Category: Photography

Tips for Doing a Successful Picture-a-Day Photography Project

Sometimes, fitting quality photography time into an already busy schedule is a challenge in itself. Even over weekends, pressing matters mean that photography is often left by the wayside. I know I’m guilty of relying on a camera phone to capture images – compromising image quality and control. One way to get back on the proverbial creative saddle is to embark on a photography project. And although starting a photo-a day project may seem a little daunting at first, committing even a minute each day to composing a photograph with a dedicated camera can go a long way.

The results of my own 30-day photography project challenge!

Make a game plan for your photography project

There are no hard and fast rules for photo-a-day projects or challenges. You might even want to take a photo weekly or monthly instead. It’s the regularity and the plan that forms the basis of the challenge. Any other rules are those you set for yourself.

How often do you plan to take a photograph, daily, or weekly? Will you need to stock up on film or memory cards? Is there a certain time of day or location you want to capture images? Do you need a new camera bag? Setting out a clear plan before embarking on your challenge will help you keep motivated and shape the outcome of your final body of work.

Daily or regular photography projects can reveal many creative opportunities.

Set a goal for your project

Before starting out on your quest, consider what it is that you want to get from the photography project. Having a clear idea of your motivations will help guide you through your challenge more smoothly. Are you looking to expand on your technical skills? Or would you like to get to know your camera a little better? I find that writing down the desired outcome of a project is helpful. Plus, if your series does change course, it’s interesting to be able to look back at your notes and see how your project has grown.

Choose a theme

Choosing a theme for your photo-a-day project can help create a cohesive series overall. If you are keen to hone your technical skills, try a theme that utilizes new photographic techniques. Or take on a subject which is different than what you usually shoot. If you want to make more time for photography, you’ll be surprised at what a few minutes a day can achieve. If you aren’t sure where to start, there are an abundance of websites that supply free-printable lists of plans, themes and tasks for each day, week, month, or year.

However, if you feel constrained by the idea of a hard-and-fast theme, remember that choosing not to have a clear theme is a choice in itself! Relying on subjects that catch your eye will expand your ability to decipher creativity and meaning in any given environment.

An abstract pattern I stumbled upon while walking home.

Set a time frame

Next, consider a time frame for your project. Daily photographic challenges can last weeks, or even years. The time of day is a factor too – would you like to shoot your series during the day or the night? Maybe even both.

The time frame of the project relies on your goals and chosen theme. It also dictates the kind of equipment you’ll need. For example, documenting a landscape over the seasons requires a longer time frame than a series of self-contained photographs. Additionally, a project spanning over a longer time frame may only require a single photograph each week or per month, depending on the level of detail you prefer. If you want a consistent outcome from your series, consider using a tripod and a dedicated vantage point.

Equipment

Selecting photographic equipment for the project will shape the aesthetic of the series and relate back to your initial goals and themes for the project. The beauty of daily or regular photography challenges is the opportunity to become more familiar with your photographic tools. It’s a perfect way to invest in developing your DSLR skills, or trying out a new lens. You may even want to use an analogue camera. Why not experiment with a different camera setting each day? Or focus on photography fundamentals such as shutter speed and aperture over the course of each week?

One of the requirements of taking on a photo-a-day challenge is keeping a camera on hand. This can be an issue in terms of additional carrying weight. Rather than resorting to the portability of a camera phone, pack your wallet, keys and phone into a camera bag instead. Your DPI will thank you later. And after a bit of adjustment, you’ll find that keeping your camera with you becomes so natural that you might feel naked without it.

I’m not a regular on the selfie-circuit, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to capture this wobbly image for my daily project.

Ready to shoot!

Okay, so you have your goals set, your theme decided, your time frame sorted and your equipment at the ready… now what?

Start off simple by taking a few photographs around the house, or on your way to work. Keep in mind that not every image you take for the day will be perfect – and that’s okay! Sometimes it’s not the content that’s important, but the habit. Creative blocks are inevitable – just take a deep breath, snap a few photos for the day and come back to them later. The project is about learning and developing, not creating a masterpiece (although that is a possibility too!). Soon the exercise will become less of a chore, and more therapeutic.

Setting a reminder on your phone is a good way to remember to take a photo each day.

Setting a reminder on a phone is a good way to remind yourself to take a photo – but don’t beat yourself up if you skip a day or two. A photo-a-day project is all about heightening your technical and creative skills -not shoving them down your own throat.

