Category: Photography

How to Light a Beer Bottle – a Video Tutorial
If you’ve ever wanted to photograph a bottle (beer, wine, soda, ever water) and make it look like they do in the magazines or advertisements you’ll want to watch this!

In this video tutorial Lee Morris from Fstoppers shows how to light a beer bottle, step by step, one light at a time. See what each is doing as he adds them one by one. Check it out and scroll down below the video to get links to some of the gear he mentions in the video.

Things mentioned in the video:
- Yongnuo flash
- Flash Disc by Fstoppers
- PocketWizard triggers
- C-stand
- Magmod grid
- Acrylic Ice Rock Cubes 3 Lbs Bag, Vase Filler or Table Decorating Idea- Clear
Want to see more beverage images – have a look here.

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The post How to Light a Beer Bottle – a Video Tutorial by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
August 2, 2015
Photographing Starry Skies for Nocturnal Landscape Without Breaking the Bank
Milky Way over the Belgian countryside – Sony RX100, 28mm equivalent f/1.8 + LPR (Light Pollution Reduction) filter, ISO 6400. Panorama composed of 12×3 frames, each frame is the image average of four different photos

Photography in low-light conditions is one of the most challenging things to do with a camera. In conditions with faint, moving, distant lights it is even trickier. There is something about a starry sky that simply inspires awe in all of us. And it does so more often since light pollution is getting worst all around the world. I wonder how many children have seen The Milky Way first hand.

Recently, night photography caught my attention because, it is convenient for me. It is the time my duty as father can be left to sleep alongside my son, and the photographer in me can go out hunting starry skies. What is not convenient, is that I live in Belgium. People may know Belgium for its massive variety of beer, but also sports one of the most light polluted skies in all of Europe (dare I say the world?). Don’t believe me? Check the image below, extracted from the Dark Site Finder website.

Light pollution in Belgium (Source: Dark Site Finder)

As you can see, in Belgium the most you can hope for is a moderately dark sky, somewhere between typical urban suburbs and rural skies. This is mostly due to the presence of street lights lighting up almost all of the Belgian road network. Unfortunately, true dark skies are among the rarest gems in Europe: small, precious, and hard to find. Let me be clear here – nothing beats a truly dark sky and a clear atmosphere when it comes to photographing the stars.

But fear not – we can still get some pretty photos of starry nights with a bit of patience and the right gear.

Astrophotography versus nocturnal landscape

There are two main kinds of night photography that involve the starry sky: astrophotography and nocturnal landscape photography.

The first, in my view, is the attempt to photograph distant objects in the sky (planets, nebulae, galaxies) with no landscape. This kind of photography is usually achieved by using a camera mounted to a telescope (or to a long telephoto lens), all mounted on a motorized head on a tripod. Objects in the sky move pretty fast, so if you cannot track their movement with some sort of tracking device, you will not get many astrophotos. This kind of photography has its own challenges, but it is pretty straightforward: get a telescope, a tracking head, a sturdy tripod and you are pretty much done. A number of filters are also available to enhance the view of nebulae, planet and galaxies, as well to suppress the sky glow and punch through light polluted skies.

Nocturnal landscapes, instead, are another kind of beast entirely – the main problem is that you have the stars moving (fast!) across the fixed landscape. If your exposure is too long, stars will stop appearring as dots, and will begin to become trails. And you cannot track their movement or the landscape will be blurred. Here is the difficulty – you are trying to photograph in low light faint, distant lights and you want to do that as fast as possible (except if you do want to photograph star trails). The technical steps you have to adopt in order to capture a nocturnal landscape may vary depending if you want record star trails or not, and on the darkness of the sky above you.

What you cannot (easily) control: The ideal conditions

Ideally you want to have:
- The darkest sky possible above you
- A clear, moonless night (few clouds are allowed)
- A clear and thin atmosphere
- An interesting view or foreground
Remember, you are still doing landscape photography. A boring landscape with a dark, empty foreground will ruin even the most majestic of skies. You need to balance both parts to get a keeper.

What you can control: The ideal gear

Ideally, money is one of your last concerns and you have a digital full frame camera (oh what the heck, let’s take a digital medium format camera, even better) with excellent ISO capabilities and a set of fast (ideally f/1.4 to f/2.8) and sharp lenses to put in front of your sensor. Also, you need a sturdy tripod and head, a remote shutter, a headlamp (to see what you are doing) and strong lights (or even off-camera flashguns if you are brave enough) to do some light painting.

If you are like me, and money is a constraint, you can get away with any camera able to shoot at 3200 ISO (while still retaining some image quality) in RAW format. But you will still need fast glass (a lens with a large maximum aperture), anywhere from f/1.8 up to f/3.5.

To give you an idea, below there is the list of my current gear for nocturnal landscape photography:
- Olympus OM-D EM–10
- Samyang 7.5 f/3.5 UMC fisheye (Micro Four Thirds) – equivalent to 15mm on full frame
- Samyang 12 f/2.0 NCS CS
- Sigma 30 f/2.8 Art DN
- Sony DSC-RX100 M2 (yes, a compact camera)
- Manfrotto 055XPROB + ball head
- MeFoto + ball head with uncoupled pano movement
- Spare SD memory cards and batteries
- Remote shutters with intervalometer
Nocturnal Landscapes with star trails

Star trails (Stack of 60 frames taken with Olympus OM-D EM–10 + Samyang 7.5 f/3.5 fisheye lens)

The easiest nocturnal landscape you can take is one with star trails, mainly because you are not trying to fight the sky’s rotation (well, technically the Earth’s rotation). Instead, use this to your advantage to create striking images, in particular if you can get the North Star in the frame, so that you will end up having concentric star trails, all centred on the North Star (assuming you are in the northern hemisphere, of course).

In principle, all you need to do is: compose your scene, focus on infinity, set the camera in BULB mode and go grab some coffee. The longer you let the camera register the scene, the higher the number of trails you will record; and they will be longer and more continuous. Practically however, you do not want to do that because the noise due to the overheating sensor (hot pixels) will degrade the quality of the final image. You are better off by taking many shorter exposures (30 seconds each) and stack them later using software like StarStax or similar. This will allows you to keep the digital noise under control, with the downside of recording a great number of images to process later. Be sure you have a high capacity SD card that is empty, and your battery is fully charged before you start taking the sequence. An intervalometer is a must in order to set the appropriate number of shots to take, and the time interval between them. Never touch your camera until the end of the shot sequence.

In summary, get an interesting composition and fire at will. It does not require much more than that. You can even do cityscapes with star trails, like the shot below; this is a view over the city center of Brussels (Belgium), from the roof of my building.

Star trails over Bruxelles, Belgium. (Stack of 400 frames taken with Olympus OM-D EM–10 + Samyang 7.5 f/3.5 fisheye lens)

With cityscapes there is the extra difficulty of not blowing out the city lights, which are much brighter than the sky. Graduated filters may be of great help if you have a distant, flat horizon. Else, just expose (to the right) for the city and hope for the best, but some stars should show through. Mind your exposure time will be short because of the bright cityscape, so be prepare to shot a lot of frames (note the number for the shot above).

