Category: Photography

3 Times it’s Okay to Consider Offering Free Sessions

If you’ve made the transition from a hobbyist photographer to a part-time or full-time professional photographer, chances are that you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about your pricing. You’ve likely looked over your cost of doing business and the cost of goods sold. You’ve probably had to have some difficult conversations with friends and family members establishing that you can’t work for free.

These are all really important parts of starting (and maintaining) a photography business. However, it’s also just as important to sit down and identify some instances in which you would consider donating your services. In this article, we’ll talk about three times you might consider offering free sessions or options at a reduced rate.

1. New Technique or Gear

If you’ve always wanted to try newborn photography, it might make sense to offer reduced rate or free sessions. This will help you build your portfolio while perfecting your technique at the same time. Let’s be clear–offering free sessions shouldn’t replace classes and workshops designed to teach you proper technique and safety. Instead, you should consider offering free or discounted sessions after taking a class or workshop in order to implement the new techniques you’ve learned.

Similarly, if you want to break into wedding photography, it might make sense to offer to assist a local wedding photographer for free. You’ll learn a lot by watching the primary photographer manage the flow of the day and seeing how they interact with the bride, groom, and guests. Additionally, depending on your contract, you may even end up with images that you can use as part of your own portfolio.

Likewise, if you’ve just upgraded from a crop sensor to a full frame camera, you’ll probably want to take that equipment for a test drive before using it with a paying client. It may very well be that you can get your bearings photographing your kids in your own backyard. However, depending on the genre of photography you specialize in, it might make more sense to put out a model call on social media and offer a mini session that will allow you to put your new gear to the test in a low stakes environment.

2. For a Creative Photography Project

I spend most of my time photographing newborns, children, and families. As a young mom myself, I really love that genre of photography and feel passionate about helping families preserve their memories.

That said, because I spend so much time photographing people, I make a concerted effort to take on a creative photography project that doesn’t involve people at least once a year. Sometimes, that may mean begging a winery to let me come photograph their grapes after hours in exchange for allowing them to use the images on social media.

Other times, it has meant asking a local photographer for half an hour to pick his brain about astrophotography in exchange for snapping a photo of his family for their annual Christmas card. For me, the point isn’t to actually become an astrophotographer. Lord knows this image isn’t winning any astrophotography awards anytime soon, and it feels really uncomfortable to share something publicly that isn’t perfect.

But the point isn’t to be perfect with a creative project. The point is to stretch yourself in ways that you normally don’t, realizing that sometimes the journey is more important than the final destination.

Ideas for your project

Perhaps you are already an award-winning astrophotographer, and you’d really like to stretch yourself by doing some child or family photography. Consider asking a friend if they’ll meet you at a park to try photographing them and their children. Try snapping a few images at your nephew’s next soccer game. Ask a friend that loves to bake if you could photograph the next cheesecake he or she makes. The point is that you’ll never grow as a photographer if you don’t take risks. Similarly, it can feel easier to take risks and do something new if you’re not being paid–there’s really nothing to lose.

The point is that you’ll never grow as a photographer if you don’t take risks. Similarly, it can feel easier to take risks and do something new if you’re not being paid–there’s really nothing to lose.

3. Partner With a Non-profit You Care About

You’ve probably already been asked to donate a photo session to a non-profit’s fundraiser or auction. This is a great way to give back to the community, and it’s not my intention to discourage you from doing so. However, more and more frequently I’m finding that donating my services directly to the non-profits that I care about is an even more rewarding way to stretch my creative ability and become involved in my community at the same time. Perhaps, instead of donating a session gift certificate, offer to come photograph the office staff, an event the non-profit is holding, or the population that the non-profit serves.

Perhaps, instead of donating a session gift certificate, offer to come photograph the office staff, an event the non-profit is holding, or the population that the organization serves.

In doing so, you will likely learn more about the organization itself, their mission, and the community as a whole. Your local humane society would probably love images of the animals in their care. A nearby NICU may be completely blown away by the offer to come photograph the families and babies they serve. Your child’s school may love abstract photography of kids that they could hang on their walls or use as reminder postcards. If you’re religious, your church would probably love photos of their upcoming baptisms or other special religious ceremonies.

Serve your community

This sort of partnership isn’t about parlaying the non-profit organizations into future clients. Rather, it is about using your time and talent to bless others in your community. There are opportunities to use your gifts and talents to make the world better–use them.

Sometimes the things that a non-profit may ask for may be completely outside of your normal wheelhouse. You may have to tell them that you don’t think you’d be the best person for the job they have in mind. Other times, you may feel comfortable telling them that though their idea is outside your normal wheelhouse, you’d be happy to give it a try. Both responses are absolutely okay, but I’ve never regretted trying an unusual request that a non-profit has given me!

