Category: Photography

Weekly Photography Challenge – Bad Weather
Earlier I shared some images by photographers who braved the elements to take some bad weather images.

Where there is adversity, often there is opportunity. When the weather takes a turn for the worse, don’t run for cover so fast. Look for photography subjects everywhere. Wet pavement, puddles, reflections, wind blowing the trees, evil looking storm clouds over the horizon – all can make for intriguing photographs.

By Ville Miettinen

By Riccardo Cuppini

By Triker-Sticks

Weekly photography challenge – bad weather

If you decide to take on this challenge, remember to take good care of your gear – water and electronics do not mix well. To get some ideas and tips for bad weather photography check out these dPS articles:
- 5 Reasons Why Bad Weather Days are the Best Times for Photography
- 7 Things To Do For Photographers When The Weather Is Bad
- Tips for Photographing in Different Weather Conditions
- 3 Tips to Take Better Landscape Photos Regardless of the Weather
By Takashi .M

By Kelly DeLay

By Luis Argerich

By Ferran Jordà

By Bo Insogna, TheLightningMan.com

By Pame Figueroa

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.

By runner310

By Yamanaka Tamaki

By Ferran Jordà

By Scott Butner

By Richard Walker

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

Digital Photography School
June 27, 2015
33 Blustery Bad Weather Images

When the weather turns wet and nasty, many photographers head for cover. But, if you are willing to tough it out, inclement weather is a great opportunity to capture some unique and fantastic images.

Here are some images by photographers who dared to brave the elements and got some bad weather images.

rain by Barbara Florczyk on 500px

The Accidental Tourist by Miles Morgan on 500px

Champagne supercell by Max Conrad on 500px

Black Umbrellas by Emin Zeynalov on 500px

Singing in the rain by luca eugeni on 500px

Averse Magnétique by Romain Matteï on 500px

Seedling by Ursula Abresch on 500px

Wet Leaves by Jessica Drossin on 500px

Barrage by Mike Olbinski on 500px

Fields by Sakis Pallas on 500px

Under The Rain by Mustafa ILHAN on 500px

Standing in the rain… by Sham Jolimie on 500px

Islands weather by Lucyna Koch on 500px

Last winter rain by Ivan Gevaerd on 500px

waiting for sunshine by Irca Caplikas on 500px

Manhattan Showers by Terry Donnelly on 500px

rainy day by Ferdi Doussier on 500px

TEARS OF CHARLES by Mr Friks on 500px

The place that stops the clock by Alessandro Cabras on 500px

Storm at Llancayo by Alan Coles on 500px

A new rainy day is coming by Dino Marsango on 500px

The Modern Force by Toby Harriman on 500px

Porthleven Storm by Lloyd W.A. Cosway [DEVONshots.com] on 500px

Hard Times 2 by Veselin Malinov on 500px

the storm by Reto Imhof on 500px

After Heavy Rain by Slim Letaief on 500px

b&w by Vladimir Gordeev on 500px

ra….!….n..!.ng . .day ..!. by bug eye on 500px

In the rain by Luu TrongDat on 500px

Rain by Kim Pennington on 500px

Viktorija by Igor Glavaš on 500px

1001 Nights by Tramont_ana on 500px

The wet wooden path by Hanson Mao on 500px

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The post 33 Blustery Bad Weather Images by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 26, 2015
Infographics 101: 10 Most Expensive Photographs in the World

The most expensive photograph in the world was sold at auction in 2007 and is worth a staggering €3.2 million. Titled “Rhein II” it was taken by Andreas Gursky in 1999. The image is digitally manipulated removing a factory building and dog walkers to leave the Rhine River flowing horizontally between fields under an overcast sky. The identity of the Continue Reading

The post Infographics 101: 10 Most Expensive Photographs in the World appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

June 26, 2015
Take this Picture of the Day Project to Practice and Help You Grow as a Photographer
Sunset on Long Beach Island (NJ)

I watched the future football Hall of Fame quarterbacks practicing on the sidelines just before the Super Bowl. Although they had thrown the football perhaps millions of times before, they were practicing their throwing before the big game. They believe in the old (but true) saying, “Practice makes perfect.”

It’s important for us as photographers to continually practice our skills as well. Although we may have pressed the shutter button a million times, we need to be sure that we are always “ready for the big game”. Like the Super Bowl quarterbacks, it is important that we keep practicing our skills; whether we are professionals, aspiring professionals, or enthusiasts.

Why Practice?