Nocturnal landscapes without star trails

Basically, the Holy Grail is getting a bright, sharp, colourful, and structured image of the Milky Way to shine across your landscape. This is the most difficult task and requires much more thinking that just doing star trails.
- Size matters – the Milky Way is huge, so you need an ultra wide angle, or a fisheye, lens to fully capture our galaxy
- Time matters – you want to get a sharp image of the sky, meaning you should avoid recording the stars movement. There are a couple of mathematical relations that can be used to estimate the longest time you can record the scene at a given focal length (or the equivalent in 35mm if you have a cropped sensor) before stars begins to form trails. These are called 600 and 500 rules: the longest time you can record the image is given by the following equations:Exposure time (t) = 600 / Focal Length OR Exposure time (t) = 500 / Focal LengthWhere the 500 rule is the most conservative of the two. Once you get the maximum exposure time (t) for your chosen focal length, it is just a matter of setting the proper aperture and ISO settings to match it. Usually you will need to use a larger aperture (small f-number), a good starting point for setting the proper ISO value is given by the following equation:
ISO = (6000 * f^2) / Exposure time – f^2 means the f-number to the power of two

For example, with my Samyang 12mm f/2.0 on my Olympus OM-D (crop factor 2x), in order to get a good sky I should use a shutter speed no longer than: Exposure time = 500/(12*2) or approximately 21 seconds.

Assuming I go for the widest aperture, I should use an ISO value of about: ISO = 6000 * (f2.0 to the power of 2 = 4) / 21 = 1142 or rounded up to ISO 1150.

If, say, the aperture was set to f/4.0 instead of f/2.0, the ISO will need to be: ( 6000 * (4.0 ^2) / 21 OR ( 6000 * 16 ) / 21 = 4571.

With this in mind, it is obvious that wider and faster your lens is, the easier it will be to record a good sky. This will also allow you to use a relatively low ISO, to keep the digital noise as low as possible. The shot below is one of my first attempts to capture the Milky Way. It has been done with my OM-D EM–10 with the Samyang fisheye at f/3.5, ISO 1000 with a shutter speed of 40 seconds, under a fairly dark sky (for Belgian standards).

The Milky Way in the winter Belgian sky (Olympus OM-D EM–10 + Samyang 7.5 f/3.5 fisheye lens)

Doing nocturnal landscape panoramas

As if the things were not already complicated enough, sometimes a single shot is not enough; either because it is not wide enough, or because you want to produce really large prints and you need to have a file with a resolution larger than that of a single photo. Sometimes you want to do a nocturnal panorama and that means taking different images and merging them later to form a panorama. The only difficulty is that you need to be precise in the camera movements and work as fast as possible to avoid large star movements between one photo and the next. In my experience it is also best to use a wide lens, like a 28mm (in 35 or full frame format) or wider. This because software struggles to automatically stitch together photos containing only stars and no big, fixed points, like a part of a rock or a tree, and also because longer focal lengths will require a greater number of frames to stitch together to cover the same view. For seamless stitching of the different frames, it is best to allow a superposition between the frames in the order of 30–50%.

To help you to work fast, note the vertical and horizontal angles of view for your lens and your camera before heading out. A great tool for this is the Angle of View Calculator. Once you know the vertical and horizontal angles of view you can move precisely and fast with your camera by using the graduated scales on you tripod head.

The Milky Way over the Belgian Ardennes – Olympus OM-D EM–10 + Samyang 12 f/2.0; panorama composed of 12 (4×3) photos.

Fighting the evil orange glow: LPR filters

Light pollution is, unfortunately, a sad reality in many countries. It is not always possible to be under your dream sky and you have to try to deal with light pollution and the resulting orange glow in the sky. As I mentioned when introducing astrophotography, some filters exist to help holding back light pollution by absorbing light of specific wavelengths: in particular, broad band Light Pollution Reduction (LPR) filters try to reduce the orange glow by absorbing the light emitted by streetlights used in cities and on roadways. Those lights are from low and high pressure sodium lamps, which emit light at around 583nm; this light is cut by the LPR filters. The transmission spectrum for my Sky-watcher LPR filter is shown below.

Typical transmission spectrum of a broadband LPR filter.

There are many kinds of filters and light polluting sources so you have to find the right filter to suppress or reduce the kind of light in your location. At the moment, here in Belgium, I am happy with the Sky-watcher LPR filter. There are several manufacturers who produce different filters to suit different equipment, as well as large and small wallets. Just have a look for Sky-watcher LPR and UHC filters or Astronimik CLS filters just to name two options.

Do the filters really help in the field? It depends on the kind of light pollution, and also on the amount of pollution versus ambient light. I found that in some circumstances the filter clearly helps, and the non-filtered image cannot be saved in post processing. Other times, the filter seems to be less important. Anyway, with a polluted sky I’d say the filter does help. The image below shows the effect of the filter on street lights compared to using no filter; in both cases you can see the RAW and edited image. They should speak for themselves.

Comparison between test shots with and without an LPR filter

Note there are some downsides to the use of this filter. First, it darkens the scene of about one stop (the images above are taken at the same exposure value by using a slower shutter speed when the filter was in use), and it does not work with wide angle lenses. This is because it is an interference filter, and cannot handle light coming in with very different angles, like when using a wide angle – it will generate banding on the image that is difficult or impossible to remove. The solution is using lenses with an equivalent focal length of about 30mm or more and shoot a panorama.

Having to deal with a one stop loss of light, and the use of lenses with a relatively long focal length is challenging, in particular if the lenses you have are not very fast, but it is worth giving the filter a shot.

A final word of caution: cheap LRP filters like mine come usually in sizes of 1.25” or 2” in diameter, and the most suitable diameter of the two is 2”, which corresponds to a 48mm threaded filter. This size suits very well many lenses for micro four thirds camera, such as the Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 and Lumix 20mm f/1.7, old Zuiko legacy lenses, Sigma 19 and 30 f/2.8 and so on. With larger lenses the amount of vignette you will get will probably make it impossible to produce a useable panorama.

Because my fastest, not too wide lens, is the wide end of the zoom on my Sony DMC-RX100 M2, which is equivalent to a 28mm f/1.8, I decided to play along and use it to photograph the Milky Way. I went to the Chateau de la Hulpe, in La Hulpe (Belgium), which is located a few miles from Bruxelles, under a heavily polluted sky (even for Belgian standards) and I made a 8×4 panorama of the Castle under the Milky Way. I fitted the camera with the LPR filter and shot 18, 20 second long, exposures at f/1.8 and ISO 6400. To contain the digital noise, each frame used for the panorama is the result of image averaging two shots. The result is shown below. I think it is not bad at all and that there is still plenty of room for improvement.

The Milky Way in the Belgian heavily light polluted sky – Sony DMC-RX100 M2 at 10.4mm (equivalent to 28mm on full frame camera) and f/1.8 + LPR filter; panorama composed of 32 (8×4) frames.

In summary, don’t give up just yet, if you live in a light polluted area; with a bit of luck (and gear) there is hope, even in the orange glowing sky.

Disclaimer: I am not associated in any way with Skywatcher, Astronomik, Panasonic, Olympus or with any of the other brands I have mentioned in this article.