Conclusion

Have you identified instances in which you will consider offering reduced rate or free sessions? Do you partner with any local non-profits in order to give back? Chime in below and tell us about your experiences.

The post 3 Times it’s Okay to Consider Offering Free Sessions by Meredith Clark appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 20, 2017
How to Use Soft Light Blend Mode in Photoshop to Improve Exposure and Contrast

Do you have an overexposed sunny side and an underexposed shadow on the other side of your image? Or maybe a well-exposed photo that needs more vibrancy? There’s a tool so versatile that can help you fix any of these problems and more: the Soft Light Blend Mode.

What are Layers?

Imagine your photo as a printed one. Then you take a sheet of acetate and draw on it. Then you take another sheet and you put it on top of the others and obscure a part of it; and so on, and so forward. Each acetate sheet is a layer and you can make as many alterations as you want on top of your original this way.

To create layers in Photoshop you need to go to Menu > Layers > New. A pop-up window will appear where you can name your layer, choose the color, the blending mode and the opacity. When you click OK the new layer will appear on the Layers panel window on top of the background, which is the original image.

What is the Blend Mode?

The default setting of a new layer is normal blending mode. This covers the background or the layer underneath. However, Photoshop gives you the option of choosing a different Blend Mode, which changes the way your edit affects the pixels. You can change it in the pop-up window of the new layer.

In the case of the Soft Light blending mode it is similar to using the dodge or burn tool. In other words, every color that is lighter than 50% grey will get even lighter, like it would if you shine a soft spotlight to it. In the same way, every color darker than 50% grey will get even darker. However it will never reach pure black.

So, why not use dodge and burn instead?

First of all, when you work in layers you don’t lose any information. You can always discard the layer and start over because there is no damage to the original image.

With layers, you can change the opacity or transparency of each one, which allows you to control how evident your edit is in the final image. You will find the opacity tool on the Layers panel with a slider that goes from 0 to 100 %.

Note that there is another slider next to it called Fill. There are 8 blending modes in which these two sliders make a difference, however, Soft Light is not part of these “special 8” so the Fill opacity and Standard opacity have the same result when using this Blend Mode.

Another advantage is that you can change the blending mode of each of the layers. In this article, we are exploring the use of Soft Blend, however, each mode offers different possibilities. One blending mode can have different uses, here are three of them.

3 ways to use Soft Light Blending Mode

1. Add punch to your image

Increase the contrast and saturation to have more vivid colors and give a punch to your image. You can do this by duplicating the background layer: Menu > Layer > Duplicate Layer and changing the blending mode from normal to Soft Light. Finally adjust the opacity until you are happy with the result.

2. Gradient tool to balance the lighting

If you have an image that is underexposed on one side and overexposed in the other you can easily even it out with a Soft Light blend layer. First go to Menu > Layer > New Layer. Pick the Gradient tool and draw a line from the brightest side to the darkest one. The gradient will look like this:

Then change the layer blending mode to Soft Light and lower the opacity to find the best results.

Before gradient

After gradient

3. Dodging and burning with a Soft Light layer

The past workflows altered the entire image, however, if you need to do a more precise job you can also do that using Soft Light. First, add a new layer with Soft Light blending mode like you did in the previous procedure. Only this time instead of the gradient tool, you are going to use the brush tool. When you select it you can choose the size of the brush on the top menu and the color on the bottom.

If you paint with black you will darken the image:

Painting with white will lighten certain areas, and with different shades of grey, you can also control tones of your image.

Keep going until you are happy with the contrast and exposure of your image.

Conclusion

Now you know that blending modes have a lot of potential, so keep exploring. How do you use Soft Light Blend Mode? Please share your ideas and tips in the comments below.

The post How to Use Soft Light Blend Mode in Photoshop to Improve Exposure and Contrast by Ana Mireles appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 19, 2017
5 Amazing Free e-books To Inspire Every Street Photographer

The concept of street photography is something that by definition, has no objective definition. My only rule is that it must be candid. There are no rules about gear or lighting. Famous US photographer Chase Jarvis says “the best camera is the one you have with you” which suggests anyone with a smartphone has the potential to do street photography. Continue Reading

The post 5 Amazing Free e-books To Inspire Every Street Photographer appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

October 19, 2017
Where to Place a Horizon in Your Paddling Pictures?

7 examples with a commentary from paddling and shooting around a lake …
paddling with a camera

October 19, 2017
7 Photography Myths Exposed

Photographers, of all people, should know that the world is not black and white. There are many shades of grey between black and white, between good and bad, and between right and wrong. It’s all a matter of perspective and circumstance. Yet photography is full of blanket statements about what you should and shouldn’t do. In this article, I expose (pun intended!) a few of the most common photography myths every photographer should know.