Old Barney lighthouse in Barnegat Light, NJ

Although practice does not make perfect (we can practice doing things the wrong way), it does make our techniques more natural, and more permanent. For example, using back-button focus on my camera the first time seemed strange to me, but after practicing it over and over, it become an automatic technique that I use without even thinking about it. It’s a challenge to try turning off your brightly lit LED display on your camera once the theatre is darkened, but with practice it’s an automatic, and easy process.

Practice not only gives us a chance to make our shooting techniques more automatic, it gives us a chance to try new techniques. Practice gives us an opportunity to learn new poses, try a new lenses, or try a new post-processing technique to enhance our photographs before we use them in a client shoot. As a photographer, learning never stops; practice is a good way to try out things with no pressure or fear of failure.

Maybe I’ll Practice Tomorrow

Unless we are full time photographers or we have the luxury of having the time to shoot whenever we want, finding time to practice can be a challenge. Life is busy; there are so many things that need to be done that we are sometimes tempted to say, “Maybe I’ll practice tomorrow.” Sometime we need motivation to force us to make the effort, despite other things that may get in the way, to practice our photography techniques.

Picture of the Day

If someone asked me what the biggest thing was that has helped me to improve my photography skills, I would have to say that it was my commitment to what I call the Picture of the Day. A little more than a year ago I started trading photographs that I took with my sister who is a photography enthusiast. Very quickly that practice spread to other family members and friends. Today, I send a new photograph to more than a hundred people every morning. The list continues to grow. But it’s not the number of people that receive the Picture of the Day that is the motivator, it’s the commitment to taking, and sending the picture, that benefits me as a photographer.

Even though my photography business focuses mainly on people (weddings, portraits and events); my Picture of the Day photos may include people, animals, architecture and landscapes. People that receive my Picture of the Day have commented that opening my morning email is like opening a box of chocolates because “you never know what you’re going to get”. Sometimes my pictures are not meant to be works of art, but rather just funny, like the shot of my dog Clyde (above), sitting by the dinner table with his sunglasses on, waiting for dinner. The zoo is always a great place to take pictures, so I make that part of my list of places to shoot.

Jaguar at the Elmwood Park Zoo (Norristown, PA)

Admittedly, I shoot most days, but not every day. I make time during the week to practice shooting; I am committed to take that time despite everything else. I have my camera with me most of the time, and many of my shots are unplanned. I stockpile the shots so that I always have a reserve of pictures to use for my morning emails.

How has the Picture of the Day Helped Me?

My commitment to the Picture of the Day has helped me to grow as a photographer more than anything, including the following:

Four month old lion cubs with mom (Philadelphia Zoo)
- Knowing that I need a new picture every day motivates me to get out and shoot, even if I am not shooting the things that my business is focused on.
- Knowing that my Picture of the Day needs to be different than all of those that I previously sent out, motivates me to try new techniques and to look at things more creatively. That has helped me to start thinking out-of-the-box and has greatly expanded my composure skills for when I am shooting weddings or portraits for clients.
- Shooting for the Picture of the Day has given me the opportunity to try and to practice with new lenses and filters, so that when the time comes to use them in a business shoot, I am ready.
- My Picture of the Day has enabled my business to grow, as people that receive my email every morning are reminded that I am in the photography business. I can’t think of a more effective, less costly marketing tool.
- Lastly, shooting for my Picture of the Day has been just plain fun!!!
Make the Commitment Today

Nina and Pinta replicas at visit to Viking Village (Barnegat Light, NJ)

If you are not just a picture snapper, but rather, serious about photography – make the commitment to start your own Picture of the Day project today. Like mine, it can start small and grow over time (I had only one person on my list initially.) I sometimes post my Picture of the Day on my personal Facebook page which adds more visibility to my work. This visibility also adds to my list of people that subscribe to my Picture of the Day.

How do you practice your photography?

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The post Take this Picture of the Day Project to Practice and Help You Grow as a Photographer by Frank Slezak appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 26, 2015
Photographing in Crowded Locations – 5 Tips to Avoid the Masses

Travel photography is certainly one of the most rewarding experiences you, as an image-maker, can have. You get to combine visiting amazing places, learning about other cultures, and, of course, your passion for taking photos, all at once.

Piazza San Marco and Doge’s Palace with San Giorgio Maggiore behind – Venice, Italy

However, certain famous locations, or populated cities can be frustrating. You arrive there to find out they are always crowded with visitors and tourists, making it almost impossible to shoot clean photos without intrusions. Granted, locations like these have been photographed millions of times by somebody else before, but I know you can’t consider it your very own until you’ve pressed that shutter button. Here are some suggestions to avoid becoming disgruntled and frustrated in crowded locations, so you can return home from your next trip with memorable images.