Having said that, there is a chance that over the course of the project you may begin to feel unmotivated or bored. You might even consider giving up. Making a blog, posting on Facebook, or creating a dedicated Instagram account to track your progress is a great way to stay on track. You’ll be able to easily view your own growth and share the results with others. An ongoing project helps you build up an online presence and a space to give and receive feedback from other photographers. Your friends might join in too.

Review your images

Along with posting material from your project online at regular intervals, take some time to reflect on your work. Take note of the direction that your series has taken, and where it is headed. Doing a weekly or monthly check-in with your series will reveal interesting trends and techniques in your own photographic practice.

Having a long-term body of work, even over the course of a few weeks, provides a great opportunity to identify and remedy errors and bad habits. You may even discover hidden strengths in subject-selection and technical proficiency that you never knew you had!

Partaking in my own daily photography challenge gave me the opportunity and the motivation to photograph ideas that I have wanted to experiment with for a while.

Conclusion

Once you begin to actively seek out new photographic opportunities, you’ll see the world around you in a whole different light. Daily and regular photography projects reveal opportunities everywhere, even in the ordinary. Having a camera with you to capture those opportunities is a rewarding challenge. And although your daily efforts alone may seem insignificant, your series will gather momentum faster than you realize. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start your own photographic challenge!

Here are some images from my own project – please share yours in the comments below.

catching up a bit of TV – a perfect photographic opportunity

The surreal light of a butcher’s window

Some radioactive looking sludge I encountered made an interesting abstract photo of the day

This cute little guy posed just long enough for my daily shot

The post Tips for Doing a Successful Picture-a-Day Photography Project by Megan Kennedy appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 3, 2017
7 Tips for Learning How to See What Your Camera Sees

Seeing the world through your camera’s lens has certain similarities and definite differences to looking at the world without your camera. Even with the most basic digital cameras available today you can create photographs that you cannot naturally see with your eyes. Understanding how your camera sees differently than your eyes will help you become a more creative photographer.

Here are seven ways that your camera sees differently than your eyes:

1. Frame

Every photograph is bound by a frame; four sides and four corners. You don’t see your daily life with such restrictions to your vision. Learning to create well composed photographs means you must work within the boundaries of that frame and make the most of it.

Don’t see the frame as a restriction, rather an opportunity to enhance and share your vision. Carefully compose your chosen subject. Be selective of what to include and what to exclude so your frame only shows what you want to show.

2. Zoom

If you cannot achieve a composition just how you want it to look, you might consider changing lenses or zooming closer or wider. This is something our eyes cannot do. To see detail in something you are looking at you must move closer, and to see a wider angle of view you must step back.

Changing lens focal length gives your camera the ability to remain in the same position and yet see either a wide angle of view or a very narrow one. Understanding the field of view of your lenses and being selective of how much or how little you include within the frame of your photos will help you make more interesting compositions.

3. Focus

One of the initial things I learned after buying my first camera was the importance of focus. Since I first learned to focus my camera I’ve had to start wearing reading glasses so I can see whatever is close to me clearly.

If your eyes are good you never even think about their ability to focus, they just do, continuously and without delay. It’s important to learn how to focus your camera lens so the most important element(s) in your composition is sharp. Sometimes it’s a photographer’s choice to create soft focus photos, but generally a well focused photo will draw the viewer’s eye to the most significant part of the composition.

4. Depth of Field

Controlling how much of a photograph is in focus is another aspect of photography that your eyes do not naturally do. If your eyes are good, you will see most of what’s in your field of view in sharp focus. Using your camera to control how much of what’s in focus within your frame is a wonderful creative aspect of photography.

There are a combination of factors that enables your camera to make photos in which some of your image is in sharp focus and some of it is not. These factors are your lens and its aperture setting, your camera’s sensor size, and the distance relationship between your camera, the subject and the background. Achieving a good balance of these factors will give your photographs a quality you never naturally see. The clearly focused zone in a photograph is known as the Depth of Field.

5. Motion Blur

Another photographic technique that can control the amount of blur in your photographs is the thoughtful use of shutter speed. Using a slow shutter speed and making a photograph of a moving subject can result in what’s known as motion blur.

You can control how much or how little a moving subject is blurred by controlling the length of time your shutter is open. If you leave your shutter open long enough, you can even create photographs of moving subjects so your subject is not visible in the frame. Your eyes will never see like this because a photograph is made during one instance in time.

6. A Single Moment

Being able to choose the moment you open your shutter and make a photograph is another difference between how you see and how your camera sees. Whether you are taking a landscape or photographing a football game or a portrait, the very point in time you press your shutter release is significant in determining how your photograph will look. One precise instance in time, deliberately selected, to capture a unique image.