1. Full frame cameras are better

A full frame camera has a larger sensor than a crop sensor camera. That means you might get more megapixels or you might get larger megapixels or even both. But there are many more important factors to consider when choosing a camera than megapixels.

First, crop sensor cameras are generally smaller, lighter and much less expensive. Second, if you like to shoot wildlife, you’ll get extra reach with your telephoto lens on a crop sensor camera. A 400mm lens on a full frame camera is equivalent to over 600mm on a crop sensor camera. Also, if you like to photograph wildlife, a more important factor to consider above megapixels is frames per second.

A few years ago I went to Africa to photograph wildlife and took two cameras: a full frame Canon 6D and a crop sensor Canon 7D. I learned that the 7D was much better for my purposes because of the frames per second rate it was capable of shooting. The 6D (at the time) did 4.5 fps and the 7D did 8. That was a huge difference in the field.

2. Always use a tripod

A tripod is an essential piece of gear for any photographer and usually, you will notice a huge improvement in image quality when you start using one. However, “always” is one of those blanket statements that doesn’t always make sense (see what I did there?). I often notice photographers arrive on a scene, set up their tripod, and then try to find a composition they like. That tends to limit their possibilities since they are already stuck on the tripod.

A better approach is to go free hand until you find your composition. Then, when you find it, try to make your tripod fit in the exact position necessary. Sometimes you’ll find it won’t fit. Either the angle is lower than your tripod will allow you to go, or the tripod is not tall enough, or the position isn’t stable. When that is the case, ditch the tripod in favor of getting the composition.

3. To make better photos, you need better gear

Undoubtedly, you will reach a point in time when you need better gear to carry out your vision for what you are trying to achieve with your photography. But the most important thing is to have that vision. Before getting new gear, make sure you exhaust your current gear. Use every single function and feature it has and know exactly what it is you need that your current gear doesn’t have before you move on. Blaming crappy gear is just a crutch. A really good photographer can make great images with pretty much any camera.

4. Never put your subject in the middle

Ah, the rule of thirds. The golden ratio. The fibonacci spiral. All good tools when it comes to learning composition. But don’t forget about the beauty to be found in simple symmetry.

When you think about a person’s face, the most beautiful face is the most symmetrical face. It’s all about balance, equality of proportion, and harmony. The key to making a compelling symmetrical composition is in the perfection of the symmetry. A composition that is almost symmetrical will seem off, but one that is perfect will seem awe inspiring.

5. Manual is the best shooting mode

It’s beneficial to all aspiring photographers to learn to shoot in manual mode so you have independent control over every factor in making your exposure including aperture, shutter speed and ISO. It’s no doubt that it’s one of the best ways to learn how your camera works. However, once you’ve learned how to use manual mode, why not let your camera do what it’s good at? Cameras these days are smart and the fewer things you have to do manually, the quicker you will be at responding to a changing scene.

When you are on a scene, decide which factors are important to you before you select your shooting mode. For example, if you are trying to intentionally blur a subject, shutter speed is important. You can use shutter priority mode and let the camera choose the aperture and ISO. That way when you want to shorten or lengthen the shutter speed, you only have one thing to change and the camera will figure out the rest. Similarly you might decide that depth of field is most important, and if you’re using a tripod, shutter speed might not matter at all. In that case, aperture priority mode is most convenient.

6. RAW format is better than JPEG

This refers to the image quality you select in your camera’s settings. You can choose to have your images saved as either RAW files, JPEGs, or both.

RAW is better than JPEG only if you are planning on post-processing your photos, which most people do. A RAW file contains more data and therefore you have more leeway in your post-processing. However, if you are just starting out and you haven’t gotten to the point where you’re processing your photos yet, it’s probably better to shoot JPEGs.

In JPEG mode, your camera will make some decisions for you when it comes to color and contrast and your photos will look better straight out of the camera. Ultimately you’ll likely come to the point where you want to make those decisions yourself. That’s when it is time to make the switch to RAW.

7. Good photography requires good light

All light is good light. The trick is to know what kind of images to make under the lighting conditions that are available. Do you have harsh (hard) light? Look for interesting shadows or photograph in the shade. Soft light? Perfect for macro shots. Looking into the sun? Find subjects with interesting shapes for silhouettes.

Conclusion

Remember, as an artist, you are free to go about making your art any way you like. You can use your tools any way you see fit. The most important thing is to have a vision and then use your tools and techniques to help you achieve it.

Do you know of any other photography myths you want to expose here? Please share in the comments below.

