out have equalized. Depending on the difference in temperatures, you may need to leave your gear in the bag for a few hours to acclimatize. While it’s a bit of a pain, but it’s better to keep the fog outside of the camera!

Fogged glass can create beautiful abstract effects.

Photographing fogged surfaces rely on the light coming through the glass. Different times of the day can render completely different results.

How to photograph fogged surfaces

Photographing fogged surfaces is very similar to photographing transparent surfaces like glass. The strength of the light behind the subject will dictate how your subject will look. As you probably don’t have an opportunity to adjust the backlight, try taking photographs of subjects at different times of the day. The morning may depict an office plant in detail, but the light in the evening will lend more of a silhouette effect.

The result of an image taken through fogged glass also relies heavily on the proximity the subject to the glass itself. However, most subjects will be tucked behind a window or a building security system. Like street photography, this means that you’ll have to make the most of what you have.

From the exterior, closer objects, or even objects leaning against the glass will be the sharpest subjects. Distant subjects like faraway light sources are dispersed into the cloudy shades of the surface. It’s like having your focusing done for you. Try a few different angles and change your distance in relation to the subject.

Try to focus on detail rather than quantity, that way you will have a frame full of information rather than an empty frame of a faraway scene. If possible, try setting up a tripod so you’ll be able to use slower shutter speeds to capture the image. This isn’t ideal in every circumstance, however.

The post How to Make Use of Foggy Surfaces for Abstract Photography by Megan Kennedy appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Use ND Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene

12 Feb

Photography is the art of capturing light. In many instances, harnessing the light and properly exposing a scene means controlling it first. This is necessary for many landscape scenes where contrast is high. You have likely seen high contrast many times: a sunset with dark foreground elements, a church with deep shadows, or a moonrise over a snow-filled background. Each of these situations (and many others like it) will present a challenge for you to overcome.

One of the tools that you have at your disposal to alter the amount of light hitting your camera’s sensor is neutral density filters (ND). These dark gray pieces of glass come in many styles (graduated, 1-stop, 2-stop, 10-stop, etc.) and do not alter the color of your image but do restrict the amount of light.

How to Use Neutral Density Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene

I stacked a Graduated ND filter and ND Stopper for this image to control the gray sky and flatten the water around the island with a long exposure.

They provide an opportunity to control your exposure or create long exposures that emphasize static elements. This article will focus on Graduated ND filters that are clear on one half and dark on the other, as well as ND stoppers which are completely dark.

You can find more info here on dPS for learning about the fundamentals of using in ND filters. The rest of this article will focus on a few creative ways that you can experiment with ND filter angles, grades, and techniques to create unique shots.

Stack ‘em

You can easily combine ND filters to control more light in the scene as filter holders usually have more than one slot for multiple filters. Having multiple slots is a huge advantage because it allows you to stack filters on top of each other to control the light.

Be sure to think about creative combinations of filters to give you the most out of a scene. For instance, you may want to shoot a really long exposure to flatten out the water in a sunset, or you may want to control very bright highlights such as the sun. The table below outlines some of the possibilities that stacking filters can provide you.

	ND GRADUATED	ND STOPPER
GRADUATED FILTERS	Graduated ND filters can be stacked on top of each other to control light and feathering at the horizon. Try stacking a hard-edged grad with a soft-edged grad to control more light high in the scene and then feather into a lighter foreground.	An ND stopper filter will evenly stop out the light in the scene. You still need to control the highlights! Add an ND grad to control highlights in the scene and bring up the foreground shadows.
ND STOPPER	You can combine an ND stopper with a flipped ND grad (i.e, put the dark side of the grad on the bottom). This approach is non-conventional but could be used if your highlights are at the bottom of a scene. See the Flip ‘em section of this article for more.	Stacking ND stoppers on top of each other can give you very long (>1 minute) exposures even in the brightest conditions. This is a great tool for you to use to extend creativity mid-day.

For this image, the boats in the harbor were important to complement the sunrise overhead. I stacked a Graduated ND filter and ND Stopper to control the sunrise and raise the foreground shadows.

Preserving foreground highlights and shooting sunbursts can be difficult because of the extremely high contrast. I double-stacked graduated filters for this shot to give me a firm control of the highlights (the sun) and maintain the snowy landscape in front.

This image was captured on a cold night in Minnesota (about -25F). At those temperatures, the sky after sunset has a purple hue, which was exacerbated by the double-stacked graduate filters that I used to control the light of the moon and allow you to see its craters.

