Stop what you’re doing for a second. Think about how content you are with your photography. The accolades. The compliments. Even if you think the only person who really appreciates the results is you. Think about how much work you put in to get those things. Experimentation with different filters, formats, and shooting locations, not to mention countless hours of Continue Reading
The post The Awful Truth of Photo Theft, and What You Can Do About It appeared first on Photodoto.
Are you a successful photographer? Or are you a beginner who just started the way to fame? Modern world requires new rules and these days you just can not be a famous photographer without personal online portfolio. But why is it so important? The point is that most clients believe only what they see. And your photo portfolio is the Continue Reading
The post 50 Brilliant Photo Sites of Professional Photographers & 1 Quick Way To Launch Your Own appeared first on Photodoto.
Strange as it may seem: photographers, who should be highly creative persons with fine artistic taste tend to be bloody awful designers. But don’t get me wrong here. I’m not expecting someone to be able to design me an outstanding corporate logo just because he is a great photographer. But the massacre begins even at the level of watermarking their Continue Reading
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500px has redesigned its online photo portfolio feature, offering photographers more customization tools and advanced options for interacting with followers and customers. The new portfolio UX is expected to roll out by May and will allow for store integration so visitors can purchase photos directly from a portfolio, and blog integration and even full CSS customization. Learn more about the upcoming changes at connect.dpreview.com.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Since the quest for the perfect camera bag will likely never end, we continue ours with a look at the Tamrac Evolution 9, a larger bag that can be used as a backpack or slingpack. Capable of holding a pro digital SLR with a long zoom, a 17-inch notebook, plus several lenses and accessories, the Evolution 9 seemed durable and well designed. Click through for our review to learn how it held up in the field.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
While the privacy and permissions surrounding Facebook-shared photographs have always seemed like a bit of a gray area, a new service is pushing the envelope further. Photos At My Door lets users log in with their Facebook account and access photos of friends. You can then order prints of those photos or even print them on coffee mugs, mouse pads and iPhone cases. Read more about the service and our take on it at connect.dpreview.com.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Bruce Livingstone, founder of iStockphoto (which has since been acquired by Getty Images), has launched Stocksy, an artist-owned stock photography co-operative. Under its licensing terms, photographers receive 50% of each royalty transaction. Each photographer also receives equity and is entitled to a share of the co-operative’s annual profits. This launch comes hot on the heels of a recent and controversial deal between Getty Images and Google, in which Google Drive’s image vault gives public access to over 5000 Getty images with very little compensation to the photographers.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Fact: most people on the planet—including roughly two-thirds of Americans—do not have a passport.
Without a passport, you won't be traveling internationally any time soon. And even if you have no immediate travel plans, just having a passport is kinda like having a muscle car at a red light. You won't always squeal tires when the light turns green, but you know you could.
If you have never held a passport before, it's a neat feeling when it arrives in the mail. For perhaps the first time, you feel like a citizen of the world. Merely having the possibility of international travel is better than not having a passport and being guaranteed you can't go.
Even better, unlike your crappy driver's license or student I.D. mugshot, your passport photo is something you can control. So if you are gonna be a jet-set traveler, you may as well look good doing it.
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Strobist
Over the years I’ve screwed more photos than I can count. And recently, when I was thinking about it, there have been a few constants behind many of these screw-ups. They are all easy to fix, but in our fast moving world they are all mistakes that are so easy to make. Here’s a short list to help us both avoid them in the future.
This point could be taken further by just saying to always make sure to focus on the specific spot that you want the sharpest. But I find this mistake hurts the most when doing a close-up portrait of a person’s face. If you are using a shallow aperture, or even if you’re not, make sure that the focus is right on the dominant eye. If you screw up focus on the eye in this type of portrait, then you screw up the shot. When you view the portrait on a small monitor or in a very small print, it may not matter, but if you want to create a high quality portrait, then you need the focus on the eyes to be correct. The eyes are the key to a portrait.
I am generally a very calm person, but nothing makes me want to shake people more than when I see them not stop themselves fully before taking a photo. It can be a tough habit to break, especially on vacation, however, the fact is that your photos will be blurry if you don’t stop yourself.
If you are traveling and taking photos, try taking less pictures and instead wait for the most interesting moments. Then, take your time on the shots that you do want to take. If you’re walking around and quickly taking shot after shot without stopping then you might as well just put the camera away and enjoy the view without it. And anyway, it’s so much better to have 20 amazing shots from your trip instead of 1000 mediocre ones. Who has time to look through 1000 mediocre shots these days anyway? We have more important things to do, like looking at photos of cats doing ridiculous things on the internet.
Here’s a portrait of my wife on our honeymoon. Isn’t she gorgeous! The warm lighting on her face, the wind in her hair, the texture in the foreground mixed with the incredible cool blue background are all perfect. But I wasn’t thinking. I should have taken her bag and the camera, maybe taken a shot without the sunglasses to see her beautiful eyes, and just taken my time to capture a really good quality portrait. Most importantly, I should have told her not to smile. This moment just screams out for a natural expression.
Most of the time people don’t look better or even happier when they put that forced smile on their face. It wasn’t necessary here, I should have noticed it, and I should have worked to catch her with a more natural expression. I like this photograph of her, but I screwed up and it could have been so much better. One standard smile and a couple small details can be the difference between an average family snapshot and the best shot you’ve ever taken of your wife.
One of the cardinal sins of photography is the harsh, direct flash showing every pore and detail of a person’s face with the background completely blacked out. In a few extremely dark situations this might be the only option. However, if you have a decent lens and camera and there is even a little ambient light, then there is no reason that a flash needs to do all the work, or in many cases, any of it. You should own a lens that can shoot at least at F2.8. I know lenses are expensive, but you can get a prime Canon 50mm F1.8 lens for $ 100 and a 50mm F1.4 lens for $ 350. Those lenses can shoot in the dark.
So if you’re shooting an event, a family function, or an environmental portrait in a place with a low level of light, start with a high ISO and a low aperture to see how much of the available light you can use. Then, set your flash to provide some fill for the main subjects. Straight on flash, even as a fill can be a terrible look, so if the ceiling is low enough, a good strategy is to bounce the light up and slightly backwards off the ceiling. Anything but straight on.
1/50th at F2.8, ISO 1600 – Ambient light mixed with direct flash from a 45 degree angle.
I know, I know, you can fix it in Lightroom later. But try this. Take two shots of the same scene, one exposed correctly and one underexposed by a stop. Then raise the exposure by a stop on the underexposed shot in Lightroom. They look different. The colors and contrast will be slightly off. It’s not the same. And yes, maybe you can get it to look similar or equal to the correctly exposed shot with a bit of work and futzing, but what if you don’t have that correctly exposed shot to compare it to?
Try hard to capture the perfect exposure in the camera. It’s not always possible, but it’s always important. And it will improve your images significantly.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
5 Easy Ways To Screw Up a Photo
In a ‘Master Series’ video posted by lighting maker Profoto USA, celebrated photographer Greg Heisler shares a behind the scenes tale of how he created a unique on-location portrait of then-NBA star Alonzo Mourning. In explaining a lighting setup that even most other pros would struggle to pull off, Heisler breaks down his lighting diagram for a shot that he conceived, ‘just because I think it looks cool’. (via Strobist)
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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