Category: Photography

6 of the Best Smartphone Apps for Travel and Landscape Photography

Ansel Adams, the godfather of landscape photography once said, “A great photograph is knowing where to stand.” Sadly, I stood in all the wrong places when I began. I watched in envy as seemingly everyone else was taking pictures of an epic sunrise, an arching Milky Way, or an ethereal cityscape blanketed in fog.

Landscape photography apps are essential tools that help you be in the right place at the right time, like this rooftop in Busan, South Korea. © Pete DeMarco

Eventually, I learned that compelling landscape images are created long before the shutter snaps. Like anything in life, having a plan or vision about what you would like to create will massively increase your chances of reaching your target. The same goes for photography.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely respect chance, or what some may call serendipity. But capturing spontaneous events takes a fair amount of planning. Even the man who coined the term “The Decisive Moment”, the great street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, would plan his frame and then wait for life to happen within his photographic stage.

When Preparation Meets Opportunity

Landscape photography is like going to the casino. You can’t control what cards you get, but by learning the game you can increase your odds of winning.

In photography terms, Smartphone apps are essential tools in the image creation process, right up there with your camera, lens, and tripod. You can literally make the stars align with them.

Knowing where to stand (and when) makes all the difference in landscape photography. © Pete DeMarco

Here are six Smartphone apps I use to plan out my landscape photo shoots. Use them well, and it won’t be long before you get comments on your photos like this, “You always seem to be in the right place at the right time.”

#1 – PhotoPills

PhotoPills is the best photography app on the market. Period. It’s the photographer’s Swiss Army knife. It does so many things. I use it to plan my astrophotography shoots. I can easily figure out the phase of the moon, the location of The Milky Way, where it will rise, how high, at what angle, and at what intensity. The best part is the 3D augmented reality for finding The Milky Way in the sky.

PhotoPills is an excellent app for astrophotography. I used it to plan this shoot in Penang, Malaysia.© Pete DeMarco

And that’s just the beginning. Whether you are doing timelapse photography, location planning, tracking the sun or the moon, or calculating your hyperfocal distance, this app has it all. The $ 9.99 price tag is well worth it considering all you get in return (available for iOS and Android).

#2 – The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE)

TPE used to be my go-to app before PhotoPills made it obsolete. The best thing is its simplicity. I mainly use it to track the sun and the moon. But since PhotoPills does that and so much more, I rarely use it now. I still included TPE on the list though because you can use it for free through their “web app”. Just go to their home page and click on TPE for Desktop.

You can’t control the light in landscape photography, but you can learn how to make the most out of what you’re given. © Pete DeMarco

It also has 3D topographical maps and can help with astrophotography shoots. Still though, PhotoPills offers far more at a lower price. Watch my short video tutorial on how I use this app to find where the sun will rise and set. (Price: $ 11.99 for iOS and Android; browser version FREE)

#3 – Sun Surveyor

Sun Surveyor is another helpful Smartphone app to plan the rise and fall of the sun. © Pete DeMarco

Another app similar to TPE is Sun Surveyor. It’s mainly just for tracking the sun, the moon, and how the light will fall. If English is not your first language, the app has been translated into a number of different languages like Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Czech and many others. With limited features though, I’d probably just use the free desktop version of TPE or buy PhotoPills instead. (Price: $ 9.99, iOS and Android)

#4 – Tide Charts Near Me

The land bridge in this photo is only visible at low tide. Apps like Tide Charts Near Me are helpful when photographing seascapes like this one. © Pete DeMarco

If you’re into seascape photography, knowing the level of the tide is essential. Some shots you can only get at low tide or high tide. Tide Charts Near Me is a super simple app with a great graphic interface for showing the height of the tide on any given day or time. There’s also a moon phase calendar included as well. (Price: Free for iOS & Android)

#5 – Maps.me

The most important thing of all is being able to make it to and from your shoot location. Google Maps and Apple Maps are decent. But the problem is that you need to use data to access those maps, which can be costly if you’re traveling internationally.

Also, if you’re in an area with no cell phone service then your map app won’t work. Yes, you can use Google maps offline but you have to download each individual location first.

Finding your way around a big city or new country can be daunting. Offline map apps like Maps.me not only save you roaming data fees, they get you where you need to be. © Pete DeMarco

Maps.me is a fantastic offline map app solution. It’s simple to use and does much more than just help you find your way. Once you install the app, all you do is download the country map for your destination.

Then you can locate the nearest ATM, restaurant, wifi connection, and more with ease, without using any data. It works with GPS, not wifi, so you can find your way anywhere in the world. However, if your device isn’t GPS enabled, like say an iPad or another tablet with only a wifi connection, then it won’t work. Check out the video for more details. (Price: Free for iOS and Android).

#6 – Wundergroud

Clouds can add drama to your landscape images. Weather apps that show the hourly forecast like Wunderground can give you a planning edge. © Pete DeMarco

Last but not least, knowing the weather forecast obviously makes a huge difference in photography. Almost any app will do for this. I prefer Wunderground because it gives a detailed weather forecast by the hour, not just the day (Price: Free for iOS and Android).

Beginner’s Guide To Landscape Photography

If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more, check out Pete’s course A Beginner’s Guide to Compelling Landscape Photography.

The post 6 of the Best Smartphone Apps for Travel and Landscape Photography by Pete DeMarco appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 11, 2017
How to Let Go of Perfection in Photography

In the digital era, where perfection seems within our grasp through post-processing and limitless opportunities to reshoot, it’s easy to get hung up on perfectionism. In some genres, such as product photography, it’s a necessity. Your commercial client won’t appreciate blown-out highlights on a shampoo bottle or soft focus on the wheel of a prestige car.

But in many other areas of photography – especially when it comes to your personal projects – letting go of perfectionism can help unleash your creativity and ensure that you don’t miss important moments.

Beautifully imperfect.

My brush with perfectionism

Earlier this year, my firstborn turned 18 and I wanted to create a slideshow of photos from her birth to the present day. Since I was still shooting film for the first 10 years of her life, this involved trawling through printed photos.