Rotate ‘em

ND filter holders rotate easily around the lens giving you flexibility in the angle you choose. ND graduated filters are often aligned to the horizon by the photographer. This makes great sense if you have a flat horizon, but what if a mountain range is sticking up in front of you? You can take a little bit of creative license and easily align the ND filters to the angle of the mountains. Examine your scene and think about how the orientation and filters could emphasize foreground elements or draw the viewer’s eye.

In the images of Nugget Falls (below) in Juneau, Alaska I shot one image with a graduated filter flipped with the dark side of the sky and one over the falls. Although I personally prefer the images with the brighter falls, you can see how the lighter sky draws your eye to the mountain and glacier beyond the falls.

How to Use Neutral Density Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene

Hold ‘em

Let’s face it, you are not going to have a filter holder for every lens in your kit. However, that does not mean you cannot use filters! You can also hand hold a filter in front of your lens in a pinch.

I recommend that you mount your camera on a tripod before trying to hand hold filters. It will make them the easier to handle and allow you to compose your scene before adding the filter.

I was not carrying a filter holder for a 100mm lens, but handheld the filter on this shot to raise the foreground shadows. Sometimes you have to make due with what you have.

Practicing in the Field

As you begin to use and experiment with ND filters you are going to grow as a photographer. Keep creativity in mind to give your shots a distinguished and unique look. As I like to say, “pixels are cheap” so be sure to make lots of pixels as you experiment with your ND filters.

I would love to hear how you have extended your photography through creative uses of ND filters.

The post How to Use ND Filters Creatively to Make the Most of a Scene by Ian Johnson appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Adobe RGB Versus sRGB – Which Color Space Should You Be Using and Why

11 Feb

How frequently have you been to your camera settings to switch between Adobe RGB and sRGB color space? Are you even aware of what these terms mean, or what exactly is a color space? Even I was unaware of these technical terms until a few years back but I quickly realized their importance.

What is a color space?

A color space is a part of the color gamut, which is basically the universe of color tones. So you can assume different color spaces to be planets of different sizes. Out of many planets, Adobe RGB and sRGB are two most commonly used color spaces in photography.

Depending on your preferences, you can choose the desired color space and get the best possible result out of it.

Adobe RGB Versus sRGB - Which Color Space Should You Be Using and Why

By The original uploader was Cpesacreta at English Wikipedia [Attribution or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

What are Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces?

Adobe RGB is a bigger color space than sRGB as it is comprised of many more variations of color tones. This is one of the reasons that Adobe RGB monitors are vastly used by photographers – they can display more colors as compared to an sRGB monitor.

Monitors and printers

Adobe RGB monitors are used by a majority of modern day printer operators as well because they are capable of showing what a CMYK (cyan magenta yellow and key or black) printer color profile can produce. This helps the printer operator to ensure that colors that are being displayed on the Adobe RGB monitor shall be very close to the print that comes out of the CMYK color space printer (used for magazines and publications).

So being a photographer it makes sense that you use an Adobe RGB monitor so that you can edit your photos and see the actual colors that will come out in the prints.

Whereas, if you are sure that you will not get your photos printed in the near future then it does not make any sense to use an Adobe RGB monitor. If you only take photos for yourself or to upload them to the web, then an sRGB monitor is ideal for your purposes.

Adobe RGB Versus sRGB - Which Color Space Should You Be Using and Why

Camera shooting color space

But in order to view the actual colors of Adobe RGB or sRGB color space on your monitor, you need to capture the photo in that particular color space in the first place.

Unless you capture a photo in the required color space, be it Adobe RGB or sRGB, you cannot use that photo to its full potential. Shooting photos in the larger Adobe RGB color space allow you to capture more color tones, thus helping you see accurate colors on Adobe RGB monitors and in the prints. Whereas clicking in sRGB color space allows you to upload images to the web without any change in colors.

While shooting in one of these two color spaces each has their own advantages, there are few disadvantages as well.

Setting your camera color space.

Advantages and Disadvantages of shooting in Adobe RGB

Advantages:

You get to capture a wider range of color tones in your photos.
This color space is capable of displaying color tones that come out of a CMYK printer, thus ideal color space if you print your photos.

Disadvantages:

When you upload a photo captured in Adobe RGB color space on the web, the colors get desaturated (and can look “off”).
Adobe RGB monitors are costly, so in order to edit Adobe RGB color space image, you need to invest a lot in a monitor.

NOTE: You can convert an Adobe RGB color profile image into sRGB color space using software such as Photoshop and Lightroom.

