As we move forward in this current era of drone technology innovation, drone cameras are becoming much more advanced and feature- rich which allows you capture stunning images every time you fly your drone high in the sky. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com The question arises why drone photography when we already have all the high end cameras and equipment on Continue Reading
The post Tips For Drone Photos and Videos appeared first on Photodoto.
A while back we took a look at images with the primary color of summer, green. Now let’s have a peek at the color of the night time – blue.
Of course, there are many other things which are blue as well, as you can see below.
By StudioTempura
By Albert Vuvu Konde
By O. R.G.
By Joao Clerigo
By Maarten Takens
By Bill Dickinson
By Roy Cheung
By nathan_gamble
By Mirai Takahashi
By Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 24 Million views)
By Neil Tackaberry
By Javier Díaz Barrera
By Neal Fowler
By Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 24 Million views)
By Maria Eklind
By Tom Roeleveld
By Michiel van Nimwegen
By Ivan Rigamonti
The post 19 Cool Images of Blue Subjects by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Color adds mood and feeling to an image. Cool colors like blue tend to have a calming feeling, like these 19 images with blue subjects.
By Christian Weidinger
This one should be pretty easy. Just go find something blue – OR even convert an image to black and white and add a blue tint to it!
Another option is to go out at dusk and photograph during the blue hour. Here are some tips to help you do that:
By Jeff S. PhotoArt at HDCanvas.ca
By ~lzee~by~the~Sea~
By Fiona Shaw
By Thomas Hawk
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.
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 – Blue by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Everyone makes mistakes. When growing your photography business, you will make more mistakes over than the years than you can count – and some of them you will even look back on and cringe.
Mistakes are all part of the process. But also part of the job of being a photographer is figuring out how to minimize these mistakes, especially the ones that can set you back a long way. Learn from your peers so you can avoid their mistakes.
Here are some of the main pitfalls that plague photographers. Just fixing these alone can save you a lot of money, and even more importantly, a lot of time.
When you are first building your portfolio, certainly you might have to do some jobs for free or at a reduced rate as you build your skill level. That part is fine, but once you have that portfolio and are a full fledged business, you do not want to sell yourself short.
Photography may seem to others like a passion job – that you just show up for an hour or two, take some photos, and send them over. But it is about so much more than that. It’s about building your skills, learning about light, composition, fixing mistakes on the fly, editing, and learning how to work with clients. It’s traveling to and from the location, paying your expenses, spending the time to market yourself to get the job, paying the bills to keep the lights on, and feeding your family. And it’s about having some time left over to enjoy yourself.
Create a spreadsheet and calculate these costs so you know what you have to make per job to survive and thrive. This will give you the confidence to ask for what you are worth. If you’re not able to cover all of these costs, then you’re not running a true full-time business, you won’t survive in the long run, and you’re lowering the value of the work itself.
Stay away from the cheap jobs and the cheap clients. They will just suck your time away and demand more and more. If the requirements for a client on a particular job suddenly change halfway through, ask for more money.
Sometimes you will want to do work for less than you are worth if it is the right type of job or the right type of client, but this should only be situational. There will be many points in your career where it will be more valuable to spend the time on your marketing and business development than on the job itself.
Jobs are not going to come to you at first, no matter how good your work is. You will have to go out and find your clients, so create a list of your ideal client types and of the best ways to reach each of them.
Work within your personal network, canvas local businesses, attend events and offer your services to individuals. The more you put yourself out there, the more business will come to you. But at first, every job you receive will come as a direct result of you proactively contacting someone or figuring out a strategy to get your work in front of them.
Other photographers can be one of the biggest helps to you along your journey. They’ve been there before, they have a lot in common with you, and they could become great friends. Learn from them and offer to help them.
Often you will get some of your first jobs from other photographers, whether it be assisting them or taking some of their overflow. Many established photographers still have a portion of their income come from helping out other photographers in their community.
In addition, accountability can be extremely important for your growth. Find a photographer in a similar place (level and business-wise) as you and work together. Have strategy sessions and share what is working and what is not. Having someone in your life like this can be integral to your success and for getting you through the hard times.
