Your best camera is the one you have on you, and for many of us that’s a smartphone. We’ve just posted our 2012 Mobile Photography Gift Guide, which covers a range of accessories for the mobile photographer, from inexpensive and fun gifts to more serious, useful products like add-on lenses and supports for phones and tablets. Click through to read the full article at connect.dpreview.com
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
See more episodes at kelbytv.com Welcome to Photo T&T: the weekly podcast that offers tips and techniques for taking the best photos you have ever taken. This week, landscape photographer Bill Fortney offers 3 tips on using the new Nikon D-600 menu functions, RC shares a tip on setting up bracketing on your camera, and Scott explains how easy it is to use wireless remotes to fire your camera. Tune in for these tips, plus a contest with prize and two photographers to check out for inspiration.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
The road is for the journey, the real excitement lies in the ditches.
Acquiring good pictures is a very relative term. I have viewed images from seasoned and well respected photographers that have left me scratching my brow and asking “why is that image so important and stellar that it sends the art critics ga-ga? On the other hand I have viewed the work of amatuers that were sublime and left me in awe.
Such is photography as an art medium. As an amateur it matters not what others think of your images as long as you are true to yourself and have satisfied the reasons why you made the image in the first place.
Oftentimes magazines and articles on the web overlook the photographer who has acquired their first camera. The articles are written in such a fashion that the writer assumes the reader has a basic understanding. What if they don’t?
Below are five tricks for beginners that I have been teaching for quite some time.
Many flashes on entry level point and shoot cameras “over-flash” the subject, and often there is little the photographer can do. Until now that is. Carry a clean Kleenex brand nasal tissue with you, and carefully drape one layer of the tissue over the flash prior to pressing the shutter. Each layer of tissue will amount to lessening the flash output by an equivalent of one f/stop of light.
Many photographers find the most pleasing flash balance to be between one and two f/stops of fill light. Therefore take three photos: one with open flash, a second with one fold of tissue and a third image with two folds of tissue. Just make sure the tissue is white.
Overcast days are perfect for photographing water.
If the sun is hiding behind those cumulus clouds on a regular basis, just wait it out – it won’t be long. Oftentimes with autumn colour, when the red and yellow foliage is dry, it really lacks vibrancy if the scene is not lit with bright sunlight. Conversely, if the scene is damp with moisture from fog, frost, or light rain, the photograph will usually record better when the scene is bathed in a soft overcast light. Know your light and adjust your shooting to the conditions. Nice sunny days equal big blue-sky landscape pictures; grey overcast days are perfect for portraits of people and things with no sky in the picture.
Many cameras have the capacity to be attached to a tripod; if yours does, then use it. You will be amazed how the use of a tripod will almost single-handed make your photos that much better. The reason is simple: It will provide you the opportunity to stand, kneel or lay down behind you camera and study the composition elements in the viewfinder or LCD screen. How can you possibly do that if the non tripod-mounted camera is continually moving?
Find interesting foregrounds and make that the centre piece of the image … sunsets are a dime a dozen.
Simply by viewing the scene from a different angle of sight, or perspective, your composition will improve dramatically. Observe experienced photographers the next time you are out shooting in a group. I’ll bet those photographers whose work you admire will have very dirty knees and seats on their trousers. Heck, some of us even wear contractors knee pads when working along rocky shorelines (I swear I have periwinkles imprinted on my knees).
Just get out of bed and do it. It is usually advantageous when starting your photography career to give yourself assignments or participate in the weekly assignments found on the dPs website. To paraphrase my good friend Daryl Benson: “You can attend all the workshops in the world and you can read all the books ever published, but if you are not out there just doing it then it is all for naught.”
Most importantly, if you are having fun you are doing it right – disregard the critics!
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 Photography Tips for Beginners
[ By Delana in Art & Photography & Video. ]
Would you eat purple lettuce? How about green bacon or multi-colored pasta? Photographer Henry Hargreaves has put some of our favorite foods into an entirely new context by giving them a technicolor makeover. But does it make you hungry for rainbow-colored meals or just all kinds of queasy?