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The post Photographing Starry Skies for Nocturnal Landscape Without Breaking the Bank by Andrea Minoia appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
August 2, 2015
Think Tank Photo Sub Urban Disguise 30 Shoulder Camera Bag Review
Packing and carrying equipment for travel adventures is always a challenge. With increasing airline restrictions and not being willing to check your gear, you need to find the best possible alternative for your needs. Like most of my peers, I covet several bags. Usually when going abroad I take a bag with all the equipment and a smaller, second bag for everyday outings once on location. As I tend to travel lighter and lighter every day, I was on the lookout for a bag that could serve dual purposes for my recent Italy trip. I wanted a bag that could carry my two Fuji X bodies, some lenses, a filter kit, and my iPad. The other important consideration was that the bag needed to be easy to access and work from.

Think Tank Photo Sub Urban Disguise 30 – Image Courtesy of Think Tank Photo

After much looking around, I settled on the Think Tank Sub Urban Disguise 30. As you may know, Think Tank products are legendary and they carry their well-known “non-rhetoric warranty.” This bag is one from their compact series, designed for small kits. There are four different models and the 30 is the biggest of them all, the one that features a separated iPad compartment.

The bag is constructed of high-quality ballistic polyester, treated for water resistance. It features YKK® zippers, stretch pockets on the sides, two-ply bonded nylon thread, and a removable shoulder strap. The interior comes with removable dividers and a rain cover that fits in the main outside pocket.

Besides the main compartment, the Sub Urban Disguise 30 has multiple pockets. There is a front organizer pocket on the front flap that can accommodate personal items. Under the main flap, there is a large pocket that is roomy enough to store bigger accessories, like battery chargers, cables, or perhaps a travel book. There is also a mesh pocket inside the main flap for smaller accessories. The exterior stretch side pockets can fit a bottle of water or a flash.

Think Tank Photo Sub Urban Disguise 30 Details – Images Courtesy of Think Tank Photo

The bag dimensions are:
- Exterior: 12” x 10” x 7.3” ((W x H x D)
- Interior: 11” x 9.5” x 5” (W x H x D)
- iPad pocket: 10.7” x 8.5” x .8” (W x H x D)
According to Think Tank, this bag can fit a standard-size DSRL, two to four zoom lenses, a regular iPad, and a 70-200 f/2.8 lens unattached. As I am shooting mirrorless, my use was a little different, and I was able to fit two Fujifilm X-T1 bodies with lenses attached, three separate lenses, a full-size filter kit, the iPad, and accessories, and I had room to spare.

My kit bottom layer contains Fujinon XF 55-200 mm f/3.5-4.8, Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 and Rokinon 8mm f/2.8 fisheye for Fuji X mount.

My kit upper layer contains Fujifilm X-T1 body with Fujinon XF 10-24mm f4.0 lens attached, Fujifilm X-T1 body with Fujinon XF 16-55 f/2.8 attached and on there is a complete Lee Filter kit with 3 ND grads and 2 NDs. (Photo taken with iPhone)

As you can see, I loaded mine by layering the interior in two tiers. I placed lenses on the bottom of the bag, which I separated from the top with the provided dividers, and then placed both camera bodies on top for easy access. On the side I had the filter kit. As explained above, one of the things that I was looking for was to have easy access to the gear, and this way I had both bodies with the most used lenses within very easy access. The bag is very comfortable to wear as the shoulder strap is solid but very well padded.

One of the best things about this bag is the way it opens. There is a flip-top lid that folds away from your body, and that really helps you to reach the camera fast. This top lid is zippered and totally separated from the main Velcro exterior flap that accesses the bigger pocket. In the end, the bag was everything that I expected, so I will continue to use it on future trips, especially the ones around cities with lots of walking, and where I need quick access to the cameras, to take a shot and put it away again.

Obviously, how much you can fit in the bag will depend on the type of configuration you use and how you divide the bag internally, but if you want something relatively light for urban walks or travel, this is really a very good option. If you don’t need to carry a tablet, you can also consider this bag’s smaller siblings with three more models to choose from. There is probably one that will suit you well. The price for this bag starts at $ 49.75 and this particular model is $ 84.75, a price that I believe is more than reasonable for all these features and quality.

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The post Think Tank Photo Sub Urban Disguise 30 Shoulder Camera Bag Review by Daniel Korzeniewski appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
August 2, 2015
28 Timeless Images of Time-worn Old Cars

Antique, old, rusted, archaic, crumbling, ancient, and time-worn – all words that could describe vintage vehicles. Some are in better condition than others, some in running order, others put out to pasture.

Photographers love to shoot crumbling subjects. I hope you enjoy these images of old cars:

Plymouth by Aaron J. Groen on 500px

Old memories by László Gál on 500px

Old Metal by Meagan V. Blazier on 500px

P L Y M O U T H by Liban Yusuf on 500px

Rusted Car in Flowers by Lidija Kamansky on 500px

Racing through the streets of Havana by Mikko Palonkorpi on 500px

Old Blue Car by Giancarlo Bisone on 500px

Spacecraft by Tasos Koutsiaftis on 500px

The Eye by Sotiria Alexandri Schijvenaars on 500px

Vespa & Fiat by Emmanuel Hatas on 500px

Look into my eyes by Mark U on 500px

Old rusty car by Yauheni Patsiomkin on 500px

Vergessen by Alan Lopane on 500px

The Ghost Town by Indigo Verse on 500px

old car by Matteo Pecchioli on 500px

Recycle by Ten:Dead:Pixels on 500px

Rotting Jalopies by Todd Klassy on 500px

Beetle by ????? ???????? on 500px

The aurora taxi by Ingrid Kjelling on 500px

Dick Tracy´s by Oscar Mazza on 500px

Helpless by DeVaughn Squire on 500px

Eyes by Dave Linscheid on 500px

untitled by Mikko Erholtz on 500px

old police car by Michel Bellemare on 500px

Old Caddy by Arkadiusz Ziomek on 500px

Old car racing by Sergey Lebedev on 500px

Menara Car by Soufiane BOUDIR on 500px

Autoskulturenpark in Mettmann by Adam Zborowski on 500px

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The post 28 Timeless Images of Time-worn Old Cars by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

August 1, 2015
Weekly Photography Challenge – Antique Cars
Old cars – look around you, they’re everywhere.

By PoL Úbeda Hervàs

Weekly Photography Challenge – Old Cars

Admit it – photographers love old things. The more battered, torn, peeling, weathered, falling down, beat up, rusted, broken and just in generally poor condition an item is – the more we love to photograph it. Right?! Tell me I’m not alone on that?

So your challenge this week is to go find an old car. It could be ancient and broken down like described above, or overhauled, in pristine condition, and well cared for by a car enthusiast. It’s your choice – or do both.

By thebig429

By Craig ONeal

Shoot the entire car (or vehicle) or do some detail shots of important parts. Your call again.

By Robert Payne

By Domiriel

By RSdBarros

By RSdBarros

By Darlene Hildebrandt

By Keith Midson

Where to find them?

