We're remodeling two bathrooms, and as part of a barter deal with the contractor I am doing a series of before and after photos. I'll post more about that later, but I just wanted to drop something in quickly about the lighting on the detail shots I was doing today.
It's a quick-and-dirty, two-light setup and the effect is almost like a charcoal drawing—sort of 2-D and 3-D at the same time. And try as I might, it's pretty hard to mess this up.
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Strobist
Having a big family get together and want to capture the moment? Just had a baby and want to get some family shots together? Is your child off to university and you want a family shot before your kids fly the nest? Families are important, and one thing you won’t want to do is look back in a few years’ Continue Reading
The post Family Photography: the Value of Professional Photography Over Amateur appeared first on Photodoto.
If your lighting gear includes sync cords, power cables and/or extension cords, this could happen to you. Don't laugh, pictured is my actual Ancient Sync Cord Burial Ground from the past 20+ years.
But over that time I have also gotten a lot better at dealing with cords, and picked up a few cool tips along the way. Keep reading for my favorite five.
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Strobist
Is it worth to watermark your photos? This is the question every photographer asks himself before sharing photos online. Visual watermarks protect your ownership and copyright from online theft. Photographers use watermarks for self-promotion, recognition and advertising purposes. All photographs you share online should be attractive and cohesive. Watermarks (like large stamps or long texts) carelessly placed, distract from the Continue Reading
The post How to Unobtrusively Blend a Watermark Into Your Photos appeared first on Photodoto.
Last week we let you know about our brand new Trick Photography eBook with a 25% discount for early birds.
Whilst only a week old, this eBook is already inspiring thousands of people to charge out of their creative comfort zone, knowing they have one of the best in the business by their side.
Given the popularity of this ebook in such a short time, we’re going to up the ante a little more …
On top of the tidy 25% discount you already get, order in the next two weeks and you’ll also go into the draw to win a new DLSR or a new lens to the value of $ 1,500 USD!
The winner can choose either a new DLSR or combination of lenses to suit their needs up to the value of $ 1500 USD.
The winner can choose to spend their $ 1500 USD on a single camera or lens. Alternatively they might choose to buy 2-3 lenses (as long as the total does not exceed $ 1500 USD).
So, Canon owners can choose Canon mount lenses. Nikon owners can choose Nikon mount lenses. Micro 4/3 camera owners can choose lenses to suit their cameras.
Based upon previous competitions I know we’ll get a number of questions on this so here’s some FAQs:
Buy Photo Magic before Tuesday 11th June and you get:
To enter, simply buy Photo Magic before midnight on Tuesday 11th June (Eastern US time). We’ll draw the winner that evening and notify them of their win and then publish their name here on the dPS blog. If the winner doesn’t respond within 7 days we’ll draw another winner and publish their name on the blog.
As this post goes up you have 2 weeks to take advantage of this offer – so don’t hesitate and pick up your copy of Photo Magic here today!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Buy our New Trick Photography eBook and Go into the Draw to a DLSR or Lens to the value of $ 1500
Horizons can be quite divisive, both in terms of composition and opinion. If used correctly, a horizon will either add to a composition or go unnoticed, however, if positioned poorly, it can become a competing element, distracting attention away from the main areas of interest.
One of the main ‘rules’ you often see written regarding horizons is that they should never be placed in the centre of the frame, but positioned closer to a ‘third’. As with most rules, there are plenty of times when this can be completely disregarded, so here are a few guidelines to help you to decide where to position the horizon when composing your shot.
Placing the horizon towards the bottom of the frame is a great way of emphasising a dramatic sky. By placing the horizon low in the frame, you are giving dominance to the upper portion of the image and so, ideally, you want to have something there to keep the attention of the viewer, i.e. don’t do this if the sky is completely clear, as you will be dedicating over half of the frame to an empty blue sky, and that will not hold interest for long.
A low horizon gives dominance to the sky to help emphasise the movement of the clouds
Conversely to above, placing the horizon towards the top of the frame gives dominance to the lower portion of the image, allowing you to emphasise foreground detail to draw the viewer through to a sky.
An empty sky and a foreground full of detail made the choice of where to place the horizon in this composition very easy
In both of the above cases, if you tilt the camera either forwards or back to adjust the position of the horizon, be aware of distortion of any vertical lines at the edge of the frame, e.g. trees, buildings etc. You will find they will either lean into or out of the frame, and may need to be corrected during post processing.