Hargreaves’ interpretations of common foods call to mind a joyous celebration of diversity…but instead of rainbow flags and pride parades, his celebration involves meal time.
One has to wonder if it was the photographer’s intent to invoke those visual associations of diversity or if his Foods of the Rainbow series is all about fun.
We eat rainbow-colored food frequently, but it is usually candy, breakfast cereal or other artificially-flavored, nutritionally-devoid fare. In Hargreaves’ hands, these everyday foods seem to take on an entirely new level of appeal (or unappeal, as it may be).
Although most of us would have no problem scoffing rainbow-colored ice cream, not many people would go anywhere near the unusual bacon cheeseburger above.
There is something inherently magical about rainbows, whether we see them in the sky or at home on our bookshelves.
1 Comment – Click Here to Read More
»»
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve seen Nyan Cat around the Internet. He seems to find himself in the oddest places these days…
1 Comment – Click Here to Read More
»»
[ By Delana in Art & Photography & Video. ]
[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]
AdoramaTV presents Nikon Macro Gear. This week Mark will show us some great Nikon macro products. From macro lens to on camera flashes. For more information about the Nikon 105mm f/2.5 Micro lens or the R1C1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlite System, and to learn more about macro photography, go here: www.adorama.com Send your questions to: AskMark@Adorama.com
Brief: In store support for the launch of the 400D, an entry level DSLR. Target market: Amateur photographers looking to upgrade their camera. Critical Insight: Nick, 39, lives in Andover, Hampshire, UK. Married with a 10-year-old son, he has been into photography for about 2 years since buying a digital point and shoot camera. “I love taking all types of photographs; rural landscapes, portraits and I like to experiment but I find my current camera limits my creativity. I have thought about buying a Digital SLR but I’m still worried they are too complicated… I just want to get out there and get a great shot”. Communications strategy: Welcome to the playground. Creative Innovation: Based on our research we found that the larger camera retailers also sold TV monitors, which were an excellent POS site – so long as the content is great. Kieran Dodds (www.kierandodds.com a friendly, approachable and down to earth professional photographer was cast to demonstrate the user friendliness of the 400D in an appealing and un-hurried series of films. ROI: We shifted Canon’s trade marketing budget from paper heavy POS (posters, leaflets etc…) to digital moving image content. This innovation revolutionalised the Canon approach to trade marketing tools and yielded dramatically increased ROI by developing content that could be used throughout the marketing mix ie in-store, on-line, on-pack and in-box. To date the films have been viewed by over 15 million people and continue to be a …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
This week your photography challenge is to shoot the one subject in three different ways.
The idea came off the back of our recent post – Make Your Last Shot Your Best Shot – in which Anne McKinnell challenged us to not stop shooting after we get our first good shot but to look for new ways to photograph a scene or subject in the hope of making the followup shots even better than the first.
She showed some great examples (pictured) of how she went beyond the first ‘obvious’ shot in a scene to take some interesting shots from different angles and perspectives.
So here’s the challenge – choose a subject (it could be a portrait, landscape, cityscape, still life, glamour shot…. anything) and aim to take at least 3 different shots of the one subject.
You might like to add variety to your shots by:
Once you’ve taken your shots we’d LOVE to see them so please share 3 or so shots in your series and tell us a little about how you progressed them and changed things up!
Once you’ve taken and selected the ’1 Subject 3 Shots’ images that you’d like to share – upload them to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using our embed tool to do so.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPS3SHOTS to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – Food challenge where there were some great shots submitted.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
1 Subject 3 Shots: Weekly Photography Challenge
This video explains the three basic camera controls. Shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.
A few months back here at dPS we launched our iPhone Photography eBook. It had some great reviews from readers but we had a lot of requests from readers asking if we had a version for Kindle?
At the time we didn’t but due to popular demand we now do! Your wish is our command (at least this time).
Head over to Amazon to get a kindle version of iPhone Photography. How to Shoot, Edit and Share Great Photographs today.
