There is a love/hate relationship the majority of us have with social media. We promote our work there, but we also waste a huge amount of time on it. What are the best alternative to social media then? Where can we publish our work in order to gain visibility and, why not, some paid projects? Let’s step back for a Continue Reading
The post The Best Promotional Alternatives To Social Media For Photographers appeared first on Photodoto.
This week on dPS we’re featuring some of the top articles in different categories that were published on the site over the last year, 2017. Yesterday was the Best Landscape Articles on dPS in 2017, and this one is all about the best portrait tips of the year.
Tomorrow, look for the most popular articles on post-processing in 2017.
The post Top Portrait Photography Tips of the Year on dPS in 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Arguably the best software for making high dynamic range photos is Macphun’s (soon to be Skylum) Aurora HDR 2018. This image editor can be used as by itself or in conjunction with their popular Luminar photo editor (as well as a plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, and Elements). Within Aurora HDR are tons of photo editing tools including their popular presets (filters). But you don’t have to use Presets to creatively style your HDR photos.
Here are four tips beyond using presets for achieving creative images.
Before – the middle image of a 3-shot bracket.
Instead of going right for the Presets at the bottom of Aurora HDR, dive right into the HDR Basic panel on the right-hand side of the software. Start with the Contrast and HDR Enhance sliders to enhance textures and details in your photo. Then play with the Smart Tone to tame down the shadows that can be created by increasing the contrast.
Next, head to the Color panel right below HDR Basic and adjust the Vibrance and Saturation. Keep these color adjustments minimal if you’re going for a more subtle, realistic look. Based on the color edits that you make, you may also need to balance out the color temperature if your image appears too cool or too warm.
Add the HDR Basic and Color Filters.
Landscape photographers are well aware of the effects of the polarizing and graduated neutral density (ND) lens filters. If you aren’t familiar with them, here’s a quick rundown. A polarizing filter helps darken skies and minimize reflections and glares of light bouncing off of surfaces such as water or glass. Similarly, the graduated ND filter helps balance out exposures by darkening backgrounds that are much brighter than foregrounds. In essence, both of these filters are often needed to obtain the best landscape photos.
If you don’t have these filters or happen to forget them, Aurora HDR’s post-processing effects can produce very similar results. Simply click scroll to the Polarizing Filter panel and apply as much of the effect as you wish. In the example below, increasing the polarizer makes the blues really pop, especially in the sky.
Further down, you’ll find the graduated ND filter effect, known simply as Top & Bottom Tuning. This allows you to adjust the exposure, contrast, vibrance, and saturation of the top and bottom areas of your image separately. If you happen to have an untraditional horizon, click the Set Orientation button to fine tune the horizon’s rotation and make your graduated ND filter effect blend more realistically.
Polarizing Filter and Top & Bottom Tuning (ND filter)
Before – the middle image of a 5-shot bracketed set.
If you’ve ever photographed a sunset and wished the sky had been more colorful, you can actually make this edit rather quickly with Aurora HDR. All you need is a clear photo of the ideal sunset that you want to swap into your bracketed image. You can pull that ideal sunset image from your own archives, or use a stock photo like the one that I’m using from Pexels in the example below.
Start by running your brackets through Aurora HDR and making any desired adjustments to the resulting photo. Below, I’ve applied a Warm Skylight filter. Next, go the Layers section in the right-hand panel and click on the plus sign. Select “Add Image Layer…” This is where you can select your ideal sunset photo and import it as an image layer.
Once your new image has loaded, you can apply any filters or adjustments as desired. Next, click on the paintbrush icon next to the image layer. A small drop-down menu will appear with four options: Brush, Radial Mask, Gradient Mask, and Lumosity.
If your image has a straight horizon with no big obstructions, the Gradient Mask will easily mask your ideal sunset into your bracketed shot. But in my case, I have a big building in the way, so the Brush is my best bet. After clicking on Brush, a thin bar of options will appear on the top panel. This is where you can control whether you’re painting over the image, or Erasing (backtracking on any mistakes). You can also control the size, softness, and opacity of the paintbrush.
When I’m done painting in my new sunset sky, I’ll press the blue Done button. Check out the before and after images below!
Before – the middle image of a 3-shot bracketed set.
Using a similar technique to sky replacement, you can add textured overlay layers to your photos for a more creative effect. All you need is a textured photo, such as the weathered paper image below. Simply import that image as a new layer. You can then selectively mask it by using the Brush, Radial Mask or Gradient Mask tools (explained above). Or you can apply the texture equally to the whole image by adjusting the opacity. The resulting image had a moody, vintage look to it.