The post 7 Photography Myths Exposed by Anne McKinnell appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 19, 2017
4 Tips for the Minimalist Photographer
I’ve photographed countless sessions in the past nine years. Weddings, families, children, newborns, seniors, huge extended family groups, community events, products for companies, bike races, fine art, birth stories. . . You name it, I have probably photographed it. Knowing that you might be a little bit surprised when I tell you what equipment I have in my bag:
- Nikon D700 body
- 50mm f/1.4G lens
- 85mm f/1.4D lens
That’s everything, besides two 8GB Compact Flash cards, two 4GB Compact Flash cards, three camera batteries, a couple of business cards, and some lip balm. All of this fits inside one Kelly Moore Westminster Camera Bag. I use Photoshop CS6 with Adobe Camera Raw to edit my photos on a 27″ iMac. That’s it!

I started nine years ago with a Nikon D90, the kit lens, and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. A couple of years later I upgraded to my full-frame body, better lenses, and haven’t felt a need for anything different, or anything more since that day. I’d say I’m very much a minimalist photographer, and it works well for me.

Could it also work well for you? Is it possible to have so few pieces of equipment and be satisfied? I’d like to share some thoughts with you, and maybe you’ll find that it’s a system that could work for you. You also might think I’m just insane, and add an additional lens to your collection just to spite me. Don’t worry! I won’t judge you harshly either way.

#1 – Let Go of Keeping Up

All too often in life, we get caught up in what everyone around us has, and what they are doing. We feel that in order to be good enough, we have to have and do all of that stuff too. Photography is no different.

Your best photographer friends are telling you about the latest and greatest lens they just purchased. Your photography competition just switched to a different brand and bought entirely new everything. The blogger you follow online just ordered the most life-changing new camera bag and is urging you to buy it too. You are surrounded by it every day, but you don’t have to keep up. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing to be your best self. Likewise, you don’t need to have everything they have to compete.

If it’s hard for you to see what others have and be satisfied with your own life, then stop looking at what they have. Stay away from social media for awhile, and quit looking at the blogs that are trying to sell you things. Get out and photograph something real with the equipment you have, and you might just forget that other photographers even exist. Eventually, you will be able to congratulate a friend on a new acquisition without feeling even a bit of jealousy.

#2 – Quit Thinking “Stuff” Will Change Everything

Have you ever told yourself that if only you had a certain camera, if only you had a few more lenses, you would be an amazing photographer? While equipment does make a difference, it doesn’t make the photographer. Great photographers can make beautiful photos with anything they have, and a not-so-great photographer could have the highest-end equipment with every lens imaginable and still come up with nothing.

That said, it’s great to work towards purchasing quality equipment because if you’re only going to have very few things, you might as well make sure they’re very nice. You can get a nicer camera body and lens if you know that you’re going to use it all the time, and you won’t be spending your money on a lot of other “stuff”.

Practicing your photography, getting out there and actually taking photos, reading articles and books from the library about photography, and talking with other photographers will help you become a better photographer. And those things don’t cost you anything. Work on yourself instead of your stuff.

#3 – Try Before You Buy

At some point in your life, I’m betting that you thought you had to have something, you got it, then realized that it wasn’t what you really needed or wanted after all. I’m pretty sure it’s happened to you, because I know it’s happened to me, more than once.

So before you buy another piece of photography equipment, see if you can borrow it from someone (or rent it), or at least watch it in action before you take the plunge and put down your hard-earned money for it. I’m very careful about what I purchase, but even I have had a few misses throughout the years.

I bought a reflector that I’ve used exactly two times in my entire career. UV lens protectors were purchased for peace of mind, then I decided that I liked my photos better without them, and I am a cautious person. I trust myself, so I don’t need them. A camera bag that sounded great in theory but lifting a flap every time I wanted to get my camera didn’t work for me. I bought a lens cleaner that the cap never stayed on. These are little purchases, but they’re just money and space wasters to me.

Test Drive

I heard so often that Lightroom was amazing, and that there were so many things that you could do with it, and that I needed it along with Photoshop. I sat down one day with a sweet photographer friend and asked her to show me everything she loved about it, and why I needed it. Every single thing that she showed me could be done with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. I felt content with my workflow, and I went home satisfied that I didn’t need to buy another program.

The great thing about trying something out, or watching it in action, is that you can see if it will truly work for you or not. You can read or listen to lots of other photographer’s opinions, but they aren’t you. The things that are important to them may not be important to you. You ultimately have to make that decision if it’s something you truly need and if it’s a good fit for you.

#4 – Let Your Limited Resources Expand Your Abilities

It’s strange to me that someone like me, with such limited equipment, could be so much more content than the photographer who owns suitcases full of equipment and still wants more. Some types of photography truly require more than what I have, and more equipment could be necessary, but you’d be surprised how innovative you can be when you need to make do with what you have.

There is a certain freedom that comes when you have everything you need in your hands and in your head. You don’t need to carry around rolling luggage full to the brim with equipment because you use everything available to you to create something beautiful. If you can’t shoot something that comes to mind because you don’t have the right lens, you either find another way to shoot it, or you find something else to shoot. That something else might be even better than the first thing that came to mind.