What stood out to me was that among my favorite photos, very few were technically perfect. Some were poorly composed. Others were out-of-focus, underexposed, or badly lit. In fact – and I hate to admit this – if I’d shot these photos in the digital era, I’d have rejected many of them, or attempted to reshoot them to get them “right”. But they captured expressions that epitomize my daughter. They had caught candid moments between sisters, and snippets in time I’d forgotten, but want to remember.

Grainy, underexposed and soft, this photo of my children snuggled into an armchair reading books is priceless to me.

Embrace the imperfect

Almost everything about the black-and-white photo at the top of the page is imperfect from a technical stance. The subject is too centred; the sun has cast shadows over her eyes and highlighted her nose; the highlights are blown out, and the focus is soft on the eyes. To me, though, it is exquisite. The windswept hair, the tilt of her head and quirky smile capture her sweet nature, and the way she looks (to this very day) when she is daydreaming.

In all three photos above, there are technical faults. But the clumsy embrace, the dimples, those eyes and that cheeky pout could never be replaced by technical perfection.

While this article is not about film versus digital, it is hard to deny that the digital era has brought out the perfectionist in us all. Those of us who cut our photographic teeth in the film era will remember what it was like to accept imperfection. When you had a maximum of 36 frames on a roll of film, there was no room for rapid-fire shooting in the hope of getting one good shot. Unless you did your own printing, or were prepared to pay for custom printing, you were stuck with the composition you’d shot. There was no histogram to meddle with, no brushes to delete stray hairs, and no actions or presets to smooth everything out.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity

My youngest daughter is wildly artistic. She’s a keen photographer and has an eye for composition, lighting and quirky camera angles. To my frustration, she refuses to master some of the basics such as the exposure triangle and depth of field. While I think this has more to do with teen rebellion than creativity, I have learned something from her.

Technical skills are important, there’s no question, as we need to master the fundamentals of our craft. In photography, this means understanding light, how focal length and depth of field work, and the relationship between shutter speed, iso and aperture. We should be aware of the rules of composition even if we choose to veer from them.

But digital photography allows us to take our perfectionist tendencies to an extreme.

Would this photo be improved if it were straightened, and the white balance perfected?

Perfection is a myth

When you make perfection your goal, you’re often left with a sense of failure. Rather than enjoying your achievements, you waste time lamenting what you failed to achieve and what you could have done differently.

Creative minds are rarely tidy (neither are their workspaces – just ask the aforementioned daughter). Creation can be a messy business, yet making a mess is something that’s discouraged from an early age. Creativity is the explosion of paints and brushes across the table. It’s the random words smudged across school books that become poems and songs. It’s burnt saucepans, twisted ankles and spilt ink, and it’s weird composition, missed focus, and unwanted backgrounds. These messes can lead to wonderful things that you’ll miss if you are focused on reaching perfection.

It’s worth remembering that Penicillin, potato chips, Scotchguard and the pacemaker were all the result of mistakes.

I am no landscape photographer, but when I revisited my birth country I wanted to capture how the majority of South Africans live. The photos below were shot from a slow-moving vehicle, and a landscape photographer could point out their many imperfections. But I think I achieved what I set out to do, and that’s good enough for me.

Khyelitsha, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, was established during the apartheid era as part of the Group Areas Act, and is now home to around 2.4 million people.

Tins roofs, uninsulated buildings and a riot of electrical wires overhead.

In the background, the mountain range for which Cape Town is famous. In the foreground, the outskirts of Khyelitsha.

Perfection is boring

There is a long list of famous songs which were recorded with mistakes, including Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, The Police’s Roxanne, and Radiohead’s Creep. It takes nothing away from our enjoyment of them – in fact, it enhances them. It reminds us that they were made by humans, who are fallible just like us.

I believe there is something in the human psyche that craves imperfection. In recent years, we have seen a resurgence of vinyl in the music industry. The trend in photo editing, especially for portraiture, has swung towards emulating film. And it is the millennials, raised in the digital era where everything sought to be perfect, who have led these trends. Lightroom presets such as Mastin Labs and VSCO are doing a roaring trade making digital photographs look like they were shot on film.

The flat tones in this photo were the result of underexposure. Now there’s a preset to emulate this look.

In this photo, the skin tones are too green, the central composition could be improved, and that red bucket draws too much attention, but contributes nothing to the story. Yet the photo reminds me of how much fun my children had on their first camping trip, and is evocative of my own childhood.

You’ll miss the important moments

Henri Cartier-Bresson, a master of candid photography said, “Sharpness is a bourgeois concept.” To him, photography was all about capturing the decisive moment, not getting hung up on technical perfection. Get too fixated on perfection, and you’ll miss the moments that take your breath away.

Your subjects can’t repeat a candid expression because you missed focus. An embrace is only spontaneous the first time. Spend too long worrying about shutter speed or depth of field, and you’ll miss it. If it’s restaged, it will show.

Discovering what my children had done when left unsupervised with craft paint in the backyard: priceless.

The photo below of a woman with her teenage daughter is an outtake from a family photo shoot, snapped in the break when they had dropped their guard. Because it is out of focus, I was tempted not to show it to them, but I was so drawn to their natural smiles and the warmth in their embrace that I changed my mind. It turned out to be one of their favourite photos. The outtakes are often the best photos, when people behave spontaneously.

This photo of my daughters was shot on 35mm film. Had I been shooting with a DSLR, I may have reshot it because the focus is soft. I’m so glad I didn’t. That split-second interaction sums up their relationship – the little one’s curiosity while her big sister asserts her superior status.

A moment is only candid the first time.

Progress over perfection

Candid photography and photojournalism are all about capturing the decisive moment, no matter how imperfect the conditions. You can’t reschedule the moment your baby takes his first steps until the light is right. And trust me, if those photos are blurry and the cat makes a guest appearance at the critical moment, they will still move you to tears when you look at them 18 years from now.

Regardless of what genre you like to photograph, keep shooting. Keep learning; read widely and take inspiration from anywhere you can. Learn from your mistakes and strive for improvement, but don’t get hung up on perfection. Enjoy your photos and, most importantly, the process of creating them.