Have you used Aurora HDR 2018 to enhance your images? What tools have you found to be the most useful for achieving more creative photos? Let us know in the comments below!
Disclaimer: Macphun, soon to be Skylum, is a dPS advertising partner.
The post 4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR 2018 by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
We hope you are enjoying your holiday week and have some time off work to get out and do some shooting.
In this first installment of our annual roundup of the best of the year on dPS, here are the top 18 landscape articles that we published in 2017.
Watch for more “Best of dPS” articles tomorrow.
The post Best Landscape Articles on dPS in 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
This year’s 12 days of Christmas was huge with some amazing savings on some great photography training and software.
However – because it’s a busy time of year – we know some of you missed out.
So for the next 48 hours only we’re brining all 6 deals back!
That’s right – all of our ebooks, presets, and courses are rarely all on sale at once, so now you can create your dream learning library – but only for 48 more hours.
We also have 3 amazing partner deals so be sure to check those out too while you still can.
Don’t miss out.
Access our exclusive Partner Bonus Offers from New York Institute of Photography, KelbyOne, Perfectly Clear and ON1 when you purchase any dPS Christmas Deal. Check your purchase receipt email for the access link!
The post Improve Your Photography in 2018 with These 6 Deals (48 Hours Only) by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Happy holidays again – it’s Christmas day in the west and the holidays are in full bloom. We just wanted to let you know what to expect here on dPS over the next few days.
The dPS team is taking a little down time so we can give our writers a break and time with their families too. So we’ll be taking a short break from our regular programming of two articles daily.
It’s that time again when I go through the articles over the last 12 months to find the best, and most popular ones, for you to read.
So starting tomorrow with the top landscape articles, there will be a new topic each day, with several articles for you to read or review. So get out that new camera or lens you just got, and brush up on your skills, or if you’re just beginning get started with the basics.
We’ll get back to our regular schedule of two articles every day on January 2nd (Australia time). For the first couple days you’ll see the wrap-up of the Best Of series, and just one article per day from us, then it’s back to business as usual.
So expect some good reading coming up. If you have some time you can catch up on a few articles you may have missed or focus on learning a new, specific technique.
The post 2018 Holiday Schedule at dPS by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Happy holidays from the team at dPS! It’s Christmas day already in Australia where most of the management team is based, and we’d like to wish you the happiest of days from all of us.
Thank you for being a regular reader and fan of dPS and for helping to provide photography articles and tutorials for you and other photography enthusiasts. However you and your loved ones celebrate this holiday season, we hope you have a good one.
Cheers!
The post Happy Holidays 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Whenever I do an event that promotes my pet photography, there are always one or two potential clients that have reservations about booking due to their beloved furry family member’s “unruly” behavior. Whether it be a hyperactive puppy that does not yet know how to sit still or a feline that runs the roost, some owners believe their pets to be impossible to photograph!
But you see, this perspective comes from someone who lives with their critters. Those who specialize in pet photography know just how to work with all sorts of four-legged personalities that find themselves in front of the camera. Here are some tricks for working with the hyper, the untrained, the unruly, or the camera-shy to help you bring out their best sides.
Please note that the tips provided below are not intended as a pet training mechanism or a deep insight into animal behavior – they are only to be used for individual photography sessions.
Each old saying has a grain of truth to it, and in this case, significantly more than just a grain. An animal that is tired is less likely to have the energy to misbehave! A key tip in working with untrained pets is getting them too tired to exert their boisterous behavior or protest having to stay still. Playing, running, and stimulating the dog, cat, or even parrot before a session will keep them mellower when it comes time to take the photographs.
Depending on how you run your photo sessions, you will either suggest this for your client or proceed to take on the responsibility of doing it yourself. If your client is the one to do this, ensure that they time the play effectively so that their furry family member isn’t so stimulated that the presence of a photographer causes stress or anxiety. The key is to get the animal to the level of tired that they no longer care about what is happening around them. Combined with other techniques as I am about to discuss, this is a sure way to get a great photo session.
Do keep in mind that it certainly depends on the age of the animal you are working with in regards to how long they remain tired or how long one should play. Puppies and kittens tend to tire out very easily, while an adult dog and cat take a longer amount of time. Baby or young animals may also remain tired for less time than an adult counterpart, as their energy comes in bursts.
Unruly animal behavior can often be linked to excitement, overstimulation, or anxiety about something new in the pet’s home or immediate location. Animals communicate with body language and conduct. Because pets cannot speak words to us, their method of expressing emotions is very physical.