You won’t be wasting time, or risking dust and dirt in your sensor, by changing lenses constantly. You won’t be weighed down by multiple camera bodies swinging from your neck. No more worrying about where you put that third bag full of your lighting equipment. Your mind is freer to capture real life.

Decide What Works for YOU

Please don’t read this article as a criticism of photographers who own a lot of equipment. I like things simple in my life, inside and outside of photography. I don’t like to have more than I need, and an excess of anything makes me feel uncomfortable. Being a minimalist photographer works for me, and whether your reasons are that you like simplicity too, or your budget requires simplicity, you might find a few things to think about after reading this.

Are there other photographers out there like me? I’d love to know what equipment you find most essential. And, for all of you who have everything, I’d love to know if you had to cut your equipment down to five or fewer items, what would you keep? What could you give up?

The post 4 Tips for the Minimalist Photographer by Melinda Smith appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
October 18, 2017
Video Tutorial: How to Make Realistic Images Faster with Aurora HDR 2018

As a landscape photographer who relies heavily on HDR to pull off much of my work, I’m always keen to learn about better ways of doing what I do. Most of the time my art tends to run towards natural looking images in contrast to the wild and crazy stuff of HDR’s reputation. The HDR software I use matters when I’m going for a more natural looking photo in my post-processing.

Going natural with Aurora HDR 2018

You can see several examples of the natural-looking results I’m getting in from Aurora HDR in the accompanying video and the several before and after images included here in the article.

Aurora HDR 2018 delivers, even more, natural-looking photos than before

The latest version of Aurora HDR is fresh out of the factory and I’ve been in a tire-kicking session with it for a few days making several photos. As expected, it’s a worthy upgrade. Do you want to see what’s new and how it helps when you want to keep the look of your HDR photos on the natural side?

Before

After processing with Aurora HDR 2018.

Under the Hood of Aurora HDR 2018

The Macphun engineers have been very busy for many months re-building Aurora HDR from scratch. It’s like Walter White always says in Breaking Bad, “It had to be done.” In order to create a cross-platform Windows/Mac application, all new code was required. Big job.

The resulting product is something they can be proud of. The new HDR algorithm in Aurora HDR 2018 churns out very natural looking HDR images when it’s used correctly and with natural HDR being the goal. Of course, Aurora HDR 2018 is a perfect fit for my landscape photography work. It uses the most modern tone-mapping technology and an advanced image-processing engine, which makes very clean images, as you’ll notice in my examples.

Before

After processing with Aurora HDR.

Video tutorial: Keeping it natural and real in Aurora HDR 2018

All the new features, just added to Aurora HDR 2018 in this release, bring it ever closer to becoming the only app you’ll need to process your HDR images and keep them as natural looking as you want. When you watch the video you’ll see how I use some of the new major features packed into Aurora HDR 2018 when creating my natural looking HDR landscapes. Watch the demo video:

Embracing the faster workflow using Aurora HDR 2018

You probably love photography as much as I do. Getting new tools that really help me get to my intended vision faster, or easier, or just better in any aspect, are quite welcome. They make it even easier to love what I do.

Kudos to the completely rewritten HDR algorithm and the advanced image-processing engine in Aurora HDR 2018. I’m finding that it’s speeding up my workflow significantly. That’s because of how good my photos usually look immediately after tone mapping even without even doing anything else in Aurora.

If I were brand new to photography, I’d be totally happy leaving my photos in that initial tone-mapped state with no further processing. They are that clean!

Before

After

Back in the day (before Aurora HDR), it could take me up to a couple of hours to finish an HDR photo. Even then, it wasn’t all that natural looking much of the time. Thankfully, things are always evolving in exciting ways.

Ever since my foray into HDR photography eight years ago, my skills have improved. But I honestly have to credit the improvements in software, like Aurora HDR 2018, for dramatically reducing the time it takes me to finish a photo to just a few minutes while getting better, more realistic, results.

My intention is keeping my post-processing time to five minutes per image and striving for consistently higher quality photography. Aurora HDR 2018 is a big piece in my HDR workflow making that happen so it’s now a permanent tool in my HDR arsenal.

Be sure to watch the video, then I invite you to check out more Aurora HDR images in my SmugMug gallery.

Disclaimer: Macphun is a paid partner of dPS.

The post Video Tutorial: How to Make Realistic Images Faster with Aurora HDR 2018 by Keith Cuddeback appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 18, 2017
Review: Struman Lenses for Mobile Phones

As the use of mobile phones as cameras become more popular people want to get the best possible images with them. In some ways, they are very limited in how you can take photos. There are many companies now making lenses for mobile phones to help you get much better images.

