Archive for the ‘Quick Tip’ Category
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Twirl and Pinch
Image © 2011/Denise Ippolito Photography
To create the look above I started with an image of very small little flowers. I liked the mix of green and pinks but the base image felt weak to me. I decided to add a zoom blur in Photoshop combined with the twirl and pinch filter both found in Photoshop. I used a series of layer masks to keep the center flower in focus. Re-cropped my image placing the flower off center.
To learn more about this technique and others , check out my current eBook “A Guide to Creative Filters and Effects” in the OPG Store.
Check out Denise's website at www.deniseippolito.com
Tags: Denise Ippolito, ebook, filters
Posted in Creativity, Digital Editing, Processing, Quick Tip | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
I’ve fielded quite a few questions about how to place a logo into Lightroom’s Identity Plate, so I put together a quick video tutorial. If you’re reading this in an RSS feed or email then you’ll need to go HERE to watch the video. I hope you enjoy, John
Learn more about John, view his images and check out his blog here.
Tags: Adobe Lightroom, adobe lightroom 3, General, John Batdorff, Q&A, tutorial
Posted in Blog, Digital Editing, Quick Tip, Video | No Comments »
Monday, January 24th, 2011
I see lots of photographs of this simple Gerbera Flower, and I will say it is one of my favorites to shoot during the winter when I’m doing all my indoor shooting.
To many images made with flowers are shot from the front side, with little imagination. A flower has so many different angles that you have to explore all the possibilities.
Here is the typical frontal shot, and rather then place the flowers center in the middle of the frame like you see most photographers do, I’ve offset the center of the flower in the lower left corner. Because every part of this view has interesting designs I want everything in focus, so I set my f/stop as the highest number at f/22.
The next shot is also a frontal shot but I moved in closer and only included a quarter view of the flower center by placing it in the lower right side and making the image as a horizontal. Again I’ve set my f/stop at f/22 to bring the whole flower in focus.
Now I change the view to a side angle which has great potential for some abstract images. With these abstracts I want a nice soft focus and I set the f/stop wide open to f/2.8. The f/2.8 will give me very limited depth of field and a nice soft feel. In this first image I run the line of the tips of the petals from the lower corner to the upper corner of the frame. I place the focus on the two tips in the lower left corner. Your eye always goes to the sharpest part of the image which is the two lower tips, and then your eye follows the line of the petals up into the frame.
The next shot is another side view, but now in a vertical position and moved the camera to capture just a little bit of the sepal in the lower right corner. Same f/stop as last shot. Focus on the tips of the petal in the center of the frame.
I work my way a little father on the backside so you now see the view of the under side of the petals and a little more of the green sepal. F/stop still at f/2.8. These images have a really nice look with that soft focus caused by the wide open aperture.
The last shot is still a side angle but much more of the green sepal and a little stem in view. Turned this one as a vertical and placed the point of focus in the center where the tips of the sepal and the purple petals meet. Still on wide open at f/2.8. You could also shot this with the higher f/stop and more depth of field to bring in all the nice textures of the green sepal.
We have only explored six angles, but they are many more possibilities. So be creative and explore next time to work with a single flower!
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: angles, composition, Flowers, Macro, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Macro, Quick Tip, Vision | No Comments »
Monday, January 10th, 2011
The holidays are now over. Your naughty/nice tally has been reset and another year is a head of us! Apparently, you were super good because you got that new camera gear you had been asking for. The excitement of getting what you wanted has passed, and now it's time for you to take your new toy and put it into action.
Many times, this is much easier said than done. Many people get stuck pondering what to do next once they have their new gear.
Never fret (yes folks, some of us still use that word…). We have four tips to make this transition easier. Not all of these suggestions are applicable in all situations so yes, your mileage will vary. Some may seem basic, but you can never underestimate the importance of mastering the basics. Nonetheless, these ideas are better than you engaging in a staring contest with your new and exciting toy. The new gear always wins the staring contest… I promise…
1. Read… The Manual
Regardless of where you are in your photographic journey, it is beneficial to read the manual. You need to be familiar with how to use your new equipment before you take it into the field. The last thing you want is to get the killer moment presented to you in the field only to miss it because you were futzing around with your gear. Your gear are your tools which enable you to make the photographs. If you start reading through the manual and you don’t understand stuff, don’t worry. This is all about learning. Do not let unfamiliarity hinder your quest to understand your gear.
2. Go Out And Shoot
Only way to see how much you truly understand from Step 1 is to go out and shoot. You'll want to go and shoot something familiar. The intent of this exercise is to test your comprehension of how to use your new gear. If you get some keepers, cool! But, the goal here is to test how much you retained from reading the manual. Nothing more.
3. Re-read the manual
No rolling your eyes… I see you there in the back of the room!… Re-reading the manual will uncover little nuggets you missed the first time around. Now that you have gone out and shot in the field, you will have new areas you need to understand.
4. Go to the Zoo and shoot
I don’t care if you think your house is a zoo. Go to an actual zoo. This is your chance to truly “test” your knowledge of your new gear. You will not know everything by this stage, but you should be able to use your new stuff well enough for a good field test. I suggest the zoo because it provides you opportunities to photograph many different scenes and let you play and experiment. If you shoot 1000 images and have five you want to publish, you’re doing well.