1) Shoot up

A good way to avoid the masses is to photograph above their heads. Pointing your camera up makes an interesting and different angle. There are plenty of subjects, and architectural elements, that can be easily recognized when shooting this way. Landmarks such as national buildings, memorials, or iconic temples, just to name a few, are ideally suited for this as they can be effortlessly recognized by your viewer without showing them in their entirety.

Detail view of Wat Arun, a popular Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand

2) Shoot details and close-ups

Get closer and make details stand out. One the best themes to try this one on is food. Epicurean photos are often used in travel publications to illustrate local customs and traditions. This is easy, as you can just aim your camera straight and click. You can photograph your own food during meals, or walk into a market and search for interesting colors and textures. You can also try close-ups on reflective surfaces, like windows, or water reflections in the streets. The idea is to concentrate on small details that can also help to tell your story.

Vegetables in Hanoi

3) Go early

Beat the crowds by getting there right at dawn. This is not for everybody – but no pain, no gain. The quality of the morning light, and beautiful sunrises, are the main reasons why most landscape and nature photographers love to work at this time of the day. But you’ll also find that in popular destinations, most of the tourists are sleeping, so this is your opportunity to find empty streets. Go out and take photos early, while nobody is there, then get back to your hotel and catch up with breakfast.

4) Go late

If you are not a morning person, you still have chances to take great photos. Surely this works the opposite of going early, but in most cases, you’ll find empty quarters as well late in the day. You can take advantage of strolling around well past dinnertime and shoot the sought-after spaces with nobody in sight. Better yet, do like the pros and photograph both instances for better results, and more options for better pictures.

Riga Freedom Monument, Latvia

5) Photograph the people

If nothing else works out, you can just photograph the people. After all, what better way to show sense of place than documenting the locals, or even the flocks of tourist enjoying their thing? You see, it’s okay to try to avoid conglomeration, but in some instances it just can’t happen, or simply won’t reflect the true spirit of the destination.

Corner Street in Hanoi

Needless to say, there are several other ways to address the matter. You are more than welcome to share in the comments below your photos and experiences in similar situations, and what you find works best for you.

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The post Photographing in Crowded Locations – 5 Tips to Avoid the Masses by Daniel Korzeniewski appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 25, 2015
One Speedlight Portrait Lighting Tutorial

If you’ve ever wondered how to improve the look of your portraits using only one speedlight, then make sure you read every single word on this page. It isn’t so much the type or quality of the speedlight you are using; it is more about how you modify and shape the light, that will help you to improve the overall look of your portraits.

Let’s break speedlight portrait lighting down into three simple action steps that are easy for you to follow:

Step 1: Get the speedlight off-camera

Start by first getting your speedlight off of your camera. In order to trigger your strobe once it is off of your camera, you will need a remote trigger such as a Cactus V6 that I am using in the video below. You can also use a Pocket Wizard or any number of different triggers that are available on the market. The key is to be able to remotely fire your speedlight, so you are free to modify, and position your light source for more flattering results.

Check out the video below for a video demonstration of a one light, speedlight beauty lighting set up.

Step 2: Add a light modifier

Next step is to increase the size of your light source by using a speedlight modifier. The key to improving the quality of the light is this; the larger the light source and the closer the light is to your subject, the softer the light will appear. As a general guideline for a starting position, I suggest you put your light roughly the same distance as its diameter from your subject.

For example if your speedlight modifier is three feet (36″) in diameter (or 91cm), you can start by placing your modifier the same distance from your subject. In the image above I placed my light in the butterfly lighting position and used a white reflector for fill. This type of lighting is often referred to as ClamShell lighting or Beauty lighting.

Step 3: Place your focus on the subject

Once you have your lighting in place, shift your focus to making a connection with the person you are photographing. Pay close attention to the pose and the expression; tests have shown that 60% of people look more attractive from their left side. So make sure you experiment with your subject to find their most flattering side right at the beginning of the portrait session. You can ask them if they have a side they prefer, or you can make a guess based on where they part their hair.

Once you have that figured out, focus on capturing an expression that makes them appear confident in from of the camera. You can have the best lighting in the world ,but if you don’t nail the right expression, you will miss the shot. Look for the position of their eyes and mouth, confidence is portrayed from the eyes and it is something that can make or break a shot.

Any article about photography isn’t complete unless we talk about the gear used to create the shots. The first image in this series was shot on the Canon 5D MK III with the Canon 100mm Macro lens at ISO 100, f/5.6 and shutter speed 1/160th. The reason you should use a shutter speed of 1/160th on the Canon 5D MK III is to stay within the flash sync-speed. If you shoot at a shutter speed of 1/200th, or faster, you may see a black line in your image because are shooting at a faster shutter speed than your camera can handle when using flash.

