Category Archives: photography
Lighting Review: Rogue Flash Benders
One of the most common search criteria on Google that coincides with photography is that of lighting. It’s no surprise as photography really is all about the light, and when making and taking photos (yes, there’s a difference), one of the key things that people can grasp quite easily is the success of a photo is often very dependent on the lighting.
August Winner – September Begins!
Ahhh, month-end. Contest announcement days! As most know, this is the time when the previous month’s winner is typically announced and the next month theme is opened up for entries. Today is no exception… First up, congratulations go out to Evelyn B. for her winning metal-themed image: Not only is this a perfectly-lit image, but the details are spot on, and it totally fits the theme of Metal! Congrats to Evelyn B. from Flickr – please email me your contact information so I can submit to Red River Paper for you to get the pack of Pearl Metallic Paper (which … Continue reading
Five Ways to Deal with Harsh/Low Lighting
A common question I get here is how to deal with harsh or low light situations. This is a great question, and for event photographers, it’s simply part of the job to recognize various lighting conditions and address them accordingly. Today, I’d like to share Five Ways to Deal with Harsh/Low Lighting: 1. Cranking the ISO and hoping to fix in post With advancements in technology, noise handling both in camera and in post production has resulted in some astonishing results that in previous years would have been literally unrecoverable. While we should always endeavor to make our images shine … Continue reading
Copyright Isn’t Just for Photographers….
The web makes for an interesting place, and often I get emails from folks asking for suggestions and recommendations on how to best protect their images from being used without their permission (and let’s not mince words here – nobody wants to have their work stolen). Often my response is a bit of this and that, suggesting to make images “web-safe” (i.e. low resolution so they can’t really be re-printed), and to limit the images you publish. (The more you put out there, the more you have to monitor.)
It’s not the body, it’s the glass! (New Canon gear…)
Okay, while everyone is salivating (or slamming) on the new 60D Canon just announced, let’s not forget that it’s not really about the body upgrades – it’s the glass we want to invest in. And, true to form, there are also a significant number of additions and upgrades to the Canon lens line-up that bear some discussion, so here we go: Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens – Touted as the worlds widest fisheye zoom, it’s an impressive feat, but not many shooters really need such a lens. At $1400 price point, the price point will likely be too … Continue reading
The 60D Cometh! New Canon Gear!
It’s official – about ten minutes ago I got the word from the horses’ mouth directly (a.k.a. Canon), that the new 60D is hot off the presses! Rather than spout all the technical details, (which the rest of the blogosphere will do in short order), here’s the ones I like the most and why: The Vari-Angle Clear View LCD Screen Just the other day over on Camera Dojo, I was lamenting with Kerry Garrison about how the LCD’s in Canon EOS bodies didn’t have the resolution. In addition to having the tilting LCD for a variable angle of view (great … Continue reading
Hardware Review: Think Tank Airport International V2.0
We all have camera bags. Whether you use a Point-and-Shoot, an SLR, or any other type of camera, you are putting it somewhere eventually that could be defined as a bag. These bags are made in such a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and straps, it’s really amazing sometimes how many options there are for the photographer today. But like it or not, if you have a camera – you are gonna need a bag!
A visit from Andie Smith!
Friend of the blog, Andie Smith has generously donated her time again here to share some insider tricks and tips to get the most out of Lightroom 3 – she shows her work flow, what the effect of various presets are in LR, and how to effectively use them. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Andie Smith It is no secret I love Adobe Lightroom… the rumors are true, I refuse to edit without it. As I’ve created my own presets I realized if they are created correctly you can “stack them”. What is stacking? It is similar to using more … Continue reading
3 Years down! What’s Next?
In the blogging community, a year is a significant milestone, as most bloggers don’t make it to this point. Interests wax and wane, jobs and passions change, and audiences swell and sag as the community of readers often will gravitate toward new topics and content. The idea behind retention of readership is to change with the times. Here at CB/LDP, that has not been a problem. From the beginning, this blog has always been about sharing my experiences in photography with the larger community. So, as new technologies develop, and I learn about them, the writing reflects changes and advances … Continue reading
Digital Photography: Where do we go from here?
I’ve often wondered about the development of technology and the patterns that go with it. As technology has advanced in other areas such as computing, the World Wide Web, and mobile platforms, cameras have also seen similar changes in recent years. The difference between cameras and the rest of the industry though is that with cameras, it’s been a very recent development. Photography has been around a lot longer than the digital world, and the underlying principles and foundations that are the basis for the craft haven’t changed much. Shutter speed and aperture size are still the dominant forces that … Continue reading
Raquette Lake Rendezvous
Every year, the men in the family (cue Tim Allen-esque Home Improvement style grunts) depart from their women and the rigmarole of daily lives to embark on a quest to re-connect with nature. We build fire, we eat man food, we emit bodily sounds not allowed in most social circles, tell jokes that are decidedly not PC or appropriate for most audiences and all sorts of other debauchery. This year I had the chance to attend (I missed a few years due to work), and with a new generation of men-in-training to initiate, it was quite the sojurn! We also … Continue reading
Where in the world am I?
Thanks to the timely receipt of the Photoshop Guys Q&A sets, I was effectively able to go “off the grid” for nearly a week! That’s right – completely off the grid! No email, no Twitter, no Facebook, no phone, no internet – nada! It was quite the enjoyable experience. While a select few people did have a “need to know” before I left, I did try to keep this on the down low…
Friday Round-Up
A bunch of news for today – as most of you know, our inaugural workshop was this last weekend in Anaheim, and boy was it rockin’! Great participation, great input, and super feedback from everyone. On the anonymous feedback forms, every ranking was either a 9 or a ten (and there were more of the latter than the former)! Such a rush to see so much appreciation, and Denver is sure to draw an even bigger crowd. There’s only a few early bird seats left (3 I think), so if you haven’t registered yet – better sign up while the … Continue reading
A bit of Tea, Chap?