If you can’t seem to find any old cars in your area here are a few places to look. Please remember not to trespass on private land and get permission before entering anyone’s property.
- Junk yards (ask first)
- Farmers’ fields (ask if you need to go on the property)
- Vintage car clubs or car rallies. These are great as you’ll find dozens or hundreds of cars there on display for you to photograph.
- Historic parks or museums – outdoor ones are especially good. If indoors ask about their photography policy before shooting and you may also need permission if you want to use a tripod.
- Cuba – you don’t have to travel there (unless you want to) I just thought I’d mention it as the country is FULL of them, and I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my images from that amazing country.
Added some texture overlays using Macphun’s b/w Tonality plugin.

I loved the detail on the steering wheel on this car.

You can even hire a driver and a car there for about $ 30/hour. Or just hail any taxi!

Light painted using the light from a cell phone!

You may find it handy to have a tripod and polarizing filter (to cut reflections) and shoot later in the day if possible to get nice even light on the car. You might want to check out this dPS article as well: The 5 Biggest Mistakes Newbie Car Photographers Make.

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 favourite 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.

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

Digital Photography School
August 1, 2015
Cable TV is So Broken, Can Apple and Google Save Us All?

Billionaire Comcast CEO Brian Roberts

Last night I spent a frustrating hour trying to cancel Showtime with Comcast, my current cable TV provider. I could not find (nor is there) any way to cancel any Comcast service online and their customer service department was closed.

Finally I was able to get chatty with one of those chatbots online who confirmed to me that there is simply no way to cancel Showtime on Comcast without speaking with a human representative. Even though the chatbot convinced me they were a human, they were not allowed to cancel it for me and I would need to try again tomorrow on the phone only. Interestingly enough I had no problem signing up for Showtime online originally, it’s just when you want to cancel that Comcast gives you such a hard time.

This morning after navigating the Comcast phone voice response menu I was finally able to talk to a human being, who tried to talk me out of cancelling my Showtime. I was committed though and I did finally get it cancelled.

I actually love Showtime and don’t mind paying for it. Masters of Sex and Ray Donovan are two of my favorite shows on right now. I also like the series Homeland. I had several reasons for cancelling it with *Comcast* though.

1. Why am I paying Comcast $ 19.99/month for Showtime when I can just buy it direct from Showtime on my AppleTV for a free 30 day trial and then $ 10.99/month after that?

2. Watching Showtime using the AppleTV app through Comcast is a royal pain in the ass. I’ve had to re-authenticate and prove I’m a paying cable customer at least 20 times with the app.

I go to watch one of my shows and am interrupted with a message and code on the AppleTV telling me that I have to go to Showtime online on my phone or computer and authenticate. Next I have to log into my Comcast account enter in the code from my television set and then after that I finally get my access.

I wouldn’t mind it if I did this one time, the first time I signed up for the app, but having to re-authenticate over and over and over again, especially late at night when I’m in bed and just want to watch my favorite show is a drag.

3. Last night I wanted to watch episode 2 of the current season of Master’s of Sex on the app but it wasn’t available. I could only watch episode 3. I have no idea why Comcast customers were not allowed to watch episode 1 or 2, but I didn’t want to watch episode 3, before episode 2, so I just gave up and didn’t get to watch a show that I’m paying $ 20/month for. No wonder so many people just say screw it and go to bitTorrent.

4. I hate the way Comcast abuses the AppleTV ecosystem. If I pay for CNN with Comcast, why do they not allow me to watch it on my AppleTV. Comcast’s decisions here feel entirely arbitrary. They will let me watch CNBC if I subscribe, but not CNN. I can watch HBO (although I have the same re-authentication problem there over and over again) but when my wife wants to watch Lifetime she has to figure out some weird hack to try to authenticate the app through some hard to find link in a forum on the internet.

It is clear to me that Comcast is purposely trying to make your AppleTV experience an ugly and difficult one and so any chance I can get to bypass Comcast and purchase premium content elsewhere, I’d rather do that — by contrast Netflix has always been an absolute breeze to use with my AppleTV.

According to Buzzfeed today, Apple is rolling out a new version of AppleTV in September which will be setting AppleTV up to offer their own subscription service in 2016. This is such welcome news. I love my AppleTVs and if I could get my content directly through Apple I’d love to cancel my Comcast cable TV subscription entirely.

I’m much more optimistic about an AppleTV service working on my AppleTV than Comcast’s current service. Also with AppleTV I can just buy a device one time and don’t need to have a cable box for every single TV in my house at a price of $ 10/month each. Will Apple finally be the one that saves us from Comcast?

My other beef with Comcast is their highspeed internet service. At present I’m paying for the maximum speeds I’m allowed which give me 120MBps down and 10MBps up. Frankly, in today’s world these just feel too slow to me — especially the 10MBps upload speeds. I use the internet a lot for uploading high res photos and I wish I could get faster upload speeds.

I was excited about Comcast’s new residential gigabit service announcement the other day until I saw the pricing for it: $ 1,000 to set it up and $ 320/month with a two year commitment. PC World lists the service at $ 300/month, but when I called to ask about it they told me that there would also be a $ 20/month equipment rental fee on top of that fee. That’s just too expensive for high speed internet.

By contrast Google sells their gigabit internet service for $ 70/month with no installation fee — which is even less than I’m paying Comcast today for my crappy 10MB/second upload speeds — for less money Google Fiber users can upload 100x faster than I can.

I was reluctantly willing to pay Comcast’s highway robbery fees for gigabit internet and was hopeful when a Comcast rep told me I could get it. They told me though that they would need to do a survey of my house in person to confirm and would call me for an appointment. I never heard back from them on this appointment so after a week I called them back only to be told that they did in fact do the survey and that I did not qualify at present.

Unfortunately AppleTV’s subscription television is not here…. yet. Unfortunately Google Fiber is not here… yet. Hopefully both of these services will eventually get to my neighborhood though. It would be so nice to just be able to cut Comcast out of my life entirely.

While I realize I could just go ahead and cut the cord right now, with a family of six, the rest of my household is just not ready to cut the cord yet and I’d have a mutiny on my hands if I cancelled our Comcast — so for now I continue to pay my $ 233/month. However, I’m looking optimistically towards the future, to a day when Apple and Google will let me cut Comcast out of my life for good.

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

July 31, 2015
Top 10 Features to Bring Your Seascape Photos to Life
Seascapes are awesome opportunities for photography. In fact, it will probably be your first impulse upon seeing the ocean to pull out your camera (or wish you had it with you). It takes some skill, however, to turn a beautiful coastal scene into something more than a snapshot. If you are not careful, your coastal photo can be a boring picture of sand and water.

One of the keys to success for coastal photography is finding something interesting along the coastline to put in your picture. It would be great if there was an abandoned boat every 100 meters, but there isn’t. And we don’t all live near Big Sur or the Cliffs of Moher. Therefore, you often have to hunt for features to make your seascapes come alive. When you find such a feature, look at it from different angles, often with your camera to your face (you’ll be surprised at how different things sometimes look through the viewfinder or through the LCD).

To get you started, here are some suggestions of coastal features to look for:

1. Old piers and docks

Abandoned piers and docks solve a huge problem with most coastal photography in that they add a center of interest to your photos. Many times you have a beautiful background created by the coastal scenery, but nothing else. You want an actual subject for your photo, the pier gives you that.