Lighting diagram showing the setup for these images.

The other two images in this series were both shot on the Canon 5D MK III with the Canon 135mm f/2 lens. Both lenses are tack sharp and are great portrait lenses but if you prefer a better bokeh, then I would choose the Canon 135mm f/2. The reason is that the lowest aperture is f/2, and the longer focal length of 135mm will give you a more out of focus background when shot at f/2.

If you have any questions about the video or article above, I would be more than happy to answer them for you. Just post your questions in the comment section below.

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The post One Speedlight Portrait Lighting Tutorial by Craig Beckta appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 25, 2015
Tips for Getting Proper Exposure for Night Photography
Exposure settings for this shot: Shutter speed of 4 seconds; aperture at f/5.6; ISO 400.

Night photography can be much more rewarding than photography during the day. Because everything looks different at night, you don’t need to go somewhere exotic to get great pictures. Bridges, attractions, and buildings are usually brightly lit at night, and places that might seem rather pedestrian during the day – can make stellar photography subjects at night. Further, you can take your time when photographing at night, more so than during the day. There are generally less people out, and you don’t have to worry about the light changing.

The main challenge when photographing at night is getting a proper exposure. During the day, you can just walk around and hand hold your camera without worrying about camera shake. In addition, because of the amount of available light during the day, you don’t need to worry about shooting at a high ISO and the resulting digital noise. At night, however, hand holding is generally not an option and digital noise can be a major problem.

The principles of exposure work the same way at night as during the day – you will just need a lot more time to allow light into your camera. It goes without saying that you will need a tripod to stabilize your camera, and a remote shutter release to keep from moving anything during the exposure. But with these changes made, you can get out and explore the night with your camera. When you do, here are some tips to keep in mind to help you maximize the experience.

Exposure settings for this shot: Shutter speed of 4 seconds; aperture at f/11; ISO 400.

# 1. Work in Manual Mode

The first tip is to make sure you are shooting in Manual mode. In Manual mode, you will set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. This puts you in complete control over you camera.

When shooting at night, your camera will be on a tripod and you will be working slowly. There is no need to use any automatic mode because of the speed provided. Further, there might be a little trial and error with the exposure settings (the camera can be easily fooled by the great differences in bright and dark areas of the picture) and you want to make sure you have plenty of control over this process. Manual mode gives you that control.

#2. Make sure you are comfortable with Bulb Mode

Manual mode only works for exposures up to 30 seconds. If you need a shutter speed that is longer than 30 seconds, the only option for getting a proper exposure is Bulb mode. Therefore, while you should generally shoot in Manual mode, you should also be comfortable with Bulb.

In Bulb mode, the shutter stays open as long as you hold the shutter button down. When you press the button, the shutter opens. When you release the button, the shutter closes. To avoid introducing any shake or movement into the exposure, using a remote shutter release is imperative when using this mode.

With Bulb mode you can make your exposure several minutes long. If your remote shutter release does not have a timer built-in to it, make sure you keep another timer handy (your phone may have one). If your remote does not have a timer, make sure it has a locking feature so you do not have to hold it the entire time.

Exposure settings for this shot: Shutter speed of 6 seconds; aperture at f/5.6; ISO 1600.

#3. Shoot in Raw

When shooting at night, it is particularly important to make sure you are shooting in Raw format. The Raw files coming out of most cameras are 14 bit files, whereas JPEGS are only 8 bit files. The more bits, the higher the range of available colors and the smoother the transitions between them.

The reason shooting in Raw is even more important at night, is that most of the colors that a camera can capture are at the top (bright) end of the scale. The range of available colors at the low (dark) end of the scale is extremely limited. At night, your pictures will almost always include a large dark portion. A JPEG file, with its reduced color options, you will likely introduce banding in your pictures.

#4. Bring a flashlight

Knowing your camera controls really well pays dividends at night. You can make changes to the settings without being able to see everything. Nevertheless, a small flashlight is tremendously useful. Keep one handy to make sure you can see everything on your camera and tripod. It occasionally comes in handy for lighting areas of your picture as well.

Exposure settings for this shot: Shutter speed of 10 seconds; aperture at f/9.0; ISO 200.

