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Tips for Client Photo Sessions – What it’s NOT All About

There are a host of things which are important when doing photo sessions for clients. But if you’re not careful you could end up falling into the trap of assuming that photo sessions are about something that they really are not. The list of things to keep in mind covers topics such as lighting, exposure, location, posing, and even practical elements like what to charge and what to recommend they wear.

I’ve personally made some mistakes in my development as a photographer when I got caught in the trap of focusing on the wrong things. An understanding of what client sessions are not about can be just as impactful as knowing what they are all about.

With that, here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you set out to take pictures for people.

It’s not about your gear

I know how fun and exciting it is to get new photography equipment. While I don’t have an entire room full of cameras and lenses, I do have enough to fill a pretty large backpack, and I once chased down a UPS driver just to get my new 70-200mm f/2.8 lens one day early. I always enjoy showing my latest camera purchase to friends and family. While none of this is necessarily a bad thing, an obsession with photo gear can actually become a hindrance when working with clients.

I can remember some photo sessions from a few years ago that I’m almost embarrassed to recall because of the way I showed up and starting flaunting my cameras, lenses, and accessories for my clients. There were times when I would make it a point to explain that my lenses had super wide apertures which meant that they were so much better than a kit lens.

Or when visiting with potential clients I would make sure to point out that I was shooting with the latest, greatest, and costliest full-frame camera on the market. Shamefully, I have even gone so far as to literally pull out speedlights, tripods, and other accessories that I had no intention of using just so the clients could see that I had them.

Clients want results and to feel important

In hindsight, not a single client I have ever worked with was impressed with my camera gear. They wanted results, not grandstanding, and it was the pictures that mattered to them rather than the gear I used to make the images. For all my clients care, I might as well be using an old Canon Rebel T3 and the on-camera flash! (Truth be told I know some photographers who do great work with a basic setup like that.)

If you try to dazzle your clients with how cool your camera stuff is, it could actually make things worse by setting unrealistic expectations in their mind of what you can actually do. Or worse yet, you could come across seeming like an arrogant show-off even if that’s not your intention at all.

When you work with clients I recommend leaving gear out of the equation entirely. Don’t talk about your cameras, your lenses, your super cool equipment bag with dozens of folding pockets, or the camera you don’t have but hope to buy someday.

Discuss your goals for the photo session, explain your plan for getting the kids to smile, or take a few minutes and just get to know your clients on a personal level. Don’t make the session about your expensive fancy camera stuff. Instead, make it about your clients and let them be impressed with your pictures, not your camera.

It’s not about your last gig

Have you ever been to a holiday gathering and had the unfortunate luck of sitting by a particular relative who just wouldn’t stop talking about all the things he or she has done, the places they have visited, or the new stuff in their house?

Every time you bring up something from your own life, they counter with a swift rebuttal, “Oh you went to the Grand Canyon for a day? That’s nice. But it’s nothing compared to the week I spent backpacking in the Swiss Alps!”

All you want is to share some of your life experiences, but all this unfortunate friend or family member wants to do is play an endless game of one-upmanship until you finally excuse yourself to go get some pie. And you don’t even like pie.

Think about those uncomfortable situations the next time you are at a photo session with clients and you feel tempted to regale the people with tales of fun, excitement, and adventure from previous sessions. You might have some fun stories to share of how you barely got the shot before a thunderstorm rolled in, or you might want to pull out your phone and show off some amazing images of that time you photographed a destination wedding at a national park.

Focus on the people in front of you right now

The best course of action in those situations is to say nothing at all and keep the focus squarely on your clients and the job you are currently doing. You know, the one you are getting paid for.

Regaling clients with tales of your previous sessions can make them feel inadequate by comparison, and often sends them messages that you don’t intend. It can make your clients feel inferior, outclassed, or even jealous when pitted against the fantastic tales being spun of your other work.

Save your stories for your friends and instead talk with your clients about how great they look, how much fun you are having, and how you plan to address the questions and concerns they might have.

Rest assured your clients already have a high opinion of you and your work based on what they saw on your website or heard from others. Otherwise, they would not have asked you to take their pictures. So put away the stories of past gigs you’ve had and make the session about the only people who matter at the moment – the ones in front of your camera.

It’s not about how awesome you are

Look, I get it. As a photographer, you’ve done some pretty cool things, seen some great places, made some incredible images, burned the midnight oil into the wee hours of the morning to make sure your RAW files were edited to absolute metaphysical perfection.

You’ve got some stories to tell and you might have even earned an award or two along the way. Perhaps one of your pictures ended up in a print publication, or you teach photography classes at your local vocational/technical school. As Ron Burgundy might say, you’re kind of a big deal.