The post How to Let Go of Perfection in Photography by Karen Quist appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 11, 2017
How to Easily Add a New Element to Your Image Using Photoshop

This is an article for beginners in Photoshop. You will learn how to simply add an element to your photo and transform a daylight image into a nighttime one.

Open your selected images in Photoshop

First thing you want to do is select a photo of a mountain (in raw format). For that, open Photoshop then go to File > Open, it will open a window where you can select the photo that you want. Here we select raw file of the mountain:

Raw adjustments first

Because we opened a raw file it is going to pop up in Adobe Camera Raw and we are going to retouch it to make it look like night first. Let’s set the White Balance towards the blue, so move the Temp slider to 4150. Then you want your Exposure to be very low so it looks dark, try -1,90, lower your Highlights to -84, add some Contrast to +39, boost the Blacks to +28, and lower the Whites to -46. Basically bring down the bright parts and boost the darker parts to give the image a night mood.

Now click on the sentence under your photo: ProPhoto.. and select Open in Photoshop as a Smart Object.

Open the element you want to add

Once you have done that you can come back and open an image or element to add to the first image. We are going to select a moon that we want to add to this mountain. Go to File > Open and select one photo of a moon in jpg.

Arrange your workspace

You should have the photo of the moon and the mountain in tabs on the top of your Photoshop interface. If you don’t see that, you can go to Window > Arrange > Consolidate all tabs:

For this tutorial we need a workspace with two windows on the right, one is to show Layers and one is for Properties. For that you need to select “3D” from the pull-down menu for Workspace in the upper right corner.

Move the moon or element onto the mountain image

Go to your moon photo and grab the Move tool, it is the first icon on your left side (tools palette), the keyboard shortcut is V.

Using the Move tool you need to click on the moon, hold your mouse button, drag it over to the tab of the mountain and let go of the mouse to drop it.

Blending the images together

You can see that we have black around the moon still, so we are going to blend that out. In the layer window there are different options for Blending Modes, For this one we are going to use Screen. Pull it down and select Screen from the options.

That took most of the black out.

Resize and place the element

To make the moon even bigger, go to Edit > Free Transform.

Using the shift key to maintain its proportions, you can extend the moon by grabbing the corner and pulling it down.

You can also move the moon or your element around, and see where you want to put it. It looks pretty cool already but now we are going to get into masking. For this you will need to click on the Eye icon next to the moon layer number (to turn it off) and click on the layer of the mountain to select it.

You should see this now.

Select the Quick Select Tool (W on your keyboard) and drag your mouse over the sky to select it.

Turn the moon layer back on and click on the little square icon at the bottom to create a layer mask (shown in red below).

This is going to create a mask and because we have an active selection, a part of the moon is now hidden.

If you want to reposition the moon you just have to select the moon layer and click on the little chain on the side to unlink the image of the moon from the mask.

Side note: if you make a mistake you can select Cmd/Ctrl+Z to go back or undo the last step.

Fine adjustments

You can see that there is a difference of color around the moon because of the layer, so to fix grab the Brush tool. (hit B for brush on the keyboard) or the select the Brush on the tool palette).

Make sure that the opacity is at 100% and that black is your foreground color. Right-click and set the hardness to zero. This makes your brush very soft and you can brush over the white to remove it.

Side note: Click on the Control and Alt keys to make your brush or any tool in Photoshop smaller or bigger.

Here you can see where I painted on the mask.

Finished!

There you go! You have added a moon to your landscape!

I hope you liked this article and you feel more comfortable using Photoshop so you can add the moon or another element into your landscapes and create this cool effect.

If you enjoyed this tutorial and want to learn more about how to use Photoshop, check out Serge’s course Photoshop for Photographers 2017. Use the special promotional code – DPS65 – to get 65% off as a dPS reader!

The post How to Easily Add a New Element to Your Image Using Photoshop by Serge Ramelli appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 9, 2017
7 Questions That Will Help You Decide Which Camera To Buy

People often ask me for advice on which camera to buy. Most often they expect me to say, “Buy a Nikon” because that’s what I use. But that is not what I tell them.

If you were to ask me which camera you should buy I would first ask you a series of questions. From the answers, you give me I would guide you towards either a compact camera, mirrorless, or DSLR. So if you aren’t sure which camera to get, ask yourself these seven questions before you go shopping.

1. Why do you want a camera?

Doesn’t your phone take good enough photos? I’m not joking, this is a serious question.

I know if you are asking questions about buying a new camera you’ve already given some thought to the decision and are reasonably serious about it. I’m looking for an answer telling me how your phone is failing you in your endeavors to make photos. I want to know what you are hoping a camera will do that your phone cannot. Your answer will help me guide you towarwd the type of camera that will best suit you and your needs.

2. How and when will you use your camera?

The answer to this question will help determine what size camera to buy. Recently I’ve had two friends who are embarking on a once in a lifetime traveling experience ask me about what camera to buy. Both were thinking of buying DSLRs, expecting that those big cameras would give them the best results. But, I encouraged them each not to buy a DSLR because they are big and heavy!

It’s often said that the best camera is the one you have with you. If your camera is reasonably small you are more likely to want to carry it everywhere with you while traveling. Read more on this subject here: Must Have Gear for Travel Photography Newbies.

If you want to mainly use a camera to photograph products for your online store or to take pics of your garden I would be more likely to suggest you look at DSLRs (depending on the answers you give to some of the following questions).

The size and weight of a camera must be seriously considered because it’s no good buying a camera you find too big and heavy to carry with you. You will not use it often and will be disappointed with your purchase.

3. What will you use the photos for?

Your answer to this question will ascertain the level of image quality you will need. These days most people want photos to share on social media. If this is you, then you will not need a camera with the maximum megapixels available! Most compact cameras these days will produce images of high enough pixel quality for social media posting.

Producing prints, photo books or photos to sell online will require a camera with a larger sensor. For people who enjoy time in front of their computers post-processing photos, more megapixels and a larger sensors in DSLR and mirrorless models will be an advantage. Which leads me to the next question.