#5. Choose proper settings

Proper settings will always depend on the situation. Nevertheless, there are some ways you should bias your settings when shooting at night. Here are a few:
- Aperture: Open up your aperture more at night than you would during the day (i.e., use a lower f/number). Most night photographs tend to be of shots on a narrower plane than shots during the day. Further, the background and sky will be black anyway and you will not need as large a depth of field. The larger aperture also has the benefit of letting more light into the camera.
- ISO: Keep your ISO setting as low as you can. Night photography always means there will be dark areas in your pictures, and these dark areas inevitably lead to digital noise. Raising the ISO will compound the problem.
- Shutter speed: Whereas shutter speed might be the first exposure setting you worry about during the day, it should generally be the last one you think about at night. Since you will be shooting from a tripod, you can let the shutter stay open as long as you need. If you have traffic (streaking lights), a fountain, or running water in your picture, the longer shutter speed will actually benefit your pictures anyway. The only exception is high winds, or other instability impacting your rig.
One other setting to check is the Long Exposure Noise Reduction, which will be in your camera’s menu. If you enable this option, the camera will make two exposures, one normal and one with the shutter closed, which the camera will use as a comparison to filter out noise from the normal picture. Photos taken with this option enabled will take twice as long to expose, but will be less noisy.

#6. Meter for the highlights

Determining the proper exposure level can be tricky at night. Each metering mode presents its own challenges. If you use evaluative metering, the camera is likely to be confused. If you use spot or partial metering, the meter will jump around depending upon whether you are aimed at a bright light or the dark background.

One answer to this problem is to use spot metering and to expose for the highlights. Set your meter between +1 and +2 as you meter on the highlights. The +1 -2 setting will keep your highlights looking bright, but at the same time, will keep the highlights within the dynamic range of the camera. Do not worry as much about the dark portions of the picture. If the dark areas happen to turn black, well, it is nighttime after all, and there is supposed to be some black. Take a test shot and adjust as necessary.

Exposure settings for this shot: Shutter speed of 5 seconds; aperture at f/16; ISO 400.

#7. Take a test shot at a high ISO

Speaking of test shots, you should make liberal use of them when shooting at night. However, you don’t want to sit around for 30 seconds, a minute, or even longer, waiting to see if the test shot is going to work out. The best way to get a test, without wasting a lot of time doing so, is to take tone at a much higher ISO than you would ordinarily use.

For example, let’s say you think the proper exposure settings for a given shot are: 30 seconds at f/5.6 with an ISO of 400. Rather than taking that shot and waiting around 30 seconds for the exposure, crank up the ISO and speed up the shutter speed by the same number of stops. The exposure level will be the same, but it will take a lot less time to expose the test picture. In this case, I would raise the ISO by four stops to ISO 6400 (raising it one stop to moves it to ISO 800, one stops increases it to ISO 1600, three stops to ISO 3200, and four stops gets you to ISO 6400). That allows you to reduce your shutter speed by four stops to only 2 seconds (reducing the shutter speed by one stop shortens it to 15 seconds, two stops shortens it to 8 seconds, three stops to 4 seconds, and four stops gets the shutter speed down to 2 seconds).

When you are satisfied with your exposure, just decrease the ISO and increase (lengthen) the shutter speed by an equal amount to get back to the final settings.

#8. Bracket your photos

Night photography is one area where you will want to bracket your photos. Blending and HDR can work wonders at night, but even if you are against such processing, bracket your photos anyway. Think of it as exposure insurance.

Exposure settings for this shot: Shutter speed of 30 seconds; aperture at f/11; ISO 200.

#9. Verify the exposure with the Histogram

After you have taken your exposures, check them on the LCD on the back of your camera. The picture on the LCD will show you if the exposure is close to correct, but it is better to also check the histogram to make sure the exposure is within the dynamic range of your camera. Remember to keep the highlights on the right side of the histogram, but avoid a spike on the far right. If the dark areas spike on the left side the histogram, that is okay since parts of your picture are supposed to be black. In general, however, keep as much of the image as possible within the range of the histogram, but err on the side of keeping the highlights from blowing out.

Exposing at Night

If you are not totally comfortable with exposure, then doing some night photography will get you there in a hurry. You will have your camera on a tripod in unchanging light, so you can take as much time as you need to think through the exposure, and get it right. You’ll be forced to take into account the highlights and shadows when you meter, then study them on your histogram. Taking test shots, and making adjustments, will help you see the interrelationships between the exposure controls.

When you follow these steps, you are likely to get some great shots. Every city lights up its major attractions, bridges, and museums – often in colorful ways. A scene that might be boring during the day could be a great photo at night. Often, because of the effects of the lights, you’ll actually be surprised at what you end up with. Taking your time and applying these tips to nail the exposure will help you maximize the experience.