Some are better than others with most requiring a magnetic ring to attach them to your phone, over the camera lens. They can have varying degrees success. Some have good lenses, but the rings don’t work, while others are designed for a particular camera and aren’t good on other models.

The Struman Optics case, the clip, and three phone lenses.

Struman Optics has come up with a set of lenses that consider all aspects of using them along with different phone products. Through phone cases for the most popular brands, or a special clip for the others, you can now use their lenses (the macro, fisheye, wide-angle and telephoto) with any phone.

Phone cases

Unlike many other lenses for mobile phones, the Struman Optics ones have covers for the top two brands – both iPhone and Samsung. The phone covers have a section where the camera is that allows you to screw in the lens so it is aligned perfectly with the camera.

The case makes taking photos a lot easier as you can hold your phone in any manner, and not worry about the lens coming off. It makes the whole system much sturdier.

The phone case with a lens screwed into it ready to be used.

Clip

If you have one of the lesser known phone brands or models, the lenses come with a clip that allows you to put them over the phone. They come with a spongy surface that sits against the screen so it won’t scratch. This takes a little more mucking around to get the lens correctly aligned, but once it’s done you can take your photos.

You can put the empty clip to help you work out where it should go. You can then screw in the lens that you want to use and take your images. If you decide you want to change to another lens, it isn’t a problem as they are easy to swap out.

The clip on the phone with a lens in it.

The Lenses

There are two kits available. The first includes a macro, wide-angle and fish-eye lens. The second is a telephoto lens that also has a holder for your phone and small tripod that you can use to help you steady the camera.

Macro Lens

Trying to get really close to objects for macro photography with your phone seems to be something that so many of us try to achieve. Some phones do it well, while others struggle. My current phone has trouble getting close and it can be frustrating. I do like macro photography, so having a lens I can put on my phone is great.

The Struman Optics macro lens is incredible. It will allow you to get a lot closer to your object than your phone can. It gives you a great amount of detail and is very sharp. When you go to take an image you can get as close as a couple of centimeters or an inch away from the subject.

This photo was taken with my phone and the macro lens screwed into the phone case.

Perhaps the one negative thing about this is that you don’t have a lot of choices, you only get the one focal range. All images have to be taken from the same distance, which is really close. However, if your intention is to get as near as possible, then you will love this lens.

This is as close as you can get with just my phone and no added lens.

When you screw in the Struman macro lens, you can get a whole lot closer and capture a lot more detail.

If you decide you want to get a little further away the wide-angle lens is what you need.

Wide-Angle Macro Lens

The wide-angle lens will let you take photos at any distance. You can get a wider angle than what your phone will take. If you have a subject that is hard to photograph because you can’t quite get it into the frame, then this lens will allow you to get a wider angle of view.

Compare the images below. The first image shows you the lighthouse taken with the phone and no lens. It is a tight image, and to get more distance I would have to move farther back. But as there was a cliff behind me so that was not an option.

The lighthouse taken with the phone and no lens attached.

The Struman wide-angle lens was attached to the phone and now you can see that there is a lot more room around the lighthouse. This made it a better image.

Same Lighthouse, but with the wide-angle lens attached.

The lens also has macro capabilities. If you find that you don’t want to get as close as you have to with the macro lens, put the wide-angle on and you can get that distance. It is good for photographing the whole flower or getting more than one in the shot. It is a great lens to go with the macro.

Fish-eye Lens

The fish-eye lens is a lot of fun. When you use one for the first time it is addictive to see what you take with it. This lens is similar to other fish-eye lenses for phones in that the image is a circle. If you give your subject enough space you can crop it so it is square or rectangle. However, if you do that you are reducing the size of the file.

Fish-eye lens used to photograph the lighthouse and then cropped to make a normal rectangular image.

Like the wide-angle lens, the fish-eye can also do macro. It can be used when you want to highlight an object in particular. It creates a bokeh effect with everything around it.

Some shelves with an assortment of things, taken with the fish-eye lens.

Carry Case

The above three lenses and the clip all come in a little case that fits in your bag or your pocket. It makes it very easy to carry them around. There is a little pocket that has some instructions and a cleaning cloth for the lenses. The case is not soft and is quite solid, so it keeps everything inside safe.

Telephoto Lens

As stated earlier, Struman Optics also makes a telephoto lens which you can purchase in a kit with a stand and a holder for the phone. This also fits into the phone cover case or the clip to help hold it still. You do really need the stand and phone holder as it’s a large lens. It is hard to hand-hold it to take photos.

When you find a subject you want to photograph, you have to be a certain distance from the object, a meter or a yard away. You do have to focus it manually, so if you find it is too hard to focus that could your subject is either too close or too far away.

Out of all the Struman lenses, this is the hardest to use. You do need to use the stand, or a stand with the phone holder. It does mean you have to carry a bit more equipment with you if you want to use this lens.