4. Do you take time to post-process your photos?

If you enjoy taking the time to do some post-processing on your photos and want to maintain high technical results, this starts to narrow down your camera options. Generally, cameras with larger sensors will produce photos that hold up to more post-processing. For example, a full frame sensor (36mm X 24mm) containing 24 megapixels will allow more post-processing before the image starts to deteriorate than a smaller 24 megapixel micro four thirds sensor (17.3mm X 13mm.)

You want to have confidence that your image quality will remain intact as you apply some color balancing and filters or more advanced post-processing techniques.

5. How big are your hands?

Seriously! If you have small hands you will find it difficult to use a large camera. If you have big hands, you will find it more difficult to use a small camera. You will need to consider the layout of the buttons and dials on a camera so you are comfortable using it.

Some camera manufactures manage to design small cameras which have well configured layouts and are easy to use, others do not seem to do such a good job. Before you buy, go hold the cameras you have short listed in your hands and see how they feel.

6. What’s your budget?

This is an obvious consideration for most people, but you are best to consider it along with these other questions, not separately. Sometimes budget limits your choice considerably. Sometimes the answers to other questions will lead you to purchase a camera and spend less than you may have thought initially. I think both my friends who asked for travel camera advice found this to be the case.

You may find a high-end compact camera with a one-inch sensor will give you more pleasure and provide high enough quality photos than a DSLR … because it’s small and you will take it with you everywhere.

7. Do you have a preferred brand?

I do have a preferred brand of camera. But I will never push people to buy the brand I use just because I like it. If you are already familiar with a camera brand and are happy with it, that is a good reason to stick with it.

Camera manufacturers often configure their cameras to feel and function the same with each upgrade they produce. I like it when I purchase a new camera that has the same feel in my hand as the one from which I’m upgrading. It makes it quicker and easier to start using the camera intuitively.

If you do not have a preferred brand I encourage you to stick with one of the major brands that fit within your budget.

Conclusion

Doing some careful research will help you make a decision to be able to buy a camera you’ll be satisfied with, one that will hopefully last you a long time. Using your new camera frequently and enrolling in a course or taking a few workshops will help you up-skill more quickly and gain more enjoyment from your purchase.

What other questions might you ask yourself before making a decision on which camera to buy? Do you have any other tips or advice for photography newbies just starting out? Please share in the comments section below.

The post 7 Questions That Will Help You Decide Which Camera To Buy by Kevin Landwer-Johan appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 9, 2017
What Type of Photographer Are You?

In the world of photography, everyone seems to fall into certain categories or somewhere in between. There is nothing wrong with either but most photographers seem to be one of these; technical photographers or creative. Technical photographers are more about getting it in-camera, while creative photographers are more focused on composition and post-processing. However, there are others as well, and while you may not think you are one of these, you might fall into one of the others. So what type of photographer are you?

Photographers all over the place at a popular tourist place in Australia. They are all different and take photos for different reason. There are a lot of different types of photographers.

Technical photographers

A technical photographer is one that likes to know exactly what their camera does and how it works. They understand how white balance will affect their images and what kelvin means in regards to the color scale. Generally, these photographers will know what the sweet spot is for their lens (meaning which aperture will give the best and sharpest images).

Getting the best possible image from the camera is how these photographers like to work. You will hear them talking about how they like to get the image right in-camera, meaning that they don’t want to do any post-processing, or rather they don’t want to do too much. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t also creative, but the technical aspects are more important.

A technical photographer might just do some basic processing to an image like this and leave it as it is.

Creative photographers

This type of photographer is less concerned about how the camera works and more interested in the composition and what they can do with the camera. You will often find they don’t understand a lot about their camera, other than the basics.

The more creative ones won’t have any issues with post-processing and doing what they can to achieve the results they want. Editing images is part of their creative workflow.

A creative photographer might try to do a lot of different things to an image and see if they can change it, make it their own.

Other types of photographers

While most of us will fall into one of the above, there are a lot of other categories that many of us will fit into as well. The technical versus creative side is more about what type of photographer you are, but the following says more about why you take photos. Some will fit into more fun type categories, while there are others that are a lot more serious about their craft. You may also find that you fit in more than one of these.

The Fun Photographer

There are a lot these sorts of photographers out there, they often just use phones and are not interested in any technical aspects at all. They are more interested in just taking photos for fun. They will usually only use the cameras that are in their phones.

This category of photographer will take a lot of selfie images. You see them in many places with their backs to the sights as they photograph themselves in front of them. The don’t take photography seriously and for many, the images will go to social media and possibly nowhere else.

In some ways, many of us fit into this category. We are all guilty of taking selfies and taking photos just for fun. There’s nothing wrong with this.

People at popular tourist place taking photos of themselves with their phone. They are having fun taking photos.

The Social Photographer

For some people, joy comes from going out with others to do activities or hobbies. There are a lot of people who are like this, and we call them social photographers. They have cameras, but the only time they use them is when they go out during photography excursions with others who are like them, or groups of people.

They may not have the most expensive gear, but it is good enough to take images and share the experience with other photographers.

A group of photographers out together enjoying the social aspect of photography.

The Holiday Photographer

It is hard to believe, but there are people who only take photos when they go on holidays. I have a friend who is one of these. She has learned how to use a DSLR, but she only uses it when she is travelling. She has no interest in taking photos other than to record her trips.

There are other people who are the same. Holidays can be expensive and remembering them is important. So, for these photographers it is vital to know how to take photos so they can capture those places to help them relive their holidays.

A man holidaying in Melbourne taking photos of the Block Arcade.

The Hobby/Amateur Photographer

There are many photographers that fall into this category, the hobby or amateur photographer. They are usually people who like taking photos for leisure. They don’t do it to earn money, but as something they can do in their spare time.

Going out on the weekends or days off when work and family life allows. They often have gear that is fairly basic as they can’t afford to spend that much money on their hobby. There is no reason to believe the images they create are not good, in fact most of these photographers still take what they do seriously and will learn what they can to take good photos.

A hobby/amateur photographer taking photos around an old building.