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The post Tips for Getting Proper Exposure for Night Photography by Jim Hamel appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 24, 2015
7 Shades of Effective Boudoir Photography Marketing (18+)

Despite an emerging popularity of boudoir photography, there’s often certain confusion and misinterpretation surrounding this division of the photographic services causing many photographers to avoid it and thus, lose quite a profitable source of income. This post is going to help you define the specific nature of boudoir photography and suggest some best practices of boudoir photography marketing. The specifics Continue Reading

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Photodoto

June 24, 2015
How to Simulate Tilt-Shift Lens Effects Using Lightroom

We’ve all at one point been enamoured by the effects produced by tilt-shift or PC (perspective control) lenses.

Even in wide-angle shots, the extremely narrow field of focus transforms the scene into a surreal miniature world. It can be hard to decipher whether it’s actually a close-up of a tiny model scene, or the result of the visual trickery that a tilt-shift lens can produce.

The tilt-shift effect can be used on more than city street scenes. Use your imagination and be creative!

Besides the nifty miniaturization effect, these high-end specialty lenses are imperative for professional architectural photography. Tilt-shift lenses are basically split into two, parallel to the lens, elements and enable you to tilt the front of the lens barrel in relation to the rear portion, or slide it parallel.

Without actually changing the physical location of the camera, these adjustments allow you to alter the perceived perspective. The most practical application of this effect is to eliminate certain types of distortion, especially the keystone effect.

The keystone effect refers to the convergence of parallel lines which occurs when a camera’s sensor is not parallel to them. You have seen this distortion a million times when the camera was pointed upward at a tall building. It looks as if the building is about to fall over backwards, and it creates the illusion that it is wider at the bottom and continually narrows to the top. The same thing happens with horizontal lines but is often less noticeable, or detrimental to the image.

Although tilt-shift lenses have other practical uses, these are the two that can be replicated effectively in post-processing: creating a miniature effect, and fixing certain kinds of lens distortion.

Eliminating Converging Lines Distortion

Correcting lens distortion in Lightroom (LR) is fairly straightforward with a couple of considerations to keep in mind. I’ll use a night shot of the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as an example.

1. Straighten first.

If the image you are working with has a distinct horizontal or vertical line which you know to be level or plumb, use the Straighten tool located within the Crop tool (keyboard shortcut R) to align the image before making any lens corrections.

The Level tool can be found within the Crop panel beside the Align slider, or activated by holding CTRL key.

To align the image using a vertical line, it must be near the center of the image due to the distortion which you are about to fix. With the Crop tool active, you can either grab the Level tool located beside the Angle slider, or hold down the CTRL key and drag the cursor along the chosen line and LR will rotate the image to level or plumb.

Note: new in LR6 or LRCC is the Auto function of the crop tool which attempts to do this for you. Alternatively, the Rotate slider in Lens Corrections can be used with similar results.

2. Open the Lens Corrections panel and click on the Manual tab.

Distortion corrections are made in the Lens Corrections panel.

3. Check the Constrain Crop box.

Note: As is often the case in life, you don’t get something for nothing. When LR manipulates the image to fix these lines, it must also crop it. You can also crop it manually after you adjust the image, but it is easy to inadvertently leave a little gray strip somewhere along the edge of your image by not cropping it enough.

4. Adjust the sliders

There are several ways to adjust sliders: dragging the slider itself, clicking the name of the slider and using the +/- keys, clicking the value on the right of the slider and dragging the cursor left or right, clicking the value and entering the desire value or clicking the value and using the arrow keys to make micro adjustments. I recommend the latter for accuracy.

5. Show the grid

Hovering the mouse over any of the sliders will show a grid over the image to help guide your adjustment. For this image, a -18 compensation straightens the lines right up.

A before and after showing corrections for converging lines.

If you plan on shooting architecture and utilizing this feature instead of dropping $ 1,400 on a tilt-shift lens, it may benefit you to activate the crop tool (keyboard shortcut R) to get an idea of how much LR cropped your image. This will give you a point of reference while composing scenes in the future.

Creating a Miniaturization Effect

The tilt-shift effect of severely softening most of an image to isolate a small sharp strip can be simulated in post-processing very effectively. Although there are a couple of different ways to achieve this effect in Lightroom, I find the following to be the easiest and most effective.

The tilt-shift effect can add another level of interest to certain photographs.

Keep in mind that not every photo is a good candidate for this effect. You can find good advice about image selection in the article An Introduction to Tilt-Shift Photography.

1. Process the image as you normally would.

Boosting sharpening, contrast and saturation can help exaggerate the effect.