Left: While exporting photos in Lightroom, you get the option to choose the color space. Right: In Photoshop, you can go to Color Settings and select the required option as your working color space.

Advantages and Disadvantages of shooting in sRGB

Advantages:

When you upload a photo shot in sRGB color space, the colors remain the same and do not get desaturated, unlike an Adobe RGB image.
A majority of monitors in the world use the sRGB color space and are not that expensive, unlike Adobe RGB monitors. This ensures that the colors that you experience on your monitor would be almost the same on any other sRGB monitor.

Disadvantages:

As the color tones in sRGB are less compared to Adobe RGB, you do not get accurate colors in your prints.
If you submit your photos for photography contests, there are chances that those photos will be viewed on an Adobe RGB monitor. This might reduce your chances of winning as a photograph captured and edited in Adobe RGB will look more pleasing to the judges.

Conclusion

Adobe RGB or sRGB, which color space to choose while shooting?

If you are a photographer who prints your photos often and you want to ensure that the colors are accurate in your prints, then you must shoot in Adobe RGB color space. Shooting photos in sRGB color space might give you a variation in colors that you see on your monitor and in the final prints. Also if you participate in online photography contests, it is safe to capture and edit photos in Adobe RGB color space.

But if you only capture photos to upload them on the web, then shooting in the sRGB color space is the ideal choice for you. If you upload Adobe RGB color space photos to the web, you will notice that colors get desaturated.

Left: This is how your photo gets desaturated when you upload Adobe RGB color space photo to the web. Right: When you upload sRGB color space photos, you get correct colors as seen here.

Nonetheless, to be on the safe side you can shoot photos in the Adobe RGB color space. If needed you can always use the file for prints, and if you wish to upload to the web then you can simply convert the color space using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.

The post Adobe RGB Versus sRGB – Which Color Space Should You Be Using and Why by Kunal Malhotra appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Geotag Your Photos Using Lightroom and a Smartphone App

10 Feb

As a landscape and travel photographer, it is important to be able to track where you traveled and note exactly where a specific picture was taken. Sound complicated and expensive? It’s not if you have a smartphone and a geotag app that will track your GPS location. In this article, I’ll show you how to use Lightroom and the Geotag Photos Pro app to mark your photos locations.

Geotag Your Photos Easily in Adobe’s Lightroom with the help of Geotag Photos Pro App

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

Geotagging is the process of pinpointing the location you took your picture with the aid of a GPS unit. There are a few ways to collect GPS information from a camera. A GPS unit can be built-in to your camera, an accessory to your camera, or a smartphone app like Geotag Photos Pro.

All of these GPS accessories will add EXIF data to your photo files. This data usually consists of the file name, folder location, city, GPS coordinates, as well as the date and time the image was captured. This feature can be very useful if you are a travel or landscape photographer who would like a record of your travels and photo shoot locations.

How does it work?

Your camera records the picture information each time you take a shot, including the time each photo was captured. All the while, you will have the Geotag Photos Pro app running on your phone to record your exact position at the time the photo is taken. It’s all tracked based on the time the image was shot. The fun comes later when you merge all of the data in Lightroom.

Geotag Photos Pro app

Using GPS attachments on an SLR can be expensive and cumbersome. The Geotag Photos Pro app might be a good solution for you. It will work with whatever capture device you prefer to use, a DSLR, a mirrorless camera, a compact point and shoot, or a mobile phone.

Available in both IOS and Android versions, the app records your position while you are taking photos. It then creates a “.gpx” file that you export to Geotag Photos Pro desktop app or other apps and services like Lightroom, Flickr, and Apple Photos.

It’s all tracked by synchronizing the clock on the app with the clock on your camera. It will create a track log with custom interval settings that you set up. The best part is you can bring it into the Lightroom mapping module and it will create a map of your shoot with thumbnail images along the route.

Setting up the app

Before you start your photo walk, make sure that your camera and your cell phone are synced at the same time. There is no need to have internet access to use the app, it works through a GPS signal which is available anywhere for free. First, start the Geotag Photo Pro App.

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App
In the settings, set the desired time for Geotag Photos Pro for your logging interval – 2 minutes is the optimal time interval. That way you can create a balance between the battery life of your cell phone and the accuracy of the app without using up all of your power. If you’d like it to track at faster intervals, you can set it up that way or manually set a point on your track.

You don’t need to hold on to the phone or watch the app once you have initiated your photo walk and you are happy with the interval settings. It will create a map similar to the one below when you are done. Your map may create an odd route as if you were walking in the ocean like this one, but there is actually a pier which doesn’t show up on this map.