You see with your eyes continuously, not in single instances. Learning to recognize the optimum moments to press your finger down on the button and take a photograph is one of the most important aspects of photography.

7. Tonal Range

The tonal range your camera can capture in a single exposure and what’s visible to your eyes are still significantly different. I say “still” because as camera technology develops sensors are able to render a wider tonal range than in the past and before long they may well be able to render a wider range than we can see.

Currently I am unaware of any camera that can record such a wide tonal range, from the brightest to the darkest, as we are able to see with our eyes. If you are outside photographing on a sunny day you will have to set your exposure carefully to capture detail in either the brightest or darkest part of your composition. Your camera is not capable of capturing such a wide range of tones as you can see with your eyes.

Learning to see the light and read the tonal range as you are composing your photographs is one of the most essential elements of creative photography.

Conclusion

Seeing as your camera sees, understanding the differences between your natural human vision and the way your camera works to make photographs, will give you more enjoyment and help you grow as a photographer.

Please share your thoughts and comments below.

The post 7 Tips for Learning How to See What Your Camera Sees by Kevin Landwer-Johan appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 3, 2017
Why Couples Aren’t Booking You for Their Wedding Photography
Nobody wants to hire you for their wedding photography. It’s not fair, is it?

Your photographs are gorgeous, you’ve created a shiny new website, and you’re more loveable than a bucket of kittens. So why isn’t your phone ringing off the hook with people wanting to hire you for their wedding?

It’s easy to start doubting yourself and going a little crazy. Maybe your photographs aren’t as good you thought. Are your prices too high, or too low? Perhaps all your competitors are secretly dating wedding planners?

The reality is that these days it requires a little more savvy to be a successful wedding photographer. It’s because there may actually be more wedding photographers on the planet than there are stars in the solar system. So, let’s help you shine brighter than everyone else in your area with some simple, practical ideas for getting more wedding photography bookings.

Your photography style

There are so many different styles of wedding photography. Photojournalistic, posed, quirky and fun, romantic, fashion, traditional, highly retouched, and so on.

Pick a style that you love to photograph and then specialize in it. Only show that style of photography in all your marketing. Ideally, it’s a style that most of your competitors aren’t using. The more defined you can make it, the better because people who love that style will be drawn to you.

Yes, you will repel some people, but it’s better to have 20% of people love your work than having 100% of people just say that it’s “nice”.

People buy from people they like and trust

Hiring a wedding photographer is a huge decision for a bride and groom. They have to pay a large sum of money to have a stranger stand by their side all day on one of the most important days of their life. They’ve got so many concerns spinning around their head. For example:
- Is this photographer going to be rude, or just plain dull?
- What happens if we don’t like the photographs? After all, most photographers can cobble together a decent portfolio. But can they do a good job in tough conditions?
- What happens if it rains?
- Will the photographer be able to cope with my crazy family?
- Will they actually turn up?!
- Is it even possible for me to look good in a photograph?
- Will they be able to keep us on schedule?
- Will the group photographs be as painfully boring and time-consuming as I fear?
The list goes on.

One way to get more wedding inquiries is to handle these concerns within your marketing. When you show a couple that you understand their fears and you can help them, then they’ll start to trust you. If you can do this in an engaging, kind, and entertaining way then they’ll start to like you, too.

So how might you deal with their concerns? The single best way I’ve found is to have a money-back guarantee. However, you shouldn’t simply have a bullet point saying “Money-back guarantee” on your website. Inject some feeling into it.

Explain that you’ve heard all the horror stories about wedding photographers letting down couples and that your signed guarantee is there to put their mind at ease. It also demonstrates that you’re confident in your abilities and that you truly care about your clients. This one thing will instantly make you stand out and build trust.

Be different

If you’re the same as every other photographer then the only reason to hire you is the price. We’ve already talked about differentiating yourself through your photographic style and through having a guarantee, but there are many other ways to do it.

For example, I choose 70-page A3 sized (29.7 x 42.0cm, or 11.69 x 16.53 inches) wedding albums that can fit 250 photographs in them comfortably. That number of photographs can comfortably tell the whole story of the wedding day, so the bride and groom don’t have to leave out any images. This avoids awkward conversations with Auntie Betty where the couple has to explain why she didn’t make the cut because they put their friends in instead.