The Serious Amateur Photographer

In this category, you will find the next level of hobby photographers. They do it for their own interest but they are far more serious about it. They spend as much time as they can out taking photos. Often, they will learn everything they can about their cameras and photography in general.

They can be really rigid in their thinking and you might find a lot of them don’t believe in post-processing. In some ways, they can be very technical photographers and because of this they often have the best gear they can afford. Many will have professional level photography equipment.

They can be like professionals, but in many ways they still do it for fun.

Serious amateur photographer getting ready to take a photo.

The Professional Photographer

They say a professional photographer is anyone who makes money from photography. The reality is a lot do, you could say that someone who sells a photo has made money, so that put them into this category. Perhaps, it should mean making a living by doing photography. Whether that is a lot or not is up to the individual.

The professional doesn’t listen to what is right or wrong in photography and will do what they must to get the image for their client. They can be technical, or creative depending on the work they do. Most know how to use photo manipulation software. They tend to do their own thing.

A professional photographer with expensive gear, taking photos.

Which one are you?

You might fit into one or more of these categories of photographers. There are no hard rules about it. It is important to remember that most of these are just generalizations and there will always be differences.

So which type of photographer are you? Which do you most relate to? Fill in the poll below and tell us!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

The post What Type of Photographer Are You? by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 8, 2017
4 Key Elements to Help You Create Stronger Landscape Photography

If you’re like me and love great landscape photography, then you’ve probably wondered how the same photographers seem to be able to pull off beautiful shots of sweeping mountain vistas or incredible black and white images of rolling hills and valleys. It’s as if they have some secret formula for “getting lucky” time and time again. Have you ever thought about what goes into making a strong landscape photograph? The techniques, the composition, the timing, the tools?

The fact is, there is no secret formula for making better photos of landscapes. There’s almost always much more that goes into the task than simply snapping a picture of a pretty place. Most great landscape photos are made in beautiful places but that doesn’t mean that every picture of beautiful scenery is a great landscape. While there are no concrete “rules” for doing solid landscape photography there are a few ways to strengthen your landscape work and make those “awesome shots” happen more frequently.

#1 – Construct Interesting Elements

I once had a professor of photography tell me that any photograph could be judged by how much information it contained. It’s easy to say that a successful landscape photo shows the beauty and majesty of a place, but the truth is there is so much more. When setting up for your photo, pay attention to everything that falls within the frame. Look for interesting foreground elements such as trees or rocks, water, even people or animals.

Look for ways to add more information to the photograph. Generally, the more you fill the frame with interesting elements the more interesting and appealing the overall photograph will be. But there is also a flip side to this concept as sometimes less is more. There are times when you must know what to NOT include in order to give a better feel to the photo. Look at this photo from a blustery winter morning.

The feelings of solitude and isolation are brought about by the use of empty space. More on composing your landscape photos a little later.

#2 – Lighting

Yes, yes…I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “chasing the light” when it comes to making good photos. This is especially true when it comes to landscape photography. There’s a reason why photographers love to shoot in the early morning hours (ugh) or in the waning light of the afternoon or late evening.

It comes down to the quality of light which again, adds more interest to a landscape. When you have beautiful light, the entire landscape is transformed into something different. It becomes less ordinary and more extraordinary.

As much as it pains me, getting up early and staying out late is virtually a necessity for landscape photographers. The reason being is that some of the most gorgeous golden light comes in the late afternoon as the sun gives way to night. Just as true, the early morning “Blue Hour” as the first glimpses light begin to appear, is another prime time for shooting landscapes.

Even locations that seem somewhat lackluster at midday can take on an entirely new feel in the late or early hours of the day. So be sure to try out different spots at daybreak and sundown. There’s a good reason why we landscape junkies really do chase the light.

#3 – Composition

The very word “composition” describes the nature of how something’s parts are constructed or arranged together. Having all the best ingredients doesn’t help you much if you don’t know how to put them all together into an awesome cake, a beautiful symphony, or in your case…a strong landscape photograph. The way you compose the elements in your landscapes can often make or break the photograph. Again, there are no actual rules to composing your photo but there are some tried and true practices.

Adjust the horizon so that it isn’t exactly in the middle of the frame and place foreground or background elements off-center to add interest and make stronger images.

It helps to use imaginary lines such as the Rule of Thirds (again, not exactly a rule) to help compose your image.

Just as importantly, always remember to shoot your landscapes in accordance with how they “feel”. Composition in landscape photography is about conveying a feeling, not just how the scene looks. Shoot different compositions of the same location until you find one that works best for that particular landscape.

#4 – Gear and Technical Considerations

While a successful landscape photo doesn’t rely on having the latest or greatest gear, there are a few gear and technical aspects that make for better photos. Here are a few tips.

Use a wider lens

Even though many solid landscape photos can be shot at long focal lengths using zoom lenses, generally short focal length (wider angle) lenses work best. Wide angle lenses allow you to include more into the frame of your photo.

Use smaller apertures

Continuing on from lenses, using a smaller aperture increases the depth of field and brings more elements into focus. Remember, the larger the F-Number the smaller the physical aperture of the lens becomes.

….and wait for it…..

Use a tripod

If you’ve read any of my other articles, you’ll know that when it comes to landscape photography I believe a sturdy tripod is worth its weight in gold. Reducing motion as much as possible is key for obtaining sharper landscape photographs. Using a tripod helps to eliminate as much camera shake as possible. This becomes important because generally the smaller apertures used in landscape photography call for longer shutter speeds which make hand holding the camera less desirable.

Final Thoughts

A successful landscape photo is a careful construction of multiple ingredients. Knowing what to include (or exclude from your photo) and understanding when the best light happens, go a long way to making a better image.

Just as importantly, knowledge of how to compose the elements in the frame and what techniques or gear will be needed are both essential to “getting lucky” time and time again. Producing stronger landscapes takes patience and a little planning but it is well worth the effort.