There will be a portion of photographers who see you as a competitor. They will not want to talk to or worth with you. That’s their problem, and the collaborations that you do with the willing photographers will help you both jump ahead of the ones who don’t.
Why don’t photographers respond as quickly as possible to job inquiries? Either way, it makes things easier for us when the competition is slow to respond. I hear it all the time, how surprised people were by how quickly I responded to them, both at the beginning and throughout the entire job process. This shows a level of dependability, and in addition to helping people to want to work with you, it will also make them want to refer you. The more dependable you are, the more your clients will want to help you out however they can.
Even if it’s not a job inquiry, respond quickly. You never know when a casual conversation or advice that you give will turn into a job or reference. Often, it will turn into nothing, but when those one or two out of 10 turn into jobs, in the long run, those will add up.
Being a skilled photographer is not just about creating beautiful pictures. A big aspect of the photography business is how you handle the job from start to finish, and often the most important part is the very beginning when you spell out the terms and requirements.
It is really tough to know exactly what a client is envisioning for the job, so it helps to ask a lot of questions. This will even help them figure out what they want, as many of them will not have any experience with hiring a professional photographer. It will also help you justify your price when you talk out the steps of a job with them.
Make sure they know that if the parameters of the job change (through their decisions), you will have to charge more for the extra work. Most clients will think it is not a big deal to add something that was not specified ahead of time, but this is just more work they are giving you that was not spelled out originally. It happens a lot of the time, so it’s very important for your photography business to learn how to handle it correctly.
Similar to the last point, while you both need to come to an agreement on the scope of any photography project, you also need to spell out those terms in a contract. Without a contract, you can easily be screwed over, and many photographers learn this the hard way. Hire a lawyer to give you advice, and look into thelawtog.com, which provides a variety of photographer contracts. These can save you a lot of time and money.
Read this on contracts: The Biggest Legal Mistake Photographers Make
The contract is important for setting the boundaries of the project. It will be easier to ask for more money if the scope of a job changes when you have a contract that spells out the exact requirements that were drafted.
Efficiency is one of the most important aspects of running a photography business, and unfortunately, speed is something that is learned over time. Create a speedy and organized system for how you work. Import a job, cull the selects, crop, do the post-production work (light, color, contrast, etc.), export, deliver, and invoice. The more efficient you are with this, the less you will procrastinate. There is nothing that will cause a photographer to procrastinate more than staring at a mountain of unedited images.
While this tip may sound simple, jobs that might take beginning photographers three hours to edit, can take an experienced photographer an hour. It took me much longer to edit a job when I started, and this organization and efficiency can give you so much more time to spend on everything else.
Also read: Photography Workflow Tips – From Memory Card to Computer and Beyond
Always tell a client that you will get a job to them a couple days later than you think you can. This will allow you time to screw something up and still get the work to them on time. Usually, you will get it to them early which will make you look even better (this is called under promise, over deliver).
It’s hard to say no as a photographer, especially if you are growing your business and are under booked, but some jobs or some clients are just not worth it. If you are not being paid enough and the job is not good for your portfolio, if the client is tough to work with and overly demanding, save that aggravation and pass.
Some of these clients will prey upon young photographers to squeeze as much out of them before the photographer wises up. Just avoiding these jobs alone will save you so much time, and allow you to put it towards marketing and business development efforts that will set you much further ahead than by taking a less than desirable job.
Your time is very, very important, so don’t waste it. Saying no can be one of the best decisions you make.
If you have a photography business and have any other tips for newbies just getting started, please share in the comments below.
For even more business help – join the Focus Summit 2017 Online Business and Marketing Conference for Photographers on Sept 26-28th 2017. We will cover marketing, business development, law, SEO, branding, blogging, and much more. Use the code “DPS” for a $ 50 discount.