Abandoned piers and docks also provide a great opportunity for you to blur out the water, which creates a strong contrast between the blurred water and the sharp pier. To do this, make sure you have a 10-stop neutral density filter. Using this filter will reduce the amount of light allowed into your camera, and cause the camera to use a much longer shutter speed than it would otherwise. That long shutter speed blurs (or smooths) the water.

2. Lighthouses

A less common feature, but one that you should always look for, is a lighthouse. These add a great subject to an otherwise uninteresting scene.

Obviously, you won’t find lighthouses everywhere, but you’d be surprised how many there are if you look for them. In the U.S., the state of Maine alone has over 60 lighthouses, California has about 30. You can check to see if there is a lighthouse near your destination by using the map created by the Lighthouse Friends.

Oftentimes access to lighthouses is restricted to certain hours because they are on public property. This can be an issue if you want to shoot before sunrise or after sunset, as most of us do. Be sure to check the access and/or opening times.

3. Sunrise and sunset

Whereas your location may not have something like an abandoned pier or a lighthouse, no matter where you are there will always be a sunrise and sunset. You may not get the most dramatic of sunrises or sunsets on the day you are out shooting, but you will always have one. If you are not doing this already, it is the number one improvement you can make to your photographs, and it costs nothing.

If you don’t ordinarily shoot into the sun, do so on occasion to add drama and interest. You can also use the sun as a center of interest.

Be sure to arrive well before sunrise or hang around after sunset. The skies are often more dramatic during these times than during the actual sunrise or sunset itself.

4. Interesting rock formations

Remember that in coastal photography, the top half of your picture is often a given; it will be the water and sky. In those cases, the only variable is the foreground. Therefore, you should spend a lot of time looking down to get the best foreground possible.

When you do that, one thing to look for – which is available no matter your location – is interesting rocks, or rock formations. Spend a lot of time looking for them, and as you do so, look through your camera frequently. The camera sees things differently than you.

To make the rocks stand out, get let low to the ground and get right behind them. This is sometimes inconvenient or uncomfortable, but it is worth it. Be sure to use a wide angle lens to capture the whole scene.

5. Patterns in the water

Sometimes the water itself is enough to create an interesting photo. For this to be the case, you will need to capture the pattern of the waves or the currents in the water.

Use a slow shutter speed to capture the patterns of the waves and currents. At night, your shutter speed might naturally be slow enough to do this because of the low-light environment. During the day, however, you will need a 10-stop neutral density filter to use a slow enough shutter speed.

6. Animals

Seacoasts are home to a vast array of wildlife. In some places, livestock are allowed to roam freely along coastal regions. If nothing else, you can count on birds being present at the coast. Use one of these animals as a center of interest for your photo when you capture the scene.

You will need to use a reasonably fast shutter speed to capture the animal and make it sharp. If you like to shoot from a tripod and use a neutral density filter when capturing coastlines, you will have to change things up. Creating a blur to the water will also blur the animal, which will ruin the shot.

7. Powerful waves

On some days, the waves are enough to create a nice photo. In particular, after a storm or high winds, the waves may come crashing in and give you something interesting to work with.

Use a fast shutter speed (at least 1/250th) to capture the power of the waves. If you use a slower shutter speed it will blur the wave, which will create a sense of movement, but not show the power of the wave. This will probably not be a problem most days, but if you are working in low light you will need to increase your ISO, or open up your aperture a bit to get the shutter speed fast enough.

8. People (for a sense of scale)

You can have the most dramatic scenery in the world in your picture, but if your viewer cannot instantly determine the scale of the scene, it might be lost. Nothing solves this problem more than having a person in your picture. We all know how big people are, and seeing a person in the picture instantly helps put the size and scale of the scenery in perspective.

Next time, rather than cloning out that person who wandered into your picture, leave them in. Better yet, look for opportunities to include a person in your scene to add a sense of scale.

9. Reflective water

If you are shooting up or down the coastline (i.e. perpendicular to it), land features will sometimes reflect on the water or wet sand. These reflections can make a nice foreground for your picture. Capturing reflections usually requires that:
1. You are photographing just before sunrise or after sunset
2. You use a long exposure, which will blur the water and make the reflection show up
It need not be a perfect reflection (it rarely will be, since the water is moving so much), but just something that captures the colors and tones in general. You will use these to create a foreground that is more interesting than just a bunch of sand. Slow down your shutter speed and see what develops.

10. Clouds

Another item found along the coast that does not depend on your location or geography is clouds. More often than not, the clouds will give you something to work with. Coastal regions – being a transition between land and sea – often develop the most interesting clouds anywhere, and conditions can change rapidly.

If you are focusing on the clouds as the subject of your picture, make sure that the top two-thirds (2/3) of your picture (at least) is above the horizon line. Be sure to use your polarizing filter if you are shooting near midday.

Next steps

There is nothing to do now but get out there and photograph the coast. Start with the features in this article, then go find your own. There is no end to the interesting things you can find along the coast. If you have a favorite that I didn’t list, be sure to leave it in the comments below.

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The post Top 10 Features to Bring Your Seascape Photos to Life by Jim Hamel appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 31, 2015
How to do Milky Way Photography – A Comprehensive Tutorial

You’re spinning through our solar system on a gorgeous blue marble which offers jaw dropping views of an astronomical phenomenon we call The Milky Way. Wait for our marble to line up just right, and you’ll have a perfect opportunity to create awe inspiring images that harness that galactic chandelier hovering over your head.

My students are often delighted to learn that capturing spectacular images of The Milky Way is easy, once you know a few essential tips. Planning when and where to do Milky Way photography is just as important as the techniques and equipment you’ll be using.

If you want to get truly majestic shots of The Milky Way you’ve really got to consider your location and timing. I’ll tackle that first, before we move on to the shooting technique.

1 – Where and when to see the galactic core

The full galactic core is only visible during certain months, at certain locations. You can see the rest of The Milky Way throughout the year, but for truly eye-popping results it’s the galactic core that you’ll be hunting for, so let’s discuss the best times of year to see it in all its glory.

Northern Hemisphere

Parts of The Milky Way are visible all year round but the galactic core is present only from late April to late July and can be seen in the southeastern to southwestern sky. That’s when you’ll get to see what I call The BIG C. As the summer progresses, you’ll see the core move west so that by the end of summer it appears to rise in the southwestern sky.

You have no chance of seeing the galactic core in winter.

Southern Hemisphere

Photographers who live in the southern hemisphere are lucky because they get to see the core from February right through to October, with peak visibility being in June and July. I’m rather jealous.

Don’t forget lunar phase

For super clear Milky Way photography you’ll need minimal light pollution, which means you’ll want to avoid a bright moon. However, I’ve actually captured good shots of The Milky Way even with a first quarter moon in the sky (so don’t feel like it’s not worth shooting when the moon is present) but obviously a full moon is to be avoided.

The other thing to consider is the position of the moon in relation to The Milky Way. For example , a first quarter moon isn’t such a problem if it’s way off in the west while your Milky Way appears in the southeast. But, if the moon lines up dead centre in the Milky Way, it could be too bright, right where you don’t want it.

How do you know where The Milky Way is going to be?