All this may sound harsh, but I bring it up because I’m ashamed to admit it used to be my attitude. There were times when visiting with clients that I would make it a point to describe, in painful detail, how hard I worked on other sessions. Or I’d brag about the number of images on my memory card the last time I did a similar shoot. And I would talk about this as if it had any bearing at all on the quality of my work when all it did was alienate people and send them the wrong message about me as a photographer.

The most important people in the room

Your clients don’t care about the stories you might want to tell them demonstrating how great you are. What they care about is the job you are doing for them and the pictures they are paying you for, not your stories, your adventures, or your portfolio.

They hired you for a reason, and they are probably already familiar with your work after seeing samples on your website or talking with friends, family, or other client referrals. They already think highly of you or they wouldn’t have hired you, so you don’t need to keep reminding them of your greatness.

Conclusion

When it’s time to do the photo session just show up, do the work, and rest easy in the confidence of knowing you are an awesome photographer. You consistently produce great results, and people like your work enough to pay you for it! Let your work speak for itself, pay attention to your clients and their needs, and you’ll get some phenomenal photos that will keep your clients returning and sending others your way as well.

What about you? Do you have any lessons you have learned from doing client photo sessions over the years, or mistakes you feel comfortable sharing with others so they can avoid the same pitfalls? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The post Tips for Client Photo Sessions – What it’s NOT All About appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

March 26, 2018
Digital Promoting and On-line Marketing and advertising

Digital advertising and marketing, the advertising of products or brand names by using a number of forms of digital media, differs from regular advertising mainly because it uses channels and strategies that allow a company to analyze marketing and advertising campaigns and understand what exactly is functioning and what just isn’t – commonly in authentic time geofencing marketing.

Computerized advertisers display such things as what on earth is currently being observed, how commonly and for to what extent, promotions transformations, what content material is effective and will not do the job, etc. When the world wide web is, maybe, the station most intently related with superior marketing, many others include distant material informing, versatile texting, portable apps, podcasts, digital bulletins, computerized Television and radio channels, and so forth.

Actually, persons make investments twice just as much vitality on the internet as they accustomed to twelve years prior. And holding in your mind that we say it a fantastic deal, just how individuals store and buy genuinely has modified, which suggests disconnected marketing is just not as powerful because it accustomed to be.

Advertising and marketing has dependably been tied in with associating with all your gathering of folks while in the proper location and with the opportune time. Today, that suggests that you have to satisfy them where these are as of now investing power: in the world-wide-web.

Electronic Advertising and marketing will also be outlined as, “any form of marketing and advertising that exists online”.

The utilization in the Net and also other innovative media and innovation to aid ‘present working day advertising’ has offered ascend into a stupefying scope of marks and language created by the 2 scholastics and specialists. It’s been identified as electronic marketing and advertising, Web advertising, e-marketing and web advertising and marketing and these possibility terms have differed via time.

In mild of the present verbal confrontation with regards to the utilization in the expression ‘computerized promoting’, we figured it’s useful to bind precisely what superior suggests by means of a definition. Do definitions come up with a big difference? We determine they are doing, given that specifically within an affiliation or involving a company and its customers we require clearness that can help the targets and workouts that assist Digital Transformation.

The which means of electronic marketing and advertising is usually formulated to explain that, advanced advertising incorporates overseeing diverse varieties of on the net organization nearness and existences, one example is, business websites, transportable programs and web-based social networking group web pages. This can be along with on the net interchanges approaches including any semblance of world wide web searcher selling; web-based social networking showcasing, world wide web dependent publicizing, e-mail advertising and association programs of action with distinctive websites. These units are used to aid the places of getting new shoppers and providing administrations to existing purchasers that assistance develop the shopper romantic relationship as a result of E-CRM and showcasing robotization. In almost any scenario, for computerized showcasing to be fruitful, there is as however a need for combination of these procedures with customary media, for example, print, Tv set and write-up workplace based mail to be a big element of multichannel advertising correspondences.

The element of electronic levels in supporting coordinated multichannel showcasing is really a significant phase some portion of advanced promoting, however is often disregarded. From various perspectives, this features that it is so imperative to independent storehouses amongst ‘digital’ and ‘traditional’ selling divisions. On the internet channels can also be found out the best way to enable the whole getting course of action from pre-deal to deal to post-deal and even more improvement of client connections.

Why electronic promoting is essential

Electronic media is pervasive towards the point that shoppers strategy knowledge each time and where ever they need to have it. Gone will be the days if the messages folks got about your things or administrations originated from you and comprised of just what you desired them to learn. Electronic media is really a on a regular basis developing wellspring of diversion, news, shopping and social conversation, and shoppers are at this time offered not simply to what your group states with reference for your image, nevertheless what the media, companions, family members, friends, and the like., are stating also. Moreover, they can likely have confidence in them than you. Individuals will need brands they could have confidence in, businesses that know them, correspondences which can be personalized and pertinent, and offers custom-made for their necessities and inclinations.