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

After your walk

When you have finished your walk, Complete the track on the app and share the track log to your Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive account and download the track to your computer.

Once you have downloaded the .gpx file track log, import your images into Lightroom and select the images in the filmstrip that you would like to geotag. Then open the map module of Lightroom.

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

Just below the map window but above the filmstrip, there is a squiggly line that is the track log menu (circled in red above). Hover over it, navigate to your saved .gpx file and load into Lightroom. Once you open the file, you will see the track start to load on your map.

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

Once you see a map similar to this (below), it is time to geotag your images.

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

Geotagging your images

Look at your filmstrip and navigate to the images you would like to include in the track log. Click on the first image and shift-click the last image in the sequence to select them all. Then click on “load track logs” and select “Auto Tag the select photos”.

Now the photos and location will load to the track. If the track doesn’t look 100% correct, you can move the location of the track to put the images in the right place.

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

Now you will have a track log of the images you took located on the map. Hover over the picture icons, and your images will pop up in the location where they were photographed. How cool is that?!

How to Use Lightroom’s Map Module and the Geotag Photos Pro App

In conclusion

What a great tool for you as a landscape and travel photographer! As GPS gets more advanced, it will be included in more cameras and make this process a little easier. But for now, an app like this is fun and easy to use and adds another handy element to your photo toolbox.

Give it a try on your next trip!

The post How to Geotag Your Photos Using Lightroom and a Smartphone App by Holly Higbee-Jansen appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography – That is the Question

10 Feb

Photography is one of those careers where the industry is so broad that realistically you can select any field to focus on. Even if you define yourself as a particular type of photographer, you can further niche yourself into one of the many subcategories that are available in almost every genre.

For example, if you are a fashion photographer you can further categorize yourself as catalog, high fashion, fashion blogger and/or editorial. Portrait photographers can focus on maternity, family, newborn, high school seniors, etc.

There is such a multitude of options available that sometimes it does get a bit overwhelming. It is true that there is a market for almost any type of photography, but you have to understand that you cannot be a photographer for everyone. Not only would you get burned out, but your business messaging and branding could be confusing to potential customers.

So how do you choose what genre of photography to focus on or specialize in? Is it monetary or interest driven? Here are a few things to think about when deciding to specialize in a certain area of photography or be a jack of all trades

#1 – Interests and Skills

To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography - That is the Question

Be honest with yourself and figure out where your interests really lie.

Are you as passionate about nature and landscape photography as you are about newborn photography? What are your strengths? Do you have the magic touch to calm any sort of pet? Are you an animal whisperer? Or are you someone who can maintain their composure no matter what, so dealing with a crazy stressed out bride is a walk in the park?

Photography is as much about soft skills like communications and people interactions as it is about technical skills.

#2 – Market size and potential

This is probably not something that we creative people really want to think about but analyzing the market size for your ideal clientele is really crucial. It does not have to be specific numbers – even a quick ballpark is sufficient.

To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography - That is the Question

Look at housing data, high school enrollment, photography businesses in your area, and other factors to figure out the market size. Even if your market size is small, try to understand if there is enough potential to upsell.

For example, if you focus on weddings, are your clients more likely to hire you for anniversary, maternity and/or family portraits because they like, know and trust you and your work? If so, then maybe family portraiture and weddings are markets that you could potentially build.

#3 – Messaging or branding

This is an often overlooked part of a market analysis and if I am completely honest, one that even I ignore from time to time. I ignore it because I don’t have the bandwidth to manage multiple websites, multiple social media accounts, and multiple channels.

To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography - That is the Question

More often than not, one falls off the bandwagon. If you are working and playing in two genres that have a lot of overlap then you can get away with using branding and messaging that speaks to all the areas under one umbrella cohesively. However, if your markets don’t overlap then I strongly suggest you separate out the businesses so they can be their own entities.

For example, a good friend of mine is a wedding photographer and a business coach for creative entrepreneurs. She has two different websites, two social media accounts, and two different businesses. But she is talking about them across each channel because overall her brand aesthetics are the same and she can cross-pollinate content from one to the other. She has targeted her coaching clients as other photographers, artists, and creatives in the wedding industry.

To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography - That is the Question

Now, regardless of what I say and what you might think, this argument about specializing is not as easy as black and white. The reality is that sometimes we all go through dry spells, times where there are no paying clients, yet our bills have to be paid. It is easy enough to run a marathon weekend of family sessions and make as much or more than what you would make with one wedding.