By this time, you should be familiar enough with your new gear to use it in the field. I always recommend you carry the manuals for your major gear (cameras, lens, and flashes) with you. As questions arise, I would re-read or refer to the manual. Believe it or not, after I am comfortable with my gear, I re-read the manual about every three months. No sense in buying a Ferrari and only leaving it in first gear…
Learning a new piece of gear can be like driving a brand new car. Sure, you can probably make it work based on previous experience. But, to get the most out of your investment, you will need to read, re-read, and then apply the skills and techniques you have learned in the manual to get the most out of the toy.
Happy New Year! Now go and chase the light.
You can check out Ted's work on his website, and follow his comments on Twitter.
Posted in Articles, Commentary, Creativity, Quick Tip | No Comments »
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
I love watching the reruns of the TV hit comedy sitcoms from the past on TBS, and my favorite is the “Seinfeld” show. If you are a fan of that show, you may have seen the episode titled “The Bubble Boy” which was about a young man that had to live in a plastic bubble, which doesn’t sound funny, but it was. When I captured this image it reminded me of that show.
I shot this at the edge of a river which had a small waterfall. The crashing water of the falls produced bubbles which flowed to the edge were I was standing. I thought that the bubbles would make an interesting abstract image, so I set-up my camera. I needed a fast shutter speed to stop the quick movement of the bubbles as they past by, and at that time the the highest ISO I could shoot with my Fuji S3 camera and produce a decent noise free image was at ISO1600, so that’s where I set it. I set the f/stop at 3.5 which is wide open on my 180mm macro to also help increase the shutter speed. The light was an overcast day and I got the shutter speed up around 1000th of a second.
I shot about 40 images, and out of all the images this was the only one that worked without any softness in the details from the quick swirling movement of the bubbles. You see me and the legs of the tripod, and the trees towering above me. It was shot in the early spring and the trees were bare as they had not started to bud yet. Very cool stuff, try it next time you’re near some waterfalls.
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: bubbles, M ike Moats, Macro, water
Posted in Articles, Blog, Quick Tip, Vision | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 15th, 2010
Our model, Rachael, under overcast skies at the DPE Learning Weekend in Atlanta, GA
Overcast skies may be bad for landscape photography, but they are great for shooting portraits. When shooting under cloudy skies you’ve got a giant overhead softbox to work with. This creates soft light that wraps around your subject and makes it easy to capture a proper exposure without blown highlights or harsh shadows. This soft light is also a great base for adding off-camera flash.
A few tips for success on an overcast day:
•Set your white balance to ‘Cloudy’ to add a little warmth to your colors
•Don’t include the sky in your photos. Unless the clouds are very dramatic, an overcast sky doesn’t make a good background.
•Use off-camera flash (speedlights or strobes) to create more interesting or dramatic lighting. Use the ambient light as your fill and build the main light with your off-camera flash.
•You may need to bump up the contrast (I like to use a curves adjustment) in Lightroom or Photoshop.
Learn more about Rob, view his images and check out his workshops at his website.
Tags: Lighting, Photo Tips, Portrait, Rob Knight, tip
Posted in Lighting, Quick Tip, Vision | No Comments »
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Glowing In the Dark, Calgary
Things are busy, feels like no time to head out to the field. What to do? I know! Still life closeups of flowers can be fun.
Sure, flowers smell nice and look colorful, but from arm’s length they’re part of the normal world. How often do we take in their intricate details? Viewed up close, the familiar can become strange or fascinating… perhaps both. Sounds like a job for a photographer.
On the dining room table, some cut lilies in a vase made a perfect subject. My wife remarked on their strong aroma that filled the room, and the beauty of the petals. I nodded my head, but was thinking of the macro lens, a close-up perspective, and some unusual lighting.
I broke out my Canon 5D Mk II, put on the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro lens, and got it all set up on the tripod. As the evening light through the picture window grew dim, I turned down the dining room lights as well. A small flashlight provided some targeted glow while the rest of the normal vibrant colors receded into the shadows. Selecting a fairly wide aperture of f/4 provided a shallow depth of field and the stage was all set for the composition.
I had two final elements in my approach to developing the photo. First was to make 3 bracketed exposures to capture the full dynamic range, right from glowing highlights through to richly saturated shadows. I wanted a silky smooth look to go with the velvety feel of the dark, blurred colors… no digital noise, thanks very much! I used High Dynamic Range (HDR) software to process the bracketed exposures, giving me a super clean, rich master image which required very little extra steps to finish in PhotoShop.
My second major development decision was to crop in tight in a 6×6 aspect ratio. Once I was working the image towards its final state, I decided the extra details I had originally framed took away from the essence of the composition — the graceful curving pistil surrounded by flowing, colorful blurs that only suggested the rest of the structure of the flower. Other details in the full frame were distractions, not features, and the image was strengthened by removing them. Presto — “Glowing In the Dark”, a fun little composition to while away an evening.