The 5Ds of electronic advertising and marketing

To comprehend the importance of digital promoting on the eventual fate of promotion in almost any business enterprise, it truly is helpful to contemplate what group of onlookers connections we’ve to grasp and oversee. Electronic advertising and marketing now is about several a larger quantity of kinds of group link than web page or e mail… It includes overseeing and saddling these ‘5Ds of Digital’ which were characterized while in the prologue to the most up-to-date refresh to my Electronic Marketing: Tactic, Organizing and Implementation e-book. The 5Ds for which we’ve to survey customer reception of when and how our business can arrange their utilization are:

1. Electronic equipment – our audiences interact with organizations employing smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, TVs and gaming products

2. Digital platforms – most interactions on these units are by means of a browser or apps within the important platforms or services, that’s Facebook (and Instagram), Google (and YouTube), Twitter and LinkedIn

3. Digital media – distinctive compensated, owned and acquired communications channels for achieving and fascinating audiences which include marketing, e mail and messaging, look for engines and social networking sites

4. Electronic details – the perception businesses collect regarding their viewers profiles as well as their interactions with firms, which now demands being safeguarded by regulation for most countries

5. Digital know-how – the internet marketing know-how or martech stack that businesses use to build interactive activities from web sites and mobile apps to in-store kiosks and e-mail campaigns

The post Digital Promoting and On-line Marketing and advertising appeared first on Photonovice.

Photonovice

March 26, 2018
Five Ideas for Your Spring Photography
The renewal of life is never more prominent than in the spring, and this change in the season is a magical time for photography. This article obviously relates to those temperate parts of the world that have four seasons including spring.

Spring of course accompanies flowers blooming, and leaf shoots growing. This dramatic change in the natural world allows you as a photographer to tell the story of a place afresh, just as nature restarts again for another year. So let’s look at some spring photography ideas, to help you get the best out of the season.

All those flowers make for some amazing backgrounds for your portrait photos.

1 – Focus on the finer details

Whether you’re able to photograph bluebells, daffodils, or cherry blossoms these detail photos you can get from floral photography will be an important part of your set. Even if you’re not photographing flowers, perhaps instead you’re at a spring festival, the detail photo is important.

The following are a few ideas that may help you improve your spring photography:
- Bokeh – Bokeh and detail photos go well together, especially when you photograph flowers. The easiest way to achieve to this to photograph a flower in the foreground, with other flowers in the background. Then using a large aperture you should achieve a nice soft background. This works better with macro lenses or prime lenses with a large aperture.
- Patterns – Nature is full of nice patterns so use this to your advantage. The repetition of flowers can make for a nice pattern, or indeed petals on the ground once they’ve fallen. Alternatively, at a spring festival, the produce can often be laid out in a pattern, ideal for photography
- Background – As with all photos the background is important. Aiming in a certain direction you can create a clean background and a much nicer image. Shooting up at the sky on a clear day will give a blue background, or perhaps aim down towards the grass for a green background. As mentioned above, you may also choose to blur out the background with bokeh.
- The Light – Using the light is what photography is all about. The way it may shine through petals can give you nice details, as the sunlight picks up all the textures of the flower. You can also use shards of light, if you spot a leaf that’s lit up on its own it can make a nice photo.
Using bokeh and good light is important, but adding an extra element like a bee will make the photo even better.

2 – Explore the wider scene in your spring photography

The temptation, especially with flower photos, is to keep in close and not take a bigger landscape style photo. The flower beds and areas with many blossoming trees can make for some amazing spring photography though.

Likewise, taking a photo of the whole festival from an elevated position is an integral part of a sequence of photos you’d take at such an event. If you’re looking for the quintessential floral spring photographs, you can look to the following to enhance your chance of success.
- Check the forecast – That’s not just the weather forecast, but the blossom forecast! Whether you’re in Japan, Washington or any other part of the world with seasonal flowers, there will be a peak period.
- The composition is king – As with all landscape photos good composition will get you the best results, now you have the element of spring to incorporate into your photo as well.
- Extra context – This could simply be those floral blossoms indicating spring. However, including other elements like buildings that are region specific will add even more context to your photo.
Looking for more context could mean using buildings with typical local traditional architecture.

3 – Take some portrait photos!