2. Activate and setup the Adjustment Brush (keyboard shortcut K).

Drag the Sharpening slider all the way down to -100. I also like to reduce Clarity which adds a bit of glow and exacerbates the effect.

3. Show the Mask Overlay box (keyboard shortcut O)

This will allow you to clearly see where the effect is being applied (shift+O will rotate through different mask colors, you may find red is better one image whereas green may work on another).

5. Adjust the brush settings

Setup such things as brush size, flow, etc. Spend a few minutes experimenting with different combinations of these settings to find what works best for your image. CTRL+Z (CMD+Z on Mac) is your friend here.

6. Blur most of the image less a small strip

Holding down the shift key while you click and drag the brush horizontally across your image will apply the effect in a straight line. The goal is to blur the entire image except for a small strip. Make one line across the upper boundary and one line across the lower boundary of the strip you wish to isolate. You can then release the shift key and paint in the remainder of the areas. The in focus strip should account for 20 per cent or less of the image area. If the strip is too big, the effect will be weak.

Holding down the shift key will keep the brush level to paint a straight line.

7. Repeat to increase the effect.

Repeating the previous step several times will compound the effect. To repeat the step, click on New at the top of the Adjustment Brush panel – this will remove the mask to reveal the most recently applied effects, and allow you to add a new pin (brush strokes) and repeat the process.

Before applying the effect to a photo of Penang, Malaysia.

After application of the miniaturization effect.

The effect can also be applied using the Graduated Filter tool but I find it ends up blurring the entire image to some extent and is less effective.

This is a starting point from which to experiment with the effect. Everybody’s tastes differ, so although the general process will remain constant, go crazy with the other variables and see what happens!

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The post How to Simulate Tilt-Shift Lens Effects Using Lightroom by Jeremie Schatz appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 24, 2015
How to Avoid Loss of Your Digital Photos
By Mariam S

Nowadays almost all photos are taken using various digital devices. In the era of paper photos, the main photo destructors were natural disasters like fires, and also such a phenomenon as discolouration. Modern digital photos face mainly the same dangers – fires, floods, and so on. Surprisingly, digital photos also have some equivalent to discoloration – degradation of a photo storage device over time. However, apart from these dangers inherited from paper predecessors, digital photos are subject to new specific dangers, for example: loss of photos due to a storage device failure. Let’s discuss in more detail what dangers digital photos might face and how you can avoid many of them.

Generally speaking, there are three bottlenecks where you can lose photos – when taking photos, when transferring them, and in storage.

#1 Loss of photos in camera

Immediately after you have taken a photo there is only a single copy of it. If this copy is lost, you can in no way get it back. In all fairness, such cases are relatively rare. Even if data recovery software doesn’t help, as a last resort you can send a memory card to a repair lab in the hope that the hardware specialists can help. However, if it fails, all you have left to do is to say “goodbye” to the photos because there was only a single copy of them.

For example, you shoot a football match and then on the way home lightning hits your camera and all that was left was a pile of ashes. This is what contracts call “force majeure” and therefore nothing can be done. However, history has some funny stories. A man had dropped a camera into the sea; a year later some divers raised it and surprisingly the photos were readable. Divers were even able to identify a camera owner by the photos and then returned him his “property” (read the full story here).

Tips

Here, there is little advice for you because surely you know better how not to drop the ball, say due to a camera failure or something like that, when shooting a unique event.

There are some tips on memory card health that will help though:
- How to Spring Clean Your Memory Cards
- The Best Way to Delete Photos From Your Memory Card
Also remember to turn off your camera before removing or changing your memory card or battery. Not doing so can result in a card crash and lost images.

#2 Transferring photos

The process of transferring digital photos from your camera to computer is akin to producing paper photos from the negative. In both cases you duplicate photos from a single copy you have, whether it would be a negative from an old camera, or a flash card in a modern digital device.

In the film days, the process of transferring photos to new data storage was laborious, took a lot of time, and required certain skills and equipment; with digital photos the process becomes radically simplified. However, strange as it may be, nowadays the chance of losing photos during transfer is still significant.

Earlier, when developing film you had to stick to certain rules. Ignoring these rules inevitably resulted in destruction of photos. For example, one such rule says that all actions with negatives must be performed in a darkroom. In case of digital photos there are also some rules, however, people tend not to follow them because ignoring them doesn’t always lead to loss of photos. Those “less fortunate” people who neglected the rules and lost their photos, then have to bother with photo recovery.

Let’s look at the rules:
- Always use the “safely remove hardware” option when ejecting a memory card or any other removable device from a computer. Otherwise, the operating system may not have time to handle data on the removable device properly. That sometimes can lead to the RAW file system issue, the typical symptom of which is when Windows shows you the message like this:
- Don’t eject a memory card from a working camera, for the same reasons as in the previous case.
- Always monitor the battery charge. If battery runs low at the wrong time, it may result in a file-system failure on the memory card. Generally, it is better to use a card reader device for transfers since it has no such problems.
- Transfer photos regularly. By doing so, in the worst-case scenario would be that you lose only you’re latest photos, rather than an archive for the entire year.
However, it should be noted that all listed above typically don’t destroy photos themselves. It just leads to a file-system failure which is pretty well cured by data recovery software, given that you have not formatted a card.

#3 Storage

In general, loss of data in storage is bad form. Immediately after taking pictures you have just one chance to copy them, and you still can write data loss off to an “irresistible force of nature”, for example. Once you have enough time to create a copy of the photos, however, data loss is less excusable.

By Charles Wiriawan

Do not trust only one storage technology

Do not rely upon only one storage technology, even if you think it is very reliable. No data storage technology, be it a fault-tolerant RAID or modern Storage Spaces from Microsoft, can replace a good old backup. More than that, a proper backup procedure requires an off-site copy, maintained in some physically separate location. This is to prevent simultaneous loss of both original,
and backup copies to a fire or theft.

Tips
- Off-the-shelf NAS devices like Synology and QNAP have several indicators that can be green, yellow, and red. These indicators significantly simplify monitoring of the device “health” – just remember what typical indications are, then glance at the NAS at least once a day. Extinguished or red lights are a reason for concern.
- If you store photos on a Windows PC, use special software to monitor your disk state. S.M.A.R.T. is a technology used in hard drive self-diagnostics. Fairly often, it can predict hard drive failure ahead of time. A monitoring tool requests S.M.A.R.T. status of the device periodically and if S.M.A.R.T. data deviates from the normal values, the tool will alarm you so that you can back up the data.
- Check the S.M.A.R.T. state of your hard drives at least once a month.
Photo recovery tips

If you have lost some photos and are looking for a way to recover them, there is no need to panic because photo recovery from a camera memory card is one of the easiest, and well-established data recovery tasks. All you need is to download and install any data recovery software – there exist both paid and free options – select a memory card from the device list, and see what it brings up.

If you are not satisfied with the quality of the recovery, it makes sense to try several tools since recovery algorithms used in various software may differ in some way. Note that data recovery tools, for the most part, are read-only so they will not destroy anything on your card. Windows CHKDSK is the significant exception to this rule – it sometimes does make matters worse.

Below are some tips on how to achieve the best result when recovering photos from a memory card:
- Stop using a card once you see that something is wrong. If the camera’s behaviour is unusual, stop taking any new photos until you clear up the situation with the existing photos.
- If possible, use a card reader device when recovering data. It is stable and provides better performance than a cord and direct connection to the camera.
  
  By Matthew
- Do not take new photos once you realize that you need to recover data. Usually, with each new photo you lose a capability to recover one previously deleted photo.
- Ascertain in advance what your camera actually does when you format a card. If the camera uses a “complete” (also called low-level) format by default, change it to a “quick” format. Thereby, if you format a card accidentally you still can recover photos from it; after a complete format, all the data will be overwritten and not recoverable.
Bonus – discolouration

In early days, when archives were stored on magnetic tape, it was critical that the tapes must be rewound regularly. Otherwise, the data became unreadable because magnetic fields mixed between adjacent layers of tape (what was then known as crosstalk effect).

Some place the photos on CDs and then do not check them for years. In five years one can easily find that at best only half of the CDs are readable. CDs are not suitable for long-term storage and should only be considered as one of the backup options for a short period of time.

Those who keep their photos on old hard disks, in ten years will not be able to find a proper connector anywhere else except in a museum. If you are going to store photos for a long time you should use the most modern devices to increase the chances of find a compatible setup in the future. This is sometimes called “future-proofing”. However, you should not bet on the ultramodern technologies since it may happen that the technology does not stick and therefore, say in five years, you will not be able to find compatible components (think beta versus VHS).

By Sophia Maria

Generally speaking, digital discolouration differs from analog (paper) discolouration, only in that you can discern at least something on a discoloured paper photo, while a digital picture is destroyed immediately and completely.

So some care and planning on your part can help you avoid losing your images, or in the worst-case scenario, quickly able to recover them. What’s your disaster avoidance plan?

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The post How to Avoid Loss of Your Digital Photos by Alexey Gubin appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 24, 2015