The post 7 Common Mistakes That Every Photography Business Needs to Avoid by James Maher appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Let’s face it…growing up isn’t always easy. There are lots of hurdles to overcome during our journeys as photographers. At one time or another, we all hit rough spots with some aspect of photography. Take heart though, whether it’s a problem with technique, gear, or simply finding your own creative uniqueness, I can personally guarantee that someone else is struggling with that same problem.
But there’s one situation too often encountered by beginners and even pro photographers alike – the dreaded “plateau”. This is a stage that often happens when we feel like our photography has a reached a point where it is no longer improving. It’s a terrible feeling.
Fortunately, overcoming a photographic plateau is easy once you identify and diagram the source of the problem. It’s here where you can run into trouble because critiquing your own performance in order to self-diagnose why you have plateaued is an exercise in self-realization. Here are three common reasons why photographers plateau in their work and some solutions that can push you into a new phase of growth.
Here are three common reasons why photographers plateau in their work and some solutions that can push you into a new phase of growth.
I get it. I really do. There comes a time when you reach a level of confidence in your craft. You feel comfortable in the techniques you practice and more and more of your images turn out just as you imagined them in your head. In itself, confidence that you know what you’re doing is a huge accomplishment in itself. The problem arises, and thus the plateau happens when you stop looking for new things to learn.
I used the word “comfortable” earlier. Becoming comfortable in your photography can be a creative death sentence. Simply put, don’t become overly comfortable to the point where you think there’s nothing else to learn. There are always advancements being made in the world of photography.
Someone is refining a new method of shooting with a filter. There are more things to learn in the digital darkroom during post-processing. There’s always something new to learn. Learning new techniques not only keeps your mind limber but also improves your craft and the potential of your photographs.
I’ll admit it, I love photo gear. There are few artistic mediums where technology advances more quickly than it does in photography. The way your gear facilitates your work is a careful balance between mechanical capability and your personal skill level.
The most expensive camera in the world will not make you a top notch photographer. At the same time, there may come a moment in your journey where your skill legitimately surpasses the capability of your gear. This can cause a plateau due to the fact that your lens will not become physically sharper and your camera’s maximum ISO rating of 6400 will never be able to shoot at 24,000.
Learn what gear meets your current skill level and still leaves room to grow. However, the remedy for gear top out is not to automatically run out and buy the latest and greatest camera or lenses or anything else for that matter.
The very first thing you need to do if you’re a gear shopping photographer is to begin researching. Research and research some more. Read unbiased gear reviews and talk to other photographers who shoot with the same equipment you’re considering purchasing. The reason for this is so you know exactly what you need and you spend your money ONLY on those things and nothing more.
We all have certain things we love photographing. There are genres of photography which draw us in for one reason or another. For me, it is landscape and wilderness/adventure photography.
For others, street photography is their love, while still others thrive on doing portraits in the studio. Whatever your passion may be, there will likely be a point where you find yourself shooting the same thing over and over and over again. While this is not always a bad thing, it can cause you to hit a creative wall and ultimately, plateau.
This problem perhaps has one of the most polarized solutions of all. Simply go photograph something that you normally wouldn’t consider shooting. I know, sounds easy, right? It practically is, but completely switching gears and branching out into new areas of photography can feel unnatural, awkward, and downright scary.
Still, shooting a few portraits here and there when you’re used to shooting only landscapes can be a great creative palette cleanser. Getting out into nature and slowing down can be a welcomed break for street photographers who generally shoot only in concrete jungles. Whatever change of pace you temporarily switch to, it will usually breathe new passion into your original modality and help you move past that plateau.
Sooner or later, to some degree, we all will hit a plateau in our photography. How we handle that moment when it comes can make all the difference.
Usually, understanding the problem is a huge step in solving it and moving on with your photography. Try new things. Research and see if your work does, in fact, need that full frame camera sensor. Branch out and try a style of photography that you generally don’t practice. The key to overcoming a photographic plateau is the realization you need recharging once in a while. It’s a normal part of becoming a stronger and more capable photo maker.
The post Three Tips for Overcoming a Photographic Plateau by Adam Welch appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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.
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.”
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).
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)
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)
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)
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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