Spring can be a really popular time for portrait photography. The symbol of new life and those amazing backgrounds combine to make this a special time for portrait work. Whether you’re photographing yourself, or other people there are ample opportunities.
- Photoshoot – Models and couples will travel just as far as photographers to get beautiful photos will natural backgrounds. Aim to use a large aperture and blur out the background. Lines of trees can add depth to a photo when a shallow depth of field is applied. Having your model interact with some of the flowers is also a nice touch.
- Other people – Photographs of people enjoying spring can be great. As the weather warms up and people start to enjoy park life, there are increased chances for street photos. Typical examples might include people walking through flowery fields, or perhaps taking self-portraits.
- The selfie – Lastly there is always taking photos of yourself, everyone needs a new profile picture for spring!
Daffodils are one of the first signs of spring in many countries. Here a person walks through a field of these flowers.

4 – Try something creative

Spring photography is a broad subject, it does, in fact, encompass more or less every type of photography that exists. The theme that’s consistent is that you’re photographing spring specifically.

The application of more experimental techniques can be a great way to shake things up, so what could you try? The following are just some examples and ideas for getting creative:
- Light trails – It is not uncommon for spring foliage to grow along the side of a road. This presents a great opportunity to take a car light trails photo, and include some spring blossoms for context.
- Refraction – The crystal ball is a versatile piece of equipment to have in the bag, and for sure you can use it in the spring to make some creative photos.
- Motion blur – On a windy day, setting your camera on a tripod to capture the motion of the moving vegetation can create a nice abstract looking photo. To do this you’ll need to expose for several seconds, to capture that movement.
In this photo a yellow ball was used. The yellow against white echoes that of an egg, and with spring this gives the concept of new life.

5 – Spring festivals

Another sign of spring is the festivals and religious holidays that occur during this time, depending on where you are in the world they will be different. They all offer photography opportunities, again with still life, portraits or scene setting photos portraying that festival.

In Asia, there are some dramatic festivals such as Japan’s Setsuban festival that celebrates the end of winter, and the beginning of spring. Then perhaps closer to home are the Easter holidays, with the accompanying traditions that go along with it. These events both tell the story of renewal, a powerful theme for spring.

This is a festival in South Korea that marks the end of winter and the start of spring. People wear the traditional clothes of Korean farm dancers.

Time to go and enjoy the fresh spring air

How do you like to do your spring photography? Does it only mean flowers and nature, or are there other things about spring that you enjoy photographing?

Perhaps you’ve photographed spring many times before, so how about trying a different photographic style this time? Lastly, we love to see examples of your spring photography both past and present, so please share them in the comments section!

A bed of petals can make a great detail photo.

Look for people in their natural environment, caring for the land. It adds a bit more story to this spring photo.

Capturing the wider scene here to include a local landmark, and spring flowers in the foreground.

Try experimenting with some different concepts, here some motion blur was captured by using a slower shutter speed.

The post Five Ideas for Your Spring Photography by Simon Bond appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
March 26, 2018
How to Clean Your Tripod and Make it Like New
Your tripod deserves a good cleaning if you don’t want to have to buy a new one every couple of years. Cleaning your tripod will help it last 10+ years and keep Gear Lust at bay. It also makes you feel like you just got a new piece of equipment for the cost of only 1-2 hours of mild effort.

What’s You’ll Need

Before you get to the cleaning part, you’ll need some supplies. I suggest the following:
- Cotton cloth.
- Soapy water in a bowl.
- Old toothbrush.
- Canned air or blower.
- Waterproof lubricant (marine grease, brake grease, etc.)
- Tools to disassemble your tripod (typically Allen wrenches, socket wrench or a screwdriver).
- Camera (ideally just a smartphone) so you can document how things came apart
- A small bowl for the small parts.
- Clean and clear working surface.
Disassemble the Legs

The first step to cleaning your tripod is taking it apart. A number of tripods come with the tools to disassemble them, but if not, a quick search of your owner’s manual will point you in the right direction.

I’m going to use two tripods as examples in this article because they should cover a wide range of options included on tripods on the market today. The first is a Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CT carbon fiber tripod with BBH-200 Ballhead and the second is the MeFoto Classic Aluminum Globetrotter Tripod/Monopod. The Vanguard has flip-lock on the legs, and the blue MeFoto has twist locks. This matters most in the leg section of the tutorial.

It’s important to take photos when cleaning your tripod the first time. This helps you remember what went where and how to put it all back together. I suggest using a clean surface, free of clutter so nothing gets lost.

Taking the legs apart

Twist locks, like those on the MeFoto, are straightforward. Simply twist the lowest section as if you are extending the leg, then keep twisting until the ring comes free.

Slide the lowest leg section from the one above it, being careful to not lose any plastic parts near the top of the tube. Under normal use, these plastic parts (typical of most tripods) help the leg section to not slide out under normal use. They are important don’t lose them!

Flip locks need a little extra help. In this case, the Vanguard requires the flip lock to be open and then use a Phillips head screwdriver to loosen the bolt.