There are a multitude of phone and desktop apps that can help you to plan your Milky Way shoot but my favourite is the free app called Stellarium. There’s a phone and desktop version, I prefer the latter to plan my shoots.

You can enter a location and time to see when and where things are going to line up. You’re mainly looking to see where the galactic core is present during a darker lunar phase. Stellarium will show you a picture of The Milky Way, and its position, at the times you specify. You can also see where and how bright the moon will be.

Check out some of the other popular apps like; The Photographers Ephemeris and Starwalk.

2 – Find a dark location

Purists will say that you MUST be in a dark sky area and of course that will give you a much clearer shot, but don’t let a little bit of distant light pollution stop you from shooting The Milky Way. If you can see it, you can shoot it. The image I shot below in Death Valley shows light pollution from two large cities and I honestly think it adds to the contrast in the image. That glow on the horizon adds a great separation of earth and sky.

If you want to discover the best dark sky locations, the International Dark Sky Places site is a great resource.

3 – Wait for clear weather

Most landscape shooters love clouds and hate blue skies. Once you get into shooting nightscapes, you’ll quickly reverse that thinking.

In this shot of Mono Lake the small clouds actually added a little interest to the shot, without obscuring too much of the galactic core.

A blanket of cloud is bad news if you want to get clear shots of The Milky Way, but don’t be put off by the presence of light cloud cover. Sometimes a few clouds can add drama and framing to a Milky Way shot so it’s still worth shooting if the clouds aren’t completely blanketing the entire sky.

4 – The Milky Way is only half the shot

For me, the most awe inspiring Milky Way images are those that show the galactic core in relation to earthly locations and objects. Something as mundane as a person on a camp chair can look really dramatic when framed by the phenomenon of The Milky Way.

Think hard about what you’d like to put in the foreground of your Milky Way shot. If you get perfect conditions and execute perfect technique you’ll still get a boring shot if you don’t put something else in your frame to ground the viewer. Pick an interesting foreground feature and maybe try a little light painting to make your Milky Way shots truly awesome.

That could be anything from an interesting rock formation like a sea stack or arch, right through to a derelict shed, or an interesting tree. Think about locations that feature a point of interest and then consider how that place lines up with The Milky Way.

5 – Using the right gear

Lens choice

While there’s something to be said for using the gear you’ve already got, night photography is something of a challenge because of the absence of light. You’ll need a fast lens that ideally has a maximum aperture of f/2.8, or even brighter like an f/1.4.

Super wide angle lenses are ideal for shooting nightscapes because they don’t usually produce much bokeh. By that, I mean that even when set to maximum apertures of f/1.4 you’ll still be able to get a great deal of your image in focus – if you focus correctly. The last thing you want is a sharply focused Milky Way with a foreground that is completely blurred in soft, creamy bokeh, so leave the lovely Sigma 85mm f/1.4 at home.

The other great thing about super wide lenses is that you can fit a lot of The Milky Way into your frame, and there’s less magnification which allows for longer shutter speeds before the stars in your shot begin to trail.

It’s not the end of the world if you’ve got a standard, all-purpose, kit lens that isn’t very fast. You’ll still get some decent Milky Way shots because you’ll be using long exposures and high ISO settings to maximize your camera’s sensitivity to light.

On the left we have the Rokinon/Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ($ 549) which costs a third of the price of the Canon 24 mm f/1.4 ($ 1549).

If you really get into shooting nightscapes you’ll be glad to learn that some of the most popular wide angle lenses for nigh photography are actually quite affordable.

Rokinon (AKA Samyang/Bower) offer two lenses that have something of a cult following among night shooters with their 14mm f/2.8 and their 24mm f/1.4 lenses. The build quality is atrocious but as long as you treat them with kid gloves (carefully), they usually perform well.

These are popular because they offer sharpness, speed, a wide field of view, and much less coma than other more costly lenses. Coma is the amount of elliptical aberration around stars in the corners of the frame. Some more expensive lenses, like the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8, have really bad coma on stars in the corner of the frame, which isn’t the end of the world, but it’s not ideal.

6 – Camera choice

With night photography you’ll be forced to use high ISO settings during your long exposures so it’s vital to have a camera that can operate at ISO 3200 and above, but more importantly still produce good image quality. No matter what camera you use, the image quality will take a major hit when you start to crank up the ISO numbers, that’s unavoidable.

Camera sensors have come a long way in the last couple of years so even if your camera isn’t top of the range you might be pleasantly surprised at the image quality of your high ISO images.

The Sony A7S has become something of a legend among astrophotographers but it isn’t cheap.

Some of the best performers of the last couple of years have been the Sony A7R, Nikon D810 and the absolutely brilliant Sony A7S, which is known for its amazing low light capability. These are all full frame cameras, and will deliver the best image quality as they typically offer better noise performance. But if you’re rocking a MFT (mirrorless four thirds) or APS-C sensor, don’t let that stop you from going out and getting some Milky Way action.

Don’t feel that you absolutely MUST have the most expensive gear. Work with what you’ve got, then upgrade when you become addicted, and can’t resist the temptation to splurge.

The one thing you’re going to really need your camera to have is a good Live View screen or an EVF (electronic viewfinder). You will use this to focus and compose your shots.

7 – You need a tripod

It’s dark, you’re going to be doing long exposures, and that means you have to use a tripod. Read my article on the reasons why a good tripod is essential for any kind of outdoor photography. For night photography a tripod is obligatory.

Shooting technique

Ok, you’ve planned everything right, The Milky Way is looming large above you, and you’ve framed up a lovely composition of it with some fascinating foreground object. It’s time to set up your camera for Milky Way shooting. Here’s where I start:

NOTE: For now you’ll want to turn off your in-camera noise reduction, as this will just slow down your test shots.

8 – Shoot in M (Milky Way Mode) and Shoot RAW

You want full control over every aspect of your shot so set your camera to Manual mode. This allows you to control the ISO, the shutter speed, the aperture and white balance. Always shoot in RAW.

9 – Use Live View or the EVF (if you have one)

This is where we’ll set our focus. Make sure you switch auto-focus OFF as we’ll be focusing manually. Before we do this you need to crank your ISO up to something like 5000 to make your sensor really sensitive to light.

10 – Set your focus on a star

Set your aperture to the widest, fastest setting it can achieve (smallest number such as f/2.8). This wide aperture will expose your sensor to the maximum amount of light.

Using your camera’s Live View or EVF, point it at the brightest star you can see until a small dot of light appears in the centre of your view. Zoom in (magnify the view NOT zoom the lens) so that you see that tiny little dot as large as possible. Now turn the focus wheel on your lens until the star becomes a sharp, tiny pin-point of light. Try turning the focus wheel passed that point until the star blurs again and you’ll have gone too far, so just back it up until you’re able to get the star as sharp and small as possible. Don’t rush this, take your time and get it right.

If your camera has a feature called Focus Peaking or Focus Assist, that can sometimes help you to determine perfect focus on a star. If you’re into calculating hyperfocal distance, you could do that too, but I prefer this method.

Whatever you do, don’t blindly set your focus to infinity by cranking your focus wheel until it reads Infinity (?), you’ll just end up with blurred images.