There are lots of great slideshow services (like Animoto) available for you to create beautiful, animated, audio-visual presentations within a few minutes. Couples love them and you can even create presentations made up of their childhood photographs which can be played for the entertainment of guests during the reception. I use a projector and screen to present the show and it’s guaranteed to get the parents a little tearful.

Photograph different, offer different products and stand out from the crowd.

Or, how about creating a framed portrait of the bride from the engagement session to give to the bride’s parents as a surprise gift on the wedding day?

Sometimes you don’t have to be different to stand out. You simply have to explain something that other photographers don’t make clear. For example, many photographers scout venues before the wedding. It helps then find the best places for the romantic and group photographs. They get to see where the best light will be and the best compositions can be made. Most photographers never mention this in their marketing, so if you do then it cements your position in the market as a helpful and dedicated professional.

Reveal your personality

Again, people hire people they like and trust. So, give prospects a hint at what it would be like to work with you by injecting your personality in your marketing. The About Page on your website is really important. If a couple doesn’t connect with you after reading it, they’re far less likely to get in touch.

Just like with your photography it’s okay if your personality doesn’t gel with everyone. If you’re a bit quirky that’s fine. If you’re obsessed with dogs then talk about that. People will connect with you over the weirdest stuff. But if you give them nothing to connect with then you won’t attract anyone.

The less you reveal about yourself the more unfriendly or distant you may seem. These days even large businesses are starting to understand that people don’t like dull “corporate speak”.

Use social proof

People want to get a feel for what it would be like to work with you. That’s why people love to read reviews and testimonials before going on holiday or watching a movie. The same applies to photographers.

Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use. Never stop asking for them. Don’t just put them on one page of your website, use them on every page and in your other marketing. Make them impossible to miss. Ask clients to put them on your Google business page too, as this will quickly help your search engine ranking.

Another great way of showing clients how great you are to work with is to create a behind the scenes video. Ask a second shooter to film you in action at a wedding. The best moment is when you’re charming the guests during the group photographs, or perhaps the romantic ones. It’s the perfect way of providing absolute proof that you would be a joy to work with on the big day for their wedding photography.

Rocking the client meeting

Most wedding photographers meet their couples in person, or over Skype before they’re booked. Sadly, all the fantastic marketing in the world can unravel quickly if you screw this bit up.

One of the most common mistakes photographers make is they start talking about their packages 30 seconds after meeting.
A better approach is to make the whole meeting about the client and what they want. You do that by asking lots of strategic questions. For example:
- What are you looking for in your wedding photographer?
- What’s the most important thing to you about your wedding?
- Describe your wedding in three words
- Is there anything you’re worried about?
This shows that you care about them and what they want. It also gives you a nice segue into explaining some of the things that separate you from the competition.

For example, when couples tell me, “we hate weddings with formal group photographs with everyone looking bored”, that gives me the perfect excuse to bring up something unique I do. I bring a bottle or two of bubbly to spice up the formal photographs. One of the bottles is given as a prize to whoever performs the best during the group photographs. This always leads to a bit of banter and of course you get great photographs of the bubbly being popped open.

You should only start talking about your wedding packages once you’ve been chatting about their wedding for about 30 minutes. That is enough time for you to build rapport with them, find out what they’re looking for, and to explain how your unique services can help them.

When presenting your packages, start with your finest (biggest and best). After you’ve explained each package, ask them how they feel about it. Some clients never even bother looking at the smaller packages if they love the top one.

When you work down the packages like this it’s hard for people to then take the smallest package because they’ve just heard you talk about all these fantastic things you can do for them.

Get the booking

Don’t forget to ask for the sale! It’s so easy to have a nice long chat, only to realize that the couple has left and you never asked them to hire you. It’s your job to gently nudge them into a decision. As you go through the packages and find out which is their favorite, just come right out and say, “Fantastic, I’d really love to work with you because you’re such an amazing couple and your wedding sounds fantastic. A deposit is just $ XXX amount and I can take a credit card if you’d like to reserve the date now. How does that sound?”

Simply asking for the booking in a positive and enthusiastic way will dramatically increase your conversion rate. But, you’ll still get some couples say they want to think about it and get back to you. There are many ways to handle that situation. The underlying strategy is to keep them talking because the longer they’re with you the more likely it is that they’ll book. One response is to say, “I completely understand, but do you mind if I ask how you feel about everything we’ve talked about today?”

Another response would be, “Absolutely, but can I ask what it is you’re looking for, maybe I can help if there’s something on your mind?”

The trick is to keep digging until you find out what’s keeping them from hiring you right then and there. This is a great time to stress your money-back guarantee because it helps people overcome the fear of choosing the wrong photographer.