This is probably the most difficult horizon to handle, compositionally, as it is very easy for a scene to appear unbalanced when the horizon is so close to the centre of the frame. If you are going to take this approach, it is a good idea to ensure that the horizon is bang in the middle as positioning slightly above/below may look as if you were intending for central positioning but were sloppy in either composition or crop.
A centred horizon works very well when dealing with reflections as, by default, the composition is easily balanced.
A centred horizon can work very well with reflections
Also, given that the frame is going to be split in half by the horizon, it is wise to ensure that there is something that breaks the horizon line, from land to sky, to ensure there is a relationship between the two halves of the image.
The two posts that break the horizon here ensure that the sky and foreground are linked, and are not seen as two separate elements
Whilst discussing horizon placement, it is worth considering the option of omitting the horizon entirely. If the sky doesn’t add anything to the scene in front of you, consider leaving it out and focussing on the detail of the landscape alone.
You can choose to omit the horizon entirely and focus in on detail within the landscape
So there you go, a few things to help you consider what it is you want to capture about the landscape in front of you, and how that can help you determine where to position the horizon within the frame.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Where to Position that Horizon?
Recently I blogged about the new design on Flickr noting that engagement on my own personal photostream had skyrocketed. By my own estimation, activity (comments/faves) have increased approximately 294% on my stream since the redesign.
Despite a loud, vulgar, disrespectful chorus, by a small group of torch and pitchfork type haters in the Flickr Help Forum, I’ve wondered how the larger Flickr community has felt about the site changes. To hear it told by the haters, *everybody* on Flickr hates the new design and they are all leaving in droves for other sites on the web.
One of the interesting things about Flickr, is that each photo on Flickr is assigned a unique ascending number on upload that signifies its numerical place as a Flickr upload. Because of this structure, it is fairly easy to measure the pace of uploads at any given time on Flickr.
I wanted to see if users were uploading more or less photos since the changes.
My measurement is approximate, but would seem to indicate that the number of uploads to Flickr since the site redesign have increased *dramatically*, about 71%.
To measure this, I tried to find a photo about as close to the redesign implementation as possible. In this case I found this photo taken by Veronica Belmont posted at about 3pm PST on the date of the change, May 21. This was within minutes of the change as implemented on Flickr. This is what I’m using as a baseline image. It is Flickr photo number 8,776,546,808 (you see this number in the url of the photo).
Next, I went and looked at a recent photo uploaded today. This photo by my contact rollerphoto works. This photo is upload number 8,855,853,505
So roughly between today and the changes made by Flickr, users have uploaded almost 80 million photos to the site. The time measured is about six hours short of six days.
Next, I went and found an older photo uploaded about six days *before* the change was implemented. In this case I found this photo taken by my contact Jazzyblue TR. This photo is one hour short of six days from the changes. This photo is upload number 8,730,146,140.
So, in the 6 days prior to the change, users uploaded about 47 million photos to the site.
So, roughly, as measured in the six days before and the six days after Flickr’s new site design, uploads are up about 71% site wide.
Now, number of photos uploaded is only one metric to measure when looking at the effect of this change. As I mentioned earlier, personally my own engagement numbers are up even higher — but to hear it told by a loud, vocal contingent of about 3,000 members in the Flickr Help Forum, 99% of users hate this change. This simply is not true. The vast silent majority of Flickr users are chugging along just like they always have been and I suspect Flickr signups have *far* exceeded deletions since the change has been made.
Flickr can view much more data internally than I can from the outside, but I suspect that by every way they measure success on the site, this most recent change has been an absolute homerun for them.
Unfortunately, with all change comes haters. Flickr would do well to ignore these haters. Of the almost 100 million Flickr users, we may lose a few thousand of the most vulgar and vitriolic accounts on Flickr, but I suspect what we gain in terms of new users is far greater.
Interestingly enough, earlier last week, the Founder of Flickr himself, Stewart Butterfield, had high praise for the new design on Flickr. Butterfield left as General Manager of Flickr back in 2008, but remains a user still today. In a tweet, Butterfield described the new design as “fantastic,” noting that history will ultimately vindicate the work as “nicely done.” I posted about this praise by Butterfield in the hatefest in the Flickr Help Forum and it only took about 21 minutes for one of the haters to compare his words with Adolph Hitler.