11 – Compose your shot

Now that you’ve focused your lens on the brightest star, it’s time to compose your shot. Use your headlamp to illuminate the scene so that you can see what you’re looking at in your Live View. If your camera has a digital level for perfect horizon lines use that – if not, you might want to invest in a bubble level for your hot shoe attachment.

Set your shutter speed to about 10 seconds (at ISO 5000 if you have it), and take a test shot. At this point all you’re doing are some rough test shots to get your composition sorted, so there’s no point in shooting a full 30 second exposure and waiting around while you take a whole bunch of test shots.

Once you’ve finished taking test shots and made your final tripod adjustments for the perfect composition, it’s time to dial in your camera settings.

13 – White Balance

When shooting The Milky Way I prefer to shoot with my White Balance set to Incandescent (aka Tungsten) which I believe is Sony’s version of Tungsten. I like the blue hue and it also displays a lot of contrast in my camera’s EVF so that I can clearly see The Milky Way. When I process my images later I often reset the White Balance back to Auto (AWB) mode for a more realistic neutral color temperature.

This RAW file was shot with Incandescent White Balance. You can see how it looks in Adobe Camera RAW when set to Auto.

I advise you to experiment with different WB settings to get the colour temperature you like best. Shooting with the Incandescent/Tungsten prest will almost always produce good, neutral results, which you can change later in Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW.

14 – Set your ISO

You used ISO 5000 for the test shots so that you could compose your shot quickly. But, for your actual Milky Way shot you want to use the lowest ISO setting you can get away with so dial it down to ISO 2000 and see if that gives you good results. You can always increase it to ISO 3200 after a few more test shots. I personally rarely go above ISO 3200 as my RAW files tend to degrade significantly at that point.

15 – Shutter speed versus ISO

From this point on you’re going to be juggling your shutter speed and ISO setting to get the most light sensitivity, while still having a shutter speed fast enough to avoid getting star trails. Star trails are great if you’re going for the that effect (read my star trails photography tutorial here) but even a very small star trail just results in a Milky Way shot that lacks clarity. That may just be okay for web images, but for prints you’ll want more sharpness.

Try to limit your shutter speed to a maximum of 15 seconds so that you can keep the stars in your image sharp and trail free.

As you can see, the 30 second exposure on the left has a motion trail on each star. The 15 second exposure on the right has sharper stars, although it is darker.

With a shutter speed of 15 seconds, take a look at your camera’s light meter reading. If it’s telling you that the image is overexposed you might be able to dial your ISO number down a bit, or shorten your shutter speed to 10 seconds.

Sometimes I like to overexpose the image and ignore my light meter reading entirely. When shooting the Milky Way I’m guided more by what I see in my test shots than what my light meter is telling me to do. With my Sony cameras I use Multi metering mode, for what it’s worth.

After your shot is complete and you’re reviewing it, be sure to zoom in and check the details.

16 – Try a 30 second exposure

I know I just said to keep your shutter speed to a maximum of 15 seonds but I always like to take an additional shot with a 30 second exposure to capture a much brighter Milky Way. I do this if I’m planning on publishing a web-only (low resolution) image because the slight star trail caused by the longer exposure won’t be very evident in a low-res web image. The stars will still look sharp enough but will have a much brighter appearance than a 15 second exposure. For prints, I’ll almost always use the 15 second exposure version for the extra sharpness.

In-camera Noise Reduction

Some cameras do a great job of processing and reducing noise reduction. But, this will double the amount of time it takes to complete your shot, so it’s always a good idea to switch this function off, at least temporarily. If you like the results of your in-camera noise reduction you can always switch this function back on once you’ve finished all of your test shots.

I personally prefer to do my own noise reduction in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop which gives me more control and allows me to shoot faster while on location.

Now it’s your turn

Okay, so now you know how to get gorgeous clear photos of The Milky Way. I hope you get some great results and have as much fun as I do when shooting this awe inspiring sight. If you’d like to learn how I process my Milky Way shots please post a request in the comments and if there’s enough interest I’d be delighted to share my techniques.

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The post How to do Milky Way Photography – A Comprehensive Tutorial by Gavin Hardcastle appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 31, 2015
5 Incredible Storm Photographers and Their Best Images
I’ve been a landscape and travel photographer for nearly six years now. While I will always love standing in front of an amazing landscape at sunset, nothing on earth can compare to the feeling I get when standing in front of a massive supercell with 40-50mph winds at my back, watching it twist and churn, as it tries to lower itself to the ground. It’s the most intense and pure mixture of awe, fear and respect for mother nature that I’ve been able to find to this day.

© James Brandon. Henrietta, TX Supercell

© James Brandon. Ranger, TX Supercell

I’m just now wrapping up my third season of chasing these incredible storms (you can check out some of my storm images above) and over the past three years I’ve been fortunate to meet some incredible chasers; some of whom are even better photographers. So here’s a collection of four of the best chaser photographers out there (along with a few of their best images). Be sure to check out their websites and links to see more of their amazing work!

Mike Mezeul II

Mike has become one of my best buds over the past few years, we even lead workshops around the world together now (you can find more info on that through the link to my site in my bio). He took me on my first chase and to this day I chase with him about 99% of the time. He’s been doing this stuff for upwards of 15 years now, and is just as good at putting us in position for a storm to develop, as he is at photographing them. In fact, the last time we chased we drove out to west Texas and he put us within 30 minutes of storm that exploded into a supercell.

Check out more of Mike’s work at his website and be sure to follow him on Instagram as well!

A storm chaser stands in front of an approaching supercell thunderstorm just north of Gillette, Wyoming in May of 2014. © Mike Mezeul II

“Ardmore Supercell” © Mike Mezeul II

“A tornadic supercell thunderstorm sweeps across the plains at sunset near Ardmore, Oklahoma.”

“Pink Mammatus” © Mike Mezeul II

“Mammatus clouds glow a vibrant pink over west Texas after severe weather rolled through the area.”

“Awakening” © Mike Mezeul II

“A cloud-to-ground lightning bolt strikes over Albany, Texas as the Milky Way shines above.”

Mike Olbinski

I’ve known Mike online for about the same time as I’ve been a professional photographer. We met back in the HDR Days, and I remember being amazed when he got into storm photography. Then, one of his images of a haboob decsending on Phoenix went absolutely viral overnight and he was officially on the map as a storm photographer. But that wasn’t it, he hit gold again a couple years later with his Booker, TX timelapse which you’ve likely seen on TV and even movies. Coincidently, I just met Mike in person for the first time a few weeks ago while out chasing in west Texas. He’s an incredibly nice dude and fantastic photographer. I’ll be joining him soon to photograph Monsoon season in his home state of Arizona. Can’t wait!

Check out Mike’s work at his website and on 500px and read his article here on dPS: How to Photograph Lightning – the Ultimate Guide

“Phoenix Haboob” © Mike Olbinski

“A gorgeous dust storm and low level clouds roll into downtown Phoenix on July 3rd, 2014. Always amazing to see a scene like this, but toss in a little sunset color and it blew my mind.”

“Storm of the Apocalypse” © Mike Olbinski

“A view of the Booker, Texas supercell which was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. You can see the crazy timelapse of this storm below.”