Sometimes it feels like inquiries for all the things you don’t want to do come in the door and none of the work that you really want and love. At the end of the day, all I can say is that we each do what we must to earn money, pay the bills and have some semblance of enjoyment from our work.

Conclusion

So, what’s the final verdict? Should you specialize in your photography or not?

Yes, it makes good business sense to focus all your efforts and energies on your chosen genre. There are a lot of benefits to specializing, such as technical and creative expertise, name and brand recognition, etc. But when there isn’t a consistent flow of clients because of external factors like market changes, client needs and/or a recession, you do what you must to stay afloat and earn a living.

The post To Specialize or Not to Specialize with Your Photography – That is the Question by Karthika Gupta appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Feet

10 Feb

Look down! All the way to your feet. This week it’s time to get low-down and shoot some images of feet. It can be your feet doing something interesting, or other people’s feet, or even animal feet (paws). Include faces if you want – but make sure the true subjects (the feet) really stand out.

Photo by Meg Kannan on Unsplash

Weekly Photography Challenge – Feet

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.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Feet by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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4 Young Photographers Who Will Inspire and Amaze You

09 Feb

Since I started teaching photography I’ve had the opportunity to teach a few kids as well as adults. Some special parents were able to see that their child had an interest in photography and a gift for doing it as well, and they encouraged them to pursue it. I gladly jumped on that bandwagon and supported them as well.

So I’ve rounded up not one, but four young photographers whose work will amaze you. You may think it slightly depressing that these youngsters can do such amazing work at a tender age (while you may be struggling to figure out how to shoot in Manual), but instead – allow them to inspire you!

Award-winning wildlife photographer age 13

Josiah Launstein started doing photography at age 5, using his dad’s old camera and got “serious” about it when he was only 7. Now he’s won awards for his photography and has been displayed in national galleries. Watch him in action photographing one of his favorite subjects, bighorn sheep. AND he’s Canadian like me!

See more of Josiah’s work on his website where you can buy prints, art cards, and calendars. I liked his work so much I bought a calendar myself!

Teen featured in national publications

By age 16 Alex Currie’s work was being featured in National publications, even recognized by Vogue magazine. He’s also produced short films with some of his friends.

See some of Alex’s current work on his website here. He also was on the Flickr Top 20 Under 20 list.

A day with a teenage pro photographer

Our next young sensation is Ryan Parrilla, a Manhattan-based teen photographer. He’s been doing photography since age 12 on the streets of NYC. His camera of choice is a Canon Powershot G7 Mark II. Follow along to see a day of shooting with Ryan in his city.

See more of Ryan’s images on 500px or his Instagram profile where he has more than 90,000 followers.

10-year-old’s photography business – helps his autism

In this final inspirational video story, learn about how Morgan Wolfers picked up a camera to help him “focus”. He and his parents realized that photography helped with his autism and that he was naturally good at it.

See more of this amazing kid’s photography on his website here.

Inspired yet?

I hope these stories of kids doing photography have inspired you to get out there and do more shooting yourself. Look for the dPS weekly photography challenge if you need some ideas on what to shoot.

The post 4 Young Photographers Who Will Inspire and Amaze You by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to do Single Image HDR Effects with Aurora HDR 2018

08 Feb

When creating an HDR or High Dynamic Range photo, you typically need three or more images taken at different exposures (bracketed) to create one stunning image. But given the high dynamic range of today’s digital cameras, do you still need to shoot bracketed images to achieve the HDR look? In this article, I’ll show you how you can achieve HDR effects from a single image using Aurora HDR 2018.

Results will also be compared with an image made the “real” HDR way. Which is best? You be the judge.

What is HDR?

First off, let’s break down what HDR is exactly. As mentioned earlier, HDR combines a series of images, each taken with a different exposure. The result is a dramatic photo with brightened shadows and darkened highlights. Thus, shadows and highlights are the two main features that will play the biggest role in creating an HDR photo from a single image.

Using this insight, you could take a single shot and apply HDR effects by playing with just a few features that affect the overall dynamic range of your image. To start, here’s a single image of a landscape scene, shot in RAW.

Note: the images used in this article are courtesy of dPS editor Darlene Hildebrandt.

How to do Single Image HDR Effects with Aurora HDR 2018

1. Shoot in RAW

The very first thing you want to do with your single-image HDR image is to make sure it was taken in RAW format, not JPG. RAW files are larger in size than JPGs because they store much more image information.