Hopefully the worst of these haters *do* actually leave the site as they keep threatening to do over and over and over and over again, and let the rest of us who *do* like the changes enjoy the new design for what it is, a new, better, fresher version of Flickr.
by Lynsey Peterson.
I am incredibly lucky. It’s taken me a decade, but I have built a portrait photography business that depends solely on word-of-mouth marketing and stays plenty busy that way.
If there was a magic 3 step process for this, I promise I would share it.
I’ve learned a ton along the way: treat your clients like gold, be generous whenever you can, and everyone should blow their nose and empty their pockets before a single picture is taken. Yet……..I still learn every day. Which is odd because every day I am also pretty sure that I couldn’t possibly know more than I know now or be presented with a situation I have yet to encounter. Then again, sometimes my ego and I have trouble fitting thru doorways together.
See that? It’s a house. It’s actually my house – which I am putting on the market soon.
My wonderful realtor who knows I’m a photographer, asked if I wanted to go ahead and take the pictures myself to save time and money instead of bringing in the trained and experienced real estate photographer she usually uses.
Now, I am asking a little more than my hourly rate for this house. In fact, I am asking like a thousand of my hourly rates for this house. 999 of them are going to pay off the note with the bank, but I’m pretty excited about that one I might get back – and I don’t do real estate photography. I’m not even really sure how to go about it if we are being honest. But, hey, I have a fancy camera and an expensive lens and how hard could it be, right?
If you have those fore mentioned things, you are going to be asked at some point to shoot something that you don’t have any interest in shooting. Maybe it’s a house. Maybe it’s food. Maybe it’s dirt in a fetching abstract pattern. And it’s tempting to say yes, because after all…..how hard could it be? The answer is hard. The longer answer is that every time you shoot something subpar, if only because you don’t have the experience, training, and interest in shooting that, you are taking away from the work you do want to shoot. I get it. I really do. Favors for friends, good money in the off-season. But it’s rarely worth it.
The lesson: Stick with what you know. If you don’t have any desire to do it or learn how, don’t take it on.
I love photographing people upside down. It’s unexpected and quirky and different and fun. And, and, and. It’s also complicated and only works when the rest of what the viewer’s eye has to process is simple and easy. If I had stopped for a moment and viewed it without my camera, I would have seen how hard it was to take it. Why is one kid upside down and the other not? Who’s arms are those? How did they get like that? The cuteness of siblings rolling around in grass and beautiful light gets lost trying to understand the whole picture.
The lesson: Simplify. If it takes you a second to process what is happening, it will take the viewer of the future photograph much more than a second and your concept could be completely lost….no matter how “perfect” the shot itself is.
When a plane went by, causing most everyone in this family to look toward the sky, I though I had hit pay dirt. I quickly envisioned them all looking up in amazement and excited baffle. Instead it only served as an interruption to what we were doing. At the moment I remember thinking I should encourage them to watch the plane. But I was so caught up in the moment passing us by that I didn’t think I had time.
Even if the plane had long passed by the time I conveyed what I meant, I still could have gotten the shot I imagined. But I didn’t say a word about it and therefore didn’t allow them their own moment, which would have produced an amazing shot. Instead I have this: everyone a bit thrown off by the interruption because I didn’t ease the situation.
The lesson: Take your time. No matter how tight the schedule, you always have 30 extra seconds to make a fun situation into a great shot.
Oh this picture. It was such a beautiful shot…………two hours of Photoshop ago. I love MORE. I’m a fan of bigger and better and faster too. When this cutie showed up with this adorable hat,
I got an idea. A crazy/complicated/fun idea.
I. Was. Going. To. Get. This. Shot.
We were going to stay here all day if that’s what it took. And I got a great shot (without the whole day bit luckily). However left to my own devices, I wanted to do everything I could to make it THE shot. What’s post-production, if not to enhance right? I felt it was a Gap Kid’s moment, what with the cute kid and fun hat and all. Deserving of the kind of “enhancement” ready for a catalog cover. Never mind that I don’t shoot fashion, that I rarely shoot commercial, and that for this shot I was being paid to shoot a portrait and nothing more.