A recent visit to the parental units in upstate New York was long overdue for a number of reasons. First off, I’d not been back in nearly 4 years! Second, they had done some pretty extensive renovations and were clamoring for family to come see all the newness of their kitchen (and for the record, it was pretty fabulous), but third, and perhaps most importantly – the maternal unit is quite the avid gardener, and she prides herself on the beauty of her English-style gardens.
Episode # 49 is in your podcast feed!
As we approach the half century mark in the Learning Digital Photography Podcast series, Erik Bernskiold joins us on the show for another session of doling out some good photo tips – great ways to take and make better pictures and take your photography to the next level. For those that are grabbing from the iTunes feed it should be published shortly… you know the drill! For the rest of the world, here’s a direct link to the show for listening to during the day or your workout/commute/etc. Skype gave us a few issues so there is one point … Continue reading
The problem with words…
Recently, I learned that the Isle of Palms (IOP) in South Carolina has made it illegal for photographers to take commercial photography onto the public beaches. The specific phraseology of a recently posted page for IOP states that: “Commercial activity, including photograpy, is prohibited on the Isle of Palms beach. Unless a special exemption is granted by City Council, photographers who take portraits or photographs on the Isle of Palms beach as part of a commercial transaction are in violation of City ordinances.” For now I will ignore the part where they mis-spelled photography as ‘photograpy’ (because it’s probably just … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 Contest Winner!
After much deliberation over the fantastic compilation of images for the July contest, I’ve finally had to just make probably one of the toughest judging decisions I’ve had to make thus far in the history of the contest series. However, in light of the theme of the contest (Slick), and the creativity that went into the image itself, I have to give the nod to Stephen Ludgate for his submission:
Shooting From the Hip
While recently taking a reality break and visiting family in my old stomping grounds, I had a chance to tour the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, NY. Viewing museums like these is a lot of fun for both kids and adults – kids because of the activities, and adults because I think as you get older, you can start to appreciate with more awareness just how tough things were (or how easy they are now).
Inner Reflection: The What vs The Why
Hello CanonBloggers! First off, I’d like to thank Jason for the flattering acceptance of my offer to guest blog this post. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most eloquent when it comes to introductions, so for those of you who aren’t familiar with myself or PhotographyBB, I’m Dave Seeram, Editor of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. As I am sure most of you are aware, Jason has been a contributing author for the PhotographyBB Online Magazine since our first year (now into our third). I thought that after all the hard work Jason has done for us … Continue reading
49 Photo Tips – The Sequel
About eight months ago, I cobbled together a laundry list of almost 50 photo tips and tricks to help with everything from gear to composition, photoshop, and more. Given the penchant for sharing these things online, I decided to launch it as an eBook – but in the interests of keeping it simple, didn’t add much of anything. It was basically a spreadsheet with a category on the left and the tip or trick on the right. Given the minimal overhead I had put into the design, decided on a bargain basement price – $1.99. Half a cup of coffee, … Continue reading
What Moves You?
The question of what moves us as photographers is one that everyone eventually questions at some point. Whether this comes early in your pursuit or later…at some point everyone considers where their real passion for a particular artistic genre exists. Whether that art form is painting, sculpting, musical, or photographic in nature, the question is one that will always persist. I’ve asked this question before in an essay simply titled “Why?”, and there have looked to answer the question from an esoteric perspective. (Feel free to read the essay yourself from the PDF article here.) However, today it’s more of … Continue reading
Picking a Theme
We all get stuck in creative ruts, and are in search of ways to inspire ourselves. Kerry Garrison (form Camera Dojo) and I talked about this last night while we explored the place that smart phones and their cameras have in the photography marketplace. As the conversation went on (and on and on – we tend to digress a lot when we get to talking), we found ourselves talking about 365 projects, or photo-a-day projects, and ways to challenge yourself and come up with new topics to shoot. The idea of themes presented itself, and while this is nothing new … Continue reading
Cleaning House – Is Flickr your storage or showcase photos?
How do you know it’s time to clean the house? For me it’s usually when i see a thin layer of dust, or when the dirty clothes pile exceeds the clean clothes pile. Another definition would be when you run out of clean dishes (or start buying disposable because all the regular ones are still dirty. We all have benchmarks that we use to decide when it’s time to “tidy things up”. But – what about your photography portfolio? Do you clean it up regularly?
The power of color
I’ve shared many many stories and images on the blog here to help illustrate the various nuances of things like light, angles, and yes, even color. I’ve talked about complementary colors, and simplicity of colors and I’d like to re-visit that today as we head into the weekend, because it’s not something I see talked about a lot. The illustration I am trying to make in all of this is that a simplicity of color can be just as powerful as a huge rainbow of colors – and sometimes, even more so. Sometimes, a uniformity of color can have an … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 is here – Now What?
With all the hubbub of the release of Lightroom 3 and all the resources that cropped up online in mere minutes of the announcement, we often find ourselves asking more questions once the excitement and energy that surrounds a product release has drained. I took these questions with me to a conversation with Senior Product Manager Tom Hogarty last week, and got a lot of insights and answers, with both a technical perspective and that of long-term development. I give you this week’s podcast:
