This week we explore how objects between and around your flash affect your images. You may have heard of terms like cookie, flag and gobo when referring to lighting, what the heck are these things and will using them benefit your images? Lets talk about it… Cookies Cookies are an object which is placed in front of your light source […]
By numerous reader request, in this week’s Troubleshooting your photography we discuss portraits with Christmas lights. Controlling your ambient light and flash exposure to get Christmas lights that pop while keeping a proper exposure on your subject can be confusing. Let’s talk about it… Using a strobe, whether on-camera or off to light your subject is a straightforward process, but […]
Today I continue my weekly series helping you to Troubleshoot your Photography. This series is geared towards beginning and intermediate photographers, but old grizzled photographers (yours truly included) may also find useful tidbits in these musings. Are you new to photography and finding that people on social media are not liking your images as much as you expected them to? […]
Have you ever sent off your photos to the local pharmacy or the big box store, only to get back a box full of prints that are way too dark? Do you wonder why your prints do not match what you see on your computer monitor? Did you get an awesome new photo printer for a gift, and all your […]
Welcome to part two of a new weekly series called Troubleshooting your Photography. This series is geared towards beginning and intermediate photographers, but old grizzled photographers (yours truly included) may also find useful tidbits in these musings. I’m publishing new articles each Tuesday. Are you new to photography and finding that people on social media are not liking your images […]
Today I start a new weekly series called Troubleshooting your Photography. This series is geared towards beginning and intermediate photographers, but old grizzled photographers (yours truly included) may also find useful tidbits in these musings. Watch for new articles each Tuesday. Are you new to photography and finding that people on social media are not liking your images as much […]
It is #TuesdayTips time again, and this week we are going to talk about a subject I get asked a lot – what do I need to buy to get into strobe photography? I will talk about my current gear, my past gear and most importantly what I have learned buying stuff that I thought I needed but didn’t. Full […]
It is #TuesdayTips time again, and this week we are talking about a cost effective way to get that analog or classic look in your photography without using filters. In 1982, the Holga toy camera was introduced in China as a low-cost way for working class families to record important events. The camera used black and white 120 film and […]
For today’s #TuesdayTips lets talk about a different way to shoot portraiture. A portrait is defined as: “a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders.”. In photography, there are many rules, but sometimes the most creative and beautiful images break these rules. When first learning photography, having a set […]
If you are asking yourself this question, then your biggest problem is not whether your photos are technically or compositionally good enough to show – but are you confident enough to show them. Here on this blog I have discussed culling your work and getting your portfolio trimmed down to the best ten images. We have also discussed some of […]
I see social media posts from fellow photographers all the time with huge watermarks, because if I put my name on it nobody can steal it right? A watermark does little to deter a potential photo thief. A watermark is easily cloned out using Photoshop, and if you copy the image and paste it into a new file in Photoshop […]
Many consider abstraction as the holy grail of creative photography. I love to embrace abstraction in much of my work, especially in my Landscapes of the Body project. There are as many ways to add abstraction into your work as there are subjects to shoot. My preferred way to going about creating an abstract image is to remove recognizable landmarks […]
Whether you shoot portraits, landscapes or product photography, a basic understanding of the Angle of incidence and the law of reflection can help you figure out how to solve many different kinds of lighting problems in your photography. Now, I’m not a physicist, I approach my understanding of topics here on my blog from a photographer’s point of view, and […]
Welcome to week four of my four part series on learning to see light. This series of articles have touched on the basics of light and how it affects your photography. As photographers, we are concerned with four attributes of light, Quantity, Quality, Color and Direction. This week we will focus primarily on the fourth attribute of light – direction. […]
Welcome to week three of my four part learning series on light. This series covers the basics of light and how it relates to your photography. As photographers, we are concerned with four attributes of light, Quantity, Quality, Color and Direction. This week we will focus primarily on the third important attribute of light – color. As with any physical […]
Ok, take a deep breath… here we go: Visible light is a specific frequency set of electromagnetic radiation measuring between 400 and 700 nanometers in the Electromagnetic Spectrum (4.00 × 10−7 to 7.00 × 10−7). This range sits between the infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. Whew! what does that mean? And more importantly how does it relate to photography? Well, even a […]
Generally, in my photography, I steer away from excessive photoshopping. Don’t get me wrong I don’t have hangups about Photoshop — on the contrary, I use it all the time as a tool to help me bring what my vision was for an image to the viewer. I am not opposed to getting rid of a power line or an […]
HDR, the photography equivalent of glitter in the craft world. HDR, or High Dynamic Range photography is the process of taking three images, bracketing the proper exposure and combining them to produce an image that has more detail in both the highlight and shadow areas. This technique allows you more flexibility when editing your images. When shooting in certain situations, […]
When I was in school for my photography degree, one of my instructors said something that stuck with me, and I think of every time I pick up my camera: Just Wait. Whether you shoot events, landscapes, portraits or architecture you can almost always benefit by waiting for that moment, or the light. Here are a couple of examples. This […]
When you are learning to draw, setting up a still life can be of great importance in helping you improve your ability to see the way the light is hitting your subject. This is true in photography too. For this weeks challenge, you will need a worklight and a daylight balanced CFL or compact fluorescent lightbulb. Both of these can […]
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