Conclusion

This article only scratches the surface on how to book more weddings, but hopefully, you can see that the issue is rarely just price. Sadly, too many wedding photographers respond to a lack of bookings by lowering their price rather than improving their service and the way they connect with couples.

The more you think about how you can serve your clients the better you’ll do. So, which idea resonates the most with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

The post Why Couples Aren’t Booking You for Their Wedding Photography by Dan Waters appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 3, 2017
These Courses WILL Make You a Better Photographer (70% Off Today)
We’re already halfway through our popular mid year sale and we’re really excited to offer you this deal, because we love helping people discover how to take great photos and we know this one will help do just that.

For the next 30 hours we’re offering our entire range of online photography courses at a massive 70% OFF.

Normally $ 99 each, today you can get any of our five courses for just $ 29 (USD) each. That’s incredible value!

These step-by-step courses created by talented photography experts include:
- Night Photography by Jim Hammel – released just this year so that you can take amazing photographs at night
- Lightroom Mastery by Mike Newton – every photographer should have a copy of this to create perfect photos!
- Lightroom Mastery: People & Portraits by Mike Newton – will help you transform dull headshots into stunning portraits
- Photo Nuts and Bolts by Neil Creek – the ideal course for the beginner photographer
- Photo Nuts and Shots by Neil Creek – creative photography advice from a pro so you can get off auto
Each course is packed with series of tutorials, with demonstrations shot in high-quality video by professional photographers, and you can follow along at your own pace.

You get lifetime access to these courses, so you don’t have to rush to finish them and you can go back and review topics any time you like.

Check out all the discounted courses here on our courses page for the next 30 hours only and start improving your photography today.

The post These Courses WILL Make You a Better Photographer (70% Off Today) by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 2, 2017
21 Explosive Images of Fireworks Displays

This weekend is a holiday celebration in both Canada and the USA. Yesterday was Canada’s 150 birthday and coming up is the US Independence Day. Both usually come with some pretty good fireworks displays.

Here are some images of fireworks to get you into the celebration mood:

By maf04

By Miroslav Petrasko

By David Yu

By George Makris

By wiley photo

By Jeff Krause

By Yann Caradec

By Rhian Tebbutt Photography

By Kelly DeLay

By Xavier Benech

By J-Ph Derout

By Colin Knowles

By Sumarie Slabber

By d.sag

By peaceful-jp-scenery (busy)

By Colin Knowles

By Tim RT

By Benjamin Lehman

By Chris Phutully

By Ashley

By Spencer Tweedy

The post 21 Explosive Images of Fireworks Displays by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 2, 2017
Weekly Photography Challenge – Fireworks
Previously I rounded up 21 images of fireworks to get you into a celebratory mood. Now it’s your turn!

By Norm Lanier

Weekly Photography Challenge – Fireworks

Your mission this week is to find a fireworks display and photograph it. If there isn’t one in your area perhaps start with a sparkler and get someone to hold it or wave it around for you so you can practice.

If you need some tips try these:
- How to Photograph Fireworks
- 15 Tips for Successful Fireworks Photography
By CL Photographs

By Sebastian

By Rob Watling

By Sue Ann Simon

By Courtney Carmody

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 – Fireworks by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 2, 2017
6 Great Reasons for Photographing New Destinations or Locations
It’s always good to go chasing that greener grass on the other side. Sure, you could stay home, but how much more fun it is to explore! There are obvious ways you can learn and grow by photographing locally, but equally, there are a lot of good reasons to throw off that comfort blanket and go for something new, new destinations.

To differing degrees we all have a drive and desire to see the unknown, below are the reasons this desire will enhance your photography. Take time to read this and factor them in when you plan your next trip away to photograph some new destinations.

This photograph was taken at the Yeeping festival, this was the first time I’d visited this event. It was a real challenge shooting in low light.

#1 – Photographing new destinations provides a burst of creativity

Going somewhere new is a great way to kick-start your creativity, or perhaps build on an existing project that you’re already doing. That something new can inspire you into a new project, you could turn them into a set for a gallery. There are any number of themes you could try out from architecture, food, or people.
- Try photographing the people in your new locale, a project like Humans of New York can be adapted to wherever you are now.
- Combine existing image with a whole new set on a similar theme. Have you photographed churches in the UK? The style will be very different in other parts of Europe, and even more so if you find a church in Asia.
- Get into some street photography by searching out a local market.
This is a church on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Prior to visiting this are I didn’t realize how many churches there would be. The design is very different to all other churches I have seen before.

#2 – It’s a test of your photography skills

Going somewhere new is a great test of your photography skills. How can you apply what you’ve learned at home to the new destination? If your eye has become sharpened through practicing at home, it will show when you travel somewhere new.

The point about a new location is it will seek out your weakness, you’re not familiar with the new place so you need to be familiar with your camera. Are you ready for the low light photos at a night festival that you will be photographing? You have one chance to get it right, are you ready for that?

Take the time to find out settings of similar photos to those you plan to take and practice in similar conditions before the event. Then when you arrive to photograph in a new destination you can test those skills, and gauge your level.

Working with low light street scenes was a lot of fun, and different to the style of photos I usually take.

#3 – Getting the hero photo

There are places that you may travel to for specific photos that are unique and amazing. You simply can’t replicate the big city feel of Tokyo, Shanghai or Dubai when it comes to cityscapes. Equally, going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia or Bagan in Myanmar is light years ahead of visiting a small temple in your local town.

When you travel to these places, the aim is to get the big booming landscape, the photo you’ll hang on your wall or is the opening two-page spread to a magazine article. So what do you need to do to get those photos?
- Do your research. To photograph a new destination you need to google the place you’re visiting. Even better, visit photography sharing sites like 500px and Flickr to look at the best photos from the place you intend to visit.
- Add you own unique spin. You may choose to use the same angle you’ve seen from other photographers, but if you can find your own unique style of photography it will stand out more.
- Make sure it’s big! Detail photos won’t cut it, you need a wide-angle lens that captures the whole scene. This often means accessing a high vantage point to capture a big photo.
I went to Dubai to photograph a new destination. There are plenty of hero photos to be found in this new mega city.

#4 – Escape the comfort blanket

Going somewhere new means you won’t have a nice comfortable fall-back photo to take, the one you know how to frame. This will force you to think about what you want to portray with your image, and in turn, it will help you grow as a photographer.

If you’re going from a busy city to the great outdoors or vice versa, then you will need to train your eye for that new environment to get the most out of it. Perhaps you don’t do street photography, but the night market is so vibrant you need to document it.

This photo was taken on my first trip to India. India is certainly a country that doesn’t allow you to keep a comfort blanket!

#5 – The best location for your photography style

The chances are you know the style of photography you like best. You practice this style a lot in your home neighborhood. Unless you’re lucky, chances are there is a better location to take those photos. We are all looking to take photos that get a “wow” reaction, going to a wow location is a good way to achieve that.

Once again, decide which is your strongest photography style, and then visit the best place for that type of photo.
- Cityscapes. The bigger the better here so visiting cities like New York, Hong Kong, or London are your best bets. There are many new cities that are growing, Shenzhen near Hong Kong is said to have some amazing architecture.
- Culture. Visiting places during their festival works well for this. The Yeeping lantern release in Thailand is a photographers dream. Many people aspire to visit India during Holi, or Venice during Carnival.
- Nature. There are reasons that places like Iceland draw so many tourists, the nature is wild. If you enjoy photographing nature there isn’t a better place to go.
Now there are many places not mentioned in the above lists. The point is getting these photos means you need to travel there.

On my first trip to Myanmar I tried photographing from a hot air balloon for the first time. This is one of the results.

#6 – Plan to be there when it’s unique!

Planning ahead is advised in all forms of photographic endeavor. The chances are you know when is the best time to photograph your local area. But to photograph a new destination at its best, research is needed.

Is this place best photographed in the morning or the evening? Which is the best season to visit? Are there flowers that bloom, or will there be snow on the mountain? The best photo opportunities can come during a festival, so when will that be? You can really improve the odds of getting great photos by being in a place at the right time.

The Sydney opera house is one of the most well known buildings in the world. You sometimes need to go to places like this to get stand out photos.

You need to take a vacation!

Do you need an excuse to go on vacation? Of course, you do, and to photograph a new destination is as good an excuse as any!

We’d love to hear about your experiences of visiting somewhere new, so please share in the comments below. What type of photography do you enjoy, and where is your dream destination to practice that? Has a trip abroad ever kick started a project for you? How about going to a new place this weekend? It doesn’t have to be far from your area. Getting out with the camera and exploring is a great feeling, so let’s see your results!

You’ll never find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, you might get a good photo of the rainbow though.

The post 6 Great Reasons for Photographing New Destinations or Locations by Simon Bond appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 2, 2017
How to do Night Photography With No Tripod – and a Little Photoshop Help
In this article I am going to show you how you can do amazing night photography with no tripod and not too much grain.