The telephoto lens in the phone case, with the phone secured by the holder and kept up-right on the stand.

Stand and Phone Holder

The stand is basic and not very big, though it is easy enough to carry around. You do need to have a surface to put it on and that isn’t always possible.

The phone holder screws onto the top of the stand and you put your phone in it. It is easy to use, though it can be a bit stiff to mount your phone. The holder will also fit on other tripods or Gorillapods. That allows you to use it with your other gear if you decide to throw the holder and lens in your kit when you go out.

This flower image was taken with the wide-angle lens, shot very close to the flower.

In Practice

When I went away recently I put the cover on my phone so I could use the lenses anytime I wanted. I didn’t take the telephoto lens with me, but I most definitely packed the other three. They were always with me, either in my bag, or my pocket.

They are the best mobile phone lenses I’ve seen yet. The images are amazing and the detail you can get in your images is so sharp. If you love using your phone for photography and want to get more out of it, then here are the lenses that may be perfect for you. Struman Optics is an Australian company, but they ship all over the world.

I would give these lenses 9 out of 10, I love them.

The post Review: Struman Lenses for Mobile Phones by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 18, 2017
How to Supercharge Your Photography with Highlight-Weighted Metering

Modern digital cameras have a variety of metering modes that they use to evaluate the light coming through the lens and help you choose your exposure settings. Each one is different and designed to fit a specific need. As you gain experience with them you will start to know which metering mode to use for any given scene you are shooting.

If you’re shooting portraits you might want to use Spot or Center-weighted metering, while landscape shooters may prefer the versatility of matrix or evaluative mode. Knowing which mode to use often comes with time and practice. But what if I told you there was a metering mode built-in to some cameras that could basically guarantee your shots would come out properly exposed every single time? Well, if you believe that then I’ve got a bridge in New York I’d like to sell you.

Highlight-Weighted Metering Mode

However, if your camera has Highlight-Weighted metering it will certainly help you get better results from your photos. While I can’t guarantee your pics will be perfect every single time, it can really come in handy if you’re not sure how to meter your scene and want a solution that you know you can rely on.

Different metering modes for different situations

The reason photographers use specific metering modes when shooting various scenes is that they want to make sure the right thing is properly exposed. For example, if you’re shooting a portrait it’s important to make sure your subject’s face is neither too bright nor too dark, even is it means some background elements will end up bright white or pitch black.

Center-weighted metering can solve this problem by helping you arrive at an exposure setting such that whatever is in the middle of the frame (i.e. your subject’s face) is exposed just right. Other metering modes such as Spot, Matrix/Evaluative, and Partial Metering all perform similar functions in that they help you make sure you have just the right camera settings to get precisely the important part of your composition properly exposed.

Highlight-weighted metering tosses all that out the window. In the process, it could also dramatically alter your approach not only to metering a scene but to photography as a whole.

I used Center-weighted metering here to make sure this couple was exposed just right, even though the background is a bit too bright. I cared more about the couple looking good than the tree leaves behind them.

Enter Highlight-Weighted Metering for Select Nikon Cameras

Available on only a few Nikon cameras, (D5, D850, D810, D750, D500, and D7500 as of the time of this writing) Highlight-weighted metering utilizes the incredible dynamic range of modern image sensors to give you a massive degree of control over your photos. Provided you don’t mind doing a bit of legwork in Lightroom, Photoshop, Luminar, or other post-processing software.

It works by looking at the brightest elements of a scene (instead of specific areas like the center or the focus point) and using those as the basis for taking an exposure reading. On the surface, this might seem like a terrible idea because doing so would obviously mean a great deal of your photo could, as a result, be much too dark and underexposed to be usable.

Accessing Highlight-Weighted Metering

I’ve talked to some photographers who own cameras that can do Highlight-Weighted metering, and some of them aren’t even aware that their cameras have this capability. It’s not that surprising since Nikon doesn’t seem to go out of its way to advertise the feature, and even if you know about it you still may not know how to enable it.

To access this feature, press the metering button on your camera and then turn the control dial until you see an icon that looks the same as spot metering, with the exception of an asterisk in the top-right corner.

You will see the same icon if you look at the rear LCD screen of your camera, and as soon as it appears you’re good to go. However, figuring out how to enable Highlight-Weighted metering is one thing but understanding how it works, when to use it, and how to get the most out of it is another matter entirely.

Exposing for the Highlights

Before I get too deep into what this all means, it’s important to understand that Highlight-Weighted metering isn’t really the best solution to use for everyday shooting. It’s designed to make sure the brightest portions of your composition are not overexposed, which means a great deal of the photo is going to be shrouded in darkness.

