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Not everyone can afford—or needs—the most expensive kit when it comes to lighting. As a matter of fact, small and portable lighting kits make a photographer’s work more efficient. Here’s a selection of tools to help you assemble your lighting kit even with the smallest of budgets. Speedlights Speedlights are portable alternatives to heavy and […]
Though many filters can be replicated in Photoshop, several should still be in your bag. Have them ready, learn to use them and you can bring your images to the next level. The adage “You get what you pay for.” holds true when buying filers. The moderate and more expensive filters will be of much higher quality. When buying filters, look for coated or super-coated filters. For round filters, Tiffin and Hoya make good filters at reasonable prices. B+W and Heliopan are excellent, but a bit more expensive. For square or rectangle filters (NDG or ND Filters) Singh-Ray, Hi-Tech, Lee all make very high quality filters.
Wildflower Photography by Steve Berardi is designed to be a complete guide to photographing wildflowers. This is the 2nd edition which has been completely revamped with new sections, more example photos, and updated content. This 64 page eBook takes you through the whole process from equipment and camera settings to post-processing in Photoshop. Wildflowers display […]
Having a website presence as part of your photography business is becoming increasingly important. It is always great to be able to hand out business cards that include a website address where potential clients can take a look at your portfolio. Starting the process to create a website may seem very daunting, but it is actually very easy these days. This blog post is specifically focused on how to create a flash-based website. Many photographers prefer flash style websites because they are usually more interactive and responsive to quick navigation through a large collection of photos.
For the most part a photographer only needs a few software programs in order to have a fully functioning digital darkroom. While there are dozens of possibilities I have three software packages that I strongly recommend: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Tiffen’s Df/x. I suggest starting with Photoshop Lightroom ($299). Lightroom is both an image manipulation program and one of the best image file archive managers on the planet. In every instance Lightroom is where I begin the moment I have images that I need to move from a memory card onto my computer.
Many years ago I came across what is probably the best way to learn composition, and also the hardest one to actually use, even though the concept is very simple. You take one camera body, one lens, one roll of film, (or memory card) and you pick one subject to shoot. Then go out about town, or around the countryside, and fill that one roll with that one subject only, but take your time when doing it. Rushing things just leads to even more mistakes that may not have anything to do with composition, but will lead to confusion. You want to learn from “how” you did the shooting, and not because you were rushed to do it.
Ever take a photograph of a winter landscape and have it come out looking pale grey or even light blue? That is the camera’s white balance misbehaving, and while you can go ahead and manually “tinker” with the different settings, there is a much easier approach. Before we go into a discussion about that approach, however, let’s take a quick second to understand the underlying problem. We already said that it all begins with a bit of bad behaviour by a camera’s white balance setting. This is the method that your camera uses to interpret pure white, or more officially, it is the way that the camera is interpreting the colour “temperature” of the light source.
If you’d like to shoot weddings like the pros do, you need to take a few tips from them. They’ve learned the easiest way to do things and the most effective ways of getting stunning shots. Unless you want to learn from the school of hard knocks, take a few tips. Weddings are the biggest day in the lives of most couples and it needs to be perfect. You only get one chance; there are no retakes and once the day is over so is the opportunity. So, get it right first time and you’ll have a happy bridal couple, less stress and money in your bank account. Create a shot list – this is absolutely vital and every pro uses one.
CanvasPeople is offering a free 8×10 canvas print for the month of March as a way to introduce more people to their service. Users can either choose the free 8×10 print or receive 50$ off a larger print. If you have ever wanted to try printing one of your favorite photos on canvas, this is a very good opportunity. The only cost is shipping and handling (which was $14.95 for my order shipped to California). Their ordering process is very simple and convenient. A quality canvas print will deliver a matte-paper like contrast and color, but since there’s no glass over the print to reduce contrast and saturation, the colors remain much more vibrant when viewed from a distance.
This post is somewhat off the topic of photography, but I always wanted a page on this site where I could post items and information as the sport of wingsuit flying progresses. Plus, a lot of people have emailed me inquiring as to how one learns to fly a wingsuit – so I thought I would try to assemble some information. Wingsuit flying is new sport where participants fly their bodies up in the sky with the assistance of a special jumpsuit called a wingsuit which provides winged surfaces between the arms and legs for lift. Due to the speed at which wingsuits fly, a parachute is necessary for a safe landing.