In this photo I was on the Academia Bridge in Venice, the place to be to catch the sunset. There were tons of photographers taking long exposure photos, so many that I couldn’t squeeze in to put my tripod down. So I put my camera at f/4, went to 1/10th of a second and shot at ISO 1250.

These settings froze the boat and the water is still nice and smooth. But the thing that I was really happy about was the light reflection in the water; it was not too strong. If I had done a long exposure the light reflection in the water would have made big blots of light which is very catchy to the eyes and creates a lot of contrast, which I don’t like.

Like on this photo below:

Extremes

Let me show you in this extreme case:

For the image above, I had a zoom lens on so the widest I could open up my aperture was f/5.6. My shutter speed was 1/25th of a second at 2500 ISO, and I set my camera on high speed burst mode, which allows the camera take several shots quickly. But unfortunately at 2500 ISO there is going to be a lot of noise. So to show how noisy this photo is, let me do my basic retouching.

As you can see it is very grainy/noisy.

Even if I try to use the noise reduction it doesn’t look that great:

The solution

So what you can do in this situation is to select all the photos you took in Continuous Shouting mode, I am selecting five here. Then click on sync, Check All, and select synchronize.

Once you have done that, right-click select Edit In > Open as Layers in Photoshop.

Now that we are in Photoshop, you can see that each photo has its own layer. Select them all, then go to Edit > Auto-Align Layers.

You can click on auto here. If you are shooting handheld it is important to have all the layers aligned. Here you can select all the layers again, right-click and select Convert to Smart Object.

Then you are going to select your layer and go to Layer > Smart Object > Stack Mode > Median.

What’s that is going to do is Photoshop will detect the common pixels from a photo to another and then remove the noise and any people that moved from frame to frame, which is pretty cool. You can see the before and after below.

After this technique has been applied, you can see that the water is nicer on the eyes and there is almost no noise in the image.

Before

After

Summary

So this is a good way to avoid noise in a low light situation where you don’t have a tripod. Let me review the important points for you:
1. Set your camera on Continuous Shooting Mode (burst).
2. Open your aperture as wide as you can to f/2.8 or f/4.
3. Set your shutter speed to around 1/30th of a second and boost the ISO to between 2000 and 3000.
4. Take at least five photos minimum.
5. Take the first photo, retouch it and synch your edits to the others, using Lightroom.
6. Open all the images as layers in Photoshop.
7. Align the photos/layers.
8. Select the layers and convert to Smart Objects.
9. Got to Layer > Smart Object > Stack Mode > Median or see which setting works best.
And voila. See below for the video walk through of this technique as well.

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 do Night Photography With No Tripod – and a Little Photoshop Help by Serge Ramelli appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 2, 2017
Announcing…our mid year sale! Starting with ebooks and posing guides for $9
If you’ve been eying off one of our photography eBooks, courses or presets packs – this week you’re in luck because today we kick off our mid year sale where we’ll be offering you some amazing discounts on dPS products as well as some special offers from our partners.

If you’re subscribed to our newsletter you’ll get notified of each of the deals as they come out but while you’re reading this – let me tell you about todays deal.

DEAL 1: All dPS eBook are just $ 9 USD

To get our mid year sale started, we’re offering all our ebooks and posing guides at just $ 9 each.

That’s up to 80% off what yo’d normally pay!

There are 23 eBooks and posing guides to choose from on everything from understanding the basics of your camera to portrait lighting as well as how to use natural light and improving your post production of your landscapes and much more.

Here are 3 of our most popular ebook guides:
- Going Pro. Normally $ 49, get it today for just $ 9 (USD)
- Living Landscapes. Normally $ 19, today just $ 9 (USD)
- Portraits: Making the Shot. Normally $ 19, today just $ 9 (USD)
But that’s just scratching the surface of what is on offer – be sure to checkout all 23 titles here to find the guide that will take your photography to the next level.

Whether you pick up just one of our titles or pick the whole library – this is a fantastic way to invest in your photographing learning – but don’t wait long – this deal only lasts another 30 hours so don’t delay.

The post Announcing…our mid year sale! Starting with ebooks and posing guides for $ 9 by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 28, 2017
4 Tips for Post-Processing Images on the Road

In this article I will share some of my tips for post-processing your images on the road or while traveling. That way you can share images and keep up on social media. Let’s see why that’s important.