This means that you can push lots of post-processing effects and even salvage parts of an image that would otherwise be unrecoverable. You could feasibly apply HDR effects to a JPG image, but the results won’t be as dramatic as they will be with a RAW file.

2. Adjust the Highlights and Shadows sliders

Since highlights and shadows tend to affect the overall brightness of an image, you’ll want to play with these sliders first. Pulling down the highlights can restore bright areas that appear washed out in an image while pulling up the shadows brighten up dark spots.

For example, the sample image above was opened in Aurora HDR 2018 and the highlights and shadows were pulled to their extremes, just for demonstration purposes. Check out the dramatic change that happens just by altering the highlights and shadows.

The sky now looks overly dramatic, and the foreground is really bright and practically free of shadows. Since HDR is largely done to taste, some might like this style as-is, while others might deem it too extreme. If you want a slightly less dramatic and more realistic photo, move the highlights and shadows sliders around to taste.

How to do Single Image HDR Effects with Aurora HDR 2018

3. Adjust the Blacks and Whites sliders

To sharpen up your image and make it less flat, play around with the image blacks and whites. In general, adjusting whites is preferable to bumping up the exposure since the latter will affect highlights more than shadows and mid-tones.

If needed, you can even brighten your shadows more by using the Dodge tool and darken highlights with the Burn tool (built-into Aurora HDR). While dialing in the blacks of the image, be sure not to clip (lose detail) your shadows too much by going too far with the Black slider.

HINT: you want them to clip a little, otherwise there will be no black in the image and it will be flat.

4. Finish off with HDR Enhance and Smart Tone

Finally, top it off by adjusting two of Aurora HDR’s most unique and impactful features: HDR Enhance and Smart Tone.

The first feature, HDR Enhance, adds details, clarity, and color adjustment to an image without creating typical HDR problems such as a halo effect. Meanwhile, Smart Tone is a mapping algorithm that automatically brightens your image while also reducing noise.

These two features can be tweaked individually to achieve your HDR style of choice.

The Result

At this point, it’s worth noting that although Aurora HDR 2018 has many filters that you can apply to images, I didn’t use them all for demonstration purposes. Instead, I stuck to the main editing window on the right-hand panel (HDR Basic).

After tinkering around in Aurora HDR, these are my two resulting images. The first is a single shot with balanced exposure and HDR editing effects applied. Next is a regular 3-bracket HDR image. Which image do you prefer?

Here is the original unedited RAW file for comparison.

Single-Image HDR Effects

Full HDR from 3 bracketed exposures. Notice how much more tonal range is in this image than the one above.

Single Image HDR Photo – Example #2

This second example shows the single image HDR effect in an urban environment. Below is the starting RAW image before any post-processing was applied.

Original raw image.

The above image was opened in Aurora HDR and the Highlight and Shadow sliders were pulled to their extremes. Again, you don’t (and shouldn’t) keep the highlights and shadows sliders at their extremes, but this is just a visual demonstration of how dramatic of an effect they can have. It’s also a good idea to see how far you can go, then scale it back a bit in each direction.

Notice how the image has brightened up considerably and you can now see lots of detail in the buildings, especially the “Meet the Producer” sign.

How to do Single Image HDR Effects with Aurora HDR 2018

Notice in the image above that there is a halo effect around much of the building. To fix that, simply adjust those highlight and shadow sliders to your liking. Also play around with the HDR Enhance slider, which will preserve image contrast and clarity without exacerbating the halo effect.

Next, the Whites and Smart Tone sliders were adjusted brighten the image further.

How to do Single Image HDR Effects with Aurora HDR 2018

Below is the resulting single image with light Aurora HDR effects applied. For comparison, a 4-image bracketed HDR is also included below.

Original again for comparison.

HDR from a single image.

HDR from 4 bracketed images. The biggest difference here is a more seamless continuation of tones. You will get less haloing and less noise from this method than using a single image.

In Conclusion

There you have it – a quick tutorial on how you can create an HDR effect from a single image in Aurora HDR.

Have you experimented with making a single image look like an HDR shot? Please share your techniques and sample images in the comments below.

The post How to do Single Image HDR Effects with Aurora HDR 2018 by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Product Photography: The Ultimate Guide

08 Feb

Product photography is one of the more technical types of photography. Whether I decide to shoot natural light or create in my studio, I need to be aware of and control everything in the area. Lighting, product position, depth of field, image stabilization, and the brand itself all come together in a product shoot. So what are the first things Continue Reading

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