Knowing this means that we, as photographers, must find a way to dull the reaction our own presence causes. Allowing pets to become familiar with us is a good way to do so, such as letting a dog sniff us and our equipment or having a cat circle around and check us out. Letting owners interact with the photographer as they would any familiar person can also help the animal become more familiar.
For fearful pets, getting down to their level (sitting on the ground, for example) and letting them come to you is key. Try not to look at them or pay much mind until they become insistent on receiving attention from you. Depending on the personality and temperament of the pet, giving the animal their favorite treat can also aid. Try not to act overly excited or exceptionally grabby or touchy with the pet, as many animals take that as “play”.
The following tip can be applied to all animal photography, whether it be wild animals or domestic. Ensuring that you are always ready to capture the perfect moment whenever it may occur is key. A good way of knowing when to raise the camera and click the shutter is to predict the animal’s behavior.
Much of this does come from experience and exposure to various kinds of pets, but you can often use common sense to figure out what your subject is going to do next. If a dog is about to run, practice your panning technique! If a cat is about to jump from the back of a couch, prepare yourself to capture that action.
Sometimes, the best pet photography shots are those in which you play no involvement and sit back as an observant photographer rather than one who dictates the session. It is often to your benefit to sit farther back with a telephoto or zoom lens and not interfere with what proceeds to occur.
This does depend on what your client wants from the photo shoot, what you expect, or what the animal you are working with is like – but certainly, give it a thought!
Depending on the pet you’re photographing, toys and treats can become your best friend. Though you do not want to overstimulate the pet, keeping their attention can be equally important. Treats, toys, and noises can often do this for you.
You may even be able to teach a dog to sit during your photo session or keep a cat looking at you as you take pictures, depending on how you are with animals. The key with treats is to use high-value treats, a common term used among dog trainers. High-value treats are goodies that the pet finds irresistible, and that becomes a big motivator for them to do what you want.
Certain types of toys can be the same. Toys and noises are also a great way to get alert ears and a happier facial expression.
This is the most important piece of advice anyone can give you – just be creative. A successful photographer is one who knows how to adapt to any situation thrown their way, and an animal that isn’t behaving is just another circumstance to overcome.
Take your creativity for a spin as you adapt to what you’ve been given, and find new and unique ways to capture the creature’s personality on camera. Whether it’s using a different lens or changing your perspective and composition, doing something new based on what’s happening is a great way to work with animals.
Of course, all animals are different. Your reaction should be based on the individual animal’s personality, reaction, and needs. Pet photographers must display a sensitivity and empathy towards their subject, and act accordingly!
Hopefully, these tips have given you some ideas or inspiration to work with all kinds of animals, mellow and not-so-mellow!
The post 6 Tips for Working with Unruly Animals in Pet Photography by Anabel DFlux appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Here are five quick tips for doing retouching in Photoshop that are essential to know. Learn them to do better retouching on your photos.
In Photoshop you can use the luminosity of an image (the bright pixels) as selections. The easiest way to make a selection out of the bright pixels of a photo is by pressing Command+Option+2, (Windows: Ctrl+Alt+2).
If you cannot remember the keyboard shortcut, you can also load luminosity as a selection by holding Cmd/Ctrl and clicking on the RGB thumbnail in the Channels panel.
With a selection active, you can create an Adjustment Layer to apply the selection to the Layer Mask.
This Adjustment Layer will only target the brighter pixels of your image. If you make an adjustment, you’ll notice that you will only affect the bright pixels and not the dark ones.
You can target dark pixels by inverting the selection. To do so, Select the Layer Mask, and clicking on Invert in the Properties panel.
Now if you make an adjustment, the dark pixels will be affected and not the bright.
One way to remove wrinkles, blemishes, and other distractions from the face quickly and efficiently is to use the Modes in the Spot Healing Brush Tool and Content-Aware.
First, think of the blemish, wrinkle, or distraction that you are trying to remove. Is it darker than the skin tone or is it brighter than the skin tone?
In this case, the wrinkles are darker than the skin tone. That means that you want to “lighten” those wrinkles.
With the Spot Healing Brush Tool selected, in the Options bar, click on Content-Aware, and under the Mode drop-down menu, select Lighten.
Then start painting with a small brush and small strokes over the wrinkles to remove them. But you will not lose essential details in the highlights. The Spot Healing Brush tool is only targeting dark pixels which are the wrinkles.
If your blemish or distraction is brighter than the skin tone, such as the bright wrinkles above the lip, then select Darken from the Mode drop-down menu, and paint them away.
To learn more about how this technique works, check out this video on the Spot Healing Brush Tool:
In Photoshop, you can open the same image in two windows and set them side-by-side to work on both details and the overall image at the same time.