Social media pressures

Much can be said about social media and its influence on photography. But the hard truth is that for many of us we live under a constant pressure to regularly release new content on various platforms, such as Instagram. Studies show that posting an average of one image per day is what will result in the highest engagement amongst current (and new) followers.

One can say that social media has become just as much about documenting as about presenting your finest work. But still, you do want to maintain a certain quality of your images.

An image I processed from the back of our rented caravan on Iceland

In this article, I’ll share several tips on how you can keep up with the pressure of posting new content while being on the road and how you can make sure that the images you post during that period are still of a quality that reflects positively on your overall gallery.

Why Post on the Road

Before we get into the tips on how you can process your images on the road, let’s quickly look at why you want to keep posting new images when you’re traveling.

As I mentioned above, studies show that posting an average of one image per day is what will bring the highest engagement amongst current and new followers. If social media is a big part of your marketing strategy then you should attempt to maintain this average. Of course, there’s no big harm in missing a day or two every now and then but if you’re absent for a week, or even more, you quickly loose engagement with your followers.

Since most photographers follow a lot of people on social media (both friends and people who inspire them), it won’t take much to forget about you and your work, making it harder to regain their engagement on your images.

I chose to quickly process this in Lightroom to share something on my Facebook page related to my current travels.

So, if you’re traveling for a week or longer, it’s a good idea to keep posting new content as often as you can in order not to lose too much engagement.

4 Tips for Post-Processing on the Road

The four tips I’ll be sharing will require that you have access to a laptop (or computer) with your preferred editing tool installed. Normally, when I travel I tend to always bring my laptop (except for shorter trips) so that I can quickly process some images on the road and document my current travels.

That being said, the images that I process on the road rarely become portfolio worthy shots and I will go back and reprocess them later on when I’m back at my desk and have access to the equipment I prefer working with.

#1 – Calibrate your Monitor

It’s most likely that your processing images on a laptop when you’re on the road. If you’re a serious photographer and you spend time fine tuning your images it’s also likely that at some point you’ve calibrated the monitor on which you’re working regularly. (If you haven’t calibrated your monitor before I strongly recommend investing in a tool such as Spyder 5 Elite and calibrating ASAP!)

I use the Spyder 4 Elite to calibrate both my monitor and laptop (also my iPad when I had one).

However, it’s not only your main monitor that should be calibrated. If you spend time processing images on your laptop as well, it’s equally important that it is calibrated too. You don’t want to process an image and then later realize that the colors are all off, right?

#2 – Find the Time

Time is often limited when you’re on the road as most of the day is either spent traveling, exploring, scouting or photographing. Still, I recommend trying to find the time to process at least one image during the day. This could be while you’re having lunch at a cafeteria or even quickly before going to sleep.

When processing images on the road it’s not crucial to focus on the details. Instead, spend a few minutes in a software such as Adobe Lightroom and adjust the highlights, contrast, and white balance. Often, you don’t need to make big adjustments for an image to look okay.

A quick edit done in Lightroom to show the amazing light we had that particular evening. I later reprocessed this image to better suit my style.

If you’re pressured to upload images on the road (this could even due to a client request) it’s better to have something to put out, and then reprocess it when you’re back home.

#3 – Find Balanced Light

If you’re like me and would rather spend a night in a tent or campervan than a hotel, finding a place to process your images isn’t always the easiest. Most places outside are challenging due to harsh light reflecting on your laptop, making it difficult to properly see how the adjustments are applying on the image.

Try looking for a shadowy area to work in, or if you can’t find one, make your own. This may sound (and look) stupid but using a jacket or something similar to cover yourself and the laptop will make it easier to view the screen and see how you’re processing the image.

#4 – Use Presets

To be quite honest, presets are something I very rarely use. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever used them more than a handful of times. However, I do see the value of them when you need to quickly get content out and you have a certain style to your images.

I used the dPS LR presets to process this image from Germany.

Presets are the quickest way to process your images and in many cases, they do a good job. Just make sure that the particular preset works well for the image you’re working on, and if needed, make some minor adjustments.

Last Words

As I’ve mentioned several times in this article, and I want to end with saying, that processing on the road should only be done in order to continuously upload new content on social media either to document, engage or to satisfy a client. The images you sell or include in your portfolio should be reprocessed, as you’ll most likely notice a few errors when you return back home and have more than a few minutes to process the image.

Love it or hate it but this is the world that we (or at least many of us) live in today! How do you work on the road? Do you have any other post-processing tips for when you’re away from home? Please share in the comments below.

The post 4 Tips for Post-Processing Images on the Road by Christian Hoiberg appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 28, 2017