Or if you’d prefer it as a PDF or ePUB version (for iPads or other devices) grab yours here.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Our iPhone Photography eBook is Now Available for Kindle
It is time for our next reader poll – have you ever taken any kind of online or offline photographic training class or course?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
If so – tell us about what course/class you took and how you found it in comments below.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Have You Ever Taken a Photography Class or Course? POLL
Today I’m excited to announce the return of dPS’s famous 12 Days of Christmas sale with the special return of all last years amazing deals for the next 9 days only.
Every year here on dPS we have a huge end of year sale where over the 12 days before Christmas we release a deal for photographers each day that lasts just 24 hours. The deals are on a mix of dPS products and offers from other photography brands that you know and love.
Each year the sale has grown both in terms of readers giving us positive feedback but also in terms of the discounts and deals we’ve had on offer.
Last year was so huge in the lead up to this years 12 Deals (which will kick off on 13th December) we’ve decided to bring 10 of last years deals back for those of you who missed one of them.
These 10 deals are all available for you to snap up now on last years 12 days of Christmas page but here’s a quick summary of what is on offer!
Nuts 3 eBook BundleThis deal includes 3 of dPS’s most popular eBooks covering everything
It’s the perfect introduction to photography for anyone starting out.
As a bonus you’ll also get an hour of video tutorials and 2 handy pocket guides.
Grab the PhotoNuts eBooks here
Get this amazing library of 6 eBooks for under $ 30 from photographer Ed Verosky.
It includes:
It’s got some great information in it and it was VERY popular last year.
Get this deal here
Concentrate eBooks and tutorialsThe team at Photography Concentrate have 4 fantastics resources for you to choose from including:
Take advantage of this HOT offer here
PhotoJoJo 2 great ProductsPhotoJoJo always have some quirky photographic products in their range and in this deal are offering a couple of fun ones at 10% off
You can buy just one or pick them both up.
Check them out here.
Written by award winning travel photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich – these two eBooks are not only packed with useful teaching – but they’re also full of inspirational images.
They are yours through this deal at under half the normal price and will help you to drastically improve both your travel photography but also your normal shooting as you understand the importance and how to utilise colour in your work.
Get your eBooks here
Trey Radcliff is known as one of the world’s most famous HDR photographers and so we can’t think of anyone better to teach you how to use HDR to take amazing images.
This deal gives you over 11 hours of step by step video instruction on HDR, an eBook, access to a forum area, over 130 RAW working files and a load of actionable information that will help you see a dramatic improvement in your photography.
Save 20% off on these teaching here.
The post processing software offered by Topaz has always been hugely popular with our audience and this gives you opportunity to pick up a great toolbox of post production software that will help you achieve a vast array of different types of effects and techniques.
The software is easy to use and comes with some great training.
Grab this hugely popular deal from last year here.
David DuChemin’s Craft and Vision eBooks are an absolute steal at the best of times with most of them priced at just $ 5 each – but in this dPS exclusive you can pick up the 12 eBooks that they’ve released since last year for just $ 45!
That’s just $ 3.75 per eBook and a CRAZY deal.
The topics covered in these eBook range from strobe lighting techniques, to macro photography, to long exposure photography, landscape photography, printing images and much more.
Grab it here.
This was another very popular deal last year and includes two dPS eBooks:
Portraiture is something we almost all do so we know these eBooks will be useful to many of you.
Get them bundled together for under half price here.
Ever thought about making money from your photography? Our ‘Going Pro’ Kit is the perfect place to start.
Written as an introduction to the topic of profiting from your passion for photography it includes a great eBook, 2 hours of Audio interviews with Pro Photographers and a bonus guide to getting published in photography magazines.
Best of all in this deal it is 50% off. Grab it here.
These 10 deals are available for a limited time only – we’ll be closing them off on December 13th just before we kick off the first of the 2012 12 Deals of Christmas (in which we’ve got some even bigger and better deals lined up for you!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
10 Amazing Photography Deals [9 Days Only]
You must be logged in to post a comment.