Note that on the back side of the screw is a nut that needs to be retained. Not all tripods require complete removal of the screw/nut for the leg to slide free.

The top of each tripod leg also has a plastic retaining cap, the same as the twist lock, that may fall out when the leg is removed.

It’s also important to note that your tripod might have notches to help it align when assembled. In this case, the Vanguard has two small notches in each leg tube that fit in the gap between the top plastic cap. Keep in any rubber O-ring gaskets in the correct order.

Remove all legs pieces, laying them out in order. The Vanguard I am using also has an added shim that sits in the flip-lock mechanism and I need to keep this safe.

The shim inside the legs of the Vanguard tripod. Yours may contain something similar if it has flip-lock legs.

Once all the legs are removed, use the blower/compressed air to clear obvious dust, dirt, and sand. Next, dip your toothbrush in soapy water and scrub the remaining debris from threads and leg parts. Dry with a rag.

Use air first to blow any debris out of the grooves.

Then use an old toothbrush and soapy water to get the hard to remove dirt.

The tops, where the legs attach to the tripod head unit, may or may not have the ability to be dissembled. The Vanguard pictured is not user-friendly and the best I can do is to clean it with the toothbrush and blower.

The MeFoto tripod, however, has two easily removed screws which, when removed, allow me to clean the sliding mechanism underneath.

Dirty

All clean!

Wipe down the outside of the leg tubes with the damp rag.

Tripod Feet

The feet of tripods take the most abuse and deserve to be cleaned too, even if you will just get them dirty again tomorrow. The Vanguard pictured here has rubber feet to cover spikes which invite sand and debris aplenty.

The MeFoto has flat feet that can be screwed off (and replaced with other optional feet) which trap grit.

Dirty

Clean!

For removable feet, give them a dip in the soapy water and a scrub with the brush. Otherwise, use your blower and toothbrush to remove all dirt.

Let all the components dry thoroughly before moving on to reassembly (below).

Tripod Head

Most tripod heads are not meant to be fully disassembled like the legs. The ball heads pictured here are sealed at the factory and can only be cleaned to a certain degree.

Remove any quick release plates and clean under and around them. Loosen up all twist-locks that tension the ball or swivel head and clean the threads the best you can.

Remove the head from the tripod and clean the underside with a damp cloth.

Other Parts

Both of my tripods have a removable hook on the bottom to hold a weight for stabilization. I will take those apart too and give them a cleaning.

Reassembly

When all parts are dry, it’s time to put everything back together. I suggest using the waterproof grease on threads that are meant to tighten and loosen. In my case, I’ll grease the threads of the MeFoto leg twist-locks and the control screws for the ball head.

Add a small amount of the grease to the threads to ensure easy movement of the parts.

Some people prescribe putting a little bit of grease in the ball head and working it around. This can be helpful, but I would check your owner’s manual first to see if the manufacturer recommends it or not.

Sliding the legs back together, make sure any notches are properly aligned and that plastic end caps are in place before assembly. It’s also important to ensure you aligned the flip-locks so they are all facing the right way. Tighten up all locks and give your tripod a quick run through to make sure nothing is too loose or too tight.

Conclusion

A properly cleaned tripod will last much longer than any camera body you will ever own. While you may want to upgrade to a lighter or stronger unit in the future, there’s no reason your current tripod can’t serve you well into the future.

The post How to Clean Your Tripod and Make it Like New by Peter West Carey appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
March 25, 2018
Frozen Warriors: Capturing the mighty musk ox in its natural habitat

Wildlife photographer Chris Schmid recently travelled to Norway’s Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park—which contains some of the most punishing-yet-beautiful landscapes on Earth—to shoot an ambitious documentary photography and filmmaking project. His goal was to capture the mammoth-like musk ox in their natural arctic habitat, and the result is the short film The Frozen Warriors.

Using RED cameras for video, DJI drones for aerial shots, and the Sony a9 and a7R III for stills photography, Schmid sought to capture footage that would foster some sort of connection between his audience and the musk oxen, whose already dwindling numbers are increasingly threatened by climate change. This, despite being one of the most resilient animals on Earth, having survived the last ice age without breaking a sweat.

As Chris explains:

What fascinates me about the musk ox is the strength it has to adapt to the most hostile of environments. In the winter, they feed on roots, mosses and lichens buried under the snow and spend over four months without sunshine, in total darkness, surviving in temperatures reaching as low as -60°C

Check out the film at the top of this post and scroll through Schmid’s photographs from the project below to get to know these Frozen Warriors for yourself. And if you want to learn more about the project (and help raise awareness), visit (and share) the Frozen Warriors project page here.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

March 25, 2018
Six Reasons to Upgrade From Lightroom 6 to Lightroom Classic CC
If you’re a Lightroom 6 user you may be wondering whether it’s time to upgrade to Lightroom Classic CC. Yes, it will cost you more to move over to the Lightroom Classic subscription, but you will receive a lot of extras in compensation. Let’s take a look at what they are, so you can decide whether the upgrade is worth it for you or not.