The post 4 Key Elements to Help You Create Stronger Landscape Photography by Adam Welch appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 8, 2017
4 Lessons for Aspiring Family Portrait Photographers

Over the past four years as my wife and I have done more family photography we have learned quite a bit. Going through some of those early shots I’m sometimes amazed that anyone paid us money for them at all! Self-reflection is critical not just for photographers, but any artist and indeed anyone who wants to improve at a given skill over time. In thinking about what has worked and what hasn’t worked I repeatedly noticed four key elements that I wanted to share with you. Hopefully, these will be useful to you if you are just starting out as a family portrait photographer, and you won’t have to make the same mistakes I did as I was learning them!

1. Location, location, location

I live in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and there’s a spot in the middle of our town that a lot of people think is the ideal location for photography. It’s called Theta Pond and sits in the heart of the campus of our very own Oklahoma State University.

When you go there for an afternoon stroll it’s almost impossible not to be taken in by the beautiful flowers, towering trees, and flocks of waterfowl that dot the serene landscape. There are stone paths, wooden bridges, and several fountains sending water high into the air. They all combine to create a scene which practically screams “Do your family portrait photography here!” So a lot of people do just that, and it’s how I started out as well.

You might think a location like this would be ideal for family photos. But you’d be wrong.

Your town probably has a Theta Pond too; a park, garden, waterway, or another setting that seems like it has been tailor-made for capturing poster-size prints of happy families with cute kids. However, if your town is anything like mine, your Theta Pond is probably one of the last places you really want to shoot.

Great for a picnic, not always optimal for portrait sessions

While locations like these are ideal for getting out and enjoying nature, they are often plagued by a host of other issues that make it quite difficult for taking good pictures. There’s traffic whizzing by in the background, people walking around and getting in the way of your shots, and trash bins and informational signs scattered all about. And then there’s the matter of all those ducks and geese you’ll find at just about any pond, lake, or river. You might think they’re fun to have around but they leave some nasty messes behind that can stain jeans and ruin dresses if you ever want your clients to sit on the ground.

The kids look great in this photo, but there are way too many distractions in the background including a person walking through the frame between the boys. I actually gave this shot to a client and even though she liked it, I have since learned that I prefer to go to other locations for photo sessions.

When I started getting more serious with family portrait photography I began looking at other places besides just what was popular, and found that a whole new world of opportunities opened up for me. I found places off the beaten path that were much more convenient for me and my clients to meet, much less crowded, and often just as scenic and pretty.

Your subjects take priority over the background

Also, it’s important that you find locations which complement your subjects and don’t distract the viewers. The local botanical garden might seem like a great place for a photo session. But you may end up taking your viewers’ attention away from the people and putting it on the plants and flowers by accident. Nowadays I like simple groves of trees, empty fields, or old barns and farm settings that aren’t flashy but make for great photography. Wherever you shoot your photos, choose your locations intentionally such that they fit your photography and your subjects, not just because a friend thinks it would be pretty.

Wherever you shoot your family portrait photography, choose your locations intentionally such that they fit your style and your subjects, not just because a friend thinks it would be pretty.

This location may not be as flashy, fancy, or popular as a park with fountains, but that’s exactly why I like it so much for photography sessions.

2. There’s no substitute for good lighting

This second rule works in tandem with the first regarding location. Wherever you choose to do your photo sessions, you need to make sure to pay attention to lighting. Great photographers can wrest beautiful images from the most challenging lighting conditions. But for the rest of us mere mortals, it’s essential to stick to the fundamentals. For family sessions that usually comes down to two basic tips: be careful when shooting in broad daylight, and make sure your subjects are evenly lit.

Avoid direct sunlight

Bright sunlight is, contrary to what some beginning photographers may think, far from ideal in terms of taking good photos of people. The harsh overhead lighting often creates shadows, causes people to squint, and results in uneven lighting across the entire frame with some parts of a picture being very bright and others ending up quite dark. You don’t want Grandma looking perfect while Grandpa is squinting to keep the sun out of his eyes, or bright patches of light showing up on shirts and ruining haircuts.

Use even diffused light

Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to make sure your subjects are well-lit even if you are shooting at high noon, as long as you are aware of your surroundings and use the elements to your advantage. Look for buildings that cast nice long shadows, overhangs that you can stand beneath, or even trees that block out a lot of the sun and allow for nice even lighting.

I had this family sit in a park shelter to combat the harsh overhead sun. They’re evenly lit and properly exposed, which is what really mattered to me when taking the shot.

You can also use accessories like a diffusion panel to cast a pleasing shadow on your subjects which help mitigate the effects of harsh, bright sunlight.

These videographers are using a diffusion panel to make sure their subject is evenly lit, despite the harsh overhead sunlight. The background will be overexposed, but that’s fine because the person being filmed is going to look fantastic.

Shoot at golden hour

Another option is to forego the afternoon hours entirely and shoot photos during what’s known as the golden hour. This generally starts about an hour prior to sunset (or from sunrise to an hour after) but can vary depending on your exact location.

During this short window of time, the sun is low on the horizon and it bathes your scene in a rich, warm light that is amazing for portraits. You can have your subjects stand almost anywhere and face any direction, or ask them to face the sun which will make their eyes sparkle nice and bright. Everything looks so rich and beautiful during this time, but it passes quickly so make sure to use your time wisely and work efficiently to get the shots you want.

I shot this as the sun was setting which resulted in rich, deep colors. I also put these kids in the shadow of a tree to make sure they were evenly lit, which resulted in a pleasing picture overall.

The message that I hope I’m conveying here is that there’s just no substitute for good lighting. I didn’t touch on things like off-camera flash which can also be used to manipulate the light in a scene. But if you’re looking to get started with family, child, or senior portraits one of the best things you can do is use the tools you already have to make sure your subjects are evenly lit and properly exposed.

You can fix a lot of things in Lightroom and Photoshop afterward, but poor lighting isn’t really one of them.

3. Know your camera settings and how to change them

There’s an old Greek amorphism, gnothi seauton, which has been the basis for countless philosophical discussions over the ages. Roughly translated, it means know thyself and often functions as an exhortation for an individual to be intimately aware of who they are, what makes them tick, what their goals in life are, etc.

Even in the most controlled studio environment, things can change at a moment’s notice, and often there isn’t much you can do about it. So it’s important to know your camera settings and how to change them if you need to fast.