This technique is great when you are working with two monitors. But even with one monitor, this technique can be very useful.
To open the same document in two windows, go to Window > Arrange, “New Window for [Name of Document].” Then go to Window > Arrange > Two up Vertical to put the two tabs side-by-side. You can then Zoom into one window, and zoom out on the other.
These are not two separate files. They are the same document, and any adjustments that you make to one will reflect on the other instantly.
The Color Range command can be an excellent tool for selecting difficult areas of an image. However, if you simply use the Color Range on a problematic image, it may not give you the results you want. Sometimes there is too much information on a single image, and you need to focus on just one area.
To focus the Color Range in only one area, create a selection around the object that you want to select. A simple rectangular selection will be fine.
Then go into Select > Color Range, and you will see that Color range is now focusing solely on the selected area.
Select a red color on the shirt using the eyedropper, then use the fuzziness slider to adjust the selection.
Keep in mind that it is going to be next to impossible not to select the hands or the railing that she’s leaning on because the skin tones and the paint on the railing are very similar in color to the red that you are trying to select.
But you can use the Lasso tool to quickly deselect those areas, leaving only the red in the shirt selected.
With a selection active, you can create a Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer that will just target the red in the shirt.
Then use the Hue slider to change the color of the shirt.
Most of the time, you will work with RGB or CMYK while in Photoshop. But there is another Color Mode that you can use that can be very useful in certain situations. If you go to Image > Mode > Lab Color, you will change your photo’s color mode to Lab.
The Lab color mode has three channels: Lightness, A, and B.
One of the most significant advantages of working with the Lab color mode is that Lab separates detail (luminosity) from color. This separation allows you to work with color without affecting detail and vice versa.
For example, you could turn a red dress green by duplicating the layer, and then selecting “A” from the Channel’s panel, and pressing Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert the channel.
Notice that the color of the image changed, but the detail was left intact.
You could then use a Layer Mask to contain the adjustment to only the dress.
Another advantage of using the Lab color mode is that you can sharpen without affecting the color of a photo. If you apply any sharpening filter to the Lightness channel, you will only target the detail and will leave the color intact.
The example below has the same Sharpening filter applied to both the regular image and the Lightness channel in Lab Color. I’ve made sharpening effect an extreme one for demonstration purposes, to make the results more noticeable.
Notice that when you apply sharpening to the Lightness channel (right), the colors on the edges are not saturated or changed. They only become brighter or darker. While the sharpening on the regular layer increases the saturation of the edge pixels.
As a side note, Photoshop doesn’t really add detail to an image when you apply sharpening. It creates the illusion of detail by adding contrast to the edges in the photo. You can see that edge contrast in these extreme adjustments.
You can learn more about sharpening in this video on sharpening photos in Photoshop:
One important thing to note is that the Lab color mode does not have access to all the Adjustment Layers, and some Adjustment Layers will work a bit different than their RGB counterparts.
If you are working with Adjustment Layers and you would like to go back to the RGB color mode, you will have to put the image, and the Adjustment Layers in a Smart Object then make the conversion. Otherwise, Photoshop will ask you to delete the Adjustment Layers or flatten the image.
I hope you found these tips helpful for retouching or editing your images in Photoshop. Do you have any other tips or tricks that you use? Please share in the comments below.
The post 5 Must-Know Photoshop Retouching Tips and Tricks for Photographers by Jesus Ramirez appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Sick of struggling with Lightroom? Disappointed with one-click presets and want to know how to produce stunning, natural images in under 2 minutes… read on!
Earlier this year we offered dPS readers an amazingly simple Lightroom Workflow by professional Aussie photographer Johny Spencer. It was one one of our most popular offers of the year.
As part of our dPS Christmas Deals, we’ve brought this amazing offer bundled with 2 of Johny’s other awesome Lightroom resources: Mastering Lightroom & Ultimate Lightroom Finishing Moves
For the next 48 hours you can get this toolbox of Lightroom resources for 67% off. Normally you’d pay $ 237 for this collection, but you can get them now for just $ 79.
Johny know his stuff. He has every photographer’s dream job: Professional Landscape and Nature photographer for the National Parks Service in Australia. This means he takes thousands of photos a month… and then edits them in Lightroom.
Grab the Ultimate Lightroom Workflow Toolkit while you can. This deal ends in 48 hours.
Access our exclusive Partner Bonus Offers from New York Institute of Photography, KelbyOne, Perfectly Clear and ON1 when you purchase any dPS Christmas Deal. Check your purchase receipt email for the access link!
Brought to you by
The post The 2 Minute Lightroom Workflow Toolkit by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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