1. The Lightroom Classic CC subscription includes Photoshop CC

It’s true that many photographers do all their photo processing in Lightroom without ever moving across to Photoshop. If that’s you, then don’t feel you need to use Photoshop just for the sake of it.

But there are things you can do in Photoshop that you can’t in Lightroom. If you’d like to try any of these, then you’ll need to subscribe to Lightroom Classic CC to access to the latest version, as you can’t buy a standalone version of Photoshop CC.

These are just some of the things you can do in Photoshop that you can’t in Lightroom.
- Use layers and masking.
- Advanced portrait retouching.
- Blend or composite multiple images together.
- Swap skies or heads (in a group portrait).
- Use Content-aware fill to remove unwanted items.
- Make complex selections.
- Add texture overlays.
- Add fancy borders.
I used Photoshop to add a texture layer and an interesting border to this still life photo.

2. Lightroom Classic CC lets you synchronize photos to use with the Lightroom CC mobile apps

With Lightroom Classic CC you can synchronize selected Collections and view the photos in those Collections in the Lightroom CC app (formerly known as Lightroom mobile) on a tablet or smartphone. One benefit of this is that you can download the photos to your device so that you can show them to people even when your device is offline.

This makes Lightroom CC a great way to show your portfolio to people while on the go. You can also develop photos in the Lightroom CC app, which may come in handy when you are away from home.

A Collection of photos in Lightroom Classic CC.

The same Collection in the Lightroom CC iPad app.

3. Lightroom Classic CC lets you display photos online

There are two ways to display your photos online using Lightroom Classic CC. The first is to make a Collection public – something you can do with any synchronized Collection. When you do this Lightroom generates a URL that you can give to other people so that they can see the photos in the Collection in a browser (also known as Lightroom Web).

This is a good way to share photos with family, friends, and even clients. If the viewer logs in with an Adobe ID they can even favorite photos and add comments.

This is how the same Collection shown above looks when displayed in a browser.

The other way is to use Adobe Portfolio to build your own portfolio website. I explored this option in more detail in my article How to Create a Beautiful Online Gallery with Lightroom Classic CC and Adobe Portfolio in 15 Minutes.

Adobe Portfolio is the easiest way I know of to turn a synchronized Collection into a website portfolio.

One of the pages from my Adobe Portfolio-generated website.

4. Lightroom Classic CC is faster than Lightroom 6

The latest upgrades to Lightroom Classic CC means that it runs much faster than Lightroom 6. The exact speed gains depend on your computer setup (for example, you need to have at least 12GB of RAM to take advantage of some of the speed gains in the latest Lightroom Classic CC release).

But there’s no doubt that the process of importing photos and generating previews is much faster in Lightroom Classic CC. If speed is an issue with Lightroom 6, it may be time to upgrade.

5. Lightroom Classic CC has Color Range Masking and Luminance Range Masking

These new tools give you more options when it comes to making selections and applying Radial Filters, Graduated Filters and the Adjustment Brush. They are extremely useful when it comes to making local adjustments. You will need to upgrade to Lightroom Classic CC if you’d like to use them.

The Color Range Masking tool in action. I used it here in conjunction with the Adjustment Brush to apply Clarity to the red tin, but no other part of the photo.

6. Lightroom 6 is no longer supported by Adobe

While I’ve tried to emphasize what you will gain by upgrading to Lightroom Classic CC in the rest of the article, there’s no getting away from the fact that Lightroom 6 is no longer supported by Adobe. As a result, new features added to Lightroom Classic CC won’t be available to Lightroom 6 users.

The question you need to ask yourself is how important are the new features, such as Color Range Masking, to you and your workflow?

There’s no need to make an immediate decision. There’s nothing wrong with continuing to use Lightroom 6 for now and upgrading to Lightroom Classic CC in a year or two when the difference between the two is much greater.

You also need to be aware of the effect it will have on your workflow if you buy a new camera whose Raw files aren’t supported by Lightroom 6. In this situation, you can use Adobe’s free DNG Converter to convert the new camera’s Raw files to the DNG format, which can then be read by Lightroom 6. If that is too much of an inconvenience then it may be time to upgrade to Lightroom Classic CC.

Conclusion

These are the six main reasons that I can think of that Lightroom 6 users might want to upgrade to Lightroom Classic CC. If you’re considering the upgrade then take the time to think through your decision and decide which of these (if any) apply to you.