Your camera might have so many buttons and menu options that it seems overwhelming. It’s good to figure out how they work on your own time, not when you’re on location with clients.

It’s not enough to simply know about fundamentals like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO when you are doing formal photo sessions. You need to know how to control these parameters on your camera and when to change them if you need to in a hurry. The former comes from reading your manual, looking at articles online like the ones we have here at dPS, and a lot of experimentation. The latter often comes only from years of experience.

Get up to speed with your camera on your own time

I’m a big proponent of poring over your camera’s manual. But when you’re on location with clients that is not the time to try and figure out how to use your exposure compensation button or in which menu the auto-ISO setting is buried. You need to be intimately familiar with how to access and alter the settings on your camera in order to get the shots you want and deal with conditions as things change.

One of my favorite tricks to help learn the camera better is to do a practice session with a friend or family member. Go out to a location and make sure you know how to adjust various camera settings on the fly. Then tell your helper to try something you aren’t expecting which could require a faster shutter, higher ISO, etc. Practice changing your camera settings in this type of environment before you go out with clients, so when the unexpected happens you’re as ready as you can possibly be to deal with it in the moment.

Remember that Theta Pond example from earlier? When this moment came up during that same session I was able to think on my feet and quickly adjust my aperture and ISO to get this impromptu headshot which the boy’s mom really liked.

4. Make the experience memorable

One of the most important aspects of doing a photo session for clients is that it’s about much more than the end product. Wells, Valacich, and Hess (2011) found that the quality of a website is related to the perception of quality regarding the products being sold on the website. A higher-quality website, their data tended to show, meant that consumers perceived the things they were buying as being higher quality than the same products purchased from lower-quality websites.

The same holds true for photography, in that how your clients view the final photos you deliver to them is directly related to how they feel about the session itself. If you make the experience fun, enjoyable, and stress-free while engaging your clients in friendly conversation they will be more likely to enjoy, appreciate, and share the pictures when they receive them. Conversely, if your clients get top-notch pictures but you showed up for the session late, unprepared, and stressed-out, then they will likely have a lower opinion of the photographs.

This family’s dog wandered into the photo shoot totally uninvited. I’m not much of a dog person but I set that aside, went with the flow, and got some shots that the family really liked. It also helped put the kids at ease and so they enjoyed the rest of the session more.

The overall experience is important

To put this in a different context, let’s say you are looking to buy a new microwave. Two stores in town have the one you want at the exact same price. One store has a clean parking lot and interior, bright lights, neat shelves, and friendly employees. The other store has a dirty trash-filled parking lot, dim and flickering lights, haphazard shelves, and employees who will barely give you the time of day. From which store are you likely to purchase the appliance? If you’re like me you’ll go to the first store. Then if your friends are ever looking for a similar appliance you will probably recommend the same store with great enthusiasm. Budding family photographers would do well to remember this concept and apply it to their approach to dealing with clients.

Taking photos is not just about the end product but the whole photographic experience. Make it fun for your clients from the time you first interact with them to when you deliver the final products. Get to know them, and don’t be afraid to show your own personality too. Make the photo session fun and enjoyable, and if there are kids involved, make sure to spend time getting to know their names and finding a bit more about them. (This has a couple of bonus side effects too – parents are thrilled when photographers spend time getting to know their kids, and the children will be more likely to listen to you and follow directions during the session.)

Don’t underestimate the value of providing a good experience

The point is that if your clients enjoy the photo session, they are likely to assign a high perceived level of quality to the end product and will recommend you to their friends, coworkers, and especially their acquaintances on social media.

This couple invited me into their home for a rather emotional photo session due to a medical condition their daughter has. While I had a job to do as a photographer, that was only a small part of the whole experience.

It’s not your job to be your clients’ best friend, but it is your job to make the photo session something they will remember in a positive light. Do what you can to earn their trust and respect, as this can pay off in many ways long after you deliver the pictures.

Conclusion

One of my biggest weaknesses as a photographer, or even as a person, is that it’s difficult for me to go back and look through things I’ve done in years past. I often find it more than a little embarrassing to read things I’ve written, examine things I’ve built, and look at photographs I’ve taken because I think the work I’m doing now is so much better. Yet in five years I’ll probably dust off a few of the pictures I’m taking now and wonder what in the world I was thinking when I took them!

However, this type of self-reflection is essential for growth in any profession, hobby, or craft. It’s only by learning from our previous experiences and examining our mistakes as well as our successes that we can truly grow and refine our skills.

The four lessons I have detailed in this article are by no means comprehensive, but they are things that have turned out to be extremely important to me over the years and I hope they prove helpful for you also. I’m also curious to hear from you, especially those of you who have been doing family portrait photography for a long time. What are some of the important lessons you have learned over the years? Please share in the comments below and I look forward to reading them.

The post 4 Lessons for Aspiring Family Portrait Photographers by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 8, 2017
Photography Lessons I Learned Growing Up Around Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was a young man of 14 when he first came to California‚ Yosemite National Park. The valley had a strong pull for him and he returned to work there in 1920 at the age of 18 to be the caretaker for the Sierra Club‚ LeConte Lodge.

Ansel became vigilant about protecting Yosemite and the Sierras from human impact while showing the world his view of this almost mystical place through his growing photography career. He met Virginia Best, the daughter of the gallery owner in Yosemite Valley. They married, and the gallery became a source of income for the young photographer and his wife. His complete works became the gallery best sellers. They continued to add products such as art books and other photographic services.

By 1940, his photographic workshops started as one of the first photographic education sources in the country. The workshops were usually a week long and for many, became a life changing experience.

Image by Holden Higbee used courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite

That was the case for my father, Holden Higbee, who attended Ansel Adams’ photography workshop in 1965. He, along with my older sister (who was 12 at the time), attended a week long workshop of photographic bliss in beautiful Yosemite Valley with lectures by Ansel Adams himself. In 1965, Adams was a respected photographer, but not yet the photographic icon that he has become in the present day. At that point, his prints were selling for about $ 50 and he would gift his images to his favorite students. My sister received a copy of his “Mirror Lake” image for participating as a model in the workshop.