“Alanreed Supercell” © Mike Olbinski

“This storm earlier spawned a brief tornado near Groom, Texas. It moved to the east/northeast across the rolling farmlands…I caught up to it once again here just north of Alanreed. The hail core and structure was magnificent to behold.”

Marko Korosec

Marko is an incredibly talented photographer and chaser from Slovenia. I was turned on to his work through a friend, and when I began scrolling through his images on 500px, my jaw began to drop lower with every image. He seems to be on just about every major photogenic storm there is, and that’s a feat in and of itself. Capturing these storms as well as he does is a whole other feat. I haven’t met Marko in person yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we run into each other out on the road beneath a storm.

You can follow Mark on his website and 500px.

“Sunset Supercell ” © Marko Korosec

“Nicely striated supercell at colorful sunset near Bledsoe, New Mexico on May 29th, 2015″

“Electric Night” © Marko Korosec

“A lightning barrage during the cold frontal passage over the city of Trieste, Italy on October 14th, 2014.”

“Independence Day” © Marko Korosec

“Spaceship shaped supercell storm near Julesburg, Colorado on May 28th, 2013″

James Langford

I met James Langford out on the road during one of my first chases with Mike and have since run into him while chasing several times. James is just an all around nice dude. If he’s not chasing on his own, he’s usually “now-casting” (forecasting for a chaser from home) for someone who is. He’s got an incredible collection of storm images as well as some jaw-dropping time-lapses.

You can follow James at his website and Facebook.

“Perfect Symmetry” © James Langford

“This was captured in western Oklahoma. Experiencing the power and beauty of thunderstorms is something that is really hard to translate into images. This particular storm was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. It moved very slowly the whole time we photographed it, and the structure and colors were incredible.”

“The Beast” © James Langford

“Capture near Piedmont, Oklahoma, this incredible storm in Central Oklahoma had hail the size of grapefruits and a small tornado around the time this image was created. I’ve never seen structure and colors quite like this and it ranks as one of my favorite images of all time.”

Kelly DeLay

I met Kelly a couple of years ago through Mike Mezeul. He had a great 2015 season capturing both the Hico supercell and the twin tornadoes in Colorado that went pretty viral. You can view more of his work at his website Clouds365.com and his 500px page.

© Kelly DeLay. Hico, TX Supercell

“Visually, has to be one of my favorite storms ever. This was a very discreet storm and as you can see the rotation was quite evident. The hail core was quite impressive as well, producing baseball sized hail that knocked out a few storm chaser’s windshields.”

© Kelly DeLay. Sister tornadoes – Simla, Colorado

“My most favorite image of my career. I did describe it as a “shot of a lifetime”. For years I wanted to capture a discreet supercell (no other storms around) with a tornado underneath. I was very surprised to see not just one, but two tornadoes both spinning in the opposite direction.”

© Kelly DeLay. Belle Fourche, South Dakota

“The lightning field was so intense preceding the core, you would see a flash nearby and immediately hear a BOOM. Thats close! Feeling a little safer near Belle Forche, South Dakota I got out and captured a few shots. Again, all you would see is a quick flash. Amazed to look at the back of my screen to see this.”

For more storm photography see:
- 7 Things I’ve Learned from Photographing Storms
- How I Shot And Edited It – Stars, Storm and Basecamp, Nepal
- 33 Blustery Bad Weather Images
- How to Photograph Lightning – the Ultimate Guide
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The post 5 Incredible Storm Photographers and Their Best Images by James Brandon appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 30, 2015
The Secret to Great Photography Portfolio
If you’ve been around the photography world for a short time, you probably have at least a basic grasp of the technical skills. You know how to manipulate depth of field with aperture, where to focus in a portrait, and how to compensate your exposure for extremes in shadows and highlights. Even knowing things like that, you’ve probably stumbled across some incredible portfolios or magazine spreads and asked, “How did they do that?” Or even “What’s their secret?”

The secret to a great photography portfolio is simple. It isn’t even a secret at all, although it’s not often talked about in photography communities. Simply put, the secret is:

Master the technical skills until they’re automatic, then go out and endlessly make photographs, a lot of photographs. Only a handful should ever be shown to anyone.

Photography is easy; at least the technical side. Yes, that’s a quite a contentious statement, but I’m not the one who said it. It was David Bailey being interviewed by Rankin and answering the question, “What makes a good photographer?” His answer was:

“You can learn to take pictures in three months. You can learn to draw in three months, but only technically. It’s where you go from there.”

The critical point is that it’s not the technical skills that make good photography. They’re vital ingredients but it’s how they’re put together with your subject to create an end result that is most important.

Think of it like cake. If you’re digging in to a piece of cake and you actually notice any of the individual elements of eggs, flour, butter or sugar, something’s gone horribly wrong in the baking process.

What comes after the technical skills?

There are two elements to consider when thinking about what to do next:
- First, creating a lot of images and showing only a few.
- Secondly, giving your subject comprehensive coverage.
Create many, show few

In an article, that I read a few years back, a National Geographic photographer said that they use to go through 1500 rolls of film to create a single set of 10 to 20 images for an article.

To translate that, assuming they used 120 film in a 6×9 medium format camera; that yields eight frames per roll of film. That’s 12,000 photographs. Also assume that those photographers would have bracketed one or two stops on either side. (Bracketing is the practice of taking a normally exposed photograph, then taking two more – generally one overexposed, one underexposed. This was useful in the days of transparency film which offered very little in terms of exposure latitude.) That brings the number to 4000. Finally, say 50% of those weren’t good enough to show the editor.

That leaves 2000 photographs that most people would probably be more than happy to have taken. The final spread used about a dozen of the very, very best or 0.6% of all of the images taken.

To apply this concept to your own portfolio, you have to learn how to be ruthless. If it isn’t your very best, scrap it. It can be hard work, especially considering the emotional connections we, as photographers, have with our work, but if you can learn to turn that off then your portfolio will be better for it.

Comprehensive coverage

Back to dissecting National Geographic, my favourite article is one that covers the glamorous topic of caffeine. This one is a large spread and is made up of 23 photos.

Breaking it down: nine images are environmental portraits, six are classical reportage, six are still-lifes, and two are landscapes.

The set of photos also covers five countries and five US cities; all within 23 photos.

To cover every possible aspect associated with caffeine, the photographer for that piece documented several facets of the human element of the topic, from production workers, to scientists in labs, as well as the consumers. The landscape images in the article showed the environmental impact of caffeine.

Hopefully you’re starting to see what comprehensive means in this context. Of course, very few people have the kind of resources to approach a subject so thoroughly, but if you take the extra time to consider and follow through on other possible aspects of your subject matter, you may be surprised with the results.

Icing on the cake

To return to the cake metaphor: when you’re at a bakery, you only see the shop floor, with the well presented finished products. You don’t see the chefs slogging through hours of batter and hot ovens. You don’t see the logistics of bringing chefs and ingredients together in the right place. You just see cake.

Hopefully, you now have a little more insight on what may have gone on behind the scenes, albeit a simplified interpretation, when you look at a photo that you admire, and what steps you can take to push yourself in that direction.

Just remember: get the technical skills mastered and out of the way, then go wild.

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The post The Secret to Great Photography Portfolio by John McIntire appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 30, 2015