You also won’t really see the advantages of using it unless you shoot RAW because it’s designed to give you an image that is extremely flexible due to the amount of data you have to work with during the post-production phase. Since JPEG files toss out such a huge amount of image data, they’re not much use with Highlight-Weighted metering because you simply don’t have much room to edit your photos when developing them in Lightroom.

Metering Mode Comparison

As an illustration of how Highlight-Weighted metering works, consider this series of three images. I took the following shot using Matrix metering mode, which tries to get a good overall balance between highlights and shadows. It’s a mode that many people use by default since it helps you get properly-exposed images in most shooting situations.

Matrix metering resulted in a good overall exposure but the sky is so bright that it can’t be fixed in post-production.

You can see that the camera tried its best to balance out the highlights and shadows, and the resulting image is decent but there is a massive portion of the sky that is simply too bright and can’t be recovered in Lightroom, Photoshop, or any other post-processing software.

Using Highlight-Weighted metering meant that my camera helped me adjust the exposure settings such that the brightest parts (i.e. the sky) were not overexposed, which resulted in an image that seems unusable at first.

Highlight-weighted metering preserved the brightest portions of the image but left the rest vastly underexposed. This is the image as it came right out of the camera.

Fortunately, due to the incredible dynamic range in modern camera sensors, an image like this is perfectly usable. The key is that the highlights haven’t been lost or clipped, so the sky is exposed just fine while the dark portions of the image still contain so much data (because I shot in RAW) that it can still be transformed into a print-worthy photo with just a few clicks.

The sky was exposed properly, with plenty of shadow details still available for editing. This is the same image as above, after processing to pull detail out of the shadow areas.

Some Caveats

As you might expect, there are some caveats to using this approach as well as a few questions.

First of all, experienced photographers might wonder what the big deal is with this approach since similar results can be had by simply using exposure compensation. That is if you take a shot and see that the image is overexposed, just compensate by underexposing it a few stops. The problem with this approach is that it’s a multi-step solution which means a critical moment can sometimes pass you by while you are adjusting the exposure. However, using Highlight-Weighted metering ensures that the brightest parts of your image will never be clipped and therefore have plenty of data to use when editing.

It’s also worth pointing out that in order to get the benefits of Highlight-Weighted metering you need to be willing to edit your photos afterward in order to bring up the shadows and adjust your images accordingly. If you’re used to shooting JPG or doing minimal editing, it might not be worth the additional time that this solution adds to your workflow.

Finally, to get the most benefits you need to use low ISO values since the data from the sensor will be more usable. Sensor dynamic range drops off at higher ISO values so if you find yourself shooting at ISO 6400, 3200, or even 1600 you won’t be able to bring up the shadows nearly as well as you could with images shot at ISO 100 or 200.

Another example

For one more example, here’s a series of photos of a goose that illustrate this concept in action. This first image was taken using standard Matrix metering which did its job pretty well. Overall the scene is properly exposed, except for one glaring exception: the overexposed part right at the base of the bird’s neck.

Matrix metering, unedited RAW file.

After seeing my results I quickly switched to the Highlight-weighted metering mode. In doing so, my camera made sure that the brightest part of the image was properly exposed, which left the rest extraordinarily dark.

Highlight-weighted metering, unedited RAW file

Fortunately, there was plenty of color data to extract from the shadows, so a little finessing in Lightroom resulted in an image that I’d be happy to post to my Instagram feed.

Highlight-weighted metering, edited in Lightroom to pull out the shadow detail.

What if you don’t have a Highlight-weighted metering mode?

If you don’t have Highlight-weighted metering built into your camera you can approximate its effects by using Spot metering and the exposure lock button on your camera. This would allow you to set exposure values based on what you deem to be the brightest part of the composition, lock in your settings, and then recompose your shot before snapping the shutter. It’s not as simple or elegant as having the camera automatically meter the scene based on the brightest part of the composition, but it’s worth trying if your camera doesn’t have this function.

Conclusion

I like to think of Highlight-weighted metering as another useful arrow to have in my photography quiver, but not something I use all the time for every one of my shots. For most images, I tend to default to Matrix metering since it will usually give me a properly-exposed shot that I can tweak if I need to.

However, when I find myself in situations with extreme contrast between the lightest and darkest portions I will often switch over to Highlight-weighted metering so I can stop worrying about checking my settings and dialing in exposure compensation. That way I know that I’ll end up with images that I can edit however I need to in Lightroom because nothing will be overexposed.

The post How to Supercharge Your Photography with Highlight-Weighted Metering by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 17, 2017
Horizontal or/and Vertical Format in Kayak Photography

Like most paddlers I have a tendency to shoot pictures in a horizontal (landscape) format. It is more tricky to shoot in a vertical format from my tippy kayaks, especially, when I have to use a paddle to stabilize my camera.
paddling with a camera

October 17, 2017