Image by Holden Higbee used courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite

The Workshop with Ansel Adams

The workshop was held in the Wawona Big Trees area, the Yosemite Valley, and up into Tuolumne Meadows covering the basics of photography, Ansel’s Zone system, composition, and creativity. The students in Ansel’s classes were mostly young men, just honing their craft from the master, using their medium format and 35mm cameras. Their exuberance for learning photography was evident as they spread out to practice their lessons.

Image by Holden Higbee used courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite

This class stuck with my father, as the photography gene runs long and deep in my family. Holden, as an avid photographer and college professor, would drive across the country to document the countryside for his geography and geology classes and stop every 50 miles to take a picture, much to our dismay. He always had two or three cameras around his neck so he didn’t have to change lenses and he could easily document “how man uses the land”.

The Zone System

Image by Holden Higbee used courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite

My father was particularly interested in The Zone System and how that would affect his photography. For many years after, my father would practice with the grey cards to set up the zone system. I am now the proud owner of his signed set of books from Ansel Adams; The Camera, The Negative, and The Print.

Image by Holden Higbee

Visits with Ansel

On later visits to Yosemite Valley, we would see Ansel on a regular basis. I was a young girl but was impressed by his stature and his gray beard. In the evenings after dinner, we would all assemble in the lodge which had huge fireplaces, comfy 60s style couches, and tall vast windows with views of Yosemite Falls. My father and sister would play Backgammon, and watch the side door to see when Ansel would make his quiet entrance.

Our Dad would wave at Ansel and he would make his way over to our couch where the Backgammon board lay precariously on the cushions. Ansel would give my sister a tip or two on what her next move should be. Often he would sit awhile and watch them play before the Warren Miller Ski Film would start. Then Ansel would disappear as we became engrossed in the film.

Image by Holden Higbee used courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite

As children, we had no idea the impact that this nice bearded man would have on the world of photography and our lives as creative artists. We thought he was just another photographer and friend of my father’s.

Image by Holden Higbee used courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite

Respect Nature

Even though I didn’t attend the workshops, Ansel Adams greatly influenced my life, my love of landscape photography and nature, as he did for millions of others. At 6 years old, my father put a 35mm camera in my hands and I was off and running. After that week with Ansel Adams, we would talk about photography and composition frequently at dinner. “When you are shooting landscapes” he would say, “never move a leaf or a flower, respect nature for what it is. Learn to create a composition from what is naturally there.” From that point on, I never put the camera down, it has always been an extension of my life and my personality and landscape photography became my love.

After 50 years of traveling in Yosemite, it continues to take my breath away. We now return to Yosemite three times a year to teach photography workshops. We visit the park mid-week to avoid the tourists and also when there is the greatest chance of changing weather.

“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.” – Ansel Adams

Full circle

Late last fall, we had the great fortune of spending three weeks teaching workshops in the valley as it turned from fall to winter. Every day the light would change and the photographic options would take our breath away, but we felt like we were in sync with the ever changing conditions. We got into the rhythm of life there and found it an easy and wonderful experience.

In January, we returned to the valley to do a private workshop and the forecast was for snow. As we drove into the park, the snow had started to come down and the roads were quite slushy. Little did we know, we were one of the last cars they would let into the valley for the next four days. As we arrived in the valley, it was covered in a thick coating of snow and was quickly adding up. I don’t know how many people were there that week in Yosemite, but it was a photographic wonderland.

We arrived and handed our client a pair of snow shoes and off we went on a winter photographic adventure. I would like to think that those few days of bliss might have been a bit like some days Ansel Adams experienced in Yosemite back in his day. An experience I won’t soon forget.

“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” – Ansel Adams

Conclusion

If you come to Yosemite, come in the off season when you can appreciate the beauty of the place without the throngs of tour buses and distracted selfie takers. Everyone that comes to the valley fancies themselves a photographer, so when you are in Yosemite, be sure to embrace the spirit of Ansel Adams.

Do you have any Ansel Adam’s stories to share? What lessons have you learned from his teachings? Please share in the comments below.

The post Photography Lessons I Learned Growing Up Around Ansel Adams by Holly Higbee-Jansen appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 8, 2017
17 Highly Detailed Images That Display Texture

I hope you enjoy this detailed image collection of subjects with a lot of texture. To capture texture in an image requires a few elements to come together – the right lighting, the right camera angle, and a good degree of image sharpness.

I’ll start you off with a couple of my own images, and then we’ll branch out to see what a few other photographers have done to capture texture with their cameras.

By Darlene Hildebrandt (shot in Havana Cuba)

By Darlene Hildebrandt (shot in Granada, Nicaragua)

By JLS Photography – Alaska

By Nicholas Erwin

By ROBERTO CABRAL PHOTOGRAPHY

By Thad Zajdowicz

By Suzy Hazelwood

By Gabriel Caparó

By Sandy Sarsfield

By BriarCraft – crazy busy in July

By Kate Ter Haar

By XoMEoX

By Peyton Stanton

By Hernán Piñera

By Iain Merchant

By Marco Verch

By Alexander Day

The post 17 Highly Detailed Images That Display Texture by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 8, 2017
Weekly Photography Challenge – Texture
Detail and texture are two things that tend to draw the viewer’s eye into an image. I shared 17 images that are great examples of the use of texture in a photo here.

By Matthias Ripp

Weekly Photography Challenge – Texture

So what things have to come together to capture an image that showcases and subject with texture?
- Quality of light – ideally the harder (harsher) and more contrasty the lighting the better, but not 100% necessary.
- The direction of light – to enhance texture in a subject the light must come from the side, skimming across the surface.
- Get close – this one is obvious, right?
- Get it in sharp focus – also fairly obvious. Use the right focus point, focus mode, and aperture for maximum sharpness.
- Lastly, find a good subject. Remember people can have texture too!
By Priya Saihgal

By Snipps Whispers

By Carlyle Ellis Photography/Human Quotient

By four12

Share your images below:

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 on the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

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

Digital Photography School
August 8, 2017