The lesson: Less is usually more. There’s a fine line between giving an image a little editing love and turning people into plastic.
Now I knew going into this shoot that I was photographing a large family and 8 dogs and you’d think that I would have come with my pockets full of dog treats and spent the hour and a half drive there practicing my whistle. But, alas, I did not.
This particular client was a referral who lived really far from me and was willing to pay me a significant travel fee to come to them – and their 8 dogs.
Admittedly my ego got the best of me here. There are hundreds of photographers closer and cheaper. Maybe even some with experience shooting 8 dogs. But they wanted me. And instead of saying, “do I really want to shoot this?”, I happily fed my ego a big serving of “I’m So Wanted” with a side dish of “How Awesome Am I? Answer: Really Awesome”.
Here’s the problem with that: this shot is forever my body of work. Even if I had never shown it to anyone, the client might. And it’s not my greatest work. Yet it may be the only work of mine someone sees.
This isn’t the shot I want to hang my hat on or be known for. I’m not embarrassed about it, but I do get a little bummed about the idea that a viewer may see this and think it’s the best example of my skills.
The lesson: Get over yourself. This shot doesn’t need to be in my body of work, but it is. I could have done more research and come in with better ideas for this 8 dog craziness and by not, the take-away is a shot that could have been so fun and different and interesting and…… isn’t.
Check out more of Lynsey Peterson’s work on her website.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Learning From My Mistakes: 5 Okay Shots That Could Have Been Great
This shot was taken at Fire Island National Seashore in New York, about 20 minutes from where I live, making it easy to get to whenever I feel the need to make an image. This image was taken on a cold early spring day. EOS 5D Mark III, EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye Zoom. 1/60 @ f/16.
As an avid landscape photographer, I often hear the call of faraway places of natural beauty- Yosemite, Denali, the Canadian Rockies- you get the idea. But like most people, I don’t have unlimited funds allowing me to travel, so when the itch to make some photos strikes, I must try to find an inspiring vista nearby. It can be easy to get bored at the same old locations, but these familiar locations offer opportunities that the more exotic and sought-after locations don’t.
These stones sit in the bay on the north side of Fire Island. During the summer, thunderclouds move across the bay almost daily, giving nice dramatic skies. ISO 1600, f/11, 120 seconds. EOS 5D Mark III with EF 17-40mm f/4L.
First of all, because these locations are local, they are not a “once in a lifetime” experience. This removes a lot of pressure to be sure you get “the shot”, and instead, allow for experimenting without the fear of coming away with nothing to show for your efforts. You can always go back, since it’s nearby, giving you the opportunity to perfect new techniques so that when are on that once in a lifetime trip, you are ready to just make images without fear of messing it up. In addition to experimenting, local shooting locations present the opportunity to document the location at different times throughout the year. I’ve found that even my most visited places will present new looks as the seasons change, and even from day to day.
On the south side of Fire Island, you’ve got the ocean beaches with jetties and crashing waves, presenting more great opportunities. Canon EOS-1D Mark III, EF 24-105 f/4L. 1/3 sec., f/22, ISO 50.
For me, it’s about how far I’m willing to drive in the time I have. Generally, it’s an hour or two if I have the whole day free. If the whole day isn’t free, it could be somewhere close by, maybe 15 or 20 minutes away. Once I’ve decided how far I’m willing to drive, I have my choices- local parks, state parks, New York City (an hour drive for me), or many other locations. No matter where you live, there are places local to you that you can go back to over and over again.
When I’m feeling like something more local, this park just a mile from my home is a great place for sunsets. EOS 5D Mark III w/ EF 17-40mm f/4L. 1/30, f/16, ISO 100.
For me, my favorite location is Fire Island National Seashore, here on Long Island, NY. It’s a 20 minute drive, a great place for both sunrise and sunset, and offers a variety of photo opportunities each time I’m there. There’s a lighthouse, jetties, the beach, the ocean, a bay, and plenty of wildlife. It’s also a place that changes depending on the time of year, making it a place I can go back to over and over and never see it look the same way twice. In many ways, it’s become my muse.
These local places are not glamorous, but they present a perfect opportunity to hone your craft, and still come away with great images.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Shooting Locally