It’s important to make the right choice because once you upgrade to Lightroom Classic CC it’s extremely difficult to go back to using Lightroom 6. The reason for this is that Lightroom upgrades your Catalog so it’s compatible with Lightroom Classic CC. But the new Catalog format isn’t recognized by Lightroom 6. So make your decision wisely.

Can you think of any other reason why a Lightroom 6 user might want to upgrade to Lightroom Classic CC? Have you already upgraded? Then please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Mastering Lightroom ebooks

Want to get a head start with Lightroom? Take a look at my popular Mastering Lightroom ebooks, written to help photographers learn how to use all of Lightroom’s powerful features. Use the code DPS20 to get 20% off your first order.

The post Six Reasons to Upgrade From Lightroom 6 to Lightroom Classic CC by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
March 25, 2018
Tips for Posing People in Outdoor Portraits

Whether you’re photographing an individual or group, having sessions on location can add a lot of variety to your images. Most locations offer natural or built-in elements that are great for posing people without having to move too much.

Almost all outdoor locations have natural or built-in elements that can give you options for where to place your client and add more variety to the session. These can include rocks, walls, trees, benches, bridges, cars, lamp posts, columns, archways, fences, fountains, and staircases. Walls also make for great poses. All of these elements are terrific posing props that make your photos interesting. Use them as much as you can.

Start with a good foundation

After you have chosen the elements with which you want to pose your client, begin your session with a simple foundation pose. This could simply be your client standing still, arms at the hips. From there, you can build upon that pose and make subtle changes to add variety.

Another foundation pose might be having your client stand in the middle of a city walkway, as they would if they were alone. From there you can ask them to bring one arm up to fix their hair while standing still. Then, have them fix their hair while walking toward you. Next, have your client do the same with their arm as they walk, but now looking toward the street. Finally, have them do the same, but this time take two steps, freeze their pose and look at you, as you get close for a portrait shot.

You now have five different poses all in the same location built on the same foundation pose.

Good foundation poses will also help with the dreaded question a lot of photographers get, “What do I do with my hands?” By building from simple poses and keeping your client moving with subtle changes, it helps them to use their hands more naturally.

Keep them moving

Many great poses involve having your clients moving. Have your client’s walk, run, jump, sit, stand, turn around, or spin. When you keep them moving you are allowing for lots of different types of shots all while letting your client walk off the nerves.

You don’t even need to move from the spot you’ve chosen. You could have them walk toward you, walk away from you, sit down, crouch down, lie down, or jump all within 15 feet of where you are standing. Have them use their hands while they move around for more dynamic photos.

Open spaces without posing elements

If you find yourself at a location, perhaps a beach, where there are no elements to use for posing, it can be difficult to pose hands or keep your client moving.

One way to pose hands in open spaces outdoors is to have your client use them. By this, I mean, have your client play with their hair, adjust their clothing, put on and take off their jacket, glasses, watch, etc. Keeping the hands busy relaxes your client and you’re able to make more natural looking photos without having the pose look too rigid.

Use the light

Shooting on location can offer lots of changes in light since you are outdoors. Use this to your advantage! Experiment with full sunlight, shadows, found pockets of interesting light shapes.

If you shoot your subject in full sunlight, for example, one pose you can try is to have them look up with their eyes closed, arms folded on their head. Another great pose you could try in full sunlight is to use shadows to create an interesting patter either on your client or behind. Have your client looking down or straight at your camera.

Using the different changes in light around you can give you new ideas on where to put the hands, legs, and other elements of your client to create a more compelling or dynamic photo.

The same can be applied to the basic compositional rules in photography. Using lines, shapes, patterns, and colors in your background to frame and pose your client as part or to stand out may result in a really interesting photo.

Conclusion

I feel that posing a client on location is much easier than posing in the studio because you have many elements available to use as props. And remember, shooting many different poses also increases your chances of getting the great shots that will build your amazing portfolio.

The post Tips for Posing People in Outdoor Portraits by Jackie Lamas appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

March 25, 2018
Shooting the Sony a7 III around the Pacific Northwest: Sample gallery updated

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Now that we’ve gotten the Sony a7 III in our Seattle offices and are working our way through our full review, we’ve updated our sample gallery with a selection of our favorite images from our neck of the woods.

From cherry blossoms at the University of Washinton to coastal lighthouses and even a few furry friends for good measure, check out our gallery for a taste of Seattle in the springtime.

See our updated Sony a7 III gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

March 24, 2018
Instagram updates news feed, makes it a bit more chronological

Yesterday, Instagram announced some changes to the News Feed that might quiet some of the grumbling that’s been going on ever since the app switched from a Chronological to an Algorithmic feed. No, the rumors were not true and the company is not going back to the chronological feed in full, but your Instagram feed will begin surfacing newer posts closer to the top of your feed from now on.