Learn more about Royce, his images and his workshops at Vivid Aspect Photography.
Tags: composition, digital photography, making opportunities, Royce Howland, technique
Posted in Creativity, Macro, Quick Tip | 1 Comment »
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
If you’ve ever studied some of the better macro images out there, you’ll see those nice clean solid color backgrounds that allow a subject to stand out, with no distractions to pull your eye away. This presentation just doesn’t happen by accident, it’s carefully planned, and not all that hard to do. Most people that sign up for my Macro Boot Camps tend to be flower shooters, so we'll use flowers as our subject matter for this post.
In the image below you see a nice patch of Dame’s Rocket flowers. When approaching a patch like this, I see so many photographers that head right to the middle of the patch to find a flower to shoot. With all the congestion of flowers, stems, leaves, this approach will only lead to a distracting background and make it impossible to get that clean shot.
For a clean shot, you'll need to concentrate your attention to the flowers at the perimeter of the patch. By finding those isolated flowers at the edges, and shooting at an angle where the background is the farthest away, you'll be able to get those nice solid color backgrounds.
In the image below you see the small cluster of flowers on the far right. That,s what you should be looking for--an isolated group that will allow you to shoot without all the distractions behind it.
Find an angle where your background is the farthest away, as this will make it easier for the camera to blur the background. Use a smaller f/stop in the f3.5 to f/8 range to center your depth of field and to help soften the background into a solid color.
Here is the small cluster that we identified in the previous image. This image was shot using the Tamron 90mm at f5/6.
If you can’t find that perfect flower at the edges and have to shoot into the clutter, go tight to eliminate the clutter!
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: Flowers, Macro Composition, Macro Photogrpahy, Macro Tips, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Creativity, Macro, Quick Tip | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Earlier this month Adobe released “candidates” for Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 and today they have released the final versions of these updates.
These final version contain even more bug fixes and support for 16 new cameras (up from 12 on the candidate releases) including support for the just recently announced Canon 60D.
To check out the new features, big fixes, new cameras supported check out this article on the Lightroom Journal.
To download updates, click on the appropriate links below:
Follow Juan on The Digital Photo Experience
Tags: adobe, camera raw, Juan Pons, lightroom, Photo News, updates
Posted in Quick Tip | No Comments »
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What To Do Now That You Have Your New Gear
Monday, January 10th, 2011The holidays are now over. Your naughty/nice tally has been reset and another year is a head of us! Apparently, you were super good because you got that new camera gear you had been asking for. The excitement of getting what you wanted has passed, and now it's time for you to take your new toy and put it into action.
Many times, this is much easier said than done. Many people get stuck pondering what to do next once they have their new gear.
Never fret (yes folks, some of us still use that word…). We have four tips to make this transition easier. Not all of these suggestions are applicable in all situations so yes, your mileage will vary. Some may seem basic, but you can never underestimate the importance of mastering the basics. Nonetheless, these ideas are better than you engaging in a staring contest with your new and exciting toy. The new gear always wins the staring contest… I promise…
1. Read… The Manual
Regardless of where you are in your photographic journey, it is beneficial to read the manual. You need to be familiar with how to use your new equipment before you take it into the field. The last thing you want is to get the killer moment presented to you in the field only to miss it because you were futzing around with your gear. Your gear are your tools which enable you to make the photographs. If you start reading through the manual and you don’t understand stuff, don’t worry. This is all about learning. Do not let unfamiliarity hinder your quest to understand your gear.
2. Go Out And Shoot
Only way to see how much you truly understand from Step 1 is to go out and shoot. You'll want to go and shoot something familiar. The intent of this exercise is to test your comprehension of how to use your new gear. If you get some keepers, cool! But, the goal here is to test how much you retained from reading the manual. Nothing more.
3. Re-read the manual
No rolling your eyes… I see you there in the back of the room!… Re-reading the manual will uncover little nuggets you missed the first time around. Now that you have gone out and shot in the field, you will have new areas you need to understand.
4. Go to the Zoo and shoot
I don’t care if you think your house is a zoo. Go to an actual zoo. This is your chance to truly “test” your knowledge of your new gear. You will not know everything by this stage, but you should be able to use your new stuff well enough for a good field test. I suggest the zoo because it provides you opportunities to photograph many different scenes and let you play and experiment. If you shoot 1000 images and have five you want to publish, you’re doing well.
By this time, you should be familiar enough with your new gear to use it in the field. I always recommend you carry the manuals for your major gear (cameras, lens, and flashes) with you. As questions arise, I would re-read or refer to the manual. Believe it or not, after I am comfortable with my gear, I re-read the manual about every three months. No sense in buying a Ferrari and only leaving it in first gear…
Learning a new piece of gear can be like driving a brand new car. Sure, you can probably make it work based on previous experience. But, to get the most out of your investment, you will need to read, re-read, and then apply the skills and techniques you have learned in the manual to get the most out of the toy.
Happy New Year! Now go and chase the light.
You can check out Ted's work on his website, and follow his comments on Twitter.
Posted in Articles, Commentary, Creativity, Quick Tip | No Comments »