The announcement comes less than a week after Instagram was forced to debunk a viral rumor that it was testing a return to the Chronological feed. But it seems that rumor might have contained a grain of truth.

Yesterday’s update is actually two-fold. First, newer posts are now “more likely to appear first in feed” so you don’t have to scroll through a bunch of posts from several days ago in order to see images that were posted this morning. And Second, the feed will no longer update automatically; instead, Instagram is testing a “New Posts” button that allows you to manually refresh the feed only when you’re ready.

The latter change is a response to feedback that “it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top.” I can personally relate to this annoyance, and I’m sure some of our readers can, too.

Profile names and hashtags are now clickable in your Instagram bio.

Finally, right before this announcement went live, Instagram also revealed that it would now allow users to link hashtags and profile links in their bio. So if you add your professional photo profile to your personal bio or visa-versa, that @-name will now be clickable. Same goes for hashtags.

Adding a level of security to this, whenever you link someone’s profile in your bio, their account will receive a notification, and they can choose to remove the link.

All of these changes are rolling out now, although the News Feed changes still in the ‘testing’ phase. To take advantage of the updates yourself, just make sure you’re using the latest version of Instagram on either iOS or Android.

Press Release

Changes to Improve Your Instagram Feed

Today we’re introducing changes to give you more control over your feed and ensure the posts you see are timely.

We’ve heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top. So today we’re testing a “New Posts” button that lets you choose when you want to refresh, rather than it happening automatically. Tap the button and you’ll be taken to new posts at the top of feed — don’t tap, and you’ll stay where you are. We hope this makes browsing Instagram much more enjoyable.

Based on your feedback, we’re also making changes to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed. With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about. So if your best friend shares a selfie from her vacation in Australia, it will be waiting for you when you wake up.

Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more about improvements we’re making to feed. Our goal is to be the best place to share and connect with the people and interests that matter most to you.

Introducing Hashtag and Profile Links in Bio

Today, we’re introducing hashtag and profile links in bio, a new way to express yourself and the things you care about. Now when you include a # or @ in your bio, they become live links that lead to a hashtag page or another profile.

In December, we introduced the ability to follow hashtags, giving you new ways to stay connected with the interests, hobbies, passions and communities you care about. With hashtag and profile links in your bio, you can express yourself and your interests right in your profile. Whether you’re a #guitarlover, into #pencilsketching or have a #makeuptutorial account, now you can link to any hashtag or profile you want.

To add a hashtag or profile link in your bio, just tap on Edit Profile and go to the bio section. When you type a # or @, you will see a list of recommended hashtags and accounts in the typeahead. Once you select the hashtags and accounts you want, they will automatically be linked in your bio.

When you mention someone else’s profile in your bio, they will receive a notification and can choose to remove the link to their profile. Their profile will remain in your bio but without a link.

Instagram has always been a place for self-expression, and now there are even more ways to express yourself and your interests. To learn more, check out the Help Center.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

March 24, 2018
Russian drone pilot pushes his tiny drone to 33,000ft

YouTube user and drone pilot Denis Koryakin (“????? ???????”) recently published a video showing a small drone’s trip to an altitude of around 33,000ft.

Operating a drone at that altitude would be against regulations in many places, not to mention risky to commercial aircraft. That said, this particular ascent appears to have taken place in a remote region of Russia near the Siberian city of Strejevoï, and there don’t seem to be any altitude restrictions on small drone flights in Russia, so he didn’t technically break any laws.

According to Koryakin’s video description, this “drone experiment” intended to get the drone to an altitude of 10 kilometers, which is just under 33,000ft and about the cruising altitude of passenger jets. The on-screen display shows the drone’s speed hitting 13 meters per second at one point, and Koryakin explained that temps went down to -50°C (-58°F) when the drone reached an altitude of around 8,000 meters (~26,000ft).

The video translation reads (H/T DPReview user ShaiKhulud):

March 9, 2018. Experiments with drone are still in progress. Goals for this flight are: reach a height of 10km and return to the launch site without accidents.

By popular demands, by my own desire and with a help of my friends we’ve added an air temperature gauge.

Because of the thermometer inertia, temperature is displayed with a slight delay.

The outside ground level temperature was around -10 C.

Max temperature during flight was around -50 C at 8000 m. altitude.

DVR footage and HD footage is slightly out of sync (by a few seconds) because of the frame skipping.

In the video description, Koryakin also lists the parts used to construct and control the drone, all of them readily accessible to anyone who wants to replicate it. Components include Cobra brushless motors, Gemfan carbon nylon propellers, and Sony li-ion batteries. The drone weighed around 1kg / 2.3lbs.

Disclaimer: Always check applicable local laws before trying something that might be dangerous or potentially illegal. DPReview does not condone or encourage illegal activity.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

March 24, 2018